12/08 Game: Breaking the News

[steyn]

Jillian sauntered into the room, grinning and waving at Japh as she did so "Heeeeeey Japh dude!!"

Japh was keeping his fist to his mouth, thinking of the news he got to share with hs fellow students. It was really upsetting. How come this had to happen right after he was made head of security? He still had a tons of stuff to learn, and now? Why did Angel have to become that other guy's assistant and leave the security?

Japh looked up from his daydreaming, "Oh, hey Jill, would you just take a seat and wait for the rest to come in?"

Kitty popped through a wall, singing to herself, fresh from ballet practice. She stopped as she heard the flicker of worry in Japh's voice. "What's wrong?"

Alex entered shortly after Jillian and looked around the room. No, Meggan wasn't here. Stupid meeting, he had to search for her, she never had just vanished before.

Josh trudged into the room, scowling. He hadn't slept well, in spite of being full of pancakes. He dropped into a seat and stifled a yawn.

He forced an unmotivate "Hey..." out and flunked down into a chair.

Jay trailed in after Jill, hands shoved in pockets and wings slumped. He looked around hurridly for his boyfriend, then huffed, blowing a lock of red hair out of his face.

Jillian took a seat where Japh indicated and grinned at everyone comming in "Hiya everyone!!"

"Hey Jillian." Lorna gave a brief smile back but couldn't maintain it.

Shiro walked in to the room playing harmonica and wearing the pilot jacket and eyepatch, he had entered the school just few hours ago.

Kitty took a seat, sitting tensely. Japh didn't look so good. Something was very, very wrong. She waved briefly at Jill.

Japh looked at Kitty, "It's news, security news," he turned back at the rest of the people taking their time to come in.

Jillian looked around the room, why was everyone so grumpy? Life was good ... though maybe everyone else hadn't gotten laid like she had ...

Lorna took a seat near the front. Security news, she had a feeling, would mean she might have some serious work to do.

"Lot's of new faces" he mumbled and in to the far left

Rachel made her way into the room and took a seat near the back, propping her feet on the back of the chair in front of her. Security news?

"Security? ..." She giggled a little "Hey ... did you like find the porn or something?"

"Porn?...What porn?" He looked at Jillian. Was she making movies?

"Like ... the porn from the security tapes ... duh!" She stuck her tounge out at him.

Japh ignored the remark Jill made, "Can I have everyone's attention please? I have news concerning the security of the University."

"...oh..." He shrugged and turned over to Japh. Where the hell IS she?...

"Yeah, about that security tape porn. Who exactly watches the security tapes?" Disturbing.

Shiro quit the silent play of harmonica and glanced at Japh

"Forge watched them, he's like the head teacher thingy of that team," Jillian told Josh.

"I don't know I could look him straight in the face anymore, knowing that." Josh shook his head.

"So, what's the news, Japh?" she asked.

"I don't think it's the face you should be worried about Josh,"

"Earlier today there was a power outage, I think some of you may have noticed that, it was for 16 minutes long."

"Yeah...I nearly overslept."

Jay nodded. "Yeah. I was like, trying to do an essay. Lost the lot."

"Really? Must've read back then, I didn't notice."

Lorna nodded, the knot in her stomach growing surprisingly quickly. "So someone did it?"

"That's it?"

Rachel frowned. Okay, there had to be more than just the power going out.

((Noo, our kinky comic relief!))

"Yes, someone did, there are students missing. I regret to tell you that we have been struck by someone, and now students are missing."

Fuck. Again? "Who?"

"Students are missing? ... You mean like they're passed out drunk in some club, doncha?" Josh's mouth fell open.

His eyes just widened and the mouth went dry. so His voice was a bit hoarse when he joined Rachel in asking: "Yeah, who?"

Jay blinked at the guy. "Hey what? But I thought that like....that didn't happen any more- oh my god. Please dude, don't tell me Vic's one."

Again? Lovely. Lorna straightened her back and swallowed before looking back at her teammates. "I assume you are good for extra training?"

Jillian blinked at Japh "Missing? Who's missing?"

"Great"

"What" Kitty said, goin pale. "Who's gone? Who took them, what happened?! Are we in danger, too?"

Japh looked at the paper in his hands, "So far I only know of Meggan, Scott, Warren, Jackie, Kyle and Andreas. I don't think there is someone else missing." He already hated this job.

"Kyle?" Jillian felt her mouth go dry "Kyle's gone!?"

