As Tarin explained more about this brawl as he spoke with Michael about it, Lee first turned her head to look up at him in surprise. Then turned her entire body so she could look more directly up at him in shock and surprise. ”There were…” Lee started, absolutely floored that not only had Tarin used his powers in public, but that he had so flagrantly used them in order to make multiple spirits visible to others. ”You actually did that? In public? Before we had even met up?”

Wow. Whatever had been going on that day had been wild and crazy if Tarin had done that.

Michael understood, now because of Emma, why she had needed to step back for Kevin. And that the work she was doing was to make the world a safer place for Emma, and Lee smiled.

”That’s what I had hoped to do with Haven,” Lee replied. ”And with Slate, though that was just making the world safer in general since I wasn’t even able to think about having a kid at that point.”

”And things are getting better.”

Lee turned to smile at Tarin. ”They are,” she agreed. ”Slower than we may want, but they are getting better.”

Ranger had to agree with Tarin, there really wasn’t a choice in escalating the crazy of that day. A normal fight escalated fast and wild. However, Train’s comment about the spirits drew a reaction from Lee. Ranger looked from Tarin to Lee, then back to Tarin. There was something there about Tarin openly using his powers before meeting Lee.

Odd.

Staying out of that part of the conversation seemed the way to go to Ranger.

”Haven, from what I can tell… It’s interestin’.” Ranger looked around casually as she spoke. ”I was brought in initially t’ do similar work as I did f’r Slate. F’r all its nice public image, Haven idn’t afraid t’ get some hands dirty. Accordion’ t’ mine an’ Noel’s journals from before ‘r de-agin’... There were some bad players taken off the board. Since then I’ve only done one op f’r Haven.” Ranger gestured to herself, ”This was the consequence. I failed the mission, but it led t’ an arrest an’ a kid gettin’ saved from the madman’s magic.” Ranger sighed, ”Plus my kid likes havin’ a mom that’ll take her shoppin’. So not all bad. Savin’ the kid an’ all future victims was worth it.”

”I did.” Tarin admitted, smiling a bit at Lee’s surprise. ”But, like I said, as soon as there were guns involved and I got far enough away to figure out what was going on, I dipped.” he said with a mildly apologetic glance in Michael’s direction.

The more Tarin heard about “Haven” the more curious he got. If Michael was doing the same work for them that he had done for the group that Lee had worked with in Columbia and Romania it probably meant that working with Haven was dangerous.

That thought was confirmed a moment later when Michael explained how she had ended up in a very different form than the one Tarin had briefly met in the Park. Sure, it sounded like a lot of good had come from whatever had happened but life-altering consequences were not something Tarin wanted to even think about, let alone experience, even if it sounded like Michael was adjusting well.

It made sense and Lee was glad that Tarin had left as soon as the gun had come out. There wasn't much defence against a gun. Unless you were like Michael.

That didn't make it any less surprising that Tarin had had visible spirits in the middle of the park.

And Michaels explanation of why she had been brought into Haven to start with made sense. Michael had a very specific skill set that could be made quite useful depending on the situation. Though she said she hadn't done any missions between those first ones and the one that had caused the gender change.

A mission involving a child and magic. ”I’m glad to hear you saved the kid,” Lee said. She was curious, though. Michael said that she handled the security for Haven, meaning he had to see, hear, and know a fair bit, right?

”Have they been running the same kinds of missions they were six years ago?” Lee asked. Maybe she'd actually be able to get the answers about Haven she was looking for here and now. That'd be helpful. ”Just obviously not needing your skills?”

”It was actually the kids parent an’ Cold Steel that ultimately saved the kid. I jus’ put my thumb on the scale. Flushed the scum out ‘f hidin’ an’ denied him the enchanted tools he’d been workin’ on.” Ranger had felt like the mission had been a complete failure until Travis had been apprehended at the mansion. Having access to Travis’ spellbook—really more of an engineering book—Ranger could see the designs for spells that she had denied the monster.

Lee asked if Haven was still running the same kinds of missions, ”I cain’ say much, already stretchin’ the limits on what I should say. Short answer, I’m not sure. After I was de-aged I was no longer a player at Haven. Moved out, maintained my business’ job as security through my second in command. Only recently have I reestablished a relationship with Svetlana.” Range looked away for a moment thinking though what she’d seen and heard about Haven post the de-aging ”Best I can guess, there is some shenanigans goin’ on, but not to the scale as before. More vigilante, less militarized police action. Street level, focus on helpin’ in the moment. Not as proactive against larger gangs.”

