Baxter Building

[N.P.C]

Ben Grimm, Susan Storm

"Pfui! Feh! What’s the big idea?" Ben spits out halon foam and bits of metal as he drags himself back upright, then stands flatfooted in confusion for a moment. Looks like they aren’t fighting the furry guy’s team anymore – and why was he ever mixing it up with that iron woman-mountain in the first place? And why is everybody jumping out the window?

A second look at Johnny’s condition answers that last question, anyway – Ben’s seen enough fighter-jet crashes to recognize a “get the hell out now” condition when he sees one. The fact that it’s Johnny slows him down a bit, though.

Aw, jeez, kid… tell me you didn’t? Ben hadn’t made much sense out of Reed’s explanations of this time-bomb Mutant Growth Hormone business, but he’d understood the bottom line: their powers were gonna keep getting stronger till they got out of control, probably fatally. And Johnny Hotshot Storm was gonna be the first of ‘em to go if he kept firing up like the damned showoff he was, and then they’d had that stupid fight, and… well, you had to be a lot dumber than Mama Grimm’s baby boy Ben not to connect the dots on that one.

Aw hell. I’m gonna miss you, jerk. It’s not much of a sendoff, but it’s all he’s got. Though maybe not for long, at that. He’s not sure if he’ll survive a fall from this height; he is sure that if Suzie tries to slide him down the way she did the last time, as exhausted as she obviously is, she’s just gonna get herself killed. And one dead Storm’s as much as he can handle.

“Stretcho, wait up! Geronimo!" If his voice chokes a little as he dives out the window, he’s pretty sure it’ll get chalked up to the halon foam still in his throat.

“Ben!!! What do you think you’re -- ” Suzie’s voice is lost in the rush of air whistling past Ben’s ears as he accelerates towards the alley below, then becomes audible again as his fall turns into more of a slide, and Suzie slides down one of her invisible rampy things towards him.

She doesn’t look good, though… pale, sweating, shaking. He catches her last few words – “Ben, I don’t think I can -- ” before the slide kinda disintegrates underneath him and he starts falling again. "Dammit, Suzie, I -- " his outrage dampens somewhat as he realizes she’s still managing to control her own fall, and he returns his attention to the rapidly approaching ground.

Oh, crap. Maybe this wasn’t – he thinks as he accelerates towards the alley again, interrupted briefly by the explosive KABOOOOOM as he hits the sidewalk and, somewhat to his own surprise, crashes through it and keeps going -- the smartest idea I ever– he finally comes to a stop in what seems to be a tunnel of some kind, with chunks of dust and debris raining on his head, and a roaring sound in his ears that won’t go away – had? and suddenly resolves itself into an oncoming A train.

The collision with the train does Ben less damage than it does the train itself (and, sadly, several of its passengers), but it does send him flying head-first down the tracks about a hundred yards or so before he flips head-over-heels-over-head into a newspaper stand at the nearest subway station, which promptly explodes in a shower of newsprint and cheap construction board.

Afterwards, Ben doesn’t even bother trying to get up. Gettin’ outta bed this mornin’ was a mistake. Why repeat it?

[Bobby Drake]

Robert is a little surprised by how quickly the Fantastic Four evacuates, but he supposes they’ve had enough time with Jonathan Storm to know just how bad this is going to get.

Unfortunately, it leaves the four of them up here with only one flier, and judging from the security images he downloaded earlier, he realizes there’s only one way this is going to work, and it depends on the fire-slide trick he’d suggested to St. John actually being viable.

Well. There’s only one choice, so we may as well take it. "Impulse, you can carry Fortress," he shouts over his shoulder, loudly enough to be heard over the roaring flame behind them, as he turns calmly to face St. John, "Which leaves me for you. "

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> "Excellent. I recommend relocation: if Emma Frost has had you under her control for any length of time it’s entirely possible she has planted explosives or other fall-back devices in this – "

As tired as he is, Josh looks across the room in amusement at Bobby. What have you been up to? Eating a phonics book? He puts it off to his own exhaustion.

