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xp_logsPaths converge: Jessica tracks her client's husband while Jean and Garrison follow up on rumours of a Brotherhood meeting. Things go badly.
Something about this felt wrong. Jessica had followed George Lopez from his workplace - a construction site in Soho - and had managed to scrape together the lucidity not to lose him on the subway, though she did not remember most of the bus ride. Rides? Her head hurt, a persistent ache above one eye.
Something - felt wrong. She remembered thinking that. A warehouse? in Port Newark? This was - she leaned further back against the corner she was hiding behind, an open window behind her - this wasn't right. Not for an affair. She'd been expecting - it escaped her. The image of a house, a woman on a doorstep; a second family. That was it. Not a cold warehouse in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Maybe it was a weird sex club thing, which would technically fit. Whatever. She'd come this far. She had to get some fucking pictures and get out. She made sure the lens cap was off, swallowed a strange bout of nausea, and crept toward the rise of voices, stopping just short of where she heard them. She edged closer, camera at her hip, watching not what was in front of her but what was on the digital display.
***
"You know, I wish we had some kind of early warning system for Brotherhood other than just rumours. Like, maybe we can put collars with a bell on it for all of them," Kane mused as they tailed George Diaz at a distance. Fortunately, just the odd light ping of Jean's telepathy and Kane's training allowed them to stay safely back without losing the man. He had moved into an industrial area in Port Newark that a middle manager who worked in Tribeca had exactly zero legitimate reason to be. While this would normally be the kind of thing that they'd tap into the folks at X-Factor Investigations for, the potential Brotherhood involvement made it dangerous enough to warrant a response from the X-Men instead.
"And miss the opportunity to travel to new and exotic places like these?" Jean said with a smirk. "This is absolutely what I wanted to do tonight instead of catching up on the shows I missed on Netflix."
Her smile faded as she scanned the horizon. "If it is the Brotherhood though, maybe we can get some new intel." She didn't like them being in the dark when it came to what Magneto's plans were.
"There's this shark whisperer one from some blonde Hawaiian diver? I keep meaning to- oh, focus, right." Kane joked, his eyes never leaving the target. "OK George is now entering the... Weston Family Distribution Warehouse. Can you think of a good reason an out of shape accounting specialist enters said property which currently seems to be out of business?" He said, already moving towards a different entrance further away from the door Diaz used.
"A few, but none of them good," Jean said. She tilted her head, silent for a moment. "There's no one else in there at the moment. So whatever he's going in there to do...he'll be alone for a bit. Unless he's there to dispose of a dead body."
She paused. "I told you none of my ideas were good."
"Depends if the dead body still needs to arrive." Kane paused at the door and tested it. It was locked, but he braced himself and quietly pulled it open, bending the jamb until it opened with a minimum amount of noise. They both crept in, finding spots to hide behind the raisers at the back of the warehouse where they could see Diaz sitting and waiting for something.
And then, something. Kane nudged Jean as the all too familiar sight of Zero's teleportation disk blazed into image. Out of it walked two members of the Brotherhood; Thornn and Phantasma Instead of shock, Diaz acted eager at the appearance, getting up and hustling over to speak with them.
Pressed behind a corner, Jess frowned, blinking against the light from the disk, and then turning her head when the headache behind her eye intensified. Mutant shit was well above her paygrade, but the lady had hired her to find out what this guy was up to, and apparently that was - whatever this was. Not her business. Not her problem.
It took her what seemed like a long time to find the right grip on her camera. She waited until she had all three of their faces on camera, fingers fumbling until they found the right settings, the shutter button. She clicked.
The flash went off.
"Well fuck." Kane said, as everyone's eyes tracked the flash. "Wait, is that... Jones?" He muttered as the Brotherhood went into defensive mode.
Thornn threw herself to the top of a stack of crates. "Ambush, baby. Let's make them pay for it!" She hissed.
The white haired woman strolled past Diaz and Thornn, casually studying the warehouse for a moment or two before turning to the direction where the flash was seen. A ghostly white light started to pour out of her eyes, and she pointed her thumb and index finger like a gun in the direction of the darkness.
