[Issue] Disaster Relief

[Robin Stanton]

With screeching wheels one of the University's vans comes to a stop on a street to the north of the creature currently flooding Promenade Park. Being built on a marshy river-mouth Maldon is pretty flat and the water spilling over the harbor pier has already flooded the streets within a block of the waterfront. People are hurrying past them, others peering out from windows and the police and fire-patrol are doing what they can to help those who have begun to evacuate, but it's chaotic at best.

Robin's protoplasmic form leaps from the van's engine block. "Right, right, disaster response, shit, what was the list again? People and pets before all the rest, then water and gas need to be addressed. Try containing the spread, commun'cate the threat, directing civilians is better yet." she mutters to herself

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza hauls herself out of the back of the van, ice glistening in her white fur. "I can work on containing, but this is a lot of sea water," she growls, sniffing the air.

[Shane Marsh]

Shane hopped out into the floodwaters, which weren't pleasant to his plant body until he reflexively adjusted his water absorption to account for the salt.

"Ugh, felt like I was gonna shrivel up for a second there. I think I'm mostly seaweed now."

[Victor Freud]

Victor's tall boots actually seemed to serve a proper purpose as he stepped out into the floodwaters, having donned his uniform for the first time in ages, with the addition of an over-packed utility belt.

"I guess some of us should start closest to the water and work our way back, yeah?"

[Robin Stanton]

"Yes, get people to high-ground from near the waterfront!" Robin nods at Vic. "Bramble, can you set up some kind of... plant... root... thing? Vegetation stops erosion, yeah? Break the waves and all that? Glacier, you got the best shot at stemming anything here, I'll try to seal up buildings!" Robin shouts. She must have read up on everyone's codename and powers. Not that she's technically part of this group of X-Men, much less in charge but she's wearing a uniform alright, even if it looks similarly 'off' as Will's.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"On it," Tereza says, breath getting frosty before she starts building short ice-wall barricades to try to keep the water away from the nearest buildings, working her way harbor-ward.

[Shane Marsh]

"Sounds like a plan," he answered with a nod, glad somebody had a plan. He waded towards the harbor, where he sat down in the rising water and extended his left arm into the rocky ground of the shoreline. He began going through the bandolier of special nutrition bars he wore as he grew a line of small mangrove-like trees to break the waves. They wouldn't survive in the long term, but they should do the job. Little else would grow for a while either with the soil resources he was gobbling up.

[Narrator]

The sediment in the harbor is surprisingly nutrient-rich though not exactly plant-friendly, so the lack of future growth is of not much concern at least. From where he's sitting in the harbor, surrounded by his growing line of mangrove roots, he can see the creature in the distance and the Blackbird swooping down on it and landing not-so-gracefully in a thick fog-bank. More concerning is when the creature rears up and sends out a wave of water rolling towards the city from the south.

Meanwhile Tereza is raising frost-walls in the streets that will hopefully block water from entering the heart of the city and divert it back down towards the harbor to be broken by Shane's trees.

Robin meanwhile has leapt up to a nearby building as disappears. At least for a moment before roof-tiles and tar-insulation tear themselves from the building and twitching and jerking themselves into a vaguely humanoid shape with two shields of roofing for arms.

Victor, running towards the harbor alongside Shane before the later breaks off and heads for the water, finds most people already rushing past him, but there's a number of people too stubborn or scared to leave. One man is busy nailing wood-boards to the windows of his restaurant while a number of people are still gathering things to pile into open suitcases in front of their house despite the fact they're doing so in already shin-deep water.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza is blocking off a cross street as she catches sight of the oncoming wave, but there's not much she can do except throw up as much of an ice wall as she can to protect herself and people behind her.

[Shane Marsh]

Shane was very grateful that he didn't actually need his lungs as the wave rolled over him, his buried arm keeping him from being washed away. Afterwards, he rose and spewed out seawater.

"Bloody hell that was un-fucking-pleasant."

He moved down the shore and repeated the process to extend the treeline.

[Victor Freud]

"Good job folks, keep calm, quick and orderly." Victor half-waved the fleeing people past him as he weaved his way through the crowd to make his way toward the stragglers. He sound of the plane crash caught his attention more than the sight of it, giving him pause out of concern for those inside. But it was brief - there wasn't anything he could do to help them now, he had to count on their training to get them through this. He couldn't make a difference there, so he'd have to make a difference here instead.

"Alright folks, it's time to drop whatever you're doing and move it! We've got a tidal wave coming!" Well it might not be THAT bad, but it was far from good.

