Sandman felt her hand snaking stealthily towards her gas gun as she looked at the mask.
"One who daydreams as vividly as you will always draw me close." she replied.
Suddenly, she snatched the gun up and fired a full cannister's worth of gas into the room.
"And those dreams shall do you well. Sleep."
Storm nodded, looking around.
"A trail would be nice," she agreed absently, looking around again. Was there anything useful left around here...?
Avatar from http://x0whitelily0x.livejournal.com/7486.htmlAs a matter of fact, Storm, there was. If she looked closely, she might have seen some lines in the pavement, where something heavy had been scraped. A couple more thin black marks could be seen further along, matching the scrape lines.
The mask in the mirror laughed. "That might have been effective, had I been in the room with you. You will notice there is no one behind this mirror, from which I converse with you."
Foswell took out a pen, and got to work on the paper.
"As you probably know, the Big Man likes to move around every so often, so that he doesn't get caught. Now, he doesn't like doing the same place twice, but he's only got so many places before he uses them all up and has to start over. Now, if I remember right, the ones I've marked X by are the ones the Big Man's already been to, give or take."
Foswell handed the sheet back. A couple were crossed out altogether, many were Xed, and only three were left.
And a Strange Figure Emerges.An hour or so later.
A pair of dirty paper plates with plastic spoons and forks on top joined the neat mess sitting beside Karen's terminal. The young programmer was once again busy with her work, her hands flying over the keyboard as lines of code appeared, disappeared and reappeared, slightly faster than a normal human eye could follow. Beside her, Nicco sat at the terminal next to her, typing at a somewhat-slower speed; he sometimes glanced at Karen's screen, his eyes widening slightly every time, before returning to his own work. Around them, the room they were working in had become busier. People milled around the dining carts in the corner, discussing the project while trying to pick out still-edible-looking food from the carts; some were huddled around the terminal of the team's current lead, Simon Peters, the brown-haired man gesturing at parts of the screen as the others nodded in response; still others were passed out at their own terminals, having been awake for longer than necessary, the rest letting them get some sleep. Occasionally, another programmer would walk up to Nicco, trade ideas and opinions, and then return to their respective terminals or pace the room again, nearly bumping into people thanks to the cluttered workplace.
After a moment, the clacking from Karen's keyboard stopped. "......Damn it."
"What's wrong?" Nicco stopped typing as well, turning his attention to his friend.
"I've seen this type of setup before," she said, pointing at another, particularly large section of the code she was working on. "I think I've managed to streamline it before, but I can't remember what I did, exactly..."
Nicco carefully read the section, hand on his chin in thought, before turning around in his desk chair towards the group huddled around Simon. "Hey guys... think you can all take a look at this?"
At those words, Karen visible slouched further in her seat; she glanced at Nicco with a glare that practically said 'why did you do that?', to which her friend responded with a sheepish smile and a shrug of his shoulders.
10 minutes later, the huddled group - plus Simon - had gathered around Karen's terminal; Karen herself remained rather quiet in her seat while they pondered the problem, doing her darndest not to just slide down out of her seat with the rest leaning over her while looking at her screen. "Sorry, I've got no clue, either," Simon finally admitted, shaking his head; the rest followed suit, accompanied by quiet murmurs.
"Karen said she managed to streamline something like this before," Nicco said, prompting everyone to look at her instead. She visibly shuddered at the sudden attention she was getting.
"......I think I came across this before," she muttered after a moment of silence. "But I just remembered that the relevant notes are back in my apartment in Brooklyn; I didn't think I'd need them."
Simon straightened up from his lean, nodding once in response. "Think you can go get them, Karen? Looking at the section you're on, this could clear up some of the problems with the other sections if you can get it to work."
Once again, everyone turned their attention to Karen, who shuddered again. "......Alright."
The gathered programmers smiled and nodded; a few pumped their fists at the thought of making the project go by a little smoother. Simon nodded with a smile, before turning to disperse the others and have them return to their own work.
Nicco's smile widened as Karen rose while gathering some things in her backpack. "See? A little interaction with someone else other than me didn't hurt."
