Who let the dogs out? (PM for Invite)

This place was strange. Much stranger than it should have been. It's true, the buildings were all the same. The cities were almost all the same. Key word there being almost. You see in this world New York City had just recovered, apparently in this timeline it did not survive the assault as much as in their universe. It was strange, the story behind it had been something fierce. In fact there were bedtime stories told to children about the heroics that happened that day. The night that New York coalesced into one, unified catalyst against impossible odds. A catalyst from which great pain and suffering birthed some of the worlds greatest heroic figures, and brought the already existing ones to light. To the Hounds.... it was history, but to each of them it meant something different. To one of them, it was the bedtime story they listened to. To the other, it was their past.

       Today was a rainy day. The overcast skies seemed to span to the far ends of the earth and as far as the eyes could see. There was no sunlight, just the ever expansive darkness, patches of lighter grey blotching the atmospheric blanket. The soft rumble overhead played a soft disruption to the constant static of rain that rapped, tapped and crashed upon the man made surfaces. The rattle in the streets had been somewhat relaxing to the ears as the noise seemed to produce a rather sublime taste in the little Hound's mouth as his nose caught wind of the smells from the outside. His little eyes fixated from out beyond the overhead of the store, the automatic doors opening and closing as people ran in to escape the rain. First a man and a woman, he was in a tan trench coat with a newspaper over the woman's head as she giggled, pulling the hood down off of her long blonde hair. Her giggle seemed to ripple the color of her hair a little and the taste of iron filled his mouth.

  "Blech." he said as he stuck his tongue out and shook his head, his eyes narrowing in disgust as he turned his eyes back to the rain, letting the noise fill his ears. The doors quietly whizzing as they opened allowed for louder, more flavorful bursts as he awaited on the bench for his supervising handler. Though it wasn't like rank mattered much here, they were in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart in another dimension for that matter. Protocol didn't exactly talk too much about that unfortunately... Thank God for Wal-Mart though. That seemed to be the only universal constant at this point.

   The entryway was covered in a dark grey stone-like tile with little blackened footprints where water had soaked, small puddles and a tall, unreachable ceiling. The area was hollowed and it allowed noise to echo quite well. Regularly he would have hated it, but the rain....the rain was something else. The walls were a slightly off white, the shade leaving the slightest taste of citrus to dance along his taste buds while observing the flashing lights of the quarter-machines and their silly little prizes. The smaller hound let out a little whimper as he leaned back against the haul-wood plastic bench, awaiting impatiently for the older of them to return. Granted, he had already been waiting for forty-five minutes and there wasn't even so much as a check up or debriefing on their situation. He was bored and in all honestly partially worried that something might have happened to his handler. His handler was, after all, the only person that was even remotely familiar to him... to lose them would be... well, devastating to say the least.

  but then he felt it.

  Tap, tap, tap. The noise was so specific, the way the foot tapped upon the earth so soft, so controlled yet generated the same senses over, and over again. Imagine every time you heard this foot step you felt a shift within you, a change of some kind. The taste of this footstep was as water, barely noticeable, and the noise generated the slightest shade distortion, though certain colors began to stand out a little more boldly.

   "That took far longer than needed." The older hound said in their slightly gruff voice, the hushed tone still enough for his younger compatriot to hear but not too loud that it was overbearing. It was a rather simple voice, though the lack of true inflection made the man sound incredibly stoic and uncaring...almost as if he were constantly annoyed. It was the tone that the little pup had grown to know. In fact he wasn't quite sure how he'd react if the older had ever offered any from of emotion in his voice. The stoic man the produce a rather large umbrella and a smaller one, handing the smaller of the two to the smaller hound.

 "Lemmiesee lemmiesee! Iiiiiit's! Awe man. It's yellow, eeeeew... Yellow ... the one that tastes weird." The younger one whined a little as he looked over the now opened weather protective device, alternating colors of yellow and red present. "didn't they have any other colors?"

  "Probably. I didn't look." The older one said as he took the plastic off of his own new purchase and gave it a little look over. Of course he knew the next question his young associate would ask next, and he quickly answered the question before it was even asked. "No, I won't get you another one."

 "Awww, C'mon! Why not!? Yellow is so....eeeeh." He began, the older one ignored the complaints, though his voice soon became a little more authoritative as he pointed to the younger hound with his closed umbrella top.

 "You're not going to be looking at the umbrella now are you? You're going to be looking straight ahead. There's no reason for you to even see it, just keep your eyes ahead. Focus on not becoming roadkill; and subsequently a hillbilly's snack." The firmness in his voice caused the pup to shrink back, cowering slightly before letting out a defeated "hmph" and following the older man outside, putting the umbrella up over his head.

    They began to walk in the rain, the umbrella would serve it's use, and as it would happen the older hound was quite right, he never actually had to see the awful tasting color, though the sound of the rain seemed to generate more than enough pleasantry for the little one as he happily kept pace, a small smile on his face as he only half-heartedly tried to avoid getting wet. The destination they were walking to was rather specific, it was a small shop on the edge of the city, and with the size of Los Angeles it was quite the walk for the two. Walking had become their custom, however, trying to save up enough money by getting word out about their services as bounty-hunters, bondspersons and investigators. In fact they already had a small reputation, only whispers to be sure, but it was enough to get them work. Work like the work they would be getting today.

  Arriving at the quaint little shop, the older of the two took the lead as he opened the door and stepped through, the younger one in tow. Taking down their umbrellas and snapping the band across them, the two scanned the room looking for whomever it was that had contacted them. Whomever it was had a good means of getting in touch with them, but alas they had no face to go with the name they were given. Just a description that the client gave of themselves. The Hounds offered up their description to their possible client as well, though now it was simply a matter of who was going to recognize who first. It took a moment, but the older one found their client, locking onto them and making their way towards them. Once reaching the table he cleared his throat and tried to establish eye contact.

