9969/A Mysterious Transmission: Working The Angles

A Mysterious Transmission: Working The Angles
Date of Scene:	09 November 2019
Location:	Xavier's, Library
Synopsis:	Plans are made, contacts are reached out to, and lessons learned about keeping a full team in the loop.
Cast of Characters:	Nightingale, Samuel Morgan, Triage, Cannonball

---

Nightingale has posed:
     Time was of the essence. It had been well over 24 hours since there had been word from Hank or Cannonball about the mysterious transmission from the broken old radio in the foyer, during the aurora borealis. While both gentlemen had been receptive and open-minded, there was the lingering sense that time might well be running out for the survivors of the temporal incident, and someone, somewhere, had to listen. And it had to be soon. The difficulty had proven to be a chance to get all four in the same place to discuss the matter again. It was time to act.

     Shannon sent out a text message to Triage and Techno on her phone. <<Meeting in Library. 5 minutes. Keep it on the Q.T.>> She settled in to wait, taking a few deep breaths to focus and calm herself. It would not do to lose her focus now. Was she doing the right thing? The only thing to do was try and find out.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    There is only one reason why someone would want to meet in a remote, quiet part of the Mansion and not have it be known. Such meetings are, in correct parlance, known as 'conspiracies' for reasons which are all too well understood. And it's not the first such meeting that Bean has attended in his life. In fact, some part of his training has gone towards organising and attending such clandestine gatherings without being caught. It's fortunate, then, that he spent quite some time in his first two weeks at the mansion preparing for such an eventuality.

    Unobtrusively, Bean enters the library and homes in on the signal emitted by his friend's phone, walking naturally and casually. He's been here before, he'll be here again, he often disappears among the stacks to browse tomes in the foreign language section. But the only word on his mind right now is Geheimnisse. So he keeps his voice low when he finally arrives. "Of all the people doing this sort of thing, I didn't expect it would be you."

Triage has posed:
The door to the library opens on well oiled hinges that prevent them from emitting any sound. Someone steps inside and then closes the door behind him with the same care that he has shown on other occasions requiring discretion. He advances through the room, past several tall shelves burdened with books of all manner. He carries his shoes, having doffed them to avoid noise and to prevent tell-tale markings on the carpet. He looks along each row, until he finally spies his cohorts. He nods and approaches them. When he hears Bean's whispered comment, he shrugs. "Desperate times," he murmurs, expecting the others to know the rest of the line.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon shakes her head, and keeps her voice at a low murmur, just barely audible to her two compatriots. "I never expected to have to be doing this, either. And I don't like it one bit. But so far, since Triage and I were able to meet with Cannonball and Mr. McCoy, there has been silence on the matter of that transmission. If lives could be at stake--and I have to play devil's advocate here, to be sure we're doing the right thing--IF lives are at stake, can we afford to sit on our hands?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Lives are at stake, one way or the other." is Bean's measured response, hands clasped behind his back. This is an altogether different Sam Morgan, not the happy, smiling Bean that was excited about the future, that was applying for college level courses and thinking about learning how to play the guitar. This isn't Bean, this isn't even properly Techno... this creature has a hint of Scorpio. "I have the full coordinates, it was all in the data package. Along with access codes, warnings, everything we need to move on this. But there's something wrong about the data, something's off. And I have a suspicion what it is, but I need a satellite uplink, sooner rather than later."

Triage has posed:
"We don't have a link like that here," Chris warns. "The X-Men might have something but we can't wait on that if lives are at stake." He sighs. "I hate to suggest this, but we might need to go elsewhere, beyond the teachers and counselors, and even beyond the professor, on this."

Nightingale has posed:
     The winged healer sighs heavily and nods. "As much as I hate to say it, we may not have much choice. However, I would strongly advise continuing attempts to keep the necessary people here at the school in the loop as well, starting with Mr. McCoy, Cannonball, Logan, and Kitty as we have been doing previously. With any luck, perhaps we could get a few different folks all working together on this."

