One of the many benefits of acting as a scout is that one is rarely expected to participate in more physically grueling activities, pointlessly pushing empty crates for instance, no scouts require not strength but speed or rather, the ability to rapidly assess a given situation and swiftly report their findings. Such a role fit the apathetic elemental like a glove, for his spatial perception allowed the hessian to monitor his environment in a full 360 field, and thus was far more reliable than sight.

In a similar manner, the mercenary also possessed an advantage in relaying his information to the assignment leader; throwing one's voice becomes a far simpler when you can control the air it passes through, it was also somewhat more reliable than radio communication which could at times be intercepted by more astute opponents. In this particular case however such a precaution was likely affording their adversaries a little too much credit.

Soon after the misguided gamine in the cape had announced the presence of their supposed opposition a part of Zephyr mind had focused upon the air distortions surrounding the quartet of individuals gathered just out of sight. They'd done relatively little since he started monitoring them, yet discerning the leader of the group had proven an all too trivial task for anyone possessing even a modicum of understanding for body language. That aside though the only interesting item of note thus far had been the girl who'd somehow manage to meld into the floor right beside her apparent superior before said man then began striding towards the Order's position.

Hmm interesting, were they actually employing a measure of subtlety? Perhaps even tactical forethought? The elemental supposed that stranger things had happened but still remained skeptical; the groups leader was strolling into a purported live fire zone after all. Even if one were to presume the man possessed an indelible mutation to simply walk in unarmed was ill advised at best. In the grander scheme of things however it mattered little, defeat was still the ultimate goal of this little excursion and the sooner the confrontation began the sooner the hessian would the other half of his pay.

Settling himself more comfortably at the top of his perilous metallic pillar the elemental allowed one leg to dangle off the edge whilst drawing the other towards his chest before he finally spoke in an detached and indolent manner which was little more than a whisper. "Four targets in total, two are waiting a short distance away, a third has vanished into the ground and the leader is approaching us now."

Despite the lack of volume in the mercenary's voice his words lost none of their clarity as they were deftly guided along a carefully crafted current of air which preserved the subtle vibrations of the hessians speech, thereby allowing his comments to echo clearly, if lightly, around his teammates mere moments before the Xmen leader made his appearance.

((OOC note: Lenna's wearing a ski mask. Her hair isn't visible, nor is the top of her face. Posting order is restored after this post, with Zephyr, Lenna, then, whoever posts after us as the order. Arm shot on CS approved by CS.))

>>”Can you guys help me out, there has been word of gunfire."

Lenna stared at him from behind the ski mask, arching an eyebrow. Someone's cocky, she thought. And blind. He'd failed to notice all the unconscious dock guards spread out over the shipping area in their wake. Hmm. Maybe it had something to do with his lack of depth perception? Was that an eye patch? Was he a cop, or a pirate?

He was the X-man team leader, so, both.

She'd done her research, obviously.

Her gloved hands rose off the side of the box-laden cart, dropping to her sides. He asked for ID.

"Oh, sure thing," She laughed disarmingly, hand going for one of the hip holsters at her side. She drew a black-finished 9mm handgun. The gun's barrel lined up with his chest. "This work? Everybody, protect the package. Bye, Mr. Pirate." She said, in an uncharacteristically-deep voice. The barrel realigned to point at his arm. Lenna squeezed off a shot, aimed at his arm. Not at the muscular part, mind you. She wasn't aiming to mortally injure him. She was aiming to scare him. The shot was off, just enough to nick the skin around his tricep muscle. Lenna retreated back a few steps to "defend" the crate. That was her team's cue. She'd told them, once she started firing, they were to follow suit.

The battle routine had been set. It was time to execute it.

>>"Help push."

Kaitlyn looked back from her watch-keeping post to find that only two of her four comrades had actually been pushing the boxes. British guy looked like he was doing a better job of keeping watch, and the blond lady was just sorta there, but not really doing much of anything. With this frustrating scene laid out before her, the child pantomimed cracking her knuckles (as cracking one's knuckles was customary for such an occasion) and got to work using her negligible strength to move the cart.

Then the brit used some sort of mutant ventriloquism to demonstrate just how much better he was at keeping watch and warning the team. Especially since he already seemed to know about the X-Men, and knew that the leader of the team was a pirate.

