The Ashes of the Phoenix [OPEN]

[thethirdspecies]

WHO: John Sublime, "No Girl", the U-Men, and their unfortunate target... The Insitute
WHAT: Sublime's U-Men attack the school. They're aiming for the sublevels. Stop them at all costs!
WHERE: Throughout campus
WHEN: Past midnight, Wednesday-Thursday
WARNING(S): Gonna get violent.


The time was now. The media attention over his followers actions was too much. And after all, Xavier's little henchmen in London had figured it out. He was sure of it. There was no more time to bide. No more room for hesitation. It was act now, or the revolution would end in a prison cell, festering away in the disgusting care of this unclean world. Sublime couldn't stomach it. Couldn't fathom it. And whatever god help those who stood in the way of him and his dream of Homo Perfectus.

"All units are in place," Sublime whispered, peering out over the immaculate green, covered in moonlight, staring a drilling, piercing hole into the mansion. "Martha... it's your turn now," another whisper, as the floating apparatus before him, holding a strange glowing orb, began to shine even more brightly.

Just like that, the security systems failed. And just like that, Charles Xavier gasped and sent out a short, psychic burst to all X-Men, perhaps to everyone in the school, before he was overwhelmed and silenced, collapsing from his bed to the floor, stunned into sleep by a psychic force even he was not prepared for.

"This is it, Martha... our dream... U-Men! Bring me the Ashes of the Phoenix!" And like that, dozens of the men from the blurred video that Glamour and Spy had managed to obtain swarmed the ground, organic and mechanical, using a plethora of stolen mutant powers, attacked.


[[ This is it! Our first major action post, and in X-Men tradition, it's a direct attack on campus. Feel free to start your own threads. The U-Men will be NPC'd by the mods. Their ultimate goal is the filed away genetic samples of Jean Grey in the sublevels. They must be stopped, before someone uses them to integrate Jean's powers into a U-Man. ]]

Comments

Open!

[realmenknitplushies]

Kanji wasn't an X-Man. He was a student who scraped through half of his classes at best.

But, all the same: the psychic message ripped him awake and sent him just about falling out of bed. Was this - was he just dreaming this? No. Couldn't be. If this was a dream, it was a damn detailed one. He glanced out of the window to see signs of action in the distance...

Perhaps he should have left it to the X-Men, to the older students, to anyone - but dammit. He'd just started to call himself happy here, and this...? No.

So, here he was, getting barely dressed enough to get out of the door and see what was going on, yelling to the other boys as he charged through, down and outside. If they hadn't been woken up by the Professor's call, this could well do the job instead.
No gloves on. If this was about to turn into something big, if trouble was brewing - he was going to make whoever was causing it pay.

[the_prodigal_son]

Jack had already gotten spooked awake by Xavier's message, but Kanji shouting has him rushing to grab his wrench and come see what's going on. He notes belatedly that he left his glove behind, but there's no time to go back for it. Not if Professor Xavier is panicking. At least he's fallen into the habit of sleeping with his clothes on.

He nearly runs into Kanji as he rushes down the stairs, running purely on his ingrained need to find someone to guide him and protect them at all costs. "What's going on?" is about as much as he can get past his instinct to just not speak until he's out of perceived danger.

Open; climbing down the side of the south wing (now with 453749 edits)

[jolie_aile]

The last time she heard Xavier's voice in her head, Flandre had broken her nose on the wall waking up. This time she already was awake, but her back stiffened right up and her hands convulsively snapped the book shut as the voice hit her mind like a physical blow. If that could be called a voice, garbled as it sounded.

Flandre was already scrambling for the window and a coat before the echoes faded from her mind (was her sister okay?), prying the window open so quickly the frame warped. It was dark, cool, and cloudy outside; the rain was holding off still. The younger Scarlet clambered out of the third-story window regardless, to where her claws could dig into the brick. She was wearing said coat, a shirt, and pants but no shoes, gloves--or wings.

Whatever that was all about, there was no time for patience.

(Was her sister okay?)

[kamiizumi]

She's not the only one whose first instinct brought them out the window, apparently.

Leo's making his way on a loop around the building to do recon, jumping between windowsills and conveniently placed trees, but when he sees that he's not the only one out there, he spares a moment to land on the windowsill next to her.

"Hey, you okay?"

Open - ITT: "People with useless mutations for combat and those that want to help them"

[blooming_resonance]

Of course the psychic alarm wakes her up. It's a sudden, crescendo of noise that might as well be an entire brass ensemble playing a raucous fortissimo in the style of alarm klaxons in her mind, of course she's going to wake up. But it's not the sudden noise that creeps a cold feeling of dread into the darker, quieter crevices of her mind where her power lurks.

