Summary:Someone comes looking for Shayera with news and information from home Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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"So… this is a problem."
Nick Gleason has, broadly speaking, had two big problems in his life in the last several months. Problem one was a growing group of feral, animal like mutants who were hunting down mutants like themselves and dragging them off to be forcibly converted. That is the problem that occupies much of Nick's day-to-day activities.
Problem number two was a series of entanglements with what increasingly seem to be two groups of winged people and at least one of them taking personal exception to Nick's involvement - and also something about them needing people with an X-Gene or something like that.
Today's fiasco is courtesy of problem number two. He had been walking down the street when a fight had erupted and a man wearing an outfit that looks a lot like Captain America's, only red and white with a maple leaf on his shield, had promptly appeared, challenged some winged people and gotten has ASS handed to him.
That is why, at present, there are two wrecked cars, one barely conscious Captain Canada, two completely unconscious winged people, and one conscious one who looks like she can't be older than her late teens or early twenties and was definitely being chased by the other two. Nick had to get involved, which he is not super happy about, and is talking to the police who have called in their expert on these matters. The winged girl is hiding behind Nick and has insisted that she'll only talk to Shayera.
…who is taking a surprisingly long time to arrive. Usually when someone requests Shayera's presence, she's able to to arrive faster than just about anyone else by flying over the city's ever-present traffic.
Finally, though, a police SUV pulls up and Shay clambers out very grumpily. There's just a brief glimpse of a grimace as one of her wings brushes against the car's door frame, and then she's striding toward Nick and the youngster hiding behind him with her mace in hand.
Lin has learned tricks while away. She put "find my friend" on Nick's phone while he was sleeping. She also may have done the same with Isis. Lin is worried about the pair with all these attacks going on but she still has her own job. Now she's approaching the scene slowly and looking around in mild interest. Why are there so many winged people??
Dressed in a scarlet tightknit sweater dress, dark brown leggings and short black leather boots and carrying a brown leather satchel across her left hip Lin would seem like any other casual passerby, aside from the antlers. Oh and the fact that she's slowly floating forward about two inches off the ground. "Niiiick." Lin sighs as she lands next to him and looks around for Isis. She ignores the others for the moment.
Isis is currently sitting on the Canny Canuks of Courage chest, perched almost like a cat - pinning him down … uh, protecting him. "Don't worry Sir, we'll look after you." She's saying, eyeing the girl who's hiding behind Nick.
The slim mutant is wearing the new jacket - the black one with pink piping that fits her curves so well. On the back is a 'hello kitty' image but above it, the words say 'Hello Isis'. On the left breast is a smaller 'hello kitty' emblem.
"Hello Lin. Is anything wrong?"
"Hello Shayera. Why aren't you flying?"
"Good Kitty…" Captain Canada says rather dazedly. It's not at all clear that he knows that there is a mutant sitting on him. He might be more convinced that there is a cat sitting on him. And that he's at home. Or something. He got knocked around REAL hard. Some of that MIGHT have been by Isis.
"Lin!" Nick almost jumps when the antlered woman lands next to him. She makes almost no sound. Which is what Shayera will see as she gets out of the car. A woman with antlers floating to the ground.
"Whoah…" The young winged woman behind Nick says, staring up at Lin. She's holding her wings out of Isis' view as much as she can because er… cat seems to go for the wings.
And then Shay is here. "Uh. Hello Protector Shayera…" Boy does SHE look guilty.
Is she holding something behind her back? Actually yes, yes she is. Isis can see it. It's a cannister of some kind.
Lin looks Isis over, then Nick. "I don't know?" She answers after jumping slightly at Nick's exclamation..she forgots to make noises on approach a lot. Finding them admist a..whatever this is, is not what she'd expected. Flying? At Nick's question Lin turns and notes the new person and the weapon. Also the youngster hiding behind Nick.
Shrugging, Lin floats over to Isis and sits on the unconcious stranger's legs. He's definitely not going anywhere at the moment is he? Oh wait, he's speaking. She isn't sure if this is a bad guy or not but a vine bursts from a crack in the street and creeps up to encircle the stranger man's mouth. "Quiet." Lin tells him before turning back to the others in time to see the canister. Lin's eyes widen and she suddenly launches forward (kicking the poor man good accidently) in an attempt brush Nick aside and shove the woman with the cannister onto her back where she can pounce and try to get that cannister. Her new (hopefully new) friends aren't going to be attacked on her watch! Besides X people stick together!
