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Chinatown has no quarrel with the rest of the city. They dislike all outsiders equally. The M-Town race riots and the Midtown and East Village protests gone violent leave little mark in these dim alleyways and streets. Fans drone in windows covered in bamboo screens to hold out the heat and wizened men play go or mahjongg in a dusty, quiet street-level cafe. The toughs who run the backstreets slouch and loiter, ever watchful. The place has the feeling of a powder keg and that's nothing new. It has since the first subject of the Middle Kingdom rolled up. The current ruckus could be here, Shanghai in 1901, the Ming Dynasty or under the eyes of an ancient dynasty. Something has upset a cart of fruit that lie in the gutter which enterprising youths pick up. A few older boys beat them off with sticks and papers, but the kids aren't deterred any more than monkeys chasing after a lush papaya would be. The adults in the way shout back and forth in a blend of Mandarin and Cantonese depending on who is arguing, and it seems to be /something/ tipped over the cart but no one agrees on what.
*
Jubilee is supposed to be shopping with Akihiro, but it's time to eat apparently. And they're close enough to Chinatown that she suggests they eat there. But as they approach the neighborhood she speaks quietly "Don't mention the war. But there are some good noodle places here. It doesn't matter how Americanized it is. It tastes good and it's cheap." At that, she points to the cart. "This looks like a problem though."
*
"Something feels off here too." Akihiro informs Jubilee. "And I hadn't planned on it." But it's obvious from his accent that he's Japanese, however light it may be. He turns his attention to the cart, but then back to the woman he's with. "Oh well, it's probably nothing. We can eat and get going." He's cut his long hair, it's still shaggy, but around his ears and above his neck has been buzzed down.
*
Somewhere in the depths of the market, Scarlett is bartering in a broken pidgin of gestures, English, and smiles for a selection of herbs and one potted plant. The keeper of the stall seems a bit skeptical about the whole affair but US dollars are US dollars. The young woman naturally stands out for cream fair skin and red hair, unless one thinks she's from the mythical race dwelling beyond the Uighur people. All the same, the dispute catches her eye as she completes her haggling. Maybe not the best price, but herbs are herbs. The plant ends up carried in both hands, the satchets of dried leaves tucked into her bag as she heads towards the main road. Even if an overturned cart blocks her way, she might be able to inch along the fringes, and she hasn't noticed Jubilee or Akihiro yet. With her broadbrimmed green hat, though, she probably stands out like a lighthouse on a dark night.
*
"It's your fault!" snarls the owner of the overturned cart, jabbing a stubby finger at the crates of bruised vegetables and fruit. The green globes and heavy purple mangosteens litter the ground, the scent heavily sweet. "You clearly didn't watch where you were going. This is your bill! I tell you fix it or you pay. Your mother pays!"
The man he addresses wears a white shirt and a glower that could turn someone to stone. "This wasn't me. I was having business with Xu. You should stop buying such cheap tables—"
Doubtful either man notices a small blinking red light among the fruit. Nor that one of the cheap baskets is moving of its own accord, stalking towards the next disturbed stall.
*
For Akihiro, either Dad's practicing how to be Fred Astaire on the wall or that metallic sound could be… scuttling?
*
Jubilee sighs and shrugs. "I don't know, we can grab food, but if this is going to turn into a fight then um, that's not a good thing." She starts to step closer to the cart, watching the argument. "There's been enough fighting in the city lately hasn't there, Aki?"
*
Akihiro reaches up to put his hand on Jubilee's shoulder, "Hold up, do you hear that?" His attention turns towards the scuttling, "It sounds like.. little metal legs." The teen's brows furrow, then he catches wind of Scarlett and calls out loud enough to be heard, "Um, Scarlett, you may wanna come this way."
*
The tension between the shopowners divides the street along vaguely sectarian or commercial lines. A few older men retreat for their brooms or bark at their browbeaten clerks, and there comes a yelp from one of those dimmer, crowded stalls. This one is full of linens and cloth textiles, and two of the handtowels go sailing out into the street. Cue a string of cursing, the teen boy protecting his head with his hands from a broom as he runs out. The owner shouts, "Stupid boy! Only for your father I do this, and you throw my goods into the street. Stupid! What's wrong with you?"
The standoff over the cart isn't getting any better. Low mutters filled with profanity and dark promises end up with the insulted man spitting at the owner's feet. The cart owner pulls himself up to shout.
And a mangosteen with several long articulated legs that gleam in the sun moseys right past them.
*
So much for getting through unscathed, unnoticed, or unshouted at. The boy running into the street beats a path past her and then someone's calling out the least Asian name ever. Her hat tilts back, ensuring Scarlett's memorable face comes out of eclipse. "Oh?" The question rises, but she is city dweller enough to know when to ask questions and keep walking. Which helps, because as she darts towards Scarlett and Akihiro, two things happen. A wax apple in the gutter suddenly explode, spraying everyone in a three foot radius with pulverised fruit bits, and there's a tug on Jubilee's sock. Boot. Whatever happens to be at her ankle.
