As always the crowds parted around Meld as she followed Nexus to wherever it was that he was leading her to. She wasn't certain where they were going or exactly what he wanted, despite his earlier words, but she still had an obligation to her fellow mutant and she intended to fulfill that obligation. And then hopefully get as far away from him as possible. There was just something about him that seemed off to her, not enough for her to refuse to help him but enough to send all sorts of ringing alarm bells in her head. If she could only figure out what it was then maybe she could decide what, exactly, to do about it.

It was with some surprise that Meld found herself in front of a restaurant and she recalled, if somewhat distantly, that Nexus had made mention of food earlier. It seemed like such a long time ago now, her epiphany having distanced herself from everything that had occurred before that pivotal moment. She resisted the urge to growl under her breath in annoyance. All she wanted to do was help the mutant out and get home to work out...exactly what had happened to her and everything that happening meant. She vowed that she would not let the momentary detour of eating distract her from the focus she needed for her task, whatever that turned out to be.

"Noodles sound fine," Meld answered, her voice cold and expressionless. She payed little attention to the baser details of the restaurant, instead focusing on on how many and what sorts of people were around and where all the exits were. Her mind had entered mission mode and it was with that eye that she considered things now. Once her mind was set on a mission it was always difficult for her to see outside of that mindset. Everything she noticed was with the eye for personal safety, potential escape routes, who was a threat and who wasn't. The little things like lighting and decor were irrelevant and thus not noticed.

When a woman came up to seat them Meld requested a spot near the large windows. With her mutation doors weren't necessary if it came to the necessity of escape and easily breakable windows were often more to her liking given that they weren't nearly as expected. Once the woman handed them their menus and left Meld spoke to Nexus, her voice low so that those around wouldn't be able to pick up her words. "I know what you don't want me to do but you have yet to tell me what you do want me to do. Why choose me to help you? Surely you are aware of the sorts of talents I have."

This whole split shift thing, was definitely going to have to end. Besides the things that Kealey always wanted to complain about as far as the split was concerned, weird things kept happening to her when she was on her break. Today, it had been tempting to call Jacen and see if he could meet up with her for lunch, but Kealey had resisted. She needed to get some more work done on her portfolio. The trip to the aquarium had been enlightening and Kealey had found herself with a completely fleshed out color scheme by the time she’d stumbled across a man who’d apparently lost his body. Thinking about that encounter was still almost mind boggling and Kealey couldn’t help but wonder if Luke had managed to figure things out.

Kealey needed lunch though, and someone at the library had told her about what was supposed to be a place with particularly good food, even if the appearance said otherwise. To be honest, it probably wouldn’t matter what Kealey ate, or what she thought about it, because people seemed to be out in full force. As she made her way down the streets, Kealey practically bathed in the emotions, all thoughts about…anything fading in the tide of feelings from the people making their way down the street.

It was frustrating, the blond thought, pushing her hair back over her shoulders as she walked. It had been straightened that morning, and the dry heat permeating the city that day hadn’t made it curl. That was one small victory. Kealey wasn’t really thinking about her hair though, or her portfolio, or anything else that a 27 year old woman would usually think about. Instead it was feeling, all she could think about was feeling. This woman was angry, this man was impatient, guilt, frustration, love, lust, why weren’t people just happy?

Kealey resisted the urge to hold her head, wading through the people and wondering how they ever managed to do anything at work with all the things they were feeling. It just didn’t make sense. Kealey kept walking, doing everything she could to try and push down the other emotions, but there were so many. A few minutes later, Kealey stopped in the middle of the street. What had she been doing? Oh yes, lunch. She sighed, turning a slow circle in the sidewalk, attempting to ignore the irritation of the people who were having to walk around her still form.

It took a few moments for Kealey to figure out exactly where she was, then a few more to backtrack to exactly where it was she was supposed to be. Three blocks…she’d wandered three blocks into a part of town she didn’t know. Idiot, the blond chastised herself…this was exactly how people ran into assassins in subway stations.

Outside the little hole in the wall restaurant, Kealey stared at the windows. It wasn’t surprising, as gorgeous as Bella was, her tastes were slightly eclectic. The blond shook her head, it figured that this place would be exactly as she said. The people inside were happy, for the most part, but as she stared…there was something odd. Something Kealey had never felt before…it was strange, she frowned, just staring. A little voice in the back of her head shouted warning; these were the situations she needed to stop putting herself into. If a feeling of her own was strong enough that it burst through the foggy haze of the other emotions, chances were…she should listen to it. Kealey’s stomach grumbled, though….she was so hungry…and the prospect of wading back through the sea of humanity empty-stomached was almost as daunting as anything she’d thought about recently.

