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Washington D.C. Waterfront:

Frost International isn't too far from the Waterfront - it's located in the downtown portion of Washington D.C., approximately fifteen blocks away from where they are currently. They can walk there without too much difficulty, though it's rather humid outside at the moment and not that pleasant. Another option would be to hail an Uber and hope that the driver isn't a Purifier (and doesn't realize they're mutants!) Of course, there is also the metro but do you really want to get packed into a car without functioning air conditioning right now? Gross! At any rate, no matter what choice they make, they'll be able to get to Frost International at the end of your post.

The Morlock Tunnels - Washington D.C. Sewers:

Erg grimaced slightly - there were reasons why he had issues with Stretch and his brother was one of them. Unlike the rest of the Morlocks, Stretch lived a double life - he continued to go and act on the surface, as if the people up there could accept him. His elasticity meant that no mark could stay on his face even if they tried, and his ability to change his appearance made him ideal for getting the food and medicine the Morlocks needed to survive. "I agreed with you once, Leighton," Erg said quietly. "I used to fight for... for tolerance but people can only tolerate something they hate. The world is not ready for mutants. If I can minimize contact with the surface, my people are better for it. Stretch's crusade after his brother was foolish. He tries to live in both worlds and it will kill him one day."

He let a moment of silence pass, before he picked up an empty beer bottle. "Freeze the bottle - and just the bottle," Erg instructed Leighton. He needed to more or less see what they were working with. He imagined that she would have some trouble getting her powers started, but a lot of difficulty with keeping them contained and manipulating them to do exactly as she wished. He'd take her to see other mutant talented with ice that evening, once the supply run had concluded. Blink was the go-to method for Morlock's to travel around the city.

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"Negasonic - can you give call to Stretch?" Colossus asked. The teenager nodded, rolling her eyes as she went off and dialed Stretch's number, waiting to see if he would answer. She figured that Colossus more or less wanted her to tell him that Veil and Sapphire had made it back safely, so there would be no need for him to look into finding them. She would have asked Colossus to just do it himself, but it was an excuse to be on her phone and away from the adults, so hey, she wasn't going to argue against that.

Havok had shot a glare back at Spark Plug for her comments about him not getting every single woman. He had half a mind to remind her that his on-and-off again girlfriend was Magneto's daughter and that his older brother used to run the X-Men, as a way of arguing that both the Brotherhood and the X-Men would come smack Spark Plug around for him if he wanted them to. Of course, he knew better than to say things like that - since he doubted either event would actually come true.

Veil shook her head at Spark Plug as she was offered the pain killers. "No, those are yours. I'm fine," she insisted, giving her friend a slight smile. She was glad to see that Spark Plug was okay. She had been really worried about her, since the last time Veil saw her, she had been shot and they were practically surrounded by cops. She then gave a nod towards Moonwalker, holding out a hand to him since Glimpse seemed to be thinking things over. "I'm Veil. Good to meet you," she said, introducing herself.

She was a bit curious as to why Glimpse had gone to them - she had connections if she was related to the Braddocks. Why would she go to the cash strapped and barely functioning Mutant Underground with this sort of information? Veil guessed that it might have been in order to ask them to pass it along to the X-Men, but if she was rich, wouldn't Luna have a phone? There was something just weird about this entire situation, but she wouldn't know what to do until Luna explained to her what was going on and why she needed to meet with Veil personally.

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So far, they were lucky - security hadn't come by this portion of the warehouse just yet. James would even be able to find a detailed copy of the warehouse's manifest, with keyword searches making it easy to find the locations of just about everything he would need. Crimp wire connectors, wire nuts, wire strippers, one alternate generator, and volt regulators were all indicated as being stored on the first floor of the warehouse - where they currently were. He would need to check the manifest for items stored on the other floors in order to see if they had the rest of the things he needed here.

Casper stared at James for a few moments after he explained everything they were looking for. He wasn't even certain what language that had been - was it English? It all sounded Greek to him. Never before in his life had he really attempted to do any sort of electrical or mechanical repair. Sure, his dad's place ended up exploding a lot and needing to be rebuilt, but Casper had been too young to really help out with it - and he never had much interest in that sort of thing. "... I think I might have an easier time finding the Holy Grail - is Nick Cage around here anywhere? I bet there's some sort of National Treasure thing dealing with a warehouse," Casper mused. He had completely forgotten to answer his brother's question about why he was here.

"For once, I know as little as you do," Ben mused, as he followed off after Casper. Everyone was looking through the first row of boxes, so he decided to round the bend and go somewhere new. Of course, technically he was really picking boxes from the same shelf as all of them, but his brother was handling the top boxes so Casper went for the lowest one. Opening it up, he found the crimp wire connectors and he held them up. "Do you need these?" he called out to James.

Of course, Sunshine gave Stretch a bit of a look after he chastised her for her choice in language. She was surprised that he spoke Greek - it wasn't exactly the most common of languages. Had she been cursing in Spanish, she would have understood someone understanding it - everyone spoke Spanish in the United States (well, she didn't but that wasn't the point). She committed James' descriptions to memory easily, walking forward to go start looking through things. She wasn't too far away from Tome when he started going off about how he found boxes and she rolled her eyes.

"Congratulations, you found a box. Now just take some markers and you can make yourself a friend, Max!," Sunshine told him, rolling her eyes. "Though being friends with you might qualify as cruel and unusual punishment," she quipped, picking on him for really no reason at all. He struck her as weak and an easy target. Smirking slightly, Sunshine then turned her attention to the box closest to her and she opened it up. Her eyes widened in surprise, finding a dead rat inside of the box. She then picked it up and held it out to James by the tail.

"Would this help?" she asked, giggling.

Blink had been looking through boxes on her own, using her portals to grab the ones from the top of the shelf she was dealing with. She didn't exactly appreciate the way Sunshine was talking to Tome, and she looked over just in time to see the kid holding a rat carcass up like some sort of sick trophy. "Kid, don't touch that! You don't know where it's been!"