*
Jubilee is trying to figure out a way to distract the guys fighting maybe, to try to solve this peacefully. But then Akihiro pats her and speaks, and she turns to face him. Taking a deep breath, she sighs "You'r ejust trying to distract me from fixing this." Then with a wink, she starts to say "I don't hear any…" and then she feels it. A pinch at her boot. This is familiar somehow. "Oh god not again," she groans, looking down at her boot, and firing a firecracker shot at it.
*
"Shit. Here we go." Akihiro groans, following the moving thing with his gaze. "You might want to go inside!" he tries to warn everybody, "Scorpions!" He wasn't around last time, so he has no idea what to expect. This may be why he doesn't act right away aside form shouting warning.
*
A firecracker bounces off the ground and blows up the carapace of some kind of melon. The sound underneath is pure metal, legs flailing around as the goo splats every which way. Fruit goo: the scorpion underneath snaps its claws at the boot eagerly, like it wants to run away with it. The blinking light in its tail gets intensely red, for all that its back chiton plate of steel is glowing rather hot too.
*
The call of "scorpions" is rather like saying "BOMB!" in Times Square. Most aren't inclined to heed the call. Those who can hear are startled and paralyzed, and a few more trying to figure out if he said scorpion or 'scorched something' or 'play on.' Therefore it's only a few who actually start to move, like the kid who yelped in a store. It's his employer who shouts now, running out. "Bugs! Robot bugs—Soviets!"
Together with Akihiro… cue panic. Cue people running for shops, out of shops, up the street, down the street. Cue panicked people running right at the trio of teenagers, sweeping Scarlett up. (She looks thrilled.)
*
Caught up and spat out by using her elbows, Scarlett tries to protect her precious plant. Those who squeeze too close run a real risk, and her tense expression betrays a mask of concentration not to panic along with everyone else. Her gaze narrows to a draconic green as she watches ahead of her, determined not to slip. But being knocked about is equally fun. Within a few steps, she spins aside as a faster moving pedestrian runs past with a scorpion on his back. It's a smaller one, the size of an egg. And it jumps away with a handful of cloth in its claws, arcing right for Akihiro's face.
*
Jubilee grunts and glares at the scorpion. "You monsters ruined my new jacket. I'm not letting you ruin my boots," she insists, and she keeps on blasting. As she does this, staring at her target, shaking her foot to try to get the thing to let go, she starts speaking to her companion. "Aki… there's probably more of these. Look around. We need to do something, they're very dangerous."
*
Every explosion bounces the scorpion off the ground, and if it has legs, it tries to scuttle back to reclaim that luscious boot. Proof positive these are not very smart scorpions.
*
"Can d-" Akihiro is cut off as e turns around to a scorpion latching onto his face. "You little shit!" he growls, hand coming up to, what looks like, brush it off. However the claw hidden inside his wrist extends in an attempt to skewer the thing.
*
The scorpion might be easier to hit. It may be easier to smack aside, since the egg shape of its body minus the dreadful tail isn't large. But a deadly sharp blade does a fine job stabbing through steel. It does not, however, prevent flailing claws from latching onto his nose and crushing inwards, or a blinker light hooked tail from jabbing in an absolute frenzy. Jab, jab, jab with steel force and no finesse; he might just take it in the eye if he freaks out.
*
Many a scorpion might be guessed at; the one behind Jubilee, the one now skewered, the one in a stall and another on a wall and a third being shot at by very disturbed thugs happy to concentrate small arms fire that has limited effect. The nearest one is under a basket, pouncing onto a length of canvas and pulling that off the overturned cart.
Scarlett utters a sound of pure horror when the bug goes airborne towards Akihiro's face, and she pivots rather too quick, upsetting a box on the ground. A swift kick sends it scattering to reveal another of those spheres, slowly uncurling to the ticking of its red light tail. "If this is one of Mr. Stark's inventions again, I swear…" She doesn't hesitate, punting it like a proper soccer player for the far goal. The goal is a brick wall where it smacks off in a rain of brick dust.
*
Jubilee blinks at those words. "Stark? Doesn't he do government things? No way they're attacking New York, right?" She starts backing away from every scorpion she can see once she gets it dislodged from her, only momentarily. She needs distance. Once she gets a bit of distance, she resumes blasting. She's got a hammer, and the enemies are a nail.
*
Akihiro jerks as the scorpion goes nuts, causing that tail to embed firmly into his left eye socket. A sound of pure pain and rage erupts from the teen, and he yanks his hand down to split the metal monstrosity in half. It's probably a bit disturbing to watch the flap of skin that is his nose heal itself, and his eye reform as is if nothing happened. But something is not quite with the teen anymore, he aims himself at the one being shot at, inside claw retracting as the four between his knuckles erupt through the flesh.
*
Civilians for the most part are getting out of dodge. They know how to move away, some scarred by the Sino-Japanese War or the World War after, others familiar with gang violence, and some just smart enough to know when to hide. The street is rapidly emptying as a crazed crowd runs in terror everywhere else. Bullets set off puffs of rock at impact and Jubilee might hear a projectile whizz by at an alarmingly loud volume, too close for comfort.
