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Julie is standing by a rather nice mild custom '56 Nomad hotrod in cameo-locket two-tone, she's pocketing a screwdriver now, holding up a tranquilizer dart in one handwith a bit of a quizzical look. "Think we better tell someone about this, Cass, where'd it happen?"
Cassandra Wu-San is standin next to Julie, her hoodie thoroughly perforated but still generally functional. She stares without really comprehending at the underworkings of Julie's car as she replies in curt fashion,"Town China. Was…stuff, doing. Attacked." She blinks as she fails in word organization, feeling it more than being certain of it. She sniffs then, a modesty reaction as she looks around to see if anyone caught it.
Lorna came out from inside, a sulking demeanor slouching her shoulders as she sighed and wandered around. She'd finished her textbook reading that her father had assigned for her (on top of her usual school work) and now was left a morose mess. Julian, her first and so far only, some what serious boyfriend had stopped returning her calls. Leaving a broken hearted magnokinetic wandering the school grounds. It had taken a night out with Illyana for the realization to sink in, and when it had the green haired mutant had allowed her nephew to get her sloshed.
Which led to her first hangover. Ever.
It had just relented and as a result, this late in the afternoon, she finally left her room. A sandwich in hand she wandered around listlessly outside. As she came upon Cassandra and Julie she blinked, peering over the car. "What happened in China town?"
Julie nods to Lorna, holding up the dart. "Sounds like it, I guess, looks like someone was trying to knock her out for some reason. A lot of times, by the look of her jumper." She adds to Cass, "You could find out what all that stuff is, if you show up for my little shop classes," she adds, though. It's hard for her not to mention that. (The Nomad's engine, oddly, has 'Corvette' embossed prominently on the valve covers. ) Looks back to Lorna, "Haven't heard any more than that, yet."
It's about then that a swirl of mist familiar to at least some of those present appears a few yards away from Julie's car, and the solid form of Sophie is revealed as it clears. She's dressed in a simple-but-chic blouse and skirt outfit (OOC: as desced) and is smiling and looking relaxed. That smile, however, quickly fades as she sees the dart Julie is holding, and overhears the last of the conversation. Without taking time for pleasantries, she blurts out, "What — What happened? What is that?"
Lorna shrugged once, looking over Cassandra as she nibbled her hastily made turkey sandwhich. "Huh. Well. There's been a bunch of things going down in the city. I'm not all that broken hearted about being out here where it's actually pretty chill by comparison." She wasn't, the green haired girl had complained about how she'd felt couped up. How she felt that training was well and good, but stuff was happening out there and that she wanted in on it.
Never mind that said stuff had left her scared witless more than half a dozen times in the past..
"Glad you're okay Cassandra though. Really." She smiled weakly. "Do you need anything?" Not exactly sure what she'd get in response, but offering none the less.
Cassandra Wu-San looks to everyone showing up with raised brows. A look of surprise briefly colors her as she suddenly has a crowd. She'll calmly blurt,"Fight. Darts, in Tow…China Town." She catches herself that time, midstatement.
Cassandra looks to the newcomers in kind, offering a wave and smile to Sophie like its no big deal, even though her coat is almost swiss cheese. She herself appears to be utterly uninjured.
Julie ohs, "Hey, Sophie. Looks like one of those traquilizer darts like they'd capture mountain lions with. Tosses it in the air so it spins on its long axis. Spins rather quickly, as it happens. "Looks like custom work, if they aren't all made like this. Balance could be better."
Emma has left.
Looking from Cassandra — and a touch of her smile returning momentarily on hearing the formerly-alinguistic girl's progress — to Julie, and then to the spinning dart, Sophie frowns, a flash of anger in her eyes. "Who? Tell me what happened."
Cassandra Wu-San purses her lips at her friend's anger, Julie's encouragement sidetracked by this incident, then quirks them to the side as she concentrates for a moment. After a moment, she replies,"Hand. Attacked, many. Beat them, hid." She takes her time picking her words, not quite having the linguistic grasp for detail that she might like just yet. She glances down after a moment, brows raised as she regards the pavement.
