Noel could feel the rims of her eyes were dry from being open, but closing them somehow only made them itchier. She rolled for the third time and didn’t feel any better. The clock held a steady 3:3- the last digit being eclipsed by Michael’s elbow. If she lifted her head again to check and the last digit STILL hadn’t changed, Noel was going to throw something. Instead she rolled the opposite way, tipping out of bed as carefully as she could manage.

She had pills to make her not puke, pills to make her have enough iron, pills for brain formation or something, pills to make up for the side effects of some of those earlier ones, and most importantly pills to make her calves stop twitching. Those were the ones she desperately needed now as the near constant twinging left her legs restless and wrung out.

There were a surprising number of things to be worried about when you had a parasite.

Noel knocked back the obscenely large leg twitch pill and caught some motion out of the corner of her eye. Something outside was moving at this ungodly hour. In the city that never sleeps, that wasn’t unheard of, but this was a less than reputable side of town, and she was feeling more than her share of awake.

It was possible that paranoia was one of those side effects, but whatever. She grabbed her zip up hoodie and was sure to be quiet when she closed the door behind her.

Noel wasn’t active duty SUPER at the moment. She wasn’t exactly showing, more like she just felt like an overstuffed sausage and her fat jeans no longer buttoned. It was all happening a lot faster than she wanted, but then… they sorta thought it’d been cancer at first.

She had been forced to tell the truth to her superiors when she’d thrown up at the scene of the de-aging crack down so there would be no more chasing down bad guys for a long while. Maybe ever.

She still had her job as a glorified lie detector and there was no better interrogator than a psychic, but that was… well, that wasn’t ideal. She felt terrible that she’d been recruited for field work and already she’d screwed that up.

She was nothing more than an easy bake oven now…

”Hey.” Noel kicked the leg of the night time Tedward’s chair and he snorted out of his focus on his jewel matching phone game. His name was something boring: Steven or Phteven or something. ”Can you bring up the outside security cameras?”

The night shift was slow. The night shift was always slow. Except when it wasn’t but that night wasn’t once of those nights. Tonight, the bossman was asleep and the other borderline psychotic badassess were not on property. More importantly said badasses were not on a job. That made for slowness that was not likely to ever be interrupted.

Steven had become used to the slowness. His phone was plugged in as he poked at a game. He had a few that he played. He would cycle through so that he never got too bored of one. The night before had been crosswords and letters with locals but that night it was a jewel matching game.

While playing the jewel game, Steven had just matched a few jewels which completed a cookie that gave him the disco ball that eliminated all the gems of the color he swapped it with and was about to use it to clear out some of the glass panes so he could beat the level, when someone kicked his chair.

Steven quickly killed the screen and looked around to see who had kicked his chair… and seen him playing games on company time. It was the boss’s wife. Noel.

What had she asked? Cameras? Cameras!

“Uh… Yeah.” Steven ever so unsmoothly said as he hit a few keys on his keyboard and the monitors switched from the interior feeds to the exterior feeds.The monitors cycled from one set of cameras to another, the system preferring to show sets of cameras with motion unless otherwise directed. It was at least smart enough to ignore general traffic on the road. It locking on the road because cars were constantly streaming by would be less than helpful.

“It’s been a slow night. Are you looking for something in particular?”

What was she looking for?

"The usual." She literally could not care less if he played phone games. Anyone stupid enough to break into this facility deserved what they would inevitably get.

Unfortunately she didn't see anything unusual with a quick scan. She had a feeling, though, and couldn't be dissuaded.

"I think I'll take the dogs out." Alone. In the dead of night. In only her jammies, hoodie, and the boots left by the door. Totally normal, but she'd heard the dogs stirring at the sound of her voice in the Ranger's office where they sometimes got banished when they got too rambunctious. They were both a good excuse and defense, being the size of small bears.

The plus side of their sometimes banishment? Now the office was dog tested, baby proofed.

"You can watch on the monitors just in case." Noel gave her best 'you can't really say no' smile and went to leash up the pups.

Less than three minutes later, the ghost of Noel's breath drifted behind her as she did her best to steer. It was juuuust nippy enough to make her regret not stopping for a heavier coat, but she was worried that too much time had passed. Already, if there had been anything, likely it was now nothing.

