Amanda, Susan, and Namor | Stone Cold (Backdated to April 20)

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Susan and Namor meet with Amanda at Snow Valley to discuss Susan's glowing necklace and next steps.


Namor checked his tie in the elevator for the third time. He had never really considered how long a ten story side could feel, but the weight of all the confusing things that had happened over the past week hung over him like a grumpy, roiling cloud.

It was a good distraction being back in New York. The building that the Snow Valley group had a suitably posh lobby, all glass and chrome and marble. The elevator was likewise mostly expensive, mirrored surfaces, and as Namor fiddled with his coat once again he could see his cohort staring back at him.

"Yes, Miss Storm?" Namor asked politely. He adjusted the file folder under his arm and turned to face her straight-on.

"I don't think I've ever seen you looking this nervous before," the teenager stated with a wry smile, "This was your idea, but if you're starting to have second thoughts we don't have to stay. I mean so far I can't say any of my experiences with magic have ever had a good outcome."

"Elevators are a place for nervousness," he said indignantly. He may have huffed. "One must use what small, private places they can to compose themselves before facing new challenges. Vincit qui se vincit."

"I'd hardly call a public elevator like this small, or you know private," Sue pointed out with a smile, "they probably have a camera or two in the elevator, most offices in the city do these days." You couldn't go anywhere in her dad's building without being watched, well maybe the apartment, but no-one could just wander into it off the street. "Besides, are you really sure you want to call Miss Sefton a challenge? I'm pretty sure she could turn us both into frogs without breaking a sweat, and I enjoy being human just a little bit too much for that," she teased.

For this, she got a quirk of the eyebrows as if Namor didn't know where to start with those statements. "I have had one set of precognitive visions and a magical artifact encounter in the past week and a half. Miss Sefton is meant to be a solution."

And on that, the elevator doors opened.

The solution was waiting for them in the foyer, mostly to avoid the 'fun' of Cammie's particular type of reception meeting Namor's particular type of etiquette. "So, you made it," Amanda said, acknowledging her visitors with a nod and a brief smile. "Welcome to Weird Shite Central."

"It looks so ordinary," Sue commented, clearly crestfallen, as she stepped out of the elevator and looked around the offices. "I kinda expected glowing lights and runes or strange noises echoing around the halls, you know, 'Weird Shite," the teenager stated while grinning at Amanda her personality unable to be kept down for too long.

Namor's nervous attitude from the elevator had evaporated completely, replaced by a cool, professional countenance. "It is always my pleasure to see you, Miss Sefton." This was offered with a warm smile.

Just as quickly, though, that evaporated as he addressed Sue in a controlled deadpan, "Technically we brought the glowing runes with us."

"We keep the things that go bump in the night safely tucked away in the supplies closet," Amanda said with a wry grin. It didn't matter what she said to try and squelch the fascination with magic this batch of students had, they kept bouncing back. She definitely blamed Harry Potter. "Thanks for coming. Come on, let's go to the boardroom before we start looking at runes, glowing or otherwise - there might even be coffee, if we're lucky."

"Just checking for my peace of mind you understand, the boardroom is no where near the supply closet right? Only knowing our luck you'll start the examination and then bam," the teenage girl threw her hands into the air, "the furniture will start attacking us or some demon will posses someone. Magic never seems to work out well for us."

Sue got a reproachful stare from Namor for this comment, followed by a very crisp and businesslike, "We would be delighted to accompany you to the boardroom. We will tackle any new problems as they arise."

"Never fear, there's nothing to worry about here, magical or otherwise, except Cammie's toxic sludge drinks and those are labelled with Angie's cute little skulls and crossbones drawings," Amanda explained, gesturing that they should follow her through the office to the boardroom. "And all the magic's locked up, safe and sound."

There was another business-like nod to this, and Namor gestured subtly with the folder he held as they moved toward the open space of the boardroom. "I have also brought copies of Miss Colbert's images and a rough transcript for future reference of what I was able to record from her prediction. I gravely apologize for any errors for when the newness of the situation outweighed my better judgement."

As he said this, Namor scanned for Sue's reaction. He was not positive if word of Marie-Ange's vision had gotten around the mansion, but he knew that he had not personally discussed it with the other teenager.

"Wait, what predictions?" Sue turned to give Namor a confused look, "Miss Colbert had a prediction about you, about this?" she asked gesturing to the jewelry box she was keeping her pendant in. The blonde had heard about Marie-Ange's predictions, everyone had at some time or the other, but she hadn't been aware that Namor had got one. "What did she say?"

"It was about me and not necessarily about this. She drew two pictures and spoke, but with no clear meaning." His patient tone spiked a little on the last line as if to emphasize the obvious fact that precognition never seemed to be cut and dry.

