Post by BWS2K on Apr 12, 2024 21:10:55 GMT -7
Simon Hall watched the park from across Neptune Avenue. It didn’t look like much but Sarah’s note (sample) had said this location was ’home’: ...is this another scam cult thing?
There was a Little League game on the diamond and several pick-up games in the courts, and the track held what looked to be some sort of high school field trip presentation of some kind. In short, all signs pointed to this being an ordinary April Wednesday afternoon. Simon pulled the note from his pocket once more to triple check. It’d been a couple weeks since receiving it anyway, so maybe the offer was-
“Hey kid.”
The voice came from behind. Simon spun and almost morphed into the sidewalk but thought better of it in such a public place. “...Sarah?!”
“Yup,” she said simply. Sarah was wearing a long-sleeved tee that had once had some sort of sports logo on it but which had faded almost completely away, very ratty looking jeans, and a pair of sneakers that looked like they'd been used to run a marathon through miles of ankle-deep mud. At least Simon hoped it was mud. Her pink hair was down and loose, hanging about her shoulders, such that the only part of her fuchsia skin that could be seen was her face and hand. She adjusted her black fedora: “Still thinking about my offer…?”
Simon suddenly felt far more unprepared than he’d anticipated. Fumbling, he crammed the note back into his coat pocket. “...something like that, yeah,” he replied, nodding curtly. “But I have some questions first.” His eyes narrowed, his voice dropped to just above a whisper: “Like, the old bald guy with weird pals you mentioned in the alley - who, exactly, did you mean?”
Sarah chuckled. “Thought it was pretty obvious,” she replied, and then, eyes wide, matched Simon’s conspiratorial tone: “Professor Charles Xavier and his uncanny X-Men!”
The pair continued their chat as they walked casually down the sidewalk, observed from a kilometer away through a red flashing reticule: “MUTANT TARGETS DETECTED // INTERCEPT COURSE PLOTTED”
“...yeah, it was mostly good times,” Sarah was sharing. “I was a real punk back then. Still kind of am, just a little older. Not sure I could ever go back though.”
“I know what you mean,” said Simon. “That’s why I’ve just sort of been,” he gestured vaguely across the city skyline, “...around. The Acolytes weren’t all bad, and they’d probably take me back if I wanted, but-”
His words were interrupted as the whine of something like an approaching jet engine roared in suddenly from across the water. The unmistakably immense figure of a lone sentinel, in various shades of pink and purple armored plating, slammed down into the pavement mere meters away from Simon and Sarah: “HALT MUTANTS” its mechanical voice boomed out, “YOUR APPREHENSION IS IMMINENT // DO NOT RESIST”
Sarah sighed: “...well, #@*%.”
The enormous robot extended its arms, palms facing outward, and metallic coils began to snake towards the two mutants.
“Ok, headquarters is under the park across the street - can you make it there with your phaso powers?”
Simon fought against the abject fear threatening to overwhelm him: “Under the… yeah. Yes, I can. What are-”
“Good,” Sarah replied with finality. “Do it. I’ll meet you there shortly.” She shoved Simon away while somersaulting in the other direction, hopefully splitting the sentinel’s attention. Landing in a crouch, she threw two bone spikes that lodged in its face plate: “Hey! Do you realize how many potholes you tin cans are responsible for?”
“YOU HAVE RESISTED // LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED.”
Sarah sprinted towards a street lamp, leaping and then using the momentum to swing her back around and through the air. Her clothing shredded and tore away as bonescale armor burst through her skin and took its place. “Then we’re on the same page!” she shouted, landing on the sentinel’s right shoulder and driving a third bone dagger into its cranium. Simon had just enough time to morph through the sidewalk before the coil meant for him smashed into the concrete, which now meant Sarah had the entirety of the sentinel’s attention.
“What kind of model are you?” she shouted, stabbing several more of her spikes through the robot’s armored head. “I seem to remember-”
“ELECTRO-SCREEN DEFENSES ACTIVATED,” the sentinel announced, sending high-voltage charge throughout its metal skin. Sarah screamed in pain and was thrown to the street, but her attack had met with some success - the ruptures in the plates meant the electric shock also affected the sentinel as well, causing it to stagger.
Sarah rolled slowly to her side, feeling the mix of adrenaline and injury of battle for the first time in a long while. It wasn’t altogether unpleasant. “Is that the best you-”
The sentinel abruptly swung its gaze upon her, eyes burning, and released a concentrated blast of laser that would’ve surely put Sarah’s continued existence on this plane in question if not for a sudden green glow and a pair of hands that pulled her through the asphalt just in time.
