((This is the X and Os mini-brawl. Invite only.))

"Yeeaaaaah," A voice on the other end of the phone line spoke. It was a husky voice, smarmy as an oily sycophantic press agent. "There's some trouble at the docks. Gunfire, fighting. Seems like mutant activity~ Something you X-men should have no problem handling. So, if you could get right on that, that'd be great. Thanks." The officer took a long sip of his coffee, and ended the call to the mansion. The cops had just recruited the X-men to investigate a disturbance.

All it had taken was one tip-off from a concerned citizen.

Lenna turned back to her little group of Orderlings, snapping her cellphone shut brusquely. They had been reported. She'd done the reporting.

The group had already been briefed. Lenna smiled at them.

"Okay, guys and gals. You know what the plan is. Make this look good. Give em a good fight. No winning. Now, everyone glower! Get into position! They'll be here any minute!"

She pulled her white face-mask back on, and pointed to the crates on the cart. Their goal, or so the X-men were meant to think. Lenna gave the Orderlings plenty of space to push the thing. It looked "heavy". Far too heavy for her to dirty her pretty little hands with. Stacked high with five crates, two on the front half, two on the back, one balanced on the middle, it looked important. Impressive, even.

The appearance of weight was part of the show. Sure, the crates were filled with things to make it "heavy". Plans, malice, hopes, dreams for the future... tricks. None of these things made it too heavy for the Orderlings to push, however.

So, push they did. The cart was aimed towards the exits. In their wake lay several dock security guards, injured or incapacitated, none killed. The order had already handled that part of the illusion.

It had been fun.

The phone call wasn’t the nicest way to dispatch him and a few of his teammates, especially when they had worked so hard to take down the death count and you had someone who sounded like that on the other line. He sighed and decided not to let it get to him considering he could put that particular dispatcher in some trouble with a call to a certain commissioner, but again he didn’t think to much on the topic seeing as it was a call and there had been gunshots heard which meant trouble, Mutant or not Sam was going to handle the situation.

Looking over to his shadow he smiled, ”Looks like your seeing some action today! Do exactly what I saw got it?” Sam said in a more serious tone as he pressed his foot to the pedal and zoomed off down a side street while turning the lights and the sirens on. Cars moved out of the way as Sam headed to the warehouse already in route to the scene.

Lifting one of his hands off the wheel and pressing the X’s ear piece he patched through to the mansion and in turn all the X’s new recruits and seasoned members, he normally didn’t make a call like this but with all the new members of the team it wouldn’t hurt to get them used to the idea of having to drop everything at any given moment. ”Sam here, en route to a current crime scene at the docks, night need back up gun shots were heard and word of possible mutant, all those near the docks meet me there, not sure I will need it but better safe than sorry.” Sam said as he ended call and turned another corner and sped to the docks.

Two minutes passed and his car siren and lights ceased. He looked over to Maya (his shadow) and nodded his head, ”Exactly what I said got it?” Sam said as he exited his car after he parked it away from the docks where the gunshots were heard. The salty air stung his nostrils as he breathed in then out. He looked around and checked to see if anything suspicious was going on.

It was a good thing he turned off the siren and lights before they actually got near the docks last thing he wanted was to have a big target on his forehead especially with Maya his shadow there last thing he wanted was to have any harm to come to him… well today her.

Activating his mutation the air around him started to chill a few degrees making it easier to see where everyone was in correlation to them. Maya’s heat signature appeared first then a bit off a few more people standing around. Using his regular vision he turned his head slightly and investigated for the suspects. ”There…” Sam said as he locked onto the figures, one thing was for sure they were awfully calm for gunshots supposedly being fired. ”What to do?” Sam asked curiously as he weighed his options, wait for some back up or go in hoping for the best.

>>”Looks like your seeing some action today! Do exactly what I said got it?”

Maya grinned at her mentor. She had been shadowing him for a while now as an X trainee, but she never got to see any real 'action'. Now that they were on their way to see some, she was more than excited. She also felt slightly uneasy that she had no weapons (all right, she had a taser, but that didn't exactly qualify as a weapon by the young knight's standards).

The scene was strangely calm. Maya shivered as Sam cooled the air down around them. No gunshots, no screaming, no mutants. Some person in a mask with boxes. Hmm.

