[indent][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/16dO9Jx.png[/img][/center][COLOR=yellow][INDENT][B][SUP][SUB][H3]B A Y V I L L E  H I G H  S C H O O L[/H3][/SUB][/SUP][/B][/INDENT][hr][/COLOR][sup][color=darkgray]Midday  |  Bayville, New York City[/color][/sup]

The Bayville Badgers mascot was displayed with pride on the school's tiled floor. That black-and-white little creature had a defiant fist shoved into the air and a certain glint in its cartoonishly large eyes. It'd been a long time since Scott had seen that little furry demon, and the sight of it did little to ease the thumping in his chest.

As far as he could remember the Badgers hadn't won a single prize in the last ten years that wasn't a participation ribbon. The oft chanted 'Badgers Fighting!' had become something of a joke in the state's basketball circuit with how terrible Bayville's teams always managed to be. That never stopped Summers from cheering for them, though- it made their few and far between victories all the sweeter.

They [i]had[/i] won a few tournaments in their past, however, and the administration was eager to let people remember. They'd set up a long trophy case along the central hallway to display their former glory for all to see. It used to be an impressive little setup, with velvet carpet on the interior and gold trimming around its mahogany frame. Now the glass was shattered and spread across the floor, several earthen claws impaling through the box and pointing toward the X-Men like accusatory fingers. Cyclops kept moving, his breathing shallow as he listened for even the slightest of sound.

There were muffled sobs coming out of the classrooms he passed by, their windows dark and their locks firmly in place. The hallways themselves were all empty, save for the carnage left behind by the mutant that had made his way through here. No bodies or blood, just mindless destruction. Shattered lights and broken panels hanging from the ceiling. Lockers tossed around and crushed like soda cans. And at least a dozen more remains of stone and dirt constructs that had done the deed.	

"No bodies," Scott muttered under his breath, glancing over toward Hank.

McCoy was slinking forward on his knuckles like a hairless ape, his eyes darting over the geomancy pillars with a curious and weary eye. "Or blood for that matter." Beast agreed with a slow nod. "None of the classrooms have been disturbed."

"God this place gives me the creeps," Iceman said a little too loudly, prompting both Cyclops and Beast to glare back at him. He threw up his hands defensively and quickly shut his mouth.

The trio continued their advance deeper into the school, following the path of destruction. It branched off at places, forcing them to split up temporarily in their search, but it always seemed to converge back into a primary, linear path. Their mutant wasn't on a spree as had been assumed- they looked to be pushing toward a specific goal, Scott just didn't know what.

They came upon the first set of open doors near the opposite side of the building to where they had entered. A pair of large double doors had been broken off at their frame and now lay crushed and crunched up on the other side of the hallway. Massive, earthen fists stood dormant to either side of the entrance, their digits dug into the wood, drywall, and steel of the wall. Red lettering positioned above the threshold marked it as the gymnasium.

"Eyes up, guys. Looks like the place." Cyclops warned, doing his best to keep his breathing steady as he stepped inside. He was greeted by the sight of another brutalized room. Cavernously large with long, folding bleachers situated on either side and a multi-purpose court in the center, the gym had seen the worst of the damage. Pillars of earth as thick around as a Giant Sequoia rose up from the floor and cut their way through the roof. Dozens of protrusions cut through the bleachers, walls, and ground at awkward angles, bending metal and splintering wood.

In the very center of the room was a puddle of blood surrounded by a smattering of dagger-like spikes stabbed into the ground around it.

Beast started across the gym at a run, his closed fists scratching across the floorboards as he bounded over toward the pool. He bent his head low, taking in long, deep breaths with his nose until he wrenched his head in the direction of the locker rooms. He didn't say anything as he started in that direction, this time much slower and more cautious in his approach. Cyclops and Iceman moved after him, mimicking his silence until they arrived at the entrance.

A weak, pained mewling echoed out of the tiled men's room. Cyclops placed a hand on Beast's shoulder, ushering him back so he could take the lead. A hand hovering by his visor and the other tracing along the wall, Cyclops crept ahead, following the sound of muffled and pained sobbing. When he turned the corner he came upon the mutant he'd been looking for- and his victims.

The boy was short in stature, perhaps four or five inches shorter than Scott. And he was thin as rails without much in the way of visible muscle. His back was to Scott so he couldn't get a good look at the kid's face, but he had long, dirty-looking hair, a shirt a size too big for him, and worn out skinny jeans that clung to his unimpressive frame. Then there were the other kids.

Three of them, to be exact. 

One was a large boy in every sense of the word, with a scruffy jaw and a buzzcut to frame his face. Tears were running down his hairy cheeks and he was struggling to break free from the giant stone fingers that were wrapped around his torso and keeping his arms pinned to his side. It wasn't going to budge no matter how much he wiggled around.

The next was a head taller than him and skinnier, but still a bit meatier than the mutant. His hands were pressed up against the wall and held there by rocky manacles bursting out of the tiles to wrap around his wrists. A mask of stone held tight to the lower portion of his face, muffling his terrified cries and making it difficult for him to breathe.

