She probably shouldn't be out in the city. Abby knew that the "have an adult with her" thing was for her own good. It just got to be too much. It was nice to have Serena go out with her. And some of the other adults weren't so bad. But Abby wanted to be by herself. She didn't want company. So, she had sneaked out of the school for a day without people. Though, she didn't really sneak out, since she didn't hide the fact she left. She just... didn't tell anyone she was going.

But it was paying off. Her nerves were calm now. She was just walking around the city at this point. She didn't really ever have a place in mind when she went out. And she had thought ahead and covered most of her known features. She had a hoodie covering her face and a long skirt keeping her legs covered. It wasn't too windy today, though she avoided the few places that had high winds due to high buildings. Sticking to the residential areas or park areas was what she thought was best.

Abby stopped to watch a few younger children play in a park fountain. The water was as clean as it got in New York. This fountain didn't seem to have any coins in it. Probably had been a play-place for years then. The water was a little higher than her knees, but parents were keeping an eye on the smaller children. With a soft smile, the blonde went to play with the water a little. She let a few of the more excitable kids splash her with the water, and she splashed back. A few of the adults seemed to find her interactions with the kids amusing.

Abby was careful not to show her teeth or let her discolored skin be uncovered. While she was trying to fix her skirt, and splash one of the kids, someone knocked into her from behind. She gasped a little and tried to stop her fall. Instinct let her know the water was oxygenated enough for a shift. The height was good too. She threw her hands out, trying to stop from being submerged but it was a useless action.

As the water closed around her, the semi-familiar pain started. The skin on her neck and legs began to grow at alarming rates. The stinging pain of small cuts into skin came to the forefront of her brain. Her gills were forming. She felt her skirt rip as her dorsal fin forced the fabric to its limit. As the pain faded, Abby caught several long screams from outside of the water.

The silver haired elf man sat atop a roof, one leg on the ledge, the other hanging out in open space moving back and forth as he put another spoonful of a Reese's Cup and Pieces Blizzard in his mouth.

”Oowww! Brain freeze.” Kaz put the palm of his hand to his forehead as he laughed at the pain. He knew better than to eat cold things fast, especially without letting himself letting his body acclimate to it first. Looking into the cup he noticed he only had a fourth left of the delicious frozen treat, and a good portion of what was left was already melted. Kaz found himself scowling at that. He had not realized that he had eaten so much as he walked from the DQ to find a place to sit and relax. For him to get a brain freeze now meant he had eaten the treat slowly as he walked.

'It sure doesn't last very long huh?' He shrugged, ”Oh well.” Lifting it to his lips, he tilted his head and the cup back intending to drink the liquid portion. A moment later shrieks and screams hit Kaz's ear, causing him to start, which dislodged the solid bit of Blizzard and let hit fall on his face.

He immediately set the cup aside and looked for his napkin, which he couldn't find. That hadn't been his only reason to look around, just the reason he told himself. The moments spent looking allowed him to turn his head, and let his ears twitch and move, until he pinpointed the direction of the screams.

Kaz had a hierarchy of what he cared about, and for the most part it was pretty simple: Kaz > His people and his things > Mutants > Children > Animals > Humans > Machines.

If it had just been the screams of adults Kaz doubted he would have even bothered to locate the sounds, but his ears told him there were children screaming as well. While it's true kids seem to scream all the time, at least from an adult's perspective, most of the time they're just excited and playing. Those screams sounded nothing like what Kaz heard, the pitch was too high, it was too primal. Fear was laced into those screams.

As he stood up, Kaz told himself he could be wrong, that he probably was, but he didn't believe it. He knew he was just trying to give himself an excuse to stay out of it, to keep himself from getting involved. A fresh wave a screams hit him and he felt a little fist clench in his gut.

Kaz undid his buttoned shirt, pulled it off, and stuck it into his pants while he ran to the other side of the roof. There was a trick to doing that without tearing the buttons off in haste, a trick even the Man of Steel had never seemed to get. 'Clark's a chump.'

Turning to face the direction of the screams, Kaz burst forward and lept from the edge of the building high into the air. At the apex of his jump, a pair of large wings burst from his back allowing him to continue his straight shot towards the disturbance.

From the moment he first heard the screams and his wings unfurling only about 20 seconds had passed. He knew he was retroactively rationalizing his actions in his mind once in the air, giving himself reasons, cause, thoughts, and comments. That was something he believed everyone did; First they do something, and then afterward they explain it to themselves, but they do it in such a way that it seems like the reasoning happened either before or during the actions taken. Of course he wouldn't know if he was right or not, he had never asked anyone, and he didn't plan to, ever, even thinking about it made it seem crazy. He was sure he didn't need to give people even more reason to think he was nuts.

