Archive Mutants & Masterminds: The Magisterium - Staging Ground

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Rebekka sighed in sympathy and not a little desire as she saw the bruises and burns marring the strikingly attractive - and strikingly young seeming - man, her soft and sure fingers trailing down his back with infinite tenderness, counting vertebrae. Despite my desires, this is still sickening what they have done to what is effectively a child. And my biology still betrays me...

When Mary made her somewhat uncertain, yet generous, offer to help, she felt Dog tense beneath her hands, his incandescent tattoos pulsing even more rapidly, keeping in time with his rising heartrate. He was nervous, anxious, the light in his eyes as he looked over his shoulder betraying a growing hint of fear. She patted him consolingly on the small of the back, then cleaned it with a wet wipe.

"It will be okay, honey." She glanced over at Mary as she filled the syringe with a precise measure of lidocaine. "Mary, it is appreciated, but I think we'll have something else for a first attempt." Her lavender eyes cut fo Dog for an instant, conveying it was as much or more for his benefit than hers. "If you'll wait just a moment, I'll have it for you in a minute."

Rebekka leaned over, gentle caressing Dog's hair as she whispered for his ear. "Be still and we'll have you ready to go real soon, hon."

With deft precision, she inserted the needle by the base of Dog's spine before he even had a chance to worry about it; swiftly a not unpleasant numbness spread from the minute piercing. "How's that feel, sweetie?"

"Funny. Like it's not there..." Dog said uncertainly.

"Just how we want it. Here we go."

Sure and calm, elegant hands rock steady, Rebekka cut into Dog's back, by his spine, the scalpel slicing through flesh like a hot knife through butter. Bright crimson blood welled forth, which Matt mopped up with clean cloth from the wardrobe Mary had created. Rebekka absently nodded her thanks, deftly avoiding nerve clusters as she rooted out the transmitter - she seemed to be muttering under her breath in a melange of Dutch and German. Dog endured her ministrations with wincing stoicism - it hurt, but not bad, just like the beautiful woman had promised.

"And... done," Rebekka said with professional triumph, plucking the tiny, black transmitter free with the forceps. She nodded at Jeremy than gestured at Dog. "Do your thing, Jeremy." She patted Dog proudly on the shoulder. "You did real good, sweetie."

Then she turned to Mary. "If you would, stick out your hand." Mary did so, after just a hint of hesitancy. Rebekka dropped the transmitter into her palm. "You make things and unmake things, yes? Study the transmitter, then unmake it. It might be useful to have one of their transmitters, when and where we want it."

Calming, she cleaned of her hands and the surgical implements with the last of the wet-wipes, then smiled at those gathered. Her professional manner was shed like a second skin, her natural sensuality reasserting itself. "I believe we're ready to go now, hmm?"

[Jeremy]

"Assuming there's nothing I've missed, then yes." Jeremy commented, with a hint of sad sympathy on his face as he came over viewed Dog. If there was ever a poster example of the depravities of the DEHA and their national franchises, it would be the mutant referred to by such a degrading name. He tapped the vicinity of the incision and did his thing. "See? Not only did it not hurt, but the cuts are gone."

For that matter, the burns and bruises were beginning to fade, since Jeremy's collection of healing agents did circulate throughout the body and would affect those too.

[Gold]

Gold’s eyes were drawn to Jeremy’s display of power. He watched the Kytone pour into the cup and then spill onto the ground. Behind his eyes old memories played again, ones worried half to nothing by critical analysis.

They used Kytone at the facility, to knock him out when it came time for him to be transferred from his holding cell into a transfer cage. Most of the time when they dosed him, he woke up at his new location though sometimes he experienced groggy half-memories in transit. He almost escaped before of Kytone, once.

At first they used dart guns. The way people did for bringing down bears in the woods without killing them, like when they needed to tag them for nature studies and whatnot. He let them hit him the first ten times. That was how Gold engineered all of his escapes except on the rare occasion when one fell into his lap.

He knew the moment he saw the gun what he could do. His subconscious future-flashed him all the options but he squeezed down tight and took his dart like a man. Gold saw a little irony in that; letting himself be shot down like an animal in order to win a chance to be a man.

Those ten shots taught him plenty of things. How the Kytone felt in his system, the way his body malfunctioned and how long it took him to collapse.

On the eleventh dart he curled up around it, catching it between two fingers. A human couldn’t do that of course, but he wasn’t human and his reflexes were vastly above human standard. Even then he relied more on knowing exactly where they would shoot, exactly where the dart would hit, to catch it. He even believed it hit him for a split second.

Then he began his staggering and moaning, realized the dart and its payload were safe in his palm. Down he went, hair flailing like leaves on a golden tree.

The guards were confident. Mutie always went down to Kytone. So they were fine going into his cage to grab him.

When the first man put his hand on Gold’s shoulder, he rolled and rammed the Kytone dart into his eye. He didn’t like that.

People died then. He remembered each one. It was always the same guards who came for him, and they liked to taunt him. One even began to refer to him as ‘long pig’, like he was a cannibal. Gold bit off one of that man’s fingers and shoved it down his throat. It got stuck and he choked to death. Sad, that.