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“Perfect Jack. And that’s exactly what I need Casper, thanks.” James glanced at the two for half a second just to confirm, eyes darting back to the screen as he pulled up the manifest. He felt some tension drain out of him, the familiarity of the location far more his speed than purifiers and guns and telepaths. A search bar popped up and he muttered “Cha-ching! under his breath as he quickly searched for his list.

Two generators, one on this floor and one on the second. That eliminated half the list right off the bat. No need for alternators, volt regulators, or field poles even though they had them. Well, maybe they would want them for spare parts or fix up the other two generators as spares. He'd run that by Blink in a moment. But for now, where were those…

“Sunshine, you remember that favor you mentioned you owed me? I’d call us even if you left Max alone and stayed on task until we leave.” James called over his shoulder, finishing his search with another cha-ching. “Max, grab a big-ish box so we can toss parts in it. Jack, we got wire strippers and regulators on top of the furthest shelves. Casper, Sunshine there is a generator in the middle by the wall on my side. Grab that would you please?” James looked up at Blink.

“Got some options for you. We have the generators to replace your so we don’t need a good chunk of my list. The next generator is on floor two but the rest of the pieces to repair your current ones are in the basement and we have to go up to floor three for the heat shrink. Otherwise we may as well keep you in the dark.” James explained to her. “The choice you have is do we get all the parts so I repair the old ones as back up or do we take the quick route? Your people, your call.”

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Requiem stopped at the waterfront parking lot, already sweating more than he cared. He pulled out his handkerchief to dab at the moisture on his brow, lip curling in disdain. They had a few options but walking wasn’t one he was interested in. He tapped his cane quietly as he considered his options. His limp made approaching the building on foot obvious and anyone left there to monitor the situation would be alerted far too quickly. The metro offered the same issue with the additional irritation of being packed like sardines. Both options included his limp and he sighed. And uber was a wild card, with how prevalent the purifier ideology was these days.

But that offered an interesting opportunity. If he arrived a few moments before Jinx, he could observe for a while as Jinx began the investigation and see who, if anyone, reacted. A physical asset would be much easier to influence than anything. He flipped out his phone, ordered his uber, and turned to Jinx.

“Your natural chattering is about to prove useful. Once I enter the car, walk to Frost’s headquarters and begin searching the floor. Check security feeds if there are any and the holding facility for the prototype.” Requiem paused as his phone chimed, announcing the ubers arrival. “I will join you in a little. Make sure you cause your normal ruckus in there without contaminating the scene.” He stepped into the Uber and nodded at Jinx before he drove off.

He stayed quiet during the drive, twisting the rings on his fingers as the city slipped by. There was still so much to do but a seat on the inner council would open doors he still struggled to access. The influence and power he would have access to would let him cast his web as far as he wanted and then would slowly start dragging them in, all those ugly seats under his control. Mutants wouldn’t hide then, would fear for their lives and those they loved. He pressed a soft kiss to each as the Uber slowed and he stepped out on the other side of the road from the facility, waiting for Jinx to make his entrance.

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A smirk remained on Luna’s face while she continued this little stare down with Havok. He was rather interesting, feeling the need to protect everyone here, even though they could all handle themselves quite well. The more she stared, the more Luna wanted to ‘glimpse’ (hence the name) into his mind to see what exactly made him tick. However, that wouldn’t help her cause. Spark Plug re-explained who her father was, as if saying once again who he was would help her case with Havok. No, the pair stared at each other in silence until Veil finally showed up. Luna finally looked away, watching Veil walk across the floor with her companion. They had definitely seen better days, but they had both gotten away and came bearing food. Veil finally came over and introduced herself but Luna had gone back to staring at Havok, weighing her options.
Veil’s companion wandered off and made a phone call. She returned a short while later informing the group that she had just spoken to Luna’s aunt. She cocked her head at Sapphire, curious as to how the girl knew her aunt but that question would have to come later. Now Luna had to explain why she was here. Luna pushed herself to her feet, since Veil had taken her hand back but Luna wouldn’t have taken the offered hand to begin with.
”I’ve been told several times that whatever I have to say to you can be said in front of everyone. Does that hold true or would you rather speak in private?”

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Cayden grinned at Callie and went to sit down beside her. She agreed with him and was complimenting him on a job well done. So far, his first day in D.C. was shaping up well.
”Is he always like this?” Cayden spoke to Callie in hushed tones in regards to Havok. Poor guy needed to wear less tight pants or something.
Veil and Sapphire walked in a few minutes later bearing food. His mouth started to water from all the smells. However, there was no red bag of Doritos. Oh well. He would have to snatch a bag on his own. Cayden got up to look over some of the food and steal a burger when Callie introduced him to Veil. He turned and looked at the actual boss lady and smiled warmly.
”Pleasure,” he said and shook her hand happily. He liked it here and seriously hoped he could be of more help in the future to this group of people. The Underground did some serious good work and he just wanted to give a better life to mutants. Everyone deserved that. Cayden picked out a burger and a small thing of fries for himself before he gathered up an unopened, full bag.
”I’ll go give this to the kiddos. Doritos are delicious but hardly filling,” he said and wandered off. As much as he wanted to know what the mysterious daughter of Captain Britain had to say, he wasn’t fully sure he would be allowed to hear privileged information as that. He did just show up today after all.

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"Nice to see you too Spark Plug, and don't call me Elsa again would you?" she said towards Callie with a bit of an eye roll. Sapphire didn't care much for that nickname at all, since it wasn't actually the name she went by. At least she wasn't being called by her actual name, that would have made her punch Spark Plug, since she hated her first name. She looked over at the others, not too sure what they were thinking of, and even though Psylocke had confirmed who Glimpse was, she still didn't trust her.

"Even though you were telling the truth about who you are, doesn't mean we can trust you completely, not sure if that's just me or if anyone else feels that way," Sapphire said, shaking her head at Luna. She never hid the fact that it was kind of difficult to gain her trust, she just wasn't too trusting of anyone, no matter who they were or where they came from. Trust was something that was earned and not given immediately, that was just the way things were.

