Sept 28: Stakeout! (And Maybe Spiders)

by **Narrator** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:10 am

Melissa manages to avoid most of the crowd by taking the long way around, all the way around the other end of the train. It just takes a while. Will has no trouble weaving himself through the crowd, though it draws a couple strange looks when he bends in places people shouldn't be able to bend. John, on the other hand has to more or less force his way through. Not that people are offering much resistance but it's pretty cramped and he gets to hear plenty of complaints and the occasional slur thrown his way. Until someone shouts "I bet it was them! Damn Muties!" and something in the crowd shifts from annoyed suspicion to active hostility. Someone in the crowd shoves Will and a half-empty can of coke bounces off of John's head.

by **John Hino** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:58 am

"Just what we need..."

John cleared his throat.

"Ladies and gentlemen, please remain calm. We're merely looking into a possible criminal incident," he announced clearly and calmly. Reason will surely work.

by **Narrator** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:08 am

"Let the police do it!"

"Yeah, who do you think you are?"

"We don't need your help!"

"You people are nothing but trouble!"

Are some of the things the crowd shouts back at him and they get a bit more rowdy, pushing and shoving against John to very little avail. It's almost impossible to tell who is doing the shoving and who is just being bumped into John without any doing of their own. In fact most people immediately near him look more scared than angry. Scared of him, oddly enough and not the crowd of people pushing them around.

Meanwhile Miranda goes mostly unmolested and manages to slip around the far end of the train and onto the tracks. The tunnel is fairly dark but it looks like several shapes are moving in the shadows.

by **Melissa Castro** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 11:13 am

Melissa shoves her hands into her pockets and begins shuffling down the track in the direction of the movement. She does her best to look like a bum whose going to find some place to sleep. Find another way in, John. You aren't going to help anyone if that turns any uglier.

by **John Hino** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 1:48 pm

John sighed and exited peaceably, absolutely hating caving in to the ignorant bigotry.

by **Will Stanton** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:42 pm

"Woah!" WIll said, trying faster to slide through. "No touch, no touch."

by **Narrator** » Fri Apr 24, 2015 10:50 pm

Will does alright getting through the crowd. At least until someone shouts "He's trying to get away!" and dozens of people try to hold on to him here and there.

Melissa is shielded from the mob by the train now and can move swiftly down the tracks. Deeper inside the tunnel she can see a group of people hurriedly moving through what must be a maintenance door.

by **Melissa Castro** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 7:41 am

"Got people moving through the maintenance doors," she said, giving them a mental impression of what she was seeing. "I'm in pursuit."

by **John Hino** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 9:42 am

"Be careful. Who knows what these people have down there," he thought back. He grabbed Onihasaiki from the van, deciding it might be required after all, and typed a message to ASHLIE.

Code: Select all: ASHLIE. If we don't make contact again in two hours, it means we need a backup team. My belt transponder will show you where to send them.

Without waiting for a reply, he moved for the nearest service entrance.

by **Narrator** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 1:59 pm

While John is still typing, a police officer taps him on the arm with his baton. "Excuse me sir, but you can't carry that kind of thing around here." The man sounds very suspicious and at the entrance to the alley a handful of people has gathered. It seems they followed him from inside the station and alerted the police.

by **John Hino** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:12 pm

I'm trying to save lives here you ungrateful morons.

He slowly lowered the weapon. "I'm reaching for identification," he said with controlled irritation as he pulled out his X-Men program ID card.

by **Narrator** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:34 pm

The officer takes the card and looks at it for a long time. "And you are here to do what exactly? With a... whatever that thing is?"

As he's talking his radio crackles. "...several calls coming in from...on tube station...reports of mutant activity...green haired male and a giant lizard..."

"Sounds an awful lot like you. You wouldn't happen to just have come from the tube station?"

by **John Hino** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 2:58 pm

"If by 'mutant activity' you mean doing our job so men like you don't have to deal with matters they're ill equipped for, then yes. If that rubs you the wrong way then I suggest you take it up with the university's lawyers, because I'm not going to let innocent people be harmed just because a crowd of bigots decided mutants being in public is a crime."

by **Narrator** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:02 pm

"So we're 'ill-equipped' to handle a broken down train, eh? Unless maybe somebody broke it on purpose of course. Why don't you come with me and call your mutie lawyers from the station."

by **John Hino** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:54 pm

Call me mutie again and say hello to Youtube.

