D H A N I BATRA
you know as well as i do that it has to be done,
There was just something about the morning after a big mission (Dhani considered anything that involved any sort of undercover identity to be a “big deal.”) that felt unnaturally normal. Dhani was always half expecting someone to jump out at any moment, like some cartoon villain (he should know better about how villains operate, really) to say they’d found him out, it was over, he was done for. This fear used to be constant, but like anything when you do it for a decade, over time it had settled. Only flared up on occasion, when life threw a big wrench in his plans. But with people actually out to kill him, he didn’t feel so paranoid anymore. He also knew that at least some of those feelings came directly from fighting with Kieran the night before.
He felt bad about it. He’d meant the things he said at the time, but it had been less than fair to bring it up at the time. Growing up with two sisters, he’d learned pretty quickly that peace offerings in the form of something edible tended to make it easier to bridge the gap between hurt feelings and awkward apologies. Breakfast would probably be a good place to start.
He felt his phone go off in his pocket, but it took him a minute to get to it. Initially, when he pulled out his phone and saw the texts from Att, he was thrilled. The night before had been undeniably awkward, and he figured that things were ruined between them. It made sense, things probably couldn’t work out between them, anyway. As he read the messages, though, a sort of quiet worry set in. If Red Witch was in trouble, what did that mean for Att? Dhani wasn’t sure how close they were, but he knew they were friends.
0Atticus:
Of course. Are you okay?
Dhani didn’t waste any time. His immediate reaction was calling Gemini. Really, Adrian was who Dhani wanted to talk to. He was pretty level-headed, and he could help Dhani get his head wrapped around the whole thing. Dhani wasn’t much of a planner, so he needed all the help he could get. Adrian picked up the phone, and immediately started going on about the night before. “Yeah, that’s great. Listen; Icarus contacted me, and apparently Red Witch is in trouble. I don’t know any details, but he needs our help.” They quickly made plans for a meeting in a few hours. Adrian asked if he needed any help contacting the others, but Dhani told him he had it under control.
But then there was the matter of actually letting everyone know. He messaged the details to Att first, quickly followed by another text.
0Atticus:
I don’t have Aboleth’s contact information. Pass the message along?
He sent the meeting details to Kieran and Aaron in a group text; he was hoping that Aaron could help get Kieran on board. She tended to be slightly difficult even when she wasn’t upset with Dhani, so he wasn’t taking any chances.
He finally got around to Cerys’ message then, and he replayed her recording several times before messaging her back.
0Cerys:
This might be important. Red Witch is in trouble, don’t know much more than that. Having a meeting.
He followed up with the details: time, location of the shady abandoned warehouse of the week, a curt “thank you,” for agreeing to attend the meeting was included, though he’d sent it before she had the chance to agree.
Now Dhani had to get ready for this meeting. None of the news he'd received had been anything he'd wanted to hear, and to make matters worse, he’d burned his breakfast.