 "I'm Detective Brennen. I believe you tried to get in contact with me regarding my particular set of skills." He said, introducing himself as he tried to set things in motion. "And you are...?"

Hunting down people he was looking for always managed to prove more annoying than it always needed to be, something that Michael had grown to learn over a lifetime of less than savory activities. Normally Michael was the type to do things on his own and save the unnecessary loose ends, but this time he felt different. The person he was follow, they were trickier than your average mundane criminal with their boring safe houses and their bribes thrown to corrupt cops. All of it had been so easy before, but now of all times he needed a professional.

In the end you always called for a professional when you needed something done.

Rain clouds had darkly blanketed the city of Los Angeles, Michael silently considering the downpour from under an empty bus stop, the pitter patter hollow against the metal covering. The rhythm itself was methodical, annoying almost as the rain tended to be when one listened to it or rather when he listened to it. Vehicles drove past him, wipers swiping left to right in an almost entrancing fashion, people walking past him with measured, hurried steps with umbrellas overhead. He had thirty minutes until he was supposed to be at this meeting, sitting with fingers clasped as his mind continued to run over things.

Memories, thoughts and things that proved to be more annoying than anything else. Being as dumb as people believed his son to be, it was almost enviable at this moment, but that was the curse of intelligence. With a sigh, Michael stood to his feet, and flourished the umbrella as he stepped out into the rain, now sounding against the plastic. Beyond the thick guard against wind, he could feel the chill of a breeze sweeping across his cheeks, forcing a violent shiver that such cold shouldn’t have normally dredged up. So much for sun and beaches. He thought to himself sourly, looking up to the dark clouds releasing their cold tears down on the city.

The meeting points was a rather quaint shop, one that  was perfect for rather nominal business like this. It was a small cafe, something that gave him a sort of homey air and let him drink while he waited. Getting there was easy enough, considering that he only needed to make a few turns and  then he was stepping through the door and out of the rain, quickly closing his umbrella with a motion. Flicking moisture from it, he ordered himself a small cup of coffee saturated with sugar and cream, before settling down into a seat to wait.

The brew was good enough, at the very least it was enough to fight off the tinge of fatigue that was creeping up on him. Shael had been surprisingly distant today, though it might have just been that they were spending time with their favorite friend/his former good half, an arrangement that persisted despite all that had happened. It did make sense that the whole candied eyed view would transit to both parts, rather than just one of them. These were one of the few thoughts that plagued his mind, until the sound of a bell tingled through the air. That caused his eyes to snap up to two people entering the shop, one of them a rather stern looking man in a trench coat and another around twelve in age, standing a couple of feet shorter than him.

A child was unexpected, but he was fine enough with the development. It only took him a second or two to recognize them as the people he was looking for, two beginning detectives but he had only heard good things about them. The older once spoke up once seated, locking eyes with him oddly luminescent brown eyes. He couldn’t help smirking upon hearing them, interlacing his fingers as he considered the two once more, taking in everything about them. Mannerisms, facial tweak, and even how they enunciated their words. ”Michael. The guy who called you here.” He said after a prolonged sip of his drink, letting the air hiss through his nostrils.

”Have to admit, heard you two were a little….eh..odd, but I wasn’t expecting a kid to come along.” He made the observation right away, settling odd silver eyes upon the pup before letting them drift back to Brennen.

"Yes well, a pleasure to meet you." Brennen said as he cleared his throat and took a seat. He made a motion to the younger Hound, sending them off towards the register while the elder one made point on the business at hand. His hands didn't touch the table as he made himself especially careful not to; his eyes shifted over the surroundings for a moment. The rain could still be heard outside, the patter and rapping heard now only as a muffled noise as it rained upon the roof of the building. He was as comfortable as a paranoid monstrosity could be, though he didn't find himself any less comfortable than that time he had a bunch of lizard men with axes ready to chop him into pieces. That was back before he had powers, mind you.

"Odd? Well I can assure you, there's no complications. We're both highly specialized at what we do. We're second to none. If you want a metahuman or some form of.... object found, you want information on them, or you need to do some digging then we're the best in this business. I'm sure there's good competition. But there's never been anything we couldn't find." He said as he cleared his throat, the smaller pup walking up and providing Brennen with a clear plastic cup of water and a small thick paper cup for his own hot chocolate, the runt looking up and finally taking note of Michael before smiling a little widely, then forcing himself to contain it into a simply wide grin. "The payment varies depending upon the difficulty of the object and the time it takes for us to locate it. We offer a salary cap, which provides insurance for you that you won't need to pay anything beyond a set number of hours. So if it takes us 3 hours to find it, you only pay for three hours. If it takes us a year, which it won't, then you only need to pay the salary cap. All resources are-"

"Mike I uh... this might sound a little random but...do you.....remember me at all?" The little one chirped up, a little bit of hope in his voice. At this moment he didn't care if his handler beat the living crap out of him, crushed him up and turned him into dust. This was the closest he had been to anyone that remotely knew his family, and so this was a moment of big hope for him. Quickly noting Michael's lack of recollection he amended his statement by clearing his throat, the hopeful tone gone before he furrowed his eyebrows. "I uh. I just, I thought you looked familiar. I didn't know if I had seen you before." His tone slightly shifted to a more professional one, he could feel the stoic leer of his handler upon him, causing him to clear his throat once more and excuse himself over to a different table, where he sat and watch the only visible entrance and exit to the shop.

