Mall rat beware, the exterminators are here --OPEN

[theonavarro]

Jubilee was trawling through the mall, stopping every now and again at to look into the windows, she sighed as she was forced to walk past the designer shoes, the designer clothes, the expensive cosmetics, the lavish jewelry and the exotic perfumes. She was broke, she had spent a month's allowance on a pair of Manolo Blahnek shoes. Without shopping she had nothing to distract her, she walked over to the Prada outlet and wandered in, she knew that she couldn't afford anything in here. She sifted through the racks, the clothes all so beautiful. She ran her fingers over a mink coat and sighed. She seemed to be sighing alot lately... she couldn't stay happy for very long. With no one around to fool she had no reason to pretend to be perky and bright anymore, she could be herself. she looked at the clerk and scowled, she thought back to her days living in the Beverly hills mall, what she had used to do to survive, she looked at the tag detectors, she could take them out from here, and without anyone seeing.


She smirked at the though, just two fireworks appearing inside the two towers and the circuits would be fried, and no one would even know. She stepped back, shocked at her own thoughts. She wasn't going to stoop that low, low enough to shoplift. She hurried out of the shop, she paused outside and looked back If only.. she thought. Jubilee continued down towards the entrance, she needed to get out of here. She felt someone grab her arm, she whipped her head around and tried to wrench free, the grip was too tight. She looked into a pair of dark sunglasses, they were on a man's face, he was African American and about 6'3" tall. "Hey," she said, "What do you think you're doing, let go of me, NOW!".


The man ignored her and held on, "I'm warning you," she growled, low enough so only he could hear her, "I don't know who you are, but you sure as hell don't know who I am either, now let go before I hurt you."
"Try it, mutie," he growled, his voice deep, and rasping, "Me and my friends here will make sure its the last thing you ever do." He motioned behind him with his head, there were about three more guys behind him, all with the dark sunglasses, all of them, including him, dressed in dark clothes, so as not to be noticed by the crowd. the man who had Jubilee was wearing a blue baseball cap, she stared at herself in the reflection in the sunglasses.


"Who are you?" she asked, "How did you know that-"
"It doesn't matter", he cut her off, his voice cold and emotionless, "What DOES matter though, is that we keep mutant scum like you out of places like this." He took her aside, not wanting to draw any attention, Jubilee remained silent as she glared at him, her arm throbbed but she didn't care. She wouldn't let this guy think that he had any power over her. A stupid notion really, as he already had her afraid to use her powers and in an iron-clad vice-grip.
"We call ourselves the exterminators, now if we ever see you in here again, we just might have to exterminate you." He growled into her ear, she looked over his shoulder and saw the other three, blocking her and captor from sigh Geez she thought are all these guys freakishly tall? They spanned from around 6'2" to about 6'5" .


"Do you understand?" the man growled into her ear, he then stepped back to observe her, his grip still as strong as ever.
"Y-Yeah, I understand," she said, she scolded herself inside, hearing the fear in her voice. He smiled and let go, he and his buddies stepped aside, Jubilee ran past them and down the escalator, she went to a nearby bathroom, she checked the stalls and then, finding she was alone, collapsed onto the door. Her heart was racing and her bottom lip quivering, she felt like crying. Wasn't it enough that the Academy was in shambles? It wasn't even safe for her to go to the mall anymore. She put the heels of her palms onto her eyes, as if to hold in the tears, she breathed deeply and tried to compose herself. She went to the mirror and looked into her own eyes, the fear she saw there shocked her, that fear now replacing itself with anger.


She curled her hand into a fist and brought it down on the counter by the sink, light was creeping out through her fingers, she blasted the mirror, and it shattered into what seemed like a thousand pieces, on shard of glass flew past her face and cut her fore head. She looked at the glass all around her, her thousand reflections all staring up at her. She walked out of the bathroom, this was her mall, this is where she went to distract herself, and NOONE was going to tell her whether she could come here or not. She headed out, looking for the sunglasses freaks, the "exterminators" they called themselves.


"Well," she muttered, oblivious to the thin trail of blood creeping down the side of her face, "this is one mutha rat who knows how to bite back."

[Sherridan Kaine]

"Filthy humans! Don't you EVER treat a mutant like that again!" the words come out from a whole circus of motion as something fierce, and obviously sharp keeps moving around between the so called "exterminators", many of which have light and some have deep scratch marks and wounds.

Suddenly, something much like an overgrown cat in dark jeans and a black tank top jumps up from the small crowd, quickly landing back down, pouncing on one of the men. If she sees him standing upright, she would see him having black fur all over, except for his shoulder-long golden blond hair, and she would see that he stands 6' 5" tall, which is quite enough of a height equality with the "exterminators". But she can't see him, because he is still in the middle of a fight that seems to be near its end.

