Serena had a previously... interesting Evening with her friend Tses. Who had been mauled by a Sewer monster, apparently. Serena kind of got that through the colourful language.

She was wearing some jeans and a plain long sleeved top. She didn't particularly care about the cold, even if she ended up becoming ill. She was on a mission... kinda.

She wanted to hear about what had happened from Sylar himself. Well, it had to have been Sylar, how many other sewer monsters could there be in New York? Serena wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer to that question.

She was also well aware that Tses had a tendency for getting into... trouble. So she wanted to hear out his side of the story before judging him or anything, she knew he was all about survival too, and that he hadn't had the easiest life.

She dropped down the manhole. Solid ground good, She wouldn't want to get too much muck on herself. Not that it really mattered at this point, she was down here for a reason. Clothing could be cleaned.

She walked the stone side path in her trainers. Walking in the general direction she thought Sylar might be. This place was a maze, but she would find him. She was sure of that.

Sylar had been resting in one of his defacto lairs, recovering from a rather trying recent experience. This experience had involved multiple concussive explosions lobbed directly at his face. His skin felt inflamed and painful, and he was quite certain he had a black eye. So hearing more footsteps echo in the distance was the last thing he wanted. He stirred a bit and pulled his hood up. "Are you serious? Did I lose any bit of reputation I had?" He growled a bit and crawled off into the darkness, closing in on the faint echo.

As he neared the echo though, he stopped and observed the form before him. Another woman? Just how many girls were finding their way into the sewers lately? Sylar's eyes could see a world beyond what normal people could see, but at the same time he couldn't see things everyone else could. Recognizing Serena from just her thermal signature was difficult, so for the moment Sylar didn't realize this woman was his favorite friend. He growled in the darkness, the sound close enough that Serena would hear it. Like with Tses, Sylar wanted to scare or threaten this person from his home unaware that he actually liked this mutant girl.

His tail swished a bit, his body upside down and sticking to the roof of the tunnel about ten feet ahead of Serena. If she spoke up though, he'd immediately put the pieces together as to just who exactly this was.

Serena stood where she was as she heard a growl. She slowly raised her arms from her sides and sighed. She turned to see a darkness enveloped scorpion tail. "Sylar, I'm not in the mood for growling. I've had too little sleep for that." Serena said, flatly.

She was a little bit more jaded than usual, but her sweet tone was still there, barely. She drew a hand up across her face, and pulled her hair back, stretching the hair band on her wrist off of her hand, pulling it through her hair and tied it twice into a neat pony tail.

She looked into the darkness, not quite being able to see him. But fully aware that he could probably see her just fine, although she was suprised he had growled at her. Either he couldn't distinguish who she was in the darkness, or he had gone feral for some reason or another.

She hoped it was the former, she had decidedly had enough of fighting and or injuring her friends, especially someone in the situation that Sylar was in.

Hearing a familiar voice, and in a tone that sounded a little annoyed Sylar perked up. "Serena?" However, in that moment he relaxed his claws, which caused him to drop from the ceiling not so gracefully. He hit the ground with a thud and sighed a bit. "Tch Crap." He stood up, his backside a little wet, as well as rubbing his head. "I didn't realize it was you." He muttered as he walked towards her normally. "What're you doing down here?" He asked, his voice a little rattled from his injuries as well as the confusion.

Sylar would seem his usual self, except for his voice being off, and keeping his hood up when usually he'd take it off around Serena. He'd rather not explain a beat up face to Serena, running the risk of her prying into how he gotten hurt, which he had no idea was the exact reason she'd come down into his dank little network of tunnels. His tail's blade fell limp and it began to sway behind him.

Serena felt a twinge of amusement as Sylar fell from the ceiling comically. As he spoke to her and his posture relaxed, hers did as well, and a small smile spread across her face.

His voice sounded... A little off. But it was most definitely him, that she could tell from both his slightly clueless tone, and his dirt covered hoodie and scorpion tail.

She relaxed a little more, at least he wasn't berserk or something, that would have been upsetting. But she found herself wondering both why he was hiding his face, more than usual, and why he had gotten into a brawl of some kind with Tses.

Infact, that may have been why he was hiding his face, his fight with Tses may not have been as one sided as her injuries had suggested.

"Looking for you, Sy." Her tone was now much softer and friendlier, without the growling. "I'm glad it didn't take too long to find you though."

Sylar felt a bit happy to know that somebody he enjoyed talking to had come looking for him, that hadn't really happened before except for Evelyn, and that night had ended pretty terribly. He reached up and pulled his hood a little tighter around his face, making sure to keep his bruises in the dark. "Me? Why? Did you need something?" Though his voice was a bit off from the pain, it immediately lost the usual emotionless tone Sylar had with everybody else, taking on it's natural boyish quality. "Oh well down here I can hear footsteps for a good couple blocks, the tunnels make everything louder." He explained how the echoes combined with his animal levels of hearing helped him down here.

