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Good. No resistance for now.

>"Stalker?..."

Her face and tone put a fresh perspective on the name for Nolan. Stalker was meant to be creepy, but with a little humor attached it became absolutely absurd. He couldn't help but throw back his head and laugh as he ushered the woman over to their temporary command point. His laughter held a few positive interactions with federal officers, instances where he'd seen them go above and beyond to make sure the human's were safe. They were, after all, the good guys. She should remember that now.

"I get that you'll want to go home. Thank you for accommodating us. You're a direct source for what's going on on the other side." He had to stop to check in and that included introducing his new favorite person ever as their source from across the rift. That allowed them some space. They knew he'd be working his magic and most people wouldn't want that for themselves despite the fact that as they walked past, he kept his words clean. He kept their desires in mind. People didn't like him enough as it was.

Eventually Nolan found a spot off to the side of the secured area with folding chairs. The agent grabbed two water bottles and made sure she took a seat. This might take a while...

"Hi. Sorry about all that. I don't really have a fancy name like Stalker so I don't mind telling you my name's Nolan. I work in intelligence and I'm really hoping you know a little bit more than we do. Could you start by going over what happened exactly? Stalker was on a rather important assignment and with him out of commission, we just don't know that status of that task." He gave his best 'trust me' eyes.

Was he propositioning her? Well, yeah. It was that or death and he did hate the waste of it.

"You're on." He grinned and shook her hand because the game was afoot. More memories poured in. Game's Lenna had played because that was what he'd been thinking about when he'd touched her. Nothing important. He tried to stuff those memories aside for now.

The wait- airline personnel sauntered right past their dual lit call buttons. Rude! "S'cuse me, darlin'." Nolan had to shimmy out of his seat with his knees brushing Lenna's in order to stalk down the aisle. He chuckled in a self deprecating way to ease the weirdness and then he was free to track that air lady down.

At the front of the plane juuuust behind the curtain that separated the little people from the big seats, Nolan caught the (Stewardess! They were called stewardesses!) stewardess' elbow. He pulled out his badge and packed his story with some inspiration he'd run across on his late-night news watching binge.

There had been a domestic situation, he'd seen the report and couldn't remember where it happened. That was fine. He put just enough of the newscast into his words that the attendant would remember having seen the story and would believe it as an outside source. According to Nolan, Lenna was a woman on the run from a very scary man. That's was true, though 'on the run' was maybe a stretch. 'Booted out' or 'tossed aside like an old rag' might have been more accurate, from what he understood. He'd get the full story from Lenna, by lip or from touch. For now, he was only worried about spinning his yarn.

And she ate it up. He was US law enforcement, and this was a special and sensitive situation that only she could help him with. Why wouldn't she want to help a poor, battered woman escape her abuser?

Nolan shimmied back into his seat and raised his eyebrows to Lenna by way of salute.

There were some hushed conversations and more than one attendant hurried to move some things around, but before long the original stewardess Nolan had spoken with came by with drinks. One for Lenna. One for Nolan. "We've had an unexpected opening in first class. These seats are next on the bump list, would you like to move or retain your original seating?"

Meanwhile security made their way onto the plane and were quietly helping Mr. Suspicious AF to exit the plane.

It was all hands on deck. Despite the fact that Nolan loathed getting sent out into the field, this time things were actually interesting. SUPER's best guess was that all those time interferences that had been increasing in frequency and duration had finally coalesced, AKA: the agency was now investigating the mother of all space-time anomalies. Which was flipping cool, really. Sometimes, his job was juuuust fine by him.

Nolan hitched a ride with a weather Gamma that could get him there faster. He wanted to see it for himself and once they were there, it did not disappoint. There was glowing and debris from some kind of shockwave. The cars were all moved back and SUPER had mostly joined in on the emergency response because by all reports, people had gone through that thing and lived. For now, the area directly around it was almost an no-man's zone. People were scared to go close, fall through, meet God, whatever. For hours, nothing permeated the little cleared space around the vortex.

The emergency cases had been cleared and they were down to the people who just needed band aids when the first person crossed through. Someone shouted that a person had just shown up next to the rift, but at first glance Nolan didn't see him... because apparently he was face down on the concrete. He and a few other responders jogged over and the first thrill of excitement ran across Nolan's shoulders when they turned the man over. He knew that face. He knew what this Iota had been tasked to do in regards to Delta 5. And, considering the state that the Agent was in... he hadn't been returned to this world on his own.

