Players:
Summary: Theo arrives for the first time in New York. Skyler attacks, and Sophie sacrificially comes to the rescue.
Date: March 15, 2010
Log Title: Starting off on the Wrong Foot.
Rating: PG-13
Westchester - Graymalkin Drive
This long road seems to go on forever with no houses in sight. There are large trees hanging over the road giving one a creepy and foreboding feeling as they drive or walk down the road. About two miles down the road large iron gates stand with matching iron X's on them. A bronze sign hangs next to the gates labeled "Xavier's School for the Gifted".
The evening light is starting to fade. The trees give little comfort for the drive, barren guardians of the road. An Audi makes its way slowly down the road. It's scratched on all four corners, as if someone is a rather imprecise driver. The silver car is dirty, and the boy behind the wheel doesn't look much cleaner.
Theo rubs his face, keeping his other hand on the wheel. He looks down at the iPhone in the next seat. "I hope this road is the right one," he says to himself. He isn't studying the road very carefully, but he doesn't seem concerned. There's no one around to hit.
It's too good of a night to not engage in a little bit of terrorism against his ex-alma mater. It's a few miles from the mansion, far enough away so their security systems won't pick up on him when he notices a lone car driving along. "Hello, what's this?" Skyler asks himself, as he watches the headlights approach. Seeing a golden opportunity he gets right into it and levels an energy blast at the engine of the car. It's powerful enough to disable the vehicle, but light enough to keep passenger safe. From the blast, that is. The resulting crash, well, whatever happens, happens.
Theo is taken completely by surprise. The car's hood is torn to shreds by the blast, and with the damaged drive shaft, it veers to one side, slamming into a tree with a dull CRACK! The airbags deploy, and Theo finds himself wishing that he had been wearing his seatbelt. His thin body can be seen pounding into the airbag, and then bouncing back into the seat, unmoving. The car simply sits at the side of the road, hissing as it partly blocks the path to the mansion. A group of neighboring birds are startled in their trees, and take flight, leaving the scene quiet. At least for the moment.
Skyler tsks to himself, as he strides towards the downed vehicle. All too easy. The boy looks like a teenaged Mr. Sinister. Black hair, white skin, black lips, blood red eyes, and a red diamond on his forehead. When he arrives at the car he walks casually around the back until he's at the driver's side door, peering through the cracked window at the teen beyond. "Oh, dear!" he says in mock concern. "Are you all right?"
The shock had rendered the teen unconscious, but at the sound of the voice, he jumps with a start. Clearly disoriented, he glances around the car, bats at the airbag once, blinking wildly. His lazy looking eyes drift up to Skyler, and he knits his brow. He doesn't answer, but feels blood run down his nose and wipes it with his right hand. Oddly, he tries to start the car, which is of course futile, and then reaches for the door of the car. The handle can be heard clicking open the latch inside the door, but due to the crash, it is buckled slightly, and doesn't open. He flops back into his seat, at a loss for solution and still trying to figure out what just happened.
Seeing that the boy is still alive, and trying to get out, Skyler decides lend a hand. "Here," he says, "Let me help." With that, the teen digs his fingers into the side door of the car, and easily yanks it free, showing a considerable amount of strength. He reaches in and grabs a handful of shirt to drag Theo roughly out. "Don't you worry," he says with that same condescending, and mockingly sympathetic tone, "I'll get you to someplace where they're fix you right up."
Sophie has arrived.
Theo offers little resistance to being dragged out of the car, though he does take hold of Skyler's offending wrist as it drags him by the green High School hoody. "Who're you! Get offa me!" His legs seem to be in a slight state of shock, and as he tries to get to his feet, he finds that he lacks the strength to use them adequately. His final solution is to squirm out of the hoody, leaving him bare chested. He has a rather thin frame, and it's clear that while he might be as active as the next kid, he was no track star wherever he came from. On his hands and feet, he backpedals until he is against the side of the trashed car.
