Maddy's Apartment Confrontation!

[maddy]

Liability? Not to worry, I can look after myself. She didn't realise, at first, that she'd spoken mentally to Jonothan. It was a simple slip, the logical way to reply to a man who had no physical voice - or chose not to use it - but she realised that it could cost her dearly. Depending on what he did with the knowledge. Thankfully, it had only been directed at him, if that was any help. She couldn't be sure. No use crying over spilt milk. That thought was directed only to herself, and sounded remarkably like her mother. Green eyes bored into brown for a moment, meeting his gaze above the mask, but Madelyne didn't say anything more. Not mentally, anyway.

"I know who I am. I'm not Jean Grey." Still calm, almost dangerously calm, she stood. Even in her heels, she was easily the shortest one there, but she didn't let that intimidate her. Some might have, but she was in her own apartment after all, and she thought that she still had a card that none of them were expecting. Kurt might have protested that it was not about proving anything, but she'd listened in as Jonothan spoke to Kyle - and it was her opinion that the sooner she could convince them, the sooner they'd take off and she could go back to her life. Well, that's one option. Striding into the bedroom with a half smile, careful to extend a hand to push open the door, Maddie bent down and took a wooden box out of the bedside drawer. This was her fire box, so to speak. The biggest thing that she ever took with her when she moved any distance, and the one thing that she'd save in a disaster. It was her life in a box, though it might appear surprisingly small for such a task. She returned to the living room and put it down on the glass table with a hollow clunk.

What Madelyne didn't know was that the pictures in the box wouldn't necessarily help. Most of them were just of her - her parents had been so proud, had fawned over her - and she looked just like a younger Jean Grey in them. What none of them knew, at that point, was that a DNA test wouldn't help either.

"Family pictures, school reports, medical details, all my important papers. I have a whole lifetime's worth of memories in here," Maddie pointed to the box, "All the important stuff." Her baby pictures, reports from when she'd graduated high school, x-rays from the time she'd broken her arm at twelve, the papers from her last place, which she'd been meaning to throw out now that she'd moved away... Even the key to her father's holiday house in Alaska was in there, with a picture of him attached. She was momentarily distracted by the idea of going up there when she got a holiday. Not a chance while these people were assuming she was someone that she clearly was not, though.

[chamber]

The issue, He continued to Madelyne, Is not that you are Jean Grey. It's that the two of you are identical. Aren't you the least bit worried about that? Shit- curious? The fact that you seem only to want to ignore it only gives me- and the rest of us- more reason to be wary. We're not your enemies.

Chamber gestured to Kyle. Or his, believe it or not.

[guardian]

Guardian blinked at the masked man, who was suddenly speaking in his mind.

...make her more important than your ego.

Was this guy talking shit in his head? Was this fool actually breaching his mental barrier to tell him he was egotistical? Oh hell no. Then the Lone Ranger fell silent, looking at Maddy. Kyle could only assume he was doing the same teletalk stuff.

Maddy got the box of evidence, and provided it. Masked Man said something else to her, and gestured at Kyle, even. Gestured at him.

“You mind not talking where not talking where none of us can hear it, pal?” He said, agitation clearly in his voice.

[maddy]

"We're not..." She was interrupted by Kyle. This time, at least, she'd thought to speak aloud. She was tempted to tell him to put his claws away and calm down, but she was starting to get tired of repeating herself anyway.

"I don't think he can, Kyle." She drank down the rest of her water. The box remained on the coffee table, unopened. "I'm sorry that you came all this way for nothing. We aren't identical - sure, there may be some resemblance, but we are clearly two completely different people, and I just don't see it." Maddie liked to keep control of her emotions. It helped her keep control of her powers. Right now, though, she couldn't prevent the rising agitation from taking hold.

"I'm afraid that Kyle and I have business to attend to." She almost put in a barb about them actually doing business, but decided against it. "You know where to contact me, obviously, so we can continue this another time. If we continue." Her tone wasn't quite as business-like as she'd have preferred to keep it. She thought they were all crazy, and she was getting irritated at the fact that they were still talking about this. Maybe it was wishful thinking about their twice-dead friend, whatever. All Maddie knew was that she didn't want them there anymore.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt sighed, giving Jono a sideways glance. This sense of agitation had been exactly what he had been trying to avoid. We needed to open a channel with this woman, and now there's a good chance that we've created a barrier. Why is everything the X-Men try to do so heavy-handed? She'd been responding well to him, things had been as close to friendly as they were going to get.

So much like a deck of cards.

Kurt bowed ever-so-slightly to Madelyne and to Kyle. "It was nice to talk to both of you. Hopefully we will be in touch." He turned back and walked towards the hallway, his brow furrowed in frustration as he looked at Chamber.

