He waited in the van at the landing strip while Alpha team sorted out their luggage. He’d come prepared, but this mission had gone a lot smoother than they’d thought. No one was even hurt. And as a result Jude was learning that Swimmy Penguin was proving to be a much trickier game than Flappy Bird. Cell service was spotty out here so that must have been why his phone only notified him of a voicemail and had not notified him of the actual call.

He waved to Jonas, callsign Whirlwind, as he opened the back of the van. Jude exited the game upon his penguin’s utter demise, and held his cell up to his ear to see what Zaid had to say.

It… wasn’t what he expected.

> "Andrea, what street is this? Between the coffee house, and the ice cream parlor, like five--"

Had he been butt dialed? He looked at the phone to see how old the message was— only a few minutes. Not too bad. He would just have to call Zaid back and get the full story himself. Jude put the phone back to his ear and went from mildly amused to incredibly concerned.

> "Stop talking you little vermin! Someone, shut off that phone!"

“What’s up, bossman?”

Jude held up a “just wait” finger to Wahl who always enjoyed ribbing Jude for being over 30 years his junior and technically his boss. He tried to focus his hearing and pick out every detail.

> "Black van, license plate number GTR3--"

That was it. There wasn’t any more. He looked over his phone and listened again, by now the whole team was laser focused and had picked up on Jude’s distress. The last time he’d been this alarmed, one of them was in the hospital.

”Someone else drive. This is a—” He debated about what to say, ”This is a personal matter. No one’s hurt too bad yet.”

”Blackmail?”
”One of your mutant community things?”

”No. Someone’s missing and it’s an abduction most likely.” He swapped out of the front seat and started scouring the resources available to him on his phone, settling into the business mode that protected his feelings from getting in the way of getting s*** done.

Only, he’d recently spent a lot of his social credit while trying to track down Chief. Gwen was in the wind. He’d tried to bring her an apology bribe and get her to rejoin polite society, only to find that she’d skipped town or was doing a too good job of avoiding him. At the Honeycomb Collective there weren’t any powers that helped him track, though some would be good for quick movement should he need that. The guys in the van all had physical powers, good for a fight. He knew they were all safe options for now so he let his power run free, licking its way across the van and inspiring goosebumps as it roamed.

The Mansion? They’d had an influx of Atlaneans and Jude hadn’t yet cataloged them all. Also, it was possible that he would need DocProf’s power, for both healing and for tracking down whoever dared hurt Zaid.

When he finally looked up from his phone, he was met with 3 very high strung and dangerous mercenaries.

”What do you need?”

They waited outside the Mansion while Jude put his code into the pedestrian gate and walked up to the Mansion proper. None of them argued. It didn’t feel right for them to be around kids.

Evelyn was sitting in the living room of the mansion today, surrounded by what looked like unusually detailed bank blueprints. Her sharp eyes were looking from one to another, calculating entry points. It was sort of a game she was putting together for Elke. You know, criminal minds type expertise. She would gather a scenario for them to work through and just pretend to be criminals executing the mission. At least, that is the story she would tell any adult who came through.

The echoes heard someone arriving and Evelyn looked up, spotting a face in the doorway. Her silver eyes gazed at him without recognition, but she had that unusual twist in her stomach seeing his face. [Withheld emotions, anger, concern.]

Without understanding why, she stood, brow narrowing. ”You look like you’re having a bad day... and are about to make someone have a worse one.” She stated simply.

He hadn't realized that he'd been leading with his chest, hands fisted and face scowling until he got called out by a little girl. He hadn't even gotten to DocProf's office yet.

> ”You look like you’re having a bad day... and are about to make someone have a worse one.”

Jude stopped in his tracks in order to relax his hands and his jaw. That was a timely reminder not to go in too hot.

"Yeah." He admitted with a glance toward the girl. White hair. Maybe 6? 7? He had a good memory for faces so something tickled at his memory, but no name supplied itself.

"Yeah." He admitted with some finality. The same weird but a totally different tone. He was absolutely going to make someone's day worse. Jude looked toward the hall where DocProf was likely to be in office, and figured he wasn't going anywhere. Jude could ask the girl for help in choosing the best mutation here. If she'd been here for any amount of time, she would know.

And still there was that part of him that said she might be familiar somehow.

"Do I know you?"

