2013.04.20 - Gene Therapy, Part 3

Word had come through those drop boxes that their target was back in town and would be present inside the Sprung Chicken Data Center, located in downtown Gotham, at 11:00 pm. These internet and data storage companies tended to have cutsie names and equally cutsie logos, and this one was no different. The walls, in contrast to much of Gotham's grittiness, were painted pink and had chickens jumping over farm fences and sayings like "Don't let your data fly the coop!" painted all over the place. And that was just the outside. The horrors inside might be on the level of Hello Kitty.

It was also likely to be well-lit, as people were in data centers all hours of the day. The outer security looked to consist of a security fence and a single, bored looking rent-a-cop who was sitting inside a booth reading a magazine that he likely shouldn't be reading while on duty. There was also a security camera up near the door, but it looked to be in a fixed position and not one that moved.

It's night, and even so, the Amazing Nightcrawler is being overly cautious. He's got his image inducer set to 'random', and this evening, he looks as if he's a California sk8er dude; all that's needed is a surfboard and some waves. Blond hair set to an almost DA, blue eyes, wiry.. and wearing a long-sleeved shirt with long shorts.. and sandals.

Duuuude.

Hands are in his pockets, and Kurt watches the security booth from afar.. before taking a deep breath. "I've got him," he murmurs, and suddenly, he is no longer where he had been.. on the perimeter. Instead, lands in the booth, his palm lifting up to jam it into the bottom of the security guard's jaw. One good hit, and he's out. Down for the count.

At least Kurt catches him.. and teleports him out in order to tie him up..

Seriously? Just -look- at this place! Getting inside is barely exciting enough to register as a lazy yawn to one with Mystique's abilities.

Today she's gone back to good ol' Lin Daiyu, the Chinese businesswoman who is always impeccably dressed and mannered. A dark grey pantsuit screams 'power' without any need for flashy colors or vibrance. Dark lacquered chopsticks keep her mass of straight black hair restrained without so much as a single strand out of place. Any cosmetic touches look like they were surgically installed by laser. She probably spent a couple of grand on carving out just the right look for herself, though in reality it didn't cost her a thing. Some would consider it cheating, no doubt.

The look of distaste for the local decor isn't entirely an act. To anyone else it would be 'they truly wish to do business with -these- individuals?' To her it's more a matter of 'this had better have one hell of a good punchline.'

The others can fight to gain entrance. She's just going to waltz right on in.

Jamie can't teleport, nor can he shape shift, so it's up to his wits to get him into this place! And the wits tell him that this is a data center, and that means there are IT people there, and IT people need to eat of course! So he decided to come dressed as a Pizza Deliver guy! For some reason he had one of his dupes work as one a while ago, he doesn't even know why. But he kept the hat and the jacket when he left. So he is walking up towards the security door to ring the bell, there has to be a bell for visitor's, right? "Hey yo. I got a pizza delivery for someone." Looks at the fake tag, "Uhm there is no name on the tag, sorry. Anyone order a large pepperoni with a dozen garlic knots?"

That poor guard never even saw it coming. He's teleported out easily enough, just leaving the door that Jamie and Mystique are heading towards. When Jamie buzzes, a woman's voice comes out. "Pizza? No, but I was thinking about ordering something anyway. How about I pay you the cost and we call it even, kid?" The door is buzzed open, and Jamie will be able to walk right inside, likely letting anyone else who wants a shot at getting inside their opportunity.

Inside, the decor remains much the same, with a front desk and a hallway leading off on either side, with a STAIRS sign hanging over the entrance to the right hallway. The walls are painted in bubblegum pink, and the walls have had chickens working on various computers and electronic devices painted onto them.

Directly behind the front desk is a fountain. A twelve foot tall marble statue of a chicken with a screwdriver working on a rack of servers. Above it, etched into a twenty foot long hunk of polished granite, are the words "Chick us out for your security needs!"