     She bites her lower lip and sighs softly, seeming to come to a less than pleasant decision. "I know you two have heard me mention Captain Rogers a lot, but it /is/ possible for me to get in touch with him if necessary, and frankly, he's been an ally of the school. I'd consider trusting him on this, see if maybe he can help bump things up to where they need to go. Also..." She hesitates a little bit further. "...there's a good chance I might have one connection to the watchtower. It's a little bit of a long shot, but at this point, we're throwing out a Hail Mary and seeing who answers. Do either of you have contacts who might be able to help us out here?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "It's necessary." Again, Bean is to the point, standing about as still as it's possible to be without being a statue. "AIM used to try, and probably still are trying, to steal or reverse engineer Stark technology. Let that sink in for a moment. Site 13, if I remember correctly, is where they sent their most dangerous experiments. With no offense to our best team, but I don't think they're best equipped to deal with this. This is very much a job for the Strategic Homeland Intervention Engineering and Logistics Division. The clue is in the name. Look..." and he actually bites his lip for a moment, the first sign of humanity he's shown so far. "I thought the transmission was bounced off the atmosphere because of the Aurora Borealis. I was wrong. The coordinates, the place the transmission came from, is in Texas. Aurora or not, that doesn't make sense. Especially not the frequency shift, even taking into account nearly half a century of technological advancement."

    He looks to his compatriots, his co-conspirators, and nods to Triage. "Concur. Time is too pressing to wait for the proper CoC. And the hardware we need... the hardware /I/ need, isn't going to be available here. I don't know anything about the Watchtower, but I think it's time you used your connections with SHIELD on this, Shannon. For one thing they need to know, for another they're best qualified. I have a... sort of way of speaking with them, but it would mean speaking to the Captain eventually anyway, so you might as well take the lead on that. But soon. Very soon."

Triage has posed:
Chris shakes his head. "I have no contacts worth mentioning, but I agree with Bean. It's probably bigger than what the X-Men usually handle. Also, if this touches on Stark Industries, perhaps they should know about this as well. I'd leave that to the Captain or others of his caliber to evaluate. The crucial point is time." He looks to Shannon and adds, "This might not be much, but if you manage to talk to him, tell him that if we can help in any way, we will. We've already invested in this by coming here."

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon nods slowly and slips her phone from her pocket. For the second time that night, she taps out a message to a number she rarely, if ever, activated. <<Wish this was social. Teammates and I need to talk to you, ASAP. Please advise. --Nightingale>> Marking that message urgent, she fires it off, crossing her fingers. "I just hope it's not abusing the privelege of having that knowledge. Hopefully, this will turn out to be a freak incident and the worst we'll get is a little egg on our face."

     She taps out a second message to her other contact, her fingers dancing across the screen of her phone. <<Need to talk ASAP. Teammates and I need help. --Shannon>>. It is sent off to her other contact.

     "With any luck, we might hear from one or both soon. And again, we /really/ need to continue our efforts to get the A-team here involved, and definitely keep them informed. They've done well by us so far, and they are people that--speaking for myself, anyways--I love and respect a great deal."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Ideally we need to get them to work together. It's strategically unsound to not seek out alliances, especially when pressed from all sides by bigotry and misinformation." As the messages go out, Bean can't help but 'hear' them, and nods to the general content. "Short and to the point. Considering the subject matter, that's not a bad idea."

    As he has done for the entirety of the meeting at regular intervals, he checks that the cameras nearby aren't detecting anyone approaching, and that they're currently showing nothing but the room without them in it. "You are aware that this will require some explaining afterwards? You're willing to take that step?"

Triage has posed:
Chris looks to Bean. "I trust that you have the data readily available and in several different disconnected locations," he says. "We'll need it on memory sticks that we can give to whoever meets with us." He glances to Shannon whhile she sends the messages, and then back to Bean. "What about Alek? He sees things from a ... unique perspective. That also means possibly unique vulnerabilities. I'm not eager to jeopardize him in all of this." He takes a slow breath. "I'm lesss worried about myself than all of you," he admits. "Because I don't have any significant contacts, and I'm not even on a team, I'm less of a potential threat."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Willing to take that step? Gentlemen... when I sent those message, I already did. This is why we have to keep the people here looped in, and hopefully minimize that necessity. Techno, please do try to continue to convey the information you have to our people here, and you as well, Triage. Sooner or later, someone has to listen." She shakes her head and smiles wryly. "Man, do I see a lot of detention time coming from this one...."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Does he have the data available in offline storage? Bean turns his head towards Triage and gives him a look... such a look... "You know I used to do this for a living, right?" But the hard stare is interrupted by a wink and a small smile. Like a conjuror, he brings his hands from behind his back and opens his fists, palms up. A memory stick rests on each palm, until his fingers curl over them and his hands return behind his back. "Full data package, raw and translated, frequency modulation of the original transmission, complete with time stamps and decryption key. There's a third copy as well, but I'm keeping that one for myself. Somewhere safe."

