Rubbing his head slightly as a Sam picked up the glass in front of him he leaned his head back and took a reddish looking pill from a small pill container that Doc had given him two days before, the pills themselves were prescribed to Sam after the whole haywire fight at the King Pharmaceutical labs the main reason he had been taking them is do to the headaches he had been receiving. Stress as the Doctor had prescribed it couldn’t be healed seeing as there was nothing physically wrong with him other than being tired and somewhat sore from the time he was infected with the haywire virus. The only downside to the pills that the doctor prescribed him once he came to was the fact that they gave him horrible cotton mouth, which was better than the alternative mind splitting headaches.

Much to DocProf’s disapproval however Sam personally deemed it appropriate to end his bed rest two days earlier than planned and decided to call a meeting of the minds for the X-Men. Text messages, and phone calls were made once Sam called for the meeting. As he sat in the war room chair, not the head chair that Tricity always used but the chair he was sitting in was two to the left of the chair, his usual spot.

Sipping a glass of water to help prevent the cottonmouth Sam jumped slightly as the P.A. system rang out through the War Room in a calm woman’s voice, “May Shawn Quincy, Luke Jacobs, Raina, Maya Swift, and Tetsuya Shinbo please report to the Meeting room, I repeat; Shawn Quincy, Luke Jacobs, Raina, Maya Swift, and Tetsuya Shinbo, thank you!” with a click the system fell quiet as Sam waited for everyone.

Hoping that everyone knew that the meeting room meant War Room Sam waited patiently looking over the vanilla folders with the future missions in it. For obvious reasons he told the woman to say meeting room not war room if she said War Room students might start questioning their safety and in turn may cause some sort of upheaval which would only undermine the general idea of the school, which was a safe place for mutants to live.

Streak was enjoying his day off. Relaxing and chilling out on the grounds. The cool breeze blew through the trees and kept him from breaking a sweat as the sun gazed down on him. He’d found a hammock sitting outside under the shade of a few trees. Thankfully no one was in it and so without a second thought he stepped into it and started to relax. The distant noise from the children playing outside floated to his ears as he swayed back and forth in the hammock. Things were going quite smoothly and peacefully when he’d heard the intercom. The PA system boomed to life and he could just make out what the woman at the other end of it was saying.

“May Shawn Quincy, Luke Jacobs, Raina, Maya Swift, and Tetsuya Shinbo please report to the Meeting room, I repeat; Shawn Quincy, Luke Jacobs, Raina, Maya Swift, and Tetsuya Shinbo, thank you!”

Streak sat up with a groan. “What meeting room?” He wondered out loud. Getting off the hammock he started to make his way to the only place that he could think of that would be secure enough and private enough to not let others pry in on their meeting. The fastest way to get there was through his and Sam’s office. Thankfully they had decided to create this quick ways to their main work areas. The secret door to their private room slid open and closed as Shawn walked through it. He immediately found the door that showed him the fire pole that he’d installed.

It didn't get much use but whenever he was close enough he used it. Shawn walked out of the little closet-room-thing that he’d created when he was installing the pole and saw Sam was already sitting there. “Oh good I chose the right place to come to. How ya been man?” Streak asked. He knew that Sam had gotten hit with the Haywire virus and he hadn’t seen him very much since to know for sure. He sat down across from Sam and saw the folders that were sitting in front of him. Streak knew exactly what it was that they were here for. It wasn’t the first time that he’d been here for a meeting like this with similar folders sitting in front of the person who’d be dishing them out. Streak waited patiently for the rest of the group to join them.

When she got the text, at first, she didn't know what it was. She went to Aurm with a truly perplexing question. "My phone made a weird noise." Ghost dumped the silver phone on the clean top of the coffee bar. "Fix it?" He'd showed her before, but that was on a different phone. And that phone had made a different noise than this one made.

She'd thought it was low on battery, but soon enough Aurum was showing her a screen that said it was from Sam's phone. Something about an X-meeting. That was fine by her, but really -- why hadn't he just called? He just didn't seem to be the same after Haywire. Neither had Garrett. And now Ghost was terrified that she was loosing one of her best x-friends.

As much as she hated to take advantage of being the boss, now was one of the times when she was actually willing to do it. "I'm taking off, Aurum. Shin won't be able to come in either by the looks of it. Can you handle the store?" She knew he could. She just wanted to hear it from his lips before she went sailing off into the distance.

