Location: Hallway ---> Infirmary -- Washington D.C. Skills:
Part of Luna was trying to get to her feet so she could help the others with this mission, another part just didn’t want to be on the floor anymore. She was still struggling to get to her feet, despite Veil’s instructions when James came over and helped her up. She struggled with him to the infirmary, wanting to go the other way and be useful. Luna hated being useless. She didn’t want to be viewed as weak or a liability; especially, when she had abilities that could be quite useful. By the time James got Luna to a cot, she was out of breath and panting heavily. The looniness and bleeding subsided but her stomach was still in knots and she couldn’t catch her breath. Luna leaned back, opening her airways and took in deep gulps of air before she could even think to answer James. ”I did… sleep… last night,” she got out between breaths. She looked over at James apologetically. ”Just get me... some water and... go eat. I’m not... vomiting yet,” she noted weakly. She felt a bit like a doll with James sitting beside her and cleaning her up. She hated this. ”I’m sorry James, for everything. You watched... me die and it ... seems like... ever since then... you’re looking... after me….” Luna was also feeling guilty for invading James’s mind. She couldn’t help her powers right now, it was like they would go out of control on her so she had gotten into his head a couple of times in her distress. It wasn’t fair to him and Luna still didn’t completely understand why they had this sudden telepathic connection.
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
In the entranceway, the railing of the staircase began to rattle, as each iron bar slowly bent out of shape....
Veil went downstairs with the rest to grab a bite to eat, although she wasn't particularly hungry. She wanted to get on with the mission and bring their two wayward members home. Her mind couldn't stop turning the gears, especially as Max gave some important pieces of information. She grabbed a waffle and tore into it, not bothering with utensils or a plate or anything. Unlike her twin, she didn't care as much about cleanliness and her occupation was well suited for her disposition.
Casper, meanwhile, was piling waffles upon waffles on his plate. He went for just about every topping available, creating what he considered a culinary masterpiece, an Ode to the Waffles God. He briefly wondered if there was a god responsible for waffles, but none came to mind - so Casper, the ever so humble soul, decided that he might as well fill that role. "Big news everyone - I'm changing my codename to Waffle God, effective immediately," Casper announced, practically drooling as he looked at his leaning tower of goodies. "Filing cabinets and pastries? That remains me of this one time when I woke up in a Staples, whipped cream on my nipples, pancakes on my--"
"Hey, enough! No one wants to hear this man!" Ben complained.
"On my head, Ben, on my head. Do you think I would talk so callous around Echo's Christian ears?" Casper asked, a fake wounded expression on him - like a puppy pretending to be sad so that way someone might give them a treat.
Veil snapped her fingers. "Casper, focus. Answer Max's question," she instructed. She had finished her single waffle and didn't want to go for another one. They had already wasted too much time talking, they needed to hurry up and take action. Jack could take Sunshine out of the DC area at any moment. He could whisk her off on an Amtrak train and easily get her several states over in just a few hours. He also was suffering from M-Pox and there was a nonzero chance he could fall over and die before they found him.
"I'm getting to that, I'm getting to that," Casper reassured Veil, although it sounded much more like a whine. "Ugh, my head is pounding... Anyways... I dunno, maybe his office? He probably has paper storage devices there and he definitely has doughnuts around." He then rattled off the address.
"Great. Let's go then," Veil ordered, heading briskly out to the garage.
Sunshine
Location: Jack's Office Skills: N/A
Sunshine relaxed slightly, as Jack's explanation matched what she more or less had expected. She wasn't sure why he decided to take her here, rather than just leave her in her room that she shared with Waverley, but he was weird sometimes. He was sentimental and squishy and he probably cried when watching romantic comedies. His best friend was likely a tub of ice cream with sprinkles. Though Sunshine guessed she couldn't really talk, her best friend was...
Dead.
She breathed in sharply as ripples of pain flowed through her body. Tears welled up in her eyes and she shut them tightly, trying to will the emotions to go away. Nothing the humans had ever done to her had hurt as much as losing Illyana. She felt like she couldn't breathe, with each breath just bringing more pain and turmoil. Sunshine didn't know if anything she was feeling was normal. She oscillated between wanting to burst into tears and curl into a ball and having the urge to go kill as many humans as possible, to pile them high in the streets. She wanted to scream to the world that Illyana existed, that Magik was the most beautiful and amazing and scary person she had seen in the world.
"I need to go do something," she said, wiping away the tears as she got up and headed towards the door. There were humans everywhere. Even if they weren't all Purifiers, they were guilty by association.
Zari wasn't really paying all too much attention to what anyone else was saying for the moment, instead going over and grabbing some food, before finding a spot to sit and starting to eat. Mr. Eyeball was floating along happily after her, just sort of bobbing up and down and when she sat down the robotic eye was just sort of floating there by her, still bobbing up and down. "Mr. Eyeball you can just settle down next to me you don't have to be floating around like that you know," Zari commented to the eye, not even looking up from her food as she spoke to the eye.
Sapphire wasn't all too hungry at the moment, and so she more or less just stood off to the side, her mind more or less just wandering to everything that was going on. She wasn't really wanting to deal with everyone else, but figured she might as well just follow the others and see what was going on with them. Truthfully she wanted to actually go along with Veil and that small group heading out, since it would potentially get her away from just thinking about the day before and distracting her from the thoughts that were running through her head. She knew not to question Veil or whatever about it, so she remained silent about it.
"Hey don't be rude!" Zari complained to the eye, before her mind shifted gears and she turned to look at Echo as he commented about the potential of staying there long term. Personally, she was glad that these people were willing to let her stay with them, at least until she figured everything out, which was nice. Though she didn't really want to get too close to the people here, since when all was said and done, she was going to leave them all and go back home to where she belonged. She didn't really respond to Echo's words, just listening to everyone.
"Hopefully you guys can figure out what's all going on with this soon and hurry back or something, figure out what the hell is going on with Jack and whatnot," she commented to Veil when she said something about that group needing to head off and get going. She still wanted to tag along, but figured that they probably should have a few people left at the Underground who likely wouldn't cause problems and weren't dying of M-Pox to keep an eye on everything. She just wished that there was someone else who could stay so that she could go instead.
