Players:
Special Guest
Summary: Hank uses his Scientific ways to try to find those taken by Mr. Sinister.
Date: March 6, 2010
Log Title A Little Test
Rating: R
Xavier Mansion - Hank's Room
Hank's room is rather austere, the walls are painted iced tea with a two foot band of melted butter starting about four feet from the floor. There is an armoir, a dresser, and a rather large desk; all the wooden furniture made of finished oak. The bed is king sized, and covered with a tan comforter, several darker brown and yellow throw pillows on it. At the foot of the bed is a cedar chest finished to a bright shine. The closet is a walk-in, and there's quite a wardrobe inside. Next to the closet is a bathroom featuring a double wide claw-footed tub and a shower head above each end of the tub.
Find the victims of Sinister's fiendish plot…this is the single most important thing in the world right now so far as Henry McCoy is concerned. He's been up for three days straight — fortunately he's has the stamina to to survive abusing himself like that (for a while). He's cancelled all his classes, rescheduled any tutoring sessions, he even skipped his scheduled time at his hair hairdresser! This is SERIOUS stuff right here.
Much in the vein of a mad scientist, and lets face it, though sane Hank is pretty darn angry at the moment, he's been working on tailoring a modified version of the same retrovirus that infected Jono, Skyler and the others. Based on comparitive analysis he's posited the existance of a sort of 'neural-network' joining those affected, further, the structure of the network suggested that there was a fifth point of contact and THAT is the connection he's trying to mimic. After all, he's pretty sure that Sinister wouldn't make that fifth point, the point that HE would likely be connected to, a weak point, now would he?
Two days of design, eighteen hours to culture the virus and then Hank seals the med lab, putting himself in a quarrantine room that would take even him a bit to get out of, and then the injector is pressed to his arm. "Normally I'd say that Norton and Edna McCoy didn't raise any fools…but…" And then the plunger is pressed, the virus injected. "…well, I suppose now we'll find out."
Once injected, Hank would feel a burn in his arm as the retrovirus starts to latch on to him. The nerves start to scream with pain as it seems to latch onto them and just work itself into his system. This goes on for about ten minutes until a sort of connection is established, something odd. Since Sinister didn't mean for what he did to do this, the effects couldn't be predicted by anyone. Hank would get the feeling of an emotion, of content and pride that things are going well quickly followed by Anger and Confusion. The feelings of Mr. Sinister. Next is the thought of 'What the hell is going on?'
"Oh my stars and garrRRRgh…." Hank clamps down on some bandages to keep from screaming, or causing himself injury. They don't last long, fortunately neither does the pain. The shredded remains are spit out, and the fuzzy genius pants for breath as he gets a grip, exploring the strange sensations. ~!~ The first contact triggers a sense of surprise, and then a surge of anger. ~Perhaps you're going mad, Nathaniel Essex…even the most gifted mind is fallible, even the most ingenious designs aft gang aglay…~
Reaching out to figure out what is going on, Mr. Sinister is somehow able to pry around Hank's mind but there's a lot of stops and it's difficult to get in there. Though because of the weird virus link, that's the only way he can tell it's Dr. Hank McCoy. He won't be able to get much more than that. "Ah, Dr. McCoy, I see the X-Men have taken an interest in me. How did you manage to do this?" It's the scientific mind being curious on how it happened.
~Well, your virus -did- attack several of my students and a friend, naturally we'd take an interest.~ Hank probes and tests the bounds of Sinister's defenses, what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander after all. ~Hrmph. Well, working from the samples I had I reverse engineered your virus, mapped the nueral network, and by careful extrapolation of the matrix I found I was able to engineer my own version that mimics the linkages yours must have to you.~ A moment of chagrin. ~I didn't anticipate a direct mind to mind connection with you, however.~ He admits. Even so he is furiously at work trying to trace the four victims in this drama, and carefully plotting what he finds into a typed log. Records must be kept — just in case.
There isn't much Hank can get from Mr. Sinister besides the thoughts and one other thing. That tracking, detection part of the mark, it seems to be trying to find it's host. « They aren't your students or friends any more Dr. McCoy, and I have to admit impressive work. » From one professional to another, right? « I didn't anticipate you doing this. » There's a bit of nerves in the feelings behind the thoughts but with the desire to keep cool. Behind the scenes, Sinister has to figure out how to break, and stop, this connection.
