Breaking The Boulder

[Boulder]

"I'm sorry sir, but it looks like your grandmother has contracted a rare form of degenerative heart disease. All I can do is prescribe her some pills that will help keep her heart from deteriorating at a super accelerated pace, but in all likelihood, she won't last much more than a week. I've heard that there is an experimental drug that's supposed to be a cure-all at the Cullen's lab, but there's nothing else we can do. I'm sorry sir."

The doctor's words echoed inside The Boulder's mind as he stood outside the gate of Cullen's School for the Gifted. The moon, barely a sliver in the sky, cast a weak light, made weaker as it filtered through the clouds on the way down to earth, to barely light the grounds.

There were still too many lights on at Cullen's for The Boulder's comfort. Wait another 30 minutes he thought. Been here for about 30 minutes already, another 30 won't hurt.

Oh, The Boulder had TRIED to do it "right". He came to Cullen's earlier that day. The person at the gate was very nice to him. Showed him the way in, and gave him an escort so as to not get lost. Right to the lab. Right to where The Boulder's last hope was. Right to where they turned him away.

"We are truly sorry for your situation sir, but it's just not ready yet. We still have extensive research to perform, a battery of tests that need to be done, before we can allow anyone to use the serum we are working on."
They didn't understand...The Boulder, or more accurately, his grandmother, didn't have that much time to wait. If The Boulder waited, she died. If she tried the experimental cure, there was at least a shot that her heart would get better, and a 74 year old woman could live to see 80 and even beyond. Why couldn't they understand that?

The last lit window in Cullen's finally dimmed into darkness. The Boulder glanced at the moon, to chart it's course. "Man...I wish I had a watch..."
Once the moon moved a few more inches, that should be about 15 more minutes, and everyone SHOULD be asleep. Then The Boulder could make his move.

His heart beat fluttered as nervousness set in once again. Thought I had the jitters licked he thought. It was going to be the longest 15 minutes of The Boulder's life...

[Freight Train]

Freight Train padded slowly through the halls of Cullen's Institute, in her jammies, blowing raspberries softly to herself and dragging her shoulder along the cool walls. She was too bored and anxious to sleep well lately; seemed no matter what she did she couldn't seem to be satisfied with what was going on in the school.

Class was class...the other girls her age didn't share her obnoxiously tomboyish interests, and the guys were all a little intimidated by this tiny little girl with passive-aggressive powers and loudmouthed, determinator attitude. The high schoolers treated her like an amusement, rather than a peer, and hanging out with any teacher besides Cato was absurd. Besides, with the semester going full-tilt, everybody was almost too busy with school work anyway. She rounded a corner, spinning lazily as her shoulder came off the wall, then gently put it back and blew another raspberry.

[Boulder]

"Just calm down...calm down...this is just like any other smash and grab you've done before, just in a bigger house....with mutants....and grams on the line......." The Boulder was failing to console himself. "Well....now's as good a time as any..."

The Boulder moved out of the shadows and started towards the gate. 'slappita' went his right shoe. "..." THAT noise is going to be counterproductive to sneaking... The Boulder took a step back into the shadows and ripped the sole of his right shoe off and tossed it to the side. He thought about it a little more, and decided that it was just a little bit silly to be waking around in shoes without soles and took the time to just take off both shoes. Toes, heels, and balls of his feet poking out through dirty socks, which may or may not last long walking across pavement and dirt, The Boulder quietly padded towards the gates.

Quickly using his powers, The Boulder pulled two bricks up from the sidewalk. Placing them in between the metal poles he forced them apart, bending the metal apart wide enough for him to fit through. grains and shards of the bricks broke off and fell to the ground as the stones strained not to break under the pressure.

After a few weeks of practice since he first got his tremor sense, The Boulder closed his eyes, and dropped the bricks. Images came rushing up to him. The ground inside the gates leading up to the back of the mansion is nice, soft dirt, which didn't help The Boulder much, but he could see far enough to see the pressure sensors and trip wires about halfway up to the walls.

Carefully stepping through the bent gates, The Boulder stalked where he knew it was safe, got to the midpoint, closed his eyes, stomped hard on the ground, and navigated the rest of the way to the wall. Once there, there were no traps within one foot of the wall. One hand on the wall, The Boulder started walking around the building, dragging his hand and periodically slapping the wall for a better view of what was inside.

Lots of people in beds. Empty foyers and hallways. Everything here was quiet. I hope it STAYS that way when I get to the lab, which should be around the next corner a ways ahead. The Boulder thought to himself. So far, so good. Keep going, get this done. In and out. Easy.

[Freight Train]

Little Train had managed to wander her way down to the section where all the stuff happened that was almost-college level. There was a light on in one room, which she believed was a science lab. She blew a raspberry once more time and started to investigate, but stopped halfway there. If anyone was working at this hour, they'd certainly be too busy for her. She turned and started to slowly wander back the other way.

[Boulder]

Following the wall around the corner, The Boulder finally saw what he was after. The Lab. He slapped the wall as he got closer for a view inside, and was rewarded with visions of the lab and surrounding hall. There was someone in the lab, which suited The Boulder just fine. Mutant or not, he could probably handle one person. In addition, it would be a lot easier to make them tell him where the experimental cure was, rather than search the whole place by himself. The Boulder also got a glimpse of someone short, probably a young kid wandering the halls, rubbing up against a wall while they walked along. The dragging sensation was strange in The Boulder's head. Rather than the periodic bursts of light representing the vibrations, there was a steady stream of vibrations that moved along the wall, accented by bursts of light at the base, where whoever it was feet were touching down as they walked. It was like a trippy light show in his head. Well, never mind that. It's a kid, so when I bust in, they'll probably run off....which could mean to get help...so I MAY have to do this kinda quick...

The Boulder took a deep breath, calmed himself one more time, chose a spot on the wall where he knew nothing was on the other side for him to break, because, what was the purpose of breaking in if he broke the vial with the cure, and with his mind, grabbed the bricks in the wall and yanked them out towards him with a very audible cracking of mortar, creating a hole in the wall about 7 feet tall by 4 feet wide. With a massive amount of concentration, The Boulder kept all the bricks inches above the ground, so as not to trigger any ground based alarms, and stepped inside. Once inside, The Boulder moved all the bricks in after him, and piled them up on the floor. He made a motion like threading a needle, and when he moved again, the bricks chased after him in a line, scrapping and scratching the floor, as if tied together. The Boulder made a bee line for the person that was in the lab.