A pirate/policeman/ice mutant, it seemed. The policeman part made him significantly less cool in this child's eyes. Not that he was cool in the first place, mind you, even considering his ice-power. Bad guys aren't cool. Nor are they particularly smart, it seemed, if he was going to go around asking masked super-heroes such as herself, Lenna, and that other guy what their real names were.

There was one terrifying moment after Lenna opened fire when Kaitlyn considered the possibility that she might be in serious danger. Of course, this was total nonsense, she told herself. It was perfectly reasonable to assume that the mutant paramilitary organization she was actively opposing would decline to harm her. She wasn't in any mortal danger at all, and even if she was, the other Order members would keep her safe. Her lingering feelings of terror were completely unfounded.

Getting ready for the arrival of the pirate's friends, Kaitlyn pushed her back against the cart and held out her arms in the direction of the approaching bad guys. This way, when she triggered her power, she wouldn't get flung across the shipping yard and look like an idiot.

In all of her excitement, the kid might have forgotten about Lenna's ability to make nearby mutant powers almost useless. The two were perhaps an arm's distance away from each other.

Aside from the sentinel up atop the shipping containers and Lenna there was a child and a woman there. A child? This kid must have one heck of a power... and was she wearing a cape? Roger found it odd, but whatever floats her boat. Apparently no one followed instructions in this group as he was still the only one pushing the crates, and getting nowhere fast. Eventually Lenna assisted him in the pushing which actually got the crates moving at a pace greater than small inch long slides every ten or so seconds. She then commanded the others, excluding their watchdog, to assist. The girl joined in, which still meant Lenna was accomplishing the most work here. Though it was less annoying now that he wasn't the only one doing this manual labor.

Before long a whisper was carried along the wind to them from their watchdog up top. The leader of their opposition was incoming. Finally, he could be done with this menial part of the charade.

The man was right, before long an eye patch wearing fool made his appearance. He flashed a badge, asked if they could help and then asked for I.D. Roger tool his hands off of the cart, as hands up was not requested he left them down. If he wanted them up he would have regretted that decision, but Lenna took care of their reply. A few words punctuated by a gunshot. More direct than he liked but effective none the less.

Now the fun could begin. He adjusted his tie and backed away from the cart. They were to lose, but he could ruin someones day in the process and if he played his the soon to be dealt cards right perhaps longer.

The woman with the ski-mask instructed the group to push. So push, Deirdra did. It wasn’t very heavy, especially with all the help that was there. The pushing was interrupted by a man with an eyepatch. He told them to show some identification. The blond felt herself smirk. Wow, he’s a cutie. Luckily, attractiveness didn’t distract her. She just appreciated a good-looking man, just like men appreciated her good looks most of the time.

The leader of their group, the one with the ski-mask, shot him in the arm. One eye shut slightly after the shot went off. “Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.” Deirdra smirked. The shot did mean something good for the woman. Her scorpion body was allowed to show itself. The woman took some steps away from her partners. As she stood smiling, her lower body took on the grotesque, non-human shape it was meant to. A tail appeared and her lower body hardened. Now with eight legs and a taller appearance, the woman stretched her arms, as if she had just woken up.

Glancing around at her surroundings, the end of Deirdra’s tail twitched with expectation. She couldn’t wait to start fighting and to see the reaction of their opponents. Surprise always made her smile.

Though the situation he was in was for the most part a dangerous one Sam was relatively calm well as calm as anyone could be in a situation like this. His fingers twitched slightly ready to activate his mutation should he need to. The laugh coming from the one in the ski mask lured him into a false sense of security surely she was just going to explain the situation and general misunderstanding. Surely she wasn’t pulling a gun, surely she wasn’t aiming a gun at him, surely she wasn’t going to fire, and surely he wasn’t bleeding.

He blinked and felt a sharp and warm sting course through his arm, reaching his right hand up to the left triceps he felt the warm blood and frowned. It hurt and there was pain but nothing he couldn’t or hadn’t handled before. Pressing one of his fingers on the wound a thin layer of ice wrapped around his arm to restrict the blood flow, in hopes it wouldn’t slow him down. Eye shifting towards the four again he sized them up, most of them looked ready and as he suspected one of them was a mutant. The scorpion like body became visible, pity she was pretty, not that the scorpion legs and tail made her less pretty it’s just it wasn’t really his thing.

