ReGrouping for the Next Step - Brotherhood
Since Loza has gone MIA…*Pats her virus infected computer and glares at possible social life she’s developing which additionally may be keeping her away*… I suggest we leap ahead! …*Prepares to leap ahead and catch up with the other teams*…*tumbles over the next few hours* Sorry for the short post, wasn’t at all sure what to put…but figured someone needed to start things off!
Traps were set, and it was just midday. Solo missions where so much more… peaceful. The shape shifter had effortlessly climbed the face of the cliff, a set of wings enabling her to travel easily and powerful clawed hands with long strong arms letting her scale the mountain and set her traps smoothly and effectively. Now she was at the base, waiting for the others to return from their… social walks. At least that’s what Phoebe thought rather bitterly, and most likely it was the case. Being the daughter of two powerfully ranked mutants meant that such dawdling was not only forbidden, but punishments had always been extreme. Magneto learning early on that threatening her with expulsion from his side, from his family, from him in general was something that cut deeper then any beating ever would.
Luckily, however, Phoebe proved to be someone both her parents could count on. Not that the trauma of her parents carrying out with any of the threats they made wasn’t still effecting the electric shapeshifter, if anything she pushed herself to the extremes and beyond in her past missions and her disdain for buffoons sprang from the fear her team will let her down and it would be her that gets the blunt end of the disappointment from her esteemed parents.
At the moment the young Darkholm had returned to her natural appearance, the blue hued skin and flaming red hair standing out rather strikingly so against the greenery and rocks around her. Golden eyes stared dismally ahead of her into oblivion. Yuriko, Shauna… they showed good initiative, the others? Pah. What kind of miracles did her mother thing she could prefer in order to turn THEM into something resembling soldiers of perfection? The only perfection she could see coming from them was the art of idle chitchat and sexual tendencies. Not that the last one didn’t have it’s perks but Phoebe hardly cared to have her group filled with worthless garbage like that. Perhaps if they were on another team the young woman wouldn’t be too overly peeved over Mareesa’s flaunting.
(OOC: Uck.. sorry for the looong wait XD Gonna assume some things here so, Frank, please tell me if there’re things you want to have altered! Otherwise feel free to move’em to the meeting point and report and such *looks about lazily*)
It hadn’t been overly difficult a thing for Mareesa to convince her dark-skinned team mate to take the bag with him. After all, so her point, Mystique was known to plan things rather thoroughly and so, if equipping them with something, chances were they’d be needing it sooner or later. Not that the Drama Queen was an expert when it came to those mutant teams, their leaders and members, quite the contrary, but the grudging respect she was paying the older shapeshifter was – in this case - making up for the lack of factual knowledge.
To get him to set up traps, however, had been a totally different, unlikely more difficult matter. To her, fairness was a myth; a stupid, self-deceiving lie like loyalty or love. In the end, nobody asked where you got something from, how you had it acquired it. All that counted was the result, not the way there, so why bother with insignificant details? Yet of course she couldn’t be as harsh as to bluntly burst his bubbles, not if she wanted to get along with him… and maybe more. For a moment, Mareesa had considered playing the feeble female, unable to protect herself and thus needing to resort to such methods but the realisation that this could only be of disadvantage on the long run made her discard the idea quickly.
What had made him change his mind in the end, the showgirl by family tradition wasn’t entirely certain about. Pointing out their status of being completely outnumbered, the additional advantage they needed to make up for this insane budget their opponents had from who-knows-where and the fact that they had to have something they could claim to have done when reporting to their leader – none of her arguments had been uttered in a pleading way but rather matter-of-factly. She wasn’t beneath D.K. or anyone else for that matter, something she tended to make clear right from the start and had also come across when mentioning their status report as one of her points. It wasn’t like she feared Phoebe, certainly not, but there was this thin line between bravery and stupidity which she didn’t intend to cross. After all, what point was there in drawing the Darkholme’s wrath onto them if they could as well do as asked… which would also be more entertaining than waiting for the two hours to pass.
