Invasion of Congress (Institute Away Mission)

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh watches everyone else drop onto the roof. Out of the corner of his vision, he sees a huge group of people outside the cordon - the US Army? We'd better not end up fighting the Army, god.

He takes a deep breath and jumps off the boarding ladder. It looks like a normal jump, except as he continues falling, he loses speed instead of gaining it. He hovers in midair about a foot above the ground, and drops lightly, boots crunching snow underneath.

"Okay guys, let's go!" Putting words into practice, he takes shelter near the dome, and outstretches his hands towards the jet. His telepathic prescence races outwards towards the 'Bird - he can see the controls. Josh clenches a hand in midair, and there's a slight ripple in the sky as the plane banks and floats over the edge of the building. His mind skates across the altitude controls, and the shimmer disappears below the edge of the rotunda.

A minute later, Josh opens his eyes. "All set." He rubs his hand a little against the side of his head. "Wow, that was kind of weird." But good to know that I can combine both skills.

Josh looks at Bobby. "Ready?" Standing behind Bobby, he puts his left arm under Bobby's and across the other boy's chest. He puts out a hand to Kitty. "This is going to be like Twister, you guys..." He grins a little.

<Hold on tight, Bob. I've only got one arm until we get through the wall...>

[Bobby Drake]

Bobby tries to keep his attention simultaneously on threats from all directions while Josh pulls his remote-piloting trick, and makes a mental note that programming an autopilot for tricks like automatic field landings is a good idea for next time. It doesn't take long for Josh to finish, though, and nothing interrupts them.

So far, so good.

> <Hold on tight, Bob. I've only got one arm until we get through the wall...>

" Dammit, codenames only when we're in the -- " Bobby cuts off, realizing suddenly that Josh hadn't spoken out loud. Sheepishly, he grabs Josh's arm and adds "Right. Sorry, never mind. Anyway, yeah, I've got you... can't do much about the cold, but I'll keep it as unslippery as I can. I normally de-ice for Twister."

He looks over to Kitty and reaches out to grab her arm, figuring this will be easier for her if everybody's touching her. " OK, 'cat... next part's all on you! "

[Kitty Pryde]

Kitty looked at them all wondering how she was going to do this. It was usually her touching specifically who she wanted to phase. She walked to the side of the guys looking at the other two girls with them. "Okay I think I got this." She slipped her arm through Bobby's so that she was touching both him and Josh. She held onto Joshes hand. "Iceman, you'll have to wrap your hand around ours. With this many people skin contact is best." She then looked to the other two motioning for them to come next to her. "Okay we'll do the same thing on this side, except Rogue is the exception to the skin to skin contact. Sorry Rogue, but I kinda need my powers this time." She said trying to lighten the mood a bit.

Once they were thoroughly twisted together Kitty checked their contact once more before beginning to phase them through the building getting steadily closer to the situation. She was determined to get as close as they could.

[Bobby Drake]

> "With this many people skin contact is best."

" Left hand on red! " Bobby mutters, chuckling. He concentrates for a second, then closes his hand into a fist as the ice-sheath around it shatters to halfway up his forearm. Then he wraps his now-bare hand around Kitty and Josh's and waits.

Being phased is a very weird feeling, especially when it involves dropping down into a building, even if he is being carried. He keeps bracing to land as they approach surfaces, then dropping right through them. Part of his mind wonders if they'll fall right through the surface of the earth.

Nobody seems to spot the group as they drop through the upper floors -- they're only visible on each floor for a second, anyway, which is good. " Way to go, 'cat! " he mutters over their comms, then regrets having opened his mouth as passing through a floor interrupts his breathing... it feels a little bit like a hiccup. Again, weird.

It doesn't take more than a few seconds to spot the forcefield, a glimmering opaque dome of light. " Don't know if this means anything, but it's all the same temperature... can't make out heat patterns inside."

A moment later, the team is phased through the dome and into a scene of chaos.

Four confident-looking figures are assembled near the front of the chamber, thus far unaware of the team's silent arrival.

