Heroes of Silvatica City

Caoimhe hadn't told Omak about Will's other personalities because that was an intensely private thing, but she mentioned he sometimes had moods. She realised after the fact that that made it sound even worse. "Is this, uh... One of his moods?" Omak asked Caoimhe, rubbing his bloodied knuckles. Caoimhe was dazed but she still slapped Omak on the face. "Asshole!" she snapped. She at first thought that either Huxley or Leroy was coming out to defend the weaker Will. But the laughter was different. Still holding her eye, she turned to this new person. "Who are you?" she asked quietly.

"O-oh, thank you!" Honey flustered. Ugh how embarrassing! She should have just gone for the brown sugar or maybe cut out the sweet thing entirely because she certainly didn't need it. Now Ire could see just how much of a weak glutton she was. She averted her gaze from Ire's face and instead looked at her arm. Ooh wow, she could see Ire's musculature even through her shirt. Honey's embarrassed blush doubled down with a sort of... Excited blush. Honey enjoyed it when people took care of her like this. "Thank you, ma'am," she repeated more quietly, taking the jar back from her.

"Shit," Squishy cursed. "Oh, sorry. You kids stay here and enact the SHADE protocol, which way did they take Ica?"

This hadn't gone unnoticed with Tenpo. Zeke's mood had improved considerably since the woman Celeste had started working at his office, which he was also spending much more time at. How could Tenpo not be suspicious? Sometimes she wished she could read his mind to find out what was going on. Sometimes she would think loud, suspicious thoughts, she would think to him that his new busy life made her lonely, she would think many loud things to him but he seemed to hear none of them.

"The hell?" Omak spluttered when they first saw Will turn into... A woman? A girly guy? What was going on?! Caoimhe was so surprised and honestly probably concussed from the punch so she didn't react properly, and just let this new person strangle her. Her lips had turned blue by the time Omak charged forward and tried to break the person's arm to free her.

Honey fluttered her lashes and puckered her glossy lips ever so slightly before smiling. She had nice teeth. "Sure," she murmured, spooning honey into both of their coffees and stirring it. The bitter coffee went so well with the mellow honey. [Shit I made an analogy without even realising it hahaha.] Honey cooed softly when she took a sip.

Squishy scowled and rubbed its temples. "Enact the SHADE protocol anyway. We may need their help." [This is going to effect those two above.]

"Have fun," Tenpo told Zeke, kissing him a bit more passionately than she needed to. Zeke knew she was going out today to go baby clothes shopping with Aaliyah and Daniel's dad so she could keep her mind on something other than... Celeste, whom she'd never met and could only imagine in her head.

Omak grunted and held onto his arm, before flying like a rag doll through the air. Someone of his size was not used to getting through around like this, nor used to pain from a beat-down. "Stop!" Caoimhe rasped. Her windpipe was damaged somewhat. "Who are you?!"

[Soldier.] Honey didn't bother to ask about the itinerary, as she knew the SHADE protocol being enacted in any place meant that anything planned for the day or even the week was out the window. She had studied all of SHADE's agents before working there, but seeing Squishy in person was still unnerving. "Someone came with an army of robot spiders," it was saying to Ire with a clipped tone. This was the angriest Ire had ever seen it. "They took some of my students, and a 'mysterious woman' took my Ica."

"We're on time actually," Celeste countered, looking at a clock on the cafe wall. "Strange. I was hoping to meet some others from our profession," she admitted. They waited there for quite some time but no one showed. This was a real disappointment, but at least Celeste enjoyed her boss' company, despite his intense gaze.

Oh no, this was her fault? Of course it was, everything that was happening was because of Caoimhe. She shakily got to her feet and reached out to 'O'. "Leave him outta this," she wheezed. "He's nothin'." Omak had managed to sit up and groan in pain, but his expression looked hurt in a different way when Caoimhe said that. "If you wanna hit somethin', hit me," Caoimhe continued saying to O. "Please."

"Psychic block?" Squishy murmured, tapping its lips. "I should call Zeke." Their telepath friend might be able to help with this, though he had a life and career outside of heroism now.