"You're ill equipped to handle the group using your tunnels to move brainwashed captives. I'll leave the weapon here if I must, and politely visit your station later, but for now I have lives to save."

by **Melissa Castro** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 3:57 pm

Melissa kept up her 'aura of unimportance' as she moved towards the maintenance door, trying to get a sense for who or what these people were.

by **Narrator** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 4:01 pm

"You think you're better than us, don't you? Too important to respect us mere humans. You are under arrest for possession of an offensive weapon and for suspicions of sabotaging a tube train."

The officer's body language suggests that he's well aware of the fact that he can't bring John in by force but his nervous glance over his shoulder reassures him with the presence of dozens of people who have gathered at the entrance of the alley, watching the exchange. When he looks back at John he has an almost cocky grin on his face, daring him to resist arrest in front of a crowd.

-----------------------

Mellisa slips into the tunnel unnoticed. The crowd is to busy either following John's exit with their eyes or trying to keep Will from getting away. The people up ahead in the tunnel look like they're wearing regular coats with hoods pulled over their heads. It looks like two people are hurrying a group of others through the maintenance door as they disappear from sight.

by **Melissa Castro** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 5:07 pm

Melissa focuses in on the two 'herders', trying to quietly read their surface thoughts as she sneaks closer.

by **John Hino** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 6:59 pm

"I'm afraid I won't be joining you today. A bigoted policeman is arresting me for existing."

"I respect humans just fine. I just expect respect in return."

John sighed, knowing he couldn't get out of this any other way.

"I'll come freely officer, but you're making a terrible mistake," he said with defeat in his voice.

by **Will Stanton** » Sat Apr 25, 2015 8:52 pm

Meanwhile, back in a crowded train station.

"People, people! Let's all calm down, OK? I'm just trying to catch a train. That's all."

by **Narrator** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 12:51 pm

The surface thoughts all seem to revolve around hurrying these people along, though they barely think of them as people, almost more like cattle. Sneaking up to the door they disappeared into she catches a glimpse of a trapdoor or manhole of some sort closing in the maintenance corridor.

--------------------

At the same time Will is having a hard time calming people down.

"Train's shut down anyway!"

"How am I gonna get to work now?"

"Some 'heroes' you are."

And so on...

by **Melissa Castro** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 2:06 pm

Melissa continues her pursuit, keeping a mental eye open for sentries or someone actually keeping an eye on whether they're being followed. She opens the trapdoor carefully to follow them down into the substructure.

by **Narrator** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 7:58 pm

"Yes yes, you know better, I heard you the first time." the officer tells John. "Now hand over that weapon and follow me to my patrol car."

----------

There seems to be no sentry or lookout left behind. Just a metal ladder leading into a dark shaft. Descending the ladder Melissa notices an increasing amount of cobwebs clinging to the walls. It looks like they originally spanned across the shaft before the people she's following broke through them. At the bottom a small puddle of water has gathered and a rank smell of sewage or decay assaults Melissa. There's a rough tunnel leading into the darkness and she can't spot the group anymore. Either they aren't using any light-source or they rounded a corner that she can't see in the darkness. The only thing the small circle of light shining down through the shaft illuminates are more thick cobwebs coating the walls of the tunnel.

by **John Hino** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 8:15 pm

"I'm not picking it up again just so you can claim I threatened you with it. You've made your feelings about my kind quite clear."

by **Will Stanton** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 9:46 pm

Narrator wrote:At the same time Will is having a hard time calming people down.

"Train's shut down anyway!"

"How am I gonna get to work now?"

"Some 'heroes' you are."

And so on...

"People! People! Come on, let's get a queue going here. We're British! We love queues! Everything will be alright if we just take this rationally..."

by **Melissa Castro** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 11:02 pm

Melissa frowned, not liking this one bit, but she can't just let them get away either. She continued carefully along, trying to avoid the webs as best as she could.

by **Narrator** » Sun Apr 26, 2015 11:39 pm

"Nobody is framing anybody here." he says calmly. Or possibly condescendingly as if talking to a child to get a raise out of John. He steps forward and tries to pick up the giant club himself. When it doesn't budge he tries with both hands, head turning red as he tries to lift it. He blinks at it, then turns back to John, his embarrassment instantly turning into anger. "You can carry this yourself and put it in the car. Don't try anything funny."

