[Color=#efe9e8][b]"It does, actually,"[/b][/color] said Spire, a shade of his artificial pleasantry fading to genuine interest. [Color=#efe9e8][b]"Quite a lot."[/b][/color]

[color=#cce6ff][b]"Yeah but um,"[/b][/color] said Toby. [color=#cce6ff][b]"It's the psychic. And the t--teleporter."[/b][/color]

The approach of these new enemies added a note of urgency they could not ignore. Spire and Toby wanted to hang around for story time from this ancient sage so unnaturally existing in a young man's body. Spire and Toby also wanted to kill Montana - a process they knew would take longer than usual due to the strange, pensive man's healing factor. 

Spire and Toby didn't have time for either.

This Montana had probably taken pure human lives with his own hands. Listening to old stories about the beginning of the Crown and the Hand - the factions - might let Montana incriminate himself. Most of the Gifted generation that could claim that feat was dead. For the Schippers, killing the spawn of the original genocidal murderers was one thing, but executing one of the original guilty party... Granted, Spire was pretty pleased to be doing any of the executing, but that might mean something powerful for Toby.

[Color=#efe9e8][b]"We might have to take a rain check on the war stories, old man,"[/b][/color] said Spire genially. [Color=#efe9e8][b]"We may have some hostile greetings coming up."[/b][/color]

He and Toby shared a look. It was risky, but all they really needed to do was let the mind manipulator get in sight. Either Toby could shoot them, or Spire could use his power. If she seized control of one of their minds first, well...the other would just have to work fast. The teleporter could be handled afterward. Maybe Montana, inhuman though he was, had enough sense of gratitude to either stay out of the way, or join them.

But Toby forced himself not to think about that. The mind manipulator had to be getting close enough to begin to get a read on their surface thoughts, at least. Though he knew the invasive Curse could dig deep if the user wished, Toby tried to fill his head with the last thing he'd read (something he didn't know verbatim, so that he'd have to think about it) to keep a target off his back...or brain, as it were.

[color=#cce6ff][i]'Do not go gentle into that good night
rage, rage against the dying of the light....'
Nope. There's a line in between there. Something about burning and raging.
'Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have'...something about dancing in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light...'
This is a second-person address encouraging people to rage. Unfortunate choice.
'It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.'
....Okay. That's all I got of that one.[/i][/color]

The urgency of Toby's squirming told Spire to follow suit on the misdirecting thoughts, though he took a bit of a different tac to turning his mind from violent intentions. Unlike Toby, he mused aloud, directing the comments loosely to Montana. 

[Color=#efe9e8][b]"This is turning out to be a full day. Got a kid back at our base I've got to get back to,"[/b][/color] he said, thinking of how Hel's shoes were getting worn out and too small for her, and how he should look in the old broken shops for something she could wear. [Color=#efe9e8][b]"Not my kid. But a kid we look after. Telling her we found a very old guy locked in a box might be one of the weirder bits of news I've had the pleasure of reporting to her at bedtime..."[/b][/color]

Playing the child card shamelessly, but, to be fair, honestly.