pym_kitten:

Chris had sent out an e-mail to all the other students that she was putting together a day-trip to the city for shopping, with the promise of dinner and deserts that were entirely bad for them. She'd called Pauline as well, in case she was free to meet them once they got in.

She waited in the foyer of the Institute for anyone who was going to join her.

anyastark:

Word about certain things spread fast in the cape community and Anya learned that Vernique and Svalin were getting married, in Asgard, and Svalin was expecting a baby. This of course meant one thing. There had to be a party to celebrate both things and Anya was the perfect one to throw it. Anya had known Vernique since forever and there had been many marathon shopping trips.

She sent invitations out to the female members of the X-Men, Champions, Avengers, West Coast Avengers, Defenders, X-Force, Alpha Flight, Excalibur, Fantastic Four, Sammy and Alice in SHIELD, Kelly and Melissa. It was also the first get together the Thunderbolts would be hosting.

The renovated firehouse in Cambridge was cleaned from top to bottom and supplies were laid in. Stephanie was given cart blanch on the menu and snacks. Anya and Molly went shopping for the drinks and for gifts for Vernique and Svalin. Since the crowd was very varied they got a wide selection of sodas, juices, beer and also picked up a lot of water. Anya even booked rooms at a nearby hotel just in case people didn't want to make the trip home that night. Anya had spoken to Irina and arranged for pick up of the various team members around the world.

Saturday rolled around and Anya was up at the crack of dawn double checking everything. Then she headed down to the lab until the first ladies arrived.

son_of_discord:

X-Force, plus Foxx, sped toward the Land of the Rising Sun with all due haste to rescue Rose. Joey is quite during the flight, ready to do whatever is necessary to save his woman the moment they touch down. Honestly, he doesn't have a plan besides "find Rose, kill whoever took her, bring Rose home."

That doesn't bother him much, because X-Force has operated on less of a plan than this before and come out all right.

"Are we there yet, Ana-Pants?" Joey asks, utterly serious for once. He was ready to throw down.
 

son_of_discord:

Three days after Rose’s disappearance, Joey Allerdyce is a worried man. Coming home from Misha’s and finding out that she didn’t come home worried him a little, but he knew Rose could and would take care of herself. If she’d called during the first or the second day, Joey would have just chalked it up to Rose wanting a bit more time and space to sort out her own head. He would have given her as much time as she needed as long as they could set some time to talk.

( Read more... )

nextgen_holiday:

The beginning of a New Year, a time for new hopes, new experiences to come. A time to reflect on times past, remembering fond memories happily and trying to put less pleasant thoughts and experiences in the past.

It is a time of renewal, a time of rebirth. And for much of the world, it is a time of celebration. This is no less true for the super hero set as anyone else. If anything, they just have that much bigger of things to look forward to.

nextgen_holiday:

There's a piece of paper and a pen attached to a bulletin board. Across the top is written:

New Year's Resolutions
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Anonymous entries accepted.

nextgen_holiday:

Christmas. Yule. Saturnalia. Dies Natalis Solis Invicti. Many cultures have celebrated and still celebrate a winter festival. There have been many names for it over the millennia. No matter the name it is a time to come together and celebrate with feasts and gifts with friends and loved ones.

Each culture has a legendary figure who would deliver gifts to children during this time. In Russia and some Slavic cultures he is known as Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, and comes not on Christmas but on New Year’s along with his granddaughter Snegurochka, or ‘”Snow Maiden”. In the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe he is known as Father Christmas. In the Netherlands and Belgium he is known as Saint Nicholas or “Sinterklaas” and in France he is known as Père Noël. In the United States we know him as Santa Claus.

No matter the name or who is delivering gifts, it is the season of peace, joy and togetherness. It is the season for thinking about loved ones, friends and those less fortunate. It is a time to witness the goodness and generosity the human race is capable of. It is a time for peace on Earth and goodwill toward man.

whosperfectnow:

The jumps were dizzying as were the changes in her physiology.  The additional abilities were leaving her, almost being written out of her dna.  It would have been a huge relief except leaping through time was equally as draining so when Tina landed in 1776, she landed face first in the mud and she was perfectly content to stay right there.

Until she was yanked up by her hair demanding to know where the hell she'd come from.

It was a familiar-seeming voice and when she was able to see the face the voice belonged to she understood why: Sebastian Shaw clearly looked like one of his ancestors.  Enough so that Tina turned on the diamond armor at will--a first--and punched him right in the face.

