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It's early morning at Xavier's Institute, and Kitty hasn't slept. Sitting at the base of a tree in the centre of the grounds, Kitty Pryde scribbles furiously in a notebook. Her eyes squint to focus on the tight cursive she writes, and her hand has begun to cramp around the pen that she's hold far too-tightly. Irritability has kept her awake. The large, now empty, coffee mug beside her also, probably, hasn't helped.
Her lips purse and she drops the notebook beside her unceremoniously and leans over it to read it back to herself:
"Dear Editor,
My name is Katherine Anne Pryde. You've never heard of me, nor has history, at least not in this capacity. Some months ago, pieces of my story collided with current events when, during a peaceful protest in New Orleans, I was taken against my will and put into captivity for at least three months. I am a mutant. But let me be clear. I am a person." She frowns.
The page is ripped from the notebook, balled up into a tight piece of paper and added to a growing pile of paper wads beside her.
*
It's time to cover some of the plants and prepare for winter. Piotr, dressed in a shabby flannel shirt that might have found its way into the lost laundry bin from Logan, his usual black T-shirt, old jeans, and boots, is armed with a roll of burlap, roll of twine, shears shoved in a pocket, shovel, and a huge sack of mulch that he's thrown over his shoulder as casually as other people might carry a duffel bag. He's whistling something vaguely mournful, but only because it's Russian. He looks cheerful enough.
And then he catches sight of Kitty. A glance is all he needs to sum up what's going on — the tight jaw, the hunched shoulders, the pale lips, the pile of paper balls. He offloads everything he's carrying and heads her way, dusting mulch off his shoulder.
"Katya?" His tone is cautious. "Can I help?"
*
Jean arrives from Institute - Logan's Cabin.
*
Jean has arrived.
*
The wind cries 'Mary', well. No it doesn't. But the wind carries a balled up paper that rolls and tumbles, and manages to knock itself against the window after it's too far travel from where Kitty had sat. While Jean wasn't living with Logan, she was a fairly constant visitor. She was determined to see Logan live out his days with at least someone at his side, and not a victim of loneliness and lack of friends. Everyone knows at that age? When you die alone, the only friend is the cat or dog that tends to snack upon your corpse while you lay there.
Some friendship, amirite?
But it does not take long for Jean to follow the path in which the paper had came, the troubling and bothered .. emotion hung within the air that draws her out of hiding. Though, with Piotr already present, she only hangs back around the tree to see if she could offer up a little insight, a wave given.. and intended silence.
'Oh. It's her.'
"Shut up." Jean says aloud, rather playfully. "We should be happy to see her, right?"
*
Kitty twists to peek over her shoulder, and forces a tight, never-meets-her-eyes smile. She emits a long sigh as her shoulders heave forward. "I — " she starts towards Piotr only to have her eyebrows draw together at Jean's assertion. well. That's weird. "…yes?" she answers Jean's question uncertainly. Who should be happy to see who? Her nose wrinkles and her expression turns pinched.
Her lips part wordlessly and her eyes drift to the large, ever-growing pile of paper beside her. The smile fails entirely and each nuance of her face draws downwards. "A fri — " no, Sinjin probably doesn't count as a friend " — guy I know," the frown deepens as she attempts to work out how to talk about the reporter, "got pinched by those jerks that took," a glance is cast to Jean, "us." She pinches the bridge of her nose.
*
Crystal has arrived.
*
"Ah, I'm sorry." Piotr gives Jean a curious look, though there's no one there that he can see. He settles for giving Jean a nod and a smile before he crouches down in front of Kitty. "May I?" he gestures to the paper before he starts collecting it. "I prefer not to watch it pile up, myself." He does go through paper like crazy some days. Art is hard. "Is your friend still living? Do you need help finding him?"
*
"Uh.. sorry.." Jean says, rounding her way around the tree to take a sit upon the ground. "I'm not used to.." She lets those words hang for a minute, then attempts to brighten up. A smile given, though that smile itself was short lived. Hearing that a friend was taken by those who had taken them.. it was daunting. Something that she hoped remained in the past, a blind eye turned to, never to be revisited again. There was an expressive frown upon her face, and soon that hand lifts to rest against her cheek as she watches Piotr clean up the mess that Kitty had made.
"Did he get away?" She asks, echoing Piotr's statement.