Karen glanced at him with an annoyed pout - though the softness in her faded eyes said otherwise. "Warn me next time you do that, will you?" Grabbing her ID from the top of a nearby hardbound book, she headed for the door, Nicco's grin never fading as she slipped out of sight soon after.
edited 12th Aug '12 12:37:56 PM by Demovere
"Oh, boy, do we really have to go through this entire "earn our trust" shtick?" the Joker said, jumping back into his seat. "Everyone knows you'll join with me in the end... but, eh, why not. I always keep my word, and I always deliver the joke! So how about this... there's this little news reporter called Jack Ryder. Now, he thinks that having the mutants go on TV to defend their side would be a good idea! Gasp! Can you think about it? Mutants on TV? It would disrespect the sanctity of television! So what if little Jack gets an... explosive message from the mutants, saying that they reject his offer?"
Meanwhile, at the Raft, the guards taking care of Man-Bat would see the approach of a blonde female guard with her hands behind her back. Her hat covered most of her face, and a small card attached to her chest said her name was "Anne Johannesburg". She approached the guards with a sweet smile. "Alright, boys, time to change places! The boss told me to take care of the freaks. So give me that stupid security guard so I can waste all of my time takin' care of some stupid mutant."
Storm's eyes widened slightly.
"Hey, guys, I think we found our trail. Are Magma and Cannonball here yet?" she called over her shoulder, leaning down to inspect the marks.
Avatar from http://x0whitelily0x.livejournal.com/7486.htmlSandman folded her arms.
"Clever enough. Should have been my first assumption you'd never face me in person. I presume this is more than a mere demonstration of your cowardice?"
Inside her mask she quickly scanned the room. She could be out the door and down the hall in less than two seconds if she needed to be. Hopefully that would be enough.
The monstrous Langstrom stared at the new female guard from behind the barred, reinforced window, and sighed. The previous guard and inmates were insulting enough, but at least they were ribbing with him. This new guard, just by what she said, seemed to be an anti-mutant. He pounded on the thick door, something that was difficult because he was belted down and chained in so many places.
"Are you here to insult and hurt me, woman? Are you another one of those anti-metahuman types, thinking you're a protector of the people when you're just another thug? Try me. I have all day."
He smiled like a vicious wolf, his teeth bared behind the wire muzzle on his face.
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg""Will do, my good faceless man. Good luck to you," said Foswell.
The room Joker was in was silent for a moment. "You're serious, aren't you?" said Creed, "You're really going to blow up Ryder. ...certainly puts our plans of a riot to shame."
Magma tensed for a moment, until someone's phone suddenly started playing the fiddle. Cannonball answered it and put it on speakerphone. "Yello?"
"Cannonball, this is Karma, we've found something. How quickly can you get over here?"
"There is a fine line between cowardice and intelligence, just as there is vice versa," countered the new face of Mysterio. "For instance, it was brave of you to come to this graveyard of dreams, but it was also sheer folly!"
"Fine by me," said the jail cell guard. "He's your problem now." He trudged off, his steps thumping along the way.
edited 12th Aug '12 12:44:48 PM by LizardOfAus
And a Strange Figure Emerges."Faster than you can say 'Shut up, Deadpool'!"
Deadpool grabbed onto Cannonball and Magma. He pressed a button on his teleporter, and the three of them were gone in a flash of red light.
The arrived at the spot shortly. Deadpool was carrying Magma in his arms.
"You know, it usually sucks with it malfunctions and puts people where they aren't supposed to, but I think I like these kinds of errors!"
"It's called 'a joke'." Jack said then got on the phone and called Hal Start, the head of building security, told him that he'd hired an independent consultant for the expected hard times they expected for next week and that he was escorting him to Hal's office personaly so that when they got there he would know this wasn't a prank.
"Why would it be a prank? He's...different. You'll see what I mean when we get there." He looked down at Rocket after turning off the phone. "Why couldn't you be more, well humanoid? I know it's a prejudice but when people look at you they think Walt Disney or Looney Toons. Even I have to censor my brain and I've known you long enough to take you seriously. Oh well, at least you're not a rabbit, duck or mouse."
Trump delenda est"A rather tasteless joke, considering the two biggest criminal races including robts and cyborgs and they consistently give a bad name to all the nice robots," Rocket said.