The most striking of the four is a huge man, easily five hundred pounds, in a black Lycra body suit. He's holding one of the Congressmen in the air, waving him around casually as if to make a point, with one meaty hand wrapped around the terrified politician's waist. He seems to be threatening to squeeze the man in two if not mollified.

A few meters away, an attractive blue-eyed man is lounging casually against a wall near a woman hovering in mid-air. They aren't doing anything in particular at the moment, apparently letting the big guy do the work. At the frontmost edge of the room stands a middle-aged man surrounded by a translucent sparkly field, similar in appearance to the dome around the room. He stands stiffly, with his eyes closed, as if concentrating hard on something.

Against the rear wall of the chamber several hundred middle-aged and older men are huddled, obviously terrified. A few bodies (unconscious? wounded? dead?) in police uniforms are scattered across the space in between.

Bobby stares at the old man in the Blob's deathgrip and winces. OK, so much for recon... we've got to do something. He tries to maintain a calm voice as he talks quietly into his comm unit: " OK, let's do this -- 'cat, can you phase the hostage out of the Pillsbury Doughboy's grip? Rest of you cover my back, OK? I'm gonna wall off the rest of the humans so nobody else gets hurt."

He pulls out of Josh and Kitty's grip and drops to the floor. As he does so, he concentrates on quick-freezing the volume of air between the bad guys and the Congressmen. The air shimmers and hazes with unearthly cold for a second, then ice-crystals start dropping from the ceiling, growing in from the walls and up from the roof to form a crystal spider-web about two feet thick, the strands of which start to thicken.

In a few seconds it will harden into a steel-hard wall, but for now it's still fairly fragile, and Bobby's attention is fully taken up on creating it, making him an easy target for the four villains once they overcome their surprise.

(( OOC: OK, hope nobody minds my moving this along. We're now in combat! Quick reminder of thread-rules:

• You post your actions, including the effects of your actions on NPCs. (Player-run villains are NOT considered NPCs.) If your actions are meant to affect other PCs you do NOT post the effects.
  
• You also post the results of any actions meant to affect you. It's up to you whether they succeed, fail, or do something unexpected. Please be reasonable about it.
  
• Post order is fixed: Bobby, Josh, Rogue, Kitty, Riley. Post for your NPC villains at the same time as your PCs.
  
• I'm establishing a max of 48 hours between posts. If someone misses their turn for that long, the next person picks up.
  
• NPC villains are Blob (run by Josh), Template (run by Rogue), Merrick (run by Kitty), and Barricade (not run by anyone, treat him as an NPC but he's basically invulnerable for plot reasons. He does nothing but keep the dome up, and will attempt to flee once the rest of his team goes down).
  
• Everyone (including people not in the scene) should feel free to run other NPCs - guards, Congresscritters, whatever - at whim... the more, the merrier. This can happen at any time. Have fun with it!
  

))

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Phasing is a disconcerting experience. Josh has done it before, but each time he's struck by the sheer impossibility of it. Then again, I can throw things around with my mind...

When they finally reach the chamber, Josh lets go of Kitty's hand, and unloops his arm from Bobby. His mouth drops a little, but he snaps it back up. Is that guy for real?

The sumo wrestler-man continues waving the Senator around, gesturing with his other hand wildly. At some point he notices a veritable snowstorm forming between himself and the rest of Congress. Instead of sounding an alarm, he gazes, transfixed.

Josh steps away from Bobby for a moment, and then recognizes Merrick. <No one look at his eyes! It's that loser from the concert!> He takes off at a run, and throws a hand forward, attempting to blast Merrick off his feet and into the wall behind him.

[Rogue]

Rogue was simply grateful to be on her own feet, seperate from hte group. Once she was far enough away from them, she removed a glove - the one on her "good" hand, and looped it through her belt.

<No one look at his eyes! It's that loser from the concert!>

Startled by the mental projection, she fixed Josh with a look, absently trying to figure out which guy he meant.

She didn't have long to wonder, though - she was assuming he was attacking the one he meant, and made a mental note of that.

