Reunion of Elements

[Jacinda Blake]

Considering who she was, Jacinda supposed there were more creative ways to show up back in her hometown, at her old house. Apple Valley, New York was not the most receiving of small towns, as was evident from her last two visits. So this trip she chose a more quiet arrival, in the back seat of a hired car. The drive gave her time to think, and boy did she ever have a lot to think about.

It had all started when she woke up in a hospital bed. Weak and confused, Jacinda had blinked the sleep from her tired blue eyes, and then instantly panicked. Medical facility, IV's and confusion usually spelled certain doom for mutants. After pulling out the IV's, she climbed over the bed rails and quickly dressed in her own clothes. Conveniently she had found them in the room's single closet, washed but stained black. Charred. Carlos!? Where was he? Fearing her boyfriend was similarly incapacitated in some other room she set her mind to go save him. The plastic covered chart hanging at the foot of her bed gave her pause. Removing it she noted the name on the sticker - Jane Doe. It seemed they didn't know who she was. Curious, Jacinda quickly scanned through the contents of the chart. An accident. A concussion. She flipped through labs and thankfully didn't see anything about x-genes or mutations. Marveling at her return of good luck, one lab caught her attention.

Sitting in the car now, she recalled exactly what her reaction had been. She'd said: 'No way...' just before dropping the chart to the floor, and catching herself on the wall before incurring another head injury. She smiled now, growing more accustomed to the idea.

After the shock started to wear off, Jacinda had poked her head out the door to find a normal looking hospital ward and not some crazed military compound. She fled without waiting for so much as an Against Medical Advice waver, running down the nearest staircase and out of the anonymous hospital. The mutant heiress located a payphone, placed a call to her lawyer and made arrangements to be picked up and taken to a hotel to recover. She still had no idea where Carlos was, but given the nature of the news she'd just gotten, admittedly she needed time to think before seeing him. After another conversation with her attorney, Jacinda received word of further new developments. Her sister Lucy had been found - alive and well. Jacinda was so happy that she burst into blubbery tears on the phone with the man who handled the family finances. She'd have hugged him had he been present! She demanded to know where her sister was, when she could see her, everything!

Now, having just arrived home in New York, she was being driven to the reunion she had never lost hope for. "We'll arrive in a few minutes, Miss Blake."

Her stomach lurched uncomfortably. Nerves she told herself, knowing otherwise. Sipping on a bottle of ginger ale, Jacinda tried to smile.

I'm coming Lucy.

[Undine]

Ultramarine eyes diligently explored the task laid out before her; water boiling, the oven dialed to approximately four hundred degrees, a slew of ingredients set out upon the recently scrubbed kitchen counter tops. Ever since she had started living with Ethan Frost, the very man she had met on the beach all that time ago, she had taken up the bulk of domestic duties usually shared by the home's occupants. It was the least she could do. He worked a full time job and she wasn't exactly brave enough to venture anywhere beyond his quaint two bedroom apartment. Soon, she vowed inwardly, she would apply to the small culinary school down the street. She just needed a bit more practice and a bit more time to come to terms with... herself.

The timer on the microwave. which was suspended above the stove, binged; Lucy lurched into motion, removing the pot from the burner and then opening the oven so a perfectly baked loaf of garlic bread could be removed. All of the ingredients were put back in their appointed place, the food was arranged with care upon two separate plates, and then she heard the squeak of the front door. She smiled in a subtle way, her cheeks flushing lightly as she stepped out of the kitchen to greet her house mate. Slender hands were placed upon the edge of the wall separating the kitchen, hallway, and foyer. She peered into the living room, which adjoined the foyer, her blonde locks swaying about her shoulders as the vent began expelling cool air above her.

"W... welcome home, Ethan. I-I... hope you had a good day. Dinner is ready if.... if you're hungry, okay?"

[Alter]

It wasn’t a glamorous job, that was for certain, but it paid the bills for now. What he was really worried about was putting the money together for her to go to culinary school, having been stashing away as he could to attempt to provide for Lucy. It would work out though, of that he was certain, as long as they were both willing to be patient. Until that time, she practiced what she could and took care of the homestead, of which he was grateful.

“Starving.” He commented back to her, moving down the hall and towards the kitchen. “Smells wonderful.” He admitted, stepping up behind her and leaning down to place a kiss on her cheek. From there he moved over to the sink, giving two pumps to the soap dispenser. “You need a hand with anything?” Both palms rubbed together beneath the sink, rinsing off the soap and any leftover dirt and grime from work.

[Jacinda Blake]

Finally passing through the main gate and heading up the driveway, Jacinda's jitters reached some kind of peak. When the driver came around to open the car door for her, it was all she could do to not fly out - literally. While she stared up at the house where she'd grown up, he busied himself with removing her single bag from the trunk.

