Jorge concentrated to keep the wall of water up to separate his fellow officers from the two female mutants. Though the cops were pretty stupid to have had such big mouths in front of these two, that still should not condemn them to death, a good butt-whoopin’ maybe, but definitely not death. Still, as Jorge looked between both the blonde and the cyborg, he knew that he was greatly outnumbered. So far they did not want to listen to reason but he could not just let them walk away, he was here to uphold the law after all.

“Listen,” he started to say. “This is already getting way out of hand.”

He tried to read the expressions on their faces and as he looked at the cyborg he could read nothing from her. She was completely blank, but the other was different. The scorpion woman, he could see that she was reluctant for some reason. He was not sure of what, but he feared she was going to do something she would later regret.

“Please, no one needs to needlessly die-”

He paused in mid sentence as he saw the stupidest thing that could have happened. Before he could say anything, the older police officer, the one who had recognized the robot woman, had ran around the edge of his wall of water, handcuffs and gun out. He lunged forward, and tried to slap the cuffs on the cyborg and held his gun high.

“We’re taking you down you freak!”

“Officer! Get away!” Jorge screamed as he watched the older man take one step too close to dangerous looking mutant.

The mutant cop was obviously worried, as he should be, but he wasn’t backing down. Deirdra wasn’t sure how to deal with him. Part of her was wishing he’d just leave so she could go home too. If the cops hadn’t stopped her, she would’ve left the four idiots lying on the ground. They may be in pain, but still alive and she would’ve gotten to go back to the Sanctuary. Picking on the four idiots for picking on a small girl wouldn’t have turned into something this serious if they had just let her leave. But, of course they had to threaten her. Of course Meld had to show up. Of course more officers had to show up.

The scorpion woman stared at the mutant officer for a moment as he spoke, but her attention quickly changed over to the one that had approached Meld. Deirdra’s eyes opened wide and she backed away from the two. She knew Meld wouldn’t tolerate something like that and the blond didn’t want to be covered in the foolish man’s blood. The confused woman turned and looked at the wall of the building behind her. She wasn’t going to run, but she wasn’t going to watch the other female mutant butcher someone.

One of Deirdra’s hands came up to her head and she brushed her hair back, stressed. The woman felt her body start to shift to human form. When her human legs returned, her shirt was long enough to reach to a little below her thighs. She sunk to the ground. The blond looked down at her legs, confused. She had never turned back into her human body without meaning to. She supposed it had to do with all the emotion coming from the situation. Her bright, blue eyes looked over her shoulder and her expression was very stunned. “Meld…Something's wrong.”

There was, in Meld's opinion, a reason why mutants were the next step in evolution and humans were an outdated species. Well, in truth there were quite a few reasons, but one of the main reasons was that mutants were, on the whole, simply more intelligent than humans. Which was illustrated beautifully by the fact that the foolish cop who, apparently, had no sense of self preservation, rushed Meld in an attempt to cuff her and take her in. Did he not realize that she had killed more officers than he had probably even worked with? Clearly he knew something of who she was, otherwise why would he be so intent upon trying to arrest her? And yet, even knowing whatever it was he knew, he foolishly thought to rush her and attempt to cuff her. Foolish, idiotic humans, every one of them apparently.

The moment the officer came into range, Meld's tail came down, plunging deep into his neck and shoulder. The man didn't even have a chance to blink, let alone react, the action occurring much faster than any mere human movement. Even the fastest human couldn't have possibly competed with the speed and accuracy in which Meld was able to control her flesh melded tail. The moment she removed her tail, now covered in blood, the man fell to the ground, convulsed once, and was still. Her tail had managed to half decapitate the man. He had sealed his own fate the moment he had made the decision to try and turn upon his betters.

As soon as the cop had fallen at her feet, Meld regained her battle stance, her tail swiveling around to blink behind her. The death, thankfully, had been silent, occurring much to quickly for so much as a scream to come out of her unfortunate victim's mouth. "Do either of you care to try your luck a second time?" Meld asked the remaining to officers. Her voice continued in its cold tone as if the death meant absolutely nothing to her. Which, in truth, it did not. It hadn't even been a challenge to kill the man, hadn't hadn't even taken long enough to get any real enjoyment out of it. Which, in truth, was a good thing. Perhaps she was managing to regain her past businesslike attitude towards necessary killing after all. Perhaps she had made more progress against her addiction than she had realized.

