One of Our Own

Summary:
December 30 2014: Having discovered a serious problem, Jericho alerts the Outsiders

HMSS Starfire

The conference room of the HMSS Starfire has a lot of seating, holo displays and a nice view of the Eastern Seaboard


Characters

NPCs

  • K'tten

Mood Music:
[* None]


When Jericho appears in the teleportation chamber of the Starfire he looks… well, upset. His amber eyes, which tend to glow and flicker with his emotions, are blazing like someone lit a bonfire behind them. It's actually ever so slightly unnerving for a lot of people to look at. He's a back pack stuffed with what looks to be documents and the moment he steps off the pad it's all business. "Thanks K'tten. Would you tell Koriand'r that I'm here and contact all of the Outsiders you can round up? This is important. I'll be in the conference room."

-

Lunair probably would appear after Jericho at some point, whether she's contacted shortly after or whenever the round up occurs. She seems more confused and worried, not having seen HER photos amongst it all. She has only part of the story. "Hi, K'tten," She seems polite and friendly.

-

Flush! Starfire is headphones to the world, literally. Coming out of the large bathroom Starfire is holding a rag in her rubber gloved hand, a duster in the other as the door hisses open and omits that wretched noise out to the open deck where the others are arriving. And another wretched sound…

The headphons blare only the tinniness of the song that is blaring from her player that is attachedto one of the purple straps of her attire. Her vocals omit the lyrics, its apparent it's just as tinny, sounding exactly like the vocalist - Nicki Minaj.

It has beat, don't hate.

Just as the door closes behind her she lifts the feather duster to sweep it along the banister…

"Yes I do the cooking; yes I do the cleaning… Dum ditty—-"

Her eyes open and she spots Luna and Jer…

"Dae.."

-

Skaar comes grumbling, but secretly pleased to have something to do besides fishing some dinner or go on with his reading lessons. He nods at K'tten as she relays Jericho's message and walks towards the 'conference room', catching up with Lunair. "What is this about?" He asks directly. Then he sees Starfire and… blinks slowly. Is that music?

-

Putting Lian to sleep had been an adventure and a half, and then the call -had- to wake her up. And getting a babysitter at that time… nope.

So showing up on the Starfire, Roy has a sleepy Lian, bundled up in pajamas, that he quite literally places in K'tten's lap to deal with while he goes -over- to the lounge. "Sorry, sweetheart," Roy calls out over his shoulder. "Too late to find a babysitter, so you're it. I'll treat you to sushi later if you can put up with it for a bit…"

And off he goes, to trot to the meeting.

"What's going on, Jer…?" Roy begins, before regarding Kori and her featherduster. A glance at Lunair, as if to ask what's going on, before he taps his chin. "You know, Kori, if you do that in a little french maid dress, I'll ask you to clean my bathroom."

-

Jericho is normally highly amused by the interplay between Kori and Roy, and between Skaar and Lunair. And ordinarily, he'd be highly amused by the notion of an alien space princess dusting and cleaning the toilet.

He's not amused by anything right now. Rather the hacker heads straight into the conference room and spreads a bunch of files out on the table. Several things become evident at once. The first is that they're all stamped with a distinctive skull and many-headed-snake. The second, among a mass of reports and technical jargon is the pictures. A lot of them are of young children. ten to thirteen by the looks of most of them. Mostly, they're not very familiar. However they are all side by side with pictures of young adults, mostly 18-21. They're the same people. In the center of the table is a file with a cute little twelve year old girl that looks about as socially awkward as she is today. The 'after' picture was taken just a few days ago, showing a certain ruffle-monster at a mall after classes. It's Lunair.

Off to the side, perhaps related, perhaps not, are several police sketch artist quality drawings of various SHIELD agents and affiliates. Which would be creepy enough by themselves, but they're all of said agents and affiliates dying in gristly occult ways. There's May, bleeding out in a pentagram. There's Tripplet, knife in chest tied to a stone slap. It's… bad.

"So I was kicking over Snake holes the other day… and found these. We have a problem."

-

Lunair is pretty amused by all of it. But again, she only has part of the documents and story. She also has the recognition that someone likely has files on her friends. Surely, hers were taken care of…? Denial is a strong force. "Aw." And there's a sleepy Lian, perhaps? A little wave. But for her part, Lunair is kind of quiet, following along. Then, she notices her picture. Headtilt.

