8967/Same New Self, Same Old Place

Same New Self, Same Old Place
Date of Scene:	27 August 2019
Location:	Campsites - Breakstone Lake
Synopsis:	Marvel Girl and Cable meet in the woods. They talk apocalyptic futures and have a foot race.
Cast of Characters:	Cable, Marvel Girl

---

Cable has posed:
The occasional laughter or teenaged shout cuts through the trees to the edge of the campsites at Breakstone. Otherwise it is quiet. A breeze rustles through the trees that are closely packed around the trails and campsites.

A ball of blue-white lightning appears in a small clearing. Space ripples and echoes are sent through the astral plane and timestream. The lightning ball sends out tendrils of energy that lick at the ground and trees. Improbably, nothing catches fire. The lightning grows more and becomes a frame around a tear in space that shows a total wasteland beyond. No trees, a massive depression that might once have been Breakstone Lake.
His tall man with a cybernetic eye and metal arm steps through the portal in the cool night. He is wearing desert fatigues and looks wind-bitten and leather faced. And about 60.

The portal vanishes and leaves the man standing in the woods.

Marvel Girl has posed:
The school is great. The people there are great. But sometimes Rachel just needs to get away from the noise and the activity of it all. Add in the fact that classes are starting back up, and the psychic noise of a school full of mutant teenagers is definitely starting to wear on her nerves. So rather than exercise at the school, she's headed out to the trails for a run.

She runs like someone who knows that her life might depend on how long and how fast she can run some day. It's a punishing pace for most. And it's fast enough that when she feels the oddity of another...time?...nearby, there's actually a crunching of leaves and gravel as she skids to a stop.

Her chin tilts up, brows furrowing, as she casts her mind out for the source of the disturbance and starts toward the site of the portal, coming to a stop while still taking advantage of the cover of the trees.

Cable has posed:
There are people in campsites with fires and at points around the lake. There is the huge beacon of minds that is the school. And toward the disturbance there is one heavily protected mind that would have been hard to find if it was not radiating astral and temporal weirdness right now. It feels like it is not quite all 'now'.

There is a subtle shift in the shadows, a slight change in the tone of black that gives away someone moving through it. Too much brown, not enough grey-blue in the shadows. Whoever it is moves quietly. Very, very, very quietly. And again a little to the left. And once more, a little closer to the path.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel moves into the shadows, following the sense of that mind. Stealth may not be her greatest skill, but tracking mutants? That she's had a regrettable amount of experience with. She gathers a telekinetic shield around herself as she moves, drawing closer. Her mind is shielded, but it's hard to completely hide. Especially when the thought of what else might be traveling through time has her on high alert.

"Hey," she finally calls out when she's closer, warning. "I know you're out there. This is not the place to start something." Too many civilians. Too close to the school.

Cable has posed:
"Either this place is soft or you've gone soft," rumbles a man's voice. "And I'll be dead before I see a Rachel Grey gone soft."

The brown shadow grows and resolves into a man with short cropped grey hair, well over six feet tall, with a bionic eye and metal left arm. He stops in the middle of the path where moonlight is enough to make him out clearly in the grey wash of nighttime.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel frowns as she steps forward to get a closer look at the new arrival, brows furrowing into deep lines. "I'd tell you it's the place, but I get the feeling you'd know I was lying about it being a little bit of both," she says slowly. He can likely feel the pressure of her mind against his, trying to take his measure even as she looks him over.

"Wow," she says after a moment. "You do //not// age well."

Cable has posed:
Cable allows Rachel enough leeway to get a feel for him. The psychic equivalent of seeing someone's face. Solid, stoic, determined, grim.

"Time catches up with all of us," Cable replies. "I've been here before? Or do you remember me from another time?"

"Is Apocalypse here?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Not exactly. Not exactly //you//," Rachel adds quickly, crossing her arms over her chest as she takes another step closer. She's //young// here, now. Eighteen, maybe? But still certain of herself. Unflappable.

