2013.10.17 - Call Me Jean

Jocelyn had been trying to find some time to talk with Jean, but she just kept missing the woman. Finally, however, Jocelyn had picked up on the woman's presence in the manor while Jocelyn was there, and so the tall girl had made her way over towards Jean's office. She wasn't detecting anybody else inside the office, so Jocelyn was assuming that it was just Jean inside.

In the past, Jocelyn was always a touch bit nervous around Jean. Maybe it was the authority the woman held, or the telepathic power, or something, but with things that had occured in Genosha, along with working with Rachel a fair bit more lately, Jocelyn was feeling more comfortable around telepaths. Until she'd started hanging out with Rachel, most of her experiences with them had not gone over terribly well, frankly.

Thus, it's with more of her usual confidence that Jocelyn walks up to Jean's door early in the afternoon and raps a few times on it. "Doctor Grey?" Jocelyn asks as she knocks at the office door, mostly as a way of letting Jean know who it was at the door.

Jean Grey senses the girl passing down the hallway before she ever gets to the door. With the sound of her voice, however, the telepath smiles and glances up from the paper she's grading. "Come on it, Jocelyn," she replies, setting the paper aside and sitting up in her chair. "Please, have a seat," she says as the girl enters. "What's on your mind?"

Jean very well might notice, when she senses Jocelyn's mind, that's it a touch bit harder to do so than it had been in the past. Certainly not impossible for a telepath like Jean, but the change was at least noticable. The girl opens the door, enters, and closes the door behind her. Moving to take a seat, Jocelyn inclines her head to the older woman. "Thanks, Doctor Grey. Been trying to catch you since I made my way back, but timing during the start of the school year is tough," the woman says.

Then, in her usual method of doing so, Jocelyn slides straight into the point. "Rachel and I discovered something that we thought was worth bringing to your attention. I've already reported in to Shift, but bringing the information 'home' seemed worth it, particularly since my cover affords me a little bit more freedom of movement than otherwise expected," the teen says.

"I discovered that Magneto was employing a geneticist who had...rather a lot more clearance than I would expect him to have. He's a teleporter, and in my conversations with him, he showed me a lab that he had. A living lab that he grew on his own. Magneto set up a deal with him where he had free choice of hospital patients in Genosha to treat and, in the process, perform some tests on him for his research".

Jocelyn pauses, to give Jean a chance to let that sink in.

Jean's eyes actually narrow at that little tidbit. "A geneticist, huh?" She frowns, small alarm bells ringing in the back of her mind. "What's the name of this geneticist. Can you show me what he looks like?" Given what Rachel told her, too -- and what she told Rachel in return -- she has more than one reason to be a trifle paranoid.

Her brows crease. "Are you saying, though, that Magneto's approved his own Dr. Mengele?" Surely Magneto hasn't sunk *that* low... The very thought disturbs the redhaired geneticist.

"Afraid I have no idea what that reference is," Jocelyn offers with a smile. "I only had half a term at the institute as a student. The rest of my education came at the hands of the fine Detroit Public Education system". She grins a bit at that, but then returns to the more serious topic. "He goes by Dr. Milton, but I'm almost positive that's a false name, given...". She pauses for a moment, considering her options.

"This will be easier if I just let you inside my head. Rachel and I decided to infiltrate the lab's mind to see what we could find," Jocelyn explains. "I tagged along in the sense of her 'copying' the memories she was seeing to me so I could keep a visual eye out through my sight," Jocelyn explains. Really, that seemed the better method. As she makes the suggestion, Jocelyn actively turns off her absorption powers, which will make it easier for Jean to pop into her head, should she so choose to. "I'm getting kind of used to this by now," Jocelyn admits.

"Mengele was a Nazi physician who did unspeakable experiments on concentration camp prisoners during the second world war," Jean tells the girl. For a moment, she considered letting the reference drop, but she's too much the teacher to truly do that. "Wikipedia will give you a general enough overview."

At the suggestion, though, that she simply read Jocelyn's thoughts? Well... okay, yes. It would be easier. And she does want to see who this Milton may be. She smiles wryly. "Yeah, with all the telepaths we sent to Genosha, I imagine you are." She rises now and walks around the desk to sit opposite the girl without the big piece of furniture in between. It seems a little less clinical interrogatory that way. "Just relax," she says, sensing Jocelyn's mind open a little more as the girl adjusts her power. "I'll try to keep a narrow focus. It will help, though, if you can concentrate specifically on the memories you want me to access."

