2075/Close Encounters of the Mutant Kind

Close Encounters of the Mutant Kind
Date of Scene:	20 August 2017
Location:	Unknown
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Boom-Boom, Cyclops, Phoenix

---

Boom-Boom has posed:
    Classes are about to start at Xavier's school, so staff and students alike are preparing for the coming term - working on all the last-minute details that need to be done before the organized chaos begins.

    In the midst of all this, an email comes to Mr. Summers:

    Mr. Summers,

I would like to speak to you about a serious matter, it cannot wait any longer. Please meet me in the main hall at 1 pm on Sunday before classes.

    Thank you,

    Tabitha Smith

So, the senior is on time, dressed casually - a pair of pink denim jeans, a t-shirt with a velociraptor on it in a field of pink and yellow flowers. She blows a bubble with her red bubblegum idly while she waits.

Cyclops has posed:
     Paired with the chaos a new semester brings, having lost a member of his team had Scott spending nearly all of his time in the basement away from everyone else.

  And he received an email, he knew that there would be questions from what he assumed were the events of the Wedding that he'd be answering for a couple weeks.

  The X-Man slipped out of the hidden elevator and into the main hall as requested. His face held his signature deadpan look, paired with a couple days of beard growth. He'd been investigation into what had happened, which all but dominated his time downstairs.

Boom-Boom has posed:
    Tabitha stomped over to the X-Man, running a hand through her hair as she approached. "Hiya, Mr. Summers." she said. Politeness? Maybe not a good sign, or maybe it's a sign she's being more mature? Not likely.

    "I need to talk to you, about what happened in Paris. You got a minute?" she asks, gnawing loudly at her gum. "It's kinda botherin' me." and she rubs her nose in thought.

Cyclops has posed:
Cold lenses look down at the younger mutant. "You are the one who asked me to be here. So yes, I do have a minute."

  Scott looked back and fourth a moment, he had a feeling where this was going, but he wanted to at least hear her out before jumping to conclusions.

Boom-Boom has posed:
    Boom-Boom nodded. "And maybe I should talk about Sammie... er, Guthrie." and she considers. "Him first. I hear that he's leaving Dani's team and moving to yours? You know, he's jus' doin' that because he's mad at Dani and me for not wanting to date him. He's jus' tryin' to get away from us, especially me." and she snorts, a smirking grin appears. ",,, though who can blame him?"

Cyclops has posed:
     Scott's expression stays neutral through it all. "I can assure you that any additions I make to the X-Men are not supported by rumor surrounding who will not date whom, miss Smith." Scott leaves it at that, he doesn't feel the need to justify himself to anyone but a select few at that, and he does not consider Tabitha one of those few.

Boom-Boom has posed:
Tabby's face sours at that. "It's not a rumor, thank you." and she sighs, a bit angry now. "Anyway, that's not that important. If he wantsta go, he can go. We don't need him." she's working up a head of steam. "But what I really wanted to talk about is Paris." she looks at the man a moment, then points at him. "You blew it, Cyke." her politeness is gone, all of a sudden.

    She chews at her gum. "You blew it. Your X-Men blew it. You left us out to dry, 'fearless leader'..." her voice is dripping with sarcasm. "... I think the only order I heard you give was 'Stay together.' and blah blah blah, pew pew." and she puts her hand to her temple to mimic Scott using a button to open his visor. "There were kids there, Summers... kids that hadn't been on any teams before and had no idea what was goin' on." and she scowls. "The only leader on that field was Dani Moonstar. If she hadn't been there the rest of us would've gotten murdered by those things before Stevie Knicks could 'port us out."

Cyclops has posed:
Scott's eyes glow from behind his lenses, he takes them off, closing his eyes and rubbing at his temples. A surge of anger courses through his veins. "While Dani performed commendably, I was watching the entire thing." He offers, putting his trademark glasses back on and returning Tabitha's attitude with a slight grimace, growing by the second.

