2014.07.29 - Wrong Secret Base

Jubilee lands with a bit of a thump. Dazed, she gets up, and she finds herself... on Staten Island. She's dazed enough actually tha tshe doesn't notice the Manhattan Skyline is a bit..f uller than it should be. This is all so unexpected. Um. Okay, let's panic. She ducks down, and hides. She waits until nightfall, and begins to crawl and explore. She knows that Magneto used to have a base here, so once it's dark enough, she begins to sneak around to find it, trying to get to it, and inside if she can. If it's even still here, abandoned after Fortress X was constructed, and became the Resistance's last stand.
One would think that after years of doing the same thing over and over, one would eventually pick up new habits and hobbies. For some people this is true, but for men like Remy LeBeau change is rarely a good thing. Rather, he clings to his habits as if they were a security blanket. Which is why, alone in the refurbished Brotherhood HQ, he is playing solitaire, drinking Remy Martin, and chain-smoking Gauloises. If it were possible to pick a moment that is stereotypically Gambit, it would probably look a lot like this.
The only departure from the norm is the bandage around his arm, and the half-empty bottle of pain pills next to his drink. He's clearly been through a ringer lately, and hasn't quite recovered yet. But still, he's alert enough to tell when someone is prowling around his base. Chalk it up to all of those years he's spent prowling around other peoples' bases.
Which is why, almost inexplicably, he ends up standing right behind Jubilee as she attempts to force her way inside. In the dark tunnels outside of the base, only the glow of his cigarette illuminates his red eyes.
"Aren't you a little short to be a mutant soldier, p'tite?"
Jubilee is trying to be quiet, but she's also desperate, trying to get in, using what knowledge she's gleaned from past conversations with Magneto and his followers. When Gambit approaches and speaks, she shouts in excited Cantonese, and whirls around, sparks flying from her fingers. "Oh it's you," she the laughs, with much relief. "Is it safe to go back yet? Does the Coalition even know I'm here?"
For a moment, Gambit merely stares. The stare shifts from 'I'm going to beat you up' to 'Huh?' within the space of just a few fractions of a second. "Uh... yes?"
He takes the cigarette out of his mouth, and exhales two plumes of smoke through his nostrils. So coated with tar are his sinuses that this doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest. She's clearly cracked her head on something, but Gambit is smooth enough to not force her hand just yet. "So... is it just you, or are there others on their way?"
Jubilee shakes her head, stepping up to him. Her fireworks off, she takes a few breaths, still surprised from him startling her. "I don't know. I'm not even sure what happened. The last thing I remember, you were helping hold off the Exos, and I was going after the weapon operator. I thought I stopped him but then... there was a flash. And I landed here on Staten Island. I had no idea if you guys were going to be able to come back for me or not, so I remembered we used to have this base here, and I thought it would make a good hiding spot." Yes, she said we.
"Oh, right yeah. Sorry, it all happened so fast that I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. That was a shock, right? With those Exos and everything." He steps past the young woman, placing his partially-gloved hand on the scanner. The panel turns green, and the door slides open. Light from inside pours out into the tunnel, showing the scruffy mutant in more vivid detail. "Here, let's get you inside and get you something to drink. We can figure out our next move from there." He stands to the side, making a show of letting the girl go before him like a proper gentleman. One open hand is pointed in the direction of the door. But the other hand is brought stealthily to a pouch on the side of his belt beneath the folds of his brown trenchcoat. Sneakily, he grabs the handle of his collapsible metal staff.
Jubilee steps inside with a glance behind her, looking to see if anyone's coming into the tunnel, before going inside. She looks around for a place to sit. It would never, ever occur to her that he would attack her, after all. She's completely unthinking of that, and just trying to rest. It's been a very difficult day for her.
