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Down in the city Merrick was reluctantly going to the Cicada Club with Zoe and the others to see Landon’s band play. He and Zoe had been invited as their way of celebrating that Merrick proposed. “It won’t be so bad. Malcolm seemed excited that we were coming and so did your sister.”, Zoe assured squeezing his hand as they went to the booth with the others. “I know. And I’m only here because of them. Granted I’m at least on better terms with my cousins this past year but still.”, Merrick commented sliding into the booth finding himself sitting next to Tristan who’d come down with Blaire and the others from Harvard for the weekend. “Hey handsome.”, Tristan teased. “You really want to meet my fist….”, Merrick shook his head. Zoe leaned forward to look past Merrick and smiled at Tristan. “Hi Tristan. Don't mind him he just isn’t a big club goer.”, she said. Merrick nodded in agreement. “I’m not a club person. Unlike some members of my family I didn’t get into dancing or music. And it’s not grumpy when I could think of a few different things I’d rather be doing. And almost all deal with you and nudity.”, Merrick commented with a smirk looking at Zoe. Tristan chuckled putting an arm around Blaire. “I can’t exactly blame him for that. Granted I do like clubs, but till my back is a bit more healed dancing isn’t exactly an option”, Tristan commented. Blaire kissed his cheek leaning into him. “Dancing or just sitting here with you doesn’t matter to me. It’s a night out with you and friends. We can have the kind of fun Merrick’s talking about later.”, Blaire smiled letting a hand move up Tristan’s leg for emphasis. Tristan chuckled. “Yeah...keep that up and we aren’t staying long.”, Tristan smiled.
Zoe laughed softly at Blaire and Tristan. Their relationship didn’t seem to have changed all that much from when she met them at Blaire’s prom. “Glad to see some things haven’t changed.”, she smiled. “What you expected a back injury to stop those two? You don’t have to live with them…”, Hope laughed putting her arm around Jessa. Jessa looked a tad uncomfortable in the booth, there was a small amount of tension between her and Hope. Merrick and Zoe easily picked that up just looking at Jessa’s body language. “They fighting again?”, Merrick whispered his question to Tristan. Tristan just nodded. “Yeah. Huge blow up couple weeks ago, Jessa slept with a Alan Synder at some party while tipsy.”, Tristan whispered back. Merrick shook his head growling a little at the mention of Alan Synder. He may have decided to write his sister Emma off, but Alan was just someone he didn’t like for what he tried to do with Emma but Alan is a sleaze. “Take it you know Alan?”, Tristan asked. Merrick nodded. “Yeah. Don’t exactly take kindly to a man who doesn’t accept no for an answer, especially when the no is said by my little sister.”, Merrick whispered back. Tristan nodded. “Well it turned into a huge deal between them, Jessa did and didn’t regret it. Apparently she’d wanted to see what straight life would be like.”, Tristan shrugged. “Well hooking up with people behind backs tends to lead to troubles. Would be part of why I’ve always been upfront about what I did before becoming monogamous.”, Merrick shrugged. “Speaking of monogamy...Congratulations.”, Tristan he smiled pointing to the engagement ring.
“Which let me take a look at that.”, Blaire said leaning across Tristan’s lap. Tristan smirked not minding at all that his personal space was very much getting invaded by his girlfriend. Zoe chuckled and leaned over Merrick extending her left hand so Blaire could look. “Wow...very nice...fourteen karat white gold band, I’m counting thirty just about one tenth carat diamonds in the leaves and an eight millimeter freshwater pearl.”, Blaire said giving her assessment and letting Zoe’s hand go before looking at Merrick with a smirk. “Apparently Bryant men know how to pick jewelry.”, she teased before sitting back properly in the booth. “Wow..you an expert or something?”, she asked looking at her ring before looking at Blaire. “Something like that. My mom taught me a lot about appraising jewelry to know trash from treasure.”, she explained. Sitting a table over Shawn Boykin had sat down with a drink pulling out a chair with the model he was on a date with for the evening. He was looking around the club seeing that like most nights Blaze Halo had drawn a good crowd. As his brown eyes looked around he spotted something very peculiar, a woman with short white hair. He of course tried to not stare and as her head turned just right he could see she was certainly attractive.
“Okay so now we all want details cause Merrick being sweet or romantic just doesn’t happen often.”, Blaire smiled. “I mean that whole winery getaway last fall, serious props to you Merrick. But there have been so many engagements recently that come with great stories. Landon wrote a song and sang it to Rachel when he proposed. Billy popped the question on a gondola ride at Valentine’s. And Tommy did this whole elaborate proposal in their spot with the band playing their song. So spill, how’d he propose?”, Blaire added. This line of questioning got the attention for the next booth and Lily, Rachel and even Cora Lee turned to hear this. Merrick rolled his eyes. “Bite me jailbait. I do sweet and possibly romantic things for Zoe.”, Merrick defended. Zoe laughed and smiled. “He didn’t do anything quite that big and loud.”, she started. “But he put the thought into it. I’m Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice so he was reading Mister Darcy’s lines, where he was proposing. And suddenly I look up from my script and he’s on one knee.”, she explained. Elizabeth? Pride and Prejudice? So the white haired beautiful is an actress. Shawn made a mental note of that. “Aw...so straight to the point asked.”, Hope commented. “Didn’t exactly verbally ask, it was implied.”, Merrick stated. “he read all of Mister Darcy's lines. It was really romantic for a lit nerd like me,”, Zoe smiled. “Still very sweet. he went about it in a way that catered to you.”, Jessa chimed in. “So just ring box in hand and that beautiful pearl looking at you? Nice.”, Blaire smiled. “If by ring box you mean the little wood circle box I made and carved ‘Marry me?’ into, then yeah.”, he commented.
“He’s amazingly romantic when he wants to be.”, Zoe smiled “Who knew my ‘little’ brother a closet romantic.”, Lily teased. Merrick growled a little, mostly playfully at Lily. “two minutes. Mikali pulled you out two minutes before me..”, he grumbled shaking his head. The booths laughed at the siblings. Zoe smiled and kissed his cheek. “Mmmh that growl.”, she commented. “We could still head back home and you’d hear a different version of that growl if you like.”, he smirked. Lily rolled her eyes. “Yup. Moment lost he’s back.”, she teased. “Oh let him be Lily. They just got engaged.”, Bianca tried to rationalize Merrick’s behavior. “What’s engaged got to do with it? You sleep through high school Bianca? Or just forget who you’re talking to?”, Merrick asked. “Knowing Merrick he’s just probably waiting on an excuse to be alone in one of the dark corners of this club with her.”, Malcolm chuckled. Zoe laughed and smirked slightly. “We’re engaged, that’s the excuse.”, she said. “I don’t really need an excuse to want to have sex.”, Merrick shrugged. Bianca turned a little red at the bluntness way sex was being discussed. “Aw Bianca this kind of talk still make you blush? Lord Tristan you and Blaire aren’t doing your jobs of desensitizing her. And Gabriel come on..”, Lily teased. Zoe smiled leaning into Merrick a little just enjoying being around his family and well friends. The group settled down as the band started to take the staged.
The first song was a little more upbeat in its tempo as Landon kept his sax to the side apparently only going to sing for this first song. “Welcome to the Cicada. Let’s start the night out with a little bit of fun. This is a new one for us, so hope you like it.”, Landon smiled as the rest of the band was playing the opening to the song. “Nah nah honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should not. I've got somebody at home.”, Landon started to singing smiling. A few girls that had made sure to be up close to the stage had smiled on looking direction at him. Landon played it up, like he usually did since he’d started playing with the band. “It's been a looong night here, and a looong night there. And these looong long legs are damn near everywhere.”, he said giving a wink over to Rachel who was sitting in a booth with Cora Lee, Malcolm, Tommy, and Lily. “Hold up now.”, Ben said from his seat at the drums. “You look good, I will not lie. But if you ask where I'm staying tonight”, Landon continued the song looking to the ladies dancing near the stage with a smirk. “He always known how to play up a crowd?”, Zoe asked having never actually seen Landon perform. “I believe his dad would call that ‘Bryant Charm’.”, Merrick whispered back. Zoe chuckled a little and leaned into him. “Yeah well it certainly didn’t skip you.”, she commented. Merrick smiled bringing his other hand over to hold hers. “I gotta be like oooh baby, noooo baby, you got me all wrooong baby. My baby's already got all of my love.”, Landon sang on using hand gestures to indicate no before pointing over at Rachel.
Rachel laughed shaking her head a little but smiled as she got a few looks from the ladies on the dance floor nearest the stage. “He’s going to get you attacked.”, Cora Lee teased. “Oh let them try. They want to fight over who your brother’s going home with, I know I can take them.”, Rachel smiled. Lily smiled. Tommy sighed and got up from the table and offered his hand to Lily. “Come on, dance with me beautiful.”, Tommy said. Lily took his hand getting up with him. “So nah nah Honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home, and if I stay I might not leave alone. No, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true.”, the song continued to play. “Oo oo I will stay true. Who who I will stay true.”, Ben sang back up. “Now better men, than me have failed. Drinking from that unhoooly grail.”, Landon sang smiling at the crowd as more people started to dance. Gabriel, wings and all, took Bianca out to the floor. Malcolm and Cora Lee also made their way out to the floor. Rachel switched tables to sit with the others since she at least knew Blaire and Tristan wouldn’t be getting up to dance. “Now check it out”, Ben said. “I've got her, and she got me.”, Landon said again looking and even pointing to Rachel with a wink. “And you've got that ass, but I kindly gotta be like. Oooh baby, nooo baby, you got me all wrooong baby. My baby's already got all of my love.”, Landon smiled as he sang.
“So nah nah Honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home, and if I stay I might not leave alone. No, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true”, he continued. “Why do I feel I’ve lived this song?”, Tristan whispered to Merrick. “Oo oo I will stay true. Who who I will stay true”, Ben sang. “Your rodeo days?.”, Merrick questioned. “Yeah probably. A number of times I had to use lines like that. Because no matter how good looking the guy or girl none can compare to my goddess here.”, Tristan smiled giving Blaire a kiss on her neck. Blaire smiled shaking her head. “You better be telling bar skanks to fuck off. I don’t need to get into trouble with the law while in law school for assault.”, Blaire chuckled rubbing at his thigh. Tristan smiled. “Oh don’t worry, no assault charges necessary. I know who owns my heart.”, Tristan smiled. “Oooh, I'm sure ya, sure ya will make somebody's night. But ooh, I assure ya assure ya, it sure as hell's not mine.”, Landon smirked. “Oh now that sounds like a Merrick line.”, Blaire teased. Merrick rolled his eyes but shrugged. “Probably. I admit I’m a dick when I turn someone down. Granted not used to turning women down...but I’ve got Zoe and no one else can measure up.”, he commented. Zoe smiled squeezing his hand a little.