"There's no Apocalypse here and now. We've got a Sentinel problem, though. I thought you might be related to that. But you're not. You're not...Nate, either," she says more slowly, eyes narrowing as she works on piecing things together. "Same genetic material. Different person."

Cable has posed:
"Easy mistake, you've made it before, will again. Nate's the clone. I'm as close as Scott and Jean ever get to having a kid. Except for you."

Cable looks Rachel over. There is a total lack of the male gaze. It is purely an appraisal. "You look healthy," the man says. "How long have you been here?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Yeah, they got me the old-fashioned way, and honestly, I try not to think about it." Young enough to still be grossed out by the idea of her parents having sex, apparently. "Also, pro-tip, we're not sharing that," Rachel adds, glancing back toward the school as if Jean's going to overhear them even now. "As far as they know, I'm Mom's future kid and my dad's dead and we don't talk about it. No way he can take the pressure right now," she rolls her eyes.

Rachel takes a slow step to the side, circling him. "Healthy. Yeah. Funny how regular access to decent food will do that for you. About six months worth, at least. Though." She pauses, grimacing. "Pretty sure the trip fried my brains for the first month or so after. Still...coming to terms with a few things from then."

Cable has posed:
The big man crosses his arms. Decidedly disadvantageous. Settles his weight back slightly. Not as ready as he could be. Should be.

"I've met you a dozen times, Rachel. Sometimes back there, sometimes like this place seems to be. Every one of you sorts it out. Survives. Whatever happened, you'll make it right," Cable grunts. Not reassuring. Physics. Time flows. Gravity pulls. Rachel adapts.

"I'd beat your ass if you didn't," Cable adds. He smirks just slightly. "My half sister isn't turning out like some of those mewling Xavier kids."

Marvel Girl has posed:
"You'd try." Rachel doesn't generally back down, either. But she does finally break a faint smile, tugging at one corner of her lips. "All right. So you're not Nate, even if you look like //exactly// what I'd like to show him to take him down like...half a peg. So what do you call yourself, then?"

There's no disagreement from her about most of the student body. Post-apocalyptic Summers kids don't have time for extracurriculars.

Cable has posed:
Cable grunts at Rachel's retort.

"Cable," he replies. "Don't even remember why anymore."

Cable glances toward the mansion. "Jean and Scott are here. Nate is here. Scott isn't ready if he can't handle finding out he's got a kid who's damn ready," Cable says dryly. "Are Jean and Nate ready?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Nate's ready." Rachel has to think for a moment about the rest. "Mom's...Mom's neck deep in the school," she explains, choosing her words carefully. "Which isn't to say she couldn't handle it, but I'm not sure I'd give her the whole story, either. Whatever the whole story is, it doesn't look like it's a happy ending fairy tale," she adds, giving him another long look.

"Cable. Well. Welcome to...this place. It's pretty okay." She looks toward the school as well, crossing her arms over her chest again. "A lot of heroic sorts I'd never heard of back home, so that's sort of promising. But like I said, Sentinel problem."

Cable has posed:
"You know there aren't any fairy tales," Cable says quietly. "We'll talk about it another time. Meantime, I won't set off the pair of destiny. When they go bad, they go really bad. When they go good, they go really good. We need the good ones."

Cable steps forward and holds his out to Rachel. Palm dead vertical. "Thanks for the welcome. It's good you're here. Can always count on you."

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Yeah, that all sounds...yeah." Rachel gives his hand a look, not quite ready to take that last step yet. "Hold up a minute, though. Not that I'm hating on family time or anything, but, uh...I felt you time-shift. I felt the other place you came from. But you're not shaken up. And you sound like you've done this a few times. So what brought you here? Now?"

Cable has posed:
Cable crosses his arms. "I've been traveling the timestream for over 30 years of my life. Where I came from, Apocalypse is the end of everything."

"I came back through time to stop him. Every timeline, he comes. Sentinels kill all of us, Sentinels are stopped. Magneto conquers the planet. Nuclear war kills everyone. In every timeline. Apocalypse comes and we all lose. Every one."