[Rush]

In one of the many networking cubicles, Jonah sat hunched over one of the lab computers, typing madly, the fingers on his right hand a blur. As he scanned the text he wrote, keeping an eye on the chemical studies book on the desk to his left, the speedster couldn't help but feel annoyed at how slow the computer processed; he had reached the buffer limit several times in the last couple of minutes, being forced to wait until the word program could catch up with his rapid keystrokes.

In his left hand, Jonah had a chocolate bar, which he lifted to chew on every so often. It wasn't uncommon for the young student to be up late at night, as he absorbed far more energy than other people from food, and thus his sleeping pattern required about two hours of sleep - he just managed to keep awake by eating chocolate, which gave him a great source of sugar.

It was during these lonely hours at night that Jonah caught up on the extra schooling he had missed from his days away from education.

At the sound of a scraping, Jonah raised an eyebrow and looked left and right. Usually he chose the lab computers for the solitude, where he would least likely see anyone else during the early hours of morning... he was easily distracted, after all, what with everything seeming so slow most of the time.

Pushing up off the seat he was using, Jonah sped to the lab door with a crack of displaced air. Opening the door, he peered out into the hallway and saw another student absently walking away. Frowning, it took him a moment to recognize who it was.

"Hey, Train," Jonah greeted, giving a short wave as the girl blew bubbles to herself. "What are you doing up so late? Or early. Depending on who you ask."

Looking about, Jonah couldn't help but listen as that odd noise continued.

"Is it just me, or can you hear that too?"

[Freight Train]

She jumped a mile and cursed under her breath.

"God! I..." she took a deep breath and fixed him with a glare. "I can't sleep. Like at all." She recognized him, but barely. He was new around, always in a hurry, jumpy and impatient with everything else. Made sense to her; Cullen's sucks. "And yeah, I hear that, now. I was too spaced out before to notice. Is it coming from down the hall?"

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul was up and busy as usual. Running a gene-mapping database on one computer, he flipped through a reference guide while listening to a few vintage Afrika Bambaataa tracks on his iPod. While most were asleep at this time of the night, this particular Vipul was accustomed to night work. In fact, Vipul carefully arranged his doppelgangers in the lab so that he could continuously work without break. While other Vipuls slept or did other odd tasks, at least one Vipul would be hard at work, improving his grasp of genetics and preparing to push the envelope of mutant understanding.

The raw hip-hop and electronica that fed his studies made sure that he was still buried in his work. As he sipped some mango juice, he never heard an intruder breaking into the lab from the opposite end.

[Boulder]

Stalking forward towards where he knew the person in the lab was, The Boulder's bare feet padding gently on the tile, as the bricks scrapped the ground behind him, he got a startling vision from a little further up, close to the hallway where the small person was wandering, of a vibration trail moving from a desk do a door in what popped into his head as a nearly solid line. Someone here was VERY fast, and whoever it was, was probably talking to the kid, 'cause that vibration stopped too.

No matter. The Boulder needed the person in the lab, and hoped that it was a scientist who knew where things were.

Things were starting to get a little too crowded for The Boulder's preference. He'd seen one person, planned on them, and planned on the kid running away, but the newest one, the fast one, worried him. The Boulder felt confident against most odds, and while he had ideas, he wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of mixing it up with someone that fast. Pausing where he was, The Boulder decided to try something and hoped that it worked for him.

Lifting the brick closest to him, he placed it on his shin. Please work, please work....now.....STICK! When The Boulder let go of the brick, it stayed right on his shin. The Boulder almost shouted with glee as he quickly repeated the process with the other bricks all over his body. Both shins, calves, around his thighs, on his buttocks, abdomen, pectorals, even his forearms and biceps. The Boulder now looked like the most goofy walking wall imaginable, but at least he could move quietly. Augmenting his power a little more, he made the bricks a little lighter. As strong as he was, carrying over 100 pounds of brick all over his body would tire him out in no time. I gotta remember to do this and run and train and stuff.

As sneakily as a large man laden with bricks can move, The Boulder headed off towards the lab person again.

Rounding a corner, The Boulder came upon the back of a man in a lab coat. JACKPOT! Getting closer, The Boulder noticed that whoever it was had headphones on. Pushing the headphones off his head and spinning him around, The Boulder snarled, "Where's the experimental cure all you are working on?"

[Rush]

It hadn't been his intention to scare the girl half to death, but then he had used his speed to reach the door. He supposed he could have walked normally, but he preferred to use his powers - if only because they were fun.

"God! I..." Train then glared at Jonah. "I can't sleep. Like at all. And yeah, I hear that, now. I was too spaced out before to notice. Is it coming from down the hall?"

Raising an eyebrow, Jonah looked down the opposite end of the hallway from where Train stood, before he turned back to look at her. From the sounds of it, the noise was coming from inside the lab, as though something hard was just... scraping along the ground?

"I think it's from in here," Jonah said, turning and walking back into the large room with its multiple petitions and science stations. One couldn't see directly through to the other side of the room, which meant that whatever it was, was on the other side of the flimsy wall in front of the students.

"Unless Vipul is dragging around a rock, for whatever reason, I'd say something is in here, too," Jonah shrugged, slowing himself down to walk cautiously around the petition walls, listening. The sound had stopped now, which made the speedster wonder if he had really heard anything at all... save that Train had heard it too.

What were the odds of the strange multiplying mutant doing something completely crazy? Ten to one? Twenty to one? Who knew. Either way, it was worth checking out, just to be safe.

Rounding the corner, Jonah froze as he saw the back end of a largely muscled man, covered in bricks he might add, sticking out from the opening of a cubicle. There were some harsh words, barely above a whisper, that came from the brick-guy, but Jonah already had the sense of mind to know that he wasn't meant to be down here - like the three students, but that was neither here nor there.

"Uh, can we help you?" Jonah said aloud, preparing to move fast if he needed to. "Or should I just save some time and call 'stranger danger' already?"

[Freight Train]

"Call it," Freight Train told him, spurring herself to action. It was clear to her that a man covered in bricks and throttling Commander Cody by the collar wasn't a lab assistant. She took five long strides, cracking the tile beneath her on the last three, cocked a fist back, and punched The Boulder squarely in his brick-plated arm.

