Isabel had visited the Mansion grounds a few time in the past, but the majority of those visits had been with the express purpose of wrecking the school and stabbing as many X's as she could get her hands on. To think she'd be returning in order to actually talk to one of the do-gooders set her teeth on edge.

Waltzing up and knocking on the door definitely didn't seem like the right way to go about things. Everyone knew the X's had a thing going on with the NYPD and dropping herself on their doorstep all wrapped in a bow could only lead to handcuffs and a tussle with the new META bots. That was so not going to happen if she had any say in it. Absolutely not.

So she took the much saner route of stalking around on the grounds and waiting for some hapless fool to wander by the spot she'd chosen to tuck away in. In reality she probably wasn't waiting all that long, but hanging around on the grounds made her nervous and fidgety. So when the opportunity presented itself she jumped at the first person that happened by.

"Start yelling and I'll cut your tongue out in a heartbeat I swear to god," she hissed, aiming to wrap one arm around the kid's neck and slap her other hand over their mouth. She was on a mission and she'd be damned if her target ruined it before she had a chance to gain any traction.

"Oh, it's you." All that pink hair near her face finally registered and she felt decidedly less anxious at the sight of it. Still, she couldn't quite risk the kid clocking her and making a break for the Mansion to rally the troops so she kept her grip firm. "Listen here you miserable drunk, you need to come with me and have a chat. I'll drag your ass outta this place if I have to, but it's gonna be a lot easier if you behave and play along."

Cafas had been enjoying a nice post work out walk in the fall air. Protein shake in hand, he'd decided to take a casual stroll around the grounds to cool down. The Mansion grounds had always seemed so safe.

Until he was ambushed by a familiar voice with an arm around the neck and a hand over the mouth.

What the?

"Start yelling and I'll cut your tongue out in a heartbeat I swear to god,"

They'd already started with the threats and they weren't even on their first drink. Cafas was more taken aback than afraid, because she was speaking. If she'd meant to kill him, he'd be dead. What was Isabel doing on the Mansion grounds randomly accosting people though? Surely that was a bit of a fool's errand even for her. Before he could struggle, her tone became just a little more bored.

"Oh, it's you. Listen here you miserable drunk, you need to come with me and have a chat. I'll drag your ass outta this place if I have to, but it's gonna be a lot easier if you behave and play along."

Cafas shrugged at her. He wasn't exactly in a position to fight her, if reports were to be believed. He was tired, toweled off but not showered, and in a decidedly weaker position. The woman's hand wasn't exactly huge though, so he got out some muffled words. "Oh, hey Isabel. Where did you have in mind?" He really wished she'd let him straighten up, she'd pulled him down by about half a foot and it wasn't exactly comfortable.

What the hell has my life come to.

Cafas attempted to gently remove the hand from his mouth. "Can I call you Isabel? You got some mutant handle I should be calling you?" They weren't friends. Far from it. Isabel was Ghost's friend though, so he would be civil, heck, he'd even make an effort to see the good in her that his girlfriend obviously did. So far, she hadn't already stabbed him that he had felt. That was a start.

The reply she got was fairly muffled and felt super gross against her hand, but Isabel was pretty sure she got the gist of it. At least the kid seemed willing enough to cooperate and not give her too much of a hard time, which was a relief because he was damp and smelly and she didn't want to be so close to him anymore.

"Wherever I don't care. As long as we're not standing around in the Mansion's backyard. And probably not somewhere that we'll be overheard by someone walking by." When he halfheartedly tried to pull her hand off of his face she released her grip around his throat and wiped her hands off on her pants while she took a step back. He was so gross. She would need a shower.

"Yeah, yeah, Isabel's fine. I never needed to hide behind a code name." God, why was he trying to small talk? Small talking was not Mansion leaving and therefore had no use in progressing her plans. Even if she was less anxious than she had been she was still uncomfortable loitering where they were.

