Amber had arrived late last night long after everyone had gone to bed. Abyss had told her, on the ride over, that this was to be her new home, a place called Sanctuary, where it didn't matter that she was a mutant because she would be accepted for who and what she was. On the ride over it had seemed like a dream come true. Finally she had gotten out of the orphanage and been adopted into an actual family. Finally she would have a mother and a father and maybe even a sister or brother to go along with it. As it turned out, her new father was a large bright red mutant and there hadn't been any mention of a new mother but still, she had a family now which was so much more than she ever could have hoped for only days before.

After arriving the first thing Amber had done was choose a room and go to sleep. She didn't really have many belongings and the few belongings she did have would arrive later. She didn't bother to ask how they would get there. Now it was morning and she had no idea where Abyss was, the only familiar face in the whole place. She knew that she supposedly had a big sister but didn't know anything about her, not her name or what she might look like if she was to go searching for her. Plus, what if her new sister resented her? She of one little boy that had been brought back to the orphanage after almost being adopted into a family because the parents' natural children hadn't been willing to accept him into their household. That was the most horrible fear of all, the prospect of having to go back to a place where she had never felt any love nor felt that she belonged. And having discovered she was a mutant made things 10 times worse.

Being sent back wasn't Amber's only fear, however. There was also the very real fear of being all alone in a strange place full of strange mutants. She was defenseless, powerless and a complete stranger. But these were the people she needed to learn to live with. Quietly, shyly, she exited her room to go an explore Sanctuary, wrapping her red veil around her face and neck. Only her black eyes and a strip of pale white flesh was visible.

Aura had heard interesting news from abyss, she was getting a sister. While Aura had no ill views about this and was even happier to know she was a mutant she had yet to see the girl at all. Abyss had not said she was a mutant but Aura assumed since she was at sanctuary their was no other option. Still she could not have gone far Aura reasoned to herself as the exited her own room. To say she was curious was an understatement, Aura was pretty excited, so excited in fact upon hearing the news she had run out to grab something for her new family member. Her long brown hair was actually combed for once before she ventured into the greater part of sanctuary. How to locate the girl was the question on Aura's mind, she ruled out using the PA system almost right away, figuring the girl would not like that.

Aura used her cellphone to call Lisa, to find out the room she had used, unfortunately the plan met with little success as the room had not been registered with her yet. Thanking her anyway, not recalling she was even human, in fact Aura had simple assumed Lisa was a mutant. Aura tried to go over what she knew of her new sister which was littile, no name, power or even the look, only that she was female. Pulling at the strap of her black tank top while she thought of this, Aura soon developed a plan she could only hope might work.

Turning her Aura on completely, she made sure she stood out with a bright, thick pink outline which she decided against making solid. She then proceeded to walk up and down the residential area of the Sanctuary using her Aura to draw attention to herself, and began asking if anyone had seen abyss, her guardian, in a rather loud tone so she would be over heard making sure to mention the guardian part, hoping this would atract her new sisters attention.

The idea her new sister might not like her or might like humans was so far from Aura's mind nether even registered as possible. She simply assumed they would get a long well and that her new sister in time would learn to watch her back as she would watch hers, her new sister was family at least until she proved otherwise and any offence against her would be repaid by Aura tenfold.

The first thing that entered Amber's mind was that this place was huge, so much larger than her previous home. Every so often she would come across an open door and peek inside, meek and quiet but too curious not to at least try and get a glimpse of what might lie inside. She didn't really know much about mutants at all, except what was shown on the news of course and that was mostly the very bad and occasionally the very good. There was nothing about how mutants lived from day to day. Was it any different than how a regular human lived their life? Did they have to eat special foods or use special medications or anything like that? How was she to know, who had never met a real live mutant before. Or at least, she was pretty sure she never had. Except for Abyss, of course, but she hadn't had much of a chance to question him yet.

