2014.01.13 - Brunch, Telepathy and Trouble

It's a bit of an odd Saturday for pretty much all points north and east of Pennsylvania. While there was a big snow storm less than a week ago, and there was a storm that dropped up to an inch of snow in parts of the region yesterday, and that is /ON TOP/ of the insanely cold temperatures due to the recent arctic blast... Today is different. For example, in New York City it's not only 40 degrees (with a high in the 50's predicted) and climbing, but it's also /raining/.
So while it is warm, it's still not a nice day to be outside.
So it might not be a surprise that at a certain caf that a certain redheaded power mimic tends to frequent in Mutant Town, that the outdoor tables are closed. What might be surprising is that inside, aside from people picking up drinks to go, there's very few people sitting and staying. But one of them is Hope Summers, in her Academy of Tomorrow school uniform, who is sitting in a booth off to the side, sipping a cup of tea, alone as usual.
Not so long ago it seemed like Rachel Summers was always being tasked to track down Hope, usually because Doug wanted to be sure she was staying out of trouble. After the deployment to Genosha Rachel thought she was done with that, and yet here she is, tracking down her not-quite-niece again. At least this time it was her own idea, and she had Nate to call ahead telepathically and make the arrangements.
Even better, she probably doesn't have to worry about Hope taking off running as soon as she sees them, any more.
The door to the cafe opens to admit Rachel who, despite the weather, appears perfectly dry. It's Mutant Town, after all. If she can't use a telekinetic shield to keep the rain off here, where can she?
Rachel doesn't have to look around aimlessly trying to catch sight of Hope, and Rachel's eyes track instantly to the booth Hope occupies, cued by her telepathy, and she shoots the younger redhead a grin and a bit of a wave. Glancing over her shoulder as if to make sure Nate's still with her, Rachel wends her way through the tables to join, Hope, shrugging out of her jacket as she does so. "Hi." She says simply, as she slides in across from her.
The truth is Nate was close to call Xavier paranoid for being worried of a quintet of teen telepaths. Maybe he is afraid of losing the telepathic supremacy Jean and him provide his school or something. He wasn’t that worried when Nate himself appeared. Then again Nate fell quickly around the X-Men’s orbit, and he happens to agree with 90%% of what Xavier preaches.
Nate doesn’t approve the insulation of the school, though. And he is pretty sure Xavier would object Stormwatch’s pro-active and often terminal approach to problems. He is better off living in New York proper.
At least the Academy of Tomorrow is in New York. Those ‘elite’ students can just step out Emma’s high-tech telepathic barrier and mingle with regular humans in a minute. So maybe Hope is better there, the girl probably needs a larger dose or normal world than the typical student at the House of X. And since Hope is aware of some of Xavier’s secrets, it kinda makes sense to go to her before he goes to ask the Cuckoos directly about omnipathy and being six instead of five. Doubly so when Hope has the ability to be that number six in the hive mind. So he sent a message to the young redhead early in the morning and invited her to have brunch.
Now he arrives with Rachel, mostly dry too, and pauses briefly at seeing Hope in a school uniform. Brief cognitive dissonance here, folks. So. Not. Hope. Three seconds to recover. “Hey, good morning Hope.” He flops down at Rachel’s side.
If Hope knew what had prompted this...
Well, let's just say that odds are she'll find out, and then others will find out what she thinks.
Instead, for now, there's a slight smile and a nod at Rachel and Nate as they join her at the booth.
"Morning." is said as she finishes taking a sip of her tea.
"What's up?"
Yeap. If she only knew...
Rachel shifts over a little further as Nate arrives beside her, and the greetings are gotten out of the way. After eyeing up Hope's cup of tea for a second or two while she considers what she feels like drinking, Rachel leans forward in her seat, folding her arms on the edge of the table, and looks like she's about to get down to business.
But then she pauses, looking at Hope, or rather at what Hope's /wearing/, and smirks to herself, giving a little shake of her head. "I'm sorry, I just can't talk to you when you're dressed like that. You look like you're about twelve years old." There's a bit of gentle mockery in her voice, but the words are spoken fondly. "So first things first." There's a definite mischievous glint in Rachel's eyes now. "Nate?" She asks, glancing across at him. "Give us some cover?" Rain shields are one thing, what she has planned is a little more impressive. While Rachel's quite capable of diverting attention from them at the same time, Nate's told her he needs practice before.