By the time X-Force dropped in, Tina was in a full on brawl with this Shaw and his fellow soldiers to the point that all she could see or hear was the fight at hand.  It...wasn't going well.

pym_kitten:

Chris smiles to herself as she checks herself out in the mirror. The dress was a little lighter than winter called for, but it was a small price to pay. She could put together a throw or jacket to coordinate with it if she had to. For the most part though, she was done. She'd managed to find the materials she'd been looking for for the gift for her date, and her own threads were done.

Not wanting to come down from her creative high just yet, she put up a message on the bulletin board in the common area that she was taking requests on accessories for the party. She tacked on a few photos of stuff she had already made, just to pad her cred a little bit.

nextgen_misc:

After some discussion with the team, they decided to jump to the London Blitz in an attempt to meet up with Christina at the end of her time jumps, to catch her before she was stuck wherever Dave had sent her.  Jenny had no trouble bringing the team along--she could take up to six "passengers" safely at one time--but once they actually arrived, that's where her expertise ended.  This was, after all, a different universe and while the generalities were much the same, some details were bound to be different.

"Remember guys, do not trust what you know about history.  It's only a guide here, not fact."

In a blink they were on the streets of London. A quick check of a newspaper gave them the date: 29 December, 1940.  It was a perfect match to the book Tina'd been reading, a book about the Second Great Fire of London.  The team was just hours away from the devastating air raid.

"Christina appears to be getting herself involved in notable events, my money's on her being at St. Paul's Catherdral.  It was famously spared in the raid by the efforts of firefighters."

Orienting herself a bit, Jenny started leading the group as unobtrusively as possible towards the landmark.

nextgen_holiday:

"As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them." JFK

In America today is a day for being thankful for the things in people's lives. Today was a day to celebrate family, friends, prosperity and health with food, family and friends. It is a time to reflect on what is important us and to recognize the gratitude we hold for having those things in our lives.

nextgen_misc:

When X-Force returned they had attempted to use Anastasia's idea to find Christina using Cerebro. Jenny, the same girl Tina had been hanging out with when the anomaly hit Cerebro in the first place, scanned several times, but found nothing. It was as though Tina had disappeared.

She did, however, find something interesting on the website the team had cryptically been given.

"Hey, guys? New events have shown up on this site since I first loaded it. Take a look."

whosperfectnow:

Since Summers still didn't want Christina doing anything combat-oriented but couldn't put her on desk duty either (not to mention still couldn't pin the unusual disappearance...and later discovery of the remains of his car on her) he put her in the only other place he figured he could keep her out of trouble: Cerebro duty. For the last week she'd been spending her days up with Jenny Elston and she still wasn't quite sure what Elston did, powers-wise.  She was a telepath to be sure, but when asked about anything else, she'd clam up, shrug her shoulders, and say she didn't have the greatest social skills so Professor Xavier figured she was best off monitoring Cerebro--but she was glad for the company.  Cerebro was, most of the time, boring.

"So your latest power acquisition is omnilingualism, huh?"  The girls had taken to playing poker during some of the really quiet moments.  Jenny kept winning and looked up at Tina over her cards as she awaited an answer.

"Yeah.  My boyfriend loves it because I can talk dirty to him in a ton of languages now."

"I'm surprised you haven't picked up some weird armor plating, dating a Rhodes.  They're kinda close with the Starks."

"I do diamond armor.  And I only pick up other mutant powers.  Not technological genius.  And how do you know anything about the Rhodes and Starks?" 

Jenny just smiled.  "Same way I just beat you.  Again."  She tapped her temple.  "Are you sure you're a telepath?  You don't seem to do a lot of mind-reading."

"Spent way too much time in my childhood doing it.  Dammit, you did win again."  Tina started to gather up the cards when the Cerebro alert went off, loudly. The two girls rushed to look at the console.

"Oh shit, that can't be right."  Jenny's eyes widened.  "Yesterday, there were five low-level mutant signatures there.  Now..."

Tina tapped the glass.

"Now it looks like a power bomb went off."  The two girls looked at each other.  Last time this had happened, it was Fargo.  Tina started out of the room.   "I'll get Summers."

***

Ten minutes later, Tina was banging on Summers' office door.

son_of_discord:

Xavier's 3am--


Joey has no idea what he was dreaming about or why; the only thing apparent to him right now is the pain in the sockets where his eyes should be. It feels as though his brain is trying to force its way out of his skull through both holes at once and he has to bite his pillow to keep from screaming.

