Dawn broke as usual around 9 am.
Waya stumbled out of a cloud of darkness as she appeared in the danger room control room. Being away from them in the kitchen didn't stop her mind from reaching out and amplifying their thoughts. Though the distance helped, made their voices sound more like whispers instead of shouts. It was almost like her amplified hearing and how when it surfaced she couldn't help but hear everything. She'd have to figure this out just like she did all the others and the best place for that was in the danger room.
In the recent months since "The Disappearance" she would often come down here at night to work on the simulation she'd been building. It had become her safe-zone, the little hideout where she'd steal herself away in the middle of the night when she couldn't sleep. The result was a full scale hard light projection of the eye witness accounts of the day. To add to her investigation a youtube fan and traffic cameras helped to document the events. The simulation was incomplete but she'd started compiling data since the memorial service. It all seemed more important than reopening the school, as she could so hear Rhydian say in the kitchen. How could they protect twenty students when they can't even figure out how the other team bought it. Never-mind that her and Junior's family had disappeared.
And that opened a whole can of worms all on it's own, but first she needed to shut the telepathy off. If she could still hear them upstairs then she wondered how sensitive her telepathy really was. Research is knowledge and knowledge is power, power to control this stupid telepathy. She sat down at the computer and began to research telepathy. She knew that Dr. Jean Gray had taught classes so she began searching for her published works.
One "shouting" mind was getting clearer however, female and FUMING at the twins; this was enough to show who it was. "Knew you'd be in here"
Eliza panted as she emerged from the door to the danger room "Look, Waya... I just..." She sighed and took a few steps closer to Waya, her mind suddenly blank and not saying anything but
make her feel better, make her feel better, jeese that was a lot of detail she just gave us, both herself and Junior. "I'm sorry..."
"It's ok and you don't have to try and make me feel better."
Waya told Liz "I'm sorry I projected a naked image of your cousinbrother into your head." Her fingers where skittering across the multiple keyboards in search of information.
Did she not publish anything after she got married?
"Well it was a bit..." the only thought
Eliza gave out then was something resembling a mind shudder and the words
but you... "It's not your fault though, the damn twins should never have said that to you... And I think Jean published stuff about telepathic control under psuedanims as well as her own name after she became more recognized so just search for psychics or other literature and you might get some hits."
You sure you're ok?
"I will be."
Waya said redirecting her search like Eliza suggested "I think I found something..." she clicked on the file and opened it
It's a paper Emma published when she was headmistress of her own school.
"Do you think you're going to hear us all the time? cause I'm sure some others won't want you in their heads..."
Eliza sighed, rubbing her head slowly
So many crushes going on, secrets, even peoples sexualities!
"There has to be some way to turn this off."
Waya said skimming the file. When Emma's paper turned up fruitless she redirected her search to Jean again. "Mom could talk to animals, why the crap didn't that develop instead? Telepathy is so..."
"Who knows? Maybe you'll get both? My powers are barely related to my parents"
Eliza chuckled softly, then for some reason there was a flash of Magneto in both their minds. "Hmmmm..."
I wonder, reversal of that? She'd look like an idiot but... We could make it work! And fasionable!
"I draw the line at a helmet."
Waya said seriously "I just got my hair cut the way I want it." She wasn't often prone to thoughts of appearance or something as futile as hair but it did hide her tattoos and abnormal eyes.
"Fine, if you want every thought that pops into the twins' heads going straight to you then be my guest. We could make it looked better, or thinner or something..."
Eliza sighed, rubbing her head slowly "And it's better than any other options we have."
Reminded of the twins
Waya had second thoughts. "Alright." She said "I don't want them in my head any more than I want to be in there's."
Eliza smiled "Alright, you don't have to wear it all the time."
IF only sometimes, if we're alone together then we can practise cutting people out of your mind and not projecting. Better do it away from the twins or Rhydian or... Junior.
"Let's go see what we can find."
Waya told her. Normally it would be Moe trying to help out on something like this, but given her disappearance she was very glad Eliza was stepping in to take up the slack. "Thanks, by the way."