Which, of course, is pretty much what Gambit was expecting to happen. With an almost impossibly-swift flash, the metal staff extends and is brought down at full strength right toward the top of her unsuspecting head. The man is capable of quite a bit of subtelty and guile, but doesn't hesitate to use the brutal sneak attack when he thinks it's necessary.
Jubilee gets hit. It's the kind of thing she could have dodged, and made a fight of, if she were thinking to fight him. But she's not, at all. To her... he's a comrade in arms, a fellow veteran of bitter, horrible battles in a terrible war. So when she's hit, she lets out a whimper in cantonese... and is knockd unconscious.
The Cajun terrorist is quick about his business, and before she has a chance to recover on her own he's already got her properly secured, upright, in a metal chair.
For dramatic purposes, he scrounges around for a bucket of water, but in the end all he can find is one of those plastic yellow mop buckets with wheels. Deciding that'll have to do, he fills the dirty thing up with water and pushes it down the hall back to the room in which he's got his uninvited guest handcuffed (and footcuffed). Grunting a bit as he lifts it, he dumps several gallons of dirty mop water over the young woman's head.
Good thing he thought to take her jacket, accessories, and the contents of her pockets away first.
"Rise and shine, p'tite."
Jubilee is more confused than ever. Groaning in pain, at least untils he finds herself possibly drowning, she struggles, and if he hasn't really gotten her cuffed securely her flexiblity is going to cause problems for his securing her. Assuming she doesn't get out, she calls out "What are you doing?" Followed by a couple of cantonese curses.
"So I checked our files while you were out, just to make sure you wouldn't, you know, teleport away or something. Turns out, all you do is make sparkles. Those cuffs were made specifically for Pyro and Blob's date night, so I'm pretty sure there's no way you're getting out of 'em." He explains things to the clearly disoriented girl in that calm, French-tinged redneck accent of his, before tossing the plastic yellow bucket across the room with a loud clatter.
Shock and awe accomplished.
"Sorry about the mop water, but you were already smelling a little ripe, so I didn't think you'd mind all that much. But... I guess that's what happens when you come from... what was it you said? A big battle with robots?"
"And /I/ was there?"
Jubilee looks up at him, wincing at the pain when she moves her head, and then glaring at him. "Have they... done something to you? Is this what the weapon did?" Then taking a breath, she grunts. "Or have they just gotten to you? Was this their plan all along? Are you working with the humans?"
"Hmm... I was half expectin' that whack to the noggin' to bring you back from Crazy Town. Sorry about that, by the way, but what can I say? I'm not a gentleman."
The man's eyes, solid black with red irises, would probably be extremely unnerving right now, fixed straight on the young woman's dirty face as they are. But, apparently she's used to his eyes already, even though he barely knows who she is. Several paces away from her chair, the man scrutinizes her for a couple of moments before his face seems to soften a bit. Slowly, he circles around her.
"It's clear you've had a hard day." His fingerless-gloved hands rest on her shoulders, and he begins rubbing them in a comforting manner. "Something happened to you, and now you're all confused. Why don't you just relax for a minute, and explain everything to Ol' Uncle Gambit, hm?"
Jubilee sighs deeply, and mutters in cantonese again. "Is this a test? Because Wolverine trained me? You should know I'm fighting, I'm no coward like him," she practically spits. "Why should I have to tell you what happened today, you were there! Were you blown here, too? Have you forgotten?"
"Interesting. Yeah, if that makes it easier. This is all a test. You've got nothing to worry about. Let's start with Wolverine, hm?" He continues rubbing her shoulders, though he might be regretting it now that he's standing so close to her. Maybe mop water wasn't the way to go.
"Tell me all about Wolverine. Pretend I've never met him before." Although he is doing his best to make his voice as non-threatening as possible, he can't help but let a tiny bit of casual menace slip out between sylables on occasion.
Jubilee jerks at the restraints. "That's enough." she grunts. "This has been hard enough. If you don't trust me, take me to Magneto. Let him judge how hard I've been fighting for us. I took down the weapon meant to destroy us all."
 
