Xaviers!

"Look, Bell, I don't know what the fuck you're on about, and you're trampling my last nerve. Get out, or I'm going to have to remove you." Zandra grumbled.

"Don't play coy with me, Rogers." Miriam hisses, locking eyes with Zandra and letting her mind lash out and add weight to her voice. "Talk. Now."

Zandra's eyes glazed over a little as Miriam hit her with the mind juju.

"I don't know what you're talking about. I should hit you with the calmer again, because you're crazy..."

"The bloody syringes, Rogers." she snarls, pushing her own, admittedly blurry, memory of Zandra sticking her and Leo into Zandra's mind.

"I saw it!" she insists, reaching for Zandra's backpocket to try and find the syringes.

Zandra's back pocket was...empty? When the hell would she have had time to dump the vials?

Could her mind have been playing tricks on her?

"What did you do with them!?" She wasn't imagining things. Couldn't possibly. Finding Zandra's pockets empty she instead takes to rifling through her mind instead, trying not to think too hard about the fact that she could very well fabricate those memories in Zandra's mind just by doing so.

It had been a while since Miriam had gone brain pickpocketing, so that was fun!

Zandra clearly got off on being in charge, sending people to detention for the smallest infractions, zapping people and making them apologize to her. Clear power and control fantasies; a bully with a badge. She had been quite miffed when Will had joined the prefects, as he was great fun to smash around, ey, Miriam?

But the more she rifled, the less she could find. Zandra, to the best of her knowledge, had never jabbed anyone with anything. And, more to the point, she didn't really have the medical expertise to know how to do anything like that. If anything, the memories of her buzzing people with the calming ray were as fuzzy as the memories of people who had been buzzed -- some backwash? An unintentional side-effect?

...Or an intentional side-effect?

"What the hell? It affects you too. The bloody ray wipes your memories as well!"

"I am not making this up! Get your head out of your ass for five seconds and think. You have to notice that you're missing bits and pieces with how trigger-happy you are about using that thing."

"I...no, that's not quite right," Zandra said taking a half step back and trying to shake her head to clear it. "What are you doing to me..."

"I'm not doing anything. If Lippincott gave you this thing then maybe you should ask him."

"I don't know whaaaat yoooooooooooo..." Zandra said, suddenly slowing down and then freezing in place.


The standard noise of a day in Xaviers also slowed down and stopped, suddenly, leaving just a voice coming from...nowhere?


"Ah, ah, ah, we can't be having that, can we?"

Miriam spins around, trying to find the source of the voice, uncertain if she heard it with her ears as much as her mind.

"Who is this? What is going on here?"

The voice echoed off the walls -- as if it was coming from above her, but there was nothing up there.

"I don't suppose I could convince you to keep your mouth shut, could I?"

"Only if you have a damn good explanation for what is going on here! Who are you? What happened to her?"

"I believe that's what you want me to believe." she says, turning towards the door to head outside. This was rapidly going beyond what she signed up for and it's clearly time to call in the people dumb enough to sign up for this kind of shit. Aka the X-Men and the... sigh... Resistance.

"Ah well, can't blame a guy for trying.".


As he said that, Miriam felt a strong tug from above, an irresistible force pulling her upwards. The room seemed to stretch out, and everything went black for a moment...


And then she found herself being raised out of the darkness, dangling by her....ears? Whazzat?


Quinn Quartermain, 20 feet tall if he was an inch, stood looking, bemused at her as she dangled from his grip. In a giant room, in a giant dorm, in a...


...Oh.



"Well, I suppose it was inevitable."

"What in the...? Did you just pull me out of a bloody hat!?" Miriam glares up at Quinn but at her current size his mind is actually out of range.

"You have your style..." Quinn smirked, waving Miriam around in the air some.

"You're going to have to tell me how you shook off the effects of the ray. Some kind of vampiric mesmerism defense? Laced blood supply? Telepathic immunity?"

