| Air Clearing | |||||
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| What: Jocelyn and Shift clear the air between them a bit. | |||||
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Morning. Not as early as Jocelyn is usually up, because, well...she had a night. She'd slpped in pretty late, arriving with Domino, and promptly crashed into bed. Some of her more torn-up clothing, which she'd tossed on a heap in her room, had apparently been dealt with by Laura, her roomie. She appreciated that. It's still before breakfast, and the teen has made her way outside, finding herself a chair to sit on out on the back porch. She's flipping through an old leather-bound book with some very poor handwriting that fills it.
Of note, the girl does appear to have a couple small burns on her arms and face. Minor injuries that would heal in a day or two, but still, they were noticable to anyone who looked at her. There is an oddly serious air around her for a change, unlike her usual casual attitude. She'd had a busy week, but she was getting used to busy weeks. And she really wasn't looking forward to today very much, either.
It should be no surprise to see Shift out and about so early, even with his late evening. The truth is, he hasn't slept, so this was no time for him to be going on his morning run. Instead, the African had come out to the lake in order to smoke a cigarette or two, perhaps take a nip from his flask. Now, however, as he trudges up the damp grass with a half-finished cigarette in hand, he's given no shortage of pause when the easily distinguishable form of Jocelyn Stream is visible on the rear grounds.
Wearing his X-Men sweatshirt and a pair of jeans, along with a black beanie to keep his bald head cool, Kwabena studies the student from a distance with a frown on his face for a long few moments, before flicking the cigarette to the grass and stamping it out with his boot. Soon enough, she's likely to notice him trudging toward her, his pace fast enough to suggest he's not about to let her go anywhere, but slow enough to suggest he's not freaking out.
Jocelyn briefly considers darting away. Not that it would do that much good against Shift...she thinks. Well, they could both fly, so that would be interesting. But, no. The girl continues to sit, flipping through the book. She's not sure how to read that approach. Anger? Concern? Jocelyn was pretty good at reading these things most of the time, but it was morning and she wasn't in the mood for trying to guess at things. So, instead, she just sat there, awaiting whatever was coming from the older man.
Well, good. She's staying put. As soon as Kwabena is within earshot, he raises his voice to call out to her. "First, glad to see you in one piece. You had some few of us very worried." Now that he's closer, he comes to a stop, letting himself glower at her for a moment. "Now mind explaining what de hell is going on?"
Anger might have been a good guess. Concern would have worked too. But there is a healthy portion of confusion, along with a touch of disappointment.
"Someone took away my identity," Jocelyn says after a moment. "And then decided it would be a good idea to get a small manhunt after me. I couldn't stay here. Someone was bound to make me eventually, and that would have led them right to the doorsteps of this school. I'm not famous, but there are enough people who know of me that it would have been inevitable. But I had to go clear my name". There isn't a lot more to it, really.
"And I didn't need everyone getting a first-hand look into my past. I did try to call you, but I couldn't reach you for some reason". She tried! But she wasn't going to leave a voicemail. Too dangerous. "But, yeah. You're pissed. I get that. I deserve it, too. I knew that when I left, that people would be upset with me. But I spent a lot of time cleaning up the last few years. I wasn't going to let that all die". Jocelyn's tone of voice has a hint of resignation in it. She'd been expecting something like this.
Kwabena does do the girl enough favor to listen to her tale, and he does so without trying to come up with the next response. Sure, he was angry, but not unreasonable. There is a silence that lingers for a few moments when she is done, after which Kwabena walks over toward an empty chair nearby and sits down. A long sigh escapes from his nose afterward, and he turns his head to look at Jocelyn with scrutiny.
"I was in de Australian outback," he offers, by way of explanation. "Teaching a class. Phones do not work out dere, only satellite communications via the War Room downstairs. Had you spoken of this with anyone... Scott, Domino, even Professor Xavier, perhaps we could have..."
Kwabena silences himself then, knowing that he's bordering on giving her a ribbing she most likely doesn't need. His lips flatten out and, for a brief moment, if she's even looking at him, she might notice an expression of understanding. She knew enough about his own past to know that he understands the value of what, exactly, is attached to a name.
