The Movie Premiere

[Alison Blaire]

As dinner began to wind down and talk filled the theatre, Alison and Nekobah excused themselves to get ready for the little speeches they were to give before the movie played, and Alison for the song she was to debut there at the premiere.

Alison sat in her dressing room, sipping water and repeating the words to a particularly wordy part of her song over and over as she watched herself in the vanity mirror. A knock came at the door, and a familiar voice. “Alison?” It was Eric Beale, the movie’s director.

“Come on in,” Alison called as she turned in her chair and then stood. The door opened and Eric stepped in. ‘Ali,” he said with a smile as he met her where she stood and wrapped her in a hug. Alison felt the familiar feeling grow as he put his arms around her; the feeling of being slightly creeped out by the man. And at the same time, she felt guilty, because she as she told herself each time, Eric was really a…nice…guy.

Around other people, he was, definently. But it just seemed like every time he and Alison were alone, Eric got a little weird. Ali had always known that he had a crush on her—more than once he’d had flowers put in her trailer with a note to say it was from him--but lately things had been getting awkward. She ended the hug probably before he was done touching her, and took a careful step backwards, mindful of her heels and gown.

“Are you ready to go out there and dazzle them?” he asked with that eerie grin, as though he wanted nothing more than to stare at her and to hear her response.

Dazzler cracked a faint smile at the irony of his choice of words. “Yeah,” she answered with a nod.

“Good,” Eric replied, putting a hand on her arm. “Look, there’s just one more matter of business before you go out there.” He led her to the couch, and Alison obliged him and sat. Rather than sit, Eric stood on the other side of the coffee table and watched her. "I’m going to be honest, Alison. You have confused me. You haven’t responded to my notes, the flowers…You don’t even say anything about them.”

Alison’s stomach tied into knots immediately. She stared at the table and shifted in her seat, trying to come up with the words to say. “Um…”

But Eric wasn’t finished. “Would you rather have jewelry? Whatever you want, I just…” he paused, and sat on the coffee table directly in front of her. She slowly and (she hoped) inconspicuously moved her legs so that their knees didn’t touch, and she kept her hands close to her body in her lap. Eric’s affections seemed to run deeper than the simple crush she’d blown it off to be.

“I love you, Ali. Every time I see you, I just…imagine what life would be if you and I were together.”

“Eric.” Alison stopped him with a surprisingly firm tone. She continued more gently. “You are a great guy,” she fibbed. “But…I don’t see you like that.”

The look on Eric’s face was not one of a heartbroken man. It was the look of someone who knew something to be true and who was growing frustrated that Alison didn’t know it as well. “You don’t have to, now. But I know—“ He grabbed Alison’s hand, “—You’ll love me someday. And I can wait. I’ve waited for years—“

Alison jerked her hand from Eric’s grasp and stood, in her uneasiness forgetting her hopes to keep her actions polite. Years?! She hadn’t known him for years. Her heart began to quicken it’s beating in her chest, and she took a few steps away from the couch, the table, and the man who was obsessed with her.

“We shouldn’t be talking about this now. I…I’m about to go on stage.”

“No. We have to talk now,” Erik said, standing. His tone was final, and Alison felt the hairs on the back of her neck tingle without knowing why.

“I don’t want to make you sad, Alison,” he said, moving closer to her. His words struck Ali with fear that squeezed her chest. What was he thinking of doing?! She turned around quickly, not trusting to leave her back to him anymore. He was watching her with a baleful look, but there was something hard about his eyes. He was desperate. He stepped toward her, and she backed away. The urge to scream rose in her throat, and she glanced to the door. What would he do if she screamed? Likely something rash.

“Don’t you understand? I know you. I’m the only one who really knows you. You keep yourself a secret, but I know. You’re a mutant. And I still love you, see? They, he gestured back to the door, meaning everyone happily talking and eating in the theatre beyond, “they wouldn’t love you. But I do.” He’d gotten close enough to take Alison’s hand and Dazzler was in such a state of shock that she didn’t think to pull away.

