Tensions were high.

You didn't have to be an X-Man to know that. Heck, you hardly had to be sentient.

What was worse, when tensions were high, crime was high. That made the Masochist a very busy man nowadays. After all, he was willing to work overtime...

And no place needed that overtime more that the lower east-side residential district. Here, the poor and struggling, many of whom were mutants, eked by an existence what wasn't too short of homelessness in some cases. On top of that, they had to deal with crime rates not reflecting it's denizens... Unfortunately, this was the back yard everyone s#$t in.

Saph was here to play a bit of clean-up.

He stood on the rooftop of an apartment building, eyeing some suspicious figures as they peeked out around a corner into the main street... An Ambush, he'd gathered.

An already tingling hand wandered to his crowbar.

Who were they ambushing anyway? It looked like where were a lot of them. At least one was a mutant, too. Visible.

Be couldn't arrest them until they acted, and he didn't want to let them off with a warning. He sat in wait, the hunter stalking the hunters.

Times were tough, or at least they were for a struggling college student. Shelby was getting by, but just barely. With the high cost of her tuition, food, and room and board she was constantly scraping the barrel when to came to the rest of her finances. Her part time job only brought so much money in, so she had to find other ways to supplement her income.

...Which was how she found herself pacing nervously back and forth behind a bus stop, across the street from a rundown apartment building in the crappiest part of town. “God help me, why am I here!?” For the billionth time she cursed under her breath, her fingers nervously twitching around the strap of her supply bag.

“Hey, Shell… just calm down and breathe, kay? Stop wearing more grooves in the sidewalks.” Her roommate's voice murmured into her ear. With a long, exaggerated sigh, she did just that. “Okay, okay… fine.” Stopping behind a bus shelter she slumped down on the grimy grate seat and rubbed her temple. “I just hate this. You know how much I hate this!”

“Yes, I know your crippling anxiety and unwillingness to socialize on so many levels it's not even funny anymore. But, this was your idea, remember? No one is twisting your arm behind your back here.” Shelby groaned into the phone as a response and wriggled anxiously on the bench. “Yeah, yeah. Just… remember the plan, okay?”

“Call you in fifteen with some sort of dire emergency. If I haven’t heard from you in twenty minutes, send the cops. Yup, i’m on it. Gosh, Shell.. If I didn’t know any better i’d think you were going on a date!”

Shelby pursed her lips and wrinkled her nose, snapping out a quick goodbye before hanging up on her friend. Honestly, she wouldn’t be so paranoid… but the last few commissions she’d gotten had been questionable. Like, old men in speedo’s with cats, questionable. She really didn’t want to have to run into that again anytime soon. But, given that she charged at least a few hundred dollars per commission, she really didn’t have the option of giving it all up. Not if she wanted to continue with her few guilty pleasures. Like her freakin’ data plan. Who could live without the internet these days?

Sucking in a deep breath, which smelled and tasted like things she didn’t want to think about, she fished the slip of paper with the address on it from her pocket and stood up. It was now or never.
Glancing up at the building as she made her way across the street she glanced up at the windows and wondered which one held her client. Which floor was 36c on? High up? Down low? She stopped before the stairwell, squinting up at a sign on the door through her glasses.

“... Please use… other door?” An grimey arrow pointed to the right towards a dirty chain link fence that led to a dark alley.

“... Nope. Nope, nope, nope, nope.”

Turning on her heel, she fished her phone from her pocket to call and tell her friend she had chickened out, and made to march right back up the sidewalk from whence she came.

"That one?" One of the men whispered.

"No, we'll snag the next one... we have to time this right." The men whispered to each other as a woman with pink hair wandered past. The sounds would be lost to the streets, but tended to echo up through the alley ways quite a bit.

Lucky girl, Saph thought. That meant this was going down soon, though. He tried to lean in to get a good look at the possible assailants... What did they mean they had to time this right?

No dice; all he could really tell was that one of them was definitely a mutant. Nothing new. He toggled the call for a knight stationed a few blocks away to move in. He wasn't super fond of the things, especially after a few days ago, but they definitely had their uses; in this case, he would find out the abilities of the obvious mutant, and if any of the others were mutants as well.

