Peach Lake
Peach Lake is on the north end of town, very close to the X-Mansion in consideration, no more than a mile's walk away. The lake is large and can boast room for recreational boats, inner tubing, swimming, and other aquatic activities. However, seeing as how its September, the activities are starting to dwindle as the months grow colder.
X-Men - Time
Tuesday, the 21st of September
The weather is sunny but with a crisp wind that is steadily blowing in clouds. Temperature is around 60 degrees Fahrenheit.
White reached the lake after walking from the mansion. She looked around as she arrived, checking how much people was there today and thinking about where to start the task they had.
'You sure do like to just go and get things done, huh?' affirmed
Valerie as she managed to keep pace with White. It was an easy mile to walk, and the area, with its autumnal undertones, was quite lovely. After taking a sweeping glance of their destination, Val looked over her shoulder to make sure Devin was still with them.
"Ah, I'm sorry" said
White. She didn't even know why she was in such a hurry to finish this, it wasn't like she had other stuff to do later anyways. "I just wanted to get out of the crowd at the gates I think", she said. "Um, I guess it would be useful to know what our mutations are, in case we need them later", the white haired girl added. "What brought you to the mansion?"
'Uhhhh...'
Valerie gracelessly uttered in response to White's question about her mutation. She quickly pretended not to have heard her, and changed the subject. 'So, that boy who is with us had a bird. Do many people have pets here?' Val remained turned away from White, and she craned her neck, like she was really, really concentrating on looking back down the trail they just travelled upon.
White raised an eyebrow as Valerie dodged her question. She really needed to learn how to ask sensitive things because so far she had had bad luck with stuff like this. "Pets? I haven't seen that many to be honest", she answered nevertheless. "Where's Devin? He surely walks slow" White said. She was silent for a moment, and then added softly, "you know, we'll eventually find out. But its okay if you don't want to say anything, I understand"
There are about twenty people in all at the lake, enjoying one of the last warm days before fall really hits. There are two speedboats making waves, about ten swimmers, and a few people fishing and walking around the perimeter.
After noting that the area was not vacant,
Valerie tried to sidle up to White. 'Look, I'm really sorry, but...' she spoke quickly and in hushed tones, '...the only thing my mutation has accomplished is getting me kicked out of college, sent away from my friends, most of whom won't talk to me right now, and ostracized by the dance community.' She paused to bat away a gnat from her face, but then continued, ' My little sister doesn't understand why I've been sent away, my parents couldn't have been bothered to take time out of their busy work schedules to accompany me here, and my boyfriend didn't look my in the eye for three days...
three days! after he saw what my body does. ' It seemed like she could go on, but she stopped herself.
White nodded. She had left all her friends behind from one day to the next. But she had never had many friends before anyways. "Things are not like that here. At the mansion at least, not here at the lake", she corrected herself and smiled. She hadn't been around for long, but she had seen many strange people in the meantime and knew they were safe and accepted in Charles Xavier's school. "I mean, my hair and my skin are white, people have thought I was a freak since I was
born, but not here", she said and shrugged. "This is not a good place to talk about this though" she reasoned, seeing how there was people around. "Where should we start looking?" she asked rhetorically as she observed the surroundings searching for anything interesting.
'I know that albinism is an anomaly, but I don't think you're a freak just because you look the way you do,'
Valerie said, though she immediately regretted it. 'Sorry, that probably didn't sound as complimentary as it did in my head.' She half-smiled, and, as she took another look around the lake, said, 'Uhm. I don't know. Maybe by the water? Or...by the picnic pavilions? I just really don't know what we're supposed to be looking
for.'
"Me neither" said
White. She decided to let the albinism comment pass. "I suppose anywhere is fine then", she said not so certain, and started slowly walking towards the lake shore.
Valerie nodded and walked with White to the shore of the lake. She stopped momentarily to pick a relatively small, flat rock up from the ground. She remained quiet, for the only things she could think to talk or ask questions about pertained to the explosion and missing students. Taking into consideration White's previous comment about this not being the place to discuss such things, she kept her mouth shut. Val gave the rock a little toss, and it flipped twice before it landed back in the palm of her hand. She made sure no one was in peril of getting hit before skipping the rock across the water's surface. 'Only three. I can do better than that.'
