The plane shuddered and rumbled as it plummeted, the ground getting larger and larger in Marrisas puny window. She squeezed her eyes shut and resisted the urge to scream and throw up, instead attempting to crush the arm rest next to her.

“Hey, Are you OK?”

Marissa dared to open one eye a crack to look at the woman next to her.

“Ou-euh, I mean, yes. Fine.” She replied tightly, stumbling over her less then fluent english. Damn damn damn, she hated that language, and it had been years since she'd had to speak it. She snuck another look out the window, just in time to see the planes wheels touch the runway. Her head was thrown forward into the window with a loud crack, and she yelped. Flying, she hated it. She had lost count of how many times she'd flown but it had never gotten any better. The instant they opened up the doors, she was barrelling through the hordes of people in front of her, each of them slightly less eager then her to get out.

As soon as she was out she made a bee line for the nearest coffee shop, determined to get an early blow in against the fight with jet lag. It was overpriced, like on the plane, though unlike on the plane, it tasted good, and hadn't been made with a toothpick. Probably. Oh well, it would suffice.

Step two was her cigarettes. She'd despised them at first, but it made her mutation a touch less obvious, at least until they noticed it wasn't lit. She pretended to take a deep draught, and then let out the weird mist stuff that was a side effect of her power.

“Excuse me miss, we uh, don't allow smoking inside the terminal.” Some sort of worker or security guard told her, his voice hinting at extreme boredom. Marissa blushed and pulled the offending object out of her mouth. “Cheers.” He thanked her in his monotone voice, and walked off to harass someone else. Marissa looked down at the cigarette in her hand, tempted to continue 'smoking' it. She decided against it and slid it back into the packet, then slid that into her pocket.

Next was proving that she was allowed to be here, and probably wasn't going to blow up the country. She was unpleasantly reminded of her power, did they let mutants into the country? Would she have to go through special protocols to make sure her power was stable, and wouldn't literally blow up the country? The thought terrified her to the point that she kept her hands in her pockets and held her breath for just about the whole time. It apparently worked, because after going through the required documents, they let her through.

The final stage was getting her luggage. She waited a few minutes, before finally spotting it, a white suitcase, packed with almost all of her things. She started heading towards it, when the unthinkable happened, someone swooped in, snatched the bag, and started to quickly walk away. She blinked, trying to work out what had just happened. She knew that had been her bag, so that could only mean one thing.

“Au vol-euh, stop! Taker! Bandit!” She cried, pointing a finger at the bag thief.

Maya sat at Arrivals in civil clothing, watching people pass by, thinking of a movie she had seen once that said seeing people greet their loved ones makes airports the happiest place on earth. She was not entirely sure about that, but it was definitely a good place for picking out new mutants. She had made it part of her random patrols lately. Mutants often ended up causing or getting into trouble due to their powers during airport checks, and it was a heavy security environment that tended to lead to a lot of tension and panic reactions. It was better to have an X-man around every once in a while to check on things.

Maya yawned, stretching her legs out as she sat on an uncomfortable plastic chair, when she heard the yelling.

>>“Au vol-euh, stop! Taker! Bandit!”

A young girl was yelling and pointing, and following her gaze Maya spotted a guy walking away with a suitcase that looked way too girly to belong to him. Now Maya was not in the habit of judging gender representations as a gender-shifter, but the scene did look pretty obvious.

Springing up from the chair she lunged after a guy, intercepting him from his blind spot before he knew what was coming. With a well-aimed kick Maya tripped him, and as he sprawled on the ground she picked up the suitcase, looked up to check and see that security was already on their way, and swung around to face the girl who yelled bandit.

"It's okay" she smiled, holding out the suitcase "There ya go. Sorry about that. Some people are just jerks."

Chris looked at the mess ahead. Darn, he had hoped for more time before the girl noticed. The suitcase hadn't finished the colour swap and if someone looked at it closely they would see the green of the original peeking out from underneath. It had been a chore to find two suitcases that matched in size and now he was going to get spotted. He stuck his head down and attempted to sneak past the takedown before they noticed.

Chris suddenly stopped and grinned. He could use this to his advantage. He bent down to 'tie his shoelace' and whilst getting up poked the nearest suitcase. The disguise slowly melted off the suitcase the girl was holding and started to appear on the little boys. In time with this theone Chris was holding morphed into a novelty Thomas the Tank Engine bag.

No way was he leaving now. This was too fun.

Marissa panted heavily, 'smoke' coming out a bit faster with the adrenalin from her short lived chase. Her eyes widened at the swift take down, and made a mental note to not cross that girl, or steal other peoples bags. She approached her, and accepted the bag with a smile.

“Hey what are you talking about? That's my bag!” The man cried indignantly.