"I found clues I left myself in different times and places. They point here. So I'm here."

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel's lips twist in a grimace, followed by a heavy sigh. "Yeah. I had a feeling you weren't just...sightseeing. That's not the kind of luck I've got." She lets her arms fall, instead ruffling both hands through her hair as if to shake it off. "Well. All right. I'm not going to kick a bunch of Sentinel ass just to lose it all to someone so uncreative they literally call themselves Apocalypse. You know how to reach me," she says, tapping a finger at her temple.

Cable has posed:
"I do," he agrees. "I'll explain more while we crush the Sentinels."

He glances toward the mansion. "I'll go settle some nerves. They're trying to figure out what happened. They spend years worth of water on flowers and grass here?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"They don't even have to some places," Rachel muses, looking around herself. "It just...grows. If you get a chance, try some cheetos," she adds. "Good stuff. Completely nutritionally deficient. It's great." Tips and tricks from fellow time travelers.

Her smile deepens at the mention of crushing Sentinels. "Yeah, well. They're pretty civilized here. Pre-complete-failure-of-civilization," she cautions. "So, you know. Have to watch out for the civilians, the way people see things. Crush the robots, try not to let them land on actual people if you can avoid it."

Cable has posed:
"Pain in the ass," Cable replies dryly. He moves to walk toward the mansion. "They don't evacuate to shelters? Sounds as crazy as cheetos. I'm getting old, can't fuel my body on vakes."

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Getting?" Rachel falls into step easily enough, giving him a pointed look that doesn't quite hide a smirk. You'd think she'd take this sort of thing more seriously, but it's not as though she runs into someone who can appreciate her particular situation every day. It's an oddly comfortable feeling.

"No shelters exist," she shakes her head. "Except the school, which is still a secret. And they don't get that it's not safe," she adds, smile fading to a grimace. "High priority is keeping it secret, which is great and all, but..." She shrugs. "You know how much good that does."

Cable has posed:
Cable gives Rachel a sidelong look at the age comment. He grunts.

"Secrecy is not security. It breeds complacency and weakness," Cable quotes.

"Getting," he grunts. He narrows his eyes at Rachel slightly. Then Cable pushes off into a full sprint on the path.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rarely does Rachel get to appreciate how she comes off to other people. But at least she seems to appreciate it, rather than being intimidated by it. As Cable breaks into a sprint, Rachel takes off after him. The humor fades from her features, replaced with raw determination for every moment of the running.

Hounds, they called them. And ran them like hounds, too. Rachel still runs like a Hound. All focus and drive, set to the hunt, every resource tasked to the kill at the end.

Cable has posed:
The older man is fast. And strong. His gait is strange, too. Every step with his left leg has more behind it than his right leg. He gives the impression he runs at the limit of where one leg could not keep up with the other.

But he is not a hound. He does not run with his whole being the way Rachel does. And he is not young anymore.

The two sprint down the path. Trees whip by. Cable tops out while Rachel is still accelerating. She devours the short lead Cable had on her before they round the last bend toward the lakeside path to the backyard. She can feel his breathing changing. Cable is fully anaerobic now.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Youth has some advantages. Especially when you've spent most of it on the run, literally and figuratively. But Rachel's been in the present long enough to get an appreciation for how people here think. Long enough to know that what most people at the school will see isn't a race, but her running from a strange man with a metal arm.

That would probably end poorly.

So before they get too close to the school, Rachel slows down to something resembling a more normal jogging pace, looking over her shoulder. "Old, but not soft yet," she calls over. "Doesn't sound like you've had time for it."

Cable has posed:
Rachel hears some rumbling from behind her that sounds faintly like a curse. Cable catches up to Rachel and falls in beside her.

"You know what I know, you never let up. Can't," Cable says. He is breathing heavily but will be damned if he lets that show in voice. Better to pass out first. "I'll catch you one time. See who's old then."

