In Like Flynn

WHO: Kurt, Ralph, Julian, others and baddies @emitted by Alice
WHEN: August 30, 2011
WHAT: A shopping trip for the Xavierites is interrupted when a small girl breaks away from her mother. And then things get complicated...



There's the roar of an especially loud motorcycle as Julian comes wending his way through traffic, driving more quickly than most would consider wise, given the state of Manhattan traffic. But he's eighteen and invincible, so what does he care? Pulling up in front of the corner store, he double-parks, essentially blocking in two other vehicles (well, there were no free spots!). After killing the engine, he swings his leg back over and steps clear of the bike, giving her a fond pat of farewell before he starts up the short length of sidewalk to the 7-11.

The days before the new term at Xavier's are counting down -- which makes the need for proper supplies all the more urgent. That was the original intent behind Kurt's visit to the City, a notion shared by Ralph as well, as he found out when he ran into him on the train ride in from Westchester. Company! At least they're both in the same, slightly unprepared boat. Now that they've each had the chance to do a bit of shopping, however -- as evidenced by the plastic bags looped around Kurt's wrist just above that very special 'wrist watch' of his -- the pair walk down the sidewalk in the general direction of the Blockbuster and 7-11. "Hm," he starts, shifting a glance toward the video store. "I wonder if they have anything good in stock. Think that the students would fancy a movie night before classes really start up?" Julian gets a glance, particularly for his parking job, but he doesn't attract too much of the young man's attention just yet.

Ralph walks along a little bit behind Kurt, a heavy backpack piled up on his back stuffed full of back-to-school purchases - one can never have too many three-ring binders, right? He blinks at Kurt's question before following his gesture to the Blockbuster. "...Hmmm, I dunno... Is there anything good out? Is Star Wars Episode IX out on DVD yet?" He, too, notes Julian's approach, mostly just flinching at the roaring motorcycle engine.

This particular street isn't as crowded as say, Times Square, especially in those hours before school and work let out. That's not to say that people aren't around, but they're fewer than in other places and not quite as noticeable. In the 7-11 parking lot, a little girl runs out of the back passenger door of a red car. She stops and looks over at a nearby parked van, black with tinted windows. A pair of antennae slowly rise out of her hair. A nearby boy on a skateboard fumbles and trips off of his board, just barely saving himself as he gawks at her. The mother calls out before clamoring out of the car, "Maria! Come back here this ~instant~!" A few people have started to turn to stare as the boy exclaims, "Whoa! A mutant!"

Julian just smirks in response to the glare he gets, taking a sort of perverse joy in it. He's almost at the 7-11, so the exclamation of 'mutant' certainly gets his attention. He steps back a few steps to look over at the parking lot, his eyebrows going up, almost like he thinks someone is calling HIM that, and he's about to challenge them to a fight. Of course, then he spots the kid and quickly puts together what's going on, crossing his arms over his chest and just looking sort of aloofly curious to see what's going to happen here. He glances around at the people in the area, trying to figure out if anyone is going to get up in arms about the whole mutie thing.

Kurt's brow furrows thoughtfully. "It might be. I'm not sure if it's released this week or next week. I guess there's only one way to find out, ja?" Because he's already beginning to veer toward the store. But then there's a bit of commotion that makes him falter. Needless to say, he's one of the few that turn to find what -- or rather, who -- the boy is making a fuss about. "Ach. Poor little thing," he murmurs, throwing a glance over to Ralph. He looks as though he's tempted to butt in but he stays himself after a few steps forward, giving the mother a chance to catch up to the girl. After all, it doesn't seem as though the girl is in any particular danger at the moment, apart from the misfortune of having been pointed out.

"AGH!" Nevermind the fact that there's nothing to make a passerby consider Ralph a mutant, he still spins to face the accuser just a bit too quickly, which causes him to lose his balance and very nearly stumble headlong into Kurt, though he catches himself in time. "G-geez..." Now he takes in the antennae-girl, the mother, and the skateboard kid. "...Yeah," he agrees with Kurt, frowning at the way tone in the skateboard kid's voice.

