7318/The Once and Future Rogue

The Once and Future Rogue
Date of Scene:	25 April 2019
Location:	Small Alaskan Town
Synopsis:	Backstory. In 2025, Scott, Lorna and Kitty are sent to Alaska to look for a mutant (Rogue) who has been detected by Cerebro
Cast of Characters:	Rogue, Polaris, Shadowcat, Cyclops

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Rogue has posed:
Feburary 1st - 2025

Alberta, Canada.

A truck stop on a lonely stretch of forest road, blanketed in snow and the dying light of an ending day. The truck stop is a fairly large plot of land with a whole host of buildings connected to it, that offer everything a po-dunk country trucker could want. Cheap booze, cheap motel rooms, and even some live entertainment in the form of open cage fight nights. This was not a friendly place to outsiders, or those who didn't fit right in with the whole decorum.

One such person is a young barely, barely even 18. Her 18th birthday was on the 24th of the previous month in fact, though she didn't even know it had gone by yet. She was suffering, lost and confused, trying to make it to Calgary where she heard there was a refuge for troubled mutants... it had been a lie, what was actually waiting for her was a mutant containment and enslavement ring. She didn't know that yet though.

Rogue had been at the bar when the fighting had broken out. One large man had approached her and taken a fancy to the young lonely girl, he'd tried to get fresh with her and he'd ended up touching the side of her exposed face beneath her dark hood. Needless to say he dropped like a sack of bricks...

This lead to his friends coming over to investigate what had just happened to their brother, only to accuse the girl of drugging him. When they advanced on Rogue, she threw two of them across the bar and through a mirror which lead to the barkeep drawing a shotgun on the girl. He'd ordered her out, telling her Mutants were welcome within his bar... She bent his shotgun into two halves before she fled the bar, and the truck stop itself.

Once the men all came to, they weren't pleased. Mutants weren't liked in this truck stop because of how they'd been cheating at the Cage Fights. 'Stealing everyone's money!'

A posse was formed, and they were headed out to go get the girl and make her an example of.

Rogue has a headstart on them, she's running down the road as she doesn't know how to use her flight power at this stage... she knows its there, but it terrifies her like the bubble drink in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

There's a convoy of trucks barreling down the same snowy road on their way to confront and capture her.

Polaris has posed:
Lorna, no, rather Polaris was having a bad day. A bad set of days, all strung together in a row that made up a few crazy weeks. All of which started with the revelation of who she was well and truly related to and the admission from her adoptive parents that they were not in fact, her real parents. It stung, it left her through a loop. She was in a low point of those bad weeks.

The mission had her sitting in the back silent, sullen, and morose. She didn't want to go there. Didn't want to leave the room where she'd locked herself up in and avoid people for the rest of... forever.

But a Mission was a Mission and she'd been asked to go. The green haired mutant didn't even //want// to use her powers, but here she was.. In the great frozen North. Particularly as they touched down where the mutant was supposed to be and snow crunched everywhere. She shivered, and desperately wished she'd packed a winter jacket. The road was just .... just as snowy as the rest of it. All white and glaring, and cold.

She frowned, "..Can I just .. can I just stay in the jet?" She whined, hiking at a clip along with the rest of the group.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde was glad to be back at the school. Freshly returned with a degree, her first missions back as an X-man rather than as a member of Excalibur had her feeling nostalgic. The whole trip was a series, "Hey, remember the time we got kidnapped by the Brood?" and "Hey, remember the time Juggernaut showed up at the school?" and "Hey, remember that time you sounded like you were going to ask Jean out but then it turned out everyone was in your room for a birthday party and jumped out and yelled surprise?"

Oh yeah. Good times. Poor Scott.

But now they are here. Kitty has yet another costume. This one is mostly blue, darker with lighter colors mixed in. And a sash tied about her waist. Because heroes need sashes. Kitty hops out of the jet. "Bunch of trucks, mutant who can control metal would be -kinda- useful," Kitty says in a warm voice for Lorna. "Come on, it's not that bad."

She hops off the ramp and sinks into the snow to her knees. "Or, well, it's bad, but we still need to," Kitty says. "The roads over there, we'd better hurry. Give me a lift?"