*
Piotr's question has Kitty lifting her hands and shaking her head, "No, not like that." She points towards Jean, yes, Sinjin got away. "John got away! I mean he was found by them and they did some damage — " her jaw tightens; she's failing at talking about any of this. "You know how I gave the files away to David?" her eyebrows lift. "All of them? Every single one we had from Louisiana?" because it seemed that looking through them was like inviting trouble to their doorstep. "Well they're cursed or something! David passed them along to this reporter — " her lips purse. There's so much more to say. Like how she'd intended to yell at John about his articles, and got drunk with him instead. How he'd shown up drunk at her work to confess his own mutant status. Her teeth play at her bottom lip. There's a lot unsaid. "He wrote this article series out of an Australian paper…"
*
No more Asgardian duties means Crystal is free to get back to business as usual at the manor. The pantry and fridge are freshly restocked, the school supplies have been inventoried, and now…Now she has some time to spare while the roast for dinner cooks away in the oven. A grouping of people is a good distraction, though, and she makes her way toward the trio.
*
"Yes, about the program." Piotr read it — without tearing the paper up even once. He was tempted. Several times. "And they took revenge? I am surprised they did not manage to kill him. Or at least make him disappear." That is a nightmare with which Piotr's people are very familiar, mutant or not.
Piotr is about to say that Katya needs to be careful, reflexively, but he stops himself. She knows, better than he does. Saying it changes nothing, does not make her safer. It is not magic.
"I doubt the files are cursed so much as these people who run the program are attempting some kind of damage control," he says, instead. "And I am certain that the journalist knew the risks. The files were clear about the power of the people behind what was done to you."
*
So the man, John, had gotten away. Where Jean looked tense, her shoulders slowly relaxed. And in doing so, they stiffen again as she glances off towards her left. It was always the left of where she saw it. The brief brush of flame that often times left her puzzled, and most times not. She shakes her head a touch, her mouth opening and closing. Opening again as she tries to suss out just what in the world Kitty was attempting to say..
"You're hiding from us." Us? There was a little closer scoot towards Kitty, so much to the point that her knees touched the girls' own. "What is wrong with the need for him to write this article? Do humans not all carry the trait to share?" Jean blinks, then rubs her face a moment, clearly uneasy about the entire thing. She feels that more bad news were to come.
There was a little light in the dark spot of her mind, Crystal's approach was noted with a little smile, her gaze soon falling upon Piotr. While she silently agrees with him, there was another aside to her thoughts. The thoughts to go within and wipe the slate clean. To erase it all from existence.. in a fiery display of.
"They'll come after us again." Jean says aloud. "We should stop them. Stop them from taking us all and.. doing.. that.."
'You mean kill them.'
"Not quite. But.."
'It would solve problems.'
"Yes I know. But.."
'Let me drive.'
"No." Jean shakes her head, then slowly scoots back to rise to her feet to pace. Pacing is good. Pacing is great! Pacing helps the world spin upon it's axis..
*
Hank has arrived.
*
Crystal's entrance is given a small nod of acknowledgment, but Piotr's observation causes Kitty to draw her knees to her chest. Retaliation was always a possibility, even John had said as much when they'd first met, yet Kitty finds no comfort in this knowledge. "He's burnt. All over. He's in the hospital. Police are investigating him but he didn't — it wasn't — there were other mutants — " but it's horrifying to put into words. And it inspires her anger all over again.
Kitty's hazel eyes flit to Piotr at Jean's monologue. Concern fused with confusion writes over her face for a beat, but Jean isn't wrong. Kitty is hiding. After everything that had happened, she struggles to give any sense of voice to her thoughts. And so, rather bluntly, she comes out with it, "It was Akihiro. I'm ninety percent sure it was Akihiro." She reaches into her back jeans pocket and takes out a series of notes scribbled over that she begins to shuffle through — they're not written in her handwriting.
"There was a woman. Japanese," she frowns as her eyes flit over the pages. "Long metal fingernails, maybe? And a younger man. Japanese. Claws. Like knives." Her lips purse. "But they were metal — made a clicking sound when they came out — "
*
"Are we still having issues with them?" Crystal joins the group, piecing together bits of the conversation. "The people who had Jean, and my sister. They're still taking people?" Her jaw sets, fists clenching. Rarely does the young woman display a temper, but this, it seems, is one of the things that may very well set her off.
