Prodigy: Mind Games Pt. 2

Prodigy Safe House, L.A.

Some time mid afternoon, the trio made their way to the Prodigy safe house, namely a small house in LA's lower income Suburbs. It was an idyllic place, families coming and going, teenagers playing hoops out on the street, a couple walking their dog on the sidewalk, some older folk getting some gardening done or watering their plants with their clueless grandchildren eating dirt. Very normal, clearly the last place to find a house full of organized teen metahumans.

Once the Prodigy car was in the sparse garage, Xiao unloads all the groceries and puts them in the fridge, then lays down on the couch, tired from the encounter. The house was fairly tidy thanks to Xiao's neat habit, and also because it was sparsely furnished and only accommodated three members at the moment. Looking up at the rotating ceiling fan, thoughts raced through her head, as the victory they had in rescuing Atiyah from Red Tide felt... strange, short lived. She turned on the news to see the coverage of today's events... Some networks had good words about them, while that certain talk show vilified the metahumans for making accidents worse.

"Metahumans are the children of Satan! They have come to earth to usurp it from the Chosen of-"

She switched the television to the Discovery Channel to learn stuff about science. Myth Busters was on and that was about the most educational thing on nowadays. Xiao turned up the volume and headed to the kitchen to get dinner ready. But seeing the mess in the sink, she sighed. She put on an apron first and she cleaned up, letting the burger patties defrost on the kitchen counter. In the mean time she set out a bag of nuts, some old pizza and a bottle of orange soda for anyone who was hungry. Here was the Mighty Dragon Girl, doing household chores in a giant t-shirt, an apron, house shorts and her Clark Kent glasses. Very domestic.

If anyone bothered to sit there Xiao would speak up on the rescue. "Did any of you feel something... strange about that girl and her mother?"

Their night of heroics had gone pretty well, or so Ryan could hope his first real heroic adventure could have gone. Granted, it was thanks to the help of Zell’s big brain and Dragon Girl being a big scary girl that could punch things really hard. However, Ryan had done all he could but considering how they had in the end saved the girl from the vile villain, there was not too many problems with that. Either way, the rain was still happening around them, following Ryan more than anything as they would return to the little safe house that their little hero group operated in. Upon arriving, Ryan walked into the little house thing and promptly sat upon the nearest seating. Ryan yawned softly, and stretched while enjoying the warmth, even if it, granted that mostly came along with the fact that he was rather sensitive to heat.

His attention turned to the television as one of those metahuman haters preached, then the channel was changed. The channel changed to one of those sciency channels, so Ryan sort of drifted off as his eyes were half lidded and he had to fight off sleep. Ryan blamed it on the lack of sleep e had been getting lately, though why he couldn’t sleep was as good of a question as any. He did find it somewhat difficult to sleep, or even nap, so he simply pushed off of the couch and stretched, perhaps trying to keep himself busy before going back to….wherever it was he went. So now he was doing a little walking around the apartment, and eventually finding the kitchen where Xiao was doing what she always did, cooking.

The first thing he noticed was that there was some old pizza on the counter, and while Xiao was doing the cooking, he took himself a slice of old pizza and took a huge bite out of it, not even noticing the coldness. ”Well, there was a little something weird about those weird illusion powers.” Ryan noted resting an elbow on the counter and taking another bite out of the pizza, saliva building up within his mouth with each bite.

"Well that was one hell of a day" Lucius thought to himself as he arrived at his LA safe house. In the span of a few hours he had attempted to captured a meta human girl, killed some whack job lady, got attacked by a group of teenage 'super heroes', and had his mind invaded. And the day wasn't even over yet, he still had much to attend to concerning the girl and this group of kids.

He ran facial and vocal recognition on the two he actually got close enough too. He found a name for water boy putting his picture through his data base and the internet, Ryan Lester. He made an entry in his list of known meta humans for future reference, putting in all known information about the teen. He also found a name for the female that caused him so much trouble, Xiaolongnu. She had previously enrolled in a program for US immigrants, from this Lucius gathered his information.

