Kai stepped out of the confines of the airport and immediately felt refreshed. The air was warm but not unpleasantly hot. It was one of those moments in time when there was freshly fallen rain on the ground, yet a brilliant sun in the sky. He inhaled deeply. It was the most that he could do for the moment. The people filing out of the mechanical doors behind him were humans, humans who were fighting for their very existence on this continent with people like himself, whether they were aware of it yet or not. Best to remain as inconspicuous as possible for the time being.

Breathing in the comforting fresh air, he realized that he had completely stopped walking and his traveling companion was already speaking with a cab driver. Reaching down, he grasped the handle of his rolling travel suitcase and began walking again, lest he be left behind.

It was a simple mission for now. When the leader and second-in-command of the Order are both in one place, and that place erupts in turmoil and violence directed towards humans, that was were he needed to be. His task was to discover the Order's plans and thwart them. Simple, right? Oh, except you can't use violence or weapons of your own to aid in this war. His goal was not to turn the tide or defeat the mutants and empower the humans to re-take control of Australia. That would just create more work for him. Kai came there to be a peace keeper. Or, until he knew what was going on, a glorified spy. He smiled in anticipation, pleased that he didn't have to wait too much longer. How often did a person find a job that they loved doing and convince others to pay them for it. He even got to travel the world for free- as long as he didn't draw too much attention to himself at inopportune moments.

As the cab whizzed past various land marks heading to some out of the way little place, Kai knew that he should be paying attention, memorizing how to get to what would effectively become their HQ. And yet... Oh! Was that a Gymea Lily towering just off the road? There were over 22,000 species of plants unique to Australia. How was he to be expected to concentrate on work when there was so much new stimulation here?!

He stepped out of the car and could smell the pollen in the air, it felt like electricity on his tongue. This place was new and exciting. He hurried to get the boring things done quickly; paid the cab diver, carried the bag to his room and threw it somewhere, etc. And ran back outside. In this more remote place, he didn't have to worry about blending in. He stepped out of the shadow of the doorway and into the sunlight for the first time in nearly 35 hours. He pushed back his hood and let the glorious rays fall warmly on his face. Next to come off were the gloves. He rolled his long sleeves up as far as they would go, but it was still not enough. He wanted to be warm! He hungered for those rays, as if they alone could sustain him. Which was true, to an extent. Kai's bare skin absorbed the sun and began processing it into energy. Ah, photosynthesis, he sighed, It's so much better than eating. He'd had to eat pretzels on the plane and while they weren't precisely disgusting, he considered the practice of eating with his mouth barbaric and unsatisfying.

Kai stripped down to his underwear and laid next to a convenient reclining lawn chair. He personally wanted to touch the earth as much as possible, but if anyone should see him, they would just suspect him of tanning. Though in a few hours, he would not turn the color one would expect. He felt himself drifting contentedly off to sleep. “When I wake up, I'll get to work,” he promised in a murmur feeling mildly guilty. But surely recharging his powers counted as work. Right?

Flying. Not Sebastian's favorite activity. It seemed that it was one that was becoming more and more necessary in the ever increasing tempo of the modern world. In order to keep up with changes, everything was accelerated; from communication to travel times. Communication was instant now. It took less time to deliver a written message than it took to compose it. Travel was no longer a leisure activity that was an important part of the journey. Everything was about the end result, and not about the process of getting there. No one dressed up to travel, nor did they associate with their fellow travelers. Everything was streamlined and efficient to make things as fast as possible, even if comfort was sacrificed. These days it was possible to get to the opposite side of the world in less time than it took the sun to travel the same distance. And if someone chose alternate ways to travel, they would miss crucial opportunities. If Sebastian had his way, he'd never be hyperventilating a mile over an ocean again. Chances were good that he would not have his way. More and more it looked like he'd just have to get used to it.

As they stepped out of the airport into the summery January air, he breathed a sigh of relief. He was glad they were back on the ground again. He still swore that if he had been meant to fly, he'd have been born with wings instead of hooves. The weather here was vastly different than the weather in New York; the exact opposite season in the cycle. Already, as they stepped out of the air conditioning carrying their luggage, he could feel sweat start to form on his brow. He might have to give himself a haircut to help deal with the heat. It would be better once he could take off the baseball cap that was both concealing the short horn on his twenty-year-old forehead and helping to trap in heat.