The final boy was suspended right in front of his captor by a tendril of hardened dirt and clay. Blood was running down from a large gash on his forehead, over his eye and dripping down his chin. Blue eyes were red and puffy, filled with fear and apprehension as they stared into the face of the mutant that held him. "I'm- I'm sorry, Lance.." Griff apologized with haggard breath. "C-come on, just- just let us go, man-"

Lance made a quick motion with his skeletal fingers, and another tendril of dirt broke through the ground beside him. At it's head was a sharpened stone that it traced along Griff's cheek, drawing a short, thin line of red along behind it. He did his best to swallow an agonized scream.

"Would you've let [i]me[/i] go?" Lance snarled, motioning for his tendril to pull away.

"I- I was just messin' with you, man-"

"You were gonna beat me until I was black 'n blue you fuckin' liar!" He slammed his fist into Griff's nose in an awkward and mostly ineffectual punch. "I know what people like you do to mutants. They ain't gonna find me in a ditch somewhere, fuck no. But you on the other hand..."

Bobby broke from cover first, dodging past Cyclops' attempt to stop him from rushing forward. Iceman threw up a hand, a stream of frost leaving his snow-covered palm and flying right for Lance's exposed back. A pillar of rock burst from the ground right in its path, continuing forward until it rammed right into the surprised X-Man's chest.

"Let them go!" Beast roared, leaping over his fallen comrade as he bounded toward Lance at frightening speeds. The knife-like tendril whipped around to intercept, flinging itself for Hank's throat only to be stopped by a fist when it was just inches away. Beast wrestled with the construct, his fingers digging into it's length and finding it's stony spine hidden within its center. With a roar he plunged a hand down, took hold of the spine-like structure and ripped it out, shattering the whole of the tendril. He went to grab Lance, only for a hand the size of Hank's barrel chest to pop out of the ground and restrain him.

Even as it began to drag Beast to the floor, Cyclops started forward, his fingers resting on the release button on the side of his visor. "You don't have to do this, Lance." He said, staring right at the sixteen year old boy's chest. Aim for center mass. "We don't have to fight."

Lance's expression twisted as he looked over the X-Men. Strange people garbed in linen costumes ripped straight from the pages of a cheesy comic book. Superheroes like the Justice Society of America, or Captain America and the Wonder Woman. They were the last people he expected to come barging through that door- he expected cops to come in shooting. It took him a few moments to adjust to the situation, his clamy hands opening and shutting as he rapidly looked between the three heroes. "You mutants too?" Lance rasped.

"We are." Scott answered with a nod. "We're the X-Men, and I'm Cyclops."

"Cool name." Lance chuckled a little, his throat as dry as the Nevada Desert. "This...this ain't what it looks like-"

"What do you think it looks like?" Cyclops asked, never letting his fingers stray too far away from the button. He didn't know anything about Lance, but the kid looked nervous- panicky. Scott had to make sure he wouldn't do anything to hurt those other kids or his teammates.

Lance glanced over his shoulder, then to the downed Iceman and the restrained Beast. It certainly didn't look [i]good[/i], whatever this was. "They- they attacked me [i]first[/i]-" He stammered, shoving an accusatory finger back at Griff. "He was gonna kill me!"

Griff gave a rapid shake of his head. "We weren't, I swear-"

"You shut the [b]fuck[/b] up!" Lance shouted over him, shoving an accusatory finger in Griff's face. Another tendril broke out of the ground and started to snake toward Ryan Griffin.

"Hold on, Lance." Cyclops ordered. Firm, but not angry. He had to make sure he sounded calm and in control. Lance was losing it. He couldn't let the kid do something he'd regret. "Just hold on. Don't hurt him." He insisted, taking a few, careful steps forward. When Lance looked back but didn't lash out at him, Scott got closer- not close enough to get into his personal space, but close enough to make it more personal. "He attacked you because you're a mutant, right?"

Lance nodded quickly.

"I know what it's like. Trust me, we all do." Scott took another step forward. Lance froze up this time, his shoulders tensing. Scott was getting too close, but he decided not to stop. Instead he brought his hand away from his visor, holding them both up in the air to show himself as harmless and vulnerable. That eased the tension in the other boy, at least a little. "But you can't react like this. Nobody else is going to understand-"

"So I should just let them get away with it?" Lance snarled between gritted teeth, running a hand through his grease-slicked hair.

"I didn't say that." Cyclops corrected. "But the police aren't going to take your side, Lance. All they're going to see is a mutant attacking humans. And you know how that's going to end."

But..." Lance snapped his eyes shut. "-they deserve it. I-" He stood, turning to look at Griff. The bully sucked air in, meeting Lance's gaze with wide, terrified eyes. Lance got close to him. "-I don't care what they think. P-people like him have been treatin' people like me like shit since forever, and...and I'm tired of it."

"Don't, Lance." Cyclops warned. "There's no coming back from this if you kill this guy. They'll come after you and they won't stop-"

Lance didn't turn around, he was just staring at Griff now. "Won't be any different from before."

"Think about what it'll do to your family-"

"What family?"

Scott caught himself tripping over his own words. "Lance-" He moved forward again, holding out a hand toward the younger man's shoulder. Not a second later Cyclops felt something punch into his chest with the force of a freight train. The pillar had come faster than he could react, his feet leaving the floor as he flew backward several feet.

The next thing Cyclops saw when he finally hit his back was Lance's tendril shooting toward Griff's throat.

[i]'No!'[/i]
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