Stupid O'Clock In the Morning, The Queen's Chambers, Sidra, Glacia, Kaeleer

[glacial_queen]

Beep. Beeeeeeeep

Normally, Karla could sleep right through her phone's text notification, especially if it came in the silvery light of pre-dawn on a night when Winsol celebrations had kept them awake until just a few hours before. Which wasn't to say that Karla could be generally counted upon to wake up for her phone, but it was even less likely under those specific circumstances.

This morning, however (if it could even be called morning if the sun wasn't yet up, an argument Karla would make another time), Karla was leaping up to snatch at her phone before it had finished its first ring. Worry could do that to a person.

She was hoping very much that she'd be getting a sheepish text explaining that there had been some kind of drunken tequila binge with Angelo and that he'd lost a few days on a dirty bathroom floor in Madripoor. If she got that, she wouldn't even yell! Or scold! Or even kick him for missing the holidays! Nope, she'd be understanding and amused and most of all, grateful he was safe.

The island off San Francisco. Help.

Karla sank down on the side of the huge bed she shared with Warren. It wasn't even the words that were making her feel like she'd been gutted. No. It was the picture that accompanied them. She stared at it a moment more, before briskly shaking her head and setting the phone aside. She could have a reaction later. More importantly, however, Jono needed her.

Time to call the cavalry.

[NFB. If you think Karla would have called you to go yell at X-Men for awhile, feel free to ping in!]

Comments

[wwiii]

"Mmm... Karla?"

It wasn't that Warren hadn't been concerned for Jonothon's well-being, really. But he certainly hadn't been losing much sleep over the other man's absence. Jono was a big boy, and presumably, he could handle a trip to visit a friend for Christmas. He'd been doing the superhero shtick for months before Glacia's war had even started, after all.

So when Karla started bustling around the room, he wasn't exactly flying out of bed himself, but he was at least taking a moment to roll over and look her way.

"What is it?"

[glacial_queen]

"Word from Jono," she replied shortly, pulling her hair back into a tight braid. "The word, by the way, was 'help.'"

[wwiii]

Well, that got another eye to open, right there.

"... That's a pretty telling word. Did he say what's going on?" Yeah, he was actually sitting up, now, and even shifting around to reach for a pair of pants. Apparently, Jono warranted a pair of pants.

[glacial_queen]

"Of course not," Karla snorted, now pulling on a sports bra and black turtleneck. She was gearing up for a fight. "That would be helpful. He said he was on an island off the coast of San Francisco, though. Nice for a few things to remain constant between worlds."

[wwiii]

Well, that got a lovely twitch out of Warren, right there.

"He, uh, wasn't more specific than that?"

Look, Warren's experience with islands off the coast of San Francisco generally involved being shot at with mutant cure darts, and essentially getting flayed alive by insanely-overpowered telekenetics.

[glacial_queen]

Preaching to the choir there, Warren. Preaching to the Darkness-bedamned choir.

"Nope. But how many islands off the coast are there?"

If Karla remembered accurately, there was one and only one. Alcatraz. Because who expected someone to put together a meteor in space and then crash it into the bay? NO ONE SANE, that was who.

"There was only a picture included with the text and, believe me, it wasn't of the island." Her phone floated over to him, an invitation to look. The attached picture was still on the screen and everything.

[wwiii]

Warren really only needed to look at the screen for a moment before he realized what he was looking at.

"... Shit," he intoned, eloquently, reaching for his own phone. "I'll book the portal."

[glacial_queen]

"And I need to figure out who's coming with me," Karla agreed, mentally ticking off names.

"...Darling? I need you to do me a favor. Besides booking the portal, I mean."

[wwiii]

"A favor?" Warren lowered his phone for a moment, raising an eyebrow in Karla's direction. "What... kind of favor?"

Look, he wasn't in a huge hurry to go running off to Alcatraz or anything, but...

[glacial_queen]

"I need you to stay here," Karla said baldly, because there was no nice way to put this. "If the Court finds out I'm haring off to another world to get Jono, they'll freak out. Morton will tie me to a bed and Julian will...I don't know, take the stick out of his ass and hit me with it. So they can't know."

[wwiii]

"... Seriously?" That was not the favor he'd been expecting. "You're not going to run off there alone, are you?"

Because Jono or no Jono, he'd tie her down if she was going to pull that stunt. Never mind that she just said she needed to think of who the cavalry was going to be, and all...

[glacial_queen]

"Of course not," Karla said, because the entire idea was preposterous. Her? Running off alone? Ha! "I'm pretty sure Raven and Momoko are coming."

Much more reasonable!

"That's the portal I'll need you to order. Bringing Momo--and maybe Jaime--to Glacia."

[wwiii]

Warren looked at Karla hard for a moment, and then sighed, shaking his head.

"One portal from... El Paso? To Glacia, then," he mumbled.

He'd be far less inclined to let her get away with running off without him if it wasn't for the fact that people whose lives were in dire and immediate trouble didn't generally have time to stand still for x-rays and sending photo texts.

[glacial_queen]

"Once people start waking up and whatnot, stall as long as you can," she said. "I'm not going to ask you to lie straight out, but if you want to heavily imply that Raven is seeing to me in our chambers and then let everyone else assume what they want, I certainly won't mind that."

[wwiii]

Warren really wasn't big on lying, and if anything went awry, he'd have a hell of a lot of explaining to do if it turned out to be his turn to round up the posse next. He frowned a little more, and then gave a slow nod.

"You're with Raven, and nobody's to enter these rooms until you come out again," he said, simply. "I can do that much."

Neither of these things were strictly a lie.

[glacial_queen]

Karla nodded, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek in apology. "I know it sucks and I'm sorry, but I can't take the time to assure everyone that I'll be fine and you're the only other person with the authority to keep people out."

