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| Arms Race; [Havok, Polaris, Box] | |
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| Topic Started: Jun 14 2012, 04:47 AM (861 Views) | |
| Foxx | Jun 14 2012, 04:47 AM Post #1 |
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May 20th Worthington Complex The Laboratory of Madison Jeffries "Okay, this is useless, if I spend another second waiting in this hallway I'm going to spring a screw loose." There had been some kind of crazy going on upstairs, she wasn't sure what, but they'd been assured that it was under control. Still, why they were being made to wait at a time like this, it was daft. Foxx, suited up, hood up, mask half pulled up to let her mouth out, stuffed the last chunk of candy bar down her mouth and tossed the wrapper on the floor, catching herself before it hit the ground and shoving it begrudgingly into a pocket. These were Alex's people, of course, and she really didn't want to guff him the wrong way, did she? Littering aside, there were plenty of other reasons she didn't want to toe too far out of line here. This was X-Dork central, and though she wasn't exactly ever an enemy, someone like her would never really be a friend either. Heroes and Soldiers-of-Fortune rarely saw eye to eye, so it was Foxx on her best behavior now. Still, waiting was stupid, and so she looked to her compadres, looked to Box's door, and gave a shrug, pulling the mask off in a huff and crossing to it as she shoved it into her belt before storming right on in, forget knocking, there were Aliens outside. "Keeps us waiting, the nerve of this drongo-AAACK!" As she burst through, a beam of green light shot down over her, down once, up once, and down again, and every time it hit her eye she winced at the brightness of it. Ding! Her eyes scanned the device built around the door. "Anomalous DNA non-positive. You are cleared for entry. Welcome." "What the bloody hell is that thing?!" She said, spinning around in search of it's mastermind. "Oy! Jeffries, the hell are you? Laserin' me and shit!" She scanned the lab as the others followed in. It looked very much like one would expect an inventor's lab to look. Full of, well, inventions and such. "...Maddison? Y'in here? Don't mean to be a buncha stickybeaks but we've got Martians..." |
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| Havok | Jun 14 2012, 08:41 AM Post #2 |
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The spaceships outside were frikking scary. The way they hovered, silently, appearing out of nowhere the way they had. Alex was reminded of the first time he had seen the helicarrier that hovered over the bay between Ellis and Liberty Islands. He had seen the thing on tv, of course, hell there was a CSI: NY episode that took place on the helicarrier. But when he first saw it in person... He had been horrible then. How jarring it had been to have left for Egypt a young and very human student but to have returned a dangerous and out of control mutant. His first few months in New York had been learning how to hate humanity at Magneto's knee, so by the time he was allowed to go into the city, he looked up at the enormous craft floating weightless and he saw only a symbol of oppression, a target for him to blow up. Thank God, he had come to his senses, and was now someone who he wanted to be. The helicarrier meant something different now, the world in general with it. But what he had seen in the skies above the city he had grown to think of as his home, was something so beyond alien that Alex had felt cold. He almost never felt cold anymore. This had done it though. He and the Ladies had been made to wait a little upstairs, which was a bit annoying, but then this wasn't a situation that they had been prepared for. Only Scott would be unsurprised by these events. Hell, he probably had Anti-Skrull Spray in his utility pouch. "Jesus," Alex was still muttering as they headed into the ridiculously shiny building that was where Worthington had put up those who had not joined Scotty's group in the Savage Land. "It's like the Day the Earth Stood Still out there." Alex had stood at the end of the hallway, as they waited, staring out over the city at the skrull ship, trying to see any weakness in it, trying to battle plan the way his brother did. It was no good. He wasn't his brother, and his brother was really what they needed. He was still thinking that they were probably super fucked right now. But Alex never said die, which was such a Summers trait, and so he was willing to submit to Madison's shiny green laser scanner. Nearby Foxx freaked out and Alex shook his head, "It's ok, Foxx, Jeffries is a friend." His face suddenly lost all expression for a moment, "At least I hope he is." |
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| Box | Jun 16 2012, 03:33 AM Post #3 |
