2014.02.05 - Secrets Revealed

There are things in motion.
Events.
Things big and small that could change the world. Things that can be overlooked. And things that will later define what humanity is and what it will do.
But then again, there are always these things. They usually end up being called 'history'.
But is history being made right now? Maybe.
But for the moment, in a place known as 'The Terminal', things are quiet. The people who are calling this place 'home' are either out or asleep. The people who come and go, who view this as a base, or a hang out spot, for the most part aren't here. Or at least aren't in the main chamber. But there's at least one person here, who's currently on the computer, doing a search apparently. Who is it? It's the female archer in purple, a.k.a. Hawkeye. And as she stares at the screen belonging to said computer, she scowls.
Eddie had let Jocelyn know that Hawkeye was looking for her. So Jocelyn had made it a point to swing by the Terminal more often. Of course, with other events going on in her life, along with a visit from a certain bird, she had a very good idea what Hawkeye wants to talk about.
So the woman was partway down the stairs when she picked up on one life signature in the main chamber. As she enters, she spots Hawkeye at the computer.
"Hey. Hear you got some questions for me," Jocelyn says easily. "Crossing paths in our second jobs, so to speak," the teen explains as she goes to get herself something to drink from the fridge. She was always pretty direct with these things. Which Jocelyn suspects is one of the reasons Hawkeye wanted to talk with her.
Of course, being as it's Hawkeye and she wasn't going to have the rest of the X-Crew in the room with her, she might have some slightly different responses to the questioning.
Unfortunately after a certain little thing that was let out the other day...
Well, we'll get to that in a little bit.
Instead...
Instead, there's a subtle smile for a moment or two before Hawkeye slowly turns and nods at the redhead.
"Yeah. I do. After something came up the other day... Well..." She pauses. If only for a moment, then flat out says it.
"Magneto is trying to form an alliance with The Justice League and another of my contacts said that you were one of the two people I should talk to about him."
"If your contact is a very direct telepath with a tendency for glowing, then yeah, I know him," Jocelyn responds.
The woman gestures to the fridge. "Want anything? This might take a bit". She's pulled out a bottle of Dr. Pepper and waits for Hawkeye's answer.
"As to Magneto. That doesn't surprise me. He wants credibility, and getting the Justice League to back him as an ally is a good move. I'm guessing he did his whole 'You should be allies with me because of how powerful I am and how rich my country is' routine. Bluntly, he expects humans and mutants to go to war eventually. He intends to win that war and doesn't see humans as having any real value in society".
There's a pause. "I also suspect that he expects the Justice League to talk to particular mutants to get some perspective on him, so he's probably expecting you and others to hear this stuff about him. I've...". She pauses. "I've been to Genosha and spent a reasonable amount of time there. It's not so ideal as he'd lead you to believe".
"A very direct telepath, who despite working as a security consultant for a very large and public corporation, is still terrible at keeping secrets. He even spilled one of yours to me the other day." is said before Kate leans back.
"And add in how he could turn his entire country into a giant well armed army in under 24 hours on top of that as part of his 'why we should be allies' speech."
Then there's a slow nod.
"Expect? After what happened between me and him? He probably expects a lot more than talking. But after the pure BS that came out of his mouth..." the female archer shakes her head.
"But anyways, your having been to Genosha is why I was told to talk to you."
"We've all got secrets," Jocelyn says. "Which one did he spill?" Because Jocelyn would like to know what Nate spilled, and if she'd have to kick his ass. Not that she wouldn't trust Hawkeye with the information, but when you're told that you don't talk about X-Club, you don't talk about X-Club. Besides, they both knew each other's real identities, which in many ways was far more powerful.
"I've seen the numbers of residents. In September, he had about a hundred thousand residents in Genosha. His goal was to increase that number tenfold, but there wasn't any timeline I was able to access. The Horsemen that were unleashed by one of his scientists that turned against him threw a wrench into his plans though, and I'm sure that slowed immigration some".
"He set you off, didn't he? Doesn't surprise me. He's got an inflated opinion of himself and forgets that he's not invincible".
She takes a drink and finds herself a chair. "What would you like to know? Another Justice League member came by as well, asking about him to a few of us. Black Canary. By the way, she only knows me as the mutant healer Jocelyn, not Channel". Not a lie. Just that she didn't tell Canary everything about herself. Her powerset is unique enough that if she told her everything, she'd get ID'd in a heartbeat.
