Crocodile Dundee (Open)

Trouble was brewing at the mall, some kind of fight was going on. So visitors were walking in the mall, unaware of the chaos going on, when from around the corner, a blurry figure that looked vaguely like a teenage girl zoomed past and crashed into some clothes racks in a clothing store. She was hurt but alive, she had just crashed into a clothes rack after all, but if it had been a glass window or a concrete wall she would have been killed. The shoppers looked at her with widened eyes, then looked to her attacker, what they saw filled their eyes with horror, they screamed and ran away.

***A few minutes earlier***

Rachel was at the mall with her friend Sebastian, a short and weedy boy who has no other friends and is constantly bullied. Rachel saw how lonely he was, always hanging out by himself at lunchtime because no one else wants him to sit with them, so she sat with him and talked to him. They were at a clothes shop, Rachel was helping Sebastian pick out some new outfits What about these jeans? They look pretty good Sebastian simply sighed, holding up the tag that said XS It's too big for me Rachel sighed, the only clothes they had found that would even fit Sebastian were either for kids or looked stupid.

Rachel was very close to just deciding to give up, most people would have already done so after checking out almost every clothes store in one of the largest malls in the state, but Rachel was too nice for her own good. They had been there all day, it was already dark outside, but there was still one more clothes store. Rachel and Sebastian headed out of the store, not before Rachel bought a top for herself because she felt guilty about going into a shop just to not buy anything, and headed towards the next clothes store, this was the only one they had not yet checked, but there wasn't much hope for it, Rachel had seen classrooms bigger than this store.

As they looked through what little the store had to offer, things were going on elsewhere. A security guard was patrolling the mall, when he saw a gang of strange individuals walking through the entrance to the mall, he had seen some strange characters, but never anyone like these guys. They all had highly ranging physiques, some were huge and had broad shoulders, some were thin and lanky, but they all seemed to resemble reptiles and amphibians. Not all of them were the exact same in that expect though either, one was a human but with scales, some resembled humans but had reptilian features, some just looked like humanoid reptiles. But the thing they all shared in common was that they all rushed in and started causing pandemonium.

Security guards tried to stop them, but the strange abilities of the attackers proved too much for them and soon they were all down, the police had been called and the mall was in lockdown, but that just meant that the shoppers were all trapped in. Rachel faintly heard the chaos from far away, both she and Sebastian turned to the sound and then they saw some kind of lizard man running at them on all fours. Rachel hastily grabbed Sebastian's hand and ran out of the store before running away from the lizard. Rachel was a skilled athlete, she could run better than most high school level athletes, but the lizard caught up to her in an instant and tackled her and Sebastian to the ground.

It raised it's arm into the air and struck Sebastian in the face, Rachel screamed his name as the lizard man raised a clawed hand to strike the unconscious form of her friend again. In desperation, Rachel used her powers, turning her eyes and hair white before shining brightly, the lizard creature roared in pain and clutched at his eyes. Rachel took advantage of his blindness to rush over and knee it in the stomach, it bent over in pain so Rachel slammed it's head against the wall, it dropped to the floor.

Rachel turned back to normal and ran over to Sebastian, he'd be out for a few hours but he'd otherwise be okay. She picked him up, quite an easy feat given his small size, and carried him into the shop, the staff had fled when they saw the lizard man, so no one was there, she laid him behind the counter, so he was out of sight. She then ran off and hid where no one would see her. She dug through the bags of clothes she had gotten and pulled out a black suit made of a flexible material.

After getting quickly changed, she turned her hair and eyes blue, a similar shade to the sky on a sunny day. She turned into wind and dashed towards the area where the crowd was the largest. She stopped just in front of the crowd and stood there for a few seconds, she didn't particularly have a large presence and hadn't really done anything, so only a few animal thugs noticed him. A well muscled lizard with venom dripping from his teeth charged at her, trying to bite her, she ducked to the side, where someone who resembled a turtle tried to ram her, she leapt over him and a thin, lanky man who's torso extended so he was like a snake above the waist flew at her and punched her in the face.