It's the rush of cold, sudden panic. Panic that, as she sits upright, feeling about for the light, slams into and through her like the wave of an icy ocean, nearly bowling her right over into the surf.

If not for something searing and angry and purposefully determined - with a splash of something sticky and hot like blood as people were out for violence - she might've been taken so off guard as to lose herself there, but the duality shakes her out of it.

She dresses as quickly as she can and goes for what she remembers of procedure for emergencies, lodging a solid block of logic into the tide of emotions to stem the flow, immediately making for the students that are closest to her. Those unfit, unable, or unwilling to fight are quickly taken and lead, and she starts making a path toward one of the many safe havens and escape routes out of the Institute, to secure the students' safety.

Re: Open - ITT: "People with useless mutations for combat and those that want to help them"

[diabhal_beag]

Not too far behind Sakuya, Carlyn Caimbeulach is shuttling people along. The wings along her head are fully out, and seeing them had a strange calming effect on Sakuya - clearly, the girl was not worried about using her emotion-manipulation powers at this particular moment.

"Steps at a time. We'll keep you safe if any attackers approach, just keep moving to the shelters. Just stay calm and keep moving. Whoever they are, they'll be facing the best security force on the planet, and they'll be enjoying a very long prison stay."

Standard words, more or less. Perhaps a bit colder than normal for the red-head, but...

[knighterrantofthedragon]

Fortunately, Alric tended to sleep in pajamas suitable to stepping out of his room. When he felt that telepathic alert, he hastily slipped his shoes on and took a look outside his window at the figures advancing across the grounds... then grabbed his phone and pushed his window open, leaping out through it.

He slowed his descent to a sound landing on the lawn with a flare of plasma jets from his hands--especially glaringly bright in the dark of night--intending to intercept the invaders and hopefully at least buy the others some more time to muster and back him up, or get the other students to safety. Even as the plasma jets faded, an arcing, violet aura still danced around his hands.

"Stand down at once, and you'll not be harmed! Advance, however, and I cannot make such a guarantee!"

casually tags you

[windtail]

A wolffish U-Man had noticed Alric's arrival, but escaped notice by backing up against the wall behind the student. Seeing that Alric had not yet noticed, he braces himself for a flying leap onto the student's back -

- there is a metallic shing, a flash of green, and the werewolf is thrown off course. The beastman tumbles onto the lawn, a wide gash sliced across his back.

Xu Shu flashes into existence beside Alric, Windtail held in its usual reverse grip and its hooked dagger in his other hand.

"I got your back."

Open

[wherethelightwontfindyou]

Xavier's powers have never had a good effect on him, so he's never gotten used to having them used on him. The psychic burst not only shocks him awake, but greets him with a pounding headache and a stream of blood running down his face. Pinching his nose to stop the flow he stumbles out of bed, thinking at first to check on Xavier... but he's sure there isn't much he can do for him anyway.

Booker's first stop is to find Zian, with the idea of sending him to check on Xavier and be sure he's alright. And after that, he'll be headed outside to dive into the fray, guns blazing and clearly aiming to create a distraction for the U-Men. And between those three points, basically anyone else may very well run into him.

[defibrillating]

Zian had managed to get separated from Takakage thanks to the U-Men, but that didn't mean that he wasn't still on a mission. It did, however, mean that he was a little more nervous, hiding behind a wall with the first aid kit tight against his chest. If he could just pass this U-Men-filled hallway, he had a better chance to get to more injured people - but it was nearly impossible for the giant purple medic to be sneaky.

Seeing another member of the faculty, he relaxed a bit more, waving Booker over both to get some assistance and to fix the man's nose.

Open - (More Defensive Stuff, Less "Let's Go Fight Us Some U-Men!")

[presto_turn]

This was like a bad dream.

Too much like one, actually, with the startlingly unexplained mental bolt that'd sent him shooting upright in bed. There hadn't been opportunity for any real warning when the Sentinels had descended on the school in the middle of the night, either. It had just been panic and fire and the lot of them all scrambling to keep one another alive.

This time, though, the threat wasn't even clear, and Shindou didn't have a team ready to back him up. Hardly anyone at the school was left that knew how to work in sync with his powers. How was he supposed to fight back like that? How had he been dense enough to let the seeming peace around the school draw his guard down...?

"Damn it - "

Either way, staying put in the residence hall wasn't an option. If whoever was attacking meant to target the students, they'd be sitting ducks there. And, if not, they'd be useless, holed up in their rooms. So, Shindou threw his door open wide and darted out into the hallway (still in powder-blue, button-up pajamas and slippers) and began moving for the front entrance of the dormitories. Once there, he'd try to flag anyone who passed down...particularly anyone who looked ready to rush off into combat.