Evelyn could see some sort of recognition cross his features the longer he glanced at her. Do I know you? How common those four words we’re becoming! This was becoming an annoyance for her and quite frankly, she found it a little frustrating. Everyone seemed to remember her, but her own experiences were gone. How could someone with a perfect memory actually remember so little? It was like a messed up joke. She struggled to work past it.

”My name is Evelyn, I used to be an adult. Now I’m not.” That was the simplified version of it anyway. She moved closer, letting the echoes prowl in their destructive little way. Something was really upsetting him. But why did she care? She hated adults, hated peoples who looked down on her, had no interest in making friends. Maybe, it was the fact he answered honestly to her question. One word, but meaning was there. He let that darkness show for a moment. The anger, the confidence. He was not like other adults. He had seen things.

He had that same energy she saw in herself. Someone not quite bad, but past the point of really being a good guy.

”I would shake your hand, but unless you enjoy hearing voices in your head, I would avoid skin contact. I have not learned to turn off that little quirk yet. Don’t get me wrong, the echoes are absolutely fabulous for my purposes, but people tend to think your a little freaky when you share their deepest darkest secrets.” in some ways, she felt she was testing him. How did he feel about her powers. Did he remember them? She lived here once before so it seemed possible she encountered other adults back then. Okay, it seemed really likely. She was wearing a one piece jumper today, short sleeves so her arms were bare. She had almost a Tom-Boy appearance, uninterested, except for her eyes. They were locked into a target. Whatever was happening, she had a sudden desire to be involved.

Not as a hero, or a helper, but from some type of strange magnetism. In a world of black and white, she had finally encountered another mutant brimming with all her shades of grey.

> "I used to be an adult. Now I'm not."

"Well, I think we've all been there." He chuckled at his own joke, but was more than anything intrigued. He came closer for a proper chat. He couldn't take too long, but… Another kid like he had been? He watched and listened and he believed her every word as she explained why she would not shake his hand. Why wouldn't he? He'd had the same age conundrum. He'd also held a power that looked to make touching hard.

"I see it's true. Nice to meet you or re-meet you, Evelyn." He still couldn't place her, they must not have known each other well. A chance meeting maybe?

"I don't mind hearing voices, I've done the psychic thing before. What I'm more interested in is your opinion." He looked around to check, but the mansion had entered a period of quiet, or rest. Or maybe everyone was still in class. Either way, no one was paying attention to the two of them.

There was no kneeling or getting down on her level, none of the usual adult to child talking tactics. This was a chat man-to-man, professional to professional.

"I need to recover an asset, a person. I can take anyone's power who lives here… copy. I won't take it away." He corrected himself. "Healing for the asset? Or something to bring the pain in order to assure I can get to that asset?"

He stuffed his hands into his pockets. "Who do you recommend?" Frankly, after this Jude wouldn't be surprised if he was banned from the mansion. It wasn't supposed to be his personal shopping ground.

I think we've all been there. Ah, so she was reading some things correctly. He had experience with deaging. That was useful to know. Had things not been so intense, she would have questioned him more. Especially since he said he had done the psychic thing before.

He was...interested in her opinion? No one ever wanted to hear what she had to say. If Evelyn could count the number of times she had been told to shut up, mind her own business, she would...well the echoes could actually count that, heck, she wouldn't think about it because damn they would try!

She let the situation play through her mind. He could copy a power, of anyone in the mansion. What power should he take? There were plenty of useful abilities. Mirror-walking, for one, was actually pretty great for a covert situation. Magnetism was another, which involved being able to fly. Then there was the kid who could adapt into all types of fish, but that could just be a mess. The girl who was always leaking gemstones? The coral kid? Yeah, some of those were not helpful at all. But, the healing.

Finally, she felt ready to answer. "I would consider the asset themselves. If they are someone who could defend themselves, I would go with something stronger to free them, because you might meet more resistance along the way. They would have already done what they could, so you would need more strength to top that? But if they are someone...more vulnerable. I would choose healing. You can always find people to help fight, but if someone is hurt, you may not have time to get them back here for help." Evelyn reasoned. She watched as he listened. Listened! This was what it felt like to be taken seriously. Then, she felt he had made his choice.

For some reason, this made her feel upset. Yes, he trusted her enough to ask the question, but she also knew, she was a child. In a seven-year-old body, no one would actually invite her to help on a dangerous mission.