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Jack glanced over at Sunshine messing around with the dead rat and he frowned slightly. Why did that kid like to mess around with dead things or something? "Rookie, stop messing with the dead rat!" he said, looking over at Sunshine and shaking his head. It was a bit on the disgusting side that she was messing with the rat at all, even if for some reason it wasn't dead. He then heard what James was saying about where things were, thinking for a moment. "How about we grab some of the stuff in here since we already started messing with things so that we'll have some spare parts for if the generators break down again."

With that, he walked around and past his brother, rolling his eyes slightly, but saying nothing to him as he walked a few aisles down to where one of the shelves were that James had indicated for parts. It seemed like he'd be the one responsible for hitting the top shelves for this run, per the usual, and so he stretched upwards once more, reaching the box that had the volt regulators, and bringing it back down to the ground. He hadn't been lying, they were probably better off in the long run grabbing anything that might be useful in repairing the generators as well as new ones if possible. Since otherwise they'd have to go on another run to get the parts anyway later on.

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New Outfit

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Max ignored Sunshine for the most part, choosing to chalk it all up to her age and parents than to think more onto the fact that yet another person might dislike him. He grabbed what he deemed to be an appropriately sized box for the pieces that had been shown off so far, as well as for what he thought may be going into it later. Walking up towards Casper, he nudged him on the shoulders and smiled a bit. ”Nice National Treasure reference. It does kinda feel like this sort of thing would be up Nick Cages alley. Parts?”

After a bit, Max had moved over to where Jack was currently standing, holding the box up a bit higher as he said ”Please sir, may i have some more?” in a dreadful cockney accent. He turned to look towards James with a slight smile, attempting to make himself more pleasing, while also being happy that at least someone was sticking up for him. ”What more do we need? I can help search once I’m done gathering up the parts from everyone. I can also be muscle if needed for those who go up to the grab the generator, since their hands will be too full to fight if needed.:

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Jinx was in high spirits as he left the yacht, literally cartwheeling away full of excitement to have something to do. Once on the docks he noticed that Requiem had stopped walking and began to tap his cane in an irratating fashion. Jinx quickly stopped his wheeling and landed before Requiem, giving him a childishly quizzical look. ”What’s the game plan man? You got the look about you like the wheels are just turnin’ away.” He blew a large bubble in front of Requiem, letting it pop naturally before continuing to chew his gum again. Once Requiem had given him the plan, Jinx looked at the man, cocked his head, and went ”Soooo you want me to cause a scene as usual? I knew you’d come around sooner or later pal! One ruckus coming up!’

As Jinx skipped down the street, heading towards Frost International, he began to sing Ta-ra-ra-Boom-deya to himself while wagging his fingers around as if conducting the piece. His spirits were high and that meant he wanted to cause more mischief than usual. Spotting a lady with an ice cream cone, Jinx grinned as he decided to send one of his specialty bad lucks to her, She went to lick the Ice cream and HA! It fell right off the cone!...and straight into Jinx’s face. Ok, not how that was meant to go but that’s fine. He kept on skipping ahead, wiping the treat onto his sleeve. A family of tourists were to his left trying to make some memories. But what better memory to have than a horrid photo. Another jinx was sent out to the family and he couldn’t be happier; this shall make up for the ice cream on him. Except, nothing happened, nothing at all. What rubbish! He headed straight towards Frost Internationals Lobby, now stomping his way there in a slight tinge of anger. When his luck continued to be sour, as he wasn’t being let up, he pulled out his phone and messaged Requiem ’They wont let me in, when will you get here so you can use that silver tongue?’

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Callie looked towards Veil and nodded slightly, she declined it and she stuffed it back into her pocket. "Well if you are hurting you can take them if you need to just ask." Callie said towards her friend as she reached over and grabbed herself a handful of fries and a few pieces of chicken that were there as well. She looked over at Sapphire and nodded towards her, she did get put in prison for her so she would easily let go of the name Elsa for now anyway that is. Callie then returned the same stare at Havok, her mother worked in the early days of the X-Men as well, and she could simply call her over as well.

As Callie started to continue to eat her meal she watched Moonwalker take a seat next to her and asked a bit about Havok and gave a slight shrug. "Eh you get used to his antics, though it's pretty entertaining to see him and the new girl have a stare down." Callie said as she leaned back when Luna spoke up looking over towards Veil. "Personally i'm really curious what she's gotta say, but it's your call if you want to do it in private or not."

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Leighton was a bit taken aback. She didn't expect Erg to agree with her. Hell, she hadn't started forming these opinions until recently. "Well, I am glad you see my point. I don't even know what I'm going to do anymore now that I know I'm a mutant. I definitely can't go back home, my family would disown me." Not like she wanted to anyway. As soon as she turned 18 she looked into moving out as quickly as possible.

Once Erg set the can down and instructed her, Leighton summoned her power to the best of her ability. She could feel it coursing inside of her. A cold sensation, but one she enjoyed. She shot out an ice shard, hitting the can almost as soon as Erg removed his hand. However, what she hadn't anticipated was the can freezing and then exploding. She jumped back in shock. "Oh um....ok. I didn't mean for that to happen. But hey, I hit the can! That's good, right?"

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Frost International HQ - Downtown Washington D.C.:

Frost International is a Fortune 500 corporation, specializing in largely transportation (building ships and aircraft), though they recently have started to branch out into electronics. They're nowhere near as big a player as say Stark Industries or Pym Technologies, but they have started to make a name for themselves. Emma Frost runs the company, as it was founded by her father, Winston Frost. The relocation of its headquarters to Washington D.C. from Boston happened a few years back, so the building is relatively new and security measures are up to date. From his position across the road, Requiem will be able to see people coming in and out of the building, mostly employees - no one recognizable beyond Jinx of course.

Inside the lobby itself, there were security guards sitting at the main desk. In order to enter the building proper, you needed to have the guards open up a set of automatic doors. There are some places to sit, mostly for people waiting to be taken up into the building for an appointment. A fish tank against one wall has a lot of tropical and dejected looking fish, while soft jazz music plays around them from some sort of intercom system.

"Hey buddy, you can't stand here," one of the guards told Jinx, waiting to see how he reacted. "Either you've got an appointment or you need to scram, kid."

