Mutant, Beware

[Absinthe]

Out of Character & Sign Ups
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...And Now The Weather Tonight's Gala Night

• 
  Today will start off cloudy but dry. As the morning progresses however, that cloud cover is expected to disappear to be replaced by blue skies and sunshine. Afternoon is set up to be warm and sunny, the perfect day for a picnic or a swim in the city park if you've got your bathing suit! Evening will remain much the same, albeit cooler as it approaches dark. It should be a nice evening to head out of the city and go star gazing if you're so inclined. Top temperatures are set to be 80 to 85 degrees.
  This has been Sally Trent. Have a nice day!
  
• 
  Tonight marks the 25th Brighter Future Gala night, which will help to raise funds for the Brighter Futures foundation, who aim to find a cure for genetic abnormalities in children. Guests will be invited to a champagne reception, lavish five course meal, a silent auction, dancing, and talks from several invited speakers, who will include noted researcher Dr. Steven Martin, a pioneer in the field of mutant genetics and a family who have been aided greatly by the good work of this charitable organisation.
  
  Also in attendance tonight, among celebrities, politicians and well known personalities, will be the charity's board of directors, and the founder, Sylvia Jackson, herself. She will be expected to give a speech on the work of her organisation to help the most vunerable and innocent of our society.
  
  

Our Cast​

Mutant Legion Neutral Pro Human Forces

• 
  
  Robert Daloa || Mutant || Recruit || Moogle-Girl
  Lily Martin || Mutant || Senior Lieutenant || Absinthe​
• 
  
  Sam Ebayan || Mutant || Independent Mercenary || Razilin
  Edward Cheytski || Mutant || Hit Man || Quiet One
  Isaac Miller Jr. || Mutant || Civilian || Akuma​
• 
  None As Of Yet

 

[Razilin]

Above the Atlantic....

"Refreshments, sir?" a lovely blonde stewardess asked the gentleman in first class. The jumbo jet roared in the sky, but within the cabin itself was pure silence. The passenger in question, a short and lean Asian man with close-cropped black hair and leather-brown skin from years under the sun, leaned back in his cushioned seat to look at her.

"Scotch, neat, if you don't mind, miss," he replied in perfect Dutch. The airline had to layover in the UK due to yet another "imminent mutant terrorist attack" threat that did not pan out. All it did was delay Sam Ebayan's flight out of the Phillippines. International flights were such a pain. In moments, the stewardess returned with a tumbler, leaving Ebayan to nurse his drink.

Bringing the burning liquid to his lips, the dark-skinned man scrolled through the emails on his phone. It was not a typical email service, however, as it with thoroughly encrypted with multiple levels of protection. Enough defenses, in fact, to make most governments blush with envy. It had to be, considering that the only emails he received on this particular service involved contracts to kill people.

"Well now," he muttered to himself, "that's different." He read the message in detail.

...Sizable stipend...

...Mutan Legion hiring...

...Protection...

"Hilarious. Offering a contract killer a bodyguard job."

Ebayan leaned back in his seat thoughtfully. He had a few more hours until landing. Bodyguarding the Mutant Legion? He had kept up with the news concerning that particular faction. He even worked for some of their more violent members in the past, assassinating their enemies, blowing up facilities on their behalf. Typical work. But this job? Running protection was something he had not done in a while, evoking some old ideals he used to have.

To protect. To save a life. Childish ideals.

He smirked and sent his reply. "What the hell. Let's do it."

 

[Quiet One]

Alameda, California...

"Another."

The bartender gave Cheytski his refill then immediately stepped as far away from him as possible. He ignored him and put the ice-cold beer to his lips. Like any liquid, it started to bubble and boil as soon as it slid down his throat. Hot beer, hot soda, hot water - he hadn't felt anything cold go down his throat for years. At least he could still get drunk. Sort of. The alcohol molecules were broken down too quickly in his system, meaning he had to have an inhuman amount just to get the slightest buzz. He was on his eighth drink.

