Shadow King: Parasite
Feb. 8th, 2008 11:51 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
x-scarletwitch.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsWanda and Amanda approach the breaking part as their research gets them nothing. And then Illyana has more startling news.
The smell of cinnamon was strong in Wanda's office as Amanda reached for another stick without looking up from the laptop. Holding it between her teeth, she reached for her coffee mug, then used the stick to stir it before taking a sip. Ugh, cold. She drank it any way - she needed the caffeine. "Thanks for nothing," she muttered to the screen, closing off a chat window and biting into the cinnamon stick with a certain bitterness. "Why can't this ever be easy," she complained irritably. "Another bust. For all these so-called experts on the astral plane we've got on the books, we're still looking at "no fucking clue" with this."
Wanda shut her cellphone with a sharp motion with her wrist, looking just as frustrated as Amanda. "And even if they do know something? A number of those are going into hiding and refusing to admit that anything is wrong. ~Cowards~." She ran her hands through her hair, a motion that she'd obviously been doing for hours considering her hair was nearly standing up on end. The mug in front of her now had tea but she'd been going back and forth between that and coffee. She was more than a bit wired.
"After that business in England a couple of years ago when Rom got snatched, they're twitchy. I guess I'd be paranoid too after all that witch burning and Inquisition stuff." Amanda stretched her arms above her head, leaning back in the chair, half-eaten stick poking out of her mouth. "I'll keep trying - there's a couple more on the list I haven't gotten to yet 'cause of time zones. And Rom's due to call soon, let us know what she's dug up from her end. I swear, the X geezer is going to have to deep probe every new teacher at this rate - this is what, the fourth one to go evil on them?" Relaxing the stretch, her fingers drummed on the desk. "Bloody no smoking rule."
"It's something of an old tradition," Wanda responded dryly, "why stop now?" Shoving back from the table, she got to her feet and started to pace the length of the room working the kinks out in her back and legs. They'd limited themselves to pretty much only bathroom breaks now, having food and drink brought to them so they wouldn't disrupt their research or their attempts at contacting their, so far, useless list of people. "I am going to wring someone's neck at this point."
"Which tradition? The being paranoid about burning at the stake, or the hiring evil teachers?" Amanda poked at her laptop. "The thing is, magic users are really just tourists to the astral plane. We can't change anything, we just hang around and catch the sights. So there's bugger all about how to operate defensively there. And no-one's really keen on trying - I think a few of them might have gotten a taste of Farouk's beastie."
And throwing a psi against it right now was pretty much a suicide run. "Do we have any other options?" she asked, rubbing the crease between her eyes.
"Besides the one everyone else is heading to Madripoor for? Not a lot. Tho' there's that Indian bloke, the one Strange put us onto? He's got some ideas about how to cushion things once they take Farouk out - something about not frying the brains of the entire world with someone's death throes." Amanda grimaced. "See, this is the shitty part of research. It keeps finding ways of making things worse."
Just one potential inkling of how to get out of this in one piece. Wanda thought for a minute of her friends -- Betsy, in the kitchen with her, staring at the burnt dinner; the arguments with Nathan; a flash of red hair in a hallway; drinks at Harry's for a celebration. Calmly, she reached out and grabbed a glass vase by its neck and threw it against the nearest wall. It shattered in a flash of glass and she stared at the mess. "That was completely unnecessary but I certainly feel a little bit better."
She felt useless. Helpless. And digging through the research to find nearly nothing was not helping.
There was a shimmer around Amanda as she called up her shielding spell by reflex, and she gave Wanda a sheepish grin. "Sorry," she said, and clapped her hands again, canceling the spell. "Startled me." Spinning her chair around, she got up and joined Wanda, looking down at the broken glass. "What we need right now is one of those last-minute breakthroughs we're so good at," she said tiredly. "Maybe you should go take a quick walk, clear your head? I can get this."
Wanda grimaced and nudged the broken shards with her shoe. "Maybe you are right," she sighed. "I hate to take a break but I think I am in --"
It was, then, exactly the right moment for Illyana to fall from the ceiling, having apparently not mastered the transfer from astral plane to anywhere. Picking herself up and wincing, she said breathlessly, "Okay, so, we can't kill that guy. The doctor? From the mansion? What's-his-face. Him. Because it's not him - he's one of the victims - it's something else completely."
