Harry couldn't help but giggle at David's little teases. It was an occurrence happening on Genosha, but then again Genosha in and of itself was a weird occurrence. He looks down to where he'd assumed their bodies were before letting out a sigh.
"Yeah, it's probably best we head back. Especially if I'm just sitting there lifeless. If Veil saw me she'd probably flip." he said, speaking through a soft chuckle. Barry was listening to Veil intently as she gave him a message to relay. "No problem I'll ma-"
Barry was interrupted as Harry came back into his mind, a shiver being sent up his spine as he once again could feel the real world. There was a small mental exchange before finally he spoke Veil.
"Sorry about that, I was in the Astral Plane. But we'll talk about that later. For now where's our ride?" As if on cue, Max and Pixie had arrived at the Green Lagoon, spotting Veil and the others standing around.
"Come to think of it, I'm not really sure who all is coming but the more the merrier. Especially if we have to dig." Max replied to Pixie before raising his hand and waving at Veil.
"Yo Veil!" Max jogged over towards her, looking at the odd tension between the twins.
"Pixies joining us for New Orleans. But uh, I realized I don't really know who all I'm taking. Also had a bit of an idea but wanted everyone's and Pixies input first.""Nope, we are going there to dig up a body, not really going there for Mardi Gras." Callie told Barry as she looked between Veil, then Harry, and then over at Legion for a moment.
"Are they mind fucking each other or something? If they are thats really gross in such a public place." Callie leaned in and whispered to Veil mainly as a joke towards him she saw Harry finally coming to and gave him a slight wave.
"Welcome back to the land of the living." Callie said to Harry as she looked over her shoulder as Max came up and spotted Pixie behind him, seeing the number that was going to New Orleans she felt better going there now.
"So thats me, Veil, Harry, Blob, Marrow, Sunshine, Harry, Max and Pixie, unless Legion wants to join us."Blob looked incredibly busy at the bar - a rush of people had come in, evidently tired, hungry, and thirsty from finishing up tasks on the island. The odds of Blob being available to leave any time soon would seem pretty low. Unless they were willing to wait for him, they'd probably have to go to New Orleans without him. But how many people did they need for graverobbing, anyways?
"I can come if Harry wants me to... But I actually have something else I need to do," Legion said. He looked at Echo, more or less allowing this to be his call. Legion did have plans for something to do - a rescue mission of his own - but it could wait for another day if Echo needed him to go to New Orleans.
"Shit, that's a huuuge group of people - how heavy is this body?" Pixie joked. "Do you know where it is? Like what cemetery or whatever? Should we expect there to be flatscans trying to stop us from taking it?"
"Oooh, I hope so," Marrow quipped (her and Sunshine had wandered on over, seeing that the group was assembling), a bone spike growing spontaneously out of her right forearm. Sunshine giggled, looking
VERY into the display from her wife.
"We shouldn't need to worry about any humans seeing us - unless they've installed anti-mutant detectors at where the body is being kept," Veil pointed out. She had been a key asset of the Mutant Underground due to her powers of invisibility - no one would be able to see the graverobbing crew unless Veil wanted them to be seen.
"You do have the location, right?" Veil asked.
"Actually... I think I know where Ben is buried," Sunshine said. She didn't like talking very much about what she had experienced in the House of M world, but there, she had been Jack's daughter - he had raised her from birth. Her Uncle Casper's best friend was still dead, buried on the grounds of his father's estate. She figured there was a pretty good chance that that hadn't changed - that Ben's final resting place in that world was the same as this one.
"He's at the Hargreeves Estate. Under the ash tree in the courtyard.""No it's fine. If you already have something to do then there's no need to over it on our account. Besides, I think we've got enough hands to handle some simple graverobbing." Harry had gotten the gist of what'd transpired while he was away, and seeing how irritated Veil had been it was most likely best that her and Legion stay apart for a little while until Harry could calmly talk to her about their new relationship.
