Mutants and Molotovs: On A Gray Rainy Morning

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Wanda and Forge talk about cities, and then Wanda realizes that there's something about to be very wrong with the one in which they're standing.


Dumping a few bags on a chair, Wanda stretched, pleased with herself. She hadn't gone far to shop--thank God for shops inside the hotel--in order to get a few odds and ends. Not knowing the plans for the afternoon, she hadn't wanted to wander very far.

Peering around, she soon spotted a familiar figure on the balcony. Ducking her head through the door, she gave him a bright smile. "Enjoying the view, Forge?"

Forge nodded, leaning out over the railing. The humid Seattle air smelled vaguely of salt, a little bit of industrial smoke, the smog from the bumper-to-bumper commuters, and the faint tinge of the evergreen forests beyond the city limits. It definitely wasn't New York or Texas, that much was sure.

"Reminds me of Denver, kind of," he said out loud, gazing across the skyline. "Each city's got its own individuality, though. I mean, they've all got the same parts - businesses, residences, utilities, transportation - but each machine works differently." He turned to Wanda, crossing his ankles and leaning back on the railing, parka zipped up against the early November chill. "I love just looking at it. Big city kid, through and through."

Tugging the door behind her slightly closed, Wanda went and leaned on the railing. "I grew up mostly away from the big cities," she mused, staring at the horizon that was dotted with bits of sky but mostly buildings. "Either in the countryside or in smaller villages. I saw my first big city after I manifested."

She grinned at him. "Moscow is one hell of a shock, let me tell you. I like them, though, the cities. They have a different feel and pace from anything else."

Forge nodded. "They have their own sense of order. Everything in its proper place." He cocked his head, remembering how Wanda had described her power while they were working on the Jeep. "You can see that, can't you? How it all fits together on the big scale?"

Wanda nodded. "In a way, yes. My powers do not lend themselves to the task that yours do. But I can see how the strings lead to one thing or another. It took me years to get the fundamental understanding of what I was doing and what I was seeing." Normally, she'd flicker her powers on to see what she was talking about but there was a...niggling feeling in the back of her head.

Forge nodded, remembering his studies with Moira and his readings on chaos theory. "Butterfly flaps its wings in Seattle, typhoon happens in China. It's a gross exaggeration, but not far from the truth, when you look at the small scale. Probability patterns, causality matrixes, all the way down to universal-scale string theory." He turned back to the city, wondering where everything would start.

"My chaos theory professor at Cambridge would have loved you," she remarked, fidgeting a little bit. Something was off and she didn't know what it was. It felt as if something was rubbing up against the control she had for her powers and it felt raw. "She's how I got the last of the control over my powers, made me go to each of her bloody lessons after she found out what I could do."

"Trial and error, eh?" Forge smiled and nodded. "Seems like an appropriate way to learn. I wonder if..." He turned, noticing the odd look of distraction on Wanda's face. "Hey, are you okay?"

"I...I don't know."

Clenching her hands around the bar that was along the balcony, Wanda took a deep breath and opened her mind to her powers. And she regretted it nearly as quickly as it took to get the strings in her mind.

The blue tinged sky that peeked through the tall city landscape was no more. It had been replaced with vibrant, dark red strings that bled through the city. They stretched everywhere and to places she couldn't see with her physical eye.

Never had Wanda seen so many chaos thread in one place and they blanketed the city. Leaning forward, she pushed her powers, punching through that barrier that she always felt in the back of her mind, trying to see where the center was located. The hex rings cast an eerie red glow over the balcony.

Forge felt weird. Wanda was running her powers full-blast, shining scarlet over the balcony. To be honest, he thought, she looked really creepy.

"Miss Maximoff?" he hesitantly asked, "what's going on?"

"~Not sure~," Wanda responded, clenching her teeth tightly. This hurt and it hurt a lot. It took her a second to realize she hadn't responded in English--it was the first language to go when she was stressed. "I am not sure." Turning to look at him, she took a deep breath. "Get inside, now. Contact Nathan and tell him...tell him something is about to happen."

The smile on her face was a little odd, a little off and very tight. "Tell him the city is about to break."

~*~


Nathan and Jean, out to get a sense of the atmosphere on the streets, see a demonstration turn ugly.


"It is entirely too quiet," Nathan murmured as he and Jean crossed the street. Oh, there were cars, and passers-by, but not as many as there should be in downtown Seattle, especially this week. And there was a strange, subdued feeling to everything. "Calm before the storm? And we should have brought umbrellas."

"Of all the things I'm worried about," Jean said, "rain is not one of them." The few people who were out and about were all moving quickly on their way, the vibe very much one that if they didn't have to be there they wouldn't be.

Nathan sighed. "Never doing a field trip again..." He was thinning out his shields as they walked, trying to get a better sense of the minds around him. "You can always trust the natives to know," he said. "If there's something off. They see it before the tourist does. They always do."

"You do seem to have impressively bad luck with field trips. Or, really, whenever you leave the school." She gave him a look which was equal parts fondness and exasperation. "Maybe we should just confine you to the grounds?" Jean sighed. "The delegates have been getting more and more tense, too. Although, of course, some of them are crowing about how the atmosphere around here just proves their point. Whatever that might happen to be."

"Charming. It's too bad we're not following the schedule for the day just yet. I'd love to be able to show up and glare." Although he had the strong impression that the plan was going to be derailed, in any case.

"I'm not sure who I'd start glaring at, given that the gloating is coming from both sides of the fence." Jean's head turned to track a young man rushing across the street, more than a little fear in his mind.

Nathan's gaze followed the young man. "I'm glad we told the kids to stay in the hotel. Not liking the idea of them wandering around out here just now."

"No, definitely not," Jean agreed. "I know they don't like the waiting, but... There's... It seems like it's just waiting for a spark, and we've got far too many natural tinder boxes with us."

"You have such a talent for vivid mental images, Jean." Nathan stopped, his eyes going wide. "Do you feel that?" he asked sharply, picking up the pace. They were just down the street and around the corner from one of the minor summit sites. There was supposed to be a press conference there this morning, about a new initiative to assist with mutant health issues in the developing world. He'd intended to be there, actually.

The look on her face suggested she had, long legs hurrying down the street at something just shy of a run. "Oh, not good..." she said as the swirl of thought and emotion intensified.

They turned the corner, and looked out onto the scene they'd both been afraid of seeing since their arrival. In front of the hotel, what might have started out as a small crowd demonstrating in advance of the news conference had become something else.

"FoH," Nathan said under his breath.

The only word for it was brawl. It was a relatively small brawl, but it was not going to stay small. Already demonstrators on the edge were being drawn into it. A young woman used her placard to break out of the crowd, running down the street towards them as an angry man chased after her, but with a second's thought his legs were knocked out from under him. "Suddenly, we have a lot fewer options," Jean said.

"Let's get back to the hotel," Nathan said tightly. "This is going to spread." He could feel it, suddenly. He'd been in too many situations like this to be optimistic.

"Agreed," Jean said, worried gaze locked on the fight. "We've got to call the school."