Voices and Witches

December 07, 2014:

In the middle of the night on a Patrol of M-Town Nyx runs into the Scarlet Witch and gets a better idea of her problems.

Alley in Mutant Town

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Mood Music: [*#\ https://youtu.be/sawd1J1CFvI Winter Wonderland]


Fade In…

Mutant Town. M-Town. The District. District-M. That slice of NYC where the mutants have congregated to form a sense of community and feel safe with their own kind.

Nyx may not be their own kind but she has managed to do good here at least once, so it is on the illicit without her mentor’s permission patrol circuit like so many parts of the Big Apple. She is walking down the street at 3am, not really worried about being jumped by Mutant Gangbangers, more worried that someone might commit some crime or take advantage of the mutants. Hell the X-men Red team as far as she is concerned are her friends so she is quickly growing biased to the mutant cause.

The young woman's voice is lilting and soft. Emerging from the darkness of an alleyway it comes. A nonsensical la-la-la that suggests a nursery rhyme even if it is made up on the spot. Wanda sits in the darkness behind a mountain of cardboard boxes. Her blue eyes, surrounded by the darkness of too little sleep and proper food, gaze up at three smaller boxes floating in the air. She has a big grin on her face when not singing her little tune, throwing in a giggle every now and then.

Nyx pauses and looks down the alleyway now squinting a bit at the darkness, she has much better night vision these days "hum" she notes and heads down to check it out. Probably some crazy bum, crazy mutant bum, or something. Still worth a walk down an alleyway to try to make sure everything is kay. "Woah…. neat trick…" she murmurs as she watches the boxes float there.

Boxes that immediately crash to the ground as Wanda scrambles to her feet and turns to look at the speaker. Her head tilts to one side. "The hero" she whispers before offering a wide grin for a second…and then her eyes narrow. "I did not steal. I have not done anything." Her eyes glance to her left, there is nothing there, and she hisses out the side of her mouth. "Quiet." Watching Nyx carefully, Wanda slowly slides along the alley wall to get further away.

Nyx raises her hands up non-threatening. "Woah now… it's okay I am not going to be doing anything to you, no worries chica" she smiles a bright nonthreatening smile there "Thank you for the help the other day.. the guy is in jail now and it’s all good…. well maybe psyche ward but still you did a good thing."
"Did I?" Wanda asks, glancing down and not convinced at all by the words. "So I am hero too" she adds in a heavily accented whisper, her eyes still frantically looking for a way out. "Who was he?" she asks suddenly. "His…" Her face screws up and she lifts her hand next to her forehead, fingers jerking and spasms. "…head. It was not…right. So much anger. Bitterness. Hatred. Why can't there be…quiet?"

Nyx shakes her head "Some loon who hated mutants, you saved a lot of people in the clinic if he had gotten what he wanted and managed to shoot it up.. so yeah you are a hero that day." she looks worried "I’m not sure why there can't be quiet.. are you like reading minds and stuff?"
Wanda looks at Nyx as if /she/ was mad. "Reading minds? No one can read minds" she snorts. "It's all the voic…" She looks down into the darkness of the alley for a moment before looking back to Nyx and continuing as if nothing happened. "…es. They tell me. They don't stop talking. So much talking!" She squeezes her eyes tight for a second before looking slightly more relaxed. "They stopped."

The other young woman gets a very skeptical look from Nyx there. "Oh man… no trust me.. people totally read minds. Mutants.. super heroes. metas… aliens… they all read minds. Still I suppose you might have been tipped off by like angles or who knows what. So you hear voices?"

Wanda peers at the other woman. Mind reading is real? She must be making fun of her. Still, she nods in answer to the question. "I hear voices. Sometimes I hear hundreds and I have to go somewhere quiet…where they can't find me. You think they might be angels?" She'd never thought of that before and the idea appeals. "Do you live on the street too?"

Nyx peers back now at Wanda "I don't.. I have my own place now that I have my hero work underwritten by my mentor. It’s pretty cool actually." sure technically legal aid but she doesn’t even know how to pretend to be one of those. "Voices.. it sounds like mind reading… but could be angels.. or prophecy or wifi.. heck you might be hearing cellphone signals.. meta powers are super weird. You shouldn’t be living in an alley"

"I do not live in an alley" Wanda protests before gesturing to some of the boxes. "I live in a house. You live with a teacher? This is legal in this country?" A shrug at the strangeness of Americans. "Meta. Powers?" She thinks on the term then suddenly shivers and backs quickly away. "I know who you are. You want to catch me again. You are one of them!" It looks like she is about to run for the hills.