She went down and hit the ground hard, groaning. She rolled away from the barrage of punches that tried to take her out, continually dodging attacks until the cool-down between her being able to change her colour ran out. She turned her hair and eyes bright red, before forming a red gauntlet around her fist and blocking the blow of a salamander, crushing the fist in her hand before knocking it into the wall. Bitey didn't seem afraid of her changed powers, so he charged at her and tried to bite her, but she blocked with her gauntlets and smacked him in the side of the head with her other fist, making a loud crack that got the attention of everyone in the room.

The lizard men all ran at her and attacked her, but their attacks were uncoordinated and she had no trouble fending them off, even if she wasn't using her powers. She struck one in the side of the head with a red baseball bat and backhanded another with a red gauntlet. There was a loud bellow and all of the thugs made way for a huge man, he was over 2 metres tall and had a head like a crocodile, but otherwise he was just a huge man. He seemed to be the leader, maybe taking him down would make the others surrender, Rachel rushed at the crocodile man and swung her red gauntleted fist at his chest, barely fazing him. He grabbed her and picked her up, she tried to break free, but the crocodile man had an iron grip, he threw her, sending her flying several dozen metres away. She went so far that the thugs didn't see what had happened to her, they must have thought she was dead because they all cheered and started ransacking the place again.

A few days after her last unpleasant encounter, Russett had finally picked herself up off of her metaphorical ground of failure, and set out to restore the items she had lost in that last fight. Out of all things who would have thought that the first villain who showed their face would be one to screw with technology. Although, Russett had to admit, the scuffle did teach her a bit more about controlling her powers. Before all of this, when it actually came to her ‘mutation’, everything she had been taught was theoretical. It felt nice to stretch out and experiment.

Russett rounded the corner into a clothing shop, hand placed protectively over the cash in her pocket. Force of habit, but still, better safe than sorry as much as she hated the expression. The shop was one of the first, just to the left of the main mall entrance. She hoped that the store would have the polyester fabric she needed. True, some would think just going to a fabric store was easier, but Russett had no idea how to seek it out. She had grown up homeless for crying out loud! How was she supposed to find such a selective business

No soon though, had she opened the door of the shop, surprised by the tinkle of a small bell tied the top of it, had a figure crashed into the clothing rack in front of them. What now seemed to be a young girl looked up from the scattered garments with wide fearful eyes. Just as Russett opened her mouth to ask the girl what was wrong, a guttural snarl sounded at the far end of the store.

There was a pause, only for a second, where no one moved or made any sound. Then, as usual, the chaos erupted. People shrieked and pushed each other to the ground in their panic to get away from the grotesque brawny scaled creature that ripped through anything within range.
Cursing, Russett grabbed the arm of the girl that had fallen into the clothes rack, yanked her up, using the same momentum to propel her forward into the swarm of people that rammed into her shoulders, and clawed her arms to help them get by. After a few moments of struggle, Russett had managed to break free of the crowd and stood face to face with the reptilian humanoid that was laying waste to the store, purely for the purpose of destruction.

The creature surged forward with surprising speed for its size, teeth snapping. Quickly, Russett willed a thick layer of titanium steel to cover her arm. She held it out in front of her, meeting the crocodile man’s bit, and grinned when she heard the sound of teeth cracking. Before the creature had a chance to let go, she turned on her heel and swung the crocodile into the wall. The plaster cracked, sending a delicate spider web pattern out from the place of impact. The strong grip of the croc’s jaws relinquished, and he crumpled to the ground, dead.

To her disappointment, just as she was wiping her hands clean of the fight, a dim sound of the same guttural tones, only this time in cheer, sounded. Russet groaned, now knowing there were more of them, many, many more, and bolted out of the store to stop them before any more damage could be dealt.

She found them in a group, wicked smiles, and sharp teeth. A shiver ran down her spine in disgust, and she swore to god that she was going to demolish this group, just for how badly they shamed the elegant grace of the reptilian race. Lizards were beautiful, but these guys were just gross.

Noticing a pillar just to her left, her arm shot out and grabbed the pillar, using that special arm of hers allow for her grip to rip out a massive chunk of the pillar. Testing the weight in her hand as if it were a small stone from the river, she bounced it a few times, deciding the weight was enough to wreak some havoc on the enemy.

