Prodigy: Mind Games Pt. 2

Ryan followed Silus to the other room, leaving his drink on the counter likely to never be finished, the poor thing. It seemed that Silus would have to paint his suit on or soething like that, which sounded weird, but then again Zell did weird stuff, it was how that went. Though the whole lose anything he could not be wearing did manage to draw some color along his cheeks when he acrtually considered the implications of removing his clothes, but that did not really stop him from doing so. Fitst unzipping his jacket and throwing it off, he got to the shirt and his jeans, leaving him in only a pair of striped boxers. ”My favorite color? It's blue.” He said as the male quickly began working on the whole painting thing, rapidly dabbing dark paint over his skin, which began to tingle and make him want to scratch it off, not that he did so.

It was kind of weird to have someone painting all over him, but then again it was also nice in some weird kind of way. It only took a few minutes, though to Ryan it felt like an eternity as Silus rapidly worked on apinting the suit up, trying not to move, though one it was done and he tried to avoid giggling from the tickling at his neck, Ryan was now dressed in what looked like a fancy suit. Looking down at it, he couldn't help but smile while lightly adjusting the tie, or rather just feeling over it. Had Ryan ever felt a tie before? No actually, but then again he didn't need himself looking any dumber than he tended to, otherwise he felt like someone would start laughing at him. ”Thanks.” He said genially, accepring the thing he had to button up, more than capable of buttoning something up.

”um yeah...I can button it up.” He said with a nod, struggling with the buttons for less than a minite before getting them all in place. With that done, he couldn't help but feel slightly embarassed by yancey recognizing that he was looking rpetty fancy, though why he could not figure out. For the most part he ignored red Tide, because he was a lame villain and villains always lied about stuff, its because they were evil or something, and within a few hours thanks to the super jet they were in Chicago, standing before the fancy place. They would be lead in once Xiao stated their reservation, though Red Tide was not allowed in because his dress sense was not as refined as theirs. ”Umm...I can;t hear anything their saying, I don;t have any kinda super hearing.” Ryan whispered trying to listen to the fancy indian lady and the other people.

"Well then it's a good thing we were the ones that messed up. We'll have this done soon." Silus said as he heard Red Tide, the poor man must not be right very often considering how much he loved to point the fact out. He found himself under comment from Yancey however. "Si... I need formal wear." He said. Silus nodded and Yancey vanished, leaving everyone to watch Red Tide for a moment and leaving Yancey to chat with Silus. They would reach the city in great timing, and they would find their way to their destination.

Xiao introduced the party and Silus remained quiet. Red Tide wasn't joining them it would seem. Sadly this did not excuse him, but Silus didn't need to worry about him. Silus had the information he needed, and Red Tide had nothing. If he were to ditch them now he'd have nothing to show for his victory. He'd have been a puppet, something Silus was willing to live with. Silus took out and produced a little chip. "This ear piece is linked to my phone. I don't care what you do, but if you want that info you keep your end of the bargain." Silus reminded him before turning and entering the room, following the rest of them. Yancey sat there in an all white suit, definitely playing up his angel side a bit.

"You guys clean up nice. Look at you Xiao!" He said, unfortunately he was saying it innocently enough but his saying it could have been easily misconstrued. Silus chuckled a little, warranting a confused look from the angel. Silus listened to everyone talk, still looking at his menu. Xiao seemed worried about standing out, Silus arched an eyebrow and gave her an amused look. "U-uhm. Xiao. You're a dragon right? Si, order the tigerfish!" Yancey urged, figuring that all dragons would like tigerfish.

"Guys, chillax. Upper class can be indecisive with their orders, it's not like we walk into restaurants knowing exatly-Hi, we'll need an order of the Almas caviar and we need a flank of the golden tigerfish. Xī Hú Lóng Jǐng for my tall associate, Ryan here will probably want a Sprite, My friend in white there will probably just have the tea as well." Silus asked, the woman seemed slightly unphased by his sudden order.

