Brotherhood Meeting

[deadman]

It didn't take long for Dead Man to make his way back to the base, being that he could run at full speed easily, even if his animates had a hard time catching up.

By the time he strolled through the gates, sending a message to have his more powerful minions post themselves as guards along the wall, he was still one of the earlier members to be heading to the meeting room.

Trotting along with him, wagging a small bony tail, was a small skeletal dog.

“Now then, Mr. Bones, let us hope that we shall be introduced to some most wonderful news... I could use another vacation like Baltimore. What a beautiful time I had, no?” He whispered to the little animal. It responded with a little hop, as if yapping, but obviously had not the facilities to make such a noise.

Dead Man chuckled, and headed into the meeting room.

[Aurora]

A blur came at top speed toward the meeting room, stopping suddenly and coming into focus as Aurora, her hair settling around her face as it stopped a moment after. She surveyed the meeting room, disappointed to see that most of the people weren't there yet (though the message had just come over the loudspeakers about thirty seconds ago). She glanced down the hall right and left before stepping into the meeting room and turning her eyes on Dead Man.

"It better not take everyone twenty minutes to get here," she said boldly as she moved to a chair and pulled it away from the table. Rather than sit on it, she perched on the edge of the large table, resting one foot on the chair and letting the other hang down.

It was then that she saw the dog. She stared at it for a time, trying to decide if it was more interesting than it was creepy. It was almost...Well, it was far from cute, but it was much closer to cute than any of Dead Man's human animates. Probably because it was all bones; it at least didn't have any rotting flesh or fur hanging from it.

The idea of the Dead Man having a pet was actually kind of endearing...As long as she didn't breath too deep around him and sense the disgusting stench of death.

[mystique]

Mystique stepped down the hall at a leisurely pace, listening to recorded reports from a connection in Washington D.C. on a bluetooth earpiece, cell phone curled into the palm of her hand. The information had most of her attention as she entered the room, though she set a hand on Aurora's shoulder lightly and took a seat near the end of the table, nodding to those who had already entered.

Crossing her legs, she let the report ramble on, not paying much attention as people trickled in.

[Nightingale]

Vrooooooooooomm. "Oh, shit." Crash! Bang! Boom!

Apparently she still hadn't quite mastered the art of the car racing game, as clearly evidenced by the fact that she was now stuck on a pylon.

Well, she'd blame it on the announcement, which had left her quite confused.

'Cause Angie didn't know where the meeting room was.

It'll be on one of the signs or something. Won't it?

It took a few minutes to pathetically stumble across the finish line with bits hanging off the car. She didn't bother saving the game - that kind of abysmal result really didn't need to be shared with anyone else.

Poking her head out the doorway, Angie looked for one of the little metal - surprise, surprise - signs that were occasionally dotted around the place. Sure enough, there was a meeting room marked. Good thing, she didn't want to have to search the place top to bottom.

Aurora, Dead Man, a distracted looking Mystique and a little bundle of energy that looked like... well, a dog's skeleton, were already in there.

Ew.

Could be worse.

Shrugging, she took a seat.

"Wonder what this is about."

[deadman]

Dead Man walked calmly over to the wall, studying a map of the island that was displayed there. It was topographical, and quite accurate. A smaller map was pinned next to it, showing it as it was once, with a complete village and structures that were no longer there.

Behind him he heard the other two women enter. He also felt Mr. Bones run up to each of the women, circling and making his silent yap. He put both feet up on Angie's thighs, his little bone tail wagging.

Turning his attention from the map, having thoroughly memorized it, he brought his red gaze on Aurora. The necklace of air fresheners jingled as he walked over.

“Aurora. I wanted to talk to you.” He whispered. “I wished you to know I have a healthy respect for your work... it was admirable the way you casually took life at Baltimore. It takes more bravery than most realize... and you did it with such an orgasmic look on your face. I do believe I'm a fan.”

[Nightingale]

Oh, god.

The little canine bone clump had jumped up and was wagging its tail.

Oh, god.

"Uh, hi there little guy."

Well, at least he wasn't all... rotting and gross and didn't need an air freshener attached to his collar.

Still, as she reached down to stroke his... skull... Angie kicked herself inwardly for not wearing gloves. She'd gotten into the habit of not dressing as carefully in the base - if Dead Man was going to start bringing pets in, maybe that needed to change.

She could hear what he was saying to Aurora, and there was something undeniably creepy about him saying the word 'orgasmic'. That was something that should be against International Human Rights Conventions.

Poor Aurora.

"Does he... she... it... have a name?"

