Heidi, looking absolutely fine and not even brused for somebody who's just jumped off a cliff, approached Rose Mary, glancing at Shawn. She let him speak first, partly because her brain was going into overdrive again, and partly because Shawn was the leader and she had to let him lead a little.

"Can you stand up?" Heidi asked her in a genuinely concerned voice.

Chrys took off for the sound of the explosion. He weaved through students and obstacles with unnatural ease, seemily avoiding things until he leaped a bit too high and tripped on his way down a slope. Rolling, he surged to his feet, noting that he was behind the others. He headed to the shoreline and looked around. "Looks like a party."

Rose Mary wasn't listening or even aware of those around her. She was silently praying. She was hoping for a sign, what kind of sign, and what the sign would mean she didn't know. She wrapped her wings around her like a fluffy blanket.

Tatiana left the mansion same as the others but she hadn't had her daily human or mutant blood and she didn't hunt this morning so she was running slower than usual. She was thinking next time she hunts she store some blood in a mini fridge in her room. She would also need a blood extraction equipment. When she finally got there she saw the others trying to talk to Rose Mary but Rose Mary wasn't responding to them, just flat out ignoring them. Tatiana walked up to her and decked her across the face.

Rose Mary fell on to her back/wings. She looked up at Tatiana's direction and smiled, but she wasn't seeing Tatiana. She saw a perfect image of her mother. It was the sign she was looking for. She stood up and hugged her mother and thanked her.

Tatiana was very confused, it was not normal to be thanked for decking some one in the face. "You are a strange, strange girl Rose Mary. Now back to the mansion with you, we got a mission with a cyborg and his friends. One is definitely not right in the head, I think you will like him."

Rose Mary grabbed Tatiana and flew her back to the school. "Damn it Rose don't do that ever again. Tatiana really hated flying even more so when there wasn't a giant steel tube around her.

Shawn had taken a step forward when Tatiana had appeared and delivered unto Rose Marty a hearty smack across her face. He grew rather angry as her swift movement, but was replaced with confusion upon seeing Rose Mary's reaction.

The next few actions happened so fast he almost didn't catch them. Rosemary, wings and all, took Tatiana back to the school, leaving himself, Heidi, and Chrys by themselves.

"Well." Shawn looked around. It was probably a bad idea to abandon that lod. "Guess we'd better start making our way back. That robot guy seemed like he was in a rush."

Shawn walked back. It took longer than he would have liked, being on foot and all, but he didn't want to run back and be tired during the briefing.

"children. Please meet us down stairs, in the briefing room." Charles and Emma relayed a singular message to the young mutants.

Hearing the message, Shawn didn't bother going up to the professor's study, and went through the super cool secret elevator to the lower levels. He loved going through the x-men halls. It always made him feel important.

The briefing room was near the infirmary, and was where Charles, Emma, Booker, and all the other were waiting for the youngsters.

"Now that everyone is here," Charles smiled to his students on their way in. "You have all been chosen for rather specific reasons that you will fully understand at a later date. This is Nathan Summers, Wade Wilson, and laura Kinney. They will be in charge of this mission, so treat them as you would me."

Charles rolled back so Nathan could step up. He stood at attention, his hands rested at the small of his back.

His single functioning eye landed on each of the young mutants, each look helping him remember the basics about each of them.

"I am Nathan Summers, but you can call me Cable. As Chrys observes earlier, we are not from here. Specifically, this time period. We have physically traveled back in time to stop the end of natural mutants."

"We're going to murder some people so they can't play god with the x-gene." Wade, spinning slowly in one of the swivel chair, cut right to the chase, disgruntling Cable.

Laura still said nothing, but looked just as displeased with Wade as Cable did.

Shawn was rather shocked. They couldn't honestly be expecting a group of teenagers to actually murder people, right? Even if this time traveling trio were the ones doing the murdering, the guilt of assisting with murder would stay with shawn for a long time.

"Is there any way we can do this without killing anyone?" Shawn asked, rather nervous about the whole thing.

"We wouldn't be here if there was." Cable gave a grim answer, simple and leaving little to the imagination. "We don't need you all for that. Your job is to help us get into the facility that our targets will be at. As soon as we're close enough, you will be sent back here, and Wade, Laura, and myself will travel back to our own time period to see the results."

"Any more questions?"

Bonny wasn’t one to object to an order to /not/ run headfirst towards some form of danger. She watched the others head off to deal with… whatever was happening. Lucky for her, she didn’t have to wonder in confusion; her mind lit up with an image of what was going down with the others. Thanks to one of the telepaths, she assumed. She was a little bit shocked and taken aback at what she saw- and she made a mental note not to go too too close to the one that hadn’t showed up originally. Yeesh, that was kind of scary.