"Yes sir, right away." She said, taking his menu and stepping off quickly. Silus looked to them all and smiled.

"Sorry, but if it makes you feel any better that's only the appetizer." Silus said to them all. Of course he didn't tell them that Almas caviar was worth over 25,000 a kilogram. They would likely break it down to about 700 an ounce though, which mean they probably will have a point of it in an appetizer. so 8 ounces. He also didn't state how Golden Tigerfish was over 75,000 a fish. Xiao may have been more familiar with the Golden Tigerfish, it was one of China's coveted oddities said to be worth a grand luck or fortune if eaten by those pure of heart. Stupid superstition obviously.

"Awe, I thought you could do everything!" Yancey said to Ryan with a smile. Apparently teasing Ryan was Yancey's new favorite thing to do, right beside getting hugs from dragon girls. In all seriousness Yancey loved these guys, he had been pushing Silus HARD to try and find a way to join this group. Silus just never brought it up. He worked along side them and that was enough for him.

"I can't, but I think I know someone who can." Silus said as he pulled out his cell phone and pressed three buttons. "Red, I'm using my phone as an access point, I need you to jump through my phone and hack the audio feed to the camera on the south-eastern most camera in the room. It's right over out targets." Silus said, quickly touching an app he developed and setting up a perfect hot-spot that connected to all the cameras in the room.

"I don't trust that guy..." Yancey said, looking to Xiao and Ryan for support on his paranoia.

They soon got off the plane and headed to this hotel the girl was supposed to be at. It was a very large stone building, yet even though it was made of stone it had an undeniable modern look to it. They would all walk through the large entrance and approach the usherette. After the group got the ok from the lady at the podium she turned to Lucius and told him his manner of dress was not suitable.

Well that was just perfect, what would he do while he waited? He couldn't very well leave without getting his info from Silus. He was handed an ear piece before watching the group desert him at the entrance. What a stupid rule, dress code. Lucius walked outside and looked around, there were no stores nearby, which was rather inconvenient. But there was people wearing formal wear, all he had to do was convince one of them to give him their clothes.

Lucius stopped a man with a gentle push to the shoulder. "I need your suit, I'm willing to pay $2,000." He would say to the confused older man"This suit is worth $5,000 sir."  He responded as he once again tried to get past Lucius. With another push to the shoulder Lucius would raise his offer "Eh, I'll give you eight if you follow me to the bathroom to switch clothes." Lucius sighed. "Alright, this does put a damper on my schedule but if you need it that badly." The man said as he followed Lucius into the hotel. He would lead him into the public bathroom near the entrance and they switched attire. Lucius gave him his cash and the man was on his way.

Silus' voice rang through the earpiece just as Lucius left the bathroom. "Alright, give me a second." He said in response stopping outside the bathroom door and pulling out a phone like object. He connected this phone to the earpiece and then used Silus' phones connection to the cameras to get into the system. Once inside he would sort through the cameras and find his target, then send the feed to Silus. "I have video and audio feed being sent to you in....now." He said over the earpiece before sliding his phone into his jacket pocket.

He walked past the usherette and gave her a nod, then she led him to the restaurant. Once there he was led to the groups table and sat down. "Starting to think i should have let you paint me kid" He said as he pointed to the steak and eggs on the menu, showing the waitress. "Very good sir" she said before walking off. "So what did you find with the feed i sent you?" He asked looking to Silus.

Once the listening devices were tuned in on the Institute members, their conversation over dinner was long and nonspecific, their attitudes extremely formal and polite.

"...And It's a pleasure to see you, lady Zafira. You are looking lovely as ever."

"Thank you. How is business in London, Edgar?"

"Quite well I must say. The family is pleased that I am able to continue father's old pharmacy. A cornerstone of our neighborhood after all."

"One must always honor one's parents, for such is the path to prosperity."

"Indeed it is, Mister Lao."

Their conversation was odd in the sense they talked like old friends from around the world having a reunion. They talked at length about family, friends, plans, even love lives, but nothing that even remotely sounded like double speak for kidnapping children... until the word student came up.