Huh. That's - disconcerting. Sadly, she's sort of also in denial about ever being normal. Her condition and upbringing will keep that from being a reality, but it's alright to try and yet there it is. Her younger self and herself at the mall. Pause. And all of those SHIELD agents. "That's - geez."

-

The headset kept her from hearing the call, but it is evident enough that it is no dancing matter and so she reaches down to her hip and shuts off the song peeling the headset from her head to rest the padded earpieces around her neck with the headpiece looped around the back of her neck.

"What's a french maid dress?" Kori looks quizzically at Roy and then to K'tten who is holding Lian like she is contaminated - out from her chest with a quizzical look and a backdropped plea for help while inspection has her hoisting the bundled child up to peer beneath and ensure there is no bomb… Nope all clear. "I don't do /live/ things…"

Kori not going to K'tten's rescue has her giving a short sigh of resignation as she swivells in her seat and gives the -shun- to the room. She's listening, albeit grumpily.

Skaar and Lunair get a small wave, fingers wiggling in a ripple though the normal smile is waylaid when se glances to the images and just… freezes.

"Define /problem/, Jericho. Where do we need to set loose the mongeese…mongooses…Weasels?" A waffling hand gesture. "What exactly am I looking at? First." Then where to set lasers from stun to kill. Those are children and friends.

-

"Mongooses," Roy corrects, before grimacing, as Lian settles in to try and sleep. Since K'tten was staying for the meeting, though, Roy leans over. "Think we can put her somewhere to sleep?" he asks, of Kori and K'tten.

Studying the pictures, though, Roy grimaces, moving to keep her out of the loop. "Excuse me a second, Kori, mind if we put her in your room?" If permission is granted, Roy will be gone for a few.

-

Skaar reaches for one of the pictures to examine careful the skull & snakes emblem. There is only one person he recognizes in those pictures, but it is enough. He has heard about Lunair and how she got her power activated. But the drawings of the SHIELD agents, which he has never seen, do not fit.

"Who are these people?" He asks Jericho. Then he looks at Lunair to see if the girl realizes what the pictures and the Hydra emblems hint. "Lunair. You recognize these children, right?" He gestures to the pictures of the kids.

-

"These files partially detail a project to raise children with unusual powers as agents and assassins." As suspect plots go, that's an idea that several people seem to have had. "I say partially because on close reading they're clearly reconstructed from another set of source material. Don't ask me how HYDRA got them, I'm not sure yet. What I am sure of is that they seem to be intent on duplicating the project and as part of that they're going to be interested in… acquiring as many of the original test subjects as possible. To this end they've been scrying folks with a cadre of magically inclined operatives to suss out their target's habits, strengths and weaknesses."

Which, for all it's arcane spookiness is kind of… prosiac. It's doing things you'd ordinarily do with spy cameras and hacking and doing it with magic instead. Which means that HYDRA - whichever part of the Organization they're dealing with - is still getting used to this whole magic thing.

Count on that changing. If there's one thing HYDRA's shown itself to be good at, it's adapting.

"The other files we recovered in the same place. The same scrying techniques are being employed on a selection of SHIELD agents and affiliates. My best guess, HYDRA is trying to manipulate probability to kill them. Find a way to bring about a future in which they're dead." Preferably dying in the service of something the conspiracy will find helpful, it seems. "I've had Magik of the X-Men do a little research on that and I'm confident that the origination point for this scrying was somewhere in the Mayan ruins that dot Central America. Doesn't mean they're still using it but that's my next stop for investigation. In the mean time I have no idea how advanced their plans are, or how ready they are to snatch or kill. Hence this meeting. They're coming after our own and our allies."

-

Lunair answers Kori, "It's a kind of dress. A little bit racy, but sometimes considered cute," She offers. Then there's a look to Lian and doesn't say much after. She looks to be in denial. Or thought. Or she's just being Luna again. Who knows? "We were younger when we entered the study. But a lot of had cancers or other things. I don't remember much beyond that," she admits. "We were all kinda goners…" Without whatever it is they were given.