"Tell you later," Shay answers Isis curtly before focusing her attention on the youngster hiding behind Nick. The antlered woman distracts her, but only momentarily as she moves to go sit next to Isis. She looks about to ask something of the younger winged woman when the aforementioned antlered woman rather abruptly launches herself toward the former.
With a snarl of annoyance, Shay also lunges forward but in an attempt to keep Antlers from tackling the kid. The abrupt movement comes with an instinctive flaring of her wings, revealing the bandages still on the left one fairly close to her back.
"Back OFF," she grates at Antlers.
Isis frowns as Lin makes the vines cover the Canny Canuks mouth. "Why'd you do that? He was praising me." She says a little put out. So cat.
She doesn't have time to spare for anything else though as the girls emotions flare. "Nick she's up to som——" Lin pounces and then Shayera. It's a bit of a mess, really. Isis waits, hunkering down as she watches the girl. "She has a cannister, Nick." It's a programmed response that comes from Isis next - she doesn't pounce, not with Shayera and Lin tussling there. Instead, a wave of calm washes out over the area … It's quite strong really and it's possible that noone but Nick will know what just happened.
"YAH!" Nick suddenly has growls coming from a concerned Lin and a somewhat grumpy Shayera and he's trying not to get gored while it happens. He just yanks the young woman aside and tries to keep hiding her behind him. "LinLinLinLinLIN! I know she has something! She wanted to talk to Shayera about it!"
The red haired, grumpier winged woman must be Shayera. The younger - blonder - bird person squeaks in alarm. This is no fighter, no warrior like Shay is.
"Isis, a hand here?!"
"I'msosorryIdidn'tmeanohvariousgodspleasedon'tbreakthecannisterorwe'reallgonnadie!!!!"
Yeah. The blonde young woman really, REALLY isn't a warrior.
Lin remembers this calm from the first time she met Isis. She relaxes and rolls out of the way before landing in a crouch and glaring at both the winged women. She made sure to place herself between Nick and those two strangers. The calming power will hopefully work. She's willing to wait and see for the moment. She can praise Isis later to make up for quieting the weirdly dressed man.
Besides, her rush of anger is fading fast and unless she wants to shift mindsets it's hard to want to pound the girl into the ground now. A plant would not want to do that anyway. It would turn out much messier. Best to wait and see and wish she'd gone for honey whiskey instead of checking her phone.
"Oh." Lin looks chagrined. "Sorry. She looked guilty, hiding weapon maybe. I thought wrong. I apologize." Lin bows her head. She's going to have to work on this now that she is back in civilisation. Reacting first and asking questions later is really not always the best response here. Lin shuffles over to Isis and kneels looking around apologetically. "You look beautiful in your new jacket." She whispers softly to Isis. "Wereallgonnadie!!!" Doesn't seem to have phazed Lin at all.
Shay isn't openly fighting with Antlers, not YET. But if she doesn't back the eff off PDQ… thank goodness she does, and the wash of calmness helps as well. She keeps her defensive stance and her eyes locked on LinLinLinLinLin until she returns to sitting beside Isis. Only then does she relax, trying to not let a wince show when she furls her wings close to her back again.
"Eena, why are you here?" The rapid stream of panicky words from the younger winged woman has her wanting to slap a hand over her face, but she manages to stick to just taking a deep breath. "Slow down, no one's going to do anything to you. Let me see the canister."
"I am helping." Isis says to Nick but gets up anyway and goes to pat the young blonde on the shoulder. "Lin won't hurt you, she's just protecting us." The blue eyed mutant says, not trying to take the cannister from her.
"You know her, Shayera?" beat "What's in the cannister?" Isis gives Lin a grin to acknowledge the whisper.
"You ran away from home, didn't you, Eena?"
And stole that cannister when she did. Isis is going to be a PI, mmmhmm.
"When they said that you couldn't come back because you'd defied an order or something. Something having to do with Kelso Mez's work. Soooooo I broke into his old labs - which was easy because no one was there - and stole whatever looked the most important. If Kelso Mez is doing stuff here, I figure maybe his research can help you?"