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Work had been very intellectually taxing of late, perhaps more so than ever before, but Madison Jeffries couldn't deny that it was very rewarding. He was learning so much and developing so many new technologies that they'd never be capable of if he wasn't pushing his boundaries like this. If he wasn't exploring new avenues of science and invention. If he wasn't playing with this Skrull's dead body like it was Play-Doh. So yes, work was satisfying, if not taxing and gruesome. "Main door opening," the emotionless drone of the automated sentry system alerted Madison as he was hard at work in the rear of the lab. The device he was working at was rather large, with a good number of components and sub-components, circuitry and wire work at a far more intricate and precise level than anything he'd worked with. He could sense it - this was going to be his crown jewel, his piece de resistance, his magnum opus. He lifted the goggles from his eyes and got up from his seat with a slight grunt, making his way to the front rooms of the laboratory just in time to hear Miss Foxx's ranting. Where Summers found her, Madison had no idea. But she had... character, that was for sure. "I'm aware of that, Miss Foxx. I'm probably more aware than anybody else on the planet," he said as he took his handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped his forehead down. "Mister and Mrs. Summers. Miss Foxx. Hello. And that, if you must know," he said, pointing to the scanning device they'd just walked through, "is the only device in the entire world capable of detecting one of those 'martians' when they're in disguise. So congratulations, I have just verified that you're not Skrulls. I've been working very closely with the body Dr. Strange's butler provided you with. Fascinating stuff." He gestured for them to follow a bit further into the laboratory, where within a very specialized chamber lay the body of the being who passed himself off as Thomas Shepherd for some time. It was sealed, pressurized, and maintained so that even when Joshua Foley wasn't around to perform maintenance, it maintained its prime condition. Madison couldn't help but feel excited. To share this information with someone who hadn't been involved, to show them his work thus far... he couldn't help it. It was an exciting feeling. "We've been downloading its memories, we've been figuring out the biological mechanisms behind its duplication process... if you wanna see it turn into Tom Shepherd, pull the lever on the right side of the chamber. It's a pretty incredible sight, I have to admit." He was so wrapped up in sharing what he had learned so far that he had completely forgotten to ask why they arrived. |
![]() Signature mock-up made by Heather, the greatest Heather I know. :) Oh it's tough bein' a Box, but I'm livin' it up, livin' it up - doot-doot-doot-doot-doo - livin' it up, livin' it up - BOX! | |
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| Foxx | Jun 20 2012, 06:52 PM Post #4 |
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"No no, I don't think you quite get what I just said." She struck back after Box was finished flaunting the prospects of his seemingly myriad discoveries. "We got an alien armada floating overhead just waiting to take a massive dump on the city." She moved over to the case, looked inside at the dead green thing lying there like a lump. At Box's invitation she laid a hand on the lever, half curious to see it change. She thought better of it though, and caught herself, taking a step back. Some things just didn't need to be seen. Others, however, did, and she knew as well as everyone else that they officially had less than no time in all of this. A Queen Alien had just given the world what sounded very suspiciously like a threat and ultimatum, and well, taking that sitting down was relatively inadvisable. "Alex says you've got some sort of weapon in the works. I assume it's not your little door buzzer there, else we're going to have a lot of trouble. I don't suspect we could march everyone on Earth through your laboratory door." Maybe it was snide and maybe it was a little bit caustic, but Foxx was and would be an impatient woman. A lady of action, this sort of support-style science work wasn't her MO. She didn't get it nor did she pretend to. This guy would make them something to toss or shoot or stab at these green turds and they'd go do it. She was a soldier in the end of it all. It was a new existence, being the dumb muscle, but not a wholly unwelcome one. Everyone needed a change now again and X-Factor had given it to her. Again though, she wanted to get this meeting overwith. Goody-good central, science-core weapons, and an alien invasion under way. She had other places to be. Plus, this device... turning their shapes off? As she'd thought before, some things just didn't need to be seen. "So this thing turns off the Skrunts or whatever." She said. looking at the body in the case again, a pit developing in her stomach. She shot a look to Alex before looking to Box again. "Show's us who they really are eh?" She clicked her tongue and looked towards the door before looking back to the folks in her company. "Alex, I uh, dunno that we should be here." |