Still. She frowned…odd wasn’t necessarily bad, right? Into the small noodle bar she went, choosing a seat as far away from the street as she could find and rubbing her temples. The food could wait a few moments. Kealey needed to wind down, and shake the odd feelings from this place.

“I know what you don't want me to do but you have yet to tell me what you do want me to do. Why choose me to help you? Surely you are aware of the sorts of talents I have."

Jake rubbed his temple, somewhat frustrated. The outward expression matched his inner feelings, so he went with it. He really should have through this out more before attempting an Awe of such intensity. The woman's suspicions had grown to a point where Jake wasn't sure if he could address them effectively. Jake pushed his menu towards her.

“Alright. I'll explain things while you sort out what were going to eat. Before you ask, I don't see well enough to read, that's why you're taking care of the ordering. I've got forty bucks tops to throw at this, including tip. The reason I need you is that I don't quite know how I'm going to get into the place, but I'm sure it's going to take more brute force then I'm capable of. That's where you come in. Now, it seems you've got it in your head this is some serious cloak-and-dagger thing. It isn't, so relax damn it, you're scaring people. And that's another thing, you would probably have a lot fewer problems if you would stop spitting menace at everyone you met. The reason you're doing this is because I found you first. If you help me, it also means you have one more bolthole in case you run into trouble, which seems likely given how you obviously make enemies pretty damn easily. Lastly, you get a friend. Me. Okay?”

Jake focused his mind on the thick network coiled around the woman. This woman felt strongly about a lot of things. He could make out the heavy connections of duty, cause, sacrifice, and violence that marked her as having been a soldier for some time. It explained her brutal nature, body and soul. Jake wondered if he was going to have any difficulty with whoever controlled her. Whoever they were, they really had their hooks in.... Jake's mind stuttered for a moment as he studied that fierce link. Something was wrong with it. Something he had never had a chance to see before. It was as if the link had an echo, a double image set just off from the original, giving it a slightly fuzzy feel. Jake quickly traced over the other connections around him. More disruptions. What was going on? Jake couldn't hide the puzzlement he felt from his features as he began tracing the connections back to their source.

Glancing over his shoulder, a remnant from his sighted days, Jake couldn't believe or understand what he saw. So thick was the bundle of meaning, it appeared to him as a solid sphere of connections. Untold trillions of links pouring out from a single and unrelenting source glowing with its own internal power. Jake had some idea of what existed within that cloud of meaning. She was young and attractive, and that caught people's attention. People pay attention to the beautiful ones. He knew that more then most.

“Who the hell is she?” he muttered, startled. He watched as his own threads of recognition arched out and sunk into that mass, and an echoed fibre arched back to him. So much for subtle obscurity, thought Jake absently. The X factor had literally just walked into the room and he had no idea what was going to happen.

“Alright. I'll explain things while you sort out what were going to eat. Before you ask, I don't see well enough to read, that's why you're taking care of the ordering. I've got forty bucks tops to throw at this, including tip. The reason I need you is that I don't quite know how I'm going to get into the place, but I'm sure it's going to take more brute force then I'm capable of. That's where you come in. Now, it seems you've got it in your head this is some serious cloak-and-dagger thing. It isn't, so relax damn it, you're scaring people. And that's another thing, you would probably have a lot fewer problems if you would stop spitting menace at everyone you met. The reason you're doing this is because I found you first. If you help me, it also means you have one more bolthole in case you run into trouble, which seems likely given how you obviously make enemies pretty damn easily. Lastly, you get a friend. Me. Okay?”

Meld gave Nexus a hard appraising look. It didn't seem very intelligent on his part to simply take the first person mutant that came his way to do whatever task he needed doing. Any important task, cloak and dagger or not, required a certain amount of planning and one had to be certain of the help that one recruited for the task. Meld didn't quite understand the mindset of simply taking the first available person and molding them to the task. It was, in her practiced opinion, a recipe for failure.

Then there was the fact that Nexus appeared to be judging her, a fact that she liked even less. She could understand his reservations about her killing; she had those same reservations herself and knew that most people would feel similar. The people she considered friends, Aura and Predator, were the exception more than the rule. But who was he to judge the way she carried herself and whether or not she tended to make enemies? He didn't even know her, didn't have any idea of her history or the things she had been through in her life. Not to mention the fact that he had never walked the world as a visible mutant before, couldn't possibly understand that the menace she exuded was a matter of survival as much as anything else. Everything she did was either for her own survival or the betterment of the mutant cause.