He looked up at the small television the local dive had over the bar. It was on mute, but the captions followed O'Dowd's report fluidly. He didn't really care what it said. Presidential speech to a bunch of kids. Please. If the Mutant Legion had their way, they were looking into a janitorial future at best. Emma Black - disgusting. He had half a mind to pay her a visit, see how well all those hotdogs burned. And then there was of course Paris fashion week, and the idiotic assumption that anyone from the Mutant Legion would actually care enough to attack it.

He was distracted by his musings by a rather vicious prodding on his shoulder. He had his hoodie on, so there was no direct contact, but he turned to see who his idiot aggressor was all the same. It was the manager. The bar he was in was also a diner, and at eleven in the morning he was the only one drinking.

"Sir, you've had far too much and it's way too early. I'm going to have to ask you to leave," he said.

Eddy slowly lowered his beer and got ready to give him the touch. It would burn his hand, likely cause a small amount of skin cancer, and get him to leave him be. But just then he got a beep off his phone. He pulled it out and read the message, then looked back at the manager. He was a lucky man.

"Fine. I've got a job offer anyway."

He stood, flicked his hood over his head, and walked out.

 

[Absinthe]

The problem with being a technopath was that as a rule, technology responded to the subconscious as well as the conscious, fully awake mind. This meant for Lily Martin that she had turned off her alarm mid-sleep and despite it now being mid-morning, she was still face down in bed wearing nothing but an over-sized Misfits t-shirt. Unlike most other mutants her age at this hour of the day in this city, she was not hung over or still drunk from the night before. As for a partner, hah! She could dream. Clubbing and partying were rarities in Lily's life; even on the 'slower' days she tended to be so tired that dancing until hours lost its appeal. Besides, Asphodel has a job to do, and she couldn't afford to do it less than well.

A phone rang somewhere in the house, stirring the technopath from her slumber and drawing her groggily to her feet. "Asphodel," She murmured sleepily, too lazy to physically answer the phone as she headed into the bathroom to splash some cold water on her face. She wasn't sure if she was actually registered or not and the few times she carried a license it was always a fake one. Either way, her handle made things much easier and safer in the long run.
It was her boss, apologizing briefly and insincerely for so obviously waking her.

She was asked to meet some guy at the airport, extend a welcome to him. He would be working for the legion for an unspecified length of time, and she was pretty much their only available senior operative available for the job. Sounded more like she'd forgotten something and was now taking the punishment for it; this was little more than polite secretary work. She signed off with a scowl as she headed into the shower to freshen up, and then trying to coax her hair into behaving itself somewhat.

Goodness only knew what her higher ups had told her 'target' what they were looking for, so Lily did what she could with the time she had. Army boots, layered fishnet tights, frilly black skirt, a figure-hugging camisole and slightly too-big leather jacket of the same color. Apply lots of black eyeshadow and lashings of mascara and eyeliner, and she was good to go. Slinging a messenger bag with her fake license, spare cell and other essentials over her shoulder and hailing a taxi from her uptown apartment, she couldn't help but wonder what her superior meant when they told her not to shake his hand.

She would just have to stand in arrivals and wait for trouble to arrive herself.

 

[Razilin]

Metopolitan City International Airport

"Welcome to the United States, Mr. Ebayan," the TSA officer said with practiced cheerfulness. Ebayan, dressed in a black business suit, gray button-down shirt, black necktie, and a trench coat despite the heat, took his passport back and made his way to Arrivals. He carried a small duffle bag in hand, containing little more than a week's worth of clothes, toiletries, and a tablet device. To all the world, he seemed like a perfectly normal passenger. None knew that a package had arrived under his name in a local post office under a false address, a package containing close to a hundred kilos in firearms, ammunition, and demolitions gear, as well as assorted field equipment.

Ebayan scanned his surroundings, looking for the girl who would be his primary contact for the Mutant Legion. Her picture and name were provided in the email. Her power set had not been. Not that he was concerned; his own power made him a force to be feared by other mutants.

He found her easily enough. Lily Martin, codename Asphodel, couldn't be more obvious in a crowd if she had traipsed about naked. Her attire and hairstyle made her stick out like a fire in the Arctic.