In the next few seconds everything goes to hell. Johnny somehow wakes up, Sue tries to put out his flames again, but she looks like she’s about to faint, throw up, or both. The room bursts with heat, even worse than before. Josh abortively tries to reinforce Sue’s shields with his own powers, but the plasma impacts are too much and his telekinetic sphere explodes. Damn… what now?

> ”I hate to say it, but he’s right. Emergency evacuation, right now!”

He can see the shock on her face as she shouts the sentence. But doesn’t that mean… we can’t! It’s her brother. But if we don’t… Josh’s face screws up. What’s happening to him? As he thinks about this, Reed and Hank go somersaulting through the huge windows at the end of the room. Sue and Ben Grimm follow shortly, the former still looking ready to collapse.

Um. Cool. This is only going to be, what? Toni’s 1000, add in another 600 for the three of us. 1600 pounds? I can lift that. Josh looks a little worried. He could lift several tons, with sufficient concentration. It tended to be a bad idea to try that sort of weight after an extended telekinetic battle and being bitch-slapped by a telepathic heavyweight, though.

> "Impulse, you can carry Fortress,"

Again… what’s the deal? It’s not like there’s anyone around who knows our identities. Josh eyes Bobby oddly. Something wasn’t right, but now certainly wasn’t the time to debate it. Something to ask John about later.

Josh whips his head over to Toni, and grabs her by the hand, running for the opening. “Come on! We’ve gotta get out of here! Just jump, I’ll catch you in a grip on the way down!”

[Toni Craft]

“I’m going to need a second. My head is killing me. Emma Frost doesn’t like it when people get the best of her.”

“Ohhh…that blonde bitch? Hope you knocked her one for me.” Toni knew of Emma Frost from her profile on the Connecticut Institute’s website. She’d never met the woman, but she knew she didn’t like her. Something about the way she dressed.

“…Nubile?” She shrugs with a knowing smirk.

“Eh? You like? Stole it from Warren. The boy’s got quite an interesting vocabulary regarding you and your…yeah…gonna stop there.” She grins wide and mischeiviously.

Toni stands back and twiddles her thumbs patient as Josh does his mind—altering—thingy, eventually opting to shove her hands in her pockets. She was still armoured up as a precautionary measure in case the big orange guy decided to play rough again, which oddly reminded her of the poor condition of her clothing. Avoiding the leathers for the sake of respect and professionalism had proven to be a bad idea; now her favourite pants were ruined and she wouldn’t even get started on her shirt. The armour would probably have to stay on unless someone offered up some new clothing. No need to be seen streaking through New York.

She’s jolted back to the here and now when the temperature skyrockets at a phenomenal speed. Johnny Storm is inadvertanly steraming out wisps of plasma and flame, some of which, Toni knew, would melt her in an instant.

"Sis, I can’t… hold it back… for long! GET OUT!"
” I hate to say it, but he’s right. Emergency evacuation, right now!”

Part of that really hits home for Toni as she stares at the siblings.

“What?! You’re just going to leave him? He’s your brother for fuck’s sake!” They’d have a hard time pulling her from Matty if something similar ever happened to him. Either Susan didn’t care about her brother, or…she knew something Toni didn't.

"We have less than five seconds to evacuate! There’s no – correction: there’s exactly one way!" And just when Toni was thinking of trying to stay and help the poor flaming guy, no matter how ineffective she’d probably be, it’s Bobby’s mention of imminent danger that brings her self-preservation instinct back to the surface.

By the time she reaches the shattered window, the three, non-flaming members of the Fantastic Four are already out and falling in some way, shape or form. Free falling from this height would cause her body to compact upon hitting the ground, potentially with some explosive effects. Grimacing at the thought of winding up like a Final Destination victim, she hesitates.

