Rocketing at speeds well in excess of three hundred miles an hour it took the air elemental no time at all to the perimeter of Mondragon labs. As the industrial looking complex came into sight Zephyr swiftly brought himself down to a more controllable speed and searched for a place to land. This normally simple task was made rather hard by the fact that he did not want to reveal the fact he could fly just yet, so far that little trick had only be revealed to a pair of twins he had encountered at the statue of liberty. However Simon justified his actions at lady liberty by taking into account the rather useful little parlour trick the girls had helped him create. Hunter however had no need to know that he was not bound to the earth, and even if he did know the mans guards most certainly did not.

Deciding that it would be easiest to land a ways off and approach on foot as he had last time Zephyr set a little over a mile away from Mondragons main entrance and casually made his way over the sloping terrain, silently thanking the fact that Tris was rather petite and therefore not very heavy or he might have had a more difficult time.

As it was by the time he had gotten past all the security checks and told the receptionist to inform Hunter of his arrival precisely 54 minutes Since he had first drugged his target. Fortunately the sedatives in the darts lasted for a minimum of twelve hours, so the elemental had plenty of time to carry the drugged girl down to one of the many containment chambers scattered throughout the facility. It may not have been exactly where Hunter wanted his supposed recruit but as Zephyr lay the red head down on the cold steel platform that served as a bed he found he couldn't think of anywhere else to put her. The guards barracks certainly wouldn't have been appropriate, though it might have been amusing. She wasn't really injured so the medical didn't really fit and as the labs didn't have any sort of residence hall there was nowhere else to put her. Shutting the cell door Simon neglected to activate any of the usual safety protocols, after all Trista wasn't going anywhere and Simon was fairly sure that when Hunter did arrive he'd be moving her to another part of facility.

Crossing over to a somewhat uncomfortable bench that provided the only seating for any observers Zephyr spent another minute or two looking through Trista's shopping before pulling out a newspaper which he deftly unfolded and began reading as he waited for Hunters arrival.

Hunter strode into the cells where he had been informed that Zephyr had dropped the girl off. Spotting Zephyr on the bench he cam up to him and, without taking a seat, turned to look at the unconscious form of Trista Evans.

Hunter didn’t bother to ask why she was unconscious, and seeing as Zephyr had approached on foot as opposed to by vehicle of flying, as a man in Europe had confirmed he could, he knew that she had been hit by a dart and so would be unconscious for hours.

Zephyr’s lack of immediate response indicated that the woman had not been darted due to an unwillingness to co-operate, but more likely as either a test of the darts or a way to fly her here without he know that he could fly. However, she may have assumed that he had darted her, and may have passed out before mentioning this to Zephyr.

Rather than take the risk of her waking up, seeing Zephyr and attack out of fear, he would dismiss the mercenary before waking the girl. Turning to Zephyr he said, “Good work, the bonus you asked for is being transferred to your account.” As recruitment, or kidnapping in this case, an additional duty to the ones he was hired for Zephyr had requested a bonus of $250,000, which Hunter had agreed to.

“So what did you offer her?” he asked. He needed to know what Miss Evans believed she was receiving before he would revive her, as that knowledge would be crucial in convincing her that working for him was the best course of action. Zephyr had been authorised to offer half a million dollars as a salary, but told that he could go up to a full million if he needed to. If she required something else to persuade her to come he was to offer her anything she asked for, as he was confidant that he could provide it.

Zephyr made no distinct reaction to Hunters abrupt arrival, not even bothering to take his eyes away from the page he was reading as he heard his employer approach him and then turn away to face the unconscious form of Trista Evans.

At any moment the British merc expected to hear questions about why he had decided to drug the girl instead of bringing her in peacefully, yet they didn't come. Instead the man congratulated him on a job well done and told his bonus was on its way, which brought a pleased grin to the elementals lips; at the rate he was going it wouldn't be long before his personal savings rivaled that of most governments, 'There's an idea' he told himself pleasantly, 'I wonder what it would be like to own my own country?'

Before he could take his musings any further though Hunter brought his mind back to the present by inquiring about what exactly the elemental had offered the girl on his behalf.

"I first offered her the same lucrative salary you extended to myself and the others" He replied in a bored monotone, not even bother to rise from his seat or put away the paper he was still pursuing. "The idea of wealth intrigued her though I believe she will settle for half a million perhaps less." Zephyr paused here as he turned the page of the newspaper before continuing, "However I believe her greatest motivation is control, something she is greatly lacking at the moment. She relies on gestures to direct her explosions and believes that without her hands she is incapable of using her mutation."

