But little Mouse, you are not alone,

[magnetic_magpie]

Who: magnetic_magpie southernreaper servingfather thelightbringer employeeofthemonthforever - perhaps others in the final threads
When: From 0030 on 5/11/2012 until the next day. Main part between 0030 and 0300.
Where: Sector 2, a SERO building and then a near by rooftop. Later threads may take place in the Casa del Arachangels or one of their safehouses.
Summary: Magneto plans a recon mission that goes very badly.
Warnings: Violence. Lots and lots of violence.


In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes of mice and men
Go often awry,
And leave us nothing but grief and pain,
For promised joy!

Comments

Zach and Kevin at the safehouse

[employeeofthemonthforever]

Zachariah had quietly healed the two mutants while everyone was watching the fireworks on the roof; by the time they flutter into the safehouse, Kevin is physically completely healthy. There's something a little off, a little claustrophobic about the place - the drab furniture and tacky wallpaper is unremarkable, but there are no windows, anywhere. Doors lead between rooms, but not outside. For the moment, they are isolated, sealed off from the rest of the world.

Kevin ends up in a squashy orange armchair, with Zachariah standing to the side.

"Hello Kevin," he murmurs gently, hands tucked in his pants pockets. He keeps the same form he took during the smiting to avoid confusion, a woman in middle age, plain and no-nonsense in her professional clothes. She looks like someone who might once have had a talent for nurturing, but had never done much with it. She seems all the more innocuous for it, as though she doesn't entirely know how this works, yet is determined to do it well in any case. "I'm Zachariah, and I'm going to take care of you for a while." He doesn't ask if that's all right. It will be.

[southernreaper]

Kevin didn't know what had happened. The last thing he'd remembered... the speedster. He'd grabbed the speedster, using him as a human shield. And then he couldn't move. He'd been so damned tired and he'd been so sure that he was right. They weren't going to get out of this, and they'd been damned stupid to try.

But his gloves were gone. Lost, somewhere in the battle and Kevin's automatic first reaction is to throw himself away. "Wh-what?" He managed to stammer out the question, stuffing his hands into his pockets. He's a bit disoriented, but can anyone blame him?

"M'gloves." He looked around the room. "M'gloves. Where are they?"

Yes, the gloves are that importan.

[employeeofthemonthforever]

Anything that didn't get pulled out of the building with Magneto and Kevin was utterly reduced to ash now.

"We may need to replace those," Zachariah tells him, calmly and mildly. A quick mental check - "Non-organic, right?"

[southernreaper]

He nodded, a bit dumbly. "I... Who are ya?" Because he knew he'd seen her when they'd gotten out. He knew she'd been involved. But right now? He didn't know her name.

"Where's Magneto?" Because that was the other important thing to ask. Had the other mutant made it out? Was he still alive?

[employeeofthemonthforever]

"Zachariah," she said again, though not impatiently, because in his mind, the name is what matters; he knows it now. "And I work for Michael. Magneto is in his care for the moment; he's been healed, and he's going to be okay."

[southernreaper]

"Ya don't look like a Zach." The words slipped out before he really thought about them. But, he didn't take that back. He'd never heard of a woman called Zachariah.

Kevin took several deep breaths. "Those things. Them... whatever they was that I found." He didn't even have a name for them. He didn't really want to have a name for them. He preferred just calling them nightmares in his mind. "They're all dead, righ'?"

He asked with all the pleading of a scared child. Because... that's what he is.

[employeeofthemonthforever]

He isn't angry. He just shrugs, and lets the woman's image slip away, leaving him with Adler's face: bland, paunchy, easy to over look.

"Between you and me, kid, I don't actually look like either of these people."

At his question, Zachariah nods, far more solemn. "They are. Every speck was destroyed. They will recover nothing from that facility," he promises.

[southernreaper]

Kevin relaxed, closing his eyes. He leaned back, surprised the chair didn't melt, but right now, he can't care about that. He wanted to go home to his dog, to his sculpting... Hell, he was gonna have to find another job. He'd lost his SERO job, and the one at the garage. He wasn't quite sixteen, what the hell was he supposed to do?

"I ain't sorry that that happened. I cain't be. Them things were wrong." He took another deep breath. "That's why when I first saw 'em, I went to Magneto. Had t'tell someone an' didn't have no one else."

Yeah, so this child was the one to find those things, get the map, get Magneto in...

[employeeofthemonthforever]

"You shouldn't be sorry," Zachariah murmured. "Those things were wrong." He doesn't know the details of what happened in the lab, or how things might have been resolved more neatly, but that doesn't matter at this point.

"You did the right thing, Kevin. It's taken care of now."

[southernreaper]

Kevin snorted. "If'n I know SERO, I'll be back in jail the minute I done show m'face 'round the island."

