The weather barely glanced fifty degrees fahrenheit, and a persistent blanket of clouds blotted-out the sun. This did nothing to dissuade the Mansions' students from venturing outside, however, as this was the first not-rainy day in a long time. There were children on the basketball court, frolicking on the green, and enjoying the gap in rain that the weather had given them.

And, if one looked closely enough, they might even spot two boys crouched amongst the branches of a pine tree, squinting towards the ground.

"I don't think anyone's coming," Toby murmured, glancing towards his brother, "Even if they did, what if they walk on the wrong side of the tree?"

"Be patient!" Chase hissed, "I thought you used to be a spy, isn't part of being a spy about sting operations and junk?"

Toby looked flatly at his brother, "Well... yeah... but usually it's somewhere where you know the person will be. You don't just... sit in a ranom tree and hope someone comes by."

"Sh!"

Someone was coming. Chase's fingers flexed around his water balloon, which was clasped between both of his hands. He nodded to his brother, tilting his chin in the direction of their target. They were coming closer... oh man, they were practically underneath them! Just a little closer... and... go!

The fat water balloons were released, plummeting towards the ground below. Like any adept troublemaking-shapeshifters, both boys had borrowed belongings from fellow students, and thus wore faces that were not their own.

Skye was actually learning to like Mansion life; though her status there was sort of....well, she wasn't *staff* by any means, and her status as a 'student' was more or less just her training to get a grip on her unique mutation. So far they'd proven that they were in fact linked to emotion, and Mirror had started somewhat figuring out what color meant what emotion.

Despite the chilly, overcast weather, a lot of the mansion inhabitants had embraced the 'clear' weather to come out and play, and Skye was no exception. She was walking, her hoodie zipped tight and the hood up, concealing the earbuds in her ears. Her hair was an appropriate shade of orange; it had been a pretty good day after all.

She was just looking to relax, but she didn't want to stay cooped up in her room--though it *was* nice to have her own room, instead of merely crashing on her uncle's couch. While she was more comfortable in Blaine's apartment, it was merely because she knew them better than most of the strangers she now lived under a roof with. Spotting a tree, she walked over, thinking it to be the perfect place to just chill out and listen to her music.

Big mistake.

She sat under the tree, looking at the sky in such a way that she didn't see the inhabitants in the tree. But what she did see was the fat water balloons plummeting towards her. But she didn't have time to move, and the poor girl got drenched.

She jumped to her feet; luckily her torso caught most of it from how she was lying, so the phone in her pants pocket was safe. But the same probably couldn't be said for her assailants as her hair cycled from orange to red, to black, her hands pulsing violently with a black-light type effect as her eyes narrowed.

"What the f-f-f-f***!?!" she stammered as the cold air was made even worse by the water. Her hands continued to pulse, her power finally reaching its peak as the light grew more and more violent, finally there was a bright flash of light and a loud pop like a gunshot that echoed across the grounds. 

Afterwards, the light calmed down,but stayed its steady black as she sort of sat on the ground, her own ears ringing a little. That part of her power, she was still somewhat working on getting a reign on.

Well it wasn't exactly 'sunny', but the warmer air and melted snow was a real treat for Luke. It wasn't going to be great for too long--once the summer heat kicked in he was in for a rough time--but the air was comfortable and not as dry, and he was going to savor it while he could.

The mansion lawn was a real treat for him, too; he'd always liked the smell and feel of grass, and if anything his super-nose made it better, like when it rained but all the time. And while he was kind of touchy about...being touched, cool grass didn't bother him like that, for which Luke was very grateful.

While in theory Luke had come out here to read, that didn't last, like, at all. His classes were handled and he didn't have any outstanding work or upcoming events or anything, so halfway into the second chapter he found himself laying out flat near the shade of the mansion, eyes closed, tablet on his chest under his folded hands.

He was very happy. Who could blame him?

He was probably about to doze off a little, but a weird sound registered very faintly. He opened one eye and sat up slightly; it sounded vaguely word-like, but he didn't see anyone around. After a moment, he heard more word-like sounds, and this time he picked up the direction a little. He could juuuust see movement in that evergreen. Conscious of their presence, Luke wrinkled his nose and sniffed from that direction.

Both scents were familiar, but actually raised more questions for Luke. Glitch and Janelle were his age and he knew both of them pretty well. Glitch was, shockingly, easily recognizable for the slight iron tinge to her, and Janelle, also shockingly, smelled like plants. He...wasn't sure he saw them up in a tree together doing...were those water balloons?

Uh-oh. Luke was almost about to speak up or something, but just before he did he noticed someone else walking towards the now ominously-silent tree. He was pretty sure it was wrong to just watch, but he kind of felt like it was a disaster in the making, and he was the hapless bystander. Sure, let's go with that.

The oddly-familiar girl sat down at the base of the tree of Luke, and as he sat fully upright, he was almost thinking he recognized her hair color. Then the two distended balloons exploded all over her. She stood suddenly, and her shocked expression made Luke start snickering. Oh God, he was so terrible, maybe he should have said something but that was...wait she's flickering. In between chuckles through his hands he saw the shifting colors of her hair and hands, as they got brighter. Wait, wasn't that-

BANG

So like, super-hearing plus flashbang sounds didn't mix. Being blinded was bad enough as he realized too late to cover up and his vision melted, but the sonic shockwave made him lurch over onto his stomach, hands feebly grabbing around the points of his ears. Dizzy, disoriented and nauseous, Luke made a quiet whimpering noise as he tried and failed to orient himself. Instead, he just lay his face in the damp grass, hands over his head like he was being arrested.

He had to admit, though. He probably deserved that.