“Meld…Something's wrong.”

For the barest moment Meld turned her attention from the threats before her to her ally, a look of concern on her face. "What is it?" Her attention was back on her enemies before the answer was forthcoming, but she continued listening. The scorpion woman was a fellow mutant and, even more than that, was a fellow Orderling. If something was wrong then that was even more reason to dispatch her enemies so that the two of them could escape and rectify the situation.

The line had been crossed before Jorge could fully register what had happened. It seemed as if the older officer did have the drop on the cyborg, even though the mutant cop had shouted for them to stand down, but before he knew it, he was staring at the fallen officer as he lay on the ground, with a gapping whole that lay wide open between his neck and shoulder. It took a second for Jorge to realize what had happened to him, then he saw the robot woman with the tail attached to her. He knew then that there would be no more negotiating, no more pleads to end things civilly. An officer, though a close-minded fool, was dead.

“I-I’m supposed to keep this from happening,” he muttered to himself. “It’s…my job.”

A low growl started from deep in his throat, one that seemed to almost make the five o’clock stubble on his throat quiver with anger. Red appeared around the edges of his eyes as he stared between the terminator wannabe and the dead officer on the ground. His fist clenched, Jorge knew that he could not take this far. He did not know the man. This would not be about revenge, but…he was going to do his job.

“Arrrrgh!” He roared as he swung his free arm forward until he held it across his chest, almost like he were flexing a muscle.

For a split second he did look rather comical, but there was another roar, an elemental one that followed his action. Out of the corner of his eyes, which were now trained straight at the cyborg, the wall of water he had had up for protection for his fellow officers quivered and seemed as if it were going to dissolve. But upon his thought, the water fell, but quickly jumped up and shot directly for the murdering woman in a powerful jet of water, aimed directly for her head.

Fwoooooooooosh!!!

The force he was pushing behind that water jet was enough to buckle a brick wall, yet he had a feeling that she would survive it, which was good. He was not looking to kill her, he needed to incapacitate her.

As he took his eyes away from the woman for a second, he glanced down and noticed the surprised expression on the blonde who had now reverted to human form. He did not know why she was like it, it seemed as if she were standing down but Jorge could not be sure. Either way, she was not a threat right now and throughout their whole encounter, he could read that she did not want things to go this far. Between her and the cyborg, he knew he did not have a chance, especially if the blonde decided to jump in, but past her, he noticed that the young officer, the moron who started this whole thing because he was a jumpy gunshot, was running back to his squad car, either to get more back up or to flee. Jorge was glad for either option, he did not want any more innocent blood to be spilled.

He got the blonde attention before he gave her an almost saddened expression. “You need to get out of here, now.” He knew the blonde had not really done anything wrong. She attacked civilians, but right now the terminatrix was his most pressing problem. She killed an officer, he could not let her walk away from this. He hoped the blonde would listen to his advice and just leave, but part of him knew that was not going to happen. He was in for a hell of a fight.

She'd gotten the call and had to drop everything. That was sort of the point with being on call for the police. You had to drop everything and go. Maybe they hadn't meant literally, but... "I-uh. I will clean that up later. I am so sorry." She was excited, though. This was her first actual active duty call.

So when she ran up to the scene... saw Meld and two other unknowns she raised her hand from the other side of the street, took a deep breath to shout hello and... a car drove past as she meant to take a step out into the street. It honked at her for taking that step anyway. It was just that her mind was completely occupied with the scene in front of her.

Meld used her tail kind of like a scorpion. There was absolutely no mistaking it's intended path as it struck home into the neck and shoulder of a uniformed officer. "Noooooooo!" The word echoed weirdly between the buildings in the confined air there. She shouted where the victim could not. He fell like so much meat and no one, not even his fellow officer seemed to care.

Or maybe he was just stunned. He had better just be stunned.

Ghost started to wade across the street, only ever in real danger of being run down by a vicious mini-van taxi. The shout "Get out of the road!" trailed past her as Ghost watched Mr. Police man send water out from himself. So... finally they'd let a real mutant out on active duty. And finally she'd made it across the street.

