April 18, 2018:
Cable, ya gotta go see the baby! And so; he does. Also some discussion about the Sinister abductions.
Characters
NPCs: Aurora
Mentions: Magneto Cyclops Havok X-Man
Plot:
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
[Interior – Sickbay – Xavier’s Institute for Gifted Youngsters]
The nature of sickbay is such that there is a certain sense of decorum that is typically maintained even if the facilities are rarely used. A need for peace and privacy naturally precipitate that the doors to the facility are almost always closed and that the sterile white and slate metal walls have been soundproofed so that those within must only be able to tolerate soft conversation and the sound of monitoring devices.
Should one enter now..
Nathan Summers; who might give the initial impression of a man who just returned from deployment. Dressed in a pair of olive green tactical pants and a plain black short-sleeve crew neck T-Shirt he is currently armed with a chrome Desert Eagle Mark XIX that is secure in a drop holster on his right thigh. His physical appearance seems to be that of a man who has been fused with a wrecking ball for Nathan currently squats such that his weight is balanced upon his toes with heels off of the ground. His physical condition would be obvious as the left side of his body is completely cybernetic and face permanently scarred by the cellular war that rages in his tissues.
The Askani’son squats before the advanced incubator peering inside like one might closely examine a fish tank. The right side of his mouth turns thoughtfully upward in quiet consideration of what he’s viewing. Similarly, his right hand has been raised to the glass such that only his pointer and middle finger make contact with the surface. He hums, so softly it may not even be audible over the sounds of the monitors, to them both.
*
The door opened without so much as a thought and Lorna Dane stepped through it. Her green hair was a tangled mess around her, floating in a magnetic field that made the lights flicker briefly with her entrance. She was barefoot, wearing a pair of sweats borrowed from someone some time ago. Shadows hung around her eyes and her gaze immediately fell on the strange man in front of the incubator, familiarity with who he was or might be was nonexistant as she stepped further into the room. Marcos had stepped out sometime ago for food, after others pestered him. Otherwise he'd been the sole guardian of the incubator that kept the slowly growing baby alive.
Green bloomed idly around her fingers, illuminating the black choker with a cameo around her neck in a creepy and sickly manner.
"Who are you?"
*
The Askani’son withdraws his hand from the incubator and shifts his posture. The toes of his boots give a faint squeak against the rubber flooring as he moves from a squat and into a standing position the movement having a faint robotic quality as his knee bends. Concurrent with him standing he raises both of his hands showing the woman the flats of his palms as a sign of ‘no harm intended’.
“Natham Summers,” he replies in a gravelly baritone, “I came down here looking for Scott.”
“I didn’t expect to find you here, Lorna.” Cable admits and seems to silently appraise the woman and the magnetic fields which surrounds her, “But, I’m glad your safe.” His gaze shifts from her to the baby and then back his lips pressing as he slowly lowers his cybernetic hand and puts it upon his abdomen. Maybe save those questions for a moment.
“Sorry to disturb you,” his raised right hand balls and then flexes so that he points at the hallway behind her, “Happy to get out of your hair.”
*
The magnetic fields wavered for a moment as the man slowly stood and straightened. She lowered her hands as he introduced herself and she snorted. "Oh god, don't tell me. Another kid from an alternative dimension?" She drawled, and arched a green eyebrow upwards as she considered him. "You're older than the others." She paused and stepped further inside, her head tilting to the side.
"You're not a future, Nate, are you? That would explain so much." She muttered watching him for a long moment, and crossing her arms as her gaze swung back toward the incubator as his own moved and back. She frowned faintly as he made to go on and leave. She didn't budge out of the way. "Scott hasn't been down here once that I'm aware of.." There was an obivous question in those green eyes, confusion even, she wanted to know how he knew her.
*
She doesn’t budge.
Nathan lowers his hand then. The hulking man stands in silent appraisal as she works through the possibilities of his lineage. “My name is Nathan,” he confirms, “but I’m not X-Man if that’s who you mean. I was born the old-fashioned way.”
“No?” He says to Scott’s absence, “That’s odd. He’s typically meticulous with the medical records when Beast isn’t around.” The older Summers shrugs off his own trite observation there.