Location: Jack's Office Skills Deduction, People Reading, Parenting
Jack was looking at Sunshine, trying to figure out what was going through her head. Based on her facial expression and what looked to be tears in her eyes he had a pretty good guess that it had something to do with Magik. She was still clearly dealing with that, and when she said that she had to go do something, he figured that she was going to head off and start taking her anger out on a few unsuspecting humans, even if they weren't associated with the Purifiers. Heading over, he stood by the door, and looked at her.
"Rookie, going out and doing that sort of thing is not going to make you feel better, and it isn't going to bring her back," he said, putting a hand on the door to stop her from opening it up immediately. "Here, how about we go just take a walk around, no hurting people, no messing with them, just to get your mind off of things, does that work out for you? Go get some food other then doughnuts or whatever, keep your mind off of things..." he said to her with a bit of a smile, moving his hand away and opening up the door, "Come on Rookie, let's get going." he added as he walked out the door.
Ah, the nectar of the gods, second only to apple juice, coffee. "That's fine." She said in regards to the cup size. "I drink it in whatever form is available, but creme and sugar is good." Hopefully, she could refill her cup after she finished it.
As people gathered at the table she shoved waffles into her mouth. She felt bad for eating more than one since it seemed like most people were only eating one. But she would never feel bad for drinking coffee. Andy listened to the conversation a bit and looked at the guy who was apparently Waffle God. Her eyes were a little wide as he talked and then seemed to talk to air.
Who was he talking to? Ben? Was Ben an invisible person in the group? A dozen follow up questions went through her mind, but her mouth was full of waffle so she didn't ask any of them. But Veil took control of the situation changing the subject away from who Ben might be. She'd have to ask one of the people who had been here a while. They must know, and she didn't want to ask it and interrupt anything important. Or honestly, be noticed too much. She liked being mostly ignored.
Callie looked at Max as he managed to tell them what he had seen, and that they were still in the DC area. Which wasnt really much to go off of at the moment really as she crossed her arms over her chest after finishing eating the waffle she had snagged. ]"Thanks for the food." Callie said towards Echo giving him a slight nod, as Veil prodded Casper a bit more on where Jack and Sunshine could have gone, his office then was a good place to start looking. ]"Sounds like a good place to start looking to me, lets get going." Callie said as she started to make her way towards the garage, she was feeling well enough to drive so far which was good.
Callie got into the drivers seat looking over at Veil, she wasnt sure if having both Waverly and Max on the mission together was still a good idea or not. They didnt like each other at all really after everything that had happened so far, she waited for Max and Waverly to get into the car. "How are you holding up Veil, want to talk about anything?" Callie asked looking over towards her, yesterday had been a really rough day for everyone after loosing two members of the Underground.
"So does falling from the sky count as something that happens usually?" Kristina asked Echo teasingly while looking over towards Sapphire for a moment, remembering hurting her arm while trying to prevent her from falling down. She continued to eat her breakfast and leaned back slightly while looking at him. She grew up on a family farm, so she was kind of used to having to sleep in places with loud or weird sounds at night or going on hunting trips with her father and sister growing up as well. Kristina wasnt really interested in that stuff back then, but learned pretty well from everything while surviving out in the wilderness.
"I'm kind of used to sleeping in weird places." Kristina told Echo as she poured herself a cup of coffee. She looked at Zari and the floating eyeball still she couldnt understand what the eyeball was saying at all, it kind of reminded her a bit of R2D2 and C3-PO from Star Wars. "Sooooo what do you all do for fun when not out doing stuff?" Kristina asked, her sister worked with SHIELD and they sometimes had some free time in between missions and stuff like that.
Location: Outside Jack, James & Casper's Room Skills:
When Max wandered off, Waverley had expected him to come back with some sort of magical tracking device, or perhaps a cellphone of sorcery or something. So when he instead walked back up the stairs carrying a pair of plates, each adorned with waffles and fruit, the corner of her lip twitched downward in annoyance. When he shoved the plate into her hands, part of her wanted to throw the plate onto the ground. She didn't, of course, primarily out of respect for the poor soul who had to clean up those kinds of messes. Probably either Echo the Neat Freak or Colossus the Big Helpful Softie. So instead, she just shook her head.
"I said I'm not hungry," she told Max, a a clear edge to her voice. She automatically turned to hand the plate off to Sunshine for her to eat, as was their symbiotic relationship when it came to eating, only to remember the reason why her appetite had been robbed in the first place. The slip up made her realize that she should probably did need a little food, so she begrudgingly (and a little violently) stabbed her fork into the fruit and shoveled it into her mouth, not appearing to get any joy from the experience. She watched as he got to the ground, watching with anticipation as the boy went into his little meditative state. When he spoke, though, Waverley's shoulders dropped from both disappointment and annoyance.
"Filing cabinets and pastries?! That's the best you can do?! Great, she could be in the backroom of any Dunkin' Donuts in the capital. Great fucking wo-" her annoyance was interrupted by the call for Casper, and as she heard the man begin to speak, she quickly ran downstairs, too enveloped in finding her roommate to notice the bending of the railing. When she got to the kitchen, she was about to tell Casper to get to the point when Veil did it for her. When Casper spilled the beans, a small smile found its way onto Waverley's face for the first time the whole morning. She put her plate onto the table and looked over to the group of Echos.
"Mind wrapping this up for me?" she asked, not wanting the rats to get to it before Sunshine could. She didn't wait for an answer, quickly running back up the stairs to their room. She went immediately for her rebar, only to find it completely bent out of shape, almost at a 90 degree angle. With her good friend having died the previous day and another friend of hers missing, one would think that a bent piece of metal wouldn't cause much grief. But as she stared at it, she couldn't help but feel mournful. The rebar had been her weapon of choice for months, and here it was, rendered unusable. It didn't even get a glorious end in battle. It was like a legendary warrior dying of dysentery. She let out a saddened huff, before heading out and downstairs. Once she got to the group, she lifted the rebar.
"I think the magnet lady is up. Could someone maybe try and bend it back while we're out? Maybe she can, if, y’know, Havok convinces her to join the light side," she asked, ignoring the universal 'no weapons at the dinner table' rule and putting it on a space clear of any plates. She then followed briskly behind Veil, disarmed of the weapon that had always kept her safe.
