Pulse immediately begins looking for an internet signal or cell signals, trying to desperately reconnect with something she could fully understand. Hopefully something that spoke her language.
Mud heads over to Turbo and Albion to exchange superhero stories.
"Hey, are you guys based in England? How did you meet Sanction?"
Violet meanders through the crowd to a point that she can get herself something to drink, listening to the various conversations as she does so.
Whenever she runs into someone she worked with on the operation, she'll pause and smile, thanking them politely.
Eventually, keeping her ears open the entire time, she returns to Rocket's side with a pair of bottles of water, because who drinks beer when they have aged scotch waiting at home?
Pulse is able to pick up signals, but they are not the signals she's used to, indicating that she's still in a foreign country of some kind.
Violet mostly gets 'after action report' talk, someone got shot at by locals, someone met a kid who could make themselves melt through walls, and so on. A lot of the conversations seem to pause as she gets close, and then start up again seeming slightly forced, as if they were discussing something they didn't want to be overheard discussing.
Albion and Turbo are drinking beers against a wall with two other people, a teenage girl in vaguely asian white armor with what looks like metal skin, hair and eyes (drinking a soda), and a a man in a black and gold costume with a star on the chest (drinking what looks like an energy drink). When Mud comes up, Albion tips his beer toward him. "Hello pal, this is Quicksilver and Goldstar, I'll let you figure out which is which." The girl sighs, and the man frowns.
"Ignore his sense of humor, it was never good to begin with, and his mutation completely warped it." The girl says, her voice sounding like metal chimes in five part harmony.
The man just shrugs. "At least he's not drunk yet, so it's semi-coherent bad humor."
Yes, of course,[i] Violet thinks to herself. [i]Let's all act paranoid and suspicious around the telepath who literally helped you save lives and is on your damned team. No reason to trust her. Nope. No sir. Just keep being paranoid and untrusting and then wonder later why so many telepaths go crazy and become villains. It's your own faults. Asshats.
When she gets her bottles of water, she heads back to Rocket, but still pauses to greet and thank anyone she worked with. Because at least they know she's not going to eat their brains.
It's highly unlikely that people are not talking because Vi is a telepath. First off, you have no idea what most of their powers are, so it's equally unlikely they all know your powers. It's almost certainly something else (that your deduction roll didn't reveal)
Sensing that something isn't entirely cricket, but being unable to figure it out, Violet does the next best thing: she asks for help.
Violet knocks, politely, on Ace's mental door.
Assuming he answers:
::So. Hey. Nice to see you. Good to work on a bigger team, again. Quick question? Why are so many people shutting up and looking the other way when I walk by? Is it that I'm a telepath? Or something else? Do I have broccoli in my teeth? Is it my hair? What? You'd tell me if you knew, right?::
Mindlink to Pulse: ::So. Figure out where we are, yet? Where are we? Is there a decent taco joint anywhere near here?::
::Likely everyone is discussing Omega showing up, and how he knew. He must have someone on the inside, and that means everyone is second guessing who they talk in front of for now. Or they don't want anyone hearing them talking about him. Both are equally likely. You do realize you are not the center of everyone's universe, right?:: There's a bit of humor in that last statement, and a mental image of Violet floating in space with everyone zooming around her as if orbiting her.
Violet mentally huffs and then, sarcasm in her tone, shoots back:
::If you'd seen me naked you wouldn't say that. But yes, I do know that. I wouldn't be asking if people were clamming up when other people walked by. Maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like it was specifically me they were shutting down around. I dunno.::
She pauses, then adds.
::So is now a good time to get the idea of a universal database and information network set up between cells? I've only been suggesting it since my first day.
And... yeah. Of course we have a mole. I'd say it's Shimmer, really. The Magician is probably linked to her, and she doesn't even know it. Omega and that ratbag work together, at least from time to time. And if that's not the case, it's probably someone who's been around a long time. Someone who worked with him, back in his normal life. Does no one else read Agatha Christie?::
Violet turns to Rocket while drinking her water, and smirks.