"Let's just hope it doesn't come to that ok? If Genosha wants to establish itself as a mutant nation then we don't want to provoke flatscans by fighting back. We all know they'd frame it as a terrorist attack in some game to get politics to attack Genosha." Max said as he looked towards Sunshine and Marrow. They had just suffered an attack from some weird future variant of their kind and although victorious had suffered a great loss. They didn't need to go through with that again, nor did they need to find out what new anti-mutant weapons were being made.
He was about to have an awkward conversation with Veil about how he had absolutely no idea where Ben was until Sunshine spoke up.
"That's…oddly specific. Which is more than I had to be honest with you. I was just going to have Casper manifest Ben into our world and then see if Pixie and I can use our magic to solidify him long enough to ease the burden from Casper so he can just show us in New Orleans. But this sounds like the safest route. Think you could spot the ash tree if you saw it?" Callie looked around as she noticed that things started to get a lot more busier as people started to flood into the Green Lagoon she listened to Sunshine as she got a location as to where Ben's body was actually located.
"I guess thats our destination then." She looked over at Blob for a moment who said he'd be willing to go, she wasnt sure about that now though.
"Should we go now or wait until things cleared up if Blob you still want to go that is."Blob paused in the middle of taking an order, shaking his head apologetically at Spark Plug -
"I'm swamped, sorry girl!" Sunshine avoided looking directly at Max and the rest as she continued to speak. Marrow recognized the discomfort her wife was experiencing, putting a protective arm around Sunshine's shoulder.
"Ben was basically my uncle in the other world. My d-Jack took me there a few times. I'd recognize it," Sunshine answered simply. She thought of the Jack from that world as her father, just as sometimes, she felt like a little six year old Cajun kid - little Ellie, someone who didn't have to search for a found family.
"Alright then, shall we go then?" Veil said, looking at Max and Pixie.
"I'm assuming one of you is transporting us.""Nose goes!" Pixie joked, putting a finger on her nose. "You need the practice anyways," she teased Max.
Harry watched as Sunshine struggled to match Max's gaze. He wanted to move in and tell her that she didn't need to speak about this if she didn't feel comfortable. But Marrow stepped in and wrapped her arm around her, giving her comfort she needed and the strength to speak out. He didn't say anything, but gave Sunshine an apologetic look of
I'm here if you need to talk, thank you.
"Here I thought we could take the Pixie Express. Buuuut I suppose I could do it." He said towards Pixie with a bit of a wink. He'd debated on just teleporting everyone there, but given the distance between Genosha and New Orleans as well as the amount of people that he would be taking, chances were everyone would arrive exhausted and potentially in the wrong place. So Max settled for using his magic to open a portal, a more accurate and less exhausting way of travel when he had the time to cast.
Callie looked at Sunshine for a moment when Sunshine mentioned the other world that she didnt remember or experience really but nodded slightly, she wasn't going to bring it up unless she wanted to talk about it.
"Maybe next time then and we'll bring you back something when we get back." Callie said to Blob as Pixie told Max to open up a portal there, as soon as Max did she quickly stepped through the portal and onto the other end looking over at Sunshine.
"Sunshine since you know where to go ahead and take point." She told her.
Sunshine and the others stepped on through the portal. The temperature wasn't that different between New Orleans and Genosha - one was in Louisiana, one of the hottest spots in the United States, and the other on an island that had its fair share of extreme temperatures. The humidity was about the same as well. But as Sunshine breathed in the air, there was something different about this place.
Gigantic Southern oak trees lined the street, stretching out so their branches met in the middle, creating a natural canopy that covered almost the entire road. Street lights bathed them all in a soft yellow light; while it was a little after noon on Genosha, it was a little after 3 AM in Louisiana - the witching hour.
"Hmm, at least the atmosphere is appropriate for digging up a dead body," Marrow remarked. "And the humans would love to shoot some muties in the middle of the night."
"Huge Halloween vibes," Pixie agreed - at least, with the first thing Marrow had said. Her wings were fluttering behind her, even as Pixie walked on the ground. She couldn't pass as human, so she didn't even bother trying to fold her wings in or anything like that.
"Are we close?" Veil asked Sunshine. Even though it was dark out, Veil concentrated and began turning the group invisible. It took her a bit to be able to cover everyone, but soon enough, they were all incognito. They could see each other as dim, almost translucent glowing outlines - but anyone else looking at the group wouldn't be able to see anyone was there.
