5544/Astral Flux: Evolution

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Astral Flux: Evolution
Date of Scene: 11 October 2018
Location: Xavier's School
Synopsis: Some X-Men, an Iron Man and a Hellboy. Some very important revelations are revealed.
Cast of Characters: Hellboy, Wolverine, Psylocke, Gambit, Kaydin LeGraize, Iron Man
Tinyplot: Astral Flux


Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy was having a hell of a week. Laughing gas in the Bronx, clandestine meetings with Death Dealers, it was good to just slow things down and have a regular meeting. He'd been walking through the grounds past the open gate, his hooves clacking upon hard driveway as he looked around at the lush green, the birds in the trees. It was rather nice, actually, it was peaceful in a way that things hadn't been for him for a while. He hadn't brought the Samaritan for this encounter, or really hardly any 'gadgets' in his belt, but he was weapon enough, and he wanted to set these people at ease when he introduced himself. So when he got to the front door, he very gently brought his right hand up, takine one knuckle and very gently rapping against the front door.

    Immediately one of the side windows around the doorframe broke, and Big Red looked around alarmed. "Ah, shit!"

    Well, so much for making a good first impression.

Wolverine has posed:
    Hanging out on the front lawn, around the corner of the house in hiding, was Logan. Logan is currently smoking a cigar, since Hank kicked him out of the mansion for smoking. Growling at the sun, Logan is wearing his white t-shirt, jeans, cowboy boots, and cowboy hat, tipped over his eyes. A puff of smoke curls around his head as Logan exhales, and he is currently ignoring the cool, crisp air of the East Coast Autumn.

    Hearing the banging, the cracking, and the breaking, Logan peers around the corner, and says, "What is tarnation is going on out here..." Logan sees who it is, and shakes his head. "Ah. Hellboy right? Fury told me about you. What the hell are ya' doin' here, bub?!?"

Psylocke has posed:
The grounds are quiet since classes are currently in session. Another reason Logan needed to take his smoking outdoors. Or perhaps it was because the last person that Betsy saw smoking in the building got one of her psiblades to their head.

The security had noted someone coming onto the property but that wasn't completely unusual. It was a school, after all.

It was when the window broke that the alarms went crazy. A beep on her cellphone in her pocket let Betsy know of the alert. "Continue working on those essays. I will return in a moment." Most students knew that if the teacher left the room, they could goof off until her return. These students knew their teacher was a telepath and should they goof off, she'd know it. Even as she left the room, they continued to work.

Betsy walked to the front, noting the broken glass. She opened the door. She remembered Hellboy though today she was dressed as Betsy Braddock, not Psylocke. Dress slacks, button up blouse, heels. "HB, isn't it?" Since that's the name she'd heard him called while at the Triskelion.

Gambit has posed:
Remy is as present as he is often not. On and off he'll show and pitch in with the team otherwise he tends to roam like some stray cat that someone here made the mistake of feeding.

The weather to be considered lately an the man not a fan in the least of the cold he is bundled up in a scarf, trench, longsleeved undershirt, cargo pants and boots. Warm fingerless gloves adding to the ensemble with a hoodie drawn up.
It's the 'smokers' section that is basically anywhere Logan is that Remy is headed to with his long-legged and easy-sleek walk. All half-cocked smiles and shaded eyes of red on black, "You got a spare, mon ami?" He questions. Fully aware of the Hellboy visit and Betsy making a show. One track mind.

Hellboy has posed:
    Now, the welcome party arrived. Hellboy already had his hands up in a 'surrender' motion, the sleeves of his trenchcoat falling down his arms a little(and his massive stone right waving through the air next to him), when three arrived on the scene. He looked over to the angriest one of the bunch, his glowing yellow eyes looking at Logan's blues.

    "Yeah, sorry, didn't mean to do that. I actually came here to talk to..."

    When Psylocke made herself apparant, he pointed over toward the purple-haired woman who was dressed very classily.

    "I came to talk to her, actually. Yeah, HB. Short for Hellboy. Long story. It's what everyone called me. Ok, not a long story."

    He was talking too much, so he just stopped. When Gambit spoke, Hellboy didn't even think about it before pulling a book of matches from the inside of his coat, and tossing it at the Ragin' Cajun, before continuing.

    "Your friends are doing ok. They're a bit beat up, but y'know, they'll be ok. Oh and uhh...sorry for shooting one of them. That was a rough situation."

Wolverine has posed:
    Spotting Psylocke as she peeks her head outy, opening the door. Tapping his cowboy hat, he says, "No worries Bets. Looks like he's a guest who doesn't know his own strength." As Gambit appears, Logan sighs, rwaches into his pants pocket, and pulls put another cigar. Tossing it to Remy, he says, "Here. Ya' owe me Cajun. Ah'm not a charity. Maybe some of those "down south" stoogies ah heard about."

