X-Men: Darkest Days

[Snelly]

IC: Ashley - Starbucks -

 

"Say, any of you know your way around? I'm sort of lost." Dante stated sheepishly as he rubbed the back of his head.

 

"Nope! I'd just get you more lost!" Ashley said with her usual chirpiness. It was about then she noticed Alistair was behind Luz.

 

"So um...are we all going to the park?"

 

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York

 

Unbeknowingly to everyone in existence save perhaps the few beings with omniscience that may or may not exist, the Mysterious Priest was on the move.

 

His mind was hard at work, collecting every stray thought or emotion he could. So much negativity filled the city, it gave him much strength and energy. New York had a lot of grumpy, busy people, trying to get through the busy and somewhat hazardous streets as if they were running late...well they probably were.

 

As he teleported from rooftop to rooftop, he stopped when he felt a presence...the presence of a powerful mind. Of course compared to him this mind was quite young, but it was powerful none-the-less. How interesting...

 

A few teleports later and he was in Central Park, naturally he lurked in the shadows of some of the taller trees.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Snelly

[Krayzikk]

IC:

"I have no idea where I'm going."IC:Calm measured footsteps had carried the Illusionist from the apartment to street level, and back to Central Park. The part of town he had been in was horrible for hailing a cab, and he needed one. The Summers girl was on the move, and the faster he got out West the better. Following her would be hard enough, and he didn't need a slow arrival making it worse.His stride slowed for the briefest of second when he felt a powerful mind suddenly appear. Definitely more powerful than the average telepath. He could detect no malicious intent, but further investigation wasn't possible without a mental invasion, something he wasn't prepared to do just yet."I know you're there."

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

True to form, the Priest stepped out of the shadows and revealed himself to the Illusionist, clad in his purple, priestly robes and wielding his gnarled staff. His equally purple hair swayed with the wind. Marcus would find himself unable to get a good look at the Priest's eyes however, as both the lighting and the way the Priest positioned himself made it impossible.

 

"Indeed, I am here." He said, ending with a good natured smile.

Edited February 17, 2013 by Snelly

[Krayzikk]

IC:"Is there any particular reason I found you watching me?" The Illusionist asked calmly, one eyebrow raised. He'd since changed disguises, he now appeared to be a nearing middle-aged man with blond hair slowly changing to gray.

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"It's not often I find minds as...powerful as yours." The Priest replied. "It caught my attention."

[Alex Humva]

IC [Luz/Alameda]

 

"Neither do I know exactly where I'm going. I'm simply following you." Luz looked around at the building. No screaming, no wailing, just general caution. Truly the people of this time were a jaded bunch.

[Krayzikk]

IC:"I'll take that as a compliment." Marcus replied, pausing for a moment. "Well. if you'll excuse me, I need to get to the airport. I have places to be."

[Alex Humva]

IC [Luz/Alameda]

 

"I wasn't talking about you, Historian. My interest is with the girl, you have yet to remind me of anyone from before my sleep."

[Let's Henshin!]

IC: Dante

 

"See, now that's a brilliant idea. Sleep. But of course, it's just my luck that no one knows their way aound this stupid place." Dante groaned, "Only I could end up at a Starbucks that doesn't appear to have a single helpful local." Rotten luck.

Edited February 18, 2013 by Toa Onarax

[shadow pridak money gang]

IC:

 

"Did someone call a helpful local?"

 

-Tyler

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"Oh?" The Priest replied, "I take it from your hastiness that you need to get there as quickly as possible. Is this place somewhere far?" So far the Priest hadn't resorted to using his powers in any invasive matter, he had no reason to, and he preferred to keep it that way.

 

IC: Ashley - Starbucks -

 

"Oh yeah! Dallas can help ya!" Ashley said gleefully. "Then we're gonna go to the park, right Dallas?" She said, tugging on the empath's arm.

[Krayzikk]

IC:"I'm headed out west. A small... Issue to deal with."