"Valerie and White, this is Professor Xavier. I know that Devin was sent to be a part of your team but he informs me that he is feeling under the weather and I have permitted him to lie down for the rest of the day. Ms. Grey is coming to you with your new teammate named Isaac. I am terribly sorry for any inconvenience."
Issac continued to follow Jean Grey as they made their way down to the lakeshore, though still a fair distance off, Issac spotted two women along the shore and briefly wondered if those were the two he'd be put with.
Wonder what this mission is... And I wonder who those two are... and what their powers might be...
A few minutes after Xavier had spoken to Valerie and White telpathically,
Jean arrived with Isaac in tow. "Hello ladies. This is Isaac, he will be your replacement roommate. This is his first day too Valerie, so you guys can all have a good time of scouting the lake and getting to know each other. Are there any questions I can answer before I take Isaac's luggage to your dormitory?" She asked while she added
"Its room 325 in the west hall of the third floor," in Isaac's head, holding her hands out to take his luggage.
Valerie shook her head as Xavier's voice permeated her thoughts for the second time today. She needed to get accustomed to that. The girl was still lost in thought as Jean and Issac approached from behind. Regardless of the professor's warning, she was still surprised at their arrival. 'Oh!' she said as she turned and looked from White to Jean, and, lastly, to Issac. 'Uh...hello there.'
Issac arched an eyebrow in a slight surprise at the appearance of her voice in his head, but that quickly subsided as he shook his head and handed the one suitcase over to her. Smiling he added, "Thank you, you've been very kind." Upon hearing the voice from Valerie, he turned and smiled slightly while replying, "Hello... I'm Issac... Issac Alphonse." Putting one hand in his pocket he raised his right hand to shake hers.
Jean took Issac's suitcase and walked back to
X-Men Grounds.
As soon as Jean had left the three students there, a small group of teenagers from the lake began to approach them. They looked nice enough, dressed in swimming trunks, bathing suits, and t-shirts because of the slight chill. Two boys and two girls of no spectacular beauty finally wave and stand close enough to the students for them to hear each other. "Hey! What are you guys doing up here? Come from that mansion?" One girl asked, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand and pointing to where the X-Mansion lay just beyond one of the hills.
White startled when Xavier spoke again into her head.
I'll never get used to this, she thought. She wondered what might have affected Devin, but had no time to think about it much as Jean and Isaac appeared behind them. "Hi", she said, just as surprised as Valerie. "I'm Josephine". As some boys and girls approached them, she turned to look at them. "Hm? We're... just chilling", she said, leaving the mansion question unanswered.
Valerie shook Issac's hand. 'Valerie Sprouse,' she replied to him with a smile. She broke the handshake and looked toward the newcomers. Val smiled at them as well, but did not take the cue from White as she said,' Yeah, we just came here for a walk. It's nice to know there's this kind of recreational area so close to the mansion.' She was feeling good, hadn't recently had an incident, and was obviously in the mood to make friends and meet new people.
Issac raised an eyebrow at the arrival of the new kids and shrugged, "Not quite sure really... I'm new in town and just arrived..." His face displayed the picture of friendliness and his body appeared perfectly relaxed as he smiled kindly at them. Though he knew he was to meet up with Valerie and White for some sort of 'mission' he wondered secretly if these other kids were involved in that somehow.
Just like sensei always said... Stay on guard...
"Well we just don't get many kids out these days since school's in session and all. Want to join us? We've got a barbecue going and everything. There's enough for these guys, don't you think so Ross?" One girl asked, looking to be about 19 or so. "Anyway, there' some pretty interesting stuff around this lake. Gavin found an entire area where all the grass is burned black but still standing! Must've have been a barbecue fire..." Here she paused and realized what she'd said. Laughing, she saved herself by adding, "but it wasn't us, I promise. We've got a pretty good handle on the fire. Come on!" she said very convincingly. "At least walk around the lake with us."
