Well...his night was going to shit. The second his back met the wall, the last gasp of air he had in his lungs explode out from his mouth. His vision blurred as he slumped down to the ground, struggling to push past the protesting cracks and groans from his vertebrae. God that hurt. But he was still conscious. That was a plus in his book.

The night had started out so well. It was supposed to be an easy case but deep down, ever since he got trapped in this reality, he knew that he was entering hell in a handbasket. This was a wild west of a mutant world. There was barely any control or observation. S.U.P.E.R. was only beginning here so the fact that things were going as well as they were right now? He wasn’t surprised.

Still, he would have liked to have been wrong, for once.

The case was an easy one. There was a recently registered mutant that needed help controlling her powers. With the ability to turn into a nightmarish, rage-filled tentacle beast, that was definitely something that needed to be tracked. So Hugh started surveillance. Keeping a safe distance he followed her to a restaurant, the mall, and then finally a movie. He didn’t like S.U.P.E.R.’s new protocols, but he was a loyal soldier and would follow directions.

Then some hormone driven lunkhead attempted to pester her for her number. When she refused, the conversation got ugly, the yelling started, and before he could intervene, it was too late. Skin ripped and rolled as fleshy tentacles flew out, writhing in the open air. Mouths filled with razor sharp fangs and glisted with saliva snapped and pulled towards any nearby passerbys. And the one who started all this? He was unconscious in a corner, flung across the room and into a row of seats.

Damn it. Liability.

His attention snapped up when the air in front of him began to move. He barely caught sight of the meaty tentacle as it flew at him and rolled out of the way. The back of his head was showered in concrete and fabric as the wall of the theater was punched in. Spinning back around, in a smooth motion he pulled his tranquilizer gun from the holster at his hip and backed away.

”Cher?!” he shouted in his thick, Creole accent. ”This is not good! You’re gonna hurt someone!”

Another tentacle swiped at him. He ducked, rolled into an unseen row of seats. Carefully he scooted down, trying to draw the maddened mutant away from the unconscious lunkhead. There was a crunch as the tentacle pulled seats away. With a shake of his head, Hugh snapped up, aimed his gun and shouted another warning.

”Alright,” he grumbled. ”I will do what I must.”

Slipping his tranquilizer gun back into its holster, he reached into his suit jacket and pulled another gun from his shoulder holster. Holding the handgun up, he quickly took aim and leapt over into another row in order to dodge a tentacle and unleash a volley of shots. He wasn’t looking for lethal hits, just enough to slow her down. But he would do what needed to be done to protect people.

Date night, well it would have been date night if he gathered enough courage to ask out the person he really wanted to take but instead he ran into some girl from the mansion, which he had seen once or twice and things had a tendency to end on a good note. He wasn’t attached to her sure she was nice enough and pretty damn attractive but considering his mind was on someone else he was pretty sure this would be the final interaction between the too in a setting such as this. She reached down to grab his hand during one of the scary parts of the movie.

Wishing he had an excuse to go grab some food or hit the bathroom he looked down to his hand then back to her. She was staring at him now and she leaned towards him her eyes shutting as she clearly was not picking up on his thoughts. Reluctantly he closed his eyes met and leaned in to meet her, it beat talking and this movie. Before their lips met he heard screams and some loud crashing. He stopped and looked around wondering if it was part of the movie.

Currently in the movie someone was walking down a dark hallway trying to avoid the ghost, monster whatever the bad guy was. The music was soft but he heard screaming. Sam continued to look around till someone opened the door to the theater where more screams could be heard. Saved by the screams. ”Sorry…” he let go of her hand, ”Head out the emergency exit and call the police, I’ll be fine!” before she could protest he was already in action mode hoping out of his seat and running up the isle.

When he ran to the lobby he saw one of the doors swing open to reveal something rampaging in the theater next to them. ”Scarier than what I was just watching.” Sam said as he ran towards the danger forced his way through the door his body already icing up.

”You can always just ask for a refund if the movie is bad!” Sam yelled as he entered trying to get a visual on what was happening. As he entered some frozen mist started to bleed off of him revealing anyone hiding in the candy and popcorn encrusted floors. Immediately Sam felt bad for them. No one within reach so he focused on the one doing the rampage.

