Kealey’s. Head. Hurt. And things were getting worse and worse. The hostages were panicking now, and it was getting more and more difficult for Kealey to separate such strong feelings from her own. She could feel the butterflies building in her stomach and the urge to run or scream rising in her chest. She took a deep breath and focused just like she had practiced with Shin. Her slightly addled brain cooperated slowly yet surely and the emotions all retreated into their respective bubbles, still there but somehow separate from her own. It helped.

Now. For Mittens. Kealey wheeled slightly as he moved, feeling his confusion and rage at the situation that they’d created. She held his thugs in check, keeping them so disoriented they had probably forgotten their names…let alone how to use a gun.

A new voice, and a new batch of emotions joined the fray. A cop. Who made water fly across the room. A mutant cop. Kealey wondered idly if he knew Shin.

Deciding that idle thoughts were probably not the best idea in the middle of a hostage situation gone south, Kealey focused on giving the police officer support in the form of keeping thugs confused.

So focused on her task was Kealey, that she’d lost tabs on the hostages. By the time she realized what was about to happen…it was too late.

Mittens scooped Andrew up, then used his hand as a shield when the cop fired. Fired a gun in a room of people.

”Are you out of your bloody mind?!” She shouted at the cop.

It was decision time. Kealey took a split second to weigh her options as she felt ghost move towards Mittens’ head. They’d tag-team him. Kealey dropped her hold on the other gunmen in the room. It would take them time to get their wits back about them, and hopefully it would be long enough that she could come back to them.

Mittens was furious, he was also terrified. Kealey didn’t know what to do with those things because they mingled into a cocktail that could only be described as murderous….and Andrew was in his massive, disgusting hands.

Kealey thought about the bird and nearly lost her resolve.

Nearly.

It would be delicate, she focused despite her slightly bleary vision and throbbing head, the slowly started to work.

Aggression dropped dramatically, but she left the fear alone, sidestepping it carefully to drop the anger and frustration…but not too much. She held those things…right where they were, even as Ghosty started work her magic. Mittens would feel himself losing air, probably start getting light headed…but he wouldn’t panic…wouldn’t react.

If this idea worked.

”Hang in there Andrew….”

So much happened in the short amount of time that Mittens had to react to the situation. Everything seemed to have descended at once inside of his head. First there was an overwhelming anger in which he was willing to kill each and every single person in this room, then he felt the influence of some mutant upon him. He figured at first it was a psychic mutant of some type that had tried to calm or affect him into seeing things, but that is obviously not what was happening now. Still, as he threatened the young man with his massive fist, something strange started to happen…

“I can’t breathe…” he stated as he felt his eyes bulging out of his head.

Despite however he tried to rationalize it, it was a plain and simple fact that he was losing more and more air. It was then that he felt all his anger suddenly slip away, but instead of peace, all he found was a bubbling over panic inside. The shiver ran up his spine as panic set in, that sensation of a creeping as it ran up the length of his spine and stabbed him mercilessly in the back of his head. Fear…that was all he could think about now. He couldn’t breathe, he was surrounded, he saw a ghost…everything was going wrong.

His chest heaved in and out as he tried to calm himself to no avail. Then, before he knew what was he was doing, Mittens inhaled as deeply as he could and breathed in an unknown heaviness in the air that seemed to have laid around his head, all in one gulp…

Then…he started to breathe again…

***

>> “Are you out of your bloody mind?!”

No, little Miss Blonde, just trying to save your life… he thought to himself as he kept his gun trained.

The question was harsh but in reality Jorge really could not blame her. After all he did fire in a room full of innocents, but this was a hostage situation. All that was important to him was taking out the dangerous criminal and getting the people out of there. Unfortunately all that turned out completely the opposite of how he wanted it to. He had not anticipated that the Mittens would have bulletproof hands, but why not? After all the man’s clap could level a street filled with cops, why wouldn’t it be able to stop a bullet?

