Being a business consultant was appropriately boring sounding, so much so that Katrina felt disinclined to ask any further questions on that particular subject. However, that made it Zephyr's turn to ask a question and he picked one that wasn't particularly easy, mostly because what she had been up to for the last several months mostly involved things she didn't really want to tell him about.

First, there was the whole kidnapping and torture thing. Then there was the spending a long long time recovering from it thing. Aside from that, there were boy troubles, the kind where more than one liked her and one of them had kissed her even but she was really confused about the whole thing. Considering this was Zephyr she was talking to, Katrina figured she'd rather rehash the torture if she had to choose one.

The silence was growing rather long while she weighted her options, so she took a thoughtful sip from her beverage.

“There has been lots of school,” she responded lamely, “with a summer vacation sandwiched in between. Nothing really exciting. Lately.” Sip. That was the lamest explanation of a year of her life ever. “I got a dog...” she added, hoping it would be an interesting enough fact that her life didn't all seem like a lie.

Zephyr concealed a slight smile as he watched Katrina's expression shift to one of disinterest at the mention of the somewhat mendacious formal title for his occupation. Very few professional designations evoked any genuine interest from adolescents, for the most the very idea of working was something of an anthemia let alone investigating what other people did for living. In any case the hessians thinly veiled ploy had succeeded and the focus of the conversation had now shifted to the blonde gamine.

...

Or not, if the ingénues abrupt silence and sudden disinclination to make eye contact were any indication her past endeavors were not a subject she wished to discussed in any detail. This line of thought was swiftly supported when the ashen eyed gamine at last broke her impromptu silence to impart a less than satisfying answer. 'Nothing really exciting'? The girl resided with dozens of other adolescent and teenage mutants, dull days should simply not exist.

Silence gathered again after Katrina finished speaking and Zephyr regarded the child with an incredulous expression which clearly stated he knew his blonde protégé was not being entirely forthcoming. After a few seconds of quiet contemplation however the elemental decided that now was not the time to press the issue, such things were best saved for more private venues especially if the omitted incidents and Zephyr was willing to wager a large a sum that there a number of such incidents, were rather personal.

"I see... well, suppose we'll simply have to make the most of this opportunity in order to compensate for the lack of interesting events in your life. What do you know about Romania? Is there anything you'd like to see or do while you are here?"

Katrina thought back to all the information she had read on Romania before she had embarked on this crazy trip. She had read a lot more about the political situation than she had about the sight seeing possibilities. She hadn't really planned on being a tourist.

“I hear they have real castles...” Katrina raised an eyebrow at the air elemental across the table from her. She was unsure whether he was interested in that kind of thing, “but really I only wanted to help. There's so much bad stuff going on that I'd feel bad sight seeing if there's something helpful I could do.”

Commence: awkward beverage stirring with straw.

Though he kept his expression benign a part of Zephyr sighed as Katrina spoke; he’d been hoping to distract the young gamine from her idealistic, not to mention ill thought out, notion of heroics. Her heart, while perhaps a little too open, was undoubtedly in the right place but the associated risks were simply beyond what he felt was suitable for a girl her age. Personally the elemental thought the girl would have leapt at the chance to explore a new country, castles sounded especially promising as they were likely to be in more secluded, out of the way locations where any inevitable trouble was less liable to get out hand.

Still the ingénue had not precisely declined his proposal, merely mentioned a desire to feel useful before she enjoyed herself. It was admittedly a somewhat unnatural stance for a teenager who, as a group, were generally rather self centered, but it was still something he could work with. After all usefulness, or worth, is a rather subjective term in the right circumstances, and considering she seemed to know relatively little about the Kabal’s actual activities convincing her of the importance of a relatively minor task shouldn’t be overly difficult.

It is well known however that one of the most effective ways to cozen another was to make them work for whatever information or privilege you intended to give them; people are always more willing to believe that something is genuine when it has cost them a notable amount of effort. Therefore the most prudent course of action at this stage would be to encourage her interest in the country’s archaic fortifications and perhaps a gentle dismissal of her more selfless intentions.

“Romania does indeed have ‘real castles’, as does most of Europe. Those that are better preserved occasionally employ actors and various craftsmen in order to give visitors a glimpse into what life use to be like, Transylvania I believe would be an ideal example.”