"Well... I've been so busy with work"
Eliza sighed as she rubbed her arm "And I guess I relied on Moe to be friends with you. I shouldn't ignore you guys, even if I'm trying to fix all this."
How many pieces left? There's the problem of balancing out the resonance between this reality and the other so they don't smash together. Power control... Her mind buzzed off into technical gibberish.
"No offense but I don't have any idea what a Flux Capacitor is or where to find one."
Waya said getting feedback from Eliza's mind "And don't worry about it, I've been sort of preoccupied with..." She trailed off, she'd not shown anyone the simulation she'd been building
Maybe when it's complete.
I shouldn't ask what she's been working on, it'll be rude to inquire... dammit she just heard it! Dammit and that! DAMMIT! CIRCLE LOGIC! Eliza shook her head quickly to clear it "Don't worry about those things, and the flux capacitor is something out of star trek I think. Damn nerds inventing all these things..."
"Lets get to the lab and see if we can't find a neural inhibitor or something."
Waya said "Your head is nearly as confusing as mine."
"Y-yeah... before you end up in my head and I end up in yours. Think this is how Jeremy feels?"
Eliza giggled softly, rubbing her head slowly "You want to go first, see if you can find it without my help so we don't keep crossing signals."
"I think we should look in the
lower level infirmary."
Waya said headding that direction.
Rhydian entered after having gone to
the lower level infirmary to speak with Eliza. He hated the fact that Waya had interrupted, but that was another little problem he'd have to get over soon enough. He went to the keypad and started piecing together a program for himself. A junkyard would be the most ideal location to test his abilities, but whom should he face? The computer had a very comprehensive list of adversaries and a great many of them would be a challenge to the entire team, not just him alone. It was true that he was tired from earlier, but still, he wanted to know what his limits were. They had to have increased after all. He thumbed through the selection of villains before settling on a rather simple one. Multiple Man wasn't exactly a villain, but he did add a certain challenge to defeating him that no one else really could.
The doors opened with the usual swoosh sound and
Rhydian walked into a garbage dump. Mountains of trash surrounded him. He saw an old refrigerator off to one side, a couple of run down cars to the other. The danger room was quite capable of even creating smells, for the outstanding odor of the city dump wafted into his nostrils, making him cough slightly
Waya followed Eliza in and settled at the console. The danger room was wired into the whole security system on the grounds. "We've got eyes within the surounding mile or so." She told Liz. "How far do you think the... sentinals scanners range?"
"They usually spot things when flying over, so a good few miles at least. But that's usually without things blocking their sight, so we might be at an advantage here"
Eliza nodded to Waya "And more angles than they can manage." She went over to a few computers herself... this should be good.
"I'm setting the ground sensors at max."
Waya told her. "Everything except the grounds proper. The pilots need to know that if they leave the lawn they'll trigger the sensors." She could easily send Rhydian a telepathic message telling him to tell the pilots... but that was putting her a bit close for her own taste...
"Anything else you want to go over before I tell them?"
Eliza asked, checking a few of the instruments... They needed to upgrade at some point, maybe she should talk to the Richards about this. She hadn't seen them in ages...
"They'll probably be working in shifts."
Waya said as her fingers flew across the keyboard. "Find out how long and when they change. I know they need sleep, but I want at least two of them scanning at all times."
Eliza nodded and moved towards the door, pausing just before it "Will you be alright down here by yourself Waya?" It was just to make sure she didn't need Eliza's company... she knew Waya was sensative about her feelings, this was a subtley as Eliza could put it.
"Fine."
Waya said not turning away from the console. With several floors worth of earth between her and the sentinels, she'd be fine. Saying it like that had sounded a bit short so she turned to Liz and offered her an honest, "Thanks by the way..."
"Any time" it was just as honest,
Eliza was torn apart recently, she was putting herself back together and realising how she needed to be there for others a bit more. It wasn't a good realisation, it would take time away from her work, but it was... necessary. She nodded and smiled to Waya, then headed back upstairs.
