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The blessing of Brodgar: the nearest town is only a dozen kilometers away, and the road slipping around the future World Heritage site reasonably well maintained. Those inclined to trod away for a nip of whisky and a fresh shirt may do so, or spend a few hours rambling over the gently rolling hills in company of the Grey Sage. He provides a cuppa for anyone needing to warm themselves, the comforts of his nearby — two kilometers away — stone cottage turned out if anyone wishes it. They have a few hours, at any rate, as the bohemian redhead has a job to do.
Reporting to Blackagar on his lonely northern fastness. Scarlett, on her part, has a job to do and a promise to return in a few hours. Maybe Lockjaw's faster but he cannot detect if someone is setting off more earthquakes.
*
Crystal is waiting when the others return, relieved to find that no one has been murdered in the five minutes she was stranded here. Probably. Hopefully. Arms crossed over her chest, she takes a quick inventory before she confirms. "Is everyone all right? Or…as all right as we were before we got here, at least?"
*
Karnak hrms. "I will be fine." Okay, so she's taken advantage of her somewhat torn outfit, ripping away some more of the pants from below the knee, and thus using the fabric to tightly bandage her ankles. And well, there's the bites, scorch marks, and other remnants of the fight with the starsharks. Still, she stands up, looking much better… or else she's just putting it off until this is done where she can then sleep for a week.
*
The circuit takes the better part of three hours to run with a conversation in question, hitting accelerated speeds over the North Atlantic. Entering UK airspace means showing a little more concern lest they find Hawker Typhoons and worse chasing her back over northern Scotland and its lonely isles. Flight brings her scoring a path from the west, the better to avoid Kirkwall and the Scapa Flow where so many World War Two naval vessels lie in the depths. Scarlett will eventually touch down on the isthmus and wander closer, her braids melting back into pliability.
*
"What happened?" Crystal asks, pacing a few steps. "Did you find anything else before it sent you back here? Any hint of where we ought to look next?" She's restless, lacking a full understanding of everything they've just gone through, circling the globe largely without any control of their own.
*
Karnak considers the questions, "No… though, it appears that the devices are controlled by, and channel, sonic energy. Much as what Blackagar produces. We should be able to use this technology to help him, I think. Though I am not an engineer."
*
Ianos is off seeing to Kamala and Nexus, notably by providing one with tea and the other with a block to sit on that surely entitles him to patiently link up to a network more advanced than the rather paltry electrical grid this far north and offshore. Still, sandwiches and a brown betty teapot for any who hunger.
Scarlett is not prone to feast at such a time, and the snow on her boots she knocks away. It's high summer here and Orkney remains in the light late, late into the evening. Not close enough to the Arctic Circle for the midnight sun, the fact dusk doesn't even show up until eleven PM or later favours a conversation at their convenience. As it would stand. She looks a tad windblown and weary, though a radiant smile touches her mouth that wasn't there fighting star-sharks on 'Avaiki or any other point of the last few hours together. "All's well?" A first question before anything else traipses off her tongue. "He asked that you come to him for a meeting. All of you. Which includes Maximus."
*
"That's…promising," Crystal sighs, dropping her arms to her side and shaking her hands out, trying to relax at least a little bit. Which goes right out the window when Scarlett returns. "He actually wants to see Maximus?" she asks, quirking a brow. "Are you sure?"
*
Karnak hrms, "This is not… unexpected." She glances over at Crystal, "When I spoke to him, before beginning this journey, there was an indication that this would be the case."
*
"I'd be a terrible herald did I not repeat the message given to me with absolute clarity. His control is fading the longer the strain wears on him." Those immense auroral green eyes lift off the standing stones arranged in their jagged circle to the horizon, forcing Scarlett to turn several degrees off. "I can help a little, but my methods may be temporary at best. The cartographers might notice next summer part of the glacial cap on Nordauslandet is missing. Perhaps best explained away as calving icebergs, rather than vaporized." Her lips press together. "I dislike Maximus' involvement as much as you do, Crystal, knowing enough. But they're brothers and regardless, he loves Maximus. And for all I know, his brother has held a key all along. But if this fails, he's told me to take him to the stars as the next step."
