Summary: Scott and Jean final find who they've been looking for
Location: Harlem
Participants: Cyclops, Jean Grey, Bishop (NPC)
Rating: PG-13 for Short But Explosive Violence
Previously, in a log Scott forgot to save, Jean and Scott visited a man named Jacob Bishop who distantly resembled a picture of the mysterious gunman they have been searching for ever since he erased Jean’s memory. While Jacob didn’t know anything about the man pictured, Jean noticed a familiar mental signature present for Jacob’s infant nephew, Lucas. Convinced that Lucas is somehow central in the identity of the mystery gunman, and unable to discover any more information about his father, the pair of mutants use their previously developed fake detective identities to interview Lucas’ mother. We now join our X-Men Adventure, already in progress.
The day after learning that they were future parents in at least one reality, Scott and Jean are back on the prowl for information about the elusive and clearly sinister baby Lucas Bishop. Age progression software more or less confirmed Jean's suspicions, that the mystery man who mentally attacked her is the same as the small infant. Of course, that is insanity. But they also have a full grown daughter back home.
"She likes banana-strawberry milkshakes with extra chocolate, which you know I love," Scott gushes, smiling ear to ear. "She's smart, witty, beautiful-I'll attribute that to you-and clearly passionate about what the school stands for. She struck me as possibly a bit moody at times, but if her reality was half as bad as she suggests, I can't really blame her." Pause. "Plus, she certainly got less of a bug up her ass than my other kid." Currently, Scott is dressed up in one of his suits again, this one a dark brown two-button number, with a light yellow shirt worn open collar underneath. Fake badge is in his back pocket as he walks down the street towards a broken down housing project where Loretta Bishop is supposed to be, the name of the mother on the babe Lucas' birth certificate. The father's entry was left blank, a very vexing discovery for all involved.
This time, Jean is dressed in a modest, boring pants suit. And her shoes are flat-heeled and sensible. She has given her hair the most attention; pulled half-back away from her face, the rest tumbles down her back in curls and the sun glints off of the red locks like fire.
"Cut Nathan a little slack, Scott," she remarks, giving him a little nudge in the ribs. "His life has not been easy, either. Still, I'm glad you and Rachel are bonding. She is very sweet." Grinning, she nudges him again. "Being a dad isn't as scary as you thought, hmm?"
Scott wrinkles his nose a bit at giving Nathan anything. "He's just so...angry, at everything. I mean, I don't strike you like that," he says, before giving Jean a glance with a raise brow. "Riiiight?" he says, asking for confirmation before arriving at the project. Ringing the doorbell, Scott goes through the same spiel, using the same awful aliases and gaining hesitant entry. "And I've always liked bonding with teenagers, while I like my job," he says. "Its just the idea of having sole responsibility of a toddler that terrifies me." He frowns and glances at Jean. "Plus, someone told me she was just giving me a hard time anyway," he says, cautiously.
"Why shouldn't he be angry?" Since when did Jean become Nathan's champion? "Maybe he gets it from his mother." Once they are permitted to enter the building, Jean does so, holding the door for Scott before he can offer to do it for her. "How in the world did you get the idea in your head that you would have 'sole' responsibility of a toddler, darling? What about me? Your brother? My family? The entire residence of the Xavier mansion?"
Scott rolls his shoulder a bit as he frowns. "Maybe," he mutters. Nathan's parenting has always been a dark subject, parially because of what it said about the kind of parent he was, and what it implied about Jean's future fate. He shakes that off and shrugs. "I guess I figured that if anything happened, it would be my fault. Not that anything would, but...it would be hard. And I got a lot of hard right now." He glances towards Jean, frowning a bit. "...do you really wanna have a baby?" he asks, his voice whispered.
Jean stops in the middle of the hallway and reaches out to snag Scott's hand. "This really isn't the time or place for this conversation, darling," she points out. However, that doesn't really deter her from getting her say. "Someday? Yes. Right now? No. We have a huge house full of kids; two of which are -- sort of -- ours." Even if Nathan isn't even other-her's, he's clone her's, and so, biologically at least, he's hers. Whatever. It's confusing. "And when we do have a baby of our own, you won't be alone."
Scott stops as Jean stops, turning to face her and nod his head a few times as she explains. He squeezes her hand as he leans down, brushing his lips against her. "Okay," he says, then lets go of her hand, as people in the hallway are starting to stare. "Now, can you TRY to be professional," he says, loudly, grinning as he turns his back on Jean, making his way towards the destination at the end of the hall.