The others were business as usual. One took the old combo: right straight to the chest, left under the ribcage, right to the stomach and uppercut, elbow to the nose, collapsing it into the brain. He used to use that a lot in the pit. The watchers liked it. He learned early on that it helped his chances to please the audience.

Gold stripped the gun from the fourth man’s hands and shot him with it. Boring, but it worked. Then the alarms started blaring and he was running. Running. God it felt good.

It was like freedom but different. The fighting meant something then. When they came for him he fought with everything he had. He wall-jumped, he kicked his way into the vent system until they flushed him out with gas, he used human shields, he used actual shields.

They told him later that thirty five people died in his escape attempt. In the end they brought him down with a frag grenade.

Always the goddamn grenades.

They were going to put a bullet in his head, too, but someone, somewhere, over-rode the soldiers on the ground.

Gold laughed as they dragged him back inside.

After that they never tried to shoot him again. Instead they gassed him. Once they messed up the dosage and he woke up before they were even in the room. Turned out they waited a full five minutes before entering his cage just in case he was playing dead.

His shenanigans came to an end when they built a new cage that could monitor his life signs, so they would know when he was or wasn’t out.

It would have been great to have been a ninja, he thought. He could have done that meditation shit and slowed his heartbeat. Or whatever it was ninjas were supposed to do.

Instead he just grinned at them when they got arrogant, and waited for a chance to make another stab for freedom.

He didn’t mind that his freedom was given to him in the end. The DEHA proved their point. Gold was never going to escape on his own. He would never fail to take a chance they gave him, he was always waiting for their mistake. But he would never make it.

Every time he racked up a body count, reminded them of why he was caged in the first place, and settled down for the next verse of the same old song.

It felt good to break that, at least.

Gold stayed in the shade, watching the others with his golden eyes, waiting for the penny to drop. Nobody had said it yet but he knew there was a sting in this prison break. He could not make out all the conversations but he could tell they would be leaving soon once the quivering mutant got his shit together. Dog, he thought he heard someone say.

It occurred to him, then. In all this time, he never did learn if the Kytone to the eye killed that guard. He looked over towards the chemist man. He never did catch his name. Gold was about to ask, but he hesitated, and in that moment the man upped stakes and went over to tend to Dog.

Ah, well, he thought. Maybe later.

[Dawn OOC]

Rebecca gave a soft squeal of joy, giving him a quick hug around the waist. “Awesome! I was hoping you’d come with us.” Her eyes were dancing with joy as she practically hopped up and down next to him. “And yeah, the payback is awesome! Just wait until you get some – you’ll love it.”

Before them, a black hole opened and Tyrone relaxed, popping his neck. David turned into living fire and darted through first. There was a tense moment; then he was back. “It’s safe. Let’s go!” he called to them, darting back through the portal.

“Is this Home?” Mary asked as she eased toward it.

Tyrone shook his head. “It’s small, deserted island in the South Pacific, where it’s currently night. From there, we’ll hop over to Home. We always try to do at least one extra jump from where they knew we were last. Keeps them from figuring out where we are.”

“And it’s fun!” The little girl darted past her brother, pushing Jack over the uneven ground even though his big sniper case was slung over her shoulders. Neither appeared to slow her down and the two disappeared into the warp.

[SalmonMax]

Mary watched, still a little flummoxed by the portal. It felt...weird to her. Not like Dog's energy field, that seemed solid but wasn't there in any material sense; the warp portal was actually not-not there. It wasn't a zero presence, but it was somehow inverted. A negative to normal matter's positive, balanced on the fulcrum of Dog's zero. But negative matter made no sense, she couldn't even begin to imagine what it was, or how it would work.

...could she make it?

That reminded her of the transmitter Rebekka had given her. She glanced at it. It was identical to the one she'd removed from her own body. A tiny capsule of carbon chains and copper and aluminum, with tiny amounts of silicon and germanium and traces of other things. First it vanished, then she destroyed any other ones that Matt hadn't already taken care of.

Then she braced herself and stepped through the portal.

[Travis Kincaid]

Rebecca gave a soft squeal of joy, giving him a quick hug around the waist. “Awesome! I was hoping you’d come with us.” Her eyes were dancing with joy as she practically hopped up and down next to him. “And yeah, the payback is awesome! Just wait until you get some – you’ll love it.”

"Oh, I think I know that, or have you already forgotten what we did last ye- ... fuck, what we did six years ago? In Montana?" Travis scowled, losing five years didn't feel that bad until he realized that nobody else had lost five years, then it hurt. A lot. Montana had once held a weapons facility. Once being the operative word, as it was little more than a smoking crater when he and Ronnie had finished with it. Travis wondered if they had rebuilt. Did it matter?

"Come on, I don't feel like getting caught on the wrong side of whatever that thing is," he jerked a thumb at the black hole. He walked forward, pulling Rebecca with him, "South Pacific eh? And then outward bound for god knows where? I don't suppose there'll be something to eat? I've not had a bite in half a decade." He pushed through the tear in the sky and came out onto uneven sandy ground dimly illuminated by the moon and stars overhead. It was slightly warmer, and more humid, than the arid plains had been, but a sea breeze made it comfortable, and the crashing sounds of the waves were soothing.

