T-minus 10 minutes.

Breathing was hard, the riot gear was heavy, inhibited his movement, his clear plastic shield rested against his stomach. The helmet limited his peripheral vision, his breath fogging the face guard. He swallowed hard and looked at Saph, his assigned partner for this job. "That's a fucking lot of people." He had officers behind him, to either side, a line fifty yards ahead of him, a double row of riot squad cops. Beyond them a march of mutants, hundreds, potentially thousands. Behind him the anti-mutant march had reached the forward line. They were all unknown factors. But Saph, well, he trusted Saph. He'd fight with Saph to the bitter end, and somehow, he felt Saph would do the same for him.

They were the last line between the two groups, another double row of officers, and behind them 25 metres and identical line facing the other way. Cafas' heart was pounding. They'd done big things before. Insane things, things they barely lived through, but this was different, they were outnumbered twenty to one at least. He didn't know if he'd ever seen down town so crowded, or felt so much tension. "Hope this is the worst of it; Maybe they'll remain peaceful."

T-minus five minutes

IT almost seemed like it would, five minutes of nothing but yelling. Then shots fired, from both sides, almost seemed coordinated. A fireball flew over their line as gunshots rang out. A moment of disbelief, then all hell broke loose.

T-minus 30 seconds

The front line held out valiantly, surviving bombardment of bodies, thrown objects, mutant powers, but eventually cracks appeared, and then they broke. The line fell, officers falling back, the unlucky ones dragged into the fray. At least one of them wouldn't be coming back out. Black clad men poured back to their position, bolstering their line. It sounded like the front line on the other side fell too. Cafas picked up his shield, having spent the last ten minutes laying left handed punches into Saph's right arm. They set up the wall and braced. "See you in hell mate." one last smile and wink before a mass of Mutants broke against their shields like waves against a cliff.

"That's a ##^@&$^ lot of people."

"Steady, Caf... We can't let the lines meet. You know how many people die if we do." God bless em' both groups would likely be trying to kill them, when all the NYPD and affiliated X-men were trying to do was prevent death on both sides.

"Hope this is the worst of it; Maybe they'll remain peaceful. heh. That was hilarious. He had to admit the optimism was appreciated; it showed that at least someone was willing to hope for the best. Still, he couldn't help but respond.

"I would'n bet on it, buddy... #@%^'s about to get real." He stared forward, clenching the riot shield in his right hand as tight as he could... It would make it damn hard to cause any physical damage to him whatsoever, but with so many mutants involved, nothing was certain. The weight in his gut got greater and greater as the opposing line neared... He wasn't afraid of the anti-mutants breaking through from behind; riot police had been quelling protest lines since both concepts existed... Never before had so many mutants been involved, though; and they had been sure to put all of the mutant officers on this side; he could tell simply with a glance to the left and right... It almost shocked him how many mutants donned blue on the daily.


"Minimize deaths... Aim to disable." Even he was nervous, you could tell by how tense his voice was. As many mutants they had on their side, the wave that was finally within easy seeing distance was filled to the brim. So many eyes filled with hate... So many eyes, and he didn't blame a single set.

They were just people. People who felt wronged. How could he blame them for lashing out?

And lash out they did. Officers scattered as a fireball crashed into the ones composed lines. Rubber bullets were fired into the crowd, and it some certainly fell... More replaced them

"See you in hell mate."

"Not today... Not on my watch."

When the line finally met them, he wasn't so sure.

The world became an undecipherable mess as his sixth sense tried to make sense of it all; it felt just like the sea.

A man shaped very much like a rhino charged at him, and he smacked the sturdy being so hard he felt head over heels into the crowd, breaking his riot bat in the process. Damn.

He lashed out quickly at the next person, who appeared to have four eyes. The man slumped, and was trampled by what Saph could have sworn was a giant porcupine man. That proved to be closely accurate as a few quills spun his way, and he deflected them with his shield. He found himself doing a terrible dance as his hand grasped his trusty crowbar from his side, and spun about to smack the blunt end into an exposed leg, causing the ball of spikes to slump. An officer was in trouble, being engulfed by tentacles. Saph jumped in to beat what ever was attacking him back, and then turned to tackle a fox man who had been aiming to pounce at Cafas' exposed back.