It was then that Jorge felt the real pressure of the situation. Mittens got his hands…err…HAND on a hostage and had now cornered himself against the window. If any sudden moves were made then all this could turn very bad. Mittens could drop the kid out the window, he could crush him right then and there, or he could throw himself out the window and worst of all, get away with his hostage and continue to use him as a bargaining chip.

“You need to calm down! Listen to me! Let the kid go!” Jorge said as he slowly lowered and holstered his gun once more. “You have to stop making this worse on yourself...”

Jorge knew how this sounded but it was something that he had to say. Through the man’s thick skull there had to be some sense of logic, some part of reason that would cause him to make the right move. As he said this, he continued to step forward, trying to somehow get closer to the panicking mutant in order to somehow, some way get the kid free.

What he had not counted on was the completely panicked mutant Mittens had become. The wild, crazed look in his eyes as fear overtook him completely was something that made the detective extremely nervous. Then, before their eyes, Mitten finally encompassed the totality of his fears.

“GAaaaaah! Get away!!! JUST STOOOOP!!!” He screamed and threw his hand out the window where he dangled his hostage for a moment, amidst the screams from the people down below. Then…he let go…

”No no no no!!” Jorge yelled as he dashed forward and threw himself partially out of the window.

A quick outstretch of his hand, tense muscles and just plain ordinary luck, the detective grabbed the hand of the fallen college student and held him fast. The sudden stop nearly pulled his arm from his socket but Jorge would not let go. His face looked as calm as he could make it as he looked down into the kid’s face and whispered…

”Look at me! Listen, you’re fine okay? See? I gotcha!”

What Jorge could not see though was Mittens still behind him in the apartment, wracked over with panic and fear. He stared a that detective half hanging out of the window and resolved to end that problem here and now. With a fearful cry, Mittens raised one of his oversized fists as high as he could, ready to bring it down hard upon the officer’s back and break his spine in two.

“I SAID GO AWAAAAY!!!” he screamed…

Andrew couldn't hear much. The man's hand was an effective noise blocker. He thought he heard Kealey at one point. He couldn't be sure. Mittens was still freaking out. That was what he heard the most of. Kealey's ghostly air sucking partner must have been trying to choke out the guy. He didn't know what happened but it didn't seem to last long. Mittens was breathing normally again soon after his trouble breathing had started. Andrew heard someone try to bargain with Mittens. It was probably the cop.

Then there was movement and he could hear again. Something other than the man's hand burst into view. Unfortunately that something was a view of the crazy situation through a window. Oh holy cheesecake, Mittens had dropped him out a window! The fear that he'd felt at being man handled by that freak surged to new higher levels. He couldn't think straight. Couldn't concentrate on anything. He grabbed wildly for something, anything to some himself from becoming a smear on the sidewalk below.

A visage appeared out of the window and clasped his flailing hand. The voice that belonged to it told him he was fine. That whoever he was had him. Andrew begged to differ. He was still dangling out a window! The only change was that this time the person hanging on to him didn't want him dead. Andrew brought his other hand up and clasped onto the man's arm. He really didn't want to die today. There had to be something else to cling to. Some other foothold or handhold. Andrew's fearful eyes darted around in search of such a thing.

The window ledge! Andrew wasn't that far beneath the window. If he stretched he could just barely reach it. For one fearful gulp inducing moment Andrew was hanging by one hand again as he reached for the ledge. As he clasped the ledge he heard Mittens cry out about leaving him alone and someone loomed up behind the cop that had hold of him.

"Look out!"

Well... she had tried to keep this from happening, but it seemed like the vacuum power of this big man's lungs was more power than she had anticipated. More than she had anticipated in Romania. More than she had anticipated now.

He slurped her like spaghetti.

The problem with getting breathed was that her body, made of air, was absorbed by the man's lungs, transferred to his blood stream and subsequently distributed throughout the body. And his body was hungry for the pure air that she provided. It took all of 30 seconds for her to reach the furthest corners of the body. Another 20 before she was sure which way was up and which was down.

By the time she had enough handle on... herself... to extend her form of vision out beyond the man's body, the situation had totally changed. There was a man leaning out of a window and the big guy was approaching. Approaching with his big hands up...