White frowned a little when Valerie said they came from the mansion. She wasn't sure if it was a good idea to say they came from there. "The grass is burned black?" White's attention was immediatly picked by this. Maybe it was a clue. "Would you show us the place?", she asked the girl. "I don't think I heard from a fire here, it's strange, isn't it? I'm Josephine by the way", she said.
Issac looked curiously at them.
Black grass...? He looked back to White as she asked for them to show the place and cut in replying, "Actually can you just tell us where exactly? We want to see it really quick and then we'll come back after..." His face showing curiosity while silently thinking quickly in his mind that it would be best that if this was a clue to keep non-mutants out of this.
'Yeah, you have to be careful with fires. My senior class got in trouble last year at the Homecoming game when we had a bonfire that got a little out of control,'
Valerie smiled as she recollected that thought. She was new to the whole mutant thing and was quite oblivious to any possible fallacious intent.
"Oh, you're so right," One of the girls said in reply to Valerie, ignoring Issac entirely. She was going to show them where the grass was, or else they wouldn't see it, that was simply clear. "But most of us out here know what we're doing. My name is Mischa," said the girl with the brown hair. She pointed to the blonde girl and the ginger haired boy. "That's Molly and Gavin," and then she pointed to the tall boy. "And that's Ross." They made polite conversation and walked around the lake, finally leading to a place near the banks where the reeds, grass, and even dirt had been blackened to a crisp. It was a circle of sorts, extending about five feet in diameter. Gavin bent down and examined the ground further. "Pretty weird, huh?"
Issac knelt down next to Gavin and looked carefully at the blackened area, his eyes narrowing in concentration. Seeing that it was slightly windy, he began to feel out the blackened area, with some of the air currents, wondering if it was dust or if the actual structure of the ground was changed. "How strange... Everything is crisp... but it still retains its shape... and not just that..." He looks up into the trees around seeing the leaves waving, "The wind should have blown some of the ash away, but it's all concentrated on one circle." Still kneeling next to Gavin he stroked his chin.
What could have caused this...?
Valerie greeted everyone in turn and partook generously in the conversation--
she did love to talk-- as they made their way around the lake and to the spot in question. 'Yeah, that is weird,' Val agreed,' grass usually it gets all, like, tamped-down at least. Kind of a big area, too. How long's it been here?'
White followed the group listening to the talk but not saying much, as Valerie did most of the chatting. When they arrived, she observed the black circle. That wasn't a normal fire, certainly not, she thought, more so convinced as she listened to what Isaac was saying. She looked at the area around ignoring the burned grass for a moment, trying to see if there was anything else in the area. Whoever had caused this might have left something else behind.
Gavin nodded at Issac. "Yeah, pretty weird." Then he kept examining the grass while Mischa, Molly, and Ross made some food at their barbecue pit. "I just noticed it today but I haven't been to the lake in a while. There was some guy around earlier saying he saw who'd made it but he's cracked. Claimed some guy just exploded, like that ever happens." Gavin looked up at Ross and the two seemed to share a derisive snort at the witness's sanity. Molly then spoke up. "Oh, you two are horrible! He probably just saw some firework going off and the guy ran away so he didn't get hurt. I think he's still walking around the lake, he might be avoiding us since Gavin and Ross were so mean to him when he tried to tell us what happened here." Mischa then came up and offered them a plate of hotdogs and hamburgers. "If you're going to seek out the old guy, I'd try walking west. That's the last I saw him and I doubt he's gone home yet. He's at the lake almost every day."
Issac raised a hand and smiled, rejecting the offer of the food, "Thanks, I ate on the train here though... Actually I'm pretty interested in this spot, I'm going to go find that old guy." He then flashed a grin at Gavin and Ross while adding, "Though he's probably just cracked." He then rose to his feet and sticking his hands in his pockets began to walk down the beach westward, in search of the old man, turning around he called out, "Anyone wanna come with?" The wind ruffling his brown trench coat and ponytail slightly. ...Looks like were getting a little closer to the truth...
