X-Men: Shark Bones

Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Sunday, February 17

The sun shined bright in a Calgary February Sunday. The snow was blindingly white, the ice was melting, and the cloudless sky and singing birds apparently made some people forget that it was still winter and driving still required the utmost caution. As such, there was a car accident in 4 Avenue and 3rd Street in the South East. There were no deaths, and only one wounded, but it was still mid-morning.

The crash had been notable for its extremity. Police officers figured that one of the cars had slided over the thin sheet of ice covering a notable section of the road. Sliding to the side and appearing in front of the car in the next lane too fast for the driver to stop. The resulting collision marked the beginning of a series of crashes and sharp moves made as people in the intersection were unable to stop fast enough. Resulting in six cars being caught in the mess. After interviewing the witnesses, officer Jordan was wondering whether or not this was another one of the escalating acts of vandalism they'd seen as of late. Three of them had said that they'd seen someone push the first car, one Todd Eldridge's old rusty thrice-used thing, onto the second one, only to mysteriously disappear afterwards. Which kind of fit their profile given no one at the police station knew what on earth was going on with this vandalism.

It seemed gang-related. Train station windows had been broken, trains had been spray-painted, bus stops had been set on fire. The word "Masseter" had been written in one way or another in all three, and they figured it could be a gang name, but no one really knew what was going on. The city was in a quiet panic, Calgarians had quite a talent for forgetting about a given issue after it was first noted. Whether it was changing laws about driving, creating a new institution to help mutants, or some robberies and vandalism, Calgarians as a populace could only be outraged for so long before they forgot why it was supposed to be important in the first place and got on with their lives.

Officer Jordan was from Red Deer though.

The crash, and the surrounding band of policemen, firemen, and the ambulance now disappearing into the distance, could all be seen from Booker's BBQ and Grill, the place for all-you-can-eat crab and live music. Bruce(The catfish named after the late previous owner) swam around lazily, and there was a local rock-and-violins band playing as the waitresses worked. There were only six customers, one of whom was named Austin Ramsey, and another of whom was named John Kozak. The whole place looked deserted.

The Calgary Drop-in Center, on the other hand, had an enormous crowd. It was the eve of family day, after all. Countless volunteers moved beds, changed mattresses, cooked food and organized boxes, among them one Tari Walser, as well as many homeless arriving early to lunch, or late to breakfast, including Dan Wilton and Nico Smith. Two runaway mutants.

The car crash was also visible from the drop-in centre, though less easily unless you were in its side. However once 11:00 hit, it ceased to be the most noteworthy and attention-grabbing thing in the area.

The explosion took up its place.

It had been a small explosion, more noise and light than anything else really. It had been followed by someone yelling something unintelligible, and chaos erupted. Most citizens started running to a safer area right after the explosion, the cops' guns had been taken from them and many of their fingers broken before anyone could realize it. A speedster was responsible of course. A woman with green dyed hair, dark brown skin and glowing eyes made other, smaller explosions. They were mostly to cause panic after all, and they were working. The amount of actual destruction they caused was negligible, over all now that the firemen were dousing the small fires that had spread near them. The speedster couldn't take care of the firemen, he was a little busy with other things. Besides, a bunch of firemen wouldn't stop them. Cops couldn't stop them. This was their city now.

The cops had resorted to hiding among the remnants of the car crash and planning a way to stop or at least slow down these people while backup arrived. Most if not all of the cops in the city would be in the area within the hour, but you could do a lot of damage in that time, especially since they had a speedster among them. They didn't know what to do, most in the group had at least a few fractured phalanges and they had no weapons.

A colossal, muscular man over two heads taller than everyone else in the area had appeared near the drop-in centre, and started destroying everything in his path.

It wasn't noon yet, and the day was already a disaster.

edited 4th Sep '12 11:25:08 AM by Faramir

Austin was in the middle of a very nice lunch when the incident happened, though he'd only taken a few minutes to go see what had happened at the crash. The explosion, however, was a little more alarming. His head snapped around to look for the source. He spotted a group of rough, violent-looking mutants trashing the area.

Oh, crap! Gotta find safety was the first thing through his head, though it was, as is typical of thoughts, in a series of vague impressions rather than coherent words. He ducked, raising his head slightly to see what was going on. As he watched, he scowled.

Americans, always ruining life for everyone else. He thought.

John was just about to crack into his kingcrab when an explosion went off outside; throwing the table on its side, he took cover behind it before instinctively reaching for his sidearm, and waiting for the gunfire.

It never came. And fortunately for him, no one had noticed his brief reaction; no doubt they were still preoccupied with the multi-car pileup from earlier in the day.

