HEAVY IS THE HEAD: Part One, SINISTER LEGACY Fallout

[astonishing_xmods]

WHO: The Students and Faculty of the Xavier Institute
WHAT: Charity work in District X, but things are getting bad again
WHERE: District X
WHEN: Thanksgiving Weekend
WARNING(S): Violence, language, etc

So this was Christmas, and War was Not Over. The soup lines, this time, were alongside official Vaccine Centers, cures to the Legacy Virus being handed out alongside plates of hot food for the needy. Once more, winter was bleak in the world of mutants living in forced squalor. Attitudes were not particularly bright. People were no longer dying in the streets from illness, but were conditions really any better? War with Genosha was imminent. The National Guard was already standing post around the community, enforcing curfews, treating the area now more than ever like an internment community. Xavier's students were allowed to move around freely, but only with special ID badges that marked them as such. It was the same all over the country.

This wasn't Mutant Registration... it somehow felt worse. And it didn't help that the Mutant Liberation Front was still very active in the area, and many of them entirely blamed the X-Men for Renko's apparent 'death'. There were antagonistic forces around them, and desperate faces looking at them for some kind of hope. And if they couldn't get it there...

There were whispers, a lot of them, about fleeing to Genosha. About joining the MLF and working alongside Genosha for 'true' mutant liberation. About kickstarting this war on local soil. And really...

... was there anything the X-Men could do to stop it? Should they stop it?

Comments

Ugh sorry I've been so braindead on this

[knighterrantofthedragon]

[It was admittedly one of the challenges of working with Tiamaris, and something Alric had really hoped they'd resolved a little better, given how much he'd improved over the last few months... although letting him actually take the brunt of an attack like that was perhaps asking too much of his control. For the moment, he'd have to work around his teammate. Trusting Rinka to hang on tight--and Pyro to be preoccupied momentarily with the suddenly very angry and aggressive dragon--he altered course with a flare of palsma, giving Tiamaris a chance to force Pyro into evasive action, and then arcing down toward Pyro from there, hoping to catch him up close while he was off-balance and distracted.

He would have to be at the ready, though, to take evasive action, himself (and bring Rinka with him), if Tiamaris' control had slipped too far. But that was the next bridge to cross.]

No worries!

[tiamaris]

[Things like "evasive action" were no longer any part of Tiamaris' thought patterns. What he did have essentially amounted to "He hurt me, KILL HIM!" Which was what he was trying to do. If he noticed Alric and Rinka at all, he gave no sign whatsoever. He just kept darting in, attacking at Pyro with teeth, claws, and flame. If he could get close enough he'd add wings, tail, and his considerable bulk. He remembered how to fly only because it was needful to reach the idiot who he was mad at, he would hit the fool with a wing, forgetting he needed it to fly, if he got close enough.]

[There was fresh hot molten lava in this world that was not as bright, as red, or as liquid as his eyes.]

[psykick]

[Luckily, Rinka has some experience with hanging onto someone in midair. She keeps a steady grip on Alric's shoulder without strangling him, keeping them both intangible and immune to Pyro's fire. Most of her focus is on Pyro, looking for the needed opening.]

Drop me on him, throw me at him. We'll only have one shot.

[Because once she lets go of Alric he'll be tangible again, and if she misses, he'll probably be the first one Pyro tries to roast.]

[thenewbrotherhood]

[Dodging the physical attacks was not something Pyro was particularly ready for, but thankfully his armor did its work for him. However as soon as he could, he started to use Tiamaris' own flame against him, using his power on the jetting fire still in the dragon kid's throat, trying to turn it into a spikey pillar, attempt to choke the kid out on his own heat.]

[tiamaris]

[If Tiamaris noticed the change in his own fire, it didn't show. The rage shoved everything else aside and when he had trouble, he just pushed harder, roaring as he fought to blast his foe to cinders.]

[knighterrantofthedragon]

[To see Tiamaris so completely lost to his anger was dismaying, to say the least, after all the time they'd spent working on control. Worse yet, it made the fight far, far more dangerous than it would otherwise have been for himself and Rinka. He was reluctant to send her into that... and yet, knowing he'd likely have to put more effort into stopping Tiamaris than into stopping Pyro, he had no choice but to let her go in to try and disarm the latter. ...of course, Tiamaris, at this rate, was going to keep arming him, so they'd have to try and defuse both problems simultaneously.

If it was even possible. This was the most out-of-control he'd seen Tiamaris yet, and with lives on the line, it was proving to be a hard, unwelcome lesson. But doubts about his leadership ability would have to wait; at that moment, there was really no time to waste on faltering confidence.

Alric fired off a burst of plasma as he and Rinka arced overhead, aimed to land and explode within inches of Pyro, hoping to at least throw him off balance, and perhaps stun him through his armor.]

Don't get reckless. Keep yourself safe down there, first.

[With that warning, he let Rinka drop, aimed for Pyro's back, to give her the best possible grappling advantage on him. Once she was let loose, he reoriented himself, plasma jets flaring, to keep airborne; he'd have to trust her to handle Pyro while he dealt with Tiamaris. For that, he put on his best semblance of confidence, amber eyes bright with all the fire light filling the area, and called out over the din of the flames and the roaring.]

TIAMARIS. You need to STOP.

[tiamaris]

[Tiamaris turned his head towards Alric and ROARED. As bad as that was, there were a few hopeful signs. Unlike the roaring he was doing at Pyro, this was not accompanied by an attempt to turn him into cinder and ash. Also as he roared, he moved, trying to get between Pyro and Alric.]

[He was still enraged, still lost in his anger so much that he was not about to obey and STOP, but he wasn't attacking Alric. He was moving to defend him. That much of Tiamaris was in there still. And he didn't try to snap at Rinka. So, that was something, too.]