Bullets didn’t work. Great. There went his plan. When he followed the girl and saw her transform into a horrible nightmare beast, it was his hope that he wouldn’t have to resort to it. Now, as he watched the creature advance, unimpeded by his bevy of gunfire, he was kinda wishing he had brought something with a little more oomph. He had a pump action in his car (fully licensed) but there was no way he was going to be able to get to it and back without putting a hell of a lot of lives at risk.

At least right now, with the way things were, the mutant was focused on him and nothing else. So long as he could keep her attention, he would either figure a way out of this mess or he could hold her off until back-up arrived. S.U.P.E.R. should show up before long, he just needed to bide time.

The mutant, also known as “Lily”, was in full rage monster mode. Tentacles wrapped around seats, pulling them from the floor and hurling them to all corners of the room. There was no rhyme or reason to her actions, she just wanted to destroy everything in sight. Understandable but he needed to keep her occupied so he may as well continue to be a target.

Gun raised, he fired off another couple of shots, this time hitting the amorphous beast around her eyes. Didn’t hurt her, but it certainly got her attention. Tentacles quivered and shook with anger. Seconds later she began to charge towards a readying Hugh Manning...but both would turn and stop at the arrival of another.

To be honest, with such a boastful entrance, Hugh momentarily thought if his back up had already arrived. Sadly it wasn’t the case as he saw a kid run into the theater. He was just about to shout at them to get out, when he saw the icy fog light off from the boy’s body and snake down the aisles of chairs. Great…another mutant? How hard was his night going to be?

Gun still in hand, he started to raise it to the newcomer when he watched him throw himself at Lily, who spun and hurled a tentacle his way. Oh, so whoever this kid was, he was one of those altruistic mutants, the ones that tried to use their powers for “good”. Well, it was better than nothing.

”’ey! Boy!” he shouted. ”She’s a mutant! A dangerous one! Watch your back!” Before Lily to get another swing in on the icy mutant, Hugh unleashed another volley of shots, these ones catching her in the back and making her turned sharply towards him. She was unharmed but maybe it would give the other the opening he needed.

”Man.” Sam corrected, even if he was deaged he wanted it to be clear he knew he’d be tried as an adult if he ever got arrested for something he’d done. If he ever got arrested. Good guys don’t get arrested… they just don’t get caught. Even if he was to get arrested he doubted he’d get a book thrown at him. His older self’s track record would keep him from getting out of too much trouble.

”And obviously!” he said as he fell backward to avoid a tentacle being thrown at him. He pushed himself back up his armor splitting from him, ”Didn’t know everyone was packing tentacles like that.” Sam said trying to make a joke in the current situation. It was how he dealt with them.

Standing next to his ice armor and already coating himself in more armor himself they split. The armor maneuvered through one of the rows of seats before vanishing below them lying low waiting to help someone exit the theater.

Sam however stood in the isle way blasting a beam of ice towards the tentacle mutant. ”Does the mutant have a name or are we just sticking with mutant?” he said not sure he agreed with how the guy who was firing shots was also firing generic titles. He’d have to ask if he had the paperwork for the gun later Sam was just glad bullets didn’t seem to have an effect on the tentacles.

More mist covered the ground now as Sam dodged a chair heading right for him. When he landed on the floor he realized he had a sucker stuck to his hand. ”Gross.” he rolled to the other side of the aisle and ducked between a few chairs before calling out, ”What did you do to piss ‘em off!?!”

Hugh wasn’t normally one to ask for help. He firmly believed that he could handle most every situation. It is a mentality that has pit him against some pretty impossible odds, often resulting in broken bones and some pretty close calls. But the fact that he walked away from all of those events only continued to bolster his confidence that he could handle whatever was thrown at him. He was a soldier, an agent, and most certainly, relentless.

But, in this case, it seemed he was going to require a little bit of assistance. While he wasn’t all that worried that he couldn’t keep the mutant busy, he wouldn’t mind someone else being the willing target so that he could take a breather. And it so happened that his little Ti-Agent was going to give him that opportunity.

