The Power of Purity. [open]

"I thought that I'd seen the last of your stupid little breakfast club years ago." Lorna floated above an intersection on the edge of Mutant Town before a small group of strangely dressed men. Their robes were flowing, white with solid blocks of red making various crosses across their arms or chests. Each had a hood drawn, the majority of the small cluster had advanced firearms armed and ready to shoot at Polaris. The three individuals standing at the forefront of the phalanx held staves topped with silver eagles with wings outspread.

Polaris didn't know why the Purifiers were trying to make a comeback after ten years or more after having dissolved. Nor did she know how they had gotten their hands on such advanced tech. Lorna didn't much care, honestly. She had been asked to shut down this hate crime by the X-Men because of her closeness to the vicinity. The Purifiers had only just begun to do property damage to this edge of Mutant Town, and, fortunately had just cornered their first couple of passing mutants when Polaris arrived.

The wizened man at the front of the pack glared up at her. "You can never stamp out purity. Homo-sapiens are the only true product of the creator." Lorna scowled. The fact that the Purifiers used such an angle to attack mutant kind was what set her blood on fire the most. She thought of Kurt, among others. To think that two individuals could act so drastically different with the same basis to their belief system. Just like the X-Men and Brotherhood were such opposites.

"You don't look too 'pure' to me." Polaris gestured to the fires curling out of the broken storefronts that were the byproduct of the Purifiers' hit. "Enough!" the leader of the group spat. "Bring her down!" He gestured mightily with his scepter, and a volley of energy bolts loosed from the array of guns behind him. Lorna's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, and a sphere of emerald magnetic energy encompassed her. The projectiles crashed against the barrier.

"I wonder," Polaris said in the silence after the Purifiers stood, stunned that their high-tech guns didn't even make her blink, "do you boys have licences to carry?" Lorna's eyes shone green, she raised one hand, and the firearms jumped into the air in silhouettes of shining emerald light. Polaris rotated her wrist until her palm was up. During the gesture, the guns disassembled and drifted together, fitting their pieces together again until a hulking cube of various parts hovered above the group.

"You dare-?" The triad of staff-wielding men brought them up in unison, then slammed them back down. There was a swell of sudden, bright white light that swept Lorna up unexpectedly. She managed to stave off any lasting damage, but the impact of the wave of energy cast her aloft, and sent her crashing into the ground half a block away. Polaris blinked once in the settling dust. "Didn't see that coming," she muttered.

Well, today certainly could have gone a whole lot better.

A young man strolled into Mutant Town, his hands shoved deep into his pockets and a shadow over his face. If looks could kill, Julian Keller would have murdered everyone unfortunate enough to stand within a ten-foot radius of him. He relentlessly kicked at a dented Coke can while he walked, as if it were the source of all his problems. But Julian was an impatient fellow, so the soda can's demise would have to come faster than that. His blue eyes became misted over with green energy, and with a slight narrowing of his eyes the ill-fated tin cylinder was torn asunder, exploding into minuscule pieces.

Grunting in mild satisfaction, Julian continued on as if nothing had happened. His shoulders hunched in a surly manner as he mentally insulted everyone who had pissed him off this morning, most of the names belonging to those of authority. And to think it had all started with a whisper.

It had been a long time--since before he lost his hands--when Sofia Mantega had left the X-Men. There hadn't been much point in her staying, really; the Xavier Institute had been designed for mutants, and she had been stripped of her powers. Of course, Julian would never admit to anyone how much her absence had stung at first. He had tried to keep tabs on her throughout the years, but his connections could only get him so far. He would get a murmur of her whereabouts here, a snippet on her welfare there. Now he'd heard a whisper that said Sofia was missing. And a whisper was all it took for Julian to go ballistic.

He had stormed in on the Jean Grey School's faculty, demanding that they gather their resources and start a search for Sofia. However, despite his passionate pleas, his lack of evidence meant that no one was going to form a search party anytime soon. Sure, they "understood what he was going through" and "were there for him," but that was their way of saying you're on your own, kid.

So with a few choice words that he knew would get him nowhere good upon his return he also may have broken a lamp or two, an embittered Julian stormed out of the school and headed straight for Mutant Town. Who better to find a mutant after all, than another mutant?

So there he was, venting his frustrations out on various pieces of debris and trying to figure out where to turn to for help. The fact that he even had to ask anyone for help was enough to make him vexed. Then again, this was Sofia Mantega that was missing in action--he had to make sure not to leave any stone unturned, no matter how unpleasant the experience.