Cyclops has posed:
    "I told you to grab a coat." Scott says over the tall brim of his wool lined turtleneck parka. He's stuffed to the gills and warm like a clam. Other than the cold metal visor against his face, the mutant is more than prepared for the cold wearing thick mittons on his hands tucked under the cuffs of his coat. "We need you out here Polaris. You're in charge of all fire arms and vehicles. None getting too close okay." Scott says, obviously he doesn't let her leniege get in the way of what they're doing here. Saving a mutant.

    "Stow it Kitty." Scott says, the line about his birthday party still too fresh in his mind, he doesn't want to talk about it and he expects her to be a bit more professional. But she obviously touched a nerve. "Just, focus. Everyone. Please." Scott says with a frown as he parks the jet and climbs out last, making sure Storm is with the team also but moving quickly. That mohawk is just too damn much sometimes. "The road is just right there. keep up everyone." Scott says as he goes running past the team to take the lead physically.

Rogue has posed:
What the X-Men team dispatched all the way up to this part of North America, is that they're a little late... but hopefully not TOO late!

The convoy of five pickup trucks has been halted by a literal tree trunk down across the snowy forest road. It has been split at its base, splintered and thrown across the road to create a hastey blockade to keep the trucks from advancing.

But sadly for the lead truck, it landed on its hood, crushing the front end of the vehicle and causing a fire to start on its engine's remains, two passengers inside of the truck are stuck and can't get out of the vehicle, their legs are wedged under the dashboard of the vehicle that is filling up with smoke.

The other pickup trucks have parked in haphazard fashion around the lead truck, and their passengers are all getting out, hunting rifles and revolvers are on full display as the men are piling out of their trucks to find out what the hell just happened!

And about a fifty hards down the road, a single hooded figure stands, with a second tree trunk held up above her head... she's walking toward the men, holding the tree by its side high up, while the men? They're lining up their rifles.

"Shoot her!" One of them shouts, and now the icy cold wintery wonderland of this remote forest is filled with the sounds of gunfire!

Polaris has posed:
"I didn't even want to come! I can't stop bullets. I can't do this!" Lorna snapped, marching with over large steps in the depths of snow as she struggled to keep up. She wasn't using her powers to lift herself up into the air. She wasn't even //trying// to do so. It had been a few weeks since the mess of her family history had gone down and she wasn't over it. She hadn't been out in the school, hadn't been to practice. This was quite literally, the deep end of the pool.

She shivered, even as she ran awkwardly alongside Scott and Kitty. There would be no flying from the green haired mutant. Not now.

Even as they ran along and got to the edge of the tree line and came in sight of the road. Particularly the trucks, the downed tree and the vehicle on fire. The green haired mutant's rushing came to a halt as she swept her gaze back and forth trying to figure out what to do exactly, staring dumbly in her standard X-men uniform, freezing in the winter air.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty stows it, though gives Scott's shoulder a little pat as if saying sorry for bringing up the unpleasant memory. Even if it was kind of funny.

The pat has an ulterior motive though. Kitty leaves her hand on Scott, and reaches over to do the same with Lorna. Phasing the three of them, all but a few molecules on the bottom of their boots so they can run across the surface of the snow without sinking in. Once they reach the road she lets them go, bringing them back to fully tangible.

As Kitty hears the gunfire and takes in the sight of the two men in the truck, she says, "I'll rescue the trapped men!"

Kitty takes off running then, oblivious to the gunshots that pass through her as she runs across the road and in through the body of the burning truck.

Cyclops has posed:
    Scott plants his feet to stop running and slides about eight more feet on the frozen ground and he frowns. The scene is quickly assessed and he's about to start issuing orders.

    "Polaris, do not let those guns fire." The leader says with a whole hand pointed towards the armed men and doing his best to snap the woman out of her pity party. She might be related to magneto but she's NOT him. "You can wallow all you want back at the mansion but right now, we, them, and she needs you!" Scott says his hand sweeping back to the tree weilding girl in the street. Okay she might not need them as much as it seems, but they don't know that.

