Mutant Liberation Front Rally - The Briefing [SEMI-CLOSED; BACKDATED TO WEDNSDAY EVENING]]

[diamonds_forever]

WHO: Bridget, Luvander, Greg, Takakage, Liir, Nora, Raven, Hijikata, Eddie, Emma Frost, Charles Xavier, Martha Johansson.
WHAT: Briefing for the upcoming mission.
WHERE: Sub-Levels; The War Room
WHEN: Late Wednesday evening
WARNING(S): None


This time, rather than the soothing voice of the headmaster, the voice that calls to the selected few is the increasingly more familiar tone of one Miss Emma Frost. "Come to the War Room. You will be briefed shortly" was all the psychic message needed to say.

Once they had all gathered, they'd find the Headmaster, Emma, Martha Johansson, and... a brain floating in some kind of bubble... machine... thing... Well, at least a few of the gathered could recognize the brain as Martha Johansson, the systems admin, and that her 'physical' form was just there as a formality for the students that didn't. Either way, Martha was mostly distracted with sorting out all of the data for the mission, and didn't have much time to speak. So Emma spoke for her.

"Alright, here's the skinny. You all know that the MLF is holding a rally in District X, and soon. March 1st, to be exact. Our relationship with the Mutant Liberation Front has been... strained, to say the least. They're radicals, mostly just angry kids, and we're more organized, established, and often willing to work peacefully with people they'd rather just kill and be done with. So to say we're philosophically opposed is an understatement."

Several images fly up on the hologram matrix on the main table. The MLF logo, photos of District X, of the riots, of the attack on Stryker... And one particular picture was enlarged over the others, a young woman.

"This is Claudine Renko. As far as we can tell, she's the one responsible for the MLF's foundation and organization. She was a complete unknown prior to the forming of the group. No one knows who she was, but Martha's investigation and my own digging around in Sebastian Shaw's dirty laundry confirms at least two things."

Photos from the Manhattan Mall incident are shown, specifically of the anti-mutant weapons the Friends of Humanity deployed.

"She bought these from Shaw. We don't know if she gave them to the MLF's blood enemies or not, but she is name on the invoice."

Another photo showed a genealogy tree, with Claudine's name highlighted as well as the name of one Nathaniel Essex.

"Her birth records show she is related to Nathaniel Essex. Those of you in the Professor's genetics class will recognize the name. He was the first biologist to study the mutant phenomenon. He was expelled from the Hellfire Club for being a mutant, and in his last writings spoke of something called 'The First One',"

Cue the hieroglyphic marks that were found on Shaw by SHIELD.

"Which happens to be what Shaw's little tattoo here translates to. We have a feeling that there aren't a lot of coincidences here, and there is something connecting all of these, but we won't know until we talk to Renko herself. And for that, we're taking a two pronged approach."

Xavier wheeled forward, taking over from there as the holographic display collapsed so that attention could be focused on him as he spoke.

"Thank you, Emma... Five of you were selected by me to accompany me to the rally and speak to Ms. Renko directly, to achieve some means of cooperation between ourselves and the MLF. We have a potential for a second Brotherhood to form here if we are not careful and explicitly diplomatic. Bridget, Luvander, Gregory, Takakage, ...Liir," he looked at each of them as he spoke, "each of you have shown the potential to unite hearts and minds around you. And I will need those skills more so than any mutant ability. I want answers as much as any of you do. And I feel moving forward, our best option would be to obtain those answers via cooperation."

Emma coughed, taking her cue after that. "However... We also know that we're dealing with radicals that have shown a propensity towards violence already. Nora, Raven, Hijikata, Eduardo, Martha, that's where you come in. You'll be with me as an infiltration team, sneaking past the MLF ranks for a direct confrontation with Renko should the Professor's efforts to reach her fail. We're a backup plan, but I want all of you to be ready in case things go south. There are already rumors that the Friends of Humanity might show up at the rally, and their timing couldn't be worse."

She sighed, pausing a moment before speaking again. "Any questions?"

Comments

[not_together_together]

To her credit, Nora managed to keep a pretty serious expression on her face throughout the entirety of the briefing, watching everyone that was speaking with what might have been surprisingly rapt attention given her usual... energetic demeanor.

Of course, Nora was still Nora, and the final question prompted her to raise her hand, like a good, obedient student.

"Are we going to sneak in all Mission Improbable style with like glass cutters and stealth suits or something cool like that?"

Yeah, you all chose her to be on your infiltration team. Congrats.

[diamonds_forever]

"I take it you've never actually been inside District X before," Emma was t least amused.

"Martha will take care of the stealth part. She can mask us from the sight of others. We'll just have to be careful not to physically contact anyone. Odds are if we're caught, there will be resistance. Hence the heavy hitters. You're mostly there as bodyguards."

[not_together_together]

"Well, I mean I have, but who knows if they have some kind of super secret base or something in one of those old, run-down buildings? I mean there's all the stuff under this school," and her imagination may have been running a little ahead of her on that one, but at least it was funny?

"Actually, scratch that, you're right. I could probably just knock down one of those walls without trying if it came down to it. Oh but if we're hidden from sight, does that mean I can bring Magnhild with me and people won't scream and run away?"

For, you know, carrying a grenade launcher in public.

[diamonds_forever]

"No," the answer was quick and firm. "No weapons of that sort allowed. Even if we're not on the same page, the MLF aren't our enemies. If you bring that thing, it would send a clear message that we're willing to kill them and then any hope of getting through this is lost. Renko will label us enemies, officially, and we'll be screwed out of her information."

[gregorydeegan]

He dropped into the seat next to her for the briefing, with a grin.

