Players:
Summary: Our heroes pay respect to the fallen Captain America.
Date: June 12, 2020
Log Title Respects For A Hero
Rating: PG-13
The Future - The Underground - Gathering Area
Hidden in the maze of tunnels is the open area that the mutants have turned into their haven, their home. Not wanting to risk electricity being detected down here, there are battery powered and gas powered lights leaving the place dark and damp. At least three mutants are always on guard down here at the entrance to the mutant camp and secret passwords and codes are needed to get into this room. Theres a large door with a large piece of wood barricading it as those down here dont take any chances.
In the center of the Gathering area, where not more than a couple hours before a hasty plan had been developed to stymy a public execution and rescue some of the more valiant and famous heroes of the modern era, one of Volks portals spirals into life, expanding and then exploding forth in a flash of light and power, resolving into a six-foot wide pool of blue-green energy. For several moments it remains just still… until finally Chloe comes through, carrying the burned but still breathing form of Storm. Next… Erik, flying into the wall at a slow speed and collapsing to the ground. Arsenal and Domino… broken, bloody, burned… looking half-dead and still carrying the smoke and blood of their conflict. Last comes Volk, and floating next to him is a single man's corpse. His head hangs low as the body shifts and settles into his now-empty hands… and he collapses to his knees. When the portal closes behind him… one tear-stained eye looks up at any others assembled.
Robin is in the gathering area already in order to scrounge up a little bit of food. She stops, though, and takes a step back when the portal opens up. Her eyes widen when she notices all the battle weary people coming through and that Volk is carrying someone. She stares for a few moments and she seems shocked. "Is that…? Is he…?" She isn't able to finish her words before she takes off her glasses and turns around, "What happened?"
After hearing that a group was going out to stop the execution, Robyn's been waiting to see what happened, waiting for those to get back. He's been pacing in his wheelchair as he waits, worried. As the portal opens up and Chloe comes through with Storm and then the rest, he reacts to Storm first. "Shit…let me go get the….fir…." His voice trails off as he not only notices how injured everyone is but he notices the dead body and Volk's reaction, that's what gets him, Volk. He wheels himself over to Volk and puts a hand out to touch is shoulder. "What happened?" He whispered knowing it's bad from his reaction, then he finally gets a glimpse of the body and his voice gets caught in his throat.
Domino's feet scraped over the floor of the Gathering Area, not yet letting her body relax, her muscles beneath the torn and tattered layer of reinforced latex appearing attire slithering and jolting with the desire to keep fighting, keep running. The only sign that that was no longer a reality and it registered was the fall of her cracked HK hitting the floor after it fell from her own arm and the severed mechanical one she held of Arsenal's while still supporting his weight.
Blood painted a new sheen down the once lusterous material of her body suit, one wound in her shoulder, another at her side, one beneath her strenum and one in her hip. Blood was not too much of an issue considering the heat having cauderized on exit but what was done damage wise was unseen, not as seen as Arsenal's.
Backing up to a wall she used it as a prop, sliding Arsenal against it and her words lashed out like a whip. "We can fill everyone in as we work. People need medical attention!" She was going to lose it but doing her best to hold together, moving away from Arsenal once he was seated down and hitting open crate lids looking for medical supplies. "The living come first before we…revere the dead.." Her voice went quiet but the clamor for supplies roared on.
Chloe is gone almost as soon as she appears, sprinting past the onlookers to get Storm to proper medical treatment as fast as she can without risking further damage. "Can't stop, coming through but I'll bring a medkit back with me though," she yells on the way. "And booze. As much as I can carry."
Rashmi pounds down the tunnels toward teh Gathering Area, eyes wide and dried blood smeared over her clothes. "Someone left… I think it was Mystique in the infirmary… I did what I c—oh…" Skidding to a halt, she stares at the body of Captain America, eyes wide and shocked. "Oh… my…. That's not…" Absently moving aside to let Chloe pass, she moves slowly toward the corpse. "Volk…. is that…"
Standing back up, Volk slowly walks the corpse over to one of the tables, and very carefully lays the limp form of Steve Rogers on it. Looking to Domino and then Arsenal, he nods to the other mercs. Bloodstained gloves are held up, and then with a gulp, silence is finally broken, "Steve… Rogers…" Voice raspy and barely much more than a tenor growl, "The best of us. The… man I'm not worthy of… touching. He deserved better. Why not me. Kill the killers… not the heroes…" And taking off his balaklava and HUD, he turns and almost yells at Robyn and Rashmi in a hoarse voice, "WHY NOT ME!"
