King Con-- though Gina admired some of the costuming feats that other attendees had pulled-off, she wasn't familiar with the nerdy subculture… or perhaps, super-culture… that permeated the convention center. She looked the part, donning her own two-piece ensemble. With her mutation, the only additional work needed was adding some temporary, red highlights to her hair which hung in their natural explosion of curls around her head…

Gina carefully made her way through rows upon rows of vendors' stalls. Though the aisles were packed with people, the other convention attendees seemed unusually mindful of Gina's wings and tail. Perhaps it was that they were so accustomed to having to avoid unwieldy costume pieces. A few people even absentmindedly complimented her feet or her tail or her wings before realizing that these were not prosthetics.

“Hey, you're Gina, right?” a soprano voice piped up. The gargoyle turned, her wings aflutter. The person behind her wore a long pink wig, and had skin painted pink, a few shades lighter. She was dressed as a princess with a very minimalist crown.

”I am.”

“You're so lucky! I'm such a fan of your girlfriend's work.”

The gargoyle blushed-- another fan. Nessa was on a panel, ergo Gina's presence at the con. She was playing the part of a supportive girlfriend. She'd gone to the Q+A, but was filling some idle time while the Pow! Block Party was signing autographs and taking photos with fans.

”Hey, thanks. Did you get the chance to meet her?”

The girl was bubbling with excitement nodding vigorously as she withdrew an ink-and-colored pencil drawing of none other than Nessa. Nessa's familiar signature was scrawled in the corner, in Sharpie, politely away from the illustration, “This has to be the best day ever. I don't suppose you'd be willing you sign this too? Would you, please?”

The blush on Gina’s cheeks deepened.

“Are you s- I mean, if you want?”

“That'd be great!”

As the girl rummaged for a Sharpie, a scream cut through the room, over the din of conversation. Gina looked around, mild concern crossing her features, but for as short as she was, she couldn't see much in a crowd like this.

Skye was deeply grateful to her Uncle for helping her be able to do this. She'd always wanted to go to an event like this, and King Con was finally her chance. She had temporarily broken free of her usual style for the occasion, ditching the hoodie and tight jeans. She wore a somewhat tight fitting dress that stopped above her knee, and it was sky blue in color. On her back was a pair of translucent wings that hung down so as to stay out of the way, but were also where the yellow light emanating from her hands could reflect off of them.

Skye had decided to go to this event as a fairy, and she'd picked a color that would go rather well with any of her emotions just in case. Nearby, she saw a gargoyle talking to someone, though she wasn't really good at mingling or anything. She was just taking in the sights, the sounds, and the--scream?

A piercing scream cut through the venue, and the young girl's hair turned green from the startle as they pulsed green. She scanned the area, but she too wasn't very tall, so that did little good. Instead, she turned, heading toward where she was certain the scream came from.

In terms of your usual convention-goer, the blonde boy seemed altogether unremarkable. Dressed in all black-- a black shirt, black slacks, black leather. Beneath his arm, a heavy book, and upon his face, a smirk. He found his way to the middle of the commercial booths, opening his massive book. People bustled past without paying him much notice.

He cracked the tome open. On a cream-colored page, the words "La Charme de Creature" was written in red script.

"And so the fun begins," he purred. He cleared his throat.

"Spirituex de l'obscurite, transforment ces humains... par le vent, par le pluie, par le feu, avec ce charme je vengeral leurs plaisanteries cruelles a nos frais..."

The air crackled around him, his hair being held aloft by veins of electricity that cut through the air. Convention attendees began to take notice, giving him a wider berth, slowing to stare at the show. Some mistakingly believed these to be practical effects, and paused to fish-out their phones.

"...Changez-les dans la créatures méme dont ils ont pris le déguisement..."

The boy pointed at one onlooker, whose cosplay seemed to be of some t.v.-headed robot.

"...Pour toujours!"

With the final exclamation, there was an explosion of electricity, which rippled down the aisles of vendor stalls and flooded the room, the magnificent "crack!" ringing in the ears of the convention-goers. The lights flickered, and then went out.

The convention-goer dressed as the t.v.-headed robot grasped at their mask, but to no avail. The t.v.-headed creature shrieked, static spilling from what had once been little more than a mask, a prop. The sudden darkness, and the sudden chaos of costumes-turned-reality, enabled the boy with the spellbook to slip-away. Now this, he thought to himself, was a party.

