[Plot] Bending to the Breaking Point...

[Will Stanton]

Believing that a group of people will come together to form a team is enough of a suspension of disbelief... 'Oh, by the way, one of them is so nuts he shouldn't be setting foot off Muir Island'... that's asking the reader to bend so far he will break."
--Peter David, on Legion joining the X-Men.

Thunk thunk splat.

Thunk thunk splat.

Thunk thunk splat.


Will was still sitting in the wreckage of the pipes, caused by his battle with Callileach. The sirens blaring, and the announcements over the intercom -- annoying, for sure. He probably should do something about that.


Thunk thunk splat.

Thunk thunk splat.

Thunk thunk splat.

It was perhaps most accurate to say that quite a bit of Will was still sitting in the wreckage of the pipes. He was taking handfuls of clay from his chest, throwing them down the hallway and bouncing off of a couple walls, before they landed in a pile around a corner or two. The end result was that he was looking a bit more like swiss cheese than superhero.

Thunk thunk splat.

Thunk thunk splat.

Thunk thunk...

The pile of clay on the other end, on the other hand, was looking more and more person-like, and even stuck out a rudimentary hand to catch the latest ball of clay, before placing it carefully and intentionally in the proper place on the pile.

[Will Stanton]

Will gathered himself up, standing shakily on two legs, as he started makings his way up through the bowls of Muir Island.

Now, he knew the layout of the facility from back home, but that didn't mean he knew the layout here, what with everything being different. So he carefully started picking his way back in the general direction of the way he came, or as best as he could make out having traveled here in an unconventional manner.

[Will Stanton]

_______________________________________

Ironically, what had been designed to keep prisoners in had, instead, let them out, and now one of Muir's patients was trapped, deep in the bowels of the facility -- not where they let the nice people go, at the very least.

This, of course, played right into Will's paranoia -- bury him deep underground and forget about him, right? ACALA had probably planned the firing of the piston to trap him underground -- and that meant that she probably had something to do with the baddies escaping, right? After all, the MockSam had taken over for one of the guards; it was entirely plausible that Acala knew that before bringing him to Muir. Delivering him right into the hands of villains, of course. It was all so clear, and all so simple. Acala, Tosh and Sam were working together to keep him here -- but for what purpose? What was their goal? It had seemed to just be disgust and hatred of who he was; what he was, but what if it ran deeper than that? What if there was something else at hand here?

Well, before this was all over, he'd show them a thing or two about what happens when you fuck with Will Stanton.


Will, staggering through the block of cells, started looking around, seeing who was gone and who still remained. Hints. Clues. Evidence. That's what he needed now.

[Narrator]

Stumbling out into the prison the first thing Will notices is that what's supposed to be a large circular room is cut into pie slices by safety partitions. The one on his left is mostly lowered and the one beyond that has been torn through somehow. At least partially by clawed hands. Slumped against the partially raised wall is a blonde villain Will may or may not recognize as Hazard. Judging by the bullet-holes in his chest and streak of blood on the floor somebody dragged his body over so he'd be out of the way but otherwise paid it little mind.

Behind and above him he can see the observation deck and the spidery cracks of bullets having slammed into the window from the inside. The blood splatter he can see tells him the fighting must have gotten up there at some point.

As he's looking around there's a sudden explosion from his right, muffled by the steel partition but the blossoming of a red hot glow makes it pretty clear somebody is trying to bust through. Which probably means that at least some of the prisoners are still down here. That's good news, right?

[Will Stanton]

Will had taken a few steps to examine Hazard's body, but the explosion took just slight precedence over that.

Well. At least someone coming through would be interesting to say the least. And with no one else around, duties of evaluating the threat came to Will Stanton, Warden of Muir Island.

He stood ramrod straight, arms behind his back, as he observed the wall's structural integrity failing under the heat.

[Char]

Another blast and the partially melted spot on the wall is blown outward in a shower of red-hot shrapnel that leave a couple of sizzling holes in Will. It only really reinforces the intimidation factor of his pose as a young woman with black hair and red-orange eyes ducks through the hole she created, hands and arms wavering in the heat distortion in the air around them.