“Non, this is, euh, is...” She swore in french as the english evaded her grasp. “...is mine! It doesn't even look like yours.”

“That's because it's my childs!” He snarled. Mars frowned and looked at the contents of the bag. Yep, he was right, it didn't have any of her stuff in it. Which of course meant that she had just chased a man, and tricked someone into assaulting them. She blushed furiously, and wished she could melt into the floor.

“Sorry! I am so sorry, you are right!” She sobbed, zipped up the bag and shoved it into his arms. He looked down at it and put it down on the floor.

“No, that's not mine either, I was sure I picked up my sons bag, it was a thomas the tank engine one.” He replied. Now she was really confused, maybe her actual power was to just screw up everything around her. She turned to Maya and began to apologise.

“Sorry for the whole thing. You were extra, non, ce n'est pas juste. Really? Yes, really nice, but I'm not sure what is going-” She began, but the man cut her off.

“Hey, this has all of my sons stuff in it!”

Well damn.

This was not a good day from Danny. He'd just gotten off a flight from Russia, for reasons that weren't really important but involved having pissed off the mafia (again), and he was jet lagged and not really in the mood for anyone's bullsh*t. Which was why - okay, yes, he would admit it - he had completely ignored the man who snatched the kid's bag. It wasn't his problem. Except as he made his way to Arrivals, steadfastly ignoring the chaos going around him, he was suddenly aware of some kid bending down and touching somebody else's bag. Which would've been creepy enough already, but the bag seemed to be turning into the stolen one, while the thief now had the other guy's. That was interesting.

And then somebody who looked rather familiar tackled the guy who now had the girl's suitcase.

He stood there, slightly shocked and rather confused, as the girl had a rushed conversation with the tackled man. Apparently, it was only the outsides of the suitcases that had changed, which was cool enough already. He would've left then and there if it hadn't been for the facts that (a) that was Mirror, who he definitely knew, who had tackled the man, and (b), French. He spoke semi-fluent French, and the girl kind of did look like she was struggling with English.

Now she was apologizing to Mirror, looking rather flushed, as the angry man discovered what exactly the mutant thief had done. It seemed like an appropriate time to step in right about now.

"Ah, excuse me," he said, deftly inserting himself into the little circle. He glanced at Mirror, giving a little grin, before turning back to the girl and the man. "There's a mutant thief who just ran off with your bag, miss, and you, sir, will have a little bit of a problem getting your bag's outer layer back." He turned to specifically address the girl and Mirror now, pointing at the thief. "That guy over there - black hair, orange eyes - he's the one with your bag. I'm sorry to say I won't be much help in getting him, though. Running isn't exactly my strong suit, as Mirror here knows."

Confusion. The guy Maya tripped was not a thief, and the girl did not have very good English, and suitcases were hopelessly scrambled. The young mirrorwalker blinked, trying to sort things out, when Danny decided to show up out of nowhere.

>>“Sorry for the whole thing. You were extra, non, ce n'est pas juste. Really? Yes, really nice, but I'm not sure what is going-”

"It's okay, we'll figure it out. Don't go anywh..."

>>"Ah, excuse me. There's a mutant thief who just ran off with your bag, miss, and you, sir, will have a little bit of a problem getting your bag's outer layer back. That guy over there - black hair, orange eyes - he's the one with your bag. I'm sorry to say I won't be much help in getting him, though. Running isn't exactly my strong suit, as Mirror here knows."

Smooth.
Maya only wondered for a brief second about what on earth Danny was doing at the airport, before she followed his gaze towards the orange-eyed guy.

"I got him. You stay here with the lady and try to explain it all to them." she added, nodding towards the security guard walking with purpose towards them. Maya walked away from the group at the same time, and towards the orange-eyed guy, who was apparently a mutant who had something to do with... switching people's suitcases around?

"Neat trick" she smirked at him from a distance "Wanna tell me how it works?"

Chris turned to face the ninja lady. "I could, but it would be rather long and complicated, Would probably just be easier if I were to do this." Chris felt in his pocket for the bag of coloured marbles and draw it out. "Step one, get the items". Chris plucked out the red marble and held it in the palm of his hand laying his other hand flat on the suitcase. "Step two, activate power." Bright, vivid red spread over the suitcase from under his hand, the marble also changed until it had the colour of a white suitcase. All the other suitcases Chris has altered also changed, until they look exactly as they were before he had come along.

"Voila!" he bowed and spread his arms in a flourish. "Just be warned though, it's not just colours that can be changed. I wonder what it would feel like to be solid for a while..."

He continued walking in the same direction, but slowly turned towards the nearest window. "I hope however that this does not come to such drastic measures. It would pain me to have to do that do someone like you."

The girl hadn't finished her sentence before being interrupted by someone else (to many people!), but Mars was pretty sure she'd wanted her to stay put. That was fine with her, since as far as she could tell, they were dealing with a mutant. The trick with the marble and the suitcase seemed to imply so anyway.