The woman at the front desk, meanwhile, has the look of someone who is incredibly bored and hates her life.

Kurt is back to the security booth, and does a quick look at the roster; who came in, who left.. and takes said sheet, folding it up and putting it into his pocket. Glancing at the camera at the door, and the open just beyond, it's another quick *bamf*, and he's out of the booth and with that second bit of teleportion, he lands in the atrium, behind the fountain, away from immediate view.

And the camera is avoided!

Bubblegum pink. As if Mystique didn't already blame everyone here for being well off their rocker. What would really help liven this place up some? A dash of crimson.

And the scent of sulfur.

When Nightcrawler makes his appearance the lone Chinese woman turns to face him, gives him one very prompt looking over, then rolls her eyes with a faint sound of disgust. "Clearly there are some traits which you've failed to inherit."

That's right! Here's the metamorph, herself. The same one that left Kurt with the proverbial check less than two weeks ago, now resulting in a two and a half million pricetag on his head.

Mother knows best.

Hey it works. If someone didn't order any there is always someone hungry around, so it pays off for him. He walks in and goes to the lady that buzzed him in, "Tell you what, I'll give this to you on the house, just cause you look as good as you sounded on that intercom." Hey he needs to find a way to stretch his stay, and this will work for now. "So what is it that they do here? I just see all the chicken signs, and I don't think it's a KFC."

"Gotta make ends meet. Data security place. The owner has this weird thing for chickens. There was a video once, but I think I slept through it when they had the chickens square dancing about proper disposal techniques". It's about then that she spots Mystique and waves over at her. "Hey, you here for Change 1234987412831 dash Omega 73134?" she asks. "If you are, you need to make sure to sign in, or it's my ass on the line, and I need to make rent this month".

Kurt's position will allow him to see the woman press a small button on the side of her desk. Nothing happens, but the button does, in fact, get pressed when she speaks with the group.

Bwuh?

Moth--

Mother?

Kurt turns about in time to hear the familiar, if not sound of his mother's voice, the cadence is there. As is the distinct sound of disapproval. It's a chinese woman, and he forces himself to straighten, blue eyes narrowing. "I am still alive, at least.. no thanks to you. What do you think--" he hisses.

Kurt pauses in his soft but angry tirade to look about once again.. and corridors! He should head down a corridor, away from the front desk.

That particular move, however, is forestalled, and he murmurs, "You will owe me.." and immediately, he's gone again, only to show up right behind the desk, behind the button-pushing woman.

"Forgive me, fraulein, but my mother never taught me not to hit women.." and he does just that.. just enough for her to go down.. and scooping her up, teleports out to where the guard is, and ties her up.

This will take a few...

When Mystique's son goes into action and removes the little problem from behind the desk, Lin Daiyu is no longer standing there. Safely out of the eyes of cameras, she's now copying the exact persona of the very secretary that got teleported out from behind her desk. It sure was nice of her to speak as much as she had, now the metamorph has her voice down to perfection.

"Of course, if I'd learn to stop spending so much of my paycheck on infomercial junk then covering the rent would be so much easier. But, we all have our priorities."

With Kurt and copied chick out of the way she settles in behind the desk and helps herself to a little looking over, perhaps there'll be something of use around here. As for the silent alarm that she had tripped, well..she's -here- now, and clearly everything is okay. Must have bumped it with her knee again. It's amazing how easy it is to forget that little switch is there in the first place, isn't it?

Jamie just looks at both Mystique and Kurt, "You didn't need to do that. I could have gotten her to leave without hurting her." Just a little bribe, and she's gone. Plus he knows another PI looking for a secretary, so she can still pay her rent. See that's why he doesn't associate with the X-Men that much, just way too violent in that school!

But anyway he looks at Mytique, but doesn't say anything. Just pretends to still be the lowly little Pizza Boy making a deliver. Hey there are a lot of adult movies that start out this way...