In her younger days, Sarah had fought alongside Kitty Pryde and had been ‘phased’ more than once. It was disorienting and took a moment to recover from. This sensation was similar but somehow… faster? She felt herself drop from the street onto the paneled floor of her nearby base with a heavy THUD that didn’t make the experience any nicer. She took a moment, and then, deducing what had happened: “...I thought I said I’d take care of it?”
“Yeah, you did,” replied Simon, the last green glow fading from his body - all the explanation anyone needed for what had just happened. “...and I helped.”
“Gutsy move, rookie,” Sarah said, grinning and recalling a time when she’d been known to disobey an order or two. Or all of them. “Welcome to the team.”
Simon smiled back: “Thanks - I was going to ask about that. Are we safe here or should we get ready for another fight?”
Sarah stood and stretched, her injuries already beginning to heal and armor retracting to leave behind something resembling a craggy two-piece bathing suit and boots. “Base’s nothing special, but it does have shielding that should keep us hidden just fine.”
“And how many people live here?”
"Including me?" Sarah asked, walking across the central chamber to a small side room: “Just one. But there’s a couple spare rooms. You’re welcome to your pick, if you plan on staying. And I’ve got a couple others I want to reach out to later this evening.” She opened a foot locker and started pulling out some clothes. They looked like they’d come from a thrift store, mismatched and in various states of repair. Pulling on a tee, she paused and stuck her head out of the hatchway: “Whatdya say, rookie - you in?”
Neophyte looked around the room. It was rather sparse, with a few panels and shelves in the walls and a couple corridors that led away to the rest of the facility. Most notably, Sarah had never once asked about his 'vision' for mutantdom or spouted the kind of narrow-minded ideologies that had burned Simon so much in the past.
“Yeah,” he replied, nodding with a smile, “I’m in.”
Miles away at an undisclosed location, in an altogether different kind of headquarters, an exchange is had at the rapid speed that only electronic minds can handle: “TARGETS ESCAPED CAPTURE // OBSERVED DATA UPLOADED FOR FUTURE REFERENCE”
“EXCELLENT. WE WILL BE BETTER PREPARED FOR OUR NEXT ENCOUNTER. FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANITY, ALL MUTANTS MUST BE DESTROYED.”
There was a Little League game on the diamond and several pick-up games in the courts, and the track held what looked to be some sort of high school field trip presentation of some kind. In short, all signs pointed to this being an ordinary April Wednesday afternoon. Simon pulled the note from his pocket once more to triple check. It’d been a couple weeks since receiving it anyway, so maybe the offer was-
“Hey kid.”
The voice came from behind. Simon spun and almost morphed into the sidewalk but thought better of it in such a public place. “...Sarah?!”
“Yup,” she said simply. Sarah was wearing a long-sleeved tee that had once had some sort of sports logo on it but which had faded almost completely away, very ratty looking jeans, and a pair of sneakers that looked like they'd been used to run a marathon through miles of ankle-deep mud. At least Simon hoped it was mud. Her pink hair was down and loose, hanging about her shoulders, such that the only part of her fuchsia skin that could be seen was her face and hand. She adjusted her black fedora: “Still thinking about my offer…?”
Simon suddenly felt far more unprepared than he’d anticipated. Fumbling, he crammed the note back into his coat pocket. “...something like that, yeah,” he replied, nodding curtly. “But I have some questions first.” His eyes narrowed, his voice dropped to just above a whisper: “Like, the old bald guy with weird pals you mentioned in the alley - who, exactly, did you mean?”
Sarah chuckled. “Thought it was pretty obvious,” she replied, and then, eyes wide, matched Simon’s conspiratorial tone: “Professor Charles Xavier and his uncanny X-Men!”
---
The pair continued their chat as they walked casually down the sidewalk, observed from a kilometer away through a red flashing reticule: “MUTANT TARGETS DETECTED // INTERCEPT COURSE PLOTTED”
---
“...yeah, it was mostly good times,” Sarah was sharing. “I was a real punk back then. Still kind of am, just a little older. Not sure I could ever go back though.”
“I know what you mean,” said Simon. “That’s why I’ve just sort of been,” he gestured vaguely across the city skyline, “...around. The Acolytes weren’t all bad, and they’d probably take me back if I wanted, but-”
His words were interrupted as the whine of something like an approaching jet engine roared in suddenly from across the water. The unmistakably immense figure of a lone sentinel, in various shades of pink and purple armored plating, slammed down into the pavement mere meters away from Simon and Sarah: “HALT MUTANTS” its mechanical voice boomed out, “YOUR APPREHENSION IS IMMINENT // DO NOT RESIST”
Sarah sighed: “...well, #@*%.”
