Priming

[Jagdish]

The mention of vanishing was enough for Abel to guess what cousin Mai was referring to and why Akiko might seek him out. What it didn't explain was why Abel would get involved in that business. He could at least venture a guess, though: "You need me to fill in the gap, find out what the thing is?"

~*~

Atlas wasn't a fan of being pushed around, but at least there was a relatively private route available to the specialty hotel. Using what he could recall from the last time, he easily got them the same, private apartment-like suite. There would be some details to work out later on the issue of payment, but he was too tired. In fact, he was too tired to bother doing anything other than sleep the second he got to the bed.

Some things might be different, but that only meant Pan found them faster. An opening was still an opening, and the second Akiko was distracted, in came the knife straight toward her head. However the shadowy power worked, Pan moved so quickly that there was hardly two seconds between the instant something else was in the room and the knife hurtled free of it's counter-top home.

[Kisume Yue]

"I'm hoping that you might be able to see something in Akiko's memories. Contrary to popular belief I can't actually see what's going to happen. I don't know what things looked like before they changed. Maybe there's something that Akiko doesn't know about or understand that you can make sense of. Of course I'm offering to pay your usual rate."

The fact that Mai had the money went without question. She didn't usually show her money, but she had it when she needed it. She'd learned that rich psychics made people more nervous than poor ones. When everyone thought that you were a fraud, it was better to be the lovable one than the dangerous one.

----

It was a very good thing that Akiko had made the crude shield. The supposed opening completely failed, as the knife hit the force field generated by the choker and ended up clattering in another direction harmlessly. Akiko had been able to see where it came from though, out of sheer instict, she'd dived behind something and grabbed a lamp.

She remembered this. It didn't happen the same, but it had to be the shadow guy from last time. Lights were good distraction, and dark was probably stupid. But it was a shadow. She had a force field, but eventually he was going to figure out the weakness. .

She needed to figure out his first. One thing that Akiko had been able to do with her spare time had been to start researching super assassins. And the name Pan had showed up. At the time, she hadn't believed it, but now...

And they weren't after Atlas.

They were targeting her.

"It's the guy!" Akiko said sharply to Atlas. "It can't directly be in light, but that won't stop it."

Pan. She had time to react. She had a force field. If Atlas was close he had one too. She had to think. Was his name a clue?

If this guy's weakness was sewing or a bar of soap, she was going to laugh herself sick.

[Jagdish]

Atlas awoke very confused, but not so disoriented that he didn't notice objects flying around the room and Akiko cowering on the floor. For just a second, his befuddled mind wondered if maybe he was still dreaming, but he adjusted quickly enough. It wasn't too hard to accept the oddity of the situation when it was all so mild relative to the truly weird and downright inexplicable things that happened in his superpowered world.

"Akiko." Finding his voice a bit groggy, he cleared his throat to get it caught up with the rest of his waking body. The delay gave him a moment to feel around with his extra sense to be sure he wasn't missing something, anyway, and let him continue with all his typical confidence. "The field knocks things over if you move too fast. I told you that. Remember?"

~*~

After a moment to consider the basic implications of Mai's request, Abel decided he needed time for real deliberation before he could agree to anything. Anything involving vigilante supers carried risk, and he kept up on the news well enough to know Akiko was a regular figure in that drama. Still, Abel respected Mai enough to suspect her request was not trivial and he did not care to ignore such a request. Then there was the matter of his unresolved business elsewhere, which provided no shortage of distraction the longer it dragged on.

Finally, he stood up, not quite hurrying anyone out yet but certainly signaling that he was ready to move on for the time. Naturally, his polite and respectful tone matched as he explained, "I'll have to think about it a bit more. Right now, though, I'm sorry to say I've got another matter I have to attend to. I can't promise anything one way or the other, but I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can, alright?"

[Kisume Yue]

There were better places than behind a couch to hide from a guy who could turn into a shadow. The problem was that most of them weren't really easy to get to at the moment, and Akiko wasn't fond of running around as an open target. Even if the guy could easily attack her, at last she had some feeling of cover.