Julian was distracted from blowing up innocent pieces of trash when a sudden flash of intense, white light flooded the area. He immediately covered his eyes with his arm and instinctively surrounded himself with a dome of telekinetic energy. Once he was sure the light had subsided, he warily lowered his defenses and looked over to where the anomaly had occurred. A small, dangerous smirk began to stretch his lips. Hello, new punching bag.

The young man's body became surrounded with a bright green aura as he lifted himself into the air and flew towards the source of the light. It took him only a minute or two to discover who was behind the attack. Purifiers--even better. He didn't even have to feel guilty about pummeling these guys into the ground. And there was Polaris about a half-block away, licking her wounds. She was a part of the X-Factor, wasn't she? ...Yea, that sounded right. After he finished putting the smack-down on these glorified bastards in bathrobes, maybe her team could help him with the obviously more pressing matter of locating Sofia.

"Nice costumes, you bigoted freaks," Julian sarcastically praised, landing several feet in front of the group with his arms crossed and a smug look plastered on his face. "You seem to have departed from the 'nun' look this time. Very chic. Though, it would look even better if you didn't have these."

As he spoke, Hellion's eyes blazed green and the staffs the Purifiers were holding began to glow. If they didn't do something quick, they would soon find themselves with splinters instead of staffs in their hands.

There was a general rule of thumb that everyone who had ever worked with Lorna Dane under her empowered alias knew, and that was: you don't hit her. Polaris didn't take kindly to being knocked half of a city block, into a Lorna-sized imprint in the asphalt. She was just thankful that her instinct had been to glaze her limbs in magnetic force, otherwise the blow could have done more than just drive the air from her lungs. Lorna's eyes flickered, then shone their complimentary color, and she was quite prepared to have what Alex referred to as a 'Hell hath no fury' moment.

Just before Polaris could rise to finish off the Purifiers with one gesture, however, a green glare of light caught in the corner of her eye. She could see in her peripherals a young man land on the scene, coated in energy that just happened to be Polaris's favorite color. She might have been an X-Man at one point, but Lorna had met countless mutants, psychos and super-heroes in her day, on a global, international and intergalactic scale. She thought that she had earned a little bit of wiggle room with not remembering every face that she encountered over the years.

Lorna was trying to put a name to face as she sat up slowly when the newcomer finally spoke. That tone. Arrogant with a tang of scorn and a frosting of sarcasm. Polaris didn't really have the option to forget who this was. She didn't even have issue remembering the telekinetic's codename, because hearing his voice, it was the very embodiment of what he had chosen to call himself. "Hellion," Lorna said with a terse smile. She would have been more happy to see Hellion, had the circumstances been altered a bit.

As it was, Polaris didn't think that laying on her back in the middle of the road, against Purifiers, of all the two-cent villains, didn't really become her. Lorna listened to Hellion's banter as she floated into the air, gathering herself entirely while given the chance. The staves that had effectively grounded her shone green, then were blasted to kindling beneath the fingers of three very surprised Purifiers. "Let's wrap this up, shall we?"

Polaris held out both hands, and from a nearby alleyway, several pieces of scrap metal came soaring toward her. As the individual articles progressed - a battered metal beam, a stretch of chain-link fence, and so forth - they began to move sinuously together. The Purifiers had begun to disperse, sprinting in various directions now that defeat was eminent. Those that had tarried too far were suddenly running in place, the metal adorning their outfits having begun pulling them in the opposite direction.

Lorna gave one nonchalant gesture, and the serpentine strand of scrap metal looped around the crowd of Purifiers, pulling them into an uncomfortably close group hug before stopping resolutely, looping them all. Polaris eyed her handiwork critically for a moment, pursing her lips in thought, then looked to Hellion. "What do you think?" she flapped a hand airily toward the Purifiers, who had now began protesting very loudly, either cursing Lorna and Hellion, or harking about how uncomfortable they now were, pressed so firmly together.

Julian's eyes narrowed in satisfaction as the staffs the Purifiers had used against Polaris were reduced to splinters. That had been relatively easy. Now all he had to do was lift his hands and--

Oh yeah.

Round blue eyes stared into space, his outstretched arm supporting a limp and very nonorganic hand. He had forgotten how easy it was to relapse back into his old fighting style, to try and channel his telekinesis through hands that no longer existed. It seemed like every moment he chose to relax, to drift back to his old self, something would happen to remind Julian that that wasn't going to be possible. Like whenever he went to pick up a pencil, or twiddle his thumbs. Almost everything he did was just another reminder that he would never be the same. That something irreplaceable had been taken from him.

The sound of his own name managed to snap Hellion out his mental spiral, his eyes regaining their focus on the world as he turned to look at Polaris. "Lorna," he greeted, his voice still slightly distant. He watched with mild disinterest as the woman proceeded to wrangle up the retreating Purifiers, squishing them all together as if she were restraining pencils with a rubber band. In her own words, she had "wrapped them up." How punny.