[chamber]

Jonothan closed his eyes and half turned away. He really wasn't sure what to do. If Madelyne's thug weren't here... if Kurt weren't playing Gandhi... he was certain at least Storm would insist on pressing the issue.

It wasn't right to Jean to leave. It wasn't right to Madelyne either, but she was refusing to see that. He wasn't even sure where to begin in trying to piece the puzzle together; without Madelyne's help, it might just be impossible.

Stepping towards the window he ran his fingers through his hair, resolving to go with the others, to let them decide, and to deal with the repercussions once they were back at the mansion.

Logan. He didn't move his eyes as he spoke in the man's mind. Ask to use the bathroom before we leave. Find something we can use to test DNA- toothbrush, hair from her hairbrush, anything in the... trash. I'm not leaving here without something.

[logan]

Logan was biting his tongue so hard he was bleeding into his mouth. It took every ounce of his will to let the others handle this, and to keep his mouth shut.

Kurt tried... then Chamber tried, and Chamber must've stepped on Kurt's toes because the Elf looked PISSED. Logan could only imagine they'd exchange words later.

He felt like he was going to be sick...

And then Chamber spoke into his mind. Get her DNA? How the hell would she let that happen?

"I... think I'm gonna be sick." He said, holding his stomach. "I'm gonna vomit, where's your bathroom?"

In all actuality, he did look very sick to his stomach.

[maddy]

Oh, ew.

"You are not vomiting on my carpet."

It was enough. Enough! Too much for one day, she was too narky at the lot of them - that little bow from Kurt had, unfortunately, done little for the rising temper - and the prospect of some big hairy lummox costing her in cleaning just made her lose it.

She pointed at the door. It opened, though no-one was anywhere near it. The slamming noise it made when it hit the cupboards was echoed twice when the bathroom door slammed open too, and the front door, and her annoyance was obvious on her face.

She didn't care that she'd just blown her cover in front of her boss, didn't care that she'd just revealed herself as a mutant to the X-Men, who were possibly the worst kept secret since Area 51. The prospect of cleaning up wolverine-vomit, even with her power, was enough to push her over the edge, and she'd let her emotions get too far out of check to even be considering exactly what this meant for her life. Not that it mattered to Madelyne, she could pick up and leave whenever she wanted. Only interest was keeping her tied to Kyle.

"If you make a mess, so help me..." She didn't even bother to voice the threat. In her mind, she didn't need to.

[logan]

Logan was holding his stomach, but couldn’t help his eyes from narrowing at the sight of such blatant telekinesis. She looked just like Jean, and had Jean’s powers. Seems fairly obvious… still, he had a job to do, so he darted to the bathroom like he was about to spew on the carpet.

He dashed past black silk sheets, and right into the bathroom… where he immediately worked to take samples. Hair, mainly. The bathroom was immaculate, but it was hard to hide anything from Logan’s superior senses. It was only a matter of time before he collected a few samples.

[chamber]

Chamber would have laughed out loud- wouldn't have been able to help himself- had he a mouth to do so. Instead he just shook his head.

I'm sure we'll speak again Madelyne. His eyes flickered to Kyle but his voice remained only for the woman. Take care of you. It was something he'd always said to Jean, and he couldn't help himself if he wanted to say it now.

Looking at Storm, he put a hand on her back. She opened her mouth to say something, that same defiant anger he loved her for sure to become a problem if they stayed even a moment longer. Ushering out the door, he spoke into her mind as well.

We've got it Ororo, it's okay. I'll explain when we're outside.

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt stalked angrily out to the hall. Logan getting sick? Not likely. The Canadian was as tough as it came, and there had been nothing to make him the slightest bit ill.

Taking a deep breath, he did his best to calm himself, but it just wasn't working. Having someone yell at you directly into your mind when you had a good reason for what you were doing had that effect.

As soon as they moved down the hall a bit, Kurt whirled around, his face looking uncharacteristically angry. His voice, however, stayed level, if not unusually emotionless. "Herr Jonothan, do not shout into my mind again. I get headaches enough as it is, and I do not need you adding to them."

He took a step closer, quietly asking Ororo to move to one side. Then his yellow eyes focused on Chamber again. "Do you realize why I was being so careful? Why I was trying to be delicate? It was a delicate situation, Herr Starsmore, and it required a light touch.

"But instead, you decided it was a good idea to rush in like a bear and swing your heavy arms around. We wanted to have future communication with this woman, Jonothan! We did not want to antagonize her!"

His face was set grimly as he continued. "And what if she was Jean, eh? Think about the power she could still be holding. And you thought it was a good idea to get her mad?" He resisted the urge to punch the slightly taller man in the face. "She could have killed us all!"