His tail wraps around one of the executioner's legs, and then it sweeps the floor with him, dragging him around in circles so that no one else can reach him. Once the man is knocked out, Sherridan goes on to the next three. Soon enough, one is struck down as he is pushed onto one of the escalators. He couldn't see where he was going since twenty deadly sharp claws were moving fast around his poor face.

Pouncing to the next one, Sherridan snarls, showing extremely sharp fangs in his mouth. This particular executioner obviously didn't have much of a strong heart, since he faints from the sight. Or perhaps is it because of Sherridan's last meal? It doesn't matter.

The same pounce technique is used on the last executioner, and he is powerless with this mutant holding him pinned to the ground. One claw-filled hand raises and gets ready to lurch down and hit the man in his neck, killing him instantly, and...

[theonavarro]

Jubilee saw the "Exterminators" she saw how they were getting their lame asses kicked by what appeared to be a half man half cat creature. Jubilee smiled as she saw him deal out some major pain on the exterminassholes. She stood and watched, thoroughly pleased with what was happening to them. Pleased, that is, until she saw that the mutant wasn't stopping at just hurting them, he wanted blood. The X-man inside her took over and she began to work on dispersing the crowd. She sent fireworks at the spectators' feet, made bright lights to scare them off. Most of them got scared and ran away, the police would be here soon.

She turned toward the feral mutant and made a series of bright lights, hoping to stun both him, or her, he couldn't tell at those speeds, and the exterminassholes. She ran over to the mutant and tried to gently, but firmly push him back, "You're gonna kill them! I wanted revenge on them too, but not THAT much!" She dragged him to the side and held him against the wall, he was stunned for now, docile, but not for long, she placed a bright ball of light in front of his face and made it move around in an irregular pattern, hoping it would keep him in daze long enough.

"If you kill them then the police will kill you, they can do that, they have permission to resort to any means necessary to bring down dangerous mutants. Don't fuck things up for yourself!"

She looked back and saw that the exterminassholes were starting to get up, she sent a few fireworks in their directions, blowing them into a nearby shoe-store. She looked at the feral mutant and sighed, "You'd better come with me, i know a place where they can protect you from the police." she said.

[Sherridan Kaine]

Suddenly a flash of blinding light comes to his eyes, and he stops. He can't see, and somehow he is completely helpless. Someone pushes him off his victim, and then keeps dazing him even further. Trying to open his eyes was futile, as that infernal light would greet them with another painful blast.

Instead, he used his great hearing to trying and locate things. This would, of course work allot better if he actually had a power to locate things by the sound of them. Still, he somehow manages to get the hang of the place, but doesn't move.

The words some female says petrify him. Not the ones about the police, but her last words, those about a safe place from the police. Suddenly, all of his reflexes regain control of his body, and the bare-footed cat-boy is already climbing up the wall behind him, away from the ball, and away from the female. It is obvious that he is ready to pounce if she tries anything, just not where he is ready to pounce to- away, or towards her?

"First off, I don't see what's wrong with killing that filth. And second, I don't need any safe house from the police. If need be I'll fight my way through them. Anything I did was not because I wanted to make sure you got your petty revenge, it was because the filth needed to see what their place is." he says, frustration filling his voice, but his eyes emitting cold waves out and about.

[theonavarro]

Jubilee got angry, bright lights swirled round his head, flashing at irregular intervals, "Who do you think you are? Those guys might be assholes," she said, "But we have no right to kill them, for all we know their being influenced by a psychic, they could be victims too, sure, i wanted to kick their ass, but it is wrong to take someone's life"

As her voice got louder, the globules of energy got brighter, she got very antsy about death, her own parents having been killed. She looked at him, his chest rising and falling as he breathed, "Come with me, we can give you a safe place to sleep, we can help you."

[Sherridan Kaine]

This pushes him over the edge, and Sherridan now jumps right in front of her, his face only inches away from hers. "And it's OK for them to kill all those who are mutants, or try to help them? Do you think those assholes would give a fucking damn about such stupid, petty morals? If you think that you can live like a human and be equally treated, you're wrong. This here is a war! It is a war between mutants and humans, and there is not any space in the world for pity, mercy, or peace. At least not yet." he says, growling every word.

"Who are you anyway? Who is this "We" you keep talking about? And why do you keep trying to get me to go to this place?" he shoots out a flurry of questions, stepping a few steps back as his tail snaps like a whip- a habit which appears when he is anxious and irritated.