"I think that my opinion doesn't matter in this instance. You got them, didn't you?" Hellion responded bluntly, quick to withdraw into his surly shell once more. His arms were crossed and his shoulders hunched slightly, as if he were trying to literally withdraw into himself.

Way to make a good first impression, Julian. Just go and dig yourself into a hole. That's going to solve all your problems.

Taking a deep breath, Hellion relaxed slightly and said, "Look, this isn't exactly easy for me to say, so take me seriously when I tell you this: I need the X-Factor's help." Hesitating for a moment, he added, "Sofia Mantega has been missing for weeks. I...can't find her on my own, hence why I'm coming to you."

Ouch, that had been painful to say. It had felt akin to ripping off a band-aid; this had better be worth the trouble.

Lorna had been expecting to turn to see Julian, perhaps a bit unimpressed - he was the favorite pupil of Emma, wasn't he? - but not entirely against a little banter between allies. Whatever level of apathy Polaris had prepared herself to witness coming from Hellion, what she saw when she looked at him, asking her teasing little question, it didn't quite level out. Julian looked like he had taken a bite out of an expired lime, and that it was Lorna's fault that he had done so. His next comment only helped reinforce that metaphor.

Polaris might have been stung by the crass way she was spoken to just then. However, she had worked on a team for most of her adult life now, and there were always personality types that clashed in that setting. Lorna had become slightly desensitized to Hellion's brand of unapologetic arrogance. Now being on X-Factor with Monet helped a lot, too. Flippant though Julian was, compared to the condescending attitude of Lorna's new teammate, she could deal. Rather than take offense, the emerald-haired woman merely quirked a brow in vague amusement at Hellion.

Lorna could see that Julian was struggling with something, however. The furrow to his brow reminded the Mistress of Magnetism of Alex when he was trying to overcome his own stubbornness and apologize. Abruptly, in Polaris's opinion, Hellion looked up at her and pressed on to explain that it wasn't as much coincidence that they had met that evening as she had originally thought. What Julian had to say sobered Lorna as she levitated on the spot. She descended slowly while the telekinetic spoke, and her feet were on the ground by the time he'd finished.

Hellion was nearly wincing with every word he spoke. She knew him by reputation enough to understand how truly difficult it was for the young man to not only ask for help, but admit that he needed it in the first place. Polaris was about to reply when a ripple of crimson and azure lights washed in quick succession over the scene. The woman scowled, looking up to see police cars en route. No doubt the Purifiers would wriggle their way out of recompense for their actions, but Lorna couldn't change that.

Something more pressing had come up. "Why don't we adjourn to a more private venue?" Lorna asked, obviously indicating the loud grumblings of the Purifiers bound together, and the growing wail of the police siren. Polaris floated up to the nearest rooftop, intending Julian to follow while her mind raced. The young man had come looking for X-Factor Investigations, and what could she offer him?

The fact was that Theresa and Monet were out of the country - to shop, if one could imagine. Jamie was undercover on a lead, and had not only ordered that no one contact him, but taken measures to ensure no one was given the chance. Lorna didn't even think that Alex knew where Madrox was. Speaking of, Havok was several hours away, visiting Jean Grey's School. Polaris didn't know where Shatterstar or Rictor were, but they hadn't been at X-Factor headquarters when she'd left to take out the Purifier unit.

Lorna had to stay focused. She touched down on the rooftop and turned to look at Julian while still keeping an eye on the group of wrangled criminals below, and the inbound police car. "Do you know how long Sofia's been missing, and where she was last seen?" Those seemed like standard enough questions. Polaris needed to build a foundation for the investigation before she could build a proper case. Julian might find them cliche, but Jamie always said that the most subtle detail could help the other pieces fall into place.

Julian's eyes narrowed slightly as Lorna cocked at brow at him. It almost looked like she was...amused by his behavior. Did she think him a child? Irritation bubbled underneath the young mutant's skin like magma boiling beneath the Earth's crust. He felt insulted by her actions, as inconsequential as it was - then again, it wasn't hard for someone like Julian to take nearly everything as blow to his pride. Despite himself, a touch of green began to infringe on the blue in his eyes.

Calm yourself, Julian. Deep breaths. I'm sure someone taught you how to meditate throughout the years. Possibly.

He inhaled deeply, then released his breath in a loud huff, the green light leaving his gaze. He glanced sourly at the area just beyond his nose, as if it were to blame for all his problems. Admitting that he needed help felt akin to sticking his hands (if he still had hands) into a bucket of ice and waiting until frostbite developed. But, at least something good had come out of it. He had Polaris' attention.

