Chapter 1 - A night at the Electric Labyrinth

The irritation is immediately evident as Tav shakes her head with Nadia's departure for the rest room. She puts her hand in Selvie's and turns back for their spot in the intimate booth to gather the rest of their things. She turns, as they walk away, noticing the abrupt arrival of Jack. "I hope everything works out and this Anika person is found safe, but my priority is right here by my side at the moment and I'm not going to risk Selvie's safety. Good Evening to you all." Tav and Selvie vanish into the back of the VIP.

Connor watches Tav head off with her girlfriend. He looks at Jack and then back at Tav and shakes his head. Those two had a certain friction that often left him feeling he needed to be a mediator.

With Nadia and Selvie gone, he knows her can talk free-er. "I've had two run-ins from the Nexus in the last 30 hours. The first was Anika, a girl who was horribly abused by the scientist Miriam Montagne in the experiments that created whatever I am. She stayed with me part of last night before she told me who she really was, and fled."

His eyes lose focus, reliving the horror of childhood. "Then I ran into the very same Miriam at a coffee shop right near my new apartment. We spoke, and I got the impression she was still working for Nexus."

Her drinks a swallow from his beer. "Anika cane here tonight. She wants to be with me, but then went to the bathroom, just over there. She was kidnapped from there by two tattooed men with tasers I guess. I need to get her back, but I'm terrible at sleuthing."

"Jack." Max's greeting is perfunctory. He likes Jack, but... seeing Jack makes him think of Jennifer, and thinking of Jennifer makes him think of all the things he let slip through his fingers. All the things he pretends he doesn't miss or desperately want back.

He kicks back the end of his drink and circles around the end of the bar. He grabs a pilsner glass and puts it to a tap, filling it with beer he doesn't even look at, then comes back around the bar drinking it.

"I met Anika once before," he says to Connor. "She knew everybody we knew, said she needed help on a job. All I had to do was convince some security guards we needed to be in a place, then convince them they wanted to delete the footage. I don't know what she did, but it was over pretty quick. She didn't want to talk to me, so I never asked more. Whoever hired her paid me, so I guess..." he shrugs.

"I never met anyone but her. Just assumed she was one of us. Right age, knew all the right people. My gut tells me she's trouble, or maybe it's these people after her. Either way, I wouldn't risk my skin, 'cept you asked, so I'm in."

There's plenty of music playing, providing cover for the group to speak without much risk of bystanders or surveillance overhearing their conversation. However, as the old professor often warned, anything is possible.

A strong whatever expression marks Jack's face when Tav's girlfriend pointedly and frostily ignores her arrival and greeting, but Tav's immediate departure disappoints the woman. Leaning in close to the others to be heard over the music, she offers more personal hellos to each of them. Light perspiration covers the woman's dark skin; she got to the Labyrinth incredibly quickly, crossing town like only she can, with a combination of jaw-dropping rooftop free-running and riding the tops of box trucks and elevated trains. There were few places in the city Jack couldn't be first to... unless she was racing Jennifer. Bitch could fly.

Jack is at the club for a serious reason -- Jennifer's message was troubling -- but she can't help but flash a bit of that million dollar smile at Conner as she claps him on the shoulder. "Shit. These people all came for you tonight? Looks like I owe you lunch or something. This is the big time! Congrats, Conner!"

Her relationship with Max has been a more strained one at times, but he's still one of the pack and it's good to see him. "Max," she says with a nod, "looking sharp always, good to see you, man." Seeing him makes her think of Tammy Lynn; she's due for a check-in.

Just before Conner starts to explain the situation, the woman hears Charlie's voice in her head, and that makes her smile a little too. This is like the old days. I thought that was you, Charlie, all incognito. Smart. But you were always smart, C. Embracing the man in a quick but warm hug, saying, "Good to see you too," she steps back, straightens the high-tension spaghetti straps of her dress and turns her attention to the matter at hand.

Cooper's eyebrows go up at the mention of Anika Kessler, and up higher when Conner says he saw Dr. Montagne. She mouths the word fuck after the man says he thinks Miriam was still working for Nexus, and draws a deep breath before she responds. Her dress would make it quite a distracting breath in any other circumstance, but this news has the group on edge. Shit's going down, and the mention of the kidnapping is the icing on the cake. She did remember Anika, but she was just a kid. One of the ones Jack wasn't able to get to safety that day.

The woman's eyes go to the commotion at the restrooms as she speaks. "Alright, alright. Wow. That's -- that's a lot. Agreed, Conner, we need to help her." She gives Charlie/Tony a quick head shake when he mentally asks if any of them know more about Anika's situation, then looks at Max. "She tell you more, when you ran into her before? You should have said something then, Max. We cross paths with anyone we all knew from those days? We all need to know about it."

