Jane
Natural
It Ain't Easy
Posts: 174
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Post by Jane on Jul 13, 2006 16:21:20 GMT -5
Jane was slowly learning small differences in the uniform hallways that made up the Brotherhood complex. The one to the kitchen, she found, had small dings all up the right side of the long, tubular metal hallway; the little indentations looked like someone a lot stronger than she had slapped the wall casually on their way past several times, or someone with magnetic powers, maybe the deceased Mangeto, had, for some unknowable magnetic-mutant reason, puckered the wall casually while walking by. She was more inclined to think that the Juggernaut had gotten mad at the wall. She wouldn't put it past him.
The little hallway that branched off the kitchen hall, the one that went to John's office, had weird little streaky black marks very close to the connection with the floor. She suspected they were lingering char that hadn't been completely scrubbed off the wall. She didn't know what he'd torched that had left black marks on the cold, nonflammable metal.
Jane made herself tea in the little kitchen and, on a whim, made a second cup, finding a large plate (she doubted very much the Brotherhood kitchen stocked silver tea trays) and put the cup on it, putting a little milk in a small shot glass and bringing the sugar dish. If she'd read him right, he'd be in the office early - or late, more likely. She knocked on the door briefly before twisting the handle and entering, holding the plate against her hip with one hand to keep it upright.
John was passed out on his desk, his deep breathing ruffling the paper still scattered across his desk. He made a small, slightly pitiful whimpering noise, and Jane smiled - he looked about twelve when he was asleep, and she felt a little motherly.
She set the plate down next to his head and kicked the metal desk sharply, producing a hollow booming. "Wakey wakey," she said. "Rise and shine. Whatcha find?"
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Post by Pyro on Jul 13, 2006 16:57:57 GMT -5
"Wakey wakey...Rise and shine. Whatcha find?"Strangely, the hollow boom of the metal desk didn't wake John up straight away. He shifted slightly and muttered something which sound suspiciously like 'I'll wear the purple shoes...who painted the kitten?' Instead of sitting bolt upright and panicking like she'd expected from him, he merely turned his face the other way and continued slumbering. Just under his right hand was what could only be a mind map. The boy had obviously been working things out before he'd fallen asleep - and from what he'd written, it was clear that he was none too happy about what he'd worked out. (( Mind map here)) The young leader of the Brotherhood shifted again in his sleep and made that same peculiar sort of whimpering noise. His other hand came up and closed around his lighter, then his eyes gradually opened and he peered at Jane blearily. "S'up?" he said.
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Jane
Natural
It Ain't Easy
Posts: 174
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Post by Jane on Jul 13, 2006 17:39:15 GMT -5
Apparently big booming noises were common around the complex. As tightly-wound as John appeared to be, it came as no little surprise that he did the equivalent of rolling over and going back to sleep.
Mildly disappointed, Jane dropped into a chair and made a strange face at John's even stranger muttering. (She didn't even want to know.)
Under one of his hands was a configuration of bubbles and lines and red and black ink, and Jane inched it out from under his grasp, reading it quickly. Why were the X-Men connected at all? Apparently someone's son was a mutant - who else would have a code name? - but why were they on the map? What bearing had they on NovaTeX?
Unless they were going to do the hero thing and save the day. Predictably, with many explosions and speeches about peace.
John made another whimpering noise and moved. Jane glanced up from the web to watch the kid's fist close around his lighter. (You'd think he'd just tie it to his wrist or something.)
"S'up?"
"You sleep like a rock," she said. "You find anything new and exciting?"
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Post by Pyro on Jul 13, 2006 17:57:04 GMT -5
"You sleep like a rock. You find anything new and exciting?"
"Made a few connections in my head," he said, sitting up straight and rolling out his shoulders. "Started thinking about the possible risks of an attack on NovaTeX, and the three main ones are the Sentinel Programme, obviously - the Cure weapons which are still in circulation and them." He jabbed his finger at the bottom bubble on the chart.
"The Goddamn X-Men," he said, reading it out loud. "According to CNN News website, Rawlins made an announcement last night. If I've heard it, you can bet your life THEY'VE heard it. And if they've got more than one brain cell amongst them - admittedly Drake DOES drag the average IQ down by about a hundred points - they'll figure out that we'll show."
He stared at the mind map a little longer.
"The whole link with NovaTeX and the Sentinel programme is bugging me, too." He picked up the mug and sipped at the tea. "Thanks for this," he said, a little absently, adding some milk and a spoon of sugar. "I had the most FUCKED up dreams last night. Dreamt someone I used to know showed up."
It HAD to have been a dream. Surely?
John was wired enough to already have started blurring the lines between what was real, what was wishful thinking and what wasn't anything at all.
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Juggers
Natural
Don't you know who I am?