"Echo, do you mind muffling our sound?" Veil then asked her brother.
"I think... we're only a block or so away, actually," Sunshine said. The streets didn't look
exactly the same, but the street they were on was incredibly familiar to her, enough that she had a pretty good idea of how to navigate to their destination.
"This way," she then said, pointing straight ahead and walking in that direction. Max's portal must have been really well placed, as within minutes, they would see a large mansion-like home on their left, with an iron gate that had an
H displayed prominently. Sunshine stopped suddenly.
"This is it... Your portal didn't totally suck, I guess," she told Max.
At Callies mention of bringing back souvenirs for Blob, Max's eyes lit up. They were in
New Orleans. A city known for its magical roots, where Tarot had deep roots and could be found just around the bend. He stepped through the portal, taking in the sights. He hadn't anticipated the time change, but their arrival at this time could be no coincidence. It was the witching hour, and what better time to liberate a friend from a grave than during that time.
"Oh, can we stop by some shops? I wouldn't mind seeing what occult items they have here. Maybe find some real magic or something I don't know. Oh and do you think Ben would mind if I took some of his grave dirt? It just feels like-" It was then Max had realized that everyone's steps had fallen silent. Their breaths were hidden and sounds obscured by Harry's powers. He'd never considered how well the twins' powers complimented each other, working in tandem to give true stealth to their allies. Everyone that was except him. He could still hear the sounds he was making as they made their way through the streets of Louisiana. He looked at Harry, silently mouthing to him if he could help him out.
Harry turned towards Max looking towards Veil and then the rest of the group. Cloaking this many people wasn't easy, Veil had to concentrate and take her time to cloak them all, and Harry didn't fully have that luxury of time. Every step, breath, word, or snap of a branch had to be drowned out in the area around them. He gave Max an apologetic look, but trying to add him to the mix could end up having him drop the sound barrier on the rest.
"If we aren't spotted then maybe. Besides I was thinking of getting Blob some booze I think he'd be interested in that more." Callie said towards Max as Veil started to make them all invisible and Harry used his powers to muffle their movements. Callie followed shortly behind Sunshine as she led them down the street and looked around at the large trees overhanging the street that they were in. At least it was night here and it'd be a lot harder for them to be spotted in the dark and invisible. Eventually they stood in front of a large mansion and blocked by a gate in front of them.
"Kind of a creepy evil super villain vibe." Callie said as she looked at Max seeing that he was the loudest and made a shushing motion towards him.
"Or a rich white asshole vibe," Marrow said, "but those two are often the same anyways."
"The gate's locked, can one of you handle that?" Veil asked. She was maintaining their cloak, grateful that her brother had managed to quiet all of their sound. But the iron gate was very much locked and they would need to either open it or go around it in order to head inside and retrieve Ben's body. She didn't even answer Max's question about the grave dirt, as it wasn't her grave - and she didn't know if that was technically insensitive or not for Max to ask.
"Oh, shit!" Pixie exclaimed, pulling her hand back from the gate. She shook her hand out vigorously. "That's iron - fuck! Fuck fuck fuck!" It was a good thing Echo had muffled their sound.
"I'm shit at lockpicking," Sunshine admitted.
Max watched as the party quickly began exhausting their efforts to open the locked gate. Eyes widening as Pixie got hurt from touching the fence. Right, iron, Pixies, not a good mix.
"I think we're shit out of luck on picking that lock, so how's about we- He held one hand midway out while the other formed an upwards circle before lowering down below them. The familiar nebulous magic encircled the party above creating a portal that slowly fell down over them and materialized them onto the other side of the gate.
-try a little magic. So glad there's no defenses against it." Max made his way over towards, taking her wrist into his hands so he could see the damage.
"I think I can help a bit, hold still" He held his hand over hers, trying to heal her the way he had Sunshine and others before. But after a string of great casts, his magic finally failed him. He grimaced as the magic fizzled
"Sorry. Still new to healing magic, not the easiest thing to practice."Pixie shrugged, blowing on her hand in an attempt to dull the pain. "You've never really tried to heal a half-fairy before anyways, we're built a wee bit differently," she explained. "But damn, that hurts..."
