Welcome to Gaia! ::

((Yeah... I thought I'd read something about at least a small amount of snow flinging off of trees and maybe a little bit of a tussle. That's more of what I was referring to as far as the "snow war" and it's shortness was concerned, but now everyone's inside...))

Laura looked up as Rogue began shifting to her feet. She'd been expecting some sort of reaction out of Morgan and the one called Victoria, but nothing had happened, so she decided to look up and find out why. Judging by the fact that the door was clicking shut, they too had gone inside and hadn't seen her tackle Rogue. She sighed. So much for having a little fun.

By the time Laura's attention was back on Rogue, she was upright and glaring. Laura looked her in the eyes and said, "I couldn't let you get away without a little snow on you, now could I?"

With that she turned and made for the door herself. She wasn't in the mood for a one on one snowball fight. Not when she'd heard that these sort of things were much better with teams.

She turned back to look at Rogue over her shoulder, and called back, "Rogue, your friends are all inside. Are you coming or not?"

******

Rogue was slightly damp, and extremely confused. This girl had come out of nowhere and tackled her, then when Rogue had gotten to her feet and was ready to fight, the girl had turned away and invited her inside. And if that wasn't strange enough, the girl knew her name! Rogue didn't quite know what to do, and all that managed to get passed the confusion was, "Hey! Wait a second! How do you know my name?"

The girl was still looking over her shoulder as she answered that she knew all of their names, with the exception of the newest of the new recruits. Rogue was stunned. How was that possible? Just who was this girl? Rogue decided to see what she could find out, and the best way to do that at the moment was to follow her inside.

"Sure," Shandra said, standing up fully. "Just follow me okay?"

She started to walk, slowly so she wasn't hard to miss, as she fumbled with her fingers in front of her. The last thing she needed to do was 'disappear' when she was supposed to be leading someone to the Professor. She really should ask him if there was a way to get a controller for that or something...along with her own special communicating device...maybe. But she didn't want to have to put the guy out, he already did so much for her as it was.

"And x-men usually have more than one name. The other one is like a code name for missions and what not. Besides some of us just don't like our names so we pick others," Shandra explained, "I actually prefer to be called Eclipse now, but my parents gave me the name Shandra so...those are my two names."

Owen fell in step with the two, Shandra/Eclipse and Blade/Smokescreen. He pondered the names, swirling them around and around in his head. He found himself wondering if he would have to pick a name. He didn't think he was anywhere near creative enough to do that. He couldn't even hang on to his own last name; he had forgotten it nearly four years ago.
He blinked at Shandra's words. "Missions? You mean like spy stuff or wars?" He vaguely remembered playing spy when he was about 6; he had some of those cheap plastic binoculars and had plenty of fun snooping on the other children and those big thick glasses that he never bothered to wear since his hair pretty much gave him away. He had read about wars when he had found a Bible in a slot in one of the church pews, and he even remembered reading a few things strange enough to compete with the mall burning and mind reading.
Owen visibly brightened as Blade mentioned vanishing, and he turned to Eclipse. "I can disappear too, well sorta. It's more like a blending in with whatever's behind me. But it only lasts as long as I can hold my breath in, and I can't make it work on clothes. And I guess.... my talking to insects is one too." He scooped the tarantula off of his shoulder and held it in one hand while carefully stroking it with the other hand. "I just know their language without trying, and if I ask nice they'll do almost anything I ask them to." The tarantula vibrated happily and Owen distinctly heard it say, You haven't spoken this much since me and my friends came home with you. He also caught a disgruntled sizzling noise coming from his head. Why don't you just go ahead and tell them your pants size too?

"Bug Whisperer," Shandra said teasingly with a smile, "I don't go invisible per say but that's the best word I can think of at the moment. I can block all the senses of people that's directed towards me and hide myself from them -voice, touch, and all. Mechines have a hard time with me too when I'm 'invisible' but I haven't figured out how to make that work fully yet. And My brain wave output is blocked too but the more powerful psychics can still feel me if they try, I haven't found a way to perfect that...there other thing is my body rejects, so to say, anything man made or anything coming at me...it doesn't always end up very pretty."

She stopped when she got to the door and gave a mocking bow, "and this would be his study good sir."

RRIIINNG! RRIIIIING!

The familiar sound rang through the Brotherhood house, literally, as the telephone began to ring. "Hang on a moment, Victoria. I'll get it!" Morgan said, turning first to the brunette, and then to the rest of the house's occupants.

"Hello?"

"I'll be there in five minutes. Get everyone ready. I shall go into detail when I arrive."

Click.

Uh-oh, Morgan though to himself. This won't end well if everyone else is still here...

"Okay, folks, party's over! Suite Madame Blue will be here in FIVE MINUTES. Everyone get your stuff together!" Morgan called out, hoping that everyone would hear him.

"Victoria, I need you and everyone else to leave. Not that I'm not glad you're here, but the person who's going to be arriving in a few minutes is going to lose it if she sees you guys here. This is for your own safety," Morgan explained quietly.

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"Ooh, we haven't seen Blue Lady in a while!" David remarked upon hearing Morgan's announcement. And despite having been at the house for over a month now, he still hadn't put together any special sort of hero (or villain) costume. His costume was his beat-up old coat, and whatever else he happened to be wearing at the time.

"I'll go get my coat!" he said, running upstairs to his room.

"Hmm? Yes, fine, answer the phone," shrugged Victoria, looking at Morgan for only an instant as she scoped out the place a bit more. She did not stray far though, and for two reasons. One, she did not really feel like getting mauled by someone who thought. And two, she had not learned much from that little argument with Morgan some months ago, so she was still a bit nosy when it came to phone conversations. She felt better about the whole thing though, as the voice on the other side of the voice was loud (and familiar) enough that practically the whole hallway could hear.

"Oh, dear," she sighed, turning to face Morgan once he hung up, though she was not all that worried. She listened to to his directions and decided not to interrupt, for once. "Fine, we'll leave then," she said, a bit disappointed with having to leave after only just being invited in. Things were going nice, for a change. "Though from the sounds of it....I'll be seeing you...and your team soon," she finished, quirking an eyebrow at Morgan, a hint of dread in her voice before she shuffled off to get Sarah and Becca.

Becca frowned, clearly quite confused.

"Who's coming that we need to leave?" she questioned, not yet moving to leave. What danger they thought there was, Becca couldn't see any.

She watched as Victoria came, no doubt, to find the rest of the group. She eyed the girl, wondering if she might be able to answer the question. She crossed her arms, not moving.

"Who's coming is someone who will not be too happy to see all of you here," Morgan explained, overhearing and answering Becca's question. "Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go and get my stuff together," Morgan said, excusing himself, and heading upstairs after several of his other housemates.

Morgan's uniform had undergone a few changes since he'd left the mansion. In fact, since he and his symbiont had been together, Morgan hadn't needed much at all in terms of an actual uniform. He still wore a undershit and boxers underneath, in case he was seperated from his symbiont for whatever reason, but most actual clothing was comprised of his "partner".

Instead, his uniform was a set of belts and sashes that were used to carry his various "trinkets", like throwing knives, smoke pellets, etc. He took as little time as he could to do up all the straps and buckles, and to make sure that all his pockets were stocked with their proper contents.

Before finishing up the last couple of straps, he quickly glanced out the window to see a familiar-looking vehicle pulling into the lane, and quickly approaching the house.

Oh dear. I hope that Victoria and the rest of them are out of here by now, otherwise there's going to be some serious explaining to do... he thought to himself, doing up the last few buckles of his outfit, and commanding his symbiont into a suitable outfit to complement his assortment of straps and bandoliers.