Players:
Summary: The latest target for the Purifiers lives in Mutant Town!
Date: September 20, 2012
Log Title: Adding Another To The Collection
Rating: R
NYC - Four Arms Apartments (Connor, Rashmi and Robyn's Apartment)
It's early morning, as in the sun has not truly penetrated the smog layer over the bay, and casts an eerie orange light over everything. Connor has taken up the couch with a single garment bag with laundry to one side, and has been working almost manically to get things packed up. Both his roommates have been absent his presence for the last two days, save for a quick text that came about an hour ago that was just 'Coming Home - Need to talk. URGENT.'
"Connor?" The front door closes, and Rashmi walks into the living room. Her hair has fully regrown by now, and one hand is worrying at the thick braid pulled over her shoulder; a mannerism that she'd never managed to truly get away from. Her eyes are worried as she watches her roommate pack, and the braid is given a slow twist. "…I've been watching the news, Connor… What's going *on* here?"
Wandering out of his bedroom dressed in a pair of Jack Skellington pajama pants and an Edward Scissor hands t-shirt is Robyn, hair disheveled and looking like he just woke up. "Hey Connor, what's up? Is it all that stuff that's been going on in Salem Center?" He'd be lying if he said it didn't worry him but he keeps having to remind himself he's not a superhero but an art school student. "I wish you wouldn't disappear after stuff like that, I get worried."
"I was making sure everything was allright with Xavier security before I came back, and the rest of it was in security briefings at the Embassy." The bag is zipped up, and then folded as Connor looks at the pair, "Robyn… I want you to go home. Rashmi… I want you to go back to Barnes. Crate the cats if you have to, but…" And he pauses with a gulp, "The Church of Humanity has my information. I was masked, but they knew enough about my powers and other things to identify me without seeing my face. My family and all of you are in danger."
"Oh great," Rashmi says with a sigh, then pauses. "So… if the Church of Humanity's co-opted the media…" Shaking her head, she wanders into the kitchen, following this line of thought. "That *really* gets me is, if their story is the only one that's going out on the news…" There's a clatter of small appliances, as Rashmi starts to gather up necessaries from the kitchen. "Then something's *really* wrong. Like, government conspiracy-level wrong. I'll talk to Ms. Walters, and see if I can get Mr. Cooper to agree to an interview. And this registration nonsense? …Wow. Yeah. I've got a *lot* of work to do." Going to Barnes, it seems, as well as her personal safety, has almost immediately turned into an afterthought.
Robyn looks at Connor for a bit like a deer in headlights. "I…I guess the cats can take the cats with me to my parents, but this is home to me Connor." He walks over to one of the chairs around the table and sits down. He really doesn't want to leave. "Connor, I want you to tell me as much as you know that's going on instead of just saying 'go home be safe' cause, being blind to what's going on isn't going to help anything. What exactly happened out there in Salem Center?"
Connor doesn't pause until he's gone into the kitchen and taken his meds down from the spot where he keeps them, right next to where he usually has his food he takes for work that morning. Taking out his dosage patch, he slips it under his left arm, replacing the old one with a new one, "The Church of Humanity staged a march on Salem Center. Their leader accused the town of going against god by harboring mutants openly, and that they should repent. And then they used a makeshift sonic cannon on the crowds right along the main street. I was there getting my post drop-off ccffee. So I acted. Then Purifiers came out of the crowd with guns. A teach and a few students were in the crowd. I found out afterwards, two of them had been kidnapped. One of them was one of MY students, Robyn."
But there's a small smile at the end, "Part of the reason I was at the briefing was I got chewed out for sending the esteemed Reverend leading the march to Genosha on a one-way trip. They didn't appreciate me giving them fresh fascists."
