alderwitch

'It didn't come up before it became a moot point.' Alex replied, covering his hand with her own much smaller one. The first question she left untouched. Squeezing his fingertips gently, she continued aloud, "Our daughter won't be born for another fifteen years but the same energies that gave me my expanded perception and Mike's increased strength gave her enough control over speed that when faced with the loss of all she knew, she ran back through time itself. I have done everything I can to cover her signature but she bleeds the same energy signal that all of us do and, eventually, someone will notice. If they haven't already." This time when Alex gripped Mike's fingertips it was for her own comfort. She knew she was playing a deadly chess game. "I haven't told anyone although I imagine Mr. Summers is aware of some, if not all, of her origins. I have not contacted anyone else. I am still debating the merits of doing so."

After adding her mental litany of soothing to Mike's, Alex kept a gentle and supportive hand on Zoe for a few minutes. She looked Mark over and then nodded quickly as she released her daughter. "Of course. Please hold still, Edge." She reached out to touch gloved fingertips to his face, her eyes closing. With the lightest touch, she reached out to coax Mark's own body to repair the damages done. A soothing and cool balm spread over his aches and pains, leaving healed flesh in its wake, "There... Better?"

"The Terminus mutation is passed on genetically. In the case of two parents with the same affliction, the strength of power only seems to increase. Its a matter of months if not weeks for the scientists still working on our old projects to uncover that. Perhaps only days." Alex said soberly, touching Mike's lightly to still his discomfort at Elena's turn of phrase. "I will not have our daughter held in the same sort of facilities we were. I will not watch them take away our rights one by one. Not in my life time. Not now. Not ever. The Terminus Effect must be demystified in the public's eye. I had hoped to have Mike come out in five years. He's a better spokesman than I will be but right now I am the only one who can manage that sort of psychological stress as well as the actual physical danger."

Like the others, Alex had been knocked down in Mike's burst of temper but unlike the rest of them, she didn't surge to her feet again. Sitting on the floor of the ballroom, she'd had time to weigh her options before deciding on a course of action. Altering the minds of others was about as morally reprehensible a thing Alex could think of to do but when weighing that against the additional layers of hurt that these memories would cause Zoe... 'I am so very, very sorry.' Everyone in the ballroom heard Alex's mental voice and one by one in too rapid succession for anyone but Zoe to track, the faces of the teenagers of Claremont went first blank, and then confused as they looked around and tried to make sense of a scene that they simply didn't remember the last half a minute of. As for those centrally affected, they felt the pulse of power whoosh by and around them, wiping the students on either side but leaving them untouched. When the last memory had been altered, Alex simply put her head down on her knees, arms locked tight around them and shuddered.

Powerstunting: Mental Transform 11 (Completely alter the targets memories (2/r); Extras: Duration/Continuous, Mental, Range/Perception, Area, Selective; Flaws: Round: Full, Distracting) {44} That's plenty to cover the ballroom. Psyche is excluding: Everyone at her table/in YF (James, Mark, Erin, Trevor, Mike, Zoe) and any other psychics out of professional courtesy.

"She's a friend as well," Alex said with one of those gentle smiles as she crossed over to close the window again behind Phalanx, "Sweetie, go ahead and change. You know it gives Marie fits when you wander around in costume outside of the office." She glanced to Elena and shook her head slightly her expression fond of her personal assistant but long suffering, "She has all his posters... Half of them signed." Alex crossed over to the mini-fridge in her office and began levitating drinks out over to the low coffee table, coasters floating out first to settle under them.

One golden brow arched high above her black mask and for a moment she kept Jack of all Blades busy with keeping a hold on her wrists as she tried to wriggle free. She was very fast but had little purchase to twist free. "Oh... really?" She twisted against his grip and leaned forward to steal a kiss, pressing soft lips against his in an entirely unhanded (Ex-rogue!) maneuver that was as pleasant as it was no doubt sneaky. Bombshell pulled back, her lips twisting up in a small smirk after a moment, "So, three-one then?"

Attempt to reverse the grapple: 1d20+16=25

1d20+16=18 NO LOVE

Alex smiled and shook her head slightly as she crossed to the window, touching the connection that was ever present. "No, not Eve. I would have introduced you before now but I don't think he was ready then. He's ready to meet you now." She wasn't usually quite so evasive, but the smile on her face and the contentment in her mental presence was a good sign that she was feeling quite pleased with herself for more than the corporation. Alex went over to the window and unhooked the locks keeping the panels shut. With care, she opened the window and pushed the hair out of her face as it was immediately blown around. "... my other half, so to speak."

"No doubt," Bombshell said dryly as she feinted and missed a second time. She was fast but not committing her all to the bout yet. Rocking back on her booted feet lightly and her touches casual. It wasn't that she was trying to lull him into a false sense of security, more that she was focusing on his words rather than out and out winning. "Now, I'm assuming you've already looked into the usual 'curses', 'hexes', and 'mystical artifacts that turn people against you' angle. I mean, in our line of work, those sorts of things just happen. Hmm... Is it everyone or just the older set or the younger set?"

