Meld growled deep in her throat as an unknown assailant cased a metal barrier to materialize between her blades and the neck of her intended target. She had a vague awareness of Aura fighting beside her but little of the larger fight going on around her, her perception having narrowed to the small circle of her own battle. It seemed as if her friend, as well, had been dissuaded from attacking their initial target as she was engaged by a man with ice manipulation powers. Well, she could take care of herself. And then another enemy joined the fray, this one appearing to be made of water.

Although the odds seemed to have quickly moved against their favor, Meld was far from the point of giving up. The fact that they were now fighting an uphill battle would only improve her standing once they eventually achieved victory. And they would achieve victory, it was only a matter of what the specifics would be and how long it would take. Failure was not an option.

Meld growled again, backing up against a wall and taking a defensive stance, shield protectively in front of her and bladed hands raised. Just as she was preparing to formulate a game plan a very large and recognizable friend appeared by their side and she decided that the odds had definitely changed back to their favor. It might be 4 against 3 now, but she knew Predator had a way of swinging the momentum of a fight. "Glad do see you could join us," Meld spoke to Predator, though she never took her eyes off of her enemies. "This should be fun."

Trusting Predator to deal with those she could not immediately target, Meld ran at the woman with the dark blue eyes, attempting to take her legs out from under her with a kick to the shin. She didn't know if she could could even hurt the water girl and she had encountered Ranger before and so knew, roughly, what to expect from him. The metal controller seemed to be the biggest immediate threat that she actually had a good chance of hurting.

Ghost remained incorporeal. There was no way for her to turn back to her solid state without leaving herself vulnerable for those precious coalescing moments. And there was too much happening to spare even a second. A head, meaty and thick sounding made Ghost's incorporeal spine wriggle in distaste. The police for their own good should have known to stay at a sniper's distance. As much as she wanted to go protect to humans, Sam, no, Cold Steel had asked her to get him into the building.

"No throwing necessary." With Sam's ice armor, she worried that he would be too heavy to move with someone else, though typically she could lift two at a time. The air around Sam condensed and great gusts started sweeping in through people's legs and gusting upward like a geyser to buoy Cold Steel into the air. Up he went, over the rabble of degenerated squabbling, and safely she deposited him down on the other side of the lines. Only then did she worry about sending him alone.

Silver Streak and David were next. Shawn seemed to be busy doing something else, but not after Ghost plucked him from the fray. She repeated the process for the dangerous Quicksilver mutant and the internet savvy. Up on a current of wind strong enough to rattle teeth, over the fray high enough to be out of even the tallest mutant's jumping reach, and down next to Cold Steel. It would have been a smoother ride if they had held hands, but she somehow didn't think it was worth it to them.

Ghost only grimaced to Dom's question. Perhaps she should hire some more non-combatant type employees. Though she hated to leave them as a target and unprotected, it would seem most of the threat against them would be here. Ah well, worries for another time.

Fade was her last intended target and that proved to be somewhat more of a challenge due to her involvement in an altercation involving Calley and Luke. As much as it pained her to wade in, she had to. Ghost could see Fade's form no matter her actual visibility no doubt as Luke probably could. Fade was reaching for the tiger's tail. Why Calley was defending the Haywire samples was beyond Ghost, a topic for another rainy day no doubt. Hopefully the disappointment wouldn't be too clear on her cloudy features.

"Fade, you are losing sight of what is important." The turbid Ghost hissed the words through her teeth toward the still invisible one. She floated somewhat obviously next to her, to those who could not detect Fade, Ghost was chatting with thin air. "This is bigger than the connections between people. This is about the future, a future we are trying to prevent. Cold Steel has need of you. Let Calley go. You can begrudge or forgive him later, after the last vials of Haywire have been destroyed." People who made impetuous decisions always made Ghost feel a bit uncomfortable. If Fade relented enough for Ghost to get a firm grip on her, the two women would soon be joining Cold Steel and Silver Streak. If not, Ghost may be heading out to help with the mission on her own... or perhaps staying to defend her master.

