The X-Project

The various members of the mansion arrive to join into the protest.



The street in front of the Genoshan Embassy was thronged with people. Police had sensibly cordoned it off to traffic, and the HeliX organizers had been bolstered by the organizational expertise of professional groups like Amnesty International. Even with Genoshan officials attempting to challenge the submissions to City Hall, they had gone through and a series of ‘captains’ moved through the crowd, keeping an eye on the garbage cans and the police, making sure not to give the embassy the excuse to ask for the police to disperse them. Fortunately, the crowd was dotted with experienced protesters, who helped keep things orderly.

Busloads of students from various colleges and universities had come in, some from as far away as Boston, and were joined by local civil rights groups and mutant positive groups in the city. The expose on Genosha was a grim warning that being a mutant meant that out there in the rest of the world, there were people who saw you as nothing more than a resource.

Amara was waiting as the bus pulled up, helping them towards their designated zone. A few Xavierites were already there, including an official and imposing looking Garrison Kane, FBI badge and ID clipped to his breast pocket, as he chatted with the police in between the cordon and the start of the Genoshan Embassy.

“Alright!” Adrienne called out to her students as the bus rolled to a stop, standing up and leaning over the back of her seat at the front. “Keep your mansion cell phones within easy reach, try to stay together, keep your chaperones in sight at all times, and if you feel uncomfortable or afraid at all, let me or one of the chaperones know and someone will escort you back to the bus!” She gave the evil eye to each departing student as they departed.

“My people over here!” Yvette waved her arms above her head so her chaperone group knew where she was. Being five feet tall in a crowd wasn’t easy. Perhaps she should have worn a really tall hat. With a flag on the top.

Her group gathered and the other chaperones with theirs, they moved to a good position to take part. Yvette was careful to pick somewhere that wasn’t so crowded - not just for her own sake, but for that of her students.

A chant started up in the crowd – ‘End Segregation!’ – as one of the embassy officials came to the front window, looking out over the street. He was speaking in his cellphone, eyes roaming the crowd. Like most of the police inside, he was just hoping it would break up soon. At the sight of him, posters and banners were hoisted higher, and the shouts got louder.

When she’d decided she wanted to come down here and check this out Layla hadn’t thought it would be this crowded. She should have known better, though. She was vaguely sure she had finally spotted the rest of the Xavier’s crew who had come with Ms. Frost, though, so she wove her way through the crowd, adding her own voice to the chant as she ducked behind signs and slipped between people. This was nuts. She wondered if Phillip, wherever he was, still thought they just didn’t get how Genosha worked.

Meggan had not known what things would be like down here, when she had chosen to come. Not more than a vague notion. She certainly had not expected this massive crush of people when she had parked her car a few minutes ago. Far enough away that it wouldn’t lose a window if a rock were thrown if things turned sour, since she had just replaced it. She quickly edged around some of the angrier, extremely enthusiastic sign waving people once she spotted some familiar faces, so that she wouldn’t be physically smacked with the message.

It really was crowded out there, to say the least. Sarah hadn’t realized just how well attended this event would be, and she made a conscious effort to stay grouped up with her fellow students for fear of being swept away from them in the sea of protesters otherwise. Growing up in Washington D.C., with both of her parents being heavily involved in politics, she was certainly no stranger to political demonstrations and rallies but this was nothing like she’d ever seen before. Part of her wondered where Layla was and she thought about texting her to find out but with so many people around it was hard to even put her hand in her pocket to take her phone out.

This was so much more then she had expected... Sooraya had expected maybe the local Helix groups, the Xavier students and some other people. But this... the bus loads of people... The people seemed to press against her tighter and tighter and she was being jostled rather uneasily. Her mind flashed back to the two Genoshan teens she had met, Jenny and Philip, wondering what they would have thought of this and what their arrival and disappearance had sparked. She had prayed for them, that they would be safe and sound. She quickly glanced around her for fellow students, having them lost apparently while she had been thinking and dove under a few arms to join up with them again.

“You know, it’s not too late to turn around and go see the Space Shuttle,” Maddie said as Sooraya settled in next to her. But Maddie wasn’t looking at the other girl, however; her eyes were wandering about, trying to take all the sites in. “We have our phones, and we’re both small enough to just duck out without really being noticed. Or crawl around people.”

Korvus stepped around to Meggan and weaved through the crowd with her. Even though he could likely bulldoze through the crowd, he was very careful not to push or bump anyone. “I did not expect such a copious crowd. The country’s media had given me the impression there were few mutants rights activists.” He spoke loudly to Meggan, trying to be heard over the roar of the crowd.

