Summary:Doug and Kitty visit Carin in the safe house, and discover stitches where AIM was inside her head Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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It's been a day since a trio of X-types - Cessily, Noriko, and Rahne - stumbled over what seemed to an organized effort to capture someone referred to as a 'little grasshopper', who turned out to be a gothically pale redheaded speedster that they were able to spirit away after a brief fracas with one of the hunter teams to one of the safehouses maintained in New York. The poor girl was exhausted and fell asleep almost immediately when she arrived, but has now had a good eight hours of sleep, food, and Gatorade, all of which were needed.
Having fed, however, Carin then became aware of something pretty embarrassing - that is, that she stinks like something that should be buried in the back yard at the moment, after running for literally hours in the skin-tight costume she's wearin, which is equally fragrant. Luckily, there are changes of clothing and she's been able to grab a shower…though apparently whoever stocked the closet last was expecting someone more Piotr's size, not a 5'7" young woman. She's found underclothes at least, and an oversized shirt that's more of a dress on her that has a Miskatonic U logo on the front. She's padding slowly through the house barefoot, still a bit jumpy from occasional loud sounds on teh street outside.
Whoever is on duty to help keep the new occupant of the safehouse safe would inform Carin that a couple of others are coming over to meet her. And sure enough, after awhile there is a knock at the door. Kitty and Doug are let in, and the other X-man takes a break, going to get some food. Kitty smiles over to Carin, the eighteen-year-old giving her a friendly look. "Hello, you're Carin, I understand? My name's Kitty," she says, walking over to offer Carin her hand.
Kitty's wearing a simple pair of jeans and a sweatshirt that declares the Cubs as the 2016 World Series Champions. Her brown hair is pulled back in a ponytail and a pair of boots emerge from the cuffs of her jeans. She has a genial enough attitude most of the time, and especially now as she offers Carin the greeting.
Kitty's companion is a young man in the biggest, fluffiest gray sweater you can imagine. The collar of it is so big it actually is swallowing up his chin and his mouth unless he tucks it down against his neck.
He lifts one hand to give a little wave, and unslings a bag from around his shoulder. "We brought stuff!"
That would be Doug. He seems to be letting Kitty introduce him.
At the knock, Carin hesistantly goes over to the door, then when it opens there's a little *whoosh* as she's abruptly about six feet back from it, before she flushes embarrassedly. "O-oh! Right. Rahne said someone would be coming by." She pads up, then offers her hand to Kitty, shaking it. She's definitely a bit striking up close…if the pure white skin, coppery red hair and bright green eyes aren't enough, she has a huge green lightning bolt tattooed over the right side of her face over her eye that extends nearly down to her jawline. "Um, I'm Carin." She smiles at Doug as he notes the stuff that is brought. "Food?" she says hopefully. "I kinda…um, there were protein bars, but I ate most of them…" She flushes again. "I kinda burned up a lot of energy yesterday."
Kitty flashes Carin that warm smile and says, "Well, there's probably others coming to talk too. But we were in the area so figured we'd stop by and see how you're doing. We heard you had some people chasing you," Kitty says, her voice getting softer and sympathetic at the end. "Believe me, I've been there," she says with an understanding sigh.
Kitty looks over to Doug. "I didn't realize this one wasn't stocked very well. How much food do you have in there? We can pick up some more if needed. Anything in particular that you'd like?" Kitty asks Carin. "Also, any other needs, medicines or anything like that, which haven't been taken care of?"
Doug sets the bag down and opens it up, before he says, "Well, I have some beef jerky, some candy bars… what I mostly brought was some books," He thinks, "Um, toiletries — you know." He looks faintly chagrinned. "…Essentials." He slides the bag over, and then says, "Sometimes we don't think about them, but I try to be all about the logistics of the thing."
Then he stands up, and clasps his hands together. "Don't worry, we'll take care of you."
