It had been only a couple days since Cordelia had come to the school, crying her eyes out about how her friend had been kidnapped by unknown soldiers. Emma had showed great reluctance to believe her, but a call up to New York managed to get them a fix on the boy's location and confirm that he was indeed in distress.

Not all of the students went on the mission. The SUV they had to take road trips couldn't really hold everyone. Since they were heading to a public beach and wanted to keep a low profile, Angelo, Jono and Clarice had stayed behind. When they got to the harbor, Mondo had already escaped imprisonment on his own. Those chasing after him in black and yellow body armor carrying futuristic energy rifles had certainly stood out from the typical citizens who were enjoying a day at the beach, making locating the boy and identifying the enemies quite easy.

The battle did not last long. The soldiers claimed to be working under federal authority, but they didn't exactly show the credentials of being part of a legit government agency. Perhaps part of the Weapon Plus program? Or perhaps some black ops mercenaries? Either way, they were few in number and routed quickly when faced with the powers the students had at their disposal. In fact, Mondo's own powers were shown to be quite formidable.

No one died, and a couple of the soldiers and Husk while in rock form were shot with the energy rifles, they seemed to be designed to stun rather than kill. Husk had managed to shake off the after effects on the ride back to the mansion.

The day had been won, but now it was time to decide what to do about Cordelia and her friend Mondo. For years, since the break-up of their family, Emma had bankrolled Cordelia living a carefree life, dropping out of school and jetting around the world from age 14. But they also hadn't met or even communicated much for those two years.

Emma had been cold and quiet for the most part ever since Cordelia had come. Constantly glaring at her judgmentally, but not really speaking her mind. They couldn't read each other the way they could most people.

Once back in the school, Emma continued to be an imposing presence that dampened any celebratory mood. She entered the mansion with the common area and kitchen first before standing near the door with her arms crossed and a very grim look on her face.

It was only once all the teens had filed into the mansion that she spoke up chillingly. "Cordelia, I think it is time we had a talk."

Cordelia strolled over to the refrigerator and grabbed a snack, perching on a bench she eyed Emma. What about? she prompted.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:00, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

Emma followed Cordelia all the way into the kitchen. Although it was not where she would have prefered to have this confrontation, it was at least away from the other students. She made no effort to stop Cordelia from helping herself to whatever was in the kitchen, instead choosing to stand near the table and wait for Cordelia's repsonse.

"Do you think this is funny, Cordelia?" she interrogated angrily.

"Only because the boy you dragged a third of the way across the world was in danger, I didn't push. But I want to know what the hell you are doing!!" she continued.

She had obviously assumed Cordelia was somehow guilty in the kidnapping of her own friend despite having absolutely no evidence to prove such a thing. Though it would be difficult to believe that Cordelia was somehow linked to the Weapon Plus program yet still allowed to run around free. But then-- the students had defeated the operatives fairly easily too, maybe a bit too easily.

In reply to Emma Frost (msg # 3):

Sounds like you've got your nickers in a knot... I didn't drag Mondo anywhere, let alone a third way around the world. And based on whats been happening lately we're all in danger.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:14, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

Monet had come to the kitchen to get a drink. She filled the kettle listening to the two sisters bitch at each other. Emma in the words she had written in her diary 'she was trying not to dislike until she knew her better'. Cordelia she didn't know at all.

In her head she contrasted this with her own relationship with her sisters. Sure they had disagreements, but this looked 'reflexive'. It looked like the two of them did this every time they met...

It was tempting to step in and pour a little oil on the water. But actually it was more interesting to see how mature Emma really was. At the moment on a scale of one to ten it wasn't looking past a three.
This message was last edited by the player at 12:55, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

When the other Senior arrived Cordellia suppressed the impulse to roll her eyes by internally groaning 'Great another one of the Preppies' and prompted Cordellia to glance about subtly looking for avenues of escape.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:18, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

"There was no danger here!" Emma retorted, "At least not until you brought it here."

Well, that was disingenuous. The entire previous student body were exterminated. And the whole reason a second campus was opened was because the New York school kept getting targeted. And most of the students who were listed to be here were kidnapped by aliens specifically because they were on a list to attend the school. Just because nothing else happened here in the month since was no guarantee of safety.

Still, Emma tried to hold the higher ground in the conversation, demanding, "How did you even get mixed up with Weapon Plus goons in the first place?"

Weapon Plus didn't make a habit of randomly targeting mutants without reason, at least not these days, usually selecting only the most dangerous ones they could bend to their will. But their involvement did nicely mask things as Emma wasn't even considering there might be a Hellfire Club connection here.

In reply to Emma Frost (msg # 7):

You sorry excuse for a person. if that's your tact I'm out of here. declared Cordellia. Turning she headed to her room.grabbed her carryall and started stuffing her clothes into it.

Monet poured the kettle into her tea pot and placed it on a hot ring "Tea?" she offered Emma. It would only take a short time to make from here: the kettle was 'not the proper way of making Moroccean Tea' but worked perfectly well. Some things needed to be done the 'right way' because they worked better that way, but this wasn't one of them.

The spate between the two sisters was interesting. So very different to her own family. In a way the offer of tea was a test. Was Emma so wound up in the vitriol of her unreasonable argument with her sister that she'd take it out on Monet? Or was she still capable of functioning normally. People were emotion processing engines, Monet knew in a way that few non telepaths would understand, and there had been some pretty strong emotions there.