“Oooh Nooo, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home. And if I stay I might not leave alone. No honey I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true. No, no, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home. And if I stay I might not leave alone. No honey I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true. True ooo, ooo. I will stay true. I will stay true. I will stay true. I will stay true. Oh whoa oh.”, Landon wrapped up the song picking up his sax as they transitioned into an instrumental only song. Zoe sighed a smile on her face as she looked around. She had her best friend and now fiancee at her side and she was surrounded by new friends and future family. It was moments like this she was glad she had come to America. Merrick nudged Zoe a little. “Come on...I suppose shouldn’t take you to a club in the city and make you just sit around all night.”, he sighed. Zoe smiled getting out of the booth, it wasn’t often he would dance when they went out but she certainly enjoyed when he did want to dance.
Finally the meeting was over, Chris and Gwen were eager to just leave and get back to their daughters. Sitting in the room with these people, people they had once called friends and even some family members talking about how evil mutants are and that they should be wiped from the Earth they just couldn’t take it more. They wanted to get out, to just quit but they knew that wouldn’t work. If they tried to leave the FOH, they’d come after them, they’d want to know why and if they found out about their daughters...well that was a thought neither wanted to invision. They said goodbye to the others and got into the car. “How much longer can we keep doing this Chris? They’ve escalated so much in these past few years. Before they were just protesting and taking peaceful actions. But now they are up to trying to murder anyone that even dares to speak against them or say they think mutants aren’t all bad. Look what they did to Reverend Royer and his wife two weeks ago. And then the Torres last week.”, Gwen questioned covering her face a little as she thought about it all. They hadn’t been part of the attacks against the Royer or Torres families but they’d known it was going to happen, not the exactly specifics just that the group planned to go after them. Chris sighed and reached over taking his wife’s hand lightly squeezing. “I know. I know. If we left the group we would need to move, we’ve have to go into hiding and take the girls out of their school and pull Crista from college. Because we both know they’d come after us. And what happened to the Royer and Torres family would happen to us.”, Chris answered.
As they drove the skies darkened and a heavy rain started to pour down. Neither were aware that Kevin Durvo was the reason for the sudden change in the weather. Kevin and Larissa had been waiting along a road they knew the couple would need to travel, they having put road blocks on the other option saying the road was washed out. Kevin looked to his sister. “Alright you’re up. I’ve set the stage.”, Kevin said. Larissa nodded a little, she reminded herself that she was doing this for those children who’d lost their parents. That these two people had had a hand in the deaths of innocent people who just wanted mutants to be treated as equal, to have a world their children could grow up in that wouldn’t treat them like crap. A message needed to be sent. As the car passed them a green glow was emitted from Larissa as she closed her eyes concentrating. The glow passed to the car, neither Chris or Gwen seeing it. Larissa wasn’t sure what was going to happen from her powers, she couldn’t really control the results of her probability powers which typically resulted in a disaster. The effect her powers ended up having was a break in the brake line of the vehicle. As Chris went to lightly press on the brakes to slow down for a sharp turn in the road, the pedal went to the floor and the car wasn’t responding. “What’s...what’s going on…”, Chris said still trying the brake. “What's wrong? Why aren’t we slowly down?”, Gwen asked. “The brakes...they aren’t...they aren’t responding…”, Chris answered trying to keep control of the car on the very wet road. But it was too late. He couldn’t maintain control and they went off the road and slammed head on into a large oak tree.
The impact from the crash crushed Chris and Gwen’s chests into their seatbelts leaving deep bruising. The airbags didn’t go off accurately and when they did go off they slammed hard into Chris and Gwen knocking them out from the force. Gwen was bleeding from her head and her breathing was shallow, unknown to her from the impact a rib had broken puncturing her lung. Chris wasn’t in much better shape than his wife. But both were at least still alive. Kevin and Larissa made their ways to the crash sight, they’d been told to leave a message, to make an example of these two. Neither wanted to kill them, but to make sure the point was driven home Kevin took out a can of spray paint and wrote ‘FOH SCUM’ on the back window of the car before grabbing his sister. “We need to go.”, he said pulling Larissa away. Larissa couldn’t take her eyes from the wreckage. She saw they were still breathing and a sense of relief washed over her. She just hoped emergency responders would get there soon. “Do you...do you think they’ll live?”, she asked as her brother had her leave. “Who knows. Depends on how long it takes for them to be found.”, Kevin said. Larissa gulped as they left wondering how long it would be before someone found them. She took out her phone and opened her app that worked as a police scanner. She wanted to know when the couple was found. It was almost an hour and she’d not heard anything about the accident. She was pacing in her room and started to panic. She picked up a disposable cell phone to avoid it being tracked and called 9-1-1, leaving an anonymous tip that there was a car accident and it’s location before hanging up. Finally it was picked up and she heard the call for an ambulance on the scanner app.
Larissa hadn’t been the only one pacing worried and wondering about the fate of Chris and Gwen Fayte. Delilah hadn’t liked the sudden storm that and descended upon their town, it was far too sudden and ominous for her liking sending shivers through her spine. “Where are mom and dad?”, she asked looking to her sister Persephone. Persephone was looking out the front living room window wanting to see headlights. “The rain probably held them up. They usually take that little bridge over the creek, I’m sure with how heavy the rain is it’s been washed out. So they’d have to take the long way is all. And dad would drive carefully in rain like this.”,Persephone tried to assure her younger sister, but she was worried. She’d just given the car a tune up so that should be all good. But she’d watched the new that evening and it’d talked about how a group of FOH had tried to assassinate some politician up in Bayville. And the footage showed the members being arrested and she recognized a couple, including their Uncle Mike. Which meant the chapter their parents were forced to still be associated with had been behind that assassination attempt. In the back of her mind she worried what might be happening at this meeting, what they might as her parents to take part in. She knew her parents were good people, they couldn’t hurt someone. But she also knew telling the FOH no was risky for her parents, they wanted to do anything they could to keep them from knowing about her and her sisters being mutants. Persephone let out a sigh of relief as she saw headlights but that sigh froze in her throat when she realized it wasn’t the family chevy but a police cruiser.
“Delilah upstairs…”, Persephone said looking to her sister. Delilah raised an eyebrow it wasn’t often that she was told to get out of sight so she nodded and quietly went up the stairs, changing her hooves to feet so make less noise. She hide at the top of the stairs wanting to stay in listening range, her soft deer ears turning waiting to hear what was going on. The office solemnly walked up to the door and knocked, Persephone quick to answer. “Yes officer?”, Persephone asked a bit trepidatious. “Miss Fayte? I’m Officer O’Bryan...I’m afraid I..”, he sighed looking at her. He looked a bit pale in the face, he hated this part of his job. How was he supposed to tell this girl that her parents were dead. Why he got roped into being the messenger he’d never know, probably because they made him tell the Royer and Torres children about their parents deaths. He wondered if like with those cases the Frost brothers, a pair of lawyers from Bayville, would come to offer these kids a home. But he pushed the thought aside, the Faytes weren’t killed for having mutant children...the spray paint on their back window indicated they were members of the Friends of Humanity organization. And he knew that no member of the Friends of Humanity would have mutant children. “Afraid?”, Persephone asked. “It's my sad duty to advise you that your parents were in a car crash tonight, they...they didn’t make it. I understand that there should be two of you kids home. Where’s your other sister?”, he explained. Persephone went white and dropped to the floor covering her mouth trying to not hyperventilate. Her parents were gone? Delilah froze in fear hiding in the hall at the top of the stairs. She brought her legs up hugging them close as she started to cry. Without even meaning too all the plants in the house started to wither as Delilah’s grief spread from her to them.
“My parents..oh god...my little sister..she's upstairs in bed. How...how did it happen?”, she asked looking up at the office tears streaming down her face and more welling in her forest green eyes. “Can’t say for sure. We are still investigating. With the rain coming down like this, it looked like they lost control on a bend and ended up hitting a large oak tree. By the time it was called in, there was...well little the emts could do. They were dead on arrival to the hospital. I’m...I’m so sorry for your lose. Do you have anyone over eighteen that you can stay with? We can’t...I can’t just leave you without an adult.”, he explained. Persephone took a few deep breaths trying to control her sobs. In the hall Delilah was sobbing into her jeans, her legs muffling the sound. “No...but my older sister...Crista. She’s nineteen. I can...I can call her for her to come home. She’s at college in Stony Brook..”, Persephone explained. He nodded. “You can give me the number and I’ll call.”, he offered. Persephone shook her head. “No..it’s...I’ll call her.”, she said wiping her eyes with the back of her hands as she got up from where she’d crumbled. If she had something to focus on...she could not have to think about the fact her parents weren’t coming home. He nodded he wasn’t going to argue with her on it. “Well till your sister is able to come to look after you and your sister An officer will need to stay by just so there is an adult. If your sister isn’t able to come the courts will be involved to get a legal guardian for you.”, he explained. Persephone nodded as she went for the phone and dialing Crista.
Crista was in Joseph’s dorm room a little preoccupied at the moment tangled up in his sheets with him on the bed when her phone started ringing on the nightstand. They both paused when the phone started to go off. Joseph sighed shaking his head wanting to ignore it, returning to kissing at her neck and trying to regain the rhythm they had going before the phone started to ring. Crista however wasn’t on that same page. The ring tone was programmed for her parents house phone. And she knew her parents didn’t just call for no reason. “We need to stop...it’s my parents.”, she said. Joseph sighed and stopped moving to lay next to her. “I just want to see what they are calling about then I’m all yours again..I promise.”, she smiled giving him a kiss before grabbing her phone. “Hey what’s going on? It’s kind of a bad time…”, Crista answered glancing to Joseph next to her in the bed with a smile. “Yeah well.. bad time here too..”, Persephone answered her voice a little shaking. Crista blinked, it was Persephone calling and her voice it didn’t sound right. Crista sat up in the bed because she got the feeling something important was going on. “What’s going on Perse?”, Crista asked starting to worry. Joseph raised an eyebrow sitting up in the bed. “Mom…..mom and dad...they were in...a car crash. They hit a tree...and...they….they didn’t make it.”, Persephone explained in a broken sentence starting to sob again. Crista’s mouth fell open and she dropped the phone to her lap. “Oh god… no… no…”,she sobbed covering her face with her hands the tears started to stream down her face from her cognac brown eyes.
“Babe?”, Joseph asked putting his arm around her. “Crista? Crista?”, Persephone voice faintly was heard from the phone on Crista’s lap. Crista quickly scooped the phone up. “Sorry..I...oh god. I’ll...I’ll be home within the hour. I just..I need to get my clothes from my dorm. But I’ll be right there. Is...Is Deliliah okay?”, Crista asked throwing back the covers getting out of Joseph’s bed starting to get her clothes from the floor. “I..I’m not sure. She’s upstairs. A police officer is here till we can get ‘adult supervision’.”, Persephone explained. “Okay..well I’ll be there. As fast as I can...I’ll be right there.”, Crista said. Persephone sniffled and nodded. “Okay...just...drive carefully please..”,Persephone encouraged. “I will. I’ll see you both soon.”, Crista said. “Bye.”, Persephone nodded hanging up. She looked to Office O’Bryant. “My older sister is on her way.”, she explained. “Alright. I’ll wait till she gets here.”, he answered. “Babe? What’s going on? What happened?”, Joseph asked a little confused and mostly concerned. “My parents...oh god Joseph...I’m sorry. But I need to go home. My parents were in a car accident...and...oh god..”, she started to cry again clutching her clothes in her arms. “Oh Crista I’m so sorry. Come on I’ll drive you. You aren’t really in a state to drive.”, he said starting to get dressed. Any romantic mood was gone and justifiably so. Crista nodded a little not sure where to even start with getting dressed just wanting to cry. “Shhh…”, Joseph tried to sooth stopping getting dressed after getting his jeans on to hug her. Crista dropped her clothes and just hugged him crying. Joseph wasn’t fully sure what to do, this was a huge tragedy and one he couldn’t relate to. He knew he needed to be there for her though. “Come on, get dressed and we can swing by your dorm to get more clothes before we drive to your house. Your sisters need you and you need them.”, he said trying to be supportive. Crista nodded a little against his chest. “Yes...you’re right..”, she agreed pulling back starting to get dressed.