How??? How??? HOW?!?

Possibilities flew through her head, visions of cameras planted in her home or dressing rooms. The thought of the invasion made her stomach turn.

She slumped backwards, falling against the wall and sliding to sit. Her face threatened to crumble into sobs a few times, but in the end she just stared ahead. Her brain functions were moving in slow motion, and she couldn’t form any words to say out loud that would make any sense.

At the sight of her reaction, Eric grew angry. “Why can’t you just love me?! This isn’t what I want, I don’t want to hurt you—but even if I do, someday you’ll realize how right I was, and what I do now won’t matter.”

He seemed to have come to a decision in his mind, and he knelt in front of her. Alison avoided his gaze. “You have to say you’ll be with me. Marry me. Or else everyone will find out you’re a mutant. And they’ll hate you for it. I’ll pull the premiere, and your label will drop you. You’ll never act or sing again; nobody will want you.” In reality, he was exaggerating the effects, at least the reaction of the public. After all, mutants were starting to be publicized in a positive light – wasn’t the premiere proof of that? But he was playing on Alison’s fears, and that erased all rationality from her brain.

Tears streamed down Alison’s face as she tucked her chin to her shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut, wishing that Eric would disappear. In a way, he wish was granted. He stood, and looking down on her, said, “I’ll give you a few minutes to think about it. Just remember—I love you. We could be happy.” And with that, he left.

When he returned minutes later for an answer, she was gone.

[angel]

[Continued from 'The Red Carpet']

It didn't take long to arrive back at his seat - going to the bathroom had seemed like a good idea; although Warren didn't exactly have a girl bladder or anything, he just didn't want to be disappearing halfway through the show or anything.

It was kinda a big deal, and all of that. Mutant rights, being the date of the star, and all that jazz.

And he didn't want to miss Ali's singing. He knew she had a good voice - he was just wondering which song she was going to be doing.

"Sooo... What'd I miss? Anything?"

[Sorry, just figured I'd post something, not entirely sure where it's going from here but didn't want to hold things up.]

[Iceman]

Bobby sat up when he saw his friend approaching, and was the first one to answer Warren's question. "Yeah--some girl was looking for you. Jessica....Abbott? Albon...Arbor?" Though his look was one of concentration, the corners of his lips were tugging upwards as he tried to keep back his grin.

He shrugged, sitting back in his chair again. "Oh, well. She wanted your number, so I gave her mine instead."

Then, the lights began to lower very slowly, giving people time to find their seats. Bobby's eyes roamed about the stage, waiting for someone to walk out. He leaned over to Paige and whispered in her ear. "We should have brought popcorn. And slushies."

[husk]

Paige followed shortly after, sitting next to Bobby and smiling. “Tell me you didn’t run over and hit on Jessica while we were away,” she chuckled.



Angel had set her straight on a few things during their random run in outside in the lobby. Not really intending to, she supposed, but he did make Paige feel a bit better about Alison and the whole situation. Fighting the temptation to lean into Bobby- there was definitely a certain part of her that missed him, though the instinct was something other than romantic- Paige looked around them, wondering what the delay was about.

[Alison Blaire]

Alison appeared beside Roman Nekobah as he stood in the wings waiting for the time to come that they would start the bits that would go on before the movie played. He turned to look at her and saw the haunted look on her face and the redness of her cheeks under her eyes. He knew something was wrong, but he didn’t much care anymore. Maybe she’d finally given in to the pressure and gone bulimic, and had just been getting rid of her dinner in her dressing room’s bathroom. ‘Wouldn’t surprise me,’ he thought with snobbish contempt as he turned away from her. ‘She was always too impressionable.’

“Alright, we’re ready,” a stagehand said quietly to them. A number of other behind-the-scenes people were hurrying around. Roman glanced at his Rolex; they weren’t scheduled to start for another ten minutes. Apparently someone had decided to speed things up.