Ordinarily, this would be a bad move. Tiny fists are softer than bricks, and punching someone in the arm is never as damaging as hitting them in the back or torso. However, with her powers, any hit landed on any surface is pretty much the best thing ever. The Boulder's grip on Vipul loosened as he was smashed forcefully against the wall. Train's momentum didn't stop, and she body-checked him again as she hit the wall after him.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul was spun about to face a large, angry man...covered in bricks? Obviously some sort of mutant, but one he didn't recognize from school. He was angrily demanding the cure that the lab was working on.

"You must understand that the gene mapping is not yet complete and it is only a theoretical isolation."

He'd read the reports as well. The media had turned the premise into a defacto declaration that the cure was as good as being hoarded. That was tragic.

He watched as a surly Freight Train made her way into the lab, and could hear the room shuddering around him as she amplified her forceful impacts.

"No fighting in here!"

CRAAAASH

Vipul was knocked away by the sudden impact, careening halfway across the room before colliding with a metal shelf, and falling into a heap amidst some broken glass. His head rested at an improbable angle with his neck broken. He was dead.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul's room

The occupants of two of the lofted beds in the slightly-larger dorm room stirred, and woke in unison. There was no conversation that needed to take place. They knew exactly what was going on; a break-in, already in progress. With a few moments, each man had created a doppelganger of himself, and in a few more moments, they doubled again, so that eight Vipuls were awakened. The six freshly-created Vipuls walked to the closet to pull identical clothes from hangers. As they dressed, the other two Vipuls distributed cheap backpacks, which were likewise filled with three sets of generic garments.

Vipul was not a man of aggression, but he would defend himself, his friends, and his work. It was also mildly upsetting to be killed for no reason, but he would sort that out later.

[Boulder]

The Boulder sensed the two come up behind him. So much for sneaking. One of them was the fast one, the other, the small person.

"You must understand that the gene mapping is not yet complete and it is only a theoretical isolation." The Boulder had heard all that mumbo-jumbo before and wasn't interested. He had one shot at this.
"Uh, can we help you? Or should I just save some time and call 'stranger danger' already?"

The Boulder turned his head to the side to eyeball the new arrivals. The fast one, by virtue of him not being short, was a young man who looked kind of goofy. Coming from a man covered in bricks, the irony was not lost on Boulder. The short one was a young girl. "Why did it have to be a little girl?"

"Call it."

To The Boulder's surprise, the little girl started charging forward. If The Boulder had spider-sense, it would have been screaming at him, but since he didn't, all he expected was a kick in the shin. Until the tiles cracked under the girl. Something bad was about to happen, and the back of Boulder's neck started to prickle. The Boulder braced himself just as the girl struck. Her fist hit the brick on his bicep squarely and promptly shattered, sending rock shards out, most of which bounced off the girl's face without her blinking. The Boulder flew back into the wall, and saw the not so little girl anymore barreling towards him.

This is gonna hurt...unless....

The Boulder quickly formed the brick on his torso into a near solid shape, but instead of being braced by his body, he braced them with the wall behind him.

Train slammed into The Boulder and the bricks around him crumbled and shattered similar to the one she punched. Shards flew, cutting The Boulder on his torso, arms, and a few on his face, even as the wall exploded into a shower of fragments, dust, and sand as Boulder frantically broke down the wall to try and absorb the shock.

The Boulder lay in a pile of dust and rock tangled up with Train. Ugh...feels like I was hit by a Mack Truck. It hurt a little when he took a breath. A rib or 8 must be bruised...if it was broken it would hurt more. "Little witch..." Boulder muttered. Not sure what the effect would be, The Boulder punched Train straight in the stomach as they untangled themselves. Train fell over, winded and gasping for breath.

The Boulder looked a mess. The dust and sand had stuck to him where he bled from his scratches, and formed a thick, paste like substance on his skin. It looked almost like he was spattered with red clay.

Putting his left hand down, The Boulder tried to push himself up, but buckled and grabbed his arm where Train had punched the brick. There was a massive bruise forming, but it wasn't broken.

Boulder, still trying to get his bearings, got a vibration sense in his head of 8 more people running in the hallway towards the lab.

What now...? He thought.

[Rush]

Jonah winced as he watched the display of power from the deceptive Train, her frame and size giving no indication of what she could truly do; and that was exactly how the stranger, or home invader as it were, had thought… much to his own surprise and pain.

As the two crashed through the wall, breaking a nice large hole that gave a view of the outside gardens (between the wisps of dust kicking around), Jonah decided he would take the proactive approach and see if he couldn’t rustle up some help. The invader was, after all, a pretty big guy, and he had just punched Train a good one that made her gasp for breath.

Rushing forward, Jonah sped through the hole in the wall, passing by a brick that seemed to be stationary in mid-air – when it truth it was falling, but the speedster was moving too quickly for it to move much. As he passed through the destroyed brickwork, Jonah went straight for the edge of the lawn, just beyond the courtyard of the mansion; and pausing for a moment, he lifted his foot and put it down through the invisible laser on the grass line…

“Oops,” He muttered, smirking. “I’ve gone and tripped the security… how stupid, eh?”

Turning back around, Jonah sped back toward the hole in the wall, ducking as he passed the same still-hovering brick (which was mildly lower than it had been prior); grabbing at Train as he did so, hefting the young girl up about her waist, Jonah slowed down some so as to not injure her with high velocity movement, so that he could get her out of the reach of the invader.

Coming to a stop, Jonah cast a glance in Vipul’s direction, and frowned; he didn’t like seeing the guy like that, even if it was only one of Vipul’s clones.

“Youalright? Imanagedtogethelp, trippedthelaseroutsideandall,” Jonah said, his words quite fast as he was caught up in the moment of high speed.

Turning around, Jonah stood and prepared to hold the line until help arrived…

[Freight Train]

She had barely hit the ground when Jonah had swept her up and carried her beyond the Boulder's reach. She coughed and gasped for breath, clutching at her stomach and trying to see through squinted eyes.

"I didn't...get a word of that," she wheezed. "But thanks for the save, Sonic." She groaned and heaved herself up, still struggling to control her breathing. "If I'd been...moving...that wouldn't have...happened."

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

The group of eight Vipuls marched into the lab, and stood in a line facing the intruder.

"I will not tolerate any more of this belligerence."