"Is Mondo alright now?"

"Keep in my, dear sister, that you have no money to go anywhere or do anything without me!" called Emma after her sister with a confident jeer.

It was only natural that she should want to know exactly what she has been funding Cordelia doing. While Emma had spent her life exceeding every high expectation put on her. Getting the highest grades and becoming a great success both financially and politically on her own while refusing any of her family's wealth-- Cordelia had done the opposite-- was given no expectations at all and failed even that. There were reasons, of course, but not ones Emma could possibly understand or relate to.

She took the tea from Monet without a word, an air of pure arrogance mixed with deep annoyance about her.

"Ask the doctor about his condition," replied Emma flippantly, "She'll check out to see no nasty surprises were stuck in him while he was under." The Weapon Plus program had a nasty history of altering mutants in terrible ways-- but it seemed unlikely that they had the time to do so, and Mondo's particular power of transforming his body matter would make it difficult to place any sort of implants in him.

Emma took a sip of the tea before adding, "And once she is gone, I doubt we'll have any more trouble."

There wasn't really a lot of point asking any sensible questions as Emma was being irrational at the moment. Monet took her own tea in the traditional way: lifting the tea pot, and lowering the cup so you had to show your own skill at making the tea hit the cup. Ideally without splashing any

The tea with mint and a little honey was of course, like most things Monet did, perfect. She took a moment to enjoy it before reengaging with the conversation

Rather than make any comments about family, positive or negative, Monet asked a question triggered by Emma's words "Who is our doctor?" she was more than capable of fulfilling that role, but no one had asked her, so presumably they had someone else

Cordelia needed time to find out why all this stuff was happening to her. Emma's pettiness wasn't appreciated and accusing her of being the cause of it was imbecilic. Once she'd packed Cordelia looked about her room for small items of possible value she could take.accessed the database to check it's records.  She then returned to the kitchen gathering a week's supplies then headed out.
This message was last edited by the player at 21:52, Sat 10 Dec 2022.

There was plenty of reason for Cordelia to find it strange that Weapon X had been tipped off that she had tried to approach the Hellfire Club and was able to ambush her just as she was trying to turn Mondo over to them. But did that mean they were tracking her or they were tracking Shinobi Shaw? One would think Shinobi would be more careful about that.

The computer here did not track Wolverine's location actively, but it was pretty easy to find that he was a staff member at the New York campus. But she absolutely did not have the funds to get from here in Snow Valley all the way to Westchester New York on her person. She probably barely had enough to get a taxi to Snow Valley and then take the bus to their estate. If Emma made that phone call to put her accounts on hold. Making the 200 mile journey on foot was crazy and hitch-hiking was risky.

Furthermore, it wasn't as though she knew Wolverine personally. Was she really so confident in her ability to manipulate him that she could approach him? Perhaps there was another student at the school who had the sort of relationship with Wolverine that he might listen to that other student. But she didn't really know the students here yet-- not beyond their powers of the M, Husk, Jubilee and Synch that she had seen in battle. But did any of them know Wolverine? She would need time to ask around to find out.

"Cecile Reyes in in charge of our medical facility," Emma explained.

It was one of  many staff members that had been assigned here after Xavier's death. Between Emma, Banshee, Gambit, Juggernaut, Mimic and Changeling, it felt like they had been given a bunch of shady characters with criminal pasts as their teachers. It might hardly feel like a step up from being a Hellion.

"She should be checking out Mondo and Paige at the moment."

"Good" Monet said with another sip of the minty tea. "Well in the unlikely event that Weapon Plus managed to pull anything off, I'm sure that will be detected"

"Can you tell me roughly what Mondo's power is? I've seend him do some merging stuff, but I didn't really know what was going on. He seems very cheerful most of the time, which could be annoying, but hasn't been so far"
This message was last edited by the player at 21:15, Sun 11 Dec 2022.

"Like you, I have only just met the boy," Emma replied with a tinge of annoyance a shake of her head. "Cerebro only listed Matter Absorption."

The battle against the goons at the harbor had shown Mondo become concrete, melt into the concrete, become larger and take on four of them at once by causing the concrete to attack them. It was a good thing that Mondo was an ally rather than an enemy because the demonstration of powers seemed to eclipse almost all the other students in terms of direct brute force.

She shot another disapproving glare towards her sister continuing to pilfer things as she continued, "If you want to know more about him, you'd best ask him. Or a certain someone who claimed to be his friend." Her voice dripped with judgment that checking on her friend that she came here to save didn't seem to be at all on Cordelia's priority list.

"Well it's good when things end up well, even if the route wasn't the one we wanted. You would have wanted him to join the school" Monet commented "Especially if Weapon Plus was after him" she finished her tea

"Nice talking to you" a little lie didn't hurt. She'd just watched a 'bitch-down' complete with 'abuse of power' and 'teenage strop'. It wasn't pretty. With that she left

In reply to Emma Frost (msg # 16):

When Emma followed her from the Kitchen to her room; Cordellia just sat on her bed staring at her overly obtrusive siblings.

After starting at Emma for 45 minutes Cordelia stood; quickly stepping forward slamming the door shut; simultaneously push Emma out of her room and over
This message was last edited by the player at 21:35, Tue 17 Jan 2023.