Today

The rain poured down in sheets in the dark night, created a silouhette of street light glare against the numerous drops of water. It was a beautiful thing. A little to beautiful for her to bear.

She stood there. Cold, but not shivering. Wet, but not shaking the water off. Contemplating, but not thinking to deep. Sighing, but not showing any emotion. Scared, but not running. Angry, but for once... not killing somebody.

Eris had been to the Sanctuary before, and it had been one of the most important and thrilling times in her life. Now, not too much later, she stood staring down the building once again, but this time with a different agenda. The grab had scared her... and her psyche couldn't handle it.

So now she came back, not seeking answers... but seeking help. She needed a group of people she could belong with and recooperate with. That was the plan anyways. Just go inside... where once you could have reigned... and talk to them. Maybe he'll still listen.

What she had no idea of... is that it was no longer his command... but rather... hers.

-------

!Flash!

Haywire

The explosion struck home. With a deadening thud Katran's body hit the pavement. She had gotten a little to close for her own good, and this time it wasn't her domniflex that was overpowering her consciousness. Or was it? Was this perhaps just a different level and experience within it?

She felt lighter than air suddenly. Not dead... certainly not dead. But not alive either... somewhere in between.

And then white... plenty of white. The whiteness whipped around her at terrifying speed. She tried to stop herself... but for some reason she couldn't. Domniflex wasn't working here... wherever "here" was.

Doing a 360 spin with her body... she realized there was no gravity here... just speed. Lots of speed... and white.

A voice... shattering the quiet hum of moving air around her.

"Do you know what the Greeks feared more than anything?"

Katran tried to answer... but couldn't. Something stopped her.

"They feared a lack of control... as all men do. You shall grow to fear it as well...."

------

!Flash!

Unknown

Eris sat up in a cold sweat. Darkness surrounded her. She sat in a damp room about 36 feet square. No... room wasn't the word to describe it... it was much more of a cell. Yes... certainly a cell.

A shock of the sound of grating metal made her jump. Light streamed in from the far wall... now clearly owning a door. A dark figure stood in the doorway.

A rough voice spoke through the air, "Do you know what the Greeks feared more than anything?"

Katran pulled herself to her feet, but quickly found her leg was chained to the ground. She couldn't move more than six inches. She coughed slightly, weak, "What is this...?"

"They feared a lack of control... as all men do. You shall grow to fear it as well...." the voice answered rougher than ever.

Then the door shut with a slam... and Katran fell back into the blackness.

------

!Flash!

Today

Eris shook her shoulders and shrugged off her mental pain. Time to see what the Sanctuary was doing these days.

Today

Eris walked slowly to the building and stood directly in front of the large door. It had been a long time since she had been here... but again here she was at last. Not bad... not bad at all. It had taken all of her stamina to struggle towards this building, and the rain was definitely taking it out of her. At least she hadn't used her powers in the past few weeks... that was a relief. If she had it was likely she would have collapsed at this point, but thankfully she was able to keep moving forward. I have to keep moving forward...

She honestly missed this place. Not necessarily the people of this place, but certainly this place. Honestly, throughout her life she could care less about people. They were simply less important than herself, always. But now, now she realized how much she needed others... how much she couldn't do by herself. She genuinely needed people. Not to use them... but to appreciate them.

People could help her... she personally could not.

He would help her, if he was still living after the raid a little while ago. That was her last rememberance of the Sanctuary and it's Order. The raid... the one she had taken particular part in. The one she had lost consciousness in. The one she had been removed during.

That raid had been so important back then.

But now Eris' science seemed so small in relation to the truth: She needed help badly. In more ways than one.

Lifting her hand slowly, she banged on the door with a dull thud of indifference. Something had certainly changed her.

------

!Flash!

Uknown, Two Days after Entering

The darkness around Katran was truly suffocating. She couldn't stand not being able to see much of anything, and especially not being able to control anything.

She hadn't eaten anything in two days, and it hurt. She only drank water from a damp puddle in the corner of the cell.