In the meantime, the girl hoving in the air, had broken into a grin, and was speding towards them, stopping just short and reguardign the team with a smile on her face, and a darkness in her eyes.

"Hello." she greeted in a fairly pleasant, almost syrupy tone, lowering so she was mere inches off the floor, "Come to cure my boredum?"

Rogue instantly disliked her already.

"I got Floaty ovah here." she growled to her teammates, and lunged for the girl, who simply grasped her wrists in both hands with a simle that was fairly condicending, and swept the two up towards the ceiling.

[Kitty Pryde]

Kitty immediately responded to Bobby once everyone had unlaced their hands from hers. It wasn't hard to tell what she would have to do next. With Bobby taking care of the barricade and seeing as the guy was being tossed about by the sumo wrestler looking dude she knew what to do. She sprinted toward the helpless man as Josh's metal statement was made. Just what she needed, Merrick.

She continued on heading straight for the congressman who was still dangling in the air. She took a leap grabbing the mans leg and immediately phasing them both. Her plan was to phase them through the floor and then up to the other side of the barricade that Bobby was making.

Merrick looked directly at the boy who was now moving toward him. he recognized him from the club almost immediately. "Come to play did ya. I see you brought your girlfriend as well. I will have plenty of fun with you both." He moves a bit quick trying to keep the boy in his view but also wanting to try to avoid whatever he was doing. All he had to do was capture one of the little tarts with his eyes. Then it would be all over.

Getting hit finally he flew back a bit, but instead of hitting the wall he landed on his feet. "Now thats not nice. Come here and we'll play."

[rileyfletcher]

As soon as Josh finished landing the jet, Riley grabbed hold of Rouge and Kitty, getting ready to go through the building. She let her wings out, and was starting to go through the floors. It felt very weird, since it was her first time being phased through anything, but she still kept her wings out, so they wouldn't be dropping through the floors extremly fast.

Soon, they came to the floor where the mutants and hostages where. Once they were close to the floor, about a inch off, she let go of Kitty and Rouge, then landed herself. Riley watched Bobby as he start to put the barricade, but also kept a close eye on the others. She was ready, if any of the other mutants began to head in her direction to go after Bobby, she would stop them and keep them busy and away. Riley noticed that there was a few hurt people, but she knew that she would be able to tend to them later, what was really important at the moment was to get the barricade up.

(sorry for the crappyness)

[Bobby Drake]

> <No one look at his eyes! It's that loser from the concert!>

Bobby doesn't have any idea what Josh is talking about, though the eyes reference sounds like the mindcontroller the interviewed guards had mentioned. Anyway, he doesn't have the attention to spare on it, it taking all his concentration to quick-freeze the protective wall.

Out of the "corner" of his thermal sense he notes various combatants engaging, of which the only one he can easily recognize is the big guy. Again, it doesn't matter... his teammates will cover him, he just has to get the damned wall up.

Which, finally, he does, at the cost of a headache that threatens to drop him to his knees. It keeps seeming like quick-freezing should get easier, but it doesn't. If anything, it seems to hurt a little more each time he does it.

With the innocent bystanders (well, most of them) taken care of, he turns around to check out the situation. The flying girl has grabbed ungloved-Rogue, which pretty much means she'll be out for the count in a second or two. 'cat has the last hostage and is distracting Blobbo, Forcefield-guy seems out of it, Riley's ready to run interference, and Josh has Mr. Eyes on the run... nice!

Remembering Josh's suggestion earlier, Bobby turns his attention to Mr. Eyes, preparing to cover the guy's head with a hardened snow-globe. It takes him longer than he'd expected, though, his "batteries" apparently still recovering from the icewall... and it occurs to him, a little too late to do anything about it, that if he's concentrating on the guy's head that pretty much means the guy can make eye contact.

Oops.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

The Blob curses as Kitty jumps through him and catches hold of the senator. As much as he tries to reestablish his hold, the pair of them seem to slip through his fingers.