[theonavarro]

Jubilee cowers at first, the stands up straight and glares at him, "They might not care, but I am better then them, and so should you be! And I'm trying to get you to come to the Xavier institute, its where i live, you get a roof over your head, a house full of friends and a training area. You look too old to be a student, but they can give you a job. Its there that we do the real fighting for mutants, by showing pricks like those guys that we aren't a national threat, ripping their throats open in public is only going to make things worse for us!"

Jubilee glared at him, this guy seemed like a real piece of work, he reminded her of wolverine a bit, only wolverine was tamer, now THAT was a scary thought. "Please," she said, "Come with me before you start something that will make ALL of the mutants in this area suffer."

[Sherridan Kaine]

At the mention of the institute, Sherridan's ice-blue eyes flare with more anger and hatred than before. "It is because of you bloody imbecilic pacifists that we mutants are in such hard times in the first place! It is the opinions that you people hold that had made my life a horrific suffering, and you expect me to go there? I already have a job, and I already have a place to stay." he spits out the words, filling them with venom.

His parents thought the same way that this professor X did, and look what it brought them- an early grave in an explosion set by humans, members of their own race. No, under no circumstances is he going to let himself be pulled into that place.

"Everyone fights in the war, kid. But there is more than one way to fight it, and we choose the way that's best for us. The stuff you people say has brought me nothing but pain, and I have given up on that hopeless path a long time ago. Besides, by the time these guys get around to what the hell happened to them, we both will be turned into monsters with four heads and seven rows of teeth in each jaw in their tales. I can tell you right now that the only end you can look at clearly if you take Xavier's views is the one of certain death, preceded by immense amounts of emotional and physical pain."

[theonavarro]

Jubilee looked at him and the globules fizzled out, she was so afraid that he might be right, that this walking furball could change the way she looked at things. She turned and walked away, she couldn't say anything else to him, she was too afraid of what would come out of his mouth. She turned back and saw the exterminators limping out of the shop window, she wondered if they would die, at the hands of the furball that is. She considered doing something, maybe fighting for them, doing the "right thing". She shook her head and walked, she went back to the bathroom she had been in before. She sat down with her back to the door again, she looked at the shards of glass, her image reflected a thousand times.

She closed her eyes and put her head head back against the door, the blood on her face had dried now, the cut scabbed over, she opened her eyes and looked at the bathroom. What was happening to her? Ever since the professor died she had been feeling like this, like it was all for nothing. That mutants and humans would never be able to live together. She was starting to think like, dare she say it, Magneto.

[Sherridan Kaine]

He laughs at her reaction. "You X-people are so weak." he says simply and then throws a glance at the exterminators. They won't be up in a minute or so, which gives him plenty of time to hide. Even though the police might get here soon, he still intends to play with his victims. It's just a cat thing.

So, his fur changes to an even darker shade of black, almost as black as night itself, and he climbs the wall and stays on the ceiling of a store that had its lights short-circuited by the girl. So now only those who know that he is there can see him, but no one does- the exterminators didn't notice him. Or refused to.

A vile smile creeps on his face as he watches his prey, waiting. The second best part to hunting is waiting, watching the prey as it doesn't suspect a thing. The absolutely best part is yet to come- the one where the prey realizes it's in danger, but cannot find the source of it.

Just in case that the exterminators decide to stay here for over an hour, Ferus digs the claws on his legs into the perpendicular wall, and keeps his tail as a sort of a spring, which helps him balance better.

[Bobby Drake]

Ever since he'd learned the trick of icing up his own body, Bobby's been going through clothing faster than Paris Hilton. He tries to find time to strip out of them before going into action, but it rarely works out that way, and most fabrics don't handle being deep-frozen very well. So he's been spending a lot of time at the mall lately, despite himself.

He doesn't really shop, doesn't see the point anymore. He just picks up some shirts, pants, socks, dark colors, match pretty much anything. Easier that way. And, shopping bags in hand, stops at the food court for some pizza.

That's when he hears the commotion. At first he figures it's none of his affair, then he hears the telltale sounds of Jubilee's fireworks and sighs. She's probably in trouble with mall security again... it's a wonder they even let her into the place anymore. He finishes his lunch, then wanders out of the foodcourt, looks over the railing.

The sight chills him, and not in a good way: Jubes facing off against some kinda cat-guy, surrounded by semiconscious MiBs, civilians running scared. No mall security visible yet, but that's just luck. She blows one into a shoe-store as he watches, and Catman climbs up a wall. Messy just waiting to happen, looks like. Not good. Especially now that the Professor isn't around to make everybody forget what they just saw.

