It was 18 degrees. 65 in inferior American units. This was too warm for April, but it made for good cover: children covered the playground like unbearable squealing weeds, so he and his soon-to-be-partner were not stand out. The Finn was nine now, and much too old to care about swing sets (even if that one girl was so close to swinging all the way over the top--) or slides (even if it was twirling curlie-cue slide, which was Best Kind). He was very adult now, and besides, he was on mission. He held his phone like he was watching stupid cartoon that played on its screen, but really, he was scanning whole playground with camera. Diagonal yellow plaid, diagonal yellow plaid--

There. On swings, next to the overachieving almost-flying totally-being-a-child girl.

Diagonal yellow plaid tank top. Check. Big blue sun hat, also yes. Sunglasses. Yellow shoes. Suspiciously large blue purse for a little girl.

Probably this was to carry weapons, Panu thought. He had, after all, hired a professional. She smiled, and looked Very Innocent, but he was not fooled. He knew the look: she was Hardened Criminal, like Kirsi and him. Smile-face earrings only proved this; they were try too hard to hide nature.

...She had not mentioned her teeth. Sharp pointy teeth, not skinny like dog, but wide like shark.

(Probably she was sensitive about them, so this is why she gave him clothes description, instead. He would make sure to not mention.)

The blonde boy straightened his headphones, and made sure the camera hanging from his neck was pointed her way. He straightened back his thin shoulders and marched over to the swing sets, like Finn on Mission. He was on mission. Very serious mission, which needed back up in case of things-go-wrong.

“Agent Tiger. Is pleasure to meet you. I am Agent Swan. We talk on internet.” He stuck out his hand, ready to give firm-but-not-stupid-tight shake. “Mission is begin now, if you are accept. Is last chance for regret.”

Abby's Outfit

>>“Agent Tiger. Is pleasure to meet you. I am Agent Swan. We talk on internet. Mission is begin now, if you are accept. Is last chance for regret.”

What? Abby just blinked at the strange boy. He was taller than her, though that didn't say much since she was short. He was also wearing a large grey hoodie that didn't really fit him, but Abby liked clothes like that too when it was cold and the sky was sad. Then she noticed his headphones with their swan design.

Oh. So maybe he saw her teeth? And that's why she was Tiger. Abbigail wondered if she really had time to play a game like this, or even if she was too old for these types of games. But he wasn't running from her. And he didn't seem to mind her teeth like the girls at the monkey-bars did.

"The pleasure's mine, Swan. Regrets are for those who fear the outcome," the blonde shook his hand after her long silence. It sounded cool to her. Like something Black Widow would say.

Her words were smooth like honey, or maybe like stinger of wasp. She was look at him like he was thing on bottom her her shoe, and wait, and wait, and wait, and only after her time had passed did she shake his hand like it had been her idea from start. She was shorter than him, but her silence made him feel very small. If Noel had not already kissed him, which was almost like being married, then maybe he would be in love now.

“Is well said, Agent Tiger. Like flower that has bloomed at night.”

His heavy accent and translated English were like jigsaw puzzle for 8+; suddenly he felt very stupid in front of her. But he was Boss, so even if his cheeks were hot and maybe very red, he would be Professional.

(Professional involved clearing his throat, and shoving his hands in his hoodie pocket, and looking a little away so that she would not notice he was not meeting her eyes.)

“Walk with me,” he said, and started towards the edge of the park. This baby-place was for meeting, not for mission. They would need to walk a little for mission.

While they walked, he made small talk like Gentleman.

“Your resume is very impress. Like photo album of action movie, fire in background with dramatic pose silhouette. What is last country you are in? Ukraine?”

>>“Is well said, Agent Tiger. Like flower that has bloomed at night.”

Abby was pretty sure that didn't actually make sense. But he was kind of cute. His cheeks were tinged pink and he looked really uncomfortable. It was probably hard for him to make friends. That might be why he approached her. He probably saw those girls tease her for her mutation. She was just happy she was wearing long pants. It hid her gray skin.

