|
   |
Sam Guthrie's customarily bare room is, for once, surprisingly messy. There are trays and baskets of food around, for one thing; visitors aware of the young man's prodigious appetite have made a habit of bringing snacks. But the main source of disorder is a spread of brightly colored tennis balls across the floor. Someone took note of Sam's frustration with physical confinement, and brought up several tubes of tennis balls that he could throw and catch. He is, at this very moment, bouncing a ball off the floor, then the wall, then snagging it out of the air as it returns. The problem arises when he misses a catch: the ball banks off of the heel of his palm, caroms across the room, and lands on the floor. Rather than drag his sluggish body out of bed to retrieve it, the southerner simply sighs and opens the next tube.
*
Jubilee isn't clear on the details but she heard Sam got himself into trouble. So she's decided to be nice. Having made her own breakfast, she made extra today. And so, she wheels a cart into his room. On it are two trays, each holding a bowl of cereal, a glass of orange juice, and utensils. On the lower shelf of the tray is a cooler.
*
The institute's regular residents must know all about Sam's impatience and the source of the thumping ricochet. There may even be a rhythm established: the boreder he is, the harder the thumps. A quick canvass of the younger students gives Scarlett a fine idea of what that infernal racket is, especially for someone who has ceased staying overnight very often, ever since Moira went and suggested perhaps the older students need a certain form of education. Apparently this was one insult too many. Or, the gossip goes, she sleeps in the cloud tops. It explains certainly why she wears a coat in the height of summer, though to be fair, it's a motorcycle jacket. Over her shoulder she lugs a cotton bag from some of New York's more interesting quarters. A Reuben sandwich is shoved in there atop a few magazines, and whatnot. She trudges after Jubilee. "Between your coats and that poor grass, I'm starting to think there is a curse on this place. It must come from the dimension of lost socks."
*
Scuttlebutt is certainly right about one thing: Sam did get himself into trouble — although he didn't mess up the lawn, this time! (Magneto did.) He looks up and smiles as Jubilee and Rogue enter, distracted enough to miss another catch. The ball goes flying. "Aw, dang — heads up!" he blurts out, a second too late to be much use as a warning. At least this ends the repetitive, irritating thumping noise he was making.
"What brings y'all up to my little corner of purgatory?" he asks the ladies sheepishly, shifting in bed to sit up a little higher. He's in buttoned plaid pajamas, hair mussed by too much time in bed. "Watch your footin', Ah ain't really been watchin' where the balls land."
*
Jubilee looks back at Scarlett in time to get hit in the back of the head with a tennis ball, which makes her sigh. "Maybe, maybe," she laughs. "I've had one destroyed by a robot and one shot at. At least I should be able to get the bullethole fixed without buying yet another new one." Then she rolls the cart up to Sam, and carefully prepares the tray. "I brought you some food Sit up and put the balls away."
*
"Buttering you up and pumping you for information. It works better than the Holmes method," Scarlett announces herself. She tips around a corner and flashes a smile, brief but warm, to the occupants of that benighted room. "At this point I was prepared to break you out and carry you down to the stables for a proper ride. It might help to be among friends." The bag slung off her shoulder she lays down at the foot of the bed, barring any sort of open table. Navigating around balls comes easy to her, and she flinches away before the ball can strike her on the rebound from Jubilee. That does mean she looks like she's dancing at a club with no one else in the room, a rather sorry state of affairs. "Now Jubilee, you will bring the wrath of the gods upon you. Watch as your coat becomes assailed by vindictive spoons." Dramatic the bohemian can be when she wishes, and she feigns a swoon of terror, uttering a breathy sigh. "Had I not needed to study, I would have asked you more about what's out there in the ground. I also had a thought about its…. nature, if you will. Jubilee, have you heard anything?"
*
"Aw, Ah am sorry, Jubilation," the boy says, wincing as he sees the Asian girl getting winged by the misdirected ball. He obliges her request for a change in position as she brings over a tray. "Sure is kind of y'all to keep bringin' me things to eat. Ah do miss the kitchen." His head lowers as he slumps forward in embarrassment. "Well, whatever's left of it since Ah came flyin' through the datgum window."
He glances wistfully through his window at the sunny day outside, reluctantly telling Rogue, "Ain't supposed to be runnin' around until Ah'm feelin' like myself again." He doesn't sound like he'd be all that difficult to convince to break this stricture, although he is at least mounting a pro forma defense of the sensible course of action. He flashes a smile and says, "Funny you should mention bein' attacked by spoons." He lifts the one Jubilee brought for the cereal, peering at it closely. "Ah guess they either got 'em out of the dirt and cleaned up real well, or bought more. What'd you want to know about the giant?"