"That's awful," said Celeste with a mildly horrified expression. "I hope he finds his child." She completely forgot that the event had been cancelled when Zeke told her that, as the safety of a child was tantamount. Normally she was serene and placid like the glassy surface of a calm lake, but the information Zeke had told her made her subtly disturbed. She had her hands clenched on the table between them.

Caoimhe didn't make a sound as she was strung up and smacked about. She protested only a little at Omak's kicking, and gasped a little as some of her hair was torn, but she was clearly not going to fight this. Until O tried to walk away. "Hey," she croaked, throwing a wave of green energy at her from where she was slumped on the ground. O's energy was so strange, actually it was pretty unpleasant. It kept shifting and swaying away from where she tried to grab hold. Was O immune to her powers?

Honey nodded and turned away to go and work her admin magic. Squishy didn't have the time or energy to ask Ire who 'Honey' was and why she had such a sugary name. Aaliyah had been all for coming here, it sounded like a great opportunity, but on finding it all messed up like there'd just been a fight, she didn't want to be here anymore. For her little Danny's sake.

Celeste smiled softly , her eyes looking between Zeke's hands on hers and his face. She seemed to be reading him, and found him to have innocent intentions, so she left his hands on top of hers. Someone else, happening to pass by the restaurant at that point, saw Zeke holding another woman's hands and assumed the worst... The person had turned away and gone before Celeste retracted her hands and sighed. "Well. Shall we stay here now that we've arrived, or shall we return to work?"

Caoimhe squinted up at O through her eye that was slowly closing over. "What... Secret?" she asked without thinking. O was either going to lie just to upset her, or tell her something deep and dark that Will had kept from her.

Squishy relaxed a little. "That would mean a lot to me," it said, before looking over at Aaliyah. "Only if you're sure." Aaliyah put one hand over her bump, but nodded a moment later. Daniel and Ica had a distant but strong bond, sort of like siblings, which she could understand. And there were missing children, so god damn it, mama Aaliyah was going to help them.

[Shall we skip to the end of this?]

Caoimhe woke up with the worst headache she'd ever had and a dizzying nausea. She didn't notice Huxley for a bit as she reeled over the side of the bed and threw up into the bedside bin. The quick movement only worsened her nausea and her headache, so she just hung there for a bit, unable to gather her thoughts enough to hold her hair back or to question what had happened. Huxley's usually chilling voice was oddly soothing. But she didn't speak to him just yet, she needed a few more moments.

The problem was, Ica smelled similarly to Daniel so him being there would throw off her scenting skills. Funnily enough, being pregnant had heightened her sense of smell somewhat, which had been a nightmare at first when she had morning sickness. So she picked up a faint, distorted smell of someone else who was vaguely familiar... Who was that? Aaliyah couldn't crouch like she used to despite not being fully bumped-up yet, so she just slowly walked in one random direction, seeking out this familiar scent.

When he got home, Tenpo was sat in the kitchen with two small boxes in front of her. One of them was the box Zeke had presented her beautiful music note earrings in, and the other he'd proposed to her with. Both had their respective contents back in them, where she'd normally always be wearing them both unless she was bathing or sleeping. She'd never been able to hide her emotions from Zeke even without his telepathy, so when he saw her face, her red eyes and pouty bottom lip were a dead giveaway.

Caoimhe eventually sat up and reclined against the back of her bed. "Speak, then," she muttered, tugging all the plasters and bandages off of her face. She didn't want them to be there, her wounds needed air. Did he just say Origin?

"I found a scent," said Aaliyah, pointing off in the direction it had headed. "The wind's scatterin' it, we better hurry." Honey had just hung up the phone when Ire came over. "Yes, ma'am. Zeke's at his office by the grand gardens," she told her.

Tenpo didn't say anything, or have the chance to as someone bustled into the room. It was Aaliyah, all fiery eyed and bumped, with a bigger cardboard box. Zeke could see Tenpo's clothes in it. "Honey, we're leavin'," she said to Tenpo after glaring at Zeke a moment. Tenpo bit her lip and slowly got to her feet.

