So You're Revolting Too? [Karma]

[Mara Morgans]

If anyone were to see Mara right now, they might very well think she was a statue or perhaps some decommissioned sentinel prototype model. Her armor stood, eyes and chest dull and lifeless, with feet spread at shoulder length and arms folded behind her back. The fact that she took this stance in the middle of an expanse of wasteland littered with various Scraps lent itself to this notion as well. Of course, that was the point. The armor masked her bio-signal from any mutant tracking systems and the location allowed its appearance to blend in on the off chance of video surveillance. Within the seemingly-lifeless metal shell though, Mara was actually very active.

Her two reprogrammed sentinels were circling her position at opposite ends of a ten-mile radius, allowing her to feed her Armor's sensors through their own. This effectively boosted her Technopathic range to a fluctuating twenty miles with minimal energy expended on her part. As such, she could delegate but a small portion of her attention to scanning for any hostile signals while focusing on the real task at hand. Within her helmet, the Armor projected a wide holographic map which she mentally manipulated. She'd digitally composed it from the data she'd downloaded off the MRD mainframe prior to cutting her connection to their systems. It showed all their major installations and Mara examined the geography, topography, and contents in order to formulate an attack strategy. This had to be done right. She'd go after smaller prisons and cities first, securing recruits and making her presence known befo-

Mara paused. Beneath the expressionless mask of her Armor, her brow dimpled and she pursed her lips. There was some sort of signal out there. She instructed her Northernmost sentinel to hold its position. Odd; it wasn't MRD. In fact, the sentinel itself didn't seem to be picking up on the frequency at all. It was running completely beneath the MRD system's radar, which in and of itself was unusual. Only Mara's Technopathy, her mental presence funneled through the sentinel's array, made her aware of its existence at all. Closing down the mapping display, she powered up her armor.

As the eyes and the torso plasma blaster gleamed into fiery life with a low hum, a few of the Scraps whirred uncertainly. Their fractured programming registered her as sentinel tech though and they remained still. Her second sentinel having rounded about to reach the first and then passed it, its trajectory following the direction of the signal's source; Mara's reach was further extended and she was able to actually interface with the feed. It was encrypted but it was also outdated, taking but a moment of concentration for her to comprehend and bypass. What she found was surprising: the source was a truly massive data stream, easily categorized as a super computer, in the middle of the Wastelands. She needed to get closer personal proximity to delve deeper into its systems though.

Dust plumed and seared around Mara's boots as her Armor's jets roared to life. Staying low to the ground to avoid having to deal with deflecting any radar nets, flying parallel at an altitude of a mere couple yards above the dusty fallout dirt, her sentinels fell into line with her as she passed each one's position in turn. By the time she was rapidly closing the final mile of her journey, Mara was able to begin mentally accessing specs: an underground compound with, and she altered her trajectory slightly accordingly, a concealed entrance. However, it appeared that she had somehow not been as effectively invisible as she'd intended; as she and her sentinels pulled up, there was a young woman who looked about her own age already standing there, seemingly waiting for their arrival. Touching down in front of her while the sentinels hovered above and to either side, Mara gazed down at her and ran a facial recognition. The MRD did have a file on her and it explained how Mara had lost the element of surprise.

"I'll thank you to stay out of my head, Miss Vatican." The Armor enhanced and modified Mara's voice to a booming, echoing, baritone. It was a feature she'd added merely for effect, feeling the imposing masculine image the Armor lent her would garner both greater fear and greater respect than her own form and voice. Of course, it was probably wasted on this telepath, she noted as an afterthought. It wasn't a comforting thought; Mara was not a trusting person in more mundane senses, much less enough to feel anything but anxiety over someone reading her thoughts.

OOC: ((Hope this is aiight.))
((Took some libeterties/made some assumptions.))
((All based on what we'd discussed for the thread.))

[Aurora "Karma" Vatican]

Rory had been out and about in the "garden" for the last couple of hours reading a book and just generally sitting around. She liked to be outside because being inside made her feel confined in the dark and alone. She was smart, that was no doubt but she wasn't one to enjoy pouring over files day in and day out. Of course she would do anything in order to help out Wolverine and if that meant boring herself to death she would. But Wolverine hadn't needed her assistance today so she had decided to spend her day elsewhere. She knew that when she was exposed outside like this she had to be careful, on high alert. While they had been lucky so far that didn't mean they would stay lucky forever.

