Beyond Evolution

beyond_npcs
beyond_evo

Mojo was beginning to get irritated by his newest additions to the Arena. Some of them had managed battles that were exciting to watch, drawn out and bloody and getting high ratings from the audience. But some of them, well. The Spineless Ones weren’t entertained by contenders who refused to take part, or in rebellions, or runaways, or anything like that. As a result, his ratings were nearing an all-time low.

He had to do something big. It was sweeps week, after all. And even if he was only competing with himself for views, the gladiators had always been his favorite and he was not pleased by the drop in their rankings. So he’d planned a special surprise. One that he had been teasing since they’d first gotten there. So, okay, maybe he’d always planned on having a bloodbath. But now it had his ire behind it as well.

All of Xavier’s contestants were shoved into the arena together. After that last incident they all kept their collars on. Their powers were available (as much or as little as struck his fancy), but he wasn’t giving up the option to blow their tiny heads off if they tried something again. There was a rumbling from below the arena, and then all of the gates opened. From one, cats that looked Earthly in nature but were easily twice that size. From another, highly trained members of Mojo’s special forces. From a third monsters started rolling out. They ranged in size from a swarm of deadly insects like what Andi had attracted, to creatures the size of houses, all fangs and claws and bladed armor.

They had completely surrounded the group of Xavierites, and Mojo flashed a countdown above their heads. The crowd counted with it, cheering, and at one their enemies surged forward to kill them.

(Open to arena ppl!)

clearcut
beyond_evo

This was stupid. He knew that he should appreciate Kit wanting to stick up for him and find some other way to end all of this, but letting all of these innocent people get hurt or killed while they figured something out was just wrong. And it was why Drake had left his old life anyway, too many innocent people getting hurt because of him, one way or another. He'd never slashed a little girl's throat, but he might as well have if he'd killed the people around her and left her to fend for herself in the world. He wasn't mad at the assertion that he was a bad man or that he needed to pay, just that they were going after Kit and the rest to make it happen.

He should've left weeks ago. He had everything in order too, but the things haunting him -- literally, it would seem -- had made him stay, vaguely hoping that they could be fixed instead of going with him wherever he went. And now here he was, with everything coming home to roost.

He knew that Kit wanted to help somehow, but he also knew she wouldn't give a second thought to getting hurt or worse for her family or friends. She didn't owe him that. And after all she'd done, he did owe her. Which was why he slipped out during the discussion, noticing that the things in the halls didn't bother him as he went by, making way for him to get out to the back lawn. There was a girl there, near the woods, glowing a greenish-red and she was where he went.

The ghost was in DG's ear and in her mind and in her body, controlling her motions. He'd been a mutant in life, and apparently whatever his powers were before gave him license to overpower and possess even someone that should've been able to brush away a ghost quite easily. She held a hand out and demanded the knives, and he passed over what he had on himself easily. The feel of something spectral grabbing at his arms took him by surprise and he struggled for a moment, but then his attention was caught again by the red-eyed girl coming close. The voice that spoke didn't belong to her, though. It was familiar to Drake, belonging to one of the last men that he'd killed before coming here. A low-life, a trafficker making quite a bit of money off the children he funnelled through to various places. Drake had been there to kill an associate that had done DeGroat wrong, but when he saw his opportunity to get rid of this human stain, how could he not?

"I'm taking you with me, Cody. You and your whole goddamned family." The knife DG held had started to glow a blueish tone and he barely had time to wonder what that meant before it plunged into his abdomen. Almost instantly, he could feel the injury pulling at him, like it wanted to drag something inside of him out. He grit his teeth and bit back a shout as another searing pain went through his side. Near them, a darkness had started to appear, deeper and thicker than the night's sky already was. He didn't like the looks of it, and he had a feeling it was where he was headed.

The magic users that were left had convened in the Danger Room, each sitting in the middle of a circle of four volunteers holding hands. Raising energy that the magic user could funnel for two purposes -- to hide Kit and Gio as they made their way outside, and to begin to disorient and loosen the spirits that were present already, to make them more easily peeled away by Kit, and more easily fought by those that were still trying to stay safe within the school.