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| Havok | Jun 21 2012, 09:13 AM Post #5 |
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Alex looked down at the body, which had remained remarkably intact, right down to still being dressed in Tommy's clothes. Between Elixir's skills with biology, and Jeffries's skill with technology, there had been no need to cut it open for study. He frowned down at it, wondering, now that the great skrull plan had been revealed, what this one's role had been. Why pose as Tommy Shepherd to steal a gem from Dr. Strange? Was there more to it than that? Was there more than he needed to do that had not been done, and if this one couldn't do it, who had been taken and replaced to finish his mission? Who else was not who they said they were? Box believed that he had done what was necessary, and that his equipment would be able to force these creatures to change shape, though at the moment it looked like the machine had a very limited range. He offered to show them how well it worked by forcing the dead body to shift back int Tommy's shape... "Alex, I uh, dunno that we should be here." Foxx said, softly, and Alex looked over at her, realization dawning on him. Shape... Shift.... "I think you're right, Foxx," Alex said, casually, not looking up from the body, "What is benefit of making this into a party trick?" Looking up at Foxx now, Alex said, "How about you go out and give me an update on that ship outside? I need to get some idea what we're up against here. Meanwhile, Jeffries, how far can you amplify this thing to give us some widespread coverage? How much can you show us and how closely can you direct it? I want to make sure that it can be aimed and directed. I don't want tech like this in anyone's control but ours. Until we know exactly what we're up against, we don't want people to know that we can so easily just reveal these creatures. We don't know who to trust." His voice got suddenly grim and he looked around at the women, "Tech like this makes targets of us all." |
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| Box | Jun 23 2012, 05:48 AM Post #6 |
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Mechanical Interaction/Merge
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"I know, Miss Foxx. I know that their armada's shown up, I know about their queen's proclamation, I know," Madison said with a sigh. "That is precisely why I have been working so damn hard here. That's why only one person with Madrox's group knows where I am. That's why you three are the only other people to know where I am. I am working on something that can stop these... Skrull dead in their tracks so I know very well that they're out there." He shook his head. "No. The detection system is purely to protect this lab. Because I cannot have them infiltrating. Nemesis hasn't been showing up for a while, I assume he's been taken. I just hope Nemesis managed to activate the protocols we discussed in case either of us were taken so the Skrulls can't learn about this project. I assume he did. He's very dedicated." He glanced to the machine in the back of the lab as Foxx began talking about it. "That's the general idea, Miss Foxx," he said with a prideful smile. "We've learned that while for the most part, the Skrull's shape changing is, in fact, perfect down to the genetic level, there is one small cluster of brain cells that remains intact. Maybe five or six cells at the most - retains the genetic memory of what the Skrull actually is so it can change back. Fortunately, that's enough for my scanning system to lock on to and detect. As of right now, I haven't gotten the reverter fine-tuned enough to only force Skrulls to reveal, but before too long, I..." He stopped dead in his tracks as Foxx whispered her apprehensions about being here and Havok agreed. His heart skipped a beat, his eyes went wide. They'd fooled his detection system. They'd fooled it and now they were in. "Protocol Fifteen! Immediate lockdown!" he shouted, and the several doors in the lab locked shut with heavy metallic clunks. At the same time, gun turrets whirred out into existence at evenly-paced intervals around the walls, all trained on Madison's visitors. "You almost had me. You were so... damn... close. But almost being assassinated by you people makes a guy paranoid. And rightfully so, I'd say. So what's the deal? You decided that you were gonna try and succeed where Miss Lee's impostor failed? Yeah, that's right. I figured that one out. The migraines and the power flare - too convenient - too inconvenient." He folded his arms behind his back and narrowed his eyes. After a moment, his hands revealed themselves, and he held a small remote in his left hand. "All I have to do to show the truth about you is to touch this button. And what do you think I'll find when I touch it? Hmm? What do you think I'll see? More bodies to experiment on? And don't bother trying to use Mr. or Mrs. Summers's powers here. The moment my sensors detect any energy wavelengths, those guns will blast you down before you can blink your eyes." |