“As for the condition of Romania, things will not be resolved in a single day; if proper procedure is followed it will likely take weeks or possibly months for any change to occur. Until then though I see no reason not to take a chance to relax while we have the opportunity.”

The elemental paused at that point as the waitress made a surprisingly swift reappearance with their pizza and placed it between the two mutants along with a pair of plates. It was time to eat.

Katrina nodded. It made sense that things wouldn't be fixed in a day. Even in the United States it had taken months and months for the Resistance to build up their forces and train enough to accomplish their goal of liberating the concentration camps there. There must be something small that she could do to help, even if the results of it wouldn't be visible for some time to come, even if it was long after she was back in the States.

Pizza arrived, along with plates, and Katrina's mouth became rather busy with its task of consuming the Romanian version of the Italian delicacy. It was a little different than the American version. Better, even, because the crust was a little more crispy and a little less greasy.

“Mmm,” she commented through a large bite of cheese and ham. She washed it down with a slightly different tasting than normal sip of cola. It was pizza and it was good. All felt right with the world, if only for a few minutes. The effect didn't last long though. She had barely picked up her second slice when a young girl with dark brown hair and flashing eyes darted into the restaurant and dove into the booth behind theirs as if her life depended on it.

On her heels a group of older teens who would probably be considered thugs no matter what country they were in followed her through the door and strode over to her booth.

“[Didn't you hear about the new law, honey? Have you heard what it says? It says mutie freaks have to go be registered.]”

“[Didja get yer papers all filled out? Ya gonna be sewin' freaky green stars on all yer clothing now?]”

“[Aw, lookit her growl! Maybe she's one of those dangerous freaks that have been disappearing lately. Would you like to disappear, baby?]”

Katrina's eyes grew wider with each Romanian word she overheard. Her gaze shifted to the air elemental across from her. What were they going to do?

When you pay more than $30 for a pizza it should, as rule, be delicious, and though the Romanian version was somewhat different, and quite likely healthier, than the American equivalent it was no less pleasing to the impartial pallet and Zephyr managed to enjoy two full slices before life, the universe and everything, insisted on once again becoming difficult. In truth he really should have seen this coming, however he'd foolishly assumed that simply because he'd dealt with a sulking teenager twenty minutes ago he'd be allowed at least an hour of relative peace.

It all began innocuously enough, at least in the hessians opinion; a young girl with rather fetching luminescent eyes had entered the establishment with little to no subtlety and immediately proceeded to make a rather poor effort at concealment by ducking into the booth directly behind the elementals own just as a local pack hoodlums made their own entrance. From that point on Zephyr was reasonably certain he could have followed events even without the dragonspeak gems; no matter what country you're in some things are simply universal and basic bullying is one of them.

As it was though the hessian was forced to withhold a sigh as the group of malcontents crowded around the unfortunate girls booth which, by association also meant his booth. Still the elemental had seen scenarios like this play out depressingly often and thus he knew it would likely only be a minute or so before the delinquents tired of verbal threats and pulled their victim out into the streets. Zephyr was more than willing to tolerate them for that time if it meant they'd leave of their own volition.

Then he made of the mistake of catching his protégés eye and noticed the distraught expression on the gamines features. He stifled a curse. Katrina wasn't use to this type of behavior was she? She'd grown up in the idealistic environment of the mansion; would she understand, or even accept that it was just smarter to simply let things take their course? No, she wouldn't, and judging by the look she was giving him the ashen eyed adolescent expected him to do something.

Bugger.

Releasing the weary sigh he'd originally held back Zephyr gave Katrina a calm gesture as he set his knife and fork aside and retrieved the white bottle of pain killers from his jacket pocket. He probably shouldn't be taking another dose so soon but the damn things just weren't strong enough and if he didn't he knew he'd end up with a headache after what he was about to do. In the interests of his own personal comfort therefore he crushed three of the red pills and followed them with a sip of water.

Oxygen manipulation had never been a particularly taxing trick, it require little in the way of power as you were generally only moving the gas a short distance away. No, all that was really needed was the ability to focus and discern the sparse scatterings of oxygen from the far more prevalent mass of nitrogen. Such concentration however was difficult to maintain when it felt as though a series of hammers was beating your skull from the inside out, and given that you were typically moving the oxygen in order to slowly render an individual unconscious, lapses in focus were... inadvisable.

