Fantasy The Shutdowns | [rp]

[mkuchiha]

Sam slammed the door closed rather loudly, as if to bring to the attention of everyone in the house that he was home. Oddly enough he didn't hear a single yell of protest about the loud noise, so he surmised no one was home. Which was fine by him. With a fluid motion, Sam slid his bag over his chest, kicked his shoes off, and barreled into the sofa. Basketball practice had been grueling, and had left every body part below his neck sweaty and sore.

Usually if Sam had come home this sweaty and tired, his parents would usually direct him to the shower before he could rest, but since his parents weren't home he had all the time he needed to wallow in the pool of his own sweat. About a minute into his self-pity party, his stomach beckoned to be fed. So, he reluctantly got up, and looked around the kitchen for a snack that would sate his hunger, at least until his parents got back.

 

[Ravenclaw]

"Ew," Sophia commented good-naturedly, then reached for her bag. "I have a sweatshirt in here." Not that she didn't love sitting next to a half-naked stranger. Extracting it, she tossed it at Nellie (it landed squarely on Nellie's head). "And if you'd do me a favor and not talk about your wedgie for the next... ever, that would be swell."

Red_Delta

Meanwhile...​

It was Milligan's last pickup, and he could not be more relieved. Cadum Samuel Augustine. Canada. He wondered vaguely if he had time to stop for a donut, then blamed it on Sophia's apparent obsession with junk food. Besides, he wasn't exactly ahead of schedule.

Milligan had just gotten out of the limo when he heard a front door slam down the street. He withdrew his phone to double check both the street address and photograph, then glanced up and caught the tail end of what was probably his next recruit. Sighing—teenage boys, honestly—he grabbed the paperwork and started heading down the street. A few minutes later, he stood in front of Cadum's house and, taking a deep breath (apparently this kid had telekinsesis and telekinetics were famously unpredictable if they were unaware of their powers), rang the doorbell.

mkuchiha

 

[mkuchiha]

It was while in the middle of stuffing his face with a pizza roll, when Sam heard the doorbell ring. It was pretty unexpected, and loud, so he dropped the roll he was eating accidentally. Of course this didn't deter him from picking it back up and plopping it into his mouth. After completely swallowing, and smacking his lips twice, Sam strolled to the front hall and opened the door, where a strangely dressed man waited. For a normal person warning bells would ring in their heads, and they would immediately get suspicious, but Sam was not a normal person.
He looked the man up and down, and smirked. "Nice outfit, dude. But I think halloween is still a few months away."

 

[Ravenclaw]

If he was going to be forced to deal with more attitude... Milligan sighed.

"Come with me," he said, cutting right to the chase, and handed Cadum the explanatory papers. It smelled like pizza rolls in the house, so, not wanting to get into any arguments over food again, he added, "You can bring the food. But we're running behind schedule, so I need you to come with me right now."

mkuchiha

 

[mkuchiha]

Sam took a quick glance at the papers and stuffed it in the pockets of his hoodie. "Woah woah, wait a second their old man." He cut his eyes at Milligan suspiciously. "You made me drop my pizza roll." He crossed his arms against his chest. "I'm not going unless you give me proper compensation."
He stood their like a 6 foot 3 inch baby, and glared at the stranger.

Ravenclaw

 

[Ravenclaw]

Milligan's jaw actually dropped. Did Cadum really just call Milligan an old man? And demand compensation? Well, then. There went any chance of Magnussen's evidently overly optimistic suggestion that these mutants might be humbler by nature. He certainly did not appreciate Cadum's behavior in particular one bit, and accordingly changed tack.

God, he did not sign up for this. And why was the 18-year-old so tall, anyway? Granted, it would seem that it matched his ego perfectly.

"You will get plenty of proper compensation when you come with me," Milligan said tightly, reaching over and aggressively yanking the papers out of the young man's pocket. He wasn't a tall man, but he was still serious enough—and angry enough—to be relatively intimidating.

Just pick up the recruits, and be nice, Magnussen had said wearily.

She didn't say anything about the terms and conditions of being "nice," including whether he had to technically be nice if others weren't technically being nice to him back.

"And just so you know, this sort of behavior will not be tolerated at headquarters," Milligan snapped for good measure as he tucked the abused papers back into his jacket.

mkuchiha

 

[mkuchiha]

Sam was surprised by the old mans sudden aggressiveness, as he snatched the papers from his pockets.

"It's not my fault you made me drop my pizza roll!" He exclaimed indignantly. "Its only fair you pay me back for damages."