That someone held her hand in front of her eyes, both to be sure that her skin wasn’t glowing and that her eyes weren’t glowing either. Her eyes were usually the first to go. Her power had no off switch; she always had to keep it reigned in. Though after so many years it had become second-nature, at times when she was very emotional, it took a lot of concentration to control the light. She could so easily sense the waves of sound, where they were strongest, how much light they would convert into. How easy it would be to do it, and how dim the space around her was without the light she could give it. And yet, even when there was no one around but herself, she felt as though that yearning was a temptation to do wrong, because it wasn’t…natural; and what if it went wrong someday? Did she really have control over it?

She lowered her hand, satisfied to see no glow of light radiating from her skin. She watched as the lights in the theatre dimmed and the lights on stage brightened. They didn’t glow quite like they had in all the rehearsals, though, and that was because Alison didn’t risk adding her own colorful rays to the stage beams.

The crowd hushed, and Nekobah and Blaire were cued to enter. As soon as they were in sight, applause erupted from beyond the stage, which for those in the lights was a black vastness of indistinguishable forms. The two acted as though they could see every face, though, and grinned and waved as they passed cameras and made their way to the podium, Alison walking with her hand on Roman’s arm as though they were good pals. She even managed to smile, though none of it reached her eyes. It took every ounce of her acting experience to don that smile.

[Alison Blaire]

Alison and Roman reached the podium and welcomed everyone. They made a few light jokes and comments which most knew better than to think were spontaneous, but which were well-received by the crowd nonetheless. But throughout the introduction, Alison found it hard to keep a happy mask on her face. Her words seemed distracted, her eyes troubled, and at times when Roman had a long bit to say on his own, she seemed to get lost in thought, gazing at the podium.

The set-up was to go as follows: Roman and Alison would welcome the guests and introduce, then Alison was to sing, then Eric Beale was to come on stage and go a grand speech of what a wonderful experience it was calling the entire main cast on stage and thanking them in a heartfelt schpeal, so on, so forth. Then the movie would play. But Alison knew that it wouldn't get so far. Though she tried to ignore it, clinging to the faint hope that somehow she could say what she had to say, and refuse Eric's offer, and the movie would still play, and her life would still go on as she was living it...She knew that it wasn't going to happen that way.

She snapped back to reality as Roman was announcing that she would be singing, and she stared blankly at him as he turned to her with a well-faked grin, beginning to clap and causing the entire audience to join with him.

Music. The music would calm her down. Then she could say it.

Luckily, she had practiced the proceedings from there so many times that she could move like clockwork, taking the handheld microphone from the podium and moving to her spot as the lights lowered and Roman exited the stage. When she stepped onto her place, it lit with a warm glow of light that was faintly purple. Though the lights were only spotlights overhead, as Dazzler stepped into the rays, they began to shift, glow, and almost sparkle in a beautiful array of light--yet it didn't take the attention away from the songstress who basked in it.

[husk]

Paige clapped with the others, and actually became interested in the proceedings. She'd never been to anything like this, though she'd seen similar shows- awards shows and the like- on television, being here live was something different entirely.

Alison was pretty talented, and Paige watched with interest as she performed.

[angel]

He knew that she couldn't see him, but Warren still gave Alison a thumb's up from where he was sitting, eagerly awaiting the start of the song. He even gave her a bit of a catcall - well, he couldn't help himself, he'd kept it short, and there was no way she'd know it was him.

A little encouragement wouldn't be a bad thing, surely?

[Alison Blaire]

(I reccommend listening to the song, but thats just me. It's at www.music.aol.com/artist/natasha-bedingfield/667957/main )

Quiet piano music played in a short intro, then Alison began to perform the song for the first time outside of the studio. The music calmed her nerves - she wasn't able to think about the bad to come, because if she became distracted even for a second, she would mess up the song, and the music deserved much better than that. It deserved to be performed flawlessly. It was the most heartfelt performance of her life; every word of it was true, and though every hand and head movement had been scripted, she threw it all out and simply did what felt natural - which made more of a statement than any perfectly-scripted performance would have ever done.

