(Don't) Wake Me Up Part 1: Mindmaze

[Chance]

Caity took a swig of the amber liquid and tried hard to clear her head. Lately the feeling was becoming all too familiar. Around her she felt the teeming minds of some fifty-odd people. She cataloged a thought about a woman's gyrating hips as not her own, and pushed it from her mind.

"Can you even hear yourself think?" Grace shouted across the small table. "It's so loud in here!"

Caity returned with a forced smile. She shook her head and placed her index finger to her temple.

<It's like sticking my head in a blender> The message sounded in Grace's mind, and Caity couldn't help but offer a real smile at the look of sheer surprise that ran across her friend's face.

"It still gets me every time!" Grace shouted over the noise of the music.

<It is pretty damn cool isn't it?> Caity laughed and took another swig from her drink. She felt a wave of nausea, but quickly determined the feeling to be coming from the man behind her. She pushed it from her mind.

"Should we be doing something?" Grace asked, her voice lower this time. Caity nodded, shaking her curly brown bangs from her forehead.

<We just need to act natural. Our intel is that the guys are here, I just need to zero in on our creep's slimy thoughts.> She gave the room a mental scan, using a trick she had been recently trying out. She latched onto the next thought that came into her head and piggybacked into the brain it came from. Once inside, she mentally scanned for another incoming thought, and jumped forward into that mind. Grace rocked out to the music of the band performing on stage while Caity continued to mind-scan the club, moving quickly from brain to brain.

"Anything?" Grace asked, as the crowd cheered for an encore.

<Nothing besides hormones, hunger, boredom, and lots and lots of drugs.> She collapsed her head into her hands and blew her bangs out of her eyes.

<Don't give up yet>

Caity smiled. It was a voice in her own head.

<How's the perimeter?> Caity shot back. <All clear?>

<Seemingly> Mindwarp asserted. <But it's hard to isolate anything. I don't know how you are managing to sift through all the thoughts down there.>

<A lot easier to feel at peace from where you are, huh?> Caity said snarkily. Mindwarp was currently hovering over the city, using his telekinesis to levitate over the club. She was glad to have his extra eyes in the sky.

Mindwarp laughed in her head. <It's certainly nicer up here. What's our timeline on this one?> Was Caity right? Did she sense apprehension in his tone?

<A few more hours. I want to catch this guy. I'm sick of mutants showing up dead.>

"What's he saying?" Grace asked, tugging Caity's mind back to the interior of the club.

<Be in touch.> Caity ended her mental conversation with Mindwarp and nodded at Grace.

"I want to catch him tonight." She said. "We can't lose anyone else."

[Midnight]

It was Shade's experience that people were more accepting at night of the weird, tainted, wild, and mutant. When the sun went down, the lights dimmed, the music got louder and the beer flowed... that's when she preferred to lurk. Like a vampire or something equally emo and creepy, she thought, curving her lips in an ironic smile.

She wished she could have forgotten she was a mutant, along with forgetting everything else, but the weird black eyes with red irises weren't a trick of her colorblindness. Nor was the shadowy smoke that spilled out of her hands when she got agitated.

She didn't know why she had been in Bayville, but a mutant in Bayville was an obvious thing, so she made inquires to the Xavier Institute. Not that she remembered making the inquires, but she started to write everything down after figuring out things didn't stick much longer than a week. She couldn't remember her old codename, but she had that written down somewhere too.

Getting a job as an obvious mutant, much less one with short and long term memory loss was a problem, and living on the streets was not appealing, so she had gravitated toward where the poor weirdos often ended up: the circus. Well, more specifically she was a carnie for some of the rides. They toured in the New York area and were back in Bayville, where she had started. Which she knew because she kept a map. As long as she kept working, as long as she saw the other carnies every day and slept in the same camper, she could remember their names and remember her job.

Still, she was out at this random nightclub because it got awkward, partying with them, and not being able to recall jokes shared, things happening on the road. She got tired of having a gentle voice explain to her exactly what she did, or having the laughter pass her by and being unable to join. Here, she didn't need to remember. And maybe she'd do something she wanted to forget anyway. She tried not to think about the bigger picture, the one all clouded on the edges with smoke, because doing that was depressing, and she had gotten sick of her own whining. Because she was alive, she had a living, and she could have fun.

