Mutant Multiverse

7pm. Seattle. A little side-street hidden away in a somewhat sketchy neighbourhood.

A sign, bright neon lights illuminating everything within a two metre radius. DOKI DOKI SUSHI OKI.

Cadmus had been stood outside the restaurant for a good while, now. Impatient, anxious and not at all impressed that it'd gotten to 7pm and he was still the only one there.

Why did he even bother?

He'd lean against the wall near the entrance, arms folded across his chest. Clothing was pretty usual for him, black pants, white t-shirts and an old, beat-up grey hoodie. Couldn't really be too picky when you were living in the sewers.

Jeez, Elsa hadn't even made it here yet. It was practically her idea.

Eventually, he'd whip out his phone. An old model, but again... he didn't really have much choice. Thumbs tapped idly at the screen as he waited, eyes lifting up on occasion to take a quick scan of the street around him.

He'd give it ten more minutes. No way was he going to sit inside on his own. He was much cooler than that. Ten minutes and he'd head back to the sewers. Regret was beginning to settle in. Should've just kept quiet. He'd done his best to bury all thoughts of his previous life... why did Phineas have to appear in that chatroom?

How did he even find that chatroom?

Why was he even in Seattle?

Maybe Cadmus would get some answers... if anyone actually managed to get here.

It hadn't taken Elsa long at all to get to the restaurant and.. as 7 rolled around, the tiny thing popped out of the building itself. Had Cadmus decided to be 'lame' he'd have realized she was waiting for him just the same!

Outfit was just as simple as any college kid's, black v-neck and Jean's with bright pops of neon in her jewelry.. but she'd changed that purple from her flesh and the brown from her hair.

Perfectly mundane.

"You been waiting out here this entire time you nerd? You shoulda just come in! I got us all a spot." Leaning in the doorframe, a hand reached out to snag Cad's, "Hey.. relax. Itll go ok.. ok?"

Phineas came jogging up to DOKI DOKI right around the time they were heading inside.

"H-hey! Wait! For! Me!" he huffed, out of breath, grabbing the barely still open door to brace himself.

Phineas was wearing jeans and an old band t-shirt, pretty typical of his laid back style.

"I didn't realize it was so far from my apartment," he explained, starting to catch his breath, "I turned on my GPS and was like 'Fuuuuuuuuudge'."

Stepping inside and brushing his hand through jog-disheveled hair to fix it, he was pretty much the same as Cadmus but with light blue skin to contrast his brother's red.

"Holy moly I need to jog more, been a while since-" he cut himself short, clearing his throat, "Uh, since I was in real shape anyway. I'm so hungry."

He presumably just followed to wherever the seating arrangements were at.

Cadmus... was a little relieved when Elsa found him. Coulda told him she was in there, though.

He'd turn to offer her a nod as she took his hand.

"Well, I mean. 'OK' can mean a lot of things." He'd respond, about to head on inside when he noticed Phineas finally jogging toward them.

He wasn't quite so sure what he'd expected. What had his brother been up to this whole time?

Well, from the looks of things, the dude hadn't changed a whole lot...

Cadmus pulled away from the door, remaining quiet as Phin approached, waiting for his brother to stop before finally speaking up.

"Ok, great. You made it." Eyes narrowed as he inspected the other Bowman. If Phin took any time to take a look at Cad, he'd most certainly notice that... literally... nothing had changed. He still looked like he did all those years ago. Strange.

Cad shot a quick look back to Elsa, "Elsa... this is my brother, Phineas." A few steps would be taken toward Phin as he spoke, Redman trying his best to remain cool as he spoke up again, "That's my uh... friend, Elsa. It's uh... been a while, dude."

A tiny smile of reassurance appeared on Elsas face, shaking her head before stepping closer to Cad, "Well.. whatever level of Ok, I'm here for you yeah?"

The sound of someone jogging their way had the blonde holding the door with a raise of brows, perhaps a bit surprised that Phin was in fact blue. Huh.

The moment Cadmus went to introduce her however, her hand dropped from his and was stuck out to shake the other Bowman's hand, "Hiya! Super cool to meet you, my dude. Cadmus has talked a little about you, its chill to finally meet."