Another head-clearing breath and the woman gets into gear. "Alright, let's not just stand around here talking about it, they're on the move. Jennifer's tied up with work, but we need to get her informed as well, and see if there's some sign of where they took Anika." Looking into the passage that Selvie and Tav vanished into, Jack adds, "someone go drag Tav back out here, she if she's sober enough to hitch into the building's surveillance system. The cameras might have caught the getaway, right?"

Gathering up their things left behind momentarily for the casual jaunt to the bar, which was rudely interrupted, Tav looks at Selvie and leans in for quick kiss and to whisper in her ear, "Trust me, Love? Hold onto my hand and don't let go until I say. Were bouncing this scene and moving to another location." Tavisha takes her girl's hand and they make a circuit around the VIP venue to the emergency exit, with the two of them connected through Tav's invisibility augment. She opens the door as her mind reaches out to silence the alarm and surveillance on the door.

Instead of taking the emergency stairs, Tav leads Selvie a short distance down the back corridor and up a short flight of stairs to re-enter the Labyrnith. They move together to just outside the view of the velvet ropes and guards of Moonrise and wait until the coast is clear, before Tav breaks their invisibility connection and sighs heavily. "Okay, now." She releases her touch of Selvie's hand for a moment and approaches the musclebound doorman, who easily recognizes them both from their many nights of patronage at the Electric Labyrnith. "Evening, Tovarisch." Tav greets him with her natural Russian accent. "A cozy booth for two plus, pozhaluysta? Our usual..."

Everything worked as intended, but Tav noticed that the emergencies door alarm of the stairs are all disabled on the VIP floor where Connor and the others are. This is not normal.

Addendum: Quick text to Charlie.

Tav:	Emergency exit alarms were disabled. Connor's package likely transported through.

Glancing down at Not-Quite-Charlie's phone as the music continues to thump in the background, Jack nods. "Is she coming back? We're going to need her skills, and none of us should be alone with Nexus hunting around. Especially drunk or high."

There aren't many emergency doors leading to the stairs, so it's plausible to assume that the kidnapers escaped through the one near the ladies' room. Otherwise, Connor would have spotted them exiting the corridor into the venue.

Since Anika left for the toilet, it's been approximatively 30 minutes, considering how long Connor was waiting and everything that had transpired since they found the unconscious woman.

Apart from the deactivated emergency door alarms that lead to the stairs, the party currently has no other leads except attempting to access the security cameras. There's one in the corridor, so unless it was tampered with, it should have spotted the villains.

The stairs lead in both directions, offering access both upward and downward if someone peak behind the door.

What are the augments are doing from there?

"Fuck this is taking too long. I'm going looking. Those stairs and just hope we find another shoe, or someone who saw something. Come on."

With our without the others, he'll go through the doors into the stairs and look for clues.

He feels his powers bubbling under his skin, like a mirror ball sending tingling stabs of light.

"Down and out seems most likely," Max says as Connor rushes into the stairwell. "You guys go down, I'll head up. I'm the least helpful in a fight."

With a nod and a smile of visible familiarity of Tav and Selvie, the impeccably dressed and muscular doorman, Mikhail tapped his earbud and unlatched the velvet cord blocking the entrance at his checkpoint into Moonrise. He announced the admission of the two women through his comm and issued them in with a, "Have a good evening ladies. Enjoy..."

A few steps into the immersive sounds and sights of exclusive exotic dance emporium, the duo are engaged with one of the house's hostesses, Sasha, a slender brunette with white highlights in her forelocks and wearing a short black dress. She motions for them to follow and seats them in Tav's requested favorite booth, before leaving them to their own devices until one of the waitresses swings by.

The booth, a cozy half-moon affair with a padded wall, a small table, and enough room on the curving overstuffed seat to accommodate four if needed, had a clear and close view of one of the club's small intimate, full moon shaped stages.

Tav and Selvie seated themselves and settled in close to each other for a moment to breathe and continue enjoying their big night out together.

Jack nods at first Conner, who takes off, and then Max. "Don’t worry — I got that part covered if it comes to that!" Then, a split second before she tears after Con, catching up to him in a matter of heartbeats, the dark-skinned woman gives the man she’s had differences with over the years a sincere look. "Be careful up there. You find something and need help, call out. Cool?"

And with that, she’s gone.

Max just nods to Jack, then as she speeds away, he says under his breath, "Roger that, Captain Jack. I ain't playing hero. The lot of you should know that by now."

Then he starts up the stairs, climbing at a normal pace. No need to get out of breath. They wouldn't have been dumb enough to go up. He's just being thorough. Still, he pays attention, looking for anything that might be a clue as he goes up, checking the door at each landing, searching for cameras they might be able to get Tav to check.

As if, he thinks to himself. Jesus, Tav, even I'm being a team player this time. Granted, I got a woman waiting in a hotel room, not hanging off my arm. Still... 'one of us' and all that happy bullshit.