Perhaps luckily for him or for them, no one seems to be paying Julian much mind now that the little girl has been spotted, loud motorcycle or not. The crowd, thankfully, is rather small and hanging back. The little girl glances around briefly but then looks back at the van, antennae twitching and bending, then straightening again, constantly moving slowly as she tilts her head. She's fascinated by it, it seems. Finally, she gasps and takes a frightened step back into her mother's legs, who has obviously managed to catch up to her child. "Mommy!" she cries out and reaches up to be picked up, rewarded for the gesture as she gets her wish. "Don't run off like that, okay?" the woman tells her, obviously worried about her child.

That's when it happens. There's a very palpable and audible -THUMP!-.

Then everything apparently electrical begins shutting down and snapping off in sequence, emanating from the parking lot it seems. There are zaps and pops as lightbulbs die, a few actually breaking under the sudden surge. The store goes into total darkness. Cellphones are dead. Cameras are dead. Digital watches are dead. Everything electrical has been taken out of commission...

That seems a little anticlimactic, once mom has caught up to the little ankle-biter, and Julian gives a bit of a frown, watching for a moment more before turning to head back to the store. He doesn't get more than three-quarters turned around though when the electricity suddenly goes haywire and he's quick to whirl back around. His first instinct is to assume it's the kid, the other mutant (or at least the only other one he knows is in the area). "...The hell?" he mutters simply, arms dropping to his sides and his expression turning wary as he surveys the damage, eyebrow lifting at the sounds of shattering glass coming from some of the lights of the store.

"I know," Kurt mutters to Ralph as the poor kid nearly has a heart attack. After all, just because the teacher maintained better doesn't mean he was really any less shocked by that 'mutant' exclamation. As the little girl is reunited with her mother relief registers on his features -- though this turns out to be only momentary as that ominous THUMP registers. He doesn't quite realize what's going on at first but he figures it out very quickly when the little device on his wrist gives a little whine and the holographic image that's been cloaking him fizzles and abruptly shuts off to leave him in all his blue, fuzzy, tail-bearing glory. "Oh no," he gasps, followed by something equally perturbed in German. "This... is a problem." And that's an understatement.

Ralph breathes a sigh of relief when the mother catches up with her daughter - at first he was afraid something bad might happen! Like... like... like electronics going utterly haywire and his teacher's image inducer abruptly going on the fritz? "...ACK!" He takes a step back from Kurt in surprise - not shocked at his appearance, but anytime someone you're standing next to abruptly turns into a fuzzy blue elf, even if you know that's one of their settings, is still offputting. "Oh no! W-what should we do...?!" He looks around despearately, as if expecting an obvious exit to the situation to be just around the corner.

"Mommy??" Maria asks, suddenly scared as her mother turns around a few times in confusion about the electricity also. Someone in the crowd yells at the pair, "Hey freak! Stop messin' with the lights!" Down the block, a few cars screech and come to a halt, honking horns as traffic lights go out, causing confusion in the intersection. "No... she didn't do this!" the mother cries out, backing up toward her car.

Suddenly, the black van seems to spring to life like a lurking monster in a bad horror flick. The side door slides open abruptly as men in riot gear pour out swiftly. A man in a suit steps out behind them: dressed in black save for the white shirt, complete with sunglasses and what looks to be a clear coiled cable that leads up to an earpiece in his ear. His features are unremarkable but the expression is severe. "Gentlemen..." He pauses as he turns his head almost imperceptibly toward Kurt. "...bag them both. And the mother."

With that, the riot gear-clad men spring into action, three heading toward the frightened mother and girl, the rest divide into two teams: half to push the crowd back, including Julian... the other half heading directly toward Kurt. "DON'T MOVE!!!" a few of them shout toward Kurt, lasers trained on the suddenly blue and fuzzy one... and Ralph. It seems they're intent on grabbing and running... the mother and child have already been scooped up and are being dragged, kicking and screaming toward the van. The Man in Black simply stands aside, adjusting his tie. He then touches something on his wrist and the air around him shimmers. Personal forcefield? That's new...