Considering the environment the elemental would have to exercise an even greater deal of caution to ensure that he avoiding panicking the thugs by filtering their air too quickly. They'd likely react rather poorly and cause a not inconsiderable amount of fuss before he could fully incapacitate them and allow their victim to escape. Admittedly it wasn't the most noble of plans but then again the hessian was doing this for free.

Was it Katrina's imagination or did Zephyr roll his eyes? Surely just her imagination, or a simple reaction to his headache he kept making faces about, because he was reaching for his headache medicine again. Hadn't he just taken some a little while ago? Katrina frowned, at his medicine and at the punks behind him that were still jeering the young girl in the opposite booth.

Someone had to do something. Zephyr was just sitting there and massaging his temples, and that wasn't going to get them anywhere any time soon. Perhaps it was time to do her small part in helping Romania right here, right now.

She just had to be careful that her dinner date didn't catch wind of what she was doing. He was pretty much ignoring her now, though, so probably she could get away with it.

She concentrated for a moment, then looked back to the door just in time for it to slam open with a crash (or at least look and sound like it did). A tall young man whose stature could almost have rivaled Abyss' stood in the door frame. His eyes glowed like lanterns framed by long dark dreadlocks. His mouth opened and his tongue slithered out, or rather a snake slithered out from where a tongue should have been.

“[Stay away from my sssister!]” The voice was low and lispy and originated from the snake tongue itself. He snapped long, yellow, needle-like fangs at the arm of the closest thug. At the same time he winked a golden lantern at the matched set of orbs peering over the top of the booth in surprise. It meant, I'm here to help, play along.

Thug number one yanked his arm out of the way, not even realizing that the bite had been only a warning shot.

“[We'll call the army in on you! You'll be sorry,]” he wheezed, unsure as to why he was suddenly so short of breath. It was probably the sudden rush of adrenaline.

One of the many reasons Zephyr disliked impulsively involving himself in others quarrels was that you rarely ever knew the whole story. This is not to say that the mercenary habitually judged the morality of each perspective assignment, if the job paid well he took and didn't involve the slaughter of infants he took it. No the reason context was important was because it gave you wealth of other information, such as the skills of the target, along with weaknesses, likely locations and of course, overprotective family members who could be quite a bit of bother if you allowed them to interfere.

In this particular case however the hessian had not truly wanted to involve himself in such a cliched drama , even indirectly, and so the elemental had been all too willing to pass over any and all responsibility to the rather raffish and disquieting individual with the serpentine tongue and unnatural muscles. It really was an ideal situation; the poor tormented girl would now get a rescuer who actually cared about her well being and would continue to protect her once she left the restaurant.

...Or would she? There was something about the man which nagged at Zephyr's thoughts, a feeling that something was amiss, yet he couldn't quite pin it down. It wasn't the mutated aesthetics; they were differently certainly but he had seen worse in his time, indeed he'd seen stranger humans walking around New York city. Nor was it the fact that the man was clearly not the girls sister, the conspiratorial wink had been quite visible from the hessians position, but he cared little about the deception.

No, it was that the man appeared to have no physical substance. This was not a vilification of his character; the man truly held no physical form, an accompanying breeze from outside flowed through him as if he simply did not exist. When he spoke there were no minute oscillations in the air to carry his odd voice, yet the words somehow managed to arrive in the hessians mind with the appropriate tone and accent.

In short the dreadlocked man was not real, which meant either that the thugs unfortunate victim was not quite so helpless as she had appeared, or someone was playing silly buggers. Either way the initial intimidation would only last so long, thugs and hooligans were not known for their intelligence but it likely wouldn't be long until one of them to pointed out that odds of seven to one weren't that bad and someone took a swing at the illusionary intruder.

Then things would get rather interesting.

As interesting was not what Zephyr desired at the present moment he decided that the time for subtlety had passed, besides any overt actions at this stage would simply be attributed to the muscle bound figure who just did not exist. It was rather convenient really and so the elemental suffered no hesitation as he adroitly took control of the remaining oxygen within the malfeasants immediate vicinity and easily shifted it to the ceiling.