She stepped up next to the water manipulator. Or the cop with the water manipulator back up, maybe. "Ghost of the X-men here by Commissioner's request." That was all the introduction they needed despite her high heels, khaki pants and polka dotted blouse.

Her features were dark and decidedly disappointed. When the water washed away she'd be ready. "Meld, how could you?" Ghost sounded wounded on a personal level. How could do this? How could she stand opposite from Ghost on the battlefield? How could she live with the repercussions of this act?

Deirdra stared, stunned and helplessly, as Meld killed the police officer. He was stupid, but the blond still felt remorse for some reason. As she sat on the ground with her human legs, the woman’s hands shook. It was like watching Roland killing all those police, only this was gorier. His shooting the people in the head was a tad distressing at the time, but it was nothing. It hadn’t been her fault and it had been less personal. This, this was blood spattering and a fellow mutant watching his comrade die by the hands (well, tail), of Meld, also a mutant.

“My scorpion body, it—It’s gone. I think I’m a tad stressed. You owe me a drink when we get out of this.” A small smirk appeared on her face. The blond stood up shakily and watched as water washed over Meld. Deirdra would’ve been concerned, but she doubted the cyborg would be hurt. The young woman waited to see what would happen next and then noticed another woman approaching the scene. She sighed, frustrated. Why do more people have to keep coming? This is getting to be more intense than I had ever intended.

Deirdra had never been much into emotions; in fact, most people who got to know her well, believed her to be a sociopath. It was never true. The blond had been through a lot and learned how to hide her feelings. It was so much easier to pretend she felt nothing, than to always feel hurt. At this point, Deirdra’s shaking gave off the appearance that she was distraught and scared. She would never admit it, but there was a bit of both emotions. Although, irritation was starting to surface as well.

She looked at the mutant officer as he told her to run. Deirdra opened her mouth slightly, but quickly closed it again. She stood there for a moment, thinking about what to do. The blond shook her head ‘no’. “Part of me wants to, but I don’t know if I could live with myself knowing I left her here alone.” She looked to where Meld had been standing. “I shouldn’t feel remorse for some idiot cop that was trying to arrest a fellow mutant, but part of me feels so bad. I want to be able to help mutants. We’re better than humans, so why should I feel bad? If the need came, I should be able to kill them, shouldn’t I? They’ve never cared about us.” An image of her family appeared in her mind. Her expression was confused, like she was hoping someone else would know.

Meld could remember a time, in a hazy sort of way, when killing had bothered her. She recalled, amidst the fog that was her half destroyed memories, that her fist kill had distressed her greatly but that even then she knew it was justified. Self defense, her first kill had also been a police officer, likely not so different than the one who had just fallen at her feet. She hadn't even done anything wrong at that time, not really, and the officer had shot at her and tried to arrest her. It was either be arrested or worse, or dispose of the treat on her freedom and her life. The choice then, as now, had been clear. She valued her life and had no interest in dying, even beyond her work for the mutant cause she knew she wanted to live. Sure, her battle would probably end her life sooner than would be natural, but she was damn well going to fight her hardest until that inevitability came to pass.

However momentary the distraction was, the scorpion woman's word had distracted Meld and that distraction had almost cost her her life. She knew better than to take her eyes off an enemy, even if only for a moment, and in ignoring that piece of logic that had been drilled into her even as a teenager training in martial arts, she had almost done herself in. The moment her eyes returned to the body of her enemy, her mutant enemy which made him even worse, she saw a deluge of water heading her way. It was only because of her faster than human reflexes that she was able to get her shield arm up in time to block the worst of the attack.

The water slammed into Meld's shield, driving her backwards several feet. Only her claws digging into the concrete ground managed to stop her backwards momentum. It was difficult to say in present circumstances, but she though the force behind the blast might have even been sufficient to dent her shield, bending and warping it out of shape. She growled deep in her throat, the sound the only sign of her anger. Mutants should not be forced to fight one another, not in any circumstances. It bothered her, as it had in previous situations in which she had been forced on the opposite side of a battle against a fellow mutant, to know that she was fighting her own kind. Only after Meld had dispatched one of his friends did he think to allow the scorpion woman to flee. Why couldn't he have done so in the beginning and saved all of them the trouble? She would never understand the way some people worked.