![]() Signature mock-up made by Heather, the greatest Heather I know. :) Oh it's tough bein' a Box, but I'm livin' it up, livin' it up - doot-doot-doot-doot-doo - livin' it up, livin' it up - BOX! | |
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| Havok | Jun 24 2012, 07:47 PM Post #7 |
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Madison panicked, and the room instantly turned into a death trap. The doors clanged shut, guns whirled in out of nowhere, alarms blared. Alex groaned, aloud. This was not what was supposed to happen, now was it. He had not considered the high state of paranoia this whole situation was putting everyone in. Oddly enough, Alex felt none of that lingering suspicion over who was who and what was what. Call him naive. Call him foolhardy. Call him slightly arrogant. Whatever you thought about him, Alex did not consider himself in the wrong for the way he reacted to all of this. There was no other way to do what needed to be done. Raising his hands slowly, fingers stretched out in their slick black casings, no sign of powers blooming in them, Alex said, "Jeffries, this is not what you think it is. We're hiding something but I can guarantee you, it's not that we're green." He looked at Foxx and at Lorna, and he sighed. "You're going to have to trust me on this, Jeffries. I don't know how to explain it any further than this without betraying a promise. You know me though, don't you? You know that whatever weirdness I get into, and I do get into weirdness, that I always manage to weather it, right? I try not to break my promises, even when I'm in the darkest of places." Taking a deep breath, he stepped towards Madison, only to have the guns clack as they adjusted their aim. He froze. "Madison, you were the first person to realize that something was wrong with me when ShadowX had their hooks in my psyche. You turned my monitor into a pacemaker when my heart was bruised. You helped hold my team together when everyone thought I was dead, when I didn't even know my own name. You kept them safe for me when I was turned into a monster, the literal persona of War and Battle. You were at my trial, helping defend myself, believing that what I did, I was made to do. Maddy, you know me, and you know that I always somehow manage to come back. You know that I follow my heart before my head, and maybe that's a bad thing sometimes but I wouldn't be me if I didn't. You need to trust me on this and not turn that machine on, not yet, not here. Please. Trust me." |
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| Foxx | Jun 25 2012, 03:43 AM Post #8 |
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She'd been half to the door when the Mechanic sounded out his alarms, and as his machines revved up, she turned on her bootheel, heading back towards Alex and Lorna, past them towards Jeffires. Box was certain that they numbered in the ranks of the enemies, and while not long ago he may have been right, Things had changed for this one, for this imposter. She'd seen things through the other end of the glass, and while she'd never admit to having made regrettable mistakes, not freely or openly or to any save the one present she already had, she couldn't see anybody else giving her the chance Alex had. Especially not with all these other deceivers now crawling out of the woodwork. She'd half expected Havok to jump to his own defense, because he was as much a liar as she was, well, no, not even. He'd made careful moves to simply omit certain truths from conversation. It seemed that, despite her desire for change, despite her desire to help where others hindered, she had, perhaps unwittingly, fallen into the same routine. So long now she'd been in this shape, this deceptive lie of a face. She'd been in others longer, she'd been in others more deeply, though for a while at least she'd lost herself to her own artifice. And for a moment, she hated Havok, hated him deeply for defending her secret, his secret, like this. So staunchly. Putting his neck on the line for her once again. She owed him, now, more than once over, a feeling the falsehood standing there in a leather tactical suit didn't particularly care for nor did she plan to get used to. He stood there and she watched him appeal to Jeffries, but there was too much on the line, no matter how good his argument may have been, no matter whether Jeffries believe him or not. Even if he stood down, took these machines down, let them slide, that seed of