With a grin just a sinister as the one on the scaly faces just a couple yards away, Russett shouted, “Hey ugly! How about you see if a girl can’t beat your scaly butt?” and launched the pillar, watching in satisfaction as it rammed into a couple of the creatures.

Rachel had trouble getting to her feet, but luckily she was helped up by a helpful stranger, she tried to thank the person, but the girl had already gone, she hadn't even seen what she looked like. She saw a girl taking on the crocodile man, she rushed over to help, but the fight was over in a second, the crocodile man was smashed into a wall. Rachel widened her red eyes in surprise, her previous attack had done barely anything to this man, but this girl effortlessly killed him, was Rachel that weak?

Rachel gritted her teeth, but then she remembered that the rest of the thugs needed taking out, this was no time to feel useless, being useful was the best cure for feeling useless after all. Rachel ran out and ran at the mob, as opposed to most of the people who were running away from the army of scary mutants. Rachel created a red baseball bat, wielding it as she smashed it on the head of a reptile man, she could have killed him, but she held back, even if these thugs were mutants, they were still people, killing them would be murder.

She whirled around and whacked the baseball bat into the jaw of a Komodo dragon man, spitting poison that splattered on the ground and fizzed through the concrete floor tiles with little difficulty. She jumped into the air and formed a red gauntlet around her fist, smashing her fist down on a chameleon's head and knocking him out. As she landed, she sweeped an Iguana man off of his feet and hit him with the bat as he was going down. Elsewhere, as she was fighting, the crocodile man rose to his feet and walked off, leaving the fighting behind to go elsewhere.

The lucky few that were missed by the pillar leaped into action, before Russett had finished her little witty comment. While the thought almost irked her, she was too disturbed by the one scaly man in the middle of the group, who simply stood stationary with a sickly smirk on his elongated face, as if the chaos around him was anything but dangerous. Though she wouldn't label him the leader just yet, certainly this one had powers over the others in some form.

They came quickly, with a speed that worried and awed Russett. In the time it had taken her to create a wall of water around herself, four of the creatures had surrounded her. With no regards to the water in front of them, they all rushed simultaneously. Russett crouched and launched herself up into the air, twisting like a cat to be facing the four assailants when she landed. In time with her jump, four scaly heads tilted up and then awkwardly backwards, only to be be met with a handful of pebbles being thrown at them. The pellets sizzled and the creatures looked down curiously, picking at them until suddenly, in the place of each pellet, a large fire ignited, and blew the creatures back in a series of mini explosions.

Potassium and water had always been a favourite method of destruction for Russett. She could still clearly recall the moment she had first seen the reaction in a chemistry class at MIT with a lesser group one element, sodium, even as she pivoted on her heel to run, only to be met by a particularly large and brawny lizard man that resembled an iguana. Still in mid-turn, the air was violently jerked from her lungs as the iguana-esque thing roundhouse kicked her in the gut, sending Russett flying back across the mall, the small blur of a girl fighting a lizard passing by on the way.

The sickening crack of a few ribs sounded as Russett's flying journey ended with her back to a pillar similar to the one she had just thrown. The irony was not lost on her. But, worse, she decided, was how strong these lizard men were.

She spat out a mouthful of blood to the side and shakily stood up, still unused to the pain of combat. A quick glance down at her left arm revealed the long sleeve to be very much in tact, and still hiding the complete length of the arm. Relieved, she scanned the area and immediately surmised that the closest fight was one where the girl she had flown by moments ago was-

'Oh god,' Russett struggled to hold in her snickers, paying for them in the form of pain where her angry ribs resided, but really it was too much to not laugh, 'this is just precious!'

She was surprised and humoured to find the same girl she had yanked up earlier beating the tar out of an iguana-man similar to the one that just thrown Russett. The girl, of no large stature mind you, was literally just...just beating the shit out of that poor lizard man. Russett almost felt sorry for it.

With the pain of her ribs now in the back of her mind (laughter is after all the best medicine), Russett swiftly ran over to the girls' side, covering her back and shooting out a gracious smile when their eyes met.