Sandy

[notrosecolored]

Scott said he'd be there with information in five minutes. He was at the door, fully dressed and with his glasses replaced by a visor, in four. It took him that long to grab a cup of coffee and walk to the lounge where Sandy was waiting.

He got his debriefing on the move, and directly into his brain.

He felt better for having been looped in, however perfunctorily.

He walked in, and stayed standing up. Looked the guy over, and wondered why the hell this kid was the recon specialist and then moved on.

"New mutant manifested in Chicago. She's sitting in a jail cell, supposedly for her protection. We're going to get her. How long do you need to pack?"

Comments

[armsofan]

"Uh. Yeah. Pot's over there. Go ahead and help yourself to a refill."

That was putting coffee away at a rate that was pretty impressive. He got up and moved past Storm, flashed a bright smile at Allison and collected a soda for himself while she put a plate of tonight's dinner left-overs in the microwave.

Allison looked back to check on him, but just barely. "You planning on hanging around, or heading back out tonight?"

[granularity]

"I'm not going anywhere until I get to see that Scott's all right," and he realized how that could sound, incredibly rude especially at someone else's homebase. He inclined his head in silent apology before amending his words.

"I promised Scott both a talk and some files. I don't want to go anywhere til he's gotten both."

[armsofan]

It didn't sound overly rude, really. They had people in and out a lot, and people were going to be concerned and lurking around for Scott, even without Sand and Alan. Warren was there for Scott, Bobby was always there but he was awake and sticking close for the same reason.

Most of the adults in residence would be awake until Scott was at least out of the medical lab.

Allison was listening closely, though, because she was also concerned about Scott and felt guilty and responsible.

"Warren and Hank will take care of him. I would be very surprised if he weren't in his room in the morning." That came from Storm, calm and easy.

Bobby interjected. "And your friend's still with him, too. What kind of files did you get?"

[granularity]

"Mr. Terrific, the head of the technology folks back at the brownstone, gave me a custom URL to use any time I needed to send files back to him for processing from an enemy location where a USB either isn't available, would be too small, or might be a liability," because Sand frequently did recon work. "I put that URL into the main computer at the Purifier base, so I'm assuming it's whatever they had. And knowing Mr. Terrific, I'm sure it was everything that they had. Or at least as much as could go through before I started causing damage."

He sipped at his coffee a little and glanced over at Allison, making sure she was eating in between all that listening.

"Though I can't help but feel responsible that they got us in the first place. I should have done a last minute sweep before we entered the prison area. If this falls on anyone, it should fall on me."

[armsofan]

She wasn't eating yet, she was taking her food out of the microwave and going to sit down to eat. As soon as she was fed she was likely to crash, but she was hungry and having a plate filled with food was... comforting.

"Responsibility," Ororo said, calmly, "falls on no one but the Purifiers."

Period. The end. That actually helped Allison some, though she picked her plate up and moved it so she could sit beside Sand.

Bobby cracked open his soda and took a drink, but looked down and back up. Started to say something, realized Allison was there and shut up again.

[granularity]

Sand recognized that look, and it softened him up a little bit. That was why he left the subject alone for the moment; what the woman had said had helped Allison and that was what was important. They could argue guilt later, away from little ears.

"All the same," he said with a slight bow of his head, "I'm glad we all got out of there, even if some of us were a little ragged."

[armsofan]

"You should've seen him after he broke me out of prison!" Years ago, and Scott hadn't gotten hurt, but Allison didn't need to know that. She looked at him, all bright and surprisingly relieved. "Yeah," he said, smiling at her. "And I wasn't cooperative about it, either. I was all freaked out and refusing to go with him. It was kind of a mess."

That made her feel enough better to tuck into her meal. Storm waited quietly, hands folded, and Bobby - was, yeah, waiting to get Allison out of there so he could be blunt. Blunter?

[granularity]

So for the moment, Sand was content to down a few cups of coffee as the little girl ate. It wasn't uncomfortable silence, at least Sand didn't think it was. It was just people getting some sustenance done.

When her plate was empty, Sand tipped his chin towards it.

"You want more or you ready to pass out?"

He would be, if he wasn't himself.

[armsofan]

She yawned at him but managed a half-assed glare to show that she didn't take kindly to suggestions that she go to bed. She even got up and put her plate in the sink. "I guess I'm ready to see my room." She wasn't eager to leave him. "Don't leave without telling me bye," she demanded, then went with Storm.

Which left Bobby looking at Sand. "What the hell happened in there? This was supposed to be a walk in the park."

So much for light hearted golden boy.

[granularity]

The glare got a grin out of him. He had a feeling that would be the response. And it was, honestly, a good response.

"Don't worry," he assured her as she walked off, "I wouldn't dream of it."

Once she was fully out of earshot, Sand turned his attention fully to Bobby.

"I did my usual recon. Watched the place for almost twelve hours, checked out every entrance and exit, checked computer records, did my usual work to make sure we had a proper way in and out.

"Then we get there and the place is full of Purifiers. Purifiers who knew to take me out immediately. I'm tough, but I do need a minute or two to reform. By that point, the fight was not going Scott's way and I decided it was a better idea to try and hitch a ride along with them in their uniforms than it was to try and fight then and there. Mostly because the girl wasn't there. I assumed they'd have a central location.

"Luckily, I was right, Allison was there, and they kept her a couple of cells down from Scott."

