Location: 1407 Graymalkin Lane, Salem Center - Westchester County, New York, United States of AmericaHome of The X-Men #1.02: "Movie Night"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Angelica and Elize have been squabbling, Elize is 19 and generally a bit of a hard-headed edgy teenager, she called Angelica a ‘normie’ and Elize was obviously opposed to how Angelica got to ‘hide’ her mutant powers for so long, all the way into adulthood. How Angelica got to have a completely normal life, Amy-Sue Allen, ‘bombshell’, had told her. Angelica found the codenames so silly. Why did they even have these codenames? They had been told it was a relic from the cold war, and how Xavier had been instrumental in preventing the Cuba Crisis escalating into full blown nuclear war, and finally putting an end to hostilities between east and west. These ‘Nom de Guerre” were a remnant of a time of war.
Settling into the mansion, besides Elize being annoying, Amy-Sue and the others proved to be very easy friends. She found herself laughing over coffee with the eccentric Hank McCoy, she found Maximilian charming, like a big brother. And Alex Summers? Oh. Yeah. She liked him. She even caught a glimpse of the elusive Pete Wisdom and Remy LeBeau, a dynamic duo that skulked around.
The faculty and the older students generally spent a lot of time together, the younger students, far outnumbering the faculty, lead to each student who was old and mature enough took a part in raising and helping their younger peers. Those with longer tenure at the school clearly took more initiative. Elize was one of those who insisted on doing very little. Something that already, after just a week, was already jarring for Angelica.
Nine of them had dinner and then were supposed to watch a movie. Amy-Sue, clad in her black tracksuit, was making perfectly made popcorn using the heating from her powers. Her crystalline skin made it hard to discern any moods from her face. Angelica found it hard to read her emotions at first from the metallic shade of grey. However, after a bottle of wine the night before and them getting rather deep into discussing Angelica’s rather quick interest in Mister Summers, as well as Amy-Sue’s own entanglement with a particular military man, she felt rather close to the professor. Amy-Sue arrived with the popcorn to the large sofa, telling Elize to scooch in.The people assembled were Angelica, Hank, Amy, Alex (Who Angelica was making eyes at), Elize, Roberto and Michael McCain, who’s four arms were all working on different projects. Tonight was movie night. The Phantom, from 1968 was on the agenda. Beast’s favorite. Students and alumni alike, each hanging out, like a family.
“Where’s Max?” Miss Jones asks and Alex smirks from across the sofa, Beast in between the two.
“Oh, he’s off training by himself in the danger room. The guy rarely rests. He’s spending his rest time monitoring security for the grounds. He’s like a papa bear. And he gets extra watchful when mom and other dad aren’t here.” Alex joked about Xavier, Storm and Magneto being their parents, it was clear to Angelica that this was a running joke.
Angelica had heard of the Professor’s and Storm’s absence this week, since Angelica met them both for the first time. Appearance at the UN, apparently.
Elize, gets a notification on her phone and tosses the stream on the TV, on top of the phantom. She doesn’t say much, her expression isn’t holding the kind of nonchalance they usually have come to expect from the negasonic teenager. Once the livestream begins, everyone’s mood nosedives. Beast, when the mention of ‘one trillion dollars per week’ is mention makes an off-handed comment about the datapoint being misconstrued, but he’s stunned into silence before he can go into a doctorate speech about data-analysis. The words of the billionaire who will change their lives, the gluttony of all of their greatest fears coming alive. Angelica is shocked to hear Tony Stark utter, and take pride in it.
The TV blares:
"The future is a moving, marching machine, the War Machine. Project War Machine puts the power back in the hands of the people you trust, imagine one of these,"Unveiling the robotic exosuits, the very notion that war is coming to mutantkind pulls them down, covering them like a wet blanket.
A new day dawn for mutantkind. Angelica can’t help but think that maybe, a nom de guerre might not be such a bad thing to have, after all.
Elize is the first to speak up. For the first time, Angelica doesn't notice that dry sarcasm in her voice.
"Does Max know?"
Once the lifestream pans away from the robotic suits, power is cut in the house.
And not just the house, but an entire 100 mile radius from the Xavier's mansion. Power returns in a minute and a half, the lights come back on.
Hank assures the teenaged girl;
"I think he knows, and I think Storm and The Professor are doing all they can to stop this."