8/13 Instance: Inferno

[tears~fall~like~glass]

Timeline: Immediately after 'Bug Out'


Jessica: After the last of the swarm disappeared through Cassandra's portal, Jessica turned her attention to those that remained. She hadn't needed to wait for JP's recon as she'd known where to go but she was relieved that he'd returned in one piece with his directions.

Facade: Repeating JP's directions in her head, Cecilia backtracked through the halls the team come through on their way to the containment cells, leading the way towards the labs. "I guess it's a good thing I've always kept my cards close to my chest," she remarked, stepping over bits of debris leftover from the fighting. "Hydra didn't exactly have anything I couldn't handle."

Cyclops: Scott followed silently, getting angrier and angrier. The people who did this sort of thing were reprehensible. "You did well," he said, not quite keeping a grip on his anger, his tone clipped. "We need as much data as we can get. Hopefully there'll be enough information for Hank to reverse what was done. They'll need so much therapy."

Jessica: "I'm telling you we don't need to do this..." Jess trailed them cautiously, all her senses on high alert. "She used my father's research to do this and I know that's available through the Hellfire Club if not publicly and I'm pretty sure my brother's involved in it somehow too."

Facade: "Don't congratulate me for killing things, please. I don't wanna feel good about that - ever," Cecilia said to Scott, her face a bit drawn as she thought of the silver dogs and the Frankenstein man coming apart from the inside.

Cyclops: "I meant for keeping a level head about it all," Scott murmured, patting her shoulder. "Killing is never something to feel good about."

Facade: "Thanks," Cecilia said, smiling ruefully before turning to Jess. "It can't hurt to have a look. When it comes to this sorta thing I'd rather have as much information as I can get. We don't have much room to screw up here considering those things are our classmates."

Jessica: "She'll know why we're here, she's probably been watching this the whole time...." Jess pointed out, still wary. "We'll be lucky if she hasn't destroyed it already."

Facade: Cecilia stopped in her tracks. "Y'know, for someone who supposedly wants to do as much as they can to help fix the damage they caused you sure drag your heels an awful lot," she said, crossing her arms and eyeing Jess suspiciously. "Is there a problem with wanting to be thorough?"

Cyclops: "She's probably long gone." He stopped too. Cecilia's point was valid. "Why are you here anyway instead of with your precious 'swarm'? We know where we're going." It seemed to him that she could have alerted them a lot sooner than she did.

Jessica: "Because if she hasn't gone and she shoots one of you and I'm not standing in front of you at the time I will never forgive myself." She brushed the loose strands of hair out of her face. "I have to do this."

Facade: "Who the hell do you think is usually protecting people in the field from bullets?" Cecilia asked, raising an eyebrow and snorting before resuming her path down the hall. "I can look after myself just fine, thanks."

Cyclops: "I can shoot back," he tapped his visor. Scott gestured for Jessica to go ahead; he wanted her front and centre.

Jessica: "I know you're both quite capable. I'm not an idiot," Jess replied a little irritably, "but if you can't work out why I'm here for yourselves then my explaining it to you wouldn't make the slightest bit of a difference." She paused listening to hasty footsteps echoing along the corridor until she worked out they were going the other way.

Facade: Cecilia just kept her counsel and continued on until she found the labs JP had mentioned. "Well, would you look at that?" she muttered, wandering in and throwing herself down at a desk with a very nice computer on it and a filing cabinet behind it. "Betcha we can find all the info we ever wanted to find here, Scott."

Cyclops: He nodded. "Plug in and get as much stuff as you can." He went for the filing cabinet and started looking through it taking out files and putting them into his med bag. "You're here to prove to us you are on our side right now, even though you weren't always," he said offhandedly.

Jessica: "I was always on your side...." Jess replied, a little hurt by the comment.

Facade: Cecilia ignored this, taking a jump stick out of the desk drawer and transferring all the files on the desktop onto it. "Computers aren't exactly my speciality," she said to Scott, "but I'll do the best I can."

Cyclops: "Whatever you can get will have to do."

Facade: Cecilia swallowed hard and nodded, pulling the jump stick out as soon as she was finished and moved to search a filing cabinet beneath the desk.

Jessica: "You'll be lucky if she hasn't already imbedded a virus in all of that stuff... I'd suggest looking at it with a closed system rather than on the school's network." Jess offered, she peered out into the corridor, not at all comfortable with staying in one place so long.

Facade: "I wasn't planning on unleashing a virus into the school computer system," Cecilia said slightly irritably. "I like to think I'm a little brighter than that."

Facade: She flipped through the files. They appeared to be medical records of various subjects and not all of them students from Xavier's. "Looks like this 'Viper' is into some really sick shit," she remarked, going through various photographs. "Who was in charge of science division?"