Meld growled at Nexus, low in her throat. She didn't have to take his condescending 'I am better than you' attitude. "You have no right to judge me. You don't know anything about me. I agreed to help you and so I will, but I will not put up with your judgments or your condescension. I can just as easily walk away from you, right here and now. You came to me, remember?"

Meld turned her head to catch a glimpse of the individual Nexus was asking about, somewhat taken aback by his tone of voice. She spotted a slight blond female, none to impressive in Meld's eyes, who she assumed was the one Nexus was so concerned about. She turned back to her dinign companion and shrugged her shoulders dismissively. "I have no idea. What's so important about her anyway?"

Kealey had hoped that walking into the restaurant, sitting down and getting some food, would help. It hadn’t. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that the street outside was still every bit as busy as it had been before she’d walked into the building, but Kealey’s head was just as full of drama as it had been when she was wandering aimlessly in the street. Food would have to wait, chanting background noise was definitely not working, so Kealey resorted to an old technique she’d used to calm herself down before she’d met Jacen.

One by one, the blond concentrated on the people in the little dive, sorting out the emotions one at a time. Concentration made it easier and easier to handle, and soon enough, Kealey was starting to calm a little. The pain in her head was receding, slowly, but it was going away. That’s what mattered in the grand scheme of things, and Kealey continued with the exercise. It was surprising; this was easier than she remembered it being. Until her eyes fell on the couple by the window.

The woman was angry, and conflicted, and about seven hundred other things. She was obviously a mutant too. Kealey could have cared less about that, but as with others who wore their powers for the world to see, she was jaded. That wasn’t the startling thing, though…the woman’s emotions were changing. It was slightly…but there was a push there. Something was pushing the woman’s emotions, shaping them around some kind of construct. Kealey wouldn’t have been able to explain it if she’d have tried, she turned to the man on the other side of the table.

He was normal looking, Kealey couldn’t have picked out anything remarkable about the man, except for the sunglasses he was wearing inside. They were by the window though…it was what she felt from him, though, that was really surprising. It was like someone had put some kind of damper on his emotions, like she was listening to a conversation through a door. He was…amazed though…shocked and surprised. It wasn’t Kealey’s powers that made her echo the sentiment. Was it possible that he was the one pushing the woman’s emotions?

Curiosity got the better of the blond for what had to be the umpteenth time and up she rose, making her way through the crowded little restaurant and up to the table where the couple sat. ”I’m sorry…” she said, cheeks burning slightly at how rude she was being, accent lilting lightly as she spoke, ”But…but…” Kealey paused, looking for the right words to use, ”You’re so very confusing to me. Are you changing this woman's emotions? ”

”You have no right to judge me. You don't know anything about me. I agreed to help you and so I will, but I will not put up with your judgments or your condescension. I can just as easily walk away from you, right here and now. You came to me, remember?"

Jake turned back to Meld, somewhat startled and took a moment to collect himself. His plans were rapidly spinning out of control. Whoever this blonde was, she was a serious distraction, and he was on tenuous ground already. Placation is my best bet now, he thought with a sign, letting a subtle weakness slide into his voice, leaving him seemingly open and vulnerable.

”Okay, I'm sorry Meld. You're right, I shouldn't have treated you like that. It's just a defensive thing. Back home, I came off the street. If you don't have the strength, you act like you do. I didn't know what else to do. I guess it's a habit now. If you want to walk away, go for it. I understand. I won't stop you.”

As he spoke, he felt the energetic snap of threads of recognition sink into his form. In an instant, Jake knew he had been recognized. How? God only knew. He had never encountered another with anything like his powers, and had no idea what to expect. The connection, though, did bring him a sense of clarity. With his own linkages to the woman, her halo faded into background noise, and he could see her form as clearly as he could see anything with his alien senses.

As he watched, he saw her rise and begin to move towards him and Meld, linkages of curiosity washing out before her and enveloping both Meld and himself. What should I do now? There was nothing for it but to wait and see what happened, and to prepare himself. Anchoring himself mentally, he prepared to take hold of the connections of meaning that hard wired him into reality. Just in case.

“I'm sorry...But....but...You're so very confusing to me. Are you changing this woman's emotions?”

Jake glanced from the blond woman to Meld and back again. Well s***. How exactly does one respond to a question like that? He could play himself false and try to bluff his way out, but if the woman could sense his manipulations, she would probably also guess him out in a lie. It was nearly impossible to lie to him, why shouldn't that be true with others. If Meld, who was already suspicious, decided he was influencing her and he lied, he was probably looking at a short and messy confrontation which would probably threaten this poor woman. That was it, he was done. His best bet laid in keeping Meld's focus on him. At least that way the blonde wouldn't get hurt.

