Third Time's a Charm

OOC: This thread takes place in late March.

It had been a while. It had been quite a while since the drunken night that Kealey had eaten amazing stalker brownies, unloaded about Jacen, and helped a friend make an incredibly difficult decision. All of that had gone well, even the awkward platonic sharing of warmth that had been the end result. Something of a wonderful friendship trio had sprung from that night, and Kealey had really started to settle back into life and college. That only meant she’d gotten busy though. Added with the fact that Shin was taking college classes now, and the fact that Aurum was working and doing that whole law school things had meant that a repeat performance had been a long time in coming.

That was soon to be no more!

Aurum was working, but Kealey and Shin hadn’t seen that as a reason for them to start the night any later. They’d decided to meet for coffee at a cute little spot not too far from the Full Circle, and start the night catching up since it had been a while.

Kealey had dressed for the occasion in her signature skinny jeans, a long white tank top and a black borelo that came to just above her waist. Her boots were black and stopped just below her knees, and shed plopped her favorite black page boy hat on the top of the loose ponytail she’d gathered at the nape of her neck. She’d left her hair curly and decided that the overall effect was rather nice. Now it was time to party.

Into the little shop the blond went, eyes casting around as she looked for Shin. She found him quickly and bounced her way over with a happy little wave. ”Hey!” she said, taking a seat ”How’s it going?”

The place was small, and not too crowded, which was one of the reasons they’d decided it was a good place to start the evening. The less crowded, the better for Kealey. She frowned slightly when a moving bundle of malice walked in the door, but upon looking and finding nobody she knew, Kealey turned back to Shin, shrugging it off. Nothing was going to ruin her good mood tonight.

((OOC: Modding of Kealey done with permission of Juli))

" Double espresso." Roland placed a twenty dollar bill on the counter. " Keep it." The wink and smile from the late teenish girl was received, a gritty smirk returned. A sip of the liquid gold and he was ready. turning on his heel, he saw Miss Quinn, getting on well with some little Asian fellow. They seemed happy to see one another. Could it be her new beau, in lieu of Mr. King? That would be nice. being able to use his abilities was important, though it wasn't as if anyone in the shop could stop him, even if he had no magic tricks.

His steps were sure, the click of his heels reporting on the hardwood floors as an otherwise scene of serenity and good times was about to go downhill. At least for Miss Quinn. Hopefully, not for her little friend, but his relative level of bravery was directly correlated to the outcome in his case. Hopefully he was as meek as he looked. Not that Roland minded putting him down, but the easier and smoother he got her in the van, the better for everyone. Mostly Roland.

Just as Miss Quinn stopped moving, a stray shoulder caught her just in the middle of the back, sending her off center from her friend and briefly careening toward the wall. Roland's naked hand grasped the smooth skin of her elbow and caught her, placing his cup on the table with his other hand. His eyes flashed to the friend. Nothing registered yet. Once she was on both feet, he used both her instability and her awkwardness to help the motion seat her across from her friend. Roland took the third seat, looking at the two of them at angles. He smiled to her first and then to her friend.

"So sorry to interrupt your get together.Are you alright, Kealey?" His hand settled on her shoulder in a familiar way. He smiled in a very warm fashion to her little dark haired friend. "Pleasure to meet you. I'm Roland Pruitt. I'm an old friend of Miss Quinn here. Funny literally bumping into her like this, huh?" His British accent still seemed to be stained with American slang and talk, but whatever. The few other patrons seemed to be calm now that everyone at the table appeared to be friends. Or friendly anyway. He looked over at Kealey once more as he sipped his espresso. " Miss Quinn and I met in the subway one night." He scratched at the edge of his eye, sending her a wink only she could see.

“Hey, watch it,” Shin insisted, as the strange man bumped into Kealey. He was being handsy, practically juggling her into her seat. Then, the guy sat down at their table, uninvited. People in New York had no manners. “Excuse me,” Shin demanded.