Caoimhe swallowed loudly as she searched Huxley's eyes for a potential answer for this dilemma. When she found none, she asked him in a hoarse whisper: "what are we gonna do?"

Aaliyah didn't want to use a car, the fumes would block out the faint and fading smell of this mysterious person. Flanked by Daniel and Squishy, they followed her nose on foot.

Tenpo looked down at the ground and didn't say anything. Her collar looked like it was malfunctioning a bit so she was maybe not speaking because of that. Aaliyah came and stood between them, allowing Tenpo to leave behind her. If Zeke had known Dominique, he would have thought Aaliyah looked like her now, as she towered over him with one hand on her hip and her eyes burning with cold fire. "We saw ya in the cafe with blondie," she hissed.

Caoimhe squinted and rubbed her head. "I dunno how to do that," she grumbled. Splitting Will and Golem had been simple in context, but this was completely different. Especially considering Origin's slippery, morphing aura that she hadn't been able to grasp.

"You're right," said Aaliyah, putting both hands on her bump. If Daniel had dared to say something like that in the past then she may have dumped him then and there, or given him the cold shoulder for weeks, but she was grownup and knew their baby's safety came first. It wasn't like anything could touch her with her years of experience anyway, but Dandan came before her ego. She took Daniel's hand and put it on her bump, then let him go. Squishy had already pressed forward into the darkness. Meanwhile, Honey was in the city seeking out Zeke.

Aaliyah looked like she was about to spit fire, but Tenpo held her hand up. Huffing, Aaliyah turned and took the box away to leave these two alone. Tenpo looked at Zeke with a bleak expression.

"And what's her ability?" Caoimhe asked quietly, hoping there wasn't more on top of her being insanely strong. Also did this mean that Will was actually a girl? That threw her whole world view into disarray. The man she loved wasn't a man, but a woman? What the hell?? Now she was questioning her whole marriage to him.

Squishy was obviously ready as it had already started making its way with purpose down into the lair below.

Tenpo folded her arms defensively over her chest and looked away. "You've been talking about her for weeks," she whispered. Her collar was definitely malfunctioning in some way, as her whispering was loud and gave Zeke tinnitus. "You've been distracted since you've met her. We haven't... You know. Since you met her."

Oscar? Was this another personality that Caoimhe wasn't aware of? Oh god, how many of them were there? Also, she distinctly remembered that Huxley came first so that was just false information. But Caoimhe liked Milo the most so she'd be happy to talk to him. "Whatever it takes," she murmured. It didn't sound like she had any energy or fight, or even life, left in her at this point.

Squishy shrugged. How would it have any idea how long this had been here? It normally would be able to tell the difference between rhetorical and literal questions, but it was stressed and wasn't thinking about anything other than Ica's safety.

So now Zeke was blaming her, no attacking her, when she was the one who'd seen her husband with another woman? Of course Tenpo hadn't been in the mood, all Zeke did was fascinate over another woman. Who happened to be gorgeous and lovely, and had good traits that Tenpo didn't. Tenpo hadn't known this side of Zeke, she'd not seen him get angry before and now he was getting angry at her. It saddened her and scared her equally, and she backed away from him a bit. She should have just kept silent and been a subservient wife to a disinterested, if not unfaithful, husband.

Caoimhe's doughy, dead eyes went steely in response. "Let's make this clear, Hux," she hissed. "I ain't no cheater. I made a mistake 'n ya can see I'm sufferin' for it. And, there's no us. There's me 'n Will, no you, no Leroy, not even Milo. I'll do anythin' for him 'n if he decides he wants to leave after then, only then, will I walk away." Seems she still had a little fight in her after all.

Daniel telling Squishy that just pissed it off. It angrily got out of their hiding place and walked with purpose towards the door.

Tenpo's eyes started watering then. Oh... Oh no... What was wrong with her?! How could she do that to Zeke, distrust him and act so rashly and now hurt his feelings? Oh no, now he would hate her and think she was a crazy partner, and be more cautious around her when they should both be open. Something which she had not stuck to. "I'm so sorry Zeke," she whispered, covering her face. "I don't know what I was thinking. Please... Forgive me." She swayed like she was going to fall over.