    "Kitty you--- yeah. Get them out but be safe. You know what to do." Scott says with a turn of his eyes towards Storm who he then recommends bringing in some fog. No need to get all of them hurt. As the clouds lower and visibility gets worse, Scott starts to make his way out towards Rogue. "Hey!" He calls out. "We're here to help you." Scott says, talking to the southerner, he hopes she gets that sense from his voice. "We're the X-men, we want to help you."

Rogue has posed:
This is definitely not Genosha for poor Polaris of this year and day. Its well below freezing and with the sun nearly down its only going to get colder, bone chillingly colder.

There's a couple other men trying to get into the truck to help the people inside the flaming vehicle, but the warped body of the pickup crushed by a tree has left it impossible for them to get the truck's doors open more than a few inches each. So Kitty's going to have to slip past those men to get the two out, who can barely be seen now at this point as the truck's cab is filled with smoke!

Storm's laying down the fog and its already got the angered mob confused and lost on where to fire their guns. But some of them do it anyway, just firing into the fog where they'd seen the girl last! Two gun shots ring out, aimed for Rogue by maybe in Scott too!

Rogue, meanwhile, stops when the fog thickens, she keeps the tree above her head, with bits of snow and bark flaking down onto her hood-covered-head. She squints her eyes at Scott as he arrives and stares at her.

"Cy... Cyclops?" She knows his name, his face... that visor. Carol knew him. Rogue shakes her head side to side. "Its not my fault." Rogue quickly says, believing that these people are here to arrest her. "I didn't know they were gonna make me touch'er that long! I thought it'd just be a second! Its Mystique!" She shouts now into the foggy forest.

Polaris has posed:
As the group came out of the snowy woods thanks in part to Kitty's work, Lorna was still struck dumb at the edge of the road. Even as the other mutant rushed off to the truck on fire to save those trapped within and Scott took off down the road with orders for her to stop the rifles and guns from firing. Despite the fog, Lorna stood out like a green light. Bright and colorful against the snowy, white and grey landscape of Canada's winter.

Her eyes squeezed shut despite Scott's attempt at encouragement and she stood there shaking, her hands clenching and unclenching.

"I can't. I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here." She ground out. Her teeth gritting together.

Which is when gunshots went off and she shuddered, terrified that it meant she had to //use// her powers. Her damned powers that were just so much like Magneto's. She hated it. She hated //him//. She hated it all.

Shadowcat has posed:
Shadowcat doesn't bother squeezing past the men who are trying to get into the crushed truck. She just phases right through them. However, as she gets inside the truck, the smoke is as blinding for Kitty as it would be for anyone else. Worse, she cannot breathe without inhaling the smoke, so has to hold her breath. And she can't exactly feel around without unphasing. It's quite the pickle.

Kitty drops down to try to get below the smoke. There, she sees a foot. She reaches out to phase the man and then pull him outside of the truck. She lets go of him, coughing a bit and then drawing a full lung's worth of air before going back into the burning vehicle.

She knows about where the man should be, but the area is rife with smoke. She can't just phase at random as she could end up only taking part of his body. Finally Kitty reaches up, phasing the roof of the truck away and letting it sink into the earth. It helps, giving the smoke somewhere to go, but only a little. She phases a door off. And then seeing a seat, she phases that away too. Finally she sees the man's hand, grasping it to make him intangible and pull him out of the vehicle. Once he's safe, she drops to her knees, coughing from the smoke she inhaled while in there.

Cyclops has posed:
    "We're not here to take you away. We're here to help you." Scott says to Rogue but then gun shots start and the wizz sound of metal flying past in his direction causes Scott to react, harshly. His visor opens up in the direction, a red beam cuts through the fog to strike the log and he aims to knock one or more of the men down off their feet. "POLARIS Help or get back to the jet. NOW!" Scott is not happy about how things just happened and yet with Kitty being trustworthy he assumes she's doing her job with skill and no sass.

Polaris has posed:
Lorna was frightened, and drowning in a bipolar spiral of emotions. The red-lazer light of Scott's blast cut through the snowy landscape and his shouts tore into her in a new, terrible way. She shuddered, her stomach leaping into her throat as she struggled to hold onto the sudden, reactive bubbling of her powers. She was better than this, had been better than this. She'd had control, smooth and refined //for years//. Now though, she was as wobbly with her control and her desire to use her powers as a freshly discovered mutant. Perhaps that was why she'd been hiding away in her room, refusing to move or talk or interact with //anyone//. She'd imagined the worst. Imagined them turning against her and turning her out.