    Logan then turns back to Hellboy, and says, "Right. I break a lot of things too, that I "don't mean to"." Logan chuckles, knowing full well he always breaks things he wants to. As he refers to Psylocke, Logan nods, and says, "Ah. Well. Welcome to the Mansion then Red."

Psylocke has posed:
"Hellboy." Betsy says the name like it isn't strange. Considering her choice of teammates, it's easy for her to take such things as normal. She steps out the door, closing it behind her to try to keep their conversation from being witnessed by passing students. With a hand, she motions to the side so they can move out of the way as well. Some of the students tend to not open the door slowly and carefully so it's for the best.

She glances over at Remy and Logan, then the surprise shows as Hellboy helps to support their habits. A wrinkle of distaste then she focuses again. "I'm glad they are healing. I have offered my assistance with trying to repair their minds. I'm simply waiting on the clearance." She didn't think SHIELD would appreciate her barging in. Twice. She does smile a bit though. "The one you shot was not a friend of mine. I had not even met her in person before that moment. It was a necessity and you owe no apologies."

Gambit has posed:
"Merci bien." A politeness fired to both 'HB' and Logan, the not a charity remark has a handsome sharkish smile appearing on the Cajun's stubble laden features. The matches and cigar snared out of the air with a swipe, a finger flick across his palm and he is lighting up to take a puff of his own.

A nod of acknowledgement to Betsy when she looks his way.

"Remy." He offers Hellboy at the introductions, belated as he puffs. Playing bystander for the moment.

Kaydin LeGraize has posed:
    A blur with blue lightning blasts past the group, barely seen and moving with superhuman speeds. It then blasts back out and slows down, stopping to reveal himself as Kaydin. He looks at Hellboy's stone hand. "Is that your hand or a Gauntlet?" He asks, sounding like a hyperactive kid. He then looks to realize the other people present and he chuckles a little nervously. "Sorry, I didnt know this was something important." He says as he begins to back away from hellboy now.

Iron Man has posed:
    The sports car itself would give immediate red flags about who is approaching, even though the driver rarely visits the mansion. The exotic car isn't a particular make or model: it's some creative amalgam, as if someone had some fun with a kitbash kit and this slid out of the 3d printer. Still, the style of it (and loudness of orange racer color, if not the engine, which is mostly silent) make the 'STARK26' license plate make total sense.

    Parking directly in front without awareness (or caring) about what he's blocking in the drive, nothing happens for a bit. Stark is still in the driver's seat, poking around on a device, before he gets out, still poking at it. Tony's dressed in one of his immaculate suits, sunglasses, easily recognizable. The activity near the mansion's front door draws his attention, in that he looks over his sunglasses at it ... and then continues with his device's holograms, strolling up the walk from his car with no hurry.

Hellboy has posed:
    This was a lot to take in at once. Hellboy started to nod at Logan, started to turn to Psylocke, started to say something to Gambit when a blue blur zipped past the crowd. Hellboy slowly turned his head to regard the blur by the time Kaydin had come back to stand somewhere else, mid-sentence when the speedy lad spoke and now Red was looking over at the teen. Seemingly speechless, the man looked dumbly between the three, and Kaydin, and looking over at the car with the same amount of incredulousness.

    "Wow. You're really fast, did you know that?"

    He almost completely forgot what they were talking about, before snapping out of it and regarding the group again.

    "Well, hey, thanks for the welcome. Again, sorry, I don't know why I knocked with my right, almost never do that these days. Just slipped my mind, I guess. But, uhh...I came here to talk to you, and I guess anyone in this school who wants to listen, about what we're dealing with. This 'Darkness King', or whatever you called him. Err, uhh..."

    Realizing that there was a teenager next to them, he glanced over at Kaydin real quick.

    "You didn't hear that, kid. Always eat your vegetables. And always buy things honestly."

Wolverine has posed:
    "I see this is between you an him Bets." Logan says, taking his cigar out of his mouth so people can understand him a bit better. Exhaling a plume of smoke, Logan turns to look at Remy, and shrugs. "Bienvenue." Logan chuckles, reverting to his terrible French accent. Thumbing back the way he had come, Logan says, "Well, unless you need me ta' keep this civil, I need to be elsewhere." Logan blinks as Kaydin arrives. "Kid! What did I tell ya' about sneakin' up on a guy like that? Almost gave me a heart attack!" Logan shakes his head.

