((ooc: Continued from Raina's BDAY Part 2- The Party. Open to Mansion residents and Order members. )

The crow man's eyes noticed a certain bald teenager skedaddling back inside, and a green-haired girl about Kat's age peering out the door before running scared. Heh. Chimera turned to the werecar. "I think we've been spotted, Slade," he said, with a pleasant little trill, backing up towards the van on his taloned feet. He turned a step before it, and reached in through the open window: a bit of fiddling with the glove compartment later, and he had his quarry in hand. "Keep working, would you?" He cackled, passing between the car man and his masterpiece-in-progress with a light pat aimed at Slade's metal shoulder. He didn't say a word about what he was doing, but it didn't take a Porsche to realize that the overgrown bird was up to something.

The plan involved a clipboard, a pen, and a brown FedEx baseball hat. He made a show of adjusting the hat over his head feathers as he strode in bold, sharply clicking bird steps up to the Mansion's oak doors. If the door was still closed at that point, he would knock. If the X's were tumbling out like so many funny faces from a clown car, he would smile pleasantly in greeting. Or gape his beak at them, in any case.

"Hello," he addressed the first little X-fool or Mansion freeloader he saw; "I need a signature for this delivery. Is there a..." He squinted down at his clipboard. "Raina, here? A 'Miss Syn' wishes her a happy birthday. And there's a message... Huh. Just a sec." The crow made a very big show of patting down his clothes; then, he pulled a slip of paper out from under the other sheets on the clipboard. "Right, here it is. Makes sense that I'd put it there. Sorry--it's my first week. FedEx lost that discrimination suit, would you believe?" His beak gaped again. "They've got to hire us mutants now. Score one for the home team, am I right? Anyway, the message, the message... Ah!"

The crow man straightened himself up; the feathers all over his body smoothed themselves down as he cleared his throat in a rather dry, rasping cough. " 'Dear Raina:

So sorry that to be late for your birthday, but I had more important matters to attend to. Rest assured that myself and my family will be fashionably late,

The Lady of Infinite Darkness,

Syn' "

"Wow," the crow man finished, tilting his head. "That was kind of egotistical--good friend of yours, huh? So... about that signature?"

He held out his clip board and pen, eyes blinking in a friendly, slightly clueless manner.

There was a party going on downstairs.  Upstairs, a Rottweiler was stretched out on a thirteen-year-old's bed, watching the teen pace back and forth.  She was talking to him, be he didn't understand what she was saying.  Her voice seemed a little excited, not angry, but perhaps a little nervous.

"What do you think, should I go for it?  I mean, she's a music teacher, so she likes music.  It's just that there are a lot of people down there.  What if no one wants to listen?  Oh I don't know!"

The dog put his head down on his paws, but his eyes continued to follow as the girl waved her instrument in frustration.  He had learned that the black wooden stick with small metal bits on it was non-threatening, at least when wielded by this particular human.  Usually when she took it out of its box she made noises come out of it, but today she was just taking it for a walk.  Back and forth, back and forth.

"I mean, she's a teacher and I hardly even know her.  Am I supposed to give her some sort of present?  I can't really do anything other than play a song, but if if the party is so busy, it will be difficult to get everyone to be quiet enough to hear."

At that point, the Rottweiler's ears perked up.  There were strange noises outside at the gate.  He stood and launched himself toward the window, putting his paws up on the sill and his wet nose against the glass.  There were strangers down there, intruding upon the edge of his territory.  There had been strangers arriving all night, which perhaps was the reason he had been shoved into a random bedroom before the teenager had heard him whining and taken him to her own room for company.  He whined again now; a high pitched whine that was almost a bark but not quite.  These strangers in particular seemed suspicious.  There was something about them... the hat!  He knew that brimmed hat and clipboard.  He knew they were evil.

