Players:
Summary: Warlock and Nicholas don't agree with Nigel and Theo.
Date: November 24, 2012
Log Title: Difference of Opinions
Rating: PG-13
Xavier Mansion - Recreation Room
What was once the Parlor has been turned into a Recreation Room for the students. A nice plush carpet meets the light blue walls giving it a homey feel. A pool table at one end, a foos ball table at the other, and entertainment center with video game systems, movies, and of course, cable TV. Big comfy chairs and couches surround a coffee table for comfortable loafing. Long glass windows with a pair of French doors line one side of the room bringing in plenty of light during the day. The main rule in here is to clean up after yourself.
Finding the Rec Room suprisingly quiet this time on Saturday night Lock figured he'd chill here for a while. Dressed in faded grey jeans and a white t-shirt Lock is watching the news with his skateboard and bag tossed on the seat next to him.
Since going out is just a bad idea right now, Nicholas makes his way into the rec room. He no longer needs a crutch but there still is a walking cast on his leg, he's getting used to putting weight on it again. "Hey there Warlock." Nick says sitting down in one of the chairs. "Anything interesting on the news or the same crap they've been spewing out?"
Hearing Nick Lock smiles, "Hey Nick, nope just the same crap like you said, fun times", he turns down the tv, "And as far as I know we're still on the terrorist list". "How are they getting away with this?, how do we still not know anything?".
Nicholas shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head Warlock. "I don't know Warlock, I really don't. But I'm not surprised. They turned the whole town against me back home, the paper said I killed my parents and had quotes from friends, one of my teachers and my neighbor saying horrible, untrue things about me. They have a lot of pull somehow and it's terrifying."
"I don't wanna just wait here anymore, It's only a matter of time before something happens here, people know what it is, we're like a sitting target, we can't just wait to be thrown in another cell", Lock sighs, for all his talk he has no idea where to start.
"I don't know what to tell you Lock." Nicholas says leaning forward, resting his arms on his knees. "I know what you mean though, I feel like it's just going to happen again. It's the second time they've found me so I doubt they'll stop." He looks up at the television that's playing the day's news, frowning. "Right now it's just one day at a time, but I'm with you. I just can't sit around and wait."
"I've been looking into something I really shouldn't have, ways to force taking my mutation to the next level. Apparently it's been done before, the teachers aren't able to always keep us safe, we need to find a way to", Lock shrugs, "What do you think about that as an idea?, finding a way to force our powers, get stronger?, I'm not sure how to figure a way on my own".
The story on the TV changes, the anchorwoman looking towards the screen. An image of a destroyed building with the title 'Mutant Rampage' in the background. "In other news A building used by the church of Humanity as a public education center was attacked and torn down to it's foundation by an unusual mutant that we now know goes by the name "Wildcard". This mutant has been attacking targets seemingly at random since it's original sighting at the Salem Center incident and this is the fourth attack since the formation of the Mutant Town detention center. Police and Church "Purifiers" responded to the attack but as with all the other incidents the church's power-restraining devices had no affect on the dangerous terrorist. Police are offering a reward on any information leading to his capture."
Nigel enters as if on cue, drinking from a bottle of soda. There's somthing different about him, the way he moves. More confident.. more aggressive. He's been spending most of his free time in the danger room, when he's not out terrorizing the church apparently.. so most students havn't seen him much. Probably the greatest change is his attire. His usual nerd-centric garb replaced with blujeans and a 'Magneto was right' T-shirt.
Nicholas looks at Warlock with an expression of surprise. "I…I don't think that's a good idea. Sounds like something where a lot can go really bad really quickly. I think practise is the best way, that's what I'll be getting back to once I can." He isn't paying attention to the News much anymore until he hears the name 'Wildcard' and Nick's eyes look towards the television. "I don't know if I should be getting Wildcard flowers for all he's done or be worried that he's going to get killed by them."
"I've looked into what people with my powers are capable of, I am nowhere near that, I can't even sustain two abilities at a time", Lock raises an eyebrow at the news, "Well time to decide here he comes", he gives a nod at the new Nigel, "Hey Nigel, ben busy?"
Theo could hear the conversation from the kitchen. He's been busy lately as well, but not in such an overt display as Nigel has. "Get him flowers. That way if he gets killed you will already have the flowers bought," he comments, a Mountain Dew in hand. "Welcome back, by the way, Nick," he adds, having not directly interacted with him since his return from kidnapping. He doesn't offer condolences or pity, but identifies the situation to have happened apparently. "Nigel, I've been working on a list of some sensitive spots if you want to hit them," he offers, holding up his closed laptop casually. He vaults over the back of the couch, landing on the cushion on the other side to watch the unfolding newscast.
