Alex was sitting on a bench on the edge of central park of the great NYC, blankly staring into the city where his pottery shop was located. "Ah... my own little business... complete with my own little home. Darn thing came along with not-so-little problems." Alex muttered to himself as he began to think about everything that had happened when he opened that shop, and what had happened since then. With everything that had happened, Alex had started to wonder if there were cursed places on Earth that always drew trouble... and if such places existed, then his new shop had to be one of them.

The day he opened that shop the malachite manipulator had gotten into trouble, starting off with an M-drug dealer aiming a gun at his head with a shape shifting child in the same room. That was quickly followed up with a self proclaimed goddess entering his shop and insulted Alex to the point that he had nearly tossed her out of his shop. That was topped off with a duel with some woman named Aura behind his pottery shop that resulted in a dislocated right shoulder. His arm was back in place, but he was still really sore there. Now Alex had to look forward to attending the trial for the drug dealer he busted, the possible revisit from the wannabee deity looking for revenge, and a possible rematch with Aura around the corner, Alex didn't want to think what was going on with his life and wanted to take a break from it... but there was no chance in that happening.

Still though, he could try, and he didn't have to go anywhere anytime soon since he brought his lunch with him, a nice and hot lobster stuff filet complete with a tenderly cooked lobster tail all within a plastic container to keep it fresh... he just had to make sure no one took it from him since the place that he got it, Longhorn Steakhouse, was going to stop making them for a time. Besides, lobster was his favorite, and Alex wasn't going to give it up easily. Alex was about to open it up and dig in when he noticed a young girl, no more then 12 years old, running through the park as if her life depended on escaping something. "That's odd..." Alex muttered and put the food down on the bench beside him and kept his eyes on the girl in case she was in trouble. Lunch could wait.

There were times when Miles questioned the wisdom of walking in Central Park with his dogs on tow. Unlike the little puppies and the cute dogs people usually drag about them, his thralls were anything but cute. They were too big for their breeds, looked too muscular and even though dogs with black fur were not uncommon, Astor's and Tinaker's red, glowing eyes raised the creepy bar all the way up to eleven.

He'd gotten used to people getting out of his way when they saw the dogs coming, others just froze and stared until he walked past and few, brave souls actually had the courage to ask a question or two. He usually kept his answers short, always assuring them the dogs were harmless and never mentioning their 'harmlessness' could easily be flipped off with a mental command.

The girl was walking happily in his direction without even looking but the moment she saw the two canines flanking his sides, she froze, her face changed into utter dread and she ran away from him.

"Don't worry, they're harmless" he said, first in an almost automatic fashion but then he doubted she had even heard him. "THEY'RE HARMLESS!" he yelled.

This was annoying! People like this made him look like a bad guy or some kind of bully. There was a brown haired guy sitting on a bench nearby with his lunch at his side looking at her run off and the second he turned his gaze around, he'd give Miles that judgemental stare he usually got from other adults and flustered parents.

"It's not my fault" he immediately pre-excused himself, even though deep down, he always blamed himself from having turned his dogs into dark slaves. "She just got scared, that's all. My dogs..." Miles said, pausing as he thought up a quick lie, "... have an eye condition" he finished.

As Alex kept his eyes on the girl that was running away in a panic, he was trying to figure out what was making her so scared but he couldn't see anything from where he was. It was at that moment that he heard the voice of a young man cry out that something was harmless, and Alex noticed that it was a male teenager that was a distance behind the running girl... but what was he referencing to when he said they were harmless? Alex didn't see anything from where he was... but then again there was a small mound of earth between the malachite manipulator and the teen aged boy that prevented him from seeing the lower half of the kid. Grabbing his lunch and standing up, Alex finally saw that two large black dogs that were close to the boy. So that's what he was referring. The dogs were big and muscular, and their black fur really made them look menacing. Their red eyes added on a whole new level of creepiness too.

Alex did a double take at the dogs' eyes. Glowing red eyes? Alex had never heard of such a thing with dogs... unless someone was controlling them with a mutation. It was a possibility. It was at that moment that the boy noticed Alex staring at him and started to give an explanation about the dogs, and claimed that they both had an eye condition. "Really? Rather interesting eye condition. I've never heard of one like this before. Clearly it's contagious since both dogs have it. What's it called?" Alex asked as he walked over to the young man and eyes the dogs curiously.