Hellion struggled not to flinch as the blare of police sirens sliced through the air. He had a rather unhealthy relationship with human authority, something that wasn't hard to foster when he shamelessly used his telekinesis every chance he got. He had no qualms when Polaris motioned for them to move somewhere more private.

"Fine with me," he grumbled, his body suddenly coated in green energy as he followed Polaris to the nearest rooftop. It wasn't as private as he would have liked, seeing that the police sirens were still making him wish he had no ears, but it was something. The glow around Hellion's body faded, retracting to just his hands as he crossed his arms and fixed Polaris with a skeptical look.

He rolled his shoulders in response to the sudden round of Twenty Questions, his blue gaze darting to the side. He understood that the green-haired gal needed information, though, so after a moment's hesitation he spit it out. "Last I heard Sofia was back in Venezuela, with her family. That was several weeks ago. I'm not sure of the exact amount of time she's been missing." Hellion's gaze wandered down to the trussed up Purifiers, watching as the police cars came to a halt at the curious scene. A thought suddenly crossed his mind, causing his blue eyes to narrow, and he turned to face Polaris suspiciously. "Shouldn't I be saying this in front of the entire X-Factor? You are still a part of their team, aren't you?" he questioned, the condescension practically dripping from his tongue.

Lorna couldn't put her finger on which appeared to be annoying Hellion the most: her, or the police rushing to the scene below. He's lucky he didn't run into any other member of the team, the woman thought absently. Monet probably would have drop-kicked Julian out of the city by the end of it. Thankfully, Polaris had been trained most of her life to deal with personality types like Julian's. The overbearing kinds that swelled and throbbed with pride and arrogance. Because every one of those attributes could be attributed in some measure to Alexander Summers.

What drove Julian was strong enough to let him make his pride secondary, because he didn't need any further prompting to spill what details he knew. Lorna's eyes narrowed slightly as she took in the information. She wasn't familiar enough with Sofia to have known exactly where her family lived, accent aside. All in all, Hellion hadn't divulged anything worthwhile before a wary cunning leaped into his eyes, and he proceeded to change tact. Polaris regarded him the same way he regarded her, then he voiced his concern.

Lorna pressed her lips together in a terse, wry smile. No use beating around the bush. "Sorry you don't have the full deck here, Julian, but I'm the best you've got. The rest of the team are spread out." Polaris glanced at him dryly. "Of course, I could try to contact them, and we could wait for more to show up, but that would waste valuable time." Lorna wasn't going to allow Julian a chance to do more than glare at her. Not at that moment. That's why she pushed on before he could respond.

"Now, how did you get word that she was even missing, if Sofia was supposed to be in Venezuela?" Julian might have had the chance to answer her question, but Polaris wasn't afforded an opportunity to reply in turn. There was a whisper on the wind that tickled the back of the Mistress of Magnetism's neck. "Come," it breathed on the night air. Lorna's eyes widened. She turned toward the source of the sound, and saw that, despite her relatively honed battle senses, she and Hellion were no longer alone on the rooftop.

Standing opposite them was a tall figure wrapped in soiled rags. Bare, bony feet as white as porcelain were visible beneath the tattered robes, and spindly fingers reached out from voluminous sleeves to a drawn hood. "Come," he repeated. Lorna wasn't optimistic enough to roll over for the stranger, or do what he asked. The voice he had alone was creepy enough to make him a criminal. Polaris's eyes shone with emerald light. There was a tensity that ran in the air. "Who are you?"

The figure remained still for several moments, pale fingers gripping the edge of his hood. Then, he pushed it back. His face might have been noble and wise, had it looked more than white skin pulled over his skull. The man - apparently a mutant, given the circumstances - had a bald head and pointed ears pressed back against his scalp. What struck Lorna most, however, were his eyes. Or, rather, lack thereof. Instead of iris or pupil, the mutant's sockets held a blackness as pure as the deep of space - Lorna could attest.

Save, in that blackness, two timid, albeit purposeful flames flickered, as if the mutant had a burning wick behind each of his eyelids. "I," his voice carried without his lips moving, withering on the wind, "am No One." Polaris thought for a moment that he was avoiding the question, but then realized that he had answered her. He was using the term that usually denounced a title as just that: he was No One.

Seriously? Polaris was the only member of the X-Factor currently in New York? Julian could have kicked himself. What was the point of seeking out an entire team's help if only one person was there to answer the call? It was so preposterous it bordered on demoralizing. However, despite Julian's urge to bite the head off of anything within the vicinity, Polaris did have a point. There was no use wasting valuable time waiting about for the rest of the X-Factor when at least Polaris was willing to help him find Sofia. The powerful urge to locate Wind Dancer and ensure her well-being was clouding Julian's judgement and hiding any sense of manners under a storm of angst and nerves, but he still had enough sense in him to realize that running amok and blowing stuff up in his frustration wasn't going to help him find Sofia. He would just have to hope that Lorna was a competent enough detective to help track the former X-Man down. Plus, he was far too impatient to wait for the entire X-Factor to return to New York anyways.