--------------------

A couple of people actually shuffle into a vague line around the doors, which does clear up the general mob a little. Some hot-headed people still aren't really satisfied with that though and continues shouting insults at Will. There are a couple people here and there who look kind of uncomfortable with the open bigotry at least, but most of them seem like they'd rather ignore the situation, at most sparing an almost apologetic smile in Will's direction.

--------------------

In the tunnels the shaft of light quickly no longer illuminates the tunnel around Melissa. Things keep brushing against her in the dark and they mostly seem to be cobwebs but there's strange chattering echoing around her. There are no minds she can sense nearby but she gets the feeling of something being in the darkness with her.

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 2:17 am

Will smiled back, swearing up a storm on the inside, and then headed for the nearest restroom to change. He wasn't expecting to have to go undercover here, but hey, when in Rome...

by **Melissa Castro** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 8:18 am

Going out of contact, switching off. Her telepathy shut off as she turned to her other power. Her exposed skin started to shimmer, providing a very faint amount of light. Not enough to see far, but enough to make sure something wasn't within inches of eating her.

by **John Hino** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 9:19 am

"Yeah, you're just trumping up sabotage charges based entirely on hearsay," he said as he picked up the tetsubo in the least threatening way possible, "A really bad career move by the way."

by **Narrator** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:21 am

"Yeah, yeah, heard it all before. Now move it." the cop nudges John with his club.

--------------------

"Breaking the train and slipping away." someone spits after Will as he slips into the public bathroom.

--------------------

Nothing is immediately upon her, but the light does make things scatter away around her. Mostly just vermin of some sort. After a couple more steps she can notice the tunnel opening up into a larger cave but without a bigger source of light it's impossible to tell how large of if there's anything in it. There's a sound of dripping water and a faint rustling but that's it. The people she's following must have already made their way through the cavern.

by **Melissa Castro** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 11:33 am

Melissa pulls out her phone, looking at it. Seeing a "No Signal" indication, she frowns, giving the cavern one more good look before retreating back up the passageway, switching back to her telepathy as she reaches the exit into the maintenance corridor.

by **John Hino** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 2:22 pm

"How about this," he began as he walked, "One; The X-Men have special permission from your government to operate, an arrangement in which you're in blatant disregard. Two; This object will prove impossible to process into evidence, rendering associated charges moot, because... well it's sort of a Thor's hammer deal, impossibly heavy to all but a select few. You have heard of The Avengers, right?"

by **Narrator** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 2:31 pm

"Pretty sure you don't have special permission to carry that thing around and since I don't see anything around that would warrant using it I don't see a reason to cut you any slack. You're not one of the Avengers and this isn't New York. Over here people don't carry around weapons all willy-nilly."

by **John Hino** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 2:50 pm

"It does cover equipment and I assure you I don't bring this out lightly. Though obviously helping defend London multiple times... rather publicly... doesn't earn me any benefit of the doubt. Or do you believe everything we fight is some diabolical false flag plot?" he asked as they neared the car.

by **Narrator** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 3:10 pm

"I just think that maybe the government should have a closer eye on people like you. You think you're more important. Above the law. Just because I can't lift your hammer-thing. You people disgust me. It's not enough that you're stronger or smarter or faster than us lowly humans, no, you gotta carry around weapons we can't lift."

And that's around the time that Will and Miranda come out of the tube station, just in time to run into John and the police officer as they reach the police cruiser parked near the tube entrance.

by **John Hino** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 3:43 pm

"Officer, if I felt I was above the law I wouldn't be cooperating," he pointed out, giving Will a 'help me out here' look.

by **Will Stanton** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 6:10 pm

Will, in disguise as a normal, brown-haired guy, shrugged helplessly back at John.

"Is there a problem here, officers?"

by **Narrator** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 6:40 pm

"Nothing we can't handle. Situation is under control." the officer informs Will.

by **John Hino** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 6:59 pm

"Give Rogers a heads up, in case they try to get cute with my phone call," John thought loudly.

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