Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Taskmaster sat back at his end of the table, surveying his surroundings. Why did these government types always insist upon these dimly-lit rooms for their briefings? They could do so much better with a bit more lighting. Hell, morale could improve, and maybe they'd be able to pull that gigantic stick out of their collective asses.

"Hello Mr. Taskmaster," stated a rather well dressed red-headed man. Despite the darkness of the room, he wore sunglasses, though whether or not this was just to look cool was anyone's guess. "My name is Henry Gyrich. We've never met, but you've done some amazing things for my former supervisors in the past. Your portfolio is quite impressive."

"Why thank you," stated Taskmaster plainly. "But no need to mention that we've never met. I never forget a face."

"No, apparently you dont, which explains your expertise. The Taskmaster, the man with the world's best memory, able to replicate the actions of anyone he sees without ever having to practice. It's no wonder your skills are so sought after."

"Indeed, but as flattering as this may be, is there a point to why you called me?"

"Ah yes... that," Gyrich said, as he pressed a switch on the wall. Immediately, television images of the X-Men's battle with Ahab's hounds began to appear throughout the room. "I'm sure you remember the incident in Boston a few months back? It was an all-out mutant brawl, and in the end quite a few of those freaks ended up dead. It was quite satisfying."

"... once again, the point?" asked the Taskmaster.

"Well, that whole ordeal was little more than a game of puppetry committed at our hands," stated Gyrich, looking quite proud of himself. "See, while the majority of humanity appears to be undecided about how they feel about mutants, we represent a rather large faction fo the government that has decided we'd rather not see whether they truly become a threat or not. These characters like 'Magneto' or the 'X-Men' may well have some redeeming qualities, but as long as they have the ability to level mountains without the need to answer to anyone I am not about to risk allowing them to think they own this world."

"Oh Christ," muttered Taskmaster. "Listen, I'm really not into this whole man vs. mutant thing, pal. I dont sympathize with them, but I dont hate them either, and I'm not into genocide."

"You misunderstand us, Taskmaster. We are not asking for you to go on a killing spree here. If that's all we wanted, then we've got plenty of bombs to use to blow those freaks straight to hell. No, we need your expertise because we need someone who can fight at their level, because we want them to remain both alive and entirely unaware of the big picture once you are done."

"You know I'm really getting sick of all this vague s**t you're going on about. Lets make this simple. What. Is. The. Job?" asked a rather irate Taskmaster.

"Fine then..." muttered Gyrich. He hit another button, displaying the schematics of the mansion to the Taskmaster. "Here we see the inner workings of the Xavier Institute for Higher Learning. It's a rather simple looking school, save for the fact that the teaching staff, as well as the several dozen students who attend, are all mutants. Of note, there is:

-Wolverine, a physical trainer with the ability to survive any injury;
-Storm, whose power and personality should be obvious;
-Cyclops, a born leader whose eye blasts can punch through stone;
-Jean Grey, one of the most powerful telepaths on the planet;
-and Charles Xavier. THE most powerful telepath on the planet.

Not to mention all the other students, whom you will receive bios on later. Your task is simple. Infiltrate the already well-guarded school, housed by mutants, deep underground to retrieve some files for us."

"Files?"

"Yes... it is a program called Cerebro, to be precise. A simple computer program capable of locating and identifying every single mutant on the planet."

"So let me get this straight, you want me to break into this school, which by the looks of things already has better security than most nuclear silos, and is home to some of the most powerful and dangerous mutants on the planet, to retrieve a file that is probably more heavily guarded than any other single element within their school?" the Taskmaster asked.

"Yes, an we'd like you to be able to do it without being detected, if possible."

He paused for a moment, and then spoke. "Sounds fun, when do I start?" he asked.

OOC: LOL, don't worry about it girl. It's school season now, so the guilds gonna be moving a bit slower than usual. I work at a drug store, and for the last two weeks, what I've been selling most is postar boards. I promise you're not the only one with essays, or projects. I'm in college myself, and tomorrow I've got a test on drugs. (Pharmacy Tech classs) So don't worry about it.