Gambit has posed:
A tip of his chin up and Remy watches Kaydin show off, this being the school for such things it's not off the norm for most X'ers like himself.
A pull of that cigar and it is held away, the thief keeping his fingers close to the tip as though he's keeping himself warm from it.

"Dun do anything I wouldn't do. Not unless you invite me first." He says in parting to Logan. His attention shifting from the other mutants, HB and the man walking towards them tinkering with his holograms. "Maybe another one 'ere for Betsy, non? Should I set up a kissin' booth?" A grin wide and he leers at the British psy-ninja, clearly jesting about. "We make some real bank, pretty sure dat one loaded."

Darkness Guy? Darkwing Duck? Shadow King maybe? That could be anyone really. Despite his apparent joking around Remy LeBeau is paying attention to the conversation's finer details though without Logan or Elizabeth pursuing it openly, hes contenting himself to just enjoy some brief company.

Kaydin LeGraize has posed:
    "I do all that already. Only thing I do that is bad is murals on buildings." Kaydin says to hellboy. He then looks to Logan and winces a little. "Sorry." He says as he then turns to see Stark. "Hey Mr. Stark!" He says with a wave before turning to look to Psylocke. "You think you can convince Professor Gray into letting me have access to my spray paints? I have been invited to do some art stuff in the city, and I am too poor to buy new paint." He explains.

Psylocke has posed:
As the orange automobile arrives, Betsy glances that way curiously. Not one of the parents that she knows. Unless they got a new vehicle which is entirely possible. At her angle, she can't see the license plate.

Betsy considers Hellboy's words for a moment, glancing over at Kaydin and realizing this is going to be a sensitive conversation that shouldn't be held in front of young ears. She starts to open her mouth to suggest moving to a more private location when Tony Stark himself gets out of the car. Her mouth snaps shut before she says a word.

Was he a parent? Could be with his proclivities but that was not the reason for his visit.

She did feel the need to point out though. "Hello, Mr. Stark. I wasn't expecting you for another thirty minutes." Which is when her class would have ended. Seemed it might be done now with all the visitors.

At Remy's jest, she can't help but smile and cut a look at him. "Perhaps another time we will pursue that suggestion."

Iron Man has posed:
    "Saving the world. The usual. Well, for some of us," the confident Avenger replies evenly to Betsy as he approaches. A sleek amusement plays on his goatee as he picks up the edge of Remy's comment. But business. Mostly. "I have an appointment," he continues, giving Psylocke a bit more of a stare though his sunglasses. Maybe she's been possessed by creatures unknown that made her forget vitally important things like meeting with Stark.

    "Or did you not get the update about moving it an hour earlier?" Appointments are liquid and shifting with Tony: people who want his attention generally need to be a little adaptive and on their toes. And his statement suggests he's already half an hour late for the moved time. "Hey kid," Tony greets Kaydin offhandedly.

Hellboy has posed:
    When Tony approached, Hellboy stepped aside, letting the fountain of charisma do his thing. HB had always been more of a wallflower, hanging out in the background, in moldy mausoleums and dimly lit jazz bars. He was studying Stark intently, though. Though his eyes didn't have pupils, it was hard to shake the feeling of being looked at, from any source.

Wolverine has posed:
    "Later Cajun." Logan says to Remy. Right before he was ready to leave, that vehicle pulls up, and Stark arrives. With a snort, Logan turns again, and says, "Stark." That was as nice a greeting as Logan usually gave. "I see yer taste in vehicles still reeks of too much money." Logan shakes his head, and looks over at Kaydin.

    "No problem kid. I appreciate flaunting tha' gifts. It's easy." Looking at Betsy, Logan says, "All yours Bets! Try not to stab any of them." Last but not least, Logan smiles at Hellboy, and says, "Watch this one. She's dangerous." With that, Logan taps the brim of his cowboy hat, replaces his cigar back into his mouth, and heads out back to the garage.

Gambit has posed:
"Be a pass of a good time, sha." Remy assures Betsy before Logan is passing by him, "Words like 'too much' just make things a challenge, you know dis." He cuts himself off there, sobering up some in his demeanor as he studies Hellboy.
Getting his attention he flicks the matchbook back towards the big red guy.

"You get used to this 'round these parts."

Likewise though, hes watching Stark but his gaze says something different. Less likely for violence, more likely to... borrow. Appraisal of a sorts.

Psylocke has posed:
It takes a moment to keep from making a sarcastic comment to Stark. "No, I had not received notification of a schedule change. In fact, I was in a class until we had a little...accident." Betsy does not look at Hellboy or the broken window when she says this, to her credit. "I had only come out to investigate."