"Can we just get going and find like a dark alley or an abandoned lot or something to chat in cuz I don't wanna be here and I'd like to just get everything settled so I can get on with my life." Don't be a jerk, X-Loser. Just follow the murderer to an isolated location and don't be weird about it.

"Wherever I don't care. As long as we're not standing around in the Mansion's backyard. And probably not somewhere that we'll be overheard by someone walking by."

Fair enough. There was a forested area nearby that Cafas could recall,and some residential areas that had more than enough back streets and empty lots. Apparently a mutant school that attracted frequent attacks, on top of its own accidents, did nothing for property values in the area. He doubted they'd exactly go up if Isabel was spotted around.

"Yeah, yeah, Isabel's fine. I never needed to hide behind a code name."

"Hiding for some, point of pride for others, but yeah I see your point." Cafas shrugged and stood awkwardly, released from the murderesses grip. Now he could see just the one of her, he had to say, she was pretty damn good looking. Not that he was looking, but it was kind of hard to not notice. He still had some odd notion that all mass murderer psychopaths would be ugly. He blamed films, and drank a mouthful of protein shake.

"Can we just get going and find like a dark alley or an abandoned lot or something to chat...

"Dark alley you'll be hard pressed to find, but we have forest and we have empty lot. Honestly, the forest seems more private." Cafas began moving that direction. It seemed suspicious to him, but Maya was clearly rubbing off. Now that she had all but stated she wanted to talk, and not killed him from ambush, he was happy enough to give her the benefit of the doubt.

He was also extremely interested in what would cause Isabel, noted murderer f cops and as anti-x-men as they came, to come and actually seek an X-man out to speak to. It had to be big. Really big. Either that or she was very quickly reforming her ways after contact with Maya, but that seemed a little far fetched.

Maybe we just got off on the wrong foot...

"Sorry about last time. Turns out drinking doesn't agree with me. Shouldn't have been an aggressive moron." Friendly, like he assumed Maya would want him to be. Plus talking while they walked made them seem much less suspicious to a passing glance.

They were moving. Moving was good. Isabel allowed the young man to take the lead as he was obviously more familiar with the area than she was. The forest did sound like a better idea than some back alley or empty lot. There would be a way smaller chance of running into anyone in a place like that. She could also kick her ass without him calling for backup if it came to that, but she'd cross that bridge if they came to it.

"Yeah well X's are all aggressive morons, drunk or not." Usually they were just aggressively preachy, and in the drunk's case mopey, but aggressive none the less. They were an awfully chatty bunch, too, always with the small talk. Isabel really just wanted to get where they were going and get back out again.

"But whatever. Whether you're a dick or not, and you are, it's neither here nor there," she continued, waving her hand dismissively as she fell into step beside him, scanning their surroundings and trying to keep an eye out for any intruders. "There's some serious shit going on under everyone's nose. Like, serious enough that I'm talking nicely to an X-Loser so go ahead and let that sink in if you have to. Things are about to hit the fan and I figure the goodie nerds might wanna be clued in before that happens so that I've got a little extra backup when I need it."

Aggressive morons is a bit harsh on Maya...

"Believe me, I knew it was serious the moment you were speaking. That you're here to try and secure back up is what kind of worries me. Your friends not playing ball? Or is it serious enough that you need us too?" He tried not to sound disbelieving. It just didn't strike him as likely that if she had her own faction's full support that she'd be speaking to him. Though there was at least some precedent for the groups co-operating, if he had heard correctly. Romania was the last one he could think of. If this was on that scale...

God help us all, if it is.

The wooded area was fast approaching. It wasn't exactly what you'd call a sprawling forest, but it was likely the largest genuine forest on the island. The pace he was maintaining was carefully casual. The last thing they needed was someone taking a second look, if indeed there was anyone to take a first look. The pink hair and the bow were hardly subtle.

"So, what exactly are we talking here? Something more to these police robots? Damn things are already so anti-mutant on the surface I'd easily believe they were more so underneath." He cast an inquiring glance at the mass murderess. The bots were really the only big development Cafas could think of. Well, there had been a few pretty serious crimes around the place too, but wasn't there always?