The last door Amber peeked her head through she was yelled at by a very large muscular woman with zebra striped hair. "Get the hell out of here, don't you have any concept of privacy?" The small strip of skin that was visible paled even further and she managed to stammer out an apology before turning around in a panic. She hadn't meant to intrude, honest she hadn't, and the door was open she she hadn't thought getting one little peek would be a problem. At the orphanage closed doors had meant keep out and open doors had meant you could come and visit if you wanted and she had just assumed that things would be the same here, too. How was she ever going to manage in this frightening new place?

Amber stumbled away from the room blindly, fearing that the woman was going to follow her and try to hurt her for what she had done. The zebra woman had seemed very angry and Amber could do nothing to defend herself. Plus, she was a mutant and so probably had some kind of power which made the situation even worse. Amber truly was defenseless.

Because Amber was so panicked and so distracted, she wasn't paying any attention to where she was going except that it was away from the scary amazon lady. In her blind flight she ran right into another person, a woman who might have been not much older than her who also happened to be glowing pink. "I'm so sorry," she managed to mumble out an apology. She felt close to tears. What if the pink aura'd girl hurt her for her clumsiness? Maybe it had been a bad idea to come here with Abyss after all. Maybe, as bad as it was, the orphanage would take her back. She couldn't cut it here, she was a sorry excuse for a mutant and for a human.

Her brilliantly thought out plan was failing, no one had seen abyss that day, in fact few seemed to realize she was even related to abyss. A few other had been rather annoyed with her questioning all together. Aura backed off from these, she had always tried to keep any fighting she did either to the training rooms, or otherwise out of sanctuary. It just would not be good to fight in the place you lived, thats how places got leveled and fall on you. With a sigh she tried to consider where the flaw in her plan might be, only being able to figure it was just sheer lack of information.

Aura Separated herself from the people she was talking to as a realization dawned on her. She may have already talked to her new sister without even knowing it. Though she did not believe so, unless her sister did not know abyss's name either, though that seemed strange to her. With a heavy sigh Aura tried to come up with another plan, but the teenager whose mind could think up strategy on the fly in the heat of combat was completely without an idea. Walking down the corridor in ehr own thoughts she was a bit surprised with what happened next.

A girl about her age ran into her, and Aura would have likely fell if not for the support of the wall as her Aura was not at all solid at the time. SHe was not mad in fact she noticed the girl seemed rather scared for some reason. "it's all right friend, these things happon, are you new here?" she asked casually as she straightened herself up, she had never seen this girl before. Forgotten was her search for her sister instead, she was curious on why this woman was running like she was.

"My Name Aura" she said with a smile and then Aura spread her hands to her sides and adjusted her Aura to a more angeled surface, the pink energy flowing to form sharp angels in her Aura and then Aura let her Aura slowly fade from view making it appear as though it were flowing to the tips of her fingers, draining from the rest of her body untill it dissopeared entirely. "What's your name?" she asked once her aura was gone.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean, I can leave," Amber stuttered, the words having trouble escaping her lips in a coherent fashion. Then it dawned on her that the person she had just run into didn't appear to be angry at all. Despite the strange pink aura, whatever it was didn't appear to be offensive in nature or if it was, it didn't appear to be directed at herself. In fact, far from being angry at her for not paying attention and running into the teenager, the other girl was asking her questions.

"Yes, I-I'm new here," Amber managed to get out. "A-Abyss b-brought me here last night. B-but I don't know where he is." There, she managed to get out a complete sentence this time. She kept her eyes downcast, acutely aware of their unnatural black appearance and ashamed of that fact. She hadn't spoken to many since they had changed but of the people she had spoken to, only Abyss hadn't reacted at their presence. Usually she got fear or hate. The other children she used to live with at the orphanage had threatened to beat her up if she even came near them or used any of her 'freaky mutant powers' on them. If only she had mutant powers maybe she would have used them and showed those bullies what it felt like to be picked on and abused. Unfortunately life had conspired against her and she had nothing but horrible mutated black eyes.