"What do you think, girls?" Noel led them around the perimeter and watched them get excited about nothing in particular over and over again, until they suddenly got so excited that they nearly yanked Noel’s arm off.

Back at security, Noel was visibly pulled off screen by the dogs and didn’t appear on the next expected camera view.

Noel was looking for the usual. Steven wondered if she meant the usual nothing filled nothing with a side of nothing punctuated by that stray cat that Ranger called the “farm cat”. Steven didn’t understand what that was about but it seemed to keep the borderline badasses from hunting and stuffing the cat. So… That was something. That, or did Noel mean the other usual. The things security usually looks out for. The unusual, the odd, the people with masks and crowbars or balaclavas and kalashnikovs.

Likely the latter.

Steven slid his chair away from the desk so Noel could more easily operate the computer running the security system. Steven had heard when he started that Noel should be given free reign like Ranger had. Steven wasn’t the biggest fan of muddy chains of command but Noel was the one exception so Steven didn’t mind too much.

It didn’t seem Noel found what she was looking for. That or she did and was looking for nothing. Either way she announced she’d take the dogs out. She even let Steven know that he could watch the monitors just in case. In case what? The bears her and Ranger kept decided to maul some land salmon.Also known as regular size dogs.

“Right. Have a good walk.” Steven said, he decided that the comment was a dig at his playing games instead of watching the monitors.”I’ll hold the fort.” he pointed at the monitor as he slid his chair back into place.

A few minutes later Steven saw Noel and the very large dogs walking around the perimeter. The image made Steven think of charioteers. Riding around being pulled by a pair of horses. Steven was hoping that Noel would hurry up and come back inside so he could go back to his games when she just vanished.

Noel was on one screen and the dogs pulled. Noel left the screen… and never showed up on the other. Steven’s eyebrows went up. Security blackspots were not really a thing at BlacTac. Where had Noel gone? Steven waited a few seconds. Nothing, “Oh… poop.” he muttered to himself. It was no longer a quiet night.

---

Ranger felt around in the darkness for his phone. It was on silent so that meant it was someone calling the other line on the virtual sim card on his phone. The one that always rang. He snapped his eyes open and snapped on a light as he brought it to his ear.

”Go f’r Hunter.”

Less than a minute later Ranger hit the bottom of the stairs and turned toward the security desk. Steven met him and walked with him.

“She was in frame, the dogs pulled, and then she was gone.”

”Which camera?”

“23. As of 10 seconds ago she has yet to show back up.“

”Alright. I’ll check it out.” Ranger did a quick pat down of his waist as he broke stride to head for the door. Keys, phone, knife, pistol, other pistol. ”Kill the exterior lights an’ call me if y’ see her.” Ranger said as he stepped out the door. The lights went out and Ranger’s vision shifted to infrared. He looked at the ground and could see the latent heat from where the dogs pads had touched the concrete.

Noel couldn't see what they had, but both dogs had locked their attention on to something with the kind of growling that made the tiny hairs at the back of Noel's neck stand up. She let the leashes go since the dogs were pulling in an attempt to circle around and hem in something. And if there really was something there, Noel wanted her hands free.

She tried to take a quick stock of the situation: the dogs were snarling and edging in straight toward a wall that appeared to be bare of any visible threat. There was a window on that wall, wired to all the other security measures no doubt. There was a camera somewhere... she looked for it and found it, and gave it a wave and a shrug. If there was something wrong with it, it wasn't obvious: no charred housings or sparking wires.

She'd finally decided to back off, grab her phone, and wake Michael when the lights were cut and all hell broke loose.

Her eyes didn't have time to adjust. She was nightblind and only had sounds to guide her.

The snarling quickly crescendoed into lunging and attacking. Noel took a knee. A grunt. Male. There was a loud yelp of pain from one of the dogs and a spatter of something hot hit Noel's face.

Oh. Oh no.

A body smacked into her arm where she'd been trying to reach toward the nearest wall. He tumbled over her, clearly not expecting her to be where she was.

Somehow she knew that whoever he was, he was just as night blind as she was.