Looking away from his paper for the first Zephyr looked at Hunter, "I pity whoever has to teach her; she has something of an attitude and is rather volatile"

Control. Hunter could provide that, especially after using her powers and determining all of the triggers for it. he knew that he could teach her, and hoped that the offer of control would be sufficient to negate the drugging.

“Don’t worry, under my tutelage she will gain complete mastery over her power,” he assured the elemental, “as you have of yours. I don’t want you here when she awakes, as the last thing I need is her attacking you on sight and blowing up something valuable. See yourself out.”

With that said he entered the cell and picked up Miss Evans, her weight unnoticed. Walking swiftly he carried her to the infirmary and placed her on a bed. Picking up a syringe he extracted a large amount of blood, though not enough to affect her. There was enough there to give him two goes at using her power.

Handing the blood to and orderly with instructions to take them to Dr Ingram for analysis he turned back to Miss Evans. With the room empty of people besides her and him he picked up a needle containing the anti-toxin. Injecting it into her system he stepped back and waited for her to awaken.

Raising an eyebrow at his sudden dismissal Zephyr shrugged his shoulders and proceeded to fold his paper away as slowly as possible. He had wanted to be present when Trista was revived simply to see the expression on her face, but he wasn't going to arguer with the one paying his rather excessive salary. Rising from his seat he placed his paper under one arm and retrieved the bottle of scotch he had spotted earlier.

As he made to leave the room he paused at the exit and glanced back at Hunter who was lifting the sleeping girl as though she was a rag doll. "When she revives could you please thank Ms. Evans for me? It's been a long time since I've had good scotch" the elementals voice was perfectly innocent and if one didn't know him very well they might actually think he was being sincere.

Not waiting to see how his employer responded Zephyr wandered down the maze of hallways that was Mondragon labs as he made his way back to his penthouse apartment.

Trista looked peaceful in her sleep, nice and relaxed and pliable....but this was just a drug induced state as Hunter was about to find out.

AS the antitoxin worked in her system, wiping out the tracing of the drug holding her in captive stupor, she stirred and opened her eyes, blinking blurring blank eyes as she looked up at the celling and memory and the events of the day asserted themselves, clamoring for attention in her increasingly irate mind.

She shot up and sprang to her feet.....which she should not have done so quick as a headache was forming and a woozy empty feeling in her stomach because of the after effects of the antitoxin and of her action....nevertheless she would not be deterred by the discomfort,
"That two faced son of a jackal!!!"
she muttered as her eyes flashed taking in where she was, stopping as sight took in the other figure in the room.

She stepped towards him, managing not to stagger slightly, her anger the only thing keeping her upright when the only thing her body wanted was to sit down in a nice corner and not move for an age- Trista overruled the feeling, fear and anger and bewilderment needing answers first.
"Who the hell are you!! Whats going on! and where the bloody hell am I!"
All of these not so much questions as articulations of the rage inside, but never the less demanding answering.
However to her tired mind in overdrive something was more pressing even then the answers she sought.......revenge against her oppressor. A complete focus of icy calm in her voice as she addressed the man;
"Where is he!"
It wasn't so much a question as an order.
"Tell me where he is, cause I'm gonna blow that arrogant smile right off his face and anyone who gets in my way."

Putting a chillingly threatening tone into her voice and raising her hands ready to put this claim into practice.....Trista didn't usually like to hurt people unless they threatened her first.....she was abit past that now....

Hunter had a calm and pleasant smile on his face, one he had perfected over the centuries. As Trista came forward and rambled her questions he simply stood there, his hands behind his back in a non threatening manner. As she raised her hands and issued her threat he decided it best if he helped calm her down.

“Nice to see you awake Miss Evans,” he said in a calming tone of voice, without the faintest hint of malice, deception or superiority, “I am Hunter Antonescu. You are in the infirmary of my facility. You were brought here so I could administer and antitoxin to the one that the dart placed in your system. While the toxin was none lethal, it would have kept you unconscious for several hours.”

“What is going on is the offer that my associate gave you before you were hit by the dart. The six figure salary and the promise of learning control. You have such a gift Trista, such potential. I want to help you achieve your potential. I can help you harness your gift, place it under your command to do with as you will.”

As he spoke he invoked his mesmerising stare, suppressing her anger and helping her to calm down. What was originally a seething, almost murderous rage was slowly suppressed to a serious resentment of Zephyr.

Tris listened to the latest of mysterious men talk to her about her and her gifts in her increasingly weird ass day. She found she was stared at the mans face, her gaze seemed locked to those striking silver eyes until there was nothing else, and began to feel a strange kind of calm overtake her......well strange for her in any case, as slowly the seemingly ever present rage that seemed to simmer just below the surface of her psyche silently began to flowed away leaving a clear head and allowing logic to actually take place in the discussion for a change- Tris was a rather emotional creature at times.