With a flash of inspiration, she knew what to do.

When he had turned to retrieve whatever powers he must have decided on, she scurried to her room and grabbed her backpack. It already contained a number of things she had gathered with Elke. A little jar of powdered potassium from the science lab, a taser, some pepper spray, some rope. If it wasn't for the bunny ears on the back it would look like she was ready to go stage a kidnapping herself. Slipping through the door, she spotted the van parked outside the gates. With confidence, she strode up to it, politely knocked once, and opened a door.

"I'm Evelyn. I'm coming too. Make a space."

Evelyn turned it around and reframed the problem in a way that sparked a decision. It was what he had planned from the beginning, but he’d had doubts. Now he put his doubts to rest at the feet of a candy van full of mercenaries. And once he’d made a decision, he wasn’t one to sit on it. He left with a small wave. He was definitely coming back to talk with Evelyn more, at a later date when he had more time.

DocProf, surly as ever, held out his hand for Jude to high five without question. Contact wasn’t necessary, but it did make things more certain in a house full of mutants, and Jude had been by to borrow the power enough times that the old man had stopped asking why. Easy-peasy. Just like that Jude was a healer and his power settled down for a time, well-fed with its change.

He stopped by the living room to thank Evelyn, but the girl was gone.

That was when he got the text.

You invited a little girl?

Oh. Oh boy. He jogged out the front and threw open the van door to see that Evelyn had invited herself inside. She was wedged between Bird of Prey’s biceps and Sideshow’s discomfort. Jude rubbed his forehead. Would he want to be told no? No. But what he’d wanted and what he’d needed were often at odds when he was young on the outside and old on the inside.

”You will find a way to minimize your personal danger.” He told Evelyn as he slapped Sideshow’s knee and motioned for him to take the co-pilot’s seat. Jude slid in beside Evelyn knowing that this was a risk, but also knowing that it would be hella hypocritical for him to deny the help. ”If we tell you to cover your ears, it’s to protect your hearing.”

”You have got to be kidding me.” Jude ignored that. He had already complied by moving, he was allowed a little lip.

”Anyone get anything while I was out?” Shrugs and excuses. This was his rodeo. They were great tools but they were just that. They had to be organized, pointed, used.

”Tell me what you do, Evelyn. I’ll put you to work.” He had his phone out again to listen to the voicemail one more time.

The mercenaries were good sports, all things considered. She could sense military energy from them, and maybe that had something to do with the way they followed the chain of command. Jude was young, but he was at the top of this mission. That made Evelyn feel pleased. She was more than happy to obey her new companion because he treated her as an equal, not as a child. The others, they doubted her, despite their best efforts to obey. But Jude was who she was here for.

"I agree to your terms." Evelyn said lightly, solidifying her place in the mission. She rather liked her hearing anyway. She glanced from one mutant to the other, wondering which one created the risk of damaging her ears. Then Jude was talking to her.

"Actually, it may be easier if I show you. She lifted one small hand in warning, to show what she intended to do. "You're going to share my powers for a moment. Kind of like, tapping a wire. Just, don't panic? And then, play that recording again." She added. Something in the voicemail was already making the echoes buzz.

When he seemed okay with it, she let her hand touch the top of his. She couldn't tell it was working other than the subtle shift in body language. She could only imagine how weird it was. Evelyn waited into he seemed to have adjusted to the sounds of the echoes. She had no control over their “volume” so that could be annoying for someone new. When he was set, she motioned for him to play the recording.

[Two voices close to speaker. Male, female. Distant city noises. Street traffic. Direction walking, attempting to identify location. Caller senses danger, trying to remain calm. Relay location. Give clues. Caller attempting to alert method to find them. Fight sounds, falling phone. Struggle. Split attack, surrounded likely. Vehicle within distance to identify plates. Identify, parking space. Time of day. Open street parking time of day. Research, specialty plates.]

Evelyn pulled her hand away, cutting the feed off as her brain took a tangent. She was already trying to process what she found without overwhelming him with the chatter. She spoke out loud so he could hear how she was deconstructing it.