Despite the weather he shivered, "That is not something I am going to get used to." Travis was used to flying, which was equally unnatural for a human, but then none of them were human either. He looked up, the moon and stars were bright, undimmed by ambient light from cities and towns, the glowing band of the Milky Way itself spread across the heavens like a swath of glowing dust. Which it is, he mused. It was strangely peaceful, and incredibly beautiful. The stars seemed to offer their dim light like a balm to the band of escapees, the moon shone down like the face of a mother looking at her children in the crib. Travis winced at that thought, gritting his teeth and banishing the memory. What is gone cannot be returned.

[z024]

Lamia kept the frightened young man's hand through the entire extraction and healing process. When the portal was opened to the next step of their escape, she squeezed his hand pulled him gently along with her. "We're almost there."

Stepping through, she raised her face to the moon and closed her eyes. This place was beautiful and she wanted to drink in every moment of it; wherever this Home was it was probably chosen for practical reason. This place existed just for beauty, at least for this moment.

After a moment of basking, she glanced over at her new charge and gave his hand a squeeze. "Are you doing alright?"

[Jeremy]

Jeremy strode through, relieved at his second sign of the surety of freedom. The ocean breeze as he went through ruffled his hair and the salt smell was far better than anything else. Like the canal water of Venice. Jeremy brushed his capture aside from mind for a moment. He hadn't been to a beach since he was 18, so he could afford himself a 'me' moment of enjoyment.

[Grav]

For Chaos, she made the decision to reach out and pull Fenris up, they could talk later as their ride was here, and leaving fast. She helped him through the portal and nodded. "Next time, I'm not carrying you physically big guy." Setting him down on the beach, she groaned and fell to her knees, the wounds suffered in her rather one-sided battle against the mutant she'd just helped through the portal opening up, as she grit her teeth. "Crap..."

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Rebekka gathered up the surgical instruments and used wet-wipes, rolling them up in the nylon sleeve they had come in so that bit of evidence wasn't left behind, as she watched the others pass through the pulsing, black portal, a small, bemused smile on her lips. Mary, Travis and Raven, Lamia and Dog, Grav and Fenris. She wanted to fuck pretty much any of them. All of them.

She glanced over her shoulder at Gold just standing up from his bit of shade, golden hair glittering under the sunlight. She wanted to fuck him too, her biology did at any rate, even if she had some minor reservations about the cold-demeanored mutant. She smiled and nodded her head suggestively toward the portal. "Well, shall we see where the next step in our journey takes us?"

Her smile widened as she turned around and sashayed through the rip in space, each step an invitation to those staring at her divine backside. Salt air and night breeze washed over her. The surf lapping at the shore was a sibilant whisper, stirring memories, her own and those that had become her own.

Rebekka had spent time on many luxurious islands, private and not, in the Pacific and the Caribbean and elsewhere. She had gone as a wife, a lover, a mistress, and a hired whore. And she had their memories and the memories of others of other visits. Honeymoon in Fiji, debauchery in the Caribbean, more. Only some of the wealthiest were able to hire her purely for intimate purposes.

Looking around at the deserted island and musing on the circumspect actions of their 'saviours,' Rebekka smiled sadly. She ostensibly had her freedom, but didn't expect she would be interaction with such glamour and luxury any time soon. More's the pity... Still there are plenty here who are more than interesting to sate my desires, plus whoever else is already part of the movement...

And perhaps she could transfer some funds from certain private bank accounts to one more accessible.

[SalmonMax]

Mary stopped still on arriving at the other side, nearly getting pushed down by the next person to come through. Even then, though she stumbled forward, she was too entranced to even apologize for being in the way.

There were stars here. She'd read about them, but never seen them, ever. The books didn't do them justice. They were balls of hydrogen, constantly exploding; held in check by their own mass...but they were beautiful. Staring into the night sky was staring into eternity in a way that the daytime sky couldn't compare to.

And the MOON. She knew what it was too...tectosilicates and iron, mostly. But that belied the gorgeousness of that silver-white orb, with the discolorations making abstract images across its face.

Overcome, Mary fell to her knees, looking up at the sky with tears helplessly leaking from the corners of her eyes. The ocean rose and fell before her, a mass of common elements that, like the rest, added up to much more than the sum of its parts. She could feel the organic-rich soup of it, the byproducts and tiny squiggles of life. It was like seeing her mother for the first time. This is where we came from. Where we all came from.

She was laughing and crying; at the stars, at the moon, at the sea...at herself and everyone in the world. It was all so tragic, that she'd ever thought her life had been complete. It was such a glorious joke. She felt as if something inside her was dying, or dead already...and that in doing so she had not ceased to be, but become free.

Freedom felt like the stars, and space. Brilliant and gorgeous and terrifying, an emptiness that demanded to be filled with thoughts, with actions...with anything. The entire universe was looking down at her with an expectant expression, as if asking, what now? Mary knew now that there was no going back. She wished no one had died preventing their escape, but...everything had changed now. She would fight, if she had to, to protect this. She would kill, if she had to...and while she might regret the necessity, she would never regret the outcome.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

Rebekka smiled wistfully, seeing the sheer wonder and joy on Mary's face. For someone with thousands of lives of life experiences, witnessing something truly new was a rarity, so it was a delight to see it in the expression on Mary's face and the light in her eyes. Rebekka glided up to Mary's side and gave the younger girl - in both years and experiences - a heartfelt, one-armed hug.