Isabel felt like they were moving too slowly. The relaxed pace was probably for the best, but it wasn't doing anything for her nerves. Most people tended to give her a wide berth so she didn't think anyone would really be all that tempted to follow them if they moved a bit faster. Getting an X to cooperate wasn't likely though, they were all so bull-headed.

Finally the wooded area came into view ad she started to feel a bit better. The sooner they got through the trees the sooner she could get through the whole ordeal and make her way back to the Sanctuary. She'd need to start frequenting the Ragnarok headquarters soon, but she didn't feel quite secure enough to start hanging around the base just yet.

"Of course the Order's there to back me up, but I think this is gonna be a little too much for us to take care of on our own if this thing really gets going. I just wanna have a Plan B in case things get really messy." Things had been steadily slowing down with the Order over the past few months. The group was still full of heavy hitters and she never doubted their ability to come together and get things done when needed, but their decrease in organized missions and faction related business in light of the new developments was making her uneasy. As much as she disliked the idea, she figured the X's might give them the extra boost they'd need to snuff out the potential threat.

"No, it's not the robots, though I wouldn't mind destroying those damn things, either." META was nothing but Stalkers with a new coat of paint. They were awful and she wanted them dead but she wasn't going to be the one to try it. Hopefully wrecking them would be one good thing that came out of Ragnarok.

"There's a new group that's starting to gain some traction and its end goals are... concerning," she started to explain, thankful when they'd finally reached the trees and had moved a few feet in. She wasn't comfortable standing still while they spoke, though, so she kept moving. "The name of the thing is Ragnarok, you know like the Vikings end of the world thing, which is exactly what they're aiming for. Guy named Jaager is running it, calls himself Jormungandr for faction business. He gives everyone code names from Norse mythology so people won't know who they really are. He runs the whole thing outta the JW building, big underground base and everything, and he's recruiting in earnest."

Isabel figured the name at least should be ringing some bells. The guy was all over the internet and some magazines and papers after he stripped for some kind of amateur interview. That, and he was NYC's newest rich business man, which some people tended to pay attention to. The X's were probably at least aware of him, if not interested.

"I figure you guys might start hearing about Ragnarok pretty soon. Jaager's actively encouraging us to cause a bunch of damage and vandalize stuff while we're at it. We've got so much spray paint. He wants us to be visible and get attention. Spray painting and petty crimes aren't really my thing and don't rank too high on my list of concerns, but this guy is really serious about that Raganrok end of the world thing. He totally wants to kill off the planet and try to start fresh or something. I'm all for reckless murder of the masses but this guy seems a little unhinged to me and mass extinction is a bit much. And with all that money and influence he's got I don't really doubt that he can actually start putting this stuff in motion."

End of the world nonsense wasn't exactly a rare thing to hear people spouting off about every once in a while, particularly from supremacists on either side, but very few people who preached about it actually had the means to put their money where their mouth was. But Jaager had a lot of money.

"He's already tried to get his hooks into me and I'm playing along. Has me using the name Fenrir. And I can't say I'm not having fun going out and causing problems for people, but the guy's making me nervous and I kind of think he's the kind of guy that'll turn on his own if the idea strikes him, but that's just a guess. I dunno how serious he is about the starting over part of his speeches or if he'd rather just kill everyone and call it a day.

"I figured this might be the kind of thing the X-Losers would want to keep an eye on. I'm playing along with his game and bringing back any interesting info to the Order and I figured they X's might want to do the same. Regular members are allowed to go out and recruit so as far as they know that's all I'm doing. But they've got no problem offing members that compromise his plans so that's why I don't want people following or overhearing me. I'd rather not get my throat cut."

"Oh, and there's one more thing that's bothering me. The guy's got a Cure and he's made it very clear he's not afraid to use it, even on his own people."

Jager? It sounded a lot like she meant the winged dude that stripped off for the internet. He'd seemd a little weird, but not doomsday cult unhinged. Norse doomsday cult, no less. That was just weird. Cafas listened intently as they moved through the trees, scanning the surroundings more carefully now that the danger of the situation was so apparent.

