Lance Banner
Ed Penior
Runa Baldurdattir
Ed was going around the Mansion collecting anyone's hair that was willing to give him a few strands. He had gotten Bethany's with no issue. She had been thankful for him saving her life during the fight on Liberty Island and with the explanation that it made it possible to heal her from a distance without getting some of her blood that was likely leaking from her, she was fine with it. He expected a few people would think he was weird or have issues with it. Runa was one of the people he expected issue. She knew how magic worked, knew that he could easily turn healing to damage if he decided. Not that he would. He couldn't. His moral code wouldn't allow it. First, he had to find her though.
Runa was sitting underneath a tree outside with Lance. She had set her shoes on the blanket they had brought out with them, but she was curling her feet into the grass. She had carefully plucked a dandelion and turned to Lance with a mischievous smile, before blowing gently, sending the bits of white fluff directly into his face.
"Wow Runa really?" he said to her with a bit of a laugh, giving her a smile. A few of the bits of fluff were stuck in his hair and he used his hand to brush them out.
Ed heard Lance's laugh drifting from outside so he made his way through the porch. He saw Runa and Lance sitting under a tree. He smiled. They were cute together. He didn't really know their story, but when Ed met Runa it had been clear that Lance and she already had a history. He wondered what it was, but would ask some other time. For now he had a specific question. It was convenient that both of them were together because he did need a bit of hair from both of them.
"Hello Runa, Lance." He said with a smile as he came within earshot.
"I have an odd question."Runa glanced up at Edus, tilting her head ever so slightly. She felt it would be rude to be seated while he was standing, so she got up to her feet so they could converse properly. She didn't know very much about him - truthfully, she didn't know very much about any member of the X-Men (a name which confused her to no end, as the team seemed to be mostly women). All she knew was that he was magically inclined, something that apparently was becoming more common on Midgard these days.
"How can we be of service to you, master wizard?""Hey there Ed," Lance said to him with a slight wave when he walked over and shrugged slightly,
"What is it? And honestly, I've heard some strange requests, so it probably won't be considered too weird...""I realized during the fight on Liberty Island that having the ability the heal the group from a distance is good for the team. The easy way for me to do that is to have a few strands of your hair, root and all. I understand if you're against it, but if I can't get to you to heal you in time with the blood that might be escaping your body..." He trailed off not wanting to think about what would happen if he failed to heal someone during a fight. They needed each other to survive fights.
Runa pursed her lips slightly, thinking it over. Her grandmother was a witch and had taught her a great deal of her magic - she knew the risks of giving her hair to someone she did not know very well. Yet she knew that he was sincere and he wasn't lying about his motivations.
"Very well. I'll require an exchange. A hair for a hair.""Oh, uh, okay... Though I typically don't end up needing it, guess might as well prepare for the odds of running into something that might succeed in killing me, I'm fine with that," he said with a shrug, before pulling out a few hairs, not really wincing or anything at all as he held them out to him.
Ed nodded, it was a reasonable counter request. It gave her leverage over him just as much as him having her hair. Not that he would ever use it in an untoward fashion. That wasn't his style and would be against his moral code. He pulled a few vials from his pocket, offering one to Lance to place his pulled hair strands into. Then one to Runa. He proceeded to pull his own hair, just a few strands but enough that if someone wanted to cast sympathy magic on him they could. Then gave Runa the vial he put his hair into.
"Thank you. I have no ill intention. I will only use this to heal you. Or if you go missing and wish to be found I can cast a tracking spell on you. Please leave me a note if you don't want to be found. I will assume no note means you've been kidnapped and require assistance." She smiled ever so slightly - he reminded her a bit of her older brother, Forseti.
"I promise you the same, master wizard," Runa said sagely, accepting the vial he had given her of his hair. She pulled a few strands of her hair, careful to make sure she got the roots, and she placed them delicately into the vial. Although, this was all giving her a bit of an idea. She didn't typical think about magic that required hairs and whatnot, as she preferred to rune cast - and lately, most of her magical uses were combative.
"Perhaps we ought to go see if we can locate some of your father's hairs, my light," she told Lance.
Lance simply took the vial from Ed, put a few of his hairs in it, and handed it back to him. He turned to look at Runa when she made the comment about his dad.
"...I don't know if that would really work, or if we'd be able to find anything like that in order to try and track him that way...""Happy to hear that." Ed smiled at Runa's promise to not use his hair maliciously.
If you're able to find a hair of his I would be happy to help." Ed searched his memory if he had known that Lance's dad had been missing. There seemed to be quite a bit he didn't know about the people in the mansion.
Runa nodded morosely. She didn't like how often Lance had to search for missing loved ones - she blushed slightly, realizing she was including herself in that category, when she didn't know if Lance loved her. He was certainly fond of her, she was sure of that, but love? That was such a serious topic. She was scarcely 688 years old - she hadn't yet reached her eighth century of existence.
