OOC: Welp, the reason I haven't been posting is because I was on vacation, for those of you who did not already know that, but now I'm back and after reading through 15 bloody pages, I'm ready to post again. Bear with me here as I try to get back into this. These posts are gonna be really really long =P
Since me and Addler were kinda had some important CD stuff with Krystal going on I'm gonna do a couple of posts with Krystal that happen before the two month time-skip since I never got the chance to before and would very much like to do so.
----Before the two month time-skip----
IC: N'Dine noticed the unfortunate holding her head, guessing that meant the therapy was working.
"Try to recall the names of your friends, family colleagues. Try to recall every little detail of your past life."
IC: Krystal - Institute -
Krystal nodded slowly, and began to do as N'Dine suggested, her thoughts went to her family for a while, a few thoughts went to some of the Enforcers who she used to work with before she had become a mutant. Her memories of West and Logan were the strongest...what had become of them? She may never know, she could never show her face to them again, not the way she was now. It just wasn't possible, they'd just see her as a monster now.
Maybe that's all she was now, a monster. She wasn't even just a mutant, now she was a Lycan as well. These thoughts seemed to have a poor effect on her concentration. N'Dine seemed to notice this, the expression on her face reminded Krystal that she needed to focus.
After what seemed to be an excruciatingly long time Krystal had begun to think it would never work, her thoughts trailed into more recent times, she had new friends now after all. She didn't know them well to be sure, but she had bonded with them a bit all the same. Shadow had done a lot for her, and she'd quickly got to know Liliana a bit, as well as some of the other X-men. She had to remind herself that she wasn't alone in all this, many of the mutants here had experience with similar difficulties like Krystal was experience. Like N'Dine here, not to mention the head of the X-men, Beast. She didn't really know Beast, had never so much as spoken to him, but she knew enough about him to know they were quite similar, at least in terms of powers and being quite furry.
Krystal suddenly let out a yelp of pain, sounds of snapping and cracking were heard as she began to noticeably shrink down in size, not very much so, but enough that N'Dine would notice, her paw-like hands morphed a bit and became slightly more human-like, her muzzle shrunk down a bit as well. In the end she still looked pretty much the same, like a bipedal she-wolf, but the most notable change was not her appearance She began to cough as she felt a strange sensation in her throat, her heart skipped a beat as her mind became much more clear and could think straight once again, did this mean she could now..."I-I can...speak again..." she said slowly in amazement, she couldn't help but smile. She had regained control over her animal side...for now at least, she knew deep down that it wouldn't take much for it to come back out again, she could feel it lingering, as if it was constantly in the back of her mind, and that was something she'd could never get rid of completely.
Still, she was just happy enough to know that she could speak again, and that she could learn to control the wolf inside her. Without warning she practically leaped at N'Dine and squeezed her tightly in a death grip of a hug, she nearly forgot about her enhanced strength in doing so. "Thank you!"
----After the two month time-skip----
IC: Krystal - X-Manor -
Krystal had become decisively more silent and reclusive the closer and closer Christmas had approached, and now on the very Eve of said holiday, it had only gotten worse. She wasn't partially rude or mean to anyone, quite the opposite really, when asked how she was doing she'd be friendly enough and say she was fine, but it was obvious something was eating at her, she wouldn't say what it was however.
The quite recent events on Television hadn't helped either, at seeing Pietro on live television she had quiet nearly lunged at the screen, growling quietly at it. The only thing that had stopped her was when Rebekah had shot it, which oddly enough hardly bothered her.
After a while of just avoiding socializing in general and brooding a bit about this new anti-X-men sentiment that seemed to be growing like a plague, Krystal decided to approach Rebekah, Krystal could more or less figure out what was bothering the girl, obviously the sudden reemergence of this new Weapon X like group, and probably the lack of any reason to celebrate Christmas, which Krystal could understand completely, Christmas brought nothing but painful memories for her. There had been a time when she had enjoyed Christmas like anyone else, but those days were long gone, nearly forgotten with time.
Elijah had already beaten her too trying to cheer up Rebekah with a present, Krystal knew the guy meant well and was a good friend to Rebekah, but she seriously doubted that it would be enough. Rebekah was a troubled girl, much more than anyone deserves to be.
Still, Krystal wasn't sure what she could possibly do or say to make a difference anyway, though maybe just being a friend would be enough? "Hey Rebekah...Elijah...you two not much for celebrating either?"
