Scene 1: The Back Room at Dukes

Ilian stands and tosses back the consolation drink, before heading for the door. "Later." She calls over her shoulder. "I know when its not my night at the table and I have better things to do than lose."

Jamie looked back up at the bartender, "Nah all good, just realised my head's not in it tonight. Forget the game, happy to toss back a couple and call it a night." At least that was the story he was prepared to reveal to St John.

"I'll let Fred know you're heading off, Kurt." He nodded in reply to his fellow poker player. He was beginning to feel that the others were also not quite who they thought they were either.

Remy tosses his cards with a well-practiced flick, and they land in a perfectly spread fan revealing his sad hand. "Well, how 'bout dat? Lady luck be a fickle mistress." He looks at Wanda and gives a smirk. "Remy would if he could, mon cher, but Remy did not drive this fine evenin'. How 'bout I walk you home instead after one last hand?"

Wanda smiles with delight.

"Sounds good to me."

She kisses the tips of her fingers and blows a kiss to Remy.

"There goes luck."

Inside Dukes' (Cap, Gambit, Lady Deadpool)
"HEY?! Where's everybody goin'?" The fat man pushes through the gathered patrons to the table that is quickly being abandoned. He sees Victor raking in his pot and greedly starts snatching up Kurt and Jamie's chips in his big meaty hands. "Congrats Victor. Good hand there, convincing them all to go in like that. You're in for a good night at this rate." He hefts some of the poker chips into a pocket, then turns to Remy. "LeBeau, looks like you're a little light on chips now. That's gonna make your night a little...difficult isn't it? You didn't forget the situations did ya' Cajun?" His sneer is audible in his voice even if you don't look up at the man mountain.

---

Out on the street (Multiple Man, Nightcrawler, Imajica)
Outside, a different site greets the newly awakened heroes. The street is exactly how they remember it. There's plenty of traffic. People walking and talking on the sidewalk, cars honking and traveling up and down the street, for all the world it looks like a normal street in a large city.

What stands out though are the large red cylindrical robots. The same kind that Betsy showed you mental images of inside. There are seven in plain view. Three walking up the walls of buildings. Two on top of a bodega and a bank across the street from each other. The final two on the street, walking right beside and between the people. As the ones on the street approach a person, a green beam of light emanates from the lower apparatus and sweeps over them. The upper central eye whirs and clicks like a camera. Everyone else is seemingly oblivious to the presence of the robots, even stepping over or around their spindly legs unconsciously. After a few seconds of watching it's clear they are headed in the heroes direction.

Remy didn't think Dukes would be so brazen as to mention any back-door deals in front of everyone, but it wouldn't hurt to open the door and see if he trips trying to walk through it. With an expression of feigned innocence he says, "An' what situations those be, Mistah Dukes?"

"You see them too don't you?" Jamie whispered just loud enough for Kurt and Ilian to hear as they stood outside the pub, weighing their next course of action. "Split up and act normal." Jamie didn't hesitate to follow his own advice, and looked for the nearest row of parked cars to see if he could walked away and duck out of sight from the robots on the ground and on the rooftops.

Finding the best cover behind a van, Jamie focussed on something he knew he could innately do as long as he willed it to happen.

The next moment, a Jamie continued to walk along the street past the van as if he were taking a stroll home. That Jamie made sure he was in full view of the robots, while another Jamie still behind the van waited for the opportune moment to sneak away unnoticed to get off the street and into a quiet alley.

Victor hears the exchange all too well, before stepping closer to the big man and lowering his voice.

"I don't know what you two have been up to, and frankly I don't give a damn. But you got a packed house, an' the proprieter startin' a fight with a customer ain't gonna be a good look no matter how ya spin it. I ain't gotta dog in this, but maybe you save this for a... quieter time?"

Victor steps away, and grabs his jacket.

Inside Dukes' (Cap, Gambit, Lady Deadpool)
FIGHT! Who's startin' a fight?! he belows. Victor come on! You misunderstand ole' Fred. LeBeau and me is friends, ain't we Rem. It's just we had an agreement, a gentleman's agreement ya see, between friends. And I need my friend here to not forget 'is word, tha's all." Fred puts a huge meaty hand on Gambit's shoulder. He squeezes it making it quite uncomfortable.

As he zips up his jacket, Victor turns to Fred and smiles, pronounced canines in full view. "Can ya blame me? Ya had a hell of a career in the ring. Hate t'see anything damage what ya built here. Damned institution, it is."