Sam adopted a thinking pose, and gave the man a slight grin. "You know what? With how bad you're treating me, I don't even think I want to come with you anymore, old man."

Then Sam saw the mans expression and back pedalled. "On second thought, I'll be right back." He slipped inside the house, and stuffed what ever he thought he needed in his duffle bag. Which comprised of a can of half eaten ice cream and some clean clothes. After packing his stuff, he took a selfie captioning it that he was going on a trip with a weird old man, and that everyone should call the police if he didn't post anything in social media after a week.

When he was done, he hurried outside, locked the door, and gave the man a coy smile.

"Ready to go, Old man."

 

[boo.]

Short ride, my ass.

Contrary to what the man had insisted, the flight was actually rather long, leaving Winnie wishing she had brought something. She had assumed that if she was going with this man, he would provide necessities once they arrived. She was clinging to this hope, mostly because she had nothing more than the clothes on her back. No food, no phone, just partial regret.

Winnie remained silent as she was ushered inside a rather large building and told by someone to go down the hall and enter the first door on her left. Did she want to listen to him? No. Did she want to explore? Yes.

But did she want to get into trouble?

No.

Winnie followed the directions to come into a small room where two other people had already arrived. She assumed they were also people like her, but as she didn't feel like making this into an exciting event, like these people seemed to be doing, she barely looked at them before walking to the opposite side and sitting herself down.

Ravenclaw Red_Delta

 

[Ravenclaw]

Milligan rolled his eyes and bit back a comment about Privilege and Attitude. Instead (and fervently hoping that someone would put this obnoxious young man in his place) he put the car into drive and made a beeline for headquarters.

mkuchiha

 

[Red_Delta]

Nellie watched as a new girl walked into the room. The girl took a seat on the far wall. Nellie wondered if it was because of her less than appropriate apparel. Glancing down, she saw that the sweatshirt Sophia had thrown at her was in her lap, having fallen from her head. She sighed but pulled the sweatshirt over her head. The sweatshirt smelled great. Nellie considered telling this to Sophia but decided it may come off wrong.

"So, are you here for the National Eraser Convention or the National Nudist United Convention?" Nellie asked. She couldn't control the words coming out of her mouth; it was just word vomit. Unfortunately, none of it made any sense. "I'm Nellie. I'm here for NNUC. This is my first year. I'm super nervous if you couldn't already tell." Nellie tried to stop the words from coming out of her mouth. But now she was building up speed. "I mean, look at me, I'm not even wearing the proper outfit. So, NEC or NNUC?"

Nellie paused, her mind finally catching up with her mouth. She wondered why she had just said all of that nonsense. But it did sound truer than the truth. What was she supposed to say? The truth? What dunderhead would buy that? Yeah, the nudist story sounded much saner than that.
Ravenclaw boo.

 

[Ravenclaw]

Sophia literally just stared at Nellie for a full 20 seconds of uncomfortable silence. National Eraser Convention? National Nudist United Convention? Blinking several times, Sophia reached over and protectively yanked her sweatshirt off of the weird nudist, then looked at the girl who had just entered the room. Nellie evidently wasn't about to become socially ept and introduce herself, so—if only to put as much distance between her and the Nudist as possible—she more than happily hopped to her feet (still clutching her sweatshirt as though the crazy nudist was going to steal and hold it for ransom) and strode over to their new arrival.

"Hey!" she said chirpily. "I'm Sophia, we've decided that we aren't going to get killed—well, I'm not really sure how much I trust Nellie now—she's a nudist, didja know that?" Skipping over the fact that this young woman didn't even know Nellie's name yet, Sophia plowed on with a slew of questions. "Yeah, news to me too... anyway, who are you? Where are you from? Did M—the mysterious guy pick you up? Do you believe everything you've heard? Why do you think we're here? Are we gonna save the world or something?"

She paused, panting slightly, then brightened up and looked expectantly at the girl.

Red_Delta boo.

 

[boo.]

Winnie cast a look to the girl that had spoken first. She wasn't exactly sure how to answer, so she simply stared at the girl, her mouth slightly open as she struggled to wrap her mind arlund what had just happened. For all she knew, they would be killed on the most horrific way possible, and yet the scantily clad young woman was making jokes.

The other female in the room then proceeded to introduce herself as Sophia, and Winnie picked up on the fact that the other was Nellie. She then fired off a succession of questions, none of which Winnie actuator heard or cared enough about to pay any attention to. Damn Yanks.