Across the ocean Rose was still choosing to take things slow with Donovan. She did help him find a house he liked that would be more than acceptable for Kyle, it was a three bedroom craftsman style with room for a fourth in the attic space and it had a large fenced garden which was top of Donovan’s list of important features. So he was working on moving what little he had from his studio apartment into the house and then getting furniture in so the place could really be called a home. He had actually sent a plane ticket and brought Kyle to visit for the rest of the summer. Rose and gone with him to the airport to pick up Kyle. Kyle hated the flight because they made a flight attendant stay with him because he was under twelve. But as soon as he was leaving his gat and the female flight attendant was still right with him, Kyle spotted Donovan and Rose. “Dad!”, Kyle yelled pulling away from the flight attendant and racing around people to get to Donovan. Donovan chuckled picking Kyle up with a hug. “Ya ‘ave a good flig’t lad?”, he greeted. “It would have been better if I wasn’t being watched like a hawk and treated like I’m five. Hi Miss Rose.”, Kyle greeted as Donovan set him down. The flight attendant walked over. “You are the boy’s father?”, she asked looking skeptical because Donovan didn’t look old enough. Donovan nodded and pulled out the paperwork he’d been told he would need for picking Kyle up. “Aye dat Ah am.”, he smiled showing the document she needed. The woman smiled. “Alright. Well he did rather well on the flight, a bit grumpy near the end. I hope he had a good time back home with you.”, she smiled though the look she was giving was a tad flirty.
“Aye Ah sure he will. Tank ya kindly. We ready ta go? Rose and Ah been waiting ta s’ow ya da new ‘ouse.”, Donovan smiled ignoring the flirty batty of eyelashes opting to hold Rose’s hand while putting the other around Kyle to lead him away. Rose smiled a little at the way Donovan handled someone trying to flirt in front of her. “Hello Kyle. I’m happy to see you. wait till you see the house. As promised I didn’t let him pick anything that was crap.”, rose smiled as they walked away. “Fantastic. Can’t wait to see it. So do I get to stay or will I still be going back at the end of summer?”, Kyle asked. Donovan sighed as they got into his car to drive up to the house in Glasgow. “Ya are still going back unless ya can tell me ya really don’t want ta go back. Ah figured t’ings were going tad better wid Ororo since da party at Auntie Sadie’s.”, he commented. “Yes and no. I mean she’s nice to meet and all, but I kind of think she’s got a crush on Stephan. Which one word from big bird and it’s over for me.”, Kyle sighed. Rose nodded. “Yeah...rather well known fact that Ororo has a crush on Stephan and vice versa. the two just don’t seem to realize it. But don’t let that discourage you. I was rather hung up on someone and Donovan didn’t let that stop him.”, Rose smiled looking into the back seat at Kyle. Kyle smiled. “Very true Miss Rose. So alright maybe I’ll go back. Give it another year and see”, Kyle agreed.
While Kyle was visiting at least one Excalibur member or member of the Kearney clan was around him at all times. The team was rather busy both personally and professionally speaking. Xavier was trying to balance helping plan the wedding with Ashley alongside his work at Silvercloud and his investigations for Excalibur into Trask. Ashley was wrapping up a ballet performance and otherwise had been in full wedding mode, still making time to fulfil her Excalibur duties. But she wanted this wedding to be perfect for her and Xavier. And given how many people were coming just in their families it was not going to be a small event. Ashley had been trying to find ways to mingle their cultures in fun ways. And one she’d decided on was that the women of the bridal party would be going traditional Japanese in clothes and the men would wear traditional Scottish. She loved shopping for the kimonos for herself and her three bridesmaids; Lily as maid of honor, Cora Lee and Rose. Then picking out the formal kilts for Xavier and his three groomsmen; Landon as best man, Atif and Jimmy. Today the wedding clothes finally arrived at her and Xavier’s apartment in Glasgow and she was excited to try on her kimmo and called Rose.
“Hi Ashley what’s going on?”, Rose asked typing up a file at the small doctor’s office she was interning in. “They are here.”, Ashley said smiling. “They what?”, Rose asked confused. “The wedding clothes arrived from Japan. So after you get done with work you are bringing your ass to the apartment to try on yours. I had the others shipped directly to them over in New York. Xavier should be home in a minute so I’m going to make him try on the kilt. I kind of can’t wait to see what he looks like in one. My prediction, hot.”, Ashley explained. Rose sighed shaking her head. “Alright I’ll be by after work. And I get you love and are marrying him but can we not call my nephew hot?”, Rose asked. Ashley laughed. “Sure if you never call my cousin hot in my presence.”, she countered. Rose rolled her eyes. “I think I can some how manage that.”, Rose said sarcastically. “Alright I’ll see you later. Xavier just walked in.”, Ashley said hanging up with Rose. “See who later?”, Xavier asked still looking at his table which he had linked to the main computer at Muir Island checking on the progress of his information retrieval program. “Rose.”, Ashley said simply. She put her hand over the screen of the tablet and with the other raised his chin so he’d be looking at her. “Kon'nichiwa”, she greeted with a smile having gotten better over the years with learning Japanese and gave him a kiss. Xavier was about to protest that her hand was in the way till he looked at the smile on her face and she kissed him. “Kon'nichiwa, saiai. You seem to be in a good mood. What’s going on?”, Xavier asked.
“The wedding clothes have arrived. Which is why Rose is coming by later. Want her to try on the kimono.”, she explained. “Oh that’s good. So I get to see your kimono?”, he asked. Ashley shook her head. “Oh no. You never see the bride in her wedding dress or this case kimono before the wedding. You will have to wait till dad is walking me down the aisle at Boturich Castle in September. But that doesn’t apply to seeing you in your kilt. Which arrived sooo...try it on so I can take it off you.”, she smiled pointing to the bedroom where she’d laid out the kilt.Xavier laughed shaking his head a little setting his tablet down. “I am still not sure how I got talked into the groomsmen and I wearing the traditional clothes of your Scottish heritage while you girls get to wear the traditional clothes of my Japanese heritage.”, he sighed. “Because we are blending our cultures and I think you’ll look hot in a kilt. Now go try it on.”, she smiled pushing him gently in the direction of the bedroom. “Watashi wa, anata o aishiteimasu.”, he sighed shaking his head going into the bedroom and shutting the door. “I love you too!”, Ashley laughed sitting down waiting to see how he looked in a kilt. To save on confusion Ashley had made sure the kilts ordered would be ‘cheater’ kilts so the belt was already part of it and the pleats were in place.
Xavier wasn’t really sure as he looked in the mirror after following the instructions that Atif and Donovan had both told him a number of times in regards to how to put a kilt on. he sighed looking in the mirror. The green, gold and white tartan sitting just at the top of his knees. He sat back down and started to pull on the knee high mens socks and the matching green, gold and white flashers which left just the gap of his knee cap between the top of the socks and the edge of his kilt. Standing back up he put on the black leather sporran with its white fur trim on the cover. He knew he was missing a kilt pin but he figured he’d buy one some time before the wedding. “You okay in there?”, Ashley questioned. Xavier sighed and opened the door stepping out. “Well it at least fits…feels a bit weird. How exactly did your ancestors figure running around in one of these without undergarments was a good idea?”, Xavier questioned. Ashley laughed getting up from the couch walking over. “Well for one they didn’t have underwear back then. Plus wearing the kilt showed which clan you belonged to. And well some men have great calves.”, she explained with a smile putting her arms around his neck. “So guess I get to ask this, you being a true Scot?”, she questioned with a smirk. Xavier shook his head a little. “I’m wearing boxers thanks for asking Saiai.”, he laughed a little answering. “Hmm.. just one more layer I need to remove.”, she smiled pulling down the kilt from his shoulder and starting to unbuckle the belt. Xavier’s tablet started to beep across the room.
“My tablet…”, he started to say. “Xavier Francis Yashida...I do not care how important to Excalibur whatever is happening on that tablet is...what’s happening right now is more important to me.”, she warned removing the kilt. Xavier sighed being left standing wearing his shirt, boxers and the knee highs. “What’s the phrase I’ve heard...happy wife happy life?”, he questioned with a small smile. “Exactly, learn now and by September when I get the title you’ll be a pro.”, she smiled pushing him in the direction of the bedroom and their bed. Xavier at least knew better than to argue with her. He did wonder what the beeping was about. His program was still running, the beep had been alert that it’d uncovered something. And the program continued to run while they were in the bedroom. His program uncovering a connection between Trask and Queen. And as it continued to run more data about Queen was being downloaded and the tablet started to beep again. The connection to an american based company called Pierce Industrial was found. It wasn’t till later when Rose came knocking on their door Ashley and Xavier had even realized how long they’d been in their bedroom.
“Guys?”, Rose asked not really hearing sounds but knowing they were home. “Be right there Rose!”, Ashley called as her and Xavier got out of bed, having fallen asleep cuddling after sex, quickly getting dressed. Rose shook her head standing in the hallway. “Oh by all means take your time.”, she teased. Ashley was the first dressed and shut the bedroom door going and opening the front door. “Hi Rose. Sorry…”, she said letting Rose in, her blonde hair a bit of a mess. Rose shook her head noticing the rushed clothes and messy hair. “I could come back if I am interrupting…”, she said pointing over her shoulder. Xavier was smoothing out his black hair while walking out of the bedroom. “No it’s fine Aunt Rose. You weren’t interrupting anything other than a nap.”, Xavier said grabbing his tablet and his eyes going a little wide and he blinked at the data. “He’s right it’s okay Rose. If you’d come an hour or so sooner then I wouldn’t have even answered the door. He tried the kilt on it was nice…”, she said her voice trailing as she looked to him. “Xavier? What is it?”, she asked. “The beep sound from my tablet. My software I’ve had running to do my digging while I’m working. It found well it found lots. Trask is also linked to Queen here in the UK and Pierce Industrial in the US. The program is still running, but the information I’m finding...some of this is heavy with encryption. I’m going to need to link up with Forge and Landon to see if we can get past it. But whatever it is can’t be good to need that much encryption. So um...I’m going to teleport up to Muir Island and do a video chat with Forge and pull Landon in too and get their help with this.”, he said putting his tablet into his messenger bag putting on his teleporter watch.