While outside Rory had been working on her psychic abilities, honing and strengthening them. Her telepathy was great and she could read almost any mind with ease, her telekinesis was only a few strides behind her telepathy but her mind control was lacking and so were any other poential abilities she might have. Rory didn't enjoy taking chances with her abilities and so she had no idea what her limit might be. All she knew was that she must be powerful or something because people wanted her dead, she had been on the list of mutants that were to be sent to the Capitol to be executed. The Capitol feared that any powerful mutant could house the next phoenix, she doubted it was her.

She was concentrating on moving boulders from place to place when something interrupted her thoughts. They had an intruder approaching very fast to the South of them. She could catch bits and pieces of all the information streaming from the girls mind. Before the female could even reach the borders of the facility Rory was there to "greet" her. The girl's thoughts were not extremely violent and so Rory decided she could handle it on her own. When the large metal suit landed in front of her she heard a loud and booming voice speak to her. Though she knew that inside was merely a young woman, not that the female wasn't strong but she knew that the armor was just an intimidation factor.

"I would keep your voice down or else you will attract those much more powerful than me. What do you want here? This is our place and we don't welcome strangers that easily" her tone was level and strong which was something new for her. For once her stupid selective mutism was taking the back burner and she was able to speak like a normal human being would. Rory wouldn't hurt anyone or anything unless she had to but her mind was tuned in on the girl, she wasn't in the girl's mind fully but rather was just catching enough to know what the girl planned to do. If the girl were to plan to attack, Rory wanted to know and react before things turned bad.

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[Mara Morgans]

Those more powerful than her? Behind the burning effervescent flare of her face plate, Mara's brows shot up. After all, she had MRD files on Aurora running through her brain: Ranged psychic, telekinetic, omega class mutant... potential Phoenix host? On the outskirts of the land beneath which the signal originated from and having modified the programming of her sentinels to scan its frequency and ease the energy she needed to exert herself, Mara had integrated with the underground compound's security system. She paused after Aurora spoke, running through logs of recent bio-scanned visitors as well as facial recognitions off of the current video feeds of who was there now. There were MRD files on all of them, some significantly more extensive than others, and they were impressive. However, none ranked on the same level with the data associated with Aurora; she was bluffing, Mara concluded.

"Don't be modest. If anyone here has the firepower to take me down, its you." She could have lifted her face plate and simply spoken face to face anyway, perhaps as a matter of courtesy. But honestly, it was a bit intimidating to her. In this suit, behind this mask, speaking with this voice; she was Magneto, reincarnation of one of the most feared mutants of all time and torchbearer for the resurrection of the original's war and all he stood for. Without it... she was just Mara Morgans, reckless little lesbo homeless orphan, spat on even by the disenfranchised social classes of a concentration camp. More even than the weapons and protection it provided, the identity her armor granted her was as much a source of power for her as her actual abilities.

"As to what I want... I think our goals are very likely in line with one another if you're keeping company with the likes of the Wolf." Even Mara had heard of her, the mutant who had been captured and escaped more times than could be counted, according to the whispered stories. Leading breakouts at numerous facilities. With the footage from the compound and the data from MRD, she now had a face and a name for her: Arianna Ramos. In fact, though he'd not gained popularity as a folk hero like Arianna; Mara's technopathically-derived intel now informed her that this Judah Aitken had a similar, if somewhat shorter, rap sheet. She'd thought that it would be on her shoulders to raise an army from the subdued masses; could it be that one was already gathering right here?

"I want to wake our people from their submissive slumber and rally them to remind the humans, the oppressors, why it is we who are Homosuperior." She raised her arms to gesture inclusively at the two sentinels hovering in the sky above them. Then she clenched her fists, bringing her hands down like she was dragging the metallic behemoths from the sky. They landed thunderously to either side of the two conversing mutants, glowing gazes illuminating the patch of burnt earth on which the duo stood.

"I can turn their weapons against them but it is the weapons we possess, the ones granted by evolution that are far more powerful than those humans can hope to build in their factories, that will win this war for us. Weapons like you." Perhaps a bit theatrical, but charisma and the boldness to flaunt it was a major part of rousing any people to fight, even telepaths. And besides, the truth was that Mara was genuinely excited, even if she tried to reign it in as much as possible; these people here could be an unexpected answer to accelerating the recruiting process. She was not an impatient person, had no illusions of winning this war over night, but that didn't mean she would turn her nose up at so fearsome a gift when it was practically dropped in her very lap.