"The...asset. He was with someone named Andrea when he noticed there was trouble. They must have been followed or something for there to be time to dial your number. He was already trying to relay information to get you to help. You can hear a fight, so she must have tried to defend them... the phone dropped, he...it sounds like he tried to fight back. Wherever he was, it was close enough to the van for him to see the plates and start yelling the numbers. They chose to break the phone, so it would do no use tracking that. But the plates may help.”

She shut her eyes, trying to think. "New York streets are super crazy, you can’t just pull over without drawing attention unless you have the right plates. So I would look into a delivery van, or handicap one with the start of those numbers. Do you have access to vehicle registration?” she blinked again, letting the roar of thoughts settle.

She waited, keeping a small hand in reach if he needed to use the echoes more.

She looked around curious, no doubt, about the caution against sound. "When you shoot in close quarters, it's loud. That why we have to shout at the old guy to get him to get the van moving."

Wahl snorted and started them rolling forward at a glacial pace. Malicious compliance. "I don't know where to go just yet."

"Not here. Quick! Before any more children insist on endangering themselves."

Evelyn insisted that it might be easy to show him. Did she know he was a copier? But, she qualified quickly that she would be sharing her own power. Considering that Jude had just settled on DocProf's powers— Jude took a quick internal once over. His power was sated, curled up like a cat who'd finished playing with its prey.— he actually couldn't change again so soon.

She projected her power and it wasn't dissimilar to the future sight power he'd carried for a year or so, but he wasn't driving. He had zero control. Maybe Evelyn didn't either, but that was a serious informational dump.

He closed his eyes to process for a moment. "It's like... subtitles or the extra audio descriptions for the blind." Just a lot of them.

Her breakdown of the scene seemed to shut up further objection. That was good. Jude had let her stay without knowing how useful she'd be. The fact that she was extremely useful made it that much better.

> "...Do you have access to vehicle registration?”

"I'll rerun the partial plate within those parameters."

"Anyone can, it's a pay to play database." Jude was careful to keep himself disconnected for the moment. He fought back was a lot less to worry about when it was about 'the asset' instead of someone he knew and cared about.

"I'll be damned. Er- darned. We've got a potential match already." He turned the laptop around from the back seat so that Evelyn and Jude could see.

"That's not far from BlacTac. Wahl?"

"On it." He may have looked like a grandpa, but he certainly did not drive like one now that he had a destination. Jude read him the address, it had to be one of the warehouses on the run down waterfront. Places like Blackforest Tactical, the place that employed all but one of the people in that van, had started moving in years past. They brought a certain amount of stability to the area, but they were by no means police.

"So we're just doing this blind?"

Jude glanced at Evelyn. Not totally blind... "With the audio description on."

Evelyn was pleased Jude filled in about the shooting thing. There were some things experience taught you that books could not. She had yet to be around any firearms, and frankly, she had little understanding what could happen if she jarred her brain too much. There were certain noises and experiences that frankly, pissed off the echoes. Loud noises seemed like it could be one of them.

Jude gave a description of her powers that she actually rather liked. Subtitles, audio descriptions. Yes, that was a bit what it felt like sometimes. It was a lot of information, but useful when used the right way. It also made sense when she considered how she avoided going crazy with them. How do you deal with subtitles you don’t want? Just don’t read them.

They pulled up the vehicle information, sifted through what they had, and just like that...a match. It felt, easy. Given what was in the voicemail, she knew that the individuals they were pursuing were dangerous. Maybe they knew the risk of being followed and acted accordingly. Or maybe they were overconfident. It was surprising how often the later was true. Evelyn had learned one of the biggest downfall of any criminal was when they decided they were too good to be caught. Hmm, maybe she should self-reflect on that?

As they drove, Evelyn and to be careful not to bump Bird of Prey with her arm. He seemed to twitch a couple of times at the incoming wave of information, and she glanced his way after one such moment.

”Hey, wanna see a trick?” She opened her backpack and pulled out a handful of little paper stars. She had practiced origami the other day and found these were great for target practice. She nodded at the cup holder on the ground, then touched his arm so he could hear the echoes. Military background must have been all that kept him from responding to the intrusion.

She tossed one star, intentionally missing. The echoes started correcting her, jabbering directions and calculations. She focused, letting the noise direct the next throw. Into the cup holder it went!

Thomas seemed mildly interested as she pulled her hand away. ”You know, with the right training, you could make a decent sniper.” he admitted. She planted a little star in his hand and proceeded to be a distraction for several miles.