>>“Walk with me."

Abby stood from the swing with as much grace as she could. It wasn't easy since her feet didn't actually touch the ground. But she hoped her little jump looked cool. She was getting into the game now.

Checking to make sure her bag was where it should be and her hat was covering her face with shade, she followed the foreign boy. They were headed from the park, but she wasn't worried. She could probably out run him if she had to. She could outrun most adults now.

>>"Your resume is very impress. Like photo album of action movie, fire in background with dramatic pose silhouette. What is last country you are in? Ukraine?”

Thinking fast, Abby played along. "Technically, India. But there is no proof of my... visit," she grinned a little, letting her teeth show.

Toothy smile was very good. Like shivers in his bones. This was face of real villain—childish and pretty and bright, with sharp hidden inside where only friends could see. She hopped from swing like ten year old, but she smiled like fifteen.

He would have to be Very Mature nine to keep up. With Kirsi this had been easy, because they had both heard of each other—already there had been mutual respect. They were Scandinavian Contemporaries. But Scandinavia was very very small, very few people. New York City had more people than all of Finland, packed together like pigs in truck going to slaughter, always too crowded and too noisy and too hot.

The world was very very big, and Agent Tiger had been to more of it than Panu had even Googled.

“India,” the blonde boy repeated, like he wasn't skimming the 0's and 1's of the country's Wikipedia page right now. “It is beautiful country. Much culture. I would like to visit there some day.” He rolled up his hoodie's sleeves. “...In winter, maybe.”

He did not question what her mission had been. That would be very non-discrete. But maybe it was safe to say this: “Maybe you could come with. I hear you have never been there.”

He was smiling. He realized he was smiling and made it into a smaller smile, because smiles were not very professional, and also he did not really know what he looked like when he smiled. Probably stupid.

They walked out of the park, and onto the city streets. Past clothing stores and toy stores and a gelato shop he had not tried yet. He edited his phone calendar with a thought, setting his next meeting with Noel to be here. It was shared calendar, so her phone would update too. Technology was Best Thing Ever and sometimes he wondered how people lived with only pawing at their screens like clumsy monkeys.

“Thank you for accept mission,” he said, by way of filling the silence between them with something besides nervous. “I know is very easy for your skill, but no one is suspect children. We are Best Infiltration.”

>>“Maybe you could come with. I hear you have never been there.”

Abby couldn't stop the loud laugh that broke through her closed lips. It was louder than her usual laugh but it seemed to work for who she was playing as.

"Perhaps when you're older," she offered, letting her eyes skim over the boy. It almost sounded like him asking her out. But there was no way that was what he meant.

>>“Thank you for accept mission. I know is very easy for your skill, but no one is suspect children. We are Best Infiltration."

Abby's smile softened at the hidden admission. "Easy ones are more like vacations. I can be whoever I want to be when my age and size let other's look me over. I'm sure you understand this as well."

Abby took in the shops they passed. She wasn't too sure where they were headed. She slipped her hand to check that her purse was still closed and her things inside. She didn't have much but she tried to be prepared for anything. The blonde was a little shocked to feel a semifamiliar shape from her room. Seemed one of the older girls who dressed her had slipped in the tazer her Uncle had given her for Christmas.

"The address hasn't slipped your mind, has it? I'd hate to be late." There vague enough for the game but maybe it would cause him to tell her where they were going.

>> "Perhaps when you're older,"

She was older wiser woman, and she put him in his place like puppy on leash. Her laugh was loud and deep and crushing, like dark blue ocean waves.

“It was my birthday this month. Now I am nine,” he said, which was exactly the most stupid wrong child thing to say, and probably he could go curl up to die like spider now. How could he save this he did not know-- “I am only hope to be as accomplish as you one day.”

This was not smooth recovery, but it was best he could do.

>> >> "Easy ones are more like vacations. I can be whoever I want to be when my age and size let other's look me over. I'm sure you understand this as well."

