Put on Your Shades 'Cause I'll be Dancing in the Flames

[sonoflongshot]

Ever since Angel had been beat up by some bigots, Aiden had taken to patrolling of sorts. Just to keep an eye out for organized gatherings. How he had managed to squeeze it in between working as a popular bartender, training with his fellow New Mutants, and keeping Angel company was beyond his ability to consider. He just did what needed to be done.

Like tonight.

He had gotten a good idea on where a local chapter of the Friends of Humanity liked to hang out. The Mojoworlder knew about the chapter at Sara and Angel's school, but this was encroaching too close to home. While he could tell the others and they could go be proactive about it, Aiden decided to do this with sneaks and stealth.

He had on his black-lightweight hoodie as he sorted through gear on his side of his bed. While he could produce whatever hand-held weapon of hard-light, he needed help for anything at a distance. Sabotage was the game of the night, so he was carefully choosing projectiles that didn't scream ninja.

Comments

[crawler_kid]

Angel had been fortunate to have found a new job working for Rutgers directly in one of the offices. A welcome relief since she'd been let go from her last job, under pressure from some of those same bigots. It wasn't much, but it helped put cash in her pockets well enough and kept her occupied. Plus, it actually helped defray some of the costs of her schooling, and helped the school maintain its "mutant friendly" reputation.

Her hours were fewer during the summer months, but she had some plans for next year she'd been researching.

This brought her into the bedroom. "Aiden, have you seen that book Ah..."

She stopped, blinking large yellow eyes. "What in tarnation are you doing?"

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden looked up from what he was doing like a kid with his hand caught in the cookie jar. He had thought he had more time to get his gear together and sneak out.

"Well, poop."

That wasn't the answer he knew Angel would be looking for.

"Would you believe taking inventory?" That was enough of the truth to not tell the why. His grin was a bit too wide to be genuine. He snatched a small bundle of throwing spikes and shoved it into one of the hoodie pockets.

[crawler_kid]

Angel crossed her arms. Probably a mistake, since it drew attention to her cleavage, and she needed Aiden's attention focused her, but, well, live and learn.

"And you're doing this now because...?"

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden's eyes went to Angel's arms when she crossed them.

"... to get you to cross your arms?" He was enjoying the view. Though he did shake his head to try to make the boob distraction go away. He had things to do.

He snagged a couple other bits from the bed, including some gloves, and shoved them in his pockets. The rest of the gear went back into his gear bag.

Though he managed to do all of it by touch because his eyes kept straying to Angel. Or a currently emphasized part of her at least.

"Uhm..."

[crawler_kid]

A look of annoyance passed over Angel's face.

"Aiden," she repeated, "what're you really doin'? You're up to somethin'..."

[sonoflongshot]

He totally did not see the look of annoyance. He did catch the tone of her voice though.

"Just... getting some things together to go out on patrol. Or, uh, spyonsomebigots. You know, easy nighttime ninja stuff." He started shoving the leftover things into the pack faster.

[crawler_kid]

Oh, Lord...

"Aiden," she said, fixing him with the best glare her yellow eyes could muster. "Are you spyin' on the folks what beat me up?"

[sonoflongshot]

"Well, not anymore per se... Sara and I did a little harassing for awhile." He finished shoving things in his bag and looked up at Angel's face. He winced a little at the glaring.

"Some of them could be there tonight, but non-friendly humanities tend to clump like mold. So..." He shrugged. "I guess the answer is not quite anymore?"

[crawler_kid]

Angel fought the urge to facepalm. "How is it you manage to be absolutely endearing and infuriatin' at the same time?"

[sonoflongshot]

It was an easy couple blocks jog. Aiden slowed down a couple doors down from the defunct bakery that was now a Friends of Humanity headquarters. He was careful where he placed his feet so not even weeds growing out of sidewalk cracks would show someone was passing by.

Though it was summer and the palm of his hand holding Angel's was all kinds of sweaty.

"Alright," he whispered. "Let's see what they're up to first. Then we can sabotage."

[crawler_kid]

Angel nodded, then realized that Aiden couldn't see the gesture. "Got it," she whispered.

