Sam listened to Cafas as he listed the teams. Sam would have much rather have preferred to go with Juliette but the mission from what Cafas described wasn’t too dangerous and with Ghost there he had less to worry about. Sam knew Ghost would do anything in her power to bring them back in one piece. The others got their mission briefing and Sam then grinned to Sara. It would be the first official mission they’d have together on the X-team meaning Sam got to call the shots, at least that was what he was going to tell her.

When Cafas called out his flask his smile faded and he removed it reluctantly from his back pocket and set it on the war room table and then folded his arms. The icemancer wanted to argue but Cafas was the one who called the meeting so Sam kept it to himself, no reason to undermine anyone on the team with the new members in the room. Sam knew there were lives at stake but alcohol never prevented him from saving anyone just himself. ”Got it…” was all he said before they were dismissed.

”Ghost… can you keep an eye on her?” Sam said knowing Juliette wouldn’t need it but Sam still felt like it needed to be said. Looking to Juliette he smirked then blew her a kiss, ”Date night when this all over?” Sam asked trying to get her a little flustered in hopes it diffused some of the tension.

Looking back to Sara and not waiting for a response from anyone Sam left the room and his flask behind. He had others and would most likely get that one back but if it made everyone feel better to leave it behind he would. Besides with Sara as his partner she’d more than likely try to steal it when he was fighting someone so it meant he didn’t have to fight her off as well.

When they got to the mansion grounds Sam looked back to Sara and then shifted his gaze to the chopper, Sara could have run there faster but he didn’t have a way of getting there as quickly. He folded his arms and waited till it landed before getting on. There wasn’t much small talk between them on the chopper ride. Sam knew Aiden and Saph would be getting their minds right before… Sam watched as Saph jumped from the helicopter and he smirked when Aiden left a less aggressive way. ”Welp…. We know how to make an entrance…” Sam said as the helicopter took off again lifting them to their drop zone. Sam took a page from Saph’s book and opened the door and formed an ice slide for Sara to leap to as the ice-mancer went to the nearest building.

Sara couldn't help but smirk when she heard Sam get called out of his flask in his pocket. Best that left that one behind. Otherwise it definitely would have been a target for her.

The teams were loaded onto the choppers and Sara felt her stomach lurch here and there from the feeling of the flight. The chopper wasn't as nerve racking to her as small planes but that didn't mean that she was having the time of her life. As a matter of fact she'd be proud of herself if she could manage not to puke on her first mission. That said. She managed to not embarrass herself too much. only reaching for the a hand rest when the chopper shifted so that it could change directions once the first team was dropped (Literally for one of them.) at their location.

Sam opened the door and Sara shifted to his side. Never letting one hand let go of the door frame as her eyes refocused on the ice ramp that Sam had built for her. It was handy in two senses. She had a much less chance of falling on her face from this height and she didn't have to ask for verbal directions. She just had to follow the ramp that when she lept from the chopper she allowed her clawed feet to slide down. Making a speedy accent. about fifteen feet from the ground Sara's knees bent and she turned so that her feet claws dug into the ice. The claws of her left hand dug into the ramp as well slowing her slide to a stop. Turning , gracefully, at the last second before stopping so that she was facing forward again.

Sara's eyes traveled for a minute searching for a moment for where they were supposed to start. A long whistly escaped between her teeth. There were broken buildings. Some trash on the street was still burning and the stench made Sara's nose wrinkle. "You got a plan, Slick, or are we jumping in blind?"

Sam stomach lurched and he had the sudden urge to start drinking. He frowned and looked at the ground below and shook his head. ”I’m starting to hate this city.” Sam said as he jumped forward off of the ledge of the roof. Sam fell and caiught himself the last few moments with a small ice ramp. He slid to the can and flicked his hand angrily at the garbage and apparently body that was still on fire. Ice covered the can quickly and snuffed the flames.