Naturally, the thought of spending this time in a differently amusing way had crossed her mind but as much as favoured the idea over what their task, it would also have been an incredibly dumb think to do. This island was full of potential enemies. Not that she personally disliked or even knew any of them but their opposing affiliations made this unnecessary anyway and even if they were the best of friends – who would want to be interrupted by them, or by anyone at all? No, making traps it had been and although she knew close to nothing about that pastime, the Drama Queen was rather sure that they had done a satisfactory job. The hard manual work had naturally been done by Alfonse… playing with dirt was just not her style, but covering the traps, disguising them, thinking of ways to ensnare potential victims – those were things Mareesa had done quite voluntarily and seemed to even have some talent for. Well, there had to be some use to a life of playing pretence, right?
A glance at her wristwatch – one that had been as expensive as it was inappropriate that far off from New York’s upper East Side – confirmed her feeling that they had been spending enough time contributing their share to the X-Men’s troubles for the time being. ”Guess our fearless leader is already awaiting us,” she remarked with a slightly cynical tone in her voice. The whole team aspect was still feeling strange to her and chances were that wouldn’t change all that soon. It was a bit of a pity really, having to make their way to the meeting point just then. Simple delight, indeed, but still watching the other work - muscles tense, dark skin glistering of sweat – had made it worthwhile. It seemed he was used to physical labour rather than think-work and Mareesa, wearing an enigmatic smile that told little of what she was thinking, couldn’t help but wonder whether he was as enduring in all regards – a question she was quite determined to find the answer to.
"Meh, and that's what you call an impressive entrance? Ridiculous, leave the stage to the Queen!"
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - Brotherhood
So their partnership didn't turn hot and heavy the way it had occurred in his mind. Alfonse hadn't expected it too and he was in a way glad it didn't. He'd already decided something would happen between the two of them, leaving "when" to be the only question to be answered. He enjoyed the foreplay, the dance they would do around their intentions while drawing closer steadily closer to fulfilling them. Back on the block women weren't expected to be uptight and conservative, but it was this ritual that kept them from being labeled 'sluts' while they had their fun. A girl that did the dance was respectable and so far Mareesa had managed to play the respectable part, if not dress it.
Their venture had begun dubiously, it quickly becoming evident that they stood on opposite sides of the "traps" issue. She'd only been able to convince him to sabotage the landscape after laying down a thorough argument. Pleasing Phoebe was something he couldn't care less about. She didn't look to be any sort of threat and thanks to Mareesa he wouldn't be needing any arm-candy. Survival, however, struck the proper note. Yeah, when his gang went up against another in a turf scuffle they'd do it face-to-face. Any gang that didn't really didn't get respect from the others. But once you were brawling, it was no holds barred. If you thought you needed to throw mud in your opponent's face, if you had the chance to kick a man while he was down, if you were presented the opportunity to aim low to win, you did it all. Repeatedly. Listening to the little blonde compare the teams, it seemed as though they wouldn't be able to pull any punches. Trying to excuse the still cheap act, Dekay reasoned that they were already on the X-Men's turf. Therefore, they'd already started something.
Alfonse did most of the grunt work. Digging, moving dead wood, whatever was necessary to make a good trap. He let Mareesa invent most of the snares, in part so he could focus on the labor, mostly because she seemed to know what she was doing. Some of the equipment Mystique had packed even came in handy. It felt good to just let himself fall headlong into hard work. He'd taken it easy the past few months, hardly even bothering to lift weights. Now he could feel the sweat run down the back of his neck and the tension across his shoulders as he muscled a large rock out of their way. Showing off always makes a fella feel good and that's just what he was doing. All the movement got his systems pumping too, seeming to help clear his hangover up quickly. By the time they'd finished, he felt mildly enthused. Things were looking up between he and his partner, he was energized and looking forward to the next task, whatever it might be.
”Guess our fearless leader is already awaiting us." Mareesa lead the way. Not only was it practical for Alfonse to follow behind her, but it afforded him a hell of a view as well. Maybe they'd be done dancing around by tonight...? Again, he couldn't decide whether he really wanted that or if he'd prefer to draw it out. If he moved too fast it might blow his chances. Something to think about until he was given a new job, at least.
