wright_idea | SCENES FROM A HAT: This Post Will Self-Destruct in Five, Four, Three...

SCENES FROM A HAT: This Post Will Self-Destruct in Five, Four, Three...

He's not sure what just happened, exactly. One minute he's walking along, enjoying the nice weather in the Nexus, and the next he's been grabbed and thrown roughly into a small room. It's only by some miracle of angle -- or perhaps his attacker has just been very careful -- that he hasn't landed on his left bad side.

He gets up, rushing to the door. Of course it's locked. Why WOULDN'T it be locked? You don't just chuck a person into a room unless you're trying to keep them there for whatever reason. Damnit.

A voice filters in, loud and blaring. "CONGRATULATIONS! YOU TWO HAVE JUST BEEN SELECTED TO SAVE THE ENTIRE NEXUS! ALL YOU NEED TO DO IS TO SOLVE THAT SIMPLE LITTLE PUZZLE IN THE CENTER OF THE ROOM AND YOU'RE A WINNER!"

Phoenix looks around in confusion. [Us "two?" Save the Nexus? What?]

The voice continues. "BUT REMEMBER: FAILURE TO DO SO IN THE TIME LIMIT MEANS THAT ALL OF THE NEXUS WILL BE SUCKED INTO AN ENDLESS OBLIVION! HAVE FUN KIDDIES! YOU HAVE TEN MINUTES."

It takes a moment for it to sink in. Then...

"WHAT?!"

He looks around frantically. It's then that he becomes aware that somebody else is in the room...

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"Mmm. Well, not quite this. I mean, I've never had anybody put the world in danger over a puzzle." Shard pauses to think. "Though I may have friends who have had to deal with it. I'll have to ask." After a moment, she shakes her head, spotting another piece and putting it against Phoenix's. Lo! It fits!

"Anyway, yeah, it does get pretty tiring. But it's not like we have supervillians trying to blow up the world every day." Another pause. "Mostly they'd just rather rule it. Kind of hard to rule the world when you've blown it up."

Phoenix beams as the piece fits, and hopes the others fall into place as easily -- though he's having a hard time figuring out how, exactly. He's pretty sure this piece goes with that one, though.

He looks at her. "You guys... it just sounds so crazy. I mean, the most amount of weird I have to deal with is ghosts, and those are fairly benign," he says, then pauses. "Well, that and the weirdness of standard human eccentricity. Other than that, however, the only superhero types we have are in the movies or the comics."

He looks at her. "So you're one of those... uh, mutants? What kinda special thing can you do, anyway?"

Only two more angles to go! Well, on the outside, at least. The inside should be easier. Or, at least, that's what Shard hopes as she sets about trying a few more pieces.

"Ghosts. Now that's not one I've had to deal with. Mostly we have people who are supposed to be dead and aren't." Hmm. Almost right, but not quite there. "Like this one guy who was on X-Factor before I joined. He had the power to make duplicates of himself, right? Well, what everyone thought was Jamie-Prime died. But it turned out that it was just a duplicate and that Jamie was alive and..." She pauses. "Physically well. Mentally...a little off, but that happens." Ask anybody who's died and come back.

"Yep. I'm a mutant." She looks up and grins. "The eyes and the hair are a physical mutation. No real reason for them. They just are." Pulling her hand away from the pieces of the puzzle, she closes it into a fist and brings up a pale yellow power aura. "My power is that I absorb light and my body turns it into concussive force, which I release as blasts from my hands."

Phoenix looks at her oddly. "Mistaken deaths? Sounds kind of like a soap opera with superheroes," he says, raising an eyebrow. He then sighs, and adds, "But yeah, ghosts. Or, rather, spirit mediums channeling ghosts, most of the time. My friend Maya specializes in that sort of thing."

He listens to her describe her abilities. "How does that work, though? I mean, I'm not a scientist, so maybe I'm just not --"

"FIVE MINUTES LEFT. AND THERE IS NO SPEAKER TO BLAST, HA HA."

"...bastard." He glares around, trying to pick out exactly where that's coming from.

"Oh no. See mistaken deaths would be one thing." Shard makes a see-sawing motion with one hand. "Actually, we tend to get more people who have actually died, then come back. It's...weird." She chuckles slightly. "Ah, right. Interesting ability, that one."

"I'm not sure..."

Shard pauses, glaring up at the cieling and the corners of the room, then back to the pieces. "Don't worry. Five minutes is plenty of time. Besides, it's a time-honored tradition for heroes to save the world at the last moment, right?" She smiles at Phoenix, then back to the pieces. "It's genetic. There's a mutated gene that allows for powers. In my case, my body absorbs photons and changes that energy to concussive energy. And there's light everywhere, so my body is always absorbing photons."

Two more pieces. No, they don't go on the outside, but it looks like they might work on the inside of the triangle.

Phoenix looks at her in disbelief. "People coming back from the dead? Now it REALLY sounds like a soap opera. Or a zombie movie." He scrunches his face up a bit.

"Interesting and, when she can pull it off, surprising useful. But she's gone off for more training, so I haven't seen her in a while," he says, sighing. Clearly, her departure has had something of an impact one way or another.

