Rylie showed up to the address Mark had sent hear, wearing the Kids with Beards t-shirt he saw her in on her first day. She smiled at him,, then looked at the building confused. He had to admit, it was sort of out of place. Between two tall buildings was a one-story shack of a pub. It was wrapped in brick and looked almost dilapidated. Above the door was a small plastic sign that simply said, "Louie's".

"What is this place?" His partner asked, an amused expression on her face.

"This is neutral ground, so don't get too antsy when we go inside. Louie opened this place so the collective members have somewhere they can go to. Even if you run into your mortal enemy, just ignore them. At the very least, we can have a drink and talk mostly freely. Lily absolutely hated this place. Hanna holds the most wins in beer pong."

The two of them walked in and immediately the dull reminder of his new tracking sense sprung in full force. Besides being an old haunt, he wanted to use the opportunity to test out the ability to see if he could start telling different groups apart. Right off the bat though, they were all mixing. Two men sat at the table by the door, eyeing his jacket, and he shot them a glare which was returned in kind. There were a few greasy people playing at one of the pool tables, some holding multiple plates of food while waiting for their turn. At the bar sat a woman around their age stacking silverware in a random pattern, then catapulting them at the bottles that lined the shelf.

One finally hit and shattered a bottle of gin to the delightful squeal of the woman. Louie came out from the back room, all six-foot-seven of strong build, her gray hair pulled back in a ponytail. Her thick hand grabbed the woman and tossed her off the barstool. The woman cackled like a hyena as she walked past Rylie and Mark, who had finally gotten Louie's attention.

"Absolutely holy shit. Marcus James. Can't even die properly, can you?"

"Sorry, Lou. Can't get rid of me that easy. Like you to meet my new partner, Rylie Shaw."

Rylie shook Louie's large hand, who bore into the kid's eyes with a stare. She cocked her head, before finally nodding, "I see. Interesting choices you guys are making over at Gua-Traitors." Louie slowly took her eyes off of the rookie and settled back on Mark, "heard about the assassination from your sister. Didn't let on that you were back though."

"You know Hanna. Doesn't like to ruin the surprise. Can I get a rum and coke and whatever Rylie wants?" Louie nodded with a smile and the two grabbed a table.

"So, let's see what you know. What are the other people that are here?" Mark said about Louie dropped off their drinks.

"Ugh," Rylie said with a grin, "I didn't realize this was a homework meetup." They laughed and she continued, "Fine then. The woman who left was Dreaded, for sure. Nothing too big, but definitely a fan of chaos. Those guys playing pool were The Splurge. All that food is a dead giveaway. And the guys by the door are Longing based on how they were looking at you."

"Two out of three. Not too shabby. But those are Modify, not Longing. Longing is a more perverse, sexual thing. They feed off desire. They'll look at all of you. Modify will tend to be after one thing. Those guys were checking out my jacket. I assume their wants are more fashioned based, which is safe. It's the ones that like your fingers that are the problem."

"How do they operate?"

"Those guys might come over and try to convince me to give them my jacket. Or steal it. Lou won't let them, but let's say she does. They would enjoy it for a little, see something else they like, then want that. Very low key Modifys. Nothing to worry about. But there was this one guy when I started that went around pulling off women's fingers. He was jealous of how slender and pretty they looked. So, he would replace his fingers with theirs. Then he would see fingers he liked better. So on and so forth, before we finally caught him."

Rylie looked at her own fingers, "That's pretty messed up. And he could just switch off their body parts?"

Mark nodded, "Honestly, we're lucky he was only after fingers. Some of the people who are deep in Modify get jealous of everything depending on their mood. One of their upper echelon is more other people than she is herself at this point. It can get really messy."

Rylie shivered at that and took a drink. He looked her over, trying to figure out what Louie saw. He wasn't going to push her on the topic to protect the little trust they've built up, but he was growing more and more curious about her secret.

"So, what's with the t-shirt? Never heard of that band."

She laughed, "They're pretty underground. I managed to catch a show, and there were maybe a couple hundred people there, but they are awesome. I didn't listen to a lot of music growing up, so it's been a ride learning about it. How about you?"

"All over the place. If I like it, I like it."

She nodded enthusiastically, "Definitely. So, what all do you do? You strike me as someone that just goes home and sits there until it's time for bed."

Mark twisted his face in feigned shock, "Are you saying I'm boring?"

She laughed again, "Yeah, definitely."

Smirking, he took a drink then answered, "Honestly, you're not far off. At least since I've been back. I used to be super social, but that doesn't feel right yet. When I was on my break, I read a lot of books and watched a lot of movies I had missed out on. When I finally got tired of that, I started looking for hobbies. It wasn't soon after that I was back doing this. So, I have no idea what to do with myself."

