Museum Madness
Aug. 7th, 2017 04:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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ax_mainThe Xavier's students take a trip to the Met, but learn more about bigotry than art.
For a lot of students, Xavier's might well be a mutant refuge first and a school second. But the Professor took his duties as an educator quite seriously, and not just in terms of teaching people to use their powers. And if there were regular classes, that also meant field trips. In this case, a trip to the Met to get some culture (and a chance for students to see New York, but that was never going to be officially acknowledged).
With Stevie Hunter being the supervising teacher, discipline was always going to be fairly light, as long as nobody ran off or anything. Her approach was to run this on the honor system. If the students behaved, she was happy to let the reins trail a little bit. The drive down was certainly more pleasant with a teacher happy to let the kids pick the tunes!
After the out of the way school and the small town quiet of Salem Center, downtown New York was a warren of human activity. People, cars and lights everywhere, the full brunt of humanity going about its business in the Big Apple. Even the Met itself and the sedate tour through its halls had more crowds and activity than the usual school routine. At least there was a lot to look at, and a tour guide who seemed to realise that dry lectures weren't going to keep kids engaged. So the tour itself wasn't actually that bad, as school events go.
As they walked back out into the late afternoon sun, Stevie stopped to stretch and huff a sigh. She was smiling, but looking a bit strained. Judging by how she was standing, her knee injury was giving her trouble. "Well, that wasn't too bad, right?"
Garfield was happy to be along for the ride. Being out in about in a big city was intimidating, but he was more or less used to it by now. He'd been resisting the urge to transform into various animals while out and about, but for Stevie's sake, more than anything, he'd kept a lid on it. Maybe he'd save it for the trip home, see if she was okay with him turning into a dog and hanging his head out the window. He'd still not done that, yet, and it was on his list...
"Not bad at all," Gar replied, giving her a mostly-certain grin.
"It was great," Terry answered, her smile much more certain. It was nice, being in such a big city again. She hadn't been used to it her entire life, only for these last few months, but she enjoyed it. And the museum had been interesting. "Thank you for taking us, miss."
Tamara rolled her eyes a little, but gave Stevie a strained smile all the same. It wasn't like it had been a terrible field trip (worlds better than anything she'd ever had back home), but she was tired and her back and wings hurt. Sure, the image inducer hid her wings so she wouldn't scare all the regular humans, but that just meant she'd had to spend all day carefully making sure no one around her bumped into them. At least she could move them a little now, enough to pull them close to her back when needed, but ugh, it was exhausting. ...and she kept running them into other students by mistake, because she couldn't see them either (and at least her fellow students knew what was happening when something big, leathery, and invisible brushed against them).
New York was great - for a city that Tommy hated entirely on principle, but enjoyed the hell out of in reality. The museum had been excruciating, the tour moving so slowly that he'd have had time to lap the entire building two or three times in the span of time it took to get the others from one section to the next. He couldn't even check out the displays at his own pace, thanks to the whole cone of secrecy deal they had going on, so he'd been stuck plodding around after them and dying inside.
At least the street had energy, life, excitement - movement enough to take his mind off of the tedium. He drummed his fingers restlessly against his legs, the rest of him aching from holding himself so still. That was what he got for being stupid enough to let himself get comfortable at Xavier's; he'd gotten way too used to being able to move when he needed to. That thought prickled sharply, setting tight inside his chest.
"What now, back on the bus, or can we actually do something interesting while we're here?"
Jeanne-Marie laughed at Tommy, then shook her head. "That was something interesting!" she protested, but there was no heat in it. She loved the museum, and she loved cities--New York was even bigger and busier than Montreal, so she was soaking it up. She wished Jean-Paul had come, but then, it was nice to have a chance to spend time with the other new kids, especially the girls, without him being too suspicious all the time. Bless him.
But she was also aware that Stevie wasn't the only one having a hard time, and shot Tamara a sympathetic look. "But I'm sure we're getting a little tired, yes?"
"A lot tired," Clarice agreed, giving her roommate a look that was more concerned than sympathetic; Tamara's back had to be killing her, by now. The outing to the museum had been ... cool. Definitely something she'd never have experienced on the island. But her feelings about wearing an image inducer while out in the world were ambivalent, at best--she just didn't feel like her, in this perfectly mundane caramel-colored skin. And she'd gotten used to blinking around whenever she felt like it, and not worrying too much about who might see.
Yeah, all things considered, it had been a welcome trip out. But she was more than ready to head back home and relax.
"I'm not unleashing you all on an unsuspecting New York." Stern and teacherly just wasn't Stevie's style, so her denial of Tommy's request came out more teasing than anything else. "But we can stop for ice cream or something on the way back." The young teacher faltered there though, and had to suppress a gasp. "Can I get you all to go head to the bus though? I need minute." Apparently her knee was giving her more grief than she'd been letting on, and she sat down rather heavily on n empty bench. "It should be waiting just down the block. I'll catch up in a minute.".
"Aww, we'll be good," Gar replied, a bit teasingly, in return. But going ahead was fine with him. "I'm sure we can manage finding a bus, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the collection of students.
"Will you be all right, miss?" Terry asked, since the teacher didn't really look good. But at the same time, she took one step away, clearly dying for a little bit of freedom.