The lights were out, but Ranger could see well enough. The lights overhead still glowed brightly as they gave off heat. The lights and the footsteps were visible against the cool night concrete, steel, and glass. Ranger followed the steps. Inside, Steven couldn’t figure out why the camera system insisted on showing him camera 24. There was nothing there that he could see in the faint moonlight.

Ranger hurried along, following the steps. The sound of a dog yelp put a fire under him and he poured on some speed. When he rounded the corner where he could see what camera 23 saw he could see and what 24 should see.

Noel, the dogs, and some weird gaseous heat. His infrared vision wasn’t seeing whatever it was, rather it was seeing the heat transfer with the air. Ranger kept moving. It was immediately clear something was wrong. He couldn’t tell which, but one of the dogs was hurt. She wasn’t standing right and something was forming a small pool at her paws.

Both Noel and the other were stumbling blind. Ranger knew if Noel was hurt because he had the lights killed he would regret the decision, but it gave him the opening he might need. His boots pounded the ground until he was within spitting distance of the other. Ranger could see the thing moving in response to his sounds. Ranger kicked off the ground and spun his hips as he whipped his leg out. First his knee whistled by the man before his shin on the other leg came round and drove into the man’s neck. It wasn’t enough force to break the neck or do any serious structural damage. It was a nuclear level brachial stun. The human equivalent of turning the computer off and on again.

Ranger’s legs hit ground again and he had to take a step to arrest his remaining momentum. As he spun back to face the scene and check on Noel and the dogs he saw a laptop near the wall. It had a large pair of bunny ear antennas. A bag lay next to it. Had Noel stumbled across a break in at BlacTac?

A break in. At BlacTac.

”Steven! Lights!”Ranger yelled as he kelt to check the other’s pulse. The other was alive. And groaning. Good enough for now. ”Noel. Are y’ alright?” Ranger said as he stepped toward her. She didn’t look injured, but in triage she always came first regardless of severity.

The lights came back on and Ranger’s vision went through the nauseating process of shifting back to visible light. Ranger gave Noel a quick once over. She had blood on her, but it didn’t seem like much or any was hers. Ranger turned to look at the dog who, the situation handled, was now laying down beside the pool of her own blood.

Dammit.

There was a laceration on her face and shoulder. It looked like she was in the other’s face and only just managed to dodge a deep deep cut to her neck. Ranger knelt beside her and looked at it. The facial cut was not bad, the one in the shoulder was very deep. Ranger palpated near it and there was a small spurt. Arterial spray. ”Shit.” Ranger breathed. Immediately he ripped a long strip off his shirt to wrap tightly around the wound. Reveille padded over to lay with Dammit. ”Y’ want her ‘r him?” Ranger asked Noel. The other needed managing and Dammit needed medical attention.

She should have tackled him after he clobbered over her and taken advantage of the confusion and disorientation. But she didn't. She knew he had a knife or something. She knew he had the means to make one of their dogs bleed. And, for all her complaints about the parasite... she couldn't do it. She'd taken a knee, rather than risk bumbling into him in the first place.

In the dark, a second set of fast approaching footsteps wasn't reassuring. It was undoubtedly back up. Michael. Even in the dark she could identify the way he moved, once her eyes started to adapt. She eased her hand off the phone in her pocket.

Noel wasn't hurt she was... terrified. Nauseated by the smell of blood that was continuously making her mouth fill with saliva.

She would not puke, she would not puke.

"Not me. Not hurt." She mopped at her face with the sleeve of her hoodie and cringed back from the lights when they flicked back on. Now that she could see, she wished she couldn't. It was Dammit. Revvie was super upset. Heck, Noel was upset. She'd basically used them both as a shield rather than coming out with proper preparations.

> ”Y’ want her ‘r him?”

"I can't lift her... should she be lifted?" Not to mention the smell. Noel mopped her face again and felt around to where the thud had resounded through the ground after Michael went all Texas Ranger on the invisible him. She felt an elbow, or something close enough. That she could work with.

Noel climbed on top of the prostrate form, kneed him in the spine, and chicken winged the arms in case his brain finished rebooting which must have looked ridiculous considering the fact that she was holding and molding what looked like nothing. Steven, to his credit, wasn't too far behind with zip ties and some helping hands.