James patted Luna’s arm while she spoke. If he’d watched her die, maybe he’d feel less like hovering but the fact of the matter is he didn’t just watch. He experienced right alongside her. He felt the chill from blood loss, he felt his limbs get heavy and sluggish, he felt his heart racing against the inevitable, beating hard enough to burst out of his chest, before the pauses between beats grew longer and longer and longer. He felt the panic, his lungs screaming because she couldn’t catch her breath, and that bitter cold that seemed to drag him down with her. He doesn’t know how much she remembers and he hopes for her sake something, the blood loss or her own telepathy, blocked it out. At least some of it. Because he remembered all of it. It haunted him, sometimes in the quiet of his work or at night when he closed his eyes. It clawed him out of bed at two am, tongue bleeding where he bit it hard to keep from screaming, and he stumbled out of his room and just paced downstairs for hours until he felt like he was safe in his own skin again. Safe and alive.
“You just got dealt a shitty hand. You’d do the same if I was in your place.” James said sympathetically. He’d panicked after the first time she’d jumped in but he was… comfortable wasn’t the word but he was used to it on some level. He’d never be comfortable but he couldn’t fault her for something out of her control. He finished cleaning her up, making sure to leave a clean towel under her head and a trash can next to her bed so she could vomit if she needed to. “I’ll get you some water and something easy to eat as long as you stay here and don’t go wandering off. Some food would make you feel better even if you can’t eat all of it.” James explained as he washed his hands, drying them off and giving her a critical look over. She looked so frail and weak like this. He didn’t like it and the worry wormed its way up his throat and settled there like bile. Something said he wasn’t going to be sleeping much tonight.
He left the infirmary and headed downstairs to grab some food. He could smell coffee and quietly thanked the heaven’s for Echo’s continued presence. As much as instant coffee satisfied his caffeine needs, real coffee did it so much better. Tunnel vision set in as he made his way into the dining room and the first thing he zoned in on was the french press. Talking was an unnecessary function when he existed, in that moment, only to drink the stuff he was pouring into his mug, sharp and bitter and perfect. He sighed happily after his first sip and then got to grabbing a few waffles on a plate, some water for Luna, and pocketed a banana. “Hey thanks Harry and team for breakfast. It’s awesome.” James wasn’t certain he’d ever learn all the duplicates’ names but thankfully they tended to group up so he could just address them as a whole. They all looked exactly the same so how the hell were they supposed to do anything else? He swung by Casper, giving his breakfast monstrosity a doubtful look but wisely kept his mouth shut, and pressed a quick kiss to his cheek before turning to Sapphire. “Hey, I’m gonna finish settling Luna in and then I’m going to catch up on some stuff I didn’t do yesterday. We aren’t quite out of pipe freezing range and gotta make sure everything’s still running at one hundred percent. Probably going to do some cleaning up too so once Luna’s recovered, we can finish patching up a few places in the walls. If you need me, just shout.” He told her, keeping her up to date with his plans and raised his coffee cup to the room in a vague goodbye and headed back up to the infirmary.
If he stayed busy, if he stayed moving and focused, he wouldn’t have to think that the little reconstruction team was mostly incapacitated. Cayden had been helping Luna and James, throwing himself into an unfamiliar (and usually painful because this place had been in bad shape) skill set just because they needed it. Keeping the work rolling meant he didn’t have to think about the empty bed that’d stick around after Cayden, he wouldn’t have to think about star gazing without his friend’s stories, he wouldn’t have to think about how his other best friend was dying of something he couldn’t fix. Someone had already died of m-pox and he couldn’t stop it. If this kept going, James wasn’t sure he could bring himself to suffer it again.
Location: Mutant Underground Medical -- Washington D.C. Skills:
Luna smiled weakly at James and nodded, watching him go to fetch her some water and hopefully something she could eat. Luna sighed, trying to get her breath even but she just couldn’t. She tilted her head back and stared up at the ceiling, thinking about the situation they all found themselves in and how royally fucked a lot of them were. James was right about one thing though. She would be doing what she could to look after him if it was him in this position or doing what she could to find a cure. Her father said he was working on finding one and she hoped he was close. Slowly, Luna’s mind started to shift and she groaned as she realized that the symptoms were getting worse again. Luna grabbed onto the trash can and vomited into the can rather than on herself or the bed. The red winked up at her and tears ran down her face as she thought that dying may not be so bad at this moment. She pulled her head out of the trash can and looked around the medical room for a moment before he head pulled her in a different direction and she started to giggle like someone with a school yard crush. There was a certain female on her mind suddenly and Luna was blushing.
As Max stood up from his position, the world around him began to spin. Dizzyness swept over him, knocking the wind from his sails as his legs buckled underneath his weight and he quickly grasped onto the railing. The bars had bent out of place, the shift causing the nausea to worsen as the food he just ate ran up his throat and caught in his mouth. There was a brief pause as Max tried not to vomit over the railing and struggled hard to swallow the chunks of waffle back down. He wasn't sure how well this would all play off with how he was feeling. His eyes kept focusing on the blurred vision of bulging veins that now were present on his forearms. How much help could he be to the team like this? He didn't say anymore towards Waverly, knowing full well that the conversation would do nothing for either of them.
Instead Max grabbed hold of his bearings and nodded a sickly smile towards Casper. "Then thats where we'll head next. I'll tty again once we get closer but I'm not sure if using my powers is worsening the M-pox." He wanted to give Waverly something to hold onto, anything, so he closed his eyes and reached out towards Sunshine. "Hey if you can hear me Sunshine, we're looking for you. Let us know if you're safe please, no one will be able to hear you respond." The message didn't seem to make it through and all he saw was more images invading his mind. "Ah! There's...a stained carpet, Jack, and...a spider web." Max was panting as he looked towards Veil, following to the car. "I...I...i wasnt even trying to track her it just...happened."
Harry shot a curious glare as Ben cut off Caspers story, only to have an amused smirk take its place soon after hearing about his 'Christian ears'. "Please, I've heard and done worse Ben. I know I can't hear you but honestly I wish I could. You seem like the kind of guy I'd love to be around." He gave a side glance towards Casper where he believed that Ben was and offered a coy little wink. He didn't mean much by it but everyone needed their spirits lifted today, even the spirits. "Please if you're gonna rebrand might I suggest a better name than Waffle God?" Harry plopped another finely cut piece of waffle into his mouth, covering it with a napkin as he said you're welcome to Callie.