*
"I don't dislike it, I just…" Crystal grimaces. "It's probably for the best," she sighs after a moment. "At least if he's with us visiting Blackagar then he's not causing trouble somewhere else. That's progress." Concern crosses her features as Scarlett offers more explanation. "It's gotten that bad? Why wouldn't he have come to us? Any of us?"
*
Karnak snorts a bit, "I do dislike it, tremendously, but it is Blackagar's will, so it shall be." She glances over at Crystal, "And I believe he wished to stay behind the scenes, until the appropriate moment."
*
"Because the volatility of his powers puts you at risk, Crystal, and he wants to keep the world from incurring any unnecessary dangers," Scarlett explains quietly. Her head tilts down slightly, allowing her to disentangle a few of the thin copper plaits snarled around one another. "It's bad enough I doubt he even wishes to fly. Hence, me, for a few varied reasons." Oh, they might have more than a few. Her gaze slips to Karnak at the snort and nods. "Also, he's fairly far from a population centre without being terribly inaccessible."
*
"We're his family," Crystal says firmly. "He doesn't get to make that decision alone. Why hasn't he returned to Attilan? There was a room, when he was younger, before he learned to control his powers. Medusa and I used to visit him. I know- I'm sure he can't have the best memories of it, but given the alternative seems to be-" She cuts herself, off, jaw setting stubbornly. Blackagar may not have much to say, but he's likely to get an earful when she arrives.
*
Karnak looks at Crystal, "Blackagar does what Blackagar does, you know." She looks almost amused at the fact that Crystal is reacting like that, "Though, my impression is that his powers have grown beyond the ability of that room to control. As well as the fact that it might not be the best impression of the King to be in such a place, former or not."
*
Orkney: the mainland, the islanders jokingly call it, sits in the Atlantic far to the north of Britain itself. On that windswept isle stands a Neolithic ring of bluestones marking an ancient site currently hosting two Inhumans and one redhead. A ways down the paved road is a very nice stone cottage wherein the resident keeper of the place, the Inhuman Ianos, offers sandwiches, tea, and peace to any who seek it. Kamala's safest to assume being there presently.
Karnak and Crystal are caught in discussion with Scarlett. Animated is the best way to describe it at present.
The bohemian either has the answers requested and chooses not to speak, or knows better than when to put her foot into something deeply mired in opinions. Especially when the woman opposite her can probably call up the deep water of the lochs or hurl a heavy bluestone at someone offending her. Her hands spread in front of her, palms open, a nigh universal gesture indicating no harm intended. "I'm sure the reasons are many." Her vivid gaze flickers with a tiny suppressed spark of mischief that has no business showing up. "But nonetheless, sooner would be better. Am I crossing the Atlantic to go fetch his brother, or will one of you be better positioned to do it? He should be at the Avengers Mansion, I suspect. We could place a phone call and find out."
*
Settling on the block, Nexus keeps his mind in a fairly decent state — between that network and the Core, he's not in an ideal situation, but it isn't awful either. He looks between Crystal, Karnak and Scarlett with a patient expression, but for the moment has nothing to add.
*
Maximus is lurking around in the lab at Avengers Mansion, because he now needs to invent an anti-werewolf weapon….thanks Mutant Town.
*
"I'll take Lockjaw," Crystal sighs, whistling for the dog and setting a hand to his side. "Let's go get Maximus." If anyone can locate people with no apparent reason, it's Lockjaw, which is why he and Crystal appear inside the lab…taking up a bit more space than is comfortable for delicate experiments.
*
Karnak blinks a bit as Crystal takes Lockjaw and vanishes. Then she looks over at Nexus, "So, are you feeling any better?" She doesn't sound terribly concerned, but considering earlier experiences, she sounds more like she's making sure he's functional.
*
The redhead falls silent once more at the disappearance of Lockjaw and Crystal. Better for the fine gentleman hound to manage things while she works on rearranging some of her attire after that sky-splitting pace set. Her gaze flickers up to Nexus and then back to Karnak, a matter of happenstance to probably gauge how injured they are. For the victim of a flyby sharking, she's in surprisingly good condition.
*
Maximus jumps about a mile when Crystal and Lockjaw appear, knocking over a few things in the process. He darts backwards, steel blue eyes flicking between those present, trying to account for just what army has caught him. When he sees it is just Crystal…and Lockjaw, he relaxes noticably. Then he comes forwards to try and pet the pooch. "And to what do I owe this visit, cousin?" he tries to ask smoooothly, after looking like an idiot.