Namor's gaze drifted to Amanda and he raised the folder questioningly. "Should Miss Storm know about this? It may not be pertinent to the subject of the stone."

"If she's going to pick up jewelry in strange magical caves, she ought to know what she's getting into." Amanda ushered the three of them into the boardroom with its long table and waved to them to take a seat. "Warts and all, as it were."

"You know I didn't exactly just pick it up and decide to take it home," Sue pointed out as she dropped into a chair opposite Amanda as she found her good mood evaporating, "On account of being unconscious and 1/2 dead at that point, it was just the last thing I was holding and it just made it out with me." the blonde shrugged, "I really just kept it cause it saved my life down there, you know a kinda good luck charm."

Namor casually slid the folder over to Susan, his eyes focused on Amanda's. "Susan is correct. She was hit rather hard by the scorpion's venom. The aftermath of the cave incident was very hectic and confused."

"You still picked it up in the first place." Amanda shook her head. "Any way, it's here now and we have to deal with it. Tell me where it was when you grabbed up and what you've noticed about it. Even small stuff, like it being warmer than it should be sometimes, or being heavy or whatever."

"Lying on the floor somewhere," Sue replied coolly, "I really didn't have much time to examine, it one of those scorpion things had shattered my forcefield and I was just trying to find something to block the stinger with." The blonde pushed the box across the table to Amanda, "Trust me if there was anything bigger or sturdier anywhere near me I'd have left it well alone, but it was the closest thing to hand so I just grabbed it and stuck it out infront of the stinger, it managed to deflect the point, for all the good it did me." she noted rubbing her shoulder, "getting fatally poisoned hurts like you wouldn't believe. I think it zapped Tandy at some point, stopped her from using her powers and knocked her off her feet."

"The stone zapped Tandy? Or the scorpion?" Namor countered. He shifted his gaze back to Amanda, "And for the other part of the question, all I know is that it seems to glow around me. It is a cold glow. No heat. However, Susan has had the most exposure to the rock."

"The rock," Sue clarified as she flipped open Namor's folder, "We were looking around and it kinda zapped her and then all the statues come to life," she commented staring down at the papers on the table, the blonde distractedly raised a hand. "See no side effects, I'm not glowing or anything," she told the others flipping her hand around to emphasis her point. "It's just a normal piece of jewelry around me."

Amanda snorted softly at the "normal piece of jewelry" remark and pulled the box closer to herself before carefully lifting the lid. She held her hand above the necklace, closing her eyes and letting her mutant sense for magic open up. "Hmm," she said after a moment. "'S definitely something there. Not much, but..." She opened her eyes again and touched the stone, just barely, with her finger. A small spark appeared. "Yep, magic rock, definitely."

"Well, it is good to have that confirmed." While there wasn't any outright sarcasm in Namor's tone, his patience was clearly wearing thin with the obvious. "Are there any next steps that Susan or I need to take? Any more information you may need?"

"Give me a minute, Your Grace," Amanda replied, more distracted than snarky as she probed the stone's energy signature - she had to admit, with her bonding with cities her ability to fine tune her mutation had suffered. "You said a rune appeared when you touched it, Namor? Can you come over here and do that again? I'd like to see it."

"Chuta para canto," Namor replied casually as he repositioned himself behind Amanda in order to gently tap the the stone. The stone's glow intensified as he drew closer, and as he touched it the odd squiggly rune resolved itself onto the gem's surface.

"And there you are." Amanda frowned, not recognising the rune. "Sue? If you've got your phone handy, can you take a photo of this? Depending of course if it'll let photos be taken. It's not one I know and I'll need Doug to take a look at it."

Sue's phone was in her hand before Amanda had even finished talking, appearing out of no-where, as if it were magic. "Hold it for just a second," she muttered as her fingers pinched at the screen zooming in on the rune, her antipathy lost in the sea of her curiosity. "There," she said triumphantly flicking at the camera button, "got it."

"Great. Namor, stay put a bit longer, I just want to see if there's any specific connection..." Amanda trailled off as she focussed on the stone again, trying to read the energy patterns that were much clearer with Namor's input. Nothing familiar, certainly nothing to do with cities... It was old, that much was certain, and sort of... mechanical? Magic serving a mundane purpose, perhaps? There was a spike of pain across her temples and she involuntarily winced.

Namor did as instructed with a patient, sober smile as Amanda did her thing. He shot Susan an apologetic look — nothing admitting fault, but definitely along the lines of "I owe you dinner after this." This exchange was cut short, however, by Amanda's sudden flinch.

"Are you well, Amanda?" Namor said, attention sharply refocusing.

"Yeah, fine, just pushing a bit harder than I should." Amanda set the necklace back down in the box and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Ugh. Ow." Then she focused again on the task at hand. "So, good news is, there's no curses or black magic or anything."