Waya turned back to the console and looked at the images from the grounds. She took a breath and changed the channel to the east grounds.
Waya had spent all day and so far, all night in the control room, mostly keeping an eye on the Sentinals out of her sheer paranoia. She'd actually fallen asleep with her head backwards off the chair. She heard the alert from the sentinels and sat bolt upright. "Awe..." Her neck screamed with a twinge that distracted her for a split moment before her healing factor began to take care of the pain. On the monitors she could see a distant dark figure pass out of sight.
Guys... she reached out telepathically to alert the others.
It's show time.
Waya could see on the gate monitor as the filth encrusted, animal savaged person came jogging right out of the woods and up to the front gate. Due to the enhanced night vision on the gate camera she could see that a bandanna covered his nose and mouth while the hooded top covered almost everything else. His eyes though, large eyes, almost all whites apart from two pin-point irises, gazed into the camera. He pressed the buzzer to get her attention, his eyes darting over to the sentinels before back to the camera, then carefully spoke the words "I hope I haven't arrived at a bad time."
Waya's eyes narrowed as she looked into the monitor. "You should know," She said hitting the com button. "If you've come for trouble your not likely to walk out of here alive."
This was a man, that was obvious, it was a man's voice coming through. Rather deep in fact. "I have come here for quite a few reasons... trouble is not one of them. Now would you kindly let me through? Its not like you have anything to worry about, what with these giant machines of death on the lawn." His gaze seemed oddly focused on Waya's own eyes as he spoke that last word. When he moved his hand back and forth when pressing the intercom she could hear a strange muffled metallic clink.
Waya reached out with her telepathy, but trying to look so far was quite difficult. Her telepathy was better at close range. She was looking for motive, what his intentions were and whether or not he was a mutant. Unless he had some means to block her, she should be able to glean something useful.
What waya got in response was a mixture between static and screaming. Either this man could block her mental advances or there was something severely wrong with his head; it was probably the latter one because mental blocking shouldn't send the noise rocking back and forth between your ears. There were a few words though, just able to be picked out. "Find him". But they weren't malicious in intent... they just seemed to be very... determined. Fanatical even. Still, on camera, he kept staring in with those huge eyes, waiting for the gate to open.
"Who are you looking for?"
Waya asked him. She tried to listen through the noise of his mind, wincing when the screams pierced her telepathic ears.
"Is it traditional to greet guests with this much hostility?" the man said, those piercing eyes still staring into the camera "I've gone through hell just to get here and you're treating me like I'm the one pointing the large robots of death at you. Let me in. I'll give you answers then."
"Sorry but your reputation precedes you."
Waya told him. "Word is that you;ve hurt a lot of people on your way here."
"I'm... having trouble" the man said slowly, reaching up and rubbing his forehead with a dirty palm; he hadn't blinked in quite some time actually, just stared into the camera. "I thought... here... I could... get help. In so many ways... I need help... I need to find him" he wasn't acting violent, was it even the same guy? This was Xaviers... were they about to turn away a guy asking for help?
Waya was quiet, thinking that over. It wasn't their nature to turn someone , not a fellow mutant any way and he hadn't come in guns blazing like SHIELD had said he would. It wouldn't be the first time they'd made a mistake like that. "Stay put." she told him. "It's not my decision alone."
"Can you make these machine things stop staring at me? They're creepy" the man said in reply, still staring into the speaker. He seemed to know the basics, he knew how these intercoms worked, but he didn't seem to know what a sentinel looked like; at least these versions of a sentinel.
"No."
Waya told them. "I can't." Wouldn't was more like it, but he didn't have to know that. "I'll be back, just wait there." She pulled the shadows in the room around ner and teleported to
the school entrance hall
Rhydian appeared from the elevator with Maribel, he moved to the control console and sat down, watching the monitors
Eliza blinked as she came in the door "Oh... you guys are coming down here too?" She'd been the one to offer up her services keeping the defenses in check, the only thing is she took the stairs. The others had beat her down here.
"Yeah, I kinda figured it would be better if I were out of everyone's way."
