Tormound wrote:Chrono180 wrote:Without giving too much of the next story away, there is a very good reason why Lilly hasn't unlocked her power yet.
Cause it will break the story. Well not the problem on hand right now but then again i don't know how strong this molecular warping is. Anyway great story and can't wait for the next one.
Well, yes, but I meant an "in character" reason as well.
Anyway, here's chapter 4, its where the meat of the story begins
Chapter 4. Introducing Mentat
“A...life seed.” Psylocke said, fiddling with a dial on the med-scanner. Angel with still there, unconscious, and Hisao was thinking Betsy was keeping him sedated, which in turn made him wonder if the disease was progressing faster than he had originally thought.
“That's what the Grandmaster called it.” Hisao replied.
“I hardly would count him as trustworthy source. That man had wheels within wheels. Everything he does is in the pursuit of some goal.”
Hisao glared at Psylocke, “Do you have any better ideas?”
Psylocke shook her head, “No, I don't. Short of a miracle. Now where could these seeds be located...” she thought for a moment. “Celestial origin, you said? Hmm....”
Hisao regarded Psylocke for a moment. Truth was, she reminded him a little of Lilly. Yes, Lilly was an Asian girl who looked Scottish while Psylocke was a British woman in an Japanese body, but they were quite similar in many other respects. Both were well-bred, both kept their cool in all but the worst situations, and both were extremely striking looking. Lilly with her bright blonde locks, and Betsy with her neon purple hair. Every time Hisao spoke to her, his mind kept wandering to his girlfriend, and he couldn't help but wonder if, had Lilly gained powers long ago, she might have wound up in same manner as his telepathic mentor. Psyclock had done some nasty things in her career with the X-men, and had some of the fewest moral concerns about so-called “grey” areas. She had killed dozens in her time as a superhero, and while the victims had deserved it, he could help but wonder if, should he and his friends continue this past, they might be forced into making decisions they would rather avoid experiencing.
“He said it could be found in 'metahuman linked areas'.” He said, picking up a widget on the scanner and looking it over, before putting it down again, ”Do you know what that means?”
“It means he doesn't know where to find one either.” Psylocke shrugged, “Though I can guess a few possible locations.” She reached over to a button on a nearby desk and spoke into a speaker. “X-23, Armor, Voidstar, Hardhead. Assemble in the briefing room, we have a mission.”
“Logan's not here?” Hisao asked.
Psylocke shook her head, “Right now he's off with Captain America and Iron Man on some thing with the Kree in the large magellanic cloud. That man's on two teams of X-men, plus the Avengers, plus he runs this branch of X-corp. Sometimes I think he's trying to work himself to death with all the irons he has in the fire. Usually, he can make it work but this time we're going without him. Thanks for the info, we'll let you know what we find.”
“I'm coming with you.” Hisao stated bluntly.
Psylocke shook her head, “Hisao, first of all, your arrhythmia is liable to cause you collapse in the middle of a firefight. Second, you have minimal combat experience. Third, your powers are the same as mine, but at a much lower level, so your usefulness is extremely questionable. It's better if you leave this to us.”
“Like HELL.” Hisao snapped, “First of all, I may not have that much combat experience, but since I heal from almost anything I won't need it. Second, maybe my powers are redundant, but so were X-23 and Wolverine. Both have claws and healing factors and little else. As for my arrhythmia...” he paused and tried to compose himself, but it didn't work. “Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Iron Man's heart constantly in danger of stopping for the first three years of his career? And he couldn't heal. If he can defend the people he cares about, so can I.”
“You yourself told me you didn't want a combat role-” Betsy began, but Hisao cut her off.
“And I told you shortly after that there are people I'd die for.” he said, slightly annoyed. “I'm not going to sit back while the five of you juggle my best friend's life out there. You told me you knew what it's like to be helpless, so put yourself in my shoes. If a chance had come up to save Kitty's life, but the others didn't want you to come along, how would you feel?”
Betsy sighed and shook her head. “This is really against my better judgment....” She walked out of the med bay and over to a nearby closet. Taking out a thick black shirt with the X-men logo and green highlights as well as black pants and shoes, she tossed the clothes to Hisao.
“Is this spandex?” Hisao asked
“No, its a high-tech nanotube array that acts as body armor. You'll need it. Go put it on and figure out a codename. I'll go brief the others.” She gave a slightly amused smile and walked off. Hisao blinked and gave a grim smile, then walked into the restroom.
Kicking off his shoes and throwing off his shirt and pants, he took a deep breath.
“Time for a lifestyle change.” his stated, then slipped the new pants on, followed by the shirt. Shoving his feet into the boots, he paused and glanced in the mirror. “I look absolutely ridiculous. Half secret agent half businessman. I wonder how many x-men deaths are from embarrassment.”
He then took a deep breath.“Codename? That's actually an easy one. I'm a Dune fan after all.” He then pulled out his phone and dialed a number.
The phone rang twice and then a voice came on the other end.
“Hey there Lilly,” Hisao started.
“Oh, hello there Hisao,” Lilly said.
“Good news,“Hisao replied, “I found a possible way to save Hanako.”
“Really?” Lilly said, excitement creeping into her voice, “How?”
“Life seeds. They're some alien artifact. I'm not sure where it's going to be located, but the X-men and I are going to go on a hunt for them.” He deliberately avoided mentioning the outfit.