Tamara raised an eyebrow as Stevie nodded. She was getting tired of field tripping, yes, but some unsupervised time in NYC? Now that was a totally different story! Suddenly her back didn't hurt nearly as bad.
"I'm sure we can find it," she said over her shoulder, starting in that direction. This time she bumped Tommy intentionally with an invisible wing (even with heels on she was only 5'2", so grabbing someone's attention subtly was a struggle), muttering to him, "Or y'know, something interesting."
"Will you be all right, miss?" Terry asked, since the teacher didn't really look good. But at the same time, she took one step away, clearly dying for a little bit of freedom.
Tamara raised an eyebrow as Stevie nodded. She was getting tired of field tripping, yes, but some unsupervised time in NYC? Now that was a totally different story! Suddenly her back didn't hurt nearly as bad.
"I'm sure we can find it," she said over her shoulder, starting in that direction. This time she bumped Tommy intentionally with an invisible wing (even with heels on she was only 5'2", so grabbing someone's attention subtly was a struggle), muttering to him, "Or y'know, something interesting."
Tommy evaluated his options. Hover around the teacher like she'd very clearly just asked them not to do, go straight to the bus and back home like they were supposed to, or take full advantage of the fact that it was about to be him, Gar and a crowd of girls - unsupervised - on the streets of the Upper East Side.
No-brainer.
He fell in step beside Tamara and Clarice, catching Terry's eye at the same time. "Turn left into the park when we hit the corner," he suggested quietly once they'd left the chaperone a little more out of earshot. "We can cut through Central Park before the bus driver notices we're late."
Jeanne-Marie reached out for Terry's hand, "Come on, Terry--Call us if you need us to come pick you up!" She shouted back at Stevie. She did feel bad for their teacher, but then, a few free moments in Manhattan? Yes please.
Oblivious to Tommy's whispering, she hurried Terry to catch up with them, grinning.
Not really paying much attention to the looks being shared around her, or the plans quietly forming among her more devious classmates, Clarice just cocked one eyebrow at the silver-haired boy's suggestion. Clarity suddenly dawned, however, when she looked to her roommate to assess her take on the idea. The expression on Tamara's face said it all. An unchaperoned walk through the city was a notion that wasn't entirely unappealing, but what eventually swayed her was the fact she didn't care enough one way or the other to go against the gal she shared a room with. So she shrugged, and when the turn came up she veered course into the park, as casually as she could.
Garfield, the only one not in on the plan, almost didn't notice the group behind him change course toward the park, but once he did, he scrambled to keep up rather than say anything about it. He looked around at the others a bit nervously, not sure what was going on. "Uh, so... what are we doing?" he asked the others, keeping together with the group.
"I'll be fine, see you in just a minute." Stevie assured the kids. "Meet you at the bus." She sat down heavily, and before the kids left her it looked like she was unlacing her shoe on the injured leg. They'd have a little time unsupervised for sure.
As the group headed into the park, they could see some sort of commotion up ahead. A large group of people were gathered in the center of the park. It wasn't easy to tell what they were doing from where the teens were, but it seemed like maybe it was some sort of protest meeting?
"What's going on there?" Terry asked out loud, as if any of the students pulled know any more than she did. Even as they stepped closer, she spotted a seeming leader talking to the crowd and reached out for the sound waves of what they were saying. She was too curious to think twice about mutant eavesdropping, and besides, this was a public place.
"Some kinda protest I think?" Tamara said over her shoulder, grinning and putting away her phone. Hell yes, protests in NYC, this was much more her style! "Oh man, I hope they're protesting the president, I'll totally join in!!" She stepped up onto a nearby park bench to get a view of what was happening. Once she did, though, her excited smirk fell, then started changing into something decidedly angrier.
"We're playing hookey," Tommy had turned aside to talk to Gar as they entered the park, at least until the commotion caught his already-fractured attention. "The hell?"
Jeanne-Marie narrowed her eyes when she caught sight of a few signs. "Does that say... are they...?" She froze, the blood draining from her face. "Maybe... we should go..."
The sight of the protest had drawn Clarice's curiosity initially, too, but when she got an idea of the actual substance of it ... Yeah. Interest quickly gave way to hostility--and more than a bit of nervousness. That expression on Tamara's face pretty much screamed this was about to turn into a frickin' spectacle, and, if it had just been her, the lavender-skinned mutant probably would have been mostly okay with that. You couldn't walk into the middle of a hate-rally specifically targeting your own demographic and be expected to keep your cool. But the look on Jeanne-Marie's face brought her up short. Sure, she didn't know the new girl all that well, but she wasn't nearly a big enough dick to push someone into the kind of situation that would result if all their image-inducers suddenly went dead, if that wasn't what they wanted.
Clarice tugged on Tamara's sleeve, and gave a meaningful nod in the (debatably) prettier speedster's direction. "Keep it cool, girl. We don' want our gal to freak out in the middle of all this, ay'?"
The protest was apparently just getting into proper swing, there were people still coming into the park. Mostly men, but there were women and even kids in the crowd. Someone activated a megaphone in the center of the crowd and started speaking in a distinctive Texan drawl. "Thank you all for coming! Thank you, good people, for standing up to the menace in our midst! We WILL be heard! The people in power need to know that the Friends of Humanity will not stand for them harboring freaks and monsters! Our children WILL be safe! Our future WILL be protected! And if they won't do it, then we'll do it ourselves!" Whoever was speaking in the crowd, what they were saying was definitely popular. It seemed like everyone in the park that wasn't the small group of Xavier's students was cheering.