The Morlock Tunnels - Washington D.C. Sewers:

Erg wasn't the type to reassure Leighton that her family would still want her. In his experience, humans were cruel whenever they had a chance to be. Odds were, her family would pretend to accept her at best - and at worst, they would call the police on their own child. "You are too young to make mistakes, Leighton. Whatever choices you make now can largely be undone," Erg reassured her. It was partially a lie. She could make a mistake. She could make herself a target of the Purifiers and get herself killed.

Luckily, neither Erg or Leighton got hurt from the shards of the bottle. Erg thought for a moment, before he realized what happened. Leighton froze the bottle so fast that the glass rapidly contracted and shattered. "Yes, you did," he chuckled slightly. "Now let us see if you can freeze a bottle without creating a weapon," he suggested. He found another bottle and set it down, looking at Leighton. "Concentrate. Your power is an extension of yourself and your will."

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Veil didn't hesitate to answer Luna's question. "Unless it's too graphic for Havok's delicate ears, everyone can hear whatever it is you have to tell me," Veil told her calmly. She trusted her team and while she appreciated the value of compartmentalizing information and keeping secrets, her gut was telling her that everyone would benefit from hearing whatever Glimpse had to say. And knowing these people, they'd pester her and ask what Glimpse had been here about anyways. It would save time to just get it all out in the open right now.

"Trust is earned," Colossus agreed, having heard Sapphire's comments about Glimpse. He crossed his arms slightly, a clear sign of him closing himself off at least emotionally.

"Like hell do I trust her!" Havok snapped. "Just because your aunt is Psylocke and your father is Captain Britain, it doesn't mean you're a good person," he was glaring at Glimpse and Veil sighed slightly. She knew that it was dumb to trust a person after just meeting them, but she felt that Havok was intentionally acting harsh towards Glimpse. Sapphire she knew didn't trust anyone, so that wasn't surprising.

"Guys, trust her or don't trust her, it's your choice - but it's also your choice as to whether or not you give her a chance to earn that trust," she told Havok and Sapphire, more or less giving them a warning. At least Spark Plug was acting nice towards the visitor and she gave Spark Plug a nod, acknowledging her words.

Over by the kids, Negasonic took her phone away from her ear. Stretch hadn't picked up to answer her call. She glanced up at Moonwalker as he brought over the food, thinking for a few moments. "Your name - do you just really love Michael Jackson?" she asked him, actually making eye contact and not looking at her phone for once. It was a rare occasion. The kids were happily eating their way through the food that Moonwalker had carried over to them. Most of them seemed to have already adjusted to this new location - and given that they lived in a shelter, it wasn't surprising that they found the new surroundings easy to come around to.

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Sunshine paused for a moment, considering James' request. She did owe him a favor, but asking her to stop tormenting Tome was a big ask. Sure, there was definitely a psychological analysis explaining why she felt the need to lash out at the naive magical mutant, but she didn't care. All Sunshine knew was that she got a little spark of joy each time she shot her mouth off in Tome's direction. "...Fine," she then said, rolling her eyes. "I'll leave him alone, but the second we get back to the tunnels, I'm smacking him in the face with Fred," she explained. "Fred's the rat."

"Maybe we should just get the new generators, we probably don't have much time before security shows up," Blink pointed out. They were pushing their luck as it was. However, Stretch was already going around grabbing the parts in the locations that James had managed to figure out. "Alright, let's go get those generators, think Stretch has grabbed most of the parts for repairs that were on this level. I don't think we should go down to the basement though, that would really be pushing our luck..."

"Come on, Lollipop, let's go get it," Casper said, motioning for the kid to hurry up and come on over to him. Ben was just sort of trailing along after him as Casper went over, trying to find where this generator was. He didn't really know what a generator looked like, so he essentially was just trying to find something heavy and fancy. Ben wasn't much help, just sort of doing the same process as Casper and shrugging slightly, before Ben decided to just perch on some shelves.

"Come on, Ben, help! Pull your weight!" Casper complained.

"I'm a ghost, I have no weight to pull," Ben pointed out.

"...Smart alec!" Casper criticized. Sunshine walked past him, dead rat in her hand, and she eventually managed to find the generator, pointing at it. "It's this one," she told Casper. Blink hurried on over to them, opening up a portal back to the Morlock tunnels. Together, Casper and Sunshine lifted the generator off of the shelf and put it through the portal. Blink then closed it.

"Generator is back at the tunnels," she announced. Sunshine was opening up the dead rat's mouth, trying to see how many teeth it had. "Tome, let's go and..." Blink started to stay, before she cursed under her breath. The doors opened up and in came three security guards, flashing their lights around.

"You're trespassing, put your hands up!" one of the guards snapped. They all had guns up as well and currently, they had only spotted James.

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Wow were these people entertaining. It was like an reality TV show down here. Luna was waiting to be voted off the island at any moment, too bad she had a really juicy bargaining chip. She had a feeling she would have a permanent smirk on her face with these people as she listened to their various believes on trust.
”The beautiful thing is you don’t need trust to listen to what someone has to say. You simply need ears,” she said and looked at Havok, a perfectly innocent smile on her face now. ”And a brain to interpret.” She hadn’t given these people a single reason not to trust her but she didn’t care anyway. She had a message to deliver and a desire to help them, whether they believed her or not.
”Xavier has information from a reliable source, don’t bother asking I already tried to weasel it out of him, that perfect Sebastian Shaw is behind the Hound Program. The Hound program, if you haven’t heard of it, takes mutants, mostly those who won’t be missed,” Luna paused and looked pointedly around the room they were in before looking back at Veil. ”And injects them with some sort of drug or chemical that turns them into a near unstoppable weapon.”
When Luna had first heard this information from Xavier she was overcome with a severe amount of anger and then disappointment. Shaw hadn’t always been like this, honestly every villain didn’t start out bad. They had hopes, dreams… family. But people, the world could easily take something that mattered away from you and that’s it. You either switch everything off or you fight like hell so the world doesn’t win.
”Even though I demanded to wait for Veil, this is information that you may chose to do whatever you wish with. Call Xavier and double check the facts if you wish, take to the streets and ask questions, I don’t care. The point is, we’re running out of time. I have connections I am willing to use but there’s that pesky problem of trust,” Luna said and looked at them all.