But this time, at least, he's not going to destroy his clothes. He grabs his bags and runs into a bathroom stall, stripping down to his uniform shorts and icing up before speedskating out of the bathroom and towards the commotion.

By the time he gets there, though, it seems to be over. Jubes and Catboy are nowhere in sight, and the MiBs are down... well, most of them. One is starting to get up, and Bobby takes advantage of the opportunity. He skids to a halt in front of the dazed MiB, notices the cuts in his clothes and on his face, wonders just what's going on.

First things first, though. He freezes the MiB's arms to his side, lifts him up by the collar. "OK... let's cut to the chase here, OK? You tell me why you were hassling my friend and where she is now, I don't freeze your appendages off. Sound fair? Thought so. Talk."

The black-suited man isn't impressed, though. He struggles with his bonds for a moment, then gives up. "Showing your true colors, huh mutie? Suits me... go ahead and do it, we'll have the footage up on the news before evening. You and your pet cat and the explosive bitch... we'll show the world what you're really like, even the fuzzy-brained mutielovers. They'll throw parades for us when we take you down!"

Bobby blinks, startled. Who the hell are these guys? They talk like a bad movie. "Who's we, asshole?"

The man spits in his face, which he barely notices. "The Exterminators, freak!"

Great. Just great. We haven't even recovered from saving their damn asses and they go forming another hate group. He wants to toss this guy over the railing, or put him through a window, or something.

But he knows what the Professor would say... they're just scared, and lashing out in fear, and they don't represent most people. And he believes it. Usually. And besides, he's seen enough death, he's in no hurry to make more of it.

So he satisfies himself with binding their arms and legs with ice as he waits for mall security to show up. He wonders what he'll tell them.

[theonavarro]

Jubilee sat on the bathroom floor, her reflections stared back at her. She hid her face in her hands and globules of energy began to appear all over the place, she didn't care if her powers were going crazy, she sat there, practically comatose, she just sat there as the bathroom got ripped apart, she sat and thought. Had the professor died in vain? Was magneto right al along, would all the humans turn out to be like the exterminators, would it become a war, homo superior against homosapien? And if it did, to what lengths would each side go to ensure their own survival, which side would win?

Jubilee felt someone try and push the door open, obviously attracted by the sound of a bathroom going boom, she got up and mall security burst in, they saw her there, the blood trickling down her face, the bright lights destroying everything that they touched. They both unholstered their guns, little things, but at close range could cause her some major damage. "Y-You there!" one of them said, he was chubby and balding, his flabby chest rising and falling quickly, he was already out of breath, "S-Stop this n-now!" Jubilee looked at them, she looked at their guns, they seemed foreign and slightly alien to her, she focused and fireworks appeared inside the guns, she was getting better at her precision shots. She was tired of being pushed around, the guards screamed as their hands burned, she sent them flying out of the bathroom, she ran through and saw Bobby upstairs, he was talking to the exterminassholes, she ran up the stairs and straight for him. "Bobby please," she started, "I made a huge mistake, I need your help. Theer where these guards and they had guns and .. and.." she found herself unable to continue, she had starte dot cry now.

Jubilee was a wreck, both her emotions and powers out of control, It's good thing the professor isnt here to see me she thought, after all the professor had worked for, here she was, trashing the mall and assaulting the security guards, what was wrong with her?

[Sherridan Kaine]

The grin is wiped off his face as he hears what the exterminator called him. Pet?! he repeats the word angrily in his mind, and then starts moving. He gets out of the shop, but is still on the wall. Now all present can see him. His fur is orange with black stripes, like a tigers.

His eyes are a sight of pure anger. He looks at the two mutants. "Move, I don't want to hurt you two." he says, barely holding himself back. Oh, these people are going to die, that's definite, but he isn't going to kill mutants. Sherridan always gives a few chances to mutants. Humans, however, are not that lucky.

His whole body is just itching to tear something apart, and that something is most clearly a homosapien. This was supposed to be a lazy day out, having a bit of fun at the mall, get a few drinks, maybe meet someone new. Sherridan wasn't one to hate all humanity. Just about 98% of it was on his black list.

[Bobby Drake]

He recognizes Jubilee' distinctive heat-signature before he sees her, turning from icing up the last of the Exterminators to face her with a sigh of relief that she's OK.

Then he sees her face covered in blood and tears, hears the panic in her voice, and it sparks something primitive and protective in him. He doesn't realize it, but he seems to grow two inches in that moment as his spine straightens from its habitual slouching posture. Yeah, she's an annoying brat, but it's like having a little sister -- nobody else gets to make her cry without answering to him.