    "Detention over this? I doubt it. We're trying to save lives." And if they get detention over that, he has severely missed his estimation of the school.

Triage has posed:
"I thought as much," Chris answers when Bean reveals the sticks. "But I want to be sure that everything is in order. We can't afford to fumble. That's also why I asked about Alek. We should be sure to cover everything, including his safety, and we should be ready to answer at a moment's notice." He glances to Shannon again. "Unless someone has duped us badly, when your friends intervene, they probably will manage to persuade anyone asking questions to be lenient."

Nightingale has posed:
The young mutant nods slowly, running her fingers through her hair. A feather drops from her right wing, fluttering to the ground. "I sure hope so. Especially considering the other contact is actually a teacher here as well." She frowns a little bit, considering something. "Should each of us have a copy of that data, or is that too risky, too open?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Alek is a great guy." Bean begins, with genuine feeling. The other technopath is a friend, and one he scared pretty badly not too long ago. "When it comes to data analysis, we probably want him involved. Anything else... we might want to keep him out of that. I want to keep him out of that. But I also feel like it should be his choice, so... let's ask him."

    He's about to respond to the question of giving everyone a copy of the data, which would roughly come down to a solid 'no', when he notices that feather fall to the floor. And instantly his eyes cast about, looking for more. Dammit, he hadn't checked for that! "Shannon... have you been moulting today?"

Triage has posed:
Chris looks at Shannon, and then at the feather at her feet. He stoops and snatches it from the carpet. After pocketing it, he answers for her. "She molts when she's anxious. Keep watch. If others drop, I'll collect them and see that they're safe." Then he nods. "We should minimize our risks. Keep those sticks safe until we need to provide them to others."

Nightingale has posed:
     Sure enough, there's a sparse breadcrumb trail of feathers leading to the library doors. Apparently, this meeting has been bothering Shannon more than she let on. She facepalms, shaking her head lightly, her oath muffled but understandable.

     "Scheisse!"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "I was afraid of that..."

    Now Bean looks to his co-conspirators. "If we don't want to be caught doing this, and probably stopped from talking to anyone else, we need to go. Now. Split up, go to different parts of the school, don't talk to each other for at least a few hours."

Triage has posed:
Chris nods to Bean and frowns. "Agreed." Then he looks to Shannon. "And collect those feathers!" Chris urges. "Let's go!"

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon turns bright red and nods, stooping to pick up the small trail of feathers that seem to have followed her in. Thankfully, they do not seem to be the larger flight feathers, leaving her ability to fly unhindered for the time being. But something was going to have to calm her down, soon. "Zero contact at all? Damn."

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Zero physical contact." Bean clarifies, wonders if he should clarify the clarification once what he said has worked its way through his peculiar mental process, and then decides against it. Clarification would be confusing. Oy. Instead he starts to head out, and takes the opportunity to slip one of the memory sticks in Triage's pocket. "You're less likely to be suspected. Congratulations."

Triage has posed:
Chris pushes the small sticks further into his pocket after Bean passes on his way to the door. "That might not be possible if something happens to Shannon, but we'll do our best," he agrees and nods. He gestures to Shannon to go next, and whispers something to her. Then he follows, gathering any feathers that she missed along the way.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon just nods in response, sighing lightly. Damn, this sucked. She opens the door, trying to scurry out of the librry as quickly as she can, finding one or two more smaller feathers....

     ...and, in the process, she isn't quite looking where she's going, running headfirst into Cannonball. Uh-oh.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie comes walking along into the library. He has a box of books with him, and has to juggle the box not to drop it. "Hey there." He notices the feathers in her hand "You shedding?'