Jake sighed and leaned back in his chair, thumbing the bridge of his nose. Just come out with it, he told himself. Speaking low so that his voice wouldn't trail too far, he slipped off his sunglasses and turned his empty eyes towards Meld.

“Yeah, I am. Will you let me explain myself?”

”Okay, I'm sorry Meld. You're right, I shouldn't have treated you like that. It's just a defensive thing. Back home, I came off the street. If you don't have the strength, you act like you do. I didn't know what else to do. I guess it's a habit now. If you want to walk away, go for it. I understand. I won't stop you.”

Meld gave Nexus an appraising look and then nodded curtly. She may have grown up in a fairly typical middle class family but she had spent enough time, at this point in her life, among career criminals that she knew how that sort of world operated. Strength was survival and by the looks of it Nexus had little in the way of actual strength and so he would have to create the illusion of strength. She had never had that problem, even in the beginning. Something about having a bladed metal hand tended to put people off even in the best of times and the few times, early on, she had had to prove herself she had done so definitively given her martial arts experience.

Meld was about to make her thoughts known when the blond stranger approached and began speaking. Meld gave a cold stare to her that turned even colder when she suggested that Nexus had been influencing her emotions. She turned her stare onto him and stared at him, trying to see into his soul. All of her confusion, all of her emotional turmoil turned to anger in that moment. It all made perfect sense now, the uncharacteristic feelings and confusion. He had been manipulating her all along and, foolishly, she hadn't even realized. She growled at him, deep in her throat, unconsciously clutching at the table with her metal hands. She didn't notice as her claws left deep fissures.

“Yeah, I am. Will you let me explain myself?”

Meld got stiffly to her feet, continuing to stare at Nexus. Her anger burned within her, obliterating all other thoughts. Any feelings of understanding and forgiveness that she might have been feeling towards Nexus were obliterated. How dare he try to manipulate her? Especially when she had gone out of her way to try and help him? What gave him the right? And especially given that she was a fellow mutant. He should have more respect for her, more respect for his people.

"I suggest you leave here peacefully with me now and we can deal with this away from those not involved." She didn't glance at the humans sitting around and had all but forgotten the blond woman in her anger. Her voice was frigid with hate and barely contained violence. A distant part of her mind whispered to her that this was wrong, that she shouldn't be considering killing him for this but that voice was a whisper competing against a torrent of anger. The suggestion to leave was more a matter of not wanting to get the cops involved than it was any sort of care for the bystanders in the restaurant.

The reaction was absolutely instantaneous, and as soon as the words were out of Kealey’s mouth, she regretted them. She regretted them immensely. If the almost instant distress and fear from the man wasn’t enough, what was probably the most intense feeling Kealey’s powers had channeled from another person since she’d woken up in a ginormus bed with an even more ginormous red man staring at her, slammed into the blond. This definitely wasn’t lust, though.

The woman was angry. No, no…the woman was pissed. That was a word Kealey had never used before, but if it applied anywhere, it applied here. It was so strong, so intense. Hatred, anger, frustration, betrayal, absolutely every emotion that had to do with ire blended into a ball that hit Kealey’s stomach almost as hard as if she’d been punched.

Words were completely lost on the empath, and if it hadn’t been for the intentions of the woman who’d risen from the table, Kealey would have had no idea what was going on. As it was, Kealey’s arms wrapped around her stomach and she doubled slightly, the emotions from the woman spilling over and filling her body with a shaking rage so strong that she wondered for a moment if she’d come apart with it.

The other emotions were still there, and Kealey was so angry, so frustrated in that moment that she simply wanted it all to go away. Out she lashed, intending to do exactly that, make it all go away. To a passerby, it would have looked like some sort of mind numbing gas had been released in the little restaurant. People for several feet around Kealey and her two new friends sat straight in their chairs…faces completely blank. They were completely free of emotion, it all went away, and in that instant, Kealey realized what she’d done. The shock jerked her from her action, and Kealey gasped, standing up and focusing her attention on the woman. Almost instantly, people shook of the blank moment they’d just had and went back to their noodles. Kealey sighed in relief and narrowed her eyes, completely attention on the woman at the table.

”Calm. Down. NOW” Kealey said, with more force than she could remember having said anything, while at the same time gripping the angry feelings with an iron mental fist and attempting to obliterate them. ”And that is me affecting your emotions.” she hissed, turning to face the woman, full on. They were of a height and Kealey’s blue eyes flashed fire at the other woman’s. ”Now sit down, before I have you crying on the floor. Nobody is getting hurt here.”