Words came in, thick and hard like ice cream. Do this, don’t do that, Shin, guard the kids, Alex help him, Ghost do something. Shin’s mind got lost somewhere past the first command. Around him, fights were erupting. People were moving a mile a minute, but for him, everything was slow motion. Tiger and blind man clashed on the steps while invisible girl strained for control. The tiger’s stripes blurred as jaws bore down on a neck. And while that was going on, thirteen other things were happening beyond any possible semblance of senses the shard user could control. Non-factions scrabbled, Aura’s blade lit up hot pink. Some kid copied powers, and a girl with a metal arm clashed with two kids and a dog.

Wait, no. The twelve foot dog was on their side. Shin sighed and shoved all the stress of the situation into a inch-wide triangle in the back of his mind, focusing on what mattered.

“No, Dom. I don’t think you’ll have book store duty today at all. If you come with me, I can guarantee you’ll have it tomorrow though.” A devilish grin slipped onto his face. "And Kasumi,” he shouted out to her on the sidelines. “Come over here. I need to give everyone their orders! You too, guy beating up security guards! But first.” He walked over and knelt down next to Lee. She was siphoning energy from the guard. He looked her in the eye. “Hey, Lee. Come on. I’ve been ordered to group the non-X-men together and keep them safe.”

His eyes swerved up to narrow on the remaining group of order members in the distance. One of them was the giant who'd been tossing bodies at Lee. Hopefully, he didn’t come along and try to start anything. Yup. Because right now, he was ordered with protecting everyone, and his shield cut hard.

~*~

The two spirits stared with gaping eyes at the malicious miscreant marauding on the rooftop of the building. Their hands clawed as they drifted, clothes dangling off their shoulders by threads. Half-visible and moaning, they tugged annoyingly at Hull's form. Their rules were clear. They'd drag him as far down to Hell with them as they could without killing.

Oh yes.

((OOC:Calley, not g-modding you, posted something that caught my attention about you biting my hand, but it's up to you on whether or not she phased in time for no contact))

Everyone was barking out orders and it seemed that by Fade disobeying them, so many people began to get pissy. She wasn't disobeying, she was delaying. While she was waiting for whoever it was to throw them, she was not just going to sit there like an obedient dog without a leash. Still, maybe attacking and starting the battle was not the best of ideas, it was only that she was sick of standing around and bowing to someone. Plus, she had been living on the streets by her own rules again over the past year, she had to get used to working as a team again. Then again, she was quick to adjust.

The sudden bite, however, caught her off guard. A bite to Fade's hands did have it's disadvantages though, she did have raptor claws on her fingers and biting down on them, could cause them to stab the inside of a mouth. The outcome was uncertain, however, since the second Calley's canines pierced her hand and drew blood, she phased her hand through his head and grabbed it in pain. Still invisible, it seemed Calley was unable to detect her and he moved along to Luke. She was angry and had to try her hardest just to ignore him, so she turned back just in time to see a flying ShawnSam. Looks like it was time to get this show on the road.

Right as the thought passed her head, this so called Ghost appeared and spoke with her. Of course she was not going to abandon the mission, she had just been one of the few to break in last time, it was, however and advantage, but last time turned out badly. Making sure she was in solid form, since apparently Ghost could see her with a 6th sense, Fade nodded. "Right, I'm ready. Send us over there," she said, nursing her wound. "It would probably be best if we weren't detected, don't want everyone to think there are too many X's entering KP."

The last battle at KP had a few people that would not follow the plans and Fade was basically on her own in the building, she remembered just how annoying it was for people to disobey in a vital time. However, she was not doing it to show off or to be a one woman team, she was just trying to keep anyone from getting into an emotional battle, cause Lord, those were bad.

Kasumi snaps her head to the side as she hears Shins voice. She blinks a few times but she does not think much about it she soon runs as she gets to Shin she does not speak as she nods softly with her eyes on him. Her eyes so strong and so clam right now to keep her safe? She is here to fight not to stand here and do nothing. With her life with everything that she knows that she has to do to keep the world and the people safe.

The orders she hopes that she can fight or do something that is helpful she can not stand on the side lines and do nothing. Soon she runs her tongue over her dry lips as she feels her heart beat in her chest her heart beat is also calm. Soon her hand comes up as she runs her fingers down the back of her neck she rolls her shoulders getting herself ready for anything. She closes her eyes for a few seconds then open her eyes again.

