Marvel, Rebirth:

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Mimic

 

"Ah'll try not too..." Christine said. She could see a dark shape in the edges of her mental eye. Something lurking. Some sort of beast. She didn't want to turn into a monster like Sierra had.

 

"What exactly is it?"

 

IC:

 

"Now this is interesting," Jennifer said as she pushed back her glasses. She then walked past agent 'T' as she liked to think of him since his name was so long and approached some of the Brotherhood members.

 

"Helping out are you?" she asked amused.

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"Are you sure that um...doing that was a good idea?" Ashley wondered how this might all effect Christine.

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Mimic

 

"No... not really, but its better then Sierra freaking out and trying to maul all of us right?"

[JiMing]

IC: TLAW-001 Vivus

 

Vivus hung back and observed as Jennifer interacted with some Brotherhood members.

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"It's something that I did a long time ago. I used to be able to painlessly morph into any kind of animal I wanted to." I looked up. "But my 'inner demons' as you might say, warped my powers into this... abomination." I gritted my teeth, spitting out the last word.

 

"Now whenever I get hurt, or think about anything other than forcing it down inside myself, the beast literally tears out of me." I couldn't help it. After every bad thing I'd been through, only now I cried.

 

"The amount of pain is indescribable." I immediately felt weak for saying that, but I had to tell someone.

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Mimic

 

"Hmm... very strange... Ah can feel this thing is very negative and bloodthirsty... if only there was a way to seal it away for good. Perhaps a telepath can help you with that. All Ah can do is aleviate you for a time..."

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

Ashley knelt down and gave Sierra a hug.

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"Thanks, Ashley." I said softly, my eyes starting to dry a little. "Even if it goes away physically, I don't think the monster will ever truly disappear. I did something of my own free will to cause this." I pause, trying to find the words. "I keep telling myself that it was an accident, but I did it out of anger. I killed my eleven year old sister."

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Mimic

 

Christine sucked in a breath in shock. She then knelt down and looked at Sierra. "It was an accident. Ah'm sure you didn't want to kill her Sierra. Ah killed a young boy myself when my powers first manifested. Sucked the life right out of him. Bad **** like this happens to good people and its not always our fault. You need to forgive yourself and maybe this thing will go away with time..." Christine closed her fist and felt sweat dripping down her forehead. The thing inside her wanted out, it wanted to be free.

 

"This demon... inside of you. Ah think you created it yourself... your own mind created this thing and gave it life... your own mind can destroy it too." that would explain why it was inside Christine now if it was part of Sierra's mind. Christine had downloaded part of Sierra's personality and part of her mind, so now it was in her.

 

OOC: Think I'm off to bed, night peeps.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Flex Cop

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

Hearing about all this death and accidental killing made Ashley want to burst into tears, she hugged Sierra tighter.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

Matt's shoulder's sagged. "I know... I know its just a car." he said softly. "But I bought it with my life savings and what little money my parents had stashed away which went to me since they were killed by the Phoenix." Matt said as he looked Aleks in the eyes.

 

Matt remembered when he first bought the car. He remembered spending his Saturdays outside in the sun as he would put a new coat of wax on it. He remembered driving to California with Nicole and then again with Christine to find John.

 

"I don't have the money to buy another." he slowly lowered his gun as his anger deflated.

 

"I'm clam now." he said as he accepted the dog and took a bite.

 

"Not looking for revenge or anything. I know I'm not good with guns, but you forget I have powers too and we've both fought Hydra before."

 

IC:

 

"Yeah...well.." Aleks said awkwardly, looking around the city before clapping Matt on the shoulder once. "Just stay sharp. There are worse things in this city than HYDRA."

 

The two walked and talked a bit more naturally after they found the Mustang, debating the outcome of the impending Super Bowl, bouncing ideas for physical education class off each other, and for a few minutes Aleks listened eagerly while Matt gave him the lowdown on all the crazy stuff the teachers used to do behind closed doors when the X-Men were a full force.

 

"You're kidding."

 

"No I'm not, Beast used to do a puppet show for all the little kids, he made voices and everything. It was really strange."

"That's disturbing on a number of levels."

"Yeah, but Hank loved kids. He was like the dad everyone wished they had, or wished that wasn't dead anyway."

"Sounds like a good man," Aleks said, before coughing a little and raising his gun out of impulse. Above him, the sky shone in a variety of colors, darkening in pitch the more his eyes traced down the horizon. "Getting late out."

