Beyond Evolution

beyond_npcs
beyond_evo

The X-Men had managed to break through Selene’s outer barriers and in to where Proteus himself was hiding. It was then that he was taken out, swiftly, and his control over the various minds here and elsewhere ended. The compound was simple enough, and not too many turns later they found Selene herself, still involved in her ritual.

“But how can you focus on me when your home needs so much help?” An image in all of their minds suddenly, of the school and the chaos and slaughter that was happening there. The teams started to disperse immediately, the stopping of Selene and her crystals left to a trusted few.

The others teleported out, landing back on the grounds in the midst of the fight. They weren’t the only ones arriving, though. In the front hallway of the school, the time-travelers that had been taken a year ago were dropping back in place as though no time had passed for them at all. And outside something strange(r) was happening -- black, whirling portals were beginning to appear, and out of each fell a stranger. Portals were opened up near some of the current residents as well, sucking them in.

(Everyone’s here! Wait for thread titles and then go wild)

thinkfast
beyond_evo

Kiden had always liked going out into the city during holidays. Despite the celebrations everything seemed more relaxed as people weren’t bustling about their lives as much. Instead, they’d take their time a little more, to do things with their families. In the city that meant there was always something going on, and the streets were more packed that normal. It allowed her to slip through the crowds, without the use of her powers, without attracting much notice and that suited her just fine.

It also allowed her to wistfully recall the fleeting, hazy memories associated with her father taking her to a concert in Central Park when she was only a little older than a toddler. It was one of her happiest memories, and that’s pretty much what drew her out into city today. Good times, pleasant memories.

She inhaled deeply, unaware of the aerosol she was bringing into her lungs, and savored the day.

~*~
In less time than it took to blink Kiden Nixon was back at Xavier's with her body full of a dosage of Kick that they wouldn't dare experiment with in their own base. An overdose. Her eyes were wide, pupils not dilating properly, as she took her steps in real time towards the building, joining the other mutants that had been caught up in the same trap as her in their assault on the school. Her pulse was rapid and unstable, her heart threatening to hammer its way out of her chest with it’s heaving, spasmodic beat. The telepathic command shoving her towards violence filled her with a sense of anger she didn’t know she was capable of, but it was palpable, overwhelming in earnest and driving her to lash out at a place she considered home. That was all incited by the fact she felt amazing. Powerful. This was a type of high she’d never experienced before, not in her life, and it was a shame that Xavier’s was intent on ruining that. It was also a shame that Kiden had gotten herself clean only for this to happen, to take on a drug more deadly than she’d ever toyed with for what it could do to one’s power and health.

The danger in this whole scenario that was obvious all over the grounds was playing out similarly within Kiden. The drugs in her system heightened her already powerful abilities several degrees, but the most important part was that Kiden was no longer in complete control of them, there was no block or limitations on them. They were unchained. Without boundary. Time began behaving oddly in her vicinity, both with her intention and without. Pockets and tendrils of time rippled, winking in and out of existence in a fevered pitch. People stopped momentarily so they could be overcome by the others on kick; attackers sped up, rapidly overcoming the lawns to get into the building itself. Grass grew and died, leaves changed colour and dropped from trees, and all the while Kiden was pushed further towards the building, up the stairs and into the school itself on a single-minded goal of taking out her anger on Xavier’s.

Kiden had enough independent thought to single in on one person. Maybe she ought to talk to Helena Tucker specifically.

As Kiden engaged her powers again, wrapping herself in a bubble from a faster-time stream, she stepped inside the main hall quicker than anyone outside of it would have been able to comprehend. Except it was unmanageable, the sheer magnitude of her powers on kick were well beyond her comprehension and control. The bubble around her stretched, growing oblong before popping off into several others and causing pockets of time much like a child blowing them with a soapy mixture on a hot summer’s day. They spread out all around her, breaking into adjacent speeds in the time stream and branching out throughout the school without anything short of sheer random luck, or un-luck as the case may be, capturing other occupants in stasis.

In an attempt to regain some lost control, Kiden furled her brow and concentrated on trying to bring everything back together even as her powers fought against it all. Everything was spiraling for her, and her expression became one of confusion as everything seemed to ripple and overcharge around her. Then, in another blink of an eye, Kiden Nixon was overwhelmed by her raging, wild powers and vanished into the time stream entirely, taking several others from the school along with her. All the temporal anomalies ceased thereafter, but the attack on the school continued.