Would You Help A Stranger? || Emma and Pete
Sitting at a table outside of a small coffee shop in Manhatten, Emma read over the front page of a newspaper she had just picked up. She had stopped for a quick cup of coffee after leaving one of the suites she was using under an alias, hoping to check the paper for anything of interest. Unfortunately, most every article spoke of the recent riots, or the growing fear of superheroes, as well as S.H.E.I.L.D. or Hydra agents. Her lips pressed into a worried frown as she read the next few pages. It wasn't difficult to predict an oncoming storm this time. With the way the government and civilians were acting, it wouldn't be long before the violence escalated. Erik was right- Earth was on the verge of another war.
Halfway through the next article, a particularly angry series of thoughts belonging to someone nearby caught her attention, and she paused. ...deformed mutants, they need to be stopped...its too dangerous so long as they're around. Emma narrowed her eyes and took a moment to slip into the mind of the woman that stood next to the man who's thoughts she had just heard, using her as a device to listen closely to what he was saying. "...and who's to say we can't just stop them? If the government keeps moving this slowly, we're all gonna be wiped out before we know it! Now i'm not going to stand here and watch this shit go down without a fight. You heard the crowd talking down there- its dangerous, and these monsters need to be put away for good."
Retracting herself from the woman's head, Emma took a moment to gather herself, before carefully folding the newspaper and setting it down on the cafe table. What she had just heard was unsettling, to say the least, but they were humans. If trouble came her way, then she would handle it. Even so, she had been there long enough. So she stood and started down the sidewalk, careful to carry herself as though nothing had happened. A few moments passed with nothing but the honking of car horns and the usual click of her heels against the hard pavement, and the feeling of unease had begun to slip away. Then she started to hear a distant shout of voices, and more importantly, a compilation of unmistakably livid thoughts. Oh, perfect. As she rounded the corner, the shouts became audible, as did their messages- an anti-mutant rally, just what she needed. She was about to turn away when she detected her name enter someone's thoughts- a police officer's thoughts. "Hey!" the officer stood not twenty feet away, and had already managed to point his gun in her direction. "I know you! She's a mutant- that Frost woman," he accused, the other nearby cops quickly following suit and readying their weapons at his words. By now they had drawn the attention of a fairly large amount of civilians gathered for the rally, many of which yelled a series of threats in her direction. "Lovely," Emma muttered to herself, weighing her options as she looked between each of the officers. "Oh dear," she spoke louder, poorly feigning surrender. "What is a girl to do?" After a brief pause, she smiled, this time speaking to all of them in their heads. "Oh, that's right- I can do this," taking advantage of their momentary states of confusion, Emma slipped into one officer's mind, instructing him to shoot down all of the others.
Not wanting to waste any more time there, she started to move away from the scene, but not before a sharp pain cut through her side, causing her to cry out in agony. As she fell to the ground, she automatically shifted into diamond form. It would protect her from taking another shot, but the pain from the first one was still there. Now intent to stay and see this fight through, she stood again, a bullet ricocheting off her hand. As one officer approached her, she delivered a swift punch to his jaw, her enhanced form knocking him unconscious immediately. But the move took far more energy than she would have liked, and Emma was left slightly breathless. The pain in her side was getting worse, and for the first time in a long time, she found herself wondering how long she could hold up for.