He approached the young woman silently. She seemed young, perhaps twenty or so years his junior, with an athletic build and of about the same height as himself. Ebayan pulled off his sunglasses. "Ms. Martin, I presume? Sam Ebayan. I believe you're looking for me."

 

[Akuma]

The bright and luminous sun beamed down on a dim and drab black outfitted figure that seemed to be crouched to a ledge on the zenithal of a rather highly raised building, His black attire fluttering about in the near gale. The form arising from its former crouched position, The black figure leapt forward from such position and began to glide through the air. A shadowy mist emitting of the figure as it neared the incoming floor, until the figure dissipated into a large wispy form of shadows, The wisp moved across the floor quickly until it moved into a dark alleyway. Were a hand then pocked out from it, the hand lifting a man out of the shadows, the shadows falling off the figures shoulders onto the floor as if it was a coursing river. The shadows forming with the rest of the dark alleyway, A grin then crept across the shadows face as the characteristics filled in. A young African American descendant, tall and lean, stood shaking a spray can in his hand. The spray can shaking back and forth, a black jet spewing from the can onto the nice clean wall. A name in large black letters gratified excellently to the wall, spelling out the name Shadow, a man then shouted into the alleyway at the figure " What do you think your doing boy?! " the now known shadow looked at the man and chuckled before falling backwards and turning into nothing but shadow. The shadowy figure danced along the ground past the mans leg, the man was dressed in a police uniform and seemed to back out of the alleyway afraid. The shadow escaping just by the hairs of his neck, he traveled across each shadow quickly, until he reached the marked off area were his kind was kept like animals. Rising up from the floor Shadow walked along the dark sidewalks the sound of complaining in his ear as people yelled and shouted and screamed, it was like hell but he was free to come and go as he pleases...at a very high risk but still he was semi free.

A voice called from the alleyway " Aye Shadow...were was you yesterday during the you know what..." Shadow turned his head to look at the few figures of teens in the alleyway, Shadow shrugged his shoulders " I told y'all i ain't stealin from these sad asses no moe " the youth chuckled collectively " i dont think we asked you for you to take your opinions among yourselves, you're with us right? " " Yeah yeah im with y'all " he said walking into the alleyway and leaning up against the wall with the group of mutant boys. The group low toned talking to each other while Shadow looked about in the sky, many planes criss crossing his field of view before flying down into the metropolitan city. It was interesting to go to the airport and watch all the humans get off the planes and how normal and exposed they are to death, how they have minimal protection against the mutants who could take anything they wanted from these poor people who were fooled into thinking that they were completely safe and that they had the upper hand. Oh it made shadow want to hurt some of them who treated the mutants like they were the minority, huh if only they knew.​

 

[Moogle-Girl]

Robert hoisted his duffle bag higher up onto his shoulder, grumbling to himself about the weight of everything he'd packed. He thought the smaller outfits he'd packed would make for lighter travel, but evidently not. Alongside his numerous spare outfits was a cell phone, netbook computer, set of toiletries, and roll of boxing tape, in case he ever needed to get into a brawl without using his powers. Robert was almost always prepared for a good fist-fight, and he'd had plenty of practice, living in the mutant slum he hailed from.

The airport was bigger than anything he'd ever seen. Being in a place this massive lended a certain sense of adventure to this, his first official Mutant Legion mission. The higher-ups had given it to him as a test run, to see how equipped he was to deal with bigger, more important tasks and the responsibility that came with them. He was to find a woman named Lily Martin -- black and red hair, can't miss her apparently -- and join up on the protection mission she was participating in. He was to shadow the group, watch how they operated, and help with the mission however he could. Robert was a little irritated that they were giving him something so small-time to start with, but at the same time, he was excited to finally get an upgrade from just regular combat training.

Hating the idea of having to search a place this huge and knowing his hairstyle made him stick out like a sore thumb, Robert once again adjusted his duffle bag and started wandering Arrivals, hoping this Lily chick knew he was coming and would be able to track him down easily enough.