Being killed aside, his lab was in serious jeopardy of facing incredible amounts of damage. That, and the two youngsters caught up in this were in serious danger. One of the Vipuls at the center became the spokesman, delivering a direct imperative to the Boulder.

"You've come for this supposed cure but I assure you it is simply not here to be had. Now you should apologize for this misbehavior and be on your way."

[Boulder]

The Boulder was flabbergasted as a colorful blur blasted by him, and in just the span of a second afterward, blasted back inside, to be the form of Rush holding onto Train. If he would have blinked, Boulder wouldn't have seen Rush move away in the first place. Boulder's sense was just as perplexed. The vibration sense in his head registered the movements of Rush as a very nearly solid line of movement. While he could feel where Rush was at any time, Boulder seriously doubted he could react fast enough to do anything about whatever the fast kid would try.

The Boulder blinked a several times as he stood. One reason was to get the sand and grit out of his eyes, and the other was that there were 8 identical people lined up on the other side of the room that looked just like the guy he was talking to before Train tackled him. Boulder was expecting 8 people from his tremor sense, but 8 of the same people was a little unexpected...even for being in a school for mutants. Glancing around, Boulder caught sight of the Vipul he was speaking to, lying against a lab table, not moving, with his neck at an impossible angle.

The Boulder sneered at the directive given from the one in the middle. Seeing as how they initially ran in and all said the same thing, Boulder was sure they were clones of some sort.

"Not here to be had is it? Lying is bad, don't you know? I KNOW it's here. He confirmed that it is indeed here," Boulder gestured to the fallen Vipul, "and I WILL have it!"

Seeing Train, the mini Mack Truck gaining her breath back, Rush at the ready, and 8 Vipuls poised, Boulder realized he had to go on the defensive before he could go on the offense.

Boulder strained, a trickle of blood coming down from inside his nose, he quickly thrust up small spikes similar to caltrops, about 1 inch tall and spaced about 1 inch apart, around him in a 5 foot radius. As far as Boulder knew, none of the mutants in front of him could fly, so at least they would have to think twice about coming for him. Boulder, with a thought, attached 1 inch think rock underneath him to the bottom of his feet so he could walk over the spikes if he needed to.

Breathing heavily, The Boulder used this brief respite to try and get a short rest and second wind.

[Boulder]

While he was catching his breath, Boulder's ears finally registered the sound of the alarm going off that Rush had tripped. Boulder wiped the blood off his lip.

Again...? No...it's different this time.

One of the many shards of brick that Train had caused to go flying had gouged his nose, and that's what was bleeding.

There were still bricks attached to his right bicep, forearm, left forearm, a few on his back, and the ones on his legs and buttocks were still there, but The Boulder's upper body was exposed.

[Captain Untouchable]

Untouchable perched casually on the edge of the rooftop, playing with his new toy. It had taken a lot of work to get hold of it, but now he was listening through an earpiece to the various reports being spewed out by his police scanner. He'd decided that his eyes weren't an effective enough method of detecting crime, and while the police might be inept at tackling the illegal goings on in this city, they did have the advantage of numbers when it came to hearing about it in the first place.

The mention of "Cullen's" drifted through his mind. Dispatch mentioned it as if it was some sort of landmark the police officers would have heard of, but it wasn't one with which Untouchable was familiar. Reaching into the duffel bag that held his vital supplies - spare weapons, spare clothes, snacks, etc - he pulled out a battered guidebook, and thumbed through the index.

His finger tapped against the page when he found it. Cullen's School For the Gifted, West Chester. Someone was breaking into a school? There were all kinds of low, but this was a new one. Besides, what was worth stealing in a school?

Flicking off the power on his scanner, he stashed it in his duffel bag and in turn stashed that inside a convenient air vent. Without a moment's further thought he sprung, dropping a few stories at a time down the outside of the fire escape, finally landing in a crouch beside the cluster of boxes and trash cans he'd used to stash his motorcycle.

Leaping into the saddle, he revved the engine, and shot off down the side street towards the main road. West Chester. That's a left, right?

[Rush]

Jonah couldn't believe what was happening: Some random guy had broken into the mansion, killing a poor Vipul, so that he could take some cure that wasn't even ready yet? It didn't make sense, none of it did really, especially since the brute seemed more desperate than anything...

Maybe it was worth throwing him a vial of something, just to get him out of the place?

But, that option had flown out the window right about the time that the fight broke out. So, here they were, all standing and staring one another down - kind of like an old western stand off. The brute had thrown some spikes onto the ground, which meant that Jonah would have a little bit of trouble zipping around like he did; but, really, he could find some way around it if he needed to.

And by the sounds of it, Jonah would need to, as the guy wasn't going to leave until he had his prize.

"Dude, you should have just left when you had the chance," Jonah said, shaking his head as he took a step forward, slowly, while motioning to the collective Vipul. "You've busted up his lab, and he's going to throw down, man... plus, you know, you hurt Train here, so now we have to do something about it."

Taking another step forward, Jonah looked down to the small spiked balls on the ground, knowing that stepping on one would hurt a hell of a lot. He had an idea though, and decided it was worth a shot. Starting to spin suddenly, Jonah began to build up a steadily increasing wind, the lighter debris starting to be pushed away from the quickening blur. Paper, dust, brick break offs and some of the spikes rattled and bounced away, leaving a space around Jonah that was free of anything small that had not previously been nailed down. This also left some running room, should Jonah need it.

Either way, someone had to make a move other than spinning on the spot, and when they did, the speedster would be ready...

[Freight Train]

The Tiniest Bruiser Ever was starting to regain her composure. She saw the situation; Commander Cody had summoned the GAR, Sonic was making a small tornado to clear the debris, and Rocky was grounding himself for an assault. She set her face, determined to move him after he'd struck her, and started again.

She sidestepped until she had a clear path, and went straight for her fastest sprint. The spikes were nothing to her; her invincible little feet smashed them flat even as they destroyed her tiny bedroom shoes. When he gestured powerfully to assail her with rocks, they crumbled into dirt and little shards of rock, scattering in all directions around her. She made a predatory grin and cocked back a fist, thinking of her Wii and her current favorite game. FALCON...! She leapt forward at him, extending her arm with all the power she could muster, trusting in her powers to build upon it to devastating effect. PUNCH!