She briefly considered using her own ability, her Dreams were the perfect hunters: fast, could fly, and no walls or barriers could stop them. On the other hand, she wasn't 100% sure that mutants were welcome here, and if the other mutant could do something to fight back, the fighting would escalate, and she might not be able to beat him, and he might go on a rampage, end-no. She took a deep breath and ordered herself to calm down. She knew that using her power was a terrible idea for a weak mutant like her, but that was no reason to panic. She turned to the boy next to her, and smiled.



“Hello, je suis Marissa, but you can call me Mars.” She introduced herself. Yes! Aside from the bit of french at the start (which was so simple he surely had to know it) that sentence had been perfect. “Do mutants, euh, do they...” She snapped her fingers a few times, as if that would jog her memory of english. Damn! It was to good to last! “Are they doing this often? Non... Je déteste anglais.”



Something related, but far more important to the sentence she was trying to create jostled its way to the front of her brain, were mutants liked in New York? She knew there was more of them, and the government supported them, even going so far as creating the x-men, but the Belgian government had been the same, and that hadn't stopped anyone from attacking and bullying her. She swallowed.



“Are mutants liked?” she asked the boy, trying to act casual, hoping the question wouldn't make him suspect she was one.

Danny was far slower than Mirror, as he knew for a fact, so he decided that he'd just stand where he was for now. The poor French kid looked really panicked, too.

"Hello, je suis Marissa, but you can call me Mars. Do mutants, euh, do they... Are they doing this often? Non... Je déteste anglais.” Okay, so maybe she needed a little help on her English. That was fine, though, because he understood what she was saying. She seemed to be trying to figure out how to word her next question, though, so he stood there and waited patiently, ignoring the man that Mirror had tackled.

"Are mutants liked?" she finally asked. Well, that wasn't a question that he could really answer. Not well, at least.

"Enough," he finally said. "There's a fair share of mutant haters, but there's a bunch of mutant superiorists too. I'm assuming you're a mutant, then - don't worry, so am I - but you aren't obviously one, so I think you'll be fine."

He had been observing Mirror's confrontation out of the corner of his eye, though, and quickly caught sight of the thief nearing the window. "Um, excuse me again," he said, and started to jog towards the other two.

After he got there, which was actually not that bad, he quickly placed himself in between the thief and the window. "Ah, how about you just hand that suitcase over and we can all be on our way?" he asked pleasantly. "We wouldn't want to cause a scene."

Chris plopped the marble back in his pocket and idly swung the suitcase by its handle as he spoke. "I would be very happy to hand over the suitcase but I really doubt that I would just be able to walk away. I've seen the people that live in this city and mutants are not exactly peoples favorite thing. I've been in a firefight with cops because I am a mutant. So I am sorry for this in advance but desperate times call for desperate measures" With this he swung the suitcase as hard as he could towards the nearest toy shop. As it soared gracefully through the air Chris jumped up and over the chairs and ran towards the toy shop. Once inside he swiped the basket of ball bearings and plonked it next to the fluffy toys. Then it was a simple matter to use the ball bearings to solidify the toys. Chris picked up one and lobbed it gently towards the Ninja lady and the overly observant guy. It thunked onto the floor in between them. Chris looked at his hand, now covered in hundred of little marks from the fur of the lion. "I hope you don't get pins and needles!" he shouted to them, grabbing toys, hardening them and hurtling the resulting creatures of death at the two.

“Non, I am not-” She started, then thought about what he had said. There was no point denying she was a mutant, he already knew, but he also seemed to think that most others would have trouble picking her out as one. But from what he had said, the mutant haters were more of a side thing here, so did that mean she was safe to use her powers? Or maybe it would be a better idea to wait until she was stronger, and could handle any attacks from mutant haters. But on the other hand, if the haters weren't the majority, than they may not have the equipment and numbers to actually hurt her and get away with it...

He had taken her stuff, and was now assaulting two others, there was no way anybody could fault her for stopping him. Even if she used her powers to do it. Mars closed her eyes, and before she could change her mind, dived into the void that contained her Dreams. She hadn't done this for months, but she had never quite been able to bring herself to destroy the few that she had created. And now she was glad that she hadn't. She grasped the first one she felt, and dragged it out into the world.

Dark fog billowed out of her hands and mouth, and came together in a huge rippling cloud. It looked as if it couldn't quite work out what shape it wanted to be, until it finally settled, forming arms, legs, a body, a head...

Mars looked at the thing in front of her. It looked like mist shaped vaguely like a skeleton, with a huge cloak and hood, and a massive scythe. This was a creature that often inhabited peoples dreams. Mars drank in the new set of senses her creation provided, seeing everything around her, feeling the vibrations in the air... Then with a thought, she attacked. Her Dream swept the toys out of the air with a sweep of its cloak, then flew towards the thrower, pinning him against the wall with its scythe.

