xp_logs | Darkness Within Plot: Getting Help

After being teleported to the She Sells Sea Shells cave, Namor and Sue head to X-Force to find Amanda and her students in the middle of their lesson.

"Any questions?" Amanda set down the large book she'd been reading from, propped up so her students could see the engravings. "Magic, in its own way, has a history a lot like science - trial and error, writing down what went wrong, what went right, what accidentally turned your apprentice into a newt..." Her grin at the last indicated she was joking. "And, as you can see from books like this, it has the same sort of conflicting factions, too."

"Who decides what's right and wrong?" Topaz asked, lifting her head off her fist. "I mean sometimes it's obvious -- accidentally blowing something up, that's wrong. But sometimes what's 'wrong' is more subtle. Who decided the first time it happened that it was wrong?"

"That's where the historical aspect really comes in," Amanda replied. "You might have heard the expression, 'history is written by the winners', and that's true in magic as well. Those who came out on top, who made their way of doing things the predominant way, got to say what was right and wrong. Of course, there's always two sides to every story and magic's not any different. There's different schools of thought, different cults, different sects, and each one has a long historical background explaining just why their way of doing things is the right way." She looked over her students, seated in a row along the long table in the X-Force boardroom - with her class growing, it was easier to come here than her apartment. "I was brought up by someone who believed that magic was there to get him what he wanted - power and control over other people, and for a long time, I thought that was what magic was for. How about you three? What do you think magic should be for?" She nodded at Megan. "You first, pixie-girl."

Pixie's all-black eyes went wide. "Well, I'm not sure I've really considered it before. It's for... well, it's a part of nature. It's as much for us as we are for it. How we use it shapes the energy of this world that we're all a part of."

"So doing something... "unnatural", something that goes against how you feel nature should be, would that be right or wrong?" Amanda asked Megan, raising an eyebrow.

"You should probably never go against your feelings- doing so is certainly wrong. But we should always want to create harmony, not discord - whether we use magic, technology, or any other powerful tool. Everything has consequences and with magic... it could have huge repercussions in the world, or your own soul could be in play."

"What's it for?" Billy squinted, thinking through the question a moment. "Isn't that kind of a silly question? I mean, that's like asking what water is for. You can drink it, swim in it, sail on it, wash stuff with it. It helps plants grow. If you're not careful, you could drown, but it's not really for anything. It just is."

"You've got a point, yes, that magic itself is a force of nature. But it doesn't exist outside of us, not exactly - using your example, what happens when you get someone who can control what that water does? Do things with it no-one normally can? Does that mean they should do whatever they like?" Amanda countered.

Any response was interrupted by a series of loud clashes and clangs from the hall. These, in turn, were punctuated by a series of muffled curses and hectic shouts. These interruptions did not last long -- soon two figures appeared in the door to the conference room. They were ragged. One had a ripped shirt and was missing his shoes, but two telltale wings poked out from his ankles. He was bloody. He was red. He was angry. "Amanda, there's been an incident."

A bedraggled blonde face appeared behind Namor as sue leaned again the door and slipped down to the floor, "You did tell us to come and see if if we came across any-more magical artifacts." she told the older woman waving the staff in her general direction with a tired smile, "We were just in the area and thought we'd pop by for a visit," she told the older woman To be honest she wasn't entirely sure how Namor had gotten them to the offices, she had almost collapsed after they had teleported to safety and had let her friend figure out how to get them to Amanda. "Here we are, so surprise."

Amanda blinked. Then she got up, leaned past Namor and shouted into the office:

"I'VE GOT THIS!"

Then she pulled her head back in, nudged Namor towards a chair and knelt by Sue, making sure she wasn't physically hurt. "Come on, kiddo, let's get you up," she said, tone much gentler than it had been a moment ago. "Chairs are better for sitting than the floor."

Topaz was stunned for about half a second. "I've got her," she said suddenly, scrambling to Sue's side and wrapping the other girl's arm around her shoulders. "Up and at 'em Sue, come on," she muttered, trying to get her off the floor.