The girl was already on her way back. Not so lucky after all. As she passed, the men hopped out. One in front, one to cut her off from turning back, and the third, the obvious mutant rolled out. He looked... interesting from up here. Saph wondered what he looked like up close. He checked his communicator... Knight ETA 15 seconds. A couple more could be in in minutes if he needed them.

He usually didn't.

They started speaking below. He couldn't really hear, having lost the echo effect from the alley Saphirus prepared to jump down and help if things got out of hand before the knight arrived.

Her friend hadn’t answered, so she had resorted to furiously texting her about the whole thing. So engrossed with her rant was she, that she didn’t even see the movement of a man in front of her until he was already blocking her path. Startled, she nearly dropped her phone but managed to catch it last second in a flail of limbs.

“Jesus!” Her exclamation seemed to entertain the man, as he shot her a lopsided grin. Heart hammering around in her ribcage like a rabbit’s, she immediately turned on her heel to head in the opposite direction while keeping an eye on the fellow who had startled her. A few steps away she bumbled suddenly into someone else and her senses were immediately on high alert. One man behind, another man directly in front of her, whom she immediately skirted back from. She eyed the other side of the street and noticed a third not to far away. And man, it would have been hard to miss that one even if she weren’t scared shitless at the moment.

That one, the third, was a rusty orange in color, had warty looking growths all over his body, and his hair seemed to twist off in horny looking protrusions in all directions. Most startling to her, was that he had the most vibrant, eerie yellow eyes.

“Hey now, not even gonna say hi?” One man laughed, she cringed and jerked her head his way. “How about we all get to know each other, since we’re going to be spending some time together… hmm?”

Gulping, she blinked a few tears away and attempted to get her voice working again. She couldn’t let fear shut her down or she’d be in a very bad spot. “L-look… I don’t have much, but you have it, okay? My friend.. M-my friend has probably already called the police… you can just take my bag and leave..” It was true, mostly. She didn’t have a lot, hardly anything really. She didn’t make it a habit of bringing anything terribly expensive with her on trips like this. The last part however… She’d just finished telling her friend she was on her way back via text, before she noticed the guy. The police were definitely not on their way.

One man chuckled and took a few casual steps toward her. “Darlin’, that is exactly what we're countin' on…”

All three of them laughed, and Shelby was very suddenly aware of the peril she was in. Acting on impulse, she un-slung her bag from around her shoulder and flung it as hard as she could at the nearest guy, while breaking out into a sprint in what looked like an open direction.

Unfortunately for her, the only visible mutant made a move at the same time. A shadow suddenly loomed over her, and as she turned her chin to look the guy landed on her. She did a full body plant into the road, knocked her head good on the pavement, and felt all of the air leave her at once. He proceeded to make himself comfortable sitting on her back and turned to face his buddies, while she clawed at the ground and pushed at his rear to no effect. Damnit, she couldn’t breath and he was crushing her rib cage!

“Man, chick wasn’t kidding. She must be poor as shit.” The fellow she’d tossed her back at muttered as he shifted through her stuff. “Got a pretty nice camera in here though. Oh, and lots of art stuff. You think she’s one of them art geeks?” He drew a sketch pad out, after stuffing her camera in his pocket, and proceeded to shuffle through it one-handedly.

The dead-weight sitting on her back shifted and she sucked in a breath greedily, coughing and gasping. "Yeah, but are they any good? Any shmuck can pretend they're an artist." The mutant chuckled, and promptly sat back down on her fully. She could have cursed him, had she been able to breathe.

Then, the sound of something repeatedly striking against the pavement reached her ears. It was distant at first, but was nearing quickly. From around the corner down the street came the source of the sound. A Knight, sprinting towards them as fast as it was capable of. Shelby croaked out the happiest sound she could muster, having never been so glad to see one of those bots in all her life.

Things were escalating quickly. The X-Man, not like to let others handle his business, nearly jumped in the second she went to flee and was stopped. He couldn't really tell from here, but it looked like the mutant might have changed form somehow, and flung himself at her. His instincts told him to lash out; A Judge in the back of his mind to make it with lethal force.