Then Nate really is going to need his ass kicked. Because, as she sits there and she closes her eyes, Kate says....
"You. A guy named Shift. Both X-Men."
Yeap. She doesn't expect that little bomb to go over well.
Then well, there's a wince as what Jocelyn learned about Genosha, which more or less lines up with what Nate said.
"I don't suppose you have any hard evidence to back that up?"
Sure, it's not threatening, but it does back up what the archer already knows, which in turn is better than nothing.
"Set me off would be an understatement. He played the 'Mutants are superior' card, followed up by 'mutants stay off my island' card while Black Canary, Wonder Woman, Zatanna, and I were talking to him about his alliance." The fact that Canary talked to Jocelyn? It's filled away for the moment, since well...
"Then well... He kept coming off as so smug and superior, and how he was the fourth most powerful mutant on the planet, one of the ten most powerful beings on the planet, how even without his powers he was super smart with multiple doctorates, about how much his country could do and because he was so perfect and smart that he created things like a 'fool proof and perfect justice system' on his island, how everything he did there was perfect and what little that went wrong like that Horseman thing was not his fault at all and was due to interfering outsiders, and well.... I ranted at him a bit face to face, called him out on his BS, dropped the F-bomb and used a few other choice words in regards to the BS that was coming out of his mouth, and then stormed out of the room."
Pause.
"Oh, and he /specically/ singled me out from the people who were there as someone that he did /NOT/ want as part of the group checking out Genosha as part of his bid for an alliance, which was the last straw that set me off."
"So well.... Anything that you can give me that can be /proven/ to show that this is not a good idea would be a major help right now."
Jocelyn doesn't go off at the statement about her being part of the X-Men. Instead, the woman nods. "I am," Jocelyn confirms. "I don't know what you've heard about the X-Men, but they're not in conflict with the Justice League or anything like that. We believe humans and mutants can co-exist peacefully. But you don't exactly find the X-Men running around in bright spandex uniforms. People are still twitchy about mutants, so we don't advertise our existence. I hope it isn't a problem for you, and you can understand why we don't advertise our presence". The statement is a made in an explanatory way, not in any threatening manner.
Nate, on the other hand, may get to experience an energy-boosted slap upside the head later.
"Fourth most powerful, huh?" Jocelyn shakes her head and rolls her eyes at that. "I personally know at least three who are in his ballpark if not outright stronger than him. I know some others who would be classified in the same power level as him. He's powerful, don't get me wrong. He can be damn scary strong with his powerset and experience. But I also know he can be beaten in an outright fight. That's one reason he's coming to the Justice League. I mean, Superman and Wonder Woman each could probably wreck his day if you want to go down the road of theroetical match-ups. But that's really Axiom's department more than mine".
There's a smile at her statement. "I suspect he likes me about as much as you. I sort of tricked him into putting me in charge of their entire medical system in Genosha. Gave me access to medical records of the population. The list of patients Sinister wanted to see. The documents indicating that Sinister, under his alias at the time, was to have a specific section of the hospital set up for his work, by Magneto's order".
She pauses, thinking. "As to official documents? There isn't a lot that, by itself, is incriminating, that I have. You can piece things together. They have a system where whoever does the 'most valuable' work gets the most money, nicest homes, and that sort of thing. I can tell you that in Hammer Bay, when he didn't have control of it, I had to convince him they needed a branch of the hospital as a good will gesture, and he only allowed it as a political move. Hammer Bay was a mixed mutant and human region at the time," Jocelyn offers to Hawkeye. "If it wouldn't have benefited him politically, he wouldn't have allowed it, despite Hammer Bay being the worst off of the regions".
Jocelyn considers things a few minutes. "As for claiming it was the result of the outsiders? He's probably singling myself and some allies out there. Sinister had been the one to trick him there. He was deeper into Magneto's circle than I was, that was for certain".
Considering what Kate knows of Jocelyn and Nate, if they're involved then odds are the X-Men are all right. But if they aren't... Well, right now the X-Men are a potential 'lesser evil' in the potential problem department than certain others.
"Trust me... When he said he was that powerful I had to fight the urge to blurt out about you or Eddie to him. Heck, part of me would /LOVE/ to see Axiom do his boost and mimic thing to you, and the two of you slap down Magneto together."
Then though, there is a slight nod as an idea starts to form.