(ooc: The lyrics, in case you didn't want to listen to it: www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Natasha-Bedingfield/Wild-Horses.html )

The song wasn't literally about horses, which was clear, but was a metaphor for the fact that she wanted to act without having to think through her every action. She wanted to be free of her fear.

But there was another meaning to the song. Working with the movie and learning about the fight for mutants rights - and then meeting a few of the X-Men, especially Warren, and seeing people who had the strength to wear their mutation on their sleeve - had opened up her eyes. She had realized that she didn't want to be afraid anymore, of being found out. She still was afraid, but she was no longer comfortable living with that fear. She was, as the song said, surrounded by a fence of fear, and as she saw it, Warren, Bobby, and Paige were free, comfortable in their skin and therefore not afraid of what responses they got.

With about a minute left of the song, Alison got to the part she had written last, which was as close as the song got to outrightly addressing another aspect of what knowing Warren had caused her to want to put into song. She felt that it was premature to say it to him, but that was one of the many beauties of what she got to do. She could speak her heart, and it would forever be glossed over, seen as 'good lyrics' but rarely looked into any deeper than that.

"Recklessly abandoning myself before, I want to open up my heart, tell you how I feel..."

The song ended gently, with her light tone fading with her breath as the music struck it's final chord.

The crowd erupted into applause, and Dazzler drew a shaky breath as she waited, the mic held at her mouth, waiting with bated breath for the noise to subside so she could finally make an attempt at overcoming her fear.

[Alison Blaire]

"Thank you," Alison said, her eyes skimming the guests as though she could see them as clearly as they could see her. She spoke without a smile, but she was managing not to puke or faint, and that was as much as she could do. "Thank you."

The applause lowered to a level she could speak over easily, and she began, signalling the remaining applause to die down. She wanted to get right to what she had to confess, but the film deserved her scripted lauding. It had helped her incredibly...even if no one else would ever see it.

"Before I turn things over to Eric, I want to make a few remarks." She even mahanged to say his name without shuddering. She took a deep breath, as though breathing through a straw, and continued on. "Working on this film...has been an incredible experience, for no other reason than that I have been able to learn so much about mutants - mutant rights, and the hatred that they are faced with."

"This film is truly a groundbreaking one. It is the newspaper speaking out for the Indians being cheated out of their land as our newborn country spread West. It is the person who stood at the gates of Auschwitz and looked the Nazis in the eye and supported the Jewish prisoners. It is the pamphlet circulated in South Africa that condemned every racist during the Apartheid." Alison flowed through the speech easily and emphatically. Memorized, she didn't have to think to say it, which was a comfort.

"We see the people who are activists for mutant rights, and we see those who are extremists. We see our representatives in an ongoing debate over every aspect of what mutantcy means for the world and it's population. But we don't see the people whose fight is personal; who live with persecution daily, just trying to live their lives and fit in. That's what this film shows us."

Alison paused, looking down at the stage before her for a few short moments. Perhaps she was forming her next words, perhaps she was calming herself with a deep breath, or maybe she sent a silent prayer up to a God she had always tried to be somewhat in tune with. Whatever the reason, when she was done, she lifted her head and addressed the crowd again. "...Tonight isn't about me," she said plainly. "It's about the film. But the way things have fallen into place...I need to say this now."

There was a silence as she paused, and Alison could practically hear the minds buzzing with curiousity. 'Sounds serious,' she could imagine them thinking, 'wonder if she's going to pull a Fiona Apple or something'.

"...Ive been trumpeting mutant acceptance, but I have yet to learn that acceptance myself. Because...I've been hiding. Afraid of...who I am. What I am."

"I am a mutant." Alison only meant to pause a moment, but after a chorus of shocked gasps, the theatre began to buzz with conversation, gossip and comments of all kinds erupting from the sea of shadowy figures before her.

[husk]

Paige smirked.

Well doesn't that just figure.

Alison gets to boost publicity for her film by coming out at the premiere. She has the street cred of mutant "friends" she hugged on the red carpet. Now she has even more attention on her than ever. Would this girl ever quit?