"Sorry...he's still adjusting to.... professionalism. Anyways, where was..." Brennen mused to himself before he quickly recalled and picked up where he had left off. "All resources are your expense...generally there aren't many and the ones there are generally are inexpensive... all expenses are cleared by you of course. So are there any questions you have that I could answer, or areas you want me to... elaborate on before we begin discussing who or what it is you're looking for?" The long business introduction had been concluded sand it was mostly up to Michael to decide what it was that he wanted out of this situation. The Payment plan was more than fair, and it proved that they were competent enough in their work, and that they had nothing but motivation to get the job done within a set number of hours. Michael even had a say in the pay itself, something that most people did not get, even if superficial.

The ring went out and the little pup perked up as he watched whom had entered the building, it didn't seem to be anyone overly alarming, but something had him on edge. His eyes scanned over the area, back and forth, not allowing his concern to show too much after the initial hair standing on the back of his head thing. The smell caused the little pups taste buds to sting and caused him to actually partially chew on his tongue, trying to eliminate the sensation as he glanced about, taking a sip of his hot chocolate in attempts to combat the assault upon his senses. His handler took notice, but only began to watch the newcomer more cautiously, looking back to Michael and waiting to see what parameters Michael wanted to function by. A set cap of pay, any questions or more details he wanted, if he perhaps wanted a demonstration or something of an altogether different nature.

There was so much he could gather from the older males mannerisms. Their inherent paranoia made manifest, ranging from simple reluctance to even touch to the table to even the ways his eyes moved about as if scoping an unseen threat. The heat of the coffee permeated through the thing cardboard cup in his hand, warming up the brief chill that had wracked him earlier before. It was pleasant really, something that he wished was perpetuated through  the use of a heating system. Unfortunate that he found himself sensitive to something many others likely weren’t even vaguely bothered by. Thoughts would roil about in his head, even as he listened to the male talk about how excellent they were despite the miniscule runt he had brought along with him. The kid didn’t look more than eight or nine, nothing that he would have expected to do anything for him.

He had said they were the best in  the business, suggesting that they were either just that good or there were others in the business that were just sub-par. Michael was inclined to believe the latter, if only to avoid giving them more credit than they rightfully deserved. This would save him more disappointment than he would have ever wanted to deal with, and typically it worked. Following the talk of their skill he would hear what sounded to be some manner of talk about pay, because in the end a job was never free. Not that money proved to be too much of an object, but it would have been very nice to know how much he would need to throw their way as far as a price. Hourly rates, and things of that nature were always a problem with these types.

Not that he expected them to take a year if they were as good at gathering information as they liked to believe they were. Michael opened his mouth to speak, bu the younger male beat him to the punch. They referred to him as Mike, something that legitimately drew his attention. It sounded as if they knew him somehow, despite the fact that he had never seen this kid in his entire short lived life. A part of him wanted to ask what they had meant by that, but things had moved on before they could even go as far as to give him some manner of proper answer. Instead they pushed it off as if believing that he was someone else, leaving him with confusion as the older male would glare and the child moved away. This was followed by something explaining things away, though he would likely need to look into this at a later time when his little boss wasn’t policing.

Soon enough he would have his time to talk, inquire about certain things that were important to this business of theirs. ”I only have a few things I want to know. Mostly about how much I have to pay you, the whole hourly fee. What’s the salary cap. How many zeroes are we talking about here?” He would start by asking, waiting for some kind of answer before producing any information he could about the person he was hoping that they could hunt down. This involved producing a manilla envelope, filled with thin white papers as he let them slide across the clean looking table. ”An odd little redhead, has a flair for Victorian clothing leaning towards the steampunk side of things. Has an even stranger suite of abilities, probably not something you’ve encountered often in your...line of work. Everything else you need to know will be contained in there.” He said, letting the trench coated male pick it up and dig through at his own leisure.

It mostly consisted of places she had last been seen, people that she had been seen with and various other details down to even a detailed physical description that likely better fit what they needed. ”Well before we go about to talking any further, i’m more curious about the child. The job i’m handing you is pretty dangerous, I sure hope they’re capable enough to avoid the negative consequences of the implied dangers of said job.”

"Don't worry about him. That's not your concern. We know exactly who you're describing, and I can guarantee you that we've come across even more dangerous things in our line of work." Brennen said, his eyes seemed to widen, though they remained unblinking as he looked at the table. He'd had that look ever since Michael had been describing their so-called person of interest. Pulling the folder over to himself and flipping it open casually, the older member of the duo began to read over information. Physical descriptions, last known location, sightings and potential leads to follow up on. Of course all of the information was useful, but there was nothing overly concrete here beyond a few nightclubs and other mysterious places.

"If you need proof..." Brennan began before letting out a sharp whistle, the pup cringed at the sharp noise before rubbing his ear and walking over with a small pout on his face, looking up to Brennan, as if looking for some justification as to why he decided to be a massive dick and produce a sharp noise at a boy with rather sensitive ears. The psychometric information garnered from the pictures he touched in the file were useful to pull off the next piece. "Now I can tell you that Sheiara has some good information here. I can also tell you that she's not exactly on your side so why you'd trust her is beyond me. If I had to guess I'd say it's because she's a terrible person so consistently that if nothing else she's trustworthy. I can also tell you that of all these places and all this information you've given us I'm certain we can find her... Why don't you tell him everything you can gather off of him?" Brennen said motioning to the little pup who looked over Michael for a moment. His elbow went on the table and his chin went in his hand as he stared at Michael for a good minute before sniffing the air and seeming to move his head, looking Michael over at all angles.