He had not gotten close enough to the other boy to get any usable photos or information, but that didn't matter if he could find the others. It was obvious what the teens were trying to do, they had formed some kind of teen titans rip off in an attempt to fight local crime, how adorable. The encounter was all over the news, which displeased Lucius. He might have to change his gear up, he couldn't afford to be well known yet.

He had one of his followers, The Tourist, follow them after the crowds dispersed. He had tailed them back to a house in LA's lower class area. Daniel contacted Lucius and told him where they went, then Lucius headed out. He arrived outside the safehouse in his car, he decided to watch the house from across the street on top of a large apartment building. He simply observed, watching the house to gather any useful information regarding the three.

Silus sat there, in his older form, silently as he glared into the television set. It hadn't been more than twenty four hours and he was already churning and confused by what he had seen. Did he feel this way because he was soulless? No that couldn't be it, soullessness produced apathy, not empathy. That little girl looking at him the way she did. There was a couple things about it that worried him. It was the look of a creepy little girl sociopath. There was only one logical conclusion. The girl was a murder of some kind and Silus needed to stab that little bitch. With a sigh he stood up from his dark little corner and folded his arms as he walked out past the kitchen. He quickly began to rummage about the cabinetry and quickly procured several Hershey bars, marshmallows and then quickly went to the fridge to retrieve his home-made Chai tea and some milk.

  Silus was thankful to inherit his father's culinary talent. Able to cook with the best of them. Granted Silus was perhaps more skilled than even Zell, as Zell had training and teaching. Silus seemed to just inherently know his way around a kitchen. Then again his older brother Shael said it was because he was such  bitch. Joking or not, he no longer said that when an Angel kicked him in the gonads. Speaking of that very Angel he entered the room with messed up hair and oil splattered across his tanned skin, an unamused look on his face as he leaned back against the counter.

 "Seriously, what did you little monsters do to the car? The oil is all gunked up. I went in to change breaks and now I'm reworking the frame!" Yancey whined as his eyes shifted from Silus to Ryan with a half smile, almost impressed at the crap they could put a car through. Silus ignored him as he poured a third a glass of the most delicious Chai tea ever then Hershey chocolate with hot chocolate powder and then microwaved it prior to putting marshmallows on it. The first cup was greedily usurped by a grinning grease monkey of an angel, the second and third glasses were presented to Ryan and Xiao as Silus finally served himself one. "I don't even like Chai...but this is gooooood." Yancey let out a pleased but before hearing a loud clang and a crash coming from the yard. He perked up and quickly rushed out yelling hectic gibberish

   "I can't weigh into this situation much. I just play music and make sure none of you dorks die on me." He said before taking a sip of the pure bliss that was Si-Chai Choco. Setting his cup down gently on the table he quickly began to process and try to discern the meaning behind that stare he got from her. "She wasn't very frightened. She didn't seem hyper intelligent either. If she could have escaped earlier why wouldn't she? Remove fear and the logical action would be to escape. But she didn't. She chose not to. This leads me to two conclusions. One, she didn't WANT to be saved and she wanted to be taken from her mother, or Two...
She was waiting for us." Silus said. The last part of that statement probably sounded absurd, however there was a definite logic behind his reasoning, one he would share if he needed to. Granted people might think he was crazy, but he was the smartest member of their group as a whole...and his daddy WAS a villain, so he knew how they worked. Maybe they'd trust him...maybe not. It's be interesting to see.

  "As far as the girl AND her mother...the whole relationship seemed a little unsettling. Think what would happen if any other mother in America had her child brought back to her like that. Any decent one would be in tears, the child probably too. They were too.... artificial.... they were too... professional? Yeah, thank you. They were Professional." Silus concluded. He quickly looked to the area where Yancey's voice had come from. There was a loud clank and a whimper of pain as Yancey stumbled in with a bloody hand. He walked over to Silus and Silus did his paint healing thing before looking back to Xiao and Ryan.

Xiao took a break from her cooking, then gracefully accepted the Chocolate infused chai with thanks. She gave it a sip and gave her audible satisfaction. "Mmmm..." Sip. Sip.