Time went faster with the practice. Soon, they grew more serious as they approached their target. The building was a warehouse that looked mostly empty. It seemed to be along old shipping lines, perhaps used as a drop point between different suppliers. Now it obviously functioned as a drop-off for something worse. Evelyn rested a small hand on Jude's, letting the echoes guide them both. There were no games now. Just business. She noted the tire tracks, leading to a closed bay, and pinpointd the area more frequently traveled. She wasn't an expert on tire patterns, but one day she hoped she could be. That would have made matching the tracks easier to what she faced. Instincts said they were heading in the right direction.

As a minor holding area, it was easy to swoop in without gathering much attention. The mercenaries made quick work securing the scene. Evelyn didn't get to see much of the action because of her promise to minimize the danger she was in. She was a little disappointed. She wanted to study the men in action, but found herself cleaning paper stars off the floor of the van and putting them back in her bag.

When the coast was clear, she was able to head inside. They had apprehended two men in the end, resting inside the warehouse. They were busy rewrapping one man’s neck and had missed the intrusion. Sometimes, luck was better than all the planning in the world. The first man seemed bored and uninterested in their appearance. The other caught Evelyn's attention. When she saw him, she made sure Jude heard what the echoes did.

[Puncture wound, neck. Bite mark, hand. Neck similar to snake bite, hand similar to human.] He had a run in with someone, two someones. The tattooed guy would be their lead.

"You idiots think I'm going to tell you anything? F*** you," he spat, as if sensing the attention turning his way. Even if he didn’t talk, there should be a way to get the right address off him. They had sent Zaid somewhere new, and now they just had to find out where. Evelyn sighed. It would probably get dirty again. Making people talk had a way of doing that, if she knew anything from the internet.

Evelyn looked slowly around the room while they argued, and felt a cold chill as the echoes spotted something. There was a knife laying to one side, tossed up on a table like trash, and it still had dark stains like blood. She pulled her hand away from Jude, but felt it was already too late. Blood, there was blood. She looked at the ground, and saw more. She was more relieved than ever she told Jude to grab healing. If only tattoo face had taken the chance to grovel while he could.

Without being told, she put her hands over her ears. You look like you're having a bad day and someone is about to have a worse one... she remembered. This was one of those someones. She didn’t need the playbacks to pick up on the sounds of pain, but knew she couldn’t block them entirely. Hopefully, someone would gag him at least. She would appreciate that. He had to have a phone, an address.

The mercenaries did what they tended to do. And then there was the lead. Evelyn didn’t know why the location would make Jude’s emotions flare the way it did.

It was a taxidermy business.

Evelyn behaved and stayed in the car when asked. Jude wasn't sure he would have been that good at that age, even with promises to the contrary. Hell, even now he was waiting in the wings, essentially useless until the all clear was called. Jude opened the van door and escorted Evelyn to the scene, hand-in-hand he got a first row seat to the commentary. The unfiltered truth was hard to compartmentalize when it was in torrential flow.

He hoped Andrea was alright, wherever she was. For now, he could only chase one.

Juse let Evelyn go and asked her not to wander. The warehouse was large. Cleared once meant clear for now. It was not a holdable position.

Mr. Snakebite spit fire in his words as Jude approached. The mercenaries at his arms clamped him down and became taut like bow strings. No one really liked this part...

"You don't have to tell me." He put his thumb on the man's forehead and cupped the front of his head with his hand. Immediately icy cool tingles of healing ran from his fingers, first to the snake bite—

He had the mongrel rabbit on his back still, otherwise he would have been faster. A warning to her friend was as good as a warning to him. The largest snake of her head's nest lunged at him, and he couldn't get out of the way fast enough. He did catch it in his hand, and ripped it away when the electric shock hit.

"Wh-what are you doing to me?"
"Healing you, dumbass."

The various bruises weren't deep enough to give more than a struggle, a wall hit, a kick he landed funny, but the bite on his hand and an unseen one on his shoulder had broken skin—

The thing had gotten his back and was like a squid with ten million arms, and teeth. He roared and dropped the damn remote. He got another bite for the trouble of it.

Jude stepped back, taking his hand away and wishing he had something to wipe it on.

"Is-is that it?"

