(( OOC Invite. CS. Kate. Forte. Amelia. I think it was the Gemini twins? And maybe Tauros. Or just the twins, if that's way too many. ))


Cold Steel, a cold corpse? The newspapers were reporting it, but she still couldn't believe. Nobody wanted to confirm or deny, and then there was that video. She would have thought by now if it hadn't been true, her boss would have stepped forward, or an X-men would have corrected them. But nothing had happened even close to that. Even Shin wouldn't say anything... and it looked like it was killing him. Amelia didn't know what to think.

There was this vague possibility that Sam was dead. That Cold Steel had gotten iced by someone tougher than him. The video had looked damn accurate, and it still hadn't gotten taken down. But who knows? Here she was, walking down a street in a business-heavy part of New York's metropolis, thoughts a-swirling through her head while she potentially went to a coffee shop to avoid stumbling into people while she thought, and she didn't even know!

The thought that she didn't know the truth made her stomach tight. She hadn't been close to Sam. Cold Steel had been a lazy drunk, yet a leader. But Mirror had been close, and Shin. And he had been her boss, when he was sober. And sometimes, not. So... She spun her brainwheels some more in mud, but she was going nowhere. Well. If she was going nowhere, then forget it. Chuck it. She was going to think about something else. But what to think about...? Her eyes just so happened to draw upwards. Kate.

Amelia found her mouth announcing her presence by repeating the same name. "Kate?" She hadn't seen her in a while. And there the girl was, on the street and looking fashionable. Probably more fashionable than herself, though she was wearing the white and black jacket Kate had given her so long ago. "I haven't seen you in ages," she concluded weakly. There wasn't much sense on her face.

Kate took a deep breath as she stepped out into the brisk fall air. Her eyes were bloodshot and there were dark circles marring her usually perfect complexion. She had yet to sleep a full night since she heard about Sam’s death. It was hard to say if this was because of the news or because she was sleeping in a hotel. No mater what the reason it Kate was a bit of a mess. She had been walking around the city like a zombie not really sure what to do with herself. She had thought that nothing could hurt as much as her mother’s death, but she was wrong. Sam had been just as much a part of her family as her mom was and therefore finding out he was dead hurt just as much. She had tried so hard over the past few months to keep him alive and make sure he was okay with the drinking and the personal stuff. She had never ever thought that he wouldn’t be strong enough to fight something off. Though that was the way things worked with these Zodiacs. They had been plaguing mutants for a while and it was only a matter of time before they killed one of the really powerful ones in the city.

Kate turned a corner and headed in the direction of her favorite coffee shop to get a little bit of a pick me up before she headed to school to once again bury herself in sheet music. It had really turned into her only comfort lately even before Sam’s death. She could get so lost in it that hours would pass and she wouldn’t even notice. It wasn’t exactly healthy but it was her way of coping. Besides it was way better then going out into the rain in December.

She heard her name called and turned around to see a familiar face. She tried to smile politely but it wouldn’t form. All she could manage was a sad lift of the corners of her mouth. It was interesting how a little grief could make things that were so simple so much harder. “Hello Ami. It is very nice to see you. How have you been?” It was probably the most generic thing she could have said but it was better then nothing.

A surprise. That's what it was. And Kate was looking far more raccoon-like than any other time Amelia had seen her. It was the dark circles around the eyes. That's what did it. It was a sign of either a loss of sleep, or being punched in the face by goat men of some sort. And she didn't think goat men would get away with punching Kate in the face. Kate didn't quite manage a smile when she addressed her... and Amelia didn't quite manage one back.

"Good," she said. "Busy. Dealing. Are you okay?" A thought struck her. Kate might've been dealing with the same thing she was. "You must have heard about Cold Steel." Or she was dealing with her own problems. Maybe it was ass-like to assume. But she was feeling like ass and Kate looked like ass, so it seemed par for the course.

A hand ran through her hair as she broke the eye contact to look around at everything that was going on nearby that wasn't 'coping with death'.

Looking at Ami she was no better off then Kate was. Yes she didn’t look as tired and run down but she did look sad. It was to be expected. Sam had been important to Kate, but he had been that way for a lot of people. Kate was not really special in that regard. Or at least she didn’t think so. He was a teacher and a mentor and touched the lives of many kids over the years.

