(Post-senate bombing, these are the beginnings of the rescue efforts.)

His wife had been captured. Half his friends had been captured. His healing protege and aspiring world leader had been captured. There was no time to think, only to act. He had to get his wife back (as well as all the others).

In the first safe place he could find he called Noin Mortman on his cell phone. He didn't even stop to think that this was his first successful outgoing call that he made without help. As soon as he heard her voice he explained the situation. She was very forthcoming with and and all information Sebastian needed. Names, last approximate locations, everything she could give him on who was where in Romania.

Lenna. He hadn't seen her dragged off by the Romanian law enforcement after the bombing, so he would try her first. He would need someone who could handle themselves in a fight, and from what he had seen of her file when he had read up on the Kabal's employees, she had plenty of experience with that sort of thing. Another successful phone call made and he had the Colombian woman on the other end of the line.

"My name is Sebastian. I'm going to rescue Slate and the others. I need your help." Sebastian gave her the name of the hotel he and Ghost had been planning on staying at, but had never quite made it to check in. "Be discreet, I'll answer any of your questions once we're there." He didn't linger on the phone.

Now he just had to get there himself, slipping through crowds of anti-mutant protesters, skirting the media crews on every street, and avoiding law enforcement officers turned dog catchers out in force to capture stray mutants. A sweatshirt, a baseball cap, and swift feet aided in his journey. The only person who noticed the white shadow slipping through the crowds was another shadow with sunglasses masking the odd glow to his eyes.

He arrived at the hotel first, and slipped around the side to a protected spot where he could watch the door.

A gravelly voice he hadn't quite expected spoke from behind him, within the wall he had been leaning against. Not what he had expected, but rather fortuitous all the same. "You shouldn't be out on the streets looking like you are. There are much safer places for people like us, if you'd like me to show you."

Sebastian turned so he could face the pillar and the door at the same time. A pair of glowing eyes reguarded him questioningly for a moment before a young man stepped out of the stone column with nothing more than a ripple to indicate where he had been a moment before. Nonchalantly, the newcomer pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and slid them onto his nose to dim the glow of his lantern like eyes.

"I take it you are part of the Underground. If you don't mind waiting a few moments, I'm waiting for someone. Then, I'd love to go with you." Glowing eyes nodded their acquiescence and cool blue eyes flicked toward the door, "and here she is. Pardon me for a moment."

Sebastian stepped toward where Lenna was standing and signaled her to come over. "Lenna," he hoped that knowing her name would be enough of a signal of who he was. "This man is going to help us. Will you come with us?"

((Continued for Lenna directly from Polite Invitation to Be Ship Cargo ))

>>"Oh, and remember to pack snacks for the trip. Ivan doesn't usually share. Aside from that, I've nothing further to add. I hope to see you within a few days. Good bye, Miss Meld."

Lenna ended the call.

It was now 11:11AM in Bucharest, December 2nd, 2009.

Lenna turned back towards the television, pleased with herself for completing two important missions within the time frame she had, yet suddenly wondering what would occupy the remaining duration of her time until Meld's arrival...?

A sudden ring tone shook her from her reverie.

Lenna looked down to the phone in her hand. It was silent. "What the hell?" A split-second later, it dawned on her. Other phone. Oh, right.

The blond stalked over to her bags, and dug for it. Where was the sleek black iPhone she'd chosen for official business? Her hand darted around a pair of black socks, tossed a pair of jeans to the floor beyond, and... yes.

Found it.

Lenna received the call.

"Hello?"

>>"My name is Sebastian. I'm going to rescue Slate and the others. I need your help."

Timing. Lenna's lips turned upwards into a smile. "Right." It looked like she wouldn't be waiting around hopelessly for Meld, after all. Lenna fell silent as she took in all the information 'Sebastian' related. He spared a hotel name. She knew the location. She'd gone over a map recently, in case it ever came up.

She didn't say anything further. He wrapped up the call with a warning and a promise. 'Be discreet', more info on the way.

The call concluded. Neither party had dilly dallied. There'd be plenty of time for that, later.

Lenna glanced at her reflection in the mirror. Black top, long-sleeved, turtleneck. Blue jeans. She was presentable. Lenna grabbed her black leather coat and her blue scarf, then walked out the door.

She hailed a cab.