Julian is a little confused when everything starts happening at once. His brow creases and he glares at the guys pouring out of the van, not needing much time to figure out they're up to No Good here. It's only when the Man in Black points out Kurt that Julian notices there's suddenly a blue guy in their midst. His eyebrows go up, but he doesn't have any time to linger on that because he's already feeling the urge to do something here. Leaving the blue guy to fend for himself, Julian starts trying to shove his way through the bad guys trying to keep him back. He pushes past one and manages to dodge the next, but the third is too quick for him, bringing up the butt of his rifle and trying to smack Julian in the face with it. He manages to turn away quickly enough to avoid taking the hit full in the face, but it gets him along the side, knocking him back if only momentarily.

"Don't panic," is Kurt's immediate advice to Ralph, trying to be the voice of calm reason here, even if everything else is currently unraveling by the minute. Of course, that's when the suit and his cronies arrive on the scene. "Was ist...?" And then to Ralph: "This was /not/ how I planned this day trip. Watch yourself. This might get a little... tricky." It seems he's one for understatements today. His attention shifts rapidly between the men running directly at him, Julian's scuffle and the mother and daughter. He lingers on the latter for a second more and his tail, now fully unfurled, gives a thoughtful flicker behind him. "I need to do something," he hisses to the boy at his side. "I'll be back in a moment." Hopefully Ralph will be alright in the meantime; that's not a concern that's evaded Kurt. But time is short and is quickly getting shorter. "Sorry to disappoint you gentlemen," he addresses the laser-bearing men shouting orders at him, "but I think I'll have to decline that idea." Without any further deliberation he disappears in a *BAMF!*, reappearing at the side of the frightened girl. Instead of trying to wrench her from the thug's grasp, however, he just sets his hand on an arm, a leg, whatever he can manage while she's still struggling and with another brimstone explosion they're both gone. It's not long before he reappears on the sidewalk not far from Ralph, sans girl as he dropped her off behind the counter of the 7-11 much to the surprise of the already frazzled clerk. Instinctively he sinks into a low crouch.

"WHAA!!" Momentarily forgetting that his powers ought to keep him relatively safe in this particular instant, Ralph flings his arms up in front of his face instinctively as the laser-sights focus on him. "D-don't kill me! W-w-we just wanted to get school supplies! HONEST! I-I was out of looseleaf!!" He doesn't really notice Julian getting brutalized, and he is far too bewildered by the gun-toting men to react much to Kurt's words - instead he just yelps when Kurt teleports around, otherwise staying frozen to the spot he's at now.

Thinking Julian's down for the count, the soldiers on that side of the parking lot move along, pushing the crowd back, saying, "Dangerous mutants here... move along... for your own safety, move along..." Their faces can't be seen behind their gas masks and their voices sound almost mechanical but they're definitely human under all that riot gear. Batons and rifles push the crowd back further as two of them go over to try to herd Julian along as well...

The disappearance of Kurt definitely surprises the men on that side of the parking lot, leaving them looking around in confusion. "Where'd he go?" The Man in Black smiles from the side of the van. Then Kurt appears, grabs the girl and disappears with her. "Well, well, we have a live one. Gentlemen, I want him at all costs... don't lose him. Find the girl. Leave the mother. She's useless." He remains eerily calm as his men jump into action, trying to figure out where Kurt's gone... The mother shrieks, "MY BABY!!!" as she's bodily carried off toward the crowd they're pushing back...

Meanwhile, only three were left to deal with Ralph. He's just an ordinary citizen who's seen too many days on the couch playing video games, right? Shouldn't be a problem. They start to approach him to push him back, walking right into his personal space. "Move along, kid. Nothing to see here..." But one of them yelps, "WHOA! HE'S BACK!!" One of them already turns to face Kurt, swinging the butt-end of the gun toward Kurt's face...