Though as Ami brought him up something that hadn’t healed yet broke again and Kate had to fight the urge to start crying again. She didn’t seem to be able to stop anymore. Something would make her think of him and it would be all over. Tears everywhere. “Yes. Not really taking it as well as I would hope I could.” Kate let out a small sigh, “How are you holding up yourself?”

She wasn’t’ really looking at Ami though she was looking in her direction. She was instead looking past her at a happy little family laughing and smiling behind her. Her mind seemed to drift as she stood wondering what that was like. What was it like to have a happy little family that you could go to the park with and enjoy the day? For Kate it had only been one sadness after another. Though, no matter what she had lived through it never got easier.

As Kate and Ami talked to one another about their mutual pain at the loss of the man known to many as Cold Steel, aka, Sam Johnson, they were unaware that two sets of eyes amongst the many weren't merely looking around. They were watching them. Watching them very carefully. Never lingering on them for too long, but long enough to assess them and confirm their identities. The eyes of the Gemini.

Since the first phase of the General's plan had gone into action, the twins had been idle. The female knew her male counterpart had been...discouraged...after his encounter with the mutant of air known as Zephyr. True, they had succeeded in removing their target, as the other groups had. But he had felt cheated of a true victory in that battle; the wind manipulator's death had been stolen from him by a speeding train. It had come so fast, at full speed, that the pair of them knew with his powers out of whack that there was no way he survived the impact. Aquarius had been sad about that, something about a waste of a decent man...but Gemini had not cared. He only wanted to confirm that the man was dead.

Aquarius had said that there would be little point; the train would have ended him fast and the body was likely to end up miles down the tunnel. They didn't have that kind of time before trouble arrived; they had to leave. To handle his concern, she had felt for his water signature, for life in it...and found nothing. There. He was dead. But Gemini M still felt cheated.

Since then, he and his twin sister had been kept on standby, close to the General while he planned the next step of his plan. Neither of them grew bored, cared that they were doing nothing while several of their comrades had tasks to handle. Instead, they had done their duty, as stoic as ever in their expressions...and waited. And finally the General had sent them on a small chore; to hurt the residents of the mansion while they still reeled from the loss of their leader. They had plenty of files on the students and he left it to them to decide their targets.

This was who they chose. Amelia Mellitus. Clothing manipulator. She had been close to the fallen man of ice, the man called Sam Johnson. An easy target and a vulnerable one likely to be in grief. And then the other target; Katherine Elizabeth Stanley Finch-Hatton. Her power allowed her to control and resist fire. According to reports, she was royalty of sorts as well. She would be the serious threat, although no less emotional it would seem. He would handle her, while his sister handled the other. Their powers didn't effect one another, had been that way since birth. But everyone else...

They had their targets. They had chosen a coffee shop to encounter one another, a stroke of luck in both cases. For them and for the Gemini's. Nothing needed to be said between the pair. They knew what had to be done. Casually and without even batting her eye, Gemini F entered the shop and made her way past the pair, dropping a piece of paper between them. It said simply "Your leader fell easily. You shall join him shortly." Then she was past them, heading for the door. Her brother waited outside, his eyes focused sorely on Kate, directing his power into her, for the surprise she would get when she used her powers...and then he pulled his pistol out and aimed it through the window at them.

And he emptied the clip at them before moving for the nearby alley to meet with his sister. He intended to get them there. If they didn't...well, the nearby alley would suffice to finish the job, as they made sure they could be seen through the chaos they had started.

How was she holding herself up? "Fine," Amelia replied a little too quietly. "I'll be okay." It wasn't as if he'd been an important part of her life or anything, just her boss. His other people probably were reacting worse. Even so, losing someone in one's life was stressful, and maybe 'fine' wasn't fine, nor was 'okay' okay.

Kate had been close to Sam. She could see that Kate was not fine, nor okay. She was living. And crying. Suddenly, someone did something that was an attempt to stop both things. It wasn't dramatic, like a hail of bullets or a rain of arrows. It didn't involve a dagger to the back or a sword to the face. It didn't even involve a speeding train. It involved a piece of paper that Amelia picked up and read, and a sudden sinking of the gut. Okay. Maybe that could have been deemed dramatic. The woman who'd left the note walked out of the building. Amelia turned, looking around for who had left the note.

That's when the shooting started.

Glass shattered. Amelia dove for cover. People reacted similarly, except the ones that screamed.