*
"Since my terrigenesis, my… *self* no longer fits within the confines of.." Nexus taps his head as he explains this to Karnak, "In the mists, I bonded with the Core, but more then that, I… became more then I was. That 'more' requires a certain amount of technology for my psyche to inhabit. Deprived of it, my selfhood is compromised. This is not ideal: New York City is not ideal. But I will endure." He gestures to the box Ianos brought, "It is something. It is something of a paradox: we are drawn to the natural world to escape the poison that the primitives…" A glance at Scarlett, "…pump into their air, but doing so is painful for me."
*
"Sorry," Crystal says, pressed close to Lockjaw as she tries not to knock anything over. "I guess I wasn't specific enough. Outside would have been fine," she notes to Lockjaw with a wry smile before turning back to Maximus. "Blackagar wants to see us," she explains. Notably, there's a line of char and burned skin across her side, though she doesn't seem to be acknowledging it.
*
Karnak snorts a bit, though at what it's hard to say. Then she continues, "It will be interesting to see what Maximus decides to do." She narrows her eyes, waiting patiently, and probably formulating strategies. Because, it's what she does.
*
"You cannot possibly insult me on that front," Scarlett offers up, the backbone of a laugh simmering under the words. "Given several of my acquaintances past and present have lamented on the pitiful state of our civilization's advancements, particularly in science and technology, it's nothing I have not heard before." The faintest shake of her head follows. "It's not precisely a surprise. And I will try to stay to the background, for all I'm given an invitation."
*
"You are injured!" Maximus notes with concern, though he doesn't stop petting the pooch. "And about /time/. And without threats too. What a /treat/ this is." The former king says in a singsong voice that completely makes him sound like an asshole, ruining the former concern. He wiggles his hand in a manner that suggests he's giving her permission to take them to his brother.
*
"If Crystalia is content with you being here, I will not complain. You need not 'stay to the background', so to speak." Nexus replies to Scarlett with a slight shake of his head, "But I didn't properly introduce myself: I am Nexus Oculai." He eyes Karnak a moment, "Something funny?" he asks after the snort.
*
"Let's just say it's been an exceptionally long day," Crystal sighs to Maximus. "I'm sure I'll be fine. Eventually. Try not to cause a fuss," she adds over Lockjaw's shoulder. Even if she doesn't want him to cause a fuss because she's planning on making one. As soon as both Maximus and Crystal are touching him, Lockjaw shimmers back to Orkney and the others.
*
Daytime will reign in Orkney long after dark in lower latitudes. The particular spot they occupy is windswept as much as it is beautiful, the rolling hills drenched in peat and heath. Fishing boats sweep around the deep lochs separated by a narrow neck of land that so happens to be home to great stone rings and other monolithic shapes forged by hands long ago. Much, much longer than British historians and archaeologists understand, anyways.
*
If Maximus thought Crystal was injured… well, Karnak looks probably the worst for wear that he's ever seen her. Though she still looks as dour as ever, even as she nods towards the group when they return, "Good." She stands up on her bandaged ankles, her clothing torn and scorched, skin scarred with what almost look like bite marks, and she advances towards Lockjaw, eager to proceed apparently.
*
Scarlett's clothes have suffered mistreatment. Forty-foot long archaic horrors full of teeth on a steamroller do not spare even reinforced leather. Her boots, at least, are intact. Other wounds may be skin-deep and unseen, but she manages. The bandage wrapped around her left hand is neat and tidily done. "Scarlett. A pleasure to meet you, Nexus Oculai." Gesturing with her fingers, she sketches a deep nod. The glimmer of the teleportational field around hound and companions slows her some, but only. Into the breach.
*
Maximus is delivered, expecting to see Blackagar in some lonely hut on a Chinese mountainside, and instead he's in Orkney and there is Karnak and Scarlett and Nexus. He arches his dark brows. Maximus is in his Attilan attire, since he can get away with it around the mansion. Black boots, metallic pants, black shirt, white and black trench coat. "Oh…I see…its going to be a party."