Of course, Lorna's sudden increase in attitude was totally unnecessary. Hellion could practically see the sass ooze out of her mouth as she turned his suspicion right back on him. Wonderful.

Julian narrowed his eyes, feeling the irritation beginning to bubble under his skin again. Polaris may be helping him find Sofia, but that gave her no right to pick his mind like one would pick at an overcooked vegetable. Oh, the flawed logic of an arrogant telekinetic.

"That's not important. What is important is that we find Sofia and see that she's alright," Hellion replied tersely, managing to avoid the question with surprising tact. Polaris didn't need to know how he knew that Sofia was missing, just that she was. Besides, if he told her the real reason why he knew of Sofia's absence, it would make him look like a stalker. And Julian Keller was totally not a stalker.

Before Polaris could reply to him, Julian sensed a change in her demeanor. She suddenly became tense, and it wasn't because she was irritated at him either. It was a different kind of tense, like something one felt when facing an unknown adversary.

The telekinetic followed her gaze, and immediately stiffened in surprise when he noticed they were no longer alone on the roof. Someone who was very obviously a mutant, whom he couldn't believe he didn't notice earlier, was standing a little ways from them. For his own sake, Julian hoped it he hadn't been standing there for very long; his battle senses weren't that dull.

"What's with the mummified elf?" he muttered sideways to Polaris, his sharp gaze never leaving the strange mutant. Just looking at the guy caused the hairs on the back of Julian's neck to raise in apprehension. His eyes instinctively began to glow green as a primitive self-defense.

Almost as if the pale, pointy-eared mutant had heard Julian's mutterings, he said that he was No One. Without even moving his mouth. Now that was creepy.

No one? Julian thought to himself quizzically, the green glow fading from his eyes as he cocked a brow in confusion. "Well that's helpful," he huffed sarcastically, failing to understand that the mutant really was No One. Trying a different tactic, he added in a more audible voice, "Well, what do you want?"

Polaris would have thought that an individual with Hellion's experience would have known better than to snap tartly at an obviously mutant stranger that popped up. Lorna would have words with him later, she decided. At the moment, she had to direct the majority of her focus to maintain civilities, and cover up Julian's arrogance. You never knew which mutants were the kind that would declare world domination, blow up a city block, or rewrite reality at being slighted. Manners were best... at least at that moment, while Lorna was still gauging the situation.

No One briefly turned his gaze toward Hellion when he spoke, then seemed to find that addressing him was unnecessary. The pale figure looked directly back at Lorna, and she really wished that he wouldn't. His gaze wasn't something that she saw, but that she felt. Like a dry, desert wind was blowing over her psyche, crisping its edges. Polaris shuddered internally, but managed to retain an air of dignity befitting a daughter of Magneto on the outside. She wasn't given the opportunity to smooth over Julian's sour edges, however.

"I have come," the voice whispered through her head, not dissimilar to a telepath, but in a way that felt more ancient and primal, "to help." Polaris pursued her lips to coax more information out of No One when the darkness in his eyes began to move. With one, momentous swell it surged from the mutant's sockets and swallowed Polaris and Julian whole. The mistress of magnetism took a step back in shock, then looked drastically around through the deep shadows.

Still, the two flames floated up ahead. Hardly had Lorna come to terms with this new twist when they flashed brightly, bringing with them a tide of shifting awareness and images with them. Polaris saw a rural town in Long Island. With a flash, a warehouse on its outskirts. Flash - the empty insides of the dilapidated building. A panel in the wall opened, showing a set of stairs going into the foundation of the warehouse.

Chrome corridors and futuristic labs flew by, and then, at the end of a metallic hall, a set of doors opened. A cavernous chamber rippled over Lorna's eyes with large cylinders of dark violet liquid bubbling around the exterior. Then, in a divot on the back wall, a test tube stood. In the dim lighting all that showed was a feminine silhouette, emblazoned in the light glow of the pale gold substance that surrounded it. One last image flared ahead of the rest, closing up on the figure in the test tube. A woman with foreign features, chocolate tresses floating like a halo in the water around her.

Polaris gasped. The vision was gone, as was No One. It was just her and Hellion, standing on a rooftop in Mutant Town.

