Zhiquan smiled pleasantly at the officers when Toby gestured to him.  He hadn't replaced his glasses, allowing them to see his large, green eyes.

Thomas gave Toby a long dubious look, followed up by a second one to Li -- he had no idea who Li was, but by those eyes he was either yet another Gifted or a hardcore fanboy with expensive contacts.

However...it certainly was nice to have a quiet, civilized discussion rather than adrenaline-infused yelling of threats and warnings, or worse yet an exchange of gunfire and...whatever.

And while the Mighty wasn't officially sanctioned, or even -- officially -- condoned by the Greater Toronto Area, he'd made a point over the last year or so to be as much of a public aid and as little of a public nuisance as possible.  It seemed that for as many on the force who were die-hard opposed to the mere existence of the Gifted, let alone their running around sticking their noses into things, there were those who, quietly, approved of the extra help when it was needed.

"All right, son," Thomas sighed, pulling a notebook off his belt and flipping it open.  "Accidents happen.  I'm going to need to get your full name, a contact number, and the address of where you're staying," he went on, pulling out a pen as well as his younger partner took her hand off her service revolver with a look of disgust that she swiftly schooled into professional indifference.

"You are eighteen, correct?" the older patrolman prompted Toby.

As for himself, the Mighty was...satisfied with how things were turning out.  He didn't ask for any sort of protegees, but he wasn't strictly opposed to giving some basic advice where it was requested.  He wasn't being hassled by anonymous voices in his earpiece any longer, and he should still be able to make it to the airport in plenty of time to catch his flight to Vegas, despite the no-doubt rigorous pre-flight 'interview' he was most likely due for.

Fortunately, Vegas was about as Gifted-friendly a place as one was likely to find on this continent.  He didn't want to create an international incident simply by landing where he wasn't welcome....

Tobias was not sure whether or not the cop was trying to lead him on by asking if he was 18. However he did give him the contact info as he requested and then truthfully shook his head. "No sir. Just turned 16 two weeks ago."

Thomas sighed -- he'd hoped, just this once, things might actually decide to go easy on him.

So much for that.

"In that case, we're going to need to get in touch with your parents, have them come by and pick you up." he told Toby soberly.  "Probably need you to come down to the station while we wait for them," he continued.

"Might I be allowed to come along, Officer.  The boy is to be my student in learning to control himself and I would like to speak to his parents as well."

He bowed politely.  "I am Li Zhiquan, a humble follower of shaolin.  It is an honor to make your acquaintance."

Toby's eyes widened. "Is there any way you could just take me to the house? I don't want to make my mom and sister walk all the way to the station."

 Johnny marvelled at the ease with which Mighty seemed to handle all the attention. He ranked it on a list of his talents. When they the number of qualities and pros reached a threshold that the Boss had laid out, he would make his recommendation. For now he watched the situation from one of rapt awe, in addition two new possible allies had appeared. "Glorious," he said into the Mighty's earpiece, "still here just wanted to let you know. Doing great champ. I can have a Tesla-Z routed to your location in ten minutes. Sound like a way to "exit stage left" on this public display?"
This message was last edited by the player at 10:57, Sat 18 Feb 2017.

Aaaand almost as if thinking of it had prompted a return, the voice was back.  The Mighty made a slight face and turned a few steps away to converse in relative privacy.  With his much-enhanced hearing, he wouldn't miss anything important being said in the vicinity anyway.

"Was beginning to think I'd lost you," he replied, not bothering to keep the faintly sardonic note out of his voice.  "Super relieved.  While I appreciate the mildly creepy offer commandeering resources for me, I'm good to go on foot."  He smiled tightly, despite the fact that it wasn't visible to the stubbornly nameless voice.  "Image, and all."

Meanwhile, officers Anderson & Thomas continued their wary, non-confrontational confrontation with Toby and Li.

"If you could wait to conduct your business until we're finished, that would be appreciated, Mr. Zeekwan," Thomas replied even as Anderson's face darkened.

"Considering what you just did, kid," the young policewoman retorted hotly, "do you really think it's a good idea to be making requests?"

Thomas gave his partner a steady look, and she backed off again but with obvious ill-grace.  He turned back to face Toby.