Ignoring the fact that one of the other strangers had seemed to talk to thin air (she didn’t want to know at this point), Bonny followed Charles and the rest down to where they were to be briefed. She didn’t have any questions outside of “what the heck is going on”; and that question would probably be answered anyways. The visual recording that was playing in her head cut out as the group began to make their way back to the mansion, and when she arrived in the briefing room, it was only a matter of time until the rest did. She looked between everyone to make sure they were okay, and made sure to keep a little safe distance from the shark murderer.

She was rather silent at first, listening to Charles, then Nathan. Her expression grew more and more troubled as the briefing went on- they were chosen for unspecified reasons to stop the end of all natural mutants? … Them, a bunch of teenagers still in school? At that point she thought she had heard just about everything, that nothing could shake her, but then Wade threw in one last very important piece of information- they were going to murder someone. Shawn spoke up and basically voiced what she was going to say on the matter, but was shot down rather quickly.

Well, what a fun, casual little group she’d been roped into.

“Uh, yeah, I got a question at this point. Why are you gathering a bunch of teenagers that are still in school to go out on a mission to /murder/ another human being? Why specifically us? I mean, I /really/ don’t want to be even remotely responsible for the death of another human being. Or anything, really. Pacifist here. The least you could do is if we all have to assist in murder probably against our moral will is explain why everyone in this room was hand picked for this.”

Tatiana was practically giddy at the thought of murdering someone, it been way to long. She was also just as upset when she found out she wasn't going to off some poor bastard. "Nathan Summers? Guess we know how that relationship triangle ended, will end. Wait you said natural mutants does that mean there are unnatural mutants? First those basics hate us and want us wiped out then they steal our schtick, those bastards."

Rose Mary was one to normally just sit back and let the briefings happen. "When you say stop the end of natural mutants do you mean as in they murdered us, or they just prevented any further mutants from being born?" Maybe just someone stronger." She wasn't thrilled with being an accessory to murder but she wasn't going to allow genocide to happen either. Rose Mary had an answer for Bonny. "They chose us because we are expendable. There are only a few X-Men but a lot of students. Besides the 'rules' of science fiction time travel says Cable probably shouldn't be interacting with his parents or grandparents in this time, it might cause him to cease to exist, especially if Scott and Jean are his parents as Tatiana not so subtly suggested." Rose Mary began to ponder out loud. "If they murdered me, I wonder how they did it. Power negation of some sort probably. Could it be a mutant with power negation, but wouldn't that power negate his ability to negate powers. What would happen if power negation tech met a power negating mutant?" She would keep on rambling on like that if Tatiana hadn't pinched her. "Sorry." She said meekly.

Tatiana looked over at the boy who suggested that lame name earlier and whispered. "The Xpendables."

Chrys was torn. He'd been waiting for a mission like this but the reality and gravity if it hit hard. "You... Can't be serious..." He clenched his fists. "We just barely survived against one mutant. Now you're telling us to go against people who are "playing god with the x-gene". It'll be worse than suicide. It'll be a slaughter." He had every right to be worried. He couldn't really control his new powers yet, something that could put everyone at risk. "Besides, killing isn't an X-Men thing, I thought, morals or not. I'd be cool with capturing and incapacitating whoever is against us... But most of this squad are minors, you want to scar them? Hell, whenever my old man had to kill someone he made sure I was never even in the area..."

Cable, for lack of a better term, was surprised. He had seen this reaction before. So many times before. However, it was too in the nose this time around. Chrys himself was an anaomoly, not essentially bound by the rules of time and space like everyone else was.

Was it bleeding? something was wrong, he could already tell. Rosemary was supposed to have been with Booker during their arrival. No body was in the right spot, but at least they were all against it.

"I'm sorry." Shawn stepped up and looked at the behemoth of a man before him. "I'm not going to be an accomplice of murder. Skynet this all you want, I'm not going on this mission unless it's nonlethal." Did cable even understand what could happen?

Even with everything going as well as it was, the sudden murder of someone probably very important could easily be blamed on mutantkind. The government would be so far down their throats that they'd threaten to tag and mark every single possible mutant out there. There had to be another way.

Cable became silent. He was sure that the others would agree with Shawn, and back out entirely unless a safer option had been done. "I can't promise anything for the man at the top, but if it means you all participating in this mission, we will stress non lethal options."

Laura almost couldn't believe what she had been hearing. She knew cable knew how close they could get without killing, but someone needed to be mirdered. That was the only way. It was the only way for everyone to live.