As they vanished inside, she led the way to the back booths as a waitress swung around to ask about drink orders. That outta the way, she would snag food from the buffet conveyor before sliding back in. For now she'd stay hush, interested to see how the two interacted.

Phineas inspected Cadmus' face, not really hiding it. A puzzled expression briefly washed over him but quickly faded into his usual smirk.

"Well good to meet you," he said, stomach audibly grumbling, "Ohhh goddddd."

Once they got up to grab food from the buffet, Phineas glanced around for prying eyes. With nobody suspecting much Phin reached forward with his left hand. Each of his fingers fading into translucent jelly, the cellularized blue strands simultaneously stretched out to grab the spoons from several trays of food and serve himself.

Quickly retreating to the table with a full plate, Phineas waited for Cadmus to return before asking, "Question. Where've you been, and why were you so resistant to meeting up?"

Cadmus took Phin's stomach rumbling as a good sign they should probably get inside. After all, it'd been a while since he'd enjoyed a good meal. Or at least one that hadn't been permeated with that distinct Undercity smell. Not quite sewer stench, but it certainly had that trademark dankness.

He'd head over to the table Elsa had picked out for them, dropping off his jacket before heading up to the buffet... where it seemed as though Phin had already gotten hard at work... with a somewhat unfamiliar tactic.

"That's new." He'd mutter, using his regular ol' hands to fill up his plate. Eventually, he'd sit back down with the others, eating.

"Oh, wow. That's nice." he'd respond to Phineas. He'd stay quiet for a moment, shooting a look to Elsa before eventually looking back to his brother.

"Well I was... back in Boulder. Me and Gwen hanging around town like usual." He'd shovel a forkfull of food into his mouth, continuing as he chewed, "Got a call about some lunatic doing whatever stupid shit he usually did..." He'd swallow, "And one minute I was in one piece... the next I was in, I dunno... a million. Got shot. Woke up naked in the back of a van and now I live in the sewer." He'd rush that whole last part, still not fully able to comprehend everything himself.

"You uhh... you did hear about that, right?"

A grin split the blonde's features and she'd give a bubbly laugh, "Well at least you're hungry, this visit is gonna be well worth it I'd say!" Hell Chinese was always worth a trek up top.. Maybe one of these days they'd actually get some restaurants going below the surface.. Y'know.. health code violations aside and ignored.

She hadn't quite missed the actions of power use from Phineas but she'd chosen to remain hush on it. It gave her.. too many memories, really. Sparked something from the back of her brain and for a few moments, all she could do was stare at her plate in silence. It reminded her of her mother- having two blobby beings nearby- but it also sort of reminded her of someone else.

As the conversation progressed, she'd glance over to Cadmus with a working of jaw slowly, thinking about it a moment or two before answering when she was certain that no else was listening in, "He's been staying with me for a bit now below ground.. So to speak. If he vouches for you I might consider that enough of a reason to explain further." Until then, she was going to remain mum on the topic.

She'd heard the rundown from Cadmus before but everytime he said it.. there was a pang in her chest. She honestly really felt for him.. all the turmoil he must've felt over the last few weeks to know that the world had moved on without him. Eventually, she'd stop to snag her drink and took a long sip, peering between the two with a furrowing of brows. Didn't red and blue make purple?

The expression on Phineas' face turned sullen as Cadmus explained his situation. Phin lowered his fork and stopped shoveling food in his face so that he could listen, and watch, how Cadmus spoke.

"Well your story checks out," he said, "I-I... I thought maybe you were a..." Phineas lowered his voice, "I thought maybe you were a Skrull. Remember that stuff back in Darien?"

The blue man wiped his face with his hands, rubbing tiredness out of his eyes.

"Of course I knew you disappeared. So do mom and dad. We all thought you were dead, you were gone for so long. I looked for you f-for a long time."

Phineas' voice started to crack and he casually wiped away the tears that were forming in his eyes.

"I saw you in the chat and I thought 'That can't be.' I figured it was one of those things trying to be you, but how would they know you've been missing? You haven't aged," he said, "I looked for any clues but I always came up short. I-I'm sorry I couldn't find you..."