Jay slumped in relief. He'd thought, for a moment, that that was the reason he hadn't found him. "Dude, do we know who like, did this?"

"Six people, gone during an 16 minutes long power outage, without a trace? Wow, that's fast." Shiro said

Kitty sat back in shock. That was an awful lot of powerful people. "You mean...the power outage turned off the security? I thought Forge had that safely secure or something!"

"Oh, great..." Leaning back, he felt all of the blood flushing out of his face. So he put his hands on his face and rubbed it a bit to get at least some warmth back into it.

"Do we have a clue?" I want her back!

Rachel sat up in her chair. Meggan...shit. She shot Alex a look.

Kitty looked at Shiro. "It means like, it was like, planned and stuff. Really really well."

"How? Dammit, dude, how did it happen? Did someone nab Scott with like - I dunno - bribing him with better poetry than his? What the hell is going on?" Josh veritably shouted, on the verge of hysterics.

Lorna rubbed her temples, feeling quite sympathetic with Japh at the moment. "So do we think it's related to the bomb and files incident?"

Jay shot a look at Alex. The guy had gone white. He went over to him and crouched beside him, putting an arm around him. He was going out with Meggan, right? "Dude, it'll be okay."

"Kyle can't be gone? Are you sure you looked everywhere for him!?"

"I am...I searched for her and, like, I thought it's me who goes missing all the time, and her..." He just mumbled to himself, trying to grasp the situation. And slowly, bit by bit, something went hot and very, very angry in his stomache.

"We have looked through the security tapes, and the power outage did affect the security. We have no recordings of any of the events. I have looked through the mansion grounds on myself, seeing if my powers can pick up anything, and only saw glimpses of the past of people being taken, but not enough to see who did it."

"But ... who'd take Kyle and the others? Why!?"

Jay tightened the arm and pulled Alex into a hug.

Bobby ran a hand through his shower-damp hair on his way to the lecture hall. He'd gotten the message late there was some sort of meeting. Great. He walked into the room, just in time to figure out something was very wrong.

"Sounds like this place has turned in to the Action University. Bomb and files incident? There was actually a bomb in here?"

"We're not sure if it's connected to the bombing." Japh looked at Jill, "I don't know, I'm sorry. I don't know who or why they were taken."

"What images? Do you know how they were taken? I woud like, think they'd be knocked unconcious, since those are all really powerful...well, maybe not Jackie, but like, Scott's powers are strong...and Kyel's like super strong..."

"How the heck does this happen!" Josh countinued to yell. "That's a damn lot of kids to go missing without a trace!"

Lorna looked back at Alex, wanting to tell him it would be alright as well but not quite able to form the words at the moment. She gave him what she hoped was an encouraging look.

"Taken?" Bobby paused, looking around. "Missing? Whoa, wait? What the fuck?"

"I am,...like...thanks..." His head dropped, partly in despair, partly because he just wanted to let everything go. Why did this always happen to him? Everything had been good again!

Rachel sighed and stared at the floor.

"At least once in a year shit really hits the fan around here" he said and started cleaning the harmonica

Lorna looked up when she heard Bobby. "Meggan, Scott, Kyle, Warren, Jackie, and Andreas."

Then he looked up and looked Lorna into the eyes, his mouth turned into a thin line. While he sai-...well, thought this, he gently removed Jay's arm, giving him a thankfl pat on the shoulder. He had to be active in any way...

She ran a hand through her hair. This fucking sucked.

"Jackie?" His voice was a little sharper than it should have been. "Fucking A. What is it with this place?!"

"Maybe we get to kick some serious ass again" he said and continued cleaning the mouthpiece

Jay looked at his roomie, standing up and moving to his sister, who looked pretty shocked. Wait, hadn't she....done....things with Kyle? He wrapped his arms around her.

Josh slammed his fists on the chair in front of him, his jaw working. "So this Forge dude has security cameras in the freaking bathroom, yet if we lose power for fifteen friggin minutes, half a dozen students get kidnapped? Shyeah, we're looked after here."

Bobby glanced over at the corner. And Shiro was back?

He started circling the room, clenching his fists from time to time. He really was fed up with being on the receiving end of bad things.

"Like yelling and getting pissed would help anything" he said after the guy behind him started getting annoying.

"You don't even know the reason why the school lost it's power, so better not start bitching about Forge" he said while he brushed the windsavers.

