Long Walk, Long Talk Pt. 2 (JP)

"Not even he knows, sadly," Kyra replied. "Though, he suspects it was someone from EAST."

Cyrus really didn't know what to make of this girl, but he knew she was something special. "What's the plan then?" He asked, curious to see what she had thought out.

Cynthia frowned, the lines around her mouth becoming more expressive as she spoke. "Are they blackmailing him?" She asked, thinking back to the time EAST had captured her for a few days and used her to blackmail Lydia.

"Last night, we took the senator ans governor hostage and moved them to a location hidden well by the natural landscape. Not very secure, but we do the best with what we have. Today we plan to go public with it. I'm hoping that having two political figurehead lives at stake, the government will feel pressured to meet us in the middle and, at the very least, discuss a less problematic solution to the fear of mutants." She went silent for a few seconds, as if lost in thought. "If our demands aren't considered, we plan to kill the hostages and storm the E.A.S.T facility near by. At this point, I'm not sure what else to do. I know E.A.S.T is closing in on us, and I don't want the lives of our people in the line. Though that may be inevitable now." She concluded. Her expression betrayed the smallest hint of emotions - stress and fear.

Kyra's grip on the strap of her box tightened. "They have his daughter..." She almost whispered the words.

Cyrus shook his head, perhaps this girl had more to learn yet. "Before all... this... I was part of a special extraction team. We were tasked with rescuing, or capturing depending on who you ask, all sorts of different VIP targets. One day we're in Mogadishu, Somalia. Our target is a warlord named Solomon Farah, who'd been hoarding UNISEF resources from the surrounding villages and charging exorbitant prices. After we took him, he asked why we wasted our time? Sure we could kill him, but we couldn't kill human greed..."

Lydia walked silently for a minute, processing what Cyrus said. "That might be true, but they've killed far more mutants than we have humans. What other way is there to gain our freedom?" She finally said. She was tired of the war on mutants. No one asked to be mutated.

Cynthia raised her brow in shock, though it really shouldn't have been much of a surprise. "Do we know for sure if they're keeping her at the E.A.S.T facility near by?"

"Oh and who told you that? The mutant vs human killing statistics website?" Cyrus rolled up his sleeve and showed Lydia a nasty burn scar. "See this? This from a pyrokinetic elemental who set a hospital on fire after they refused to pay a ransom. People didn't just arbitrarily decide mutants were bad. I'm sure all you mean well, but mutants are just people with powers. And people really fucking suck Lydia. My first capture mission was on a telepath like you, who used their abilities to control women and make them do... things. Let's be real, if you want to prove mutants shouldn't be treated like a collective threat, then maybe we shouldn't be kidnapping people and threatening to execute them on television. I'm not saying every mutant deserves it, I know first hand they don't. But some... some do. The question is, which ones are we gonna be?"

"From what Demitri explained to me, his daughter's mutation is highly electrical. She uses lightning, I believe and I've read over a few documents that I got from El about it. There is a high chance she's there due to the high energy output." Kyra said with a shrug. "I promised him I'd get her back for him, even if I have to storm every EAST facility on this planet. I hope it doesn't come down to that, but if I have to, I will. Everyone deserves a second chance and he just wants to make things better for his daughter, Cynthia."

With a heavy sigh, she looked ahead to where Lydia and Cyrus were talking. "He's willing to do anything for his daughter, just like you're willing to do anything for Lydia."