Noel wasn’t hurt. That was good. That simplified things for Ranger. Two things to take care of. One, patching up Dammit. She was injured but as long as she was taken care of quickly she would be fine. Two, the other who Ranger no longer had the ability to see needed to be restrained.

Treating Dammit likely would require moving her inside. Restraining the other likewise would be best if he was brought inside. Both could be prepped for transport.

The response from Noel was good. Ranger had so far been worried about the immediately apparent condition. Ranger didn’t know much if anything about canine medicine. ”I can lift her. She seems fine enough t’ move.” Ranger moved his hand in front of Dammit’s face and watched her eyes. She licked at his hand and whimpered. ”Yeah. She’ll be fine.” Ranger said half to Noel half to himself.

While Ranger was assessing Dammit, Noel sat on the other. It was an odd sight what with the other not being visible. ”We need t’ get him tied up an’ get them both inside... St-... Good. Y’r earnin’ y’r paycheck t’night. Help her get that guy wrapped up like a present f’r Christmas then help me with her.” Ranger instructed Steven who had shown up with zip ties in hand.

”Y’ll be okay girl. This’ll hurt but y’re safe. I promise.” Ranger said softly to Dammit before he slid his arms under her. She was somewhere in the realm of one-hundred and eighty pounds. Ranger hadn’t weighed her in a long time to know her exact weight. Regardless, she was a healthy sized lady bear.

With a grunt, Ranger lifted her. His power slowly provided more power to his muscles. The dog was not outside his normal lifting range, but carrying her carefully as she squirmed in his arms took a significantly greater effort.

”I’ll get t’ work on her. Once y’ get him settled in a ‘guest room’ I think she’d like y’ there.” Ranger said to Noel before heading for the door.

Noel wrangled his jacket off before she zip tied his wrists and zip tied him again just above the elbows. It felt super awkward for the dude's shoulders, but he stabbed her dog. He could just freaking deal with it. Noel took the time to pat him down coming away with what appeared to be tools as well as a single knife. He hadn't seemed to be prepared for a confrontation. And curiously enough, Once she'd pulled his jacket full off, it became visible.

Michael had hefted Dammit up and disappeared inside. All they had to do was get those last few loose ends.

She asked Steven to hoist the invisible man inside and quickly grabbed the laptop, coat, and other miscelanea. Revvie whined and gave her hip a bump so Noel freed a hand to reassure her. "Surprised you didn't go in with Dammit." She gave the area one last look, it really was very unremarkable, but she didn't see anything and Revvie didn't have her hackles up any more.Noel spit the last of her over salivation and trotted after Steven to help with the doors and the "guest housing." They'd needed to use this holding room far too many times over the years.

He was shifting and starting to come around when they sat him in a chair. He let whatever ability had allowed him to stay invisible drop and Steven managed to zip tie his legs to the chair legs before things got too dicey. Noel piled the things she'd confiscated from him outside of the room so that they could go over them at their leisure, and took a moment to watch the guy for a bit. Shifty feller. His eyes kept drifting back to Noel and he seemed... flabbergasted.

Revvie bumped her hip again. Apparently she was the dog's emotional support person. Noel took the time to remove the leash and set that aside before they went to visit Dammit and Michael in the medical area, another much used portion of BlacTac. They should really move... but wouldn't it be a shame to leave all these conveniences behind when the dangers wasn't likely to stay with the facility?

"How's it going?" She took a deep breath before getting close and laying a hand on Dammit, reassured by the rise and fall of her rib cage.

The first problem with working on a dog, as Ranger discovered, was that they didn’t understand what was happening. They just knew it hurt and that they were being hurt more. The second problem with working on a dog is that Ranger had no idea what drugs were safe on them. This all led to the third problem.

Ranger only had two hands and Dammit was around the same size as Ranger.

With one hand, Ranger held Dammit down on a table while he worked with the other. Dammit was still while Ranger shaved the area around the laceration. When Ranger applied antiseptic, Dammit tried to bolt. She yelped and then whined as Ranger made it impossible for her to rise or gnaw at the offending pain in her shoulder. ”I’m sorry, girl. I’m sorry.” Ranger soothed as he quickly worked to patch the artery.