The effect was immediate, as one ever member of the delinquent gang stiffened and then reached for their throats and tried to speak as fear lit in their eyes, yet for some reason no sound emerged and after only a handful of moments each malcontent eventually collapsed, and lay still. Leaving the restaurant deathly quiet and Zephyr with an unusual smirk on his lips as his mind replayed a scene from one of his favourite movies.

'I find your lack of faith disturbing.'

The mild amusement was swiftly spoiled however when the hessian once again caught Katrina's distressed expression and he sighed, she likely thought the boys were dead. "They've only fainted Katrina." He assured her, "[ I'm certain they'll be back on their feet in a few minutes, plenty of time for the poor girl behind you to take her leave.]"

Subtlety, thy name was Simon.

The seven simultaneously swooning teens surprised everyone in the restaurant. Katrina's own features betrayed her secret suspicion and fear that they were actually dead. The girl in the opposite booth simply looked confused, glancing toward her “brother” as if it had been his doing. The snake tongued brother furrowed his eyebrows and stepped forward to poke at one of the boy's shoulders with his toe. Behind the counter, the waitress was the first to recover. With a 'hmph' she went back to what she had been doing; deeply concentrating on polishing the front counter until it gleamed.

Dio was the only one who didn't look at all surprised by what had happened, his smirk and his words confirmed that it had been his doing. It must have been some kind of trick with air that kept them from breathing until they passed out. Katrina hadn't really realized everything that could be done with air. It was impressive in a scary kind of way. One that made her glad that Zephyr was one of the good guys.

The girl in the opposite booth got the hint in the aeromancer's words, as did her brother.

“[Let'ssss get out of here.]” He put a hand on his so-called sister's shoulder, which would feel perfectly solid, at least until they were a good half a block down the street. The two of them stepped around prone bodies and prostrate limbs to get to the door and were gone without a backwards glance or even a thank you of any kind.

Katrina hoped the girl made it home safely. The streets of Romania were apparently not very friendly to mutant girls traveling alone. She suddenly felt very lucky to have a chaperone who was so adept at dealing with anti-mutant miscreants.

Speaking of which, “Should we leave before they wake up?” She whispered even though they wouldn't have understood her English even if they had been conscious.

Their waitress stopped by with their bill and two to-go boxes. “” she stated quietly as she set the items on the edge of the table as politely as she possibly could for someone who was practically kicking them out of the restaurant. They weren't really finished eating, but she was making it perfectly clear that she thought it was time for them to go anyway.

As the melodramatic bullying scene came to its clichéd conclusion and the girl made her escape with the illusionary brother figure Zephyr allowed his attention to drift back to his meal, there was still half a pizza remaining and it would be a shame if it were to go to waste. As he reached for his third slice the elemental idly released his grasp over the air surrounding the supine miscreants, thus allowing a natural level of oxygen to flow back into their lungs.

Dismissing the incompetent thugs from his mind and began to enjoy his third slice, completely heedless of the stunned faces of the other patrons. Street theatre such as this was an almost everyday occurrence in New York, you quickly learned to live with not get yourself involved if you could possibly help it. Katrina again though was not used to such amateur dramatics on the grand stage of life and so suggested that they make their own hasty exit, a notion which, for some reason, was swiftly shared by their waitress .

Double teamed as he was by the two girls Zephyr could only sigh as he wearily withdrew his wallet and handed over the Mondragon credit card who deftly snatched it away and proceeded to the register with slightly more alacrity than the situation really warranted. Still the elemental made no comment and instead helped Katrina slip the remains of the pizza into the two provided boxes, glancing at her curiously out of the corner of his eye as he did so before speaking. "Did you have anything to do with the appearance of that girl's.. 'brother'"?

Admittedly it was a shot in the dark, but the gangs victim had seemed a little too confused at the sight of her supposed sibling and Katrina was the only other mutant knew of within a hundred yards and he already knew the gamine hadn't told him everything about her abilities.

In short order the pair had vacated their seats and made their way once more onto the gelid winter streets of the city. Their somewhat hurried meal however had fortified them to some degree and lessened the chill, yet they didn't tarry long and Zephyr soon managed to hail another cab which was in somewhat better condition than their prior one and when asked for a destination the elemental glanced at his young protégé as he spoke. "Unless there's somewhere else you want to go Katrina I think it would be best if we went to the Marriott."