Looking sidelong at Warren, and then Bobby, Paige crossed her arms and shook her head. She wasn't sure why she had such a problem with Alison Blaire, but the pretty, young starlet wasn't doing a great deal to show off her stellar personality... it seemed she was too busy showing off other things.

Paige tried to be sympathetic, but she'd never felt more manipulated in her entire life. And to think, that girl had tangled Warren into this whole thing. Her Warren, her best friend and..

She sighed. What a mess.

[angel]

As soon as she started talking, Warren could tell where it was leading to. Maybe it was because of the conversation they'd had, about how she was thinking about coming out as a mutant - or maybe it was just because he knew about her secret, and didn't really know where else she could be going with her speech.

But he still bit his lip when she said it and everyone gasped around them. Some of the comments he could hear... well, not all of them were positive, and it made him shake his head sadly.

He saw Paige crossing her arms beside him and turned to look at her.

"I should have told you, I've known for weeks. I didn't think she was going to... Well, I didn't think she'd do this." He actually looked a bit worried. Yeah, he was confident that she'd pull through it, but... Well, the timing was going to make it look like a stunt, and with all these people around? Well, regardless of their 'mutant friendly' guest list, it still seemed as though things could end up less than positive.

[Iceman]

Bobby had been enjoying the premiere very much, settled back in his chair and clapping and laughing at the appropriate times along with everyone else - especially at the end of the song, when Bobby put two fingers in his mouth and gave a piercing whistle. She could sing, even if the dialogue before the song had been less than awesome. She looked kind of out of it.

During her speech, there were times when Bobby felt slightly like a prop - someone placed at Alison's side to make her look mutant-friendly - but he brushed the thought off. First of all, it didn't strike him as much as it did Paige, because he cared a great deal less about being used. Sure, it was a little insulting, but the bottom line was that it got the X-Men and mutants in general good publicity. The publicity coming from the entire project had such potential to be so good for the mutant community.

And who cares if you're something of a tool when you're a tool who gets to go to ritzy events and have girls kiss you on the cheek and ask you to sign their cleavage?

Okay, so no one had asked Bobby to sign their chest. But as far as he was concerned, it was only a matter of time.

Then Alison's speech took a turn, and lost Bobby for a few moments. Until she announced that she was a mutant. His lips parted as he stared in shock at the actress up on stage as people around him began to whisper. When Warren leaned over to whisper to Paige, Bobby leaned forward as well, watching Warren's face and listening to what he said. "Yeah, now was a really bad time to announce it..." he said quietly, nodding with a surety as he looked back to Alison.

Why was she announcing this? Was she really that much of a publicity whore? Bobby couldn't help but feel a bit angry with her, and...betrayed. There were a million ways to better announce that she was a mutant - it really seemed like a publicity stunt now, and a very, very obvious one on top of that.

[Alison Blaire]

The buzz of shocked responses from the premiere's guests kept Alison from speaking for several seconds. Inside, she had felt as though her heart had stopped and dropped into her stomach at the response of the crowd, though it was much like she had expected it would be. Outwardly, though, she was maintaining some semblance of poise. Then before she could continued, a voice sounded behind her.

"Alison, don't do this." Ali turned to see Eric approaching cautiously, as though she were a deer that would run away at the slightest sudden movement. He looked slightly panicked, which Alison knew was not faked. Not only was he losing his blackmailing opportunity, but if Alison told everyone what he'd done, his reputation would be ruined forever. Luckily, he had one trick left up his sleeve. She had thwarted him, and he could no longer expose her, but he would drag her name through the mud and make her hated for rebuking his love.

"What?" Alison said, confused. She, as she was not speaking to make a scene for the audience, lowered her mic from her mouth some, so that her voice was more faint. Eric had a mic on his suit jacket, and his very deliberate scene reached the audience's ears quite clearly. "You don't have to hurt anyone," he said to her before turning to the audience.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm very sorry, but this is an emergency. Everyone please exit the building as quickly as possible. Threats have been made against this event, by a terrorist group that recent evidence has brought to light that Ms. Blaire is associated--"

As Eric spoke, the confused buzz grew louder. Eyes looked between the director and the actress. Alison Blaire? A terrorist? It sounded ridiculous.