"Honey, this is just the beginning," the exotic woman said warmly. Mary could see that the dress she was wearing was no longer pure cotton, but interwoven with a type of protein-fiber with a triangular cross-section, giving the fabric a glossy sheen. "There is a whole world to see, and I'll do what I can to give you the chance to see it."

[Gold]

Gold watched them go, one by one. None gave him a second glance until the end. Rebekka, the mutant whose one focus on escaping governmental imprisonment seemed to be getting laid as fast as possible, turned to look at him.

He rose with smooth, easy elegance, regarded her with calm, emotionless golden eyes. She asked her question, turned and stepped through the portal.

Nobody even considered that he might not follow. Yet that was the first thing that came to mind.

He took a deep, cleansing breath of the clean air and looked around at the animals basking in the sun. They regarded the portal with the sort of indifference only cats were capable of rousing. The special sort that said: ‘Yes, I see it. No, I don’t care’.

A smile crossed his face. Now he felt free. There was just him, the world, and nobody else between them. He felt like he could do anything.

Gold looked back at the rip in the air. It waited. He almost willed it to shut, to remove the choice from him. It remained open.

He felt the pull of responsibility. It hurt.

I don’t owe them anything, he said to himself. I didn’t kill any of them. Nobody can ask fairer than that.

He twitched towards the portal and licked his lips. Come on, Drew. He pulled you out of there for a reason. You want to know that much, right?

It wouldn’t be good. It would be just the same as what the government wanted him for. Someone, somewhere was warm and David and his cronies wanted them cold. They had not said so yet. If he walked away they never would. Nobody would find him.

Yeah, right.

Gold sighed. “Fuck it.”

He scratched his nose and strode through the portal.

The sudden jump from light to dark made his eyes hurt. He looked up at the moon and the stars. His golden hair glimmered like the metal, beautiful and pristine. His eyes shone the same way. It was because of that he wore goggles and a hood when he went sniping. If either were on show he might as well have added an automatic flare gun to his sniping gear. A blind, pre-killed baby would have been able to see where the shot would come from.

“Hope there’s no snipers out,” he muttered, casting his eyes over the beach and the sea.

His eyes went to Rebekka. She was looking his way. Maybe she suspected the thoughts in his head, or noticed the delay between asking her question and his arrival. He gave her a nod.

Most of the others were dressed comfortably now, but he still wore his prison uniform, blood-stained and ugly. Even here on the beach he felt no need to take it off. It worked.

He looked up again. “We should get out of the open,” he opined in that same calm, quiet tone which he always adopted. “We’re fugitives after all. Who knows what spy satellites or other trash they’ve got up there.” He started looking around for some shelter.

[Jordan]

Dog stood in that wet strip of sand where the waves met the beach and watched as the water lapped over his combat boots. He was only half paying attention to what was going on around him and he said softly to himself. "I'm going to be in trouble when the major finds me."

"What was that hon?" Lamia asked at his barely audible question.

"I'm going to be in trouble when He finds me. He always finds me. I'm going to get punished," He thought about the little grey thing they took out of his back. He didn't really know what it was or what it was for, but he knew his masters would be angry he let the bad mutants take it out of him.

Lamia put her hands on each side of Dog's face and despite his flinching, brought his head up to look him in the eye. "Who ever He is won't be able to find you anymore. That chip we took out of your back is how he could always find you and now that it is gone he can't do that any more. No more punishments."

Dog wanted to look away. He was conditioned to always keep his gaze down and the unexpected intensity of meeting Lamia's gaze was almost too much for him. Dog began to tear up as she spoke of no more punishments. "Really?" He said his voice cracking with emotion. Lamia let him go an he took a step back. He was beginning to hyperventilate as strange thoughts swarmed in his head.

"I..." Dog couldn't articulate what he was feeling. He slowly walked back to the water and waded in to the surf up to his calves.

[Dawn OOC]

Once they were all through, Tyrone closed the warp. Matt turned and hefted his chip reader again. “One more time, guys. I want to make sure everyone’s clean before we go Home.” With various levels of reluctance, the mutants submitted to another scan. At Gold’s comment, Matt nodded. “Normally a concern, but this island is uninhabited. The odds of them seeing us at night are pretty damn small. Small enough that even Jack wasn’t freaking out about it.”

“May. A word?” David offered a hand to her; with hesitation, the young mutant took it.

“I’ll be right back, Travis.” She gave him a tense smile as David drew her close and lifted into the air.

“Where are they going?” Ty-ty asked, peering up into the night, though they were soon invisible against the night sky.

“To talk for a moment,” her big brother told her.

“About what?”

“Stuff they don’t want a nosy brat to hear.” Though the words were harsh, Tyrone’s grin wasn’t. The girl snarled and leapt at him, laughing and trying to hit him. Despite their age difference, it was clear that she was the better fighter of the two, moving with an instinctive sense of herself and her opponent. Her adult brother did not. Ty-ty also had Jack calling out advice to her, watching her feint and weave with a little smile of pride.

