Surprise

[mystique]

Mystique slipped over the bedclothes, she noticed they were hardly used. Poor Pyro never seemed to get sleep. A shame. Maybe she'd have to put him to bed at night. Though mothering was never her strong suit and Eric would have shut her out of the building for even trying.

Two gifts for their new leader. Two individuals with abilities that would give them the upper hand in this now foolish situation in Baltimore. Perhaps it made up for her being as yet out of commission.

As she heard him coming down the hall, she looked towards the door and smirked playfully. Oh if she could only look like Rogue right now, it would be worth it just to see the look on his face.

[Pyro]

There are comedy moments in Real Life too - but they never seem funny to the person at the butt of the joke, at least not at the time.

The following occurred.

John, who was already starting to regret his childish tantrum back in the office wasn't really paying very much attention to his surroundings. Not that there was that much to look at in the first place, of course, unless grey steel was your idea of decor. That aside, he was mooching along with his head down.

He pushed open the door of his room, his head still down at the floor. He kicked the door closed with his foot and without preamble, yanked off his t-shirt.

It wasn't until his hand was on the button of his combats that he looked up.

"Hey, Mystique," he said, vaguely and began to unbutton his fly.

There was a moment's pause.

Then he began to button his fly back up again.

The expression on his face, had Mystique but had a camera, would have sold well to any number of people. It could only be described as something akin to pure horror mixed with embarrassment, incredulity, disbelief and stark, staring shock.

"Mystique? Holy crap, I thought I DREAMED you were back..."

He stood there, naked from the waist up (his skinny, undernourished torso on display for all to see), one hand cinching his trousers together, with the most entertaining expression on his face.

[mystique]

Mystique's long lashes lowered slowly, lifting again as she looked up at him, taking on a smooth smile.

"Sorry to wake you, sleepyhead." It was a silly thing to say said in a voice that was anything but silly. "Don't stop on my account."

Turning hip-first to get on her knees, she reached out a long arm to grab is wrist, and tugged him to her, trusting his fatigued sort of shock to carry his feet along.

She sat him down on the bed beside her, curling back like a cat behind him. She rested her head on her hand and looked at him, brushing a length of hair behind his ear.

Her tone was that of a woman watching out for the welfare of her man, laced through with the factual, demanding tone of a lieutenant insisting her leader do what must be done.

"You're not resting. I know it seems beneath you to let the cause lie for a few hours enough to sleep, but the rest of us depend on you being here." Her fingertips trailed down his shoulder, along the back of his bare arm as her hand came to rest on the bed.

"Now here I am, ready to go, and you're worn out." She let the implication be what it was, flicking a bit of ink-black hair out of her eyes.

[Pyro]

"You're not resting. I know it seems beneath you to let the cause lie for a few hours enough to sleep, but the rest of us depend on you being here."

Her touch was feather light, gentle and made John shiver involuntarily for any number of reasons. He tried not to let it show on his face, but the way she was sitting there - here - with him, on his bed...

John was a very lonely boy. He always had been. Kitty had been the only person he had really tried to get properly close to and that had failed spectacularly. He had had one or two brief liaisons with some of the Brotherhood girls, but they'd always been superficial, unsatisfying things and so he'd given up on the 'romance' side of his life. He wasn't emotionally hard enough to shut himself off completely, however, and so there was a remaining, annoying part of him that craved affection.

"Now here I am, ready to go, and you're worn out."

"I was just...going to shower," he said, honestly. "I sort of slept on the desk." He refrained from saying 'again'. "I just thought I'd clean up a bit and then get back to the planning." They had played a little game last night, hadn't they? A game at which he had come out slightly in the lead.

Could he maintain that momentum?

He considered.

No.

[mystique]

She folded her arms under her chin. "By all means... go ahead." Her long legs crossed near the top of the bed, painted in black vinyl.

"I've found someone you might be interested in..." she nudged him a bit to get up, apparently intent on talking to him while he was in the shower. It simply didn't occur to her that Pyro might not be man enough to do so with a GIRL in the room. It made her smile to herself, but then got back to business.

"She's an old friend of Magneto and mine's. Well. Mostly mine." Her tone insinuated what, he could only guess, but then that was not peculiar for Mystique. She rolled onto her back, lifting a long leg to fuss with the laces on a shiny black boot, the toes narrow and soles thin. She still needed her mobility, clothed or not.