Cadmus had been stewing ever since he'd woken up in the back of that truck. It'd taken that long for someone to find him and, ultimately, it ended up being someone from a completely different dimension. With Phineas arriving in the manner that he had, the whole nonchalant attitude toward Cadmus' sudden appearance... If Elsa weren't sat at the table beside them then he probably wouldn't have kept so cool.

However, as he filled Phin in on what had happened... he couldn't help but notice his brothers change of expression. And then, there it was...

Cadmus' eyes widened as Phin responded. As comforting as it was to hear... this is why Cadmus was so apprehensive about stepping back into his 'old life'. Showing back up after all the pain his friends and loved ones must have endured? They have all this time to grieve and move on with their lives and all of a sudden he's just... here?

He'd clear his throat, head shaking as he glanced down toward the table, "This uh... would probably be a little easier if I were a skrull, huh?" Fork would be gently stabbed into the food on his plate, "I mean, wouldn't blame any of them for wanting to be me... but, yeah. Not this time."

A quick look would be shot to Elsa, though Cadmus would quickly return his attention toward the now tearful Phineas, the red guy himself finding it quite hard to hold back his own swell of emotion, "You don't need to be sorry. I mean, you're here now, right? You found me. Didn't need to troll me in the chatroom but uh..." He'dlet out a deep sigh as he leant back in his seat, "Only been a few weeks for me, but I don't think I've ever been happier to be sat watching you stuff your face again..."

As the two hashed out their 'issues' or.. more rather got caught up with each other and the state of how things had gone, Elsa found herself fascinated and at interest to just listen to the tones of their voices. Both were in pain, both had been tormented and for a moment she had to wonder if urging Cadmus to reach out had even been a good call.

She chose to remain quiet, growing uncertain by the moment as Phineas began to tear up.. and then Cadmus was shooting her that look and glancing down she felt all the more awkward about the display of emotions.. Jeeze.. maybe this was a bad idea after all.

However, it was the comment that he was absolutely thrilled to see his twin that had Elsa relaxing the tiniest bit, humming faintly, "I dunno, I thought the trolling was pretty funny. You only complained about it for an hour so it wasn't all that bad, huh?" Joking aside, Elsa pushed her plate back and sipped at her straw before looking to Phin, "So wait how of all places did you just happen to end up in the same chat as Cad? That's wild.. right?"

Phineas reached out with his right fist and the arm elongated as it became a jellified mass, playfully glancing Cadmus on the lower jaw and wiggling throughout before he retracted it.

"Yeah I guess if you were a Skrull I could just kick your ass and be done with," he smirked, wiping away any remaining tears with his other hand, "And now that I know you're not I need to troll you even harder. I was on EZ mode 'cause I thought you were a Skrull."

He listened intently while they spoke, shoving delicious heart-clogging salty food down his pie-hole. Eyes darting over to Elsa when asked about the odds of winding up in the same chat, Phineas gave a quick glance around.

"Alright look, this area has sorta been a hotbed for EDE activity, right? Nothing wrong with that and all, but a lot of weird stuff has come through rifts. I was kind of just monitoring stuff out here, yeah? I troll the chatrooms out of boredom some days. That much was dumb luck. But I'm kiiiind of on loan from the X-Men."

He did not speak X-Men aloud but rather mouthed it while looking at Cadmus.

"I mean I'm only like a third string member, but still. They ask you to go check something out, you go check it out. I think they sensed that EDEs would get treated the way that mutants do. And I think they're right. SO that's how I wound up out here."

Cadmus was taken a little by surprise as Phin's fist came toward him, head pulling back once it had connected with his jaw.

"What is that? That's new." Cadmus was still locking in on the 'big red blob' phase of his abilities... Who knows what his mutation had in store for him down the line?

After admiring his brothers display of ability, Cadmus would shake his head, scoffing lightly.

"You... kick my ass? Please." He'd move to grab his fork once again, shoveling in another mouthful of food, speaking up again as he chewed, "Skrull me, maybe. But me?" Attention would move onto Elsa for a moment as she spoke, nodding along with her question, a little confused himself as to how Phin actually wound up finding the chatroom.

At the mention of EDE's, he'd shoot another quick look to Elsa before looking back to his brother, "Surprised this whole thing wasn't down to something the'd done, anyway." He'd respond. Sure, in this dimension the X-Men were the good guys... but it wasn't as though they didn't have multiple mutants in their ranks that could have caused whatever led to these dimensional tears.