Cable stands before her for a long moment and then he makes low thoughtful sound to the unspoken question, “Your wedding was on the internet.” He informs her, “In the age of mutant hysteria a set of circumstances that lowers an individual’s guard and then streams everyone’s location live is a tactical blunder of the highest order.”
*
Lorna squinted at him, her lips twisting together as she shifted her weight upon her heels. Green eyes lingering on him and then slowly nodded. "Scott and I aren't on the best of terms these days. It's complicated." She sighed and her posture relaxed somewhat, as if the old complaint was more comfortable than other issues.
Still the explaination on how he knew her seemed to help. "Ah, better than you knowing some crazy version of me that went power hungry in an alternative reality." She murmured, and made to plop down into a chair.
*
"Two thousand years," Cable clarifies the time frame ascribed to 'future' in this case, "All versions of you were dead a long time ago."
“Scott bears the weight of immense responsibility,” Cable says to her relationship with his father, “and,” pause, “he’s a he’s not known for his forgiving nature even in the best of times. You’re here though,” the older man says giving a slight gesture towards the ceiling, “he could’ve had you teleported back across the Atlantic but he didn’t. He’s got your best interest at heart. Both of you.” He looks to the newborn again gaze holding there a moment
“What’s her name,” Nathan asks her then before looking back, “and what happened?”
*
A short sound of amusement escaped her as she leaned back in the chair she had taken over once more. "I don't know how long I'll live… my father does not age like normal mutants, why should I? Thought I will admit a thousand years is a stretch." She considered him again, and frowned. "Wait how old are you?"
"I doubt that Scott would want to drop me off on Genosha with things as they are. Magneto is pissed as it is. And that's after I left a message saying I'm okay. That the kiddo is fine." She sighed, propping her chin up.
"Her name is Aurora, because when her father and I touch… it creates the Aurora borelias in a localized manner."
*
“Aurora,” Cable repeats the infant’s name in a serious tone, “Cute story,” he then says amicably then adding, “Hang onto the good feeling it gives you now. When she’s three that effect is going to make intimacy hard.”
To the question of his age his brow furrows a bit and he reaches to scratch he right-side of his jaw with the tips of his cybernetic fingers, “Three,” he says allowing for a pregnant pause, “From today’s date I was born about three years ago but my biological age is closer to fifty. I spent most of those years in the future.”
“So, what happened? After the wedding.” He presses.
*
Lorna shrugged, "That's assuming she lives that long. I'm under very few illusions that people will be gunning for her. She's Magneto's Granddaughter. And a mutant. Her powers manifested after two months." She pursed her lips together at the question about what happened next.
"I don't remember…" It was a lie. A bold one. "I woke up when Alex opened my containment pod at Sinisters.."
*
Empathy. There’s not a shred of it in Nathan’s face when she hesitates and then lies to him. Irritation simmers behind his one living eye. Even without the full story of his past he has the bearing of a man who has made a life of wading to hell and back again over the bodies of men, women, and even his own children to assure that a sliver of hope remains for the future of the human race regardless of genetic lineage.
So in response he raises his left hand the dull metal of his prosthesis reflective in the overhead light, “This.” He splays his fingers then so she can take in its majesty, “This..” Then he taps the left-side of his face with the distinct sound of metal against metal, “This,” he grabs his pant leg and jerks it upward to demonstrate that his leg too is not naturally occurring, “Reach out with your powers. Feel what I’m made of. All of it is because of Nathaniel Essex; a man so Sinister that he would abduct a child,” he releases his pant leg and taps the center of his chest with his palm, “and try to twist him into a weapon..”
“I don’t care what experiments he ran on you,” Cable says blithely, “I’ve pulled families from his laboratories after they had been stewed live together into a single shambling creature who would spend the final hours of its life in agonizing pain simply because he had a theory on how their genes might mix.”
“I don’t care what he did to you. I do care that you have actionable intelligence you’re ashamed to share because he made you feel violated. Your sense of self worth won’t stop him but Nate and I.. All of those he’s wronged can. We can’t do anything while you defend him with inaction.”
"You are not alone," Cable says his blue eye glittering with a golden luminescence, "but you're luckier than most. Take some time and think about what that might mean for the next pregnant woman he abducts because," dread pause, "I'll be back." Then he makes to leave.