Gar agreed enthusiastically with Jeanne-Marie. "I-I think we should go, yeah," Gar said, hoping he wouldn't suddenly turn green to all onlookers. He had a strong urge to turn into a bird and fly away, but he resisted it. Nothing good would come of that. "This doesn't look like a good time for us."
Terry's pale complexion had flushed red with anger even before the megaphone had come into play. "Filthy mutant haters," she muttered, scowling hard.
Tamara had been looking over their little group, biting her lip and weighing what Clarice had told her. Terry's comment made up her mind.
"They don't have to come," she told Clarice, jumping down from the bench and starting through the crowd. Halfway to the protest, she switched off her image inducer. Well, she was committed now... A little thrill of nerves went through her, heart pounding as people turned to gawk, but she pushed that down and put on her best smirk instead.
Well, that settled that question - he couldn't let her wade in by herself. Tommy grabbed Jeanne-Marie's arm and nodded toward Gar. "Get the kid out of here, yeah? I'm about to find out how many milliseconds it'll take to shove those signs down their throats. Sideways." And without waiting for an answer, he fell in step beside Tamara.
Jeanne-Marie nodded at Tommy and then, in a sudden flash that belied her terror, appeared at Gar's side. She held out a hand and looked at him, expression torn between horror and anger. She hardly knew what she felt, in fact. Part of her wanted to follow Tamara, Clarice, and Tommy. All of her wanted to make sure they were protected. But another part of her wanted to scoop Gar up and fly. "Should we... go get... Stevie?" she asked him, voice small, uncertain.
"Well, mudda fuck," Clarice cursed to herself as Tommy and Tamara started forward. This was definitely not how she'd planned to spend her first trip in the city. But god dammit, she wasn't going to let her roommate go into the middle of this hate-fest without any kind of support. She touched Jeanne-Marie's arm. "Stay safe," she said, "I'mma keep a eye on these two." That said, she began threading her way through the crowd after the others, quietly crafting a pair of teleportation shards in either hand. If this got ugly, she would be ready, either to teleport her friend out of trouble, or ... well. They would just have to see.
Gar was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to prove that he wasn't a kid. On the other hand, he didn't want Tommy and Tamara to prove this group of haters that they were right. And to top it off, he also didn't want to get into trouble with Stevie. So when Jeanne-Marie appeared at his side, he took her hand, trying to be reassuring. "Yeah. Let's go get Stevie," he said. "She'll know what to do."
It took a moment for the outer edges of the crowd to notice the strange group of kids. Someone watching from on high could have probably followed the ripples through the crowd when the knowledge spread. Some people were backing away from the suddenly appearing mutants, but some, especially the young men, were pushing to the front. And then someone in crowd started chanting "Muties out! Muties out!" Tamara and her backup were now faced with a good two dozen angry men, backed by an increasingly ugly crowd.
This was worse than anything Terry had ever experienced, and the increasingly louder chanting was the most oppressive thing she'd ever felt. Luckily, she could do something about that... Probably, anyway. If she could isolate herself, she could probably cut them all off, sound-wise. And if it worked one way, it would probably work the other way around. She focused on what she had come to think of as a sonic shield and set it between the mutants and the crowd. For a moment, nothing changed, but then she figured out how to reverse the dynamics so it wouldn't stop the crowd from hearing them, but them from hearing the haters.
Suddenly, they seemed to be and her schoolmates to have been put on mute. She smiled, tightly because of the effort. "We didn't need to hear more of that, did we?"
Tamara grinned over at Terry - hell yeah, sonic modulation. Okay, yeah, she'd been nervous heading over here, no matter how determined she was, but she wasn't alone. Hell, with this team to back her, she felt pretty damn good as she stared them down.
And whipped out her phone. "Say hello to the evening news, assholes!" She flared her wings, ignoring the pain as she stretched them to full length. "It's a free park, you ignorant sack of shit," she taunted the shouting idiot right front of her her, "and we're not scared of you!"
And while Tamara was distracting them - and wow, with her wings full-out like that, she was pretty damn distracting - it gave Tommy the chance to zing through the first rank of assholes and collect their signs in his arms.
Just after Terry did her sound-trick, Jeanne-Marie swept Gar up in her arms and, in a slight flash of light, disappeared. Barely a second later, she set Gar on his feet--but kept a hand on his arm in case the sudden burst of speed was too much for him. "Stevie! There's a protest, and some of the kids might be in trouble, and we have to help them!"
"Shit shit shit," Clarice muttered to herself, following behind Tamara and Tommy as best she could, through the increasingly agitated press of the crowd. She kept spinning together shards of glowing energy between her fingers--as much a nervous gesture as a precaution--and now had four dancing between her fingers. She considered dropping her image inducer, but decided that, for now, the element of surprise was her best friend. Let them not see her coming. The better to back up the others if it went as badly as she expected it would. If they were lucky, she'd teleport these bigoted sacks of crap someplace nice.
