Tagging any/all Runaways and Wither

[runawaywitch]

Nico had the Staff of One out, laying across her lap as she stared at the very neutral walls of the little… well, sitting area was the best way to describe it. This was where they’d all been stuck after the Avengers had determined that they weren’t in need of any immediate medical care. The sitting area had the only door out. There weren’t any

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[burningpainting]

Karolina occupied herself with exploring the suite of rooms off the windowless den. Rooms without windows made her nervous, claustrophobic...panicky, even. It seemed that the adults and the witch had decided that this was the safest place for them at the moment, but she was going to have some sky. Even if there were bars on the window, she needed one. How else did they expect her to recharge?

A man had brought her crutches and left with all efficiency. He wore a butler tux so stereotypical that she actually giggled. Despite the fact that these rooms were basically a prison, they were comfortable enough. The carpet was so thick that she had trouble stumping around on her crutches.

There were tall, narrow windows in one of the rooms, no wider than her arm but spaced only six inches or so apart. It gave the entire wall the appearance of venitian blinds. Karolina set her crutches aside and lowered herself carefully to the floor, her back against the foot of a bed. She didn't know how long they'd be here, but the Avengers had to know that they couldn't be held against their will. After all, they had a witch, a cyborg, two aliens and a dinosaur on their side. Not to mention Molly, who was still under observation.

Karolina comfortered herself with the thought that their stay was purely voluntary, but even so she hugged her good leg to her chest and stared anxiously out the window, awaiting dawn. The sky had already lightened from inky black to deep-sea blue. It shouldn't be long now. Then she could rest.

[polyesterman]

Kevin was draped on an armchair, back in his customary black garb. He flexed his fingers in his black gloves, studying the ridged rubber surface on the fingertips. Even better than his old pair at Xavier's, really. Everything at the Tower seemed to be better than Xavier's, even the scrap metal. He'd seen the open door to the hangar, with its gleaming surfaces and piles of detritus in the corner. He hoped that he could get someone to give him some welding tools before he went crazy from the temptation.

Sighing, he picked up the legal pad that the elderly lady had handed to him. She'd seemed nice, but Kevin was still a bit fuzzy where she fit in with Earth's Mightiest Heroes. Super-grandma?

Grinning, Kevin scribbled the words in the lower corner of the page to remind himself of the absurd idea, and began to doodle bodies in various states: standing, sitting, crouching, falling. Kevin nibbled on the eraser as he contemplated the falling figure. Something about it was right. He glanced up at the television just before Nico switched it off in frustration.

"Why did you do that? That show actually looked okay."

[runawaywitch]

Nico turned the TV back on with a sigh. She'd promised herself that she'd stop letting Alex affect her life, and here she was turning off the TV just because there was a show on that they'd both liked. "Ex-boyfriend thing," was all she said by way of explaination. "Sorry."

She twisted a little in her seat, swinging her legs over the side so she was looking at Kevin. "Y'know, I thought this place would be more... super-hero-y. With guys flying around all over the place and stuff."

[polyesterman]

"Believe me, it's not all it's cracked up to be. At Xavier's, the school I went to, everyone was a mutant. Flying everywhere, on fire, and there was even this one girl made of mercury who was my friend." Kevin waved his hands in the air to accent his words. "It was chaos, but it was controlled chaos. You ended up getting used to it after a while."

Wither began drawing a modified version of the falling figure, making it more graceful, with a better defined arc to the body. "Everyone there was special because of their powers. Not because of anything they were actually good at. The students with the less flashy powers kind of got pushed to the side."

He added some rudimentary features to the figure, and decided that he liked the way it wasn't certain whether the drawing was of someone falling or flying. He absentmindedly continued to draw as he considered what Nico'd said. Ex-boyfriends? Somehow he hadn't ever thought of her hooking up with anyone.

Now that she'd said that, it was all that he could wrap his mind around. Of course she'd have exes. She could touch without worrying about anything. He would just have to deal with being alone. Forever.

Kevin scrawled a dark X across the falling figure angrily.

[getaway_man]

Chase walked into the room with a wide grin on his face. He looked to Nico and the mutant kid who were watching the TV. He held some sort of controller in his hands and was fiddling with it.

"Hey Nico, look what the living Ipod let me play with." He said, not realizing how loud he was. "Its like an ipod, except its a communication device too. I'll obviously have to check with Vic later to make sure that they didn't program a tracker into this thing."

He looked down at the couch and realized that he hadn't met the mutant kid yet in all the chaos.

"So who are you? The gloved wonder?"

[runawaywitch]

Nico leaned the Staff of One against the arm of her chair by her head. "When the Avengers split us up last time, they put Molly at one of those X-Corps," she said. "I guess they don't try to hard to keep people from leaving." She laced her fingers behind her head, studying Kevin. "Did you leave for a reason, or just... because?" She offered him a quick smile.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she added.