Returning her attention to Hope, Rachel's smirk is still firmly in place as she locks eyes with the younger redhead - and then Rachel's go blank white, just for a moment. Just long enough for Hope's school uniform to undergo some extreme telekinetic modification. With any luck the green top, slim jeans and boots that she's suddenly wearing won't offend her too badly. In any case, Rachel's smirk is now a smug grin. "Much better." She says with a nod. "New trick. Have you got it, or do you want to see it again?" Whatever other reasons they're here for, Rachel's clearly happy to see Hope again.
“Cover? What?” Nate was thinking about coffee, you see. “Oh, that... Rachel, we are in the middle of Mutant Town, you aren’t going to scare anyone.” Seriously, almost half the patrons look like aliens from Star Wars. “And is that new trick? Molecular reconstruction of clothes is quite simple,” it is not often Nate gets to be smug about power tricks, so he enjoys the feeling. “Try something more interesting, like ceramics,” he grabs Hope’s cup (and tea) with a telekinetic halo, twisting the shape of the cup into a something several inches taller, thiner, with spiralish designs of gold and red instead of plain white and blue cafeteria standard. “See?” Smug Nate.
New...?
Yeah. As Hopes clothing changes, she just /BLINKS/. To be honest, as far as surprises go, this one isn't minded that much, but it's still unexpected.
"I think..." the younger redhead starts to say as she reaches out power wise to copy her 'aunt', "I got it.."
And with that said, her clothing changes slightly. The boots become sneakers, and the top changes into a green hoodie with a celtic knot on it.
Then though, as she lets her powers fade, she shakes her head.
"And please, don't joke about my age. As far as I can figure out, thanks to all the time travel, suspended animation, and the like, I'm at a negative age, or as young as fifteen, or as old as twenty one. It's just hard to tell how old I am since we didn't exactly keep track of how long we spent in any one time period, except maybe 'a few years here', 'a few months there', plus I was never actually told the day I was born on. Not that matters much since we never jumped from something like September first of one year to September first of another, it was more like one date to another random date farther down the line."
On the other hand, as Nate re-arranges her cup, the 'teenaged' redhead all but facepalms, and starts to say, "Show off..." before she pauses and gets a bit of an idea, "And I might have to try that later, just in case of an emergency..."
Rachel's smugness factor goes up another notch at Hope's surprise, but then she feels an echo of her own power from Hope.
"Quick study." Rachel remarks, offhand, but she's subtly impressed by how successful Hope's first attempt is, compared to her own. She shakes her head when Hope complains, though. "Hey, I haven't even been born yet...!" She reminds the other redhead, but then she shrugs rather than argue. "But OK."
Part of the reason she gives in is Nate, deftly puncturing her bubble of smugness with his one-upmanship. "New trick /for me/." She grumbles to Nate, then shakes her head ruefully. "I should have expected it to be child's play for /you/." Still, it's obviously that she's not at all annoyed at her 'little brother's' display. Studying the modern art sculpture that Hope's teacup has become with interest, it's Hope's talk of potential emergencies that reminds her that this isn't /quite/ a social call, as much as Rachel might prefer if it was. "Do I want to know?" Rachel asks, sounding amused. It's no secret how much trouble Hope gets into, after all. Glancing at Nate once more, Rachel finally starts to get to the point. "Actually, that's why we're here. Although calling it an emergency is over-selling it a bit." Rachel looks toward Nate. Does he want to explain?
“Oh yeah, business,” admits Nate. But he waves to the waitress and asks for a mug of coffee telepathically. The waitress is not surprised. Gotta love Mutant Town. “There was a spike of power from the Academy the other day, a few telepaths noticed. Looks like the Stepford sisters hive-mind went well into omega for a few minutes. You wouldn’t know anything about it, hmm?” 
"Nothing big. Just a random idea that next time we run into Magneto causing trouble that being able to pull as many ceramic blades out of thin air as I can might be helpful." is said as Hope's mind drifts back towards the last time she was in Genosha.
But then, at the mention of The Cuckoos going Omega...?
There's a slight frown, and then a bit lip.
"Depends. Was it just once, or twice? Odds are the if it was twice, then it wouldn't of just been at The Academy." is said before the younger redhead shrugs.
"Plus, I have to ask. Why are you asking?"