While Connor is in the kitchen, Rashmi pauses in the packing up of the kettle and teas to give the boy a tight hug. "We'll get them back, Connor… It may be horrible, but it always works out okay. We ought to know that better than almost anyone, y'know? But… yeah. We really should pack up." Emerging from the kitchen, she moves to Robyn, placing a hand on his shoulder and squeezing. "If your parents don't want to take the cats, I will. Or at least Dex. Zero probably won't want to leave you, and Bamf.. well he goes where he wants anyway. They won't be happy, but they'll survive. I'll talk to Ms. Walters as soon as we're done, and see if our renter's insurance covers acts of genetic terrorism. …So pack up everything you don't want to see broken, okay?"
"No, they'll be fine with the cats, my Dad had fun with Zero last time he was over here for dinner." Robyn says sounding distracted, mainly by his thoughts. "Connor, I'll call my parents and let them know I'll be living back there for a while but, are you going to go try to find your student all gung-ho by yourself? I know I'm not as active with my powers and training as I was at Xavier's but, I'll go with you." He doesn't like the sound of any of this. He reaches a hand up to squeeze Rashmi's. "Who are these Church of Humanity extremists? I've seen a few rallies before but nothing like this."
The hug is returned to Rashmi after a bit, and the fresh meds giving a nice sense of calm to the young teleporter as he then says, "No… my being out there will only cause trouble. My name is in the news as a known terrorist. The Genoshan embassy is offering me asylum until the end of this, and I'm taking it… they're also going to fly someone out to pick up my parents, my sisters, and my uncle, and bring them all back here." That admission obviously pains him, and he ends up stopping in the middle of the apartment, hands clenched into fists, "Robyn… I am scared. Not just for me, but for everyone I know. These people are dedicated, prepared, and don't care about bystanders. Worse… Rashmi's right. They've got the spin control. I can't fight that. I can't hit it, or push it away. I can only wait for it to… I don't know…"
"Then it's a good thing you don't *have* to fight it yourself, isn't it?" Rashmi says with a smile, seemingly unperturbed by the systematic stripping of the kitchen she's doing. What's needed is boxed up, what's critical and small goes into her bookbag, and what's going to stay is unplugged. "You let SHIELD and Ms. Walters and I worry about spin control. This registration thing is probably giving her an aneurysm, anyway." She pauses as a thought strikes her, brows furrowing. "…Actually Robyn, it's probably a good idea if you go with Connor anyway. *Any* mutant who gets within a mile of those people probably want to seek asylum at the Embassy. The place is a fortress, and maybe you can get some college credits making mock-ups for city planning in Genosha?"
"That's up to the Embassy and Connor, but if they'll have me I'll go." Robyn says as it keeps him away from his parents which might be for the better. "I can't help but feel like everything is spinning out of control." He finally stands up and starts to unplug what he can in the main room, following Rashmi's lead. "I'll pack only what I need to pack and figure out a way to make this work with school and my job."
Outside the apartment, from a ways down the hall, shrieking and screams can be heard, along with what sounds like small explosions. Within seconds the building's fire alarm system, a loud ringing noise, starts to sound.
"No." Connor whispers out and immediately, he brings up his hand, and says, "You have to go. Now." Spinning up the fastest portal he's ever wrought, in seconds, the living room is bathed in the light of the spinning disk, and he's immediately sweating from the strain of pushing it out that fast and that hard, "Go. Both of you. Please. For me." The words coming between breaths as he flicks out his other and drops the security bar on the door.
As if knowing somehow what is happening, Bamf appears out of nowhere, carrying a suspicious-looking little bag in his muzzle, that has a definite and third grey tail sticking out of it.
"Go, Bamf!" Rashmi yells, not seeming to care how silly it is to be shouting instructions at a cat. "Robyn, you too! I swear I'll be *right* behind you!" As she speaks, she pulls out the tablet that Connor gave her so many months ago, something that has proven vital when things start to go incredibly wrong. With a few taps on the screen, she activated the camera and recording program, and points the lens at the door. "I just need evidence of wrongdoing…"
"Damnit I'm not a kid!" Robyn protests. "If we're going Rashmi it's together, not separate, I'm not risking being the first one to leave and finding out you two are stuck here!" He says wishing he had time to pack at least something before having to run out of here. "Connor, please be safe." He pleads before stepping towards the portal and waiting for Rashmi to finish so they can go through together.