As the water cop spoke, Meld took that moment to catch her breath and recompose herself. The blast of water, although she didn't show it, had taken something out of her. Pain was not something she felt, but she could feel the exhaustion in her muscles from having to stop such an attack. Just when she thought things couldn't get any worse a woman from her past appeared. She tried to sift through the cobwebs of her memory to get a name but came out blank. What she did remember was that this woman had taken her into the Mansion when she had first left The Order. More than that was a mystery, as so much of the last 3 years of her life remained a mystery.

"It was self defense," Meld answered the newcomer coldly. It was true, after all. She hadn't made the first move, he had. He had brought his death upon himself and she knew if circumstances had been reversed and he had had the opportunity, he would have done the same to her. "I don't want to fight you. I remember what you did for me. I don't want to fight either of you," she glanced at the water mutant to make sure he knew she included him in her statement. "Mutants should not fight against one another. Let us leave and we leave peacefully. You have my word." Plus, with the scorpion mutant no longer looking like a scorpion, she became something of a liability, someone she needed to protect. Of course she would do so gladly, but two one one was not very good odds even for one such as herself.

Okay first the scorpion seems to have powered down, the cyborg has killed an officer and a woman has suddenly appeared on his side claiming affliation with the X-Men.

“Well, it is New York,” Jorge muttered silently to himself.

The scene must have looked just silently odd to anyone who watched outside of their windows. The blonde was still in human form, and though she may have been shaky earlier, it was clear she was not going to run. The terminator he had just pummeled with water stood a few feet away from her. He had not counted on her shield deflecting his water jet and instead of knocking her out, he merely shoved her backwards. And now, a woman from the X-Men was standing by his said and spoke as if she knew the brunette, and in a tone that showed disappointment. Though surprised he was glad for the assist. He had heard that the department and the X-Men had made a joint deal in which they would help each other out from now on. He was glad for that.

Jorge himself still had his gun out, pointed at the cyborg but he had let his wall of water fall to the ground with a loud SPLASH! He glanced between the newcomer and their opponents.

>>"Mutants should not fight against one another. Let us leave and we leave peacefully. You have my word."

Jorge shook his head as he kept his gun trained on her. “I’m sorry Miss, you know I can’t do that. You just killed a police officer and with a track record like yours, I cannot just let you walk away.”

The mutant officer had never wanted things to descend to this level but there was no choice. Paths were taken that should not have, moves were made that need not have been. But there was no time to go over how differently things could have been. Unfortunately this was the situation now and Detective Cervantes had do his job and uphold his law. And that meant bringing in a cop killer.

“I won’t repeat myself,” Jorge said the water started to roll across the street before it circled dangerously around his feet, coiling and ready for another attack. “Put your hands up and surrender quietly or I will use force.”

He kept the were-scorpion at the corner of his eye, praying she would just leave, but he knew deep down that if these two knew each other, she would not abandon her partner. So far she not done anything too harshly other than commit assault on civilians, but if she did not leave, she will get pulled into a fight that will only deepen the seriousness of her situation. She was young though it was unfortunate, he would have to take her in too if he managed to survive.

He glanced at his new ally and raised a brow slightly. “I take it it’s laundry day?”

Th officer accepted her presence with a measure of calloused indifference. Maya could not have hoped for better, though she suspected this officer being a mutant had something to do with his thin acceptance. He probably would not like her for long.

Ghost put her hand gingerly atop the officer's gun. She knew enough about guns to disassemble and reassemble them in the dark, but they still scarred her a great deal. As much as she trusted this man at her back she knew what it symbolized to mutants in general. "Sir... if you are going to require some trust, trust in our judicial system or society, you will have to show your trust." She wouldn't aks him any more directly to put his gun down, but she was going to get in his line of sight. An extreme nono, yeah, she'd been trained at the police academy and she walked away with that much. But she was trusting him to make the right decisions here.

In mutant society using a gun had a certain stigmata. Humans used guns. Mutants might have their ways around them, but for a mutant to use a gun? It was a little ludicrous. Like he didn't trust in his abilities or felt the need to appear threatening and human. Or maybe Maya had been associating with too many mutants recently and had lost touch with humanity. Either way she was taking the gun out of this situation one way or the other.