White looked for a place with shade because the sun was starting to bother her, and stood under a tree while Misha went for the hamburgers. She wasn't really hungry at the moment, so she politely refused the food. "I'll go with you" she said quickly when Isaac asked. She felt a bit uncomfortable around these guys even though they seemed very friendly people. She went after Isaac, wondering what this thing about exploding people was.
'That's totally bizarre!' exclaimed Valerie as Gavin talked about the alleged creation of the burned area. 'There are no proven cases of spontaneous human combustion, afterall, despite what certain factions deem evidence,' she added, sounding like a Wisconsinite Valley Girl and a Nerd all at once. When Mischa approached with the grilled goodies, Valerie accepted a hotdog from the platter, and quickly changed the subject, 'Thank you so much, I haven't had anything to eat since early this morning!' She managed to only get one bite of the hot dog before she noticed White and Issac walking off. 'Oh, man...sorry to eat and run, but I should probably go with them.' Val jogged backwards toward the two students and waved her hot dog-free hand at Gavin, Mischa, Molly and Ross. 'Thanks, guys! Maybe we'll see each other around again soon!'
"We'll... uh, see you later", said White to the group before walking away. She didn't want to seem rude or anything. "He said we should walk west, right?" she asked, looking at the lake and trying to deduce which way west was.
Mischa, Molly, Gavin, and Ross all waved goodbye, not bothered by the general refusal of food. The two girls waved the longest at Valerie. "We hope to see you again soon too! Maybe some other time at the lake, huh? BYE!" And they went back to their picnic table to eat their food.
Watching the four kids wave goodbye Issac gave a friendly wave back, and turning around continued to walk along the beach his eyes searching for footprints or some sort of hint as to where the witness had gone to. Making sure that the others were out of earshot, Issac said, "Valerie, Josephine... what do you make of the circle? and their story about the witness?" He was asking more for the sake of getting everyone on the same page and to formulate some sort of plan for when they would find the witness.
'I have a compass app on my iPhone,' Valerie offered, 'if we're trying to figure out what direction to go.' She smiled at White and Issas, then pulled the slim, shiny black rectangle from her jacket pocket. 'Come to think of it, we probably should have taken a picture of that burnt circle thingy.' She pressed some prompts on the screen of the phone. 'Hopefully I have adequate reception.' She looked up at the burgeoning clouds in the sky, and the breeze blew a few fine hairs, not caught by her barrettes, across her forehead. 'We have no reason not to believe what those guys said, right?' she said with a glance at Issac.
"I don't know. I don't think fireworks or just a fire would leave a mark like that. It's too... orderly... I mean, a fire should burn things in some random pattern and not in a circle, shouldn't it?", White answered Isaac's question, though she was just guessing because she didn't know much about fire anyways. "And the witness... might be telling the truth. I don't know about exploding people, but you know, the students that were taken are like us...", she added. "A photo would have been a good idea", she said to Valerie as she showed her shiny iPhone. She remembered she had left her phone at the mansion, not knowing she would have to leave after eating breakfast. A hat would have been useful too, she thought sighing as she tried to walk under the shady part of the path. "What do you think, Isaac?"
Issac listened as they spoke in turn, and nodded along with their statements and upon hearing White's question responded, "There is not enough evidence to back up either side's story about the black circle... but I have a feeling that these are not ordinary circumstances." Issac bent down and picked up a seashell off the beach examining it. "First things first... we need to find that witness." He promptly sent the seashell skipping off the water... 1...2...5...7...13 times it continued on still skipped along the surface as if helped along by an unforeseen force. "Maybe we'll make some sense of this by then..." He turned his eyes back to the shoreline and began searching for the man.
'White, are you going to be okay?' Valerie momentarily changed the subject as she noted the pale girl sticking to the shady areas. 'If you'd like, you can use my jacket; there's a hood zipped into the collar.' She had by now finished her hotdog and figured-out which direction was west. 'Well, we were told to head in that direction,' she pointed, 'what do you guys think?'
