Cry for Help

[Jackson Greco]

Jack hears the commotion in the other room and instinctively jumps to his feet. When his brain recognized danger it was one of the few times it allowed him to focus and react instinctively rather than start doing random math equations like measuring the tiles on the floor and determining the area of the room.

<“Let’s go. Be careful… Have you done much of this before?”>

"I don't know how hard you can get hit, but I can take a pretty good beating. I'll go first, should draw most of their attention,"did he just come up with a plan? More like he avoided Josh's question. Pretty amazing stuff, though it's not like it was all too complicated. As the room was batehd in light at Josh's command and he ran forward, Jack immediatley staretd running as well, overtaking him and then running in step in front of him, acting almost like a wall between Josh and would-be attackers.

Josh sent one man flying back whom had the holstered gun, and he collapsed. His buddy must have realized what was going on though, and kneeled down to grab the weapon. The gunman realized Jack was not deterred by the presence of such a weapon, and fired off two shots. The first missed, but not by much. The second hit the left side of Jack's chest.

Jack exposed his teeth, cupping his hand over his jacket intinctively at the pain. His run had slowed. A moment later however, the sound of the bullet hitting the hardwood floor echoed through the art gallery. Puffy white cotton strands came with his hand as he removed it to reveal the hole in the jacket, which he slipped his arms out of and removed. The muscle shirt he wore beneath showed sign of where the bullet hit: a pinpoint welt forming in the exact spot.

"More mutants? Maybe it'll be three for the price of one," said the surprised gunman as he lined up another shot. The men with bats definitely took notice.

Judging the distance and knowing he had little time before another bullet would be sent spinning his way, Jack leapt forward with a somewhat superstrength enhanced jump, a fist curled back ready to land in the shooter's face. He fired once more, the shot point blank into Jack's stomach just as the fist hit him.

The gunman fell unconscious from the hit, his gun getting tossed deep into the room on his way down. The shot was close enough to Jack that this time it drew blood, though the bullet could still be heard hitting the floor. He winced as he landed and dug his back into the nearest wall, checking the bleeding wound and realizing how minimal the damage was despite how much it had hurt.

He saw what was going on with the woman and practically snarled. His eyes locked on the other mutant-hater with the bat, and gave a sort of 'you're next' visual threat with his hand as he caught he sucked in a deep breath.

"Bring it on mutant scum!" he provoked.

[sapphire]

The second hit hurt harder than the first one and she moaned getting to feet.....or at least attempting to. That's when the third and final hit connected to her stomach again. This time it must have been a shoe. Her body thumped to the ground and literally slid to a darkened corner. Getting her breathe, Sam really thought she was a dead woman. She never heard the others come to her aide, so all she knew was the only self defense she had, her mutation.

Why didn't I take self defense classes. You idiot. she grumbled to herself as she shut her eyes, now pissed off.

The pores in her skin began to open as fur came through covering her skin. Her ears retracted back into her head as the new ones formed on top to a dull point. Her bones, the most painful part of her transformation, began to grow and change shape as the molecular structure of her skeleton changed. The tail grew from her back and as her hands and feet fattened out to make claws. The transformation only took a few seconds, but she hadn't done it in quiet a while, so it DID take a little longer by a few more seconds.

Now as the tiger, she got up with more energy and began to walk and stalk the moron who was beating her. She saw him, but he didn't see her. A low growl came from the corner as her figure immerged angry and showing lots of sharp teeth.

That bat will be my toothpick when I'm through with you.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Brad was definitely in over his head. That much was blatantly obvious when the lights went on. In seconds, their attack team had been cut in half, by… other mutants? How the hell had they even gotten in the building? Had they all walked into some kind of enormous mutant trap? It makes sense. Birds of a feather…

All of this flashes through his mind as he watches Greg get hurled into the wall by the one of the newcomers. Some kind of levitation, probably. He’d have completely dismissed the boy as a threat if he hadn’t shown what he could do - save, perhaps, the determined look in his eyes. The boy had clearly done this kind of thing before.

The other boy, much taller and more muscled, frankly scared the shit out of him. Especially after he’d taken a pair of bullets and still knocked one of them out. Well… we’re in this far. Screaming, Brad jumps at the taller boy, swinging wildly. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees one of his companions swinging at the --- HOLY SHIT! TIGER?

Josh comes to a stop as the gunman fires and hits Jackson. He whips his head around as he hears the other boy hiss. Oh no! He’s still moving, though… And he did mention he can take some damage and keep going. One of the thug’s words suddenly flashes back to him. Mutie scum? This lady’s a mutant? Is there something in the water around here? Their purpose for visiting the gallery this late at night makes a little bit more sense… but not much.

Suddenly, the woman becomes a Siberian tiger. Whoa. Mystique certainly couldn’t handle doing that. More to the point, though, is that one of them men with bats is swinging at her. Josh throws a hand out, and telekinetically wrenches the bat from his hands. It floats into the air, and with a flick he sends it clattering into the corner.