"We are at the moment trying to contact Mr. Shaw to see if he knows anything of this," Japh watched the rest of the students. Oh God, things will only get worse from here on out.

He played few tunes with his harp and said "There, good as new."

Josh glared at the dude in front of him (who the heck was he anyhow?). "So sorry we can't all be as cool as you when a bunch of people are randomly kidnapped for no reason!"

Rachel flinched a little, She glanced between Josh and Shiro. Uh oh.

"So sorry you weren't back here when it happened the first time" He replied to the guy behind him

"Ok - so where do we start? Can we like, scan for htem somehow?" Kitty asked, trying to keep calm. "Like - ok - they're gone. We need to really beef up security. have all that rigged to a secure, hidden generator or something. But we can do that later - right now - how to do start looking for them?"

Bobby sat down beside Lorna, reaching for her hand. "Seems like we've heard this tune before...."

"Also, nobody gets kidnapped for no reason. That's why they can be tracked down"

"So...That's it? We're asking the money-man and wait? Are you that useless at finding out what's going on around you?"

The second he had said this, Alex already regreted snapping at Japh. But he was just so...angry.

Right - the first time that Rachel and Bobby had told him about. "So it's happened more than once. I'm so comforted," Josh said with as much sarcasm as he could muster. But he listened as Kitty started talking plans for a rescue.

"Josh, chill. You're not helping."

"Yeah, seems more than a tad familiar, doesn' it." Lorna squeezed Bobby's hand and spoke up. "The investigations team did good work last time. There is no reason to assume that they won't be working just as well now."

"Ok who, like, is powerful enough to find them? I could ask Lizzie to take the jet....Lizzie! Oh! Does she know Warren's gone?!"

He still felt like fighting, and shot a heated glare at Bobby, but kept his mouth shut anyway.

"Shit..." He hadn't thought of Lizzie. "She'd have to have known, right? I mean... they're all kind of telepathy together..."

Japh sighed, "I don't think Lizzie knows. Look. We are trying our best, but at the moment, we don't have much to go on."

"I volnteer to break the news!"

Lorna chewed her lip but stopped it right when she realized she was doing it. She hadn't thought about Lizzie yet either. Hell.

The circling got faster. "God, didn't they leave any trace? We have people here who can smell what the president ate yesterday, why can't they find Me-...them?"

Oh thank you, Japh thought, "Kitty, that would be a great help, thanks."

"And Angel...she needs to be told Scott's gone." Kitty's lower lip wobbled, but she steeled herself. Hysterics aren't going to get them back, girl! You've been in this kind of stuff before! Pull it together!

Bobby noticed Lorna's nervous habit kicking in and squeezed her hand back. "We can go find Lizzie later, yeah?" He glanced over at Kitty.

Rachel shot Bobby a greatful look. There was no way she would've been getting into that. At least that would've helped the situation. "Someone has to tell Tess about Andreas." Though Japh could probably do that.

"We will notify Angel the minute we contact Mr. Shaw."

"Yeah, before we get into training." Lorna nodded.

"Ok - so, like, what do you know, Japh? Anything will help!" She dug through her bag, and puled out a pen and a notebook, dumping her pointe shoes on the ground.

"Guess we'll have extra training, too, Kitty..."

"Training? Isn't about half of the blu-cru absent?" Shiro said while he did few more adjustments to the mouth piece.

"Well, obviously." Kitty snapped at Rachel. "This is serious!" She sighed and gave her a small smile in apology.

"Just Eve... and Tom." Bobby eyed Shiro. "And you. And we have Vic now."

"Training! Yes, that#s good! We'll have to train and then hit them hard!" He slammed his fist into his palm to show how serious he was about this

"Oh, well I guess we could do some sparring" he glanced at Bobby

Lorna back at Alex again, hoping that he was as up to this as he wanted to be. "We will."

"Swift action means that those guys are not messing around but well trained and probably military again or just private corporation with mercs." he said and put the harmonica away.

And now for the big news. "I have one thing to say about what I could see when checking the places where they were taken...I think it might have been other mutants."

"Six people and no traces, that's pretty top-notch"

"Yeah, once we know who to hit." Bobby watched Alex. Poor bastard... saving up for a ring, and now she's gone. "We'll get her back, dude. We'll get them all back."

"Oh, that trashes the military part then" he winked

He looked up at Japh. "Mutants?"

Lorna blinked. Oh fuck. "Could you tell what their powers were?"

"Other mutants?"

"Mutants," Josh just stared.