Pan didn't seem to be attack again (he'd vanished the last time that this had failed) but that didn't stop Akiko's ill tempered reply. Maybe she'd just been through one too many time warps. "Unless the field makes knives magically levitate out of a drawer and fling themselves out of a kitchen towards the wearer, I'm pretty sure that that field had nothing to do with it."

She remembered that field all too well. As well as the weakness of it. And she really didn't want Pan to figure it out.

But...why was she being marked? Usually, she was nothing more than a means to an end. Why focus on her..?

---

While Mai had been hoping for the future where Abel decided to work with her immediately she nodded, standing up herself. This was probably the best she was going to get. "Thank you," she said, taking out a small, very professional looking business card. "My contact information is on that card." She hesitated for a moment, not sure if he wanted her meddling, but there were several possible things that he was there personally about. Still, she really did need the help. There were some things her power just couldn't do.

"If this is about the young woman Ultra caused the death of, Vamp has revived her," she said.

For better or for worse. There were some possible futures connected to her that looked particularly grim.

After another polite thank you, Mai was ready to head towards the elevator and on to other business.

[Jagdish]

Reading this thread feels a bit like looking at photos of lost friends; I relish the visit, but mourn all the stories that could have been. So many great characters and I kinda regret that a lot of their backgrounds are hidden behind vague hints, with no future to reveal more of the puzzle.

I'm getting back into writing for the moment. Holler at me if you ever get the itch to finish this story, or take up another since it happily looks like you found another home for your characters wink

[Kisume Yue]

I've really missed you! It was fun doing all of this! Honestly, I'm good with doing either. I've loved doing this rp, but it might be hard to get back into a swing of things after all this time, so we could easily come up with something new!

[Kisume Yue]

I’ve been thinking. If you want to do a completely new rp. I think I have an idea that could be interesting. I was thinking of a sort of rural fantasy mixed with conspiracy theories. Maybe we could even use some of the same characters!

[Jagdish]

Just in case.

Distress Abel had looked over the card with distracted regard and was about to mumble a "thanks" when Mai's next words spoke straight to his distraction. In a rare breach of etiquette, his eyes narrowed and his next words slipped out with a decidedly sharp tone: "What the hell does that mean?"

Just as fast as the nasty edge slipped free, it was corrected and Abel hastened to correct his temperment. First, he lowered his inexplicably raised arm to pocket Mai's card. There hadn't been any threat in his gesture, his hand moving more out of exasperation than anything, but he felt rude all the same for letting emotion overwhelm him. With a more neutral posture adopted, his next step was to apologize both with a slight nod of his head and better control of his voice.

"Sorry. I just thought I was finally done with this.. Case." It wasn't the first time he'd thought Viola's troubles were settled. He'd reached that point enough times before to remain skeptical at first, but putting her body into a grave came with the sense of finality only death could promise. His sigh told everything he wouldn't speak otherwise in regards to just how exhausting their superpowered world could be. "If you could just clarify what you mean by 'revived', I would appreciate it."

~*~

Atlas wanted only to close his eyes and fall the rest of the way into a restorative slumber, but a nagging worry tugged deep in his chest and drew him from the bed. With no attempt to hide contempt from his face, he rose slowly to his feet, hovered a second there from a passing case of the spins, and then stumbled tiredly out to sit on the couch. Once there, he gave a cursory glance around the room to confirm that there was nothing there that he'd missed with his extra sense. Finally, he let his gaze settle wordlessly on Akiko and waited to ensure he had at least some part of her attention before patting the seat cushion beside himself.

He was too tired to remind Akiko to approach slowly and spare him the shield. All he wanted was to escape the constant panic for a day. One full day where he could sleep, have a bit of fun, and maybe even get his head to stop swimming long enough to figure out how to get his life back on track. Although there was no shortage of threats to that hope, he felt certain his best chance at achieving any part of it was to start with Akiko.