*
Nexus nods to Scarlett, "Indeed." Though he doesn't repeat the whole 'pleasure to meet you' thing. Not that his tone is harsh or anything like that. As the others return, "Maximus." greets Nexus to the once and maybe future king: his tone is mild. If he's still angry over a certain incident, he doesn't show it: then again out here there's a certain…hesitancy that he doesn't have in Attilan, or even the Big Apple. Deferring is natural in this environment.
*
Crystal takes a deep breath once everyone is gathered, looking to Scarlett. "Shall we?" she asks the other woman. "Lockjaw should be able to bring us all quickly enough."
*
Karnak nods, "That would be the best solution." She gives Maximus a look, and walks towards Lockjaw, awaiting transportation to their true destination.
*
"Seeing that sea levels have not noticeably changed nor have we felt the upheaval of a tectonic plate…" The reality of that is simple enough. Scarlett gestures freely. "To Svalbard. Though in the event you see any Soviets about, do try not to excite them too much. I've seen no less than three submarines out and about the last week." Someone can ever so easily whisk her off last, though she defers to the others. Being capable of self-transport is inevitably a sacrifice.
*
… the other side …
Snowy, misty, even in the height of summer the temperature on Nordauslandet never gets very high. Not in a place where bleached whale bones three centuries old add to the pebble beach, and the roaring waves of the Arctic Ocean crash on its jagged, indented shores. Mountains rear black under a crown of white, and if the coastline doesn't match a map, blame the elder scion of the House of Agon. No human activity is much apparent on the glacial tongues of ice perpetually enduring in the mist-shrouded damp of high summer up here. It wins points for stark beauty. Nexus is sure to hate it, given the nearest good tech is an airport in the town of Longyearbyen many a mile away. Or the subs prowling around trying to understand if there's really some kind of submarine weapons test going on.
*
Maximus goes through a few expressions…tension…breath-holding, then finally an almost childlike forgiveness of anything in the past as he relaxes his shoulders and smiles at everyone. Its overbroad, but its a smile none-the-less. "Soviets? Submarines? Svalbard?" He glances to Crystal, though he fully expects to just be teleported. And then he is. POOF. At least he brought his coat. He strokes Lockjaw a couple times, scritching under his chin, indulgent.
*
"Submarines." Nexus sighs softly, "This is the first place we go to where I might be able to stay sane until we find the facility." He nods his head to Scarlett, but rises up and heads for Lockjaw.
*
Lockjaw transport is swift and painless - he really is a good dog. But even Crystal shivers when they materialize in the arctic chill, wrapping her arms around herself as she looks where they've arrived. "Well, he does have a knack for finding remote places," she murmurs.
*
Karnak nods, "It was for the best." She leaves it at that, not visibly reacting to the cold as she glances around, looking for Blackagar.
*
Somewhere in the vast reach of white is a small wooden hut. Not much to speak of, it's the sort of place a whaler or fisherman might have built to endure the season with a profit before returning home. Given the absence of any other sort of shelter anywhere visible, unless it's unlikely underground, choices are slim Blackagar is skipping around or in an igloo. Probably doesn't know how to build such.
The redhead doesn't take long ot find her bearings when they end up on Nordauslandet. Floating up several feet in the air comes naturally as she finds the ragged edge of the island that wasn't there a week ago. "That way."
*
Maximus trudges so well. He has the exaggerated motion of the knees down pat, stepping high in the snow like someone who has trudged through it before. Trudge. "Times like this…I do wish I had been reborn with flight, like you, Crystal."
*
The pained expression that touches Nexus' face is clear and evident: but he was thinking shipyard with subs around, lots of electronics, right? Well, not so much. He sighs, long-suffering, "Blackagar owes me something, I don't know what. But something. A fruit basket, perhaps." he says through clenched teeth, calling up data in his mind from the Core and sorting it and writing comparison matricies. It keeps him steady.
*
"I'll bribe Tony to give you something cutting edge," Crystal promises Nexus, reaching out to offer a reassuring touch before she looks up to Scarlett. "That way it is," she nods, turning a wry smile on Maximus. "If I had the strength left, I'd fly us all, but it's been a very long day, cousin."
*
Karnak glances over towards Crystal, "This, is very true." She starts walking in the direction indicated, though she occasionally keeps an eye on Maximus. Just in case.