Julian is already pushing himself back to his feet, dazed but shaking it off from the strike of the rifle. Already the side of his face is starting to bruise and his lip is split from the impact, but he's giving a sadistic smirk as he uses a crooked finger to wipe away the bit of blood there. "Man, you don't KNOW from dangerous mutants," he mutters darkly (and probably too quietly for the man to hear?), glowering at the calm man in charge, before his attention is stolen by the two goons approaching to force him back. "You guys are really pissing me off," he informs them flatly, letting them get within about ten feet of him before he's suddenly jutting out his hand, palm first, towards the nearest one, a jet of green force flying towards the guy, and then almost immediately following it up with the second goon, the force of a punch aimed square at the nose of each of the two in rapid succession.

"Alright there?" That's to Ralph as Kurt spares a glance to the boy. It's fortunate that he looks back to the men when he does otherwise he might have missed the gun butt heading for his face. As it is he ducks his head, deepening that crouch of his almost impossibly to avoid the blow. And as he does so the length of his tail comes up from behind, wrapping around the gun at its midpoint and giving a good yank to separate it from the goon's hands. Of course, that also pulls the goon himself forward and Kurt uses the momentum to toss the man over his back, hopefully for a rough landing. "Alley-oop!" That out of the way, he scans the scene, trying to get his bearings in all of this chaos.

The pudgy boy in the backpack peeks up from over his guarding forearms at the sound of bedlam breaking out around him - Kurt's teleportations, the Man in Black's orders, Julian's blast of green light... it all overwhelms his fragile mind, up to the point where he almost doesn't notice when one of the soliders puts a hand on him. Ralph has only a moment to blink and look at the hand on his upper shoulder before his powers kick in - he slides underneath the man's not-yet-firm grip and delivers a two-handed push, sending him sprawling to the ground as Ralph stands there, clearly complicit, eyes wide with fear as he realizes what just happened. "...I-I'm SORRY!" Predictably, he's a bit too caught up to respond to Kurt's question.

The Man in Black isn't really paying attention to Julian until his men yell out in alarm and pain. One soldier's nose breaks audibly with a loud crack as his hands fly up to his face, holding it as he's propelled backward, landing on the ground to writhe in pain. "My... nobe!!!" he cries out. The other fellow is a little bit more fortunate as his nose also breaks but he's simultaneously knocked out, landing in a slump some distance away. "~Three~ mutants... interesting," the Man in Black says in a slightly smooth, slightly intrigued voice. He taps his watch once. The sound of a helicopter can suddenly be heard in the distance a few heart-beats later.

The soldier facing Kurt is caught off guard and lets out a startled yelp as he finds his gun trapped by a blue... spaded tail?... and then he's hurled off into a nearby wall with an "oof!". He doesn't get back up. Three more have returned from searching for the girl and are bearing down on Kurt....

The soldier who had laid a hand upon Ralph crumples in half as he sprawls backward, letting out a similar "oof!", groaning as he hits the ground. The other hesitates, obviously believing (rightly so) that they've underestimated the pudgy one. His gun is raised as he barks out, "GET ON THE GROUND, NOW!!" A shot rings out. It's a single shot. Even if it were to hit, while likely knocking the wind out of a person, it would be non-lethal... rubber bullets. He doesn't even wait for Ralph to go down before he makes this shot...

Julian doesn't waste too much time gloating over his victory, though the cry from the one goon gets a flicker of a grin. Trying to kidnap a little girl, like the bastard didn't have it coming. Now that the immediate threat is off of him, as far as he can tell, his attention goes back to the Man in Black, singling him out as the mastermind here. There's a groan from the van and then it starts to drag sideways over the ground towards the suited man, a glowing green aura surrounding it. Julian's eyes are glowing a similar green, his teeth gritted as he focusses so wholly on wielding the weight of the van. Using some of the momentum of its own weight, Julian stops it almost abruptly when it's close enough to the man, and then it goes up onto two wheels, over, over, until it's tipped far enough for gravity to take it the rest of the way, crashing down on the guy. Or at least that's the plan, since Julian missed that forcefield or failed to understand its significance.

Kurt doesn't fail to notice Ralph's powers kicking into action. Though his eyebrows raise he doesn't have much time to comment as three more soldiers have arrived to contend with him. Suddenly he springs up not unlike some demonic jack-in-the-box, feet moving up and forward as he goes into an elaborate backflip and lands expertly a few feet away. It's no coincidence that his feet were aimed at the jaw of one of the men who takes the blow quite squarely; seeing their comrade go down the other two fire on the blue mutant. *BAMF!* That's Kurt's first instinct: to 'port out of the way, reappearing behind the men.

