((OOC: WARNING: Contains implied graphic situations involving death. Do not read if you have a weak stomach.))

On July 23rd, the bridges had fallen. Over two weeks later, there was still cleanup going on. The smell of decay had permeated the air around the closed off areas and moved down the streets so that the entire city had trouble ignoring the events of that day. Not to mention that the traffic in New York had somehow gotten even worse since the bridges had gone out. 

So, the X-men had sent two newbies to help out with the cleanup. It was a show of solidarity and kinship, an attempt to mend their crumbling relationship with the police, and it also served as a way to get two fresh faces used to a low coverage mission. 

Juliette scanned the area and stepped over steel support beams to get to where she was supposed to be standing. Really, she didn't have very much information about what she was supposed to be doing there. Cafas had told her the location and that she would be joined by a fellow trainee named Aiden. Any other questions, she was supposed to direct to the police.

When she had first joined the X-men, she assumed that everything would be carefully organized and official. It was looking less and less like that every day. For one thing, they had sent her out with very little training, only a few days after she had been accepted. There were still logistical things underway, like what she was going to do about her job, or whether or not she was going to move into the X-mansion. At least the huge lights that had been put up made for great charge to her powers. 

She tugged at her uniform and sighed, not seeing anyone that matched the description that Cafas had given her of Aiden. She figured that it might just be better to get started than to wait any longer. Juliette continued walking and stopped in front of two cops that were doing a lot of talking and not a lot of anything else.

"Hi, I'm here with the X-men," she started. "I was told to speak to the cops about what I was to do here?"

The two cops turned to look at her lazily and gave her an irritated look, like she had interrupted an oh-so-important conversation. One of them even had his phone open on 'Pokemon Go' and made no attempt to hide it. Clearly, the station had supplied their best to oversee the important project. 

"Just go over there and see if you can help those guys find bodies and lift stuff. I don't know, do what everyone else is doing." 

Juliette sighed and began to walk where the officer had pointed, throwing one more glance over her shoulder for the trainee named Aiden.

He shouldn't have been this nervous. Yes, he had a mission, and yes he was working primarily with someone he had never met before, and yes it was out in the city, but still. It was only his first mission after returning, not his first mission ever - not by a long shot. And the new person, Juliette or something similar, had been accepted into the X-Men, and by Cafas no less. If he couldn't trust Cafas' ability to at least weed out dangerous people, what could he trust?

She could still be chatty and pry-y, though. One of those people who insisted on talking about everything and getting other people to talk and trying to share life stories within the first few minutes of meeting someone.

Cafas would have given him a heads-up if that were the case, though. Right?

Also, getting around the city was even worse than he'd remembered it being. Which had been pretty nasty. At least today's mission would make some small dent in that, though. That was the point, anyway. Clean up and all that.

He hoisted himself over the barricades at the edge of this particular patch of mind-numbing destruction, still settling into his newly replaced uniform. Even if his old one had still been around, he'd apparently outgrown it. His shoulders especially, somehow. And someone had had the bright idea to make it subtly reflective, which drew so much attention he'd had to go back to wearing his sunglasses to try to hide his face even if it was supposed to be to reflect heat and keep him cooler.

At least his face seemed to have traded blush for pale as he approached a little knot of people, including one X-uniformed woman. Well, that would be where he had to go. The people he had to talk to.

He tried to resettle his also-newly-replaced batons against his hips, but they were securely strapped to his thighs too and fiddling with them achieved exactly nothing.

While he was doing that, though, and working his way through the less than completely cleared path, his apparent partner split off from the cops and headed... somewhere. There was too much debris in the way for him to see. He picked up his pace, though, and reminded himself to use the Danger Room's obstacle course programming more often.

Apparently, turning back to check one more time was a good idea. A man walked behind her a little ways off, donning an obvious semi-reflective X-uniform. He looked sort of nervous, which she understood completely. She wasn't exactly in the best of spirits either.

The man, who she could only assume was Aiden, looked to be attempting to catch up to her. Juliette stopped walking and gave him a moment to do so. Once he was within a few feet, she turned back and started to move forward again at a much slower pace. 

"You're Aiden, right?" She asked, more as a courtesy than anything else. "Cafas told me to expect you. I'm Juliette."

She glanced down the way at the cops and emergency personal at work, biting her lip just a little. "I was told that we're just supposed to help out wherever possible. I assume that goes for you as well, unless you were told something different."

Aiden did his best to withhold judgement when the other trainee stopped to wait for him, but she continued onwards once he was reasonably close, and didn't seem especially intent on ruining his life. Or staring. Lack of both were definitely pluses.

