Logs:Reverse Fastball Special

Reverse Fastball Special
Dramatis Personae Beau, Spencer, The M-kids
In Absentia	2023-02-28 "Y'all the cavalry?"
Location <XAV> Grounds - Xs Grounds
Xavier's School is situated on grounds as luxurious as the mansion itself. The tree-lined drive brings you up to the lush green sweep of front lawn and the wide front porch with its bench swing, often frequented by students studying in pleasant weather. The large oak tree in the front yard is home to a tire swing, installed long ago beneath the sturdy old treehouse. The lawn rolls out all the way down to the thin rocky pier at the edge of the glittering lake. The water stretches huge and wide off into the distance, the boathouse a small blip at its shore. Along its bank, forest stretches dense and shady to one side; to the other cliffs start to rise, high and rocky, providing trails for hiking or climbing, for the adventurous. It’s a cold day at the school and the first major snowfall of the winter. Naturally this has attracted a number of students, among them Beauregard who’s made a mound of snow and is currently pitching ice balls into it. He hasn’t really dressed up for the weather, choosing to wear a button down red flannel shirt, jeans, and a pair of worn work boots. Spencer was better dressed for the weather when he first came out here. But somewhere in between building a snow fort and assaulting that snow fort and the free-for-all that followed, he's gotten too warm and shed more of his layers than he probably should, vanishing them into thin air as he goes. Now he's just wearing a pale blue shirt with Captain American's shield on the front above the words "I can do this all day" over a gray-and-black striped long sleeve shirt, flannel lined black jeans, and snow boots, a plush red and purple scarf wound around his neck and matching mittens nearly soaked through, the also matching cap long since blipped away to leave only a dark blue kippah dotted with (astronomically correct!) stars. He's just dodged a hale of snowballs from a boy firing them much faster than is humanly possible by popping himself high up into the air. He rotates gracefully as he starts to fall to get a panoramic view, and before he builds up any speed he vanishes -- -- and plops down into the snow beside Beauregard. "Hey!" he says breathlessly. "You wanna come over and join? There aren't really sides anymore but -- I mean, you'd probably want to use snowballs instead of iceballs and maybe that's not your speed -- but I was thinking about rebuilding the Fortress of Attitude or whatever we're calling it now." “Jesus!” Beau jerks when Spence apparates next to him, slinging the ice ball into a tree instead of the mound, splintering the wood like it was struck by a cannon instead of a teenager. He just sort of stares at the wood for a second before nodding at the other boy, “Yeah, maybe just snow. I’m down though. Wanna try a reverse fastball special?” Spencer's eyes go wide. "Whoa! Dude, if that's your regular fastball I don't know if anyone would survive a special one, even if you just use snow." He doesn't actually sound all that concerned. "Wait, how do you throw a reverse fastball, like..." He windmills his arm as if preparing to throw something, and then spins it in the opposite direction. "...this?" “To be fair I normally don’t give a hundred percent.” Beau points out. “If you’ve read the adventure time novels, there’s a part in volume seven ever Finn wants Jake to throw him at a monster. That’s the fastball special, when somebody bigger or stronger throws their quicker ally.” He explains, scooping up some snow and carefully making a loosely packed ball, “I figured since you can, you know,” he makes a bamf noise with his mouth, “you could pop me out over them. Unless fine aiming isn’t an option. I land on anybody over there and they are dying.” "Ohhh..." Spence cringes reflexively. "I don't want to um. Kill anyone. I'm not sure it would be safe to chuck you even if you didn't land on anyone but it's okay there's plenty of snow to chuck c'mon!" He leads the other boy back towards the field of battle, settling after a few jumps on a snow drift beside the garden shed. "The Fortress of Fortitude!" he declares brightly as he starts excavating the sheltered side of the drift, more like a trench than a fort. The boys have only just arrived when the door to the garden shed cracks open. A wide-eyed round face peers out, definitely not a regular around this school, silver and green mask covering their eyes. "Psst," says Sriyani from behind the door and then again, "Psst." “Oh well.” Beau doesn’t seem too bothered by Spence turning it down. He lets some distance form while Spence looks for a suitable new fort location, stretching out the stiffness that was starting to build up in his shoulders and back. Once it’s obvious the garden shed is the other teens target Beau transitions into a jog, then run, before leaping an easy ten meters and landing next to the door, only to be promptly startled and fall flat onto his tailbone by Sriyani. “Damn dude, don’t do that!” he blisters, scrambling up into his feet and brushing his pants off. Spence give a loud whoop when Beau sails into the fort-in-progress, then a small yip with the door opens behind him. He flickers in place, suddenly facing the shed where he'd had his back to it just an instant ago. "Oh!" His mittened hands flap excitedly at his sides. "Oh oh oh you're the M-kids! Y'all are amazing! I'm Spence, this is Beau, do you wanna build a snowfort?" "Not a dude," Sriyani