[Pyro]

"She's an old friend of Magneto and mine's. Well. Mostly mine."

"What is it with girls? Why is everyone joining up with the Brotherhood now a girl?" He'd meant to keep the thought in his head, but it sort of...slid out of his mouth.

The blush followed not long after.

He realised that Mystique wasn't going to leave the room and he sighed a little, getting up and heading into the small en-suite bathroom. He pushed the door most of the way closed, but not firmly shut and within a few minutes was in the shower, appreciating the water running over his tired body and waking him up effectively.

"Who is she?" he called, loud enough to be heard over the sound of the running water.

[mystique]

Mystique stood with her back to the doorframe, crossing her arms and laying her head back against the wall.

"She's a CEO from the East coast," she called back, brushing a bit of blanket dust off her arm. "Her company was one of the first to have the sentinel program proposal, in 2001."

She smiled to herself as she listened to the water. Reaching a hand up to run through her hair, her gaze sharpened on her hand as a cascading flicker of blue crossed her fingers. It rolled smoothly over her palm, almost a mirror reversal of how her mutant ability had been taken away from her. Her breath froze in her lungs, and she reached her mind out to try to take control of the color change, just as she would have had to for a particularly difficult shift in the past.

The blue scaling fluttered to cover the whole of her hand, and Mystique quickly pushed up the sleeve of her arm. It wouldn't extend further, but it was THERE.

She looked around quickly, tucking her hand behind her. It made her almost forget entirely what she was there for, as her heart pounded loudly in her chest.

[Pyro]

John exited the shower wearing nothing more than a towel wrapped around his waist. If the woman wasn't going to leave him to change in peace, there was little point in being bashful about it.

His hair, which was definitely losing the last of its blond dye, stuck up in an assortment of directions and he absently flattened it down as he headed for the small chest of drawers in the corner and dug himself out a pair of boxers and a change of clothing.

Throwing the clothes down on the bed, he sat down on the end of it, using a second towel to vigorously rub at his hair. "A CEO, huh? A mutant, I'm guessing. She got a name?"

[mystique]

Mystique managed to stammer "Emma... Frost. Of Frost International." Her hand squeezed tightly at her back. It was completely out of her character to be thrown off guard, much less to look it.

She took a moment to pull herself together, an extreme effort being spent as she debated whether to tell Pyro about the change or not. He just wasn't altogether trustworthy yet.

"She's a mutant yes, and a rather powerful one. You might liken her abilities to Xavier's." A flush was on her face and her eyes were glassy, as if she'd been trying not to cry. Her eyes darted around the room in any direction other than his, as her thoughts spun out of her control.

[Pyro]

John may have been many things. Impetuous, childish, impulsive, often stupid. But he was also fairly sensitive to other people's moods. He tipped his head sideways. "Are you OK?"

Whilst she was distracted, he took the opportunity to slip into his boxers under the towel and pull on an olive-green t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He folded his legs up under him on the bed and watched her curiously. Something had caused her mood to shift and he was fairly certain it wasn't the sight of him in a towel. He was hardly what you might call 'buff' after all.

He clasped his hands around his bare feet, a little like a child and watched her closely. "Wanna talk about it?"

[mystique]

She laughed, the tremble of nervousness in her voice. "No," she swallowed, blinking a few times.

As she opened her mouth to speak again, the alarms went off in the hallway. She lifted her eyes, focusing out of her shock immediately.

Breach, East Side Fourth Quadrant. Breach, East Side Fourth Quadrant

"The beach outside the front entrance." Mystique knew Pyro already knew that, but said it outloud more to confirm it than anything. She wasn't sure how much had changed in the year she'd been gone.

In a matter of seconds, Mystique was headed down the hall, past the office, headed towards the front.

(ooc Someone get Jugg's attention!)

[Juggers]

" ... and then 'e said 'you ain't gonna find a priest an a monkey at this time of night!'" The Juggernaut finished the joke with a colossal smirk at Jane who was still drinking the tea she had brought to the office earlier.

Cain hadn't been terribly surprised when Pyro had stormed out of the room; he had known the lad longer than Jane and had previously experienced his somewhat mercurial moods. The fact that it might have been something he'd said did not even cross his mind.

"Y'know," Cain said after a long moments thought, "I reckon this NovaTeX thing is gonna be loads easier than Pyro thinks. Alcatraz woulda been fine if it 'adn't been for psycho Jean Grey." He shook his head, "Magneto got more than he could 'andle there."