The woman nods to Jean as she explains the reference. Always the teacher. Jocelyn does relax, having gotten a bit more used to this whole process as she focuses on the memories of her time at the hospital, narrowing her mind to those memories. She isn't perfect though, so Jean will get a little more information. The memories are different from what Jean usually sees, because they are filtered through Jocelyn's vision, which means all of the memories are overlayed with various colors representing different types of energy. The woman will be able to tell, after a moment, what each color represents, if she looks for that information.

The first flash is not actually at the hospital, but rather a conversation in a diner. Jocelyn had finished meeting with a contact when Magneto himself wanders right into the bar. He recognizes the woman, strikes up a conversation, and offers her a job as the administrator of the primary hospital in Bastion. Jocelyn negotiates time to determine her answer, and later meets with Magneto to accept the offer, having previously determined with Shift that it was too good an opportunity to pass up. Further memories of construction, getting 'useful' people in place, setting up all sorts of useful networks for contingencies in Genosha, etc... follow before her mind flashes to Milton. All these memories are connected to the one, and one doesn't come up without referencing the other.

The first Milton memory is the man teleporting into her office at the hospital. She'd been coordinating the remaining X-Men in Genosha for some time while Shift and Rachel were gone to the US, and was only mildly shocked to find some teleporter popping in. The man has a British accent, and carries a cane. His face is pale and while, and he wears a suit. All of it outdated, from the 19th century or so. He asks if his space is ready, which Magneto had authorized, and Jocelyn explains that it is. The man teleports in a small, black pod, and explains it is a biolab. He claims to be able to create life, due to the work he has done. He then teleports away to check out his new digs.

The next memory is that of Jocelyn and Rachel in her office. Jocelyn's physical memories are of watching the lab through the walls with her vision for signs of life. Rachel leads them mentally, and by combining their powers, they're able to reproduce the psionic key to unlock the lab's memories, which are then revealed.

...Patients, coming in. Leaving. Blood samples. Test results. Conversations trivial and mundane...

"Scalphunter, the next step is ready to progress. I have the first candidate, but I need you and your team to hunt down the rest. I have a plan..."

...Pain. Fear. Death...

"We lost Blockbuster and Vanisher, boss."

"No matter, I have what I need. The candidates all performed as I expected. I'll need you and the remaining Marauders to round them up. The clones won't be ready in time."

Success! Tests positive. Project: Hive Mind plausible. Backburner with Project: Extinction. More time needed.

"We've located them all, boss. We're ready to move in on your say so."

"Excellent. We'll begin immediately..."

Project: Armageddon in motion.

Some more flashes of Milton. Speaking with someone as he performs a few tests...

"Evolution, Scalphunter. That's what this is about. The time is drawing near when Earth can no longer afford to be weak. The mutants... They are the key. With their power, we could raise a fighting force to oppose... Him."

"Isn't He after the mutants, too?"

"He is, but He's been asleep far too long. Imagine the pool of candidates to choose from for my Marauders when the entire world has evolved. You could be a general with an army unlike anything the universe has seen before. It will be His end."

And what about Summers and Grey?"

"What of them? Do not worry, Scalphunter... The strong will survive, and I have no doubt they will come out on top."

In addition there is a lot of various information on the Greys and Summers that the man has collected. Some likely familiar to Jean, some perhaps not, depending on what she knows of the families.

At that point, Jocelyn's memory of spotting Milton teleporting in, along with six others, pops up, and the two of them exit the mind. Rachel uses her powers to help clean their presence, while Jocelyn forcefully scrubs out what remains with her absorption and conversion powers. Milton attempts a powerful telepathic scan to locate them, but Jocelyn uses her power from her office to bubble him up and absorb all of his psionic energy that he sends out, effectively cutting him off. Jocelyn and Rachel then escape through a hidden passage Jocelyn had built into her office, and the memories end.

Jean gleans the meaning of the colours from Jocelyn's mind. It simply makes it easier for her to perceive the action of the memories she explores. Even she needs some baseline reference for such things.

The telepath, however, inhales a sharp breath as she sees that pale face and unusual attire. Jocelyn might even sense a trace of Jean's alarm and, more tellingly, her recognition of the man. The Pale Man.

The telepath's mind focuses sharply, then -- not in a way that might hurt Jocelyn, but in a way that makes it far easier for her to sift the important memories from those less important.

The information on Summers and Grey? Actually, yes. Jean does recognize most of them. She's had occasion, in recent weeks, to meet just about all the time jumpers that have appeared on this Earth. And the rest? Well... she's ceased being surprised and is slowly accepting that there's some sort of fixation point floating around her genetic line.

But that doesn't mean it terrifies her any less.

As the memories fade away, the telepath looks at Jocelyn. "That was a helluva risk," she says. She's not chiding, however. She understands its necessity. Frankly, she'd have done the same thing. And Jocelyn isn't a sheltered student any longer. "But the information is significant. At least, now, I have some sort of name for him." Even if she doesn't believe it to be his true name.