Ranger looked around, ”Might be best if we move this conversation. Gettin’ a little heavy to be standin’ still in the open.” Best to hold it on the move or somewhere secluded. ”Without a doubt mentions of Slade, Romania, an’ Haven would have any interested parties creepin’.”

It isn’t paranoia when it is good OpSec.

It seemed as though everything was a bit connected. Michael mentioned that the situation he’d been involved with for Haven had involved one of the X-Men that Lee knew. Protecting kids was something Tarin could get behind, but the whole
concept of enchanted tools and the rest went right over his head.

Lee and Michael kept talking, the conversation and the optic getting more wild by the minute.

Vigilante? Militarised police action? What had Lee been mixed up with? Careful to not let any surprise show on his face, Tarin added to his mental list of questions as the conversation progressed.

Now they needed to get on the move so that they weren’t overheard? What they were talking about was covert enough that talking about it in the open was a bad idea?

Tarin glanced over at Lee briefly. “If you guys wanted to chat more we can always go to the shop.” he offered.

Lee’s eyes widened as Michael explained that it had actually been Sam and the kid’s parents that had saved them. But it had been Michael who had ‘flushed him out’ so he could be captured.

”That's who you were sent after?” Lee asked. Why did everything seem to be so interconnected with everything else recently? ”Thank god you were able to find him so he could be arrested. I just hope the justice system actually does its job this time.”

Arrested was better than nothing, at least. And it did come with the added bonus of Sam not potentially facing a murder charge. Though Lee also knew that if the justice system didn’t do its job in this case, Sam would make sure that the guy didn’t get away with it.

Michael then started vaguely explaining about what he knew of Haven, since he apparently hadn’t been overly involved other than as security. Lee frowned slightly as she nodded. It didn’t sound like Devon was in charge anymore, and, at least based on what Michael was saying, Haven was acting more like the X-Men these days, if far more discreet.

Not overly promising for Lee, but it was still worth looking into.

And now Michael was concerned about having this conversation out in public. ”Those vague generalities are enough for me right now,” Lee started to say.

”If you guys wanted to chat more we can always go to the shop.”

Lee shot a smile at Tarin. ”Though if you did want to continue talking, it’s not far from here.”

It seemed Lee knew about Tavis. Not too surprising, the man’s attack on Iris wasn’t some secret—especially post him being apprehended.

”I’m more worried about how they’ll contain him. There’re ways t’ contain mutants… Magic. That’s new an’ while Travis doesn’ seem like he can blow down doors, he’s turnin’ off powers, changin’ his face, an’ who knows what else… I wouldn’t’ve blamed Cold Steel f’r jus’ putin the man down after Iris was cured.”

The only thing that kept Ranger from ventilating Travis’ dome piece was the unknowns around Iris. Killing Travis might have condemned Iris. Ranger’s power being broken was a price Ranger was fine paying for Iris to be okay.

At the mention of taking the conversation on the road, Train suggested going to the shop. Not sure what that was, Ranger chimed in in response to Lee.

”Sure. What kid ‘f shop is it?” Ranger asked. Lee was fine with the vague generalities that Ranger had disclosed so Ranger took an initiative in shifting the conversation.

Containment…magic…face changing…

The conversation was going faster than Tarin could keep up with again and he just stood there for a few moments processing when Michael pointed out that he wouldn’t have blamed Cold Steel for putting the man down.

That was…wow.

It sounded like everything had worked out though and Tarin wasn’t going to ask for details because things were already weird enough.

Both Lee and Michael seemed open to heading to the shop to talk and when Michael asked what kind of shop it was, Tarin said, ”It’s a medium shop, made sense to turn what I can do into something useful.”

Since they’d established where they were going, Tarin started moving in that direction.

Michael wouldn’t have blamed Sam for killing the man. Yeah, neither could Lee. ”He wanted to…” Lee said quietly just before the conversation changed to moving the location of this conversation.

