2013.05.08 - She Is Not My Girlfriend

Humans.. they are just so.. so.. annoying! They just can never leave good enough alone! All Grodd wanted to do was set up a sensor array in the middle of the park to scan for temporal incursions disguised as a piece of modern art but noooooo, the humans just had to vandalize it. Snot-nosed, ginger, hoodlums broke his sensor array being vandals and now he had to make a trip all the way into town just to fix it!

The metal sculpture with it's intricate electronic parts that glow a light blue in tightly woven illuminated grooves in the metal stands elevated in the air on a base of highly advanced electronics that are normally hidden under the ground. The device had to be exposed to fix it.

Grodd is laying on his back under the base of the statue, just his lower body sticking out from under it like a car mechanic as he fixes the inner most circuits of the machine that shorted out when the punk kids smashed it. He's got a tool box next to his feet and there are set of four foot tall, silver, pylons with a pulsing red light ringing them at each corner of his work area. The pylons have a simple function, they make most people forget what they see. The moment they look away they forget that anything unusual happened. Even blinking is enough to purge the short term memory of Grodd's device and his presence. All around him the park goes on about it's business just like normal. People see him, look confused then they take out their phones to take pictures but as soon as they look at the phone they forget what they were doing and why then wander off confused. At least your average people.

Tai chi in the park. For the first, oh.. five minutes of it, it actually looked fun to Kurt. Fun? Okay, relaxing. Interesting. Vaguely resembling a way to get some flexibility.

Wrong.

If one searches the park, there are always other distractions.

Yoga? *sighs* Again.. nowhere near as.. challenging as some of the housewives and 'professional yoga students' make it seem.

From the back of that gathering, then, Kurt *bamfs* away, landing near one of the pathways leading to the trails into the wooded section of the park, perching in a tree. Yes.. jeans, converse, pull-over shirt with a jacket.. a blue, fuzzy dude perching. Climbing higher, he gains the attention of a stroller-borne toddler who then points to her nanny, "Looooook.. monkey!! Silly monkey!"

The Dream last night was a jungle dream, but a jungle of wire and steel rather than frond and green, with eyes everywhere and dark fur rustling in the metallic undergrowth. And a duck. The duck was the clue, of course, because Wesley fed the ducks in Central Park, and so here he finds himself today. Since hanging out in the park in full costume isn't precisely incognito, he's compromised, wearing the suit, but carrying a briefcase, with his sleep-gun and gas mask secured inside for easy use. He'd settled in for a time on a bench, sipping tea from a thermos and browsing through an academic journal on 2nd century Greek reliquaries. His scone sits on a carefully folded napkin, untouched. He keepes his senses, natural and preternatural, as open as he can, although, of course, the channel of Dream is unreliable and imprecise at best. He trusts Fate will provide in time, however, as She always has...hopefully not until he's finished this article, though. Fascinating...

Now, while Jocelyn didn't consider Central Park her home like some of her teammates, she did have access to the base here. So when some weird freaking energy signatures show up in Central Park, Jocelyn takes a little bit of an interest in this. The girl is dressed in a pair of jeans and a blue t-shirt. She wasn't any more noticable than she ever was, which meant she was still easy to spot, given her height.

As she walks towards that statue, she spots the energy signature. When it 'strikes' her, the energy just gets absorbed by the girl. Mmm. Yummy energy. She does note how other people seem to ignore the very large monkey working on fixing the sculpture. Great. Psionic energy, or close enough. Jocelyn, however, decides that confronting said monkey is a stupid idea, and just keeps walking along, as though there is nothing going on.

She keeps walking on past Grodd and the device, and keeps moving, eventually coming near Kurt's tree. She doesn't spot him immediately, however.

Reaching around in the tool box with his foot and pulling out a calibration tool, Grodd hands it to himself with that in human gorilla dexterity. He can be heard muttering under the statue, "There we go!" then he says, "What? That doesn't make any sense." and signs. The girl absorbing ambient energy is making his machine read instabilities in the tachyon field, "If there was a temporal incursion that big happening I'm pretty sure people would notice.." he mutters to himself and tries to 'fix' the machine that is working perfectly. Meanwhile he reaches into the tool box again and pulls out an MP3 player, modified of course, and passes it up to his other hand.. this could take a while.