The pillow doesn't help and he can taste the blood on his tongue as the pain intensifies. He falls off the bed, hitting the hard floor and immediate reaches out trying to orient himself in the direction of his bathroom.

Just 180 degrees behind me, right? Just gotta get there....

The pain in his head intensifies as he crawls across the floor to the bathroom, pulling himself up by the door knob. His hands fumble in the dark, looking for the damned light-switch that should have been near the wall. He finally finds it and stumbles in the direction of the bathroom sink and the mirror, tearing off the cotton patches over his eyes. Later, he'll say he had no clue why he did this; if what happened next hadn't happened, he doesn't know what it would have accomplished.

But he didn't expect what came next.

The bathroom light nearly blinds him Joey throws a hand over his eyes to shield it out. The lights were never that bright, were they? Not even when the bulbs got changed. Why were they so bright now? 

Wait a minute.

Joey puts his arm down and looks in the mirror. He sees his reflection staring back at him. With his eyes.

"My eyes...grew back?" he asks his reflection stupidly.

So focused on his reflect is he that Joey doesn't notice the shadow that vanishes from beside his bed, fading away into the dark.

nextgen_holiday:

The air was warm and the sun was bright making it a perfect day for a cookout to celebrate Labor Day. Classes would start on the 7th (for those going to college they started a week ago) and it was the last chance to kick back and cut loose before hitting the books.

At Xavier's Institute For Higher Learning tables had been placed out around the pool and the large grill fired up. Burgers, hot dogs, sausage, ribs, corn on the cob, pasta salad, salad and fruit salad were just some of the food available to eat. Soda, water, fruit juice and other beverages were on ice.

It was a day of rest and relaxations for those who put their lives on the line for others.

wild_rose:

Rose begged off anything after dinner with Brad, saying she had an early class in the morning.  A complete lie, but he bought it hook, line, and sinker.  They needed to mobilize as quickly as possible, and the lab would be mostly deserted in just a few hours.   Brad might possibly still be there, but she was more than prepared to deal with that.

It did not take long for the team to assemble, staging just outside the lab complex and just out of range of security cameras and the like.  Their stealth uniforms--which had been carefully and completely hidden away in their luggage--were the go to clothes of the day.  The black and gray suits would provide a measure of stealth and electronic misdirection.  Each contained a small mask, with various vision settings, though Rose's mask mimicked the lines of her usual pointy eared one.

"Okay," she said.  "We all know we need to shut this down.  That means smashing or confiscating any samples, destroying the computers, and otherwise makin' as a big a mess as possible.  And if there's anybody there...  we take them down as quickly as we can without killin' 'em.  We'll clean up anything we have to after we slow them back to the stone age."

She looked to Tina.  "Your move, chief."

wild_rose:

For the members of X-Force, the previous night had been extremely successful.  Each, in their own way, had gathered pieces of information which helped to make the larger puzzle a little more clear.

1) Rose had determined through a conversation with one of the lead scientists that not only did the X-Gene therapy work, but that it was largely being purposed as a means of suppressing the x-gene in others, with the possibility of adding powers to an individual being more of a side project.  She had also wrangled herself an invitation to see the lab up close and personal.

2) Tina and Joey had, in what even Rose would admit was a spectacular piece of subterfuge, learned that not only was there workings in place to get the therapy to the outside world, but Tina had secured herself a job within the lab on the promise of a favorable negotiation with regards to this deal.

3) Anastasia had managed to secure a security badge for the lab.  It would be some time before this was missed.  With Tina having gained access and her skills, this might have turned out to be redundant, but as each had been operating individually, some duplication was to be understandable.

4) And Chris...  had listened to rumors and confirmed that there was interest among the population in the therapy.  She also had a much more pleasant evening than any of the others had in their interactions with the natives.

In ones and twos, the group had passed the bits of information on to each other and begun to hatch a plan.  Rose and Tina would both be able to be in the lab at the same time easily enough.  Between Tina's technopathic abilities and experience, and Rose's own skillset, they could decide how to proceed from there.  The others would hold back on stand-by, ready to come with a moment's call and gain access either through Tina or through the stolen card. 

It was a solid plan.  It was supposed to just be about gathering info.  What could go wrong?

wild_rose:

With the fake backgrounds and IDs Summers and the rest of the crew, getting into Providence (Rose and Tina inserted in one group, Chris and Annie inserted in another, and Joey with his own plan) as part of differing immigrant groups had proven surprisingly easy.  Fake IDs listed them all as a little bit older than they were, but not impossibly so.  They'd passed the background checks, taken aptitude tests, and been given various placements within Providence society.