Xiao listened to Silus's speculations and agreed. Detective work and conjecture wasn't the strong points of Dragon Girl. He didn't seem to buy into their act at all, and looking back, she would agree. It was when she was in the presence of that girl... that her mind was somewhat influenced. "That girl was definitely... strange. It was like I wanted to believe her whenever she was nearby, even when I knew that something was suspicious."

Xiao then scooped up Yancey to give him cuddles for a minute. She then turned to glance at the table, where the creepy girl stood, arms clasped near her chest. Or rather, an astral projection, as she was a bit translucent.

"Please! Help me. Dragon Girl, Prodigy. you are my only hope!" she said. Xiao was caught offguard and gasped, but didn't drop anything. She did momentarily hug Yancey a bit tightly though.

Ryan hummed softly to himself, taking another bite of the pizza, chewing it up and swallowing it rather loudly. While he had been trying to think of something off about the little girl, there was nothing that he could really make note of at then moment, beyond the fact that she did act a little weird too. Then again Ryan was not exactly your normal teenager, so him making light of that would have been pointless really. His attention partially followed Silus around as he did whatever it was that he did, though it likely involved some kind of chocolate substance. Okay, his attention was fully captured by the sight of chocolate and the fact that Ryan really loved chocolate, or the small amounts that he could get himself. He did turn attention towards Yancey when something was said about messing up a car, though all he could do was smile sheepishly, before shoveling the pizza back into his mouth.

Sniffing the air, he took notice of whatever drink concoction that Silus had brewed up, the cup being placed within reaching distance. Ryan considered it for a few seconds, before lifting the drunk up and taking a cautionary sip. The heat itself was expected, seemingly increased by his constant cold nature, but the taste was enough to override that. This stuff was actually pretty good, even though he had no idea what it actually was, and So Ryan began to drink on it slowly. Whatever this stuff was, it was like magic or something close to that kind of thing. Silus was going on about something, though what he was going on about Ryan was not exactly sure, something about how the little girl was really strange. ”So...what do you think that means?” He would ask still  sipping silently on his drink. Well, he would have likely gotten an answer to that question but ghost girls, thats kind of it. He then found himself choking and sputtering on his drink thing.

He watched for a a while, so far they didn't seem to be doing anything out of the ordinary. But of course that might be due to his not so good viewing point, he had to get closer. He stepped off the 5 story building, allowing himself to free fall and even flip a few times. When he was about 2 feet from the ground his body came to an abrupt stop, he hovered there for a few seconds casually then put his feet on the ground, being a super genius gadget maker had its perks.

He walked off toward the house the kids were in soon after. He activated his clocking device then ported into the house with a flash of light and a warping sound, he was now standing nearly invisible right under the noses of the three meta humans that had disrupted his mission. He listened to what they were saying and watched them. It seemed he wouldn't be getting any useful info from these kids, or so he thought. A translucent version of the girl randomly appeared in the room, then asked for the threes help. This day just keeps getting more insane each second.

"This means several things. Like the fact we now have more questions than answers." Silus sighed as he looked to the floor, arms crossed. He looked to the little wolf-pup Yancey before shaking his head. "Are you in any immediate danger?" Silus said, mentally noting to say "not the cowboy kind" to himself. He was entirely calm about the fact there was a seemingly spectral entity amongst them. The little girl looked to him with a little worry. "I-I have to be quiet or else Zafira will hear me.... Then she'll use the thing" As Silus questioned the little girl, their intruder friend appeared.

  Red made a crucial mistake. Light. Immediately Yancey's eyes began to glow a bright blue and the light would immediately constrict around him and hinder his moment, threatening to probably crush him. Yancey looked towards the area Red Tide was and his eyes narrowed. He had followed his presence since it arrived in a flash of light, and now it was close enough to be a total problem. Yancey's light clung to the person, revealing an outline that gave the others something to look at. Yancey transformed back from his dog form, which Xiao cuddled him in (this is why she was one of his favorite people ever) into his human form, still without a shirt and oil stained abdomen with a harsh glare. "You have sixty seconds to explain why you're sneaking up on them, and I just used thirty." He said as the binds tightened.