"Monkey!" sounds again from a little toddler in her stroller, and pointing up into the tree. Of course, the nanny looks up, and sees.. nothing.

The stroller is pushed on, and with Jocelyn now beneath the tree, Kurt begins to flip from branch to branch before he lands lightly beside the other mutant. "Guten Tag, fraulein," is given, and he wipes bits of bark from his shoulders. "Spring fever catches us all, ja?"

Kurt hasn't yet noticed the.. creation in the middle of the park with the monkey.. but rather than taking the trails, he's more in the mood for field and pond that pretends it's a lake. "Come walk?"

Wesley Dodds leans back in his seat and closes his eyes for a second, taking a deep, centering breath. He can almost feel something in the air, his investigator's instinct combining with that brush of the Unconscious against the back of his brain, nudging him. He can't let it dog or rattle him, though, he must be patient. When his eyes finally open again, he finds himself catching sight of a what appears to be a blue-skinned demon strolling casually in the park with a young lady. Said man may have been in the papers or on television, but Wesley doesn't own a television and disdains current events, outside of those on the feed in his brain. Luckily, he's not a superstitious type and quickly asserts that this might be perfectly normal. After all, he met a couple of "Norse Gods" the last time he was here, so who is he to judge? At any rate, this fellow might at least be tied into whatever is going to happen here today. Wesley folds his journal up and lays it next to him, keeping the latch to his briefcase open for easy access to his gun and mask, the weight of a sleep grenade secure on the inside pocket of his jacket.

"Hello Mr. Wagner, and it does. I needed a break from studying for the GED. A walk sounds good, though I might suggest a change in direction," Jocelyn responds to Kurt. She was just about to pull her phone out when Kurt arrived. Good timing. She glances over at the kid who exclaimed monkey and smiles. Appropriate.

"Did you know there is a rather large gorilla tinkering with some advanced tech not far over there? Emitting some sort of energy that seems to make people ignore him. Didn't effect me though, but I acted like I did, what with people who were ignoring him it wasn't too hard to figure out," Jocelyn says in a low voice, gesturing around herself to indicate the whole energy absorption thing she does. After all, the energy plus the fact nobody was freaking out about what he was doing gave Jocelyn a pretty good idea of what that was doing.

"I might be able to keep them from impacting the area if we want to find out what is up".

Now this was more like Jocelyn's normal life these days. Go out for a walk or a jog and run into something really weird. The girl can't really catch a break in that regard.

The man in the coat is noted, but Jocelyn doesn't pay him too much mind. He isn't doing anything that would trigger her energy sense to think of him as anything other than some random guy in the park. But he is, at the very least, noticed by the girl.

As the disruption walks away the readings return to normal Grodd becomes even more confused. "Huh, must have been.." he mutters not sure.. oh well, at least it's working now! The big repair gorilla slides out from under the statue and reaches under it pressing a series of hidden buttons. There is a WOOOSH HISSS sound that will no doubt draw everyone's attention making him very noticeable for a moment as the sculpture's hydraulics lower it back to the ground so it looks like your typical modern art. Then Grodd kneels down and gathers up his tools as music plays in one ears from the ear-bud connected to the mp3 player. Nothing to see here folks! Just your average super-villain working on a highly advanced electronic device! What could possibly be bad about it?

"Rather large gorilla.. tinkering with some advanced tech..." Kurt repeats slowly, more to make sure that he's actually understanding the girl correctly. "A gorilla." Beat. "Really?" He sounds more than a little dubious, but this is New York City.

"Then come walk, ja.." and Kurt begins to make his way in the direction mentioned, yellow eyes searching the grounds before them.

There.. there it is.

But to look away, there's nothing, and the blue elf doesn't act as if there's anything truly out of the ordinary. Kids playing, teachers on the bench taking care of class notes- at least the guy does look like an academic.

But then.. there's that *whoosh* sound that comes, and it gains Kurt's attention once again, and his gaze remains before he begins his approach, eyes now locked. He's not going to look away. Not yet, anyway.