. o O (So…where…to…Eureka! Bathwater or no…) Hank feels the virus 'pulling' him towards its original master, and thinking at a pace that few men in the world could have managed he translates where it wants him to go into real-world coordinates. The coordinates are then faithfully entered into the log he's keeping, and copies immediately emailed to Kitty Pryde and Scott Summers. He's taking a dreadful risk, but he's not going to go off and NOT leave any hint of what's up. The emails are flagged highest urgency, but he doesn't say anything out loud, doesn't activate any comms — Sinister might notice that, typing he can do almost without any thought…perhaps it will be enough. ~I must admit your virus was brilliantly designed, Doctor Essex. There is no denying the genius of your work, misplaced though your morals might be. However — if I can do this in just a few days what makes you think I can't undo what has been done to my friends?~ Hank knows he's got to keep the madman guessing, even as he prepares to make for the hangar.
« Because that was rushed. » Who knows if Sinister is lying or not, Hank wouldn't think he is. « It's also old and deteriorating. I've spent more time perfecting my new Marauders this time. » The villain can't help but brag a bit about his acomplishment. « Right now they're all fully faithful to me. » He's not too worried about Hank undoing what he's done, after all Hank isn't a telepath. « What is it you want Dr. McCoy, I have….things to attend too." Like giving his Marauders their next mission.
~Well, I suppose we'll find out, Doctor Essex. Of course…since your virus, and the specific connections I forged in my version of it exerts influence over the targets…~ And then Hank tries to find the others, and see if he can usurp control from Essex. After all, he did pattern his version off what he believed to be the 'master' virus that Sinister is himself infected with. He doesn't expect to be able to break the control, but he's pretty sure he can hurl a few sabot into the metaphorical gears of what Sinister is trying to do.
Eventually a location clicks, right above the New York border, into Canada. No more than a half hour into Canada. Finding the others though, there's a bit of a block because even if it's a copy of the master virus, it has to go through Sinister to find them. Hank would realize that those marked are only connected to Sinister, not to each other. « Dr. McCoy I would recommend stopping this foolishness and stop what you're doing, or I'm going to have to stop it for you."
~Well…as I cannot reach the others…~ Yet. ~…I suppose being able to track /your/ movements will be a good start.~ And then Hank, being essentially incapable of giving up instead tries to make Sinister's life much more difficult. Essex is a genius, Hank is too and both of them are more than capable of multitasking and focusing. However…Hank is willing to bet that Essex WON'T enjoy him shouting into his mind. He's not telepathic, but he does have a fair degree of training with some of the best in the world, arguably he trained with THE best. Add to that his iron determination (and a good amount of desperation!) and the psychobabble he 'shouts' is probably fairly intense. Opera, advanced mathematics, quantum chemstry, knock-knock jocks, dirty limmericks! He'll send all he can in a maddening cacophony that is sure to be at least a tad annoying. En route to the hangar, he stops to jot down the final coordinates, scribbling them on the wall with a Sharpie.
At the comment that he's gonna be tracked, there is a surge of annoyance that Hank feels. He can tell Sinister is busy with something and trying to concentrate but the annoying mental blabber is distracting him. « Don't mess with me Dr. McCoy. » Mr. Sinister thinks as he sends a harsh mental attack at Hank over the connection, designed to mentally stun him for just enough time to rearrange his molecules and cut off the connection. Sure he won't be able to link to the others via the link anymore, but Hank will be out of his way. After all they are /his/ now, his new Marauders. But at least Hank does have a location.
~Sorry, Doctor Essex…but you're the one that initiated this conflict, not I. I'm afraid that I'll—-~ And then the link goes dead. "…" Hank reals a moment under the combination of attack and link severance, leaning against the wall until his heart rate returns to normal. "Well, that didn't quite go as expected." Straightening, he looks at one of his hands as it shakes and twitches, balling it into a fist as he gets control of himself again. "Right. Well, I have a location, though there's little time." Moving to one of the comms he tries to raise Scott, Kitty or any other X-Men that he can. There's an Emergency and time is of the essence.