>> "So sorry to interrupt your get together.Are you alright, Kealey?”

The guy with the British accent shot back. Shin’s eyes moved from the man’s face, to the hand on Kealey’s shoulder. He was certainly acting friendly now, for a guy who’d just bumped a woman. That went in-line with the ‘too-handsy’ juggling, though. Shin didn’t return the warm smile. His shoulder was very cold. It wasn’t a pleasure, and judging by Kealey’s reaction, as the color drained ever-so-slightly from her face, far from it. She denied any friendship.

Shin’s eyes hardened. Something was up. He didn’t know what, but one thing was clear.

“You should go. This is a private conversation.” He stated. This man had to leave.

Shin tried, he really did, but there was no way he could understand what this man being here meant. Kealey had told him about the night in the subway, but vaguely and they’d both had a great deal to drink at that point. To Shin, this was simply some rude interloper, threatening to disrupt the start of a fun evening. Kealey swallowed hard, and spoke, her voice barely above a whisper,”He’s the reason I asked you about those lessons…” she said,trying to convey the gravity of the situation in as few words as possible. No Shin, he wasn’t leaving. At least he removed his hand from her shoulder, but his emotions were still there, wreaking havoc on Kealey as she unwillingly felt them too. The sickly sweet pleasure mingled with pure enjoyment was enough to make Kealey’s stomach turn again as it warred with her own panic and dread. She swallowed convulsively, how could anyone enjoy having this effect on a person?

Her exterior was relatively calm, excepting the slight shaking of her hands as Kealey laid them on the table. How was he here? Why was his face different? Why wasn’t he dead? Why was he here for her now, when she’d nearly forgotten his very existence? The last time he’d been so interested in Jacen, in the fact that his mere presence could negate mutant powers. The man spoke and Kealey instinctively flinched at the implication of his words.Unfinished business…his carriage. They were leaving, and the only business they’d ever had was him trying to kill her. A gun appeared in the assassin’s hands, and a cold ball of dread settled in Kealey’s stomach, the gun swung to point at Shin and she gasped, a strangled, ”No…”escaping her as the man explained what was going to happen, and what was going to happen if his instructions weren’t followed. Kealey swallowed again, fighting back tears that would prove this to be anything but a laughing matter.

Shin was a super-hero, a member of the X-Men, and Kealey had a feeling that he wasn’t going to simply let her walk out of the coffeehouse with a stranger who was threatening bodily harm. It just wasn’t something Shin would do. Blue eyes cast around the shop looking at the young people there with their dates, the students studying, the college-aged girl working behind the counter. She knew the man with the gun, and as he explained to her that disobedience meant harm to others,Kealey believed every word.

Facing her friend across the table, the blond fixed him with an intense gaze as she pushed everything in the shop aside but Shin’s emotions. Then she pushed them aside… completely. It was a bit of a risk, suddenly feeling nothing sometimes had a strange effect on people. Most of the time it simply made them sit and stare for a time…long enough that she would be gone before he recovered. Kealey had no such hopes for the assassin. Nothing she could remove from him would help any more than it had in the past. She was on her own. Admitting it to herself was the easy part. Admitting it to him was the hardest thing she’d ever done.

”We should be going then.” she said, wishing for the millionth time that her powers worked on herself. If only she could have eliminated the terror and fear, the apprehension that gripped her so strongly now. She looked at Shin, one more time, still holding back his emotions. ”He, will do it...” she said imploringly, ”All of it. I have to go.”

The second they hit the door to the shop, Kealey let go of her hold on Shin’s emotions, throwing them right back where they’d been. Kealey was still terrified, and pretty sure this was going to end poorly for her, but she wasn’t giving up without a fight.

Apparently, Roland was the reason for some lessons that the little fellow had given Kealey. Were they self defense lessons? Something to remember for later. The look of burning anger in the kid's eyes told him that he wanted to do something. Most knights did, in defense of their damsels. Roland almost decided to put his gun away and give the boy a chance. Half a chance. If the kid could beat him unarmed, he'd more than likely cheat and put a knife in his eyes. What kind of expression would he wear then?