Harrys attention now on his food, he replied back to Kristina chuckling. "I cant say that it happens a lot, though it really did yesterday. Thanks again for the save, hopefully this breakfast and some distraction is enough repayment for that today. Afraid there isnt much I can offer." He took a sip of his coffee, letting the words cling in the air until James came in to grab some food and thanked him. "Actually its Harry and the boys" A cacophony of whines erupted from the clones that stood by to keep the coffee fresh and waffles coming. "I thought we talked about this?""Yeah we said it'd be the Echo's!""No, we agreed on 'arry and the boys so we al share the name" "Pretty sure it was Larry and the guys" Everyone halted and looked at Larry and spoke in unison "Well it most certainly was not that.""Well it most certainly was not that." Harry cleared his throat and the rest quieted. "As for fun, well not too much that I can say. I practice my music, violin, and singing. Its both a weapon and talent."
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
On the second floor of the Mutant Underground, all of the metal flew up towards the ceiling. It wasn't heading towards the room Havok and Polaris were staying in. All of the doorknobs were ripped from the doors. No, this wasn't Polaris' doing... but whose could it be?
Veil
Location: On the Road Skills: N/A
Veil rubbed her face and pushed her hair out of her eyes again. At this point, she was wondering whether or not it would be a practical decision to just go bald. Her hair was always out of control and it knew no boundaries. "I'm fine. I'm hanging in there. Once things calm down, I'll take you up on that chat," she told Spark Plug. She was a rather blunt yet even person. She didn't have the bandwidth to process Magik and Moonwalker at the moment, not when Jack apparently was having a mental health crisis. She wished that Glimpse had been well enough to go with them, her telepathy could have been a huge help with this, but she was clearly in no condition to travel.
When Max and Waverley joined them in the car, Veil considered the update Max gave her. A stained carpet, Jack, and cobwebs - that sounded about right. She couldn't imagine Jack having a super fancy office, it was probably in a rundown building that didn't have any custodial staff. The descriptions seemed right. "When we get there, we talk first, fight second. Hopefully we won't need to subdue or restrain anyone. Feedback, you should be able to create a sonic pulse or wave to knock them out if we need it. Max, I imagine you can do something like that with magic. Spark Plug, I doubt you need me to give you any ideas." Spark Plug had actually rigorous training with her powers after all, unlike the other two.
With Veil's squad gone, signaled by the roar of the car engine as they departed, Casper let out a yawn and put his feet up on the table. Anyone sitting directly across from him would need to avert their eyes, as Casper's skirt would give them an eyeful otherwise. "So you talk to floating eyeballs?" he asked Zarina curiously. He yawned again, feeling incredibly worn out, despite the most exhausting activity he had done so far that day being scarfing down a pile of waffles. "Is the eyeball an annoying little bitch sometimes? Named Ben?" he pressed.
"I don't have to hang around here, Casper," Ben reminded him. "I could leave."
"Then go! Here, I can buy you a bus ticket to New Orleans and you can haunt a bodega if it makes you happy. Be free, little birdie! Fly away!" Casper shouted at Ben. Ben just sighed and rolled his eyes, but he didn't vanish. He was still leaning up against the wall, looking at the waffle themed feast that Echo and the Boys had prepared. Casper stretched his arms out, another yawn coming out of him like a tired cat. "Well for fun, I like to have sex with my boyfriend, James. Aaaand it's always chill to go to Sephora and swipe new things of makeup. Raves were cool, but I am boringly and delightfully sober at the moment... Maybe I'll start a cult. That could be fun."
"Ooh, yes, give me ideas if you have something that could possibly top Waffle God. I'll also be claiming the catchphrase Professor X is a Jerk!" He was pouting ever so slightly since James had came and then left again. He wanted someone to cuddle up with at the moment, especially since Ben was in a whiny mood apparently. He raised an eyebrow as all the metal forks, knives, and spoons suddenly shot up towards the ceiling, along with Zarina's metal friends. "That's new."
Sunshine
Location: Hallway Outside Jack's Office Skills: People Reading
Sunshine stopped in her tracks, looking over her shoulder. She could have sworn there had been someone there, trying to tell her something. She didn't feel creeped out though from the notion - if anything, she had a strong sensation of annoyance and hate. She looked around, trying to spot what it was, but all that stood out to her was how gross the hallway carpet was and a large spider in its web up in the corner near the ceiling. It was just her and the Marshmallow, no one else was there.
She brushed off the strangeness of the moment and looked back at Jack. There was something off about him. But even that aside, she knew that he probably wasn't going to just let her go off and exact revenge on Purifiers. He didn't understand how she was feeling. He hadn't cared about Magik. If he had cared, then he would have done something to save her. He would have asked Sinister or whoever to do something. She clenched her fist, feeling incredibly outraged with him. He hadn't done everything he could to save Magik.
Andy didn't know what to make of the Waffle God, he seemed to be talking to someone who wasn't there. It wasn't the first time Andy had seen that, but usually, that meant drugs or insanity. Maybe the M-Pox had hit this guy weird? She certainly hoped that was what was wrong with him. But he also seemed to have no filter so Andy was leaning toward insanity.
With everything metal flying up toward the ceiling Andy felt her jacket tugging her up too. Her eyes went wide and she pulled it off quickly. She had no desire to go flying into the ceiling. Once she had shrugged it off it too flew up with everything else metal. "Hey, my mom gave me that!" She shouted at it, irritated at its, hopefully temporary, loss.
"I don't think this is the girl from yesterday doing that." She frowned. "That isn't where she is, last I saw. I want my jacket back though." She said almost pouting looking up at where the jacket was.
"He's a robotic eye that I talk to, he's a lot more fun to have conversations with since my other friend is Mr. Jaws," Zari responded to Casper before pulling out the robotic head (which was a little creepy with the way that he looked). "The eye is Mr. Eyeball, I built both of them, though Mr. Jaws is kind of a bit of a work in progress, it's fun to throw him at people who bug me who he then proceeds to bite which always is amusing. she giggled when thinking about that last thought, since it always was amusing to her to throw the robotic head at people.