"A new student is to be enrolled at the school."

"Well, then I will do my best to make her feel welcome."

"You have always been a good teacher, Edgar. We will see you soon."

The fat man with the cane, Edgar, slowly got up from his seat and exchanged final pleasantries. He departs the hotel while Zafira and Lao went to the elevator lobby, heading back up to the penthouse.

Xiao was slightly grateful their conversation took long, which meant they could take time to enjoy their food. The taste was good, but was a bit too complex; there were a lot of rare spices in the dish, which didn't appeal to Xiao as much as it should.

She sighed, and spoke to her fancy dressed teammates. "Ugh. These must be the fanciest bad guys I've ever seen. They act so polite! It's hard to believe they're the ones who are really taking the girl. So... I should probably follow them up the elevator. Do you boys have a plan?"  

Ryan was still overwhelmed by the whole place, sort ouf like a fis out of water, excuse the pun of course. He had never thought he would be eating in some kind of place like this, but then again that was what he got for assuming. Well, he likely wouldn't be eating here, which made Ryan somewhat disappoited, but he was a hero, so heroism came before enjoying the fine things of  life. Silus ordered something that started with a c, weird fish and a hard to pronounce tea for him and yancey, though atleast he remembered his favprite drink, instead of his color but Ryan was not the type to hold grudges. Well, he wasn't the type to even remember them enough to hold them.

Surprisinglly enough it was only the appetizer, though that made him wonder what, the main course was. ”I...um...can't really.” There was actually a lot he couldn't do, like reading, or playing classical music, so theres that. Silus said soemthing that that red guy about access points, and a lot of other techno babble that made his head hurt, so he just silently waited for his drink, wherever that was. ”I don't trust him either.” Ryan agreed with a nod of his ehad, waitinf for whataver they were planning to happen, because he...had no idea what it was really. Once the listening devoce was set up, they could hear whatever the people were saying, which sounded pretty normal, and Ryan didn't catch anything off in it.

Though it sounded pretty bad to Xiao, so he pretended he understood whatever sub text was there. ”Plan? I think we have one. Do we?” He looked to Silus who seemed to be the plan making type.

"Edgar is the big guy. He's continuing a family pharmacy. I'm having my phone scan for anyone fitting this description. Worst comes to worst I'll run a face recognition scan." Silus said as he worked quickly. He looked to Yancey. "They're enrolling her in school of some kind. Yancey, this place just got freaky. I think I'm seeing ghosts. Xiao, follow them please." He said. Yancey let out a satisfied grunt as he suddenly vanished a small brisk wind blowing past the table as he sped off. He had used his photokinesis to bed the light around himself, rending himself virtually invisible. He was able to teleport himself into the elevator and hijack himself a first class visit upward.

"Red, get ready to cause a black out if they need an escape." Silus said, giving everyone their directives as best ashe could then he looked to Ryan. "Alright Ryan. You're time to shine is gonna be soon. I need you to be ready to ice a couple places. This is gonna be big, so you need to be ready, okay? I'm counting on you." Silus tried to stress the point. After having researched this "Edgar" fellow. Edgar Quatermaine, owns a pharmacy in London and has jobs listed at several universities. His primary subjects being philosophy, socioology and other pursuits of that nature. He then pulled up a layout to the facility. "Ryan I need you to take my phone. This little blue dot is you. I need you to go to the stair-well and freeze the doors shut on EVERY floor as best as you possibly can. Don't hold back. We can always find a way to thaw doors, we CAN'T control the bad guys if they escape. Okay?" Silus asked, even as he was soulless he seemed to look to Ryan, hopeful that his trusted fried could do what he was asked.