IC: "Uh, yeah, that would be very welcome right about now, thanks!" the girl cried in reponse to John's question. While she seemed happy to see him, though, the guys around her didn't seem to be. One of them started to walk up to John. "Yeah, well wha' are you gonna do to make us stop with the little blonde thing, eh? You don't seem tha' tough to me dude." John thought about what the guy said. "You know you're right, it's been so long since I've been in a street fight that I'd probably loose right now if I tried to do it," John said with a grin as he stopped playing with his lighter and lit it, "which is a shame for you, cause if you handn't reminded me about it, you'd would've had a good chance at beating me." He took his eyes of the man just for and seconded and focused on the flame of his zippo. The guy let out a small scream as he watched the flame jump up five times, so that it was now as big as him. John looked at the guy and smiled. "There," he said showing the guy his giant flame, "that should make us even. Now both sides have a good chance at winning," he said with an evil grin.
" F-Fair!?" the guy cried out, "There's nothing fair about a man taking on five guys with a four foot flame!!!" John thought about what the guy said. "Your right. A man with a four foot flame can't just take on five guys." John looked at the flame. It jumped another foot. Now the flame was five feet tall. "There we go," John said with a smile, " A foot for each of you. Now we're even" The man staired at the fire. He was just about to open his mouth, obviously about to make another complaint, when one of his friends hit him in annoyance. "Shut up man, before he makes that thing bigger!!" the guy said while looking at John. It was easy for anyone to see that he was loving every minute of this. "Well guys," John said in a bored voice, "I've got things to do, and I'm sure the lady back there we like to be out of here too, so I'm just gonna end this now." And with that John swung the flame down hitting everyone of the guys. They all started runing around screaming in pain, and there was no question why. Hey wouldn't you be running around in circles if you're body was on fire?
John looked up at the girl. He'd made sure to keep the flame, along with the heat, away from the girl. "Hey," he called out to her as he put his lighter away, "we better get out of here before the police come"

"Hello Rose." She said as she was stuffing her cloths into a dresser drawer. She looked up and rubbed the back of her neck. "Yea, its getting a bit brisk though...either that or the time with my Uncle in Navada has thinned my blood." She smiled until she saw the gloves and she sighed. "Yea, they were supposed to help her control her electrical discharges." Even though she really didn't know her that well her death did hurt.

Pietro, happy to have some real food for a change, found himself in slightly better spirits. "General Tso, you were a bloodthirsty foe, but your chicken (and occassionally shrimp) is delightful!" he shouted, mimicking Mr. Burns from the Simpsons. He tossed one of the boxes to Victoria, and went about struggling to use chopsticks on lo mein. He lamented the loss of his arm to hold the damn box still.

"I gotta think of some way to grow my arm back. If only we had someone nearby who could warp reality at will, with little or no adverse consequences. Or... well consequences are fine if I get my arm back," he said aimlessly to himself. Wanda most likely was about to hide somewhere.

Markus leaned over the bag and plucked up what he had ordered. "I've got some cellular rejuvenator shots left over from my accident, but I'm not sure what they'd do to you...so we might want to forget about those..." Markus said to Pietro grabbing a fork and digging in. "Anyone want my egg roll?"

"But then you would need to make sure it doesn't rust in water," said Sasha. She heard Markus's comment on his egg roll. She reached for it but Victoria had grabbed the other end. They glared at each other. "Oh boy," said Markus. He and Pietro just got out of the kitchen as sand and screechs flew everywhere. "I saw it first!" said Sasha. "No I did," Victoria yelled back. "Man all this over an eggroll," said Markus. "Yeah, and I was about to give mine up too," added Pietro. Sasha and Victoria looked at Pietro. "..mommy.."squealed Pietro as the girls jumped on him. They both ended with one eggroll. "Oh that reminds me, are we gonna have a Halloween party? We should do a pair dress up. Two people dress together, like Romeo and juilet, Batman and Robin, etc. And let's invite the x-nerds over, cause their mansion will be big enough for a great one," said Sasha.

((I feel your pain))

Markus chuckled letting insanity prevail. "Sounds like un, I always did love Holloween...I get a kick out of scaring the daylights out of people...how fun is it to have a nine foot tall monster chasing you down for six blocks? For the runner, eh, not so much fun...but its a trip for me..." He shifted his arm into tenticals then into a zombified limb before returning it to normal. "At least I don't need a costume..."

ooc: It was humorous godmodding. sweatdrop