To Rico's Home (I guess Bloo or Kyte)

It had been about a week since Avy had heard anything from her sister, and it was unusual for them to even go a day without at least a "Hey! I'm still alive!" text to each other. The girl walked up to the house and checked the mail on the way. Yeah, they hadn't been home in at least a week. The girl sighed and didn't even knock before unlocking the door and walking inside. She needed to get a handle on what was going on in their lives before they ran off.

But as she looked around the house, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Everything was where it was seemingly meant to be and there were no special clues or hints or anything to be found. Maybe a little rushed as they were leaving, but that didn't help her know where they were going. The girl walked into the living room and fell on her bottom, looking up at the ceiling as silent tears started to slip down her cheeks. Why? Why did she go? Was DOMA really that scary? Why didn't they just come to her? Hardly anyone even knew they were related. She could have helped. And now she was more lost than ever.

Alone without a single thing to go on. Or so she thought?

A moment or two after she sat down on the floor and stared at the ceiling, the lights would flicker, before going out. And then, they would come back on. And like in any traditional horror movie, there would be something phenomenally different when she opened her eyes. A man, seemingly, standing in the entrance to the living room. Arms behind his back, and peering at her through a mask. The mask was a little bizarre, and as he peered at her, he rested a hand on one of his knives at his belt.

"You are trespassing on a crime scene. May I ask what reason you have for being here?" The voice was almost haunting. It was lifeless, devoid of any emotion, but there was a will in it. He didn't remove himself from the doorway. "I advise you not to run. You won't get very far." There was a bit of a Japanese accent, but he was speaking fluent English, obviously.

Avy blinked as the lights flickered and she assumed that there would be someone standing in front of her when she opened her eyes. Shocking. She was correct. The girl stared up at the man in front of her with sapphire eyes and just blinked, finding his appearance to be quite odd. The mask is what pushed it over the edge. It was plain ridiculous, though she didn't dare to laugh at this stranger. Not yet, anyway.

The girl reached a hand to the ground and a shadow would come creeping across the floor to rest under her palm as she listened to what he was saying. Her sister's home was a crime scene? He wasn't wearing police or even detective attire, which only really left one option. The girl wondered what her options were. Running certainly was at the top of the list, but not her style. Not yet, again.

She raised her hands above her head and slowly stood up, keeping her eyes on the man. Let's play this Mom's way for now, hm? Actually, no. This was going to be done her way. The red-haired girl bit her lip gently up at the man, confused and seemingly lost. "I-I'm so sorry... I didn't realize this was a crime scene... but this is my sister's house... She hasn't been answering her phone and I'm starting to get really worried. What happened? Is she okay?? She has a girlfriend too... I don't know where either of them are!!" Her voice rose in genuine panic and the girl started to tremble lightly in actual fear. The question though of 'is she okay?' should at least tell her if they had them or if they were still free.

Elisabeth had been working hard the last few days, with trouble after trouble popping up in this world she placed herself in. Sometimes it's a pain to be born with such purpose, really. DOMA had been activated in response to the skeleton attacking midtown, which wasn't shocking but was inconvenient. The heiress had known about the program before, of course, she wouldn't be silly enough to create a suit and join the ranks of superheroes without first checking the political climate.
Problems bred solutions for the teen, though. Now that she was getting into the good graces of DOMA, she was inconvenienced by an intruder to the crime scene that was Rico's house.

"Ugh. Avy would of course come in to check on her sister." She'd grumble to herself, wondering if she'd be damaging her reputation with the organization if she stepped in. "I need better friends..."

Rico was a hassle lately, but Elisabeth didn't have enough friends to be dropping this one. So, shortly after Kuro's dramatic entrance, she'd be headed towards the scene. The conversation hadn't progressed much at all when the heiress decided to take a page out of the agents book. Instead of the lights flickering, the stereo system in the house would click on and go to full volume.

Click click click click... Back in Black! (click me)

After letting Avy and Kuro be confused for a few moments, the front door would open. After a moment, a metal stick with a white cloth tied to the end would poke through.

"I come in peace, masked man."

Avy probably wouldn't recognize the voice, but when Elisabeth stepped into the house she may recognize Rico's old childhood rival. The only one smarter than the former redhead. The music would get quiet, but never stop completely. Just become background noise.

"I'm Elisabeth Delacroix. I've been talking with Amanda Waller. I was hoping I could help here. You must be Kuro?"

He listened to the girl as she got up slowly, with her hands over her head. Interesting. He wasn't even pointing a weapon at her. Perhaps it was a tad dramatic.

