1874/A Sinister Plot: Interlude: Special Delivery

A Sinister Plot: Interlude: Special Delivery
Date of Scene:	27 May 2020
Location:	Front Yard (Xavier's School)
Synopsis:	Julian appears on the lawn! Scott and Jean arent clones! Rogue thinks we are all crazy!
Cast of Characters:	Emma Frost, Julian Keller, Rogue, Scott Summers, Alex Summers, Jean Grey, Illyana Rasputina, James Proudstar

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Emma Frost has posed:
A shimmer appears on the front lawn of Xavier's mansion. A thin line seems to split, and then as a body lands from a one-foot drop onto the grass by the fountain...

On all X-Men and Academy X Comms, the automated Shi'ar tech warning system announces:<|>WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED TELEPORTATION INTO PROTECTED ZONES. UNAUTHORIZED TELEPORTATION, INCOMING. LOCATION: FRONT LAWN. WARNING: UNAUTHORIZED TELEPORTATION INTO PROTECTED ZONES. UNAUTHORIZED TELEPORTATION, INCOMING. LOCATION: FRONT LAWN.<|>

Julian Keller has posed:
Julian has been deposited onto the lawn without much ceremony. He's wearing a ragged hospital gown, spattered with blood. His hair is lank and unwashed, his skin pale and clammy. He's curled up in a fetal position and unconscious, at least for the moment.

Of course, the headline news comes from his hands or, rather, his lack thereof. Left unbandaged perhaps for maximum effect, his hands have been obviously removed by force. His stumps have been cauterized and stitched, but the tissue nonetheless seems a bit inflamed and angry. He's a crumpled wreck of a young man, far from the proud and untouchable young prince he often seemed before he was taken just a week or so ago.

Rogue has posed:
Being that it's summer vacation, there's a lot of landscaping work that gets done around Xavier's and it's generally done with a wide variety of lawn equipment that's stored in a section of the garage.

Rogue has volunteered to help out with some maintenance of said yard equipment and is currently in-bteween picking up and carrying machines from one part of the garage to another while the others she was working with went in to town to get some stuff from the hardware store.

So when the alerts go out, Rogue is in the garage and sitting on the hood of one of the riding mowers. Wearing short jean shorts, a green tshirt, some leather sandals and a pair of shades over her eyes she's staring at her phone when the message comes up.

"Ah great..." She mutters, hopping off of the lawn mower and walking across the garage floor toward the open door out to the front where she peers... at what lays out there. She spies him out there, but she's not sure who HE is yet.

Scott Summers has posed:
It takes about a minute to get from the planning room to the door of the school when one runs enough. Along the way Scott changed his glasses by a combat visor, but otherwise he is not in his uniform. "Jean, clear the area of kids, if it is Sinister we want them in the bunker..." but as he opens the door there is nothing but... a body on the ground. And Rogue. "Rogue, did you see what happened?" He asks, approaching cautiously to the blood-stained boy.

Alex Summers has posed:
    Alex didn't bother grabbing his....costume? He'd say it was a uniform, but that's more of a X-men thing. And he's not exactly thinking very clearly on like four hours of sleep over the past two or three days to begin with. He look saround, his hands curled into fists as he looks unsure. "...so...oh." he says, spotting the body, then slowly starting to approach it to try and get a better look.

    He's hoping it's no one he recognizes.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean flies over, already wearing her X-costume as she telekinetically changed on the way out. She hovers overhead, then looks down at the boy, descending slowly as she scnas mentally around, making sure there's no one else present.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Certain members of the Xavier's student body have not been present at the mansion for days. The role call for the missing starts to look particularly worrisome when tagging others without any regular sightings, those not accounted among the abducted or distinctly lost. Those absent residents happen to include two of the finest hunters of their generation, an explosives expert, an organic steel paladin and his little sister. Hours bleed away on the calendar without so much as a wisp of their footprint imposed on the grounds, until that self-imposed exile apparently decides to come to an end.