"Wow! How did you do that?" White asked astonished as the seashell Isaac threw bounced over the water to the infinite. She was taken out of her surprise when Valerie spoke to her. "Oh. I'm fine. I just get sunburnt easily", she said and smiled. "The jacket would be great, thank you", she said accepting her offer. "We might as well walk that way, maybe we find something else", White added after Val pointed to the west.
Issac listened to White's question which in turn made him think of an idea, making sure to look back noticing that they were a fair distance from the kids now he asked in a somewhat lowered voice, "So... I suppose if were a team we'll need to know each others powers yea?" Turning his eyes back towards them with a smile he added, "Would you like to see mine first or yours?"
White looked at Isaac uneasily. She had asked the same to Valerie and she had refused to answer, yet the white haired girl was really curious to know. If Isaac wanted to tell, then she would listen. "Hmm, okay", she said, "but we have to be careful", she added looking around, checking there was no one looking at them. "You start", she said, lowering her voice too, even though that made no difference.
Valerie slipped her phone into the jeans pocket, removed her jacket, unzipped the hood and handed it to White. 'How'd he do what?' she asked, having not seen the shell-skipping trick of which she doubtlessly would have been jealous. Val frowned sharply, however, when Issac inquired about her 'powers'. 'If you guys want to share, then go ahead. I just can't do mine right now. Not that you'd really want to see it, anyway.'
Issac looked around making sure one last time that there was no one around and then turned his gaze on some stray leaves on the ground. He would continue to watch them as they suddenly began to swirl in circles on an air current making their way to his feet, then suddenly began to violently swirl around him. His hair and coat whipping violently with the air currents and just as suddenly as this had happened, it all ended with a swoosh as the leaves fell slowly around himself. Looking at them once more he smiled. "Can you guess?"
White thanked Valerie again as she took the jacket, putting it on with the hood, covering her head from the sun and just leaving a few strands of white hair loose to be seen. Her attention then switched completely to Isaac as he used his mutation. She watched him at first, expecting maybe a physical change, but then she saw the leaves on the ground start moving, and looked surprised as a wind that came out of nowhere made them dance around him. "Whoa" she just said when it was over. "Was that... you can move the air?"
'That's gotta come in handy, especially in the fall, ' Valerie added after White made a guess about Issac's power. She dropped her hand back to her side, after having raised it to shield her eyes, for fear that some dust or leaf fragments might fly too close to her face.
"I guess its my turn", said White, aware that Valerie wasn't going to do anything. She wondered what her mutation was and why was she so reluctant to use it, but guessed she must have her reasons, and decided to let it be for now. Just as they had done before, the girl looked around to check no one was watching. She also looked up making sure the sun was in the place she thought it was, and stretched a hand. She drew a small arc in the air, and a rainbow popped out of nowhere where she had pointed. White smiled, and the colors dissipated in the air as sudden as they had appeared.
Valerie, though impressed with Issac's power, seemed even more amazed with White's. 'Wow! Are you, like, a human prism, or something?' She paused and her vivacious expression momentarily dampened. 'Yeah, I can't do anything cool or useful like you guys, mine's just weird and gross,' Val said quietly and quickly. '... and I certainly haven't had any positive reactions to it, so... I think I'll just wait.'
Issac smiled as the rainbow appeared, though upon hearing Val's words he gave a slight empathetic smile saying, "It's alright if you don't want to show us, besides all of us have different powers, so you shouldn't feel ashamed of it..." His eyes got slightly darker near the end of the sentence as if holding back a vicious memory. Shaking his head once more he turned back to the lake shore and looked about still not seeing a soul nearby, "Anyways... we should continue searching for this man..." Valerie... I wonder what her power is...
"Human prism?" White repeated, thinking about the term. "I guess you could say that. I can do other things that aren't rainbows too", she added. The girl listened to what Isaac said and nodded in agreement, starting to walk again around the lake, looking for anybody who might look like a crazy man.