“I have every faith you'll find them.” Lilly replied, “But hurry, Hanako seems to be quite... distraught.”
“Yeah...I know.” Hisao answered, “I visited her earlier... Um...” he paused for a moment, “Would you like to come along? I don't know if Betsy will go for it, but I could ask.”
“I think both of us leaving Hanako by herself would be a very bad idea.” Lilly replied, “I'm going to stay here and try to support her.”
“Fair enough,” Hisao stated, “I'll try to be back as soon as I can.”
“Please do. I love you darling.” Lilly said.
“Love ya too.” Hisao replied, “See you soon.”
“Goodbye, Hisao.”
“Goodbye, Lilly.”
Hisao hung up his phone and walked out,. “Okay briefing room. Now where might that be....”
Fifteen minutes later.....
“Still working on likely locations for the seeds.” Psylocke was explaining to the other four, “But several location seem to be good starting points. I thankfully am in possession of technology that can detect Celestial artifacts once we're nearby-”
“Hicchan? You look awesome!” Misha spoke as Hisao walked into the room.
“Mentat, actually.” he replied and blinked. “Shizune, you look like Trinity from-”
“I'm aware.” her thoughts appeared in his head. Hisao was a tad taken aback at how...girly her mental voice sounded. It was the first time she had ever 'spoke' in his head, so he wasn't sure what to expect, but it wasn't congruent at all with her personality. “Mental projection.” her mind continued, “Psylocke taught me how to do it, to shout my thoughts so local telepaths can pick them up. And yes, I know I 'sound' weird. Being deaf since I was six messed up the way I would think my voice would appear.”
“Anyway,” Psylocke stated, “I'm going to send out a bulletin to the other heroes to look out for these seeds. This first place we're heading is Chaparanga.”
“What's that?” Misha asked.
“It's where spaceships go to die.” Psylocke responded. “Spaceships fall all over the planet nowadays, and many times they are dumped in Chaparanga. Often with parts still intact. It's a likely place to look for alien tech, despite being completely lawless and containing more carcinogens than a case of Marlboro cigarettes. Now let's hurry, the longer we wait, the bigger danger there is of something...unfortunate happening.”
As the six X-men walked down to the hanger, Misha spoke up.
“You know, I've never been to a foreign country before. This should be fun.” She grinned.
[Are you joking me?] Hisao heard Shizune's thoughts come out at the same time she signed to Misha. [Half the populous of Chaparanga subsists on less than a hundred sixty yen a day, the starvation rate is through the roof, and the government is essentially an anarchy. Nobody would go there unless they have a mission or have no other choice. It's the fifth most dangerous place on the planet.]
Misha didn't seem perturbed in the least. “Fifth most, huh? What are the other four?”
[Madripoor, the Savage Land, the ruins of Genosha, and New York City. The Big Apple is by far the worst.]
“How did you know all this anyway? This place wasn't on any of the files I looked over”
[Considering how few you actually read, that's not surprising. But to answer your question, these glasses don't just print out what people say, they actually have a cybernetic interface that lets me look up all sorts of information. Very useful.]
“Seriously? That's so cool! I want a pair.”
“Maybe later,” Psylocke replied, “They're quite difficult to make.”
“So, Misha...” Hisao started, “How exactly do you fight? I mean, you're indestructible, but that leaves out any offensive ability.”
“Well, for one thing I've been learning kung fu.” Misha grinned, “For another...” she reached into a pocket on the side of her suit and brought out a sleek looking black pistol with an unusually long barrel and a dial on the side.“They called it a miniaturized....what was the term?”
[Railgun.] Shizune stated [Honestly Misha... Look, short version is that it packs a wallop on the lower settings and on the higher settings can bring down the side of a building.] She stopped signing for a moment and thought to Hisao “Frankly I think giving that kind of firepower to Misha is begging for disaster, but it wasn't my call. At least they made it so that it automatically resets back to the “off” position after each use so that she doesn't accidentally blow a hole in the floor.”
“A railgun?” Hisao stated, having a hard time believing it, “But the power supply on those things tends to be around a million amps! How the heck did they fit that kind of capacitor into a thirty-centimeter long pistol? Not to mention the wear and tear caused by the heat flow...”
“Forge makes amazing weapons.” Armor replied plainly.
“While we're on the subject of technology that makes no sense.” Hisao continued, “I want to know how those spaceships work. By all rights, faster than light travel should be impossible!”
“There are multiple ways to exceed light speed.” Psylocke said as the six climbed into the blackbird. “The most common methods is using what's essentially the warp core from Star Trek. By 'stretching' space, you can compress a multi-light year journey into a span of several days. For long distances, such as between galaxies, it's common to use a so called “stargate” where a hole is torn in space between two points.”
“A hole in...” Hisao shook his head, “That makes no sense either! Puncturing space time like that would form a singularity, not a portal.”
Psylock sat down in the pilot's seat and X-23 took the copilots. The remaining four sat in several of the remaining seats. “You can bring up the schematics of some sample spaceships on that console if you'd like.” she motioned to a computer screen on the side of the jet. “I'm warning you though, it's complicated. Very complicated.”
“I will take that as a challenge.” Hisao replied and began tapping on the attached keyboard. Bringing up details on the Starjammer, he began to read.
