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Creative Inspirations | Monday, period one

This week, class had been advised to bring anything they wanted to create with - guitars, chalk, pencil - with them to Portalocity. Hannibal himself had brought a portable - somewhat, anyway; it ran on batteries and had a case - theremin with him. He was wearing (designer, expensive, plaid) jeans and a light sweater along with (expensive, designer, not-plaid) hiking boots.

"Welcome, everybody. This week will be slightly different - we'll be spending the entire class time at our destination, and indulging our creativity there."

//We'll be hitting up an old power station in Perth,// Jono intoned, a backpack over one shoulder and a mischievous glint in his eye. //It's been sitting abandoned for quite some time now, but it's quite the destination for people looking to explore old abandoned tunnels, get into things they generally shouldn't be getting into, and to paint on the walls.//

The bag, of course, was full of spray paint. Because Jono was an excellent role model.

"There are also bound to be some very interesting acoustics, for those of you who may be musically inclined," Hannibal added. "And if you'd like to explore, the tunnels apparently lead down to the sea. Please be careful, but enjoy yourself." He brought out another bag, this one with several hard hats in it. "We are required to wear these while within the structure. Everybody please take one." Not that they could force the students to wear them when they weren't in sight, but that wasn't his concern.

//Paint, explore, sing at the top of your lungs, whatever you see fit. Don't get yourselves hurt - bring a light with you into the tunnels if you do end up going that way - and we'd rather not have to go hunting for you at the end of the class period, but besides that, go nuts.//

And with that, they ushered the students through the portal, Jono opening up the bag of spray paint and flashlights for students to help themselves to once they were on the other side.

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Hannibal squeezed his shoulder. "How many are left?"

//These days...? Hell if I know. Fell out of touch with Christian, and Barry and Angel are alive and well, if busy with the kids. Sofia's been scarce, too. Not sure what happened to th'kids who were pulling tech support for us, or Thrash. And you know Lee's doing well enough.//

He shrugged.

//So far as I'm aware, we only lost th'three.//

'Only.'

"Each loss of a friend is a tragedy," Hannibal noted, "but for a group of heroes in your world, that seems to be a good rate of survival."

//Considering the hell we went through, and none of us with powers that didn't run on battery packs, it's nothing shy of miraculous,// Jono allowed, picking up a paint can and giving it a shake. //There were a few times we nearly lost far more than that. Hell, I came back looking like a great bloody pincushion, once.//

That was easier to talk about than losing Mira.

"What happened that time?" Hannibal asked. He made a note about Mira, but he was willing to bide his time.

//Was sent under false pretenses to fight a shapeshifting homicidal techno-being with roughly a trillion self-replicating nanobots at his disposal, and was trapped, with only about half our team, on his home turf. We burned through our available resources trying to just survive long enough for rescue, and I made one last stand to fend him off while the others made their break for it. Got several foot-long spikes through my arms and leg for my troubles.//

A beat.

//But nobody died.//

There was no small amount of pride in his voice at that. He'd taken charge in those tunnels. He'd kept his team alive. That had been him.

And that pride was entirely justified. Hannibal gave Jono an equally proud smile. "That must have hurt. But you persevered."

//Hurt like hell and walking was a challenge for a while after,// Jono agreed. //... Until I swallowed my pride and let myself get healed, at least. Never long before that happens around here, really. Lord, some of th'tricks I pulled to buy us more time, though... //

He shook his head and started painting. Long, bold, angular strokes across the wall.

//It's a miracle we lasted as long as we did.//

"Miracles are a combination of luck, planning, and skill," Hannibal said. He watched Jono paint. "Tell me about some of your tricks."

//Mostly we pooled what few resources we had left once our power packs started dying off,// Jono replied, shrugging. //Left some traps behind us, jury-rigged as hell, to try to slow Machinesmith down some. The real trick was getting everybody to stop and bloody focus. You'd think they'd never been in mortal danger before.//

In fairness, he had been the only one who'd had actual military training pumped directly into his brain and who had spent a year systematically murdering the unkillable over and over, so...

"For some people, danger has a way of making all sense fly from their heads." Hannibal shrugged. "But you kept them together, and you got them out alive."

//What I did was keep them alive long enough for rescue to arrive,// Jono clarified. //I didn't get them out. Figured I was making my last stand, and then got princess-carried out by Mira once backup finally managed to get back to us.//

... Jono seemed to get princess-carried around a lot. It was slightly less ridiculous these days, now that he wasn't huge and blue.

"Tell me about Mira," Hannibal asked.

Jono paused at that, and then looked downward, falling silent for perhaps a few beats too long.

//Mira was... She had been one of those mutants who had been dealt a rough card when her powers manifested. Snakeskin and scales all over, no chance of fitting in seamlessly into human society. She was a prostitute when I first met her, back when I was still in the X-Men. Human bigots burned her home to the ground, and she joined us, for a while. At least until she got sick and tired enough of Warren paying attention to cute-but-crazy instead of her, and she left. She was the only member of the team who ever really took me seriously, besides Logan.//

He closed his eyes for a moment, and then shrugged.

//We found her again after we all lost our powers. She threw herself right into the training, was one of the best of us, really. I had been working my way up to having the nerve to maybe... I don't know... ask if she'd like to spend more time together, outside of all of that superhero nonsense. Never got that chance.//

So it goes.

Hannibal set a comforting hand on Jono's back. "She sounds quite something."

//She was... she was fantastic.// Jono shrugged and leaned back against Hannibal's hand a little. //And bloody fearless. We lost her when she backtracked to try to save one of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who had shown up to bring us in. 'Capekillers,' they were called. We were on the most wanted list at the time.//

He was veering, again. Ish. It really was a testament to Mira's character that she had died trying to save somebody who, moments before, had actively been trying to kill her.

"Do you know what happened?" Hannibal asked.

//I was there,// Jono replied, quietly. //I watched it happen. Watched her realize that her attacker's ammunition pack was overloading, watched her leap in to help him try to pry it off. Watched Vin jump in, too, to try to pull Mira off of the Capekiller. Watched them all go up in a ball of fire and pink mist.//

It had taken him a minute to really register it. But he'd been the one to explain to the kids back at the hideout what had happened. He had to be the one to tell Kaz.

"You lost them both at once." Hannibal's hand wasn't going anywhere.

Edited 2015-12-07 01:50 (UTC)

//Just like that. They were there, and then... they weren't. There wasn't even something left we could bury. Vin was... he was a bit obnoxious, maybe. But he was a friend. We'd fought together. And Mira... the only person on that team who knew me better than Mira was Lee. We understood one another. We'd both been through the same shite with the X-Men together. Both knew what it was like to have to hide in plain sight.//

Edited 2015-12-07 01:58 (UTC)

"Did you ever have a chance to properly mourn and remember her?" Hannibal asked.

Jono... Jono shook his head a little.

//We lost her, and then it was a bloody insane impossible mission, and I had a day or two of downtime and then it was time to begin preparing for war. And war came with its own set of people to not have time to mourn. That's... that's the way of it with our lot, it seems.//

Hannibal nodded. He had some ideas on how to remedy that, but that would come later. "You went directly from that group to Glacia?"

//More or less,// Jono agreed. //Karla had just graduated, and the next step was war. I suppose it was fortunate, in a sense, that the New Warriors disbanded after that. Meant my loyalties weren't divided between two worlds. Meant I could throw myself completely into being a better soldier.//

"You already were a soldier," Hannibal corrected. "You had to become a general."

Creative Inspirations | Monday, period one

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