Julian couldn't help but narrow his eyes vehemently at the strange mutant before him. The thing was ignoring him. And Julian Keller did not get ignored. His glowing green eyes burned into the other's sockets, unafraid of their mysterious depths in his anger, as if he could exact justice through a single look. Though when it came to Julian, that might actually prove possible.

Before it came to anything physical, however, something quite unexpected happened. And Julian had seen some pretty funky stuff, so this was saying something. Darkness suddenly leaped out of the ghostly white mutant's eyes, enveloping both him and Polaris before Julian had time to blink. Like Lorna, he instinctively stepped back in a futile attempt to escape the sudden blackness, nearly bumping into the green-haired woman in the process. His entire body became immediately shrouded in a bright green light, turning him into the equivalent of a human flashlight. Though Hellion soon found that he didn't need his telekinesis to see the images that were suddenly flashing before his eyes.

The flames in No One's eyes were suddenly floating before him and Polaris, acting very much like a camera as they showed them new images with each flash. Managing to sense the importance of the situation, Julian did his best to burn everything he saw into his memory. He recognized the town as being somewhere off the coast of Long Island, but the images that followed were foreign to him. He didn't recognize the decrepit warehouse at the town's edge, nor the sinister lab hidden within its walls.

However, there was no mistaking the young woman floating in a test tube like a prized lab rat.

"Sofia!" he cried, hand outstretched as if to free her from her confines. However, his metallic hands grasped nothing but blue sky. They were back in Mutant Town, and the ghostly elf was nowhere to be found.

There was a moment of silence, where he just stared into space with round, blue eyes. And then a piece of the roof exploded. Hellion had sunk into one of his fits, tormented at the sight of the former Wind Dancer in the hands of some creep in a lab coat or at least he assumed it was a creep in a lab coat. He should have kept a closer eye on her, should have attempted a visit. But so much had happened since Sofia's sudden departure, and then his hands...

"We have to find her. She's in danger, and we have to find her." Julian's voice quivered slightly somewhere along the line, and a faint green glow coated his hands as he clenched them into fists. His eyes squeezed shut and he took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. His efforts only made another section of the roof explode.

Turning to Polaris, he said, "You'll help me, right? You'll help me find her?" His eyes, though still shrouded in green energy, held a desperateness in them that he had managed to hide until now. It was the most vulnerable Julian had felt all day, and he hated it.

The moment of silence stretched on. Directly against the sudden spectacle that the flashing visions had carried, standing on a rooftop in New York seemed to contrast starkly. Bitterly mundane compared to what had just happened. Lorna was silent out of awe, reservedness and an attempt to order her thoughts before speaking. What she had just seen, even with her experience, was a bit unsettling. Her first inclination was to run over the images that had appeared again once or twice to ensure she remembered them.

Julian, however, was silent out of frustration. That was a silence that did not last. Polaris didn't flinch when part of the rooftop detonated, seemingly of its own accord. Bits of gravel pelted towards her, threatening to shave fine lines over her cheeks and run lines in her new coat with the force of their momentum. They pinged harmlessly off of a fine barrier of magnetic energy, so tame and instantaneous that it made nothing but a vague waver run through the air in front of the woman.

Polaris understood. She'd been in situations just like this before. Not fitting the description exactly, but frighteningly close. Instances where Alex was out of her reach, possibly forever, and she felt like a petulant, helpless child, whining and kicking up dirt because, even with all of her incredible power, she could do nothing to change things. Lorna mastered her expressions. She didn't want Julian to mistake understanding or empathy for pity. That surly was not an emotion that the green-haired woman was feeling.

Hellion whirled around to her, eyes glowing in tandem with his metallic hands, voice torn into pieces of fractured emotions. Had the telekinetic been another kind of individual, another type of personality, she might have tried to console him. To reach out a hand and grasp his shoulder in reassurance. Lorna knew better when the tormented was Julian Keller. Rather than soften her expression, Polaris hardened it with stubborn reserve. She didn't answer Hellion's question. At least, not outright. Though, given what she said next, it was as good as. "I know which town that was."

- - - - - - - - -

Brookhaven, New York was bordered by civilization on two sides, Bellport Bay on another, and Suffolk County Park on the last. Lorna Dane knew which city the vision had shown because Havok had taken her out to dinner there after a mission one time. They'd both smelled like burnt hair, and were bruised over ninety percent of their bodies, earning more looks from passersby than Lorna did on an average basis just by having green hair. It had been one of the best nights of Polaris's life.

Knowing which town, and where that town was made finding the warehouse infinitely more easy. Had Lorna not known of it's existence, it would have blended in with the rest of the scene of Brookhaven. Too well, in fact. The woman was betting that some kind of technology or third party factor was helping along with that. As it was, searching for the rundown thing, Polaris realized how it stuck out like a sore thumb. Lorna floated slowly to the ground in the parking lot that wrapped around the building's eastern side.