Lunair watches them, tilting her head at Skaar and nods. "Yeah, I knew and know them. Some I didn't really know well, but others a bit more." And to be fair, kids are impressionable. Lunair would be a lot more lethal if she weren't friendly and somewhat fearful of her powers. Or even if she knew what all she had. Nevertheless, she lets Jericho talk mostly. She seems happy with it. "I'm kinda weirded out by all the magic stuff." She can shoot HYDRA agents just fine, but occult weirdness tends to leave her helpless. Or having others targetted.

-

Starfire nods to Roy and leans forward to press a cheek to Lian's exposed forehead in an embrace before she goes, he knows this ship and where to take Lian, and K'tten is all too glad to be free of the /fragile tiny human. She knows Lian well enough but -handling- her is a new and all too soon story.

Though now she looks from Lunair to the image and then back, the question is there but not asked openly. Any of the team were not subject to fill out a background check before being seen as a part of this comraderie, it was who they are, who they have become - and Lunair seemed to be handling it with placidity.

Starfire was curious about these /allies/ but instead of asking semantics she knew they had a shared purpose of the moment. Similar targets.

"Where do you want me and when?" Yes, they were a team, but she does not yet want to volunteer them all. Some may not want to.

-

Lian is put away in Kori's room, given a kiss, and then Roy returns, only to now focus much more so on the slides and files. "So. HYDRA, on the loose. SHIELD agents, getting clobbered. And we're going to the Mayan ruins?" Roy sums up, as he plops down next to Kori and studies. all this. "Count me in."

"I know the Hydra army are enemies of most of the nations of Earth," notes Skaar. He looks at the sketches some more. So those are SHIELD agents? He has never called a law-enforcer a 'friend'. But that was another life, in a different planet. "If they are targeting one of us… very well, what do you think we should do?"

-

Jericho rubs his temples. "For now, just keep an eye out." He's answering Starfire specifically but addressing them all. "If you have leads, or know where to find them, that's always helpful. I get around pretty easily but I am just one guy. HYDRA's got the jump on us on this one and I can't quite be sure what their next move is. I'm going to check up on my own SHIELD contacts and then… it might be time for one or two of you to meet Illyana…" Since he rather suspects that lacking a mage of their own she'll be working with them closely on this.

"Lunair if there's anything you can tell us that'd be helpful…" Jericho considers mentioning that someone probably ought to keep an eye on Lunair herself and then thinks better of it. He doubts Skaar would let anyone get away with nabbing her for long.

"Roy, if your folks have any intel on unusual goings on in Central America, I'm still trying to narrow down the actual site they used for their castings."

-

Lunair is probably stunned and in denial, more than anything. Or she has troubles expressing herself. Could go either way, really. "I can stay away from the ship and stuff if they're watching me. I always hated white vans but…" She furrows her brows. "And a couple of the law people are okay. I know that one," She points to Trip. "He liked launching rockets with grandpa and me." Oh, Lunair. Her life is a little skewy. But still.

She takes a deep breath. "What do you mean? We were part of a medical trial when I was about 6 or so… I was dying. We all were. No one would have missed us much if we passed on or went missing, families aside." She furrows her eyebrows. "I don't know much about it, except that I remember the company went out of business and no oen mentioned it again. They gave me a LOT of money to keep quiet."

-

Starfire is now watching Lunair, her brows furrowing and the pupilless emerald eyes beneath narrow with the look she is giving her. "Stay away from the ship? You're joking right? This is a joke..?"

Starfire looks from Luna to the rest and then back, K'tten now watching Luna with a different perspective. "I think teaching Skaar everything he needs to know, coming for me, tolerating all of us.. This is your home as much as mine. You stay on this ship and see what happens if they come for you."

The final words from Starfire became very flat, apathetic. It's all fun and games until they take your tinker toys and threaten the one dressed in the semblance of them. Then you'll lose your eyes. Then's fighting words.

"K'tten, sweep Central American archaeological dig sites as well as any abandoned and the harder to reach areas or untouched. Any signs of life mark them for personal review." Pause. Looking towards Jer now. "What else?"

-

Nancy has been in a mood lately, but she finally breaks her silence. "Sounds an awful lot like what HYDRA did with me, Lune. They seem to specialize in using money to keep people quiet."

-

"I'll check into what I can," Roy responds. "Though I'd also check into records on who's likely to have manipulated probability and check into their wereabouts. Weren't there villains who could do that? Might be one place you could look…"

Eyeing Nancy and Lunair, Roy adds, "Can you think of anything else?"