It was eerie sometimes how well his body was adapting to this labrynth home he kept, possibly guiding his evolution as a predator. "Is it something important? I mean for you to come down here, in all this nastiness. That I call home." He kind of smirked a bit, a rarity for him. Knowing Serena she was probably just checking up on him, or coming down here to tell him to hurry up and move out of a dingy sewer. It'd been a little while since he popped into the Mansion to say hi to her after all.

Serena nodded to the boy. Unsure of how precise his vision was, she decided to give a verbal response as well. "Yeah, I need to talk to you, and ask about something." she replied.

Sylar was innocent, he had to be. Maybe Tses had misread the situation... Not that Tses and Doc Prof were both likely to have misread the situation... But still! Sylar was nice, and neglected and shy, he wasn't some sort of monster that would attack people at random. There had to be more to it.

Serena noticed his voice seemed to be conveying some sort of pain. Had she hurt him as well? She would soon find out. She nodded again "It's very important. It's about another woman who came down into the sewers, named Tses." She said in a calm, but firm voice.

She would find out what had happened, Sylar wouldn't lie to her? Would he? No. She was confident that they were friends and he would show at least some degree of loyalty to that fact.

Sylar's tail stopped it's swaying motion, falling a little more slack as Serena said she needed to ask him about something. He hoped it wasn't what he expected, but he knew his luck better than that. "Um sure, what'd you wanna ask me about?" He said, his voice starting to show some dejection. He had really hoped Tses wouldn't find the girl he left at the mansion, or have heard about it, but that was hoping for a little much.

Sylar's tail fell even more slack as she mentioned a women coming down into the sewers. He didn't know the other girl's name, Tses, but that was the only other woman down here within the past day or so. His tail began to lay all the way down to the ground, curling between Sylar's legs a bit. "Oh...uh...a woman your height, similar build, throws firecrackers all over the place?" His voice lost much of it's energy and his tail was locked between his legs like a puppy that had been caught. "Would you buy it if I said I had no idea?" He and Serena both knew who they were talking about, and pretty much knew he'd been caught, but Sylar didn't like feeling guilty before his friend.

He didn't know this Tses, she came down here, almost into Sylar's lair, argued with him, refused to leave or get scared enough to be evicted from here. He had to defend his home right? And after she started tossing explosives at him he had a right to use real violence right? He wans't the bad guy here...was he?

Serena noted how Sylar's body language slowly relaxed, and then gradually shifted to being more awkward when he was around her. It was kind of amusing. Although, this was quite a serious situation.

Serena grimaced as he described Tses. That was probably her. No, that was her. She then smiled awkwardly at the boy who could not see a smile. "No, I'm afraid I wouldn't. Listen Sy, I'm not mad. But, I would like to know what happened, and I want to hear it from you." Her tone was firm, but definitely gentle.

It occurred to her that Sylar might not register that he had a nickname. It hadn't occurred to her that she had given him one, until she said it. Strange.

Her body language became a little more relaxed. Although standing in the middle of a sewer was not the most comfortable thing in the world, certainly.

Sylar kind of winced a bit as Serena explained she was down here for exactly the reason he thought she was. His tail remained between his legs as he prepared to face whatever wrath she might have for him. She said she wasn't mad however, so maybe there was hope to escape this without her getting cross with him. "I uh...I mean....um..." He stumbled on his words for a minute, trying to figure out how exactly he beat a girl black and blue and not sound like a jerk or a monster. He took a breath and began to explain himself.

"I didn't want to hurt her...but she just sort of was wondering around down here...and well it was close to one of my lairs." Most people had homes, rooms to live in, places that were nice to have. For Sylar, a little junction filled with stolen clothes was as luxurious as it got, and he didn't feel comfortable when people knew which ones he lived in. "So I tried to scare her, so she'd run away and not find out where I was living." Sylar had been pretty aggressive though, so his attempt to scare Tses might have come off as being the attacker, not simply trying to scare her out of his home. "She didn't buy it though, so I was gonna just knock her out and carry her out of here but she started throwing these firecrackers or something, little explosive things!" He exclaimed before reaching up to pull back his hood.

His face was a bit raw, with some bruising from the multiple little flashbangs he'd taken in the fight, as well as a night swollen left eye. "I mean it hurt, and I started getting anxious so I just sort of...sort of you know...got mean?" She was going to be furious with him, he had no idea Tses and Serena were friends, but Sylar assumed Serena would be pretty upset he'd gone and hurt this girl who was a mutant. "I don't know how, but after a few minutes of chasing her around and fighting, I ended up knocking her out, but I didn't want to leave her with normal people, I didn't want to hurt another mutant...so I kinda just dropped her off at the only place I could think of..." He finished explaining himself, leaving how a bit of information such as how aggressive he'd been, or nearing dropping the girl when he was taking her to the mansion.


