It was the day after the attack on the mansion and the city was as normal as it could be considering the event. People were out, going about their lives. The largest difference was the increase in police and protestors.

This was how Sam found himself at the Bethesda fountain in central park. A small protest against mutants and mystics and all other non-normal people had formed. Of course there was the counter protest from pro-mutant factions.

Sam, tired from a late night of preparations, sat on the edge of the fountain turning a key in his fingers. It was an older looking iron key. As he mindlessly manipulated it in his hand his mind raced.

He had acted. He had locked away the powers of a child in order to save it from its curse of mutation. However, there was a strong chance the parents would approach him. A little digging had revealed the child belonged to some people from the mansion who had a fair amount of stroke.

This meant that when they came after him he would need to be prepared. Maybe he could talk his way out of it. He had been able to keep Svetlana off his case enough to work with her up to that point. This would be more difficult. He needed a backup.

It was the best of times, and the worst of times.

Best of times because this had been a fantastic couple of days for Zek! So much excitement! So much beating of people! So much stuff accumulated! So much profit to be made!

After all, he'd sent the X-Men his invoice for his assistance in defense of their house. He was already setting aside a locker in Zekworld for the X-uniform he'd demanded.

And in the day after, the world was in an uproar. Zek had spent the morning going from protest to protest, making signs on all sides and snagging snacks from each. The protest on third street had the best donuts, but the seventh avenue one had some delicious baguettes and cream cheese.

Zek had one of each in hand as he made his way through the counter protests to the fountain. His black trenchcoat was on as usual, and all of his clothes were solid black. His eyes shone white behind his sunglasses and his black fedora cast a shadow over his forehead. He sidled up to a man he found there and stood back to back. "The pigeon is in the coop," he said.

"What on Earth?" the random man said before hurriedly walking off to join his family and get them away from the weirdo.

Zek shrugged, took another bite from the baguette, and walked up to another man. "The daffodil is in the binding," he said.

Sam snapped back to the present and scanned the crowds. There was someone in all black with a fedora walking up to people who then looked confused and hurried off. Sam cocked his head at the oddity before looking around. No one else behaving like that. Sam stood up and sighed.

”This better not be trouble.” He said quietly to himself.

The trenchcoat did look familiar though. Sam tucked his badge inside his shirt and sifted into the crowd. The chanting of “mutants are people too!” grated at his ears.

Where did the man go? Sam looked around. Someone had been waving a cheap sign in front of his face and by the time he had ducked around it he had lost sight of him.

"The fault is in our stars," Zek said. The woman turned around with a pleased smile, saw that Zek wasn't her boyfriend, and immediately recoiled and shuffled away.

Zek had consumed the baguette by then. "The trapezoid is in the arena," he said to a slender man just a few feet away.

The man didn't look at Zek and just said, "The pudding is in the proof."

Zek nodded and the two men stumbled into each other. "Ooph!" they said on cue and they fought for their balance and quickly righted themselves.

Then they were walking away from each other. A keen-eyed observer, however, might've noticed the quick sleight of handwork as a wad of cash was passed over to Zek even as Zek handed the guy what looked like a stick.

Then Zek moseyed on over to a woman. "The bull is in the china shop."

Sam moved around in the crowd for another couple minutes but didn’t come across the man he had set out after. Sam cut his losses and broke off the search to head back into the open around the fountain.

A common trope of life is you can never find something until you stop looking for it. Sam caught sight of the man. To not make scene, Sam slid up next to him, put his arm around his shoulders, and said, ”Howdy friend, wasn’t expecting you here-” Sam cut off as he recognized the man. Zek, the guy from the coffee shop. ”What fun are you stirring up today?” Sam put an odd emphasis on the word fun to indicate he knew that only Zek would enjoy whatever he was cooking up.

An arm landed on Zek's shoulders just moments after he traded a bag of "marbles" for another thick wad of cash. Golden light flashed in his hand and he was already moving to pocket the person who dared to infringe on his personal space unasked for, but this his swivel-head recognized the person.

"Saaaaam!" Zek said loudly. "What a delightful and convenient encounter? How's it...scone?" he said, his pun unrepentant.

The light vanished and instead he wrapped that baguetteless arm arm the man's waist. "I'm into all kinds of fun," Zek said, sticking his very blue tongue out at the man. "You'll have to be more specific."

He jammed the donut in his mouth and quickly high fived another person. There may've been an exchange of some more bills and a tiny ring. "You looking for some fun?" Zek said in a garbled fashion, not bothering to remove the donut form his mouth.

The encounter immediately went off the rails before it had even found a direction. Sam was immediately pun-ished for starting the interaction.

How Zek moved, spoke, and otherwise acted was mildly grating to Sam. That might have been Zek’s point in how he acted, but that might be giving him too much credit. Odds were, Zek was just unashamedly being aggressively himself at all times.

What was further grating was an idea that had manifested itself in Sam’s mind. Zek could help Sam in his possible predicament. Zek helping wasn’t the issue, rather it was that Sam would be making use of Zek’s power. His mutant power.

Sam could offer some grace in tolerating Zek’s power when it proved useful though. Use it now to help so that he can reach a later time where he can help cure more people than just Zek of their power.

”I may have already started some fun. You might be interested in helping it turn up to eleven.” Sam said, hoping to pique Zek’s interest with a promise of chaos.

Zek's smile only sharpened as he watched Sam's expression. La, it was good to be Zek!

Another bored protester wandered by and said, "The devil is in the details," but Zek just responded with, "Sorry, I'm vegan," and ignored the woman as he devoured the rest of his custard-filled donut.