Holstering his pistol, he flipped the table back on its base before throwing some cash on the table and discretely making his way out the door.

"Not my fight" he thought to himself as he made his way to his bike.

"Well lookie here" A tall teenager with red dyed hair appeared in front of John before he could get too close to his bike. "Looks like Brian missed a gun, you don't mind, do you big guy? We're just having fun" He asked with a grin that was missing an upper canine and lower incisor, and reached for with a selectively tangible hand.

As soon as he saw the man move his hand, John quickly drew his sidearm and fired of two rounds in quick succession ; the suppressor on his handgun negating the gunshots the a negligible hiss.

"Woah!" The teenager said and chuckled. The bullets had passed ineffectually through him. "Someone forgot they're in Canada"

Then he grabbed the gun by the suppressor and turned it intangible, sliding it out of the John's hand with ease.

"Hey Keira, This one's pretty!" He said, throwing it at another gang member who grabbed it mid-air and then disappeared into nothing with the gun.

Sparks from one of the bullets hitting metal from the crash site flew into some spilled oil, giving the firemen even more things to do in the middle of this mess.

edited 3rd Sep '12 3:54:27 PM by Faramir

John took this setback in stride, and rolled to his left after being disarmed. Reaching under his coat with both hands, he withdrew a flashbang and rolled it betwe his opponent and himself.

Not waiting for the explosion, he followed up with a smoke grenade over his shoulder and made his way his bike.

The teenager let out a confused "what the—" before realizing what was going on and jumping out of the way before the giant flash of light or the smoke appeared.

Whatever few citizens were left in the area yelled out obscenities and covered their eyes. The fireman holding one of the hoses to douse some of the smaller fires tried to cover his eyes with his arms, causing it to rain in the immediate area for a moment. The smoke started spreading and any nearby people started coughing trying to shield themselves from it.

John had no problem leaving the area in the confusion.

Tari had done well ignoring the car pileup outside, instead focusing on the food boxes she was organizing. She smiled at one homeless man, a familiar face. “Hey, Karl,” she said, “You’re a little late today.”

“Heard about the crash on the news,” the man replied, “Got hung up. Too many damn people outside.”

“Yeah, it is kindof crowded, isn’t it?” she replied, turning to look out the front window for the first time in hours.

Suddenly, shouting errupted outside, a series of small booms followed by screams, and more shouting in a language Tari didn’t understand. Her head came around too quickly her neck popped in protest. She winced, and glanced at the clock. Shit! She hadn’t had a calcium shake for hours. The booms continued outside, and she saw a huge, muscle-bound man come around the corner at the front of the Centre, throwing a punch against a nearby car that made Tari’s stomach lurch.

“Get down!” she shouted at everyone inside, snatching her half-finished shake off the shelf nearby and draining it in a couple of gulps. Ugh, she winced. Calcium shakes still taste horrible, no matter what you flavor them with.

The young woman flexed her neck again, nodding. She already felt better. Not perfect, but better. Karl was sprawled on the floor, squirming towards the shelves that housed the foodstuffs. "C'mon, Karl!" she called, looping her arms under his and half-dragging him across the floor.

She ducked as the muscle man ripped a tire off another car and threw it at the front window of the Centre, sending glass shards slicing through the air. Several other people—both homeless and volunteers—cried out as the glass hit them. "This way!" she called, helping Karl all the way to his feet and giving him a shove towards the back room. An older woman, Fiona, Tari thought her name was, wasn't moving.

Tari pushed a a few more people towards the door at the back of the room. "Go, go! Don't wait," she shouted, slapping a volunteer's purse form her hands. "No time for that! Just go!"

A shelf of foodstuff toppled over, and Tari put her school track training to use, leaping it and skidding to a halt beside the unmoving woman. She was still breathing, thank God, but there were dozens of cuts on her face and hands, and her breaths were shallow. She was pale too. Worried, Tari tested for Fiona's pulse.

Nothing. Oh, bad. She slid her hand under Fiona's jacket, trying to feel for a heartbeat. It was there, and it was faint, but the rhythm was off. She didn't need her college education in human anatomy and physiology to tell her that.

"Damnit!" she swore out loud, looking around for someone, anyone to help her. "Hey!" she shouted at the back room, wincing as something very bright flashed outside, "Hey! Someone help me in here! This woman's having a heart attack!"

edited 3rd Sep '12 8:37:33 PM by Windee

John used the newfound chaos to make a hasty exit, quickly crossing the parking lot and reaching his bike. He reached into its saddlebags and quickly retrieved his secondary weapons and restocked his gear; taking one more look at the scene behind him, he revved the engine and prepared to pull out of the lot.