IC: Windrider - Danger Room, X-Manor -
I was in a very bad mood. The moment I had seen what had transpired on live television I had left the group around the big Christmas tree without a single word. If Pietro hadn't gone to far before, he had really crossed the line this time. What was the moron thinking? All I knew was he had to be stopped, whether Pietro realized it or not, and I doubted he did, he was the primary cause for the hate for mutants as of late.
Don't get me wrong, I had no real love for most non-mutants in general, they were all bigoted and discriminating of those deemed too 'different' from them, or those with certain advantages over them. All it was really was petty jealousy. But what Pietro was doing was starting and outright war, and in the end, nobody would win that war. All it would cause was more pain and suffering, we had enough of that already.
The past two months I had added Beast and his X-men in the reconstruction of the Institute and had started to get to know them a little better, well some of them anyway. My previous life as a Brotherhood member and the fact that I played a key role in the destruction of the Enforcer Tower was working against me. Most didn't outright say it, but I could feel a certain amount of...distrust toward me, at least among some of the mutants who'd been X-men and/or students for a long time.
I couldn't really blame them, I had my share of blood on my hands, granted I had always tried to prevent the loss of innocent lives even as a Brotherhood Member, but that made me no less responsible for going along with Pietro's actions for so long.
At least Beast seemed to trust me, though it certainly helped that Matt, Liliana, and Christine stood up for me. About a month or so back I had discussed with Beast how I could help at the mansion, other than being an X-men. Somehow or another Beast got me to agree to eventually start teaching a class, on weapons training of all things. My advanced skills in swordsmanship, as well as many many other weapons both melee and otherwise, plus my paramilitary training that I had been taught at the academy before my status as a mutant had been discovered more than qualified me to teach such a class. Somehow or another Beast had gotten me to agree to it, I had never seen myself as the teaching kind though, I was rather unsure about the whole thing. I was supposed to start teaching after Christmas break too.
Though the biggest problem I was facing what was most on my mind, and he had a name, John. For Liliana's sake we tolerated each other, but the tension was always there, and quite noticeably so, we pretty much avoided each other as much as possible. For whatever reason, are personalities really clashed. I had a great sense of humor, or at least I liked to think so, and John...well he just can't take a joke. I really shouldn't of called him a clown. On top of that the fact that I had been Brotherhood most likely gave him more reason to hate me. Though I thought that was hardly fair, since Matt had been Brotherhood for a while, and they were all buddy buddy.
I knew that the tension between us would inevitably lead to some dramatic clash, it was only a matter of time before it happened. I really really did not want that to happen, especially since John was my cousin's boyfriend. Liliana more or less would start trying to make us like each other before long.
I had a plan though, it was a crazy and insane plan, but who knows it could miraculously work. It involved where I was standing right at that moment, the new Danger Room, only quite recently had it become fully operational, and it still had quite a few bugs, but that was what this tests were for!
I had selected a very specific program to test out today, one that could only be run by someone with but the highest security clearance, which thankfully, I had. It was a training simulation that had been used by John's father, the Wolverine. I figured that if I could master it, well John might not hate me so much.
The program was quite simple really, fight off a horde of simulated mutants with powers and abilities exactly like Wolverine for ten minutes in a small ghost town. Simple enough.
Oh did I mention that I had turned the safety off? So basically, if one of these suckers cut me, I would bleed.
As long as I didn't screw this up, I figured I'd be fine. If Wolverine could do it, then so could I. I drew my adamantium katana as the Danger Room began to activate the program, the doors to the Danger Room locked themselves, preventing anyone from entering...or exiting for that matter.
The Danger Room simmered a bit as it slowly began to morph into a small ghost town. I quickly put my guard up as I walked through the main street of the town, it was only a matter of time before...
The sound of glass shattering pierced my ears as I quickly spun around to see a canine mutant much like Wolverine jump through a window from the saloon behind me and tackle me to the ground. Adamantium claws sprung out of his wrists and he growled animalistically as he prepared to gut me. Luckily I had not let go of my katana and swung the blade at him as quickly as I could, cutting a diagonal slash across his chest, he howled and leaped backwards off of me, I quickly got back to my feet, using my wings to get myself off the ground quickly. The canine mutant's wound had already began to heal up and he was already coming in for another attack. With a wave from my left had I summoned a massive gust of wind into his chest, sending him flying backward and crashing through the wall of the saloon. I had little time to celebrate however as I heard yet another animalistic cry from behind me, a second identical canine mutant was swinging his right claws in an attempt to rake my back. I spun around quickly and parried with my katana, blocking his attack. As soon as this was done I gave him a nice cyclone to play with, which began to form around him and spun him endlessly.