Sebastian hailed a cab, and explained to the driver where they needed to go. The driver raised an eyebrow slightly at the destination, which was a hotel very near to an area of strife. It was a location that was not the safest place for the two pale skinned brothers to try and improve their tan. Tourists never seemed to quite get it though, that there was dangerous mutant terrorists trying to undermine the people of Australia. Yet, if it weren't for the tourism that had begun to flourish again after the plague, the humans wouldn't have enough money to pay for the weapons and other resources that were necessary to quash the rebel muties. The cab driver had long ago decided that he didn't care if the tourists got themselves killed, so long as they spent a decent amount of money before they did so, better yet if some of that money went into his own pocket book. So long as it did, he'd drive them just about anywhere they wanted to go, with some exceptions.

Sebastian took the time in the cab to simply rest and enjoy being back on the ground. Time felt meaningless. Rightfully it should be both night time and winter, but it was a glorious summer afternoon outside. Eating could happen, or it could not. Sebastian hadn't been able to eat on the plane, but he wasn't really feeling like he had to eat now. It probably would be a good idea, once his stomach was settled again.

Once they reached the hotel, Kai paid the cab driver while Sebastian checked into their hotel room. They had a ground floor room with a patio, not far from the pool. When they got to their room, Sebastian watched as Kai practically threw his suitcase onto the bed and bolted right out the sliding glass door again. His face was pointed sun ward, and within minutes the pale plant manipulator was down to just a pair of underwear that were nearly as white as his skin. Sebastian shook his head as he carefully placed his own suitcase on a convenient luggage rack, then turned to Kai's and unzipped it. After just a moment of searching, he had found what he was looking for.

“At least switch into swim trunks,” he called out the sliding glass door and threw the boy's swimsuit out after him.

Swimming actually sounded refreshing after the long, stale flight and the hot, sticky taxi ride. Then after he had cooled down, he would take a well earned nap. And have a snack. Somewhere in there he had to remember to eat even though he didn't feel especially hungry.

The unicorn man slipped into his own dark blue swimming trunks, which he had modified to allow a hole for his tail, and walked out the sliding glass door toward the pool. As he walked past Kai he waved and said, “enjoy the rest, because tomorrow is when the real work begins.”

----------------------

The following morning Sebastian rose bright and early, or rather dark and early. His biological clock seemed to think four in the morning was a perfectly acceptable time to arise, considering he had fallen asleep nearly twelve hours ago and back home it was already afternoon. He wasn't going to waste time trying to force himself to sleep longer. Rather, he'd take the time to get ready for the day. He was supposed to look a bit like a punk, a bit rough around the edges and fully capable of participating in a mutant rebellion. That would take a bit of work, since he was more used to looking like a gentleman.

If he had to come up with the best thing about winter in New York, it was that it wasn't winter in Australia. The sun had set late the night before, giving Kai eight glorious hours in the sun. He had fallen asleep for an hour and woke up recharged and vibrantly full of energy. As an added bonus, he was gleefully able to sit outside longer. He finally fell asleep sometime after the sun set, but it was no where near as restful as sunbathing.

He dressed quickly the next morning, falling into comforting clothes from his “bad-ass-wanna-bee” phase. Sporting a somewhat ratty t-shirt with the sleeves cut off and fraying shorts, Kai stepped out into the cool morning air. He was mildly disappointed that there was no sunlight yet, but comforted by the fact that rising before the sun meant that he could take advantage of 100% of the sunlit hours of the day.

Kai walked over to Sebastian, who, in his opinion, could use a little work looking appropriately 'cool and hardened'. Well, at least he had ditched the baseball cap... for now.

He surveyed the parking lot. “Nothing especially flashy here, a couple of rentals... ” A hot silver Skyline called to him. If you were going to steal to gain 'street cred', might as well make it worth it, right? Kai flooring it, feeling a rush of exhilaration in his stomach.

All too soon, they reached a rundown looking hotel. Kai parked, stopping rather suddenly with an impressive squeal. He climbed out of the drivers seat and stalked through the front doors. Counseling his expression into one of boredom, he slapped a crumbled bill onto the counter.

“A room for two.” He raised his eyebrows, threatening the sniveling boy behind the counter against making some kind of sexual joke. He leaned over the counter, looming. “Two beds, payment by the night.” The boy was clearly terrified. It was almost too effortless to be threatening. Made all the easier by their proximity to a hostile area and that he wasn't hiding the fact that he was a mutant, his emerald skin announced that for him. Which meant to passersby that he had unknown and untold power. It was sooo much easier to intimidate people when they already assumed that you were dangerous and violent tempered. The real challenge would lie in convincing the other dangerous and violent tempered mutants of as much. But so far, so good.