As soon as he recognized the delivery men for what they were, the dog spun and bolted for the door, barking furiously at it, demanding that it open. It was clearly his duty to protect this new home of his and his nice new people from the threatening clipboard carrier. Luckily for him, the door was still open a sliver. One wet dog nose wedged itself into the small crack, and a moment later one large brown and black was streaking down the hallway, down the stairs, past party goers gawking out the windows and front door, and straight for the scrawny man with the clip board with his teeth bared and growling viciously. He would not let this ominous person assault his home with his clipboard of calamitous tidings, even I he did smell like chicken.

Moments later, a thirteen year old barreled down the stairs after the dog, trying in vain to catch his collar with one hand while holding an oboe in the other hand, “You're not supposed to be out here!” That was aimed at the dog. If no one stopped her, she'd continue to follow the dog right out the door to rescue the feathery fed-ex employee from his furry assailant.

It was time to roll. Streak, Sam, Luke, and unfortunately a few other followed him to the front door. For some unknown reason, there was a dog in the mansion. Thoughts were flying though his head at a mile a minute. This was the first time that he'd be leading a group of mutants into battle and hopefully he wouldn't have to do this for quite some time after this attack was over. One thought that remained for just a second longer than the rest was Why on earth is there a dog in the mansion? Then he spotted Katrina , who was chasing after the dog, and everything seemed to make sense.

"Kat!"He called after her. This was no time for pleasantries. "Leave the dog and get into the living room where Raina is and stay there until the danger has past." If there was one thing he didn't take lightly it was battle. Streak quickened his pace as he got closer to the front door. He heard the knocking and opened it to see a crow man standing there in a Fed-Ex cap and holding a clipboard. Streak listened to the crow talk and once he was finished he said, "Nope. No Raina here. You've got the wrong address so why don't you leave now. And take your robot friend with you." He said inclining his head to the robot over at the gate.

It didn't seem like many people listened to his little speech that he'd made before heading out of the living room. This fight was not going to take place inside the or near the mansion if he could help it. He wanted to make sure that all the people who'd stayed behind weren't involved and weren't injured accidentally. Streak stepped outside so that he was right in front of the crow man, crossed his arms, and stood there stubbornly. He knew his group of fighters was right behind him, on the other side of the door, and would help him out at a seconds notice. The dog barking didn't help make matters any easier either.

Naveed was quick to follow behind Streak after insisting his Sister stay where she was. He checked behind himself but didn't yet see Flloyd. That was too bad. Flloyd's presence would atleast unerve a few people.
He approached the group and spyed a little crow-like man. At least that told him a lot about his ability, and that he likely couldn't resist Naveed's type of attack. So that was good. If he could at least get close enough he might be able to find out the real reason they were here- though he had no idea who this Syn person was.

He pushed his was through the crowd and concentrated on what his exact words might be. He had to get it right the first time, he wouldn't get a second. When he got to the front of the group he had to crouch down to even be level with the little guy. "Tell us the real reason you're here." he said with intent- his eyes a blaze. There was no way of knowing this creatures level of comprehension, especially with the noise around. He wasn't exactly sure if those warped beady little eyes were looking at his. But if they were he'd feel an overwhelming urge to answer the question.

OOC: up to you if it takes effect or not Calley I tried to leave as much room as possible.

Luke remained silent as he stood a few feet behind Streak with his arms crossed over his chest. The bird-man was definitely like nothing and no one he had ever met before. I mean, how in the world could you forget a giant crow? Or was he more like a raven? Perhaps a sea gull? Without color to differentiate it was difficult to tell.

Streak seemed to have things well under control when a rather large man pushed his way to the front. Without proper introductions Luke wasn't sure if the guy was Raina's brother or her ex-fiance but he did know the guy was close to Raina in some way.

"Wonderful... and I've been trying to avoid him." Luke thought to himself with a slight shake of his head before he brought his attention back to the crow. Extending the range of his sonar to is maximum he could just make out the... car... robot... thing as it continued its work.

"Better speed it up Streak." The blind man murmured just loud enough for the silver man to hear, "I don't think that guy's gonna take much longer out front."

The pavement had not been very kind to Shade when he had slipped out of the speedy van. However, Shade couldn't really complain since he hadn't broken anything, just some serious scrapes and bruises. After receiving instructions from Syn via Isabel to tail the van to its stop, Shade had imediately ported out after the door-stealing perps.