Her jaw twitched slightly as she tried not to snap back. Plus, it wouldn't help anything. She bit down on her lip and sat back in her chair. Well...this just gets better and better..

"Remember Jono?" he said to Bobby

"Great, at least them I can hit really hard..." He kicked the ground. Alex was far too pissed for being surprised, there was just, anger.

"The guy with his own army"

"I remember hearing about him..." Bobby looked up at Japh. "What were those guys called? Ferns?"

"Army of mutants that is, they were pretty much after the blood, except that 70% of them sucked at close combat"

"Jono? That's not who took Lizzie and Vic and Rahne, right? That was military...."

"Yes, and we are trying to find Jono too, but at the moment, we can't be sure if it's really him. And it was Fringes. And Blackair mostly used normal humans to do their dirty work."

That made him stop. "So, we're facing something new?"

"Yeah, but it's a fact that they were army-like bunch of hardcore mutants. I lost half the face to those wankers" he said

"Fringes. Yeah." Bobby drummed his fingers on his knee.

"But they were more like a mob of people, then an army. They didn't have any tactics, how could they infiltrate and kidnap six of our own students who can defend themselves, in just sixteen minutes?"

Lorna straightened in her seat again. "You were at the Fringes deal too, right Japh? Anything from what you saw look familiar?"

"I don't think even half of the guys we saw at that Jono-convention once were at the showdown"

Kitty scibbled frantically. "Ok. What else do we need to do/ know?"

"I'm not saying that fringes did that, but I'm saying that there are lot of not-so-nice muties out there joining whateverthefuck Mutant Force, hell I'm in the army too" he said

"Yes, and I completely agree with you there, Shiro." Japh gave silent sigh, "And there' nothing else I can tell everyone at the moment," he told Kitty. He wished there was something more.

"Ok." She deflated a bit. "We need to talk to Shaw...and Professor Xavier?"

"So, tha plans are now training and waiting?" His arms were folded in front of his chest. "That sucks..."

Josh shared Alex's sentiments exactly, and slumped down in his seat with a frustrated scowl.

"And tryng to figure out who did this!"

"No it's not just training and waiting. It's training and investigating for groups or places that has mutants. We will find them."

"Yeah, but...wouldn't it be faster if we just, I don't know, would bust some heads?"

"If we go busting heads and it's the wrong heads it'll warn them that we are coming."

"Busting heads of random people doesn't solve anything"

"No, we don't know whose heads to bust."

"I can call Eve... he, uh, has at least borrowed Scott's powers before. He might be able to track them." Bobby caught himself chewing his lip and stopped it.

"And Professor Xavier is busy working on this as we speak." He looked at Alex. He felt sorry for the guy.

"Oh man..." The fact that he actually was sad about the fact that he couldn't just run out and kick some bad guys somehow concerned him...

"That's a good idea." Lorna nodded, squeezing Bobby's hand again.

Rachel let out a breath, wrapping her arms around her knees. Was she the only one who thought this sounded a bit hopeless? Although, everything with the British government did, too. She laid her head on her knees, blinking. This really fucking sucked.

"Ok. where do we start - aisde from telling everyone epople are missin, and getting the teams back into fighting shape, and gathering info and intel?"

The thought that had been bouncing around in his head finally found voice. "I mean... I'm sure we're all gonna be watching now for power outages, and things... but I think we need to figure out how to up security. I mean... what if they come back?"

"Teams are not in fighting shape?"

Bobby's words made sense. "Oh, I hope so."

He hadn't thought of that possibility. Josh looked at Bobby with pure horror.

Kity sighed. "I all ready, said, like rig it up to a secret generator that can't be touched except....oh....hmmmmm. I have an idea on that!"

"I don't think they would risk exposing themselves by doing a second sweep"

"We still need to get Lizzie into this, she can hopefully help with her telepathy. The teams are in an okay shape, but we can always improve." Japh stopped to listen to Kitty's suggestion.

"I could always stick it in the DR as a program."

"We'll have to train newcomers into the team anyhow so training all around is in order. At least, I assume other students will be sorted in if they are willing."

"I'm sorry, Kitty, I'm not following you there." Japh asked

She sighed. "It' very simple, really. Hide the secret security systems generator within a program in the DR, that can open to only a certain password or code."

"It's oly code, you know. It wouldn't be that hard to set up."

"Oh... okay, I get what you're saying. Yeah, I think that's doable."

"How does the DR get power then to make the code to make power?"