"Yeah sure, whatever you say," Sapphire said towards James, not really saying anything else towards him. She still didn't care much for Glimpse, and was perfectly fine with James deciding to tend to her or whatever at this rate. Not wanting anything to do with her made his choice to go do that a hundred times easier for her. Since it helped to keep her far far away from the person she hated the most in the entire Underground group. At least now she could maybe let her mind wander a little bit, at least that's what she thought, when everything metallic started heading up towards the ceiling.
"Huh?" Zari asked, really confused as to what was going on. "What's happening?" She was a bit concerned when Mr. Eyeball and Mr. Jaws both went flying up towards the ceiling. "Hey you two get back down here!" Her right arm (which had her watch on it) started moving up towards the ceiling to, she started using her left hand to force her arm back down. It hurt, a lot, in order to do that, causing a big bruise on her hand from doing so, but she managed to stop herself from being pulled upwards.
"01011010 01100001 01110010 01101001 00100000 01110011 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01101101 01100101 00100001!!!!" the eyeball was beeping frantically, glancing around at everyone.
"I'll figure out a way to get you down, somehow..."
"Okay, what the hell is going on, maybe Havok's girlfriend is in a bad mood, then again she always seems like she's in a bad mood from the few instances I have actually met her, let's see if they know what's going on," Sapphire said with a bit of a huff, before she walked upstairs until she was standing outside of Havok's room (well, it technically was his and Polaris' now she supposed) and knocked on the door. "Hey Havok, are your girlfriend's powers going wacko or something since everything in the building made of metal just sort of shot upwards."
Location: Jack's Office Skills N/A
"Rookie..." he said with a bit of a sigh, looking at her, "Nothing you can do here can bring her back, attacking the Purifiers won't help that, since she wasn't killed by them and died of the disease that she had, not from them. So how about we walk around, try to get your mind off of things, okay?" he said to her as he opened up the door of the office and held it open for Sunshine to step out, before he shut the door and locked the door. There wasn't much he could really do to help her aside from maybe distract her from everything that was going on.
He didn't exactly say much of anything else to her as he led the way out of the building and out onto the sidewalk. "So Rookie, where do you want to go for food or whatever? Anything you want, the choice is yours," he said to her, giving her a slight smile as he walked along, before he glanced down the street, noticing a somewhat familiar appearing van of sorts that was fairly beaten up that was heading towards him. It looked like some people from the Underground were going to pay a visit or whatever, so this was certainly going to be an interesting conversation, that he was sure of.
Location: Washington DC, Outside of Jack's Apartment Skills: N/A
Callie looked at Veil and nodded towards her, gently resting a hand on her shoulder and gave her friend a slight smile. "My door is always open to chat whenever you want to." She said, Callie didnt need to use empathy to know how Veil was feeling after loosing both Magik and Moonwalker both on the same day. She did feel somewhat responsible as well for not helping Magik at all for what was happening to her, and wished that there was something more that she could have done. She continued to drive the van down the road, following Casper's instructions.
When they finally got to where Jack had been staying, she parked the car near the curb of the sidewalk looking over towards Veil and nodded towards her. Callie knew what she would do if it ever did come down to violence, she turned off the car and looked up towards the building, and noticed that Jack and Sunshine were just coming out. She slowly got out of the car and looked over towards the two of them, before turning her attention towards Jack. "Hey, is everything okay with you and Sunshine?" Callie asked, looking over at Waverly for a moment hoping that she would remain calm and not do anything rash.
Kristina looked at Echo and nodded slightly as she continued to eat her breakfast looking over at everyone in the room, everyone seemed to be a little bit weird. She eyed Zarina as she answered Casper's question about the beeping eyeball and weird metal skull, which Kristina still thought was a little bit weird to see. She started to feel a little bit of tugging at her fork, before it instantly left her hand and flew into the ceiling. Everything that was metal in the room flew to the ceiling as well as Zarina's weird little companions as well, and quickly started to think that it was the woman that they had taken yesterday.
"Let me go with you." Kristina said as she quickly got out of her seat and started to head up the stairs, seeing the metal on the railings were also bent as well. She made her way towards the top of the stairs, standing a few feet behind Sapphire as she went to knock on the door to Havok's room. Remembering what he had said the day before to not disturb him and started to wonder if he would lash out at them through the door.
Location: On the Road Again -> Outside Jack's Office Skills:
Max's follow up description of the missing pair's location set Waverley's teeth on edge. Not only was it somehow even more useless than his last scrying attempt which had gotten him file cabinets and stale pastry smell, but the admission that he hadn't meant to scry at all caused her lips to twitch into a frown. Sure, scrying was relatively harmless, but what if next time it was something worse? What if next time he set the Underground on fire, or summoned a giant nail to crush them all. The thought caused Waverley to shudder, and she did her best to shake it out of her head as she climbed into the van. Rather than her usual spot in the back, she instead took the one closest to the door.
Most of the ride there, she stared out the window, only facing forward to give a nod to Veil's plan. She hoped that they'd find Sunshine there at the office. But that wasn't what she expected. That felt too easy. She expected that they'd find the room empty, save for some sort of clue or set of footprints to follow. Perhaps for the first time in her life, though, it appeared that her hopes won out against her expectations, for standing there outside a shaggy building stood Jack and, more importantly, Sunshine. Waverley wasted no time in unbuckling her seatbelt and hopping out of the car, leaving the van door open behind her. She stood next to Callie, looking even more tense than usual. Part of her wanted to subdue the man who'd drugged her and kidnapped her friend, but she didn't, primarily out of respect for Veil's 'talk first, attack second' rule. Her eyes immediately went to Sunshine.
"Are you okay? Did he do anything to you?" Waverley called out, the worry evident in her voice. Her gaze immediately shifted to Jack and sharpened to a glare. "You better start explaining yourself before I decide to bend your arm in a way that even your bones aren't supposed to bend, got it?" She bent her knees a little and raised her open hands up in front of her, readying herself for any attack Jack might throw. She wasn't going to attack first, but she was perfectly prepared to respond in kind if he made a move.
Max kept his head low, resting against the far window away from Waverly. Watching as the trees passed by and the world blurred around him. He flosed his eyes and let himself sink into the comfort of the darkness behind his eyes. Listening intently to Veils explanation and plan. Talk first fight later,with the team they had put together that could actually happen. No trigger happy mutants waiting to shed blood or gain the upper hand. "I can try my best, Veil...if it comes to it...do you want me to teleport Sunshine away to safety? Would you three be alright?" A portal would give Jack the chance to jump through or see their destination, but his new power might give them the edge needed.