She turned her head as Chase came in, being loud and obnoxious. Very slowly, she exhaled. She was not going to yell at Chase in front of Kevin. And she wasn't going to turn him into something slimey, no matter how tempting it was.

"His name is Kevin, Chase," she said, giving the boy her best, 'you be nice' glare as she reached out and touched the Staff of One with her fingers.

[polyesterman]

Kevin glanced up at the dude who'd broken his self-imposed tension. "It's okay. I'm pretty used to it. My squad leader's a lot like you." Kevin grinned at the memory of one of his friends. "Maybe it's a Los Angeles thing; Julian's from there too."

He turned his attention back to Nico as he set his drawing pad on the floor, reconsidering the falling figure. It really wasn't bad, even with the X drawn through it. "I left because... well, I left because I could, and because everything was falling apart, and because..."

Kevin became fascinated with his shoes. Did he really need to tell them this? He trusted Nico, but the other guy he wasn't so sure about. Oh well. He's already said this much. "It was pretty chaotic when everyone lost their powers. In all of that, I hurt someone I cared about. Really badly." There. Now it was out. All he could hope is that the Runaways wouldn't react the way the others had.

[getaway_man]

Chase looked at Kevin for a minute. It was one of those very deep looks to try and get where he was coming from. There were those guys that he taken care of at one point. But it was because he was forced too. Nico was the only one who knew about that from their group. He wanted to keep it that way.

"Nico, I'm going to give you guys some privacy. I feel like looking around some more."

With that, chase walked out of the room. He sighed as he remembered just what he had gone through himself.

[ya_rpg_npc]

There was a squeak and Chase was treated to the sight of a boy nearly six feet tall attempt to look small and harmless.

Kevin could have recognized the kid, but Chase only would have noted him as the large white wolf that had been hiding under various beds in the hospital. Human-Cyrus was still wearing the scrubs that Mr. Kaplan had given him at the hospital. And also a pair of glasses. Cleo had brought them for him, since he always forgot them.

Cyrus had brought Molly, who had worked most of the drugs out of her system and had been making noises about wanting her friends.

[getaway_man]

Chase just gave a nasty loook to the man who had just brought molly back.

"I hate when people sneak up behind m, I really hate that. I'm going to go find something to do."

He stormed off hoping that no one had touched the leapfrog.

[ya_rpg_npc]

Cyrus hunched in on himself, wrapping his arms around his ribcage and fisting his hands in the material of his scrubs.

"I...sorry." he whispered, looking down at the floor. He hadn't meant to upset Molly's friend. And he wasn't sneaking, he was just being quiet and trying not to disturb anyone.

Even in human form, Cyrus managed to give the impression that his tail was tucked between his legs.

[arsenic_oldlace]

"Don't be sorry." Gertrude Yorkes said as she walked up to Cyrus. She and Old Lace had been looking around for food.

Old Lace sniffed at the werewolf and Gert looked around, "So, what does a girl have to do to get some food around here?"

She sighed and patted Old Lace on the head at the same time as moving her slightly away from Cyrus. Gert looked up at Cyrus, "You're friends with Molly right?"

[ya_rpg_npc]

"Yes." Cyrus answered, fidgeting away from the girl and her dinosaur. If he had been less soft and hairless, he'd have been quite fascinated by the connection that the two shared.

As it was, he rather got the impression that the purple haired girl could chew him up and spit him out, if only metaphorically. He didn't feel that she had any intention of doing so, but he didn't doubt that she was capable of it.

[runawaywitch]

Nico got off the chair and walked over to Kevin, her expression very serious. She studied him quietly for a very long moment, then said, "You didn't mean to hurt your friend. You're not the type."

Okay, she knew she wasn't exactly the best judge of character, but she was pretty sure he wasn't the kind of guy who'd hurt someone on purpose. If he was, he could have just killed her back when they were both being held hostage by the man she was starting to think of as Voldemort Lite.

[polyesterman]

Kevin smiled gratefully at Nico. "You really think so?" He began shuffling through the stacks of papers until he reached the sketches he'd drawn in the hospital. There was the cartoon of Cyrus and Molly... some other doodles he'd done on the trip to the Tower...

"What's with your friend, anyways? Cyrus is a nice guy--er--werewolf. Ah-ha! Here it is." Kevin pulled out the sketch he'd been looking for. It was a study of Nico, holding her staff in attack position. Wispy, tentative lines captured her form, making her look delicate despite the battle-like stance he'd drawn her in. On her face was a ghost of a smile, as if she was about to laugh despite the danger.

Handing it to her, he said, "What do you think? Kind of a weak drawing, but I wanted to say thank you for saving our necks back there."

[runawaywitch]

"Chase has taken being a jerk and turned it into an artform," Nico said with a shrug. "He's okay when he's not trying to be Mr. Tough Guy."

She took the drawing and tilted her head to one side. She could feel a blush rising on her cheeks. "This is really good," she said. "You're really good."