"Yeah, no sign of whoever took the car. Too bad we don't have John with us to smell them out and track them down for us or something." Matt sighed as he put his gun away.

"Where is John, anyway? One day I heard he was at the Institute as bloodthirsty as ever, the next -" and here Aleks snapped his fingers "- gone."

"No idea, you know how he is. He likes to pout and go out on his own for weeks at a time before coming back half drunk and in need of a shower."

"I wasn't aware we'd given him anything to pout about," thought the Russian mercenary out loud. "He'd only been back for a little while. Weird. Anyway, yeah. The Seahawks defense will get to breaking Manning in half by the end of the first quarter. Nothing you say will ever sway me to think otherwise. It's statistics and science."

-Tyler

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"I'll never forget the way she looked at me." I whispered. "We only had each other at that time, so she trusted me completely. Even though I loved her more than anything or anyone else, she died thinking that I'd betrayed and hated her."

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Mimic

 

"Ah'm sorry sugar... no one deserves to have to live with that."

 

IC: Triblade

 

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I still am pulling for the Broncos."

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"Maybe so, but I'm sure you're tired of hearing my life story." I stood up and dusted myself off. "You've undoubtably had a hard time too."

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"Here...eat this." Ashley dug into her paper bag and pulled out an eclair, put it in front of Sierra's face.

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

I had to cross my eyes somewhat to see what Ashley was holding. "Good, it's junk food."I said, taking the eclair and eating it. "I can't afford to eat anything like vegetables or grains." I pulled my shirt up a little to show just how bony I'd gotten.

 

"Transforming doesn't just hurt, it's also bad for my health. I'd say that it causes me to lose around five pounds each time."

[Let's Henshin!]

IC: Dante (Greeting Alistair, X-Institute)

 

"Hello," Dante replied as Alistair smothered his bangs, what's up with that anyway, "So um the bangs, that a new fashion trend or something, or are you just trying out a new look?"

 

Despite his verbal reactions, he was secretly pleased to see Alistair again. The fellow teen had been one of the few people Dante could search with. There weren't a lot of people who knew enough history and mythology to help Dante with uncovering lost artifacts and locales. Not to mention if push came to shove, Alistair possessed enough skills to actually get them out of that situation.

 

"So, how'd that family business go? Did you visit the good old U.K?"

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC: (Asa)

 

"Those other girls and guys aren't me. You'll have to work a little harder if you want to come out on top."

 

Asa smiled, moving slightly to put herself in the right position, leaning over she eyed up the cue ball, pulling back and driving it just hard enough to bank off the cushion, just enough to pocket the 15 and 12 striped balls. Though when Daken leaned in more, it threw her off and sent one of his solids right into the perfect position for him to easily sink another. A small groan of disappointment escaped Asa's lips, a small pout on her lips.

"Really, guys?"

 

Nate glanced up from a magazine he was reading at Dominik and Asa, shaking his head.

 

"You know that if I was playing I'd definitely be above both of you."

 

IC:

 

Daken and Asa turned as one being to look at Nate, who met their glance for all of about two seconds and shrugged before looking back down at his Better Homes and Gardens mag. The hitman smiled knowingly, teeth gleaming as he turned back to the pool table. An archer, a precog, and two mercenaries. About as good a start as any. But four people did not make a team - even now Osborn had people canvassing the entire nation for the best of the best. So far, after leaving Houston, reports had been scarce as informants started to turn up empty handed - or, worse, turn up without hands at all. There had been one particularly brutish case out in Germany (not far from where HYDRA had once held Daken, coincidentially) where the mercenary Osborn had sent out for recruitment purposes ended up smashed literally into a pancake, but it did no good to dwell on that...

 

It was his turn, and Asa had left him in such a sweet spot that he could have kissed her - instead, he settled for a mockingly chaste peck on the cheek and slid both of them down to Daken's new angle of attack. This time, he was right on target. Crack!

 

His 2 and 6 plunked into the center left pocket. Angela laughed, though her eyes never left the pinball machine.

 

IC:

 

"Lilliana, that's Betsy Braddock," Warren introduced with a playful smirk as he looked over his shoulder at Kitty and the applicant. He raised his voice a little.

 

"She'll be finding a new place to live soon if she doesn't stop giving color commentary to everyone who knocks on the door!"

 

-Tyler

Edited January 29, 2014 by Aegon Targaryen

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

Ashley handed the bag of goodies to Sierra. "Here, you need them more than I do."