He rolled his eyes, merely grinning before he returned his gaze to the tentacled mutant. Of course. Teenagers loved to make that distinction when called out. He didn’t offer a response and instead kept his gun drawn, firing a shot into a broken chair that Lily made ready to hurl across the room. Instead the gunshot knocked it from her appendage and it landed upon her head with a thud.

This caused another lash of tentacles to be hurled at him. With deft precision he dropped down, twirling on his knees away from one appendage and diving out of the way of another. He popped up, partially hidden by a row of seats as he lowered his gun and squeezed off another round of shots.

Both plopped harmless onto the carpet.

This bought the other enough time to shout out a couple of important questions. And while he wanted to take some partial offense at being blamed for this, the fact was that it wasn’t true. He merely snorted as he ducked down, dodging a hurled chair and popped back up to fire off another round.

”Listen kid, I’ve had my fair share of angry women threaten to turn into a rage monster, but I can assure that this isn’t my fault.” He replied. ”Her name’s ‘Lily’! Late blooming mutant. She was accosted here by Romeo over there,” he gestured to the still unconscious body of the jock who had attempted to accost her. ”I called this in and playing the distraction until the squad shows up.”

He watched a tentacle come at him. He rolled back just in time to miss it, but was forced to hop back further, spreading his legs to keep the beast from hitting something far more vital. He groaned, rolling onto his side and putting more space between him and Lily.

”Don’t worry about the gun,” he said, another shot knocking more debris from the monster’s tentacle. ”Bullet’s don’t hurt her. I have a tranquilizer but I can’t get in close. Think you can give me an opening?”

‘Likely story’ Sam thought to himself as he poked his head back up after another tentacle threatened him overhead. Once it passed he looked over to his clone who was crouched next to someone who was cowering in the back corner of the theater it was clear they were to afraid to move. At some point Sam would have to ask why the guy knew so much about the situation. Including the woman’s name.

Sam however wasn’t, only grossed out by the stuff on his sticking on his armor. ”Can I accost him back?” Sam asked curiously also getting more upset by the situation. ‘No’ meant ‘no’ it didn’t mean wait a few minutes and try again later it also didn’t mean keep doing what you were doing. Even Sam knew when to say when in those situations and when he saw it happening in person that was usually when he said something. However he showed up late for this.

”I can.” he said as he sighed about the situation. He was half tempted to leave the guy who started all this in the theater with ‘Lily’ however he knew ‘Mama Becca’ wouldn’t approve. ‘No killing’ and ‘try to save everyone’ repeated in the back of his mind as he stood up and shot a beam of ice in front of ‘Romeo’ the cause of all of this. While he did this as a distraction his ice clone managed to grab and escort the person in the back of the theater out the doors. Once it did the clone turned and ran down the aisle towards Lily. Again, Sam was all about distractions.

The beam of ice was nothing more than a short wall, sturdy enough to hold up from a chair but not the tentacles throwing it meaning it would stand for a few hits at least. Meaning he made an attempt at saving ‘Romeo’. Sam looked up and over to the old man who kept calling him a kid. ”You mean a distraction?” Sam asked grinning in his armor. ”Cool!”

The ice clone that ran down the aisle already caught one of the tentacles and held onto it as best it could as it was being swung around wildly. Sam then jumped up and launched himself upward a slide of ice formed under his feet till he was overhead from Lily, ”How about we all just calm down. We can discuss the situation over a cup of coffee. My treat.” The tentacles turned on him and grabbed him. ”Yup, focus on me.” he said feeling the tentacles wrapping around each of his arms.

Hugh smirked at the retort. Yeah, as much of a lothario as Hugh can be, he always knew that No meant No. If anything he hoped that Romeo learned a lesson from this. But that wasn’t to say he wanted him to get hurt. After all, his whole job was to protect humans from mutants who lose control of their powers. In this instance, Romeo was essentially the “victim” here. So, as much as he didn’t want to, he needed to make sure that Romeo stayed alive.

By any means necessary.

”If we all survive, I’ll introduce you to him,” Hugh grinned.

