Travis was bored.

Today was Sunday, the last Sunday before Christmas. This time of year was always a little depressing to the mechanic, as, being an orphan, he didn’t really have anyone to celebrate the holidays with, and it more or less drove the point home. He was 25, single, and while he wasn’t rich, he wasn’t really poor either… one would have thought he would have found a girl by this point. Hell, he hadn’t had a date since Highschool, his job and running the shop having almost consumed his life… but regressing from those thoughts, that wasn’t why he was bored.

It was Sunday… and that was the one day every week that the shop was closed down, primarily because three out of the four mechanics he had employed attended religious services that day. He was already working them 6 days a week until he could afford to upgrade the shop and hire some more workers, but for now, he wasn’t going to push his luck. Granted, their hours weren’t bad, and they shared the workload well, but on a day off, for a man driven by his job, it got pretty boring. Especially when you literally lived a set of stairs away from where you worked every day.

So, without anything to do, he ensured the shop was locked up tight, grabbed his iPhone, and waltzed out to his truck. He never brought the keys… didn’t need them, and less chance of them getting taken or more likely, him leaving them somewhere. He was kind of bad about that… it was a feat of amazement he kept track of his wallet, but that was only due to years of conditioning himself to putting it in the same spot every time… not like anyone would ever be able to steal it, anyway. It was safely locked up in his inside jacket pocket… the small wallet actually required a key to open, making it impossible for him to lie if someone tried to take it… as once again, he never had the key.

As he reached the door of his truck, he paused, as he thought he had heard something aside his own footsteps, and took a moment to look around.

Aura was back at her job, pushing mutant insurance as well as finding mutants that lived in area. Things had changed a bit in the area, as of course she had assumed it would. Their were more mutants in the area as human family upped and left, sometimes of their own accord. Aura smirked to herself, hoping to find the lovely red names on the list. She sighed, not one was on it, but their was a new shop that had opened up within order territory. Aura decided it was priority to check it out after it all it was a business.

Aura looked at the address and moments later the raven haired teen had taken to the streets, a black hoodie pulled up over her head. Moving through alley ways she largely avoided people which was good as Aura was decently well known. She came very close to stopping to fight a drug dealer, but moved on, only scaring him and watching as he ran away. Aura had little concept of Sundays being off for most people as her religion did not believe in days off.

Aura found the shop and heard a fallen stick snap under her foot as she walked. "Hello" she said raising her hand as she saw Daoine and headed toward him. "I am Looking for a Travis Kable " She said looking at the piece of paper. She hardly looked professional or threatening and as she pushed her hood back, one could see she was in her late teens.

He turned, looked, and saw an attractive, if not a bit young, woman walking towards him. Being relatively observant, Travis noticed that there was something about her… something about the way she walked with a certain confidence, that told him that this young woman was on a mission and was capable of handling herself. Still, she seemed to be polite enough, and apparently, whatever she had to do involved himself. Maybe she was in need of a repair that couldn’t be moved? It had happened before, and more often than not, Travis would go ahead and visit the place in order to fix up the vehicle enough to get it to the shop.

“Well, it seems you found him. What can I do for you, Miss…” It was obvious, Travis wanted a name to attach to a face. Not really involving himself with the gangwars and such going on in the area, he didn’t know who she was. The hood was removed, only adding to both her charm and her youthful appearance, but she hardly seemed to be someone who needed to be so serious… Look could be deceiving though, so he would try to take this as seriously as he could. He wore a generally neutral smile, and looked directly into the young woman’s eyes, a sign of respect to the young girl. Perhaps she just needed a ride? Or maybe someone had referred her to him for his mechanical expertise… Regardless, it was time to stop grasping at straws and let the young woman do the speaking.

She had found him on her first try. Things were not normally nearly this simple in her experience, but it had to happen once she assumed. "My name is Aura" she said calmly knowing the name would likely give her away as a mutant that was fine with her. "I sell Mutant Insurance" she said her eyes told however of a far deeper meaning to her words. Aura expected a rejection even anger as was often the case but they always won in the end.

With a smile Aura looked around and sure no one else was watching, Aura let her body be surrounded by her aura. If he did not know she was a mutant before he certainly would now."you see, Mr Kable i am Mutant and i need to ask you if you are one as well. Non-Mutants without insurance tend to have accidents" she said her voice remaining relatively cheerful as she spoke to the person, staring right back, even as sher aura faded to a dull outline of her body, still around her fist formed an translucent pink axe, before fading from veiw entirely. "I can understand if you would like to take this to a more private area" she said though the street had seemed relatively void of traffic.