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    The accepted way of doing this, as has been established in fieldcraft for decades, is to never leave a place at the same time. That necessitates letting one person leave while patiently waiting for your own chance to exfiltrate. As Bean lurks, ready to make his own way out, he can't help but notice the sudden appearance of the leader of the New Mutants, and he instantly shrinks away from the door. He gives Triage a rather urgent look and then walks off into the library to pick up a book, any book, to start browsing. Just hear for the knowledge. Yup. No conspiracy going on...

Triage has posed:
Chris instantly reads that look on Beans face, and nods. He, too, retreats from the door and heads for a different area, and begins to select tomes that appear to follow a common theme - studies in ancient mythologies. While he browses, he glances along the row occasionally, alert to any signs of an intruder.

Nightingale has posed:
     Sadly, Shannon is one lousy liar. A small feather drops to the ground and she sighs softly, the look that Cannonball has seen on her face once or twice that says 'the fertilizer might've just hit the fan'. "Ummm... funny you should ask that...."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie 's brow raises and says "Ok, whats got you so worried your molting, your wings go bald, your gonna have trouble flying Ah am pretty sure." He will look at her and call out "olly olly oxen free"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    On the one hand, it would be almost ridiculous for someone of Bean's training to simply give himself up after such a simple call out. On the other hand, he can tell Shannon's stress just from her tone of voice, and leaving her to suffer is utterly unconscionable. The monster that was Scorpio wouldn't have given a damn about that, but Techno is a different creature. Techno is a team player. So after only a moment of indecision, the treatise on Egyptian cheese making goes back on the shelf, and he walks out to nod to Sam. "Mister Guthrie. There's things we need to discuss, I think."

Triage has posed:
Bean might be a professional, but Chris is at heart a healer, often compassionate to a fault. Hearing Shannon's voice is enough for him. He sighs, slips the books into their places, and heads toward the door. If she has found trouble, she won't face it alone if he can help that. He touches one pocket before stepping into the hallway to stand beside her. "We should find some place with lower traffic," he suggests, waving to the foyer.

Nightingale has posed:
     All it takes is one gesture, with a 'busted!' sort of look from Shannon to let Sam know she was definitely not alone in here. "The walls have ears," she murmurs, keeping her voice low. "Know of anyplace with a little less foot traffic...?"

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie 's brow raises a bit looking at the three, and says "Um ok, well, let me set the over here and we can head back to my room Ah guess." He looks to the three and seems a bit confused about them trying to hide something.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "That would be a wise idea." is Bean's only contribution to this. He's not going to mention anything else in so public an area.

Triage has posed:
Chris signs and looks to Samuel. He nods, having nothing more to add except a whisper to Shannon.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods and follows Sam up to his room, with Bean and Triage close behind. The minute all four are beind closed doors, she scratches the back of her head. "Ummm, well... remember the incident with that weird transmission? We ummm... might have tried to get things going a little bit soon-ish..."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie 's brow raises a bit as he walks over to hsi mini fridge and grabs a cheerwine offering the others drinks before having a seat and sighing a bit "Ok bring me up to date?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "What Shannon is trying to say, politely..." from which it may be surmised that Bean has no such inhibition and is about to speak his mind, standing at rest next to a perfectly functional chair. "... is that time is of the essence. No matter which way we look at the data, lives are at risk. We have the coordinates, and I have a full copy of the data for you at simple request. We know where to go, how to get there, and how to get into the facility. The only thing we don't know is what's going on, or how the message got to us."

    He'll accept a bottle of Mountain Dew if offered, or a bottle of water if not available, before he goes on. "It is my estimate that, considering the group involved, SHIELD needs to be aware and be a part of the response. I will also need access to a satellite uplink terminal, which I don't believe can be found in the Mansion. For all those reasons, I counseled my two co-conspirators to get in touch with other organisations that could help, bypassing our normal chain of command because, in our opinion, there is not enough of a sense of urgency being given to this matter."

Triage has posed:
Chris accepts a drink from Sam and then nods to Shannon. "As both Shannon and Bean have mentioned, there's a good chance that lives are in danger. We weren't willing to allow them to suffer unnecessarily if we coould do something to help," he emphasizes.