//////

The sudden darkness following the scream was enough to send Gina into a panic. People were pushing past, panicked, eager to find some well-lit place. Gina was jostled, left holding the fanart of her girlfriend and a Sharpie, as people rushed by. What? Was there a power outage? Wouldn't it be safer to wait for the lights to come on? After a few moments, the lights did return, but what Gina saw before her was too much for her to drink in. Why the sudden panic? What was the cause? People were grasping at their clothes, at themselves, yelling at peers as if they were entirely foreign. Gina looked at herself... nope, still the same scantily-dressed 90's gargoyle that she was before. What was the big idea?

In order to avoid getting trampled by convention-goers, Gina stepped to the side. She had to get this drawing back to the fangirl, and then she wanted to find Nessa. Vanessa would know what to do, at a time like this.

The lights suddenly went out, followed by a panic, and it was at that moment that Skye was more thankful for her mutation than she'd ever been. Her hair was green from the shock, but in the panic, the area around her was illuminated in a green light, making it easier for her to see. People were suddenly tugging at their clothes, at their bodies, at various props they were holding. It was weird. She tried her best to navigate through the mess.

However, as she did, the girl couldn't shake this weird....buzzing in her ears. It was faint, but it was constant. And it seemed to be right behind her. Turning her head, she saw where the noise had been coming from.

"What the!?!" she gasped, the green light becoming more and more prominent, pulsing madly as her mutation edged closer and closer to becoming critical. The wings that were supposed to be stationary, just strapped to her back, were actually flapping, and quite steadily at that. In fact, looking down, she saw that the straps used to fasten them to her back...were gone. She could even little sensations of the air hitting them as they flapped.

Something very weird was going on here...

So, on one hand the convention was so full of people in crazy cosplays that he was easy to miss. That would be a great thing for Luke, let him be a geek about his own fandoms without being judged. Not just for being a mutant or anything, but man it was impressive how quickly people excused themselves from talking about Evangelion. It was kind of depressing. Another thing on the ‘make Luke stick out’ list.

Well, as it turned out Luke was half-right. The fandom thing wasn't a problem, and lots of people were around with insanely complicated fabrications. Luke was certainly noticed, but at least he wasn't the only standout. He wasn't sure if he was still being a standout if there were more. Like, if enough people are distinct, is it really distinguishing? At some point it probably crosses over into just factions. It was pedantic, but still a fun distraction to go on about pointless stuff given how bad this was going anyway.

Luke was from rural Maine, and there weren’t a lot of conventions there, so he hadn’t been sure what to expect beyond what the webpage said. He’d been smart enough to bring his headphones, a pair of the big chunky kind Luke had along for this kind of thing. They were a little snug and awkward, but he could handle the noise level. That was a good start, but what he hadn’t expected was how hot it’d be and how gross it would smell.

Seriously, holy crap. Luke didn’t normally want to cite the whole ‘nerds don’t bathe’ stereotype but he was pretty sure a lot of these people literally had not bathed. He was used to BO, sure, but the sheer intensity here was almost literally staggering. Plus, it was hot, so hot he could feel his skin flushing trying to vainly expel excess heat. And having his jaw lolling open panting was making him self-conscious.

He’d tried to enjoy things anyway, forcing himself to go to a couple short panels and check out meet and greets, but he found himself mentally drained in short order. Luke bought a drink and gulped it down in a slightly quieter area, bouncing on his heels anxiously. It was all kind of pissing him off, so he leaned against the comparatively cool wall nearby. He took another swig from the water bottle. Wiping his mouth with his hand, Luke sized up his options. It was probably worth a try to find just one more thing. He hadn’t actually bought anything, so while he could save it for later, he couldn’t get merch here later…Water imbibed, he tossed the empty bottle into a trash bin and started on the move again, cautiously hopeful that he might end up with a signature of some kind if he found a Q&A worth checking out.

The sudden screaming jolted him, distant though it was, and he instinctively stepped back into a defensive stance. People had been screaming a lot here, but as relaxed he considered that this time it didn’t sound delighted. In fact, it sounded kind of terrified? He slipped off his headphones and let them hang around his neck.

Then the lights went out, and he caught the smell of ozone, saw flashes of electrical arcs and glowing green light, and then more people started screaming. Luke whipped his head around, but in the sudden darkness he couldn’t see any obvious cause for alarm. His first instinct was to bolt, but he forced himself to take a few tentative steps forward instead as people ran in panic. He didn’t know what was happening and the idea of something crazy happening was a little hard to believe, but something was happening, and it seemed crazy. He couldn’t just run, right? He was an X-Trainee, he was trying to be the guy to run towards the bad thing.

