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Finding Gabriel was possibly the last public 'event' that she had gotten herself into. But word around the city that there were zombies that sprung up along Central Park, venturing into the other parts of the city with random heroes to take their turn with rescuing who had caught themselves up into the fray and otherwise. But whatever happened or how it came to be wasn't the concern. There was a small build up of zombies in a corner of Central Park that was hardly ever ventured into, and the sounds of screaming that focused within the middle of the gaggle of zombies, high in a tree.
Dressed not to impress, but to conceal their identities, Jean hides behind a bush, taking stock of the scene that lies before them. It could have been at least ten to twenty zombies, all of their moans and groans scraping against the tree, the young man and woman clinging for dear life like crabs in a bucket attempting to push each other down to get their own selves to safety.
Whatever relationship the lovely tourists did have with each other? Was now non-existant.
"I'm going to lure the zombies from the tree.." Jean murmurs quietly. "You try to get those people down, okay?"
Gabriel glances over at Jean and shakes his head slowly. "I'm faster. You're better with people. Let's switch jobs."
His own position is not far away, behind a tree. He said he'd come with her, but made no promises to simply follow. "Besides, I can make a light show." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath, the begins to pull energy out of things around him. Streetlights, cars down the block, even from the ground itself until the purple glow swallows up his eyes. "See?"
In effort to not start a fight with Gabriel and his remark (a playful fight), Jean just shakes her head. "Fine." She wasn't upset, but there was a little smirk that plays upon her lips as she watches the light show in effect. It seems that their time off-world had some benefits and understanding after all. She nods her head in agreement, then gives him the gesture to make his way out. "Be careful. I don't know how they've gotten that way, but don't let them touch you.." Or bite him. Isn't that how it all starts?
If Gabe; excuse him, since they are out in disguise and operating as 'heroes' he's using a codename. One that was the only thing that came to mind: Vulcan. If Vulcan even knew what a Zombie was, he would probably understand the concept of letting them touch him but he takes the information from Jean and nods his head. Jumping out from behind the tree he was hiding, he emanates more of the purple energy around him creating a brilliant light while simultaneously calling out to the undead creatures. "Over here!" An arc of purple energy zaps off to strike a nearby tree and cause a branch to burst into flame.
Heroes. Vulcan was already into the fray before Jean could even give any more advice. The Phoenix however, remains behind the bush as she watches the zombies turn their attentions to her beau. Her hand lifts, her dark glove tucking beneath her hood to press against her temple, her eyes closing for the moment to check the minds of the zombies that were soon clamboring towards the show of light and sound..
..and there was nothing..
The only feelings she gleamed off of the zombies were hunger. Desperation. The need to eat and move faster. But their thoughts? Nothing. They were mindless and not calculating.
This causes the Phoenix to frown as she slowly begins to move from the bush, crouch-walking the opposite direction in which they move in effect to keep herself out of sight. But little did she know..
As the creatures advance upon him, Vulcan moves backwards with steady paced steps to keep the distance between them the same. Baiting them along. Certainly some may wander off but maintaining the herd as a whole is his task, trusting in Phoenix to handle any stragglers that may come her way. Even as he does this however, he reaches out with his thoughts.
«Do we destroy these creatures?»
A simple enough question but one that carries weight. If there is hope for reversal or treatment then measures to preserve them are taken; if not then simply removing the threat is the easiest route.
As the last of the herd slowly straggles into Vulcan's direction, she quickly rushes to the tree with quiet steps, looking up towards the scared couple with her arms outstretched and in a wave. "Hey!" Phoenix calls out quietly. "I'm here to help!"
The woman was already tattered, scratches and little bite marks on her arm, bleeding and slightly afraid as she gives a wild-look to the man above her. He rests upon the branch which is near to breaking, his breathing near labored. It was clear that he was injured as well.
But it seems that Phoenix doesn't know much about zombies herself. She wasn't even sure if there were any hope for those lumbering monsters.. but there had to be -some- hope.
«I don't know. Use your discretion.. but hurry..»
'My.. my boyfriend.. I think he's dead..' The girl calls down, loud.. gaining the attention of a few stragglers that Phoenix tries not to worry about. "You first.. it's okay to jump, I can catch you!" Raspy loud voices were annoying, but she does it to try to get the woman to come down.
Discretion she says. Vulcan casts a glance back behind the herd to where Phoenix is and shakes his head a bit. The answer certainly does nothing to help him know which path to take; and as he did tell her he's more of a sledgehammer than a scalpel for such things. Lifting his hand he lays down a beam of plasma energy behind the herd, searing the ground behind them and between the tree where Phoenix is attempting to get the rescue. His other hand lifts, creating another sear of plasma on the ground, attempting to create some kind of pen for the creatures to be stuck in.
«Haste.»
And this is how couples bicker!
The plasma beam and the destruction of the zombies actually causes Phoenix to jump, her arms flailing as a knee kicks up to guard herself from whatever debris might hit, or maybe it was just an automatic reaction from the sound. «DISCRETION! You didn't even think about it!» This was a little bit hilarious, but the fact that Vulcan's display of haste spooks the woman into clinging against the tree. But now that discretion, noise, safety and quietness were all out the window, Phoenix focuses upon the woman and lifts her arms again.
"Come down, we have to get you medical help, now!" No hiding her voice. Not this time.
'But.. but I'm scared! What the hell was that light?! What just happened?! We're going to die!'
To save herself from having a temper tantrum, Phoenix stomps her foot against the ground to begin to approach the tree. "You're not going to die lady, I'm going to come up there, and we can do this together. Like friends. I'll be your Pollyanna."
«I'm starting to regret taking a personal vow to not use my telepathy on people..»