Nick looks equal parts perplexed and impressed. "Do you know what's in it?"
"Um… no. Not exactly. But… it was marked with the three wings? You know the 'danger danger, don't open this if you don't know what you're doing? It uh, does have this…" She taps the bottom. That's a crystal recorder. It's used to keep messages and instructions.
"So uh yes, Miss. I sort of ran away from home." Beat. "What's wrong with your head, Miss?" That's to Lin. She's never seen antlers before, naturally.
Seeing that things seem safe for the moment Lin settles in a cross legged position a few inches off the ground and watches the others. Her nose scrunches up cutely when she smiles in return as Isis's grin. She had really thought they were in danger. She apologized for her mistake though and is sitting quietly so hopefully it will be fine. A pair of pigeons fly down from a nearby powerline and land on Lin's anterlers. Hastily she tells them to go for now, remembering the feline woman's preference for birds and not wanting to make this situation more chaotic. Sad cooing insues but the birds leave. After one leaves a present on the front of Captain Canada's chest. Lin winces. "Sorry. It happens." She fishes a hankerchief from her satchel and sets about cleaning the mess.
Having been following the conversation though in an absent sort of way, Lin turns after she is done and sees the young woman is talking to her. She frowns in confusion. Did the birds shit in her hair too? Lin reaches up and pats her head, finds it clean and shrugs. "Noth…oh." She blinks in surprise. "I have antlers. Nothing wrong with them. Part of me, like your wings, or Nick's fur."
"Eena!" Shay goes straight to scolding mode. "That was extremely foolish of you. Do you realize that you could have been hurt or killed?" Despite her harsh words, though, she steps over to the youngster and gingerly accepts the canister from her hands before wrapping her uninjured wing around Eena. "Now I will need to find a way to tell your parents that you're safe."
She looks over at Nick, Isis, and Lin finally. "I think we need to take this discussion elsewhere… why were you sitting on that man?"
Herr Isis' ears.
"I think you're very brave." Isis murmurs to Eena, glancing up at Nick about moving. "We're waiting for the police to come and pick these people up." She says to Shayera "And Captain Canada needs medical attention. I was protecting him from those others …"
Cause, you know, he just got backside whooped.
"Shayera's right though, it was very dangerous. Why did you do it?" It interests Isis - she would do anything to protect Nick, so she gets it. But she wants to understand the relationship here. "Are you part of Shayera's pack?"
"Lin, why are you here?"
"Um… I might have knocked a guard out on the way out. And wrecked the Skybridge. And um… I might be exiled too now. Or at least very, very grounded. Not sure." Eena is not eager to get back to Akah Ma'at.
Nick gestures to a cafe which has been cleared by the police. "We can take it in there if you want privacy. Or my truck is just over there if you want to take a drive." Or Shay and Lin can lift Nick and Isis up to a rooftop but that seeeeems like that might be a hassle for everyone.
Eena does at least look embarrassed when Lin tells her that her antler's are normal.
"Oh." Nick says. "Lin this is Shayera Hol. She works with the police. Shayera this is Lin. She is an, um, alumnus of the same school I graduated from." The two know eachother.
"I think we can leave Captain Sorry there if you want to talk more privately." He's curious what is REALLY in that cannister. Dangerous, possibly, sure. But useful? He'll take useful if it gets them closer to this case.
"Pack? No… I have never been part of anything she wore, even when I was small. Um. I did it because Shayera is… I… I just wanted her to be able to come home. I figured if I brought her evidence she'd be able to solve the case. She always does that back home."
Hero worship much?
"Checking to see if you needed help." Lin says. She understands why the girl did what she did too. "Thought maybe this was those..had something to do with the other thing." She doesn't know the winged people of if they know about the mutant problems that she's promised to help Nick and Isis and Hank with. That reminds her. "I wanted to ask something too but uhm, later." Also work is done and she'd been a bit at a loss as to what to do with herself. After returning she'd gotten a job, because that is what people do, they work. She's not sure what she should attempt after, thus her checking where they were and showing up when it wasn't where she expected.
"Oh!" He's not a bad guy, she hadn't really thought so but he was being noisy when she wanted to hear. Lin quickly removes the vine from the man's mouth and eyes him. "I cannot heal this. Too human, but he will be okay." So she rises and moves to stand beside Isis. Actually standing instead of floating.