I thought I was doing pretty well so far, about two minutes were already up and I hadn't even gotten a scratch on me yet. The sound of a multitude of feral growls changed my attitude however, as three more canine mutants from each side of the road came rushing toward me with claws drawn, not to mention the one I had sent flying into the saloon had returned, looking quite angry. Meaning I now had to deal with a total of eight.
My solution to this current predicament was quite simple. I must become my childhood hero, Batman. So I did what Batman would of done, I stirred up the dirt road around me to obscure my opponents view of me completely, and then flew straight up into the sky. Moments later I landed as stealthy and silently as possible on the roof of the town's bank. Though eight mutants looked around for me in confusion for a moment or two, growling viciously. They began to sniff loudly and began to split off in search for me.
I smirked, they thought they could find me with my scent? The fools, they needed the air to do that, and I controlled the air. The wind around the town began to stir wildly in random directions, which in turn caused my scent spread all over the town, making it quite impossible to tell where I was, as I seemed to be everywhere.
I figured all I really had to do now was just wait out till the ten minutes were up, I supposed that I was sorta of cheating, but I didn't really care at this point.
Then of course the unthinkable happened, a ninth canine mutant materialized, quite literally right on top of me. "Now that's just cheati-" The mutant growled and picked me up by the collar before kneeing me in the stomach and tossing me off the roof. The other eight quickly came toward the commotion, I was quickly surrounded.
I quickly tried to scramble to my feet, but two of the mutants grabbed me by my wings and pinned me down to the ground. This...this isn't good... The remaining mutants drew out there claws and prepared to turn me into dice meat.
"Okay...NO." My eyes began to glow brightly as the air began to swirl wildly and violently around me, the mutants didn't hesitate to bring down their claws upon me.
With a loud cry a massive blast of air went off in all directions from where I lay, sending all the mutants flying at insane speeds away from me, as well as turning the entire town into nothing but splinters. The entire Danger Room shook violently from the force, the ventilation system unable to absorb that much air quick enough, the system was quickly overloaded.
With a massive flicker the danger room shut completely down. I lay in the center of the room, gashes all over my arms, legs, and chest, some of the canine mutants had managed to cut me up a bit as they had been sent flying.
Welp, I had managed to get myself seriously injured and break the brand new danger room, all on Christmas Eve.
But hey, at least I had totally curb stomped that training simulation, all the same I decided I would just lie on the ground for a bit before I decided to do something about all the blood that was pouring from my wounds.
IC: Ashley - Ashley's Room, X-Manor -
While the others were celebrating by the tree in the main room, Ashley was a bit preoccupied with the tending of her room, or should we say all the plant-life in her room. Now as much as Ashley loved Christmas, she really wasn't much of a fan of winter, it had gotten far too cold for all the flowers in her garden to survive, especially with the snow that now covered the ground outside, she had taken as many of them inside as she could, until Beast told her to stop bringing plants into that mansion at any rate, which were quite literally in every room by now, and there were a lot of rooms. Even the great willow tree outside had shed it's leaves and had gone dormant, at least until spring.
Still, at the very least she still had her very own garden in her room to manage. She was currently watering the flowers, all five hundred of them. It was literally impossible to sit down anywhere in her room, besides her bed at least. It was times like these she wished the mansion was further down south where it didn't snow, New York was just too cold for her in the winter time.
Ashley suddenly felt a slight tremor, it's source of course was the Danger Room, not that Ashley realized this. "Hmm...I wonder what on earth that was about?" She said aloud to herself, she quickly dismissed it as someone just messing around with their powers. Though this reminded her that she should probably go look for Matt and the others, who were probably opening presents without her.
She was about done watering her plants anyway, she put the watering can down and made her way out of her room, carefully I might add, as she had to make sure not to step on any of the plants on her floor. Soon she found her way to the others, who were all around the Christmas tree, save a few. She eyed the tree, which of course she had grown herself. "Maybe I should make it even taller...and add flowers..."
IC: Howard - Zoo, New York City -
Howard had watched the news broadcast on his phone well before Ares had showed up, his face looked grim. But he knew what he had to do, his suit began to materialize. "Let's go fix this mess...and let's make it fast, I don't want to miss dinner."
OOC: I will get to posting as the priest and Shiloh....later. :3 I'm wayyyy too tired to type anymore XD