A shop which, though she had met Tarin previously and would have seen the spirits, Michael did not know what Tarin did for work. ”And apparently in New York, there is no shortage of people who want to speak with the dead,” Lee commented. Considering Tarin was still as busy as he was at the shop after almost 20 years of there being a medium shop in that location, it was obviously true.

Starting to walk, Lee turned to Tarin. ”Do you still have drinks there?” she asked softly. ”Or should I grab a coffee on our way?”

Ranger chuckled softly, it was so perfect. Someone who did stuff with ghosts, sold that aas a service. Reminded Ranger of how Rhiannon sold workouts with her power—bodyswapped with yout then went to the gym.

”Okay, then I have t’ ask—d’ people actually want t’ talk t’ the dead ‘r they lookin’ f’r that comfortin’ lie that a cold reader gives ‘em?” Ranger asked as they walked toward the shop. Obviously people that needed something from the spirit like a location or a secret would love Tarin, but so many people just seemed to want to hear some nicety.

Lee asked about drinks and whether or not she needed to get coffee on the way, ”Yes, are there drinks? Inquiring minds want t’ know.”

It was weird talking about this…not in a bad way, but nobody was ever interested in stuff like this. Most people were super weirded out with what Tarin did or just didn’t ask.

”Little of both…” Tarin said as they walked, ”Plenty of folks looking for missing wills, trying to confirm family secrets that came to light after someone died…missing persons cases sometimes.” Those sucked. Those sucked a lot.

”One older lady has a standing appointment a couple of times a month to, as far as I can tell, bicker with her dead husband.”

It was work. They were just talking about work.

Lee asked about coffee and Michael echoed the sentiment and Tarin shook his head, ”I really only kept it on hand for clients and I don’t really do morning appointments anymore, so I guess you’ll want to stop. I’ve got some soda, water?” he said a bit sheepishly.

Other than the detail about a specific client, it didn’t appear that the kinds of clients had changed a whole lot over the last decade. Other than Tarin deciding to not really do morning appointments at all, which Lee had already known and as it let him get enough sleep when they shared a bed and still be able to go for a run together in the mornings.

No coffee in the shop. That wasn’t a surprise to Lee since Tarin didn’t drink much. She simply nodded her understanding as she looked ahead to see which vendor would be the best to stop at on the way.

For a brief moment, Lee considered just going with a pop if Michael wanted simply water, but quickly dismissed that idea; with how difficult the run had been for her, plus the fact that her energy replenishing options would be quite limited at the shop until Michael left, coffee was most certainly going to be needed.

Then, Lee saw a large group starting to walk away from one of her favourite vendors just ahead of them, leaving a remarkably short line. ”Oh perfect,” Lee said, giving Tarin’s hand a quick squeeze before veering off to get in line. ”I won’t be long.”

”Interestin’.” Ranger mused. She wasn’t sure how she felt about contacting a ghost. Rather, contacting ghosts for personal reasons. She could see the benefits for sourcing information, maybe solving a murder or something. Speaking to a lost loved one… It just seemed like it would be harder to let them go. Say Tarin died, lost his power, or moved. You lose the ability to contact them and have to grieve all over again.

Perhaps Ranger would feel different if his losses were more recent. Time had eased the pain of all of her losses.

”Have y’ ever been visited by any of New York’s finest lookin’ t’ crack a difficult murder case?” Ranger finally asked, ever the pragmatist.

As for drinks, Train had water and coke. No coffee. Lee had noticed a vendor with a short line and took off toward it. ”Pin in the ghost talk?” Ranger said as she also diverted from Tarin to follow Lee to the coffee.

Ranger’s coffee order was simple. Rarely, but somehow not always never, messed up. ”Black. That size.” With a point to the cup size she wanted. Sometimes at big chains where they ask your name she gets weird looks when she says Michael.

Had the police ever asked for his help?

”God no.” Tarin said as Lee walked away to go and get her coffee. ”I…I try to keep a low profile as much as possible.” Tarin said by way of explanation. The fact that he was at least tangentially responsible for a couple of open cases complicated that even further, but thinking about that was not a good idea right now. Neither was getting into why he kept a low profile and studiously avoided government agencies.

Michael needed coffee too, it appeared, and when she walked away, Tarin took for a few moments getting his thoughts together about everything that was happening.

That he and Lee were going to have to talk was a given, but he started making a mental list in his head of things he wanted to ask her as he waited for the two women to return.