“This something we should get the team on?”, Rose asked. Xavier shook his head and gave Ashley a kiss goodbye. “No, not yet Aunt Rose. If we can break this encryption and the data was really worth being this guarded I’ll let you know. I’ll be home late Saiai. Love you.”, he said turning his attention from his aunt to his fiance. Ashley nodded. “Alright. Just please eat something while you are working. When you don’t you come home and half the fridge gets eaten at whatever hour you get in. I love you too.”, Ashley instructed. Xavier smiled. “I promise I’ll try to remember to eat while I’m at base. Bye you two have fun with wedding stuff.”, he said before hitting his watch and disappearing to Muri Island. Ashley sighed a little when he disappeared. “What’s up?”, Rose asked. “Just well what happens when something comes up the day of the wedding? We all have to race off? Cause so help me any one of us has to leave my wedding for any COH or that other group of mutants causing problems. I’ll drown them all.”, she sighed muttering the last part. “No one is going to ruin the wedding. A team from the X-Men that aren’t coming for the wedding; Scott, Meghan, Kamal, Callisto, Max and Kyung Moon are going to be stationed at Muir Island and will handle anything. Don’t worry I’ve got you covered. I won’t let anything ruin my friend and my nephew’s wedding. Now where’s this kimono you want me to try on?”, Rose smiled. Ashley nodded. She did feel better knowing that the team was being covered so no one would have to race off during her wedding.
Over an Muir Island Xavier and connected to the main computer and sent a video invitation on the secure server to Forge and Landon. Forge quickly answered the video request living in his lab after all. “What’s going on Xavier?”, he asked looking at the video screen. “Just a minute want to wait for Landon.”, Xavier answered. “Ooo that big huh?”, Forge concluded. It wasn’t often that Xavier would reach out to him for help and even less often that something came up he’d also need Landon on. Landon had just gotten into the house when his tablet started going off. He’d picked up three large packages from the stoop. “Hey guys!? Doesn’t anyone know how to get the mail? Cora Lee! Lily! Our stuff for Ashley’s wedding is here.”, he called walking in setting the boxes down before pulling his tablet from his bag and blinking as he answered. “Forge? Xavier? Um what’s going on?”, Landon asked confused. “Get to your laptop Landon. I need both of your help.”, Xavier stated. Cora Lee and Lily came racing down the stairs when they heard their names. “Well if the postman would knock or maybe ring the bell to indicate he was leaving packages.”, Cora Lee said scooping up the box addressed to her. “I can’t wait to try on my kimono.”, Lily smiled grabbing hers. She noticed Landon on a conference video chat. “Oh hey Forge. Hi Xavier. Going to try on the kimonos now, we’ll call and let Ashley know how they fit.”, Lily smiled peeking around her cousin to the screen. Xavier nodded. “Um that’s fine Lily. Ashley and Rose are at the apartment now trying on theirs. But right now, I need Landon for Excalibur business though.”, Xavier explained trying to not be rude. “Alright well good luck.”, Lily said as her and Cora Lee went to try on their kimonos.
Landon arched an eyebrow. “Excalibur business and I’m getting called?”, he asked setting down his sax case and starting upstairs to his bedroom. Rachel was stretched out on the bed it littered with books as she’d already picked up her books for the coming semester and was getting her summer head start. Nazri was stretched out across the bottom of the bed being about the size of a labrador. Rachel smiled looking up when the door opened. “Hey hun.”, she greeted. nazri raised his head to acknowledge that Landon entered the room. “Hey beautiful. I just need my laptop. I’ll go in your old room. Xavier apparently needs my help on something.”, Landon explained turning the tablet to show the video chat of Forge and Xavier. “Oh...alright. Hi Xavier. Hi Forge.”, Rachel waved. Rachel knew that her cousin didn’t often ask for help on things so if this was something he was asking Forge and Landon for help it had to be big. “Hello Rachel.”, Forge smiled. “Hello cousin. Hope we are not disturbing your studies. And that you don’t mind we steal Landon.”, Xavier greeted. Landon set the tablet down on the bed as he got out his laptop. “Oh it’s alright Xavier. I’m just getting a head start looking at the books for my classes this fall. And no worries about borrowing him, long as I get him back.”, she smiled. “Mmm no worries. I always come back.”, Landon smirked leaning on the bed giving her a kiss before grabbing the tablet. “Bye.”, Rachel sighed a little as he pulled back from the kiss. “Love you.”, Landon smiled taking the table and laptop to Rachel’s old bedroom to work.
“Alright so we are all here. Want to fill us in Xavier? You don’t often ask for my help and now you are also pulling Landon in.”, Forge questioned. “After the Church of Humanity attacked the charity event..”, Xavier started to explain. “Right the one where your mom freaked because you ended up taking a bullet. Howletts and danger man…”, Landon teased smiling getting setup on the bed. “Yes where I took a bullet for Mason Templeton even if he’s a murdering cold hearted man, he did still help save Kyle and this foundation of his is doing and can do amazing things for mutants. But after the event I started digging into the staff who attacked and found they were all not only linked by the COH but through a overall parent company of Trask. I’ve had a program running all day since to keep digging. Today it came up with two new connections. One to Queen here in the UK and to Pierce Industries on your side of the ocean. What I need your help on is that a lot of what I’ve found is seriously encrypted. I want to know what they are hiding with that much security.”, Xavier explained. “Queen and Pierce? So we are talking about the decedents of Page Queen aka Leper Queen and Donald Pierce. Crap….why can’t these people just let history die.”, Forge groaned. “Who?”, Xavier questioned.
“Leper Queen, wore a mask after her first born, a mutant, accident set fire to the house which resulted in the death of the child and her face being burned. She blamed mutants and vowed to kill well all of us. She started a group way back called apien League, an extremist anti-mutant organization similar to the Friends of Humanity. She had a son who had a daughter. Both Page and her son Michael are dead. His daughter Olivia inherited Michael’s fortune and company which works in advanced weapons manufacturing for militaries around the world.”, Landon explained pulling up the file so Xavier could look at it on the shared server they were using. “Then Donald Pierce, was once a member of the Hellfire Club back in the original Emma Frost’s days but realizing the club had become mostly mutants tried to have a revolution which got shut down hard. He was rescued and turned into a cyborg and reformed a group known as the Reavers who wanted the destruction of mutants, mostly the X-Men and especially your grandfather. Donald may be dead now, but he has family. His nephew Justin didn’t follow in his footsteps being married to the X-Men’s Danielle Moonstar and working for the FBI in a special division. But Donald’s son Thomas did take over the company and apparently following in his father’s footsteps.”, Landon continued pulling up the next file he was referencing. So if we have Donald Trask, Olivia Queen and Thomas Pierce my question is how much like their ancestors are they.”, Landon commented. “Okay so fantastic we’ve got three legacies of mutant hating crazy. You think there’s more of a connection?”, Xavier asked.
“All three, well Page, Donald, and Bolivar were part of a group called the Purifiers which was under the authority of its founder William Stryker. I trust that name is familiar.”, Forge explained getting an idea of where Landon was going. Xavier’s face went blank, yeah he knew that name. “Stryker? I thought he was dead. I thought grandfather killed him…”, Xavier questioned. “Oh William is definitely dead. But the bloodline, not so much. His grandson David is alive and well.”, Landon said pulling up some new articles talking about David Stryker. “This can’t be good. If this David Stryker is involved, and is anything like his grandfather…”, Xavier shook his head. “Yeah we might have more than just assassination attempts to worry about, but worry what they are doing behind closed doors to mutants.”, Landon sighed. “Let’s start on the encryption and see what we find boys. Then we can go from there. Because well this is something I’m going to need to take to Duncan. Pierce is our side of the ocean so he’s going to become our priority.”, Forge said. “Agreed let’s find out what they are hiding and we can go from there.”, Landon agreed. He’d not wanted to get too involved with anything, he was trying to walk away from that possibility of being an X-Men. Or worse taking on the role as headmaster. He’d told Duncan he didn’t want the job but, he still worried that something would happen that would pull him back in. Something he couldn’t just walk away from. Xavier nodded in agreement the three starting to type feverishly on their computers as they started to work on breaking the layers of the encryption.
Over the next few weeks while in any spare time Landon, Forge and Xavier worked to break the encryptions on the data Xavier had uncovered, the Fayte sisters were going through the motions mourning their parents. The police still had no concrete evidence that the accident wasn’t just an accident. They couldn’t get a timeline of when the spray paint was tagged on the window due to the rain and they couldn’t find any tool marks or anything on the brake lines to indicate foul play. It was ruled as an accident in the end, blaming a faulty brake line that came loose causing them to lose control of the vehicle on the slick road. Persephone blamed herself over and over she’d just given the car a tune up. How could she have not checked to make sure the brake line to make sure it was tight. Crista was a wreck, between her own grief her powers were a little off and she was picking up everyone’s thoughts. She was feeling the grief of her sisters on top of her own. She could hear all the sympathy resonating from others. Including from Joseph who was trying so hard to be there for her but he had to go back to Stony Brook, the new semester was going to start in August. But he’d promised to stay at the house with her and her sisters till then. She was so grateful for that but then she also wished he’d just leave. Delilah wouldn’t leave her room….couldn’t because Joseph was there and her antlers needed to be trimmed. Every time flowers were delivered from various people that knew their parents they died the moment they crossed the threshold. Delilah was not in control of her powers, Joseph was even worried about her because she wouldn’t leave her room and he heard all sort of crashing sounds from her room.
One morning while Joseph had gone to the grocery store Crista went to check on Delilah as normal and as she went into the room she had to really shove. Delilah had knocked down her bookcase and it was blocking the door. And as Crista got in she saw Delilah curled in a ball crying and bleeding from her head. On the floor near her Crista saw the antlers. In her grief Delilah had torn her antlers off. Persephone helped Crista get Delilah and her room cleaned up before Joseph got back. After that Delilah would at least come down from her room, and they set the date for the funeral. They had to wait till the investigation was closed anyways, but Crista just didn’t want to bury their parents without Delilah. At the Academy the deaths of Chris and Gwen Fayte was seen as a victory, but everyone but Larissa. It plagued her that she’d killed two people. And as she looked into it, she realized she created three new orphans. Without telling anyone she was going Larissa donned a wig like her mother had in the past to hide her green hair and stayed in the far back at the funeral as her victims were buried. She looked upon the faces of the orphans she created. The oldest looked around her brother Kevin’s age, the middle maybe hers, and the younger not much younger. They weren’t as young as the Royer and Torres children but still it was her fault they no longer had parents. She saw the pain on their faces and in that moment vowed she would not kill unless it she had no alternative. Larissa, under a false name of Ada arranged to have flowers delivered every year to the grave of Chris and Gwen Fayte. She knew she couldn’t tell anyone about what she was doing though. To show remorse would give Azazel the opinion she was weak or a traitor and she didn’t dare to think what he would do to her or worse to her family.