While she poses her questions, he's going to dig in. No point being buttered up if you don't find the time to enjoy it.
*
Jubilee does carefully, slowly heft the tray over Sam's lap. She then finds a place to sit herself, and uses the cart as a table to sit up and eat herself. "Don't worry Sam," she laughs. "A tennis ball is the mildest thing I've had flying at me lately. What even happened to you? Did something throw you into the kitchen? I've been distracted and never quite got the story. Giant?"
*
No doubt the kitchen misses Sam, especially given their efforts are stockpiled from the lack of his ready appetite at arm's reach. Now the food has to go up the stairs, and good luck finding enough students for that throughout the day. Scarlett sighs and shakes her head, peering out the window just as he turns his head. "Fresh air helps do a body good, and no one said anything about riding like a demon. I wanted that, I would throw you on the back of my bike. Though this business of convalescing in bed may work very well for some maladies, I am skeptical whether it works for this case." Her smile holds all the weight of the sunshine behind it, though the perceptive might observe a kindling of something else dragging down the usual fires of her native. It might well be an ounce of sorrow, shaded however by whatever.
"As a start, everything. Assume we never heard anything about it. How did you end up being chased out of the woods by that thing, why didn't you or Jean have any effect? Did Mr. Lensherr? It may be best to tell the tale, as Jubilee has just proven she doesn't know hide or hair of the monster buried in the back garden."
*
To answer the questions, Guthrie reluctantly sets his spoon down. "Well, actually, it was Jean threw me through the kitchen window," Sam admits, rolling one shoulder at the memory of the impact. "But she was helpin' — honest." A dimple forms between his eyebrows, then he takes Rogue's advice and starts from the beginning: "We found a great big rock monster in a creepy old cave on the grounds. Ah tried to fight him off with my powers, but after a second, he pulled all that energy right out of me, and it just made him stronger." The boy shudders, then continues after a beat, "Ah was faint from it — nearly drained dry. Jean had to pull me along usin' her own powers. They didn't work no better on the stone giant than mine did, but it didn't take it out of her as bad as it did me. She was tryin' to get me back to the school when I went through the window. She meant well, just overshot a little."
*
Jubilee holds her spoon up and pauses when these details come out. She then lifts her juice to swallow some, so she can properly gasp. "Absorbing our powers. You know. On on hand that sounds dangerous. On the other hand, I wonder if it could cure people with mutations they dislike."
*
"How did that end with every fork and spoon from here to Maine embedded in the lawn, and that thing buried in the ground?" When it comes to stories, the peacenik with her hair strung with little twists of rainbow hued cotton to secure her thin plaits knows a thing or two about how the order is supposed to go. A sharp look flies from those verdant eyes, a shade too bright to be anything but surreal, stabs into Jubilee and the line of her jaw tightens, though she suppresses a verbal reaction. Scarlett inadvertently stares at her hands, and then back to Sam.
*
Sam makes a pained face at Jubilee's suggestion. "It ain't quite like that, Jubilation," he says. "The thing didn't take our powers away so much as just drink up the energy from 'em. For me, it was like having my soul sucked out. Ah could barely even move afterward and everythin' hurt like the dickens. But Mr. Logan didn't lose his claws. Ah don't think the monster could, say, take the blue off that German fella we met in the city."
Glancing over at Rogue, he continues, "Well, Mr. Lensherr came out and attacked it with just about everythin' metal in the school. Then Ah think he did … somethin' to the ground, made it swallow the giant up whole. Can't honestly say Ah understood what was happenin' at that point, but it was pretty scary."
*
Jubilee frowns a moment. "Thought I could find something positive from it, sorry to hear it hurt." She then pauses a bit to eat some more. She is hungry after all. "Erik seems nice. Didn't realize he was quite that powerful though. Wow. Good thing he was there."
*
All this information lines up against a grim sickle smile that has no business resting upon so fair and youthful a face, but it all the same lingers for long moments. "An energy battery, possibly? Do you suppose those powers it absorbs are simply stored, or is it using the energy as fuel?" Scarlett asks, and she reaches into the zipped pockets of that lovingly oiled and maintained motorcycle jacket. Fingers wiggle into the left shell, tugged hard up past the wrist to secure a good fit. The process repeated with the right takes precious little time at all. "Do you know whether Mr. Lensherr lost any of his energy that way, or was there no draw if he did not directly target the giant? You were saying the other night you thought it might be a nephilim, and I did a bit of further reading on that. Unfortunately most of the details on them are a bit muddled, and getting through the dense philosophical writings they had at Columbia from Hebrew and Eastern European thinkers took me most of the weekend. Though I did scrounge up a bit of information. Oh, you should know that sandwich is best eaten hot and the rabbis I bargained with required me to get it from a kosher deli. In case it matters, it's authentic."