Ralph goes deathly pale when he's ordered to the ground and the gun is aimed at him with more purpose - he might even have complied, had the soldier given him the chance to do so. But the moment his finger twitches to fire the shot, Ralph is in motion. By the time the shot has fired, Ralph is beside the man, delivering a purposeful, direct, militaristic chop to the inside of the man's right arm, a simple but effective disabling strike that sends numbing pain shooting up the soldier's forearm and into his fingers. While Ralph's body remains tense and coiled, as if waiting for the next opportunity to strike, the boy's face hasn't lost its mask of surprise and sheer terror.

It's a heavy van. Reinforced steel. Tech equipment. But it does get dragged and the average man caught unawares would be crushed by it. The crowd jumps back with screams and cries as it moves apparently of its own volition. The Man in Black simply turns and looks at the thing as it tips over on him... and grins in amusement as the forcefield stops the steel box from killing him. He steps back and out of the way, letting the van fall to a crash on the pavement. That helicopter can be seen approaching now, if anyone looks. The MiB looks at Julian and tsks. "Clever young man. Clever. But no, I won't be so easily removed. But your kind will be. It's just a matter of when."

He then turns and starts to head toward a vacated part of the lot as he calls out. "Gentlemen... time for a tactical retreat. We have more data to analyze now, so not all is lost." Around the corner, a large semi-truck rumbles and turns that corner. Black with tinted windows. A clean-up crew, perhaps?

The men who held the crowd back suddenly turn, scooping up their fallen comrades and attempting to run and carry them off in the direction of the semi-truck.

The man kicked by Kurt falls easily enough, no match for those kinds of maneuvers. He's a trained killer, as they all are, but he's just not used to such tactics. The ones who fired on Kurt snap to as he disappears, not even realizing where he reappears. Immediately, they move forward to collect the fallen soldier to drag him off, as well... Kurt is utterly ignored as they do so with a trained swiftness, switching gears easily.

As for Ralph, the man with the gun drops his rifle to his side, leaving it to dangle from the strap as he hears the orders from the guy in charge. Immediately, he moves away from Ralph, his arm also dangling, as he grabs his fallen friend and drags him bodily away. Other soldiers follow suit until there's no one left. A large turret rises from the truck, revealing a large, double-barrelled gun of some sort... it looks almost like a cannon... and it aims itself toward the tipped-over van... people scatter, screaming and running as fast as they can go. The Man in Black has nearly reached the semi...

Julian gives his head a defiant shake at the cocky man. He's the one who's supposed to be cocky here, dammit! But the hard glint in his eye as he he stares right back would suggest that, as far as he's concerned, this is far from over. He's a little winded already, the pain in his face starting to throb, so he just watches the goons scatter and begin to make their tactical retreat, looking just a little dazed. The sight of the cannon on top of the truck is enough to snap him out of it though. "Get back!" he shouts helpfully to the screaming masses at large. He doesn't often take his eyes from the gun and the van, but does begin to skirt backwards from the area, his attention leaving it just long enough for brief but frequent glances around, trying to get the new lay of the land.

"Leaving so soon, meine freunde?" Well, Kurt was expecting further trouble from the men. As they begin to retreat he straightens up a little, though he doesn't break his crouch, and looks thoroughly confused. He's just splitting a glance between Ralph and Julian when that cannon-gun rises and focuses on the van. It's about that time that he notices the Man in Black trying to take his leave. Perhaps it's that the original target was just a child, perhaps it's just because he doesn't want to see the Bad Guy get away so easily but in any case Kurt is compelled to start after him, running on all fours as he weaves through the panicking crowd. After someone nearly knocks him over he decides to take the express route, 'porting himself over to the semi. Of course, he's forgotten about the force field entirely, so caught up is he with the big picture here that he's missing the little details.