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Down in the city Merrick was reluctantly going to the Cicada Club with Zoe and the others to see Landon’s band play. He and Zoe had been invited as their way of celebrating that Merrick proposed. “It won’t be so bad. Malcolm seemed excited that we were coming and so did your sister.”, Zoe assured squeezing his hand as they went to the booth with the others. “I know. And I’m only here because of them. Granted I’m at least on better terms with my cousins this past year but still.”, Merrick commented sliding into the booth finding himself sitting next to Tristan who’d come down with Blaire and the others from Harvard for the weekend. “Hey handsome.”, Tristan teased. “You really want to meet my fist….”, Merrick shook his head. Zoe leaned forward to look past Merrick and smiled at Tristan. “Hi Tristan. Don't mind him he just isn’t a big club goer.”, she said. Merrick nodded in agreement. “I’m not a club person. Unlike some members of my family I didn’t get into dancing or music. And it’s not grumpy when I could think of a few different things I’d rather be doing. And almost all deal with you and nudity.”, Merrick commented with a smirk looking at Zoe. Tristan chuckled putting an arm around Blaire. “I can’t exactly blame him for that. Granted I do like clubs, but till my back is a bit more healed dancing isn’t exactly an option”, Tristan commented. Blaire kissed his cheek leaning into him. “Dancing or just sitting here with you doesn’t matter to me. It’s a night out with you and friends. We can have the kind of fun Merrick’s talking about later.”, Blaire smiled letting a hand move up Tristan’s leg for emphasis. Tristan chuckled. “Yeah...keep that up and we aren’t staying long.”, Tristan smiled.
Zoe laughed softly at Blaire and Tristan. Their relationship didn’t seem to have changed all that much from when she met them at Blaire’s prom. “Glad to see some things haven’t changed.”, she smiled. “What you expected a back injury to stop those two? You don’t have to live with them…”, Hope laughed putting her arm around Jessa. Jessa looked a tad uncomfortable in the booth, there was a small amount of tension between her and Hope. Merrick and Zoe easily picked that up just looking at Jessa’s body language. “They fighting again?”, Merrick whispered his question to Tristan. Tristan just nodded. “Yeah. Huge blow up couple weeks ago, Jessa slept with a Alan Synder at some party while tipsy.”, Tristan whispered back. Merrick shook his head growling a little at the mention of Alan Synder. He may have decided to write his sister Emma off, but Alan was just someone he didn’t like for what he tried to do with Emma but Alan is a sleaze. “Take it you know Alan?”, Tristan asked. Merrick nodded. “Yeah. Don’t exactly take kindly to a man who doesn’t accept no for an answer, especially when the no is said by my little sister.”, Merrick whispered back. Tristan nodded. “Well it turned into a huge deal between them, Jessa did and didn’t regret it. Apparently she’d wanted to see what straight life would be like.”, Tristan shrugged. “Well hooking up with people behind backs tends to lead to troubles. Would be part of why I’ve always been upfront about what I did before becoming monogamous.”, Merrick shrugged. “Speaking of monogamy...Congratulations.”, Tristan he smiled pointing to the engagement ring.
“Which let me take a look at that.”, Blaire said leaning across Tristan’s lap. Tristan smirked not minding at all that his personal space was very much getting invaded by his girlfriend. Zoe chuckled and leaned over Merrick extending her left hand so Blaire could look. “Wow...very nice...fourteen karat white gold band, I’m counting thirty just about one tenth carat diamonds in the leaves and an eight millimeter freshwater pearl.”, Blaire said giving her assessment and letting Zoe’s hand go before looking at Merrick with a smirk. “Apparently Bryant men know how to pick jewelry.”, she teased before sitting back properly in the booth. “Wow..you an expert or something?”, she asked looking at her ring before looking at Blaire. “Something like that. My mom taught me a lot about appraising jewelry to know trash from treasure.”, she explained. Sitting a table over Shawn Boykin had sat down with a drink pulling out a chair with the model he was on a date with for the evening. He was looking around the club seeing that like most nights Blaze Halo had drawn a good crowd. As his brown eyes looked around he spotted something very peculiar, a woman with short white hair. He of course tried to not stare and as her head turned just right he could see she was certainly attractive.
“Okay so now we all want details cause Merrick being sweet or romantic just doesn’t happen often.”, Blaire smiled. “I mean that whole winery getaway last fall, serious props to you Merrick. But there have been so many engagements recently that come with great stories. Landon wrote a song and sang it to Rachel when he proposed. Billy popped the question on a gondola ride at Valentine’s. And Tommy did this whole elaborate proposal in their spot with the band playing their song. So spill, how’d he propose?”, Blaire added. This line of questioning got the attention for the next booth and Lily, Rachel and even Cora Lee turned to hear this. Merrick rolled his eyes. “Bite me jailbait. I do sweet and possibly romantic things for Zoe.”, Merrick defended. Zoe laughed and smiled. “He didn’t do anything quite that big and loud.”, she started. “But he put the thought into it. I’m Elizabeth in Pride and Prejudice so he was reading Mister Darcy’s lines, where he was proposing. And suddenly I look up from my script and he’s on one knee.”, she explained. Elizabeth? Pride and Prejudice? So the white haired beautiful is an actress. Shawn made a mental note of that. “Aw...so straight to the point asked.”, Hope commented. “Didn’t exactly verbally ask, it was implied.”, Merrick stated. “he read all of Mister Darcy's lines. It was really romantic for a lit nerd like me,”, Zoe smiled. “Still very sweet. he went about it in a way that catered to you.”, Jessa chimed in. “So just ring box in hand and that beautiful pearl looking at you? Nice.”, Blaire smiled. “If by ring box you mean the little wood circle box I made and carved ‘Marry me?’ into, then yeah.”, he commented.
“He’s amazingly romantic when he wants to be.”, Zoe smiled “Who knew my ‘little’ brother a closet romantic.”, Lily teased. Merrick growled a little, mostly playfully at Lily. “two minutes. Mikali pulled you out two minutes before me..”, he grumbled shaking his head. The booths laughed at the siblings. Zoe smiled and kissed his cheek. “Mmmh that growl.”, she commented. “We could still head back home and you’d hear a different version of that growl if you like.”, he smirked. Lily rolled her eyes. “Yup. Moment lost he’s back.”, she teased. “Oh let him be Lily. They just got engaged.”, Bianca tried to rationalize Merrick’s behavior. “What’s engaged got to do with it? You sleep through high school Bianca? Or just forget who you’re talking to?”, Merrick asked. “Knowing Merrick he’s just probably waiting on an excuse to be alone in one of the dark corners of this club with her.”, Malcolm chuckled. Zoe laughed and smirked slightly. “We’re engaged, that’s the excuse.”, she said. “I don’t really need an excuse to want to have sex.”, Merrick shrugged. Bianca turned a little red at the bluntness way sex was being discussed. “Aw Bianca this kind of talk still make you blush? Lord Tristan you and Blaire aren’t doing your jobs of desensitizing her. And Gabriel come on..”, Lily teased. Zoe smiled leaning into Merrick a little just enjoying being around his family and well friends. The group settled down as the band started to take the staged.
The first song was a little more upbeat in its tempo as Landon kept his sax to the side apparently only going to sing for this first song. “Welcome to the Cicada. Let’s start the night out with a little bit of fun. This is a new one for us, so hope you like it.”, Landon smiled as the rest of the band was playing the opening to the song. “Nah nah honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should not. I've got somebody at home.”, Landon started to singing smiling. A few girls that had made sure to be up close to the stage had smiled on looking direction at him. Landon played it up, like he usually did since he’d started playing with the band. “It's been a looong night here, and a looong night there. And these looong long legs are damn near everywhere.”, he said giving a wink over to Rachel who was sitting in a booth with Cora Lee, Malcolm, Tommy, and Lily. “Hold up now.”, Ben said from his seat at the drums. “You look good, I will not lie. But if you ask where I'm staying tonight”, Landon continued the song looking to the ladies dancing near the stage with a smirk. “He always known how to play up a crowd?”, Zoe asked having never actually seen Landon perform. “I believe his dad would call that ‘Bryant Charm’.”, Merrick whispered back. Zoe chuckled a little and leaned into him. “Yeah well it certainly didn’t skip you.”, she commented. Merrick smiled bringing his other hand over to hold hers. “I gotta be like oooh baby, noooo baby, you got me all wrooong baby. My baby's already got all of my love.”, Landon sang on using hand gestures to indicate no before pointing over at Rachel.
Rachel laughed shaking her head a little but smiled as she got a few looks from the ladies on the dance floor nearest the stage. “He’s going to get you attacked.”, Cora Lee teased. “Oh let them try. They want to fight over who your brother’s going home with, I know I can take them.”, Rachel smiled. Lily smiled. Tommy sighed and got up from the table and offered his hand to Lily. “Come on, dance with me beautiful.”, Tommy said. Lily took his hand getting up with him. “So nah nah Honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home, and if I stay I might not leave alone. No, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true.”, the song continued to play. “Oo oo I will stay true. Who who I will stay true.”, Ben sang back up. “Now better men, than me have failed. Drinking from that unhoooly grail.”, Landon sang smiling at the crowd as more people started to dance. Gabriel, wings and all, took Bianca out to the floor. Malcolm and Cora Lee also made their way out to the floor. Rachel switched tables to sit with the others since she at least knew Blaire and Tristan wouldn’t be getting up to dance. “Now check it out”, Ben said. “I've got her, and she got me.”, Landon said again looking and even pointing to Rachel with a wink. “And you've got that ass, but I kindly gotta be like. Oooh baby, nooo baby, you got me all wrooong baby. My baby's already got all of my love.”, Landon smiled as he sang.
“So nah nah Honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home, and if I stay I might not leave alone. No, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true”, he continued. “Why do I feel I’ve lived this song?”, Tristan whispered to Merrick. “Oo oo I will stay true. Who who I will stay true”, Ben sang. “Your rodeo days?.”, Merrick questioned. “Yeah probably. A number of times I had to use lines like that. Because no matter how good looking the guy or girl none can compare to my goddess here.”, Tristan smiled giving Blaire a kiss on her neck. Blaire smiled shaking her head. “You better be telling bar skanks to fuck off. I don’t need to get into trouble with the law while in law school for assault.”, Blaire chuckled rubbing at his thigh. Tristan smiled. “Oh don’t worry, no assault charges necessary. I know who owns my heart.”, Tristan smiled. “Oooh, I'm sure ya, sure ya will make somebody's night. But ooh, I assure ya assure ya, it sure as hell's not mine.”, Landon smirked. “Oh now that sounds like a Merrick line.”, Blaire teased. Merrick rolled his eyes but shrugged. “Probably. I admit I’m a dick when I turn someone down. Granted not used to turning women down...but I’ve got Zoe and no one else can measure up.”, he commented. Zoe smiled squeezing his hand a little.