  He doesn't say anything else yet, but anyone who knew him knew he was not pleased, a mixture of guilt and anger. Mostly anger at this point due to Tabitha's sophomoric methods. After a moment he finally speaks. "Dani had my full confidence that she could handle those on her team, as well as the other students there."

Boom-Boom has posed:
    "Well, goodie for you." Tabitha says snottily. "She did. She handled her, and the rest of everyone. Rogue was busy, Gambit was... well... you were shootin' at the damn reject from a Sinbad movie and the Tin Man was worryin' about his poor baby Warhead." she spews. "Dani gave orders like a champ, like she's suposedta do... and we did it.
    _We_ did it..." she adds. "...the X-Babies. She made the call and we cleared our airspace then linked up with the others, but Charlotte and Fox... er, Alexia... they're green as limes." and she points again, her voice rising in pitch and volume. "And you... you weren't lookin' out for 'em!"

Phoenix has posed:
For nearly a week, Vice Principal Grey's office has had a sign reading 'DO NOT DISTURB', followed by a crude drawing of a brave warrior squaring off with a paperwork golem taped to its door. Even as other mansion residents trickled across the ocean to Europe, the sign remained-- someone had to hold the fort down in their absence, after all, even if she's slaying dead tree monsters.

Despite memories of Ms. Grey coming or going from her office gradually proliferating across campus, however, all of her time on the grounds has been spent beneath them, either in the X-Men's lab space, or in the Danger Room; the rest of her time-- elsewhere. If she - grim and exhausted - happened upon Scott in those gleaming corridors post-wedding, it's likely that she brushed by with a plastered-on smile and, perhaps, a mumbled promise to talk later.

If she - in the midst of ceaseless scenarios pitting her against not just her teammates and students, but a swath of Earth's mightiest heroes - noticed the astral pall falling upon the campus as the weekend progressed, it wasn't enough to draw her up into its public spaces for any appreciable length of time.

The anti-authority explosion building within Tabitha and Scott's carefully contained rage are another matter, however, psychic swerves that provoke an override, which in brings a starfish-masked Flash to a halt just a few feet away from her. Following a slow, deep sigh, she drags herself into the School proper, tracing a glowing hot tether all the way to the foyer. Upon arriving, psionic energy tints her eyes with a soft, glowing pink and she proceeds to skulk towards her colleague and their student along an angle that isn't remotely as interesting as the argument brewing between them. She's a silent, watchful ghost for a time-- until she decides to punctuate Tabitha's outburst by reaching out to touch index fingers to she and Scott's temples.

It's purely a formality, a moment to alert them to her physical presence before she steps into their minds: rather than asking certain, pressing questions like 'What happened to the students?', or 'What are these rumors about Sam?' or 'Is everyone okay?', she seeks to take those answers, to route them from the coursing streams of the other two mutants' psyches into her own in a sensory tide.

Cyclops has posed:
As Jean reaches out to Scott, he shows all of the events of the past days to her. Losing Gambit at the wedding, Spiral taking them to Mojo World, and Rogue absorbing a bit of Remy into herself. The entire debacle was a more than any one leader could bear, even for Cyclops.

  A calm waves over Scott after getting that off his mind. Cyclops looks to both Jean and Tabitha as they share with the mediator, so to speak. "Jean." Is all he says, a spark of solemnity in the singular word.

Boom-Boom has posed:
    *They're not rumors about Sam. He's running away from Dani and I* is the mental response. There are other feelings there about Sam Guthrie in Tabitha's head - frustration, caring, a bit of longing, guilt. That trail leads somewhere else, though. *No, we're not fine.*

    "Look at my leg!" Tab says to Jean. "Oh, sorry. You can't. Pants. I forgot. But I had a spike that went all the way through my leg. My... my friend Alexia almost died, tryin' to save me." and she sighs. "That's the worst part... she got hurt savin' me and she barely knew what she was doin'. She's been in the Room like twice. TWICE!" Boom-Boom almost shouts. "And she's puttin' her life on the line. She got NO leadership from the supposed boss. Nothing!" and she points at Scott again, but looking at Jean.