[Captain Untouchable]

Untouchable stepped carefully through the gaping hole in the side of the wall, just in time to watch someone go flying into another one. A cloud of dust lept up from the smashed plaster and masonry; Untouchable casually brushed it aside with his mind, sending it tumbling away through the air and leaving his outfit its usual pristine black.

His eyes scanned the scene, and a jumble of thoughts swam through his mind, and tumbled out of his mouth. He wasn't sure which one he'd said first - was it the resigned "Oh no, not you again..." directed at Brick Man, or the more "Sweet punch, kid!" directed at the little squirt in the middle of the room? - but they managed to find their way out into the room anyhow.

An afterthought floated through his mind: something about identical octuplets. And had one of his contact lenses fallen out again, or was that guy actually moving so fast that he was blurry?

"Careful," Untouchable started, dropping into a ready pose, "This guy throws -" His eyes settling on the scattering of bricks across the floor. His shoulders slumped. "Never mind."

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul coiled to strike, just as Train and Boulder collided. In an instant of powerful impact, he watched as Train careened to the side, smashing a pair of tables apart in the process. Grim-faced, the Vipuls sprang into action, spreading out to every angle, and attacked at once. Some followed the paths cleared of caltrops, and others bound upon tables to attack Boulder from above, while others still brandished bits of pipe and whatever could be scrounged for a weapon, and jumped immediately into the fight.

As this occurred, another eight Vipuls entered the lab, taking stock of the situation. Vipul could only keep so many of himself focused on detailed tasks, so they largely stood at the sidelines to see what would come of this fight.

[Boulder]

Rush started talking. "Dude, you should have just left when you had the chance. You've busted up his lab, and he's going to throw down, man... plus, you know, you hurt Train here, so now we have to do something about it."

Impressive... Boulder thought as he watched Rush tornado his caltrops away. Gotta remember to make something like those a little more permanent / solid / attached to the ground next time.

The time it took for Rush to clear the little spikes away for some running room was enough for Boulder to regain his composure. Glancing at Train, he realized that it was also enough time for her to get her breath back too.
Boulder muttered to himself, "Train is it? Must be the Crazy Train...." Boulder suddenly had an urge to hear some Ozzy. It would be good music to match the setting of what was going on.

Train's face got serious as she scooted around and began to charge. Crap...I can't let her hit me head on. Lesson learned the first time.

As Train charged right over top of his spikes, crushing them like so much dirt under her heel, Boulder's tremor-sense flared up to let him know someone was coming up from behind him outside. First thing's first, deal with the girl.
"Oh no, not you again..."
Frantically gesturing, Boulder threw a bunch of the spiked balls at Train, but they crumbled on her body the same way the others did under her feet.
"Sweet punch, kid!"
"FALCON......PUNCH!!!" Boulder had no idea what she was referencing, and didn't care. On the first word, Train leaped at Boulder, fist cocked back preparing for a devastating blow. Boulder braced himself, hands down in front of him, and as she shouted the second word and extended her arm at him to punch and possibly kill him, Boulder heaved his hands up. At his beck, a solid column of rock shot up from the ground, catching the girl square in the chest and arm. Her momentum, augmented as it was by her power, blasted the rock apart in a shower of rock bits and dust, but drained much of the deadly momentum she had mustered.

His body moving out of rusty reflex, Boulder grabbed Train's arm, twisted his body, and using her own momentum, flung her off to one side to go careening into and through a pair of tables, beakers, chairs, and all other sorts of lab equipment that was on said tables, making a wonderful mess of the lab even messier.

I never thought I would have to use those moves after I bulked up in High School. In particular, not against a little girl. I'll have to remember to thank Gramma for sending me to those few self defense lessons. Too bad we could only afford 4 lessons, or else I may have learned something else useful.
"Careful, this guy throws......nevermind"
Boulder's legs and arms ached from the throw. Apparently, even with momentum bled off, it still played a big factor.

Glancing over his shoulder, through the dust and debris, Boulder spotted Untouchable, the ninja from a week or so ago who had been one of the duo who cost him the money from his first real robbery. If anyone was to blame for Boulder's predicament, it was him. If he'd gotten away with the money...MAYBE he would have had enough to get a doctor to pay attention to his Grandmother.

He was so focused on Untouchable, and ignoring his tremor sense, that Boulder barely had time to react as the 8 Vipuls in the room sprang into action. Turning around, Boulder saw the clones in mid-air, bearing anything and everything in thier hands as weapons, ranging from pipes, bits of rocks, and other debris, to a heavy book. All Boulder had time to do was put his hands up in front of his face. The vipul with the pipe landed a solid blow that connected with the brick still stuck to Boulder's left forearm, but with enough force to crack the brick in half, making it fall off. They were everywhere at once. One hit him in the stomach, one on each side swept out a leg from under him by hitting him in the back of the knees. Before he knew what has happening, Boulder found himself rolling into the fetal position, hands and arms desperately trying to protect his head as 8 indentical men relentlessly pummled him.

Boulder could see the disdain and even hatred in the eyes of the men beating him, the girl standing up from the tables, the fast kid, watching with a smirk on his face. Boulder's pupils dialated, as memories came swimming back. Days of middle school where kids bigger than him would gang up on him, beat him, call him names.

"....leave me alone.....go away...stop it..." Boulder whimpered helplessly under the assault and squeezed his eyes shut. "...stop it....ST....OP .....rrrrrrrRRRRRRRRSTOOOOOOOOPPIIIIIIIIIIIITTTTT! !!!!"

The ground under boulder rumbled furiously. Lances of stone shot up from the ground around Boulder. They lanced mercilessly at the assaulting Vipuls. The 8 attackers were skewered in a bloody mess of rock, dirt, and stone. Blood rained like a fountain from hell, with Boulder in the middle of it. Stomachs, necks, chests, arms, legs, heads, nothing escaped the relentless and sudden torrent of earth spikes.

"gah.....gah.....hufff....." Boulder shuddered and gasped for air. The beating had stopped. Were the bullies gone? He didn't know. He hurt all over, but he felt safe....warm.... warm and...wet....and sticky...? Boulder opened his eyes. Everything was red. His eyes burned as blood trickled down and got into his eyes. Blinking a few times, and bringing a hand up, he kept more blood from dripping into his eyes. Boulder was horrified. Entreals, body parts, blood, gore, all surrounded him. The bodies were torn apart. Taking it in, Boulder realized that he was the one who had done it. The red coated spikes around him in a thicket of death finally registered as in his mind for what they were, columns of stone that he, in his panic had summoned.