It was one thing to do combat lifesaver medicine on someone. It is another thing entirely to do it on someone who is a member of the family. Even if they are a dog. Having to fight Dammit down and hear her pained noises hurt Ranger. It only made it worse that he had to widen the wound to treat the artery. Once there was enough room to work in he had to clamp both sides of the lacerated artery and then, again with a single hand, work an arterial suture.

Dammit was moving too much. Ranger quickly fished a table from across the room with a foot and drew it closer. On the table there was a mask that was connected to a tank of gas. Ranger spun the valve open and held the mask over Dammit’s snout. He didn’t know how the little bear would handle ether, but he didn’t know if he could suture the artery with her still fighting him. One way she would die for sure. This way, Dammit had a shot.

When Dammit calmed down a good ten or so seconds later, Ranger tied the mask in place before returning to the surgery. Ranger was slowly closing the artery when Noel came in.

”It looks bad.” Ranger said, his hands covered in blood, working close to the shaved area of Dammit’s shoulder. The hair in the area matted with blood. ”As long as that doesn’t hurt ‘er, she’ll be fine.” Ranger gestured to the ether before cutting the suture and unclamping Dammit’s artery.

”How’s the sack uh shit that did this?” Ranger asked as he pinched the skin closed and worked a surgical stapler.

It was the smell. It was a bad mix of blood and musty dog smell, and it just made her want to lose her lunch. Noel had what felt like infinite experience fighting down bad tastes, and she had to battle the urge to puke but for Dammit's sake, if not her own, she was going to win that battle.

Noel's eyes followed the gas line back to the other side of the room, but... Noel didn't know about ether and dogs any more than Michael. She would stay to Dammit's back thankyouverymuch and try real hard not to look.

"I hear that veterinarian-ing is as easy as flying a helicopter." Of course, the both of them would rather be doing the latter. Noel smoothed Dammit's fur back from her ears in that spot she really liked and kept her other hand as a steadying reminder for Revvie not to jump up. Maybe they should look into staff that could help with animals. Or... maybe Noel had taken in the wrong set of skills at her last skill-up. How much defensive driving had she done in the last few weeks?

> ”How’s the sack uh shit that did this?”

"Awake. Uncomfortable. Not nearly uncomfortable enough."

She should go deal with that since she wasn't useful here. Noel gave Dammit another fur smoothing and made sure to unhook her leash before it might get tangled up. She did her best not to look, but she did see shaved skin. "We're going to need a cone of shame." That was going to be fun. For now, she ushered Revvie away from licking at Dammit's mask and continued to steer the other pup out of the room.

"I'll start on him. You can catch up. Don't worry, I won't—" She forgot what she wouldn't when she glanced at his hands and shirt. Both were blood slick enough that she was sure she could smell them. Noel made a hasty exit.

Revvie was now her shadow, walking in lockstep and keeping some part of herself pressed against Noel. She took long steps to get away, but slowed before rounding the corner where Steven was messing with the antennaed computer. "Find anything fun?"

"It was transmitting, but not any more."

"Local or distance?"

"I think distance."

Noel was not an expert in laptops either. She was a people person at heart. Noel moved into the room, noisily pulled a chair to sit in front of, but not too close to the sometimes invisible man. Revvie found a place on the floor, laying at her feet when she sat.

She sat and she observed.

Ranger cracked a smile. The levity was nice, not distracting but cleared some of the darkness from the moment. ”Yeah. That sounds about right.” Ranger used a clean section of his forearm to wipe his brow. At that moment Ranger would have said that at least flying a helicopter was less stressful. You don’t hold a life in your hands.

The man that had done this was awake and uncomfortable. Noel said that the man was not uncomfortable enough. Ranger wasn’t sure if there was enough discomfort the man could experience to make up for what he’d done. Ranger was willing to try though. ”We can always fix that.” Torture was not what Ranger would stoop to, but for someone who had sliced up Dammit… He might dust off the old enhanced interrogation techniques. Was waterboarding in this season?