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea. You see, you're not being very cooperative, and if there's one thing Magneto likes it's cooperation. I also hear he's a fan of mystery novels." One of Gambit's hands moves up the neck, gripping the place right behind each of her ears. His fingers dig into the nerve clusters there, which is uncomfortable, but is also really good for releasing endorphins. "I know you're confused, I know you're probably getting a bit scared, but you're going to want to tell me what I need to hear. Otherwise, this conversation might become a bit less nice. You don't want that, I don't want that, so let's just start over again from the beginning." He takes his hands off, and walks back around, pulling up a stool and sitting in front of the woman. Reaching into his coat pocket, he pulls out his trusty pack of Gauloises. He places one in his mouth and lights it, then takes it out and offers it to the young woman.
"Cigarette?"
Jubilee begins to buck harder now,d oing her best to move the chair she's attached to. "I said let me go, and take me back to the Fortress. If you don't do that, it proves you're the traitor here."
"Not a smoker, I take it? Good for you, keep those lungs clean." Gambit takes the cigarette back and draws in a long, deep breath full of nicotine. For a second, he's calm, and he casts a look toward the young woman that's almost pitying.
Then, in a flash he strikes her hard enough across the face to knock the chair completely over on its side. He stands over, his face so ablaze with anger that red of his eyes seems to be almost glowing.
"I don't know who you think you're talking to, but you're in deep merde here!" He's practically shouting down at the young woman, though he seems to be trying to contain himself. "When someone comes sneaking around our secret base they don't end up strapped to a chair, they end up in an incinerator. You're just a couple seconds from a very painful death if you don't explain how you found this place, and what exactly you're doing in the Brotherhood's headquarters."
Jubilee looks up at him, wincing. "The brotherhood? What the cantonese is that? This was the base of the Mutant Resistance, I think you really have lost it."
"Ugh... this is going nowhere. So I'll tell you what I'm gonna do." The trench coat-wearing man crouches over the woman and places a hand on her neck. "I'm going to put you to sleep for a while, and then when you wake up I'll see if you're in a better mood. Or maybe I'll start cutting off fingers. It could go either way." Slowly, he begins squeezing a pressure point, causing the brain to get progressively less oxygen.
Jubilee curses at him in more cantonese, and passes out.
When you're a bad guy, there are certain things you must do to protect your rep, unsavory as they might be. For example, it becomes mandatory to torture prisoners, or at least yell at them and beat them about the face a bit. Which is why Gambit is rubbing the knuckles of his right hand as he places a call.
Rather than using a cell phone, like everyone else in the real world, he simply presses a button on a small round disc that he extracts from one of his seemingly-endless pockets. Having pressed the button, he simply drops the black hockey puck-looking device a few feet in front of him, and waits for it to do its thing.
Behind him, strapped to a knocked-over metal chair, is an unconscious woman who bears more than a passing resemblance to someone who isn't exactly affiliated with either Genosha or the Brotherhood. Mysteries abound.
The device begins scanning Gambit, uploading his image for a full body holographic transmission. One of the benefits of working for Magneto is that you get to play with shiny, if a bit theatrical, toys.
"Come on, answer already. Some of us got dates at the zydeco club."
A shadowy figure emerges from the hockey puck. It's not really a shadow, so much as it is a complex 'absence' of light passing through the area around the emitter. The voice is distorted, a bit warbly, but the tone of absolute command is quite clear. 
"I doubt I could care less for your social activities, agent," the figure says, with reprimanding note of humor to it. "What is your emergency?" Straight to the point, apparently.
"Less of an emergency, more of a curiosity." Still rubbing his knuckles, Gambit steps out of the way of the scanner, and makes his way over to the prisoner. Lifting her up carefully, he sets the chair back upright with a loud metallic clang. "I don't know if you recognize this woman, but we've got a file on her. Jubilation Lee, also known as the least memorable member of the X-Men. She usually sticks to malls, chews lots of bubblegum, occasionally steals credit cards. But for some reason, I caught her snooping outside the old Brotherhood headquarters on Staten Island. So naturally I handcuffed her to a chair and beat her around the face a bit. Turns out... well... maybe I just ought to let you see for yourself."
Gambit begins repeatedly slapping the side of the young woman's face. Not in a violent manner, like before, but a series of quick, relatively gentle strikes to get her to come back around. It might take some doing, as he's knocked her out twice now.
Jubilee grunts, and shakes her head. "Ugh... <quiet, grunting cantonese mumbling>" she says, coming back around. "Have you... brought me back to the Fortress yet? Magneto will know I'm not the traitor." She then grunts, lowering her head and closing her eyes. "I know he'll remember the Macellen Scotch I scrounged for his birthday last year, as a surprise after we won that big battle. Took out every Exo they threw at us. Don't you REMEMBER Gambit?"
 