"What the... huuuuh?" This last seems to echo through the room. He shouts in anger, grabbing wildly at the pair, but then catches a glimpse of a dark haired boy zipping past him.

Josh is hurtling toward Merrick in order to disable him before he starts throwing stray glances around. He's so focused on the wall behind Merrick to avoid his hypnotic stare that he hears a grunt, and he's suddenly caught by one of the Blob's meaty hands.

He looks at the Blob in disbelief. "What the hell are you?" He gasps as the hand tightens around his midsection.

"I'm the Blob, kid. Don't mess with me!" Dukes chuckles merrily.

"I'm sure... now let me go!" Josh reaches out with his telekinesis, attempting to force the man's grip open. Nothing happens. A strange look crosses his face, and he gathers his thoughts, attempting to hurl the Blob backwards into the rows of seats. Again, no effect, except for a piercing headache.

"Yeah, nothing moves the Blob!" He smirks stupidly, and clenches his hand.

"I need some help! There's something wrong with his mass!" Josh gasps out in pain, realizing his sentence doesn't make much sense - but there it is. It was easier to hold back the floodwaters in the Alkali simulation. He reaches out with his TK and lifts a flagstand into the air, smashing it into the back of the Blob's skull.

"That hurt, kid! And there's nothing wrong with me!" Dukes snarls and tosses Josh to his other hand like a toy, waving him in midair. He rubs the back of his head.

Bastard. You're screwed as soon as I figure out what to do... Josh casts a desperate look around for a solution.

[Rogue]

LIfted into the air, Rogue was, understandably, shocked. The woman's hands were just far enough down on her wrists to avoid skin contact - something Rogue intended to remedy fast. Jerking her bare handed arm down slightly, she was satisfied when she felt the other woman's skin on hers.

But nothing was happening. Or, rather, something, but it wasn't a good something. Not the normal something that happened every single other time she'd touched someone. If felt like her powers were locked up, trying hard, but meeting resistance. No memories, no powers, surging into her mind. Just the feeling like playing tug-of-war with the woman's psyke.

"What are you doing, girl?"

All the while this woman had been hauling her upsards, and they were now at the highest point of the room, and spun slightly for a moment, grin crossing the woman's face.

"Want down?"

"Only if y'put meh down gently."

"Sure, spoil my fun...I think I'll pass, then, darling."

Then, abruptly, she felt something change. It felt like...she was being pulled from herself. Absorbed? Yet, at the same time, she was suddenly being washed over with th other woman's - Template's - memories, thoughts...

Both were screaming. Template dipped violently in the air, and then recovered, then dipped again. Her hands were involintarilly gripping Rogue's wrists tightly, the strain of the absorbtion causing her to autoamtically grip harder. And it would keep doing so, at least until her own strength faltered.

But, oddly, that didn't hurt. Even through the pain in her mind, Rogue was briefly aware of this, and found it amusing. Very amusing. Heck, if she hadn't been too busy screaming, she may have even laughed...

The screaming stopped as, for a moment, it was Rogue holding the limp form of Template, flying in the air. A look of confusion was on her face, and she glanced down at her teammates, then around the room.

And then the ground was rushing up towards her, and she blacked out just before impact.


_{(Yeah, happening very quick, but I've got a plan. )}

[Kitty Pryde]

Kitty got the congressman safely behind the wall of ice before phasing back through it and into the chaos that seemed to be happening around her. Her first glance was to Bobby who seemed to be having no trouble at the moment but soon her attention went to Josh, who was now being tossed around by the same guy that had the congressman only moments ago.

"Can't you stay out of trouble for at least a few moments?" Kitty asked as she made a mad dash toward the guy and Josh. Time to do another disappearing act. After phasing them all she didn't know how much she could actually take, but was sure they would have to get this done quickly.

Leaping through the air once more she grabbed Josh and phased as soon as she felt her hold grab him. "Hold on this may be a bit tricky." She said also grabbing the guy hoping to phase him through the floor enough to just get him stuck between the floors.