Now it's Rachel's turn to be surprised. Hope's idea for turning Rachel's parlour trick into an offensive weapon is brilliant and vicious. "Nasty." Rachel comments mildly, but it's clear from the glint in her eyes and the effort she's making not to let her lips curve that she's not objecting to Hope's tactic.
She adds a second cup of coffee to Nate's order as she speaks. Even in Mutant Town, she's not as comfortable with flaunting her powers as she perhaps should be. For this, she'll follow Nate's lead, and enjoy the change it makes.
As for the reason they're here, Rachel focuses on Hope's second question, and doesn't even attempt to be evasive in her answer. "They've invited themselves over to the Institute for the tour. From what the Professor told us, they're powerful enough to have him worried." Rachel raises a hand, quickly. They've all got quick tempers around this table, including her. "I don't know them, but you do. /IS/ there something to worry about?"
“Won’t work,” states Nate. “You can’t turn air into something not-air with my powers. You could turn a cup into a ceramic bullet though. But if I remember my physics, that won’t faze Mags. Ceramics are diamagnetics, just like almost everything. You’d need something completely anti-magnetic to get through his fields.”
But back to the main issue. “I am not worried, I kinda like that quintet, but other people seems to consider that the Stepford girls are, dunno, unprepared for that kind of power. Too nosy? And since you do know about it, I guess it was you, uh?”
"Or I could turn the tiles in a nearby bathroom or home supply store into them if they're close enough and I know they're there." Hope supplies, her mind already considering the tactics involved. Or at least that is until she offers Nate an odd smile, "Trust me, there's always a way. At worst case, since ceramics aren't /as/ magnetic, they'd be more likely to catch him off guard if he's distracted."
But then well, with the bit about the Cuckoos...
There's a cough, and then a slight temple rub.
"Unless they're threatened, or someone they care about is threatened, I wouldn't worry about them At all. They're good people. A bit hard to describe, but basically good. After a fashion, they could be considered sort of sheltered when it comes to their life before ending up at The Academy of Tomorrow."
"And if you guys want to show them The Institute, I would. But you might want to have me, and a couple of telepaths that you /trust/ with them if... When they visit. And keep them away from the 'underground' areas if you catch my drift. But even if they do drop by, I doubt they'd want to leave Ms. Frosts school. The Five-In-One and Ms. Frost are close."
Nate will later point Hope to the Wikipedia or something for a list of substances that have very low magnetic susceptibility index. He can’t remember which right now. He might be looking for them himself, too, since Magneto is one of his least favorite people in the world right now.
“I agree with you Hope. I am not entirely sure what... well, yeah, it was the power spike thing mostly.” Notes Nate. He is almost tempted to peer into Hope’s memories, since she seems to be avoiding confirming or denying she caused it. Although not denying it probably means she did it in Hope-evasive-speak. He is getting fluent in the language.
Having asked the question, and being honestly interested in the answer, Rachel keeps quiet as Hope and Nate give their opinions.
And she, too, is filing away everything that's mentioned in their discussion of anti-Magneto weaponry. They can't always rely on Jean becoming something akin to a God every time they have to deal with Magneto, after all.
Rachel's eyes track over to Hope, first, as she speaks, and then back to Nate, as he backs her up. It's only when they've finished that she speaks up, and there's a bit of a smile on her face when she does. "No-one's talking about threatening anyone." She makes a quiet sound of amusement. "They sound like us." She looks between Hope and Nate again. 
She knows how she can be when someone she cares about is in danger. "But good advice." She says after a moment. "We have telepaths to spare."
Technically it wasn't asked. No one said 'Are you the sixth they mentioned?'. Instead it was just hinted at...
And of course Nate, or Rachel for that matter, could try to poke around in Hope's head to find out what she isn't saying. But they better be subtle and careful about it if they do. Otherwise the younger redheaded woman not only will try to clam her mind up, and they may even find themselves facing their own power, or the power of their sibling, or the mimicked combined power of both of them coming from Hope.
Either way though, there is a deep breath, before finally...
"As I said, you don't have to worry about them. If you are, I can't help but wonder why. After all, is it because they're a large mutant power you guys can't control, like Magneto? I mean if you guys can trust me, and Jean, and Kwa, and Doug... Then you should be able to trust them with their powers."
Then there's a nod.
"Trust me, they're a /LOT/ like the three of us in a lot of ways, and a lot like some of the other people at your school and at The Academy. Probably the best thing for them is to try and let them be as 'normal' as they can be right now."
