Logs:Bugging Out

Bugging Out
Dramatis Personae AJ, Bryce, Leonidas
In Absentia	2024-05-20 “Shits FUBAR.” (set during the Brood invasion.)
Location <NYC> Central Park South
The sun shone down through the green trees of Central Park. A cloudless blue sky invited almost everyone to the park, abd most were spending the day out enjoying the first nice day since the cold grey of winter. AJ strutted down the sidewalk, clutching onto a Popping Cherry-Pineapple Green Bubble Tea. Her cheeks would occasionally comically bulge outwards with the popping tapioca pearls that dyed her tongue bright red. She wore old fashioned aviators, a t-shirt dress of Siouxse &, The Banshees with neon purple striped tights underneath and combat boots. She jeot her arm linked around Leondia' qrist, keeping a brisk pace with the two. No drinks had been thrown yet and no children urgently pulled away by fearful parents ... so far it was a successful outing! "Ee should be near the zoo in like three minutes of walking," AJ reported to Leondrias abd Bryce Maybe no drinks thrown, but even if AJ's glowing hair isn't attracting too much Tourist Hostility, there have definitely been some veeery wary reactions to the snake-bird-squirrel kind of hybrid kid an arm's breadth away from the other two X-Kids. Bryce doesn't seem oblivious to the stares, but he hasn't lost his cheer -- he's trotting along with his head tipped back, eyes wide. He's dressed far more blandly than his very freakish appearance, anyway, plain black-and-white banded tee shirt, comfortable cargo pants and sneakers. "Oh - oh - oh!" His voice is a little hushed but still delighted. "There's a Brewster's Warbler up there, they're not common at all here." “Bird fact!” Leonidas intones cheerfully, having gotten used to stares long ago. Today he’s dressed in a slightly oversized white t-shirt with’s greyscale image of a pigeon, a pair of khaki work pants, and a (deceptively expensive) pair of black work boots that appear to have had some alterations made to the soles for support. “You know. I was a little worried coming out to meet everybody,” he admits, “but maybe I was being paranoid. Hell, might even be a good day this time!” AJ finished chewing her boba pearls, swallowed abd eagerly nodded. "Hell yeah! It's gonna be an awesome-!" Something caught her eye. AJ stopped dead I'm her tracks, head tilted in the direction of what she could see. "Whoa, the fuck? Heh Beau, Bryce, look at that!" AJ pointed at the distant Stark Tower, which had sone strange glowingshape above it! It takes Bryce a moment to look away from the trees, evidently very excited about the Rare Bird. Once he does, tough, his eyes have gone huge and wide. He's staring at the vortex in the sky -- then at the quickly spreading confusion-curiosity-surprise-fear from other people around them in the park. Then back to the vortex -- and the many (many) dark shapes streaming out of it into the sky. "Um --" He closes his eyes and opens them again, frowning when some of the shapes are not just Still There, but getting closer. "And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth," he's whispering quiet to himself. He pulls his phone out of his pocket in a hurry. Hits his panic button first, then opens his texts to try and send one -- which fails. Switching back to the panic button app, that's throwing a connection error, too. "I don't. I don't have signal. Do you have signal." Leonidas just sort of stares at the sky, his previous words leaving a sickly sour taste in his mouth. In less than a heartbeat all of his cheer is gone, replaced instead with a burning rage, every muscle on his body tensing and his body starts turning a shade of red before he manages to compose himself and take a deep breath. “Don’t count on it. Consider this your real welcome to Xavier’s. I don’t know what’s coming, but trust me it’s about to be fucked up.” With that he pulls his vape out and takes a few drags, trying to mentally prepare himself for another near death experience. The dark shapes rapidly get closer, swarming out like Bryce's description of locusts. She checked her phone and it, too, had no signal. Crap! "Okay, okay cool! Cool, totally not freaking out here ..  !" AJ immediately pulled off her backpack and unzipped it, Sge shoved her cellphone and earbudd in, then pulled off her t-shirt dress and yanked off her boots! Before either boy could react, they could see patches of ooze starting to grow on AJ's skin. She put her items in her backpack and dropped it into the small ditch behind them next to the path. "Fuck me, maybe the whackos at The Panic Room were smart for showing me how to do this ... ! Both of you, Cruces, Beau back away from me if you don't wanna go blind!" The sunlight was quickly getting blotted out. People ran by them and in every direction, fleeing what they (probably correctly) assumed was an incoming extraterrestrial threat. "Sorry, what --" Bryce is looking with a growing alarm to Leonidas, his fear very clearly stoked by the older boy's grim warning. His confused panic is only growing when AJ starts to strip, and he is very -- very -- quickly backing away from the others, his eyes wide. "Uhhh --" But whatever he might think of AJ's sudden decision to disrobe he's quite soon distracted by the noises -- people yelling, the weird whining hum of incoming craft like nothing this planet has seen before. The ships themselves look strangely insectoid, and the flying creatures accompanying them -- well. Bryce's quiet eep is mostly lost in the noise. Leonidas collects the bag and throws it over his shoulder before taking a step away, motioning for Bryce to get behind him. “Don’t fear, fear is the mind