All Teams: The Commune of Radha Dastoor (fin)

[xp_erverse]

I'll keep a long story short. The mutant plague, the deadly weather patterns including Hurricane Valentin, and the riot at District X were all the work of Radha Dastoor. She believed in an inevitable apocalypse, the Mahapralaya, and sought to hasten it so she could rule over the survivors, who would be saved by the personal bubble dimension that was her mutant power. Haven was a ruse to recruit adherents who would become her supplicants.

Of course a mutant haven was too good to be true. You'd be foolish to think otherwise.

Which is why I worked so closely with her over the last month. While she believed me to bolster Haven, materially and psychically, I ensured that without my support, it could not stand. I had the same misgivings as everyone else, and while I wanted to give her the opportunity to prove herself, I was prepared to stop her if she turned out to be a threat.

We didn't put the pieces together until after the riot, and I'm sorry to everyone who got caught up in it that we didn't see it sooner. We'd never have let it get this far if we'd known.

On Saturday, armed with the truth, X-Factor confronted Radha, laid out the evidence of her guilt before all of her followers, and offered her a chance to repent. Of course she did not. Instead, she turned on her followers for demanding she tell them the truth and trapped us in her bubble dimension, as anticipated. Haller and Hope evacuated everyone and left me to deal with Radha.

Perhaps you could tell from my use of the past tense that she's gone. I activated a kill switch I'd built in behind her back to strand her in her bubble dimension with no route back to reality.

I made the decision to allow her most loyal adherents, including her brother Abhay Dastoor ("Monsoon," weather control) and Josephine Sarcina ("Infectia," disease touch), to leave unmolested. One, I don't trust a human justice system to treat mutants fairly, especially people they can hold up as sacrificial lambs on the altar of flatscan supremacy. And two, it would be disastrous if the human world learns that a mutant brought this plague to our own community, and that hundreds of deaths nationwide were the fault of mutants. The Mahapralaya would happen if word got out.

X-Factor and our allies have eyes and ears open for the surviving loyalists and will be ready if they reengage. I hope that they can be brought to see reason, but they are diehards, so I can't say I'm expecting that outcome.

I'd asked Haller for his assistance because he's the only person outside of X-Factor to have met Radha, so he knew what she was capable of and was willing to help. He is currently under medical supervision because he overexerted his considerable power to save nearly a hundred mutants from a madwoman. Is it ironic that her tampering with his mind gave him the capability to avert the catastrophe she tried to bring about? I'm sure he'll be fine soon.

As ever, I am providing this information to the other teams as a courtesy, so one team does not leave the others in the dark about concerning goings-on.

Comments

[xp_cypher]

Accelerationists are the fucking worst.

[xp_erverse]

Truly

[xp_jubilee]

It’s like, always a nice dream, but I’ve yet to see anything other than the Professor’s way work in the long term.

Insular compounds are even worse for corruption than the standard concerns.

Good work, Q.

[xp_erverse]

I've yet to see Xavier's work. He's been at it how many years and we're still living in an insular compound ourselves?

Under the care and oversight of people who want to see it work, I'm certain Haven could have continued and become a model for mutant living.

[xp_magik]

Most people cannot survive having their head cut off maybe you should try that next time instead of hoping a bubble might contain her

[xp_erverse]

Thanks for the useful advice

[xp_magik]

You are welcome

[xp_erverse]

But also thank you for the portal to get Hope and Haller home.

[xp_magik]

Arthur gives good bribes

[xp_blink]

if I find Infectia, I will kill her.

[xp_erverse]

I thought X-Men don't kill.

[xp_blink]

in general, yeah.

but we all have our exceptions.

[xp_tarot]

Clarice, my darling aubergine, I think what you meant to say was "If I find Infectia, I will be somewhere else entirely for plausible deniability and if she dies I had nothing to do with it."

[xp_blink]

your lack of faith in me is disappointing

[xp_tarot]

"in an inevitable apocalypse, the Mahapralaya"

Did she truly believe in this, or was it a ruse because she intended to bring it about? Can you make time for a meeting? I perhaps need to determine if events only predicted inside a psionic bubble even register for my precognition.

I promise not to turn your eyebrows pink this time.

[xp_erverse]

My impression is her belief was genuine, but she used it as a convenient excuse for her megalomania. That's what made her such an effective recruiter and leader; you can't sell something you don't at least partly believe in.

And yes, I'm generally free. I'm staying put for the near future so I can take mid-day naps. Turns out banishing a wannabe god to her own heaven is hell on your brain.

[xp_tarot]

One hundred plus years of evangelical pastors demanding chastity and heterosexuality and then having sex with anything that breathes suggest you can sell things you do not believe in, but I do see your point. She seemed more Jim Jones than L Ron Hubbard.

[xp_erverse]

First thing I said the first time we visited Haven was I hope we wouldn't be the Leo Ryan to her Jim Jones. Hmm.

[xp_longshot]

Hard to draw an exact line between what I told you I saw for David since he was in the Haven bubble and I was not, but we should likely compare notes too. So weird to say.

[xp_tarot]

I always have time for my favourite fake husband. We were meant to be, we even share powers.

I will make time for you and Quentin, perhaps at the same time would be best.

[xp_loa]

Thank you for sharing, we're working to integrate this information into our eXcal files now, so I may ask to speak with you in the near future to make sure I have all the details right.

I hate to distract from the matter at hand, but if I could: Is there any news on Madin? If this is the commune they went to live with - are they okay?

[xp_erverse]

If you find another world where Radha isn't a psychopath, please let me know and send me there.

Madin's back here, at least for the time being. They're fine. Ish? At least physically.