 

[Absinthe]

It was hard to sneak up on Lilith given that virtually everyone carried an electronic device of some kind, and it was even easier when she could identify one in particular. It wouldn't have been hard to pick it out as something suspicious, at least not to a technopath. Anyone packing that amount of protection on such a small device was trouble, government or not. Feigning ignorance, she reached out to the phone, testing it and probing it mentally. She frowned as she was interrupted by a message reminding her that there was a new guy coming with her to observe and help if needed.

It took her some time to break the security on the phone, quickly sending a copy to her own database and that of the League's. A girl couldn't be too cautious, especially when she was working with a hit man. She turned with a small smile as this Sam Ebayan approached, her hand twitching out of habit as she momentarily forgot her instruction. "You would be correct on both counts, Mr Ebayan. I will be your contact for my organization for the duration of your employment. You'll excuse me for not shaking your hand."

She glanced around, looking for the newbie. She wasn't the most patient of people when it came to the newer recruits, and the fact that this guy hadn't met her already was already a little irritating to her. Her phone vibrated loudly as she was sent details on the new recruit, his picture and various other details belonging to him feeding into her head. They simply couldn't wait much longer for him, as much as she would hate to fail him on his first mission with the League. She sent him a coolly worded message direct to his phone, as she indicated Ebayan to follow her outside to the taxi ranks. "You'll excuse me, but I'm supposed to have one of our newer recruits shadowing me today. He has yet to arrive, it seems." She frowned slightly, arms folding across her chest as she looked directly at her companion. "Any questions you want me to answer for you?"

 

[Razilin]

"Actually, whom am I bodyguarding? The League knows my abilities and is fully aware that this is an...unusual contract to offer me," Ebayan said, following the girl to the taxis. The area outside the airport was a mess of moving bodies and even faster moving cars, the air filled with the angry honking of vehicles. The heat wasn't helping anyone's mood, either. Ebayan shrugged off his trench coat, no longer needing it outside the chilly air conditioned airplane and airport, folding it over one arm.

"Secondly, who is this other recruit? I wasn't informed I would be having a partner." He gave Lily a once over and raised an eyebrow. "And thirdly, do your parents know you dress like that, young lady?"

 

[Moogle-Girl]

After a few minutes of standing around unsuccessfully, Robert nearly gave up and went to get a slice of pepperoni pizza from a nearby snack stand. Thankfully, his phone went off in that same moment, saving him from wasting any more time. He opened the message to find a terse, impatient text from the woman he was supposed to be meeting, telling him where she was and that he needed to find her now. Robert gave a disdainful snort and stuffed his phone back into his pocket. Yeah, yeah. He'd be there soon enough.

Now with a direction, Robert headed towards where Lily was supposed to be. Her trademark hair caught Robert's attention before he even knew who he was looking at. That had to be her. "Hey!" he called out, heading towards Lily and the guy that was with her in a steady jog. "Are you Lily Martin?" He didn't wait for an answer before sticking his hand out. "Name's Robert."

 

[GALAXY]

Christian woke up to the sound of his phone ringing and this was probably one of the only times that he would regret making the sound a heavy rock metal song, the bass blaring against his ear on the dresser next to him. He groggily opened one eye and grabbed his phone, squinting to see who could be calling him at this ungodly hour - even though it was late morning around ten or so - and he swiped the screen with one finger to answer the call as he lifted the phone to his ear. It was one of the higher-up lieutenants, saying something about 'Check your messages' before hanging up. Christian frowned and pulled the phone away from his ear, opening his text messages to find at least five from the higher-ups. The first one was asking if he could do some kind of mission at the airport followed my two angry messages about him not answering and the one saying he had been replaced by a recruit to do the job.

He let out a groan and pulled himself from the bed, wine red hair simply a disorganized mess from sleeping on his stomach all the time, face pressed into the goose feather pillow he had payed an awful lot for. "Well this is fantastic," he muttered, sliding out of the black silk sheets, walking with full slumber to get some coffee from the kitchen in his apartment. He would take time drinking it, then head on over to see if he had any sort of job or scolding. Probably the latter.