Posts: 218
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Post by Juggers on Jul 17, 2006 5:04:11 GMT -5
The Juggernaut had finally crashed sometime during the small hours of the morning. Had he been paying more attention he would have heard the muted conversation coming from the office down the hall and the subsequent crunch of wheels on gravel as a car departed. His attention had been occupied by the football match however and no external distractions could possibly penetrate that bubble of concentration. Even Jane seemed to enjoy herself, though Cain had to constantly remind himself to avoid the usual celebratory frivolity with someone as frail looking as her. He didn't want to break their newest recruit after all.
Some hours later he managed to snore himself awake. Buried in folds of what passed for his bed he grunted and sat up, bleary eyed, convinced that something was amiss in the base.
"Wha!" Cain grunted to the empty room. All was quiet. No intruder alarms sounded, the halls did not ring with the sound of running feet and no call to arms was issued.
Cain shrugged, reached over and switched on the TV. It didn't seem terribly likely that there would be anything interesting on but you never knew.
" ... morning. It's going to be another clear and sunny day ... "
As usual.
*click*
" ... need two eggs. Whisk them briskly into the mixture before ... "
What the hell was Delia doing on first thing in the morning?
*click*
" ... it's a growing problem these days. Should mutant children ... "
Don't care!
*click*
" ... distributing the cure from their Baltimore facility within the next few days."
Five seconds later the Juggernaut was stomping down the hall towards the office. The door was open, which probably meant that John was sleeping on his table or he'd got up for some coffee. Possibly both. Cain squeezed inside to find Jane bearing a tray of drinks and Pyro sipping tea.
"Oi!" He said, "you might wanna turn on the TV, they're talkin' about the cure an Baltimore an stuff, somethin' about it gettin' distributed pretty soon."
A couple of disturbed papers fluttered around his ankles as he came to a stop. "Oh, yeah, mornin'" he added with a grin.
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Post by Pyro on Jul 17, 2006 12:21:17 GMT -5
"Oi! You might wanna turn on the TV, they're talkin' about the cure an Baltimore an stuff, somethin' about it gettin' distributed pretty soon."
John looked up from his cup of tea at the arrival of the Juggernaut and set down the mug, reaching for the controller that flicked on the small, wall-mounted TV. He flicked through the channels until he found the news report and listened, his face expressionless, his eyes intent.
When the broadcast was over and the news had moved onto something totally different, he hit the mute button and stared at the desk for a few minutes.
"Damn," he said, softly. "That means we're gonna have to move faster than I planned. We need to be hitting that establishment as quickly as possible." He leaned back in his chair and ran a hand through his hair as he thought. "I'd sort of figured on a night raid, but I'm wondering if we just go hell for leather and create a major distraction..."
He looked over at the Juggernaut thoughtfully. "What do you reckon, Cain?"
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Juggers
Natural
Don't you know who I am?
Posts: 218
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Post by Juggers on Jul 17, 2006 12:48:17 GMT -5
Cain shrugged, "don't reckon they'll be givin' it out today, it's only just been announced, probbly give 'em a few days so people can get to Baltimore," his brow furrowed in thought, "so ya night raid might still be on. 'Sides, that place is gonna be so tied up with mutants and protesters we ain't gonna need to make our own distraction."
It was perfectly possible that the crowds were already gathering. It was an indisputable fact that when something controversial was announced the correct number of bleeding-hearts and hard-liners would emerge in minutes to take up positions of protest outside the appropriate building. It was like it was their sole purpose in life. A good percentage of them were probably students by Cains reckoning.
"So," Cain continued slowly, "we gonna come up with some sorta plan or we just gonna go in swingin'?"
The idea of going in swinging was the Juggernauts personal favourite but it had, in the past, been proven ineffective. With the added complication of the 'Sentinels', whatever they were, then it was certain that they were going to need a strategy. Preferably one that didn't involve John getting shot.
Getting shot was bad.
"'Ang on, I'll get Python, 'e'll want in on this job for sure." He paused two steps from the door and ran a hand over his shaved scalp. "Woulda been nice to 'ave a few more recruits to work with."
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Post by Pyro on Jul 17, 2006 14:30:09 GMT -5
"Woulda been nice to 'ave a few more recruits to work with."
Pyro knew, somewhere on a basic level, that the Juggernaut's words hadn't been deliberately meant to be malicious, but he was presently paranoid enough that they stung him. "There's a couple in Baltimore already positioned to help us as soon as we get there," he said, his tone more snappish than he had intended. "I'll get onto them, see if they can start sounding out what the situation is in Baltimore."
He threw the TV remote down on the desk. "In the meantime," he said, short-temperedly, "I'm gonna go have a shower, get changed and then we can sit down and plan out logistics." He got to his feet, discovered standing up in a hurry when you hadn't eaten or slept properly was a bad plan and managed, somehow, not to fall over again.
He was still under the impression that the encounter with Mystique last night had been some sort of dream or hallucination, so put it out of his mind as he began to walk down the corridor, the opposite way from the Juggernaut, leaving Jane alone in his office.
That was unheard of.
John was totally paranoid about people in his office when he wasn't there.
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