Psycho? Not!

That...had been unexpected. Everything she'd said about the collar was true, but Quin had never worn one. Even thinking about wearing one made her shudder and threatened to bring nightmares with it into the dark hours of the night. She was always connected to her powers, she could always feel the subtle humming of the polymers in everything around them. Without even realizing she turned her head to look at the X-Man as he spoke, bad-cop routine dying on her lips as the Clown started to pay attention too. Was it all true? Could anyone talk about something like that and not mean it?

If so, he was good, way better than her. That was scary. He looked so uncomfortable....

Maybe she'd ask later...but for now, it had worked. Quin didn't know if she was happy or horrified. They really did have Ashton. They had him, and they'd been planning to use him like this. It made her sick. Had there been a signal? What if they knew.

Back to the car they went. This had to be handled with delicacy.

"Good work in there." she said, not looking at the kid as they headed away from the station. She had to get her mind on something else. "We really ended up on the same wavelength. Nice work with the collar stuff too. Those things are nasty business, usually does the trick."

Ah. So it had all been true. The streets sped by, and Quin maneuvered the car in and out of traffic. It was weird to be the one driving all over the place, it wasn't usually her job. She usually watched out the windows and marveled at how they'd avoided killing themselves or anyone else on the way to a scene. She liked it that way.

The redhead sighed, eyes flicking to the other seat. "So, where was it?" she asked, focusing straight ahead. "Work it out of your system before we get there. If you're not on your a-game, I'm going to kick your ass."

Romania? That damn humanitarian mission that had been in the news a few years ago? He'd been caught and thrown into camps there? Quin frowned as her world view shifted a little bit. All of that registration business had been just before her time in New York. MRC had been re-established, everyone had been a little embarrassed that they'd been a part of caging their fellow human beings. Romania had been something to wrinkle noses and shake heads at. This guy...this kid...this vigilante had been there and done that.

Dammit.

"Thanks." she said. Quin knew she was biased against the X's, pretty much everything they stood for, but this guy had just put himself out there for her partner. Quin had to respect that. They were getting close now, though, and she had to start thinking about the thing she'd been trying to ignore.

"We're almost there." she said, not acknowledging any possibilities outside of success. "Everything is going to be fine."

Out, Ashton strode. Rope-guy was in human form, one of his arms slung over his shoulder, feet dragging along. They were both beat up to hell.

As the car got within 100 feet, he looked up, as if sensing them. A wry smirk slipped onto his cracked lips. It almost totally distracted from the shallow cut across his forehead that was in the early process of healing.

He raised one hand and casually waved.

Derp. It looked like their heroics would be put on hold indefinitely. For all the work they'd done, kicking and screaming to get the data, and to the location, they'd arrived too late, and...

The door slammed shut as he got out to join Archer.

"Drake," He nodded.

Ashton didn’t look too steady on his feet, and Quin made her way around the door to offer him her shoulder to lean on. Someone had really worked him over. On the bright side, though, it looked like he’d given at least as good as he’d gotten and there were two more thugs in the warehouse.

”Put that chump down.” she said as other cars started to pull up and other car doors started to slam.

Back to what he’d said earlier, ”I don’t know why anyone would want to take you either.” she replied, ”And we know now that they’ll definitely think twice before trying it again. What happened?”

As the Asian moved to take Ropy, the detective let him. Then, it was just Archer and him, and him on Archer. Her hair smelled good, this close. But she also smelled like she'd been worried. Sweating. Not that he was sniffing her hair or getting close enough to be deemed 'fresh' or anything. And really, how could one deem 'fresh' 'smelling sweat'. That was like the antithesis of.

Resting on her shoulder, Ashton recounted the tale. Waking up. Going to work. Getting knocked out on the way. A cheap shot, from behind. He didn't mention any clowns. Hadn't known. Gave her all the vague details. He'd seen faces, never got names. Rope man had put him out for the majority of the time he'd been with them. They'd find out more, he was sure, but for now, all he had to give her were hazy details of the lead-up and the escape.

Ashton's lips tilted in a frown. "I probably look terrible," He drawled.