She had to stop this somehow... Ghost imagined digging in her heels, tried moving backward. Her strength was probably nothing compared to his. She wouldn't be able to stop him even if she was inside him. But... maybe she could redirect him... As soon as he made any kind of brisk movement, a grab or a push, Ghost was ready to use everything she had to put that movement off target.

It was going to take a lot for those big hands to miss...

The cop was telling Mittens to calm down, but Kealey knew that nothing in the big man’s emotions was going to change unless she let it. For now, things were staying exactly how they were. She couldn’t see Ghost anymore, so all the blond could assume was that the air elemental had things under control.

Kealey wasn’t having as much luck. Her head was still spinning a bit, and every time she tried to change one emotion in the large mutant holding Andrew, another one started to spiral out of control. Mitten’s was panicking, and without Kealey keeping a firm hand on all of his emotions, they were skyrocketing of their own volition. That was bad…really bad.

Then he dropped Andrew out the window.

Everything seemed to move in slow motion, and Kealey could feel every emotion behind every action. Mittens was still terrified and enraged, Andrew was confused then horrified, the police officer was intent, and determined. He dove…and Kealey’s heart tried to jump out of her chest.

Then, there was relief. Kealey almost collapsed where she stood, realizing too late that she’d completely let go of her control over Mittens’ emotions. Andrew was safe…at least for the time being.

The relief didn’t last long and Kealey watched in horror as Mittens raised one of his huge fists, ready to bring it down on the cop.

Kealey moved before she even knew what she was doing.

”LOOK OUT!” she screamed, sprinting forward and launching herself into Mitten’s back as hard as she possibly could. The impact nearly drove the breath from her, but Kealey felt the subtle shift in his weight as he started to fall forward.


Please please please…. she chanted internally…if she couldn’t push him over, maybe she could at least distract him long enough to give the cop and Andrew a chance to get out of the way.

Jorge knew it was a stupid move. He had put his back to a dangerous mutant and half threw himself out of the window. But it was necessary to save the kid’s life. He knew he could save him, but he opened himself up to a big risk. Unfortunately that was Jorge’s personality, always trying to save someone at whatever the cost. So even as he leaned half out the window and helped the kid up, he could feel the presence of Mitten’s behind him. Eventhough he could not see him, he knew that whatever he was doing could not by good.

His fears were confirmed by the various shouts of warning…

>> ”LOOK OUT!!”

>> “Look out!”

Their unified voices equaled up to mean that something terrible was going to indeed happen to him if he did not move. So, the second he saw the college kid grab the window ledge, Jorge grabbed his other hand with his free arm, placed his foot against the wall and kicked out as hard as he could. The movement would not be comfortable for either of them, but it was the quickest way out of the situation. Using the force of his kick, Jorge pushed himself backward into the apartment and pulled the kid along with him, back in through the window. The both of them would be scraped and cut from the ordeal but, as Jorge had planned…they tumbled hard onto the floor of the room and completely out of the way of the juggernaut known as Mittens.

The next series of movements were quicker than the detective could follow. As he pulled the kid in and lay sprawled on the ground, he sat up to watch as Mitten’s massive fist came down on the window ledge, but far off from where he had actually been. It was as if something had steered him off course, just enough so that he had been there, Jorge would not have been hurt. But that was not the end of it. As Mitten’s fist broke the ledge, that part of the wall collapsed and shattered as if it were little more than paper trying to hold back a bowling ball. Mitten’s had easily made the window it a doorway that led out into bright, New York air.

Then he noticed the speeding blonde.

Before Jorge could say anything he watched as the blonde had run forward and threw the whole of her weight against Mitten’s back. The man was large enough so that when she did this, she pretty much just bounced back off of him, but the force behind it was enough to topple the confused mutant off his balance. And…thanks to the hole in the wall he made with his fists, it was big enough for him to be tumble through and into that big open air.

Jorge was quick to jump onto his feet, momentarily forgetting the hostage he had just rescued and ran for the open space. There, laying across the now cracked and shattered asphalt was Mittens, on top of his massive hands. They must have prevented him from dying, but there was still enough of a blow behind the fall to knock the man unconscious. He watched as officers began to approach the fallen mutant, all with guns drawn.

