trans_9 | Rock Bottom [NOW OPEN]

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Rock Bottom [NOW OPEN]

Julian was still irritated to hell and back. Thankfully someone had pointed him in the direction of the ~~Danger Rooms~~ Sensoriums so he could blow off some steam.

He had to be a little more creative about it, though. Without his powers, the urge to fling himself at danger didn't seem particularly smart. So, instead, he had the room recreate his favorite basketball court. It was located on the SoCal coast, just off the beach.

The sound of the waves nearby was relaxing, and he could even smell the ocean as the breeze crossed the waves and on to shore. Normally, he'd be something close to being at peace here, but he was still bugged and irritated.

He wanted to blame the collar. It was heavy, it itched, it was screwing with his jumper. But, really, it all ran much deeper than that.

To say his life had gone to shit in the last few months would be an understatement. Ever since M-Day, every thing he held dear in his life had been slowly stripped away from him. His family abandoned him, the girl he loved broke his heart, his friends were killed, his home was destroyed, his own sense of idealism was shattered, the X-Men, the other heroes were too busy fighting and ignored him, it was currently up for a public vote as to whether or not he should be allowed to have kids one day or be chemically sterilized forever; and most recently, the person who he trusted most to guide him had helped the Avengers subdue him, lock away his powers, then lock him away in 42.

So, now he really had hit bottom, as he was on Stacy with nothing. No money, no powers, not even the clothes on his back. He really didn't even have much of an idea who he was right now.

Hell, he hugged Chamber. That's how desperate and happy he was to have something around that was at least some shred of what he knew. He even sort of latched on to Captain Picard because the guy looked like Xavier, and he barely knew the Professor to begin with.

He was living in the past. And much like this place, it was just an empty, hollow substitute for the real thing. He had nothing, now.

...Did that mean he was nothing?

"Who are you right now?" he asked himself, tossing off another jumper that clanged off the rim.

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"Yes!" She stood back up and helped Julian up before flitting about the ~~Sensorium~~ basketball court. "Oh my god, it's so good to see a familiar face!" she exclaimed. "I mean, there's been familiar faces, but no one that I know, know, you know? And now there's you, who I actually kn..." Pixie paused. "Did you just pop with the last group? And what's that thing around your neck?"

He was actually happy to see her. Which is something he almost never thought he'd be able to say about Pixie.

Then again, he hugged Chamber, so desperate times and all of that.

"How long have you been here? What's the last thing you remember from our world?"

Hilariously, Pixie's thinking the same thing about Julian. Let's be honest here, Pixie was much closer to Hope and Victor and the others than she had been to Julian and his crew.

Pixie closed her eyes tightly and thought back to before the white flash. "Um. The X-Men were moving to San Francisco. All of us. To a new place. The X-Mansion essentially is no more." She opened her eyes and looked at Julian. "It's just a little while after...Magik took a piece of my soul." She was perfectly fine talking about it earlier, in the bathrooms with John and Allison and Paco and Mia.

Now it's a different story.

With Julian here, standing in front of her...it feels so much more real. "I've been here for awhile, Julian. I don't know how long, because I've lost track of time...but it's been long enough, I guess. What about you? What's the last thing you remember?"

"I nearly died and the X-Men dumped everyone and moved to the west coast. Then... let's just say a lot of shit happened." Most of which he really did not want to discuss. At all. Ever.

"Last thing I remember is Miss Frost sold out and betrayed everyone to the Initiative. This," he pulled at the collar, "was my reward for not being the governments good little mutie pet."

"Miss Frost did what?" Pixie blinked, shocked. She knew that Miss Frost didn't exactly have the best reputation but... "But, you were like one of her favorite students! She named you Hellion!" Or did Julian choose that name himself? Pixie didn't really remember. "Julian...why...did that happen?"

"Cause she's an opportunistic bitch." Whatever level of reverence and affection he held for Emma had been rapidly dwindling since M-Day, and this collar was the last straw.

"Everything's upside down right now." But when was it not? "Even more so than usual."

Pixie blinked. "But...she was our teacher. And she was a good guy. I mean, you don't just..." she trailed off and remembered everything she'd learned while training at Xavier's. "....or maybe you do." She looked down at the ground, which her feet were touching now. "So things just went from bad to worse, huh?" She'd been worried about that, about things getting progressively...not better. "That metallic collar thing. It limits your powers, doesn't it?" It's the only thing that made sense.

From bad to worse to potentially catastrophic. "You don't know the half of it. Be glad you missed out on it all."

He could certainly do without nearly being turned into a living bomb.