Cable slows to walk as they hit school grounds proper. "What do they have you doing?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Both of us, by then," Rachel replies, arching a brow with a faint smirk. The question seems to hit a sore spot, earning an awkward shrug. "Nothing official, really," she answers. "Not a student, per se. Not really suited to the whole classroom thing. And I'm sure as hell not a teacher. But however I got hwere, they know I'm serious about making sure my future doesn't end up their future. So. I study on my own to figure out what's different here, I train, and when there's a mission where I can be of use, I join in. This time, this place...They still have the luxury of considering students children," she cautions, looking over at him.

Cable has posed:
Cable looks over sharply at Rachel. "/When/ there's a mission you can be of use?" Cable repeats back with a half sneer. "You've survived a place most people who were born into couldn't survive. These garden people wouldn't. Are they so good they don't need you or so soft they don't see what they've got?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"It's a little more complicated than that. Remember when I said the jump sort of scrambled my brains?" Rachel grimaces. "Well, I did some epically stupid shit. So I've got to dig myself out a little in the trust department. Not their fault. Plus there's the tactical angle, depending on the mission. And just...balancing things out."

"That," she muses, "And I'm pretty sure I represent some scary possibilities to most of them that they'd rather not think about. So there's that."

Cable has posed:
"There's nothing wrong with you," Cable says gruffly. "Always the same. They punish the messenger instead of prepare."

Cable glances around the immaculate gardens. The decorative lighting. The pool, not only lit but with no lights burnt out. Tidy furniture on the patio up against the back of the mansion.

"A lot of soft, innocent minds in there," Cable says while looking toward the mansion. He shakes his head. "What did you do when you were disoriented?"

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Mmm, nothing wrong with me might be a little strong," Rachel chuckles softly, humorless. "I was tortured and brainwashed into hunting and killing my own kind for years. That's not quite nothing." She crosses her arms over her chest, looking at the school again through his eyes.

"Threw some tantrums," she answers, wrinkling her nose. "Got a little...flail-y. Then swung the other way trying to be what passes for normal here. Took me a little bit to realize things were just...a little out of whack. Been setting things right lately, though."

Cable has posed:
Cable stops and turns to face Rachel. "Drop the illusion," he says with his hands on his hips.

Marvel Girl has posed:
Rachel snorts softly. "You know the crazy part?" she murmurs. "It's not like it even means anything to anyone here. I think that's half why I don't like them seeing it. Not because they might see what I am. What I was." She doesn't sound entirely sure herself whether it's past or present. "But because it's almost worse that they don't know what it means."

The illusion falls away for a moment, revealing the marks across her face. "I wouldn't even mean anything if I wanted to own it, you know?"

Cable has posed:
"I do," Cable says. "It's simple, Rachel. You survived. Morality doesn't mean shit compared to surviving. You know it. I know it. Don't let this place or these people confuse that."

Cable crosses his arms. "You're alive, you're here. You can decide and act. Nothing else matters."

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Surviving's the problem." Rachel's not usually one for sharing, but between the resemblance to Nate and the commonality of being from another time and place, it's easier to say it out loud. "Everyone else I cared about where I came from? They're dead. But I'm not. And I'm not convinced it's got anything to do with anything I did."

She tightens her arms across her chest, shoulders rising defensively as she shakes her head. "I'm not worried about me surviving at this point. I'm worried about how many of them I can save."

Cable has posed:
"That's the goal, isn't it?" Cable asks rhetorically. "Get ready. Stop the threat. Save as many possible. Tilt the odds toward surviving. Just matters you're here, breathing and ready to fight. I've been around war a long time, Rachel. There's no reason to it and no justice. And that's nobody's fault."

Marvel Girl has posed:
"Well. Except the people who start it." The illusion is back up, and with it a faint, crooked smile that's its own kind of mask. "All right. Let's get you checked in with the rest of the old people before someone decides you're the next threat. You can read everyone in on the next disaster headed our way."