replies with the quick-bland tone of someone who has said similar things so many times it is just a reflex, at this point. And immediately after this, a puzzled wrinkle of brow: "Don't... open... doors?" Nevertheless they're bulling ahead without waiting for answer on this, eyes lighting like Spence's excitement is contagious. "I'm the M-Kids yeah oh wow I so want to build a -- no no no no we don't have time to build a snowfort, we need your help can you come?" This all comes out in a breathless rush as they look hopefully between Beau and Spencer. “Just a little jumpy, and sorry, it’s a habit.” Beau coughs softly and looks away, scratching at his beard. “The hell is an M-Kid?” Clearly none of the gossip had made it up to Beau yet, nevertheless he nods and takes a step forward, “Sure enough, what’s up?” "They're superheroes," Spence tells Beau earnestly. "They go around helping kids they have uniforms and everything!" To Sriyani he nods eagerly, way too many times. "I am so down!" He's already going for the door. "Oh wow oh wow do you teleport, too?!" By way of probably unnecessary context, he adds, "I'm a teleporter!" "We're M-kids," Sriyani is explaining patiently to Beau, like this should be self explanatory. They push the door open further -- behind it is very definitively not the garden shed, not Westchester at all but somewhere currently quite un-snowy, the air that spills through the open doorway warm. Too warm, a dry heat to it that comes with a smell of smoke. "I know, you're a cooler one c'mon c'mon --" They're waving the others through the doorway, which lets out onto a narrow city street lined with rowhouses, a cul-de-sac at one end terminating in a stretch of green parkland, where someone has very optimistically posted a handwritten sign NO DUMPING right next to several discarded trash bags. Across the street from the door they have just come through, several of the houses look to have quite recently been Very On Fire, lingering black smoke curling out from smashed and sooty windows; the center of these is skeletal though the ones flanking it seem to mostly be standing. “Superheroes.” Beau mouths to himself as he walks through the doorway, promptly moving out of the way so he can take the change of scenery in. “Damn, anybody hurt?” he asks towards Sriyani, rolling his sleeves up to the elbow to counter the heat. “I guess so, wouldn’t need us otherwise, huh?” Spence ducks through the door. He doesn't need to duck, but he does apparently need to study the inside of the doorframe as he passes through, eyes wide with wonder. Once on the other side, he looks half tempted to go back through to the snowy school grounds, but there's plenty of fodder on this side for his curiosity, too. "This is so cool I know a person who makes her own portals I bet you'd like her she's also a superhero but like, a grown up one --" This steam of chatter comes to an abrupt stop at Beau's question. Then it starts back up, only nervous this time, "Oh no is someone hurt let's go let's go at least the fire looks like it's over?" Sriyani looks intensely skeptical of Spence's endorsement of Some Other Adult Telepath, answering with a slightly critical: "Most adult superheroes kind of suck," that they follow up with a hasty: "I'm sure your dad is cool though!" They're nodding, more serious now, to Beau, continuing their stream of chatter as they start to trot across the street towards the burned buildings. "It's kind of still smoldering in there -- you know people always say f- the police but nobody says f- the fire department but they really should sometimes, there was a mutant family in there they just left and we tried to get them off the roof but the building kind of started collapsing when we tried to bring them back through and the doors are not really doors anymore and I couldn't -- can't -- well Brendan's holding it together for now but we really need some help on the evacuation." They're pointing up-up, towards the attic level of the worst-ruined of the houses. "Do you," they're turning big hopeful eyes up to Spence, think you could get him," with a gesture to Beau, "up there, because we got the kids but uh after that," they hold forefinger and thumb up just close together, "litttttle bit stuck." The scrunch of their face suggests that little bit might be underselling the situation. “So, you need me to hold up a collapsing building while we evacuate what’s left of the family in it?” Beau clicks his tongue a few times before nodding. “Yeah I should be able to do that.” He looks over at Spence, “Let’s make this happen.” Spence looks indignant and inclined to defend his father or Adult Superhero Friends' reputations, but he can't quite quite put together a coherent reply before Sriyani explains the situation. And the request. His face goes very pale. Looks Beau up and down apprehensively. "I. Should be able to. Yeah." He sucks in a deep breath. Shuffles over and puts a (suddenly mitten-less) hand on Beau's shoulder. "Traveling without moving," he mutters to himself, then to Beau with a kind of nervous chuckle, "Reverse fastball special!" And the world -- -- shifts abruptly. The sky is brighter and the air clearer several stories up, but the heat is much more intense now that they are actually on the still-smouldering building. As soon as they jump, things get -- a little weirder, the heat that should be smacking them instead -- kind of -- very, very slowly prickling over them. In fact, everything is very slow -- their perception of the world grinding to not quite a halt but a very