Aura… a pretty name, although it sounded weirdly fake. Likely a code-name or something… a lot of people seemed to use those when they wanted to protect their real name. Now, he had a guess as to what she meant by ‘mutant insurance’ and had a general feeling for where this was going. He stifled himself for now, trying to remain serious, but the mood of the situation was downright hilarious. Here was a young girl demanding money for ‘protection’, something that not only would he never pay for from some mafia-wanna-be, but something he didn’t need. He was well capable of taking care of himself in most situations, and he had a helluva lot of insurance on his shop… if they thrashed it, it would only make the situation better for him. So when she flexed her power, he showed absolutely no sign of fear or even apprehension… but as she finished, he couldn’t hold it in any more.

Travis burst into laughter.

It was obvious that this wasn’t directed at the young woman, who was obviously being serious despite the false politeness of the situation. After a few moments of laughter, he managed to take in a breath and stifle the sound. “No no, please, I’m sorry, but this situation is almost as if it’s out of a bad movie. Please, come inside, let me get you something warm to drink…” Moving to the door, he unlocked it without any sort of keys, but wasn’t really showing her his power either… she would be left guessing for now, as his back was turned so she couldn’t see.

Moving inside, he held the door open for the young woman, and moved inside afterwards, locking the door behind them. “With absolutely no disrespect, even if I was a normal human, I’m certain that there isn’t a snowball’s chance in hell that I would cower in fear at your approach… you should work on your approach. Besides, you gotta use tact when dealing with people, depending on the type of person they are. Regardless, yes, I’m a mutant… although for some reason, I wonder why you guys are only comin’ down here now. The shop’s been open for years, although it did get a recent name change when I took over. Why the interest now?”

Aura raised an eyebrow the laughter, it had happened before. "I watch no movies" She said honestly. Lori's mental note that keeping people alive to pay was important kept her from stabbing him. She watched as he unlocked the door and moved to follow, her aura wrapping around her body ina thin looking translucent veil. Aura had been ambushed before as well and had grown to using her Aura whenever she entered a new persons business or home.

A mutant good, that eased her her deposition considerably. "People are easy, either they are Human and must pay the insurance, or they are mutant and do not need to. Humans who avoid this are....warned and after that i get to play. I am rather fond of building furniture from human remains" she said honestly. She was not trying to scare him rather simply inform him of her practice to humans.

"Still your are prolbely right, dealing with people verbally has never been my strong suit. I am more of a solider" she said truthfully. SHe looked around clearly with caution. "As for why the interest now i can not say, my job is to simply ensure payment of those non-mutants in the area and to check on places that come up." She said. She had no idea why the place had not been targeted earlier, though it could have been simply the large area the order controlled.

Travis noticed her reaction to the laughter… he sensed a smidge of smothered hostility, but that was fine… at least this young woman possessed control. He decided to hold off on commenting further about it for now, and simply use his own tact and professionalism to mold the situation to where it needed to go. Once inside, he made a suggestive hand gesture to a pair of seats sitting in the middle of the waiting room, and moved to the counter, where there was hot water still in the tank. “Would you like hot chocolate, instant coffee, or instant tea?” he asked politely. Regardless, it would be prepared in a very short amount of time, and he would join her at the table after grabbing something else off the shelf.

“Well, if I were in your situation, I would watch this…” He slid a DVD copy of the Godfather across the table to her. “If for no other reason than to make sure I don’t use lines that will bring about laughter rather than the fear you obviously intended. That aside, do you actually protect those who pay you?” It was an honest question, one that inquired some truth to her ‘insurance’. He laughed about the comment of using human remains for furniture, but not because he didn’t believe her. “I’m sorry, bones don’t sound comfortable.”

That being said, he moved on.

“I can only guess, considering you say you work best as a ‘soldier’ that you are one of the enforcers, so to speak. I’m not the type of guy to stick my nose in other people’s business, but I can’t help but wonder what you guys are hoping to accomplish by instilling fear in the humans. If I were the one running the show, if I may, I would be trying to win hearts and minds, and turn the humans into people who ‘wanted’ to help my cause.”

That said, he sipped on his own Hot Cocoa and watched her reactions.

She took one of the seats, her eyes glanced around again, but they did seem to be alone. He offered her a drink, she drank none of what was offered, or rather had never tried them other then coffee. "Tea" she said with a shrug. She caught the DVD on the table and glanced at it. "I will do as you request, but you are the first to openly laugh at me. Humans tend to beg and plead and Mutants have nothing to fear" She said glancing at the back of the dvd case.