"They call me Mystery," says the Sinister clone, as he drops the now empty hoodie with a bit of disgust. "But everybody at the Institute knows me as Skyler." He steps up to the frightened tee and crouches down so he's at eye level with him. "I'm the friendliest guy there, don't you know," he says with an evil smile that shows a bit too much teeth. "Let me show you what kind of hospitality you can expect there. He reaches down to grab an ankle, intending to drag Theo the rest of the way to the school.
It seems like ages since the last time Sophie found herself heading towards the institute, though Monday evening doesn't exactly seem like a perfect time, very little of what she does often makes sense. Taking the train down to the little city, the weather seemed nice enough to trek the remainder of the trip on foot. So dressed in her usual tight fitting jeans, black hoodie, old chuck taylor's, and a backpack strapped across both shoulders, she heads down the dark road keeping towards the shoulder. It doesn't take long before the smashed car is spotted and the ensuing struggle happening near it causing Sophie to immediately begin towards it, her pace picking up to that of a jog. "Hey! What the hell is going on?"
Theo struggles against Skyler's grip, but it's clear he doesn't know the first thing about combat. As Skyler begins to drag him, his bare back scrapes against the old road. He manages to get a grip on a broken piece of glass from the car door, and holding it in his left hand, he swings it forward, trying to jab him in the wrist to get the more powerful mutant to let go. "Get off me you psycho freak!" he screams desperately.
Hearing Sophie's voice. "Call the cops! Get this crazy away from me!" He sounds pretty desperate, and the bloody nose is now gushing from the increased activity.
Skyler tsks again at Theo, casually letting the teen's ankle go at just the right time to avoid getting cut. "Tsk. Is that any way to talk to your betters?" Then, at the sound of Sophie's voice he turns, his black-lipped smile spreading. "Sophie! How good it is to see you!" It's like nothing at all is going on with the crashed car and the panicking student. "I haven't seen you in /ages/."
Sophie stops just before reaching the car in hopes of keeping a decent distance between herself and the rather large and unfamiliar looking teen menacing the shirtless kid down on the pavement. A combined look of surprise and confusion wash over her features as the man calls out her name, her head tilting slightly to the side. "Yeah, it has been, right?" Sometimes in these situations it's best just to go along at first. "Months would you say?" She asks as her eyes quickly flash to the other kid before returning to Skyler. She slowly rolls up both her sleeves to reveal the intricate circuit board designed 'tattoos,' getting herself ready to use her powers if necessary.
Theodore manages to find his feet again, now that he has some adrenaline running. He backs up away from Skyler, not yet looking at Sophie. However, the way that he responds to her presence makes him wary of her as well. The way she responds doesn't make him feel any more at ease, and he keeps his grip on the piece of glass as he glances to Sophie briefly, then back to Skyler, and then Sophie again. He isn't sure who he should consider a greater threat, but Skyler is the evil he knows, so his dark brown eyes come to rest intently upon him.
"It's me! Skyler!" The Marauder stretches his arms apart as if to invite a hug. "Don't you recognize me?" It's clear that by his tone of voice that he knows she doesn't and that he's just playing with her, like a cat plays with a mouse. "That's right. You've never seen the /real/ me before. Well, here I am! Pretty dashing, if I do say so myself."
"Skyler?" Sophie echos the name back, the words falling out at a soft volume and drenched in melancholy. "Is that really you?" She moves one foot forward, but hesitates to make any further movement, occasionally glancing over towards the kid holding the broken shard of glass. "Come on, that's not the real you. I've seen old pictures, right? Who'd you bump into this time?"
Theodore just remains silent for a moment, and slides quietly back into the car. Trying to keep one eye on Skyler, he looks around for his iPhone. It's on the floor in the passenger side of the car, and he slides back into the car to retrieve it before checking the door on the passenger side of the car. It opens, and he slips out the passenger side, putting the car between himself and the two strangers. His fingers nimbly begin to dial 911.
It's as if Skyler has eyes in the back of his head as he casually turns around and sends a small energy bolt from the tip of the finger at the iPhone before Theo can finish calling 911. Turning back to Sophie he gives her a 'what can you do?' kind of shrug. "Those pictures weren't me. Not the /real/ me by any stretch of the imagination. No, it took Mr. Sinister to bring that out."