Not with a bang, unless someone's hearing is so acute it picks up on the displaced gas atoms shunted to the side. Gossamer threads that bind different dimensions in the multiverse provide instantaneous transit between vast distances, and one of those slender byways blossoms into a halo of silver fire long enough to manifest into an impressively large young man. Jimmy probably shows up on Jean's scan, sudden as the sidestep is. Behind him is the Russian blonde, enveloped in ultraviolet shadows entangling them both before the rift in space seals itself smoothly and cleanly. Almost instantaneously the midnight armour sweeps around her shoulder, the interlocking plates racing down her arm and her hand closing around the incandescent blade pulled from the ether. Hers is an emptiness in the psychic landscape: there is no spoon.

Julian Keller has posed:
Julian Keller flutters his eyes open only to find Cyclops staring down at him. Which might have been reassuring if he hadn't had his hands removed by someone with that particular phase. With his powers no longer contained, they react reflexively, punching out with a telekinetic flex that will send Scott flying backwards, although not hard enough to break anything.

"GABBY!" he cries, still on his knees and shuddering, pushing a stump on the ground only to crumple in pain from the pressure, "ESSEX YOU SON OF A BITCH!" he says, eyes darting around in confusion as he finds himself outdoors. It has to be some sort of trick, probably that bitch Meredith.

Rogue has posed:
From the garage area, Rogue's sunglasses-covered eyes go from Julian out in the yard, over to the front steps that lead into the main foyer as she sees others coming out to check on the situation. Scott's voice chimes in over the comms and she hears him call out to her. She raises her phone up to talk into the open comm in it's software. "High Cheekbones over there just showed up outta thin air."

With Scott, and the others, rushing over toward the kid on the lawn, Rogue lifts up off of the ground by about a foot and just silently soars over one of the flower bushes and drops down on the soft grass not far away.

"Who's Essex?" Rogue asks after hearing the Gabby name drop on her way over.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean flies over, "JULIAN!" She reaches into Julian's mind, seeking to calm him down and, more importantly, dampen the pain he's undoubtedly feeling. She hears the call of Essex and... well, it's a good thing no one can read //her// mind right now.

Because seeing what happened to Julian? It is NOT a happy place.

Scott Summers has posed:
As Jean flies over, Scott flies away, landing on his back, although fortunately on the grass. He was expected some kind of attack, but not from Julian. Who seems to be pretty distressed. To be honest, he wasn't at his best when the other X-Men rescued him from Essex, a few years ago.

Sinister has that effect in people.

Scott stands up slowly, and then spots James and the others. "We need to compare notes, but lets take the boy to the medbay first.

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Fuck..." Alex says, looking back to Scott. "Yeah, I was gonna say let's get him to medbay, but then I remembered Sinister is an /asshole/, so probably should check him for bombs or shit." he says worriedly, looking back to Julian as he moves over by Jean. "Julian...easy, easy..."

    His eyes flick down to those stumps as he shudders slightly. "Just...just relax, we got you man..." He /badly/ wants to promptly grill the boy over the whereabouts of the others...but damn. Kid looks bad. "We got you man, we'll get you to the doctor..."

James Proudstar has posed:
James Proudstar appears alongside Illyana, not even questioning how he ended up in his uniform versus the casual clothing he was wearing in Limbo. It's Magik making magic, as far as he's concerned. Now Jimmy's under most circumstances a fairly sharp fellow, so he sizes up the situation quickly. Julian's scent mingled with blood and infection. Julian hurling Scott away as Jean approaches him from above. He knows something's...off.

""The Boy" has a name, and you better compare notes quick, because from where we're standing, we shouldn't let you lay a hand on him." Jimmy's clearly bristling, whether from seeing his frenemy in such a state, or the scene they've arrived to or...well just everything. Several days-plus of paranoia do take their toll, eventually. Jimmy does start towards Julian, but it's clearly in a ready stance, eyeing the others warily...particularly Scott and Jean.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean looks over at James, "James, what are you..." And she isn't exactly in a mood to debate, as she loops James into a mental link. Easy enough, and James can see Jean's recent experiences as a T-Rex in the forefront of her mind. As that might help verify things as she catches up quickly, not bothering with subtlety or niceness as she pauses... and realizes the implications of what James found. Particularly with the looks James is giving her and Scott.

