7586/Guilty, Guilty, Guilty

Guilty, Guilty, Guilty
Date of Scene:	28 August 2021
Location:	Garage / Stables
Synopsis:	Visiting the Xavier grounds, Michael meets a new ally - and learns a little bit more about the mutant cause.
Cast of Characters:	Michael Erickson, Rogue

---

Michael Erickson has posed:
    He has to practice. He has to. And yet, the machine to which he has been bonded is nothing but a cauldron of hatred when he dons it, a dead man's relic that he has usurped. But Erickson wears it anyway, as he must if he's to make any use of it and bring at least /some/ honor to the unwitting murder that made this union possible.

    So he flies. Wings spread and glittering, a gleaming red-chrome comet that looks a cross between an Art Deco hood ornament and an anatomical model. Transonic, the suit sounds like a whistling meteor when it decelerates over Westchester County, decelerating fast and descending upon the Xavier mansion - landing upon its grounds just inside the fenceline, the red menace vanishes in a flash of purple light as it changes places with its pilot. Michael begins the hike across the yard, anticipating someone coming to investigate. Hoping they don't come bearing pitchforks and torches.

Rogue has posed:
The Xavier's School security is pretty impressive and its monitoring system keeps its people in the loop on whats going on. Being that its summer, the weather is nice, if a bit hot. Rogue has been out and about tending to some of the students in the backyard, helping them with their fun around the lake and so forth. She gets a alert about something coming in out in the front yard area. She tells the kids she's with to stay back by the lake with the older students, and then she takes to the sky.

Where Michael finds himself running, a figure sweeps out of the sky from the bright sun up high and she descends to where he is.

Rogue is dressed in casual summer-style clothing, denim shorts, tanktop and gloves (not really summerish) that go up to her mid forearms.

"Woah there, sugah." Rogue says to Michael. "Slow up there. Who the hell are you and what are you doin' on this private property?"

Michael Erickson has posed:
    Michael's expected this, of course. He's not /running/ so much as he's just at a brisk walk - and there, of course, comes down the brown-haired beauty with the witchlock he'd last seen flying around with a proton rifle in each arm. He does not shrink, of course. Instead he lifts a hand to wave as she comes down, stopping in his approach so that she can have the upper hand in position if she requires. He's not here or trouble, after all.

    "Good afternoon," he calls to her, a rich, baritone voice that was last used on the grounds bellowing curses in a completely different language. "Sorry, I didn't have my phone on me to call ahead. My name is Michael Erickson - or more specifically, Cal'hatar of Chandilar." A beat. "I came here the other week with Jessica Drew of SHIELD to help fight off Black Cloak and his commandoes."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue continues to hover about five feet off of the well cultivated lawn, up until the man introduces himself. She then seems to lighten up some. "I remember you now..." She says then. "I only caught a couple glimpses of ya, but it was a busy day ya see..." She says this softly in her naturally sultry toned voice, accented ian deep southern flavor. She lowers down out out of the sky then and settles her hiking boots down upon the grass.

"Your help was appreciated...." She says with a bit of a measured stare on her youthful features. She extends her right gloved hand though, the glove a dark forest green. "I'm Rogue. Or Mighty Woman. Or just Anna-Marie. whatevah flaots your boat most." She shows a faint smirk at herself then.

Her chin is quick to tip up a little though. "What brings ya here t'day?" She asks him next.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well I'd like to call you what you most prefer, if I'm honest," he says with a chuckle. "I actually came to see if there was anything that I could do to help rebuild the grounds." He gestures a bit to his arms before taking her hand and giving it a firm shake, withdrawing it politely once done. "I'm not /quite/ as strong as some of your people, but I can swing a hammer. Strictly speaking, I'm partially at fault for this whole thing." His lips flatten a tad. "Though I certainly didn't ask them to come /here/."

    Ooof. That accent. Even boys from space will soften a tad under that kind of drawl.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's gloved hands go to her hips then as she puts most of her weight on to her right leg now. She eyes him with her pale green eyes as he responds to her question. A quick look is given back to the school, her long white bangs flowing gently in the wind on the sides of her face. "Well..." She says then, her stare going back to him. "We've mostly taken care'a the repairs, cause'n we had classes startin' up here soon. Well, they started already in fact." She shows a quick smile for the man then. "We got a lotta capable folk around here, as I'm guessin' you've caught a look at now."