Rolling her eyes, Jean makes a sound in the back of her throat. Tossing her hair over her shoulder, she continues down to hallway, trailing after Scott -- scratch that, Detective Masters.
Detective Masters waits for Detective Dayspring to reach the door before he knocks. A few more moments later, a slightly overweight woman right rollers in her hair answers the door, glancing back and forth between the two detectives. She cradles Lucas in one arm, eyes wide at the sign of new people. The mother, meanwhile. "Look, I'll tell you two what I told the other people who came peeking around here. I ain't seen Barry, I don't know where Barry is, and I sure as hell ain't gonna tell you even if I /did/ know, because I would just become a dead woman anyway." With that, she slams the door in their faces. Scott raises a brow and looks at Jean with a slight smirk. "That...could have gone better."
"You think so?" Jean tilts her head to look up at Scott and arches her brows. "So, is Barry the father or just a boyfriend, hm? Do we risk her wrath or what?"
Scott shakes his head a bit. He knocks on the door, waiting for it open. "Listen, I told you..." she starts, but this time Scott is able to cut her off. "Ms. Bishop, we don't need to be here long. We just wanted to talk to you about your son."
The woman blinks a few times. "Lucas? He ain't done nothing but cry and shit himself," she says, eyeing the two. "You two sure you got the right house?"
"Yes, Ms. Bishop. We are quite sure." Jean gives the woman a small, reassuring smile. She's just oozing calm, trust, relax. Her gaze shifts from the mother to the son, and she gives Lucas a little wave of her fingers. While Scott questions the woman, Jean does her part by listening in.
"We believe that someone may have been watching your brothers house," Scott starts to explain. "Specifically when your brother has been watching your son. We...well, we were concerned to say the least." His voice is concerned, but only half as concerned as his deep-set frown. "We tried to see who Lucas' father was, but he didn't show up on the birth certificate."
Ms. Bishop frowns deeply at the news, shaking her head. "Couldn't be Bishop's daddy, he's gone," she says, looking down at the boy. "Long gone." She pauses before moving aside. "Come on inside, so you don't have to stand out there in the hall."
Scott nods his head and bows slightly before heading through the doorway.
Giving Ms. Bishop a polite nod, Jean follows Scott into the apartment. Once inside, she pauses to take stock of the place, and measure it up to the standards of her brother's apartment.
The apartment is relatively clean, especially compared to the rather run-down apartment that Jacob Bishop was living in. The ceiling has signs of a leak, but there is no condensation on the floor. The air is thick with the smell of hair and nail salon products. A window on the far side of the room looks out upon the street to the North.
Scott nods his head towards Ms. Bishop as he starts to explain the fake-situation. "It may be nothing, but we've just been investigating a case, and your brother came up during the process. We did some general servellance around his apartment building, and found a young man commonly showing up." He pulls the picture of the mystery gunman, adult Lucas, out of his pocket, showing it to the mother. "I was just curious, do you know this man? Is he Lucas' father?"
Ms. Bishop looks concerned as she investigates the picture, eventually shaking her head. "Never seen him before," she says, before snorting slightly. "Kinda looks like Jake, but he was also scrawnier than that. It ain't Lucas' daddy, if that's what you're implying."
Hmmm. Jean glances over at Scott, her brows arching. Nothing the woman is saying is setting off her lie detector. So, it might -- just might -- be that baby Lucas /is/ their suspect. «You know, with all these future-slash-alternate-dimension people popping up, Future Lucas could be one of them.»
«Entirely possible,» Scott concurs. «Maybe talk to Nathan about it.» See? He can be friendly. Still, he offers a slight smile to Ms. Bishop as he nods his head. "Thank you very much, you've been very helpful. If we have any more questions, we'll be calling," he says, before flancing towards Jean. "You have any questions, Detective Dayspring?" he asks. Which might be heard if not for a particularly strong sense Jean has that a piece of her pscyhe has been clicked back into place. She can suddenly fully remember the mystery gunman. And he's very, very nearby.
Jean smiles at Ms. Bishop. "No, I believe th--" With the sudden memory-click, and her mental radar going off, Jean's demeanor instantly changes. On the alert, she reaches out, snatching up Scott's hand, just in case she needs to protect him with a shield. She casts her mind out, searching, to pin-point the exact location of their man. "He's here," she asides to Scott.