"...Who honestly knows at this point," he commented, looking at the ground for a moment, he knew that at least Guin knew the full story about his dad being missing, kind of hard not to know since her father was with the Avengers anyway.
"You hear about that Skrull Invasion a little while back? Immediately after that he just... Disappeared, and no one knows where he went..." he explained to Ed, not sure what else to say about it.
"Hmm, that is curious." He thought about how he had read once that a far back grand-father had used the blood of a child to locate the parent, but it was a complicated spell and he didn't think he could perform it alone. It would be best to have some of Lance's father's hair or better yet some fresh blood. The fresher the better. However, considering how long ago it had been since Dr. Banner's disappearance there was unlikely to be fresh blood that Ed could use.
"Yes. I would love to help. I can use blood or hair. Well technically I can even use nail clippings but never was fond of that. I should be able to track him anywhere. Though the compass I use only points in a direct line." Ed didn't even consider that Dr. Banner might not be on the planet.
Runa nodded, considering what Edus had to offer. The news that the compass could only function in one direction was a bit of a disappointment. Runa was accustomed to systems where spatial coordinates went beyond the two dimensional. She pulled her staff from her belt and Gandr expanded, until the staff was nearly as long as her.
"I can see about Asgardian tracking spells, in order to give us more information - perhaps combined, we can receive information in a more three dimensional manner.""Not entirely sure what we would really have, I mean there might be blood or whatever back at Stark Tower that's his, but I seriously doubt we'd really be able to get much... Never really thought about that sort of thing... Then again this might just be a waste of time or whatever... Might not ever be able to find him..."Ed nodded at Runa's idea.
"That's a good idea, Runa. It doesn't take much blood for the tracking spell. Though if he is really far away I might need more to recast it occasionally. It isn't a waste of time. This is a good chance for you to find him." Ed also didn't want to point out that spell wouldn't work if Dr. Banner was dead.
"Shall we go look for something then, my light?" Runa asked Lance.
"We should have plenty of time to search before my parents will expect me for supper.""Sure, guess we can go, head for Stark Tower see if there is anything there... Only place where there might even be something like that... Let's get going then if you don't mind..." he said, and since he had still been sitting on the ground during the conversation, he got up off of the ground.
"Would you like assistance?" He offered genuinely, but willing to not if Lance said no. It didn't bother Ed either way. He had other hair to collect around the mansion from the other X-men.
"I would not protest," Runa said, smiling ever so slightly. She didn't mind the idea of a chaperone. She knew that some on Asgard would have found it incredibly necessary to have one at all times, but her parents were rather lax, not caring if she spent time alone on Midgard with a mortal boy as long as she was home by curfew - which tended to be rather changeable and lax itself.
"I'm fine with it," Lance said with a slight smile,
"Any help I can get would be useful... The Avengers have been keeping an eye out but they haven't found anything still..." With those words, Runa was able to teleport them to Stark Tower. Lance instantly headed towards the lab area, and once he entered the area started going through things. Eventually, he found something that might be helpful as he pulled out what looked like a vial of blood of some sort.
"Tony tends to have blood from all of the Avengers, but considering how often my dad tended to run tests on his own blood, figured there would be some here anyway... Though it probably isn't as fresh or whatever that you were wanting for the spell Ed.""I've used dry blood before. It is just ideal to be fresh. And if it is still liquid that's even better. I can't say I've used old liquid blood before. That's why I asked for hair from. Everyone just makes for the cleanest spell." He explained. He hadn't talked to many people outside his family about their magic before.
"Lead the way. I've only been here the once.""I can reduce the age of the blood, worry not, Master Wizard," Runa assured Edus. It would be as simple as stating a lie and then having one of her companions reject the claim. She didn't imagine it would interfere with the process of Edus' magic, but she was planning on ideally splitting the portions into two so that way one of them wouldn't be tampered with just in case.
"Well, let's hope it works," Lance responded, handing the vial of blood over.
"Just be careful, it technically is radioactive I'm pretty sure..."Ed nodded. He was a bit nervous about the radioactivity. But it should be mild enough that it wouldn't hurt him. As long as he didn't get exposed for too long. He poured a couple of drops onto a compass and said a few words. An orange glow emanated from his hands the compass. He let it lay flat and stared at it confused, and a bit of worry, as the compass spun uncontrollably before flipping on its edge and the red north pin of the compass pointed straight up into the sky.
"Oh...I believe you haven't found your father because he is in space." "Do you have anything more specific than that?" Runa asked. Space was a very large place - it wasn't much of a location. There were millions if not billions of planets, teeming with life, and they had only eliminated one planet in particular so far (Midgard).
"Such as what territory? Perhaps the Shi'ar, Kree, Skrull, or Cotati Empires? Or the Nova Corps?""Guin and I could build something that might be able to help track him... But honestly, that does explain a lot, no one has even heard from him, and how he got there I don't know... Remember Runa, Ed already said that he might not get anything too specific... But at least that's a place to start... How do you two feel about going to space?"
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