2013-08-13 - Unexpected Guests

Xavier's Institute - Current Day: Hope was gone. She did not come home that night either. She promised, she gave her word, she would respect the grounding. She is not here however, and she left no messages with anyone, adult or teen. It did not help that late that night in the wee hours when she went missing there was an emergency with a young mutant, or so it is said. Was she even discovered missing before breakfast? The day is passing, she still has not returned and there is no contact. It is late in the evening now.

Elsewhere - Ten Minutes Ago: The Professor hands the data file over to Cable. "Unusual inactivity. Multiple days of inactive use of the bodyslide technology and no activation of the time traveling technology. Last known bodyslide was to Xavier's Institute, location of device in the building. Information about previous activity between Metropolis, Egypt desert, and Hell's Kitchen before spurt of inactivity included. It has been six days since last use of technology, four and one-half days longer than previously registered length of inactivity." Of course, The Professor only decides to bother Cable when it has become glaringly irregular.

By Jean's purpose, Hope comes and goes near daily and vanishes for days on end. She might not like it, but she's grown to accept it then and that Hope will come and go as she chooses, and for the moment that is how it will be within the school. So Jean will abide by things. For now, she continues with her morning routine then, not aware that something is wrong unless summoned otherwise.

Every morning, in the wee hours after Scott wakes up, the first thing he does is run a security check on the Mansion, to include a head-count taken by the various sensors that suffuse the school, and a log of comings and goings during the evening. So sure enough, he notices some particular irregularities this not-so-fine morning, and after a quick check in Hope's room, specifically her "safety deposit box" which he happens to have the combination to. The fact that its' contents were still in place was certainly cause for alarm, although the message he sends out to Emma and Jean is perfectly calm and orderly, if marked "urgent."

Cable frowns, "That's interesting, Traveler is the type to move out and about even if she was grounded." He frowns, "You've scanned the mansion and tried to locate the bracelet?" He shakes his head moving to prep himself. "I hope she hasn't left tech around where it can be found. The X-Men with that could be a hindrance."

Rubbing her face at the summons, Jean glances over at the time, having fallen asleep. A light telepathic tweak to herself, she gets up, heading over towards to Hope's dorm room. Telepathically she inquires, "What's the situation?" Heading at a fast jog, wearing nightclothes.

<< Hope is missing. >> Scott replies "in his head" to Jean, "sounding" far more calm than he has any right to be. He replaces Hope's guns and bodyslide bracelet in the box and sets it on the bed. << And I don't think it was her idea. >>

Barely noticeable in the lockbox that Scott sets aside is a tiny communicator that Cable gifted Traveler.

Jean Grey nods quietly, and takes a breath, "Wonderful." That spoken out loud, and sent telepathically. << Do you want to assemble the rest of the team? I'll start sweeping the grounds if Xavier hasn't already. >>

Cable prepares himself for the trip. Then fully suited and armed. "Professor body slide by 1." Then moment's later Cable appears in Hope's room standing across from Cyclops. The lock box between them.

"I remember you from Egypt. But you'd better have a damn good explanation for why you're here and not setting off any of our alarms." Because well...no alarms are going off. Scott seems surprisingly not-surprised by the sudden arrival, at least not outwardly. << Just a heads-up Jean. We have a new arrival. I don't -think- he's hostile, but be careful anyway. >>

Jean Grey crosses her arms, "Are you sure he's a friend?" She's not sure that she's ever -seen- Cable before. But there's something familiar over about him.. "I'll go help Emma." That gets her away from the big, scary, man.. Then her eyes widen as she places him, "You were with the freak that wore my underwear!"

Cable hand goes for his gun then he stops seeing it was Cyclops he stops but remains on alert. "It was Mexico." He frowns, "I'm not with him." He frowns, "Look I'm here to check on the kid... Traveler. She's been piggy backing off my tech for months then it went silent. I'm here to find out where she is."

"Well, that makes two of us." Scott replies evenly, casting a glance towards the lockbox, "The teleportation technology is yours, then?" Scott looks as speculative as one can when their eyes are hidden behind ruby quartz. "How did you come to the conclusion she was missing?"