Control, the man had said something about control. But already she couldn't remember.

As she yanked at the cord around her ankle her body finally gave in to the throbs of pain and weeping that were pushing on it from the mind. She collapsed into a deep fit of sobbing and couldn't think straight. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be. Big girls don't cry... especially those with abilities to change and control the world. But she did, because she couldn't help it.

In here she absolutely couldn't think straight, at least, not straight enough to use her ability. For some reason it wasn't working. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't bend the rules down here. And to her, it was all about bending the rules.

A blinding flash of light interrupted her tears and she opened her eyes facing the door.

The shadowman stood there, staring at her.

"What have you learned?"

"What??"

"Have you learned," replied the man, "about your lack of control yet?"

She whimpered, "Who are you...?"

He simply motionless and breathless at the door, without a sound for nearly ten seconds, then finally responded loudly and roughly, "Until you realize your faults, you will remain here."

He tossed a half-eaten chicken leg on the ground near her. The door slammed shut and she heard bolting.

------

!Flash!

Today

Eris was growing impatient... why hadn't anybody answered her knock yet? She knocked again, this time loudly.

Today

This was getting really annoying now. No one had come to the door and Eris had knocked on it several times. She wasn't used to this kind of treatment at the Sanctuary, as she had been considered sort of a god here before. At least in her mind. She should not be let alone like this. All she wanted was to go inside and speak with him. Speak with Oppressor.

Was that too much to ask?

She sighed heavily and knocked again. Suddenly, her anger began to sprout, but she quickly suppressed it. She had become much better at that recently. Strange how that happened...

------

!Flash!

Unknown, Second Week of Captivity

Here she was simply Katran. It seemed her alias had been left at the door and all that remained of this girl was her true name. Her captor had turly called her simply Katran, and Eris was never even mentioned. Katran was the problem here. The victim. The one who was slowly learning why she was here.

After being deprived of food. Thrown in this pitiful cell. Tortured a few times. Even raped once.

Yes, Katran had arisen from the Eris that she thought she had been. The powers she had relied on in life now had left her in this death. Was this hell? No, it was reality, but a sort of mental death. Why was this man doing these horrible things? Why did the man so deeply hate her.

He had never seen his face, never. Even in her humiliating circumstances she had never seen him. He was careful to keep himself hidden. And she was almost thankful for that. She was terrified what would actually be seen if she did see him.

The man seemed determined to hate on her in any way he could. He humiliated her beyond belief and all that she ever thought possible. She had once thought herself the goddess... now she thought herself as nothing. Maybe that was the whole thing.

And the torture, it was horrible. She couldn't shake the images or the pain from her mind. It had ruined her mentally, and was continuing to every minute she remained here.

The door opened as she numbly thought of all this.

The man spoke with his hated voice, "Do you know why you are here Katran?"

She stared.

"Can you control yourself?"

The staring continued.

He walked over and handed her a 9 millimeter handgun. "And what will you do with this?"

She felt the weight of the gun in her hand and pondered. This was her ticket out! She lifted the gun at the man. Her unsteady hand still found the power to aim it at him. But would she pull the trigger.

What is this about???!

In her numb anger she couldn't help herself. She pulled the trigger. Click. Nothing.

The man snatched the empty gun from her hands. "Looks like you still have a lot of learning to do."

------

!Flash!

Today

What good was this? The Sanctuary looked empty and definitely rundown, even broken down. Why hadn't anyone come to the door yet? Eris was getting a bad feeling about all this...

How to spot a stupid mutant in three resounding bangs or less: walk past the Sanctuary while the Stalkers were elsewhere on their patrol route, and reveille in the stupidity.

Rupert was reveilling in something, all right. He was reveilling with a slack pink leash in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other. He was reveilling with an 'are you a complete idiot, or is today just your stupid-hat day?' look on his face. He was reveilling right up until his dog pulled its leash towards the woman knocking on the Sanctuary's doors, and gave a friendly yip. It was as close as Flipsy, his tan-and-white poodle/c0ocker-spaniel mutt, could come to a bark without really meaning it.

