(OOC: Continued from Gathering the Resistance)

IC: Having led the group through the winding corridors of the lab they finally arrived at the canteen. Turning back to face the group he motioned to the food. “Please, go and eat your fill” he said with a smile, “I will be here to answer any questions that you may have.”

He had already eaten, so would wait patiently and answer their questions.

Nicki walked into the room, hanging close to Kaz but stepping over towards Nail a little bit as well. Nicki looked over to Kaz, biting her lip a little. She tried to get into his head a little and figure out what was going on but he powers were failing her right now.

"Mr. Antonescu, I don't mean to sound unthankful for the for the safe haven but, your men came to pick up people from the Mansion. I don't believe that that was simply chance. Did prior information about the attacks on our home?" Nicki asked, chewing on her lip a little. Nicki needed information to make herself feel secure in the situation, but she really didn't want to overstep her bounds (particularly with Kaz's boss).

Calley, meanwhile, was still perched upon the Scary Boss Man's shoulder. As of yet unharmed. He leaned forward to peer at the man's face, tilting his head slightly. A cute but distinctly masculine trail of chirps left his beak. So that was one theory that was right, then: Violent Abusive Boss Men did not violently abuse pastel red parakeets in front of their guests.

...Excellent.

He stood upright again, his chest feathers poofing out slightly as he surveyed the group before them with pride. Courtesy of his amazing information-gathering aptitude, he knew them all. Nail was a Mansion resident and, formerly, a captive at King Pharmaceuticals. He'd seen videos of what the Order had done with the crystal-forming young man, and he'd personally met the guy during the X-Men tryouts. Nicki had bad taste, was Kaz's girlfriend, lived at the Mansion, and instead of doing a solo exercise during the try-outs, she'd walked into the observation room and given a schpeal. A schpeal which made him happy she hadn't read him. He was just going to avoid perching on her shoulder--parakeets who weren't parakeets did best to avoid young ladies who were telepaths. And then there was Kaz. Kaz sucked. Moving on, Raven Fire was yet another Mansion resident; one who'd put on quite the impressive display during the tryouts. Katrina there was obviously a new resident. One who had an ability that allowed her to hide from swarms of NYPD and National Gaurdsmen and from legions of Stalker bots. In-ter-est-ing. As the only one of their guests whose powers he didn't know, he was going to make a distinct effort to become the bestest of friends with the pancake-lover in the near future.

But until then, he was going to perch on Hunter Antonescu's shoulder, and enjoy the feeling of not being in pain. It was pretty surreal.

Hunter gave Nicki a warm smile. Calley’s training video had told him all about her powers, and as such he was using his telepathic abilities and iron will to shield his thoughts from her. Her question was a perfectly reasonable one, and one which he could answer honestly, or at least mostly honestly.

“I am well connected, and was indeed informed about the attack,” he explained, “I had hoped that my men would arrive before the attack to help you evacuate, but they were too late. The robots were too powerful for my men to engage, and as such they had little choice but to hang back to help anyone who made it out. I assure you that I am doing everything I can to locate where those who were captured have been taken and intend to do something about it when I find them.”

While Calley was in his parakeet form Nicki would be unlikely to try and glean any information from him. Only Calley, Zephyr, Dr Ingram and Gearhead knew enough about him to reveal his darker nature, but she would not have the clearance to meet James or TJ and Zephyr and Calley had mission that would keep them away from the security risk that was Nicki. Despite this, he would need to keep an eye on her.

After seeing and greeting Nicki and Nail when they got out of their respective vehicles Hunter had everyone follow him to breakfast. The place smelled wonderful and it had quite the selection.

Ali strolled about as she tried to decide what to have. There was so much to choose from. Finally she grabbed herself a plate and selected a few items that looked rather delicious. Next she found herself a place to sit and started to eat. She didn't have any comments or burning questons at the moment but perhaps after she had nourished herself. While eating Ali looked around at the others occasionally.

Kaz followed silently alongside Nicki, holding her hand, as they walked through the building. The thought of food hadn't entered Kaz's mind at all, but his stomach understood the smells, and it wanted some. Noticing the tell tale signs of nervousness from Nicki as she spoke her concerns and questions to Hunter, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze for support, before draping his arm around her shoulder. He looked around the room at those who had gathered so far, besides Nicki and himself, the only other people he recognized were Nail and Hunter.

Something was out of place, Kaz wasn't quite sure what it was, but as he looked around, there was something in the room that just shouldn't be. He kissed Nicki on her head, "Try eatin something, might help calm ya down." His voice was soft, as was the look in his eyes. He made his way to the cooks, "Five egg omelet. Cheddar and American cheese, with sausage, ham, bacon, green peppers and onions. Stack of butter-milk pancakes and hash browns on the side." The chef nodded and went to work. As he waited he got a large mug of coffee, black.