A short while later, Lenna arrived.

She glanced around curiously. Wonder what he looks like... Lenna mused. As far as Slate's friends went, she hadn't met many. Would he be tall? Would he be short? Would she have to squint to see him in a crowd, or would he stand out? All these questions and more, she wondered, as she stepped past the doorway, and into the warmth of the hotel.

A moment later, questions were erased. Someone greeted her... wearing a sweatshirt, and a baseball cap. A sweatshirt and a cap. Fashion sense, she hadn't postulated. He waved her to 'come over'. As she walked towards him, her eyes hopped over towards his guest.

>>"Lenna." "This man is going to help us. Will you come with us?"

Lenna gave a brief nod to the man in the baseball cap. "Yes." He must have been Sebastian. She looked towards the man from the Underground. "... And he is?"

A gravelly voice answered her question with a statement. "Come with me." With that, he turned, and led the way. Lenna and Sebastian followed.

She didn't like it. Being led to locations unknown. The man approached a parked vehicle. It was black. He motioned for them to get in.

One short (blindfolded, mind you. Blindfolded) car ride later, they were there. The man led Lenna and Sebastian onwards, into the old warehouse that housed the secret location of the underground.

She was still wearing a blindfold.

Still wearing a blindfold, mind you.

After this, Lenna hoped there'd be answers. Oh, so many answers...

Abyss, Mercury and Venus all Casually walked toward the opening to a large warehouse loading bay. A garage door was opened and a sleek black car drove in. It was driven by stone, he sounded like gravel and hide in columns, he could make other people disappear into the pavement under their feet, he was one of the few with an obvious mutation with the underground that Abyss didn't insist on leaving in a pair.

Abyss was here to greet a couple of newbies that the resident telepath relayed that were on their way. the underground once unified was a dangerous thing, all they really needed was some more muscle and well, they knew who to call for that didn't they? That's right, the Order. Not the namby pamby x-men, not the clinically professionalism of the Kabal, they wanted something wrecked so they called those that knew the business of destruction.

Abyss was flanked by his brothers and he waited patiently, the three still had the sweat of a mission on their brow. a small detachment of soldiers returning from the camps had been decimated and would likely never be found. They took Jupiter somehow and got him all the way to the camps, they suspected he was dead. Surely he wouldn't go peacefully.

The black car pulled to a stop and the three waited for the others to exit. two things happend simultaneously. Venous leaned over and whispered "Dibs" about one of the passengers and Mercurcy shouted "Sebby!" with glee about the other.

Abyss took a deep breath. This was going to test his patience.

The stony silence of their guide, the somewhat strange situation they were all in, the blindfolds, all of it added up to a very quiet car ride. After the pair of Kabal members had consented to being blindfolded, no one said anything until the car had finished winding its way to their final destination. As they pulled to a stop, the gravelly voiced driver grunted in his native Romanian, “Looks like they sent Red Liberty out to welcome you. Psyche must have thought you two were something special.”

From outside the car they heard,
>>>“Sebby!”

Sebastian's confused expression was still covered by his blindfold, but not for very long. Roughly textured hands removed the cloth from his eyes and the first thing her saw was a red face, or rather three, each with a different expression. Finding Abyss helping to run the Underground was not exactly what he had expected when he had dragged Lenna off to find the mutant resistance group. Considering they were in a foreign country, he had been expecting to find strangers rather than old... friends? ...enemies? ...acquaintances? ...or a bit of all three from the looks of things. Then again, the Kabal and the X-men were all here, maybe he should have been expecting this. Maybe he had already been told once upon a time that this was part of the grand scheme and he had forgotten some of the details in his marital distractions. It was quite likely. In either case, it meant a slight change of approach was necessary.

“Red Liberty, I presume?” he asked in his own rusty Romanian, politely extending his hand after gracefully extracting himself from the car. Hopefully this time the handshake wouldn't end with him flying through through the air (as well as any windows and walls that stood in his trajectory); they hadn't parted on the best of terms the last time they had met.

The unicorn man held off introducing Lenna in case she wanted her true name to remain secret, it was not the most gentlemanly thing to do, but it was better than giving out information she may want kept private.

He waited for Abyss' response to know in which language he should continue, so he could follow his example and speak in the tongue that was most comfortable to him. In that language he added, “We have business with the Underground. Is there a place a little more comfortable where we could discuss a few things?”