Rhydian told her truthfully. Out of everyone, Liz was the one who actually seemed to have forgiven him, for everything but how he had trapped her...he felt awful about that as well
She wasn't quite happy to forgive him for the trapping just because he 'felt awful' about it, but
Eliza seemed to be putting up with Rhydian at least. "Well if you keep an eye on the monitors, I'll run some diagnostics on the systems, make sure this guy hasn't gotten into them." He'd just walked in, unless he was stupid or actually innocent he'd really made a mistake.
"Gotcha."
Rhydian said, moving to the console. He hated how everyone felt about him now, they still didn't understand why he did what he did. None of them did, that's what made it so hard
Maribel walked over to the monitors and looked at them with the others. She really hoped nothing crazy was going to happen.
Did you guys get all that? Waya asked, opening the telepathic pathways so the group could communicate about what to do with this guy seeking entrance to their school.
Eliza sniffed slightly, gazing up at the monitors as Waya walked away
"Yeah, I got that Waya." What was up with this guy? He just seemed so... out of it, and secretive.
This guy really seemed clueless.
Maribel hoped this was all a misunderstandi
ng.
I can't get into his head. Waya told them. There's too much interference. He wants to come inside to look for someone but he won't tell us who. He says he won't cause any trouble and I can't hear any lie in his voice, but that doesn't mean he doesn;t have a way of getting around that.
"Well I can't blame him for not wanting to stand out in the open like that" Eliza replied, frowning at the monitors "But he's not been hostile in any way, right?"
"Considering the fact that everyone but the three of us are outside right now, wanna bet he's after one of us?" Rhydian pointed out to Maribel and Eliza. He looked at the two girls, "I know I've done some things that could warrant such attention, I don't think either of you have though. Right?"
"I'm trying to build a matter transporter to a different universe, and quite a few people know that now. So yes, I'd say there is a reason someone might search for me" Eliza pointed out, giving a small shrug "But someone like him? No..."
Rhydian looked at Maribel, "I highly doubt that you are the one he searches for. Not that you couldn't be, but you're rather new here to be gaining such dangerous attention."
He's been perfectly civilized. Waya told them. Other than acting just a little cracked. Honestly, we've been more hostile than he has.
Maribel shook her head. Why would someone be here for her?
"Why doesn't anyone just ask him who he's looking for?" Rhydian asked, he hadn't seen the guy before and it was unlikely he was after either of the girls with him.
"They already did. He's not saying until he's inside apparently" Eliza frowned, zooming in on the man's feet with a camera "Probably wants to sit down. Looks like he's been walking for days."
Hey, should I go get a ruler or are you going to measure your dick's by comparison? Get over here Phinagin, we have shit to discuss."
Listening to three conversations and the impending doom of having sentential near had Waya a little frazzled. She hadn't intended to transmit that portion of conversation.
Calm down Eliza was speaking to her, and her only right now Do you want me to come up there? You could take it from down here. Honest, I don't mind. she was trying to cut Waya some slack; she was up there with Phinagin, who was for some reason deciding to make things worse, jeremy, who was... well, deathly silent as always, and the twins, who wouldn't help calm things down. Not to forget the sentinels.
"Or he just wants to come in because he doesn't see who he's hunting out there." Rhydian tried to convince Eliza
Maribel tugged on Eliza's sleeve, 'Don't you think it's odd that he isn't willing to explain why he is looking for someone? Sure, he has to look at them first, but there is nothing keeping him from explaining a motivation."
Maribel has a point... Waya said. "What if we call off the sentinels and invite him to the patio outside the commissary? We're not letting him in, but it'll be showing some semblance of good faith."
"I still don't think its a good idea at all." Rhydian told them. It was clear to him that the person this guy was looking for was one of the three of them here in the danger room. The real question was which one?
I don;t like it ether, but he says he needs help. Waya told him. And since when did we start turning away people who need help?
"Maybe he's suspicious of sharing information with us. Considering the greeting, don't you think someone searching for one of us would be a lot more stealthy and not currently be standing in the middle of a ton of Sentinels?" Eliza pointed out, frowning up at the screen. What did this guy do anyway? Did he even have a mutation?