The park marched right up to the back of the warehouse property, and the bay was within walking distance, the sound of it lapping up against the shores and docks like a primal heartbeat. The parking lot was bleached white by years of harsh sun, cracked to gravel in many places, and covered in so many weeds that you couldn't make out individual parking spots any more. Polaris didn't like the mist that was shrouding the scene, coupled with the fact that it was in the middle of the night, and the streets were eerily deserted didn't sit well with her.

"Normally I'd throw out the big 'stealth is better for everyone' card, but, let's face it." Lorna looked toward Julian, frowning. "Odds are, anyone who has such a high-tech lab will have surveillance. Surveillance that even I won't be able to short out. In that case, our best bet is to charge in, get Sofia, and dash before whoever owns the place shows up." Polaris gestured to the warehouse up ahead. "After you, kind sir," she said politely.

Bright, glowing green eyes seemed to stare straight into Lorna's soul, searching for an answer. Was she going to say anything at all? Her silence, however temporary, felt like eons to Julian; he wanted to rip out his hair for how long it took her to respond to his plea. Finally, though, her face seemed to harden, and Julian got the response he was looking for. Mingled relief and gratitude flooded his body, and he visibly relaxed. He still must have been pretty excited though, because another piece of the roof exploded. Oops.

- - - - - - - - -

Julian glared at the warehouse before them as if the building had personally offended him. He could even ignore the creepy ensemble that pervaded the area, eager as he was to just charge in and find Sofia. She was so close he could practically touch her. Plus, it was kind of hard to be scared of a dilapidated warehouse and some fog when he could pretty much glow in the dark whenever he wanted.

Blue eyes wandered over to Polaris as she began to explain their plan of action. Or rather, the lack thereof. Green energy suddenly clouded Hellion's eyes as she pretty much gave him free license to tear apart the warehouse brick by brick. "Stealth was never my thing, anyways," he drawled, giving a nod to Polaris as he took a few steps forward. Inhaling deeply, he narrowed his eyes as a section of the warehouse before them began to tremble. A circle of green began to etch itself on the worn-down wall, and the area within that circle suddenly imploded.

"They probably heard that; let's make this fast," Hellion barked, coating his body in green, telekinetic energy as he flew through the hole he had just created. Recalling the images No One had shown him, he ripped open the panel in the wall that hid the stairs, bolted through the various corridors and past the futuristic labs, and rocketed down the large metallic hall that lead to Sofia's chamber like a glowing green missile. Though he had a telekinetic shield up to protect himself from attack, he had come across no one in his pell-mell sprint to the chamber. Or at least, he hadn't noticed anyone.

Not wasting a second, Hellion blasted open the doors that separated him from the inside of the chamber. He narrowed his eyes in the dim lighting, straining to find the one figure he was looking for. "Sofia?" he called out cautiously, as if saying her name would summon her and solve all his problems.

From a tactical standpoint, giving Julian free reign to bust holes in the warehouse might have not been the most astute strategy. Alex would no doubt have scorned her for not taking the situation more slowly. Polaris could guess who was behind this though, and treading carefully would only offer more opportunities to play into his plans. Thankfully, Hellion didn't do anything unnecessary. For a moment, when the telekinetic widened his stance and glared at the warehouse, Polaris was worried that he might raze the entire structure.

Thank heaven, Lorna thought in relief when a perfect circle exploded in the wall of the warehouse. Loud, brutally, violently, yes, but Julian was honing his anger, which was a good sign. Lorna followed the mentalist, floating behind him on magnetic waves. Her eyes took their turn to shimmer green. There was a powerful ripple that shot from her, angled directly into the earth when Hellion soared through the entry he'd made. Another ripple of force slammed into the ground when Polaris had followed suit, as the telekinetic wrenched the false panel from the wall with his will.

A third radiated forward beyond the duo and into the bowels of the lab. Polaris took her time through the corridors in sight of Julian, but more cautiously than he was progressing. Apparently the triad of EMP pulses had taken most of the lab offline. There were no robots or lasers popping out of the walls to attack them, at least. Lorna's eyes narrowed as Hellion broke open the final door and charged into the dimly lit final lab. She floated silently in behind him and touched down, eyes darting around. A heavy mist was in the room.

"There's something wrong," she muttered to Julian quietly, "this was too easy."

(Sofia post incoming)

The room which Hellion and Polaris barged into was vaguely oval in shape. Each side of the door held a semicircle of slightly reclined cylinders that held dark lavender liquid, bubbling and being pumped to various other areas of the labs through the thick charcoal cables that hung from the shadows that hung above, making the ceiling's distance a guessing game. Mist rolled over the scene, trimmed in violet light from the substances that swirled around the circumference of the room.

