Chapter 172 – Same Difference

“Leverage is the name of the game with these countries. We have something they don’t like, which is evidence. Now we need to find out what they will do to keep us from using that against them. If it comes to it, leverage will turn into ransom or, if we are lucky, an advantage.” – Jay, being a mysterious asshole instead of just telling people his plan.

After finding some clothes that fit her, Kurt’s athletic shorts and one of Val’s oversized sleeveless shirts, Rindi eventually made her way out to the kitchen. She was still acting rather shy as she left the hall but then stared dumbfoundedly at Kristi. “What the hell happened to you?” She asked.

“I could ask you the same.” Kristi smiled and walked over with Val to give her a hug. “Glad you are ok. We were really worried for a little bit there.”

“Thank you.” Rindi returned the hugs, having to hunch over quite a bit with Val so the kitsune wouldn’t just be getting a face full of boobs. Not that Rindi suspected she would have minded. “But seriously, what happened?”

“Apparently, I can use the energy or whatever I absorb from angels to alter myself a little. I was kinda able to guide the process a little but not much in the measurements department. I figure we didn’t notice much last time since he was a pretty weak one or because I didn’t realize I could do that yet.” Kristi nervously crossed her arms over her chest while skipping over the mention of killing Rindi’s former companion.

Rindi frowned a little, her ear flicking as she gave Kristi another once over. “You can guide the changes?”

Kristi shrugged. “I sort of found out last night by chance. I have no idea what it means yet but I will tell you about it later.” She quickly moved past the issue. “But what about you? You look amazing, by the way.”

“Doesn’t she!” Val was walking in a circle around Rindi, thankfully keeping hands to herself.

“It…umm, it might take some getting used to.” Rindi admitted once Val quit circling her. “I don’t even know what my powers will be like anymore. It took years to figure it out last time.”

“Well, we can figure that out later.” Kurt called from the kitchen. “I think we could all use a bit of practice and reorientation after last night.”

He was also feeling the strain of something weighing on him. He didn’t think he was in for a power up or anything so simple like the others tended to get. He felt it was more like an ability he didn’t know he had and was just finding out about. It was likely similar to Kristi, discovering a part of themselves they didn’t know about.

“I am going to let Jay know we are all up and about.” He said after the girls had all taken their traditional seats at the counter. “He said we have to go talk to some officials and give a statement.”

Val shoved a fork full of pancake into her mouth before waving her empty fork to get attention. “Penny said that there were a lot of witnesses.” She had thankfully waited to speak until she had swallowed.

Kurt winced. “That sounds… unfortunate.”

“Not sure. We didn’t do anything wrong so…” She shrugged and went back to her plate, dragging a sausage link through her syrup before taking a very large bite.

Looking at each of them in turn, Kurt noticed that they were all diligently attacking their meals. Even he had loaded a lot more on his plate than normal. It seemed that they were all recovering after the previous night’s action and part of that recovery was the demand for calories.

When his phone pinged, Kurt glanced down, expecting to see a message from Jay but it was actually from Frank. He opened the message and began reading. His initial concern turned to amusement when he read the ‘thank you’ note.

“Well, regardless of what any officials or the weirdos on the internet might say, we have some fans.” Kurt slid the phone over the counter for Val to read to the rest of the group.

“’Hey Kurt, I just wanted to take a minute to say thank you. From myself, Steve, Adam and Mel. We all really appreciate what you did and hope you are doing ok after getting shot like that. If you have a chance, stop by the store this week. – Frank.’ Daaaaw, nice to see he is concerned for you.” Val smirked.

“Well, that was nice.” Kristi agreed. “I kinda feel bad since we were the ones to bring that trouble on him to begin with, though.”

Kurt shrugged. “Maybe but his store was also completely unharmed, last I saw. And those guys threw a decent amount of small arms fire at it.”

“I saw a few spells too.” Rindi added. “Not sure what they were, but the shields and wards seemed to take them pretty well.”

Kristi pointed an egg-ladened fork at Kurt. “It’s cause he did the enchants on the walls and windows.”

“Really?” Rindi looked to Kurt. “I thought the shield was his doing. You said he was a wizard of some sort, right?”

“Yeah, but he had me do some enchanting on his building a while ago.”