Deep down, Alex knew the boy was lying. Working for several years in a high school full of misbehaving teenagers taught Alex how to read a person's features and see when they were lying so they wouldn't get caught, or so someone else wouldn't get caught. Glancing up at the boy's face, Alex started to run his right hand's fingers along his neatly trimmed beard as he waited patiently for the boy's answer. Having his arm in that position though resulted in the right cuff of his leather jacket to droop a little, revealing a small glimpse of the malachite bracer that was on his forearm.

What, he's getting up? All right, walk away, walk away like everyone els... Oh, he's coming over?

Apparently the man was one the few, brave souls who dared take a look at the dogs up close and it didn't help Miles to have shouted 'they're harmless!' so loud. The boy straightened up a bit, not really out of respect but more because he could see himself handing out weird explanations as usual and lying tended to tense him up a little.

He wanted to know what the 'eye condition' was called. Great. Miles had owned his dogs since he was a small boy, but the times he had taken them to the vet when they were alive it was never due to an eye disease, so he had no clue what any of those were called. This required some improvisation from his part.

"Redeyeitis" he said, trying to make it sound serious. "But it's not... they're..." he stuttered, completely breaking the flow of the lie. "They got it since birth, it's totally harmless for humans and dogs..."

Wait! Wasn't trying to divert people's attention from the idea that he or they were mutants the whole point of lying about the dogs? And what's the first thing you think of when you meet a strange creature that has been that way since birth?

Miles geared into evasive maneuvers. A swift change of topic was imminent but no silly jokes came to mind, the weather was such a lame topic that people usually ignored it unless it was terrible and compliments worked on girls, not on dudes.

All of a sudden, the man himself delivered a topic in a silver platter. He was wearing a weird, greenish bracelet thingie on his wrist. Miles noticed it when the cuff from his sleeve dropped a bit and though he couldn't see the whole of it, it seemed to be much bigger than a bracelet, all encrusted with some kind of green gem.

"Whoa, that's got to be expensive. What's it made of? Emerald?" he asked, trying not to look too interested in it, lest he think Miles intended to steal it from him.

When Alex noticed the slight change of the young man's facial expression, Alex knew for a fact that he had caught the kid off guard. Clearly he hadn't expected Alex to walk up to him and ask what was wrong with the two dogs... and it was clear as to why. Anyone in their right mind that saw these two canines would instantly feel a shiver go up their spine as fear started to creep in. Those pitch black dogs with all of that muscle with red eyes that seemed to glow would make anyone scared... and Alex would be lying to himself if he said that he wasn't feeling uneasy by looking at those dogs. Even the malachite manipulator, whom could create any type of melee weapon in the blink of an eye, was slightly scared by those dogs.

But, clearly the boy was trying to make it seem that they weren't scary and that their sickness, redeyeititis as he called it, wasn't contagious, his dogs had been born with it, and that it was harmless. The moment that the boy was done answering Alex's question, he tilted his head to the side and gave the boy a look that basically said 'why don't I believe you?' It was even more evident that the boy was lying now, and Alex was guessing that the boy was a mutant of some kind. Question is... what kind? Were those dogs illusions? No, they were also casting shadows so they couldn't be images. Entities that he pulled forth from nothingness? If that was the case then this boy was really powerful to be able to form two creatures like this... or making dogs was all he was capable of making. Maybe they were real dogs and he was using some sort of mind control on them which resulted in their eyes glowing red. Alex didn't really know. With mutations, there were just too many possibilities.

It was at that moment that the boy's gaze landed on the small piece of malachite that was showing from under Alex's jacket, and asked if they were expensive and if they were made of emerald. Not realizing that his malachite bracers were showing, Alex was taken aback by the question and glanced down at his arm... and sure enough, the bracer was visible. "What? This?" Alex asked in response by pulling the sleeve of his jacket up to his elbow, revealing the entire malachite bracer that was on that arm, which was large enough to go from his wrist to his elbow. "Nah, it's not that expensive. It's only worth a few hundred thousand dollars... but it and the duplicate of it that's on my other arm are very precious to me." Alex stated plainly as he pulled his sleeve back down and crossed his arms over his chest and smiled warmly. "And there isn't enough emerald on this planet to make these things. They are made of a much cheaper gemstone that is far more plentiful, known as malachite." Alex continued, then shrugged as his warm smile turned into a cheeky smirk.