It seemed, as the rough hands of Mr. Stone pulled the blindfold away from Lenna's face to reveal three Red Mars clones, there would not be answers. Not yet, at least. All the revelation of red brought to her were further questions.

For starters.

"Mars?" She muttered. In triplicate. Why had she not heard more about this? One would think that would have come up in their talk. Hrm... well, this shot her infiltration of the Order one step forward. If, in fact, they were Mars, that was. They could be dopplegangers, brought about by a power. Those would likely -vanish- if her aura decided as such.

She took a few steps forwards curiously, as Sebastian extended his hand.

>>“Red Liberty, I presume?”

Or maybe they were brothers... Yes. That could have been a possibility. She kept back 7 feet for the moment, and held her chin. Might as well examine before the aura gives answers, she reasoned. If they were brothers... they might not all be as accepting as Mars had been about her Adaptation. It'd be best to come off on the right foot.

She was momentarily thankful Sebastian hadn't taken to introducing her. First, she'd wait on Big Red's response. Then, she'd know how to play her cards.

(continued from The Hit)

"For the record, there are six other guys that can do that just as well. And probably with more flair.”

True enough. The thought of seven behemoths stomping someone into particles was charming. Saturn was either stubborn or tough. Roland couldn't really tell or care. As long as they did the job as efficiently as this one, it was smooth sailing for the rest of the campaign. The scenery whizzed by the two of them as the red beast went on about the Order and Miss Faust. From what he could glean from the man's words, many respected the blond. Of course, with a colossus as your personal bodyguard, respect came first. Combined with her own mysterious powers, they were a force to be reckoned with. King Pharmaceuticals. A new name to be filed into his mental Rolodex.

Instructions soon came from a phone call to Saturn. Get to the base as fast as possible. Check. With a handbrake and a few shifting gears, the car was moving at breakneck speeds back toward the city. War was to be the next mission.Roland smiled along with his companion at the thought. Subtlety was a skill of Roland's, but violence was a pure pastime. "What kind of business did you have in mind?" As the roads steadily became more congested, Roland flipped his cigarette out the window. " I don't really care what kind of business it is. My days of breaking my back for a paycheck are long gone. Now it is time for me to relax and learn to use my abilities for fun and impact.I feel like with your organization that I can really hone my craft and become an artist of violence."

With a precise and polished drift, the car drifted into a spot between two others on the curb. Perfect parallel parking. In Roland's mind, everything he set out to accomplish was done with sterling success. "Curbside service." Stepping from the car, the remaining smoke swirled out behind him, trailing as if it waited to see what he would do next. The two made their way into the building, their auras of badass enough to make any milling mutants part like the Red Sea. A party had gathered already, including the horned man Roland had seen with Iris so long ago. Also present were three more of the red beasts, each just slightly different from the other. One in particular seemed to stand out as the alpha. Alphas usually did.

As Saturn broke of for a family reunion, Roland saw a metal folding chair nearby and it promptly appeared beneath him backwards as he took a seat before the others. Blindfolds? The new arrivals must have been from an outside organization. Lighting a new Dunhill, he took a draw and waited to be spoken to before speaking. That seemed like the best approach for now.

~~“Red Liberty, I presume?”

Abyss stared at him coldly for a moment and then a smile lifted the corners of his mouth ever so slightly, the Irony wasn’t lost on him, The old man was too forgiving for his own good. He let out a sigh and shook the man’s hand. And then looked to his right at the slightly wiggling with anticipation Mercury.

“The one, the only.” He said with a laugh. They had been wreaking havoc on Romania making them think that not only were they dealing with some sort of jugernaught, but one that could teleport and seemed to be causing them havoc at every step and every place.

~~“We have business with the Underground. Is there a place a little more comfortable where we could discuss a few things?”

“Its good to see you. And sorry, but.before we get to that. “ he looked to his right. “ Go ahead Merc.”

Mercury sprung forward and embraced Sebastion in a hug that seemed rather like a Toddler had found a long lost favorite toy. “ I missed you Sebastian. It has been too long and you haven’t come home and then your room was empty! It is great to see you! And don’t worry I knocked out Abyss when I heard he threw you into a building, it was Rude and he said sorry after he woke up. Didn’t you.” A look was shot over the shoulder least stable of the brother’s.