'Was this staged?'

'What on earth is going on?'

'I don't know. We should leave.'

Some began to get up, moving quickly toward exits. Some others stood, but seemed still unsure of whether to believe the claim or not. Many others remained in their seats.

Then Eric stopped talking. Alison had stood as Eric had spouted lies, dumb-founded and shaking with anger and fear. The lights overhead that washed down on them began to grow more and more bright as she drew sound from electrical appliances overhead and behind the stage without realizing she was doing it. But then the lights throughout the theatre were turned on, and Alison could suddenly see the people leaving their seats and hurrying for the exits, giving her backwards looks of fear and disgust.

She panicked, and without a thought, she tore away the mental dam that kept the light inside of her. Some cried out as bursts of light exploded in the air over the audience and stage. The flashes continued chaotically as Eric grabbed his throat with both hands. His lips moved, but he made no sound.

He acted surprised, but Alison knew better. In a matter of seconds, though, she realized what an upper hand he still had. He began to gasp soundlessly, his eyes bugging, seeming to be flailing for air. His face turned red, and Alison frantically stopped the conversion, giving him his sound back and making an end to the flashing light. Oh, God. He'd acted like...everyone would think she'd tried to kill him...

As Eric fell to the ground, seeming to be unconscious or dead, screams filled the theatre. Alison didn't look to the crowd. She whipped around and, dropping the mic to the ground with an amplified boom, she walked as quickly as she could off the stage.

[husk]

Paige’s hands lifted and landed firmly on wrists- one was Warren’s the other Bobby’s.


Alison may have been many things, but she didn’t seem the type to do what Erik was accusing her of. If someone was hurting that guy down there, it wasn’t Alison. Which meant someone else was. It could very likely be the Brotherhood.


Paige’s reaction was one few might have expected. She half smiled, a determined, almost fierce look on her face. No one was going to get hurt while she was there. Particularly not when she had at least one official X-Man sitting right beside her. She looked to Bobby.


“Alright Iceman, good thing she brought us along, right? People know you. Can you try to get the crowd calmed down?” She looked to Bobby, and then to Warren. “You’re most likely to be able to get Alison out of here, right? She can talk to the police after the chaos has calmed, but in a panic someone might hurt her. Can you get to her?”


Paige wasn’t sure what she was going to be able to do, but she’d figure that out as she went along.

[Iceman]

Looking back on the situation later, Bobby would be impressed with Paige's quick reaction. But at that moment, his brain had switched to X-Man Mode, and he wasn't focusing on anything but what needed to be done. He stood quickly, staring at the collapsed Enrique Baller or whatever his name was. There was no way Alison was in The Brotherhood. That was complete bullshit. Which meant that the director had been lying. Which also meant that he probably wasn't hurt at all. So instead of suggesting that someone check him out, Bobby left it at that.

He nodded briskly and turned, setting off down the walkway at a brisk jog. He had to shove around and between people, as everyone was hurrying to get out as quickly as possible, and in their chaos clogging the aisles so that the only movement was at a snail's pace. There was lots of elbowing and shoving, especially by the guards all fighting to get their celebrity charges to safety first.

Bobby noticed surges of people going the opposite way as the exit doors. He realized that they were going into the hallway that led backstage, and he turned and started off toward that area. When he reached the hallway, he called out to a few people that were approaching it, catching them by the shoulders. "Hey! That's not the exit! It's over there!" he said, having to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of talking and yelling. He gently but firmly turned and steered the two toward the exit, letting go after a few moments as they saw the exit sign.