«Oh, discretion?» Vulcan thinks glancing back to where the tree is at beyond the herd as he continues trying to encircle them in the purple flames. «I told you I'm not a delicate instrument.»
Even still, there's a humored smirk on his lips as he finishes his work, creating a tunnel for the zombies to follow that he uses to bait them away from the tree. He isn't having a good time, he would never admit to such.
«Well.. yeah! I mean.. I suppose they're dead already..»
Now the Phoenix is really thinking, thinking as she lodges her boot into the first wooden knotch that she could get herself onto. Her fingers grip ahold of the strong bark as she begins to pull herself upright, one foot after the other in a tiny pace as she continues the conversation.
«I don't understand the concept of zombies. They feel. But they don't think. They're alive in there.. but I don't know if there are..»
'LOOK OUT!' The woman screams.
A rotten hand grabs the end of the Phoenix's boot, dragging her back down so that he could feast his rotten, yet sharp teeth upon the leather that clads her calf. There was a general tug, and another as hands that were two turn into many, and her general hesitance to do what Vulcan had done was clear as day as she was being attacked. And he could feel that she had begun to panic.
Her panic was his panic, distant but tangible. There was certainly a method to dealing with the situation that involved tact and grace, finishing the distraction or some other approach. But knowing that Phoenix was now in danger, those options began to evaporate.
Vulcan's hand lifts up, this time instead of laying down a path of plasma to direct and guide the zombie herd, this time it lashed out at a group, sending the purple liquid fire towards them with only a moment's hesitation.
«I will not trade a possibility of life for the certainty of it.» The thought should be cold and harsh, but it isn't. There's a compassion in there as he begins to cut his way to the tree where Phoenix and the victims are. «We know that these others need rescue. And we know that we are alive.»
The plasma was effective as it should have been; as soon as the beam hits them, they stagger back but were immediately burned upon impact. A line of them fall, only their legs the last thing standing, and where there would have been a twitch or a kick there, it was a tiny rain or collapse of them upon the ground where they stood. His action alone cleared a good portion of them, and the noise of it all sent the zombies who clamored around the Phoenix into a moment of confusion.
And Vulcan was right. The people in the tree still had a chance, she had a chance. This was his discretion. They were breathing, living, speaking souls who needed saving.
"Grab onto him, and don't look!" Phoenix calls up towards the woman, who immediately does as she says. She hooks her tired fingers into her boyfriends shirt, tugging him close, and buries her face into his neck as she tries to keep him upright. With a glance back and a harder tug to the tree, the Phoenix lets out a blatant wave of telekinetics, using it as a concussive force to knock the zombies back and away from her legs.
With the situation back under a modicrum of control, Vulcan relinquishes on vaporizing the zombie horde. Control and necessity versus rampant destruction; perhaps a lesson learned at some point over the decades lived in torturous dreams. Moving so that he can help to provide a buffer for the rescue operation, a hand lifts up to stream plasma at a Zombie, one he deems to close to Phoenix and that she may be unaware of. A precision action that comes with a small shrug of acceptance in his shoulders.
"We must hurry." He speaks, voice vibrating with energy to a lower octave than usual as he begins to move, to present his back to Phoenix and offer himself as a primer target to the horde.
It was a good thing Vulcan was there, for as soon as she was clear she actually loses her grip upon the tree, falling onto the ground with a quick scramble to her feet. She never said that she was good at rescuing people, but with Vulcan nearby, everything seemed to fall right into place. There was no question what needs to be done now, as he took the brunt of the attention, Phoenix takes a step back. There wasn't any longer a need for being delicate. They needed to move, and now was the time.
So with the same power she displayed, she tempers it and focuses. Imagining and visualizing her telekinesis as if they were hands, hands that reach out and wind around the two who linger upon the tree. She doesn't hold them too tight to crush, but it was enough to lift their weight combined in their same position without separation, drawing them into the air and slowly upon the ground in a safe space that Vulcan protects.
The woman hangs onto her boyfriend as she moves, finally looking and watches as they fly momentarily, her eyes with wonder at the cloaked figures who had rescued them. And she was filled with thanks.
"Run." Phoenix tells her. "Run if you can." There was a little nudge to the man, a mental nudge, alarm sent to him to rouse him, to trigger the adrenaline that has him groggily waking, with the two of them struggling to their feet. "Head east. There are people there. Live people. Go! They can help you!"
"It is wise advice." Vulcan says towards Phoenix when she instructs the pair to run, his eyes falling on his partner. "Advice that we should heed as well. The fires may attract more of them to this place." He looks about, "That or the very least it will attract attention from the authorities." Unless purple fires and seared ground are a normal look.
Looking back towards Vulcan as the two stagger off, she herself takes a few steps back to survey the situation with a little bit of a frown. "I hope this stuff can grow back.." She says a little glumly, then reaches out to take his hand in hers to give a little bit of a tug. "Let's take the scenic route.." And if he were to come close with that tiny bit of a tug, she'd lift upon the tips of her toes to press a tiny, lingering kiss upon his cheek.
He doesn't just take her hand, but slides an arm around the woman as well, leaning down as she kisses him and brushing his own lips to her forehead. "If it does, it does. If it doesn't… well." He trails off with a small frown, "We do what we can." A squeeze, side hug in it to pull her close.
"Do not tell me that Emperor Vulcan can garden." She teases, closing her eyes with the kiss that landed itself upon her forehead. "Let's go. Northward. I think there are more zombies that need herded." Tug tug.. at least before more people come into that particular area to see the carnage. "I'll make a cage of wood."
A glance, she knows how that name does irk him just slightly, it sifts through their link even with her amusement but he shrugs his shoulders, "I am certain I could learn to garden. I have learned to cook afterall." Hand slides down to take hers and follow the lead of the red head.