Just as the giant muscular man was yelling "hey guys! How far do you think I can throw this car?!" more cops started to arrive. Two ambulances on each side of the street appeared, and were just in time to hear "— in here! This woman's having a heart attack!".

The ambulance moved nearer to the drop-in center and two paramedics came out running toward where Tari was yelling. Policemen started shooting at the enormous muscular man, which caused him to turn to them in anger. "Not workin'" He said with a grin as he walked slowly toward them behind their cars.

The paramedics arrived and started asking Tari disorienting questions about how long it had been and if she was allergic to anything and how old she was as one of them got their medical kits open and another checked the woman's vitals. The paramedics were both from Spanish-speaking countries, or at least so it seemed as they were both asking and answering each other's questions in the language. A third paramedic arrived with a gurney, and what followed was a mess mangled spanglish that would have confused anyone but them. The woman was to be administered oxygen...or something, and they were lucky it hadn't happened earlier, else they may not be able to get her to the hospital on time. One of the ambulances left with Fiona, while the other had medics attending to some of the volunteers and homeless people with the uglier cuts, while some of the people with smaller cuts or bruises were just given ointments or band-aids to put on themselves.

The variably tangible teenager with the red hair was shaking off the confusion brought on by that armed fellow when he saw him on his bike ready to leave. His ears were still ringing because of him. Calgary was supposed to be easy! No one ever did anything here. There were no costumed weirdos or government organizations head-quartered here. It was supposed to be simple, where'd he get off having a gun with a silencer in Canada?

"Oh no you don't, asshat" He muttered as he ran toward the bike, placed a hand in its seat before it managed to pick up speed. The bike became intangible to anyone but him, making Kozak fall on the street as he got on top of the bike and upped the speed.

"Nice ride ya got the—" he didn't manage to finish because he hadn't paid enough attention to keep the bike intangible after the fist burst of speed. Also, he'd been looking at John and not the road. This meant that Mr. Selectively-tangible had just crashed Kozak's bike onto a wall, and what followed was a ton of yelling as he flew intangibly through three buildings before slowing down and falling visibly on the street a little over a block away.

edited 4th Sep '12 10:04:11 AM by Faramir

To put it bluntly, the chaos currently occuring was not good. Although paramedics were present, there was a very muscular mutant wreaking havoc. There was not really anything he could do but he was already outside the building, and not incredibly inconspicuous.

He had no idea what he could possibly do, but he took off his coat, tying it around his waist, and took flight. He looked around the area for anything which could possibly help, or that he could help with.

Nico Smith could see a few citizens close enough, being taunted by the green-haired woman with bright red sparks jumping off of her fingers. Nearer to him there the big muscle-bound man, though he was getting farther away as he walked toward the police.

edited 4th Sep '12 11:27:23 AM by Faramir

Todd had been more annoyed than anything upon recovering from the crash. There he was, on his way to the jobsite, when someone comes out of nowhere and pushes his car into another. Admittedly, Todd was no physics major, but he knew a thing or two about momentum. He was definitely pushed. He’d been driving his beater (which may as well been held together with safety pins and duct tape) as safely as possible. It definitely wasn’t his fault. At least three people confirmed it, as he was told by the officers on the scene.

But, before he could get his insurance information and begin making some calls, explosions could be heard nearby.

You’re kidding me… Todd simply stared as the scene unfolded around him. After his last tangle with a mutant, he wasn’t exactly looking forward to another. However, his desire to see good done outweighed his fear of interfering.

Using his QB instincts (which were a little rusty at this point, but still there) he surveyed the scene: Some ghost-guy was harassing some dude with a motorcycle and there was another guy causing the explosions. However, the thing that kept Todd’s attention was the huge, muscular guy near the homeless shelter shouting something about tossing cars. Todd nodded to himself. That’s my target. He took off running toward the huge guy as he steadily increased his density and mass. The sound of the street cracking beneath his weight made him feel…good. Powerful.

He drew his fist back as he made his final approach and when he got to about half an arm’s length away, he turned, putting all of his weight into a blow to the hugE man’s midsection. He had to resist the urge to shout at the top of his lungs as he did it.

edited 4th Sep '12 10:09:03 AM by KarlKadaver

Todd's fist sank into the strong man's abdomen as if it were a sponge. The large man threw a knee at his chest, but Todd was too heavy and too well-anchored for it to do to him what it would have done to any other human being. Instead of crushing his ribcage or sending him back far enough to crash into a building, the force bounced off of him— Making visible shockwaves on the clothes and visible skin and fat in the big man's leg. Of course, just because he was big it didn't mean he was dumb. Or too dumb anyway. The giant decided to crash down another enormous hand on Mr. Eldridge. Given that Todd's implausibly high density meant that there was no room for compression, all it meant was that now he had a small crater around him.