She looks to Kaydin, arching a violet eyebrow. "I can inquire about that. You should have a momently stipend from the school that would cover such purchases. Are you between classes?" Since they were still in session.

She gives Logan a nod and a smile as he departs, trying not to smirk at the dangerous warning. Hellboy already knows a little bit of that.

"Perhaps we should move this conversation indoors to my office? For comfort and privacy."

Kaydin LeGraize has posed:
    "Professor grey took my paints because she kept recieving reports of me vandalizing buildings." Kaydin explains. He then checks his phone and nods. "Yea class should be starting about now?" He says as he looks to hellboy and smiles. "Pleased to meet ya red." He says as he begins to head to class.

Iron Man has posed:
    "If you want one, there's better ways to go about getting one," Tony teases Logan in response, easy amusement with the other man as he leaves. He's used to Logan: in the same way Logan's used to him: a relaxed respect level, from Tony. He looks back to Hellboy, a long thoughtful look over the side of sunglasses. Mostly just because Hellboy is outright interesting looking. "You're one of SHIELD's 'consultants', right?" He doesn't keep track. Some hologram bits appear and move in the corner of the glasses, subtly. He looked it up quickly, probably.

    "You'll probably care about what I have to say, too. Office? Sure. Wherever you'd like," Tony suggests, attention returning to Psylocke, and looking at her more steadily. Of the people present, he's going to choose the model to really look at.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy is, in fact, wearing a few identifiers: The symbol on the side of his coat, the black shirt with the SHIELD logo on the front, and his SHIELD badge that's attached to his utility belt, always facing front and outward toward the world. Tony and Hellboy have actually seen each other before, though there's never been much of an encounter or a conversation. Mainly it's just Tony being the belle of the ball, while big red hangs in the back smoking and just waiting for the big dazzling show to end. Hellboy could never be that big, upfront public guy, that just wasn't in him.

    When Kaydin goes to leave, Hellboy pulls from a pouch in his belt, a huge KING-sized brick of a chocolate bar, one of those things that could last a lifetime. Or five minutes.

    "Here, you're a good kid. Brush your teeth after you eat that! Never, uhh...y'know, don't vote without knowing the issues! That's good, right? Yeah, get outta here."

    Now Kaydin and Logan were gone, and it was two X-Men, an Avenger and a terrible, terrible spy.

    "Yeah, that office sounds good. We've gotta talk about this situation."

Gambit has posed:
Remy's chuckle escapes while Betsy and Kayden exchange in dialogue. It's best he rarely handles or approaches the younger mutants, hes rarely taken seriously by others or himself until it's down to the business end of the deal. He is generally okay with that, it keeps him in good spirits and much less busy than the others.

It also applies to parents, guests and apparent visiting billionaires, to which, he cannot blame the man for his focus upon their British companion.

The rogue snubs his stoogie and rolls it away for later use, it beats the toothpicks he has been chewing on after all.
It's clear he is just awaiting Psylocke's lead on in. Maybe something interesting will spark up in this topic for him to entertain himself with beyond Netflix or attempting to figure out the alarm system on Tony's car.

Psylocke has posed:
"Have a good afternoon, Kaydin," Betsy calls to him as she turns and motions for the rest of the group to follow her inside. She ignores the broken glass by the front door and just pretends it didn't happen. Though it wouldn't be safe to leave it there. She glances back and notes the shadows. A moment later, the shadows under the broken glass open and it falls into darkness. It's like the Acme Black Hole but better.

Her office isn't far. There are a few students out, some obvious mutants, some not so much. The group of adults get a few looks but nothing is said.

Once in Betsy's office, she closes the door and moves to sit behind a small, neat desk. Everything is in it's place and perfectly tidy. There is a small loveseat in one corner of the room, next to a file cabinet. Two hard backed chairs are in front of her desk. She sits on the edge of the desk itself as she offers them seats with a wave of her hand. "The Shadow King is the name you were looking for earlier, HB," she offers with a smile. "How may we be of service to you both?"

Iron Man has posed:
    First things first, Tony makes himself comfortable, relaxing in the center chair with his relaxed, casual quality. He has a magical knack of still keeping the attention of a room despite his ease and comfort. It's a charisma thing.

    "All right. I'm mostly here to glean what I can about your King of Shadowy places and his network of 'bad guys'," Tony begins, pulling his sunglasses off and tucking them away, to trade for the device he'd had out earlier. It expands with a little hiss of technological sound. It looks like he's just using it for reference, at least so far. "And to share what I can about what's ramping his power up to the stratosphere. That's the zone I have more intel about. If something needs to be built to nullify or separate him from his battery, I'm moderately available."