"You will all be posing as test subjects." Laura finally spoke up, her accent shining through her words. "they study those with recent mutations, teenagers. Emma and I will guide you all through the facility. Booker, you will pose as a scientist. Wade and Nathan will cut a path through security, and We will all be at the head office when Emma convinces our target to change his ways."

shawn was still uncomfortable with the whole situation, but it was better than killing. He looked to the other, curious on their take on the plan.

@pyroman

Heidi had been silent during the whole conversation. She didn't know enough about what was at stake, and while she'd personally find killing hard, if it was logically the best option, she'd have no moral objections. Just personal ones. She was relieved when she heard that none of them would be killing.

Even so, why this team? At least last time was just a routine training mission that went wrong. This was different. This volatile group was willingly assembled and put on this high-stakes plan...

"Why us? Why specifically us? Are we a diversion? Or do you need us to meet with the target for some reason? Is this this anything to do with our future selves?"

Possibilities, as well as possible plans and reasons for this mission were swirling around Heidi's head. Some were more pleasant than others. She hoped that the answers to these questions might narrow them down.

Well, at least murder had been hashed out of the equation. Her question on why they specifically had to go into this ridiculously dangerous mission wasn’t answered (well, shark punchy lady had an answer, but she wasn’t about to take the opinion of someone she could dub ‘shark punchy lady’ very seriously). She looked a bit more relaxed once there was promise that murder would be avoided, though that only lasted for a while until the specifics of the mission were thrown in. She was going into the main building with everyone else? Was… was that even a good idea? She’d be more helpful staying behind and providing help from the safety of the mansion. Heck, in hand to hand fighting she’d be more useless than a civilian!

Before she voiced her worries on her role, someone else reasked what she had asked but in a smarter way. She hadn’t even thought about questioning if their participation had to do with their future selves, or some weird time shenanigans had to do with it. On that thought, she wondered if she could ask about the future when the mission was over. Not like, about mutantkind as a whole, but rather about videogames and TV shows and stuff. If they still had that stuff.

Oh, right. Voicing that complaint.

“I.. really don’t think I’ll be much help on the field. Wouldn’t it be better, with my skill set, for me to stay behind and help from afar? I mean really, look at these noodle arms!” she lifted one of her arms for emphasis. “They aren’t really going to do much in an infiltration scenario gone wrong.”

Tatiana spoke up. "If someone really needs to be murdered, then they should be murdered. I am down for it if need be I'll suck all their blood out. As for blaming it on mutants. They are clearly not on the up and up. Probably a government black ops program or some shady corporation either way they won't go public because they don't want their dirty laundry aired in public. If we blow the place up, burn it down, whatever the public will get some industrial accident story or some other shitty lie. I've seen it happen before, created the fake the story myself on more than one occasion. The long and short, genocidal maniacs have to be murdered, and it can always be blamed on a lie that is easily believable and the gullible masses will eat right up like it was cocaine coated candy. Just have to frame the situation to suit the lie."

"You start as a Diversion." Laura spoke once more. Cable was almost wary of her decision to fully disclose all of this information to them. There was no telling how they would react to it all, but she never was one for subtlety. "Bonny, feeling like she is not enough, decides to stay at the mansion instead of being on the mission team. We can no longer change the landscape. We convince her to go to alleviate the problem. Tatiana cannot resist feeding on people who deserve it. This causes a rift in the team. We give her blood bags to feed on before the mission."

She went on. Every time a problem came up, Cable, Wade, and Laura had to start back at square one and make sure that they were more prepared than the last time. If it wasn't one thing, it was another. She had briefly touched on how they had attempted to use other teams on the mission, but for some reason, only these X-pendables were truly sucessful in getting to the end.

"If you're all together at the time we... Persuade, big britches, temporal fuckery is less likely to happen. We've seen you all a thousand times, and something goes wrong. This time is going to be the last." Wade shoved himself out of the chair. "We have everything that we could possibly need to prevent any of you from getting killed this time around, and none of you are pretty criers."

The room was silent. Booker, Emma, and Charles were already briefed on the situation, but they were all as wary as Cable when it came to laying all the cards out.

"Well," Cable wasn't quite sure what to do or say next. "Wade and Laura are right. All of you seem to have much better chances at surviving the mission than any of the other teams." The three of them were essentially in an intentional groundhog day. Everything was so rehearsed, so nearly exact, that even just the small changes in this timeline seemed like a completely different world. Maybe it was due to His, Laura and Wade's actions being different. It was hard to be certain. "As for your future selves, Heidi, I worked under you. You assisted in making time travel a reality." He wasn't going to tell each and every one of them their future, even if they were all still alive when Cable went back in time.