That was a big if. The problem here was that while he could keep that thing distracted fairly well, they were running out of space and breakables. Lily was ruled by her emotions and the angrier she got, the more that she wanted to destroy. So long as there was something around to destroy, she could keep going and be pretty centralized. But, when she ran out, if there was nothing left and she hadn’t calmed, then she was going to go on a rampage. And that was going to be a mighty big problem.

So they were going to have to try something different. He still had some tranquilizers on him, but if bullets weren’t going to harm her, then there was no way he was going to get a dosage into her body. At least not from the gun. If he could get close enough, maybe ram a couple of tranqs down her throat, that should hit her system just as effectively. So that was his plan -- and he could use some help.

A distraction. He nodded his head. The kid seemed entirely eager to partake and threw himself into the melee. Lily, spotting the movement, attempted to lash out from ice and cold slowed her down enough to allow the teen enough opportunity to get in close. With Lily’s attention now fully on him, Hugh took his chance.

Popping open the cartridge, he gripped a couple of the needles in his hand and bolted after the mutant. A few wild tentacles still barred his path but he managed to run, slip, and slide under them, just enough to get in close.

Hugh leapt onto a seat and leapt forward, attempting to cross in front of Lily’s face. He reared his hand back, ready to toss the tranquilizers into her mouth when he suddenly felt himself being jerked back. A flailing tentacle managed to slip by, wrap around his ankle and pull him up into the air.

”Aw shit!” he grumbled. He flailed, struggling to reach the tentacle and free himself with his good hand, but also trying to hold onto the tranquilizers. This was not how he wanted this to go.

It was clear that Hugh didn’t like their odds seeing as they were both being held Sam understood why he didn’t like their odds. Too many tentacles and not enough people to grab. Once Hugh was snatched Sam rolled his eyes inside his armor and then willed his armor to expand enough for him to slip from. The armor stilled struggled and now Sam was essentially naked from protection. Ice started to form on his body but it wasn’t as fast as he normally made it. He could have his armor attack and fight back but again he was supposed to be the distraction. Hugh was supposed to save the day by drugging her.

It seemed the best shot wasn’t going to be good enough while Hugh was being held. He could try and freeze the tentacles but again she was already rampaging if Sam hurt her how would she calm down. Not only that but if she did just lose control of her ability what kind of example would he set as an X-man. What would Becca do?

”Lily,” he said trying to distract her with the power of words.
Ice started to cover him self just leaving his face clear as his two ice clones struggled in and on the tentacles. ”I know you’re pissed right now. Dude you were with was a creep, and I’m going to do everything in my power to make it right.” Sam said his hands going up and behind his head in an attempt to be as least threatening as possible. His stance was beyond casual but he could change it if he needed.

”Guy’s are jerks but you know who isn’t? You. While you did do some damage to a theater for the most part no one important really got hurt. Not too late to try and catch your breath. I know it’s scary but you’re a mutant. Scary word I know but it isn’t all bad. You’re going through changes and they aren’t bad. Just misunderstood, have you ever heard of the Xavier school?” Sam said his one clone managed to get free from the tentacles and managed to get closer to Hugh to help him down.

Sam still casually stared at Lily and her tentacles his voice hoping to reach her. While her tentacles were flailing still they were in Sam’s opinion less aggressive and while he normally would have loved a fight he was starting to thing he couldn’t win without hurting her.

Hugh grumbled as he struggled to regain some kind of control. The beastly mutant had managed to snag him out of thin air, tentacle curling tighter around his ankle, almost painfully. He knew that he was in big trouble if he didn’t get out of this, so he had hoped his new comrade had a trick or two up his sleeve. But, Hugh learned a long time ago not to depend on the kindness of strangers. So he attempted to reach for his gun with his free hand in hopes of loosening the creature’s grip on him.

His eyes turned to the kid momentarily, watching as he shed a layer of ice and dropped down to the floor below. The ice statue continued to move on its own accord, struggling to break free from Lily’s grip, but also keeping her attention. While he could appreciate the effort, they needed more of a plan if they were going to survive.

Then...the speech started. Ugh. He really was one of those do-gooders trying to run into a dangerous situation to help people. Of course.