"Wait, what?" Amanda asked, mostly to cover up the fact she'd nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden appearance. "You said this thing was attached to him, more than the others, didn't you?"
"Well," Illyana said, "it is. But he's not controlling it." Composing herself, she sighed. "It's kind of like - one of those science things, like birds that live in elephants' ears, or mold, okay? A - a parasite. Or something. Okay?"
At that, Wanda threw her arms over her head in just sheer...whatever. "Amanda, my phone!" she said, holding out a hand for a catch.
The phone was grabbed off the desk and flung at Wanda, with the practice of someone who got to hurl objects at her boss in training on a regular basis. "Just when you think it can't get worse..." the witch complained, and then cut herself off. Just in case the ceiling fell in.
"A pox on you if you finish that," Wanda said dryly, turning her back on the room. Speed dial hit and it was only a few moments before she was rattling off the information to their teammates on the other side of the globe. "Farouk is not behind this, in fact he's a victim, probably one of the first. Think more along the lines of a parasite." She frowned. "Ah, well, no. ...shit, I know. I know. As soon as we have anything more solid, you will be the first to know. Good luck and be careful." She closed the phone with an audible snap and turned around, face impassive. "The original plan still stands until we have something more solid to go on," she explained. "Right now, it is the only plan and until we have something more, it is one they have to follow."
"That's not going to go down well at the school, us offing one of their teachers," Amanda pointed out. "Especially if he's not actually evil."
"He's not," Illyana said emphatically, rubbing a bruise. "What do they mean, it's the only plan? It's a stupid plan. They're just going to make it worse."
Amanda sighed, and looked at the laptop, sitting still open. "It's the only plan they've got. Unless we come up with something better." Pulling her hair back off her face, she tied it back with one of the hair elastics that she kept on her wrist. "Back to the books, then?"
Kill the host, kill the parasite, it whispered in the back of her head. Wanda nodded. "Illyana," she said, looking towards the younger woman, "good job. Let us go fetch Stephen. We have a time limit but we also know something we did not before. I want every scrap of information out there about parasitical entities -- magical or telepathic in nature."
The smell of cinnamon was strong in Wanda's office as Amanda reached for another stick without looking up from the laptop. Holding it between her teeth, she reached for her coffee mug, then used the stick to stir it before taking a sip. Ugh, cold. She drank it any way - she needed the caffeine. "Thanks for nothing," she muttered to the screen, closing off a chat window and biting into the cinnamon stick with a certain bitterness. "Why can't this ever be easy," she complained irritably. "Another bust. For all these so-called experts on the astral plane we've got on the books, we're still looking at "no fucking clue" with this."
Wanda shut her cellphone with a sharp motion with her wrist, looking just as frustrated as Amanda. "And even if they do know something? A number of those are going into hiding and refusing to admit that anything is wrong. ~Cowards~." She ran her hands through her hair, a motion that she'd obviously been doing for hours considering her hair was nearly standing up on end. The mug in front of her now had tea but she'd been going back and forth between that and coffee. She was more than a bit wired.
"After that business in England a couple of years ago when Rom got snatched, they're twitchy. I guess I'd be paranoid too after all that witch burning and Inquisition stuff." Amanda stretched her arms above her head, leaning back in the chair, half-eaten stick poking out of her mouth. "I'll keep trying - there's a couple more on the list I haven't gotten to yet 'cause of time zones. And Rom's due to call soon, let us know what she's dug up from her end. I swear, the X geezer is going to have to deep probe every new teacher at this rate - this is what, the fourth one to go evil on them?" Relaxing the stretch, her fingers drummed on the desk. "Bloody no smoking rule."
"It's something of an old tradition," Wanda responded dryly, "why stop now?" Shoving back from the table, she got to her feet and started to pace the length of the room working the kinks out in her back and legs. They'd limited themselves to pretty much only bathroom breaks now, having food and drink brought to them so they wouldn't disrupt their research or their attempts at contacting their, so far, useless list of people. "I am going to wring someone's neck at this point."