And there was more to it than even just destroying the world.

"A cure? Wait, Jager has a working cure? And it sounds like he's weaponising it? Shit, as if this wasn't bad enough. Alright, I can see why you came to us. I never thought I'd see the day I said this, but thank you Isabel."

Cafas had made his mind up before he had finished speaking. He was going to take up the role. He thought about running it past Sam, but honestly, he'd rather not risk Ghost getting the job, or Mirror... Or anyone. If someone had to take the seemingly suicidal mission, it may as well be Cafas. Plus, aside from Maya, what other X-man wasn't just going to try and arrest Isabel on sight?

And then there was the matter of the cure. Of WEAPONISING the cure. Having made it in the first place was at best short sighted, but now it seemed like it was blatantly treasonous. That cure needed to disappear. Hopefully before anyone else got their hands on it. He'd have to work on that too.

"So how does the blood traitor handle this recruitment thing? I'm guessing it's not just a matter of me waltzing in to HQ and saying 'Hey, Fenrir sent me.'?" Because that would be pretty low security. Though maybe the guy was just insane enough to actually have that be his entire security plan. Cafas could certainly hope so, even as he doubted it.

"So. Don't suppose you have a plan for this, what I predict will be uneasy, alliance?"

Thanks from an X was a little jarring. The situation as a whole was jarring and it was leaving a bad taste in her mouth, but for the sake of self preservation Isabel was willing to play nice with one or two of her enemies for a little while. She thought the whole non-violent adult decision making thing would be rather Zephyr-approved, though her execution of it might not be. She should probably clue him into what was going on, too, come to think of it. But that could wait until later.

"Yeah, it's all over the base. He uses it as some kind of security measure so I don't doubt he'd use it on the general public at some point, too." She hadn't spent much time at the base, but she'd been there just long enough to understand what the basic security was like. She tried to tread very carefully around the facility whenever she stopped by for fear of accidentally triggering that cure. Getting her throat cut was much more appealing.

How recruiting was handled was a bit trickier. She wasn't sure exactly how it worked, just that members were able to sort of usher people into their circle and hope they didn't wind up being too much of a disappointment. She had kind of been hoping to just info dump and take off. Strategizing wasn't really a strong point of hers.

"Let's maybe not throw my code name around until you're actually a part of the whole thing," she said, already fearing she might have giving just a little bit too much info. "The X's have a file on me so I don't doubt Jaager can get the same info pretty easily. An X walking in and saying I'd referred them is more than a little suspicious." Like kill her where she stood suspicious.

"Trying to schedule a meeting with the guy might be your best bet. He's a business person, so I think it'd make a good impression to do things sorta professionally," she suggested, carefully picking her way around a fallen branch in their path. Not stepping on dry sticks and making a bunch of noise seemed like a good idea. "Figuring out how you're supposed to know Jaager is the boss and get him to let you join is harder, though. The public is supposed to know about us, but not who we are under the code names. I dunno what kind of resources you X's have that you could use as an alibi or if you're a good enough liar to get some kinda story past them to say someone sent you." Especially past that Madeline woman. Could that woman sense lies? She didn't know, but she'd rather not risk it if she could avoid it. Secretaries as a whole were a scary, somehow-know-everything kind of people.

"I'm not really a planning kind of person. As far as I'm concerned I gave you the info, now it's on you to figure out how to use it. I'm not gonna pretend either of us has any kind of interest in turning into friends over this or anything, so the most I'm gonna offer is not trying to murder you on sight."

Using his cure as a security measure was just blatantly insane. Effective, to be sure, but insane all the same. Surely if what essentially amounted to a super powered street gang could get an agent in, the government would have no problem doing so. "How long do you suppose until we start seeing those robots with cure weapons? You and I might have different views on humans, but I'd wager we want to be human just about the same amount." Cafas had suffered for his mutation, but the thought of losing it... It was a part of him as surely as any limb, maybe more, because it formed such a major part of his identity.