And she liked IPAs and dancing. Well, this wasn't the place for breakdancing, which her body remembered even if she didn't remember that particular skill, and she was wearing a plum-colored maxi skirt with black designs, not really for getting down. The short jean-jacket was cute over the black t-shirt, but didn't really match the worn-out Converse high-tops. Like she cared. Heels were stupid.

But she knew how to bump and grind and hip hop and maybe a bit of salsa, but first, she needed a beer.

The band was decent. Surprising. She didn't recognize the song, but go figure. She threaded her way through crush of people in the small venue toward the bar. Her pixie haircut hadn't done anything to make her appear older, her freckled pale face still round. She didn't know if she was over 21, but this place didn't seem to care. She had an ID, but it wasn't hers, and which anyone who gave it more than a passing glance could tell. She hoped they wouldn't ask.

[Chance]

Grace gave Caity a cautious smile, and Caity felt her features soften. She had been grinding her teeth and staring off into the crowd, her mind in a million places at once. It was not like her to be so unfocused, especially when she felt the urgency of a mission.

But hadn't it all been so strange? Three months ago she had woken up on damp grass, her eyes unfocused and stinging in the early morning light. She had fumbled her way out of the woods and to the highway, steading herself as cars zoomed past, rattling her addled brain. She had walked four miles in nothing but a hospital gown, her toes bloodied by the debris on the side of the road. When she finally made it back into town she had had nowhere to go. No money, no wallet, no idea of who she was or where she had been. And the sounds had been deafening. As soon as she had been within 10 feet of another human being she felt her mind peel open like an orange. Wild and impulsive feelings, ideas that sounded like they were being thought in another language had burrowed their way into her head. She had fallen forward onto the concrete outside of the Bayville Modern Diner and woken up in a hospital bed, her head heavily bandaged, to a room full of people whose thougths felt familiar, but whose faces seeemed foreign.

She had been missing for twelve months, the man who she soon learned to be her father told her. They had been searching everywhere for her, and her aunt had opened a case that was working its way up to the Supreme Court. It wasn't everyday that a US Senator's daughter went missing.

It had been difficult, but Caity's ability to link minds had allowed her to piece herself back together, memories of Christmas in Seattle, feelings of lonliness and self-hate when, at thirteen, she realized that the thoughts in her head were coming from the outside.

But her family had been careful. They kept some of their thoughts hidden, using new prescription drugs that kept some memories muddled and broken. It wasn't until two months later when Caity was watching the news from her bed back in Seattle when she saw Michael on TV. A young mutant man had been discovered living in Bayville University's library. The news caster was aghast, displaying footage of the man using telekinesis to fight off the police officers who had come to arrest him. She paused her television set and focused on the deep lines etched into his face, the dirt that was caked in his hair.

When the program continued she learned that the young man claimed to have no memories, and to have woken up in the woods on the US border with Candada. It was not exactly where Caity had been, but she found it coincidental enough. She called her mother in. Her mother had tried to hide it, but even without telepathy Caity knew her mother was ashamed. She demanded to know what was going on. And that's when they told her. She had been an X-Man. She had been a student, and then an Instructor, at the Xavier Institute.

It took a few days for the dust to settle. Eventually Caity packed her things, booked a flight to New York, and made her way to Michael. For the most part, she had been furious with her parents. How could they lie to her like that? What gave them the right to re-write her story? But on a another level she pitied them. They were scared. Whatever had happened to her, whoever did this, hurt her because she was a mutant. Not because she was an X-Man. Sure, being an X-Man put her on the frontlines, but it wasn't Charles Xavier who pulled the trigger. It was fear. It was hate. She wasn't about to let either of those get in the way of the life she wanted for herself.

When she found Mindwarp he was all but gone. On the outside he looked like Michael. He still had his clear blue eyes and his slightly crooked eyebrows. But on the inside he was a gaping hole. Caity herself had managed to pull out all the limited information about Michael that her mother and father had known. She used her powers to give him his identity back, and then they broke him out of prison.

"It's getting late," Grace said. The band had stopped playing and the music had switched over to something electric, with a repeating and pulsing beat.

