Nightscrawlers

timeline: after Deathly Hallows


Polaris: "Are we sure the reports for here are real and it's not somebody at school pranking us?" Lorna was having a hard time wrapping her head around it as they set the plane down. Then again, not so long ago she had made it through a not-so-accurate cold war scenario so she had no idea why she was drawing the line here.

Rose: "Always assume everything is a trap." Rose piped up, tying her hair back as she waited.

Jessica: Jess was also tying her hair back though she'd decided to plait it because it was so long.

Bobby: "It's a trap!" Bobby couldn't help himself as he shut down the jet's engines.

Laura: "Why would we walk into a trap?" Laura questioned.

Polaris: "You're probably right there, Admiral." Lorna smirked over at Bobby. "Still...this seems a little B horror movie to everyone else, right? Not just me?"

Sean: "This.....is the best. I mean, it's not, but I have played enough video games to prepare for things like this!"

Jessica: "You haven't noticed the trend yet, Laura?" Jess looked over at her.

Laura: She frowned, "What trend?"

Rose: Rose laughed at Laura. "Right."

Jessica: "The part where it's always a trap and we still go anyway."

Rose: "Save the cheerleader save the world."

Bobby: "It's part of the job description," Bobby said, opening up the hatch and poking his head out for a look around. "Brains?"

Teagan: In the distance, a school bus driver scuffled down the street slowly. Behind her, a well dressed businessman, and what appeared to be a middle aged woman.

Laura: "Could we not send someone useless into the trap and then go in?" she reasoned as she got up to trail after Bobby to the exit.

Sean: "Fuck the cheerleader," Sean grumbled. He held up his hands like he was holding a gun, keeping an eye out. He might be humming some appropriate themed songs.

Jessica: "Oh Laura... I wish..." She got up too.

Polaris: "Xavier won't let us have cannon fodder." Lorna stood up from her seat. "Right...so, we have a little outbreak of...zombie apparently. So try to keep the obviously living people away for their safety and don't get your brains eaten. Are we all good?"

Rose: "Since they are already dead... any means necessary?"

Jessica: "I guess I'm on evacuation again...."

Teagan: From the other end of the eerily quiet street, another small herd of people were grumbling and scuffling down the pavement sidewalk towards where the jet had landed. A few more were gathering outside of a school gym.

Laura: She perked up slightly at 'any means necessary'. She could stab people?

Polaris: "Well...try to be respectful to the remains but...yeah, they're all ready dead."

Polaris: "I can't very well tell you x-men do not kill dead people."

Rose: "A nice cremation is respectful to the remains." Rose smirked.

Jessica: Jess stepped out of the jet and took to the air to start a search for civilians. She also decided to keep Sean in her sights for her own good.

Laura: She grinned slightly at that answer.

Bobby: "They're dead. They're all messed up." Bobby squinted. "And they're ambient air temperature..."

Teagan: The bus driver got closer. She huffed and wheezed, her eyes puffy and her skin aged and... dirty. Dead. Her nails (what few she had) as disgusting as her teeth.

Sean: "Headshots. All the headshots," Sean started to aim his finger gun at zombie heads and made small, sharp popping noises like bullets. Precision blasts right for heads.

Jessica: "I've seen zombie movies... should we assume they'll be stopped the same way and figure out what to do later if they're not?"

Polaris: Lorna looked over to Bobby as if asking if this was their sentencing to Hell.

Teagan: The businessman behind the bus driver suddenly had no head. It stumbled forward and then flopped to the ground.

Polaris: "That's basically the plan." Lorna nodded to Jessica, steeling herself off and stepping out.

Jessica: "Never mind, it seems to work." Jess landed on a roof and looked around, listening for the screams of terrified living.

Teagan: The silence was almost deafening. The few screams there were, distant, and short, were too far away. But suddenly, there was a voice.

Teagan: "Hello X-Men" said the dead. All of them. "I have expected you..."

Rose: "Well now isn't that just awesome." Rose surveyed their surroundings.

Jessica: ".... Okay. That's creepy." The sound came from everywhere. She was suddenly glad she could fly.

Bobby: "Oh.... this isn't good." Bobby iced up.

Laura: Laura's claws slid out, fully prepared to pounce on the nearest zombie, but she paused at the voice, tilting her head slightly. Weird.

Sean: "Well.....balls," Sean wrinkled his nose and kept taking sound bullet potshots at zombie head. "This is worse than groans and moans."

Teagan: There's more than one way to skin a cat. If the others before me couldn't do it, I'm sure I will find a way." Suddenly there were steps. A lot of them.

