It had been a long and productive day. Extorting money from people was real brow wiping work. He and his fellow Order Racketeer had really broken a sweat dropping priceless vases and threatening the families of at least ten shop owners in order to get them to pay up their monthly dues. They'd even gotten a chance to hold someone's pet hamster hostage! Spoiler: he ate it anyway.

"Might I say it has been a real pleasure working with you, Pink one! One more stop and our rout is finished... What do you say we make this one nice and messy?"

His compatriot, a younger mutant by the name of Aura, had been working for the Order for years, now, apparently. He had to say, he liked her tendency to lean toward the more violent end of their work. It was entertaining. It lacked restraint, which was great; he hated restraint!

"Our final stop is... Heroic Doughnuts. Just down the street." He read the name and location from a pad of paper with a sketch of a plant monster eating a kitten on it, and nothing more; he'd already memorized the locations, but the pad made it more... official.

He lead the way down the street, up to the very nerdy looking establishment, where he opened the front door, and invited Aura in first. "Lead the way, My dear!" His free hand reached up to lift his head wear, a too-tall top hat, to her, and wave her in with it.

The poor people in the comic shop would have no way of knowing the misfortune that was about to fall upon the tiny store; they were snug and secure in their quiet part of this loud city. Roach loved it. Horrid things were at their best when no one saw them coming.

She had enjoyed the day, her partner's mutation looked awesome and she could not help but admire the glorious form roach held. It was one of the more visible mutations she had seen and had to admit she wished she had one just like it. Maybe not as a roach but a visible mutation non the less. Aura did not voice her envy however. The man had a rare taste for things Aura found most of their kind lacked. Aura had never interacted much with roach and so she was unsure of the finer parts of his background.

"I have enjoyed this as well and im guessing by the fact you ate that rodent you have a more...adventurous apatite then most?" Aura asked calmly. In the last year Aura has begun expanding her repertoire of food. " I find people are far to reluctant to partake in many of earths creatures" She said shaking her head.

Then they were there and roach held the door open for her. Aura walked into the place. Their wee several customers and a single young looking man behind the counter. He seemed startled as he saw her but did not cower. It never occurred to Aura the man might have been startled by her friend. She had littile idea of the value of these things nor did she really care. She had however learned one very important fact in her time collecting insurance. The valuable stuff was usually under glass or kept an elaborate displays.

The man Tried to Say hello and as he did, Aura formed a drill around her hand, with an offhanded swipe Aura shattered a display case Then brought the comic and her drill down embedding in the counter top before the man. The X men #1 comic and the counter were now in need of repair. "Your late again......and whats that smell?" She asked, smelling the air. the Shop owner needed new underwear after the display.

"I have enjoyed this as well and im guessing by the fact you ate that rodent you have a more...adventurous apatite then most?"

The statement drew a chuckle from him. "Now, now, my dear you're narrowing your lens a little much. I would say my appetite is in line with the majority of the species on this planet. It's those of pink skin that tend to be picky... no offense, of course; I find you much more charming than most pinkies. If you are interested in expanding your portfolio of ingested fauna, I would be more than willing to help with that!" He clacked his mandibles three times, and then reminded himself to get back to the matter at hand.

He was the last of the two to walk in, and all of the eyes were laid upon him. "Oh dear, what ever could that hideous creature walking into your store be?" He said in a monotonous voice. Clearly they were ignorant; he was definitely not the one they should be keeping an eye on.

As if to prove that point, there was a loud crash as Aura busted a case open with her drill, and damaged a very valuable nerd artifact. Had he a soft mouth he would have smiled. That was what he liked about Aura; always right down to business. Some customers started to head for the exit. Roach propped himself up against the door. "Now, now, my fine people... You wouldn't want to miss the show, would you?"

The store owner piped in, his voice wavering. "I- I... Business has been a little slow... If. If I pay protection, I w-won't be able to make rent."

Roach sniffed the air as Aura brought up the subject of odor, and aside from the smell of shame and public embarrassment, he smelt... frying dough... His eyes wandered to the larger display, and the multitude of what appeared to be... strange looking pastries. His mouth immediately started watering.

He pushed past a customer to get to the doughnut display, and pressed his face against the glass. ignoring the girl behind that section of the counter as she shied away.