"I'm afraid the Sanctuary is closed, Miss," he decided to say. Out of the goodness of his heart, and because he was pretty sure all of the homeless humans in the area were smart enough to know this next fact already, he added quite pointedly: "The government shut it down for housing mutants. I wouldn't hang around; those damn Stalkers make the rounds in this area fairly regularly. They'd probably give you trouble if they found you hanging around." Trouble, and a blood test. No, he didn't have a single shred of proof that this woman was a mutant. No, he didn't really need any. Rupert was in an even more cynical mood than usual. Mutants were stupid and this woman was stupid; ergo, this woman was a stupid mutant. Rupert sneezed loudly, and juggled his styrofoam coffee cup into the elbow of his other arm to fish a tissue out of his pocket as Flipsy continued her yipping. His nose was red. His eyes were watery. His tattered Led Zeppelin t-shirt was buried under two layers of baggy, warm black sweatshirts that didn't match his dark gray sweatpants. He had a thin silver hoop in his right eyebrow and he looked like he was about to fall over. Rupert had called out sick from the Camps, today. He wasn't even faking. Today. Stupid 102 degree temperature. Stupid woman... going all... wavy around the edges. Stupid world and stupid mutants and stupid poodle.

Flipsy kept tugging towards the woman at the golden doors, either oblivious to or pretending to be oblivious to her owner's complete misery. Being a stupid dog, she had needed to stupid pee outside. For the first--and only--time in his life, Rupert wished he owned a cat.

Eris started when she heard the dog speak behind her. She whipped around and the wind around her swirled as her powers kicked back in. She quickly controlled herself and silenced the wind. Hopefully the reaction had not been a tell.

But then, too late. She had given herself away. He obviously knew she was a mutant now and she obvious had to trust him because he knew that information. Eris hated not holding all of the best cards, but again, it was too late. Comon' girl... control.

She coult tell the man looked around tight wound and she wanted to be much more careful because of this. She knew people had tempers just like her, and she was learning to respect that. Then the words he had spoke triggered understanding in her mind. Closed... what does he mean closed? Is it possible that something has happened to the Order?

She stepped forward and offered her hand, "I'm Katran. I'm kind of confused by what's going on here. I've been away and somewhat out of society for several months now and I'm not sure what you mean by closed."

She prepared herself in case the man tried to make any sudden aggresive moves.

The wind seemed to eddy around the woman as she whipped around. That might have been a coincidence, or that might have been the fever he was running, but Rupert took it as confirmation that she was a mutant. A wind manipulator, apparently. Huh. Could you shoot a wind manipulator, or would they just sort of… manipulate the wind around the bullet? He’d never had the pleasure of trying. He’d shot at a shadow teleporter, once. That… hadn’t worked so well.

Rupert stared suspiciously down at her offered hand, with its questionable genetics. It looked normal enough. No spikes, no tentacles, no strange colors. He shook it with a hand he’d recently sneezed into. If he was going to get miserably sick working at those Camps, trying to help the freaks, then the least the freaks could do was be miserably sick with him.

"I'm Katran. I'm kind of confused by what's going on here. I've been away and somewhat out of society for several months now and I'm not sure what you mean by closed."

“Closed:” Rupert explained bluntly, “not open. Shut down. It got raided, a few weeks back, right after the Registration Bill passed.” He looked at the building, and couldn’t help but give a fond smile. “I thought it was such a stupid move, but we actually caught her. The girl with the ribbon. Just about the only freak that deserves what she’s getting.” The girl with the ribbon, whose name was apparently Isabel. Who had been one of the three who avidly participated in the whole-sale slaughter of the NYPD at the Sanctuary’s grand opening in November of 2006. Who had roughly acquainted her bone manipulation ability with his left lung. Rupert was not overly fond of Isabel. In fact, he was fairly certain that if he could concentrate for just a few seconds, he could trace all of his recent problems back to that girl…