"Want me to go ahead and take a look?" she asked him, looking around for windows and other reflecting surfaces. She should be able to get close without being noticed... or get out pretty fast if she was.

Once she had the leader's permission, Maya merged into her reflection in a nearby window, and made her way into another, then another, until she had a better angle to look at the docks. She used reflections to mask herself, and as soon as she took a good look, she was back to report to Sam.

"Five people, no visible mutations, getting away with a cart full of boxes, heck if I know what's in them but they look heavy." she saluted "Guards down, injured or out, but no massacre."

Maya folded her arms and leaned agains the wall. "We wait for the others, huh."

Cafas was just getting used to his little piece of technology being attached to him permanently. He had covered every metal surface in clear plastic contact, the type for school books, so he wouldn't unwittingly destroy it. When it rang on him he almost smacked into the roof. It hadn't done that before. He grabbed it, listened and smiled. He was near the docks! How spectacularly divine a notion! Being needed! It was almost as cool as having your well known symbol spot lit across the sky, but that was impractical on clear nights. He had been cruising for some trouble anyway; the docks had seemed like a shadowy enough place. He hadn't heard gunshots though. He wondered for a moment if this was just a test, but decided, even if it was, he wanted to pass it. He pushed a small button on the device. "On my way."

Well, good thing I brought my hands!

A car flashed past behind him. The young metal manipulator assumed, having heard sirens cut out way in the distance, it was the one he needed. The docks were huge though. Always nice to know when you needed a specific location, that it would be ignored completely. It was just lucky he saw the car. He turned onto the narrow dock road and ran as fast as he could, following the tail lights as they grew ever further away. Sometimes he needed to not take public transport everywhere. Maybe he could invest in a vehicle? But with what? His pocket lint? All the money he had been pulling in had ceased. Vendors of stolen goods couldn't be X-men. The lights died right in front of him, not quite out of sight behind a large vehicle bay near a loading facility. Cafas caught up to it in no time, his boots, despite their weight, made as little sound as possible on the cement as he slowed to a walk. A sneaky walk of sneakiness, which for Cafas meant he was audible to maybe ten metres as a light thudding of foam rubber on cement.

Bingo.

Two figures exited the car. One looked around slightly, the other disappeared briefly then returned, seemingly out of a window. At the distance he was at, it was pretty clearly female. Suddenly the air around him got very chilly, like, a few degrees had dropped instantly. He figured he knew the source of that. Possibly. That was definitely the car he wanted. He kept silent of mouth as he walked up next to Sam. He nodded to the Maya and put his hands into his pockets, the wraps cutting of circulation slightly and making his fingers even colder.

Wonder where the bad guys are. How about you focus on more important things?

”So how many we looking at?” He whispered.

One of the perks of being an actual team member with the X-Men was that no matter what your role was, you got the whole kit-n-caboodle. You got the battle suit, you got access to (some of) the secret parts of the mansion, and you got a communicator that was expected to be on you at all times. For a fashion major, this was something of a problem. It was a small little thing, but it didn’t exactly go with everything. Kealey didn’t even want to think what it would be like to have to wear it to a formal event…but at the moment, that was the least of her worries.

This was a new fabric shop, her instructors always said that mixing up the places you frequented was a good way to find new inspiration. Kealey definitely needed inspiration. For some reason, making her own costume had proven more difficult than she could have possibly imagined. Inspiration was always close at hand for the other people Kealey made things for, but making a costume for herself was hard. It was getting to the point that she was about to ask Shin for help. It wasn’t that she thought he’d have bad ideas…but she’d kind of wanted her suit to be her own. The point was, the blond needed to get on it…and get on it fast, otherwise…

The unmistakable sound of her com going off pulled Kealey from her thoughts and browsing and she immediately looked down at her current clothing. ”Great” the blond muttered, deciding it could have been worse than a thigh-length off-shoulder t-shirt and leggings. Her ballet flats left a little to be desired, but at least she was wearing a tank top under the shirt and had a pony-tail holder around her wrist.

Sam said the incident was at the docks, and Kealey swallowed hard. This was going to be her first real fight with the team! What if something went wrong…what if she couldn’t handle the pressure…what if!