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Cayden ate his meal while he happily watched the kids devour their’s. They were talking happily with each other, feeling safe and relaxed despite the poor accommodations. In Cayden’s eyes, as long as there was a roof over his head, this was the good life. He looked over at Negasonic when she made a connection between his name and Michael Jackson. He grinned and shook his head.
”Don’t get me wrong, the man has talent. I can’t dance or sing like him though. No, one of my abilities is to dreamwalk and most people dream at night right? So Moon and then walker. Although maybe one day I’ll be like Armstrong and walk the moon, then follow up with moonwalking,” Cayden laughed. It really wasn’t funny, it was awful even but Cayden had this act of just being himself, regardless of the implications or what others would say about him. He just was.

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James nodded at Blink’s response. It was true that running downstairs would take extra time and if the driver said no, James wasn’t about to argue. And as if some twist of fate wanted to drive the point home, three guards walked in. James was lucky enough to catch their attention.

He considered his options carefully and decided distracting was probably the best option. He raised his hands and turned slowly, moving carefully around the table before stopping. He didn’t bother sparing the group a glance, instead concentrating on keeping a conversation.

“Well, fancy meeting you here. Though I suppose it was only a matter of time but still, I feel like you moved way too fast for your normal days. Extra boring shift?” James asked cheerfully, spitting out whatever came to mind. ”Don’t suppose you could look the other way huh? Just need to grab some field poles from downstairs, you know?”

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Requiem watched Jinx as he stomped into Frost’s HQ. Nothing like boiling anger to make a scene. Requiem counted as the seconds ticked by, watching to see if anyone reacted to Jinx’s presence. A blip form his cellphone interrupted him―not that he saw anything anyway―and he hummed non committedly. He stayed there a few more moments before making his way across the street, considering how they wanted to handle this.

Security would likely log their entrance, considering they didn’t have an appointment, and whoever wanted to keep this under wraps would probably be monitoring this. They could announce themselves, see if anything pings in the system or if any of security follows up with a third party, and follow that line. Or they could get in without a ping and keep their investigation focused on the floor that held the lost project.

Requiem entered the building and he deliberately slowled himself, counting a second or two between the click of his cane as he looked around the lobby. He noted the entrance and stepped up next to Jinx, settling his hand on the small of the disaster’s back and pressing light, guiding him towards the security desk.

“You know you can’t run ahead of me like that darling. I can’t walk for very long before I get tired. Requiem let fond exasperation color his voice as he spoke to Jinx, turning to the security officers. “Spouses. What do you do with them? Can’t live with them, can’t live without them but I wouldn’t have it any other way. He said with a chuckle. “We have some business to attend to in the building. It shouldn’t be a problem to let us pass without any issues.”

The guard gave Requiem an unimpressed look which he returned with a calm smile though it twitched a moment when Jinx caught him with a light nudge of the shoulder. “Really, it shouldn't be a problem to let us pass." He kept himself calm and collected outwardly even though it was quite annoying that even with the disaster's assistance, the guard proved resistant to his methods, instead pulling out the pass Shaw had provided them with.

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Max watched in fear as the guards began to show up. Three armed men, each directing their guns at James. Sure he had a healing factor, but could he survive a gun wound? James began to speak to the guards, obviously distracting them but for what? Max began to look around, trying to read the faces of the other mutants with him, looking for any hint as to what sort of action they wanted to take. From what he could gather, it appeared that everyone wanted to engage the guards in some way, shape, or form. But what could Max do? A direct assault with his cane may get him shot, tying them up with fabrics or other articles of clothing would notify them of a mutant attack. Fire was too dangerous to wield around all these cardboard boxes but...

It was then that he spotted the sprinklers up top. Ofcourse! Every building has to have some sort of fire suppression system! Even a candle could cause them to rain down upon the guards and trigger the alarms, if held close enough. Max looked towards Jack and smiled ”I think I have an idea.” he said as he motioned towards the ceilings sprinklers. Before Jack could say or do anything, Max began to whisper his incantation ”Sucearg Singi’ A conflagration appeared over the guards heads, setting off the fire alarms, as well as lighting the ceiling on fire. Shit shit shit shit shit. That was not the idea i had in mind Panic quickly overtook his face as he watched in horror. Sure, this may provide enough of a distraction for James to get away, but it was also destruction of property.

Max watched the guards intently, waiting for any sign of movement. If they were to shoot, he was prepared to bolt in front of James and take the bullet; after all what is the use of Kevlar clothing if not to stop a bullet? However, if it appeared that the guards where to flee, he would attempt to cancel the fire as soon as they left the room in which they were all in. The stress of it all seemed to slow down time for Tome, as he awaited the others moves.

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The guards were greatly aggrivating Jinx, as they acted as though they had any authority over what he could or could not do. “I cant stand here huh? Well what about this then?’ Jinx quickly flipped onto his hands, his face now looking towards the entrance of the building as he continued. “Happy? I’m not standing here anymore so now you can stop complaining. Besides I don’t need-“ His sentence was quickly cut off as he watched Requiem begin to make his way into the building. Jinx quickly went back onto his feet, more than aware that his partner doesn’t stand for such Tom foolery, although he was asked to make a scene, its best not to get on his bad side so early into the mission.

What followed next was more of a shock to him than his day so far. Requiem called him his lover of all things. Bleh. As if he’d ever be with such a stick in the mud. Jinx watched as he tried to use his powers of persuasion and failed miserably. Knowing the feeling, Jinx leaned his head against Requiems shoulder and batted his eyelashes at the guard, nudging his partner as soon as he became Jinxed. Ofcourse even with his aid, it appeared these guards were tough to crack, then again what could one expect from a telepaths guards? Finally in frustration he held up his pass that Shaw had given him, making sure only the guard could see as he leaned in and whispered. ”Listen here you little shit. We have a damn Multi-Pass and we were never here ok? So keep this to yourself and let us in or you’ll be facing a lot of trouble. Capice?” Jinx had opted to keep the man under his influence for a while, hoping that he would have a horrid day as payment for taking up his valuable time.