    "Every mark on that girl, on me... is _his_ fault."

Phoenix has posed:
The wedding plays on two screens in Jean's head; two sets of memories, two perspectives, two weights hanging from four shoulders. Screams and violence play in surround, ringing through the Vice Principal's psyche just as they echoed across the battlefield once celebration gave way to war.

Glowing eyes flutter and roll backwards as her chin snaps towards the ceiling. Limbs subtly twitch; one leg buckles, briefly threatening to bring her to the ground before strong fingers dig into Tabitha and Scott's shoulders.

A handful of seconds later, green eyes snap forward, the glow fades, and air swiftly fills Jean's lungs.

"Scott," she murmurs in reply while turning a flat expression towards the youngest of the trio, "Tabitha."

"Do you have any idea how inappropriate this is?" she continues a beat later, head canting slightly to the left. Her voice is low, tight; flat, otherwise. "How redundant? Any idea at all? Scott's been doing this since he was your age - younger, in fact - and your first instinct after you - both of you, you and him, together - see your peers and friends brutalized on what was supposed to be a happy day-- your initial response is to berate him because the student he trained to do exactly what she did had to step in to help him? Who does that help? What does that solve, Tabitha?"

Cyclops has posed:
     Scott can't offer more than he already did to Jean. Even when the words were difficult to string together. "I regret that there were injuries. None of the New Mutants lost a member that night. The X-Men did, and that is a burden I have to bear as field leader. " He offers up, just a glimpse into how he is taking the whole situation.

Boom-Boom has posed:
    "Doesn't matter." Tabby says, matter-of-factly. "Doesn't matter if he person'ly saved the world a hundred million times before." she sighs. "This time... this time someone died and a bunch of others coulda died too, if Danu hadn't been there to call the battle, to keep us all pointed in the right direction. Summers wasn't even givin' tactical suggestions, let alone field generalin'. He was jus' shootin' off his stupid lasers and stuff while we were gettin' swamped by monsters."

Phoenix has posed:
"How many of you had comm units - assuming that the signals would've even worked in the home dimension of an evil broadcast executive - that day?" Jean wonders without taking her eyes from her angry student-- or raising her voice, still. "Scott did his best to balance covering his share of an overwhelming amount of opposition while trying to track the positions of numerous students and teammates in an alien environment, with zero means of communication beyond trying to be heard over everything else going on-- and more importantly, he knew to let Dani - who was clearly in a better position to give out orders - take the lead while he did that. Now: if you want to blame anyone for your leg, for the injuries your fellow students suffered-- for what happened-- to Gambit-- "

The Vice Principal's lecture skips a beat as she sucks in a fresh lungful and bites down on her bottom lip for a beat while flicking her eyes ceilingwards.

"-- blame Mojo," she continues once her eyes are on Tabitha's again, "and blame Spiral all you want, but think twice before you question the judgement of someone I've trusted my life to on dozens of occasions. We're on." The redhead's arms cross her chest as she leans nearer to the blonde, "The same. Side. I get that you're angry, but this isn't the way to handle it."

Another long sigh escapes her lips once that's out, shoulders sagging as the breath leaves her.

And then, she turns to Scott.

"And you," she lowly begins while thumbing towards Tabitha, "this is a seventeen year old girl who just watched one of her teachers die, got stabbed in the leg, and had to wonder whether or not he friends were gonna make it, and the best you can do is 'I regret that there were injuries'? That's bullshit, Scott-- she's not us" from the way she gestures at her self, then vaguely around, it can perhaps be inferred that she means Xavier's original class "she hasn't had seven years to get used to you, she's a kid, and you're not just her field leader-- right now, you aren't even her teacher, you're someone who shared a trench with her-- someone who shared a night of-- of helplessness as something beautiful turned to goddamned ashes for no. Reason. Drop this, this--"

Open palms broadly paint the air in his direction for a moment.