He resorted to headbutting the man, or woman, he couldn't tell.

Details like that were lost in the chaos. You had no time to think; no time to make observations. Your enemy appeared before you, you did what you had to to render them harmless, and you moved on.

A ball of acid flew past his face, and he turned to see it smack into a riot shield, melting it as the officer tried to throw it off. He then punched a snake man in the throat, getting a long scratch down the length of his arm for his efforts.

"STAY TOGETHER! WE WILL NOT LET THEM PASS!"

Cafas had used a shield almost daily since he was a teenager. He'd practiced and practiced, he'd done strength training, deflection training, heck, he could use it as a weapon pretty effectively, but nothing had prepared him for the force that hit him. The front line was almost entirely composed of mutants with some form of strength mutation as far as he could tell. Only the shield wedged firmly against his back by the man behind him stopped him flying off his feet.

Saph had lost his riot bat, but Cafas knew that just gave him every right to break out that crowbar, and that certainly would be more useful. He kind of regretted not packing his sword at this point. His back up was just a rod of steel he'd taken from his work supply. Something furry passed narrowly over his head, and the man behind him fell. Cafas couldn't help him though, he was a little focused on pushing back against the mutant in front of him. The strain was forcing him back though.

He rammed the end of his baton into the jaw of one that managed to slip through a gap as Saph suddenly disappeared from next to him, a short second later there was a yelp. The line was breaking up already and Cafas could do nothing more than hold this one guy. He heard Saph call out. Behind him maybe? In that case. "Saph! I have a present for you! Blast him!"

Cafas stepped aside momentarily, the big guy stumbled, fell, caught himself. Cafas rammed his baton into the mutant's exposed thigh, spun, swung, and had the distinct pleasure of feeling the ribs of mutant, with no obvious mutation, crack and break, freeing the officer next to him from the grip around his throat.

Someone slung a brick. Cafas knew, because it hit him square in the head, and he was very glad for the helmet. Cafas pushed his way back into the line, doing his best to fill a two man gap. Their little section had opened up when that one mutant leaped in behind them, now they had their work cut out for them as the rioters noticed the gap.

He was bleeding; he ignored it. Red was a common color when it came to battle, and pain was only one detail among many. His fist ached as Cafas set up a beautiful opportunity, and he knocked it into space.

Where normally he would have celebrated such a perfect set up, he instead jumped into a hole two officers were meant to fill, and went on with his business. Another officer fell at his side, and he stood above the man legs on either side of him as one of the paramedics dragged him off, fending off three men while he was at it. A mutant police officer at the other end of the line breathed in deeply, and screeched into the crowd, causing several rioters to fall clutching their ears... Actions like this gave them a brief respite.

"Damnit, there's so many of them... Do we have reinforcements coming?" He listened to his radio, but couldn't make out anything said over the din of the crowd. The police around him fell back into formation, beating the few that breached the lines senseless, and then carting them off like some sort of sick conveyor belt.

Their respite was over. A line of mutants charged in, and one began breathing fire into the line. Saph held up his shield, but felt the intense heat as the flames tried to lick around it. Luckily, A well aimed rubber bullet racked the dragon man's head back, and he fell into the charging crowd, which acted like it never happened, slamming into the shield wall once more. The line facing the anti-mutants was having trouble, too, as incendiaries were strewn about. Feeling something zoom way over head, Saph's eyes lifted to the sky... Mutants were flying through the sky. A glanced downward revealed a very big mutant flinging mutants over the line... damnit, what would they think of next?!

"CAFAS! We gotta stop that!" The line would hold while they were gone, he was sure. With a great burst of collected energy from the crowd smashing into his shield, he opened up a hole, and held it open long enough for Cafas an himself to get through... From there, he hobbled forward as quick as he could, doing his best to beat down everything in his path to the behemoth.

Cafas sighed in relief as the crowd fell back under the piercing shriek of one of the officers. A few mutants, apparently immune to the sonic attack, proved to not be immune to batons and rubber bullets. Cafas took a second to check his radio. If the fact it was in three pieces was anything to go by, he'd say it was broken.

Great...