"Wanna see a trick?" she asks, touching his forehead. "The water? Is now Cognac."
::I suggest you don't tell Shimmer you think she's working for Omega and Magician... unless you're curious how it feels to be boneless...::
** spoiler omitted **
::I didn't say I believed it. I said she's the obvious choice. Read more mystery novels.
The obvious choice is never the real culprit, though. Which is why I said it's more likely someone who's been on the inside since day one. Or even before.
Which is why you need to run a background check on everyone who ever got even remotely close to Omega and his runs.::
"Hey. Nice to meet you. I'm Mud." With his balaclava and Ray Bays in his pants side pockets, he feels like an amateur superhero next to these guys. Wearing a black fleece turtleneck, dark-colored bicycle gloves, and olive green BDU pants with combat boots, Mud resembles more of a quasi-terrorist.
"You all have cool codenames and outfits. Are you all part of the same crew based in England?"
Pulse can be seen to droop slightly as she huffs in regards to the encrypted -or- different language signals she's running into. It's probably hard to tell which is which, really.
Psst@Violet::Round and round like a horse on a carousel... We are number one, Hey!
Oh. Ummm... Ireland, I think. I can't really tell anything here, but my GPS still works. Or someone's GPS does, I guess. Gonna have to learn more languages, I think...:: she trails off mentally, as she waves Aegis towards Naga and the old woman. Maybe the old woman could pull up a smaller range babble for them to talk through... or maybe there'd be a continued language barrier.
::Don't say I didn't warn you...:: An image of a big hulking brute of a guy, about twice the size of Gridlock flashes through Vi's head, the man's legs don't look normal, since they bend and flex like rubber as he flails on the ground. ::She doesn't actually have to take your skeleton along with her when she teleports... or she can take it but not everything else.::
"Thanks buddy, worked hard on them." Albion says, causing an eye roll from everyone.
"Yes, so far at least. We may vote to put Albion on a slow boat to China though." Quicksilver says, making Turbo perk up.
"I got one of those somewhere..." Turbo says, checking her pockets.
In the background, five more metas, including Replikate, blink into the red circle on the ground along with Shimmer, who dashes over to the table, rapid fires four energy drinks and two power bars down, and then vanishes again.
"So I guess where you're from is out of bounds. I'm new at this stuff. So what can we talk about, or should I wander back to my crew?" Mud disappointingly asks like a kid not being included in a private joke.
** spoiler omitted **
Violet retorts with an image of a cartoon Coyote constantly chasing his own tail and failing to notice that the Roadrunner has gotten away.
::Wow, could you ignore what I said any harder? I said I didn't think it's her. I said she's the obvious choice for people to form conspiracies around. Anyone who has any knowledge of Magic-Boy and her past will start putting that together any day now. You should get her ready for that. And by the way? Threats of violence don't work against crowds that are paranoid and scared. We both know this. Now get ready to do something about it. Yeesh.::
Mindlink to Pulse: ::Ireland? Th'fuuu? Whatever. Get on Yelp and find us a decent taco joint. Or some place that delivers, or something.::
Mindlink to the rest of the group: ::My fellow weirdos, we are apparently in Ireland. Anyone care to start asking why we are in Ireland? Like, is there a reason we're all huddled up here? Is there going to be an After-Action, or something? Also, If anyone knows anything about Irish geography, now's a good time to speak up. Especially if you know a good place to get tacos.::
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Pulse immediately thinks a picture of Ireland from her GPS into Violet's 'field of vision', not sure how it works, really. Complete with cartoony flag outlines. The orange and green are backwards, for Ireland's flag though.
Pulse can't connect to the internet, but she thinks the group is in Derry City, at the airport.