"Wait up, Jubes. Slow down. Whatever it is, I'll take care of it, but you're going to have to --" he stops as a tiger-striped cat-person in jeans and a tank top skitters along the top of the wall.

> "Move, I don't want to hurt you two."

At first he thinks the guy just wants to leave, and he's happy to let him. Then the tone of voice registers, and the anger in those slitted eyes, and the clawmarks on the Exterminators, and his brain clicks into gear. He doesn't want to hurt us, he thinks. Them, he wants to kill.

For a moment, he's tempted to step aside. After all, he was thinking the same thing himself just a minute ago. And these assholes were the ones hassling Jubes, after all... they aren't exactly innocent bystanders.

But he's too much Xavier's student not to think it through. And he realizes, to his own surprise, that Xavier somehow managed to drill into his thick skull, with all those classes in ethics and military history and Sun Tzu and whatever, the real reason for fighting these sorts of battles.

Sure, OK, he steps aside and cat-boy slaughters a half-dozen "helpless" Exterminators. Maybe it stops there, and truthfully Bobby wouldn't mourn them much.
Maybe.
But then again, maybe that's the tipping point.
Maybe the police come in to take cat-guy down, and end up machine-gunning some innocent kid a mile away who just happens to have tiger-stripes.
And maybe that kid has friends, and they retaliate by storming a police station, and the Mayor calls in the National Guard, and in a week there's rioting nationwide, and in two weeks there's civil war, and next month Ronnie's been shot by some overeager soldier on either side.
And as much of an asshole as Ronnie is sometimes, no way is Bobby going to stand aside and let his brother be killed.

"Don't worry, Garfield... you won't." He tries to exude confidence, knowing the other shoppers are watching, wanting to give them a heroic image to remember. "You may be hot stuff compared to these Klan rejects, but there's no way we're letting you get --"

And suddenly he chokes. His heart is pounding and he's pretty sure he'd be sweating like a pig if he sweat, and he can't do this, can't play the posturing hero like something out of a bad action movie. It's like there's a little voice in his head mocking the whole superhero routine, and he wants to wipe that smug little smile off its face because it thinks it knows so damn much when it keeps missing the whole point.

He's not protecting these assholes because he's some kind of superhero, he's not even doing it to honor Xavier's memory. It's just that no matter how much it sucks, all the other options suck worse, and he knows it, and all of a sudden he can't pretend otherwise.

"You selfish SONOFABITCH!" He's horrified at the sound of his own voice... not heroic at all, not controlled, no glib little jibes. He's hoarse and shouting and he can tell from the way the shoppers are shivering that he's losing control of his powers again, but he can't seem to stop.

"I bet you've got Magneto's damn poster hung over your bed, dontcha? Figure they deserve to die? It doesn't WORK that way, dammit! You kill them, and they kill somebody else, and pretty soon the whole damn WORLD is covered in blood! And maybe YOU can take care of yourself, and maybe YOU haven't got any friends or family or kids or anybody you give a damn about seeing caught in the crossfire, but news flash: IT ISN'T ALL ABOUT YOU!"

And with that he lashes out at the tiger-striped figure on the wall with a spray of icy slush that hardens instantly around whatever it hits.

[Sherridan Kaine]

Sherridan's reflexes are at full attention, and he easily jumps down and aside, away from the jet of slush. He sees the effect it has on the parts of the ceiling and floor it hits, and makes a mental note not to get in its way.

He growls at what the icicle says. "You fucking idealists don't see anything. Yeah, sure, if I kill, they kill, and then I kill some more and so on. But, in case that tiny little thing you dare call your brain hasn't noticed, even if we don't kill, they go on with their mutant-hater groups, with their harassing of mutants, and eventually with their mutant-murders. If we don't stand up for ourselves, very soon killing a mutant would be as legal as buying a loaf of bread in the bakery!

And the sole reason I don't have anyone to care for in this war is the fact that those who think like the pathetic excuses for life you are trying to protect have murdered my parents! And they were holding the same ideals as you! I don't go around killing all the people, I hunt down the scum that would otherwise become the hunter, and turn me into the hunted! SO DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TALK ABOUT HOW IT WOULD BE BETTER IN PEACE, BECAUSE IT'S NOT!" he bellows his last words, but still doesn't make a move.

Attacking head-on was not his style, and would also probably get him frozen with by this guy. After a few moments, he cools down slightly, and then adds, with the deadliest of silent tones, "We all deal with our problems in our own way. I don't intend to hurt or kill fellow mutants, so please don't make me do so."