"Which tradition? The being paranoid about burning at the stake, or the hiring evil teachers?" Amanda poked at her laptop. "The thing is, magic users are really just tourists to the astral plane. We can't change anything, we just hang around and catch the sights. So there's bugger all about how to operate defensively there. And no-one's really keen on trying - I think a few of them might have gotten a taste of Farouk's beastie."
And throwing a psi against it right now was pretty much a suicide run. "Do we have any other options?" she asked, rubbing the crease between her eyes.
"Besides the one everyone else is heading to Madripoor for? Not a lot. Tho' there's that Indian bloke, the one Strange put us onto? He's got some ideas about how to cushion things once they take Farouk out - something about not frying the brains of the entire world with someone's death throes." Amanda grimaced. "See, this is the shitty part of research. It keeps finding ways of making things worse."
Just one potential inkling of how to get out of this in one piece. Wanda thought for a minute of her friends -- Betsy, in the kitchen with her, staring at the burnt dinner; the arguments with Nathan; a flash of red hair in a hallway; drinks at Harry's for a celebration. Calmly, she reached out and grabbed a glass vase by its neck and threw it against the nearest wall. It shattered in a flash of glass and she stared at the mess. "That was completely unnecessary but I certainly feel a little bit better."
She felt useless. Helpless. And digging through the research to find nearly nothing was not helping.
There was a shimmer around Amanda as she called up her shielding spell by reflex, and she gave Wanda a sheepish grin. "Sorry," she said, and clapped her hands again, canceling the spell. "Startled me." Spinning her chair around, she got up and joined Wanda, looking down at the broken glass. "What we need right now is one of those last-minute breakthroughs we're so good at," she said tiredly. "Maybe you should go take a quick walk, clear your head? I can get this."
Wanda grimaced and nudged the broken shards with her shoe. "Maybe you are right," she sighed. "I hate to take a break but I think I am in --"
It was, then, exactly the right moment for Illyana to fall from the ceiling, having apparently not mastered the transfer from astral plane to anywhere. Picking herself up and wincing, she said breathlessly, "Okay, so, we can't kill that guy. The doctor? From the mansion? What's-his-face. Him. Because it's not him - he's one of the victims - it's something else completely."
"Wait, what?" Amanda asked, mostly to cover up the fact she'd nearly jumped out of her skin at the sudden appearance. "You said this thing was attached to him, more than the others, didn't you?"
"Well," Illyana said, "it is. But he's not controlling it." Composing herself, she sighed. "It's kind of like - one of those science things, like birds that live in elephants' ears, or mold, okay? A - a parasite. Or something. Okay?"
At that, Wanda threw her arms over her head in just sheer...whatever. "Amanda, my phone!" she said, holding out a hand for a catch.
The phone was grabbed off the desk and flung at Wanda, with the practice of someone who got to hurl objects at her boss in training on a regular basis. "Just when you think it can't get worse..." the witch complained, and then cut herself off. Just in case the ceiling fell in.
"A pox on you if you finish that," Wanda said dryly, turning her back on the room. Speed dial hit and it was only a few moments before she was rattling off the information to their teammates on the other side of the globe. "Farouk is not behind this, in fact he's a victim, probably one of the first. Think more along the lines of a parasite." She frowned. "Ah, well, no. ...shit, I know. I know. As soon as we have anything more solid, you will be the first to know. Good luck and be careful." She closed the phone with an audible snap and turned around, face impassive. "The original plan still stands until we have something more solid to go on," she explained. "Right now, it is the only plan and until we have something more, it is one they have to follow."
"That's not going to go down well at the school, us offing one of their teachers," Amanda pointed out. "Especially if he's not actually evil."
"He's not," Illyana said emphatically, rubbing a bruise. "What do they mean, it's the only plan? It's a stupid plan. They're just going to make it worse."
Amanda sighed, and looked at the laptop, sitting still open. "It's the only plan they've got. Unless we come up with something better." Pulling her hair back off her face, she tied it back with one of the hair elastics that she kept on her wrist. "Back to the books, then?"
Kill the host, kill the parasite, it whispered in the back of her head. Wanda nodded. "Illyana," she said, looking towards the younger woman, "good job. Let us go fetch Stephen. We have a time limit but we also know something we did not before. I want every scrap of information out there about parasitical entities -- magical or telepathic in nature."
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 05:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-09 08:14 pm (UTC)