September 30, 2018:
Havok's return to the world at large includes him blasting demons in Mutant Town. Polaris calls him out on being a typical Summers man as the two reunite after months of thinking the other is dead.
Characters
NPCs: None.
Mentions:
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
Screaming down the street is a bright yellow and black checker cab. The vehicle doesn't quite look right. It has bristling spikes on its sides and from the wheels. The spikes are tipped with blood. The grill is filled with gnarly teeth and the headlights are rabid looking eyes. Animated eyes that look around for targets. Targets in this case are humanoids. A child mutant male is loping across the street trying to get from one safe zone to the next. The horn blares from the taxi. It's a horrific sounding train horn that resonates through the canyon of buildings. The gnarly teeth of the grill open wide and the taxi starts to rush toward the mutant child. The child freezes like a deer. Standing terrified in the middle of the street. Staring at the horrific demon taxi that races toward him. The teeth of the cab are also covered in blood. The grill snarls. The animated demonic cab growls.
A beam of white hot plasma is projected from an alleyway. The sound that accompanies it is a very unmistakable FOOOM It strikes the side of the cab. Knocking the cab harshly to the side while blasting a hole in the passenger door of the cab. The cab strikes a parked vehicle and is launched into the air causing it to go into a barrel roll and sails over the mutant child. The vehicle will soon strike the ground behind the child. Likely on its back.
*
In the dim twilight that blanketed New York city, the blast of plasma was a bloom of brilliance otherwise unseen beyond the military grade flashes and explosions that dotted the distant horizons. Mutant Town had fought back harder against the demon invaders than any other area. The Brotherhood lingering and maintaining a perimeter, while X-men peppered through the area with transports to evacuate and supplies for those that remained.
No military action came to Mutant Town. The government had no interest in helping or defending the people that lived there. If most of them died or left and never came back? All the better, with Registration looming large in the political headlines.
Lorna herself had spent the better part of the week here, securing the Community Center, reinforcing the structure with steel and scrap metal to make more or less a bunker for those that didn't feel that their crumbling apartment building would hold up, or had lost it to demons and fire. With the twin's absence, Lorna, or rather Polaris, was the sole child of Magneto in the city. And a great many looked to her for direction, at least until the orders came through channels by Magneto himself. Then those orders were carried out to the fullest degree. Nate got his wish, the green haired magnokinetic went no where without someone tagging along side her. Still, she patrolled the streets, and was down the block when the taxi came hurling down the otherwise empty streets. A jolt of shock rippled at the sight of the plasma blast and she was flying down the rest of the street down the source. The flying demon taxi was caught in her magnetic fields and hoisted high into the air, well above the child and the street below.
With a shout, she tore into the metal exoskeleton, yanking steel and wire from fleshy inside and spiked protrusions.
*
TThe taxicab demon screams in agony as it is ripped asunder. The scream is eerie as it resonates through various frequencies.
Emerging from the alley is Alex Summers wearing his black super suit. The glowing circles on his chest and down his arms indicate that he's at half charge. He was preparing to blast again when he spots the hovering cab that is torn apart. He looks to the mutant on the street and yells at the child, "RUN!" The child takes off toward his original destination.
Havok's blue eyes look around for the cause of the cab's destruction. He spots Polaris and gives pause. They are quite a distance apart. However, he can still see and identify her.
*
The debris fell to the ground onto the sides of the road in the following silence after the demon taxi's death screams echoed through the streets. As the child took off, a mutant with bright eyes, like that of a cat's stepped out to stand protectively beside Lorna, flanking her position even as the green haired woman waved the other mutant off. There were only so many people that she knew with a plasma blast like that, and the list was a short one.
Particularly with a suit as memorable as the one that Alex wore.
Lorna approached, slowly, cautiously, the soft sound of steel toed boots against the pavement following her. Her green hair had grown out since he'd seen her last, long and curly in the same way it had been in their high school days. She didn't wear the typical X-men uniform, or even something that could be immediately pegged as a 'costume', not at first glance. A black leather jacket, fitted through with metal rivets and spikes, ripped jeans a heavy boots.. All of which, were covered over with metal plates of grey.
"Alex?" She called, unsure if it was really him and not just some demon wearing his face and a try of his powers.
*
Havok's expression shifts from a moment of confusion, to 'he's happy to see her', and then darkens as something inside his head clicks. His words are a whisper at first, "You're dead." as a declarative statement, an absolute. He starts to move into the street. His arms raise. There is a flare upon his chest. He screams, "Demon! You're not going to fool me again!" He moves in a defensive manner and the superheated white-hot plasma streaks down his raised arms toward Polaris - whom is clearly his target in which he is trying to destroy.