That said, Kealey simply turned her back on the woman and stared at the man, who had removed his glasses to reveal what had to be sightless eyes. What was it with split shifts? "And you, I'd suggest you start explaining your grievous misuse of power."

Jake Townsend braced himself as he felt the savage coils of aggression, hatred, and anger whip around him in a cruel and malignant coil. He stood smoothly, ready to take Meld on her offer and had just started to speak when the woman cut in, doubling over with apparent agony. As he watched, the dark coils ensnaring him echoed off into a second stream that coursed through the blonde, and a darkness settled over the world. Stunned, he watched as the glowing coils of meaning exuded by the other costumers around him bent and shifted around the hazy sphere, transforming their resonance into something...crushing, and flowing directly into Meld's form.

”Calm. Down. NOW!”. He watched as the woman took hold of the cruel steel gauntlet and barked her anger directly into Meld's face. That took guts. He watched as her tirade continued and as Meld simply slumped, her mind overwhelmed and beaten in passivity. As the light dimmed in Meld's eyes, she turned towards him, connections heavy with bitterness, anger, and more over frustration flowing towards him.

“And you, I'd suggest you start explaining your grievous misuse of power.”

Jake stood firm and met the woman's eye without flinching and felt the fierce surge of the Awe flowing over him. It was an instinctive reaching, which gave an edge and power to his words that far exceeded his mortal capacity. In a moment, he seemed somehow larger and more staggering, terrifying to behold. He knew, instinctively, that the woman would shrug off the bulk of his strength, but it could stagger her none the less.

It was obvious she had power, but lacked to foresight to understand who exactly she was dealing with. Meld was a karmic monster. Murder hung from her form like gobbets of flesh from the maw of some fell beast of legend. She had to be dealt with before she lost control and started killing people randomly. He had acted within his nature. He had done what had to be done.

“Don't talk to me of misused power,” he responded coolly pinning her with his dead eyes. “She is a killer, if you can't tell. She has taken life, and has come to enjoy it. If she wasn't dealt with now, she will lose control and become a danger to everyone she encounters. I was solving that problem until you decided to walk in and explain my gambit. Misuse of power? Perhaps you should consider your situation before you decide to investigate.”

Without waiting for a response, he glanced at Meld's suppressed being. How to deal with the situation now. Meld was akin to a live hand grenade. Those feelings of rage were still there, the wounds burned deep into the flesh of her being, only now they were being pounded down by something unnatural.

“We have to get her out of here. She was willing to move to a safe location for our confrontation, but now I doubt that will contain her. How long can you hold her like that?”

Meld was almost too angry to think and then suddenly...the anger was gone and in its place was a profound sense of calm. She heard the words that the blond woman spoke, heard her admit that it was she who was manipulating Meld and knew the she should be very very angry at that transgression but there was nothing but the strange calmness. Or rather, not so strange except given the circumstances. It was similar to the self-enforced almost trans like calm that she assumed when she was in a battle situation, except that it lacked the single minded focus of her battle trances. The blond woman may have made a grave mistake if she thought that forcing calm upon her was going to make her any less dangerous; quite the contrary she was at her most lethal when she didn't have irritating emotions getting in the way of her clarity of thought.

Meld slowly sat down and turned to address Nexus. Now that the blinding haze of anger had left her she had a chance to clearly consider all that had happened to her and what it entailed. The blond woman, she decided, she could forgive. She had only been acting in the defense of Nexus and the defense of the innocents throughout the restaurant. Most didn't react nearly so casually to violence as Meld did and she could respect the blond stranger acting in order to accomplish a goal. But what of Nexus? Perhaps he too had acted in what he thought was the best interest of Meld and the people around Meld, but his transgression wasn't nearly so easily dismissed. He had made assumptions about her, rushed to judgments and then gone directly to trying to manipulate her in the worst way possible. Not only that, but he had lied to her. He was a very dangerous mutant and one to whom she had very little resistance against his influence. She knew that the most effective way to deal with him would be to kill him; eliminate the threat so that he couldn't try anything again, but eliminate it on her terms and when she had him alone and helpless. It wouldn't do to have the police involved, nor did she really want to harm any bystanders if she could help it. But then there was that irritating voice in the back of her minding telling her that killing was wrong and that she should not kill. But that voice had clearly come from Nexus so didn't that mean she should ignore it completely?