[armsofan]

"Yeah," he said, absently, "I know about that reforming thing."

Which wasn't the point. "Maybe their files'll have the answer for how they knew you were going to show up. Doesn't sound like it was a generic set up. Them going after mutants and Scott isn't the question."

Which worried him. A lot. Could have been set for him, since that kind of attack would work for him, but there just weren't that many options for mutants who'd be disrupted that way.

"Got any special enemies?"

[granularity]

"There's three beings who have something of a dislike for me specifically," he admitted with a rub against his chin, "but this doesn't match up with any of them.

"I can't see the Purifiers working with something as inhuman as Johnny Sorrow, Mordru wouldn't deign to sully his hands with other people, and Gog is..."

He actually shuddered and shook his head firmly.

"He's far away from here. As far as anything can be. And he was put there by two people I trust implicitly."

Between Thom and that Superman from another world, you didn't get much more trustworthy.

[armsofan]

Bobby considered, then shrugged one shoulder. "I don't know, man. Guess we'll see what's in those files. Could be as simple as them targeting Scott and being damned lucky the person with him was someone who could pull himself back together again." He didn't really believe that, but it was possible.

"Might not've even been targeting Scott in particular."

And with that said. "I'm guessing from the way you're putting away coffee, you're going to be awake with the rest of us." Or for a week longer than that, actually, but no point dragging that out.

[granularity]

"I'm usually awake. Sleep... isn't pleasant for me."

And he felt guilty about not sleeping, he did. But there was just so much he could take. And he figured it was better for him to be relatively sane and functional and take care of the cases he got than it would be to have that haunting around his brain all the time.

"Though I passed out for a time in the car. I... I might need to talk to whoever does your information gathering. Since we might have another situation to deal with."

Because he realized that was ambiguous--

"Another kid."

Which was odd, since he usually got rest after he'd managed to take care of one of his visions.

[armsofan]

"Then grab another refill and come outside with me," he said, and hopped down from the counter. No need to feel guilty. He didn't think it was pleasant, but they all did what they had to do to manage. He grabbed his soda can to take with him.

"Charles does some information gathering, finds new mutants, that kind of thing, but most of the missions are coming from Scott, anyway. You can go talk to the Professor if you want, but you might as well wait on Scott to come around and be ready to go since he's going to have to pull it together."

Jean was gone, Scott was quasi-functional. Storm could take over, and had before and would again when it was dire but that could only happen when Scott was truly out or let it and Bobby didn't figure either was going to apply, here.

[granularity]

Sandy did grab another refill of his cup, though he followed somewhat warily after the Professor was mentioned.

"Are we going to see Scott or the Professor?" and he tried not to sound as wary as he was about that second prospect.

[armsofan]

Bobby gave Sand a thoroughly confused look. "Neither one, unless you think it's urgent enough to move without Scott being involved. If you do, not sure how much help the Professor can give you. Maybe tracking down a location?"

[granularity]

He shook his head. "No. It won't happen for a few days. We have some time."

But he stepped a little closer to Bobby.

"...where're we going then?"

[armsofan]

Bobby shouldered out of the kitchen door and into the hall. "Outside. Maybe down walk down to the lake and back. Otherwise, we're all just gonna be spending all night waiting on word about Scott, getting in the way and on everybody's nerves. If you want a run to chill in until morning, I can drop you at one."

[granularity]

He shook his had firmly.

"I would like to go find Alan just to see if he brought me clothes." He held up the sleeve on his shirt. "Scott's a little bigger than I am, but we made due."

He walked along with Bobby for a moment, considering what he wanted.

"...do you have a library, by any chance?"

[armsofan]

"We've got a library but it's pretty much a typical high school library with some mutant history stuff thrown in." And not even much of that. "You want anything more specialized, you need the Professor again. Alan's your friend? Last I heard he was still downstairs with Scott." Last he heard, of course, was last time Sand had seen.

[granularity]

"Yes. Alan's my friend. But I doubt he'll be going anywhere until Scott's awake." He knew Alan. And he knew that if it was someone younger than him who was out there risking his life trying to make a difference, Alan was going to be protective of him. "Alan's got a papa bear streak a mile wide. He doesn't like when 'kids' like us get hurt."

He took a few more steps before nodding, as much to himself as to Bobby.

"The library sounds fine, though. I'm not looking for anything specific. I just... like to read. It's what I do to pass the time."

[armsofan]

"Papa-bear streak. That should go over great with Scott." No, no it wouldn't. Maybe if Alan caught Scott before he was really up and awake, but he didn't expect it to last long. Who knew. Maybe it wouldn't be as bad as he was imagining. Maybe.

"There's plenty of reading material there if you want it. You want me to swing you by there instead of the lake?" He didn't need to hang around to supervise, but he needed to figure out where he was going. He stopped walking to ask that one. He needed a direction.

[granularity]

"Library," he said firmly. Water wasn't really his thing, after all. Books he could do. Books were distracting. And maybe he'd find something he liked that he hadn't read. He probably still had at least thirty years left worth of books he hadn't read that he'd missed.

[armsofan]

Bobby headed down the proper branch of the hall, toward a staircase, figuring Sand could keep up well enough and it would leave the elevator free in case it was needed by somebody downstairs, for more urgent business.

He didn't say anything else, just pushed open the door and waved Sand in. "Knock yourself out."