Sebastian nodded at Kai's choice of tattered clothing. He looked respectably grunge-like with all those rips and tears. The now emerald skin was a nice touch too. It was too bad he couldn't be quite as bad-ass as Sebastian who was sporting jeans, a white t-shirt, and a leather vest. With a chain necklace. That's right; chain necklace. Give it a few years, little plant man, and you too could have fashion sense this awesome. His swished his tail and tied a red bandanna around his roughly cropped white hair. His face felt a little prickly with the pale stubble he had left on his chin, but that was the price he had to pay for looking this good.

Sebastian approved of Kai's choice in cars they drove to their next hotel. Stealing was non violent, and in this case helped contribute to a non-violent cause. Therefore, he also approved of the stealing. He did not approve of driving a hundred and sixty kilometers an hour in it. Cars were only supposed to go, like seventy kph. Sebastian spent the entire trip clinging to the door handle for dear life. If his knuckles hadn't already been white, they would have been. But he looked tough the whole way. His bandanna and chain necklace saw to that.

The next hotel was considerably closer to their destination. If they weren't offered rooms at the headquarters for the rebels, they could easily stay here. The hotel used to be a nice one, but it had fallen into disrepair. It used to be a popular place, but not many tourists chose Sydney as their main destination these days. The whole city was in constant turmoil in the struggle between mutants and humans, and in this particular Australian city, the mutants were winning. Any humans that still lived here were just eking out a living, and keeping their heads down around mutants. Most likely, they didn't have the resources to move away, or were simply too stubborn to give up their homes, no matter how bad the living situation got. They had survived the plague, and many of them believed they could survive this too.

Sebastian let the emerald skinned plant manipulator be in charge of making their reservation this time. If he had dealt with the sniveling desk clerk, the poor boy probably would have had to change his pants afterwards. It was best to let the less intimidating of the two of them deal with the poor pathetic little guy. Really, it was lucky that Kai was here, to be the nice and gentle persona out of the two of them. Sebastian just leaned against a pillar with his arms crossed underneath his chain necklace. He couldn't cover up such a tough looking symbol with his arms, Zeus forbid. That's right, snivelly. Treat us right and you won't have to sleep with one eye open tonight.

After checking into their room and dumping off their luggage, they were ready to head off the the revolutionaries' headquarters. It was located in an impressively artistic concrete building on the end of a long, narrow peninsula. It used to be a famous opera house, but now it was the infamous home of the Australian mutant rebellion. The tough and tougher looking pair of mutants would make their entrance, prove that they were ready to work for the resistance, and get set to spy on them until they could determine the best possible way to turn this little war into something more closely resembling peace. What ever that took, be it covertly setting up escape routes for human refugees or providing misinformation to avoid confrontations. It would be their job to figure out what the best possible solution would be, all without being suspicious. That would be very bad for them. Very bad.

After another squealing park job, Sebastian took a deep breath and prepared himself. He opened the car door, slammed it with an impressive sounding noise, and swaggered up to the entrance of the former opera house. That's right, mutant punks. Check out the chain necklace.

Bacchus sighed as he arrived at the Opera house supposedly meeting a new pair of recruits, normally after something as big as him being held captive for a few days put him off the roster of missions for a month or so but for some reason Ares had seemed determined to get Bacchus to go meet these two.

As he looked at his reflection in the mirror he frowned, “Really look like a giant now” his face was still swollen, bruised and cut. The rest of his body was far worse, broken ribs, his left wrist was broken and his right Leg was officially out of commission for the time being.

He couldn’t walk all he could do was maneuver a motorized wheelchair. “Hate Stealth missions,” Bacchus mumbled threw his swollen lips as he looked around with his one good eye trying to see if he could find the ones that matched the supposed description.

Despite him having lost hearing in one ear Bacchus heard a car door slam shut with authority, “Those the ones?” Bacchus asked Jack Riley who made it his business to help whenever he was available. After getting the nod Bacchus zoomed off after the pair and thought to him, ‘if they walk any faster I’ll never catch them, this thing can’t even beat a tortoise…’

Now Bacchus wasn’t shy when it came to being nude but he did feel a little out of character with only a pair of torn sweatpants and an extra large buttoned up shirt, and a large hat to cover the fact that the back of his head was a swollen as his face.