The ice mancer took a few more steps and then waved Sara down, ”Yeah, we hit things till I feel better.” he jumped on an ice slide and lurched himself forward till he found some looters. He did and they quickly understood who he was. Sam landed between three of them and kicked a leg up knocking one of them back then threw a fist into another’s stomach. Sam turned and then raised his hand and shot a beam of ice at the third.

”I feel a little better.” Sam said as he shot two more beams at some looters. ”Seriously people still steal televisions?” Sam asked as he felt for some other people, mutants robots. He still felt like he needed to hit something though. ”Hit things until I feel better or if someone needs to be rescued.” Sam said with a shrug.

”Not my first choice to send me here or you but Cafas at least is using our gifts for something other than just smashing.” Sam said as he looked to Sara and then touched his own nose. ”We are the clean up crew.” Sam said looking around at the city that was about as broken as the people. ”You hear anything or smell anything?” Sam asked.

Sam told Sara what they were to do about hitting things and Sara was reminded of an old Saying that Ayesac had. 'You can always argue that violence doesn't change minds, but a two by four to the knees does the job quickly.'

Sara followed Sam at a distance watching as he broke up a group of looters. The comment about the TV bringing a slight twitch to the corner of her mouth. "Wonder why they weren't looting the hot pink one with the ears." Sara struggled to hold the smirk back as she nodded at the broken store display window. Ok so Sara still had a great deal of growing up to do and now was definitely not the time to start that game stuff again.

Sara crossed her arms and the three looters whom Sam had dealt with disappeared. "Get out of here!" Sara yelled after them. The less people they had to deal with the quicker they could get done though she doubted that they would head straight home as she wished. people are stupid.

”You hear anything or smell anything?”

Sara's lips pressed together in a huff. "Everything." It was the obvious but with that one word Sara was trying to explain more than she really knew how to put to words. In short there were so many distractions going on still after the riots that it was hard to know where to start next so she closed her eyes to eliminate some of the distractions. Breathing in deep and her ears twitched in different directions. "There's still a couple of people in the electronics store. One in particular has heavy feet." She paused. Her eyes flicking open to glance at the cafe next door. "And that shop owner is coming back to a clogged toilet." The nerve of some people.

The next set of sounds didn't take superior feline senses to hear. The sound of shattering glass and screeching metal echoed past Sam and Sara and Sara turned around just in time to see as the broken debre traveled straight up in the air. A man in his fourties with a grey faded hat moved his hands as he manipulated the gravity around the broken objects. Once they were out of his way he tied a yellow ribbon around the corner of a heavy propane grill. With a wave of his hand the grill began to float into the air like a helium balloon where it bumped seemingly innocently against a pair of matching hot pink jeeps, a park bench, cement gargoyles, stone planters complete with topiary, and it all topped off with a forklift. All of it kept closer to the ground with yellow curling ribbon. "Forget TVs why a %&@#$ forklift?"

The icemancer knew that Sara’s senses were far superior to his but he had a hard time thinking she was happy to have those senses considering everything was going on. The body burning alone was hard for him to stomach, no telling what she could hear. So there were three more in the electronics store and one with heavy feet. The heavy feet didn’t really concern him at the moment. If it were heavy and metallic that would be something else entirely. Mutants could be looters too and while he wanted to get everything done as quickly as he could fighting another mutant might slow things.

Sam started towards the electronic store icing his body up except for his face and then heard a lout crash. He shifted his eye and tried to feel if anything around him transpired. Seriously… Sam looked to the old man and frowned. ”for **** sake.” he groaned and looked to Were. You want to deal with this and I’ll handle the electronic store real quick. We are supposed to stop everything illegal.”[/color] Sam said rolling his eye.

Sam took the initiative though and skated towards the electronic store then quickly dealt with the three looters inside. The one with the heavy feet was just luckily a human or a mutant with non-combative powers. Sam didn’t really give them a chance to fight back. Throwing the heaviest guy out the front window Sam yelled, ”Go home! Last warning before I start arresting!” Sam knew the police already had enough to deal with and seeing as the holding cells would be packed Sam figured he’d give them a chance to run away… Which they did, all three of them.

