Xaviers!

Sean hadn't needed much medical care just some stitches for the marks on his face and a lecture from a doctor about not drinking while having a concussion, even a mild one. So he was hiding in the point sitting at a workbench holding a cup of tea. On the workbench was a bottle of aspirin and Manikin's arm.

((Open))

Only one of the screens in the circular briefing room is currently lit up, showing a static image of Ashlie's face. She'd put out a general notice to everyone who wanted to share information and was not too injured to assemble in the Point. When Sean arrives first and settles down at one of the tables her face on the monitor springs to life.

"Mister Hall." she greets him. "Is that an arm?"

Sean looked over at the monitor.

"Yes, Headmistress," Sean said, "I... well, I removed it from an intruder in the dorms before they escaped.

"Good. It might give us some insight into his vulnerabilities."

"I also might be able to use it to find them," Sean said, "It looked like it was organic and machine."

"Indeed." she says curtly.

"Unless I'm horribly mistaken, what you encountered in the dorms is what is left of Dr. Alan Hill." she adds and one of the monitors lights up, showing the image of a middle-aged man with a receding hair-line, wireframe glasses, wearing a white lab-coat. The image looks like it's cropped from a group photo of some kind. "I have more information, but I'd rather wait until everyone else is here."

"Lay it on me, ASHLIE," Will said, coming through the door.

He was in an X-uniform that didn't quite match University Standards.

Once everybody who might show up is there Ashlie proceeds.

"Four individuals attacked the school today. We were caught by surprise and unaware of most of their capabilities, resulting in a number of serious injuries. Hopefully I will be able to remedy some of that so you are more prepared for any future encounters. All four of them are known criminals and terrorists."

More monitors light up, showing images of the other three people. The ones of Void are blurry and indistinct.

"Char, aka Justine Mitchell. In and out of juvenile detention repeatedly for arson, robbery. Most recently arrested for trying to rob the local bank. Capable of generating explosions from her body with varying ratios of flames, heat and concussive force. A new member to this group, most likely recruited very recently. Presumably the least dangerous of them."

"Reach, aka John Reacher. Wanted for terrorism, murder and countless lesser charges. He transmits physical properties over long distances, preferably the edges of blades, but as you undoubtedly heard he's capable of applying it to the sound of his voice as well, which means the full extent of his power is unknown. Approach with extreme caution and do not engage at a distance. As the ideological core of the group he is however the best shot we have right now for stopping them as a whole."

"The Void, aka Jane Doe. We know essentially nothing about her civilian persona pre-mutation. We know she's capricious and extremely volatile but prone to toying with her quarry, which is about the only good news I have regarding her. Her power seems to make her immune to most if not all physical forces and she's resistant to telepathy. She surfaced two years ago in South America, occasionally laying waste to an area before disappearing again. Several months ago she disappeared after having been last seen walking into the ocean near São Luís. Two months later she re-emerged, literally, at Gibraltar. Needless to say, she is extremely dangerous, do not engage her until we have devised a method to bypass her power."

"And finally, Manikin, aka Dr. Alan Hill, aka Mend." The previous image of the unassuming middle-aged man zooms out slightly to show him surrounded by what looks like a research or medical team. He was a brilliant scientist and surgeon, specializing in closed, self-sustained systems and life extension. He was working with NASA on designs for a possible Mars colony when his wife and son were grievously injured in a house fire and brought tot he hospital with burns covering more than 80% of their body. When the trauma unit refused to let him operate on them..." The screen changes to security camera footage of the disinfection stations outside an OR, Dr. Hill is arguing vehemently with another doctor. Eventually he seems to just go quiet, the other doctor turning away, assuming the situation is resolved when Dr. Hill grabs a metal tray and knocks him unconscious.

"He proceeded to barricade himself inside the OR. I will spare you the footage we have from inside the operating theater. There's only so much anybody can do and he... snapped. With only so much viable skin at his disposal and perhaps defaulting to the sustainability calculations of his work he began making decrements. First to them, then to himself to give himself more healthy skin to work with. It did not work and what walked out of that operating room was no longer Dr. Hill." The monitor changes again, showing a gaunt figure similar to what they encountered in the dorms, although more crude. Improvised from the materials at hand. A patchwork of stainless steel, wound dressings and most of a large oxygen canister encasing the figure. Nobody stops the grotesque figure as it leaves.

"He has since perfected the closed system he now resides in. He doesn't breath or eat, nothing enters or leaves the shell he has constructed around himself."

"Do we know what their objective might be?"

"Not specifically, but Reach seems to be the driving force and he's best classified as an ideological terrorist. He could have done much more damage than they did but instead he delivered a manifesto. He's trying to prove a point of some sort and the only tools he really knows are violence and fear. Judging on past behavior he's almost certainly going to start threatening and killing civilians to force our hand. He knows he has the upper hand in a head-on confrontation."

"But why infiltrate the dorms at all?" Sean asked. "If they were just trying to deliver a manifesto they were doing a good job gathering an audience already."

"He's already killed civilians, from what I gathered."

Natalie's face pops up on one of the few unused monitors, "Reach referenced something about Manikin choosing. He seemed to be treating it as some sort of audition, designating," she seems to consult something else, "Aiden, Haley, Tereza, and whoever 'Manikin picked' as part of that audition for new members of his Brotherhood. Not sure what he hopes to accomplish there."

"If Manikin picked somebody it probably was whoever was in room 131," Sean said, "He did go straight to the room and try to kidnap her... or at least to use her as a bludgeon."