The enormous robot extended its arms, palms facing outward, and metallic coils began to snake towards the two mutants.
“Ok, headquarters is under the park across the street - can you make it there with your phaso powers?”
Simon fought against the abject fear threatening to overwhelm him: “Under the… yeah. Yes, I can. What are-”
“Good,” Sarah replied with finality. “Do it. I’ll meet you there shortly.” She shoved Simon away while somersaulting in the other direction, hopefully splitting the sentinel’s attention. Landing in a crouch, she threw two bone spikes that lodged in its face plate: “Hey! Do you realize how many potholes you tin cans are responsible for?”
“YOU HAVE RESISTED // LETHAL FORCE AUTHORIZED.”
Sarah sprinted towards a street lamp, leaping and then using the momentum to swing her back around and through the air. Her clothing shredded and tore away as bonescale armor burst through her skin and took its place. “Then we’re on the same page!” she shouted, landing on the sentinel’s right shoulder and driving a third bone dagger into its cranium. Simon had just enough time to morph through the sidewalk before the coil meant for him smashed into the concrete, which now meant Sarah had the entirety of the sentinel’s attention.
“What kind of model are you?” she shouted, stabbing several more of her spikes through the robot’s armored head. “I seem to remember-”
“ELECTRO-SCREEN DEFENSES ACTIVATED,” the sentinel announced, sending high-voltage charge throughout its metal skin. Sarah screamed in pain and was thrown to the street, but her attack had met with some success - the ruptures in the plates meant the electric shock also affected the sentinel as well, causing it to stagger.
Sarah rolled slowly to her side, feeling the mix of adrenaline and injury of battle for the first time in a long while. It wasn’t altogether unpleasant. “Is that the best you-”
The sentinel abruptly swung its gaze upon her, eyes burning, and released a concentrated blast of laser that would’ve surely put Sarah’s continued existence on this plane in question if not for a sudden green glow and a pair of hands that pulled her through the asphalt just in time.
In her younger days, Sarah had fought alongside Kitty Pryde and had been ‘phased’ more than once. It was disorienting and took a moment to recover from. This sensation was similar but somehow… faster? She felt herself drop from the street onto the paneled floor of her nearby base with a heavy THUD that didn’t make the experience any nicer. She took a moment, and then, deducing what had happened: “...I thought I said I’d take care of it?”
“Yeah, you did,” replied Simon, the last green glow fading from his body - all the explanation anyone needed for what had just happened. “...and I helped.”
“Gutsy move, rookie,” Sarah said, grinning and recalling a time when she’d been known to disobey an order or two. Or all of them. “Welcome to the team.”
Simon smiled back: “Thanks - I was going to ask about that. Are we safe here or should we get ready for another fight?”
Sarah stood and stretched, her injuries already beginning to heal and armor retracting to leave behind something resembling a craggy two-piece bathing suit and boots. “Base’s nothing special, but it does have shielding that should keep us hidden just fine.”
“And how many people live here?”
"Including me?" Sarah asked, walking across the central chamber to a small side room: “Just one. But there’s a couple spare rooms. You’re welcome to your pick, if you plan on staying. And I’ve got a couple others I want to reach out to later this evening.” She opened a foot locker and started pulling out some clothes. They looked like they’d come from a thrift store, mismatched and in various states of repair. Pulling on a tee, she paused and stuck her head out of the hatchway: “Whatdya say, rookie - you in?”
Neophyte looked around the room. It was rather sparse, with a few panels and shelves in the walls and a couple corridors that led away to the rest of the facility. Most notably, Sarah had never once asked about his 'vision' for mutantdom or spouted the kind of narrow-minded ideologies that had burned Simon so much in the past.
“Yeah,” he replied, nodding with a smile, “I’m in.”
---
Miles away at an undisclosed location, in an altogether different kind of headquarters, an exchange is had at the rapid speed that only electronic minds can handle: “TARGETS ESCAPED CAPTURE // OBSERVED DATA UPLOADED FOR FUTURE REFERENCE”
“EXCELLENT. WE WILL BE BETTER PREPARED FOR OUR NEXT ENCOUNTER. FOR THE GOOD OF HUMANITY, ALL MUTANTS MUST BE DESTROYED.”