Per the initial meeting outline, they'd purposefully avoided each other for the first three days on the island itself.  Now, however, it was time to meet.

Rose--whose fake ID identified her as Elizabeth Howlett--sat down on the park bench that was X-Force's rendezvous point.  She took a long sniff, breathing in the air.  It was cleaner than back in the states, clean like the wilderness.  Whatever Nate was up to here... it sure seemed to her like he was doing something right.

nextgen_parent:

The call went out for the members of X-Force to assemble in the briefing room as soon as possible. When they arrive, they'll find that it is Scott Summers, rather than the Professor, running this meeting. He looks grim, even by Scott Summers standards.

son_of_discord:

Joey wasn't sure what had just happened. One moment, he was kicking Bigmouth's face in, the next minute, the whole world started shaking, and people were screaming. Buildings fell over and then he was ducking behind a car, trying to keep from getting splattered by falling debris. When the shaking stopped, Joey managed to push himself out of mass of debris and garbage, and stood up to look for his teammates.

Fargo, Georgia was a land of chaos.

The few buildings that hadn't fallen over were still crumbling, and there were people lying on the ground before him. Others civilians walked about, clutching at extremities (some missing) or trying to stop the blood flow of other people's wounds. Joey could feel something warm and wet on the side of his own face, but he tried not to think about that. If he did, it would only slow him down.

"Wild Child! Shatter! Ice Princess! Ruby! Kitten! Someone say somethin'!" Joey called out, hoping that this mission hadn't succeeded at what Krakoa had narrowly failed at.

"YOU DID THIS! YOU MUTANT FREAKS BLEW UP OUR TOWN!" a woman screams, pointing at Joey.

"You gotta be kiddin' me..." he says, calling a flame to his hand.

He did not need this right now.

sound_and_fury:

Cassidy Summers pads, barefoot, down the sidewalk in the small town of Fargo, Georgia. He just got here a few minutes ago, having hitched a ride with a trucker not far from the destruction of the facility. Though he has only pants a tattered shirt to his name, and despite the discomfort he feels, Cassidy keeps moving through the streets, looking for a hospital.

Something is wrong with him, and this time, Doctor Milbury isn't here to tell him what it is.

He tries to stop and ask for help, but each person he passes by looks at him in shock, or fear, or most commonly, disgust. They cross the street to get away from him, or they quickly hurry by, pretending they don't see him. Why are they so mean? He just needs to know how to get to the hospital.

 

( Read more... )

shattered:

Melinda remains distant from her classmates, for the most part. Truth be told, she doesn't really feel like she deserves to be here with them. She knows rationally it's nonsense to feel that way, but she can't help it.

So it is that, once again, at lunchtime, she sits outside, away from the others, watching the fountain while she eats her sandwich.

nextgen_baddie:

3:00 am EST Somewhere in  Hills of Southern Georgia....



( Read more... )

wild_rose:

By startling coincidence (yeah, right), all three squads had ended up at the cave at nearly the same time.  "Funny meeting you here," Rose muttered.

This was... wrong. Extremely wrong.  An island out to get them?  Missing X-Men?  A brand-new team being put together to go find them?  It all added up to one horrible, horrible possibility.  She'd been told the story often enough growing up, even used the place in question as a staging ground for Danger Room scenarios.

She looked over to Chris and Anastasia, eventually taking in Christina, Melinda, and Joey as well.  She was worried about him.  The others had survived mostly unscathed and she was healing, but he'd taken some hard knocks.  She'd have to keep an eye on him.  Dammit.  How she felt about him... major distraction right now.  And yet, she wouldn't trade him for all the edge it might offer.

"Okay, hands up, this remind anybody of anything from X-Men History 101?"
 

nextgen_misc:

With the speed of the Blackbird, the six X-Men were able to reach the island, located in an otherwise empty stretch of the Pacific Ocean, in almost no time at all. The island looked as though it had been untouched by man for centuries. Thick jungle had grown without limits and a towering volcano could be seen rising from the center. A thick swampland dotted one end. There was no sign of life, no sign of the Blackbird that had brought the other team.

There was an almost sinister feel about the whole thing.

ng_xavier_staff:

John Allerdyce.

Melinda Dyars.

Christina Frost.

Chris Grant-Pym.

Rose Logan.

Anastasia Summers.


To me!

The mental summons went out, calling the six to Professor Xavier's office.  Urgency, unusual in the usually composed founder and headmaster of the Institute, colored the psychic call.  This was not a summons to be refused.