Players:
Summary: Cam's existence is altered, the others bare witness.
Date: June 10, 2020
Log Title Never Been
Rating: PG-13 (L)
The Future - The Underground
Under the streets of New York City there are many tunnels that are long forgotten. There are many dead ends, rivers of sewage, pipes and maybe that alleged alligator. There isnt much light down here and if you dont have a flash light, youll be navigating the tunnels blind. Occasionally there is a bit of light that filters down from a storm drain. For those that dont know theyre there, its almost impossible to spot, but in spaced areas in the tunnels are markers to show those how to get to the mutant haven deep underground which is home to the redeemers and the rebellion.
Cam has been out with Dunstin. The two of them together make an unbeatable scavenging team. Cam tracks whatever they're looking for. Dunstin's luck prevents them from getting into more trouble than they can handle. That, and they have no need for a flashlight, as long as he's guiding them. No light, no worries about giving away location.
It's been a long time since Dunstin's needed the dice for his powers and he's since gotten that lasek surgery since he was at Xavier's so he no longer needs glasses. He's quiet for the most part as he just follows be hind Cam, focusing on the good luck aura around them, making sure that it causes every step to be perfect, every corner to be the right turn, every bad guy -just- alluded.
Powering down the tunnels comes Chloe. Flashlight held ahead of her, to better light the way, she stays mostly below the speed of sound. If only to stop herself creating tidal waves of sewage. For some reason she decides to slow down for a particular section of tunnel. Which is lucky in a way, because otherwise she might have just crashed into Cam or Dunstin at a fatal (for them) speed…
No doubt Chloe made it back before Domino or himself would. Fortunate of superhuman endurance Arsenal wasn't even winded, the escape had become a jog, the two Sentinels that had arrived for Caleb one was crippled and the other scooped up the fallen Hound and carried him away, guarding him from additional fire. Lowering down into the tunnels he began to trudge through them, Chloe had vanished quickly, too fast to keep track of and Domino admist the rubble on their way.
Psylocke is here in the sewers. She has no idea /why/ she's here, though. She's had another one of those dreams. In the past when she had them they used to be clearer and more accurate, but nowadays they're frustratingly vague. Like last night. She can't really remember much of it but there are things she just /knows/. Like she needs to be here. Now. There's something going to happen. So here she is, standing in one of the shadows, clad in her shadow armor granted by her connection to the Crimson Dawn, waiting for God only knows what to happen.
AS he feels someone coming behind him, Cam's trail shifts, moving both himself and Dunstin to the side. "Someone's coming." He says, making his way to the entranceway to the actual guarded sewers and into light. He looks around, and sighs as he waits, hoping it's someone that they can trust… and not someone who followed them.
"Don't worry Cam, luck is on our side." Dunstin says with a smile as next thing he knows, Chloe stops right in front of them and it really is luck that she didn't crash into them. "Chloe, fancy meeting you down here." He says as he's now bathed in light from her flashlight. "How'd things go uptop?"
"They're so bad I've hit /every/ dead drop box before I came here," Chloe splutters, having sent the word out as far and wide as possible. "I just got info that Ahab is using Heather to go back and fuck with history. Which would be laughable except…. I know Heather and if anyone I've met could actually do that it's her."
The sludge was uncomfortable to slosh through, one foot after another and he was soon stopping. Paused his head canted almost avian like as the helmet held entirely still, voices? Motion. Sensors were firing up and he continues towards them, though not yet wanting to be seen however. Arsenals body moved gracefully as a man in full armor and half-composed of metals could.
The sound of voices also reach the ears of Psylocke. Interesting. There are people here, too. She closes her eyes and does a quick mental scan to see who they are. Chloe, Cam and Dunstin. Good pack of people, there, who can take care of them… wait. One other. Her eyes pop open and she starts to make her way towards the small group of people, moving silently amongst the sludge, keeping to the shadows.