Shock set in for a few seconds. Boulder was having a hard time breathing, and he hurt, but he didn't. Slowly, he regained himself, and, as his deed sunk into his head, he accepted it. It was either accept what he'd done, or be driven mad by it. Accept it and move on.

Grams... That's right. I'm here for a reason. Get up. Move. She needs that medicine. She needs YOU. NOW MOVE!!

Boulder slowly stirred beneath the canopy of death. His canopy of death.

[Rush]

Rush couldn't help but chuckle a little, seeing the big man go down. He had underestimated his opponents, from the looks of it. But, whether or not he would lose remained to be seen; which meant that someone had to play the messenger, so that the alarm could be raised to the faculty of the school.

"I'll go grab help," Jonah said quickly, nodding to Train, before he turned and sped off back through the lab and down the hallway. He wanted to get the instructors who were more capable of handling the situation...

[Freight Train]

Her powers saved her from coming to any harm, though her pajamas were cut all over. She stood, sharing Rush's confident nod as he ran off to get back-up. She moved to help Commander Cody and was halfway there when Boulder snapped, killing her teacher and all his clones. The brutality of it was horrifying to her; all pretense of toughness was lost as she screamed, skidding to a stop and falling onto her knees. She backpedalled, unable to look away from the bloodbath, crying and doing her best not to throw up.

[Captain Untouchable]

Untouchable's stomach lurched. Did he just...?

He didn't even want to finish that thought. More important was the fact that the simple brick-wielding bank robber he'd encountered a few days ago had transformed into something that seemed much more formidable, and much more dangerous.

Teeth grinding against each other, he dropped himself into a low crouch, and dug his hands deep into his robes, producing a pair of meticulously balanced throwing daggers from within. "Yo, big boy," he yelled, the growl of his scottish accent tugging at the corners of his words as he loosed the two knives, sending them rocketing through the air like missiles by his powers - rather than tumbling as would be expected - on a collision course with his opponent. "Catch!"

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul rushed forward, catching Freight Train around the middle in an effort to get her out of the fray. He didn't doubt the little wrecking ball could handle the physical match-up, but he didn't think the girl should have to deal with this sort of violence.

"Come with me, go!"

The rest of Vipul joined the fray, screaming in unison as they charged ahead. Four Vipuls lifted a heavy table, and with that hoisted, hammered the intruder with battering ram force. Another Vipul withdrew to a small chemical locker in a far corner of the lab, while another reached for the sharps bin, pulling out utility shears and a hacksaw, while the last retrieved a fire extinguisher from the nearby wall.

[Boulder]

(OOC: Thanks a bunch to Rush for participating. For anyone who does not know, Rush had to leave the forum and has taken his character out of the thread from this point on. Thanks again for posing. Take care of your stuff and come back. =D )

Boulder struggled to his feet, bracing himself on the rock protrusions, and having a hard time of standing for several reasons. He was hurting all over from the beating the Vipuls gave him, and his legs did not want to work. He was still trying to get over the bloodshed around him that was his work, causing his knees to be weak. In addition, the red liquid from the Vipuls was all over the ground around him, and made the ground, as well as the stone columns, slippery.

Finally righting himself, Boudler was barely aware as Rush zipped away and Train's charge came to an abrupt stop. Boulder was concentrating on standing and trying to get himself focused back on his reason for coming here in the first place.

"yo, big boy...CATCH!!" His foot slipping a little, Boulder barely heard the first part of what Untouchable was saying, but the "catch" came through with blinding pain as it was accentuated by the burning sensation of a throwing knfe digging into his left arm, and burrowing down to be stopped by the bone. Apparantly, when he slipped, Boulder, by complete accident, managed to throw himself so that they two daggers where not going to hit him square in the back, and just enough that one of the two missed him entirely.

"AAAAAGGH!!!" Boulder howled in pain, but that pain was all that was needed to jolt him back into reality. Boulder's injured arm hung limply at his side all but useless. Any movement on his part would cause even more pain.

Don't think. Just react. You've got to beat these guys if you are going to have any chance of enough down time to find that cure for gramma.
.....it sounds so simple in my head...if only it were. I'm so covered in blood, I can't tell how bad that dagger wound is bleeding. STOP! Stop thinking! Just do....

Boulder noticed the Vipul clones doing a myriad of things all at once. Seeing several grabbing a table and running for him, Boulder stepped back half a step as they swung it at him. Not trying to resist it, Boulder went with the blow, and flew backwards. As he slid back on the ground, Boulder pulled a large chunk of the ground upwards under the table, knocking it up into the air. One Vipul didn't let go, and his arm was dislocated from the jarring force. Opening his hand quickly, Boulder exploded the rock, sending shards of rock flying everywhere, several catching the Vipuls around the table. Using a little more of his power while the rock exploded, Boulder sent about half of the shards at Untouchable.

Skidding across the floor, the blood on his back leaving a slipery trail, Boulder bumped not so softly, but not hard enough to do more damage, into a wall on the far side of the lab. Fighting not to black out from the aches and pains as his body screamed at him, Boulder ripped more bricks from the wall and tried to prepare as best as he could for the follow up assault.

[Freight Train]

She got up, clinging to Vipul as he ushered her out of the combat zone. They made it halfway down the hall when she lost it, staggering against the wall and throwing up all over the remains of her shoes. She stepped out of them gingerly, grimacing as she shut her eyes and saw the carnage in her mind.

"Why'd he do that?" she whispered. "He...he didn't have to kill all your clones. It was terrible."

[Captain Untouchable]

Untouchable cursed as his knife tumbled wide, and watched as Brick Man stumbled, any grace that might have snuck into his fall robbed by his bulky frame. He reached inside his robes and loosed his final knife, his mind searching through a mental inventory of what he was carrying. He'd left his bow stashed on the back of his motorcycle; while he had pleanty of practice loosing power-boosted arrows, he didn't feel comfortable abandoning the fight just yet in order to retrieve it.

A grim expression forming beneath the mask on his face, his hand reached back over his shoulder for the Katana strapped there. Urban legend always claimed that the sword of a samurai could cut through anything. "Lets see if it can cope with bricks," he muttered under his breath, drawing the blade free and, holding it ready before him, advanced towards his enemy.