Abyss ran his tongue over his teeth. “ Yes I did and I do.” He looked at Sebastian with an honesty apology in his eyes, as Mercury let him go.

“ But Yeah lets get to the luxuries that the underground has to offer.” Truth be told, the loading bay was only slightly worse of than anywhere else in the commune.

Seemingly in another little slice of the world, Venus ignored Sebastian and the dramatic little exchange that passed between them. Oh he saw something that he was delighted with but then she made a strong impression. Tight lipped annoyance and blind folded sitting calmly and confidently in spite of the lack of sight. Yes, Please. Her eyes took a quick survey of the room as if trying to make up for the information she lost on the way here and then her lips did something that he found more intriguing than he should have they mouthed a simple word.

"Mars?"

Like a jaguar stalking prey Venus moved smoothly from left flank and toward his new query. He moved toward her and noted that she was holding back.

“I am afraid, you have done much better this time around.” He didn’t know when last time was, but Mars was so stuffy and didn’t know the first thing about showing a woman a good time. He paused a mere five feet and a few inches away, as the door opened and another pair walked in. but the moment his attention was stolen it was returned to the delicate little matter at hand. “I am Venus.” He said with a flourished hand toward himself and then a less enthusiastic hand toward the other two. “Mercury and Abyss.”


Abyss took the moment that Mercury was deciding it was ok to release Sebastian and wouldn’t simply gallop off into the sunset to text his brothers, Mars and Saturn had cause to know. –big things might happen—get home- he wasn’t sure where Mars was but Saturn was out with the new guy if luck had anything to do with it, they’d be fairly close by.


~~" I don't really care what kind of business it is. My days of breaking my back for a paycheck are long gone. Now it is time for me to relax and learn to use my abilities for fun and impact.I feel like with your organization that I can really hone my craft and become an artist of violence."

“Yeah, we have some that hold doctorates in it. A couple of the more innocent members are the most creative. But yeah your feeling has truth to it. and if that is the only requirement than we shall bring it to you in spades.”

"Curbside service."

A laugh escaped Saturn, He was in a better mood than he had ever been, but then again he had been out on the town having fun, with fresh non new York city air. Maybe he just need to get out on his own. Eh. And then they walked in and his brothers were being his brothers. Venus was talking to a woman, Mercury had a stock stupid look on his face and there was Abyss with his, I’m in charge pose. His eyes closed slightly and his mouth took the form of a grimace.

Sebastian hadn't been expecting much of a warm greeting. The handshake and half a smile were more than he really had a right to expect. A hug on top of that was unexpected, but certainly not unwelcome. He squeezed the big red man right back and when he was released, he couldn't help but come away with a smile, even considering the grim circumstances under which they were meeting.

“It's good to see you, too,” he replied, following the clone's lead and speaking English. “It's been too long. I only wish I could have come for a happier reason.” The smile was sliding away again, his blue eyes serious once more. They were nearly to the heart of the matter now. Hopefully Abyss and his brothers would sympathize with his plight. Hopefully, if they were indeed willing, they had enough influence to pull strings within the Underground movement to help him.

Mr. Stone leaned against the wall next to the doorway, sinking part way into the rough textured wall. He was doing his best to look uninterested in what was happening, but truthfully he was simply annoyed that he couldn't understand what they were all saying. These English speakers all seemed to know each other somehow, but he couldn't really be sure of the greeting customs of a bunch of foreigners. Really, he just wished they'd get on with things so he could go back to planning his country's revolution.

A second car arrived. Still laughing about something a fourth red brother stepped out of the car along with a man Sebastian didn't recognize. The party was growing already.

“Lead the way,” Sebastian nodded toward Abyss.

The doorway led into a dingy hallway. Bare light bulbs hung from the ceiling at intervals just slightly too far apart to provide an even illumination to the entire hall. At the third doorway their rocky guide stopped and opened the door for them. He waited politely for everyone to enter that was going to enter before closing the door again. He didn't go in with them, figuring it would be pointless to stay and try to listen in on some random conversation in which he would only be able to understand half the words. Instead, he was going to make himself useful by filling the Underground's real leader and then maybe taking to the streets again to pick up more stragglers before the dog catchers got their collars on them.