"They send you alone? Or you uh... part of some kinda... X...team?" He'd remembered his short stint at Xaviers Academy and whilst he'd always grown up with a dream of joining their ranks, that dream seemed to have faded a little over the years spent moving between different Academies.

"Was getting kinda suspicious when I couldn't see any real sign of them monitoring... all this..."

When things seemed to liven up once more, Elsa relaxed and caught herself grinning ear to ear, "A big ol' brawl huh? I think it'd be interesting to see if the Super Goo Bros. fight the same way! Sparring matches are always a great way to see where you stack up, right?" She herself was in need of a legitimate one to shake some of the rust off.. things were comfortably quiet.

Phin and Cad had her attention momentarily however, sipping at her drink with a furrowing of her brows, "Ok so.. Like your guys' timeline here has had a lot happen apparently and I'm not quite sure what some terminology is- I'm still figuring out a lot actually since I got here but that's a word I've heard before.. what exactly is a skrull? I haven't been able to garner or glean much info about them besides just little whisperings ."

It was the mention of the X-men that had Elsa still momentarily uncertain.. But logically if they were talked up so much of being the 'good' guys then surely it had some form of merit. Ankles hooked together, hands coming to rest beneath her chin, she'd give a hum before chirping softly, "When he says monitoring, what does that apply to for EDEs?"

"I call it selective cellularization. Instead of merging all the cells, you merge them locally. I can probably show you how, we're slightly different buuuut I'd wager you can do it," he'd explain to Cadmus, noodles half sticking out of his mouth.

"I'm alone here, for now anyway. This... this is happening everywhere. We're spread thin trying to contain some of the bad stuff y'know? EDEs are people, and we want them to be treated right, but not all of them are good. Predictably there's plenty of baddies popping in. I guess the asked me here 'cause the carnage hasn't been too bad," he continued on, lightly chuckling at the end, "I'm not exactly built for fighting a whole lot, not like the others anyway. I ever tell you Wolverine stabbed me once? He didn't know I could turn into jelly either.... Nice guy."

Phineas stopped eating to look at Elsa, "I take it you're not from here? All we're doing is watching and helping right now. Like I said, EDEs are people, but not everyone is going to treat them fairly. ESPECIALLY if they're also a mutant or powered in some way."

"Selective... Cellular..." he'd shrug, "Sounds cool." He'd have his doubts, considering he still hadn't quite mastered the whole 'merging into one cell' thing just yet... Though it'd certainly help to have Phin showing him a few tricks.

He'd scoff as he listened to Phineas, "Well, yeah. Can only imagine this place would be domed off if all this crap was localized to Seattle..." At the mention of Wolverine, he'd offer up another shrug, "Eh, that Wolverine dude... bit of a weirdo. Used to see him every so often when I was at the Institute. Smelled almost as bad as that stupid walking ashtray, LeBeau." He'd lean back into his seat, muttering "Almost."

He'd turn his attention to Elsa as Phin offered up an explanation, nodding along, "Like I said. X-Men here are good people. For the most part." He'd pause, taking a few seconds to think back on the whole 'Skrull' thing, "Skrulls... uh... well, they're a thing. You remember that movie we watched a few nights ago... with the uh... body snatchers?"

The information was taken into consideration and while she was sure Phin was a lovely lad.. she wasn't about to let the active X-men members down into the city for some quality time.. at least not this one.. Not until she was a little more trusting of him as a person. Stuffing pieces of crab rangoon into her mouth, head gave a tip off center of the power breakdown with an almost neutral expression, "Is it like altering the molecules of your organic matter to change shape? Or I suppose maybe in that instance elasticity?"

For someone who looked like she was regurgitated by the 80s synthwave movement she was pretty fascinated with mutations and how they worked it appeared.

Mention of the body snatchers film had Els giving a slow nod of her head, working her jaw, "Alright so.. they're beings that just kinda remove the self of whoever and then take over for them or something?" Like all those hokey alien movies or other campy horror involving extra terrestrial invaders.. Hm.. Shrugging her shoulders, Elsa would hook her legs together and hummed in reply to Phin, "You'd be right on that. From what I gather Cadmus was friends with the 'me' from this timeline as well. "