The mutants had recovered when he looked up. They surged forward, fire from some dragon mutant spraying the shields of those holding the line. He went down, it did nothing to dissuade the others. This wave lacked power of the first, most of the heavy hitters having been carted off in cuffs. Cafas felt the heat from fire bombs behind them, the pressure of the mass of bodies in front. He beat one mutant after another back, but their numbers didn't seem to lessen any.

"CAFAS! We gotta stop that!"

He assumed Saph meant the mutants being flung over them by some hulking mutant further back in the crowd. While he agreed with the fundamental points of Saph's argument he failed to see how it was going to be possible, what with the sea of people between them and their target. That question was answered in short order as Saph blew a path through the crowd.

Yup... That'll do it.

Cafas rushed into the breach on Saph's heels. People grabbed at them, powers were angled their way, as did fists and other assorted projectiles. Most missed, some helped them, friendly fire taking its toll, one or two met their mark only to be blocked by shields and bullet-proof gear. Anyone that got too close received a thorough beating to the head.

It was only when they got close that Cafas realised the scope of the task they were attempting. The guy was almost ten foot tall and built like a house. This could be interesting.

Rubber bullet hailed down on the giant man, but nothing seemed particularly effective. Cafas sensed this was a job for his steel bar more than his baton. He tucked the baton into his holster and yanked out the metal bar. He took his run up, wound up, and drove the bar into the giant's kneecap.

The reaction was not quite what he'd wanted. The giant man roared in pain and stumbled back, but it certainly wasn't the kneecap-breaking blow he had hoped it would be. Cafas took the opportunity to hit him somewhere it would hurt though. He felt dirty, but then again, this guy would likely kill him if he let him.

"Got a plan Saph? Cos all I've got is beat him until he drops."

BAM. Steel rod to the groin.

Yup, that's hurt him.

The Masochist was living up to his name. As he came into the Giant's range, the being noticed, and swung. He took a blow that could flip a car to the side, and stumbled off to the side. As the mutant stared for a moment, wondering why his target hadn't gone flying, Cafas was able to slip in and attack his knee.

He had to give it to his fellow X-man, he had balls. With no physical advantage he was brave enough to rush someone who could make him a smear on the road, and smart enough to target a weak spot. That was what it took to be one of the X-men, though. The Giant recovered from the knee shot just in time for Cafas to target another weak spot.

Ouch.

He would have winced for the man if he wasn't busy dropping his shield and crowbar, and holding out his right hand to make a platform for the giant's chin as he bent down in reflex reaction to the low blow.

AAAAAND now for the wind up! Saph spun about his fist dramatically, and clocked the behemoth with all of the amplified energy from the man's own attack. He went heels over head and landed on a crowd of surprised rioters.

"Heh... Nice shot; A little stereotypical to aim down under, though." He chuckled, but was cut short as the crowd responded to them being there... "Crap... Down the alley!" Saph pointed off to a nearby alleyway to hint that it was their best chance to escape the clusteryouknowwhat that was headed their way; If they got a bunch of mutants to chase them, the police line might see some rest as well. He speed hobbled as fast as his legs would carry him, gathering his shield and weapon as he did.

A glance back told him a crowd of mutants was on their tail.

"Between that and getting hit with a brick, I think the joke was more painful." Cafas was running after Saph. He didn't need to look back to know what was happening. He knew they probably had a hundred strong contingent of the rioters after them. He knew at least one of them could fire projectiles too. He discovered that as something sot and small smashed into his arm. The plating there spared him some of it, but the searing pain told him it had breached.

"AAAAAAAAAARGH!" He dropped the metal bar from the pain, and began ripping at the sleeve with his other hand. He found a purchase on the sleeve and tore it off. The protective plastic armouring in it had a hole bored right through it. He threw the sleeve away and beat the glowing ball of... Something, off his arm. Ahead he spied a fire escape, an upturned dumpster and an opportunity.

"Saph, we gotta try for the fire escape!"

Cafas put on a burst of speed, concentrating hard. He jumped off a small staircase leading to a door, onto the dumpster, and lunged for the fire escape. He grabbed it with his non shield hand.

The ladded came down to street level, and Cafas began climbing. He hoped it was Saph that had just made the ladder rattle below him. He stopped to check halfway up the stairs to the next level.