Nigel grins from ear to ear "Nothing quite like the looks on their faces when those stupid darts don't do jack. They even thought they had me this time. One of those clowns snuck up on Wildcard and clapped one of those collars around his neck." He takes another swallow from the bottle "God they way they freaked out when Wildcard simply pulled his own head off and the collar fell to the ground.. priceless." He looks to Theo "Ooooo I get to do some REAL damage? Tell me more."
"Thanks." Nicholas mutters to Theo with a nod, sitting back in the chair. He looks between Nigel and Theo before looking over at Warlock and rolling his eyes. He doesn't really have anything to add to the conversation so he just stays quiet for the moment, eyes focusing on the television.
"Nigel, I get why you're doing what you're doing and a big part of me would wanna be out there too if I could deflect the darts and use my other powers but have you thought that you could be making things worse?, they already think we're dangerous, you just giving them more evidence", Lock shrugs, "Still maybe thats better than just waiting here for something to happen".
Nigel looks to Theo "They're ALWAYS going to think we're dangerous.. if not the church then some other clown is gonna pop up with the same idea or somthing even worse. I don't kill anyone.. I make sure nobody gets caught in the crossfire. I just break their toys and remind them that we're not beaten just yet. Even if the church goes down and registration is shut off and they unlock mutant town you think things are ever going to be the same? The government already has the registration data.. they know the names, powers, and personal info of hundreds if not thousands of mutants already. You think all that is just gonna vanish when this is over?"
Theo pops open his laptop and stretches it out toward Nigel. As he does, the system opens a file with various information. "Sitting aorund and waiting for something to happen is the pussy way," Theo comments. "Ever heard of the Six Day War?" Theo echos Nigel's commment. "Things won't ever be the same. The only choice now is to be the one winning or the one losing. He notedly glances toward Nick. "I think we all know which side of that we want to be on. They did some sick things to Nick. I saw them. For Nick's sake, and for the sake of everybody they haven't caught, we need to start busting heads."
Nicholas is just real uncomfortable with the conversation and it shows even though he's trying to hide it. "Sometimes it's hard to know what to do Theo." Then he pales a bit at Theo's words. "What do you mean you saw it? And it wasn't just me but Warlock, Quenton and Connor as well. But don't say for my sake, don't do it for my sake cause I don't need you doing anything for me. As soon as I can walk better….I'll figure out something. I know I need to, they've fucked with me twice now and I know they won't stop."
"Theo I know what happened to Nick, I was there", Lock frowns, "When it comes down to it I will fight back but should we really be forcing a fight, I know things won't go back to how they were but is it worth starting some sort of war?".
Nigel shakes his head "The fight is already forced. How many times do you need to be attacked before you strike back? We didn't start this, but it's up to us to finish it. I didn't want it to be like this.. I wanted to apply for the Avengers when I graduated from here for cripe's sake. I wanted to be the next Thor or Iron man.. not the next Magneto. But this is the hand I've been dealt.. so I'm playing it. The only reason I havn't attacked the sentinels in mutant town directly is I know what the collateral damage would be. The church wouldn't hesitate the blow that entire section of the city off the map to try and stop me. They don't even consider us people."
"Forcing a fight? Are you kidding me? They are rounding us up like cattle. Didn't you pay attention in history class? This is what happened in Germany to the Jews! You want to wait until we can't fight back? The war has already started, and right now we are losing. Not because we can't win, but because we are sitting around on our hands." He shakes his head. "I can't believe we are even having this conversation, with the two of you of all people. If anyone should be in whole hearted agreement it's the two of you." He hesitates to answer Nick's question for a moment. "I know, I saw all four of you," he admits. "I wasn't trying to. I tracked all four of you down on the internet so we could work on the rescue. I came across the videos." He is quiet for another long moment. "I'm not going to be that jerk who tries to make you guys relive those moments, or talk about your feelings, or any of that crap, but I sure as hell am not going to stand by and let them do it to anyone else."
Nicholas looks over at Nigel and shakes his head. "No, it's not the hand you were dealt, it's just the card you chose to play. Believe me, I could have chosen the revenge route the first time around, and believe me, I wanted it. I still do, even more so now. But I know what those guys can do to you, not even just to you but look at the news, what they can do to us. You don't have to be the next Magneto if you don't want to be, right now though, you want to be. To beat them you have to be smart, not reckless, because believe me, these guys are smart." He lets out a sigh. "Honestly, I don't trust myself to make any decisions right now. All I can say is those guys honestly scare the heck out of me."
Very quickly Lock is on his feet and the couch he is launched to the other side of the room (the unoccupied side), "You have n…", he stops mid sentance unsure how to finish and embarassed by what he just did.
Nigel is about to say somthing to Nich when Warlock's power display goes off and he smiles and claps "Bravo, I was going to say you'll be happy to have me here regardless of what I am since I'm the only student in this place capable of destroying Sentinels on my own. But if Warlock keeps that kinda stuff up I might be wrong." He takes another swallow from his soda "They're going to come here sooner or later.. Frost can only keep they away for son long and the Robots will be knocking on the doors. Then it will be either fight, hide, or get out of the way."