As soon as they had arrived Jack and Sunshine were instantly spotted. Either he wasnt being subtle or they were incredibly lucky. Either way Callie started them off on the right track for diplomacy. Seeing what Jack would say and how he would act. Waverly didn't help with her aggresion but it was also understandable given what he had done to them. Max kept his eyes on Jack, ready to use his powers to knock out Jack or bind him if he tried to escape, or fight. His hands twitched as the pain of his head made its course but he wasn't about to let this disease give Jack the upper hand.
James stopped dead in his tracks, mouth agape in horror, as every bit of metal ripped out of whatever was holding it and clattered against the roof. His first instinct probably should have been to check on everyone, make sure everyone was okay and in one piece, and then get their new people and the sick people out of the line of this bullshit but it wasn’t. It wasn’t even his second. Instead, his first instinct was to scream “What the fuck?!” as his blood pressure rose along with the metal as he saw more work added to the reconstruction efforts right before his eyes. His second instinct was to storm up to Polaris’ room, kick the door in, and demand some explanations but even as Sapphire made her way to do just that… he paused. It didn’t make sense that she would cause everything to float up. If she was disoriented or confused, her first reaction would be to defend herself or lash out. This didn’t achieve that goal.
James sipped at his coffee and considered what he’d been told about yesterday. To an outsider, Polaris vanished after a conflict with the Mutant Underground and the Sentinel after two of her team members were killed or incapacitated. Even if the evidence was circumstantial, the Mutant Underground was still the last ones to see her. Someone investigating her disappearance was bound to show up at some point or another and considering how their ceiling now looked like Colossus, James had an inkling of who it might be. They’d barely survived a fight with him in another world where their powers and training were far more developed. James didn’t like their chances.
As he thought about it, he’d made his way back to the table and put down his plate minus the lost silverware. He kept his coffee though and sipped at it still. If they were going to deal with some shit, he needed the caffeine. “So I’m pretty sure we have Erik to thank for this. I’m going to go outside and see if we can do something before this escalates. Otherwise, Sapphire and Havok will be at the top of the kill list.” James explained with another sip of coffee.
Harry had been enjoying his lovely breakfast when this all happened. His knife and fork were forcefully taken out of his grasp and flew towards the ceiling. His phone began lifting out of his pocket, prompting him to quickly grab it. He didn't know who Polaris was much less did he care until James had spoken up. There was only one Erik he could think of that fit the bill and it was one of Charles' dearest friends. "Well it would appear that I'm done with my breakfast so I'll join you." He stood from his seat, placing his napkin onto the table before looking at the newbies.
"You three stay inside. Barry will lead you all towards my room where it should be safe and away from this metal in case it comes crashing down. Barry, stay with them and Larry and Jerry walk perimeter to ensure no one else gets in. We don't know who or how many we are dealing with nor what they want. Got it boys?" They all replied in unison and immediately went off to do the tasks they were asked to do. Harry walked up towards James and gave him a bit of a squeeze on his cheek. "Lets go great our guest shall we?"
“Well hopefully we don't have a guest.” James muttered, slapping away Harry’s hand. They were definitely not on friendly enough terms for that. He dropped a kiss on Casper’s head as he headed out but stopped when he realized Sapphire probably needed to be notified. “Hey, would you mind letting Elsa know she’s got a target on her back? If I’m right and Magneto remembers everything we do, he’s going to remember what she did to Polaris.” James asked Casper, flashing him a thankful smile as he headed out with a little more urgency.
Harry gave James a very unamused look as he rudely smacked his hand away. He pulled out his phone from his pocket and began to text his lovely twin. "Hey, things have gotten interesting here with a chance visit by Magneto. Gonna go engage him and see what he's after and try a bit of diplomacy." He followed James out to the front of the building and took in the sight of Magento and his Brotherhood of Evil.
Outside, James just stared at where he found Magneto along with an assembly of others. He took a long sip of his coffee and really wanted to turn back time like thirty minutes when he was still comfortably in bed with his boyfriend. This was a problem because the Underground was not anywhere near equipped to handle a conflict right now, even if Magneto wasn’t in the picture. Right now he was wishing Harry had brought his clones with them so at least they looked a little more intimidating. Well, Harry wasn’t intimidating so maybe at the very least make them seem more capable.
“Good morning.” James addressed Magneto pleasantly. James was going to have to be careful here. Open honesty was probably their best bet here. James didn’t think he could control the situation as it was now so he had to figure out a way to open a line without provoking him. “I’m not going to lie and say I’m surprised but I am hopeful that we can find a resolution without violence. Just to make sure we are on the same page, are you here for Polaris?”
Magneto's helmet obscured the majority of his face. He floated in the air, the Brotherhood standing behind him on top of the ground that concealed the underground Underground base. "I am here for my daughter. You have five minutes to produce her before I take her by force. I do not care to shed mutant blood."
“Thank you. I appreciate it.” James replied, turning to Harry. “Would you mind running in and letting Sapphire know? She was at Polaris’ door last I checked.”
Harry nodded silently at James before he made his way back inside. A gay man's pace was already fast, but the urgency in his steps put even the caffeine addicts to shame. He beelined towards Havoks room, seeing Sapphire there as he cocked his hip and crossed his arms. "We have five minutes to give Magneto his daughter or there will be blood shed."
“Have you guys found a better way to handle the m-pox symptoms?” James asked suddenly, fully expecting his conversation to be ignored. He just hoped Magneto’s good will towards mutants would get him some answers, especially for Luna. “We’ve got some painkillers and anti-nausea meds but we don’t have anything that actually helps yet. Have you guys found a better way of alleviating some of the suffering?”