"It's like this is a bloody joke." Winnie finally spoke, her tone none too pleased. "I don't feel like I should introduce myself, but for the sake being humane, you can call me Winnie. In case you weren't fuckin' aware, we've just learned were practically made in a lab, and now these guys wanna reactivate out mutations that were switched off for a reason. And I'm also in a room with two women, one who only cares about nosh," Winnie growled, motioning to the crumbs all over Sophia, "and one who's completely starkers. Does this seem like something to act normal around?"

Ravenclaw Red_Delta

 

[Ravenclaw]

"Oh my god, you're British!" Sophia yelled before the rest of the girl's words sunk in.

Whoa there. While yes, she did like food a lot, it was still rather rude to comment on it so disparagingly, and was the swearing really necessary?

"Sorry, but what's your problem?" she demanded, crossing her arms and trying to turn her 4'11" stature into something remotely intimidating. "Now I got one half-naked weirdo and a Brit who's got a horrible attitude, even if we were in the face of certain death—which we aren't, by the way, I trust the mystery dude implicitly—and if we are supposed to be saving the fucking world then we're going to need to work together, and incidentally your behavior right now is not conducive to teamwork... maybe if your powers are activated, you'll get an attitude adjustment too."

With that (okay, she may be taking out some of her pent up anxiety on this stranger, but seriously, Sophia Ollerton did not stand for rudeness), she strode back across the room and seated herself firmly in her original seat.

And pulled a Twinkie wrapper out from under her, but that was neither here nor there.

boo. Red_Delta

 

[Red_Delta]

In the short span of four minutes, Nellie had made two life-changing revelations. The first was that the 'M' in McDonald's was made up of french fries. The second was that she was really needed to start bringing an extra set of clothes with her. She was too anxious to deal with her first revelation. She decided to focus on the second.

"Maybe if your powers are activated, you'll get an attitude adjustment too," Sophia said, thus ending her shouting. Nellie stared at her for a second. This girl had some serious fire in her. That was amazing. Nellie was used to girls who allowed people to walk all over them. Needless to say, Nellie was impressed that Sophia had displayed such emotion. Even if Sophia had called her a half-naked weirdo, it was pretty cool. Besides, she had been called worse.

"I was kidding about the nudist thing," Nellie announced, into the silence. "I have a tendency to talk when I'm nervous. It never makes any sense and I can't control it. I'm glad that I didn't disclose random personal details this time. I usually do, when I gab like that. Anyways, I'm kind of terrified right now. However, I would like to address the fact that I'm half naked." Nellie paused, letting the silence hang for a moment. "I do intend to find clothes at the soonest possible moment. I was at a beach party before I came here. It's really not my fault. The dude seemed to be on a tight schedule."

With that, Nellie pulled her legs up to her chest and curled into the seat. These guys really need a receptionist, she thought.
Ravenclaw boo.

 

[Ravenclaw]

Cam was anxious.

It wasn't exactly unexpected, the anxiety. She was an anxious and methodical person: mysterious, closed off, and intently focused on her goal. The goal.

And her nephew was the last piece.

She tied her hair back into a sleek ponytail, checked her reflection once—she'd opted for plainclothes today; there would be opportunities aplenty in the future to don the suit Edna had kindly custom-made—and took a deep, steadying breath. Generally, she was immovable and impassive. But this was August.

"Tell me," she pleaded, grabbing her twin brother by the wrist. When he swung around, the look on his face was murderous. "You got her pregnant, didn't you."

"No," he snarled, "the child is not mine—I refuse—"

"You have to take responsibility, Charles," Cam begged. "You didn't know, but now—"

"It will tarnish the family name. You know our history with supers, and it is not favorable."

"You don't know that the child will be super. It doesn't always work that way."

Charles shook his head vehemently and ran his fingers through his hair like a maniac. "What if they are mutant?" he whispered. "The child. What if he kills her... what if he kills himself? You have seen it all."

"You can't ignore it," Cam implored him. "Things happen, and you can't go back now, can you?"

He shook his head again and yanked his jacket off the hook. "Goodbye, Cam."

~*~​

The boy wasn't a mutant, but he had to be part of the shutdown program anyway. He was a sweet little thing who resembled the Magnussen family line more than Charles would admit. Charles, for his part, took one look at the boy and left the room. When Cam confronted him, he was crying. Her attempts to comfort him were met with hatred and spite; this would be the last time they spoke.

August's mother was terrified and had to be anesthetized for the birth. Although Auggie proved to be the quietest, most subdued infant of all the mutants, they still included him in the shutdown program given his potential to possess superpowers, even if they were not immediately apparent. He was taken from his mother at a few days old and kept in a steel-walled nursery. Cam visited him more than the mother did.

