xp_logs | Sound of Silence - Isolation: Forge and Crystal

Forge notices Crystal as she attempts to leave the palace late at night.

Attilan Date: August 9, 2009

The vast foyer of the royal palace was as quiet as a sepulchre in the early morning hours, devoid of the usual subdued chatter from government officials or citizens seeking an audience. Even the Royal Guards on sentry duty went about their business in silence, soft boots nearly soundless on the marble floor.

Down a side hall however, the muted squeak-click of an irregular gait could be heard echoing off the walls. Forge passed through into the foyer and nodded to the guards on duty. The badge he wore gave him free reign of most of the palace at any time, a boon from the royals to cater to his odd working hours. While he couldn't just waltz into restricted areas like the royal chambers or the government offices, most of the palace's staff had become accustomed to the young inventor's presence in the night hours, stopping by the massive pantry or the guardhouse to share a cup of coffee or a quick game of cards before returning to his work.

Tonight, though, Forge had noticed that he was not the only person moving around in the palace at an unusual hour, and this piqued his curiosity above all else.

Crystal glanced up at the sound of Forge's entry into the large room. Maybe he hadn't noticed her... no, surely he'd noticed her. There weren't enough people in the palace who were awake at this hour, especially in the foyer, for him not to have seen her. Stay calm. He does not know. You will be fine.

"Hello, Forge," she greeted him with a smile. "Are you up late or up early?"

"Late for me. Quite early for you," Forge responded with a small nod of his head. While Crystal was by no means a late sleeper, this far before dawn was definitely not her usual hours, and she certainly didn't appear to have just been roused from sleep. Then again, he thought, she could probably wake up from a plane crash and still have every hair in place.

"What's got you running around so early, then?" he asked, taking particular note of how Crystal was dressed.

"I am going out for a flight," Crystal said. A long flight. Quite possibly a very, very long flight. While what she had just said was true, it wasn't anything close to the entire truth, and Crystal didn't like that. It was one thing to slip out unnoticed, another thing to lie about it. Perhaps, though, this would be a good opportunity to ensure that someone in the palace knew that she was truly leaving on her own.

"At... quarter past three?" Forge looked down at the liquid crystal display flowing across his hand. "It's a dark night. Not that you're liable to have any mid-air collisions, but if anything were to happen to you... hey, you want some company? I could go grab the suit and glide along if you're looking to just get some stress out and vent. I know it helps me to have someone to talk to from time to time."

Forge in his flying squirrel outfit. Just what she needed to avoid unwanted attention. Of course, she could let him go off to get the suit and slip away while he was doing that, but that idea didn't sit right with her. Maybe this work out better, though.

"Yes, go get your suit, and then we can talk. I will wait for you outside."

It took Forge around ten minutes to return, a large duffle bag in one hand and a smile on his face. "Come on, we can take off from the courtyard. Less folks walking around at this hour, they usually stay on the exterior entrances. No use giving one of the guards a coronary, right?"

"No use at all," Crystal agreed, walking next to Forge as they headed toward the courtyard. There'd be enough of a fuss later on, there was no need for any sort of a big dramatic scene now.

The courtyard was only slightly less silent than the palacee, the ambient noise from the ocean and the low thrum of the tidal generators along the coast barely wafting over the palace's high walls. Forge chuckled to himself as he slid a pair of goggles over his eyes and hooked his wrists through the sleeves of the glider suit. "This feels like sneaking out past curfew," he confessed.

"Curfew?" Crystal glanced at Forge, amused by both his words and his outfit. "You do not have a curfew. You are not doing anything wrong."

"I note that you say that I'm not doing anything wrong," Forge replied. "You might be a princess of Attilan, but you've got a horrible poker face. Now that we've got a bit of privacy, you mind telling me what this is all about? A spur of the moment flight at three in the morning's a bit odd, even for you."

"I do not lie," Crystal said, giving Forge a slight glare. "I do not always say everything that is on my mind, true, but some things should not be said. Do you or do you not want to fly? It would be rather silly for you to be dressed like that if you do not intend to become airborne."

Forge arched an eyebrow. "We don't all have the figure for yellow spandex," he teased as he shook out the extra fabric of the costume. "Ready when you are."

The idea of Forge wearing an outfit made of yellow spandex was a truly horrifying thought, although Crystal was fairly certain that there was at least one person who would disagree with that. Crystal lifted herself up into the air, Forge quickly following.

As with the other times he'd found himself lofted on Crystal's winds, Forge expected his stomach to drop to his feet, but their ascent was smoother than any elevator, and faster as well. The goggles flashed, displaying data on the thermal updrafts, windspeed, air pressure -but all of that was just numbers and secondary to the fact that for the moment, he was flying.