*
Well, Lorna had tried to get him to blast her before in training. She hadn't exactly expected him to try to blast her though this time, or say she was dead. Or a demon. She blinked, stepping backwards in confusion as her eyebrows furrowed. "I'm dead? You're the one that's been MISSING for months!" She shouted back, she didn't have a chance to act further. Not as the other mutant beside her grabbed hold of her arm and backward. A crackle of radio followed and suddenly two more mutants stepped out on the other side of the alley in Havok's view. One was lit up with a halo of fire around his head, another flickered in and out of a the visible light spectrum.
Magneto had told the Brotherhood members that would still listen, to protect his youngest daughter. They intended to do just that.
*
Havok heard her words. But he's been down this road before. Demons try to confuse, knock their enemies off balance, lower their guard and then take advantage of the apparent weakness. So he doesn't believe her. To him, it's just an act - a really pretty act.
Then the other mutants show up and Havok realizes he's outnumbered by clearly 'stronger' demons. He continues to move. And since his attack missed, he decides that flight is better than open fight. He intends to lure them into an alleyway. An alleyway filled with lots of metal dumpsters and iron. Silly Havok.
*
Lorna broke free from the other mutant's hold, they weren't physically stronger as she spotted the other members pop out of the other alley way up ahead. Ready to give chase. "Stand down!" She ran after Havok's fleeing figure. It couldn't be a demon, they hadn't even seen demons pretending to be other mutants.. Much less use their powers. Though the possibility had been discussed.
Her steel toed boots thumped hard against the pavement as she ran after Havok's retreating figure.
"I said stand down! Monitor the street and make sure that kid is safe." She repeated herself, earning huffs and scowls and a mutter. Even as she rounded the corner of the brick building where Havok had run down.
"Alex! Stop! Alex!" She called, she didn't care if shouting garnered less savory attention.
*
He went down a dead end right elbow alleyway. He's at the elbow around the corner of the wall. His back is to that wall and he listens to her voice. Havok yells in reply, "You and your demon friends just turn around and tell Maddy that you failed in finding me. Or the alternative, I blast you out of existence."
He knows that he's trapped. He's too low power to fly out of here. He looks down the rest of the alleyway to the dead end and doesn't see a way to climb out. So his best plan, bluff.
*
The green haired mutant frowned, her eyebrows furrowing as she slowed her steps as Alex shouted back his response. She focused, closing her eyes as she sent out her powers to feel out where he was in the electro-magnetic spectrum. His words didn't make sense, even as she felt out where he was, she kept her spot. Not chasing after him fully, as everything she sensed and had picked up, indicated it was actually Alex.
"Maddy? Who? We're not demons Alex. Those are mutants, we're trying to defend Mutant Town from the incursion." She exhaled a breath, frowning as she dragged her hands through her hair.
"Remember how you teased me on Genosha about my body guards before? Well, same thing today here."
*
There was no Mutant Town in the other reality. That causes Havok's mind to reconsider her words. He mutters to himself, "Mutant Town." Though it's been a really long time since he and Polaris spoke about anything, Genosha included. And he's tired. Really tired.
He calls around the blind corner, "Lorna? Okay… if you're really Lorna, then tell me the name of the guy you married." - Which didn't happen in the previous reality, in fact, that guy didn't even exist there. And he never spoke about it.
*
A huff of breath followed, and Lorna settled her hands on her hips as Alex called back. It was definitely Alex Summers. Only a Summers could be so damn stubborn. A demon, if demons could mimic people, would have attacked them already. She waved away the Brotherhood mutants that lingered at the mouth of the alley and they took up defensive positions at each corner.
"Well, the wedding that you were invited to didn't happen. Marcos and I eloped to Las Vegas. Elvis walked me down the aisle. You were already missing. So.. you missed that." She called back, tapping her foot.
"Do you want any other questions answered? Like what kind of under wear you wore in high school or how I doodled on your face when you passed out drunk last time we went drinking?"
*
Havok's blue eyes look around at all the visualizations she's spreading within his mind. He slowly begins to feel more secure that she is the Polaris he once knew from way back. But, he's not in that world any more. Or is he. He realizes that he needs to trust someone. He steps around the corner. His chest is still glowing, ready to fire. He questions, quietly, "Lorna?"
*
A blink as Alex stepped out from around the corner, Lorna was right there. She let her folded arms drop to her sides as she heaved a breath. "Oh thank God, the man believes me. You know, it must be a Summers trait that you're all so damn stubborn." She muttered, but her features told a different story. There were tears in her eyes, held back, as relief washed over her at the sight of him. It had been months. Months of him having gone missing without a clue as to where or what or how or why.
Even if they weren't dating anymore, she still cared. He was still someone in her life.
"Come on, lets get to the Community Center."