"You're an Epsilon?" He thought he remembered training with this guy. Some kind of vertigo-inducing telepathic b*tch slap had set Nolan on his butt more than twice.

"The one with the grabby hands?" That got the laugh he was looking for. Nolan ignored the other first responders and, for now, ignored the unconscious man they were checking over. Time was of the essence. They needed to act. It could be that their rogue agent was just on the other side of the portal, walking away free. "I don't know about you, but I think I'd like to meet whoever helped an unconscious agent over the threshold."

Recognition of what was being asked clearly spread across the other agent's face and both men looked toward the vortex. If something was happening, Nolan couldn't tell, but he expected results and soon.

He was not disappointed.

Well, maybe a little. The blonde that fell at their feet was no Trace Tanner, Delta 5. But she was... something if she'd managed to subdue Mr. Unconscious and stuff him into a different world.

"Let me help you up." Nolan put a few memories into his voice of himself helping before. He'd taken those from other agents, but he selected memories that were pretty neutral: Nolan helping move boxes of equipment or Nolan offering someone else a water bottle. No direct contact. After all, he and the blonde were just meeting. It would be too jarring if he would have stuffed his life's history into her head. And, as much as he would have loved a little skin to skin with Ms. Blonde, she was more than the typical coverage. Another point in favor of her being some kind of mutant: Iota maybe? No control?

The helpful Epsilon grumbled and moved away to help get their agent ready for transport back to a secure medical location. Nolan's voice didn't discriminate. The memorymancer'd probably just broadcast his 'Hey, haven't I seen you being nice somewhere before?' memory package to all those in hearing range.

"Are you hurt?" Again, he slipped a memory of his face into his words that was old and faded around the edges. One of his trainees had once recognized him at the laundromat, but never come over to say hello since he didn't know his name. They were friends, as much as Nolan or the other agents had friends so the associated feelings with that memory were positive. Hopefully her reception would be equally positive and they could do this whole interrogation thing in a more palatable way.

"You don't understand." He was too drunk. How could she explain the situation? His hands flirted higher and so did Noel's panic level. Short of stabbing him, her options were severely limited with her lower body pinned beneath him. She should never have let it get this bad.

If Noel had to roll her eyes any harder, they might have popped out of her face. I can't resist this any longer? She should have punched him in the nose just for that, but she was busy using her arm strength to keep party Devon as far away from her face as possible. The man was like an octopus. How did he possibly have so many hands all over everywhere?

"Stop!" She couldn't even think while he was pawing at her.

> “The real you,” a terse, too calm voice intoned.

Hadden. The real Hadden. His voice both made her feel guilty, like a kid whose hand was caught in the cookie jar, and galvanized. She could fight party Devon without killing him. She wasn't helpless, just scared. She could defend herself.

"He's less disciplined, inebriated, and I think the last time he took his medication was at least three months ago." Noel shouted back toward Hadden the short list of information she thought might be most useful to him. She was still wrestling to keep him off her, but now she had back up and an alternate course of action to pursue. They should probably catch party Devon, right? At least hold him until he'd sobered up. "He's like you, but different choices. Different Haven. Different ambition."

Noel tried again to torque her body beneath party Devon in order to flip him onto the bed beneath her. If she should just get him off of her, maybe that thread of panic would ease up and she would be able to think past her blinding headache.

His surprise. So satisfying. Noel basked in her self-satisfaction while Svetlana contributed her own jokes and lame attempts at splashing.

It took Noel an extra step to understand that it should have been funny. Hadn't they just established that kissing was off the table for everyone here? Now they were teasing about it. Worse, they were... was that flirting!? Maybe Hadden had invited her to be the third wheel. A way to control himself through social expectations or something so they didn't storm out the city on accident.

Eugh. Screw that.

Noel turned against woman-kind and splashed Svetlana with the same testing water slap. She wasn't too serious... yet.

"Lip celibacy traitor!" She tried to make it clear that she was teasing. "Kissing is the worst!"

And she'd made the rookie mistake of losing track of where Hadden had gone until he quite suddenly appeared in a shower of water. He managed to startle a laugh out of Noel and then the splashing began for real. Now that there were no sides and it was every set of lips for themselves.