Rindi nodded. “Impressive work then. Too bad you can’t put that shield on our armor or something. Then maybe you wouldn’t have been shot so…much? Kurt what is it?”

“Fuck!” Kurt face palmed and dropped his hashbrown to summon his notebook where he began scribbling like a mad man.

The girls watched in a silence only broken by the sounds of eating while Kurt muttered to himself about detection ranges and whether reflection or absorption was better. After fifteen minutes, he started to head for the basement but was interrupted by his phone ringing where he had left it on the counter.

Val ended up answering. “Morning Jay… Yeah, we are... Maybe in like, an hour and a half?... Ok, anywhere in particul- …ah, just look for the caution tape, got it. Actually, how about captains? We can take the portals… OK, see you soon.”

“Let’s go, Kurt. Shower, shirt, shoes and shove off.” She called out and grabbed him by the hand to redirect him to the bathroom. “I told Jay we would be downtown by eleven and none of us are actually presentable.”

*****

“Are you sure you are ok?” Kurt asked as Rindi shivered. He had stopped with his hand on the door leading from the portal under the security company to the coffee shop.

“Huwwaawa. Yeah. Just feels weird.” She answered mid shudder. “Not the enchantment just walking like this without human feet but still bipedal.”

They had been nearly out the door when they encountered a slight problem. Rindi no longer had a ‘human’ shape and thus would need to use an enchanted item to disguise her features.

The first thought had been to use a band like Kristi had where it would actually morph her physical form but that seemed to be completely unbearable for her. Rindi said the feeling was like pins and needles in her paws, head and lower back where the appendages had shifted or disappeared.

Thus, Kurt pulled out one of his older works. He had originally made it for himself after getting out of the Army and returning to civilian work. The necklace he wore to disguise his elven features until then was starting to show its age and he had needed to replace it. The pendant he came up with ended up working very well on everyone except extremely magical beings like the few dryads or fey he had met. Once he changed to a different spell to hide behind, the pendant was put aside in his enchanting supplies. Now it was Rindi’s, until he could come up with a better solution for her.

It was a simple obfuscation array that would make people ignore Rindi’s true shape and their mind would ‘fill in the blanks’ unless they already knew what she was. Kurt had gotten the idea after reading one of the Hitchhikers Guide books and the ‘someone else’s problem field’ that made people just not want to pay attention to something. It was coincidentally a small-scale version of how the veil had worked, which is probably why it had failed for a few minutes when the veil was broken.

“Ok, but if the necklace starts acting up just let me know. I can try to cast a glamor directly.” Val said from behind them.

“Or we can just bail if-YEEAAAAHHH!” Kurt pushed through the door and almost tripped over someone. It was a familiar someone, but still startling him with how distracted he had been.

“Oh, Kurt! Good to see you sweetie!” Leslie said as she dropped the box she was holding and wrapped him in a hug. The box of coffee beans thumped to the ground, barely missing his foot. “After what happened last night, I was worried.”

“Leslie! When did you get back?” Val darted in through the still slowly closing door, leaving Kristi and Rindi in the back hallway as the Kristi began filling Rindi in on the parents of Kate and Jamie.

“Oh, we got back a couple days ago but were getting the house ready. The kids had it handled here so a few extra days wouldn’t hurt.” She said and released Kurt only to grab hold of Val and give her a similar treatment.

Kristi and Rindi pushed through shortly after and the short lady grabbed hold of the dragoness next. “Oh Kristi! You’re here too? I wasn’t sure if you would be hanging around still.”

“Umm, yeah I think I will be around for a while.” Kristi laughed nervously. Her look of panic she shared with Kurt about how much to tell the Leslie going unnoticed by the smaller woman.

Leslie let her go and backed up to arm’s length, still holding her by the arms. “Well, it seems to be suiting you! You look absolutely lovely dear, radiant even!” She gave a motherly smile. “And who is your new friend, Kurt?”

“Ah, Les this is Rindi. She is also living with us so you will probably see her around a lot.” Kurt answered. “Rindi, this is Leslie. Her and her husband, Donald, own the coffee shop. Jamie and Kate’s mom and dad.” He tried to give a brief introduction for both their benefits.

“Nice to meet you dear. You can call me Les if you want.” She gave the tiger woman a handshake, oblivious to her true nature. “And speaking of those two hooligans, I distinctly remember you promising to look after them when we left?”

