2013.10.25 - Monsters and Little Girls

When Othello left his hotel room this morning, there was a little girl in the pool that was playing with her Barbie Doll. Othello took this as another sign from his alien benefactors. Othello is frustrated that there is still a part of him that seeks patterns that may or may not be there, even in this new version of himself. After looking through the newspaper and watching the television, there is further proof of a message provided to him: There are three prostitutes that have been found murdered in Suicide Slums.

It is a crime that most heroes do not rest their time investigating, but Othello is not a hero, so he makes his way to the Slums. He makes his stake out in a dark alley, and in full view of some hookers, and across from a couple of bars. If nothing happens to the girls tonight, he can probably get some answers the usual way.

Most heroes don't. J'onn, in his private investigator guise, IS investigating. He's talking to one of the hookers, although when she lights her cigarette he flinches just a little bit. Maybe he doesn't like smoke? Hard to tell. Right now, he just looks like a nondescript...guy. Might even be mistaken for a customer.

For the Cuckoo sisters there was no agenda. They were still exploring New York City as their limited memories had more technical specifics of the city rather than practical knowledge. They knew the streets, the demographics, the statistics, but they lacked practical experience. And staying holed up in the Academy of Tomorrow as not going to give them what they wanted.

Thus sticking out like a sore thumb was exactly what they did in the designer clothes that their mentor, Emma Frost, had purchased for them. They were definitely not the type of people to walk freely and confidently through the Suicide Slums of Metropolis. Add to that the impossibility of their very existence. Monozygotic quintuplets were an impossibility among humans. And even if it were possible, five identical teenage girls dressed and acting the same, with no immediate look of individuality or self-expression was just as unlikely. But there they were, walking proudly down the sidewalks of the Suicide Slums, in literal lockstep with each other. No cares or worries on their identical faces.

Behind the mask, Cinque eyes fall on John for a moment. He remembers seeing John in Harlem, when he was searching for a lost girl. Cinque is about to step out of the alley when he notices the five teenagers walking down the street. Othello decides to wait to see where the girls are going before he decides to make another move, because hookers are easy prey, but so are are teenage girls on the wrong side of town.

The door of the Ace O' Clubs opens up, and a elderly man steps out. He looks in the direction of the hookers, and then the direction of the teenager girls. He quickly walks around the corner and disappears out of sight.....

Lost teenaged girls. John makes a note of them, just in case. He also makes a note of the old man, moving to set up in a position opposite the Ace O' Clubs now, away from the knot of hookers. Judging by their obvious disappintment - he's not a customer.

The Cuckoos catch all of this sudden activity around them as walk. Watching the man go down the alley way and the look towards the average man that is obviously not a customer for the prostitutes.

For a moment they seemed to not care at all. Then one of them looked at John, breaking that lockstep movement they had until that moment. After a moment they all begin to look at John.


 * Excuse us,| they asked inside John's mind, |We were wondering if you could hear us? We have not meant many telepaths but your mind seems to be unique like the minds of other telepaths.|

Now John would be able to suddenly feel the undeniable complexity of the hive mind the Cuckoos shared at all times. A hive mind that had been hidden by its own defenses up until this moment.

Balor goes to: Upper Metropolis.

As John moves away from the hookers, a very little girl come from one of the alley ways. The girl is wearing soiled clothes and is holding a ratted teddy bear, Her eyes are filled with tears as she cries, "Someone help my, mommy, She is not waking up. She is asleep in our box." A young prostitute who is probably could be no more than six years older than the girl begins to go and help her. "Show me where she is..."

One of the prostitutes say, "Feck, now we are going to have to move. The ambulance and police are going to show up. Othello continues to remain quite in his alleyway as the scene unfolds.

John Jones narrows his eyes, then moves towards the girl. "Where is your mommy?" he asks, gently, glancing at the young hooker. "Any of your friends have first aid experience?"

In response to the Cuckoos. << I hear you, but I have an incident here...an upset child. Please, let me deal with this. >> Not angry...just distracted. Oh, that hive mind is fascinating, but girls crying for their mommy? That's more urgent right now.


 * "We are sorry, we're not good with emotional responses,"| the Cuckoos thought to John, even their telepathic voices were in unison and identical. No dissent or discord.

The Cuckoos focused their mind on the crying girl, approaching closer to John. They began to pick up the images from the girls mind and seemed remarkably unaffected. Except for one voice that spoke up to John, who they were now closer too, "We'll help you. This will not end well for anyone without our help."

One of the other sisters seemed to frown slightly but did not say anything, but it was a definite note of disapproval.

The little girl narrows her eyes at John and says, "No, I only need her help. I think you need to go to the bar, and get help from or a drink." The little girl turns his attention to Stepford Cuckoos and says, "Two of you can stay too." The little girl reaches out with her mind to try to control John and Five In One.

John Jones smiles at the little girl. "That's not a good idea. I can call an ambulance right now." As if nothing's happening. << Not human, I don't think. >> Her attempt to control him is...well...bouncing right off the Martian's powerful mind.