When he speaks again, it is with a quieter and more understanding tone. "Dere are resources at our hands you don't even know about, Jocelyn, and I promise you, discretion is something we all undahstand very well."
"Domino tracked me down, and was with me during most of this trip," Jocelyn says. Not by way of making it better, but rather to just bring Shift up to speed. She sighs. "It...was a very strange trip that was not nearly as straight forward as I would have imagined. If you ever need to experience oddness, I suggest taking a weekend getaway with her". As for Jocelyn? Roadtripping with Domino would be a limited experience, as in limited to when she felt like giving her sanity a break.
She sighs. "I know there are things I don't know about. There's a lot I don't know about. I've been here, what, a month? Month and a half, with a quarter of that captured in the Artic? While I'd like to think some would understand, look at Laura. People hear about her past and they're ready to exile her away somewhere. Who is to say I wouldn't have gotten the same treatment?" She shake her head. "Who is to say I still won't, I suppose?"
A breath is taken. "I suppose I found more than I thought I would out there, though. Not enough to peg anybody, but still, my birth was more complicated than I thought".
When Jocelyn mentions taking a weekend roadtrip with Domino, Shift can't help but let the corner of his lip curl into a poorly concealed smirk. "So noted," he murmurs, with no shortage of irony in his tone at that.
"People know about my past, too," admits Kwabena. "Scott, Ororo, de Professah. Even Logan was hesitant to bring me on board, you know dat? But in de end, I guess dey saw I was willing to go about things differently." He draws a deep breath and looks away. Had he not been -just- made aware that he was speaking with a legal adult, he might have withheld his next remarks. "Sometimes, it would be so much easier to just pull de triggah, instead of going for the leg shot. Quicker, more effective, and a hell of a lot more efficient. Howevah, we are all striving for something bettah. Which is why dey let a former drug addict and felon, who doesn't even have legal identity, serve as a teachah." He looks back her way with a mirthful grin. "Dey break rules, dey're just choosy about which few to break. Nobody's going to kick you out because of your -past-, Detroit, but dey might send you off if you make de wrong choices -now-."
Seems he's made his point, judging by how he's leaning back into his seat and eyeing her to gauge her response to his words.
The teen does listen to Shift's words fully before she speaks. "Nobody was hurt when I was clearing things up," Jocelyn assures Shift. The burn marks, of course, might tell a different story, but the girl also doesn't appear to be lying. She knew it'd be easy to do something like that. Heck, that was kind of Domino's standard operating procedure at times, she'd noticed. But she wanted this done clean, without making a mess, and in the end, she'd have ditched Domino if she didn't think she could get that out of the merc.
Trying to read that grin, combined with those words, she frowns. "So, am I in, or am I out?" she asks. She gets the basic message, but that message left a question in her mind, one she wanted answered before she proceeded with the conversation.
"When -I- clean things up, people get hurt," counters Shift. "But dey also end up in prison." He tilts his head and winks at her, before looking forward and reaching into his pocket to claim another cigarette.
"I am a juniah membah of de X-Men, boss," answers Shift, his words half muted while he lights the cigarette with an old, beat up zippo. He takes the first drag and exhales, before lowering the cigarette wielding hand to his knee and turning back her way. "You're gonna have to get dat answah from Scott. Just don't ignore de lesson I am trying to teach you."
"Certain folks don't tend to end up in prison, no matter what," Jocelyn replies easily. A nod is given. "I get the lesson. I maybe took the more difficult path. But I know for the next time something comes up now". Really, it wasn't entirely unexpected. She'd only been here for a month or so, and then she got spooked. These sorts of things do happen, at least in Jocelyn's mind.
"Oh. Umm. Something else I found out. You hear anything about Port Jarvis?" she asks. The place had gotten hit with a 'freak' meteor shower, though Jocelyn hadn't kept up with the news to find out if the whole story had been given or not.
"You can always slip a note undah my door," quips Kwabena with a lighter tone. "You know dat I undahstand discretion, and de oddah team members won't press me for information I'm not willing to divulge. Dey trust me."
When she brings up Port Jarvis, however? Kwabena shakes his head. "No, I was still out of de country when dat happened. And when I returned, I spent my time trying to track -you- down. Dere are still some many questions dat have gone unanswered." He peers her way. "Like how much -you- know about Victorious Therapy."
