i'm hardly capable of half the damage that i would like to do [open]

[rosswood]

Who: Alex Kralie, some closed starters, and YOU
Where: All around the island of Genosha
When: August 5th - August 9th
Rating: Let's say PG-13 for general violence, colorful language, and trauma
Summary: Alex Kralie is one human attempting to tear down a society built for mutants. This is sure to go well. I'll match any format, brackets or prose!
The Story:

open to mutants; but you know i'm too full of shit to think this through

A man's been following you for a the past thirty minutes to an hour. He's been crossing every street you have, passing every establishment, stayed within a good thirty-yard radius of you this whole while. He keeps his hands in his pockets, his hood up over his features, his head low. Unobtrusive, except for the whole part where he's following you.

Maybe it's nothing. He looks normal. If he's a mutant, he's not an obvious one. He hasn't said anything to draw attention to himself or to you. All in all, he's been pretty harmless. So there's no cause to worry. Right?

Only the next time you look over your shoulder, the next time you wonder where he might be, you'll find he isn't behind you anymore.

Instead, he's walking toward you at a brisk pace, his stride hard and purposeful. There's a glint of something in his hand. A gun, or a knife, or some other weapon. He brings it up rapidly, his intent clear and telegraphed.

You can run, or fight, or let it be. But this man is here to kill you, and he's not leaving until either you're dead or his advantage is lost.

[ooc: Alex is intent on killing any mutants he comes across. He shouldn't die since he's scheduled to kill someone at the end of the event, but feel free to kick his ass if you like! Or he can kill you, either way.]

open to humans; i'm but a boy just like the rest of these thieves

A grimy office set up in some basement isn't the ideal living situation for anyone, but that's inconsequential. There's stacks of files, photographs pinned to his walls, papers with lines upon lines of names. Some of them are crossed out. Most aren't.

The Resistance isn't overly inclined to work with him. Alex clicks his tongue between his teeth, annoyed. That's a laugh. No, actually, it's not. It's bullshit is what it is.

He slips outside, stumping across streets and navigating back alleyways. He's had to lay low lately. Turns out committing acts of terrorism against mutants lands you on some higher-ups' watch lists, who knew? But he's got to stay on his feet somehow, and any humans sympathetic to the Resistance and any like-minded individuals are his best bet. He's not calling for charity here; he's got money, if only a little, and he can pay them back in favors - nothing's too unsavory for him. Whatever someone might require from him as payment, he's probably done worse for far less.

You might've heard of the elusive Alex Kralie, an anti-mutant extremist who can boast such achievements as attempted assassinations and bombings of mutants and mutant establishments. Maybe he comes to you in need of food or weaponry, offering his services in exchange. He's got no moral quandaries; he'll do whatever it is you need him to do, no matter how morally corrupt or inelegant. But if you turn him aside, think his methods too brutal - well, he won't blame you. He's on your side, after all. He's a human, just like you. Maybe you don't see it yet, but he's doing this for your own good. For the good of everyone.

Just help him out this once, and he'll never come to you for a favor again.

Comments

[sciencelizard]

Alphys looks towards Mettaton, mouth partway open. Is this really the time for the two of them to be having this pissing contest? Is this really what this is going to come to when there's a corpse nearby and someone should be calling the police?

"I-Is this really, what we're doing right now?" Alphys looks between the both of them. "I r-really don't think, uh, h-he cares, Mettaton! And, uhm, I r-really don't think Mettaton cares h-how scary you are, either. You, uhm, m-made that pretty clear, when you, uh, s-shot him." She looks back towards the body, and then up at Mettaton again. "Who, uh, would p-probably like it, if uhm, he w-were still alive, if you c-called someone!!"

[rosswood]

Glamour? Glamour? He expects Kralie to believe that this gilt-and-glitter, jingoistic, propaganda-spouting celebrity has any feasible connection to the enigmatic Glamour? He tries to glower at the pair of them, but that would require him to contort his neck into a position that would be physically and geometrically impossible, so he settles for glaring at Mettaton alone, lip curling in a sneer.