The duo was preceded by rustling of the foliage. Mareesa, as close to immaculate as one could be after hours roughing it, and Alfonse, dirty and sweaty, their remaining tools slung over his shoulder. There was a notable amount more swagger in his step and awareness in his eyes, a telltale sign of his improved condition and spirit. The bag would be tossed to Phoebe's feet with a lopsided grin and a rising nod, his head ticking back quickly as though he were pointing with his chin. They'd gotten some work done and he was proud of it.
"We got... that area there... all set up." D.K. turned and wagged his finger in the general direction they'd come from. "Plenty o' nice surprises should anyone come that way." Would Phoebe be satisfied? He got the impression that she didn't expect much from him or his cohort, so he saw their hard work as a bit of a victory. The shapeshifter had underestimated them, now maybe she'd shut up for a while. If not, Alfonse was debating whether popping her in the jaw would be worth it. Probably not, considering she was Mommy's lil girl, but it was a nice thought. Swiping the back of his forearm across his brow, the beefy mutant glanced around.
"We ain't the first ones here, are we?" He twisted to look at Mareesa. "We had time to set another one up yet!"
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - Brotherhood"We ain't the first ones here, are we? We had time to set another one up yet!" D.K's distinctive voice could be heard a good distance away as Yuriko and Shauna approached the meeting point. When everyone else had gone off to do there part of the mission the two women ahd just stayed where they had been to do their work, they did not need to move position and so it meant they could get straight to work.
Yuriko had soon found that Shauna had a good eye for spotting weaknesses amoung people, her ability to study the list was impressive, just another thing that made the asian woman see just why the younger one had been assigned a position on the team. To be fair most of the members seemed like they had been just thrown together because they were available in the headquarters at the time and not because of there skills, but Shauna seemed to be proving herself well, more than could be said for the others anyway.
Deathstrike had decided to try and let Shauna do some of the distinguishing of stronger and weaker teams, she felt the younger woman would get something out of it, but she had made sure to point out where she was going wrong, when Yuriko met someone she liked, someone she could help and teach, she could be a hard taskmaster. The initial scan of the teams meant singling out the team leaders, teams that were being led by one of the original X-Men would obviously have an advantage and so they should not be the initial targets, this cut the list down quickly by roughly half. From then on it meat locating the team that the brotherhoods ragtag group should be able to over power; one thing they often did have on their side was age.
"Mr D.K.," Yuriko said as she approached, "It seems you and Mareesa are here at the correct time, I'm sure I heard the unstealthy babble of the rest of this 'team'." Yuriko used the word in it's weakest sense, and made a point of showing it with a sharp grin. She was sure that Phoebe would understand her slight annoyance at the current teams disposition to the mission. The older woman took a couple of steps past the other team members, shadowed by Shauna and passed her palm top device over to Phoebe;
"Shauna and I have completed the task assigned, on the screen you will see a list of our best target group; they are known in the Institute as the Exiles. We felt it best to exclude the teams with original X-men as leaders to begin with, if all goes well against this 'lesser' team then we can use them to bring the others attention." Yuriko stood semi rigid as she reported her tasks findings to the younger woman and leader of the team. "Below is a further list in decending order of the next more vunerable teams, all factors have been taken into consideration: members, leader, area excetera."
Yuriko hid her feelings of pleasure at a job well done, she did not like smugness and would never allow such an emotion to show in her, she was a business woman, a strong woman, a deadly woman, but never a smug or arrogant woman! She sideways glanced at Shauna and nodded slightly to show her that she had done well and then turned back to the other team members and smiled with a steely gaze, her eyes falling on D.K, once again noting the younger mans ruggardness, it had been a long time since Yuriko had been in close contact with a man; at least while she had been under her own influence.
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - Brotherhood
To feel the world stand still around him as he disobeyed all laws of time was a feeling like no other. It reeked of freedom and that was what Clark Kent had been after when he had left Smallville. Sure there was emotional turmoil and a fear of hurting the ones he loved in there and that perhaps had been his original motivation but it was freedom that had kept him here. Freedom and power.