Location: Mutant Underground Medical -- Washington D.C. Skills: Telepathy
At least M-pox hadn’t taken away everything from the mutants. Luna could still access her memories and have feelings and sensations. It might just have enhanced them or taken away the ability to block certain things out. Whichever it was, Callie was still very present in Luna’s mind when the metal in the Medical room started to rise. Which was a lot, bed included. Luna looked around alarmed and scrambled to the edge of the bed. She hit the floor and groaned, rolling over and stared at the floating metal objects. Vaguely, Luna knew of Polaris being at the Underground now. Did she contract M-pox and now her power was out of control? Luna wasn’t sure but she did manage to get herself to the door and investigated the hallway. No one was around, not even James. Luna huffed and leaned against the door frame, at least her symptoms weren’t severe. She breathed as evenly as she could manage and ignored the dizziness as she tried to connect to James. It was with incredible difficulty but just for a moment she saw through his eyes and saw Magneto outside the Underground. The connection dropped away and Luna held her head for a moment. ”Well, that’s me out,” Luna grumbled. She could barely stand so would be useless in combat and her telepathy was haphazard right now. It didn’t help that M-pox messed with the mind.
Telepathy: ability to speak to James with telepathic connection
Mild Symptoms: Headache, some splotchiness of the skin, fatigue and exhaustion Moderate Symptoms: Difficulty breathing, dizziness, vomiting, blood shot eyes, prominent veins Severe Symptoms: Vomiting blood, trouble walking, bleeding from the ears, extreme skin discoloration, general looniness
Outside the Mutant Underground HQ -
Magneto's Brotherhood was rather formidable, with his best fighters at his side that day. The Mutant Underground was already acquainted with Pyro. There was also a blue skinned woman with shocking red hair, an older gentleman in a suit, a boy with slimy skin and bulging eyes, and a man dressed in a blue uniform with steel armor. The frog-like boy seemed rather sick, hardly able to stand on his feet as he swayed from side to side. The symptoms would be clear to James instantly - he had M-Pox.
"Of course we have a better way, Mr. Potato Head! Now tell me this, pal! Why is your face so swiiiirly?" Toad asked, his voice high and nasally. The rest of the Brotherhood ignored him.
"The humans have a cure in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility in California. Once I have retrieved my daughter, I'll bring the facility to the ground and distribute the cures to my mutant brothers and sisters," Magneto explained, fury in his voice - not at James asking him questions, but at humans withholding critical medicine.
The blue skinned woman's form rippled, before she resembled a prominent member of congress - Senator Kelly. "They weren't going to distribute them to mutants for a while - they've been sending batches to congress staffers, giving them to humans who won't even need them," she said with disgust.
Second Floor of the Mutant Underground HQ -
The door to Havok's room opened up. There wasn't any sign of a struggle in the room, just all of the metallic objects were stuck to the ceiling like a super magnet was nearby. Polaris was on the bed, eerily still. "What? No, it's not Polaris. I uh... I used a lot of the sleeping pill stuff I found in medical, she hasn't woken up yet at all... Magneto's probably looking for her," he explained. A few seconds later, Echo ran on up there, yammering about how Magneto was here and looking for Polaris. Havok hit his head against the doorframe in frustration. In his head, this had all been much easier.
"I guess we're fighting Magneto today. I'm not letting him take her," Havok declared. "He's been brainwashing her, I know it. She'd just be his prisoner."
Casper frowned for a moment, tilting his head as he stared up at the random objects accumulating at the ceiling. It reminded him a bit of those lost birthday balloons that would drift up towards the rafters and only begin a sad descent a few years later. But unfortunately, he knew this wasn't the case. He had spent his formative years at his father's school, where they had been attacked by a man called Magneto just about every other week. "Soooo have either of you girls ever fought an old Holocaust survivor before?" Casper asked, looking at Zarina and Andy.
All of the serious people had left the room, leaving him to babysit the kids. Casper always imagined that he would have been a great babysitter. The secret was to let the kids do whatever they wanted. He would have given them candy and paid for them to play cool video games. They would have had their first supervised experimentation sessions with drugs and alcohol. And at the end, they would confess their childhood traumas while watching reruns of old commercials on YouTube.
"Casper, you should get them to hide. This isn't safe," Ben said, ever the responsible one.
Casper, of course, ignored him. "The trick is to not be offensive," he told the girls. "So if you're going to do any battlefield taunts, keep them clean. You don't want to do anything that would be inappropriate. Think of it like you're not only fighting Magneto, but you're fighting intolerance at the same time. You have to accept him for who he is as you scream and try not to be killed by metal."
Veil & Sunshine
Location: Outside Jack's Office Building Skills: Perception
Sunshine had tuned Jack out as she left the building with him. He didn't understand. The Purifiers were responsible for this. Every human on the planet was guilty. She wouldn't have been surprised to learn that humans had bioengineered M-Pox in a lab or something like that. Their entire society was based on killing mutants. They couldn't even be bothered to lie about it on TV. The X-Men were wrong. They could never live in peace.
Humans had killed so many mutants. Sunshine wanted to even the scales. She didn't want to stop until she was drowning in blood, until human families were too afraid to go out at night, worried that Sunshine would be there to rip out their hearts. She dreamed of making a plague even worse than M-Pox, one that would let the humans choke on their ambition and hypocrisy. Sunshine smiled slightly at the thought, a bit of a manic look in her eyes.
Veil raised a slight eyebrow, taking in Jack and Sunshine. Sunshine didn't look like a kidnapping victim. From what she could tell, it seemed she was there of her own free will. That didn't match up with the story that Waverley had shared with her and she didn't think Waverley would have made it up. The only logical conclusion she could come to was that maybe Sunshine didn't even know she had been kidnapped. The kid had been abused her entire life, she probably didn't know what normal boundaries for relationships were. Earlier in the car, she had told Max it was okay if he needed to teleport Sunshine away, that the rest of them could handle things. Now, she wasn't even really sure what to expect from this situation.
"I'm fine..." Sunshine told Waverley, looking a bit confused. She didn't know why Waverley was asking her that. "Marshmallow said there was an intruder at the Underground..."
Yeah, Sunshine definitely didn't know she had been kidnapped. Veil gave a slight nod at Max. Even though they were in the middle of the sidewalk, she conjured up a force field between Jack and Sunshine, roughly the shape of a tall shield. It wasn't nearly as big as she had hoped for, but hopefully it would give Max enough of an edge to get the kid out of there.