David and May returned just as Matt was finishing the scans. May now looked like Dr. LaCroix again, her pale face catching the silvery moonlight. She returned to Travis’s side, smiling.

“Everyone’s clear, David.” Matt reported as the two returned and David looked at Tyrone. He’d disengaged from the fight with his sister and was focusing on another warp. When it opened, Matt nodded and said, “Everyone, that is the gate Home. After you.”

Feel free to RP on the beach as long as you want. I’ll close this thread when people seem to be done with it.

[Jeremy]

Jeremy had his moment of relaxation broken by groans of pain, whirling, he saw the white-haired woman sinking down in pain. Frustration for once coloring his features instead of concern- he'd thought he'd administered healing to all who needed it, he strode over and lightly sighed in admonishment as he tapped fingers to the injured side and provided analgesic pain relief with the treatment.

"If you were hurt this bad, you should have told me while we were in the savannah." The portal rippled to life behind them and he jerked his head towards it. "Now let's not miss the trip to home base." After any response, he headed off to the portal, stepping into a new stronghold.

[Grav]

Grav/Chaos nodded. "Thanks, I didn't think it was this bad at first. I've not been hurt like this on a mission in a very long time." She kneeled there awhile waiting to see if Fenris was done healing himself, She wasnt' gonna manhandle him again, this time it might be abit less pleasant for him if he needed help getting through the gate.

"You good?"

[Travis Kincaid]

Travis smiled back at May, in Raven's form this time, and looped his arm around her waist again. It felt a little odd, he didn't really know the Raven form, but she was still May too. Travis shook his head, this was hardly the first time he'd had to adapt to the oddities of loving a skin shifter. "Soo ...?" he didn't quite ask, looking down into her dark eyes.

"So?" Raven responded, feigning ignorance. This too was something that Travis knew something about.

"So, what was that all about? Everything OK with your boss?" Travis tried to keep his voice level, but May knew him as well he knew her, maybe better, he'd been on ice for five years. Travis looked leery, not of her association with Sol, but with the idea of the other man being in control. Travis hated control, of any kind, he didn't like to follow, but he didn't want to lead either; in the past when she and he had done things they had always been in agreement. Travis also didn't care for secrets, "What's going on May?"

[SalmonMax]

Rebekka smiled wistfully, seeing the sheer wonder and joy on Mary's face. For someone with thousands of lives of life experiences, witnessing something truly new was a rarity, so it was a delight to see it in the expression on Mary's face and the light in her eyes. Rebekka glided up to Mary's side and gave the younger girl - in both years and experiences - a heartfelt, one-armed hug.

"Honey, this is just the beginning," the exotic woman said warmly. Mary could see that the dress she was wearing was no longer pure cotton, but interwoven with a type of protein-fiber with a triangular cross-section, giving the fabric a glossy sheen. "There is a whole world to see, and I'll do what I can to give you the chance to see it."

"I don't understand," Mary confessed, wiping her eyes. She still wasn't sure if she was crying out of joy, or sadness or what. She was feeling all of the above with obliterating intensity.

"Why didn't anyone ever show me things like this before?" The girl turned her head to look at Rebekka with a kind of desperation. "What's so wrong with all this that they couldn't show it to me? There's nothing bad about any of this!"

Now her tears were real. Tears of regret, and even anger. Only now that she had some inkling of what she'd never known did she feel its loss. But the feeling was retroactive, and there was a substantial past-due balance.

"They could have taken me outside...or to a beach...or...or to the ROOF to see the stars! What would have been so wrong with that?!"

[z024]

"You would have wanted more and you would have understood your captivity." Lamia's voice drifted over to the young woman losing her childhood, though her eyes stayed on the man standing in the ocean. Just in case.

She motioned to the waters and then the pristine sky above, "Would you have willingly walked back into small rooms after knowing this? Would you have accepted everything they told you without question once you knew there were questions to be asked?"

"They kept you ignorant because it made you pliable. Safe for them. You can create and destroy with a whim, young one. What will you create, once you truly know the world? What will you destroy?" Grey eyes flicked over to Mary, "They kept the world from you because you are more than them in every way and they could not let you know that. They wanted a pet goddess and ignorance was their only leash."

[Travis Kincaid]

Travis still wanted to hear from Raven, but he couldn't help but overhear the other conversation, and he couldn't hold back from offering his own answer. "What she's saying is that humans suck kid," he sounded a little angry again, he sounded angry more often than not in their limited experience. "They hate us kid, they don't see us as their superiors, which we are. Instead we're like really smart animals to them, to be kept in a cages, bred for purposes, controlled when docile, or used as attack beasts when not. They fear us, all of us. So, yeah, they wanted to control you by making you ignorant of the truth, but they also just plain suck ass. All of them, every last one. Never forget that. It's us versus them."

Travis turned back to Raven, "Sorry babe, I just needed to say that. Now, what were you about to say?" May could see his rage, but also something else, deep in his eyes, there was something lurking, but she wasn't sure what.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

And there it is, Rebekka thought sadly, frowning at Lamia and Travis, something in lines of her elegant form conveying a hint of resignation. One of my fears taking this step into freedom. That my fellow mutants are just as much racists as the worst who have kept us captive. It is not just freedom they seek, nor equality, but a reversal of who stands on top of the social order. Though they - we - have all suffered, they want vengeance on all, rather than those responsible...