Oh yes, Jean recognizes Cable now, and that's enough to get her to stay then instead of leaving. Even if it's only guilt by association. But she shakes her head, "And do you mind catching the rest of us up to speed on what's going on?"

Cable shrugs and moves to examine the guns, "My tech too or so it seems though I don't know how she came to posses them. I have a program that tracks her. Why cause she's an unknown quantity with access to my guns and my teleportation network. If she hadn't been semi-useful. I would have been angrier. As far as what's going on Hell if I know." He stops to look at the statue and frowns even deeper.

"Doesn't really answer the question, but I guess that's less important right now." Scott looks around the room once more, "No sign of a struggle, but the bed's not made and as far as I can tell nothing's missing. She also doesn't seem to go anywhere outside the grounds without the contents of that box. So the best assumption I have at this point is that she was abducted while she was asleep. By someone that can completely circumvent every security measure we have." He flicks a glance back towards Cable, "Which would seem to include you, as well. But you don't strike me as the "Oops I forgot to grab that box of tech when I grabbed the girl so I'll just hop back in the middle of the day and get it" type." He turns his attention to Jean, "I don't suppose you checked in on any of the students after you got back last night? Your message told me not to wait up, so I didn't."

Jean Grey glances over at Scott and blinks over at him, "What message? I didn't call you. It's not like we had plans or anything, and it'snot like you need to know my every minute." She shrugs over, and then shakes her head, "And if I did I'd just send a quick telepathic message.." She takes out her cell phone and pushes the buttons to display some of the recent calls. Scott's number or any at the mansion is not any she's done in the last day or so.

Nothing outbound to Scott or the school, but there is one from the school to Jean incoming. A text message at 10:30 PM last night from Scott's cell phone: 'Jean, I need you to go to Metropolis, to this address. The Professor says there is a Alpha level mutant that's having difficulty controlling his powers, and is afraid. He wants to send you, first. His name is Aaron. This needs to be done immediately. I'll keep in touch. Scott.'

Cable looks around, "If I had came for the girl or the tech. I'd just got my tech left the girl." He says as he picks up the bracelet. "Professor. please scan the contents of the this box to indicate any out of the ordinary on the devices or weapons?"

On Jean's cell phone is one unread text message, after some button pushing. Which was received, and then not checked earlier due to her doing things things.. Did not pre-medicate her realizing she had gotten a text, and then it had left itself forgotten.

"You didn't?" Scott pulls out his phone, pulling up the text message from "Jean" telling him that she was going to be late and not to wait up. He hands the device over to Jean to let her see. "Looks like someone wanted our lines of communication crossed." He glances towards Cable, frowning a bit and looking around, "Who are you talking to?"

Outside the door to Hope's room, Noriko's voice can quietly be heard, white noise and quiet in the background, but slowly gets louder, as she approaches. " ... next time, Julian, I am totally kicking your ass at Super Zombie Death Kart Racing, just because Jean kicked me and Cessily out of the rec room last night doesn't mean you're getting off that easy ...," and the voice trails off, as either she's walking down the hall, or letting the voice on the other end of the phone respond. Her voice seems humored, but intent.

As the scan continues, it mostly comes up as Cable's energy weapon tech with enhancements to be more light-weight and better accuracy. These are improvements Cable hasn't bothered creating himself...yet. The bracelet is also a condensed time traveling device, fully active, certainly not something to leave lying around. There is also the communicator Cable had given her in the lockbox. The scan will also reveal something hidden beneath the inner lining, something bio-degradable, like a photo. If the lining is pulled up, it will just reveal a photo of Scott and Laura talking together outside while relaxing, likely taken without their knowledge.

The Professor also reports in Cable's ear one more thing. The guns still appear as if created by his ship, but the wrist bracelet? That was not created by the ship, it appears to have a lot of old pieces in it, and even some bits of rust internally though the outside has been shined up.