The woman is taken care of, and is going to be out for a little bit now. That leaves Mystique free to poke around. She'll find a number of changes that are being done tonight. However, there is only one being done in the basement, according to the records, and there is a note from the woman's boss stickied to the piece of paper.

Big client. Give him whatever he wants.

The woman's ID badge is also on the desk, which appears to be one of those that will let you into some of the secure parts of the building.

Kurt returns soon after with another *bamf*, in time now to answer Jamie's complaint. Pointing to the desk, the blond surfer dude offers, "She hit the panic button. The police will be here shortly."

Turning to Mystique, Kurt exhales softly to see the 'secretary' at her desk. "Besides, she is fine. Just knocked out." Beat. "Mother.. what room? Und is there a security room in which to look at screens?" Pulling out his sheet from the security booth, he scans it again for the name in which they search.

"Und a map, bitte." So he can teleport in.

Mystique hmms softly to herself, neatly plucking (that's a pun, you see) the ID badge from its resting point. What had once been the other woman's now belongs to her, should make things go much more smoothly. "It would appear that we are right on schedule for tonight's festivities."

It's when Madrox speaks that her expression quickly sours. Here is a woman that can give -any- set of eyes a piercing, dagger-acute stare. "Tell that to your little blue friend. I have done nothing."

Nothing except lean forward, pop open that pizza box, and help herself, that is. She's got time to burn while Kurt goes and plays the part of the group's shady hero for the evening.

And there he is again. Only knocked out? "Pity," she nonchalantly says to the pair between nibbles. Then, motions swift yet economical, she retrieves the sticky note and -thwips- it down onto the top of the desk. "Right regular basement dwellers we're turning out to be. As for the question of security, there's a handy map right here for her to memorize. So useful! When the map is asked for, a map he shall receive. "Have fun, though do try not to get lost. That's my closing act."

-Tease.-

"Well then, shall we get started?" she cheerily asks the pair. Respond or not, she's already on the move.

"You owe me 20 bucks for the pizza now." Free when being used to find a way into a place, gotta charge the other mutants. "What do we need to do? I can make enough dupes do whatever." And hey some of those dupes have enough skills so that he can actually be useful. "And no more hurting people if it can be avoided. These humans are fragile you know."

Brogan is listed as having checked in on Kurt's sheet. He checked in about two hours ago, and hasn't, according to the sheet, left yet.

The stairs have bouncing chicks that look a bit like Angry Birds running along the sides, except they're using hammers to smash bits and pieces of hard drives, all with perky smiles on their faces. The door, as to be expected, is locked. However, the secretary's key will let the woman inside, for those who choose to follow along with her.

Inside the data center are racks and racks of hard drives, and a fair number of people, all wearing Victorious Therapy uniforms. They don't seem to pay the newcomers any mind, however. A casual estimate would say there are at least a half dozen employees, all working on removing hard drives and replacing them with different hard drives.

"They are not dead." Kurt looks meaningfully towards his mother before he finishes, "und they are out of the way. They are safer where they are now than if they were here."

So.. back to work.

Looking to the stick-note, he reads it quickly before wiggling his fingers for a badge. Still, when Mystique goes on the move, Kurt leaps over the desk, grabs a likely looking ID badge, and with a second easy vault, joins the woman on her way down to the basement, stealing glances at the map as he does so, memorizing it on the way.

"You know, the last time you 'got lost'," he murmurs within easy earshot of the 'secretary', "I'm now wanted.. because of that. Und not in a good way."

As he follows down the stairs, Kurt is trying desperately not to look at the murals on the wall, though at times, he simply can't help it. "Who would hire these people?"

Pausing at the door, the blond sk8er takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. Time to pretend he's a new hire!

"I've already covered for it. Or don't you recall my helping get you in past security during our first excursion?" Mystique challenges Madrox with a knowing look. "How quickly we forget. If you wish to make yourself useful, spread out and help track down our person of interest. He should still be within the building."