She was still furious at Zephyr.....but seemed able to compress the feeling into a tight little ball of resentment that she could pull out and look at at her leisure for revenge and entertainment purposes...it was only logical after all.....funny she could never do that before.

She was still feeling weird from getting up so fast, and so sat back down on the bed, hands resting on the sheets by her sides- she didn't feel she was in any danger.

"Its nice to meet you Mister Antonescu, and I appreciate your offer- just forgive me if I'm alittle suspicious...people offering you everything on a silver platter rarely do so for purely altruistic reasons......so whats the catch?"
the change in Trista and her tone was amazing, from fiery red head to calmly talking business in so short a time.....she might have thought it strange if she hadn't been in this relaxed state of mind.


Trista sighed, a pouting expression to her features, clearly having something on her mind.
"I really don't understand that guy."
she said in a puzzled voice, returning to the kidnapping situation.
"I mean I'd already agreed to come here and talk.....the whole knocking me unconscious thing really wasn't necessary......I think your man has some issues....and not very customer service friendly."
she said in a conspiratorial whisper, pleased with the fact that, while she couldn't cause some serious harm to mister mysterious alley guy, she could damn well give a bad report to his boss.......its the little things that really count with petulant and malicious behavior.....though Trista got the feeling, mysterious alley guy could hold his hold in that department.

“I understand why you would be hesitant about accepting,” he said, releasing the mesmer now that she had calmed down, “and there is a ‘catch’ if you will. The catch is that in return for a half a million dollar salary, a brand new penthouse apartment and training to control your gift you will work for me.”

“I am not an entirely honest businessman,” he said with a conspiratorial smile suggesting that he was letting her in on a big secret, that she was one of a privileged few who knew this. The fact that this was true made it all the easier to pull off.

“There are times when I need to seek more lucrative methods to solving problems. To that end I am gathering mutants into a team, code named the Kabal, that I can deploy to seize assents that would otherwise be out of my grasp. I would like you to become the latest member of that group.”

“You have already met one member, Zephyr. Although he hasn’t made a sterling first impression he is a calm and level headed individual. I apologise for the use of the knock out dart, but he deemed it necessary as this location is top secret. You were only rendered unconscious so that if you decline the offer you could be returned to your home without the knowledge of this location.”

“There are three other members that you have not met. Jebidiah Tulunder, a skilled swordsman with the ability to summon forth a fire which freezes as opposed to burns. Xiin, an animal like mutant who is half lizard half human. Finally there is Calley, our spy. He will be the one locating the items for the rest of you to seize.”

“Now, you have heard my offer in its entirety. What is your answer?” Hunter had spoken in a way that implied that Trista was very privileged to even be told of the Kabal and its members, let alone offered the chance to work along side them. He intended for that combined with the high salary, penthouse apartment and offer of training to be enough to convince her to accept his offer.

Trista leaned forward slightly, her head tilted to the side slightly and kept her gaze focused on him, as she listened with interest to hearing this Hunter guys plan. AS he talked she kept that thoughtful expression, doing the cute half bitting her lip thing, while behind her innocent face her thoughts went into over drive.

Eventually she spoke, her voice low and precise, almost sultry in its effect- best way for a girl to do business;
"Mister Antonescu, I thank you for you kind...and oh so profitable offer. In my experience, there is no such thing as an honest and successful businessman.....and to tell you the truth- I have no moral dilemma working for....someone, shall we say.... slightly less than honorable (she smiled at her own little joke)...I must confess I am sorely tempted.....money, freedom, and control, theres not much else a girl could ask for....."

She gave him a wink, showing she'd been here before type of thing.
"....except for information....I need more. Being a member of a secret group I have no problems with....but what will my duties be? Stealing....or what is it called now in the business world....acquisitions .....yeah been there and gotta say I dont really have a problem....Selling merchandise- done that.....However I wont kill or torture for you if I dont want to, and I wont unquestioningly obey every stupid order just because you ordered it, with no thoughts for my own safety or sanity......and oh, I forgot to mention....I really dont like being kept in the dark or lied to...."

Trista smiled...or rather smirked alittle and leaned back slightly;
"I'm sorry Mister Antonescu, but I just want us to be clear."

then she waited to see what he had to say.

“Of course,” he said with a warm smile, “I understand. Your duties would entail seizing acquisitions, or more accurately stealing things. In doing so you may have to engage security and possibly even law enforcement which could require significant amounts of force to over come.”

“While I won’t order you to go and kill anyone, in combat some of your team mates will not shy away from using lethal force. Some of the things I wish you to procure may be people, but I won’t ask you to act as an assassin.”