His healing powers only became apparent when he accidentally scratched Cam's finger with his sharp little nails and the small scratch disappeared. But the presence of one power meant the potential for any other, possibly more dangerous ones to develop, and thus the government whisked him away. Cam thought she would never see him again.​

Cam pulled up in front of the unassuming house. She'd seen photos, of course; everyone in the underground business knew Magnussen, and feared her acumen and knowledge just enough that they provided as much information as they could acquire, as quickly as they could acquire it. But those were just pictures. Nothing, in the grand scheme of things.

Standing on the front porch, she raised her hand and knocked.

Red_Delta

 

[Red_Delta]

Auggie stared at the paper in front of him. The space beneath the question was taunting him. The lines were yelling at him to write more and the white space was laughing at his clumsy attempts to fill them. Please describe yourself in three words. It was a simple request. In fact, he only needed to write three words. Yet, nothing was coming to him. It wasn't supposed to be this hard to fill out a Burger King application.

There was a crisp knock on the front door. Auggie jumped from his chair. He bounded down the stairs, thankful for the excuse not to finish the application. He moved the curtain slightly to the side, trying to glimpse the person beyond the door. Unfortunately, his view was obstructed by a sticker on the window. Auggie sighed and opened the door. If this was a kidnapper, he would blame Bill for it. Auggie stepped into the doorway. Luckily for Bill, outside the door, there were no hooded men or white vans. Instead, there was a woman with dark hair.

"If you're here for the garage sale, the Craigslist ad has the wrong address," Auggie told her, smiling apologetically. "Although, if you're looking for antiques, there's a store just around the corner. They'll charge you more than they should. But they're just trying to get their daughter through college."
Ravenclaw

 

[Afigitis]

Peter Monroe
​

Peter was too preoccupied throughout the trip with his thoughts. It didn't seemed that he needed any explanation as to why he has to go somewhere with a stranger, that's why there was nothing but silence between the two men inside the car. Peter just stared outside the window, and watched the scene outside flash as the car passed by.

Hours had passed before the car went to a complete halt. Peter looked out the window, and saw what seemed like a huge warehouse. "Where is this?" he asked, with a tone denoting that he doesn't really care. He felt like he should at least ask something before whatever it is that would happen to him takes place. He could be here to get killed, for all he know.

Ravenclaw

 

[Ravenclaw]

"If you're here for the garage sale, the Craigslist ad has the wrong address. Although, if you're looking for antiques, there's a store just around the corner. They'll charge you more than they should. But they're just trying to get their daughter through college."

Cam was mostly busy staring at her nephew in the flesh and trying to get over how much he really did resemble Charles (and herself, honestly). His good naturedness almost made it more painful. Charles had been like that, most of the time.

But she didn't have time to wax emotional. She didn't have time for any of this. They needed to get the kids' powers reactivated and start training.

That's when she realized she also had no plan as to what she was going to tell her long lost nephew.

"I'm your biological aunt," she said. "I need you to come with me. I'll explain in the car."

Red_Delta

 

[boo.]

"Yeah, okay, thanks for apologizing," muttered Winnie, glaring at Nellie poem she had said something horrible. "Like I fuckin' couldn't tell already that you weren't a nudist." Winnie's attitude wasn't usually so poisonous, but she just felt so much emptiness from leaving her life behind that she had to do something about this anger inside of her.

"I think you just need a reality check, sweetheart." Winnie returned her attention to Sophia. "You know those stories where people get powers and become superheroes? They're stories. This is real life, not some game." Winnie was standing now, pacing in a small spot. "And no one can force me to work with anyone, especially you." She spat out the last few words, surprised at her own speech, then sat down with a self-righteous look.

Ravenclaw Red_Delta

 

[Red_Delta]

"I'm your biological aunt," the woman said. "I need you to come with me. I'll explain in the car."

"I'm sorry," Auggie replied, staring at the woman. Did she seriously expect that he would get into a car with her? He had just met her. It was completely illogical for him to go with her. "What are you talking about? Explain what? I'd better go get my mom." Auggie started to turn away from the woman. He was about to call for his mom when he remembered that she had left on a run. Bill was probably still at work. He was alone, and currently talking to a probably insane woman. "Actually, I just remembered, she's busy. I'm not supposed to talk to strangers. Especially when my parents aren't here."

*******
​

"And no one can force me to work with anyone, especially you," Winnie spat. She sat down with a smug look on her face. Nellie was reeling from her speech. How could a person be so rude? Nellie could barely yell at someone without blushing. She stared at the floor. What Winnie had said was undeniably true. This wasn't a game, this was life. But, did she really think that they didn't already know that? Nellie wanted to say something. She tried to think of the words to voice her thoughts.