Hellboy has posed:
    He was gonna say something, but turned to look at Tony. For his part, Hellboy personally liked to stand the most. Cloven hooves, they almost never got tired, or hurt from him being upright.

    "Oh, you're looking for him too? You're an Avenger, that makes sense actually."

    He was quiet, then, for a few moments, before speaking up.

    The guy we arrested escaped, took one of our personnel with him when he did. We know where his home is and we've got it staked out, but I get the feeling that this Shadow King has got these guys all over the place. All over New York? All over the East Coast? The country? It's obvious he's been doing this for a long time, and we're not gonna nail this son of a bitch with our limited psy-division. So I'm here to ask, if you have any information on this guy, any at all. And...if you guys wanted to work together on this. I understand that the Xavier Mansion has a few big deals when it comes to psychic phenomenon. That, combined with the power of the Avengers, and the resources of SHIELD? I think we could hurt this guy. Oh yeah. Also."

    Hellboy turned to Tony Stark, finally speaking directly.

    "Your mansion...did Shadow King pull that into the Astral Realm? Are we gonna have to deal with mind-controlled and whammied Avengers? What happened to it?"

Gambit has posed:
The loveseat is approached near immediately, a hand pushed to it then he is turning about lounging in a haphazard sprawl upon it, like some cat making itself at home. Remy's casual easy ranks right next to Tony's, he doesn't step in and make eyes turn on him or take the lead of a room, he just becomes one with it and blends unless given full attention. Not something he shys from usually.

"Dat always a name loaded with some serious bad cunja." He could feel himself wanting to spit at confirmation of Shadow King but doesn't, his lips just twisting up.

The mansion question has him opening his mouth to make a comment but he cuts it off, opting to just listen a moment. He liked the mansion, he kept things there and one day it was just... not.

Psylocke has posed:
"He escaped?" Betsy mentally berated herself. She felt like she should have prevented it, only there was no way she could have. Not unless SHIELD allowed her to do so and she'd already pushed her luck with that astute organization with her antics upon arriving and demanding to be allowed to assist Mr. Grant.

"We have a few personnel who have gifts, yes." She wasn't going to publically out the X-Men but the resources of SHIELD and the Avengers? They probably already had it in a file somewhere. After all, she didn't wear a mask when she was Psylocke.

"The Shadow King is one of the two most powerful psionic entities on the planet. But he seems to have more power than we have ever heard. Something boosting his power and making him the most powerful. One of our sources," she says as she slips off the desk and moves behind it again, sitting and pulling open her laptop. She quickly pulls up a file and starts copying it over to a memory stick. Stark probably will have a fit at the old-school technology. "Mentioned something about a ring. But we don't know what that has to do with his boosted power levels." She looks to each man in turn. "He had even managed to compromise one of the more powerful telepaths that we have access to but I was able to sever his connection to her. With that indication and what we've witnessed, as well as the fact at least one of the telepaths in the network seems to be in Mexico, I'd say he has his tendrils everywhere."

Iron Man has posed:
    "Okay, the mansion first, then." Tony's generous. "The Avengers mansion is in another dimension right now; we're going to bring it back, but priority needs to be on stopping this guy, since it's just a building: it can be replaced," Tony says, similarly offhandedly as he has said before. This stuff happens to the Avengers, it appears. "There was a big riot of controlled people that came after the mansion and some local cultural buildings. Dr. Strange was controlled for a bit from what I can tell - a sleepwalker, if you like that term--, and one of my inventions was triggered into a destruct mode by him during that, which threatened to destroy most of the city, but I guess he woke up, and he warped the mansion and froze the explosion. That's the current best guess. He's back with us now." Tony pauses, just for a beat. "So can Avengers be mind controlled? Maybe, when asleep, or walking outside of their bodies into this astral mind realm? Not my area. We have some people that can block it though, like Scarlet Witch, Vision. It's a reason why I don't think we need the Justice League deep in this, as much fun as a controlled Superman really sounds like to me. A few of them might be immune to it though. I'll get someone to check." Delegating.

    "As I said, I have a bunch on that 'ring' thing, just not on how he might be using it exactly, or what his MO is," Tony says, staring at her little memory stick as if it was a poor legless kitten. "What is he trying to do, what's the goal."

Gambit has posed:
"How that even a thing? Telling what ones power be at and who the strongest... makes me picture big psychic arm wrestling competitions." Remy muses, his red-black eyes intent on Psylocke's ceiling while a deck of playing cards fans out from hand to hand like stairs.