Kurt's comment is next to earn a reply. "And no one would be foolish enough to try," she easily states without looking back to the surfer dude that's supposed to be her son. Eugh. "Besides, dear. You're a mutant. If you're even halfway paying attention then they could never catch you." He is -her- child, after all. Gifts, guts, glamor. The blue really is quite endearing.

The next question, who would hire these people, has her grinning like a fiend. "Why don't you ask one of them, -dude?-"

Downstairs, she at least has the home field advantage in that she looks like she's supposed to belong. The others, they'll just have to make do. All she wants is to find the man of the hour, preferrably before the others do. But, it's not like she won't have a chance whether she's first or not. Heck, she can always ask one of the guys that works here. That might be cheating, too.

Jamie does do what he can do, and that is spread himself around and start looking. Of course Jamie prime does decide it would be better to hang out with Mystique and keep an eye on her. "That was then, and this is now, so I'll want that 20 bucks." Hey he has an office, and PI money isn't pouring in. It's not like he won on who wants to be a millionaire or anything. He does look in the data center, "These people are just strange. Who can do this all day!" But anyway the dupes keep looking around, hey maybe they'll find something.

Who would hire them indeed? That was an important question, but one that may have to be answered later. The group of individuals all stand up as one. It's almost as if they have a hive mind sort of thing going on with them. Then Jamie is going to feel about half his dupes just drop from the hive mind. They're not dead, as they're walking around, but they're not part of the collective anymore. The technicians all speak at once, as do those five duplicates.

"Intruders. You are the ones /she/ sent. You will be dealt with".

That's when the pistols come out from the jackets of the employees and they start firing. The door slams shut and locks behind the mutants.

"Take them alive," the crowd says in unison. The duplicates that spoke, however, don't attack. It seems whoever or whatever is controlling the people is having trouble with Jamie's duplicates.

"Und that is why I still live," Kurt responds, his voice low. "But you have made things just a little more.."

"Two und a half million dollars is quite the prize." Difficult.

"Dude! Man.." And the bulk of Kurt's German accent is buried, though to a practiced ear, it's still obviously and plainly present. "Like, seriously? I get to work -here-?"

Pulling a piece of paper from his pocket, the surfer checks it before, "Man.. Brogan.. lookin' for that dude. Anyone know where I can find him? Like.. his mother in law's, adopted sister's son's kid told me to look him up.."

Or not!

The moment the guns come out, the door locks and bullets begin to fire, Kurt is on the move. He's teleporting rapidly- in rapidfire bursts, one and then the next.. disarming them in turn; never remaining in one place for more than a heartbeat. "You heard .. yourselves. Take them alive.."

Any disguise is only good up until the point at which it is not. People all around. -Guns- all around. Mystique can avoid almost all of it by diving for cover, but she can't avoid them -all.- One shot buries itself deep into her shoulder, prompting her to clamp a hand down around the wound as she disappears behind a server rack.

Expression set in what could be pain, irritation, or concentration, she expels the mangled slug from herself and heals the damage as the hunk of jacketed metal falls with a -tink!- onto the floor.

"That's how we're going to play this, is it."

If there's any security cameras around, they're more than welcome to take footage of the secretary gunning down the other employees with a suppressed Walther PK380. Where it had been hiding is anyone's guess, though it morphs out beneath her clothes at the small of her back, pulled from the waistline like it had been there all along.

It's a small caliber weapon. Nine rounds. But, like good ol' 007, she's an assassin. Nine rounds are plenty, and more than he had in his PPK. It also makes this adorable little -Thwip!- sound whenever she pulls the trigger.

"Dead is so much more simple. Come on then, let's get this over with! I've encountered scarier vermin at Grand Central."

Jamie instantly feels when the dupes are gone, going from 10 to five is enough of a jump to make it noticable. He just blinks at that one, because well such a thing has never happened to him before, the dupes just usually stay in the hive mind, or they go out of range. But then people start shooting, shooting is never good. And well Jamie prime dives for cover. Some of the dupes however they aren't fast enough, and they get hit sadly. A gun shot there, and gun shot here. Hey at least they didn't die, dupes dying just sucks.

