Washington D.C.: September 10th, 2020 - 9:30 AM
The elevator would arrive within moments for Requiem - it was unoccupied and spotless as well. For those remaining in the Penthouse, the one immaculate room was now covered in blood. The blood splatters arced up onto the walls, ruining the pristine paint job - they would need to redecorate or at least perform a serious deep clean after this, but that was the furthest thing from Emma Frost's mind at the moment. She walked towards Shaw, disconnecting herself from the Three in One's hive mind but it didn't matter. He was too badly injured to move. He was dying. Kneeling down next to him, she grinned like the Cheshire Cat.
"Sebastian... I never loved you," she whispered, before spitting in his eye. Magneto and Polaris then finished the job, sending another volley of knives into Shaw's chest and he soon expired. The Black King of the Hellfire Club had perished.
"My darlings, I hate that Reeva is not here with us now but... We cannot be without leadership," Emma explained, glancing around the room.
"I am your Black King - and the Lord Imperial," she declared. The Black King was the title for the ruler of a particular branch of the Hellfire Club, but the Lord Imperial ruled all branches. Emma was positively radiant, some of Shaw's blood on her clothing but she truly did not seem to mind.
"To fill the title of the White Queen, I appoint my heir and successor... Anastasia." The Three in One all looked over at Anastasia in unison. It wouldn't be difficult to imagine the envy flowing through their veins at the moment. The clones were the biological children of Emma Frost and they had been passed over for an outsider.
"Long live the Black King," the triplets said in unison.
"Good luck, Anastasia. You may need it," they added as an afterthought. Magneto hardly seemed surprised or phased that Emma had selected a child to replace her - she always had a particular fondness for the next generation of mutants.
"Well, this has been a wonderful cult like ceremony to participate in, so thanks for that," Polaris interrupted.
"But I didn't come here to kill an asshole. I came here to talk about Genosha." Magneto nodded, looking at Emma.
"My daughter is joining the Inner Circle, as is her birthright - as the White Rook," he informed her, not giving her a choice about it. Magneto had left the position of White Rook open ever since Mastermind vacated the job. He had contemplated giving it to his daughter Wanda, but she did not have the strength of will that Polaris did.
"Of course," Emma mused with a smile. Her eyes darted towards the clock.
"Anastasia, Jinx... I believe if you two hurry, you can still rendez-vous with that train. Unless, of course, you'd prefer to stay here and discuss the focus of our little circle... The creation of a mutant homeland."
The Mutant Underground Old HQ... Colossus nodded slightly, thinking over the logistics of stealing from a hospital. The easiest con would be to have two people pose as a couple and head on in, with one of them needing medical attention and the other stealing the medicine while the nurses were busy. Of course, with the large hospitals of Washington D.C., it would be difficult. There were going to be cameras there and since Veil had gone with the bar group, they couldn't count on being made invisible. His eyes darted over towards Waverley and he got an idea.
"Waverley - how are you at jamming signal?" he asked.
"Perhaps Feedback jams signals, da? Cameras cannot see us, phones will not work, radios silent... We get her inside, then we can steal medicine." Casper tilted his head slightly, before he was able to put together Colossus' plan in his own head. If they got Feedback into the hospital, she'd be able to shut down their ways to communicate and to record them stealing the medicine. There would be no trail for the cops to follow.
"Okay, but hospitals have tooooons of security," he emphasized.
"Just because you shut down communications doesn't mean we aren't going to have tons of Stormtroopers on us!" "Remember the time you tried to steal from a hospital?" Ben asked, poking lightly at Casper.
"Shut up, Ben, not now..." he muttered, waving his hand to try to shoo Ben away, but the ghost remained present. Waverley would be able to see the faint outline of a person where Casper was gesturing to - not enough to make out what Ben looked like or anything, but enough to know that there was someone there.
"Perhaps split into groups - cover more ground, pair up good fighters with... others," Colossus suggested awkwardly, not wanting to basically say that some people present could fight and others would be unable to do that at all, but it was more or less what he meant. Casper for instance didn't have any combat abilities as far as he was aware. Neither did James or Feedback. The more that hit him, the more awkward Colossus felt about it all - they'd basically need to have one group with Sapphire and another with him if they split up like that. The rest of the questions would need to be answered by Sapphire though - this was her mission.