Toni takes a brief moment to remember the structure of the building. Brink was softer than iron, so theoretically, she could fall for a certain distance and then, somehow, grab the building and slow herself down. Naturally, the force of the impact would probably snap her arms right off, but she couldn’t preoccupy Josh with her weight when he could save John and Bobby.

"Impulse, you can carry Fortress,"

“Wha--?” But Josh tugs her hand and it only takes that amount of force to tip her over the edge and out into the air.

“Wait!” She says, far to late. “What about the guys? Cringing and dying is bad, but pavement jam is even worse.” The wind whistles passed her ears as she tumbles wildly, trying very hard not to accidentally hit Josh with her flailing limbs.

[Pyro]

OOC: Yes, Joshy cleared his NPCing Jake ^ with me first. No random steal-age of the Jakey-kins. He’s a creature of strange habits and should only be handled by licensed professionals, haha. Which translated means ‘PM me first, bitches’.

< She shouldn’t be able to pull a Carrie…
John’s focus is on re-oxygenation, and Josh’s words are the first thing he really pays any attention to – before that he figures Toni babbling, entertaining though it may be, can be skipped out on in favour of, well, not dying, and avoiding anything that demands special effort seems like the best plan right now, because as soon as he gets back to the ‘stute he’s promised himself he’s collapsing into bed and not moving for at least a week. Conveniently ignoring the Invasion and all, because that’s a special case and lightning sure as hell shouldn’t strike three times, he should be safe from crazy people trying to kill him – and putting him in the line of fire (pun fully intended, after that shit with Johnny Storm) – for a while, at least, right?

Bob’s words strike him as… a little unusual, sure – like he’s swallowed a thesaurus, or something – but he’s too dead to protest, and beaten enough to appreciate that you’re not really yourself after something like this goes down, so he can tolerate a degree of the ‘weird’. What matters, after all, isn’t so much what Bob’s saying as the fact he’s talking at all, because having him back acting like he knows what to do is all sorts of reassuring for reasons he doesn’t care to examine.

… he’ll hate himself for it later, but for a couple of seconds he wants so goddam much to ignore the heat signature building behind him because no, it’s just not fair… and then Johnny bursts into flames again, and the decision’s taken out of his hands, which is definitely a good thing because he’s no use, transfixed with a morbid fascination. He’s seen people burn alive before, of course – been the cause of it more often than he wants to think about – but never from their own flame, and it’s weirdly, twistedly amusing with a sort of black humour he really, really shouldn’t appreciate, and sickening as all hell, to think that’s how he used to want to go… because the whole ‘burn out in a blaze of glory’ isn’t looking anywhere near as romantic now. And then…

… and then everything’s going crazy again, but it’s a different sort of crazy; a crazy where everyone knows exactly how to go. Everyone apart from him, as per usual. So it figures that everyone else teams together to make their neat escapes, and he’s left with Bob. No pressure, or anything.

< Which leaves me for you?
”Oh right. How the fuck do you figure that one?” – and that’s another thing to hate himself for, if he makes it out of here, how his automatic reaction when afraid is still to raise hell, and how he’s likely wasting his last few seconds with Bob being an asshole ”Because last time I checked, I didn’t fly. Or bounce. Or any of the shit that means we’ll make it down there… Brilliant plan, Bob. Really.”

[Bobby Drake]

> " Oh right. How the fuck do you figure that one? Because last time I checked, I didn’t fly. Or bounce. Or any of the shit that means we’ll make it down there… Brilliant plan, Bob. Really. "

Robert is briefly surprised by his reaction – they’d talked about this before, after all – but on further consideration it seems entirely in-character for St. John, whose creativity is generally kept tightly channeled.

"Fire-slide. We talked about it before." Unfortunately, even with pyrokinetic protection, they do not have the time for Robert to talk him through the exercise – this isn’t the Danger Room, after all. So the situation calls for an aggressive gamble.

"No time to argue… trust me, this should work. Just like a shield, except supporting you." He grabs St. John as he speaks, pulling them both towards, and through, the open window while he wraps arms and legs around the boy’s torso. An awkward carrying position to be sure, but while Pyro’s pseudo-solid flames won’t burn their controller, Robert has no such protection.