...This was like petting puppy to smooth its baby hackles down. Panu fussed with his headphones, straightening them a little (a lot).

“Sometimes I think being Adult will be stupid. Like having many choices, and ignoring all but one. Be doctor or office man or police, don't be all other things, don't even pretend. You are right. It is very very good to still be whatever we want.”

>> "The address hasn't slipped your mind, has it? I'd hate to be late."

“Address is just down block. Is old clinic, closed by FBI because they do not like the mutant who owned it. They are not watch anymore, though.” The Iris Clinic, run by one Sebastian Csendes, the world's most wanted unicorn. He knew they did not watch anymore because while FBI database was maybe hard to get into, records of their vehicle deployments were much less so. No one was claiming gas mileage for driving to this area, and had not for a long time.

There was pot hole on street. He was not like her on swings: he did not graceful-hop over. Instead, he very carefully picked his way around, his phone peeking out of his hoodie pocket to make sure he did not accidentally step in. Panu had all the depth perception of a third person perspective RPG character with bad camera control.

She said they could be anyone. He was Panu Miika Harmaajärvi-Jaager, and he was go home after this to a house that he had been alone in for many weeks because his new dad was out of town. His new dad trusted him, so he did not even call. Ambrose knew that Panu was not a child; he was Very Adult.

But if he could pretend anything, then maybe it was okay to be anything but that.

“If we can be anyone when we are there,” he decided, “then I will be Miika. I am mutant who is blind. I am join Sebastian's Witnesses because my parents are too stupid to understand that blind is okay. Blind is my strength.”

He looked at her face, but did not meet her eyes. This was not because he did not try: it was because he couldn't. It was very hard to figure out where to look, when your real eyes were the camera around your neck, and the traffic cam down the block, and the black-and-white footage from inside a high-end shoe store, watching them from behind as small blurred figures on the street. If it was okay to pretend, then maybe it was also okay to not pretend: he did not care that his eyes were blind, because his new eyes were so much cooler, and maybe it was the people who pitied him that were the stupid ones.

"Who will you be?"

>>“Address is just down block. Is old clinic, closed by FBI because they do not like the mutant who owned it. They are not watch anymore, though.”

She nodded at that. Okay, so abandoned building. Someone else could be there. Maybe he had been afraid to meet someone and that was why they were playing a game. It made some sense. She would help. She absently danced around the edge of the pot hole. Her thoughts a whir.

>>“If we can be anyone when we are there, then I will be Miika. I am mutant who is blind. I am join Sebastian's Witnesses because my parents are too stupid to understand that blind is okay. Blind is my strength."

Abby nodded. She didn't think he'd take it so seriously but okay. Miika. "Well met, Miika."

>>"Who will you be?"

Abby didn't have to think about that one. She knew the answer. "The easiest lies are half truths. I am Abigail, an orphan shifter. And we are friends, are we not Miika?"

He grinned, and did not care (much) even if he did look stupid.

“Very good friends, Abigail. Best friends.”

He wondered what part was the half-truth, and what part the half-lie. But it did not matter. Truth was stupid sometimes, all rolled up with all the things you didn't want to talk about. Maybe she would tell him one day, if they really did become friends.

He had many new family members in Ragnarok: his new father Ambrose and his new brother Victor and his new Angry Aunt Madeline Brass. But he only had one friend, and that was Noel. Two friends would be very nice, especially when one was as small as he was.

...These were unprofessional thoughts.

Probably it was just the act she did, the one that made adults trust her, so she could get very close to her target and get away again and no one ever thought it was her. Probably he was stupid and only nine and falling for it. Panu shoved his sleeves up higher on his arms and tried not to be won over as easy as toddler by man with lollipop.

She seemed a little distracted. Thinking of mission now that it was so close, probably. It was time for Game Face.

“Remember, if all goes as plan then we are only Abigail and Miika. Maybe I find files without even leave room, if we are lucky. If not, then we are children, we are mutant children, so probably it is no trouble if we wander a little. Meeting is not important, no matter what they say or do. We are just be quiet and sit and listen, and wait for chance to explore.”