Erik is a little bit more able to stop running then Chloe. His head is bloodied from what looks like a rock impact, and he holds up his hand to it in a slight daze. The blood stops leaking out for the moment, and he sits down against the wall, holding his head.
Robin's brow furrows slightly and she nods, splitting her attention between herself and Blank. At such close proximity, they actually work together rather well, and they start gathering what little medical supplies are in the room, since Chloe's getting more, to do initial work on Domino and Arsenal. For infirmary work, in a pinch, she'll do.
Domino was muttering, incoherent babble and a tangent all to herself not pausing as Rashmi whisks past, she was too busy watching Storm be carried off and giving up the search. She still had yet to know where everything was of theirs and even if she did, her mind was not slowing down and she was refusing to look at Volk and the body of Captain America. She had a small pack from what she had gotten from Mr. Nizami last night and she left the room to go retrieve it swiftly - stepping back in to Volk's break down.
Domino was swallowing back a rock and slowing her breathing to only realize the pain and shrug it off. Chloe had Storm, Volk seemed in tact and Erik was focused on as she pulled a crate up to sit on before Arsenal. Pulling out some gauze pads and antiseptic as well as an antibiotic in syringe form she hads them to Erik. "Might need these." The rest of the packs were set at Arsenal's feet.
Robyn wants to get medical supplies but seeing Volk explode like that, he has to stay with his friend for a few moments more. "Connor….because you're still needed to. Not as an assassin not as a merc but a friend, it couldn't be you cause some of us wouldn't be able to deal." Robyn says as he reaches out to try to hug Volk the best he can while in his wheelchair. "Because, they knew that killing Cap would hit us hard…hit us really hard." Robyn says getting choked up as he pulls himself away from Volk, wheeling over to Domino to help her with any patching he can on both her and Arsenal.
Arsenal waves away assistance offered by Robyn a mumbled, "Banged up and some burn damage, I'll be fine." His arm, the robotic one was torn off as well, he'd have to figure out if there were any who were tech junkies around when he could, catching himself before he slid off the crate he was sat down on his head jerked up and his body followed, walking past Domino after giving her shoulder a squeeze with his remaining hand, moving over to stand by Captain America's corpse. His nose curling up abit as he stared down his nose.
Rashmi whirls, facing a group of terrified but ambulatory residents. "Get down to the Infirmary. NOW. I don't care if you're just packing gauze, but they will need all the hands they can get, go Go GO!" Chivvying the shocked survivors away, she turns back, biting hard on her lower lip as she looks over Domino and Arsenal. "You two. Can you walk down there, or do you need a hand?" While speaking to the two, her steps carry her as though by gravity, toward the fallen body of America's greatest hero. Finally, finally, she turns her gaze toward him, and up to Connor. "Robyn's right… This… There was nothing you could do. Nothing… *any* of us could do, Volk…" Reaching out, she grabs the teleporter's shoulders, shaking once, firmly. "CONNOR. Look at me."
Volk looks… defeated. The sniper rifle slips off his shoulder to a metallic clatter on the floor, and his knees give out from under him. His hands come to wrap around Rashmi's waist as the world seems to have collapsed into just the moment. But still the man doesn't look. Before turning, the claw-slashes that ripped his clothes would have been seen by the other, revealing bare skin under the usual multiple laters. But still he doesn't look. But she can feel the subtle and soft shake of his shoulders, the tremble of his body… the tableau revealing that which has been locked away so preciously so long bursts forth as there's a sudden and ragged scream, a death knell, carried for several moments before it tapers off and hot tears stain the ragged from of the woman's clothes.