As the soldiers retreat, Ralph's body language changes. He starts shaking, no longer ready for battle and instead looking ready to faint. With his powers no longer kicking in, disorientation sits in, and he sinks stumbles to his knees as he tries to run in two directions at the same time. "K-Kurt...?" He looks around desperately, not sure where to find the resident authority figure. Fortunately, he's nowhere near the cannon or the van it's pointed at by this point.

The crowd does scatter, though the mother is only propelled back in her hysterics by the crowd. If they weren't holding her, she might have darted forward. "MY BABY! MARIA! WHERE IS MY BABY??!!" she's shrieking at the top of her lungs, her voice going hoarse.

Those twin cannons aim for the van. It powers up quickly, a strange blue light radiating from some of the open circuitry. A moment later, a high-powered laser, blue in color, shoots out and quite literally vaporizes the van in the process.

As Kurt teleports over toward the Man in Black, the man looks right in Kurt's face, presumably... hard to tell with the shades. He taps it to make a point. "Don't worry, demon. We'll find you again. You and all the rest of your mutant filth. You're nothing but a disease to be wiped out." With a cold laugh, he then turns and walks away. A few seconds later, all the soldiers and the Man in Black are tucked away in the back of the truck and the van is a molten pile of melted scrap metal, giving off considerable heat. In a few hours, people will be able to touch it. For now... too hot to handle. The truck doesn't even pause that much longer. Once the deed is done, it's setting off down the road. Ralph isn't even an after-thought to the soldiers or Man in Black it seems. The distraught mother's screams and pleas ring out over the aftermath.

At the sound of the mother's screams, Julian pulls one more trick out of his bag. Not especially fast, but quite noticeably thanks to the fact that he's glowing green, he takes the air, stopping just high enough up to get a better vantage point on the scene, peering around and trying to spot the kid in question. "I don't see her!" he calls back down, to no one in particular, but not knowing her real whereabouts thanks to being distracted with getting a rifle butt in the face, he's beginning to suspect the bad guys managed to snag her anyway. He looks off after the truck, seriously tempted to fly after it, just a momentary hesitation from a flicker of good sense. Momentary.

Though Kurt can't help but start when the van is utterly melted he doesn't let himself gawk. After all, the man responsible for this carnage is right in front of him. He narrows his golden eyes as he's threatened, three-fingered hands balling into fists at his sides as he realizes that there's really nothing he can do at the moment. Not with that force field still up. "Verdammt," he growls under his breath as the semi pulls away. "Ich muss meinen inneren Schweinehund treten..." After a moment he turns back to cast eyes on the rest of the scene, both eyebrows raising as he focuses on the green, levitating Julian. "She's safe," he calls out, starting back through the crowd. "I left her in the 7-11." With luck she's still inside. He was too busy to notice if she was moved in the fray.

Okay. Head starting to clear. Now the only thing keeping Ralph down is the knowledge that he just picked a fight with some members of what he can only guess is a mutant hating paramilitary or similar organization. Which probably explains why even though he's stopped feeling the disorienting after-effects of his powers, he's still shaking pretty badly. But at least now he can get to his feet and spot Kurt. "K-Kurt!" Not thinking clearly enough to pretend not to know the more obvious mutant, he runs toward him. "A-are you all right!?"

The mother bursts away from the crowd as she hears Kurt's words. Julian's words sent her into a further panic, but as she hollers toward the store one last time, "MARIA!!" the little girl bursts out through the front door. "MOMMY! MOMMY!" Scooping her up, the woman kisses her all over her face and hugs her, whispering sobbed words into the girl's ear. Looking back at the others, she stammers, "You saved her... you saved my baby... thank you... thank you all..." She's looking between the hovering Julian, the strange looking Kurt... and the stammering Ralph. The crowd seems more subdued, but it won't be long till they start waggling fingers. The helicopter that was heard zooms overhead and takes off in the direction of the truck, apparently in league with the bad guys.