"Uuuh, definitely strong ties to the Nether. I'd guess he's a either a Dark Ethereal or-a Ti'tan. Also... I got his wallet." The little pup said as he looked over Michael, seeming impressed, his eyes looking up to meet Michaels for a moment, but then they fell down to the wallet he had in his hands, opening it up and removing some of it's contents. There had been a 20 dollar bill, a couple pictures of people that the pup didn't recognize a small sealed package with a ring like outline, though he placed it on the table not thinking anything of it. And a credit card to be had of course. "A fake credit card... no a real one. Made out to a Jordan something...it smells like... a lizard? No, Dragon. Definitely dragon. don't know how I miss- wait- Hey!" He whined as his handler quickly swiped the card from his hand and handed it back to Michael.

"I asked you to prove your skill, Not steal his wallet."
"Stealing a wallet is a skill. It helps with finding out information."
"It's against the law."
"So is child labor, and here we are."
"I am...so sorry"
"I'm not." As soon as the pup said this his eyebrows dropped and he looked almost as if he were unamused or completely annoyed by the fact that his handler didn't understand where he was coming from. "Oh come on, I didn't steal anything from him. I just found it in his pocket, I checked to see who it belonged too. I wanted to make sure he didn't accidentally have my wallet."
"You don't have a wallet- yeah I do- Give it back. Look, you're making this exceptionally difficult. Go sit down." The whole argument was sorta comical, and The hound was actually convinced that the pup was simply acting out in order to provide some sort of amusement to Michael, though it was peculiar. When the Hound stated that the pup didn't have a wallet, the pup produced one, the hound identified it as his own before taking it and putting it in his pocket, a growl in his voice. Pup had never been so rambunctious before, though...he did say that he remembered Michael. It might have been someone he knew on the other side. Of course they wouldn't know him here, but seeing familiar people was probably more then enough to get him to act out or seek attention from them. The pup sighed and his shoulders slumped, his head rolled back and his eyes cast to the sky before falling upon the ground as he walked begrudgingly away.

"Again; I don't know what's gotten into him. I am so sorry, we are not usually this unprofessional." The Hound expressed as sincere an apology as his type of voice and demeanor could offer, though he looked back to notice how the pup had already gone back to drinking his hot chocolate, sitting backwards on a barista stool and leaning forward, his chest pressed against the back rest. He held up 5 fingers and dropped one every second, and on the last finger dropping two police officers walked in.

"Hey he's got a gun." the pup hollered very matter of factly, pointing to the man that wandered in just seconds ago. The police officer pointed to the man and the pup nodded before leaning forward, arms folded on the back of the chair as he watched the events unfold. The police walked over cautiously and gave the man a glance. They might have let the man off but he seemed to get rather anxious. They had asked the man to stand up, and he became slightly argumentative, clammy skin and stammering.

"He's also preeeeety drunk." the little pup said quietly to himself as his eyes widened as if saying "oh boy" before falling to their bored and uninterested look,. downing the entire 3/4th of his hot chocolate.

"The salary cap is 25,000 dollars, that's for over 2000 hours of work. Break that down it's really quite affordable. Because of this whole incident we'll cap it at 15,000 for 2000 which is more than affordable." Brennen said as he sighed, his fingers coming up and rubbing his eyes, a small black substance threatening to pour through with everything that had happened.

He would say something along the lines of  them being able to do this, revealing that they had some idea about who he was after and that the child would be able to handle themselves. It was something that he found a hard time believing, but at the same time maybe the child was a bit more competent than he was giving him credit for. Anything was possible after all in a world full of meta-humans, that much he had to give to them. The older hound would whistle sharply, hurting even his ears as the younger stood to their feet and approached them, carrying a look of irritation from the sudden sharp whistle as well.

Micheal’s eyes flitted from the younger to the older, waiting for them to say something that would instill some manner of confidence within them. After all, if he had no faith they would be able to carry out the job, then he was throwing money into a needless venture. He would mention something about Sheiara, causing his heart to skip a beat How he had gathered something like that, well it felt nearly impossible unless they were even more than the initial inspection. What powers could allow such sudden gathering of knowledge, well he had a few ideas.

Maybe psychometry, invasive telepathy or something along those lines. It was true Sheiara had given him this information, without almost any prompting, but it was information that she had given to him. What sort of favor she wanted in turn, he had a feeling that he would find out soon enough, but for now his mind was only on one thing. There was a sudden lapse in his cool demeanor, a sudden suspicion about the male that quickly cooled itself as he would continue to let the demonstration proceed.

Mister trench coat had his interesting abilities, but something told him the child may have been just as interesting. This was preceded by a minute of sniffing, something that appeared more like something his son would do. A continual odd sniffing of the air as if they were hoping to catch onto a particular scent, and then the young boy began to speak. It started with a correct guess, or rather a close enough guess about what he was. True enough he was an odd hybrid between the two, but for brevites sake he was a dark ethereal. Regardless they had managed to prove that both of them were either rather perceptive or prior assumptions were correct.

His wallet had also been picked from his pocket, something not many people could pull off. His expression changed into one of contained shock, shifting into pleasure. ”Alright, you’re pretty good.” Michael ceded with a smirk, as they proceeded to empty the wallet onto the table, letting loose a few things that took up space in his wallet. One of them being a twenty dollar bill, a few pictures of his children, Sean, as well as him with Jordan in a painfully low quality. These were followed by one of those new condoms that apparently worked as if they weren’t even there while actually working, and Jordan’s credit card.

It was the third thing that elicited a soft chuckle. It may have been the fact that the child didn’t really understand what it was, or maybe it was just the fact that it was being dumped onto a public table so casually. Then they grasped a dragons scent from the card, and drew a bit more annoyance from him as Mister Trench coat would take it back and hand it to him. ”Well, you shouldn’t go around finding things in peoples pockets. It’s a little rude to just reach anywhere you want.” Michael kept his usual humor, even offering a wink and the click of the tongue. Honestly, he was just enjoying the little routine they were going through, despite how grating the gravely tough guy voice the elder one was putting on.