As for Jamie the moment he dives for cover, well he makes two more dupes, hey look he's got new friends. One of the dupes crawls over and goes to tap one of the shooters on the shoulder, "What'cha guys shooting at?"

"Come along peacefully. Brogan wants to speak with you. He will...". There's a pause as one of individuals seems to try and break free from the grasp before he starts shooting again. "He will make you better. Stronger. Faster. Like us".

Of course, as the minions start to get disarmed, they turn and start fleeing towards a back door. So far, amazingly, none of them are struck by bullets, despite the gunfire that is being rained down. They start to back up towards that door, making a circle around it.

That's when Steady, the woman from the meeting, walks out, along with a tall man, whose fist is radiating with a white energy.

"So you are the ones my wife brought to kill me. Oh, she warned me. You know what she can do. It's how I knew you'd entered this building, and I was watching through all their eyes. Very well done. Against a lesser man, you might have succeeded. But now, you will bow to me".

He raises his hand up, and his wife does the same, and there's the sound of stone ripping up out of the earth, far below the data center's foundation as the building starts to sway.

Kurt's always moving.. even in that skater boy image. Invisible tail sways in his actions, and he finally finds a spot for purchase along the wall.. atop a chick. "Was..." and as the building begins to sway, Kurt teleports off his spot, and appears just above the man, moving to wrap that still 'invisible' tail around his hand, ready to land with his back feet atop the man's shoulders, ready to push down, to make the man hit the floor. "Stop that!"

"You wish to improve us by shooting at us?" Mystique challenges. "I don't think evolution works like you think that it does!"

And the wife went and sold them all out, while they're here taking care of -her- dirty business. Charming.

When the minions all start to run for cover, she's right there with them. One of them. One of the herd, all running in the same direction for the same door. Maybe it's a hive mind, but might the controller lose sight of just -one- fake?

It only has to work long enough for her to bury the wicked curved blade of her knife into his chest. This need not be a long, drawn out thing. All she has to do is end his life and walk away. -How- she accomplishes that goal is of little importance, though she -wants- it to be by the blade.

So the guy makes a comment about a lesser man. "Hey I may be a lesser man, but there can be a lot of me, more than you can control." He says he speech as the prime gets up. And as the Prime gets up he's making impacts, snapping his fingers, stomping his feet, anything he can think of. Sure there were at first 10 dupes, 5 under the guys control. Now there is about 40 of them, time to test the limits of what he can take over. And that's when the building starts to shake. "Oh that's not a good feeling."

Really, the teleportation and the stabbing combo would work well, if not for the fact that the guy throws up a psionic shield when he's rushed like that. Both blade and mutant get bounced off it. One of the minions he was controling falls over, unmoving, as the shield is created. It's only a temporary shield, however, and it disappears almost immediately. The building continues to shake for another couple of seconds before there is a loud crash from above them. That crash is followed by a series of stone thuds coming from the stairway.

Then that twelve foot screwdriver-wielding stone chicken bursts through the wall and starts stomping towards Madrox and his clones, slashing out with a stone wing even as it tries to drive a screwdriver down into Madrox Prime's skull.

"I don't need to control them. I just need to control her". Some more of the minions start firing bullets at the other two mutants while Madrox is being attacked by a giant stone chicken.

Kurt appears atop... and is immediately bounced off. It's not something expected, for certain, but he makes do with a back-flip off, and he's ready to land until..


 * bang*

Kurt takes a bullet in a shoulder and is thrown backwards, slamming him into a shaking, shuddering wall. Blood drips from the wound as he grunts in pain. Those blue eyes look up at his mother, the woman that had both picked him up off the side of the road, and had left him to 'take the fall' for a good number of deaths. To read her face causes him to linger for a second in time, and it seems like forever... but he looks away again, and takes a deep breath.