Domino's eyes did not settle on Robyn, it was a quick glance from periphery and she nodded her acknowledgement to him, the gauze she had pulled out of the pack dangled from her fingers and dropped back down into the pack. A wavering smile was offered to Robyn in appreciation but the squeeze from the rising Arsenal on her shoulder had her muscles coil and tense once again with unexpressed thoughts.
When Rashmi asked about needing a hand she pushed to a stand, remaining with her back to them for a moment and shook her head. Silence was the only thing she could offer now in the moment that was like a suffocating tidal wave. "I have to fix my weapon.." That was all she could say right now, her thoughts intent on the future when she could go back out and finish what she didn't get the chance to. Distracting herself was the best course, bending down she gripped up the cracked HK and slung it back over her shoulder, forcing her posture straight.
When Robin started coming over she got waved off, as best a wave as she could give with the hand white-knuckle gripping the weapon. "Thank you tho—" The keening wail of Volk's had her shoulder's squaring and her feet setting her in a path towards the tunnels and out of this room.
Hearing Rashmi, Arsenal glances over his shoulder before he was staring down at Steve Rogers, his icon. A man he looked up to, a real soldier and one of the original heroes. Hearing Connor his jaw clenches as he looks over at him, "You'd think you were the one who just died, this man fought for what he believed until the very end. Only tears needed right now are those of pride." The tightened working of his mouth relaxes and he looks away from the sobbing man back forward, upon the corpse.
Robin calls Blank off of Arsenal and steps back from Domino once her help is refused. She is not as skilled at this kind of work as others, and she would only make an uncooperative patient worse. She's aware of that much. She does ask Domino, "Are you sure you're okay? It looks like you've lost blood." She glances towards the corpse of Captain America, but quickly averts her eyes, not wanting to think about it. To her, he's a symbol of what the country ought to be like. To see him cold and lifeless is deeply disturbing.
Erik shakes his head slightly, as he sits and waits off the aftereffects of the mild concussion and the sonic blasting he took. "Seventy years, and that son of a bitch just shoots him." He says, his voice shaking with both anger and being slightly off kilter. "Our next goal should just be to show up so I can give him an aneurysm."
Robyn nods to Domino as she says she needs her gun. "Armory is over there." He says flatly as he wheels himself next to Robin and takes her hand, squeezing it as Connor's wail hits him and he fears for his friend. "Dude…shut up." Robyn says firmly to Jakob as he clings to Robin's hand, needing something physical as he just stares at Connor and the body of Captain America. "Captain America…Steve….did you know the first Jordan…the original Jordan got to work with him on the Avengers? He was a great guy…how could they…everything he's done…..Connor, this isn't your fault, you want someone, blame them. Hate them for being cold enough to do this."
No sooner has she got Storm safely under the care of the medical staff Chloe is back off to the Gathering Area. Most of her combat gear has been stashed and her ragged jumpsuit has been replaced with shorts and a t-shirt. A med-kit slung over one arm, two bottles of the undergrounds finest rotgut smuggled up all the way from South America and a pair of pliers complete her ensemble. "Holy shit Mystique was in there," she says, mostly to herself. Evidently having missed what Rashmi said as they came through the portal. "Guess it wasn't quite as much of a disaster as it seemed. Although on a scale of one to ten it still ranks around a three."
Rashmi holds Connor tightly to her, eyes snapping open as she turns to glare pure poison at Arsenal. "…You're right, Robyn," she says, somehow managing to turn each word into a poison barb hurled at the armored warrior. "And they made the biggest mistake of their lives in doing this…" Her teeth grind audiblu, as she forces herself to look down at Steve's body. "Erik," she says finally, after a long moment of silence, "I have another job for you."
It seems like an effort of will for Volk to stand back up, using Rashmi for support. He nods after a few moments, jaw clenching and releasing a few times. He almost speaks again, but then lets it go, and then after meeting Rashmi's eyes he moves off to one side and digs into his things. Coming back with the only funeral shroud he can muster, an old Army-Issue blanket. Complete with it's faded designation and the star and circle that once symbolized the United States Armed Forces. Covering the body, the man who never held rank or privilege in the military offers a bowed head. Turning around to face the others, his voice grinds out, still unfamiliar with use, "Thank… you. Trust-ing. M… M… Me…" The act of speaking how seeming to cause him physical discomfort, as if something inside keeps him from uttering even those few words now.