"Let's go. We're wasting time now."

The time trio allowed the team time to gather essentials and gear up before meeting up in the hangar once more. They needed to be in Arizona as soon as possible, and all this loafing around and asking questions was really starting to press on time.

She… she was not expecting this. Her expression turned more and more shocked as Laura ran through every tiny detail of the mission. Every repeat, every tiny change that those three had to make. It was surreal, and at first sounded a little like a movie she’d go see on a friday night or something. But the more Laura spoke, the more it sunk in as truth. How many times had this happened? Why was this team… why was /she/ so relevant to this task that seemed to hold such weight in the grand scheme of things? And the fact that every precaution was in place to keep them safe… did that mean, in another attempt, someone died? Maybe… maybe she had died. The thought didn’t help to reassure her that this would be fine.

Although she really, really didn’t want to go, the spheal that she had just heard left her with no other option on the matter. She understood (well, sort of understood) the severity of the situation, and that she was needed specifically (well, this part she only kind of understood, but she accepted it regardless). The group was dismissed to gather supplies; since she didn’t really have anything to work with or use, she ended up watching everyone else head out to gather what they needed. She didn’t know what she might need… but, maybe the time travelers did. They did say they were prepared, after all. They should know she had no idea what she was doing.

Once the rest of the teens selected for the mission filtered out of the room, Bonny took the chance to approach Cable. She did kind of want to ask about the future, but judging from how pressed they seemed for time, she figured that was a bad idea. “Um.. I'm gonna be honest, I have no idea what I’ll need for this mission. Kinda very new here. Is there any supplies or equipment that I need to grab, or am I goin’ in just as is?”

@pyroman

The information that in the future, Heidi was partly responsible for inventing time travel was staggering. From all her current understanding, it was impossible without mutations...Then again, if it was possible in any form, then...that train of thought could wait until later. Right now was time to get into mission mode.

So, this team was the best combination to deal with this mission? What was the mutation of the new girl, then? And if Heidi was an important factor, was it her brain that helped them to avoid danger? Should she be specifically trying to prevent danger in this mission? So many questions, but none that the team who had assembled them would know the answer to. Only her future self. But why hadn't she come? Heidi herself had began to suspect why, and if she was right, it was either death, or that her path and Xavier's had finally parted as she suspected they would. Her ideological differences, she kept secret from her mutant classmates for now, but she wouldn't suppress them forever.

Heidi had already suited up in preparation for Gym, but she did use this time to calibrate her new prototype exoskeleton, and quickly check that the power they were being fed from her gauntlet was such that she could power them both. Satisfied, she headed back to the hangar. She was the first one back besides Bonny, who hadn't left.

Shawn could gather from the briefing that the mission was to be done incognito, meaning that he really wasn't supposed to bring his combat suit. It kind of disappointing to no be able to wear the suit, if he were being honest.

He didn't really need a whole lot. He didn't know where they were going, nor how they were going to get there, but he assumed it would be at least a good flight to wherever it was. He had already stepped back onto the surface by the time he had come to that realization. When he had come back down, Cable was being approached by Bonny, eager to ask more questions about it.

"I'm sure that Booker and Emma have told you about your role in the team, Miss Bonvide." Cable towered over Bonny, but stood in a very careful and comfortable way to not frighten her with his staggering appearance. "You're involvement in the mission is critical. Your mutation, and Emma's assistance in guiding you while sleeping will allow us to reshape the land when the situation grows dire. We've packed medicine to give you a dreamless sleep on the flight there, if you choose to take them."

Laura approached Heidi upon her return, looking down at her only slightly. "Heidi." She uttered only a name. Laura refused to let her guard down around anyone, even people that she had known for quite some time. "You've shown me pictures of yourself and your team from your past, but seeing you as a young girl never ceases to surprise me." Laura wouldn't call herself a friend of Heidi's. Not because she disliked Heidi, but rather due to the stark differences between them. Unless it was about whatever mission was before them, they didn't talk a whole lot. If anything, she would consider her own Heidi a good acquaintance. "Your Stark funded X-Man uniforms have lasted longer than any others I've tried."

Chrys headed to his locker, thinking hard. There was doubt in his mind that this group could pull something off, but, they had said things that made him feel uneasy. Heidi made tech capable of time travel? Sure, the girl was brilliant... But it seemed no one noticed the small ripple that had flown out when he said that... Time manipulation wasn't something you messed with. His father had said as much when he was alive...

'Think of time and space as two forces that are always in harmony, mess with one and you can potentially damage the other. But you, Chrys... Your power subverts this. You aren't deleting anything or changing things. You shift them along an axis that already exists...