  "Castiel, let him go.B-but Lucifer!-Cas... Let. Him. Go. He knows Guilty Spark, going through his compiled information Red Tide is not inherently hostile, he prioritizes information...despite being a total dick he's the only one who knows anything about the woman who hired him." Silus said before looking to the man. The outline was more than enough for Silus to make out the shape of Red Tide. "You can let your invisibility generator rest. It's obvious you're not going to be doing anything overly stealthy. Guys watch him foe a second." Silus added in. Yancey grunted before releasing Red Tide, but he left the light on top of him for good measure and to keep him in sight.

   "Okay. Do you know where you're at?"Silus immediately took note of that name. Zafira... it was important but it wouldn't derail his questioning. If she were indeed afraid of this Zafira using "the thing" then that means that they had limited time. The little girl's eyes shifted as she shook her head slightly. " don't know.... but i can show you where I am... will that help?" She asked. In an instant the entire room was projected to look like where she was at. It was the life of luxury. Fine clean carpet and decadent red drapes, glass that looked out over a city of some kind. It was beautiful, but now wasn't the time for sight-seeing. Or was it? Silus took extreme note of a C.P.T embroidered pillow before looking back to the girl and smiling. "That actually helps a lot.  So I take it Zafira isn't your real mom then? Where are your real family?" Of course Silus had to ask a nice answer in a kind tone and immediately the little girl gives a very childish answer. "At home..." Okay, he was asking for that one. He forgot not lal children were as smart as him.

   "Okay. Why did these people kidnap you?" Silus asked. The littler girl immediately responded as if she were slightly scared. "They said I was special." Immediately Silus' heart sank. For a moment...just a moment his soul had shown through. Wherever in the veil it was... it was with him now at this moment. He remembered words like that. "Okay, listen because this is VERY important okay. I need to know what your powers are." Silus said. The little girl looked at him, seeming to catch the actual emotion in his voice as he was much friendlier now. "Powers? I just imagine things and people can see them. I just want to go home and play with my mommy and daddy." She said, beginning to look very sad and very worried. Silus felt guilty...like part of this was his fault. Mostly because that is EXACTLY how his powers work. He smiled before looking to the girl.

   "Hey... I'm like you... I can imagine things too. I promise you, we're comin' to save ya. Just keep pretending to be a good girl for Zafira until we get there, okay?" Silus asked, but before the little girl could reply there was an abrupt voice.

  "Atiyah! What are you doing? You're calling them aren't you?! is it your family?!" There was another name. Atiyah...

  "N-no! I'm not!" The little girl, Atiyah protested trying to seem earnestly innocent. Poor girl couldn't pull the act off to save her life...which is exactly what worried Silus. Atiyah then looked back to Silus with big pleading eyes and then to the rest of them. "Please hurry!" She pleaded before she vanished. Silus took a moment to maul over things. Everything was different now. His initial belief was correct...the little girl was in danger. The strange look was a deranged plea for help. But Silus was really...REALLY worried about Atiyah.

  "Yo...Lucifer...what do we-""LET HIM GO! LET. HIM. GO." Silus yelled at Yancey, the shirtless texan kid backing away with a slightly hurt and worried look in his eyes. Immediately Yancey looked to the others but lowered his head into a little nod. This wasn't Silus at all...if he were this on edge then something was eating him...bad. "You just turned out to be the Hero for a day. Okay guys... this is bad but I got a plan. We need to get to Chicago." Silus said before crossing his arms and sighing as he shook his head.

"Zafira, and Atiyah. I need to find out who those are... Zafira first, I think she's in Chicago Park Tower. Really high end hotel. My dad used to take me there when he did business trips to Chicago. Her powers are like mine...or what mine were before I lost my soul. I imagined things and the world around it seemed to conform to it. Hers are illusions, but that's how mine started out too. I don't know if it's coincidence or not, but we can't risk it. I need to tap to the security footage of the C.P.T building to see if they've come or gone form the building as of late. Guys I'll call my dad and you'll take the Mach 2 jet to Chicago. I'll meet up with you guys there tonight, but the sooner we can get you guys close the better." Silus offered up. In the stress he seemed to have taken control of everything. Not that what he was doing was bad. He was bloody brilliant, and he was already getting to work, but perhaps someone might want to say something to him...