Nyx raises her hands again "Woah woah.. no no.. I live in a cute little apartment and my work pays the bills. I’m not sure who them are but I can promise you I’m not one of them. My name is Nyx."

"They would say that they were not them too" Wanda replies though this sounds like an unwinnable logic argument. At least she isn't running. Instead she narrows her eyes once more. This time like she is concentrating…searching out for something.

Nyx sighs "Okay I’m not a bad guy I am totally a super hero…." and as for her thoughts well Nyx is pretty much what she is, she is worried about the girl. Thinks she might be crazy, or maybe overwhelmed reading minds or cellphones. She is also thrilled when she gets to say she is a super hero.

There is a slight relaxing in the tenseness of Wanda's body and face. "Now you are a /super/ hero" she smirks. "Hero was not good enough for you anymore? So what does a super hero do? Cruise the streets at night looking for people?"

Nyx shrugs "It is what people call us.. you know.. super powered heroes.. Super Heroes. This isn't too surprising really when you think about it." she smiles brightly there. "I look for bad guys and crimes to stop."

"Am I a bad guy or a crime?" Wanda asks, evidently curious now. "Who pays you to be superhero? This teacher of yours? They are superhero too? Everyone in America is superhero? That is convenient." A little shiver from the cold as she looks up to see snow start to fall. "I should get inside my house."

Nyx remarks dryly "Since I started to do this it does seem like there are a lot of super heroes around… but it may be the circles I’m traveling in these days." she shakes her head "No most people are perfectly normal people." she looks up and around now unsure. "This isn't much of a house.. want some money to get a hotel room for the night .. it’s snowing"

"I am from the Balkans, I like snow" Wanda smiles even as she continues to shiver. "I do not like taking money for charity" she explains…though stealing is fine. "I like to earn the money. That is fair, da?" She looks down at her cardboard palace getting wetter and wetter as the snow falls.

Nyx looks uncomfortable about a mutant or meta girl her age having these troubles with the snow and then frowns up at the snow itself. "Well you helped me save a lot of lives and did some heroing there. Maybe we could consider that a job well done and not charity? What’s your name?"
"Wan…" Then she stops. She should give a false name but having already started Wanda, what other name can she come up with starting with 'Wan'. "Vandela" she decides…and it's not a good save. "So you are hiring me to be superhero?" That actually seems to amuse her and there is even a bit of a laugh escaping her pale lips.

Nyx shakes her head "Not really, I mean I am paying for the job you already did as a hero, like reward money. We would need to find out what powers you have and how you are hearing things for you to be a full time hero or stuff you know. Sound good?"

The defenses are back up. "I have heard this story before. Back in Tra…Romania. People came to my family and said they could help us. Said they would teach me how to control what was happening to me." A shake of her head. "All that happened was that my parents died and my brother is missing. They wanted to cut us up. Do you want to cut me up!" The fingers of her right hand start jerking and spasming. Soundless words are formed by her lips.

Nyx raises her hands up in the woah slow down gesture once more "Do I seriously look like I want to cut anyone up.. I’m chasing loony gunmen down alleys that want to shoot up clinics and stopping truck robberies with the law peeps. I’m like eighteen.. christ." she shakes her head "you are totally safe I’m just worried about you now."

The fingers slowly stop their twitching. Wanda's mouth closes and the anger slowly drifts from her eyes. She studies Nyx for a long moment. The snow drifting to the ground around her…though not on her…unlike poor Nyx. "Pay me for being a hero and I will find a hotel" she says softly.

Poor Nyx doesn't seem very cold, in her hoodie and ripped jeans. Maybe she doesn't suffer the elements as much as she should "Cool." she digs around and pulls out a wallet and then gets a couple hundred bucks out and offers it to you. "I'll give you my cell too.. if you run into bad guys that need thumping you can call me"

"I don't have a phone" Wanda points out as she grabs the money with more urgency than she probably meant…just in case it was withdrawn before she claimed it. A long pause before she finally summons the courage to say, "Thank you." Wanda is definitely feeling the cold and she steps slowly towards the street. "I need to find a hotel" she notes. "Maybe I see you soon?"

Nyx nods "There are still some payphones or the phone at the hotel you get. Call me later too maybe we can figure out the voices." she offers a smile and a wave then heads further down the alley to look for crime to fight or maybe she heads home, it is bloody late.

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