It gave him a moment of pause. That was his old power. That didn't explain the subspace and stasis field he created now. But he didn't sense the space being affected by his power... So what was he really? Some kind of focal point of spacetime? He'd felt the roaring pain of the space Cable took up, the others had it too, but it paled in comparison. "He must be going through timelines constantly... But why... Why potentially cause damage to something that affects your time... Maybe even cause a paradox..."

He finished getting ready, pulling his weapons out. He thought for a moment then dropped them into the subspace. He headed back to the room, where he felt the ripples coming from Cable seem to be getting stronger. It was slight, but he could feel the change.

Tatiana went to her locker. She suited up in her jumpsuit. Tatiana admired herself in the mirror she tried several appearance changes, she marveled at how it worked with her power. It stretched when she made herself bigger it allowed her to form 'clothes' over top of it. She wasn't used to having this much real clothes on her it felt unnatural but she could get used to it. She put on her weapons and hid them under her 'street clothes'. Tatiana went back to the others and took a seat. Watching the others she began to make guesses about their future. The newest girl she didn't bother with didn't know enough. Most of them she figured martyred themselves or were on their way. Heidi the girl genius clearly was the next Stark maybe less of an ass. Rose Mary she had a hard time seeing a future for, she could see her fighting for a long time with the hope of martyrdom but her power preventing, falling from grace and becoming evil, or just living in the looney bin. Right now she only cared about one thing training, becoming stronger, saving as many of her kind as possible from the scourge Blade, and murdering Blade draining him dry. She wondered if he tasted bad because of that stupid serum of his.

Rose Mary stood in the corner off to the side. She was in deep in thought. She had a question, for Laura the girl she met earlier with Logan in the garage. She was wondering if she should ask. She decided to give it a go so she walked up to Laura. "Miss Laura did you Logan date? I asked him about you, he didn't seem to know you or good at hiding it, not really sure. I know he has memory problems not sure if it some kind of weird mutant dimentia thing or what. The look you gave him back in the garage seemed like you know him personally." She did her best to parse her words as carefully as she could. "Or maybe he hasn't met you yet. Do you ever find it hard to keep track of your relationship statuses in different time periods? Does time travel take a physical toll on you?" She had no interest in her future. Sure these time travelers could change small things but she believed that ultimately it was impossible to change it in large ways, like in HG Wells' book about the guy who invented time machine and tried to save his wife over and over again only to watch her die in countless different ways.

@pyroman

There were a lot of conclusions Heidi drew from the few sentences Laura had spoken to her, and her face and body language. Even so, she could not gauge from the older woman what her future self was like. But she wanted to ask.

"What's my future self like, besides making uniforms and time travel? Is she less socially awkward, at least? Is she married? I don't think knowing those things would be harmful to my future. Especially as I'd find that future so bleak as to justify messing with the past to stop it."

Laura was rather surprised at how popular she had become with the younger versions of those that she worked with. She had struck up a conversation with Heidi, but Rosemary also wanted to talk to her.

"Logan is someone I know well in your future." She gave a brief future. "He will not meet me for another twenty-odd years." While she didn't want to be rude, she was talking with Heidi first, and found her questions of the future rather amusing. Her love life? Her social skills? Heidi did have a good point to justify getting answers. What they were about to do would drastically change future. She may even not exist in the future they were going to create. There was little harm in disclosing such insignificant details, especially since they had the failsafe with them.

"Socially, you improve. You've told me about your social ineptitude, and I was almost unable to believe it, given how far you've come." A ghost of a smile graced her features, her arms crossing over one another. "And yes. You are married. Happily so."

Bonny listened silently to what cable had to say. She had gotten a general idea of what she would be doing, but she did more or less ask to see if there was any equipment she needed. From that answer, it was safe to assume there wasn’t anything specific needed on her part. Just kind of take a nap and have Emma guide her in her dream to help her reshape the world around them. She found a little bit of humor in the concept of sleeping through the key parts of the mission. Though the line “when the situation grows dire” and not “if the situation grows dire” made her a little uncomfortable. These guys seemed to have it under control; she’d stop wondering and just go with it. It’d be easier that way, since she didn’t really have the option to back out.

She noticed the majority of the others had returned from gathering their equipment. “I appreciate the offer, and I can hold onto them just in case I do need them, but I think I’ll be fine. The flight will be a good time to get to know everyone here and all that.” It looked like, from the crowd that gathered, that they were about to head out. It still felt a little surreal, going into a mission so fast. Her attendance record would already be tarnished, and she’d have to grab her books and such when she got back. Oh, and apologize to Sally if she couldn’t make it. She’d figure it out later.