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Cait could almost feel her good mood radiating off her. She just felt so good right now, no amount of Agnes' grumpiness would dampen her spirits. She might pretend to dislike the young Scot, but deep down she must have a soft spot. Somewhere. It was just her job to find it and hug it like there was no tomorrow. That and to not get killed while she tried. If her quarry got any clue at the depths of her stalker tendencies, chances are she would be even more cautious around her.

The more experience fighter did have a point though, with only a few seconds of trying to calm her thoughts, her accuaracy had risen. If she managed to keep practicing that, chances are she would crack it in a couple of days, maybe a week at the most. All she needed to do was calm the thoughts her way. Emptying her mind wasn't an option, it just wasn't how she was made. But directing the buzzing, making it into music, giving it form and structure had prove to work. Now she just needed to 'compose' a few more weapon songs and she wouldn't only be able to hit a target everytime, but she might be able to create on the fly patterns, requiring very little concentration to keep them going. That idea was so exciting to her.

"Sounds like my kind of teacher. I'll need to test that the next time I go out." It would never hurt to have more ways to chat a pretty lass out of her dress. God knows Cait wasn't as smooth with her own sex as she was with guys. Guys were easy to flirt with. "The girls receptive to his methods at all? Totally asking for a friend." She added with a cheeky grin.

"Thanks though, Combatant. Jokes aside I really appreciate the help." Never hurt to tell someone how much their help meant to you, she thought. Some people needed to hear it more than others, especially the ones that went out of their way to stay isolated. As scary as the woman was, she did see the fighter as a true teammate. She would easily put herself in harm for Combatant and was pretty sure she'd do the same. Yeah, she'd have loved it if her companion could open up more with her and the others but her loyalty and steadfastness was above reproach.

Looking down and around where she'd been standing, she only just noticed the deep new scars on the floor. That, was not good. Becca was going to kill her, this time she was sure of it. She'd had constant lectures on being careful with her power and now she had damaged the floors of their rented offices. Oh this was going to be so bad for her, the boss might even revoke kitty access like she'd threatened to before. "Becca is going to have my hide this time." 

Of course it spoke Gaelic, the universe's little joke on him couldn't end with it just looking like one of the unseelie, it spoke like one too. Sure, why not, not like today was going to get any weirder. Switching to his home tongue he addressed the rat man "Hard to punish a dead man, rat. As for her, feel free to punish her all you want, she's clan-less now." His voice clearly carried his contempt.

The thing was babbling now, threatening them with another fairy story. Shame for him that particular one didn't scare the Scot. To him, Jenny was a coward, only taking children, or those too old to fight back. Not one to be afraid of. It also kept him occupied long enough for the officer to slap cuffs on the little prankster effectively curtailing most of his ability to annoy the people around him.Although, would they hold? Whatever this guys power was, he could make electricity. It was worryingly possible he could just magnetise the cuffs locking mechanism in them and slip them off.

With the officer talking, his brain flicked the language switch in his mind, going back to English. "Aye, can do. Keep an eye out though, on the off chance he's not bluffing about his lass, she got a certain type," he added quietly, motioning towards the kid still bouncing up and down with excitement.

Pulling his shield in close and wandering back over to the bored clown, he went about trying to get a pair of rubber gloves. The guy might not be his biggest fan right now, disrupting his business and all, but he wasn't about to stand in a police officers way.

Gloves acquired he went back across to the officer and handed them over, the pit in his stomach still refusing to move. "Here lass, hopefully they do the trick." At least he was dealt with right now, if his mythical lady friend made an appearance, Artair would happily deal with her if need be. "You need me for anything else, or can I finally finish my walk?"

Artair didn't quite know why he was here. Maybe it was the fact he'd not been able to play music with others for a while. Maybe it was, with everything else in his life going a bit crazy, he needed a little bit of normalcy. Maybe he was just bored. It didn't really matter much now, he was in intrigued and wanted to see it through. Who knows, it could be fun.

Introductions already done to the other guy waiting with him, he settled back into silence, preferring to just sit and wait. When they were finally called through, after a lovely bout of off key singing, he was feeling at least a little hopeful, especially if that was the level of the competition. Sure he wasn't the best player even he'd met, but he pretty confident in his own ability.

Walking in and quickly finding a place to deposit his violin case, they were addressed by one of the pair sitting behind a table. That was probably Bailey, if he was the one arranging everything. "Aye, shouldn't be a problem, I can understand wanting to streamline the process." If every audition was as bad as the one before them, grouping them up and getting through them quicker was necessary for their sanity. "I'm Artair, by the way, nice to meet you."