Ghost breezed into the war room, which Ghost had noticed was labeled the "meeting room" in the page she'd heard earlier. She much preferred meeting room to war room, but she still couldn't help but tease Sam about using her name. "Maya Swift? Really? I doubt half the team even knows that one." It was a very personal thing for her since anyone who'd bothered to call her by that name had seemed to betray her somehow. It wasn't boding well for Sam if he'd chosen that name. In protest, Ghost remained stubbornly incorporeal.

Raina was in her office when the announcement came on, truth be told she completely forgot about the meeting. She hopped up and got herself ready. She wondered if anyone would have any more info on the hit list she, Luke, and DS had discovered a few months earlier. Honestly with all of her own personal drama going on she hadn't thought much about it.

She gave a stretch and headed out down the hallway. It was a short walk to get there and she saw Ghost enter just ahead of her, Raina came right on her heels.

"Hey everyone!" she gave a wave and grabbed the closest seat.

White-laced high top came down on black top with a smack like lips meeting. The orange sphere bounced as Shin wove around a security drone towards the net. His chest heaved, sweat trailed on his brow. More found its way down the side of his right arm to the crack between flesh and cast. With a final dribble that punctuated the danger room’s silence like an exclamation point, Shin lifted his left arm to shoot. The basketball clashed against the backboard and hit the side of the net on its way down.

A whish, a whiff. Woof. Aiming with his left hand was still off. Unfortunate. He turned to watch the robots rush forward to reclaim the ball, and scratched at the coffee-stained cast on his right arm. A ½ inch triangle hovered a few centimeters off the tip of his casted index finger, balanced precariously on the edge of concentration. The robots barreled past him with a whoosh as they charged the net. He let the triangle vanish with a sigh, reaching into his left pocket for his cell phone and flicking it open without a thought. His thumb pressed a few buttons, bringing up the text message logs. A blue-bordered window popped up on his screen.

“Something from Sam…” His cheeks cinched into a frown. Sam… Why did the name take away his good mood whenever he read it these days? It wasn’t like he held anything against the man. Sam just seemed to blame himself for everything that happened far more than was necessary. He broke Shin’s arm, attacked their friends, yeah… but it wasn’t like he was in control when it all happened. Just some insane SEED mode in effect… They’d described the effects of Haywire to him, but that was as far as he’d gotten with the connection. His eyes trailed over the message. “Wonder what Sam wants to talk to me about in the war room…” He closed the cell phone with a shrug, raising his voice to bark “Simulation, END!” The illusion of the back lot basketball court vanished as the robots slumped back to their rooms. For a moment, Shin smiled at the scene. They almost looked disappointed.

He walked over to the side of the danger room and plucked his blue towel off the metallic gray. Shin dabbed at his neck as he walked towards the massive door. It swung shut as he exited the room. The lights snapped off.

~*~

A few minutes later, Shin made his way to the war room. Gone, were the black track shorts and tank top he'd worn for the session. Instead, he wore a brown jacket over a white and red shirt with the design for some anime character silkscreened onto the chest. He sat down in the chair next to Raina, lifting one blue-jeaned leg over the other. "So, what's this about, Sam?" He fretted with the stringe of the twine necklace hanging on his chest as he waited for an answer. His eyes shifted from Raina to Ghost to Shawn, then back to Sam. Something was definitely up...

Luke was still embarassed by the whole situation with Rupert and Raina as well as the fact that he had purposely avoided telling Raina about his recent blindness. Because of that fact he'd been burrying himself in work and spending as much time away from the mansion as possible. What good was a blind X-Man anyway? He had almost convinced himself that maybe everyone would just let him dissapear in peace when he got a call on his phone from a young man, passing on the message that Sam was requesting for him as well as many others to report to the meeting room.

"Ah hell." Luke muttered after hanging up. Grabbing his cane he moved smoothly out of the office, silently thinking the fates that his skills with the cane were returning so quickly. "Cancel all my appointments for the rest of the day and have a driver meet me out front." Luke instructed his secretary as he headed for the door, "If there is anything extremely important pass it on to Miss Langley. She can handle everything just fine."

***

Luke was expecting to be the last one to show up at the meeting. As far as he knew, everyone else that was being requested still lived at the mansion which meant he had the farthest to travel. The drive over had been filled with silence as Luke brooded over what this meeting might be about and why in the world he was even being called. Didn't everyone know he was practically helpless at the moment?

Finally he arrived and after telling the driver he'd call him if he needed to be picked back up, Luke made his way into the mansion. The noise of children and teenagers walking through the halls and talking back and forth was a welcome distracting and Luke had to admit it even made him smile ever so slightly. This was deffinately a part of life at the mansion that he missed out on by living in the city, but it was for the best. His resources at the family business were a definite asset for the X-Men and even if he couldn't provide them with anything else, he could still do that.