As he closed in on the source of the screams, Kaz caught sight of a number of people heading in the same direction he was. Taking that as confirmation he was correct, Kaz beat his large, powerful wings again and picked up even more speed. Those below him would only see Kaz as a blur streaking across the sky above them, if they noticed at all.

His speed was so great that he nearly missed the spot he was aiming for. A quick turn and a strong beat of his wings backward killed a lot of his now backwards momentum. Twisting his body to face towards the earth another wing beat had him in a quick dive.

Flaring his wings, Kaz landed 20ft or so from the fountain, surprising, and scaring, more than a few people. As he crouched in a ready posture his wings folded on his back to take up very little space. Looking around Kaz couldn't see the reason why there had been screaming, there didn't seem to be anything in the area that warranted it.

What he did see were a number of adults and more than a few children around the fountain, some were terrified, but more than a few seemed very angry. There were two children in the fountain that he could see, both of them seemed to be shaking because of something he couldn't see. Their parents, at least that what he assumed they were, seemed reluctant to go to them. Kaz couldn't help but give them a disgusted look as he stood up.

He started moving towards the kids and fountain. If their parents wouldn't do anything he would. It was this sort of thing that could really get under his skin, humans being too cowardly to do what needs to be done. Kaz could hear murmurs and disparaging comments about mutants from those in the crowd. The few whispered threats and condemnations he ignored as best he could, though he was getting more angry with each word spoken.

When Kaz finally noticed there was another body in the fountain he moved faster. At first all he had seen was a hoodie, but he quickly realized what was going on. There was a mutant in the fountain, one that apparently had a large tail and fin. He had heard someone in the growing crowd mention something about 'eat them', but he hadn't understood it, not without context.

The urge to punch of the bastards was growing within him. This fountain, this area was clearly a place for children to play and enjoy themselves, so Kaz was sure he'd find the mutant in question to be a little kid. It didn't matter if they were mutant or human, there was no reason for anyone to treat a child like these people were, like a monster, no matter what they looked like.

Kaz really wanted to yell at these people, 'What the hell is wrong with you?!' Instead he looked at the kid who were closest to the mutant in the fountain, ”Go to your parents. Now.” When they didn't move right away, he furrowed his brows a bit. They ran, one of them tripped as they went to their parent. He hadn't meant to scare them. 'Oh well.'

As softly, calmly, and reassuringly as he could, Kaz spoke to the fishy kid, ”Hey, you okay? You hurt?”

Kaz felt something hard hit him in the back and he whipped his head around to see where it came from. On the ground, a fist sized rock was still rolling away from Kaz.

Hades was sitting in a coffe shop finishing his drink. He was actually there to pass a package onto a courier, a rather lethal package. On the seat next to him was a sealed box, within the box was a phial, a spray and a micro syringe. The liquid was a genetically modified plague lying dormant in a suspension fluid. It had a dormancy period of two days, after which it entered the infection phase. It was highly contagious and would transmit through skin flakes, sweat etc. Sneeze on a surface and if it was even mildly damp, touch it after four hours and you could get infected. During the infection phase it would do just that, make you sneeze. After 7 days it would go terminal and mortality followed soon afterwards. Hades had no intention of using it, well not yet at least. As Commander & Operative, it was his job to provide chaos when required. Creating chaos is easy, any operative could tell you that. It was creating controlled chaos that was the challenge. Chaos that would further your goals and not hinder them, that was an art form. From where Hades sat in the corner of the coffee shop by the window on the second floor he could see at least three ways to create different types of chaos.

Sitting across the room was an employee of the Federal Reserve, as the security badge on his belt announced. Judging by the amount of water he was drinking, he would soon visit the facilities. A simple bum on the way in or out and in 9 days people at the federal reserve would start to experience the effects. Right when they were gathering to discuss the option of raising or lowering the rates. The stock market would crash, chaos. To Hades left was an efficient looking business woman. A quick search showed that she was the lead researcher for a senator. That particular senator was flying to Washington and was giving a speech. It would be so easy to brush past the aid on his way out, and in a few days a deadly plague would hit the government, causing mass panic and of course chaos. The third option was more mundane, simply drop the phial on the floor in the coffee shop. It was half filled with people who probably when clubbing in the evening and the other half were jet setting business people. Infection rates on airplanes and in crowded nightclubs would soar and the chaos would not be limited to the USA, again chaos.

Hades shook himself from his musing. It was time. He paid for his drink and on his way out bumped into another figure in a business suite. Neither looked back, although Hades watched through a reflection in some nearby glass as the figure vanished from sight. Five minutes later he received confirmation that the package was not stored in a hidden location known to him and few others. It was one of many contingency plans that Hades put into place.