Now climbing to the wheel chair ramp to the opera house Bacchus looked over the bloke that was walking up the stairs and smiled, “There’s my guy!” Bacchus said through his large swollen lips, which hid his accent making it sound like he was drunk, “Was hear to meet you I think… Name’s Bacchus…” Bacchus took note of the other bloke and gave him a nod and then continued to look at the one who was in charge through his good eye.

Yeeeehaa! Kai cranked the wheel hard to the right, coming to a screeching halt precisely in the middle of two parallel yellow lines. He climbed out of the car and fell in step a pace behind Sebastian. He watched him attempt to swagger and almost broke character. The unicorn-man was insanely proud of some necklace that he found at some dollar store. In his tough-guy get-up, Sebastian resembled a My Little Pony that some poor two year old boy inherited from his older sister and tried to pimp out. Kai decided not to say anything about his outdated fashion and to let him have his fun. Besides, he was really getting into it.

Sauntering behind Pony-boy, Kai focused on making his entrance into the Opera House while attempting to stealthily take in all of his surroundings. While the concrete exterior of the Opera House remained relatively unmarked, the Entrance Hall was not quite as grand as it used to be, what with being the object of a take-over and now the command center for a group of militant mutants. Kai was, however, happily surprised to see several potted plants in various locations around.

I guess even bad-guys like their Head Quarters to feel homey... he thought idly as he followed Sebastian up the steps.

>>“There’s my guy!”

Kai craned his head towards the drunken drawl and noticed a man to his left. He suddenly felt a tad overdressed. The person meeting them, presumably to interview them prior to joining the mutants was clad in sweatpants and a buttoned shirt. And wearing a large, unsightly hat. Oh, and sitting in a wheelchair.

Maybe they didn't have to act as tough as they were trying to, after all. Kai wasn't entirely sure whether this appearance, plus his seemingly plentiful collection of bruises made him seem more intimidating or less. On the one hand, he seemed to have had his ass handed to him recently, but on the other, he obviously had fighting experience. The words “you should see the other guy” came to mind. Kai decided to reserve judgment for the time being.

The man introduced himself as “Bacchus” and stared them down. Yep, the stare definitely added to the bad-guy perception.

“Name's Kai,” he supplied, confidently. He jerked his thumb towards his companion. “And this is Sebastian.”

He met the Bacchus' gaze as best he could, trying to peer past the brim of the hat, then grinned. Kai knew that his every word would be measured, but he couldn't help himself in this regard.

“I hope there are others here, 'cuz if you are the best representation of the mutants in fighting for this city, I'd say we don't have much of a chance of staying in power.” He spoke in an even tone and waited for a reply. Maybe spying in this place would be a lot less eventful than they originally anticipated....

>>>“There’s my guy!” ... “Was hear to meet you I think… Name’s Bacchus…”

Bacchus' words were a little slurred, but that was only to be expected considering his namesake. Sebastian returned the once over that the wheel chair man gave them. While Bacchus was probably noticing that the two standing in front of him were obvious mutants, one tall and bright green from his scalp to toe including his eyes, the other shorter, horned and tailed, and pure white, Sebastian was taking account of the injuries that had put the resistance man into his wheeled chair. Bruises, cuts, broken bones, and probably only able to admire the chain necklace with one eye since the other seemed pretty swollen. A small, slow smile spread across the unicorn man's face. Apparently this little resistance needed a healer.

>>>“Name's Kai,” ... “And this is Sebastian.”

Sebastian nodded in confirmation of Kai's statement. He refrained from adding a polite, “nice to meet you.” This was about being tough, not about being polite. The nod was all the wheelchair bound revolutionary was getting for pleasantries. His tail swished behind him, saying its own hello.

>>>“I hope there are others here, 'cuz if you are the best representation of the mutants in fighting for this city, I'd say we don't have much of a chance of staying in power.”

That earned an equivocal tough guy “hmph” that could have signaled agreement with Kai's assessment or called into question the sagacity of playfully insulting one of the resistance members. In either case, he followed up with a comment of his own.

“I'd say you look like you could use a good healer on your side, to make sure good people aren't put out of commission any longer than necessary. It seems I could put my talents to good use immediately, if you'd allow it. May I?” Sebastian had walked closer to the invalid and reached out his hand, to show he would have to make physical contact for his power to be effective. He wouldn't actually touch the Bacchus without his permission. He waited just a moment, then closed the gap between his hand and the bare skin on the man's arm.