He inched forward and his face turned into a bruised mixture of boy and puppy dog eyes. "I'm really sorry Serena...I didn't want to hurt a mutant, I promise." He hoped she'd understand he only got aggressive like that cause the sewers were his home, and if people knew where he was, he'd be in danger. It was partly Tses's fault too right? She had no reason to be down here!

Serena listened intently as Sylar explained the situation, fiddling with her phone in her pocket as he explained what had transpired between him and Tses. She found herself wondering exactly why Tses would be down in the sewers, she couldn't imagine it would have been willing.

As Sylar spoke and drew his hood down, she saw the bruising and injuries on his face. Her heart melted. She knew two things. One: Sylar had not planned on this situation, and he hadn't wanted to hurt Tses in the first place.

Second, she knew that Tses had probably mis-interperated the situation and lashed out unintentionally as well.

Serena took a step forwards, Sylar might have been expected something different but she quickly wrapped her arms around him. "Oh Sy, I know you didn't mean to hurt her. I just needed to hear it from you. I am so sorry you got hurt."

The empathy was practically bleeding through Serena's voice.

Sylar winced a bit as Serena approached, expecting some kind of reprimand, maybe even a smack. Instead the girl hugged him, a gesture he still was entirely unaccustomed to. He fidgeted as she wrapped her arms around him, his tail shooting straight back ward from his body, a visual cue of his confusion but also his happiness. Sylar did like being hugged, at least when it was Serena. He slowly brought his own hands up, placing them around his friend gently, sure to not dig his claws at all into her back or clothes. "I uh...I mean...I'm sorry Serena." He mumbled as she told him she believed him, and knew he meant no malice towards another mutant.

Sylar knew he'd gotten a tad carried away in chasing the girl through the sewer, and he did feel bad he'd ended up leaving quite a few injuries on her. He could never hope to observe a girl's beauty, but he even worried that the girl would end up scarred, something everyone else cared about. "I just get carried away sometimes, it's hard to control it...when things go dark." He tried to explain how when he gave into the animal, that he went to extremes, that he couldn't help but get violent. "Is she...is she ok? I hoped the mansion would be able to treat her after the injuries I left." Sylar asked about Tses, trying to show Serena he was serious about his apology and concern. Sylar was stil unaware that his tail was swishing happily behind him, like a big...uh...well alien puppy dog.

Serena gave what would be an invisible smile to Sylar as she felt her friend respond to the hug. She was glad that he felt like he could come out of his shell so much when he was around her.

Serena slowly released herself from Sylar's embrace. "She'll be fine. We have a lovely Doctor and the mansion with the ability to heal pretty much any wound. So she'll be fine. And also, you don't need to worry Sylar, as I believe I've mentioned last time my mutation has..."

She paused for a moment, trailing off a bit, trying to think of the best way to word her mutation's tendency to go rampant. "It has a tendency to do exactly what I don't want it to."

She smiled somewhat awkwardly, and then slowly reached up, to touch the bruising on his face, and to study it, gauge how severe it was. "Does it hurt?" she asked, gently.

Sylar was a bit relieved to know he hadn't left any permanent damage on Tses, he tried to avoid hurting anyone too much, afraid that like a shark he'd go into a frenzy if he smelled too much blood. Serena had mentioned she had some control issues herself, which Sylar remembered though he wasn't exactly sure what her powers would do when she lost control, since he'd hadn't seen much of them. "That's good...I don't want to hurt another mutant." He said feeling relieved.

Serena stepped back from the hug she had started, Sylar feel a bit disappointed, but not showing anything as she reached up to touch is face. He winced a bit as her skin touched his, before trying to play it off. "Oh this? No it's not much. I'm pretty sturdy actually." Sylar was a lot denser and more powerful than a regular person, but a black eye was still painful no matter what you were made of. "A few days and I'll be like new again." Part of him was a bit worried, often when he was injured or hurt, that part would end up replaced by new pieces of armor. The last thing he wanted right now was for the rest of his face to fall victim to his infection.

His tail fidgeted a bit, him still feeling a bit anxious since Serena had come all this way looking for him. "I um...I don't mind by the way." He spoke, sounding a bit confusing for a moment. "You called me Sy. I don't mind it." He explained, subconsciously trying to inform her he approved of the nickname she'd given him.

Serena smiled to the boy and replied to him gently. "I know you didn't." She wondered how Sylar managed to survive in the sewers, eating scraps. She didn't think she would be able to do it. Although she might've been forced to try if Tses hadn't found her in the first place...

That was a strange thought. She was sitting, comforting the person who had hurt the girl who had saved her life so badly. Yet, he was so... innocent. He didn't want to hurt people, heck. He didn't even want much contact with people, Sylar just wanted to survive.

Serena pouted. It was not okay. She decided she would see if she could convince him to pay a visit to the mansion later to let Doc Prof take a look at his injuries. He may have more.

She then giggled lightly. "I didn't even realise I had nicknamed you to be honest, but I'm glad you like it. Sy." She smiled.