He looks at her, eyebrow raised. "Just 'cause it's traditional doesn't mean it's something you necessarily want to HONOR. Just saying," he says.

He nods. "I'm not sure I entirely understand, but it sounds interesting. Was it hard to control at first?" he asks, as he tries to fit the last two pieces in -- and feels a knot in his throat.

He tries again. And again. Nope. There is DEFINITELY a rectangular gap in there. "Oh, DAMNIT!"

Right. No telling Phoenix about her own 'back from the dead' moments. "Yeah. Well, if she's getting training, that means she'll probably be able to stay around without leaving again for a while?" Look on the bright side, Phoenix! Because the rest of this is looking pretty lousy.

"True enough. I like giving myself plenty of time, honestly. I'd rather not have to deal with exploding...well, anything."

She seesaws her hand again. "I had to learn not to run around with my hands fisted for a while, but that was about it. Luckily, it takes conscious effort to activate it anymore."

She takes a breath and goes searching through the pieces that they have. There isn't a rectangle. There are, however, two triangles that MIGHT slide in right. "Try these?"

"Well, I am hoping she comes back. I'm thinking of paying her a visit, though. Could be interesting seeing what a spirit medium training ground LOOKS like," he says. Mentally, he has this weird image of a bunch of people stuck under a waterfall.

Phoenix nods. It's sort of a statement that is tacitly agreed on by pretty much anybody who listens to it. Unless people like explosions, anyway, and he HAS met people like that.

He ponders what she's said. "Did you have any help, or did you pick up on it yourself? Either way, that's an amazing amount of willpower, I have to say," he says.

He tries fitting the pieces in four, five different ways, but damned if there isn't continually a gap far too small to place any pieces in. "Son of a... are we going to have to rethink this again?" The tension is definitely mounting.

((Don't you hate it when that happens with these kind of puzzles? XD))

"That sounds like it would be interesting." Shard has images of zen sand gardens, actually. Or maybe a gypsy camp. With practice seances.

Shard's never had to deal with mediums before. Obviously.

"I was in training at an Academy for mutants when I manifested. A lot of it was just learning how to harness the power and make it do what I wanted." Shard rocks back on her heels and shrugs. "It's like anything else. You do something long enough and it gets to be second nature."

She watches him fiddle for a few minutes, then takes a breath. "Okay. It's still a puzzle. Get the outside set and you have an idea of what you need in the middle. We still have five minutes. Plenty of time."

Phoenix takes a deep breath and nods. "Right. Yeah. We can do this." [I think.] Phoenix has never been the best when it comes to keeping cool under pressure.

He ponders what she said as he starts over. "You know, that's pretty good, though, having a support group like that. Anything that would help speed up the process of a potentially dangerous ability has to be a bonus, right?" he comments, then thinks. "Come to think of it, do you guys get a lot of pressure from the people who don't have special abilities? I mean, I could kinda see where having people with that sort of power around you would be a little unnerving." He thinks about what he's just said. "Not that I'm saying anything bad about anybody, of course," he hastily amends.

"Of course we can do this." Shard gives him a smile, pulling the pieces apart and spreading them out again. Though her shoulders are maybe a bit tighter now.

"In part, I was lucky. I was taken to the Academy because they wanted my brother. He refused to go without me, so they had to take me as well. Which means I was in the right place when I manifested." She starts picking through the pieces, eyeing size and angles. "Even if I hadn't, though, the mutant community in my time was fairly close knit. Mostly because of people pressuring us about our powers." She looks up and grins. "Look, as long as you're not going to say that all mutants should be locked up away from normal humans for the protection of the entire world? You're already doing a lot better than the people in the world I was born in."

Phoenix admires her calm under pressure. It reminds him a lot of Mia, who was also quite capable of keeping her head in these situations. Well, at least from his perspective, though it's hard not to admire the woman who both taught him the basics of the courtroom AND cleared his name in college.

He continues to listen to her story. "That is amazingly lucky. You have a brother, you say? Does he have the same powers as you, or does he do something else?"

He sighs. "You're pretty lucky, you know. I didn't have a lot of friends growing up myself. Well, less so after the fourth grade, whether I liked it or not." His mouth twists as he thinks back on tihs.

Phoenix shakes his head. "It's not your guys' fault, is it? And if you can control your abilities, I don't really see the point. It'd be a little unnerving, but no more so than hanging around a guy with a knife collection or something," he says.

Hmmm, that's how the pieces went together last time. What was it Mia said? Think outside the box...

The voice boomed. "THREE MINU --"

"SHUT UP."

"JUST TRYING TO KEEP YOU AWARE OF THE TIME. DICK."

Phoenix wonders if this nameless guy really has any right to be offended.

When you face off with people like Mountjoy, who can take over your body with just a touch, you learn to think under pressure. Because that's the only way you CAN think.

"Older brother. His name's Bishop. You might see him around the Nexus. About 6'6". Has the same tattoo I do." She makes a motion to her face. "His powers are a bit different. He absorbs energy from any energy source directed at him. Any energy based power. He can store the energy, like I do with light. And he can change the power into concussive force bolts, like I do. But he can also rechannel the energy into augmenting his strength, endurance and make him heal somewhat faster. Which I can't do, lucky bastard." She says it cheerfully enough, though she does wish that she could use that one.