"Was ist das?" What is that? is called out, before the blue, fuzzy demonic looking elf in converse sneakers realizes that he really should try again.. in English. "What is that?"

Wesley Dodds is still at a bit of a distance, but can see that the demon fellow and his young companion have suddenly moved in another direction with purpose. That direction is shortly thereafter the source of a large "WHOOSH" sound, some hydraulic mechanical sounds, and then some German. Nothing good ever follows mechanical sounds and garbled German. After a quick inspection to make sure he's not watched, Wesley casually slips into the undergrowth. Gun is placed in hand, mask slid into place, voice distortion activated. He lets a soft billow of sleep gas from the tanks beneath his coat, making a bit of fog cling to him in the proper dramatic fashion as he emerges and heads in that direction, mild-mannered Wesley Dodds now replaced the significantly more surreal figure of the Sandman.

"Yeah. That's it," Jocelyn replies. It was hard being the one who could see what was going on. She has no idea what the garbled German was, but she knew there was a problem. "Should I cut it's power? Looks like it's just emitting some sort of energy, but not altering anything" And if Kurt gives her the okay, she fully plans on yanking out the energy from that device. Of course, her energy absorption is going to mess with any of that memory-altering stuff Grodd has up again, because that's just kind of what she does. Grodd's poor readouts are going to be awfully confusing again.

Sandman, as Jocelyn isn't looking that way, isn't noticed yet, which may be unfortunate.

Grodd is use to this kind of thing. People noticing him and then coming to investigate. It's quite strange. You would think seeing a 14 foot tall super-gorilla would make humans run the other way but no, they just walk up to him and talk. It's shocking really that their species has lived as long as it has.

Once he has gathered all of his tools the gorilla puts his oversized tool box next to one of the pylons and starts shutting them down one at a time making the field of mental interference smaller and smaller as he half-sings along to the song playing on his mp3 player, "Define your meaning of war. To me it's what we do when we're bored. I feel the heat comin off of the blacktop and it makes me want it more.. "

"Ja," Kurt nods his head slowly, his words for Jocelyn only. "If they react about a gorilla, they won't be so worried about me, nicht wahr?" Which is good in his book! "Just give me a countdown.." so he can be ready.

The moving of the academic is given scant notice, though now the elf is in such a mode that he's watching.. everything, or trying to, Keeping an eye on the ice cream vendor, on those kids rollerskating, the couple on the blanket with an early picnic.. it's what he does.

And the gorilla? Normally, people run the other way when they see a blue furred, glowing yellow-eyed, three-fingered .. creature with pointed ears, canines and a spade-tipped tail. Oh.. they do, don't they.

They do.

As a result, however, Kurt isn't really one to run from a large gorilla, though he does have to look up.. and he approaches closer.

The Sandman swims in the surreal, his mind bathed in dream-images that burn into his consciousness, often bizarre and sometimes inexplicable. But he's definitely shocked by the sight of the massive Grodd, the way his head cocks giving an even more alien appearance to his gas-masked visage, the smoke spilling up out of his jacket and around his face. "I eXpEcTeD iT To bE mOrE fIGuRatiVe." he mutters to himself, his voice changer even rendering that with a hissing, chitinous undertone. He tries not to make assumptions, however, and, banking his courage, he approaches, following in the wake of the girl and the demon.

"Okay. Three. Two. One".

Jocelyn focuses and starts draining the power from the device that Grodd had just spent so much time using. Her intent is to shut it down. People putting up scanners in Central Park was just not okay with her, and so she started pulling. It wasn't a lot of energy, and so it won't take much for her to shut it back down, really. With any luck, there won't be a boom or bang or anything like that. But if there was, she'd just try to absorb that, too.

Yes, Jocelyn is all about wrecking electronic devices. It's really just kind of her special talent. She seems relatively calm about Grodd, but then again, everyone here was, so that wasn't out of the ordinary. So far, at least.