[wwiii]

"Out of your empty room," Warren agreed with a sigh. "Better get what you need, then. The portals will be opening up soon, and I can only keep them distracted for so long."

Warren was going to have his work cut out for him today. And he hadn't even had his coffee yet.

[glacial_queen]

Hey now. Karla was going to Alcatraz without any coffee. Warren got to go back to sleep and just keep people away from the room for a few hours. He totally got the better end of the deal.

"I'll be as fast as I can," she promised. "I don't intend to leave Jono with the X-Men any longer than I have to. Love you."

[trigons_child]

Raven had gotten Karla's message and quickly dressed and hurried to the Queen's Chambers. She knocked on the door, worried about what would necessitate a summons at so late an hour. Whatever it was, it had to be important.

[glacial_queen]

"Got a text from Jono," Karla said abruptly, tossing her phone at Raven. "Read the text and then make whatever last minute preparations you need so we can leave."

Fortunately, it was a short text.

[trigons_child]

Raven barely glanced at the words when she caught Karla's phone. It didn't matter what they said, only that Jono needed help.

"I am ready now," she said.

[glacial_queen]

"The picture, Raven," Karla insisted. "Look at the picture. It's important."

[trigons_child]

She looked down at the phone again, focusing on the picture. What she saw was an emotional punch to her gut, but only the sudden intake of a soft breath and the stiffening of her back showed in her reaction.

"I do not understand how this is possible," she said, looking back to Karla. "But that does not matter. If he needs us, we will be there."

[glacial_queen]

"That's one of the things we're going to find out," Karla assured her, grimly. "If we have to crawl up every single X-Man's ass to do it."

[heromaniac]

Finally! Momoko had the text from Karla that Jono had been heard from and that BLOSSOM was needed. And of course, that meant she was at the Portal site long before it arrived, her things in a small bag she hoisted over her shoulder.

"Remember..."

"I promise! Every eight hours." She kissed Jaime rather soundly. "Though the idea of seeing you come storming in after me, all suited up, is pretty tempting..."

"Don't joke." His face was serious and Momoko sighed, smiling as she tapped his cheek.

"I am serious!" Momoko watched his face grow darker, sadder, and she hugged him hard. "Jaime. I promise to text or call when we find out anything. It may be nothing."

"And that's why you're loaded for bear?"

Momoko frowned. Stupid Scarab scan. "I'm hyper, not stupid. I don't know what I may need."

"Never ever said you were stupid." Jaime pulled back to kiss her Just as the Portal shimmered into view. "Contact me every six hours."

"Fiiiiine," she chuckled and let him go to step through...

...

"I'll need a minute to change and then text Jaime I arrived or he's going to go nuts." Momoko called as she met up with the others. "What's happened?"

[glacial_queen]

"Got a message from Jono," Karla said, vanishing the last of her supplies. "It consisted of a location, a word, and a picture. The location was Alcatraz, the word was 'help,' and the picture was..." She paused, shaking her head. "You should see the picture yourself."

[heromaniac]

"Alcatraz? Isn't that a prison... Wait, help? Jono actually sent the word help?" She set her bag down and held out a hand for the phone, her face way past serious. Jono didn't ask for help. "What's the picture?"

[glacial_queen]

Which was why Karla had flung herself out of bed and foregone coffee to make sure they could get to him that much faster.

"It's his X-ray," she said, voice soft. "Of what's left of his skeleton."

[heromaniac]

Momoko stared down at the image, not saying a word for a while. She hadn't known what his old powers had done to him, the extent. This was, this was...

"If he's had an X-ray, he's in a medical facility." Momoko's tone was brisk when she finally spoke, handing Karla back the phone. "But we still should go in like it's a fight. He could be part of an experiment or something."

[glacial_queen]

"Especially if he's in Alcatraz," Karla agreed. "Warren and I ended up there, after the Nothing, when we were rescuing his father. It had been turned into a medical research lab, where they were keeping Leech to create the cure."

And the whole experience had been awful, so she was really thrilled to be going back there again. Really. "But they let him have his phone and clearly aren't monitoring his messages, because they'd never have let him call for help."

So they were either incompetent (likely!) or he wasn't being held captive (possible!).

"And there's not a whole Hell of a lot Jono can't fight through like that."

[heromaniac]

Momoko nodded slowly. "Where you and Warren helped." And Momoko and Dinah had read you the riot act when they'd found out. "If they're trying to Cure Jono and instead this happened, this will be troublesome." AKA People were going to get hurt.

"If Jono is back to his old powers, he's not going to be thinking right. Raven's coming, right? As much as it's going to hurt, we'll probably need her."

[glacial_queen]

"Both you and Raven both," Karla said with a nod. "I left a message with Dinah, but she hasn't responded yet, so I'm guessing she's busy now. Warren is staying home and keeping the Court from knowing I'm gone."

Because there was a time and place for fussing and this was not it.

"So, just us. Think we can handle whatever's waiting?"

[heromaniac]

"Of course." Like Momoko was going to say anything else?

"Jaime's on stand-by back home, since we didn't know if what was wrong was Glacian." And they still weren't sure how Khaji Da would handle a fight here. "If I don't contact him regularly, he's coming after us. I'll tell him to contact Dinah. And to come here to Warren if we do end up needing help?"

[glacial_queen]

"Oh, Mother Night, yes." And probably the rest of the Court, if they needed a rescue. "He'd skin me alive if he was left out of the cavalry's cavalry."

If they weren't going back to Alcatraz, Karla wasn't sure she'd've been able to get him to stay home now.

"Sounds like we've got everything sorted. I think it's time to go."