Pixie looked around cautiously, her all-black eyes wide with nervousness and excitement. It was more crowded than the most packed rave she’d been to, with a lot less love and a lot more tension. She made eye contact with Yvette and a few others of her fellow students as she was jostled along with the flow of people. She wriggled free of the moving traffic of bodies in order to join back with them, not wanting to get separated.

Artie stuck close to the others, staring around wide eyed and watching the flow of people, quietly cataloging faces and appearances for powers training.

Everyone was taller than Molly. Well, almost everyone. And this made it kind of hard to see so she took to hopping up and down, not out of excitement but out of necessity to see where she was going. Everybody looked all wide eyed with the group she was in. Some of the strangers did too but some looked antsy and some sad and...she kinda got lost in the sea of people. There were so many to look for. Reaching over, she tried to grab Meggan’s hand simply so she wouldn’t get lost, then grabbed Matt’s hand too cause if she had trouble then it’d be even worse for him. It reminded her of a daisy chain. Or red rover.

Laurie first thought when she saw the mass of the crowd was that she was glad she’d left her car parked at her father’s place. Layla had disappeared into the crowd almost immediately upon their arrival but considering they all had their phones on them, Laurie wasn’t too worried. She knew the other girl would find her before the end of the day.

Instead, Laurie was keeping an eye on the crowd, more interested in making sure this didn’t turn into a riot then actually protesting herself. It wasn’t that she didn’t care, because of course, she did. It was just that she’d been in these sort of tense situations before and it only took one spark to set the whole powder keg off.

She moved further into the crowd, trying to get as far into the middle of the mass of people as possible.

Angelo was sticking to the fringes, never having much liked being trapped in any way - and still less in a crowd like this, where it wouldn’t take very many people intent on trouble for the whole to turn into a mob, whatever any one individual might have planned when they came. No way was he getting caught up in the mass.

Holding Molly’s hand was good, and Matt held it tightly. “You want a boost?” he asked, offering the shorter girl a piggyback. He wasn’t comfortable in crowds and this one was working his nerves, but he was trying to stay in control and not let it over power him yet. He was in control. Really. “Or is there anything even worth seeing yet?”

“I can’t tell...it’s all...people everywhere. But...if I get on your shoulders then I can’t lead you,” Molly said with confusion. “And can you carry all of me cause...um...sorry but, you’re kinda skinny.” She bit her lip but had a smile in her voice.

“You’re not that big and I’m pretty strong,” not super strong, but whatever. “It’s fine. You just lead on then, MacDuff.”

“My guess is they started growing when they brought along all their friends. And their friends’ friends, and the neighbors of those friends,” Meggan replied to Korvus. The crowd almost drowned out her words, so she moved closer so he could hear her. After she jostled by someone in the crowd, she gave Molly’s hand a squeeze to let her know she was still there with her.

Amara's dislike of large crowds had dissipated somewhat since she'd moved to New York, and now she was somewhat in her element, smiling and nodding to all of the kids as they got off the bus, saying hi, pointing them in the right direction. Once they were all off the bus, she made a note on the clipboard she was holding, then looked up once more. She really couldn't believe how many people had turned out for the rally. It gave her hope - maybe things weren't so hopeless for mutants after all.

"Finally. Why did I think 'I'll meet you there' would be a good idea?" An elbow appeared between two bodies, closely followed by Marius. The contingent from Xavier's hadn't been hard to locate, as there weren't many groups with such a concentration of mutant signatures around, but getting to them had been another matter. Marius straightened and tried to turn, only to smack against one of the newest additions to the team.

"Apologies, Fred." The Australian took as much a step back as he could manage and sighed. "Well, given the crowd it was inevitable I found myself involuntarily crushed to someone's bosom today. Under the circumstances, I suppose you are one of the safer alternatives."

“Obviously you don’t ride on the Subway at rush hour very much,” Callie commented with a good-natured smile as Marius squeezed next to her. “You learn very quickly that getting crushed against someone’s breasts is one of the better options out there. I swear, one time I rode the entire trip pressed against a gun. It was in a backpack, so I couldn’t see it, and I really hope it was fake. It set me on edge the entire time, though.”

Fred smiled and patted Marius’ shoulder, “No worries. How-” His concentration was broken when someone mentioned breasts momentarily, and Fred turned to notice it was Callie. He coughed a little, and decided not to make the juvenile joke that automatically came to mind.

Cammie was on the sidelines with a sandwich that smelled like it might have been thrown out of the trash. She was, truthfully, waiting for a fight to break out. Protests were gold for that sort of shit, and she’d be lying to herself if she didn’t say she wasn’t there for the chance of some sort of action. Not that she was going to go out of her way to start something, but things like this? It never took much at all to blow things up.

The tempo began to pick up as the chants began and the protest swung into full force.