After listening to Silus give him a directive Lucius once again slipped his hi tech phone from his pocket. "Alright, it may take a few minutes without the gear in my suit, but it shouldn't take too long." Saying this Lucius started rapidly typing on the touch screened phone. Shutting the power off was no easy task because it wasn't usually run by a computer, so Lucius would have to cause a massive power surge. He found a vulnerability in the air conditioning system of all places and from there sent the power going into it back into the building at triple the normal speed. After a few minutes the lights began to flicker, all the computers shut off, and then it all went completely black. "As you can see i got it." Lucius said as he got up from his chair and waited to hear the next part of the kids plan. Although he usually didn't like taking orders Lucius didn't want to interfere with anything the kid had going, so he simply waited. After all it would all get done quicker if he cooperated.

Xiao got off the elevator and into the penthouse just as the power went out.

"Welcome, mighty Dragon Girl. This such an unexpected surprise. To what do I owe the honor of your visit?" A voice in the dark spoke to Xiao in mandarin, the outline of Master Lao showing in Xiao's enhanced vision.

"I know Zafira isn't Atiyah's mother. Let her go and there won't be any more trouble." Xiao offered them nicely, though she had an inkling that she'd have to fight.

"Oh. But there already is trouble. Cutting the power? Trespassing in a guest's room? I should call the police on you." He said, slowly approaching Dragon Girl, making her even more tense.

"You asked for it!" She said, then went for a grab. Xiao's grab was countered by an arm deflect and lock, followed by Lao socking Xia in the face a few times then sweeping her off her feet with startling speed and strength, before she could even react.

"You may be a hero, but you are far from a true warrior." Lao said, delivering a falling punch that connected with Xiao's face and cratered the tiles and concrete floor. Xiao didn't wince, and was now involved in fighting Lao in hand-to-hand combat. "And you punch like a girl!" She answered. She was now focused on the fight, and she couldn't see if Zafira or the girl was there.

”Freeze doors, got it.” Ryan said with a nod, looking down to the phone with the blue blinking dot that was supposed to represent him and him alone. First he needed to find this stairwell, and then from there he could begin the freezing, unless he accidentally began to freeze more than just doors, which would have been awkwsrd considering he had little control as far as his powers were concerned. Taking the phone, as soon as the power shut off, he would dart towards where he thought the stairwell was, thought it was somewhat difficult to find within the darkness, and overall possiblity of him bumping into things. Silus had asked him though, so he would do his best not to come up asn an absolute disappointment in the whole mission department, following the light within the dark that represented him on the phone screen, eventually bumping into a door that he assumed was the stairwell one.

Grasping for the handle, he would twist and push on it, fumbling into a hallway that was lit with flourescant red lights, likely some kind of emergency lights more than anything. Now came the next part, the whole freeing thing, and the doors would be easy enough to find. Looking about in the dark, his eyes would fall upon what looked like a door only a flight or two up, picking up the pace until he reached the door and let his power gather, trying to control it as much as possible. The raidant air tempature would begin to drop, frost beginning to form along the steps, as well as the railing and with a push, he would unleash a flurry fo the ice upon the door, spreading upon contact until it was blocked by a thick sheet of ice. The first of a few doors done, though it would be useful for more than just blocking off exits when he thought about it.

Frozen doors meant ice, and that meant he could move through them for easy access to other parts of the building without having to worry about being woefully slow. So running from floor to floor, hw would unleash the same burst of frost as the last, until he was sure that each of them were sealed off, eaning that Ryan would only need to wait until being told of the next part. However, anyone trying to run up the stairs would find the ice coating them an extra obstical within the whole attempted escape, as well as perhaps the whole stairwell slowly freezing over. Stepping through the last of the frozen surfaces to the last floor he remembered his allies to be one, Ryan sighed. ”So now what?”

"I gotta give you credit Red. You're pretty great at this. If you've got any questions about Guilty Spark, now's the time." Silus said knowing they had a lul in the action themselves. Silus quickly used his phone to jam all forms of cell and radio reception. He even managed to jam the phone-lines to the hotel. Easier to cut the cord? Yes. As fun? Hell no. Ryan even managed to return and look as if wondering what to do. Silus smiled at him and nodded. "You've already helped more than you know. But I need you to go into the kitchen and use your water porting. The top floor of the house, once you're in there you need to watch everything that's going on. Help if you can, if not, just watch. Information is key...oh uh, hey.... Be careful man." Silus said with a reaffirming nod.