Lucius would listen to the conversation between Silus and the girl, he wasn't exactly surprised about what the girl was saying, just awed by the level of power she held. His eavesdropping was cut short by what seemed to be a light construct formed around him, it hindered any movement at all and effectively trapped him. He looked around all he could without head rotation to see who had done it, and saw a dog with glowing blue eyes who Lucius felt was the most likely suspect. The dog would then morph into a shirtless boy who threatened Lucius. Could this day get ANY weirder?

"Save yourself th..." Before Lucius could finish responding to dog boy the other male from the incident spoke up, cutting him off. What he would say next interested Lucius, even more then the girl perhaps. He turned off his invisibility generator telepathically as Silus suggested. The light lost its solid property and he could move again, yet annoyingly it stayed around him. Red glared at the dog boy as he passed into the kitchen where he would listen to the girl and Silus talk, ignoring the fact they all had just fought each other not to long ago.

The room would change as the girl told them she would show them where she was, Lucius didn't recognize it but it looked like a hotel room. After the girl was done talking to Silus he once again ordered Lucius' release, this time all signs of the strange light were removed. "Oh, whats that i hear? Are you saying you were wrong and i wasn't lying? It sure sounds like it." Lucius would say sarcastically in response to Silus' comment. The boy would then ramble on about stuff Lucius already knew, relaying to his obviously dumber team mates.

After he was finished Lucius spoke. "I already have all the info you need kid, thing is you have some i need. What do you say we cut a deal? You tell me more about this 'Guilty Spark' and its creator, tell me how you know my handle, and when we find the girl i get a blood sample for testing. In return i'll give you all the information i have on those two, the girl, the people they work for, and why they want her. Sound good?" Making a deal with the kids was probably the best way to maximize gain on both ends. They would get the girl back, Lucius would learn a few things, and then he could put this horrible day behind him.

The conversation between Silus and Atiyah was short and critical. Xiao opted to remain quiet and let him ask the questions. Silus was able to get a location when Atiyah introduced them to a very fancy vista via her illusion powers, though only her teammate was able to ascertain the location. Halfway in, Xiao smelled a new smell inside the room not belonging to anyone she knew. Yancey immediately acted on it and bound the intruder with light. Silus had Yancey relent and the intruder removed himself from invisibility. He had to rub in the fact that he was right all along.

In her usual aggressive mood Xiao tried to grab him by the collar and lift him off his feet. "What did you expect from us? You were the kidnapper, your word was no good to us!" She said rather frustratingly, then putting him down.

She took a deep breath to focus calm herself down. Xiao's anger issues aside, she knew what the stakes were and put in her thoughts.

"Park Towers. Ellie planned to bring me there once, it's a very classy place. They also have a strict dress code. We'll need to have good clothes to enter without anyone suspecting. You boys should go change. suits and black ties. We should also make a reservation at the Restaurant. That way we can move around the hotel without being bothered." Xiao said matter-of-factly, putting the food she planned to cook back in the freezer, then went upstairs to the girls' room, which was occupied only by Xiao at the moment, seeing as Danny wasn't around.

Xiao came back a few minutes later in what must've been a fast change for a girl. She was decked out in her qipao, a Chinese formal dress for formal occasions requiring some modicum of subtlety. It had a generous slit and complimented Xiao's tall frame. Still being subtle she still had her glasses on and her hair in a ponytail. She checked herself out in a mirror to ensure she was appropriately Xiao, not Dragon Girl. Someone was ready to hit the town- er, go undercover.

Ryan spent around a minute choking on his drink, give or take thirty seconds, before finally calming down and setting the drink down and glaring at it. He would likely not stay angry at the drink for too long, that was just about how Ryan worked, though for now he ejust rested an elbow on the counter and snacked on his pizza, and considered the weird ghost girl who had appeared out of nowhere. Silus was questioning her about something, like if she were in danger or something along those lines, which she seemed to be since she did ask them for help. Yancey had caught sight of the hidden Red Tide, capturing him with some kind of light prison, though Silus had told him to let him go, which he did, yet he was still covered with light probably in case he tried anything.