She dimples out the side of her right cheek with her tongue as she considers him and his words. She then upnods at him once. "You'll probably wanna meet up with Jean, when she's... feelin' better.... or maybe Ororo in the more immediate future. Ororo will be fillin' in for Jean until she's back on her feet. She's great, Ororo that is." Rogue smirks softly again toward him then as her right gloved hand goes up to stroke that white hair outta her face.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well, certainly," he replies, chuckling. "But...I know that while Her Royal Highness is friendly with the Professor, I might also provide future advice in fighting with the Shi'ar should it come again. Military tactics, linguistic classes, that sort of thing." A beat. "I'm actually working with SHIELD as well in this regard, so that humanity will be better prepared for any future attacks - from the Throne, or from the fallen Princess Deathbird. That's how I found out about Miss Grey in the first place, after all, when she manifested the Phoenix all those years ago." Someone's apparently been on the planet for a while."

    That said, he looks the beauty over, considering. It's not indecent; he's apparently looking at more than her curvaceous figure. "Well since we're here, and if you're not otherwise busy, perhaps you could tell me about this place? I was assigned to monitor Miss Grey herself, and I actually know very little about /human/ mutants. It would be nice to learn about you all."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue keeps her eyes on the man as he gives this explanation to her about what brought him here. She nods softly and vaguely once to it. "Yeah well... that stuff has never been anythin' I've been too... involved with. I got here only a few years ago, and I've tried tgleam what I could from when people were talkin' about it, but its been ... kinda dormant up until all this ... crap took place." She says as she strokes a gloved finger over her nose again to move some of her white hair back behind an ear.

She glances to the school again before she motions him to follow her. "Come on." She says, walking to one of the well kept pathways that go around the gardens and brightly happy flora up ahead.

"This place is an oasis for people who need help with their abilities." She tells him as she looks over at him beside her now. "Its also ... a well guarded secret. We try not t'spread the word, because there's a lotta folk out there who might try'n hit this place if we did. They'd regret it, mind ya, if they even damn well tried t'do such a thing. But still. We don't /want/ t'have t'deal with damage and death around here, if we don't have to."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    He proceeds to walk with her then, hands in the pockets of his jeans. "The Phoenix has ever been a destroyer," Michael explains as he walks along. "Milennia ago, it took one of my people as a host, and nearly destroyed our galaxy - so when it showed up in Miss Grey, I was asked to monitor her. I am - or was - military intellignece, you see. Sent here to keep an eye on the Kree back in the '70s. Once more and more people showed up with abilities, well..." He chuckles. "Earth is something of a galactic curiosity. Plenty of people think it could be a threat, though, because of that. Lots of paranoia.

    "But destroyer or not, Miss Grey is an innocent woman. So when I got word that the Fleet was coming, and orders to help kill her..." Michael shrugs. "Well, my people are bullies. They don't understand the word 'no'. That needs to change." He smiles faintly as they approach the flora in the distance, noting the colors. Pretty grounds here. "Well. If I can help, I daresay I've shown I'm willing. If I can face my own people in defense of your kin, nobody else really rates higher."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue's gloved fingertips are stuffed in to the front pockets on the waist of her denim shorts. She listens to Michael talk about the Shi'ar and the Phoenix. It intrigues her to learn a bit more about the situation, since she just lived through the wildness of it all with very little info given to her to go on. She just shakes her head though with her wild two-toned hair flowing around her face and shoulders.

"I'm kind of a ... homebody when it comes t'Earth, Mistah ERickson." The Belle says back at him. "I don't like goin' up there--" She points up quickly with her right index finger before it goes back in to her shorts pocket. "That stuff up there, and all the people I've met from up there... are just trouble makers. And not small time trouble.... oh no. Big time trouble." She smirks over at him briefly.

"Present company excluded a'course."

She looks up ahead as they're approaching one of the red white and yellow flower beds. "And yeah, this place is an oasis, its why we're willin' t'do whatevah it takes t'protect it, and its people."

She glances back at him. "The School, that is. Though Earth 'kinda' falls undah that umbrella too." She smirks again. "I could do without some parts'a Earth though..." She jests light heartedly.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Oh, there's plenty of lovely places out in space," he says, chuckling at her assertion - he pauses to peer at the flowers, stopping to crouch down by the flower beds. "Alrelaggin is a garden world in the Empire that is just...oh. Beautiful. Flowers with trumpets forty feet tall in some places." A faint smile lines Michael's lips at the memory - he doesn't tell her of course about the areas of the planet with some of the most beautiful foliage that release clouds of flesh-melting acidic pollen. "Or there's Etrala, Bregoix...lots of beautiful worlds. And warm people that live there."