Kealey took a deep breath and dropped what she was looking at, making an about face and heading for the door. This was why she’d faced a zombie horde in her tryout. Thinking of all those emotions made her shudder still, but she’d made it through just fine. Sam and Shin believed in her, as did the rest of the team…besides, Sam wouldn’t call her out on something insane her first time.

”On my way.” Kealey said, then rushed outside to find a cab. The GPS on her com told her that Sam wasn’t all that far away and she praised her luck for being so close in the store. A cab would do just fine at this time of day…especially if the driver suddenly felt a little more urgent to get to his destination than usual. Kealey would tip him well…then demand Sam paid her back.

”On my way.” she spoke into the ear piece she’d slipped over her ear, then went about hailing a cab.

10 minutes later, Kealey was glad that she and her cabbie friend hadn’t ran across any police officers on their way to spot she’d asked to be let off. She paid the man, nice tip included, and ran down the street. For speed’s sake, she’d nearly had him drop her off closer to where Sam was, but that would have been endangering a bystander, and that was a BIG no-no.

On she ran, cursing her inadequate shoes and casting out her powers to locate the others. Up ahead, she spotted a familiar figure and picked up her pace, already starting to feel a little winded from the exertion. Cafas approached a car and two figures exited, apparently she wasn’t too late. Just dressed inappropriately. That was going to have to change.

Up she ran to the car, and the people, stopping to catch her breath when she made it. ”Sorry…” she said, reaching back to pull her hair into a ponytail. ”I was just picking up the materials for my suit…this is going to have to do. What are we looking at?”

Everyone relatively calm if not a little anxious and excited. It was the type of atmosphere that Kealey preferred in such situations. At least nobody was scared.

Shipping yards can be incredibly interesting areas; as a natural way point for all manners of commerce such they are inevitably visited by by a whole host of organizations and individuals wishing to transport all manner of goods ranging from simple food stuffs to computer processors. As with any transportation hub however there was certain degree of corruption which facilitated the formation and maintenance of rather more illicit transactions which, due to the basic principals of economics, were generally a good deal more lucrative than the regulated channels.

It was precisely this iniquitous and cliched background which made the New York docks such an ideal location for an artful act of artifice. Consider also the perpetually shifting labyrinth layout of the area as a result of the quotidian in flow and outflow of iron wrought shipping containers and you possessed an extemporally venue for a multifaceted ambush capable of reducing any opposing force to little more than dregs.

That, however, would not be according to plan; this was not a Machiavellian machination but rather a less than subtle lesson in humiliation and subterfuge. Possibly it was not quite as practical as the ambush stratagem outlined above but it still served a suitable role as a distraction to allow more vital operations to proceed unheeded. It also paid rather well.

"Okay, guys and gals....They'll be here any minute!"[/color]

Leaning adroitly beside one of the many stacks of oversized shipping containers which littered the shipping yard Zephyr drew his attention from the oriental characters decorating the page of his slim spiral bound phrase book and idly directed his gaze towards the energetic white masked brunette posturing at the front in front of the loaded cart, eye contact was made and then the elemental nodded minutely, shelving his slim volume into the depths of his jacket before flexing his legs and making a short leap which nonetheless carried the hessian to the top of the precariously balanced iron containers.

One of the key principals and factors of almost any combat situation was the possession of the high ground. An elevated position conveyed far more than the capability to look down on your opponent, though that was always a plus, it also granted an improved field of vision and, assuming a capacity for ranged attacks, an extended firing directly proportional to the height attained. In this particular scenario though the capricious pillar of metal also served another purpose; the mechanism of his own 'defeat'.

It was time to put on a show.

An entanglement with opposition was not exactly Roger's style, but as it was a ploy aimed to distract from other aims it was tolerable. As fisticuffs was in no way his style battery powered radios tuned to unused frequencies across the dial were placed all around the area, should he find himself in a tight spot in this real life trolling he could use them to distract whomever decided to tangle with him and braved the sensation similar to burning skin.

A phone call was placed, and the announcement came, "Okay, guys and gals. You know what the plan is. Make this look good. Give em a good fight. No winning. Now, everyone glower! Get into position! They'll be here any minute!"