Jessica: "Viper oversaw all of it," Jess sighed, "She was invested in every branch, especially the bio-tech... but there was a guy I met that was very into the experimenting on things... Dr Rottwell, his name was..."

Facade: Cecilia slammed the folders down on the desk. "I can't fucking believe it!"

Cyclops: "What?" Scott moved onto another filing cabinet.

Jessica: "It wasn't exactly a surprise to me..." Jess slid down the doorframe to sit in the doorway and watch the hall.

Facade: "Rottwell. Dr. Rott?" Cecilia said to Scott. "He's that fuck that was dressing up mutants for the Galactus cult last semester! I've been playing phone-tag with various prisons for months now trying to arrange a meeting with him! Well, I guess now I know why everybody stone-walled me: 'cause he's not fucking in prison!"

Facade: She stood up and kicked a wastepaper basket as hard as she could. "That bitch... Knight. She knew that and she lied to straight to my face!" Someone was gonna pay for this.

Cyclops: "Dr. Rott…well… Goddamnit. You know, we have some of the most gifted students but yet we can't even keep track of our enemies. I'm going to talk to Xavier about getting on that."

Jessica: "He won't do anything. He didn't do anything last semester when he could have used his freaky mind powers to find Johnny and Jamie. Why would he do it now? He only finds people when it suits him for his little super hero team."

Facade: Cecilia turned and fixed a look on Jess. "I'm sorry but did Charles not give you a place to live, food to eat and a roof over your head? I think you should complain a little less."

Jessica: "I didn't ask for any of those things. I was fine and far less traumatized before I was offered a place at his school." She glanced back at Cecilia before turning her attention back to the hallway. "That place has brought me nothing but trouble."

Facade: "Then go," Cecilia said simply, gathering up the folders and tossing into Scott's medical bag. "Make a life somewhere else if you hate it so much. Nobody's making you stay."

Facade: She turned to Scott and began going through the filing cabinet with him. "Anything on our people in there?"

Cyclops: "Yeah." He grabbed the files and stuffed them into his bag, wishing he'd brought a bigger one. "Look, Jess. You don't have to stay. Like you said, it brings you nothing but trouble. I agree. I'd rather be on my parent's ranch than be here. But who'll do it if I don't? What poor bastard is going to suffer? Even if I have to do deal with crap normal people shouldn't - but I'm not normal. So I deal with what I'm given."

Jessica: "I had a life. I had a perfectly fine life before Johnny and Danny came to get me. I could have gone back maybe a year ago but not now... It's too late. Viper knows where I am now and there's no way I'll be safe. I'm trapped... And besides, making a new life for myself somewhere would mean leaving Sebastian and I can't do that... and I won't leave my brother either."

Facade: "Then I guess you'll just have to lump it," Cecilia said, throwing the last of the folders in and zipping the bag shut. "Well, if it makes you feel any better I might be on the medical staff for the school someday, Scott. So maybe then you could consider retirement, yeah?"

Cyclops: "You're supposing she didn't know where you were before. With this kind of tech, I find it hard she didn't know where you always were."

Jessica: "She didn't know where I was until I came to the US and got a bank account. She told me as much herself. My father did a good job of staying off the grid for years and she lost track of me completely after he died." She rested her head against the doorframe.

Facade: Cecilia looked around the lab and then looked back at Scott, not really caring to argue over the details right now. "We should trash this place," she said roughly, her expression grim. "Burn the whole goddamn place to the fucking ground."

Facade: She turned to Jess again. "Anything else you wanna tell us before we blow this place to hell? Am I just that lucky and Kraven was also resurrected to work here as a lab assistant?"

Jessica: "I haven't seen him... but I have seen brains... one of them had a pink mohawk..." She shuddered again and swallowed a wave of nausea. "Rott was particularly proud of that room... but Viper threatened him with actual harm if he used any of that on me..."

Cyclops: "I can blow this place, no worries there." He bared his teeth. "It would be my pleasure."

Facade: "Wait!" Cecilia said, her face ashen. "Not yet, I need to see this room, show me where this brain is."

Jessica: Jess shook her head, "I don't want to... I don't want to go back in there.... it wasn't.... it wasn't the only one...." she swallowed another wave of nausea, before looking at Scott, "Please don't make me go back in there..."

Facade: "Then tell me where it is," Cecilia said dangerously, her eyes narrowing. "Now."

Cyclops: "We're all going. Move." He slung his bag on his shoulders.

Jessica: Jess put her face in her hands. She didn't want to go back in that place. "Please don't make me... it was horrible... there were so many..." she curled up a little in her spot on the floor. "I don't want to see that place again as long as I live..."