The familiar tingling chill raced through Sebastian's arm. The icy burning was always slightly uncomfortable, close to painful without any actual pain. Tingling sparks of healing drained themselves out of Sebastian and into Bacchus' arm, where they would spread throughout his body and find the tiny bone fragments and herd them back into their proper places, knitting the bone back together so no one would ever know it had been broken. Then the sparks would search out cuts to knit back together and bruises to chase away. They would find the tiniest ruptured vessel and the smallest broken cell and make them whole again, given enough time.

Sebastian always found that he became very aware of his patient's body as he healed them. He didn't direct the flow of the healing energy, but in some corner of his mind he was always aware of what it was doing. He could vaguely sense the pain of the injured cells and their relief when they were once again whole and functioning. Innately, he could sense where the body was broken as he healed it. Healing was similar to heart beats, in a way. Like his heart beating, it happened automatically without conscious thought. He touched a person and the healing energy automatically rushed forth to do its work. Conscious focus on the heartbeat or on the healing did nothing to change the automatic processes. It would happen even if he were knocked unconscious and fell on top of an injured person.

It took approximately a minute to for Sebastian to heal Bacchus nearly to perfection. Before the healing sparks finished their icily electric task of stitching up the cuts on his face, Sebastian gave him a playful half smile and asked, “Now are you wanting any scars to impress the ladies? Or shall I just have you back to your unmarked and gloriously perfect self?”

Bacchus nodded his head slightly, “Nice to meet you gents, and yes there are others here, it just so happened I was ordered to greet you to for some reason… and the only reason I look like this was because I ran into a few adapts and they like to hit a man when he is down.” Shifting his one good eye to the other bloke who asked about healers, “We had a few decent ones but there are either scattered attending to those worse off than me or dead.” He actually refused to let one of the healers heal him seeing as he was still alive and moving thanks to his thick skin, the other mutants that were on the mission with him couldn’t take much of a beating and they were worse off than he was.

Bacchus nodded slightly as he let the mutant who he was sure was a healer touch him, ‘that’s why Jon sent me to meet them!’ next thing Bacchus knew as the healer had touched him Bacchus felt his power coming back to him, the aches and pains that plagued him before soon left his body. It was a minute of the weird tingling sensation and he liked it.

Bacchus had his eyes close in the process almost to see if he could see the movement of the sensation through his body but when his eyes were open and when Sebastian spoke Bacchus laughed and said, “Just the tattoos all I need on my body!” standing up and getting out of the wheel chair Bacchus had the need to test his healed body out. His eyes were better than they have ever been and his nose and mouth no longer tasted like blood.

“Amazing mate!” Bacchus said as he extended his hands and arms and made them grow a few sizes. Picking up the wheel chair and crushing it with one hand Bacchus pulled his arm back and threw it as far as he could giving it loud boom as it hit a building on the other side of the bay.

Looking down to Kai Bacchus grinned as his body hunched over and started to grow. His pants kept up with the growth but his shirt that he hated with a passion however gave way and was torn to ribbons as it stretched out. Now standing his full height Bacchus was well over a hundred feet tall, reaching his hands up but not moving his feet so he wouldn’t step on Kai or Sebastian.

The clouds were lower today than usual Bacchus had his hands outstretched like has could grab them but he stopped short and made a fist in each hand, in haling as much air as he could he brought his arms to his face then threw them to his sides as he lifted his head to the sky and let out a thunderous roar letting everyone in the resistance he was back!

Satisfied in scaring anyone who wasn’t ready for his war cry Bacchus shot back down to normal size and walked over to Sebastian, “Thank you” he extended his hand to Sebastian and then said, “So how are you both looking to better the cause?” Bacchus asked looking to Kai.

Kai tried to control the shock he felt when Sebastian just up and healed this random person and he went from sitting in a wheelchair to growing what seemed to be several hundred feet. The giant let out a roar then shrank back down to size.

>> “So how are you both looking to better the cause?”

"Hmm..." said Kai, allowing his degree of impressed-ness to come through his voice. "Perhaps I shall have to reevaluate the strengths of those fighting here. As for myself, I can turn the very environment of Australia around on these feeble humans and boost the fitness and health of our fighters." He laughed, "You have never and will never again eat so well in company."