“Hey!” he yelled at them. “Be careful! Get the wagon and at least a couple of PCP grade handcuffs on that man. I want him behind bars before he comes to!”

He sighed as he turned back into the apartment and noted all the exhausted hostages, the slowly coming to gunmen and the blonde who had thrown herself against her captor. He locked eyes with her and give her a quick nod.

“Thanks for the assist,” he smirked. “You alright?”

He then walked into the room and started to handcuff a couple of the gunmen who were coming through the disorientation they had just been through.

Almost at the precise moment Andrew caught hold of the ledge with his other hand the cop grabbed it and hauled him roughly through the window. Oh lord that hurt. He'd be a wonderful patchwork of bruises come tomorrow. Andrew tumbled to the floor with the cop. He was laying on his back so everything that happened next he took in from an upside down view point. The fist that had been meant for the cop's back pounded into the window ledge. An entire section of the wall fell away and Mittens tumbled out it when Kealey collided with him.

It was finally over. Andrew had somehow survived that situation. But it hadn't been his own efforts that had saved him. All he'd done was play hostage. No, the cop, Kealey, and whoever her partner was had saved him. Andrew was grateful, very grateful. He sucked in several lungfuls of air just out of gratitude that he could still breath at all. He was hurt, tired, and still shaking off the fear the situation had created in him but he was alive.

"Thank you."

The statement was directed of course at the cop, Kealey, and Kealey's partner. He didn't make much of an effort to look around and make sure they knew that though. Right now he just wanted to lay here. After a couple of minutes Andrew got to his feet. His brain was functioning again and questions were flying around within it all over the place. They could wait though. For now Andrew just wanted to thank everyone properly and get back to the mansion where he could bake the rest of the day away in relative peace.

He launched his fist and Ghost imagined her own hand inside of his. And she steered that fist out of the way of harm... not that they needed it since they slipped right past the big guy moments before his sledgehammer went through the wall. Wow... was this what it felt like to be strong?

She imagined her head looking down at her hands and the big guy's head nudged that direction too. Was she doing that? Wearing him like a meat suit?

Kealey bounced off the man's back with enough force to tip his balance forward. And that was enough for Ghost to take them both out the window in a poor imitation of a swan dive. It was natural instinct to try to catch herself with her hands. It helped that the big guy had the same idea.

His hands took no damage, of course, his big mitts seemed indestructible. But he just didn't have the strength to keep his head from whapping into the concrete. Ohhh. That had to hurt.

A shout from above and suddenly officers were filing in close around Ghost's position. "He hit his head pretty hard." The sound came muffled but clear from inside the big guy. How did she get out last time that this happened? The memory was very vague. Sebastian had been there. He might had healed her out or something...

She tried to imagine herself wiggling her shoulders out of a sweater or a suit jacket. Gun sounds clicked as the surrounding officers, despite their confusion, were trained on Mittens and ready to keep him from moving again.

"He's moving!"

"I think that was me."

The movements of their heads told her they were confused. Gestures were much easier to read than facial expressions.

"Is this a joke?"

"No?" She wiggled again and then tried to possibly sit up. He appeared almost zombie-like. His body moving with no apparent driver behind the motion. Mittens face was likely a mess, his eyes closed and his jaw slack. By all means no one should have been home.

"Don't move!"
"FREEZE."
"Stay where you are."

They didn't like her moving. So she stopped right where she was. How else did she get out of him, though? He was incredibly heavy too. It might have been the angle at which she had frozen. Mittens was still face down, but now halfway sitting up with all his limbs and features completely slack.

"Kealey?" She couldn't tell if the blonde was near, but she could certainly use her help right about now.

Things were happening in slow-motion again, and Kealey watched in horror as a massive fist came sailing through the air in a flurried rush of panic and fear. The cop acted fast, and Kealey had to admire how cool he kept in spite of the situation at hand. He heaved, and Kealey winced at the emotions Andrew felt as he was pulled inside. There were certain things people felt when they were in pain, and Andrew had them in spades.