Nodding at the other man and pulling out his violin, he started tuning it while he read the sheet music. It didn't seem too hard and he was familiar with the song, now they just needed to divvy up roles. "What do you play then? I can grab a guitar if we need it, but I cannae sing. At least not in English." Artair had never liked singing in school, always being called stupid if he stumbled on the English words. Any songs he'd learned on his own had been in his native tongue.

"I'll just need a minute or so to warm up, just give me a heads up when you both want to start." With that he nodded to the pair conducting the audition, moved away from his fellow musician and began a few simple warm ups his father had drilled into him so many years ago. 

Artair's a fair hand with a guitar and violin and at least a passable singer, just not in English. he'd certainly be interested.

Some of the thugs caught onto the general tone of his words, keeping their weapons trained on him, others didn't seemed to quite get the underlying tone. Others still probably didn't even understand his accent, they just stared stupidly at him as if he'd spoken in another language. Unless, had he? After some shocks he'd sometimes reverted back to Gaelic but he was fairly sure he'd spoken in English. Almost positive.

The first person to snap out of it Artair took to be the boss. He wasn't big, probably a few inches shorter than himself, but the guy stood with a sense of authority, as if he expected those around him to obey. That and the very ornate gun in his hand tipped of the Scotsman. Scare this man, make him break, and the rest would run. "The f--- are you then, walkin' in here and makin' threats." Glaring around at his men, making some of them rally, he turned on Artair. "Must be a basket case if you walked in here on yer own. This is my turf, freak." The anti-mutant jibe just helped Artair feel less and less guilty about what he was doing.

"Me and my boys don't like you muties much, playin' around like gods. Actin' so much better than us." The thugs were getting confident, more ready for violence, and were completely unaware of their surroundings. If they had been they'd have notice the guy collapsing behind Artair, who sent out a silent thank you to his hidden partner. They'd also have notice a bottle of vodka behind them suddenly start to float towards their money. A wicked smile touched the Scotsman's' lips as he realise what her plan was. "Well, this mutie, as ye put it, isn't a fan of yer type much either. Oh and I know I'm no better than the filth ye hire to keep yer brains tucked nicely in yer head." It probably sounded very convincing to the thugs, since Artair very much believed it right now.

"I'm here not because what yer doin' is wrong, or because I care, much. I'm here for one reason." They were entralled, not paying attention to the small fire starting right behind their backs. Just a little longer and they would start to freak out. "I'm here because you hurt a child. I am many things lads, a murderer being just one of them. But there's one very simple rule to me, protect the clan." Time to wrap up the theatrics, he was starting to sound like a villain in Macbeth. "So, I thought you laddies needed a lesson. You burn one of us, we burn you all."

The fire was burning well now and the thugs had finally noticed it, to a man starting to freak out at this crazy man entering their base and starting fires with his mind. Some bolted and ran, others just stared dumbly, but some were experience enough to go for the threat, end it now. Bullets rang out in the room, slamming into the shield, stopped dead or clipping off its curved surface and burying themselves into the floor and walls. The shield held, it was strong, but the power to maintain it was draining quicker than he would have liked. Should be enough though, at least for tonight.

When the bullets trailed off he stood their completely unharmed. "That all you lot got?" he shouted derisively, trying to throw them off more, confuse them. Staring the boss down he continued with "Because if it is, this is going to be quicker than I thought." Dramatically pausing before delivering his final words, "My turn lads!" he surprised and darted to the left, towards one wall, keeping his shield between them and him. He was going to pick them off, one by one. He just hoped Kendra would do the same.

She'd never been one to swear, at least not excessively. Cait had grown up with a strange mix of the American attitude towards swearing with a strict Scottish matron for a mother. It wasn't like she didn't know how too, she was well versed in most curses in both English and Gaelic. Her dad could swear like a sailor and frequently did after a long day dealing with the bureaucratic nightmare that goes into being a senior doctor in a large hospital. For what ever reason though it just hadn't been something she did. Even as a rebellious teenager her language was fairly tame, so her sudden outburst really shocked her. Had this really been annoying her this much?

When she finally managed to drag her eyes up from the floor and still bright red with embarrassment she saw the other woman staring at her she was a bit confused. Was Combatant smiling? No that couldn't be possible, Cait hadn't know the woman even made the muscles in her face for a smile, let alone know how to use them. It was almost scary.