Grodd was just going to politely leave and everything was going to be ok then all of his equipment just shuts down. He looks at his last pylon and then back over to the others, then to the device and then to the most obvious person to be interfering with his work, "Normally I am a gorilla of almost infinite patience, but creature, if you do not undo, whatever it is you just did, I am going to rip out your spine and beat your girl friend with it while your limp corpse watches for the four minutes of agonizing pain your brain will take to die inside your head. " the big gorilla says still calm on the surface but oh, the rage that boils in his mind. He is so sick and tired of these humans messing with his work... Lucky Nightcrawler, he gets to be the focus of Grodd's rage.

Kurt's earlier wariness is replaced with something of a pleased smile, complete with the showing of the fangs. He starts on the ground, though in the next beat of a heart, he's gone, only to reappear atop the thing after the declaration of 'One'. Now, he's got a better working vantage, and .. there is the nerve poked.

"Well, it is a rather interesting threat. One I haven't actually heard before, but I would imagine that it would go better if I had a girlfriend." He doesn't say anything more about Jocelyn; he's more than happy to keep the gorilla's attention.

"Now.. before we turn this back on, would you mind if you explained what this is?" Kurt's words are accented with the swish of spade-tipped tail, and he looks theatrically around, picking up his foot in case he's standing on it.. "I don't see a 'Stark Industries' sticker anywhere."

From this position, however, there is a man.. in a suit.. wearing a gasmask that is approaching the small group. Kurt looks.. concerned, to say the least, and without waiting for Grodd's response, he's off the bit of technology, and beside Jocelyn, his tail wrapping around to take her the hell away..

The Sandman keeps himself at a distance out of the reach of Grodd's rather impressive mitts. The demon appears to be both quite nimble and capable of teleportation, as well as looking out for the woman's welfare, so there's no need for him to rush directly into danger, especially such obvious and vocally limb-removing danger. Still, he casually lifts his sleep gun, keeping it aimed to stream in Grodd's face should he start to charge or approach, raising his voice and likely scaring half the squirrels in the underbrush in the process, "In aDdiTIon, iF yOu CoulD plEAsE pRoDUcE aLL ReQUirEd PeRmiTs aNd LicENSes FoR tHiS maCHinERy, CiTiZen goRILLa?"

Well, Jocelyn had some witty response all lined up, but Kurt just ups and slightly confuses her a little bit about the girlfriend part. She thought Kurt was with...nngh. She'd go and straighten that out later. X-Men and relationships were tricky webs to sort out. She does charge herself up physically, however, in case it's necessary, though she's, at this point, more likely to be prone to flight.

Then Kurt is wrapping his tail around her, and she notices the man in the gasmask at about the same time. She knows what that tail means, and she's fine with it. But the guy in the gasmask seems to be more concerned about the gorilla, so that was good.

As for speech? Jocelyn has nothing here. She gets the role Kurt is taking up here, and understands her job. She's getting better at this whole 'working in a team' thing.

Grodd balls his hands into fists and a snarl curls his lips. He looks like he might just charge but then he pulls himself together and stands up to his full height taking a calming breath. Getting in a street brawl would be counter productive to his plans.

He closes his eyes and mentally counts backwards from ten then opens them again and says, "It's a tachyon detector array. It is perfectly harmless. It is only here to alert me to sudden surges or displacements in the ambient tachyon field, typically signifying someone is using temporal displacement. " then he realizes that the humans, especially the female, most likely has no idea what he just said so he explains, "It's an alarm that tells me if someone travels here using time travel. It's part of a safety net I am setting up to keep earth safe." which is all true, "I am Grodd, this is my planet." that part sounded more supervillainy didn't it? "I met a time traveler who is from a future time line where an alien race invades earth. If she can get back, then there is no reason to assume the aliens can't follow her. I'm setting up this network as an early warning system." then again he dumbs it down, "If the bad aliens come, I'll know about it and stop them."

Kurt can tell, now, where the man's pistol is pointed. It's a wicked looking thing, truly.. but the gasmasked, suited man is on their side. After a fashion, anyway.

The tail, yes, does mean that in the next heartbeat, they'll be about ten feet .. that-a-way, and leaving her there. It's the next second that *bamf*, Kurt reappears atop the technology, crouching very much like a gargoyle, his smile coming again. "I think, Herr.. gorilla.. that you will need to take this away, or we will do it for you." Glancing towards Jocelyn, there's that brief question on his face.. Can she do it from where she's standing? Looks like more team building exercises!