He looked at Jono with angry eyes. "You may not care about dying, Herr Starsmore, but I do not wish to die today. Do you care if I die?" His arm whipped around as he pointed at Ororo, even more anger evident in his voice. "Do you care if she dies? I would like her to live, danke schön."

Kurt stepped back, running a hand through his hair. "Now that you have alienated the person we came to talk to and angered her into such a display, I think it is time we go." With that, he turned and moved down the hallway.

[guardian]

Kyle was put way off guard when Maddy demonstrated mutant powers, but it didn’t show on his face at all. He was a salesman, a trained, true blue liar. So as far as the X-Men could tell, he must’ve known all along.

He watched the others leave, confused by the sudden decision, and then glanced sidelong at the bathroom.

That son of a bitch.

He strolled into the bedroom just in time to see Logan exit. The shorter man stared up at him defiantly, not at all like a guy who had just spewn. Kyle was, naturally, pissed.

“You’re leaving, bud. Now.” He said to Logan.

The Wolverine glared back, and like he did years earlier to Scott Summers, went to put his hands on the man… only, his hands didn’t grasp the cloth of his nice shirt. They pressed against what felt like solid, cold, glass, a fraction of a centimeter away from the clothes. Logan was too stunned by this oddity to consider what to do next, though it probably would’ve had something to do with the claws.

Kennedy simply smirked at the bastard, his eyebrow raised as an invite.

For Logan’s part, he must’ve been cooling down thanks to his time at the mansion, because he chose to actually make it out of the apartment with the sample DNA rather than stick around and fight. Not that Guardian knew that, all he knew was that the smaller man decided to just bail.

As Logan left, he gave Maddy a truly emotional look. Whoever this Jean Grey was to him, she was awfully important…

Kyle shut the door behind the last of the X-Men, and turned to face maddy, an amused look on his face.

[chamber]

Jonothan looked down at Kurt, completely calm. The blue man had little place telling anyone here what to do about this situation- but that was far from no place, and he respected Kurt's care for the situation.

Watching him calmly, he spoke into Kurt's mind.

You do not know what I said to her, Kurt. What I said was far from inflammatory and more useful than please and thank you. I know you do not know me, or what Jean and I meant to each other, and that is why I'll ask you to calm down.

Chamber looked back at Logan as he exited, and addressed Kurt once more. We have what we came for. We can go now.

[maddy]

Crossing her arms over her chest as they gathered their things and went, Maddie sent a silent comment Jonothan's way. Oh, you're sure, are you? She was, to put it bluntly, a stubborn bitch when she wanted to be, and right now she was very much in one of those moods. The remote control raised on its own, turning the television back on to cover the noise of whatever Logan was doing in the bathroom. Though she didn't hear vomiting, and her temper wasn't cooling in the least.

Now that it was out in the open, she saw no need for pretense. Sinking back into the couch with her legs crossed, Maddie started opening cupboards without taking her eyes off the television. The wine emerged from the fridge, and a pair of glasses accompanied it over to sit on the coffee table next to her box. In fact... She narrowed her eyes at that. Kyle had turned his attention to Logan, who was giving her a look that was all kicked puppies and angst.

Madelyne smirked.

And then, finally, blessedly, they were gone, and she felt herself breathing again as the box of memories took itself back to her room. Kyle was closing the door, leaving them to their bickering outside - she closed her mind, ignoring everything with one hand to her temple.

She was starting to come down, to realise what the hell had just happened and just what she'd possibly gotten herself into. Kyle was, thankfully, looking more amused than anything else, and he'd pulled off his lack of surprise admirably. Feeling slightly sick - I'm not Jean bloody Grey in any way shape or form! - Madelyne dropped her hand from her temple to motion at the wine.

"So... Where were we?"

[Nightcrawler]

Kurt turned back to Chamber, his tail lashing in frustration. "And I suppose bitte and danke sent her over the edge, did they?"

He poked a finger at Jonothan's chest. "We don't know if she is Jean Grey or not, Chamber. The woman in there, whether she was Jean Grey before or not, is Madelyne Pryor now, and you cannot go forcing your feelings for someone else on her!"

He strode down the hall into the waiting elevator, waving his arms above his head. "And now you've colored every dealing she will have with the X-Men in the future." His voice dripped with sarcasm. "Let me tell you, you've done a wonderful job."

[chamber]

Jonothan blinked slowly. Another place, another time, another matter, there may have been the fight Kurt Wagner seemed to be looking for. But the man had proved himself more a hot headed idiot than Chamber already within the last week- Jono wasn't about to let a near stranger's ignorant raving set him off. Kurt seemed the soft and gentle type that likes to spout off hotly when his passions rose. Jonothan could respect that; but he wasn't going to play into it.

Squeezing Storm's hand briefly, he travelled down to the front entrance with the others.