His counter to that, of course, is a full-on 'combat teleport'; where he'd slumped, he is no longer. Kurt is gone, but only to reappear -inside- that little, personal shield built for two. "How cosy.. take a deep breath und say 'goodbye'.." and he grabs the wife-- ready to teleport the hell away and up a level. Taking her from the fight.

Blast! Shields really get on Mystique's nerves. There are usually ways around them, of course. She only needs to figure out -how- to get around them. A certain teleporter might be able to do the trick, in fact...

Except that he just got shot. "Nightcrawler!"

Come, teleport to mother! She doesn't want to share her battleplan with the rest of the room. That, and ..you -do- know that she still cares, right..?

When the Blue Bamfer is beside her she casts angry, enraged eyes down at the fresh wound he's sustained, then back to his surfer dude eyes with an expression which is much more soft by comparison.

This ends. Let's show them what it means to be a mutant.

As Kurt tries to pull his trick, Mystique is further shifting. Muscles adjust. Physique morphs. The secretary's look is gone, replaced by an all black -thing- with a vaguely feminine figure and the more typical glowing, featureless yellow eyes. Speed and strength are heavily augmented. She looks like something right out of an H. R. Geiger sketch, complete with nasty sharp pointy appendages.

Teleport the wife away. Lower the shield. She'll take care of the rest. Hopefully before the giant stone chicken dooms them all.

One of the dupes pushes Jamie prime out of the way from the giant screw driver weilding chicken, have to check this one off of the bucket list. But said dupe, he dies in the process, poor poor dupe, he shall be missed. The rest of the dupes actually use that to their advantage though, they focus and just run towards the chicken and start to climb, "Madrox Pile on the Chicken!" Okay he thought he would never say words like that, ever. But you know the old saying, strength in numbers, Jamie intends to prove that. As the dupes climb onto the chicken they keep making more and more, trying to cover the entire thing in Madri!

Well, the man was not expecting the teleporter to get into his personal bubble quite like that! The wife gets taken away, and upstairs, she'll start to regain some of her old self. "Huh? What happened?" she asks Kurt, still trying to figure out what was going on.

Down below, the stone chicken is likely going to squish at least a few dupes before it abruptly stops moving and crashing to the floor, shattering into thousands of little and not-so-little pieces. The screwdriver rolls into a rack of servers and starts a domino effect among about eight of the racks.

Then there is Creepy Shapeshifter...Thing. Brogan looks absolutely terrified of that thing, and throws his shield up. However, the strikes she makes causes the shield to disappear with each strike, and another one of his gun-totting minions falls over each time he restarts his shield, until finally he can restart it no more. That will leave his fate up to Mystique to decide.

"Wie gehts? It would take too long," Kurt murmurs, and he puts his hand atop his shoulder, and when he pulls it away once more, it's covered in blood. "I.. will be right back. You stay here." Because, well.. he just left her husband with a woman who has no intention of 'capturing'.

In the next breath, the blond surfer is gone, only to be replaced downstairs with the Indigo Bamfer. His tail swings in a wide arc in distress, and his voice is tinged with the pain of the gunshot. "Don't kill him, mother!" Please. "If you do, we'll never learn--" what it is he's working on.

Mystique had her own plan in mind since the start of this little outing. Any thought that she might have had opposing this initial idea ended the instant that Brogan crossed the line. Through -his- actions her son now bleeds.

Who needs the honed steel of an assassin's blade when one can harden her own skin into jagged chitin?

-SCHUNK!-

One black, bony arm spears clear into Brogan's chest, coming out the other side covered in things which are more from him than from her.

"Wounding one of my children is your last mistake," she seethes in a dark tone barely above a whisper, giving the words a moment to fully sink in before her arm rips itself back out.

She's not going to gracefully sneak her way out of this one. Madrox and Nightcrawler are going to catch her right in her vengeful act.

