Logs:Pan-Dan-Monium

Pan-Dan-Monium
Dramatis Personae Daniel, Kitty, Daiki	2023-01-28 "Man,” she mutters as they phase in, “are we really equipped for this?”
Location Lower East Side, NYC
The errant sound of horns blared through the hot air of the street. Daniel licked his dry lips as he restrained a cough. He hated the smell of gas, especially the fumes that cars made. Unfortunately, he just had to have called a cab with no working A/C. The driver breathed heavily, sweat rolling down his thick neck as he shook his head in dismay. "Damn idiots- clogging de street! I cannot stand them!" He said aggressively, slapping his hand against the steering well in frustration. Daniel merely looked on from the backseat, before glancing back to the book in his lap. He had been trying to re-read the same page for the last ten minutes, but it was useless. Closing the book, Daniel sat the book back on his knee as he turned his attention through the open window to the street itself. The Lower East Side was bustling with traffic- there had apparently been new construction projects turning up, causing the already congested streets into a maze of cars and pedestrians. Slumping his tired head against the back of his seat, Daniel stared blankly to the sidewalk as he tried to recall the last few lines he had read from his book. "Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy. Now it the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now it the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God’s children." Daniel had been dwelling on those words for some time. He had gotten the day off earlier that month for Martin Luther King Day and had recommended a book about the humanitarian to his students. It wasn't until today, on his way home from work that he decided to read what he had recommended, and yet... It bothered him. Shutting his eyes, he felt the cab begin to pick up movement once more as traffic seemed to become less congested. "Where's the justice?" It certainly didn't exist still. Not for Mutants. He bit his inner cheek as he felt it again, pressing against his consciousness like a weight. Where a few months ago, it had felt like a tennis ball, now, it dared to consume his mind altogether with its weight. He hated how much it occupied his mind, yet he couldn't help but reach out and barely touch it with the forefront of his mind. Again and again, he had told himself to never try and use it. Only bad things happen when he did. Yet even after so much time had passed, he was... curious. Would it feel the same? The overwhelming emotions, the changes- "LOOK OUT!" The cabbie shouted as he punched the steering wheel with his fist- the taxi's horn blaring as they skidded across the road. Daniel's eyes flickered open just in time to catch the green light ahead of them... and the brown irises of the man driving into them. It came like a hurricane around Daniel's ears. The screeching metal threatened to consume him, like the maws of a lion as he felt his body turn and float- before the cab rolled and crashed into another car. The hinge of the door broke, striking the passenger door forward and catching Daniel's leg as his head cracked against his window. The entire event only took a matter of seconds, yet during that matter of seconds, Daniel had been reaching out to his power, not realizing how easy it was to activate it once again. In his drowsy, weary mind, all he felt was pain. Flashes of red passed in his mind's eye as he called out in anguish, his leg pinning him to his seat as the car remained on its side. All that he could think about was his leg, his leg, his- "My leg..!" He heard someone call outside. His vision was filled with spots as he tried to locate it. Had it been him? No. In a chorus of discord and pain, all of the people that had been walking on the sidewalk who were witness to the accident convulsed to the ground, shouting in terrible fear and alarm as all of their minds became connected by Daniel's. It was a hurricane of destruction that threatened to consume more and more blocks as cars skidded to a stop, people falling unconscious to the phantom pains.. And at its terrible eye? Daniel, tears falling across his face as he called out, his right hand flat against the car window. "P-Please.." He cried. Daiki is moving at the speed of New York on his way home, a messenger bag across his back and a canvas tote over one shoulder. He's dressed down today in a navy peacoat, charcoal blazer, slim straight jeans with black chukkas, the camel scarf around his neck draped more to flatter than to warm. At the blare of the horn and screech of first brakes and then tires he looks up, eyes going very, very wide. The awful crunch of steel, glass, and plastic brings everyone on the sidewalk up short, but Daiki does not freeze. He drops to one knee, unzipping his messenger bag to pull out the first aid kit -- -- and then he's fallen the rest of the way to the grimy concrete, biting back a scream as he clutches reflexively at his leg. The panic around Daniel and around him changes pitch and focus. Daiki is quite suddenly the most important person to just about everyone in sight or earshot. Though all but incapacitated by their own second-hand injuries, many are turning to him in their agony for succor, and just as many in furious condemnation. He shuts his mouth tighter and scrabbles for his phone to hit its panic button. Help is quick to arrive -- though on first glance it hardly seems like the short woman frantically cycling to the scene is any sort of first responder. Kitty has a puffy red jacket on over a velvet navy blue dress and black tights, bobby pins actively dropping out of her still damp hair as the breeze dislodges it. A gold Magen David pendant bounces against her collarbone, and one -- just one! -- eye has been drawn on in black eyeliner. Is the pink bicycle she's pedalling through other taxis hers? Prooooobably not. She coasts to a stop just outside the range of Daniel's power, abandoning the bike on the sidewalk as she takes in, eyes wide, the people falling like dominos and the cars crashing into each other, the screams, the mob building around Daiki. When she steps into range, Kitty screams too, high and shrill, but manages to keep moving towards the epicenter. There are probably people who need her help now, trapped in smashed cars, but she limps through them, through Daniel himself and sending a sudden