One of the good things about being friends with a very weird and suspicious Merchant was the lounging rights in his shop. The very shop that had no reason to be this big on the inside.
Jess was sprawled over his foreign foreign leather sofa while sipping a drink that was definitely not from their local cosmic cluster. If this was considered a soft drink from wherever Isaac got it from then she didn't want to taste what they considered alcohol. It was taking her enhanced metabolism to stop her from feeling tipsy but she was definitely lightheaded.
In front of her was an opened book, Lin Kuei Martial Arts, that had detailed diagrams of martial forms and contextual texts. Apparently there were four books of different ranks under the same title and the one she was reading was of the Warrior rank, one rank above Adept/Initiates and ranked below the Master and Grandmaster rank.
She never would have thought that she would ever take to learn martial arts from a book than from a boxing ring. It should have been harder to understand what the book was talking about, especially since it was harder to translate written words to correct movements as opposed to the normal visual lessons, but for some reason it wasn't as hard as she thought.
Sure it would take time to actually perfect the movements in physical training but for some reason the texts stuck to her brain like glue, making it easier to visualize and perform when she practiced it.
She raised her hand and looked around the shop, nodded to herself and rested her head back on the intoxicatingly soft leather. It was definitely the shop. Or the book. Or both.
Her eyes drifted back to the open book and she sighed.
As for why she suddenly took to some mystical Kung Fu, part of the reason was because of the blind lawyer. Sure, she could fold him in half with her strength but that was only because she was magnitudes stronger than he was. She had seen him take on guys twice his size and double that in numbers and it was like seeing a rookie Mohammed Ali getting into his zone.
His fancy trick with his bat sensing(echolocation or whatever) and his proficiency in boxing made him a generally good fighter. She could scrap very well, that was out of the question, but seeing Matt floundering in a way that promised a picture of a very good fighter tickled something in her.
Her first thought had been to go back to the gym and have a good one with the bags or the unlucky sucker to get in a ring with her but she quickly scrapped that idea when the issues with it became apparent.
She was a pretty violent person. She knew that. She also had a very short temper and was prone to violent outbursts and neither of those habits meshed well with the idea of sparring against someone, especially if they were more skilled than her and most especially when she had to hold back her strength. All it would take was one session of frustration for her to lash out and crack someone's skull.
She had almost killed off the idea entirely when she remembered that there was someone who could definitely help her.
She had been thinking of something along the lines of suppressing her strength(even if she hated the idea) but Isaac had done her a better one.
Why go back to ordinary boxing when she could learn real fighting stuff? The legit kind. The answer to that was a fighting manual from some Kung Fu school called Lin Kuei, and according to Isaac they produced some of the greatest fighters on their planet and even across their local dimension, whatever that meant.
Long story short, learn fight book equals to throwing real hands. Legit hands.
Finishing the first book for Adept had been easy enough, and while she wouldn't say she had 100% mastered it and was at the top level of Lin Kuei Adepts, she had learnt enough for her to move on to the next one. Initially, while being her perfectly impatient self, she wasn't sure if she had really gotten enough of it down so she had asked Isaac and he had told her that her level was sufficient enough to advance. She hadn't ignored the way his eyes glowed when he said that but she also didn't press much on it.
Now here she was, slowly learning how to fight from a book and while the knowledge was slowly being pressed into her brain, what she now lacked was a sparring partner. So back to square one.
She hummed as she let the thoughts fizzle away. She looked away from the book, images and words running weirdly in her head, and tried to focus on something else. Her eyes met that of a red haired doll and she casually looked away from it and focused back on her book.
She couldn't focus single-mindedly on the book so she took it as a sign of that being enough study for the day and deposited her book back in her bag. She checked her watch and saw that it was high noon, which means she's been here for at least three hours. Not a bad way to pass the time in her opinion.
She came across someone the moment she left the lounge area, a woman with stark white hair and one of the clearest blue eyes she's ever seen, who also looked impeccably familiar for some reason.
Well, this was Isaac's shop. It was bound to draw in interesting people like whoever the woman was. She didn't let it bother her but instantly regretted it in the next second.
There were like ten of them that were standing around Isaac's counter, and were of two different groups if the way they were staring at each other was anything to go off on.
Her eyes were drawn to the most familiar person, or rather the most familiar getup. That specific cape and helmet were distinctly familiar to anyone in this part of the world. She almost cussed when Magneto and the rest of them turned to look at her.
Since when did Magneto look that young? She wanted to cross it off as cosplay but didn't for the simple fact that this was Isaac's shop.
Ah, a showdown between mutants. Any other day and she would have been worried about escalation but when she looked at Isaac and saw the same carefree smile on his face she relaxed.
"Leaving?"
