Val stumbled off the plane with grace and composure. At least that was story she sticking with. She hoped she hadn't said too much to Eleanor. She couldn't remember much after the third glass of champagne. Her vision had mostly returned by the time she reached the baggage claim. Not that she had any luggage to claim. Travel light and travel fast, her dad had always said. He'd also told her not to come back until she had a real job. So what did he know?

Collapsing against convenient column, Val heard her phone buzzing angrily and saw Clive getting friendly with some locals. She didn't bother to check her phone. The Czech piece she had tossed into her bag, suddenly made it feel heavy. Far too heavy. Pulling a gun in an airport seemed like a singularly bad idea. Not that she had any intention of starting a gun fight. Guns were loud. And killing people was decidedly not cool. Even if they wanted the cowboy's kit. Val felt like crying. She didn't need more drama in her life. She needed coffee. She needed a doughnut. One of those fancy ones. With creme filling and sprinkles in cute shapes.

She didn't feel like dancing. Not with anyone present. 

She figured cowboy could square dance his way out of trouble. The tall angry guy was lanky enough to step on so toes and she supposed Eleanor could lecture the enemy into surrendering. Val watched poser-Gandalf with some amusement, of course the party grandpa had brought a cane. She wasn't going to help him if he fell over she decided. His coffee jab still stung. She wasn't going to let it slide. He'd have to ask her before she helped him. She'd relish the moment.

The totally discreet wannabe spook that crossed in front of her and headed towards the brewing fight with a hand in his bargain bin blazer ruined Val's smug musing about the geriatric wizard.

"No," Val muttered, looking desperately around her. "No, please no. I don't want to work this early."

The universe, diverse gods, or spirits chose not to answer her desperate pleas and Val felt a rising surge of panic with each confident step the man took towards the others. There was something vaguely military about his walk. Something familiar. Something she disliked already. She didn't smell a three letter agency. No one was wearing cool suits. And cops usually loved to yell out loud that they were cops. At least before they started blasting.

Resolved to do something, Val lurched to her feet. She grabbed an unguarded cup of coffee that had been left on a seat next to her and stumbled towards the stranger. She opened the lid of the cup of coffee and tossed an al chemical ingredient inside as she power-walked after him. The coffee began to boil again. Arcane heat began to burn her hand through the paper cup. It was compost friendly Val noted with great pleasure. Not that it mattered. The poor cup would have to die for them. For Clive, the biggest and only cowboy Val had ever seen. It was a worthy sacrifice and Val knew that Sun Tzu would have been proud. She just hoped the disposable coffee cup could forgive her.

Val managed a perfectly timed stumble, tripping over an untied shoelace as she barreled into the man and sent hot coffee pouring all over his back. The cheap spook grunted in surprise as Val knocked him to the floor with her entire body. The grunt turned into a loud scream as the magically heated coffee began to burn through layers of synthetic fiber. Val offered a loud, panicked string of apologies, her shaky hands grabbing hold of the cut-rate spook's arm as she pretended to try to help him to his feet. Whatever he had in his pocket wasn't good and Val had no intention of letting him use it.

The unwelcome dance partners writhed on the floor, a mess of struggling limbs and muscles as a couple of heads turned their way. Val wasn't ready for the elbow of bargain-bin spook's free arm when it hit her in the side of her head.

[hider=Summary]
Val decides to be heroic and not do anything. Her heroic plan is ruined by a third baddie who makes his appearance. Reluctantly she stages an awesome coffee based sneak attack. Then she gets her head rocked by a sweet elbow.
[/hider]