"-- this, for two seconds-- give her some sympathy. Something, she just-- she-- "

Shuddering, she loses her place once again-- only this time, she just tightly refolds her arms, stares down at the floor, and tries not to let sobs interrupt her frustration.

Cyclops has posed:
     Scott does nothing but watch as Jean tears into him as well. The barriers he keeps so guarded around himself take hits. The X-Man knows she can see right to him, glasses or not. He gives another sigh. "Look, I'm not the best at...this." He offers both of them, gesturing to the air as well. "I lost a friend of mine. As much as we disagreed and fought. He was someone I trusted with my life just as Jean trusted me. I..." He stops himself, his solemn face shows one tear trickle down behind his glasses. "We signed up for this life. You and the rest didn't." It was much more vulnerable than he preferred to be with anyone, the Professor and Jean excepted.

Boom-Boom has posed:
    "Yeah!" Boomer agrees. "You're supposed to hell and fight back and get mad, not stand there and take it." and she sighs, some of the fight gone out of her now that she's said her peace.

    Tabby isn't a telepath, or even very empathic (in any sense of the word), but she senses that Jean isn't doing well either. She reaches out and tries to pat the red-haired lady on the shoulder. "We... we'll be alright. It'll be alright, Ms. Summers. Promise." and she tries to put on a brave smile for the lady. "Thanks for seeing that Lexi gets a break from classes to be in the infirmary. She needed it."

    She looks at Scott. "You're wrong. I'm signed up for it, if you like it or not. I'm here to stay, even when I graduate. I'm not gonna abandon the kids here, even when I'm done with classes."

Phoenix has posed:
"That's your choice to make, Tabitha," Jean murmurs, having allowed the blonde to touch her shoulder, without looking up, "but making it's gonna mean following Cyclops into the field, and trusting that he's going to do everything in his power to get you and everyone else home alive-- and accepting that he's going to fail, sometimes." Her breathing is erratic; at one point, a few tears fly away from her eye, prompting her to take in another deep breath and turn her eyes upwards.

"Not because he's incompetent, or because he doesn't care - especially not that - but because we confront monsters on a regular basis, so that nobody else has to, and sometimes-- " Shoulders bared by a faded Teen Pope 2 tanktop shake as she gives herself a moment. "-- sometimes, we fail; sometimes, they kill us. That's what you're signing on for: a life of hoping you won't be the one to sacrifice yourself for a better world, and knowing you'll do it in a heartbeat when you have to anyway."

Finally, her gaze falls, shifts between the other two mutants. Hands extend to grasp their shoulders and her voice rises to a hard-tempered - if still weary - register: "We lost someone to those monsters, but they won't be taking anyone else from us-- I can promise you that. What do we know? Where are we starting?"

Cyclops has posed:
     "Cypher had a good point. Mojo records everything. And this latest abduction is not his usual M.O." He offered back, holding Jean's arm to support her. "We are preparing a counter op, back into Mojo World. If anything it will send him a message that any attack against the X-Men will be met with a response."

  Scott was more than pleased with the plan so far. "We are going to hold a briefing as soon as the plan is drafted." Cyclops looked to Jean, concerned for her. "Are you okay?"

Boom-Boom has posed:
    "Maybe that's what Mojo wants?" Tabitha asks, but she shrugs. She feels like the conversation is over. "This didn't go right at all." and she sighs. She looks to Jean. "You take it easy, Miss Grey. I'll go now. I said my peace."

Phoenix has posed:
"We'll add it to the agenda for next week, right after the parasites," Jean says while glancing Scott-wards and pulling both hands back to push hair behind her ears. "I'm fine; we can talk later, if you want."

Stepping towards Tabitha, she adds, "It's admirable that you're as concerned as you are for your friends and classmates, Tabitha-- and that you were willing to stand up for 'em, whether against a bunch of interdimensional horrors, or Cyclops. Same goes for you-- if you wanna talk later, let me know; I can find a gap in all this administrative crap."