Kai extended his own hand toward Bacchus. "I am pleased to meet you and to offer myself fully to this cause, should you choose to accept me."

Sebastian withdrew his touch before the invalid's tattoos healed themselves. He must have felt better after that, because he immediately stood, stretched out his arms, and crumpled up the whelchair in which he had previously been sitting. With a mighty swing of his elongated arms, the tossed the chair so far, itreached heights that no thrown object had reached since the Statue of Liberty had risked entering a low orbit a decade ago.

As if that weren't enough to announce his return to the land of the healthy, he also extended himself up to a height that looked like it could rival a small tower and let out a might roar that vibrated through the pavement below the unicorn man's feet. Scraps of fabric that looked like they matched what used to be the man's teeshirt floated down around them. It was possible that Sebastian's mind was overestimating the man's height. They were standing directly beneath him, and thus it was difficult to accurately estimate his size from the extreme low angle. Even so, it was an impressive display.

After he was finished showing off, or stretching out as the case may be, Bacchus shrunk back to his normal size and offered his hand to Sebastian who firmly shook it. Firm, to show that he was no limp wimpy guy, but not so firm as to instigate a hostile hand squeezing contest that could only end with Sebastian healing his own broken fingers.

“Yer welcome” the yer was to add to the tough guy effect hopefully without endangering his fingers. Tough guys with chain necklaces didn't need to use proper pronunciation. No one dared to correct their slang.

It was Kai's turn to shake hands next. Sebastian chuckled and added to Kai's statement, “You've never had such a healthy army before the two of us came around. You will be well fed and well tended to. So, what do you think? Can you use us?” He should have slipped in a few “ya”s instead of “you”s, but the unicorn man kept forgetting and slipping back into his normal speech patterns.

Careful not to crush the healer’s hand or the green guys Bacchus put his hand down to his side, “We aren’t really the type to deny those who want to help,” Looking to Sebastian he tilted his head slightly, “Yer?” asked Bacchus as he turned and walked towards the entrance of the Opera house, “Got a funny way of talking, but then again I’m not one to talk. From the sounds of it you blokes are from America right?” asked Bacchus curiously as he pushed open the large doors that were usually barricaded after all this was one of the many base of operations that they had.

The Opera house wasn’t that dangerous of a base to be located at. It was one of the thirteen main bases that made up their army. Bacchus walked past some guards and slammed his hand on the table causing it to be crushed into the concrete floor. “What the hell do you think your doing?” Bacchus yelled to the four guards who were watching a television show and were playing cards. The men immediately jumped up to their feet and saluted to Bacchus as he pointed them to the door, “Why is that not barricaded?” the men ran to the door and closed it then flipped the switch which caused two large metal slots to fall down and brace the door.

The four men saluted then shouted, “Welcome back Sir!”. Letting out a large laugh that echoed the large lobby they were in Bacchus smiled and said, “Man gave you Gents a great good scare, at ease.” Walking closer to one of the guards Bacchus patted him on the shoulders then pulled him into a hug, “How’s your girl Angie is it?” Bacchus asked in a now docile tone. After a few minutes with conversing with the guards Bacchus waved to them and rejoined Kai and Sebastian, and then continued leading them around a corner.

“Sorry bout the wait mates…” Bacchus gave them a small smile as he started to climb a few stairs to an elevator, “I happen to be one of the top heads in this war, Ares the leader isn’t the kindest person but he gets the job done with as little casualties as possible.” Entering the elevator Bacchus waited for the two to follow him in then hit the ‘B2’, which lead to the war room.

On the descent Bacchus smiled and said, “Well, if you guys couldn’t tell I have been out of my job for a little while but hopefully I can get caught up and get you two started soon. Sebastian it won’t be that hard to find a job for you seeing as you're a damn good healer, and Kai if you can do really what you said about making us more fit, you’ll find yourself at any number of the bases we have set up.”

The elevator gave a small buzz sound as the doors opened up and they were greeted with a loud cry Welcome Back! Bacchus grinned and walked down the lightly lit metallic steps as he looked around the war room that hadn’t changed a bit. It was a snazzier knock off of all those old movies where old world leaders met to plan a strategy. Waving to everyone Bacchus greeted and introduced members of the Opera staff to Kai and Sebastian.