Maybe that would spare Aurora having to make some reply to the skin-crawling compliment she'd just received.

Maybe it would just bring his attention her way.

Oh, god.

[sy]

Well, Sy supposed that things couldn't be peacably silent in a large place such as this, although he had to admit that the announcement was at least a little less jarring than the one at the mansion. Using approximately the same method as Angie, he found the meeting room a few minutes later.

Walking in, Sy nodded to those present before setting down next to Mystique. She was obviously preoccupied, but so far she was the only one he really felt absolutely comfortable around, despite the fact that she had lied.

The little bone-dog made him smile.

[Jane]

Hiding in her room after the whole ordeal with Jeanne-Marie, Jane had realized that she hadn't talked to Angie yet about her Dead-Man-chunk-ectomy. (Ew, that sounded weirder than it even was.) But it couldn't be helped; Angie was probably busy now, and she could survive one more night with crazy-ass dreams...

...probably.

But with Dead Man so close, the dreams weren't as nuts - they didn't stop, and when Jane slept that night she dreamed of weird skeletal dogs, but at least it wasn't more Dead-Man-eating-himself. It wasn't as bad as it could be, was the thing.

With this optimistic thought in mind, Jane walked quickly to the meeting room, hoping it wasn't another call from Emily Popsicle or whatever her name was. She freaked Jane out a little. Too much poise. Plus, the last time she'd seen Jane, the latter had been in full itchy-crack-addict mode, which probably wasn't the best second impression.

Well, whatever. Jane slipped through the meeting hall's door and found that, though she hadn't taken twenty minutes, she wasn't the first; Aurora was there early, and predictably so was Mystique, and so was Angie, and someone she didn't recognize. The new recruit, maybe.

And a weird little skeletal dog.

Jane fought back a yelp as she saw it all up on Angie. She really didn't want to start having prophetic dreams. Especially with the crap she usually dreamed about. (The giant marshmallow person from Ghostbusters usually featured prominently in nightmares.)

She was just going to ignore it. Powering through. Jane took a seat next to Angie, watching the dog warily and keeping her distance, trying not to think about the fact that his animator - or owner, would you call it? - was in the room.

She could hardly believe DM would even keep pets, much less... a puppy. A dead puppy, but still a puppy.

Though actually, in a weird way, it was kind of cute.

[Aurora]

Aurora felt a hand on her shoulder, and she turned her head and smiled at Mystique, nodding in greeting. She greeted Angie as well, then turned back to Dead Man as he spoke to her. A small smile slid over her face and grew as he complimented her; to others, the fact that she had killed so ‘casually’ might be harsh, but it was what she’d done. And she’d do it again. She couldn’t wait to do it again, as long as it was for a cause.

When Dead Man said ‘orgasmic’, Aurora’s eyebrows rose, and she barked a short, surprised laugh. The others might have expected her to be grossed out, probably would have been grossed out themselves, but Aurora gave Dead Man a grin like he was any other living, breathing human being, and not a corpse. Sure, he was creepy, but she had killed people after all, and that was pretty creepy in itself. The way she saw it, she wasn’t in a position to be Hippocratic.

Now, he had a crush on Jane. That was creepy. But as long as he wasn’t trying to court her, Aurora was cool with the Dead Man.

“Thanks,” she said with a nod, sounding like she truly appreciated it. “You’re pretty kickass yourself.” Even as she spoke, Angie asked about the little skeleton dog. Aurora watched it prance around the legs of Angie’s chair, wagging it’s tail.

[mystique]

Mystique smiled slowly at Poseidon and pulled the earpiece away, shutting the recording off. Half turning in her chair to use it like a divan- her catlike form seemed comfortable on the oddest of surfaces, she regarded him.

"You've been such a quiet presence, I almost forgot you were here the last few days... forgive me for not checking in with you. We have important things in the works."

One of those smooth smiles companioned even smoother words. "How have you found Genosha. To your liking?"

[dharma]

Dharma heard the announcement just as he was heading inside for a break in his never-ending labor. Taking the form of a small swallow, he sped through the hallway to the meeting room.

Flying about the room in a wide circle until he could see all who were present, he found and open seat and settled down onto it before transforming into his own form once more.

Looking about at those gathered, he nodded, glad to see all was well.

[Juggers]

The glass fragments had barely tinkled to the kitchen floor when the announcement came over the PA. The Juggernaut quirked an eyebrow at Python who grimaced slightly.

"I've a feeling I know what this is going to be about," he said with an air of grimness.

"Yeah?" Cain said, ambling to the door, "let's go an make sure."