Aura enjoyed roach in a way she did not most people. Roach was quite effective at what he did and showed an impressive memory by memorizing their places to visit. Aura herself normally kept a color coded spread sheet. Aura questioned her memory more these days then ever but it was working out and she at least knew her memories after the forest were ok. She shrugged the thoughts aside and focussed on what they were doing however, work came first.

Him not making rent would certainly be an issue. Lori liked the money and though she disliked delays she usually wanted the money if it could be obtained. "I see, well, how much more expensive do you think getting your head sewn back on your body would be?' She said with a smile. It was not her favorite way to kill but it was certainly effective and scary to those she threatened with it.

Aura heard a door shut and her eyes rested on the bathroom where she could hear a muffled conversation when in which she was sure the word police came up. It was to late to stop her SO aura simply leaned in and smiled as she spoke to the owner. "I am not a patient person and if were up to me well.....i would have killed you by now, but it's not. Hey Roach man, what do you think, should we let him live, or send his body to his next of kin? she asked without so much as turning her head.

"Now now, Aura dear, we musn't break our toys." He said as a hand slowly pressed against the glass before him, and a line of drool made its way from his mandible to the ground at his feet. They had been at it this way all day, and it had worked. It was a simple strategy, really...

Aura was the loose cannon, not only willing to kill, but more than happy to take the time to get some pleasure out of it, he was the voice of reason; the one who made the deals after Aura had scared them silly... In short, they were playing a game of good cop, bad cop... Not that it was wholly a game; Gregory had little doubt that Aura would kill them if it came down to it. He managed to pull his eyes away from the pastries for a moment in order to address the store owner.

"Of course, if our toys leave of little choice, what else can we do? It's such a tough job, protecting this area." He walked on over to where his partner stood, and leaned against the counter. "Can you blame us if we get a little antsy when we don't get paid for our hard work?"

He leaned forward, close enough to whisper to the owner, even waving the man in a little. He very hesitantly complied. "SO HERE'S THE DEAL!" The owner let out a loud yelp and fell back. Roach went back to talking like nothing had happened.

"You said you didn't have enough to pay us, and pay rent. So, pay us. That, or we cause damage in your lovely shop equal to how much we feel you owe us, plus interest. Your choice." Personally, he liked the idea of beating this place up; it sounded like it would be a great way to wind down after a hard days work.

"Letting him live lends to less creativity" Aura said though most of her creativeness involved death and constructing things from the remains. Still Aura knew the routine well and took a single step back to allow Roach closer access to the man she had just threatened. She had known she likely would not be able to really kill the man. It was a said painful truth to her. Aura considered it a simple and better idea to simply kill the man now, loot the place and maybe burn the rest. Her words were more out of show then truth.

As roach did his part Aura began reforming her Aura drill into what looked much like an Aura chainsaw which even moved, however she quickly reformed this into a hammer, a sword and an axe. The idea was to make sure the man realized the truth, if roach told her to, she would simply kill him, without a thought and without careing about the act. Since she knew the man was human she wouldent have even minded cooking the man for old time sake.

Aura looked around at the scared patrons, cutting an iphone in half as she saw somone start to try dialing. She made sure in proving her point she missed the womans fingers but still clipped her long finger nails. No herocis" she said shaking her head almost hoping this dumb animal would tempt he rinto ending her life. The woman simply whimperd however and dropped the other half of her now much smaller phone.

As Aura was playing damage control, and preventing further people from contacting the police, Roach was coaxing the money out of the man... He finally caved and opened up the register, reaching out with shaky hands to present... eighty five dollars.

Eighty five dollars.

"You must have more..."

The man whimpered out an, "It's all I have." To which Roach sighed, and turned to Aura. "You can manage, say... four hundred and fifteen dollars worth of damage, yes?" He was sure she would do more, but he really didn't mind. He snagged the cash from the man, shoved it in his shell, walked over to the glass doughnut case, smashed it open, and began grabbing as many of the little sweets he could hold.

Aura had no idea what $415 worth of damage actually was. Aura lacked the knowledge of what thing's were worth. However she simply did her job until told to stop and so ignoring the poor shop keepers plea, Aura scanned the room and wondered briefly if one of the terrified human was worth more or less then the required amount. Deciding against killing anyone, she would have to ask the value of Human life, perhaps Roach could give her a dollar amount later.

AUra walked up to the closest wall and forming a hammer on her fist punched through the paint and drywall with little effort, the result kicked up a small cloud of dust and through the hole, one could see that Aura had barely missed one of the wall's support beams. The blow to the wall also caused a picture frame to fall, it's glass frame shattering as it struck ground. Backing up Aura considered her first question.

