Changing Tides [JohnProudstar]

22

"Hey. How you holding up?" John walks into our tiny bedroom, before taking a seat on his side of the bed.

"I've been better." I shrug, before turning to face him.

"I know you aren't fully recovered, but we need to move." He says, taking a hold of my hand.

I'm still experiencing a few residual effects from almost being turned completely inside out yesterday, but if John needs me to do something then it's probably important to him. "Fine. But can it at least wait until morning?" I pull his face down to mine, kissing his lips.

"Done." He grins, pulling me closer to him.

—
I close the door to the backseat of the old Cadillac, before taking a look around the nearly empty parking garage we're currently inside of. "Did some research on Regimen Technologies. There's almost nothing out there, but I found this one guy in the D.C. area—some executive—and he spoke at a security conference a few years back." John explains, and Marcos, Clarice, and I nod in understanding. "He lives across the street." He puts a sheet of newspaper onto the hood of the car, and I look down at it to see a man who looks to be in his 50's.

"Laurence Hayes." I read the name in bold print beside the photograph.

"So, uh, you want to wait for him by his car? See if he'll talk to us about his secret job?" Marcos asks, leaning against the side of the Cadillac.

"No." John shakes his head. "We're gonna grab him in the lobby when he leaves for work." This causes Clarice to give him that 'seriously' look She seems to give him a lot lately. "We'll get him out quietly. Take him somewhere. Get some answers."

She scoffs. "Right. "Get some answers." Said no good guy ever. We're not seriously gonna kidnap a systems analyst on his way to work." She turns to look at me for some sort of confirmation, and I just shrug. "Wow. We are really living the dream of the X-Men."

"You never told me we were kidnapping someone." I look to John. "Don't you think that's a little dangerous right now? This man could be leading the wrong people right to us."

"This guy isn't a saint. He's with a company that does mutant related security research for the government." John explains.

"And we can't just take him because of that." Clarice shakes her head.

"Look, guys, we're here." Marcos says, interrupting our bickering. "Let's just get it done." John grips my upper arm supportively, before pulling his hood over his head, and walking off toward the lobby. Clarice sighs, giving me a look before the two of us follow after John.