The thing Charlotte was pretending to be looked at the two of them carefully, "Perhaps. Previously I believed her to be too difficult to take by force. What would have to change after my defeat at her hands?"

Another look at Valerie, "Perhaps without Tom's corrupting influence, she can be brought to see the light on her own?"

"She had calmed down after she was bubbled last time. Maybe you think she really was just reacting in fear in an attempt to protect Tom? Maybe you just needed the chance to really talk to her." Darren shrugged a little. "Tom's always been the sort of defacto Alpha male in the world of Heroes. Without him here it seems likely that Val be less confident in everything."

"Hey." She elbowed Darren. "When we fought out on the sea platform you weren't as aggressive. You were mostly trying to subdue me, you know rolling around and grappling. OH! Maybe you sent the purple girl after Charlotte? They seemed to get along so maybe she is trying to talk Lottie into coming along while you deal with me?"

The figure nodded, "Yes, that will Do. Now, what are we going to do after they arrive? Shall I disappear or fight them?"

Quickly Valerie shook her head no. "Fighting them is a bad idea. You were so weak before and you didn't want to fight. I think trying to poof away via super speed really is best. And then Lottie can come back at some point to describe her encounter with the purple girl."

"Mm, I agree." Darren nodded.

"Then is is a plan. You should tell your friend on the Phone such, that is , if you want to keep him concurrent with our plans." The figure crossed it's arms and waited, merely saying, "Let me know when you are ready to return to normal time."

Valerie looked at the phone. "Um..does...that work? He isn't here...and..phone...sendy stuff..."

The figure couldn't blink, so there was not telling if it's eyes were closed when it took a deep breath before saying, "No. You will need to return to normal time to use the telephone."

"We should probably get in position then." Darren offered as he looked around the room. "What's the scene Mr Villain?"

It pointed as it walked to each place as each person was mentioned, "I am here, by the balcony entrance. I came to convince Ǝƃuɐɹo and Mollǝʎ of my good intentions. They and you were on the sofa doing shots. When I arrived, Charlotte attempted to draw me away by running. I sent Ǝldɹnd after her and stayed to continue talking uninterrupted by your phone call."

Nodding Darren followed the scene. "Ok, so Charlotte bolted out the door..." Darren opened the slider and left it part way open to show it had been used. "Val went for the phone to signal for help..." He motioned her back towards the kitchen a ways. "That leaves me...hereish..." He moved towards the sofa. "And you...well..where everish you teleported in." Sitting back on the sofa Darren looked to the creature.
"So mid monologue about how you are not the bad guy and you just want to protect them and take them home?"

The Not-Darren moved to the center, arm extended and waited for everyone else to appear ready. Once they were the color returned and became more deep and real,  the television blipping off from the power surge.

"I merely try to assemble the whole, and look what I get in return. Why hold on to your imperfect loneliness when, together, we could achieve everything we were made to be. Not this hollow puppetshow."

There was a low pitched rumble that sharply turned into a snapping rubber sound as suddenly three men were in the room. Book, Verdant, and a broad shouldered man made of what looked like diamond.

"Eyyy, I'll be a road kill pole cat, sonn'a'bitch really is here." The sparkling man laughed and slapped his own thigh. He was wearing another of those grey jump suits that designated him as one of the kill team. "Alright let's see.." He took a quick tally of shocked heads in the room. "Where's the orange lass?"

The figure shook its head slowly and sighed, "Sadly she ran off in an attempt to distract me. Why does no one listen? I do not wish to fight, only to re-unite our family."

Another sigh, "We shall continue in a place that has fewer distractions. You should see to your house, Mollǝʎ, you have unwanted listen-"

With that half Proclamation, the figure disappeared, with Charlotte re-appearing with a woosh, her fist centered roughly where the figure's face was in a high-speed haymaker.

"Damn." She was dressed in casual clohing, sneakers, a vest and a white short sleeve tee-skirt. with bike shorts on underneath.

 Chuck put his hands on his hips as he looked around the room. "Well..that was anti-climatic." His skin shimmered and returned to a human hue. His hair was a dirty blond and eyes a mismatched brown and green. Folding his arms over his massive chest he frowned.
"Y'lass alright?" He asked to Charlotte and Valerie. "Seems y'picked up a bit of a stalker, eh? That ain't no good."

Charlotte seemed a bit unsure of the man, but nodded and smiled anyway. When shed seen him as the man in black, she'd been frightened of him, but her and now she had to remind herself that he was here to save her, not injure her.

"I'm alright, and yes, it does seem that we've got a bit of a Tom on our hands."

"Y'got a Prodigal?" Chunk asked in confusion.

"...I think she means a peeping Tom." Valerie said as she hung up her phone with the push of a button. "..that was a very fast response, I had barely gotten the panic call in.." She squinted her eyes at Book and verdant. "How did you get here so fast, teleportation or not."

Verdant swallowed nothing nervously as Book launched into an outright lie, "Since the incident we've been authorized to utilize previously dormant measures that were installed in your apartment for just such an occasion."