Scott blinks a few time at Jean's declaration, then furrows his brow. "You're sure?" he asks which is more rhetorical than anything. He starts to look around the room before looking back to Ms. Bishop. "Ma'am, is there anyone in this house besides you and the child?" Clearly scared and unsure what is happening, the woman shakes her head. Scott nods back and starts to open the few doors there are in the apartment.
Meanwhile, if Jean attempts to widen her search, she'll find that the body seems a bit too far to be in the apartment, and if she attempts to pin-point a location beyond that, her senses seem to tell he's coming from the hallway.
«He's heading this way.» Jean offers Ms. Bishop a reassuring smile. "It'll be fine, Ms. Bishop." Then, to Scott. «I don't know; would this cause some sort of time paradox, if he /is/ Lucas? What do you want to do?» He is the leader, after all, even if the present team is just the two of them.
«Honestly don't know, and doubt she does either.» Scott offers a grin to Ms. Bishop as well before nodding his head. «Not sure if he'll recognize me or not from before, going to test it, stay here and keep the mother calm.» With that Scott steps out, taking a few steps forward. Sure enough, there is Lucas Bishop, walking down the hall. He seems to be otherwise mentlaly occupied, before finally catching a glimpse of Scott.
And stopping in his tracks.
And then turning around and jetting the other way, fast. «He's on the move, I'm chasing after him,» Scott informs Jean before he breaks into a sprint himself down the hallway.
«I'm tracking him,» Jean informs Scott. And she is, and can, until he reaches the edge of her reach -- which these days, is quite considerable. «As long as he doesn't do the disappearing act again...» She casts a glance at Ms. Bishop, just to make sure she's not freaking out. While tracking the other Bishop, she continues to exude an aura of peace and calm.
«He's fast,» Scott has to admit, though he certainly is no slouch so he starts to gain some ground, pushing his way past the other people in the hallway. Once he's outside though, it becomes harder to stay close to the target, running through people slowing Scott down while the target seems to be getting away. «He's heading north, starting to lose him, you got a bead on him?» he asks telepathically. Ms. Bishop is calm, though she starts to look suspicious. "You two...aren't really here about my son are you?"
Now /that/ is a tricky question to answer. "To be honest, Ms. Bishop, I'm just not entirely sure right now, but I think we are. Fire escape?" Without waiting for an answer, Jean moves towards the appropriate window. Pushing the window open, she steps out onto the tiny metal structure. "Thank you for your time, Ms. Bishop," she calls over her shoulder, before she leaps off of the fire escape.
Using her telekinesis to lift herself into the air, Jean quickly soars high enough to track the fleeing mutant both visually and telepathically. «I see him,» she informs Scott. «Keep heading north.»
«Trying my best, might get a clear shot at him soon,» Scott says as he continues to brush aside people. The general crowd thins out up ahead of him for a small pocket at a street corner, and if he can get out and near him, he may be able to push him down. The window is short, but he finally gets free of the throng, flipping glasses long enough to get a short but not punishing blast which knocks the target off of his feet. «Got him!»
Running up the downed body, he crouches down. The mystery man, for what its worth, squirms a bit. "Okay buddy, I got some questions for you, starting with-" Scott starts, before he is starts flyig through the air. The man rolls onto his back and puts his fists up into Scott's chest, pushing out some sort of energy field that indeed sends Scott careening upwards and backwards, slamming into the windshield of a car about 30 feet back. He's not moving for the moment, but his glasses thankfully landed over his eyes at least. The spectacle is quite clear from the perch that Jean has, though she will have to drown out the screams of the woman who assumes she just witnessed a suicide.
«SCOTT!!» The woman's screams mean nothing to Jean -- not when Scott could be seriously injured, or worse. It takes only moments for the air-borne redhead to land in front of car that Scott is sprawled on. A quick mental check assures her that he's still alive, and so her attention is focused on the man who threw him. The air around Jean seems to shimmer and flames lick at the corners of her eyes and off of her hair. "Bishop!"
«Ow...» Scott thinks as he slowly to starts to move, rolling off of the car and holding his ribs. He winces slightly, and any telepath (or someone with eyes) can tell his ribs are hurting him pretty bad right now. «Good job, though watch out, he's packs a punch.»
For his part, Bishop is still getting up as well. He glances up at the flaming woman (who's causing several people to scatter like mad and at least one car accident), and cracks a small grin. "Dr. Grey," he says. "I guess the last time we met, I left an impression." He looks a bit holder, stronger than before, though that M-tattoo is still there as he glares up with a soft grin on his face. "Guess this is the part you take me in, grill me, try t figure out all my secrets?"