After she said that she didn't know where her sister was and that she hadn't been answering her phone, he moved from the doorway. Over to the numerous pictures on the shelf of Rico, Suzuki, and some of Avy as well. "I see." He turned to look at Avy again. Before he spoke, something came in on comms.

"Tesla chakushin."

Kuro put a finger to his ear. "Hai. Kanojo o irete." His hand fell. "Your sister is alright. She did assault a federal agent, but no one had hurt her." He turned his gaze back to her. "I can't promise things will remain that way if she assaults them again. She and her girlfriend are breaking the law. The circumstances are not black and white. But to openly resist us does not speak in her favor."

He heard the feedback from the speakers, closing his mouth as Tesla took them over and played some rock music through them. At max volume. He then turned his head to the front door as she came through, waving a white flag. She apparently wanted to help. "Your intention is appreciated, Ms. Delacroix. But whether you have spoken to Waller or not is not the issue. You are not cleared with our agency, and interfering like this speaks against our cause. Not for it." His arms remained behind his back. His mask was still on, so his voice was slightly distorted, but it still carried his emotionless tone.

Avy lowered her arms when he started to look at the pictures on the wall. Then as he spoke into his comm, all she could do was smirk gently as she heard him speak Japanese. If he was trying to hide what he was saying, she wouldn't stop him from assuming she didn't understand, made things easier for her after all. She blinked as if trying to figure out what he had been saying when he started to speak to her again and she sighed in relief, visibly relaxing her shoulders when he told her that her sister hadn't been hurt. Though it wasn't completely clear in his tale if she was still under custody or not. That was a problem. She needed that answer.

Just as she was about to ask another question, the radio went on the fritz and she blinked. Another one? Really? She pouted lightly and turned toward the door at the same time he did, but couldn't help but bob her head along to the good song this one chose to play. Max volume was a little obnoxious though, hopefully it was just for a dramatic entrance.

When the girl showed herself, Avy blinked and held back the shock on her face, feigning ignorance instead. If Elisabeth was here then that could mean one of two things, and she couldn't rule out either of those options yet. Avy listened to both of them speak to each other and understood that the first at least wasn't actually appreciative of Elisabeth being here. Okay. That sways things a little, but not enough. She has apparently been in contact with Amanda Waller, which still kept options in balance for the time being. She also learned the man's name. Kuro. Noted.

The red-haired girl bit her lip and squirmed a little, looking back and forth between the two nervously. "I-I'm sorry to interrupt you two... but... you said my sister is alright? Is there any way that I could see her? There are visitations and stuff in jail, right? Or is she in jail? I don't know how any of this works... I told her to stop doing vigilante stuff when all this DOMA stuff started... She just didn't listen to me..." The girl teared up and looked at the ground, holding her hands at her chest as if clutching her broken heart.

Elisabeth knew of Avy more than she actually knew Avy, in fact the heiress had never met Avy at all to be honest. So when the girl was playing the innocent and concerned act, Elisabeth only nodded skeptically. Kuro, unsurprisingly, had the charisma of a lamp. He expressed his concerns over her interfering and Elisabeth had to take a moment to decide how to word her thoughts properly... in a way that a regular human could understand. Really, it took a lot of energy talking to other people.

"That attitude, Kuro," she started, putting on her best charming smile that still came off condescending, "is exactly why you need me. DOMA isn't looking great in the public eye right now, so why don't you let me try some different methods? A breath of fresh air at the least."

She looked back to Avy, and again smiled but it probably looked like an adult trying to comfort a baby. Elisabeth didn't mean for it to come off like that. Sometimes she just... had to put on a facade to pass social situations. If Rico were here, she'd understand. Probably not make it any better, but understand at the least. Or not. Maybe they weren't really friends. Connecting with people could be confusing, even for someone as smart as her.

"Avy, your sister is behaving irrationally. I think it was her girlfriend who started it, to be fair to Rico's prowess. She just went along with it. That's neither here nor there, though. The Department of Metahuman Affairs is not the enemy they've been made out to be, you know? They're not trying to hurt anyone. Just make heroing more safe... guarded, even. We need to find Rico, because she'll listen to reason. She isn't in trouble."

She'd step forward, standing in front of Avy by only a foot or two and looking in her eyes with her best smile still.

"You wouldn't know where she is, would you?"

Of course, Elisabeth was only making things more difficult for him. Truth be told, he didn't care much for the public eye, or any part of it. His prerogative had always been mission and its priority. And while Waller certainly cared about it scores more than he, that wasn't his prerogative, and she should have known it by now.