"Stay calm and group up! We don't know how many there are or where they are on the grounds; we need to stick together!"

[soccerwhisperer]

Soon after Shindou darts into the hallway, Tenma comes barreling down the stairs and straight into his senpai.

"Shindou-senpai!" He gasped for air. "What's going on?"

He was terrified, and he could feel he wasn't alone in his fear. Despite managing to get his old Raimon track jacket on, he was quivering.

Open

[batteredbatter]

Koshi jolted awake, a combination of that psychic alarm and the sudden noise making him jump out of bed. Without even thinking, he grabbed his bat before running outside.

He didn't really know the first thing about fighting, not really, except the basics they'd covered in class. Most of his schedule had been more normal academics than any of the X-men-like stuff though. And his ability... well, the best he could hope for was not having to use it, really. So in the end, he was just a boy with a bat. He wasn't about to let that stop him from helping out though. He didn't know what was going on, but someone was trying to cause trouble on the campus, and Koshi wasn't about to let people like that get away with it!

[Justice-oriented idiot with a bat up for grabs. As a warning/permission to the mods, since his mutant ability is the power of not dying, there may be grievous injury involved]

[thethirdspecies]

He probably should have thought because the first thing he was greeted with was a person in a completely concealed suit. From his hand dripped a green fluid that was almost like a gel, but not quite. A muffled snort came from him as he spotted the kid, not even intimidated at all.

[open]

[totallystoned]

Reki felt strangely calm when she heard Charles Xavier shout in her mind, intruding on restless sleep. But instead of falling out of bed this time, she rolled to her feet. She snatched up her emergency pad and pulled on her boots.

She was doing what she was supposed to. For once she had no doubt or guilt to slow her down.

First thing: keep them away from the childrens' dorms. And for that, she would need to decoy them away. She headed for where the boys and girls dorms split.

"...Hello? Who's there? What's going on?" She said, in her best hesitant voice, hoping they would buy the illusion of a scared teenage girl. Her arms went around her stomach, seemingly hugging herself from fear, but actually palming the emergency notepads she kept on her person.

[presto_turn]

The first figure to come out of the dim, hallway lighting, though, wouldn't be one of the U-Men.

"Hold on, who is that...?"

After realizing that the Professor's psychic missive had set everything in the dorms too chaotic to have any hope of keeping under control, Shindou'd opted to head out towards the main section of the Mansion. Maybe the X-Men would be rallying students who made it there, either to evacuate or to mount some kind of defense? At the least, they'd have to have a better idea of what the threat actually was.

His first assumption when a voice called out from further down the corridor was that he'd stumbled on another student, lost in the confusion. But, as he sprinted close enough to get a good look at its source, that proved not to be the case.

"...Ms. Reki?" If nothing else, he knew her face from the road trip they'd been thrown together on, after a similar attack on the school had ended with several students kidnapped. "Are you alright?"

open

[friendofdorothy]

The military was good for one thing, at least: it had kept Liir to a solid, consistent sleeping schedule, though one he was always prepared to wake up at a moment's notice from, in case of, say, shoes suddenly needing shining.

So he jumped out of bed. There was shouting and the sounds of violence outside. Not his fight, no immediate way to tell good from bad. He couldn't exactly tell them to stop and explain their positions, could he? Even if he knew who to support, he'd just as likely be a burden to them.

So. Better to egress. He felt the change come over him, and in the moonlight he had a cat's sensitive button nose, pointed ears and whiskers. He would use those to avoid the worst of the fighting.

[windtail]

This is stupid.

Xu Shu wasn't actually asleep when the alarm sounded - he has been staying up reviewing his physics, and Xavier's psychic voice only served to push his mind to full alertness. Kongming had done the same back in China, and he was used to being contacted telepathically. Just his luck, getting attacked on the day he arrived. Nevertheless, he's no stranger to this kind of situation - fighting on the rooftops of Xuchang has prepared him for it.

He takes Windtail from its sheath and chains his dagger to its hilt, vaulting down the stairs and out into the courtyard. U-Men and students are brawling everywhere, lasers and blades flying in every direction.

If you had been dueling a U-Man head-on, you may find that your opponent suddenly staggers and falls to the ground - incapacitated by a wide slash to the back. Or you may be the bystander to this particular technique, watching a green blur shatter the projected shields of a U-Man on the defensive. Whatever the situation, you will find a hooded youth in green suddenly next to you with a rather strong Chinese accent.