CAm shakes his head slightly. "Careful, Chloe. Don't run where you can't see up there. It's too dangerous." He states softly until he hears the words. "Heather? From… from when we were at Xavier's?" He asks, blanching. "That's really not good. Not good at all." He says, fidgeting in his spot. He bites his lip as he looks left and right. "She knows where we are."
"My own safety isn't important compared with the warning," Chloe states firmly, waving her hand at Cam. "I'm… not sure if she knows exactly where we are. But she knows a few dead drops at the least. Rashmi was sending her letters." The speedster has closed pretty much all the distance between herself and Cam & Dunstin. From the way her muscles keep tensing it seems she might well have dashed off again had the tunnel been wide enough to get past…
No clue Psylocke scanned and mentally found him but he was doing his own, motion sensory scan on a tech-level. Arsenal had really no mental protection beyond training and a strong psyche, finding him was simple feat for a telepath like Psylocke. He peeled away, no sounds of combat were heard so he openly walked down the tunnel towards the bend Chloe ha turned about 40 feet and closing from the others including the passage turn.
"Heather…." Dunstin says closing his eyes and letting out a sigh and shaking his head. "Why do we keep losing people." He says as he doesn't want everyone to be killed or turned into hounds. "Chloe, we were just down there, we didn't spot anything but then again, I'm lucky. You're…well I can hopefully give you a little luck for a bit." At least Chloe is fast and can run faster than most things that might be down here.
Betsy moves closer until she can see the trio about fifty feet away, and establishes a mental link with them all. «Heads up,» she warns them, her mental voice a familiar upper class British accent. «You're not alone. Be on guard but don't react to this information.»
"I'm… kinda scared of what could happen if he goes to the past. Who knows what kind of changes Ahab could…" Cam says before he suddenly freezes.
That's when things get weird. At least, they do for Dunstin, Psylocke, and Chloe. Arsenal will forget, completely, that Cam was ever here, or ever beneath the city at all. AS far as he's concerned, Cameron Phillips has been a Hound of Ahab for ten years. To the rest, he just vanishes. No Cam. No more. Dunstin's luck protected the memories of himself and Chloe. Psylocke's odd history protected her. Jamie's insistence.
"That…. That isn't good is it?" Chloe murmurs, dropping to her knees. Heedless of the filth. "After all if you wanted to make anyone a hound it'd be Cam right? Unless… You think this other mutant did something? The one Betsy mention." She twirls to her feet, drawing her butterfly swords.
Arsenal moving up towards the others, those present where as he expected or his scanners had indicated. "Friendly." He announces in his approach both hands in the air weapon-free, one of the safe words he was told on entry for the Underground he tosses out. Just to make sure. No clue Cam existed it would seem.
«No,» answers Psylock. «It wasn't him.» She steps out of the shadows to join Dunstin and Chloe. "I wouldn't be surprised if this was Ahab's doing." She looks down the sewers in the direction of the cyborg. "This isn't good. Not good at all."
"Cam?" Dunstin says feeling the spot where his friend and lover once stood. "CAM!" He shouts again as he goes to grab the flashlight out of Chloe's hand and goes to look around. "Shit…no, no, Cam can't be a hound, he was right here….why doesn't this make any sense. He moved into with me but he didn't…I don't….CAM!" He says obviously confused as all hell.
"People are going to die for this. I swear by the end of tomorrow I'm going to leave a trial of bodies so long Ahab will come back to find he can't even reach his front door," Chloe snarls, letting Dunstin take the flashlight without a fight. "Killing and brainwashing was bad enough. But this… this is beyond wrong."
Arsenal seemed confused at what was going on. "Take it you just passed on the news?" Perhaps a logical explaination to this chaos before him, such emotional surges had him thinking of reality shows in the past and he was missing a very integral episode. His question fired at Chloe in regards to what they learned from Caleb.