His speed was, on this particular mission, a true gift and Kal-El was finished and back to the camp site fairly quickly although he had had to be careful not to run astray of any of the pathetic X-men who were surely here on the island on their precious training mission. Who trained amongst themselves and why do so when they could be actually making an impact for good or ill on people? It baffled the former farmboy completely and he was glad he hadn't run into any of them. Kal was also secretly relieved that his path hadn't ventured into that of any animal. Sure he could have handled it but why waste strength on something like an animal, any sort of animal? While Clark Kent had always liked animals and had wanted a dog when younger Kal-El wanted only what bettered him and pets weren't on the list.
While his traps had been set up fairly accurately and in good time Kal didn't stop to think sometimes as Clark always had. He felt that thinking was a waste of time and that if one thought too much it would detract from the fun in life. There was also the danger that if he began to think too much then the urge would rise again and that red gem he wore would seem to call to him and then to scream at him to take it off. The last thing he wanted to happen was to let weakness and Clark overtake him here when it was important.
He realised a few seconds too late that it was time for the times to meet up once again and sped back to the meeting point as quickly as he was able, meaning that it took him a matter of seconds to return to their area. Kal's arrival was one out of thin air for he didn't take the time as he might have to stop before the area and to walk back. On the otherhand he hadn't exactly kept his powers a secret, happy to flaunt his alien abilities whenever it served him to do so.
"I'm done," the Kryptonian announced unneccessarily, particularly since he had covered a fair area of the island although he had been careful not to intrude too much. Glancing around he could see that D.K. and Mareesa were back yet neither one of them looked particulary...satisfied for lack of a better term. Kal figured they had actually done their jobs instead of giving in to temptation and that was something to be proud of to a certain extent. Also there were the blue-skinned leader and Yuriko, neither one looking pleased at the Brotherhood members assembled thus far.
Victoria arrived a few minutes later and although she still held beauty the poison mutant looked tired from her trek and dirt was upon her hands and other parts of her body. She looked disgusted at this momentarily but shook the feeling off. Jason wasn't here to see her anyway and there was no one she was trying to impress by her looks so however dismal she may have appeared at that moment didn't matter so much. Victoria had had a few more problems than the others with her traps but aside from some complainning out loud and the occational curse she had been diligent in her work and had done what she could. Besides if the earlier words were anything to go on her task was yet to come for she was to poison the stronger members of one X-men Team and that in itself might just make up for the dismal day she had just had.
Stepping boldly forward someone and assuming the commanding air she knew would result in many calling her, and perhaps rightfully so, a snob Victoria spoke aloud with her comments directed towards Yuriko mainly. "Have we determined which teams we are to attack and which members of the teams I'm suposed to poison?" While the question may have showed some initiative and interest it also made her sound disrespectful and haughty, something a part of Victoria knew Phoebe and the others wouldn't care for but it was a part of her and if she was an arrogant bitch than that's what she was and she wasn't about to change for some blue skinned woman who called herself a leader.
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - BrotherhoodOOC - My first post back! Yeah, not that exciting but meh! Also, some, well most, was done a while ago so I just added more to fit everything else in, so excuse me if it seems... uh... weird!
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Yuriko had a list of the teams, a perfect possession for the Brotherhood at this stage. Now all Shauna and her had to do was pick out the teams to pay a pleasant surprise on.
The green-skinned mutant frowned when her eyes laid on the list at the sudden realisation that she barely knew a thing about the members of the x-teams. Though, there were some names on the lists that were familiar to her. Sean Summers, Connor Enright, Madison Enright and even Anna Drake, weren’t they all related to older X-Men? And if they had been raised under them they would surely be powerful. However, the rest of the list were merely useless names to Shauna’s brown eyes.
If she had of been alone she would have slapped her hand across her forehead while she muttered curses to herself. Only if she had of been alone. Never did she want someone to see her telling herself off for her stupidity. She wanted to be seen as someone reliable, and that didn’t quite work when you had a fight with yourself. Though, if she had of done it now she couldn’t be blamed. She had been under the Brotherhood for some time now, she should have done her research on the opposition.
Shauna knew that a team had to be chosen. Her eyes flickered over the rainbow of team names, and she shook her head. Gold, Silver and Bronze Strike Forces? Had they all competed in the Olympics and placed in teams according to their placings? At least ‘Exiles’ sounded half decent.