Sebastian found himself in a sparse meeting room. There was a square card table with too many metal folding chairs surrounding it. In one corner of the room an old television set stared morosely at them, one antennae drooping sadly. In the other corner, a glass coffee pot with well a set of established rings around its inside waited patiently for someone to put it to use. The concrete walls were bare.

Folding chairs scraped or not as people chose to either sit or stand. Sebastian remained standing so he could address the whole group.

“I'm sorry to be so forward with this request, but time does not always allow for lots of formalities. At the recent senate bombing several mutants were captured. My wife and several of my friends were among those captured. I need to find out where they were taken, and then I will rescue them. I know of a few people that can assist me with the latter step, but any help you can provide with locating and rescuing those kidnapped mutants would be greatly appreciated.”

The immortal, having laid out his request, turned to sit in one of the chairs to listen to the others' responses.

Hugging. That was Big Red's response. Well, one of them. Another shook Sebastian's hand. Still a third...

Approached her. Lenna's eyes moved to the man. He seemed... friendly. Well, that was good.

Wasn't it?

>>“I am afraid, you have done much better this time around.”

She smiled politely at him. Much better, huh? Somebody in this conversation had a large opinion of themselves, and it wasn't her.

The door opened behind them. Lenna spared a quick glance, then returned her focus to the man addressing her. The man named 'Venus'. Yes, more important than the one who'd just arrived, he was. And planet-themed. She saw where Mars got it now. Her eyes followed his flourish, over to Mercury and Abyss.

"Charmed. My name is Lenna. I'm an adapted." She extended her hand, and took a few steps forwards, still wearing the friendly smile. It had to come out sooner or later, after all. If she was honest, that just looked good on her.

------------------------------------------------------------------

After the revelation, Lenna looked towards Sebastian. Abyss started to move. Lenna let go of Venus's hand, and moved to follow the pair.

She remained standing, once they'd reached the room. Lenna crossed her arms and listened intently.

Now came answers, then?

Good.

And as Sebastian finished, Lenna concluded their goals meshed perfectly.

Even better.

So they were to go to another concrete room full of chairs. Very well, though Roland wasn't entirely sure where privacy ended or began in an Underground meeting space. Carrying his chair with him, he placed it facing the right way in the room, leaning it back slightly against the wall ad smoking, listening to the horned man and his woes.

“I'm sorry to be so forward with this request, but time does not always allow for lots of formalities. At the recent senate bombing several mutants were captured. My wife and several of my friends were among those captured. I need to find out where they were taken, and then I will rescue them. I know of a few people that can assist me with the latter step, but any help you can provide with locating and rescuing those kidnapped mutants would be greatly appreciated.” A look of what would pass as surprise on Roland's face occurred at this news. Roland looked at the others and stood from his chair, his cigarette burning in the corner of his mouth as he spoke.

" Sorry to hear about your wife. I thought the two of you looked charming at your wedding. First things first, no one knows where the mutants are being taken? It's not entirely surprising since, honestly, without the Order's help, this fledgling armada of Romanians wouldn't get anything done. That is beside the point though. It seems to me that what we need is someone to get caught. Bait, as it were. I'd be happy to volunteer and then you can all follow me there. Seems easy enough. Of course, I have to get the go ahead from one of these red guys, I assume the one with the stern look."

He looked at the faces of the clones as well as the others in the room before taking a long draw on his cigarette and retaking his seat. An afterthought appeared in his mind that felt like it needed to be voiced, just for simplicity. " Oh, also, I was the one who bombed the Senate building. Better to say it now than hear about it later." The chair tipped back against the wall and the grin of smug satisfaction took its rightful place on the mug of the assassin.

~~"Charmed. My name is Lenna. I'm an adapted."

Venus’ hand was reaching for the soft little slice of my goodness and then his ears caught up with the rest of him. Adapted Oh,**^* oh **$* oh ***#*** oh ****@*** me. He didn’t want to be the host to these idiots, ewwwwwwwwwww they’d cramp his style,no NO nO No no! His head wasn’t a hotel! Wait no…Saturn was still right over there and he had his tail still…and he was pink! Peachy pinky peach pink! and he was well, almost human sized. A bulky gorgeous human he thought as he looked in the reflection of stone’s car, But he was brother free and this ladies was an adapted he could deal with.