Rebekka stepped around in front of Mary, tilting her chin up to brush a lock of hair from her face, and wipe the tears from her cheek with a gentle thumb. Her full lips curved in sympathy and sincerity. "What they say is true and not true, Mary," she said in dulcet, sophisticated tones. "Yes, many hate us, many fear us, for poor reasons and reasons that to them, make perfect sense. They fear what you could do them, but just as likely, feared that knowing more, they would lose you and lose what you could do for them, and perhaps, for many others."

She sighed and looked up, sharing Mary's view of the night sky, gesturing at the canopy of stars above them. "In this, there may have been some who thought it unfair to deny you the sight. It was what else you might have seen that worried them, made them fear with the lost of your ignorance," Rebekke nodded in reluctant agreement with Lamia, "they would lose you, as well. It's no excuse for what they did, just an explanation of their possible viewpoint."

Her perfect lips firmed as she glanced at the poor man called Dog, standing in the surf surging. For someone with so many memories in her head, enforced ignorance was a horrible thing to inflict, near as much as isolation was to her. And terribly, it worked just as well, in many cases.

"But here's the thing, sweetie. It's us versus them," her lavender eyes narrowed intently as she glanced at Lamia and Travis, "only if we make it so. What Travis here has neglected to mention is that, for all that mutants have been around for a century or more, we are a secret from the world. Only a tiny fraction know of our existence. Whose to say how many more will fear us, or hate, envy us... or embrace us, or won't care except for how we treat them? Having just found out about your ignorance, will you condemn an entire people for theirs, just as much inflicted as yours was?"

Rebekka stepped around Mary's side again, putting an arm around her shoulder and turning her to face the portal. "If we are truly as free as our saviors claim, then you will have the freedom to make that choice for yourself. Maybe start by meeting more humans that just the ones who kept you captive, hmm?"

[z024]

Lamia gazed at Rebekka and said levelly, "We have been here as long as they. They have always known of us and called us many things. Spirits, gods, prophets, wise ones, witches, demons...and now mutants. If the world is ignorant of our existence today, then it has been a conspiracy perpetrated and accepted over generations."

Her eyes flicked over to Mary. "Yes, you must make your own decisions. That is what freedom is, but I would caution you to be careful of revealing yourself to any humans without a position of power. Or at least an escape route." She seemed ready to say more, but looked to Rebekka and then back to the Moon. "You are young. Hopefully you will have the time to form your own opinion, but that will not be without bloodshed. Even if only a small group of people know of us in this day, they do fear us and hate us. They will kill you now, for what happened today and for being out of their control. They will kill you for being free. Never forget that."

[Dawn OOC]

“I’ll explain in private.” Raven shifted against his side and then stretched up to kiss him. “It’s nothing to worry about; he wanted to ask me a question without the others around. But I’ll tell you when we get settled into our room.” Her grin widened a little at the implication of a private room and what else could happen there.

David smiled as mutants started to go through the portal. He stepped with them, following after Noctis.

Fenris nodded to Grav. “I am good,” he told her; his self-healing had already turned many of his wounds into mere aches. Soon it would be as if nothing had happened. Then he stepped toward the portal, disappearing into the blackness.

[Grav]

With that, and a node to Jeremy, she nodded, and followed through the portal, not really caring where it led.

[Travis Kincaid]

Travis scowled a little but allowed himself to be pulled along towards the waiting portal. Wistfully he desired to stay, this place was beautiful, and he had no idea what they would find on the other side of the black hole in the air. He dragged his feet through the sand, wishing now they were bare, and looked one last time at the sky, so unlike anything he'd ever seen before, removed as it was from any hint of civilization. With a sigh he stepped into darkness once more.

[SalmonMax]

Still sniffing and wiping her nose, Mary listened to the various viewpoints and pieces of advice. She couldn't hold Rebekka's gaze and dropped her eyes, but still listened. Even now she didn't hate the doctors...she just didn't understand. Why would they be afraid of her? What did they think she was going to do?

Escape, maybe.

But of course, if they hadn't caged her, she wouldn't have needed to escape. She would have stayed.

Wouldn't she? If they'd simply given her these experiences, she wouldn't have had to steal them. Didn't that mean she'd cooperate with them willingly? Wouldn't that have been better? It didn't make sense.

Not if they're good people, that dark little voice in the back of her head whispered. But what if they lied about that too? Then they'd be afraid you'd find out. They'd have to keep everything they were doing secret. And they had to stop you from just making your door disappear and walking out, so they lied about your health, and about the world. All because they thought if you knew the truth, you'd want to leave...maybe even go against them.

So what then, were they hiding?

Mary thought of Lamia, and what she'd described. It was completely beyond her, emotionally. She had nothing to anchor it to. She knew it was awful, but in a detached, clinical sort of way. She thought of this 'dog' fellow, whose story she didn't know, but who was so childlike and terrified of 'punishment.' Mary was no psychologist, but she wasn't an idiot either. He'd been traumatized, so badly that he could barely think or reason. And no one became like Travis without SOME kind of reason.