Come to think of it, Exiles. The name didn’t sound like it gave the team any favours, didn’t make the team sound too strong. Perhaps this team could be somewhere to start. If Exiles were a bunch of, well, exiles then they shouldn’t prove to be much trouble. They could wipe them out easy, gain a bit of confidence if anyone held any doubts and move onto the next poor team.
It made sense in Shauna’s mind. You can’t jump in the deep end too quickly with this sort of thing. If they started with the strongest team first it would be harder than the weaker ones, take more time. There wasn’t time to waste time, so they had to find a faster route. That just happened to be starting from the bottom of the food chain, and if this Exiles group happened to be the bottom then that was their starting point.
A small discussion with the older mutant, with some assistance for Shauna since she was still green (so no pun intended) in a sense that she had yet to face a tough assignment, and it was settled. Their task was done, now they had to inform Victoria on who were the strongest so she could poison them. Yuriko mentioned a name or two, but they seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Not normal of Shauna, but she just wanted to finally meet the X-Men for the first time.
While the two mutants began to make their way to the north side of the mountain base, Shauna played around with a couple of traps while they walked, hands well trained set them quickly before she placed them in cover for the x-fools to stumble across. Her arms were her weapons, so Shauna hadn’t weighed herself down with weapons. Guns only ruined fun, though they had proved useful for distances in the past. Some weapons such as blades were fun to use but Shauna preferred the more hands on approach. After all, she could always slow time around her for help if she ever needed it, or speed it up for her opponent to freak them out for fun.
As the names had long left the time manipulating mutant’s head, it was up to Yuriko to let Victoria know who to attack as the approached their meeting spot. Thoughts wondered over the other members, had anything productive happened over the past hour and a half? She guessed that the only thing to do now was wait until everyone showed at their meeting place, Phoebe was already there, she would have done a lot with her time. As was Mareesa and D.K. However, she barely knew the others, except for Victoria and while an amount of friendliness was shown to her because the two girls were on the same side – against Jason – Shauna didn’t know her well enough to know if she would have been useful setting up traps.
"Shauna and I have completed the task assigned, on the screen you will see a list of our best target group; they are known in the Institute as the Exiles. We felt it best to exclude the teams with original X-men as leaders to begin with, if all goes well against this 'lesser' team then we can use them to bring the others attention." As Yuriko spoke to Phoebe, there was a slight nervousness about Shauna. It felt rather odd since Shauna was normally too focused on the situation at hand to even think about being nervous, or anything else for a matter of fact. Shauna didn’t want to be blamed if this team failed. Wait. How could she even think about them failing? Again was another moment she wanted to slap herself. Instead, with her hand in a ball she dug her nails into her skin. She tried her best not to show it, but it could have been seen by someone if they were looking for it.
However, calmness soon took over as Yuriko gave her a nod. The brief moment of nerves forgotten. You see, Shauna always had either her brother around, and she always worked well with him, or incompetent mutants. Never did she have someone who was like or even above her. Probably just something that caught her off guard.
"Have we determined which teams we are to attack and which members of the teams I'm suposed to poison?" Victoria had asked soon after her arrival. Shauna was not deaf to the poison mutants tone but she chose to let it go. If she got annoyed by her then the two wouldn’t be able to work as a team against Jason.
As the question was directed towards Yuriko Shauna did not have to answer. A good thing considering she would make a fool of herself if she had to, then she might not be able to take it and then she would slap herself.
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - BrotherhoodOOC:
(EVERYONE - unless somebody's desperate to continue here, I suggest we skip ahead and pounce at Exiles now! 'm willing to do the entrance post in combination with my Garnet one which is due anyway *nids* after all, who'd be better for a big entrance then the Drama Queen? Hope that's alright with ya... tell me if it ain't!)
"Why do ah feel so empty without you? Wasn't it mah own choice?"
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - BrotherhoodOOC: Here it is finally... lol. Anyway, no need to respond, I just wanted it in so life made more sense (to me at least lol).
The jaguar ran swiftly beneath the trees, her compact, muscular form broken to the eye by the light that played with the tree’s branches, falling upon her, her spots merging with the changes in the light as she raced. Despite the speed, her paws fell silently as she ran, pads expanding to absorb the impact of her body on the cool earth. Keen feline senses helped her twist and turn through the interlocking trees, jumping the odd fallen tree, her muscles bunched tight and the released with each fluid movement.