Pulse pauses for a moment. Mindlink@Vi::Violet... could you ask someone in charge-ish for the wifi password? If there is one..?::
She notes Mud near the group with the obvious British person, and wonders for a short moment if this was their base. If any of them had a pilot's license, it'd definitely be a great place to work out of; anywhere in Britain as a whole wasn't far away, by air.
Violet, seeing that Mud is talking to the same Brits as before, passes Pulse's request for the Wifi password along via the mindlink.
She also pings Ace and checks to see if he knows anything about it.
Rocket tries the 'cognac' and grins at Violet. "Not bad! Kinda handy that you can f!#~ with taste and smell." ::Not as trippy as that image I got when I first came in though: I could've sworn I saw Shadowcat drinking a bear! Was that you? Or maybe Ace f$!%ing with my brain again?::
Wiping his lip he says, "Anyway, I shouldn't have too much of this on an empty stomach. I brought a dozen energy bars and a few PBJs with me to Ecuador but you know how long that'll last me. At this point, I'm pretty famished."
Rocket walks with Vi--and anyone else from their pod who's interested--over to Ace, Shadowcat, and Gridlock.
"Pulse says we're in Ireland, right? I gotta get something to eat. Can we get out of here and grab some fish and chips and some Guinness? Someone her's gotta be able to conjure up some street clothes for us, right?" Rocket gestures toward their rather obvious costumes. "Or barring that, I certainly hope Shimmer had the good sense to bring us somewhere where we can order in some pizza!"
"It's just water, sweetie," Violet assures Rocket. "It only tastes like Hennesey."
At Rocket's mention of pizza, Violet half-whispers Tacoooooos. Astute members of her team may remember her recently reading an article about Ireland's strange claim to fame as being the only place in all of the EU to get anything approaching decent Mexican food, and Violet's challenge to try proving or debunking this claim.
Shadowcat, Gridlock, and Ace all look at each other, and then Gridlock reaches out and picks up Rocket, twirls him around with ease, and points him toward the table where the beers, sodas, waters, energy bars, energy drinks, burgers, tacos, and food are, the same one Shimmer got her energy drinks and bars from a few seconds ago. "No pizza, and we need to keep out of sight for now." Gridlock says, his voice all gravelly due to being stone. "Just needed a place to regroup and get everyone's teams straightened out, with Shimmer evac'ing everyone as rapidly as possible. Easier and faster than her making multiple trips to each city to bring back one or two people here and there."
Speaking of which, Shimmer reappears with another group of people, this time including Zeus and the fire woman Blaze met earlier. Then she downs an energy drink and vanishes again.
::Very few people know about Shadowcat and Magician, other than her wanting to kill him. That's much more widely known. However, we are aware some might think so. As to the wifi password, we don't have one. Tell Pulse apologies, I'll mark it down for next time to make sure someone gets one.::
"Nah mate, we're from Britain for sure. So just a hop skip and a jump from here. Turbo could probably get us home in a nonce, I'm sure she's got a plane stored away some where." Albion replies.
Turbo nods. "Got a bleedin' leer jet I took away from some wanker with red skin and black horns, thought he was the devil. Was smuggling weapons. Also got a 67B Sikorsky I got from a guy who owed me money when his tourist business went tit's up."
Quicksilver perks up. "You do? You never told me you had a chopper, that's ace. You teach me to fly it?"
Turbo shrughs. "Sure, as long as you're not metal'd up. All that weight will make it go all pear shaped."
"So where you from, mate? 'Cross the pond, I wager, based on the accent." Goldstar asks Mud.
Mud lights up when the Brits finally open up like a kid being allowed in the club. "Yeah. I'm from the U.S. We've moved a couple cities, since Ace, Shimmer and Shadowcat saved me from the government almost a year ago. I guess we Americans are mobile."
"It sounds like you guys have been operating like superheroes for awhile. What's that like? We're new at this and haven't fully committed to it."