"They also help my handle my greeneyesyndrome." Alex finished as his cyan eyes glowed green for a split second before fading back to their normal cyan color.

Miles had the distinct feeling that his bull was getting seen through, but the guy still took the bait and ended up talking about his weird bracers. It was a huge thing to behold, reaching from wrist to elbow and he said he had another one just like it on his other arm. The young mutant wondered why. Why would he carry such large pieces of gemstone in his arms? It obvioulsy wasn't for show, hidden as they were under his jacket sleeves and he said the pieces were precious to him.

"Only worth a few hundred thousand? That would make it 'very precious' to just about anyone."

They were made from a rock called malachite, which he had never heard of, and they helped the guy with his... greeneyesyndrome.

Miles, you're so busted. Time to think up a more convincing lie? But... what's this?

The guy's eyes flashed an impossible green for only an instant. How did he...?

Oh.

The guy was being sneaky. This was his hush-hush, top secret, superspy way of letting Miles know he was a mutant. Mutants didn't have some kind of special ring, pin or hand signal they could show each other to let them know they were standing in front of one of their peers, so displays of their own mutations was usually the de facto way to go, specially if said mutation wasn't obviously visible and in Miles' case, the dogs could trick others into thinking their master was normal and his pets were the only freaks.

This usually brought a sense of relief to Miles. Mutants were far more open to understanding the boy's situation with his dogs. He didn't always tell the mutants he met the dogs were undead, but he usually felt comfortable letting them know the canines were under his complete control. That was 'mutant' enough for their liking and Miles didn't always need to delve into the nasty details of how they came about.

Now... how to let the guy know in Miles' own hush-hush, sneaky, superspy way, that he understood his message?

"I see" He said, nodding a little and looking from side to side to check just how far any eavesdroppers were from them. "Greeneyesyndrome must be very similar to redeyeitis. It's difficult having such a thing and not having other people judge you. It's like you and I are... ants who can't talk."

Get it? Ants who can't talk? MUTE ANTS! Clever, huh?

"Surely a fellow greeneyesyndromer doesn't need to fear the dogs of a redeyeitiser, specially if said redeyeitiser has absolute control over his... redeyesyndro... itised... dogs?"

Bleh! This was starting too sound too much like a tongue twister. Miles made a poor superspy.

"I'm Miles, by the way" he said, introducing himself.

Alex almost laughed when Miles commented that anyone would find his malachite bracers valuable with them worth that much money. Alex of course had been kidding about his bracers being worth a couple hundred thousand... they were each worth that much since it was hard enough finding this much malachite in one spot, but hollowing it out without cracking it would be almost impossible because of the way malachite forms. The darn stuff formed as stalagmites with an interwoven crystalline structure, while normal gemstones formed as simple crystals.

But that didn't really matter at the moment. What mattered was that the kid seemed to pick up on Alex's not so subtle hint that he was a mutant, and seemed to be attempting to tell Alex that he was a mutant as well, but in a rather different way. He compared Alex's 'sickness' to his dogs 'sickness,' and mentioned that having such a thing is hard for people judge you for it, and Alex nodded in response. However when the kid mentioned that they were like ants that couldn't talk, Alex grew puzzled as he tilted his head to the side while raising an eyebrow. "I think you lost me. What do you mean by mute ants? That kinda changes the... topic..." Alex started to say, but his voice trailed off when he said 'mute ants.' The corners of Alex's mouth perked upwards and he covered his mouth as he tried to muffle a laugh. "Nice." Alex stated when he finally got control of himself.

The kid continued and seemed to stubble over his words as he tried to say that he had full control over his dogs. So Alex's guess about the kid controlling the minds of the dogs seemed to be on the right track after all. It wasn't long afterwards that the kid dropped the topic and introduced himself as Miles. "I'm Alex. Nice to meet you." Alex stated and held out his hand for shake.