He had, in fact got more than most people, mutant or otherwise could handle.

Slightly bored now the Juggernaut plucked up one of the random pieces of scattered paper and folded it roughly into a plane. He launched his creation into the air and it promptly turned a loop-the-loop before nose diving into Johns rapidly cooling tea.

"Bollocks," Cain exclaimed and reached for another sheet.

Breach, East Side Fourth Quadrant. Breach, East Side Fourth Quadrant

The warning system blared out.

"Eh? What the hell?" There was a sound of approaching footsteps and a lithe figure strode past the open door.

"Wha?" The Juggernaut frowned and stepped into the doorway in time to see a slim, female back retreating down the corridor.

"Who?" Cain glanced back down toward Johns' room in time to see a slightly bedraggled Pyro exit at a jog and come loping down the hall.

"What the bloody 'ell is going on 'ere?!"

[Pyro]

Pyro turned to stare at the Juggernaut as he ran. His feet were still bare and his hair was soaking. In true stupid tradition of repeating what a computer said, he opened his mouth and said "Breach, East Side Fourth Quadrant."

He carried on running. "Run and talk, Cain," he yelled back over his shoulder, running in an effort to catch up with Mystique. "Run and talk!"

He pounded round the corner, skidding slightly on the metal floor with his bare feet. The Gods of Comedy must have been temporarily looking the other way, because if they'd been watching, he would have slid straight into the wall. As luck had it, he didn't.

[deadman]

Gravel crunched under the steady footfalls of six figures, marching at a decent pace across the landscape of the island Genosha.

Five of the six wore black outfits, loose-fitting and matching, that left no trace of skin exposed. Their heads were covered by black wrappings, broken by only a hint of a slit at the eyes for them to see... their clothes seemed old and tattered, as if handed down many times from wearer to wearer.

At the head of the group was an impossibly pale, thin man. His hair was slicked back, parted in the middle, and unblinking red eyes stared piercingly out of his angular face. He was dressed equally as drab as the others, though his outfit was much more expensive and painstakingly cared for. He wore a gray and black pin striped suit with starched white dress shirt and long coat-tails. In his hand he clutched a walking cane of polished steel, it's impact on the ground an obvious indicator of the lead weight it carried in it's center.

They walked in a straight line, the followers spread out behind him and keeping an exact pace to his own.

The Dead Man had arrived on Genosha, and it was obvious he didn't care who knew. Naturally, sensors and detectors were whirring at his presence, as his stalk casually triggering motion sensors, placing him on film, and otherwise notifying anyone who resided here (thanks to Pyro's detection technology) of his intrusion.

[mystique]

Mystique hit the keypad with flying fingers as she sidestepped, kicking the door open a half second after the storm bolts lifted. Sunlight spilled into the entryway and she stepped out, gliding easily to one side and behind a tree to see what was going on.

She might have stayed inside and watched the cameras, had thought Pyro would do so, but then, he'd always been the rash one where Eric had been reserved. Rash was FAR more her style.

When she saw the group of bodies stepping(shambling?) up the beach, her body language relaxed. She stood up, stepping out of the bushes with a languid stride.

Mystique laughed down at the man on the beach as Pyro and Juggernaut caught up. A hand on her hip and a bit of a sway in her step, she waved flirtily to one of Dead Man's masked companions.

"You might have knocked," Mystique teased smoothly, walking up to him with a smirk.

[Juggers]

"Go get Python!" Cain yelled at Jane as he sprinted off down the hall, hot on Johns' heels.

The Juggernaut thundered past Pyro, skidded around another corner leaving a hand print in the wall and plunged down the corridor ahead in time to see the unknown woman step outside. In true Juggernaut style this only served to increase his speed, he would be damned if some sneaky bastard intruder was going to get the better of him.

He burst into the morning Genosha sunshine and momentarily dazzled forged ahead anyway; the woman had only been a few meters ahead of him. Hadn't she?

As it turned out, the woman had stepped aside to observe the new arrival and that left the Juggernaut a clear, straight run. Directly into a tree.

A split second before impact several things happened. There was a peal of female laughter, which Cain assumed was directed at himself for missing his target. It was followed by some words and he had a moment to notice a group of approaching figures all clad in black.

Then his ears were filled with the sound of shattering wood as the tree-trunk was rent in two by his momentum.