Caity looked at her watch, "You're right," she said. Maybe Eric had had some luck in the sewers.

<Hey Mindwarp?> Caity asked, tapping into their mental connection. <Can you upload a link to Chance? Maybe something's going on underground.>

For a second Caity wasn't sure if her message made it through. Usually Michael's response was almost instantaneous.

<Mindwarp?>

[Midnight]

"Double IPA," Shade told the bartender, a girl with an electric pink Skrillix cut. She sounded confident; that's always the way to do things, be confident about it. Unless you wanted help. Shade never wanted help.

The girl filled a cup, tipping out the foam, setting it in front of Shade with a crooked smile. "Four dollars."

Shade returned the smile. She wasn't wearing sunglasses like she usually did at the fair and knew her weird eyes showed. Maybe they hadn't started glowing yet.

Maybe the girl liked mutants.

Shade counted out five crumpled dollars from the pocket of her jean jacket and set them on the counter. "Thanks."

"No problem," the girl grinned, picking up the money. "Let me know if you need anything else."

The music had changed to electronica. Maybe Shade didn't remember all her favorite bands, but she knew this wasn't it. Rock music, she thought. Eh, it was probably still good to dance to.

She slid onto a tall bar chair at a tall table, near a couple of girls that looked like they knew each other, although one was dancing and one sitting.

She took a sip and the bitter taste of hops spread over her tongue. She'd forgotten, before, what her favorite drinks were. She had a digital document on her phone she reviewed from time to time. Things I know about myself. Maybe she should look over it again. It still wouldn't tell her about the beginning. She didn't think she'd always been like this, although she'd learned to stop worrying and push it out of her head. She didn't even have written records of the start because she hadn't know it was the start.

She did have a dirty hospital gown stuffed in her bug-out bag. She didn't remember it, didn't remember wearing it, but she had it. And that was tangible evidence.

It made her a little antsy, being this far away from her bug-out bag, stashed under her trailer bunk back at the campground. It held everything of value to her, everything she had.

She sipped her beer.

Things I know about myself...
Name: I lied. I don't know.
Mutant name: Midnight
Name I go by: Shade
Why: I don't know Midnight. I don't remember her. Shade means ghost.
Favorite band: 10 Years maybe. Rock music for sure.
Favorite beer: IPA. Or Double IPA. Can I really like them if I think they taste the same? Yes.
Favorite food: Hell... Funnel Cake? Cheese balls? Fair food is pretty good.
...

[Chance]

Caity tried again, but it was like the line was dead.

"I think something might have happened to Mike," she said, tugging on Grace to stop her from dancing.

"What?" Grace yelled back. The music was louder than the band had been, filling up the space and crowding out words.

<I said, I think something happened to Mike. I can't get in touch with him.> Suddenly the room felt like it was tilting hard to the left. Caity tried to stand up from her seat, but she lost her balance and fell forward, smacking her head on the corner of the table. Her head felt heavy, and her eyesight was blurry.

"Oh my God! Caity!" Caity could hear Grace hovering around her, somewhere in the distance. Below her the ground felt as though it was pulsing, or rippling. The floor boards felt mushy, like she could fall through at any moment.

"Something...wrong..." Caity choked out the words.

<Two down, circle back>

It was a telepathic thought so low and quiet, it was amazing she had picked it up in the first place. Whoever it was, they hadn't mean for her to hear it. But their was something...poisonous about the thought. It was sticking with her, growing in size like a tumor, spreading through her mind.

"Let's get you out of here," Grace said, trying to steady her friend. There was blood everywhere. Caity tried to walk, but she couldn't stand up straight. She felt herself falling forward, back towards the ground.

[Midnight]

Shade hadn't pegged the sitting girl as dead drunk, but apparently she'd been wrong.

The girl's head dropped to the table, gashing herself. Vivid red blood spilled over the constant grays of Shade's vision.

And she was out of her chair before she knew why, before she knew what she could even do to help. The girl's friend was there, supporting, but even so the girl pitched forward.

Without thinking, Shade flung her arms out to catch her.

Red drops spun like rubies in the dim light.

[Chance]

Caity fell forward, tangling herself in the arms of the stranger from the next table over.

