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 Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:23 pm
Xavier listened to the communication and then telepathically linked into Apex's thoughts. He had no sense of any major threatening thought from the man and held his hand out to Kurt. "Kurt, I want you to stand by with Beastboy, head to cafeteria but don't attack the intruder. If he has any thoughts of harming students or anyone else for that matter I will ask that you two get rid of them."
As he thought to the Kurt his thoughts also traveled to Garfield at the mention of his name. "Oracle, I am sending standby to back you up if this man becomes a threat. Will you be okay with that?" He thought to Oracle telepathically.
Garfield looked to Kurt who then grabbed his arm and teleported them to the entrance to the kitchen. Before Garfield could react he turned the corner to notice Deathstroke;s costume design... how much the costume looked alike to that. He glared at the man and looked at Kurt. whispering to him.
"Just what we need... another assissin. Let's hope we won't have to do anything okay kiddo."
He spoke to Kurt.
"All zhis trouble and the day hasn't even really started yet... Oy, hope zhat it turns out better than it already is..."
"You and me both."
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Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:29 pm
  As Nightshade lay stunned by Apex's speed, Songbird simply extended her sound shield to cover Oracle in her chair. Melissa tapped her foot in annoyance, practically staring daggers at the mercenary and folded her arms, "If you want to talk to the lady, you most certainly can. Miss Gordon can hear you just fine, pal."Nightshade carefully took his Mauser back, his eyes never leaving Apex, "I take it your mentor is Deathstroke, judging by the theme of your armor. I ran into him when he was working a contract for Gorilla Grodd." Babs thought toward Xavier, Thank you, Charles. I really appreciate that. Oracle had her fighting sticks out ready, if neccessary. Apparently, Deathstroke did have another apprentice, "What do you want of me?"
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Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2012 8:45 pm
"I'm looking for someone who is... very dear to me. Someone who I have not seen for a very long time, and who I have been searching desperately for for the past few years, ever since I became Deathstroke's apprentice. I believe you can help me find them," Apex said to Oracle, ignoring all the others.
In his mind, memories came up of himself as a young boy on Christmas Eve twenty years ago, walking home with his mother to their run-down apartment in the Bronx. Then the scene changed to a few minutes later, where Apex was inside, and watching from a window as his mother was kidnapped, screaming for help... and he didn't do anything. The memory changed again, this time to Christmas morning, where the boy who would become Apex walked outside and found a small package: the Christmas present his mother had intended to give to him. It was a locket, and on the inside was a small picture of Apex and his mother in Central Park, smiling happily, with an inscription on the other side that read: "I love you, Calvin. Don't ever forget that."
Unaware of the link Professor X had established, the young mercenary momentarily let his face become clouded with unwanted emotions that could be seen by the others: Regret, anguish, fear of the ultimate loss of his mother. And for a brief, very brief instant, his face showed not a stone-cold mercenary; it showed a little boy who felt lost and alone, and who was desperate to find the one person he cared for unconditionally.
However, as quickly as this had come, Apex shut his emotions down again forcefully, and his face became one of gritty determination. Apex had been waiting for a chance to find his mother for the past twenty years, and now he had it. He felt he could not let it just slip by.
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 12:59 am
Kesshou had watched the scene in silence, listening and watching the new person. Her instincts told her that none of them were in any real danger, the guy had just wanted to show off.
When Garfield entered the room Kesshou perked up and actually smiled. She was always happy to see him but she had said nothing but gave a slight wave before looking back to Apex. She looked back at him just in time to see the inner child show momentarily.
She knew the pain that had shown in his face, the pain of loss. Her ears flopped down to the sides of her head as she thought back to her family before she was abducted by Mr. Sinister. She sighed and whimpered a bit.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 6:51 pm
Oracle thought behind Songbird's prtective bubble and put her index finger to her mouth, "Who is it you wish to find and why?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:02 pm
Apex thought fora moment, unsure if he trusted Oracle enough to tell her, and then he sighed.
"My... My mother. I haven't seen her since Christmas Eve, twenty years ago," he said, before rummaging in one of his pockets and pulling out the very locket from his memories and showing it to the others.
"This... is the Christmas present she had given me all those years ago... Or, she was going to give it to me, before she was kidnapped before my eyes... And I... I didn't do anything to help..."
It would be rather obvious by Apex's tone that he blamed himself for what happened to his mother.
"My name is Calvin Bridges, but I go by the moniker 'Apex'. I... haven't said my own name for a long time, honestly. It feels... odd."
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:09 pm
Oracle nodded responding, "I'll need more information, Cal, and I can see what I can do."
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 7:18 pm
Apex looked at Oracle with a somewhat disturbed expression.
"Only my mother would call me that..." he said, somewhat uncomfortably, but he didn't say anything more about it before brushing past Nightshade and moving over to Oracle. When he found the protective bubble was blocking his path, he took out his power staff and, with a single, powerful stroke, shattered it. Then he moved in front of Oracle.