Falling down to one knee and acting up the gun wound Sam gave a fake pain like wince on his face, ”Maya, go notify the others, let them know one of the four has firearms and one of the others is a mutant, scorpion like lower torso, and I’m guessing she isn’t sporting that tail just for looks, send Cafas in and have Kealey do what she can to distract them from a distance, I want you to remain a reflection for now, I’ll open up a mirror for you soon, when we are closer and you can get the drop on them.” he paused for a second, ”And you better not repeat the pirate crack…” he added with a slight smirk.

”Go!” he said softly so only Maya could hear him. Slamming his hand on the ground he jumped upright and made the appearance that he was fine despite the wound he received moments ago. ”Opened fire on an officer…” he said a bit louder, ”Well, it’s my pleasure to put you all under arrest!” Sam said as he took a step forward and iced over his body in a thick and sturdy layer of ice. It was visible now and some of his mutation would be revealed to those he was attempting to arrest. His long-range attacks for now would remain a mystery.

What didn’t remain a mystery was the fact that the air around him was starting to get colder. Running forward a few steps away from the puddle of ice Sam looked to the scorpion lady and whoever else would be willing to step forward, ”Come’ere” waving the entire group forward, he slowed to a walk as he got closer the air around him stayed chilled as his breath could be seen.

(OOC: Don't forget to mention your emotions so Kealey can read/mess with them )

Bam.

Yeah, that went well.

Maya was startled for a moment as she saw Sam take a hit and fall; he was a good actor, and she spent the first few moments mirroring his movements to avoid suspicion, as she listened to his hurred instructions.

>>”And you better not repeat the pirate crack…”

"Aye aye Capt'n." she grinned, and the next moment, she was in the window, waving at CJ and Kealey.

"C.J., get in there, fight's on. Five people, one of them is a kid, one is a mutant with half a scorpion body and a nasty tail. One of them has a gun, Sam just got shot in the arm. Kealey, he wants you to try to distract them from a distance. Let's go."

With that, Maya teleported herself back into the pool of ice; she lost CS's refelction, but she was still only visible if someone looked down into the ice mirror while she waited for CS to form her an exit. In the meantime, she watched their opponents. And hoped for the best.

Cafas had started running after the shot, but with a great deal of restraint stayed back for the signal. His captain could be dead for all he knew. A quick over ride of instinct by his brain glued his eyes to the ice. When mirror said go, he was gone before the recon could get to him. He heard ‘five’, ‘scorpion’, ‘gun’, and something about a baby goat? Perhaps she meant a faun, half man half goat. Yeah that could be it. He turned the corner and caught sight of the leader; he was apparently well, given that he was challenging them all to fight at once. Brave if you asked Cafas, even he wasn't one to fight numbers like that. Then again they had 2 people and one secret weapon, so there was at least a chance they could spring a surprise on the group of villains.

'I count four... Oh wow that really is a kid, damn, I guess no time for social etiquette here...'

The confirmed mutant scorpion lady caught his eye. She was all exoskeletony, which he found a little disconcerting. He then spotted some guy in a suit and what he could only assume was an anonymous get up, and he could see someone with a gun in a ski mask. Weird, that only made four. He looked around in a cursory manner as he pulled up a foot behind the leader, but spotted nothing. The woman with the gun was his biggest worry though. Well no sense him getting shot at again. As much as it was bad courtesy to move in front of another fighter, he jumped forward. The cold barely registered against his skin, he himself radiating heat, warm as they get. Technically cafas was bullet proof, so he aimed to remain his boss and the lady for as long as he could.

Two metres, no, three, that's three steps in, if she attacks I may only get one.

"Hope you don't mind me cutting in on this dance miss, just got a feeling you didn't like him so much." He smiled at her and dropped back into a boxer's stance, right foot back, shoulder width apart, weight on the front, he was ready. "So, easy way, or hard way?" Cafas liked how the night was going.

OOC - If you gave me emotional descriptions, thanks! If not, you’re stuck with what I gave you based on your post. If you don’t like them, give me more to work with next time!