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"Oh I'd imagine lots of people are having issues in the west right about now."

Edited February 18, 2013 by Snelly

[Krayzikk]

IC:"Oh, very much so. Depending on your perspective, I'm either going to make them better, or worse."

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"Are you now?" The Priest mused. "How very interesting...."

 

The Priest gave a smirk. "Well, good luck."

[Krayzikk]

IC:The Illusionist watched the new arrival carefully, his expression unchanging. He could spare a few minutes, and this man was... Interesting. And knowledge was always a good thing to have."If I may ask, who are you?"

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"I am the Mysterious Priest." The priest said with a sight bow. "And you are?"

[Krayzikk]

IC:No names? Well, two can play at that game."I am the Illusionist." Marcus replied cooly, raising an eyebrow. "Now, I do have another question. You are quite clearly a mutant, and also quite clearly unafraid of being caught by the Enforcers.""Which faction?"

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"Well Illusionist..." The Priest began, his smile never ceasing. "You could say I'm with the Hellfire club, considering they made me one of their Black Bishops that's probably the best assumption." He said with an almost humorous tone. "Really though it's more an alliance of convenience. For whom it is more convenient for well...only time will tell!"

[Krayzikk]

IC:The Hellfire Club was hardly a well known group, but with recent events and events seventeen years ago, he had some idea of who they were. Certainly more than each individual government agency had.

 

"Indeed." He paused a moment. "Judging by your sudden appearance, I am going to assume that you have an ability that allows you to travel at high speeds. Speed or teleportation would be my guess. Am I correct?"

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"It's certainly possible." The Priest said, not really confirming or denying it.

[Krayzikk]

IC:Working with another telepath was incredibly annoying. Mind reading was more or less out of the question, and it wa sby far the quickest way to get things done.

"If you were capable of such a feat, it might be mutually beneficial if you would assist me in reaching a specific location. If what I know of your group is accurate, you're not exactly fond of the X-Men."

[Alex Humva]

IC [Prince of Ravens/New York City]

 

It had been a long night of stealing from random people, summoning swarms of birds to attack Enforcer personal, and generally getting laughs from the misfortune of others. Now the mighty Prince of Ravens was shrugging his way through Central Park, his skeleton wings folded up and being carried on his pack, some feathers still attached. Today was most likely going be a terrible one to work; tonight would have to be delegated to getting some sleep.

 

So he continued onwards, shuffling past two similarly strange fellows bantering.

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

"Well, this city is starting to feel rather dull, I suppose a little trip to the west could be rather refreshing!" The priest said whimsically.

 

As the Prince of Ravens shuffled past the two didn't seem to notice, or at the very least care. "It's rather fascinating what people put in their packs these days, feathers are apparently among them!"

[Krayzikk]

IC:Marcus had sensed the Prince's mind approaching, and created a false audio track for their conversation, general greetings, discussion of the weather, and all that boring trivia.He turned slightly to get a better look at the approaching..... Eccentric citizen.

[Alex Humva]

IC [Prince of Ravens/New York City]

 

The Prince stopped for a moment. There was a slight... oddity in the birds around him. A sort of throb in the back of his head, like their chatter had suddenly been altered ever so slightly. He blinked, looking around at the trees above him, then at the surrounding area. He just stood there, looking around him at the trees, trying to pinpoint that little throb. Last thing he needed right now was a headache because of some stupid NYC birds.

[shadow pridak money gang]

"I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: "If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?" And whenever the answer has been "No" for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

- Steve Jobs

 

IC:

 

A minute and a half after Aleksandr Belikov died on the operating table, Bon Iver started playing over the hospital radio. "Skinny Love."

 

In this case, death is defined as a sudden cease to all functions that are responsible for the upkeep of a living, breathing organism, thus turning it into a non-living, non-breathing non-organism. On the Wikipedia entry for death, the main picture is a giant, eyeless skull, gazing into the void of your soul. That skull belonged to someone, once. Maybe not Aleks Belikov, but someone. Maybe someday it would be Aleks Belikov.