The moment he did, an ear piercing scream echoed throughout the whole park, making Alex jump and spin on his heel to see the same little girl that had been running away from Miles clutching her head and kneeling on the ground... and she was surrounded by a glowing light. "What the?" Alex muttered in surprise as he tried to figure out if the glow was being produced by someone else... or if the girl was really a mutant and was having trouble controlling her powers. Since everyone in the park was running away from the girl, it looked like to Alex that she was the source of the light, and he started to run over to her. "HEY!! You alright?!" Alex yelled as he approached her, but the girl's response made Alex step in his tracks. "Stop! Please! Get back! I can't control my power when there are two mutants nearby!" she shrieked, her voice full of pain as the aura of light that was around her started to shrink towards her hands, which seemed to be directed in Alex's direction.

"No no! Please, no!" the girl cried out, but what ever she was trying to stop, it was too late as a beam of yellow light shot out of her hands and headed towards Alex. Without thinking, Alex turned to Miles with his eyes glowing bright green as a pair of large green hands grew out from the malachite bracers. "Look out!" Alex yelled as the hands grabbed onto Miles and shoved him away from Alex... and then the beam hit Alex square in the back. Alex felt as if his whole body was on fire, then quickly became frozen, then on fire again but this time he felt like he was being pierced by at least a dozen spikes. The pain was beyond imagination as Alex screamed out in agony and fell to his knees. The malachite hands that were pushing Miles away let go and quickly retracted back into the bracers.

Slowly, an orb of green light was forming in front of Alex's chest and the glow from Alex's eyes faded, revealing Alex's cyan eyes... but they weren't as bright as they normally were as if something was missing from them. Suddenly the malachite manipulator wasn't able to sense the malachite that was on his wrists, and he felt like something had been torn out of his body and mind, like he wasn't whole anymore... and the sensation was even worse then the pain he was feeling. He tried to make a shield of malachite around him to protect him from this attack... but it was as if he had forgotten how to control the malachite.

Another beam of light shot out of the girl and headed for Miles, and seemed to curve towards the boy with the dogs... as if it was homing in on him.

Alex might have been a bit confused at first from Miles' code speak, but he totally got it eventually and even found it funny. The teen shook the offered hand with a hint of a smile in his face, since he was a firm believer that mutants with a sense of humor were no threat in his book.

The same couldn't be said of mutants who had a hard time controlling their 'gifts'.

The loud shrill from the girl startled him and made both dogs raise their heads and stand on guard. Alex's reaction was much faster than his as he ran towards the girl Miles had spooked earlier. Apparently she was a... glowinglightiser. When she urged Alex to stop however, telling him she couldn't control herself when two mutants were together, everything clicked.

She wasn't running away from Miles. She was probably running away from Miles AND Alex both. Her mutation must have sensed them and triggered somehow, but other than weird pretty lights, he really didn't see anything worth freaking too much abou...

The beam of light shot from her hands straight for the older mutant. Miles barely had time to open his eyes wide as plates as he heard his dogs growl, saw Alex turn, grow gemstone hands out of his bracers and try to shove him away to protect him, but at that very moment, Alex got hit!

His face... his scream... It was nerve wracking and he was visibly in so much pain! Miles was unbalanced from the shove and dumbfounded, he could barely mumble anything coherent as Alex went down to his knees. The dogs were barking now but didn't do anything else, not knowing WHAT to do and they weren't the only ones.

The hands disappeared and an orb appe... WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON!!!? I'M FREAKING OUT HERE!!!

That's when the other beam of light hit him and he knew in the flesh what Alex was suffering through.

Miles scream was higher pitched and longer than Alex's had been. It's not everyday the young teenager felt like his entire body was being crushed with a jackhammer while he was lit ablaze. He didn't even feel the ground scraping his knees or his face smacking against the pavement. The pain was just too much and in the distance, he heard his dogs howl.