She hadn’t thought she’d hit Mittens hard enough to do any real damage, but the blond watched in horror as the big man toppled through the hole he’d just made with his fist. It was a long way down.

Kealey rushed forward and looked down, desperately trying to seek out the emotions of the man on the ground. There weren’t any.

For a horrible moment, Kealey wondered if she’d killed the man. Then, the cop came forward and yelled something out. Mittens was alive. The blond let out breath she hadn’t even realized she was holding and stood for a moment on legs that wobbled so much she almost sat down.

”Thanks for the assist. You okay?”

Kealey turned and nodded mutely for a moment while she searched for a voice that was being tamped down by a rolling feeling in her stomach.

”It’s what we do. I’m Kealey Quinn, I’m a trainee with the X-Men, and this is….”

Ghost?

Where had she gone? Kealey turned a few confused circles, looking for her partner and starting to panic all over again. There were a lot of emotions in this room, weeping relief, diminishing fear, confusion, and Ghost was gone. She’d been by Mittens…had something happened when she fell?

Kealey was just about to start freaking out when Ghost’s voice floated up from down below.

The blond stared down at the ground again, watching in slight horror as the obviously unconscious body of Mittens tried to sit up and immediately had several guns clicked in its general direction.

Kealey turned to ask the cop for help and realized he wasn’t there anymore. He was cuffing bad guys.

”Officer!” she called in his direction…”I’m going to need your help. My partner is…inside of the ring-leader down there and your partners are making it hard for her to reassert herself…can you ask them to back off? I promise you he won‘t be going anywhere.”

Now it was all over. Kealey looked around…this had not gone as smoothly as they had hoped…but nobody was dead. Not even the bad guy. He’d live to stand trial and go to jail. It was a relief. Ghost would have things sorted out in a moment, and they could all go home.

It was such a relief that Kealey did the only thing she could with a her head throbbing so steadily and so many emotions rolling around inside of her.

She found the nearest potted plant and promptly emptied her stomach.

First Mission….accomplished.

>> can you ask them to back off? I promise you he won‘t be going anywhere.”

The detective had just been in the middle of handcuffing another one of the coming to goons when he noted the X-trainee’s plea for his help. He quickly dashed over to the window and was surprised to see that Mittens seemed to be sitting up. Though he looked off. It appeared more like he was being manipulated by puppeteer strings, and oddest of all, his eyes were closed and his mouth hung half open from being unconscious. There was definitely something weird going on and from the looks of it, it had to be an X-men reason.

“Officers! Stand down!” Jorge yelled at the top of his lungs. He immediately got their attention. “I said stand down!”

They grudgingly started to obey and backed off and lowered their guns. When he saw this he immediately turned and made to leave the apartment. All the gunmen were either knocked out or handcuffed together and he stepped past them, a group of armed officers walked into the room with guns raised. Jorge immediately began to direct them to haul off the gunmen and make sure all the hostages were okay, especially the kid who had been nearly dropped out of the window.

He knelt down and grinned at the college kid who had still not moved from being sprawled onto his back. “You did good, kid. Kept a pretty clear head back there.” He patted him on the shoulder. “Just rest here until the paramedics come, okay? They better check that noggin of yours. And…thanks for the warning back there. You saved my life.”

Jorge then turned his attention to the blonde who had just dispatched Mittens and probably saved his life just as much as the kid’s. He walked over to her, after her deposit into the potted plant, and stifled one of his chuckles.

“So, you’re one of the X-men huh?” He was not be condescending, he just wanted to make sure he heard her right. “Listen, you did good okay? I’m going to go check on your friend whose…inside my criminal. You take it easy and breathe okay?”

With that Jorge jogged out of the room and headed back downstairs while the officers all began to check hostages and haul up the gunmen. The second Jorge reached the bottom floor he dashed through the store and back out into the demolished street. Mittens had really done a number on the block. He had hoped to keep the damage to a minimal, but the second they opened fire, he knew that was not going to happen. Outside, he immediately spotted the ring of cops who seemed unsure of how to proceed. He jogged over and immediately did his best to ease their tensions.