"If you're willing to share the documents that you have, you might want to get them ready. I aim to talk to someone who's very good at investigating things after I talk to the other guy Nate said I should, someone called 'Shift'."
Of course the stuff in regards to the hospital, and Jocelyn admitting that the 'Master of Magnetism' was probably talking about the redhead and her allies, gets a nod.
"I see."
"Thank you, and I'm sorry for this. I hope I'm not causing you any trouble regarding this..."
"Honestly, I'd rather work more in the open. It's one of the reasons I work with the Young Allies". She doesn't mention the JLA actually has a member of the X-Men in their ranks already. That could stay quiet. "Believe me, if Magneto knew about Eddie's ability, he would be giving him the biggest recruitment speech you'll ever see. But if there's ever a movement to go after him directly, there are worse ideas than protecting Eddie and having him boost me". She, in fact, had considered such an idea before. Especially if she got a mimic in to copy and double boost her, just to be safe.
"I know Shift. If you want me to pass along some contact information, I can do that and vouch for you". Of course, Jocelyn knows half the heroes in the city, so it shouldn't come as a huge surprise to Hawkeye. "I'll need to see if I can get them released. Like you're one of the newer members of the Justice League, I'm not exactly high up on the chain of the X-Men". Perhaps lower than she thinks she is, in fact, but that was another story.
"And if Magneto gave Eddie that recruitment speech I could easily see it end with a stammered 'Eff You' said right to Magnetos face at the end." is said with a grin before Hawkeye reaches up and removes her 'sunglasses.
"And as for fighting Magneto? I doubt we could keep Eddie in the back like that. Not for long anyways. Still, having him just going all out..."
Pause.
"Never mind."
Then though, there's a slight nod.
"Thanks. But Nate already has things in motion to contact Shift for me. I kinda ended up going right to him after I stormed out on Magneto."
There's a smirk from Jocelyn. "Followed, hopefully, by him beating it to Asgard as fast as he possibly could. I've seen Magneto manipulate things on the atomic level," Jocelyn says. "I wouldn't like to see what happens when you curse him to his face like that".
"And not a problem. This isn't causing any significant problems for me. So long as it doesn't spread the word about the X-Men's presence, I'll be alright".
Which means a conversation with Nate at some point. That won't go over terribly well. Another drink is taken. "I'll get started on seeing if I can get you some records".
There's a slight, "I won't tell anyone." as those 'sunglasses' as slipped back on, before Kate sits back. Sure the idea of Eddie doing that does cause her to grin for a fraction of an instant, but still...
"And again, thank you. And sorry. As is, I'm sorry if I'm coming off as an anri-mutant bigot, but well... I've seen first hand and up close what happens when a few people who're lucky enough to be born with power end up being accepted as part of 'the way things are' and even end up sort of instatutionalized. I've seen what they do, and why they do it. And trust me, it's not pretty. I've also seen.... No, I've lived what it's like to do things on your own, not because you were born with some big advantage, and in the end /earned/ what you have. And Magneto? He basically comes off just like those people who think they're instantly better than everyone else simply because they were born rich and powerful. Where people who weren't born with that are instantly inferior and at best exist to be used up in your own ambitions before being destroyed. The only thing truly different between the ones that exist now and the ones Magneto wants to put in those positions is that it'd be a whole new group of people, ones who'd still be lucky due to their birth and not what they've really earned."
"And the fact that he doesn't believe that they'd just be the same in the end, that he believes that simply because he says so, they'd instantly be better..."
She shakes her head.
"Magneto is a racist. Racist against humans, but racist just the same," Jocelyn says. "You're not coming off as some anti-mutant bigot to me. Yes. Mutants have an advantage. Someone who happens upon an ancient artifact that gives them superhuman powers has an advantage. It happens and it's the world we live in. But it doesn't make them better then the guy flipping burgers or a teacher or anyone else". Jocelyn shrugs. "I grew up on the streets of Detroit. I've been on both ends of it. People are people, the way I see it".
Jocelyn sighs. "Magneto doesn't see it that way. And as much as I'd like to say you could negotiate on that point with him, I don't think you can. He's going to always believe that humans have nothing to offer and would be best eliminated to make way for mutants".
There's a nod at that, before finally...
Hawkeye chuckles.
"Considering the way he acted at the meeting, I wouldn't doubt it. Any of that. Still... Thank you."
Category:Log