[Aurora "Karma" Vatican]

It bothered her that this girl knew the extent of her abilities. Rory had to wonder how the girl knew so much about her so quickly, that was not exactly a good thing. If this new girl could access information about people that quickly then she could probably access information about anyone else that was currently at the Sanctuary. Rory made a mental note to herself to make sure and tell Arianna about this. "How do you know that?" she asked deciding to just try the ask and tell route. Instead of picking the girl's brain she was going to see if she would just tell her of her own free will. Of course if she chose not to then Rory could use other methods of getting her answers.

It soon became apparent to her that this girl also knew of Wolverine, but she called her the Wolf instead which was odd. "Her name is Wolverine" she added not appreciating that this girl was using a nickname. Their codenames were the only names that they ever gave out to other mutants and the like because then at least people couldn't trace them through their real names. Of course this girl here already knew her real name and probably new Wolverine's real name too. "I help because I owe her, that doesn't mean you and me have the same goal" she replied. She figured that this girl would tell her what goal it was that they supposedly had in common, or maybe she wouldn't tell her, time would tell.

She was right and soon the girl was telling her what she wanted to do, she was sharing her plan. Rory couldn't say that she completely agreed with what the girl wanted to do. "I don't want to turn against the humans, some of them are not bad. You cannot group them all together and assume that just because some humans fear us that all humans do." Rory believed in only punishing those that deserved it, she didn't agree with punishing the whole of a race just because of the wrongs some of them did, this was why her codename was Karma. "I am not a weapon, I am a human being and war is not something I will chose willingly. Violence doesn't solve everything, hatred will only fuel more hatred and more violence. They are afraid of things that are different that is why they attack us. But killing them all and starting a war that will cause innocent lives to be lost is not the answer to our problems. If we attack them we are only proving to the rest of the world that the Capitol is right, that we are monsters."

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[Mara Morgans]

"I stole a sizable chunk of data and intel from MRD when I escaped." Mara decided to answer the question, mostly simply because the question was actually posed. If Aurora was going to respect the privacy of her mind, then indulging the other girl in an explanation of how she came by her own knowledge was fair trade. And, while it was hardly as though she trusted her current companion in the least, the exchange at least eased some small portion of Mara's tension. Telepaths were unnerving, especially for someone who traded in so much deceit and acting, but they were on the same side after all, right?

The correction Aurora felt the need to vocalize over Arianna's moniker mildly surprised Mara. "The Wolf" was merely a reverent title that had offered some small bit of hope amongst the inmates at camp, not that any of them had allowed it to spur them into action, she noted bitterly. But Wolverine; Wolverine was the name of one of those mutants featured in the news clips of the Phoenix battle, the one's they'd been forced to watch as part of their anti-mutant indoctrination. The humans might have intended such viewings to create self loathing, even often been successful, but Mara knew the truth. These mutants they took the time to specifically represent as monsters were the ones they had most feared. It was why she'd decided to inherit her own stylized title, after all.

"A fitting name. You can call me Magneto." However, that introduction was the segue it seemed to the conversation turning away from the kinship Mara had begun to hope they might be developing. Aurora's rebuttal to her plans was disconcerting. She was actually defending the humans! She sounded like Mara's parents, who had always tried to explain away the hatred the humans tried to instill in the residents of the camp. But her parents were dead. Her father had given their oppressors an excuse to murder him by allowing their manipulations to turn he and another against each other, rather than attacking their real enemy. Her mother had been too weak to save him or herself. And now this girl spoke strongly, seemingly unaffected by being virtually surrounded by Magneto in her armor or her two even larger sentinels, of the same weak-minded mentality that was allowing for the very extermination of their shared race. Fury blossomed within Mara, not boiling out hot but rather turning cold and settling down to add to the hard lump that seemed to weigh within the core of her being more every day.

"I cannot group them all together?" Though her speech was measured and calm, the icy tone of her voice came out even through the vocal modifications of her armor. There was the faintest squeak of metal as her robotic hands clenched into fists.

"Cannot persecute them merely for the species of their birth? Single them out and strip them of any individual rights? Treat them all, without exception, as no better than animals? Murder any who seem like they even have the capability to stand up for their own freedom?" Even her mechanically-altered monologue trembled with cold rage as she listed off all the injustices done to mutants because the humans did treat them all the same based on their own pre-conceived perceptions.