He smiled slyly after he got over the general oh please don’t make my brain a a village, reaction.“You aren’t charmed yet, dear. But don’t worry you will be. I ‘m a mutant by the way.” He said attempting to turn the shake into a kiss on the top of the lenna’s hand.

She looked away from him and let go of his hand even as he turned it. And then she walked away….oh this was going to be fun.

“ouch, burn.” Saturn said to his puny brother, they’d heard about Mar’s adapted but didn’t believe him, he also apparently talked to a switched out Lenna with someone else in her that day.

“Time brother, give it time.” Venus hurried to keep pace and turn back into his peachy self, standing nearby Lenna. Saturn took a moment to slow down and try to stay the heck away from her; he eventually took a deep breath and passed through her aura to get in the room.


**“I'm sorry to be so forward with this request, but time does not always allow for lots of formalities. At the recent senate bombing several mutants were captured. My wife and several of my friends were among those captured. I need to find out where they were taken, and then I will rescue them. I know of a few people that can assist me with the latter step, but any help you can provide with locating and rescuing those kidnapped mutants would be greatly appreciated.”

++" Sorry to hear about your wife. I thought the two of you looked charming at your wedding. First things first, no one knows where the mutants are being taken? It's not entirely surprising since, honestly, without the Order's help, this fledgling armada of Romanians wouldn't get anything done. That is beside the point though. It seems to me that what we need is someone to get caught. Bait, as it were. I'd be happy to volunteer and then you can all follow me there. Seems easy enough. Of course, I have to get the go ahead from one of these red guys, I assume the one with the stern look."
" Oh, also, I was the one who bombed the Senate building. Better to say it now than hear about it later."

Abyss opened his mouth and then shut it again, chewing on the bluntness of Dean. . “ I am sure you put it together that we were responsible for the bombing, of course with out the intention of harming you or yours. That aside I appreciate your being forward more than some.” He glanced at Dean. “ That aside, we have had several leads fall apart when we thought we were getting close, if the Romanian government has done anything right it was hiding the camps. Of course we are in, this will move our schedule forward a bit as it will force our hand to play some pieces we were saving but Yes. The camps I am sure aren’t getting any nicer. I think that Dean’s Idea is very good though we will have to find a way to keep track of you, a van following you around is a bit to obvious and for Psyche to be effective you’d have to pass along where you were, which I am guessing you won’t know. So my suggestion is you take stone with you. Once at the camps, your job will be to ensure that he escapes any confines that restrict him. and if nessacary take a large rock with you so he can move freely, from there he can report back to us fairly quickly.at that point I’d want you to ready the campers to wait it out a bit longer.” “its not fool proof but it’s a start. There is no reason to jump on the first plan or limit our selves to one plan. Any one else have a suggestion?”

>>>"Charmed. My name is Lenna. I'm an adapted."

Adapted. He'd read about that in her file, and even then it had been a familiar word; he'd first heard it at dinner at the Sanctuary. Until now he had not seen the actual effects of an adapted. He watched Venus go from red and bulky to pink and somewhat less bulky as he walked close to her. He could have passed for human. Interesting.

It wasn't so interesting that he wanted to test the effects on himself, necessarily, but then, they had been sitting pretty close together in the back of the car. Blindfolded, of course, so perhaps he had been human for a short time on the trip and not even noticed. Though, he might have felt a little more tired than usual in the car, was that a side effect of adapteds or was it just his imagination?

In the meeting room he nodded as he listened to the newcomer's plan to find the camps, fingers steepled, fingertips overlapping ever so slightly. He was a little disappointed perhaps that they didn't already know the location, but the preliminary plan for discovering its whereabouts sounded like it had promise.

And then the man admitted that he was the bomber. There was a moment when Sebastian froze in surprise, one eyebrow raised, but he soon relaxed it again. This was a good reminder of who he was dealing with. It shouldn't have been at all surprising that someone from the Underground had done the bombing, he just hadn't expected to run into the person within the first five minutes. Now was he expecting it to be someone who had been at his wedding. There had been lot of unfamiliar faces there that day; he hadn't memorized them all.

