#raisehellion

Ash and Hellion found their way to Josh first. With a vial of Josh’s blood in hand he was like a beacon to her, and though it took a long time of flying one of the small x-jets they found their way to a forest with Ash leading.

It was buried under trees and underground, and guarded by Sabertooth clones, or rather the clones were put there to lead them inside. Ash wasn’t happy with that way in, but she could sense Josh in there, buried under the heartbeat of...hundreds. Maybe thousands? 

Cyclops, Dani Moonstar, Magneto, Namor, Emma, Storm, Piotr and Illyana; the rescue team turned up and told Ash and Hellion to stay outside.

That lasted for about long enough for Cyclops and his team to get out of eyesight. Then a new hoard of Sabertooth clones, and David’s and Tommy’s heartbeat pinging on Ash’s radar from inside, chased the two of them into the facility. Nobody was getting to stay out of the game this time, and Hellion and Ash were co-stars for his next play. 

Underground, where they expected a laboratory they found...a city?

It was dark and lit by gas lanterns, the streets were cobbled and the buildings were brick and crowded together with slanted slate roofs. It was smoky yet damp and the streets were absolutely crowded with people- clones- in somehow period garb that had been spruced up with mechanics for no point that Ash could see. Mostly Sinister’s clones with white diamonds instead of red, and Madelyne Pryor’s keeping them company.

The Rescue team were herded into a large building immediately and a Madelyne Pryor presented them with a lovely smile and a wide table of folded clothes, outfits fitting this...whatever it was. She told them gently they wouldn’t be allowed to continue unless they were properly outfitted and wouldn’t scare the children.

Hellion and Ash were similarly treated. Neither were happy but Hellion at least approved of his suit. David and Tommy were shoved into the room with them, already dressed in Sinister chosen garb. Ash latched onto them both immediately and threatened their Madelyne to a round of threats involving her grisly murder and painting the walls with her blood which she cheerfully ignored.

It’s a scavenger hunt, she told the four of them. A scavenger hunt just for them, courtesy of Sinister himself. They’ll have to win and decipher hints from the clones, and if they played by the rules, and played smart, they might just win their Josh back.

That said, Ash was promptly mobbed by the Madelyn's before she could violently respond, and one of them came away with the vial of Josh’s blood in her silk gloved hand, and fled the room while the others held her and Tommy down. No cheating, they were told cheerfully. Ash raised her hand to kill all the Maddies that were in her way, but Tommy caught her wrist. They couldn’t risk losing this because of Ash’s temper. 

The Rescue Team were locked inside a room full of monitors, so they could watch. It was time for Sinister to play with the kids, everyone else would get to watch. Scott and Dani Moonstar had some...special treatment. Cyclops was separated from them, and no one knew where (to Max’s rage) and a Madelyne handed Dani a happy, bubbling, golden baby. A little Josh of her own.

The four kids were shoved out into the streets of Sinister’s playground, and the door slammed behind them. The monitors in the observation room came to life.

She had a lot on her mind, the future Dorian saw, the fact she hadn’t talked to Warren in a long time and he seemed to be almost avoiding her. Joni was cagey too. The possibility of Metahumans bleeding in to this world. And now what Julien Keller was trying to pull.

Ash was naive to this world in some ways, but the man who raised her was Warren Ramirez, once called a Demon and once captaining the rebuilding of humanity from his velvet gold chair on the moon colony. Ash knew a schemer and a climber when she saw one. She just didn’t expect Hellion to be climbing down in to places that Ash had only dipped her toes in to out of curiosity before she quit the game. He could dismiss her all he wanted, but Ash knew that auction was different from the other underground parties she had attended. 

They all sold the illegal and immoral of course, full of the rich, the corrupt, the brazen, and the dangerous, but the one he took her too was very different. The way people held themselves, the items on auction, the air of the place. The air of tense secrecy was much different from the normal ‘look at us all getting away with this because of our money’ that she was used to.

julian why... i thought we were friends....

because you really like your car and i know nothing about owning a fancy car except that it’s apparently inherently sexual