As they continued to walk, Rocket answered Jack's question: "Yeah, I've kinda noticed that," Rocket said. "In fact what I first started out in the bounty hunting biz, many didn't really take me seriously on account of me being a cute furry animal. That all changed when I started taking down some really big bounties. Breakin' up slaver rings, capturing crooks that would take a handful of Green Lanterns to catch. Hell I even gave the Skrull Empire the proverbial middle finger and lived to tell the tale. Sometimes what it takes to get taken seriously is doing something grand that nobody expected you to do and proving to everything that you did it. Plus, I figure you humans would be a bit quick to accept me, since in general you're all crazy enough not to think to deeply into these things."
DAMMIT MARK, STOP HITTING HELPY!!"Thanks!"
Harley waved at the security guard as she held the card in her hand, smiling. Once the guard was far away, she removed her hat, letting out her blonde hair, and reached into her pocket, pulling out a small tranquilizer gun. "Hey there, batty man." she said, smiling at Langstrom. "Sorry for saying those mean mean words, but I had to get that stupid security guard to trust me."
Then, she walked over to the console, and slid the security card, obtaining access to the cell control. "I say we give those people a nice, big party just for saying those mean things about mutants, eh, Langy?" And with a grin, she pressed the "Open All Cells" button, giggling as all of the cells in the Raft opened, releasing every single prisoner. She skipped towards Langstrom, grabbing his hand and pulling him out of the cell, not showing any kind of fear at the doctors' monstrous form. "Come on, doc! We have a raft waiting for you. The name's Harley, by the way."
And with that, she began to run towards the exit, hoping that Langstrom was right behind her.
"I treat things like the mutant problem with a lot of seriousness, thank you very much." the Joker said, standing up and stretching his arms. "Hey, I know I just met you, and this may be crazy, but here's my number, so call me, maybe?" He chuckled, putting a Joker card with a number written on the back on Creed's pockets.
He then placed both of his hands on his suits and began to walk towards the exit, his mooks following him. "I'll deal with Ryder tonight. Have a good day!"
Langstrom was absolutely befuddled by the young woman. Even the most die-hard mutant sympathizer would be shaking in their boots at Langstrom's monstrous form, but she wasn't at all. She even touched him, willingly! And since she knew his name, that rose another slew of questions. Was Langstrom's identity as the bat monster of New York known to the public? Or was this strange woman some unmet friend of his, and an enemy of Milo? He brushed aside the wild orange suited convicts that were now free to rampage across the halls of The Raft as he followed Harley. While some immediately started swarming and attacking the armored guards, none of them attacked the woman in the guard uniform, not even the rapists who haven't seen a single woman in decades. This was probably because she was right next to the monster who looked like a furry naked Orlok on steroids.
"Did you have to release all of them too?", he asked, nervously, while keeping up with Quinn.
"@[=g3,8d]&fbb=-q]/hk%fg""Go ahead. Beat a helpless old man within an inch of his life. For all you know he is just that. But then you must leave this place, and never return. You stray too close to the dragon's den, and you are meddling in affairs that do not concern you."
"That'll be fine," said the bartender, as he accepted the cash, and Fredrick returned to his drink.
Magma was stunned beyond words. Cannonball spluttered for a moment. "Wh-wk-kj-jlb-Ya mind warnin' us next time?! Maybe ev'n telling us ya CAN teluport before ya DO?!"
Karma got straight to the point. "We found marks where some kind of heavy machine crash landed."
"And it looks like someone's interested," said Sunspot, "'cause there's skid marks where they dragged them away!"
The guard realised too late what had transpired. He began to run back where he came, but was overwhelmed by the tide of orange jumpsuits.
And a Strange Figure Emerges.

"That's probably a good idea," said Karma. "I'll use my phone."
Sunspot looked about the pavement. "You know what would be useful? A trail. Something like little drops of blood or leaked fuel we could follow."
Wesleigh found only cybernetics and a whirring camera underneath the bandages. The mummy was nothing more that a mere animatronic, albeit a very well made one.
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall..."
The vanity mirror was suddenly obscured by the image of cloud of blue mist. This soon parted to reveal an image of a Pharaohs' mask up against the blackness.
"...You should not be here at all." It said.
"Do you ever stop talking?" moaned Magma.
Foswell examined the paper. "Well now, that's a very good list you've got there. Couple are wrong, but it's very comprehensive. Mind if I mark on it?"
And a Strange Figure Emerges.