Sophie watches as the bolt of energy destroys the other kids iPhone. Damn. Did he just say Mr. Sinister? Fuck. "So it took Sinister to bring out the real Skyler then, huh?" There's another step taken forward, a very hesitant step. "How about that hug then? It's been so long, right?" She holds her arms out in hopes that he'll move closer and she can attempt to wrap him with her wires, the tips just beginning to bud out from beneath her skin near the wrist. She nods her head to the side, hoping the other kid will take that as some sort of sign to run like hell should Skyler take the bait towards her and her truly desperate attempt of trapping him.
Theo ducks behind the car just before the bolt reaches him, putting himself out of immediate sight. With his back pressed against the car, he watches as the screen reads "Dialing". After a moment, it gives an error, no signal. Well isn't that just peachy. Unfortunately, since he was behind the car, he couldn't see Sophie's attempt to cue him.
Skyler, confident that there's little that Sophie could do that would actually hurt him walks towards her, Theo all but forgotten. "Indeed! You're lucky to have moved out of the mansion when you did, Sophie. Those who live there have but one foot in the grave. They've received the warnings, but they pay them no heed." He does sound a little bit sad at that, but only a little bit. "As for you, well, I'm sure Sinister can find a place for you in his Marauders."
"Well that's a good thing, right?" Sophie says, trying to hide the fact that she's nervous as hell and not doing a very good job at it. "So how about that hug?" She says before taking another step forward to meet up with Skyler, her arms still outstretched as she begins to let her wires out from beneath her flesh, wrapping them around the teen along with her arms. If he even allows the wires to make contact, she'll begin her desperate attempt in letting loose all the electricity she can muster to shock him. It probably won't work, but she's not sure what else to do. There's always the hope that the other kid will get away and back to the mansion, but after he ducked down behind the smashed up car, she's not real sure where he went.
Theo thrusts the phone back into his pocket, and peers over the edge of the car. He looks at his hoody, which is still in the road, and then back to the pair. Goosebumps have started to form on his arms and chest. It's cold up here in New York. The sun is going down, which doesn't help. He may have to just do without, though, and come back for the hoody later. He dives into the woods behind the car, and starts into a dead sprint, moving parallel to the road, hoping to escape attention.
Skyler is much faster than he used to be, twisting aside as the filaments go for him. Instead he reaches out and grabs the wires. He winces as electricity jolts through his arms, but he's much more durable than a normal human being, and his healing factor mitigates some of the pain. Instead, he just grins a savage grin at his ex roommate and sends a jolt of his own power through the wires. "Yes," he says, "I think Howl will appreciate the gift I'm about to bring him." He laughs maliciously as he sees Theo fleeing. "Run! Run to your X-Men and tell them that Sinister has claimed another one!"
There was no way for Sophie to expect Skyler to be that fast, which probably says tons of her being almost two years away from the mansion. Obviously her intuition has dulled as well. If there was enough time for her to react, she'd probably only show a shocked expression, but instead all she feels is the quick jolt of pain sent back through her little organic wires. There is hardly a sound coming from her lips as her now collapsed body contorts, withers and twitches on the ground. It doesn't take long before the little dark haired teen falls unconscious.
Theo pauses, glancing back behind him, keeping himself hidden behind a tree. He watches as the girl crumples helplessly to the ground. He tries to will himself to return to her, but he only stands there in the safety of his hiding spot. He places his hands on both sides of the tree, brown eyes looking out from behind greasy dark hair, focusing on the scene as if he could change it by his sheer will, but he doesn't move. He doesn't pick up a rock and throw it at the enemy. He doesn't try to call 911 again. He stands there, paralyzed and shivering.
Skyler looks down at the unconscious form of Sophie with a smug satisfaction. He bends down and easily picks her up and tosses her over his shoulder, before fiddling with a gadget on his belt. There's a soft hum of power building up and then with a *pop* he and his victim disappears. Presumably to Sinister's lair.
