Life was improving, slightly, for the Scotsman. Less alcohol and more exercise had done wonders at improving his mood, not to mention his skills had tightened back up after the months worth of self destruction. Christ, he'd even gotten a little better at aiming with the crossbow out of it all, so hey, silver linings and all that. Something about being able to come to Havens training room, spend an hour or two mindlessly practising with the dazzling variety of weapons and scenarios on offer and just get lost in the experience had been cathartic.

Also damn handy for getting to know the various people who drifted in and out of Devon's little clubhouse. Some people were more spectators than anything else, others looked more like hardened criminals than activists and others still struck him as more interested what Haven could do for them, not what they could do for others. They annoyed him the most, half from the selfishness and half because he couldn't really blame them for thinking that way. With a logic defying portal between worlds in the middle of the park, mutant disappearances on the rise and whispers of something really wrong brewing it was hard to not look towards high ground.

Still, it proved why he was here and the fringe benefits were damn useful from time to time. Like being able to source honest to god metal crossbow bolts. Whoever provided them did damn fine work because Artair hadn't even been able to do much more than scratch them with some heavy duty use. Even with the more powerful crossbow he'd summoned for that shooting session, not even a bend, they just stuck deeper and deeper into the target dummy. Impressive sure, and damn fun but it had made retrieving them just a little bit of effort. One had even needed a pair of pliers to wrench out, along with more than a few swear words and a fair bit of elbow grease.

Between one set and the next his session was interrupted by the tell tale sound of the lift doors swinging open. Glancing over as he struggled with a particularly stubborn example, he was mildly surprised to see a new face before he turned back to his task. A couple more seconds of effort and more than a little bruising on his fingers was all it took for him to give up with a heavy sigh.

"Hey Newbie, mind passing me those pliers on that bench over there?" he shouted across, gesturing towards his equipment, "This one might be a two person job."

Devon had brought her fully into Haven, telling her at least some of the secrets, having her swear to the Secret Keeper, all that jazz. And yet, Lee had only been getting to know the building, and what was going on, very slowly. Though, considering the fact that she was a mother working two jobs did explain her lack of time, even if she was only averaging about three hours sleep a day.

But Lee thought it was about time that she started to find out more about the facilities available at Haven, such as this great training room, even better than the Sanctuary, that Devon had told her about. Considering how much energy she generally had by the time Kevin went to school, after the night working at the bar followed by spending a few hours with Blaine before he went to sleep, it was long beyond the time she checked this place out.

At least the bruises from her sparring match with Blaine had started to fade by this point. Though despite the fading, it still wasn’t hard to see the bruises on her right forearm or her right jaw and temple. But she wasn’t limping any more as she walked into the training room wearing a pair of black sweat pants and red tank top. To see a red headed man trying to pull something out of a human shaped target.

>> “Hey Newbie, mind passing me those pliers on that bench over there? This one might be a two person job."

Glancing over, Lee saw the bench, and stepped over to grab the pliers before walking across the room to hand them to the...Scotsman? Handing the tool over, Lee took a look at what he had been trying to pull out. Her head tilting slightly as she stood looking for a moment, Lee stepped toward the target dummy, one hand on the crossbow bolt, the other on the dummy to brace herself. Making sure she had a good grip, Lee pulled, testing for how much force it was going to take. When it didn’t budge, Lee pulled even harder, and slowly the bolt slid out.

Turning, Lee then held the bolt out to the man. ”Here you are,” Lee said. ”Though, I didn’t realize people did weapons training here.”

With the two of them the bolt finally slid free although he lost his grip of it from sheer exertion. Maybe he needed to ease up on the strength of the crossbows if they were sticking metal bolts so deep into such dense targets. They were solid bolts and unless he was planning on sticking one through a Kevlar vest it was just overkill. Taking the bolt with a "Cheers," and sliding it back into the pouch he turned his attention fully onto the new face.

"Not many of us do aye but a few of the people round here are handy with weapons and like to keep our skills polished." Which was mostly true, standard weapon training was handy for most of the more fighty members to learn and it was hard to beat for self defence but it wasn't standard. It was just a little more necessary for Artair given his power. "Devon makes sure we're well equipped, and if you have the ability with them, why not take advantage you know?" Grinning slightly he added "Plus with the fancy hologram stuff he's got you can play at being a knight if you want to."

"But enough talking shop," he said, extending a hand, "I'm Artair, the resident Scotsman. How about yourself?" He was having a hard time gauging the newcomer. She was older than him, but he had no idea by how much and she was certainly as fit as most people involved with Haven were. Other than those base level details he couldn't really say anything else about her. She was probably a mutant but that went without saying. Capable too otherwise she wouldn't have been there but in what way it was impossible to guess without knowing more about her powers. The Scot reflected that it was the one major downside of non physical mutations that it was impossible to know what someone was hiding from you.

"How'd you get roped in then? Was it the pretty boy himself or one of his other leadership type people?" And why, he'd wanted to ask but it was his first time meeting the woman and chances are those questions would come off as rude. If he was lucky. 

Lee nodded her understanding when the man explained that not many actually trained with weapons, but it was a good place to do so for those who wanted to. Or for those who already had skill in various weapons. And there was hologram technology like she had seen Sam use in the Danger Room at the Mansion. That could be useful, Lee thought even as she laughed slightly at the man’s comment that you could pretend to be a knight.

Then he was introducing himself, and Lee took his hand to shake. ”I’m Lee,” she replied before pulling her hand back. ”And if you’re the resident Scotsman, I guess that’d make me the resident Canadian. Though, that’s not as obvious as it is with you.”

Though, Lee wasn’t sure why the Scot would be here in New York, and in Haven. Not that she really heard a lot of news coming out of Great Britain, but weren’t things better for mutants there? Though, things were better north of the border for mutants, too, and yet here she was, again. Surely he had his reason for being here, yet having literally just met him, it probably wasn’t the right time to ask why.

”Pretty boy?” Lee questioned with a slight shake of her head, humour evident in her voice. ”I’m guessing you mean Devon? Yeah, he kind of talked me into helping out at the Sanctuary first. After a couple months of that, he told me about what’s going on here, and well, here we are. I’m still working on getting the lay of the land, though.”