Now, he stood across the street, hidden in the shadow of an alley as he watched the robotic man attach the large, golden doors to the gate of the Xavier's Institution for Gifted Youngster. Shade knew what that mansion held. He just never thought in a million years the X-men would have the balls to do something like this. What were they thinking? That they could just walk into the Sanctuary and rip off the golden doors, place them nicely in front of their lawn, and not expect the Order to do anything about it? Shade flipped out his cell phone, turning his back to the unbelievable scene that was unfolding before him. He speed dialed Syn's number to relay her the news. She would make sure these brats were put in their place.

"I found them. There're presently being used as a replacement gate for the X-men Mansion." Shade said into the phone.

'God, I hate traffic,' Tricity thought with an audible sigh as she put her foot harder on the gas pedal of her mustang. She didn't want to be any later to Raina's party more than she already was. How annoying. On top of that, the clerk took forever wrapping the small jewelry box which contained a mermaid pendant; her tail made of an emerald, torso a diamond, and hair made from a garnet. She'd never seen anything like it before and thought it perfect for Raina.

She quickly turned the next bend, unaware of the stranger who had been watching the unfolding scene from across the street. The gates opened for Tricity and she made her way up the drive. It seemed the party had moved outside at first, but then she noticed the strained faces of the older tenants on closer inspection. Streak was standing just outside the door with his arms crossed as the others stood behind him. 'What's going on?'

Tricity skidded to a stop on the loose gravel of the drive, grabbed the small black bag with the present inside, and got out of the car. Her eyes immediately fell upon the doors of the mansion which a... robot... was now replacing for a brilliant new golden set. Tricity stepped next to Streak and eyed the mutant delivery 'man' in front of her. She'd never seen a mutant who took on the likeness of a crow before. "Excuse me, what is all this?"

Her eyes fell again to the robot who was continuing his project. She'd seen these doors before... But from where?

(OOC: Just so no one gets confused further, it's actually the front gates that are being replaced by the golden doors and not the front doors to the mansion.)

Garrett was relieved to see everyone act so quickly, though the men seemed to go to pull him in for the war party. He didn't outright say no, but as they spoke near the front door, he stepped away. Surely someone would see him and think he was being a coward, but he wasn't concerned. There were more important things on the forefront of his mind.

It had been something that had troubled him since the night of the stalker and the Haywire virus. Security. The lack thereof was what was really irritating him. The Man in Black had come in and out with no problems and all the kids had been woken up by Garrett's Haywire induced pain bomb. He was determined that this time things would be different. However the battle out front turned out, he was going to make sure that no innocents were hurt and the ones responsible were known to them afterward.

He moved quickly through the lower floors, finding a residual group of kids who were either wallflowers or completely antisocial. He urged them to move to the Danger Room and to do so in an orderly fashion. He had a few students join him as he went upstairs to gather all of those students locked in rooms, no doubt peering out their windows. He had them turn the lights out in their rooms and line up. He could already see a hall manifest of some sort being vital. An emergency evacuation plan wouldn't hurt either. He would just have to continue to wing it until these things were put into action after the fact.

Once it seemed that all were present, Garrett moved them first to the library, to explain himself. He turned the lights down." Okay, guys. I'm sorry to get everyone so excited, but we may have some intruders outside. There's nothing to worry about, as the team and Tricity will make sure to take care of it. I know many of you see me as the "Pain Guy" , and that is okay. The main thing I need you guys to do is to walk slowly and carefully to the Danger Room and wait there for further instructions. Tricity will update us on what to do next. "

Garrett and his children's crusade marched down to the Danger Room and he watched as they all enterted. Some were scared , others angry and wanted to help. Before the doors closed, Garrett spoke once more." I know some of you want to help, but for now, the best thing you can do is protect the kids that can't protect themselves. I have to get back up there and see what's going on, but I will come back to check on you. Lock up behind me and use the security panel to see who is outside before you open the door again, okay?" Most of them nodded and assented. The ones who didn't were too scared or just didn't believe him. The main thing was their safety.