He says he's been modified. Waya said getting Liz' thoughts mixed up with what she was saying.
There was a small mental mumble of Herp de derp before Eliza nodded and replied "That sounds... ominous. Like someone important has gotten to him and tried to mess around with him. But if he was a threat he wouldn't admit that." She frowned as she thought... were shield in on this? I mean, if they wanted to get rid of an experiment, sending them after the kids, then stomping on the 'rogue experiment' to make the entire thing look like it was doing the X-men a favour... She wouldn't put it past Fury.
I think you guys should stay down there. Waya told them. If it's not you he's after then the only other person he's not seen yet is Junior. Junior was still staying invisible as backup, but she supposed there might be a refugee from Asteroid M who still blamed him for Magneto's death.
"And when Junior reveals himself?" Rhydian asked blatantly. When he revealed himself and turns out that it wasn't going him that the guy was looking for, what would they do after that
He's not going to. Waya told him. Not unless we need him. What do you guys say about inviting him to the commissary patio? We won't be letting him inside, but he might be more comfortable telling us who he;s looking for.
"I'm fine with that" Eliza said with a mental sigh "Lets just be careful with this. He doesn't seem hostile, but if he's all scrambled up inside then he might lose it suddenly."
Right... Waya agreed. Rhydian, what do you think?
Rhydian sighed and looked at Eliza and Maribel. "I think it's one of us he wants to see. But given the fact of how new Maribel is here, it's safe to rule her out. So he's clearly after either me, Eliza, or the invisible Junior. I think the sooner we find out who he wants, the better. It might be good if Junior reveals himself."
Yeah, I got that part. Waya told him. I mean about letting him into the commissary patio? I'm gonna see if I can get a little more out of him before I tell Junior to come out or not. He was her friend after all. Along with Rhydian and Liz. Other than the twins they;d been the ones here the longest and most likely to have a bad guy harboring a grudge for them.
"He might be more willing to talk if not surrounded visibly by threats. The patio sounds like a good enough place." Rhydian agreed
Alright. Waya said. I'll try to keep the telepathic pathways open. Stay in touch.
As her nerves flared up, Maribel's throat started to feel a bit sore and mouth mouth salivated. The odd sensation was new, but now wasn't the time for Eliza to play doctor with her again. She really hoped this character wasn't here to kill anyone. That seemed to happen a lot around here. At least this time they would keep their feet on this planet...she hoped.
"What was this guy's name again?" Eliza asked, a frown spreading over her forehead. she was running a small database in the side of the computer screen, checking through names for anyone related to the X-men, villain or not, with this guy's name.
Maribel went over to Eliza and watched over her shoulder. Her black eyes skimmed next to the monitor that showed the group outside. This Rex fellow seemed harmless...so far.
Rhydian sighed and leaned back in the chair, continuing to monitor the situation with the instruments.
Maribel snapped her fingers, 'What in heaven's name where the twins trying to do?!' she signed quickly, completely confused by their behavior.
"They're just being... the twins" Eliza sighed softly, listening in on the conversation and shaking her head slowly. damned idiots... She frowned as the conversation continued though, then let out a gasp at the name. "D-dad!?" she said loudly before talking mentally to Waya "What the HELL does he want with dad?"
"All the more reason for you to stay here, Liz." Rhydian told her, perhaps a bit sternly. He looked up from the instruments and over at her. "If he came looking for your dad, who do you think he's gonna go for now that he's not here?"
Eliza didn't respond to Rhydian, she was too busy staring at the monitors, trying to get a closer view on this person. She frowned at him, trembling slightly as he listened and watched him from every angle "W-what... does he mean... by dad?"
Maribel tensed and glanced over at Eliza. What was this all about? Did she have a long lost brother? Or was this guy just crazy?
Maribel gasped when she saw her friends vanish into thin air when Rex lost it. With her mouth agape, she stepped back. Oh no... it was happening all over again. She was going to die, wasn't she?