    He looks up at her now, still crouching. "Lots of perfectly lovely offworlders here too, after all. Usually ridiculously powerful, but still good people. Most people in the galaxy are just that, you know, people. Good people. It's just the scale that throws people off."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue comes to a stop when he does near the flowers. When he moves to crouch to get a closer experience with them, she just takes her gloved fingers out of her shorts pockets and folds her arms across her stomach. She stands there and observes him as he speaks and shows him a faint smile, a little nod to go with what he's saying.

"We got a lotta good folks here, who are powerful, yeah, but there's plenty who need protection too that just... yeah, don't have much. When I got here, for example. I was a literal mess."

She raises her right gloved hand up and wiggles her fingers a little. "When I touch people, skin ta skin, I absorb their ... soul. So ta speak. I take their mutations on too, if they have any, or sometimes their skills and other special abilities. But it drops'em in a coma, and it pops their personality and thoguhts inta my head. So after doin' that for a handful'a years in my teens, I was a real damn ... disaster. But they helped me sort it all out once I got here."

She nods softly again. "That's what Jean does, she helps people. Its why this Phoenix stuff is bullshit. She doesn't deserve any ill will cause'a some space monster inside'a her."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    His smile broadens a bit. "Which is why I'm here. I'm sorry you had such a hard time growing up, miss. Glad you've found these people here."

Rogue has posed:
The southern girl flashes the space man a quick smile and a little light single nod. "It is what it is. As they say." She unfolds her arms from her stomach then and motions for him to keep following her. "So you're 'one of them'?" She asks him as they walk again curving their way around the drive way now toward the school.

She looks over at him. "What do you do here on Earth then? Other than... apparently spy on our headmistress... which is a bit creepy, by the by." She states with a smirk.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "Well, from the point of view from the Empire, a world-destroying force needs to be watched." He gets to his feet again and follows. "Up until a couple weeks ago I just...watched, and helped when I could - oh, I suppose I should say, I'm also the armored so-called 'superhero' know as the Red Sentinel. Been trying to protect folks on this planet for about twenty years now." He shrugs. "Otherwise I'm a security consultant working out of the city."

    Her other question makes him laugh. "By 'one of them' you mean a citizen of the Shi'ar Empire, yes. I'm Shi'ar specifically - the Empire spans a galaxy, there are trillions of people from many different races involved. You want to ask questions, I'm happy to answer them." After all, /he's/ the one who should be answering. One of those folks from far away.

Rogue has posed:
Rogue has her arms across her stomach again, rumpling the fabric of her dark green tanktop some. She keeps her eyes forward, though does glance over at him as he replies. At his last words she shows another faint smile. "I think it best that I remain happily ignorant about what is goin' up in space. 'Empires' are kinda above my paygrade..." She smirks a little once more.

"I'm a bit of a public heroin myself, ya know. Maybe not what twenty freakin' years would yield one, but I've had a few notable moments out there in the public eye." She grins now over at him. "That's where the 'Mighty Woman' thing came from. The media likes t'come up with creative names...."

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "They do." He smiles, nodding his head in assent to her request to remain ignorant of what goes on above. "I tend to keep out of the public spotlight - purposefully, as far as my cover went. Now..." Michael shrugs, brushing at the legs of his jeans. "Well, who knows? I'm not welcome in the Empire now, I'm sure. Traitor and all."

Rogue has posed:
Rogue leads him further closer to the school on the pathway out front. Some students are visible on the other side of the circle drive walking out toward the paths that lead to the east. She smirks back over at him. "Traitor to them, hero t'us though. Good for us, yeah?" She says that with a grin hinting at him.

They make it to the front of the school then, the stairs leading up to the front doors. "Want me to dip inside and see if I can get you a moment with Ororo, or someone ya might be able t'talk to about volunteering t'help out here and there?" She asks him then.

Michael Erickson has posed:
    "I find that blind faith does little for everyone." He pauses on the steps, hands tucking back into his jeans pockets. "Yeah, if you don't mind. And I appreciate your giving me a tour, Miss Anne-Marie." Now a smile for her, broad and toothy. He's a generically handsome white dude in the flesh, but he /is/ handsome. "I'll just hang out here until someone's free."