Because, well, his contract with SERO was what had gotten him out of jail in the first place. He didn't care, though.

"Is it true, them things were angels?" He'd heard something, both in the lab and when things had been going on. He just hadn't, quite, understood it all. To him, angels were God's soldiers. And those things hadn't been made by God. Not even a cruel and vengeful God like he suspected they had.

He looked down at his hands. "I ask, 'cause m'powers worked on 'em. An' I thought... " Thought that real angels would be impervious.

[employeeofthemonthforever]

"You let us worry about that later, alright?" Zachariah encouraged him. Which wasn't a promise, exactly, but it wasn't deceptive, either; there wouldn't be any evidence left of what occurred, and Michael would most likely want to do right by the young man who exposed the abominations to them.

"Those things were not angels," he answers, his tone a little more harsh than he intended. He restrains himself. "Poorly done parodies, at most. And now they're gone."

[southernreaper]

Kevin sighed. "I cain't. If'n they send me t'jail, they might take Mimsy back." He wasn't worried about jail. He was worried about losing his puppy. Because he loved her more than he could articulate.

Kevin looked up at Zach and just nodded. "Good. I wish we could've gone in earlier, but I didn't think... I hoped they'd all jus' die. That we wouldn't have to..." Kevin hated using his powers, but he couldn't hate them now. He'd killed one of those things before and even to his powers they'd been so wrong. His powers normally gave him a rush, a surge of endorphins that scattered along his nerves making it nice to use them. Those things had just made him sick.

[employeeofthemonthforever]

"No one is going to repossess your dog," Zachariah promises, managing to keep most of the are you fucking me out of his voice. That much, at least, he is comfortable promising. "We'll handle SERO, alright? Just focus on you for now."

[southernreaper]

Kevin snorted. "Beggin' ya pardon sir, but ya don't know how this place works." He doesn't trust anyone. And he wanted his dog back.

"I'm fine." Kevin could still be bleeding and he'd say that. "Ain't nothin' time won't cure." At least he hoped that time would cure the nightmares and the fears. He could hope right?

[employeeofthemonthforever]

He laughs softly, one soft self-deprecating breath.

"I'm starting to wonder if I understand this place better than the world I spent the rest of my life in," he murmurs, half to himself.

"You misunderstand. It's not that I put anything past those grubby-handed hacks. It's just that an animal is significantly easier to hide and care for than a person, if necessary."

[southernreaper]

Kevin sighed and shook his head. "She's one o' theirs. Only reason I got t'keep her was she was immune t'me." Beaten down boy was beaten down. "Found tha' out when they done told me t'destroy 'er. M'powers didn't work, so they let me keep 'er."

She was safe with Frau. Frau never came to the SERO place. Which was probably a good thing.

He shrugged. "I'll figure somethin' out." Because what is trust?

[employeeofthemonthforever]

"You're a resourceful boy who just earned a the favor of some incredibly powerful people. All in all, I've no doubt you will."

He opens a linen closet and pokes around, finding a nice blanket that he can zap from cotton to polyester.

"Do you want anything before you sleep? A snack, milk, a nightcap?"

[southernreaper]

He really wanted to tell the guy that he'd learned not to depend on powerful people. They had this bad habit of treating you as less than, and turning you over to the cops.

But, the guy had kept him from dying and was stuck here just as much as he was.

"No, thank ya, sir." He gladly takes the blanket. "I really appreciate everythin', sir."

[employeeofthemonthforever]

Zachariah would have smiled, pointed out the difference between depending on and using what favors you can get, would have laughed a lot at the thought of angels giving a damn about the police.

Instead he just nods, and whisks Kevin from the chair to neatly turned-down bed in the next room. "You're quite welcome," he answers, "But you don't really need to thank me." He's only doing his job, after all. Whatever it happens to be at the moment. "Are you going to be able to fall asleep after all that, or should I send you off?" He makes a vague gesture, wiggling his fingers slightly to denote flagrant use of angelic powers. If Kevin is exhausted Zachariah may as well let him fall asleep naturally, but if his mind would torment him with fragments of the evening, they may as well skip that part.

[southernreaper]

Kevin shook his head. He'd sleep. "No, thank ya again. I c'n fall asleep." His body's been through enough he can fall asleep tonight. "If'n ya get some supplies I'll make pancakes, when I get up."

Because that's how he repaid his debts: with food.

[employeeofthemonthforever]

"I'll see to it," he agrees, because even though he's generally indifferent to food, if it matters enough to Kevin to request, then it counts as part of taking care of him.

"Sweet dreams," he adds, turning off the light with a flick of his fingers and walking out of the room. There's more to the words than just rote well-wishing: Zachariel, once, as the angel of dreams. And if necessary he will watch over Kevin there, too. The boy has nightmares ahead of him, no doubt, but he will not have to face them tonight.