"Oh... oh god" Eliza said, her cheeks turning pale as she stared at the monitor. "W-we... we need to..." Eliza tensed up, closing her eyes and forcing her mind to try and work "Calm... stay calm... need to... get him locked up... there's a holding cell. He... he doesn't know... what he's doing. Lock him up. Get him to reverse it." They weren't dead. They COULDN'T be dead...
Maribel's knees were shaking. They all...just.... vanished. Just by touching him. Her fingers were twitching and a thin spindle of webbing seemed out of them. Glancing down, she felt a strange urge start to take hold. 'I can make a trap...' she signed, making sure Eliza and Rhydian were looking.
Rhydian couldn't help but stare at the screens. They were gone! Just like the X-men, just vanished from the spot! Was this the guy who took their family?! He had thought the guy had vanished along with the X-men, but what was the likelihood of another person with the same ability?! What happened to Waya?! He was on his feet in an instant. He grabbed the comm-mike and practically hollered into it. "O.N.E. Sentinels! Encircle him now!"
Maribel gasped and grabbed Rhydian's collar. She frantically shook her head and pounded her fist against the metal top of the control panel to define her urgency. If the sentinels killed him...they might NEVER get the others back. With him alive, maybe there was a chance!
Rhydian shook her off and glared at her. "I'm not going to kill him! The X-men don't kill." He stated plainly, knowing full well if she took the time to read mission reports she would see countless times that the X-men had in fact killed. Though they stated that motto constantly.
Maribel stepped back and froze up. She had never seen a friend give her a look of such anger before, not to mention the way he had yelled. Her brows tensed and her eyes darted downward, feeling both sorry and embarrassed. Unable to express it verbally, she stepped away from the group.
Rhydian sighed and immediately regretted how harsh he had been with her. He stepped towards her, "I'm sorry Maribel. I didn't mean to yell..." He ran his fingers through his hair, clutching at the longer ones in the back. "He..he just made her vanish...I will get her back." Again his voice grew harsh as he spoke of Waya, it had to be Waya, she was the only 'her' who had vanished
"A trap? How can you make a trap?" Eliza asked hurridly; they needed to get him locked up without touching him... and using instruments was still risky, because he might be able to make someone disappear while not directly touching them. A robot... maybe... but there was nothing small enough to get him down here safely...
Maribel raised her eyes to look at Eliza. She hoped she knew what she was getting in to and that she was capable enough. Maribel was quite new to these mutations of hers. Pressing her fingertips together, she pulled them apart and strings of thick webbing cradled between them. Eliza knew just how sticky and strong they were. If Maribel could make some sort of web or trap and they could lead Rex into it, he'd be done for.
Eliza nodded slowly to maribel. Right, she got that... "Right... we could even just... throw it onto him or something... he doesn't appear to be moving..." she looked up at the screens, swallowing hard "But... how do we drag him down here?"
Maribel placed her finger tips on the stool to her right and then took her hand off. With the webbing on the seat, Maribel dragged it across the floor an inch or two to demonstrate. Although she was new to her mutation compared to the others, she had taken Eliza's advice and had been practicing in the privacy of her room. It was strong, sticky, durable...and she seemed to have an endless supply.
Rhydian was watching the girls curiously. They had a battalion of O.N.E. Sentinels surrounding the guy, why not just use them to transport him down here? It's not like the giant robots couldn't fit through the hangar doors, a jet came out of those for cryin out loud.
Eliza nodded quickly to Maribel "Yes... yes, that would work... but does anyone want to be touching the other end? You saw Phinagin... he was touching him with the BONE and just vanished. Maybe... maybe we should sedate him first? That might stop his mutation."
She had a good point and Maribel nodded, glancing to the screens. Lifting her claws, she signed as best as she could, 'Will those robots disappear when they touch him?'
"I don't know" Eliza said weakly, gazing at the screens herself "Maybe... but... I don't know. I'd want to sedate him first before anyone tries to touch him... Is everyone alright with that?"
Maribel nodded, wanting them to go on with it. She hated that this was taking so long. The sentinels were just standing there.