"I don't know what's wrong!" Caity's friend Grace shouted over the noise of the bar. "I think it might be..." She bit back her words. Grace didn't know this woman. She did a quick scan of the bar, but nothing looked too out of the ordinary. Who was attacking? Where were they coming from?

Caity was whimpering and holding the gash on her head. Grace tried to make eye contact, but Caity's eyes seemed unfocused.

<Syphon?> Grace remembered to use her codename out in the field. She tried thinking the thought as loud as she could.

[Midnight]

Shade c.ocked her head at the friend. She felt her power kicking in, eyes lighting up red in the dim club. Edges grew sharper, things crystallizing into clear images to even the most shadowed corners. The friend was staring at the girl like she was trying to bring her back through the power of her gaze. Helpful, she was not.

Time seemed to slow.

"First aid kit," Shade snapped in the direction of the bar tender. The girl had been standing there, eyes big, and now she started casting about under the bar without any real clear direction.

Shade, with muscles born of carrying many a heavy thing as a carnie, hoisted the girl into a better position, with one of Shade's arms around her shoulders. She lowered them both to the ground, fumbling for her pocket knife with her now-free hand. She never left home without her multi-tool, and one of her favorite features was the knife set on the outside that she could flick out with a thumb without pulling the whole thing open.

She pulled the girl closer, balancing her to lean on Shade's shoulder while Shade pulled her maxi skirt taut, and then sliced a strip off the bottom.

"If you can't find a first aid kit, even napkins would help!" she shouted at the bar tender as she held the piece of skirt up against the girl's bleeding head.

"You mind?" she said to the friend, nodding to where the bartender was holding out a small red case, her hands trembling.

[Chance]

Grace reached for the red case, still trying to get a grip on the situation. Leave it Caity to fall into the arms of the one actually useful person in the entire bar.

"Your eyes," Grace said, noticing the black and red of the strangers' gaze. "I'm so sorry, I'm not trying to be offensive," she was opening the case and trying to find anything to help. She settled on gauze and some anti-bacterial gel. She lowered her voice as she handed the young woman the medical supplies, "but are you a mutant? She," Grace said nodding her head towards Caity, "is a mutant. She can read minds, kind of. I think this is more than just her hitting her head. We were here, looking for someone," Grace suddenly bit her lip. What if this woman was who they had been looking for? What if she was the enemy? Grace tried to backtrack, "You know what, actually forget I said anything. I'll just take it from here."

[Midnight]

Shade snorted. "I'm not offended. And I'd say it's a pretty high probability that I'm a mutant. Couldn't tell you for sure." She didn't move away though, tilting the girl's head so she could dab at her wound.

Read minds? Shade had thought about the power, deciding she was better off without it. But if this girl could read her mind... could she find something that Shade was missing?

Not the mention the whole covert op thing the friend was hinting at. Shade put the gel on the bandage, then held it to the girl's forehead.

"You'll take it from here? Sure looks like you could use a hand. If only to carry her," Shade nodded toward the girl. "I'm pretty strong." And, she realized, pretty bored. The taste of danger, of the fight, pulled at her so strongly she wondered if she'd experienced it before. Like a portal into another world from her repetitive day-to-day.

"Who are you looking for?"

[Chance]

Not sure if she was a mutant? She did know that her eyes were practically glowing, right? Grace couldn't figure this girl out. But she was taking better care of Caity than she was. She decided to trust her, if only because the girl looked like she could carry Caity single-handedly from the bar, whether Grace wanted her to or not.

"I'm Grace, I'm a lab tech with the Bayville PD." She ran her fingers through her hair, searching for some courage. "Over the past month three mutants have shown up dead around Bayville. All three had traces of the drug Kick in their system. Couple that with the disappearance of Charles Xavier and many of his students, and the force thought we were facing some sort of domestic terrorist attack." She looked down at Caity and fought back tears of frustration. "We didn't have many leads until Caity and her team found us. The chief wouldn't hear of it, allowing civilians...let alone mutant civilians, in on the case. But Caity, well, she showed me her memories. I believe her, that she was a part of the X-Men. I wanted to help."


"Anyone there?" A masculine voice spoke from Caity's wrist-communicator. "It's Chance. I can't get online with you, and I just found Mindwarp's comm on the roof. No sign of him anywhere. Where are you? What's your status?"