He smiled widely, an unsettling gesture that didn't reach his eyes, hidden as they were behind his sunglasses, "we hope you will forgive the computerized surveillance, we're scanning for the voice from our tapes. We got lucky this time."

"I was promised my apartment was not bugged!" She snapped at them. "Emergency measures or not! This is a complete violation of my privacy and I never consented to it!" She jabbed on finger at Book angerly. "I want them uninstalled NOW."

"Aw. C'mon now, we came to the rescue didn't we?" Started Chunk only to have that finger pointed at him.

"That does NOT excuse not telling me about these measures! You know why they didn't tell me? Because they knew I wouldn't want it done and would have refused. Begging for forgiveness is NOT better then asking permission."

Verdant didn't agree with the use of outright lies, partly because it forbade him from adding anything to the story. That had always been one thing he'd promised his father, that he would never lie while in the course of an investigation. It made him better than ... other investigators. He held himself to a higher moral code.

Book had no such qualms, "These means will be removed as soon as the emergency is over, and I can assure you that when you were told that your apartment wasn't bugged, that was the truth. These measures were only installed very recently, and magically so, as to not disrupt your schedule. Please consider how useful they were today before asking to have them removed."

Book was picked up one handed by Valerie. "I said, I want them uninstalled now." She lowered her voice as she spoke, drawing Book closer to her until their noses were barely touching. "Is that clear Agent?"

Agent book's smile faded, but not by much, he whispered in a harsh breathy immediacy to Valerie, "Do it. Use your advantage over me. Prove everything I say and feel about your kind right. Throw a tantrum that leaves people homeless and good men dead, just because we want to catch a terrorist and you want to be immune to procedure. Throw me across the room, just to prove you can. Break my arm because it's so much easier to be strong than it is to be wise."

"Procedure? You mean the illegal mean you use to coerce and force my kind into subservience?! I have given you people YEARS of my life with blind faith and trust and look where it has gotten me. You wanna talk to me about being wise? How about the fact I'm wise enough to know you are lying to me, wise enough to know that if you could you'd have me in chains and pulling out my guts on a daily bases. You use your advantages over us every day, throwing our differences in our face and pushing us further and further back into a corner. Either way you win, we lash out or are crushed. Don't you dare lecture me on use of power you fucking hypocrite. You haven't used your power honestly a day in your life." Valerie was starting to glow as she spoke, her short hair lifting and swaying in a golden breeze.
"You call him a terrorist, you keep up this bullshit and it won't be long before my 'kind' start calling him a liberator."

In a battle of wills, it was always difficult to beat the delusional. Book kept talking, still in that whisper, as though he was sharing a particularly juicy secret with Valerie, "Here it comes; the part where you lose your temper and you show all your little friends how thin that facade actually is. You don't care about helping people, you didn't give us that time on blind faith, you saw a cute boy and you chased him and took up his hobby in the hopes that he'd notice you."

He started speaking in a regular tone, "And talk like you are speaking, if it goes much further, might get you on an aiding and abetting charge for a known criminal. 'Liberator?' this man tried to kidnap your friend earlier tonight, or did you forget in your haste to use your unfair advantage to try and assuage your freak version of white guilt?"

He was completely prepared to martyr himself to prove that supers were all monsters. The only question was if Val could see that.

"That's enough." Darren said allowed as he put a hand on Valerie's shoulder. "All you are doing is poorly baiting her and I'm not just going to stand here and listen to it. You want to talk about her not caring about people? You left me trapped and at that things mercy and only saved your own skin. At least your partner tried to evacuate other people. Hell, one of your lab rats did more to see that those people were safe and out of harms way then you did."

Valerie's hand tightened for a moment around Book's shirt before she let him go. "You're the reason people lost faith in the system Agent Book. You and all the Agents like you. When this all started the Bureau was a place my kind to turn to for help and understanding. None of us knew what was going on or what to expect. Now look at it." She motioned to Chunk with a hand. "You are making more 'freaks' to kill the rest of us. You must feel like a really big man having chained dogs you beat just to make sure they are too scared to bark."

"Now now folks." Chunk raised his hands and rested one on Book and one on Valerie. "It's been a long night for both y'all and I'm smelling some alcohol in the room. I'm thinkin' it be best for everyone if we all just took a big old step back and stopped throwing slurrs around Agent Book. Someone might think you're trying to incite something. That ain't no way to treat a lady."

Book bristled at the touch before he realized that he shouldn't have. Taking a deep breath, he straightened his shirt back out from where it had been supporting his entire body weight. Letting the breath out, he shook his head and sighed, "Well, miss Majors, when you think of this exchange later, do remember who hoisted whom by the neck and into the air. That is not something ordinary people do to each other."

 He turned to leave, placing his hat more squarely on his head, "but then again, as Shatner said, we aren't in the company of 'common people', are we? Verdant, come on,  I ca't teleport you from over there."

Verdant spoke for the first time since he arrived, "That's alright, I'll find my own way back. I have business in town."