Something was leaving him. Something vital, a part of himself was suddenly gone. He couldn't stop it, couldn't resist it, there was no fight in him at all. He sensed a glow above him, probably from an orb like the one that left Alex previously but he could barely see it, sprawled on the floor as he was. He felt tears in his eyes and he wasn't even sad, they had been brought forth by the pain alone. Whatever the girl was doing to them, he was helpless to avoid it... unless... his dogs. He could have his dogs defend him. He tried to sense where they were, tried to command them...

... and failed.

Alex went from being on only his knees to being on his hands and knees, still screaming in agony, but not so much from the pain of the energy beam. The sensation of having a part of himself literally ripped from his body was agonizing and unbearable. The malachite manipulator had been in several battles and had the battle scars to prove it. He had been slashed, bitten, limbs dislocated, even shot with a gun a few times... but none of that could hold a candle to the feeling of not being whole. All reasonable thinking was gone as the pain sunk deep into Alex's body like razor sharp talons, and all the pleas for mercy from Alex's mouth were inaudible.

Meanwhile everyone in the park had stopped what they were doing and had turned to see where the screaming was coming from, and all of them were frozen where they stood with fear. They wanted to help the two screaming men, but none of them wanted to be in that same state, so all they did was watch, including a horse-mounted police officer.

Finally, after an agonizing minute, both beams of energy coming from the girl suddenly stopped, and she fell flat on her face from passing out. The physical pain was gone, but the feeling of no longer being whole was still there and even more intense. Alex barely managed to look up and open his eyes to see if Miles was alright, but his vision was completely obscured by the floating green orb that was now at eye level with him.

The moment Alex saw that green orb, he knew right away that it was his mutation. He tried to lift a hand to grab it to make a foolhardy attempt to put it back in him, but he was feeling so weak that he could lift a finger. He tried to lean forwards to grasp it but the moment he started he had to stop for he feared that he would fall flat on his face.

Then suddenly, the green orb shot forwards, heading right for Miles. A black orb was rocketing for Alex, and he guessed that it was Miles's mutation. Before Alex could do anything, it slammed into his head and was absorbed into his body. The sensation of having something ripped out of him was gone, but it had been replaced by another sensation... as if there was a part of him that didn't belong. He felt like he was a gigantic 3D jigsaw puzzle and that someone had removed handful of pieces and replaced them with different pieces that fit into place, but they were from a different puzzle so the picture didn't make sense anymore.

A wave of exhaustion swept through Alex and the malachite manipulator collapsed. As he laid there, he could've sworn that he was hearing everything three times, not just once... and why was it that he thought he was looking at himself from two different angles and out of his own eyes as well... and all of those different smells? Something was really wrong, and Alex wasn't liking it.

With a groan, he started to pick himself off the ground... slowly. The malachite that was on his wrists felt so heavy now, like he was finally noticing that they were there. "Ooooh... Miles? Ugh... you... you alright?" Alex asked meekly, wondering what the heck had just happened.

And as he slowly got himself up onto his hands and knees, he seemed to be watching himself get up as if he had two more sets of eyes.

Miles passed out.

He was just fifteen. He had no experience whatsoever in dealing with massive amounts of pain. The most he had ever hurt was a football to the crotch but that didn't compare to this. Hell, an elephant could kick his crotch ten times and it would still not compare to this. It was just too much. His brain simply blacked out. Stopped working. Shutdown. Faded to...uh...black.

When he managed to come back to the land of the living, his throat was hoarse and dry. His body still ached all over and he felt... wrong. Like he was incomplete, yet... not. He didn't feel like himself at all, it was more like he had been torn apart and put back together, but whoever did it botched the job somehow. He felt patched up. Frankensteinized. It was hard to explain, and the pain... oh my god, what had he done to deserve that?

He managed to turn to his side a little, but even small movements still hurt somewhat. He mumbled something out.

"I surrender" he whispered in a raspy voice. "Really, just take my money and go."

Whatever the girl had done, for whatever reasons... it had been serious overkill. Miles just broke down and submitted. He wanted to be done with it and forget it ever happened, but there was something nagging at him that made him suspect it wouldn't be that easy.

It was a ringing sound.

It came from Alex. From his arms specifically. He could sense something in the man's bracers but... he could NOT sense something as well. His dogs. He couldn't feel where they were, which was something that never happened. When Alex asked if he was all right, Miles blinked at him. Was he serious? He shook his head slowly.