"You expect me to believe that?" he rasps, ignoring the scraping of his chin against the concrete. "You? You?"

[mettatonvevo]

He looks at Alphys as she talks and sees her inclination towards his dead bodyguard. Oh. Right. He should probably be doing something about that.

"Well, I'm not surprised that someone who doesn't have a ghost of an idea of what they are doing doesn't believe me."

That's the only hint he gives to his legitimate ties to the resistance. This whelp isn't worth more than that.

"Alphys, hold him down. I'm going to go get Eric's radio and call someone out here to dispose of this trash."

[sciencelizard]

Alphys looks down at Alex, almost scowling, at his response. Why should it matter if he was or wasn't? So mutants had to be useful to be allowed to live? Typical. She'd say something to sound smart and informed, but her nervousness gets the best of her and she just continues to use her weight to keep him pinned, albeit relaxing a little when Mettaton says he's actually going to do something instead of just shooting snappy cryptic messages.

"What d-does it look like I've been d-doing, since, uhm, this w-whole conversation?" She responds, exasperated. She just wants to go home.

[rosswood]

Ghost. Oh, you fucker. Yeah, go ahead. Call him "trash". Trample all over him, like he does with all humans. It's expected. It's what he's all about, isn't it, preaching mutant superiority like everyone else does. He's one of them. He doesn't get to call himself a sympathizer.

"You gonna kill me?" he hisses, his tone one of a man struggling to land a taunt and coming up more along the lines of fearful guesswork, a glint of desperation lighting in his gaze.

[mettatonvevo]

He's already up and walking as Alphys responds and Kralie hisses. He doesn't answer immediately as he reaches down, his gaze oddly cold as he rifles through Eric's body to find his radio. One of his people is dead because of some idiot with a chip on his shoulder, and that idiot needs to pay.

"I'm certainly thinking about it." is all he says when he finally responds, toying with the radio in his hands. "Thank you, Alphys, you've been a doll."

He could call for backup and have him arrested. Or he could execute Alex extra-judicially here on the pavement and have him do it by his own hand.

[sciencelizard]

"M-Mettaton, we're not gonna k-kill him!" She seems plenty distressed about this, head turning between Alex and Mettaton quickly. She bites her lip, nervous- she's already come too close to dying tonight to watch Mettaton off someone with his own hands. Alphys looks down at Alex, almost sympathetic, but looks away again.

"He just, uhm, n-needs to go to the police, and have this dealt with by... n-not us. It's not, uhm, o-our job, or right." She doesn't want to kill anybody. She doesn't want to watch Mettaton kill anybody.

This is not how she wanted this night to go.

[rosswood]

Oh no. Oh no. He is not getting sent to the goddamn police - mutant law enforcement will string him up by his entrails for this. At least it's readily apparent that the lizard, at least, seems philosophically opposed to killing anyone, even if the situation requires or demands it.

The target has moved away. There is no better chance for him than this.

Kralie bucks, arching his back, knees scraping agonizingly over the pavement as he works them underneath his body with the aching press of muscle and bone, employing every ounce of momentum and additional leverage in a protracted effort to throw the lizard off him entirely.

[mettatonvevo]

"We? There's no we. If he dies tonight, it'll be by his hand, and no one will be the wiser. You and I will just have to be good at keeping secrets."

He gives Alphys a wink as he twirls the radio in his hands. Just one switch on, and he could tell someone. Keep it off, and he could watch Kralie break his own skull against the pavement.

"Regardless of what we do with you, Kralie, you made a big mistake messing with me."

He opens his mouth to say something else, but that's when their semi-prisoner begins to try and buck Alphys off his body. "What-?"

[sciencelizard]

Alphys gives an exasperated look to Mettaton as he speaks, trying to impose on him the importance of not driving someone to suicide, but her mind's not where it should be- restraining Alex- and she's immediately caught off guard. He moves, and she tumbles off him in a heap of limbs and extremities, ending up disheveled and prone on the ground next to him. Worst of all, she's almost entirely upside-down, meaning she's not getting up anytime quickly. All she can do is raise her head enough to yell not directly into the floor.