Flispy yipped again, sitting down at Katran’s feet with her tail swishing a half-circle of sidewalk perfectly clean behind her. Rupert lost his train of thought. He focused again on the woman in front of him: “Like I said; the place is closed now and the Stalkers are never far. Keep standing around here if you want to draw attention to yourself.” He gave a little tug at the poodle’s leash, and started walking—slowly—away. He gave the woman a little ‘are you following, or what?’ look over his shoulder. He could contact the Resistance for her, sure. There was no way in a fiery Hell he was doing it right here, though.

Eris wasn't totally comfortable with this guy, but she didn't really have a choice. The dog was certainly something of great annoyance, but she could deal with that after everything she had been through in the past couple months. A little poodle, or whatever it was, wouldn't be much of a problem. Back in the day she probably would have just fried it and been done, but she was under control to a degree now, although she was still subject to (less frequent) bouts of rage.

She listened carefully to the man's explination in disbelief. What was this registration act that the man was talking about? Could it be that the government was truly hunting down mutants? Did they want all of them dead? Was their's to be an extinct race when this was all said and done. Her anger came fast, and she only slightly suppressed it. There were certainly times to be angry, and now was one of them. All she wanted to do was see Oppressor, that was it. And be a part of the Order again. Yes, the Order was a fundamental part of who she was. She was an Order member in the flesh. She couldn't let that go.

Katran knew the mutant the man spoke of, that annoying girl with the ribbon. More than once she had wanted to take her head off, and probably would have if Oppressor hadn't stopped her. But now she thought better of it.

"Freaks... yeah... I guess you could call those people that." She tried to play it cool, but it likely far too late for that. She saw the man start to walk away and stood there motionless for a second.

Then, without a thought she followed him... and came up alongside him and the dreadful dog. "I don't think you mentioned your name..."

"I don't think you mentioned your name..."

"Ru--" Rupert sneezed once, twice, three times, then looked over at the woman through bleary eyes. "Rupert. Rupert Kelley." He remembered he was holding a cup of lukewarm coffee, and took a disheartened sip out of it. Flipsy veered over to a fire hydrant, then back to the center of the sidewalk; the poodle mutt was quite proud to be escorting two bipeds through this dangerous city.

"I suppose I should be covert and talk circles around this," he began with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, "but I'm not really finding the energy to care. Are you looking to hook back up with your friends from there?" He jerked his head back towards the Sanctuary. If his brain wasn't trying to boil itself, he might have realized that he didn't actually have any proof she was a mutant. Even if he did, there was no telling whether she was walking free because she'd dodged Registration or whether she was walking free because she was working with the Registration. He was fairly confident that the annoying electronic toy in his pocket--a gift from the mad scientist patriarch of the Lupin family--would tell him if anyone, Stalkers included, were listening in on this conversation, but that was all the more security he had. For all he knew, this woman was a government informant, and he was blowing his own cover as a zealotous Camp supervisor by cutting to the chase with her. For all he knew, she was one of the fine folks who had taken to slaughtering the Camp guards in recent days, and the mention of his name had just signed his death warrant. For all he knew, this was all just a delirious daydream. Rupert sneezed again, then sniffled loudly. For all he knew, he could care less.

Rupert... strange name. But acceptable. Even if it wasn't really his name, it was good enough for now. All Eris wanted was to find what was left of the Order, and hopefully Oppressor. Whatever she had to do to that end was her focus now, and this man seemed to know a little more than she did. Therefore, she decided once and for all she would trust him, but with a guarded position so that she could get herself out of the situation as fast as possible if need be.

She half-smiled his way when he asked the question about hooking up with people from the Sanctuary. Apparently he knew way more than she did. For a moment she stopped and closed her eyes. Her wild red robes whipped around her in the windy and wet night. It was certainly a time to ponder. She thought about how good it would be to get back with the Order. Yes, that's what she wanted more than anything right now.