“Oooh Nooo, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home. And if I stay I might not leave alone. No honey I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true. No, no, honey, I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got somebody at home. And if I stay I might not leave alone. No honey I'm good. I could have another but I probably should... not. I've got to bid you adieu. To another I will stay true. True ooo, ooo. I will stay true. I will stay true. I will stay true. I will stay true. Oh whoa oh.”, Landon wrapped up the song picking up his sax as they transitioned into an instrumental only song. Zoe sighed a smile on her face as she looked around. She had her best friend and now fiancee at her side and she was surrounded by new friends and future family. It was moments like this she was glad she had come to America. Merrick nudged Zoe a little. “Come on...I suppose shouldn’t take you to a club in the city and make you just sit around all night.”, he sighed. Zoe smiled getting out of the booth, it wasn’t often he would dance when they went out but she certainly enjoyed when he did want to dance.
Finally the meeting was over, Chris and Gwen were eager to just leave and get back to their daughters. Sitting in the room with these people, people they had once called friends and even some family members talking about how evil mutants are and that they should be wiped from the Earth they just couldn’t take it more. They wanted to get out, to just quit but they knew that wouldn’t work. If they tried to leave the FOH, they’d come after them, they’d want to know why and if they found out about their daughters...well that was a thought neither wanted to invision. They said goodbye to the others and got into the car. “How much longer can we keep doing this Chris? They’ve escalated so much in these past few years. Before they were just protesting and taking peaceful actions. But now they are up to trying to murder anyone that even dares to speak against them or say they think mutants aren’t all bad. Look what they did to Reverend Royer and his wife two weeks ago. And then the Torres last week.”, Gwen questioned covering her face a little as she thought about it all. They hadn’t been part of the attacks against the Royer or Torres families but they’d known it was going to happen, not the exactly specifics just that the group planned to go after them. Chris sighed and reached over taking his wife’s hand lightly squeezing. “I know. I know. If we left the group we would need to move, we’ve have to go into hiding and take the girls out of their school and pull Crista from college. Because we both know they’d come after us. And what happened to the Royer and Torres family would happen to us.”, Chris answered.
As they drove the skies darkened and a heavy rain started to pour down. Neither were aware that Kevin Durvo was the reason for the sudden change in the weather. Kevin and Larissa had been waiting along a road they knew the couple would need to travel, they having put road blocks on the other option saying the road was washed out. Kevin looked to his sister. “Alright you’re up. I’ve set the stage.”, Kevin said. Larissa nodded a little, she reminded herself that she was doing this for those children who’d lost their parents. That these two people had had a hand in the deaths of innocent people who just wanted mutants to be treated as equal, to have a world their children could grow up in that wouldn’t treat them like crap. A message needed to be sent. As the car passed them a green glow was emitted from Larissa as she closed her eyes concentrating. The glow passed to the car, neither Chris or Gwen seeing it. Larissa wasn’t sure what was going to happen from her powers, she couldn’t really control the results of her probability powers which typically resulted in a disaster. The effect her powers ended up having was a break in the brake line of the vehicle. As Chris went to lightly press on the brakes to slow down for a sharp turn in the road, the pedal went to the floor and the car wasn’t responding. “What’s...what’s going on…”, Chris said still trying the brake. “What's wrong? Why aren’t we slowly down?”, Gwen asked. “The brakes...they aren’t...they aren’t responding…”, Chris answered trying to keep control of the car on the very wet road. But it was too late. He couldn’t maintain control and they went off the road and slammed head on into a large oak tree.
The impact from the crash crushed Chris and Gwen’s chests into their seatbelts leaving deep bruising. The airbags didn’t go off accurately and when they did go off they slammed hard into Chris and Gwen knocking them out from the force. Gwen was bleeding from her head and her breathing was shallow, unknown to her from the impact a rib had broken puncturing her lung. Chris wasn’t in much better shape than his wife. But both were at least still alive. Kevin and Larissa made their ways to the crash sight, they’d been told to leave a message, to make an example of these two. Neither wanted to kill them, but to make sure the point was driven home Kevin took out a can of spray paint and wrote ‘FOH SCUM’ on the back window of the car before grabbing his sister. “We need to go.”, he said pulling Larissa away. Larissa couldn’t take her eyes from the wreckage. She saw they were still breathing and a sense of relief washed over her. She just hoped emergency responders would get there soon. “Do you...do you think they’ll live?”, she asked as her brother had her leave. “Who knows. Depends on how long it takes for them to be found.”, Kevin said. Larissa gulped as they left wondering how long it would be before someone found them. She took out her phone and opened her app that worked as a police scanner. She wanted to know when the couple was found. It was almost an hour and she’d not heard anything about the accident. She was pacing in her room and started to panic. She picked up a disposable cell phone to avoid it being tracked and called 9-1-1, leaving an anonymous tip that there was a car accident and it’s location before hanging up. Finally it was picked up and she heard the call for an ambulance on the scanner app.
Larissa hadn’t been the only one pacing worried and wondering about the fate of Chris and Gwen Fayte. Delilah hadn’t liked the sudden storm that and descended upon their town, it was far too sudden and ominous for her liking sending shivers through her spine. “Where are mom and dad?”, she asked looking to her sister Persephone. Persephone was looking out the front living room window wanting to see headlights. “The rain probably held them up. They usually take that little bridge over the creek, I’m sure with how heavy the rain is it’s been washed out. So they’d have to take the long way is all. And dad would drive carefully in rain like this.”,Persephone tried to assure her younger sister, but she was worried. She’d just given the car a tune up so that should be all good. But she’d watched the new that evening and it’d talked about how a group of FOH had tried to assassinate some politician up in Bayville. And the footage showed the members being arrested and she recognized a couple, including their Uncle Mike. Which meant the chapter their parents were forced to still be associated with had been behind that assassination attempt. In the back of her mind she worried what might be happening at this meeting, what they might as her parents to take part in. She knew her parents were good people, they couldn’t hurt someone. But she also knew telling the FOH no was risky for her parents, they wanted to do anything they could to keep them from knowing about her and her sisters being mutants. Persephone let out a sigh of relief as she saw headlights but that sigh froze in her throat when she realized it wasn’t the family chevy but a police cruiser.
“Delilah upstairs…”, Persephone said looking to her sister. Delilah raised an eyebrow it wasn’t often that she was told to get out of sight so she nodded and quietly went up the stairs, changing her hooves to feet so make less noise. She hide at the top of the stairs wanting to stay in listening range, her soft deer ears turning waiting to hear what was going on. The office solemnly walked up to the door and knocked, Persephone quick to answer. “Yes officer?”, Persephone asked a bit trepidatious. “Miss Fayte? I’m Officer O’Bryan...I’m afraid I..”, he sighed looking at her. He looked a bit pale in the face, he hated this part of his job. How was he supposed to tell this girl that her parents were dead. Why he got roped into being the messenger he’d never know, probably because they made him tell the Royer and Torres children about their parents deaths. He wondered if like with those cases the Frost brothers, a pair of lawyers from Bayville, would come to offer these kids a home. But he pushed the thought aside, the Faytes weren’t killed for having mutant children...the spray paint on their back window indicated they were members of the Friends of Humanity organization. And he knew that no member of the Friends of Humanity would have mutant children. “Afraid?”, Persephone asked. “It's my sad duty to advise you that your parents were in a car crash tonight, they...they didn’t make it. I understand that there should be two of you kids home. Where’s your other sister?”, he explained. Persephone went white and dropped to the floor covering her mouth trying to not hyperventilate. Her parents were gone? Delilah froze in fear hiding in the hall at the top of the stairs. She brought her legs up hugging them close as she started to cry. Without even meaning too all the plants in the house started to wither as Delilah’s grief spread from her to them.
“My parents..oh god...my little sister..she's upstairs in bed. How...how did it happen?”, she asked looking up at the office tears streaming down her face and more welling in her forest green eyes. “Can’t say for sure. We are still investigating. With the rain coming down like this, it looked like they lost control on a bend and ended up hitting a large oak tree. By the time it was called in, there was...well little the emts could do. They were dead on arrival to the hospital. I’m...I’m so sorry for your lose. Do you have anyone over eighteen that you can stay with? We can’t...I can’t just leave you without an adult.”, he explained. Persephone took a few deep breaths trying to control her sobs. In the hall Delilah was sobbing into her jeans, her legs muffling the sound. “No...but my older sister...Crista. She’s nineteen. I can...I can call her for her to come home. She’s at college in Stony Brook..”, Persephone explained. He nodded. “You can give me the number and I’ll call.”, he offered. Persephone shook her head. “No..it’s...I’ll call her.”, she said wiping her eyes with the back of her hands as she got up from where she’d crumbled. If she had something to focus on...she could not have to think about the fact her parents weren’t coming home. He nodded he wasn’t going to argue with her on it. “Well till your sister is able to come to look after you and your sister An officer will need to stay by just so there is an adult. If your sister isn’t able to come the courts will be involved to get a legal guardian for you.”, he explained. Persephone nodded as she went for the phone and dialing Crista.
Crista was in Joseph’s dorm room a little preoccupied at the moment tangled up in his sheets with him on the bed when her phone started ringing on the nightstand. They both paused when the phone started to go off. Joseph sighed shaking his head wanting to ignore it, returning to kissing at her neck and trying to regain the rhythm they had going before the phone started to ring. Crista however wasn’t on that same page. The ring tone was programmed for her parents house phone. And she knew her parents didn’t just call for no reason. “We need to stop...it’s my parents.”, she said. Joseph sighed and stopped moving to lay next to her. “I just want to see what they are calling about then I’m all yours again..I promise.”, she smiled giving him a kiss before grabbing her phone. “Hey what’s going on? It’s kind of a bad time…”, Crista answered glancing to Joseph next to her in the bed with a smile. “Yeah well.. bad time here too..”, Persephone answered her voice a little shaking. Crista blinked, it was Persephone calling and her voice it didn’t sound right. Crista sat up in the bed because she got the feeling something important was going on. “What’s going on Perse?”, Crista asked starting to worry. Joseph raised an eyebrow sitting up in the bed. “Mom…..mom and dad...they were in...a car crash. They hit a tree...and...they….they didn’t make it.”, Persephone explained in a broken sentence starting to sob again. Crista’s mouth fell open and she dropped the phone to her lap. “Oh god… no… no…”,she sobbed covering her face with her hands the tears started to stream down her face from her cognac brown eyes.