Cait did have to ponder her comment though. What was she thinking about whenever she did this? It was probably true she didn't exactly have a clear mind most of the time and she had admittedly been a bit too focused on hugs while doing it today but surely there was more too it than that. Could it really be that simple? Even if it was, what kind of person could just empty their mind, silence all those strange buzzing little thoughts. They were certainly hard to stop when the teams combat expert pulled out a set of throwing knives. That could only be bad for her. With Combatant advancing on her all Cait could think about was maybe she could read her thoughts after all and was simply ending her great hug plan before it started.

She was safe though, at least for now, as her companion demonstrated a terrifying skill with the weapons and planted each one in the centre of the target. "Remind me not to cross you Combatant. Ever." It was amazing how scary some of her teammates were. "But I see what you mean, certainly can't help to try."

Closing her eyes and trying to empty her mind, she just couldn't stop the errant thoughts. Each happy sunbeam and glittery idea just kept circling her head, refusing to let her have peace. This wasn't right, wasn't how she worked. She couldn't just turn them off. Unless, she was never more focused than when she was playing music. Maybe she didn't need to make them quiet, she just needed to drown them out with sound. Closing her eyes and beginning her warm up, she imagined she was standing in front of a crowd, playing her favourite song.

It felt weird, each knife came in at the right time but the pattern was, different, more fluid. The weapons were reacting the the song, like they were playing the harmony in the air. Before she likened it to a song, now it was one. So she stood, and played her aerial song, the blades spinning faster and faster until she hit the finale, playing her notes perfectly. Cait was out of breath, the effort in what she'd done suddenly crashing down, like she'd just finished a musical set at work. Cautiously she opened her eyes.

Sitting in the target were four blades, each arranged around the kunai Combatant had thrown. Once again, off target was the forth but this time, it looked closer. Not by much but it was definitely closer than before. Running up to check, she got her confirmation. It worked! Agnes' suggestion had cracked it. Months on this problem and it had been so simple she'd over looked it. "Oh my god, Agnes it worked! I can't believe how easy it was and it worked!." In her excitement she didn't even realise her mistake in using her real name. Nor did she notice the new, deep scores in the floor around where she had been standing.

"If I didn't know any better I would hug you so much right now." Which was partially true. She did know better and she was still tempted to try it, the day seeming so much brighter again.

He could feel his mind starting to freak out, starting to panic at what he'd done. Taking those thoughts, those feelings and carefully compartmentalising them away, he refocused on the current problem. After this was all done he could have his break down, deal with what he'd done. Right now, he was in hostile territory with one of them dead by his hands and his friends likely getting antsy when they'd not reported in. With his partner in places he couldn't imagine, he was on his own. He would need a plan and he would need it fast.

Pulling the unconscious man into the room with his friend, he could feel the more reasonable part of his mind screaming at him whenever he saw the body. It was the first he'd seen, and it wouldn't be the last considering his future career plans, however the knowledge that this one in front of him was his fault ate at him. Carefully shutting down each and every part of his mind trying to force this fact to attention, he went into full doctor mode. Cold, calculating and logical. It's what he needed right now. Time to be human later. Looking down, he was almost shocked by how steady his hands were. Apparently he was getting better at this, being able to shut off his emotions. He couldn't tell anymore if that was a good thing.

Pulling the last remaining boxes down onto the prone forms, he knew that the only way to do this was to go loud, hope he got Kendra's attention. Getting her to take out the back line while he drew fire would severely hamper the thugs ability to function and nothing would freak them out more than an invisible assailant amongst them. All he needed was a shield, one strong and hard enough to last through a hail of gunfire, or two. His other weapons already scattered from his shock beforehand. Artair blocked out everything, bending his mind inwards, imagining every curve and contour. He built it slowly, giving it every bit of strength he could and when it was ready, he poured all the strength he could in, ripping it into life in front of him.

The world rushed back when he opened his eyes, sounds and smells registering again. In front of him stood the tower shield, shining brighter than anything he'd tried to make. This was everything he had, focused in one form. Already he could feel it drawing his strength faster than other constructs. He had to move, now. Voices were getting agitated, clearly upset with the lack of contact from the scouts. Striding down the corridor, not bothering to hide his movement, he burst into the room with the shield in full view.

"Evening lads. I hear you lot have been naughty boys, selling drugs to wee kids." They almost seemed impressed when a crazy Scotsman had just strode into the room and started berating them. Almost. Mostly they just leveled their guns at him nervously, noting the white shield outlined in front of him. Good, the longer he kept them confused, the longer he had for Kendra to make an appearance. "Now then, what have you tossers got to say for yourselves then? Got any explanations why you're slinging that s--- so obviously. Getting all sorts paying attention?"