"How much is a human life worth anyway?" Aura asked obviously curious.

"How much is a human life worth anyway?"

What a gem of a question, his dear associate proposed. Roach took a delicate bite from one of the doughnuts... called the wolverine claw, and then guzzled the whole thing in the next bite.

"An exemplary question, Aura... The response is widely variable. Think about it this way. Time is money. When you kill someone, you have to think about how much time it will take to clean up of the mess. How will you hide the bodies? How will you be sure to escape notice? Are there any witnesses you have to kill as well? Shoring up all of these things takes time. It also makes it difficult to kill people in public places, sadly enough." He walked about as he talked, grabbing the cheek of a female hostage and wiggling it affectionately as he talked about killing witnesses. " Should the person deserve to die, though, it subtracts from the value; say someone cuts you off in traffic. You are completely justified in chasing them down, dragging them into an alley, and doing the dirtiest of deeds right then and there... there are also things that make a life worth more... are they well spoken? Do they have impeccable style taste? All in all I would value the average human life to be... roughly 500 dollars in worth."

He took a thoughtful bite of the shadowcat danish... it was light as air. Delectable. "Break his no-dominate arm or something... the one he doesn't make these exquisite pastries with... that should do it for now... Want a doughnut?" Roach did an artful spin, slapped a man with glasses nice and hard, picked up his glasses, placed them back on his face gently, and then slapped them off again. "After that I think we'll be done here!"

Roaches answer was very complex and Aura did not follow it well at all. "I don't understand, i prefer when i could simply kill and fight. I have gotten in trouble for public massacres a number of times however...." she said in reply. Lori really did not like them which was a shame but Orders were orders and she did try and follow them. Still using such things to establish value was odd to Aura though and from Aura did understand of roach's words he seemed right.

Aura moved to the frightened owner and without warning, kneed the man in the gut, he doubled over and Aura quickly formed a hammer on her right arm, her aura had barely gotten in place to form the hammer when it struck the man in his upper arm on the left. A Loud snap could be heard as the man screamed loudly. She backed away letting the man nurse his arm. Aura shrugged and looked around curiously.

"I am fine" she said to the offer of food. weather they knew it or not they likely were very lucky Roach came, Aura mused to herself. SImply killing all the customers in the room, Aura figured would have worked as well.

"I don't understand, i prefer when i could simply kill and fight. I have gotten in trouble for public massacres a number of times however...." His antennae shot straight up as he she enlightened him on that little fact. "Ah, well... You still can... it's best you pick the appropriate time, and place, though. At the rate you are going, though... someone will catch you soon..." His shell shivered in pleasure as he heard that lovely snapping sound.

"Ahh... I do love that note... You truly are a master at your trade, m'gal..." He casually popped a doughnut into his maw, and walked toward the door, opening it up for her. "It would be a shame to see you in a place such as... say, a maximum security prison. A harsh cage for such a pretty soul."

He danced out behind her, and then froze in place, dropping his doughnuts and turning to her. "Aura... You owe it to your kind, and the place you call your home to stay alive, and stay out of any cages." He reached into his shell, and produced a small business card. "Take my card... Should you find yourself in trouble... Call me. I will do what I can to help you... At the same time, It may be for the best if you avoid those public massacres whenever possible." He tilted his head, and then walked onward. "It was a pleasure working at your side, today; perhaps we can do so in the future."

"I grew up believing i would die in battle, we were told the front line always had high casualties. You are right as well Life in a cage is undesirable" she said honestly. She had no desire to return to a cage. Their work done she turned and followed roach out the door. Roach's words made sense however, to much public exposure was a bad thing. SHe ahd been trying to avoid such on Lori's orders, otherwise she felt Roach may well have been right, she would be dead or incarcerated.

She took the card looking it over. SHe would call him one day she thought to herself. He was a wonderful man, who seemed remarkably bright compared to how many others might live as a bug. Theri obviously wa snot much hiding for the roach man, then aagain Aura knew her picture wa sin every police station in the state.

"I will try my best" she said as they parted ways SHe was unsure what roach was asking to help with but she hoped it had to do with staying out of cages or maybe better ways to kill.

"I would enjoy working with you once again" She said happily as they parted ways. Aura veered torward sanctuary decideing the gang leader she had chosen to hunt tonight could live for another day.