"Damn, Mark. That sucks. I'm always down to hang though. I mostly go home and screw around on the internet. Nothing too productive. Either that or I mess around with my powers. Turns out finesse works out over text too."

"Now that's a dangerous power in the wrong hands. You could easily trick people into giving you money," he replied.

Rylie's eyes went wild, "Oh man, I hadn't though of that. I've mostly just been having conversations with bands and other fans. That's brilliant though."

They laughed, finishing off their drinks. They talked some more, learning small things about each other. Rylie liked black and pink. Mark's favorite color was red. She absolutely hated any alcohol that wasn't vodka, and he had to have his drinks mixed. He told her about some run-ins on various missions, until they were laughing at the time he locked up a Splurge guy who was going around collecting people's shoes.

"That's when I found out that my shield could be used more offensively. I mean, a hunk of metal flying at your face should have been a no-brainer, but as the guy with no brain, it took a bit to realize. I went to punch him, and he went flying. Shoes were everywhere. We locked him up. Ol' George is still in lock up. And let me tell you, he is still not happy to see me."

She was laughing, tears nearly forming in her eyes, and Mark realized it felt good to have a friend again. He signaled to Lou for two more drinks, and he toasted her.

"To a new Traitors partnership."

She clinked his glass and took a sip, "I'm sure it won't all be good days, but so far, I have no plans on leaving. Just hoping my powers get a little more useful."

He nodded, "They're always situational. I got the shield first thing, protecting my sister from some guys. We had left home and got into some seedy things, but it was better than our parents by a long shot. I protected her from getting shot a different time, and was able to form the metal from my shield into a weapon. The coin was a gift. It showed up on my desk one day. As soon as I touched it, I could feel like I was able to shape it. I got my hearing when I needed to held him, I told you that. And now the tracking thing. Though not too sure what that's all about. So, yours will come when they're needed."

She followed along, then let her hands glow dimly, "I needed a flashlight. I was escaping some bad shit, and it was dark. That's it. Then when I got caught a few months later, I was able to know exactly what they needed to hear to get out of the situation. So, that all checks out. They're not much, though."

"They'll get stronger," he said. "Right now, you can finesse surface thoughts. Down the line, you might be able to suss out motivations or emotions. And your flashlight tore into those vampires. So you're already making leaps and bounds."

She smiled, "I'm glad. I don't want you to have to do all the heavy lifting. Kind of defeats the purpose of having a partner. More of a burden."

Mark snorted, "Rookie, I've always been a tank. Comes with the move set. I cause a bunch of problems, have the bad guys focus on me, then Jay or Lily would have time to take them out with magic. Not too sure what you can do yet, but I'm sure they'll sync up nicely."

She toasted his glass again, and the two finished off their drinks. They talked with Louie on the way out, who wished them luck and they made their way out into the cool night.

"So, what's with Louie?"

"What do you mean? Like which patron does she follow?"

Rylie nodded, and Mark chuckled, "None. She's human. But she's seen a lot of shit. It's why we all accepted her place as a neutral ground. Never been too worried about her. She's always been able to handle her own."

"She took one look at me and figured out that thing I didn't want you to know yet. I could tell."

It was quiet for a moment before Mark spoke, "Yeah, like I said, she's seen a lot. More than I've seen. Maybe as much as Jay. But she's just a very intuitive human. Hell, I think even the Patrons themselves respect her. No one ever makes a move to claim her. But don't worry about that. She's a proper bartender. She won't tell anyone your secret."

Rylie nodded stoically, "Good. I'm slowly getting to comfortable. And you'll definitely be the first to know."

He smiled at his partner, and they continued their walk with Rylie trying to convince him to listen to more indie music, and him explaining to her that anything after 2008 was absolute garbage. He parted ways where she wanted and made his way the few blocks to his apartment building. Guardian greeted him at his apartment door, and before he closed it behind him, he heard someone softly clearing their throat.

He turned to find Lane standing a few feet away, a look of worry on her face. As he watched her stumble to say something, wave after wave of magical energy hit him. He had figured out what Modify and Splurge felt like after spending the past few hours at Louie's, and this wasn't either.

"Hey, Lane. Can I help you with anything. You alright?"

"Um. Yeah, sorry. It's just that-," she paused, before finally meeting his gaze. "You're Traitor, aren't you?"

Mark tensed, mentally willing his shield into place, "How do you know?"

She smiled, "I saw you going into Louie's earlier. But I didn't know who you were affiliated with. When I was talking to the front desk guy about you, he told me what your dog's name was. Pieced it together from there."

He positioned himself, not knowing if he should be ready to fight or run from what was coming next, "What do you want?"

She sighed, and a tear fell down her cheek, "I've been in Longing for four years. And I need your help getting out."