"I don't mean to be rude, but you're being a real douchebaguette," Nellie announced, glaring at Winnie. "We're all in the same boat here. You're no special snowflake. There's no need to be so gosh darn nasty. It's not as though you're any different than us. If you don't think the superhero thing is going to happen, why did you come? I don't think they're about to give someone powers and send them on their merry way." Nellie knew she was probably digging her own grave. But when had that ever stopped her? "So if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything."

 

[Afigitis]

Peter received a brief reply from the man. He let his eyes wonder outside for a few seconds, after learning that the warehouse was some kind of base, and that he has to go to a certain room to meet other people like him. People who were special. "Okay," he said, before he stepped out of the car.

It didn't took a long before the car drove off. Peter watched it until it was out of sight, before he went inside the warehouse. The place was huge and a bit futuristic that he was reminded of the sci-fi movies that he had watched before.

As he walked down the hallway, he heard voices, and decided to follow it. He could feel his heart racing as he turned the door knob. As soon as he stepped in, he could see three female inside the room, and felt the tension after hearing one of the girl's last words. He felt anxious with everyone's eyes on him, as he approached the closest chair to the door.

 

[Ravenclaw]

Cam really should have come up with a better way to go about this. Milligan would be back soon with the last recruit, though, so she laid it all out on the table.

"Your biological father was my twin brother, Charles. After you were born, he left. You have superpowers—I know I must sound insane, but you do—and the government shut down all mutant supers years ago. We need you guys now. We can train you, we can make an army. You have healing powers," she added to Auggie. "You were harmless, and I... I would have saved you if I could. But I couldn't. They put supers into hiding and shut down the mutants. No supers were born after your generation."

Cam took a deep breath, willing him to trust and believe her against all reason. But in case that didn't work...

She took out her phone and pulled up the last photograph of her and Charles she had.

"That's your dad," she said quietly. "You look just like him."

Red_Delta

~*~
​

Sophia revised her opinion of Nellie after the girl, nudist or not, intervened. "I think the term 'douchebaguette' may have detracted from your response," she said kindly, patting the going woman on the back, "but I appreciate it." To Winnie she added, "One, we're the same damn age, so don't you dare call me sweetheart, honey. Two, don't swear at my friend. And three, I don't wanna work with you either but if it comes down to saving the world and working with you or being a stubborn asshole and selfishly not doing anything just because you can't stand me... well, that really speaks for itself."

Just then a young man entered the room, looking tremendously lost. A new person! Sophia glared one more time at Winnie, then turned to him. He looked like a skittish horse, all broody and visibly shaken, which she found mildly annoying but less so than little Miss Bitter AF over here.

"Hey!" she said cheerfully, bounding over to him and undolicitedly giving him a hug. "I'm Sophia! Who are you?"

Afigitis

 

[Afigitis]

When the blonde approached, Peter felt more tensed. He was never good with people, especially women since they were more complex beings. They were hard to understand and unpredictable. Both his mother and step sister were the very proof of that.

He was shocked when he received an embrace from the girl, who just introduced herself as Sophia. He stared at her for a moment, seeing a small but really pretty teenage girl. "P-Peter Monroe," he answered, as his heart raced.

Ravenclaw

 

[Ravenclaw]

Sophia pulled away and frowned at Peter. It was a hug, and he was acting like she came at him with a machete. "What's your problem?" she asked, squinting.

She'd never had someone act that way with her before. This was more than just I would very much like my personal space back please and thank you. This was why are you touching me why do you want anything to do with me, and it was incredibly evident from his expression and nearly tangible tenseness.

But it wasn't difficult for Sophia to put two and two together. Peter was acting like a wounded animal, because, well... he kind of was. "Who was it?" she asked immediately. "Can I beat someone up for you?"

Afigitis

 

[Red_Delta]

Auggie stared at the photo the woman had presented to him. The man in the picture could have been his twin. They had the same nose and similar eyes. Resisting the urge to touch his face, Auggie looked up to the woman's face. She had the same eyes.

"My dad left me?" Auggie asked, finally processing that bit of information. "My Ma always told me that he died. She said my birth mom had to give me up because she couldn't take care of me without my dad's help." He looked back at the photo. "I guess she wanted to protect me. Why do people always think they need to lie in order to protect each other?" Auggie sighed and reached to a laundry basket next to the door. He grabbed a folded sweatshirt. "Do I have time to grab a bag?"

Ravenclaw