By the time Gar had even really thought of changing into something easier to carry, Jeanne-Marie had gone and just scooped him up. "Y-Yeah," Gar said, backing up what she said to Stevie, glad Jeanne-Marie was keeping him steady (man, between this and teleportation, some people were just too fast). "I-I think--I think Tommy might start doing something he'll regret," he said, having heard that primarily. "A-and--just, we have to go, quick. I-I can, uh..." If Jeanne-Marie could manage him, she could probably manage Stevie, but not both. "Here." He sank backward, and shifted into the form of a chipmunk, scurrying up Jeanne-Marie's shoulder to anchor himself there.
The surging tide of protesters was already a loud wall of humanity. Even with sonic shielding, it wasn't hard to imagine the noise of an angry mob. And Terry could feel the wave of sound pressing against her shield, like someone was pressing hands against her temple. Which was before Tamara and Tommy got involved. With the big scary dragon wing lady in front of them, and their signs suddenly being pulled out of their hands, the first row of the crowd stumbled back in dismay. But the people up the back couldn't see what was going on. All they knew was that there was trouble. And so while the front row wanted to push back, the back of the mob wanted to push forwards. It was chaos, panicked, angry, painful human chaos. Like a thunderstorm, just before it broke. The weight from behind was too big, the crowd was turning into a stampede, headed right towards the group of young mutants.
JM and Gar were clear of the crowd, but unlike the others, they could hear the roar. So could Stevie, who blanched visibly despite her dark skin. She had a good head on her shoulders though, and something in her tightened up almost immediately. "You two, go and get the others to head to the park exit. I'll get the bus. Time to make an exit." She snapped with a lot more authority than she'd displayed before.
"Shite," Terry stated as she took a step back in panic, the sonic shield crumbling as her concentration wavered. The sounds of the angry mob rushed them all at once, and she stepped back even more from the upcoming stampede, instinct pushing her to open her mouth to scream.
Shit - Tamara could see things disintegrating, the chaos about to hit them. She'd been ready for some idiot to throw a punch at her or something, but this wall of people surging forward wasn't someone to be stood up to. It was just a mass of violence, heading straight for them. Idiot mutant-haters...
And yet it kind of got her blood up. She wasn't stupid, she knew she didn't really stand a chance in a fight, that she could get seriously hurt or even killed if she fought back... but she kinda wanted to see how many of these fuckers she could taze all the same. Instead, she lit up her left hand in flames, shoving her phone into her bag so she could do the same with her right, pulling her wings tight to her back again. Hopefully the really obvious fire would keep the mob at bay, at least for the moment, but it wouldn't last. "Clare," she yelled over her shoulder, a perverse little grin on her face in spite of everything, "get us out, before I have to light these idiots up!"
Tommy hadn't gotten all of the signs - some people were at bad angles, or were holding them too tightly, and he didn't want to rip arms off, necessarily... just make a point. But he'd gotten most of them by the time Tamara got really going, and that gave him an idea. He piled the signs up in a clear space on the other side of the crowd in between her left and right hands going up, and he stood on the bench next to the pile to catch her eye. "Tam! Take out this trash instead."
And the signs went up in flames.
Back on the street, Jeanne-Marie put one arm over Gar's (adorable, but more on that when there was time, she was panicking now, thanks) chipmunk form to make sure he didn't get blown off, nodded at Stevie as she took off, and then there was a burst of light as the pair of them reappeared beside Terry... just as she screamed. Before more than three or four people hit the ground, Jeanne-Marie used her sustained burst of speed to grab Terry's arm and stop her. "Get to the..." Exit? That meant... "Get to the street! The bus will come for us!"
"I know, I know," Clarice ground out between gritted teeth at her roommate, attention fixed on the surging tide of human idiocy heading for her and Tommy. Jeanne-Marie, it seemed, had no sooner run off than she reappeared, telling them to get out of the park. Sounded like good advice to her. Concentrating on the other mutant teens around her, she raised her hands and blink...
Even holding on to Jeanne-Marie's shoulder, Chipmunk Gar felt the somewhat-familiar disorientation that came with Clarice blinking them to another place. He found himself situated on Jeanne-Marie's shoulder, still, which was good, and he cast a quick glance around, hoping that nobody had gotten left behind...
Terry's scream was abruptly cut off when Jeanne-Marie grabbed her, and before she could catch her breath, or realise she'd already brought a handful of people to their knees, she stumbled into the street after a bright flash of pink relocated her. "Jaysus."
"Oh thank fuck," Tamara said, letting her hands go out. Still hyper-aware from all the adrenaline in her system, she glanced around them, trying to see how many people had noticed and hitting the button on her image inducer, only to realize she'd shorted it out. Shit, no hiding her wings now...
Luckily it didn't seem to matter, as their bus appeared with a squeal and some truly action movie-worthy driving. As the doors banged open, Tamara wasted no time getting in and out of sight.
As soon as the last student was onboard, they took off.
The roar of the crowd could be heard even over the engine for a good two blocks. And even without the mob, there was plenty of tension to go round. Stevie was radiating it for a start. And then there was being summoned to the Professor's office when they got back. Fortunately both of them seem more concerned about making sure everyone was alright. The Professor did ask that everyone show restraint in situations like this, and to remember that using powers would only cause more fear by people like those protesters. But the kids had been provoked, and nobody got hurt. At the end of the day, that was what mattered. The Professor at least was inclined to see his students as the ones not at fault. Shame that the people at the school seemed to be the only ones who saw it that way.