"What if they would use a some kind of variation of electromagnetic pulse? It would pretty much deactivate every single electric system in selected area"

"And do you know how they cut the power last time?"

"In that case we should have patrols set up again."

"Oh." She made a face. "I didn't htink. Well, i still saya secret generator somewhere would be best."

"For the moment, patrols sounds best, until the generator thing gets put up," He looked at Shiro, "I'll have to ask Forge about that, but I thought EMPs destroy electric gizmos?"

"Well...Lorna, wouldn't you be able to do something about EMPs?" she asked, quietly.

"I've never had the chance to test it out." Lorna shrugged. "It's possible."

"We could try."

"EMP affects on pretty much any unprotected electrical equipment and anything connected to electrical cables" he said

Alex just kept on walking in circles, wildly gestigulating and trying to think of ever more cruel ways to beat up whoever had done this to him.

"Though, they do research the use of electromagnetic pulse probably at the moment that we are sitting here and talking, so there is no doubt they could shut down pretty much anything with a circuit and electricity"

"Of course, they might have used anything that could shut down the power" he said and glanced at the lamps

Lorna found herself watching Alex again, worried a good deal.

"That's then one way of figuring out how they did it, thank you Shiro and Lorna. I would also appreciate it if anyone finding something unusual around the mansion grounds, to just leave it there and contact me or anyone else on the investigation team. Right now, almost anything can be evidence or clues and used to help with the investigation."

Bobby watched Alex, getting up and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Alex. Dude. We'll figure it out. We'll get her back. This right now isn't helping any. We can patrol or something... maybe see if anything was missed. You have good senses."

"Ok. We should start with a sweep of the places where they were...taken."

"And we should let people able to pick up scents at it first before everyone tramples the place down."

"Yeah, but..." He stopped in his tracks. "See, it has been me, always. and now that she is missing, I'm like 'So, THAT is how she suffered each time?'" His head dropped, and his shoulders followed fast. "I feel like a big stupid jerk..."

"Sweep the places where they were taken?"

"I have already made copies of maps of the areas they were taken, " Japh lifted a pack of papers, then putting them on the table in front of them, "I'm repeating this, if you find anything, gum, cigarette butts, matchsticks, even spit, just leave it and tell me or someone on the investigation team."

"Ok." Kitty stoof up and took a map, studying it intently. "Well, like, the only route I'd take would be through here..." she traced a path with her finger. "I'll like, just go tell Lizzie and Angel..., okay?" She gatheredh er things up, and have Japh and Lorna a small smile. "We'll gett hem back!"

Rachel sighed. She wanted to help, but her brain still seemed to be processing that Meggan (and others) were gone. Then, she felt worse for Alex. Meggan may be one of her best friends, but it was his girlfriend. Great. She was pretty much useless at the moment.

Bobby nodded and took a map. "Okay... Alex, I know this sucks. But doing something is better than just stewing about shit you can't change now."

"I think I can check out some locations in infrared"

Josh wandered over to Rachel and put his arms around her. He didn't know what to say, so he just massaged her back and tried to hide his own (all too obvious) anger and fear.

"There should be at least some climate changes in the areas" he said and picked up a map

Lorna took maps and handed one to Alex. "You're no jerk, Alex. And we'll do all we can. You know that, right?"

He nodded back at that. "Yes, guess you're right." He took one of the maps too. "Well, I'll be going to scoop around a bit then, I guess." Then he nearly stumbled out of the room.

Japh felt a small spark of happiness, this wasn't so bad. He could do this, everyone seemed very level headed now. "Look before anyone else goes, I just want to thank you all for your help."

Lorna let out a quiet breath when Alex left. "Well, he's dealing with this pretty well, considering." Lorna looked up at Japh. "And thank you. You did a good job."

"Yeah, no problemo. Scott's my friend and I'm doing this for him" he said and walked out

She got up. They could do whatever, but she was going to find something to do since she wasn't going to be any help right now, "I'll see you all later."

"Thanks," he told Lorna, then sighed with relief.

"I'll see you later. Let me know when something turns up. I'll more than likely be in the Danger Room." Lorna waved with the map in hand before heading for the door.

Japh rubbed his face with his hands. Okay, what next? Oh, I have to go see Forge. He took th couple maps that were still left on the table, and walked out the door.

[wingyding]

Well damn. This is going to get interesting. There's gonna be a couple of really short-tempered girls around that school for a while.