"Not exactly. You see, my father was a healer. He taught me a very, very important lesson." Jude's arm flashed in the space between them and the man roared and struggled anew with a fresh bruise against his jaw.

"Healing isn't always a blessing."

A break here, set incorrectly and healed to immobility. A cut to a tattooed place, healed askew to ruin the picture, and repeated. He knew what he was doing. Sebastian had modeled just how incredibly cruel a healer could be. It wasn't the tattooed man who spoke at all in the end, but the man who'd been watching it happen.

By the time they had their information, Jude was torn between the desire to throw up and the desire to light the whole place on fire. They left the man with the now jagged tattoos on the floor and the squealer threatened to call the cops as they walked away. The warehouse wasn't exactly squeaky clean. Hopefully their team wasn't the worst they'd find here.

Jude offered his hand to Evelyn, unwilling to talk freely until they were alone again in the confines of the van.

"You're leaving loose ends."

He was probably right. "It'll just be more paperwork for me if this comes down on our heads."

They'd all heard about the taxidermy, that was no surprise. But Jude filled them in as best he could about Andrea, who they'd also keep an eye out for, and the electro-shock collars. This team had barely escaped those same collars, choosing to throw their military careers aside, instead.

"Watch out the windows, Evelyn? I don't want to miss it." He also couldn't stand their eyes looking at him. Old or not, judgemental or not, he couldn't stand it.

Zaid has never been afraid of the dark before that night, but he was learning how terrifying it was to be alone. In the cold cage, rows of empty eyes stared down at him from all corners. It was like a mocking display set to remind him of his fate. What was worse was his stay was not spent undisturbed. From time to time, footsteps would alert him to another presence, followed by the pain of electricity. The jab of the cattle prod had seemed so comical when he first saw them in the tea room, and now became a thing of nightmares.

His arms were bruised from hitting the bars, little burn marks on his pale flesh. That sinister voice was in his head, reminding him. One night to think it over... one night alone, to think of something. He was so tired from blood loss, one of the kanji symbols cut into his back was already healing poorly. The others were fresh, leaving the terrible sensation of dried and wet blood mixing on his skin. He was hungry, trying to remember the last time he ate. And he was tired, so tired of waiting.

It would have been easy to give up, let them win.

But, he had to keep fighting. Jude and Andrea would want him to hold on.

They’ll find me, Zaid thought, trying to focus on positive memories. He thought of Jude with the temporary bunny ears, and two giant dogs with happy tails; he thought of his snake-haired friend with her giving nature and her desperate attempts to protect him. He didn’t just want to be weak, waiting, crying. So even when these evil strangers came back, he resisted. He would keep fighting because he had people he cared about now.

It felt early in the morning when one guard returned, and this time, Zaid was angry. He was mad at himself for being useless, for getting caught. He was mad that he hadn’t been able to help Andrea. And he was mad he had been able to do nothing but sit here and let them torment him. So as the metal prod came within reach, Zaid struck.

His arm lashed out and caught the metal, yanking hard to bring it toward his body. The guard stumbled in surprise, falling forward, and Zaid grabbed clothing in desperation. He managed to hook the guys shirt and pulled with all his strength.

WHAM!

A face cracked metal, and the guard crumpled in a heap. Zaid saw blood but shut it out, teeth barred as he waited for the next person to arrive. Let them come. He was done crying for a rescue.

A door swung open, then there were footsteps...and a familiar scent came in. Zaid froze, hardly daring to believe, ears craning for confirmation.

”Jude?” he whispered, voice cracking.

Any attempt at conversation fell flat, not only because Evelyn was holding Jude's hand again and the information was just this side of too much, but also because the tension was mounting. They could be too late. He tried to let the whispers take his focus, but his own internal clock was ticking and every second was one more second where he didn't know what would happen. He didn't know what would be behind the door when they kicked it in.

"I think you'll want to stay in the car or cover your ears." Jude had started at BlacTac as a secretary, the paperpusher who kept things organized and reloaded magazines for mission. They trained him to shoot in the range, thrown tomahawks together, monitored the firehouse, but this was the first time he walked out of the van with a gun in his hand shoulder to shoulder with the ground crew. They'd egged him on for years to take missions. Until now, he hadn't really seen the appeal.

"You will not run point, that's what I'm for. Don't cross your line of sight with anything you aren't willing to shoot. You're running drills instead of just watching them if you want to do this from now on. Sideshow?"