"My name's Amber." Amber's eyes hesitantly darted up to meet Aura's ever so briefly and almost against her conscious will. "Your aura is really pretty. What does it do?" Sudden dread filled her that she had just asked a rude question and Aura would sneer at her or decide she hated her for it. She didn't know the first thing about talking to mutants or about what was polite and what wasn't. Was it even ok to ask about powers?

"Abyss brought you....." Aura smiled gleefully and was glad when the girl told her, her name was amber. She was sure she knew who this was, it never occurred to her that abyss may have brought others he had found to the sanctuary as well. Aura did her ebst to contain her excitement not wnating to scare the girl who seemed skittish to her. She also had gotten a look as those eyes, those lovely black eyes, she wa samutant all right. Aura thanked several gods she had not spoken to in some time for this fact. AByss really had brought her a sister and not a pet human.

"I ma Aura, Abyss is my guardien and im guessing that makes us sisters" she said waiting a few moments to let that sink in before she kneeled down to look into the girl's eyes better. "Such lovely eyes to, that must mean your a mutant just like all of us here, that's wonderful" she said happily as she stood back up. She was glad she had found the girl, she was gorgeous just as Aura hoped, she barely restrained her question to ask what she could do.

At last she adressed the final part of what the girl said. "Thank you Amber, My Aura protects me and will elt me protect you as well, if you ever have an issue or anyone ever tried to hurt you, talk to me or better yet...."Aura smiled and reached into the bag she had pulling out a small red cell phone, a flip phone and offered it to the girl. "This is for you, my numbers in it as is abyss's" she said with a friendly smile. She then held up her hand and used her aura to form a drill, and a sword and finanly an ice cream scoop which she had recently learned how to form.

"Welcome home, my friend, can i ask what you can do?" she said figuring since the girl had asked she could ask as well. She brushed some of her hair out of her face and then tilted her head. "Are you hungry, or do you have any questions, i took the day off to spend with you and help you out." she went on, hoping the girl would respond well to her kindness. "Oh! have you gottena room yet? ANy of the unoccupied rooms are foine, but since you just arrived Lisa had no idea of the room" she said with a shrug. Aura knew this would be a wonderful day.

The revelation that the teenager knew Abyss and shortly followed by the revelation that Abyss was also her guardian came almost too quickly for Amber to follow, let alone comprehend. She had a sister? A real live sister? And she was currently standing in front of her sister now, who was also a mutant? It was unbelievable, inconceivable. And did her new sister look almost as excited as she felt? With that one simple revaluation, her apprehension vanished. She had a sister. And a father. She had a family and if her new family was a little bit strange and not at all like she had imagined it would be, it was still a family and it was still hers.

"You are very kind," Amber told Aura, accepting the phone and placing it within hidden pocket in her robes. She didn't ask why she might need a sword or a drill although she remembered seeing some things on the news about dangerous mutants and about gangs who attacked mutants. The life of a mutant was supposed to be dangerous, wasn't it? So it was probably a good thing to have some natural weapons at your disposal. "Are you really my sister now?" Disbelief was in her voice. Surely this had to be some kind of dream. Her nightmare at discovering she was a mutant had turned into something far more surreal. She had a family which had always been her greatest desire in life and the one thing she had never expected to actually get.

At the question of Amber's own powers, her mind went plummeting back down to earth. Obviously she would be asked about her powers and now that she was going to admit that she had none, this entire dream would evaporate in a puff of smoke. Maybe Abyss had adopted her only because he thought she might actually be able to do something useful. "I-I don't, that is, I don't think I have any." Such shame in that admittance. She was a failure as a mutant and she hadn't even known she was one for very long. "M-my eyes just changed a couple w-weeks ago and then A-Abyss came and adopted me. M-maybe I'll get powers later?" Fat chance of that happening. That was something good in life, something to look forward to and Amber didn't have good things happen to her.

"yes we are" she said simply "And you will get your powers at some point, sometimes they are just hard to figure out, but with those beautiful eyes of yours you'll be able to do something wonderful. Abyss adopted me as well. My real family left me to rot in a cage for months, but i have been here almost 18 months now and i am doing well, as you will. Just be proud of who and what you are, their is no shame in being a mutant no matter what your power happens to be." she said trying to be reasueing to her obviously nervous sister.