 

Initial decomposition of the handsome Russian teen, the glorious thief who had never so much as seen a high school diploma but still knew tons of about tons of that a lot of college graduates didn't know, that decomposition would take about twenty four hours to start. His smooth white skin would go first, maybe his hair afterwards, that dark, soft hair that seemed to change styles biweekly.

 

Decomp was a tricky process, mainly because no one wanted to watch it happen, and the people who might want to watch had already abandoned poor Aleks anyway. His mother was somewhere in Murmansk, clean, as Aleks had always hoped for. Rebekah Fell and Christine Marie were standing out in the waiting room, hoping for some news. Aleks was good with names - probably one of the best - but at the end, ninety seconds before Bon Iver started playing on the hospital radio and zero seconds after his heartbeat ended its slow drum-and-bass rhythm through his body, Aleks Belikov hadn't known a single name or face in the room.

 

He'd been alone, and now, ninety seconds later, he was still alone. But ninety seconds later, nobody knew where exactly he was alone at.

 

Through the tinny hospital loudspeakers, Justin Vernon continued his sad chant, a melancholy falsetto and scratchy folk guitars that did nothing to ease anyone in the waiting room or in the OR.

 

"C'mon, skinny love, just last the year..."

 

The brain can survive for up to four minutes without oxygen before it finally finishes shutting down the last neurons going through the confines of its purplish-pink fleshy ball. Consider it the body's closing time, a last call. Anything it wants to do, it has to get done in those four minutes. Seven minutes, if the temperature is cold enough, because the brain takes more time to batter down the hatches if it's particularly cold in the body. At the second time of death was called, Aleksandr Rene Belikov's body temperature was a 97.4 degrees.

 

He'd always had a low body temperature.

 

For about three weeks, a story had floated around the Internet of a woman who had been in a coma for six months, about to be unplugged from life support. The night before her husband was to pull the tube, "Rolling in the Deep" by Adele had come on and the woman had tapped her fingers. Then there was the story of the little kid who had been in a similar situation, except the plug had already been pulled on him. And Chris Brown had come on.

 

And through vocal chords that hadn't rasped out a word in a solid three weeks, the little kid asked, Please.

 

Someone change the radio station.

 

Music was funny like that. Music was a manifestation of the soul; every strum of a guitar string was a communique to a higher power, every note and voice crack from the worst American Idol contestant was still a note sang with all the person's heart. Everyone who ever sang too loudly and too obnoxiously in the car, said they were joking, they were full of it. Because music is like that. It has a way of making us loud, and obnoxious, and annoying, and it makes us hate each other for all of about two seconds before we start laughing and then we bond. Because that's what music is, when you get down to it. It's love.

 

And it's our soul.

 

So as Justin Vernon crooned on for two minutes, Aleksandr Rene Belikov's brain went to scream Last call! before pausing, lifting up its metaphorical finger. And it listened to Justin Vernon croon on and on, listened to his pained, beautiful falsetto and vocal delivery. And the finger went down slowly. Last call never came.

 

In time with the folksy, wintery, beautiful drums, his heart pumped once, like a foot clapping against the floor of a car. Then again. Then a third time.

 

"My, my, my. My, my, my. My, my."

 

-Tyler

[Zulu Yankee Kilo Echo]

IC: Shaw, Malus, Demon

 

"Novocain," Shaw said after a long pause, "I need you to keep working on that virus. In the meantime, Malus and I will discuss this deal of his."

Malus's smile grew and he clapped his hands once.

"I had a feeling you would come around," he said.

However, in that same moment, beneath the mansion, dozens of hired hands, paid workers, and brainwashed grunts were not only analyzing Novocain's newest sample of the virus or conducting their typical business, they were also monitoring. Monitoring what, one might ask?

Quite simply put, everything.