”I’ll fashion somethin’. Send someone t’ get one from somewhere when people start arrivin’ in the mornin’.” They didn’t have veterinary equipment on hand. There had been no need. Ranger had the awful thought that they might should stock some and have someone on call that knew some veterinary medicine. Like a doggo EMT. Have them around like a pistol or a driver license. Have them just in case but hope you never need them.

Maybe send Dammit to an actual vet, just to be safe.

Ranger paused in stapling to look to Noel as she left the room. He knew it must have been tough for her to be in there while Ranger was working on Dammit. It was Dammit. Ranger had his hands and his shirt covered in Dammit’s blood. With the work nearly done, Ranger could say that the scene likely looked worse than it really was.

”I’ll meet y’ there.” Ranger said to Noel, filling the gap after she cut herself off. Then Noel was gone, Miss Rev glued to her was gone as well.

A couple minutes later, Ranger had all the staples in place and was confident they would hold. From there he tried to clean up some of the blood from Dammit’s fur. It improved it, but it was still a mess. That could wait. He tore up his shirt and used the unbloodied back to build an improvised sling to hold Dammit’s leg up. The last thing he needed was for her to rip open her sutures. Hopefully the blood loss would keep her tired and calm until she could see a veterinarian.

Ranger turned off the ether and removed the mask from Dammit before he went to wash his hands. When he returned, Dammit was stirring. Her whining was starting, but it was much quieter. Ranger scooped her up and held her close to his chest. That seemed to calm her down. Ranger carried her to a couch and lay her down on it. ”Sorry f’r this.” Ranger said as he ripped a lampshade off a lamp and bent the metal that held it to the bulb so it would hook onto Dammit’s collar. It was the most ghetto-fabulous cone of shame.

Once Dammit was settled and sleeping, Ranger found a new shirt and made his way to the “guest room”.

”How’s it goin’?” Ranger mirrored Noel’s question as he stared daggers at the man and popped his knuckles on one hand by slowly, but forcefully, clenching a fist. It was much easier to stare now that the man was visible.

She could have had all the answers by now, but it was polite to wait considering it was as much Michael's business as her own. The man cleared his throat once, as if he might try to say something but he must have thought better of it. He had a light blond stubble, dishwater brown hair that could use a trim in a few days but not just yet. His eyes were gray... maybe blue. He didn't seem to be able to keep eye contact. He wasn't memorable in any one way, really. Not too old. Not too young. Not ugly. Not panty combusting.

> ”How’s it goin’?”

"Just scoping things out."

His clothes are well made, well kept. Easy to move in. He'd come prepared to manually breech their defenses. He didn't look too worried. Worried, yes, but not in active fear for his life.

"He's a cog in this, whatever this is. I guess it's time to see how useful he can be." Noel stood and stretched, the hem of her sleep shirt and hoodie raising just enough to expose a sliver of roundish belly. She caught him looking and tugged it down.

"They thought you were someone they know." It was impossible for her focus not to snap to the man. He'd been silent before, but he'd seemed comfortable in his silence, confident that he could wait as long as he wanted. He didn't sound all that confident any more. "You're not that person."

"What person?"

"They want to meet you."

Noel shot Michael a jaded look. It was never good when they wouldn't answer questions.

"No point in beating around the bush." She walked behind him and the man in the chair strained to twist and keep both of them in his line of sight, an impossible task with the Ranger in front of him.

"W-wait. We just wanted to make sure you were safe. This isn't exactly a normal place full of normal people, y'know? What are you doing?" Noel had plopped herself down and taken one of his fingers, brushing it off and double checking it wasn't going to be too icky. He probably thought she was going to break it since he actually yelped when she enclosed the finger in the soft tissues of her mouth. He blinked into invisibility and back with a cringe.

Noel walked into a memory of an office meeting, riding through the eyes of the man. He'd gotten the job to observe the people who'd sent that goon to look into them. Now that Michael and Noel were on their radar, several uncomfortable questions had arisen.

She rocked back, breaking contact with his hand and looking around the chair and man to look up at Michael.

"He was sent by my brother." Which implied that she had a brother and knew him, but she'd seen this man's memory. They suspected her to be the sister of the man who sent the invisible man. This was a theory she was all too willing to adopt since they'd had contact with Bird of Prey. BlacTac had sent BoP out to find her family.

