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As time went on, Will seemed to be relaxing a bit. That was excellent news and Kealey decided to give herself a bit of leniency towards her earlier faux pas. In the future when she reached out, unsolicited, to try and speak to folks she would be more forthcoming with why she wanted to meet. It wouldn’t do to make people an absolute wreck before they’d ever set foot in the Mansion.

Inside now, Kealey once again found herself nostalgic at the excitement and curiosity that the entryway was inspiring. At one point all of this had been new and exciting to her too. At another point it had become work. Now…now it was getting exciting again. A new opportunity, with new recruits and trainees that needed mentoring.

Will spoke and Kealey blinked slightly as she looked over at him, slowly pulling from her train of thought and back to the conversation at hand. She was going to have to pay more attention and stop being so easily distractible or this meeting was going to go as poorly as the invitation had.

”Oh my gosh, I don’t even know the last time anyone edited the website. I can only imagine the things it says…” Kealey said with a small smile and a shake of her head.

Social media? The blonde stayed away from it as much as humanly possible, but she couldn’t only imagine the things they said.

”You’ll have to fill me in on the newest social media rumors. My husband and I had a baby about 8 months ago and I’m only just starting to catch up with the world.”

It seemed that Will was happy enough for her to begin asking questions, even if he seemed cautious to do so.

Kealey nodded, “We can talk in my office.” she said, turning and leading the way down one of the corridors. This direction led to the more administrative side of the Mansion and “Kealey’s office” was actually a shared space that various people in the Mansion used when they were doing administrative duties. Gone was the time when Kealey had held the official position of librarian and had a real office to call her own.

Once they were in the room, Kealey gestured at one of the chairs on the front side of the desk. ”Can I offer you some water…or soda…or hours old terrible coffee?” she asked as her fist set of questions.

The guards at the gate had been given explicit instructions that when Will arrived he was to be let in with no questions asked. There was absolutely no reason to overwhelm the poor man and make things needlessly difficult.

It was nearly six o’clock now and Kealey stayed right where she was, waiting for the arrival.

It wasn’t a terribly long time before Kealey could feel a jumble of emotions approaching from the direction of the gate. Unless there were multiple people approaching, Will was feeling lots of things and Kealey suddenly felt bad for not saying more when she had sent the initial text.

As soon as Kealey could see her guest, she made her way down the stairs, curls bouncing around her shoulders to meet her guest as much of halfway as possible. The intention here hadn’t been to intimidate or impress, simply to provide an open invitation to a place that didn’t necessarily hand them out with candy. That had backfired a bit though and it made Kealey positively itch to make things a little easier.

She didn’t though. Kealey had learned a very long time ago that playing with the emotions of others when not invited or necessary could have unintended consequences. It was also a terrible way to earn trust.

”Hello Will!” Kealey said on approach, ”It is just Will, right?” She said, Irish accent lilting slightly here and there. Hopefully she’d gotten Will’s name right, that was how everyone had referred to him on the day, so Kealey had assumed.

Because Kealey had worn flats today, Will was taller than she was (as was almost everyone) and dressed casually. Good, Kealey was dressed down too in a simple sweater from her fall line and jeans.

”I don’t think we were ever properly introduced. I’m Kealey, welcome to the Mansion.” she said, offering a hand to shake before pausing for a moment, her head tilted slightly as she studied the younger man in front of her, ”I’m sorry if my invitation made you nervous or uncomfortable. It wasn’t my intention at all. I was impressed by you at the Museum and simply wondered if you’d like to know more about the Mansion.”

A response didn’t come immediately. Kealey hadn’t really expected it to and she was more than happy to be patient. Kealey was also prepared to never get an answer. Unsolicited, personal texts from the paramilitary organization based in your town weren’t often met with much excitement. This had been a proverbial shot in the dark and Kealey was fine setting the pieces into motion and leaving the rest for Heaven to sort.