Rooms upon rooms lined to the brim with television screens displayed news reels from across the globe. Computers processed data from prominent news websites and printed reports organized by relevance and view count. And observing the entire process were a few hand-picked analysts and technopaths who sorted out the data for one specific reason: to report it all back to Shaw in the least time-consuming but most informative way possible.

Needless to say, the fiasco in Vegas had their attention, and, by extent, so did Ashlynn's angered outburst. It worried them.

A lot.

So, it was no surprise that, before Shaw and Malus could sit down for their little chat, Shaw received a telepathic message with images of the chaos in Vegas and a short few words of explanation.

The Phoenix has returned.

Shaw hesitated. He stared blankly across the room for a moment. In that moment, time rewound itself, and he was back on the streets of New York, running for his life from the burning entity that had already consumed so many. He felt the fire inside him, felt himself nearly explode from the internal pressure--

"Um, Mr. Shaw? Is everything quite alright?" Malus's voice brought him back into reality.

Shaw shook his head.

"Fine, fine. So, about this Phillip Macmarr..."

[Krayzikk]

IC:Rebekah saw, out of the corner of her eye, Mimic land outside. Not surprising, seeing as the two of them had been nigh on inseparable since the Weapon X breakout. Not that she'd seen either of them often. Even when she left her room, she never spoke with either. Largely because the few times she left were the times no one was awake.

 

But those thoughts were quickly discarded, their brief flight through her head cut short. They were irrelevant to the current situation. She needed to stay on guard. The hospital would likely call the Enforcers sooner or later, and she needed to be ready if they did.

 

Not that it would do you much good. Even if the Enforcers did arrive, Aleks can't be moved. Nor would holding them off long enough be possible. At best, they don't realize he's a mutant and just take you. At worst, both of you. Not exactly a cheerful prospect.

 

her eyes snapped to the side when the ER door opened, and one of the doctors stepped out. He was a tall man with slowly graying hair, the only one of the staff that didn't cringe if she looked at them. And in this case, the only one that would talk to her.

 

"He's alive." The man said, before she could open her mouth to ask. "It was close. He was legally dead for about two minutes. Not sure how he pulled through, but he did. Kid's got someone watching over him. Never seen that before."

 

A small smile tilted the corners of her mouth, fueled by pure relief. He was alive, and if he'd pulled through this far, he'd make it. The Russian was notoriously stubborn once he put his mind to it."We'll let you know when he wakes up."

 

IC:The Enforcers are falling back. Assassins are nowhere to be seen. Have to watch for them, they aren't out of this just yet. The wounded are making steady progress.

 

"Come on." Aleks said out loud, started to slowly back after the retreating X-Men. "No open attacks, falling back to cover the retreating at a closer range is the best option."

[Let's Henshin!]

IC: Dante "Did someone call a helpful local?"Freaking finally, maybe my lucks finally turning around. "Much better, say I'm new here, think you could point me in the direction of my house?" Dante asked, grateful that someone had finally come to help, "Oh yeah, the name's Dante by the way." Dante remembered, holding out a hand.

[Krayzikk]

IC:"He who sees a need, and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it." Alistair commented out loud, moments after hearing Dante's name. He cleared his throat, and blinked. "Anyway, we might be able to direct you toward your house if you had mentioned where it is."IC:Marcus glanced at the Prince, who has paused in his stride. "Can I help you, sir?"

[Alex Humva]

IC [Prince of Ravens/New York City]

 

"Ever have a feeling that something isn't quite right, but you just can't place it?" The Prince blinked under his mask. "Like something in the air just isn't quite what it usually is. Usual for NYC, of course, not perfect air by any means."

[Krayzikk]

IC:The Illusionist shrugged slightly. "We live in a time filled with powers beyond comprehension. We have in the past been invaded by aliens, had an unstoppable force unleashed on our world, and live alongside beings capable of leveling city blocks with a flick of the wrist.""Not to mention the fact that we're in Central Park. It's hardly surprising."

[Snelly]

IC: The Mysterious Priest - New York -

 

The Priest shrugged. "It's really not all that different from thousands of years ago." His good natured smile remained.