[Midnight]

Shade tore off the last piece of tape, securing the gauze to the girl's... Caity's head. Be sure to write that down. "People wanting to kill mutants. There's a newsflash," Shade replied. The explanation was as confusing as all the other events, but it wasn't like Shade would remember it in a week anyway.

X-Men. Her notes said she had been an X-Man, or at least found evidence she had been one. Too bad she didn't keep a diary or anything from before. Maybe she knew this girl. Or had known this girl. But Caity hadn't recognized her. Eh, it was a big school. And she had long hair before. Although her eyes were a dead giveaway.

Shade stood, pulling Caity up with her when Caity's watch started talking.

Not that it made any more sense than anything else, but something made Shade's heart start to pound, excitement flooding her veins. She gave Grace a crooked smile. "Well? What's our status?"

[Chance]

Grace felt her stomach drop. Mindwarp was nowhere to be found? What was going on? She looked down at her own wrist communicator and suddenly felt small and insignificant.

"Ummm, Chance?" She spoke into the watchface. "This is ummm...Gray Cat." Oh God. Why had she picked such a dumb codename?

"What's going on? Where's Syphon?" Chance's voice shot back forcefully.

Grace looked down at Caity and then looked back at her wrist comm. "Syphon is down. Looks like a psychic attack."

"Get her out of there. If it's an indirect attack than the distance will shut down her link. If it's a direct attack then you're powerless. I'm already on my way, meet you outside."

The absense of Chance's voice left her feeling cold. She knew something like this could happen. This has always been a possibility. She just wished she had a power. Her eyes turned to meet the dark irises of the good samaritan.

"This situation is bigger than dead mutants turning up. How are you in a fight?"

[Midnight]

Shade flashed a smile, her teeth white in the dim lights. "You're in luck. I'm great in a fight." She'd had some sort of martial art training, though she wasn't sure what kind. Krav Maga, she suspected, along with a mix of a few others. Sometimes she really wished she could remember what her muscles seemed to.

Gray Cat? Well, she supposed she couldn't judge.

"Let's get out of here," Shade said. She hoisted Caity into a fireman's carry. "You want covert or overt? If covert, put your hand on my shoulder. I'll get us out."

Chance... that was a cool codename.

[Chance]

She had to hand it to her, this girl had style. Grace nodded and placed her hand on her companion's shoulder. She flexed her muscles and got ready for a fight.

Adrian had been searching the bar all night. These kids were all a waste of space, he thought bitterly. He checked the screen on his phone and pulled up the emailed directions. There was a new message.

Things have changed, he read, ramp up the jam and take out the mutants.

Adrian smiled. His eyes zeroed in on the three women leaving the club.

[Midnight]

"Covert," Shade whispered to herself. She grinned.

Black smoke exploded out of her, filling the bar. Everything went dark, seeming to normal eyes like an utter blackout, even the sounds from the band muffling, as if behind cotton. They might think the power is out, but as they would pull out cell phones and fumble for flashlights or emergency lighting, they would figure out something was really wrong. So she had to be quick. Hopefully Grace would keep up, and not lose her grip.

She could feel the fire in her own eyes, thankfully cloaked by her darkness. Everything was laid out before her, clear as day. Clear as ever. Keeping her grip on Caity, she strode forward to the door. Back door might have been more subtle, but she'd have to find it, so front door was quicker. And the Chance guy seemed to be in a hurry.

[Chance]

It was like a light had been switched off in Caity's head. She hadn't felt this way since...well, she was going to say since before her X-gene was activated, but something about this felt even more familiar. It felt as though walls had gone up in her mind, establishing clear cut boundaries between her and the other people around her. She could breathe easy, she could think her own thoughts and know confidently that all she was was her own.

But why was everything so dark? She thought maybe her eyes had been closed, and even though she told herself to open and close her eyelids over and over again, she still couldn't be sure that her body was responding to her. Was she dead? Had she died?

The darkness closed in around Grace, like she was being sealed in an envelope. It was so absolute, so pitch black. Grace felt herself shutter. Whoever this woman was, she was pretty powerful. Through the darkness she felt the woman's strong shoulder muscles. She tightened her grip and made her way forward through the darkness.