Erik looks up at Rashmi, and then for a moment over to Chloe and her illegal hooch. He holds out a hand for a bottle as he looks back to Rashmi. "What do you need?" He asks softly.
Domino froze as Robin spoke to her and Arsenal spoke up, her head dipping low as at least those words were said, but Robyn's to Arsenal had her jaw tensing. What she had been biting back did come forth while one hand rested on the door frame to the tunnels. "We mourn for him like he was a lost best friend. It is not that simple here. He was an icon, and for some of us a damn role model - if not all of us. But to top it all off he was a soldier, like we all are now. Do you think he would whimper for us? No, he would give us what we deserve. Respect and the burial of a soldier. We need to do the best for that, gather your wits and ready for the procession, his due salute and our plan to strike back."
Domino's breath was let out with a slight weeze and she looked to Robin with a half hearted smile. "You kidding? I'm naturally pale…" She was trying to joke but failing miserably. Pushing through the door she went to the armory to look for replacement parts.
"Shut up? No reason I should shut up. I met this man, I was a soldier, I served my country, I have my whole life, can any of you say the same?No, I really doubt it. If anyone has any right to speak right now it's me. You think he would want people crying, screaming and falling apart over his death? Or blaming themselves." His gaze fixed on Connor" The man was a soldier, to the core. He lived every moment of his life knowing consequences of each day. " Arsenal was looking at Robyn, then Rashmi with the last bit he said before , he begins to look back at the body of Captain America once more, losing himself in his thoughts. Wondering if the man had a family cemetary, little known about them personally, he was sure though he could fish through old files and find it. Maybe the Avengers mansion. Whatever the case, it needed buried somewhere where it wouldn't get further harm done to it. Seeing the body become covered by the military grade fibre and marking he cleared his throat and stepped to the side. Trying not to be stricken further with it than some small bit of emotion he allowed. He did need to shut up, Arsenal's anger wasn't due to anyone here.
"Mystique…" mumbles Robin. Normally she has pure contempt when she speaks the name for her own reasons, but now, allies are allies. There's always time to hate Mystique when the war is over. She squeezes Robyn's hand lightly to try to provide him comfort and take comfort in turn from him. Her lips quirk upwards slightly at Domino's joke, but she doesn't smile much further than that. "Goddamn Kelly. Goddamn Hunters. I can't believe they sank so… so low…" She bites her bottom lip and shakes her head, "No, I can believe it. When they die, they'll die lower than animals…"
"Two things," Rashmi says quietly, watching Volk lay the shroud over the body. "One, I need this man in a coffin. Airtight as you can make it, as strong as all the scrap metal you can find. He died for unity, and he will be laid to rest the same way. Second? Find a way to raise a memorial and get away clean. I want it big, I want it visible, and I want the entire city to talk about it five minutes after it's raised. Do you think you can handle that?" Without waiting for an answer, she rests a hand on Volk's cheek, patting gently. "We trusted you, because you're trustworthy, Connor. You always were."
"Arsenal, you're not the only one who met him before now." Robyn says quietly as his boyfriend was his teammate, colleague and fellow Avenger. "We all feel this….hard, and we're all dealing with it in our own way. He might not cry but you know what…for once…I don't care if I am." Robyn says as there are tears in his eyes for the second time today. He wheels himself over to the table and just looks at the covered Captain America. "He might not cry, we weren't the icons he was, we weren't the heroes. He impacted a world and instead of going the safe route he could have, he fought with us." He nods at Rashmi's words and wipes his eyes. "Let Times Square Burn."
Erik gives a nod. "I'll take Vol with me to put it up in Central Park, and we'll be out a few seconds later." Erik says. He stands up carefully, his legs somewhat unsteady still. He holds out his hands to the side of the tunnel…and there is the sound of rocks shaking as metal begins to pull itself out of the walls, sliding out and in one instance even flowing out in liquid form.
"Quite a lot of it already is," Chloe murmurs, leaving one bottle next to a stack of cups. "I just hope the camera crews they had let everyone see how little the Sentinels cared about the crowds of people." She takes a quite immense swig of the other bottle, before setting to work with the pliers. Pulling little stones out from her side.