-

Skaar glances at Lunair and frowns. "If they come looking for you, they will have to deal with all of us." He glances at Starfire, nodding at the woman statement. "But it would be better if we could deal with them in our own terms. I wonder if we could find some of the others," he gestures to the children and no-longer-children pictures. "Has Hydra taken them or done anything to them?"

-

Jericho shakes his head. "That's part of the puzzle I don't have, yet." And since Starfire was asking… "I'll give K'tten the HYDRA network codes I know. You can scan for their activity directly from here. If you find something that looks worth going to take a look at personally feel free to, oh I dunno, slap them around like Koriand'r slapped Jake." That'd been a hell of a slap.

Nan's voice makes Jericho jump a bit. "Hey there… when'd you get-, never mind. You all caught up? Looks like they're up to a new version of old tricks. But to answer your question more directly Kori, other than trying to figure out what the hell they're on about, no nothing at the moment. Any way we can do that is good by me, especially if it means they loose resources in the bargain."

Roy's notion of HYDRA working with other villains gets a concerned frown. "I know of at least one. Doubt she'll want to talk to me, but I can look into it. That's a really disturbing thought…"

-

With her arms crossed over her chest, Nancy nods to Roy. "I'll look into the files I stole on the Ubermensch Project and see if there is any mention of Lunair's project. Only problem is, HYDRA likes to have their fingers in a whole lot of pies and none of them are really telling the other fingers what they are doing, you know? It's how they protect themselves. If they don't know what the other branch is doing, then you can't get the info out of them. But it also means they are redundant as hell." She cocks a hip and scowls. "Man, I hate HYDRA."

Nancy slips her arms around Jericho to give him a sisterly hug. "You don't suppose Jinx got out of where Angelo's people are keeping her, do you?"

-

Lunair listens, for her part. "I know mostly what I was in," She admits. "They haven't done anything to me yet. I can try to call Susan," She offers. She looks to the others and nods. "We only knew it was a medical trial. They told my parents I was dead," She considers. "Since we all had weak immune systems, we were biohazardous waste." Oh dear. A bit harsh, but true. "I'll see what else I can find." Ponder.

She smiles at Starfire and Skaar. "Okay," She accepts this. "I was just worried if they are after me," She taps her chin with a fingertip. "That was all."

Lunair's comments about what HYDRA considered her causes Nancy to roll her eyes. "Yep, that sounds like them. Leave it to HYDRA to completely dehumanize their test subjects." She pulls out the gun that Starfire has been kind enough to supply her with, eyeing that setting that takes it off of stun and makes it a little more lethal. Yep, if anyone can get Nancy thinking about permanent solutions, it's HYDRA.

-

K'tten and Starfire could very well have been identical twins at that moment at the way they stared at Lunair. Different circumstances but almost comparable in other ways. A different cruelty reaching its 'tentacles' far too deeply into wounds that could fester and turn….

Nancy's arrival gets a slow blink and a smile from Starfire, a weak one that will eventually grow, but all they can do is fix what is at their fingertips at this moment, and that is keep one of the targetted subjects safe while they try to save the rest.

-

Jericho sighs at Lunair's description and Nan's commentary. Just like HYDRA is about right. "Feel free to look the files over, I've already got them uploaded. And call me if there's anything I can do. I'm going to contact a couple more people and then get to work on this." Among other things. Busy hacker is busy.

"Stay safe, people, okay?" That last is quiet and mostly directed to Lunair, though also Nancy and Star (both having given him cause to worry in recent memory). He heads out to the teleporter and is gone in a flash of light.

-

Considering the situation, Roy frowns as he checks the maps again. Hydra. Wasn't COBRA pretty close to the area of influence there? They were bound to overlap at some point. And the enemy of his enemy… well, likely as not, wouldn't work -really- well without a lot of assistance.

Looking back up at Nancy and Lunair, Roy shakes his head. "We'll get them, guys."

-

Nancy sits herself down at a console and starts going over files that she's read over and over before from when *she* was the victim in question. She is trying to hold her anger in check, knowing that anger seems to fuel her power more then any other emotion, but it's not easy. "That's the problem, Roy. We'll get this bunch. But as they say themselves, cut off one head and two more blah blah blah."