Jessica: "There are no civilians in the immediate area. Some very far away... at least there were. They're a bit quiet now..... We're on our own with the zombies."

Rose: "Piece of cake." Rose started up some fires so they'd be able to see better.

Polaris: This was one thing she never expected even after meeting Teagan for the first time which was...eventful in and of itself. "Just make sure you don't hit Teagan...even if she does come back from most anything."

Teagan: "Tell me X-Men... do you know how many cemeteries, crematoriums, and mortuaries there are in New Orleans alone?"

Bobby: "Oh, fuck this." Bobby formed an ice slide, jetting into the middle of one of the larger groups of zombies. Zombies! He was fighting zombies! "Fucking Teagan. I hate zombies!"

Sean: "The entire place is basically a burial ground," he muttered.

Jessica: "Which one is Teagan?" Jess had never met the girl. She looked around for something she could use as a weapon.

Teagan: Their answer came to them as almost every door on the block alone opened up, The Dead walking out.

Rose: "The one not dead." Rose supplied.

Rose: Rose moved to get to a vantage point. She needed to be above them. She set fires along the way, lighting up just how many zombies there were. "Wow... this sucks."

Polaris: "No, Teagan, how many?" Lorna asked almost conversationally, hoping to find her if they kept her talking...through her puppets anyway. "...that's a lot of zombies."

Laura: At the swarm of zombies, Laura jumped into action, slicing at the first one she came across.

Jessica: "Rose do you want a boost up to a roof?" Jess offered, finally yanking a parking meter out of the ground. It'd do for now.

Rose: "Please!" Rose moved to Jess for the boost.

Sean: "Guys, is it wrong that I wanna know if they'll eat us? I mean, I don't want that to happen, but curiosity," Sean continued to pop off sound bullets.

Teagan: Three of them surrounded Sean, trying to push him into an alley. Another set of six came towards Jess as they saw her take a swing. "Tut-tut! It looks like rain"

Teagan: Suddenly from the sky... crows. Dozens. Dead crows.

Laura: "I believe I could test that theory. I should heal from it," she commented.

Jessica: Jess put an arm around Rose's waist and lifted into the air just in time, moving to put her on a roof then running for cover from the crows.

Polaris: "It's very wrong, Banshee, very, very wrong." Lorna picked up one of the streetlights, glad that New Orleans seems to be the place for old timey mood lighting still in places, using it to fight the...well, hoard.

Rose: Rose sent out a blast of fire into the air, roasting the dead crows in the path of the flame.

Sean: Well fuck this. Swearing, Sean gave up on the bullet method and went wholesale ", sorry Jess, don't wanna be the next Crow." He screamed, turning his head and aiming at any zombie head near him.

Jessica: Jess left the roof again and flew low over the zombies, whacking heads hard as she passed them. She was fortunately not in the path of Sean's attack this time.

Polaris: "Oh this is some Alfred Hitchkock kind of crap!" Lorna put a forcefield up against the bird onslaught, pulling a face as a good deal of them smashed into it and slid down.

Bobby: One, a bloated man, lumbered toward him. Bobby threw ice at the corpse to slow it, when a woman... he thought it was a woman... lunged at him, toothless mouth agape, grabbing for his arm.

Rose: Rose focused on the air attack so they couldn't peck her teammates.

Teagan: "How nice of you to finally come to see me. How unfortunate that it is for your own funerals this time." On a roof, in the distance, the PuppetMaster tickled her fingers in the air.

Laura: Laura decided she was not fond of birds, especially dead ones. Well, she wasn't fond of dead anything. They all smelled disgusting.

Jessica: She yelped as one of the zombies she flew past grabbed her ankle and turned quickly, swinging the parking meter into the side of its head.

Sean: Turning so he was facing away from his teammates, Sean took a deep breath and leaned over, screaming a path through the zombies.

Polaris: Lorna ran ahead through the street, using the forcefield to hit bird and zombie alike and trying to tell herself that this wasn't in any way similar to fighting in a giant hamster ball just because that brought up thoughts of the giant tumbleweeds.

Teagan: A stag walked out calmly into the horde and stared at Laura. It was missing a large hunk of its throat, the bottom half of the animal's jaw and tongue visible as bits of flesh hung loosely. The antlers lowered towards her. The hooves began to scrape the pavement.

Bobby: Bobby punched the woman, still avoiding using too much force, and gagged when his iced fist pulled away layers of skin and much of her lip. "Aaarguuurack!"

