Still Missing a Cajun

July 24, 2018:

Lorna tries to find others in the mansion to inform about Gambit's status as MIA. She finds Nate instead.

Characters

NPCs: None.

Mentions:

Plot:

Mood Music: [*\# None.]


Fade In…

About twelve hours ago Nate reappeared by the school after over a week gone. Well, in his defense he said he would be gone for a week or two, he just didn't say where he was going. Technically telepaths could have contacted with him, but his cellphone ran out of battery by the second day.

He got back, went to an empty guest room and crashed.

Nate doesn't really have a room in the main building. He tends to borrow the couch, or a cot in the bunker. That he didn't even make it to the bunker means possibly means he was exhausted. But hey, at least he didn't need to go the medlab this time.

*

The chaos of Lorna's life was fraught with emotional issues and mental issues. That was simply her life. But for the moment, she was dangerously leaning toward the manic side of things. She was constantly in and out of the Mansion, looking for ways to keep occupied. Putting distance between her and Aurora.. who, she planned to give up shortly. That said, the mutant had recently just finished helping secure the mutants they'd rescued from..

Well where ever it was, near the pier.

The green haired woman sped through the mansion, her daughter on her hip as the little girl fussed for want of a nap, and a lack of actually sleeping. Lorna exhaled a breath as she came around the corner and spotted Nate. Her brows shot upwards, and she changed the angle of her pacing. "Nate! We gotta have a chat. Remy's missing."

*

Lorna catches Nate just out of a shower and in the way to the kitchen. That means before the coffee. And shaving, he needs shaving. (And a haircut, but that is a lost cause).

"Lorna good mor…" he grunts, looking through the window. "Afternoon. I mean afternoon. Remy missing? That is normal, isn't it? Man has his own life, heists, stuff…" he hand-waves, trying to remember if Gambit is one of the regular teachers or just part-time. The academics side of the school is one of those things he never seems to remember.

"Oh, or do you mean you need to contact with him right now and need a teep?" He asks mildly interested. "Because I don't know him well enough, and his mind is hard to pin down, anyway." And he is not allowed to use Cerebro. Last time he did he broke it.

*

Lorna huffed a breath, storming right alongside the groggy Nate, her eyes narrowed as power crackled off her in waves. Not helped by the way she was constantly draining off Aurora's electrical powers, boosting her own in the process. Almost as if she'd stuck her finger into a socket. "No, I mean, we think he's kidnapped. He went on his own thing a few days ago. Rogue and I went to track him down with Esme and her sisters. We found this place.." She frowned, her lips twisting in distaste.

"One of them picked up that he was there, but we were too late. They had a bunch of mutants in collars. Behind locked downs underground. Running some kind of an operation out through the docks in the city. We lost him. Someone took him, and the asshole refused to bring back up."

*

"Well, shit," comments Nate, trying to wake up for real. Esme could use Cerebro, he is pretty sure. Just, supposedly, a senior X-Men needs to authorize, and that is not him. "Collars again. They are getting popular since Genosha went down. Were they old models or the new Trask's ones? Did you tell Jean?"

Kitchen, and coffee. He really doesn't need it after sleeping twelve hours, but he is getting into the habit. Habits are bad. But coffee is good. He probably can afford to have one predictable behavior, right? "Lets see. Go more slowly… who were these guys? And what were they doing with the prisoners."

*

Lorna shook her head as she followed along, half distracted as Aurora spat out the pacifier and began to cry. The green haired mutant caught it, and plopped it back into her daughter's mouth without so much as pausing in her steps toward the kitchen. "I dunno what ones, newer I guess? Rogue wouldn't let me try to get them off people. She was scared I might make their heads explode. I could manipulate them just fine." She seethed, and rolled her shoulders back as she rocked Aurora from side to side.

"No, I haven't spoken to Jean because I've been busy, she's been busy. Our busy doesn't match up." She muttered, there was some avoidance there. The last time she and Jean talked it had turned into a therapy session out in the hallway. Not something Lorna wanted at the moment. She was doing the right things, Jean would only make everything.. messy.

"I'll write up a report between dealing with a baby and chasing down Purifiers. I'm sure it'll be fine." Her voice was dry and sarcastic and she exhaled a breath as she walked along.