"I know," Jocelyn responds. That just wasn't an option this time.
A frown escapes from her. "It looks like we found some similar information. I used to be a runner for a guy named Trammell in Detroit. Little, precious things for him". Shift could guess the sort of merchandise she carried. "He kept the neighborhood relatively clean. I went to pay him a visit, and he mentioned something about how that company considered me an asset. Turns out he'd located an original birth certificate for me. I've basically had three birthdays in the last week". It's rather confusing. "But I haven't found anything about the company yet".
A nod is given. "As for the city, Domino and I were there when it happened. They weren't normal meteors. They were propelled. Superman and the Avengers showed up, and these meteors were carrying scanning robots. Scouts, basically. We got scanned, and the group of us worked together to deal with them and protect as much of the town as we could". The girl frowns, remembering that chaos. "They said it was Kryptonian technology. I'm a bit worried about what might be coming, if someone was sending scouts via meteor".
Shift nods his head and narrows his eyes somewhat when narcotics are alluded to. "I squeezed a favor out of a mafia boss named Jimbo Jackson." He smirks a bit at the name. It wasn't Jackson's -real- name, but he'd made a promise not to use anything but his street alias. "Long story short? Jackson's been trying to twist his way into de game. Brooklyn's been his target evah since Michael Slean went to de police and his entire ring was broken apart. Seems Jackson knew you were involved with Victorious Therapy. Dere might be a connection. When we infiltrated de place, I can tell you, dey were manufacturing all sorts of narcotics in de basement, alongside what ever genetic experiments dey were conducting. Cocaine, meth, heroin, all de nasty stuff." He narrows his eyes. "You don't know anything else about Victorious Therapy, do you?"
All of this talk about meteors and the Avengers has Kwabena a bit sidetracked, and certainly a little confused. Quizzically, he asks, "Kryp... tonian, technology? What is dat?"
"They considered me an employee, apparently. Not that I knew who they were or that they existed until now. And that apparently my old boss had a contract with them to keep me employed and safe. Why? I have no idea". Jocelyn shrugs. "Sounds like they're doing a whole lot of experimenting to me," the teen says with a frown. She's doing a lot of that frowning today. "I wish I knew more about them, but I don't know a lot, Shift".
As to the question about the technology, Jocelyn pauses, considering. "I don't know for sure, but Superman recognized it. Captain America, too. Something about it coming from space. I overheard Iron Man talking about it afterwards. Some guy named Zod, with alien technology. So I'm thinking it's some type of alien tech". That was enough for her to know it wasn't good, if it had them worried. "I could probably identify it again if I saw it, but that's about it. Stuff was weird". She pauses again. "And, well, between all of them around using all their abilities and pushing myself...I kind of overloaded". Frown.
The Ghanaian's expression softens even further, and he provides a nod of his head in understanding. "We will closely review what information we have, and do what evah we can to follow what leads remain," he assures her. "Maybe we can give you some more answers."
As Jocelyn presents more of her story from the incident at Port Jarvis, however, he begins to understand why she is so distracted by it. Aliens with strange technology was far more fascinating, not to mention dangerous, than a drug and genetic snafu-making operation. "Any idea if this... this Zod with de Kryptonian Technology... if he poses any more of a threat to us?"
Jocelyn doesn't have a lot of the information Shift has about what they found, and she's been holding a bunch of information in her head that she needs to tell someone on the team for days now. She mostly wants to get it all out there. "Maybe. I'd like to know a few answers myself, but I might be too closely involved to go on actual missions regarding them," Jocelyn suggests to Shift. In other words, if things tie her to them, she realizes she might not act as rationally as she should, much like a cop not working a case involving their family and friends.
"Well, Superman was worried about him. I don't know what this Zod's intent is, but if it has Superman worried, then I'd say the potential is there". Really, what else could you say? "There isn't much we can do about that right now, but I think we're better off knowing about it".
Shift nods his head slowly and offers, "I will use every bit of discretion dat I am able, if you wish to place everything on paper, I will review it and corroborate some few theories on what is going on."
Indeed, the idea of -Superman- being worried about something seems to have Kwabena spooked. He takes a heavier drag from his cigarette, blowing the smoke out with a thoughtful gesture. "I mean, dey say he is, literally, unbreakable," he ponders. "By anything."