It wasn't too hot, fortunately, but when you were covered in a fine layer of fur, hot was rather subjective. She felt tenser, this close to the heart of the enemy. These people had beaten her, nearly within an inch of her life. And they'd just been ordinary people who'd gotten lucky.

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden carefully moved to an alley beside the building. He could technically just stand in front of the big, plate glass window and put his ear to it, but that seemed very un-ninja-like.

He used his grip on Angel's hand to gently pull her closer as he skirted around some particularly ripe trash. He was glad she could see the faces he was making at the smell.

There was a side door propped open three-quarters of the way down the alley. Aiden headed right for it.

[crawler_kid]

Okay, that definitely stunk. Angel was just glad they were passing through too quickly for the smell to linger in her nostrils or fur.

She let Aiden take the lead. He'd done this before, after all.

[ngm_villains]

The meeting had not formally started yet, but there was lots of chatter floating out into the alley.

"-doncha wish they leveled that mutie-loving business to the ground?"

"... woulda hung that furry freak from a street light if that angry blond bastard hadn't shown up."

"I hear they give a virulent and incurable form of syphilis to anyone they sleep with. I wouldn't want my nuts to fall off."

"Damn hippie liberals are keeping Rutgers from booting out the muties. Affirmative action, my ass."

The chatter started to die down after a couple raps on wood. One louder voice cut through the din.

"All right, people. Let's settle down and see what we can do about the mutant menace in town."

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden ground his teeth together. This never got any easier for him. He peeked in the door to see people settling into metal folding chairs. He was thankful they faced away from this door.

He stepped back from the door and considered the side of the building. He used his free hand to trace up Angel's arm, over her shoulder, and up her neck a bit. He leaned in and kept his voice low.

"Can you carry me up to the roof without 'porting?" The smell of her teleport would give them away.

[crawler_kid]

Well, she was going to be honest: those comments hurt. And her former job certainly didn't deserve any of the malice either. They done right by her, until they'd caved to the pressure.

Nevertheless, she didn't realize for a moment how hard she'd been clenching her fists. Probably gave Aiden a sore hand.

"Ah can," she said. "Climb on my back."

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden tried to shake his hand loose from her grip. He was certain it would throb later, but he needed that hand to hold onto Angel now.

"Stay holding onto me when we get up top. I'm not sure if they have security cameras or not up there." He hoped not. Or if they did, it was the kind that needed light. As opposed to body heat, which he could do little about.

[ngm_villains]

Some of the planning bigots had gotten up to bump into each other and into things to find a light or something.

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden did not have night vision. He was finding the meeting room by touch. He followed along the wall toward the large open room. He let go of Angel's tail.

"Let's make some havoc," he whispered. "Come back to me when we need to go invisible."

He would wait by the doorway until his eyes adjusted to the darkness.

[crawler_kid]

She flashed him a grin. "Got it," she whispered.

She surveyed the room. "Okay, boys... let's play."

[ngm_villains]

The men in the room were unaware of the two mutants with them. They were busy yelling about fuses. Some were getting out cellphones for some illumination. Others were stumbling about trying to find the fuse box.

[sonoflongshot]

Once Aiden's eyes adjusted to see darker shapes in the darkness, he silently headed for one. He picked up one of the metal folding chairs. He used the opened chair to swing it into a man's shin and make him trip over it.

The cellphone the man had been pulling out clattered to the floor.

[crawler_kid]

Angel, meanwhile, was walking on the ceiling, staying out of the way, but within easy annoyance distance. A subtle tap on the shoulder, a little shove, a little yank, even a little hair pull...

Plenty of easy distractions and no one ever thinks to look up.

[ngm_villains]

The men were getting aggravated at each other. There were blind shoves and stumbles. Their voices were getting louder, drowning out any noise from their actual assailants.

[sonoflongshot]

Aiden took to slapping dark splotches that seemed to be getting their phones out. Though as he did, he carefully worked his way toward a point beside the open door to the alley.

He knew Angel could see a lot better in the dark than him. When she got done harassing the bigots, he hoped she would wall crawl her way over to him.