Stepping out of the building and icing the entire front so no one else could loot Sam went to look for Sara who he had indirectly forced into dealing with the old man. Maybe she had things taken care of?

It was true. Sara was not enjoying all of the different stimulation to her senses, but she had lived with the problems like this most of her life. She had long since learned to focus past stenches. This included bodies, sewage and Sam's stinky socks in the danger room. Besides. There were other tasks at hand to occupy Sara's time and mind.


"You want to deal with this and I’ll handle the electronic store real quick. We are supposed to stop everything illegal.”

Sam had divided up the tasks and to be honest, Sara would much rather deal with the three in the electronics store rather than a mutant that she had to worry about closing a distance with. All the same she wasn't going to back down either. So she started jogging towards the old gravity manipulator. "I'm going to half to ask you to put everything back." Sara said and even though the term ask was used, her voice left no hint that she would have things any other way.

Saravoice and her approach made the older mutant jump. "I said put that **** down!!" Sara yelled and then instantly hated herself as the gravitymancer turned to run, throwing the yellow ribbons at Sara where they swayed in the air then lifted as each of the would be heavy items lifted into the air bouncing off of each other and off of walls and scraping high windows acting exactly like helium balloons. The scene looked misleadingly like a set of toys rather than the dangerous potential that they could be and as a result Sara sped her pace up. climbing and clinging to the brick work of the surrounding buildings as she grabbed furiously at the yellow curling ribbons to keep the large objects closer to the earth rather than letting them escape. Scared that they would land accidentally on top of a building where herself and Sam would undoubtedly have even more of a mess to clean up and more people to rescue. "Flipping butter fingers!" She yelled at the old man's back as he made his stumbling retreat.

Hanging off of a window ledge that she had managed to climb to she'd managed to reach out and grab the two ribbons for the Jeeps. A jump higher and she managed the catch up to the gargoyles. The grill was next and she had just barely caught up to the stone pots with topiarys sticking out of them. Adding those to her fist full of ribbons as she tried to catch up to the forklift. unfortunatly she ran out of tall buildings to scale to reach it. Only catching air that when her clawed hand swung, only ended up moving the ribbon for the forklift further away from her. "Sam... Might need some help..."

At some point one of the goon with the heavy feet whom had been in the electronic's store had started to make his escape home choosing a path that had taken himself direction below where Sara and her gravity manipulated items were. And with the gravity manipulator getting further and further away from Sara and his floating objects he was loosing his considerations on them that kept them afloat. The strings started to sag and the fork lift started to waver. making Sara's attention go from the retreating man from the electronic's store and his heavy feet, up to the items floating above her head. The stone pot suddenly dropped straight down. Missing Sara who tried to catch it only to have it slip past her claws, but headed straight for the man from the electronic's store. The pot caught the side of the building and ended up falling sideways smashing harmlessly at the looter's feet. "That's why you stay home when the city goes to hell." Sara yelled at young man. Nervous for what could happen to the rest of the floating objects. she tied the ribbons to a fire escape where if they fell they shouldn't do too much property damage and hopefully no one would be foolish enough to cross under them. Then she left them as well preferring not to have any of them drop on her own head.

She didn’t. Sam sighed as he ran and jumped on an ice slide shooting beams of ice at two nearby fire hydrants. Again the city could bill him later. Some metal would be easier to replace than a complete sidewalk or a body pinned under a forklift or a jeep. With the extra water coming from the hydrants Sam got some more firepower to slow the falling vehicles. ”Thought you said you could handle this.” Sam yelled knowing she never claimed to do any of it. Sam shot two looters and pinned them to the ground as they came out of a nearby jewelry store.