He looked at Nicki to see what she was doing. It was then that it clicked in his head: The bird on Hunter's shoulder. <What the hell....If that isn't the most out of place thing...Like that cat that was at Sanctuary. There was something odd about that cat, like there's something odd about that bird.>

When Katrina asked if there would be pancakes, Nail instantly madenoe of her, and placed her at the top of his 'cool people in the room' list... currently, Kaz was still at the bottom of that list, along with hunter. (hunter was at the bottom because of his creepy litle bird friend on his shoulder)

Nicki's lip biting was a good give away that she was uneasy, and Kaz was trying to make her feel better and seemed alittle distracted himself. Nicki did bring up a good point on their way, and Hunter gave a very strait forward answer, which seemed to purposefully leave out key details. The guy definetly had a silver tongue.

The doors swung open to the canteen, the glorious smell of fresh breakfast cooking crashed against him, and his stomache seemed to react by colapsing in on itself and growling loadly. Nail listened to it, grabbed a plate, and got himself as much food as he could get. Sausages, waffles, toast, hashbrowns, bacon, and of coarse pancakes. His plate looked like a small but glorious mountain of food... He ate it all in less than 15 minutes.

Nails only real question is why someone with as much power as this guy would care enough to help them. Nail figured he's have his reasons, and that their stay here was definetly not free. Nail didn't care though. He said they where going to help those who where attacked and locked away. Nail was all for helping those people break out. He had been in a cage aswell and knew what it was like, and he was not going to let the same thing occur to other mutant. Nail cast a sideways glance at Kaz, but shifted his gaze back to his food quickly. Nail could probably geuss what Kaz's motivation was...

Nail did have one question that he knew he could geuss a simple aswer too.

"So... whats up with the bird?"

Hunter smiled again at Sentinel’s question. The answer he had was in fact truthful, just not about this particular bird. Around two hundred years ago he had kept several birds of prey. He found the creatures to be some of the most majestic animals he had even seen. Birds had always fascinated him, the fact that this one was a spy made the bird for no less remarkable.

“The bird is an amazing creature,” he answer the boy, “from the lowly sparrow to the mighty eagle, they are all most remarkable. Back at my home in Europe I have dozens of birds of all different species. The commodore here is the only one I brought with me to America.” He stroked Calley’s head affectionately and gave him a look that no one else could see that clearly said play along.

Nicki sighed as she leaned against the wall. She wasn't hungry. Her mind had gone almost entirely to the thoughts of everyone else. Kaz was easy - no harder to absorb than a text book, but everyone provided some kind of challenge. Ali...well she didn't really have much on her mind, just breakfast. Nail seemed okay, a little concerned and really focused on the bird; actually so was Kaz.

The only person she couldn't really read was Mr. Antonescu. His entire brain was shut off, which usually meant they were making sure to keep up shields. Why would he have been keeping up barriors? Sure, Kaz might have mentioned her power, but what would he have to hide? Nicki sighed, maybe he was a mutant, a telepath specifially, and was doing his own reading, which would stop his thoughts.

Nicki licked her lips slightly, moving her hand to her ear and tugging on the lobe. Did she recoginze that bird? Would she recoginze that bird? She shook her head again, sighing and leaning over to Kaz.

"I think I'm getting paranoid," she whispered.

Katrina followed the others through the halls until they reached a door labeled “Canteen”. Inside there was a huge buffet with chefs ready to make homemade omelets. Apparently My. Ponytail was very rich.

Katrina got in line behind the crimson-eyed elf and the curly-blonde haired boy. Crimson-eyes piled an amount of food onto his plate that would have taken Katrina three breakfasts to eat. Then, Curly proceeded to ask the chefs to bulldoze the rest of the food onto his plate. Katrina was worried there wouldn’t be any pancakes left, but the chefs were already ready with the next batch when it was finally her turn. It seemed a bit like an eating contest, but Katrina didn’t think she could even lift enough food to rival the other two, let alone eat it. She ambitiously decided on five pancakes, because she was so hungry.

She sat down across from Glasses, who seemed to be the closest to her age, perhaps three of four years older. Crimson sat next to glasses. Curly was next to Katrina. At her stomach’s urging Katrina ate her pancakes rather quickly, but not anywhere near as fast as Curly, who practically inhaled his food in one breath.

Glasses and Crimson seemed to be a couple. They kept doing couple-y things. like whispering to each other. Katrina tried not to stare, but she kept glancing at Crimson. He was the first mutant she had ever seen who looked different from humans. He was interesting to look at and his hair color was cool. Curly was cuter though, in Katrina's opinion.

Katrina was finishing her fourth pancake and feeling rather too full to eat the last one, when the conversation began to pick up a bit. Now that everyone was less focused on devouring their food, they were more inclined to talk.