What the hell? Suddenly everything was completely gone, obfuscated by an impenetrable veil of almost solid anti-light. Adrian assessed the situation. It didn't seem chemical, at least he wasn't sure of any chemical weapon capable of producing such a total blackout. Perhaps the government's newest line in Psychic Defense? He probed his mind, tried to trace his thoughts back towards the mental links he made with his victims, but he found he couldn't think further than the rim of his own mind. Whatever this was, it was completely shutting out his powers.

He let out a low growl, but even that was muffled by the darkness. He tugged on his nightvision goggles and cursed when they couldn't cut through the darkness either. He slammed them down onto the bar table in front of him. Around him people were screaming, bodies were rushing in every direction. He pushed forward, knocking several people out of the way. Angrily he gropped for the wall, trying to determine the direction of the front door.

Chance was almost in a panic, but he tried to maintain his cool. The lights from the bar had completely shut down. Instinctively he crouched behind a white van, mentally turning on the blue energy of his shield. At least he remembered how to use his powers. That almost seemed somehow innate.

He withdrew the collapsible metal staff from the pocket of his leather jacket. He could feel a fight in the air.

[Midnight]

Shade went straight for the door. She could see people starting to panic, starting to stumble. The movement from the Caity girl seemed different, but Shade didn't stop to check. At least Grace was still holding on. It seemed a very level-headed move on her part, but really, what other option was there? The wooden floor seemed to pull at her Converse shoes, spilled beer and other liquids resisting cleanup, but the darkness muffled the sounds.

The door loomed ahead of her and she kicked at it, glad that her maxi skirt was slit up to the knees on both sides and stretchy. Her foot made contact with the push-bar, and the door swung open a crack. Shade took the opportunity to shove it with her hip, pushing her way out of the club.

She came out in an orange pool of street light, her eyes still on fire. The club had windows in the front and she wanted to be out of the picture before she pulled the smoke back. A quick look around proved the street was deserted, at least at first glance. She spotted a white van and started toward it, intending to duck behind it. Caity was getting heavy.

[Chance]

((OOC: I have too many characters...what was I thinking...))

Chance stood poised in mid-crouch, his muscles flexed, ready to spring him forward towards the bar. Suddenly the door swung open, and a cloud of darkness billowed out from the edges of the door. Chance found himself completely distracted by the blazing eyes of the woman who had forced the door open. She was medium height, dressed like she was going out for a night of fun, not as though she were ready for a fight. There was something about her...something that looked...that felt...familiar?

He shook his head and forced his blue aura to glow brighter. Whoever she was, she was carrying Caity in her arms. He rushed forward and extended his own arms, attempting to help the woman with her burden.

As he got closer he felt the energy of his aura flex and pulse. That seemed new. It felt as though it were trying to jump off his skin and reach for her.

"I'm Chance," he said, some of his usual confidence slightly missing from his tone. "Thank you for umm, helping my friend. What happened in there?"

[Midnight]

OOC: Like you wanted to be able to carry the story by yourself if necessary? Hah, I could bring in Chase or Jasper at some point if you want help. I just don't really know what's going on...

Shade almost ran into the guy crouched behind the van, although there was no way to miss him; he was glowing. She almost tripped and was in danger of dropping Caity as she prepared to backpedal, to kick him, to run. But even though he seemed ready for them, he didn't seem... menacing. He was reaching out for Caity. And Grace wasn't running. So maybe this was the absent team member. Chance.

She hadn't realized that her heart was hammering until she let out a breath. Now that she had a moment to get her bearings, she noticed that Chance was an attractive man, probably her own age, with blond hair? It was hard to tell behind the glow. Whatever it was. He was also well muscled and the arms he extended toward her as he introduced himself looked sturdy, although some of the fierce confidence that had come from the communicator was lacking.

She needed to pull back the smoke, but it would be easier if she wasn't carrying Caity.

"Heck if I know," she laughed, eyes glowing. "Gray Cat here is probably better for the debriefing." Why was her heart still hammering? "By the way," she added as she moved to transfer Caity to his arms. "I'm Shade." Her arm accidentally brushed his.