He asked if they protected their clients, they did in a way. Aura reached into hag and pulled out a dozen licensees and dropped them on the table. "We control the area, each of these for example was taken from a human gang member who wished to operate in our area without our knowledge. I have never been asked to pursue a criminal who robbed a client, but then i get a long with humans poorly" she said witha smile. even she knew poorly was putting it mildly.

"we are different people, my Boss, you and me. She began, her Aura flared up a bit when she closed her eyes for a moment. "See if it were up to me, i would eviscerate every human over the age of fourteen within a thirty mile radius, to start of course. But Orders are Orders, Even suicidal ones, they come before our own wants and needs" She said her face had picked up the passion that was in her voice. "Either way, Mutants are protected, for them their is no need for the insurance" she said simply.

Travis liked placing himself in other people’s shoes, particularly ones that weren’t often filled, so putting himself into a position of power in this ‘mobster’ faction that this young woman was a part of was rather interesting, if not a bit disconcerting how easy it was to do so. For now, he would continue his conversation, and worry about the ‘humanity’ of it later… this conversation was fun, as it was incredibly rare.

“OK, you have a grudge, which considering what usually is reasoning for such hatred, you probably have good reason.” He wasn’t about to go into asking why… usually it was involving pain and sorrow… not something for now. “But still, I didn’t gain my abilities until I was nearly 17… I know of one guy that it didn’t happen until he was 21… you can’t define an age limit.” Moving away from that subject, he instead attacked another one that he wanted to hit.

“Aside that, your overall purpose, I got that… I can understand what it is whoever it is that leads your group is thinking, you just got to work on the wording. ‘Insurance’ is bad because it promises protection should that family be attacked by your enemies, right? So instead, call it rent, or something like that. That way, they know what they are paying for, and essentially that’s the ability to continue living wherever it is that they are living. It also places you in a position of power, as their ‘landlord’. I still say the ‘hearts and minds’ tactic would be better, because then you would have expendable troops that would flock to you and you could give orders at your discretion, but that’s my opinion.”

"No, no you can't" she agreed but the passion in her eyes barely flickered. Every war had casualties and deaths, these were to be minimized and Aura saw no better way then the elimination of humanity on mass. Without humans things would be far more equal in her eyes. Still she took the Opportunity to let the subject change. She enjoyed talking about her past, as sad and tragic as it was. Aura was a woman of pride and loyalty, she followed her orders and what more could one hope for?

"it makes sense to allow the humans to become expendable troops, much like dogs or monkeys" she considered aloud. It would likely prevent Mutants from dieing she aloud herself in her thinking. "This is the only insurance i know off" she admitted. Aura had never paid car insurance or any other such thing. Her room and board and even her food had almost always been provided to her. In fact she had no real scale for the cost of things.

"Whatever makes the humans leave faster is fine with me, i don't even like touching the things" she said with a visible shiver. Aura despised a human touching her at all and had murderd more then one person for the very act. "Either way i do not lead, i do not give orders, i tried that once" she said looking away for a secound. Yes she had certainly tried that.

"I was thirteen when my powers emerged during a fight with a classmate. she was dead long before she hit the ground" she said thinking back. She had no idea how this man found his mutation but it had to be more pleasant then her own. "I hope your own experince was more pleasant" she said, truthfully hoping his story was kinder but knowing it likely wa snot.

Travis quietly and patiently listened to the young woman as he set the cup of warm instant tea in front of her, and moved quietly to the other side of the table. There were two subjects on the table, one being the elimination of humanity, which the woman seemed rather bent towards, and the other was his manifestation of his own powers. While one was certainly lighter in nature than the other, he saw no reason to not end the conversation on a high note, so he would start with the darker topic first.

“You know, that was something else I noticed too. The number of mutants is increasing… it’s still a small percentage, but more and more I think it is the next step in human evolution. You talk about Genocide, but I think Mother Nature is going to filter them all out eventually, it just might take some time.”

Travis had left the tea-bag in the cup, and would silently help her should she need it. Not many people drank instant tea in the younger generation, so he was prepared to take the bag out before she sipped it and got a bad taste in her mouth. He then seamlessly moved to the other subject… but this one he seemed a little more hesitant about than the first.

“My powers manifested peacefully when I was working on my truck…” he said, glancing at his pride and joy sitting outside. He made no different manner or gesture to the young woman who’s hands were dyed deeply in the color of blood… this was who she was, and society would reject her, but not this man. He wasn’t unsure that if he had been in her shoes, he would have done differently, so he couldn’t try to make her ‘see the light’ or anything of that nature. Travis was many things, but above all, he was understanding of one’s position… even one such as hers.