 

IC: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde

 

"Oh my." Kitty chuckled for a moment. "Now Warren, Lilliana here would like to know if we have any positions open." She paused before adding. "Teacher positions."

[Hanako Herupa]

IC: (Asa)

 

Asa leaned into position again, Daken was up by two, but not for long. Asa sized up the table, sliding into position, focusing she lined up the shot, pulling back and then....Crack! The cue ball zoomed down the table, banking off the cushion and splitting three of her striped balls, 10, 11, and 13 went their separate ways: 10 sunk in the right upper corner pocket, where as 11 sunk in the lower left, and 13 in the lower right. Daken didn't see it, but by sinking 2 and 6 he gave her the angle needed. She chuckled, winking as she looked back to Daken.

 

"Uh oh, looks like the reigning champ might not be coming out on top this time," Asa playfully mocked.

[Eevee]

IC: Lilliana

 

"Preferably English..." She said with a blush. "I have a degree in English literature."

Edited January 29, 2014 by Rawrmouse

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

Daken's eyes wandered over the pool table frantically, his grin faltering slightly before honing in on Asa's angle, then his own. Then over his own again. The spark in his grin relit.

 

"You got me," he resigned with a sigh, squeezing Ripple's side with an elbow lightly as he leaned down again. "But, while we're here, would you like to see a magic trick?"

 

"Alright, show me," she challenged. Daken finally let her slip away from him and she took a small step to the side, allowing him to line up his shot carefully. Just to be safe, he added another small layer of chalk to the top of his cue and then rebooted his process, finally shooting. He scuffed the right of the cue ball and cursed, though this was deliberate; the all white ball bounced off the cushion and then ricocheted a couple times before rolling onto the table proper. Several of Akihiro's balls were knocked into varying positions, and for a second it looked like his 7 might just go into the top left pocket, but nothing doing. Only Asa's remaining ball had moved into a prime position, closing the gap between itself and the bottom right pocket even as his own solids began to slow. He cursed again, but in his head he was beaming. Nailed it.

 

 

Ripple, meanwhile, practically crowed in victory, blind to the way Daken had rearranged the field. "So," she teased, "you were saying about that shampoo?"

 

"I wouldn't start Googling it just yet," he pointed out. "Look." Angela laughed again, and that's when Asa saw: her 14 ball, her last obstacle, was inches away from the bottom-right pocket and could be tapped in. It would have been an easy victory, and she would have been up several hundred dollars - she may have even gotten the bonus for a quick end to the game. But then her eyes wandered forward, and she saw what was stopping her.

 

The 8 ball sat obstinate in the space between the pocket and the stripe, teetering on the edge. It would have to go in first if she wanted to sink the 14 - by all the rules of god and man, that was an instant loss.

 

"Abracadabra," came a voice as she stared at the blank ball, and the adjoining mouth kissed her hand while it rested numbly on her pool cue.

 

IC:

 

"Any prior teaching experience?" he asked, after a second's worth of a look at Kitty. "This place is...different...when it comes to students and their areas of...expertise."

 

-Tyler

Edited January 29, 2014 by Aegon Targaryen

[Light]

IC: "Oh, you know you love it." Betsy dropped from somewhere around the ceiling and landed on her feet softly, even though the others could have sworn she wasn't there an instant before. "Nice to meet you, Lilliana."

Evidently, she was in a good mood at the moment, and had gotten dressed in relatively normal clothes.

 

Well, apart from the fact that the shirt and jeans were obviously Warren's.

 

IC: (Hawk)

 

Nate muttered something under his breath about theatrics.

 

IC: "Because, frankly, we don't need another person exploiting childhood tragedies to create more murderers."

Mady's face barely twitched.

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"Thanks, Ashley. You've got to be one of the friendliest people that I've ever met." I said honestly, accepting the bag.

[Eevee]

IC: Lilliana

 

"Nice to meet you as well." She said softly to Betsy before looking at Warren.

 

"Sir I understand. I was a student here so I should. I have combat experience as well and am a mutant." She said bluntly. "That's sort of why I want to work here."

[EmperorWhenua]

Ic: "Now hold on," Annie said, clearly flustered by the last remark. "You come in here supposedly with investigative wishes and immediately begin to berate me and my own business, completely abandoning any facade of objectivity you ostensibly held before in favor of holding a completely prefabricated opinion. But you don't even stop there: You choose to insult me, a person you barely even know, by calling me a murderer. And you fit your observations with your thesis instead of even caring to observe first. That's stupid of you. You assume everything. You know nothing of me or my intentions.