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"...Never thought I'd actually agree with Havok on anything," Sapphire muttered under her breath, wondering why Veil seemed perfectly fine letting this newbie into the Underground without having proven herself yet. She understood why Havok wasn't too thrilled, and to her Luna seemed a little bit stuck up, just because she was related to a few people who were big names meant nothing here. The fact that the woman didn't seem to get that at all was sort of hilarious in her mind, but she said nothing more about that.

After hearing her words though, Sapphire was a bit more interested in what Luna had to say. This definitely could be considered a problem, especially one that could potentially effect the Underground. "Okay, that could definitely be a problem..." she mumbled, thinking about what she had said. She still didn't trust Luna, and in her mind it was going to take Luna more then just information on a new problem that they had in order to get Sapphire to trust her.

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Jack didn't say anything as Blink called for them all to go back to the tunnels, and he was about to head that way when he heard the guards who spotted James. That definitely wasn't a good thing to say the least, and they needed to get out of there fast. Problem was that James was kind of in a bit of a situation at the moment, and he needed a bit of a hand to get out of it so that they could get out of there. He heard Max's words, and glanced over at him as he tried to see about helping out. Though that likely didn't help out their situation at all, since now the building was on fire.

"Alright, no big deal, just a little bit of fire, it's okay, everyone makes mistakes every now and then," Jack instantly said to Max, figuring that the plan hadn't been to set the building on fire. His feet remained planted on the ground as he essentially stretched out and managed to make his way somewhat over to where the guards were and managed to punch out 2 of them (Guards 1 and 2 specifically), allowing James if need be to go out the front door to avoid falling rubble. With that, he went back to where Max was (and where he technically was still standing) and decided to hell with it, Max needed to move as the building's roof did not look like it was going to hold, and managed to create almost like a sort of roof above Max's head. "Alright, you need to get moving, flaming building bits are going to start falling if you don't get moving. And not sure if we can avoid any sort of bits that may fall to begin with. You need to get over to Blink now!"

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Callie looked over towards Veil and nodded towards her friend, and then shot Havok a bit of an annoyed look towards him and shook her head a little bit. "Just saying, you know two big names here as well and we still keep you around and trust you." Callie said towards him smirking a bit, before turning her attention over towards Luna as she spoke up. And the information didn't sound very good at all she didn't like the sound of the Hound Program at all, and if it did actually come from the bald man in the wheel chair it could be followed up. "I think we should give The Cue Ball a call then and follow up." Callie said.

"I could take Karen here and see if we can find information or something that could be looked into?" Callie suggested, as she looked towards Luna, she figured it would be a good wat to vet her as well. "And it'd be a good chance to vet her see if the info is solid enough, but it's your call." Callie said towards Veil.

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She got some sense that there was more meaning behind Erg's words, but she was certain he would not elaborate on them. For whatever reason, he knew something she didn't. She had no home left. Surely if her picture wasn't out there somewhere with what happened to Target or the clothing boutique, then her likeness was. And it would be slow steps to them finding out she was a mutant. She would be disowned.

"I have no home anymore then. They would not accept me. I grew up hating mutants largely due to them and how they raised me. I'm smarter than most give me credit for. I know I act like a bitch, but I would rather push people away that could harm me than bring others in only to be stabbed in the back. Now that I'm a mutant, that much still holds." She took aim at the bottle again, this time trying her best to control her power. She let off an ice shard, hitting the bottle and freezing it. This time, though, the bottle did not shatter.

She fought the urge to happy dance again. "Hey, I did it!"

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Frost International HQ - Downtown Washington D.C.:

The guard stared at Jinx for a moment, before cracking a smile as he whispered back to him, "I speak only two languages: English and Bad English." Apparently Jinx wasn't the only fan of the Fifth Element. However, even though the two of them were a bit eccentric, they had badges to get through. The guards quickly scanned them, with little images of Requiem and Jinx popping up on their computer screen and they visually confirmed those were the same people. There was now a digital trace that they had been there - for better or for worse.

"Enjoy your visit, Leeloo," the guard said to Jinx with a wink before they would be allowed through security. There was a directory printed and pasted onto the wall, listing where the various divisions of Frost International could be found in the building. The basement levels were not listed or marked - which made sense, as those areas were used by the Hellfire Club. In order to call for the elevator, they would have to first scan their badges and then press the up or down buttons. There is a staircase nearby, but it requires a similar set up - scan the badge and then the door unlocks. Security cameras are everywhere, meaning it would be difficult for an intruder to get very far without one of the guards noticing.

The Morlock Tunnels - Washington D.C. Sewers:

Erg nodded at Leighton's words, seemingly not saying anything to contradict her. Maybe he had come to the same conclusions she had or maybe he was just more focused on the immediate task in front of them. However, as she managed to freeze the can without it exploding, Erg did give her a genuine smile. "Well done, Leighton," he praised her. "You're a quick study. Now, I am curious to see if you can freeze a moving target. It is perfectly alright if you struggle and aren't ready for this, but I am curious..."

He then looked around, finding another can - (seriously, with this much litter, is it really surprising that we're killing the planet?) Erg gave her a nod, before he tossed the can up in the air and caught it, before tossing it up again. "Try to freeze the can - and ideally, not me," Erg said, continuing to toss the can up and down. He had a gut feeling that Leighton would be able to do it. Most people took ages to master their powers but there was something special about her.

"The Mutant Underground is a way station," Erg said randomly. "They will take you in, but usually just long enough until you can get back on your feet and be sent elsewhere. The Morlocks offer permanence - but just as you do not trust easily, neither do we. We have been burned before and we will be burned again."

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Veil wasn't surprised that Sapphire didn't trust Glimpse - Sapphire didn't trust anyone. Havok's protests had some merit to them - Glimpse had walked in here with an aura of entitlement and insulted him repeatedly. While Veil and the others did enjoy teasing Havok, they were his friends. Glimpse was a stranger. She hadn't earned the right to get to ridicule Havok. Spark Plug seemed content to just allow Glimpse into the status quo, but Veil wanted to err on the side of caution. If Glimpse's current behavior was any indication, she would be a problem.