The big man grinned "Fun."

John's bike had thankfully been damaged only superficially, and could easily be lifted, mounted, and used to speed off into the horizon or somesuch.

Officer Jordan wrote the license plate on his iPhone, having been one of the few cops who hadn't had his gun on his hand the moment the explosion happened meant he was now one of the few cops without broken fingers.

All the others were being tended to by paramedics. Whoever this man was, he had a silencer on his gun, which would have to be followed up on. There were more pressing things at the moment, however, and he was obviously dangerous, so there was no reason for the officer to even think about an arrest while a mutant gang was attacking.

"Hey Jordan, can you check for people near you and make sure they're safe?" He heard another cop say as he scanned the area.

"What? Sure!" The officer responded, and began walking to the side and checking inside buildings through their windows carefully. Most people seemed to have left.

edited 4th Sep '12 10:18:00 AM by Faramir

Tari allowed herself a deep sigh of relief as the medics took Fiona away, and the rest of the medical team tended to the other injured. She checked the back room quickly—everyone else had made it back there safely, it looked like, and no other damage had been done inside the center. Oh, good. Now there was less to worry about.

There were more people milling around outside, including another man who'd waded through the mess and was now whaling away at the giant muscle man. She heard tires squealing on the pavement somewhere out of her field of view, and she could still hear the small explosions. Time to go.

Her sneakers crunched on the glass on the floor and she darted out the door, swerving to miss the dueling men, looking around. Everything was a mess, law officers scrambling everywhere and most of them nursing their hands. Geez, what happened out here?

She scanned around again. A woman with astonishingly green hair and eyes that glowed was throwing little explosions around. No one seemed to be paying much attention to her, and while her explosions weren't causing much damage, they were distracting. C'mon, cops, do your jobs!

"Hey!" she shouted at the woman, sprinting towards her, "Hey, ugly!"

Todd glanced up at his…blobby…foe. “Yeah,” he huffed. “I’m a real barrel of laughs.” Unbeknownst to the giant, those hits had taken a lot out of Todd and he was doing his best to maintain his composure.

Any more strikes would just bounce off the guy, and be a waste of energy for me. Gotta be conservative. As the giant brought his fist down for another blow, Todd ducked underneath him and wrapped his arms around the behemoth, locking his hands together. Then, he attempted to pick the giant up for an impromptu suplex.

All Nico could really do here was try and be a distraction, for either fight. Two terrorist mutants, and two random mutants who had appeared out of nowhere. Fortunately, the latter seemed to be good enough, and one was, if his memory served him correctly, a volunteer.

Nico flew around and eventually decided that he would just attempt to be a distraction. He flew over to the explosion-causing mutant and kicked her in the back, immediately flying away and upwards afterwards, hoping the other mutant would be more capable of dealing with the mutant.

"holy shit!" The man yelled with a heavily accented voice as Todd lifted him. "Woah, woah, dude, careful with the hea—" next was the sound of his head hitting a wall, and yelp "OW! My head's bleeding!"

The big man decided he wasn't looking forward to fighting this whoever he was, and started punching him in the shoulder to see if he could get his arms to give out. Yelling curses in something other than English.

"The hell are you?" The woman asked, she stiffened for a moment as Tair began running at her, and a small yet loud and blindingly bright explosion appeared between them.

The man Todd was carrying gave out another yell, this time in that same unintelligible language. The yelling had small segments of English intertwined with it, Todd could make out something that sounded like "sensitive", though it was too mangled to be sure.

The green-haired woman yelled something back to the big man, which made him groan and cover his ears and shut his eyes hard. Another explosion occurred. She started running further away from Tari. Living on the worst of foods, and not getting much exercise aside from exploding things—which didn't really count anyway, meant that the green-haired girl was actually slower than Tari. It also meant that Nico had no problem kicking her in the back. Of course, green-haired-girl's eyes began glowing more furiously, and several of the tiny explosions appeared in her area, temporarily blinding anyone near her.

The girl then went on to try to run again, shaking her head— it as obvious her explosions had dazed her as well, though they affected her less. She made her way into the restaurant, grabbing the first man she saw— Austin Ramsey— by the neck and having the bright sparks start jumping off of her other hand near his face.