While Hugh may have been irritated, the rampaging beast that Lily had become snarled and snapped. She frothed at the mouth as her numerous tentacles flailed and slammed into the ground. As the ice mutant began to approach, his voice rang out, drowned out by the angry screams of frustration. But, for as angry as Lily was, watching the mutant advance, trying to appear as unthreatening as possible, it actually made her pause.

Through the screams and the frustration in her mind, some of those words began to pop into her head, weaving through the anger and the bile that filled her mind. What was she doing? She was hurting people. She was breaking things. Dammit, she had let it happen again. From within, the tried to pull the reins over the monster and pull it back into the box that she designated within her mind.

On the outside the beast thrashed, picking up more chairs and throwing them. Slamming tentacles into the ground, even squeezing the agent she held in her grip all the tighter. Pain and unfiltered emotions continued to roll through her mind but, somehow, she started to stop. The raging began to peeter off, and the snarling began to turn into something more humane.

And just like that, as his words sunk in, the beastly mutant began to shrink. The appendages curled in, the one holding onto Agent Manning unfurled and sent him hurtling onto the ground. But Lily, the more she calmed, the more she turned back into her human self: a small, meek, 18-year old girl with frizzy blonde hair, large blue eyes, and clothing that was ripped into little more than tatters.

With a gasp she curled onto her knees, hugging herself, wincing in pain as the last of the transformation occurred. She rolled her neck, hand massaging the back of her head as she struggled to move.

“O-Ow...I...God...that...hurts...every time…” she turned, raising her big, blue eyes onto the ice mutant and offered him a weak, but desperate smile. “T-Thank you...Thank you..I could ha--”

FFIP!

Lily didn’t get the words out. There was an arch of her back, a wince of pain, as she sharply turned her head to her left arm: a large tranquilizer dart stuck into her flesh. Weakly she reached for it, pulled it out with a gasp and turned her blurry eyes to the source. She barely saw his silhouette before she fully blacked out and fell to her side.

Hugh gave a relieved sigh, lowering his tranquilizer gun, keeping it hand just in case Lily woke up again and turned to the ice mutant. ”Nice job, kid. Saved a lot of lives tonight. Including my own. I won’t forget that,” he said, grinning broadly.

Sam hated speeches they took time and half of the time they didn’t even work. Words in Sam’s opinions were nothing other than something short of action. However when his speech did seem to work he was more impressed with himself than anything. Was that how every interaction could end? Did that mean he didn’t have to keep training his body the way he had. Thankfully for Sam he was quickly reminded not everyone needed an after school special speech.

The sound of the gun was all too familiar to him he almost thought he was hit. He had to do a double take that Lily was the intended target. His armor raced back up to cover himself. Police didn’t carry a tranquilizer gun. At least the police he knew didn’t

Sam looked to the gun then back to Lily who was lying on the ground no longer afraid just naked. ”Right…” he folded his arms Hugh. ”Way to tarnish my first speech with a dart gun.” he said trying to sound more bummed about his speech going under appreciated than Lily getting darted. ”But that’s what I do often. Save lives. Not speeches… first one.”

”How’d you know her name?” he asked walking over to the guy who started all of this and took his hoody. Sam then shot his feet with ice covering it and holding him in place. If Lily wanted to press charges she’d have the option at least. The way Sam saw it her mutation was just trying to protect her.

”I take it you aren’t a cop.” he said walking over to Lily and draping the hoody on her so when she came to she would at least have some clothing.

Hugh sighed as he looked down at the sleeping, unconscious body of Lily, the once rage monster that had put both of their lives on the line. Really she should have known better. She didn’t have a handle on her powers. She should have either stayed with S.U.P.E.R. or joined one of those other freak organizations like the Mansion. They were bleeding heart suckers, weren’t they? Shaking his head, he slipped his dart gun back into the holster.

While he didn’t always like accepting help, he had to admit that if the walking snowman hadn’t jumped in, they very well could have been killed. It was because of him that Lily was able to calm down long enough for Hugh to pump her full of tranquilizers. That should be enough to earn him his thanks.

”Heh,” he snorted at the kid’s annoyance at having his inspiration speech interrupted. ”Let me tell you the one thing I learned from all my years doing this,” he sighed. ”Never monologue. Only gets you into trouble.”