Did he blame this man for what happened to his wife and the others? No. The bombing, or some other such attack, had been inevitable from a group like this. The Kabal had foreseen that something like it would happen, had discussed what they would do about it if and when the time came. They had decided that they couldn't be everywhere at once to completely stop such attacks, they could only react and use it to their own benefit. Violence didn't often change people's minds, but healing certainly could.

At the time the plans had been made, they knew there would be some sacrifices if they allowed a terrorist attack to occur, but if they hadn't been ready to heal at a moment's notice there would have been even more casualties. Turning a less than ideal situation into one that worked in their favor was the best they could do.

Sebastian rubbed his palms together, absent mindedly letting the slightly incorporeal layers overlap ever so slightly as he considered the plan he was about to set into motion. These people he was recruiting- the Underground, the Order members -they were violent people. If he asked for their help, he was asking them to attack, even to kill, the guards that patrolled the camps during the rescue attempt. All that blood would be on his hands.

It would be easy to tell himself that it was inevitable, that this group would have eventually attacked anyway, but he couldn't ignore his own part in what he was potentially starting. There were still other ways he could do this. He could be rallying supporters of the mutant cause and organizing peaceful protests. He could be circulating petitions against the unjust treatment of Romanian citizens. He could organize sit ins and boycotts, rallies and marches. Peaceful protests had been proven to work for other groups of oppressed and they worked well and the results were much better than violent tactics in the long run. The results were also much slower.

Ghost was in there and he had no way of knowing what was happening to her or any of the others. They might not have time for more peaceful methods to run their course.

Was he willing to sacrifice large numbers of people to save a small handful of close friends?

Yes.

To save one single person that he deeply cared for?

Yes.

Even if that one act of violence ruined the chance for peaceful relationships between Romanian mutants and humans?

“How many people do you have available for the final attack and when can they be ready?” His tail twisted and untwisted around the leg of his chair then wrapped itself around again. He knew what he was getting into. He knew it wasn't the best solution, but he was going to do it anyway.

The thought that honesty would look good on her had been met by Venus's thought that he would look good on her, though that thought had quickly been predated by a momentary flicker of recognition (and momentary terror at pinkness?). That had been expected.

Mild amusement at said color-changes, also predictable.

Deft avoidance of the hand kiss? That, too, had been foreseen. The smile never left her face as she'd turned away from the hand-turning. He'd promised he'd charm her, right? It would take more than a kiss on the hand to bewitch this b*tch. Even if his response had been 'ohshit-cucumber-cool'.

The party moved to the next room.

------------------------------------------

And restating the facts, Lenna agreed.

With Sebastian, at least. The man offering himself up as bait? Less so. More the attitude than the actual content. She would have expected more reverence towards Sebastian's wife, or situation. Though, to say she'd react with all-due respect in a similar situation... was difficult. She wasn't close to Sebastian. They'd just met. It was faster to get the dirty laundry out on the line, than to leave it balled up in the washer. Still, his attitu-- Okay, so she was a hypocrite. She didn't care anymore.

Hypocrisy aside, her listening ears tuned back towards 'content'. On that, at least, they could find common ground. His method made sense. Put one of the group in a situation where they were captured, and brought into the camps. Track that 'somebody'. Once that somebody reached the camps, bring Hell. She'd of volunteered herself, seeing that she was one of the few people in the group at the moment whose 'power' wasn't likely affected by the 'anti-mutant' methods they'd apply, but, well... she had to wait and greet Miss Meld upon her arrival. She didn't want to be rude.

Speaking of 'rude', Lenna couldn't help but inwardly smirk at Abyss's statement about 'forcing their hand', and 'playing pieces' before they'd wanted to. Had he intentionally committed a mixed metaphor?

He asked for further suggestions. Lenna suddenly had a thought. She opened her mouth.

"While that plan has merits, there are many things that could go wrong. For starters, if one were to rely on a mutant to track... the possibility exists they'd have an equivalent response. Such as humans with Adaptation. Even if the Rock-man," She was assuming he was a Rock-man here. Named Stone, in the same breath as a rock... yes, Rockman. Though if one applied the same to Slate... "Were to follow you, in a stone, they could pat you down before they took you, and find him. That wouldn't go well. The same could be said if you were to hold a tracking device. Metal detectors would find it (considering the government is smart, at least)."