"You have no right to judge me or my actions and even less right to try and force me to adhere to your personal moral code." Her voice was cold and inflectionless. For the moment she had no emotions and so had only her intellect, reason and moral code to draw upon. "Do you think yourself God all of a sudden, to choose what I or anyone else may or may not do? You manipulate others without a moment's hesitation, for your own ends, and yet you judge me for my actions, each one made for a higher cause? I will not kill you now, Nexus. But be assured that I will be watching you, tracking you, waiting for my opportunity. "Be assured that I have all the time in the world and I know that you will eventually be vulnerable and in that moment of vulnerability you will be mine. You accuse me of killing and enjoying the kill and you are right. But you know only half the story and you choose to act having only half the information. I am sad that I should be so forced to kill a fellow mutant." Her tone did not match her words of professed sorrow.

Meld turned to the blond woman. "You seek to control me, to neuter me and make me powerless but I do not believe that you have been nearly as successful as you may have liked. I should thank you, in fact, for eliminating my anger so that I could think clearly and not act rashly. It is rare for me to lose my temper like that. Because of mitigating circumstances I forgive you this one manipulation of myself and you have my word that I will not hold it against you. Furthermore you have my word that this day I will hurt neither you nor Nexus. But if I ever discover that you have manipulated me in this way again then you, also, will be on my list of enemies and I can assure you that my enemies do not tend to live long or well." She sat impassively, her speeches made.

Kealey watched, and felt, as the situation got worse. That was something the blond hadn’t thought possible until the very moment that it happened. Calm usually was just what the proverbial doctor ordered when peoples’ emotions were getting out of hand. It had definitely worked in Florida, after all. That was not the case here. When the unnatural calm fell over the woman in the restaurant, it was just that…unnatural. If anything, she felt more dangerous. Kealey frowned. This was bad. Very bad, and there was still something very strange about the man. The man who had the gall to lecture her right back about misuse of powers…and it was as if he thought his blind eyes were going to intimidate her. Kealey would have laughed if her stomach wasn’t still rolling from the emotions of a few moments earlier.

…and it got worse. The woman wasn’t just more dangerous when she was calm…she was far more dangerous than when she’d been threatening outright violence. When the woman turned to the man, Nexus, apparently…Kealey nodded along. The woman made good points, the exact things that Kealey would have said if she’d have had the first chance. When those eyes focused on her, though, the blond just stared back. Kealey thought she’d already made herself clear, but at least the woman wasn’t threatening her violence, the blue eyes narrowed and she leaned close again, ”You learn to control yourself and we’ve got an understanding.” Kealey said, accent thickening with the intensity of the conversation but nonetheless pulling back her hold on the woman’s emotions. ”But if you think for a single second I’d be half as easy to take care of as you think, you’re seriously mistaken. Seriously..”

Kealey was faced with a problem, and there was the fact that Nexus had tried to set her down when all she’d done was save him from what would have proven a very public, very brutal death. The blue eyes turned back to him. ”And she’s right.” Kealey said, voice calm, head tilting as the man absolutely inflated with self importance. It was a strange, unsettling feeling, almost as if his own self perception had an effect. Kealey realized that and her eyes narrowed again, sure, the feelings were intimidating, but to someone who understood them…not unconquerable. Kealey didn’t grab ahold of them though, let him think what he wanted.

”I could hold her for as long as I wanted. I already let her go, though.” Kealey’s eyes flicked back to the woman where she sat, ”She gave her word, it rang true. Who are you to cage a person like this? It’s not for you or I to judge and hand out justice. You were acting in a manipulation of another human being, I was simply making your victim aware of your crime. ”

Alarm, worry, disgust, fear. Kealey realized through her angry haze that those things were coming from the people in the shop, she looked around to find utter silence and more eyes on their discussion than she had any interest in.

”I know I’d like to talk to you some more.” she said to the man in the sunglasses, ”Where’s this place you knew of where we could talk? If your friend wants to join us, she’s welcome. Otherwise, I’d suggest you apologize with every fiber of your being and lead the way out of here.

“And she's right.” The words felt heavy with finality. Jake frowned coolly as he watched a new connection weave itself from the intruding empath to his own shimmering form, this one of understanding and superiority. She had measured him, and decided he was the weaker. Fine then. He could handle that, and in truth, right here and now, she was probably right. His power wasn't about raw manipulative ability, but finesse.

Jake glanced between the blonde and Meld's stoic form as the woman continued to speak. Meld had been honest on every last cruel word of her speech. She wouldn't touch any of them. She wouldn't seek retribution upon the blonde woman. No. It was her solemn intention to hunt him down and kill him eventually.

The visceral truth of that statement didn't really bother Jake all that much. He had acted because he understood things differently then anyone else he had ever met. He had judged Meld because he could see the stains of karma upon her, and found her in that moment of indecision between the paths of redemption and final darkness. You cannot pass up on such an opportunity.