"It was. I knew it going in, but I determined that knowing what Magneto's geneticist was up to was worth it. Frankly, I wanted to know what he was doing to the patients he was bringing in. Only the strongest or most unique of mutants,". I didn't expect the party of seven, but I knew we ran the risk of Milton popping in. It's why I had Rachel dump the information to me instead of taking me along, so to speak. So I could watch the lab for trouble," Jocelyn explains. "I take it you recognized him," Jocelyn offers to Jean. "What do you know about him?" Because Jocelyn has a vested interest in knowing, given the guy is working a couple floors above her in Genosha!

"I've already reported this information in to Shift. I left out the details of Mr. Summers' and your family though". She didn't think that was appropriate knowledge to give Shift, frankly, before she gave it to Jean. "Anyway, once I found that out, I made it a point to 'schedule' some time to do some recruiting out of country. So far, Magneto just thinks I'm a healer, which has given me some space to move about in Genosha".

"I know of him," Jean tells the other redhead, now. "We've never personally met." Because, if they had, by now she'd have attempted to deconstruct him molecule by molecule until he was nothing more than a screaming, traumatized collection of atoms.

Not that she's vindictive, or anything. But the woman's temper has been a little frayed, of late.

She considers everything she's learned. "Thanks for the heads-up," she says now, her brows knitting. "I really do appreciate it." She debates just how much of the threat to her family she wants spread around. "I need to speak with Scott." And Rachel, again, it seems. "Do me a favour and hold off on telling Shift the full details for a bit? He'll want to know there's a specific threat, yes -- especially since half his team is Summers or Grey." Rachel. Nate. Hope. Yeah... No shortage there. "But, we're not the only ones he's after and I don't want Shift splitting his resources, trying to shelter any of us when we need to be out there getting more information. Not until we really know what's going on."

Thinking through that information, Jocelyn nods. "He won't hear it from me. He'll probably beat me back to Genosha. It's possible Rachel might tell him, but I'm not sure". A nod is given. "I suspect he might have another lab in the Spire. It's where he's said I should reach out to him if I need him for a surgery or something. Though infiltrating that would be far more difficult". What with all the telepaths and such Magneto has floating around. While Rachel was stronger than them, she wasn't sure they could manage to make their way mentally into the Spire and avoid detection.

Though if the opportunity presented itself...but it'd have to be almost perfect for Jocelyn to even consider it. And even then she's not sure she'd take that shot.

"Anything you want me to take back to the others when I head back, or any other instructions for how we should proceed?" Jocelyn asks. She wasn't sure if Jean had anything that she wanted to relay along to the others, but it seemed only polite, at the very least.

"Don't try breaching the spire," Jean says, shaking her head briefly. "The risk is too great." Her lips press together. "We may... need to reassess our mission in Genosha," she says after a long moment. "But, I'm not sure, yet. Tell Shift and Rachel both that, if they get the chance, I need to speak with them." She smiles wryly. "Though, I may just tap them myself before much longer."

Ah, the advantages of being an omega-level teep.

"What we need over there, right now, is information -- about Milton, about the election, about what's happening in general. What we really don't need, however, is a confrontation. Not until I know more. I've got other irons in the fire that affect this and are affected by this. I need to sort them all out."

Dayspring, you damned well better be right about all this.

Or things are going to get very, very messy, very, very fast.

"Will do. I'll keep in my cover as long as I can, though I may need to consider finding a new line of work, depending on if Milton brings Magneto and his resources to focus on who broke into the lab". Because if Milton scanned Jocelyn with his telepathy, either he'd find her memories or he'd find his energy absorbed. Both would do a number on fingering her for the break-in for certain. Still, Jocelyn had options at her disposal for such an event. In theory.

"I've got a few days here still before I'm due to head back. Let me know if you need anything, Doctor Grey. I'll have my phone on". Despite having graduated, Jean was still Doctor Grey to Jocelyn. It was just how things were.

Of the other mess she'd walk into since she go back, she says nothing. That was a different problem altogether.

Jean nods to Jocelyn, now, giving a wry smile. "Thanks," she says. "I'll call you, if I need." Even if the girl didn't have her phone on, Jean could still probably get her attention.

As the girl prepares to leave, however, the telepath pauses. "Oh, and Jocelyn? You've graduated. You can call me me Jean."

There's a pause, and a small smile comes to Jocelyn's face before she nods. "Alright Jean. Thanks," the woman says. It would take Jocelyn a little bit to get used to calling Jean by her first name. And with that, Jocelyn will make her way out the door and off to take care of a few other things.