How to justify knowing that Jaager was the leader was a difficult matter. Not being able to tell them who recruited him just made it harder. He didn't want to give Jaager the idea that the X-men were already a threat, either. That was endangering too many people. He couldn't go telling the man they had a file on Ragnarok, any more than he should have admitted to Isabel that they had one on her.

Though, really, of course we do.

There was also the matter that Cafas was not the most amazing liar. He found it generally distasteful. Acting had certainly helped. His contractual obligation to not say anything bad about the movies too. But people like Noel existed, and he certainly wouldn't be fooling her. Not without using half truths. He did have an idea though. "These guys seem pretty big on protecting their identities. They use masks right? Seems perfectly valid I wouldn't know who sent me. That could work."

See, it's crazy stuff like this that just screams 'going to have to kill someone'...

His face was a mask of concentration, and trying to comprehend everything he'd just learned, and think of what to do with it, rendered his mouth unguarded for a moment. "And I might have more interest in being your friend than you'd think. I appreciate the whole not trying to kill me thing though. If we could keep that up after this whole Ragnarok mess, that'd be great." He'd need to work on not just saying words as they came to him. It was liable to get him killed.

"I don't even wanna think about that." She could feel a shiver trying to climb up her spine at the thought of it. Stalkers and those horrible collars were bad enough. Throw a cure into the mix and it would be like something had crawled right out of Isabel's nightmares. She really hoped that wasn't on Jaager's list. Death and destruction without a cure was enough.

"We do wear masks, yeah. Makes it harder to pinpoint who the members are. People can't shut down a threat if they don't know where it's coming from." She hadn't been too keen on the idea of having to wear a mask at first. Isabel liked to be noticed and to work out in the open whenever she started causing trouble. But now the idea was much more appealing. "I can't really see too many of us throwing our code names around yet, so it could probably work if you went to JW and just said whoever sent you didn't give you a name." Hopefully. Jaager seemed a bit unstable, but Isabel wasn't sure if he was the paranoid suspicious kind of unstable. For her sake she hoped not. Maybe she should have thought this trough a bit more.

"The only other option I can think of it you kind of waiting it out until a better opportunity presents itself," she offered, wanting to find the best way into everything that would bring he least amount of trouble her way and possibly let the X get all his ducks in a row. "The guy's actively recruiting. If you don't wander into JW yourself you could keep an eye on what Ragnarok is doing and where they're doing it and try to put yourself somewhere that they'd notice you. If you've got an impressive or useful enough mutation I'm sure someone'll try to snap you up."

It was a bit of a struggle not to roll her eyes over the friendship thing. She already had some new mystery number in her phone under the garbled name 'best sister friend 5eva' along with far too many photos of herself and some other young woman. She'd apparently filled her friend quota for quite some time."Yeah, well it doesn't seem like the best idea to murder the only other person that's on the same page as me. At least until all this stuff blows over. I'm not gonna bother pretending to promise you're not gonna be back on my list later, though. I don't play well with X's."

The idea of waiting grated on Cafas a little, as did the idea of trying to figure out another person to recruit him. Lying was the much easier option there. It wasn't ideal, but it was better than trying to get involved after they were visible enough for patterns in their actions to become clear. That would look just as suspicious, if not more, than just claiming not to know who had sent him.

"Here, you're getting a power demo. I already know one mutant who can detect lies, so I'll not risk another. I get the feeling I my power might be something a group looking to do some high profile destruction in the near future might find useful." Cafas pulled a number of quarters out of his pocket and held them up. They melted together and formed a bullet shape. The bullet made a sharp crack and disappeared from his hand and a nearby tree practically exploded bark as the former coins buried themselves in it.

"Now picture a support girder of a skyscraper instead of coins, or just about anything instead of that tree." Because Cafas knew the potential he had at his finger tips. Destructively, it was frankly insane.