"Anyone gets in here I'll fry his brains off!" She said, again in a heavily accented voice like the big man's had been, trying to get behind Austin to use him as a shield as well.

edited 4th Sep '12 11:33:42 AM by Faramir

As soon as Todd heard the words, “My head’s bleeding,” his eyes widened and he became less dense as his grip, and body loosened. He had thought for sure that the brute would’ve been able to take a simple throw, but his weakness must’ve been his head. As he started to sway under the giant’s weight, he took a few more blows to the shoulder, but managed to stay upright just long enough to hear the word “sensitive”.

Before he could get the meaning behind that word, he was blinded by a bright flash, at which point he completely dropped the giant. The giant’s fall was soon followed by his own. As he lifted his head from the ground, he winced. Partially because his face hurt from hitting the concrete and partially because his shoulder felt like the recipient of a homerun swing.

With great effort, he managed to pick himself up to a kneeling position. As he panted, he tried to address the big man. “Stay put.” In between breaths, he continued. “What’s your guys’ deal, anyway?”

The large man's fall had him hit his head with the pavement, which he didn't seem to notice as he kept his hands over his ears and his eyes shut. The place on the wall where his head had hit had a large blood-stain and an almost comically large dent in it. The pavement had no dent, which meant the blow his head received was even harder. And to top it off, it had been around the same area on the back side of his head.

Apparently, his muscles were massively strong and would withstand a great deal of damage, and his bones were stronger than average... but not that much stronger. Bones that had next to no muscles on top of them, like the upper part of the skull, were especially vulnerable.

Mr. Big and bulky paid no attention to Todd's words. He felt nauseous and dizzy. He moved to the side sharply and let the contents of his stomach out of it before attempting to find his balance, failing and passing out. The wound on his head looked deep and large. He probably had a massive concussion.

Cops began running to where the man was when they noticed he'd passed out, and had to drag him out in a group of three, being careful with his head. None of them congratulated him for committing assault, though given the identity of the victim, it was obvious they were quite thankful. None of them lectured him with rules, regulation, or charges.

The most notable reaction he got was from two or three of the cops who nodded respectfully at him. Apparently most had agreed to ignore him and act as though the wall had attacked the big guy.

edited 4th Sep '12 12:40:47 PM by Faramir

John, picked himself off the ground and took a few seconds to dust off his jacket; he had a few scrapes and bruised from falling to the ground, but they were already beginning to heal. Looking over at the wall where the stranger had crashed his bike, we made his way over there to survey the damage. "Nothing I can't fix on the weekend." he thought to himself before he reached down and flipped the bike back to an upright positing. Giving it a final once over, he hoped on it and revved the engine. He took stock of the situation around him, the fires had seemed to die down, and the police and paramedics were finally making an effort to contain the chaos; it seemed that they had the situation under control for the moment.

Weighing his options in his head, he made his way back into the restaurant to check for survivors. From his vantage point, he noticed that a green-haired woman was holding some guy by the neck; probably using him as a hostage. Silently making his way through the front door, he crept behind one of the booths and drew his weapon. Remembering his earlier altercation, he took aim at the woman head, and fired.

"Shit!" Tari swore as Miss Green-haired-and-glowing tossed a blinding explosion between them, and then a few more for good measure. She squinted and blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots from her eyes, just in time to see the irritating woman dart inside the restaurant.

"Anyone gets in here I'll fry his brains off!" Tari heard her say, and anger bubbled up inside her. The college student shook the last of the bright spots from her vision and slid to a stop in front of the restaurant, peering inside.

Oh, lovely. Some idiot didn't run when he had the chance. Again. "You send him out here unharmed or I'll put a spike through you!" she called back. She might be abnormally thin for her height—she definitely looked like the track star she'd been in high school—she did have other skills aside from running.

I hope she doesn't call my bluff. I'm already low on Ca2, she thought, waiting. Cops were arriving en masse, thank God, and were blanketing the area, but they were focused mostly on the fight that had been in front of the drop-in center.

Suddenly, a shot rang out from inside the building, and Tari ducked instinctively, swearing a string of words her mother would have been ashamed of, and put her back against the front of the diner. "Hey! You hear me?" she called, turning her head sideways to talk at the window, "Send him out here, and I'm not kidding." He'd better not be dead.

C'mon, cops. Hurry up!

edited 4th Sep '12 2:48:53 PM by Windee

Edit:Oh, * it. There's really no point in this post at all.

edited 4th Sep '12 3:29:26 PM by Replica

Austin choked as the woman's hand wrapped around his throat. Hello smokin'...

"Look, I'm really flattered," He gagged out, "and I'm sorry to disappoint, but you're not really my type. The whole hostage-taking thing is a bit of a turn-off for me."