He had the power to fix things, and he had done his best to do so. If she could read his mind, let her do so, and see the strength and the determination there. He would have meaning in his life, and that meaning would be defined by his actions. She could speak of the right of judgment all she wanted, but inactivity changed nothing. Those who dwell in hollow towers would do well to remember the rain.

Jake focused his mind and pushed the Awe back into the dark places of his mind. It wasn't required, here and now. The course of this play had already been written. Calmly, he slipped his glasses back on, the mirrored shades reflecting the images of the two women back at them.

“Alright. Let's find somewhere to talk,” he intoned calmly to the blonde before turning his glass-shrouded eyes towards the murderous woman seated before him. “Meld. I won't apologize for what I've done to you, because it was the right thing to do. When you came out of that store, you were full of indecision. You were trying to decide what you were going to become. I can't affect that decision. I never could. All I could ever do was force you to reflect upon your actions. What you take from that is your own decision. If you want to hunt me down, that's fine. It's your decision, but don't expect me to make it easy for you.”

Jake stood calmly from his chair without a trace of guilt in his mind and turned for the door. They would think him self-righteous, and they would be wrong. He had no way of showing the blonde what he saw, and no words to explain his understanding, but it was there and undeniable to him. Every power had its weakness, it seemed. Meld, he guessed, had to sacrifice flesh for her strength. The blonde was wracked by the very power she invoked. Jake's weakness was to be misunderstood by those around him. Whatever happened now, he was satisfied with his own karma in the matter.

”But if you think for a single second I’d be half as easy to take care of as you think, you’re seriously mistaken. Seriously..”

Meld nodded towards the other woman stoically and respectfully, nothing else really needing to be said. Although she didn't move as a fighter moved and had none of the tell tale signs of one who was accustomed to battle, signs that really couldn't be hidden, she spoke with a confidence and finality that convinced Meld that she was being honest in her assessment of her own difficulty to kill. It was, she thought, a rather beautiful example of the fact that knowing how to fight wasn't the only weapon that could be employed in the struggle for self preservation and if nothing else it was very respectable. She hoped that she wouldn't be forced to fight her, not only because she was a mutant but also because she had proven herself to be, if her early perceptions were accurate, someone that was worthy of respect. Even if she had manipulated her emotions.

Meld felt the unnatural calm leave her and once again she could feel her emotions just below the surface. The all encompassing anger did not return, the few minutes of enforced calm being enough to overcome her momentary blinding rage, but she still felt it there, just below the surface. She took a deep breath in an effort to bury it deeper. Although it could be used effectively as a weapon in the right circumstances and if the right person was attempting to employ it, more often than not it proved to be a weakness and Meld rarely chose to risk its presence. At least, if there was a choice to be made. It was one of the things that made her so devastatingly effective at what she did; her ability to suppress anger and any other emotion that might get in the way in order to pursue each task with a calm single minded determination. Only after the task was completed did she ever let her emotions have reign over her.

"I would appreciate coming with you for this discussion," Meld said, taking notice of the attention they were attracting. It was tiresome sometimes, constantly having to deal with humans and their biases. If nothing else, going along may provide her with more information about her new enemy, information she might be able to employ, at a later date, in his elimination. And if they refused her presence, well, she had been meaning to practice up on her stealth and tracking skills anyway.

“Meld. I won't apologize for what I've done to you, because it was the right thing to do. When you came out of that store, you were full of indecision. You were trying to decide what you were going to become. I can't affect that decision. I never could. All I could ever do was force you to reflect upon your actions. What you take from that is your own decision. If you want to hunt me down, that's fine. It's your decision, but don't expect me to make it easy for you.”

Meld sneered condescendingly at him, not believe for a moment what he said. While she could appreciate the sentiment of trying to help her, it was not his right to do so as he had. Had he been honest in his wish to help he would have confronted her directly instead of hiding his actions and manipulations. "I never expect my enemies to make it easy for me. Where would be the challenge in that? You made your choices and now you must live with the consequences, just as I live with the consequences of my own choices." Her thoughts momentarily touched on the many deaths she had caused and the prospect of the many more she would cause in the future but she forceably forced them back again. No matter that she would far prefer they had not been necessary and that she had not had to commit them, the fact the remained that they had been necessary and would be in the future again. Yes, she had made her choices and for all the evil she had committed the good that came of it far outweighed the unfortunate acts themselves.

They were willing to go somewhere else to talk. Both of them. Kealey frowned slightly at the idea of the woman going along for the chat. When Kealey had offered the other woman the opportunity to go along, she hadn’t thought there was any way the woman would accept. The anger was back, it was less intense though and Kealey was pleased by the fact that the woman was able to recognize the emotions and control them. If anyone understood how difficult that control could be, it was Kealey. It appeared she and this woman had an understanding.