For a lot of students, Xavier's might well be a mutant refuge first and a school second. But the Professor took his duties as an educator quite seriously, and not just in terms of teaching people to use their powers. And if there were regular classes, that also meant field trips. In this case, a trip to the Met to get some culture (and a chance for students to see New York, but that was never going to be officially acknowledged).
With Stevie Hunter being the supervising teacher, discipline was always going to be fairly light, as long as nobody ran off or anything. Her approach was to run this on the honor system. If the students behaved, she was happy to let the reins trail a little bit. The drive down was certainly more pleasant with a teacher happy to let the kids pick the tunes!
After the out of the way school and the small town quiet of Salem Center, downtown New York was a warren of human activity. People, cars and lights everywhere, the full brunt of humanity going about its business in the Big Apple. Even the Met itself and the sedate tour through its halls had more crowds and activity than the usual school routine. At least there was a lot to look at, and a tour guide who seemed to realise that dry lectures weren't going to keep kids engaged. So the tour itself wasn't actually that bad, as school events go.
As they walked back out into the late afternoon sun, Stevie stopped to stretch and huff a sigh. She was smiling, but looking a bit strained. Judging by how she was standing, her knee injury was giving her trouble. "Well, that wasn't too bad, right?"
Garfield was happy to be along for the ride. Being out in about in a big city was intimidating, but he was more or less used to it by now. He'd been resisting the urge to transform into various animals while out and about, but for Stevie's sake, more than anything, he'd kept a lid on it. Maybe he'd save it for the trip home, see if she was okay with him turning into a dog and hanging his head out the window. He'd still not done that, yet, and it was on his list...
"Not bad at all," Gar replied, giving her a mostly-certain grin.
"It was great," Terry answered, her smile much more certain. It was nice, being in such a big city again. She hadn't been used to it her entire life, only for these last few months, but she enjoyed it. And the museum had been interesting. "Thank you for taking us, miss."
Tamara rolled her eyes a little, but gave Stevie a strained smile all the same. It wasn't like it had been a terrible field trip (worlds better than anything she'd ever had back home), but she was tired and her back and wings hurt. Sure, the image inducer hid her wings so she wouldn't scare all the regular humans, but that just meant she'd had to spend all day carefully making sure no one around her bumped into them. At least she could move them a little now, enough to pull them close to her back when needed, but ugh, it was exhausting. ...and she kept running them into other students by mistake, because she couldn't see them either (and at least her fellow students knew what was happening when something big, leathery, and invisible brushed against them).
New York was great - for a city that Tommy hated entirely on principle, but enjoyed the hell out of in reality. The museum had been excruciating, the tour moving so slowly that he'd have had time to lap the entire building two or three times in the span of time it took to get the others from one section to the next. He couldn't even check out the displays at his own pace, thanks to the whole cone of secrecy deal they had going on, so he'd been stuck plodding around after them and dying inside.
At least the street had energy, life, excitement - movement enough to take his mind off of the tedium. He drummed his fingers restlessly against his legs, the rest of him aching from holding himself so still. That was what he got for being stupid enough to let himself get comfortable at Xavier's; he'd gotten way too used to being able to move when he needed to. That thought prickled sharply, setting tight inside his chest.
"What now, back on the bus, or can we actually do something interesting while we're here?"
Jeanne-Marie laughed at Tommy, then shook her head. "That was something interesting!" she protested, but there was no heat in it. She loved the museum, and she loved cities--New York was even bigger and busier than Montreal, so she was soaking it up. She wished Jean-Paul had come, but then, it was nice to have a chance to spend time with the other new kids, especially the girls, without him being too suspicious all the time. Bless him.
But she was also aware that Stevie wasn't the only one having a hard time, and shot Tamara a sympathetic look. "But I'm sure we're getting a little tired, yes?"
"A lot tired," Clarice agreed, giving her roommate a look that was more concerned than sympathetic; Tamara's back had to be killing her, by now. The outing to the museum had been ... cool. Definitely something she'd never have experienced on the island. But her feelings about wearing an image inducer while out in the world were ambivalent, at best--she just didn't feel like her, in this perfectly mundane caramel-colored skin. And she'd gotten used to blinking around whenever she felt like it, and not worrying too much about who might see.
Yeah, all things considered, it had been a welcome trip out. But she was more than ready to head back home and relax.
"I'm not unleashing you all on an unsuspecting New York." Stern and teacherly just wasn't Stevie's style, so her denial of Tommy's request came out more teasing than anything else. "But we can stop for ice cream or something on the way back." The young teacher faltered there though, and had to suppress a gasp. "Can I get you all to go head to the bus though? I need minute." Apparently her knee was giving her more grief than she'd been letting on, and she sat down rather heavily on n empty bench. "It should be waiting just down the block. I'll catch up in a minute.".
"Aww, we'll be good," Gar replied, a bit teasingly, in return. But going ahead was fine with him. "I'm sure we can manage finding a bus, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder at the collection of students.
"Will you be all right, miss?" Terry asked, since the teacher didn't really look good. But at the same time, she took one step away, clearly dying for a little bit of freedom.
Tamara raised an eyebrow as Stevie nodded. She was getting tired of field tripping, yes, but some unsupervised time in NYC? Now that was a totally different story! Suddenly her back didn't hurt nearly as bad.
