Allison didn't see the first time the announcement was broadcast.

She didn't watch the news, often. There wasn't much point. It was melodramatic, and depressing, and anything significant spread quickly anyway. She didn't need to spend an hour a day depressing herself in front of a TV screen to keep up with what actually mattered.

By the time she did hear, plenty of others had too; the rec room was crowded. Someone had gotten a recording of the announcement, and was playing it on repeat on the TV. Which no one had broken yet; a bit of a surprise. Allison got there halfway through a repeat.

That face was familiar. The physical face--which Allison had seen often enough since waking up, but not gotten to yet--but also the expression. Allison was quite unhappy with the cause, but glad to see it back. Allison had missed the Queen.

She left partway through the third repeat. Others were still filtering in and out; Allison was small, mostly human-looking, and her expression was blank (honest, honest, furious; the expressions she mostly wore might match her feelings, but they were still put on; blank never was). She didn't stand out.

Once she reached her room, Allison stripped the ink out of her skin, dumped the tan into its jar and the colors into a bottle of rich black. Allison liked black; it was such an... absolute color. Nothing changed it, nothing overwrote it, no one suspected it. No one associated it with her either, no matter how much she liked it.

Not a problem. No one needed to know. She used the rich black, swirled to mix the colors she'd dumped in, and began creating tattoos. Black on white, sharp edges and curves and corners, spirals and angles; out from her eyes, her forehead, over her face, cutting and dancing up from her fingers to her elbows. It had been a long time (a lifetime, a future, negative time--too long, anyway, for patience) since she'd worn the Amazon tattoos, but she remembered them perfectly anyway, could feel the pattern settling into her skin like it used to (never did). The ink was too dark to be ashes, but could certainly be the black of the soil that formed in the wake of a volcano.

Clothes were easier; much easier than they had been. Jeans, that had been dark and were now faded to medium blue, black tee shirt, jean jacket with sleeves rolled up to over her elbows. And what was, technically, a purse; a bag with a long enough strap to go over her shoulder under her jacket, cross her chest, and hang by her side, filled with bottles of ink. Plastic, all of them; glass would break, even though she liked the feel and sound better.

It only took a few minutest to look up a Wolf News phone number. Maxine was gone, though with a few questions--"yes, I'm an old friend of hers, of course"--they told her which hospital Maxine was at. ("Tell her the Amazons are coming back. Just an old school club....")

That done, Allison left her room. Some of the Amazons should be around Sanctuary; she'd wander through it before she left. And then to the hospital.

On the way, though, wasn't there a convenience store? That would have some things that were useful. She grabbed her wallet, too, though it didn't go in the purse.


((OOC: Allison will wander Sanctuary's public areas, then walk to the hospital Maxine is at, and stop at a convenience store on the way. She'll recruit mutant women along the way to help wait for and protect Maxine, as well as themselves; safety in numbers. She'll especially want the AoS Amazons, but not go looking for them if she doesn't find them. Anyone who wants Amazon tattoos can get them from her while waiting for Maxine to get out of the hospital; Allison may suggest that other people bring food, water and/or tents, since she has no idea how long Maxine will be in there. Everyone gets a post to join and get to the hospital, then the fun begins!))

Some people never quite learned their lessons, and Tses was one of them. After a rather rough fight with a mutant vigilante, a bought of amnesia and then a re-break-up with her then x, then friend, then x again, she was eager to get out and do something to help her forget her troubles. That something landed her in a convenience store, chewing on a piece of candy she hadn't paid for while watching the news broadcast. The unobservant cashier at this particular location was busy looking at a magazine. Tses didn't bother alerting her to her presence.

While Tses had gotten the tail wind of the anti-mutant tensions, and even ridden a dinosaur out of the mall to escape some of them while she dealt with amnesia, she didn't usually get involved. People wanted to hate. Let them hate. She didn't usually get much hassle. But something about this whole, "Burn this City Down" phrase caught her attention. If there was going to be a fight, she wanted to be part of it. If nothing else, than to find a way to help her forget again.

She was still heartbroken, still reckless, and some people never learned.

So she stuffed her pockets with more candy, and headed out the door while the bell pinged overhead in alarm. The cashier didn't even look-up, but her smooth escape was rather ruined as another patron nearly bumped into her as they tried to head in. While she didn't recognize the tattoos, or the outfit, something about her seemed familiar.

"Hey....didn't we play laser tag together once?"

How that phrase would drag her halfway across down and to the hospital, she'd never quite understand. But she shrugged it off, put on her headphones and quietly ate her candy. If nothing else, there was the promise of a scuffle.

Some people never learned.