Why did Sam feel the need to get into the middle of everything by himself? There had been shots fired, and there were still forms littering the ground in various states of disorientation. This wasn’t the type of situation you simply walked into. Besides, the feelings of the unknown mutants weren’t necessarily violent, but friendly definitely would have been an exaggeration.

There was something strange there too, some of the emotions were fuzzy, and the blond had a hard time feeling them out. The person wasn’t quite amused…but they weren’t malicious either, it was almost like the feelings were….irreverent? She couldn’t match a word to the feelings, they were hard to describe.

There were so many things to focus on, and Kealey spent a few moments simply trying to untangle one bundle of emotions from the next, getting a feel for each of the people in her group and the other. That was a lot and soon Kealey was rooted in her spot, buzzing with all the different emotions and trying not to really feel any of them. She partially succeeded.

A shot rang out, and Kealey jumped, some of her concentration slipping the varying degrees of alarm and amusement that went through people at the sound. Sam didn’t have a gun…so that only meant that…Kealey nodded to herself, someone was shocked, but quickly recovering and moving towards confidence again.

Almost on cue, Mirror returned from her recon mission with Sam to report that he had indeed been shot. Kealey already knew it couldn’t be serious, but apparently they were in for a fight. Kealey committed the descriptions Mirror gave to memory, hoping that there really wasn’t a child fighting with the opposition. That definitely would throw a kink in things…and it meant these were far more nefarious villains than the average thug.

Cafas got instructions to follow Mirror back to the brawl, and Kealey got told….to stay back. Her eyebrows drew together at that, and she scowled. How was she supposed to do anything useful if she couldn’t see what was going on? Kealey huffed and started moving after Cafas ran off. Sam had said to stay at a distance, not stay at the car.

Moving to where she could see the action taking place, Kealey frowned. Things were starting to heat up, starting with Cafas stepping into things with Sam. The person with the gun hadn’t made another move, but the scorpion lady looked ready to go. She actually had a stinger. She reassessed, the fuzziness was coming from the gun wielder and the much smaller, caped child near her. Kealey had encountered that once before…but she’d have to think on it later.

The best way to win a fight, was to not have to fight at all.

Kealey focused, doing her best to mentally pick out each bundle of emotions tied to a villain. Down went motivation, down went malice, down went pretty much anything Kealey could find that would benefit them in a fighting situation. If there was fear, up it went, hesitation too. For now, her comrades would have to handle things on their own. Kealey had her hands full with the bad guys.

Glancing down idly from his obscure perch Zephyr watched the proceedings beneath him in much the same manner as a child would a stream of ants; with a mild curiosity wrapped in a sense of detachment stemming from a complete and utter lack of concern born partially out of confidence out of his own abilities but mainly from the knowledge that the vast majority of people never bothered to glance upwards. So long as the hessian made no motion to draw attention to himself the mansion team would likely never register his presence.

In short the air elemental had front row seats to a mutant ruction in a largely abandoned location and though the azure eyed mercenary was not foolish enough to imagine any dazzling displays of destruction he was at the very least expecting to gain a measure of insight into abilities of those beneath him. It never hurt to keep up to date on potential adversaries after all, no matter how unlikely they might seem.

As it was though events were proving to be rather dull, granted the abrupt gunshot had injected a certain amount of surprise for the elemental, although he'd entertained the idea of planting a bullet between the mansion leaders ears the hessian hadn't believed any of his peers willing to take the necessary action, especially not in light of the missions overall objective. Despite this though a darker part of the mercenary's persona found a certain amusement in the rapid manner with which the one eyed man had been cut off, it simply seemed fitting.

Verily the entire episode could have ended there, it would have none too difficult for the masked adapted to follow up her initial warning shot with something decidedly more lethal. That however would have been counter to the overall machinations of this particular cozen and so the ill prepared Xmen team was permitted to regroup and things became... interesting, as the fair haired mansion leader revealed his gelid talents in a somewhat theatrical display which caused the hessians brow to rise in momentary skepticism before his attention was shifted to the arrival of another mansion member.