"Ow! W-Wait, no, d-don't run! Mettaton, d-do something!"

[rosswood]

Don't run, she says, and Alex would scoff if that didn't require him to stop instead of focusing the whole of his attention on getting the fuck out. Ha-ha, yeah, right, he's gonna stay here and get his brains blown out by a mutant celebrity with delusions of grandeur or an equally merciless mutant task force, and no thank you.

He doesn't stop to retrieve his weapons. He doesn't have the luxury for anything but running, pelting down the halls and rounding a corner with clenched-jaw efficiency, one hand planting itself on some kind of vertical support beam to slow his trajectory, twist himself around the corner without sacrificing momentum.

Hopefully that gunshot injury he gave that asshole mutant will slow him down enough to give Kralie a solid head start.

[mettatonvevo]

Mettaton's eyes narrow as he watches Alex run and he begins to chase after, long legs making long strides towards the human. He calls back to Alphys.

"Stay put, I'll come back for you!!"

He raises the radio to his mouth, flipping it on. "Marcus? It's Mettaton. Eric and I didn't check into the security point because we were attacked. Eric's dead. I'm in pursuit of the murderer. He and my friend Alphys are both outside Exit B, so please retrieve them."

There's the sound of static and a very worried voice speaking back, but Mettaton doesn't listen as he tries to run to the corner- but then there's a burst of pain in his side and he gasps, falling to his knees as he begins to bleed again. Damn. Damn!!!

[sciencelizard]

She stumbles to her feet as she hears him yelling, takes a second to get herself up and about but when she does, she heads straight for Mettaton over Alex, fretting over everything. "Mettaton, d-don't, you'll hurt yourself worse." She doesn't know if she should shift him, or make sure absolutely not to do that, because she's got a doctorate in not-medicine and really all she needs right now is to have a doctorate in medicine. She looks up feebly as Alex gets away, letting out a sigh and holding onto Mettaton harder.

"D-Don't, please. I don't want to lose y-you."

[mettatonvevo]

Mettaton is almost vibrating with fury. How could that idiot get away from him??? How could that wound have STOPPED him?? He's not supposed to bleed, he's supposed to... to...

Things are hazy for a moment as he stares after where Kralie ran off and there's a distinct feeling of Wrong in the air. What is he supposed to be doing? Stop the bleeding. Yes. It's probably why he's thinking so oddly.

He looks at Alphys and grimaces a bit. She looks so worried, poor thing. This should never have happened.

"I'm fine, Alphys. Really. It's just a little painful is all."

His gaze turns down to the radio in his hands and sighs. "The rest of my security should be here soon and can take care of us."

[sciencelizard]

She's trying to stop her hands from shaking, trying to formulate a plan, and decides instead to throw the opposite arm over her shoulders and use that to help him stand.

"At l-least, uhm, apply pressure, don't let yourself b-bleed any more. We'll get you settled, uhm, s-somewhere, and call the paramedics. It's o-okay. They'll catch him, I'm s-sure of it."

[mettatonvevo]

He does as she says, applying pressure to the wound. The sight of blood leaking over his fingers makes him a little woozy, and he leans a bit more into Alphys than he would like.

"Fine. And I doubt it. The Genosha Police Force are woefully inadequate."

He knows this because the amount of information he has leaked about their doings has been staggering. They have no oversight at all.

"...Thank you for saving me, Alphys. I wouldn't be here at all without you."

There is a glimmer of something in his brain, a whisper that what he said is more true than he thinks it is, but he can't make head nor tails of it.

[sciencelizard]

She just ends up squeezing him a bit, something like a hug, pressing her head into his chest cavity to show support. She worries. God does she worry. But... it's gonna be okay. This is all temporary... or something. She doesn't know how to quite describe it, but this all seems too surreal, too much, a little too far from plausible--

But Mettaton's security starts arriving, and it's gone. The police start arriving, and it's gone. She hands him over for treatment, and it's... gone. She's back to worrying over him and fretting over the world and it's out of her mind.

It's gonna be okay, then. It's over. She'll just have to hold onto that.