"Methadone and buprenorphine," Casper answered James without hesitation.
To the Cherry Bomb... Veil thought for a moment, having instantly assumed Havok was Magic Mike since he was the most attractive member of their little party - of course, the private investigator was pretty easy on the eyes as well.
"Alright, you can take Havok and the kid - claim she's your sister or something, they'll believe it. If there's trouble getting her in since she's underage, I'll cloak her." It hadn't escaped her notice that Max had made false IDs for Leighton and himself, yet not for Sunshine. She wasn't going to force them to be friends with each other - in fact, she would have been surprised if Max and Sunshine ever got along at all from what she had seen - but if he had intentionally not made one for Sunshine out of spite, that was putting personal feelings above the mission.
"Max, make her an ID as well," Veil requested, giving him the benefit of the doubt.
She didn't have any protests to Max working with Leighton - the girl seemed to be a calming influence on him for now at least and she didn't want to see his powers go haywire in the bar. As far as Veil was concerned, this was a second chance for him to prove himself - to prove that he could be an asset to the Mutant Underground. Their founder, Xavier, believed in countless chances... Veil believed in
two. "Sounds like a plan," Veil told Glimpse. She appreciated that they were trying to correct for previous mistakes, but it was a bit of an overcorrection for Glimpse's questions.
"I don't need one of his fakes," Sunshine informed Veil. She didn't want to rely on Max for help. She disliked him from the moment that she met him and her rage over Erg's death was only fueling her more negative personality traits. She glanced at Spark Plug for a moment and then at Havok, a pain of hurt rippling through her heart. Spark Plug looked so much like her mother - her dim memories of what she had looked like at least. And Havok? She could easily imagine him being her father, as they had the same radiant blonde locks. It wasn't often that she thought about her parents. Her mother had abandoned her for being a mutant and her father? She had to imagine that wherever he was, if he was even alive, he didn't want a kid like her - a
freak.
"I don't think they card here, actually," Havok mused.
"Negasonic's never needed an ID to get in - that or she has a fake that we don't know about... But hey, what's breaking a few more laws in the grand scheme of things?" They had tons of fakes in the Mutant Underground anyways, usually made for mutants they were transporting across state and country lines. Veil kept one on her at all times, just in an attempt to avoid traces of her in the system. Others had similar ideas.
"Great, that's perfect then. I'll have Glimpse and Stretch with me, then," Veil decided. They had three groups and she hoped that things would work out just fine with them. Spark Plug would have no trouble parking the car in an alleyway a few streets down from the Cherry Bomb. Veil got out and motioned to her companions.
"Come on, we'll head on down first," she instructed, before turning and walking down the street. It wasn't too long before she came up to the tavern. The paint was peeling on the lettering and there was no bouncer at the door - most likely because it was about the middle of the day. Entering the establishment, Veil glanced around at the dim lighting, the scent of cigarette smoke in the air, and she spotted a karaoke station at the front.
Pushing her hair over her shoulder, Veil walked up to the bartender and flashed him a smile.
"Whiskey - neat," she ordered. A second later, the drink was in front of her and she picked it up, sipping the burning alcohol with a bit of a smirk. She liked hard liquor - cocktails weren't really her thing. Most of the people in the bar were fairly nondescript, wearing business casual clothing for the most part and they tended to be of a more advanced age - it was the older crowd here at the moment. One of them would stick out to Jack in particular - a
Dr. Nathaniel Essex. A few moments after Veil and her group had entered the bar, Havok's group reached the entrance. They lucked out as well - no one carded them or seemed to notice the seventeen year old girl entering the establishment. Dr. Essex glanced up at the doorway and he smiled slightly to himself, recognizing one of them but it wasn't clear just who.
"... Could you get me a soda?" Sunshine whispered to Havok. She didn't want to push her luck going up to the bar and she also didn't want to admit she didn't know how to read the drink menu in the first place.
Havok chuckled slightly and ruffled her hair, eliciting a glare from the younger mutant.
"Sure kid - Spark Plug, want anything? I'm buying, it looks."