The lights flicked back on, and Luke tried to assess the situation. People were still screaming and freaking out, no surprise there, but a lot of the ones in cosplay and such were flipping out extra. There was something wrong about how they looked, he wasn’t sure what but as he edged into the mass of people he noticed they were grabbing at themselves, their torsos and arms and faces. All kinds of weird sounds and new, bizarre smells, things he wouldn't expect to find here, flitted through the air, making it hard to keep track of anything.

Bizarre, and not great. He stopped suddenly as a woman stumbled past him grabbing her face and wailing. There were yellow bristly hairs on her exposed skin, and at first it just looked like it was glued on but as she staggered by, they actually seemed to become more attached to her like…real fur. Luke reflexively jolted back as the woman’s wasplike eyes, clearly a mask a moment ago, seemingly began to move and look around.

Uh, huh. That was it. Now that he saw that, from the edge of the scattering crowd Luke spotted more people with similar…symptoms. Someone with wires glued to their skin? No more glue. Girl over there with plastic fairy wings? Wings moving on their own. Her hair was also glowing. Looking down at himself, nothing seemed to be different. He was just wearing a sleeveless jacket and shorts, typical stuff for him.

Okay. Luke furrowed his brow and tried to parse the situation. Were the costumes becoming real? Was that it? He almost wanted to laugh; it sounded like a Halloween special for a cartoon. It wasn't funny though, and he definitely wasn't laughing. Someone had done this, with a mutation he’d assume. Accidentally? They might have just manifested it. Either way, not good. Panic and stampeding aside, who knew what kind of dangerous thing someone might turn into?

Realizing he was starting to breathe quickly from the excitement, Luke steadied himself. Okay, probably weren’t any actual X-Men on-site, but they’d know soon enough if this didn’t get shut down. What should he do until then…ugh, his brain wasn’t working, and he made a low growling noise out of frustration. In training though he was, that didn’t mean he was ready for a solo mission, which this basically was as far as he could tell. Best he could do was...do his best not to make things worse. Perfect.

He stepped closer to the wall, trying to spot anything unusual. Well, anything out-of-place, like someone calm. There was a girl a few yards away, gray-skinned with horns, but not doing the ‘freak out and run away’ thing. If she a mutant like him, it'd make sense, since nothing would have changed for her. He also thought she looked familiar, maybe from a stream? Possible, there were going to be those kinds of people here. It was worth asking, since she might actually be able to give like, a non-screaming answer.

Luke started towards the girl, briefly making a quiet grunt when someone slammed into him from the side, but they more or less bounced off and ran elsewhere. He raised his voice and yelled out to her from maybe a meter off, “Hey, you know what the hell’s going on?” Somewhere in the crowd there was a loud crashing noise, and Luke was not expecting that to be a good sign.

Gina kept her back to the wall, watching the chaos around her. People were trying to remove their costumes but without avail. There was some f**kery afoot, and it felt like f**kery of the mutant persuasion... but... what was the exact mutation at play? Maybe a "get people stuck in their costumes" one?

Gina tugged at the hem of her shirt. Nope, that wasn't it-- it wasn't stuck to her.

She turned her attention back out upon the room. They were tugging at their masks, their prosthetics, but the mouths were articulating. Someone drew closer, yelling at Gina from the thick of the crowd.

>> "Hey, you know what the hell's going on?"

Gina pointed to her sternum. In the chaos of the room, her composure must have seemed weird. She shook her head.

"People're freaking out," she observed. In times of great stress, it'd seem she resorted to stating the obvious.

Skye closed her eyes, still aware of the green light that was illuminating her immediate surroundings. The girl remembered what her uncle had been teaching her about better control and focus. Steady breathing, focus on the objective, don't panic. her fists clenched, the light slightly calming as she opened her eyes to survey the pandemonium.

And that damn buzzing wouldn't stop. Even in the noise, in the chaos, she could faintly hear it right behind her, always in her ears. She thought a moment, trying to figure out what needed to be done, but for now...she only had one idea. Her wings still flapping, the girl jumped, but she didn't stay in the air for more than half a second. So much for her wings being functional. She could feel them trying, but no dice.

If she'd known they were going to become real, she would have made a little more effort to get the dimensions and the science right. Granted, at least she was still human sized. It would have sucked if she was turned into a size-appropriate fairy...

Her brown eyes looked around again, seeing a canine person and a gargoyle; she was sure she'd seen both of them before the chaos, and they looked pretty much like they do now. She walked over, the green light on her hands now just a flicker as she made it to the pair. If she was going to do something about this, she was going to need help. And these two looked like they'd be decent.