She keeps so still right now even if everything around her is happing she has her eyes on Shin she is going to prove that she has what it takes to be an X-men that she she can be part of the team. Kasumi can fight she can work with people she has to do this. Kasumi can not let herself run away or be scared she will never let herself run away or stay away form something like this.

Strings of curses were flying through Luke's mind as he watched Fade do perhaps the stupidest thing she could have even thought about doing. Who in their right mind tried to pull a tiger's tail? That must be the answer right there. Fade wasn't in her right mind! It was amazing how things like that could occur to a person right in the middle of a battle that would determine the fate of the world. Making a mental note to talk to Fade about her recklessness Luke turned his attention back to Calley just in time to see the muscle tense, the tail quiver, and then the huge feline launch itself at him in a powerful leap with paws and claws outstretched.

For a moment time seemed to stand still and Luke knew that this was an image that would be forever ingrained in his mind. He could see tiny drops of moisture, be it saliva or blood clinging to the tiger's fangs. He could see the deadly curve of the claws that are reaching out to rip him into shreds. He could see the huge muscles flexing and twitching, begging to be let loose on its prey. All rational thought flew out the window and pure instinct took over. Flinging himself to the side, Luke tucked tucked his body into a ball but it wasn't enough. One of the huge paws reached out and batted him away like an over-sized chew toy. The pain flashed through his body and Luke let out a cry of agony as blood began to well up to the surface, filling the deep crevices that now ran from his left shoulder to elbow and then from his hip to knee.

The landing was anything but graceful as he lost his somewhat rounded form and simply crashed to the ground, his body flopping and rolling to a stop. Tears of pain were welling up in his eyes but Luke gritted his teeth and scrambled back up to his feet without another word. He had to buy the other X-Men more time! CS & Streak were already by the front door and it looked like Ghost and Fade would soon be joining them. That left one injured blind man to face one very angry tiger.

Tiger: 2
Blind Man: 1

"Damn you Calley." Luke muttered through gritted teeth as his left arm hung uselessly at his side. Any thoughts of trying to defend himself with staff or baton was gone. He had only one choice in this battle and that was with the power he still didn't understand. He knew every time he used it his sonar was weakened... would he have enough power to stop Calley? Tossing the question out the window, Luke brought his sonar down tight on the feline and just waited. He needed the cat in the air when he blasted him again. It was as if some deity heard his prayer and without hesitation the feline was once again soaring toward him.

This time however rational thought had returned and there would be no silly attempt to escape. Dropping into a crouch, Luke's hand came up to his temple as his eyes closed in concentration. Faster than his previous attempt, the sonar focused and then released its true power, slamming the sound wave into the tiger's body with concussive force. It wasn't a killing blow by any means but it was definitely going to sting.

OOC – I don’t’ think I god modded anyone other than GB throwing the security guard…and I had permission for that. Smite me if I’m lying.

Things were deteriorating, deteriorating quickly. Luckily, for the moment, it seemed like it was deteriorating around Tarin and Lee instead of right on top of them. Lee seemed okay, even if the grimace of pain on her face suggested something slightly more than other wise. She wasn’t limping, and as horrified as she seemed at the blood splattered across her person, she seemed to be getting along alright.

Then someone decided to throw a security guard at them. On second glance, it was the jerk who’d made the movie entrance on the motorcycle. The guy made a fairly graceful, arm flailing arc through the air and landed a few feet away. Then Lee said she loved him. Usually, the words made Tarin grin, but in the middle of a fight that had quickly deteriorated into near chaos…not so much.

He resisted the urge to reach out and grab his wife, she obviously had a plan in mind and if he interfered, not only would he have to take attention off the spirits, but he could be getting in Lee’s way. So he just watched, slightly worried as she ran forward to put a hand on the unconscious man’s face. Tarin figured that meant that at least he wasn’t dead.

The spirits he’d sent to investigate the severed head had found their mark and Tarin’s eyes narrowed as he quit paying attention to everything else for a few moments. The man was a nut…and if the amount of blood and gore with him on the roof was any indication, there was much more than heads to come. Time to give him a taste of his own medicine.