Miles stumbled while trying to get up, to the point that he couldn't and ended up sitting on the ground instead, looking around. He noticed his dogs were looking at Alex, completely ignoring him. Maybe they could also listen to the sound coming off from Alex's arms.

"What juts happened?" he asked in confusion. "I feel weird. I don't feel like myself at all. My dogs, they feel... detached somehow. They're right there but I can't sense them! It's like they're not mine anymore!"

Miles brought his hands to his face and closed his eyes. He tried to see through his canines eyes and found only darkness. And that sound... it was still there.

"I think your cellphone is ringing" he said, not entirely sure of what he was hearing. "Will you answer it?"

At first, all Alex could hear was a raspy voice coming from Miles that sounded like he was surrendering and asking someone to take his money and leave... though he didn't see anyone around the kid, so maybe he meant the little girl? For the malachite manipulator, this type of pain was almost impossible to bare, even with all of the stuff that he had been through his whole life. For a person that almost never got into fights, they might not be able to handle this type of pain.

It wasn't until Alex had raised himself half way into a kneeling position that Miles answered him by shaking his head. Miles then seemed to talk about what Alex was feeling at the moment... like he wasn't himself anymore, and that he couldn't sense his dogs even though they were right there, as if they weren't his anymore. Alex didn't respond at first, he only looked down at the malachite bracers that clung to his wrists and seemed so heavier then usual. He couldn't hear their beautiful wind-chime like tone anymore... and the silence was deafening. Still though, there was something else, as if he was looking at himself from two different sets of eyes, and Miles's dogs were staring at him as if waiting for him to give them a command.

"I know the feeling. I can't sense my malachite anymore... and my head is filled with images as if I'm seeing through another pair of eyes." Alex commented, then glanced over at the little girl, whom was starting to get up and was staring at them both with a scared look and a tear in her eye. "I-I... I'm so sorry..." she whimpered and started to shutter with fear. "Calm yourself little one. What happened?" Alex responded as he forced himself to stand up, despite how much his body was protesting that it was too weak to move... but his heart demanded that he stood up. Weak or not, himself or not, Alex made it his purpose to look after those that couldn't look after themselves... and right now Miles and this girl were in that position. As if the dogs were agreeing with him, the two dogs walked off in two different directions till they were about twenty feet apart and started to walk a slow circle around Miles, Alex, and the girl, as if on guard duty.

That was when Miles asked Alex to answer his cell phone, and Alex gave him a puzzled look. "I don't have a cell phone." Alex answered... then his face paled. He couldn't sense his malachite, yet Miles was hearing something that sounded like a ringing sound... along the same lines Miles couldn't sense his dogs, and yet Alex kept on thinking that he was seeing through two more pairs of eyes. "You hear ringing... and I'm seeing triple... oh no." Alex exclaimed and turned back to the girl. "Did you... did you just?"

The girl nodded. "I can't control it when it happens... but when I'm close to two mutants... I switch their powers." the girl stated with a sniffle. Alex felt like he was about to faint.

Alex said he couldn't sense his malachite but Miles understanding of the curly haired mutant's powers was pretty minimal. He knew he could make his eyes flash green and he saw him make hands out of his bracers, so he surmised that maybe he could somehow feel his own bracers in a special way, just like Miles could his dogs. No wonder he carried those things around and they were, indeed, precious to him.

Miles worried however, when Alex mentioned seeing things from another pair of eyes. As the older mutant asked the little girl what happened, Miles brought his hands again to his face, covering his eyes and trying to link his senses to his dog's, getting the same negative result. This was unreal. He took the chance to wipe away any tears he shed with his thumbs as his brain tried to understand what had just happened.

The dogs moved around them in protective fashion, but he could feel he was no longer their center of attention. Their protective nature was geared more towards Alex than him. Astor passed him close and Miles stared at him as he did. The dog had always been stoic and indifferent to everyone after he had been turned, but Miles could always pet him, pull his face or ears around and never fear any kind of retaliation. Now he wasn't so sure. The fear other people felt when they saw his beasts crept a little up his spine. He had no control whatsoever over them, who knows what they would do if he even tried to touch them?