Edited February 19, 2013 by Snelly

[Flex Lord Splash]

IC: Novocain (Hellfire Club)

 

“Yes your highness,” he said as he bowed. “Oh thank you for saving me earlier Shaw, even if it was just because you needed me for your ****ing virus,” Kenner said. “You might be my only friend now Shaw, how does that make you feel?” the mad doctor grinned. He then backpedaled down the hall before vanishing into his lab.

 

IC: Mimic (Hospital)

 

Christine had walked in time to hear the doctor’s news. Thank god, she thought as tears of happiness rolled down her cheeks. She was shocked that he’d been dead for two minutes, but that was overshadowed by the fact he was still alive. it, if only she still had Ashlynn’s powers she could try to heal him. She walked over to Shadow and brushed a lock of white hair off of her face. “Thank you for saving him.”

 

IC: Feral (Las Vegas)

 

John hardly heard Alex. His thoughts were on Darkfang. His dead friend, as he grieved suddenly his sorrow turned into rage; pure, unaltered rage. It was like a volcano had exploded within John; poisoning his blood with the venom of fury. It had been a long time since he’d gone into this state.

 

His mind becoming closer to that to a cornered wild animal, fighting for survival. The last time this happened he’d slaughtered a group of Weapon-X soldiers and even stabbed Liliana as she’d tried to stop him.

 

Suddenly bullets impacted John’s chest as a group of assassins melted out of the shadows. John unleashed an animal like roar and threw himself forward. He slashed wildly, without control. His claws cutting through the barrel of an assassin’s gun, though four of his fingers and finally through the palm of his hand. The man screamed. But his scream was cut short as John’s claws suddenly passed through his head. The man stepped backwards with an odd look on his face until his head latterly slid apart into three bloodied pieces of skull as he crumbled to the ground.

 

IC: Triblade (Las Vegas)

 

Matt ran alongside the fleeing X-Men. He only felt numb now. The scent of charred flesh and blood filled his nostrils, but he ignored it. There was no way he was dropping Jeremy. He deserved better then this. Matt could hardly believe what his cousin had done. Ash had killed him. It wasn't her. He reminded himself. It was the Phoenix. But now Ash was gone. She'd left, there was no telling what would happen to her. Then there was Aleks. He was either dead or dying, Matt could only hope Shadow had got him to help in time. Everything was falling apart, and there was nothing Matt Summers could do to stop it.

[Zulu Yankee Kilo Echo]

IC: Julia

 

Oh god, not now.

"John!" Julia cried. She pushed past her fellow X-Men and sprinted for her genetic "brother." She knew she was foolishly risking her life, but the risk far outweighed the consequences if John was allowed to continue on his rampage.

"Listen, John, for god's sake!"

[Krayzikk]

IC:The dark haired girl glanced up at Mimic, and nodded slightly. "I owed him, several times over, in fact. Still do. Now I've just made a dent in paying him back."

[thelonewander]

IC:

 

(Blake,Scott)

 

With the group of remaining X-Men falling back, Blake had moved ahead, to try and clear out any opposition Scott stayed with the main group, still in a mostly fighting state. As to how long Scott could last in a fight though, that was the question. The forge was running low on nanties, and Scott hadn't yet put in that adapter he though of so he could absorb metals for the forge.

[Alex Humva]

IC [Prince of Ravens/New York City]

 

"That's normal though," the Prine shrugged. "Every other Tuesday the world is ending, the original Avengers use to tear up NYC every day fighting some new villain. Supers still do. Aliens invade on Saturdays, villains conspire on Thursdays, and madmen ravage on Mondays. It's a simple fact of life. I can barely remember a time when the world wasn't like this. These things happened before I was even born. This is normalcy. This air is not."

[Krayzikk]

IC:"Then I'm afraid I have no idea what you're talking about." Marcus shrugged almost apologetically, his expression never changing. Could he be referring to my illusions?