Carin flashes a brief, tentative smile. "Thank you!" she says, flushing faintly at the mention of tolietries (and really her complexion makes it super easy to tell) before she ndos. "All of that sounds great! And books are nice too, it's kinda creepy being alone in the house by myself, so something to take my mind off stuff will be totes cool." she admits, rubbing the back of her head. Then making a pained 'tch' sound and frowning, before she more carefully reached up to feel the back of her head. "…uh…I guess I bumped my head or something, medicine wise?" she says sheepishly. "Sorry, I….I'm having problems remembering things. I mean, I remember yesterdays and like….a few months back, but it's spotty in some places…"
She wrinkles her nose. "Um, gatorade would be nice, if you can find some, or sports drinks, something like that? I guess I'm still a little low on electrolytes or something, I feel a little light headed sometimes."
Kitty seems to make mental notes. "We need to get you some more food too. I'll pick up some canned stuff, the safehouse should have had a good selection of it already, as well as something fresher," Kitty tells Carin. "Gatorade we can do," she adds with a smile.
"If your head is hurting there should be some aspirin and advil here," she says, more concerned. "We could also get someone with some healing powers to come visit and see if they can help."
Kitty motions over to some chairs for Carin to have a seat and get comfortable again. She moves over to sit on the arm of a chair herself. "So you're not remembering much of your past then?" Kitty says worriedly. "Was it from something while those men were after you then?" she asks.
"If we could get a genetic workup for you, the institute's dietitian would be able to create a diet for you that'd keep you calorically and nutritionally satisfied." Doug says. "I still use it even though I've graduated; alumni perks." He busies himself tidying up, since the safehouse is not always in the best order.
Then he gets out a phone from a pocket in his sweater and starts making notes. "Gatorade. High-calorie nutritional supplement bars, we can get those at a bodybuilding supply store—"
Carin hesistates, then walks over where she's motioned to, sitting in the chair then immediately, pulling her legs up to sit crosslegged with the oversized short hanging over her knees nearly. "Well, I don't think I need special food, it's just, when I'm running that much, it's like running a marathon for most people. So I need to hydrate and get electrolytes and stuff that I sweat out." she explains, her fingers still carefully poking around the back of her head. "I mean, I don't remember needing special food, they made us eat in a cafeteria, and everyone ate the same stuff…." She winces again. "Ow…is…is there something stuck in my hair or something?" She turns her head slightly, tilting her head forward so she can turn the back of her head to Kitty. "It feels weird."
And it should. She's got a neat line of recent stitches in the back of her head, near the base of her skull. Still looks raw, in fact, though it's scabbed over. Her hair almost hides it unless she's holdingit up like she currently is.
Kitty rests her hands on her knee, lacing her fingers as she listens. The mention of the cafeteria gets a raise of an eyebrow from Kitty. "They made you eat in an cafeteria? It sounds like you have a bit of a story. Who is they?" Kitty asks. "What do you remember of your past then, exactly?" she adds to that.
As Carin shows them the back of her head, Kitty stands up and moves over to gently move some of Carin's hair aside to see it better. "You have stitches back here," Kitty says, touching beside the area gently. Kitty is frowning. "We should get some scans done of this," Kitty says, frowning deeply.
Doug gives a flat stare, and drops the dust-cloth he was holding. "…Kitty, we need to take her to a doctor. *Now*." He has his phone in his hand, as if he was thinking about dialing 911 right now — but he's dialing the school instead. "…Hello? It's Cypher. Who's the sawbones on duty right now—?"
Carin blinks at Kitty. "Stitches?" At Doug's stare, she gets a nervous look. "W-why? What's wrong with it? Did someone do something to me? Is that why I can't remember things well?" she says, sitting up straighter, wringing her hands. She's a bit distracted from Kitty's first question. "I…they were called AIM. I remember that. They…" Her nose wrinkles as she gets a frustrated look. "They…I wasn't always there. I know that. I was…somewhere else. A house. It…feels like a while ago…years? I think."