Alex told him he didn't have a cell phone. Weird. The sound was still there and Alex seemed to be putting two and two together just like Miles was. It wasn't until the girl explained herself that they got confirmation.

He went somber.

His mutation was something he didn't wish on his worst enemy. It was a heavy responsibility and a burden. It was a curse, an unnatural genetic malady that allowed him to create undead abominations. Bossing dogs around were perks to it, that was just gravy, the real heavy stuff and the crux of his mutation was his dark mode. Uncontrollable and irresistible. Alex now carried this responsibility. He got this curse on his shoulders.

Miles just got himself a new pet rock in turn.

"Is this permanent?" he asked from where he was sitting after hearing the girl explain herself. Please don't let this thing be permanent, but if it was, he couldn't leave anything unsaid. "If it is, Alex, we seriously need to talk. My mutation is much worse than just handling and linking to the senses of creepy looking dogs."

Alex wasn't sure what he was going to do first... panic or faint. His power had been switched with a kid that had the ability to control two rather strong looking dogs with his mind, and they seemed to be responding to Alex's instincts of wanting to protect those around him. Question was, could he get them to stop when he wanted them to stop because some of his instincts are more around the deadly type. The malachite manipulator wasn't afraid to kill if he had to, and he knew it... but would that transfer to the dogs? Would they kill in order to protect Miles and this little girl? Alex hoped not.

Glancing at Miles, Alex felt a shiver go up his spine when he realized that Miles could be in even bigger trouble because he now had Alex's power. While his power was extremely useful in many situations, the malachite primarily turns Alex into a walking Swiss army knife, capable of striking out at someone over a distance of 30 feet... and the way he controlled it wasn't easy even for him at times. He had to literally focus on controlling his power for a few months without end so it would be safe for him to even touch malachite. Now he wasn't sure what was going to happen with Miles if he touched the bracers on Alex's forearms. The only up side right now seemed to be that the malachite controlling mutation that was currently in Miles seemed to be dormant for now since the kid's eyes were glowing green.

When Miles asked if the switch was permanent and said that if it was then he and Alex would really need to have a talk, Alex glanced at the girl just in time to see her shake her head. "It only lasts a few hours... but only if you two stick together." the girl responded then whimpered as she clutched her stomach, and Alex swore that he heard a growling sound coming from the girl... she was starving.

Realizing that he was still holding the bag containing his lunch, he knelt down in front of the girl and held it out to her. "Here." "Huh? You're... you not mad?" the girl asked surprised as she looked at the plastic container hungrily since she could smell the meal that was inside of it. "No, I'm not. It was an accident. You're hungry aren't you?" Alex responded, and that's all he had to say. The girl quickly snatched the box out of his hand, opened it up, and quickly started to devour the filet.

It was only then that Alex acknowledged the fact that Miles stated that they needed to talk about their powers. "I know we need to talk Miles. More so then you think. If you can't control the malachite, there is a chance that you could annihilate everything with 72 feet of you, including yourself. You are, quite literally, a walking meat grinder until our powers revert to normal." Alex stated flatly.

Alex's gentle gesture and manners towards the girl spoke volumes of the kind of person he was. Miles felt glad in a way, because it meant the man had the moral backbone to take his dark mode seriously and avoid using it at all costs. The girl's words brought him a great relief when she confessed it was only temporary as long as they stuck together for a while and... cripes, did that mean they would have to go through that much pain all over again?

She was hungry to boot and Miles didn't resent her either. He knew first hand what it meant to have your mutation go out of control. The boy tried to get up a second time and succeeded, when Alex explained to him in raher quick fashion what his mutation involved.

So the 'pet rock' had teeth. Big, nasty teeth. Seventy two feet of death? With someone who could... oh, Jesus...

"You can ressurrect the dead" Miles replied in a whisper and very seriously as the implications started to form up in his head. "But they don't come back like normal people, they come back like that" he added, pointing at his dogs. "They are yours to command. Your eyes and ears. Your undead slaves, willing to obey your every whim, so I suggest that as long as this last, we sit quietly on a park bench and watch grass grow, unless we risk accidentally creating an 'army of the dead' scenario."