Nexus wasn’t so lucky.

The woman was still dangerous to Nexus, very dangerous, and he wasn’t helping his cause by continuing to spout off his mouth. Kealey just shook his head. His intentions didn’t mean a thing, he’d practically brainwashed the woman. Was it different from what Kealey had done? The blond didn’t know, and she frowned…hadn’t she done the right thing by protecting the innocents in the restaurant? Wasn’t that was Nexus had been trying to do at the same time? There was too much going on and suddenly Kealey’s head was spinning slightly. Moral ambiguity was something that she wasn’t used to, and feelings this strong weren’t easy to deal with on top of all the other emotions in the dingy building.

The other two were still gibing each other, going back and forth about how they were and weren’t going to make it easy. Kealey sighed, ”Let’s just go…lead the way please…and try to make it somewhere that isn’t crowded. I’m about to crawl out of my skin and we need to work this out.”

(OOC Note: I'm making the assumption you both follow me the whole way. If you think you wouldn't, let me know and I'll repost)

So they were leaving it to him. Once again, the woman had complicated his life. He had been honest with Meld about his ability to access the old subway station. He hadn't found a way into that place yet, and he sure as hell wasn't going to take Meld anywhere near where he intended to crash for any amount of time. There were dozens of old subway stations under the city, and Meld couldn't search them all. Better she never knew where exactly he intended to take her.

”Follow me,” he muttered coolly over his shoulder, nodding his head towards the direction he intended to travel.

His options, therefore, were pretty limited. In this heat, his second choice of Central Park would be crawling with business people and students on holiday. If anything happened there, he would be placing a large number of people at risk. He needed something fairly open and completely deserted, and he needed it quick. Jake turned north at the next block and continued to walk, allowing his senses to play out before him and looking for the inevitable holes he had grown so familiar with finding on his journey across the country.

These 'holes' were areas almost devoid of meaning to the people around them. Places too small, dingy, or worthless to catch anyone's attention. In his travels, they had made ideal bolt holes where he could hide from disgruntled small-town sheriffs or any other time he just wanted some time to himself. In a city this size, there had to be one nearby.

It took him another two blocks of walking to locate one. Real estate in downtown New York was a pretty big business. Land had worth, but only if you could turn it into something useful, and in the brilliant summer heat Jake guessed that there simply weren't enough work crews to cover all of the sites that needed repairs or renovations. This was one of those lost buildings.

The building itself was a shabby brownstone apartment building, the last of its kind on a block overtaken by commercial development. The front of the structure had been cordoned off with a crude rental fence and hung menacingly with signs bearing the sigil of Lonestar Security. It took him only a glance towards the sign to realize the lack of weight behind it it. A false name. A false company. The sign was merely a decoy to ward off the small time crooks that might pick over the aging structure.

“This is it,” he said simply and walked over to the broad expanse of the rental fence and tugged on the chain there. No one had even bothered to lock the fence. They had simply wrapped the chains around the posts. In seconds, he had shucked the gate of its offending chain and pushed it open.

Stepping through, Jake walked into the small courtyard that separated the large brick structure from the street itself. The courtyard and garden were littered with brick and metal fragments, evidently from work on the building's roof, and Jake simply stepped over these and up to the front door. The door itself sat half off of its hinges and the stained glass window that fronted it had long since been shattered by hoodlums, and Jake wasted no time simply reaching through the broken window and flipping the bolt allowing them inside.

The interior of the aging structure was a shattered miracle of tile and plaster. In its time, this must have been one of the finest apartment blocks in the city; now it was reduced to a rotting husk. The first floor was a wide common area, sporting several benches and even a majestic three tiered fountain, long since dry. The floor was emerald-green tile, many of which had been cracked and torn up, while the white tile of the walls had given way in many places, leaving a fine pile of tile fragments around the inner edges of the room. In the far back of the main area rose a massive carved staircase, the gargoyles at each end of the banisters staring blankly into open space. Walking over the shattered tile floor, Jake turned towards the two women behind him and smiled coolly in the twilight that loomed around the base of the empty fountain. Perfect.

“Here we are.” he muttered simply as he let his senses map every corner of the structure. Set against the absence of most emotive thought, the pair of women stood out sharply from the surrounding terrain, Meld more noxious and bright for her well constrained hatred, while the blonde's shimmering sphere of influence seemed almost non-existent away from the crowds. That woman owed the pair of them a few answers, he reflected mutely.

“So what is your name and how do you fit into all of this?” Jake inquired coolly of the blonde woman.