Mischa, Molly, Gavin, and Ross had moved on to another spot around the lake, swimming and enjoying their day on inner tubes, splashing each other. This left the spot blackened by grass available for further inspection. Just then, Issac, White, and Valerie saw a man stumbling out of the woods. He look frail but was still pretty far away at this point, further west then the trio from the X-Mansion. He was walking towards the blackened spot, as if he'd been hiding, waiting for the kids to leave in order to inspect it.
'Well,' Valerie said after a beat of silence,' Maybe we should continue our search.' She took a sweeping look around the area of the lake and the bordering tree line, her eyes lingering a little longer at the lake and on the group's new acquaintances. Swimming was one activity the doctor has advised against for the time-being. When she took a moment to glance back toward the tree line, in the direction the group was heading, she said, 'Hey, that guy wasn't there before!'
Issac turned his head towards the direction from which they had just come from, and upon seeing the old man narrowed his eyes. "That's got to be him..." He suddenly went swiftly up the beach and began to move along the forest edge his speed increasing as small powerful shots of wind would shoot from his legs propelling him forward, hidden by the trees. Finally getting into a position that would directly cut off any escape from the man moving to examine the scorch mark. ...What are you up to I wonder...?
"Huh?" White turned around as she heard what Valerie said. "I thought he was supposed to be to the west" she said a bit confused. She watched surprised as Isaac dashed out back to the place they had been before. "Hey, wait!", she said, but he was too fast. "I guess we better go after him", she said and started walking back, but she didn't run, thinking that would draw attention to them.
The man walked with a sort of blind determination that he assumed was altogether unknown to these young ruffians that always hung around the lake. Didn't they know this was a place of peace? Bah, what did kids know anyway these days. His hair was coarse and grey, sticking out in directions that suggested he either didn't own a brush or has spent much time outside. His clothes were fraying at the edges and had some cigarette burns in them, along with mismatched buttons. Though he was clearly older, possibly 65 or so, his gait was not slowed with arthritis. He kept his head down just long enough to pass Valerie and White, ignoring them as he noticed Issac dashing off to the spot he'd waited so long to inspect. "Hey!" he yelled angrily, waving his hand, the action of which made it seem like he would topple over but he didn't. "Get away from there! I want that table you sorry louse!" he called, not wanting to draw any attention to the blackened circle he was really going to inspect.
'Uh...hi, sir....hello, sir?' Valerie awkwardly but politely called after the older man as he passed by. After she spoke, she was suddenly filled with trepidation. She wondered precisely how much this man was off his rocker.
Issac put his hands up in a non-threatening gesture, and replied, "Sorry I didn't realize you were waiting for it." He looked to Valerie as she attempted to get the man's attention, figuring it would be better for them to ask the questions.
White kept moving towards the burned circle, as the man passed them yelling angrily. "Uhm, sir", she called too, but the man seemed too upset. She wondered if they would be able to have a peaceful conversation with him. "We don't care about the table, you can have it", she said, as she continued to approach.
The old man stopped for a moment as the ladies addressed him, ever at least a kindly sort to women as he was taught long ago to be. However when he heard what they had to say, he threw his arms in their direction with an emphatic, "BAH," and kept walking. His aim was clear now, that he was only interested in the burnt circle, heading more towards that than the table he'd been hoping to distract them with.
'Please, sir,' Valerie spoke again in a sweet and genuinely kind manner, 'Please, we really need your help.' She glanced back at White and Issac before hesitantly following after the disheveled man. She had certainly not ever been in a situation like this, which might put any person beyond their comfort level. 'Maybe you can help us, and somehow we can...we can help you!' she said with a touch of nervousness, but with a smile. Suddenly, there was a loud, singular cracking sound, and Valerie hastily and snuggly crossed her arms over her midsection.
White looked at Valerie, then at the strange man, then back at Valerie wondering what that awful crack had been. Seeing the girl's nervousness, she quickly and directly said, "we heard you saw what had happened here. Would you tell us?". Maybe he would answer, she hoped. At least it should divert the attention from Valerie.