Gulping once, Volk eases himself out of his ALICE harness, and drops the heavy weight down, removing the kevlar armored jacket of his stealth suit, and turns it around. Four long claw marks leaving a set of familiar looking gashes. He hands that to Rashmi, set so she can look at the marks, and nods to her once, and then exhales. Picking his things up off the floor he moves over to his sleeping spot and drops it all on his bed, pulling the sweat-soaked turtleneck off and dropping that as well. His bandages so some blood seepage from working even with his injuries, but still he has his gloves on. But now… he removes them and puts them on the table with Captain America. Motioning for Robin, he points at his wounds and then gives her a familiar grunt. One that says 'get to it'.
Getting an idea, Robyn looks up and says two words. "The Sphere." He grabs a map of New York and points to battery park. "The Sphere, it's a symbol of World Peace. It was a gift from some German guy and they put it on display at the World Trade Center. When 9-11 hit, the Sphere survived with dents and a few holes and since then it's been on display at Battery Park. We gotta lay him to rest there and make the biggest memorial we can. Like do the Batman or The Crow thing, take some gasoline and make a symbol of his shield on the ground and burn it. With all that grass there it can be a Crop Circle type memorial." After that he looks up at Volk and looks him right in the eyes and doesn't look away.
"I may sound harsh… I don't intend to. Just… I am as affected as the rest of you… this here was more than just a hero to me, he was a brother even if I never got to fight beside him. "Arsenal pauses a burnt remaining hand lifts up and peels a piece of cloth from his neck that infused into it, his gaze finding Connor as he moved away. "You lead good and had some nice shots, plus a good portion of us, myself included would not be alive if you were not here. They were just more prepared than we anticipated… Next time we'll make sure you can put a hole through Kelly's pisspot. "
Robin watches as Robyn wheels away and then back at Volk. She is quick to react to his grunt, her eyebrows furrowing, and she starts to work on his wounds. She remains otherwise silent, holding back her tears at realizing that Captain America is really dead and that the country he fought for has been dead for even longer.
"*No,*" Rashmi says suddenly, turning to face Robyn. "THere's too much to risk laying him to rest in the memorial now. There's a Hound that can raise the dead. There's Sentinels that can tear it apart. We're keeping him here, and not putting him in the memorial until after the war's over. No matter how long that takes." Standing up to her fuul height, she casts her eyes around. "But it *will* get done, people. We have a job to do, now. And it's a job we can't do until we win. Do you understand me, people? We all have a *purpose,* and we will damn well *make sure* we live to see it done."
Erik isn't listening. Not because she isn't inspirational, but because doing magnetism right now is taking some focus. Fricking sound waves. Scrap after scrap of metal flows out of the walls, some dragged from a ways away…and finally a chunk of red, sentinel armor, which apparently Erik was looking for. It begins to hover in the air, molding and flowing together with the same process that Erik used to make his armor
When Robin comes close, she's given a hug, and then as she finishes up on the stab wound in Volk’s side, he catches her face, and turns it up to look at it. Leaning in he rests his forehead against her own for a long moment, and then reaches up to pat her cheek softly. Giving her a nod, the man leans back to let her finish with a few growls and other exhales from the removal of medical and duct tape and the replacement bandages for things that are mostly healed even after just a few days. Not a healing factor, just the natural relisience of everyone with the X-gene it seems. No more words seem to come from him for now, but still he looks at Rashmi and gives her a solemn nod in reply, followed by a credible military salute.
Robyn just nods to Rashmi and doesn't say anything, instead he just turns himself and starts to wheel himself into the next room, not really looking back. This is one of those moments where it's just too much for him and he doesn't know what to do. "Rashmi….if there is anything I can do, let me know." Says the paraplegic.
"Leave a coffin inside," Chloe suggests with a shrug. "Booby trapped but without a body. See how eager they are to defile graves then." She glugs another shot of spirits, then pulls out another shard of stone with a mutter of something at superspeed. Probably a sped up yelp of pain. "Honestly it's a miracle any of us made it back. Equal number of hunters and they had two sentinels for back-up. Does… does anyone know what the hell those things which swarmed the stage were?"