"When you go outside you may wish to be wary of the humans however, they can be dangerous, even more so to mutants like yourself who can't defend them selfs with their powers yet. I advise you of this only becuse some humans can be rather cruel, here however you are safe" she adise dher not wnated to scare her at all but these were things that people needed to know. "Some people can be rough here, but it's becuse many of them have had tough lifes" she went on unsure who the girl had met yet.

"oh, one moment" she said going into her room, a few moments later, Aura slipped back out with a skunk on her shoulder. "This is my pet cat, SOlkat, though msot people tell me she's a skunk" she said with a shrug. She scratched the skunk under the chin and it seeme dto enjoy it, the skunk sniffed at the new mutant, hopped down from Aura's shoulder and proceded to lay down next to amber's foot. "She' likes you to" aura stated which seemed to be true.

Her eyes were beautiful? Amber had never been called beautiful before, being far too pale and thin to even be all that pretty. But to have her eyes, her black monstrous eyes, be called beautiful was something special to her. She smiled shyly back at Aura. "Do you really think so?" Then there was the idea that she should be proud of being a mutant rather than ashamed which was a completely new and wondrous concept. She wasn't yet sure what there was to be proud of, but she could at least consider the idea. No one had ever suggested such a thing to her before.

"I never had a family," Amber replied sadly. "Or if I did, I don't remember them. I lived in an orphanage all my life. No one wanted to adopt me because I'm flawed." She lapsed into silence, remembered all the bitter moments when prospective families saw her and realized that she wasn't the perfect little daughter that they had always wanted. Realizing that Aura must not know of her problem, she clarified. "I can't go into the sun without burning. My skin is so sensitive even a few minutes in sunlight produces painful red burns, more than that being even worse. That's why I wear the robes and the veil." Yet another reason she had never fit in at the orphanage.

Amber listened to Aura's advice, taking it all in with a serious expression on her face. Even in her very limited time of being a mutant she had caught a glimpse of what it could be like and she didn't even have the most visible of mutations. What must someone like Abyss have to deal with every day? "Maybe if I wore sunglasses they wouldn't be able to tell," she suggested. "Do you think that maybe my skin condition might be related to my being a mutant?" She had never considered such a thing before, but now that she thought about it it actually made sense. She had always been unusual, its just that her particular condition up until recently was a condition in regular humans as well.

Amber waited patiently for Aura to return and was very much surprised to see a skunk along with her new sister. Hesitantly she put out her hand for the skunk to smell and then smiled. With equal tentative gestures she extended her hand to pet the little creature and then broke into a shy smile. She had always preferred animals to humans. They didn't judge and didn't expect anything beyond attention and food and they showed their love and affection in such a sweet manner. "I love her," Amber stated with genuine affection. "Where did you get a skunk of all things?" Cats or dogs she expected, but skunks? That was a new one.

"Of course i do" she said simply she loved the pale skin and black eyes her new sister had. Aura found all Mutants beautiful more so those with visible mutations. "Can't go into the sun huh, well the day time can be rather scary anyway, im usually up at night" she said which was true Aura tried to do most things after the moon rose in the sky. It amde things far easier when people did not look at her, recognize her and start screaming because of the last news tape she had been on.

"It may well be, i once knew a mutant whose powers were harder to control in the sunlight" she said though the mutants face and name Aura found herself unable to recall. The exact mutation was also escaping her, she would have to consider it later, as desturbing as the hole in her memory was to her. "You could cover those lovely eyes but even so, one can't hide all the time. Once people saw you were different it would be the same, still.......for casual travel it might not be bad" she said after thinking about it for a moment. She was hoping her new sister would not think this would make humans want to be her friend.