Nightingale has posed:
     "Hopefully, if we're wrong about this, the worst we'd get is a little egg on our faces..." Shannon is definitely not pleased with having to speak up like this, and accepts the cheerwine. "Ummmmm... we might have gone through my contacts a tiny bit to get things moving. I /did/ insist, however, that we continue to do what we can to loop in our folks here..."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie 's brow raises and says "Lack of speed, well the last I have heard of this was you and Alek, were still working to uncode what static was, so, who al have you told and asked for help since you found out the location of what is happening?"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Mister Guthrie, Alek and I broke that code in a matter of hours." And Bean reaches into his pocket to produce a memory stick, handing it over. "It's all on there, usual format with necessary foot notes. Long story short, we're looking at an AIM facility in Texas, Big Bend national park. The coordinates are a bit more precise but that will do for our current discussion. From personal knowledge, I know that their main consideration has always been stealing technology for nefarious purposes, usually technology belonging to Stark. For that reason alone, I think SHIELD should be involved. Further, this is Site 13. And that is the site where they dumped all their dangerous experiments. Clearly something went wrong forty years ago and the site was lost in time. It's back now. Under siege, unaware of what year it is, and probably not here for very long at all. The message came through in an unusual format which leads me to believe it was sent through a dedicated satellite link to a receiving station that either no longer exists, or has been compromised. I suspect I know what satellite that is, and if I can prove that, I would be able to provide perfectly accurate observations in real time."

Triage has posed:
"All of what Bean and Alek have found, if true, should prove to others that this is a real danger with real lives at risk," Chris adds. "We understand that such things take time to verify. We simply want to ensure that those people, wherever and whenever they are, have a chance to survive. That was our motivation."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon sighs softly, running her fingers through her hair. She does her best to gain what composure she can, another feather dropping; thankfully, it's a small one. "Bean's got a better handle on the technical end of things. Sadly, I'll admit that is far from my forte. Nor, does it seem, like much else is. But what I do see out of all this is something like this. If there is even the slightest chance that any of this is for real, and knowing that the three of us have precious few resources we can use to be of any sort of help on our own, the one thing left that we -can- do is to make what noise we can about it--both among our own people here, and others who can potentially be of help--to see if a) it's for real and b) if it is, to give those survivors the best chance possible of making it out in one piece. Now, granted, this is not meant as a slur or slight on anyone here, but the more heads we have working together on this, the better. And if all we can do is set that in motion so that /all/ of us can get this done who have the means to do so, well, then so be it. Especially if this is messing around with time, well... yeah. The less chance we have of seeing anybody in the medbay or worse, the better."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods, and says "Ok, so your making as much noise and alerting folks, because the folks you have told have not responded quick enough. Ok, who exactly have you told you have location and more information. Ah know the last Ah heard was you were working on it, and Dr. Mccoy was waiting on the same. second, how is lets go talk in your room cause the room has ears? " He looks to them and says "Ah want to help, but Am going to be honest with you, this is seeming more like justification to put yourselves into danger, by going in yourselves. If your wanting to help these people and there is a way, actually going to those here who can help or even contact others who can help. Is a start, and you want to come here cause the walls have ears? What are you worried about that someone in charge are going to hear that your going off putting yourselves in danger and not going through proper channels?

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "What we're worried about, what I'm, personally, worried about, is that we're going outside of the school for this." Bean mentions as he finally sits down, somewhat weary. The drink is suddenly very welcome, and he manages a few good gulps before he continues. "Granted, my sense of urgency is a bit... let's face it, unrealistic. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn't a military organisation. In times of crisis, that's hard, so... my apologies for that."

    The rest... well, he has to think about that a moment. "I'd be a liar if I said that I didn't want to go there myself. But this isn't about the three of us gallivanting off. It's about making sure that people who probably need to hear this actually get a chance to hear this. That means people we can contact now, rather than having to wait for someone to do it on our behalf. We want to be useful, in what way we can. And that means that we've broken the chain of command, by going over the heads of senior staff. You can imagine we'd like not to talk about that in the middle of a hallway."

Triage has posed:
"Lives probably are at risk," Chris repeats. "You and Mr. McCoy heard the transmission. You have the data. Now, we can wait, knowing that someone will handle this. If we can help, we're here. If not, we understand and respect the decisions that come." With a firm nod, he adds, "We asked to discuss it privately so that others wouldn't learn about it and do something foolish."