 

"Get out. Or stay; maybe you'll learn something."

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

"Ah thanks..." Ashley blushed from the compliment as she looked ahead. "Hey I can see the school!"

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

Warren and Betsy spared a look at each other before he looked back to Lilliana.

 

"Every other person in this room was considered dead by the time you came here, then," he said. "The Institute we were part of and the one you want to be part of are separated by a generation. Most of the people we knew as teachers, most of our friends...gone. It's a different school now."

 

Xavier. Hank. Scott. He'd been dreaming about Scott again lately, the same dreams as before, when Betsy had come back. Scott hadn't burned. He remembered that much. When I woke up, Logan was ashes and Jean was gone, but Scott hadn't burned. Something Scott had said to him that night...

 

He came back to the present; here his tone became just as blunt. "Half of these kids want an X-Men revival. Half of them would rather I burned the school to the ground before allowing that to happen. It will eat up a lot of classroom discussion. Kids are going to screw around with their powers in class. Some of them will skip. Some of them may not ever show up for your class. It might take you a year to cover a semester's worth of material. Do you think you can handle that without going mad?"

 

"That seems easy." She said with a slight smile. "I used to be like that. I can relate."

 

"It's not easy," he corrected her. "And chances are you will go mad. Where'd you get your degree?"

 

"The University of Virginia." She said, opening the folder in her hand and handing him her diploma and resume.

 

After looking them over, Warren handed the papers to Betsy, who read them over for a minute and handed them to Kitty. While the other two former X-Men read, Warren asked, "You sure about this?"

 

"Positive." She replied sternly. "I haven't been more positive about anything in my life."

 

Betsy chimed in at that. "You'd better be. You've made Warren actually work for more than an hour today. He's actually done his job."

 

"I will throw you off the roof, Braddock," he promised under his breath. "You can wear my shirts and you can wear my pants, but you don't have my wings. Don't tempt me." With a deep breath that went more towards masking a grin than masking his exasperation, he turned back to Lilliana and nodded for Kitty to hand her back her folder.

 

"You're hired, then."

 

-Tyler

[Snelly]

IC: Katherine "Kitty" Pryde

 

"Well, we've roped you in now." Kitty joked. "Welcome to the madhouse."

Edited January 29, 2014 by Yoko Littner

[Blair the Cat]

IC:

 

"That's a relief. I need to feed Mia and call my mom." I rolled my eyes at that last one.

[Hanako Herupa]

IC: (Asa)

 

Initially she saw that there was no possible way to win, her direct route was cut off. Daken had her beat...at least that's what he thought. Of course Daken seemed to assume she'd go for the obvious route. "Well I guess...I guess I still have to try...even though it looks...like you've already won."

 

However Asa got up, walking over to the top of the table, the cue ball sat there, the eight ball was there teetering on the edge, one slight tap, she'd sink it and automatically lose the game. Instead she leaned in and focused, her eyes narrowing on the cue, mapping out where each ball should land. While Daken's moved into varying positions, none of them were blocking this route she had mapped out. She relaxed and then...Crack! The ball sped down the table, banking off the cushion, and knocking her 14 ball away, back into the cushion where it bounced off, heading towards the top center pocket. Knocking one of Daken's ball near the center top away, and sliding straight into the top center pocket. The cue ball had remained with the eight ball, a slight tap was all it needed. Angela started laughing, her eyes remained glued to the pinball machine as another smile spread across Ripple's lips.

 

"Bottom right pocket. Look at that, a first...Daken on the bottom." Asa smirked, tapping the cue ball ever so slightly, and sinking the eight ball exactly where Daken had been nice to put it for her. Clunk! That sound was the sound of Daken's defeat. She turned back and picking up the money, pocketing it and leaning up to whisper in his ear.

 

She leaned back against the pool table, that playful smirk spread across her lips. She laughed a little, along with Angela. That's why she was asked to be a part of this, because she was won.

[Eevee]

IC: Lilliana

 

"I'll wear my straight jacket with pride... No pun intended." She said to Kitty.

Edited January 29, 2014 by Rawrmouse

[Snelly]

IC:

 

The infirmary of the school, as could be expected from an institute full of superpowered kids, was busy. So busy in fact the didn't seem to notice as a person of rather odd appearance materialized in one of the rooms. Which was rather lucky, because her almost monstrous appearance would have startled quite a few people, even if they were used to this sort of thing.

