Post Mission

[xp_dominion]

This isn't an easy post mission. We took a beating today. Enemy that knew us and was set up for an ambush. Best we got lucky and at worst, we're looking looking at time in the medlab. It's not the best of wins, but we'll take it. More importantly, we gained a bunch of intel we didn't even know we needed. That includes what happened to Laurie Collins.



The Clan Akkaba location was already overrun. The Clan had been slaughtered to the man. We found no survivors. The people responsible were sent by Dr. Essex. We know this because the leader of the team sent there was Laurie Collins. But not the same Laurie Collins.

Going back to a bit of ancient and dimensional history, years ago, the X-Men ran across the government of Genosha. They had a unique process developed by a man called the Genengineer where they were able to modify a mutant's powers to whatever they wanted it to be. Mutants who could only make weak light were suddenly able to cut through solid rock with heat beams. Alongside that was mental conditioning. Mutates were bounded to handlers, utterly subservient. Laurie had been put through this process. It made her stronger, faster and amplified her powers to the point that she nearly beat an entire team of X-Men on her own.

That was the Laurie I ran into today.

Laurie is now the leader of Essex' gang of shock troops. They all seem to be ex-military of some type and extremely well trained. We got out without a loss mostly through luck. Laurie herself has been augmented; claws, healing factor, enhanced physical abilities and now all purple. Non-passing at all. I don't know how much of the mutate conditioning is there, because she was obviously in charge and not passive at all. But my feel is that it's maybe more subtle. Regardless, she's gone, regardless of what anyone might think. This is her gone round the twist further than you can see.

Fortunately, her arrogance and desperation to be right is still there and she filled in a lot of gaps we didn't even know existed.

Essex has targeted some kind of super mutant called En Sabah Nur. He's apparently connected to Clan Akkaba and is capable of... I'm not sure. Doomsday figure. End of the world stuff. And only Essex' son and Collin's are going to be able to stop him. She also made it clear that she went over to Essex over a year ago and was actively working against us long before she officially defected. She wants revenge and we're the ones that wronged her in her mind. Essex's son isn't just her underaged sex toy. She loves him and sees him as some kind of savior.

It's grim. We need to dig into this En Sabah Nur figure, find out what Essex is really looking for if we want any chance of tracking Collins and her allies down and stopping them before they do... whatever. Whatever insanity they've convinced is worth breaking the world.

Comments

[xp_wildchild]

Claws, healing factor, purple - yeah, same shit as in Genosha. Last time it was like fighting myself only like, without any strategy. Fuck. FUCK. If she's got all her brains this time, that is so fucked.

Ima be another hour or so getting fucking ninja stars or some shit removed because I healed over some of them, one of her fucking goons makes his own fucking I dunno, shrapnel to tornado at people. After that I wanna go over what she was like in Genosha with you, cause I fought her then. Might wanna talk to Emma too, she was there for it and might remember some stuff I don't.

[xp_colossus]

Am new guy here, also not great time to be asking questions.

But her mind-control, needs to be inhaled or passed through the skin, yes? If that's still the case, I don't know her directly and if I stay as Colossus it's unlikely she could hurt me.

Worth thinking about, no? I have much reading to do, and all of it in English, so will likely take me a bit.

[xp_wildchild]

Now that I'm not fuckin high as balls on vicodin...

Big Maybe - her powers used to be inhaled or skin contact but at this point it's a big "who the fuck knows" and from what I'm reading they've got a dude who can fuck powers up, but yeah, people who can't be fleshy is probably a good start. Your eyes are metal when you're metal, right? You're like metal toes to hair, eyes, eyelashes, inside of the nostrils, liver, intestines, all that?

[xp_dominion]

At this point, we can only guess what she's capable of. And she's not going to come after us alone unless she has to and her team was... a problem. I'll be starting post-mission interviews with everyone on the people you faced and start building up DR scenarios once everyone has had a chance to recover a bit. Between them and the Brotherhood, every X-Man can pencil in expanded training hours from here on out.

[xp_velocidad]

Can she still... whatever it is? "Influence" people or whatever? I never understood Laurie's shit, but you know what I mean

[xp_dominion]

I don't know, man. The files from the time suggest pretty scary capabilities. Like, make your organs rupture and die levels. I think everything is on the table.

[xp_velocidad]

Seems like we should all be reading up on Collins, then.

[xp_darcy]

For those of you unfamiliar with Collins or the way her powers work, the purple means she's consciously using her pheromone powers and has been for quite some time. If those of you who were here recall the powers incident the two of us had last year, the faint purple tinge to her skin was a result of her (semi) consciously unleashing her power on me (by my own unconscious request). She was generally well-trained enough to not have her slips be that obvious, and the scrubber negated most of the slips she might have had in her quarters.

And make no mistake, she is very well-trained. Her control slipped in the aftermath of her complete loss of arm, particularly as she got more desperate to find solutions, but even then her level of training and ability to manipulate and alienate kept most everyone from noticing.

Garrison, might want to do a mansion-wide announcement that she's now a dangerous enemy and to be avoided if possible for the few residents that aren't able to see teams announcements. I think I remember things being updated to keep her out in the aftermath, but y'know. Safety. My brain's not the most reliable narrator for what happened from Halloween of last year until mid-January of this year.

[xp_echo]

Are the non-combatants safe here? (I’m not pissing in anyone’s chosen breakfast cereal but she’d know our protocols in case of invasion, unless that was already covered? )

What defcon are we at? I’m willing to lend eyes/hands if people need bodies to do scut work.

[xp_dominion]

We don't have enough information to know for sure. My best guess is that the mansion is likely safe. Through out our interactions with Essex, he's always been focused on some other goal. Every time we've clashed it's because in some way, we had some use for him in his plans. Even this time, the reason Collins and her crew were in those tunnels was about Clan Akkaba. Based on what Collins said, they were there to get information from them, not to lure us into an ambush. Running into them was plain bad luck. So I don't think we need to be worried about them waiting for us, although we should be prepared if it happens.

As for Collins, she wants her revenge, but I doubt Essex will throw away resources coming after us unless we're part of this 'solution' for this Nur character. And with her changes, she'll find it more difficult to go after each of us as individuals outside the mansion. But especially people who have history with her should be wary.

[xp_spectrum]

But especially people who have history with her should be wary.

Like someone who pulled the plug on her whole 'cure' thing too early and wound up giving her a series of strokes? That kind of history?

I think I'm going to need a crash course in being wary.

[xp_echo]

Extra training shifts here we come? Not that we do quite the same things but I’ll bring the thrash metal.

[xp_echo]

That’s at least something.

Forge was making some noises about upgrading my gear. Will be good to test it against the new scenarios when you and he are ready