She then grits her teeth, "That. BASTARD." Oh, if she was pissed before? It's probably for the best interests of the solar system that she no longer HAS the Phoenix Force at her disposal at this particular point in time.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's arms fold across her stomach, her hands gloved in dark green that go up to her elbows with parts of her biceps still bare skin before the sleeves of her tshirt take over the job of keeping her covered. She just sweeps her eyes from one of them to the other before going back to Julian. She's more than a little out of her element on this one, but that's fairly expected for a low level X-Men member, right?

"Look are we in trouble?" She asks the 'adults' here. "I mean, should I be expectin' a fight comin' our way or what? We got a whole backyard full'a kids on a Friday night we gotta round up, if things are about t'get crazy up'n here." She raises her right hand up to sweep her white hair back out of her face in the warm evening breezes, then glances toward the north to the paths into the backyard of the property.

Julian Keller has posed:
Julian Keller can't register anything that complex. Jean rummaging through his mind will find a panoply of images: Sinister standing with someone who looks like Cyclops, some sort of lab facility, the group of missing mutants huddled together all wearing collars, Beast in his hairless humanoid form.

And worst of all, scenes of torture. Sinister's hand going through an incision in Emma's stomach. Robert screaming in rage as someone who looks like Jean coos and strokes his hair. Gabby screaming in agony as she's cut again and again and again, blood pouring everywhere.

And, of course, again and again, the saw tearing through his wrists, splintering his bones, the agony, the incredible agony as his wrists are sheared open, blood spraying everywhere.

"Gabby, oh god," he shivers. "He made her hurt. He made her hurt," he whispers to himself.

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Black armour takes moments to lock Illyana into place, the final touch that forked coronet with eerie overtones to the actual horns of her alter ego. She stays behind Jimmy to some degree, offset by a few feet that the Soulsword makes next to irrelevant if she really wanted to press the glowing point about closing such distance. The faded blue of her eyes and closed expression give no particular suggestion of her mood, whether tilting towards an apparition of violence or casually strolling out from Limbo to collect a pair of sunglasses and a few packs of bubblegum from the nearest bodega. Does Westchester County have them? Corner store, if not.

She regards Julian with a slow tip of her head, scouring a look up to the flying redhead and then over to Scott with a triangulation so precise it gives no immediate excess. The slow, swiveling oscillation of her sword stays point-down, for the most part.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean doesn't share the images from Julian, keeping them to herself for now. Then she looks over at Scott and Alex, "Sinister... has clones of myself, and Scott as well. Indoctrinated, no doubt, to be Marauders for him." She lands on the ground, hands at her sides as she looks at Illyana.

"I'm the only me that ever was, Illyana. No cheap imitations here." Then she looks over at James, then the others, "And I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm tired of Sinister's manipulations. They have to end." And there's a definite tone of finality in her voice.

Scott Summers has posed:
It takes a second for Scott to process James and Illyana stances, which are not exactly friendly. "Where is Piotr?" He asks warderly. <<Jean, could they be under Sinister influence?>> He sends through the link. <<They have been on the field for days now, that alone is unusual.>>

Rogue made an important point, though, which he can't ignore. "I am afraid so, Rogue. We are about to confront one of the X-Men deadliest foes. The school should be put on lockdown since now."

Alex Summers has posed:
    Alex isn't sure what's going on, the tone of James' voice causing him to look back and forth between the two groups, unconsciously putting himself by Julian in case things are about to go pear-shaped. "...you're fucking kidding me." he says in an almost tired voice, before he shakes it off. "...so. Evil clones. So ones that people can't tell apart from the...originals?"

Rogue has posed:
All of it crosses over her, Gabby being in pain... a bad 'foe' coming to fight them? Rogue's hands drop to her hips, her gloved fingertips dancing in waves against the denim covering them. "Great." She says. "Perfect. I mean..." She softly nods her head and starts to turn around and walk back the way she'd come. "I mean, we just got the lawn mower put back t'gether, so naturally the school might get blown up." Her phone comes up in her right hand and she looks down at it. She starts to tap out a text to several of the people on the property, telling them to get inside.

