2014.07.20 - Shadow King: The Search Begins

Only hours ago, a student was possessed by the Shadow King, and Xavier could not help but blame himself letting it happen. He should have gone on the offense against the Shadow King as soon as he reappeared. Instead he bided his time, to make a strategy, and as a consequence he has been made out to be a fool. But he has decided to make it up to Ally, and rescue her at all costs. Firstly, though he had to find her

So here he is moving up to the control station of Cerebro. Normally, he would not allow anyone else in here, but today is an exception. Today, he cannot make any more mistakes. And so he has invited some of his most trusted X-men, to join him. To witness his search, and to give their opinions on what he should do.

Roberto walks in behind Xavier with his arms crossed over the chest plate of his X-men costume, looking around at the spherical room. There are a few dings on his burnished armour and some sooty marks on his face, but he's otherwise unharmed after the fire fight that accompanied Allison's escape. The Brazilian hasn't had a reason to be inside Cerebro before, so the sheer scale of the space is making an impression. "I don't see any damage," he ventures, looking around curiously. "That's good news, at least."

Illyana wasn't always accustomed to have trust put in her on matters that carry weight, so she was rather proud to be allowed this rare opportunity to accompany the Professor into Cerebro. She was rather curious to find if it's anything like her scrying pool, and today will be a chance to find out. More importantly, Xavier doesn't think she'll be stealing students to feed demons any time soon, and that was very uplifting to find out. She's wearing the standard X-Men uniform today, black and yellow, the only deviation being the yellow skirt over the one piece. For the time being she's silent, eager to watch the Professor in action, and see if any vital information can be discovered.

Xavier grunts in response to Sunspot, but otherwise continues in silence up to the centre. When he gets there, he grabs the head piece and places it on his lap, before turning around. "Well this is Cerebro. I ask you to pay attention to what you're about to see, and if you notice anything of interested point it out. Otherwise to begin with, I'll ask you to remain quite for the duration of me searching the immediate area, and from there I'll ask you for your opinions on how to continue." With that he turns back around, and places the headpiece on his head.

Images flash around the room viewable to all. Firstly, Xavier's is seen, before moving quickly to New York. Images of people begin flashing up around the room; young and old, women and men. The images fly around them as Xavier continues to search for any sign of Allison. He narrows the search down focusing only on teenage girls, ignoring those who too old and too young.

Feeling a bit chastised, Roberto goes silent, glancing at Illyana and raising his eyebrows. He stops behind Xavier at the console, adopting a wide, cross-armed stance. His breath hisses out of him as the psychic images start flickering past, and for a moment he's just engaged with the light show. Then he starts looking more closely, trying to pick out anything unusual about the faces that flicker past. He remembers the flicker of a face, more of an afterimage than an image -- a demonic shadow that he half-glimpsed during Karma's possession by the Shadow King years ago. Half-glimpsed, or imagined, perhaps. But nonetheless he looks for anything that resembles it.

Illyana merely nods, she is well aware of how silence help in scrying, and she figures Cerebro is not that different in its working than a scrying pool, only for telepaths of course. She observes with interest at the device Xavier places on his lap, waiting for him to engage and the images to pop up.

As soon as images start to flash around the room, Illyana starts looking around, seeking something of note. For the time being Illyana is invested in trying to find Allison or a hint of Allison, not really minding Roberto or Xavier, who is doing the heavy-lifting in this search operation.

The images continue to fly past all around them, flying faster and faster and Xavier becomes more frantic in his search. After a long while, and after seeing hundreds of people, perhaps thousands, the images fade. Xavier curses to himself under his breath, as he pinches the bridge of his nose. %r%r "Alright, there's no sign of her in New York, anyone have any ideas? Bear in mind that if any part of her remains in any sort of control or influence over her body she may have ran to somewhere she feels safe. If she doesn't then Shadow King may have hidden her somewhere, where we wouldn't at first think to look."

