The X-Project

Good news, we're all back from Dubai.

Bad news, both Milan and Quentin Quire showed up and decided to start a bit of an affray. We left Quentin in the custody of the authorities, Milan got away.

We're all fine, with the exception that I'm a bit banged up. Doc Voght says I'm off strenuous duty until this cracked rib heals, but it looks worse than it is.

As much as it galls me to say it, Laurie actually did rather well for herself given that she's been faffing about in Europe for the past six months instead of actually training.

Filing this on Cyclops' behalf since he's being bandaged in the back of the Blackbird. Our "anonymous" tip was right, the Brotherhood (specifically Mystique and Nimrod) showed up to cause trouble. Sway, Cyclops, and Nightcrawler did recon on the ground while the rest of us did a stealth circuit patrol in the Blackbird.

Nightcrawler encountered Mystique and for once did NOT have whatever pseudo-Oedipal complex he suffers from rear its head and actually managed to counter her plan to kidnap the alledgedly-mutant kid of one of the FoH protestors (I know, it's a day of irony all around. Don't think I'm not appreciating this) - turns out the boy was just a regular kid, Mystique was just playing more headgames.

Nimrod, however, did quite a number on the ground team and Peter Lakatos. Phoenix is attending to the injured, but they should all be fit for duty soon without any lasting injuries. Points to Nightcrawler for porting the Hungarian Psycho off into the Atlantic. But as the ranking X-Man on the plane I'll dock him half of those for leaving all Nimrod's limbs intact.

ETA back to mansion: twenty minutes. Phoenix says to let Amelia know we've got one needing stitches and two to be checked for possible concussions, but no critical priorities.

It looks like the folks responsible for Nathan's coma have decided to send a message. His psimitar just got delivered via courier - I've checked it out, no booby traps or sabotage involved. This smacks more of someone 'counting coup', just taunting.

Message with it says that it "wasn't his to take". I'm not sure what that means.

Yeah, this is a lot weirder than I thought it would be. In short, Kyle and I are out of the greys and into the blacks. He needs a new codename. I'm fine on that score, thanks for asking.

Short of world-explodey stuff, I am totally buying a round at Harry's on Friday. (And okay, Kyle, pizza on Saturday.)

Our final prodigal has been recovered - in Sri Lanka, of all places - and appears to be in good health. Wanda and Doug and Amanda picked him up and will be headed back stateside today.

As for me, I am still rather hyped up on adrenalin so I'll be spending some quality time repairing/restoring the Blackbird after I upload my mission report. Running hot for so long has done quite a number on the engines, as did the low-altitude collision in Australia thanks to a teammate who shall not be named.

Last night, Marius and Kurt and I had a bit of a run-in with some of the local Friends of Humanity. One of them - in fact, one of the kids who used to run with Tommy - had set up a sort of mutant social networking website, in an attempt to gather a number of mutants in one place to basically take their shot at. Admittedly, I fell for it hook, line, and sinker and if it hadn't been for having Marius and Kurt there, I'd probably be in a hospital bed eating through a straw.

However, a few calls to some lawyers my father recommended to me and with the help of some useful video that I happened to acquire during the evening, a number of the people involved have been identified through previous criminal records and injunctions are being filed for assault charges. As well, the hosting company providing space for the website has taken it down pending fraud charges, and that one goes straight through the FBI's Internet Crimes Division. As far as I can tell, no other "meet-ups" had been scheduled through the site, and I managed to get a hold of the list of folks that did register through the website, and a copy of all the information is being forwarded to them for their own safety.

They're getting more subtle out there. It's not just all picketing and vandalism anymore.

16.55' N, 62.25' W - small island in the Caribbean, unnamed. Signal's definitely coming from there, and it fits with the video data. I've downloaded location and weather data right to the Blackbird. They're still transmitting, which is a good sign.