"Be careful."

[psykick]

More than anything, Rinka wished Kyotaro was here. In Tokyo, she'd always known he'd have her back in a fight. Here she was alone. But that didn't stop her from grabbing her batons and rushing outside the moment she realized the school was being invaded. This was her school and she wasn't about to hand it over without a fight. With her phasing protecting her from a number of the stolen mutant powers, Rinka charged into the fray, batons swinging.

She was dispatching an intruder with her batons when she saw someone slash apart another intruder's shield nearby. Very useful technique. She whips one of her batons against her opponent's temple, knocking them out cold. Then, resting the baton on her shoulder, she looks over at the other student.

"That was a rather neat trick," she commented. She'd pulled a (or rather, her only) hoodie on in an effort to hide her white hair when she was phased, to keep her from being spotted too easily, but it still peeked out from underneath slightly.

Open

[icy_heavens]

He jumps awake at the psychic jolt, instantly alert; within seconds he's on his feet, slinging his sword onto his back.

Wasn't it around this time last year -- well, last year for him -- that he'd experienced his first assault on the school? Seems about right. Back then, he'd been a kid fresh out of the suburbs, no combat training, new to controlling his powers. And he'd still helped defend. Now that he does have that training, does have that control . . . well, is he going to stand back? Hell no.

... He's putting the Sentinel attack out of his mind. And stopping the impulse to get his team together. These aren't the Sentinels, and he no longer has a team. Which still sucks, but he'll work with it.

He needs to find an area and hold it. No going all over the place with his powers like he'd done back then. He needs to focus; other areas will be covered by the X-Men and other students like him. And if he can help some people get their heads on straight to either assist him or get them the hell away from the front line, so much the better.

"Hey! Don't go rushing ahead without thinking! If you're gonna do this, then don't be stupid about it."

[batteredbatter]

Irony is being bossed around by one of the few kids shorter than you are in the entire school. Not that Koshi's about to make an issue of that in the middle of all this chaos.

"What? Do you know what's going on?" asked a flighty pink-haired boy, waving his baseball bat around vaguely in the direction of the fighting. "I mean, we're supposed to defend, right?"

[leyabout]

Leysritt is nothing if not straightforward. So, startled awake by the psychic alarm, it's really no surprise that she doesn't even bother to change out of her pajamas before she slips on shoes and exits her room. The extent of her combat training is what she has learned since the beginning of the school year, but the objective is clear enough. All she has to do is find some intruders so she can stop them from getting wherever they want to go.

Her power isn't super speed, but enhanced muscle strength means she can hit a decent speed when she tries. That said, considering that she's tearing down the school's hallways with all the grace of a particularly careless bull in a china shop, it'll be no surprise if she finds herself literally running into someone—friendly or hostile.

[vermis]

"Ah—" Kariya isn't making any attempt to fight. He's nothing if not useless in combat... He actually doesn't know what to do, but he's going to do something anyway. He's worried about the children, so he's on his way to go protect them, with his 100% complete lack of any combat skills.

Because he's not the strongest man, nor the surest on his feet, the impact of Leysritt striking into him is enough to knock him off his feet and onto the ground, where he collapses in a heap of white hair and hoodie. "Sorry..." The apology came out before he could think to stop it, even though he was the one who'd been run into. From the glimpse he'd gotten of her, he's fairly sure she's one of the students. He hopes. "Are you all right?"

Open; one half-hearted rescue effort

[denialism]

Adachi wasn't asleep when the psychic alarm struck him. He'd always been a night owl. No, he was up, watching TV. "Ow..." He rubbed his head, though the discomfort was mild; the real problem being the meaning of the transmission. "What a pain," sighed Adachi, as he got to his feet.

It would have been easiest for him to simply disappear, but what if the school was wiped out? Then he'd have nowhere to go. It wasn't as if he had any money, and he didn't want to go back to prison. So he might as well do something. "I knew this was going to happen," he said, as he made his way out of his room and downstairs. "It was so obvious. But nobody asked me!" Not that he actually knew what was going on. But this kind of thing had seemed inevitable. He shook his head, but he was rather less upset than someone in his situation might be expected to be. Well, he wasn't intending to fight anyone. He'd just try to get some kids out of the way. He didn't think about heading for the lower levels, focusing on getting out of the building and moving toward the dorms. He was good at not being noticed, especially as he could temporarily "disappear" when necessary.

It wasn't that he had any desire to help anyone, for the sake of it. It was a matter of practicality, protecting his own interests. It was annoying, but the alternative was a major headache. Once, he might have thought all this chaos and excitement was fun, but now it was nothing but a pain in his ass. Might as well find some dumb kids or useless teachers or something. He crept through the shadows, carefully, looking for any people who weren't attacking assholes who seemed in need of some assistance.