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

"Do not worry about me I am fine."

Vipul wiped an errant tear away as he consoled her. He took off his button-up shirt, and used it to wipe away some of the mess for her.

"The question is are you okay?"

<center>Meanwhile...</center>

The Vipuls at the table fell, one fatally, from Boulder's shrapnel burst. The Vipul with the dislocated shoulder floundered forward to at least body tackle Boulder at the legs, while the Vipul with the scissors and hacksaw leapt toward his enemy.

[Boulder]

Boulder rolled, avoiding a fatal shot from Untouchable's final knife, but it grazed his shoulder. Getting to his feet, Boulder saw Untouchable draw his katana. Oh crap...dude is getting serious...

Just having gained his feet, Boulder was not quite ready when one of the Vipuls tackled his legs. Boulder went down, but managed to knee the offending Vipul hard under the chin. The sound of teeth clacking together was audible, even over the din of the noise of the fight. Dazed, the struggling Vipul did his best to kee Boulder tied up and on the ground. Looking up, Boulder saw the next Vipul charging towards him bearing scissors and a hacksaw.

Boulder's eyes widened a little bit more. They are not just trying to stop me anymore...they are trying to KILL me! Boulder cast a quick glance at Untouchable advancing with his drawn sword and immediatley Boulder's face hardened. This was not something he could afford to lose. Kill or be killed is it now? The first guys I killed in here were an acident..."...but these next won't be...."

The weapon wielding Vipul leapet at Boulder. Boulder shot one well aimed brick from his cache, catching the flying attacker square in the face. Bone crushed and shattered as the brick burried itself halfway into his head like a bad Tom and Jerry cartoon, but with a lot more blood and bone shards flying out. The body went limp, but being in the air, kept moving. The scissors and hacksaw dropped from limp hands. The scissors clattered to the floor at Boulder's feet where the other Vipul was still tangled up in Boulder's legs. The hacksaw got a lucky graze on the top of Boulder's head, making a jagged ripping cut along about an inch and a half of his scalp. The remaining Vipul, snatched up the scissors, and tho dissoriented, plunged them into Boulder's right leg.

"GRAAAHHH!!!!" Boulder snatched a brick off the floor with his right arm, the one not stabbed by Untouchable's knife, and slammed the brick, corner first, into the eye socet of the Vipul that just stabbed him. "Just DIE already and stop multiplying!!"

Struggling to get the bleeding unconcious, and probably dying Vipul off his legs, Boulder barely had time to react as Untouchable swung down at Boulder's head with his katana. Raising his hand in front of him, still holding the brick, the katana connected with a loud clang and a shower of sparks. As he pulled back with his blade while making the strike, the katana actually cut into the brick in boulder's hand, biting through enough to slice the meat of Boulder's hand between his thumb and forefinger, but not so deep as to get his palm.

Gritting his teeth and letting out a gutteral growl, Boulder shot the brick with the katana still in it, off to the side. Untouchable, not letting go, was dragged with his blade. Not far, but far enough for Boulder to finally regain his feet. Spying a metal pipe in the hole of the wall he made getting in, Boulder ripped the bricks around it out, using them to propel it towards himself. Catching the brick laden pipe, Boulder held it tightly with his right hand similar to a sword.

I don't know what good this may do, as I'm not a swordsman, but it'll be a litte more protection than just the bricks...And HOPEFULLY give me enough time to fend off his attacks to do....SOMETHING to stop him. Projectiles don't work...so it'll have to be something big. A wall, the roof, the floor, something he can't avoid...

Keeping his right leg, with the scissors standing out of his thigh, in front of him, Boulder supported his wieght with his left leg and tried to stay steady while he tried to figgure out how to deal with Untouchable without getting sliced to ribbons.

[Freight Train]

She shook her head, rubbing at tears that wouldn't stop. "No." The sound of fighting escalated and she shrank from it, feeling small and helpless. "I...I wanna go home."

[Captain Untouchable]

Well, that went well. Apparently Katana's could make their way through bricks, but each swing took a lot of effort, and the repetative impacts were beginning to dull the edge. For a moment, he spared a thought for the repair work it would take to sharpen it again: did New York have a sword restoration store?

Distracted by forward planning, he barely noticed the brick careering towards his head, and only just had time to break it in two, barely managing to stop his blade before it crashed into Brick Man's head. Untouchable felt a moment of relief at not having separated the wall-of-muscle's head from his body, but he apparently had a different reaction. This time, Untouchable's blade failed to make it all the way through the brick that Boulder swung towards his head, jamming itself firmly within the concrete cube. The brick hurled itself across the room and took Untouchable - clinging tightly to his katana - along with it.

Untouchable let out a grunt as he crashed into the wall, followed by a slight yelp of pain as he realised that his brief flight across what seemed - now he had a few moments to consider it - to be some kind of science lab had wrenched one of his arms free of the socket. What on earth does Brick Man want in here? he wondered, gingerly pressing at his shoulder. Pain blossomed; he could already feel the joint beginning to swell. That was probably bad.

Arm left useless beside him, he considered his options. Brick Man seemed to be in some kind of frenzied rage, and was using what now appeared to be a set of identical octuplets for stress relief. To make matters worse, he seemed to have armed himself with some kind of brick-covered club. Just great. If no one managed to stop him soon, someone without the ability to regenerate themselves would be next. Searching around him with his eyes, his gaze settled on what appeared to be a small storage cupboard a few meters away. With a grunt of determination he haulled himself down the pile of bricks he'd landed on uncomfortably; the stabbing pain in his side probably indicated that he had a broken rib or two to add to his checklist of injuries.

The fingers of his good arm wrapped around the door handle and pulled; the cupboard swung open, revealing several shelves stacked with unused test tubes. A slight smile formed on his face, under the mask that hid most of it. He retrieved the first of the tubes and twisted it so it rested on the palm of his hand, open end facing towards his wrist. Aiming the other end towards Brick Man, he twitched his brow and sent the glass missile tearing off towards his target. His first shot smashed against one of the bricks flying through the air around Boulder, but Untouchable wasn't disheartened. Grabbing a handful of test tubes, he set himself up for another volley.

[Morpheus]

In all the chaos that was going on no one seemed to notice Morpheus appear in the hall way. He walked Past Train and one of the Vipul. His eyes were locked on the battle. He watched as Untouchable went flying and the few Vipul being slain. As he stepped out onto the battle ground he held up a vial filled with bright yellow liquid.