"Dammit," curses the telepath, as people start to panic. "This kind of thing is Brian's department, not mine." Alternate realities. Time traveling. Her twin brother used to deal with that kind of thing all the time. She scowls and then says, "Calm down, Chloe. Going on a killing spree isn't going to fix this." Betsy turns to Dunstin. "What do you remember?" Yes she could go and read his mind, but he's one of the good guys.
Close to tears, Dunstin just shakes his head at Betsy. "Cam…he was here with me, we were going out on patrol…the last ten years, his parents died he moved in with me and my Dad…but he didn't cause he was a hound, but he went to college by me, we…argh! I don't know how can he be a hound for the last ten years and be with me for the last ten years. My luck…I'm supposed to be lucky…."
"You're letting us remember him as a good person," Chloe murmurs, putting her swords away. "That's lucky in my book. For the record a killing spree will help /lots/. I should have talked Heather into joining us or realized why they'd taken her. I could have done /something/ to stop this and now Cam has to pay the price. Because I was too slow to do anything or to warn anyone."
Question unanswered Arsenal double-takes on Psylocke sensors were tweaked out where she was concerned a blank spot but he could see her. He shoves that aside for now, entirely confused as it was one of the weapons pulls up into his arms and he goes the soldier route, silence and making sure nothing was near, he'd ask for a sitrep but… it seemed awkward. Silence, observe, wait. Clearing his throat he turns his back to them still listening.
"Dunstin," says Betsy, the tone of her voice grave. "I need to know /exactly/ what you remember." She walks up to him, "Do you mind if I read your memories?" His rambling about Cam being a hound has her concerned. She doesn't remember him being a hound at all and she needs to assess whether or not Dunstin's mind has been tampered with. Much easier to do if he's openly willing.
Dunstin shakes his head at Betsy and allows her into his mind as he talks to Chloe. "It's not your fault Chloe, it's his fault. Ahab's, he….why did he take Cam…ten years ago?" It's just it is beyond confusing to think about. In Dunstin's mind, Betsy would see two memories, one of him losing Cam ten years ago to Ahab, and another of him and Cam living their lives together for the last ten years.
"Simple. To make it easier to get everyone else. Heather probably told him of a time she knew he'd be out and alone," Chloe says, her fist slamming into the wall fast enough to crack the bricks. "And now we're all vulnerable unless we can go back and fix stuff. Imagine if he attacked the school before we'd graduated. What hope would there be? Him knowing our every weakness and us not even old enough to learn to drive."
Domino had come in behind Arsenal and was sitting there, in the shadows of the sewer with arms folded over her chest and watching, listening. Intent it was and through her silence she still must have missed a major chunk of what the hell was going on. Her eyes darted from face to face, lingering on Dustin and holding, one hand coming to palm her face and rub, pushing some of the long black hair away before it finally fell back to her side. "I..think I missed something crucial to the effect of…What the hell is going on. Can someone please rewind?"
Finally she moved, but only enough to let the flashlight beam flicker of cocaine pale complexion before she stepped back out of it, having the benefit of her eyes being adjusted to the dark she would keep that in case it was needed, this was all too weird and the cross of her arms over her chest, drawing hands nearer to her Brownings let it be told she was smelling fish….and sewer..and unpleasantness.
Betsy nods as Dunstin gives his consent. She closes her eyes as she probes his mind, digging deep into his memories. What she finds is quite shocking. His memories are identical up to a point, and then they diverge, conflicting with each other. One where Cam is captured and turned to a hound, and one that matches her own, where Cam is their ally. She probes to see if his mind has been tampered with, but doesn't find anything to indicate that it has. Either somebody more powerful than her had enough time to do a very thorough job, (unlikely) or Cam's report of a time traveling Ahab is correct and he altered the present. She reads as much as she can out of the unfamiliar memory, trying to gain as much knowledge about it as possible before she starts to separate the two, and compartmentalize them, to save Dunstin's sanity. To him, now, the memories that match her own are what he's going to primarily remember, and what he'll consider as 'his'. The others are still there, accessable, but doesn't take precedence.