Time for the show. As it was only fitting, Roger was wearing a suit as he often did but donned a Guy Fawkes mask, the perfect attire for what was best described as, what many called, trolling. No sense people seeing his face while carrying out a more overt action, it might hinder future attempts at social engineering.

Their lead today had pointed to the crates up on a cart and one of their company had decided instead to whisk himself up atop a stack of shipping containers. Mildly irritated Roger gave the cart a push, it moved but it took more effort than he wanted to exert. Thankfully only the appearance of leaving with it was needed. While he moved it some he tested his radios, broadcasting loud static on the frequencies, one at a time. All were working as intended.

All that was left now was to wait.

Deirdra hadn’t had any Order missions. This one would be her first. She had put on her top that she intended to wear and a pair of cloth shorts. They weren’t important. Bottoms never were, seeing as they usually ripped apart during her transformation. The blond hadn’t found a possible way to avoid destroying half her closet as of yet, which was a bit irritating. Tear-away pants weren’t an option. Deirdra had found that they shouldn’t be an option for anyone. They. Were. Gross.
--
The young woman was now with some people she had never met before, waiting to cause a scene. When the other woman told Deirdra no winning, she felt her bottom lip jut out ever-so-slightly. Luckily it wasn’t enough for anyone to really notice. The blond pulled her hair back into a pony tail as she stood waiting for the people they were supposed to fight. She looked forward to releasing her scorpion form. She felt more natural in that state than she did with her human legs.

The night before, Deirdra had been in her scorpion form in her room. She had to be to make more toxins. Human bodies weren’t made with the capacity to make poisons, which made the job of synthesizing some a problem. Luckily, at the Sanctuary, people didn’t seem to care about a half-scorpion woman scuttling around.

She felt herself getting impatient. Deirdra wanted to see the people they were supposed to fight…and not beat. She knew they weren’t supposed to do too much damage. The woman wouldn’t sting someone more than once. If necessary, maybe twice, but three times would kill a person. That wasn’t what she was there to do. They were there to distract.

Lenna and that other guy were bringing masks, so Kaitlyn needed one. One quick trip to a local costume store later, the child had a black "super-hero mask," which covered the bridge of her nose and the area just around her eyes. It came with a cape too, which was just perfect for an up-and coming super-hero such as herself. See, Kaitlyn was a super hero with super powers. She was the youngest member of a super-hero team called the Order. Their mission? Transporting empty boxes and making the bad guys feel stupid.

This was going to be awesome.

In the child's mind, the labyrinthine shipping yard might as well have been a super-villain's secret hideout, complete with easily dispatched minions in the form of dock guards. To think, a few of them had even laughed at her when she charged at them, masked and caped, proclaiming that she was going to defeat them. The resultant explosion taught them an important lesson: don't ever underestimate young superheroes.

Now they were supposed to be pushing around a cart full of wooden decoy boxes. Judging by the sound of the cat's wheels behind her, this was getting done. Judging by the sounds of sirens, the super-heroes had company. As she had the responsibility of keeping watch while the other four were pushing boxes, she partially hid herself behind a shipping container and surveilled the newcomers.

"Hey!" She eventually called out to her comrades, gesturing towards the car. "Are those the bad guys? I think one of them can disappear, so they're probably mutants."

The X-men were starting to appear, right on cue. Lenna glanced around at her Orderlings, making sure they were all in place.

Out of four, only one had moved to push the crate cart. The others simply stood around, on top of high perches, or on ground level, wearing short shorts or capes. The cape, Lenna would have to talk with Kaitlyn about. She thought they were fighting bad guys, like some Dark Knight or Dynamic Duo.

Maybe it would have helped if she'd given the girl a better description of The Order? Oh well. It worked. Let her have her fun.

The blond woman moved to help the guy in the Guy Fawkes mask shove the cart, and looked to the other two. "Help push." She said. She didn't ask the British boy to help. He was busy watching their backs for them.

They wouldn't have to push long.

He paused not really sure he wanted to put Maya in harms way, she was a skilled when it came to defending herself months of practice with Sam made her skilled, however those were all controlled settings he didn’t really want to set her up so soon with a real life situation and this was exactly what it was. Gunshots fired and possible mutants with mutations they had no idea about. Sam sighed and made a snap call and nodded his head to his pupil giving her the okay to go take a look around.