Geo hadbeen out for a late night cruise on the BoneCracker. He had been out of the game for a few days, taking a break and catching up on work. He cruised his normal route, which always brought him past the mansion, he likes to keep an eye on things there. As he drove by he turned down the street that passed the mansion. His gaze wandered over the grounds until he reached the gates. He saw a black van sitting out front with a familiar black figure standing on the pavement. Geo killed the engine and pulled back on the clutch, gliding silently in front of the vehicle. He climbed off and unhooked his helmet placing it on the handle bars.

He jumped up the curb and walked over to Shade who was on the phone. "Dude, whats going on?" He looked up to the gates and noticed that they were different. His mouth fell open as he realized: "Are those our gates?"

[[sorry for the shortness]

Before Chimera had even finished his little speech, there came a noise: the sound of a dog's teeth chomping down between overly loud, throat-drying barks that could only be soothed with blood. He knew that bark. That bark belonged to a dog that he--as Calley--had rescued from an abusive home with Luke's help, and brought to the Mansion. By the way it was trying to get through the tangle of X-legs blocking the door, it didn't want to return the benevolent favor. On the bright side: apparently his scent was masked every bit as well as he'd planned for it to be. Either that, or the Rottweiler was an ungrateful lump of supersized dog flesh.

Either way, he managed to finish his little speech with only a few nervous crow eye flicks to its barking, growling, snapping, snarling face. And there was Kat behind it, oboe and all. Oh joy. Thankfully, one of the little X-Fools was about to provide him with exactly the cue for flight that he suddenly wanted. Fighting X-Goodies was entertainment. Fighting a two hundred pound dog that wanted his blood? Not so entertaining.

>> "Nope. No Raina here. You've got the wrong address so why don't you leave now. And take your robot friend with you."

Thank you, Streak. That was perfect. The crow man was just about to reply when someone he didn't know pushed their way to the fore.

>> "Tell us the real reason you're here."

A guy with glowing red eyes, the usual mutant male height, and a commanding voice. Chimera actually felt the urge to quip a response: "We're delivering the doors," he replied, with a slow crow blink, "of course." It was the truth, as Chimera saw it. With a little ruffling and smoothing of his feathers, his black eyes briefly twitched over Luke, Cold Steel, and two women he didn't recognize before settling back on Silver Streak.

"Really, though? There's no Raina here? It's the right address..." He looked at his forms, one taloned foot scratching at the ground nervously. He hopped to the other foot, and kept scratching in clear agitation. Shucks, was he putting marks in their front steps? How unconsciously destructive of him. "My boss is going to kill me," he finally moaned, in a low grackle. "Listen, I'm really really sorry about this, then. I'll report this in," his tone made it clear that this was a noble deed, since it would clearly lead to his unemployment and potential roasting for stew. "I'm sure they'll send someone out to fix things in the next few days. Really, really sorry."

He kept muttering that, like an inane motto, as he turned, and started walking down the steps and back down the lawn. He even nearly bumped into Tricity on his way. The Headmistress herself. Nice.

>> "Excuse me, what is all this?"

The crow man bobbed his head to her, twice, in complete and total chagrin. "Sorry, sorry; really sorry. Wrong address, you see--agggh, I bet they did it on purpose! They probably switched the address, so we'd make the wrong delivery, so a complaint could be filed, so they could fire us.... Discrimination! Crafty, crafty discrimination." And that's what the crow man kept muttering to himself, as he hopped past the Head Mistress and kept walking back towards Slade. "Discrimination; this is clear discrimination. It's the right address; of course it's the right address. Aggh! Sorry sorry sorry--discrimination!"

Up ahead, he saw that Slade, indeed, was nearly finished with the swap. That had been a very nice stalling tactic, if the crow man did say so himself. Even better because across the street, his black eyes twinkled over two little somethings that looked suspiciously like Order puppies. The kennel was arriving. Get ready for some real barking, X's.