Sunspot frowns down at the catwalk, considering the question. "I don't know her incredibly well, but I got the impression that she didn't get feelings of safety from places or people so much as her technology. Her powers and her equipment and her tinkering. Maybe we could look for unusual power draws or stolen equipment?" He glances over at Illyana, hoping she has some better ideas than his.

"Professor...since we are dealing with the Shadow King, is it possible he is masking her telepathically?" Illyana suggests, while denoting, "I'm in no way an expert in telepathy, but it seems similar in ways to scrying magics...there are means to block them, as well as provide false trails." She doesn't yet suggest involving her magic directly, but presents it as a possibility. Not having known Allison on personal level, doesn't provide her with any deeper insight than Roberto.

"Yes, it is possible, as you suggest Illyana, that he is blocking me. However, I think before we give up on Cerebro, I will check to see if there's any activity at known abandoned tech labs around the country, before moving onto a preliminary worldwide scan."

Images begin to flow around them again, this time showing run down old buildings, at every location there is no sign of activity. Xavier sighs, before moving on to doing a quick a scan of the planet. The Earth comes into view in front of them, dots high lighting where there are mutants around the planet. He studies the dots, wishing that by doing so would give him some indication of where she could be.

After, watching them for a while, he notices some of dots disappearing, happening in various locations around the world. He watched them as they went out, a small handful at each location. Barely more than a couple of hundred in total around the world. Just enough to raise questions as to why all these just disappeared, almost simultaneously.

"That should not be happening," Roberto says slowly, a trickle of fear bleeding down his backbone. He stares upward at the dome as each light is snuffed. "That's got to be the interference, right? Merda." Even as he asks, he becomes more certain that he's wrong. "Is this the Shadow King trying to get our attention? Something else altogether?" He starts making a mental note of each location, quickly cross-referencing against Da Costa International holdings worldwide. "I may be able to send DCI employees to check these locations," he offers, pointing at a few of the sudden voids, mostly ones in Latin America.

"Seems sensible, worldwide sounds quite taxing," Illyana notes, looking over at Roberto to see if he might have some unexpected bit of brilliance. As far as she's concerned, it appears as if the Shadow King knows what he is doing. Just as Roberto makes his comment, Illyana is soon to follow, "whether it has something to do with Allison or not, I think it's worthwhile to check this out!" She nods in agreement with Roberto's suggestion, before offering, "if you have a mobile version of Cerebro, I can bring us closer for a shorter range scan."

"Well to be honest Illy, a portable version of Cerebro for local searching, would be me. But no Roberto that should not be happening, and it's probably not a technical problem. Before I go sending either of you out, I should be able to focus in on the one closet to us." The image of Earth gets larger as the image zooms into the blank spot, before moving onto a ground view. Men and women are seen standing around, in awkward and stiff positions, their features warped. As the people are watched they turn to face towards the images point of view. They stare directly at three mutants, and smirk at them. Suddenly, a psionic bolt lashes out at Xavier and he loses focus.

Roberto takes a quick step forward to brace Xavier with a hand on his shoulder. He suppresses the urge to flare up into his Sunspot form, which would be useless, and instead tries to lend whatever mental fortitude he has to the school's founder. He's not a psychic, but he has seen telepaths draw on the strength of their allies to bolster their own. At the very least, he hopes his presence will be reassuring. "Illyana, be ready to pull us into Limbo if the Shadow King makes a push," he says.

Illyana grins at Xavier, pleased with his reply about a portable Cerebro. When the people in the image Cerebro is currently projecting all turn to look at them, Illyana snaps, "Professor, this is very wrong, disengage!" But it's too late, and a psionic bolt strikes Xavier. Illyana and Roberto seem to race for him at the same time to make sure he's okay. Illyana looks rather furious, though her tone remains calm, "that has got to be him, the Shadow King," she states the obvious. "I'm on it...and I hope he tags along for the visit, S'ym would love to ask him a few questions..."