"Actually, I think I can," Theo comments. "I haven't gotten close enough to try yet. I want to make sure I'm going to win that fight." He grins. "Though if I get this right, maybe I can do better than destroy them, maybe I can reprogram them. You want to take me with you on one of your escapades? Maybe we can pick one off from the crowd, and I can experiment with it a little. If I can neutralize any tracking devices, and we can somehow get it out of the city, I may be able to figure out how to remote rewire them to fight on our side. If I can do that, then we can have some allies in their most relied upon defense." Still, he wants to experiment on one in a controlled environment before he goes full force against them.
The technopath's gaze followed Warlock as he went soaring across the room. "I didn't want to watch it," he explains. "It was data, and it was right there, and I was trying to find you. I hoped there'd be something in the video that might give me a clue."
Nicholas uses his powers to put the couch back where it was, then stands up and limps over to Warlock. He puts a hand on Warlock's shoulder. "They don't know Warlock, they don't know what they're capable of…maybe I'm kind of jealous of that." Because then maybe he wouldn't have the panic attack inducing fear of the Purifier's. "I know they're going to come here Nigel, I'm not stupid, and I know it might seem like I'm just sitting around but…but you don't know what it's like. You're lucky, you're choosing to let them screw up your life, but I never got to make that choice. You two don't know how lucky you are." He looks over at Theo and shrugs. "Thanks for trying, to this day I still don't know where we were."
Warlock's clenches his fists, "I need to go, sorry Nick I'll talk to you later, good luck with whatever you to are getting yourselves into, stay safe", grabbing his bag and skateboard he heads out.
Nigel hmphs "Being a mutant screwed up my life.. the Purifiers are just a symptom of that. But I've embraced it and if I'm going to be damned for what I am then fuck it I'll be damned on my own terms. I'm not going to know what you went through because I'm not going to allow it. I will not be taken alive.. that part I already have figured out. If the purifiers figure out a way to stop wildcard then I have one last ace up my sleeve.. I can self-destruct. Least then mabye I can take a few of them out with me." He drains the bottle, his mood offically gone sour. "Only reason the Purifiers don't know Wildcard's real name is that my folks havn't turned me in yet. Though with this new offer of a reward I figure it's only a matter of time before they sell me out."
Nigel nods to Warlock "Rest up, and be carefull."
Theo curls his lip. "Don't patronize me. I know full well what they are capable of," he spits the words, standing to his feet. "You think you have a corner on the suffering market?" he challenges Nick, pointing a finger at his chest. "We all came from somewhere, Nick. You don't know what they've done to me, what they did to my family. You don't know anything. I was scared too, okay? I know what it's like to be scared. I'm done with being scared. I didn't try, I did find you. I can show you a satellite image if you want of the place, we just couldn't get to you before they brought you back to New Jersey." He lets Warlock go, content not to push his frazzled state. "When I get face to face with the Purifiers, I'm going to rip their heads off and piss in the hole."
Nicholas turns to Theo and looks at him for a while with disbelief. "I wasn't patronizing you and I didn't say anything like that at all. I'm not talking about who has it worse or anything like that, that wasn't what I was trying to say." He lets out a sigh and rubs his temples. "You know what, screw it. It really doesn't matter, I'm not going to try to change your mind, I'm just gonna pray you don't get killed, or worse. Maybe I'll be able to act eventually but right now, I'm not exactly in any shape to go and do anything."
Nigel stays silent, content to let the pair go at it and not really having anything new to add. Sitting back and turning his attention back to the TV as he gets lost in his own thoughts.
"Fine, go pray, and I guess we'll see you eventually," Theo slows himself a little. It's clear that while his past may not be as recent as it once was, it still weighs heavily on him. "So what do you say, Nigel," he says to him. "You want to help me catch a Sentinel?" he asks Nigel.
Nicholas sinks down so he's sitting on the couch that Warlock recently knocked over. He leans forward, resting his head in his hands. He feels like there are too many things weight to heavily on him and getting into an argument isn't something he wishes to do.
Nigel looks to Theo after a moment "Havn't come across any outside of Mutant town, would have to figure out a way to peel one off the group and get it alone without calling down the entire church in the process. All I've run into in my own little raids have been purifiers. Might be easier to try and find where they keep the ones they aren't actively using. I mean it can't be easy to hide a bunch of thirty foot tall death machines. Gotta be a place where they either build or do maintenance on these things."
"Yeah, but they've kept that pretty well hidden so far. I'll make that my next priority. I'm sure that there will be plenty of protection there, so I think we better bring a few more with us. I have my armor, but it isn't going to match the firepower of one of those Sentinels."