[not_together_together]

And for Nora's part, she flashed him a thumbs-up. Sure, they were on different 'teams' going into this, but it could be fun!

They would get to fight the bad guys and break things, and that was all really a good day's work.

[gregorydeegan]

After he asked his questions, and she asked hers, he rested his head on her shoulder a bit and glanced up at her. "So..." he said, and it sounded so much like "wanna build a snow maaaaaaaan" was about to follow. Instead, he said softly, grinning, "wanna join an X-team after this?"

[theveilisin]

Well, isn't this just like home. Sort of, anyway. Except Adamo and Proudmouth would have been shouting a lot more than the Professor and Miss Frost, and so far no one had called them useless streaks of piss or anything like that. Sad, really. But you had to take what you could get. After a moment of thinking, Luvander respectfully raises a hand.

"And if things should happen to go Antarctica-wise for the infiltration team, exactly what are the backup plans for us? I mean, we will be sitting rather pretty if they should happen to get exposed."

[herald_the_dream]

"That had come to mind. Nightcrawler will be on standby for evacuation purposes. There are also the Morlocks, our allies, which will give us safe passage if necessary." He left out saying that said safe passage would be through the New York City sewer system, but hey. Implied.

[theveilisin]

Luvander will greatly mourn his clothes if that should happen to be the case, but then again, it won't be the first time he's crawled through a sewer. He might as well offer the New York rats equal opportunity to enjoy his charming company... especially if Liir is around, since that might mean that they actually behave.

"Well, that sounds reasonable. And should there be any kind of disturbance surrounding the rally that gets close to us, I take it our main objective is to get out of there sharpish and not hang around and get involved?"

[herald_the_dream]

"You are correct. Our presence there will be causing a stir as it is. I don't want to overstay our welcome."

[gregorydeegan]

Gregory nodded to the professor, and to his new teammates. One of them was the cute girl...was that a girl? That was a girl... right? from the auction. The others he had not yet met.

He smiled warmly at each of them in turn, then looked to the professor. "First attempt is with or without our mutant powers?" He asked. Since his power could sometimes make people very... happy. But it was no sinecure who it would or would not affect.

"Also... do we know anything about her tastes? Her likes? If we go in knowing a few safe topics, we can intentionally tangent when the mood gets too hot, to bring it back to where we need it to be, before addressing the issue again."

Yep. He was Donovan Deegan's son, alright.

"Also, do we want to start this from the angle that we are willing to actually join the rally, work together, so long as it remains peaceful? Sometimes a potential ally is better received than a negotiating force..."

[herald_the_dream]

"That's very strategic thinking, Gregory," the professor nodded. "Unfortunately, there is very little else we know about the woman. This will be something of a guessing game at first. But presenting ourselves as allies is the plan, yes."

[gregorydeegan]

"I'm guessing we tried Google?" He asked. "Facebook?"

[thirdarrow]

Takakage had been very quiet throughout the briefing, clearing his throat slightly to announce that he was ready to speak.

"If I may venture a guess, this 'First One' may be related to the first occurrence of the X-gene, or something similar. Possibly in ancient Egypt, that would explain the seemingly impossible feats they performed."

He had another, more personal question, but that would have to be asked privately.

[herald_the_dream]

"We had fought much the same, but right now it is only a guess. We obviously need more information before we can move forward." Xavier, especially, needed to know why Shaw would carry such a mark on him.

[thirdarrow]

Interesting.

"I see." He'll just observe the rest of the discussion, for now. "May I speak to you in private later, Professor?"

[stillinthedark]

Eddie was tempted to ask why he was present, but he knew the reason. Before he was rescued, he was practically trained for this type of operation. He's a master infiltrator, one who could easily blend into dark spaces. But frankly, he was concerned.

He followed the briefing the best he could despite being completely clueless about who these people were. Whatever was going on, it was serious.

"You sure about this?" Eddie asked quietly, his body language showing off his discomfort.

[diamonds_forever]

"I'm sure that you have the skills I need. And I'm sure that if problems arise, I can knock you out and carry you if I have to." Emma's words were incredibly confident.

[stillinthedark]

Emma's tone was enough to make Eddie straighten up. He hoped it wouldn't come to that.

"Guess I should spend some more time in that training room before we head out, huh?"

[friendofdorothy]

Liir has so far been quiet, aside from subconsciously touching the spot on his chest the FOH blasted him in when those weapons are mentioned. But then he usually is. He notices the professor's hesitation before his own name is called. He knows his heritage and much of the school believes he's Rin's lover. He can only trust that the old man will stick to his stated principles.

But that hieroglyphic...It can't be a coincidence. "Did you crosscheck that with those files from Egypt that were just leaked?"

[herald_the_dream]

"We don't want to engage in speculation without fact... But we do feel that Ms. Renko might be able to shed light on the correlation between the information uncovered in Egype, Shaw's tattoo, and the writings of her ancestor. However, more importantly, we have a war to stop, or at least stall..."

[loveswaffles]

Raven listened on, remembering Shaw all too clearly still. To be honest, she was fully expecting for things to 'go south.' They typically did in these kind of situations. Still, a small group should work well enough for what needed to be accomplished.

"Do we have any idea what to expect once we find her?"

[diamonds_forever]

"I wish we knew more. We're not even sure what her mutation is. We can only hope I can knock her out and we can get her out of the chaos quickly." Emma sighed. She normally liked to be more prepared, but this Claudine Renko was a secret wrapped in an enigma, to say the least.

[loveswaffles]

It didn't seem like much of a plan, and they had even less information to go on. Still, the mission would continue and Emma herself would be leading the charge. It was a minimal comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

"We should be able to accomplish that much."