"Looking for this?"

He asked coolly as he looked at the Boulder. He smiled as he saw the Boulders reaction to seeing the medicine he was looking for.

"Come and get it."

[Vipul Chandrashekar]

Vipul wiped away Freight Train's shocked tears, and held her close.

"Come with me, away from all of this."

He looked at her with a twinge of sadness. This was not what he wanted. No child should have to witness such a thing.

<cente><i>Meanwhile...</i></center>

The last remaining uninjured Vipul hurled a glass flask, filled with hydrochloric acid, at the bellicose intruder. It clipped his brick armor and shattered, sending a spray of corrosive chemical over himself. It would be bitterly painful and possibly cause scars in places, but wasn't likely to do major harm.

"This conflict is pointless. I don't know who you are, but there is nothing that can be accomplished by this transgression."

He glanced away, seeming to be momentarily distracted.

"I can continue to reinforce myself indefinitely. Can you?"

His attention was then diverted to a strange interloper, carrying a vial of some yellow liquid which Vipul had no knowledge of. Who was this stranger, and why was he baiting the brick-covered attacker?

[Freight Train]

She hugged him back and went as quickly as she could. She felt the strength from her power with every step, but it didn't make her feel invincible right then. She felt heavy and tired, though she was still too full of adrenaline to sleep right away.

"Where are we gonna go?" she asked once the sounds of fighting had died away behind her.

[Boulder]

Boulder winced as shards of glass from the shattered test tube pierced his skin. Small cuts on his face, arms, and chest resulted, while some of the shards actually stuck. He tried to swat at more of the glass projectiles that Untouchable was launching, but on the rare occasion that he hit one, it just shattered and got glass shards in his good hand. Unable to move much due to his injuries, Boulder reached out with his power and grabbed one of the stone-topped science tables. The wooden legs and frame made the rock tabletop harder for Boulder to maneuver, but he drug it in between himself and Untouchable. With a push, he stood it up long ways just in time to hear another volley of test tubes smash against it.

Suddenly another glass tube smashed up against him. Boulder's skin burned and smoked. His cloths had holes burned into them from whatever chemical it was that Vipul had thrown at him.

With a scream of pain, Boulder went down to one knee. He barely heard Vipul's chastising of how futile this fight was, but he clearly heard the part about Vipul being able to replicate himself without limit.

Boulder began taking heaving breaths, trying to get his pain under control when his eyes saw someone new. walk in.

Boulder's eyes widened when he saw the stranger hold up a vial. Boulder looked up at Morpheus, to Vipul, and back to Morpheus. He dropped his steel pipe on the ground and saw Untouchable inching around to get a vantage point around the table.

Boulder's heaving breaths turned into panting as he fought the despair threatening to overwhelm him. Boulder spat at Morpheus, the liquid from his mouth more blood than saliva.

"You...you..." Boulder floundered for the words he was looking for to address Morpheus. "You...think you can TRICK ME!??! I know you came in from the hallway. No WAY you were able to get in here and take the cure I'm after without me noticing. FINE!"

Boulder leaned down and put both his hands on the ground in front of him, his left arm screaming in protest at being moved.

"It's your fault now....all of you.....ALL OF YOU KILLED HER!!!" Hatred and despair flooded into and radiated out of his eyes as he glared at Vipul and Morpheus. And tho he couldn't see Untouchable, he directed it towards him too.

"You can all join her then....along with me....in HELL!"

Blood dripped out of his mouth and nose as Boulder concentrated. I'll bring this whole place down if I can. They can all rot for killing her like this for all I care.

The ground rumbled and a fissure formed in between Boulder's hands, streaking out in front of him, between Vipul and Morpheus. The walls to the lab shook and cracked. bits of the roof started to crack and fall. The fissure widened a more, to become about 4 feet wide, a gaping chasm slowly widening as it reached for Vipul and Morpheus, and eventually towards the main building.

Before the growing fissure could reach the main building however, Boulder passed completely out and toppled, head first, into the fissure he had made. The last thing he saw in his mind was his grandmother's face.

[Captain Untouchable]

Acting on instinct more than anything else, Untouchable flung his good arm towards Vipul and Morpheus, powers lashing out to shove them free of the chasm that had opened up beneath their feet. His attention shifted and he reached for Boulder, trying to save the hapless thief from the grave he was digging for himself, but he wasn't fast enough. Boulder slumped, his exhurtions clearly draining the last of his consciousness from him, and toppled into the rift.

Untouchable unleashed a grunt, part frustration and part pain, and jerked himself from the floor to his feet. Treading carefully, he made his way slowly around the edge of the chasm to where Morpheus and Vipul had been knocked by his powers. "What the hell was that?" he shot through his teeth not really caring about the answer, words directed at the former of the two as his hand gingerly touched his dislocated shoulder.

His focus flicked towards Vipul, the man who seemed capable of fielding an entire Football team on his own. Untouchable had no idea how he was able to spawn so many copies of himself - talk about a one-man army - but considered it lucky that he could. Things would have turned out rather differently if Vipul had been limited to just one death at the hands of the Boulder. "You okay?" he asked, offering his good arm to help Vipul back to his feet.

[Morpheus]

Morpheus had precious little time to respond to the Boulders new attempt to bring down Cullin's. Morpheus jumped in the fissure after Boulder as he plummeted into the grave. Catching the Boulder by his waste they both vanished as the tremors stopped. In a near by ally way Morpheus appeared with the Boulder over his shoulders. He laid him down and smiled.

"Well my friend lets see why you where here?"

Morpheus reached down and placed his hands on the Boulders bleeding head. An image of an elderly woman laying in a bed in a dimly lit room.

[Boulder]

Boulder's unconscious mind was focused on his grandmother. His powers, sensing this, acted on their own. The ground rumbled as another fissure opened up beneath Boulder, swallowing him. Just as fast as the fissure had appeared, it sealed itself up, taking Boulder with it.

[Morpheus]

Morpheus had just enough time to jump into the air where he hoovered as the Boulder was swallowed up. He made the sign of the cross over the place where the Boulder had laid turned and vanished once more. He appeared next to one of the Vipul he reached out holding the vial he had shown Boulder and smiled.

"He was taken care of. . . Oddly enough this was the right vial."