This was probably the first large scale mission Devon had asked him to help with and boy did that lad know how to pick 'em. Gangs, weapons and hostile take overs, this one had them all. Not a bad way to work out some frustrations and help the mutant community at the same time, something the Scot had been needing to do for a while. Now the only issue was, what the hell was Sanctuary? About all he could find was it being a shelter which particularly helped mutants, only there were some weird reports from a few years ago about people disappearing around it. Seemed weird.

From the information he'd been given, he was helping to scout the size of a weapon smugglers operation, one who was supplying the group trying to cause issues. Made sense to him, know how big the enemy forces were and who was arming them. Was pretty straight forward.

His only issue, why choose him? He wasn't a subtle person exactly and putting him on a mission like this could only mean a couple of things. Devon expected this to go bad, or he was the muscle to keep his partner safe.

Speaking of, where was his so called 'backup' for this? He'd only been given a name, Svetlana. Russian name, if he wasn't completely wrong about it but it didn't exactly tell him much about her. What was her power, how subtle were they being with this and more importantly, could she handle herself in a fight or was he playing shield man? He hated playing shield man, added an extra two or three layers of stress to his life.

Looking up as the door opened, his mouth ran before his brain could catch it, "About time been waiting a while."

Svetlana Sergeyeva

The mission sounded so simple it almost made Sveta think it was too easy to be true. Then again, her threshold for 'complicated' had been raised recently with the damn portal between dimensions, so anything that dealt with run-of-the-mill mutant criminals felt like a vacation at this point. That was not to say that Sveta took her job lightly, though. She still very much believed in Haven's work, and wanted to do her very best to help them along. Which, in this case, meant dressing down to the Russian stereotype, and going after some arms dealers.

Devon would not have sent her into a combat situation, she was too valuable for that, and too much of a wild card paired with someone with offense abilities. She was, however, fairly good at infiltration. So that was the job of the day. Sveta remembered with a hint of nostalgia the last mission of this kind she had done. That had been a fancy party; this one was something else entirely.

>>"About time been waiting a while."

Sveta pulled her reflective sunglasses down her nose to give the redhead a look. She knew him from sight, of course, but they had never really met, let alone worked together. Svetlana tossed her blonde locks over the shoulder of her expensive jacket's fur collar, and waggled a finger clad in a black velvet glove at him.

"If you are going to be my muscle for de day, better not give me dat attitude." she said, stressing the heavy Russian accent, before she grinned at him and pushed the glasses onto her forehead "Hi. I'm Svetlana. You must be Artair."

He'd learned early to not judge a person based on appearance, they could be hiding serious skills and scary mutations behind a pretty face, but frankly this woman did not look the part for recon. She stood out, wearing designer clothes with bright blonde hair. Artair knew he wasn't the most subtle person but Christ you could pick her out of a crowd at 100 paces.

At least one thing was confirmed, he was the muscle. If she had a power it wasn't an out right combat one. Good, he hated walking in blind to how much he would have to do. "Aye, I guess I am, although it's hard to mistake me for someone else. Not many Gaels running around the city." Russian as well, that was interesting, her story must be an interesting one.

"Nice to meet you then Svetlana, guess we're working together on this one and I have a feeling you're the lead. You got a plan or do we want a quick look at the place first?" Paying defence could be an easy, if boring job. Or it could be one of the worst missions he could be on, it all depended on the partner. If she was harder than her outfit gave her credit for, it wouldn't be too hard to keep her from getting shot up.

Standing slowly and grabbing the bag from under his seat, he was glad he'd been able to start getting some useful equipment. Bit heavy to lug around, but most of it would be left in a convenient location in case he needed something from it while leaving. Like extra bolts if her ran out. "Should also probably ask, what's your particular power? Don't need any surprises on something like this."

>>"Aye, I guess I am, although it's hard to mistake me for someone else. Not many Gaels running around the city."

Sveta was not sure what a Gael was, but the guy had a funny accent, so she assumed it was an ethnicity of some sort. She would at least easily spot the red hair anywhere. The guy seemed nice, and ready to get to the action, although if their mission ended up going well, there would be no action at all. Ideally.

>>"Nice to meet you then Svetlana, guess we're working together on this one and I have a feeling you're the lead. You got a plan or do we want a quick look at the place first?"

"Well, dere's an idea for a plan." Sveta nodded with a smirk. She would have hoped the gaudy 'mafia businesswoman' attire would have given part of it away, but then again Americans tended to think of Russians that way in general, so she might have overthought her disguise just a little...

>>"Should also probably ask, what's your particular power? Don't need any surprises on something like this."

"Oh." Sveta blinked; apparently Devon preferred his people not knowing each other's powers until they met and could actually talk about it "I boost other people's powers. A lot. Hence de gloves." she held up a hand and wiggled her fingers "What's yours?"

