The young woman moved a step closer, putting her right hand to her temple as she did so. Her eyes closed and her expression became peaceful.
Thomas could feel a shadow enter his memories, a presence that disappeared as soon as he concentrated on it, as though he were always one step behind it.
The Lightningale flew from memory to memory, thought to thought, looking for clues: ... wandering in the dark... the anguish of loss... the face of a woman, twisted and burnt... someone with rocky features smiling... waking up in a strange house... darkness... darkness...
Gale pressed a little, trying to move past the veil of forgetfulness... there it was! ...the smell of the salt sea... ...rain... ...A BRILLIANT FLASH! WHITE LIGHT and BURNING... Her eyes flew suddenly open.
Inhaling quickly, she regained herself and saw the look of shock on the Sea-Hawk's face. "Sorry Thomas, didn't mean to scare you."
The Avengers waited around her expectantly.
"He's trustworthy. Kinse, make sure the coast is clear and we'll just go from here."
The Lightningale turned as if to make certain herself, but then began unsnapping one of the pouches on her belt.
"We'll talk about what I saw once we're somewhere more private," she assured them.
Touching one of the symbols along his suit, Kinse leaped into the air, soaring ontop of the nearest building.
"Looks clear from here....wait...hmm."
Across the way, Kinse spots some Hellions trying to break into a department store. It seems like there are about four of them.
"Ya, the coast is clear, but I see some thugs trying to break into a store...go ahead and head out, I'll stop them and meet up with you." shouts Kinse as he leaps across the buildings, landing amoung the Hellions...
"Hey guys...whats happening?"
Nodding and removing a some kind of metal ring from her belt pouch, the Lightningale moved to stand over the lone manhole cover in the alley. She crouched down, placed the ring on it and said, "Cresce."
A faint blue glow came from the edge of the ring as it expanded to nearly three feet in diameter. As the others walked up, they could see the ring was made of twined silver wire. It had grown to the size of the manhole cover exactly, and now outlined it with blue light.
"Domus Ignati," Gale quietly commanded. Letters on the on the manhole cover eerily began to glow.
"After you, Ignus." She motioned for the leather-clad wizard to step into the circle.
Ignus stepped through the glowing portal created in the manhole cover and landed lightly on the spiral staircase leading into the Avengers' base.
Mentally deactivating the alarms, he motioned the others through.
Gale had the others step into the glowing circle and one by one they 'ported to the staircase. She checked the alley again for any hidden presence before stepping through herself. On the way down the stairs, she made a snatching motion, at the end of which the bracelet appeared, in its original size, in her hand. She tucked the metal relic away.
Ignus had already lead the others down. What greeted the party was a large room, with a ceiling about twelve feet high, and mahogany paneling up the first six of those feet. Its many doors nearly blended into the wall, and beautiful but unusual banners and photographs were hung all about. As soon as Ignus entered, there rose up merry fire in a large stone mantle at the furthest end, casting a an orangy glow on wing chairs, wooden tables, and artifact-beladen stone pedestals.
"Would any of you like a drink before we discuss things further?" Gale smiled as she motioned for them to sit down and moved to a small bar at their left. "We can conjure pretty much anything you want, although I usually just have tea."
The request caught Thomas very off guard, certainly no one had ever done anything like that to him before. He couldn't imagine why anyone would want to get inside his head, he hated having to be in there himself most of the time. He knew, however, to refuse someone who was obviously trying to help would have been foolish.
And possibly dangerous.
Slowy Thomas nodded his head, "Alright, go ahead..."