Robin returns the hug and pats Connor lightly on the back, nodding silently in return to him as she looks towards him. She is gentle, but not to the point where efficiency is reduced when doing first aid work. The puppetteer continues her work quietly, glancing over her shoulder at Rashmi's speaking. She licks her lips lightly and nods, using her own eye and Blank's eyes to focus on getting all the first aid work done right and well.
As Robyn passes by, Volk reaches out and grips his arm to stop him. Looking towards his former roommate, and tilting his head a bit… a slow hand reaches up and ruffles his hand. There's a soft something in the flatness of his lips, no smile there, but something in it as he flicks a piece of hair from the eyes, and then nods. Looking back up at Robin (with an I), he nods once to her as the last piece covers up the still-healing sword-wounds on him, he gives her a confident nod, the motions to Blank, and how different Blank has looked for a day indoors.
Arsenal feels it's at a point in time where his silence is best. Words failed him as usual, he managed to turn away, leaving the gathering for now figuring he would show again or when the time came for Steve Rogers memorial to pay final regards then, would be around somewhere, aiding where he could.
Rashmi shakes her head. "Not even that, Chloe," she says softly, watching the coffin take shape around the corpse. "We'll make it hurt in the worst way possible; we'll do nothing. We'll fix it every tine they try and destroy it. Eventually… people will realize that the government spends millions of dollars and military hardware… Just to smash a monument to the greatest hero the country ever knew, over and over and over. And if that doesn't eventually make them sick… Then I guess it might as well burn."
Between the death of Captain America, the witnessing of Volk's breakdown, heairng him talk like that then the ruffle of his hair from his old friend, someone he still does consider one of his best friends, Robyn can't help it and just starts to cry. He cried earlier today but that was a few tears compared to the flood gates that just opened. A lot of what causes this breakdown is one word 'why'. "Why did he have to die? Why did it have to be Captain America. Why does it have to be like that. Why can't we just…..why us?" He asks them all rhetorically as they are impossible questions to answer.
The metal continues to flow in to one another, forming solid sheets of metal that move around his body. A general coffin shape takes form, made of seemless and hingeless metal; it will not be openable to be defiled, instead looking like it was taken out of the earth in this unnatural shape. The sentinal armor flows to the center, forming the red and blue of an American flag that shines proudly over the center.
Robin finishes patching Volk and nods at him, and glances over at her puppet as Connor gestures towards her blue floating companion. She doesn't have it in her to smile at the moment, but she seems to understand what the mercenary's meaning is. As Robyn begins to cry, though, she walks up to him to give him a hug, the same hug she gave to him back when they were younger, when things seemed like they couldn't get worse and somehow found a way to. "I wonder the same things sometimes… all the time…" she says, quietly.
As the flag becomes visible on the coffin, shining proudly over the seamless coffin that holds Steve Rogers… Rashmi walks up to the coffin, resting a hand upon the metal over the body's head. "My name is Rashmi Franklin," she says softly, a tear falling to splash upon the coffin. "I interviewed you once… for extra credit, in Mutant Ethics. I was *so nervous,* you know…? My parents… they spent every last dime they had to move to this country. Because… they wanted a future for their child. One she could choose for herself…" Squeezing her eyes shut, she draws in a shuddering breath. "They believed in the American Dream, Mr. Rogers. They believed in *you.* And… I believed in you, too…. Grew up believing in you. I'm sorry…. but we're going to have to keep you here for awhile. But I *promise you.* The day we win this war… the day America deserves to have you as its symbol again… We'll make sure you're there. And we'll do our best to do you proud."
Chloe gulps most of the remainer of the bottle of noxious spirits, then with a burst of motion removes another three shards of stone. Before splashing the last of it onto her wounds. "All well and good if we had all the time to wear them down," she points out. "But with Ahab using Heather to fuck with history…. If we can't counter that it's all over for us. And if we can… maybe no-one will end up dying today. Anyway I'm going to take a power nap and then go out and make some supply raids, help yourselves to the other bottle of rotgut. I'm due to smuggle some more up soon, just waiting on my contacts over the border."