A beat follows. "The sandwich, that is," she adds, breathing out a sigh. Next comes buckling. "I have a terrible idea. Who feels adventurous? One has to wonder if that thing can be overloaded, but I want to know more about the cave. Maybe something valuable could be in there. Jubilee, you feel like bring a light and adding some dirt to your trenchcoat? That's the terrible idea. The even worse idea is what happens when it meets me. It steals energy. I steal everything in the same way. I wonder if it would simply cancel one or another out. Also, Sam, I can confirm whether your powers are gone or borrowed." The bohemian's copper brows furrow at the notion of even speaking it. "I am sure there are better ways to confirm that, but if I explode, then you know you're on the mend."
*
"Ah wish there were a good thing to be said about it, Jubi. If it was a Nephilim" — Sam says the word with a slight air of embarrassment, as though such things are a lot harder to believe by the light of day — "there's a good reason the Lord didn't let such creatures in the Garden. And you sure ain't kiddin' — if Mr. Lensherr hadn't buried it, Ah don't know what we could've done to fight it off."
He looks a bit antsy, then says to Rogue, "My blastin' definitely made it stronger. Same with Jean tryin' to push it. When we first saw it, it was dim and barely able to move. Then our powers sort of went into it and made the fire inside it burn brighter, and it got faster and seemed a lot more alive. As for Mr. Lensherr, the giant said it was his powers woke it up in the first place. But it didn't seem to enjoy havin' all them knives thrown at it, so who can say for sure?"
He shrugs his shoulders tightly against the pillow and crosses his arms, avoiding eye contact for several seconds, then continues: "If you say you can really pull my energy into you, the way it did, Ah'd much rather you didn't, Miss." He finally does glance at her, eyebrows peaking at the center of his freckled face. "Ah know you'd only offer out of kindness, but it sure did hurt, and Ah'm only now on the mend." He glances out the window, saying in an uncertain tone, "If we were to go back to the cave, now would be the time. Ah can't say Ah'd ever concede to goin' back without daylight at my back."
*
Jubilee swallows and turns to face Scarlett. "I do hope you mean going into the cave, and no going to visit the giant. I'm not doing that. I really don't feel like being all drained and sick. But going to the cave sounds much less dangerous and maybe even helpful. I'll do that." Pausing again to eat a few more bites. "And one nice thing is that I always have a light with me."
*
"It doesn't hurt." That ghostly smile holds volumes, as if an angel flipped a page and spoke the first invocation of Ragnarok or another doomsday will one day strike some part of the globe, and there's not a damn jot she can do about it. "I wonder how he awoke it in the first place. Though I find it interesting the absorption seemed to fuel it more. Very well, this sounds particularly concerning. A basic strategy might be wise, don't you think?" Scarlett inclines her head forward, her dark braids snapping and slithering around her shoulders, gathering in her lap. "Attacking things around it rather than directly attacking it seems not to cause the energy transferrence. That might be used to our advantage if we encounter it. Causing a rockfall or throwing a branch at it instead of shooting it directly, for example. Though if it happens to be studying thoughtfully in its cave like a demented Degas statue, we might simply want to run. I'll take backup on that front, since we have no good idea of what it will do to me. I might be able to get out." Calm as she says that, she zips up the motorcycle jacket halfway and steps back. "I mean going into the cave. Not seeing the giant, but for all I know it can -swim- through the ground. Let's see if we can find anything useful down there. Maybe there will be a great long illustrated scroll with instructions on how to shut off the battery. Or blow it up."
*
Jubilee quickly finishes her food since it sounds like this is an important thing to worry about. Downing the cereal, then she washes it down quickly with juice. "Well if it comes to fighting the thing, then I'm not really going to have much to do to help with that, since all I could do is fire stuff at it. Sounds like that wouldn't ever help. But lighting up a cave I can do, no problem. Let me wash up these dishes and meet you out back. And if the giant is there, I'm running."