“Ahhah. They are still alive and unhurt so…” Kurt hedged, not sure how much she knew about their current situations.

“Sure, alive and well is good but now both of them are in serious relationships.” Les said. “Penny is a sweet girl, and I just know she will take care of Jamie but this Calum…”

“I can assure you, Les, Calum is a very ‘good boy’.” Val couldn’t help herself and had to butt in with a crude joke. A crude joke that went right over Les’ head.

“Really?” Kurt groaned and resisted the urge to face palm.

“What? I-Ow!” Val began to say through her snickering until Kristi smacked her on the back of the head. “HEY! That one wasn’t even naughty.”

Kristi huffed and glared at the kitsune. “No, but it was a pun. What do we say about puns, Rindi.”

“They’re the lowest form of humor.” Rindi intoned like she was quoting scripture.

Les watched the brief exchange with raised eyebrows but evidently didn’t pick up on the ‘good boy’ part of the joke. “You know this Calum?” She asked.

Kurt and Val shared a look before she answered. “Well, he works with us. He even moved into the area because of the job. I guess that was when he met Kate.”

“Uh-huh, they must have been doing an awful lot of ‘meeting’ recently.” Les crossed her arms and cocked an eyebrow at Val and Kurt. “We just had a rather interesting conversation about their future and the little one on the way. Do I have to be concerned with her?”

Val crinkled her nose, confused. “With Kate? I don’t think so, but you would kno-“

“Not Kate, this Jade lady.” Les corrected.

“MOM! For the last time, it’s ‘Lady Jade’ and we told you it’s just something we are talking about before there are any surprises.” Kate must have been feeling her ears burning because she came storming into the back hall like a woman on a mission. “Besides, Jamie has been shacking up with Penny longer than you have been gone!”

Les turned to address her daughter after the interruption. “Don’t bring your poor brother into this. And what do you mean any surprises! My children shouldn’t spring this on their parents randomly over breakfast! Kurt would at least have the good graces to have an engagement before having kids.”

Kate was turning a shade of red only matched by the brightest of stop lights. “He is not your son! And besides, you know he is with three women now! How’s that for some traditions?”

“Actually-“ Kurt wanted to say that Rindi was just a guest and their coworker but was silenced before he could defend her honor.

“SHhh, dear, you don’t have to rationalize things with me, but I would expect a wedding before you are having children.” Les patted his arm before casting a scathing look at Kate and returning to an argument that was about to make the battle of Kursk look like a minor spat. “And don’t think I have forgotten about this converting thing….”

Kurt and the girls took the opportunity to slip around the duo and make their way past them under cover of one of Val’s illusions. They closed the door to the back hall as quickly and quietly as possible before the argument got any worse. Then they turned around to only run right into Don just outside the door in the little alcove with the bathrooms in it.

“Ope! Heya Kurt, girls.” Don said with a nervous chuckle. “I see they are back at it again. I was just coming to close the door before there was another umm… disturbance.” He then went along and handed out hugs followed by an introduction to Rindi that matched the one they gave Les.

Looking around, Kurt noticed that the shop was rather busy, nearly every table and booth was filled with people, and the front windows seemed to be prime seats. The customers were all looking in the direction of where the fight took place the night before and he thought he saw a couple of red and blue lights flashing in the reflections.

“Looks like you guys are busy.” Kurt mentioned, hoping to skip past any more family drama. He failed.

“Yeah, all morning.” Don nodded without bothering to look. “But I have a bone to pick with you.”

Kurt sighed. “Alright, what now?” he waived the girls to go ahead without him and get their orders in with Jamie while he dealt with Don.

“Well, for starters, how about you tell me how long this relationship has been going on?” Don said, hands on his hips and channeling his full ‘dad aura’.

“You have got to be more specific. Which relationship?” Now that Kurt thought about it, there were a lot of them that had popped up.

“The one with your brother.” Don said. “How long has he been shacking up with Penny?”

“Two things. Firstly, I don’t really know the exact date they started ‘shacking up’ but it’s been several months. It was shortly after you guys left… I think. Secondly, I’m not related to you guys, remember?”

Don waved his hand. “Right, sorry, been a lot of back and forth with both kids and I got on a roll. But still, you said you would keep an eye on them. What happened to that?”