Teagan: "Bobby Drake. I smell death on you." one of the zombies said into his ear as it came up behind him.

Laura: She was fairly busy dealing with all the other dead things around her and didn't notice the charging stag until it charged into her. She rolled across the pavement after going down and growled as the zombies gathered around her, pawing at her.

Sean: "I refuse to hold back against dead people when there is every possibility of being eaten," Sean yelled and ran by Bobby screaming and taking heads.

Rose: Rose sent a blast of fire to some zombies around Lorna to give her some relief.

Jessica: Jess swung her parking meter at any zombie head in her path, spraying coins everywhere because it was by now severely dented.

Polaris: "Thanks for the fire wall!" Lorna called back, glad she could now at least see where she and the forcefield were now going and look back at the path she had cut through the herd, some still able to pick themselves up and shuffle about towards her. "Damnit, hard to stop the dead." She murmured, lifting a manhole cover up from the street and sending it flying through mostly neck level.

Death: The Puppet Master had long left her post and was now in the fray, hiding amongst her Dead. She weaved around them, finding the Shrieker. She came up to him and with three of her dead comrades, pulled his feet out from under him. "Don't give him time to scream!" She shouted as more of her own came up behind her.

Laura: She fought her way to her feet, which wasn't overly hard as her opponents were not very fast. Once she'd dealt with enough of them, she went after the stag, stabbing at its head.

Bobby: "Cute, Teagan," Bobby hissed, just angry enough now to stop fucking around. He narrowed his eyes and the woman froze solid.

Death: The stag bleated and shook, blood spattering and flying all over. It rose up on its haunches and flailed.

Rose: "Anytime." Rose answered Lorna. She switched to burning different areas so she could see her teammates. She mentally hoped she didn't melt Bobby.

Sean: "It's easy to stop the-ARGH," Sean hit the ground and looked up with wide eyes. He kicked out at knees and generally flailed until he could get his mouth free, letting out a piercing cry.

Jessica: Jess took a break, perching on top of a lamppost and wincing at the sound from Sean.

Death: Teagan went through the group, sliding like a snake between the mob, and approached Polaris. She tore off the arm of a walker and used it as a club, swinging at Lorna from behind.

Laura: As soon as it rose, Laura lunged at it, throwing all her weight into it as she thrust her claws into its underside in an attempt to, not only finish it, but knock it off balance.

Death: The stag fell backwards and split apart, its innards filling the area around Laura's feet. The stag flopped once, and went back to its original state. Dead.

Sean: Sean fought his way out from under the pile and screamed, taking off into the air. He glided over the heads of the crown and shuddered ", so I don't think they're out to eat us, guys."

Polaris: Lorna flailed and turned, the forcefield coming back up and the manhole cover spinning back in front, just stopping short as she realized who was in front of her. "Teagan."

Bobby: He formed daggers of ice and sent them sything into the group around him at neck level, taking care of much of the group. Except for a particularly short zombie, who Bobby realized was hobbling toward him on amputated knees.

Laura: She wasn't particularly bothered by the guts, with the exception that it smelled like roadkill, and moved on to some other targets.

Rose: Rose kept lighting up the sky with flying dead crows and the ground with flaming zombies. This was kind of fun!

Jessica: Jess decided downtime was over and took off again with her makeshift club.

Sean: Keeping to the air, Sean buzzed over the zombies, sound slicing through heads.

Death: "Death." She promised Lorna, and swung the bulky arm-club towards Lorna's face.

Jessica: Jess tossed her own meter-club at Teagan for a distraction. Sure she was unarmed now but at least Lorna wouldn't be beaten to death with a rotten limb.

Death: A small child ran up to Laura, appearing to be in need of a hug. He wore a small little tuxedo.

Death: Death severely damaged by the meter as it smashed into her rib cage, damaging both internal organs and leaving physical, visible, damage. She rolled to the ground and didn't move.

Death: A large, dead, turkey vulture came screaming down towards Rose, its nearly 5 foot wingspan practically blotting out the sun as it swooped down towards her.

Jessica: Jess hovered in her place and eyed the unmoving target of her club. "Whoops. Don't know my own strength...."

Laura: Laura froze mid-swing at the child, pausing to warily eye it. She'd never hurt a kid before, and she had no intentions of starting, but... What if it was, as they said, a trap?

Rose: Rose screamed and sent up flames above her. Burn turkey burn!

Polaris: The arm hit the forcefield in front of her and Lorna stepped back, swinging the manhole cover to try and knock Teagan's legs out from under her. "I know better, Teagan. You do, too." The manhole cover swung over her as she was downed by the meter. "Oh crap." Lorna shifted the forcefield, going to hold Teagan down.