Miriam lets out a very undignified sound as she's shook around, which only hardens her glare in response to Quinn.

"My mind is just that resistant, I suppose."

"Mmm. I'm not sure I buy that. Maybe you're just not a very good salesman. Or maybe I don't know you very well," Quinn shrugged, walking across the room to a row of cages.

"Well, we'll have plenty of time to get to know one another, won't we?" he said, opening one up and tossing Miriam in, with her landing roughly on her (don't be a tail don't be a tail don't be a tail) butt.

"Hey, hey now, you can't do this!" Miriam says, struggling fruitlessly as she tossed into a cage.

She lands with a grunt, scrambling to her feet to try and rush out of cage but only managing to bump into the already closed door. "Hey! Let me out of here!" she shouts as one of her bunny-ears flops down into her face. "Are those... bloody bunny ears!?"

"Ah, yes, you've never had the joy of being my assistant before, have you? Here, let me give you a hand," he said, pulling a small mirror from his sleeves (fucking magicians, am I right?) and holding it up so Miriam could get a good look at herself.

She looked normal! That's fantastic. Well, assuming your definition of "normal" stretched to two long, grey, fuzzy and floppy rabbit ears sticking out of her head, some thin whiskers around her nose, and the hints of a cotton-ball tail emerging from her pants. And being about 18 inches tall and stuck in a cage. Normal!


"See, I think this is a straight improvement. You do have a tendency to rub people the wrong way, and this will really soften your image," he joked.

Miriam stares at the mirror showing nothing but an empty cage, then sets her eyes on Quinn. "Fucking hilarious, Quinn. Now let me out so I can make you regret ever putting your hands on me!" she shouts, pointlessly reaching through the cage's bars with one arm.

Quinn looked at Miriam for a second, confused, and then slapped his forehead. "Right. Vampire. I forgot. Why can't you just be a team player, Miriam?" Quinn sighed. "Always have to be your own special snowflake, don't you?"

"I'm afraid you won't be getting out for a little while, Miriam. You've decided to stumble into things at a particularly touchy time, and questions will need to be answered. But hey, a better roommate than your last one, right?"

"Fuck off." she snarls and withdraws into the far corner of the cage. Not that that really helps much in the grand scheme of things but what else can she do. Maybe somebody in the adjacent room will get close enough to the wall for her power to reach at some point...

Miriam couldn't sense anyone in the neighboring room, at least at the moment. In fact, where the heck were they, exactly?


"Just sit tight for a few minutes; I have to break the hypnosis on Zandra. I suppose it was inevitable with how much she uses the damn calmer that someone would find something amiss, but you all have been very calm about it's introduction so far," he said, gazing down into his hat and waving his hand around it.

"Maybe that has something to do with the fact it erases memories of what you're actually using it for. No wonder you're so fucking trigger-happy, it's just a bloody excuse to do who knows what to us."

"Oh, don't be such a baby. You're fine, aren't you? No harm, no foul."

"I wouldn't call kept in a cage with bloody bunny ears fine, but why don't you put your head a little closer and I'll show you no harm, no foul."

"Oh, don't worry. It's only temporary."

It was unclear whether Quinn was referring to the cage or the ears.

"And if you cooperate, it could be even faster. If not, well, your stay may not end up being as comfortable as you may like."

"Cooperate with what? You haven't told me anything!"

"I've asked you how you avoided being effected by the calming beam's effects. I'd also like to know who you were going to talk to when you were leaving Zandra's room, though I suppose one question at a time is a good start, yes?"

"And I told you, I'm a telepath and technically dead, you tell me why that whatever-it-is didn't work. And I was going to go to Lippincott to tell him his cronies are stepping out of line."

Miriam might be terrible at making decisions, but she's an excellent liar.

"Mmm. You know? I just don't believe you.

And if you think that Dr. Lippencott isn't aware of what his devices do, you're dumber than I thought."

"Then buckle in because I'm pretty bloody stupid. Ask anybody."