*
"That seems damning," Piotr says quietly. He settles down on the ground, facing Kitty, and begins uncrumpling and smoothing the discarded paper balls almost absentmindedly. He doesn't look at them, somehow they all end up turned face-down, but he stacks them neatly nonetheless. "Perhaps a trigger?" He wants to think the best of people. "Or mind control? Surely there is no other reason for such action against someone doing the right thing."
*
And there it was! Jean.. no. The Phoenix managed to pick out rightly that Kitty was hiding. This makes Jean sink into the ground all the more. Perhaps it was the emotion that flitted from Crystal that gave Jean a proper rise, or the fact that it was Akihiro that was mentioned. And that mere mention drew back to the moments within the cell, where Akihiro was beaten repeatedly and she pleaded for his life. The very first time she begged for someone else, and was broken down after a time for watching it all.
Even when she described the sounds, Jean mimicked it with her lips, a closed fist. "We are." Jean murmurs in a final tone. Angered. Truly now. So much that her eyes were starting to sting.
"I don't think it was a trigger, Piotr.." Jean mutters. "..he.. accepted it. I didn't see it then but he did. It was like he begged for what happened to him. When that girl was hitting him.. he begged it on and said that it was no skin off of his back. No matter how much I pleaded for them to stop.." Her eyes close as she rights herself. And perhaps, this was someone else talking in her place.
"I'm going to find him. And I'm going to beat him within an inch of his life."
*
In the distance a familiar figure exits the door of the Mansion onto the back patio, Hank is wearing his white lab coat and he has a small leather bound case in one of his hands. The case is plain, retangular, closed with a clasp and yet small enough to fit in his pocket. It is roughly the size of your average wallet.
Hank took note of the others gathered and raised an open palm in a casual wave before slipping the leather case into his coat pocket. There is a broad lopsided grin on his face likely due to the fact that he hadn't picked up on their specific vein of conversation just yet… he slowly starts to make his way over to them at a stroll.
*
"Get in line," Kitty deadpans back towards Jean before turning to Piotr. "John didn't think it was a trigger. He seemed to get orders and respond to them in real time. When I threw you through," absently she looks towards the now-replaced second floor window, "I had no capacity to control myself. I was… robotic. Empty. There, but not there." Her lips twist and her jaw tightens. "David and I are actively looking for him." Her eyes trail towards Logan's cottage, "David thought we should get Logan to track him so we can get Stryker. That's the real goal."
But what happened to John, "It's Unbelievable! Seriously! Just think about it! He hurt a reporter whose only crime was reporting about the vile stuff that had happened!!" Her hands ball into tight fists.
Her teeth clench and she nods slowly towards Crystal. "There was a reporter who broke the story. He's in hospital now thanks to them. I don't like how the story spun — " but that doesn't help anything in the situation.
Her eyes flit towards Hank making his way towards them, and she issues him a small nod in greeting. "It's a mess." Pause. "We need to find Akihiro. So we can find Stryker and stop this crap once and for all!"
*
Crystal reaches a hand for Jean's shoulder, though whether it's to hold the girl back or offer support is…less than clear. They did have her sister. That's not something she's going to overlook, whether or not Medusa made it out safely. "I'll help if I can, Kitty," she offers quietly. "I don't know much about tracking people, but when you know where they are? I can make sure that people are safe when you go after them."
*
"I know you're angry, Katya, and you are right that this needs to be stopped," Piotr says slowly, turning this all over in his head. "But we need to make sure not to put anyone at risk at the same time. We do not know if there are others at other facilities, we do not yet know how effective simply removing Stryker will be. Finding Akihiro is wise, perhaps confronting him would be less effective than following him to find where he gets his orders. He is…it is an offense that he has done this but he is only a pawn. I am sure someone will deal with him in good time."
*
Get in line! Jean would be the second. Akihiro could heal well just like his father, so there would be enough spankings to go around. The approach of Hank, far off as he was, was met with a courtsey wave. The press of a hand against Jean's shoulder stills her. And has her thinking as well. Kitty was right. Logan should hear this. Logan should hear and they should find Akihiro and track Stryker. It was all simple. (No, no it wasn't.)