Remy grins through the ache in his shoulder. "Ah, dat situation. Remy don' forget 'is word, doncha worry bout dat. But you be killin' da mood and nobody don' wanna be playin' cards presently. Now, if you don' mind, I be tryin' to play anotha hand b'fore all da money s'en aller." Remy indicates he's in for another round.

Outside the bar, Kurt makes his way carefully down the street, his eyes appearing casual and walking just as he did before, but then makes as if to stop in the alley right next to the bar to relieve himself. When he does so, he finds a patch of shadow to stand in... then reaches behind him to turn off the image inducer.

Immediately, he is crawling up the wall, blending seamlessly into the shadows... seeking to find his way to the alley pointed out by Betsy. Wherever this is going, he won't be treated like an animal to be sacrificed. Never again.

Ilian heads down the street, just as she has always done in fake-ass land after playing poker at Duke's, toward her fake-ass apartment.

Inside Dukes' (Cap, Gambit, Lady Deadpool)
Fred looks around the bar at Victor's words. He seems confused for a moment, but then snaps his expression to a mild grimace. "Listen pal, your top banana where you work. Don't be thinking you can come in here and tell me how to run my show, a'ight? I got this."

Turning to Remy, he tightens his grip on the Cajun's shoulder. "But you ain't got no more chips, swamp rat, how are you goin'na play another hand if you ain't got any chips, eh?"

---

Out on the street (Multiple Man, Nightcrawler, Imajica)
Ilian, Kurt, and both Jamie's are doing their best to clear out of the area, when they hear a commotion. The sound of metal tearing through metal, shrieking breaks, glass shattering and people screaming. Turning to look, the robot that had been observing from atop the bank has leapt down to the street, piercing the hood of a passing car and causing a three car pile-up. One of it's appendages has opened up becoming a claw. It has grabbed a well dressed blonde woman by the arm and lifted her off her feet.

The crowd does not seem to notice the robot or the woman, instead acting as if there was just a fender bender. The other machines in the area plow through the gathering throng with little regard, but no one notices as the are shoved out of the way. The woman screams in pain and fruitlessly kicks at the robot gabbing her. In response it whips her back and forth like a rag doll. You're sure her am should be broken, but instead her skin shreds away revealing a diamond form underneath.

At the revelation of a powered individual the lower apparatus of each robot begins to glow green. The bot holding the woman fires a sustained beam at her body. The light of the beam refracts in billions of directions as she struggles to break free. The bots on street level rise up over the crowd and fire their beams as well, adding to the scintillating array of the laser light show. The remaining two robots start making their way toward the commotion.

"Aww Fred, y'got me all wrong. I ain't tryin' t' run anything! I'm jus' sayin' that the entire burough loves this place -- it makes sense no one would want anything t'happen here. It's a good thing to have customers who want what's best fer yer joint!" And it was true... Duke's was the spot around here. Always had been. Although, now Victor finds himself wondering just why that is...

"As for Remy, he's got some freelance work to do for me. Talked to me about it the other day. I ain't surprised he tried making his money they easy way, but he still agreed to do some work at the shop to pay back debt. I admit, I didn't know it was you Fred, but I'm puttin two an' two together. I kinda need him able to work though. If you don't mind him bein' able to pay ya back, o'course."

"Ach," Kurt grumbles to himself as he reaches the roof of a nearby building, looking down on the chaos below, largely ignored by the passersby. "Diamond skin... hmph." The victim certainly seemed like she might be familiar to him.

Regardless, the robots were making their move. There was no time for hestiation.

With a BAMF and the smell of brimstone, Nightcrawler teleports himself towards the attack, his intent to grab the woman and teleport both of them away from these robots. Guess the idea of stealth was going out the window.

"Pardon, Herr Bot, we have someplace else to be," the elfish mutant says, tail lashing behind him.

Wanda frowns in disgust.

"Hey, I'm getting a "table throwing" vibe coming from over there and I don't like it. As the only one with a real job in this place…" She raises her hands. "…No offense, of course, I’ll take care of Remy. Let him play. Now, be a sweetheart and get me another tequila, Freddy sexy boy."

Ilian continues to mind her own business, especially upon seeing Kurt snatch Diamond Girl from the rays and jaws of death. She can't wait to get off the street and into her fake-life apartment.