He shook it off... The Knight was nearly there, and he needed to learn how to work along-side them.

"CEASE AN DESIST, CITIZEN! You are assaulting that woman!"

Oh jees, if that wasn't campy as hell, what was?

The men all made eye contact with each other, and smiled. The mutant sitting on the girl stood, grabbing her and pulling her into his arms, placing her between the officer and himself.

"oh no... Looks like we've been caught. What ever will we do, guys?"

Another chimed in.

"I dunno pudds... Maybe we ought to take a hostage or sumthin, huh?"

The burlier of the three men spoke up, chuckling.

"Hostage situation confirmed. Requesting authorization for back-up."

Saphirus' eyes squinted a bit as he reached down to his wrist communicator and toggled the approval. Something was up. SOP for the bots was to request backup in hostage situations. The men seemed like they might be aiming for that... But... No. Why would anyone want to make more of these things come out?

Two more knights were en-route. They would be there in minutes... This was going strangely, though. He opted not to jump in for now until the uneasy feeling in his guy died down, or if it seemed like the hostage situation would go critical. Still, he kept his hand on his crowbar, ready to strike.


"I will be your hostage negotiator. Please state your terms for release. Please know that violence is not your ally in this situation, and that I am here to help."

The robot attempted to take a step closer, and the mutant gave the girl a yank to give it pause.

Her head was fuzzy. More... chaotic than normal. It was harder for her to have a thought and stick with it. Right now she was attempting to figure out what to do next. The only problems she was currently facing was the fact that fatty was still sitting on her (how much did he friggen weigh?!) and that was all she could really focus on. She absently wondered if she'd gotten a concussion of some form from the fall, but didn't have a whole lot of time to ponder on it. As soon as the robot was close, her captor moved and pulled her up with it. The startling bit was that he didn't really stand, so much as he reformed himself into a new position. In fact, in the places where he had a hold on her, his skin was latching onto her. A new breed of horror settled in her gut quickly. She chose, perhaps wisely, to keep her mouth shut and let the META do all the talking. They were programmed for this stuff, right?

"I will be your hostage negotiator. Please state your terms for release. Please know that violence is not your ally in this situation, and that I am here to help."

The one who had been holding her bag and drawing pad, which had been abandoned on the street as soon as the bot showed up, wandered over towards them. "Well, see, problem with that is that we haven't got any demands. Our friend here, eh.." He withdrew the camera he had pilfered from her bag from his pocket and squinted at it. "Shelby, we are all gonna have a nice time chatting together, ya know. All friendly like."

She flinched, having forgotten about the name labels on most of the things she used for school and after school work. It was disconcerting hearing her name coming from the thug. "Ain't that right, Pudds?"

The guy holding her wheezed out a laugh, which was concerning really, and she felt his grip on her shift. Not in a way that hurt, right at first. No, just a subtle shift that almost made it feel like his grip had loosened. For a moment she wondered if she could break free and make a run for it, toward the bot.

...but then, she felt what his change in grip had really done. Little bits of him were twining around her. Even though his arms and hands had loosened on her, little tendrils of his body had started to creep around her shoulders and waist. One around her knee, one around her wrist. She stilled, frozen in absolute terror and stared wide eyed at the META. Then, with another laugh, pain.

The tendrils that had gotten a hold of her gripped harder; enough to leave bruises, she was sure. The pained grunt that escaped her was the only real clue of what had happened. Meanwhile, the man with her camera had sidled up right alongside them. "Ahh, yes. That's it Pudds." She heard the snap of the shutter, and fixed a terrified stare on the man. "See, you've got me in an artsy mood now. That expression, the background... perfect." The shutter snapped a few more times as he circled around them. Then he turned and snapped a picture of the Meta bot, lopsided grin in place. "What, you still here? Shoo!"

Shelby, panicked, shook her head and whimpered. Unbecoming, yes... but god she was getting desperate. "Help me! Please!" The tendrils squeezed again, and she hissed.

The bot didn't get angry, as an officer might... As Saphirus already had. It stood calmy, and stated plainly.