"I'm sure we can find it," she said over her shoulder, starting in that direction. This time she bumped Tommy intentionally with an invisible wing (even with heels on she was only 5'2", so grabbing someone's attention subtly was a struggle), muttering to him, "Or y'know, something interesting."
"Will you be all right, miss?" Terry asked, since the teacher didn't really look good. But at the same time, she took one step away, clearly dying for a little bit of freedom.
Tamara raised an eyebrow as Stevie nodded. She was getting tired of field tripping, yes, but some unsupervised time in NYC? Now that was a totally different story! Suddenly her back didn't hurt nearly as bad.
"I'm sure we can find it," she said over her shoulder, starting in that direction. This time she bumped Tommy intentionally with an invisible wing (even with heels on she was only 5'2", so grabbing someone's attention subtly was a struggle), muttering to him, "Or y'know, something interesting."
Tommy evaluated his options. Hover around the teacher like she'd very clearly just asked them not to do, go straight to the bus and back home like they were supposed to, or take full advantage of the fact that it was about to be him, Gar and a crowd of girls - unsupervised - on the streets of the Upper East Side.
No-brainer.
He fell in step beside Tamara and Clarice, catching Terry's eye at the same time. "Turn left into the park when we hit the corner," he suggested quietly once they'd left the chaperone a little more out of earshot. "We can cut through Central Park before the bus driver notices we're late."
Jeanne-Marie reached out for Terry's hand, "Come on, Terry--Call us if you need us to come pick you up!" She shouted back at Stevie. She did feel bad for their teacher, but then, a few free moments in Manhattan? Yes please.
Oblivious to Tommy's whispering, she hurried Terry to catch up with them, grinning.
Not really paying much attention to the looks being shared around her, or the plans quietly forming among her more devious classmates, Clarice just cocked one eyebrow at the silver-haired boy's suggestion. Clarity suddenly dawned, however, when she looked to her roommate to assess her take on the idea. The expression on Tamara's face said it all. An unchaperoned walk through the city was a notion that wasn't entirely unappealing, but what eventually swayed her was the fact she didn't care enough one way or the other to go against the gal she shared a room with. So she shrugged, and when the turn came up she veered course into the park, as casually as she could.
Garfield, the only one not in on the plan, almost didn't notice the group behind him change course toward the park, but once he did, he scrambled to keep up rather than say anything about it. He looked around at the others a bit nervously, not sure what was going on. "Uh, so... what are we doing?" he asked the others, keeping together with the group.
"I'll be fine, see you in just a minute." Stevie assured the kids. "Meet you at the bus." She sat down heavily, and before the kids left her it looked like she was unlacing her shoe on the injured leg. They'd have a little time unsupervised for sure.
As the group headed into the park, they could see some sort of commotion up ahead. A large group of people were gathered in the center of the park. It wasn't easy to tell what they were doing from where the teens were, but it seemed like maybe it was some sort of protest meeting?
"What's going on there?" Terry asked out loud, as if any of the students pulled know any more than she did. Even as they stepped closer, she spotted a seeming leader talking to the crowd and reached out for the sound waves of what they were saying. She was too curious to think twice about mutant eavesdropping, and besides, this was a public place.
"Some kinda protest I think?" Tamara said over her shoulder, grinning and putting away her phone. Hell yes, protests in NYC, this was much more her style! "Oh man, I hope they're protesting the president, I'll totally join in!!" She stepped up onto a nearby park bench to get a view of what was happening. Once she did, though, her excited smirk fell, then started changing into something decidedly angrier.
"We're playing hookey," Tommy had turned aside to talk to Gar as they entered the park, at least until the commotion caught his already-fractured attention. "The hell?"
Jeanne-Marie narrowed her eyes when she caught sight of a few signs. "Does that say... are they...?" She froze, the blood draining from her face. "Maybe... we should go..."
The sight of the protest had drawn Clarice's curiosity initially, too, but when she got an idea of the actual substance of it ... Yeah. Interest quickly gave way to hostility--and more than a bit of nervousness. That expression on Tamara's face pretty much screamed this was about to turn into a frickin' spectacle, and, if it had just been her, the lavender-skinned mutant probably would have been mostly okay with that. You couldn't walk into the middle of a hate-rally specifically targeting your own demographic and be expected to keep your cool. But the look on Jeanne-Marie's face brought her up short. Sure, she didn't know the new girl all that well, but she wasn't nearly a big enough dick to push someone into the kind of situation that would result if all their image-inducers suddenly went dead, if that wasn't what they wanted.
Clarice tugged on Tamara's sleeve, and gave a meaningful nod in the (debatably) prettier speedster's direction. "Keep it cool, girl. We don' want our gal to freak out in the middle of all this, ay'?"
The protest was apparently just getting into proper swing, there were people still coming into the park. Mostly men, but there were women and even kids in the crowd. Someone activated a megaphone in the center of the crowd and started speaking in a distinctive Texan drawl. "Thank you all for coming! Thank you, good people, for standing up to the menace in our midst! We WILL be heard! The people in power need to know that the Friends of Humanity will not stand for them harboring freaks and monsters! Our children WILL be safe! Our future WILL be protected! And if they won't do it, then we'll do it ourselves!" Whoever was speaking in the crowd, what they were saying was definitely popular. It seemed like everyone in the park that wasn't the small group of Xavier's students was cheering.