”Don’t worry about it. You did promise a demonstration, so color me impressed.” He intoned, taking the last few sips of his drink and setting it down. A part of him wanted more, yet he had business to talk about, tapping his fingertip softly against the lip of the cup. His eyes trailed over to the pup that had wandered off, mentioning someone having a gun and that sorting itself out near instantly. It wasn’t anything that he needed to get involved in, so he didn’t pay the scene anymore attention than a passing glance. Costs would be mentioned, something that sounded rather affordable once he started crunching numbers in his head. Honestly he could afford it easily on what he was working with. In the end anything that lead to what he was working for, well that was good enough for him.

The man took on a nervous attitude, rubbing the bridge of his nose. ”How about we cap it at...20,000? I’d feel like I was cheating you any other way.” It was an oddly generous thing for him, considering any other day he would have accepted the far lower price. ”So, when do you two think you’ll be able to begin?” He asked as he slowly began to put everything back into his wallet.

The deal was struck, so it would seem. The older hound drew out a contract and wrote in the necessary filler on his side of things. Mainly the date of services, the type of payment plan and ultimately the discount for what had happened. This put into effect would mean that the little duo would make 100 U.S dollars every hour. Though they could spend a lifetime of mandatory time studying things and getting into a full scale investigation against metahumans for years at a time, with minimal time requirements every week, and month....and beyond the first 200 hours they were no longer compensated for it. It was certainly initiative for them to get their work done as soon as they could. It allowed them to get better contracts. Of course there was the risk that they would finish early and take the whole 200 hours worth of pay, but their reputation was much better than that. They worked hard. Well Brennen worked hard...

 the pup played harder....

    "We can start immediately. We'll start by going to the last actual known location of the woman. A concrete place. This "Mistress" has some rather unique abilities if I remember correctly. Pup, c'mon." He ordered as he picked up the file, tucking it under his arm and grabbing the umbrella he brought in with him. The pup did as he was instructed, but left his umbrella behind, not wanting to even risk noticing the colors and their awful concoction of taste. Besides, the little pup didn't even think twice of stepping out into the rain and traveling a little bit closer to the Hound, partially getting some protection from the elements. of course that lasted all of two minutes before the pup was out in the rain, looking up at the sky as he walked, a small satisfied grin on his face as he seemed to trod along. His hair was matted and he was soaked, but he couldn't have cared any less. It was a beautiful day outside in his mind. He had to enjoy it.

  "Where did your umbrella go?" The older one said, a slight sneer in his voice.

  "Uuuh, I dunno. It said it was goin' to find your sense of adventure...." The pup said as he stuffed his hands back into his pockets, turned around and seemed to stand on his tip toes, looking off in the distance. He turned around and looked back to Brennen with a shrug and a slightly worried look on his face. "Iiii think it's somewhere in 2004? 2001? 1999? How old are you again? This joke's not gonna work if I go too far back." He said, eventually admitting ignorance and defeat in his own dis. The Hound just rolled his eyes and began walking off, leaving the smiling little pup to walk behind him, making sure to step in every puddle he passed.

   "There's absolutely no way they'll let you in here. So I'm either going to need to do some friendly persuasion, or you'll need to find your own way in. It all depends on how heavily guarded it is. A lot of guys and you'll have to sneak in. A few guys and I'll take care of it. Do you understand? Hey are you listen-" Brennen stopped and looked behind him, there had been nothing for him to see, nothing and no one that he was talking to at that moment. The pup had taken it upon himself to listen ahead, recognizing the situation and making himself scarce, still listening in with Brennen utilizing his keen sense of hearing. "So NOW you're professional...." He mumbled as he made his way to the nightclub...in the middle of the day. Brennen made a point to walk up to the door, starting to look for any bouncers or anyone that he was to communicate with in order to gain entry.

So the deal was struck on slightly good as new paper, the payment decided and he would let them go about doing their investigation thing. Well that was what they were assuming he would do, but then again Michael was always one to micromanage. If any chance of failure remained, there was a part of him that felt like he had to make sure that wasn’t something that could happen. This involved following them to a certain club at night of all times, when the city was cloaked in light and people went about people were still toiling away with their lives. Day time was when it was moving slower, no patrons to throw money away on drinks for themselves or people they were hoping to have a chance with later on that night. It felt as if it would have been better to actually go here at night when things were actually happening, and yet they were choosing day time of all times.

Michael couldn’t help wondering what they were doing, but then again maybe this was part of their process. If that was the case, well the questioning was something that came naturally at this point as he stayed back far enough to keep from being spotted. It required a bit of work, repressing his own natural energy despite how weak that would actual leave him. For the sake of stealth he was willing to give away a little peace of mind.

Watching over the club itself, he took note of the fact that there weren’t that many bouncers, not many people meant to guard the place beyond what looked like the minimum of them. Nothing that she be difficult for someone to get through if they wanted to, so he was confident his detectives would be able to break through the security. They were from what he could tell human, but then again that may have all been wrong. Metahumans were always so tough to distinguish from humans, considering that most of them looked human save for the whole superpowers they demonstrated. However mister trench coat walked up to one of the bouncers, a large specimen of a man with only stubble of hair left on his head. He turned to Flynn, arching a single brow as he ceased the conversation with his colleagues. “Little early to the party aint’cha?” He asked, with a minute amount of amusement. “We’re closed, might wanna come back a little later.”