"So how bad were you two affected by this?" she casually asked. "These were coat-hangers and plastic when I got here, and now..." she jerked her thumb back to the constantly buzzing wings on her back.

Yeah, he could tell.

In fairness, Luke couldn't expect random bystanders to be responsive and proactive in this kind of chaos. He was having enough trouble himself, right? Still, without knowing what was happening to them or why, his hands were kind of tied as far as helping.

The crowd was less packed as Luke tried to move towards the young girl across the room, which was good because all the people moving against him had been playing up his nerves even more. "Are you okay?" He said as he finally maneuvered to the gray-skinned girl. "Nothing's happening to you, is it?"

Luke focused his attention on one man, who looked to have been decked out as an army ant--complete with green helmet and camouflage. He was tossing his head around in a panic, and the little legs on his abdomen were waving in the air. Disgusting, and bizarre. It had to be a costume thing, right? What the hell did that-

"Hmm?" Luke looked to the approaching girl, with fluttery wings and glowing hands. "This is me, normally." Luke looked down to the girls, who were both at least a foot shorter than him. "I already looked like this, that is. But, uh..."

Luke looked past the two. There were not a lot of human-looking people left; almost everyone in the area was no longer in an...actively-changing state. "So it is the costumes? They're, like, turning real, then?" That was definitely a bad thing. He knew how the Halloween specials went; someone dresses up as a death robot or a dinosaur and now everyone was in trouble.

Nobody seemed super-giant now, though. Good sign? Luke looked back to the other two, but before he could speak he heard a very brief, faint scraping sound from behind him.

"Ohs--" Reflexively, Luke pulled his arms up and felt a sudden stinging across his forearms as a wild-eyed man in some kind of robe flailed at him with what looked like...a katana?!

The...'samurai' reared back and slashed at him again, biting painfully into his right side. In response, Luke pulled to his left and lunged forward, slamming an open palm into the attacker's chest and sending him sliding on his back across the floor until he crashed into a stack of cardboard boxes full of comic books.

With a quiet hiss, Luke touched the second cut. Not deep, but dang it that stung. "Uhh, okay. What..." Luke trailed off, turning back to the girls. If that wasn't a random thing and other people were potentially going to start acting out, this could be a lot more bloody once non-mutants started getting stabbed.

Now what? "Any ideas?"

"I'm fine," Gina assured the guy, smiling.

A girl joined the party, her wings humming with anxiety.

>> "So how bad were you two affected by this? These were coat-hangers and plastic when I got here, and now..."

"Forreal?" the gargoyle breathed, her eyes flicking back towards the humming wings. The wolf-boy confirmed that he was normally a wolf-boy, so Gina also confirmed that, "I was born this way."

Some dude was brandishing an actual sword and went after the wolf-boy, Gina yelped in alarm. She clasped to the other girl's hand, which was still glowing.

"Let's get outta here," Gina yelled over the din, patting the wolf-boy's uninjured arm, "This has to be because of a mutant, and if we can find them, we can stop them! Come on!"

And Gina had zero combat training, so if people were attacking with swords, she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

The gargoyle forced her way into the hall, releasing the other girl's hand once they were free of the commercial room.

"This is a hotel, there has to be security cameras, at least in the conference rooms and major hallways," Gina explained, "The front desk could probably help us."

She wasn't taking into consideration the fact that they were just convention attendees, and had no rights to check security camera footage, but... it was worth a shot...

Skye nodded. "Neat! Physical mutants are really cool," she commented. "The lights and the hair are all me; they never really shut off," she added, smiling.

But that smile faded, and her green lights pulsed madly as the idiot with the sword attacked wolf-boy. The other girl had grabbed her hand, which actually steadied the light as she gripped the gargoyles hand; it was calming. And....that was a very good thing.

And then she was drafted into stopping this. Not that she minded. It was weird as hell; not what she'd expected from her first con in New York. But it was interesting, nonetheless. Once free, her hair became a more distraught blue as the fear waned off. "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Hopefully it won't get any--"

Suddenly, there was a soft pop and to Skye, the world looked a lot bigger. Her hair flashed green with shock, and suddenly her powers reached critical mass, and there was a bright flash of light and a sound like a gunshot--or...there would have been.

As it stood, the bright light was more akin to a camera-flash in pitch dark, and the bang was more like a gunshot in the distance. Not nearly as blinding or deafening as usual. The reason?

