Hell hath no fury

Posted on Fri Oct 27th, 2023 @ 10:45 by Claire Cavendish & Phoebe Hunter

Chapter: All Hallow's Eve
Location: Underground Avalon Base
Timeline: Early morning, Wednesday, September 3rd, 1992
1847 words - 3.7 OF Standard Post Measure

The sun wasn't even up yet as Claire navigated the labyrinthine halls of the secret tunnels underneath Avalon. She heard the sounds of someone working out some issues in the gym and even without the abilities of the person in there she knew who she would find. It wasn't the first time she had come across Phoebe down there. It seemed that some parts of their routine actually synced up quite well. Although now that she thought about it a bit more she realised for a moment that it might've been slightly set up by the pre-cog.

She shrugged off that thought as she entered what they'd taken to calling the Dojo. "Good morning" After what happened Sunday to Monday night she had dropped the friendly Pheebs from her greeting. "How are you holding up?" She took off the hoodie that she had on while traversing the cold hallways of the institute and started jogging in place to try and warm up her muscles.

Phoebe would never admit whether it was set up or not, but as she stood there kick in the bag it was likely. The two days I’ve done nothing to change the cuts and bruises that were along her face and arms as well as several places that you could not see under her leggings and baggy T-shirt that fell off her shoulder.

“Been better.” She replied simply wishing she could do something with her hands to work out her aggression but it would be impossible to safely do it with her wrist the way it was, it was hard enough with her ribs.

Claire could relate to that. The bruises on her neck and her voice were in a bad shape for half the week. It was on the mend, which is why she was now comfortable being more physical in the training. "Need me to hold the bag for you?" She walked across the gym to close the distance between them. She gave an encouraging squeeze of her shoulder as she passed her.

“Not really. I do not think my ribs could cope with something solid.” She admitted giving the bag one more firm kick before sighing. “We need a healer.” She winced at the touch to her shoulders.

"We need to stop getting blindsided." Claire her jaw set and her fists balled. She didn't want this institute to be a pseudo-para-military organisation getting their people ready to fight in a civil war that the more cynical of their kind was so hell bent on triggering. "We need to get pro-active."

"And what do you propose that?" Phoebe asked. She had offered suggestions previously but she was just glad the Rangers had never succeeded in their bigger plan of the military base.

With a heavy sigh Claire shook her head. "We need to bring in a P.E. teacher that can focus on self defense." She remembered the man she'd talked to in Rotterdam before the school year kicked off. A cold shiver went down her spine. Not him at least. Perhaps there were others that might have a better philosophy surrounding that sort of thing, but she wouldn't know where to begin finding them. "I guess opening up job for someone like that in the current state of the country would send the wrong message. 'Wanted: someone that can teach our kids to fight you'."

Phoebe looked at the woman and nodded, it was very much time for that type of approach. Phoebe could train the adults easily enough and they had been coming on leaps and bounds but the children if she was going to maintain her cover was out of the question. "I can ask around?" She wondered thinking back to her teacher training days and if anyone on her courses had been studying fitness with an extra twist.

"That would be much appreciated." It was quite easy to spread the word in the mutant community, they were close knit and some of them were predisposed to gleaning and distributing information. To say it spread like a wildfire would be a disservice to how quickly word got out. "I'll see if I can find any takers as well. In the meantime, I think we should be more actively training staff and faculty as well. Perhaps look into expanding the Knight's roster."

“Do you have any one whose abilities would be helpful in mind?” Phoebe asked trying to see if anyone on the staff had something she had missed so far.

Claire shook her head a bit, "there's a new P.E. teacher coming in for an interview tomorrow. Valjean has seen the jet. Kaylee needs more control but then can be quite an asset." Her eyes narrowed a bit. "The librarian indicated she doesn't have mutant abilities." The tone in her voice was a bit conspiratorial on that one, "perhaps would be good to double check that?"

"I already have or at least people speak and talk after the battle," Phoebe commented having gone through with most of them after the battle to see what she had missed when she had gone to rescue Claire from ... him. "I will consider all of them but..." The woman paused as she tried to decide how to phrase her words so that it was not quite as negative. "and this is a big but here Claire, they need to learn control and they all need to fully understand the gravity of what we are doing here. We do not need anyone else upping and leaving when the going gets tough."

