Mission to Gotham

March 23, 2015:

Magneto is sending X-23 to Gotham to deal with Bane's mutant trafficking ring

Laura's place

Old apartment

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: None.


Fade In…

Laura was offered an old apartment near mutant town when Magneto took her under his protection, or whatever he did. She also gave him money for expenses and just asked her to protect Mutant Town the best she could.
But the apartment is not really hers. Magneto has used it to meet other mutants, usually asking her to leave it first, sometimes asking her to stay to the meetings. Or at least to listen to them from her room. So it is not surprisingly today the old man is inside when she returns. The white-haired mutant is looking through a window, hands clasped at his back, apparently just thinking while he watches in Mutant Town direction. "Laura, good morning," he greets. "I have a task for you."

Money meant nothing to her, it is apparent because her room is barren of any additions and untouched in the time she has stayed there. Not even the spread on the bed bears a wrinkle, but one corner of the room bears the repetitive draw of claw marks across the wood, some of those scratched indentations and shreds bearing blood. X is very much a wild thing still in most action after the Facility dropped her back into the District as they did. Like all that was, was lost unless you tried hard to bring it back - that took patience.

Walking back into the apartment she knew he was there before she even opened the door, in fact it made her hesitate on the other side of the door with her hands hanging at her side, small slivers of those adamantium bones poking through.

Drip. Drop. All that fell of the blood before she healed around the built in weaponry. No church in her wild. Not even a prayer from her lips, barely uttered even as she finally stepped through and left the door open, standing there to listen as Magnus speaks, mossy green gaze peering at him through the long dark strands of fallen vining, that jolly roger cowboy hat casting shadows over her face fittingly.
No words, she waits for him to go on.

Magneto might not be the right person to help a traumatized young woman out of her shell, but he is not unaware of Laura's problems. He has been there, and he has never recovered. But he keeps going, he has his tricks to cope, keeping busy is the main one. Would it work with Laura? He will find out soon.
"Sit down," he offers, gesturing to the chair by the table. He will take the seat in front of her. "It has come to my attention an ongoing operation of mutant trafficking. I need to put an end to it, and I want you to help me."

X may be more animal the human sometimes, but she is no ones dog, and this man brings out a resistant side of her, a spark of challenge due to the fact he can basically leash her with a thought and desire alone, pin her by her only weapons and render her cripple and immobile. Magnus gets an unblinking look at his offer for her to 'sit down', the chair given a look before gaze flicks back to him.
Once he finishes his sentence though she reaches to the side snappily, a flick of her wrist and the door to the apartment is slammed, followed by her arm dropping after a second of hanging there in the empty air. Thick soled boots carry her across the small space of floor to the seat where she grips the back, spins it so the seat part faces out. Leather moans in its stretch across her legs when she ascends the seat boots-first, climbing into it and crouching, hands gripping the top of the back rest. "I know."

"Indeed," the chair-crouching gets a disapproving glance from Magnus, but he makes no comment, taking his own seat calmly. "Mutant children are being kidnapped and sent to an island called Santa Prisca. I still do not know why, so I will be traveling there soon. The full extension of the operation is still unknown, but there is a group of kidnappers operating in the area, based in Gotham City." He picks a folder from the table, opens it and turns it around to show Laura.
"Three metahumans by the codenames of Hex, Sparky and Ghost are the organization's agents in Gotham." There is a blurry picture of a dark-haired woman as well as two police sketches. In fact, the folder is made of copies of Gotham police documents.

X's eyes drop down, the flash in the shadows cast by the brim of the hat says as much, she does not even lean forward when he offers to show her the images and files, she looks down at them and then back up at him, now a finger rising to 'cowgirl up' and shove the hat clear of her eyes so full on contact can be made through the distance.
'All that is left for you to say, is fetch."

Magneto meets her eyes with his own. Icy blue, harsh and merciless. “This is an important mission and there are mutant lives at stake. I will never treat you as an animal, but as a valuable ally.” He hrms, “even if sometimes you insist in behaving like a child… perhaps I should treat you like one?” He pushes the folder aside. “What do you want in life, Laura? I have watched you the past few weeks. You have nothing but regrets and dark memories. This is a chance to do something positive, something just.”