Several large pillars of ice rose up under the dangling contraband. Sam had no idea what the ribbons were made of but he was curious now. Not as curious as a cat or Sara but still curious. Sam shifted his gaze to the looter who was running and Sam turned from him and looked to Sara. ”Can you track him?” Sam asked knowing her abilities. ”We can always chase him down later if he is too far now. You got that tracking sense right?” Sam asked the furball.

The sound of gunshots could be heard after Sam stopped talking. He looked to the direction it was coming from and ran off icing his face over. ”Money that those are the officers that are pinned down?”

The city had finally gotten off its ***.

For months, Astrid had simply been surviving in the bustle of people with jobs and lives and families to feed, counting down the hours until something interesting happened. Sure, there had been instances, blips, one might say, where she met some of the best and the worst people that the city had to offer, but the time in between had been slow and uneventful.

For the first little while, playing her cello in the street had been interesting enough to get her through, but it was beginning to lose its allure. Months of busking for angry New Yorkers had worn down her love for the instrument, and she especially loathed having to deal with the rude passersby.

She had spent her morning doing her usual routine. She woke up, travelled to a new part of the city, and began to play. Most of her time had been uneventful, and she had only earned about five dollars in total. It had been a normal day... Right up until the sounds of breaking glass and sirens. 

Astrid had almost dropped her cello in excitement. There was finally something going on. It was something big, too, if all the noise was any indication. She stored away her cello with a newfound energy and flew up, her instrument still in hand.

From her new vantage point, she could get a better view of what exactly was happening. It seemed that there was riots, looting, and just about everything else that came with them. She shivered in anticipation.

She beat her wings quickly and flew at an increased speed. She took a brief detour to a roof where she stashed her cello, and then went to where the real action was. For a few minutes, she simply flew around, trying to decide where to actually target, but stopped when she noticed a cop filming her.

The young girl smiled and waved to the camera and slowly lowered herself to the ground, making sure that it followed her. Once on the ground, she walked as close as she could through the crowds and shot off the bottom row of crystals. It had been a nice shot, taking out both the camera and cop with one go. She grinned broadly to herself and watched as the cop fell and was dragged off by the crowd. That was the best thing about riots; you could get away with just about anything and no one even noticed.

She had been right about to shoot off another row when a helicopter flew overhead. She stopped herself and watched as two 'people' (if she could even call the second one that) dropped out from some sort of ice structure. She kept her eyes locked on them and shifted her weight to one leg, ignoring the protests from her feet which were strapped into absurdly high heels.

She had been standing still for a little too long, it seemed, as she received a push from the crowd. She was forced to the left, away from the mutant interlopers. Astrid hissed at the people around her, but no one noticed. 

She was far from the two X-men now. She had been about to fix the distance, but it the pair quickly got to work with the others in the riot. It seemed that they had their hands full without her help. She narrowed her dead, black eyes at them in anger, but something quickly dawned on her.

If they were busy, then there was more she could do. 

Astrid smirked to herself. Yeah, she would let them deal with the simple human distractions, and then she would make her presence known when the time was right.

It was agony to wait, though. She watched as other people got to have all the fun causing trouble, while she simply stood on the outskirts of the mob and watched. It felt like forever that she stood there. Her feet agreed.

Finally, when she could no longer take it, she shifted her wings quickly and pulled off four crystals; a good amount to carry without accidentally stabbing herself. Then, she shifted her wings back and took off in the air. The first crystal she threw was aimed at the weird cat creature. Then, she turned and threw a second at the icemancer. 

Her aim wasn't the best, but it would hopefully get their attention in the very least.

"Hey you!" Astrid yelled in case they missed the projectiles for some unforeseen reason. She tried her best to sound menacing, but there was only so much she could do with her limited English. "Look me!"

She clung to her other crystals and waited anxiously, wanting desperately to get in on some of the action.