"Bang," she said, a white light surging out of her finger toward Jessica.
"Come out, come out little shadow...No use hiding," she sang.
"Shit." Jess would have dropped the camera, if it hadn't been hanging from its strap around her neck; the world spun, and she had to steady herself on the wall, no longer focused on hiding, just on staying upright. The fucking flash, of course; the one thing she never wanted on and therefore was always on. She staggered, dizziness blurring her eyesight. "Hey, I don't want any trouble - "
"But we do," Phantazia said with a smile. "Isn't that better anyway? Being out of the dark."
She lifted her hands, which began to glow. "Stand still. This will only hurt--"
A wooden crate shot toward the woman and she had to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed. .
"You talk too much," Jean said.
"Brotherhood trait," Kane muttered as Thornn raced towards Jessica. Instead of her claws finding her, Kane appeared out of nowhere, checking her leap with a shoulder block and as she hit the concrete, trampling her with two stomps. "Jones, you ok?"
"Who - " Fully disoriented, Jessica half-fell against the wall, stumbling; she dropped her camera entirely and brought one hand up to her face to scrub at her eyes. "What the - what the actual fuck is going on," she managed.
"A little Brotherhood recruiting- offf!" He said as Thornn pivoted on the ground and kicked him hard with both feet to the stomach before rolling away.
"The traitor returns. Shame on you, traitor. Your friends will be captured and taken to Magneto. But you- at his order, I get to cut your throat and watch you die here."
"Yeah yeah, go find a ball of yarn to play with, Thornn."
"I like yarn," Phantazia said, whipping a tendril of energy at Garrison.
"Like a puppet on a string."
Meanwhile, Jean was on her way toward Jessica. "Get out of here!" she shouted.
“I’m - “ Jessica was obviously only barely tracking, her hand skating against the wall as she tried to stand. Rather than retreating, a half-blind stagger took her directly into the line of fire.
Phantazia's whip wrapped around Jessica's neck instead. But rather than look a gift horse in the mouth, she grinned wickedly.
"Dance for me," she said, a huge pulse of energy enveloping the other woman. A blinding light lit up the room.
When the light faded, something was different. Jessica was standing up straight, camera hanging from her neck to hit her hip, her pupils blown wide and the whites of her eyes visible - sheer, unseeing panic that exploded toward Phantazia without warning.
The white-haired woman barely had time to make out a quizzical "Wh--Oof!" before she slammed into a pile of crates, bits of wood and debris flying everywhere.
"That's not good," Jean said, glancing at Garrison with a frown.
As Jean reached Jessica, Kane had already been tracking Thornn, who was trying to use her superior agility to dodge between the racks inside. However, she made one mistake, letting him get a grip on her arm, and before she could bring her claws to bear, Kane flung her across the room and straight into Phantazia. She was trying to get to her feet as Thornn barrelled into her and the two tumbled end over end backwards. Thornn wiped the blood from her mouth before holding up her wrist.
"Zero. Exit. Now!" A shimmering portal opened, and both mutants staggered back through it. Kane couldn't get close enough to stop them.
Jessica's reaching fingers closed on air, her breath coming fast and panicked, and she swung to face Jean and Garrison. There was no recognition in her expression; nothing, in fact, but the same terror that had turned her on Phantazia. She stood there, fists clenched, for a beat - and then launched herself forward, straight at Garrison.
"Wait, Jess, it's us! What are you-" He said, before her super-strong knee connected with his groin in an unexpected attack. Kane went over like he was poleaxed. "Oh fuck... both of them..." He groaned curling around himself.
Jean held up her hands. "Stop. Please just stop," she said, but an object in motion tended to stay in motion and when Jessica went after her next, she used a telekinetic shield to parry the attack.
With the amount of force behind Jessica's intended punch, it bounced off Jean's shield, sending the other woman through a wooden support beam and into a wall with a sickening crack.
Eyes widening, Jean immediately went for Jessica, crouching down to check her pulse.
"She's alive. She--Ah!" she said with a startled yelp as the tentative mental outreach into Jessica's mind brought back something sharp. For some reason, she suddenly felt nauseated. Something was seriously off.