Waiting for a few seconds Sam tried to come up with a few solutions onto handle the situation, he could go in and have the back up be just that, back up. It was a shame Maya couldn’t walk people through mirrors with her, it would have come in handy, to have back up be there when he truly found out what these five supposed mutants could do, but situations like this were never easy and this reason in particular was why the X-Men worked with the police.

A few moments went by while Sam was lost in thought and Maya came back through a window and leaned up against a wall. After the information she had was passed back to Sam he nodded his head and stroke his chin debating how to handle the situation, which was getting worse and worse. Five mutants with no visible mutations… great back to square one. They were basically going in circles. Nodding his head to Maya he waited till one then two teammates showed up.

Kealey the x-reserve who designed the teams suits and was their empathy arrived shortly after Cafas the new metal worker arrived. Mentally sighing Sam counted those that arrived plus Maya who he already had and factored them into his strategy. Two close range fighters and what ever range Kealey had who as far as he knew wasn’t much a fighter unless Shin decided to teach her a thing or two. Then again maybe they wouldn’t even need to fight.

Looking to his team of new recruits he looked to where he saw the group with his thermal vision. ”…Alright, guess that’s everyone who is coming…” he clapped his hand and looked to Kealey then Cafas, ”First thing is first strategy on how we are going to do this…” Sam nodded to Maya, ”Tell them what you told me and their location…” he waited till Maya told them what she knew then he continued, ”The plan here is simple, I’ll go their and see if I can get them to tell me what’s going on and if they are in fact the ones who fired the guns and are ‘deemed’ armed and dangerous I’ll have Maya here notify you that I’ll need the back up…”

Looking to Maya he continued, ”I’ll form a reflective ice patch by my feet got it?” looking back to Kealey and Cafas ”seeing as you’re both new like Maya, I’m going to want some full cooperation here meaning if things get sticky I’ll be able to tell you exactly where you need to be. Got it?”

It wasn’t a request it was a command but he did his best to sound as calm and serious as possible, a combination that often made him sound cross with someone but in time they would understand this tone as his commanding one. Looking back to Maya with a slight nod he added, ”Ready?” aiming his finger at the ground by his car he formed a layer of ice one that was flawlessly smooth one that Maya could use even though their were already a few reflective surfaces for her to use he figured one more couldn’t hurt. ”You two wait for Maya to relay ‘go ahead’.” he waited for a moment to make sure they were all prepared to handle the situation as needed.

(OOC: Hope no one minds but after the X's respond I'll be posting after so all the X's have time to respond, and we won't have all you O's waiting for us to make a move so the posting order for the time being will be suspended and should resume after my next post)

Maya kept leaning against the wall until backup arrived. She couldn't help but grin when C.J. showed up; she waved to him.

"Hey there capt'n. Always where the trouble is, huh."

The Aussie was now part of the trainee team just like she was; after she got to know him in his sober and not-pissed-about-defending-his-crush state, he turned out to be a decent guy. Remembering shreds of their last Christmas Eve, she was sure he could hold up well in a fight.

She didn't know the blonde girl personally, but she waved at her too with a friendly smile. She was part of the team, they would be working together. Might as well be nice.

Maya stopped for a split second to remind herself that there was not necessarily going to be a fight. Maybe they'll just talk. Sort things out. Have a beer. Go home.

Yeah, as if.

Once Sam started explaining his plan, Maya pushed herself away from the wall and listened. It was quite a simple plan.

"Aye aye Capt'n. Got it." she looked at the patch of ice he formed; it was smooth enough to reflect perfectly. A smirk played on Maya's lips as she stepped onto the ice and merged into her own reflection. Moments later she'd already taken over Sam's form, and mirrored his movements.

"Ready when you are."

Cafas smiled at Maya, as she always was around him apparently. He turned to see Kealey and smiled even wider. He somehow felt he had earned friendship after the whole zombie thing. Mirror spoke to him, he laughed. "Well it's not as fun punching out a sim as it is punching out a crim." He didn't have much time for jokes though, as the boss, Sam, or Cold Steel as he had learned was his given name, started to explain. Mirror gave them the enemy lay out and then he continued. They were to wait for the go ahead from mirror to be relayed. If they weren't needed, they weren't needed. Cafas hoped they wouldn't be needed, he didn't like the numbers or the lack of intel. What was it they said in the art of war? An assaulting force should outnumber the defence three to one? Something like that. They had, what, four versus five. Oh well.