"What the fuck? Bob, this really isn’t the -- " Robert ignores the objection and the panicked sputtering as they start to drop towards the ground below, and for a moment he begins to suspect he’s miscalculated Pyro’s hesitancy… then relaxes, more reassured, when a stray plasma-bolt from the penthouse veers from its trajectory, flattens out, slips underneath his feet, arrests their fall.

"Good. Like that. Just drop us down to the surface, now." His voice is flat and unemotional, which in retrospect strikes him as slightly odd under the circumstances, but he assumes it’s related to the cognitive resource reallocation he performed earlier. In any case, it seems to help him avoid panic, which is probably appropriate.

They’ve almost reached the ground when the penthouse suddenly explodes, an incandescent fireball no doubt visible from New Jersey, perhaps from low earth orbit. Robert can feel the heat from the explosion singe his exposed skin from thirty stories away; a moment later the Baxter Building computers are vaporized and he reels, disoriented, as his technopathic link to them is forcibly broken.

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

For a moment at the peak of his jump, the New York skyline spread out in front of them is utterly beautiful. It’s a clear day, and the business of the city stops for no one. Except possibly Ben Grimm. Josh winces as he sees the older man falling headlong towards Times Square below. Uh oh… He knows it’s just his imagination, but it’s almost as if the two of them feel the impact as he creates a gaping hole in the middle of the street.

>“What about the guys? Cringing and dying is bad, but pavement jam is even worse.”

“Hey, Bobby knows what he’s doing, and I don’t think I could have handled all of us right now… I can still carry the most weight, though, so you’re with me. He’s gotta have a plan.” Josh sounds confident as the two of them begin to freefall towards the street below.

> Brilliant plan, Bob. Really.

The words barely make it to his ears over the din of the city. It’s not the words so much as the tone of John’s voice that makes Josh begin to panic. As soon as he processes the words, though, the two of them are past the point of no return, and it’s time to begin thinking about slowing them down to avoid becoming roadkill. Please let them make it. Oh, god...

“I’m kind of used to working with lighter bodies… but we’re gonna be fine.” He closes his eyes and begins applying telekinetic force upwards, slowing their descent.

When they’re almost down, the sky above them turns red as the penthouse explodes, showering debris in all directions. The cars that hadn’t stopped to avoid the hole now swerve over to the side, and traffic stops. Horns begin wailing.

As they near the ground, Josh rotates them feet first for the landing, being sure to drift them away from the sinkhole. They touch down, and he looks skyward. “Toni… can you see them?” He sounds panicked, and doesn't notice either the confused-looking elderly woman or the Baxter's doorman, who is staring upwards in utter shock.

[Pyro]

”What the Fuck? Bob, this really isn’t the…” It probably says a lot that he notices the fact Bob’s wrapped around him before he registers that they’ve been pitched out of the window – that Bob has thrown them out of the window based on some halfbaked notion that he can construct a frickin’ fire slide and get them to the ground safely. Ground which is rapidly getting closer and not looking like it’s going to bend beneath them or turn really soft or anything that might save them from being splattered over Times Square and oh shit oh shit they’re really going to die and…

It’s the closest he’s ever been to the first time he used his powers – the moment he found out he had this fucked up gene – the way everything just… happens, even though he has no idea what’s happening or why or how he’s making it happen. Somehow there’s a… floor… made of fire… and he should probably be taking notes or something because it seems like the sort of thing that’ll come in useful, but really all he can do is gawp, wide-eyed, because… shi-it. That’s different.