"Miss Braddock," Colossus prefaced, "There is old saying in Russia - До́брое бра́тство лу́чшее бога́тство. It means good brotherhood is best wealth," he told her. Whatever meaning she took from that would ultimately be up to her.

Havok wasn't too happy with Spark Plug and Glimpse either. "Oh, I'm sorry that I'm trying to save your ass from something horrible happening. I didn't get a pass on being thoroughly vetted just because of my older brother. Hell, with all of the drama associated with Xavier and his minions, honestly I should have probably been more thoroughly vetted." He hated Glimpse and wanted to shove her in the direction of the nearest manager. It would probably keep her busy for a few decades with them. Maybe he'd find a VHS tape of Extreme Couponing or a worn copy of Fifty Shades of Grey to distract her with.

Veil took a breath. Everyone was talking over each other and while some good points were being made, she was the one in charge here. Spark Plug had a good suggestion, taking Glimpse out to go and vet her as well as her information. Sapphire and her had just gotten out of jail - and while Veil didn't mind going back out into the field right now, she wasn't sure if Sapphire was up for it. Besides, Veil's power set was what made these sort of missions possible.

"Thank you all for your input. This is my decision," Veil said, looking at each of them in turn. "Glimpse - trust can be earned. I'll be taking a small group to go along with you and start vetting the information you have given us. Sapphire, if you're up for it I would like you to come along - Spark Plug, if you feel ready, then that is fine by me as well. Havok, I want you to contact Xavier and verify his connection to all of this."

"But there is another matter - the Mutant Underground was founded to help mutants escape dangerous situations and get to safety. Shutting down the Hound program, while noble, is not part of that mission. I'd like everyone here that is a member to vote before we do anything else - do we want to expand the focus of our cell to include stopping Shaw?"

Meanwhile, Negasonic was chuckling at Moonwalker's explanation. "Why not Dreamwalker?" she asked him. Around then, they would hear a car pull into the garage and Negasonic motioned for him to follow her. She headed out over there, before spotting Sunspot and Cannonball getting out of the vehicle. Sunspot tilted his head slightly, looking at Moonwalker.

"Who the hell is this?" Sunspot asked.

"Dude, would it kill you to be polite?" Cannonball asked his buddy, before he extended a hand to Moonwalker. "Hi, I'm Cannonball - nice ta meet ya."

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"Don't worry, they don't pay us enough to get hurt," one of the guards (guard 3) chimed in agreement. However, in the blink of an eye Stretch had knocked out his buddies. Tome then set the ceiling on fire and the sprinklers activated, but since the flames were above them they weren't able to really put out the flames. The guard let out a slight sigh. "This is why we can't have nice things..." he muttered. "Come on, give me a hand," he requested, before he grabbed one of his friends (guard 1) and dragged him out the main entrance, expecting James to help get the other one to safety.

Shockingly, the building was structurally secure for the moment! The fire was working on the ceiling as best as it could, but it hadn't gotten to the point yet where the ceiling would give out and the building would be liable to collapse. Stretch would end up getting some falling pieces of debris hitting him as he turned himself into an umbrella/shield of sorts for Tome, but they were relatively small pieces and wouldn't hurt too much. Tome was completely fine! James and the guards lucked out as well, not getting hit at all. Sunshine and Blink similarly avoided the debris.

The same could not be said for Casper. A chunk of debris fell down from the ceiling and - as if it was fated to be - hit him square on the head. "Fuck fuck fuck fuck fucking fuckity fuck!" Casper swore, clutching his head. When he pulled his hand away for a moment, there was some blood but not a lot. Ben was laughing at Casper, not able to hold back the giggles at his friend's situation. "Language!" Ben said mockingly.

"Go suck a cock, Ben!" Casper snapped.

"I can't, I'm dead and your brother is alive."

Blink rolled her eyes at Casper. "I really don't want to know what the other side of that conversation sounds like. Now get through the portal!" she told him, creating a portal for him and Sunshine to run through. On the other side of the portal, they'd be able to see Erg working with Leighton on her powers and Sunshine jumped through, followed by Casper. Blink stayed behind, keeping the portal open for the others.

Once through the portal and back at the Morlock Tunnels, Sunshine was snickering a lot as she spotted Erg and Leighton. "Oh, you two will never believe what Tome did!" she said gleefully, with the wicked gleam in her eyes of the little sister who is about to bust their brother for breaking the rules. "Also, meet Fred!" she said triumphantly, holding up the dead rat.

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James stared at the fire currently eating away at the building, giving Tome an exasperated look and wincing at Casper’s yelp. That couldn’t have felt good. Maybe now it was more serious, James could treat it. He turned back to the guard who addressed him and he hesitated a moment. He felt obligated to some extent to help the guy but this was a survival of the fittest situation and James needed to patch up the Morlock electrical systems. But it was partially his fault the guy was down and obviously the other guard didn’t want to come back for him. If he left him, the other guy probably would though.

But… James looked up at the ceiling and back down at the guard. He should have time to do both if everything works out okay. He grabbed the other guard and pulled him outside, leaving him with the others. He waved goodbye before dashing back in, fully prepared to have to leap into the portal to make it.

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Requiem raised his eyebrows at the comments but kept his smile firmly in place, leaving with a tip of his head and a thanks. He kept his hand on Jinx’s back, eyes roving over the set up. They’d need to gain access to the security footage and the scanning records for that night. Requiem wouldn’t be surprised if there was a system error that night or deleted portions but it never hurt to be thorough. Requiem leaned into Jinx, turning his head in towards the man to hide his lips.

“Since you’ve managed to establish a connection with the guard, why don’t you try and find where they keep the footage records? And lift the gaurd’s badge if we need it.” Requiem suggested quietly. It may take a while to figure out exactly which level they kept the sentinel on. Neither of them thought to ask and the floor directory didn’t exactly scream “Sentinel kept here”. Working on two ends of this simultaneously would cut their investigation time down immensely.

