(no subject)

[god_of_hellfire]

Make sure you dress nice, that text had said. Right. Because he had so many options.

John had gotten smarter, on his own. Without someone like Magneto backing him, he couldn't very well walk around with a flame thrower on his back. He had to dress lowkey, blend in. But getting snatched up once, early on, had taught him a valuable lesson about being powerless. So when he went to meet Esme, he did so prepared. Superficially, it was jeans, a graphic tee, and a hoodie over Chucks. They were clean, without holes, and that was the nicest he was going to get.

The bomber glasses reflected the decaying, abandoned strip mall back. It had once been the site of a number of mutant businesses, before.

That's how he kept thinking about it. Before, and After. He gave himself a shake, tugging his lighter out of his pocket to fidget with as he leaned against the shell of a payphone.

Comments

[quintuplet]

[ obtaining john's location is easy. even if she wasn't a powerful telepath with abilities that dramatically increase when used collectively with her sisters, reaching him still wouldn't have caused any difficulty. cell phones leave a trace, after all, and that's just one method of tracking. but that's the thing about being in a position like hers, you have a number of means at your disposal to make tasks simple. for the most part, she has the brotherhood to thank for that. though she'd say there's a differentiation between what was and what is. ]

[ before the x-men disappeared and before the hellfire club's empire crumbled, precautions were put in place, the former leaving behind a network that became the mutant underground and the latter establishing a similar network, only better. because let's be real, you only have to take one look at what the newly rebuilt hellfire club have achieved in comparison to the underground to see that. the divide now made more obvious by lorna dane's switched allegiance, along with a number of suitable others who understand that magneto was right: peace was never an option. ]

[ the humans will never accept them. they'll always live in hatred and fear and want to eradicate the x-gene by whatever means necessary, be it a special designated task force or religious mutant-hating bigots or robots built to kill. giving her and hers all the more reason to declare that the time for rolling over, running, and hiding is over. to actually go out and do something about it instead of waiting to be caught and killed — or weaponized, as the deceased doctor campbell practiced. ]

[ calling for the car to stop, the limousine rolls calmly across the parking lot, asphalt crunching beneath its tires as the vehicle pulls up alongside the curb to where john allerdyce is stood. the car now completely still, esme pushes a button to open the back passenger window. ]

My, my. Don't you clean up well.

[ it's as sarcastic as it isn't, as evidenced by the smile forming over her pink painted lips. ]