An elevator ride and then a short walk down a hall brought Luke to the meeting room and he entered slowly, focused in concentration as he tried to figure out where everyone was sitting from sound only. He had heard Ghost's voice but he couldn't place her for some reason. Everyone else seemed to be in idle conversation and so he made his way toward the end of the table with the most empty seats and took one that was available. A brief hello and wave was all the greeting he gave before leaning back and waiting for things to start.

"Do all of them know or will I have to tell them?"

Head still pounding slightly to the footfalls and the opening doors swishing aside to let his teammates and his friends enter the room. The first to arrive was Streak, which he knew used the secret passageway they had installed several months ago when they got their office together. Not bothering to turn around and greet him till he came into view Sam took a sip of water again trying to parch his dried out mouth and then gave Streak a small nod once he could be seen. Taking another sip of water as Ghost, Raina entered the room Ghost clearly upset about the P.A. system calling her, texting her and or calling her name out throughout the school,

Turning his attention to Streak first, ”Been better, massive headaches due to the strain haywire put on my mind but Doc has the medicine…” Sam wanted to share pleasantries with everyone there seeing other than Shin and Ghost he hadn’t seen any of them in a long while though he always did appreciate both Shin’s and Ghost’s company. He gave a look to Streak that said ‘we can talk later if you’d like’ looking to Ghost he took a sip of water and let out a sigh as he drained the glass and made to refill it with the pitcher in front of him his endless thirst now quenched for the moment, ”To be honest I told them to call the code name but who ever was working the P.A. might have thought it was a better idea to use real names after I made the request that she said meeting room instead of the War Room.” Sam looked to her apologetically and mouthed a ‘Sorry’ not entirely sure she could see his lips move in her gaseous state having never experienced that side of her mutation before.

Giving Raina a small nod Sam’s face went from relaxed to tensed up when he watched Shin enter the room with a cast on his arm, his right arm, the arm Sam was almost positive Shin did everything with. Glaring at the cast Sam’s eyes shot up to Shin’s face. He couldn’t really read if Shin was truly upset with him or not even if he said it wasn’t his fault it still was, he lost control and he broke the arm and hurt all of his friends…
”Some things are happening regarding how we are going to work.” Sam said calmly looking from Shin to everyone else. No longer worrying about if Shin was truly not mad at him and still trusted him Sam’s face tried to go back to his calm ‘In the Game’ look one that said he meant business.

”As soon as Luke gets here we can start the meeting.” It was a few dull moments before Luke arrived but once he entered the room Sam’s hand rose to the vanilla folders in front of him. A small turn of the wrist and the stack fell to the side lifting the first folder at the top Sam looked around and said, ”We have some new missions but first I want to take this time note the small changes for the way things are run here, seeing as Tricity is so busy she asked me to help out and I have come up with a few ideas how to become more efficient, the reason why I invited you all here was because you all have some experience in the field, some of you more than others…” turning his attention to Raina then Streak then Ghost.

”You three in particular have more experience than the others, and as such you have all been promoted to Team Leader status…if you should choose to accept.” he waited a moment hoping that none would object but he continued on his head turning to Luke and Shin. ”Then there are you two, both of you have shown great teamwork and leadership skills with the other members of the team and after the situation at the K.P. labs it only confirmed my feelings that you both should become full fledged X-men…” he paused then looked about the group to try and guess what they were thinking before he continued, ”If any of you have reasons or doubts about the promotion I am about to give you please voice your opinion now so I can…” he paused a sly grin appeared on his face ”Argue with you…” he was adamant on making the three team leaders and the other two full members. He trusted everyone here and that what teamwork was all about, how could he help run the X-Men with people he didn’t trust?

Streak nodded. There was something that Sam wasn't telling him. He had a feeling that he already knew what ws going through his mind. Sam seemed to have gotten a little uncomfortable when Shin walked into the War Room. Finally Luke walked into the room. Why was he using a cane? Couldn't he see with his sonar powers. he thought as the blind man joined the meeting.

Sam started talking. "I'll take the responsibilty of a team leader." Streak said to him. He felt that he was definately ready and capable of being one. Technically he'd already lead a few battles. None were missions but they still counted in his mind. Streak couldn't wait to find out what the missions were that Sam had found out.

Streak was pretty sure that Sam knew what would make the best teams. Although he thought that he should get a little bit of clarification on it. "I'm guessing that all these missions will be different, those ones in front of you and any in the future. So I feel confident that they will vary, right? Well I certainly hope that we'll get to choose our own teamates for each mission so that we can guarentee our success." The answer should have been obvious but he needed assurance.