Looking back to the laptop where Kealey was meticulously researching childcare that could work around the schedule that Mansion would require if she took on a more active role again had been the prevalent task on her mind. Shin was good at many many wide and varied things, detailed research into the seemingly thousands of childcare options in the city was not one of those things. A Nanny situation would probably be the easiest, Kealey knew, but that involved bringing yet another person into their sphere and she was already overwhelmed often enough as it was.

The text notification on the blonde’s phone pinged and she picked up the phone to see that the return text had come quite a bit faster than she had thought it might and a wide smile spread across the blonde’s features as she read the words on the screen.

It seemed that Will was amenable to meeting. He was open in the evenings unless it was a weekend and that suited Kealey just fine. Barring an emergency, coordinating with Shin so she didn’t have to bring the baby would be as simple as sending him a text when she was done here.

That decided, the blond started tapping away with her thumbs.



Pleased with herself for her successful communication and glancing at the clock to see that her practice session with the student empath was about to start, Kealey pocketed her phone and headed towards the library where they’d chosen to meet.

Well. Everyone sort of listened. In general there was loosely organized chaos. Heaving a sigh as she continued to move forward, Kealey tried to continue focusing on the guards even though she knew there wasn’t a lot she was going to be able to do. At least one of the men was absolutely terrified and it sent a shiver down the empath’s spine as she moved forward, tamping down that terror. Despite what was happening, the guards had no reason to be afraid of them. Except that they kind of did.

Ashton and his riot shield and William and his powers had incapacitated two of the guards. The other Will had successfully incapacitated a third and the tall redhead was working on getting them secured in a fashion that would render their attempts at escape or deterral useless.

Lee had successfully incapacitated two of the guards on her own and with the help of Tarin’s spirits and was already scolding Ashton and Ion for hurting the guards that they’d decided to take on. Which was…fair…but also not her job. Had Lee wanted to run a team of X-Men or their recruits, she’d had plenty of opportunities to join up.

Realizing that the tension of the situation might be bleeding into her own feelings, Kealey took a deep breath and a moment to regulate her emotions before she started speaking again. There wasn’t much more to organize, but the cat would be out of the proverbial bag now that they had attacked the compelled guards. The cheerleading outsider was a distraction and Kealey reached out to tamp down some of that manic happiness in hopes that he would calm and be helpful.

That accomplished and leaving Lee to incapacitate the guard that had approached her, Kealey moved around and towards her trainees.

”William.” the blonde said tersely, ”You were told not to harm the guards. They’re innocents in this and no different than the general public. Not only that, but our image is everything, especially right now.” she said. The media debacle with Sam had not done much for public opinion of the X Teams.

Swinging her attention to Ashton, Kealey addressed the man in the same terse voice, ”That goes for you too Ashton. They didn’t walk into work today planning on this.”

Looking at the rest of the assembled folks, Kealey shook her head, ”Nobody else here is on my team, so I won’t presume to issue orders.” she said, glancing over her shoulder at Lee, ”But if we can’t work together this is going to get ugly fast. If I know anything about situations like this, it's that when we get inside it’s going to be chaos. We cannot add to the chaos…”

Taking a deep breath, Kealey let it out, ”Here’s what I’d like to do…”

Things were starting to move from motion to action. The team was assembled, rag-tag as it was, and it was almost time to get inside and see if they could accomplish their goal.

It turned out it was a red-letter day to come out of retirement and Kealey found herself directing a group with wildly varying degrees of experience. With those varying degrees of experience came varying degrees of comfort and readiness. It was a lot in such close quarters and as Kealey opened the door and exited the car she worked to sort out the tangle of emotions from the assembled group.

William was fairly stable as far as his emotions were concerned. Nothing had changed since they’d made it to the museum. That was good. A less experienced member of the team should have a healthy dose of nerves. It kept them cautious and from being rash or making silly decisions.

The odd man in the back who had identified themselves as ‘Zek’ was downright happy and eager despite the fact that Kealey had just explained the stakes of their situation. It was an incredibly odd reaction and Kealey still didn’t know exactly what to think. She decided that he fit well into the wildcard category and would proceed accordingly.