Julie hrms. "Sounds like some kind of gang, maybe, 'Hand,' she speculates. Holds up the dart, "They attacked you? Did any of these hit?"
Stepping closer to Cassandra, Sophie offers the shorter girl a hug. "I am not angry with you, Cassandra. I am angry with anyone who would try to hurt you." Turning her head to look toward Julie, she adds, "We should show that to the Professor and see if he or anyone else on the staff recognizes it."
Cassandra Wu-San smiles at the hug, albeit meekly. She cants her head slightly with still knitted brows, then looks to Julie to reply,"No. Coat…" She removes her hood to demonstrate, wrapping it about her forearm in a whirl of motion leaving the lower portion trailing to stretch out. She grips that with her other hand, holding it before her. An improvised cloth shield.
Julie nods to Sophie on that one, but smiles at the coat thing, "Hey, pretty cool, Cass." She thinks. "Anyway, maybe you better lay low here a while, and we'll have to be sure to tell the Professor, …I think those guys wanted you alive, and not for anything good they planned."
Getting the gist of what Cassandra is saying (and demonstrating), Sophie comments to her, "You're amazingly smart in a fight. That was brilliant." And nodding to what Julie said, she adds, "And yes, if they were using darts like that, they wanted to capture her, clearly." Turning back to Cassandra, she says, "I think Julie is right. You should stay here at the school and not go into the city, at least for a few days. And when you do go back, do not go alone."
Cassandra Wu-San wil nod with a somewhat disappointed cast. She understands their point, clearly. Cassandra will redon her coat to place her hands back in her pockets, then proceed to the school proper with a smile and wave to the duo.
Julie nods, then, closing the hood of the Chevy. Says, "Yeah, we'd better go tell someone about this, though, I don't know Cassandra's story, but I figure this thing means someone was planning ahead. Unless they're running around kidnapping lots of people all over the neighborhood, I guess."
Xavier arrives from Out <O>.
Xavier has arrived.
"I think that perhaps she has some history with this Hand group, but I do not know for certain," Sophie replies. "She is a frightfully skilled fighter. If I am right, I suspect that they may have had something to do with that."
Dizzy and Sophie have been standing by Diz' cameo-locket hotrodded Chevy, Diz having been doing some minor adjustment or maintenance or something, "Yeah, I'd started to get the impression she's really something else that way, and it sure looks like it to me." Just, as it so happens, the two are heading in to look for the Professor, or some other faculty. "Guess she's gonna need another coat, though, come to think of it."
And just then is when the Professor's Aston Martin drives up. Yes, it's a bit of an indulgence, but he does enjoy driving, though not as much as his students. As he pulls up next to the Chevy, he looks a bit surprised to see the students out here right now, killing the engine and getting out of the car. "Good evening Sophie, Julie… what's going on?" Sure, he could just find out, but where's the fun in that?
"Professor! We were just about to go looking for you!" Sophie looks both surprised and relieved by Prof. Xavier's arrival. "Cassandra was attacked, in the city, by the Hand. She is all right, she beat them and escaped, but…" She looks to Dizzy and says, "Show him?"
Julie smiles a bit as the twelve-cylinder engine pulls up, turning that way with a little smile, actually closing her eyes a few moments to listen, and perhaps use her special sense for any necessary diagnosis. But there's a serious matter to tell him about. She holds up the tranq dart, Says in that New York Italian way of hers, particularly with some hand-talk thrown in. "Well, Prof, Cassandra didn't give much detail, but she got in some kinda dustup in Chinatown, some kind of gang or something called the Hand. Kinda think they were trying to Cass-nap her. She ran them off, or, well, you know what I mean, but she got a lot of these shot at her. I guess she stopped those with her coat, so she had a sample to show us."
Dizzy pauses. "She didn't get tagged, by the way, but we said maybe she ought to lay low for a while, here, till she talks to you at least."