"I'd appreciate being kept aware of what you find, Shift. Even if I might not be the best to go out, I'd like to know". Jocelyn thought that, at least, was reasonable. She finally sets the little book down on her lap, having been idly thumbing through it, as she thinks.
"Well, these were scouts. Pushovers, really. The Hulk was just plain overkill against them. But there were a lot of them," Jocelyn tells Shift. "I don't actually think they had weapons. Just scanners. Most of the damage was done by their meteor vessels. But I've never heard of anything that really hurts Superman, so I'd believe that, from what I've seen," the teenager says.
"Of course," answers Shift, before growing serious once more. "I will keep you fully appraised, but... so help me, if you take information I dig up and go off on your own like dat, it will be -my- neck on de line."
Another drag of his cigarette is taken. "Everyone should be on dere guard, den. I wondah if it might be suitable for me to pay Mistah Thor a little visit?"
"I won't go off on my own like that with the information. Promise," Jocelyn says. Hey, she's not broken an actual promise yet, so there is that. Well, this whole conversation could have gone a lot worse, Jocelyn figures. Could have gone better, but could have gone worse.
"Might not be a bad idea. I don't know if he's told Eddie about what happened, but yes. I don't know if how much Thor knows. He arrived a little later than the others". Though she still thought the Blackbird was way better than the jet the Avengers used.
It seems a promise is all he needs. Truth be told, of all the students, Kwabena had a special little place for Jocelyn. He cared about her more than the others because of their similar upbringing. Similar but different, it was something he could relate to. Perhaps he's giving her a harder time than she deserves, but it ought to teach her the hard lesson that sometimes, you shouldn't go it alone.
A lesson he's had to learn once or twice.
"I'll admit, he wouldn't be my... ah, first choice of contact. I mean, de oddah's seem to speak much bettah English dan his particular choice of language. But, den again, he is Thor. Son of Odin, and all of dat."
Jocelyn considers that. "I...might be able to contact some of the others, given a little luck," Jocelyn says. "I seem to have learned a little bit of a trick on the fly during that fight. If you have your X-Link on you, I can show you if you set it to a random channel and don't tell me where it is," Jocelyn explains. Yes, there were some stupid Jccelyn tricks about to happen. "I promise, it won't hurt," she adds with a little bit of a smile.
Dubiously, Kwabena reaches down into his sweatshirt and produces his X-Link. He holds it out in his hand, then sets it to a random channel. "You mean, do not tell you which channel it is on?" he asks. "Or do you expect me to go play hide and seek with de X-Link?" A grin spreads across his face, and he takes the final drag of his cigarette before flicking it to the side, groundskeeping be damned. He'll just clean it up later.
Jocelyn is quiet for a moment as she pulls her X-Link out and slips it into her ear. It takes her about fifteen seconds, but she doesn't speak until she's seen the correct frequency. When she speaks, it comes through Shift's X-Link as well. "No, this random channel is perfectly fine," the girl says with a smile. She turns her X-Link off. "We needed to communicate, and I could see the Captain's communication signals. It's just another form of energy, and radio frequencies all look just a little bit different. So I matched my output with his and jumped on channel with him". She smirks a little. "That's actually why I told them my name is Channel, come to think of it. Anyway, they had a couple signals going. One was more encrypted. But I might be able to find it again". A pause. "Though it would probably be more polite to talk to Thor first".
Gradually, a smirk forms upon Shift's face. He removes the X-Link from his ear and studies it for a moment, before tucking it back away in his sweatshirt. "Dat's impressive," he notes. "Dough I agree, we might want to ask first. De last thing we want is to piss off de wrong superhuman organization, I hope you undahstand what I mean."
Shift begins to stand then, and looks toward Jocelyn with a mixture of stern understanding and gratitude. "Well. It is good to see you back here. Write down what you can for me, then?"
"Will do," Jocelyn says. She makes no move to follow the man. She still had some things to think about here. "See you later, Kwabena," Jocelyn says to the man. It was actually somewhat rare for the girl to be so stationary. But, she'd had an odd weekend.
"Take care." Within moments, Shift has diverted his direction. Seems that he is headed for the secret entrance...