He was on the way to his car when he first heard screams then his attention was drawn to a blur in the sky that rapidly air-braked and dropped. During the instant where the object no mutant slowed down, something about the way the Mutant moved stirred something in Hades memory. Hades had a semi-photographic memory, a requirement of the job, and he rarely if ever forgot a face or person. An associated memory stirred. Kabal, Skilled fighter, Morphing, Kaz.

Hades had lost touch with many of the Kabal operatives during his five year absence and looked forward to a potential re connection with a former Kabal Member.

Turning from his car on the second story of a five story car park, Hades promptly walked up a nearby structural column to reach the roof. With his mutation, space, whether filled or empty could become his ladder, slide, walkway. When incorporeal/phased he could move in any direction regardless of what occupied it, of course he moved faster when he was moving inside something solid. From his rooftop vantage point Hades observed that Kaz was surrounded by a crowd, and was he helping someone? The crowd was looking increasingly agitated. If Kaz was on his own no crowd could hold him back, Hades had seen what Kaz was capable of, if not in person then from the recording and after action reports. But if he was extracting someone that was a different matter. Hades set off at a run, utilizing nearby rooftops to quickly arrive above the scene.

It had turned ugly, the crowd around Kaz thickening fast. Rocks were being thrown with increasing frequency. Then a person with a gun got on a high place and began inciting the crowd, ranting about the dangers of mutants, raving at how they were a danger to society to all people treasured and loved, firing his pistol in the air to punctuate each point. With this size of crowd, the emotional state they were in, there was a 50/50 chance that taking out the leader/ inciter would make the crowd disperse, or it would incite them to violence. If the inciter was not removed, they would definitely turn to violence, the choice was simple.

To any watching from the wall behind the inciter emerged a ghost rider-esque figure, as soon as the figure exited the wall flesh returned to the bones and the figure was shown to be a man in a well tailored suite. Nothing that stood out mind you, but if one had an eye for both detail and quality, they would note that it was an exceptionally well tailored suite. The figure paused for a second then walked past the inciter, twisting his neck and disarming him in one smooth motion. Hades was already lost in the crowd before the body hit the floor. During the stunned silence Hades made his way to Kaz. Noting that he now had a H&K .45 to add to his arsenal. The only question now was how would the crowd respond.

Abby was just beginning to be able to think coherently. The pain was fading to the dull throb it was during transformation. She was used to the dull throb. She could think and focus with it. The shark shifter heard what sounded like someone talking, but she couldn't tell yet. She could feel the last of the kids leave the water, her instincts recognizing the movement even though she was still gathering her wits.

>>”Hey, you okay? You hurt?”

The voice was a little garbled. That was usual for hearing underwater. She didn't recognize the voice, or even if they were talking to her. There was a bang not long after. It was loud and frightening. Her instincts told her to flee. Her tail flailed a bit in the small fountain. Her body curled around the fountain's center, moving in the natural way of a shark.  Her caudal fin was too large for the fountain, scraping along the bottom.  Her dorsal fin was out of the water, but she wasn't too worried about that one.  Though, it probably didn't help calm people down since shark fin and all.

She should get out of the water. She would be able to run then. If she lifted her neck out, she should transform back. Her gills were what caused her tail to form. Having oxygen rich water at or above her neck made the transformation happen after all. She flipped her tail a bit, turning her body around so she was more laying on the concrete bottom. She placed her palms on the bottom and used her arms to push out of the water. Her hood had come off at some point, but she wasn't too worried about it now.

She did it slowly. She didn't know what kind of reaction, besides screaming, the people around her had had. Her eyes found a man standing nearby. She didn't remember him from when she was playing with the kids, so he probably showed up during her shift. There were wings folded behind him. Abby figured that meant he was trying to help her. Lately, mutants were sticking together, what with the distrust regular humans were showing.

As her ears left the water, she began to clearly hear the shouts of the growing crowd. Then the shouting stopped. She lifted her head the rest of the way out, starting the transformation back to legs. It was painful since her gills were trying to breathe for her but there was no water. She breathed through her nose carefully, having learned that breathing from her mouth did not work when shifted. There was another man between the fountain and the crowd. This one was wearing a suit. He seemed to be there to help though.

A splash behind her startled the young teen. Her tail/legs bent at the knee and she jumped towards the two men who seemed to be protecting her. It was very awkward as she still had a caudal fin and half of a dorsal fin. She landed on the sidewalk surrounding the fountain, scraping her skin in several areas. She ignored the pain and blood as she turned to find a man with a gun in the fountain, near where she once had been sitting.

"Little freak, get back here!" the man growled, lifting his gun.

After the first rock had hit him in the back, Kaz had turned his attention away from the girl in the fountain to try and find the culprit. Unfortunately that quickly became impossible. As if the first throw had been a signal, more projectiles were being thrown his direction. If he had been alone at the fountain, Kaz might have let the objects hit him just to show the humans how useless their actions were.

But he wasn't.