Gar agreed enthusiastically with Jeanne-Marie. "I-I think we should go, yeah," Gar said, hoping he wouldn't suddenly turn green to all onlookers. He had a strong urge to turn into a bird and fly away, but he resisted it. Nothing good would come of that. "This doesn't look like a good time for us."
Terry's pale complexion had flushed red with anger even before the megaphone had come into play. "Filthy mutant haters," she muttered, scowling hard.
Tamara had been looking over their little group, biting her lip and weighing what Clarice had told her. Terry's comment made up her mind.
"They don't have to come," she told Clarice, jumping down from the bench and starting through the crowd. Halfway to the protest, she switched off her image inducer. Well, she was committed now... A little thrill of nerves went through her, heart pounding as people turned to gawk, but she pushed that down and put on her best smirk instead.
Well, that settled that question - he couldn't let her wade in by herself. Tommy grabbed Jeanne-Marie's arm and nodded toward Gar. "Get the kid out of here, yeah? I'm about to find out how many milliseconds it'll take to shove those signs down their throats. Sideways." And without waiting for an answer, he fell in step beside Tamara.
Jeanne-Marie nodded at Tommy and then, in a sudden flash that belied her terror, appeared at Gar's side. She held out a hand and looked at him, expression torn between horror and anger. She hardly knew what she felt, in fact. Part of her wanted to follow Tamara, Clarice, and Tommy. All of her wanted to make sure they were protected. But another part of her wanted to scoop Gar up and fly. "Should we... go get... Stevie?" she asked him, voice small, uncertain.
"Well, mudda fuck," Clarice cursed to herself as Tommy and Tamara started forward. This was definitely not how she'd planned to spend her first trip in the city. But god dammit, she wasn't going to let her roommate go into the middle of this hate-fest without any kind of support. She touched Jeanne-Marie's arm. "Stay safe," she said, "I'mma keep a eye on these two." That said, she began threading her way through the crowd after the others, quietly crafting a pair of teleportation shards in either hand. If this got ugly, she would be ready, either to teleport her friend out of trouble, or ... well. They would just have to see.
Gar was torn. On the one hand, he wanted to prove that he wasn't a kid. On the other hand, he didn't want Tommy and Tamara to prove this group of haters that they were right. And to top it off, he also didn't want to get into trouble with Stevie. So when Jeanne-Marie appeared at his side, he took her hand, trying to be reassuring. "Yeah. Let's go get Stevie," he said. "She'll know what to do."
It took a moment for the outer edges of the crowd to notice the strange group of kids. Someone watching from on high could have probably followed the ripples through the crowd when the knowledge spread. Some people were backing away from the suddenly appearing mutants, but some, especially the young men, were pushing to the front. And then someone in crowd started chanting "Muties out! Muties out!" Tamara and her backup were now faced with a good two dozen angry men, backed by an increasingly ugly crowd.
This was worse than anything Terry had ever experienced, and the increasingly louder chanting was the most oppressive thing she'd ever felt. Luckily, she could do something about that... Probably, anyway. If she could isolate herself, she could probably cut them all off, sound-wise. And if it worked one way, it would probably work the other way around. She focused on what she had come to think of as a sonic shield and set it between the mutants and the crowd. For a moment, nothing changed, but then she figured out how to reverse the dynamics so it wouldn't stop the crowd from hearing them, but them from hearing the haters.
Suddenly, they seemed to be and her schoolmates to have been put on mute. She smiled, tightly because of the effort. "We didn't need to hear more of that, did we?"
Tamara grinned over at Terry - hell yeah, sonic modulation. Okay, yeah, she'd been nervous heading over here, no matter how determined she was, but she wasn't alone. Hell, with this team to back her, she felt pretty damn good as she stared them down.
And whipped out her phone. "Say hello to the evening news, assholes!" She flared her wings, ignoring the pain as she stretched them to full length. "It's a free park, you ignorant sack of shit," she taunted the shouting idiot right front of her her, "and we're not scared of you!"
And while Tamara was distracting them - and wow, with her wings full-out like that, she was pretty damn distracting - it gave Tommy the chance to zing through the first rank of assholes and collect their signs in his arms.
Just after Terry did her sound-trick, Jeanne-Marie swept Gar up in her arms and, in a slight flash of light, disappeared. Barely a second later, she set Gar on his feet--but kept a hand on his arm in case the sudden burst of speed was too much for him. "Stevie! There's a protest, and some of the kids might be in trouble, and we have to help them!"
"Shit shit shit," Clarice muttered to herself, following behind Tamara and Tommy as best she could, through the increasingly agitated press of the crowd. She kept spinning together shards of glowing energy between her fingers--as much a nervous gesture as a precaution--and now had four dancing between her fingers. She considered dropping her image inducer, but decided that, for now, the element of surprise was her best friend. Let them not see her coming. The better to back up the others if it went as badly as she expected it would. If they were lucky, she'd teleport these bigoted sacks of crap someplace nice.