[Jane]

" ... and then 'e said 'you ain't gonna find a priest an a monkey at this time of night!'"

It was, Jane thought as she considered the Juggernaut over the rim of her mug, somewhat morbidly fascinating. She hadn't been aware you could quite do all of that to a joke at the same time.

Or a priest. Or a monkey.

"Y'know, I reckon this NovaTeX thing is gonna be loads easier than Pyro thinks. Alcatraz woulda been fine if it 'adn't been for psycho Jean Grey. Magneto got more than he could 'andle there."

A sort-of colossal track shift on the train of thought, but Jane ran with it. "I think it'll be hard anyway," she said. "The Department of Homeland Security's been working overtime. They've got these... like..."

She put down her tea and gestured vaguely, trying to come up with a way to describe the Sentinels, but Cain's attention was already gone, folding a bit of paper into a glider, which dive-bombed into John's tea in an eerily foreshadowy way.

A loud alarm burst through her consciousness and Jane jumped violently, gasping as a voice called out about a breach in the fourth quadrant.

Where was the fourth quadrant?

She leaned forward in her chair, peering out from around Cain through the door, where a female body passed, followed by... a distinctly mussed John.

Evidently there were still girls on the island, even after they'd left Sekhmet and Psylocke behind.

"What the bloody 'ell is going on 'ere?!"

Jane pushed herself up from the chair and ran out after Cain, since apparently quadrant four was that way. Or maybe it was the other way and a breach was something you avoided?

"What is going on?" she shouted, the caboose in the idiot parade.

"Go get Python!"

She turned around, towards the mechanics bay, but not without a little eye-roll for her lack of an answer. Serously.

Luckily, it wasn't far - only down a flight and a bit of hallway, and Python was still messing with the plane in plain (ah ha ha) sight, so she didn't have to dig through the complex for him. Shouting something about a beach in the froth quadrant, she pulled him back towards the hallway from whence she'd come, though Python quickly corrected her and pushed her toward an exit door near the main hangar doors, since he actually knew whether the fourth quadrant was.

The sun was blinding outside, momentarily hiding the sea and shore and the strange figures stalking up the gravel in front of the entrance. She stopped short behind John, skidding on the loose ground and wobbling on her feet as she stared at the pinstriped man and his ninja compatriots, too distracted to notice that Cain had run straight into a tree, which promptly split in two.

At least they looked like ninjas. They might just be... black-clad weirdos. With very sensitive skin that needed a lot of covering.

The (totally randomly appearing?) woman from before who had rushed past the doorway before she walked out towards them, far more confident than Jane felt.

She put a hand gently on John's arm before asking quietly, "what the fuck is going on, John?"

[Pyro]

When John turned to look at her, his eyes were as deeply, alarmingly wild as the rest of him. "I have," he said, breathlessly, "no idea." He stood there, dripping water onto the hot ground, becoming the focal point of interest of several mosquito-type insects that flew over to investigate.

Batting at them rather ineffectually, he looked from Jane to Python to Juggernaut (presently picking bits of wood out of himself) to Mystique and back to Jane again.

"I really," he said, in a strangely low and decidedly dangerous voice. "have NO idea what's going on."

His voice rose in pitch.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't just start inviting people over here haphazardly," he said, to Mystique. "Do you KNOW how long it'll take to make up guest beds for all those people?" He took a few steps forward.

"I suggest someone tells me what's going on," he said, his voice dropping back again and a look of anger in his eyes.

[mystique]

ooc note to Jane: Mystique is still 'cured', fair skin, black hair. Wearing a black patent vinyl suit. Sorry, I had forgotten to re-narrate that from the beginning of the thread!

[mystique]

Mystique lifted her chin a bit, shifting her eyes to Pyro. There was no challenge in them. As it had always been with Eric, Mystique would only put forward a united face in front of others, no matter their internal disagreements. She would do the same for their painfully young leader, as long as he played along.

Thus the test began.

"Pyro, this is The Dead Man." she looked back to their guest with another one of those elusive smiles. "You'll have to forgive us both- I hadn't the time to warn him of your arrival, and he's a little unprepared."

She stepped back towards Pyro, fixing him with a look that warned him not to f*** this one up. Or perhaps she was just apologizing in her own arrogant way. Either way the news of Emma's cooperation should have been enough to gain his trust in regards to the new arrival.

"No need to worry," she murmured to Pyro, her sarcasm playful but pointed. "I'll have the maid see to it for you."