"How are we planning to sedate him?" Rhydian asked curiously. He had missed that part of the conversation
"The medical bay has some sedatives, and a long distance method of injecting them" Eliza said quickly, her mind always had worked at high speeds "we just have to grab some from there."
Maribel nodded and started to make her way towards the door, hoping the others were coming as well. They really should pick up the pace...their friends had vanished for crying out loud!
Rhydian shoved back from the consoles and headed for the elevator topside. "Do what you want, I'm going to get Waya." He told the two of them. Let them have their plan, he had the power now. Why not use it?
Maribel looked at Eliza with an annoyed expression. No wonder no one really liked Rhydian, he wasn't a team player anymore.
"Make that two sedatives. I don't want him being an asshat" Eliza said, turning away and moving over towards the medical bays. She just needed some sedatives, that's all...
Waya sat back in her chair. She didn't so much use the room it's self as the control room monitors. At least she wouldn't be using the room till she wanted to actually take a walk through the street. Right now she sat deeply in her chair, lazily swinging back and forth as she chewed on the pinky nail of her right hand. Over and over again she watched the footage of the X-Men being sucked into a black hole of nothing. She watched this from six different angles. Two from security camera feeds, one from the stop light, two from cell phone cameras posted on youtube and one from an overhead satellite. A seventh and eight monitor behind her pain painstakingly attempted to piece together information from cameras that had been damaged during the disturbance.
"I thought I was the one who was meant to obsess over this, so you guys didn't have to" the laugh clearly held nothing funny in it. Eliza's figure stood in the doorway, gazing at the chair as the legs swung lazily in it. "Waya, we need to talk a bit, alright?" she took a step inside the room slowly. She looked exhausted, and probably smelt worse, but she'd been working on her machine for quite some time. Days, perhaps. "I'll just do the talking, if that's what you want. Or I'll not talk at all. It's up to you, alright?"
Waya's chair rotated around until she could see Liz with Junior behind her. She acknowledged their presence and slowly swiveled back around to her monitors.
Junior stepped in behind Eliza and thought that maybe she was handling this too gently. Waya didn't like being patronized. Probably especially not when everyone she knew and loved got to see first hand what had happened to her in Rex' little world. She was only glad that they hadn't seen what she'd leached from the twins.
Eliza moved over to Waya's side, hands behind her back, eyes up on the screens "The others... wanted to go sledding. I think... well, they obviously wanted to go back to how it was when we were kids. At least for a day, you know? What do you think Waya? Would you be able to join them?" It was a little blunt, but Eliza needed to ask.
"I'm busy." Waya said folding her hands across her stomach.
Yeah... junior couldn't help but feel like this was going all wrong. "It was Maribel's idea." He said, completely forgetting that it was really his idea. "Since Jeremy is a little suseptable to the cold we thought we could use the danger room. We figured maybe... if you wanted to take a break, you could maybe join us..."
Waya's eyes lingered on Junior for a moment. He knew very well what was up. George she could get over, that had been an unfortunate occurrence... but she'd been betrayed by the twins and that wasn't so easily swept under the table. "I'm busy..." she repeated. Though at the moment she looked like she wasnt very busy at all.
"Well, I'm going to be busy with you" Eliza said, sitting next to Waya and staring up at the monitors as well "I'm not going to force you to come with us Waya. I can't force that on you, and I don't want to force that on you. But I would like you to take a break... I would like to help you, if I could, I would like to be there for you. But, since you're not letting anyone close, not even enough to try and... be happy again... take some time out and... just try... then I'm gonna keep you company."
This was going to end in shouting... Junior could sense it already. Threatening Waya with forced human company wasn't a good idea. She might hate to admit it but she was feral and she'd been acting even more feral since the incident weeks ago.
"What part of "Leave me alone" don't you people understand?" Waya asked. "I want to be left alone. How hard is that to comprehend?"