"If he this big a threat, I hope you got some serious defenses for the mind palace. Color me doubtful. Even of the Avengers but den, that more to why you here."
The backseat commntary from LeBeau goes quiet as he mulls over the explaination of the mansion while Betsy and Tony data-exchange. Each time 'Shadow King' is mentioned Remy's brow lightly creases closer to a frown.

Psylocke has posed:
"I have no idea what his goal might be. In the past, he generally was more concerned with hedonistic choices. He didn't really go for world domination or the like," Betsy says as the download finishes. She pulls out that memory stick and pulls out another from her drawer. She must own stock in them. It gets plugged into the port and she begins making a second copy of their files.

She looks back to them as she continues speaking now that the download is in progress. "This time, he managed to get control of a man named Harry who was able to network minds. Although, I'm not sure if Harry was the key or just another mind the Shadow King happens to be controlling. The person I mentioned that is part of my group, that had been under his influence, I didn't recall tracing her on Harry's network so I suspect it is simply the Shadow King himself and Harry is simply a tool. A damaged one from the last time I saw his mind. The Astral Plane is now dangerous. We have warned everyone with telepathic abilities to not go near it due to his influence. Phoenix," she opts to use the codename. "Mentioned he had something boosting his powers but we didn't know what. He had emphasized the word ring so it was a guess on our part that it might be tied to the boost. But what is the power booster and how does it work? Is it something we can cut power to? Because with it in play, I don't know if all the powerful minds I have accessible, combined, would be able to stop him."

Hellboy has posed:
    "I don't know how much I can actually mention about it, but SHIELD is sending a team into Mexico, to try and weaken some of this guy's control. I'm going to be on that team. So firstly, anyone here want any souvenirs? I can't make any promises, but I'll do what I can. Secondly, do you have any more specifics about what is there? 'At least one' of them is in Mexico, but is that it? I'd almost want us to be connected during the strike, but if we're putting our heads together in the third eye sense of the word, that could be bad news if we get the whammy put on us."

Iron Man has posed:
    Tony angles his gaze aside to Hellboy where he's standing; Tony's thinking about it, running a finger slowly along the edge of his chin. "I can provide a full layout of the zones in Mexico where we fought one of his minion people before. He'd had one of his controlled people over there defending the fungus abomination. It was a lot of underground cavern areas. A maze. I pulled my drones out of there due to some government unhappiness on something else, but I can send them back quietly for a look-see. I'm aware of what SHIELD is doing, for reference." He's in their systems. A little.

    Tony then looks back to Psylocke. "It's something called an infinity stone. But, instead of me paraphrasing the wizard gem thing, let's just do this. Mind if I borrow that?" Tony asks, gesturing loosely at the nearest large monitor in the room. He doesn't actually wait for the 'yes'. He orients his device loosely at it, typing away on the floating holographic orange and blue controls, a few quick swipes, and the video he wants launches for them. It's Dr. Strange, set in a Stark Tower meeting room. There's an Avenger or two present, such as Dr. Banner, just beyond him. Tony's in the foreground, eating a part of maybe a sandwich, but listening. Dr. Strange is describing something, oriented on Tony. "The mind stone. An aspect of the universe that condensed and hardened into a singular rock. The aspect of the mind. It's capable of infinite feats. It could grant you telepathy on par or above that of <redacted>, Tony. It's infinite. And if a being on the Astral plane has access to it in our dimension, it must have some corporeal form to access that power."

    Tony pauses the playback. "So, that. But it's a physical thing. It's not in dreamland-plane."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy's face was an ugly, unreadable impasse of glowing yellow eyes and a bad case of underbite, and that's when his mouth wasn't hanging open. But his twitching tail was one clue, as was him immediately and forcefully grabbing a cig from his belt to put in his mouth, a match struck against his stone hand to light the coffin nail.

    "Powerful psychic, who previously was a Marquis de Sade type, who now has a Mind Gem...got it. Ok. I get it now."

    He looked away for a moment, flexing his stone hand. Anyone who was even slightly psychic in this room would be able to feel his urge to punch and break something, if they probed just a little. As a third clue, that stone hand started lighting up in glowing yellow runes and glyphs, even as his fingers clenched into a fist followed by unclenching, over and over rapidly. After a moment he looked back to Stark and Psylocke.

    "Mr. Stark, I'll accept any help you offer, I'll tell the guys I'm going with the good news. Psylocke, Ms. Braddock, any help you or the other psychics here can offer, clearly now's the time, right? I'll also write a report with SHIELD, asking them to help you as much as possible. Forget the red tape, this shit is serious."

    Hellboy was anxious, and was turning to leave. He'd stay long enough to hear any parting words or advice or what have you, but he wasn't gonna stay here long at all.