"Desist, citizen, or I will use force. State your demands. Violence is not your ally. I am here to help."

The two other knights came sprinting in, and came to a stop on both flanks of the first.

"I decline negotiation. I decline negotiation. I decline negotiation." The third man chimed in. He then held out his hand opened it, and a small flame appeared.

Something was wrong. Something was very wrong. Further reinforcements were authorized when negotiations were declined three times. Again when two dangerous mutants were identified. They knew. How much did they know?

Saphirus pulled his crowbar. He'd seen enough; it was time to step in. The battle-hardened mutant took careful aim as the would-be artist paused and put a hand on his ear.

"You find the controller? Good. Take him out!"

A detail occurred to Saphirus... Only in the most dangerous situations did they authorize a golem's deployment. Two or more dangerous mutants, a hostage, declined negotiations... And the death of an officer. That would do it.

BLAM!

Saphirus spun in place and fell from his spot on the roof, landing atop a dumpster below.

The Knights reacted accordingly, pulling weapons and taking immediate cover.

"Well I'll be... Shelby, you had an X-Man looking out for you! Shame... No one can save you now."

Two scouts showed up on the other side of the street. "A golem will be on it's way... North side, just like we calculated."

What the hell was happening? What did they want!? Tears openly fell at this point, and Shelby had started to shake her head in disbelief. Was this some sort of horrible joke? Had they taken it too far and couldn’t back out now? Where all three of these men just sociopaths?!

She could feel herself starting to lose control. Breaths coming in faster and faster, getting dizzier. “..What the hell…” The words were barely above a whisper, but it was all she could muster.

"I decline negotiation. I decline negotiation. I decline negotiation."

“What the hell do you want from me!?” Her stunned silence broke the moment the other man refused to demand anything. Multiple times.

”Multiple mutant perpetrators confirmed. Requesting backup.”

She tried to swivel in place to see what he was talking about, but she was unfortunately much shorter than the man holding her hostage. Instead, she had to rely on what she was hearing to evaluate the situation. Which… was escalating at the same pace as a NASCAR race at this point. Suddenly camera guy was talking to himself, then there was the loud bang of a gunshot, then something fell into something else somewhere off in her blind zone. She screamed, of course, because what person wouldn’t shriek in terror in her situation?

Then, the Robots all took cover. Shelby could have cried out had she not been so god damned confused and terrified. Some weird mix of the two. Conterifused?

"Well I'll be... Shelby, you had an X-Man looking out for you! Shame... No one can save you now."

Then he was in front of her, that damn camera in her face. Her camera.

”Guess the rest of the party is on it’s way, huh?” The shutter clicked, he tossed the camera off to the side, and then he spun away. Her captor sprang into action, his body suddenly expanding from the sides like extra arms. Within each crude hand were guns… some sort of pistol. Shelby wasn’t a gun nut by far, and her knowledge of firearms was very limited. But she had seen similar guns before in games. They were meant to shoot a lot of things and do a lot of damage. When another of the weapons materialized beside her head, from within the man’s chest, she shrieked, renewing her efforts to struggle free as all three men prepped and opened fire on the META bots that had come to help her.

They paid him no mind. Getting shot, falling several stories onto a metal dumpster, who could survive that?

Saphirus looked down to the bullet in his hand. He'd guessed well when it came to what they would be aiming for. The fall had been an easy ordeal; he aimed to land on his right side. Still, he remained slumped, face down on to dumpster. He had to find out what these people were after. His mind screamed at him as the girl cried out. He hoped she could hang in there; she was the one focus of his sixth sense right now. He would send his crowbar flying the fat one's way if he attempted to harm her further.

The robot police had finished talking, bullets skipped off their angled armor with little trouble. Weapons dispensed from their sides, and they replied in kind. The three mutants, including the one holding the girl, pulled back, stepping toward the cover of a nearby parked semi truck.

From a distance he could see the lights of cop cars around the corner. They were likely setting up a perimeter. New policy was not to engage once it became a mutant conflict. That was left to the METAs and the X-Men.