Pink was the first though to enter Zephyr's mind as he stared down dubiously at the iced mans apparent back up, this was quickly by a brief mental double take as the air elemental blinked and verified that he was in fact seeing the correct colour and that, yes, the new arrival had indeed placed himself before the adapted's gun with a clear measure of confidence which granted the hessian a wealth of information about the young mans potential mutation while at the same time providing nothing concrete.

The stage had been set, the actors assembled and the atmosphere drawn tense in the wake of a guns sharp retort and the display of mutant ability. All that remained was for those gathered to cease their posturing and begin trading blows yet Zephyr himself felt little inclination to participate in the imminent altercation; two versus five, or four and a half if one wished to be accurate, were hardly ideal odds if a believable defeat were to be engineered.

No, it made far more sense for him to stay where he was and keep a watchful eye over the below proceedings, in all likelihood his assistance would not even be required for such a trifling affair which was only fitting really considering the paltry sum he'd been offered. Besides it wasn't as though there was much he could do at the moment as both sides seemed quite content to continue their blustering and ,really, it would be rude to interrupt.

A stray thought abruptly snagged Zephyr attention and he blinked before frowning; hadn't there been two females on the mansion team? One had melted into the earth but where had the second one gotten to? A brief spatial scan of the area swiftly revealed that the girl had barely moved from her original position and indeed appeared to be doing little more than acting as a fellow spectator. It was curious really; her teammates were outnumbered by more than two to one and yet she seemed content to simply observe, surely she should be doing more than that?

With the battle yet to start and finding little else to occupy his attention Zephyr chose to indulge his curiosity as he once again conveyed his voice along a thin whisper of wind to the motionless blonde gamine some ways below him as he posed a simple, yet honest question.

"Shouldn't you be helping your friends?"

Lenna almost burst out laughing when the guy with pink highlights stepped in front of his captain to defend the ice man's scrawny backside. The X-men really took all sorts, didn't they? Pink-haired boys, and fools who thought they had authority. All they were missing was a bleeding heart who tried to get everyone to talk about their 'feelings'.

Her face didn't show her amusement. She didn't give away the fact she thought the X-men were so much a joke. Instead, she faked a worried tone.

"Oh no! I'm really scared!" Easy way or hard way? "How could I ever fight you?" and let him live to tell the tale. Lenna took one step back, then another. "H-hey gang, maybe w-we really should book it? I don't wanna fight someone like this." She stumbled onto her backside, scurried and scooted, sold it. Then, she hauled herself up using the crate for support. Holstered her gun, and glanced Kaitlyn's way, tone of confidence slipping in over the faux 'worried' tone from before. "Blast em. Then, we'll run for it."

She ran her hand along the crate as she slipped around it, putting it between herself and the others. Lenna gave Kaitlyn plenty of room. She ran for the nearest group of metal shipping crates, ducked behind it, cupped her hands around her mouth, and shouted loud enough for everyone to hear. "Everyone, RETREAT!!"

There was the call. This facade was nearly over. A good thing, too, because for some reason, she suddenly didn't feel like giving them as good a battle show. Her acting had felt like garbage, too.

((OOC: Trade final blows, then make your exit~))

Pirate-cop wanted to put them under arrest? Not if this little girl had anything to say about it. Arms directed towards the X-Men leader, she tried to activate her powers the only way that she knew how: taking full advantage of her emotions, specifically anger. How dare he try to arrest them, when they were the heroes, and he was a good-for-nothing villain? How dare he soil the good name of pirates everywhere by working for the X-Men?

It might have taken a few seconds to get her power working, but finally the fruits of her efforts materialized. She sent such a powerful blast headed in the ice-man's direction that he might as well have been trying to stand up against a strong gust of wind from a minor thunderstorm.

That wasn't very strong, actually. Was something wrong with her power!? Kaitlyn panicked for a second, until she realized that Lenna was standing right next to her.

That's a problem.

Entirely unsure of what to do, the young superhero sat in place, watching as the action unfolded around her. Trying to shove that residual bit of terror into the back of her mind, where it belonged.

>"Blast em. Then, we'll run for it."