Blaze looks around, and wished he had a light coat to put on. Ireland? Damn…one side of the world to the other! He'd have some stories to tell some day…
He noticed the compatriots he had hung around with after getting lost, and waved. "Hey guys. Weclome to Ireland."
The greek's look at Blaze, and wave, and then speak in a gaggle of voices he can't understand.
The blazing woman looks over, and waves. Her voice, despite not apparently being pitched very high, reverberates throughout the entire aircraft hanger, bouncing off the walls and echoing over and over again like an eletronic reverb going over and over, making everyone's bones vibrate.
"Αληθώς! Ηφαίστειο, δεν μιλάμε! Θελεις να καταστρέψουν το κτίριο αν εσύ dost πάρει «φλύαρος»!" The older looking man with lightning sparking in his eyes says to the woman.
Again the voice reverberates.
"Verily! Volcana, do not talk! Thou shalt destroy the building if thou dost get 'chatty'!"
"SORRY..."
Turbo and her friends look at each other, and then it is mostly a round of shrugs. "I got recruited about a year ago, before that, I was working solo. Didn't know there were other's like me."
Albion nods. "Same here, I was keeping a low profile, but it went t+*$ up when I got shot by a mugger, had to fake my death, mate."
Quicksilver rubs the back of her head. "This was my first job..."
Goldstar gives a laugh. "I guess I'm the old man here. I been workin' with Sanction since before she was Sanction. But I can't really talk about it."
Violet chuckles at the interchange between Captain Cliche and Volcana, momentarily pausing as she realizes she's taking up Pulse's habit of nicknaming people.
For a brief moment, Violet imagines the octopus-like tentacles emanating from her brain being covered in rubber gloves, so as not to infect, or be infected by, anyone else. But only a moment.
Raiding the snack table, Violet dives, two-fisted, into the tacos. The experiment must commence.
::Well, maybe we should just start openly questioning people. The ones with the most to hide will be the ones who block themselves off the hardest. But I'm not supposed to think that way any more.::
Mindlink To Pulse ::They say there's no wifi setup, but 'next time' there will be. Smarmy face icon goes here.::
Violet looks at Ace, and asks, verbally:
"So how long are we here? Why pull us all to Ireland? Are we going to go hang out with the civilians? Because I don't have any street clothes and as much as I'd love to get my hands on some Belfast wool socks, I don't think they'd let me in to a shop dressed like this."
::That's also a good way to alienate people, imagine your feelings if I started questioning you about it cold. You'd think I was singling you out because you were the Telepath in the room...::
Ace gives a pained look. "Let Shimmer finish pulling people out. She's not able to pull them all out in their own groups right now, like she could before. She's been porting people all day, non-stop, all over the world. Let's not triple or quadruple how many ports she has to do by making her take people home in drips and drabs. I don't know about you, Vi, but I'd prefer to keep all my body parts the same pre and post port. A tired porter is not a safe thing." He seems to heavily stress 'Vi', and knows she doesn't like it, so likely used it on purpose.
Gridlock winces, but gives a chuckle. "Tell me about it, hurt like hell when she ported my thigh bone out of my leg..." He slaps his thigh. "Glad I can regenerate..."
Mud smiles at the candid answers, "thanks. I know it's tough to share.
"Hey, have you faced any super villains yet? We met the Magician and one his cannibalistic experiments. And a merc named Midnite. I got his card."
Quicksilver giggles, an odd sound in five part metallic harmony. "I don't know if you'd call her a 'supervillain', but we tackled a bird two weeks ago with a very risque fashion sense who liked making guys think with their pecker using some pheremones."
Turbo laughs at that, and both Goldstar and Albion turn red.
All conversation is interrupted as Shimmer warps in again, this time with a much larger crowd than before, including Shimmer and Shadowcat and another copy of Replikate.