Right, well, lets get this show on the road.

"Got it, stay here, wait for Maya, follow orders to the T." Cafas nodded and set about prepping for a fight. He made sure his wraps were tight and secure, cracked his knuckles and neck to make sure they weren't stiff and started bouncing on the balls of his feet, classic kick boxer stance. His legs were getting warm from bouncing and the running helped make sure they already were ready; he put a few punches into the air until he felt the blood hit his muscles. He was as ready as he was getting. Maya had joined their boss at the feet and He was fairly sure they were gone. All he had to do is wait for the go ahead.

Jab, jab, cross upper hook, duck, upper with elbow...

Kealey looked around at the assembled team members…they were all very…young. Young to the X-Men if not biologically as well. Was this going to work? Sam seemed confident enough, and none of the others seemed to be incredibly nervous. That helped. He was also feeling assertive, which also helped.

”Is this everyone?” Kealey said, tugging at the neckline of her shirt as it slipped off her shoulder. Sure it was cute walking around the city…but man that was going to be a pain. She sighed and quickly discarded the thing. Now she was in a black tank top that hit mid thigh and a pair of stretch pants. Great. The bad guys would be so much easier to catch while they were rolling on the ground with laughter. She looked around again. Where was everyone…like Fade, and Luke, and Shin?

Oh well, the blond resolved, nodding her head at Sam’s orders. Maya was going to run recon, they were going to wait for his orders, then they were going to go. Kealey glanced in the direction Sam had indicated for Maya to go, and narrowed her eyes.

”There are several of them in various degrees of boredom, excitement, and irritation.” she said. ”I don’t know what they’re doing though. You guys need me to do anything before we start?”

Maya merged with his reflection and mimicked his slight movements, still put off a bit about this aspect of her mutation he silently approved despite his feeling about it. It was perfect for gathering intelligence when need be, another reason he pushed her/him particularly hard. He too knew what it was like to sneak behind enemy territory and the importance to learn how to defend yourself, and while he wasn’t that keen on putting her to work so soon he was happy she wouldn’t have to be on her own, not yet at least, he was still there to make sure she didn’t get into to much trouble.

Turning away from his reflection he looked to Cafas who started to throw a string of combos then agreed to the plan, Kealey on the other hand had a few questions and by few he only thought about two of them. ”Yeah for now at least it is Kealey, don’t worry I have the utmost confidence in all of you abilities, besides I didn’t become in charge of the X-Men because I’m one of the few who can pilot the X-Jet… All right that might be a contributing factor but still…” he nodded his head again and smiled before heading off up and around the bend to where Maya and he had located the suspects.

Looking back to Kealey before he disappeared he shook his head noting the emotions she felt, ”Wait,” he said before he turned his attention forward towards the suspects. Activating his mutation a chill started to form around him, not one that was that huge change of a temperature change but one that would notice if they were within a few feet from him, it was his way of being on guard.

There were four of them now and one of them was a kid in a cape, he didn’t like this at all, the other two had masks on, both covered the faces but one looked more familiar than the ski mask. It reminded him of that one movie he had watched something for a vendetta he couldn’t remember the full title but that didn’t matter too much at the moment. He looked to the blonde and smiled slightly before he slowed to a stop, the smile was his way of trying to be friendly as hell in a not so friendly situation.

Feet now planted a patch of ice formed by his feet so Maya could enter his reflection and be ready to notify when needed. ”Can you guys help me out, there has been word of gunfire,” reaching down and pulling out his wallet with his police badge he flashed it and then put it back in his pocket. He was a safe distance away but that didn’t stop him from being cautious there was after all five and now there are only four.

Feeling the moisture in the air Sam was confident he could hold himself in a defensive position for a long wile if things did result in a firefight, but he hoped it didn’t come to that. ”I’m going to have to ask you all to quite what your doing,” he looked to the two in the masks, ”Remove your masks and show me some Identification of some kind…” he tapped his foot slightly on the small patch of ice to looking down but making sure their was some kind of noise under his feet to show him Maya was there waiting.