"If it would cause difficulties for your mother to make the trip, we can bring you around in a patrol car," he continued evenly. "If you'll give your information to Officer Anderson, I'll inform dispatch."  He flipped his notebook closed and shoved it back into his belt, and with a glance at her partner Anderson put on her neutral professional face and got out her own writing supplies even as Thompson made his way over to the black and white Camaro parked nearby.

Toby gave all the info that the police officer requested of him. "She just works alot and its hard on her. I hate being more of a burden than I already am."

"Mmmmhmmm," Anderson replied, looking unimpressed.  "If you could hold off on ripping up any more streets, you'd be less of a burden on everybody," the young patrol woman added a touch acerbically.

"Come on," she told him, gesturing curtly at the waiting black and white, clearly wanting to get this over with.

Zhiquan smiled at Officer Thomas.  "As you would have it, Officer.  And, um, in your language it would be Mr. Li.  Zhiquan is my given name, which you are quite welcome to use as well."

He bowed respectfully to the officer.  He had decided that he liked the man.  He was performing his duty with competence and courtesy.

Toby would follow silently.

It seemed that Toby was in good enough hands, being returned to his mother and in contact with someone who seemed confident that he had training to share that would help with control.  The Mighty gave kid and cat's eye a wave and a smile, both out of genuine good humour and (as always) playing to the public.

"Keep in touch, boys," he called out, reminding them that they had a line of communication with him if they so wanted.  Giving a casual salute to the officers, he took two quick steps before launching himself into the air, bounding away with ease.

<< Exeunt Scene >>

The GTF transport landed without an issue, the automated controls working flawlessly. After the door opened and a ramp extended, Frank stepped out into the land of maple syrup and hockey. He was here to look over some possible recruits, however first he needed to finish up a few loose ends on a matter with the ITSDA and then grab some lunch; he was really hungry, but if he didn't fill his mind with other things it would immediately switch back to the matter in Boura; he hated getting benched, even if he did understand the reasons for it.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:00, Tue 25 Apr 2017.

Thanks to his boss' AI assistant, Frank had contact information on hand for those he was supposed to get in touch with here in the name of the GTF; he could just call The Mighty, but the man did love his fame from the looks of things and the ageless Gifted would probably just end up trying to convince some agent he wasn't trying to sign his client to some endorsement contract.

Jackson preferred one on one, it gave you a better feel for a person as opposed to over a phone. He walked to a rental agency, produced his company credit card, swung a leg over his temporary motorcycle, and was on his way.

Zhiquan had been having a good day.  His last few runs had been to very good neighborhoods and they had, without excetion, tipped him well.  Especially when they saw that he was delivering their orders on one of the restaurants old delivery bicycles instead of a car or truck.  Mr. Kwan had explained that the wealthy whites "eat that type of stuff up with a spoon".  The idiom had confused him at first, but now he was relatively certain that he understood.

He pedaled back towards the restaurant at a more leisurely pace.  He was, by a wide margin, the fastest deliveryman the restaurant had. And as much as he had come to enjoy the exercise, he had also learned to enjoy the gentle wind and the weather that came with the more leisurely pace.

Frank had been unable to get in touch with The Mighty, so he decided to try another name on his list; it also didn't hurt that the next guy worked for a restaurant, and the old fighter could do with a meal. He had gotten a table, picked the buffet, and let it be known he'd like to speak to Li Zhiquan when possible.

The deliveryman might be fast, but the American had some speed in his own right; he was on his fifth plate when Li returned.

Toby was just walking down the street. He had finished his chores and decided to go meet up with Li and have some food while he waited for his teacher to get off work.

For the fifth time since he'd arrived, Frank checked in with the Johnny AI to see if there was an update on the team; still none. Letting out a frustrated sigh, the immortal man looked around where he was seated, wondering just how long it was going to take to get some service in this place.

Toby finally made it to the restaurant. He did not see Li's bike so he decides to wait inside. He walked in and sat down in the corner. There was one other man in the restaurant who apparently was eating alot. Toby waited hoping Li would arrive soon.

The big man sighed, deciding that this must be a slow time of say when the staff did inventory and he wasn't going to get a refill on his drink. Worse than that, the guy he'd come here to meet seemed to be a no show; this just didn't seem to be Jackson's day, first he missed out on what could have turned into a good rumble, and so far he'd struck out twice on his recruitment drive.