"Gabby better be the hell okay, or whomever this is, I'm gonna beat their god damned face into a fine mist." She mutters as she walks at a casual pace.

James Proudstar has posed:
"Clones? That's what we're going with?" Jimmy still looks wary, meeting Jean's gaze, then looking to Scott, then back to Jean. He could tie his brain in pretzel knots going over all the different ways this could or couldn't be a trap. However given the crazy mixed up lives they lead, is that really the least reasonable explanation?

The tension doesn't completely drain away, but there's a...lessening. The real truth is that Jean could make him into the mental equivalent of a rutabega in an eyeblink and there's not much he could do about it, and if they're explaining instead of just mind-whammying...also Rogue is here and Scott's brother. Oh hell with it.

"All right. We'll go with clones for now. Let's get Julian to the medlab." To which he moves over to Julian, crouching down, "Hey Jules...it's me, Jimmy. I'm gonna get you someplace safe, OK? So don't blast me or it's gonna be a bumpy ride."

Julian Keller has posed:
Julian Keller nods, "Clones," he says, gesturing towards Scott, "Cause I...I killed him. I killed you. Not you. Him. Looks like you. Not you," he says. "It hurt so much and then there was fire in my brain and I..." he says and he reaches his stump towards Cyclops and there's a sudden, radiant heat as a hand made of green fire manifests at the end of his stump.

"I shoved this right through his face...right through...didn't know I could but I did...that's the experiment...to see if we get...new powers from being...tortured," he says.

Jean Grey has posed:
Jean nods towards Julian, then looks at James, "It's Sinister's forte. He's a master of genetics, and he's been obsessed with my DNA for a while. Not sure how he managed to get enough to make a clone, though." She frowns, "That's going to be another loose end to take care of, for certain."

Look, she knows what she can do. An 'evil' version of her without any conscience, serving Sinister?

Yeah, that just can't be allowed to continue.

Alex Summers has posed:
    "Shit. Of course." He hates Sinister the more he hears about this crap. "...look. We need to get Julian down to your medical room, and to do that we need to, I dunno, scan him or shit to make sure that there's nothing on him Sinister can use to mess with him or find him or nab him again. Once he's bandaged up...we can see what he remembers."

Illyana Rasputina has posed:
Illyana's silent presence isn't breaking up for any given reason though she listens. Rather than launching herself into a full out attack or summoning up the endless boiling hordes of Limbo, which rests in her purview, so points for compelling arguments or Julian being rather convincing about the melting vengeance he takes. Slinking around Jimmy, she shakes her head. "Let me. Faster. Pick him up and one step."

Riiiight, because that Limbo jump is bound to be so much more comfortable. Though it might be far more perturbing for her to spin her hand around in a sharp circle, creating a rivulet of sparks that show the medbay on the other side. That ain't bog-standard Limbo portal, but something unquestionably elegant and direct in the purpose. Maybe it'll burn everyone to cinders walking through.

James Proudstar has posed:
Jimmy reaches down and carefully scoops Julian up. He glances back to Illyana and gives her a nod, and moves to step through the portal to the medbay, though not before giving Scott and Jean a look and adding, "We'll compare more notes once he's cleaned up and comfortable."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue hasn't completely separated herself from the group, she's just standing several feet away and pacing as she fires off texts with quick thumb tappings like nobody's business! Such gems as 'All hell might break loose, cover up the pool.' and 'Make sure Leonard's turtle is in his cage, and put the cage in the closet.' She's preparing people! She's probably texting Jubilee who's on the mission no doubt... or just sitting and watching television.

All the same, Rogue's trying to listen to what they're all saying too... trying to absorb the information the old fashioned way.

She looks up and grimaces at them though. She eyes Illyana's portal as Jimothy takes Julian toward it. "I'll be out here, doin' sweeps an' make sure everything's safe as can be!" She gleefully announces, then sarcastically mutters as she looks toward the end of the driveway.

"This place is really more of an insane asylum than it is a school."

Julian Keller has posed:
Julian Keller doesn't offer any resistance, slipping back into unconsciousness as he's lifted up into Jimmy's arms. He's clearly been through a great deal.