Kick It Up
| Kick It Up | |
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| Dates run: | June 22 - September 5, 2006 |
| Run By: | Ben |
| Read the logs: | Kick it Up |
You think you can judge me? You all think you can judge me? I have more power in my fucking little finger than the rest of you have altogether. You judge me? Hah! I judge you!
After a series of poor performances, Shiro Yoshida is ready to do anything to regain the respect he thinks he's lost.
Contents
Cast
Shiro Yoshida, Cyclops, Storm, Rogue, Wolverine, Clarice Ferguson, Tommy Jones
NPCs: Yoshi Satou, Chung Sheng Ho, Amelia Voght
Timing
Plot Summary
One June afternoon, Shiro passed by an alley where he saw a pair of men beating up another guy. He recognized the victim as a classmate of his, Yoshi Satou, and fended off the attackers. When he found Yoshi being attacked again a week later, Yoshi admitted that he's in serious debt to Korean mob boss and Kick dealer Chung Sheng Ho. Shiro offered to front Yoshi the cash to pay Ho back, so long as he promises to quit. Yoshi agreed.
But Yoshi didn't quit, and instead bought more Kick and dug himself even deeper into debt. After a heated scuffle with Shiro, Yoshi suffered a minor drug-induced heart attack. After calling an ambulance, Shiro confiscated the Kick so there would be no evidence of Yoshi's habit.
Before Shiro could decide what to do with it, he was called in for the events of the The Rictor Effect. When ordered to avert a series of small tsunamis, he Kicked to give himself what he perceived was a necessary boost. Though exhausted from the expenditure of his powers, he believed he did well and that he couldn't have saved countless lives without it, and concluded that usage of the drug in moderation would be healthy. Towards the end of July, he became another customer of Chung Sheng Ho.
Over the course of the next month, Shiro found himself using the drug more and more. First, it was just for missions that require some force (e.g., Search and Rescue). Soon, for tough Danger Room scenarios. By the middle of August, he couldn't get out of bed, much less access his powers, without Kicking multiple times a day.
He began to break down and lose control of his powers by the end of August. He placed the blame squarely on Ho's shoulders, and flew out to take revenge on him. Amelia Voght noticed Shiro's erratic behavior and alerted Charles, who sent Scott, Logan, and Marie to retrieve Shiro, with Ororo monitoring the situation on the comms. While Scott tried to talk him down, Shiro attacked Logan and Marie, and was only brought down when Marie absorbed his powers to knock him out.
Treatment began immediately after he awoke the next day. Suffering from withdrawal, he pled with Ororo to forgive him, and ultimately asked everyone for forgiveness. To date, the only person who has not forgiven him is Clarice, who ended their relationship upon Shiro's announcement of his addiction.
Related Links
External Links
Trivia and Meta
Trivia
This plot marked the first appearance of Kick into the game.
Shiro was removed from active duty for months, achieving reinstatement just days before X-Men Mission: Phalanx.
Meta
Plotrunner: Ben
The plotrunner originally conceived this idea while watching So You Think You Can Dance. The concept went through a number of changes before it was finalized, and all references to that competition disappeared during the process.
The characters of Yoshi and Chung Sheng Ho are derived from X-Men Unlimited (1st series) #34.
The hockey mask that Shiro wore while fighting Ho is reminiscent of the mask Sunfire wore in Age of Apocalypse, one of the plotrunner's favorite canon stories ever.