Nigel nods "Yeah that could be a tough one.. well find the place first and then we'll see if anyone else is crazy enough to give us a hand. That Cable guy might be willing.. he seems to know alot about these things. OH that reminds me.. go check the danger room computer. I was running sims against the sentinels a few weeks ago and suddenly somebody altered the program and next thing I knew I was facing versions of those things that I'd never seen before. Computer might have the technical data still on it from the upgraded versions."
Nicholas doesn't say anything, he just stands up and shoves his hands in his pocket. "I'm gonna run for the night, you two…best of luck with whatever you decide to do." He doesn't sound enthusiastic in his good luck wishes, but he doesn't want to see either of them hurt or killed. He gives a wave as he limps out of the room, leaving Nigel and Theo to their plotting.
Theo glances at Nick's departure. "He'll probably snap out of it sooner or later," he comments. "I'm sure he thinks I'm just a punk and hate him, but I don't really. I'm just trying to help him get over his…whatever. Emo stuff. Just gotta be a man sometimes." He shrugs. "Anywah, yeah, as the Church becomes more publicly accepted, the guard against the sentinel location goes down. I'm glad there is somebody else around here who is willing to do something," he says. "You're crazy as a loon, but you're a pretty good guy, Nigel."
Nigel nods "Well that Emo stuff is gonna get somone killed.. and it's not gonna be him. Warlock got caught trying to protect him.. professor Hilde got Darted trying to protect him. He had a panic attack during salem center and his powers crapped out, was totally worthless." He grins a bit at the loon comment "Eh I work with what I have.. and I have a buttload of crazy."
There's a sound of whistling as Cloud strolls into the rec room, he's dressed in a pair of faded black jeans, black boots, a grey t-shirt and a black leather jacket, "Hey Theo, Nigel, quiet here for a saturday".
"Well, stick to your strengths." Theo continues. "So…how exactly was it that you avoided that collar? Why didn't it affect you?" He glances up as Cloud comes in. "Hey Cloud," he says. "You missed Nick and Warlock," he tells Cloud, though it's clear by his attention still being focused on Nigel that he's interested in this defense he's found against the collars.
Nigel gives a wave to Cloud "Hey there, well Nich and Warlock just left." He looks to Theo and grins "I cheated.. Wildcard can alter his toon shape at will. I let the purifier think he got the drop on me and when he went to put the collar on Wildcard shrunk his neck pencil thin. The collar never activated.. the prongs never touched anything to nuetralized. Before they knew any better he pulled his own head off and the collar fell away harmlessly. I just needed them to THINK he's immune to them." Nigel sits back with a chuckle "I'm crazy.. not stupid."
"Yeah saw Nick on my way out, didn't look in the mood to talk", Cloud gives Nigel a nod, "Heard you've been upto no good lately, given Wildcard a good workout?", he hmms, "Can they effect unstable molecules anyway? and can they prick though metal?"
Cloud grins and reaches for the nearest metal object and absorbs, his hair, clothing and body going metalic, "Reckon this would be enough to hold them off?, been known to deflect bullets before", he looks to Theo, "Figured you'd know, you're like Ironman Junior right?"
"I still have those two collars," Theo says. "We could try it out here, in a controlled environment. One of them is in pieces right now, but the other one is still intact." He cocks one eyebrow, turning his attention to Cloud. "Iron Man Jr.? Why, because we both like technology? Tony is pretty cool, but he's not my dad." The statement comes out with a little more determination than the technopath had intended. It doesn't seem that he appreciated the comment.
Nigel looks to cloud "Nice.. we really need to run a danger room sim to see what happens if you touch Wildcard." He looks to Theo and shudders "Ugh no thanks.. I've heard what those things can do. Not in a hurry to get a pair of metal prongs in my spine, I'll settle for being carefull."
Cloud raises an eyebrow, "Wow that a first, never had someone want to see what will happen if I use my powers on them, but yeah I'm game if you can clear it", he shrugs at Theo, "Both mega smart, and havn't you been working on your own armour? only reason I made the comparison".
"Well, yeah I got my own armor," Theo says. "I don't get why not everybody here works on a set of power armor. Even if you have powers, why not have powers and more?" Seems like a good situation to Theo. "My armor was getting a good workout until the sentinels arrived. I have tried to keep a lower profile outside the mansion. My powers don't activate, they are always on, and since they interact with machines, I need to be careful, I don't know how far away I will trigger them."
Nigel nods "Well Wildcard's energies don't seem to have a limit.. and I think you hurling a raw blast of unstable molecular power would be the coolest thing since the Kamehameha wave. Just have to see if it would work that way." He looks to Theo "I was thinking of getting fitted for one of those armored X-men uniforms that are mostly bulletproof.. but somthing tells me I'm in for a royal butt kicking when Frost gets back so that's unlikely to happen."