Nightingale has posed:
     "If I said it wasn't at least a little tempting to go out there ourselves, it'd be a flat lie. But I also know that going out there ourselves would be supremely stupid, and not only would those survivors be at risk, but whoever else went out there to handle the problem would be having to worry about us, too. Thanks, I don't want any of us seeing my dad on a professional basis. And I don't want a nameplate in the medbay." Shannon sighs, crossing her arms. "If it's of any help," she offers. "...one of those contacts we mentioned was another teacher in the school."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie looks to them and says "Letting all the x-men know is not a bad things and letting others know as well is ok. The only thing with letting others know you need to watch how you tell them you found out as while some in other hero groups or government agencies know of us, many do not. Put all you know in so we can gather people and go, Ah can't promise you will be in on the mission, but we help even when just send others in to help.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Bean gives Triage a nod and a self effacing smile. "Always students around that are likely to do something foolish." Then, a nod to Cannonball. "Can't say fairer than that. But for what it's worth, all those contacts already know, or we wouldn't have contacted them."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Which was the whole idea to begin with. So far, the only thing we've put in our message is that we need to talk. No more, no less. No way in hell are we putting things like this on any open channels. That... would be supremely stupid." She sighs softly and ducks her head. "It's just a matter of who reaches out first now. And I stuck with contacts either within the school, or previously known allies."

Triage has posed:
"It was a radio signal," Chris notes. "Those usually don't isolate to one device, which means that if we heard it, others heard it, too."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods and "Ah would expect so, but putting exactly what frequency you heard it on would be good as well. Now, there is something I would like to talk with Shannon and Chris about soon as well.

Nightingale has posed:
     "If all we can do is make some noise and get the ball rolling, so be it. But if we can help in some way... then please, let us learn from this and help how we can?" The winged girl smiles a bit, looking on as Bean finally has to give in to the imperatives of sleep. "Morning run, 06:00 sharp!" she calls out after him. "We've got a lot of mac 'n cheese to burn off!"

Triage has posed:
Chris nods to Bean when he leaves and then notices the now empty bottle that Bean left. He snatches it from the floor and looks around for a trash-can. "Now is as good as soon," he offers.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie looks t the two and says "I want you to give Shannon a physical soon, the way she is molting her feathers is worrying me a bit." He will tell the two.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon just keeps quiet, crossing her arms. She's not about to argue with Sam, a lot of the fight going right out of her. She just glances between the two, debating on whether to say anything, but instead bites her lower lip and shuts up.

Triage has posed:
Chris inclines his head. "I'll do that. Since I've been back, I've noticed a pattern that might explain things." He glances to Shannon and continues. "She seems to molt in times of heavy emotional strain or anxiety. You know, even better than I, that she has had quite a few of those recently. I don't think that I need to list them but if you want that, I can provide it."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods his head, a bit and says "You noticed this as well, Shannon, or is this a thing that has happened before? ah am just starting to get worried about you and want to make sure your ok.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon shrugs a little. "Lost some feathers when I was on the off with Kitty, too. Chris found a trail of them heading out to the lake. Sorted things out with her, by the way, over a killer cup of cocoa." Her frown deepens. "I'm not crazy and damned if I'm going to let this get me booted off the team."

Triage has posed:
"Some of this might have been cumulative, from overextending herself after Josh left," Chris explains. "I've noticed several ... incidents. It's temporary. In each case, I've been able to find Shannon and coax her to talk to me about what happened. That seems to help very much." While Chris explains, he turns to look at Shannon, his eyes gentle with compassion and concern. "To be honest, that was a big part of my motivation to work here. They say that two heads are better than one. The same goes for healers. Together, we balance the load."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods a bit to this and at her talk of worrying to be kicked out "Ah swear sometimes Ah think we might be blood kin somewhere in there, your doing ok, your not going to be kicked out.

Nightingale has posed:
     "No, I've just got some screws loose and I'm a hot wreck. And let me guess... something about hanging me by my wings in there, big brother?" Shannon lets Chris continue on, there for clarification if need be, trying to smile some.