Grinning as he looked at the large screen Bacchus was handed a shirt and quickly slipped it on, “Connect me to Ares, Tell him Bacchus is up and ready to set up shop!” Grinning as he turned his head, to Kai and Sebastian, Bacchus said, “Ares is the head honcho, been one of my best mates since we were kids, be polite if he addresses you, which odds are he won’t. Busy guy and all.” Turning his head back to the monitor Bacchus saw his childhood friend up on the screen both of them with a wide grin on their face.

Pinpointing Bacchus' location was hardly ever an issue. It was almost like that story where the mice put bells on a cat so they could hear when it was coming. The only difference was that if Bacchus' was the cat, he would have worn the bells without being forced to do so. In any case, Isabel also knew a few of the more frequented rooms in the Opera House where he could be found. Like the War Room. He liked talking to the guy on the TV screen. His name was Ares, if she remembered correctly, and he was one of the people in charge in leading the mutant war against the humans of Australia. He was also a lot of fun to tease, when she could get away with it. Like when his face was on the television. TV's can't physically do anything to discourage her.

Isabel had been spending most of her free time exploring their base of operation in order to better familiarize herself with the area so she'd know where to go when she was needed and wouldn't get lost trying to do so. Because the War Room was in the basement, that's the floor she'd spent the most time on. Planning seemed to be a big priority for the base, and as such the War Room was one of the most commonly used spaces in the building. She had little doubt that Bacchus would be headed there. The echoing welcome from any occupants that were currently in that room only reassured her assumption.

"Do you always have to make so much noise wherever you go, Bacchus? I swear I could hear you shouting all the way down here," she greeted after she'd stepped into the room and located him. "Nice to see you've gotten yourself all fixed up. The gone-through-a-meat-grinder look really wasn't working for you." Casually she took a seat on the edge of the table, grinning at her companion. Even if they weren't out fighting all the time, things tended to be busy enough that she hadn't been able to spend any lengthy amount of time with her old friend, so she made sure to go out of her way to poke a little fun at him whenever she felt like it. She loved reconnecting with old companions, and much like she'd done in the past when she'd seen them far more often, she could rarely resist ruffling their feathers a little.

Turning to look over the two young men accompanying the Giant, her grin faded into a look of mild surprise. The green tinted individual was one she didn't know, however the young man sporting a horn and a tail was someone she recognized. "Sebastian?" she spoke, breaking out into another smile upon seeing the Sanctuary's former Healer. "It's been ages since I've last seen you. In person, anyhow." She'd seen him on the news and in the papers a few times since he'd become the head of some organization, though she hadn't been particularly interested enough to keep following the stories. "Have you come to help us out as well?"

(Permission granted from Kai to switch turn order this round, in order to respond to Issie.)

Sebastian followed the size shifter into the rebel head quarters. He did not disguise his interest in the place, and let his eyes freely wander as they walked. It was only natural to want to check out the interior of what would be like his home for awhile. Really, his curiosity had nothing to do with spying or any such thing.

One of the things Sebastian found particularly interesting was not in the décor, but in the introductions. It seemed that this particular group had a penchant for taking code names akin to the original Olympian Greeks, some Romanized, others not. Having known the original mutants who carried those names, long before the word mutant had ever been invented, Sebastian couldn't help but wonder how alike these people were to the original users of the monikers. Another thought that amused him greatly was that there might be a Pan or a Faunus running around somewhere.

Sebastian converted his amused smile into a warm smile of recognition for his former neighbor, Isabel. The two had both lived at the Sanctuary for a while, and like many of the residents there, Sebastian still felt a little like they were part of a family, “Isabel! It's good to see you!” She was like family, and therefore earned herself a hug from the immortal. He wrapped both arms around her in a quick squeeze, then let go in case she wanted to make a quick escape from the embrace. Her hair was cut differently, and her bow was even more enormous than Sebastian remembered, but the impish twinkle in her eye was the same as ever, as was, he assumed, her habit of stabbing people with her natural bone weapons. Hopefully she wouldn't take hugs as a reason for stabbing. He quickly segued into answering her question, as a distraction just in case she was in a stabbing sort of mood.

“I heard you needed a healer, and you know I can't stay away when I know there is flesh and bone to be mended. Not that yours would even need mending, of course.” Did he dare throw a wink in on top of the hug? He did. All that macho tough guy acting was taking his sense of self preservation and throwing it out the window of one of New York's skyscrapers Either that, or his mind was being affected by his currently young body and its high levels of testosterone; at a biological age of twenty he felt near invincible and was perfectly willing to take advantage of opportunities to hug pretty friends.