“Hey, Allison!” Kaitlyn’s voice echoed down the hallway. “If I blast a cop's head off while he's trying to kill someone illegally, you think I'd get in trouble?"

The answer to that question would have no bearing on Kaitlyn's short-term plans.

* * *

Half an hour earlier, Kaitlyn couldn’t help but notice the unusually large amount of people moving in and out of the Sanctuary’s rec room.

“What’s going on in there?”

An orange-skinned, musclebound young woman answered Kaitlyn with a nervous glance. “Just some stuff on the news. You probably shouldn’t go in there.” For everyone else’s safety, she forgot to add.

The orange-skinned, musclebound young woman didn’t know very much about reverse psychology. Kaitlyn couldn’t not find out what was going on, now.

* * *

Fast forward a half hour and a few more minutes.

She would need something to pass the time, too. Guarding things could get boring fast. The laptop wouldn’t be a good idea; one explosion and it would be done for. But books would be safe. Kaitlyn grabbed a few promising-looking fiction titles from the Sanctuary’s library. They went in her backpack next to the taser she’d use if one of the Queen’s assailants was Adapted, and the toothbrush she took with her when she stayed at Xavier’s sister school.

…On the other hand, maybe she should just keep that first thing in her pocket. So she could reach it in a pinch.

* * *

Fast forward another few hours.

“Look,” Kaitlyn said, “I have red hair. Maxine has red hair. Maxine has green eyes. My eyes are kinda greenish, too. Do you have any idea how rare it is for someone to have both of those things?”

The nurse just stared at her.

“Your papers are wrong,” Kaitlyn continued. “I’m Maxine’s little sister. Allison’s our cousin. We're family, so you have to let us see her.”

Kaitlyn really hoped that this would work.

Aura heard about the riot's, her current job for the order ensured that. When she saw Allsion leave Sanctuary with kaitlyn, Aura decided she should follow. Allsion had an uncanny ability to find trouble, like a divining rod and water. Due to this ability Aura had taken to routinely following Allsion at a distance and without saying anything. She was very concerned with her Love's safety and with the riot's going their was every chance things might get ugly for them. Aura only caught up with the others when they stopped at the convenience store. Not gong in she leaned against the wall and waited for Allison and Kaitlyn to come out of the store.

"Hello, My Love" she said with a smile. She would then follow Allison and Kaitlyn to the Hospital. Aura felt while Kaitlyn and Allsion might have a chance she likely did not. Dressed entirely in black with jet black hair, she looked more like a gangster then a possible relative.

Aura hoped Kaitlyn's ploy worked, or Aura feared she might have to step in. She had no wish to cause a fight in a hospital. It simply seemed a bad omen to her and she was sure she had heard a story about it. "I can wait outside, but these to are relatives..." Aura said trying to help. Aura looked around wondering just how many people she had sent here, she knew it was a lot.

Amber was having problems that had nothing to do with the anti-mutant hostilities outside. There was something wrong with her body, something that just didn't feel quite right. Sometimes when she ate food her stomach complained and she could barely keep it down. Then there was her skin, always sickly pale but otherwise normal, that had taken on an unusually dry texture. She wasn't about to say anything to anyone but it secretly worried her. What was going on with her lately?

It was because of her current problems that Amber had retreated outside, shifted into a Mecistotrachelos apeoros and scurried up a tree within view of the entrance of a nearby convenience store. Things were always easier when she left her human body behind and she desperately needed things to be easier. Whatever was happening to her she had a horrible suspicion that it wasn't good and she didn't want to think about it. Maybe if she wasn't in human form the problems of being human would simply go away. Maybe. But probably not likely.

Allison and Kaitlyn were the first ones Amber noticed entering the convenience store, which was not so unusual. Not so long after that she saw her sister Aura arrive and wait outside. That, perhaps, was more interesting. Given her recent preoccupation with her own personal problems, she hadn't seen much of the news recently but her sister seemed to have a purpose to her steps and she felt she knew all she needed to know about the recent hostilities between humans and mutants. If her sister was going somewhere with that kind of purpose, it might be a good idea for Amber to tag along.

It only took Amber a couple of minutes to scurry down the tree, shift and put her robes back over her dry skin. She winced, feeling like her skin was too tight, before stepping out of the shadows. "Hello sister," Amber spoke to Aura. "Is there something going on?"

It was Amber's intent to find out what was happening and, if important, to continue to follow and assist in any way she could. If nothing else, it was a simple matter to simply become a lizard and ride in someone's pocket. If things got dangerous and she knew her sister well enough to know it was a possibility wherever Aura walked, then at least she could be a hidden weapon.