The Professor nods, "Yes, I think it's best that she's grounded, for her own safety, until we get to the bottom of this." He frowns and looks curiously at the dart, "We need to get those to Doctor McCoy right away, and see if he can perform an analysis. The Hand… I heard a few things about them from my time in Korea, but nothing solid. I shall have to see what is known about them." Translation: Talk to the resident Canadian Samurai to see what /he/ knows.
"Cassandra is inside," Sophie says, gesturing toward the mansion. "Sleeping already, I would wager. But I believe she understood when both Dizzy and I recommended she not leave the school for a few days, at least, and that when she does go out again, she should not go alone."
Julie nods to Xavier. "I'll drop in on the Teach right off, no idea what's in the thing, but it looks like they come from a small shop or something like." Pauses. "You was in Korea?" This seems surprising to her, perhaps. "My Uncle Angelo was there." In fact, it's why she knows about helicopters.
The Professor smiles slightly, "I was, yes. In point of fact, I was drafted. Not an officer or anything like that, but I did serve over there. It was… an experience I would not care to repeat. Though fighting in the war made me more dedicated to the idea of acceptance for all of us, regardless of our differences."
Sophie nods. "My parents have said similar things, after what they witnessed in France during that war," she says, her voice and expression a bit subdued. "'Too many people find it far too easy to forget their own humanity, or to disregard that of others.'" The Professor, at least, will recognize that as a quote from the text of the book of her father's war photos that Sophie's parents wrote together after the war.
Julie nods, there. "Guess it'd be better if the Commies felt the same that way, I guess. But maybe some day, right?" She nods to Sophie, there. "My Uncle Angelo was there, too, with my Papa, only he, ah, didn't come back," she says. She looks a bit sad there, about a father she never met, not to mention not haing great feelings for Nazis, either.
The Professor gives Julie a sympathetic look, "A lot of fathers died there. I'm sorry Julie." And he means it, too, and picks up the stray thought as he follows with, "Though, I waited on fighting Nazis until after the Korean War. Went a little backwards that way. But that's how Erik and I met."
"I did not know," Sophie says to Julie, her eyes sad, her voice full of sincere compassion. "I am sorry as well. The world lost far too many heroes in that war."
Julie nods, to Sophie. There's a slight whrring sound in her pocket, and she reaches in there to take out a polished clutch bearing that seems to be spinning inside on its ball bearings, "Err, well, the world lost a lot of everyone over there. Adds about the spinning thing, as she lets her favorite mutant-power-fidget toy spin down on its own. "Sorry bout that." She does seem a bit more impressed there about the Professor and the past. She mutters something darkly-approving in Italian, clearly, something to the effect of 'hope someone got the bastards.' Caught, specifically.
The Professor nods, "Oh, we did. Well, their leader got away. I suppose technically they were HYDRA, not Nazis… but really, there's not much difference between them. And don't let them tell you otherwise." He chuckles, "That was when Erik and I found out about our mutant abilities. Shortly after that, I came back here and founded the school." Wow, the Institute history in a nutshell.
"My parents set an example for me," Sophie says to Julie, since what she's saying is something the Professor already very well knows. "That is why I am here. Not just because I am a mutant, but to carry on in their names, for what is right." Youthful idealism powers, activate!
Julie nods to Sophie, there, her mood seeming to lighten pretty quickly. She's not one to dwell on dark moods, rather the opposite sort of personality. And then there's a tendency for her to start things spinning unconsciously, if she's not careful there. "Yeah, it's good stuff going on, here. Everyone in the world's different, our kind, sometimes a bit more than most, is all."
The Professor nods, "Exactly. We are greater because of our differences, not in spite of them." He smiles, "But, I'm going to go check on Cassandra. Don't stay up too late, you two, even if finals are over." With that, he goes into the mansion proper, actually whistling cheerfully. Wait. The Professor. Whistling. CHEERFULLY.
The World Will Be Ending Soon.