"Betsy can you make sure people get copies of our version? So they understand exactly what's happened?" Chloe asks, giving Domino a half-hearted wave. "And Dunstin… if your power can protect against whatever is happening… maybe you should stay in for a while? Until we can work out if it's better to have our memory change or not."
After Betsy is done poking around Dunstin's head he leans forward and rests a hand against the wall. "I need to head back Betsy…and rest. Thanks." He says as he just feels tired after all that as his mind has taken a toll from recent events.
"Dom." Arsenal remarks with a nod, hearing her ask for a rewind he glances over his shoulder at those crowded into the tunnelways, they seem to have something under control. "Playing guard for the moment, far as I can tell and this is a guess… Etoile gave her report of what Caleb the eh Hound from earlier… anyways, what he dropped on us and now shits gone haywire and they're yelling about someone named Cam. If you can sort it out, by all means update me too. "
There's a flair of purple in a butterfly shaped aura around the eyes of everybody present, except for Dunstin, as Psylocke downloads all that she's learned so far to each here. It's a rush job, so there might be a headache afterwards, but it's the quickest way to get everybody up to date. She steps up to Dunstin once she's done and holds out a steadying hand. "I'll take you back home," she says and then looks at the others and announces. "It's time to call a war council." With that, Dunstin and Psylock sink into the shadows of the floor, disappearing out of sight.
Cam was a familiar name, and now Domino was rifling through her memories and trying to put a face to it, at least where current circumstances make it matter. Her nose wrinkled and her head shook, a slow motion so as not to draw too much from it, because it was slowly coming together…Somewhat. But in going back and altering the past it just simply made things in the future..Disappear. It was a disturbing thought to know that in this choose your own adventure book, someone was pushing your hand to pick a different path for their benefit of the story.
Slate blue eyes fell back on Arsenal as he spoke up and then went back to the group. She did not ease down and in fact her posture even straightened. "When I was watching groups before we decided to lend out aid I think Cam was a part of the Redeemers, who Cam was specifically or the importance he played…" She rolled her shoulders in a shrug and immediately when the purple flares around her eyes the tension returns and a snap came as one of the Brownings was unfastened. Friend, ally, it didn't matter there was no warning of the mind insertion before hand and instinct lead her hand to move to the defensive before she realized it was Psylocke and then…There were 4 [right?]…"Who was tha—? Nevermind I know who that is. Call a war council? Isn't that already something 24/7 these days?" Confusion and the defensive sinking in with memories not her own had frustration on the rise, but slow, measured breaths were the only signs that she was reigning it all back in.
"I need to finish raising the alarm. Just hope you're as lucky in the past as you are now," Chloe mutters, turning to head towards the entrance to the underground.
"No clue, no idea. SNAFU." He'd rumble out before walking past her down the tunnel. "Most i can do is replay the entire thing for you, maybe you can make sense out of it. Have to wait until we're somewhere more open I can run it." Arsenal pauses next to Domino, "Hopefully we killed that Hound, each small victory…" He holstered the machinepistol his stride lengthening.
No…and then there were none. "Wonderful.. As The Rebellion Turns." She totally missed the drama punch line. Who got the girl? Was someone the bad guy afterall? Ah! That was answered with the mind insertion rape that still had muscles beneath the encasing attire twitching. Her eyes settled on Arsenal and fingers drummed over the butt of her pistol before she fastened it back in. "They need a corkboard for bulletin updates because if they want everyone working together, we all have to be on the same damn page." Her chin dipped in an affirming nod towards Arsenal as she walked beside him, heading out as well, curious to the replay. "If we didn't this time, there's always next time." She flashed a smile but she was not looking at him when she did, this was the stuff she lived for - minus the confusion and plus money. Money just was not coming in. "I got a piece of that Sentinel if you need it. I hid it above."