“Babe?”, Joseph asked putting his arm around her. “Crista? Crista?”, Persephone voice faintly was heard from the phone on Crista’s lap. Crista quickly scooped the phone up. “Sorry..I...oh god. I’ll...I’ll be home within the hour. I just..I need to get my clothes from my dorm. But I’ll be right there. Is...Is Deliliah okay?”, Crista asked throwing back the covers getting out of Joseph’s bed starting to get her clothes from the floor. “I..I’m not sure. She’s upstairs. A police officer is here till we can get ‘adult supervision’.”, Persephone explained. “Okay..well I’ll be there. As fast as I can...I’ll be right there.”, Crista said. Persephone sniffled and nodded. “Okay...just...drive carefully please..”,Persephone encouraged. “I will. I’ll see you both soon.”, Crista said. “Bye.”, Persephone nodded hanging up. She looked to Office O’Bryant. “My older sister is on her way.”, she explained. “Alright. I’ll wait till she gets here.”, he answered. “Babe? What’s going on? What happened?”, Joseph asked a little confused and mostly concerned. “My parents...oh god Joseph...I’m sorry. But I need to go home. My parents were in a car accident...and...oh god..”, she started to cry again clutching her clothes in her arms. “Oh Crista I’m so sorry. Come on I’ll drive you. You aren’t really in a state to drive.”, he said starting to get dressed. Any romantic mood was gone and justifiably so. Crista nodded a little not sure where to even start with getting dressed just wanting to cry. “Shhh…”, Joseph tried to sooth stopping getting dressed after getting his jeans on to hug her. Crista dropped her clothes and just hugged him crying. Joseph wasn’t fully sure what to do, this was a huge tragedy and one he couldn’t relate to. He knew he needed to be there for her though. “Come on, get dressed and we can swing by your dorm to get more clothes before we drive to your house. Your sisters need you and you need them.”, he said trying to be supportive. Crista nodded a little against his chest. “Yes...you’re right..”, she agreed pulling back starting to get dressed.
Across the ocean Rose was still choosing to take things slow with Donovan. She did help him find a house he liked that would be more than acceptable for Kyle, it was a three bedroom craftsman style with room for a fourth in the attic space and it had a large fenced garden which was top of Donovan’s list of important features. So he was working on moving what little he had from his studio apartment into the house and then getting furniture in so the place could really be called a home. He had actually sent a plane ticket and brought Kyle to visit for the rest of the summer. Rose and gone with him to the airport to pick up Kyle. Kyle hated the flight because they made a flight attendant stay with him because he was under twelve. But as soon as he was leaving his gat and the female flight attendant was still right with him, Kyle spotted Donovan and Rose. “Dad!”, Kyle yelled pulling away from the flight attendant and racing around people to get to Donovan. Donovan chuckled picking Kyle up with a hug. “Ya ‘ave a good flig’t lad?”, he greeted. “It would have been better if I wasn’t being watched like a hawk and treated like I’m five. Hi Miss Rose.”, Kyle greeted as Donovan set him down. The flight attendant walked over. “You are the boy’s father?”, she asked looking skeptical because Donovan didn’t look old enough. Donovan nodded and pulled out the paperwork he’d been told he would need for picking Kyle up. “Aye dat Ah am.”, he smiled showing the document she needed. The woman smiled. “Alright. Well he did rather well on the flight, a bit grumpy near the end. I hope he had a good time back home with you.”, she smiled though the look she was giving was a tad flirty.
“Aye Ah sure he will. Tank ya kindly. We ready ta go? Rose and Ah been waiting ta s’ow ya da new ‘ouse.”, Donovan smiled ignoring the flirty batty of eyelashes opting to hold Rose’s hand while putting the other around Kyle to lead him away. Rose smiled a little at the way Donovan handled someone trying to flirt in front of her. “Hello Kyle. I’m happy to see you. wait till you see the house. As promised I didn’t let him pick anything that was crap.”, rose smiled as they walked away. “Fantastic. Can’t wait to see it. So do I get to stay or will I still be going back at the end of summer?”, Kyle asked. Donovan sighed as they got into his car to drive up to the house in Glasgow. “Ya are still going back unless ya can tell me ya really don’t want ta go back. Ah figured t’ings were going tad better wid Ororo since da party at Auntie Sadie’s.”, he commented. “Yes and no. I mean she’s nice to meet and all, but I kind of think she’s got a crush on Stephan. Which one word from big bird and it’s over for me.”, Kyle sighed. Rose nodded. “Yeah...rather well known fact that Ororo has a crush on Stephan and vice versa. the two just don’t seem to realize it. But don’t let that discourage you. I was rather hung up on someone and Donovan didn’t let that stop him.”, Rose smiled looking into the back seat at Kyle. Kyle smiled. “Very true Miss Rose. So alright maybe I’ll go back. Give it another year and see”, Kyle agreed.
While Kyle was visiting at least one Excalibur member or member of the Kearney clan was around him at all times. The team was rather busy both personally and professionally speaking. Xavier was trying to balance helping plan the wedding with Ashley alongside his work at Silvercloud and his investigations for Excalibur into Trask. Ashley was wrapping up a ballet performance and otherwise had been in full wedding mode, still making time to fulfil her Excalibur duties. But she wanted this wedding to be perfect for her and Xavier. And given how many people were coming just in their families it was not going to be a small event. Ashley had been trying to find ways to mingle their cultures in fun ways. And one she’d decided on was that the women of the bridal party would be going traditional Japanese in clothes and the men would wear traditional Scottish. She loved shopping for the kimonos for herself and her three bridesmaids; Lily as maid of honor, Cora Lee and Rose. Then picking out the formal kilts for Xavier and his three groomsmen; Landon as best man, Atif and Jimmy. Today the wedding clothes finally arrived at her and Xavier’s apartment in Glasgow and she was excited to try on her kimmo and called Rose.
“Hi Ashley what’s going on?”, Rose asked typing up a file at the small doctor’s office she was interning in. “They are here.”, Ashley said smiling. “They what?”, Rose asked confused. “The wedding clothes arrived from Japan. So after you get done with work you are bringing your ass to the apartment to try on yours. I had the others shipped directly to them over in New York. Xavier should be home in a minute so I’m going to make him try on the kilt. I kind of can’t wait to see what he looks like in one. My prediction, hot.”, Ashley explained. Rose sighed shaking her head. “Alright I’ll be by after work. And I get you love and are marrying him but can we not call my nephew hot?”, Rose asked. Ashley laughed. “Sure if you never call my cousin hot in my presence.”, she countered. Rose rolled her eyes. “I think I can some how manage that.”, Rose said sarcastically. “Alright I’ll see you later. Xavier just walked in.”, Ashley said hanging up with Rose. “See who later?”, Xavier asked still looking at his table which he had linked to the main computer at Muir Island checking on the progress of his information retrieval program. “Rose.”, Ashley said simply. She put her hand over the screen of the tablet and with the other raised his chin so he’d be looking at her. “Kon'nichiwa”, she greeted with a smile having gotten better over the years with learning Japanese and gave him a kiss. Xavier was about to protest that her hand was in the way till he looked at the smile on her face and she kissed him. “Kon'nichiwa, saiai. You seem to be in a good mood. What’s going on?”, Xavier asked.
“The wedding clothes have arrived. Which is why Rose is coming by later. Want her to try on the kimono.”, she explained. “Oh that’s good. So I get to see your kimono?”, he asked. Ashley shook her head. “Oh no. You never see the bride in her wedding dress or this case kimono before the wedding. You will have to wait till dad is walking me down the aisle at Boturich Castle in September. But that doesn’t apply to seeing you in your kilt. Which arrived sooo...try it on so I can take it off you.”, she smiled pointing to the bedroom where she’d laid out the kilt.Xavier laughed shaking his head a little setting his tablet down. “I am still not sure how I got talked into the groomsmen and I wearing the traditional clothes of your Scottish heritage while you girls get to wear the traditional clothes of my Japanese heritage.”, he sighed. “Because we are blending our cultures and I think you’ll look hot in a kilt. Now go try it on.”, she smiled pushing him gently in the direction of the bedroom. “Watashi wa, anata o aishiteimasu.”, he sighed shaking his head going into the bedroom and shutting the door. “I love you too!”, Ashley laughed sitting down waiting to see how he looked in a kilt. To save on confusion Ashley had made sure the kilts ordered would be ‘cheater’ kilts so the belt was already part of it and the pleats were in place.
Xavier wasn’t really sure as he looked in the mirror after following the instructions that Atif and Donovan had both told him a number of times in regards to how to put a kilt on. he sighed looking in the mirror. The green, gold and white tartan sitting just at the top of his knees. He sat back down and started to pull on the knee high mens socks and the matching green, gold and white flashers which left just the gap of his knee cap between the top of the socks and the edge of his kilt. Standing back up he put on the black leather sporran with its white fur trim on the cover. He knew he was missing a kilt pin but he figured he’d buy one some time before the wedding. “You okay in there?”, Ashley questioned. Xavier sighed and opened the door stepping out. “Well it at least fits…feels a bit weird. How exactly did your ancestors figure running around in one of these without undergarments was a good idea?”, Xavier questioned. Ashley laughed getting up from the couch walking over. “Well for one they didn’t have underwear back then. Plus wearing the kilt showed which clan you belonged to. And well some men have great calves.”, she explained with a smile putting her arms around his neck. “So guess I get to ask this, you being a true Scot?”, she questioned with a smirk. Xavier shook his head a little. “I’m wearing boxers thanks for asking Saiai.”, he laughed a little answering. “Hmm.. just one more layer I need to remove.”, she smiled pulling down the kilt from his shoulder and starting to unbuckle the belt. Xavier’s tablet started to beep across the room.
“My tablet…”, he started to say. “Xavier Francis Yashida...I do not care how important to Excalibur whatever is happening on that tablet is...what’s happening right now is more important to me.”, she warned removing the kilt. Xavier sighed being left standing wearing his shirt, boxers and the knee highs. “What’s the phrase I’ve heard...happy wife happy life?”, he questioned with a small smile. “Exactly, learn now and by September when I get the title you’ll be a pro.”, she smiled pushing him in the direction of the bedroom and their bed. Xavier at least knew better than to argue with her. He did wonder what the beeping was about. His program was still running, the beep had been alert that it’d uncovered something. And the program continued to run while they were in the bedroom. His program uncovering a connection between Trask and Queen. And as it continued to run more data about Queen was being downloaded and the tablet started to beep again. The connection to an american based company called Pierce Industrial was found. It wasn’t till later when Rose came knocking on their door Ashley and Xavier had even realized how long they’d been in their bedroom.
“Guys?”, Rose asked not really hearing sounds but knowing they were home. “Be right there Rose!”, Ashley called as her and Xavier got out of bed, having fallen asleep cuddling after sex, quickly getting dressed. Rose shook her head standing in the hallway. “Oh by all means take your time.”, she teased. Ashley was the first dressed and shut the bedroom door going and opening the front door. “Hi Rose. Sorry…”, she said letting Rose in, her blonde hair a bit of a mess. Rose shook her head noticing the rushed clothes and messy hair. “I could come back if I am interrupting…”, she said pointing over her shoulder. Xavier was smoothing out his black hair while walking out of the bedroom. “No it’s fine Aunt Rose. You weren’t interrupting anything other than a nap.”, Xavier said grabbing his tablet and his eyes going a little wide and he blinked at the data. “He’s right it’s okay Rose. If you’d come an hour or so sooner then I wouldn’t have even answered the door. He tried the kilt on it was nice…”, she said her voice trailing as she looked to him. “Xavier? What is it?”, she asked. “The beep sound from my tablet. My software I’ve had running to do my digging while I’m working. It found well it found lots. Trask is also linked to Queen here in the UK and Pierce Industrial in the US. The program is still running, but the information I’m finding...some of this is heavy with encryption. I’m going to need to link up with Forge and Landon to see if we can get past it. But whatever it is can’t be good to need that much encryption. So um...I’m going to teleport up to Muir Island and do a video chat with Forge and pull Landon in too and get their help with this.”, he said putting his tablet into his messenger bag putting on his teleporter watch.
