Sept 4th - Protestors at the Gates

[Will Stanton]

"They might kill us?" Will eeped, as if the thought hadn't occurred to him before.

[Alex Maurell]

"I said they won't, that's a real quick way to end up with a riot on their hands and nobody wants that."

[Will Stanton]

"OK," Will said, nervously, standing back up to face the crowd.

[Narrator]

The crowd is still chanting and stomping around but they have stopped throwing stones, which is a significant improvement over a couple minutes ago.

[Alex Maurell]

Alex stood next to Will, waiting for whatever came next to come. For the moment he'd given up arguing with the crowd.

[Ashlie Minamida]

What was next was apparently Shane coming back, along with the head-mistress.

"What seems to be the problem here?" she asks the assembled masses as well as Alex and Will. When someone in the crowd screams "Cyber-Witch!" at her she just slightly rolls her eyes and ignores the man.

[Will Stanton]

"They had some concerns about us being here, I think..."

[Alex Maurell]

Alex glanced over at the new arrival and Shane. "Protest deserved counter protest ma'am, but I wanted to be sure a teacher or administrator was around in case things got out of hand. They already threw rocks once."

[Will Stanton]

Will looked a bit guilty at that one--like he wasn't planning on tattling.

[Ashlie Minamida]

"You registered your protest with the proper authorities and you're not trespassing, I have no right to remove you from the premises. If you hurt any of my students then your right for peaceful demonstration is forfeit. I am here to inform you that you are in a public location and are being monitored in accordance with surveillance laws."

She turns to Alex and Will without waiting for a response from the crowd. "I have to tell you that I do not condone antagonizing these people. I am also here to inform you that past the gate is private property and as residents you are allowed to detain trespassers with reasonable force. This also applies if projectiles are being launched into the property that could conceivably lead to injury." she tells them and for a moment it almost looks like she's about to wink at them but then doesn't.

[Alex Maurell]

"We're not antagonizing them. I tried speaking with them earlier and kept taking my words and twisting them. At the moment, I only wish to stand here and prove mutants are not as violent as they wish us to be." He glanced at the protesters and then back to Ashlie. "Should we move back inside ma'am?"

[Ashlie Minamida]

"Only if you wish to. You're doing the right thing. If they yell and scream at students just standing here it only makes them look foolish."

[Will Stanton]

"Oh, I wouldn't want anyone to look foolish," he said, looking back over his shoulder.

[Shane Marsh]

Shane had returned to watch from inside the gate.

[Alex Maurell]

"I would definitely like them to look foolish. Kind of makes me wish I had a smartphone to record this." Looking at the crowd, they didn't look like they'd be dissipating any time soon.

[Will Stanton]

"Sure thing!" Will said, and jumped right at Alex.

In mid-air, he shrunk down and compacted, and if Alex didn't react quickly enough, an iPhone would hit him in the face.

[Alex Maurell]

"Whoa!" Alex reacted slightly fast enough to catch Will, fumbling slightly. Surprised and curious he turned the new phone on.

[Will Stanton]

"Record away!", Will's voice came out of the phone's speakers. "We'll get a good record of all this for your scrapbook."

[Alex Maurell]

"Heh, awesome, more like for the internet Will. People are gonna see this." He pressed the record button and held it up for the camera capture the scene. "All these people, protesting a university that just opened. This is ridiculous, we just got here."

[Will Stanton]

"Hi there!" the phone said. "Smile! Let me see your best side!"

[Narrator]

The protesters don't seem super happy with this, some of them trying to hide their faces behind their signs. At least until the man in charge clears his throat audibly and everyone straightens up a bit as if suddenly taking a bit more pride in their courageous stance against the mutant infestation, lifting their signs up high again.

[Will Stanton]

"VERY nice. Everybody wave!"

[Alex Maurell]

Alex shook his head and glanced back at Ashlie and Shane. "Anybody else getting a fishy feeling about the guy with the megaphone?"

[Shane Marsh]

"Aside from being a flaming cocksack?" Shane asked as he tried to look for any familiar hateful idiots.

[Ashlie Minamida]

Ashlie had been in the process of leaving but glances back at the crowd, eyes focusing on the man. Literally, her irises narrow like a camera that summon up the mental sound of a mechanical whir.

"That is the leader of a group called itself Bright Dawn, a human supremacist movement." she says after a moment. "The rest of the group appear to be local, but he is not from Maldon."

[Will Stanton]

"Hey! Bright Dawn sounds nice. All sunny. Hey, Bright Dawn man! Smile for the camera!"

On the screen, google results for Bright Dawn began popping up.

[Narrator]

The man jsut glares at Will and keeps spewing bigotry from his megaphone. Without fail, the other protesters join in, even mirroring it when he misspeaks, which seems like something that would be hard to rehearse in advance. In fact when they're chanting along peoples' eyes seem to glaze over a little.

[Shane Marsh]

"Okay... that's bloody creepy..." Shane commented.

[Alex Maurell]

"Yeah no kidding...Glad we're recording this..." Though he was getting the vibe that things might go pear shaped real soon. Still he wanted to test something. Ace was circling above, the hawk's point of view giving him a pretty good idea of what to do next. Carefully, he had the hawk land near the man with the megaphone. Not close enough to obstruct him but certainly close enough to get his attention.

[Narrator]

It certainly gets his attention and he jerks his head at one of the other protesters who tries to shoo the bird away with his hands, not realizing it's under Alex' control.

[Shane Marsh]

"Holy shite... I think he's a bloody telepath..." Shane gaped.

[Narrator]

If the man heard Shane he doesn't show it, just continuing to keep the protest going. After a while, people begin to grow a little tired and, more importantly, the man's ability to keep them going seems to be diminishing. Little by little people slip away until they're down to maybe ten people who don't look super enthused to be there anymore and the group decides to pack it in, despite the leader's objections.

[Will Stanton]

"And I've got it alllll on tape! Good work, team."

[Alex Maurell]

"Looks like that ended quickly." Recalling Ace to his shoulder with out thinking. "If he was a telepath he's not a very good one. Though I gotta wonder why would a mutant organize an anti-mutant protest?"

[Shane Marsh]

"Self-loathing?"

[Will Stanton]

"Maybe he's got some black-ops military hardware that only looks like a mutation," the phone chimed in.