Arms were raised and ready, aimed in the pink-haired guy's general direction. He would probably start paying attention to her, now that Lenna had given her orders to blast him. This was bad. Scary, even. As soon as Lenna got out of range, Kaitlyn could --

KA-THWOOM

Get overwhelmed with fear and involuntarily send a powerful shock wave flying towards the hair dye enthusiast, as well as anyone that might have been standing behind him. The force of the child's blast also knocked the back of her own head against the cart.

Getting up, Kaitlyn tried to stumble back to where Lenna called the retreat. She was having trouble doing even this. Or thinking clearly. Or seeing clearly.

Deirdra didn’t even have time to get in a fight with anyone. She sighed angrily and began to retreat. Pretending to lose was hard enough, but to not even get to fight in the first place was even harder. The blond glanced back over her shoulder at the enemies. She took in all the people that had came and put powers to the faces. It would help if she ever ran into them again. She looked towards the man who had gotten shot, that the woman had found attractive. A wink was given, whether it was seen or not, was a different story.

The fight beginning, the pirates cavalry arrived. A pink haired cavalry, aside from no horse it was the worst kind of cavalry. Ascetically speaking of course. This would prove to be an odd fight to lose, and look believable at the same time. Though, for some reason he was fearful and his desire to even do this farce was waning.

Luckily there seemed no need to continue, Lenna called on her troops to rout after she had fallen on her duff and made a seemingly frantic and haphazard trip backward. She had called for the girl to blast them, Roger was unsure what that was about until the little girl set off a blast, forcing things in front of her back...and her own head back... into the cart.

The plan to retreat seemed ideal, until Lenna closed the distance between them with her scooting and the fear went away and his desire ruin someone's day reasserted itself. The change was too drastic, he realized someone out there must be doing it. Having experienced Lenna's disruption of power's before it only seemed logical. Deciding to maintain his own emotional state, he would remain nearby Lenna, only moving away should his skills be called upon during the retreat.

Sending a message to mock these fools had better make up for the inconvenience of this whole thing. It was doubtful that this one event itself would provide the satisfaction, but it could very well be a another straw on another much larger camel's back and he could wait.

Things were happening fast, almost too fast, they were ready to retreat now? Like all of a sudden things weren’t in their favor… he was shot and from all they could tell Cafas was their only other threat… unless they could sense or see Maya or Kealey nearby… he paused and took a step forward ready to push Cafas out of the way, it was bad enough he stepped in front of him but with pink hair? Sam bit his lip and fought back the urge to laugh at the situation as well but before he could move forward he felt himself get thrown off his feet… hard!

The last thing he saw before he was thrown backwards was the pink hair of Cafas behind him getting thrown back as well. He eyed the small girl opposite of them fly back as well in the opposite direction no doubt a push from a mutation of some kind, what it was he wasn’t sure but his ears rang for the duration of the flight. Sam landed hard and tucked his head to his chest and covered the back of his neck and pulled the fall into a roll once he balanced up his ears rang only for a second more and he looked to the group and saw the scorpion looking lady upper half smile at him. He blinked with his one eye and pushed himself up and ran forward still slightly disoriented from his ears and the fall.

Focusing on the moisture in the air around him and the water near the docks he jumped forward and slammed his hands down then brought the moisture up causing ice to raise out of the water, and from the moisture in an attempt to block off all immediate exits, the only problem was with such a long range to cover with a wall it was for the most part weak, if fact any one of them probably could have demolished it from what he had seen. The little girl in particular could take it down with ease, that was however if and only if he didn’t have the opportunity to reinforce the walls.

His eye fixed on the woman with the scorpion legs and he smirked in her direction before focusing on the water behind the wall it was now time to reinforce it, the only problem was from such a distance he was vulnerable from attacks it was kind of difficult to focus from such a distance and move to avoid getting hit. Long story short he couldn’t be distracted. ”Maya, Cafas, get over here A.S.A.P. kinda hard to protect myself while I’m trying to reinforce those walls of ice!” he said into his ear piece hoping Maya and Cafas could both hear him, quickly he shifted his good eye along the wall, ”Kealey, how is it coming with the interference?” he asked sounding slightly strained.

(OOC: As of right now the wall is only about five feet high and thin, if Sam can keep focus on the wall it’ll become thicker and higher making it harder to escape, so let’s get some brawling in! Also don’t forget to toss in some emotions for Kealey!)