InsaneJournal

I can’t imagine how strange it must’a been to suddenly start turnin’ pink.
Who: Blink and Bella Donna
What: Bringing Data
When: After the raid
Where: Belle’s meeting place
status: Complete
Rating: PG-13 for language



There was a flash of pink light, and Clarice was standing in the room, looking around. She was holding the tablet and a USB key. “Miss Belle? I have the data.”

Belle wasn’t in her underwear this time. She was still trying to write her official report. If she replaced ‘tampering with human genes’ with ‘dirty bomb technology’, and mutants with ‘dangerous substances’, it just about worked. It didn’t give it the sense of urgency she thought it deserved, but there wasn’t much she could do about that.

She smiled at Blink, closing her laptop. “Perfect. Thank you very much. Want a drink? I need t’ take a break from this before my eyes roll back in my head.”

“That’s not something I ever really got into. Having my face in a screen all day. A playscript, now that’s a different story. Just some water, please.” She put the tablet and USB key on a table.

Belle nodded and got up to get a bottle of water. “I expected a lot more action and a lot less lyin’ t’ the federal government.” She noted with a laugh. “My first handler tried t’ warn me, but we never listen, do we?” She came back with the water bottle and handed it to Blink. She had a cup of coffee for herself.

“I think most of my people are pretty used to both the action and the lying,” she replied, shrugging a shoulder. “The place I dream about, there wasn’t even a US anymore. Just..Apocalypse and his cullings.”

“Place I dream about is ass backward, don’t wanna make any life decisions based on those.” She made a face. “Your powers came in real handy though, I’ll give you that. You were pretty good in the fight, too. Guess that comes from dreamin’ of a time with apocalypses and cullings.” She took a seat again, and shoved some folders and a hard drive off her ottoman. “Have a seat.”

She took a seat and crossed her legs. “I was saved by Mr. C-Sabertooth and Weapon X, from a really, really bad place. Sabertooth raised me and trained me. I would have been useless otherwise.”

Belle noticed the slip up but dismissed it. If she wanted to maintain the trust of Scott’s people, she had to let them open up in their own time. “I’m glad t’ hear that. You’re an actress here?” It seemed like a strange job. The girl must be truly embracing her dreams. Even Scott was different, and that could be the years since they last saw each other, but she was willing to blame the dreams a bit, too.

“I am. Just in a theatre. I had to make some adjustments when my skin started to change. I had some help in explaining why, and now I’m this mysterious playwrite recluse actress, or something.” She waved her hands.

Belle laughed a little. “I can’t imagine how strange it must’a been to suddenly start turnin’ pink.” She was glad she was normal colored in her dreams.

“Strange, and a little terrifying.” she traced her fingers down the tattoos on her face. “These came in last. Which makes sense, since I wasn’t born with them.”

Belle nodded. “I wondered. What do they mean?” She sipped her coffee and toyed with the USB drive Clarice delivered.

“It’ll probably take the conversation down a depressing turn,” she replied, shaking her head. “But I’ll tell you if you really want to know. I can also give you brief run down on just what kind of powers Cerberus might have gotten ahold of.”

“Believe me, knowin’ what we’re up against if Cerebus figgers out how to give these powers to other people is depressin’ enough.” She grabbed a pen and an adjacent receipt. “Alright, what can they do?”

“Telepathy. Powerful and precise. Rapid self-healing, complete with immunity to just about every disease and poison known to man. As far as I know, near-immortality too. Retards the aging process.” She took a swig of her water before continuing. “The healers have claws too. Bone.” She left out the adamatium because it wasn’t relevant. “There’s the fireworks. Mostly harmless, very pretty. But I’m told what she does is basically nuclear fission. She makes little stars. She’s not the kind of person to get really pissed off, though. Those are from the ones that were captured. We don’t know if they’ve gotten anything from the girl who walks through walls, or teleportation, or magic, or charging objects, or eye beams. Or any of the other powers we’ve seen.”

“Fuck.” Belle noted, facepalming for a moment. “We hafta stop ‘em. Even minor versions of these powers. . . can’t ask for more backup than I already got, neither. I’ve got one more man of my own, and I know he won’t say shit because of what I’ve got on him.” Well, that wasn’t quite true. He wouldn’t say shit because he didn’t want his daughter and grandchildren to live with the consequences of the government finding out about them, but she didn’t want to tip her hand about that, yet. Winston was much more useful as a hidden asset.

"We're an army unto ourselves, but it's not like we can go marching around blowing up warehouses. Not in this world, anyway. And to be honest most of the warehouse blowing up was defensive." She grinned.

Belle laughed. “If that kinda shit would work you wouldn’t need me.” She pointed out, sipping her coffee. “We gotta find the head of all this. Think your mind readers could look for ‘im?”

“It’s easier for us to find other mutants,” she replied, but didn’t sound like she’d elaborate. “We’d need a place to start, then we can zero in.”

“Figures.” Belle noted with a sigh. “Don’t need t’ find more mutants.” If they were hiding they deserved to be left alone. “Though I guess if they succeed you should be able t’ find the newly created mutants, right?”

“That’s...” Blink stared. “That’s actually really fucking brilliant! Freaking brilliant. Freaking.”

Belle laughed. “You’re living with kids, hein?” Why else would she correct herself?

“Not really a curser, usually. And yeah, my roommate’s … well it’s complicated. She’s the guardian her wife’s kid siblings. You know that plane crash in Japan back in February?” She figured that was pretty well known. “She was the only survivor. They were going to their honeymoon. She’s convinced Cerberus is behind it. Obsessed, really, and she’s a better fighter than I am.”

Bele made a face. “That’s dangerous for her.” And anyone who wanted to work with her. She made a note not to include Blink’s roommate. She didn’t want anyone to be emotionally compromised on her team.

“None of us really dream about lollipops and puppies. We try not to make a contest of it. She’s really good with computers though, and having her at your back is nice. And walking through walls is handy.” That was the extend she’d defend Kitty, anyway. “Anyway, if you want more data on Cerberus operations she probably has it. Or this woman named Shepard. Assuming Shadowcat didn’t put more information on that key than what she recovered.”

Shepard. Ha! Well, that was a help. Belle kept her expression neutral, but she was quite pleased at this revelation. “I’ll keep dat in mind.”

“I only really know what K-Shadowcat told me about that. Shepard had her do some hacking last year.”

Belle nodded. “Thank you. You’ve been an enormous help. Please let me know if I can ever return the favor.”

“We’re all in this together,” Clarice replied, shaking her head. “And we’ll burn together if we don’t do anything.” Then she blinked away.

“That’s a fact.” Belle noted to herself, before getting back to work.