Issue 1 Downtime

The night after her little stunt in the Danger Room Aria silently swoops down from out over the harbor, aiming at one of the warehouses and then disappearing as if she'd flown around a corner in mid-air. Meanwhile inside the warehouse she flies around a stack of boxes and comes to a skidding halt.

Inside, Ariel is sitting at a card table.

"You're early," Ariel says, "Did you have any trouble?"

Scream Queen was sitting on a crate nearby. There was also two new members. A pink mohawked punk rocker wearing a ludicrous amount of buckles and a professional looking woman with short brown hair dressed like she was going to an office meeting.

The punk rocker smirked at Aria as she entered. The woman just stared straight at a wall as if nothing was happening.

"Nah, not really. Though I couldn't quite get you schematics. Instead I brought you one of these." she says and pulls out the hard-light projector.

Ariel grins, "That'll do, my dear."

"Hand it over to Galatea," Ariel says, gesturing to the woman in the suit, "She's handling all of the tech for our little endeavor."

At the sound of her name, Galatea looks up at Ariel. She seems to be studying him carefully. Then she turns her attention to Aria. She just stares without saying a word. Or moving. Or blinking. And possibly not breathing, it was hard to say for sure.

"You don't talk much, huh?" she says, handing her the projector.

"I was not designed for communication," Galatea says, taking the projector and handling it gently as she inspects it.

"Where the frack did you find an android?" she asks Ariel.

"She's on loan from one of our colleagues in the States," Ariel says, "I believe she's re-purposed Sentinel tech. A little bit obvious, but I do appreciate the irony."

Galatea's arm split open revealing many useful devices. She began scanning the projector slowly and in great detail.

"Yeah, nothing can go wrong with that." she chuckles.

"I only do what I am told," Galatea responds, not looking up from her scans.

"Some risk is required in order to seize the rewards," Ariel assures Aria, "Speaking of risk, you've helped our cause tremendously. I'm glad too finally come across a trustworthy advocate for the cause."

"We've had to deal with too many traitors lately."

"Well clearly diplomacy has failed and apparently most people are too scared to do something."

"Exactly," Ariel says, "A war is coming. There'll be blood on the streets and if we don't want it to be ours, we better be ready to make sure it'll be theirs."

"Hell yeah!" the punk rocker called out.

Scream Queen just smiled softly to herself.

"Right." she says, glancing at the punk. "Well they got most of one continent, let's make sure they don't get a foothold in another. Send them limping back home and show the rest of us over there's no reason to cower and be scared."

"That is exactly the plan," Ariel says, "And please, allow me to be the first to congratulate you on entering our esteemed ranks, Ms. Nyx."

"Thank you. I'm sure it's an honor." she smirks.

"Maybe not today, but someday soon mutants everywhere will know this is where we made our stand," Ariel says.

"Hear hear."