«He won't touch me,» Jean promises Scott, her mental 'voice' like steel. "This is the part where you come with us and answer our questions," she replies to Bishop, out loud. "Come with us peacefully. There's no need to put these good people into further danger."
«He won't have to, with blasty hands,» Scott jokes, but point is taken. The initial panic of the moment is starting to cool down as Scott makes his way around to tell people that despite all apperances there's nothing to see here.
"So sure about that?" he asks, rolling up his sleeve to reveal some sort of mechanical device, as he begins to punch in a few numbers into the 12-key pad before the area around him starts to shimmer slightly. "I'd stay back, Dr. Grey. Unless you want to go on a real nasty field trip," he warns, smiling wider as he starts to back away himself. Jean starts to feel some of that memory-fading effect again, only more as if her brain is trying to correct itself but another section won't let it.
"Yes," Jean replies to Bishop, with a small smile that isn't very nice at all. As soon as he begins to type in numbers and shimmer, she lashes out with a mental bolt. Normally, she'd start small and work her way up to dropping someone cold, but not today. Time does not allow for it. Today, she goes straight for the KO and the fiery aura around her flares for just a second. "I'm very sure."
Bishop, nearing the end of his sequence, stiffens up and falls over, clearly incapacitated for a while. Scott, once calming the crowd down some, hobbles over towards Jean. "Good work team," he jokes, offering his hand for a high-five. Hugs right now would be a bad thing. "Any idea what that device is?" Scott asks, gesturing towards the contraption on his arm.
Jean resists the urge to throw her arms around Scott and squeeze him. Instead, she settles for the high-five. "I don't know," she replies, moving over to Bishop's prone form and kneeling down to inspect the device, to see if it can be removed. "I'm not really thrilled with the idea of letting him keep it."
The device is clasped tightly around his wrist, though clearly release clamps are available along the edge. It looks similar to devices that Cable has used for his various madcap adventures in the past, though all future tech starts you lump together at some point. The only other item of interest is a small screen that read: BISHOP, LUCAS, SET TO RETURN TO 2048 IN 11:50:20," and slowly counting down.
SCott remains where he is, looking around the area for anyone who might be getting too curious. "We probably can assume he's a mutant," he says, rubbing his sore chest. "Or something similar. Never exactly knew what being blasted felt like. Gotta admit...not a fan."
"Huh, look at this," Jean draws Scott's attention to the screen. "We should get him back to the house." She reaches for the device to remove, but hesitates a moment, considering the implications of what may happen if Bishop doesn't return to 2038 in roughly twelve hours. Well... she can always give it back to him before then. "I hope I don't mess anything up by doing this, but..." With a slight wince, she activates the release clamps and removes the device.
The body of Bishop jolts slightly as the device is removed. The screen remains active, though the countdown clock stops. Scott grows closer, reading the screen and frowning slightly. "Well at least we know who he is and where he's from, or I guess, when. Now onto big question number three: why is here?" he asks, before he goes to task of lifting the body, draping one arm over his shoulder, looking like he's carrying a friend who's had too much to drink.
Jean telekinetically takes the weight of Bishop, to spare Scott further pain and injury. "We'll have to wait until he's conscious again to have that answered." Jean tucks the odd device into her pocket, with some trepidation. Hopefully, it will remain inactive and not whisk her off to some future time.
"Absolutely," Scott agrees as he nods his head a bit, relieved by Jean's silent assistance, though he still make it look like he's carrying the body as he treks back towards the car. "Besides, I've been meaning to test out the new holding cells." He eyes as Jean safely stuffs the device into her pocket. "Should maybe have Nathan take a peek at that, see what he can see."
"Agreed." Jean fishes the keys to the car out of Scott's pocket. "I'll drive -- you put the seat back and rest until we get home and I can take a look at your ribs." When they get to the car, she'll see to it that Bishop is stuffed in the backseat. Mostly gently. She's still mad at him.
Scott helps with the Bishop-stuffing, though he's no more kind than Jean, before he travels around and takes the seat next to him. "If you insist," he faux-sighs dramatically before sending a mental wink and getting comfortable in the backseat. "And really, Doctor, if you wanted to get me with my shirt off, all you have to do is ask." An old favorite of Scott's, but he still grins proudly as the first day he said it.