chill through the empath, to get to -- "Daiki!" Kitty reaches out for her teammate, intangible everywhere but in her outstretched hand. The actions of both Daiki and Kitty would happen beyond Daniel's knowing. His hand curled into a fist as he weakly tried to beat it against the window of the car, his mind aching as he began to go into shock. He could feel a warmth spread across his leg as he swallowed larger gulps of air, just attempting to keep himself breathing as he tried to move. Every stretch or motion he tried to make ended in searing pain gravitating up his calf to his thigh. Pulses of his mental anguish echoed across the minds of passersby as Daniel called out from the car. "Please.. help me..!" His words were nearly echoed in verbatim, nearly lost in the chaos of voices, calling out in desperation. It was only now as the adrenaline coursed through Daniel's body that he realized what was happening. The door was open. Yet nothing was entering his mind? No. The realization struck him with deep terror as his worst fears came to life. He was entering others. He was doing this. As Daniel panicked, his movements became more erratic as he tried to crack the window above him with his hand, slamming his palm against it to try and get someone's attention. "I.. I can't stop it, please..!" He cried out in desperation. It was like a hole had been torn into his mindscape, and everything he was feeling was being emptied into every person around the block. 'Fear. Despair. Pain.' And it's reach was only growing, as Daniel felt blood to continue to fill his shoe.. Daiki has just started to visibly collect himself when Kitty arrives, and though his face is still sheet-white he takes her hand without hesitation. "This started --" He struggles to his feet with her support, cutting himself off briefly with a pained gasp. "-- it's someone in one of those cars." He nods at the car crash just about as Daniel starts pounding on the glass. "Him! Hey, Sir, we have to -- I don't know --" Daiki starts staggering toward the taxi, never letting go of Kitty's hand. Those around with the highest pain tolerance are limping after them, screaming profanities or begging for help. His voice is quiet and shaky so that only Kitty can hear when he adds, "We really need to get out of here." At their feet as they flee to the street, grasping hands of those too in pain to stand but still awake pass effortlessly through both Kitty’s and Daiki’s ankles. Daniel’s fear, when it ripples into Kitty, is externalized into a tighter grip on Daiki’s hand. “I can — you have to, fuck-“ Whatever this thought was gets truncated with another gasp of pain, a fearful look to those staggering behind them. When they get to the car, Kitty thrusts her free hand through the glass as if it’s not there at all. “Come on!” Inside the car, the hand grasps for Daniel’s hand, shirt, anything, only solid from the wrist bone down. “We got you, just grab on!” She’s trying to sound reassuring, but the waves of pain and fear make her voice trembly. Daniel's breath started to become more desperate as sweat poured down his face. "Am I.. going to die?" The thought raced through him and echoed into the beings of every person around him as the pain across his leg and thigh started to turn numb from the lack of circulation. Even as he felt his body weaken, his mind still blazed with an incredible strength, desperately reaching out like the flailing arms of a man drowning. His hand smacked against the window a final time before it slowly began to fall from it. Daniel's mind was on fire as he groaned, faltering backwards to rest his back against his seat. Sounds were starting to become muffled as Daniel started to pass out. His vision was darkening, and without his control, his power was pressing this feeling of unconsciousness into those surrounding him. Everything started to fade away to the drone of the motions of his mind, as his hand shrinked from the window.. Only for his wrist to be grabbed by something. His eyes widened as he saw a hand grasping his own, and unconsciously, his fingers gripped the wrist. Did.. they break the window? He didn't see it happen. Daniel felt his entire body be pulled upwards, the pain still echoing from his leg as a numbing sensation as he tried to speak. "W-Wait.. I'm still.. my leg," he whispered. Was he going to lose his leg? That was the last thought that went through Daniel's mind before he was blinded by sunlight, and was now outside of the car, still clutching onto the hand and forearm of his rescuer. Kitty would find that the occupant of the taxi was a younger man, not more than 20 years of age. His strawberry blonde hair had streaks of red from the blow to his forehead, blood trickling down his ear as his glazed eyes tried to register what was happening. He was dressed in a white button up that was now wrinkled and wet from both sweat and blood. His leg was fractured at the knee, his foot pointing in an misaligned direction, his entire jeans leg damp from blood. The lingering effect of Daniel's Mutant power was now fading. But so was he. "Oh no, he needs a hospital," Daiki manages, between gritted teeth. Then, looking at the chaos around them, "But we can't take him to a hospital like this." The crowd is becoming more mobile as Daniel's empathic broadcast quiets. Though the angry/frightened grasping passes right through them, the effect is still unnerving. Daiki swallows, fighting to keep his breath even, his fear palpable now that it's not drowned beneath Daniel's. But he's steadier on his feet, at least, and puts Daniel's arm over his shoulder to support him. "Mendel isn't equipped to handle this..." He looks along the street toward the distant unseen waterfront. "...but it's close." Kitty tucks in on Daniel’s other side, sending the daisy-chain of intangibility through him to Daiki. “Your leg is fine,” she lies, pinching her own leg a few times to fight the fading sense of lethargy. “Stay with us, Mendel —“ she shoots a quick glance over her shoulder at Daiki, trying to communicate with wide eyes and a small shrug well, what else can we do?, “— will get you fixed up.” Is she trying to comfort Daiki or herself? Evidently not Daniel, who’s head begins to loll against hers when he slips out of consciousness. Kitty sighs, pointing the trio towards the nearest southwesternly wall. “Man,” she mutters as they phase in, “are we really equipped for this?”