"Interesting. Agent, have you scanned her? Thoroughly?" the hologram asks, in a curious tone that belies the savage nature of Jubilee's interrogation. The posture shifts slightly, mostly nebulous shadow, though twin glittering points of light that are clearly eyes focus on the young asian woman.
"Well, about that... I don't exactly have one of those, what do you call 'em? The scanning things." Gambit scratches the back of his neck, looking a bit sheepish. "Also I don't know how to work them. Or what they look like. I never went to space camp."
He moves to a spot a bit behind Jubilee and off to the right, folding his arms across his chest as he surveys his handiwork. "She's clearly nuts though, right? I should probably just have Toad dispose of her and call it a night."
Jubilee shakes her head and grunts again. "Magneto!" she gasps, recognizing his speech clearly enough. "We stopped the weapon! It was coming for us, but I blinded the human and the machine over loaded. It blew me all the way to Staten Island. I've been hiding out all day. But you remember right? When I found the ... however old Scotch, Queen's something or other? It was really old, two bottles. You said it was your favorite."
Jubilee isn't doing math right now. Don't even ask.
 
The holographic image vanishes abruptly. There's a low, roaring noise, and a sickly yellowish light fills the room. Like a flame burning away the center of a paper, it opens up, flooding the room with light. 
Magneto himself steps through the portal, which rages hollowly behind him for a few seconds before circling shut. 
Silence reigns for a moment, and the Imperator nods once at Gambit in greeting before looking at Jubilee. Wearing his helmet, armor, and a billowing cape, he stoops slightly to peer down at the woman, his face swathed in shadow. 
"Interesting," he finally remarks, after a pensive few moments of inspection.
Apparently he made the right call by not not simply disposing of the woman. That doesn't stop Gambit from looking a bit uncomfortable as a man with much more pressing concerns on his mind makes a trip all the way from Genosha to, in essence, oversee an interogation.
"Don't tell me you think there's something to this? She's probably just trying to keep us busy while her little buddies surround the place. That, or she's really cracked."
"Sorry about the smell, I might have emptied a mop bucket over her head."
Jubilee looks up at Magneto when he arrives, and gives a faint smile. "I have to say, with how weird this has been, landing in the middle of the human city, not remembering how I got here, and... having Gambit act like he doesn't even know me... I was starting to feel like I was going crazy. But you remember. We can fix this. We're never going to preserve ourselves against the human aggression if we're fighting each other."
 
Magneto waves a vague hand at Gambit, focusing on Jubilee. The silence is oppressive. Magneto's presence is undeniable, and the Imperator seems wholly focused on the girl for a long minute. 
"Release her, agent," Magneto says to Gambit. Never is a name actually spoken, even now. The Imperator is, of course, an ultimately cautious man. "I do not think she is a threat to us. Have her fed, and-" he sniffs. "bathed, and freshly clothed. You will forgive me some caution," Magneto informs Jubilee politely, hands clasped behind his back. "I am inclined to cautiously believe your claims. However, I am habitually a... wary man." He straightens and looks to Gambit. "Nothing of use, I imagine? Wild ramblings, stories that do not make sense- tales of familiar friends, in unfamiliar settings with bizarre personalities?"
"Just what she had in her pockets, which wasn't much. She's convinced that she knows both of us, and we all hang out together and tell stories. She also mentioned a battle with robots. Honestly, I figured she was just desperate." Gambit doesn't appear to be all the eager to let her go, but that doesn't stop him from stooping behind her chair and undoing the leg cuffs, followed shortly by the ones on her wrists. Finally, some circulation to her extremities. When you've gotten out of handcuffs as often as Gambit has, you learn how to put them on properly. "I'll keep an eye on her. This base isn't exactly the strategic priority that it used to be, but I'd rather not let her go off and tell the world about it."
Jubilee tilts her head. On one hand, she's still relieved that, on some level, he seems to recognize her and what she's saying. On the other hand, this still feels like the Twilight Zone, and she's been erased from existence. She takes a deep breath, stretching her wrists, using all her flexibility to get into a more comfortable position on the chair, throwing her arms back, then lifting each leg high in turn. "This is crazy. I mean, how many times have I been in the fortress you built? Why would you suddenly not trust me in our old Resistance base?"
 
"Agent," Magneto says, dismissing Jubilee by facing Remy. "As I instructed. Give her some... very, very limited internet access. Highly supervised. I suspect there is a period of adjustment ahead of her, and she will need time to acclimate." 
Magneto looks back at Jubilation. "This will be a difficult transition for you, young lady," the Imperator says, not unsympathetically. "Rest. Eat. Sleep, if you can," he suggests. "Consider yourself a guest, rather than prisoner." He turns to Remy again. 
"Once she has been acclimated, call me once more. I will return and we will discuss her disposition."
A brief nod, followed by a similarly brief "Will do." is all the reply that Gambit gives. And realistically it's all that's required. The mutant thief has already collected her meager things into a plastic bag, which he has placed on top of her folded trench coat. Or, the high-vis alternate reality version of a trench coat, anyway.
"I guess that means you're coming with me. I'll show you to your room, see if I can scrounge up something less... disgusting for you to wear." Given that Remy hasn't washed his coat in years, hasn't shaven or bathed in days, and has dried blood on his fingerless gloves, his remarks about her hygiene are more than a bit hypocritical.
"I appreciate you attending to this personally. I know your time is valuable."
Jubilee nods at Magneto, recognizing when she's been moved on from for now. She gets up, gives antoher stretch, and runs her hands over her wrists, then bends down to do the same to her ankles. "Ugh... Yeah I already needed a shower after the battle and then, hiding out all day, before this... and yes, thank you sir."
 
"You are quite welcome, young lady. Forgive our precautions. Consider them acted from an abundance of uncertainty. If you know me as well as you claim, then I am certain you understand why I am being so very wary." 
Magneto turns and with a slight gesture, rips asunder a hole in reality six feet in diameter. With no more visible effort than it would take to open a screen door, he strides through the portal, which seals shut behind him with a hiss of air and a last glorious burst of light.
Category:Log