An idea was more than he had frankly, he wasn't generally a planner when it came to being sneaky and manipulative. When it came to dealing with people like this, he tended to prefer a nice bit of chaos and fighting. He was good at that. This, he had no clue how they were going forward.

His eyes widened slightly at that. A power booster? Devon had gotten his hands on someone that useful and he was trusting her to him? Jesus this was going to be a tense day, not only was she a high priority target she didn't actually have a power she could defend herself with. If things went south it was going to be a very long day.

"That's a handy one to have then." His brain was whirling with the idea of it, touch based from the glove comment and she couldn't control it if he was thinking right. Interesting, it wasn't a well documented mutation at least.

"Mines easier to show than explain," pulling a dagger into reality it set it lazily spinning in an arc around him. "That's pretty much it, imagine any medieval weapon and I can make it. Pretty sharp too so you know, try to stay out of their way if something happens." He wasn't keen to find out how his powers would be affected with a boost, they were already dangerous enough without anything extra added.

The idea of his power going haywire wasn't a pleasant one. Too many pointy things.

>>"That's a handy one to have then."

Well, that was about the gist of it. Sveta smirked. 'Handy' was an understatement for what her powers were, but she appreciated that the redhead was not freaking out or losing his mind over meeting a real life power booster. Sometimes it was nice just to say what she was, and move on to more important things. Like, in this case, their mission at hand.

>>"Mines easier to show than explain... That's pretty much it, imagine any medieval weapon and I can make it. Pretty sharp too so you know, try to stay out of their way if something happens."

Sveta whistled as she saw the blade materialize out of nowhere, and then move as the guy commanded. There were defensive powers, and then there were combat powers... and this one was definitely the latter. It almost seemed like overkill for Devon to send the two of them together on a mission that was supposed to be about infiltration, instead of slicing and dicing bad guys.

"Oookay... so, hopefully, nothing will happen. We are going to pretend dat we want to buy some weapons, from the people we think supply the bad guys. It's an open market, so it should not be a problem. We go in, see who's selling, gather information, get out." she shrugged "I'm Russian, so I guess no one's gonna be surprised that I'm buying weapons on the black market... welcome to America." she added with a grin.

Pretending to be weapon buyers? The outfit suddenly made more sense now actually, she looked the part of Russian Mafia woman but he was feeling distinctly under dressed in his normal street clothes. "Sounds good, I guess I'm along to act the part of bodyguard, or play the part if it all goes tits up. I do think I'll need a wardrobe change though, not quite to intimidating gang member looking like this."

Thank God he'd had the good sense to stash a few change of clothes at Haven for if he needed something else on a mission and he had just the one for the job. "Give me a few minutes and I'll be right back."

Retrieving the plain black suit and white shirt took no time and changing into them took no time. One look in the mirror proved he at least looked the part now, but there was no way he was wearing a tie. Way to easy a target for someone to grab in a fight. The only thing he kept from his previous outfit were the thick steel-toe capped boots. They were too useful to forgo.

"This look alright? And will they expect me to be armed or disarmed when walking into this kind of deal?" Armed was preferable. First because it made his life so much easier in a fight and second because they'd underestimate him when they saw normal weapons.

Apparently Devon had left it up to her to devise a plan based on the bare bones she got about the situation. Sveta was up to the challenge; this was not her first trip into the criminal underworld, although it was the first not on Sam's semi-official payroll, and not on her own accord. It was going to be interesting, going with a partner like this. She knew others were working other angles on this criminal organization; together, they had a god shot at taking them down.

>>"Sounds good, I guess I'm along to act the part of bodyguard, or play the part if it all goes tits up. I do think I'll need a wardrobe change though, not quite to intimidating gang member looking like this. Give me a few minutes and I'll be right back."

The redhead disappeared, only to return a few minutes later, looking considerably more like a bodyguard and less like an average dude. That was good. Sveta was not entirely sure what the dress code was at an underground arms deal, but she doubted they worried about ties too much.

>>"This look alright? And will they expect me to be armed or disarmed when walking into this kind of deal?"

"Looks okay." she nodded with a smirk "And I'd say dey will disarm you at the the door. Only a guess; I am not actually Russian mafia." she shrugged, nodding towards the rental car they were going to take to the site "I hope you can drive..."

Figured they'd want to disarm him, but that was good. They'd think they had the upper hand in that case, be a little less careful around him. Any advantage in case of a fight was good to him, protecting someone as valuable as this lass. "Sounds fair but I should take some weapons for them to remove off me. Be a bit suspicious for a guard to have nothing on him." 

Belting on a baton and collapsible staff, he eyed the car a little warily. "Aye I can, but it's been a while. Not much city driving practice back home." Or in the hospital really. They tended to frown on surgery patients leaving the ward.

Dropping his sports bag in the trunk and gesturing to the back seat, he moved to the drivers. Thank god she'd gotten a stick shift though, Artair had never actually driven an automatic and it wasn't the best time to start now.