-

Lunair is quiet, herself. She waves to Jericho, nodding. "You too," She smiles faintly. She blinks at Starfire and K'tten. She looks a bit dazed, and uncertain. She headtilts. She might be aware of those wounds, she might not. Perhaps they are simply a part of who she is now, and part of why she seems distant. And part of why she has no problems killing. Who knows? Nevertheless, the whole thing has her reeling. It feels weird to be watched over in its way. "Yeah. Thank you," Smile. She's grateful for them. "I guess I'll be around."

-

Starfire is not familiar with this group or its dealings, but slowly she is getting it, and a casual glance towards K'tten gets her a nod in response. No words needed, just casual nods and they thought on the same line, K'tten heeling the floor of the ship and rolling her chair to another screen, pulling up a few projections and moving in on things already.

"We will do what we can. My home is yours, or any of us who need it." Starfire says to Luna and then looks towards the rest, even the grumpy Skaar, though Roy already has that offering pegged with his child sleeping in her bed. nancy knows as much with the shared 'homesteads.'

"When you find one we move." Star says to K'tten and then offers a half-smile to Luna and Nancy while walking towards Roy. "She asleep?" Referring to Lian.

"Yeah LunLun. Like Kori says. Mi casa, su casa. Yer welcome to stay at the Nest any time you need a place to stay. And considering your background with HYRA, I can actually put you on the books as an official Nester so you can get educational aid, if you want it." She looks at her screen and grumbles, not expecting to find anything new since she's read it all before, but just on the off chance she missed something…

-

"Was sleeping when I left her in your room. Try not to wake her up if you're heading that way," Roy replies, as he picks up the files and starts shuffling through it. "I can think of someone in the area, but I also think I'm liable to be in big trouble if I get in touch with that person." Scratching his chin, Roy grimaces. "I need to think about this…"

-

Lunair looks to Starfire and smiles. "Thanks again. I apprciate it. I feel weird now it's not just white vans I have to watch out for," She admits. She smiles to Roy and Nancy. "Fair enough. And sure. Might as well get all I can, I guess." Pause. "I uhm. Thank you guys. Don't worry too much…"

Nancy smirks as she looks at her computer screen, still scanning the multiple pages. "Lun, hun, I get paid to worry about this sorta stuff now, remember? The Maria Stark Foundation gave me a 5 mil over 5 years grant to help people like you and me. So, don't worry about me worrying. I promise to do only as much as I do every day already." She looks over her shoulder then at Lunair and winks. "I promise."

-

Starfire nods slowly and looks over those that remain as she turns to head for her room, lingerin at the ends of the conversation she is to partake in. "Feel free to feed K'tten anything that will help, and we can reciprocate. Let's not act alone, if it can repopulate quickly let's make sure we take what we can and cauderize the wounds we make. As a team. No coming back."

Can give Kori one thing, she aims to hit hard so it doesn't have to happen again. "We're a family, what more can you expect of it then to force help down your throat?"

Now she focuses on Roy and narrows her eyes. "Don't you dare do something risk—- " Armflail handwave. Nevermind look who she is talking to. "If I have to leave Lian with K'tten to go find you…"

-

"Then you'll have to," Roy shrugs, offering a crooked half-grin. "I really don't know what -will- happen, but I might be able to get some information. I just don't know if it's safe." He considers this. "I might need Jeri to watch my back just in case."

-

"Lunair tilts her head. "Fair enough." She still has problems emoting properly. Lunair may never - will never - be entirely normal. "I don't know much more. I figured they gave up after things collapsed and the people after me were stock vivisectionists and the usual," She bites her lower lip. She smiles to Starfire. "Sure thing. And oh dear." Her eyebrows lift. "I don't think she'd be able to tag along…" She rubs the back of her head.

She does think of something. "How are you, Nancy?"

-

"The things I do…" Starfire says as she smiles to them all, reaching up and back to remove her music player and set it side before she heads back for her room that is occupied by a small child. "Good night."

Hitting the button to her door it hisses open and imagine that, Lian can hog an entire bed. Thankfully Starfire can manage to curl around a small figure and claim a wedge of mattress for her own, much like a feline curls around a kitten to keep a spot of warmth as well as protect.


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