*
Does this girl ever eat? Yes. Rarely in front of others, as it happens. Scarlett says, "Can you fire at other things? Like the branches or the roof? I figure that might be something you could do without risking yourself. This is more a fact finding mission, not 'let's go out and be Mr. Logan,' which is something only Mr. Logan is particularly good at." Her head shaken, she hides her gloved hands in her pockets. "I don't wish to fight if I don't have to, and we have Sam here to worry about."
*
Setting aside the now-empty cereal bowl, Sam slides out from under the covers, wincing only slightly as he turns to set his bare feet on the wooden floor. He stoops and snags the Reuben — never will anyone find the bottom of his appetite — then shuffles toward his closet, tennis balls rolling aside as he bumps them with his feet. "Ah can be down in a few minutes," he says, taking small steps and deep breaths but keeping a brave face on. "But y'all're gonna have to give me a bit of privacy to change."
*
Jubilee laughs. "Of course, Sam, of course." She gathers everything up back onto the cart to wheel it out and back where she got it from. "I'll be down as soon as I can." So, maybe 10 minutes later she's out back behind the building, with her jacket on, looking for the others.
*
Magazines, reuben sandwich and other smuggled sundries left where they are, the bohemian redhead slips right out with Jubilee. She happens to be ready from the get-go, so when they finally show up, she's on the lawn in an inverted bend, one leg vertical to the sky, the other supporting her as she hugs her calf with her arm. The split is not exactly for the faint of heart, but she holds it all the same. Yoga, as far as anyone is concerned, is probably 'Scarlett's unique form of torturing herself.'
*
Predictably, Sam arrives last. He's dressed in jeans, white T-shirt, and Chuck Taylors, freckles standing out starkly in his unusually pale skin. One hand is stuffed in his hip pocket, the other holds the partially-wrapped stub of the sandwich. He wouldn't pretend to know what a rabbi does to make a sandwich kosher, but he wouldn't be fool enough to argue with the results, either. He glances out at the woodlands between the trio and the cave, leans toward Rogue, and mumbles, "You're gonna have to carry me. Ah won't make it that far — not today." He gives her an apologetic look and shrugs, offering, "Ah can direct you to the cave pretty easily, at least." While he waits for her response, he finishes off the last of the sandwich in a few greedy bites, crumples up the paper wrapper, and stuffs it into his other pocket. Sam has a lot of irritating habits from his sheltered upbringing, but disrespecting the wilderness by dropping trash in it is mercifully not one of them.
*
Jubilee has her own tricks. Coming up to Scarlett, she laughs "I could do that. However in this dress I probably shouldn't." Fortunately for Sam she got that joke out before he arrives to her wave. "I don't think I could carry you, but I can give us a light once we get in there at least."
*
Nothing like Russian dressing to make that sandwich absolutely magnificent. Marbled rye has its own blessing, and the slab of corned beef prepared to fall apart tenderness well worth every last bite. How can a growing boy resist melted Swiss cheese clinging to the gooey bread maw? Answer, can't. Statistically impossible.
Scarlett breaks posture by doing a modified cartwheel, tipping back over until both her feet hit the ground and she lands in an awkward crab posture, ready to scuttle in reverse as fast as she can from some danger poking its head from the bushes. Alas, that rustling is just an alarmed squirrel running away with a bit of forgotten lunch in his mouth. "I can carry you," she agrees, popping up. "Just keep your hands away from my face, or let me know if you plan to cover my eyes in sheer terror. Nothing fun about smashing a new hole up to the surface when blindfolded, I assure you." She flexes her shoulders and then smiles. "Wrap an arm around my waist and make the occasional effort to walk with me. Jubilee earns a faint smile out of her. "You get all the fun tricks. Let's mosey right along, shall we?"
*
Sam does as he's told, leaning heavily on Rogue for assistance. "Ain't in the habit of grabbin' ladies' faces by surprise," he says, his tone just a touch reproachful. "Ma taught me a bit better than that."
He hobbles along the best he can as the group progresses through the forest. It's often not hard to figure out where to go, as several trees have been demolished, and a number of gigantic footprints impressed upon the ground. Eventually, they get to a wrecked campsite along a burbling creek. Standing stones with grim faces circle the camp, staring inward with dead, hollow eyes. Sam stares back as they pass, obviously intimidated, but there's not a glimmer of life or movement from them. Their path will take them just a bit further into the woods, toward a small hillock by the lakeside.
*
Jubilee follows along. Seeing that Sam isn't actually beeing carried carred, so much as he's mostly leaning, she decides to help out by coming to the other side of sam taking his arm and draping it over her shoulders. Giving him that much more support. So, the three arrive together. "Well this is pretty creepy." she says softly, taking in the stones.