He assessed the situation in his mind... Three suspects in the street, at least one sniper. They knew what they were looking for, too. These were pros. The girl? Just a tool to escalate the situation as quickly as possible. They were trying to get some real serious META bots out here, and quickly... Why?

The two scouts closed in, one moving to his location, the other moving to support the robotic officers. The flame mutant engulfed one officer's position in flames and cackled loudly. The third one took a few bullets and suddenly began turning into lead.

a glance down to his com told him his control had been overridden. HQ was likely controlling the bots now.

In the distance, a loud thumping sound could be heard. The guardian was near.

She imagined that this was what it felt like to be at all near a war zone, let alone smack dab in the middle of it. From her perspective there was a lot going on, and oddly enough, she had a lot of time to inwardly reflect on it. It was... abstract, in a way. 

For instance, she was aware of the fact that the back of her neck was covered in a cold, sticky sheen of sweat. It added to her discomfort on some minimal level. She could also feel an angry, lurking headache somewhere within skull, and noted that it was strangely not on the side she had gotten acquainted with the pavement on. She was also aware that the whole 'slow motion' or 'everything became a blur' tropes were no where to be found. Time was meandering on at it's same boring ol' pace, which, in her opinion, was way worse than the other alternatives. 

Hell, as she kept struggling she was acutely, horrifyingly aware that every time she pushed on the guy holding her captive her hands sank into him a little bit. In fact, with what little strengths he had left she dug her hands vainly into his chest. Perhaps he had a heart in there she could latch onto? Maybe his organs weren't made out of the same gloopy material and she could grab one and cripple him? Maybe she was just delirious with fear and desperate, but hell, it seemed like a better idea than sitting around and letting herself get used as some sort of meat shield!

Something exploded in a whoosh of air not far from her, a tire on a stray parked car had been hit. She yelped in surprise, which her captor didn't seem to enthused about. "Shut up, already!" 

Unluckily for her, she had still been harboring the assumption that they were after her for some reason. Even if that reason was nefarious and would most likely end in her demise, it still left her with the possibility that they wanted to keep her alive for now.... or at least until the Meta's were gone. In reality she was just the pawn that had set the whole thing in motion; she was dispensable. A fact that her captor was well aware of, and decided to act upon while he had the chance, if only to keep her from distracting him any further. He still needed to keep her, at least until the Sentry showed up fully... but that didn't mean that he couldn't start the process of getting rid of her. 

Before Shelby knew what was happening the tendrils that had been confining and restraining her tightened immensely. Instead of crushing her immediately though, they started to drag her toward the man. Into him. She wasn't physically strong enough to fight it, but she was able to throw her head back and away as one might when slowly sinking into thick mud. Postponing the inevitable, really... but it was all she could do. Quicker than her mind could keep up with her arms vanished into his chest. Her feet, legs, and lower half soon followed. The last thing she saw before being pulled fully in, was the sides of him extending out like welcoming arms, to wrap her in a dark, warm embrace.

About the same time she fully vanished inside of Pudds, the Sentry rounded the corner down the street.

The Golem had arrived.

Great. No one would be looking his way at this point. Those things definitely captured people's attention.

Now to help the girl- wait, what the hell? He struggled to make sense of what his sixth sense was telling him without looking himself; He was... engulfing her. He needed to act now, before the golem turned this whole damned area to slag.

One of the men, the one who'd taken the camera and turned to lead, clanked casually on over to the back door of the semi and knocked on it. turning with a grin to the Golem.

A deep voice echoed from it as it came into range.

Citizens, this is your last chance to surrender. Lethal force is authorized. Comply.

NOW! He took the opportunity to launch himself suddenly with the collected energy from his fall. The X-Man flew like a rocket, his destination? Pudds.

SPLASH!

He smacked into the blobby man, and came out the other side with the girl in his arms.

"Rough landing."

He had time to state as they came out the other side, and landed in a heap. He did the best he could to pad her fall, but it wouldn't be a breeze by any stretch. While this was happening, the back door of the semi slid open.

The door slid open.

Behind it was a giant cockroach with an RPG-29 over his shoulder. He aimed the deadly device and pulled the trigger with a squeal of glee.