 

[Absinthe]

"That information I am not privy to at the moment. If we require someone with your particular skill set to protect some of our members, you will appreciate it if my superiors want to keep that information as tightly guarded as possible." Lily responded professionally, little more than a guise to say she didn't know. Once outside, she kept an eye out for the third mutant to join them. This guy was late, and her bosses were holding out on her with something; she was not a particularly happy bunny.

She smirked slightly as this Mr Ebayan asked about the recruit, assuming he would be his partner. "You won't be having a partner. He's shadowing me for this assignment. They start them off too easy these days," The last sentence was added, the technopath speaking to herself more than to her apparent co-worker. She caught his once over of her, about to pick him up on it when he spoke. Right away her jaw and her fists clenched, her eyes narrowing dangerously as she started staring him down. "Excuse me?" She growled, clearly unused to being addressed in such a manner. She excelled in cyber warfare, but she was more than up to a good old fashioned fist fight as well.

Thankfully Lily was interrupted by the newbie. She turned on her heel, her anger being quickly redirected at her new charge. Could headquarters had sent anyone more conspicuous than herself? "First of all, you're late." She barked, although her voice dropped to a low growl again, not afraid of balling the kid out in front of a stranger."Second of all, you do not yell my name like that in such a public place. My abilities have their limits in detecting bugs and undercovers, you know. Thirdly, I am to be addressed as your lieutenant, do you understand?"

 

[Moogle-Girl]

Robert's hackles rose at the scolding; the way his face tightened, it was almost like his hair straightened out like the spikes on a porcupine. Had it been anyone else yelling at him like that, he would've given them a piece of his mind -- his turbulent, violent mind -- but he knew he couldn't mess this up so quickly. For once, he was in the middle of something actually important to him. And so, Robert swallowed his pride, turned his clenched fist into a salute, and growled, "Yes ma'am...sorry ma'am."

If any of his old acquaintances had been there in that moment, they probably would've made a wish on such a miracle.

 

[Razilin]

"I wouldn't be too hard on the boy, Ms. Martin. It's my fault really. Plane in came in early and you just happened to be here," Ebayan interrupted, hoping to save the young man some face. "And its a big airport. I'm not surprised he got a little lost. It took me a second to find my way to Arrivals as well."

The mercenary gave the young man, Robert, a once over. He was taller than Ebayan, but even younger than Lily Martin. Like his female superior, Robert had an appearance, particularly his hair, that stood out like a campfire in the Arctic. "I'm Sam Ebayan, a mercenary hired to protect the Mutant Legion on behalf of your leadership. Its a pleasure to meet you, Robert. I hope we can all work amicably together, since I suspect we'll be seeing a lot of one another for the foreseeable future."

 

[Moogle-Girl]

Robert gave a nod in Sam's direction in response, feeling more than a little offended that his lieutenant treated him like dirt so soon after running into him. It's not like he knew, jeez. At least this Sam guy seemed to be on his side. Robert made a mental note to stick close to him until he could find someone else who was worth hanging around.

"Yeah, me too," he said, sneering slightly at no one in particular. "So is there gonna be anyone else? I wanna get out of here and get started." Not to mention he wanted to find out whether Sam was a fellow mutant and what the mercenary could do. But that would have to wait until they were back out of the public eye.

 

[Akuma]

This life felt like a living hell for him, his friends nothing but dumpster kids like him, it was so hard for him to get a job as a mutant, he normally gets a job with infer down the street. Cleaning up his corner store shop sometimes or maybe just holding a sign outside of the door, making most of his money off of robbing people who had barely anything themselves was not something he enjoyed doing and he knew how it felt. His friends leading him down this long alleyway was only trouble, he didn't know what they wanted to do but he just followed along with his head facing the ground until he heard a twist of a foot and something swooshing through the air. A fist collided straight to the head of Shadow, sending him hurtling back onto his ass. He almost slid out of the alleyway from the super strength, Shadow laid on the floor coughing " you fuckers ughh " the three boys stood over shadow looking down at him laughing, one of the boys wearing a hood reached down for shadow's wallet. But was met with his hand reaching into the floor, as shadows leg turned into a practical smoke cloud. As did shadow who blended into the ground, the super strong boy looked in circles speaking " We should of totally done this in the su-..." his voice was cut off as his body was slammed into the floor behind him, the boys head smacking strong against the cement, he rolled on his side holding his head. The hooded boy sparked a flame in his hand and stood looking in circles holding the flame out like a torch, as he turned his head to light up the dark a shadowy face met the boys and he jumped back throwing a fireball at the wall. The two boys grabbing their friend and running out the alleyway trying to escape shadow, who stepped out of the shadows and leaned against the wall in the sun, his head bleeding a bit and his cheek burnt up a bit. He spoke in a low voice " someone...please help..." he breathed slowly as he looked at the floor which was trying to move beneath him.​