Ashton was waffling back and forth a bit, but was what Kealey would generally acknowledge as regulated at the moment. There were varying emotions at varying levels, but Ashton seemed to have them under control. Fine. That was fine.

Lee’s emotions were probably the closest mirror to Kealey’s in the group. There was healthy worry there, but it wasn’t overwhelming. There was another, more nuanced concern, some aggravation, and simple resignation. Kealey could empathize on a level beyond her powers. Kealey knew Lee pretty well and neither of them was particularly interested in participating in these kinds of things anymore.

And that’s where things stopped being easy.

The other three in the group, despite their fairly cool and collected appearances were really anything but…

Tarin, who Kealey had only spent any appreciable time with once before today was a tightly coiled bundle of nerves. As he had the first time they’d met, he was studiously looking anywhere but at Kealey and the blonde reminded herself that this was not the same Tarin she had known previously. Lee had suggested some things, but this level of anxiety came as a bit of a surprise and Kealey looked away from Tarin to make eye contact with Lee for a moment before turning to the other two.

These two were nervous, reluctant, scared, but there was also some quiet determination there. Potential. They weren’t a part of this world, at least not yet and they were overwhelmed by what they had found themselves pulled into. Still, if Lee had thought the two of them capable enough to help…

Kealey knew she was making a decision that could get people who weren’t even a part of her team hurt, but more help was better.

They’d all shared as much as they could in the short time they had about their powers and Kealey nodded. Side conversations were happening, offers of help, more context, all the things that tended to help with group coordination. It was time to act though, all the planning in the world wouldn’t accomplish the task.

”Thanks to Tarin’s information we’ve got a plan now. I’d assume that the guards aren’t going to stay away forever and if they are being mind controlled, someone is going to eventually notice that I’ve been messing with them.”

The little blonde shook her head and took a breath, focusing to try and keep her own emotions at bay as the influence from the others in the group tried to push them askew. ”The most important thing we can do is get the ankh away from the Mystic Woman. According to Shin and Michael that’s the key. From there, if we can neutralize Ahk, we do so…if not, we get away with the artifact.”

”We neutralize all museum employees as gently as possible, but full engagement with Ahk and anyone she directly summons. Do your best.”

The nerves were starting to get to her a bit and Kealey reached out to the three who were the most affected, gently pushing down that particularly emotion. It didn’t disappear, it was dangerous to completely remove all caution from a person, but hopefully it would take the edge of and help them make good decisions.

[colo=deeppink]”I’ll be heading for the Egyptian wing with William, “ [/color] Kealey said, nodding to the younger X-Man who was beginning to glow, ”Lee, I’d like you…” she hesitated for a moment, ”And Tarin to join me…we are going to need support from the outside too, and help to keep the way clear. Can everyone else do that?”

As the guards made their way back through the parking lot and the younger man climbed into the back of the car, Kealey frowned thoughtfully. Surely those guards weren’t working willingly for the Mystic they were there to stop. That complicated things significantly. ”We’re going to have to be careful not to injure those guards.” she said softly. ”Or any other museum employees.” The blonde shook her head as she thought…she wasn’t much use as far as long term incapacitation was concerned, it took much concentration.

William spoke and Kealey looked up, pulled from her thoughts by a figure…a person, sliding down a rope and falling to the ground on the side of the car. William asked if this was another of the people Shin had sent to help and Kealey shook her head, ”I don’t think so…but if they can help…”

The man in the back was talking again, pretty much confirming what Kealey had thought about the guards and Kealey rolled down her own window.

”Did Shin send you?” Kealey asked, focusing on the newcomer’s emotions for a moment. They were…interesting. If she’d had to put a word to them she’d have called them…chaotic? They were something, but the person outside the car seemed happy to be there.

”If not, are you here to help or hinder. We really don’t need any of the second kind.”