"That works. Where to next Sunshine?" Harry asked. As much fun as it was breaking into a creepy mansion home in New Orleans on a misty morning to rob a grave, he wasn't sure how long he could hold his end of the cloak. Or even how much longer they had to go.
Callie watched as Pixie reached over to touch the iron gate seeing her getting burnt by it for some reason she wasn't really sure why.
"Are you alright there Pixie?" Callie asked her as Max decided to use his magic, and summoned a portal over them the next second they were on the other side of the gate.
]"Nice work there." Callie patted Max on the shoulder as he tried to heal Pixie's hand, she looked around the area and then over towards Sunshine this was pretty easy so far she thought they hadn't ran into anyone on their way over or were detected yet.
"Yeah, I'm fine - just, y'know, iron isn't a lass' best friend," Pixie joked.
"There," Sunshine said, pointing towards the far back of the grounds - where there was a lone tree, overlooking a tombstone. The house seemed deadly quiet; if anyone was home, they weren't aware of the intruders, thanks to Veil and Echo's efforts to cloak and muffle the group. Not even Max's voice seemed to wake anyone; but hopefully, he would later have it in him to wake the dead. Sunshine led them to the back, stopping in front of the tombstone.
"This is it, then," Veil said, staring at the stone.
"Ben's grave."Max managed a small smile towards Pixie. While it was true that he hadn't tried to heal someone who was half-fae before, it didn't stop him from feeling any less useful in the situation. He was sure that had James been there he could've patched her up with so much as breaking a sweat. But that was neither here nor there, and as Callie approached them and placed a hand on his shoulder Max tried to push those thoughts away. By all accounts he'd been doing rather well, his magic hadn't failed them in any dire way and they were only moments away from what they had come for.
Relief sank into Harry as his shoulders lowered slightly. There in the back of the Cemetery was a large tree like what Sunshine had described earlier. Underneath the solitary tree was a grave, presumably Ben's, and that meant that soon after they could all relax. Pixie’s scream earlier had been quickly masked, the sound dying out before it could reach outsiders ears. But now they had to find a way to excavate the body, and that could be noisy as is. The sooner they did this the better, because Harry didn't want to know what kind of security this sort of estate would have. Especially for grave robbing mutants.
Max hadn't really thought past getting here. Now they were faced with a way to get his body out. He placed both of his palms together, pulling them apart slowly as a shovel began to form between them within the space. Once it was fully formed, Max grabbed the shaft and spun it in a circle as two more echos of the shovel were made and now held in his hands. He tossed one to Callie, and another to Harry.
"Let's dig, Pixies hands hurt so it's up to us."Callie took a moment and looked at Ben's grave for a moment as they approached it, she looked towards Pixie and nodded towards her when she said she was alright. Max then summoned three shovels. She quickly caught the shovel into her hands and nodded towards him, she went to get into position and started to shovel. She paused when she heard some footsteps coming and quickly stopped. She turned to see a woman with dark glasses and a trench coat approaching.
"You guys someone is coming." Callie whispered to the others as she quickly moved to the side and gestured to that person approaching them and looked towards Max making a shushing motion for him to remain quiet and still.
Harry caught the shovel that was tossed towards him. He supposed that three people digging was quicker than two, and at the very least being a part of it made masking the sounds much simpler, but he couldn't help but wonder why Max or Pixie didn't just magic the ground away. Harry had heard often enough about how James spoke of Max's powers, how he essentially rewrites reality to his whim and is capable of horrifying feats, so why was removing dirt not on the list of things he could do?
Whatever the case, Harry plunged his shovel into the ground, trying to spread his focus out towards Max so that the sounds of him digging would be less noticeable. That is until Callie mentioned they had a visitor. In a panic Harry's powers skewed the wrong way and amplified Max's sound just as he had placed his foot onto the shovel's head and began to press down. There was a loud clang sound that reverberated for a moment before dulling down to an appropriate level as Harry fixed his mistake. Though he didn't dare try for a third time.