Then there's a grin, "As for your 'power spike', I'll admit. I had to help them with something that they couldn't do alone."
“You should met them, Ray,” mentions Nate. Oh look, the coffee is here! But he forgot food. Damn. “They are nice girls. They are a little odd, but I got the impression they were born with their powers instead of developing them later, like happens to most of us, so telepathy and not speech is the natural form of communication for them. And of course they are very close to each other, it doesn’t seem they had met other telepaths until very recently.” 
Now why does Rachel get the sinking feeling that Hope still doesn't trust her? It makes her sound slightly depressed when she answers the younger redhead. "Come on, Hope. You know it's not about control. It's about letting five telepaths who, from what everyone says, are stronger than /me/ into the Institute, and hoping they don't read us all like an open book." Rachel shrugs. "You know what... else... goes on there. The Professor's right to be cautious." Rachel drums her fingers on the tabletop, pensively, before continuing. "For the record, I voted for giving them the tour, if that makes any difference."
Rachel lightens up a bit when Hope does at least agree with one thing she suggested, and then Nate chimes in. "If they need 'normal', maybe I /shouldn't/ meet them." She remarks self-deprecatingly, but there's no missing the flash of interest in her eyes. 
"Then don't worry. I'm no expert, but at best, without me they're on par with you or Nate. And if you're so worried about them, then you might want to worry about The Martian Manhunter, Ms. Frost, and any number of others that odds are we could mention." is said before Hope rolls her eyes.
"Besides, they don't have a reason to be suspicious of the school, or to spy on it. At best if they drop by they might see how much Xavier's is like The Academy, only that the students and teachers /DON'T/ want it advertised that they've got kids with powers there. Which the Cuckoos will definitely respect, unless as I said, they're threatened."
Then there's a grin, "And they should definitely meet you Rachel. And maybe Jean and Scott. They already know Nate and me, and they do sort of know that we're related."
Then there's a nod at Nate.
"And speech is new to them. Apparently they were so use to telepathy that when they got to the Academy that was the only way they spoke to anyone at first. So they're learning."
Nate smirks, “normal is good, but extraordinary is more fun,” he says to Rachel. Then he adds something, “the Stepford sisters are not malicious, but they have little regards for privacy and they are as curious as anyone. As I told to the others, the main problem is that they would pretty much automatically scan everyone in the grounds, and find out a lot of secrets. If you tell them not to do it, they won’t, but they won’t like it and they will be even more curious.”
It's the eye-roll that does it. If Rachel had been under any illusions that Hope, despite her powers, despite a childhood that almost made her own look tame, was not a typical know-it-all teenager, the eye-roll dispels them. Rachel's left with only two choices: Attempt to throttle Hope or give in. She gives in. This time. "All right, not worrying." It's only by sheer force of willpower that she manages not to roll her own eyes at having to surrender to Hope.
'Extraordinary' sounds like a compliment, but Nate's smirk makes her wonder. Although... Rachel snorts with laughter. "You two, me, Jean AND Scott. At once. That would be extraordinary all right." She almost tagged Nathan on for completeness but... not in front of Hope.
Nate's afterthought gives her something to consider, and she smiles wryly. "Tell them not to peek, and they'll be offended and curious. Let them peek and have them bounce off the best shields we can come up with... well, they might not be offended, but they won't be any less curious. Sounds like fun." Rachel adds the last dryly. "Maybe I /should/ meet them. If they know we've got a house full of telepaths then they won't be surprised."
There's a look just shot at Nate, even as Hope says, "Of course they have issues with privacy. It's a bit of a new, and somewhat foreign concept to them. After all, they basically grew up with one another inside of each others head and couldn't keep anything a secret from each other. But they're learning, and getting better at it."
Then there's a slight nod.
"And that's why I said that we should have a telepath with them, and me as well. Odds are if I ask them to not read peoples minds, they'll listen, and if they don't then any of your telepaths should catch it almost instantly and probably could put a stop to it."
Oh the other hand, at Rachel's bit about shields, there is a grin.
"As I said, they shouldn't be a problem. But if you guys are worried, I can talk to them. After all, they've sort of adopted me as a sister too."
“Seems we have a good plan there,” comments Nate. He still thinks it is too much worrying about nothing. Considering Xavier’s power and skill, Emma could be much more worried about the Professor stealing her secrets than the other way around.