Josh turns, and is suddenly confronted with the man he threw into the wall. Angrily, the man swings a knuckled fist in his direction, and Josh throws up a forearm to ward off the blow. The fist impacts against seemingly-hardened air. It bounces off and he howls, clutching his hand.

[sapphire]

The bat simple splinters in front of the 500+ pound Siberian Tiger as she approaches the man beating the crap out of her earlier. What's the matter hotshot, cat got your tongue now? Edging closer and closer, his eyes widened as he frantically placed his hand in his pocket. It was quite obvious he was pulling out a weapon, but of what kind, she didn't know.

With her hind quarters slightly bent and her ears peered close to her head, Sam pounced up in the air and came down on top of the man full force. A loud bang shot from the commotion and Sam felt the sting in her large furry shoulder. However, the force of the pounce crushed his ribs making him motionless. Not bothering to have her snack, she limped off of him.

The room became blurry from the gunshot wound to her shoulder and the fact she hadn't held a tiger form for this long in quite a while. Slowly, the large animal collapsed to the ground and to its side. Soon afterwards, a bleeding Samantha, in human form fully clothed again, lie there unconscious.

[Jackson Greco]

Jack rubbed the top of his wrist against his chin and pushed off of the wall, taking determined steps towards the tiger situation. One man was crushed, another had gotten up and now had his hands full brawling with Josh, one was unconscious, and one more remained. As Samantha shifted forms once more back to her old self, the other man leveled a hand gun at her bleeding form.

Jack looked quickly to Josh, but didn't have tiem to help him. He was sure the telepath could handle himself well in the situation. It was just an angry human who had already taken some serious hurtin' after all.

"If we can't take you in, there's no use in you still livin',"said the man. His hands began to shake however when he saw Jackson's shadow approaching. Knowing full well the guy had taken a shot before, he wasn't going to waste a bullet on him. Instead, he fired at the girl once more.

Just in time though, Jack's too big hands grabebd the man by the shoulders and pulled him down backwards to teh ground. The shot went flying into one of the lgihting fixtures, sending a spray of sparks tumbling down, and shrouding that half of the room in grey. Angry, Jack kicked the hand that the gun was in, sending it flying where it lodged itself into the drywall barrel-first. The man screamed in pain, his fingers mangled like he had stuck them in a slow blender for a few seconds.

While the man held his hand close to himself and became pretty much useless, Jack effortlessly scooped up the bleeding woman into his arms, looking her over and seeing the wound. Ouch. She better not mind being taken to the med lab.

His gaze then flickered to Josh to see how he was handling himself.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Out of the corner of his eye, Josh is cognizant of Jackson tangling with the other man, and of the woman, who apparently had experience fighting as a tiger. He tries to ignore the scream of the man as she steps on him. Ow.

He ducks to the side of a punch from the man, and takes a step backwards, evaluating his options. Emboldened, the make takes a step forward, winding up. Time to end this. Josh spots one of the discarded bats on the floor several yards away. He lifts it with his powers and it flies forward, covering the distance between its previous position and the man’s head almost instantly. With a smack, it clips him squarely in the head and the man topples forward, unconscious.

Josh looks over and sees the thug pump a round into the tiger-lady. Damn! He steps forward, but Jackson takes care of it. As she returns to her human form, Jack picks her up and starts walking.

“Okay. Nice work. We’ve gotta get her to a doctor… but first let me clean up around here so she doesn’t lose her job.” Josh looks around for a moment. A thought turns off the office light, and he gestures. All four thugs rise into the air like puppets and begin floating towards the side exit. Oh, almost forgot. A scattering of bats, guns, and one water bottle follow them. He looks up at the shot-out light. Can’t help that, I guess.

The amount of objects to pay attention to occupies him, but otherwise the weight isn’t an issue. “After you?” He gestures to the archway. “I drove the corvette... it's parked outside Starbucks.”

[Jackson Greco]

“After you?” He gestures to the archway. “I drove the corvette... it's parked outside Starbucks.”

"Poor girl," Jack looks down at her, heading for the door which he kicks wide open after picking up his jacket. Luckily it didn't come off of it's hinges. After leaving the alley, he walks right passed the shoveled sidewalk and makes his way in the snow. He didn't want to risk walking on ice. That's all he needed; to trip and toss the bullet-wounded tiger lady into the sidealk and crack her head open. I'm sure that would pretty much seal the night off.

He sees the corvette over at the starbucks, and looks back to make sure Josh is following.

"Two-seater? Not exactly the best ambulance in the world, but it's fast enough," Jack scooped the girl into one hand so he could use his other to tie his jacket over the wound and start putting pressure on it. After the corvette was unlocked, he gently slid into it, resting the woman on top of him and keepign pressure on her.

"Are we going to the mansion?"