"Archaea. She was liberated from a lab that was using her to manufacture a drug activating or boosting X-Genes. Her touch causes rapid physical mutation of bio-matter. I could see why he might be interested in her."

"Have there been any more incidents in Maldon? Something we can use to find their base of operations?"

"Not so far, but I am monitoring all police frequencies for potential leads."

"Then maybe we need to draw them out."

"I could try to track them using arm as a focus for a scrying spell," Sean said, "Not sure how strong the signal will be since it's not... well, it's technically not a part of Manikin, but it might give us a lead."

"We could also put bait in an area we can observe and prepare an ambush in.

Or, you know. Both."

"Mister Hall, do whatever it is that you think you're doing as long as it might help us. Will... what kind of bait are you talking about?"

"If they want to 'recruit' those members so badly...I say we give 'em to them," Will smirked.

"Are you seriously suggesting we turn those individuals over to them? Some of them are still injured!" Natalie sounds indignant.

"Please. We have plenty of ways to provide decoys. All we have to do is fool them for a few minutes, until the rest of the team can strike."

"It would be better to split them up wouldn't it?" Sean asked. "Divide and conquer or something of the sort?"

"That doesn't work unless we know where they are to begin with."

"Sorry, I meant we could send out several decoys each with their own team to ambush whoever comes after them," Sean said. "At the very least we seem to have numbers on our side."

"Splitting them up and not fighting them on their terms would be preferable. As would..." she pauses for a moment before continuing, "...'divining' their location."

"We're already fighting them on their terms unfortunately. We know nothing about their operation."

"I'd recommend against anyone 'joining up' with then, even temporarily, even under false pretenses. Absent a mission statement from them, we're going to have to wing this, I think."

"I hate winging it," Natalie grumbles. "Can we access Maldon's camera system? Char and Reach might not be distinctive enough to catch, but Void and Manikin would stick out. Of course, this presumes they're staying in Maldon and not somewhere nearby."

"Traffic and security cameras for the greater Essex area are closed circuit and it would be illegal to access them at the data center on 47 Moulsham Drive in Chelmsford."

"And Will is right. This is not a group of people I would recommend to try and infiltrate. Ambushing them has promise but we need more information."

"Sean, can you do whatever it is you do here?"

Sean had stopped by his workshop on the way and grabbed supplies (and tea) knowing he might be asked to do the scrying spell.

"Yes," Sean said digging in his book bag for chalk, a vial of silver liquid, and a knife. As he pulled the items from his bag he placed the items on the table. "I can begin whenever you are ready."

"Please."

Sean picked up the chalk and drew the diagram he would need for the spell. It was a triangle with an inset circle. On each side of the triangle Sean drew an identical series of runes. Inside the triangle each point received a unique rune. At the center he placed Manikin's limb. It was time to begin the spell, so Sean cut his finger and began chanting softly. He placed a drop of blood on each of the runes in turn. As he chanted the blood was absorbed into the runes and a dull reddish glow began to spread throughout the circle. The air seemed to feel charged and smelled of ozone as the spell progressed.

Sean put down the knife before picking up and uncapping the vial of silvery liquid. He poured it over Manikin's limb and the liquid seemed to spread far beyond the volume of what should've been contained within the vial. It covered every inch of the limb and filled the inset circle. Another moment and the circle of shimmering silver liquid lifted up off of the limb, it's surface smoothing into a mirror-like sheen.

Sean stared at the circle and began to forge the connection between the limb and the rest of Manikin. Any clues or images would theoretically show something in the mirrored surface. However, it likely wasn't the strongest connection since it seemed more like having a piece of clothing from somebody not hair or blood.

As Sean works the spell he can feel it flickering as it's taking shape, seeking out connections and for a moment he catches a glimpse of Manikin walking down a dimly lit corridor. Too clean to be in a truly abandoned building but still bereft of people. Before he can make out any more details it feels like the tenuous connection fades and is overwhelmed by the mirror showing Manikin's severed limb itself and the silvery surface floating above it, showing the limb and the silvery surface floating above it and so on into infinity until the surface snaps, a silvery rain falling down around the limb. It's like the spell looped in on itself, scrying the location of what he was using as the focus to begin with. As unpredictable as magic can be sometimes, this shouldn't really happen unless he was trying to scry the whereabouts of a person by using the person themself as a focus.

Sean watched the spell overload itself with some consternation. He'd never experienced a situation where the connection was too strong before, or so strong that it overloaded the spell by the focus seemingly trying to find itself.

"Odd," Sean said as he tried to think of an alternative. "The connection was too strong, but maybe something more... general. An application similar to what makes a lodestone's enchantment work. The need to be... whole."

Sean moved a hand and the cracked silver disk ran like water again and back into the vial. He erased the old runes with a wave of his hand. He traced a new circle around the triangle and drew runes around it representing the cardinal directions. He spoke fewer words this time as it was a simpler spell trying to simply get the hand to point towards where the whole was. It was also less... informative, but he could think of another application if this worked.

The arm slowly swivels, then suddenly snaps upright, balancing an extended metal index finger like a needle at the center of a magnetic field. The whole of the arm is right here somehow.

"Theoretically that spell was sound," Sean said staring at the arm. "Unless the rest of him is here or the arm itself is not considered a part of him or the arm is resistant to this kind of probing."

The image of Ashlie on the screen frowns.

"It's a piece of technology. If it no longer belongs to him it shouldn't belong to itself."

The frown deepens as she looks at skeletal metal hand attached to the smooth, seamless casing of the bulky forearm.

"Somebody get a plasma torch from the workshop. Now!"