Operation: Mutant of the Seas - Log 2

[xp-changeling.livejournal.com]

Emma sits down with X-Force for a meeting about her concerns



It wasn't often that Emma Frost called a meeting at Snow Valley. Between her businesses and her Hellfire Club commitments, she tended to maintain a hands off approach to the day to day work at the think tank. Which is why most of the team had slightly puzzled expressions as they headed into the boardroom.

Emma waited until everyone had taken their places at the table before she started. “As you know,” she said, dispensing with any pleasantries, “I keep an eye on the Astral Plane to try and find mutants before anyone less benign happens across them. I seem to have found one. Over and over again. In the middle of the ocean. Because our lives are, apparently, not complicated enough.”

"The ocean," Wanda repeated with a frown. "Well, that complicates matters quite a bit. I certainly hope my bathing suit still fits ..." Despite her words, her tone was serious and she was taking notes now. Shifting in her seat, she looked back up at Emma. "Did you only find the one? Were you able to pick up on anything other than the signature?"

"It's not a normal signal," replied Emma. "Not... telepathic? Not really. I can hear it. I can find it, but it's not someone speaking in my head." She shook her head lightly. "I'm sorry, I can't explain it well. But I also can't do anything more than locate the signal. It's very..." Emma trailed off for a moment. "Alone. Distorted. Messed up. But very strong. When it exists. Which isn't for very long at a time, but when I find it, it is always in the same place. Jubilee, if you could show people the map Doug made for me, that would probably be helpful."

"Comin' right up, yer Majesty," Jubilee quipped with a grin - her tone didn't come with any kind of sarcasm - just her usual habit of finding a nickname that suited and sticking with it.

She flicked her hand over the mousepad on the laptop she'd brought for the purpose and gestured to the large screen along one wall.

"Doug and Emma have managed to pinpoint spots on a map for us lucky ducks. Now we just have to figure out what's in the area and what we wanna do about it."

"Common transit area. It's called the north Atlantic corridor for a reason." Kevin took a sip from his drink. "Lots of variables. North American mutants being transhipped to Middle Eastern theatres, research subjects, a CIA insertion team. We need to narrow it down to get anything useful out of it."

"Too bad it's a psychic thing and not physical," Amanda mused out loud. "If we had a physical object, I might be able to use a location spell to pinpoint things a bit more."

Wanda suddenly straightened up at that and looked between Amanda and Emma for a few moments with a curious look on her face. "Hypothetically speaking, why wouldn't a location spell be able to use something intangible but powerful for a focus point?" she asked Amanda. "Emma's telepathic powers create a lot of energy and, ultimately, could be used to power your spell."

She pursed her lips as she thought about it. "What if you were to, say, use the Astral Plane and do your spell there?"

Amanda opened her mouth to object, then closed it again, thinking it over. "I suppose it could work," she said slowly, mulling over the issues. "But I'm gunna need a hell of a lot of luck." She grinned wolfishly at Wanda. "You up for a field trip?"

"Fuuuuuck, I walked right into that one," Wanda groaned, wondering what her stock of aspirin and scotch was currently like. "The Astral Plane isn't the biggest fan of my powers but hopefully between you and Emma, we can keep me there long enough to actually help."

"And for those of us staying grounded in reality?" Gabriel did his best to keep the edge out of his voice. But given their shared recent journey into the mind of a Canadian teenager, he figured Wanda would understand. "Research, I assume?"

"Planes. Ships. Possibly submarines," replied Emma. "The impressions I'm getting are... there's nothing that indicates that they aren't on the earth, so I don't think it would be someone on a satellite, but there's no harm in checking if there's anything that orbits over that area to match the schedule. I can send you a calendar of when I received the impressions, so you can cross-check against what's in the area at any time. That should probably keep you occupied for now."

"Dom and I can run down some of the military options. Maybe some of you take surface routes, others take flights?" Kevin said. "Or any other ways to run this down."

"Yeah, once you guys have a rough idea we can start cross-checking and crossing things off the list," Dom volunteered. "There'll be plenty of undocumented ships out there but chances are we'll catch them somewhere even if they're trying to stay off the radar. Kinda hard to hide when Google Earth exists."

Felicia hummed in agreement, content to listen before now. "I can get most of the flights crossed off and accounted for."

"It sounds like everyone has something to keep them busy for the next day or so at least," said Emma. "Keep in contact if you find anything interesting. And if it turns out to be one man in a canoe," Emma tilted her head for a moment, considering, "or a telepathic whale, I owe you all a drink."