Syn's phone rang and she answered without looking to see who it was on the ID. Upon hearing what Shade reported Syn's attitude changed drastically. Her tone was filled with rage and disgust. "HOW DARE THEY! Stay put and keep an eye on them! We're on the way!"

Once the dark girl hung up her phone she sent out a conference call to all Order members. "Our beloved great golden doors have been stolen and they are now sitting at the X-Men's mansion. My orders are to retrieve the doors and leave the X-fools something to remember!"

CRY HAVOC AND LET LOOSE THE DOGS OF WAR…Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

((OOC: Skipping ahead...all Order members who wish to be involved may start posting now. Everyone has gathered in a place not far from the X-Men's mansion and we are all now charging forth. Syn has used her pheremone power to increase everyone's rage and bloodlust. In the charge Syn is heading straight for Tricity's turned back. Now, go forth and have fun!))

"We're delivering the doors,"

Squaked the little-crow-man. This was not the answer Naveed was hoping for and with the area buzzling and filling up with people he unerstood it was the only answer he was going to get. He stood up and stepped back crossing his giant arms across his chest and darting his eyes back and forth to the others.

Being a bit taller then everyone else Naveed could take in the area. He looked around for anything out of order and his eyes fell on Slade a little bit away. He couldn't completley make out what was happening... but suddenly the little crow man didn't seem like he was the real trouble. "What's going on over there?" he demanded his voice booming- not directing the comment to anyone in particular.

"I'm getting tired of this." he groaned, adjitated. He bent down and pulled the crow man up by the scruf of his feathers at the back of his neck. Standing up at full height again he narrowed his eyes and stuck out his jaw at that beady little face. "I suggest" he started without intent. "you leave." he plopped the little bird back down. "and I suggest' he began turning his attention to the others. "That we head over there!" he pointed to Slade. He couldn't make much out but he had a feeling he was being comicly diverted.

The crow posed no threat to him, what was he going to do peck at his legs? So Naveed shuffled past him ignoring his rants of discrimination. "This is my sister's birthday" he moaned. "why can't people pick other days to stir up trouble."

That was Naveed for you. Not exactly the thinking type with an extended vocabulary.

Pix was surprised when she got the call. Her very first call to action. After rescuing hymn from the bad place, with 7 big red men, who might of might not of answered, once or twice to the name, Mr. Bubbles, Petunia had gone home to her little friends.

In fact that’s where Petunia was now. She was dressed in her hot pink Cow PJs and matching cow slippers that mooed when she walked. She’d been reclining, on her couch, with her head dangling off the front, and her legs resting draped over the back rest. Her hair hanging straight down, as she watched Ren and Stimpy, on an upside down TV screen.

Happy happy joy joy,

Her cell rang, and she did an odd sort of sit up, on the couch, Reaching over for the phone, and flipped it open.

"Our beloved great golden doors have been stolen and they are now sitting at the X-Men's mansion. My orders are to retrieve the doors and leave the X-fools something to remember!"

Happy happy joy joy,

Well there was just no time to loose then was there? Pix flopped onto her side and rolled off of the couch. Her cow slippers announced that her feet touched the carpet with a friendly little ‘mooooooo.’ And all at once Pix’s friends were in a flurry. Bugs of all shapes and sizes swarmed from the corners of the room, where pix had used aunt pharmones and various other tricks to keep them off of the mane part of the floor, when she wasn’t playing with the bugs. (AKA, Keeping them so they weren’t being stepped on because bug stains were hard to clean out of the carpet.)

Those that could fly, piked up those that couldn’t, while their master opened the window. The cold air whipped in, and instantly pix coughed. Ok so she needed her PJs warmer. Instantly the moths game to Pixes aid. Filling in under her Cox PJs so that their wings trapped the warmth, though they made her awesome hot pink, cartoon cow PJs look like lumpy marshmallows stuck to her. Her large dragon fly wings snapped into motion and with a clattering buzz. Petunia darted out the window, Her little bug army in tow.

