Tayn followed everyone silently trying to decide what she was going to believe. There was more going on than she felt she could follow.
eventually she decided that Barnes, while he couldn't be called good, Wasn't necessarily bad. The main thing she was still wondering about was the original Noel. if the real Noel... Leona had been here, then who was the noel they had rescued. Was that the shapeshifter? had firestein planted her there to find out who they were so he could find them? strangely it hadn't occurred to any of them that they might not want to be known for being inhuman by the general population.
Tayn looked over at crow, "There was a shapeshifter at the police station that interrogated everybody. It's possible he didn't want to say anything because he couldn't be sure that we weren't working for Firestein."
(oops i apparently was
very distracted. i re-read and its obvious Leona was at the police station. not in the cave....
edit:
~if the real Leona had been at the police station~
"I, um... don't know how to say this." Barnes said, turning to the black-haired boy. "We had an agent, the man you met in that old building? He went by Noble. Good man, always had been. But just recently, he..." he glanced over at Janet, who was still preoccupied with Leona's slow divulging of information. "He went AWOL." He whispered. "He took Leona and hid her in there. We weren't sure what to do. I didn't want to tell Janet- he loved that kid, believe me, you wouldn't think he'd hurt anyone. But when he did that... he wouldn't let any of us near him, so I needed a distraction..."
Janet got up "What? Why didn't you tell me?" She got up in his face, pressing him back against the desk, "What, you didn't think I could have handled it?"
"Wha- no! I mean yes. I mean-"
"But that doesn't matter now." She said, pushing him aside, and tapping on the computer, pulling up an image of the police station. "Leona says she was gone for a week. Too long for Noble to have had her at all."
Barnes backed away from Janet, "Um... I did say that you didn't do what I had expected. I just needed a few outsiders to distract while I grabbed the kid, but..."
"But nothing!" Janet snapped.
>> Tayn felt like she was putting a puzzle together picture side down. Every time she thought she had a piece in the right spot some new piece was found that would fit slightly better. Could it possibly be? There was too much going on for her to concentrate...
"So, you're saying.... we killed one of your former employees for you?" Crow asked, more curiosity than suspicion in his voice now.
Tayn glanced over at Crow. She knew he didn't intend to be harsh but...
"You may very well have offed an innocent man." Janet said as she rapped on the keys, pulling up Firestein's profile sheet. "Most of his aliases are characters from books. Dobby is one of them. And Leona just told me she had been kept by a man who asked her to call him 'Dobby.'" She glared at him, "Do you know what that means?"
Crow glanced at her with an irritated expression. "Tayn killed him on accident. She didn't know that hitting his head with... err, I forgot what she hit him with. But that's not the point. He tried to kill us before we even threatened him." he turned to Barnes, "Your employee would have killed Gage if it wasn't for Misty."
"It was the butt end of his rifle." she said quietly. Noble's face flashed in her head again.
She locked him in an icy stare, "Connect the dots, wise guy. If Leona was with Firestein at the time, then who did you rescue from the apartments? Your friend over there already mentioned a shifter." Janet said, throwing a hand up in Tayn's direction.
"That doesn't make Noble innocent!" Crow growled. He thought about what she had said about the first Noel being a shifter. But she seemed so.... I don't know. Real.
Tayn tried to hold back her tears but they rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably.
"Is it possible...." She begain; looking away from everyone so they wouldn't see she was crying. "That Noble had taken Firesteins shapeshifter as a captive knowing what she was? She.... if she had spent any time with Ash and tried to act like her, I would have been completely fooled....Could he have pulled away from you because you knew the real Leona, and wouldnt be convinced that she was a shapeshifter? If he needed to get information out of her quickly.... Having others involved questioning his... methods... on a little girl...." she swallowed, her mouth and throat were dry. She didn't like how the puzzle quickly clicked together, transforming the wanna be heroes into villains. "It would certainly explain how they found us so fast. We all slept at rivers. She could have easily slipped out, or even used one of our phones to call James."
Char sighed and threw her hands up. "You guys know I know everything there is to know right? I can help! I'm tired of being left behind and treated like I'm 8!"
"if anything you suggested would work I doubt Barnes would have left you when you were 12. Most likely James would be able to see through any disguise, and since he's fighting inhumans he probably has things in place to protect him from super fast attacks too." Tayn said disheartened, how were they going to take him on? had everyone else gone to meet him like they were supposed to? Was she going to loose Ash again?
(i'll try to be here next time. - not tomorrow

- I havent been able to concentrate for RP the last few days, so it felt like going in for a nice RP

and getting :

I'm loving how the story is unfolding my brain just doesnt want to keep up. I got spoiled through the week being able to post with a few days to think about what i wanted to say.
@MysticChickens04 ( Feelin' sorry for you.

my dog died of... well the vet technically, my parents didnt tell me they were taking him, he had stomach cancer and had almost died the night before. He made it through the night so i thought he'd be ok. - i was 16 at the time. i got him when i was 2 and remember when we brought him home.

hope your pup will be ok. )