Stepping squarely between the gun and Meld, Ghost approached the familiar girl with her hands raised. She tried not to be grossed out by the slick surface of the concrete. It's just water. She told herself. He washed away the blood with that attack. That didn't mean that she didn't have to navigate past a dead body, though. And there was no mistaking a dead body. There was just something missing. What was once a person was now no more than a bag of meat and bones.

That thought made her interminably sad.

"Meld, if it was self defense," she would at least let the girl think that it wasn't murder if only because she did not want to argue the point, "if you really believe that, you would turn yourself in. Let a jury of your peers find you innocent so you can walk the streets un-harassed." Was Meld the woman so insecure that she thought anyone even mildly threatening was trying to kill her? Did she think Maya would try to harm her? Maya, in her polka-dotted blouse and un-armed up-turned hands?

Meld knew the woman who appeared. They didn’t want to fight each other. The cyborg mutant informed the other woman that she didn’t want to fight another mutant at all if possible. Deirdra watched from her spot near the building. The mutant cop was keeping an eye on her and she could feel his gaze keeping track of her movements. The blond took a few steps towards the other Order member.

“Meld,” her voice was lower so only she could hear. “I think we need to go. I believe I can use my mutation again. I can scale buildings in that form. How are you at climbing walls?” She glanced at the third woman who had joined them. I wonder what her mutation is. If it’s long distance, we don’t stand a chance at getting out of here.

Deirdra’s regular attitude had returned, along with a smirk. She looked at the police officer and winked at him. He wanted her to leave, but that would be bad of her. The cyborg wouldn’t leave her, therefore she couldn’t leave the cyborg. If the scorpion-woman believed for a minute that the other woman would leave her there to save herself, she would do the same thing. Unfortunately, Meld seemed like the loyal type. She didn’t want to look bad, and so she would stay until they were both out of the situation.

She sighed and put her hands up. “All right, I know this is kind of my fault. Well, actually, it’s those 4 idiots fault, but you seem to think it’s me, so I’ll say it was. As long as I don’t have to keep arguing, I’m not really in the mood.” Deirdra smiled. “Sounds good? Anyway, I do believe this is getting much more out of hand. All I wanted was to save a poor little mutant girl. And Meld, being the caring mutant she is, was only trying to help me. That cop is dead, but he was stupid. He cornered her. It’s like wild animals, you just don’t corner them.” Another slightly dramatic sigh. “All of this is a misunderstanding, kind of. Besides, I have things to do and this is wasting my drinking time. Just let us both walk away. Give us a head start. Something.”

Meld stared at the water mutant officer a smirk across her face, the smirk almost more of a grimace. The expression was dark and she laughed, the sound sarcastic and a little bitter. "Your poor officer was an idiot and a bigot. He earned his death. Don't expect me to apologize, don't expect me to feel bad and most certainly don't expect me to turn myself in." Surely he couldn't expect her to actually go peacefully? The officer might be a traitor to his kind, trying to stop herself and others from doing the right thing in defending mutant lives and mutant well being, but he didn't strike her as the stupid type. Cops were many things but, most at least, were not stupid. Or at least most that survived longer than a couple of years on the force weren't stupid.

"If you need to use force then use it," Meld challenged. She didn't want to fight either him or Ghost but she sure as hell wasn't about to turn herself in. Best case scenario she got life with no possibility of parole but, more likely than that, she'd get the death penalty. That is, if some over zealous cop didn't eliminate her before a sentence could even be given. The first strike against her was the mere fact of her being a mutant and a visible one at that. But more serious, the police knew of her record, knew how many countless cops and humans she had killed in cold blood, utterly remorseless and all for her cause. She had made her decisions in life and it was far too late to turn back her path now, not that she would even if it was a possibility. What she was willing to do for the mutant cause was still desperately needed and until such a time as it was not, she wasn't about to give up or turn herself in.