Via Tarin’s mental instruction, one spirit swooped down, scooping up a couple of the blood balloons the man had no doubt been readying to launch at the fighters and slung them in his direction at the hardest possible velocity it could muster. The other spirit bee lined straight for the guy, to hamper, injure and irritate as much as possible without tossing his sorry ass off the side of the building.

Tarin’s eyes refocused on the fight. Things between Luke and the kitty were quickly falling apart Tarin couldn’t help but think as it launched itself at the security dude again and landed a pretty solid swipe to the man’s arm and leg. Luke was in trouble, and as the tiger readied itself to launch again, Tarin sent another two spirits. He didn’t know how strong they were, with his attention so divided, but maybe they could push the cat off its course towards Luke.

“Luke! Go LEFT!” Tarin yelled, simultaneously instructing the spirits to push the cat the other way. He had no clue what Lee was doing now, but hopefully she was alright.
Another terrified yell pierced the air and Tarin turned to see the motorcycle freak toss another security guard into the air like he was a rubber ball. “Dammit!” Tarin yelled sending spirit six and seven to grab the guy and drag him down to where Lee was still working on the first security guard.

“Drain him, Lee!” he yelled, stumbling slightly as a wave of dizziness washed over him…apparently six at once doing specific things that required corporeal’ness was too much. They had a job to do though, and Tarin steadied himself, taking a deep breath. Hopefully he’d be able to pull a couple back soon.

Meanwhile, the one spirit left was whining and complaining about his lack of action. Tarin turned his head to the spirit and glared. “You’ll get your turn.” He said, and considering how things were developing…it would be sooner rather than later.

People were so unaffected by her anger. It seemed like she needed to step it up again, since the only result the shoe gave was a peace corps man and then a giant battle around him. Angered and huffing and puffing, she looked around at the gathering mass of warriors and felt her bones shiver a little. She was being ignored! Now someone was going to pay for that! The prostitute disappeared along with the worm and some others, they were all fighting. The clown, however, was free. Angrily, she grabbed ahold of the fence and corroded through a few of the bars until she had a weapon. Putting back on her base-coated gloves, she took the two metal bars and began to run at the enemy.

Moving swiftly through the police, she was pulling at her hair and yelling at the top of her lungs. "CLOWN! CLOWN! YOU DON'T NEED A RED NOSE!" At the back of the scene, there were quite a few mutants gathered, or just a group of circus clowns to Ahorta. Holding the bars over her head, she moved in to attack position and brought the bars down, aiming for the clown's bright red nose.

Her heart was racing and all she could say was "clowns aren't human, clowns aren't human, kill the clowns. No more giggling." Her vacant chanting grew louder and louder as she attempted to rip off the clown's nose. He wasn't a clown if he did not have a funny nose. No nose, no clown, no threat.

((Scratch that last OOC. Shin has claimed the role of a clown.))

Why were they bothering? Outnumbered as they were, the Order was definitely putting up a fight, but it was sloppy and looked painfully sweaty.

Lori sat just inside the doors of KP, watching the combatants try their hardest. People were getting hurt out there and she remained seated, cooly scratching at the skin of her wrist in a way that was reminiscent of a dog and the wrist was that spot just behind the ear. She could feel the foreign obtrusions beneath the blanket of her flesh and it was a constant source of ire to her. Just like the stiffness in her hands and fingers, the lack of dexterity. It would have hurt her to have them remove the coils. She had enough pain recently. At least she had her fingernails back.

In time, Lori would probably get used to the way her body worked with the metallic sub-dermal addition, but for now her tendons were tight, bound closely to the bone. Her bones bound closely together. Everything was painfully tight. Her joints bent only as much as the wire allowed, and yet the wire had its advantages. What had been used as the most effective way to drain her power, was now the most effective way for her to produce her power. The swap of dexterity for potency had been made without her permission. Those responsible for it were as dead as she could make them. There was no going back. Lori waited indoors, in the hush of air conditioning.