Ranger nodded at Noel’s answer. Ranger kept his eyes on the man. While he looked worried, Ranger felt the man didn’t look as scared as he should be. The man had almost killed one of their dogs. There was a movie about how poorly that can go for someone.

Noel spoke again. The man was just a cog in whatever was going on. Ranger looked from the man to her.

”Let’s do it.” Ranger said. It was more likely that Noel would do most of the interrogation. While Ranger could be intimidating and make someone speak, Noel could sus out the truth more precisely. She was like a scalpel, cleanly excising the information. Ranger… His methods were addressed ,‘to whom it may concern.’

The interesting thing was that the man offered up information. Before a question could even be asked, he spoke. Nothing concrete, but a starting place. ‘They’ thought Noel was someone they knew. This raised three questions; who were they, who was this person, and why would they break into BlacTac over it?

The man then said that Noel was not that person. When Noel asked who that was and in response the man said ‘they’ wanted to meet. This meant the man was giving some information, but not answering their questions.

Ranger met Noel’s eyes and he knew what was next. Noel would lift some of the man’s memories. It was an incredibly useful, but equally dangerous power. Nowhere near as dangerous as deleting memories, but Ranger had firsthand experience how it could cost you. Ranger gave Noel a nod.

Noel went around behind the man and Ranger stood where he was in front of the man. This left the man straining to try and watch them both. It seemed to panic him as he began to speak more. Ranger did have to smile at the mention of BlacTac not being a normal place full of normal people because it certainly wasn’t. It was one of the rare places where everyone was squared away. The smile became a small chuckle when the man blinked invisible for a moment when Noel put his finger in her mouth. The man must have thought Noel was about to bite his finger off.

When Noel broke free from her memory surfing, Ranger looked from the man to her. The man could prattle on and on about whatever he wanted, but Noel likely knew all they needed to know now. And no waterboarding was necessary. A shame.

When she spoke. Ranger’s eyebrows went up. THe man was sent by Noel’s brother.

It had been a little while since Bird of Prey had been tasked with investigating Noel’s family. Perhaps he had been made? Noel’s family started to investigate the ones who had sent the man to investigate them. ”Blair must be gettin’ sloppy in his old age.” Ranger joked, ”So they backtraced where Blair had come from? Sounds like they already knew somethin’ about here, what with his comin’ here t’ ‘make sure y’ were safe’.”

John Paul Rider, or JP to his friends, also known as Mr. Invisible in Noel's head, sputtered at Noel's declaration. He tried to deny, or misdirect, but was all too busy tripping over himself and his story.

"Shut it, JP. The adults are talking." Noel had to use her knee and Michael's offered hand to help hoist herself up. Already her center of balance was different. That was irritating not to be totally comfortable with how her body was working. Stack on top of that the fact that is was stupid o'clock, her dog got stabbed, and she hadn't really rested and the result was that Noel was feeling just a mite cranky.

"He's smug 'cause he's thinking he's got good news for us and for his boss so everyone should be happy in the end. I think maybe just maybe the idiot forgot who stabbed my dog."

That did it. He paled all over again.

To Michael's question, "I think it's safe to say Bird's been made. You hear from him lately?"

And for JP... Noel circled around and folded her arms. "Why'd you say I'm not her? You may speak now to answer the question."

"Oh. Uh. The- the uh ages don't line up just right. She would've been just 30, born in 1990 and you're..." He looked like he was going to guess Noel's age or say more, and then wisely shut his yap instead.

Noel was just about to turn 26. Or 36, if her driver's license was to be believed. His reluctance to guess was likely founded on the knowledge that her age had been flexible at one point and still none of the numbers lined up just right.

"You got a family dossier?"

"No."

"You know this family, personally?"

"Only a little. I contract pretty regularly, but we don't barbecue or anything."

Noel frowned. Worth it, not worth it? She glanced at Michael again.

She'd only just gotten up, and now she was gonna have to go back into his memory and fish out details the hard way. Why didn't employers helpfully give out dossiers about themselves so she could carefully limit her intake?

"I'mma need some paper."