| "I'll take all the help I can get." | |||||
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| What: Jean meets with Warren, who's willing to set aside differences to help a friend in need. | |||||
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The Dorilton - Warren Worthington's Penthouse
The perfect mesh of 'trendy youth' and Worthington style, this Upper West Side penthouse loft simple screams class. There's an undeniable yet very subtle opulence to the place, especially with it's high ceilings and rich wooden accents. Warren III has put his obvious mark on with a balanced mixture of rich and muted colors, the modern décor luxurious but not obnoxiously so. The walls are dotted with various works of original artwork from well known and obscure artists both. Thick drapes frame sheer curtains along the walls.
The penthouse layout is entirely open and flowing, relying on décor or the occasional half wall to mark where one room stops and the other begins. From any point in the loft, one can see in to any other room with the exception of the bathroom and the Master Suite, the only areas that are completely closed off.
The double doors that are the main entrance open up into a small foyer area where coats and shoes can be removed and stored. From there, it moves into the spacious living room in which there is a state of the art entertainment center with all the bells and whistles and more than enough room for people to sit and lounge. It is quite likely that, throughout Warren's home, various technologies that have not yet hit the mainstream markets can be found.
The next 'room' is a dining area with a long, hand carved table that easily seats eight, a beautiful art nouveau chandelier hanging over the center of it. The kitchen is a Master Chef's dream come true and, like the rest of loft, is state of the art. Within the kitchen is a small breakfast area with a round table that seats four; a bit more of an intimate place to eat than the dining room.
Both dining room and living room are surrounded by floor to ceiling windows, two of which on each 'wall' are also doors. The doors lead out on to decent sized balconies of beautifully carved stone. Such places are perfect for small, intimate gatherings, star-watching or just enjoying the amazing view of the city.
Warren Worthington has pretty much been out of the loop since he really began focusing on his relationship with Fern. It's a bit of a classic thing; a guy starts a relationship and practically falls out of contact with everyone. By chance, on a rare evening alone, he checked in with things at the mansion and was pretty much floored by what seemed to be going on. The television was turned on as well as searches online before he finally called Jean Grey. A message was left stating that he wanted to help, if he could... even if it meant giving them blood to help heal those who had been attacked by disease. Also, he wanted to help save Kurt. Somehow.
After that, he just waited to see if he was taken up on his offer.
And Jean actually called Warren back. How could she not? With everything that's happened, it seems all the X-Men are starting to reconnect. And, frankly, she'll take all the help she can get -- especially a healer's and an old friend's. Whatever their differences, Warren is still an old friend. And Jean has had a lot of reason to re-evaluate priorities, lately.
Thus, arrangements were made and she now finds herself standing at the door to his home, rapping softly on the door to let him know she's arrived.
The doormen knew to let her up... no doubt a few thoughts crossed their minds about him and red-haired, female visitors. When the knock on the door is heard, he moves to open it, "Jean, thanks for coming by. Come on in... can I get you anything?" He's dressed casually, for him, and there's a small platter of cheese, crackers, and fruit set out if either of them get peckish during their conversation. "Can I get you anything to drink? Please, make yourself comfortable... I don't really know where to start, but I'd like to try and help with whatever is going on. I don't agree with Genosha, but no one deserves what's going on there."
Jean passes into the apartment and actually offers Warren a light hug in greeting. It may surprise him, of course. But it's part of her re-prioritizing. "I'm glad to come, Warren," she admits. As to the question. "I'll have whatever you are. That's fine." She's not too worried about anything to eat or drink. She's just glad to see him. To see any of the original X-Men.
Consequently, she takes a deep breath. "Genosha shouldn't have happened," she says simply. "But, what's happening there now? That's far beyond anything we've seen thus far." She gives a wry smile now. "And, believe it or not, it's actually enough to get Magneto to work with us, instead of against us, for once." A beat. "Have you been able to access the X-Net lately? If not... there's a lot to catch you up on."
The hug was a surprise and he returned it, albeit a little hesitantly. He gestures for her to take a seat before he pours a couple of glasses of wine. "I hope white's OK? Fern doesn't like wine so I try to have it when she's not around." Taking a seat once the glass is handed over, he blinks, "What's the X-Net? I think something got left on my communicator... " which was tossed in a drawer and actually found when he was looking for something else. Oops. "Glad we agree on Genosha... but yeah. This sounds well above and beyond a slap on the wrist."
"White's fine," Jean agrees. She still doesn't drink much. But a single glass won't hurt her. And, indeed, if it relaxes her some, so much the better. Taking the glass, she settles down in a seat near her winged friend. "Doug created a sort of private internet for us. The X-Net. I'll double check when I get home to verify you get access," she says. At least to some degree, he should have access. He's still an ally. "Have you ever heard of a man named Sinister? Nathaniel Essex? He's also gone by the alias Dr. Milton. He's at least a couple of centuries old, and he's a brilliant geneticist. I've had a chance to look at a small sampling of his work. It's incredible. Light years beyond what I've ever considered."