doubt was something that wasn't need, especially not now. Box had but to give the command and his weapons would rip she and Alex to shreds, and that was something they didn't need right now either. So Foxx, or rather the creature wearing her skin, decided to do something else that it wasn't entirely accustomed too. She decided to give honesty a try. What harm was a couple more people in the know? Foxx dived past Madison, back to the console he'd indicated earlier, and she threw the switch, fully, expecting lasers in her back for the trouble, but as the field passed over the room and that strange numbness that came with the sudden lose of her own body's control washed over her, she turned to face them, not a symphony of green but a rhapsody in blue. Mystique shot her hands in the air. "Happy now? I'm not a Skrull." |
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| Box | Jun 26 2012, 08:49 PM Post #9 |
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"It's not? I don't know what to think anymore, Summers! And I don't know if I can trust anybody," Madison was firm in his stance, resolute. Where normally, he was shy and retiring, here he was composed and certain. He had to be. There was too much at stake to be wishy-washy, as it were. "I trusted Jubilee, and all I got for that was the destruction of seventy nine point eight six three percent of my life's work, a busted hand, and several cracked ribs. I trusted Miss... er... Alix, and I'm told by Miss Saint Croix that she's been gone for a while now and I don't even know if that's the truth! You're acting suspicious, Summers. And with what's at stake, with the importance of my work in here, I can't afford to just take you at your word for it. With what I'm working on here, if they find out anything, if they send an agent to shut me down... that could be it. Game over right there, so you'll excuse me if I don't just take you on your... your..." And then she moved. She darted forward so fast he hardly saw her do it and threw the switch. What was she doing? Why would she...? Madison's eyes went wide as the metamorphosis took place before him. And Foxx showed her true colors. Only... that color was blue. "What the hell is that woman doing here, Summers? You talk to me about trust and you walk in here with Magneto's right hand woman? For all I know, he's been compromised, and... wait..." No, that didn't make sense. She wasn't operating on Magneto's behalf here. Madison folded his right arm at his chest and propped his left elbow up on his right hand, using the left hand to pinch at the bridge of his nose. "Jesus... does the rest of your team know about this? And would you mind explaining it to me so I don't feel like I have to add an extra knife under the pillow?" |
![]() Signature mock-up made by Heather, the greatest Heather I know. :) Oh it's tough bein' a Box, but I'm livin' it up, livin' it up - doot-doot-doot-doot-doo - livin' it up, livin' it up - BOX! | |
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| Havok | Jun 29 2012, 07:49 PM Post #10 |
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And there it was. Mystique had taken the matters into her own hands. All Alex had in his own was his face as he moaned slightly and shook his blond head back and forth. "You didn't have to do that, Mystique," he muttered, looking over at the woman, "I appreciate it, but really, I could have handled things without you you having to compromise your..." Madison was having none of it though, and Alex was very aware that he had not called off the gun turrets that he had installed in here. "Calm down, Jeffries, and give me a chance to explain before you flip out? Yes, Foxx is Mystique and yes, I've known it for a while. But I didn't discover it on accident and just decide to let it slide. She came to me and came clean on her own because it was the right thing to do. Believe me, no one knows more than I do what she's capable of, I've seen it first hand, and I'm not going to say that I've forgotten any of it. But what's happening right now? Out there?" He jabbed a finger out in the general direction of the skrull ships that hovered in the sky even though in this room they couldn't be seen. "That's happening in Sanctuary too, in some other way though. Something is going on in the Brotherhood, and it's not just normal Magneto scariness. Mystique isn't the only one who had to escape, and you know who I'm referring to. She's part of the reason they were able to get out, and I'm not going to reward one of the few decent things I've ever heard of her doing by throwing her to Shield, especially when I'm not all that certain that Shield hasn't been infiltrated by those Skrulls, considering how weird they've been lately." Alex looked over at Mystique and said, "Am I going to tell you that she's going to start wearing an X and we're all going to skip around rescuing kittens from trees together? Absolutely not, but since she's been with us, she's been making an attempt, doing what needs to be done, and without question. I brought her up here with me, not because I wanted to keep an eye on her, but because she's, as far as I can tell, being sincere in her desire to make some kind of change in her life. That's the exact reason I started X-Factor, to give us all that opportunity to make a change, and I would be a goddamned hypocrite if turned away anyone who genuinely wanted that." He was a Summers, and the failing of his bloodline was that they were men of great conviction and hope, who believed with all of their hearts in not just how they were doing things, but why. Alex was banking a lot on that not being a fatal flaw. |