"Mhmm," he agreed when she confirmed who he was. Because so many other people would be wandering around a cordoned off area in an X uniform without being instantly recognizable as one of the senior team members. So her name was indeed Juliette. Not that he could be surprised; he had actually paid attention when Cafas had mentioned the newest recruit. "Is this your first mission?

Mirror had dragged him halfway across the city through a series of mirrors on his. He didn't remember it especially fondly.

"Extra hands to help clean up. That's all I know, really." He was still getting a feel for the full extent of the -er, the very nasty tangle - still spinning through the city. It felt like how the senior X-Men described the city before the riots that had ripped through the streets shortly before he had joined the team. The riots that had featured so heavily in his own trial.

He pulled on one of his gloves a little bit; they weren't actually part of his uniform, not really, but were more to help with the whole hauling bridge debris around job; they had reinforced palms and thick ridges against the backs of each finger to protect his hands without sacrificing grip.

New clothes were awkward enough. He hadn't worn a uniform in years, and he'd barely been used to it before then.

"First one," Juliette nodded absently. She didn't feel entirely ready, but then again, at least they weren't doing something entirely crazy, either. Manual labour, she could do. Defeat an army of crazed underlings? Maybe next month. "And you?"

>>"Extra hands to help clean up. That's all I know, really."

She nodded again; no new information. It was looking more and more like the two of them had just been thrust in without much thought to what they might actually be doing there. Well, she supposed there was a lot going on that the X-men needed to deal with at the moment, and two trainees probably weren't at the top of that list, but it still would have been nice to receive a little more direction before being thrust into the world. 

The site of the bridge collapse really didn't look all that much better than it had when the bridge first fell. There wasn't a whole lot that people could do other than try to locate as many bodies as possible and work on rebuilding, and two weeks just wasn't enough time to get as much done as it seemed. 

Juliette sighed and looked around again, having stopped somewhere near the middle of most of the action. There were people everywhere, each with their own purpose in mind, and she didn't know where to start. Or who to bother, for that matter. She figured it might just be easier to start with something simple. 

"I'm going to look for any more signs of bodies," she told Aiden, unsure of whether or not to invite him along. If he wanted to join her, she wouldn't argue. If he didn't, that was fine too. He was a little bit difficult to read, and she didn't want to start off on the wrong foot.

Juliette continued to step carefully over the debris (entirely thankful that she had chosen practical boots rather than heels for her uniform), and glanced around the area. A little ball of light appeared in her hand and drifted just in front of her, available to illuminate any areas necessary.

"First one since I've been back." Would she have heard about that, if she were so new? Although he didn't want to talk about it yet again. He'd done that so much... but it was definitely getting to the point where it was just talking, and the problematic part was the talking. The subject came a little easier now than it had.

It'd better. He'd had enough practice. Practice on real people too.

She was probably at least a bit unsettled or nervous or something. If not by being so new, because lots of people were weird like that and not bothered by being new to a group, then by being on a mission to find corpses.

Yeahhh he wasn't thinking about that too closely if he could help it. He'd certainly done it before. It wasn't fun. This was his job, overall, and even if he seemed reluctant about everything he did take it seriously.

On second thought, she didn't seem to be especially perturbed by looking for dead people.

That... boded well for her with the team? Not freaking out at least?

He was thinking too much. Way too much.

"If you hadn't heard... I've been a trainee for a couple of years, but my power acted up while I was on a training mission with the west coast branch. It's... complicated. I just got back. It's... been a while."

Well that sounded useless even to him.

"It hasn't happened since, at any rate, and it probably requires snow like everything else." He hoisted himself onto an angled sheet of concrete, giving it a moment before he put his full weight on it, and then pulled himself to the upper edge to look on the other side. "Nothing dangerous about my power unless you can't stand a chill."

>>"First one since I've been back."

That warranted another glance backward. Back from where, she wondered? A hiatus from the team, maybe? Vacation? Something less savoury?

She didn't have to wonder for long, it seemed, as he quickly began to clarify. She hadn't heard about it, but then again, she hadn't been on the team for that long. Perhaps it was local gossip, or something. Nonetheless, it didn't sound like he enjoyed his time off very much.

"Well, I'm glad you could join me back," Juliette gave him a small smile over her shoulder. "In all honesty, I have no idea what I'm doing." Really. No idea.

>>"Nothing dangerous about my power unless you can't stand a chill."

"Perfect," she replied. "That's not a problem."

They had walked a little ways into the disaster zone, and it was starting to get a little quieter. The area had mostly blocked any natural light, and by then they were relying on the huge lamps set up by the construction company and the little ball that drifted just ahead of Juliette. There wasn't too much to look at, save for the huge chunks of concrete that covered the area.