Jean Grey's face is a frown, "That would require someone to have managed to intercept our phones and then send it along the Mansion's private network.." Kitty and Hank have worked together, and that's supposed to be -impossible- to fake-it in such a way. "Scott, what is going on here?" Taking a breath and composing herself to look at Cable, then trying to think of anything else that might have been strange the last day or so. "Could it have been Mystique?"

Cable shrugs, "What, you don't have a professor that doesn't tell you everything you need to know?" Charles knew Cable and would maybe even know the man was in the mansion. Hell he might even be laughing at Cable being a smart ass if one of his students wasn't missing. He hmms. "This is curious. But has nothing to do with her missing." He removes the lining of the case to find the picture. "How well do you know her?" He shrugs, "Doesn't have to be a shape shifter. Also I'd scan the room for hair, skin, and the like."

"Hold that thought." Scott lifts a finger and pokes his head out the door, calling out down the hall, "Noriko! What time did Miss Grey shoo you out of the Rec Room last night?" Yes, he caught that snippet of conversation, because he's detail-oriented like that. He looks back to Cable, frowning a touch at the photograph, "Enough to know she needs us, even if -she- doesn't seem to know it sometimes. But not as much as we should, at the same time. She's not the most forthcoming person out there."

Noriko is just ducking into her own room, and pauses, "... Hold on, Julian," she says, and takes the cellphone away from her face, "Jeeze," she says, "You guys said there wasn't any curfew. Give me a break. We went to bed a little after 2 after she kicked us out," she says, not sounding exasperated, more annoyed it's the second time she's being badgered about it. She doesn't wait for Scott's response, instead, "...Yeah, Sorry Julian, Scott just, ..." and the door is closed behind her, an emphatic statement to the school's headmaster.

Jean Grey frowns, "I wasn't here last night, so there's no way I could have.." Yes, Jean certainly did not read enough Agatha Christie when she was growing up. "Where was the last time we had tracked Mystique to? She's not shown her face much since her last presidential assassination attempt during the election, has she?"

Cable picks up the communicator and moves to drop it in Cyclops hand, "This will contact me. I have no other information. I can provide. If you need help rescuing her. Let me know. I'm fond of her. Professor body slide by 1." Then Cable disappears.

Scott glances towards Cable, now armed with the new tidbits of information from Jean and Noriko, "Sounds like a shapeshifter, though we can't discount the idea that it's more than one person working together." He blinks as Cable drops the communicator into his hand and disappears. After a few moments, Scott frowns rather deeply, "Of course, we know at least one shapeshifter that seems to have a fixation on people with the last name "Summers" don't we?" He glances towards Jean, then shakes his head, "But let's see what we can dig up here first. Have Beast run a full forensic workup on the room. I'll start combing the security feeds to see what shows up on the cameras. Then we'll see if anyone else saw or heard anything unusual last night besides us."

Cable is in mid-teleportation when he hears the word Summers. He curses to himself as he appears on Graymalkin, "Stab my eyes."

It's almost as if someone were waiting for Cable to disappear, as if it satisfied some dark sense of humor. Or, more likely it's merely coincidence. Scott's phone rings, suddenly. It's an unknown number. Once Scott picks up, the message is short, and sweet, and it's a voice that Scott Summers could never, ever etch out of his memory unless Xavier and Jean buried it. "Summers," says Sinister's voice. "You can't protect anything, can you? It must be a burden, to be so impotent. Do not worry. I'll return her to you. Better than when she was left in my care. You didn't even realize what you had. How pathetic." he phone disconnects. Of course, if Scott doesn't pick up -- it's simply left on voicemail. And, the call, if researched, will be untraceable.

A forensics sweep of the room will only reveal vestiges of Hope, Sinister is too sterile, and careful, to leave any traces behind, or whomever the shapeshifter was. Clearly a professional.

"Well." Scott's expression is anything but humored as he lowers the phone after answering it. "Have Kitty try to trace that last incoming call, but I doubt she'll find anything. Also tell her I'll stop by with something for her and Hank to crunch on in a few minutes. And it's definitely Sinister." He'd be more surprised, but Scott pretty much assumes that at any given time there's about a 75 percent chance that Sinister is ruining his life in some way. Just seems to be the pattern with him.