The Cuckoos's eyes all flashed white as their telepathic might suddenly came full bore at the 'little girl'. They spoke aloud and in unison, "We dislike the experience of having others enter our mind without permission."

The telepathy was now pushing back at the 'little girl' attempting to force it to reveal its true nature and to lock down its mind so that it could not move, "Ms. Frost says we need to have more self control. That's it is not alright to shut-down minds we dislike. So we will not do so. But you will not trespass on us."

When the telepathy doesn't work with either of them, the little girl takes a step back, and shifts into the elderly man that left the bar awhile ago, then shifts into a clawed furry reptile creature that hisses and quickly grabs hold of the hooker, "Freaks!, this one is mine to party with."

Othello is finally been invited to the party when people start speaking and morphing into creatures, quickly leaves the alley with his knives drawn.

Wait. Where did John go? The Cuckoos will be aware that he's still around...but any non telepaths (and hopefully the shapeshifter) will think he just somehow...stepped away into the shadows. Yeah. He's up to something...and counting on the mutant quints to hold her attention for a few moments.

The Cuckoos just continued to focus, the creature's true form did not bother them at all. They had seen just as unusual at the Academy of Tomorrow: A clone of a Kyrptonian, a human boy with alien programming, a girl who can turn into a cat-like creature, a psychic who summons 'spirits' from Tarot cards. In the short time they can remember, they have seen much.

They were still attempting to hold the creature in place. They could feel the telepathic mind of it, and while it would be a match for one of them. They were the Five-in-One, they were unstoppable.

The creature holds tight on the hook and places his claws near her throat, "Let me go? Come on, just taking our the trash after having a little fun."

Othello peers over at the teenage girls for a moment, before peering at the creature. "You let the girl go, you might die. You kill the girl, you die very slowly and painfully."

And then there's a blur of green, something coming in fast. Something powerful enough to twist the shapeshifter's arm back and grab the hooker free. (Probably in a manner that makes her scream, but hey, anything's better than a claw to the throat, right?

After the prostitute is free that's when the Cuckoos do there thing. They grab the creature's mind and yanked it into the Astral Plane. The plane of pure thought.

The creature found itself surrounded by the five girls, all placed around it like a pentagram, all wearing psychic armor, resembling the type of armor Master Chief or Commander Shepard would wear, minus the helmet. All armed with what looked like a very nasty sword. They said to it at once, |"We are the Five-in-One. We are the One that becomes Five."|

Five separate voices said in unison. |"Resistance is futile!"|

Then each girl in the astral plane moved as one shoving their blade into the creature's astral form, practically lobotomizing the thing by pure psychic energy alone.

The creature lets out a hiss at John takes away his prey, but before he can react the creature is memorize by the Cuckoos. Before he can try to repel her attack with his mind, his mind is attacked by the astral blades. The creatures reverts from the elderly man to the little girl to the creature to a smaller version of the creature with an elderly man's voice.

Othello takes several steps back as the scene unfolds and puts his knives back behind his cape.

The hooker is gently deposited a couple of blocks away. Then the Martian returns, only to find that the Cuckoos seem to have the alien handled. "Hold it. Let's see if we can find out where it is from." It because there's no way of knowing...male, female, or other.

Tousaint was the son of a second generation free-man, Jerome Walters, and a runaway slave, Margaret Walters. He was the second-oldest boy of nine children in Massachusetts. He had a different childhood from other children on the nearby farms. He was taught to read and write by his grand-father. He stills remembers reading books and letters for his grand-father, when his eyesight got too bad for him to see. He helped keep up his family's land, and had to do the double the duty, when his mother and half of his siblings were kidnapped, and resold back into slavery. Tousaint would have been captured too, but he was on a hunting trip with his father. Tousaint's father began to become more paranoid after, and made sure the rest of children knew how to defend themselves. When the war broke out, Tousaint and the rest of the remaining boys joined the Union Army, when they opened recruitment to black soldiers. He spent the first months digging ditches, and helping to set up fortifications. When his unit finally was called to the front, he was more than ready to fight. The unit move on, and Tousaint fought many battles in the Civil War. When most African-Americans left the military after the war, Tousaint remained with the small group that remains in the South. He thought that by being in the South, he might learn the fate of his mother, and other siblings. He did not found them, but his unit did barely survive several shootouts with some Night Riders. His unit was one of the first units to be transferred out West, and then absorbed into the new created African-American units. He participated in protecting the mail and settlers, and few battles against Native Americans. On a scouting mission, he encountered a strange blue light. Upon closer inspection, he saw something moving in the blue light. He fired at the blue light, and the energy of the light fired back at him, mortally wounded him.

