Issue 1 Downtime

Late on Friday, the alarm bells had started blaring from the British Museum--a break in!


The officer on the scene had gone in to apprehend what was almost assuredly just some drunken college students causing a fuss, but he hadn't been heard from for about twenty minutes, and his radio had been shut off.

According to procedures, London's finest had surrounded the building, and sent a call in to Xavier's University to see if the could spare any X-Teamers to see what the hell was going on.

John, and presumably whoever else was called out, approached the police perimeter.

"Lets see what we can see." Rachel said, stretching out her power towards the building.

Zeryn, bare-chested as ever, seemed to be quite comfortable in the chill of the spring night as he took in the sights around him, apparently utterly unconcerned with what was happening. He did seem a bit glossier than usual, but otherwise could have been out for an evening stroll had he not arrived with the X-Men.

Rachel O'Brien wrote:"Lets see what we can see." Rachel said, stretching out her power towards the building.

"I wanna see the Rosetta Stone, personally."

"Ha Ha." Rachel replied, sounding a bit distracted "Lets hope we don't have to destroy any priceless artifacts."

John, meanwhile, attempted to get a grasp of the situation the old-fashioned way. He approached the police on-scene... to ask the officer in charge.

"'Ello, ello, X-Men, are we? We're in quite the jolly pickle here, quite," the officer on duty said to John.


Rachel was getting five signals from inside the building--one was clearly the cop, still alive but frightened. The other four were...somehow strange and distorted.

"As I've heard," he answered, looking then to the museum, "What do we know?"

"About 25 minutes ago, the main alarm went off in Zone 50 on the upper floor. Officer Pickett, the guard on duty, went up to see what was what after phoning it in. Then all his communications cut out."

"Forgive me for saying so, but this doesn't seem like something we'd typically be called in for. Not to belittle the seriousness of the situation."

"An officer disappearing, and only the alarm in one zone, not connected to any exits, going off?

Yeah, that doesn't seem at all mysterious."

"Is there any other information that you can give us?," Rick asked the officer in charge.

"Like wot?" he said, confused.

"Anything. What they might be after, when the officer was known to have vanished, a guess at the number of intruders...?"

"Unimportant. We will assail them in their ill-gotten hideaway and lay these fools low," Zeryn mused, looking up at the building.

Rachel focused in on the other four figures, trying to work out what was wrong with them without tipping them off.

"Going in blind is never a sound plan. For all we know they have a bomb or are high-powered mutants," he said to Zeryn, "Not to mention we do actually put some effort into avoiding property damage."

I swear. These nobility types are all children.

Rachel would notice that the brain types themselves were odd--not like anything she had noticed before.

Possibly some kind of mental mutation? Or a physical mutation effecting the brain? Or some kind of brain-related cloaking device?


"Communications cut out 20 minutes ago, and that's all we really know, lad."

"The guard is still alive." Rachel said "There are four of them, their brains are weird, I'll see if I can find anything else."

"Do you have a map of the building?" he asked the officer.

"Effort likely won't be necessary to avoid property damage," Zeryn pointed out. "For them to be in a storehouse of wonders such as this, something obviously has value here for them. They are unlikely to do anything to endanger whatever it is."

"What, do I look like guest services?" the officer grumbled.

Nonetheless, a map was provided.

John studied it quickly and passed it around so they can know where they're going.

"Only two ways to area 50. I suggest we split up and box them in."

"Could work." Rachel said absently, trying to get more information on what they were facing.

The patterns Rachel was sensing were changing--like trying to grab on to some slippery soap, sliding down a slippery slope.

Either the brains themselves were changing, or something was trying to make it look like they were.

Rachel switched tactics and focused her attention on the guard, trying to connect with him.

As they went, Zeryn peeked at the map to see if there were any fountains in the museum.

The guard was certainly alive, and unconscious. His injuries seemed to be moderate, but not life-threatening as of yet.

There was no decorative fountains, sadly, though there was a significant amount of plumbing and drinking fountains.

John looked around as they entered the museum.

"Nomic and I will take the North route. Good?"

"Works for me."

Rick casts a sidelong glance at Zeryn, and then gives John a look making it plain that's he's not too thrilled with the arrangement.

"All right. Let's go."

________________

There was the sounds of arguing from the top floor, a couple shrill, high pitched voices shouting at each other in a foreign tongue.

John tried to place the language as he an Rachel moved along the Northern route.

Whatever it was, it wasn't a language John had heard before, though it sounded vaguely Asiatic.

There seemed to be two voices leading the argument, with another two chiming in from time to time.

Zeryn peered at the map again, then headed with Rick through the other entrance, allowing Rick to guide the way to their destination.

And guide them Rick did, going the other way around as they broke off from John and Rachel. He made sure that his footfalls were extra quiet when they started hearing voices from somewhere in the room(s?) ahead. He finally stopped and crouched, listening in for what it was worth and trying to see what was going on.

Rachel continued to feel ahead with her power, trying to make sure that they were continuing to be unnoticed.

John kept moving as stealthily as someone his size could manage, taking position outside the target room just as Rick had.

The four were clearly far too interested in arguing with one another to notice the creeping creepies, the argument clearly getting heated.


The room was the British History (pre-romans) room, with many of the artifacts on display from the Druids and things of that nature.

The guard could be seen, slumped in one corner, his nose bleeding, his face scorched.


The two leading the argument was a woman with green hair and a tiny bikini--certainly not suitable weather for the climate--and a tough, biker-chick-looking muscular woman, with a chain draped across her chest and a big bazooka-type thing in her arms. A girl in a pink victorian dress was standing behind the biker chick, and a tall, woman in a fancy blue kimono, with her frosty white hair pinned back, stood behind the bikini girl.

Bikini had in her hands the broken top half of a sceptery...thing, with a shiny jewel atop it.