“Did I say you could talk?”
Hojo-lite’s glance had only flickered at her; it was one of the heavies who moved. Sarah glared back at his upraised hand, curling her body to protect her boy-
“You know, that’s actually kind of stupid,” Alan said, almost conversationally. Keep their attention on you. Keep them guessing. “I mean, there’s no reason to be embarrassed. I get that you didn’t want to tell me you only caught me. Four kids, should have been a cinch to scoop all of them up, right? But, you didn’t. And now you want to prove you’re a man by beating up a random lady. Real classy.”
The meaty hand halted.
Hojo-lite flicked an eyebrow up; a ringmaster, watching to see if a dog could juggle one plate more. “Being flippant, Alan? That could cause your friends some… difficulty.”
“Lie number one right out of the gate?” Alan kept his tone calm, sympathetic. “Mister, give it up. You don’t have them.” Because if Aladdin were anywhere near here, the rukh would be swarming toward their beloved magi, ready to give him all the fire he needed to blow this place apart. If Morgan didn’t rip it down with her bare hands, first.
“I see pointless bravado runs in the family.” The mad scientist eyed him like an ant. “How long can you keep that up?”
He’s looking at the cuffs. Not just mad scientist. Mad magician.
Crossover Queen's Creative Chaos 
Oooh, definitely trying to up the threat level, and failing. Utterly. Hojo-lite is trying to panic Alan, but Alan can see through it all by what he’s *not* seeing. That has got to be irritating. And Alan is doing a great job at being the bait, and in causing issues with the guards. And he can’t even move yet. Now the guards can’t hit Sarah and Matt without presenting an image of weakness and/or compensation and/or because the guard in question was a failure. Well done, Alan. I see you still haven’t lost the knack for starting gang wars. There’s an idea, is Alan going to be able to set off a civil war in the Shays’ upper management? Might make the Shays a little slower to try and track our party after they leave Boston.
Alan also just saved Simon from a headache. As wound up as Domingo is, the second someone hurt his wife or child and he’d know and go berserk. It’s going to be awesome.
LikeLike
You say that last bit like Simon would not be gleefully (well, maybe not gleefully, but still) leading the charge at learn that bit of information. The one with the headache would be Ja’far, and I think that would be more along the lines of making sure they keep everyone alive for interrogation.
LikeLike
Something like that, I suspect. But yes. Letting people get hurt in front of you is bad. Domingo will be very glad they weren’t.
LikeLike
There’s a bit in Magi Night 292, I think (I managed to read a scanlation), where Alibaba’s essentially negotiating with the Sindria Corp for Kougyoku, that my bunnies gigglingly insist on boiling down to:
Alibaba: Negotiate! Roll natural 20!
Sinbad/David/(whatever the heck is going on there): …What just happened?
And Alibaba manages that through a shell phone, talking on behalf of the Empire that flattened Balbadd, to someone widely acknowledged to be the most charismatic and charming guy in the world.
Never. Let. Alibaba. Talk.
It’s canon that the guy doesn’t like fighting. That when he was growing up, he considered learning swordplay hard work. At heart, he’s really a peaceful guy.
…So many people mistake “peaceful” for “not dangerous.”
LikeLiked by 1 person
Good job there Alan – keeping the bad guys’ attention on you and not letting them trick you.
Through I wonder just how crazy these guys are going to get when they realize that their cuffs aren’t working as intended.
“This usually works.”
“Oh you know, performance issues. Pretty common actually. One out of five . . .”
(Sorry – not sorry – but the Avengers quote was just too perfect for this)
And I think I might have inkling as to how they piss off Alan so badly . . .
LikeLike
So they do have Sarah and her son. Domingo is going to go full scale dragonrage without even the aid of his household vessel.
LikeLike
And you can believe me that Ja’far and Tiburon are extremely worried about that. Meep.
LikeLike
Oh come on, what’s the worst that could happen? *G*
LikeLike
See: Murphy, Tempting of.
AKA “This is what’s known as asking for it.” 😉
LikeLike
…when did Shay meet Alan’s mom, directly?
Wow, if they actually tried to control her and that led to her death? That makes things make a lot more tied together, and also why she was so incredibly lethal.
LikeLike
The Shays probably didn’t meet Anne directly, but heard about her from her articles and research. It was Maria’s father who realized she might be trouble… and that Alan might be salable. Ouch.
LikeLike