It was a little like negotiating with a sleepy kid, Noel guessed. If she got him halfway there, years of habit filled in the gaps. He brushed his teeth because he'd done that ten million times, but left the washcloth on his head, unsure of what it was for. Since Noel was equally unsure, she tugged it back off without much notice from Hadden. She left it in a heap on the counter. Ugh. Maybe she should fold it. Hadden seemed like a fold-er to her.

Was Noel sure? She watched him rinse out his mouth and figured this wasn't really the consent that Hadden had intended she receive. He really wasn't in a position to make that decision for himself and just because she wanted to help didn't mean that he wanted it. Or was ready for it.

"Maybe we shouldn--" But he was the one to turn and pull her close. One hand, two hands, and then eyebrows? Noel's sentence died on her lips when he was the one to initiate contact. She slid her hands at the side of Hadden's face to better control his head. She didn't understand the eyebrows, but his body language was clear. He was more than okay with sharing his memories.

What started as lips pressed against lips moved very quickly into Noel using her tongue to explore Hadden's mouth. This wasn't about romance. This was about crawling into his head through his mouth.

Christmas. She must have still had her newest nickname on her mind when she made first mental contact because she saw Hadden sitting alone at Christmas.

Wait. Not alone. Not alone at all! Noel put those memories on fast forward while she tried to think through what she was supposed to be looking for, but it was like watching a train wreck. The strippers, the booze, the depression. She got a compressed blast of what it had felt like to have a hollow holiday. He hadn't be alone, but he had been lonely.

Lonely. That reminded her enough to trigger her power in search of what was next. She needed to see what had prompted this sad romp through both bars. She'd once told Hadden he over thought things and that it was only sad if he let it be, but this...

Noel thought she knew what it was like to be sad. She was wrong.

Her parents had died in an explosion... no, Hadden's parents had died. She forwarded through Hurricane Sandy and wasn't sure what her body was doing, but Hadden's had been roaring with power directed by anguish. He blamed SUPER. Which was... a couple memories back. A shadowy government agency?

Noel delved deeper. It was bizarre in the most unexpected sense. Hadden was wild. Dismissing his doctors, ignoring his medications, untidy, unruly, drug addicted... This was not the Devon Hadden that Noel knew. There had to be some good.

Haven still existed, but... was that one of Nate's women? And the parties, some of the information gleaned wasn't used as blackmail, some at least, was fed through to the authorities.

God, there was just so much information here! Noel wasn't sure how to un-spaghetti-fy it all. Every time she thought she found resolution to a question, it prompted 4 more. What was the Syndicate? WAS THAT HER ARRESTING OFFICER GETTING FLIRTY!?

She felt herself reaching the edge of her working capacity for memory and pushed for more. This Devon... he knew things.

Why would Svetlana be suspicious? Noel's mouth was too full to speculate, but Hadden provided a few reasons, each easily dismissable.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad to be here, but that scenario is only sad 'cause you think it's sad, Hadden. You've way over thought this whole pool scenario." Overthinking. Maybe that was what Devon did that bugged Noel so much. He had food and drinks and everything just so freaking perfect all the time. It was unnatural to think about people so much and maneuver and socially tinker. Svetlana looked like a shrewd mind, well versed in people and social status and upward mobility, whatever upward mobility was. Maybe this was their world. Maybe people like Svetlana expected it.

Ugh. Now she was thinking about it.

And, well, that was dumb.

Noel opened her water bottle, took a swig, and abandoned it on the side of the pool in order to slip into the water again. Hadden had come back for his seat, but Noel was already in it so he'd stayed pec-high in the water instead. Once she sat next to him, the level was nearly up to her shoulders. Dumb height difference.

Whatever. The water was where she wanted to be. Hadden was going to have to pry her wrinkly prune fingers out of the pool at the end of the night... or once morning rolled around. She gave Svetlana her most innocent eyes which wasn't difficult considering that whatever she'd been hinting at went right over her socially immobile head.

"What are you worried about Svetlana?" Noel moved her arms in the water, it was a smooth embrace. "Would it be any less of a positive get together if we teamed up against Hadden?" Noel was patently terrible at dealing with women. They were flighty and she just didn't get them. But one thing she'd learned was that a lady was far more likely to team up with her if it was against a guy.

Noel made the first move while her words were still sinking in. She made a little splash in Hadden's direction, a testing anemic wave just violent enough to give him a watery slap on the cheek. Could she do better? Yeah. But this was a time to test the waters and make sure she wasn't plowing past some invisible social boundary she didn't understand.

Besides, what was a pool party without a splash fight?