"You'd think that, but...well, some people do give them reason to be nervous. Good reason, even. There are plenty of mutants who think that since they have powers and normal humans don't, it means that mutants are meant to rule." She frowns at the pieces. Yeah, she can see where this is going, too. "So, even though there are plenty of good, quiet mutants who don't want anything to do with that shit, a few bad apples and all..."

She falls back on her butt this time. Less from booming voice overhead than Phoenix's shout back. She raises an eyebrow and looks up. "Look, not like you have any reason to be upset with him, jackass."

Shaking her head, she gets back up. "Okay, this isn't working." Still no panic. Other than her shoulders tensed way the hell up. Still plenty of time.

Phoenix smirked. "Older sibling with the stronger power? Sounds kind of like Maya and her sister Mia. Of course, I didn't even know Mia HAD spirit channeling powers until..." He trails off a bit here, looking melancholy. "Well anyway, I kinda have heard that one before -- which probably means you also love the big lug anyway, right?" He grins.

He ponders the mark. "M... I'm guessing mutant? I'm a little afraid to ask what warranted the two of you getting that mark," he says, pretty sure he's not going to like the answer.

Phoenix scowls. "People who decide they've got the power and the right to fling it around? Yeah, I've heard that one before too. And I've seen a lot of lives destroyed with that attitude," he comments tersely. "There's always a few assholes willing to do that, human or otherwise."

He stares at the pieces more. Think outside the box... wait. He starts arranging the pieces in a way that doesn't seem like it should work. He may be totally off on this, but...

"Yeah, well, he's also taller. Life's a bitch." Entirely too chipper about that. But then, Shard's died and come back. You learn to roll with the punches. "Anyway, it's a pretty common thing that siblings either have complimentary powers or powers that don't work on each other at all. I can power him up, but he can't use his powers on me. And yeah, I love the big ox."

She reaches up, touching the tattoo for a moment before nodding. "Yeah. When I come from wasn't great. Humans had made these robots called Sentinels to quell the mutant 'threat'. Well, they quelled it all right. Put mutants into containment camps and branded them. All children were tested for the gene and placed into the camps if it came up positive. The marks meant we couldn't leave the camps and hide among the populace. Not even the kids."

His work gets her interested, leaning forward to watch. Hey, anything that could work at the moment, right? Once she catches on to what he's doing, she helps out. Even if it's just to offer a piece that looks like it might go in the right place.

"Yeah, that's pretty much what they do. People are assholes all over. Human or not."

Phoenix chuckles. "Bet that must've annoyed the hell out of him during sibling fights. But it's good to hear you guys are close," he says.

He pales a bit listening to this. "That sounds way too disturbingly like what I learned about the Holocaust," he comments. "That's just sick. But I suppose that fits into the assholes part of things. You just have to figure out where the non-assholes are."

He continues futzing for a little bit. The announcer suddenly blares again.

"ONE MINUTE! YOU HAVE ONE MINUTE LE -- AW, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO WAIT A LITTLE LONGER."

The disappointment in its voice is obvious. Phoenix and Shard have figured it out.

Shard snorts and shakes her head. "You probably know as well as I do that siblings don't need powers that work on each other to hurt each other plenty."

She watches him pale and nods. "At least nobody was actively trying to kill us. Which was at least better than the Holocause in that respect." She smiles a bit, though. "Both humans and mutants got sick of living under Sentinel rule, though, so there was a rebellion. Both sides working together. Mind, it's the only time before or since that I know about that it's happened."

Helping as much as she can, Shard finally sits back and looks up as the speaker comes on again. And she laughs. "They're always so surprised when you can actually do it."

Phoenix grins. "Yeah, probably the case. I don't have any siblings myself, but I can imagine."

"Well, I guess there's always a silver lining to every cloud, as they say. It shouldn't have happened, but at least humans and mutants can list one instance of unity, huh?" he says, looking contemplative.

Phoenix smirks. The doors open, seemingly reluctantly. "Looks like we've got no reason to stick around here anymore," he says.

"I'd say you didn't miss out on much other than bruises, but it's not so bad, really." She laughs a bit and nods. "Even if it's one that, with any luck, will never happen in the timeline now." At least, she hoped Bishop had stopped it.

Shard pushes herself up, bending over to stretch out her hamstrings as the door opens. "Thank God. I mean, nothing against you, Phoenix, but I'm definitely ready to be out of here."

Phoenix scratches his head. "Time stuff? Makes my head hurt. But if it's dealt with, that's all good, I suppose," he says.

He grins. "None taken. Good working with you, Shard." He holds his hand out.

Shard snorts, grinning. "Believe me, I know what you mean. I lived it and it still gives me a headache."

She takes his hand, shaking it firmly. "It was good working with you too, Phoenix. I'm sure that we'll run into each other around the Nexus again."

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SCENES FROM A HAT: This Post Will Self-Destruct in Five, Four, Three...

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