"I believe your right. My first Master tought me, that Mutants are th evaluation of man. When a species evolves, the old one fades away. But Most of the time those previous species does not have Automatic weapons and Mortars" she said. It was a belief of hers that humanity would eventually be replaced, but how many of their kind had to suffer in the meantime. She smiled then as she spoke next. "Her teachings also went on that only one true sentiment race could be on a planet at time, thus Humans are no different then deer or cow, cept human tastes worse"

"You don't hear many kind stories like that" she said honestly. Most of what Aura heard of Mutants pasts and she talked to many at Sanctuary, were usually tragic. Their were some good tales true, but they were few and far between. "I Live with many mutants so i get to hear and watch people powers all the time. Their is Little more beautiful then a Mutants powers" she said, her voice making it obvious she lacked any doubt about this.

Humans inherently could never trust mutants. Their might be peace for a time, but people would wonder any time a mutant won if they had used some sort of power to aide them. It would then simply be a matter of time before one such incident detonated the pile. Aura could only hope for th honor of being the trigger. "Last time i drove i watched an old man bounce off the hood and ended up in a pool" she said. She knew little about cars other then it hurt to get hit by one and the basics.

Travis chuckled at the young woman’s first sentence. “Very True.” He then went on to listen to what she said next, and while he gave no outward sign, the feeling that she had actually tasted humans was a discomforting thought. “As must as our abilities, and sometimes our appearances, may differ from that of a normal human, in all reality, we are human too. Every mutant that I have ever heard of started out as a human being… the manifestation of powers doesn’t change that fact… but it does change a lot of other things. I’ll agree, the way general humanity is treating us as a whole is wrong, but then again, we aren’t doing ourselves a lot of favors with all of our retaliation. I’m no Gandhi, but I know when I see a bad outcome of Violence versus Violence.”

Travis paused for a moment… as an idea came to light.

“You know what would honestly solve a LOT of issues? If we made our own country. Find a good bit of landmass away from General Population, and start a Mutant Country. That way, all the discrimination and whatnot wouldn’t happen, and considering everyone’s powers, no one would start any wars. It would solve so many problems it would be ridiculous.” That being said, he started going over the logistics of such an action… granted, it would take a LOT of doing, but it was feasible.

After another moment, he turned his attention back to the young woman. “Sorry, a bit off topic, I think. Considering what you said, do you need driving lessons? We do a class every Sunday.” They hadn’t been, because no one was interested as of yet… but there was a first time for everything.

"Simply because two species look alike does not mean it is so. Genetically we are mostly human, but so is a chimpanzee. Either way our powers alone show we are not them, we are something new." she said evenly before continuing. "That violence will come now or ir our children will fight it later but it will come. she said glad he at least agreed their people were getting the short end of the stick.

"it's certainly a pleasant thought. A place where i did not need to worry about the touch of a human" she said with a smile. It was true attacking an entire nation of Mutants would be a hard task but Aura felt it was possible. Still Aura also thought it might well be the first roots of the Mutant utopia she wanted to create. A base of operations and nation always meant an army. "who would run such a nation though?" she asked knowing few mutants in any real positions of power.

"That would be helpful though i lack a license and with my lengthy record, i'm probably not getting one. " she offered. It was pretty much true, Aura had never tried to obtain one, but figured they did not typically give them out to those who racked up kills like she did. It was a good skill to know she knew and if he did not mind teaching her she did not mind learning.

Travis nodded grimly. “Where there is differences, violence always seems to come up. Look at the African Americans and the Civil War, for instance. Granted, circumstances are different, but when you boil it down, it comes down to one type of human having rights that the other didn’t… and the war that was fought so they could be on the same level. I just hope it can be done without too much bloodshed…” Travis’ tone was particularly ‘blue’ about this topic, as if it had been something that he had thought about quite a bit, and didn’t like the idea of in the least.

Back on their other subject, Travis made another comment. “The nation of Sanctuary. Where a mutant could be safe and grow up without worries of prejudice. It would be hard as hell to manage such a powerful nation though… and from a logistical standpoint, it was be damn near impossible to keep the peace in the streets when disputes came up without a very powerful group set on enforcing the law. I don’t know… but it is an idea, I think, that should be explored.”

And finally, their final subject, Travis came to realize that this woman was likely wanted by the Law, and thus, wouldn’t be able to procure a real license. Still, she could be taught to drive, none-the-less… and Travis always loved the idea of getting someone behind the wheel of a vehicle safely. “You don’t need a license to drive… at least, not when the cops are already going to be after you, but it sure as hell beats walkin’. If you get enough cash to get a car, drop by, and I can help you out, both with driving lessons, and maintanence.” Travis finally shut his yap, and waited for the young woman to respond.