There's a flash in X's eyes. A moment of anger, and then something else if she did not tug that hat back down to darken the gaze again after a solemn twitch came to the corners. The man in all him omnipotent powers can do his research on kidnappers not in his charge? He should know by now he wasn't getting it from the source.
"I wasn't joking. Tell me what you want. be /very/ specific. It's what I do, all I have done. What I -know-." Somewhere is that monotone of hers her voice wavers but she doesn't let on anything else save the wrenching of her grip on the chair that makes the wood groan with a threaten to snap.

“I want the kidnapped mutants free,” states Magneto, folding his hands on the table. “Everything else is secondary, you can accomplish this as you want. But I can’t go to Gotham myself, I am going to Santa Prisca to… ultimately do the same you would do in Gotham.” Only more fireworks are likely. “A woman called Jean Grey, a mutant telepath and telekinetic, is also going to Gotham. Her charges were kidnapped a few months ago.” He also has a folder with information about Jean for Laura to peruse, of course. “It might be useful to work with her, but if you find her inconvenient, you can go your own way.

X blinks at Magneto, rocking back lightly in the chair to settle weight on heels just before one leg slides back and the booted foot is on the ground. She saw the images, gathered what info she needed at mentally stored it. That is all she needed. Work with the red head if she can stomach it, otherwise do the job. "That's better."
Those two words are consolation. Orders, she can do orders as long as they are explicitly clear, this way she cannot be to blame for what does or does not happen. "I'm going."
On that note her other foot dropped to the floor and the chair was righted, but the wood is cracked where her hands were, marking the stress fissures.

Old, cheap furniture. The place is not designed to be anything else than a secondary hideout. But Magneto has little better left in the New York area. Something to consider in the next few weeks.
Hearing Laura has accepted the mission makes him nod, pleased. "I have gathered all the information Mystique acquired from the Gotham City police department, as well as what little Ms. Grey gave us on the kidnappers and victims. In truth, I am quite sure her former students are all in Santa Prisca, if alive at all. But study the reports nevertheless. The police reports are most useful. They had leads that couldn't follow to the end due to the legal limitations and procedures."

"I do not need to study them." X states rather blandly, but there is a surety to her tone. She heard enough, knows enough, the meetings not passing by keen senses when she sat in her room or upon the roof waiting to be left alone to her own devices.
"They'll see I am a mutant, young…" Pausing she looks down at her boots, her hands thrusting into the pocketsof that large leaher coat, cheek fondly brushing the scarf. "I'll let them do to me what they did to the others." Smirk. "Only for a little while." The guilty suffer the consequences of their deeds and Magneto just set the judge, and executioner after them. The jury is in the deeds.

"If you can make yourself pass as a younger teen," the reports would indicate the students kidnapped from Xavier's, as well as those rescued by Gotham vigilantes, were early to mid-teens. But Laura is small for her age, so Magneto sees no major flaw in her idea.
That he is releasing a killer on the kidnappers is hardly seen as a flaw. It is a feature, in his opinion. Jean might be able to keep bloodshed to a minimum, but he detected much anger in the redhead stance. She came to him, after all, knowing how bloodthirsty Magneto gets when mutants are harmed.
This is not an X-Men operation. "Do all you consider needed. But try to save all the kidnapped mutants."

X grunted, a rise and fall of her shoulder lamely, the coat slipping from it to show the band of black and white striped halter top that rested beneath. Reaching up she tugged it back into place and headed for the door, withdrawing her hands from her pockets and withdrawing a cigar in the process, biting the end off to spit the tip out the open window.
"I'll remember not to smoke, then." She mutters, opening the apartment door and standing at the threshold with her back to the man, a zippo withdrawn as she lights the dark and rich cuban cigar. "I always do." In those three words there's a sadness, and an emptiness all in one before she disappears down the hall.

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