As the alarm continues to wail, footsteps can be heard stopping outside the door, something slams against the wood and begins to beep on the other side. "Stand back!" Someone can be heard yelling on the other side and in a few seconds there's a loud explosion as a chunk of the door is blown off. Standing on the other side of the door are at least four men dressed in the uniform of the Purifiers, two of them with rifles aimed at the door.
Seeing the men with rifles is enough for Connor, and he immediately puts both of his friends in a 'grab' as well as anything they're holding, and sends both towards his portal without their consent, saying, "I'm sorry." Moving forwards away from the pair as they vanish into the swirling disc of power… instead of preparing for a fight… he instead sinks to his knees and he puts his hands behind his head…
The trio of cats beat the others through by seconds, a little sad mewl coming from inside the bag, followed by a hissing growl as the strongest of the three cats leaps inside of the disk, just his bottlebrush tail the last thing seen. Apparently, someone doesn't like portal travel?!
"My name is Rashmi Franklin," Rashmi murmurs into the tablet's microphone, "and what you're watching is Church of Humanity terrorists breaking into our apartment to kidnap my roommate, Connor Blake. We're both mutants, and the only possible excuse they *could* have is that Connor is a courier for the Genosha Embassy, here in New York City." As the door is blasted in, her hands wobble, but the quartet of Purifiers remains on the screen, the pickup good. "Smile for the camera," the redhead all but snarls, "and GET OUT OF OUR HO—ACK!" And with that undignified ending to the drama, Rashmi is catapulted backward through the portal, an indignant noise the last thing heard from her.
"Connor!" Robyn screams as he's pushed back into the portal send to which ever destination is planned. Where ever he ends up he's left with worry for his friend.
"The mutant is surrendering." One of the Purifiers says as he walks cautiously into the apartment, right up to Connor, and pulls out a pistol, shooting him with a dart to cut off his powers. "Restrain him." And the two with the rifles lower their weapons to grab Connor, one on each arm, as the third Purifer attempts to handcuff his hands behind his back.
As his friends end up in the middle of a secure room in the Genoshan Embassy, a quartet of guards there with weapons ready but not drawn on them, Connor lets himself be darted, and then manhandled to standing, "I want you all to remember this… I don't care who you think you are… who taught you… who trained you… what you're doing is wrong. If any of you harms another person here in Mutant Town… any of you. I will make you wish I'd killed you."
Rashmi hits the ground hard, scrabbling to her feet and shaking the last wisps of the trip through the portal away from her mind. "CONNOR!" She starts to stumble back toward the portal, but as it closes off, she drops to her knees, shivering. "Robyn… Robyn are you okay? Connor's going to be fine, ju—*oh shit the camera.*" Frantically, the redhead pokes at her tablet, paging back through white noise, glimpses of places and people that don't look like they belong in reality, and breathes a deep, heavy sigh of relief as the footage of the purifiers breaking into the apartment shows up, as clear as it was when recorded. "Oh thank God…"
"Connor!" Robyn yells again as he sees the portal close off and turns frantically towards Rashmi. "Yes, I'm okay..but we have to get back to the apartment, Connor he's…he's…..there's nothing we can do right now." He walks over to Rashmi and looks over her shoulder at the tablet. "I'll help you with whatever you need Rashmi, I can't sit back and do nothing on this one."
Back in the apartment, the Purifier's aren't exactly gentle with Connor. He's lifted to his feet, his arms being tightly held by two Purifiers. One of them walks up so he's right in Connor's face. "Your threats are nothing more than that, threats." He then punches Connor hard in the stomach. "That's for the Reverend. Now, collar him before we transport him to the base."
