Room 509 to the 616 and back again, Saturday afternoon

[trigons_child]

Raven hadn't been feeling well for the past few days, which was extremely unusual for her. She'd even missed classes that week so she could stay to her room and rest, trying to figure out why she was so tired. Her emotions had been running very high, she reasoned, so that could very well be the source of feeling drained.

Doing something

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[trigons_child]

After she and Karla were done talking and were ready to go, Raven teleported them both to Jono's world, just outside the X-Men's mansion. For some reason it took more conscious effort for her to cross dimensions, and she felt lightheaded and dizzy once they appeared. She blamed it on feeling so tired and pushed it from her mind; there were more important things to focus on.

Like the giant robots standing around the mansion. Raven looked up with not a small amount of alarm. "Those were not here the last time we were," she said.

[This thread NFB for distance!]

[glacial_witch]

"Whoa, whoa!" Karla suddenly found herself getting dragged along the lawn, and, surprisingly, didn't actually mind it. This was not at all the way she'd expected things to go while they were here. In all the best ways.

"See?" she called over her shoulder towards Raven. "I knew a guide would come in handy!"

[trigons_child]

Raven quickly followed after them, unable to hide her smile. To think she'd been expecting an uncomfortable confrontation at best, at worst an outright refusal of the X-men to allow her entrance or Jono's belongings. Leech was the best person they could have encountered here today.

Still, she gave the Sentinels a nervous glance. She really didn't like robots. Especially giant robots.

[not_a_parakeet]

Especially giant robots that had been invented for the sole purpose of hunting down and exterminating mutantkind?

Leech was kind of growing used to them, even if he wasn't hugely fond of them. There was one between the camp and the front door, and he couldn't really help but stop and give it a pat on the foot, almost amiably as he passed it by.

"Pretty ladies here with Leech," he announced. "Both good."

Because the giant robot had clearly been hugely concerned.

Either way, he continued on, not particularly worried about little things like manners as he opened up the front door to the mansion (or what was left of it, since it had wound up with a sentinel falling butt-first through the roof of one wing not long back) and sauntering inside like he owned the place.

[glacial_witch]

"Hear that?" Karla asked smugly as she sauntered under the Sentinel. "We're pretty."

And if the giant thing had moved so much as an inch as they passed beneath it, Karla would have started yet another war by blasting the creature into pieces.

"Leech? What happened here?" she asked as they walked through what was left of the front door. "Where did they all come from? Why are they here?"

[trigons_child]

"And what does 198 mean?" Raven asked quietly.

She had a feeling she knew the answer to that. Was that how many mutants were left after M-Day? That few? What about Jubilee and Angelo? Or the Warren and Emma of this world?

[not_a_parakeet]

Jubilee? Warren? Who were they?

"Just 198 mutants now," Leech explained, looking up at the hallway walls as he wandered down them, glancing at the pictures on the walls.

A photo of all of the original X-Men, posed standing around Xavier, displayed Jean, Scott, and Hank, all looking proud if somewhat dorky in their old yellow and blue uniforms.

"Sentinels standing watch, keep 198 safe."

And locked inside. But escape attempts from their so-called refugee camp had been rare since Mr. M had been... Since...

There had been a lot of butterflies around the camp, these past few weeks. The butterflies made Leech happy.

[glacial_witch]

"Why would the Sentinels be keeping you safe?" That wasn't the only confusing thing about this whole...whatever. Karla paused and looked at the picture. "Where's Bobby?" she asked. "And Warren? I thought they were part of this group from the beginning. You know--Iceman? Angel?"

[trigons_child]

Raven didn't know what Karla knew about the Sentinels, but she could definitely pick up on her confusion and worry. And she was puzzled by the picture as well; even if the Bobby and Warren of this world had lost their powers, they'd still be in the photo.

"I am glad you are being kept safe, Leech," she said, sending a gentle pulse of comfort just in case he was picking up on Karla's confusion as well, and waited for him to answer the question.

[not_a_parakeet]

"Leech not know them," he shared, blinking at the photo. It had always been that way. Why would it be anything but?

Besides, 'Angel' sounded like a kind of wimpy codename.

"Not enough mutants, O*N*E keep mutants safe," he continued, smiling and happy to chatter as he set along the hallway again. There were storage rooms somewhere down that way and around the corner, he was pretty sure. The boxes were fun to climb on when nobody was looking. "Sapien League dangerous, already attacked mansion, too."

Hence the Sentinel buttprint.

[glacial_witch]

"O-N-E?" Karla asked, not picking up on the asterisks. "What is that? How'd they get the Sentinels?"

The confusion over Bobby and Warren didn't go unnoticed. She glanced at Raven and nodded slightly. "The picture always looked like that?" she asked. "Just the three of them?"

Sorry, Leech. Karla was a curious one.

[trigons_child]

If Karla hadn't already mentioned to her that people were disappearing from Glacia and Dinah's world, Raven might have freaked out. Well, she was still very worried, of course, but she was able to mask it better. After everything Jono's world had put mutants through already, now they were disappearing as well?

Still, she had to ask. "Do you know Paige, Leech?" she said. "From Miss Frost's school?"

She was allowed to be a little petty.

[not_a_parakeet]

For all the comfort that Raven had given Leech a moment before, now he was just starting to get confused. So many questions all at once, even for someone as precocious as he was, still tended to kind of heap up one on top of the next until he had no idea where to start.

He'd start with the easy one, first.

"Leech know Paige," he answered, because sometimes the universe was just mean that way. "Books? Rippy skin?"

That kind of narrowed it down.

"Picture just always that picture, like pictures are. And O*N*E is," he waved his hands around a little, as if painting some big dramatic picture, "President's. In Washington."

[glacial_witch]

"Oh yay," Karla said, sounding distinctly unenthusiastic. "I'm so glad that with people vanishing from the multiverse, Paige remains a constant. The Darkness is so kind."

She wanted to ask Leech more questions about why the government was so keen on protecting the mutants, but she didn't think he'd be able to answer the questions she wanted to ask.

[trigons_child]

"Do you think you have seen Jono's belongings while you have explored in here, Leech?" Raven said hastily, trying to distract him from Karla's words. She could already sense his confusion, and there was no sense upsetting him about people disappearing.

"There would be a guitar, and lots of leather clothing, and music, of course." She smiled down at Leech. "And the comic books."

[not_a_parakeet]

"Sure! Leech see lots of things! Leech think he remembers guitar."

And the comic books. But that would involve admitting that he'd not only been climbing on boxes in the storage rooms, but also snooping in them.

"This way!"

And then he was letting go of Karla's hand, finally, so that he could take off down the corridor and around the corner. Could the girls keep up? Because he was totally racing them even if they didn't know it, but he'd wait outside the right door so that they wouldn't get all lost or something.