The lass was very agreeable now, preparing to stand and leave with her new beau. Old beau sat and kept staring, but that was about it. Maybe he was a mutant and he was powering a death ray or something. Nah, probably just realizing how impotent he was. Had to be a sinking feeling, knowing you were powerless to save your friends. Fortunately, Roland had no friends anymore. No one to use as leverage. The two rose together, the gun returning to his waistband in the back. Arm in arm, like old friends, they walked out the front door. They turned into the alley next to the shop and walked its length, approaching the white utility van that would take her on her final journey.

" It won't be right here in the alley. We are going for a trip. A going away party for you." Unlocking the sliding door on the van's side with the key which appeared in hand at the moment of contact, Roland nodded toward the interior. It was completely bare except for a large US Postal Service bag and a golf bag full of clubs. He smiled, his white teeth shiny beneath the dark black scruff around them. " In the van, please. And once you are inside, go ahead and get in the bag as well." He stepped in after her and waited, stooping low to avoid the roof. The van's door was slid shut and his head turned slightly, the key appearing in the ignition. " Come on now, we haven't got all day. Well, I suppose we do, but my bets are your little friend will get his balls back in a moment." The pistol reappeared for coercion, being waved at the bag.

There were so many possibilities. So much could go wrong. As Shin hovered above the rooftop of the building, looking at the city around him, every person he saw was a suspect. Every vehicle held the potential to house a Roland. It made him sick. Which one housed the Kealey? How would he narrow the list of potential suspects down? How could he fight that acrid pang of paranoia in his gut?

Shin took in a calming breath, and bowed his head. He focused his mind. He could do this. If he let the distractions take over his mind, every moment of motion in the city around him would overwhelm. First things first, he had to narrow it down. Where would Roland have gone? Where was the furthest he could get in such a short amount of time?

The parking situation around the coffee shop was terrible. It was jam-packed. If he’d wanted to park there, he’d have had to deal with all the idiots of New York making parallel parking hard. The front of the shop was also too obvious. That left the back and the sides… Shin had come out the back. There were no psychos where he’d been. That left the sides… which to choose first, though, the right or the left? One side had an alleyway… alleys made good allies for people in need of quick parking. Just off the street, that location had potential.

Shin moved over to the side of the rooftop nearest the alley, and peered over…

He knew. Kealey froze in her tracks as Roland asked her if she'd done something to him. She shook it off, there was no possible way he could know what she was doing. He hadn't known it was her work that Shin stayed in his seat while they walked out, it didn't make sense that he'd have had the revelation between there and here. She held her ground, not saying a word as the emotional drain took its toll.

Then Roland spoke and Kealey stared at the man in disbelief. This was all some deranged ego trip. He was going to kill her simply because he'd failed to do so twice before. It absolutely boggled the mind. The where and the how were still up in the air, and as Roland spoke, then moved, Kealey's eyes darted to the door of the van...and the handle there...and the little thingy in the 'unlocked' position.

Roland was in the driver's seat, and she was so close. The bastard was smoking and using the cigarette as a timer. God, it would be so easy just to...

Roland spoke again elaborating on what would happen if she didn't do what he said and Kealey balked. There were so many people outside, if she looked out the front windshield she could see them milling past the van. What if she got away, and someone else got hurt? She'd brought this on herself with her assinine heroics in the subway. There was still a chance that Shin would figure out what was going on and come help her.

She got in the bag.

It was dark, musty, claustrophobic, and pretty much everything else straight out of a persons' worst nightmare. Obviously they were going to be traveling and Kealey tried to move around and keep her brain focused on the task at hand. Roland seemed slightly less dangerous without the malice and determination. Logic was much easier to deal with...and his emotions were far easier to handle than her own nearly rampaging fear. Perhaps at some point he'd become confused, or disoriented. Those would be helpful emotions to play. For now, though, she waited.