“Adopted as a sister, uh? So you can connect with them better than with other telepaths. Is it they have their own variety of telepathy or just because they have a technique to open up to each other. I have to keep my shields at max around Jean, Ray and Cable, otherwise they kinda... melt.”
Rachel nods in agreement with Nate, and blows on her coffee before taking a sip. She wanted to get Hope's opinion, she's got it, and she's not going to disregard it in favour of paranoia. They'll find out whether their plan is a good one in time, but they're not going into this blind any more. Rachel's satisfied.
Looking over the top of her coffee mug, her eyebrows rise a touch when Hope reveals her 'adoption' by the Five-in-One. Which makes Six-in-One, surely. Rachel's suddenly very sure who the sixth telepath the Professor was worried about adding to the mix was. For Rachel, it's actually reassuring. Know-it-all teenager she might be, but Hope's hardly an enemy - even if she doesn't fully trust the rest of them. Taking another sip, Rachel savours the hot coffee and smiles at Nate. "More practice." She teases him, lightly, about his shields.
"To be honest, I'm not sure what the best way to describe it." is said towards Nate.
"I've copied you. I've copied Rachel. I've copied Jean and Ms. Frost too. And this is different in some ways, and not in other ways... So I don't know if calling it 'their own' or not works. What I can say is that no other telepath would be able to join in with them, and I doubt any other telepath could force their way into their minds if they put all their effort into closing themselves off."
Of course with that said, Hope takes a sip of her tea.
"But apparently I can connect with them just like they connect with each other when I copy them, yes.
On the other hand, at the mention of 'brains melting' and 'More practice' there is a faint snicker.
"I guess that kind of makes me glad that I'm the non-telepath of the family."
“It is not that, I don’t have problems with telepaths from outside the ‘family’,” protests Nate. The others don’t seem to have the problem with each other either. Looks like he is on how own in that one, but he wonders if allowing the mind-shields fully fade instead of resisting would put him in the same situation the Stepford sisters are with each other.
“Yeah, telepathy can be a fine source of headaches,” he comments grumpily, sipping from his mug. Adding a ton of sugar. Sipping some more.
The smug look that flits across Rachel's face shows that she was angling for that response from Nate, and got it. "It's not so bad." She answers Hope, even though she's well aware that her 'niece' knows that already. She's intrigued - and vaguely relieved - that the Five/Six-in-One are a law unto themselves when it comes to telepathy. At least there's no chance of a Seven-in-One if she /does/ meet Hope's 'sisters'.
As Nate grumbles, Rachel snorts. "I'll give you headaches, but would you rather NOT be a telepath?" From her tone, her position on that one is clear - and she wouldn't like to be headblind. She tilts her head as an idea comes to her, though. "Like I said - more practice. If you want to take off, somewhere there's no /people/, and see what happens when you drop your shields around me?" Rachel shrugs. "What's the worst that could happen?"
And since Rachel asks that question, Hope has to chime in...
"Let's see... You're eyes could roll up into your head before gushing blood as you pass out, before finally your head explodes?"
And while that is said with a slight, joking smile, Hope does have a slightly concerned edge to the younger redheads tone.
"And don't complain too much Nate. After all, at least you /know/ you always have your telepathy when need be. After all, I can never really tell what, if anything might be nearby power wise that I can copy when things hit the fan. Then again, I do /try/ to be prepared for that."
“I would have been happy just with the TK, really. I am a simple guy, I just want to fly around and kick some bad guy ass,” replies Nate with a grin. Not that telepathy is not handy often, but it comes with a plethora problems, starting by having to keep shields all the time, problems sleeping, listening to things he can’t un-listen, distrust from friends, etc, etc. But alright. “Hey Hope, no whining allowed, you can copy pretty much any super-ability and you hang out with mutants all the time. And I just changed my mind, I also want a healing factor. And food, who else wants food?” He is gesturing to the waitress for a menu.
Rachel laughs at Hope's list of all the things that could go wrong. "Well, sure... but apart from that it's perfectly safe. Don't worry so much."
Rachel finishes off her rapidly cooling coffee as her two companions berate each other for complaining, happy to let them run without her interference. They're an odd family, but she suddenly realises that she can't imagine not having them around any more. 
"Sure." She answers Nate. "Food sounds good."
Thus, with a smile, Hope says, "Food it is then."
And something similar to a 'normal family get together happens.
Or as close to such as can happen in Mutant Town.
With members of the Summers-Grey clan.
All right so, they have a meal, even if it isn't normal!
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