"Hey—psst, over here."

jack making adachi's life hard part 3

[the_prodigal_son]

He'd been in a lapse between groups of enemies, somewhere after losing sight of Kanji, when he heard Adachi speaking. Well, clearly it's meant for someone else, basically anyone but Jack, but there is Jack hearing him while the other person does not.

Jack has never been good at plans, but this one comes to him very quickly and leaves him very proud of himself. If Xavier isn't watching over them, and everyone's distracted by U-Men... he can beat up Adachi and maybe not get in trouble! It'll be his word against Adachi's! Yes, brilliant. Fontaine would be proud.

So maybe Adachi was going to help, and maybe he wasn't, but what he gets is a certain six-foot toddler grabbing him by the shirt collar and punching him in the face. Because Jack just doesn't trust his ability to get any punches in if he doesn't act fast.

open - medic prompt, tw: gore mention for the second prompt

[thirdarrow]

a - joint post with defibrillating;

The first job of any doctor is to heal and aid the wounded - and it is for this reason that Takakage is out in the field. He is a light sleeper and no stranger to telepathy, and Xavier's message has him out of his room in an instant. Coordinating with Zian is easily done, and the two medics rendezvous at the infirmary before moving out.

If your character is injured, you will soon run into the two of them who will patch you up the best they can. Takakage handles the diagnosis, while Zian supercharges your immune system. Feel free to ask them any questions while they get to work. After all, Zian himself is quite... outstanding. Literally.

b - [ TW: gore mention ]

Takakage may not look it, but he has the capability to fight. He stands in the middle of the hallway, conducting a wave with his baton - the water shifts and flows with his willpower, forming shields to screen his students and then retaliating the next moment with a shower of needle rain. He moves through the fray with deadly grace, whipping opponents with streams of water and deflecting off their blows with pressurized jets.

After being separated from Zian by one of the U-Men, he is now fighting alone - fencing a lightning-user and her bolts of electricity. It's something he is extremely weak to - one single strike will be enough to kill him. Her assault is fast and furious, raining thunder in every direction and backing him slowly to the wall while he desperately tries to lock onto her water signature - it succeeds, but at a price. At the last moment she levitates up and strikes him with a thunderbolt - while his water shield absorbs it, the mental backlash is enough to disrupt his focus. There is a dull, hollow crack and the shield loses its shape, cascading to the floor -

- and the maddened cackling of the newly emboldened U-Man turns into a scream. Takakage half-crumples, one hand still raised in a final bid to defend himself, but no further thunderbolts come. The woman is dead, killed by way of her viscera suddenly surging out of her battle wound. It isn't a pretty sight.

He's used to surgery and the accompanying blood, but the feeling of everything being horrifyingly out of place and wrong is so nauseous that he just collapses against the wall, forcing his eyes closed. No one could have survived having their organs torn out. And he knows, without a single shred of doubt, that he had done it. The blood all over him is testatement of that fact.

It's not his, but the iron smell of it is sickening without the accompanying disinfectant that he had been so used to. Coupled with the reincarnation memories that had chosen this exact moment to come surging back, everything just becomes too overwhelming for his mind to be able to handle.

If another U-Man chooses to attack at this moment, he'd stand no chance of fighting back.

A

[defibrillating]

When the mental warning had gone out, Zian had literally fallen out of his bed from the shock of telepathic brainmessages (and the urgency). Stumbling and scrambling to find at least a pair of pants, he was hopping into the jeans even as he was rushing to the infirmary to grab supplies.

Part of him was panicking rather badly, especially as he rounded a corner to see the attackers themselves (and ducking behind a wall that just barely hid him), but the other was in medic mode; he had a job to do and people might be hurt.

Joining up with Takakage, the team of diagnosis vs supercharging healing was on their way, with Zian carrying the first aid pack in one hand and the other fidgeting to button his pants.

Nobody gets to die on his first damn week here!

OPEN

[niepokonany]

The really alarming thing about the psychic message is how short it is. Feliks lies awake for a few moments, watching Fai blink his eyes open in the same confusion, half-hoping for some kind of follow-up, like I'm sorry, Daydreamer, I meant to contact someone else, like the old man midnight-texted him right into his brain.

Instead, he can hear people bursting out of their rooms and making a fuss, and somehow, all he can think for a second is God, again? There'd better not be robots this time.