A direct hit! The golem was struck dead on, and the tank-piercing projectile made short work of it's sophisticated armor.

KRRRAKOW! A plume of smoke and fire shot up into the sky

The giant cockroach stared blankly for a second, and then took a deep breathe of fresh city air. Around him, several child-sized roach people crawled out and joined the battle; two were event equipped with grenade launchers.

"Ah, New York City. So good to be back! Get rid of the riffraff and collect the pieces, my dear chaps! We have places to be, people to kill!"

The bug reached up to grab the door of the truck, and pull it shut once more. It started, and began pulling away moments later.

Shelby imagined that drowning in a lake was probably a lot less terrifying than her current situation. She was trapped on all sides, slowly being crushed by warm, moist pressure. There was air, for now... but as the gooey walls pushed in on her, it was becoming harder and harder to breath. The air was hot and warm. Uncomfortable. She couldn't really struggle; just wiggle uncomfortably. Was this what it felt like being in the womb? God, she hoped not. And she dearly wished there was some sort of cord supplying her much needed oxygen as well. It was also worth noting, somewhere in the back of he thoughts, that she could still hear muted sounds. Gun fire and shouting, robotic commands. She could hear her soon-to-be murderer breathing. It would have been almost comforting, if not for the current circumstances.

Then, seemingly almost as fast as she can gotten sucked in, she was suddenly out. And also wrapped in someone else's grip, and also seemingly flying... however short lived.

They met the ground, rolled, and as soon as she could she sucked in a breath of fresh, not warm and moist air. Didn't have much time to savor it though, as the next instant there was a rather loud whistling, then a violent explosion. She curled up further into the embrace of whoever it was shielding her, protecting her face and neck as much as she could. A few moments after the blast, she gathered the courage to open her eyes and actually survey the area.

It was chaos... there were more... things, now. Insect like creatures with... were those goddamn grenade launchers?! The thought of that didn't even have time to settle before the battle picked up again. One of the little creatures fired another grenade, bullets were flying... Shelby felt like she had wandered into some kind of bad dream.

A glint caught her eye, and she spied her camera within arms reach of her. The psycho who had taunting her with it had tossed it off to the side earlier... she remembered now. On impulse she reached out and snatched it back to herself. A quick look over it showed that it was no worse for wear... a small crack in the plastic casing and a dent in the lens from the fall. It still had the a good deal of space left for pictures as well...

While she was still able, she lifted it and started snapping pictures like crazy. Pictures of the insane little bug men. Pictures of the guy who had tried to suffocate her in himself pictures of the sociopath. She caught a slightly out of focus picture of a larger figure over by the semi truck, and then another much clearer picture directly after. she didn't stop to check the quality of each, instead just focusing on capturing as many images as possible. In her mind, it was probably the only proof she would have that such a thing had indeed happened to her, or in the event that she didn't walk out of there alive, the only sliver of hope to make sure whoever killed her got caught.

KRRRAKOW!

HO @#$^! That was a goddam RPG! He'd felt it rocket toward the Golem, and blow a hole right in it's chest.

Immediately after a fair number of small creatures joined the fray. One of them handily destroyed a knight by firing into it three times with a grenade launcher.

They were in over their heads. He looked to the girl, but she had already stepped away to grab her camera and... start taking pictures?

He had to give it to her, she was brave. Stupid, but brave. He ha to get her out of here, though.

Before he could think too much about that, his sixth sense caught something coming, and his body shifted without him thinking. A projectile struck his right shoulder and bounced off of his armor plate. He stepped back into cover, an yelled for the girl to as well.

The fire continued, pinning him down as some of the minions skittered over and grabbed the woman, taking her toward the slowly fleeing truck. "Hup hup hup hup hup!" They all cried as they carried her out.

Cursing, the Masochist reached out to try and stop them, and flinched back as a bullet struck the wall right next to him.

Dammit. He needed to deal with the sniper!

Meanwhile, the back of the truck opened up enough to receive her and her kidnappers.

Continued in: Do You Take Commissions? (pt.2)