Happy happy joy joy joy,

A few moments later, Pix landed, with a ‘Moooooooo….’ Of her slippers next to Syn. “Ummm Hi!” Something about her, made the bugmancer very uneasy. Her insects swarmed with more sharp lines than before. Some even bit into each other, cannibalizing those that Pix had better control over. “I ahh… I ahhh….” A ant that had been being flown about by a horse fly landed on Pix’s nose and her eyes crossed to look at it. Horse fly wings stuck in between the ant’s pincers and it tilted it’s head at it’s master as if offering the wings as a gift.

Now that was, awesome, cool! Disterbing that her bugs weren’t paying complete attention to what Pix wanted them to do, but still cool. A smile curved across her face as her head tilted. Eyes still crossed. At least they were only attacking each other so far… And pix could make more. “I’ll go check things out.” Pix volinteared as her wings clapped into a buzz and then into silence. She darted off rising high into the air, with the swarm, Then seemed to disappear, as her slippers and cow PJs dropped to the ground.

’Mooooooooooo….

Streak listened to the crow talk. He started to mumble about being purposefully given the wrong address and was going to get fired. Somehow Streak didn't believe him one bit that he worked for Fed-Ex. Naveed wasn't to happy with any of this that was going on, and the silver man couldn't blame him. He started to rack his brain as to why the name Syn sounded so familiar. He couldn't place it. Then Tricity came walking up and wanted information. Shawn was more than happy to fill her in. Then perhaps she could take over the charge of putting the X-men trainees into battle instead of him having that pressure of sending someone out to risk their lives for others. He was more than willing to do it, but he wasn't comfortable making other people do it.

Finally, he was brought back to reality as he realized he'd left Tricity without information yet. "Well, this crow said that he had a delivery from Syn." He pointed to the doors. "Those doors to be exact. He said they were for Raina. Of course I don't know why Syn sounds familiar but I told him to take them back. That's about where you came in, and he's now leaving and ranting about discrimination." Streak said. It was the short and sweet version of what had happened. He looked around and saw that there were other people there besides Naveed that weren't in the X-men. They were people that he didn't want there. Innocent casualties. People that didn't need to be out here. He thought that she might mad so he said to Tricity, "I tried to only get the xmen in on this so that it wouldn't look like I was bringing an army to the door. Unfortunately they followed us."

Eventually the crow left and Naveed spoke up. Streak wasn't inclined to listen to someone who didn't even live at the mansion to give orders; however, Silver Streak looked over towards the gates and thought that Naveed was probably right. Soon Streak's earpiece rang to life. He gently touched his finger to his ear and it was Johnathan on the other end. "Go for it John." he said quickly before John spoke up. "We've got a group of people charging the mansion right now. Looks like it's the a few of the Order here to join the party." Johnathan was getting panicked looking at the monitors in the war room. "Well they've already crashed our party so why not pick a fight. All right I'll tell Tricity. She's standing right here. Oh, and turn on all the outside grounds lights." he said before hanging up on Johnathan. The grounds were suddenly flooded with light. It was bright as day, almost, and lit up most of the grounds with the exception of very few dark patches. He looked out at the mansion grounds and saw the group of people charging up towards where they were all standing.

Shawn was pissed. First of all they'd interrupted the part, secondly they destroyed the mansions gate and lastly they were picking a fight between two different groups of people for no other reason than they wanted to see them go at it. Streak didn't want to make a bad impression on Tricity like he was blowing her off so he said, "I was going to take the X-men here to defend out home, but seeing as your here I thought I should offer you the opportunity to send us into a battle that, by the looks of things," he said seeing more and more people form just outside the mansion like they were waiting for the order to charge, "is going to happen pretty soon. We've got a group of people charging the mansion right now." Streak said parroting Johnathan. This wasn't going to end well Streak could already tell that; however, it couldn't have been more exciting. They were closer than he thought they would be. He really needs to be faster on the warnings. He quickly thought. It seemed like they couldn't wait for an answer or for her to take charge. It was going to happen whether they were ready or not.

(ooc: Just FYI the party's supposed to be going on at like 7 pm so it'll probably be night outside.)