*
Sam got scruffed in the past by an irate Scarlett. The more amenable and friendly side of her actually makes supporting him entirely effortless. The loose curl of her arm around him might make them seem like an unlikely pair of Southern sweethearts, headed off to the woods with resident fireworks producer par excellence to get up to no good. The strength she calls on carries Sam like he weighs no more than a newborn kitten. Not even that much. Soon as they are into the brush cover, she plain lifts him up so it's entirely an act. A somewhat awkward hug might be made out of it until she balances him with Jubilee's aid, but certainly Sam doesn't slow her down. One might question what *would*, given how lithe of build she is.
All the same, she will step down into one of the footprints with the others in tow, peering to see whether anything noteworthy is left behind: dust, sand, melted rock, plastic, anything out of the ordinary. Someone has rudimentary forensics knowledge, and while she will never be a real law enforcement professional at current standards, she's actually not half bad. Then it's on to that ransacked campsite, and her mouth tightens. "Oh, this is just barbaric. Faces on the stone? We ought to have someone come out here and taking rubbings. Maybe Piotr? He's a decent artist." Her shoulders twitch back.
*
Sam smiles as Jubilee offers him another shoulder to lean on, and he isn't entirely surprised when Rogue simply lifts him off the ground. He has felt her unbelievable strength before. Too bad their entire journey can't be positive teamwork moments like that. "You should have seen 'em in the middle of the night," he answers quietly when the girls comment on the stone faces. "Appeared all around the camp when we weren't lookin'. Eyes were full of fire." He doesn't seem to want to dwell on it, but explaining what he saw seems to make him feel a tiny bit better. With a quick ducking nod, he indicates them and adds, "That's more or less what the giant's head looked like. Seemed he could bring all sorts of stone to life with the power he took from us."
Rogue's investigation won't reveal all that much, although the depth and angle of the footprints indicate that the creature was both very heavy and moving in a hurry. There are impressions of stone toes; a monster with feet of stone doesn't have to bother with shoes. Past the campsite, the prints vanish entirely into a huge crater in the ground. Sam says, "That's where it popped out and grabbed me. Had to use the last of my blastin' energy, with Jean pullin' as hard as she could, to get away."
Eventually, they arrive at a small, jagged cave mouth. Just before the entrance, there's a confusion of footprints, leading to a wide trough in the ground. This is where the giant exited the cave and waded into the Earth to pursue its quarry. It's frankly hard to tell whether that trough was also used as an exit after the giant's defeat.
*
Jubilee lets Scarlett do what she will with Sam. Again she's more flexible than strong. So she lets off when Sam is taken care of. Stepping carefully in her boots, she walks up to the cave mouth, and lifts a hand to her side, palm up. Completely unnecessary gesture, but it feels appropriate when she's going to keep a ball of glow in the air, hovering over her hand, lighting up the area around her.
*
Is a cavern the sort of place to inspire a great deal of trust? Who wants to gallivant down into the bowels of the earth where a stony clot passed out to chase the brave and mighty warriors of the Carolingian scholar king? Everyone might be forgiven for delaying, but the redheaded bohemian purses her lips as she takes in the detail. Her gaze in particular lies riveted to the trough, and she intends to bound over that with a single leap that goes light as a large step indeed. Then her gaze skims up to find the evidence and proof of any marks up there, anything passing for writing or humanoid augmentation to the rock. Oh, these archaeology classes are totally going to prove themselves useful. "You know, Sam, this is quite the place off the beaten path. How did you find it anyways?" The question is soft. Then she walks up behind Jubilee, since splitting the party is always a bad idea.
*
"Jean found it," Sam admits. "She said she dreamed somethin' strange and just ended up here. Ah heard her shoutin' and followed as fast as I could."
The cave mouth is quite natural and unadorned — unless anyone present considers general damage to the ground outside adornment. There's a path of pebbles leading inward, but past some large gaps in that, there are no further footprints: the solid rock doesn't have enough give to allow them. The cavern itself is large enough to walk in easily, though it curves enough past the entrance that Jubilee's orb of light is crucial to light their way. There is a steady dripping sound somewhere in the shadows: stalactites and stalagmites crowd their way, and anyone who cares to look above will see a good number of snoozing bats.