The doors to the room were wrenched brutally from their places, metallic surfaces flaking and shattering with the force of the telekinetic that charged in immediately afterwards. Next was a woman with emerald hair who entered more slowly. She spoke something quietly. The moment after the female spoke, lights clicked on, illuminating the center of the room while still enshrouding it's exterior in dense shadows.

A step after the main lights kicked in, one by one, a ring of recessed strips of white luminescence ignited around the edge of a circular niche in the wall opposite the door to the chamber. With a shuddering moan that trilled through the room, one last light flared, sifting through a pale golden mixture in a test tube on display in the divot. Floating with eyes closed within was a beautiful woman with flowing brown hair outfitted in a white form-fitting suit of strange material.

Before anything could be done to wrest her from the liquid prison, strips lit up along her torso and arms. That light surrounded her collar, then sprawled up the skin of her neck, carving square patterns along her cheek bones. The lines worked their way around her eye sockets and met between her eyes, where a diamond of crimson light appeared. The test tube shivered again, and the liquid drained from it in two quick seconds.

The glass of the test tube retreated next, withdrawing smoothly into the ceiling. The woman stood dazedly on the still-wet plinth of metal and circuits. There was a moment of silence, then her eyes opened, and they were full of pale blue light. Then, a vacuum force swept out, bringing the two shattered doors and ripping miscellaneous shrapnel from the walls, sucking them into a makeshift blockade over the exit. Without anywhere to escape to, a micro tornado was loosed in the room.

(Terrible post is terrible. ;3; Sorry!)

Julian's eyes darted to Polaris for a moment as she spoke, briefly distracted in their search for Sofia. A bitter sigh escaped his lips. "It's never too easy, is it?" he groaned, already knowing that his green-haired partner spoke the truth. Just once he would like for it to be as easy as walking in, getting what they needed, and then walking out; considering all that the people like him went through, he really didn't think that was asking for too much.

Of course, no sooner had he thought that than the weird, foreboding stuff started happening. Light suddenly illuminated the center of the room, shining down on him and Lorna like they were the subjects of an interrogation. Julian narrowed his eyes against the sudden brightness as it spread to the corners of the room, eventually shedding light on a certain displayed test tube filled with a golden liquid. Or rather, on a certain person inside said test tube.

"Sofia." The statement left Julian as more of an exhalation than anything else, barely audible above the moans and groans of the machinery in the room. The pain at seeing the young woman in such a state was obvious in his eyes. What had they done to her?

Before Hellion could even think of freeing her, Sofia's face and upper body suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. The telekinetic immediately assumed she was under some form of control, which only made the claws of pain sink that much deeper into his heart. However, there was another feeling that was beginning to creep to the surface, filling his veins with raw power. Rage. Whoever had done this to Sofia was going to wish they had never set eyes on her.

Unfortunately for Hellion, plans of vengeance would have to wait. Sofia was freed from her test tube, and she had been free for no more than a few seconds than a vacuum force suddenly swept out, dragging the two shattered doors and miscellaneous scrap metal over their only exit. It took a moment for what had just happened to sink into Julian's mind, but once it did he gasped, "She has her powers back!"

Part of him wanted to feel immediately happy for her. A lot of the mutants who lost their powers on M-Day had been devastated, and Sofia was one of them. But then Julian came to his senses. Sofia Mantega, Wind Dancer, had her powers back.

"...Crap."

The word had barely left his lips when a mini tornado was set upon him and Polaris. A dome of telekinetic energy formed around Hellion, his eyes and body glowing with the effort to keep him rooted to the ground while deflecting any shrapnel that headed his way. He looked over to Polaris to make sure she was alright, but he really wasn't too worried for her. The Mistress of Magnetism, in a room full of metal? Hellion was sure she could handle herself.

"Cover me. I'll see if I can get through to her," Julian hollered over the gale that swept through the room. A silly notion, really, but one that all lovestruck heartthrobs had to consider. If he didn't try he would kick himself. Focusing his power, Hellion lifted himself into the air, effectively dissolving his dome. He still kept a shield about himself that kept out minor debris, but it wouldn't be so effective if something the size of a boulder came his way. He would just have to trust that Polaris kept her wits about her.

Julian got as close to the tornado as he dared without getting sucked in, his brow beginning to furrow with concentration. "Sofia! It's me, Julian. C'mon, you don't want to do this," he pleaded. Calling upon more of his power, the telekinetic turned his attentions to the dust devil on steroids, trying to will the wind to turn in the opposite direction and effectively neutralize the windstorm.