The illusionist merc took second and gave Jude's shoulder a heavy pat before he he dropped the pretense of humor and kicked the door in for Bird of Prey to start the sweep, invisible shields up. They'd done this before. He'd seen it before. It was still different in person when the first shots were fired.

The outright threats were shot, non-lethally where possible. All others got illusions overlaying the here and now that took people out of the action long enough for them to be disarmed and zip-tied.

It wasn't fast enough. It was the safe way, the smart way, but it was slow going.

Especially, especially when they heard some pretty hefty thunks in the back rooms.

"I'm going." He broke formation. It was stupid. He could hear them complaining and changing to cover him, but he did it anyway. He kicked down a door and saw a cage, a Zaid, a downed opponent, a Zaid in boxers, Jude forced himself to sweep the rest of the room before calling back about the door on the far side and clicking his safety on.

He almost didn't want to look at him, Jude felt like his face must have turned every color of the rainbow as he bounced between fury, embarrassment, and sympathy. "I'll get you out." He was careful not to touch skin as he jerked teh jacket off the downed guy and went through the pockets for the keys. Jude passed the jacket through the bars and worked to get the door unlocked. He only fumbled the key ring once.

Calls of CLEAR! were ringing through the building as the stragglers were rounded up and collected in one place.

It felt like forever, too long by half, until he got the cage door open and looked at Zaid, really looked at him. Hurt, scared, angry— he had the full deck of emotional cards too. He let Zaid get out of the confines of the cage before he launched into a hug.

"I'm sorry that took so long." But Jude really needed that hug.

Zaid felt a range of emotions rush through his body when Jude finally approached. He felt humiliated, relieved, and sick all at the same time. His hands shook when he took the jacket and pulled it on, flinching more than once as the fabric settled against his back. He hated the smell on the fabric. It was the scent of all these stuffed rabbits, of the tea party, of blood. But it was large, and it covered him up so his face wasn't as ashamed when Jude finally got the door unlocked.

Crawling free, he felt his breathe leave as Jude hugged him. He shut his eyes, body shaking as he tried not to cry. The pain in his body didn't match the emotions going through him as a sob finally snuck through. "I'm sorry," he choked. "I...I tried to get the plates, I couldn't, I couldn't stop them. I'm sorry, Jude. I'm sorry I'm so useless! I couldn't...I couldn't..." It felt like a lifetime had passed since he left the coffee shop with Andrea. He had been strung taught with adrenaline and survival instinct, to finally feel it all cut clean now.

Even through the sniffles, his nose found comfort as Jude's scent overcame the one on the jacket. He was safe. This was safe. Jude had come. He came for Zaid, for the hopeless bunny who couldn't even fight off a handful of goons. Zaid's ears could hear the rest of the movement of the building being cleared, feeling overwhelmed. Zaid felt a horrible wash of doubts now. He was so glad Jude had come, but also so pained that he had to.

Jude was sorry, Zaid was sorry. Everybody was sorry except the people who really should have been. He put his hand on the back of Zaid’s head and just held him for a moment as he felt a surge of healing leave. Jude knew he was near his limits. He couldn’t heal much after what he’d already done, or he would risk unconsciousness. Jude regretted wasting any healing, but the information had been valuable, the action necessary.

At least Zaid was ambulatory. They needed to get away. The other contents of the room were really, really freaking Jude out. He could only imagine what state Zaid was in mentally. Jude moved his hand away from Zaid’s hair, cutting off any healing for now.

He shushed him and escorted him out. "You did good. You called. If you hadn’t called..." He squeezed the other man through his coat and didn’t finish that statement. "You did well.” He insisted.

Where was Andrea? The other man had said they were destined to go to different places, but Jude hadn’t realized it was a true statement. Andrea had protected Zaid and from the little snips he’d seen, the attempted protection had been mutual.

Jude resisted the urge to kick anyone on the way out and opened the van door, again surprised that Evelyn had done as she’d been told.

"This is Zaid.” He helped the bunny into the van, unsure if he should sit between Evelyn and Zaid or not, but the girl had been nothing but helpful and well mannered as far as Jude had seen.

"The scene is clear. I don’t think you want to go in, but it’s safe enough now.” He would leave it up to her.