"Are you sure that we should be tagging along with you to a shootout?" Zeke had no qualms when they entered the police station as at least they shouldn't have anything on him given how quiet of a life he tried to live. A shootout, on the other hand, taking them to a shootout was more on the concerning side of the spectrum. But with Jaycob moving out the door alongside the other officers that happened to be here, their choice was essentially made for them. The thought of just staying behind and fiddling with things in order to see what he could find himself, but that quite possibly was a crime. Something he did not have the time for right now, prompting Zeke to follow behind out the door.
Naturally, Kel attempted to worm him way out of Shiro's grip when he was literally being carried off like an infant and fortunately he'd manage to do so before joining up with the first group. It condition aside, the fact that Karina was in what was a pink dress had thrown him off guard. "Its good to see that you're okay." All things considered, the fact that she was okay was reassuring to know. When everyone had gotten back together, that was when the unsettling feeling had returned to Kel. They were finally grouped up together, trying to figure out their next course of action and Nequa was still using him as both her eyes and ears. The temptation to just leave was still, but at this point, it wasn't a likely option that he would do. Too much attention would've been drawn towards himself in the process of doing so. The nail in that coffin was when it came time to explain why he was taken and, with a moment's hesitation, he told them everything regarding Nequa using him to essentially be the 'traitor'. The act of doing so didn't leave him feeling any better. If anything the uncertainty had been replaced with anxiousness that had been more than enough for him to fall back into silence. There wasn't much that he felt like he could add right now and perhaps that was for the best.
Physically speaking Kel was perfectly okay. Sure his arms hurt slightly from the way that the Remnant was holding them, but compared to the treatment they'd gotten in his fight against Karina, it was nothing. Mentally, however, that was where the real issued lie. The news that Nequa had been basically puppeting him this whole time still left him infuriated and at the same time, greatly disheartened. To learn that he had been the sole cause of all this, even unwilling, nearly brought back some of his old habits. If he just left now then whatever vast emptiness he decided to look at would be viewed by Nequa and nothing else regarding his friends. Even if this meant that he would be no better now then when he up and left his home for similar reasons. "What? No, I'm fine. The prison block if I had to guess." Shiro had snapped him back to reality through the vigorous shaking.
It was really starting to get hold hearing that he wasn't in the position to be making demands and other such nonsense. Like he had said before, that was the last thing he cared about right now. His sentiments haven't changed in the slightest since the last time he was told that. With Nequa essentially being a harbinger of misfortune that always seemed to end worse for him, all of his encounters with her were basically engraved into his mind permanently. It started with Deep Jungle and the battle against those chameleon heartless and that jaguar, the Nottingham and the Guard Armor, Land of Dragon with Shan-Yu -more notably his bird- and lastly Camelot with Mim and Nequa herself. Beyond the difficult battles and general pain that he was put through that her being around tended to signal whenever she was around, he realized the other common occurrence whenever she was around. Bravo. That one singular word. An immense sinking feeling was cast upon him up, bearing enough pressure to almost crush him right where he was restrained. Was everything that had happened to them, from the fall of Central Haven to being thrown into the Realm of Darkness to damn near dying against No Heart, was it all really because of him? The final nail in the coffin was the Scarlett 'B' on his right shoulder and along with the pressure was a tightness in his chest. His head was spinning as the overwhelming wave of despair clashed with the anger towards Nequa that only intensified, resulting in him uttering a single phrase. "Gods Dammit!"
Kel had hoped that he would be able to get farther away to be able to put all of the information that he had to use, but that wouldn't be the case as his face met the ground and again was restrained. It was nowhere near as easy as to get out of these as with each attempt made to move an inch led to the Remnant's grip tightening to the point in which his keyblade had just fallen out of his hands. "Who. The hell. Is Bravo. That is not my name." And being called that, especially by them of all people, was starting to get old.
Once again the trend of a million questions running through his head and not a single answer in sight continued in his current situation, but in this case, there was actually something that he could do that came to mind. With everything that he overheard from the Red Society before they split off he knew where to go and the ice that was currently restraining him didn't bother him due to his own innate aura. Kel took his chance while Hotel was distracted to work his way onto his feet before striking him with the ice that currently restrained his wrists. The blow was strong enough to break said ice and hopefully enough to knock Hotel out as well. His keyblade formed in his now free hands and melted the ice around his ankles by covering the blade in flames and applying it upon the ice. Now that his limbs were free, he was quick to move towards the exit and from there he would try to find his way to prison blocks and hopefully the others.