Katrina put on her best confused face in response to Zephyr's inquiry, “What do you mean?” It was, in part, honest confusion, not so much for the 'how could I do that' but more along the lines of 'how could you guess that'.

They didn't have much time to discuss it, though, with the waitress hovering over them to make sure they didn't dawdle. The winter weather outside wasn't really great for dawdling either, even if they were now properly dressed for it. They found a cab quickly and without incident and her guardian double checked their destination with her before giving it to their driver. The little illusionist simply nodded. The hotel was sounding better and better. She just wasn't sure which part she was looking forward to the most. A hot shower and a soft bed both sounded equally as appealing right now.

The drive was not long, nor was the check in process once they arrived at their temporary lodgings, though Zephyr had argued with the hotel receptionist about something involving a [trundle] bed. She was too tired to even think of what that was in English. Katrina was dragging her feet all the way through the luxurious lobby's thick carpeting and up to their room where Zephyr slid their little plastic key card into the electronic lock on their door. She knew she had just slept on the plane, but it had been an unnatural, sitting up, cramped kind of sleeping, so it felt like it didn't really count. She also may have overdone it a little with her illusion, having created something fairly complex on fairly little energy.

The room was really big. So was the bed. Her jet lagged brain failed to take in very many more details than that. The bed looked comfy, therefore, she sat on it.

Katrina made no objections to heading to the hotel and so Zephyr readily gave the driver their address, though apparently simply the name Marriot would have sufficed for at it's mention a look of comprehension immediately dawned and the cab soon pulled away to join the halting and hectic flow of traffic which is a trademark of any prime city. The journey itself lasted roughly twenty minutes during which Katrina appeared to battle with the urge to sleep before gradually nodding off against the door.

Zephyr on the other was not experiencing quite the same level of fatigue and thus was able to remain awake throughout the short twenty minute journey and took advantage of the opportunity to search for any response from Slate. As it happened the Kabals neonate had managed to send a message which proved to be rather succinct and essentially said little more than that the CEO would not be in Romania for another two days time and that the hessian was to watch over Katrina until that time.

When the taxi eventually pulled to a stop outside the Marriott hotel the elemental retrieved his bag and gently shook Katrina awake before leading the girl to the front desk and politely inquiring if he could possibly change his reservation to one with twin beds instead. Simply put the answer was no and it was only through persistence that the hessian managed to arrange for a trundle bed to be delivered to their room as soon as possible.

As the pair began to make their way through the lobby Katrina's weariness became far more noticeable as her feel into an enervated trance and required a guiding hand on her shoulder to keep her on a steady path until they finally made their way up to the correct floor and into their assigned room where the ashen eyed adolescent soon dragged herself to the large queen sized bed, all but collapsing on it before she pulled herself into a sitting position.

As Katrina was doing this Zephyr wandered over to the other side of the room and glanced over the accommodations and then idly picking up the leather bound guest book and skimming through the services offered before shifting his gaze to weary gamine. "You'll find the shower through the door to your left, I think you should take one before you collapse, you've had quite the day."

Shower. Right.

Katrina slid off the bed and walked in the direction Zephyr pointed out. Shampoo, conditioner, and soap waited for her in their little packages on the edge of the sink, though it took her several moments of standing under the warm water of the shower to remember what they were for.

It wasn't until she was wrapped in her big white towel that she remembered that her pajamas would still be with Fausto, wherever he was, and were therefore of no use to her here. Her brain was too fuzzy, though, to come up with a solution to this dilemma.

“Dio?” She poked her head out of the bathroom. “I don't have any pajamas.”

Once Katrina had managed to stagger into the bathroom and closed the door the elemental laid his duffel bag down in one of the opulent leather chairs the room had been furnished with before reclining in another one adjacent to it. Azure eyes soon closed and the hessian exhaled slowly as he allowed himself to relax properly for the first time since discovering Katrina. He was still of two minds over her presence here but for now he considered her safe and so was content to merely enjoy her company.

Still that was no excuse to overlook the task he'd been given, and so after a few moments the mercenary allowed his thoughts to drift back to more practical matters and he reached over to withdraw a small notebook computer from the folds of clothing surrounding it in his duffel bag. As computers went the machine was somewhat limited in terms of power and functionality, however it had a passable battery life and as it was only intended for basic browsing and the editing of simply documents it sufficed for this particular trip.