Kaz's eyes began flicking from side to side while he moved his head only enough to keep track of the thrown objects. His arm moved too quickly to see anything but an after image as he deflected the incoming objects heading towards him and the girl. Kaz smirked when he was able to catch and return a few of them to whoever had thrown the object.

He had fallen into a sort of easy pattern of stopping, catching, and releasing the objects when the first shot was fired. Kaz had not been ready for it. His ears rang from the sound, causing him to wince and flinch, just a little, and miss the shoe that hit him in the chest. Giving his head a sharp, quick shake, he got his hearing, and the ringing udner control and looked down at the ground. 'Who throws their shoe?!'

It didn't take him long to find the man firing shots into the air. Apparently this was the man who had gotten the crown to begin throwing whatever they could find at the mutants in front of them, and he seemed to be trying to rouse them into even more violence. Kaz didn't have the time to spare to watch the man and keep people from pelting the girl, who, from what he could hear from behind him, had begun thrashing.

That didn't surprise him, no child should be able to be calm hearing gunshots, especially so close to them.

The pace, and force, of the thrown objects, picked up after a few more gunshots cracked the air, forcing Kaz to open his wings and using them as large nets. He was able to block the child from most things, but it also limited his movements somewhat. From his brief glances at the girl, he guessed she was trying to do something, but he couldn't attention to what she was doing and keep her from being hit.

When he looked back to the inciter, he was just in time to see the man's head spin around and his body drop. The man who had done it seemed to melt into the crowd almost immediately, and even Kaz's sharp eyes weren't able to track him through the growing throng of people. If he had been watching the whole time, he would have recognized the murderer.

”Little freak, get back here!”

Kaz spun in place, his wings contracting almost instantly to facilitate the movement.

There was a man standing in the fountain and Kaz hadn't noticed him get that close. When he tracked from the man to where he was looking he saw the little girl, who had landed on the ground a few feet away from Kaz. Eyes snapping back to the man, Kaz saw the gun come up, aiming at the girl, and saw the man's finger contracting on the trigger.

'Fuckfuckfuckfuckfuck!'

Kaz knew he wasn't going to be able to get to the man before the he pulled the trigger, there was a fountain between them. Instead, he threw himself between the gun and the girl.

He felt it when the first one hist his shoulder, and almost at the same instant the second one hit him in the back of his head. Kaz hated getting shot. Even if they didn't penetrate his skin, or cause any real damage, they were still annoying. He wouldn't say it aloud, but they did hurt. A little.

The force of the shots threw his balance off for a moment, and just when he got himself under control he expected to feel another bullet hit him. It didn't. Instead the man's head rocked to the side a bit before the opposite side exploded outwards. Blood and brain matter flew through the air, catching more than a few with the spray.

Kaz didn't have the time to spare to find the culprit, but he was sure it was the same person who had killed the inciter earlier.

He flung one wing up and over the girl as he landed on the ground. It wasn't perfect, but it did the job. In another moment, Kaz was crouched next to the girl, both wings covering her in something like a dome. ”Hey kiddo, you doing alright?” Lifting his head up, he looked around and saw, what was quickly becoming a violent mob, begin closing in on them.

Kaz reached out and set his hand on the girl's short blonde hair. Smiling as best he could, ”We can't stay here hun. I'm gonna get you outta here okay?” He pulled her into his arms, somewhat awkwardly. He had never tried to carry someone a fish, not to mention a mermaid. ”Keep your head down, kay?”

With his arms holding her, and his wings keeping her covered, Kaz leaned and sprang forward towards the throng of people.

One. Two. Three steps, and Kaz pushed off a little harder and gained a bit of air. It wasn't a lot, but it was enough to let him use the humans as stepping stones. That had the added benefit of knocking more than a few to the ground, with broken shoulders and collar bones.

Unfortunately, someone got off a lucky shot right as he was about to step on another person. Where? In his left ass cheek, in the muscle as it was flexing. A slight twitch and spasm and Kaz's timing was thrown off, which sent him, and the little mermaid girl to the ground rolling.

Kaz got his feet under him and stood up. He checked to make sure the girl was still covered and protected. The meat sacks stood around them, hate clear in their eyes. He bared his fangs to those nearest and literally snarled as he spoke. ”Make any move, and I'll kill you all.”

Kaz changed.

One moment he looked like he always did, the next he sported a wide, long muzzle, forward facing horns sprouted from his head, his brow thickened, and extremely sharp spines appeared across his body and wings.

If they forced it, he would end them all. It wouldn't be easy to do while keeping the girl safe, but he'd do it. He decided he would enjoy doing it, that it would be a fun, if small, challenge.

Part of him wanted it to happen, but the part of him that was in charge at the moment, knew he needed to get the girl away from the mob. So while keeping his attention on everyone he could, Kaz began moving backwards, away from the humans and the fountain.