Psylocke has posed:
The largest screen in the room is her flatscreen tv up on the wall. As it springs to life and plays the footage of the meeting"Infinity stone." Betsy says the words like she is trying them on for size. No memory. She's never heard of an Infinity Stone. "If it is physical, we need to find it and destroy it. If it's a power source, is there a way to track it's location? I'm going to guess Mexico since everything seems to be..."

Her voice fades off as that cigarette gets lit up. In. Her. Office.

She is about to say something when she gets that wave off him. It isn't that she is actively reading anyone's mind. She even has her shields in place. But sometimes, when people are in a high emotional state, it's like they are screaming mentally and it will slam into her shields. She gets that immediately, just as his oversized hand starts to glow. That has her standing from behind her desk, pushing back her rolling chair. It gives her the ability to move quickly should the need be there. He seems in control but she isn't one to take things at face value.

She takes the second memory stick out of her computer and offers it to Hellboy. "This is all the information we have on the Shadow King. So you can give it to your people to prepare your team ahead of time. If you wish, I would be glad to go along. I have skills that could provide useful."

She offers the second stick to Tony.

Iron Man has posed:
    "Really, Dr. Strange and Captain Marvel know more about infinity stones than I do. I was given the cliff's notes version before they ran off urgently," Tony shrugs, though there's a spark of him not liking that too much. He likes to be central to things.

    "Hey, my drones have something, just a moment," Tony says idly to Hellboy as he starts to leave. "Some of the passages I was expecting are collapsed, but I'm getting subtle readings. My AI ran a quick analysis, and suggests it's a 'heart'beat type vibration. Not human, but aligned to the fungus systems when they were city-size. If you're going there, you'll want some of our acids that destroy fungus on you. As a suggestion. Most of it was in the Avengers mansion. ....oh. Cute. No wonder the mansion is missing. Very, very cute."

    Tony pauses to consider that. "But I'm cuter. The JLA has some secreted. I'll network obtaining that for you, unless you have pals there." He's tapping away on his device. He pauses to look at the stick.

    Urgh. People offering him things. He visable winces, doesn't take it. "I'll just snare it on my device here if that's okay, I don't need a physical copy," says the brilliant inventor helpfully, evading, with a negating gesture of hand; he's in the middle of checking out Mexico drones remotely.

    "I'm more at the place where I want to outthink this guy. Anticipate where he's going instead of just playing cleanup. So he's hedonistic, and doesn't go for global domination? That's actually really useful." Tony hasn't gotten up yet, he's comfy.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy nods, taking in all this information, then speaks.

    "Thank you both. Yeah, I saw you workin', Ms. Braddock, I'd feel a lot better with you helping us with all this psychic stuff. I'll talk to the crew about it, help ease them into the idea."

    It would be nice to get that anti-fungal acid, but he figured the crew could improvise. SHIELD had ice stuff and the fungus hated ice, right? They'd be fine. Probably.

    Hellboy left, hauling ass to go back to SHIELD headquarters as fast as the subways could get him there. There was a LOT of information to unpack.

Psylocke has posed:
The memory stick is tossed back atop her desk as Tony rejects the offer. He probably already copied everything anyway.

As Hellboy leaves, Betsy calls after him. "Just let me know. Safe travels."

That leaves her with Remy and Tony. Remy seems content to relax on the couch so she turns to the genius in the room. "He has been in the past at least. I have no idea why he has such a large amount of people he is controlling now though. Historically, from my understanding, it usually is only one or two, mainly the host he inhabits until he uses the body up then he changes."

Iron Man has posed:
    "So we're expecting a single host, even if he's doing all of this random micromanagement because he's more powerful?" Tony suggests. He then looks at Remy, and makes a quick decision. "I didn't mention it earlier, but I think he sent me away on vacation during when the mansion was set to be nuked. I wouldn't have just left in the middle of a project," Tony says, pausing with his device work, giving her a more full version of his attention. His gaze doesn't burn or carry weight or anything like that; more a sense of that there's a lot going on behind the wheel, with him. "I realized, but. I was on a plane to Italy."

Psylocke has posed:
"That's his usual MO but what is going on isn't like him. I honestly don't know what to think on it. Unless this Stone you mentioned has influenced him? If he follows his usual, he'll be somewhere with all the pleasures in life. Everything in excess. Food, drink...." Betsy doesn't add what else that entails but they can all read between the lines. "Perhaps where the host body is will be where the physical manifestation of this infinity stone can be found. And since the word ring came up, he may very well be wearing it. I say he. It is how we identify him but he could be inhabiting a male or female. He has used both forms in the past."