He took a deep breath. There were no more cameras in store fronts, because there were no more stores, only boarded up windows. The unicorn who said he was God had not picked a good neighborhood to open his clinic. He had picked one where people needed help. Now his home was hidden under plyboard and old police warning tape, and just as dark as all the other places on this street, because this is what happened to people who tried too hard and reached too far and kept their family in one easily broken place.

It was dark but not empty. He could feel them inside, texting friends and reading and playing apps and googling trivia to solve argument. This was the feeling of Waiting To Begin.

Outside there was a man with a black dog's head. He guarded the door to the fallen god's home, like Anubis at a grave.

>>“Remember, if all goes as plan then we are only Abigail and Miika. Maybe I find files without even leave room, if we are lucky. If not, then we are children, we are mutant children, so probably it is no trouble if we wander a little. Meeting is not important, no matter what they say or do. We are just be quiet and sit and listen, and wait for chance to explore.”

Abby nodded then paused. Miika was blind. Gestures wouldn't work well now. "Alright," she added.

Then she started thinking more about what they were doing. It seemed less like a game now than before. She also began to wonder what files did he need? Now that she looked, Miika didn't seem to meet her eye. It was hard for her to figure out since she rarely did it herself. He might actually be blind. It also gave a reason for why he walked up to her. Mistaken identity, perhaps? Abby would have to keep her new, if strangely acquired, friend safe during whatever was going on.

When she spotted the dog-headed man, Abby felt a surge of something cause her to stop. She grabbed Miika's arm to have him stop with her. Whatever this was wasn't what she thought. But she didn't want to leave Miika alone.

"Your best guess, how many other young children will be present? We want to blend in, not stand out. An adult would help our cover," she said in as calm a voice as she could.

She would not panic. She was a predator. She may be young, but she was strong. But perhaps not strong enough to protect her new friend, even with her taser. They would need someone older and bigger than both of them for that.

“We are not young,” the Finn said, straightening his headphones. “Many mutants are start at vigilante or villain younger than us. You and I are start younger than this.”

...But she was the more experienced team member here, and the same thing that stopped adults from realizing they were a threat was something a reason to not even be let in a door. She took one look at dog-head bouncer, and was concerned by this. So he was concerned, too.

“...But I see point.” It was valid point, but annoying, and maybe a point that would take too much time. The meeting was starting soon—less than twenty minutes. Maybe if they drove with squealing tires whole way someone from Ragnarok could make it in time, but maybe not. “Time is problem. Meeting is start very soon. Do you have local contact?”

Too much, too much, too much - but that was why he'd broken his own self-imposed stay inside thing and come out here. He was in a drastically different part of town than where he'd met the fiery idiot, so he'd be fine. More fine than staying in there any longer, with screaming rich kids up and down the hallway, over and over and over and all the soundproofing his room could ever had would never be enough.

They just kept yelling. And screeching. There were so many of them. And they were so loud. And four of them had tried to climb on him when he finally got fed up enough to open the door and yell back at them. They had paused long enough for him to think he'd made an effect and step out to try to find food - he hadn't eaten since the previous morning since they'd been so loud for so long - and that had been when he had learned of their trap.

One of them might have been crying by the time Adder made his escape, but he wasn't bleeding. Adder hadn't even hit that kid. He'd just fallen off. Brat shouldn't have been climbing on people. Maybe Adder should've climbed on him, seen how he liked it.

Harrumph.

The wolf in almost-human skin stalked down the street, ears back and teeth quick to spook other people into giving him more space. At least these people had some sense.

>>“We are not young. Many mutants are start at vigilante or villain younger than us. You and I are start younger than this.”

Not good. Not good. Oh how did she-

>>“...But I see point.”

Abby let a small sigh of relief leave her. He was listening. Good.  That was good.

>>“Time is problem. Meeting is start very soon. Do you have local contact?”