There's a long moment, then, as the explanation comes.. and he looks back at Jocelyn and shakes his head briefly before addressing the gorilla again. "This happens to be my time und.. planet," Kurt begins again. "Und.. if you wouldn't mind, I would like someone to come take a look at this," notably Doug and Hank.. "Herr.. Grodd.. but I don't think it should be here. Perhaps somewhere else, a little less.. noticable? Parking lot in the Bronx? Brooklyn? Mets Stadium? No one ever goes there anymore.."

The Sandman listens carefully to what the gorilla says. He actually does understand a bit of the more elaborate language, although his particular jargon tends more towards the archealogical and less toward the technological. And he applies his senses and investigator's skill and...well, what? How do you tell if a gorilla is lying? If Grodd is telling the truth, then the device is, indeed, a boon and a benefit, and the Dream may have brought him here to learn of this potential threat. On the other hand, the whole thing could be a massive fusion bomb and it could go off the second they let the gorilla leave. Wesley is, by nature, less prone to being judgmental than your average masked vigilante, but he's not entirely naive either. "If tHaT iS tRuLy YouR gOaL, iT Is nOt OnE WitH wHicH I wOuLD inTERfeRe. BuT, eVeN iF yOu wiLl noT alLoW tHe DeMoN's coHOrts tO eXaMiNE tHe dEViCe, iT's lOCaTiOn hERe wILl AlMoSt cERtaiNlY aTTraCt vANdaliSM aNd InteRfeRence. AnD there Is At lEaSt One TimE traVElleR whO somEtimEs fEEdS tHe duCKs aNd So He miGht RuiN yoUR rEaDinGs."

Yes, Jocelyn can do it from that distance. She's got a solid football field's worth of range with her powers, and the look Kurt gets is very brief, but confirming what he was asking. While she wasn't a tech whiz, she did know a fair bit about energy, thank you, and she understands what Grodd is talking about, and she looks like she's pretty calm about everything going on. If the balled fists of the gorilla intimidate her, the teenager doesn't show any of it.

"Madison Square Gardens. Nobody goes to Knicks games anymore, and the season is basically done," Jocelyn comments at Kurt's suggestion with a small smile on her face. However, she doesn't say anything else that might give away she has any sort of leverage or power over this situation. She'd rather be an unknown at this time.

Grodd takes another cleansing breath and says, "I would rather you not. Your human understanding of technology is limited. Your species is dangerous enough as it is. I would rather you just restore the power to my system and I'll erase your memory then you can all go about your lives happy and blissfully unaware of the sensor network protecting you from extinction. If you insist on inspecting it, then do so carefully." the Gorilla mutters loudly, "Just try not to break it and don't let the government get at it. I can only imagine what they could do with a tachyon collection system once they reverse engineered the particle filtering system." the gorilla says mostly to himself. Then again he looks at the female and says, "The bad humans could make big bombs with it." then he continues to gather his things up piling them together near his tool box. "But it is what I say it is. No invading army is going to rule this planet. It is mine. I am Grodd."

Kurt has a weathered eye on the man in the gasmask, but he's not the larger concern. Not since essentially declaring himself one of their allies, or at least on the same side he and Jocelyn are at this moment. In his life, always take the allies when it's possible!

Pointing to Jocelyn, Kurt nods his head in agreement with the girl. "Or.. Mad--" and there, Grodd is talking about Earth being his planet again.

"We insist, unfortunately." Though, Kurt can see the logic in allowing the thing to be turned on, if only for the time being. With another *bamf*, the demon teleporter lands back next to Jocelyn, his voice low.. just for her. "If you can, allow it just enough, und we will go back und tell Doug und Dr. McCoy.. we have his 'permission' now," as if they needed it? "Und.. I would be very interested in hearing what it truly is." Assuming, of course, that the gorilla is lying.

Now, Kurt turns back around, his tail trailing loosely, "No one will make bombs with it, herr Grodd. We won't allow it. We would rather it be shut down completely before someone touches it. I am going to have a couple of scientists come back und look at it.. und then, perhaps we can come to some understanding."