He pointed a few more people in the right direction, and then as a man tried to dodge around him, he stepped into the mouth of the hallway and leaned over, planting his hand on the wall and blocking the man's way. His other hand he automatically planted on the guy's chest to keep him from barrelling into him. "Man, the exit's that way," he said, his serious, icy blue gaze boring into the stranger's eyes. As the words left his lips, frost began to spread on the wall around Bobby's hand. It extended into the air and thickened, forming ice from the floor to the ceiling. The wall spread this way until it sealed the hallway. The people already backstage would use back exits, it would be easier than adding them to the congested crowd in the theatre anyway.

[Alison Blaire]

Those still backstage kept far from her, hurrying to leave her sight as she approached, but her eyes were too blinded by tears to see most of the movement. She went straight to her dressing room, where she pulled her dress off unceremoniously. She left it lying on the floor as she grabbed her clothes, pulling on jeans and a t-shirt.

She grabbed her purse and sat heavily, tearing through her purse for her sunglasses with one hand so when she went oustide she wouldn't be quite as easy to spot, and with her other hand, tearing off her heels. Unable to find her glasses and having a hard time unbuckling the strap of her show one-handed, she gave a small cry of frustration, tears spilling over her eyes and unleashing a flood down her cheeks.

[angel]

"Yeah, I'm on it." He leant over to give Paige a quick kiss on the cheek, his jaw tensing as he watched Bobby leave and start trying to help people get out. "Just be careful."There was concern obvious on his face as he glanced over to the stage and then back to his best friend, but somehow he didn't think that people would go crazy and start attacking or anything. They were just panicking. It was going to be alright... But what the hell was going on?

As he stood and stepped away from Paige, he looked for a decent route through the crowd; some way of getting to Alison without getting caught in the flow of people trying to move away.

It was clear pretty quickly that he wasn't going to be able to manage it. Ugh. He never did like flying in buildings. Even when they had high roofs like this one, it always felt claustrophobic. He didn't even bother taking off his jacket, since it had been designed for him to fly in, stepping up onto his seat and onto the back of the seat next to him to jump up into the air. He didn't have much time before he was coming back down again, his wings opening and flapping hard to get himself moving toward the stage.

Ugh! All of his senses were screaming at him that he was too close to the walls, too close to the roof, too close to all the equipment hanging down. It didn't take long to reach the stage - where he looked down at the director, who was still lying on the floor with his eyes closed, though his chest was clearly moving, with disgust.

"Alison? Alison!" His voice rang out in the narrow corridor as he ran in the direction that she'd gone.

[Alison Blaire]

Alison's head lifted at the sound of a voice in the hallway, her eyes training on the door. She listened for a moment, and when she was sure that it was Warren's voice, she stood. She went to the door, still in her heels, bag in hand, and opened it hesitantly. She stepped out, one leg in the hall and one still in the room, and looked down the hall for Warren.

She saw him almost immediately, and she called out to him. "Warren!"

As she waited for him to see her and come closer, she watched him - and she saw him clearly, though her eyes were glowing white, lighting her face and anything else that came close to her. Her skin was glowing as well, shining faintly through her clothes.

[husk]

Paige watched Bobby take off, and Warren swept over the crowd. She made her way between the panicking people, almost shoving them to get to the stage.

That guy who'd caused the chaos. Someone HAD to get to him...

As she went she lost a heel, and kicked the other off. The crowd dissipated a bit as she got further to the stage, people had all wanted to leave as quickly as they could. Tearing at herself, by the time she jumped onto the stage, Paige was only a sleek silver form, rising to walk over to the still prone human.

She leaned over him and looked down. He seemed fine, looking at her with a little fear.

"Don't... hurt me..." he said.

"You seem fine now, funny that," Paige said, picking him up by his shirt. It took a bit of a jerk, but with her steel form, she was considerably stronger than normal. Something told her however, that her athletic frame was stronger even without the steel than this wiry producer type.

"SOMEBODY-" He began to scream, but Paige did then, what Paige did best- act before she thought. Pulling back her first, she hit him straight between the eyes with a ball of steel. He was out cold with a ncie purple shiner developing, and Paige grinned.

Dragging him by his hands behind stage, she just hoped no one caught that on film.