< Good. Like that. Just drop us down to the surface now
It’s neither graceful nor effortless, but somehow it’s… working, and they’re almost on the ground when the penthouse explodes, a fireball of crimson and gold, and the combination of the stimulus from that, and trying to ignore the source of the flame and what’s happening with him it, and keeping the shield-slide-thing, and Bob shifting as he reels, is too much, and the slide waves and shatters and they drop the last leg. It’s close enough to the sidewalk that the net result of that stumble is he lands, and rolls, without much damage despite his total lack of balance or grace, but far enough that he’s sure if there’s anything much left to bruise it’ll testify to that fall, and he doesn’t feel like moving any more, just staring up at the red flare and reconciling himself with the fact that he’s somehow not dead.

[Toni Craft]

Toni hates falling. Reeeeeeaaaaally hates falling. Especially when she can't tell up from down and two of her students, fellow X-Men, and future threesome members....okay maybe not that, but who knows?....are left behind with a big flaming dude who's very likely to explode in the next...

"Oh shit...." The entire top floor of the Baxter Building is sheered off in an blast that's sure to equal that of Hiroshima and the Halifax Explosion. The air around her, thunders and convulses with the shockwave. Fortunately, most of the explosion's force is directed outwards and up, shattering the windows of surround buildings, but otherwise doing little damage.

An instant later, Toni can feel her descent slowing and her body coming to a proper, upright position.

“Toni… can you see them?” Josh asks as she touches down.

There's not much she can see from where their standing, but she knows that there's no falling debris...a sure sign that everything in the explosion of Johnny Storm has been incinerated. That doesn't sit well with the fate of Bobby and John still up in the air...no pun intended.

And then...."Ha! Haaaaahahahaha!" Toni screams and laughs at the same time. High above their heads, she can see two tiny figures riding...fire? "That's brilliant! Fucking brilliant! John Allerdyce!" She yells up at them, "You are a fucking genius! You are so getting an A! And I don't care if you're aren't even in my class!"

Ecstatic at John and Bobby's miraculous survival, Toni happily grabs the nearest person and plants a over zealous kiss on their lips. She realizes afterwards, however, that the recipient of her excitement is none other that little Josh Dalton. Naturally, the revelation barely seems to bother her, and she engulfs him in a joyful hug and spins him around several times.

"Dude, go ahead and fucking tell Warren. I don't give a flying rat's ass right now!" She runs off after John and Bobby, grabbing the former off the ground and nearly crushes him in an exhilarated hug--nevermind the thick armour--with full intention of going after Bob next. "Fucking flyboys. You don't have wings, but damn! That was bloody stupendous!"

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

> "That's brilliant! Fucking brilliant! John Allerdyce!"

Oh, thank god. Josh squints up at the rapidly dissipating fireball, and sees the other two boys riding what looked like flames down to ground level.

“Yeah! They made it!” Josh releases the breath he’d been holding in while craning up at the destruction, and looks over. At Toni, who is suddenly angling in on him like some kind of hyperventilating bargain shopper on Black Friday. Then she proceeds to kiss him on the lips and whirl him around several times.

The actions leave Josh agape. The glassy look is only broken by her next comment:

> "Dude, go ahead and fucking tell Warren. I don't give a flying rat's ass right now!"

Josh shakes his head, as if waking from a trance, and starts laughing. “You know... I kind of don’t think he’s going to give a shit as long as we’re all back in one piece.“ This last seems to be lost on Toni, who scampers off towards the guys. Josh runs over and joins the mad hugging party.

After a minute, he glances over John’s shoulder, and spies squad cars entering the far side of the square. “Um. Maybe we’d better get out of here? I’d rather not explain how this all happened while in handcuffs.”

[Bobby Drake]

Robert is still somewhat dazed by the abrupt termination of his network linkage, and vaguely aware of thousands of independent hardware and software systems poking at the periphery of his consciousness, but all of that is forced into the background by the sudden collapse of Pyro’s fireslide and his equally sudden fall to the ground.

He’s surprised by how badly he falls, as if the instincts Logan had so painstakingly drilled into him had just gone away somehow, but fortunately nothing seems broken when he finally comes to a stop. Bruised, sprained, scraped and bloody, yes, but not broken. Given how this could have ended, he counts that as a success.