That was when someone spoke up, a female easily standing smaller than all of them, dressed rather casually with a cascade of black hair over her shoulders and a thick woolen cap on her head. ”I’ll handle him.” She said with a soft smirk, looking up to the gruff male. ”What can I do for you today sir?”

"It's a good thing I'm here for business and not pleasure then." Brennen said with perhaps the most stoic and yet somehow threatening voice he could come up with. Of course he would soon change his tone when a young woman inserted herself into the mix, clearing his throat as she stated she would be doing the PR work from that point on. It was a welcome reprieve, as fighting metahumans tended to bore him. Mostly because his tactic was simply to let them hit at him until they were too tired to fight and then he'd do terrible, terrible things to them which ultimately ended their life. A nice young lady was a very welcome exchange when that is considered.

"Well...feel free to handle. I'm sure you're more personable anyway." He said, a slight compliment and a smooth recovery as he cleared his throat and removed a piece of paper from his jacket pocket. Producing the paper to the woman and then withdrawing his own badge he handed it over to the woman. "There's an ongoing investigation regarding some rather shady deals. Unfortunately one of the suspects claimed they were in this club. Now you and the club itself are in no way held accountable, but we need to actually search the area just to see if there's any validity to his story." Flynn explained, the paper he handed over appeared to be that of a court order giving him clearance to search the premises. Of course her compliance was appreciated, though she could always make things difficult, as this man was merely an inspector and didn't have the actual backup he needed to indulge in a full scale investigation. That might have been suspicious in and of it's own right, though he had already thought of this, should she just so happen to "inquire" as to his lone-wolf mentality.

The woman's answer still in the balance, there was a particular little pup that was making his way into the club. First he went around the back, rubbing his hands dry on his jeans as he ran partially up the wall and held onto a pipe that seemed to scale up the side of the building. Careful balance and concentration allowed the little one to scale the side of the building, the pipe being a good instrument to cling to. Once his hands were on the edge of the building and his feet dangled freely he took in a deep breath. The coarse bricks against his skin weren't the greatest feeling, but he managed to pull himself up regardless. With that done, all he needed to do was go to the fire escape and hopefully through the door over there.

Of course as he looked over and planted his hands before hopping down onto the grade, he found himself landing with a small clatter, though he quickly winced, he glanced around, no one inside seemed to hear him....or they didn't move in response if they had heard him. Most fire-escapes were locked, and those were rarely guarded. The one thing most people didn't know about fire escapes were the fact that the pup couldn't get into them easily. In fact this one was closed altogether. Offering a small sigh and shaking his head he had to think of a new way through...and that's when it hit him...

The woman appeared surprised by the mention of shady dealings happening in their establishment. ”Shady deals going on? I believe I recall something like that going on.” She said with a soft hum, seeming to pace for a couple of seconds before waving off the two bouncers to go about their business, leaving her to talk to the trench coated detective. For a moment he could likely notice that her nose seemed to crinkle as if in disgust, before she turned around. ”So long as you don’t mind my coming along with you on your...search. My boss would be less than pleased if I just let people root around, papers or not.” She said with a shrug,  motioning for Flynn to follow whether or not he would agree to this. Such compliance was likely not something that he would have been expecting, but it was happening before right his eyes.

Through the front door she would lead him, stepping through an off metal detector as they stepped further into  a large open room. Long stretching bars could be seen along the wells as well as a circular one in the center of the room, obviously meant to cater to one of the many things people came to this place for. With a glance one could see what looked to be entrances to a few back rooms. Private rooms for customers that were willing to pay a little extra for what they wanted ”Look around. We have nothing to hide here.” She would say, despite keeping to the following around portion of things that she had mentioned. Anything that he wanted to look over he was open to look over, so long as a mess was not made of the place.

"That's not a problem. The warrant only allows me to search and seize evidence applicable to the crime under investigation. Fruits of the poisonous tree... anything else is yours to have, hide or...do whatever with." Flynn said as he walked into the club and began looking about. He started first by reciting information to himself,. Information he only made up, but that was besides the point. It wasn't as if this girl knew that. He lowered himself to look under tables, but only specific ones that seemed to make sense with the story he was mumbling to himself.

  "Third table on the right. Three across on the right from the middle. Nothing under there...hm? Fingerprints might help but there were how many people...wait." He stopped and turned to the girl before reaching into his coat and taking out a bag of what appeared to be a dark grey or black powder and a small brush. "He said about back rooms... or "a back room". Do you have any idea what he might have been talking about?" He asked the woman before he started off in the direction of the more private rooms. Truthfully, as he seemed to be dusting for specific finger prints, he was actually employing his psychometric powers. It was timed like these he regretted having said powers.

   There was nothing in this room, so he quietly packed his things up, used a strip of tape to capture the remnant prints and walked on to the next room. The same process unfolded. Though eventually they ended up in a back room, a small office space of sorts. It was nicely decorated though it didn't take long for Flynn to get started. First he started on a nearby chair, dusting for prints there. "No one was at the desk other than you or your boss right? Would there be any need to check for prints there?" He asked, though his skepticism about this woman was only amassing. A small tendril discretely slipped through his shoe and surfaced to grace the ground and slip through shadows, hiding beneath the desk as it liberated itself from the whole and began assisting in the psychometric reading. Flynn was certain that his large trench coat and his active movements were distraction enough to mask the dark creepy crawl's movements through the shadows.

    The pup had infiltrated the building as well, though he had to go upstairs and actually break into the vent system to do so. His ability to think on the spot helped him, and his light weight did as well as he almost silently shifted through the vents to see what was going on. He ended up in the vent over the office where Flynn and the woman were at, watching and listening in.