"There is a way to find them both. I can do it, but The Professor wouldn't like it one bit." She's suggesting using Cerebro. Or letting She Who Dwells loose. Both of those prospects were dangerous in itself, but she was willing to cross and toe that line. There was a lift of a hand to place atop of Crystal's, holding her there, then removing her so that she could lean into the woman for some sort of support, trapping the hand within her grasp as she sighs completely.
"Piotr. That someone needs to be us. All of us. Look at what he's done. He's hurting people."
*
Hank returns the nod from Kitty and his grin starts to evaporate as he caught the words on the wind and took note of their expressions. The same sort of nod extends to anyone who met his gaze as he glanced around the group, conversationally, listening before he added, "She's right, there are ways to find people, I have been fine tuning the Remote Cerebral Electroencephalography machine."
Hank had said that from a distance, starting a light jog as he got closer and seemed intrigued- or at least wanted to help. "We could use that?" Hank cleared his throat and joined them, to say, "It measures voltage fluctuations from ionic current flows within the neurons of the brain. At a distance." Hank crossed his arms casually over his chest and looked around them. "We could use it to find someone, in theory. Certainly. Who are we looking for?"
*
A slow nod follows Crystal's words, "Thank you." Kitty's eyes narrow slightly and her head cants to the side slightly, "We'll need it. Honestly. The rabbit trail gets more loopy the more I learn. It's slow-moving, long, and windy. Dark and twisty even." Her lips purse and she shakes her head again.
Piotr's assertion causes Kitty to glower. He's not wrong. She's been envisioning ways to seek her revenge against the entire Weapon X entourage, which only prompts more sulking. "You know," her jaw tenses, "I used to think like that. That Laura and the blondes were just pawns. And they were. They didn't know better. Akihiro was their prisoner." She waves a finger pointedly, "He knows what they were doing. He knows what they are like. Why would he do this?! It doesn't make a lick of sense!" Exasperation has quickly taken over.
Jean's assertion is met with fire in Kitty's gaze. The war path Kitty is on will not easily be dissuaded. Her gaze lifts to Hank and she hums quietly. "We need to find them. Both of them — desperately. Akihiro," she answers him slowly. "And a man by the name of William Stryker."
*
Crystal's arm tightens around Jean as she leans in, reassuring. "So we don't know who's the pawn and who's moving the pieces," she nods to Kitty. "That's all right. We find them," she nods to Hank. "We go in, we incapacitate where we can. And when we know who's at fault for it, then we can make decisions. It's really not necessary to kill people," she adds with a brief glance at Jean, offering Piotr at least a little bit of support. "Not when we have the sort of powers we have. We simply put them to sleep, let them wear themselves out. And when they have nothing left to try, then we walk in and take what's ours."
*
"He is young and terrible things have happened to him." Piotr shrugs a big shoulder, then reaches out to Kitty, palm up, as a kind of peace offering. "I know of many people who did reprehensible things, even joined with their oppressors, in hopes of finding a little strength in a broken world. The starving will eat, even if they have to feed from the hand that hurt them, no? The last thing we want to do, anyway, is give anyone and reason to paint us as the villains in this. If the government knows of this, approves of it, they will be quick to retaliate. Not all of our kind have our numbers and resources.I think you are correct, that we must let them exhaust or betray themselves, then take what gives them their power — all their information, whatever technology we can, whatever people they keep prisoner."
*
Jean nods at Hank. "That's what I mean." But deep inside, there was a secret wish to let that inner bird out. That secret wish has gone ignored for now.
"I don't know what we did to him Kitty.. I don't.. I really don't know." She answers in regards to Aki. "But if you want them found, I can do it. I know what this man looks like."
There was a slight grumble from Jean as she slowly takes a step aside from Crystal. "This world is ruled by unjust people who pretend to protect us from injustice itself. No, it is not necessary to kill people but it is necessary to put a stop to them once and for all. Who's to say that if we do not, that they would cease fire and walk away without a second thought to us? Who's to say that there are not more?" She was channeling the Punisher. Not her fault entirely! The bird agreed.
Yet to herself say this outloud, it was maddening. It wasn't apart of the dream she had for this world, but it was breaking away at every atrocity man inflicted upon itself. Yet. Piotr was right as well. Take what makes them. And the people. Leave nothing that they could salvage.
"I'm ready to watch the world burn."