Now Sam had his undivided attention.

"You have my undivided attention," Zek said, lowering his sunglasses a bit so his eyes could glow over the tops of them. His smile started widening, stretch way to far toward his ears, more like a rictus than a normal human smile. "What's the play?"

Sam had been successful, though Zek made him regret doing so. Using his power in a disgusting way. Sam soldiered on though. THis was for the greater good. He could suffer this in the short term.

”I kicked a hornets nest and if the hornets catch me it could calm everything down. The hornets being people high up with the X-men and Haven.” Sam said, giving a quick and vague overview. ”I predict they will sus out that I caused their problem and will be after me soon. Maybe a day or two before they are on me. All I need is an escape if I cannot talk them off my trail. The longer my project can run the more chaos I can sow with it” Sam substituted good with chaos for Zek's insensibilities.

Now Zek's eyes were shining a solid white, irises, pupils, everything. "Oh my!" he breathed as he clutched a pearl necklace he wasn't wearing (he'd sold it earlier that morning). "A man after my own heart!" he said in a very bad Hollywood Southern accent.

"An escape, huh?" Zek said in his typical tones. "You know, I may be able to help you out. You just needing to lay low for a bit, or are we talking one-way ticket outta here?" he said, indicating New York City at large with his non-pearl-clutching hand. "I recently came into some new...resources, so to speak, so you got me on a good day."

He leaned in way closer to Sam's ear, so the point he could breath on it with every word. "But if I wash your back, what are you going to do for me?" he said breathily. "Sammy-poo might get jealous if he finds out I fooled around with another Sam behind his back."

Sam looked away. He cast his gaze around the crowd near them. It was the look of an officer watching the crowd. While it was both him continuing to work and ensuring no one was eavesdropping, it was more to look away from Zek’s cursed eyes.

”I shouldn’t need help laying low and I don’t need to leave the city. I… Have an ace up my sleeve. I just have to get away to use it.” Sam said. He suspected he would not like whatever these new resources Zek had were, but they could be necessary so he would suffer them.

What Sam certainly did not appreciate was Zek breathing on his ear as he brought up a quid pro quo. Sam pulled his head away and then stepped to the side before he spoke.

”I might have something that could interest you.” Sam reached inside his jacket and took hold of the grip on a knife. ”Here’s a demonstration.” Sam said as he slid back close to Zek and in one motion slid the knife down below his jacket and across Zek’s pant leg. There was a small flash of light as the knife made contact. Sam immediately stowed the knife in his jacket. ”I just reduced the friction on your pants. You can now slide on dry concrete like it's a slip and slide.” Sam gestured to the open area closer to the fountain with his head, ”Try it out.”

Zek was now practically purring. "Mmmm, I just love a well-prepared man," he said, laying it on thick and heavily. His grin only got bigger as Sam looked away. "I believe I can help you out. I happen to have such a place one can use...for a price." He thought about licking Sam's ear but got the feeling that would be a step too far.

Then, random knife attack!

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Zek said as he was slashed. He leaped away and with a flick of his wrist, a knife of his own was in his hand and the other handing smashed a white orb into space where it became a small portal to his extra-dimensional locker room armory.

"I swear, if you ruined these jeans, you're a dead man," Zek swore, his sunglasses sliding down an inch and revealing his irises and pupils had all turned solid, angry red.

That's about when the explanation kicked in. He eyed the knife and then Sam again. His eyes returned to a regular non-glowing brown. "Ahhh," he said in realization. The dude had magic. Not as cool as Zek's magic, but useful enough. "So that's the game we're playing. Well, this had better be flippin' amazing."

And it was.

Zek ran two feet and leaped to the ground and landed on his butt. He immediately slid like a sled into a gaggle of people's legs and bowled them over. Before they could do more than call out, Zek hit each person with a golden ball and they vanished. He'd deal with them later. And their wallets.

"You have my attention!" Zek said as he got to his feet, quickly learning to use his hands and not his knees to help himself up.

The reaction from Zek drew a smile from Sam. Zek had both leapt away and produced a knife of his own and an orb of light. Sam had forced Zek to show how he reacted to aggression. Sam filed that away for later.

It was useful to know how people would respond if they took offense at having their curse lifted in the future.

”Most fun a girl can have without taking her pants off.” Sam said with a shrug. It was a hyperbolic statement delivered matter-of-factly regarding how amazing the spell was.

Sam quickly decided he might regret not changing their location before demonstrating the knife. Zek decided to go human-bowling. Where he was the ball and bystanders were the pins. He knew he would regret it when Zek began to disappear the pin-people.

”Good.” Sam said. With Zek’s attention, a rare commodity indeed, he could work the deal. ”I can give you this knife now. It’s good for a few more uses. I can then recharge it after you help me.”

Zek snickered at the hyberbole. "Good to know. How's it do with guys though?" he said with the smile he normally saved for Captain Icepatch.

They were in a bit of a no-man's zone between the protest and the counter-protest, but nobody was paying them any attention, even after Zek's sporting debut or all the flashing lights and vanishing people. Zek was pretty half the people were there for him anyways, so none of this would be out of the ordinary. Also, it was New York City.

"Before I take the knife," he said, his smile shifting into a smirk. "Let's talk details. Maybe a fancy knife just isn't enough." He didn't move to take the knife, at least not yet. He'd get what he wanted later. He shoved a ball of white light into the open sir and a portal just tall enough for him to comfortably step through (and therefore way shorter than Sam) appeared.

"Step into my parlor," said the baller to the guy. "Tis the prettist little parlor that you ever did spy." Zek stepped into a conference room in Zekworld.

Let the games begin.