He opened the locket, and showed her the picture inside: Calvin, aged five, was in front of his mother; they did not look alike except for the same brown eyes, and both seemed very happy.
"This picture was taken on my fifth birthday, the year she disappeared," Apex said, and he seemed to be holding back a sob. "Her name is Christine Bridges."
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:31 pm
Kesshou slowly stood up and slinked across the floor on all fours close to Apex. "It's not your fault you know?..." She spoke quietly and softly.
"Even if you had tried to help the likely result would of been you being kidnapped as well.."
She placed a hand on his in a calming manor. Kesshou was a kind and caring person and never really liked seeing someone suffer through undue pain.
"Your instincts told you to stay put which means that you've done nothing wrong." She smiled and put her hand back down on the floor.
"Simple self preservation." She nodded. "And now that you have the ability to do something about it, you're no longer afraid of it. You're inner child just knows now is the time to act."
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 9:48 pm
Apex glared at Kesshou, and said coldly: "You know nothing about me, you know nothing of how I think, how I've thought. Don't try to know. You won't like how you'll end up," he threatened in a soft, dangerous tone, before clenching the fist which held his locket and thrusting the locket itself back into his pocket.
Kesshou's words made sense to Apex, but he was still somewhat disturbed. People tried to get close to him, and he would just push them away. Like Batman, ironically enough. It was ironic because Batman was his ultimate target. If he defeated Batman in one-on-one battle, he felt, then he'd be worthy of his moniker.
Regardless of that, he realized he was getting emotional again, and once more forced his emotions down. He was getting tired of feeling these emotions, and was starting to regret coming here-- and he shut that feeling down, too.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:06 pm
Kesshou stood up to full height. "I was napped from my surrogate family and had experiments done to me. I was kept in a little cell, forced to take pills and I had no idea what they were going to do to me."
Tears flowed from her eyes but she stayed strong, for she had never spoke about this to anyone before. "I lived every night in fear that I would be the next one to dessapear like the rest seemed to do one by one."
She never took her eyes away from Apex's, she wanted him to see the hurt and anguish in her soul.
"While, no, I never sat by and watch my mother, that died when I was born, get napped from me, I still know pain. I still know what it is to be alone, with no one in this world to trust, and it wasn't until my Uncle Morph sent me here did I realize that there were compassionate people in the world once more. No one will look out for someone for no real reason more than the X-Men do." She then turned, got back on all fours and started to slink back towards her seat.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 10:21 pm
"Go play 'Whose life sucks worse?' with someone who might actually pity you; I won't. I don't want pity, I want to find my mother, and if Oracle will not help me I'll find someone else who will. I've waited twenty years; I can wait twenty more if I have to," Apex said to Kesshou, still with that cold look on his face.
That last part was a lie; he wasn't sure if he could wait twenty more years, even though his augmentations meant that if that much time would pass, then he wouldn't really age much at all in that span of time.
At this point, X23 spoke up: "Hey, you: She's saying you're not the only one who's had it rough. You're looking for your mom? I never had one. I never had a family. Right now, my family is the woman you're asking for help from. She is my mother now, my family now. She might help you, but not with that attitude."
Apex scowled, but didn't say anything. He merely sighed, and turned away from everyone else, walking away and leaning against the wall, thinking to himself.
Perhaps he was being too inconsiderate. He knew Slade would have told him to not care what the others thought, but Apex had to wonder: What would his mother tell him?
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 10:55 am
Gar walked in and reached for Kesshou's hand after what he'd heard. It was best that there was less people actually in the room to confront the man. It was obvious that he was trying to patch something up from his past, which could mean that he might turn to a side of good but he still has issues. Most people in the place had them and to have someone who can't handle his own problems bring up those of others, would only spell an emotional train wreck. It was only morning Gar thought to himself. He pulled Kesshou to the hall after putting his arm around her comfortingly. He really liked the girl, a lot, and didn't want to see her get upset by Apex.
"I think we can stand in the hall Kessh. Arguing with this kind of person is just wasting his time and I'd rather he get on his way to finding his mother and be out of our hair."
Kurt looked in and then looked back at Gar who lead Kesshou out of the kitchen.
"Zhere is no better place for real friendship then the X-Men I do agree Frauline. But zhat man is just being rude... I pray zhat he finds his mother and learns how to love and feel rather zhen suppress his feelings and push away."
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Posted: Mon Feb 27, 2012 7:44 pm
Kesshou sniffled and hugged Garth once they were in the hall. She looked over at Kurt and nodded before wrapping her large wings around herself and Garth.
She felt bad for Apex actually. She could never imagine having to watch someone she cared about being ripped away from her. She also envied him a little, he knew his real mother...
After a few minutes Kesshou started purring in Garth's arms.
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Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 8:11 pm
Oracle held out her hand to accept the locket, if Apex offered it, "I'll start by checking into missing person reports of the time period. And if I can scan that picture, I'll run some facial recognition software that I've customized and see where that starts us."
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