Warren Worthington shakes his head, "I haven't come across it but I don't really follow science. Architecture and business, sure... but not so much science except to know to stay away from people who want to make me a lab monkey." Which is why he's let his winged nature be known, but not his healing blood. "What about him? Is this another attempt at curing mutations... or creating more?"
"He's the man behind all this," Jean says. "He kidnapped Kurt and Talia -- Kurt's daughter from an alternate timeline. And he took Monet, one of our students. Two others, as well. Men I don't know, but mutant and meta both. He's transformed them into what he calls 'Harbingers' that are supposed to herald in some sort of survival-of-the-fittest future, where strong mutants live and everyone else -- human, mutant, or otherwise -- are dead." Apocalyptic stuff, on some level. Though, as yet, it hasn't quite risen to that level internationally. Locally, in some few neighbourhood, somewhat. But, even then, so far, the X-Men and others have just managed to hold the line.
"We have samples of Pestilence's diseases, now. And we're working on cures. But, if we don't stop them soon... " She shakes her head. "Well, I'm still hoping we will."
"I saw that Kurt was taken. I'm still... mad at him, somewhat, but this shouldn't happen to him. If I can help... if you need my blood to help with the research, I'll give it. However much you need. Or if you need me to go there and help, I will." Warren frowns, sipping at the wine before he shakes his head, "How did he do this? I mean, it sounds like magic... which... do we know what to do with this?"
Jean shakes her head. "Not magic. Science. Highly advanced science. I've never seen anything like it. Mystique brought me samples of Kurt's altered DNA." Yes. They're working with Mystique, now. Does that perhaps say something about how desperate things are becoming? "I can send you copies of everything we've found, so far. But, the short summary is that he's used some sort of transmutation retrovirus the likes of which I've never seen before to completely rewrite their base genetic code." She takes a swallow of her wine and sets it aside for the moment. "Warren, I'll take any help you can give us. Even just a sample of your blood, to start, to see how it reacts against the plagues." At least one of those plagues -- though Jean hasn't quite discovered it, yet -- is capable of triggering Neyaphem mutations from dormant genes. Which means new demi-demons popping up... Celestial blood ought to have quite the effect on that.
Mystique is hot. Ahem. "Wait, he changed their DNA? I mean... that's possible? I know people are working on it... " but she did say that this Sinister's skills were highly advanced. Warren then nods, "Take as much blood as you want. Take it now, take it whenever. I've never healed disease before, but... maybe it will work? I mean, if it cures infection in wounds maybe it will do something." He looks at his glass, "It's not that I don't want to be a part of things. In this case, I know, some, how I can help."
"Come to the mansion," Jean says, now. "Or to my lab downtown." She didn't bring the right equipment with her, now. "We'll take a sample then." She gives a small smile. "I do know you want to be involved, Warren," she says gently, now. "And, I know you just want to feel useful. If this helps that... I'm only sorry it had to be under these circumstances."
Warren Worthington nods, "Your lab downtown might be easier. I can come tomorrow if you want... just to get this moving along as quickly as possible. Or we can go there now... just let me know when." He works on his wine, "I'm sorry that it had to be too, but... I haven't heard of anything else going on. Besides Genosha in general. I suppose this, in itself, is sort of why an all-mutant country is a bad idea."
Jean can't argue it. And God knows she hasn't been at all thrilled with the nation's formation -- more because of Magneto than anything else. "We can go now, if you want," she says to the winged mutant opposite her. "But tomorrow will be fine. I'm not going to get to more samples tonight." There's just too much to keep up with.
"Tomorrow. I'm drinking wine and I don't know what, if anything, that might do to my blood. I wouldn't want it to mess anything up... " not that Warren is drinking over-much. "Please let me know if there's anything else I can do. Fly people out of there, try and take down Kurt... I don't know if he'd even affect me if he's the one making people ill. I'm willing to try. Anything to help."
Good point, that. Jean nods. "I will absolutely bring you in," she promises. "We can use all your talents, Warren." Flight, blood, rescuing, and more. "You also know Kurt better than a lot of others on the team. That's invaluable, right now."
Warren says, "I can't believe Kurt let this happen, honestly. I don't know what he's gotten into... but obviously sketchy things. He started making large amounts of money, has pretty much disappeared off the face of the earth, now to reappear additionally mutated. I don't know what's going on with him. He wouldn't talk to me even before."
Jean gives a small shrug, now. "I've kept in fairly regular contact with him since he left, Warren," she says in response. "He left over a dispute with Scott." A lot of people did. "And because he was hunting down research being used against mutants, and didn't want it to lead back to the school. I suspect he had to do a bunch of things he wouldn't normally do in order to follow those leads." To a degree, she understands it. She's done a few shady things herself, lately.