Part of her wanted to find some unmarred piece of flesh and run her nails through it until blood sprouted in droplets and runnels and eventually torrents. To shred someone's pulse and watch the pain in their face until it echoed her own. The rest of her was scared sh*tless. Her house of cards had collapsed. She had meant it to, in a way, but she didn't quite expect it to be so uncomfortable. She certainly did not enjoy feeling helpless and dependent. The Sanctuary, the Order, they were the soul foundation of what she had. And it wasn't exactly what she wanted.

Beyond the glass was chaos, inside provided the relative calm that cold, uncaring marble and elevator muzak provided. Outside was hellish and inside was a calm and empty place. Lori waited waited inside, as empty as the entryway. Let them come to her. They could work something out in the reasonable, cool air.

It all happened so fast. Ranger had come up to help him keep the peace. Then the guy...'Calley' the others called him, had turned into a tiger and made a move over to the X-men group after some girl who had either teleported or moved invisibly threw him back wards. While they had started their scrap a girl who glowed pink had come after Ranger's head with a blade. Faster than he was able to register his pal's distress, someone had come in and intercepted the deadly blade with his own ice knife or something. Heads ad guards were flying around, as well as ghostly spirits and even some of the X-men.

As crazy as all of that was, out of nowhere some huge Chinese lion looking thing had jumped right into the midst of the little group gathered around Hyde. And right here in all of that was Meld, speaking to the creature like it was a friend. It looked like a little more of her body ad been given up to metal since last he had seen her. He had no idea if she recognized him in costume, but it was possible that she would recognize his hair, voice, and powers.

Well, this fight wasn't going to be stopped with words. It seemed it would soon come time to pick a side. As it was, with Meld and her allies making aggressive moves toward his partner the choice wasn't going to be hard. "Ranger, it's time we took the fight to the enemy."

Flynn doubted that the tranq darts would do much against the creature but he couldn't be sure. He went invisible and pulled his weapon out. He fired a dart at Predator and one at Meld. The dart hit meld in the arm, and promptly bounced off of the metal. Flynn re-aimed, trying to find a fleshy spot. Knocking Meld out without hurting her was a priority seeing as how they had a past. He fired again at her...

It seemed that the fight was getting intense. People were splitting off into their own little corners, for various reasons. Take him, Aura, and Meld, for instance. What drew them together was the fact that they had worked with eachother, had become friends. To Predator, that was enough. The enemies of his friends were his enemies. It was just a happy bonus that the opposition seemed to be the traitors to their own kind, the human huggers. Nothing, other than killing humans, gave Predator more pleasure than killing human-hugging traitors. It was people like them that allowed the camps to happen. If all of mutantkind were to unite in one force against the oppression of humans, Predator had no doubt that they could overthrow the humans.

Oh yes, there would be casualties, but there were always casualties. The difference the traitors made was that instead of those casualties happening in a glorious revolution for freedom, they happened in dark streets, where cops got a little twitchy, in the camps, where the very thing that made them superior was their downfall, and right there, where mutants fought other mutants. Those were the results the traitors had. That was the peace they had invoked.

Just then, another joined the fray at Predator's corner. As he was turning to face the new threat, he shot something at meld. It was a tranq dart, and bounced off of her metal arm. Tranq darts are sloppy, especially against mutants. You never know how it will effect them, if it even effects them at all. The man then shot at Predator, the dart hitting him in the shoulder. Predator smiled, as much as a Lion could. The dart, no matter how powerfull the mixture, was no more than a pain pill, at best, to one of Predator's bulk. Predator decided to mess with the guy, though, so he swayed a bit on his feet as he slowly wobbled forward, then collapsed on the ground, his eyes closed.

He waited like that for a few seconds, then snapped his eyes open and leapt to his feet, sending out a slash at the man as he did so, hoping to catch him off guard and rip his innards out.

Streak was ready to fight. He knew that they needed to get into KP but he thought they would at least fight their way though. As things started to pick up, and battles began to rage on between the two lines of mutants, he waited for someone to come after him. Ghost had shown up along with a few others that weren’t in the X-Men. Things to him were starting to look suspicious. He wouldn’t outright admit it but because of what Calley had said and done he was looking for others that might be passing information to the Order or Kabal. Those that lived at the mansion and weren’t part of the team were his main suspects right now. Or at least they would be later. But right now he was unexpectedly swooped up on the air and headed towards an area they’d be going through.