Kitty Pryde bites her lip as she hears the name of the group. "We also need to sweep for any monitoring or tracking devices if that hasn't been done," Kitty says. She looks over to Doug. "We need an offsite facility for this. Either an existing one we can make use of, or get one set up," she says.
Kitty looks back to Carin and if allowed reaches over to touch her arm in a gentle way. "It's really hard to say at this point. It could have something to do with your memory. Even your metabolism. I'm afraid this isn't really a strength for Doug and I. We're sort of the computer end of the team. But we've got some people who are really good with this sort of thing," she assures Carin.
"We'll have a doctor do an on-site visit." Doug says, with his hand over the phone. "We need you to do an on-site examination, and then relocate her to to a secured medical clinic if we need to do anything more."
He puts his hand over the phone again. "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear her say that, Kitty, because if I *did* I'd be obligated to surrender her to SHIELD." The problem of serving two masters. Doug turns back to the phone. "Yes. Yes. Probably a full physical, bloodwork…"
"We have excellent doctors," Doug says, looking up from the phone, "The world's foremost experts in Metahuman physiology."
"Um, yah? That's just awesome…" Carin says, looking like Kitty's touch is what's keeping her from heading straight from nervous to freaking out. "Wait, what? Why would you have to surrender me to SHIELD?!?" She opens her mouth, and then there's a electronic chirp from Kitty and Doug's gear as she gets a wideyed look. "….uh…what…is that?" she says, staring into space for a moment.
A local system is requesting a wireless connection.
And now Carin is definitely looking freaked out. "…w-who's that?" she says, looking around.
Kitty Pryde rests her hand gently on Carin's shoulder as she pulls out her phone. "Go ahead and take a deep breath. Relax yourself. There's nothing you can do about the situation right now, so just stay calm, ok?" Kitty says, giving Carin a moment to hopefully take that to heart and get herself in a better state of mind before Kitty goes on.
The brunette says, "AIM is a group of scientists who do things like create and sell weapons. They are a terrorist group essentially, or support such groups with technology and weapons at least. That's why the mention of SHIELD," Kitty says. Her voice picks up in volume and intensity then to emphasize, "But OUR focus is you. Ok? So you're with friends here." Kitty looks at her phone. "I think something is trying to connect to my phone, and it could be something inside of you. A tracker perhaps," Kitty says. Though she knows from the stitches it is likely more than that. A simple tracker could be the size of a grain of rice, it wouldn't need stitches like that. But she doesn't want to worry Carin so keeps that to herself.
Doug studies his phone, and then swipes it, before he tries to get a handle on precisely what that signal is and what it's trying to *do*. He focuses on it, and then says, "Advanced Idea Mechanics. They claim to be about the pure pursuit of science, but they left the notion that just because one can does not mean that one *should* way, way behind them in the rear view mirror."
The signal appears to be basically seeking an open wireless connection. Since your phones are passworded and have good security, it can only connect to the hones themselves, but not beyond that point. If you allow it. It doesn't appear to be a hacking attempt at the moment, anyway.
Carin swallows, he eyes still a bit wide, before she takes that recommended deep breath. "Okay. So you two can't hear her? Uh…" She bites her lower lip, worrying it for a moment. "…I'm hearing a woman talking in my head. And there's weird…uh…shapes? In front of my eyes. Like a test pattern thing? It says…ah…system rebooting?…trace system not found…neural supression system not found…ah…" She leans back. "…uh, the lady is saying she's sorry for burning out my….brain box? That it was the only way to short out the tracking system…and she's sorry about any associated memory loss. She sounds kinda like my freshman Algebra teacher…" She perks. "Hey! I remember my freshman Algebra teacher!"
The news causes Kitty to look over to Doug with a small frown. "Definitely we need to do some work," she says, patting Carin's shoulder again gently to be reassuring. The pair spend a little time scanning, but there's only so much even this pair can do with their phones. Arrangements are made for full medical scans, and a tesla cage if needed to block an signals in or out.
There will be a lot of testing in the hours and days to come.