"Yeah, rent isn't going to pay itself." And wasn't that the truth. This very shop had drained her finances faster than anything else ever did since her first paycheck. "Catch you later."
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[POV: The Hellfire Club]
Emma Frost looked at the gathering of people around her and could help but snort inwards. For all their power and influence and self-gratifying words, and as much as they tried to hide it, they were being cautious. They were not scared, no. They wouldn't be at this table if they were easily frightened. These were people who shined brightest in muddy waters and currently the waters were as muddy as it could get.
They were looking for who would be the first to test the depths. Her eyes went round the table and so did the others. If it were any other situation they would be subtly trying to sabotage the others while they reaped whatever profit they could but this was the first time she could remember seeing them hesitate to secure the advantage.
Well not all of them.
Her eyes met the Black Queen's and it easily moved away as per the same cursory glance she had given the others.
The reasons why they were doubling back and making sure every parcel of information was as accurate as it could be was because of the identity of the people they wanted to steal from.
Most would hear of Magneto and his Brotherhood and it would give them pause – a valid reaction to any who knew the man. The same could also be said for the affable Charles Xavier and his X-Men. Emma prided herself in her ability to recognize patterns, even the obscure ones, so while others might look down on the crippled psychic – her included, except it wasn't general. Her ridicule for the man was targeted – the fact that the team of mutants he led had a higher success rate than both the Brotherhood and the Avengers told her explicitly who she most needed to be wary of. Luckily for her, she had experience in pushing Xavier's line.
According to the reports(hers was quintuple-checked), Xavier and Magneto had confirmed the previous year's reports of mutant cures, which was both good and bad for reasons that depended on perspective.
What confused all of them however was the fact that neither group came to heads like they usually did. In fact from what was observed, it looked like there was a truce between both groups and it was holding so far.
But then Charles Xavier became an ex-cripple while Magneto lost half of his age. That had shaken the Hellfire Club.
They had realized all too late that the supposed mutant cure was not the prize they had thought it was. It was the other resources that could be tapped from where the cure came from. Resources that could make Xavier walk again and return Magneto's youth. Oh and also stopped Scott Summers from needing those garish shades.
Magneto regaining his youth was a red flag for those who held a grudge against the man, of which she was excluded, as it meant that his declining abilities(as if) were now on the upwards trend… again.
She frowned inwardly as the second part of that memory resurfaced. She was unfortunate enough to be given another reminder that Charles Xavier, for all his lack of a spine, was still the greatest telepath on earth… when he was a cripple. The reminder was a jolting one.
Two of the strongest mutants in the world had upped their trumps.
Her glance drifted to a stop at Sebastian Shaw. He still radiated his stalwart confidence but she refused to believe it. If he really was confident then he would have reached his hands into Magneto and Xavier's pockets rather than call for a meeting.
She wondered if the reason why he called it at this time had any connection to the information she recently acquired about both mutant groups going after Bolivar Trask. She wasn't so sure but, as much as it grated her to admit it even in her head, she couldn't put anything past Sebastian Shaw. He was that competent and insidious.
In this room, everyone had a degree of worry and uncertainty concerning the current state of things, including her, except for the Black Queen, Selene Gallio. Even without being able to read her mind, Emma was certain that the only thing she felt towards the information shared was equal parts amusement and interest. Now she had to worry about how much the Black Queen's interest would influence Shaw's actions.
"Before we start, I want it put forth that Norman Osborn is being considered for inclusion to the Inner Circle as the last piece has remained vacant since Fisk's untimely end." Shaw said in a silky baritone that made her want to gag. Mentally she did. Physically she remained the emotionless Queen that all saw.
Seeing no one put up an objection, Shaw smiled. "With that out of the way, we can't afford to remain ignorant on what is happening in the mutant circles. From the information I've received, they recently dealt with Bolivar Trask who everyone assumed to be dead. The fact that they went after him unprompted, especially when he has been successfully hiding for years now is worrying."
She discreetly glanced at Donald Pierce, the Black Bishop, but the loud mutant hater's face was set in his perpetual frown.
"Whatever he might have been working on must have truly been important for them to work together."
"Trask is old news," Donald Pierce scoffed, writing off his old partner. "It's nothing other than another mutant-killing machine given his obsession and history. We should be trying to find out what those two mutants know."
She also noticed that neither Shaw or Pierce made mention of SHIELD's presence during Trask's takedown. She filed it for consideration.
While they made roundabout statements and proclamations, Emma wondered how she could get Xavier neutral enough to talk to her, especially after her last blunder.
Something was going on and it was much worse than what any of these fools suspected, more so after the last piece of information she had gotten from the Mansion.
Victor von Doom had visited the Mansion. That was no longer a red flag but a caution tale.
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