I hate Invisible Castle so, so much: 1d20+20=27 I'm not going to bother with my attack roll as she can't hit without feinting soooo... to you Giz.

PSyche introduces Scarab to Phalanx.

For this visitor, Alex actually came out to meet Elena and give her a tour of AEON's facilities personally, rather than having her shown up to the office. Elena was treated to the sight of what the young woman she'd helped train had become. Sober and quiet, she looked like a miniature adult in her tailored suit. She was well loved by her employees as everyone had a quick smile when she showed up and no real fear of the woman who arguably signed their pay checks. A few times, Alex stopped to offer a few words of helpful advice in the tour of the different branches of the business that compromised AEON along their stops but she tried to keep it to a minimum. Eventually, they wound back up in Alex's office, with Alex gesturing to the couch in polite invitation, "Thank you for indulging my desire to show off for a little while. I'm very proud of what we've accomplished here in such a short time. I do have high hopes, but that's really not why I invited you here today as I mentioned. There is someone I'd like to introduce to you."

"Oh, for... you left it. Wait here..." Muttering, Taylor vanished in a 'pop' and was back seconds later with the 'head in a ball' and held it out from herself with a disgusted look on her face. "Oh, ick. That's just gross, honey. I think you've been spending too much time with Dead Head lately. I'll just leave it in the Void for now but I'm not keeping this thing..." She solidified finally however as she tossed the ball back into the Void, over one shoulder idly. Taylor folded her arms up under her breasts and said immaturely, "Promise me that you'll fix this, Jack. I'll let it go if you actually promise. I know you won't just forget, then."

Sure, I'll give it.

Giz, there is indeed a techie kid that was knocked down near the control panel for the AV. He was escaping but is down like everyone else in the wake of Mike's fury.

After a minute or two of Archeville's powerful supercomputer's searching, images started to pop up on the monitor of a leggy blonde walking across her lawn in a black silky robe that came down to roughly mid thigh. Even freshly scrubbed and woken up, she was a knock-out, all feline grace as she prowled out to collect her mail and newspaper. Not five minutes later, the same woman was slipping up onto her roof in a black leather catsuit and striking out across the city's skyline.

"You had better hope not, Jack Faretti, or I'm sending you over to apologize. In person. With flowers." Taylor continued to grouse and grumble as her outline grew more distinct despite her unhappy mutterings. Jack's charm had always been one of her week points. She hovered in front of him, still slightly hazy, "Promise me you'll fix this, Jack."

"Well, not now, it isn't," Taylor huffed as she approached him and floated in front of him like some wrathful poltergeist. "I imagine by now all of the Interceptors know you invited Grim to a graveyard, scared her, and gave her her own severed head. It'll be a wonder if they don't just attack us on sight. Honestly, Jack..."

"Wouldn't have mattered if it did?! Of course it would have mattered! You idiot!" Taylor's voice raised at the end, sharp enough to startle the baby into a soft snort in the other room. Taylor muttered something rude under her breath before holding utterly still while she waited for him to resettle. When there was no further noises, Taylor airwalked down the hallway like a ghost herself, her frown ferocious. "Just a thing? If I kissed someone... would that be just a 'thing' too?"

"You... you.... ooooh!" Taylor's outline blurred just as one of the endtables behind her went whipping through her intangible body to launch itself at Jack followed by anything else Taylor could get her mental hands on. Rather than splintering if they missed against a wall or two, Taylor caught them and sent them back at Jack. She wasn't risking waking the baby unless it was with bludgeoning her husband. "You. Tried. To. Get. A. Kiss?! Jack, I'm going to kill you!"

"Oh, the fact that you already know this is going to upset me is not making me a happy camper, honey," Taylor replied hotly, her voice just as low pitched as his. She shifted from hands on her hips to arms folded over her breasts and glared at her taller and generally much more scary husband unrepentantly, as she leveled her threat, "Either you can tell me or I'll just ask Lynn. I bet her version will be a lot less flattering."

"Jack!" Taylor exclaimed sharply enough to make the baby fuss. Taylor shifted to soothe him against one shoulder as she lowered her voice to the whispering hiss that one had to when fighting around a baby, "That's the sort of thing Dead Head or one of the ghosts would find amusing. Not, you know, a relatively normal person. At least not without serious back story." Taylor stood up and headed over to tuck the baby in for the night. Once her hands were free and they'd moved away from the resettled baby, she rested her hands on her hips and frowned at him, "Now, what did you mean about the 'testing her friendship' part?"

It was a good thing that Jack had shared this story after the baby was born and there were no bouts of queasiness, considering the grossed-out expression that creased Taylor's face. "Oh for... Why on Earth would you keep something like that??" "Nevermind, I don't want to know although I admit to some curiosity about just what sort of psychopath you know that puts human heads into desk toys, I think that's one of those things its better if I can plead ignorance on later. Jack, for goodness sake, why would you just spring that on someone? Without the back story, its just going to look like a threat. Or a promise. Tell me at least you met her somewhere other than a cemetery..."