*
"I would offer, but the chance of something going awry is too high." The clarion bell of Scarlett's voice travels fairly easily here. The air is clear, pure in a way no venue anywhere near New York can be. "The ground ought to be stable, given it's sited on bedrock, but do try to avoid any glacial crevasses. They might be undermined considering all the tectonic activity." A slightly inaccurate statement given the lack of real faultlines. No one needs to measure that too much. "He's volatile, as I said."
*
"What is going on? He wants to see us all…why? And in the middle of nowhere, no less. /Volatile/?" Here, Maximus pauses in his trudging, the cold wind playing with the curls around his cheeks. He's just very still for a moment. Then he lifts one hand to his right ear. "Is he…does he need…" Then he shakes his head. The others are being brave. Heneeds to also be brave.
*
The look that Nexus has for Crystal on 'cutting edge' is *profoundly* skeptical. It's like she just said a caveman was going to paint him a Monet. Riiiight. But he just trudges through the snow: there's a lightening of the circuits in his skin as his strength is doubled but his endurance is halved: he won't last super long in the cold now, but can easier stomp through the ice. The expression of discomfort bordering on pain is constantly upon his face, though.
*
"He needs us," Crystal answers Maximus. "Which is why I asked that you not make a scene. Apparently he's been dealing with this…issue for some time, and this is the first he's chosen to admit it to his family. So. Don't make him regret it." It's possible that's directed as much to herself as it is to Maximus, because it's evident she's not very happy about being kept out of the loop.
*
Karnak glances over, and says, "He needs to see you, Maximus. To see all of us, really." Even if they aren't particularly presentable right now. But then, this is hardly the Royal Court in Attilan as she trudges along.
*
Anyone at risk of tumbling headfirst into the snow or the sharp, dark rock may find a shadow drawn over them and a steadying hand offered. Scarlett may be tired, but not so much so she cannot provide assistance. Floating otherwise, she picks out a fairly straightforward path across the crackling, icy landscape. "His powers are expanding, and with that growth comes a harder burden to shoulder. He managed to stabilize for a time, but the reprieve wasn't bound to be indefinite. Specifically, he asked that you come here." That last to Maximus. "He set us out to uncover what we might to assist him, though I shall let them tell the tale of that. You'll need to hear about their efforts thus far to understand what he might need next, I think."
*
There is a grim set to Maximus' features. If his brother needs him, asks for him, then it is grave indeed. And yet, oddly, not entirely unexpected. What was it their parents had always told him…that he was the keeper, he had a job to do, a purpose. He swallows and pulls his coat closed in the front, his knuckles, nose and cheeks all red from the stinging cold. "Yes. I can help. " He says softly, with such confidence.
*
"We seek the Gray Book, the tales of our people's first escape from the Kree — and we seek it in ancient sites of the Kree, for their experiments upon us were both grotesque and expansive." Nexus frowns deeply as he trudges through the snow, "The sites have… promising technology. We witnessed one system that harnessed sound as an energy source. In each these installations, these facilities, are offline or inoperative on many levels — it is agony." He breathes a sigh, "Until they are awakened. If we are here, then surely our path has taken us to a new installation. More messages from the Sage, more history— and more technology. Hopefully, the key, an artifact that can channel and control the expression of sound." That's Nexus explaining what they've done thus far.
*
"We found relics," Crystal adds to Nexus' explanation. "They might be helpful. Hopefully. It sounds like a good deal of Kree tech was based on or powered by sonics. Which brings up broader questions of how things were engineered, that Blackagar's particular gift should come about. But those are deep thoughts, when we have an immediate problem."
*
Karnak nods in agreement with Crystal, "The various sites outlined much of our history, and how we fought originally against the Kree." She hmms, "And it seems the Kree technology is a good way to try and solve the current problem."
*
"Our parents were…extremely specific…when they…engineered us. And of course, once they recognized Blackagar's gift, he had a whole room specifically built to train him, so…they obviously thought it was important. Perhaps not intentionally crafting that power, but, regardless, all our powers have a use." Maximus glances to Karnak, no threats of punching, which is a nice change. Then to Crystal, "I am curious why he did not wish to go to his old room in the palace. Unless he is afraid to show his current state, there."