When Luke came in... Ghost wasn't sure it was actually him. She took a long time trying to inspect the details without pressuring him (literally) before she was sure it was him. But... there was no reverberation of power around him. None. In this form she would likely have felt it if there were so much as a tremor. But there wasn't anything. Ghost tried to inspect Raina next, but the fishlady and herself weren't especially close. She couldn't tell much of anything about her expression without physical eyes.

A very, very soft whisper tickled around the hairs on Luke's ears. No doubt that anyone sitting close to him, and he seemed to have chosen a seat far from others, would have missed the tiny Ghost voice that was intended only for Luke. "Are you okay? You don't have to say anything just nod or shake your head." She was giving him the option to remain discreet if he wanted. He didn't have to talk about it in front of everyone, but Ghost might corner him later and bribe him with coffee.

Ghost listened politely when Sam spoke and agreed with everything he said (especially Shin and Luke's promotion! That was exciting!) except for the uh.. leadership part. She raised a less than substantial hand and after Sam called on her she asked her question. "Uhm. What exactly are the responsibilities of a team leader? Can I know what I'm signing myself up for first?" Streak sounded like he already knew, but... well, Ghost wasn't as deeply involved in the Mansion's workings as they were.

ooc: Sorry for the delay friends!

ic:
Raina took her seat and watched as everyone came in. She heard the sound of Luke's cane and her stomach dropped. He still hadn't explained how he'd lost his sonar. She felt torn. Part of her was so upset over the Rupert issue and she really was concerned about his power loss, but she was mad as hell that he hadn't told her himself and she had figured it out.

She listened attentively to CS and wondered if she could honestly add one more thing to her agenda. It was hard enough keeping up her job at the aquarium, music teacher, and guidance counselor. Not to mention all the administrative stuff. Could she really handle being a team leader? She knew the x-men needed some more experienced people to take the reins but could she honestly be counted on? If the last 6 months of her life where any inkling... then no.

She spyed Luke and unintentionally overheard Ghost talking to him. Her cheeks burned red. She still wasn't clear on what their relationship status was anymore and though she'd never felt threatened by Ghost before she was suddenly feeling insanely jealous.

Great. Just great.

"yeah, I'd like to know the responsibilities too, I might need to think on this." she chirped up sounding waaaayy too chipper trying to hide her discomfort.

(OOC: Didn't want this thread to die completely so I decided to go ahead and post. Let me know if anything needs edited. Right before I posted Raina got a chance so here's my post then.)

IC:
The meeting was progressing smoothly enough but Luke still felt odd and out of place. Why had he even come when he couldn't offer anything to the team anymore? Why was he hear?

"Are you okay?" Ghost's voice suddenly seemed to be whispering in his ear almost making him jump out of his seat. The air elemental could move silently through the room so he hadn't even realized she was this close until she began to talk. "You don't have to say anything just nod or shake your head."

For a moment he was torn, wanting to keep his secret as long as possible but eventually the honest side won out. Almost imperceptably shaking his head that everything wasn't OK, Luke found himself about to jump again when Ghost's voice suddenly came from another area of the room as she answered Sam. How in the world had she moved so quickly? Was this part of her power that he didn't know about? Those were deffinately questions to be discussed at a later time whenever they eventually talked again.

But at the moment there was something more pressing. Luke had to come to a decision. Did he speak up and reject becoming a full fledged X-Men since his power didn't work or did he go ahead and agree while hoping and praying that his sonar somehow reappeared? If he spoke up now, the whole team would know what was going on and he wasn't sure he was ready for that revelation quite yet. Raina knew since she had figured it out during the whole Rupert/Raina fiasco, but they still hadn't had a chance to really talk about it and everyone else was completely in the dark.

"I'll do whatever I can." Luke spoke up, deciding to take the diplomatic route for the moment, "And of course I'll be glad to use my company contacts whenever we might need them."

It was all just so wrong... why had Sam decided this without even consulting him about it?!

"..." Shin was silent for a moment. Sam was referring to his work at King's Pharmaceuticals in a positive light. He was referring to the very situation that led to the outcome of a broken arm and injured pride. Kasumi had been attacked at King's Pharmaceuticals, and nearly killed. Sam had broken Shin's arm. Shin had been assigned with keeping the non-X-men safe when fighting broke out, but in the aftermath, he'd seen what a good job he'd done of it. He'd panicked. When push came to shove, he focused in only on the people he knew. He did a lousy job, even at that.