Skye was now all of six-inches tall, and her rapidly buzzing wings were keeping her afloat. She was flying at about Gina's shoulder level. "What the ****ing hell?!?" the girl swore, her voice a little quieter. They had to stop this quick, before things got even worse.

Luke felt a light touch on his arm and winced away reflexively, but it was just the girl. Okay, things were cool, inasmuch as they could be given the situation. Luke followed the girls quickly into the relative quiet.

Wow, his ears were ringing a little, but at least they had a moment to plan. The first girl seemed to have the right idea, though. He kind of wished he'd thought of that himself, but it was a good plan. "Yeah, I agree. If someone's attacking this way the, well, I don't know why they would but it's-"

The bang startled him momentarily, but then Luke realized that nothing had happened. Wait, where was the glowy-fairy...girl? Uh-oh. She was embracing her inner Tinker Bell, whether she wanted to or not. It was kind of funny, but it meant that this 'effect' was still ongoing. Bad sign.

"Oh, crap." Luke wasn't really sure how to offer support--sudden shrinking wasn't exactly a normal problem for him--so he just looked between her and the other girl and said, "We should stick together, maybe carry her if she can't keep up 'cause I don't wanna, well, yeah." He held up his clawed hands, then turned to face the hallway. "But uh, definitely checking out the front desk now."

Luke started making his way down the hall towards the reception office, but now there was another obstacle; the mass of people moving in all kinds of directions, bordering on a stampede, crowding through the doorways and halls.

"Ah, crap." Luke muttered. A moment's hesitation and he waded into the mass, gently but firmly the panicked humans aside to get to the door, who quickly learned to step out of his way. "C'mon!" He called back to the girls. Whatever gap he left in his wake was closing, but they could both probably fly right? The ceilings were high enough, hopefully.

Gina smiled politely at the remark. Even from another physical mutant, the remark settled with her weirdly. "Cool" mutations sensationalized the idea of having a mutation. One moment, Gina had been anxiously clasping the other girl's hand... and then she was clasping air. Gina gasped, and then squeaked in alarm when she realized where the other girl had gone.

Gina nodded and fell-in behind wolf-guy, who was the tallest of the three of them. But not before turning to the smaller girl, "If you want, you can grab a strand of my hair so we don't leave you in the dust... or sit on my shoulder or something."

It was too confined to fly inside, and the crowds were crushing in around them. The chaos was flowing into the halls. The wolf-guy was probably the best bet for breaking-up the crowd. Gina kept closed, her hands clasped to her chest.

Well this was just effing perfect; the fecal matter had hit the proverbial fan and she was six inches tall. What use would she be? What could she do? Well, she could fly, which was awesome, but she'd find herself mistaken for a bug, knowing her luck. Her hair had turned black, thanks to the fear, the frustration, and the confusion that had built up inside of her. Her hands flickered with a black-light sort of effect to reflect this, making her look like some sort of psychedelic firefly.

"Yeaah....good idea," she said, hovering close to the gargoyle's ear so she could be heard, then sort of sat on her shoulder, clinging to whatever fabric or hair she could to ensure she didn't fall off or get lost.

Her heart was racing, her hands still pulsing with the blacklight effect as the effects of the first flash-bang were finally subsiding, but she really couldn't afford to do that again. That wouldn't likely be pretty. And the last thing she needed was to fall off.

Okay, they were clear. Luke paused just outside the densest mass of people, as everyone ran around in all kinds of directions. He was feeling a lot more antsy now, though; tons of people pushing him made him feel really icky, even in what was probably a serious moment. As the girls caught up to him, Luke tried to steady himself, holding his restless body still and taking a deep breath.

Now to the next step. "Okay, okay, front desk is..." Luke turned, then turned again, then a third time, then saw the sign with directions to the lobby and started moving that way quickly.

"Hey, right here." The lobby had a heavy trickle of people scrambling through the doors, so Luke figured he wasn't going to get called on now with all these other things going on. He vaulted over the counter and shoved the chair out of the way, crouching in front of the setup.

It wasn't hard to get to the cameras; no password needed, just some basic point-and-click Luke could do in his sleep. He glanced up to check the clock, then started checking the different feed at the timestamp of roughly four minutes ago. After a few seconds, though, he made an abrupt growling sound and looked up. He pressed his palm against his forehead in frustration.

"There's frickin' dozens of cameras and they're not labeled or anything. I gotta go through them manually, unless either of you know what the 'room code' back there is." Not wanting to delay if he could at least brute force it, Luke went back to cycling through, trying to maintain composure so he didn't scare off the two others who were trying to help.