”Everyone relax okay? From what I’ve been told a mutant has risked their life to…enter,” he shuddered at the prospect, “this guy to help bring him down. I’ve been assured that the criminal is out of commission but the X-Man needs time to remove herself,” he said as he looked at the very odd looking Mittens. “You’re partner tells me you need time. Would you mind if these officers at least put the PCP handcuffs on the man while you get yourself out? Just to make them feel better.” He then smirked as he noted the possessed mutant and nodded towards him, err, her, ”Thank you for everything, X-Man. You were a major help.”

Andrew was fine, the cop was fine, Kealey was fine (albeit stick to her stomach apparently), in fact the only person who couldn't qualify as fine was Kealey's partner in this whole charade who had apparently gotten stuck inside of Mittens. Ugh, that couldn't be a fun place to be. Andrew grimaced at the thought of it. And had Kealey said something about X-Men? He filed it away as one more question to get answered later. For now he moved over to where Kealey had just gotten sick. With everything that had happened he didn't blame her in the least.

"Thanks for...all of that Kealey. I've got questions but I think those can wait until after we get back to the mansion."

Well that was awfully straight forward of him. Andrew put it down to pain and an eerie calm that had befallen him. He knew it wouldn't last but he'd make the best of it for now. Kealey had been thanked, not nearly enough because you couldn't really thank someone enough for saving your life but she had been thanked. With all the hustle and bustle he wasn't entirely sure he'd get a chance to thank the cop but maybe he could get Kealey to introduce him to the woman, Kealey had identified her partner as such, that had come with her.

Andrew's attention strayed to the gaping hole that had been the window and he walked over to it. It was a long way down. Honestly he was surprised that Mittens had survived it. More importantly he definitely wouldn't have. If that cop hadn't gotten to him in time, if Kealey and her partner hadn't been there to help fix things he'd likely be dead. Either shot, splattered on the pavement like pigeon droppings, or maimed in some horrible way by those hands. A cold shiver ran down his spine at the thought and he stepped back a bit just to ensure that he didn't take a dive on accident.

She stayed really still. Which she wouldn't think would be very hard until she was trying to do it. If she could sweat as a ghost, she would be now.

”Everyone relax okay? From what I’ve been told a mutant has risked their life to…enter this guy to help bring him down." Finally. Someone in charge.

"You think I like getting breathed in!?" Her feminine voice had to sound ridiculous coming out of a large, somewhat recumbent man. That was beside the point, though. They needed to put handcuffs on this body. So she tried to move the giant hands behind his giant back in order to help their cuffing. That left the majority of the body at a very strange angle indeed.

"Are those big enough?" She could see the officers back there trying to figuring out how in the world their restraints would fit around the giant circumference of his wrists. Eventually they worked something out and Ghost lowered her host back to the pavement. Okay. Now how did she take off a coat with her hands tied behind her?

Well. The only way was to leave those hands behind.

Easier said than done.

”Thank you for everything, X-Man. You were a major help.”

Now that she was really only listening to one voice she realized that it started to sound a bit familiar. Though without seeing a face it was difficult to place it.

Only one way to help that. Mittens gasped and sighed one long continuous sigh. One long, thick, continuous smokey sigh.

"Ew. I need a shower." She was imagining it. Nothing of Mittens was left on her. But still... she wouldn't feel better until after that shower.

"Is Kealey alright?" Ghost thought that she had heard her voice at one point, but she still wasn't close enough for her to sense. Drifting away from the large body, she formed herself into a more human shape. Eventually she would go solid. Once she was sure that they weren't going to shoot her (or one another through her) from the shock of seeing a ghost.

Kealey didn’t think that the plant appreciated her donation to it’s flower pot…but she figured it had to be better than the floor. ”Sorry plant…” she muttered a little miserably, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and trying to straighten up on slightly shaky legs.