Merrick turned his attention toward the boy who was now looking his way. He steaded his gaze trying to catch the boys. If he could get him then it would make the mission go a bit easier. His eyes faded to the bright red that meant he was concentrating hoping to get him quickly. "Come here boy. We could have some fun." Being a mutant of many talents he hoped to end this soon.

[rileyfletcher]

So many things were happening at once, but Riley stayed where she was to keep Bobby's back, until he was done. She watched the fight going on. She seen what was going on with Rouge and the other woman, it wasn't to long until the woman was out. One down three to go. Then Josh was in the grips of the huge guy. Riley was just about to race to help Josh out, until she noticed Kitty was on her way to help him. She would be a lot more better helping him, then me trying.

Soon Bobby was done. Right away Riley caught him looking at the guy that Josh warned them of. The guy had noticed Bobby was looking at him and all of a sudden his eyes went red. Riley knew that he hadn't spot her looking at him and wasn't going to allow Bobby be under his control. So she flew high up into the air, then went behind the guy. She hoped he hadn't noticed her and went to go pick him up. Thinking that maybe she could get him dizzy and maybe drop him, giving Bobby time to help someone else out.

[Bobby Drake]

> "I need some help! There's something wrong with his mass!"

Josh's call for help distracts Bobby's attention from Mr. Eyes. Wrong with his mass? What does that even mean? Watching the two of them struggle makes the situation clear, though... big bruiser, physically tough. Well, OK... maybe he's not so resistant to having his body quick-frozen? Worth a shot.

He starts concentrating on dropping the temperature in an area containing the Blob without including Josh, which is tricky as the Blob waves Josh around, then is distracted by Marie's scream. " Rogue! " he cries out, then cuts off at the sight of her floating in the air holding the unconscious girl. She seems all right, he thinks, just before she crashes to the ground.

This is so not going well. How did that happen? OK, focus, Drake... free Josh, then deal with Mr. Eyes. Riley can take care of Marie, and -- he blinks as Kitty takes care of Josh -- right, I should have thought of that. Nice. OK, then, back to Mr. Eyes, see how well he takes a faceful of sno...

His thoughts fade out as Merrick's eyes glow red, and he takes a step towards the mesmeric villain without realizing it, then another, before Riley breaks the guy's mental hold on him. Oh, hell... that was dumb of me.

He gives Riley a quick thumbs-up sign and mouths "Thanks" before closing his eyes, relying on thermal sense to track Merrick's location and on Riley's wings to distinguish the two bodies. He extends a hand to help guide his powers, like he used to have to when he first started training, and fires off a spray of quick-freezing slush in Merrick's direction, hoping to coat his face with it.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh and Kitty tumble away from the Blob, almost dropping through the floor. He looks over at her, who still has her arms wrapped around his legs.

“Thanks, Kitty.” He grabs her by the hand and helps pull her out of the Blob’s range.

“Aaagh!!” Dukes shouts and swats at Riley and Merrick in midair, then takes a massive step towards Bobby, Kitty, and Josh. “Don’t you kids want to play?”

“Rogue!” Josh yells as he sees her plummet towards the ground. Idiot - use your powers! Josh shakes his head and extends a hand, halting her downward progress right before impact. That was a close one.

“Any ideas on how to deal with Tubby?” Josh holds his hands up in front of him as if to ward off incoming blows as the Blob takes another ground-shaking step towards the trio.

You can’t lift him. You can’t throw him. Bobby’s ice will only slow him down… probably? Rogue can’t help right now. Josh risks a look over at her, and then to the advancing menace. He’s physically tough. But he doesn’t seem to have much upstairs… A sudden idea flits into his head. He raises both hands to his temples and reaches out with his telepathy, screaming into the Blob’s mind. It’s a piercing shriek that he probably couldn’t have managed with his actual voice.

Almost immediately, Dukes doubles over, clutching his skull. “What are you doing to me, freak?” He shouts and stumbles back, taking a chair out.

Josh is rooted to the spot, completely focused on maintaining the paralyzing shout.