The whole questioning thing will go on, Ryan picking up his drink and continuing to drink it once again. Ryan kept his eyes on Red Tide, though it seemed like Yancey had him well enough, and it wasn't as if he could do much with so little access to any kind of water. Something was said about a high end hotel, and he had never been to any kind of hotel, which sounded pretty good to him. However he had no idea about how hotels worked, which left him woefully ignorant on a lot, such as formal wear. Hell, Ryan had never dressed formally, so the idea alone was an interesting one, if a little strange. ”I....don't really have a tie...or a suit.”

"Here's a counter offer. I'll tell you everything you want to know about Guilty Spark and his creator. I'll even get you his schematics. I'll even remove the little trap that he put in your AI so well concealed you'd never have a chance at finding it, even if you wiped and started fresh. When we find the girl, you will not get a blood sample until after she's safe with us...and we watch you the entire time." Silus made the deal quite clear. It actually played out in Silus' favor more. The point of him adding to it however was to reveal to Red Tide that he was in a lot worse of a situation than he initially believed, and that he might want to re-double on his security. Silus then heard Xiao state how she had been there with an Ellie once. Who was that? Some mentor or something? Funny, he never saw Xiao as the apprentice type, then it shocked him as he remembered long ago. Genisisi VI, the meeting room he saw her there. Ellie Wong it was then? Interesting. Powerful friends Xiao must have.

"I'll have my father make reservations, that way they'll know to imply bill it to his tab." Silus then looked to Yancey who was eying Red Tide. "Yancey-I know...-... ... Thanks." Silus said with a smile before walking off to Ryan. It was good to know that Yancey and Silus could forgive each other so easily and go back to being the strange friends. Yancey then leaned on the counter and looked to Xiao. "So uh... Red Tide. Just keep in mind that I can teleport too. IN case you try to hurt Xiao." He said, overly defensive of the massive Asian woman who gave him hugs as a dog. Too many people were hesitant to rub his belly as a dog, knowing full well he was an angel. It was still nice to see one of them other than Silus dared to belly rub... well, actually it wasn't that bad. He was exaggerating.

"Come with me, I can make you a suit. Red Tide, make sure you're dressed up. We'll have a Mach 2 Jet here in twenty minutes." Silus said, motioning for Ryan to follow him into the other room. "The paint is gonna tingle. Don't worry it will all come off you. Just help me make this go as quickly as possible. Uhm...awkward but lose the hoodie and shirt and anything you're not wearing under the suit. Then stand against the wall." Silus motioned to the wall. He wanted to get this suit done as fast as possible. Silus walked up and started finger painting Ryan. Well finger painting on him. Back when he had his old powers he could do this without the awkward touching, but now it was a little different. "What's your favorite color?" Silus asked as he painted Ryan's arms quickly and efficient. He quickly coated Ryan in the black paint and the worked on a blue vest and tie. "Hope you aren't ticklish. Gotta fiddle around your neck a second." Silus said as he added on the tie. With a pat on the shoulder, the entire suit became real. Silus smiled and then turned around, grabbing a white button down dress shirt. "Here throw this on, I couldn't put white over black without it being grey so... yeah. You know how to button that right?" he asked, really hoping he didn't need to button it for him. If he had to he would, but it was already awkward having to use a friend as a finger painting canvas.

"Lady and gentle-freaks. May I present, Deluge"Finishing up he'd walk out and whistle to everyone. He introduced Deluge and then bowed as he motioned for Deluge to exit. "Lookin' fancy Ry!" Yancey announced.

Soon Silus would have them all funnel into a high tech Mach 2 jet, all built specifically for Zell and designed by Zell. Yes, Silus did this intentionally, primarily to make sure Red Tide couldn't get int the systems or scan anything. He didn't need anyone going rogue. Silus himself would get changed in the fancy high end luxury jet in a back room. He emerged in a similar styled suit, though the color was the color of his eyes. He then looked to Diana and Yancey. "Okay, either of you guys need formal wear? YANCEY... one word about me being good at fashion design and I will toss you from the Ariel vehicle." Silus said, Yancey grinning and sniggering as if Silus cut him off just in time. Apparently Yancey didn't, but now Xiao and Red were left. They'd arrive soon, but he had time to help them if they needed it.