"I couldn't even keep Kasumi safe..." Shin muttered under his breath. His eyes fell on the table. He really didn't want to look anyone in the eye right now if he had self-doubt. "I want to be there to protect people, Sam. To give the world an example of what good mutants can do... but when it all came down to it at KP, I faltered. Do you really think I'm X-men material? I couldn't even protect myself from you..."

As he looked from person to person in the War Room Sam took in everything everybody said and looked back down at the files in front of himself before grabbing a sip of water from his glass after refilling it with the pitcher near him. They all had their doubts which was fine by him in fact he wanted them to have doubts, it was one of the things he had prepared for and frankly he was glad that they all didn’t agree on the spot.

The first person he looked to was Streak with a smile he nodded his head and spoke, ”Wouldn’t expect nothing less from you Streak, the missions will indeed be different and take you to various locations on the globe from time to time, however you will not be able to choose your team mates, I’ll be assisting Tricity in coming up with them and dishing them out before briefings, though should you have any problem with the selection of team mates you have been given from the mission we will take it in to account for future missions.” he slipped Streak an apologetic nod and then continued on with the details of team leaders.

”Your position of team leader will require you to call the shots during the mission, it’s your job to make sure the missions get carried out effectively and safely is possible, I wouldn’t be asking this of anyone, in fact I had though long and hard about this before I nominated you all as team leaders. I need people I can trust on the field people who not only have experience but have morals and good judgment, this you all have!” he smiled to the group then continued, ”Though I know that you all have very busy schedules the first thing I will ask of you is to be patient with me and I will try and to accommodate to your schedules as best as possible, some of you have more time than the others, which is why some will get more missions than others.”

”What the job entails other than you leading the teams in the field, is that there will be mandatory briefings and debriefings before and after each mission, so you can tell us how your mission went on how well your individual teams worked together after each mission. Something that both I and Tricity will be curious about so we can improve the effectiveness of the teams, and from time to time there will be team meetings such as this so we can go over everything that has been happing with the team as a whole so we can better understand the goings of the other individual teams.”

Turning his attention to Shin now Sam eyed him and said calmly still feeling guilty about the incident at KP, ”Shin there wasn’t much you could do, I asked to much of you and it was a heat of the moment decision the fault rests with my self, I should have left Ghost or Streak to help you and for that I apologize, but seeing as you had such a burden to carry you did a phenomenal job with what you had, you showed both initiative and courage which is why you're here today, if you weren’t there would have been a lot of deaths.” clearing his throat Sam added quickly, ”Thank you, Shin….”

Glad that none of his friends were killed Sam looked around expectantly, ”Now any other questions of complaints?”

Streak continued to listen to Sam. He wasn’t particularly happy about Sam’s answer but he trusted him and was sure that he wouldn’t set any of them up for failure. This was one thing that he needed to watch out for. Streak had his own plans and things that he’d need to go through before he went on any mission. Personally, Streak thought, I’d rather have the final say on who’s on my team depending on the mission. Although he’d heard what Sam had said he also thought he’d read a little bit more into it; like there might have been a ‘I’ll ask you first’ look in there. But Streak could have just been imagining it.

The silver manipulator had been inside throughout most of the KP battle so he had no clue as to what was going on outside the building until after it had happened. And once it had happened it was too late for him to do anything to help the situation. Streak agreed with Sam; however, Shin did do as good a job as anyone could have done without any major past experience or training with such occurrences. Streak looked at Shin and gave him his own little ‘good job’ smile and nod. Luke seemed to be a little disconnected from the rest of the group. Streak still didn’t know what it was but there was something off in the way he answered and the way he interacted with the group, compared to his previous interactions with them.

No one seemed particularly happy to be there. Well, they wanted to be there, Ghost was sure, otherwise they wouldn't have answered Sam's call.

She frowned. It was probably hard to see since she was gaseous at the moment, but the frown was there. There was something wrong with Luke, but he didn't want to say. That was his right, but as his friend it was her right to bother him about it once the meeting was over. So for now it was best to focus on the meeting.

"Under the influence of Haywire, I doubt many could have stood against Sam. I'm just glad it's all gone." She was trying to be encouraging to Shin, though it brought back memories of Garrett... since he had apparently been the one responsible for the actual destruction. Man, being an X-man was hard work and not always immediately rewarding.

Sam's explanation was enough. "I'll do it. I'll be a team leader. Helping people is important..." More important than a job. And as the boss, she could just hire more people to help with the load... though of course that meant giving up some of the control over the store. Was everything organized enough to hand off to someone else? Would they understand how she needed things to run? She'd find out soon enough.

And she'd have to find the courage to command. It would be good for her... she was pretty sure it'd be good for her anyway.