“This something we should get the team on?”, Rose asked. Xavier shook his head and gave Ashley a kiss goodbye. “No, not yet Aunt Rose. If we can break this encryption and the data was really worth being this guarded I’ll let you know. I’ll be home late Saiai. Love you.”, he said turning his attention from his aunt to his fiance. Ashley nodded. “Alright. Just please eat something while you are working. When you don’t you come home and half the fridge gets eaten at whatever hour you get in. I love you too.”, Ashley instructed. Xavier smiled. “I promise I’ll try to remember to eat while I’m at base. Bye you two have fun with wedding stuff.”, he said before hitting his watch and disappearing to Muri Island. Ashley sighed a little when he disappeared. “What’s up?”, Rose asked. “Just well what happens when something comes up the day of the wedding? We all have to race off? Cause so help me any one of us has to leave my wedding for any COH or that other group of mutants causing problems. I’ll drown them all.”, she sighed muttering the last part. “No one is going to ruin the wedding. A team from the X-Men that aren’t coming for the wedding; Scott, Meghan, Kamal, Callisto, Max and Kyung Moon are going to be stationed at Muir Island and will handle anything. Don’t worry I’ve got you covered. I won’t let anything ruin my friend and my nephew’s wedding. Now where’s this kimono you want me to try on?”, Rose smiled. Ashley nodded. She did feel better knowing that the team was being covered so no one would have to race off during her wedding.
Over an Muir Island Xavier and connected to the main computer and sent a video invitation on the secure server to Forge and Landon. Forge quickly answered the video request living in his lab after all. “What’s going on Xavier?”, he asked looking at the video screen. “Just a minute want to wait for Landon.”, Xavier answered. “Ooo that big huh?”, Forge concluded. It wasn’t often that Xavier would reach out to him for help and even less often that something came up he’d also need Landon on. Landon had just gotten into the house when his tablet started going off. He’d picked up three large packages from the stoop. “Hey guys!? Doesn’t anyone know how to get the mail? Cora Lee! Lily! Our stuff for Ashley’s wedding is here.”, he called walking in setting the boxes down before pulling his tablet from his bag and blinking as he answered. “Forge? Xavier? Um what’s going on?”, Landon asked confused. “Get to your laptop Landon. I need both of your help.”, Xavier stated. Cora Lee and Lily came racing down the stairs when they heard their names. “Well if the postman would knock or maybe ring the bell to indicate he was leaving packages.”, Cora Lee said scooping up the box addressed to her. “I can’t wait to try on my kimono.”, Lily smiled grabbing hers. She noticed Landon on a conference video chat. “Oh hey Forge. Hi Xavier. Going to try on the kimonos now, we’ll call and let Ashley know how they fit.”, Lily smiled peeking around her cousin to the screen. Xavier nodded. “Um that’s fine Lily. Ashley and Rose are at the apartment now trying on theirs. But right now, I need Landon for Excalibur business though.”, Xavier explained trying to not be rude. “Alright well good luck.”, Lily said as her and Cora Lee went to try on their kimonos.
Landon arched an eyebrow. “Excalibur business and I’m getting called?”, he asked setting down his sax case and starting upstairs to his bedroom. Rachel was stretched out on the bed it littered with books as she’d already picked up her books for the coming semester and was getting her summer head start. Nazri was stretched out across the bottom of the bed being about the size of a labrador. Rachel smiled looking up when the door opened. “Hey hun.”, she greeted. nazri raised his head to acknowledge that Landon entered the room. “Hey beautiful. I just need my laptop. I’ll go in your old room. Xavier apparently needs my help on something.”, Landon explained turning the tablet to show the video chat of Forge and Xavier. “Oh...alright. Hi Xavier. Hi Forge.”, Rachel waved. Rachel knew that her cousin didn’t often ask for help on things so if this was something he was asking Forge and Landon for help it had to be big. “Hello Rachel.”, Forge smiled. “Hello cousin. Hope we are not disturbing your studies. And that you don’t mind we steal Landon.”, Xavier greeted. Landon set the tablet down on the bed as he got out his laptop. “Oh it’s alright Xavier. I’m just getting a head start looking at the books for my classes this fall. And no worries about borrowing him, long as I get him back.”, she smiled. “Mmm no worries. I always come back.”, Landon smirked leaning on the bed giving her a kiss before grabbing the tablet. “Bye.”, Rachel sighed a little as he pulled back from the kiss. “Love you.”, Landon smiled taking the table and laptop to Rachel’s old bedroom to work.
“Alright so we are all here. Want to fill us in Xavier? You don’t often ask for my help and now you are also pulling Landon in.”, Forge questioned. “After the Church of Humanity attacked the charity event..”, Xavier started to explain. “Right the one where your mom freaked because you ended up taking a bullet. Howletts and danger man…”, Landon teased smiling getting setup on the bed. “Yes where I took a bullet for Mason Templeton even if he’s a murdering cold hearted man, he did still help save Kyle and this foundation of his is doing and can do amazing things for mutants. But after the event I started digging into the staff who attacked and found they were all not only linked by the COH but through a overall parent company of Trask. I’ve had a program running all day since to keep digging. Today it came up with two new connections. One to Queen here in the UK and to Pierce Industries on your side of the ocean. What I need your help on is that a lot of what I’ve found is seriously encrypted. I want to know what they are hiding with that much security.”, Xavier explained. “Queen and Pierce? So we are talking about the decedents of Page Queen aka Leper Queen and Donald Pierce. Crap….why can’t these people just let history die.”, Forge groaned. “Who?”, Xavier questioned.
“Leper Queen, wore a mask after her first born, a mutant, accident set fire to the house which resulted in the death of the child and her face being burned. She blamed mutants and vowed to kill well all of us. She started a group way back called apien League, an extremist anti-mutant organization similar to the Friends of Humanity. She had a son who had a daughter. Both Page and her son Michael are dead. His daughter Olivia inherited Michael’s fortune and company which works in advanced weapons manufacturing for militaries around the world.”, Landon explained pulling up the file so Xavier could look at it on the shared server they were using. “Then Donald Pierce, was once a member of the Hellfire Club back in the original Emma Frost’s days but realizing the club had become mostly mutants tried to have a revolution which got shut down hard. He was rescued and turned into a cyborg and reformed a group known as the Reavers who wanted the destruction of mutants, mostly the X-Men and especially your grandfather. Donald may be dead now, but he has family. His nephew Justin didn’t follow in his footsteps being married to the X-Men’s Danielle Moonstar and working for the FBI in a special division. But Donald’s son Thomas did take over the company and apparently following in his father’s footsteps.”, Landon continued pulling up the next file he was referencing. So if we have Donald Trask, Olivia Queen and Thomas Pierce my question is how much like their ancestors are they.”, Landon commented. “Okay so fantastic we’ve got three legacies of mutant hating crazy. You think there’s more of a connection?”, Xavier asked.
“All three, well Page, Donald, and Bolivar were part of a group called the Purifiers which was under the authority of its founder William Stryker. I trust that name is familiar.”, Forge explained getting an idea of where Landon was going. Xavier’s face went blank, yeah he knew that name. “Stryker? I thought he was dead. I thought grandfather killed him…”, Xavier questioned. “Oh William is definitely dead. But the bloodline, not so much. His grandson David is alive and well.”, Landon said pulling up some new articles talking about David Stryker. “This can’t be good. If this David Stryker is involved, and is anything like his grandfather…”, Xavier shook his head. “Yeah we might have more than just assassination attempts to worry about, but worry what they are doing behind closed doors to mutants.”, Landon sighed. “Let’s start on the encryption and see what we find boys. Then we can go from there. Because well this is something I’m going to need to take to Duncan. Pierce is our side of the ocean so he’s going to become our priority.”, Forge said. “Agreed let’s find out what they are hiding and we can go from there.”, Landon agreed. He’d not wanted to get too involved with anything, he was trying to walk away from that possibility of being an X-Men. Or worse taking on the role as headmaster. He’d told Duncan he didn’t want the job but, he still worried that something would happen that would pull him back in. Something he couldn’t just walk away from. Xavier nodded in agreement the three starting to type feverishly on their computers as they started to work on breaking the layers of the encryption.
Over the next few weeks while in any spare time Landon, Forge and Xavier worked to break the encryptions on the data Xavier had uncovered, the Fayte sisters were going through the motions mourning their parents. The police still had no concrete evidence that the accident wasn’t just an accident. They couldn’t get a timeline of when the spray paint was tagged on the window due to the rain and they couldn’t find any tool marks or anything on the brake lines to indicate foul play. It was ruled as an accident in the end, blaming a faulty brake line that came loose causing them to lose control of the vehicle on the slick road. Persephone blamed herself over and over she’d just given the car a tune up. How could she have not checked to make sure the brake line to make sure it was tight. Crista was a wreck, between her own grief her powers were a little off and she was picking up everyone’s thoughts. She was feeling the grief of her sisters on top of her own. She could hear all the sympathy resonating from others. Including from Joseph who was trying so hard to be there for her but he had to go back to Stony Brook, the new semester was going to start in August. But he’d promised to stay at the house with her and her sisters till then. She was so grateful for that but then she also wished he’d just leave. Delilah wouldn’t leave her room….couldn’t because Joseph was there and her antlers needed to be trimmed. Every time flowers were delivered from various people that knew their parents they died the moment they crossed the threshold. Delilah was not in control of her powers, Joseph was even worried about her because she wouldn’t leave her room and he heard all sort of crashing sounds from her room.
One morning while Joseph had gone to the grocery store Crista went to check on Delilah as normal and as she went into the room she had to really shove. Delilah had knocked down her bookcase and it was blocking the door. And as Crista got in she saw Delilah curled in a ball crying and bleeding from her head. On the floor near her Crista saw the antlers. In her grief Delilah had torn her antlers off. Persephone helped Crista get Delilah and her room cleaned up before Joseph got back. After that Delilah would at least come down from her room, and they set the date for the funeral. They had to wait till the investigation was closed anyways, but Crista just didn’t want to bury their parents without Delilah. At the Academy the deaths of Chris and Gwen Fayte was seen as a victory, but everyone but Larissa. It plagued her that she’d killed two people. And as she looked into it, she realized she created three new orphans. Without telling anyone she was going Larissa donned a wig like her mother had in the past to hide her green hair and stayed in the far back at the funeral as her victims were buried. She looked upon the faces of the orphans she created. The oldest looked around her brother Kevin’s age, the middle maybe hers, and the younger not much younger. They weren’t as young as the Royer and Torres children but still it was her fault they no longer had parents. She saw the pain on their faces and in that moment vowed she would not kill unless it she had no alternative. Larissa, under a false name of Ada arranged to have flowers delivered every year to the grave of Chris and Gwen Fayte. She knew she couldn’t tell anyone about what she was doing though. To show remorse would give Azazel the opinion she was weak or a traitor and she didn’t dare to think what he would do to her or worse to her family.