"Well, to be honest I've been in my room a lot, so you haven't had to tell me" Eliza said with a small shrug "But... there's only so long you should be left alone Waya. You've been avoiding people... a lot... and well... people are obviously getting worried about you. When are you planning on not avoiding people Waya? There's only so long that we can leave you alone you know. You're going to have to deal with us sometime."
Perhaps junior should have taken point during this discussion. He feared by the end of it Eliza wouldn't at all feel like sledding after this.
"I spoke to Rhydian earlier." Waya told her. "Consider that progress... If you guys want to use the danger room you can, but you can't make me do anything..."
"If you're going to talk to someone, why won't you have a little fun with us? Remember that stuff? Fun? When was the last time you had some of that?" Eliza sighed sighed, gazing up at Waya from her place on the floor "You don't have to interact with anyone, if you don't want to. You don't even have to speak. All it is, is sledding down a hill. That's all."
"Febuary 3rd 2028..." Waya told her.
"What?" Junior asked, finally speaking up again.
Waya rolled so she could see him out of the corner of her eye. "She asked when was the last time I had fun... February 3rd, 2028..." That day had been rather significant. It flashed in the bottom right hand corner of every monitor around them.
"I'm pretty sure that's the same for me" Eliza didn't even have to check the monitors for that one. "But... it's Christmas time. There are people here. Lets just... try to have some fun? Once. Just once since they disappeared. We can try." Eliza sighed gently, shuffling a bit closer to Waya's side "Will the world really end if you enjoyed yourself?"
"I don't fucking want to enjoy myself Liz!" Waya shouted at her. "I want to fucking wallow in depression and self pity. Is that too much to fucking ask?" She shot up from her chair, causing it to roll back and crash into the far wall.
"Come on Liz." Junior told her. "We'll find some insulates for Jeremy and just use the hill out back.
"Just... let me be alone with her for a bit, alright?" Eliza said, turning to Junior slightly and nodding "Just for a bit." She was still sitting there, but instead of sitting near a chair, she was sitting hear the standing Waya. "It'll be okay. You guys just get ready, alright? Waya and I will just have a little talk."
"No Liz, I don't wanna talk." Waya moved towards the console and typed in a few commands to clear and save her progress. "You guys take the danger room. I'll go somewhere that isn't here." And she started toward the door.
Junior quickly stepped out of Waya's way, fearing what might happen if he lagged too long. He really hadn't been much of a help at all. Perhaps Liz had been the wrong one to bring.
Eliza got up at once, following after Waya as she walked out, keeping only a few paces behind at all times. "I'll see you guys in a bit" she said as she passed by Junior. She wasn't going to let Waya just stalk away this time. Eliza meant it when she said she was going to keep her company.
"Liz, no, this isn't a good idea..." Junior reached out to grab her by the arm, but with Liz's powers that probably wouldn't hold her for long.
"You're damn right it's not a good idea." Waya growled at the door, her back facing the both of them. "Just leave me alone Liz."
"Yeah well, I'm the queen of bad ideas" Eliza muttered, her arm shrinking slightly, slipping free of Junior's grip as she walked about Waya "But I'm also pretty good at being determined. So I'm not going to let you wallow in misery, no, because that is not something anyone wants to happen to you. Sure, this might be dumb, and you might hate me afterwards, but since no one else is doing anything, I'm going to make sure I'm there beside you."
"Good luck following me." Waya told her and snatched Liz' own shadow towards her and fell right through it, out of sight. It began to close immediately, but lingered for an instant.
Eliza knew that it was a silly thing to do, but before the portal could full close she had leapt. "No you don't" she yelled as she leapt straight into the shadowy world beyond, making herself thinner as she plummeted into the darkness, just making sure she didn't hit the edges. She didn't want to get caught half-way after all.
"Nooo!" Junior shouted at her, lunging for the black spot on the floor. He came up short and just as it snapped out of existence completely. For a moment his hands didn't want to see reason and clawed at the floor for a moment. "Stupid!" He shouted at the floor. "Really stupid!" He stood up and ran his fingers through his hair. Someone should go upstairs and tell everyone that they would soon be short one brainy stretchy type.
Stumble!