"No, Illy. I don't think it's Shadow King himself. I believe they were the mummudrai, the revenants, our anti-selves. It seems that Shadow King has recruited their aid in his plans. Whatever they may be. If you rush into battle, you might be outnumbered, and you might end up just like Allison." Xavier warns Illy, "I cannot, I will not risk losing anyone else. If we lose you to him, he would surely be unstoppable."

"Mummudrai?" Berto was already familiar with the Shadow King from his student years, but this is getting out of his depth. "They're our... anti-selves? Like evil twins? Demons?" He stares up at the blank space where the enemy images were a few moments ago. "Why would they ally themselves with the Shadow King? What do they want?"

"Mummudrai?" Illyana hasn't encountered anything of the sort, but it sounds like Xavier is well aware of what he's talking about. "What do these Mummudrai do?" Illyana asks, wanting to know about this new enemy, at least new to her. "He can't have me...I won't let him, I'm out of his grasp." When Roberto tries to elaborate on Xavier's brief explanation of Mummudrai, she smirks, prefering to offer levity when all seems bleak. She has experience with utter bleakness after all. "Hey, if they got my anti-self, she must be an angel, no?"

"The Mummdrai beings that normally only exist on the Astral Plane. They are supposedly are composed of emotional energy. Think of them as incorporeal parasites. Well, Illy they apparently come into being when in a person is in the womb, so therefore I doubt it'd be angelic in nature. Sometimes, these Mummdrai are capable of living dormant in the mind, but can consume the hosts mind if they so choose. On top of this they can manipulate DNA, hence the unusual features of those people. It's hard to say what they Roberto, probably survival as most are killed. Something that the Shadow King may have promised them. Essentially, he may be building a vast army."

"An army of astral parasites. Great." Roberto crosses his arms again, his normally sunny features grim. "And they've got Allison for a hostage -- not to mention whatever devices she can build as their armaments." He pauses to take a deep breath. "I think an army is right. This is a full-on military buildup we're facing. But he targeted you personally, Professor. He must think there's some way you can stop him." He glances over at Illyana and favors her with a smile. "An angel, huh? She sounds pretty boring. I'll take the genuine article any day."

"So in a way it's tantamount to tearing dimensions and unleashing Hell on Earth? Only these are parasties that will eat people's brains?" Illyana sulks as she thinks of a more familiar comparison, "I really don't like this. Do these Mummdrai have a weakness? Something accessible like fire hopefully?" She turns to look at Roberto briefly, offering a light smile, before turning her attention to Xavier, "'Berto is right about this one, he wants you dead specifically."

"Well it's hard to say what would be required to kill them. It'd be crucial destroy the host body, however, with the ability to alter DNA it's theoretically possible for them to have a regenerative abilities. Hopefully, they will not be as sufficient as Logan's. So it is possible that fire would destroy them. But you are pretty close with that analogy but it's hardly a surprise that you'd come up with, Illy."

Xavier pauses, "As for Shadow King personally attacking me specifically, it most likely due to I having defeated him previously. So your assumption is quite accurate, it is probable that he sees me as a threat.

"So here is the plan, I want you Sunspot to deploy your resources to scout out as many of these hot spots as possible, and place them under observation. As for you Illy, I want you to get in touch with any contacts that you might have in the demonic realms or otherwise, to see if there are any rumours as to the full intentions of Shadow King

For now you are dismissed."

"On it Professor," Illyana is short on words when it's time for action, she doesn't get in as much as a goodbye before disappearing in a bright white disc of light, already on the move to see if any in the demonic realms have knowledge of the Mummdrai and the Shadow King's intent.

"Fight them, cremate them," Roberto summarizes, sounding oddly relieved. "That's straightforward enough." He finds less humor in the discussion of their weaknesses as Illyana is -- until Xavier answered her, he seemed genuinely worried about how the Mummudrai were to be fought. "I can have company assayers all over the Americas in no time. Hiring freelancers elsewhere shouldn't be a problem, either. I'll say I'm scouting for new land purchases." He watches Illyana depart, then makes his own way toward the Cerebro exit. "I'll get you a report as soon as I can, Professor. Adeus."