Those were different people! she protested to herself. They had nothing to do with it!

But that was the voice of naivete'. Even if her doctors hadn't taken part in those horrors, they'd known about it. They must have, or they wouldn't have been so secret. They'd known and they hadn't stopped it. They'd lied to her and she'd believed them.

She felt like a pinata that was empty of candy. A hollow shell wrapped around a sucking void. She might crack and fall into herself any moment; collapsing into a pinpoint and disappearing forever. She was such a colossal fool. A little girl, barely grown up, out of the house and suddenly realizing it had never been a house at all. Had she ever thought she could go back? That this would be a fun little excursion? A bit of naughtiness that would earn her a reprimand from the lead doctor and some fond memories?

The crowd on the beach was thinning. People were going. Mary looked back up and around and took a deep breath. The stars and moon and ocean greeted her and reminded her in their wordless way that this new world was not all betrayal and pain. If opening her eyes hurt, well it also let her see things she'd never dreamed of before. Wonderful things. That would be her life jacket.

Embarassed by her display, and the still-simmering shame that she'd been so duped, and the unaccustomed human closeness of Rebekkah, Mary blushed bright pink and gently disengaged from the other woman. She was not used to people hugging or chummily putting their arms around her. The doctors didn't do that. It didn't feel bad...but it was a little weird, and she'd had enough of that for the day.

"Thanks," she said softly. "For helping me. We'd better go. They're going to leave us here." The last sentence was meant as a weak sort of joke, evidenced by her halfhearted half-smile. Then she headed back away from the ocean and to the black portal one last time. Last time that night, at least.

[Gold]

Gold listened to the little cluster-chat going on around Mary. That one was going to turn angry before long. It seemed like it. From the way she talked they kept her oblivious to her state for years, and if she never even saw the stars… Come to think of it he was amazed she wasn’t agrophobic.

He remembered a mutant they sent him to hunt who had been like that. Hiding underground, mostly, aware that the government was after him, killing anyone sent his way. Up until they sent Gold, anyway.

His past operations did make him wonder a little. It stood to reason he was here to kill someone whether he knew it or not, but he doubted some of these people would be keen to learn there was mutant blood on his hands. If they asked he wouldn’t lie, either. In truth he was damn proud of a few of those kills. He didn’t like doing it, but they were tests of endurance and guts and skill. They were the kind of ‘man stuff’ that tended to get the blood pumping, and which he could look back on fondly as times when he proved he was up to scratch.

What do I want?

The question hung over him, unasked by anyone but himself, like a bomb ready to drop.

He walked away from the conversation. The more he listened, the more that Mary’s friend seemed to be someone to worth getting on the good side of. He recalled…

Oh, fuck. He attacked her. When that asshole with the grenades took him out she chucked him up on Travis’s little rock-mobile. He came conscious for a second and the future-flashes made him attack her. Way to make a first impression, Drew.

He felt a bit embarrassed about that. Well, it was embarrassing. It wasn’t polite to try and break someone’s arm when they were pulling your ass out of an electrically-charged fire.

Gold wondered if he had apologized already. His memories of the last hour or so were a bit hazy. Probably a side effect of getting electrocuted so much. He recalled that electrocution could cause brain damage. If my fucking brain is damaged I’m going to kill that guy even more than I already intend to. And I’ll electrocute his cock until it explodes.

It felt oddly pleasant to have someone he wanted to kill. Somehow the deaths became routine along the way. It was something expected of him, a role he played because, well, that’s who they wanted him to be. He was their golden boy. Their killer.

In his mind he heard a man with a strong London accent screaming, ‘The worrrrrrrrrrld’s most daaaaaaaaaaaangerous man… Gold!’

He went over when his saviors called and submitted himself to their scan without a word of complaint or protest. They had run a good ship so far. No reason to question the professionals. Or lucky amateurs. Maybe a bit of both. In the end he was no more than an amateur with advantages. Most of what he knew he picked up in the pit. The Mafia were happy to give him instruction manuals on Tae Kwon Do and let him practice his heart out. It kept the money rolling in for them to have a genuine kung fu killer on the books.

What do I want?

He would have told anyone who asked that he wanted to be left alone. Not in the moody boy in the corner at class sort of way, in the ‘give me a cabin in the woods and don’t call, visit, or remember I exist’ sort of way. He still would tell them that, too. It was the closest thing to an answer he had to that question.

Then why was he here?

Once they were done with him he went down to the water side and looked out to sea. He liked the sound of the ocean. It was complex and always shifting. Better during the day of course, when it was getting spiced with bird calls and whatever other life pissed about on the beach while the sun was up. At night it was more peaceful. It was just this thing going on and on, forever, ignorant of and not caring about the bullshit that happened near and around it.

Maybe that’s what I want to be, he thought. He picked up a rock from the beach and gave a great sideways throw that sent it spinning off into the night. It eventually splashed down.

I had my chance to leave and didn’t take it. He should have. He still knew he should have. ‘Owing people’ things was no use. Yet here he stood, leaving footprints in the sand and waiting for the penny to drop. He wasn’t that curious. Was he?