*
"I fear the motivations of evil men will never make sense, not truly… not to folks like you and I." Hank commented in a sympathetic aside to Kitty's apparent exasperation. "But you /are/ correct, we need to find the chessmaster and not waste time on the pawns." Hank grows quiet and his gaze becomes a touch introspective when Piotr spoke of mercy and twisted government involvement. "That's very wise. Many of them may be acting out of a sense of survival. Good for us to remember."
Hank's introspective gaze flicks outward when 'Jean' spoke and his eyes flit over her face several times in a silent sort of concern laced with calculation. "There will always be more… but it is our duty to rise above the tide of evil men and bring good to the world. Fix the hurt and punish the wicked; the latter becomes pointless when we forget to remember the former." He has a somber calm to him despite the grave conversation. "We'll find Stryker. I don't doubt it."
*
Kitty stares at her feet and her arms hug her legs tighter, but Piotr's offered hand is reached out and given a sharp squeeze. The fire inside her won't easily be quelled, but she also isn't angry at anyone here. She exhales audibly, an acceptance of Crystal's plan. For now, at least. "We can incapacitate them, but it seems like they're people who continue to thrive despite everything bad happening in the world. They make awful things happen. To John. To Jean. To Akihiro," because she's heard the goings on. "To David." She swallows hard. "To me. And they've suffered nothing. Not a single thing."
Piotr's hand receives another squeeze, this one lighter than the first. "They find ways to blame us for everything. All the time. It doesn't even matter if we're involved." Her lips purse. "You're right." But then, she's convinced she is too. "They need to be stopped once and for all."
Her free hand pinches the bridge of her nose. "People like Stryker can't be allowed to roam free. And somehow that guy manages to stay above all of it. No consequences for his actions while he hurts us again and again and again."
*
"No one's saying they should go free," Crystal sighs as Jean steps away. "But the world doesn't need to burn either. Just…some very specific people, once we know who they are." See? She's note entirely against the violence. "Besides, dead people don't tell you where their bases are, who they've hurt, what sort of sleeper agents they have waiting. If you want to pull this organization up by the roots, it achieves nothing to burn off the leaves."
*
"Precisely," Piotr says, glancing up at Crystal. "We need to find the weak places and exploit them. None of that means that Stryker should walk free, though." His expression clouds uncharacteristically and a muscle in his jaw jumps before he speaks. "They will be more likely to speak if he is absent, unable to command or retaliate, no? Without him, their scurrying to react will make them obvious and vulnerable. What happens to him…" Piotr shakes his head, unwilling to finish the sentence because what he wants and what is right are not in alignment. "What is most important is that what happens to him has no lasting consequence for anyone of us."
*
There was an insufferable sigh when she hears Hank. She understood him, but many parts of her didn't want to. But she settled. Settled herself into a cold silence with her gaze averted, only acknowledging his wise words with a subtle nod and a crossing of her arms along her chest. Jean and Kitty shared the same fire, in so much that a quiet voice was directed towards Katherine..
« Can you hear us?» It was the mingling of voices. Quiet. Not painful. But attempting to establish the link..
She doesn't drown out what the others had said as well. But she does give Crystal and Piotr a solemn nod. She was to speak no more upon what she'd do and how'd she make them hurt. Out loud, either way.
*
Having said his piece, Hank sets his hands into the pockets on his labcoat casually, listening and only nodding occasionally at the rest of their comments about Stryker's recent attacks. At one point he glances to Jean again with the same veneer of concern he'd had when she said she wanted to see the world burn but he restrains his lecture for the moment. Saying instead, "Planning should begin soon, if we want to use Cerebro for this mission." He's levelled the school in the distance with his gaze slightly inclined to the earth. He clearly hoped to be there pushing the buttons if that was going to be the case.
*
Kitty's jaw tightens and her gaze flickers between Crystal, Piotr, Jean, and Hank in turn. She's said her piece. And there's little more to add besides, "David and Heather have been working on this too. And so has John. I feel like they'd have something to say about Stryker and what should or shouldn't be done about these people." Maybe. Maybe not. John didn't even want to admit he was a mutant, so it's hard to know.
She straightens, and her head turns towards Jean. Her eyes remain honed on the young woman and then, in her mind, she thinks. «I can. I take it you can hear me…? We need to fix this Stryker situation»
Her eyebrows lift at Hank's reply and she nods, much like Jean did at Crystal and Piotr. Because, somehow a solemn nod seems like the best response. Totally appropriate, right?