Rolling his eyes, Kurt explained. “Look, I said I would keep an eye on them. That means to generally observe and help out or step in if they get over their heads. It does not mean that I will spy for you. They are both adults who can make decisions for themselves. Their romantic interests are none of my concern.”

“I’m just not sure if I like how they are handling this whole situation.” Don was clearly not backing down.

Putting a hand on the older man’s shoulder, Kurt steered them to the counter. “Look, Calum is a goo-.”

“What? No not that one. I’m still talking about Jamie.” Don pulled away. “He was being super dodgy when he visited over Christmas. Sure, he said he was seeing someone, but he always avoided any questions except saying they met at the shop.” He shook his head and looked at the ground. “Why was he hiding things? Is he not comfortable or what?”

“I think you need to talk to him about that.” Kurt deflected the rather intrusive questions. “And maybe try to hear him out before making assumptions about him and Penny. Look, I have to get going to deal with this mess, but I will stop in later or you can give me a call if you have other questions that don’t involve your children’s romantic relationships with people I may or may not know.”

Taking the brief reprieve as his moment to break contact from the perilous situation, Kurt went out to the dining area where Jay and the girls had secured a table along with Penny and Anna. He wanted to make it clear to Don and Les that he wasn’t there to chit-chat and gossip despite being a pseudo member of the family.

Everyone looked up as he arrived at the table and Jay gave him a questioning look. “Family drama with the kids and their parents. Not my problem.” Kurt answered without them asking. He noted that Jay placed a small square of cut stone on the table and tapped a silver sigil in the center. Kurt felt the pulse of a spell going off and recognized it as a ‘zone of silence’.

“Well, to be fair, Kate and Calum are kinda your fault.” Val said before sipping at her latte.

“Val, I swear to god, if they hear you say that I will never forgive you.” Kurt hissed. “They are already trying to loop me in because I didn’t snitch on the kids. I don’t want to be blamed for playing inadvertent paranormal matchmaker.”

Val pantomimed zipping her lip and Jay took that as his sign to take over. “Well, familial theatrics aside, we have some business to attend to.”

When everyone focused on him, Jay pulled out a file and opened it. “Director Perkins has run interference on the local PD and the interim sheriff, but she still wants to talk with you. It seems that she has questions about possible ‘foreign involvement’ in this ‘incident’.”

Jay then began passing out the papers which were simple ‘one-pagers’ that had a list of facts. “These are little cheat sheets for you. The crew at your home was from the UK, MI6 types. The ones downtown were actually two groups in case you hadn’t guessed.

“One group was that cult called the “Keepers of the black feast’ who are actually in league with the Strand. Don’t mention the Strand to the director unless you want to really get into the weeds. The other group was French in origin.” He was going over the information quickly, doing a complete recap.

“French and the Brits? How did you get that out of them so quickly?” Val asked. She was still reviewing the ‘recovered assets’ section of the paper but looked up when she heard that.

“We captured a few. Then we made a deal, if they spilled the beans, we would protect them. Plus, it wasn’t hard when we have our own facial recognition software.” Jay took a sip of his coffee. “We will let them stew for a while as we talk to their countries about a prisoner exchange. If they go for it and don’t blanket deny the offer.”

Kurt signaled he wanted to speak and went ahead when Jay nodded to him. “How do we have a database that told us about these people and the organizations they belong to?”

“Because we bought the data.” Jay gave Kurt a strange look. “Seriously, every time there is a data breach, we snap it up and run it through our own system for cross reference.” He then took a very nonchalant sip of his drink before he dropped a little bomb on them. “That and we hacked all of them years ago via various back door channels and insider plants.”

Something popped up in Kurt’s memory at that point. From the day that he had been recruited to join the Order. “Wait, is that how you found me?”

“Now he gets it!” Jay smiled. “Yes, that’s how I snagged all my agents. They were being looked at seriously by these agencies and I decided to act before they did. Probably a good thing too, since some of these agencies did not exactly have good intentions for any of you.

“Anyway, we are going to use this to absolutely hammer the international community for damages and probably get some concessions from the U.S. again. Probably not as much as last time but we will see.” Jay was looking rather smug about everything they had managed to do in the last twelve hours.

Looking around the table, Kurt saw that everyone had finished reading. “Well, thanks for the save, I guess. How about you tell us what we are about to walk into out there.”