Some way inside, the tunnel opens into a quite large chamber. Sam's breath is nervous and ragged as he glances in, looking to a specific spot. There's no evidence of a giant, which seems to ease his nervousness a bit. There is, however, a tall, cleared-out space, artificially smooth and featuring a few carvings Rogue will no doubt be intrigued by.
*
Jubilee lets out a soft sigh, and brightens up the light a bit. The ball gets bigger, lifts a little higher from her hand, and in fact just lifts up to the center of the room, above their heads, to light up everything all around. Walking slowly, making sure she doesn't get separated from the others. "This is all so weird. How did it get here? Was someone planting a trap for the Institute?"
*
First up, carvings on the stalactites. Well, point zero is guarding Sam against being thrown or fall. "It may actually predate the institute. The stones outside are unnatural and not something you find in the Americas. There aren't any carved such figures this far north, and they might be transplanted from elsewhere or the evidence of an unknown culture. But the idea of stone monoliths with faces on them is… more of a Norse or Celtic cultural feature, I think." Scarlett rises off her toes if the carvings are not at eye level, and as she leaves the ground behind, supporting Mr. Guthrie becomes all the more important. But she doesn't cradle him like a wounded lamb, letting the man have a little dignity.
"Earth magic is possible. But if they are Nephilim, then we're looking to a few limited traditions to understand. They are supposed to make us seem like grasshoppers next to their power and might. Physical power, I think. One of the rabbis I spoke to said they were descended, possibly, from the line of a king named Seth. This helps not one bit except to say maybe this is very old and out of the Middle East."
*
Sam simply shrugs and mumbles a tired, "Ah don't know," in response to any questions directed at him. He's not much use as an investigator. Come to think of it, he wasn't much use as a fighter against this thing, either.
Rogue won't have much trouble deducing that the carvings here are at least a couple of centuries old; whatever this thing was, it was waiting here much longer than the Xavier Institute has been a going concern. There seems to be a good bit of iconography relating to the sun and mountains, and a number of images of a great stone person towering over humans, who seem to be stoking a great fire in its honor. There are even a few clear depictions of volcanoes, which is highly unexpected in this region. The final images are of the stone giant underground, separated from the human figures, and the fires quenched. The few bits of language are runelike, closer to what might be expected of ancient Europeans than Americans, although the language is definitely not one she can recognize.
*
Jubilee doesn't know what any of the language stuff is. She just stands in the open cavernous area, hands dropping to her hips, turning around and looking, while letting those who know more, do more investigation. "At least it seems like nothing's actually happening. But um… I don't know what any of this magic stuff is or what a Nephilim is."
*
"This is why I carry paper. Not nearly enough paper, but some paper, and that has to be sufficient, right?" Scarlett peers at the odd shapes, and now every man's cave girl with red hair and strategic hides fantasy could be a reality. She squints up at the volcanoes, rotating around as necessary to make sense of them, meaning Sam has the joy of seeing those carvings up close in detail too. "Are I reading this wrong, or are they doing some sort of campfire ritual that conjures or empowers big stone giants instead of roasting marshmallows? Hold on, I can bring both of you up if you want a better look." She doesn't make a point of touching one of the rune-like shapes. For all she knows, it might bring the roof down on all of them. Bad idea, all things considered.
"If we take some sketches of these, we can take the back to the Institute. I could bring my camera, and see what some of the students could make out of it. Though scribbling ought to be a start, you think?" asks the bohemian. She shouldn't be this excited, but she mildly is, the prospect of learning something different.
*
"When Adam and Eve lived in the Garden of Eden, the rest of the world was ruled by Nephilim — half-angel giants," Sam explains for Jubilee's benefit. Rogue seems to have read up on the topic enough that her talk about it earlier went over his head, even though he's the one who first associated the word with the creature he met. "This one said his name was Garokk and kept callin' himself the Sun on the Mountain. Least, Ah think that was it."
He might not have much strength in him, but Sam's invincible flying shtick has helped him get over any queasiness about heights some time ago. Rogue's aerobatics don't seem to trouble him. "Could be that," he answers the girl's speculation. "Back at the school, there was a blond girl Ah didn't know, shootin' fire at the giant, and he just drank it up. Maybe they're makin' him a fire to eat?"
*
Jubilee takes off her jacket and carefully folds it up. She then uses that as a place to sit, crossing her legs and taking a seat. Leaning back a bit, she continues to look around. "If you need it I can move the light someplace better, for your drawing. But alright, so that's what a Nephilim is supposed to be. I'm not really.. you know, caught up on all the Christian stuff."