Lucius' eye quivered behind his mask, his rage was off the charts yet he showed none. "Shut down Hector" He would say telepathically to the AI. "Sir.." Hector would attempt to respond before being cut off. "SHUT DOWN!" Lucius yelled through his mind. It was too risky to keep Hector in control of the suit, if he were compromised it could mean his death. The AI would then shut down, giving Lucius manual control over the suit via the his masks computer. It was less efficient but it would do until Lucius got this situation under control.

"Deal....." Lucius said with a slight irritation in his tone to Silus. He realized the only reason for the boy's 'counter offer' was to tell him Guilty Spark had done something to Hector. Looks like Lucius would have to fully comply to get out of this one. "She isn't exactly easy to hurt" Lucius said with a slight chuckle in response to dog boy.

Silus would then ask Lucius to follow him, saying something about making a suit. He did as he asked and then watched as the boy literary painted the other male. What happened next had Lucius scratching his head, the paint turned into an actual suit. "Ah....that's not necessary, i have some basic wears under my suit." He would say awkwardly. There must of been a scientific reason it did that, Lucius would have to look into it when this was all over. But until then, he wasn't going to be painted by a boy with a potentially harmful substance.

About 20 minutes later the jet would arrive, then Silus led the group inside. It was quite nice, kid's father must be worth billions. Lucius went to change in the bathroom, he removed his suit and gadgets to reveal a basic black t-shirt and slim fitting pants. Not exactly formal but he didn't want to be painted. Lucius would sit rather silent in the surprisingly smooth riding jet until Silus came out, he wanted to continue their conversation.

"I was hired to escort the woman and the child to a drop location in the desert, at least that's what they told me. The woman used some kind of school as a front, but the organizations real agenda is much darker. I uncovered it months before asking about the job, i played dumb, then captured the girl to keep her from the groups grasp. I would not allow one of my own to be made a common assassin, i have seen such things done to our kind before and it is no life. They intend to weaponize her, and with her power they would wield something far greater then they ever have. Basically what I'm saying is you messed up royally, that's all i will disclose at the moment." He would say loud enough for everyone to hear, he was rather enjoying being right.

Xiao and her teammates were now clear on their course of actions. Having an actual dress meant Xiao didn't need Silus to paint her. That would have been strange. Once they were boarded and on their way to their hotel, Xiao listened to Red Tide but sneered at how much he rubbed being right in their faces. The jet brought them to the location in record time, and soon they disembarked, walking to the Hotel's Restaurant entrance.

A well groomed, well dressed usherette stood at the podium at the entrance. "Good evening ma'am. Reservation?" She asked.

Being the tallest and a face, Xiao had to answer for the group. "Uh... Silus Atterius and company?"

She checked the reservation and found it under the name without much fuss. "Very good ma'am. This way please. We are always glad to have such esteemed guests at our establishment." She ushered them in, except for Red Tide.

"We have a dress code, sir. Shirt and pants do not formal wear make." He said to Red Tide, barring him from entrance.

The trio were taken into the lavish restaurant, with a massive ceiling, a mezzanine dining area. The center was dominated by a wooden ballroom floor, as well as a crystal chandelier. The restaurant was filled with the city's elite, and causing trouble here was probably going to have very deep repercussions. The heroes under cover eventually seated and shown menus. Xiao accepted it and opened to see the impossible prices of the food and drink. She thought to herself, she could burn through two month's worth of salary on the appetizer alone.

"Have to order something so we don't look suspicious... Quick, order something for us." She whispered to Silus, as this was not Xiao's element. "Something with Grouper or Caviar in it." She added, so it wasn't an entirely lost cause for her.

She looked around the dining room and saw their target. She emerged from the elevator alone. The Indian woman Zafira, wearing a very chic, ultra modern Indian-inspired white dress with small black accents. She was accompanied by a shorter Asian man in similar dress, and they met with a bald, obese gentleman, limping and walking with a cane. They almost looked like they were in uniform, and they all sat down to talk over glasses of vintage wine.

Xiao turned to her teammates. "Can any of you hear what they're saying?" She asked, straining that super hearing. The Restaurant was fairly quiet and formal, with very little unnecessary noises.

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.