[Narrator]

Most of the stragglers drop what they're doing, although some of them keep lugging a suitcase or duffel bag of stuff with them while some older folks are struggling to simply move fast. The wave is already rolling in, being broken by Shane trees on the shoreline and 'only' spilling into the streets to soak everyone to the knees. The remainder of the water however is being funneled around buildings, which delayed it a little but also condensed a lot of water into a little space and the resulting waves are pushing through the streets with enough force to nudge cars and sweep up bicycles and other debris.

Vic's group of stragglers stands little chance to escape it as is until a shambling piece of tiles and tar jumps down into the road and slams down her roof-arms, tar splashing out to lash her to either side of the street to try and stem the tide. "Go go go! Get them out of here!" Robin shouts as the water slams into her, pushing her back a foot or so but holding for now, save for a couple spots where water is breaking through.

Tereza similarly is holding down a section of town with a bulwark of ice, water diverting around it but also providing her with ample material to expand and reinforce her structure.

[Tereza Rozanov]

As Tereza freezes more of the water, small off-shoot tunnels begin forming on the ice, trying to redirect the water in manageable quantities to other places. More ice glistens in her fur and the moisture in her breath snows down as she keeps gesturing to manipulate the ice.

[Victor Freud]

Robin had barely touched down and Victor was already jumping into action. Started at the back of the pack, any stragglers who weren't gaining ground were being caught up in one hand and shoved under his arm, unceremoniously shrunken in size to make them easier to carry. Which was probably very disorienting to those poor citizens, but they at least had a chance to live and deal with the trauma later.

"Keep calm and hold on!" He said between puffing pants as he ran back the way he'd came, toward inland and higher ground.

[Narrator]

A lot of the scooped people do let out a startled sound, but once they realize what is happening they seem more than grateful. For the most part. Behind him he can hear the sound of water crashing down and glass shattering as Robin's improvised barricade gets overwhelmed and the build-up water slams into the road. Judging by the panicked screams of people the wave is rolling after them through the street, but fortunately after sprinting for a couple blocks the water has finally run it's course, dissipated through side-streets and is now only ankle-deep and losing the rest of it's momentum.

Although the sound of groaning ice nearby makes it clear that the wave hit here as well, only held at bay and diverted by the wedges of ice between buildings.

[Victor Freud]

Panting from the combined exertion of running, carrying people, and using his power, Victor set down the citizens - who unfortunately got to experience waist-deep water before they popped back to their normal sizes. He was bent over with his hands on his knees and trying to get as much oxygen back into his body as quickly as he could without passing out.

"Please - keep going - and - help each -guh- other...." He puffed between words before he stood up straight again to look back the way they came. "I've gotten you this far, you should be able to make it the rest of the way now. I've gotta go back, there could still be people there." The young man then turned and started back toward the shore in a high-kneed jog. He didn't know much about Robin and her abilities, so for all he knew it was possible that she might be in danger as well.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Drawn by the crashing sound, Tereza diverts her attention and she heads in Robin's direction as well, water freezing in her wake as the air around her remained dangerously cold.

[Narrator]

More than a couple people take a moment to thank Victor and Tereza, one even gives the young man a pat on the back as he's catching his breath.

The area closer to the harbor is in rough shape, but it could have been much worse. Tereza's barriers held and diverted a lot of the water back towards the sea where it got slowed down and stemmed by Shane's mangrove. Just the area in between, the parts of downtown situated more towards the harbor got hit pretty hard by the wave breaking through. The water's receding a little, leaving behind pretty messed up ground floors and new water coming in has thankfully been slow. As the team hurries/wades towards the harbor they can hear the creature strange undulating sound again but worried glances to the horizon don't show another wave, simply a thin sphere of water expanding and dispersing into a fine rain.

In the flooded area they soon spot a couple of people who did not make it out in time for one reason or another and were forced to flee into the upper stories or the roof. Floating down the street are bits and pieces of roof tiles caked with tar.

[Victor Freud]

Victor began calling out to the people he could see, asking if they were alright and if they'd be able to get down and evacuate on their own. If they didn't need their help, then their time was better used making sure that Robin was alright, and looking for any citizens who hadn't been so lucky.

[Narrator]

There are some injured people among those up on higher ground and people are still very much eager to get to safety, especially with the unnatural wave rising in the distance. The team gets a chance to focus on the civilians as a piece of mostly-tar-with-some-shingles drags itself up onto a slightly elevated porch and gives what must be some kind of thumbs-up before collapsing back into a heap. In the distance a lone silhouette floats in front of the mounting wave to hold it at bay.