Triage has posed:
Chris shifts his attention from Sam to Shannon. He shakes his head at her words. "No, Shannon," he objects. "I'm no psychologist, but I don't think that you have any loose screws and you're not a hot wreck. You're dealing with anxiety. Everyone deals with anxiety. It simply more visible in your case." He steps toward her and kneels, picking up another small feather that has fallen. "This is why I encourage you to talk to me about things that worry you," he says, holding the feather so that she can see it.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods, and says "You worry a bit more than you should is the only real problem you got kiddo, but Ah would not know anything about such things." He offers her a grin.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon waves her hand dismissively, and her wings ruffle a bit, her face going a little bit red. "Look, point of the matter is, all that worry crap doesn't mean a thing. There's bigger fish to fry here. Please, if we can just continue to work all the angles here... meaning our folks here as well as those others Bean and Chris and I hinted at... and I swear they're either within the school or previously known allies, not so stupid as to try and reach out to anyone else like that. Not with something like we're sitting on."

Triage has posed:
"Without giving away the store, Sam, I can say that both of them have been here in the past," Chris assures. "They know this place, and possibly more than a few of its people. So we hide nothing by asking them to help our team, and they are not intruding where they shouldn't." He pauses and looks around the room before he adds, "The signal came through an ancient radio with vacuum tubes. If that old thing could catch the wave, I suspect that half of the East Coast might have heard it, from DC to Maine. It should be no secret by now, although it probably is a mystery that many will dismiss as nothing but a hoax like Orwell's 'War of the Worlds.'"

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie hmms and says "Ah have ben thinking about that, and would about be willing to wager it was picked up by very few. The fact it came only over it makes me think modern stuff did not pick it up. Might be the tubes, or something else, but thinking it probably only came over old radio.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods slowly. "Can you see now why we were making some noise where it might do some good? Yes, our people here are good. There's no denying that, and frankly I'm damn proud of it. But a few more pairs of eyes on this problem probably can't hurt, either, especially if they're ones we already trust.

Triage has posed:
Chris frowns thoughtfully and his brows knit at Sam's comment. "That's a point that I hadn't considered," he replies. "As I told Shannon and Bean when we heard it, my grandfather rebuilt an old radio with tubes like that when I was a child. He even needed to hire a specialist to rebuild some of the missing parts. Old tubes like that tended to vibrate and become warm. That's why the sets needed time to start. If we could find someone who knows about such things, and who's wiling to examine the radio to see if it had some defect, that might help to narrow the odds. It also might account for problems with the transmission itself." He looks to Shannon. "We need to find someone reliable and discrete to check the radio."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Not that our people here aren't reliable, but as you've shown us working together out in the field already, each person or group has their own unique capabilities and skill sets. If there's even a chance that allies might have the know-how we need to figure this whole thing out, it's a chance worth taking." Shannon's arms cross over her chest, and she settles back a little bit, waiting.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods his head a bit and says "We have a lot of smart folks around here, but I can understand wanting help from others. We need to get a group together and head there. what all did the static tell us?

Nightingale has posed:
     "From what Bean was telling us, coordinates, codes, warnings, the works. Chris, didn't he pass you one of those data sticks? Plus, like you and Mr. McCoy both saw, I still have the recording of the original transmission on my phone and no way am I letting that out of my sight." She purses her lips lightly, thinking for a moment. "I'm not thrilled about the idea of more copies of that data out than necessary, but I'm tempted to suggest we leave one copy with you, Sam, one with Chris, and one with me, just in case my contacts are able to come through before all of us are able to get together again. Plus, if you run into Mr. McCoy before we do, you can relay it to him. This gives us a very good chance of keeping everyone in the loop who needs to be."

Triage has posed:
Chris nods to Shannon. "He palmed two sticks to me. He has other copies on safe, non-networked devices," he answers. He pats the pocket that he touched when emerging from the library, and which he has guarded with his hand. "I'm sure that all are encrypted to military grade. If it is, it's a level that we should be able to decrypt without software from the Pentagon, but still quite secure."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie says, "Ah will be honest, Ah don't understand why you are being so secretive on this one it is a bit beyond me."

