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?