And they were back to the status quo again, with the threats of violence. It was strangely comforting compared to the idea of what they were going into, and the potential it had. He shrugged at the murderess and smiled, not something he'd ever expected to do for Isabel, the bowed bone brutaliser. "Like I said at the bar, just a different method to get our people equality. Ah well, no point arguing it. Let me tell you though, we're no happier about those robots than you are. The police have been taking liberties like this ever since they deputised us, because they knew they'd essentially halved the organised resistance against this sort of thing." Cafas sighed. He hadn't liked it to begin with, and it continued to rub him the wrong way.

Mutation demonstrations were always a subject of interest, but having an X showing off alone in the middle of the woods was a little worrying. Isabel chanced a look at the guy's hand as he held out the change for her to see while it all sort of dissolved together. The new lump of metal leaving his had was a lot harder to spot and the following crack and eruption of sound from the tree exploding nearby had her nearly jump out of her skin. That wasn't exactly subtle and probably definitely not the kind of thing that would keep people from snooping. This X idiot was gonna get them in trouble before they even got started.

"Yeah okay, that's probably useful for the destruction thing," she replied, eyeing the big chunk missing from the tree before returning to scanning the surroundings. This kid was doing nothing for her nerves, especially with that comment about mutant lie detectors slipped in between the mutation stuff. She'd never met someone like that, but now she was worried that she would. "So not so much lying. You go ahead and use the name I gave you if you need it. I can figure out something to tell Jaager if he starts asking questions. I'm probably better at talking myself outta trouble than you are anyway."

And back to those damn robots again. Law enforcement just had to keep playing with fire. "Only thing I hate more than X's are cops and their damn toys. And joining up with them didn't earn you idiots any points. Those bots are gonna bite you all right in the ass."

Talking himself out of trouble wasn't exactly one of Cafas' strong suits, it had to be said. He had no doubt that Isabel was better at it than he was. He was glad she'd agreed to let him use the given nae. He could twist half truths, but telling Jaager he didn't know who had sent him would be trickier. Hopefully the man didn't have access to an empath or something, but there was just no telling. "We'ss see if he takes you dealing with me as a sign of changed allegiances or as a threat. Don't know why he'd assume you'd be working with the X-men though."

"Only thing I hate more than X's are cops and their damn toys. And joining up with them didn't earn you idiots any points. Those bots are gonna bite you all right in the ass."

Cafas rolled his eyes at the start of the sentence. "What exactly is it you hate about us? The cops and their robots I get, but do we really interfere with the Order that much?" Because Cafas doubted it could actually be personal, given Isabel and Maya apparently got on just fine. Cafas gave his protein drink a shake and drained the rest before it got too long from his work out.

Hmm Maybe that shot wasn't the best idea.

He started walking again, just in case someone heard the sonic crack and came to investigate.No point being exactly where they were looking. Especially not given the company he was keeping and the topic they were discussing. Liable to get them both killed if it actually got back to Jaager. One hit with a cure and Cafas was no longer bullet proof. That wouldn't be good.

"No one in their right mind would assume I was willingly working with an X. Even I'm having trouble believing it." She could only hope Jaager would be under the same impression. If he thought otherwise she'd just have to buy herself enough time to talk her way through it. She'd had years and years of practice when it came to talking her way around issues and out of responsibility so she was fairly confident she could pacify him at least enough that he wouldn't try to bite her head off right away. She could deal with him watching her more closely instead. And if she would up in a tight spot she'd just see i she couldn't drag Zephyr into the whole mess to help her wriggle her way back out.

"Yes, I really hate you all that much. I know it might be hard to wrap your brain around the idea that someone doesn't like all your goodie-two-shoe nonsense, but here I am." They were like an itch she couldn't properly scratch or like an infestation that hadn't been wiped out thoroughly enough. The anthill she could see that was hiding too much more under the surface. It was infuriatingly annoying.

"Interfering even once is enough for me. I have very little patience for idiots that stand in my way and even less tolerance for that coexist, give peace a chance junk. Officially throwing your lot in with the cops was just icing on the cake."