 

[Absinthe]

"Two minutes. You were two minutes early, Mr Ebayan, and I checked the flight logs myself." Lily replied cooly. She had too; it was easy to get bored waiting for someone. "Had he been on time, he might have seen me arriving myself. As you have pointed out already, I'm quite hard to miss in a crowd."

Lily eyeballed the kid carefully. She hasn't meant to give him such a first impression, but some things had to be knocked out of a newbie straight away. "I'm sure we all will,"

It took many years of training not to jump or freeze when a heavy hand was placed on her shoulder. "Lily Martin? Licenses out gentlemen."
The technopath blinked once before sirens began to wail and lights flashed within the main airport building. In the moment of confusion, she slipped out from under him, signaling the two men into a taxi.

"Never heard of her," She called over her shoulder as she slid into the awaiting car. It would already have instructions on where to travel. Daintily she brushed her skirt, as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened. For her, it hadn't.

 

[Razilin]

Ebayan gave Robert a helpless shrug. "Sorry, kid, tried to pitch for you, but the lady's a smart one. At any rate, shall we?"

The group followed Lily into the car. The cabbie followed his predetermined route, leaving the congested airport lanes and making its way through the traffic-thick grid of city streets. To Ebayan's eyes, Metropolitan City was much the same as any other, except perhaps for being a little cleaner than the last few he had operated in.

As the taxi traveled in comfortable silence, the mercenary's mind wandered to some of his old missions and their locales, subconsciously comparing them to Metropolitan. In the last few months alone, he had been to Dubai, Jerusalem, Baghdad, Nizwa, Kuwait, Damascus, Antioch, Bangkok, Tokyo, Paris, and most recently Manila.

It would be nice to have a simple, greasy American cheeseburger after so much time in the east.

His reflections were halted when his dark eyes caught something suspicious in an alley as the taxi stopped at a red light.

"Hold it," he commanded in a much colder tone than his previously amicable one, the kind of tone that one developed after years on the battlefield, where a cool head kept you alive longer than hot blood. "Stop the car. Someone's hurt in that alley."

 

[Moogle-Girl]

Robert gave an annoyed huff. "They must've given me the wrong time," he muttered, giving the best excuse he could come up with on the spot. It was complete bull, of course; he really had just arrived late. He just didn't want the higher-ups thinking he wasn't devoted enough to the cause. That was the farthest thing from the truth.

The man who had apparently busted the group -- through no fault of Robert's, naturally -- and the airport's triggered alarms made Robert jump. He didn't have nearly the training the others did, and he probably would've freaked out, not having a clue what to do, if Lily didn't bring in the taxi. Taking a moment to flip the man who'd snuck up on Lily the bird, Robert jumped into the taxi and settled in, his hair spikes bending back against the roof of the vehicle.

"So what?" he grumbled at the mention of the injured person. "Probably just another mutant getting the shit beat out of him. How do you think I got these scars?" He gestured at the few marks decorating his face.

 

[Razilin]

"All the more reason to see if he's hurt," Ebayan replied, motioning for the taxi to pull over and stepping out onto the curb without waiting for Lily or Robert. He saw a lean black man slumped against the wall, blood streaming down one side of his face.

The injuries looked painful but nonfatal. Ebayan had certainly seen worse. He offered a hand. "You look like you been through hell in. a handbasket, kid. What happened?"