"This thing doesn't limit my powers, it eliminates them." He looked at his hand, concentrating for a moment to see if he could do something, find even the slightest hint of the power he held. But his efforts were in vain. "Not even a flash of something."

"..." Pixie's soul dagger springs to life in her hand. She holds it up and points it down at Julian's collar. "Can I stab the collar and see if it takes it off?" Okay, granted, the dagger only works on magic...but Julian...is the closest thing she has to a friend from home, and if anything, Megan wants to help him. Besides, it's not like her teleportation spell works on teleporting things away from other things.

He actually backed away a little. Not that he didn't want thing off, he wanted it off desperately, but...

"You might not want to do that. Last idiot who poked around with it set of something in there that nearly fried my brain. I'd rather not do that again. 'Sides, I already got someone from engineering to take a look at it."

The souldagger disappeared from existence in a whirl of smoke and light and glitter. Megan nodded her head, her black and pink curls bouncing. "The last thing we want is you brain dead. Especially since...you know. It feels nice to have a, ah, somewhat friendly face around here." Heh. Pixie and Hellion friends.

Who woulda thunk it?

"Yeah... you're probably the only person on this ship I really know." Yeah, he must have hit bottom when Pixie is the closest thing he had to a best friend right now. And he wouldn't be surprised if she felt the same way.

"So who else is on this ship? I know Chamber is here..." No, he is not mentioning the hugging. Not. At. All.

Oh, she did. She really, really did. And it was a very weird feeling. "Gambit. And I spoke to Ms. Marvel. That's all I know so far, really. Oh! No! Spider-Man. That's...really all that comes to mind though." She crosses her arms. "Gambit's from way back in the past though, and I don't know where in time Spidey's from. I think some of the Young Avengers are here too."

The was a minor unpleasant noise as she rattled off Ms. Marvel's and Spider-man's names, but he made the most disgusted sound when she mentioned the Young Avengers of all people.

"The Young Pretenders are here?" Really, at this point, everything Avenger related made him want to puke, especially the Young Avengers.

"Yeah. I met that Hawkingbird girl when I first podpopped," she explained. "And I've seen the blonde one that grows really tall since then. And, also, Iron Lad. And Vision." She blinked. "Uh. Why does the ship like them more than us?"

"Probably cause they're so useless. Even the other Avenger teams don't want anything to do with them." He folded his arms. "Hell, you bring enough of us here, and we'd be off this ship inside of a week. All these Avenger types'll probably be too busy Civilly Warring to actually do anything useful."

"That's because we're trained by the older X-Men," Pixie replied. It's not like the Avengers went to school to learn what they did. The X-Kids on the other hand - - they were trained in everything.

"They've been sticking pretty close together, I think," she added. "It's been kind of lonely." And yet, at the same time, she's been able to not think about everything that's gone on at home. That's a good thing, right? "Maybe...there will be more of us. Soon."

"Let's hope so. Otherwise," he threw an arm around Meg, "you're stuck with me!"

Megan chuckled. "I never thought I'd hear myself say this - like, ever - but I'd rather be stuck with you than, you know, have no one at all."

"See? I am way better than nothing." And, admittedly, he was kinda glad to have her around. Because now he at least had something.

"Julian Keller, settling for being better than nothing. That collar really is futzing with your mind in horrid little ways, isn't it?" Pixie asked dryly. "Seriously though. You look like you've been through hell. That worries me. You were one of the stronger ones out of us."

he actually didn't have an immediate response for that. For a moment, he got a bit of a far away look in his eyes while he tried not to think about all he had been through.

"...I was just the most stubborn. But everyone has their limits."

"I'm sorry," Pixie replied. "I didn't mean to...I'm sorry." She offers him a wan, sad smile though, and pulls him into a hug. "I lost a piece of my soul. It's not the same thing - not exactly - but I like to think that I can relate."

Ordinarily, he probably would not have admitted such a thing to Pixie... or to damn near anyone not named Cessily. But, well, times are changing. He actually hugged her back. "We've both been through a lot.

"But they've been treating you good here? Anyone giving you shit for being a mutant?"

"All of us have, the past year or so," Pixie nodded. "The few people who know I'm a mutant have been really cool with it so far. But there aren't a lot of people from our world," she added. "It makes me wonder...what it's like to be a mutant in other places. Then there are some people who look at me like I'm Tinkerbell's raver-flavoured sister." She grinned brightly. "The fact that I explain that I have hallucinogenic pixie dust doesn't quite help fight that image, but I'm okay with it."

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