"Is that what I cannot do?" Mara clasped her armored arms behind her back, the hatred and pain Aurora's denial had brought to the surface serving as fuel for her dedication to the cause. This girl would be the first of many she would shake awake to the realities of what needed to be done. Either that, or she would be the first of many to fall in Mara's path for lacking the strength to be a part of the future she sought to bring about.

"Violence may not solve everything but it is a solution to many issues and its alternative, the notion of peace, has not been an option since before either of our lifetimes. War is already here. It has been for generations. The only choice to make is whether to be a casualty on the sidelines or a warrior on the front lines. They are only the innocent and us only the monsters because they say so, because we let them win the last war, let the destructive power of the Phoenix be a torch for their rage and our defeat rather than using it as the beacon of their terror and our victory that it should have been!

"History is decided by the victors; when we win the next war, we will get to decide who are the monsters. I was born in one of their concentration camps. I lived my whole life, if it can even be called living, there up until a few weeks ago. So I tell you this; the life you think you had before your powers manifested was a lie that you must let go. You are not a human being nor should you degrade yourself by associating with the homosapiens. You are mutantkind, homosuperior, and straddling the fence between the two is not an option.

"Its. Us. Or. Them."

[Aurora "Karma" Vatican]

The conversation may have started out fine but it did not end that way. It became quickly apparent that this girl, Magneto as she caled herself, was one of those bitter mutants that condemned all of human kind as scum and thought that her way was the only way. What made Rory slightly amused in the situation was that Magneto thought that she could just come into the Sanctuary, a place that already had a leader and pretend to be the queen bee. Rory had to wonder how far being so bitter, resentful and controlling had ever gotten this girl in her life. It didn't matter what the girl said because it wouldn't change Rory's mind. Rory had been set in her way for a long time and she didn't really care to change. She helped Wolverine only to repay her for rescueing her, other than that she didn't care about the war, about the fight.

Magneto's emotions were so strong that Rory could have heard them without even trying from a mile away. Her father had been murdered by the guard, her mother had died of some illness in the camps. Magneto, or rather Mara, had lived her life in a camp and had lived a rough life at that. Sure those were all reasons to be angry at the world, angry at the humans. But Mara was sadly mistaken if she thought she was the only one that had suffered any pain and hurt in this world. When she told Rory that the person she had been before her abilities had manifested was all a lie it triggered anger inside of Rory. Mara thought she was the only one that had things to be angry about, but in reality she knew nothing about the people around her and frankly she didn't take the time to learn anything about them. It made Rory angry that this girl thought she could come into this place and walk all over the people already settled here.

"You think you are the only one that has suffered pain and loss. You are sadly mistaken. I know why you hate them so much but you aren't the only one that has gone through that type of despair. You treat me like I haven't seen the true faces of the humans, but you are wrong. I watched my mother die right in front of my eyes, I watched my little sister suffer and die. All of this because of some drunk driver, some drunk human, he killed them. I was in a coma for months, I have the scars to prove it. Broken ribs, a collapsed lung, shattered arm. When I woke up the world was gone, my father was in jail for avenging his family and my brother was left with me. He found out about my true self and he sent me to a camp. Wolverine saved me right before I was supposed to be shipped off to the Capitol to be murdered because I was too strong. You think I don't know what they are capable of? You really think I am that blind? My own blood turned me in and disowned me, but unlike you I don't condemn and entire race just because some of them are lost." Her voice was strong and her hands shook with anger. But it wasn't the same anger that Mara had, it was anger because Mara was just like those that were condemning them.

"You aren't any different then them, you say the only way is to fight them and make them bow to us as they are doing to our kind. Two wrongs do not make a right, and it never will. I may be a mutant but at least I am not so clouded with hatred and anger that I can't see right from wrong. There are human children, the next generation, there is hope for them. But you are too blind to see that. You are not any better than them. So don't you try and come here, into our world, our Sanctuary and tell me how I need to live my life. You are not the boss and as long as you think you are you can get the hell out of here. Mutants like you are a liability to our cause because you can't be trusted to make the right decisions for the good of everyone. It is not black and white, and I choose to stand in the grey" she added and with a swift movement of her eyes flung one of the Sentinels that had landed near Mara about fifty feet across the dirt. It was a warning that Mara was not welcome to come here and try to force people to change. Mara was nothing but another mutant, she was not the boss, she was not the leader and Rory refused to fall under her lead.

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