By the time he stands up, he's turned his nightgown (long and off the shoulder, a fancy thing Fai got for him in London) into his X-uniform -- though he's still barefoot, with nothing to turn into boots. He grabs a bag that he keeps near the bed full of his essentials (hair spray that he can turn into mace, bobby pins that can double as lock picks, and so on), grabs his phone, and hurries out of the door, into the staff housing hall, and down into the common areas, looking for trouble.

"God, what's the deal with people always coming in the middle of the night? It's like there's some kind of bylaw in the Assholes Union about not letting us get any sleep! It's totally their fault if I break out to the max tomorrow."

[ladyliberty]

"God, I know, right? Why can't any of these dickwads attack us in the middle of the day like normal people?" Amelia is right behind him down the hall, a baseball bat in one hand and a pillow in the other. She hasn't bothered to take the time to get dressed.

"So what is it this time? Anyone know? The old man didn't say much."

OPEN

[koukai_kirai]

By the time he's out of bed and has something on -- a matter of seconds rather than minutes, even taking the time to draw his hair back into a manageable ponytail and grab his sword -- he knows what his priority is.

Xavier reached out to them all, and something shut him up. Unless someone else is visibly in danger in front of him, it's reasonable to assume that either he's the target or something's already where he is. So, dressed in loose black pajama pants and sword in hand, he moves in quick, long strides from his bedroom towards the sublevels. If he sees something going on, he'll stop to help, but his focus right now is on getting to the root of the problem.

[seduceme]

"You know, you should dress like that in battle more often," comes Christelle's voice from somewhere behind him before she materialises into view, silk navy dressing gown covering the various guns and knives she's strapped on. "Your abs are 'ighly distracting."

She keeps in stride with him, obviously heading in the same direction and completely focused even if she's joking around.

OPEN

[vermis]

Kariya's first thought is to protect the children. He has to. There's no other reason for him to be here. They're his first concern. With that in mind, he rushes out of the building and heads toward the dorms. He doesn't stop to think. He doesn't consider the fact that he's not much good in combat. His only priority is getting kids out of the way of trouble. Not getting himself killed doesn't seem to rank nearly as high on his list.

As he runs, the earth begins to boil beneath him There are literally tens of millions of worms in the area that can respond to his call. At least the worms could knock someone over. Or they could surprise them by being really gross and unexpected.

Easily tired out, he's already breathing hard by the time he reaches someone. "Are you all right?"

hello yes i hope you don't mind me tagging you

[thirdarrow]

Takakage hadn't quite yet noticed that he was half covered in blood, red smeared across his blue dress shirt to produce purple stains - but it isn't his blood, as perhaps evident by how he isn't crumpled on the floor. After what had happened, he was hardly alright - but the situation demands that he leave behind his own churning feelings and focus on the task at hand. He could worry about it later, shut away the image of the U-Man dead on the floor, just... anything. Anything but that.

He spins around abruptly at the sound of Kariya's voice, eyes hollow and empty as if his soul had been torn out.

{ Yes, I am fine. Do not worry about me. } His reply comes in archaic Japanese - his own mind had been mostly shut down, leaving the memories of his previous incarnation to pilot his body. It's not a perfect amalgamation of his current identity with his past one, but it sufficed to keep him alive. For now.

Open

[yu_mad]

Well, he'd made it three whole school days before something terrible had happened. For some reason, it seemed to Yu like things could have been worse.

He was more than a little surprised to be awoken by a psychic voice in his head and shouting outside his door, but in his estimation, there was only one thing to do: head out and see what's going on so whatever it is doesn't sneak up on you.

After checking his roommate's status, Yu poked his head out the door to see what was happening.

[endurancepoint]

Alex wasn't really sure what had woken him up. All he knew was that he suddenly felt like that was trouble. And from the growing noise level in the boys' dorms, he wasn't the only one who felt that way. His instincts screamed for him to get up and investigate. At best, some chucklehead set off a firecracker. At worst...

As he shoved his feet into his trainers and knotted the laces as quickly as possible, Alex noticed Yu had woken as well.

"Something's up," he said, his tone implying that he had every intention of figuring out just what it was.

Already he was reaching out for the possibilities he'd been ignoring since Egypt. They were always there, just at the peripheral of his mind, but now he started paying attention. Right now, they only concerned himself, his roommate, and their room, but that was as good a place as any to start warming up.

Open

[seduceme]

As soon as she feels that psychic burst from Xavier, she's rolling out of bed and landing on her feet, pulling on a long dressing gown and strapping on her many holsters, shoving extra cartridges of bullets into the pockets and straps as well as a few knives. As she 'suits up', she quickly thinks over the situation; she can hear the U-men arriving outside and shortly thereafter engaging with whoever's on patrol. Undoubtedly the other X-men will be scrambling to defenses. She's not made for heavy direct conflict, but she is for sneaking around and she's worried about Xavier - he should never have been disabled that quickly.