She is still standing so she walks around to the opposite side of the desk, closer to where Tony is sitting. "You acted out of character." Not a question. He said it so she knows. She tilts her head to the side. "Do you hear screaming in your head by chance?" Although she knows the only way to be sure. "I doubt you will find this appealing but I think it would be best if you allow me to look into your mind to be sure there are no tendrils there." Because, now, what if he lies? But if he was being controlled, the Shadow King wouldn't be letting him share information. Madison had been able to though. He didn't control them at all times. Even were he in control, could he be feeding them this information to lead them into a trap?

Not being able to even trust one's allies makes for difficulties.

Iron Man has posed:
    "People don't just change their nature. I think all this is to distract or confuse. The core drive'll still be there. Maybe we can use excess to get at him somehow. Everybody's got their weaknesses," Tony says, "Even if they seem like they're kings of magical shadow realms." He smiles a little.

    "I acted a little bit out of character," Tony admits, with a move of hand to show how small the amount was between thumb and forefinger. He talks with his hands a lot. "Yeah. Snoop around," Tony agrees, without fear. He'd expected this to lead to that item: he wouldn't have brought it up if he hadn't been willing to be inspected. She'll read that off his surface thoughts if she takes a peek. He's also really interested in her physically but has kept all of that in check. There's some strong emotions to a woman he probably loves that is helping with the good behavior: he's not going to mess up the thing he has with Pepper.

    He deliberately starts to think about puppies. Which also fires off a bunch of other thoughts related to Dr. Banner and a giant hulkbuster design and some ideas he'd been rolling around on whether one of the arms needs recalibration; he should make a note to JARVIS...

Psylocke has posed:
With the offer, Psylocke allows her mental shields to be lowered just enough. Paranoia at its finest. She's not going to leave herself open in case this is a ploy. At first there is no sign of her working as it is just surface thoughts. Those don't tigger an outward sign of her telepathy in use. It's like conversation for a normal person, just the hum of sound as the thoughts race by one after the other.

Tony's are a bit different from what she is used to. The closest she can think of is Hank McCoy. Always working on a problem and generally things that are above her understanding. She picks up that he was expecting this. Perhaps even had hoped to be sure his mind was clear of anything foreign. Finding someone that finds her visually appealing isn't abnormal. She is aware of her appearance. She also has been exposed to people reacting to her since her telepathy developed in her youth. That doesn't even get a blink of an eye from the woman. His feelings for Pepper. Puppies. Hulk. Wait, what? Those didn't...oh, now it made sense. A weakness for puppies. Something she made a mental note of for the future.

"I'm going to push a little deeper now, into your memories. It won't hurt but I want you to be aware. Just to that day." She wants him to be fully aware of what she is doing. As she begins to probe deeper, the violet butterfly aura appeared in front of her face. She concentrated, found the day in question. He was working...then a shadow. A wisp of something. He wanted to go on vacation. She moved back to the shadow and found a familiar echo. A quick check found no signs of taint or a tether linking him. No ghostly screams that never stopped.

A moment later, the violet aura disappeared and they were as they had been. "You weren't actually controlled but a suggestion was made by a telepath and you followed it. Just a little nudge that acted on you doing something you enjoy and you took the suggestion. The work was by a person I have felt before, a minion of the Shadow King. He removed you from the equation."

Iron Man has posed:
    Tony tries to remember that day manually. It doesn't really work well. His memory is all over the place when it comes to minor details due to his hyper-focus. He was not paying much attention to the people he ran into when he went out for a pastrami sandwich during his workday, but the event that made him think of the vacation did happen there: he did see and look at Heather but didn't remember her consciously. He looks at a lot of women, really. It isn't something he stores well. He has enough other things in his head that trivial things get dumped quickly, such as random person at a deli counter.

    "Well, that's something of a relief. And appropriate. I would have acted to stop that whole mansion 'issue' if I'd been there. I was remoted in anyway, and my robotics were important to look through the illusion the others were seeing. Obviously, my robots don't have minds, so they were nice and immune," Tony says, with his calm confidence. He moves to stand. "Well, there's lots more to do. I've got to get moving. Thanks for the quick check."

Psylocke has posed:
"You are welcome, Mr. Stark. Please let me know if I can be of further assistance." Betsy says automatically as he heads for the door. She picks up the memory stick from her desk and plugs it into her laptop, tapping a few keys to erase it. Then she turns to follow him out the door.

Her eyes fall on Remy who seems to have dozed off during the proceedings. There is a flash of amusement in her eyes, lips twisting into a smirk.

She follows Tony out and walks with him to the door, escorting him as is the proper thing to do for a guest. And sending little mental nudges out so the students leave him alone so he won't be any later to his next appointment. "Until next time."