"I'm calling Blink. We need to get her to the mansion, now."
Something about this felt wrong. Jessica had followed George Lopez from his workplace - a construction site in Soho - and had managed to scrape together the lucidity not to lose him on the subway, though she did not remember most of the bus ride. Rides? Her head hurt, a persistent ache above one eye.
Something - felt wrong. She remembered thinking that. A warehouse? in Port Newark? This was - she leaned further back against the corner she was hiding behind, an open window behind her - this wasn't right. Not for an affair. She'd been expecting - it escaped her. The image of a house, a woman on a doorstep; a second family. That was it. Not a cold warehouse in the middle of fucking nowhere.
Maybe it was a weird sex club thing, which would technically fit. Whatever. She'd come this far. She had to get some fucking pictures and get out. She made sure the lens cap was off, swallowed a strange bout of nausea, and crept toward the rise of voices, stopping just short of where she heard them. She edged closer, camera at her hip, watching not what was in front of her but what was on the digital display.
***
"You know, I wish we had some kind of early warning system for Brotherhood other than just rumours. Like, maybe we can put collars with a bell on it for all of them," Kane mused as they tailed George Diaz at a distance. Fortunately, just the odd light ping of Jean's telepathy and Kane's training allowed them to stay safely back without losing the man. He had moved into an industrial area in Port Newark that a middle manager who worked in Tribeca had exactly zero legitimate reason to be. While this would normally be the kind of thing that they'd tap into the folks at X-Factor Investigations for, the potential Brotherhood involvement made it dangerous enough to warrant a response from the X-Men instead.
"And miss the opportunity to travel to new and exotic places like these?" Jean said with a smirk. "This is absolutely what I wanted to do tonight instead of catching up on the shows I missed on Netflix."
Her smile faded as she scanned the horizon. "If it is the Brotherhood though, maybe we can get some new intel." She didn't like them being in the dark when it came to what Magneto's plans were.
"There's this shark whisperer one from some blonde Hawaiian diver? I keep meaning to- oh, focus, right." Kane joked, his eyes never leaving the target. "OK George is now entering the... Weston Family Distribution Warehouse. Can you think of a good reason an out of shape accounting specialist enters said property which currently seems to be out of business?" He said, already moving towards a different entrance further away from the door Diaz used.
"A few, but none of them good," Jean said. She tilted her head, silent for a moment. "There's no one else in there at the moment. So whatever he's going in there to do...he'll be alone for a bit. Unless he's there to dispose of a dead body."
She paused. "I told you none of my ideas were good."
"Depends if the dead body still needs to arrive." Kane paused at the door and tested it. It was locked, but he braced himself and quietly pulled it open, bending the jamb until it opened with a minimum amount of noise. They both crept in, finding spots to hide behind the raisers at the back of the warehouse where they could see Diaz sitting and waiting for something.
And then, something. Kane nudged Jean as the all too familiar sight of Zero's teleportation disk blazed into image. Out of it walked two members of the Brotherhood; Thornn and Phantasma Instead of shock, Diaz acted eager at the appearance, getting up and hustling over to speak with them.
Pressed behind a corner, Jess frowned, blinking against the light from the disk, and then turning her head when the headache behind her eye intensified. Mutant shit was well above her paygrade, but the lady had hired her to find out what this guy was up to, and apparently that was - whatever this was. Not her business. Not her problem.
It took her what seemed like a long time to find the right grip on her camera. She waited until she had all three of their faces on camera, fingers fumbling until they found the right settings, the shutter button. She clicked.
The flash went off.
"Well fuck." Kane said, as everyone's eyes tracked the flash. "Wait, is that... Jones?" He muttered as the Brotherhood went into defensive mode.
Thornn threw herself to the top of a stack of crates. "Ambush, baby. Let's make them pay for it!" She hissed.
The white haired woman strolled past Diaz and Thornn, casually studying the warehouse for a moment or two before turning to the direction where the flash was seen. A ghostly white light started to pour out of her eyes, and she pointed her thumb and index finger like a gun in the direction of the darkness.
"Bang," she said, a white light surging out of her finger toward Jessica.