“I want my bag back.” Mars told him, her voice as shaky as she felt.

Strangely colored toys he could handle getting thrown at him. Rock-hard ones? Not so much.

"Ow!" Danny winced as a solid Pillow Pet hit him upside the head, whacking him hard enough that he staggered to the side. "What are you talking about, you psychopathic idiot? We're mutants too! We're not here to lynch you, we just want the frickin' bag back!"

...oops. He hadn't meant to say that so loudly. But it seemed as if he was saved from judgement from the people around him when the French girl starting... smoking? No, that looked like part of her mutation, considering that what looked like the Grim Realer was now manifesting in front of them, and was chucking its scythe at the toys, knocking them out of the air and stopping the barrage rather rapidly. The smoky thing then proceeded to launch its scythe at the weird color-texture-changing mutant, as the girl, trembling, said something that Danny couldn't quite catch. He was pretty sure he was concussed now, dammit. Why did these things always have to happen to him?

Well, this all got spectacularly out of hand really fast...

Maya was ready to push the guy into the nearest reflecting surface and defuse the situation, but... well, other people somehow acted faster. First, Danny got between her, the guy, and the window, which was less then ideal, and then the thief started launching hardened plush toys (WTF?) at them form the nearest shop, and then the French girl manifested smoke powers and summoned the Grim Reaper who proceeded to smash the thief against the wall.

All in a good day's work.

"Oh for ***** sake." Maya sighed, merging into the reflecting tiles of the hall and popping up in the toy store just enough to grab the thief guy's ankle and drag him out from under the reaper and into the mirror world. A few seconds later she emerged with him in the nearest window and stepped out, leaving the guy trapped for the moment.

"ALL RIGHT LISTEN UP EVERYONE" she yelled to get all of the involved mutants' attention "I'm with the X-men and this insanity ends right about NOW. Is this really what we want people to think about mutants? Seriously, guys, chill the **** out. You." she turned, pointing at the guy in the window "Will stay in there until I take you out. You" she turned to point at Danny "tell the girl we're cool, and she can undo whatever she has just done. And you" she turned again, pointing at the security guards advancing "make sure we've got some privacy here. I've got this, but not if people start interfering. Call the police if you need to, but make sure to tell them Mirror's on site."

She turned back to the mutants.

"All right. Everyone take a deep breath."

Chris mentally winced as the PillowPet hit the guy solidly on the side if the head. He paused for a split second. They were supposed to dodge so that the window behind them would smash, not take them full on! As it turns out, in the time that he had paused the third person, the one he stole the suitcase from the remembered, summoned a Grim Reaper and had it throw it's scythe at him. It pinned him into the wall by his neck. He stood there in a daze for a second, coughing. He was gonna have a mighty bruise on his neck now. He began to talk to the girl. "In future, the bad ass fighting is-"

Chris stopped and looked at the piece of glass in front of him, and then at the girl that was dragging him through the floor. She finally stopped and stepped out of the mirror but Chris was left behind. When she told him to stay there he laughed. "It's not like I can go anywhere. As far as places go however it's not bad, could use a but if decor though." He tried to walk off the side of the reflection but was unable to. "I wonder", musing to himself he then walked over to the glass surface of the mirror. He tapped it once, then twice and took a few steps back and ran at it, trying to kick it down. A loud thump later he found that all that did was reduce him to a pile of mutant on the floor

As he was lying on the floor he felt something digging into his pocket. Pulling it out it looked like a piece of plastic. He had no idea what it was, or how it got there but he noticed how it wasn't reflective. "Actually, I changed my mind. I don't really like it in here after all." Brandishing the thing he smiled has he swapped the shininess of the mirror he was in it. As the effect slowly worked it's way up he couldn't help but say one thing "Oops?".

Oh god, no. No, she hadn't screwed up again had she? Apparently she had, because the mutant who was with the freaking X-Men was yelling at her.

“Sorry, je sui-euh, I am very sorry, very sorry!” She sobbed out, banishing her Dream with a wave of her hands. The X-man was right, she could of made people upset using a dream with such a terrifying appearance, then people would of started panicking, and someone could of gotten hurt, someone could have gotten killed.

Just like last time.

That last thought hit her hardest, and she finally gave up, and fell to here knees, shaking like a reed. How could she have been so stupid? Why had she gone and started a fight the instant she stepped into the country? She could of ruined things for mutants everywhere in this city if the X-Man was right.

“SorrysorryIamsosorryIdidnotmeantodésolésorryjesuisdésoléjesuisdésolé...” She babbled in her desperation to maybe fix things, even if it was only a little bit.