  Yancey on the other hand was a master of war. He was virtually war incarnate. Came with being Castiel, The guardian angel of Lucifer. That aside he looked to Master Lao and smiled slightly. "Hey wait were you friends with Master Ryurou? I killed that guy!" Yancey said enthusiastically as he revealed himself, letting the light bending around him falter. He then did the equivalent of  standard up and coming kick before twisting into it, similar to a butterfly kick, but actually worth a damn strike. After that he'd tie it into a back flip and throw a hand out a violent flash emitting, blinding to almost everyone, save for the shadow-spot he placed around Xiao, allowing her eyes time to acclimate more appropriately. Now it was time for Yancey to scope out the competition and see what all they were up against, now that he had the penthouse entirely illuminated.

Lucius smirked as Silus spoke, considering what he said and thinking if there were any questions he wanted to ask. "Not very many questions, all i want regarding Guilty Spark is the schematics and the kill code for whatever he installed on my systems. But i might as well ask one curiosity of mine. Who created him? All i need is a name." Lucius would then await the boys answer before removing his pocket teleporter from his jacket. "My porter's scanners have a lock on dragon girl, I'm following her. Unfortunately i can't bring anyone else without risking serious complications." After saying this Lucius pressed a button on the little device and dematerialized with a flash of red.

Lucius then found himself in a higher floor of the hotel watching both Dragon Girl and dog boy duke it out with one of the targets, things were about to get serious. "Egh, get out of the way you two...." Lucius said before sending a glowing red spike construct flying at the master. If he dodged it the construct would loop around like a boomerang and follow him until Lucius lost concentration or until it hit its target.

Xiao was being floored by the superior martial artist, but his attacks were pinpricks to her. The interior suffered whenever she swung a blow, and Master Lao did more ducking and avoiding than taking a direct hit.

And then, Lao was blinded by Yancey's altogether unexpected light attack, followed by Lucius's construct. Lao was sent hurtling, rolling onto the ground... completely unscathed. He slowly got up and took a face full of Xiao's punch, sending him hurtling out the window. Lao of course, would survive, get up and walk away from the scene, as people looked on at the man who fell from the penthouse.

"Now... where are they..." Xiao looked around the now well lit place and saw Zafira and the girl heading for the fire exits. Ryan had sealed it off with ice.

"No. No! this can't be." Zafira said, feebly striking at the door in vain.

"There's nowhere else to go, and you're outnumbered. Give up." Xiao said, now confident in the team's abilities to end this crisis.

"That... is where you'd be wrong, brat." Zafira pulls a last minute houdini as a gust of wind from her hand blows open a penthouse window, then she performs three spinning kicks that sent very powerful wind blasts towards the heroes, strong enough probably to send them flying out the apartment if they didn't have serious means of anchoring themselves.

And then, Zafira took hold of Atiyah. And flew out the window. Flying up, up and away.

While normally he would assume this was a sort of thankless job, the smile offered upon his returning was enough to make it all feel worth while, drawing a smile of his own. Simplicity had its perks, like not getting disappointed when praise was not thrown on him, though he did enjoy praise too. Okay, his mind needed to reign in, and get back to the important parts of this mission. He would get his next mission objective from Silus, whos aid something about finding the kitchen and water porting to the top floor. Which would be good, since for some reason his cryoporting did not work right after using it, though who was he to argue with the laws of the universe. ”On it.” He said with a tone that portrayed how sure he was of himself, and he was off, without much of a backwards glance.