“I don’t expect you to blindly follow orders like a good little soldier, I expect you to do your best to complete a mission objective. With the time and money I am going to invest in you you will swiftly become far too valuable to casually throw your life away on a suicide mission.”

“As for secrets, I am afraid that I’ll have to keep a few, as some of my work is exceptionally classified for security reasons, but I won’t keep information from you needlessly. If you accept these terms then I have one final request of you.”

“Can you tell me everything you know of your powers? Once you have told me that and I have had some time to think on it I should be able to develop a training regime to help you develop complete mastery of your abilities.”

It would speed up his experiments with her powers greatly if she told him everything she knew about them in advance, it would save a lot of trial and error work. He was looking forward to utilising her abilities, as they seemed very potent.

"Hmmmm...." Trista began, "We'll see about the whole acquiring people thing later.......but for right now *a grin flashed across her face* I think we have an agreement between us."

“Can you tell me everything you know of your powers? Once you have told me that and I have had some time to think on it I should be able to develop a training regime to help you develop complete mastery of your abilities.”

It turns out Hunters next question was alittle harder for the independent and always suspicious Tris to answer- her expressive smile dwindling from confident and happy, to self conscious and almost embarrassed. Her mumbling voice supported she was feeling uncomfortable.....she'd never told anyone what she could do before- ever, and while his reasons seemed sound and logical for wanting to know....to help....she couldn't help feeling distrustful and even alittle scared- letting anyone know that much about her.

.....but it seemed if she really wanted him to help her, she'd have to trust him, atleast alittle, and so with a deep breath- she began.

"Ummmmm, okay.......ahhhh...welll then....ehem.....I...ahhh...well basically....I seem to have the ability to blow up stuff by using my hands to aim and kinda flicking my fingers to kinda fire at an object and concentrating....and it just...sort of....explodes. See, I've had this gift almost as long as I can remember.....and I've had to train myself....not well, but good enough....so I blow up stuff- walls, wood, glass- you name it.... I can sometimes also deflect things I guess."

Trists'a hands twisted in her lap as she heard her voice, but she had to go on.

"This power, I guess I kinda activate it....well I first did anyway, by being angry *she began to blush, * ha, God this is embarrassing.....see, I kinda have alot of anger....I'm, yeah, I'm an emotional person."

She hadn't looked up till now, but now she did, seeing Hunters reaction so far.

Hunter smiled as Trista agreed to the offer. He kept a reassuring smile on his face as she explained her powers. She seemed clearly uncomfortable about explaining them, and Hunter didn’t want to exasperate matters.

“Thank you Trista that should be enough for me to work with. So unless you have any further questions I will show you to your transport back into New York City where you will be taken to your new apartment. You can wither drive there yourself or I can provide you with a driver.”

He hoped that Dr Ingram had managed to come up with something in his analysis of Trista’s blood, as Hunter was about to come down and do some live tests on it. Once he had finished testing he could begin training Trista, using the second sample for her first session, so he could show her what to do, and then in the sessions after that he could simply instruct.

He had no intention of telling her that it was through her blood that he could absorb her power, he would come up with an alternate explanation. There were a few aspects of his powers know only to Dr Ingram and himself and his blood absorbtion was one of them.

Trista smiled, more than alittle relieved that she didn't have to say anymore about herself- it was harder than she realized after so long of hiding her gift from people.....that was a worrying thought, so she didn't continue it.

She hoped down off the bed and walked closer to Hunter, flashing him one of her infamous ( in certain circles atleast) wicked smiles.
"Sounds like a good plan.......boss."
she winked.
"So, whats the deal, when you want me, do you call.....or we have weekly meetings, or what?"

Hunter smiled and led Trista through Mondragon labs towards the exit. “For contacting you every Kabal member has one of these,” he said, pulling an expensive looking watch out of his pocket.

“When I want to contact you the watch will vibrate,” he explained, “find somewhere private and hit this button and it will open up communication with me. Keep it on you at all times, as this job has very variable hours,” he said with a smile.

Reaching the front entrance he indicated a black jeep sitting in the grounds and a six foot man with a muscular build standing next to it. “This is your new transport. The man next to it is Gareth. He will be your driver if you require one. If you decline the offer of a driver the vehicles satellite navigation is pre-programmed with the location of your new home.”

Turning to Trista he extended a hand, “I’m pleased you accepted my offer Miss Evans. I will contact you as soon as I have your training regime ready.” Training under Hunter would not be easy, as he pushed people hard, but the results of his training in the past spoke for themselves.

He had trained some of the worlds best through out the past three centuries, allowing them to utilise his vast experience. With Trista he intended to the same, giving her the control she wanted well before she would have achieved it otherwise.