Sue came around the table leaning against it as she gave Amanda a worried look, glad that Amanda was ok. Aside from being concerned about the older woman Sue was pretty sure Topaz would turn her into a frog if anything happened to Amanda because of her. "Ok, so it's not going to kill me immediately, so that's something" she noted happily, Sue didn't think there had been any chance of that but it was always good to get expert conformation. "So, what's the bad news?"

"Well, the bad news is I haven't the slightest bloody clue what it actually is. It's obviously tied to Namor for some reason, but it's not anything I recognise. I'll have to hit the books and get Doug to do his Babel Fish thing on this run before I'll have a better idea. But I can say it's harmless. Whatever the magic is, it's really old and pretty faint and so not strong enough to actually, you know, transport you to alternate dimensions or turn you into a rock or anything like that."
​
Namor's frown from the elevator resurfaced. There were many distressing landmines in Amanda's last sentence, but he chose to focus on what seemed like the most concrete. "Would you please elaborate on Old?"

"Older than anything else I've seen. I kind of wish Strange was here, 'cause maybe he'd recognise where it's from, but I'm not actually sure he would, since it feels older than most records of magic go. It's a bit like finding a cave painting of a computer, you know?" Amanda groped for the words to explain. "But like I said, it's old enough that any power it has is pretty weak."

"So it's like something you can almost see what it is but can't really understand the how it works or was put together?" Sue asked as she stared down at the pendant, "So if it's just got a very faint magic signature left then it shouldn't be dangerous or anything for me right? So I can keep it?"

"Yeah, that's pretty much it." Amanda hesitated. Logic would demand that she keep the thing, safe and under wraps. But something else, call it instinct, call it her witchy sense, was insisting otherwise. After a slight struggle, she decided. "Yeah, keep it. Just let me know if it does anything new, all right? No matter how minor it seems."

"Right," Sue nodded as she gratefully scooped up the box and snapped the lid shut, "If I feel a tingle or anything I'll let you know right away," the teenager assured Amanda seriously, "Or you know, if I end up growing horns and a tail I'll just end up beating down your door," she continued with a grin her normal good humor reasserting itself. Sue normally didn't believe in luck but the pendant had saved her life and something about keeping it close comforted the blonde.

In terms of rising discomfort, however, Namor's patience was starting to ripple up past what calm he had marshaled for this meeting. He coughed lightly in a closed fist to call attention again his way. "While I can appreciate Miss Storm's safety, I would like to point out that she is not the one making the stone glow. I would like to know what this," and this was emphasized in such a way to encompass artifacts and Old Magic and new magic and babbling precogs and art, "means for me."

"At this point, I hate to say it, but I can't tell you." Amanda sighed wearily. She was not up for royal attitude right now, all of her experience with Manuel's moods notwithstanding. "Magic's not open and shut like that, and until I get that rune translated and do a bit more study about where it might have come from and that cave you lot found it in, I won't be able to give you any of the answers you want. All I can say is, it recognises you for some reason. There's something in you that sets off magical senses — not just the stone's, but mine as well — but I have no idea what that is until I do more research. Which is what I'll be doing, provided the occult world stays nice and quiet for now and we don't wind up with another demon invasion to deal with. Those are kind of distracting."

"Do I need to worry about this?" He hmphed, his tone annoyed. " Am I a threat to the people around me?"

"My necklace is...attracted to you, I'm pretty sure you need to be very worried if I wake up and find it's run away to be with you. I can be a very jealous owner," Sue quipped trying to brighten the mood in the room, "Assuming that stuff like this doesn't just happen one day out of the blue, a this," Sue tapped the box, "is pretty old, then Id say you're ok. You've managed 20 years without it being a problem, I'd assume that's not all gonna change tomorrow."

"You're not a threat. Whatever it is that's in you that triggers stuff like this, it's minor and pretty rare. I mean, I'll have to go to this cave and poke around..." She paused, thinking. "Actually, Namor, you're going to have to come with me on that one. If you ping off this necklace, it's possible you ping off the cave it came from." She grinned briefly. "Consider it a science experiment."

"I don — No. You are correct. Doing anything is much preferable to nothing. Progress." The skepticism in his tone lingered. Namor leaned closer to Amanda, "Although calling magic 'science' may offend Miss Storm." This was delivered in a completely serious deadpan.

"It does, it totally does," Sue concurred matching Namor's deadpan delivery, "Although," the younger blonde flashed the older one a smile, "They do say that sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic so you're doing the same thing I am...only better." Sue grinned, "Just means I'm gonna have to work harder to improve."

"Stick to the robots, kiddo," Amanda replied with a wry face. "I've got plenty of apprentices on my plate as it is."