With that in mind, she's out in the hallways and briskly heading for the sublevels, turning invisible when she hears anyone up ahead or behind and ready to shove a knife in some unlucky bastard's back for it.

[whosafraidofthe]

Bigby had been following her since she'd gotten out of bed - Xavier's message had woken him up, but it took until she left the room for him to wake up enough to figure out what the issue is. He's still not sure what's going on, but he can already smell blood outside. He doesn't like this.

He catches up to Chris about halfway to the sublevels, having neglected to put on a shirt but it's made up for by the extra fluff on his body. He wants to be able to transform at a moment's notice, so he's keeping himself already halfway there for now. And though Chris is invisible, he immediately 'spots' her, turning in the direction of her scent to address her.

"You didn't wake me up." He's awake either way, but that's not the point. "Don't suppose you have any idea what's going on."

Open

[turbedon]

Dick's thanking Bruce so much for convincing him to wear black pajamas. He's thanking Batman for thinking ahead to provide him with a black utility belt so it's not too obviously linked to Robin while he's here. He's not happy he's too far from his team or Gotham to get outside help, but you do what you got to do.

He's out in a flash and ninja-ing his way out of the boys dorms, flitting through the grounds to keep out of sight. If he spots anyone in trouble, he's there to help, flipping onto the enemy's back and electrocuting them with Robin's version of a taser (so much more effective) to knock them out if he can before checking on his allies. "Feeling the aster tonight?"

[eternalprincess]

Unlike Dick, Kaguya has little to no combat skills to speak of, she only had her regenerative healing to rely on. Getting separated from her roommate was bad enough without her managing to get cornered by one of the attackers before she could find someone able to fight for her.

But before she knew it, Dick's coming out of nowhere and taking out her attacker.

"Wha? What's that supposed to mean?"

Open

[divine_spirits_universe]

Miko awoke with a start at the psychic burst sent through the school like a shock wave and though she was in a special room to help filter the outside noise so she could rest without her headphones, she could still hear the intruders outside. It only took a moment for her to grab her headphones and race to the window throwing it open.

How many were there?

She concentrated, closing her eyes, listening to the ongoings outside. Ten, twenty? It was a bit hard to tell. Especially with the panic growing through the school like splash in a still pond.

Chaos, everything was being thrown into chaos. She knew what she should do was find a teacher, no doubt go to a safe room somewhere, there had to be one after all. But evacuation was never her thing, sitting somewhere safe and sound while other people unrelated to her solved the issue and shared none of the information didn't appeal. No, she would go and find out as much as she could.

She quickly threw on some shoes and some clothes, she wasn't going out there in pajamas, and the one weapon she did happen to have with her, even though it wasn't exactly helpful with people who could probably shoot lasers at her. Once set as much as she could she took to the hall, keeping an eye out for people who might need some help but mostly trying to get closer to the commotion without being grabbed by a teacher.

[brought2ubycolgate]

She's nabbed by a teacher but thankfully by one who really doesn't care if she decides to head out. Sure, students needs more experience but he's still one to believe that if they think they can handle it, they can do what they need to do for themselves.

That said, wandering the halls without a shirt and only wearing pajama pants and his sheathed sword wasn't exactly inspiring. But he wasn't in too much of a hurry. Finding the enemy was always half the battle.

"You should be using the buddy system if you are going to run around, no?"

OPEN

[tofudog]

There weren't many things that could get a sleepy Beast Boy from zero to a hundred in three seconds or less, but a psychic alarm clock did the trick. He seemingly vanished from his bed, a gecko scampering up the wall a moment later and, after hesitating to check that his roommate was getting up, squeezing out through the crack in the door and heading down the hall. Beast Boy flickered through a number of forms, the world lighting up and darkening around him in various ways as his senses shifted appropriately. The school had too many strangers in it for his bloodhound nose to tell him anything, but owl eyes peering through a window gave him a clear view of invaders crossing the grounds, the forerunners already drawing near to the mansion.

Whoa boy. He'd give anything for someone who knew what was going on, but no way is he gonna let an army of weirdos ransack his new home. His first instinct was to jump outside immediately, where his powers could be used most effectively. However... there were kind of a lot of baddies out there. He'd never fought a big group without a team at his back, and the idea of going out without covering him sounded sketchy, even to his questionable judgement.

Isn't it lucky he had an entire dorm of impressionable young mutants to pick from for backup? He shifted into a wolf and howled, hoping to draw attention, then popped back into human form.