Sara rolled her eyes as Sam gave her that little snip. She couldn't of had everything under control. Excuse her for not catching a flying forklift. Her amber eyes followed the path that the older mutant had taken and she huffed. chasing him now would waste time and she wasn't interested in accidentally being sent into lower orbit. "Yeah. Tracking him will be no issue later..." Sara sighed a response to Sam.

Gunshots rang out from down the road and Sara's head swiveled around away from the retreating gravity manipulator to the source of the gunshots. "I'll take that bet." Sara said as she pushed off a head of Sam. Loping in long strides just in front of Sam. Her senses starting to run wild now that her Adrenalin was starting to flow.

Sara turned a corner and large black wings caught her widened eyes. Sara backpedaled with her clawed feet leaving grooves in the blacktop. The crystal barely missed her and stuck into a wall just where she would have been had she not sensed the attack coming.

"Slick..." Sara called out. Her eyes now on the flying mutant and those lovely feathered wings. Her eyes dilated slightly. The second crystal was thrown at Sam and Sara reached out to grab it. Her hands fast enough to catch it much the way she had trained with Sam as he had flung ice shards at her in the danger room.

"Hey you! Look me!"

"I see..." Sara's eyes continued to focus on her. Did she know she had feathers and she chose to pick a fight with a cat? Sara weighed the crystal in her paw like hand. Then flung it back at the winged mutant aiming for her middle. Then followed the crystal into the air. Using the side of the building to quickly get higher so that she was level with the flying mutant. hoping that her own crystal shard was a decent enough distraction.

When the arrived he was just glad Sara was with him. The dagger that was thrown at him had no heat signature and with his one eye he was at a huge disadvantage if something was flying in his blind spot. ”Thanks.” Sam said as he turned and saw Sara holding said dagger. ”Nice catch. You are playing outfield at the next picnic.” Sam said trying to joke now that he wasn’t a second away from death.

Wishing he had his flask he shifted his lone eye towards the flying girl wearing armor. ”Always the crazies.” Sam said to Sara as he rolled his eye ”Go away!” Sam yelled to the girl with black wings. They had more important stuff to do than to fight a kid who clearly wanted it.

”When was the last time you caught a bird?” Sam asked as he shifted on his ice slide now that he wasn’t moving.

Astrid made an indignant huff as the cat thing caught her crystal. Stupid reflexes letting her catch the stupid crystal. She had been so close to getting that pirate dude, and she likely would have if not for the interference.

All her wallowing had apparently made her lose focus. She looked back just before she was hit by her own crystal. She shrieked in a high pitch voice as it hit her armour with a flat noise. The thing fell straight down to the earth and embedded itself in the shoulder of a rioter.

The young girl fumed at the dent that the cat creature had just made in her brand new Ragnarok armour. She had just gotten it, and it was already damaged! She was glad she was wearing it, though. If she hadn't been, the crystal would have been sticking out of her leg rather than the screaming man's shoulder below her.

She yelled and threw her remaining two crystals at the creature in rapid succession. If she wanted to shoot any more, she would be forced to land, but she tried not to focus on that. She just wanted the thing dead!

"Go way you!" She attempted to throw the insult back at the man, but ultimately failed. Her hands had balled into fists as she flew around wildly. No one got to shoot her crystals back at her and get away with it.

Sara hadn't seen the rioter below before she'd thrown the crystal at the winged mutant. Sara flinched and her ears pinned against the back of her head when she heard the man below cry out in pain. Two crystals flew back at Sara again and Sara clung to the sill of a window with one hand. Turning to catch the first crystal with her free hand. However with the other hand still clinging to the side of the building for a grip she was forced to dodge away. Kicking off of the side of the building across the walk way to the next buildings. The second crystal lodging it's self in the wall where it staid.

”When was the last time you caught a bird?”

"Eh..." Sara climbed as she spoke. Crystal still in her right hand and she quickly gained height again. "More recent than you'd think and we'll leave it at that." Sara tried to joke back with Sam but the wildly flying mutant was requiring more of her attention as she had to move out of her way once again to avoid getting knocked off of the narrow ledge. "Can you keep the idiots new idiots out of the way Slick?" Sara wished not to accidentally harm someone else.