Well Jamie has climbed the chicken, and he is trying to bring it down. But hey that kind of work needs a song..and what song can he sing while doing this, none other than the Stonecutters Song! So as the dupes work they all start to sing, "Who controls the British crown? Who keeps the metric system down? We do, we do!" And hey the chicken starts to fall, and well the dupes jump off, see that works! Of course they do that in just enough time to see what Mystique does...oh that's just not very good.

"Mother!" Oh.. no. Just.. nonononono.. "Es bestand keine Notwendigkeit, ihn zu toten, mother!" There was no need to kill him, mother! Of course, he yells this, or at least he believes he does, even as his hand rises again to press against the meat of his shoulder. "Warum?" Why?

As Brogan lies upon the floor, taking his last breaths, the blood pooling around, Kurt.. has to turn his back. "I am going to see his wife," where he'd left her. "God help me.."


 * bamf*

Mystique's response probably leaves an awful lot to be desired, "I did what had to be done."

By the time she's turned around she's gone back to the secretary's look, the blood and gore mysteriously vanishing from her arm as though it had never been there. "Nightcrawler--"

Too much, too late. He's gone. She would have pulled the bullet from his shoulder, tried to tend to his wounds. It would appear that he's had enough of her rooting around beneath the skin of other people. At least it hadn't been a fatal shot.

What else is there to do? She crouches beside what remains of Brogan and reaches into his pocket, extracting his wallet then from that wallet a twenty dollar bill. No further words are said as she tosses the wallet into the pool of blood upon the floor, walking toward Madrox to pass the money over to him.

One way or another, debts with her are always repaid.

Jamie is starting to pull himself together, when Mystique turns and gives him the 20. "Uhm, thanks." Man he wasn't serious about that one, but dang he just got a free 20! But as he goes back to pulling himself together, he's to tired to just kind of summon them into himself now. One of the dupes grabs the 20 and runs over to give it back to Mystique, "You earned this more than I did." The dupe said. Hey not all of those dupes think alike you know.

Of course, that panic button had been pushed, way back when, and there are starting to be sirens blaring nearby. The police are going to be getting here soon.

When Kurt arrives up near Steady, the woman glares at him. "You all killed him. I can feel it, in the ground. He's not...". She takes a breath. "Check your box tomorrow morning". Her voice is hard as she glares at him. She just knew one of them killed him, and in her mind, that meant they all killed her husband.

Kurt appears beside Brogan's wife, and he looks.. sad. Tired. In pain. It's no surprise to him that she's guessed the outcome. "I'm sorry, Frau.. it was not our intent." He's going to hell for lying.. at least he is safe in saying that it wasn't HIS intent! As for the others, he's got no clue as to theirs. He nods his head slowly at her words, and goes to teleport out.. "Ja.."


 * bamf*

Back to the sewers.. and get his wound tended.

The money is being offered back..? Seriously? Mystique accepts it, turning to stare back at that Madrox dupe for a while as she thinks on what to do with the situation. He -had- offered to help her once before. Or part of him had, at least. In place of the twenty, she instead hands him a business card formed right off of her own skin, now with the molecular composition of ordinary cardstock. It has nothing more than a time and an address. "Find me here in three hours."

She still has a use for this one.

As for the here and now, she never cared about the money for this job. All along her interest in it had been getting close to Brogan. She got what she came for. In leaving she can copy any number of people that worked here tonight, just another victim caught up in this mess. Escaping a bunch of cops is trivial for her, soon she'll be on her way once more.

Soon, she'll be on the other side of the planet handling some other outstanding business. Quite possibly with Madrox on her side.

Well Mysti will get a Madrox on her side, just not the main one. He is still collecting his dupes and finally finishes up, one short though. That one has of course already decided to take Mysti's offer and ran away. Stupid rogue dupes always getting the guy in trouble. This is probably going to be worse than the dupe that slept with the mob bosses wife.