He stomped off down the hall with Python hot on his heels.

The Juggernaut was not in the habit of hurrying anywhere, so the route he took to the hall was circuitous in the extreme. He did so simply for the opportunity to hammer on the security office door.

"You 'eard the man!" The Juggernaut yelled, "that means you too fish-face!"

There was a muffled sound of acquiescence from within and the Juggernaut grinned. Then he set off again in the direction of the meeting room.

A couple of minutes later the pair arrived.

"Oy, oy!" He greeted the assembly jovially, "'ow we all doin' then?"

He leaned his massive frame against the wall, not trusting the flimsy looking metal chairs one bit. Python was not so picky and parked himself in the chair nearest the door.

Thirty seconds later the sound of flapping feet announced the arrival of Gill.

"Yo," he said as he slapped his way into the room, trailing a little plume of ash.

He plopped himself down in the next nearest seat and resumed his smoking in earnest.

[Pyro]

For once, Pyro wasn't the first to arrive. He had had to nearly physically chain himself to his desk to prevent his usual pathologically early arrival. He'd called Gill and got the man to patch the CCTV feed from the meeting room to his office and had sat and watched.

And waited.

"You must always make maximum impact wherever possible, Pyro," Magneto had said to him once. "And appearances, remember, are vital. You never get a second chance to make a first impression."

Thus it was that the young leader of the Brotherhood turned up a clear five minutes after Gill had arrived.

He had paused briefly, outside, to compose himself. He'd never really been much of a 'public speaker' per se and he could feel very definite nerves starting somewhere in the pit of his stomach. Deep breaths, head back, shoulders straight and...

"Thank you for your promptness, everyone," he said, walking in to the meeting room, past the assembled Brotherhood and up to the table that served as a speaking point. He stood behind it and leaned forward a little.

For once, he wasn't dressed in combats. He was wearing a pair of plain black trousers with a white shirt worn over an olive-coloured t-shirt. It was the smartest some of those assembled had ever seen him dress. He'd even run a comb through his by-now almost shoulder-length hair - but he still hadn't shaved. The look suited him; made him look older, more in control and a lot less like an angsty teen.

"I wanted to get everyone together because there's a couple of things that everyone needs to know. The first is pretty simple. We've got no less than four new recruits waiting to be collected from New York."

He looked slowly around the room, from left to right, his gaze lingering briefly on Python, who was tight-lipped and who looked away, obviously unable to fully address the issue yet. "I will be going out there tomorrow with Python to collect them. The time has arrived, my friends, for me to stop hiding here on this island and return to my role as leader of this group. The time for all of us to come out of hiding is drawing very rapidly to a close and with that in mind, I need us to start addressing the matter of battle training."

He paused, allowing the first part of his speech to sink in.

"On my return from New York - which should be three days at the most, we will start training in earnest. Each of you here has certain skills that you can share with the others. Dharma, particularly, your strengths in teaching people to focus and concentrate will be invaluable. Cain, your past abilities with close combat - I need you to start working together. I'm not going to start harping on about how we need to work as a team, because we're not some profit-oriented organisation. But we do need to start working together as a unit."

He stood back, away from the desk.

"In the event - I hope and sincerely believe unlikely event - that anything should happen to me whilst I am in New York, I want you all to know that you are to look to Mystique as your leader. Should, for any reason, she not be here, then that leadership will defer to Python."

The skinny mutant looked up, startled, but by the expression on his face, clearly delighted at the recognition of his years of loyalty and service to the cause.

"Mystique will actually be coming off the island with Python and myself, which leaves me with the dilemma of who I should contact whilst I'm away. I need someone to step forward and volunteer themselves to represent the Brotherhood on Genosha in our absence."

He spread his palms wide.

"Over to you."

[Aurora]

At some point, Aurora drifted to an actual chair rather than sitting on the table. Then Pyro came in, and everyone settled down to listen to him. He looked much more like a leader cleaned up as he was. And not crazy.

She thought a moment after Pyro finished, but stil was the first to speak up after the discussion was turned over to the group. "I think it ought to be someone who's been here, knows about Genosha and The Brotherhood...that would make sense," she said, drawing looks to her casual and yet not unladylike lean in her chair, her chin resting on her fingers. "Like Gill, or Cain."

Gill had certainly been there since the age of the dinosaurs, but Aurora wasn't sure...well, she wasn't really sure of anything about him. They hadn't talked much. He knew everything about Genosha, though, that was sure.

"I'd like to help out around here more, though, if that's possible. There's a lot I'd like to learn."