*
Crystal glances at Kitty and Jean both. She doesn't need to be a mind-reader to recognize the silence that is not exactly agreement. But she's also not inclined to argue further. They did have her sister, and she could use something to hit right about now in general. "When you're ready," she simply nods. "And we should probably discuss security both here and in town," she adds with a grimace. "I'd rather we not lose any more students to this…program."
*
"Whatever you need, Katya," Piotr says to Kitty. "I will give. You know this. And, about Stryker? Whatever you choose, I trust that it will be the right thing." He's had his say, she knows how he feels. This isn't about anything that was done to him, so who is he to say? Better to let others make that choice. He's simply here to do whatever job makes it happen.
*
Jean watches Hank then, noting the look upon his face, her shoulders lifted ever so slightly as she gives.. a solemn nod! Yes. A solemn nod, better for the situation. Nodding. Yes. Nothing to see here. But a nod. A quiet one at that. SOLEMN. Enforce it. Smile a little? Yes. There it was.
«Yes. We can hear you. We need time. Time alone. Rip every bit of information from his skull and then do away with the waste, for they are right. He is but one man, but that man holds the key.»
It took a little effort to corral that line of thought, her gaze floating back towards Logan's cabin. She could see the movement there, and then a frown. That was a talk she was eager to have. (Not!) "I'm hungry." She blurts out. -Now- she really smiles. "Food done yet? Is it? Is it?" Didn't they say that they needed to plan?
*
"I can begin making preparations this evening…" Hank doesn't say it outloud but he is concern is clearly at the thought of Jean hooked up to the big machine in the basement(or maybe just clearly to the mind reader.) He glances back to the grass as his brows knit together in passing and his gaze slid back to Crystal. "Student security has been my main concern for weeks, I can show you some of the gadgets I've been working on after dinner if you want to stop by the lab."
*
"I'll talk to David again," Kitty replies towards Crystal. "We can coordinate something all of us." Piotr earns a flicker of a smile — not committed, but certainly present — and a nod. "I know. I don't know a lot, but I know that the more we let the problem continue the worse it seems to get." Including getting Akihiro on side somehow.
«How much? I can try to stall when the time comes. I'm pretty good at stalling. Or getting people alone. Walking through walls works wonders sometimes. I bet David would help too. Anyone they had would agree. Except Laura. Laura doesn't care. Wait. I feel like I'm rambling. Can a person ramble in their own head?» Only the important questions, Kitty Pryde.
"Yeaaaah. I should try to talk to Logan. I think it's AKihiro. I mean, I don't know.. but I think it is." She sighs and nods at Hank but doesn't offer anything else in reply. "I also don't exactly count as a student. Graduate, I guess."
*
"The roast won't be ready for another two hours," Crystal laughs to Jean's question. "But there's are cookies in the cookie jar in the kitchen, and fruit in the pantry if you're hungry." To Hank, she nods. "I'd be very interested in seeing them, yes. Although I think our most sensible course is to start speaking with the students to let them know to be aware. I know Charles won't want to frighten them, but I'd rather they be safe than feel safe, especially given what this group has been up to."
*
"I don't think it could be anyone else, from what you've said." Piotr looks stormy again but he lets it go, quickly. Holding Kitty's hand makes that easier because squeezing it might hurt her. "We should see what we can do for your friend, as well, if you think it's proper."
*
Deflection successful! The mention of cookies had Jean already moving in that direction.
«As long as is needed. If necessary, I can beat back the forces on both ends to get what we desire.» There was a pause in thought, a silent snickering that Jean delivers outloud that has nothing to do with the conversation as she presses on..
«Yes. It's a thing. Be thankful there is no one else there to reply to you.»
But.. other than that, Jean is off, searching for those fabled cookies. She couldn't wait for two hours just to eat, she was hungry now.
*
"Sound logic, we need to take the children's state of mind into acc-" That statement is clipped off as a little beepbeep-beepbeep chirps from Hank's unique wristwatch. He glanced down at it to push a button on the side, as he finished in a distracted mutter, "account at all times." The set cast to his expression is one of equal parts annoyance and responsibility, "Excuse me, everyone. I'll see you all at dinner." He nodded to the group and started to walk back briskly in the direction of the manor. His white lab coat flared in his wake and his hand slid into one of the pockets to take out the small leather case from earlier…
*