The energy he saw was from a group of other-dimensional aliens scientists that had been observing Earth for many centuries. They accomplished this tasked by having an invisible bunker, and cloning themselves. They were finally finishing their mission, and were departing this reality, when Tousaint fired on them, causing the energy to accidently strike out and kill Tousaint. Since they were only sent here to observe, they felt obligated to save Tousaint. They were face with a problem: Tousaint was too injured to be saving by them, and they still need to leave this place. They modified their cloning process to be able to clone Tousaint new bodies combine with alien DNA. The alien DNA did contain implants of basic emotions, and the knowledge of how to continue the cloning process. Tousaint's memories were placed into the clone before he died. As the clone came to life, he saw and felt the aliens disappearing. His 19th century mind created a belief that the aliens had giving him a new body for a higher purpose.

He continued serving with the military until he was killed in action during the Spanish-American war, and reclone back at the campsite. He was surprised to find himself to be noticeably younger, and realize he would not be able to explain the difference in age. He went AWOL, and after living in Cuba, and other islands in the Caribbean as a mercenary, fighter, translator, or guide, he believe the aliens told him that he must make his way back to the United States. He made it back to America just in time to enlist in the United States Army, and was lucky to be a part of the regiments that were loan out to the French, and didn't have to spend the war digging ditches. This only furthered his belief that the aliens guided him. His next message came from all the hatred he saw perpetrated against black soldiers by their fellow soldiers. He believe the aliens were telling him to do more to help out one he got back home.

When he returned back home, he went down South. He tried to protect a man from being attack by a mob, and was lynched beside him. When he re clone and stole clothes, and he was arrested. He found himself on a Southern chain gang. He believed that aliens sent him to prison to teach him that those that are criminals are sometimes victims of circumstance, innocent, or have skills that can be used in his mission to fight criminals. He escaped from prison, and made his way to Harlem. He worked as a bodyguard for some mobsters, until returning to France. While in France, he believed that aliens were telling him to go to Spain to fight the Fascists. He died a few times while in Spain before "realizing" he was supposed to fight the Nazis. He was completely dumbfounded by the appearance of costume superheroes that were fighting the Nazis, and felt that aliens wanted to take a less dramatic role in fighting against the evils of the world. The Korean War would be the last war that he served in before furthering, his "alien" cause by being a mercenary, guide, bodyguard, and a fighter.

By the early nineties, he was helping out people in South Africa. When he learned the history of Wakanda, the aliens made him understand that he needed to have a secret identity. When the political landscape change in South Africa, and he learned that his actions would not label him a terrorist. He decided to work on fashioning a secret identity. He created a false family history, and used his funds to create a business for himself. He started working under his secret identity as Othello for five years until his last clone was killed in a car bomb by mobsters trying to muscle in on his transportation business. Othello brought down the mobsters, and four years later, the new clone resume control of the business as the younger brother of the previous clone.

The girls spoke to John's mind... a mind they had be observing and finding interesting, "We don't know where it is from. It doesn't think of it's place. It is alien though."

They all looked at Othello, as they placed psychic chain after psychic chain on the attacker, "But it's not an unfamiliar presence. Not after tonight. Cold and mostly unfeeling. Telepathic. Very old."


 * "Much like you Mr. J'onzz. We feel alien and cold and distant. It's probably just us reading too much into it. Like you would likely to do."|

They were still looking at Othello though.

Tendril's of J'onn's mind extend outwards, probing, then withdrawing. A soft, but grim pronouncement. "The being is not sane. Not any more." Too long bound to each other...for the alien, likely, too long away from its own kind. "With time, perhaps, it could be helped...but it would not be an easy task."

Othello watches the five girls and takes a step back, "Well, this has been an interesting evening." Othello says, "It seems I still have time to.." Othello pauses for a moment to peer down at the body, "How do you know it is an alien?" In that moment, a blue light emerges from the body and takes a human form. He speaks telepathically to the two telepaths, "Thank you. you have allowed me to finally free myself from this human. We have been witnessed too many horrors. His will was stronger than mine kind. He was one of your homus superior. I believe that is the correct term. Your flesh, can be so addictive. It is time for me to return to my plane.

When he sees Othello and says, "Protect yourself. The other two do not seek to go home, and afraid we see through each other eyes. They know you still exist."The being disappears back into his dimension in a blink of an eye. The words spoken by the alien would be important to Othello if he had telepathy. With the energy gone, the man who tried the hooker is just an elderly man in his eighties.

"We know it's an alien because we have experienced the thought patterns of aliens before. They work on a slightly different wavelength than humans."

They then all look to John and say, "Isn't that right Mr. Jones?"

THe Cuckoos were focusing their psychic power towards the 'alien' keeping him passive. The girls continued to speak together, "We've dealt a lot with human minds, and a few alien minds.. there are differences. Correct, Mr. Jones?"

Police sirens are heard from the distance.

"I would appreciate it if you did not use that name." A smile marks the Martian's face. "I will hand this one over to the police...I believe he was the dangerous part of the gestalt. And is definitely not sane." Padded cell with power suppressors; likely in that one's near future.

"I have heard people have said that about aliends." Othello thinks to himself, "I think it was someone in Cadmus." Behind his mask, his brow is covered with sweat as he recognizes the blue lighted alien as being one of the aliens he saw so many clones ago. He dips his head to the six members, "Perhaps, I will see you around."

Othello superspeeds away.