A Day at the Movies (Elizabeth)

Meld wasn't too sure what the movie was supposed to be about except that it had explosions on the poster so she assumed it was some kind of action flick. She sat near the back of the theater, close to an exit because one never knew when it might be important to make a quick escape.

As the movie itself began, Meld gradually began to relax and lose herself in the movie. It was pretty good, nothing worthy of an Oscar but the special effects were well done and the story was passable. All in all it was proving itself to be a rather positive and enjoyable experience and one that Meld thought she might just have to repeat int he future. It was a good safe hobby that allowed her to get her mind off of her problems and cravings.

Meld didn't immediately notice anything wrong. Although her flesh melded eye allowed her to see easily in the darkness of the theater, her tail eye which she was presently using to watch the exit, could see only as well as a regular eye. Every so often someone entered or left so it didn't immediately strike her as being unusual when a man in dark clothing entered and remained standing near the doorway. It wasn't until she noticed a second man, similarly dressed, standing near one of the front exits that she realized that something wasn't right.

Not wanting to draw any attention to the fact that she was aware that something funny was going on, Meld disengaged her attention from the movie and swiveled her tail, finding a man at each exit. She cursed the lack of lighting which made it impossible for her to pick out any details, such as the rather important detail as to whether or not they were armed. She remained seated and tense, poised in preparation of action.

Meld counted a total of 4 men, one standing guard at each exit. The fifth man was impossible to miss as he made his way purposefully to the front of the theater, halting in front of the screen. He was most certainly armed with a machine gun aimed at the crowd of people. "We want the one known as Meld. Give her to us and no one has to get hurt."

Meld didn't much care about the humans sitting all around her. As far as she was concerned, human lives meant next to nothing. Oh, she bore no real ill will towards the human civilians who were caught in the middle of the drama surrounding mutant rights, but when it came down to it they were merely human and thus not worth risking her life over. The problem was that she didn't know if any of them were more than human and a mutant life was worth saving, even if a human life wasn't. There was no way to be certain that a mutant was not hidden among the crowd which meant, unfortunately, that she would have to try to save her life while avoiding the deaths of anyone else. Either that or she would have to force any hidden mutants to reveal themselves.

Thinking quickly, Meld realized that if there were any mutants in the crowd they would do whatever they could to protect themselves and, in the case of mutants, that normally meant the use of powers. The trick, then, would be to give them enough time to utilize their powers and thus reveal their true nature. Doing so would likely put them in further danger given the fact that the men were obviously anti-mutant (because there wasn't any other reason to come after her, personally) but there was no getting around that. Either no mutants would reveal themselves and thus all the lives within the theater would be, sadly, forfeit, or one or more would in which case Meld would stick around and defend them.

Somewhere in the theater a cell phone rang and Meld was thankful, in that instant, that she had remembered to turn hers off. "You," the man in the front with the machine gun gestured towards a 6th man, previously unnoticed, who was standing near the back of the theater, "bring the woman to me."

Taking advantage of the momentary distraction, Meld ducked down onto her hands and knees, hiding in the isles. Only her tail eye remained above chair level, allowing her to maintain her vision of what was going on around her. With any luck she'd be able to sneak up on one or two of them men and pick them off before the others had a chance to react. Hopefully she wouldn't have to take on them all. Hopefully it would be proven that there were no mutants to protect. Her own life she knew she could save, things got complicated if she was also forced to play protector and hero.

Meld didn't know how much her enemies knew about her. Her blades and metal limbs were common knowledge, of course, but her enhanced vision was the question mark. Did they realize she could see in the dark better than any of them could? Or that her tail, bladed and deadly as it was, also had the extra advantage of a third eye? She coudln't recall any news stories specifically mentioning either thing, but she hadn't seen all there was to see about her and there was no telling where her new enemies had gotten their information. She knew, however, that there would be no pretending to be someone who she wasn't and that most, if not all, of the humans currently residing in the theater would give her up in an instant.

The other patrons, around a dozen at Meld's best guess, mostly reacted in stunned shock. There was panicked muttering at the first appearance of the man with the gun and a girl near the front could he heard silently sobbing, but beyond that there was silence. So far no heroes had come forth, either to try and apprehend Meld and give her to the thugs or to try and stop the thugs themselves. Nor had anyone spontaneously manifested any mutant powers, a good sign in her opinion. With any luck it would stay that way and she'd only have to kill once in order to ensure her safe escape.

Crawling silently on her hands and knees and thankful for the continued noise that the movie provided, Meld slowly made her way to the edge of the isle. She halted there, momentarily, altering her stance from that of a crawl to that of a crouch. From there it was a matter of timing, waiting until her target glanced away. In that moment Meld sprang to her feet, wrapping her tail around the man's neck and squeezing, cutting off his air supply. He let out a gurgle, unheard over the sound of the movie, before she dropped him to the ground, very much dead.

Once more Meld dropped to a crouching position, retreating back to the edge of the isle, behind the chairs. "I want you to be my hostage to draw out the mutant scum," the man growled. Clearly he didn't know as much about Meld as he thought he did, if he expected her to risk her life for a mere human. In that moment the hostage passed out from the stress of the entire situation. Meld prepared herself to flee, now that the only guard standing between herself and safety and freedom lie dead a few feet away and given that no mutants had revealed themselves.