She kept her eyes focused, but stopped suddenly when she spotted something. The little ball hovered over where she was looking and stayed still. "There," she pointed out to Aiden. "I think those are fingers." Her face twisted slightly as she said the words. Usually, she was dealing with live people, not people that had been gone for over two weeks. And usually, there was still a chance to save the people she worked with.

Hell of a first mission.

Nope, she hadn't heard. Aiden sighed a little, but mostly kept it in. Another tally for the list of times he'd done this.

She didn't pry further, though, and his opinion of her rolled uphill a few notches in relief. Being prepared to explain again all at once didn't mean he wanted to. Talking was even more stressful than just being around people. Talking actually gave them things to feed on and manipulate and cling to.

As they walked, Aiden found it growing darker and reluctantly took off his sunglasses. They were away from the city workers now, for the most part, but he wasn't entirely sure how Juliette would respond. He always worried people would react poorly to his mutationally mismatched eyes, and he had heard that the silver one looked 'downright creepy' on more than one occasion.

Sure, it was mostly from young kids who were clearly awe, but not always. Sometimes it was clearly meant with disapproval and negative intent. And he'd heard it more while travelling across the country.

He was getting too far into his head again. If he did that, then he probably wouldn't even notice if he found someone, and all this clambering and peering would be completely useless.

Orrrr Juliette could find someone. Aiden swung himself over the debris immediately, for the moment reacting physically and not directly thinking about the situation. He made his way over to the glowing ball, a stray snowflake drifting here and there in his wake again, and bit his lip a bit.

Fingers indeed. Discoloured fingers, leading under a smallish (in comparison to the rest) sheet of concrete and a whole lot of debris. Aiden hesitated, but then caught his emotions and stomped them back down into the little box labelled 'Work.' This was his job today. This was part of what it meant to be an X.

"If we clear off this piece, I think the two of us can lift it," he said firmly, forcing himself to look at the concrete. One thing at a time. Each task in its place. First task would be to make this sheet as light as reasonable; second task would be to move that sheet out of the way. The city crew was busy, so if they could do this with just the two of them it would be the most efficient. Fewest manhours per obstacle.

And really, they just had to tilt it, and it wasn't that big. Definitely under a thousand pounds, probably only two hundred. And a less awkward shape than hay bales. He'd had practice on those.

That was it, just keep focusing on the task at hand. He moved carefully around where he thought the person was buried concrete slab ended, lifting smaller pieces of debris away and carefully finding stable places for them amidst the rest of the rubble.

Juliette blinked quickly at Aiden. He had removed the sunglasses he had been wearing to reveal two very mismatched eyes. The sunglasses had covered them before, and she also hadn't really spent very long looking at him. The silver one gave the impression of being unusable, while the other looked fine. She glance at him for just a second before looking away, well used to seeing stranger things in the E.R. Aiden didn't really look like he wanted to discuss either his eye or his time away, so she didn't bring either up.

>>"If we clear off this piece, I think the two of us can lift it,"

"Yeah," Juliette agreed slowly, biting her lip as she glanced at the piece of concrete. In comparison to the ones around it, it was far, far smaller, and didn't look nearly as heavy. That being said, it didn't look as though it would be an incredibly simple task to move the piece of concrete and grab the body at the same time with just the two of them.

She walked around the piece of concrete so that she was standing opposite from Aiden, and counted to three, expecting that Aiden would know what to do. On three, she squatted and lifted her side of the slab with as much strength as she could muster.

The concrete scratched at her hands roughly, and she wished that she had had the foresight that Aiden had to bring gloves. 

Juliette moved high enough on the list to jump into the actual good book. Which was pretty empty.

Not the priority right now. Not getting harassed was great, but not the priority. The priority was work. Right.

Once the slab was more or less cleared, Aiden stretched his hands, fingers awkwardly interlocked around the gloves, and made sure his feet were securely placed. Dropping this would not be good, even if the most it would probably do injury-wise would be to crush their feet. At most. Which would suck. And hurt. And there was nowhere near enough snow around for him to heal himself.

Could Juliette heal herself? The floating ball of light didn't suggest so, but then Doc Prof's healing power involved glowy light. Assumptions about people's powers never seemed to go well anyway.

One.. Two.. Three.

Gloves handling grip and boots handling foundation, Aiden set his teeth and hauled. The slab shifted, little pieces and dust running across it.

Heavy.

The slab of concrete had started to shift as the two of them lifted, and an awful screeching noise accompanied it. Juliette shut her eyes under the deluded idea that doing so would both help her lift the slab and block out the noise. It did neither.

Bridges were not designed to be lifted piece by piece, apparently. 

"That should be good," Juliette called to Aiden, her voice greatly strained. They had moved the slab a good two feet, and the body was nearly visible. She almost wished she had kept her eyes shut, since the body under the slab was not a pretty sight.

