A sigh of relief escaped the earth elemental's lips as he slid the last check into it's envelope and placed it in a stack along with several others. 'Bills' he thought to himself, 'I wish I could just go back to when they didn't seem to exist.'

Geo had spent the past several months working his fingers to the bone trying to pay off the seemingly endless piles of bills that had accumulated at his garage. They had gotten so bad that the shop had been cut off from electricity, water and heat for quite some time now and it's rather hard to run an Auto-Repair shop with out any of those things.

So with no money coming in through the shop Geo was left with very few choices as to how to collect the money to pay off the bills. He had at first picked up a few side jobs from friends, which all seemed to barely pay their worth, then he found himself working under the table for a construction company for several months until Geo lost his temper with a coworker and hospitalized the man with several shattered bones.

After that Geo went on a bit of a hiatus. Not working, not socializing, just sitting at his cold, powerless loft above his garage trying to figure out a way to work himself out of debt. At first he had thought of robbing a bank but that thought was quickly washed away by the realization that the NYPD would have a field day with the headline "BANK STRUCK BY SUDDEN EARTHQUAKE: YOUNG MAN SEEN FLEEING SCENE" With the MRC these days the must just sit around looking for anything weird to jump all over like it wasChristmas morning.

That was when Geo had his light-bulb moment. While Mutant crimes were being cracked down on regular crime was going as it always had before, nearly unscathed. So after a few held up convenience stores, several liquor stores and a small time drug store Geo found himself sitting at the small square wooden table in the kitchen of his loft looking at a stack of soon to be paid bills. For now, however, Geo wanted a hot shower and a warm bed to sleep in.

Pushing off the rickety old table Geo stood and stretched out his arms with a loud, long yawn. It seemed like every waking moment had been all work and no play and oh did Geo feel like he had become a dull boy. With a glance around the room Geo grabbed the handful of bills and a his worn green army bag he had stuffed with clothes he normally dragged with him between his loft and the dorm room he had at the Order. The young rock-head figured it was time for a change in scenery. He had spent so long sitting in this quiet, powerless icebox of a building and he felt as though it was time to go back to the Order and catch up on what he had missed.

Stepping quickly out the door and down the stairs Geo ducked out the glass paneled door to his shop and placed the envelops inside his letterbox, almost forgetting to put up the red flag. The shop floor of the garage was open and dark. No more cars sat around waiting to be fixed, no tool chests sitting around or workers hustling about, just a shadow filled box of cement with the exception of Geo's 1970 Roadrunner sitting in the center like it didn't belong in such a bland place. With a quick check of the locks Geo hit the garage door opener mounted on the wall and walked to the car as the mechanical whirling began overhead.

Tossing the bag into his passenger seat Geo climbed behind the wheel of the muscle monster and turned over the engine filling the garage with the roaring sound of it's 340 Magnum V8 engine kicking to life. After a few taps on the gas to help get the engine warmed up Geo pulled the beast out of park and pulled into the street, hitting his mobile garage door opener before he got out of range.

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

The Sanctuary wasn't a far drive from the shop, not to mention he had made the journey so many times he could do it with his eyes closed. It was late in the morning when he pulled into the vehicle bay, there were still tons of cars parked waiting for their drivers to come and take them out for the day. Irritatingly Geo's usual spot was filled by some beat down car, most likely one of the kids who were free loading here, so Geo pulled the the back of the vehicle bay next to all the tool chests that had been set up for residents who liked to fiddle around under their hood.

Flipping the car into park and popping the trunk Geo stepped out of the vehicle, bag in hand, and walked to the rear of the car and began to unload several other bags filled with items he deemed cherished enough to not leave in his cold loft for as long as it would take to get his utilities back.

The steady tap of footsteps echoed through the bay as Geo stood to close the trunk. Someone was walking towards him. He could only hope it was an old friend and not someone he pissed off before he left looking to get the drop on him.

Tanya wasn't exactly an old friend. The term "friend" might have applied once, for one evening, but certainly not any longer. Not since he shamelessly took advantage of her, and went on his merry way. He never called back. He probably didn't even remember who she was. But oh, did she remember him, and did she remember that stupid car of his. She knew he was coming. She could see him coming. She could also see just how little he really cared about her, back then. And she was going to give him a piece of her mind. But for all her powers of knowing and seeing, she had no way to tell who else was in the garage with them.

"Hey!" Tanya shouted, hoping to get Geo's attention. Her hopes were quickly dashed; there would soon be more pressing matters for him to attend to. With an ear-shattering KABOOM, a small silver sedan went airborne, flying over several other cars before landing directly on top of Geo's. Its precious 340 Magnum V8 had roared its last.

A small, red-headed child was lying on her back where the flying sedan used to be. Several different varieties of socket wrench were strewn about on the ground next to her. She quickly sat up and looked around, deeply distressed by the possibility of anyone catching her. Not that she would be able to avoid getting in trouble now that this happened.

Kaitlyn looked at Geo, then at Tanya, her eyes widened with fear, unsure whether running away could get her into more trouble.

”Hey!”

Geo froze he recognized that tone, though the voice rang a bell as well. No name came automatically but Geo spun around quickly to face the angered female. Desperately he began grasping for a name. Tori? No. Tami? Possibly. Terry, Tina, Tanya. Tanya! Of course that was it. He put on his best apologetic face but before he had time to react there was a loud explosion to several spaces over. Looking over to see what it was Geo saw a sedan flying through the air towards him and the upset girl. Thinking fast Geo moved quickly forward and dove into Tanya to get her out of the way as well and turned to take the heavy fall to the cement on his own back.