"Why the hell did you decide to follow me?" Sapphire instantly snapped at Kristina, clearly more then a bit annoyed that she had decided to follow after her. She never hid the fact that she wanted nothing to do with any of the new people, and personally would rather be by herself and not have some person that she had just met the day before following her around. At the moment, she just wished that Kristina would go away and be back where everyone else was, since it would be better off that way in her mind. Sapphire crossed her arms as Havok opened up the door, "Finally you decide to show your face, no one has seen you since yesterday," she commented.
Her mind had a slight panic shoot through it when he mentioned that he had used a bunch of sleeping pill stuff and that she hadn't woken up yet. "...How dumb can you get? I get you are worried about her, are concerned about her running back off to her father, but you do realize that you can OD on sleeping pills right? Like, it's actually fairly common, so maybe you should think or ask for opinions before you randomly decide to drug someone, seriously I think even Casper would have gotten that just giving someone a bunch of sleeping pills is a horrid idea."
Now, once more her attention was diverted since Echo decided to show up too, mentioning that Magneto was around, and was looking for his daughter. Havok clearly didn't want to just hand Polaris over or something, and she let out a bit of a sigh, "Okay, let's get going then, this'll be fun," she commented, walking away from the group now.
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Zari asked a bit confused, but when he mentioned Magneto she instantly knew who he was talking about. After all, the Master of Magnetism existed in her reality and time era too, so it wasn't rocket science to figure out what person he was talking about. Of course, he was fairly old (well, older) by the time she started actually paying attention to the world or what was going on with mutants in her home reality, and she had never really met him before, so she wasn't all too sure what to expect.
"Well unless I can get close enough to punch him not sure how helpful I can be, my sword is metal, as is most everything else that I have and use in a fight because of how my powers work. Honestly, sometimes my powers could probably be considered minor metal manipulation, as long as the objects have electronic and technological parts I can move them," she commented, glancing upwards to look at Mr. Eyeball who was sort of blinking and kind of looked like he was failing around a little bit. "...Don't worry, hopefully you can get down soon..."
Location: Outside Jack's Office Skills Bluff, Manipulation, People Reading, Charisma
Jack said nothing as he had his hands in his pocket as he watched the others get out of the car and walk over, he looked at Callie when she asked her question about how things were going, "Yeah no, everything's fine, why would you think otherwise?" he asked her, sounding a tad bit confused. Though in reality he was lying, at least with the being confused part. He had a pretty good idea as to what it was that the others were going on about, but the key thing about being a good con artist was telling enough of the truth to sound like you weren't lying. Of course this time around he wasn't doing the best he possibly could at lying, but it still wasn't too bad.
He held his hands up as Waverly more or less attacked him, "Whoa whoa whoa, calm down there, first of all, my arms can actually bend in any direction, kind of impossible to break bones that are compared to silly putty, unless they are frozen of course, then silly putty tends to shatter and crack and pretty sure that would end horribly for me," Jack commented with a bit of a shrug, kind of glad that they didn't bring along their resident freezer since that would probably end badly if it did come down to a fight. "What do you want me to say? I brought Sunshine over here, and we were about to go on a walk to kind of get her mind off of, uh... Things," he added, implying that he was planning on distracting her from Magik's death and all without flat out saying it.
Location: Outside Jacks office > ??? Body of water Skills: Teleportation, Lévitation ConjurationNew Outfit
Max stood around, his vision focusing on all that was around them. He didn’t want any chance that an outside force would interfere or aid Jack in any way. Jack appeared to be playing the innocent victim or saviour. Saying another had broken into the Underground, that someone else threatened them and he only sought to save Sunshine from the intruder. If that was the case why didn't he alert the rest of the Underground? He could easily stretch to hit every door or entangle an intruder. No, his story didn't add up. Waverly was as honest as they came, the whole reason he had giver her the choice of whether or not to try a resurrection, if he had to chose between Jack and Waverly, he'd back Waverly. While Jack began speaking about how he can't be broken, save for an icy death, Max took the time for his monologuing (why do villains always monolog?) to gain the upper hand and do what Veil set him up to do.
His foot barely scuffled forward when he realised how quickly Jack would be able to grab Sunshine and escape or use her as hostage. Even with Veils force field it was a hard sell. This was untested waters so he tried to use his new power. Max teleported hoping to land next to Sunshine but instead popping up above her. The air around him was instantly cold as he fell down, toppling the two of them onto the ground before another teleport kicked in. For a brief moment they would both feel cold, as if Sapphire was around in a foul mood, then suddenly that cold was replaced by water. They were surrounded in a body of water and Max had no idea where they had gone. He was gasping for air as he looked around for Sunshine, diving his head into the water to find her and hold onto her tightly. Bubbles spring up from his mouth as he mouthed the words and he began to float, levitating up into the sky high enough so no creature would be able to surprise them and jump up for a bite. He took in a few more breaths before finally speaking. "Sorry that was such a rough ride, M-Pox is making my power's much harder to use but we had to get you away from him. There's something wrong with Jack."
Echo could not believe what he had walked into. Between her abrasive attitude towards the new girl who did nothing but try to help at all times, and the dumbest boyfriend who may have killed his own girlfriend because he was 'protecting her', and not to mention how both of them were just ready to fight Magneto. To say he was flabbergasted would be an understatement for the century. "Kristina, sweetie, maybe nows not the best time. Standby incase we need you because Xavier only knows we aren't ready for this fight but with your talents perhaps we have a greater chance. For now just try and stay clear of any metallic object please." As if practiced many times before, Harry turned on his heel, hands clasped and facing Havok. His fingers were all pointed towards the boy with irritation in Harry's eyes. "As for you, are you an idiot? Seriously anyone knows you can overdose on that crap! And to do it to the daughter of Magneto. You have a death wish, one I do not share." He walked passed the idiot and towards Polaris, checking her pulse. "I cant quite tell but...i think I feel a slight pulse."
"Now I see you're both ready to fight and cut down our numbers because Summers here is as pussywhipped as his brother was, but that won't keep the Underground safe. Or do you truly wish to have to keep finding a new home everytime? Honestly at this point I don't know whats worse, giving him his drugged up daughter and hoping for mercy, or refusing to do so. But...just incase." Harry called out through the house for the other duplicates. "Boys, lets harmonize." One by one each clone stopped what they were doing and headed down towards his location, all five of them now standing before Sunshine and Havok in a semi-circle. "So whats the plan because times up and we'rein no condition to fight?"