Figuring he might as well cross the last name from his list, Frank noticed there was a boy sitting over in the corner by himself. He didn't make it a habit to walk up to children and start talking, in fact as a police officer he'd spent a good deal of time warning children about that very thing. However, there didn't seem to be anyone else to ask, and the information he had on the last guy was scant at best. If this kid was a local, maybe he'd have heard something and at least give the GTF member a general direction to go in.

Tossing down some bills to cover his lunch, the Greaser made his way over to the occupied corner. He grinned at the boy, but given his figure he doubted that was in anyway reassuring.

"Hey kid, my name's Frank. I'm new to town, and I'm looking for a man maybe you heard of. Goes by Mystic, I think. Ring any bells?"

The boy look cautiously at the large man who had approached him. "Mystic? No sounds like a silly superhero name, what does he do hypnotize people?. Never heard of him. You sure your not looking for the Mighty guy?"

What Toby was not saying was that Mystic was actually a really cool code name. He would love a name like that. It would fit with his abilities. Apparently though someone already took it.
This message was last edited by the player at 00:53, Mon 17 July 2017.

Frank tapped an ear with the tip of one finger as he held the other one in front of Toby to indicate he should wait.

"Hey Johnny, I'm talking with a local here, and they said they never heard of this Mystic guy I'm supposed to find. Wait, what? YOU gave him that name? Well no wonder it's a dead end, next time you might just want to include that little side-note the next time I ask you for information."

Jackson rolled his eyes, took a deep breath, let it out in a sigh and resumed talking to the unseen party.

"OK, what actual facts do you have? Sixteen years old, five feet eleven, one hundred and sixty pounds, kind of lanky, spiked black hair and green eyes...

"...You overgrown screen saver! You just described probably a third of the boys in this country! Please tell me you've got something more than that."

The big man listened for another minute, then a growl escaped his throat as he responded.

"Really? He wears jeans, tee shirts, sneakers, and might be either wearing glasses or carrying a backpack, or both? Yeah, now you're just yanking my chain. Do we at least have a general idea of what he can do? Uh huh. well it'll have to do. I'll be in touch."

The ex-cop dropped both hands, and once more looked the the young man before him.

"Let me try this another way; there's a teenager who wouldn't stand out in a crowd, but he ripped up a chunk of street around himself as easy as tearing toilet paper off a roll. Have you heard any rumors about that, anything at all. He's not The Mighty, I already tried to talk to that muscle head but he was probably too busy staring at himself in a mirror to take my call, overstuffed prema donna that he is. There was another guy supposed to be working here, but he's a no show too. So now I'm down to this guy my, uh, friend you heard me talking to decided to call Mystic. So I don't know his name, he looks pretty much like at least half the young guys running around here, but it's important I find him, if I can."
This message was lightly edited by the player at 22:41, Mon 17 July 2017.

A quick show of fear crossed Toby's face as he heard the discussion Frank was having. "What..but..but I didn't hurt anyone. Mighty and the police said that it would be ok....are you from the government? Your here to arrest me arent you!" he had backed up into his corner "Mr Li has been trying to train me. He says I am doing better with my control. I haven't even caused a major accident since I started training!"

Frank's expression changed as the stranger before him revealed that he himself was the very person Jackson was looking for, into one of relief.

"Wow, you mean I finally lucked out. One outta three isn't great, but I'll take it."

When the boy backed away from him, the big man gave the teen a sympathetic smile.

"I've been many things over the course of a long life, but the most important of those right now is I'm a man of my word; I offered you lunch if you helped me find who I was looking for, and since you did the grub's on me. I'm not sure if the staff here is in a meeting or what, but maybe it'd be best if we went somewhere else. Personally, I always liked a nice street side hotdog cart. The food's always delicious, the price reasonable, and since a hot dog is mystery meat the contents can be changed per religious practices allowing for those little wheeled restaurants to be universal as best as I've found.

"Of course that's just my preference, you pick what you like. We can even stay here, but looks like we'll have to get our own drinks until whatever black hole swallowed them barfs back up the employees."

The war hero winked at Toby, in an attempt to use humor to make him feel more at ease.