Washington D.C.: September 10th, 2020 - 10:20 AM
The Amtrak Station... The Three-in-One rolled their eyes at Jinx collectively. They had been working for the Hellfire Club for a while and they were certain what they had done was right. Leaving those humans alive would have just left a loose end. It was better to kill the staff, grab the prisoners they were interested in, and let free the rest... The media would find someone to blame for the escape, likely the prisoners themselves, and they would have no knowledge of the Hellfire Club's involvement. Kidnapping the children of Professor X without giving the easy explanation that Legion and the Tenth Muse had wandered off would bring down the X-Men, S.H.I.E.L.D., maybe even the Avengers. This was how they were going to keep the Hellfire Club secret - by staging a crime.
"We look forward to reading the report," they quipped to Anastasia. Emma Frost was their genetic template, their mother - they doubted she would ever hurt them and she was now the Lord Imperial, the boss.
The mutants on the train were in various stages of stupor. They were all heavily sedated and restrained, collars around their necks dampening their powers and rendering them defenseless. The metal cages that Anastasia noticed had numbers stamped onto them - as well as greek letters. On one of the boxes was an omega -
Ω. The rest of the crates had alphas -
α. Some of the mutants were muttering to themselves quietly, rocking back and forth slightly as that was all the restraints really permitted them to do. On their wrists, they had bands with either betas -
β or gammas -
γ on them.
JFK Memorial Hospital - Gift Shop... "Da, for Mother Russia!" Colossus agreed. He picked up the cash register, carefully set down its contents neatly on the countertop, before he flung it out of the gift shop and into the hallway, where it skidded only to be stopped by someone's boot. Had Colossus not been in his metal form, the color from his face would have drained as he saw who it was.
"Sick choice in song," Vulcan complimented Feedback, smirking at her. He must have escaped since they left the Mutant Underground, but to be fair they hadn't really left anyone behind to watch him. Everyone had just assumed he couldn't free himself and that he would remain unconscious. His eyes were a bit red and he sniffled, before cracking his fists.
"Still gonna kill you though, sorry babe." Vulcan surrounded himself in energy, lifting himself up into the air as he hovered, staring at the Mutant Underground members. And then, all of the sudden, he shot immense blasts of energy out of his eyes and hands. The blasts were about to hit Feedback when Colossus jumped in front of her, taking the blast and falling to the ground, his metal skin somehow
smoking.
"I guess I see why you were never good enough for the X-Men, huh Piotr? Couldn't find your sister... Couldn't even tie up a prisoner properly." "Feedback, Moonwalker, run," Colossus requested.
"I vill handle Vulcan."JFK Memorial Hospital - Fifth Floor... A significant part of Casper felt a rush as they arrived outside of the medicine room. He had just gotten out of rehab and while that meant he had already gone through withdrawal, his fingers still itched to grab a bottle of pills. He wanted desperately to pop them, to let himself float along a high rather than deal with the sharp feelings that defined his sober moments.
"...Blue Oyster? Sick!" Ben exclaimed, playing an air guitar as the music Feedback summoned played over the speakers.
"Bit of a morbid choice though, don't ya think?" he asked Casper.
"...Well unless the hospital likes playing Don't Fear the Reaper, I think they've probably started," he pointed out to James. The reaper wasn't what people needed to be afraid of anyways - it was the souls of those who remained behind. There was nothing more terrifying than a mob of ghosts, all screaming at you for attention, for love, for help with their unfinished business... Just thinking about it make Casper want to scream and run for the hills. He never wanted to be the helpless little boy trapped in a mausoleum again.
"Frosty, can you jimmy the lock?" Casper asked, figuring that Sapphire would just freeze it and snap it off.
"I can be look out," Ben offered.
"Ben says he'll watch out for anyone coming."The Cherry Bomb - Barroom... Sunshine inhaled sharply as Jack scolded her for going over to him, treating her like an idiotic little kid. She followed him with her eyes as he got out of the booth and turned back to look at her, fighting the blush threatening to form on her face out of shame. Her fingers twitched slightly and she curled her hands into fists, not saying a word as Jack went over to the bar, even as he requested that she go over there with him. All she wanted was to get vengeance for Erg and then someone who had, for whatever reason, attended her trial was here.
The bartender raised an eyebrow at Glimpse, before grabbing the photograph and bringing it on over. "Here ya go," he told her, before stepping away from her and Havok. He had a lot of glassware to catch up on cleaning, especially since his co-worker still hadn't returned from the basement. The bartender's phone buzzed and he glanced down, sighing slightly at the text that came in. "Sorry folks, we've got a burst water pipe in the basement, gotta shut down for the day!" he called out, loud enough for everyone to hear him.
"You two thinking what I'm thinking?" Havok muttered. It was a little bit convenient - some of their people had gone down there to investigate and now, the bartender was asking everyone to leave the bar. It would've just been a coincidence had Yukio not given them a tip about this place and the horrible things being done to innocent mutants here.
"I smell a barroom brawl coming on," he then added softly.
The patrons were grumpily leaving the bar, with enough of them getting up and heading for the exit that Sunshine saw an opportunity. Jack, Glimpse, and Havok had the bartender distracted too. She slipped out of the booth and made her way across the barroom quickly, opening the door to the basement staircase and she closed it behind her, emerging into darkness. Holding still for a moment, Sunshine reached her hands out until she felt the wall against her fingertips. She tentatively reached one of her feet forward, trying to gently set her foot down on the next step but she overshot it. Her balance gave out all of the sudden and the next thing she knew, she was falling forward. The darkness of the staircase made it impossible to see as Sunshine fell down the flight of stairs, hitting her head against the closed door at the bottom with a resounding
THUD.
"...Oww..." she mumbled, clutching her head. She was incredibly lucky that she hadn't cracked her skull open.
The Cherry Bomb - Basement... Veil heard the thud near the doorway, but it was too dark for her to really tell what it was - it could have easily been the mutant they were fighting slamming himself or someone else up against the wall. Additionally, she had no idea that Spark Plug had attempted to turn her into a hound, but Max was far less than subtle in his attempts to take on the leader of the Mutant Underground.
"Tome, I am not your enemy," Veil stressed, her force fields still up to protect herself.
"I need you to calm down." Nightcrawler was clinging to the ceiling like a spider, shaking his tail as he attempted to warm it up again. The cold didn't really slow down his body, but it did make it harder for him to concentrate which interfered with his skill in teleportation. He instinctively knew that Spark Plug was a hound just like him as well, allowing him to turn his focus to the others in the room. If he didn't manage to kill them or at least knock them out, his master was going to be
furious with him...
And he never liked seeing Mr. Sinister like that.
He teleported again, appearing in front of Leighton.
"I am not zee covard!" he shouted in a heavy German accent, before his tail shot out and he wrapped it around Leighton's neck.
Veil could dimly see where Leighton was, thanks to the light of her poncho. She dropped the force field she had been using to keep Max at bay, sending one out that slammed into Nightcrawler and forced him to let go of his grip he had on Leighton.
"Ice him, I've got you covered!" Veil shouted. Max had been going crazy and Leighton was in a prime position to strike. She had no idea what Spark Plug was trying to do, but she didn't have time to think about it and wonder.