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Callie looked over towards Havok and shook her head slightly, she was just simply busting his balls which was always pretty funny and entertaining. "Hey, i'm just messing with ya." Callie said as she shook her head slightly towards him, and looked over towards Glimpse while Colossus spoke up, though she didn't really get the reference he was making. As Callie leaned back in the chair and took another little bite out of the lunch that Veil and Sapphire had managed to bring back. "I don't know her well so she doesn't have my trust yet, but we just need to find out if any of the information is good." Callie spoke up before turning to look over at Veil.

The Hound Program sounded like it would end up becoming an issue of their own at some point. "I think it would end up becoming an issue for us to deal with. Imagine Shaw getting some law enforcement and government contacts or whatever, and finding info on our other Underground cells, I think it be bad if it isnt addressed. But that's your call, and i'm down for getting back out there again."

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Luna turned her head to the side, hearing one of the girls calling her Karen. Her name was Luna, or Glimpse and they knew that. Why would they be calling her Karen? That was seemingly of little concern to Luna when Colossus spoke up and told her some old time saying that obviously meant a lot to him. She smiled a bit.
”And is there a saying for someone who was sent here and is currently trying to become part of the brotherhood? I understand trust is earned but it can’t exactly be earned when your pushing me out the door already now can it?” She appreciated the saying nonetheless. Her father was always saying things like that. He was her brotherhood. Her family bond was all the wealth she needed, not the physical wealth they had. Luna understood there was a bond here as well, thicker than blood and she wasn’t trying to sever the bond but she wasn’t going to be pushed out without a fight either. If they wanted proof, she would give them proof.
Luna listened to Veil as she agreed that they would be taking Luna out to check her information, which she was perfectly fine with. She had yet to go straight to the source herself so this would be a good opportunity to. The only problem was, if they didn’t trust her, why should she trust them? Perhaps she should just go on her own and if she doesn’t show up again because of some bad happening, no harm done. They could go about their lives and her parents could bury an empty coffin. Not like it wasn’t the first time that has happened.
”If I may be so bold, in regards to your mission statement. Wouldn’t it make sense to take out one of the reasons why you have to be rescuing and shipping off mutants to better parts? Leave the head of lion to the X-Men but at least cut a paw off.”

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Cayden shrugged before he pushed away from the table and followed along. He had finished his meal but brought his drink along to sip as they walked.
”It’s a bit boring “dreamwalker” and besides, dreamwalking is a very popular thing within native american culture. Regular humans boast about dreamwalking all the time and solving all sorts of things by doing so. My grandmother used to love the moon, all of her stories were told by moonlight and my first walk was during night and a full moon. It brings me comfort I think… Sorry, that was probably a bit of an over share,” Cayden said. He rubbed the back of his neck shyly and messed with his hair. If his other hand was free he would probably tie it up.
They were interrupted by other voices and even though one was rude, Cayden smiled warmly at both of them.
”Cayden Proudstar, or Moonwalker if you prefer,” Cayden said as he shook Cannonball’s hand. He moved and extended his hand to Sunspot after.

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unconjure flame New Outfit

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As Jack began to speak, Max’s inner panic began to quell. It was nice to finally have someone view him as not a complete waste of space, and understand that mistakes can happen when you’re as young as him and don’t fully grasp your powers as well as you could. He steeled himself for a moment as he nodded to Jack. ”Thanks. First I need to try to clear up my mess. Ignis Graecus” His eyes began to glow, his hands a swirl of cosmic dust. Max started to swirl his hands together, as if pantomiming the Conjuration of a whirlpool or tornado. The fire began to swoop downwards, towards his hands and began to funnel into the cosmic energy surrounding them. As soon as the funnel had made contact with the flames, it began to move upwards towards the ceiling, encasing 73% of the flames that engulfed the ceiling and then suddenly there was a poof of colored dust. Falling down from the sky and dissipating halfway towards the floor.

Max panted for a moment, bent over and hands on his knees. ”That, there, oh, one sec sorry.” He’d put out plenty of his own fires before, as well as dissipating clothing or his cane, but this was different; an immense force of energy created this fire and it took a lot of energy to take it back. Finally catching his breath as James made his way out, Max once again nodded at Jack in an affirmation to go. Getting his wind back and making his way towards the portal as looked anxiously back at James in hopes that he would return and make it back safety. He waited just on the other side of the portal, waiting to see if he would be needed.

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Pick Pocketting, Jinx

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Jinx giggled as Requiem spoke into his ear, pretending as if his ‘lover’ had just said something rather funny. A curt little smile graced his lips as he attempted not to be too devilish in his appearance. ”You got it Daddy. Honestly I cant believe it slipped either of our minds.” Jinx’s eyes glanced over at the guards as they approached them, spying the mans badge and searching for a way to release it from his possession. Luckily, years of pick pocketing would help him out in such an affair. He quickly Jinxed the guard, causing him to lose his footing and fall into a split. Jinx, however, was quick to act, grabbing the guards waist and torso as he caught the man mid fall, slipping his badge off of him and placing it firmly into his own pocket with out anyone’s notice. ”Woah, careful there buddy. It takes years of practice to do such a split.”

With that out of the way, Jinx turned about and skipped on over to his lovely friend at the guard desk. Propping his elbows up onto the desk as he used his hands to support his head and smiled at the man. ”Hi, so, psh, this is like, sooo embarrassing, but, well, you see we don’t really have a directory for-“ and Jinx quickly lowered his voice so that only the guard could hear ”-where we need to be for our visit. If you could tell me where the security footage room is that would completely amazing and i would love it so much.” Jinx batted his eyes at the guard as he smiled.

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Leighton understood that notion of not trusting others. Hell, she didn't trust most of these people here. Erg seemed to be the one she trusted the most, which was odd, but given the fact he did not bullshit her it earned her respect, for whatever that was worth now. "I suppose I'll need to make a decision, but it's hard. On the one hand, I don't want these powers to define me, to make me feel like I have to choose a side in a war that may or may not happen. On the other hand, I have these and now feel I need to use them for something."

As Erg threw the next can, she took aim and shot an ice shard, hitting the can and freezing it. And not freezing Erg in the process. "Yes! Oh my God, I did it! Where was this control in Target?" Then she remembered and it brought the mood down again. "I hope that guy is ok. I didn't mean to freeze him."