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| Mystique | Jun 30 2012, 08:04 AM Post #11 |
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Well, that escalated quickly. Alex jumped to her defense. "I know I didn't have to but it was quicker and right now time is of the essence." She said, half shouting over Havok, but before either could shout any further, Madison jumped in with his much expected concerns, beliefs, and ires. And then Havok jumped in again, defending her. It almost made her skin crawl. Or maybe that was just a lingering effect from Box's machine. Alex wrapped up his argument, and she took a few steps to the side, the guns still tracking her, her hands still up and out and away from the guns holstered beneath her arms. "Okay, listen here, Box. It is Box, right? I'm here, because Magneto is no longer himself. whatever crude misconceptions or hatreds or disdains you hold in your heart for Erik Lensherr, put them away for a minute and realize that Erik Lensherr is dead, for all intents and purposes. What exactly has replaced him, I don't know. He says he's a clone, maybe he's one of these things, I frankly don't care. He treated me to a three-month stay-cation in Sanctuary's Max-Sec Penitentiary where I had a daad woman and her bat-shit crazy handler jamming knives into my psyche on a daily basis." She lowered her hands a bit. "So forgive me if I've become a little disillusioned to the Brotherhood and it's methods." She looked between the two of them, but those glowing eyes, usually so heavy with false this-or-that, were laced with angry honesty. "So, if you're worried I'm working some angle here, I'm not. If you're worried I'm going to stick a knife in Alex here's back, I'm not. Things change, as do perceptions, and regardless, Alex is right. There are much bigger things at risk than a bit of principle or wounded pride. I want to help. I can help more with an outfit like Alex's than I can from behind the door of any prison cell." She huffed. "So there it is. The unexpurgated version. I want to help." If it kept her out of prison, that'd be great too. "So if you would be so kind as to get your giant laser canons to stop pointing at me like a rabid dog I'd be very much obliged." |
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| Box | Jun 30 2012, 04:47 PM Post #12 |
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Madison listened with as much receptiveness as he could muster at this time. Which honestly, wasn't much. It was difficult, trying to be open and accepting of new concepts when every instinct said to treat the situation as utterly hostile. Which, in a way, it was. This was a woman he knew to be an enemy. This was a woman who dealt almost exclusively in lies and misdirection and betrayal. But the story made sense. Magneto had somehow gone even more insane than he was before. Couldn't see that coming. The real man long since dead, replaced by a clone or a Skrull or whatever. "Fine," he sighed as they both explained it. "Fine. Okay, fine. Stand down." The order was not for his guests. At those words, the cannons slid back into the wall with a collective whir of engines spinning and then a solid clack of wall panels sliding back into locked position. "Here's hoping for both your sakes that your brother doesn't find out, eh?" Madison shook his head. It was insane. All of it. "So that's what I got. We've learned how the Skrulls change shape, we've uploaded many of this guy's memories and learned a bit about how the Skrull infrastructure works - but not much, postmortem memories are... tricky. Degraded in many ways. And some of the memories are just too far gone to make sense of." He glanced back to the main engine, the one that had forced Mystique to reveal herself. "But that's the most important one. Right now, I haven't managed to get it calibrated to the right wavelength to only attack Skrulls, but that's not too far away, really." He sighed, taking a breath in and letting it out in a huff. "So uh... how did that feel? I mean - did it hurt? Or, I dunno, maybe some dehydration or something like that? Any side effects you're feeling at all?" He didn't feel the need to apologize. Considering the state the world was in, the state of perpetual paranoia these Skrull had him feeling, he felt his reaction was justified. |