[Nightingale]

One hand hung down beside her chair, absently scratching between what would have been the ears of the little skeletal dog to keep it from jumping up on her again.

Pyro looked good. It was almost impossible not to notice as much, but Angie did her best to just watch him with the right amount of interest and no more - the sort of attention she'd have given a guest speaker at one of the conferences she'd occasionally been dragged to.

Still didn't change the fact that he looked good, though.

Trip to New York, battle training... That was all familiar. Telling them to look to Mystique as their leader should anything go wrong - well, that wasn't something that he'd mentioned to her, but it wasn't unexpected. At the announcement that Python was next in line, Angie directed a soft smile across to the lanky mutant, but it was doubtful that he'd seen it.

Mystique's accompanying Pyro was unexpected, though. John had mentioned that he was taking Cain off the island with him - apparently that plan had changed.

Well, it was to be expected, Angie supposed - the Juggernaut wasn't exactly the kind that could travel incognito. Still, it left them with the problem that he'd just outlined - who he was supposed to outline.

Nobody spoke for a moment, but just as Angie was about to pipe up, Aurora spoke. The young Australian nodded her agreement before voicing her own thoughts.

"Yeah, why not Gill? He's already the one that takes communication into the island most of the time, and being in the security centre," i.e. his smoke-filled porn room, "he already knows what's going on all over the island if you need to know."

Besides, Gill had been on Genosha since... Well, before the Brotherhood had arrived, and he was certainly down with the cause. It sounded like Pyro was just looking for a contact - the likelihood of all three of them being detained was tiny. Hell, she could have done it if it just meant a few phone calls and letting people know what he'd said.

"If Gill doesn't want to, any one of us can. It's just a few phone calls, right?"

She wasn't going to volunteer herself. After their conversation - or her ranting at him and then kissing him like the tool she obviously was - Angie didn't want to look... Well, anymore like a tool than she already did. She wasn't that desperate to talk to him while he was gone - it was only a few days.

[Jane]

Jane watched the meeting pull together quietly - especially Aurora and Dead Man. Was it too much to hope that his affections might transplant?

Probably. But she could dream. (Could she ever dream.)

Pyro walked in five minutes after everyone had been assembled, and Jane almost suspected him of trying to make an impressive late entrance. Would John do something like that? The boy she'd met in Liverpool had been proud, sure... and then he'd changed so much. With as reclusive as she'd become and as big as the fortress was, she hadn't properly spoken to him in a while. Not since the crazyfest.

He was almost a different person. A man, now, not a boy. Jane found she missed who he had been very much, no matter how much better a leader he might be these days. She thought he might've lost some of his soul on the way.

But he spoke impressively, and though a little concern flitted over her face at the mention of his leaving the island - was it really wise, given that he was, like, the most-wanted person ever? - she figured he knew best, or at least had considered the bad side and judged his presence overseas more important.

At least, she hoped he had.

And then he got to the part about leadership.

Jane tried to hide her skepticism when Aurora voiced her ambitions. Sure, Aurora was pretty driven and stuff, and Jane wouldn't doubt that she'd make a decent leader - at least while Aurora was in control of her body. So soon after Jeanne-Marie had made a break for it and with Pyro leaving, Jane was decidedly uncomfortable with the idea of someone so unstable leading anything. She was uncomfortable with someone so unstable even being on the island, actually, but she couldn't really do anything to prevent that.

Thankfully, Angie spoke up as a voice of reason.

"I think Gill sounds good," she said. "It's not really a leader you're looking for, is it, just a - an agent, maybe? Isn't Gill that already?"

She glanced over at Gill to confirm that and a thought occurred to her.

"Who do you want to see step up?" she asked. If someone Pyro fell out with came into a leadership position, it could be bad news for the entire Brotherhood. She didn't know if he had a beef with anyone, but then she wasn't buddy-buddy with, really, anyone on the island. She should fix that.

[mystique]

Mystique folded her arms, face falling to an impassive shadow of a smile as she listened to Pyro's information, and the subsequent discussion.

It was shrewd of him, having them talk things out like this. Of course it wasn't within their control who took over the Brotherhood no matter who they agreed would, any more than it was within Pyro's control that he led in the first place. Such was the way of things.

He'd rebuffed Angie. That had been amusing to watch. He'd done so with the chilly grace Erik might have. That had been heartening to watch. Pyro was turning into the leader he needed to be. Losing the soft places. Or rather, like all of them, hiding them carefully away.

A soft sigh barely left her lips as she clicked the recording back on, idly multitasking as usual.