She passed close to the Exiles, she knew that, and had sent a silent thought to Garnet, warning her to keep moving ahead as that area was clear, not even making her presence known to the others as she had raced past them. The last thing that group needed was to be told that she had stumbled across another team, or to have a jaguar to suddenly run under their feet.
Feral couldn’t believe she had managed to get so close to that team without realising it. Although it was her duty to make sure the way was clear, that didn’t mean she shouldn’t try and keep her distance from the teams. Her mind pondered over what team it may have been. Her lack of knowledge when it came to the other students was extreme. She had recognised Ben, but that had been all. And even then she had no idea what team he was on, and even if she had, it was highly doubtful that she would be capable of remembering whether that had been a prey or hunter team.
The jaguar snarled softly to herself. The human was allowing these thought to flow through her predator mind, and that annoyed her mildly. She had promised a hunt, and still hadn’t delivered. Racheal herself was doubtful over what might be available to eat upon the island. She had already decided before she had morphed that the like-ality of anything as large as a small deer would not be here, which meant she would have to probably mean she would be forced to kill twice. And therefore take back twice the amount. Oh well, at least the large feline was adapted to hunting large prey, so trekking back a few small beasts would be no hassle.
Another problem which lay with her hunting was the birds. She could hunt them, if needed, but in all honesty she preferred to leave them be. There was little meat to the feathered beasts, and hunting them meant more work. A mammal could easily be skinned, but she hated plucking the feathers from birds. Plus the small, light structures tended to get stuck between her teeth, and when it came to having to morph back, the pressure from the feathers between her teeth caused her actual pain in morphing.
The morphing mutant had hardly slowed her swift race to a trot when the sounds of others reached her ears once more, only just managing to pull herself to a halt before stumbling across the second group. This time, there was less hesitation as she started to turn, silently trying to recognise the faces of those before her. But not a single one jogged a memory. Not that she was surprised. She knew a small handful of students at the institute, and so to her, the fact she didn’t know an entire team wasn’t phasing, and her mind turned to escaping unnoticed. In the midst of attempting to escape unnoticed, trying to recognise them and also calming the hunting instincts of the jaguar, Feral didn’t really hear the part of the conversation which had alerted her to their presence. Otherwise perhaps she would have realised that something was wrong.
Perhaps, if someone had explained to her more fully about the x-men, or more particular their enemies, she would have realised something was wrong. Or, perhaps if she had actually kept her vow and mingled more with the school, she would have seen her fatal mistake. But to her, this invading group were simply a team of students, a group of people she hadn’t met during her three lone-some months. Little did the feral mutant realise that, before she could attempt a second hunt, a new guilt would sweep over her for this mistake.
But for now, she turned, and raced off once more. But this time, unlike when she had run from Green Strike Force, she growled softly to herself in despair. This jaguar was too easily distracted, making it too easy for her to run across these possible hunters. And so, as she ran, her golden, black spotted coat changed swiftly, becoming a deeper brown, the fur it’s self merging as her run became less agile, her body shrinking, her bones shifting and re-shaping as the fur became feathers. The morph itself only took a few moments as she pushed it through, suddenly one moment she was running though the forest, and the next a small, female, UK kestrel appeared, flying low in the trees before finding her height. At least from here she would spot any possible teams.
The kestrel did not fly so high to see the entire island, keeping only just above the tree line, her eyes focused on the ground as her wings spread wide in a soar, catching the very slight thermals which kept her up. The kestrel was silent about it’s displeasure at a forest hunt, it preferred the grass lands. But these would do, it supposed. Slowly now, her eyes trained on any movement below her, Feral made her way back towards the path she knew the Exiles would soon be travelling upon.
"I was wrong, to think that I might belong. But I will never forget what I was... Who I am.. What I did, just to learn that"
Re: ReGrouping for the Next Step - Brotherhood
BEWAAAARE THE BH!
There comes an age when people have to take over responsibility. It remains the question whether there is also a time when they can get rid of it again.
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