Silus knew what he was doing, he was smart and all of that good stuff, so no need to He was suppsoed to help however he could, so he would do just that. Now where was that kitchen? ”If I were a kitchen, where would I be?” Ryan muttered, looking around before he looking upon what he thought was the location, and without a wasted second, the search for a sink was started and then done. Converting into a body of water, he would slip through the piping and within less than a second he appeared on the other end, beocming physical once again. However, upon apeparing it seemed like the battle had already finished, Ryan frowning softly as if disappointed. ”Awwww man, I missed everything.” He mumbled, burying his hands into his pockets, though the women flying out the window was a new one, the wind would slam into him however, with enough force to throw Ryan off of his feet and back. If he had not formed a cushion of water behind him, likely he would be a splatter on the street.

”Ow.” It did hurt a little, but he would get over it. Well, except he was now suspended mid air within a bubble of water.

"The Father of Lucifer." Silus said. It was in fact a name, rather a title. "I'll be more direct once the girl's safe." He added in, ensuring Red knew that he'd only give Red what he really wanted once they were both able to be appeased by the deal. Annoying? Probably. Understandable? Absolutely. Red Tide then vanished in a flash of light and Silus was left to sit there, reaching into his pocket and withdrawing the little sphere that shined like his own personal sun. He turned and walked towards the front door, the only one left unsealed while the others began to exit in a panic. A host tried to settle them down and promised them the power would return momentarily. Silus just smirked, knowing Red and seeing his technology first hand he wanted to advise them to not make promises they couldn't keep. Making his way out he looked above as he heard crashing, a broken window sent everyone reeling to ground floor. Silus contemplated the nature of his allies in order of importance. Ryan? He needed to help him! Wait, he's cushioning his fall with water. That was strange, Silus couldn't understand how velo- hadn't it m... uhm-nevermind. He was too relieved that Ryan was okay. Xiao? He didn't know if she could fly or not, but she was durable so she wasn't priority. Yancey, he had angel wings. Red Tide? Did he have anything for that? In his suit maybe, but as of now?

  "Yancey! Grab them!" Silus called up. Anyone who needed caught was getting caught. He had the speed, the reaction time and skills to do it without question. Of course he was gonna save Xiao first, he had to be a gentleman. Then he'd save Ryan because he loved Ryan and he knew Silus did too...and Silus wouldn't let Yancey live it down if he let one of his best friends go splat. Red he'd save a moment before it was too late, just to mess with him. Of course this is only providing they needed saving. Yancey took comfort in his angelic rainbow wings. Sure, people could make all the joke they'd want...he could just as easily hurt them.

The male that was fighting them had been sent through a window, but much to Lucius' annoyance he wasn't dead. After staring at the man get up with a smirk of both amazement and irritation Lucius turned to Zafira who dragon girl was giving the 'there's nowhere to go' talk. As expected that didn't sit well with her and she flung some unnecessarily choreographed wind gusts at them. The blast would take Lucius off his feet and send him flying out of the window, which had thankfully been shattered by the gust.

"Leave your gear they said, wear something fancy they said. Huh, looks like i have to get creative."  Lucius thought to himself as he fell through the air. Thinking as fast as his superhuman mind would let him Lucius thought of a way to save himself. He started to form a slide like construct under himself that he would slide down until he reached the ground, after which it would disappear with a flash of red. It looked quite odd but it managed to save his neck, he could care less about the others but looked around to see how they did anyway.

"Go save the others! This fall is nothing!" Xiao said fast, assuring Yancey she'd be alright. Xiao made sure to land on her bare feet and keep her heels not completely ruined, and she landed on an unfortunate empty car on the street, completely crushing it while dusting herself off. Again, people were shocked, surprised, impressed, afraid, and took pictures of it all.

"Drat." Xiao said, realizing her dress tore slightly, and she picked up her glasses and put them back on. She went to where Lao landed and tried to pick up a scent. She was completely flabbergasted that there was none to follow.

Assuming her team all survived their respective falls, she called up Silus. "Silus? Bad news. I can't track Lao. It's like he doesn't even leave a scent. Uhm... They talked about a school, right? Ask Red Tide what school it is, or if Atiyah's parents would know. We could find them."