Death: A hand suddenly appeared on Jessica's head, pulling at her hair.

Bobby: Bobby saw Teagan de-armed and breathed a sigh of relief before returning to his own battle. This was creepy, and it was fucking with his mind. Time to end it. He concentrated and every unliving thing within a twenty foot radius flashed to ice and then to vapor.

Jessica: Jess shrieked and dropped a little, trying to pull the hand from her hair.

Death: Another one crawled up the front of her, trying to crawl into her mouth, and suffocate her. The fingers began to poke and try to cover her mouth, block her nose, and they were surprisingly strong.

Jessica: And the one blocking her airway was now the greatest concern. She dropped to the ground as she tried to pry it off.

Sean: Knowing that he'd totally get zapped for this later, even if he IS trying to save her, Sean screamed by Jessica and took care of the nearest zombies.

Death: Teagan pushed up, ("LOOK MA NO HANDS!") and began to slowly, arise from her place. Healing quickly.

Polaris: Looking up at Jess's shriek, Lorna rushed that way, fighting to keep a forcefield strong enough to keep Teagan and help Jess at the same time. The manhole cover swung out again, hitting one of the zombies attacking the other girl. At the no hands Lorna looked back, going pale as she realized she failed.

Bobby: "Your jokes still suck!" Bobby gave the next five zombies the same treatment, leaving an eerie mist in his wake.

Jessica: The scream dazed her and she stumbled, Get OFF!! She wrenched the hand off her face, took a big gulp of air, then threw it as far away as possible. Now for the one in her hair.

Death: The hand hit the ground and then scurried back to its master. "You haven't seen the best joke of all." She snapped her fingers and before her stood Professor Forge. "Bobby!" He shouted.

Jessica: She snapped the bones in the fingers of the hand in her hair, allowing her to untangle it. She threw that away too. Then punched the nearest Zombie in the face. Her fist went right through its head.

Bobby: Bobby made a face, taking care of another zombie shuffling up at his side without looking.

Rose: Rose peeked up, relieved that the bird was gone. She resumed her aasult on the creatures and people below.

Sean: Hitting the ground at a run, Sean launched himself at and punched the Dead Professor directly in the face, momentum taking them both to the ground.

Polaris: Forge....that was just...wrong. It was also wrong that it gave Lorna an idea and soon enough cars were being pulled from their driveways to run down and herd zombies.

Death: The professor took more steps towards Bobby. "Don't you know? I'm still alive." Then, in unison "We're all still alive and we will haunt you forever...."

Bobby: "You... aren't real. Or anyway, not really Forge. And anyways, you tried to flunk me!" Bobby yelled toward the old professor.

Laura: Her head cocked to one side as she considered the kid a bit more, still debating what to do. However, the child suddenly took a liking to trying to pull her legs out from under her. Face twisting, the claws in her feet slid out, and she gave him a good kick, feeling a bit bad about that one. She didn't have time to focus on that though. There were other zombies to deal with.

Jessica: Having lost her parking meter, Jess took to punching the zombies near her. It was much more satisfying anyway and she didn't much care about the gore.

Polaris: "...." Lorna couldn't help but actually snort when she heard what Bobby said. "You tell him, Sweetcheeks!"

Death: Brutus the Gorilla dropped from a rooftop and atop of a car. He snorted, flailed and roared. He was dirty, rotted, and long dead. Three years or so now. But he was still huge. And he was still the biggest gorilla in a north american zoo.

Polaris: "...is that a fucking gorilla?"

Death: He instantly charged for Jess, knocking over and mowing down zombies in his path.

Sean: "Nooooo, Planet of the Undead Apes!"

Jessica: Jess looked over, "Yep." she blinked, "Oh crap." This would hurt.

Polaris: Lorna sent as many cars hurdling towards Undead Gorilla Grodd as she could manage without hitting any of her team, kicking off of the ground to avoid one herself.

Death: Death used the distraction to slip into a now open manhole. Thanks Lorna... And waited for the scene to get a little louder with confusion before she had 7 of her dead follow her down there.

Bobby: Undead Forge was back up and headed for him and Bobby winced a little before sidestepping him. He hated to actually destroy his body. He knew him, after all...

Death: The gorilla did not like cars. It lost an arm to one but it kept coming for Jess. It reached the one arm left for her face.

Jessica: Jess couldn't decide what hurt more: Gorilla or car. It was a close call.