"Actually a bunch of Mutants with animal mutations attacked a zoo and began releasing animals. Solkat here came to me and i thought she was a kitty cat. So i took her home with me, she is free to go whenever she likes but she seems to enjoy staying around. People have told me she is actually a skunk but i don't really see the diffrence" she said honestly still unable to really tell cats and skunks apart. Their was the white stripe, but she had seen cats with white stripes as well. Aura opened her pother hand to reveal a small mouse, and solkat got excited as soon as she smelled it. Aura dropped the mouse and it barely had time to react before the skunk began to eat it. "She is rather fond of live food" aura explained, scratching the skunk behind her ear.

"Why d-do you prefer the n-night?" How strange that Amber's new sister would prefer the night as well. It was just one more thing that had always set her apart from all of the other people her age. She couldn't' go out in the sun, couldn't' go to the beach and tan with the other girls. No, she was the strange one covered from head to tow or the equally strange on up at 3 am reading a book or researching something on the internet. It was restricting not being able to go out whenever you wanted to and she often felt like a shut in because of it. Summer time was the worst because that's when the days lasted the longest and that's when the sun was at its hottest and most frequent. In the winter, at least, she had most of the evening to do things. In the winter she could almost feel normal. Or at least, she could have before her eyes had changed.

"I don't n-need h-humans with you and Abyss." All Amber had ever needed was a family to love her and now she had that. Now she had the best father and the best sister that anyone could ever want. Even if she had never imagined her sister to have a pink aura or her father to be large and red but it really just made her family all the more special and all the more unique. "And my uncles, r-right?" Uncles she had been told about but hadn't yet met. "W-what are they l-like?"

Amber giggled shyly at the skunk story. It was a little strange but also completely adorable and made bond to her sister all the greater. "She d-does look a little like a k-kitty. And I th-think she l-likes the f-food and attention." She reached down to give the odd little skunk a scratch on the head. "C-can I have a pet too?" Maybe Abyss would be a better one to ask that question to but he wasn't there currently.

"well...." Aura said unsure if she should be fully honest with the girl. She was her sister after all, but some mutants were not quite fond of casual murder and did not understand the cause they shared. "Human's can be dangerous to our kind and will often attack us when they see us, so at night it is much harder for them to see us. When my powers emerged i was fighting a girl, my power formed a sword and i cut her spine in to, she died. Despite it being an accident, the humans did not care and locked me away" she said trying to explain honetly. It was the truth she went out at night to avoid being spotted by cops.

"Well i only met a few of the abyss brothers myself, but they seem kind and friendly though in general they look just like him, same mountain moving power as well" she said still wishing she had his strength. "Each one has a diffrent personality though so their all diffrent to talk to and meet though it can be a bit confuseing at first as they can be hard to tell apart" she explained with a smile, Mars had helped her out on the jail they had raided and had done much of the work. In fact pred head had escaped on his own.

"I don't see why not, what animals are you into?" Aura asked the concept of asking abyss or anyone else was a completely lost to her as she had asked no one when she got hers. "I use to have a parrot as well, but he still has not come abck" she said shaking her head, it was to bad, the parrot had a fierce personality and had even tried to attack her a few times, she had admired the bird. "Animals are great though, so loyel and trusting" she said nodding even as she waves for amber to follow. "COme on, theirs many places to see here" she said

Amber gave Aura a horrified expression when she mentioned actually killing someone with her aura blade. She had read books about mutants and had heard about bad things happening when powers first developed, but surely accidentally killing someone had to be one of the worst. If she ever got actual powers of her own, hopefully they wouldn't be that dangerous. Hopefully no one would end up getting hurt. "D-do they hate us that much?" She didn't understand why people should be hated just because they looked a little different or had a few different abilities. Aura had been so nice to her, surely nothing she had done warranted being locked up?

"M-mountain moving power?" Amber hadn't actually asked Abyss what his power was. It was pretty obvious that he was a mutant, given the fact that he was rather large and bright red, it hadn't even occurred to her that his powers might go beyond what he looked like.