Facade: "We're not asking you to go in there," Cecilia said sharply, scowling. "We're asking you to show us where it is. Now it's time to get up off the floor and get a grip or so help me I'll leave you here for whatever Hydra agents and experiments are left running around here."

Cyclops: "Hurry up. We don't have all day."

Jessica: "Then leave me. Have fun explaining to Sebastian why you left me here for Hydra or blew me up with their labs. I'm not going back down there. There's no reason to go back down there when we're going to destroy the place anyway. What good would it do? The longer we delay the more time there is for them to regroup and come back to hurt us when there's less of us to defend ourselves."

Facade: Cecilia rolled her eyes. "C'mon," she said to Scott, turning and heading towards the hallway. "Like you said, we don't have all day."

Cyclops: "Cecilia and I can defend ourselves pretty well, thanks. Just tell us how to get there, and you can stay here or leave." He followed Cecilia.

Jessica: "Rott's labs are much deeper... they're shielded against everything... if you go down there and something happens there's no way for you to contact anyone else for backup. I don't know why you have to go down there. We got what we came for. Can't we just leave now?"

Facade: "'Cause I have an old friend down there that I need to see," Cecilia said, pausing briefly in the doorway. "I'm not leaving until I see him. Run if you want but if you decide to come don't make yourself a burden." She wandered into the hall and turned to Scott. "We'll cut the power and go down. If she won't help we'll just do it ourselves."

Jessica: "Don't talk about me like I can't hear you. Cutting the power won't help. It's a giant faraday cage. No signal is getting out of that whether it has power or not. And you don't know anything will still be down there, they could have evacuated all the brains for all I know. And what would you do with it anyway? Assuming, of course, the brain was happy you were there and didn't just wipe out your mind." Jess pulled herself to her feet.

Jessica: "It's a waste of time, I'm telling you. You're putting yourselves and everyone waiting outside for you in danger by going on this fool's errand and I will be no party to it. You're on your own." She headed for the nearest exit. "If you get lost, God help you. Hope you get out before any self destruct sequence kicks in."

Facade: Cecilia snorted and disappeared into a room down the hall that resembled a control room. "Don't sound too hopeful."

Cyclops: "And so now you show your true colors. See you." He went in after Cecilia

Jessica: Jess stopped and tried very hard not to just turn and venom blast the both of them. "My true colours?" She did turn around, following them to the control room. "Just what the hell is that supposed to mean? Do you have any idea what I've been through the last two months? Do you?!"

Jessica: "How dare you?! How dare you stand there and be so self righteous like you have any clue how difficult it is for me to just be standing back inside this building. How dangerous it is for me to put myself back within her reach!"

Jessica: "This is exactly the kind of bullshit that makes me hate your stupid stuck-up school. You all think you're so fucking perfect and anyone that doesn't live up to your ideals is a traitor or less than useless and you don't even make the effort to understand why because it doesn't matter one bit to any of you! You make me fucking sick!"

Facade: Cecilia shielded up in case Jess was angry enough to take a swing at her. "Are you done?" she said, punching in a few commands onto the computer that apparently was supposed to shut down a few generators here and there. "Or is there more?"

Cyclops: That stopped him. He wouldn't like to go back to the lab where he'd been held captive either. But then again, he'd blown it to smithereens, so he didn't have to worry. And soon this place would follow suit. "Look. You don't have to go back, but we need to know where it is. And tell them to wait for us."

Jessica: Jess scrubbed her face with shaking hands, pressing the heels of her palms against her closed eyes after pushing the ends of her fingers into her hair. She sighed heavily. "I can show you where it is... on there..." she removed her left hand from her hair to gesture vaguely at the computers. "But I'm not going down there again. There's a bunch of worse labs to go through before you get to it..."

Facade: "That's all we asked you to do," Cecilia said, opening her arms. "Go ahead then, I'm all ears...or eyes, rather."

Jessica: Jess moved cautiously into the control room before taking a seat at one of the monitors and typing in a log-in, slightly relieved that it still worked. After a few commands she pulled up a map of the structure, marking on it where they were before scrolling down two sub levels to Rott's labs. "He made his experiments in here and here..." she pointed. "There were other.... things in this one... and the investigations were in here."

Jessica: She failed to suppress another shudder, "This last room... this is where the brains were..." She marked that point then sent the map to print.

Facade: Cecilia snatched the print-out as soon as it was out of the copy machine. "Let's go," she said to Scott, walking out of the control room and back into the hall. "We've wasted enough time."

Jessica: "You're welcome..." Jess muttered quietly to herself.

Cyclops: "Good luck, Jessica." Scott followed after Cecilia, running to catch up.