Max's eyes shot wide open as he heard the sound, feeling the vibrations of the metal against the sole of his shoe. He looked at Callie as if to say 'it wasn't me' before the sound quickly died out. He stood there frozen for a moment, foot still atop the shovelhead now buried beneath the soil. He could see the mysterious figure off in the distance, and a part of him wished to try and give the others the best shot they had. Having him step out of the invisibility and reveal himself to her so that they could continue. Pixie could port them back and Max would find his own way if need be. But for now he just stood there frozen, staring at the woman as he tried hard not to breathe too loudly or give himself away.
The woman didn't seem to react to the loud clang; dogs in the nearby homes to the property did begin to bark, so one way or another it was likely the entire neighborhood would wake up soon. The crow that had accompanied the woman outside flapped its wings, leaving her shoulder and flying over to the tree above Ben's grave, before resting on one of the branches.
Veil could've sworn that somehow, the crow could see them - that somehow, it was able to see past her invisibility. The barking dogs weren't helping either; lights were beginning to turn on in the mansion. People other than the goth smoker were probably going to come on out soon. She had to assume these people were Ben's family - people who likely wouldn't just let them take the dead body of their loved one. They should've brought Casper with them. Veil didn't even have much time to appreciate the irony that Casper could've helped in a situation like this.
"Okay, we need a new plan," Veil said softly.
"Someone has to get bird lady's attention.""Hmmm, maybe a little pixie dust can help!" Pixie said. It was good that Echo was dampening the sound of her voice, as she was a bit loud by nature. Pixie fluttered her wings and made her way over to the crow lady, still cloaked by Veil's invisibility, and blew what looked like shimmering pink powder from her hand. It hit the crow lady in the face and she staggered backwards for a moment, before shaking her head.
"Faustus, you're scaring the dogs again, come on," the crow lady said, snapping her fingers. The crow seemed to hesitate for a moment, squawking, before flying directly at her - and then disappearing into her body without a trace. The woman dropped her cigarette to the ground, crushed it under her heel, and then went back inside.
"Good job, Max," Sunshine said, rolling her eyes slightly.
"It's almost like you want to keep Ben dead."Callie remained as still as possible as she started to think of a way to try and get the woman to go away, luckily Pixie decided to step up and moved a bit closer towards the woman. She stared at the crow that was ontop of the tree just above Ben's grave, she wasn't sure what the crow was going to do. But luckily Pixie's dust managed to convince the crow lady to go away, she let out a slight sigh as Callie grabbed the shovel and moved back to where she was before.
"Quiet the sooner we get out of here the better." Callie said to Sunshine as she went back to shoveling the dirt, a few seconds later she managed to hit something hard. She knelt down and moved away some of the dirt that was there, before looking up to the others.
"Alright lets get this thing out." Callie said as she stepped back putting the shovel down.
A shiver shot down Max's spine as he looked up towards where the crow had previously been. Staring for a moment before Callie had declared she'd hit the coffin.
"I have a bad feeling about that woman's crow, just…keep your eyes peeled. Once is a coincidence, twice is intentional." He spoke softly, allowing the dogs barking to drown out the sound of his voice so that only they could hear him. Max hopped down into the hole, lifting the lid open to ensure that Ben truly was at this grave. He let out a sigh of relief before closing it back up and making his way back out of the hole.
"Ben has tentacles shoot out, that bird lady had things go in, think everyone in the family has some animal related body power?""I don't know but we can speculate later, or just ask Ben. For now we're starting to get too much unwanted attention so if we can hurry this along?" Harry looked around to make sure there were any other crows staring nearby. Max had begun to make him a bit more paranoid, giving him the feeling that someone was watching.
Max wanted to retort and say something, how it wasn't his fault he wasn't being fully cloaked. But now didn't seem like the time for petty fights, nor did he want to knock on anyone's abilities. Surely Harry was trying hard to keep so many noisey people hidden. He quickly made a portal beneath the coffin, but miscalculated the size of it so it didn't quite fit in. He rolled his eyes and began to widen the portal into his room, dropping the coffin (body and all) onto his bed back in Genosha.