"I l-like all sorts of animals," Amber replied with rather genuine enthusiasm. "A-at the orphanage I wasn't a-allowed to have a p-pet but I've always w-wanted one. A-animals d-don't ask for anything. Th-they don't c-care that you s-stutter or l-look funny or can't g-go outside sometimes." It was the longest speech Amber had made since arriving, a tribute to both the fact that she was becoming increasingly more comfortable with her sister and the love she truly felt for animals. "M-maybe we could f-find a komodo dragon?" She wasn't really sure if that was the sort of pet that Aura had in mind, but the girl did have a skunk so was a large lizard really so much stranger? And Abyss had told her she could do whatever she wanted as long as she was herself. Getting a komodo dragon surely counted since she'd wanted one for just about as long as she could remember.

"Except I-I d-don't have any m-money." That fact crushed Amber's hopes of finally getting her dragon almost as soon as the idea had entered her head. "I-I bet they're expensive." Amber continued to follow Aura into the next room, suddenly feeling rather despondent.

"It's not so much hate as it is fear, Humans fear what we can do, that fear that we can do things better then they can. Their fear then turns to hare and resentment, some humans are ok with us but most can be dangerous, trouble is theirs just no way to tell" she said honestly. "My biggest issue is police, see becuse of that murder when my powers emerged, i got a record" she said trying to furtehr explain why she could not go outside in the day light so easily.

"Yes abyss's power is raw strength, i watched him throw a car on top of a building once because a human stabbed me" she said honestly, leaving out she got stabbed for trying to extort drug dealers. "He really is quite protective and he enjoys mutants with visable mutations as well, becuse he understands how it is to go through life being stared at for just walking down the street" she said having heard that somewhere before.

"Well i ahve no idea about a dragon, but if we can find one, sure" she said not seeing any reason why not and also lacking any idea what the creature was. She figured it had scales and was likely green at teals partly green. ?"Im not sure where they live though" she said honestly.

"As for cash i have plenty if you need it, i don't use it" she said having only the most basic concept of money, like quarters were worth less then hundred dollar bills. As she lead her down the corridor. "In any case are you hungry?" she asked as they approached the Sanctuaries dining hull. She was quitew hungry herself not able to recall when she ate last at all."becuse i am" she said rubbing her shoulder a bit.

Amber didn't know what to do about the prospect of so many people hating or fearing her just because she was a mutant. It was one thing when all she had to worry about was the reactions of her fellow orphans, but would she now have to go everywhere fearing for her personal well being? Maybe if she hid her eyes all the time and only went out at night that might solve things. But she couldn't' see any better than anyone else, despite her eyes being black, so covering them with dark glasses might prove problematic at night. "M-maybe until I f-find out if I have a p-power I should learn to defend m-myself." That seemed like a good idea. Better to at least know how to take down an assailant so she had time to flee, just in case.

Even with Amber's brief time spent with Abyss, she had all ready come to value him as her father. She could see what kind of a person he was and he seemed to care for her in turn. He was the first person who had told her that she didn't need to be ashamed of her eyes. Whatever her own power was, however, she was pretty sure it wasn't super strength. That seemed like something she probably wouldn't have noticed. "Was he a-always super s-strong?" Because maybe if he wasn't always super strong it might be something that she could discover later, after all.

"I have a p-picture of one in my r-room if you want to see," Amber suggested, hopefully. "I d-don't think they live here, b-but I saw one at the zoo once." It had been the most beautiful thing she had ever seen and she had wanted to have it instantly but when she had asked one of her guardians if she could get a pet komodo dragon she had just gotten a sort of horrified expression on her face and denied the request. She knew it was a little unusual, not like a kitty or a puppy, but it wasn't like she was asking for a crocodile or a tiger or something dangerous like that. "Its l-like a giant l-lizard."

"I c-couldn't p-possibly take your money," Amber stated, vaguely disturbed by the idea. She was going to work for her keep, make herself useful. She wasn't going to take advantage of her sister's good nature. That would just be dishonest. She couldn't' possibly. "B-but I am hungry." She hadn't eaten since late last night.