"HEY!!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. "Who wants to help me kick some bad guy butt!? Someone get over here!"

He might have inspired more confidence if he'd waited for a few minutes and put on his uniform. His green animal print boxer shorts were comfortable to sleep in, and thankfully made of the same material as his shapeshifting uniform, but they were even less dignifed than his usual jumpsuit. No time to worry about that now, though.

[windtail]

Have another guy in green appear next to you with no warning. Xu Shu had his hood up and sword at the ready, calm and controlled despite all that is going own downstairs.

"Beast Boy, is it?" His words have a distinctive Chinese accent to them. "What can you do?"

He'll cover your back if need be. Fighting isn't something foreign to him, after all. He's had experience.

Open

[tiamaris]

Tiamaris had been heading back to his dorm with his roommate, and his very confused emotions when the message, and the attack came. The psychic message staggered him long enough for him to loose track of Koshi. He might not have recognized the voice, had Xavier not just been talking to him mentally before, but he doubted it. He doubted anyone could mistake that "voice".

He saw the attackers rushing towards him... if he was the target or just in the way he wasn't sure, but he knew they would try to hurt him if they got the chance. What had Mr. Xavier said about his power? That he could... protect? He had never protected anything before, but never before had he anything or anyone that he wanted to protect. Mr. Xavier had been in pain when that message sent, hadn't he? The person who actually tried to help Tiamaris?

His eyes shaded fast from an orange-copper to red. His skin was already covered in overlapping armor hard scales. He debated, for just a moment, finishing the transformation, but decided not to. There were limits to acceptance and... he might squish someone that he didn't mean to. It was suddenly crowded outside.

But he could still defend... or at least... he could try to. And as the first attacker came close enough, he did. He breathed.

Fire issued from his mouth, aimed at anyone who dared approach with hostility. Part of him winced, hating that he was attacking other people, that he might actually be acting as the monster his father said that he was... But the other option was to roll over and die, to let everyone die. Koshi said there might be a library here... Tiamaris wanted to read at least one more book before he died...

Re: Open

[thethirdspecies]

A person in a suit fired up at him with a submachine gun, hanging just out of range of that dangerous fire. The immolation of her comrades didn't seem to phase her. No, the compact weapon continued to shoot, not really caring that the bullets couldn't penetrate Tiamaris' armor.

Open

[gloriousandfree]

It could have come at a better time, that's for sure. Her eyes open and she waits, for it to be a false alarm, for more information, for something. Seconds creep by and she finally sits up and fumbles for her glasses. There's panic in the hallways outside.

"Somethings's up." She's at least more awake now and she pulls on a robe over her nightshirt and glances out the window. Oh. Well. Shit. She glances back at Kaito and sighs.

"An attack, of course it's an attack. Why did I think it was going to be a peaceful year."

She grabs her practice hockey stick for lack of better options and pokes her head out the door into the hallway of the staff rooms. She could shift if need be, but really, she liked this shirt.

[wholovesyou]

"Evening, sugar." Moxxi said, spotting Madeline as she was passing by. She didn't seem too disturbed at all by what was happening. Like, at all.

OTA at all points, and especially if anyone feels they need healing ^^

[theveilisin]

There is no raid siren, but the sound of battle is enough. Rolling out of bed, it takes him barely more than thirty seconds to get into his clothes and into the corridor, but then he stops for a moment to think things through. What are the obstacles here?

Well, one, he doesn't have his comrades. Nothing to do about that one. Next.

Two, no weapons. Hand-to-hand combat is one thing, but the body of a fifteen-year-old is limited, and he would be much more comfortable with a gun of some sort. Too bad schools apparently don't just hand out automated rifles to their students. Very negligent, etc. But he'll have to make do with what he can. He snaps his fingers as an idea dawns, beautifully obvious in its way. "The kitchen."

He can be found on his way there, rushing forward with one aim in mind, but still with a steady stream of, "Excuse me" and "Dreadfully sorry" to anyone he might jostle. Or maybe in the kitchen, methodically going through knives and cleavers to find the most effective ones. He can be found in the thick of battle, or maybe after, kneeling down next to anyone who appears hurt and smiling at them. "That looks terribly inconvenient. Do you want any help with that?"

[vermis]

"Oh, I'm... I'm all right." So says the man bleeding from the long slash down his arm. He probably should have done a better job of getting out of the way, but a desire to help, in spite of his unsuitability for combat, had spurred him on. He probably looks worse than he is, considering his frail appearance. He begins to struggle to his feet. It's only a superficial wound, even if his sleeve is torn and soaked with blood. "Thank you, but I can't stay here."