Elisabeth said that his attitude was why DOMA needed her, which was ironic, since he didn't have any attitude to treat her with. She took a different approach with Avy, inadvertently revealing that they did not have custody of her sister. Something most men would be upset about. And appealed for her to help them track her down. It all had to start somewhere, at least. It was a good appeal. It had more emotion than Kuro would be able to offer. But he would certainly need to have words with her afterwards. The only thing stopping Kuro from detaining her on the floor was that she might have Avy ready to give up some details. Not any clearance she clearly assumed that she had.

He would let her continue with Avy on this front, and nothing more.

Avy blinked and couldn't help but giggle lightly when Elisabeth told Kuro he had an attitude. From what she had witnessed thus far, the man had no emotions to speak of. When her attention returned to Avy, the girl blushed lightly at the smile she gave her. It reminded her of when Rico would try to comfort her. Must be something about hyper-intelligence that made people bad at emoting correctly. Either way, it really was a comfort to see the same type of smile on someone that she at least knew of in theory.

As she talked about her sister's "irrational" behavior and Suzuki being the cause of it, Avy just bit her lip to keep from saying anything unnecessary. She nodded along as she was told that DOMA wasn't evil. Ha. That was neither here nor there though, for now. What she did hone in on, was that her sister was still free. They needed her help. The girl's eyes sparkled and she went wide eyed. When Elisabeth stepped closer to her, Avy reached out and gripped at the hem of her shirt as if in absolute desperation as she stared down at the shorter girl, but feeling much smaller than her. "If I knew where she was, we wouldn't be having this conversation right now... I need to find her just as bad as you do!! Do you know anything?? Any lead that could help me find her??" Her eyes were pleading with the girl to share any information. It was obvious that she would be searching for her right away.

Elisabeth was glad that Kuro let her try it her way, but it didn't look like her way was any better at the moment. Frustrating, but nothing that was too terrible. Her smile faltered a bit as she thought about where to go next with it, but decided that there wasn't an easy course. She looked to Kuro.

"If we had leads, we'd be pursuing them Avy." Elisabeth said, but it was only a half truth. She hadn't tried anything yet to find Rico, and was confident with some time and some hacking her hiding spots would be revealed. She just wanted Rico to have a chance to do the smart thing. "Well, she doesn't know anything then. Are you going to take that as all you need, then? She hasn't done anything illegal, since the scene wasn't taped off."

She pointed out with a shrug. She wanted to do more to protect Rico's sister, but it didn't seem like there was much left in this situation. She knew a good lawyer, at least. This encounter would definitely effect her opinion of the organization, though. If they chose to detain Avy - who had broken no laws - she'd need to have some words with Waller. Waller made it clear she didn't want Elisabeth to publicly oppose DOMA. It was leverage. Jump loved the heiress after her relief efforts in Midtown.

"You're in charge, boss. You can do what you want here. I hardly belong here, right now. I just couldn't keep my hand out of the biscuit jar, you know?"

It seemed like the girl was a dead end, at least if her words were to be trusted. And that was a leap Kuro certainly wasn't going to take. But for now, she had no new information to provide him with, so he dipped his head in respect. "Thank you for your time, Avy. If you hear anything from your sister, I would suggest you ask her to come in. The longer she hides, the worse her situation becomes," he said truthfully. "If you have any new information for us, call local law enforcement. You can reach us there."

With that, he would turn and leave, quite nonchalantly, through the front door, without so much as a glance at Elisabeth. When the front door closed, he touched his ear piece. "Buntai ni, kaihō. Kanojo o mite."

"Hai, senchō."

His hand returned to his side again, and he would turn to leave. He would need to have words with Waller. A part of him suspected Elisabeth might speak to him further, but he wasn't relying on it. If uninterrupted he would grapple up to a rooftop and leave that way, so as to avoid attention on the streets.

Avy sighed and dropped her head when Elisabeth said that they didn't have any leads either. Seems they were a dead-end, if their words were to be trusted, of course. The girl listened to Elisabeth speak to Kuro and then he directed his speech towards the red-head. Her eyes glanced up through her bangs as she nodded and wrapped her arms around her midsection in a protective manner. "Of course... The law is to be respected. Like if there was tape around the house, I wouldn't have just walked in. I do apologize for trespassing, but I didn't realize this was a crime scene when I arrived..." There was truth and lies entangled in the web that she spoke, but who was to say which was which?

The girl watched him leave and then went wide-eyed, reaching out for Elisabeth's hand and pressing a piece of paper into it, with her phone number on it. She whispered softly to her. "I think I remember you now... Please reach out if you find anything... Please..." She didn't want to say too much in case the walls had ears, but she had to take a small leap of faith. She knew she wasn't going to get very far on her own. And with that, she walked out of the house herself and got on her rented motorcycle to drive off.