The police officer approached, and Kealey’s cheeks burned as he asked whether or not she was one of the X-Men. He wasn’t being condescending…but after she’d just thrown up on a ficus…he probably had a hard time believing. The man told her she’d done okay, and Kealey gave him a grateful, if disbelieving smile. Breathing… Yes, she thought as her stomach rolled again, breathing would be good.

Andrew approached next, and Kealey simply nodded to him, pushing hair back out of her face as he pointed out the fact that he had questions. Probably something to do with the fact that she hadn’t mentioned her membership in the X-Men.

Omission wasn’t dishonesty…was it?

Ghost’s voice floated up from the street below, which had grown eerily silent as everyone watched the production. ”Let’s go find Ghost.” she said to Andrew, then headed for the stairs.

Now that the adrenaline was wearing off…man her head hurt.

Down they went, out into the street, and there she was, floating in an ocean of complete disbelief, a little anxiety, and a whole lot of mild awe.

”I’m right here Ghosty.” she said with a weak smile. ”You okay?”

Jorge had barely managed to get the rest of the cops calmed down. But in the end, he did not blame them. After all they had just managed to bring down a really horrible mutant and it must have been quite a shock for them all to suddenly see the man sit up and start to speak with a woman’s voice. But, Jorge being the only one there with a lot more mutant tolerance and experience, managed to slowly bring down all their blood pressures so they that could think more rationally. It helped that whoever the mutant was, a woman apparently, had complied with their wishes and helped them to handcuff the possessed Mitten’s body.

But as he heard the words that issued forth from her/him, he had to admit that she did sound somewhat familiar. Unfortunately the detective was horrible when it came to placing voices and people’s faces. Give him a crime scene any day over trying to remember the person whom a voice belonged to.

As he watched Mitten’s let out an extremely long breath, he knew immediately that this was going to put all the cops on edge again. They were dumbfounded at first but as the mist of the mutant who exited Mittens started to reform, they all cringed and cried out that they thought they were seeing a ghost. Jorge had to quickly intervene, jump in with his arms raised in order to reestablish the order among them. Unfortunately his past experience with Meld had lift him a little jumpy about officers who may jump the gun…

Then he remembered where he heard the voice before.

He turned back around and noticed the air had slowly started to solidify into a vaguely human form. He had seen that once before. One of his first assignment, back when it concerned Meld and that were-scorpion on the streets of New York. For a moment he thought he was completely surrounded and way over his head, but thankfully, a woman showed up. Someone who claimed to be from the X-Men, with the ability to manipulate wind.

If it weren’t for her, he was sure he would have been killed back then. He gave a kind of half-smile and walked up to the very vague human shape and nodded his head.

“I thought I recognized your voice. I remember you,” he said as he stood back and watched her slowly re-solidify. “I guess you’re just destined to keep pulling my butt from the fire. Thank you again.”

Andrew didn't get much out of Kealey except a nod. That was understandable. This wasn't the place for talking. Kealey only spoke enough to say something about finding Ghost and then headed down toward street level. He suddenly felt like a child on a school trip. Everyone else around him knew what they were doing and when to do it. He just felt lucky he had survived at all. Still, he trailed after Kealey and headed down to the street.

He arrived just in time to see a street full of jumpy police and what looked like a ghost. Andrew would guess that that was the aforementioned Ghost. Everyone, meaning the cop and Kealey both, seemed to know her. It was a bit immature but Andrew pouted for a brief second. Being left out was not fun. Thus Andrew hung back while Kealey and the cop said their piece. Once they were done he approached.

"Thanks for all that back there."

Upon saying that he backed off again. Let the big kids handle the tough stuff Andrew. Besides, he still had a cop to properly thank. The man had left the room earlier before he got a chance to say much. Andrew walked up to the guy that had saved him from a nasty squashy death and nodded.

"Thanks for pulling me in and all of that. It may be your job but I'm grateful regardless."

If he could Andrew would likely head back to the mansion around the same time Kealey and this Ghost woman finished up on their end. For now he stood to one side to let everyone else do their jobs and tried not to look like a sullen child who'd been told he was too young to play.