There was that familiar sting again. Students and faculty did choose their own security over standing up for what is right. It wasn't something she'd hold against them but they were building something here in the Highlands and it felt like people when people left that behind they were abandoning her. "Can't stop people from wanting to protect their lives." At least not in a way that would feel right.

"There is protecting their lives and then there is running and not discussing. Adults came here knowing fully what was happening. The students I can forgive as I was once a scared teenager with no idea how to handle what was coming my way." Phoebe could not forgive a couple of people for just leaving without discussion or communication.

"Is there any future where we come out on top of this?"

The question made Phoebe stop playing with the gloves she had been using to kick and punch the bag and took in the woman. "If I did not see us coming out on top I would not have come to save you." She answered quietly.

Claire nodded but didn't look to convinced about it all. There was still bruising around her neck, even though it was difficult to see on her. "That's reassuring at least." She knew that Phoebe didn't predict the ultimate truth, just possible futures. And that the stronger the possibility the stronger the vision was. For a question and situation as vague as theirs it was a wonder the precog could make an educated guess at all. "I've always been so opposed to violence and battle." She shook her head a bit at that naivety, "Now all I want to do is track down Robert and his merry folk and show them not to mess with us." It was like an epiphany on why people might be drawn to violence. It wasn't unknown to her, but she hadn't felt it this strongly in a long long time.

"Tell me about it." Phoebe was resisting every urge to call in every favour she had ever been owned to track him down and lock him up for the rest of his natural life. "But positive Claire you were never in love with that man. You have those standards to hold yourself to."

Standards didn't really come into the equation when it came to that particular bit of her personal life, at least not in Claire's opinion. "Well. There might be an opportunity there." It had felt wrong to keep information about their operation behind, but GWENN was different. "Do you have anything that might hold his genetic information?"

Phoebe raised an eyebrow. "Why?" Was her simple response questioning even as she was thinking through what she had stored in London.

"I'm sure as a history teacher in the UK you've heard about most Arthurian legends." Claire knew that she had to let go of her hesitation to include Phoebe in all of Avalon's secrets. "What if I told you they were true. At least. A lot of them are based on true events, or people. Or artefacts." She allowed for a moment to let that sink in. This was where she expected Phoebe to laugh and dismiss the notion, "I have one such artefact."

"The United Kingdom unlike a lot of other countries has more mysticism and magic than most countries. I did once serve her majesty in British Military Intelligence so it is not too much of a stretch." Phoebe had seen her fair share of magic and mysticism so it made a lot of sense to her that there were artefacts.

"Are you familiar with Guinevere's looking glass?" Claire wasn't quite sure how much was known about that particular artefact around the scholarly historians, or any of the MIs for that matter.

"Vaguely but not from British Military Intelligence but a professor I had in university was a big fan of mythology and how the United Kingdom is the best country for things that were true events or people that became the stuff of legends." Phoebe had always wanted to know if Excalibur / Caledfwlch - King Arthur's legendary sword was real.

Claire nodded, "I guess the witchbloods or faeries are a good example of that." She'd read a lot of things about how far back mutants had been. It had given a great deal of perspective to their recent troubles. The Witchhunts, the inquisition, terrible things done to people like them. She didn't dwell on it long. "It was used as a kind of wayfinder tool. We've been able to harness that and combine it with modern technology to be able to track down people based on genetic material. I've used it to find runaways, usually mutants, to offer them a safe place to come to. With the right genetic materials we could probably track down Robert or any of his crew if they reside in the same place."

“Ingenious. And potentially I haven’t destroyed my clothes from that night so there might be something from our fight.” Phoebe said looking at her hands thinking on that fight. They had never fought like that, it had always been heated words but now it was complicated. Anything good they had in the past in her opinion was tainted and filled her with something that she could not put a finger on just yet.

"That's a great place to start." Claire stepped closer and put a hand on the other woman's shoulder, "we're taking back the narrative."