She would continue to follow along behind Flynn as he went with his investigation, looking over and dusting over things for prints. So far she didn’t really say anything in protest as it appeared to all be within some manner of protocol. ”Someone said something about the backroom? Sorry, I don’t really frequent the backrooms much. I mostly just tend the bar, don’t really deal with any of the business aspects of things.” She said with a shrug, appearing to try to drum up some kind of information and thinking of nothing. Regardless he would continue his search, going towards the more private rooms for the higher paying patrons. These rooms were obviously well kept to be worth the money put into renting them, with comfy couches and even minifridges with drinks kept cold incase anyone was thirsty enough.

Eventually they would reach what looked to be the office in the back, still well kept but empty save for the inanimate objects within it as he would continue his search. ”The boss spends the most time at her desk. I haven’t been in here for...maybe two weeks I guess. So I don’t believe there’s any need to check for anything.” She said with a shrug, not even aware of the tendril that would rip the very psychic impressions from the desk itself.

Spoiler:

"Find what you were looking for?" She asked, seeming to turn attention towards something buzzing in her pocket as she withdrew a cellphone, speaking for a bit and then hanging it up. "If you'll excuse me I have boring family things to take care of. " With that she seemed to walk off in a slightly hurried fashion, leaving him to ponder over what he had seen.

Milla? That was a new name. Of course there was talk of impemnding doom and fate and whatever have you, but in truth none of that had been of any interest at all. In fact he was beginning to question his choice of job. Impending doom meant one of two things. The first was that this woman was right, and the end was in fact nigh. The second option was the fact she was just outright crazy. Then the oblicatory third option was the concept that perhaps she had just been altogether wrong. The Hound let out a small sigh as he contemplated what he had seen. There was nothing there for him to know where she had been going. He contemplated going further on through the timestream, though he had no idea where that would lead. Therehad to be something he could use here.

No matter how much he thought of the issue, he had a hard time discerning any information at all about where this woman would be going. Someone was after her, then she vanished in a flash of light. Teleportation? Abduction? Who was after her? This only brought up more questions and yeilded absolutely no answers. This woman knew people were after her, which begged the question of just exactly WHO had employed him. He was a magical mutant misfit whom likely wanted the Mistrerss for some strange reason with nothing but nefarious means. He honestly no longer wanted any part in this.

The woman asked if he found what he needed, to which he was about to answer as he heard a shifting in the vents above. The Hound rolled his eyes and cleared his throat before nodding.

"I think I just did...yes." He said before smiling and nodding. The woman left in a rather hurried fashion. After she exited the room he gave a small cough to make it sound as if he had been clearing his throat. "Tell me when we're back outside." He muttered, sounding as if he had been talking to himself as he walked away and leaving the pup to crawl his way out of the vents and meet his handler out on the streets again.
*****

"So the story so far is that two weeks ago "The Mistress" meets with this "Milla" character and has the exchange. From there, The Mistress vanishes in a flash of light. Then apparently this girl gets a call stating that she is needed because something happened in her family...which you say had a very "sinister taste" in your mouth...so she's obviously wrested into these things." Rory said as he grumbled and sat at the bottom of the tree, his eyes leaking his strange black substance as he allowed his guard to drop.

"It kinda tasted like sarcasm, but it was a bit more bitter, a little less sour. It was like...100% Dark chocolate covered sour patch kids. Sarcasm is just...straight up Toxic Waste....the candy not the-Yeah I know 'kay yeah...that." The pup explained the taste of the words the woman spoke over the phone, the strange set of sensory released and reactive to the words and the tone. Now they were left to figure out what had happened to their mysterious "Mistress" was two weeks ahead of them in mystical light. If only The Hound could show his pup the visages...his own unique talents could prove to reveal the means of teleportation, or even perhaps a location.

"Something that affects everyone. Grand destruction. Sounds like an Abyss problem. Sounds like she's tryin' ta stop 'em. I vote we join her side!" The pup said before taking a bite out of the sandwhich he had in his hand. The Hound grumbled before hsi eyes lazily looked up, his laxidasical form leering to the young child that simply sat with his eyes closed, enjoying the fantastic sandwhich...

...that he probably stole.

"Good thing this isn't a democracy. I'm the Czar, you're the serf. We're sticking to the side of whose paying us." He said softly as he leaned back and felt a husge release of pressure, a sharp and overwhelming pain before a flush and release into sheer relaxation as liquid began to pour forth onto the ground from a wound in his hands, more blood feeping down his eyes. "Fuck this...We're going to find TraqR." He said before sitting up and groaning , the liquid sliding all off of him and sinking into the grass, corrupting the earth below as he went from a swampy, black liquid mess into a pristine and well dressed detective. He took a moment to stretch out as he contemplated his next move.

The two had appeared to find a somewhat vague start, and so Michael  would have follow along with them. He wasn’t quite sure how much he could trust them to actually bring her once they had found the woman, but then again that was why he was doing what he was doing. Why he couldn’t trust these people to do  their job, well that was something that was his own problem. They would go about doing their own things, while he dealt with his own problems. That being Sheiara of all people, looking as condescending as always. ”Following your little sleuths around? I didn’t think Nyx unsettled you so much.” She noted with a hint of amusement, long mane of black hair flowing within the wind.

”I didn’t think you needed to follow me around either, and yet here you are. Is the Abyss’ goddess of war that worried about me?” Michael asked with an equal amount of taunting within his tone, crossing his arms over  his chest in a gesture of slight annoyance. ”So what brings you here? Thanatos want to check up on me, maybe beg me to come back to him?”

”No, The Abyss does well enough without Hyperion. I’m just curious about your interest in The Weaver. It can’t be anything wholesome I feel.” If anything she was unbearably smug, but then again Mike could play that as well.