He seemed to be the only one who didn’t view this as freedom. How could you be free if you were being freed to do something? He could almost feel the collar around his neck. That old deadly collar the mafia always tossed to him before a match. Gold always put it on himself in the end. It was almost a ritual. They learned early not to try and put it on, and made it clear they’d kill him if he didn’t put it on himself. So he did. The cage they kept him in was too small to dodge much.

This was the same. Another collar of his own choosing. He put it on the second he walked through that portal.

Gold squatted down on the sand and folded his hands, trying to puzzle out his own actions. He did not come to any answers. It was too soon, and all of this was too new.

He rose and glanced over towards the mutant called Dog, standing in the surf. The collars are all in our heads and in our hands, in the end, he thought. You can take away the walls, you can take away the prison, but you can’t take away the chains.

Gold scratched at his neck.

[Jordan]

Dog stood in the surf, staring out at the black nothingness as the stars twinkled above and a group of the strangers on the beach waxed philosophical. He didn't really understand what they were talking about and all the thoughts swarming in his head, all the things he'd been told today, were making his head hurt.

Dog shivered as the water that had soaked the legs of his overalls and filled his boots chilled his feet. He turned, waded back on to the beach and headed towards the second big black hole in the sky that everyone was slowly heading towards.

As he passed Lamia he said numbly "My feet are wet."

When he reached the portal he stepped through without looking back.

[Rebekka Van der Vyse]

One by one, Rebekka watched the other mutants step through the portal, in couples once more. When Mary walked through, then the man labelled Dog, the melancholy sympathy gracing her lips was unfeigned, though it hid the musing speculation she directed at Lamia. They were so young, in experience, if not in years. Had she ever been that young? Certain not since the first man she had ever slept with, and gain all the experience and memories of a man twice her age.

As for Lamia... From all the various scientists and academics she had slept with, it was generally believed mutants had been around as long as humanity, or a near as made no matter. And it had long been speculated that mutants had been incorporated or were the basis for much folklore, myths, and legends of gods, angels, demons, and spirits. From her perspective, she could see how such titles and belief could have been earned by the humans around them. She could also see how those same ancient mutants could have fostered such belief for their own benefit.

In learning - or suspecting - the truth, it didn't provide justification, but perhaps more understanding for the actions of those suppressing the mutants. Claims of superiority were hardly justified - a tiny fraction of humanity had done a good job keeping the existence of mutants a secret from the vast majority, in this day of instantaneous communication, and were surprising adept at keeping most in control.

And most of the mutants she's met since being freed mere hours ago seemed all too willing to commit to the ever vicious cycle. It was a sad fact that revolutionaries were often willing to commit atrocities as bad as those perpetrated against them, It was just, if the revolutionaries were the victors, they were the ones writing the history books. And on it goes. There was nothing in her experience - or the experiences she had culled in fifty years from others - that lead her to believe if mutants had been in power, they would have as good a job, or made the world a better place... for all.

Rebekka glanced at Lamia, her lavender eyes unfathomable. "In all those myths and folktales of spirits, the fey, and ancient gods and goddess, the humans in them rarely come out unscathed. Perhaps... " Rebekka shrugged one slender shoulder, leaving the rest of the thought unsaid: ...after developing the technology to even the scales, some feel justified in their actions, and it's the mutants of today who have to suffer to the sins of the past? She, and many of the others were demanding blood, and she was sure they would have it, one way or another.

Rebekka sighed. She just wanted to live out in the world, free to make her own decisions, and accountable for those decisions, treated for the actions she took and not for what she had been born as. She had few illusions though. Expecting the worst, yet hoping to be surprised, Rebekka glided through the portal, hips swaying side to side.

[Gold]

He rose after a while, still wondering, still thinking. He knew what he would do but not why. That bothered him.

Gold began to head for the portal, tossing his glittering gold hair. The wind kept blowing it in his face.

You can still walk away, he thought, as for the second time running he became one of the last through the portal. This island looks okay. You can learn to fish easy enough. There’ll be plenty of room to make a tree house. Hell, give it six months and a bit of ingenuity, maybe you can play pirate.

He didn’t stop walking though. There were no answers in his head, only questions. Maybe he did feel like he owed David a death or two. What would be so wrong with that? Just so long as he turned him loose afterward.

But would he want to go after a death or two? Would he be able to?

This would attract attention, whatever it was. Lots of it. The governments of the world were going to exhort every resource to bring down this… well, whatever it was, they would want to blow it up with extreme prejudice.

They’ll make a hell of a distraction, Drew. The government’ll just assume you’re with him. They won’t be looking for you elsewhere.

The argument felt convincing, actually. But it was moot, because just as Gold felt himself being convinced by it he stepped through the portal, and, whether he liked it or not, that locked his course in.

[z024]

Lamia couldn't follow the unspoken trail of Rebekka's thoughts, but the sensual young goddess moved off to the portal before she had a chance to ask. Truth be told, Lamia understood enough to know that she was implying some sort of justification for the actions of the humans and didn't care to find out the specifics. She did worry about the traumatized youth's ability to cope with anything startling or frightening on the other side of the sable portal, though, and hurried through to catch up with him. Once on the other side, she sought him out and took his hand again, taking a moment to make sure he was okay and neither in danger or being a danger to anyone else.