"Can't be lugging this around. Anyone who wants a trip back home is free to hop in just…avoid the coffin please. Anyone who wants to stay behind to fill up this hole and maybe do some shopping can stay here.""Yeah, because stores are open for shopping right now," Sunshine commented dryly. It was the witching hour - she supposed that maybe some of the occult shops might be open, but even the bars would be closed at this time of day. Last call must've been an hour or so ago, if not even earlier. She took Marrow's hand and hopped on through the portal, landing on the floor next to Max's bedroom on Genosha - not his original bedroom, but the one that had been rebuilt after the attack.
"It's easier to cloak you all when we're in the same location, so I'll go through with Harry once you all have left," Veil said. Even though Max's portal was connecting the spaces, she didn't want to risk jumping through and suddenly losing control over the invisibility. She also didn't have any shopping or whatnot that she wanted to do in New Orleans - she wanted to see this through, and hopefully, they'd be able to help more mutants than just Ben. Maybe they could bring them
all back. They could have each person they lost returned to them.
"Mm, as good as a crêpe sounds right now, I think I should be getting back... I did kinda just ditch what I was working on with the Akademos," Pixie admitted a bit sheepishly. She stepped on through the portal, landing on the bed next to the coffin, before hopping on off.
Callie looked down at Ben's corpse that was in the coffin, she did wonder how he did die in the first place as she stepped out of the hole to let Max inspect Ben's body for a moment. She remained alert though as she looked towards the others, as Max opened up a portal to allow everyone get through.
"They are going to probably wonder why Ben's grave is dug up though." Callie said as soon as the coffin was through Callie jumped through and landed back into Max's room, looking over towards Pixie and nodded towards her.
"Thanks for the help there Pixie." Callie said smiling towards her as she took a step back to let the others on through.
There was an awkward silence as Callie stepped through. She wasn't exactly wrong, and Max had mentioned as such too. Someone at the very least should stay behind and refill the hole. Try to cover up the fact that an entire body and coffin of a loved one are missing. Max turned to look at Veil and Harry with an awkward smile.
"Veil, why don't you and Harry go on ahead. I don't like going through my portals before others have, the last time that I did well…" he trailed off recalling the day Sunshine had pinned him for the murder of Magik. Sure the portal probably closed due to him being tackled by Colossus into another space, and the man was more than bulky enough to do damage even without the metallic skin, but even then Max had always worried of separating the group due to carelessness. It was why he always insisted of going through last.
"Besides, someone's gotta return all this dirt, and can't do that while the portals active. I can handle myself"Veil hesitated for a moment - before she nodded. She couldn't always assume the worst of Max's abilities, and he seemed to be coming into his own - not always in a linear fashion, but still, progress.
"Alright, but if you aren't through the portal in a minute, I'm coming back through for you," Veil warned, before stepping on through the portal. Despite the great distance she had just traveled in space, she managed to keep the invisibility around Max active.
Callie looked up at the portal as Veil jumped through as well she wasn't sure how quickly Max would be able to cover up the entire hole, she knew that Max could handle himself in case any of Ben's family were to come out and confront Max.
"What Veil said, just do it as quickly as possible and if that Crow Lady comes back out again get out of there." Callie told Max.
Harry didn't like the idea of leaving Max behind one bit. It wasn't that he didn't trust him, or think he could do it. It was more so that he didn't feel right leaving another member behind. He'd only been with the Underground for a short time, but he'd already lost so many people and he wasn't willing to lose anymore. Especially now that Genosha was meant to be a safe haven for them all.
"As my name implies, I Echo that sentiment. You have one minute, kid or we're coming back through."Max couldn't help but chuckle at all of them. It was sweet seeing them all care for him and worry. Given the threat of coming back through wouldn't exactly apply once he'd close his portal, Max decided to hold his end of the bargain. He made a new portal off the side, above the ground on his end but side by side for those back at home.
"Can't throw dirt into my own portal so I'll keep this new one up for you guys. Just in case." He closed the portal that was inside the grave and grabbed his shovel as he began to throw the dirt back into its place. No one deserved waking up and seeing the exhumed grave of a loved one. Once he was done he stepped through the portal, looking back through one last time before finally closing it up.