Again, Warren speaks, "Yeah, well... he stopped talking to me and I don't know why. He started keeping secrets and didn't like it when I called him out on it, so... " Warren shrugs then, "I still don't think he deserves this." Not entirely. "Making enough money to buy himself a boat through... shady means? Doesn't sound like being 'on the time-clock' to me."
Jean's smile twists wryly. "I don't know what he did to earn the money. All I know is that he left the school and that he passed me as many samples and as much intelligence as he could. You need to talk to him, yourself, Warren." A beat. "After we capture and cure him."
"Maybe," but that's as much as Warren will admit. He rather misses his friend, but he's not too sure that Kurt misses him back. "He's going to be tough to capture since he can teleport. I mean... maybe if you somehow blind him?"
Jean inhales a deep breath. "There's someone in Stormwatch. Nate introduced us. He's... well, I think he's actually some sort of synthetic lifeform. He calls himself an android, but he looks more human than any other android I've seen." Though he doesn't particularly act more human. "He's a teleporter, however, and has spent thousands of years fighting creatures like Kurt has become. Too, there's Amanda -- Daytripper." She was on the X-Men's full-time roster about 2-4 years ago, so Warren might remember her. "She's obsessed with finding him." Daytripper and Nightcrawler were known to be a couple, once upon a time. Though, perhaps no longer. "Between her and Illyana, Spartan and his team?" She shrugs now. "We've always known there was a possibility we'd have to go up against our own. This is that time. Our working theory is that we need to lure him into a trap. But, how to do that? They're still working that out."
There's a long pause before Warren offers, "Well... if you want to use me as a lure, I'm happy to do so. I don't know if attacking a former friend would lure him or what. But if I can even be of help that way, I'll do it. But I also don't think he can teleport if he can't see where he's going... could you maybe blind him from a distance? Or make him think he's blind?"
Jean considers that. "Possible," she admits. "He's always needed to know where he's going." A beat. "Though, he can teleport miles without seeing the destination. So, I don't know. It will depend, I think, on how familiar he is with the area. I suspect what we really need is some way to interrupt his ability. Render it inert." He won't like that.
"I don't know anything about that sort of thing," Warren admits, "But couldn't you do that? Get into his head? Mush his brain around... temporarily?" He finishes off his wine, "I could always shoot him... not sure that would do anything." There's another sigh, "Just... let me know what I can do. Even if it's just give blood."
Jean nods slowly. "Yeah, I might be able to. Or maybe Rachel or Nate." She looks at Warren seriously, now. "There are five Harbingers. Five like Kurt, some even stronger. And I've been burning the candle at both ends ever since I got back from Genosha." She lets out a soft sigh. "To be honest, I'm having difficulty juggling it all. But, there's another Harbinger; she calls herself Death. She was a student at our school and is nearly as powerful a telepath and telekinetic as Rachel or I... She's the one I need to track down. She's more dangerous than Kurt in the long run." And she hates the fact that she has to make that choice. It's there on her face and in her eyes. Being a leader, she's recently decided, seriously sucks.
She wants Scott to come home from visiting his father in space. That would be a relief -- despite the animosity between them when he left.
Warren Worthington nods slowly and actually reaches out a hand to place on Jean's arm, "Let me know what I can do to help... with Kurt or anyone. Please. I know we've had our issues and I know I'm not terribly powerful, but if I can do anything... call in any favors... throw money at people, please let me help."
Jean gives Warren a genuine smile at that, and covers his hand with her free one. "I promise," she says. "Stop by the mansion, tomorrow, instead of the lab? I'll show you everything we've got and together we can figure out how you can best help."
He doesn't seem too thrilled to be going to the mansion, but Warren nods, "All right. I'll do that... and sure. Do you want me to get you a car to head back? Or you can crash here... " his couch is nice and cushy. "I do appreciate you coming to talk to me about this."
Jean can sense his reluctance to come back to the mansion, but... well, it's easier there to give him what he needs. And, frankly, all her research is there. "My car is downstairs," she admits. So, she won't crash. "But, thanks, Warren. I'm glad you're coming to help."
With that, she rises, and crosses to him to at least give his shoulder a light squeeze, if not another brief hug. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Warren Worthington returns the hug a little more this time as it's less of a surprise, "You drove down here? Brave of you... " not that he even knows how to drive. "Drive safely and yeah. I'll see you tomorrow. I'll... eat some steak before I come or something." Just to make sure that his iron content is up... or whatever.
"Do that," Jean chuckles now. "I'll make sure we've got juice and cookies on hand. And trust me, you haven't had great food until you've tasted Gambit's cooking." Giving his shoulder a last squeeze, she collects her purse and heads for the door. "Good night, Warren," she says finally. And, with that, she steps out and heads for home.