Sanction ducks her head. "Everyone, thank you for your work today, and for your patience. Despite our gate crasher, I think things went well. We showed that we are capable of helping, that not all metas are ravening psychopaths, and that we can discipline ourselves. I know you're all excited to get home, but please give Shimmer an hour to get some food and take a nap. I'm sure we'd all prefer to arrive without being merged into one person." She glances at Ace and Gridlock. "I don't know about you folks, but I'm not sure I could handle a twoheaded Acelock." A round of laughter bursts out. Those who don't speak english seem to laugh a few seconds later, so obviously someone is translating for them.
Shimmer, looking exhausted, grabs some food and wolfs it down before diving into a cot in the back corner of the room.
Violet feels around for a local or two to see if she can set up a back-channel for things like confections and apparel from Ireland, the UK and Europe in general, in return for a staggering price cut on expensive couture shoes and the like.
She's got her ways, she can get the fancy goods.
And if she can't, well, after a fair round of pouting, she'll be okay.
Once they were out of the spot light and everyone was safely teleported Aegis finds whatever would be the closest to an empty space with everyone here and indulges in her own drink. She would likely need a bit more time to take in everything that had happened as well as get over her hatred of how powerless seeing all the other metas and even Omega made her feel.
Pouting and pride aside she did feel bad for Shimmer.
She's going to burn out like this and it's only going to get worse now. Maybe Ace will let us get her a day off.
Even knowing it was near impossible that they could go without her for a day she still made a mental note to try.
The little 'party' continues for another hour, with chatting, and then Shimmer gets up on her own, without being awakened. She stretches and yawns, and grabs some more food and an energy drink. Then she does a few calesthenics and seems bright and chipper again. Almost immediately she pulls out a phone and begins studying pictures for a moment or two, and then starts rounding up groups and teleporting them back home.
The PC's group is 3rd on the list, and she grins before bouncing out again, telling Aegis "Nice face stop on the bullets!" with an impish grin as she fades away.
Over the next month, turmoil rages in D.C. as proof that the government new about the Metas for as much as two decades comes out. Given it's top secret nature, most of the congress critters throw their compatriots under the bus, and then drive back and forth over them several times. Impeachment proceedings begin for the President, the Vice President, and about 20 members of congress resign, all high ranking members who were on the Intelligence Oversight Committee.
Campaign rhetoric on the trail becomes vicious, with some Republicans promising to imprison all Metas. Others call them fascists and refuse to make the same promise. At first, those promising to lock them up soar in the ratings, until the pictures from the secret government research that were shown to CNN are released on the internet by someone, showing vivisections, disections, and meticulous notes kept by the scientists involved for the DOD. The wave of revulsion that sweeps the country is palpable, and those advocating for 'locking them up' are then pounded about 'locking them up and executing them'.
The two parties favorites, Bush and Clinton, as well as the surprise early leader Trump, are all but thrown out of the race as their poll numbers plummit due to their earlier stances. Kasich takes a massive lead in the Republic primaries, and Sanders begins to shatter Clinton's early lead, taking superdelagates away rapidly as they distance themselves from Hillary's earlier 'May need to consider a reservation type arrangement until we know they are safe' comments.
Sightings of Metas begin to happen in trickles after the Earthquake incident. Early warnings and evacuations are attributed to the very low loss of life in the Earthquake, less than a dozen people.
Some sightings are just paparazzi shots, as a Meta with open mutations will let themselves be seen on the streets. Then some with powers begin to use them irresponsibly. A teenage boy in Wisconsin does fly overs of an anti-Meta rally dropping rotten tomatoes on the crowd.
Some are not so harmless though, as two gang members in Chicago who have powers they'd hidden use them to attack a rival gang and kill 12 gang members and 4 innocent bystanders.
The next day, the police raid the gang's turf and find, to their surprise, that the entire gang has been beaten up and left tied up with steel cables with little notes "Your friendly neighborhood Meta" on them.
"Internment camps. Can you believe that? Hillary wanted internment camps. Without even a war. I'm totally not with her." Pulse announces as she plops down at the kitchen table, chin on her hands as her spoon dips into her Honeycomb of its own volition to feed her.