![]() Signature mock-up made by Heather, the greatest Heather I know. :) Oh it's tough bein' a Box, but I'm livin' it up, livin' it up - doot-doot-doot-doot-doo - livin' it up, livin' it up - BOX! | |
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| Lorna Summers | Jul 1 2012, 04:08 AM Post #13 |
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There were many things Lorna Summers hated. Though, if she was pressed to answer, she would probably say that she hated nothing more than she hated surprises. The feeling of the unknown, of having the rug swept out from under your feet, of knowing that, for God knows how long, there has been this unknown variable in your midst. And you never had a clue. "This isn't possible," Lorna muttered as the truth unwound at her feet. Mystique, her father's right hand woman, admittedly estranged, had been among them. She had ate with them, laughed with them, shared stories and secrets with them. And the children. God, she had been around the children. "I know Mystique's magnetic signature. That's not- Your powers transform you all the way down to that?" She asked, though she knew the answer. "You're not serious!" She jerked toward Alex. He knew this, knew it for God knows how long, and he sat on it. He kept it from everyone, from Lorna herself. And now, for some reason she was sure she would never understand, Alex was actually defending Mystique, defending this monster. Lorna knew the entire world had gone mad. It was all over the news. It wasn't until this moment though, that Lorna realized her world had gone mad right along with it. "She wants to make a change?! Fine, I'm all for that. You know I believe that everybody deserves a second chance. But this isn't the way we go about it. She snuck in here, lied about who she was. And for what? Because she didn't give any of us enough credit to actually believe we might be able to understand what she was going through." She turned to the woman she know knew was Mystique. "Well, I do understand. I know what it means to turn your life around, to realize that most of what you've done has been a mistake and that you need to make good for it. I know what that looks like. This isn't it. This is more lies. This is cheating redemption, looking for an easy way out. This isn't about you trying to do the right thing, is it Mystique? This is about you trying to survive by any means necessary." "And you, Alex." There was a break in her voice. "We're family. All of us. We don't keep these kinds of secrets. You know that." Madison seemed intent of keeping things scientific. That made sense. He had his head on straight. But Lorna, there was no way she was going to be able to be calm right now. "So tell me, am I supposed to be revealed you're not a Skrull? Cause I don't think I am. You know what, you pretend that you're looking to do good. But the truth is, if my f- if Magneto hadn't thrown you away, you'd still be his little lapdog, wouldn't you? For the life of me, I don't understand people like you. You put your hand in the flame and then complain when it burns. My father isn't dead," she went on. "The world's not going to get off that easy, I'm afraid. Evil like that man, it's hard to take down." |
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| Havok | Jul 1 2012, 09:41 PM Post #14 |
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Superheated Plasma Blasts
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Until the moment of his evolution, Alex Summers had considered himself a smart man. Yeah, sure he played dumb blond jock in high school and college, but he had used his track scholarship to fund his BSc in geophysics and despite the strain of the higher level math and physics required for this study, he had earned Salutatorian for his entire graduating class, and had been accepted into the Post Grad/Pre-Doctorate program under the esteemed Dr Ahmet Abdol, the basis of his thesis, ironically enough, the affect of ambient cosmic radiation on the strata of the planet. That was heavy stuff, the stuff that you needed to use your brain for. But for a smart man, Alex realized that he was in the unfortunate habit of making very stupid decisions, especially when it was regarding his wife, and it was a pattern that had begun at the moment of their first meeting. The catch in her voice meant more to him than any of her words, and he felt a very real regret. Not that he had given Mystique this chance, but that he had kept it from Lorna. Slipping his arms around her waist, he brought her close and said softly, "Honey, I didn't want you to be hurt by this, but you know that I have to this. I would never lie to you. This is just a situation that I needed to figure out for myself. I needed to know that she was sincere, and this was part of it. Honey, she told me this almost