Abbigail took a moment to think. The area they were in wasn't one she had been to before. It was highly unlikely anyone she knew was around. She took another look around. Though she hated it, she knew many people were without in the city. Perhaps they could use that. 'That's what Black Widow would do,' she thought. She wouldn't let this get to her. She would finish the mission.  She accepted it after all, when Miika first walked up to her.

"None that would arrive in time," because that was true. No one would reach them quickly if she called, if she could call. Maybe time to look into getting a phone. "This area is less fortunate. I'm sure we can find someone who will... assist."  The little blonde started a check list in her head.

1. Adult (or at least looks it)
   
2. Mutant (or could pass for one as the dog-headed man and Miika's comments led to it being either mutant-only or mostly mutants)
   
3. Willing to lie (probably for money because "money talks")
4. Willing to help two children with a dubious plot (and listen to them since Miika is the only one who knows what's going on)
   

"Do you have cash? Most would prefer that to other methods?"  This could either work or end very badly.  She crossed her fingers in hope that it would all work out.

The blonde boy frowned. It as very deep frown, very concerned. He put his hands on his headphones, and adjusted them for the forty-second time even though they were already comfortable. Abigail was senior agent, but he was boss. This was mean that she had more experience, was more well traveled, maybe knew more about situations like this. But at end of day she was only hired help, like maid. She would go home and be done. He would stay and handle consequences. The responsibility for this mission was his.

She had just suggest hiring hobo.

This was literal suggestion. Literal hobo.

Hobo that did not know risks or rewards, hobo who maybe had hobo family to feed, maybe had ethics not to break. Abigail wanted to bring in someone who was completely uninvolved, and pay them petty cash. A few George Washington down shirt and pat on back and they would have Bought Adult. This was their world, and they would be bringing unprepared person in. This was a very evil thing to do, but Panu had known that the girl was More Experienced Evil than him, and Abigail had known what she was hired for.

Hobo would not know anything.

His headphones felt too tight. Or maybe too lose. Mostly they felt like they just did not fit.

...This was not dangerous mission. Unless something was go very wrong, hobo would be safe. And Panu could pay very very well. Probably if hobo was given the choice, he would choose easy job with much cash. And an adult would be useful. Like a living layer of camouflage that they could walk behind, meek and quiet, and be invisible.

“...Okay,” the boy nodded. “If we can find quickly, and if not drunk or too smelly or other stereotype. Must be mutant, too. Presentable non-drunk mutant adult. If we cannot find, then we will go alone.”

With this assertion, the Finn shoved his hands in his hoodie pocket, and turned his steps resolutely back down the street.

“ATM is this way,” he said, because he had sensed it on their way past, not too long ago. It was just outside of his range, about a block away. A street ATM, outside of a grocery store.

Your camera is not on, Panu told it, as they walked up, and the camera stopped recording its footage, the data signal between its lens and its memory suddenly as spotty as a man who'd just taken a baseball bat to the back of the head.

You are spin, he told the belts inside it, and You are release, and You are open.

The boy put his hand into the cash dispenser, taking the money that had already feed out before they had even stood in front of it. He had not bothered with twenties. Hundreds were more compact.

Prowling onto a new streets, Adder finally started to feel a bit more at ease. It had actually been a long time since he'd been here last. It had changed, in some ways subtly and in other ways more bluntly even if he didn't remember how it had looked before. The scent had shifted, the way place-scents did over time. The people always changed. There were a few traces of almost-glancingly-familiar people-scents, though.

That scent should not be here.

He paused midstep, thinking that maybe he had imagined it, or that it still clung to his clothing. It didn't fade, and it definitely was in the air. Windborne. But she wouldn't be out here. Abruptly, he wanted her to not be here. She had sharp teeth and she was a predator, but she was little and he smelled three different people who were probably in the source-of-unpleasantness category.

Adder rounded another corner, and stiffened. She was here. She wasn't alone, though.

... was that other kid pulling out that much money from that ATM?

Was he trying to get them both robbed and stabbed and left for dead?