It doesn’t occur to him to thank John for the rescue, or praise him for successfully making the fireslide trick work, or even berate him for having lost control over the slide at the last minute. Nor does it occur to him that there’s anything strange about that lack of reaction. He simply climbs to his feet and surveys the situation.

Toni Craft appears practically hysterical, enthusiastically attacking Josh, and then John, and – Robert oofs as he is picked up off the ground and whirled around by her armor-plated arms, and waits patiently for her to put him back down… then waits through the same, less emphatically, from Josh.

> " Um. Maybe we’d better get out of here? I’d rather not explain how this all happened while in handcuffs."

Robert nods. "Sensible." Between the fliers, the Invisible Woman, and the general level of confusion, he has no doubts of their ability to extricate themselves without too much difficulty. Unfortunately, getting their car out of the Baxter Building garage under current circumstances is unlikely, and the lines of angry-looking commuters storming out of the nearest subway entrance suggests that the crater has interrupted train service as well. Not to mention that the explosion vaporized his wallet and his shoes, which he’d left in the storage closet back when he’d thought his cryogenic abilities would resurface.

"I recommend we reconvene at a distance – say, fifteen blocks east? – and then work out subsequent transportation options." He starts walking in that direction, limping slightly and favoring the knee injured in the fall, schooling his mind to ignore the discomfort of being shoeless in Manhattan in December, and genuinely unaware of the bewildered reactions of other pedestrians as he passes them dressed in socks and thermal underwear.


(( OOC: I think at this point we're officially off fixed-post order...))

[Josh Dalton Worthington]

Josh relaxes from the others, pulling back as everyone settles down. Fortunately, everyone in their vicinity is preoccupied with the events occurring above ground level to pay much attention to the overexcited teenagers.

> I recommend we reconvene at a distance – say, fifteen blocks east? – and then work out subsequent transportation options.

At this point, Josh realizes that Bobby’s in underwear and socks. How… did that happen? The words sink in, and there’s definitely something wrong. Something’s been wrong since Bobby reappeared after the fight.

The idea to stop him from walking 15 blocks in 20 degree weather doesn’t occur to him. Instead, he stares strangely at Bobby as he limps down the sidewalk. “Um… does anyone think that Bobby’s been acting a little odd? Kind of like Dr. McCoy, except less alliteration?” He glances questioningly from John to Toni.

[Pyro]

… and there go any ribs he had left (John’s seriously starting to wonder how many that is, because he’s fairly sure he’s broken all of them at one point or another since rejoining Team-X). And normally he’d at least act pissed off at the ‘personal space violation’. But… fuck, it was pretty amazing. As is the fact that they’re still alive. And he’d far rather run with celebrating that than think about the other outcome just now.

It’s some time after Toni’s let him go that he notices Bob’s, erm, attire… and a few more moments before it strikes him as odd (and even then, it’s almost more ‘how the hell did I not notice?’ rather than ‘oh, that’s weird’)… And some point after that other things are niggling at his mind, pointing out that maybe all is not well on Planet Bob – the awkward landing (because it’s seriously weird if he managed to pull that off better than Super-Commando!Bob). The weird ‘thesaurus swallowing’. The fact that he’s not thrilled that his fire-slide idea worked…

< Um… does anyone think that Bobby’s been acting a little odd? Kind of like Dr. McCoy, except less alliteration?
He definitely doesn’t like that Josh is confirming his suspicions rather than laughing them off and re-assuring him that it’s just paranoia speaking. Which… He’ll regret this later, no doubt (and yes, that’s something he’s going to have to get used to…) but defending Bobby seems like a better course of action, and so it’s a light, but forceful ”Fuck’s sake, Joshy, cut him some slack… that was insane.” with which he replies, rather than the cautious agreement with which he wants to, before John, himself stumbling slightly and more than a little singed but definitely by far the more ‘normal’ of the pair, heads after Bob.

[Toni Craft]

She really should being keeping track of her own strength, because she's sure she heard a snap somewhere in the middle of John's hug. Releasing him and then tackling Bobby, a touch gentler, she laughs and swings him about like a rag doll.