"He once tried to contract my assistance locating a lost mechanical spider," Scarlett replies, mentally tallying up the damage inflicted on the building. She frowns at the facade and has the audacity to actually appear -bothered- by what she might have done. No sooner does she turn towards Jubilee than the mutant retreats and unleashes streams of incandescent plasma, too bright to safely look at. "Move back, I'll cover you if any come close." She still somehow has her plant, though this may be a moot point when Akihiro has gone next to mad sawing apart the segmented of the scorpion.
*
Jubilee covers her eyes with the back of her left hand, shielding her eyes. So unfortunately he has to stop shooting. "Alright, backing up," she calls out, continuing to step back. She's ready tos hake her feet though. Just in case anything gets to her and starts gripping again. "where are these coming from?"
*
Akihiro has clearly lost himself at this point, not seeming to even register any pincers or barbed tails anymore. He's on a mission, carving through any scorpion he can see. When a cart gets in his way he doesn't bother jumping it or going around, rather he tosses it out of the way.
*
"Tactically discerning a scorpion isn't my talent. Somewhere that way," Scarlett waves her hand curtly to the fruit cart and the street, and she puts the potted plant on the highest point she can reach: a ledge of a building, not high but serviceable. The next step is hastily pulling on a pair of gloves while Jubilee backtracks, putting her between Aki and the Chinese girl. "Our friend here seems awfully one-track minded. He safe or are we wearing targets?"
All the while fireworks go off and knock a scorpion airborne again to bounce into the street on two broken legs. Another one, larger, scuttles past with a length of awning that goes up like a demented kite when blasted. The metal bits spark and smoke when blown up; when cut, they just smell like ozone and parts fly when cleaved by Akihiro's claws.
*
Jubilee lowers her hand when it's safe to do so, sot hat she can see and resume shooting. Her shots are aimed at any scopions Aki isn't destroying. Hearing the question she lets out a cold laugh, and her words are a little show as she's focused on continuing to produce booms powerful enough to disrupt these robots. "I hope so… he likes to fight, and I hope that means he's going to fight the right things. So far he seems to be… doing goood, so i'm not worried, even if he's mad."
*
Akihiro sets his sights on Scarlett and Jubilee, nostrils flaring and his breathing ragged. Then he's breaking out in a full sprint, and right as it looks like he may be target them he leaps, clearing over the pair and burying his claws into a scorpion on a wall behind them. He takes the contraption to the ground where he continues to stab into it until there's nothing left, and only then does he seem to calm down some, letting out a shaky breath.
*
The explosive violence blows another of those scorpions. They take a licking but stop ticking the more Jubilee concentrates the rain of plasma on them. As for the ones the snarling Japanese is after, they can scuttle terribly quick but the punch of a set of reinforced claws is altogether devastating to their somewhat advanced circuitry. Dead twitching machines litter the street, along with ruined fruit and foul liquid in the gutter. A few shots still ring out, stray bullets threatening anyone who simply loiters.
*
The redheaded bohemian who advocates peace with flowers and chaos by simply appearing sets her heels into the ground when Akihiro barrels towards them. The irresistible force meeting the immovable wall proves itself unfounded when he leaps, though she's already rotating in anticipation of a kind of counterattack. "Understood," she murmurs to Jubilee, though Scarlett has an odd, distant mask upon her expression that might not fit with her youthful features and typical non-aggressive nature. It's assessing in a calculated, dangerous fashion. One scorpion down on the wall, though, and her fugue is shaken off by the crunch of stone and sheer willpower. "My plant. If we're evacuating, I would rather not leave it here. So much for good luck, though."
*
Jubilee has no idea why suddenly Aki is jumping at her. She stops shooting. Putting her hands up like she's going to try to help catch him. But then whoosh, he goes over her head, and smashes at metal. "Oh," she then lets out with a weak chuckle. Looking around for any more to shoot at, she sighs, a bit relieved. "I think we're running out of them." she says to both, eyes going to Scarlett. "I don't think we have to evacuate. I think they can't keep coming forever."
*
Akihiro pushes to his feet, rolling his shoulders. "Sorry 'bout that dolls." he calls over, moving to put himself between any stray bullets and the women, "So what's our game plan? We make sure these things don't really hurt anybody, or we get out of here?"
*
Scarlett glances at the string of ruined bits, the people still caling out to one another from darker alleys. "Ugly. I'll grab a few of these pieces if no one minds, and hitch them back to the Institute for someone to study." Her gaze narrows a fraction and she sighs. "I'd rather not linger too long before someone has the idea I'm responsible for this mess."
*
Jubilee nods. "I have an almost intact one wrapped in the danger room. Few legs missing but it tried to ruin my boots. Never mess with my boots." she sighs and laughs a bit, calming down as the threat is actually reduced. "Alright, let's all get back to the Institute, make sure we're alright, find out if these attacks are happening everyhwere now, maybe?" Aki gets a thumbs up at the apology.
*
"We'll get you another coat when we come back." Akihiro decides, claws retracting back into his hands. "Let's get out of here before we get shot."