"The fuck are you doing down here?"

[Will Stanton]

"Looking for lunch," Will smirked. "Thought I'd chow down on few old favorites."

[Char]

"Well, step aside. This snack is too hot for you to handle."

[Will Stanton]

"Wasn't last time, if I remember correctly, though I do think I'd use sour cream this time.

Stand down, flamepants; you're out of your league and you know it."

[Char]

"You know, you're probably right. But then again, what do I have to fucking lose, eh?" she says and she throws herself forward, propelled by an explosion erupting from one hand, the other one reared back in a punch that slams into Will's shoulder before Char's fist detonates and takes Will's arm and a good chunk of torso with it in a spray of clay.

[Will Stanton]

Will, still more than a little woozy from being dropped down an elevator shaft, couldn't do much other than take Char's blow, sending clay splattering across the cell block floor.

"I can't go five minutes in here without encountering one of you bastards. Some hospital this is."

Will collapsed to the floor, losing shape and form and basically ending up just a blob of clay -- a blob that oozed it's way towards Char with surprising speed and resilience.

[Char]

Char has exactly one trick up her sleeve. It's a good one, capable of blowing apart solid steel, but what's brute force against this indestructible blob?

Still, she stomps her foot in front of the advancing blob, yet another explosion rocking the prison as she blasts more of Will apart in an attempt to stave him off.

"Hospital? What the fuck are you smoking? Did you accidentally end up in prison!?"

[Will Stanton]

More of Will sloughed off from the explosion, but the central mass, the bulk, was still coming at her, and getting larger.

"Oh no. I wasn't put here accidentally.

My 'friends' were disgusted with me, and left me here to rot."

[Char]

"Can't say I... blame them!" Char snarls, backing away, throwing another explosion Will's way while trying to circle around him and make her way towards the elevator.

"You're kind of a freakshow. And I've hung out with that fucking wanna-be puppet."

[Will Stanton]

Will slithered around this explosion; too predictable. Too easy.

"Oh, I'm not the freakshow. I'm the normal one; it's the rest of the world that's stolid and inflexible. One day, maybe I'll remake it in my own image.

But for now, we'll just start with you, Char. You shouldn't try to break out of Muir, should you? That's not cricket at all."

The blob continued to ooze towards her.

[Char]

"Fuck this. Fuck all of this!" she yells a little too frantically before spinning around to the elevator door. And the solid wall of metal that sealing it off. And some thing just snaps, Char bursting out into hysterical laughter as she chucks explosion after explosion at the elevator entrance to very little avail. Will can actually see the searing energy running through the veins underneath Char's skin as she draws it from who knows where, singing trails of burned skin into herself before she finally gives up trying to blast her way out and she collapses to her knees.

"Fucking... I'll go back to my cell, throw away the key, I don't give a fuck, just... not... that again..." she stammers.

[Will Stanton]

"Just like the others. Afraid of a little experimentation. A bunch of freaking normies in this universe, wouldn't you say?

Don't worry, Charmander; I'm not here to hurt you. I might need your help getting out of here; so you're coming with me."

The shambling blob had reached her at this point, pressing up against her feet and slowly surrounding them.

[Char]

Char kicks into the blob enveloping her foot with the other one, blasting Will away and sending herself stumbling back against the sealed elevator.

"Fuck off!" she shrieks. "I'm not doing shit if you try this again!"

[Will Stanton]

"In that case, go and walk back to your cell. Now, Char; not tomorrow, not in five minutes, not after you're done adjusting your hair. Now."

[Char]

Char damn near trips over her own feet in her hurry to scramble back towards the whole she blasted into the divider.

"There's... still a couple people back here. I'll just... yeah I'm gonna..." and then she's through and fucking hooves it. It doesn't seem like there's a rush of others to come through the whole at least. Whoever Char was talking about seems fine with staying put.

[Will Stanton]

"You'd think she was afraid of me, or something," the blob smirked -- can blobs smirk? Eh, whatever.

And with that, Will began the slow process of oozing around the room to recover as much singed, burned clay as possible -- don't want to leave it behind for the freaks down here, right?