It was official. He hadn't been here long and already he could say with absolute certainty that he missed Texas weather. Should it still be this cold and wet? Casper was tempted to go back to his room and throw on a second hoodie, but that would leave him looking like a giant marshmallow. The gloves, scarf, and beanie were overkill enough. As it was it really wasn't that cold, but the born and bred Texan was used to a little more sunshine than this. With a glance up at the cloudy sky Casper amended that thought to way more sunshine and a lot less rain. He wasn't a fan of rain before he got mutant powers, when you had a head of bushy, curly locks humidity was not your friend, but now he tended to act like a skittish cat around water. Slight aquaphobia wasn't going to stop him from enjoying this brief respite though. He'd been holed up inside for too long and with fresh air accompanied by a beautiful landscape begging to be sketched that was just unacceptable.

Besides he had promised his parents that he'd send pictures. Not from his phone of course as that would just be lazy, but some honest to good charcoal art. It would certainly be nice if he could get a couple of classmates, preferably with a flashy mutation, sketched into the background. He just needed to find the perfect place to settle down and relax.

He didn't particularly want to sit on the cold, damp ground. Was there a bench nearby? “Hmm, shade's pretty much taken care of.” Casper muttered with another glare up at the sky so he could forgo that tree it looked like someone had just claimed. No great loss really. He was a bit paranoid about trees. Having a bird drop a deuce on your head from the branches tended to make one a bit leery around the giant plants. He wouldn't even walk under one without checking the leaves for those inconsiderate feathered rats which was probably why he noticed movement up there. “What the-?” Shame he didn't notice soon enough to offer some form of warning or at least be able to duck and cover himself.

If he were given the choice between a water balloon or the flash bang he'd take the water balloon. He'd take that balloon all day every day because the blinding light and deafening sound? Not pleasant! “Sonofa-! Argh, I'm blind!” Even with his hands pressed firmly to his closed eyes he was seeing white

spots. Was he talking? He was, right? He couldn't hear himself. “What's that ringing!?” He tugged a glove off and shoved his index finger into his ear, wiggling it around as if that would help.

The water balloons sailed, the girl looked upward as though sensing her impending doom, and *POW!* bullseye! A peal of laughter burbled out from Chase, whose current guise was that of a freckled, redheaded girl. Toby, whose face was that of a younger, mechanical young woman, also could not contain the smile that broke across their face.

"We got youuuu~" Janelle/Chase sang, his voice a singsong soprano, beaming at the sputtering girl. Her hair was doing this color-shiftng t hing, and suddenly, *BANG!* there was an explosion of light. Screams of alarm responded from up in the trees, but once the two shapeshifting troublemakers realized they weren't in any immediate danger, the screams were replaced by more peals of laughter, spots dancing in the eyes of the presently-mismatched twins.

"Let's get outta here," Glitch/Toby said quickly, a smile still on their face. Other people had been caught in the explosion of light, and if they didn't want to get in trouble, they had to be quick.

Expertly, the two slid from branch-to-branch and, in the last ten feet before the ground, the two shapeshifters jumped. From the ground-level, they got a better look at the bystanders... a dog-dude and curlyheaded kid, neither of whom the shapeshifters were familiar with.

"We'd love to stay and talk, but-" Glitch/Toby began.

"-our job here is done," Janelle/Chase concluded. And the two bolted haphazardly towards the Mansion, over the green, casting glances over their shoulders. If anyone dared to follow, they'd have to chase the two rabble-rousers. The plan was simple-- get inside, ditch the disguises, and cackle about the mischief later.

In the moments after the balloons broke, there was nothing but utter chaos, she could hear people over the noise of her ears ringing, and they sounded almost panicked, but that was the usual reaction. Her head was spinning, but she managed to recover in a moment, just in time to see the two little bastards leaving their spot in the tree and running off. She could have chased them. She probably should have chased them, but Skye wasn't that type of person. She wasn't the violent type; though if things got violent her uncle was only a phone-call away. Not that she'd actually call her retired MMA fighting uncle to deal with a couple of kids.

The now blue-haired woman stood to her feet and shook her head as she regained her bearings. She then turned and made her way back to the mansion, but she wasn't going after the delinquents; they'd get theirs soon enough, from a source that wasn't her. Skye went straight to her room, deciding to go ahead and shower before plopping onto her bed and grabbing her thankfully safe cell-phone.

Dialing a familiar number, she decided to call a friend. After that...she really needed to vent.

Ow. Ow. Ow. Sensory overload. Ow.

The good news was that Luke's vision was recovering fairly quickly. Everything was washed out and his eyes were watering but he could see, sort of. Of course, he couldn't really sit up or, you know, hear, so that wasn't helping. He felt like he was laying face-first on a boat, and despite being from Maine Luke hated boats.

So for the first ten or so seconds Luke was content to lay his face on the wet grass and try not to feel too queasy. Eventually, he was able to sit up onto all fours, left hand pressed over his face as if to steady himself.

"Gh...ugh..." Clenching his jaw, Luke downgraded from hands and feet to kneeling. His vision was getting better at least. As far as he could tell, Glitch and Janelle had vanished, as had Skye. That was her name right? They'd met before at the Con, and she'd just started staying here. Ugghh, not a great reunion.

There was one other person in the immediate vicinity, Luke recognized him pretty easily. Casper smelled like ink, after all, which wasn't a surprise from what Luke knew of his powers. Which were super cool. But magic tattoos apparently didn't do much for stun grenade powers. Yeesh.

"Ow." Luke sat back on his hindquarters and folded his arms over his knees, letting his face rest on top. His hearing was coming back a little, which was comforting. Having super senses was great until you didn't. Or until sensory attacks fry your brain extra-hard.

"So...you okay there?" He looked over at Casper, who was hopefully having a better time than he was.