It was rather fortunate that Meld had made the decision to take one last look at the unfortunate hostage before deciding to make her exit from the theater. Had she not she would have missed the very un-fly like display and not come to the realization that there was, in fact, a mutant among the crowd and a mutant in rather serious danger at that. The remarkable little fly flew right into the man's nose, causing him to yell and clutch at his nose in shock and pain. At that moment the woman came back to life and began once again moving.

"Hey, you, what did you do to that man?!" The thug that had first gotten the hostage stalked up to the woman, waving his machine gun threatneingly. If there was ever a time to act, Meld realized, it was now. If there was ever a time when she really (really) didn't want to act it was now. Her instinct for self preservation went hand in hand with her intense dislike of guns, especially guns that could shoot more bullets in a minute than she could possibly count. However, her duty was clear: there was a mutant in danger and she had to save that mutant. No mere human was going to kill one of her own.

"Hey, I'm over here!" Meld popped her head up above the level of the chairs, holding her shield (which felt inadequately small) in front of her, drawing the attention of the thugs. Hopefully the woman would be smart enough to take advantage of her distraction. At the moment she popped her head up, hails of bullets aimed in her direction began and people began screaming. Several struck her shield before she had a chance to duck back down behind the chairs, ricocheying off of it. The smell of blood filled the air as one, and possibly more, of the bystandards were hit by the bullets. Now would begin a deadly game of cat and mouse. Meld grabbed the discarded machine gun of the man she had all ready killed and began praying to a god she didn't believe in.

If there was one time for Meld to be thankful for the eye at the end of her tail it was now because it was the only reason she was able to have any chance at all of surviving this deadly game of cat and mouse. Without it she would have been forced to peek her head up above the line of the chairs and each and every time she did so she would have been placing her life in danger. It wasn't perfect, given that everything was tinged in red, it didn't allow for any better vision in the dark than a regular eye and it didn't have any depth perception, but in those moments of intense gunfire she was grateful for it.

The screams of the terrified and dying humans could be heard all around Meld. While crawling on the ground, trying to get closer to the mutant woman who she had inadvertently caused to be put in danger, she came upon a young man, also trying to crawl for his life. Without a second thought, Meld plunged her clawed hand into his chest, forcing titanium through bone. The man gasped as blood began to burble out of the gaping wound and his eyes widened in mute shock. He had not expected to die from the mutant on the ground, he had expected to die, if anything, from the mad thugs wielding machine guns. Had she not killed him, however, he may have given up her position.

Meld switched the machine gun into her metal hand and held it up above the chairs, aiming with the eye on the end of the tail. Pressing the trigger, bullets flew through the air, striking another of the thugs as well as another human. Two down and five to go. Lifting her finger off of the trigger, she also noticed that the woman was swiftly making her way to the exit of the theater, which meant that Meld could finally make her own exit. The police would, she knew, be coming soon, alerted not only by the massive amount of gunfire but also by the fact that with so many people around, at least one of them surely would have called the cops. Cops were about the last thing she wanted to deal with.

Coming to the edge of the row of seats, Meld knew that this was going to be the most dangerous part of her flight, the short area of space between the protective cover of the chairs and the safety of the exit. Taking a deep breath, she pressed the button on the gun and began running, sprinting the 10 or so feet to the exit. The move was, thankfully, unexpected and she was half way to the exit before the guns of her enemies were turned on her. Just as she made it to the door, her own gun clicked empty and she discarded it. Bullets could be heard bouncing off her shield but she didn't think any actually struck her or, if they did, the wounds weren't serious enough to slow her down. The exit, and safety, were finally in sight.

Meld wasn't sure if any of the gunmen were going to follow her into the main part of the theater building, nor did she particularly care. The most important thing was getting out with her life in tact. They had proven themselves to be willing to sacrifice their own kind in order to try and get at her. Hopefully, however, they wouldn't be willing to do so in quite so public an area as the outside of the theater, not only because there were far more potential victims there, but also because the much better lighting ensured that their faces would be open and obvious for all to see. How ironic would it be for them to be the bad guys going after the mutant killer.

Blood dotted Meld's tail and arm blades but she had managed to avoid getting so much blood on her as to look like a walking horror story. Once out of the theater she didn't stop running until she was outside, pushing away anyone that got in her path. A blink of her tail eye confirmed that the gunmen were either not going to come after her at that time or were waiting for the right opportunity to do so. She didn't yet hear any sirens but knew they were inevitably coming. Bursting outside, the first thing she did was climb to the nearest roof top. There were far too many people for comfort, far too many witnesses and it was far to bright outside. There was a reason her most active times were usually in the middle of the night.

As soon as Meld had made her way to the rooftop she realized that something wasn't right with the wildlife in the area. Birds and dogs alike were freaking out as if some unseen terror was out to get them all. She could only assume that it must be because of the mutant woman she had seen fleeing from the theater and it was her duty to check and see if the woman was all right. It wasn't difficult to track where the woman had run off to, all she had to do was follow the panicked animals.

Meld caught a glimpse of a woman who she was pretty sure was her target, entering a bookstore. Although going into a public place was very low on the things that she currently wanted to do, Meld's duty was clear. The gunmen had gone to that theater in order ot do away with her and because of that she had inadvertently put the mutant woman in danger. Therefore it stood that she had to help her as much as she was able, which meant having to enter the bookstore. Hoping the blood on her blades wasn't too obvious, Meld opened the door and went inside.