Shay looks at the cafe. Too many windows, but she can't really be very picky at the moment. And flying? She WISHES. And the truck, while one of the more roomy looking vehicles in the area, she's not terribly keen on having to cram her wings into another Grounder vehicle so quickly.
"The cafe," she tells the others before leading the way there. Once everyone's inside, she offers a bit more explanation. "Eena is the daughter of a good friend of mine, who is going to be molting from worry." She looks at the youngster at the last comment before finally studying the canister itself more closely. It does have the warning label on it, so she's not going to open it here and now, but maybe there are some other identifyers…
Isis leads the way to the cafe, casting a curious look at Lin. "Can you heal Shayera's wing?" Oh, the woman is going to love that. Not that Isis is really thinking about that.
"So what's in the cannister?"
Lin blinks at Isis and blushes for not having considered. She probably can actually, even if the woman isn't a feral mutant, a wing is a wing. Lin moves behind Shayera and closes her eyes in concentration, one hand just barely touching part of the injured wing. She sees in her mind all the blood vessels and muscles, tracing out where the wound is and gasping softly. She'd like to get ahold of who did this. She will take her time with the healing so it won't hurt more and give the otehrs a chance to talk some. It will itch and it might sting but after nearly twenty five minutes the wound will be nicely healed.
What's in the cannister is a mutagen. That's what the markings say. Specifically, it is a mutagen designed to affect the Aerian genome. But it's incomplete. It needs 'unstable cellular structures' to be fully effective and well. Based on what has been happening down here Shayera can guess where Kelso Mez plans to get those structures.
Nick moves to the cafe and… pulls the blinds. Thankfully this place has sun shades. That'll help keep prying eyes out even if it's not perfect. He glances back at Lin when Isis asks that question. Can she?
"What have you got there, Shayera? Was it worth Eena getting grounded for life?"
Shayera's immediate reaction to Lin moving behind her is to turn defensively, both to protect her wings and because trained warriors just /don't/ let people at their backs. It takes a bit of reassurance from Isis and possibly also Nick to convince her to let Lin heal her wing, and the process itself is REALLY uncomfortable but not outright painful. Small mercies, that.
"The markings read…" She hesitates and looks at Eena before turning her eyes to Nick and Isis. "Do you remember what we found out about Kelso Mez and the research that was the reason for his exile?" One finger taps the canister gently. "This probably needs to go to someone who knows how genetic science and has the proper containment equipment to handle it safely."
Lin sits down in exhaustion and rests her elbows on the table to prop up her head. She'd done some healing at the zoo earlier in the park, and on some plants and she's tired and nursing a headache now. "It might be a little weak or easy to tire for a short time but its good now." She tells the WInged woman and then covers a yawn. "Dr. McCoy?" Lin suggests. She wants to see him again anyway. She's gotten a present to cheer him up. Or she hopes it will. It's possible she guessed wrong. Human interactions are not something she excells at. Something else occurs to her. "If she needs a place to stay, she could stay with me." The antlered woman nods at the girl and then smiles shyly. "Sorry for earlier."
Once their in the cafe, Isis orders food. Poor Nick, his food budget is so large. Burger and fries, stroganoff, quiche and icecream. "What are you guys going to have?" She asks before falling silent to listen.
"It's … what do you call it Nick? A mutantagen? It should go to SHIELD, I think. Hank could look at it but I don't know we want to bring this type of trouble on him."
Or the school. She means.
She'd suggest the school for Eena but it's not going to be easy to get her in there. Didn't she see a flyer a recently about a new school starting up?
The Cafe is a little… sparse in the employment department but there is still a cook back there who agrees to make food for Isis if she will stop hunting through the pantry and go back to the front. So yay! Food. Isis will be fed.
"Um… fries?" Nick responds to her and then glances back.
"Mutagen yes. And actually Isis is right. We already know someone who can do that. You've met him Shayera. Hank. Though he looks a bit different from the last time you saw him. I'll have him contact you and you can look at… whatever that is."
It's going to be bad news. He knows it is.
"Keep us in the loop. And she'll probably be fine, Lin, but it's a nice offer." He'll let Shay and Eena work that out. In the mean time he's just going to have a seat. His shoulder is soooore.