He did look nice in that shirt.

[deadman]

Five minutes earlier:

The Dead Man found it amusing, if a bit diffusing, when people weren't unnerved by him. To him, the dead were supposed to be unnatural to the living, they were supposed to be feared. He was the ruler of the dead, with the power to bring you back, and therefore he was to be feared above all the dead.

Then again, there was something likable about how Aurora dealt with him. It was similar to Mystique, and it was ingratiating.

He smiled a vicious smile when she said he was kick ass as well.

“Does he... she... it... have a name?” Angie had asked, obviously referring to the little dog.

Dead Man turned from Aurora, the necklace of Air Fresheners dangling once more.

“Of course,” He replied. “That's Mister Bones.”

Then, naturally, his attention was stolen... for Jane had walked into the room. He looked from the dog to her, and wondered what she thought of the little critter. He gave her a cold smile, which looked as if it was meant to be warm, and looked back to Angie.

“I brought him here because the place seemed to lack a mascot. Why not have Mister Bones be that mascot?” He said in his croaked whisper.

Then came the others, most notably Juggernaut, and Dead Man greeted them all with small nods and bows.

The Present:

Now he listened to Pyro, who was doing a good job in being the leader. It was about time he took to the front lines, got out into the world and showed it exactly what kind of ruckus the ruffian could do. It pleased Dead Man to know the leader would be out and about.

It also pleased him to know there would be four more mutants on the island. Four more mutants meant four more possible powerful animates... he did hope that at least one would have a powerful physical mutation.

The others made their suggestions, and Dead Man just sat back, Mister Bones in his arms with his tail wagging happily.

He was Brotherhood, yes. But his style was so unlike theirs that he didn't much care about the politics of the island – he was there for one thing: To bring death and destruction to whoever he could. Based on Baltimore, this was a good choice in employment.

[sy]

"I have been enjoying the island very much, thank you," Sy nodded at Mystique with a smile. Indeed, what the building itself lacked, the island made up for with its lush jungles, clear blue waters, and long hours in which to explore. He'd run across the Dead Man's stench more than once, but stayed away from most of Genosha's residents, more for the fact that he himself was not much of a conversationalist. But also because some of them were showing brief signs of insanity.

His attention was taken away from his musings as a chain-smoking fish-man flopped into the room, and Sy sat a little straighter in his chair. Now there was a fellow he should meet! Perhaps after the meeting he would introduce himself, being very careful not to offend. Afterall, Sy wasn't the ruler of all fish-people, he just happened to have some of their best attributes while lacking the scaley skin.

As for Pyro and his announcements, Sy could care less. When it came time to fight, he'd fight; but he wasn't really interested in becoming part of their small and very disfunctional family.

[Pyro]

"When Magneto left us," Pyro said, when enough of a silence had fallen again, "there was a gaping void left by his absence. We were - those of us who fought alongside him at Alcatraz, left devastated by his loss." Here, he glanced at Mystique.

"I stepped up to the plate, chose to move away from where I was to standing in these shoes. But I have never, ever chosen to take his place. Indeed, I never will take his place. I've had to make a lot of changes to who I am - who I was to get here and it's not been easy. I never wanted to lead - it just happened. I'm not Magneto-shaped, I'm Pyro shaped. I see things differently, I do things differently, but the commonality is there."

He paced a little.

"Should anything happen to me, to Mystique, to Python, it doesn't matter which one of you takes charge - as long as one of you does take charge. The point I am trying to make..."

He stood in front of the table, no longer a barrier between himself and his audience.

"The point I am trying to make is that the Brotherhood isn't about leadership. It's about believing that we are entitled to our rightful place in the food chain. At the top, where we belong. If I'm not here, someone else will take that place. If Mystique's not here, someone else will take that place. Gill always has been our central point of contact." He looked over at the fish-headed mutant who was, as ever, smoking, and who waved lazily. "I'm pretty sure he'll take that role over whilst I'm away."

A nod. "Ya, ain't no problem there, mon."

"I suggest to you," said Pyro, with a quick smile, "that you'll know what to do in the event that none of us return. It really is that simple. The fact that not one of you has stood up and said 'I'll do it' makes me damn proud. And when I come back, we're going to become something spectacular. We are going to become a unit. We are going to go out there and we aren't going to be a disorganised rabble. We're going to be a finely tuned machine, and we're going to make the name of the Brotherhood stand out. And all of us are going to have to make sacrifices along the way. I promise you all - it's worth it. All of this is worth it."

He paused, rather surprised at the passion of his totally improvised speech.