*
"Sun like the burning ball of gas in the sky or son, like child of the mountain?" Nuances count for something! Scarlett slips down to put Sam gently down on the ground. "I need my hands free for this, so can I put you here for a moment? I should be lickety split about getting some of these scribbled out." As Jubilee doesn't want a lift, the redhead zips back up with the unfolded pages tucked into the inner pocket of her coat along with a few elastics, a pen, and an awful lot of string for a girl to be carrying around. Why she carries this string is not clear. Nonetheless, she rotates backwards and finds herself somewhere to anchor for scribbles. "Let's see if I have this. A stone man wakes up and comes running out. He absorbs power. He apparently got people here or somewhere lighting up a bonfire for him, and my guess is he really, really likes fire. Could animate him or make him feel good. It also seems like there are multiple other stone giants buried in a cave like a tomb, or wherever you cold store giants, because they have no fires. That is what I read of this. And… oh, that's just lovely. Who wants to bet fifty cents we're on top of that burial ground, and all it takes is one good fire through here to wake them up?" She finds the pencil she was looking for, and starts lightly scribbling over the text rather than the images.
Cue slight drain of colour from her face.
*
"It's okay," Sam says to Jubilee as Rogue sets him down next to the go-go girl. He probably thinks his tone is gallant. "There's room in the church for everyone. You ain't gotta be brought up with it to come to Jesus." Good thing that's a comment that is sure to reach a welcoming audience here.
"Ain't got a clue what kinda Sun he meant," he continues, looking up toward Rogue and returning to the topic at hand. "Ah guess that fire he was shootin' around made me think of the sun, though — the one in the sky. But he could've said Son Upon the Mountain." He considers her timeline of their encounter, and makes a couple of corrections: "Well, he sent Jean some dreams before we came across him at all. We found him here, and he was barely able to move, but then Ah blasted his arm off and he absorbed near enough everythin' Ah had in me. From then on he was fast enough to come runnin' out and chase us. He also put his broken parts back together."
He goes even paler himself when she describes the possibility of multiple giants running around. "Couldn't it just be the same giant in different pictures?" he asks. But the ring of stone faces around the campsite gives him pause.
*
Jubilee laughs softly at Sam's comment, looking over to him. She doesn't say anything, since clearly he means well and there's nothing offensive about it. She's just not all that interested. "If there was another giant in here wouldn't it already be awake because of my light? I mean, I can turn it off… but isn't it probably somewhere else then? Or just yeah, more pictures of the same one."
*
"It could be the same, I suppose. These ones… well, they're not the same size, so I suppose they could be people. But then maybe I have something of an oversensitive trigger regarding giants." Why this would be the case is beyond obvious answer, and Scarlett hovers just below the shape of the blocky figure set apart. She reaches out her paper, and starts applying the dulled nub of the number two pencil to catch the shape out of it. A few pages filled end up drifting down to the other two just in case they want to see for themselves. "He puts his broken parts back together? Oh, that's wonderful to hear. The house rebuilds itself when the wolf blows it down. Couldn't we have that for something useful, like cars or houses?"
An annoyed sound follows, and the girl in her jeans actually tips upside down to get some of the drawings sketched. She has nothing to brace against without putting her feet on the ceiling, and she'd rather not. It looks funny, no doubt. "I don't know what else the stones could be used for. Talking? I mean, they could be a bunch of talking heads around…" The bad start to a worse joke sounds odder resonating off of the cavern walls. "Do we have any idea of what he wants? This Garokk, did he ask for anything? For all we know he just cannot figure out where his fire people are, and he's a hero of the Iroquois Nation or something. I'm not sure light is the same as fire or magma. That pointy mountain looks like a volcano."
*
"Yeah," Sam agrees grimly, "Ah wasn't real happy to see it just buildin' itself back up out of pebbles, myself. But Ah got that arm off, before it could stop me — my guess is, it can't remake itself without usin' up some of that power it bled out of other people."
He looks up at Rogue with a grimace. "The giant was sayin' something about we should feed its fire, and if we wouldn't do it willingly it'd kill us. It didn't come off as reasonable as you might want to hope. If it's a hero, it's a real strange sort of hero."
He does glance up curiously at the mention of volcanos. "The giant seemed almost like a volcano. All made of rock, with fire inside that you could see in its eyes." He gives Jubilee a sidelong glance and tells her, "Trust me, if one of them giants were tryin' to use up your power, you'd feel it in a second. Not to mention, the light would go out."