killer.” It’s not immediately obvious if he’s talking to the other boy or himself. “Even if the panic button isn’t working they’ll find us. Just gotta stay alive.” AJ, in rge muddle of "suiting up" noti ex that some people were delayed in getting clear of rhe incoming Swarm: a guy on churches with his girlfriend, a small family of four and an elderly couple were all struggling to get away like rhe other fleeing people. "We gotta ... help rhem ..." AJ spoke as her face was coated in rhe dark liquid tinged neon flowing green. AJ was now completely coated in the ooze, which softly hissed as she wiped some around her mouth free enough to scream, *"OVER HERE! XOME THIS WAY!" to the stragglers. "What, no, I think those giant bugs are the killers --" Bryce's bright red feathers are all standing up on his head, and while at first he's moving to hide behind Leonidas, he's just as quickly changing his mind and backing away when AJ starts screaming. "What are you doing stop we have to go." AJ's screaming draws the attention of the people nearby, certainly -- though in the middle of chaos and panic already, the straggling humans do not seem eager to get any closer to the undressed, glowing, goo-covered girl or the freakish monsterling. It also draws the attention of several of the bugs, swooping rapidly in towards the extremely conspicuous children, circling them from all directions as they swoop in with tentacles lashing. Whatever Leonidas was preparing himself for, it wasn’t this. “Are those… terminids?” He doesn’t have time dwell on it though because they’re quickly on top of them. Without thinking he drops his vape and rushes the closest one, slamming his fist into it’s carapaced face and sending it flying off in an attempt to keep their attention on him and off the other teens. "Oh great, Roach Terminators! Swell!" AJ squeaked as the young family got behind her, right as one swooped it for n attack! The moment it's tentacles brushed AJ though, it recoiled with a pained shriek and backed off!. Two more "Terminator Roaches" surrounded the goo-covered girl, who by sheer luck grabbed a swinging leg! The carapace buckled lender the acid, making the first bug shriek as the second one swung at he exposed back! Most of the rest of the humans are fleeing the (baffling) (terrifying) scene. Clearly, it's an idea Bryce thinks is Pretty Good -- "We have to go we have to go," he's repeating, kind of on a numb and dazed autopilot now as he backs just a little further down the path, not really willing to leave his companions but also very much not keen to simply Stay Here In The Open as the sky fills up with too many bugs to count. When another pair of the bugs swoop down he's crying -- just once, high and sharp and terrified at the sharp-cracking tentacle that lashes at his leg. The monster yanks him up -- though not far, setting down again with a hungry gnashing of teeth just on the other side of the thick trees whose birds Bryce had been admiring just a few minutes and a lifetime ago. Nearly as soon as it's disappeared behind the trees, though, the bug is taking off again. Maybe it just got distracted or maybe it made its meal real-real quick, because if either of the other two students check after it there's no Bryce there -- just his clothes (very slightly bloody) and a few brilliant red feathers littered on the ground. “Shit!” Leonidas leaps after Bryce, landing atop the bug that dragged him off. “No.” The first is denial as he spots the bloody clothes. “No.” The second is cold fury. And the last is an unintelligible scream as the giant rips that same tree out of the ground and snaps it into a club, throwing the other half at the big attacking AJ turning it into mist and chunks of armor. There are no more thoughts of pulling punches or daring escapes, just a primal need for retribution. Each swing takes one of the bugs out of the fight, but no matter how many bugs he crushes they just keep coming. “I’m about to have to grab you, we’ve got to get out.” He finally warns AJ through ragged breaths, “Shits FUBAR.” AJ had been trying to down any bug that came near her, but it was clear she qas quickly losing her ground. Her goo wasn't lasting and patches of skin were already visible. She's out of breath but still grabs one's tentacles in one hand, severing it before taking some of her goo and tried to blind it! The bug jumped away, hovering in the air with a shriek of pain. "Dammit ... !" AJ pants looking around. She's starting to panic. “I think he’s dead.” Leonidas finally tells the other kid, explaining his freak out. “I’m going to need you to drop the armor so we can get out.” Well, that was his plan, but the lapse in his attention results in him getting grabbed and drug into the swarm. A few heartbeats pass, just long enough for the possibility of him being eaten too to creep in, before the crowd explodes outward. One of the massive bugs tries taking off with him only to have its head twisted off, leaving Leonidas floating above them. While he’s relatively unharmed, his clothes have taken a considerable beating and he’s starting to show signs of fatigue. "Okay ... okay!" AJ started to look like she qas melting, but used the gobs cjng off of her pffe surely, smearing it on incoming bugs, blinding several and disfiguring others. Many bugs had dropped, writhing in agony as AJ quickly grabbed her backpack, doing her beat ro not mind her nudity as she backs towards Leondrias, staring at the few bugs she managed to lame and blind. Leonidas doesn’t waste any more time, scooping AJ up and arcing off away from the park and back into the city, risking one last glance back past the pursuing bugs to the pile of Bryce’s clothes.