immediately, and it was her choice." He met Lorna's eyes, "Lorna, believe me, please? She's been doing everything right, and if something is wrong with Magneto, don't you think we should have someone who can see it for what it is? Everything the man does is insane in my opinion, so I might not know what is out of the norm for him, you know." Pulling her closer, pressing his forehead to hers, he said, softly, "Babe, I would never ever do anything that I thought put us all in danger. I know I'm backing a lame horse here, but I've never seen Mystique scared before, and whatever is going on with him, if he's a clone, or just gone mad, or whatever, he scared the hell out of her, enough to make her run to us. I couldn't just send her away, or turn her over to Shield. Please, Lorna, please, don't be angry, trust me, Babe. We'll talk about this more when we get home, if you like, but right now, I need you trust in me." Looking away from Lorna, Alex said, "We need to get this machine running on a wide spread level and fast. Clearly it works," He looked at Mystique, "I need to know the speed of the effect, and how uncontrollable was it to prevent the change back. Also, how long the effect is? Can you change back now?" He stepped away from his wife, but his hand dropped to grip hers. He knew this was not over, but right now, right now, Mystique just wasn't a priority. |
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| Mystique | Jul 16 2012, 03:32 AM Post #15 |
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"No, it didn't hurt. It felt off but it didn't hurt." That had been the only bit of an answer she could form in regards to Box's question before Lorna started in. She'd never really thought about all the ways in which her abilities affected her body. Magnetic signature? She'd never even cast a thought to that, but the idea that she had one and that burying herself deep and long enough in an alternate form could change that? That was worth cataloging for future reference. Not that she particularly wanted to fool Lorna. But then, she wasn't exactly enemies with only one Magnokinetic, was she? She too began to read Alex the riot act, and Mystique rolled her eyes. Despite the disrespect of such an act she didn't care. This was typical X-Camp bickering. Typical morality play in the light of a much bigger problem. She was an asset. That could not be denied, she didn't care how much heavy burdened pride was involved. She could take the shape of anyone well enough to pass a blood test, to fool retinal scanners and to fool even some of the most astute observers. She was here to help, whether Lorna Summers wanted it or not. The daughter of Magneto continued her tirade and Mystique kept silent, not looking at anyone in particular and letting the woman get it all out. There was no point in arguing. She was not to be trusted. She'd made that bed, it was time to lie in it. Part of this whole little stunt had been to distance herself from a rough and bloodstained past. If she couldn't stomach slanted and prejudiced bucking at the hands of someone who, in hindsight, had every right to slant and buck against her, then there was no point in even trying. Still. It hit a chord all the same. One that resonated inside of her. She'd resonate on it later. When there weren't other bigger fish trying to bite their heads off. You know, the sane option. Once more Alex jumped to her defense, at least partially, and she let that knot in her stomach take back over. She'd been used to being a force of division for so long, the irony inherent in the idea that this very same fact was now bugging and eating away at her patience did not escape the shapeshifting woman's mind. After some tender moment, Alex went back to Box and then looked to her, questioning on the duration of the machine's machinations. She tried to shapeshift again at his question. It was like a numbness, a feeling of pins and needles in some phantom limb, and try as she not she couldn't move her skin past a slight ripple. Eyes dulling their glow only slightly. It felt like a piece of her was slowly waking up, but as of yet she couldn't bring herself out of it. "No, not yet." She said, pulling Foxx's mask over her face, the lenses over her eyes clouding out Mystique's tell-tale jack-o-lantern glow. ::Foxx:: Came Shortpack's voice over the psychic frequency he'd set up. She looked off as if someone had called her name. ::Tell Al there might be trouble over there. Up top. Volt and X just headed over via Wandavator. I think Dagger and Morph rounded some of the Morlocks up too.:: She looked to Havok. "Pack says look alive. Something's going on. I'll stay down here with Jeffries so he can see if he can get anything outta me to help with his calibrations." She looked pointedly to Box, then to Lorna. "You can leave her too, since she thinks I need a babysitter." |
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2:21 PM Jul 11