It hadn't happened yet, but who was to say it wouldn't happen later? Or now?

There was a sickening scream of metal as her powers burst forth from her hands as she threw them up, a stray bullet having been fired her way with the bright green of her hair being an easy target.

A magnetic blast tore from her as she //shoved// all the metal bits and bobs, rifles, trucks, and belt buckles away from her with a teeth clenching scream that matched the sounds of trucks being lifted up into the air and promptly dropped at height and crushed.

The green haired mutant stood there, hyper-ventilating before she wretched, clutching her stomach and turning to run back into the tree line back toward the jet.

Rogue has posed:
The two men that Kitty rushes past and phases through both stop what they're doing to frantically open the vehicle and leap back. One of them draws his revolver and is about to aim at whatever the hell just went through him, but its gone inside the truck! The other one looks up and spots Lorna up there...

"There's more mutants here!" He shouts, and his rifle comes up to draw an aim on Lorna! He fires once and the bullet splashes into the snow beside where Polaris is! It was CLOSE! She'll likely feel that metal taste like it was in her mouth!

Meanwhile, the people in the truck cab are coughing their guts out, but Kitty's efforts are paying off. She manages to phase them back outside into the winter wonder land, which confuses everyone out there at seeing their friends flying out of that demolished truck like they weren't even real people, but phantasms!

More gun shots go off as the fog is leaving the men in a bit of a panick now!

Meanwhile, Rogue is looking at Scott. She shakes her head at him, her face is smudged with dirt and tears. "Ya can't help me, nobody can." She says then before she just drops the tree down onto the ground between she and Scott, then she turns to walk off further down the road into the fog, her hands going into her pockets and her hoded head going down, walking down the middle of the snowy road. (sad Hulk Music).

Cyclops has posed:
    "No one can help you if you dont try to help yourself." Scott says with a frown and a shake of his head at the sound of some lunch being lost. Damn it. They have already been all over this with Lorna before, years ago. Now she's acting like a greenhorn instead of her greenself. "Kitty! Did you get everyone? We need to get to the jet and get back as quickly as possible."

    Scott extends his hand towards Rogue, "If we can't help you we will at least find someone who can." Scott makes the offer to take her out of this frigid hell hole and to someplace at least warm and with less guns being aimed at her.

Shadowcat has posed:
Kitty Pryde watches the men, the guns, even the trucks go flying. Her comms is ripped off her uniform and sent hurtling through the air to land off in the snow and fog. Kitty phases in case anything metal is up-Polaris of her and heading her way.

Rising to her feet, Kitty coughs a few more times as she begins a lurching run, heading back towards where Scott was with the mutant girl that they came to find.

The sound of Kitty's footfalls crunching on the compacted snow of the road precedes her emerging from the fog, beside Scott. The girl looks of the same age of Anna-Marie. "I was thirteen when they came to help me," Kitty offers quietly. "And now they are as close as family," the brunette teenager says. "You don't have to be alone. Let us help. Please?" Kitty gives a soft, encouraging smile to Anna-Marie.

Rogue has posed:
The men at the trees are too fogged up and now being snowed-in by Storm's control over the weather. The forest is howling with wind currents that are all forcing the men back into their vehicles, forcing them to retreat from this endeavor and to leave the X-MEN to deal with the mutant girl they were chasing.

Rogue stops walking and she looks to Cyclops and then over to the young woman her age who approaches. "Kitty." She says then, quietly, her green eyes peer at the girl, her snow-white hair is blowing across her face in the winter winds.

Rogue looks back then the way they'd come, she can barely see whats going on but still sees enough. "Who... are you?" She asks then, a hand going up to her face inside of her hood. "Where did ya'll come from?" She shakes her head side to side. "I wanna get out of here. Just take me t'Calgary, okay?" She turns to follow after them, adjusting the bag that is draped over her shoulder by a leather strap.