It didn’t take the kid long to piece some facts together and start asking questions. This was probably the uncomfortable part but Hugh was not about to hide who he was or what he did. That was the deal, right? S.U.P.E.R. had rebranded themselves when they entered this dimension. They weren’t a covert agency kidnappy mutants and forcing them to police the populace. Rather they were trying to be more public, more open, more...honest. Load of bull, if you asked him, but he knew better than to question director orders.

So he shook his head. ”Nope. Not a cop.” After he checked Lily’s pulse, he moved her so she was lying more comfortably and wouldn’t awaken prematurely. ”Name’s Agent Manning, I work for SUPER. Lily Greer was brought to us for assessment by her mother when she went rage mutant a few weeks ago. She stayed with us, was monitored, only had a single incident but it wasn’t as bad as it was tonight. For the most part she was under control so she was released to get back into the world. I was assigned to tail her to make sure she was accumulating okay. Turns out, she needs learn some more control.”

He shrugged. Shame. She really seemed like she had control of her abilities. Oh well, another stint in the S.U.P.E.R.’s observation sector should help her find her triggers and give her better control. Honestly it seemed like she should be better suited for the Holding Block but, again, S.U.P.E.R. didn’t do that here. Ah well.

He nodded to the kid. ”What about you, Frosty? Make it a habit of running into dangerous situations to play hero?”

Rime knew the golden rule about the monologue from all his years in T.A.T. don’t talk just move. Unfortunately that move was usually to kill and as an X-men something that he had to keep reminding himself is they don’t kill. His older self might have during unsanctioned X-missions but he didn’t he wouldn’t. At least he didn’t want to. He was pretty sure there would be a few people disappointed in him and he didn’t want that.

”Guess, I just got lucky. All the years not doing it.” Sam said hinting that he wasn’t always this young and handsome. When Hugh holstered the tranquillizer the armor faded. He felt safe again and didn’t jave to worry about someone trying to shoot him. Even he wasn’t immune to the all powerful tranquilizer dart. A lot of bad memories came from those little guns and he didn’t want to have a repeat.

Good he wasn’t a cop. If he was Sam was going to have to rethink helping them more. He didn’t like how this guy was willing to kill a mutant just for loosing control. He understood it but didn’t like it. That was more his speed when he was in T.A.T. he wasn’t an agent anymore just and X-Man. The best.

The way the agent identified SUPER he got a very heavy feeling similar to when he was talking to another T.A.T. agent. It made him uncomfortable visibly so he kept his arms folded like he was still trying to decide what to do next. ”Looks like she does.” Sam agreed finally.

”I do.” he said his arms coming back down to his sides, now he was talking about how great he was. ”Don’t play hero. Am one.” Sam said smirking, ”One of the X-men. The best.” he said overly confident. HE thought he earned it though. He did spend years being the best. It was time he was it. ”Sam. I go by Rime though now.” he said his hands reaching back up behind his head. ”Used to be Cold Steel.” he looked back to Lily.

”You were assigned to tail her with a gun and a tranquilizer?” Sam asked still not sure about how SUPER treats those it is supposed to watch, ”without backup? Who did you piss off?” Sam said starting to let his age show more and more they talked.

Lily was secured. The tranquilizer he hit her with should be enough to put her down for several hours. More than enough time for his back-up to get here and take her back to S.U.P.E.R. HQ for some much needed rest. There was no sense in sending her back home with her mother as she would more than likely have another incident once she realized that she blacked out again and had another incident. It was for her safety that observation under the organization was the next step.

In the meantime he still had the other mutant to deal with. In the old days it would have been a simple matter. Hugh would have tranq’d him too and hauled them both back to S.U.P.E.R. for classification and possibly assignment into their ranks. But that is not the organization he worked for now. Things were different in this dimension, seemingly, and more compromise was required.

Pft. It wasn’t a matter of if the higher ups would change their mind, but more a matter of when. No matter what, Hugh would follow their orders. He was a soldier, after all.

As he straightened up, he continued to look over the kid who started to explain his own deal. By his words it seemed that he was more than just a kid, but had a wealth of experience. Hrm, was he one of he deaged? That is what it was sounding like. After all, he’d met plenty of teenagers with an ego that size, but the amount that he was piling on was copious...even for a teenager.