"Come out, come out little shadow...No use hiding," she sang.
"Shit." Jess would have dropped the camera, if it hadn't been hanging from its strap around her neck; the world spun, and she had to steady herself on the wall, no longer focused on hiding, just on staying upright. The fucking flash, of course; the one thing she never wanted on and therefore was always on. She staggered, dizziness blurring her eyesight. "Hey, I don't want any trouble - "
"But we do," Phantazia said with a smile. "Isn't that better anyway? Being out of the dark."
She lifted her hands, which began to glow. "Stand still. This will only hurt--"
A wooden crate shot toward the woman and she had to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed. .
"You talk too much," Jean said.
"Brotherhood trait," Kane muttered as Thornn raced towards Jessica. Instead of her claws finding her, Kane appeared out of nowhere, checking her leap with a shoulder block and as she hit the concrete, trampling her with two stomps. "Jones, you ok?"
"Who - " Fully disoriented, Jessica half-fell against the wall, stumbling; she dropped her camera entirely and brought one hand up to her face to scrub at her eyes. "What the - what the actual fuck is going on," she managed.
"A little Brotherhood recruiting- offf!" He said as Thornn pivoted on the ground and kicked him hard with both feet to the stomach before rolling away.
"The traitor returns. Shame on you, traitor. Your friends will be captured and taken to Magneto. But you- at his order, I get to cut your throat and watch you die here."
"Yeah yeah, go find a ball of yarn to play with, Thornn."
"I like yarn," Phantazia said, whipping a tendril of energy at Garrison.
"Like a puppet on a string."
Meanwhile, Jean was on her way toward Jessica. "Get out of here!" she shouted.
“I’m - “ Jessica was obviously only barely tracking, her hand skating against the wall as she tried to stand. Rather than retreating, a half-blind stagger took her directly into the line of fire.
Phantazia's whip wrapped around Jessica's neck instead. But rather than look a gift horse in the mouth, she grinned wickedly.
"Dance for me," she said, a huge pulse of energy enveloping the other woman. A blinding light lit up the room.
When the light faded, something was different. Jessica was standing up straight, camera hanging from her neck to hit her hip, her pupils blown wide and the whites of her eyes visible - sheer, unseeing panic that exploded toward Phantazia without warning.
The white-haired woman barely had time to make out a quizzical "Wh--Oof!" before she slammed into a pile of crates, bits of wood and debris flying everywhere.
"That's not good," Jean said, glancing at Garrison with a frown.
As Jean reached Jessica, Kane had already been tracking Thornn, who was trying to use her superior agility to dodge between the racks inside. However, she made one mistake, letting him get a grip on her arm, and before she could bring her claws to bear, Kane flung her across the room and straight into Phantazia. She was trying to get to her feet as Thornn barrelled into her and the two tumbled end over end backwards. Thornn wiped the blood from her mouth before holding up her wrist.
"Zero. Exit. Now!" A shimmering portal opened, and both mutants staggered back through it. Kane couldn't get close enough to stop them.
Jessica's reaching fingers closed on air, her breath coming fast and panicked, and she swung to face Jean and Garrison. There was no recognition in her expression; nothing, in fact, but the same terror that had turned her on Phantazia. She stood there, fists clenched, for a beat - and then launched herself forward, straight at Garrison.
"Wait, Jess, it's us! What are you-" He said, before her super-strong knee connected with his groin in an unexpected attack. Kane went over like he was poleaxed. "Oh fuck... both of them..." He groaned curling around himself.
Jean held up her hands. "Stop. Please just stop," she said, but an object in motion tended to stay in motion and when Jessica went after her next, she used a telekinetic shield to parry the attack.
With the amount of force behind Jessica's intended punch, it bounced off Jean's shield, sending the other woman through a wooden support beam and into a wall with a sickening crack.
Eyes widening, Jean immediately went for Jessica, crouching down to check her pulse.
"She's alive. She--Ah!" she said with a startled yelp as the tentative mental outreach into Jessica's mind brought back something sharp. For some reason, she suddenly felt nauseated. Something was seriously off.
"I'm calling Blink. We need to get her to the mansion, now."