"But the floor's so comfy," Sue protested halfheartedly as Amanda and Topaz pulled her to her feet. "Owww," the blonde hissed, now the adrenaline produced by fighting for her life had faded she felt sore all over. In fact she'd never been felt more tired or sore in her entire life, she was sure that by tomorrow she'd just be one walking bruise. Fighting the Dweller had been the most exhausting thing she'd ever done, none of the training they had been doing had prepared for for that, She managed not to drop the staff as she fumbled it over in Amanda's direction. "You need this," she insisted.

Amanda took the staff rather gingerly in her fingers, as if expecting it to explode. "All right, now we're all settled, it's story time. What the fuck happened?" she asked, lying the staff on the table hurriedly and crossing her arms over her chest. "Namor? What's this incident?"

Namor did not look comfortable in his seat. He was favoring one shoulder over the other, and winced away from the staff as it was passed across to Amanda. She had laid it somewhat close to him, which caused the runes on its surface to move slowly and purposefully across the surface. Or, at least, that was that Attilani saw. He collected himself. "Tandy Bowen, Susan Storm, and I were all abducted by two demonic sisters. They did a ritual with my blood and Tandy's body to raise or summon what they called their master."

He winced, his careful wording at odds with the anxiety plain in his features. "This was all for the better part of today. A few government agents intervened, but the demons got away with Tandy and I don't know how to help her. We have to save her." He glared harshly at the staff again with a sour look.

"Demon ritual...no," Megan said softly, unconsciously smoothing her collarbone to ease the sudden, throbbing pain in her chest. "Will she be OK?!" she blurted out, pleading in her tone.

"This isn't the first time a demon's gone after her," Topaz — still standing beside Sue — muttered, more to herself. It had to be the same demon — with a sister, apparently. She eyed the staff with a small frown. What the hell was going on?

"Demons. Why does it always have to be demons?" Billy scowled. "Why can't it be butterflies?" He looked toward Amanda. "We've got to save her. And I want to help. Please?"

Amanda looked at her three students, gaze moving from one face to another, weighing things up. "First things first, we need to find them," she said at last, with a nod. "And work out what we're going to do when we do. For that, we'll need to research demon possession and exorcism. 'S good we're where the books are." She turned to Namor and Sue. "Where were you when they did this ritual? They might help us track them down and the type of magic involved."

"Umm, Italy I think?" Sue hedged with a glance at Namor, "We were at the airport when...Spite found us," Sue said hesitantly, trying to breeze over the incident at the airport, "she ended up drugging us, and when I woke up we were in a temple, like the cave from last year."

Namor frowned back at Sue, but quickly retrained his eyes on the staff. "I was abducted at Columbia between classes. The one sister — she called herself Dana Adams — put me under a spell where I couldn't trust my senses. However..." He paused, tracing a small circle with one finger on the table, "There were armored soldiers that tried to interfere with the ritual. I heard one mention Italy before they were neutralized."

There was a large, exasperated huff as Namor pointed toward the staff. "They were using that thing to trap us, but when I touched it we were all moved us all to the Smuggler's Cave Susan mentioned. It was not the same cave we were held in." His tone was crisp and chock full of projected aggression in the surety of his claim.

The myriad of negative emotions rolled off Namor in waves. Topaz wasn't about to say anything about it, of course - he had every right to be angry - but she did tighten up her shields to block him out. She wanted to stay focused here.

"I've been getting some word of something happening in Europe from the network, so we'll start with Italy," Amanda instructed, meanwhile kicking herself mentally about letting the whole connection between Namor and the cave slip. "Billy, duck out into the office and see if anyone's handy - we'll need extra eyes. Megan..." Before she could finish the sentence, the lights of the boardroom flickered and dimmed, abruptly going out. Amanda flinched and swayed, grabbing at the edge of the table to steady herself.

Sue's eyes widened with shock as the lights went out but she quickly got herself under control as she glanced at Amanda to make sure she was ok. "That research you were talking about? Yeah I don't think we're gonna have time for it." the blonde noted in a deadpan as she nodded at a distant glow which was visible through the window, "They're here."