The Sandman has at least heard of Dr. McCoy - Hank McCoy's work in the field of mutations are, of course, internationally regarded, and Wes once attended a TED talk by the good doctor - which re-assures him, to some degree, of the demon-looking fellows intentions. Grodd's megalomania is certainly on display, but he doesn't seem immediately aggressive either...but Sandman isn't a fool, and keeps his trigger finger steadily placed, just in case. "iT iS inEVitABle. If wE tHrEe haVe diScoVeReD it, hoW maNy OthErS wIlL dO thE saME. WoUlD yoU prEFer iT be inTERfeRed with unSupERvisEd, or WoulD yoU preFEr To CoOpErAtE anD eNSuRe iTs sAFe uSe?"

Growing more annoyed with the blatant sexism displayed by Grodd, Jocelyn bites down on her tongue. Kurt likely would recognize that the girl is biting back some classic Detroit Ghetto insults for the monkey. She could fling some good ones if she wanted! But, she doesn't. See, maturing! Improving! Jocelyn simply nods to Kurt and lets the power start flowing to the device again. It should start right back up, assuming it just needs power now. "Though I am afraid I won't consent to having my mind altered," Jocelyn adds when Grodd talks about that, as though she has a choice in the matter. "But no. Nobody will make bombs out of it. I have a thing against weaponizing such technology. I will not allow it".

Of course, she knew of some extra eyes she could employ if she needed to, but there was no sense in mentioning that right now.

Grodd picks up his equipment in his large arms and says, "See that they don't or I'll hold your fuzzy mutant boy-friend responsible. I'm not saving this planet just so some stupid human can blow a hole in the time space continuum and create a time quake that stops the earth from ever coalescing." and he says that like it's a real thing that might really happen.. "It's the survival of your species. Stay out of my way and I'll make it happen. I have plans you can't even begin to fathom. Don't make yourself my enemy."

Then with that Grodd signals his home teleporter system with a mental command and the system teleports him, with all of his stuff away leaving only the sensor behind. It really is exactly what he says they will discover. He really is protecting the earth. It is, after all, his planet...

Perfect. The gasmasked man's still on their side, so that's a good thing. Nothing's been gain-said, so he's on the right track. After all- how many times does one come in contact with a 'super genius' 14' gorilla?

Not often.

Kurt looks at Jocelyn again, waiting for Joce to put the juice back, as it were. Once it starts humming, then, he looks satisfied. Well, satisfied enough.

"I am not her--" boyfriend.. but that is pretty much mentioned at the end, at the great ape's back as the simian teleports away.. "...boyfriend," is at least finished to the air.

"Now.." and Kurt's attention turns towards the unknown masked man. "Danke.. for your aid, mein herr.." Little things do mean a lot. He's got somewhere to go, however, and he has the courtesy to look apologetic, "But, I need to.."


 * bamf*

The Sandman watches as both gorilla and demon teleport away, one after the other, finally lowering his sleep-gun and tucking it inside of his coat. He tilts his head, his almost insectile visage regarding Jocelyn for a moment. "ThE aUthoRItIeS wIlL alSo bE inFoRmEd. If yOu aND yOuR fRiEnD wAnT tO aVoId tHat sOrT oF AtTenTiOn, bE wARy. If YoU hAvE a FuRtHeR nEed, YoU maY caLl oN ThE SanDMaN." he says. He lays a business card on the ground, with a simple phone number, and makes his way out.

Sigh. Well. Jocelyn was going to have to go punch something now. She'd spent the time getting talked down to, after all, and that always puts the teenager in a rotten mood. Maybe she'd go hit up the Danger Room or something to that effect. But, she does remember her manners, and turns to the masked guy. "Thank you for your help," she adds as Nightcrawler disappears. Then he slides her a phone number. The girl squats down and picks it up, looking it over. "Thank you, Sandman," she says as the man makes his way out.

The teenager glances back at the equipment, watching the energy signatures for awhile, before turning to make her own way off, heading somewhere. She'd have to talk to Doug about this, if Kurt doesn't beat her to it.