”Nothing wholesome to a race of genocidal death beings, must be really bad then, but don’t worry. It has nothing to do you you lovely tattooed fanatics.” He noted with a smirk, taking notice of a slight twinge of annoyance on her face.

”I’d hope not. I’m just starting to grow fond of you, it would be a shame if I had to kill you. Tell my child i’m thinking of him.” With that she was gone in a puff of smoke, leaving him with the stench of nether within his nostrils.
--

As for two sleuth types, there likely next query the Queen of Cinders was doing whatever she did around this time. She was otherwise occupied with a business partner in rather nice diner she had picked out. The female was dressed in a simple black dress with bright orange accents and choosing accessories that appeared to fit a personal aesthetic. The one settled across from her looking younger, around eighteen with dirty blonde hair and soft gray eyes that appeared almost dull. ”While I do appreciate your contacting me, I am curious why now of all times you’ve decided to agree with my proposal.” Her tone sounded somewhat confused, but not displeased.

”Well I had a change of heart. I now see how beneficial it could be, and well it would be stupid to make an enemy of someone as influential as you.” He noted,  seeming to take a bite out of some manner of food dish.

”I’m glad you’ve managed to see sense, though isn’t this a little...public?”

”I’m sure they’re only seeing what they want to Miss Cinders. I mean, what I want to see anyway.” This appeared to draw some annoyance from her, but then she calmed suddenly.

”Oh, this might be even more interesting than I thought.” There was then the sound of a soft bell tinkling through the air as someone walked through the front door.

The chime of the doorbell echoed through the room, a light orange gold falling over the room before fading and clashing with the other mixtures throughout the diner. There were a few people that had been here and seemed to be of relative interest, although it was actually quite difficult to be uninteresting to extradimensional travelers, especially one such as the pup. He found himself wandering in beside Flynn, whom seemed to be fixated on the cellular phone he heald in his hand. It was going to be quite a while before he actually managed to hunt down the superpowered tracker, and subsequently the object/person of their choice. Of course they made their way over towards the diner counter and took their seats at the very end.

Flynn hadn't noticed the fact the little pup had already begun to look about with narrowed eyes, his togune slipping through his lips as he seemed to taste something a little off in the area. He looked about slowly and discretely as he seemed to try and discern what seemed to be so off about what he was sensing. Flynn didn't get the chance to put the phone down until a woman walked up to them with a nice little pad of paper and a mini-pencil.

"I'll have whatever you'd recommend. Pepsi to drink." Flynn said as he moved back to his phone, the little pup took a break form looking around to look up to the woman and smile.

"Chacolate milkshake please." He said, immediately Flynn interjected.

"No."
"Awe, c'mon. Why!?" The pup snipped as he looked to his handler and not seeming to understand why he couldn't have one.

"Because it's not even time for dinner yet and you JUST had coffee. The last thing you need is more sugar or caffine." Flynn said without looking up from his phone.

"But I need it!" The pup whined as he seemed to plead with his mentor and protector, who simply brushed him off.

"No. You don't. Craving it and needing it are different."
"Try remembering that while you're drowning yourself in whisky every night." The little one said with an irritated rumble in his voice, planting his elbow on the table and his cheek in his hand before staring at the waitress.

"So melodramatic, all the time. He can have a salad or something. He probably won't eat it anyway. Water's fine for him." The Hound replied to the waitress with a smile before pushing the phone in his pocket. The waitress gave them a confused look before nodding and walking away. She didn't say they were awkward...but they were awkward.

"Seriously. You have no idea how bad this tastes...This is a curse when this happens." He said, the Hound immediately closed his eyes and let out a long hissing through his nose as he seemed to be practicing some form of deep breathing self-soothing method.

"No, seriously. YOU have no idea how many times I've heard that as an excuse for you just to order a milkshake. Everywhere we go you order one."
"Oh that's not true."
"Really? You tried to order one from the intersection of South and 5th."
"W-well yeah, he looked like he'd have one."
"It was a hot dog cart."
"Next to an Ice cream stand."
"That you immediately jumped over to and asked if they sold milkshakes."
"It was an ice cream stand. It's a legitimate question!"
"You're missing the point."
"No I know the point."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. I want a milkshake." The Pup said before taking the glass of Pepsi the waitress placed in front of his handler and guarded it. Their argument had been rather hushed and contained so far, even when he proceeded to add to his previous statement. "...and you're a dick."


The little pup listened around, hearing something that caused a strange and almost bitter taste in his mouth. It tasted like a lie, but he couldn't tell where it was coming from. He heard people talking about their pets. A rather nice looking young man and a beautiful young woman. the Hound looked about and saw two old men talking about fishing and then a couple more people at the counter near them talking about the newspaper or some form of modern events. The waitress had left them for a moment and The Hound moved to take his glass back, the pup quickly recoiled with it, his eyes narrowing. The Hound rolled his eyes and insisted the glass be returned to him, to which the pup responded by sticking out his tongue and proceeding to rup the rim of the glass with the slick pink membrane and then sliding it back to the older companion with a rather satisfied grin and a twinkle in his eyes.

"I'm honestly repulsed...but at the same time I can't be bothered. Keep it." The Hound said, conceeding defeat, leaving the child to enjoy the soda while The Hound had to settle for a plain old water and lemon it would seem. As he attempted to slip the phone out of his pocket, the condensation on the exterior of the Hounds ice-water slickened his fingertips, making the phone start to fly diagonally down, sending the phone down on the diner floor and sliding with a crack and a slight skidding. The little pup hopped down and walked over to the table with the young man and the woman talking, the phone having slid underneat it.

"U-uhm. S-sorry about that. It slipped from his hands." He said shyly, partially seeking permission or assistance to retrieve the property, taking note of the two in an apologetic fashion.