“What’s with the bird?” Crimson asked Mr. Ponytail.

“... The commodore here is the only one I brought with me to America,” responded Ponytail as he pet Pinky’s head.

Katrina was confused. “But, Mr. Antonytail, I thought Pinky belonged to Mr. Kane. He said he was looking for his parakeet.”

Hunter turned to the girl. She was a bright one, and he quickly decided not to underestimate what she might overhear or put together. “My men have sort of taken Pinky in as their mascot,” he explained, “They view him as their lucky charm. Speaking of, I think they’d like to take him back to his cage in the barracks.”

As he said that Corporal Kane entered the room. He gave Katrina a smile before taking Calley off Hunter’s shoulder. “Come on Pinky,” he said to Calley, “the boys have missed you. We’ve got some treats for you back at the barracks.” With another smile at Katrina Kane took Calley away.

(OOC: That’ll teach you to plan to poop on me Calley)

((<-- That'll teach you to not crush me when I perch on your shoulder, Boss Man! For posteriority: I briefly switched my avi to that pic Kat posted above. )))

When the Scary Boss Man gave Calley's head an affectionate petting, Calley started listening for the Twilight Zone theme song. This was beyond surreal: this was the stuff that alternate realities were made of. If he was in cat form, he'd be purring right now. What could he say? He liked being petted. But "Hunter" and "urge to purr" were two concepts that were never, ever made to occupy his brain at the same time. They felt like repelling magnets, stretching his poor manly parakeet skull apart. And then Hunter gave him that play along lest ye face my hellfireish wrath glance. Ah. Well, that made things easier to understand. Calley settled down comfortably, and stopped thinking about the issue.

He, of course, caught Hunter's continued efforts to ruin his awesome spying efforts by blatantly contradicting the parakeet-y back story that Kane had given with one of his own. The little girl impressed him to no end when she caught it, too. And called Hunter on it. ...Really, he could have skipped the 'call Hunter on it' part. Especially since Kaz there had the tendency to be irrationally suspicious of animals to begin with; no need to slip any extra information his way.

And then Kane came to take him away. Calley compliantly hopped onto the man's hand. As they headed out into the hallways towards the barracks...

...Calley really really really hoped Hunter was joking about that cage.

((ooc: Continued in "(Raid) And it all hits the fan.....".))

((OOC: Hey peoples, hope its okay I come and say hi))

Trista Evans rushed into the canteen, hurrying over to the buffet line and grabbing a muffin, an energy drink, and pocketing an apple for later.....She looked at all the rest of the lovely line of food with slight regret, but food she could carry was essential cause she was late for her morning training session with one of the tech guys- again....and hey, there was always lunch.

Munching on her muffin, she was about to rush out again when she spied Hunter and swore under her breathe. With his super hearing and super sight and whatever other super senses he had, he'd know she was there even if he wasn't looking at her, and knowing him, he'd know she was late, and he'd call her on it later........she sighed-might as well get this over with.

Tris approached Hunter, her voice presiding her;
"Hey Hunter, wow what are the chances you're here, this is late for you ain't it, and if you're wondering what I'm doing here I just stopped off before my training session with Jess ya know, going there right now, and did ya see the training vid of what we did yesterday- completely awesome an......."
Her voice quick and and without pause as she came up to him.....and when she got there she saw he was with people- new people....damn, I'm interrupting again, she yelled at herself as she quickly rewound and backtracked.
".......and oh, sorry, didn't see you were busy."
She waved a hello in an embarrassed fashion at the unfamiliar faces;
"Sorry folks, didn't mean to interrupt......I'll......I'll just catch the boss man later shall I......carry on."
THen turned to go, cursing her impatient- leaping and speaking before looking approach.

Hunter saw Tris enter the canteen. At this point in time she was meant to be at a training session. However, her tardiness could prove useful, as Tris should be able to paint a nicer picture of the Kabal and offer a possibly more trustworthy face than Hunter.

“Tris,” he said to the girl with a smile, “training can wait. I’d like for you to meet our guests. They are refugees for the registration bill to whom I have offered sanctuary. Well, all except Kaz here. Kaz and I are business associates.” None of what he had said was untrue, he’d just omitted certain things.

Tris, glad that Hunter wasn't doing the whole calm yet disappointed face she hadn't been on time again, breathed a sigh of relief and stayed.
She waved again, still atad sheepish;
"Hey all. Welcome to the labs......sorry bout the circumstances, but you are safer here- Hunters abit of a security freak."
She said with a laugh and much affection.
" ......however, my advice- get yourself a guide or a map if you want a tour around- as this place is huge and you will get lost....I know I have."
She finished and grinned.
Her entire welcome speech, friendly and engaging and entirely trustworthy seeming.