*
Jubilee doesn't really have a trigger about giants. She missed this. Mostly due to having been out in the city that night. "Alright there's not one here then for sure. I'll keep the light going then. Sounds like we're learning a lot right now, which is good."
*
The bright lights created by Jubilee serve their purpose well, and let it not be thought that the redhead suspended mid-air is ungrateful. She tries to avoid bumping her head a few times until the pencil is unforgiveably whittled down to a nub and needs a sharpener. Then she sinks back down, right side up, until her boots touch ground. "This is surreal, it really is. We have all this information. What do we do with it?" Papers rustle in Scarlett's hand and she shoves the pencil through one of her braids like a savage. "Garokk. I suppose we can do some searching and see if anyone knows his name."
*
Jubilee looks up at Scarlett. "I don't know what to do with it. What I do when there's stuff I don't know about is, I just take it back to the Institute because there are lots of smart people there, and no matter what it is, there's usually someone there who knows something about it."
*
"I want to know who knows all about stone giants that live under the ground and reconstruction themselves like a jigsaw puzzle," Scarlett replies. "You know the most likely candidate for that probably will be the one who ends up with a torch and an offer they dare not refuse." Her dreamy nature is turbulent today, but she tucks away the pages. "Well, it could be worse."
*
Jubilee snickers. "There might not be anyone. But if there is anyone, then the Institute is the first place to look. But uh, if all you want is someone who will go deeper into the caves. Maybe I could do that. I'm not great at drawing though so I would need a camera or something to take with me."
*
"We could go right now. Nothing stopping us from braving the depths, though we should probably mark the walls in case they are labyrinthine. Last thing I want to do is figure out how we get out from down here, and if we have to call in backup, do we really want to be laughed at for forgetting that much?" Scarlett stretches out her feet in front of her. "We could get our cameras, and maybe some snacks just in case."
*
Jubilee tilts her head. "Well, if we want to be able to find our way back… do we have some sort of twine or something, so we can tie it outside, then loosen it as we go in? Long as we have someone outside to watch it to make sure it stays tied." At that she looks to Sam. "That's something we could do."
*
"Twine like Perseus headed for the minotaur?" Approval shines in those electric green eyes, and Scarlett hugs her knees to her chest, suppressing one of those bright smiles. "I think that sounds like a fine idea. We could throw together something like that, and then see where it goes. It wouldn't take but a few minutes to cobble that together. What do you say?"
*
"Ah don't know about y'all, but Ah ain't in any state for explorin' no labyrinths," Sam says, leaning back against a stalagmite. Judging by his color and his general demeanor, Rogue's guess that a bit of activity and a change of scenery might prove a tonic wasn't entirely amiss, but he's still fairly weak and unsteady on his feet. "Ah didn't mind showin' y'all the cave, but if we're goin' through the whole thing, Ah'll just slow y'all down." Glancing at the girls with his eyebrows tilted outward, he offers, "Ah could sit outside and hold onto that twine, if that might help. Safer than tyin' it to somethin' and hopin' it doesn't come loose."
*
Jubilee nods, standing up, taking her coat, and wrapping it loosely around herself. "It's settled then. If we have a string, we can use it. Otherwise w'el have to go back and plan it another time. So anyone got something we can use?"
*
Rogue opts to take point for watching Sam so Jubilee can run back for a camera, twine, and anything else she might want. It gives an excuse to make sure the green space is enjoyed in fresh air. However many minutes later, Scarlett is still sitting outside with Sam, pointing out a few things in the leaves. "And that's where I found a shoe. No story of how it got there. Just this shoe, placed like someone landed very gracefully on a branch, and jumped off barefoot. Strangest thing you could imagine, and that's Central Park for you. Weird."
*
Responding to Rogue's stories, Sam's laugh is a bit readier than it has been for the past couple of days. Still a bit tired, he takes a hold of the twine as the girls go to explore the caverns. The cave system isn't all that extensive, but there are plenty of nooks and crannies to go through; it takes them the better part of an hour to explore.
There aren't any more giants or carvings, but sharp eyes will spot a few signs of a human presence in the caves a couple hundred of years ago. There are the remains of simple weapons and tools —spearheads, flint — but almost certainly the prize of the expedition is a pile of round stones that turned out to be beads, and an absolutely enormous sharp tooth, similarly drilled through to be made into a pendant. Also notable: although some flint rocks were found among the old artifacts, there were absolutely no signs of fire pits. Whoever came here either didn't stay very long, wished to avoid building fires, or both.
*
Ooh! A giant tooth! Jubilee is totally going to have to wear that around her neck.