confusing trickle. The building is kind of half-collapsed beneath them, a big hole crumbled into the roof; it is possible -- if not perhaps particularly safe -- to walk down the slanting slab of what used to be a ceiling into the floor below, smoke thicker down there than it is up here. It might be a second later or might be several minutes later -- it's extremely difficult to tell! -- when Spence and Beau are able to move normally again. "Yo" a voice is calling from the floor below, "my bad -- y'all the cavalry?" Beau braces himself for the jump, clearly expecting some sort of nausea to accompany it, only to instead be met with time turning to molasses. Just about when the panic starts to set in everything snaps back to normal and he heaves out a relieved sigh and calls out,“Yup, that’d be us.” Without wasting any more time he moves to the slab to try and make his way down it as carefully as somebody his size can manage. Spence's voice starts on the roof outside, "Whoa! You slow down time --" "-- that's amazing!" Finishes inside, right next to Brendan. His wide gray eyes squint tight into the smoky gloom, his hands jittery at his sides. "Hi! He's the muscle, I'm the transport." The slab is oddly mushy beneath Beau's feet -- it certainly looks like it is in danger of crumbling precariously beneath Beau's weight, it only barely depresses and then does not fall. Beneath, where Spence has just jumped to, there is a tall and muscular Black boy in a similar green-and-silver cape-and-mask ensemble as Sriyani, the soot on his face streaky where sweat has been sliding through it. At first it looks like he is the only person in this charcoal ruin of a room -- but a closer inspection will reveal a pair of people -- a woman with a downy coating of grey fur over her body and a much larger man plated in armadillo-esque scales -- just-about-frozen in wide-eyed terror and pain where the part of the roof that did properly cave in has pinned them down. "You good?" Brendan looks tired, sounds tired, but there's a genuine concern dredged up here as he looks at Spence's jittery hands. He nods towards the rubble, the people below it; though they look unmoving at first, one of them is reaching in very -- very -- verrrrry slow motion for the other with the one free hand that he has. "I can stop them getting crushed further but I am not strong enough to budge that shit." “I don’t know what the range on this is, but once they’re out and I drop this, you two are going to want to be gone.” Beau says, stretching in preparation for what he’s about to do. “Don’t you folks worry, I am here.” He beans out a bright smile at the trapped and slowed couple and grabs hold of one of the beams that’s supporting a majority of the rubble, heaving it upwards before shifting underneath it to brace the debris with his back. "Yeah I'm fine!" Spence's voice doesn't crack, but it's a good half-octave higher than usual. His hands stretch and stop fluttering. "I can jump them out of here then come back for you two. Can you hold it up that long? I'm not --" He blips over to their rescuees. "-- the fastest teleporter, but. I'm pretty fast!" "Jesus." This curse comes out low and impressed as Beau just hefts the beam, Brendan's eyes wider. And immediately after that there's an almost palpable relief -- no, make that a palpable one, because when he exhales a grateful "thank God" the entire building seems to exhale with him. There's a rumble, a shower of debris from the slab Beau just walked down, an unstable quaver in the floor beneath Spence and the rescuees. Brendan opens his eyes wider, and the slow-collapse of the house freezes as he goes tense. "-- sorry. Been at this. A while. Thank you." “I can do this all day.” Beau reassures Spence, shifting the load so it’s more comfortable. “But I’m not so sure about him,” there’s a tearing sound as the inside seam of his pants rips, “plus I think my ass is out right now.” Spence does not wait around to see if the floor continues collapsing, and it's probably not a geeky tagline he's mumbling under his breath this time as he disappears with the people Beau has just unpinned -- -- and appears with them in the street beside Sriyani. He barely stays long enough to draw a breath for "berightback" and is gone again -- -- back at Beau's side. He's shaking now, his eyes very wide and his breathing fast, but he grips his schoolmate's arm firmly and -- -- they're both next to Brendan. This jump is disorienting for both the sudden absence of the weight Beau had been holding up and for landing them just on the other side of the same room, facing a different direction. "Hold onto your hats!" he cries as he claps a hand to Brendan's shoulder and the dim smoky attic vanishes -- -- replaced by the street outside. He holds onto the other boys for a moment longer, leaning on them just a little and not quite hyperventilating, though it's probably a lucky thing they're in cleaner air now. "Is everyone okay?" He's looking the others up and down, calming visibly even as he does so. "These people aren't," Sriyani already has a door cracked open, what looks and smells very much like a hospital behind it, "but -- thanks to you I think they will be." "Woah," is all Brendan says -- for a second the world slows to a trickle again, once they've landed outside, but only for a second before the effect retracts to only encompass the unfortunately injured pair of mutants just rescued. He's exhaling again and this time, not tensing back up -- he even offers a shaky smile to the X-Kids. "Guess we owe you one."