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[[JJ is the mob boss guy]]
Angela nodded. "Yeah, that was pretty cool."
Ricky yanked something from under the dash. "Found it." He tossed the GPS out the window. "So, back to City Hall? Or what?"

"Well my gifts, as I've come to realize them as, are natural, most of it at least," said Tara as she eyed the sword.

"You know what they say about Excalibur though," she said with a smirk. "It make make kings, but only those who it judges as worth to be a king. You must have impress the sword and the lady and lake to be holding the blade now."

She paused as she handed him back the sword, seeming to move the large metal object around with a fair amount of ease. "So this is what Kyle helped you do, find magic artifacts? Was this a quest of sorts for you two?"

"Excuse me? You said abilities, Kyle was normal," Tara said, a hint of unease slipping through her outer armor.

"I know more than even possibly you how great a man Kyle was, he saved me from a wretch of a life, one I am not proud I once lived. He showed me what it was I could be if I let go of the hate that made me that way. I constantly strive to make sure that he was right and that I was worth saving. So do not toy with my heart, what do you mean that he was not normal?"

Tara was speechless, though it was obvious that something had snapped inside her at least for a moment due to her clenches the hardwood table hard enough to crack it and leave imprints of her fingers.

Then talking to herself and completely ignoring Champlain. "But that doesn't make any sense. Not once did I see him use magic, even when he was being attack, I stepped in because it looked like he was going to be hurt. Then, when I.....he could have stop me, but he didn't..he could have stopped it all from happening....it doesn't make any SENSE!" At the last word she flipped the table, throwing a good 4 feet in the air before it arched back to the floor with a thud.

By the time it had fallen tot he floor Tara's anger had given way to grief as she held her hands to her face. She was not sobbing, but it obvious that she was crying. "Why would he let me do that if he could have stopped it?" She asked herself again.

[[she going to need some gentle prodding as to what she's mumbling about if you want her out of ga-ga land outside of a few hours]]

Tara was silent for awhile while she pulled herself together.

"It was so long ago," She started as she wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "When I was much younger the bloody, horrific events in my life had left me a very hateful and vengeful person. I don't know if you have ever had to experience being pulled apart piece by piece just so people could see what made you tick and being complete aware and alive while they did it, but it will do things to you at young age that cannot ever be undone. I sided with the people I thought were the ones that looked out for me. We were not good people, we killed without even thinking about it. If someone stood in the way of what we felt was our right, we annihilated them in the blink of and eye.

"When I went to college I met Kyle, he seemed nice enough at first, but when I heard him speak out for the rights of people like me to exist without persecution I knew I could trust him. He was attacked by a few bigots and I stepped in and beat them back with hand to hand blows. I malicious too, they were just more of the same to me. I sent 4 of them to the hospital ICU before the others ran. Yet during that fight Kyle didn't seem to use magic that I could tell.

"Once I grew to know him better Kyle and I spent more and more time together until the only time we were apart was school and work. I..I loved him so much, and I had never felt that emotion for anyone in so many years, even my parents. It was so strong and so foreign, like that piece of life that I had missed or had taken from me. For awhile I thought I was living in a dream. It was just him either, he taught me to love and feel for others where before all I felt was hate and contempt. He wanted to change the world for the better so much it spilled over to me I guess. But more than anything I have ever felt before or since...I loved him, I wanted to stay with him forever."

Tara paused for a moment as she had to fight to keep her composure before continuing, it seemed that this was the part that had truly cause her distress.

"Then one day I began hearing rumors that Kyle's kindness was a sham and his entire personality was an act. His protest, his being attack, it was all a ruse to prove to his college friends that he could get any girl he wanted no matter the challenge that she was. They had considered me the most sour, bitter prude on campus and so he made it his mission to get me into the palm of his hand. I didn't believe it at first, but the rumors began to proliferate across the entire campus and had to ask him

"When I talked to him I should have known something was off about it, but the fact that he was acting different just fell in line with what I had been hearing and inside my mind I think I was looking for something to prove to the softer part of me that I was wrong and that I needed to be a stone mallet. He said it was all true, or at least I thought it was him. I didn't find out until months later that it was a poly-morph from my group. My own group, betrayed me, tricked me and manipulated me because they were afraid I would move away from them."

Tara gave a harsh laugh as she said, "They never planned on me finding out, it backfired on them then. I made sure I choked Morph with my own hands after what she made me do."

She shook her head and paused for a moment. "But I didn't know, not soon enough. The fake Kyle left before I could get over the shock. When I found the real Kyle I was so angry, I was seeing red, I wouldn't listen to reason and could barely understand speech at that point. I did the only thing that was natural to me, I attacked him. In my fury I could barely do a circle block right and he evaded me for long enough until I lashed out with my powers. I strapped him to the ground with roots and then....."

There was a long, eerie pause that lasted a good 5 minutes but felt like hours to Tara. As if, if she didn't say it it wouldn't be true and it wouldn't have happened. Then, quietly she said, "I killed him. I drove a piece of dead wood through his heart. I killed the one man who ever showed me that I was worth the breath I breath and who I ever truly loved and I erased him from this world. I tried to save hi, but the damage was too severe for me to fix. His last words were...well, I can't say, I'm sorry, those I will never tell to anyone."

"So when I found out what I had done and who had tricked me I hunted them like animals, most of them ran and went into hiding. But Morph, I made sure I found her, and felt her spine and windpipe collapse under him hand. Then I fixed it so I could do it again. I did it five times before her heart gave out."

Tara then looked at Chamberlain with tears beginning to form in her eyes again, "So if he was such a powerful mage....why didn't he save himself? Why didn't stop me? Why would he doom himself to death and let me lose the only thing that help me a float in a sea of death and hate? How could he not? There has to be some explanation. None of my old group could have negated his powers, but I have no other idea how. Is there anyway he could have lost his powers? Could a more powerful mage have stripped him?"

Chamberlain pulled Tara close giving the comfort he felt she needed. "Shh... Listen. Neither of us can guess the reason. Perhaps he simply couldn't raise his hand against you. But it doesn't matter. It sounds like you're looking for forgiveness, otherwise you wouldn't have told me this. But It's not my forgiveness you need. First and foremost you have to forgive yourself. Kyle would not want you carrying this with you for the rest of your life."

[[not sure if sneeze wants to handle the mob lackeys or not.]]

As they approached the docks their radio flared on again. Tinker's voice seemed highly annoyed. "Well they got smart as to the gps tracking chip in the car. I'm stuck monitoring them the hard way. While they are outside I can keep a fairly good eye on them through the satellites but for the few dozen seconds I have to let it go I have to rely on the local traffic cameras and such. Either that or I have to start hacking the entire city's worth of surveillance video feeds and security systems. If they go into a building then I can simply follow them through its video feeds and such but until then I'd rather not be distracted trying to take control of the entire city at once."

"We're on another lead right now," said Zack, "What can you tell us about the underbelly of this city?"

There was a short pause and then, "There is one name you need to know, JJ Brian Snyder, aka "The Manager". He is the person with all the answers in this city in terms of the dirty dealings and black markets. He was.......yes, he was in the building before it was demolished, I have video confirmation from off site stored files. Until I have a grasp on what these other guys' angle is, see if you can't fine the bread trail that leads to him."

When they reached the docks their car looked like and old black sedan, they got out, this time waring street clothes. Zack was in black jeans and denim coat over a white shirt, Liz was wearing blue jeans and a brown leather jacket with a hood.

They began poking around to see if they could find anyone....