"Whaddya want?" snapped the old man as he turned around to see who was addressing him. It was those two girls again, no doubt in cahoots with that boy who'd run off to thwart him. Well, it didn't matter, he was going to investigate that circle with these kids around or not. "I saw you three earlier, hanging around this blackened bit with those other ruffians, didn't you get enough of a lookit?" he asked grumpily and then set to muttering to himself for a bit, "Can't explain it, kids interfering, people blowing up!" He turned around suddenly as White asked for his story, as if suddenly seeing the albino girl in new light. "A man were here but yesterday, standing by the lake when I came around from outta them woods. He saw me, and exploded in a burst of flame and was gone!" he said, his eyes going too wide to be normal as he recounted his witness.
'Euhhhh, ohhh, gee...that's terrible!' was what Valerie could muster, happy that White seemed to be able to at least ask pertinent questions. She held her left arm fast to her body with her right, and if anyone looked closely enough, it would appear that her left hand was sticking-up at an odd angle from beneath the crook of her right arm. She turned her body slightly away, though not enough to be perceived as rude.
"Did you get to see what he looked like, this man?" White asked. It was hard and creepy to think about an exploding man, but she could make light and Isaac could make the wind blow, so anything was possible. At the same time she noticed Valerie was having some kind of trouble, though she had no clue what was it. She went a little closer to the black circle on the floor.
'Yeeeah, what he look like?' added Valerie, even though she was entirely unfamiliar with anyone from this area, save those few she had just met. She stayed put, even as White went to take another look at the charred area.
The old man kept walking towards the blackened circle, not so much ignoring the girls but undeterred from his objective. If they wanted answers, they'd have to walk with him. "Black hair and a beard, that's all I got ter see of 'im," the man grumbled. "He exploded, I saw him, right there where yer boy is now. HEY," he exclaimed suddenly, as if realizing something. "What do you lot want to know fer, HUH?" he asked, stopping his wobbling walk to point accusatory fingers at the girls.
"We uhhm..." said White thinking about a believeable answer to the man's question. "We're writing an article for the school paper", she said, in the most convincing tone she could find. "He exploded, you said? Like, with flames?" she didn't know how this could help recovering the missing students, but at least it was something. "And then he vanished? Was he alone?"
Eventually, Valerie followed after White and the stranger; she figured that if she stood there and ignored them, it would seem far more peculiar than if she ambled along after them. With their backs turned, and Issac's attention still apparently on the blackened spot, she fussed with the newly-formed angle, just above her elbow, in the humerous. She pounded on it with her fist a couple of times, tried to apply pressure from different areas, but to no avail.
The old man had made it to the blackened circle by the time the girls began asking their new round of questions based on White's little white lie. "Move aside, boy," the old man grumbled to Issac. He then dropped to the ground a little too quickly to look altogether safe for an elderly man but he was no worse for the wear and began to examine the black place. "Yes, alone. He went off like a goddamn firecracker, I tell you! And when I came to see if he was all right, all that were left was this here burnt circle, no sign of his death or blood anywhere," the man continued as he ran his hands over the black and stiff grass.
Valerie was making White rather nervous. She still couldn't tell what was wrong with the blonde, but there was certainly something not right. "Are you okay?" she whispered looking at her sideways, while the old man was focusing on the burned grass. Returning to her role as student journalist, White eyed the black circle on the floor as well. "It's something very odd", she commented. "What time do you think this was? Was there nobody else at the park who might have seen this, too?"
'Fine, yes, fine!' Valerie said, barely after White had a chance to get the question out; despite her broad smile, it was not very convincing. The girl finally opted for folding her arms behind her back-- or at least the best she could. Val did her best to show some interest in the questions White asked, so at least she didn't blow her cover.
"Around midday, not much after noon," the man replied, not having noticed Valerie or White's seeming problem. "There wasn't nobody else around, it was too cold yesterday for those damn rapscallions to be out here botherin' people!" he snapped, but then quickly regained his breath, happy that they weren't trying to call him crazy like the other set of kids were. "I didn't get a good look at him before he exploded, only know it was a man with a black beard."
White didn't know what else to ask now and looked questioningly at Valerie, who seemed to have calmed down somewhat. She then returned her attention to the black circle. Maybe they could find some other clue there. "Have you been able to find anything else here after the man, um, disappeared?" the girl asked.