Julian is just balling his fists up, readying himself to go jetting off after the truck to try and get the kid back single-handedly. He's so focussed on that, that he almost doesn't hear Kurt at first. "Oh," he replies, looking down once the words have sunk in. A final glower is shot after the retreating vehicle, but as the girl even emerges from the store, there's really no denying they don't have her, and going after them would be stupid and only for his own personal vindication. The wind falling from his sails, he slowly lowers himself back down to the ground, the green glow snuffing out once his feet touch down. He frowns for a moment, a hand coming up to tenderly feel the swelling side of his face. But the mother's praise, whether intended for him or the group at large, has its effect, and his chest puffs out, his hand drops to his side, and he gives a cocky grin. "All in a day's work," he assures her in his best Hero Voice. His eyes do flicker back up at the sky when the helicopter zooms off after the truck, but Julian stays on the ground. The pain in his face is getting hard to deny, and he doesn't want the swelling to get in the way of his good looks! So with a final grin of glory and a little wave tossed off to the adoring crowds, he turns to head into the 7-11 to get some ice.

"Ja, fine," Kurt replies quickly, meeting Ralph half-way. "I'm fine. Are you? ... So much for a nice shopping trip, eh?" But when mother and daughter are reunited once again and the praises start showering down he looks momentarily stunned, clearly not used to such reactions. At least not without the cover of his image inducer. But he warms up to it quickly enough, giving a warm (if toothy) grin to the mother and then to little Maria. That falters just slightly with Julian's cockiness, though as he heads into the 7-11 Kurt doesn't appear inclined to pay him much mind. "Bitte," he says softly, "It's no problem. I'm just glad that you're both unharmed."

Ralph nods shakily to Kurt's question. "Y-yeah... I-I mean... I didn't want to cause any trouble, but..." He trails off as he, too, takes in the reaction of the mother. He blinks. "U-um... I... d-didn't do anything... I-I mean, I didn't mean to... uhm..." He looks desperately at Kurt. "...Sh-shouldn't we be... g-going back to the -- er, g-getting out of h-here...?"

The little girl is crying and clinging to her mother, but at a little prompting, she looks over at the gathering of apparent mutants and says in a quiet, sobbed tone, "Th-thanuuu..." The mother smiles almost sadly, but in a relieved way. "I'm... I'm going to take her home. Thank you all... I'm... not so gifted." And therefore, felt rather powerless. With all the anti-mutant sentiment at large, perhaps this sentiment is rare. But the child is, after all, a mutant as well. It takes that connection to understand and not start pointing fingers, perhaps. Mother and daughter then depart for their red car, seeking an expedient getaway to somewhere more safe.

Awww. That sentiment -- not to mention the sobbed thanks from the little girl -- is definitely a rare thing and it's all too obvious from his expression that Kurt appreciates it quite a bit. But as Maria and her mother head off the young teacher turns back to his student. "Ja, most definitely," he answers to the question of making tracks. "I'll give us a lift if you're fine with that." It might be the fastest way out of here but Ralph /is/ shaky. Who knows if he could stand the strain of a 'port or two?

Ralph seems to not consider the sobbed thanks really directed toward him - after all, it's not like he really contributed, did he? Not in his mind, anyway. Still, he seems relieved that the child and mother are both safe, though that sentiment is quickly overpowered by the knowledge that they were surrounded by people who knew them - possibly Ralph, certainly Kurt - for what they really were... he felt scrutinized in a way he hadn't felt since before coming to Xavier's, and it wasn't a pleasant feeling. He gulped, and nodded uneasily toward Kurt. "O... o-okay..." Not that he relishes the idea of vanishing in a puff of brimstone, but if Kurt does it all the time, it can't be /that/ bad, right...?

Poor Ralph doesn't know about the travel sickness that sometimes accompanies Kurt's passengers. Or the general disorientation of being transported from one place to another in the blink of an eye. Not to mention the overwhelming scent of brimstone. But since Kurt has his okay he nods and reaches out to lay a hand on Ralph's shoulder. "Ready?" He waits a second or two for the answer but obviously just assumes it to be in the affirmative as he just takes off, carrying the pair of them away in a dramatic burst of fire and bright smoke.

"Ummm..." is Ralph's pre-BAMF answer.

Fin.

Tags: julian, plot, ralph, staff-run