 

"Oh...I made it." She said, almost surprised. She figured there had been a good chance she would have been disintegrated, but it looked like she was having some actual luck for once.

 

It was only then the mostly plant mutant realised there was someone she knew in the room with her, two someones. One of them was looking rather worse for wear but eh, that wasn't surprising.

 

"Well...fancy meeting you guys here..."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Are you stoned or are you slow?" Belikov shot back. "Marshawn Lynch is a monster in the flesh of a man. Denver's defense will be ground beneath his heel the second Wilson hands him the ball."

Ahead, the sky began to darken again, even as the awkwardness between the hired gun and the former X-Man/Brotherhood agent lightened up to the point of normal conversation again. Several times Matt left caution to the mild winds of the New York night, and Aleks had to lay into him again, but they did not find anyone from the Institute, nor did they dig up any HYDRA agents with their heads under the rubble. They found survivors, though, that they did. Between their powers, they managed to free about two dozen people who the regular authorities had missed, and sent them off to hospitals or Red Cross camps, depending on their injuries.

 

Finally, it was nearing midnight, and the Russian had lost track of all the city blocks they'd covered. "So."

 

-Tyler

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Mimic

 

The thing was screaming in Christine's head. She tried to push it away but it was all she could see now. She screamed out-loud now as terrible pain tore through her body. She fell to her knees as she began to shake. Dark fur began to grow over her skin as large feathery wings tore from her back-side tearing through her clothes. Christine raised her head as it turned into a wolf like snout most of her human features fading away; replaced by the beast.

 

Her fingers and toes turned to claws as Christine let loose a terrible howl. She then flapped her massive bat-wings and flew upwards into the sky.

 

IC: Nicole

 

"Yes, get out." Nicole said. "It is my own choice that I want to learn from Annie. That I want more power. We don't need your opinions, nor do we need your judgment. Now please leave and let us talk."

 

IC: Triblade

 

"Stoned? I'm not Dallas," he smirked. "Manning is the man, he's going to pull through, end of story."

 

"So... what?" Matt asked as he turned to Aleks. "You about done? I'm not sure if there is anyone else to save."

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley

 

Ashley watched as the transformed Christine flew off. "That's not good..."

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Wow."

 

IC:

 

"Well, beats the heII out of me," he muttered. "You see anyone in need of saving? I don't."

 

-Tyler

Edited January 30, 2014 by Aegon Targaryen

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Triblade

 

"Not really..." Matt said as he glanced around. He looked up as he heard what sounded like a loud helicopter flying over the city. He saw that it was a Police copter, probably working with the rescue effort. As he watched the helicopter's search light flashed around the area, looking for survivors as it continued on it way. The light had flashed only for a few moments but Matt had sworn he'd saw someone at the top of the massive building across the street. It looked like someone strapped to a big wooden X on the very too of the roof. And it kind of looked like John.

 

"Christ, I think I just saw John." Matt said as he rubbed his eyes.

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"What, under the rubble?" Aleks asked, blinking his eyes twice to usher away the threat of sleep. "He has claws. He'll dig himself out. What, you think he stole your Mustang?"

 

"No... up there man, at the top of the building. I swear I just saw him strapped to a big piece of wood. But his head was shaved and ****."

 

"Matt..." Aleksandr began, but by then Matt already had his hand on his gun (stupid kid, what did I tell him about when he meant to use his gun?) and was moving across the street. Sparing a couple quick glances about, he followed at a reasonable pace, hand on his own Magnum and free hand ready to move to the knife strapped at his chest. When he reached Summers, he was in a narrow alleyway clearly meant for garbage disposal or something of the sort; it didn't bear much evidence of the blast, but clearly people displaced by the attack from HYDRA had taken up camp here. Once.

 

"Help me up here," Matt told him, and Aleks looked at him incredulously and then stared up at the top of the building. He never thought to check and see where it was.

 

"You can't be serious. It's a ###### skyscraper. John's not up there."

 

-Tyler

Edited January 30, 2014 by Aegon Targaryen

[Makuta of Time]

IC: Jack and John

The duo walked in Madison Square as they talked about Jack's past life. The mission for Jack is to find his grandfather and meet him.

 

"So you're saying that Ivan is here in New York, but you don't know where?"

"That is correct." John them sighed. "Jack, when we find him, promise me tou will dedicate your life to helping others."

"I will."

"Good."

 

OOC: Jack and John ope for interaction