As the other woman spoke to her, Meld scanned behind her with her tail eye, trying to find the best method of escape. While she was willing to defend her kind, that didn't mean she was suicidal and things had quickly turned very bad. She raised an eyebrow at the woman she might have called a friend if things had turned out differently. "I'm sorry but you know I can't do that. Even if this was the first cop I had ever killed, do you really think they'd just let a mutant walk free? Besides, as your friend the cop what I've done and then tell me that I could turn myself in with no consequence and no fear of imprisonment. I've broken the law time and time again and, some would say, in the worst possible way. I will not turn myself in." It was with some small amount of sorrow that the words were said. How might life have been had she made different decisions? How much she now live had she never turned to crime and been forced to her first kill? It was pointless to contemplate because she could never go back.

"I can climb just fine," Meld answered the scorpion woman. In fact, going sounded like exactly what she wanted to do right at that moment. It was just a matter of whether or not the two heroes would let her go. "This doesn't need to get any more ugly than it all ready has. Let us go and no one else has to get hurt."

Seriously?

That was all Detective Cervantes could think as he watched the scene unfold before him. There was a dead officer, the two suspects simply wanted to leave and the X-Men member was trying to talk the cyborg down. And she made him put his gun down! The officer had a hard time trying to think of an exit strategy out of this one. He did not want to use force if he did not have to but the robot woman was not giving him much choice. She had just murdered a police officer in cold blood. It may have been self defense but Jorge could not see where the force was used. It seemed more like the man was just going to handcuff her but then again, if what he said was true and this woman had a history, there is no telling what the boys in downtown would do to her.

Still, that gave her no right to take his life.

Jorge shook his head, his gun lowered but still on hand in case he needed it. The two obviously made plans to escape by way the buildings, but the detective knew he could not allow that. He looked past them as the X-Man tried to talk the terminator down, and noted that he could have enough time to prevent their escape if he were to manipulate the water around his feet to form another barrier on the wall. Unfortunately the wall was further away then he would have liked. That would put a strain on his mind, but it would be a risk that he would take.

“I gave you the option to walk away from this,” he said, addressing the cyborg, “foolishly at first. Then you killed one of my officers. He was stupid, but that does not justify killing him!”

If there was one thing that Jorge could not stand, by anyone, as the killing of a police officer. True, there was many corrupt officers out there, many that let their personal biases and bigotry cloud their job performances, but that did not mean they could die before the world is shown who they are. Why should they die in some hidden away street or alley by a vigilante and be given a hero’s burial when they were anything but? No, Jorge knew the corruptness in that. He knew first hand because he himself had committed such an act and it was never something he had been proud of.

With a deep sigh, he shouted for everyone to hear, but especially the X-Man, er, woman. “Listen, an all points bulletin has already been given. Back up and more than likely SWAT team will be here within minutes, especially if the kid who fired at the blonde ran out and sent in the call. We need to end this before more people are killed.”

A slap to the face would have been less shocking. Meld knew her guilt. Knew it and didn't care. She just shouldered it and used it like armor for her ideal. The shock pulled back like ocean waves, in it's place was hard packed anger. The twisting coil of outrage didn't sit comfortably on her features, but if eyes could drill holes in titanium, hers would.

"You touched a lot of lives today when you extinguished this one." She pointed down between her legs. She was standing and defending the corpse now. A speaker for the dead when there was none. "He had a mother, a father, friends, lovers. You think he was a bigot? What do you think you've made his family?"

Her hands shook ever so slightly as the wind curled around her hair plucking strands from where they lay flat. "You don't care about making things better for mutants. If you did, you would choose a constructive path instead of feeding the flames." Meld didn't kill one bigot. She birthed about five more. Surely she could see that.

The lady with Meld asked for a head start and the officer answered her. He had given them the opportunity once before already, but instead Meld had remained to kill and the other woman remained complicit in Meld's activities.

>"We need to end this before more people are killed.” Ghost nodded ever so slightly. And they would have to end it since they as mutants were the least likely to be killed in Meld's fanatically misguided crusade. They had to make the first move. Or rather, keep these two killers from moving.

Ghost was between the two parties. Maybe two lunges away from either side and still straddling the fallen police officer. It had never been up to her to make the first move before. She dropped into a slightly lower stance, her aim clearly on fighting despite the fact that her work clothes made her look the least frightening of those gathered. The wind picked up speed as if that were the cue it had been waiting for.