The man shook his head, suddenly becoming more annoyed. "NO! Nothin' left of 'im to be found. Not in the lake, not in the grass, not in the woods, nothin I tell ye!" he reiterated, still feeling around on the ground as if he could somehow find a way to retrieve the mysterious exploding man. "An' he didn't disappear! He exploded, I say!"
Valerie removed her iPhone from her jeans pocket. 'Better...get some photographic evidence!' she said, sounding as cheery through her unease as possible. With her thumb, she set the device up in camera mode and snapped a picture. 'Maybe, we, uhm...should get a bit of that grass for analysis...at the...lab.' She stiffened and backed away slightly from the man as he again appeared agitated.
The man looked up at Valerie then, his face seeming very pale in the sunlight. "Lab, you say? Take some! Take plenty!" he offered, sitting on his knees and ripping a fistful of burnt grass from the ground, the force of which was unnecessary since the burnt grass just broke off cleanly in his hand. "You'd better go check it right away! I'll come back tomorrow and you can tell me what you find!" At this, the old man hobbled up to his feet rather unsteadily, and began to able off into the woods again, muttering excitedly under his breath.
"Yeah... sure", said White receiving the burned grass in her hands, a bit scared of the man's attitude. "Do you mind if I put it in your jacket pockets?" the girl asked Valerie, her hands full of black grass. When the strange man was reasonably away from them, she asked, "are you alright? What was that crack before?"
'Yep, that's fine,' Valerie replied in reference to White's first question, while trying to quickly snap a shot of the grizzled old man as he retreated back into the treeline. 'Uhm I'm fine, it's just... it's just,' she hemmed and hawed a little more before swinging her left arm from behind her back. 'It's just this is the thing that my body does.' It looked bad, as if her arm was broken, or, in the very least, highly uncomfortable. There was a sharp forty-five degree angle in her humerus, just above her elbow, so the rest of her arm bent back towards itself.
"Jesus! How did that happen!?" White asked astonished while looking at Valerie's arm. She stuffed the grass into her pocket and hurried to the girl's side, looking - disgusted and fascinated at the same time - at her twisted limb. She figured this was what had bothered Val when she had asked about her powers, though she didn't entirely understand what the girl had done. "Um - can I help you, somehow?" she asked in confusion, just imagining how much that must hurt.
Valerie cringed perceptibly at White's reaction, though it certainly wasn't the worse she'd experienced. 'No,' Val said as she shook her head, 'I don't need help, I just need to not freak out. That man was just...making me kinda nervous, and this,' she gestured at her,'...this is what happens. I was prescribed anticonvulsants to prevent it from happening, but I was pretty much a zombie, so I figured I could stop taking them once I got here. This isn't even half as bad as it could be. It's way gross, right?'
"But isn't it, like, broken?" White asked. Realizing her question wasn't going to make Valerie relax, she apologized. "Sorry. It's just very strange". She didn't know anything about bones, so she figured they should probably head back to school and see if someone there could help get Valerie's arm back to normal. "We should go back to the mansion", she said.
'No, it's just...bent. It doesn't hurt, but until I can totally relax or take my mind off of it, it'll probably stay this way,' Valerie replied. 'Yeah, let's head back,' she then added, but not before glancing at Issac. 'He seems pretty engrossed in that burnt spot.'
"Huh?", White had practically forgotten about Isaac after the issue with Valerie's arm. "Oh, you're right... Maybe he can find something else?", she said, and turned to look at the young mutant. "Hey Isaac, we're heading back! We'll see you later", she said. It wasn't a good idea that Valerie stayed here with her arm looking like that, she thought. "Alright. Um, this way", she said and started walking back to the X-Men Grounds.
Valerie cast a small wave at Issac before following after White toward the X-Men Grounds.
You may go back the way you have come, following the dirt path back to the X-Men Grounds, or you could walk around the lake and find yourself in X-Men RP Salem Center Township.
X-Men Rules * X-Men Characters * Start X-Men
Stumble!