The young mutant was helpless as he watched the sedan fall onto his precious car crushing in the roof and causing the suspension to give out making the tires drive into the purple body, crushing the custom body work Geo had worked so hard on. As the windshields shattered glass sprayed from the wreck Tanya quickly ducked her head down but Geo couldn’t look away. As soon as they frame of his prized possession fell clunked on to the cement floor Geo hopped to his feet and quickly stepped over to the combined vehicles.

Geo’s arms swelled, his sleeves shattering as his arms became encompassed in stone as he pushed the tool chests off to the side like they weighed no more than the air around them. Grabbing roughly on to the sedan Geo pulled the massive sedan off of the former road runner and let it fall to the now empty spot next to where he had parked.

His eyes welled up with tears as he looked over the horrific scene. Reaching out Geo ran his hand across the crumbled roof of the car, his arms reducing back to their normal form as he did so. Wiping away the tears welling up in his eyes Geo fought back the urge to weep, he had loved this vehicle more than most things in the world so seeing it destroyed was more painful than most things Geo had experienced. Then came the anger, Geo pounded his fists against the hood several times though the damage was too far done for him to cause more.

Looking up over the car Geo noticed the culprit though he quickly threw away the term when he saw the little hazel eyes of Kaitlyn Faust looking up at him in fear. He couldn’t be mad. It saddened him to see his precious car destroyed but he was once a young mutant as well and he knew it was more than likely an accident.

Geo walked over past the end of the car and towards the young mutant, passing over Tanya without a second thought. He crouched down next to the young girl and offered her a hand to help her up. She knew how she must have felt and had it been anyone else Geo would have been furious but he couldn’t be mad at an innocent young girl without a hold on her powers.

”Its okay Kaitlyn.” He said in a broken voice. He had only met her once prior but he knew her enough to know she was the bosses ‘adopted’ daughter and that was enough to give her high standing in his book.

”What happened?” He asked quietly as he stood back to his feet looking over to the disaster scene.

Okay? Geo sure didn't sound like it was okay. He sounded completely heartbroken. That wasn't 'okay,' not by any stretch of the imagination. And it was all Kaitlyn's fault, for not keeping her power under control. Now, she would probably get back her reputation for being a walking time bomb; other residents might go back to trying to avoid her altogether, like they did when she was new at the Sanctuary.

Even worse, she had ruined Geo's prized car, and Geo was a fellow Order member. Kaitlyn cared a lot about how the other Order members saw her. She didn't want them to think she was an unreliable little kid who couldn't control her powers, even if that was right. To top it all off, even though Geo didn't want to show it, he was probably really mad at her. She saw how Geo pounded his fists against that car; he was mad. And it was all her fault.

She let Geo help her up, and stood next to him, taking a good look at the carnage she'd wrought.

"Sorry," She eventually managed to squeak. "It was an accident. I didn't mean to..."

She tried not to draw attention to the wrenches strewn about their feet, and hoped that nobody would ask about them, or why she was under that car in the first place.

Tanya seemed pleased with how everything turned out. Her original plan involved showing him the new trick that her X-Gene would let her do, but this was even better. Karma, it seemed to her at that moment, was real after all. "Sorry about your girlfriend, Geo," she smirked on her way out, just after giving Kaitlyn a thumbs-up.

“Sorry, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to…”

Geo shook his head, Kaitlyn was already obviously upset and he didn’t want to make it worse. He tried to push back the emotion of what had happened. He had spent a good portion of the past two years working on the car, tuning it to perfection, adding modifications where he saw fit and making repairs on the damage that had done during his various outings. Looking over to the young mutant next to him he placed a hand on her shoulder and bent at the knee slightly so that he was looking her in the eye.

”Really,” He said trying to keep his voice as collected as possible. ”Accidents happen sometimes. It’s part of us having powers. Shoot I still lose control of my powers no and again.” The first time Geo had used his powers he had accidently leveled half of his school and if he didn’t focus when touching the ground with his skin it was still very possible for him to lose control.

”Sorry about your girlfriend, Geo.”

Now she Geo was angry at. He threw a few nasty hand gestures in her direction that he probably shouldn’t have in front of a young girl and he’d be sure to catch up with her later and put her straight. If she hadn’t been seeking some sort of ‘Woman Scorned Crusade’ Geo’s car wouldn’t be a pile of scrap metal. Looking back to Kaitlyn then back over to the car Geo reached into his pocket and drew out a cigarette and lighter. His hands shook as he went to light the source of his bad habit but his nerves were shot at the moment.

”Just need to sit down…” Geo mumbled to himself as he walked over to the wall and sat on the ground with his back against it. Taking a deep drag of his smoke and blowing it out slowly Geo finally looked around the parking space Kaitlyn had been in and noticed the tools on the ground. ”What were you working on?” Geo asked with a raised eyebrow. He knew she was too young to own a car but he highly doubted she knew enough to work on one.

So, Geo lost control of his powers too. So did a lot of people. Even Lori did. But when Kaitlyn lost control of her powers, it almost always turned out a lot worse for everyone involved. Exhibit A: this. Geo's car, completely ruined. Kaitlyn always thought that Geo's car was the best car, before this happened. Geo seemed to care about it alot, too.

Speaking of cars being destroyed... she grimaced at the one that she'd been working with. Vince wasn't going to try driving that anywhere anytime soon. Alister wouldn't be happy. Kaitlyn herself wasn't happy right now, either. She'd taken that metal thing off and put it back where it needed to be like a pro. It didn't matter that she didn't know what any of those metal things were called. She was proud of herself for figuring that out. Until she destroyed the entire car and all the work she'd done --

What was she working on?

"I was just..."

She paused.

"I was fixing it."

Yeah, she was a twelve year old girl who fixes other people's cars. This was a completely believable story that Geo would hear, accept, and ask no further questions about.