Nomph.
"Have you figured out anything for spin control, yet, Vi-?" Pulse asks as the spoon spins in slow circles over the bowl. She pauses when she catches her probable look, "-o-let. With the offering Meta-related services thing, that is."
Mud finally gets his fake ID worked out to register for courses. So, he feels like he's getting his life on track. He ignores the political campaigning, since he cannot vote.
He works with Violet on a suitable outfit when she has time. He keeps trying to get something as cool as the Brits.
"Are we going to start patrolling for bad guys, or what?" Mud asks the kitchen.
"Internment camps. Can you believe that? Hillary wanted internment camps. Without even a war. I'm totally not with her." Pulse announces as she plops down at the kitchen table, chin on her hands as her spoon dips into her Honeycomb of its own volition to feed her.
"That... I mean, that's totally inconsistent with her political stances the last thirty years. Are we sure she hasn't been taken over by a shapeshifter? I could check. I mean, I could check."
"Have you figured out anything for spin control, yet, Vi-?" Pulse asks as the spoon spins in slow circles over the bowl. She pauses when she catches her probable look, "-o-let. With the offering Meta-related services thing, that is."
Violet nods, silently pleased that Pulse is doing so well with her powers. The static ball was a good buy.
"Meta services are about to become a booming industry. And all we have to do to be in the forefront is start putting our legal teams on offering their services to Meta's who need representation, get our tech teams on offering secure accounts and identity protection services for their data... Aaaaaand, I was thinking image and copyright services for costumes. Because who wants their look stolen?"
Violet, long ago having given up on why Pulse insists on eating breakfast cereal for every meal of the day, takes a bite of her own baked potato lunch, and considers for a moment.
"And, hey, the boss lady hasn't said 'no' to any of these, yet, so I think we're good?"
Mud finally gets his fake ID worked out to register for courses. So, he feels like he's getting his life on track. He ignores the political campaigning, since he cannot vote.He works with Violet on a suitable outfit when she has time. He keeps trying to get something as cool as the Brits.
"Are we going to start patrolling for bad guys, or what?" Mud asks the kitchen.
Violet knows how to put looks together, and does her best to help out on that angle. She can't guarantee it will be as cool as the Brits, as the British are inherently terrifying when it comes to such things, but she tries.
"I'm good for patrols in tonight," she says through baked potato. "I got a new mask, so I'm good to go once I change."
"Well... I mean, she's pretty much just said whatever was popular this election season. And I don't really know anything about what she did before this... too lazy to google." Pulse responds, "Not sure we could really check, though. They'd probably assume you were an assassin sent to kill her or mind wipe her. Or something." Pulse, meanwhile, didn't understand why Violet was so self-assured that it wasn't breakfast time, when Pulse had just gotten up. It was the most important meal, after all.
"It seems really odd to trademark outfits, though. Or is it copyright... meh." she says, the spoon stuffing her mouth again, while she listens for a moment. Or maybe doesn't. "Can't copyright a costume, so much as a symbol or the like. It has to be something you could separate from the costume to be a copyright. Can patent, though, if you have a nifty idea. Maybe."
"I'm happy to try to find stuff for us to do, if you'd like. It'll be hard for me ot pick up much that the news wouldn't already have at this point, though. Things are becoming... circusy."
"Yeah, we might... be in a pretty good position for Meta Services," Snapdragon suggests. "We'd need a whole bunch of lawyers to make sure this doesn't get us arrested, but being at least a bit public about what we do might mean actual protection. Going back to my old career right now feels a little... small; I could look into getting us some proper science equipment, or trying to make contact with local law enforcement."
"We should deal with people trying to get safe before we worry about things like costumes. With all the meta's running around trying to play cops and robbers while nonmetas want them dead problems are going to pop up everywhere. We should look into getting the cards they used to get us."