"I'm not going anywhere with you so you can forget that." Kel didn't know why it was him in particular and he wasn't too keen on giving it too much thought right. Whether it was his place or not to make demands his concerns lied more with dealing with this and figuring out how to get back those who were taken. That had been the drive behind Kel remaining firm in his position despite the gun being pointed at him, even with how disadvantageous things started to be for them. With the numbers that they had they should've been able to deal with both Hotel and his marksmanship, but Aislinn defending her niece which gave them something to exploit. His grip on his keyblade tightens as is looked around to see the situation that his friends were in. As annoying as he found Sho's general way of speaking to be, this whole incident was pointed solely at them. In fact, one of the people who had been taken was Xares, which made things a bit easier for the time being. Kel aimed his voice towards where he presumed Beuce was, hoping he was conscious enough to hear this. "Beuce! Karina's still on the ship, she's on one of the deepest cells!"
His bracelet landed against the ground with a clank which drew his attention away from the summit itself briefly to that, which lead to him noticing that the same had happened to the others who also wore bracelets. Access to his keyblade was returned to him, but the sheer suddenness of it worried him. With all the procedures and protocols that they stuck to here, they would do something like this completely outta nowhere. Then came both the familiar voice and symbol to further justify these worries. As Kel rose to his feet, he caught a glimpse of the portal that had pulled his father in. "Dad!" Gone without a trace and leaving behind the empty chair in which he once was seated. A mixture of fear and anger welled up within him. He knew that his dad was a capable fighter, more capable than he was, but this was something that e's never dealt with before. If something were to go horribly wrong, then it would be while he didn't know what he was up against which was exactly what he wanted to prevent from happening. To that end, he paid no attention to the red "X" that had appeared onto him and instead focused right on Hotel. "The only thing I want to do right now is to get my dad back and if you're going to get in the way of that, then I will remove you from my path first." His keyblade manifested in his hand as he took up his read stance for th battle to come.
Even if it was for a completely different reason, Kel hadn't thought that anyone would call him out on his muttering. In this instance, he couldn't help but feel apologetic given that he'd completely forgotten that he was sitting next to a child. "Sorry." The floor was opened and Beuce had been the first to ask his question and the answer was given was concerning. It was too simplistic and they sounded too sure that it would succeed without fail. Having first hand seen the might to No Heart was enough to put doubts in this plan, but adding in all of his cohorts, that only made things worse. Another concern formed at the realization that his own father might be participating in this near-suicide mission.
The summit had started as Kel waited for a response and thus he turned his focus turned to it. The captain had stepped forward and gave them both a welcome and a rundown of the situation at hand before one by one addressing the staff. At the start, Kel was clapping when the rest of the crowd did so as well. if not just to go through the motions of being here. When Alexander was mentioned however Kel did not clap for him at all. His hands were firmly planted on his lap as even from this distance he glared at him. "Lying *******" The words had been muttered softly underneath his breath. 30/30
"You know two of them?" AJ was a given with everything that she's made a point to tell him, unless she was including him in the category of knowing. She was pretty invested in knowing more about thier group, especially with how little he's actually said about them as a whole. "In the simplest of terms, we're a mixed bag of people that have somehow managed to find a way to work together." 29/30
Kel groaned internally when Bob's name was mentioned again. It wasn't someone that he wanted to think about again anytime soon. Still, he listened to what she had to tell him and looked at the cube he was given with a raised brow, unsure as to why he was he was being entrusted with it when he could just as easily point her in the direction that AJ was in. "Uh sure, I'll see what I can do." 28/30
"We are part of the same team so I know him through that." Kel explained. It wasn't much that he did know about AJ, but he knew enough to say that he did know him. That said he couldn't help but wonder why it was that she was looking for him in the first place. "Why is it that you're looking for him anyway?" 27/30