By the time Gar had even really thought of changing into something easier to carry, Jeanne-Marie had gone and just scooped him up. "Y-Yeah," Gar said, backing up what she said to Stevie, glad Jeanne-Marie was keeping him steady (man, between this and teleportation, some people were just too fast). "I-I think--I think Tommy might start doing something he'll regret," he said, having heard that primarily. "A-and--just, we have to go, quick. I-I can, uh..." If Jeanne-Marie could manage him, she could probably manage Stevie, but not both. "Here." He sank backward, and shifted into the form of a chipmunk, scurrying up Jeanne-Marie's shoulder to anchor himself there.
The surging tide of protesters was already a loud wall of humanity. Even with sonic shielding, it wasn't hard to imagine the noise of an angry mob. And Terry could feel the wave of sound pressing against her shield, like someone was pressing hands against her temple. Which was before Tamara and Tommy got involved. With the big scary dragon wing lady in front of them, and their signs suddenly being pulled out of their hands, the first row of the crowd stumbled back in dismay. But the people up the back couldn't see what was going on. All they knew was that there was trouble. And so while the front row wanted to push back, the back of the mob wanted to push forwards. It was chaos, panicked, angry, painful human chaos. Like a thunderstorm, just before it broke. The weight from behind was too big, the crowd was turning into a stampede, headed right towards the group of young mutants.
JM and Gar were clear of the crowd, but unlike the others, they could hear the roar. So could Stevie, who blanched visibly despite her dark skin. She had a good head on her shoulders though, and something in her tightened up almost immediately. "You two, go and get the others to head to the park exit. I'll get the bus. Time to make an exit." She snapped with a lot more authority than she'd displayed before.
"Shite," Terry stated as she took a step back in panic, the sonic shield crumbling as her concentration wavered. The sounds of the angry mob rushed them all at once, and she stepped back even more from the upcoming stampede, instinct pushing her to open her mouth to scream.
Shit - Tamara could see things disintegrating, the chaos about to hit them. She'd been ready for some idiot to throw a punch at her or something, but this wall of people surging forward wasn't someone to be stood up to. It was just a mass of violence, heading straight for them. Idiot mutant-haters...
And yet it kind of got her blood up. She wasn't stupid, she knew she didn't really stand a chance in a fight, that she could get seriously hurt or even killed if she fought back... but she kinda wanted to see how many of these fuckers she could taze all the same. Instead, she lit up her left hand in flames, shoving her phone into her bag so she could do the same with her right, pulling her wings tight to her back again. Hopefully the really obvious fire would keep the mob at bay, at least for the moment, but it wouldn't last. "Clare," she yelled over her shoulder, a perverse little grin on her face in spite of everything, "get us out, before I have to light these idiots up!"
Tommy hadn't gotten all of the signs - some people were at bad angles, or were holding them too tightly, and he didn't want to rip arms off, necessarily... just make a point. But he'd gotten most of them by the time Tamara got really going, and that gave him an idea. He piled the signs up in a clear space on the other side of the crowd in between her left and right hands going up, and he stood on the bench next to the pile to catch her eye. "Tam! Take out this trash instead."
And the signs went up in flames.
Back on the street, Jeanne-Marie put one arm over Gar's (adorable, but more on that when there was time, she was panicking now, thanks) chipmunk form to make sure he didn't get blown off, nodded at Stevie as she took off, and then there was a burst of light as the pair of them reappeared beside Terry... just as she screamed. Before more than three or four people hit the ground, Jeanne-Marie used her sustained burst of speed to grab Terry's arm and stop her. "Get to the..." Exit? That meant... "Get to the street! The bus will come for us!"
"I know, I know," Clarice ground out between gritted teeth at her roommate, attention fixed on the surging tide of human idiocy heading for her and Tommy. Jeanne-Marie, it seemed, had no sooner run off than she reappeared, telling them to get out of the park. Sounded like good advice to her. Concentrating on the other mutant teens around her, she raised her hands and blink...
Even holding on to Jeanne-Marie's shoulder, Chipmunk Gar felt the somewhat-familiar disorientation that came with Clarice blinking them to another place. He found himself situated on Jeanne-Marie's shoulder, still, which was good, and he cast a quick glance around, hoping that nobody had gotten left behind...
Terry's scream was abruptly cut off when Jeanne-Marie grabbed her, and before she could catch her breath, or realise she'd already brought a handful of people to their knees, she stumbled into the street after a bright flash of pink relocated her. "Jaysus."
"Oh thank fuck," Tamara said, letting her hands go out. Still hyper-aware from all the adrenaline in her system, she glanced around them, trying to see how many people had noticed and hitting the button on her image inducer, only to realize she'd shorted it out. Shit, no hiding her wings now...
Luckily it didn't seem to matter, as their bus appeared with a squeal and some truly action movie-worthy driving. As the doors banged open, Tamara wasted no time getting in and out of sight.
As soon as the last student was onboard, they took off.
The roar of the crowd could be heard even over the engine for a good two blocks. And even without the mob, there was plenty of tension to go round. Stevie was radiating it for a start. And then there was being summoned to the Professor's office when they got back. Fortunately both of them seem more concerned about making sure everyone was alright. The Professor did ask that everyone show restraint in situations like this, and to remember that using powers would only cause more fear by people like those protesters. But the kids had been provoked, and nobody got hurt. At the end of the day, that was what mattered. The Professor at least was inclined to see his students as the ones not at fault. Shame that the people at the school seemed to be the only ones who saw it that way.