Sean: Sean was now running through the crowd and screaming wholesale, leaving a trail of mangled corpses in his wake.

Rose: Rose aimed a fireball at the gorilla.

Death: The flaming gorilla roared.

Jessica: "Argh not the face!" She kicked it hard.

Bobby: Making it up as he went, Bobby ducked Forge's awkward swing and grabbed him by the throat. Freezing just his neck, he crushed Forge's windpipe in his fist and jerked. The body fell limply to the ground. "....ew."

Death: Her foot went through the rotted chest cavity of the gorilla as it went down.

Jessica: Jess looked down at her foot buried in the gorilla. ".... Lovely." she extracted it carefully and shook off some rotted entrails.

Death: Suddenly, other zombies began to drop. The sky began to actually rain dead crows this time. The hit the ground with a wet *THWAK* sometimes breaking apart.

Polaris: "Oh, that is just not right." Lorna tried to lift the Gorilla back for Jessica, frowning as the zombies went down. "....shit, she's left."

Death: The dead dropped to their knees, then to their faces, flat to the pavement. Their life force disappeared, their movement ceased.

Bobby: Bobby caught Forge's head and wasn't sure what to do with it ... so he held it.

Sean: Sean looked around as the zombies dropped, pouting ", I wasn't done...."

Jessica: Jess ran for cover. She didn't want to be KO'd by dead crow rain.

Death: Then a singular voice echoed from them all... "Clean up, clean up... everybody everywhere... clean up, clean up, everybody must take care..."

Death: With that, their eyes went blank (what few left that had eyes) and their fingers ceased their twitching. Everything was as it was before. Dead.

Laura: Laura stopped hacking and slashing as they all stopped, retracting her claws and looking around at the others. "We do not have to clean up, do we?"

Rose: "Not it." Rose called from the rooftop.

Jessica: "I need a shower...."

Polaris: "Well...I'm sure we'll be getting help." Lorna commented about the question of cleaning. Oooh the people who owned these cars were not going to be pleased with her.

Bobby: "Um..." Bobby held up Forge's head questioningly.

Sean: "I.....will never ever be clean again," Sean looked down at his uniform, now red, brown and gore.

Jessica: "You didn't put your fists through heads or your foot through a gorilla. Can it."

Bobby: "....I have the rest of him too..." He waved toward his feet with the head, Forge's jaw swinging with the motion.

Laura: "I did. Except the gorilla."

Polaris: "....and we might want to put...Professor Forge back where he should be." Lorna cringed, making her way over to Bobby and the remains.

Sean: "No, I was just grabbed by the ankles and buried under a pile of corpses," he wrinkled his nose.

Jessica: "I had dead fingers up my nose!"

Sean: "Could have been a worse place for them," he shrugged and grinned.

Laura: "I had to punt a child. I believe I win."

Sean: "Hey now, sometimes I feel like doing that anyway, so that's not necessarily a bad thing."

Jessica: "Sean!" Jess nearly put her face in her hands but then she remembered what was on them.

Bobby: Bobby carefully sat the head on the chest and looked up at Lorna with a wrinkled nose. "I've never been so happy to be ice. And have I mentioned I can't smell anything in this form? Never thought that was a bonus before."

Sean: "What?! We all have those days, right? Right?!"

Polaris: "I would say I'm jealous of you right now but you have Forge's head."

Laura: Laura shrugged and gave a slight nod in agreement. Children could be incredibly grating. "Be glad your sense of smell is not enhanced."

Jessica: "Oh God, that's not even the worst part of what you said...."

Rose: "I didn't have to touch anyone! Win." Rose smirked. "Though now I need down..."

Jessica: "I'll come up and get you if you don't mind that I'm covered in rotten brains...."

Bobby: Bobby looked over and a staircase of ice formed from the roof to street level. "Merry Christmas. Happy Mardi Gras."

Death: A woman tore through the piles running to the child in the tuxedo. "No! Louis! Louis!" She dropped to her knees and began to sob, holding the dead child. "My baby! Why is my baby here? Oh God, why?!"

Laura: She shifted uncomfortably at the sight of the woman, looking down to the ground.

Polaris: Lorna cringed as she heard the voice calling behind her, looking over to the woman. "Okay...I've got her, start the cleanup." She tried pretending she didn't have remnants of the dead on her as she made her way over to the woman.

Rose: Rose made a face. "I'll climb down..."

Jessica: Jess decided to go and see if Laura was okay. She had enough dead on her for now.

Bobby: "Christ." Bobby straightened up and looked around, wondering where to begin.