”...alright…” he said neutrally as he pulled out his phone and started his report to send in to the office. GPS pinged his back-up as not being far from here. Good.

The kid was interesting though. Cutting through all the hero B.S. that he piling up on his head, it turned out he was an X-Men. Huh. Hugh hunted a couple X-Men in his own dimension. It was his dream to bring down Combatant, the X’s superior skilled fighter. There was none like her on the planet. A lot of the agents took lots whenever they had a whiff of cornering her. The biggest pot (her capture by a single agent) went unclaimed. The second biggest was who got hurt the worst when faced off against her and still came in to work the next day.

Karlson was the latest, and one of the few, to claim that one. Hugh had next dibs. Then the whole universe split and how he was trapped in a world that wasn’t his, forced to adapt to ways that were alien to him. Hrm, X-Men. He wondered how long before S.U.P.E.R. a deeper interest in them.

But those were thoughts for another day.

He snorted. ”I’ll have you know everyone loves me,” he said, shrugging it off. ”Again, it was just supposed to be surveillance. But the second Romeo got inappropriate, the situation changed. But hey, still alive. Just another opportunity to learn, no?”

Everyone loved him. So they sent him to follow someone with powers that were more than just he could handle with a gun and tranq darts or they trusted him enough to get it done, meaning Sam was more on guard than he was. Making sure that the dart gun didn’t come out of the holster.

Sam’s head started to hurt the constant second guessing of everything he did and was doing was one of the reasons he left T.A.T. in the first place he didn’t like being treated like an attack dog and he didn’t like the situation he was in now.

Everyone loved him. Meaning he’d have his back up soon. Sam would have his backup as well. It wouldn’t be long before the girl he was with from the mansion called the police. He hoped Saph of Shin would show at that point while he was capable of making his own decisions he also didn’t trust anything this guy was saying now. He seemed too familiar. Sam had no doubt that they never met before but he has seen thousands of ‘agents’ and well. They always made him nervous. He was one once after all.

”Well, glad everyone loves you.” Sam said throwing on a fake smile something he had to perfect for fooling any type of ‘agent’. ”However, I think she better stick around till the police get here.” he said not wanting to say what he was feeling. ‘she isn’t going with you.’

”They will have to file a report. Check on her and get a statement from everyone involved.” he continued to smile, ”You wouldn’t have a problem with that would you?” he asked tilting his head to his side.

Hugh was happy at the idea of putting this night behind him. He didn’t really want to tangle with Lily, not without a better arsenal on hand. But it seemed that he was thrown into this without a choice. He had to defend himself, he had to take her down, things that were done, were done because they needed to be. Still, he would have preferred for things to go according to plan for once. Ah well, that should teach him to make plans.

He shook the thoughts away as he checked his phone again. Back-up would be here soon, he would pass of Lily and he could head to the nearest bar to unwind. A good, stiff drink and a pretty face to talk to; those would be the focuses of the rest of his evening. But, just as he was about to taste the ice cold beer on his lips, he was pulled back by a seemingly saccharine comment from Frosty.

Over the years, he had become pretty good at reading people. After conducting multiple interviews, thrown into bad situations, interrogated, etc., the skill had sharpened. The same could be said for now as he looked over his newfound, icy friend. There was something that Hugh didn’t like about that smile, but he matched it with one of his own.

So, he was going to be a conspiracy nut, huh? He dealt with them plenty of times in his own universe (shame that they were right most of the time), but such suspicion wasn’t warranted here.

He sighed. Arms crossed over his head, he tilted his head, still smirking at Rime, before he spoke up. ”Who do you think my back-up is?” he replied. ”S.U.P.E.R. is working with the M.R.C. to try and handling some of the more dangerous cases and ensure there is help everywhere required. You’re free to wait, of course, I’m sure you’ll have to answer a few questions for the department as well.” He shrugged as he tapped his phone and grunted. ”Look’s like they’re here, Frosty.”

Sirens erupted outside the mall as both police and S.U.P.E.R. agents moved through the building, making a beeline for the movie theater. The whole while, Hugh just smiled.