Nightingale has posed:
     "Does this honestly sound like the kind of thing that ought to be general knowledge? Especially if we're dealing with temporal stuff... that's not something you'd exactly want spread around the student body. As for the encryption..." Shannon chuckles lightly, and shrugs, ruffling her wings. "That may be Bean being Bean, but again, I'd rather see the precaution taken than not."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie looks over to her and says "Well think most would probably not think it was real, but this seems to be keeping it from known by the staff as well

Nightingale has posed:
     "Not entirely. If you recall, the initial message was sent out to you, Mr. McCoy, Logan, and Kitty. It just happened to be Mr. McCoy and you that were able to respond first. If the other two reach out, then of course we'll relay the information to them as well. But no, this is definitely not something that should be general knowledge through the whole school. I did emphasize to Chris and Bean, it might be noted, to still keep our folks here looped in, even if we did, as you put it, make some noise." She remains where she is, glancing between Chris and Sam.

Triage has posed:
"As for secrecy of the findings, you should talk to Bean," Chris suggests. "He mentioned some outfit called AIM and a Temporal Investigations. Time. This might involve interfering with time. That is far beyond our scope." He glances to Shannon.

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods, and says "Time travel is a pain but Aim is not just time travel, pretty much any type of tech they can make money off of.

Nightingale has posed:
     Shannon just laughs a little bit and shakes her head. "Yeah, it's not as if we have a mad man in a blue box helping us out here. We've got to work with the people and resources we can reach out to here and now. But yeah. Precisely because of knowing about Bean's background, if he's calling this AIM 'bad guy' type of bad news, then I'm inclined to listen and treat it accordingly."

Triage has posed:
"As for time travel, I know only what I've read in old pulp fiction, but I know Bean's face well enough to recognize that look. Something spooked him, badly. If AIM are mercenaries, selling to the highest bidder, that's even worse. What if the highest bidder is some group like FoH or worse?" Chris pulls one of the tiny sticks from his pocket and offers it to Sam. "For me, the big part is not seeing more people hurt. We've seen more than a lifetime's worth of that in the past few months."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie nods, and says "Ah am al for less people hurt even the bad folks if we can keep them from being hurt it is a good thing.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods. "Exactly. There's been too much of that recently." Another feather falls, one of her flight feathers this time, and her expression darkens, pale blue eyes bearing haunted shadows. "There won't be another Daniel if we can help it. Innocents or no... NO MORE."

Cannonball has posed:
Samuel Guthrie 's phone rings, and he looks down at it "Um, I need to take this, you two can stay and talk if ya want will be a bit" He heads into the bathroom answering the phone as he walks "Sam Guthrie speaking."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods slowly. "Thanks, big brother. I'm kind of glad you busted in on us. You've always got a level head about this stuff, let us kids learn from this stuff." She hugs Sam tightly as he has to go take the call, then heads for the door. "We can get together a little later... I think after this, some cocoa and chill sounds heavenly."

Triage has posed:
Chris nods and looks to Sam, even though he is on his way to his private telephone booth. "Bean wants some secrecy but he might not have trusted his previous team. We have a different story - working with honorable people." He glances to Shannon and then adds, "When it comes to teams, deceit is like vinegar in a cocktail. I'm all for keeping this above board if we can." Like Shannon, he turns to the door, ready to give Sam time to deal with the load that they dumped into his lap.

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods slowly, and breathes a sigh of relief. "I'm kind of glad Sam busted in on us. This is why I stressed keeping -everyone- looped in. Okay, maybe we could've handled it a little better, but I think it'll still work out in the end. It's not the worst mistake we could've made. Sam can keep Mr. McCoy and the others in the loop if he hears from them before we do, or if we hear from them first, we can. Just as long as we keep all sides current on who's who and what's what."

Triage has posed:
"There's one fly in that ointment but it should be simple to solve," Chris adds. "Bean needs to see why we should keep everyone abreast of things. I understand his worries about AIM. Still, if we're on the same team we should put our cards on the table. We're his team, allies, and friends."

Nightingale has posed:
Shannon nods slowly as she heads out the door with Chris. "Given the hell he's been through, that can and probably will take some time. Hopefully this will help. At the same time, though, my point about not letting this become general knowledge stands. That'd just be plain out stupid. But we'll deal with it as it comes up." And with that, she's out the door, en route to cocoa, chill, and to get certain medical matters taken care of for Sam's peace of mind.

Triage has posed:
Chris nods and follows Shannon. "Cocoa?" he echoes. "Have you tried it with ginger cookies? I think that we have some in the kitchen," he offers, knowing that they have spent two or three days with little or no 'down time'.