She paused a moment to let her words sink in, then continued. "I'm set to pick up an ally within the next few days who would be able to conceal the tracking device among her many metallic limbs. Why bother worrying about the metal detector when one can let it work with them?

'You have metal parts'.

'Why yes, I do.'

'Move along.'

Thoughts?"

Roland sat back and listened to the crunching of the peanut gallery. He hadn't seen any of these people before and yet they were all speaking about the situation in Romania as if he were the new kid on the block. Ah, well. Their opinions were neutral at best. Once he received his orders, he would move in his own direction. If he saw these people again or not was as important as if he would sit in the particular chair he was sitting in again.Fortunately, the horned man had little to say about it, unless a raising of eyebrow counted as an opinion. Not so much.

The alpha clone began to speak and he could understand why there might have been friction in his pal Saturn and this mountain of yam. he stifled a grin as best as he could when the creature seemed to try to cover for whatever faux pas had been uttered. The bombing? Did anyone seriously consider that the Underground did anything besides plead for help from the Order? It was ridiculous. Now he listened to an outrageous plan involving Stone. Carry him in a rock? really? He wondered if anyone in the room had operational experience. Doubts were high except for the female. Adapted.

It was interesting to put a name on it. He wondered how many of them there were. Apparently they were a minority of humans or they rarely appeared. Roland now knew of three. King, Tyranny and this one. No longer would he take it as a common mutation, this was a new breed of humans, or at least some kind of enhanced human. More research would have to be done in the future. For now, it was storytime once more. The lass told a good tale and seemed to be smart at least. She could see the holes in the alpha's plan and had one of her own as well. It was obviously beyond her that he would be able to conceal a device as long as he could, apart from being stripped nude. Though even that was a possibility. Once they were all done, he took the initiative to speak once more, Alpha's approval or not.

Standing from the chair, his cigarette fell beneath his shoe, crushed to death as he took the spotlight." All fine ideas. I particularly like the idea of this other mutant you speak of. However, I wished to offer a slight modification. While you are quite correct about metal detectors, perhaps I could attach a device to the underside of the vehicle I enter. That way you could track where it goes and returns from, hopefully finding the camps before long. I suggest you also use this other mutant and never introduce us to each other. That way, we are perfect soldiers, armed with plausible deniability. If we don't know each other, we can't tell on each other, no matter what. Two attempts yields a 50/50 result at least." His eyes swiveled over to the nubile strategist." Of course, I can only hope more of your kind aren't present. if you don't mind me asking, how many more of you are there? I've met two other than you so far." Nothing wrong with mixing personal projects, especially if no one knew they were personal.

"mmmm, I am used to having my way, when I want it, it is good to have fresh views. I think both of you are onto something, Dean, if you could place one on the vehicle and a second near the camp or if possible on the actual building, get us close enough and we should be able take care of the rest, Lenna, if your ally is up for this plan then I am all for it, if not we can send a second in their place."

“How many people do you have available for the final attack and when can they be ready?”

"We have thirty five or so on base right now, we can have up to seventy if we call in everyone from other missions, which we might as well if we are going for the endgame. regardless a unified strike of that magnitude would be enough to free up many of those on the inside and double if not triple our numbers."

"If we are indeed splitting up our chances, then we could start sooner than later with our first attempt, Dean whenever you're ready, we'll be watching.don't push yourself to hard when you are in there, we'll be coming soon enough. beyond that I guess we are waiting on your ally to come Lenna and then agree to the plan, and once we have a location sir, we destroy the camps save our people and save your wife. "

Abyss stretched a bit as if he was already anticipating the smiting of fools.

The others waited about, a variation on their faces Mercury's face mild amusement as he watched Sebastian's tail twitch in agitation or worry. not at the agitation mind you but of another tailed person, his tail was so, diffrent and it was like it had a wild little haircut on the end. his tail snuck up towards his for comparability.

Saturn looked glum at the movement of pieces on the board, the tired difference to Abyss for what if any reason, the only one he could see making sense was Sebastian and that was because he came asking, he was however tickled that the pair out strategically planned him within moments. He was tired of being here in the trenches, he could tell.Abyss simply lacked when his brothers weren't in his head instructing him.

Venus was captured by the allure of a woman that was showing resistance, like an offering of ambrosia he would find a way to taste the sweet flavor of that which was forbidden to him. a subtle pout fell on his lips..