Erik raises an eyebrow. "Heather is altering history?" He asks, as he puts the finishing touches on a suitable coffin for the American hero. Tiny silver stars fuse in to the flag, completing it, and an etching begins to form on the front. "STEVE ROGERS - CAPTAIN AMERICA" is the first line. "A HERO TO HEROES".
Standing up, freshly bandaged and looking somehow taller, as if something had been lifted from him, he comes over to Chloe first, and in a surprise move, Volk hugs her. Just holding her for a moment. Then meets her eyes, and just lets the look linger for a long moment. Letting her go, he moves over to Rashmi and stands next to her… and heedless of the others watching, he reaches out and presses his hand into the other one drooping to her side. Fishing into his pocket, he takes out a slip of paper… and tack it to the Coffin - "Build me a son, O Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid, one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory." General Douglas MacArthur-
Erik raises an eyebrow at that, and moves over again. "One sec, may I?" He asks, taking the slip. If allowed, he'll close his eyes…and the quotation will etch itself beneath the other words, in a strong and proud script.
Robyn returns the hug to Robin and then wheels himself next to Rashmi and takes her hand, his eyes are still watery. "My name is Robyn Larkin." He begin following Rashmi's lead in between tears. "My boyfriend served next to you in the Avengers, we met a few times you were always impressive. I never wanted to be a superhero but you…you weren't just a super hero you were….you are an Icon. I vow that we will not let your memory die in vain." Robyn says as he has his next project in mind. "I…I need to go lie down. I…I'm sorry." It's unsure what he's apologizing about but he wheels himself into the other room to be along for a bit before sleep.
Nodding once to Erik in reply as he etches it into place, he squeezes Rashmi's hand, and then gives her something of a pleading look, looking back at the coffin once more before he lets his hand slide away as he turns and begins to walk off, stopping by his things to pick up a tank top and slip it on.
Robin walks up to the coffin and says a few words of her own, "My name is Robin Keen. I've only met you once, when you helped the X-Men. You were amazing, kind and everything that a hero should be. Everything that a person should be. I don't know if you would have remembered me, but I was amazed… you were amazing." She presses her fingers under her glasses and says, "To me, you're the way the world should be… We will make things right." She takes a few steps away and sighs, rubbing her eyes lightly.
Rashmi glances over to Connor, nodding once, placing the mute mutant's hand on the coffin. "His name is Connor Blake. Because of heroes like you, Captain… he was brave enough to write a book. A book of his friends, their trials and struggles… to try and bring a message to the world. That even as different as we all are… Deep down we're all still the same. That inside of everyone is a hero… even in the littlest ways… if they choose."
Chloe forces a smile at the hug, despite the pain from her side. "Keep it together Connor," she murmurs, then drifting past the coffin she shrugs. "Parting words aren't really my thing but…. I hope you can see the exploding Sentinels from the afterlife and I hope they'll warm your heart." And with that the Superspeedster is off.
Nodding in thanks to Rashmi, Volk gives her a soft smile, and then leans in a moment and kisses her on the forehead, in the spot that he usually pokes. He stops once more with Robyn and he touches him on the shoulder. Robin's glasses are pushed at with his finger… each person touched before he turns and roams down the hallways… vanishing from view…
Robin looks towards Rashmi and says, "I think I should sleep…" She looks at the coffin for a moment longer, letting her eyes linger there. She brushes her hand through her own hair lightly and says, "But… Things will get better…" She glances over to the other woman and nods. "They have to."
Rashmi's eyes rise to meep Robin's, her own red and puffy with unshed tears. "They will," she agrees, her voice thick, throat tight. "But only… If we can make it happen. So yeah… they have to. *We* have to."
"And we will. Goodnight, Rashmi…" says Robin, looking to meet Rashmi's gaze. She gives an encouraging smile before she heads out the room to find a spot in the hideout that she can sleep at.
Rashmi nods quietly. "Goodnight, Robin," she replies, settling down in front of the coffin. Closing her eyes, she settles in for a long, long night of silent vigil; keeping watch over the body of the great hero, as the hours stretch and word of his death spreads to all corners of the nation.