Leaving a body out in a humid environment for two weeks under slabs of concrete was not a good way to keep it. The sight was horrible, and the smell was almost worse. It was the same one that she could smell when they first arrived, only amplified tenfold.

She slowly set down the slab, careful not to go to quickly and drop it when Aiden wasn't ready. Her hands were scratched raw and they were definitely bleeding. There was no way that the two of them would be able to lift any slabs bigger than that one. They were going to need a different plan.

The muscles in Aiden's arms were definitely at least raising their metaphorical eyebrows at him, if at least not yet punching him for over-use. The slab was moving, though, and they just had to go a little farther. A bit more, a bit more.

And don't think about the smell -

Nope, now he was thinking about the smell. Even cow carcasses didn't smell this bad. They weren't great, but the handful he'd come across on his temporary and undesired retirement had all been well chewed before they had a chance to putrefy. Even then, though...

Aiden really was a bit of a city kid, even if he wasn't from the city, and he didn't really have a ton of direct experience with things like this.

So, once they'd set the slab down out of the way, and he'd had a chance to actually look at what they'd uncovered without thinking the glance through... Aiden went almost as pale as if he were covered in snow, if a little greener, and turned around very quickly.

Don't throw up, don't throw up, don't throw up

Aiden looked pale. Like, really pale, and he looked about as sick as Juliette felt. He turned around and looked as though he was going to puke.

Despite her usually thick stomach, Juliette felt similarly. The cadaver she had dissected in college had been well preserved and didn't look like... That.

There had been a reason she didn't go to school to be a coroner. 

With the concrete slab set down, Juliette dusted off her freshly bloodied hands and tried to ignore the fact that they stung with every instance of contact. She walked over to the area they had just cleared and tried to get past her gag reflex to look at the body. It was... Difficult.

She was forced to turn around twice to regain her composer, ignoring the fact that her stomach threatened to give out. It probably would have been a good idea to have gotten gloves and a mask before coming, but it was a little late. She could probably shift to energy form, but she wasn't sure how much damage she would do to it. For all she knew, the person still had a family waiting for news on their loved one.

It looked like she was going to be doing it by hand. 

She glanced at Aiden quickly to see if he was alright, and then closed her eyes and grabbed the hand of the corpse. 

Come on, time for some perspective. This was horrible, but it wasn't the worst thing he'd experienced. It wasn't the worst thing he'd experienced since joining the X-Men. That honour, he was quite sure, sat squarely with the Alaska Incident. Should he call it that? He'd pondered, vaguely, if he should give it a specific name, but nothing had ever stuck.

He'd actually thought about 'Alaska Incident' before, but it hadn't stuck then, so it probably wouldn't now either. Anyway.

Breathe in, breathe out.

If he could survive what had happened in Alaska, with its very personal if vague horror and pain, he could get through this. Breathe in, breathe out. Get used to the stench, because it wasn't going to go away any time soon. Games and books could imply smell but not recreate it, but he'd be damned if he let a bad smell keep him from doing his job.

Or a bloated, rotting corpse.

Nope he was going to do his job. Aiden gave his head a shake, neck popping a little in the process, and turned back around. Juliette had the purpled, black-smeared - enough enough enough he wasn't trying to describe this - hand in hers. Right. Third task had been to put down the slab. Fourth task was to... to take this person's remains to the collection area. So they could be identified, their family notified if they had any family.

He knew just how hard that conversation was. The sooner it came, the less people were left wondering, the sooner they could start to process it. That headstart was important when life had gone so terribly wrong.

Aiden stooped beside Juliette and the corpse and tucked his hands under the shoulders. The sturdy jacket might not have protected them at all, but it did make for a more reliable surface when he needed to pick them up.

You know...

...

"We can probably just let the city crews know we found someone." Might be a little bit belated. Also... "They... might also have spare gloves." Maybe a little bit apologetic there that he hadn't noticed before.

Juliette was more than grateful for the help that Aiden provided. If it had just been her grabbing the hand alone, she likely wouldn't have been able to do it. God, this was not what she had assumed she was signing up for when she joined the X-men.

It took them just a few minutes to complete the task. Juliette stood with her bloodied hands on in fists on her hips, looking over what they had accomplished. It was... Not what she usually did with her day.

>>"We can probably just let the city crews know we found someone. They... might also have spare gloves."

Juliette nodded enthusiastically, trying her hardest to keep her face from twisting into a grimace. "They probably have a team of people who deal with the bodies. They'll probably take it from here." And she wouldn't argue about the glove, either. Not in the least bit. She could go for some anti-septic wash, too. They would probably have some of that somewhere.

She started to retrace their steps back to the entrance of the area where everyone was situated. Going back was a little easier, especially since she wasn't keeping an eye out for any more bodies.