xp_logs | Genosha: The Unwritten Alliance (Reply)

The escapees (Jean-Paul, Artie and Sooraya) find each other in the city, and try to make plans.

The alert meant plenty of soldiers on the ground, but the only air traffic that Jean-Paul had seen was a slow moving helicopter that was reporting on a freeway accident and a private plane that went by for the west, towards mainland Africa. Fortunately, neither noticed the man zipping about at high speeds in the sky.

Jean-Paul maintained an altitude high enough to keep them from being readily identifiable from the ground and kept an eye out for any other aircraft that might show up as he tried to find somewhere safe for Artie. Finally finding a building that seemed high enough and had no apparently rooftop access save a ladder connected to a rickety fire escape, the Quebecois landed and put the younger man down. "I will need to go back to see if any others escaped, oui? You will be safe here for a short time - only watch the ladder there to make sure no one climbs up. I will be back quickly."

Artie nodded. "fuck. okay. i'll hide. you won't see me." He settled down against the side of the building's lift tower and began to lay a layer of illusion over himself, matching the surroundings. It occurred to him that, Annalee aside, his time with the Morlocks had been well spent. He might not be able to fight but hell, he could hide.

Sooraya quickly moved in the direction of the alley. She didn't have any idea of where to go next, but at least she was free from the place she had been in. Once in the alley, safely out sight, she paused for a few moments. She didn't resume human form yet, but she needed to make some kind of plan. The first thing she needed to do was to get some clothing, as she could not wander around naked through the city.

Not having gone back to the mansion very often, Jean-Paul wasn't entirely sure what he should be looking for when it came to powers use, but a miniature sand storm in the middle of a city in a tropical area seemed suspicious. Tugging at the collar of the uniform he still wore, he followed the sand into an alley and watched from above as it paused. Definitely sentient, then. Dropping lightly from the roof of the building where he crouched to the ground of the alley, the Quebecois held his hands out before him in the universal sign for 'I mean no harm' and said, "I am Jean-Paul. I am from the mansion. We have escaped the facility where they took us. It is not safe here."

The cloud seemed to pause a for a moment before reforming behind a dumpster. Sooraya was kneeling behind it, her face fire engine red and her eyes carefully averted to the ground. She remembered some of her classmates talking about this man. "I am Sooraya... Also from the mansion. Are the only other one who escaped? And do you have a safe place?"

Jean-Paul dug through his memory - he knew this girl from the journals. Devoutly Muslim. If she'd turned up in the facility the same way he had, he could understand why she was hiding behind the dumpster. He kept his eyes trained upward, toward the entrance of the alley in an effort to preserve her modesty. "I was able to bring one other with me. Artie. He is hiding now. Can you follow me to the rooftops - it will be safer to travel there. We will find a safer place as quickly as possible."

"Yes, I can follow you." Sooraya gave a quick nod and dissolved back into sand, a faint sense of relief in the back of her mind. She followed Jean-Paul back to the rooftops, staying close behind, but with enough distance that she would not sting him.

"Merci," Jean-Paul murmured, staying low on the roofs as they moved back in the direction that he'd come from. Laundry hung from lines strung between buildings and the Quebecois paused long enough to steal several things at intervals. He and Artie would need a change of clothing, since the uniforms would probably be useless after a certain point, and Sooraya would need something to cover her properly so she could be comfortable.

After several buildings, a slight turn to the west, and another stop to pick up something that looked a little like a pashmina, Jean-Paul led her up to the roof where he'd left Artie. Turning, he said to her, "The small building there, we will turn our backs so you can dress." He put the clothing he'd collected near the corner of the maintenance shed he'd indicated and then turned to Artie and gestured for the boy to turn around with him.

Artie dropped his illusions as the others arrived (they'd come back. Thank God) and followed Jean-Paul's instructions.

Sooraya quickly returned to her human form and gratefully picked up the clothing. She shook it out and was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be two larger pieces of cloth. One she quickly wrapped around her, much like a Roman toga, the other she draped around her head and shoulders. "Done!" She piped up shyly.

Turning back around, Jean-Paul nodding toward Sooraya and motioned her forward. He was sure she and Artie knew one another already, so he didn't bother with introductions. "Did you see any others who escaped also?"

The young Afghani shook her head. "I don't know... There was a lot of fighting going on when I left through the ventilation system. I had very little chance to see anything. I think the chance is very small though..."

"i didn't see much either. jp gabbed me and we just ran," Artie said, keeping it short and simple.

"Oui," Jean-Paul said, nodding slowly. It was highly unlikely that many of the others had managed to escape and so what they needed to do for the moment was to retreat and regroup. That, of course, would involve finding out just where, exactly, they were. He could guess it most certainly had something to do with the rally, but beyond that... well. There were few possibilities. And this, he supposed, had just become an international incident of sorts.

Raising his hands, the Quebecois rubbed at his eyes for a moment and then said, "We need to learn things before we can act." He wasn't cut out for this sort of thing, not leading a pair of young people through hostile territory. This wasn't what he did. He ran. He avoided. He usually fucked things up quite spectacularly. But he couldn't think about that for the moment because neither Artie nor Sooraya knew that about him - he had to keep it together. "Someone will come for us, of course. It is only a matter of hiding until we know what has happened, why we have been taken. I do not know where we are, but I think we may find somewhere in the city to stay unnoticed."

"Not mention some food or water." Sooraya look out over the rooftops that were spread out before her. "But what would be the best place to go? I am suspecting we are in Genosha, but where I am not completely sure of."

"i saw some dumpsters. they're probably claimed but that's food if we can find the good 1s. gross food bc its hot but its still food. the morlocks taught me to do money scams too and i don't always mess those up," Artie offered. "you know, pay for gum with a small bill that looks like a lrg 1. u get 2 keep the change."

"This is not a bad thought," Jean-Paul said, nodding slowly. "Can you mimic the money they use here? I am not even sure what it is. The dumpsters, they might be best for now. I am certain I can at least steal us water, if necessary." With a very small quirk of his lips, he said, "It is a perk of being very fast. Not so important most times, but now, I think perhaps it is so. We must move quickly. Farther from the facility. There are patrols on the streets - we are not the only ones looking for others who escaped."

"Let us go." Sooraya had turned back to them. "If we go to the poorer parts of the city, there should be an abandoned building or shack where we can hide ourselves..."

"Oui," Jean-Paul agreed, nodding. Now that they had a vague sort of plan, he felt a little more comfortable. Hiding in shady areas of cities? He could most certainly manage that.