Sara felt her lips pull back against her teeth. The flying mutant was flying wildly by Sara again and Sara reached out with her free hand, the Crystal resting on a narrow ledge just under her other hand's claws. As the flying mutant went by her, she felt her claws fulling unshieth. her hands lashed out trying to hook into the flesh of the passing wing. In the very lease Sara aimed to grab a fist full of longer flight feathers.

The repeated shout made Sam question the girl’s origins. Though he doubted it was okay to fly around and shoot anyone with crystals and not pay for it. The air around Sam got colder as he pushed out his powers hold on the air temperature. Snow started to fall around Sam. Sam looked to the rioters and yelled, ”Go home and I won’t arrest any of you.”

It was no use, the rioters were either not listening or didn’t find his threat that threatening. ”Fine!” yelled Sam as more ice and snow moved from the ground and flowed to him the way water did when it flowed downstream. Sam started to form a giant ice golem around his body and then smacked the ground when he walked close enough to the rioters.

”Go home now!” Sam yelled as it started to snow more. ”I have had enough of everyone’s stupid @$$ antics!” Sam yelled some more and shot snowballs into the air towards the rioters. ”GO home!” this time the golem around Sam opened it’s mouth and used the space to give his voice a little more ‘boom’.

The snow balls didn’t do much at first but when people saw the ice golem with Sam in the center of it people turn and ran.

Astrid let out a mix between a scream and a growl as the cat creature jumped at her. She attempted to dodge the unsheathed claws, but failed. A fist - or rather paw - full of feathers came away with the creature's grasp.

She winced and let out a noise of pain as she continued to fly in the opposite direction, her flight slightly skewed. The teen flew lower above the crowd, but just high enough to avoid the angry rioters below. The outskirts of the group seemed like a good place to land away from the creature, so she chose to do so.

As soon as her feet touched the ground, people had begun to run in the opposite direction. From what she could make between quickly moving heads of people, there was some sort of ice beast that was really the stupid X-man from before. She rolled her head back against her shoulders and let out an exasperated sigh. Why did people always have to ruin her fun?

Unless... 

An idea sparked in the young girl's mind and began to kindle and take shape. If she killed an X-man, then no one could ignore her! That was the most chaotic thing she could think of doing! The X's were signs of strength and peace, and if one of them was killed, specifically by her, then there would be great panic and terror! She would be famous!

Thin lips stretched into a mischievous smile as she took off again. There was even a clearing made in front of the ice man-thing. She landed just feet away from him and transformed her wings from black feathers to deadly crystals.

She didn't waste any time in shooting at him, sending the bottom row of crystals in his direction. The girl braced herself against the weight and took up a fighting stance. She couldn't easily get away when her wings were like that, but she could definitely fight. 

(I apologize for not responding in so long. Family was ill.)


There was a tug on Sara's arm as the flying mutant passed her and as Sara felt her claws rake into feathers and who knew what else? Sara tightened her grip with her other hand to keep herself from falling. Her fist pulled away with a flurry of feathers with different lengths. It still didn't keep the flying mutant from flying around and Sara tracked her progress past the crowd hoping that this meant that she was finally giving up so Sam and herself could actually do their jobs.

Sara adjusted her perch so that she was putting more of her weight on her feet as Sam convinced the crowd to start moving. Sara landed lightly staying on the crowd's heals making sure that every last one of them got out. Using her presence rather than physical strength. "Go home. Lock the doors."

The last of the crowd made it's way around the corner and Sara turned to watch the flying mutant make her way back to Sam. Her feline eyes narrowing although she'd made the distance too great to do much from here. "Hey!" Sara yelled as the flying mutant took aim. She picked up a rock at her feet and flung it at the flying mutant's head hoping to prove to be a decent enough distraction.