The silver mutant wasn’t the only one that had been swooped up with the wind. Sam, David and Fade were also ones that were going in with him. Good a small detachment that he was going to lead was better than trying to run a large scale battle that was raging out front. He didn’t expect many of the scientists to give them much resistance once they got in, but one never knew if there would be someone that fashioned himself a Hero-Among-Nerds. Besides if he was right there was someone already inside and all they had to do was get to that person and make sure no one stops them from destroying the virus.

Things had begun moving faster than Isabel had initially anticipated after her arrival, though she couldn't exactly say she disliked the set pace. There was nothing more irritating than sitting still and waiting for a fight to start, and while she couldn't see the combatants at the moment, the sudden hustle and bustle of KP's security members easily tipped her off that something was happening. She could only assume that the Red Queen was already in the building and was strategically directing her non-mutant Pawns. Isabel didn't believe the staff would be so quick to head out toward a group of warring mutants without some direction from a higher-up. She would likely be making her own way toward the intruders shortly enough, but first she wanted to make a quick stop.

Careful not to get in the way of any straggling employees, Isabel made her way down to one of the security rooms where the cameras around the building displayed their views onto several screens. With mild distraction her gaze flitted from one display to the next, focusing more on those that surveyed the grounds outside of the building. She easily recognized certain members of the X-Nerds, though there was a good number of individuals that she'd never seen before. Had the X's been recruiting double-time, or was there a piece of the puzzle that she hadn't been given? It confused her a little. Seizure had said there was a kind of trial run for wannabe X's before the became official, hadn't he? She wasn't so sure they could all have gotten past that barrier before earning the official title since their last brawl. She may have to ask around her companions at a later date to clear up her questions.

By the look of things she'd missed the majority of any initial hesitation that almost always seemed to be displayed at the start of a fight, usually on the part of the X-Nerds. That was fine by her. Their constant display of false concern for their opponents was tiring to her. She didn't really care what they had to say. She was more interested in seeing if any of them bled a different color. Besides, it was always so much fun to see how far she could push them and their 'no-killing' rule, especially since she had no personal quarrels about cutting their numbers.

Finding little interest in much else, with perhaps the exception of a curious individual up on the roof, she didn't linger for much longer. She was momentarily torn between which direction to head, up or down, the roof or the lobby. In the end she decided upon the ground level. She could hope that the uniform-clad individual would be around after the fight. In any case, he'd likely have to pass the mass of mutants in order to make any exit anyhow. He didn't seem to be interested in locating the object that she was protecting, so she would focus her attention on those that were. With a split-second after thought she kicked her shoes and socks off and left them behind in the office before hurrying down the hallway in order to make her way down to the main entrance.

Isabel didn't bother with elevators seeing as they were far too slow. Whenever the need to descend a level arose she opted for the stairs, occasionally launching herself down whole sections of a stairwell to speed up the process. Little soles of bone covered the bottoms of her feet for such purposes to help cushion the impact and avoid any deep bruising. Those same patches of bone, rather than being reabsorbed into the skin, were left to splinter, break and catch on any part of the ground that she came in contact with, leaving small bits of evidence of which way she had traveled. She continued to deposit unmeasured amounts of pebble-sized bits of bone throughout the corridors as she proceeded. In this battle she assumed a massive cleanup would be necessary anyhow, so she had few worries about the mess she was making.

When she had finally reached the main entrance she slowed to a stop, her attention skipping from one individual to the next as they were seen through the front windows. She didn't quite care for the numbers that were on their side, but she'd be damned if she backed down for something like that. Absentmindedly she continued to deposit the granules of bone as she slowly began to cross from one side of the lobby to the next, a layer of armored bone easily fitting itself beneath her skin as was one of her usual tactics in a battle. She didn't want to go outside just yet. She would let the X's come to her and subject them to an area of space that was more under her control than theirs.