"Would you like me to wait with you, Miss Blake?", he asked.

The soft wind carried voices from within the house. Jacinda smiled. How like Lucy to plan some sort of surprise party for their long awaited reunion. "No, thank you. I'll be all right. You go on ahead." She tipped the man, sending him on his way and headed up to the front door.

Another flutter of nerves assailed her, but she managed to open the door with an eager smile. "Lucy, I'm home!", she quipped with an over exaggerated Desi Arnaz accent.

"Surprise." A male voice answered, unfamiliar and cold.

A shudder ran across her skin, a warning. Without warning there was a popping sound and something heavy was thrown across her. "Got her!", a second male voice shouted from high above on the second floor landing.

Jacinda tumbled to the marble floor, ensnared in netting. She struggled to fly up despite the burden on her, but they were ready for that too. A third voice, female, laughed at her just before cracking her across her already injured noggin, making her world go fuzzy. Her last thought before losing consciousness was that The effing Brotherhood had her in their clutches again, bent on some new natural disaster with her as the ammo. Fear, this time not only for herself, consumed her and everything went dark.

[Undine]

After dinner, Lucette quickly gathered all the dishes and pots she'd used; then, she submersed them in a sink full of warm soapy water. As soon as her fingers sank within the bubbly liquid, all of the stress from the day seemed to slip away. The fluid substance began swirling around her fingertips and then she brought the controlled vortex against one of the plates resting against the bottom of the basin. Just as she might have begun to disperse the food particles from the object's surface, her veins seemed to run cold. Unfamiliar voices rushed into her head, resounding and clear. Then, her sister's voice. The chilling feeling continued upward, circling behind her eyes until all she could see was the interior of her former home. Empty aside from the shadowy figures that moved around within.

Jacinda...!

Dread filled her heart and she pulled her hands out of the water suddenly, causing it to splash across the front of her. The plates and pots smacked around within the sink, sloshing to a sudden halt as Lucette grasped her bearings. Turning sharply, she called out for Ethan before careening out the front door. No thought was spared toward how long it had been since she'd returned to that place. All she knew was that her sister needed her. There was no way she could deny that calling...
___________________

Outside the former Blake household

Bare feet sank into the moist grass and her cerulean eyes briefly scanned the front of the house before she headed forward. The front door was already ajar, left that way by whoever had last entered. Pushing the aperture into a completely opened state, she peered inside warily. Seeing those three individuals standing over her sister was the only invitation she needed. The floor of the first story began to rumble beneath their feet, causing them to stumble and search desperately for the source. Pipes, no longer able to contain the water pressure building up within them, burst through the dusty floorboards. Water sprayed across her sister's assailants and began to saturate the ground she laid upon.

"I don't know who you are.... but you will step away from my sister right now!"

[Alter]

He barely caught up to her when she stormed out of the apartment, and even now he had his questions about what was going on. They could and would wait though. The long and short came down to her sister being in trouble at an old home of Lucy’s, and he wasn’t about to let her go alone. Her abilities were formidable, but he still felt that obligation to protect her, and being potentially bulletproof had it’s shock factor when facing off against normal humans.

Her display served to distract them a bit, as was mostly planned. Rather than coming through the same entrance, he flanked through a side entrance to the home. While the trio surveyed the rising water level, he came in tackling one of the men to the floor. Immediately the girl turned on him, taking her automatic weapon up and spraying his back. Sparks emitted from every bullet hole she put into his jacket, the ring around his finger acting as the conduit from which he drew his knew layer of skin.

[Jacinda Blake]

It was impossible to determine how long she had been down. Time had become a spiral of noise, and pain. Amid the thumping and bumping in her head she began to feel the unusual sensation of water leaking into her nose. In reflex she sniffed, managing to inhale some of the liquid. The shock managed to bring Jacinda around with a choking cough. She blinked incomprehensibly at the strange view of the quickly flooding floor and several unfamiliar pairs of feet. The sound of a weapon being discharge caused her to roll to her side, covering her head in instinctual response.

"I thought you said her family drowned!", someone screamed.

"It's what the reports said!"

As the goons argued among themselves, Jacinda realized they were not Brotherhood agents. Just fanatical anti-mutant activists, most likely local. Misguided fools, all. The fact that their would-be victims were defending themselves would likely just enrage them more.

"The reports.. are often...wrong. ", Jacinda managed to groan. "..about many things. Get out!" A drip, not of water but of blood, trickled down her forehead and into her eye. Her fingers pressed to the wound and when she saw evidence of it she frowned. "Get out, NOW." The quickly rising water level suddenly rippled outward, touched by a blast of air. A warning.