In short order Zephyr had pulled up the same file he'd been perusing earlier on his phone and was just beginning to back through what limited financial information was available for Brezean and the shadier companies in his county when a knock on the door signaled the arrival of the trundle bed which, as the hessian had predicted, had been designed for children, still it was installed in relatively little time and the elemental was able to return to his work after only spending the handful of minutes needed to arrange the sheets and duvet.

Returning to his seat the mercenary retrieved his discarded notebook and resumed his initial research, he was barely ten minutes into his work and had begun making faint connections between a number of entities in the region when Katrina chose to poke her head out of the bathroom and sleepily inquired as to what she should do for nightwear.

The question caught the elemental off guard and once it had registered he carefully lowered his face into one hand and shook his head ruefully. He'd known there was something else the girl had needed when they'd purchased her coat and really he should have seen this coming, fortunately the awkward situation could be solved easily enough and hessian idly withdrew one of his spare button up shirts and handed it to the weary ingénue through the slight gap in the bathroom door. The garment was easily twice the adolescents size and would suffice for modesty provided she fastened it properly.

"Take this, we'll buy you some more clothes in the morning but you'll have to make do for now. We also have a spare bed now so you can use that tonight alright?"

Shirt in hand, she closed the bathroom door once again. Her fingers remembered how to operate buttons even if her brain did not and she soon had them all fastened appropriately. She hung her towel, not bothering to attempt making it as straight as it had been when the hotel staff had placed it there, then wandered back out into the main room.

The little bed had arrived, clearly unfolded and made up with blankets just for her. With the thin, foldable mattress, it probably wasn't going to be as comfortable as the giant fluffy thing at the center of this bedroom, but for an exhausted stowaway who wasn't supposed to be here anyway, it would suffice.

“Thanks,” she whispered as she sat down, feeling the springs through the thin padding of the mattress. It didn't matter. She was asleep almost before she was horizontal. Goodnight, Dio.
--

“Goodnight, Dio.” The words floated in the night, bodiless and ethereal.

Already her protector was gone, leaving her to walk alone in this strange world.

It wasn't safe to be alone. In the shadows nightmares rustled. Footsteps echoes at the far corners of her hearing. She could feel the hostility of the place hanging in the air, saturating the landscape like humidity.

Something dragged across the ground; she whipped around just in time to see, or think she saw, a bit of red furred tail disappearing into nothingness.

“Dio?”

Where had he gone? She didn't like this place.

“[Why are you here?]”

The voice and the hand on her shoulder had come out of nowhere. Katrina spun to face him, her heart beating in her throat.

Lantern eyes as green as poison glared down at her. Shaggy black shadows hung around his face. His snake tongue slithered forward on the animosity in the air and reached her shoulder, twining around her neck and stopping to rest next to her ear.

His sliver tongue tickled her ear when he spoke, as quiet as death. “”

“I shouldn't...”

“I shouldn't have come!”

She sat upright, sweating and panting. Her heart still raced from the dream.

“But of course you should have, my dear. It's something you must learn,” the green eyed man tenderly wiped the sweat from her brow with a moist cloth.

“What if I don't want to learn?”

“You must.” Lightly, he helped her to lay back down against the soft pillow.

She turned to the other figure in the room, a giant red hulk of a man with a sadly drooping monkey tail. She had to prop herself up on her elbows in order to see him.

“Can't you come with me,” she implored him.

The red figure shook his head sadly, but it was the green eyed man that answered out loud, “You must learn to do this on your own.” With silver fingers, sharp as razors on the ends, he ever so gently closed her eyelids on the real world and sent her back to her nightmares.

Scaled hands like steel gripped at her upper arms. Angry green lanterns burned their shape into her eyes. The snake tongue tightened around her neck.

As quiet as death it hissed in her ear once again, “[Surely you must know why you are here.]”

She tried to avert her gaze, to look anywhere else but into those lanterns. Spots hovered in her vision, even when she looked away, but she thought she saw someone in the shadows, just out of reach.

“Help me, please.”

“[Anssswer the quessstion!]” The hissing was louder and more insistent now.

“Please.”

She reached out, but her protector turned his back on her.
--

“Dio,” in her sleep, Katrina mumbled and reached out for someone that was just out of reach.