Then, she replied to the man, "Nice to meet you Rupert. Yes, I'd very much like to find the people who used to reside in that building if possible." She controlled herself and kept from saying 'friends'. She definitely did not want the man to think she was a mutant any more than he probably already did. She couldn't provide him with more evidence... and telling him that the Order were her 'friends' would certainly give away her nature. No, it was much better the way she phrased her answer.

Then again, the man seemed to care little for anything, not even himself. Everything about him smelled and looked of carelessness. Strange man.

"Can you help me find them?"

Rupert... strange name. But acceptable.

If Rupert had known what the woman was thinking just then, he would have been perfectly thankful that she found his name 'acceptable'. So had his parents. Personally, he had a few question for her folks, the first being 'Is Katran one of those codenames the freaks seem to like so much, or did you really name her that?' She half-smiled his way: he paused as she paused, and sipped at his lukewarm coffee as she struck a dramatic pose in the high sidewalk winds. ...It tasted disgusting. That's what he got for buying it from a chain shop, instead of a local one. Her swirling red robes drew his attention to something else that was red. What was with mutants and red hair? Some genetics grad student should write her doctorate on that. There just seemed to be a disproportionate number of red heads that could light things on fire, or burst sewer mains, or claim the title Ice Queen. Even though Raina had been dying her hair, he couldn't help but think of her as a red head. If he didn't, all he'd be able to see in his mind would be her black hair, and that nearly broken desperation in her eyes. The Camps hadn't been any more kind to her than they had been to the next mutant.

"Nice to meet you Rupert.--"

"A real pleasure," he muttered into his cup.

"--Yes, I'd very much like to find the people who used to reside in that building if possible. ...Can you help me find them?"

"Oooh yeah," he said simply, juggling his coffee cup into the elbow of his leash-holding arm as he pocket-dove. His hand came back out holding a silver cell phone. He flipped it open with one thumb, and started scrolling his contacts list. "Got a cell? Or something to write on?" Yeah, he didn't actually know if she was a mutant. He had a feeling--one that he didn't really want to think too deeply on--that if she wasn't, though, the people on the other end of this number would sort her out pretty quickly.

Eris smoothed down her hair with her hand and then snatched a cell phone out of a pocket in her dress... which was remotely hidden so no one would ever notice it was there. She had had the dress (or was it more like a classy overcoat?) modified so that she had the pocket there, holding her cell phone at all times. Something Eris needed was prompt contact possibilities at all times.

She flipped the phone open and took down the number that Rupert gave her. She saved the contact as "help" and then flipped the phone shut and slipped it back into her dress.

Eris noticed the coffee cup the man was holding and that it was that fake stuff the area here around was so famous for. She hadn't drank coffee in about two months, and now desperately wanted some. She knew of a nice Cafe about six blocks from here, out of the way and family owned-and-operated.

She turned to the man and asked, "Your almost done with your coffee... I know good place a few blocks from her if you want to go grab another cup of coffee... maybe you could explain a little more of what's going on to me??"

((OOC: If you want, we can head to the NYC forum and start a coffee house thread... on the way I'll have Eris contact the number and bring Sonya into it... I'll send her a PM))

((ooc: Sorry for the delay in reply--busy week! And sure, NYC forum sounds good. I'll make a quickie post here, then do you want to start us a thread over there?))

> "You're almost done with your coffee... I know good place a few blocks from here if you want to go grab another cup of coffee... maybe you could explain a little more of what's going on to me??"

Rupert looked over at the woman, and couldn't help but shake his head wonderingly. "You really have been gone, haven't you? Were you abroad?" She'd have to have been someplace fairly remote--or isolated--to truly be as clueless about the current situation as she seemed. Being the Good Samaritan he was, Rupert wheezed out a small sigh, sniffed back a sneeze, and shrugged with one shoulder. "I can fill you in. Sure. Coffee's on you, though." He was a Good Samaritan who believed in fair trade.

Continued here...