Still recovering from that bout of questioning, Kel ended up lagging behind his father and the others. He couldn't help but smile at the sight of Zeke riding on his father's shoulders. It reminded him greatly of when he was that age and got the same treatment and as much as he would love to continue reminiscing about that, with the summit coming up and his promise to Quill it would be best to pay attention during. Not to mention there was a matter of what to do with the information on where Karina actually was. With people still walking in and getting seated for the summit, Kel took this chance to ponder just that. At one point the option of confrontation came to mind and was quickly tossed out just as quickly as it came to mind. Way too many negatives with that one. he had to put these thoughts on hold when someone else started speaking to him. "Uh yeah, it is." Not expecting his hair to become the topic of discussing, but it was short nonetheless. "I actually do know him, is he a friend of yours?" 26/30
In the short time after he explained his doubts to his father, not only had Aislinn had arrived with what he assumed to be her niece and nephew, the latter of which ran up to his father, but now his father was presuming that Aislinn was his girlfriend. Naturally, that was the first thing was to do was to address that. "No, no, no, she's not my girlfriend, she's just a friend and not the one who was missing that I was currently looking for." She was still missing and it was good to see that she was safe. Kel then looked at her to say, "You know that Luna is engaged." And the immediately turned to his father before any other misunderstanding could be made. "Not to me, someone from her home." Kel sighed, feeling an odd mixture of exhaustion and flustered after explaining all of that. 25/30
Oh shit. Briefly, a look of concern form on his face as his mother was added to the equation, the one person he'd really forgotten to take into account how they would feel about his sudden disappearance. Something else to add to the pile of things that he wasn't looking forward to. With the cobbler in front of him, Kel didn't start eating any of it right away and instead just picked at it as he listened. It wasn't too surprising hearing that his father's talent's had gotten him a position like it. That was pretty reminiscent of what happened back home in fact. "It's not that, I just got a lot on my mind." He broke off a piece of the cobbler to eat. "One of my friends is missing and despite everything that I've been told, I don't know how much of it that I believe." 24/30
As they walked and talked Kel felt a sort of nostalgia form within him. It was nice just being able to speak with his father like this, even if the circumstances were not at all how he envisioned them. At the first set of his questions Kel paused for a moment to think of the best way of answering. "Well we were given the name SOS a while back and it just stuck with us. As for the world's, they've anything you could imagine really." He then looked to his father after the nudge. "Still how did you even get here, let alone find out that I was here?" And this was going to be how he avoided a relationship talk with his father. 23/30
As reassuring as it was to hear that approval from his dad, he would actually need to leave so that he could keep his promise to Quill. It should be easy to manage so long as he told him the truth about that in particular. At the very least everything else that he wanted to ask of his father could be done while they actually ate. Not to mention peach cobbler did sound appealing right now. "That's cool, but if we're going to leave now you did kinda just lock the door." 22/30
When he was suddenly pulled in for a hug, Kel didn't do anything to object the sign of affection from his father. He didn't even speak, not that he had any idea on what to say, just stood there in silence. Then he was smacked on the head, rightfully so mind you. It didn't faze him too much as he's been hit by a lot worse since he's left. The same could be said for the next smack and before the hypothetical third one, Kel put up his hands in a mix of defense and to show that he was ready to speak. "It's a bit of a long story, but I had gotten a letter sent specifically to me asking for help because I had the keyblade. I'd show it to you but," He held up his right arm with the bracelet attached. "I didn't tell anyone because I didn't think I'd be gone for as long as I was." And that was true, to a much lesser degree than the actual reason he left. 21/30
In the simplest of terms, that was a complete and utter shitshow. One that there was nothing that they could do besides sit back and watch just how painfully one-sided the whole thing remained. By the end of it all Kaida was sentenced to basically life in the cell and for now, it had been dismissed. He didn't think that he would be able sit through any more of that. "I think I'm actually going to go see my dad after all of that." He said to his friends, taking out his compass and heading in the direction it pointed in. With the compass as his guide, he found his way to the elevator that took him to Level 6. Not long after that he was in section D, namely the room in which his father was. This also just happened to be the point where all the nerves kicked in. A million of questions to ask him and likely the same would be asked back at him and with everything regarding Karina and her father, dealing with his own father had not been something that he prepared for mentally. Still, he took in a deep breath to at least gain some semblance of calmness, then knocked on the door. "Hey dad, it's me." 20/30