Settling him back down rather uncermoniously (hell, if he can survive a fire slide, he can handle the might that is Toni Craft) she notes his lack of suitable attire with a mock-surprised grin.

"Bobby, I like it when you take initiative," she says coyly, giving his bottom a little squeeze that would surely produce a blush and cause him to scamper away.

“Um. Maybe we’d better get out of here? I’d rather not explain how this all happened while in handcuffs.”

"Josh, you're ruining the moment." Toni mutters, completely deadpan. But not only does he ruin the moment, but he also makes her panifully aware of her current state of dress. Her clothes are tattered and completely unsuitable for any form of trek through New York should she de-armour, and then there's the issue of de-armouring. Sure, she can do it, that's not a problem, but it's her buried sense of modesty that stops her from actually doing it. She didn't feel like showing all the loud-mouthed New Yorkers all those parts that usually remain hidden.

So she's stuck. Stuck with the choice of being virtually naked in the middle of one of the busiest cities on the planet (and right after an explosion that's sure to draw attention), and practically jumping up and down, flapping "Hi everyone! I'm a mutant! Come poke me with your pitchforks!"

It also brings her to wonder what happened to Hank, who's a big, noticeable, blue fuzz ball. She glances around quickly, and notes that the Beast and Mr. Fantastic is nowhere to be seen. No doubt the wind had caught Reed's parachuted-body and carried them downwind, towards--Toni checks the wind briefly, Central Park. Good, lots of hiding spots in there at least.

Susan Storm, obviously distraught at the apparent death of her brother, stands numbly, staring up at the blown top of her building. As much as Toni wants to respect her state of mourning (hey, the iron woman may be crazy, but she's not heartless), she has to see if she can help.

"Psst...yo...chicky. Any chance you can do the invisible thing on other people? I'm kinda not dressed for the spotlight and it's a wee bit nipplely out." Susan, tears in her eyes, just stares at her, pulling a clearly explanation from Toni. "Look, I loose the armour, I'm naked. I don't, I'm gonna get shot at. Capisca? Just do it long enough so I can kind some clothes." She's starting to get a little desperate, since the authorities are closing in faster that Toni cares for.

An instant later, however, her hand disappears before her eyes and she grins.

"Atta girl!" Frankly she's surprised Sue even managed to sort through her sorrow filled thoughts long enough to even try and conjure an invisibility field. She's not about to complain, but Toni does feel a touch of guilt at using the distraught woman.

Opting not to waste any of her invisibilty time, Toni dashes off to the closest civilian; a woman who's too busy staring up at the damaged building.

"Don't mind me, ma'am. Just gonna borrow this..." With an insistent yank, Toni pulls the trench coat off the surprised woman's shoulders. "Ooohhh...Simon Chang...nice brand...don't be surprised if you don't get this back. I likes." The woman squawks, but the seemingly floating coat disappears as Toni flees back to the boys.

Still invisible, she retracts her armour and slips the coat on over her torn clothing, the hem hanging down to her mid-thigh.

"Good enough! Thanks doll! And...um...sorry about the bro." And suddenly she's visible again, and human-looking to anyone that didn't know any different.

I recommend we reconvene at a distance – say, fifteen blocks east? – and then work out subsequent transportation options.
Um… does anyone think that Bobby’s been acting a little odd? Kind of like Dr. McCoy, except less alliteration?

"Meh. I'm just gonna blame it on that halon tank you guys blew up. You know that stuff is illegal right? Banned cause it made people act weird, like the Bobster here." She shrugs it off lightly. "It's either that, or someone's been havin' one hell of a meth party in his head and they didn't invite me."

"Now enlighten me as to why we're going to walk 500 miles," Wonderful, now she's got that song in her head (And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more...fuck.), "Through Manhattan? I don't know about you guys, but I could really go for a sit in the sauna, sans bathing suit of course. Who's with me?!"