"I don't know what they were up to with these guys. Experiments maybe. They were shipping people in and out of there via boats. Some were drugged, I think Esme or one of her sisters said Remy was drugged. Or knocked out. I can't remember."

*

"Well, I don't know either," replies Nate, since he wasn't there anyway. "How many mutants? If they were taken from Mutant Town we should have heard something. Mutants don't vanish in large numbers in New York… oh hell, maybe they do. Lots of mutants are leaving for Genosha." Which might mean human traffickers are on it.

Coffee to mug. Mug to the microwave oven. Pause. He reaches to see if he can feel Gambit in the immediate area. Meaning several hundred square miles. But the Cajun has a slippery mind the best day. "Alright, let me get some food and we will go find Jean. Or one of the Cuckoos if Jean is not around. I am pretty sure we can find Gumbo with Cerebro."

*

Lorna bit her lower lip, shrugging. "Maybe twenty? All of them were collared. There were more empty rooms. Lots of guards though. I dunno if we interrupted them in the gathering or in the leaving.." She murmured, and held back a sigh. Barely. She continued to eye the coffee, particularly as Nate microwaved it.

"Dunno, I haven't heard anything from Mutant Town. Too many people coming and going these days. Like you said, Genosha. Plus more foot traffic with the issues in Hell's Kitchen. There's been chaos.." She exhaled a short sigh finally, pushing to tuck her hair back from her features.

"Sure we can find him.. even if he's like drugged or knocked out?"

*

"Well, not me," admits Nate. But more skilled telepaths like Jean or Xavier definitely could find Remy even if he is unconscious. "There weren't many mutants in Hell's Kitchen, y'know? Because most of them had already migrated to Mutant Town or the other ghettos. Maybe a few dozen. Of course there is no census." And there shouldn't be - that is why they are opposing registration.

Still, the important part: Get your own coffee Lorna. No, he means finding Gambit. "Alright, what do you need me for? Mind-scanning people, the Cuckoos could have done that already. Detective work is not my thing, not really."

He is the responsible adult? Don't tell him he is becoming that.

*

Lorna eyed the coffee, jealous, perhaps. She was always tired these days. "Maybe not a whole lot of mutants.. But there's been a lot of displaced people. At least that's what Pietro and Wanda were telling me. Lots of bodies. Lots of strangers coming in and out of Mutant Town.." She pursed her lips, and finally gave up to get herself some coffee too.

Green eyes settled on Nate as he asked what she needed him for. And realized.. beyond telling someone.. she hadn't really thought beyond that. She shrugged.

"I hadn't even thought of using Cerebro, so I guess that's something?" Beyond stressed paranoia and panic at something else going wrong, Lorna hadn't really been thinking on the X-men's resources..

*

Nate nods. 20 mutants are not much. The police is often slow to investigate missing mutant cases. Not so much in Mutant Town, but even there the situation is chaotic lately.

20 mutants is a small enough operation it could be a local gangster selling mutants to Cyberdata, or AIM, or even for some mad super-villain plot. "Okay, lets… hmm, talk to the rescues, and then check Gambit's room to see if he was investigating anything. Cerebro search, too, if we can find Jean. You look as if you needed a nap, not coffe."

*

Lorna rolled her eyes as she shifted her grip on her daughter to balance a mug of coffee, cold, and black. She sipped at it, making a face, but continued none the less. "I'm fine. Besides, Aurora has been fussy. fussy means zapping everything. Marcos is out. Not all that many baby-sitters around that can deal with full blown tantrum Nate.." She exhaled a breath, looking down at her daughter. There were shadows beneath Lorna's eyes, which she'd smeared with make up to try to lessen. Emotional stress wasn't handled quite so easily, not when Marcos and her were arguing almost every time they spoke. Or she was keeping things from him. Again.

Small wonder Lorna was inching along the manic scale.

"We've got the rescues tucked away and resting after we got the collars off. And.. if you want to investigate Gambit's room.. I'll leave that to you. I don't need to introduce Aurora to the magazines I'm sure are in there."

*

Nate is going over the counters, adding stuff to the coffee mug, including things that shouldn't ever get into a coffee mug. He still manages to look vaguely disturbed at Lorna drinking it black and cold.

"Fine, fine," he considers. "Say, meet you in two hours downstairs? It should be time enough to check the room and scan some of the prisoners. We can do some brainstorming. Oh, and find the Cuckoos and Rogue, I guess."

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