She didn't even notice the other young woman that occupied the room until she was nearly on top of her. Abruptly she stopped her chosen path of travel, which would have undoubtedly lead her to pacing, her attention shifting to the blond that also seemed to be observing what was happening just outside the doors. Isabel couldn't say she'd met the young woman before, but she'd certainly heard of her at one point or another. Her name was Lori, if Isabel remembered correctly, and she manipulated something. In her distraction she couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what it was that the young woman controlled, but she knew it had a decent amount of power behind it. "Ready for the crud to hit the fan?" she asked as she turned her gaze back toward those that she could see outside, not entirely expecting any kind of answer from the other as she waited for the first foolish individual to try stepping into her territory.

Following his question the whole place seemed to go to Hell in a hand basket, there was some chick going invisible and pulling the tail of a tiger, bodies being thrown, and heads being launched at people. The Ranger had absolutely no idea what was going on but Aura and Meld had begun a charge at him so fighting with no idea as to the situation was called for.

As the pair approached he reached under his suit jacket and drew out his tactical knife, this kind of knife had worked well against Aura before so why wouldn't it now. He drew out the knife with his left hand so he could still use his strong arm for his gun or punches, whichever was needed. Yet, as he was about to engage Aura some guy with ice powers had stopped Aura. The sudden interruption threw the Ranger off guard and thankfully a metal shield was put in place to protect him from Meld.. Before he could ask who or what did that a girl stepped beside him and asked,

"Mind if I join?"

"Not at all." He replied, thankful to her for protecting him in the moment he dropped his guard against Meld, who seemed different. It was then he noticed her new arm. That would have been bad to not know about in a fight with her. And at some point during the madness he heard Hyde say something to him, he understood the meaning but could not reiterate the statement he had said. He looked back and without suprise noticed Hyde had done his invisible thing, and was now firing tranq darts. He had fired one at the Lion like thing and two at Meld, the first of which bounced off her metal, the other he paid no attention too as the lion thing was acting peculiar. The substance within the darts was only designed to take down people, not giant animals like that. He would know since he has been using the stuff for a while now, and was the one who procured it.

The lion must be playing possum! It had dawned on him, as well as the thought that he would try to go after his invisible friend. He knew that his two other adversaries were otherwise occupied so he would take a stand against this one. He jumped toward the lion pulling back his fist for a punch, as he did so his torso began to change. His muscles grew and reshaped themselves, the seems of his suit jacket being strained by the size. Then the lion opened its eyes, confirming his prior assesment, and slashed out in an attempt to hit Hyde. Well in this same moment the Ranger came down throwing one of the hardest punches he ever had thrown at the side of the lion, his knife arm following it with a wide slash.

Things were getting crazier by the second. Small fights were breaking out, and not so small fights as a huge, Oriental lion type thing appeared up ahead where the girl with the pink sword was.

But no one really seemed to be paying attention to her. To be honest, that was a good thing, Lee decided. She didn't have enough energy to go up against someone with powers, she wasn't fast enough yet, and draining from just one person wouldn't be nearly enough.

Pulling her hand away from the security guard before she ended up taking too much, Lee glanced over at Shin as he knelt down beside her. And said he'd been ordered to protect all the non-X-Men.

Lee couldn't help it, she laughed. What? Just because they had decided not to join the X-Men, it meant that they were apparently incapable of taking care of themselves in a fight? If that was the case, there was no way in hell that Lee would have come in the first place.

Just then, Lee heard Tarin's voice from behind her, and looked up to see a couple of spirits guiding another security guard to the ground slightly more gently than this first one had hit. At least gently enough that the man was still conscious when he returned to the ground. Making her way over there, ensuring that her movements were still normal speed so as not to use up the energy she'd siphoned yet, she held the man to the ground as she started siphoning from him, too.

Then she glanced over her shoulder at Shin. "If you can keep up with me, you can protect me," she told him. The guard's struggles against her and the spirits were already becoming weaker. "Keep them away from Tarin, though, so he can focus on the spirits." With that, Lee turned her eyes back out to the quickly erupting battle in front of her. It'd soon be time for her to act, and in the meanwhile, she had to keep her eyes open to make sure no one was coming at her, first.