By the time they get everyone remaining down and to dry land to have their injuries looked after the distant wave collapses down but aside from a couple weak waves that slosh through the flooded harbor and get dispersed by the mangroves, there's no surge of water big enough to do any further damage.

[Shane Marsh]

Shane let out a weary sigh of relief as he dislodged himself from the shore and rose wobbly to his feet. He was looking rather wilted, having had to use more energy than he had plant food bars.

"Is it over?" he asked tiredly.

[Victor Freud]

Victor wiped the sweat off of his forehead, his uniform jacket open to help cool himself off a bit. "I sure hope so. Hey! Can we get a quick headcount? Is everyone accounted for?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

"A bit wet, but all good," Tereza reports, "Going to see if I can shift some of these cars that got knocked around and help... clean up... a bit..." The last few words sound a little puzzled.

[Shane Marsh]

"Bloody hell. What is it now?" Shane asked.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Just a strange sense from Sam... Not sure what's up now..." There's a shrug in her voice, "I'm sure it'll be fine."

[Victor Freud]

"I hope they're alright. Things... look to be okay over there." Well as okay as they could be. What a mess.

"Glacier, if you don't mind, I'd like to go with you to go check up on Robin. Being a wall is pretty tough work, she could probably use a shoulder to lean on." Usin' code-names and everything, such a professional.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Okay," Tereza responds, diverting to head over in Vic's direction.

[Robin Stanton]

Over on the stoop where Roofing-Material-Robin is lieing the tarred up shingles stir and from them emerges an arm, followed by a shoulder and then the rest of Robin. She looks ashen, like most color has been drained out of her and she goes into a hacking cough that results in a thick glob of tar.

"Oh that tastes so bad, you guys..." she says, regaining a little color, even if that color is mostly green.

And then she proceeds to have some kind of full-body seizure that results in a third arm growing out of the side of her chest, though it doesn't look anything like one that should belong to her, it's pale with reddish-freckles and reaches up to grab her face, turning her hair green where the pale fingers touch her roots. And with her two normal arms flailing she falls over backwards into the ankle-deep water.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"What the..." Tereza stays, dropping into a ready stance. "What fresh hell is going on now?"

[Robin Stanton]

Robin sits back up, gasping for air, though anybody who is even passingly familiar with the Stantons can tell this is entirely and almost instinctually for dramatic effect rather than a necessity to breathe.

"What in the what?" she wonders, patting herself down (including her head) like she's making sure she has the correct number of limbs.

[Robin Stanton]

The next change is subtle. Just a couple of almost imperceptible changes ripple through Robin that smooth out her hair, fix a couple scrapes and bruises and restore her pinkish color to her cheeks and hair.

The follow-up is a lot more noticeable because she turns into a green beagle and lets out a confused bark.

[Victor Freud]

"Oh Jesus, don't tell me there was some kinda weird chemical in the water." Victor approached and considered trying to pick up and carry Rover-Robin, and then hesitated. Something definitely wasn't right with her, what if she turned into a blender and chewed up his hand or something?

"Hey, you're going to be okay. Come on, we'll go rendezvous with the others and get this sorted out." There was definitely the first-responder safety tone to his voice, the same kind of one he used when he was helping people down from their roofs. He didn't actually know that everything was going to be okay, but having her panic could potentially make things worse.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Seeing Vic's hesitance, Tereza drops to all fours and squats down. "Climb on. We'll get you to your dad."

[Robin Stanton]

"Bork!" the beagle says calmly. The fact that it's not an actual bark but just Robin saying the word is... well it's par for the course for a Stanton.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Okay, so maybe she's okay," Tereza comments, tilting her head as she regards the beagle.

[Robin Stanton]

"Mostly! I don't know what happened but it wasn't the water. It was... like a hiccup or how that thing with your knee is supposed to work when they tap it with that little hammer and then get worried about nothing happening so you just do it cause that's easier than explaining that really, muscles are just kind of a 'sometimes' shape." the dog rambles.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Riigghhtt," Tereza says, vaguely following. "Well, if you say you're okay. I mean it was a bit strange, but that's kind of par for the course. No offense intended, of course."

[Robin Stanton]

"Oh none taken. Strange's a badge of honor."

[Victor Freud]

"Whoa, did that totally normal green dog just talk?" Victor asked in his best California surfer voice - which actually wasn't half bad.

[Toshiro Narumi]

Which was when Tosh came over the comms.

"Hey, uhh, yeah, so the kaiju is kaput. But Tereza, Sam is, well," he said, relaying the news perhaps too gently, "Having psychic difficulties. Will is with her but she could probably use your presence right about now."