Technically you're gliding, he reminded himself as he saw the palace grounds grow smaller beneath them. Without any visible lights or contrasting colors, he and Crystal would be effectively unnoticeable in the air unless they passed directly in front of the sliver of moon hanging in the sky.

Feeling the air billow under the fabric of the suit, Forge spread his arms and let the thermal carry him in a lazy spiral. "So," he said, voice pitched to carry over to Crystal, "you want to tell me what this is really about?"

"I am leaving the palace and going to search for my cousin to see if he knows anything about how and why we came to be here," Crystal replied matter-of-factly. "This was not part of his plan, that I know, but I also believe that he is glad it happened or else he would have made some sort of a fuss. Perhaps he also possesses information about what happened."

Forge pondered that for a while, then did a slow double-take. "The King wouldn't... wait, Maximus? The King's brother? I thought he was declared missing after the plane crash. He's got a plan?"

Tucking one arm to his side, Forge dipped through one side of the thermal to rise up on the other, gliding closer to Crystal. "And if... and if Prince Maximus had some kind of plan... you're saying that he was behind the crash? And you knew about it?"

"He is missing," Crystal retorted. "We do not know where he is, therefore his whereabouts are unknown." She looked away for a moment, steeling herself to state what had happened, to vocalize the events she had done her best to avoid discussing or thinking about for two years. "Yes, Forge, he had a plan and I knew about it. In fact, I was the plan, or at least part of it. He used me to take down the plane. He tricked me into dropping all of my shielding to my thoughts away from telepaths and then he possessed me. First, just my mind, and then both my mind and body."

Shocked, Forge almost let himself glide out of the thermal, managing to recover and change direction, using a small back-and-forth motion to hover in front of Crystal. He wasn't exactly sure what to say to that - to someone who had been used by a madman for evil purposes and wanted to make things right.

And suddenly, it was clear what he needed to do.

"We'll need to think up a reason why you're not at the palace. If the King - hell, if your sister the Queen gets any inkling that you're going after Maximus, they'll have the Royal Guard out combing every inch of the island for you. And if they're doing that, then no one's protecting them." He paused a moment for thought. "Research, that's it. This isolation has changed the weather patterns somewhat, and who better to accompany a research team than the woman who knows air and water patterns better than anyone on the island? I can backdate some travel and equipment orders and conveniently 'lose' them under the piles of bureaucratic paperwork in the palace. How much time are you going to need?"

"I do not like lying," Crystal said, "but I also knew that I could not tell Medusa or Blackagar what I have planned which I why I just decided to leave. School does not start for another month, and there are no students requiring my immediate attention. Karnak is working with the few students who are of immediate concern. I hope that I will be able to return before the start of the school year; it would be harder to explain my disappearance while school is in session."

"You worry about Maximus," Forge insisted, "I'll cover for you and give you that month. But what are you going to do when you find him?"

"That is my concern," Crystal told Forge. "He will not catch me unawares, not a second time."

"If you..." Forge looked away, unsure of what to say. If he had the chance to confront Magneto after he'd been kidnapped and used to create the Neutralizer, he wasn't sure what he would have done. And here Crystal was, who had actually been used as a weapon against her will. Like Kyle and Marius and Jennie.

Like hell anyone gets away with using my friends like that ever again, Forge swore silently.

"You do whatever it takes," he said, steel in his voice. "You'll have your month. But when that passes, you'd best believe I'll move heaven and earth to come get you, and if he's done anything..."

"If he's done something what?" Crystal asked, frowning slightly. "I will not allow him to gain control of me again, and if something happens to me in the process there will not be anything you can do to change that. I will only hope that he will not remain loose to cause harm to anyone else. The country and its people should not suffer any more because of us."

"With your shield or on it, huh?" Forge smiled. "You sound like Mr. D.. like Nathan. Look, it's going to be dawn in a few hours, and you ought to stay to the ground if you don't want someone to spot you. If you need anything, you can get a message to me through the Castellanos." He looked Crystal directly in the eyes. "You go do what you need to do. I'll go orchestrate the diversion." He chuckled despite the gravity of the situation. "Wow, my first official government cover-up. I feel like there should be cake."

"I will have a special cake made just for you upon my return," Crystal promised Forge, smiling just a bit. "Take care of yourself, Forge."

"And you, Your Highness," Forge replied, without any trace of sarcasm or mockery. "I'll see you in one month."

With a nod, he pushed back away from the spiral of rising air, letting the glider suit slow his descent and parachute him down towards the palace.

Crystal watched for a moment, then headed off, away from her home and into the unknown.