"Where's this meeting then?" If he was driving, knowing where they were going might be helpful.

>>"Sounds fair but I should take some weapons for them to remove off me. Be a bit suspicious for a guard to have nothing on him."

Sveta nodded in agreement. It would have been suspicious if a bodyguard had no weapons - they would either think he was fake, dumb, or a mutant, and none of those scenarios was bound to go well for anyone. She watched him arm himself, and then they both got in the car, Sveta in the back seat, to keep up appearances.

>>"Aye I can, but it's been a while. Not much city driving practice back home... Where's this meeting then?"

"In a warehouse at the docks." Sveta chuckled "Obviously. I'll show you when we get closer, I looked it up..."

Docks it was, he knew the general direction to go in, even without any experience on the city roads. Surely the closer he got the more road signs for that area he'd find anyway.

Setting of, the journey itself was pretty boring, Artair divided most of his time between watching the roads like a hawk and going over weapons in his head. Keeping the forms fresh and ready would be a boon in a tight situation, like walking into a weapon dealers den without any tools or physical weapons on hand. He was loathe to reply solely on his power, given Svetlana's lack of offensive abilities.

Her power, frankly it scared the hell out of him. Some mutants wandering around were strong, like city destruction strong and the idea of them getting a hand person shaped boost was bad. Really bad.

Worse he was terrified she could make him lose control of his power, hurting people by accident. It wasn't like his was friendly at the best of times but not being able to rein them in? How could anyone deal with that?

Taking another turn in what he assumed was the right direction he glanced back in the mirror. "Since you're running the lead I'm guessin' you have experience dealing with organised crime. Anything I should be on the look out for in particular?"

Artair could drive relatively safely, which was good, because they were also having and impromptu planning meeting as they got closer to the site. Sveta sat comfortably in the back; for all appearances she was just a wealthy woman being driven around by her body guard.
I could get used to this.

>>"Since you're running the lead I'm guessin' you have experience dealing with organised crime. Anything I should be on the look out for in particular?"

"Anyone who looks like they belong to our particular criminal gang, buying weapons." Sveta shrugged, getting back into the Russian accent thing "We just have to confirm dis is their source, and den we get out. I'll let dem outbid us. Keep an eye on them, their weapons,
and if dey use any powers or not. We never know..."

Nodding to her statement, it made sense. After all they were just there for info and as much as he hated the idea of more guns getting into a gangs hands they just didn't have the numbers to do anything about it then and there. Information was the important thing, as long as they walked out they had more on the people they were dealing with. Plus as a bodyguard he had a decent excuse for eyeing up their guns and generally being on edge so it'd be easy to mask any of his tenseness in the moment.

"Can't argue with that, the fighting comes later." He would have preferred to be involved in an op that required more, confrontational methods but recon was just an important. "But then when does anything ever go to plan ey?" The jokes were to mostly keep his own mind calm than to entertain his partner.

"What name did you give them by the way? And will I need a pseudonym or do the guards not tend to get asked who they are?" The less talking he had to do the better. Sure he could do a decent English accent and a pretty convincing lowland Scottish one but his American one sucked. Badly. His own was pretty uncommon so he'd have to fake one but even a UK one would be noticeable. 

That was the entire mission plan. Go in, lose a bid, pretend to be pissed, get out. Information gathering on other criminals. Easy. The tough guys could come back and fight later.

>>"Can't argue with that, the fighting comes later. But then when does anything ever go to plan ey?"

"Dis one will." Sveta said sternly. She knew Artair was not going to mess anything up on purpose, so her comment was more like a plea to Luck itself than an actul order. This will go fine. For once.

>>"What name did you give them by the way? And will I need a pseudonym or do the guards not tend to get asked who they are?"

"Efimia Nikolayeva" Sveta smirked a little; her once upon a time alias was buried so deep now, she could once again use it as a cover "And no one will ask you, but if you want, you can make one up. Or I can call you Igor." she added with a grin, glancing out the window "We are here."

He left the comment hang. Plans almost never went perfectly in his experience. He was just being prepared for when something went wrong, the better to be mentally prepared of course. Expecting the worst meant you weren't caught off guard. Much.

Committing the name to memory and softly speaking it a couple of times to get the inflections right, he grinned at her suggestion for his own name. "It would certainly be fitting but I can't do a Russian accent to save my life and unfortunately my American one is still a wee bit weak." Running through a couple suitable ones in his head, he settled on a standard name, hard to trace and impossible to place.

Dropping into a standard English accent, "Just call me David Fletcher. It's common enough to not raise many eyebrows." he would have been worried about it being too common, therefore standing out but the levels of paranoia were just not with him in that moment. That and at an illegal arms deal, chances are not many questions were going to be asked.

They were close now, pretty much at the point of no return. "You ready Miss Nikolayeva? Anything else you want to tell me before we go in?"