Roils of trash, dirt and dust spewed out from the alley behind them as she raised a wind barrier without so much as twitching a muscle. It was flimsy, but enough to make walking, jumping or moving more difficult than normal. And of course the barrier was only blocking one direction. Technically, they could just go around. It was just that they had discussed turning and running and her barrier was placed directly behind the two women. It was one way to limit their options.

Deirdra began to shift back into her scorpion form. It was very easy to climb walls with her scorpion legs, except for the fact that her body was so much heavier. The only thing that made it so much easier was the fact that the ends of her legs were easier to wedge into cracks and get grips on things. Her legs were stronger than human legs. There was more power and strength in the lack of muscles than there was in her puny, human legs. As the transition from human to scorpion happened, Deirdra noticed a powerful wind picking up.

The blond’s eyes narrowed as she watched the unknown woman. After a moment, her scorpion legs came into being, along with her tail. She tilted her head slightly to one side and turned to the wall. The scorpion woman walked towards it and stared straight up. She glanced over her shoulder at Meld. Her head nodded towards it and she raised one eyebrow at her companion. It was as if asking her if she was coming with her.

Carefully, the blond took a few steps up the side of the wall. Her head tilted back and she smiled at the police man. With a flick of her wrist, a quick wave was given to the pair that she was trying to get away from. She was about half way up the wall, when the wind began to affect her grip on the wall. A few of her stronger back legs began to slip a little. She glared down at the white haired woman who was dressed so nicely. “You. Get rid of the wind. It’s getting hand to keep a hold on these dang bricks.” She turned around and scuttled back down the wall.

“I knew you were a mutant, but I was definitely not expecting a gale storm to come from you.” She watched the woman stand protectively over the dead officer. Deirdra’s eyes fell to the ground. “I never wanted this to happen. I was only trying to help a girl with wings. If I could make him get back onto his feet and breathe again, I would. Please just get rid of the wind. I need to leave.”

"How could I have simply walked away in good conscience when you were threatening to arrest a fellow mutant for doing nothing worse than defending one of her own?" The passion could be heard plainly in Meld's voice. To leave while one of her own was in danger was simply not an option. She would rather sacrifice her own life than stand passively by while the life of another mutant was wasted. Human lives, when compared to those of mutants, were worth almost nothing. She didn't bear most of them any ill will, but she would kill to protect her own and the scorpion woman was clearly one of her own.

Meld swore audibly and crudely at the mention of more cops coming. It wasn't a surprise in the least, but it was just about the last thing she wanted to deal with at that moment. What they needed was a way out, something to prevent the two would be heroes from stopping them. What they needed most was a hostage. Her best friend Aura had shown her just how useful a hostage could be. When it came to those who wanted to save lives and stop what they considered to be the 'bad guys' few of them were willing to sacrifice an innocent in order to achieve victory. In fact, Meld herself would rather not have to sacrifice an innocent either, but she wasn't above using one if the situation warranted it. Survival was essential, both the survival of herself and the scorpion.

It worked to Meld's advantage that the four men that the scorpion mutant had previously paralyzed with her tail were still lying prone on the ground, though at least one of them was starting to twitch a little bit. Without taking her human eyes off of either of her two foes, she tried to gauge the distance between herself and the nearest unconscious human, not the easiest feat when she had no actual depth perception. The human was close however, no more than 2 strides distance from her and she was confident that she could move the distance before either of the two mutant cops could respond. Hopefully.

"He wouldn't have died if he hadn't attacked me," Meld answered Ghost coldly. How was it her fault that he had friends and family? How was it her fault that he was such a damned fool? The answer? It wasn't. Meld poised herself, muscles tensing in preparation to jump to her hostage. Aside from a slight tensing and a blinking of her tail eye, she let forth no indication of what she had planned. Her face remained cold and expressionless. It was all a matter of waiting for the correct moment because she knew she would only have time for one attempt.

When the wind began gathering, the effect only took Meld partially by surprise. She knew the woman was a mutant, of course, but her mind had erased just what her power might be. Now she knew and it was only her years of combat training that allowed her react quickly despite her startlement. In the hopes that the wind had startled the cop as well and would prevent the Ghost from acting too quickly, Meld leaped in the direction of the nearest prone human, intending to pick him up off the ground and use him as both hostage and, if it came down to it, human shield. She didn't want to kill him but if he did then he was, after all, only human.