Serena was standing near the entrance to the sewer, she had brought 2 bottles of water and some food with her because she knew that after what she was about to do, she'd probably need to replenish herself, so she had decided to make sure she had prepared herself.

She had found this area, with this stench, for a particular reason. It was tucked away enough for no nosey people to find her, this also meant that it was far enough away from other people that she couldn't hurt anyone by accident if the power pushed back.

Serena was wearing a simple blue hoodie, with her black coat over the top and had left her hair pins by her bed for once, she didn't want to get blood on them if this went wrong... they were too important. Her golden hair hung near her eyes. Her sky blue eyes glistened in the dark.

She drew something from her coat, it looked like a small curved piece of wood, or metallic material, she unfolded it, it was a small fold out blade which her brother had owned, it had apparently been their mothers at some point. But she wasn't here to pay homage to her brother or to test her mothers old knife.

She was here, to try and get better control on her power. She pricked the top of her index finger, the breaking of the flesh wasn't as painful as Serena had expected it to have been. A small flash of red in the dark, blood began to drip. Serena tried to focus on it.

The small blonde girl became shrouded in a dark blue aura, as did the droplet of blood which had just rolled off of her finger. It began to float wearily through the air. Serena felt as if she was holding and forming clay putty, but it was trying to resist.

She just barely managed to force it to make a cube, as more blood was added to it. The crimson cube, no bigger than the teenagers fingernail, floated in the air as if suspended by string. Serena was deep in focus on this cube, it was all she saw at the moment.

Beneath the surface, right below Serena's feet in fact, another mutant entered the same area around the Sewer entrance. Sylar was beginning to feel the pangs of hunger, and had chosen a new manhole to enter the city. He crept his way to the ladder that lead to the opening, slowly reaching the barrier between him and his hunting ground. Sylar had no idea that someone was near this manhole, his senses focused on the stench of the underground and unable to pick up the scent of fresh blood just yet. His hand reached up and touched the metal cover, pushing on it at first.

The lid held easily, firmly tightened in place. He would have to force it open, which wasn't something new to him, but would probably terrify anyone who happened to see or hear it from the surface side. He reached back and thrust his fist forward, hitting the metal with a loud thud. Still stuck, so Sylar growled and smashed it again full force. This time, the cover popped up with a bang, and flew up into the air, landing a few feet away with a crash.

His door to the surface open, the Scourge of Manhattan made his entrance like a monster in a horror film. His claws reached out slowly, gripping the street and pulling his body up slowly. His head was hidden under the gray hood of his sweatshirt, but his claws were visible as they dug into the ground. And whats more, as he rose up, his tail slithered from the whole like a serpent from the ground, adding to his presence. But more important than his own monstrous form, was the fact that Sylar saw the girl practicing her power a few feet away.

Sylar's world was a gray, colorless place, full of oblong shapes, and blurry forms, but people were like stars in the night sky to his eyes. Their forms shined with hues of red and yellow, flowing about as they moved and acted. She was small, and slender, just like him, but her warmth was all that was visible in the area, forcing his attention to stay on her. Her image wasn't normal though, somehow, her heat was broken, a tiny second heat source floating near her. Like a bug hovering an animal, or a small satellite around a planet. Sylar hadn't seen it before, and couldn't determine what it was.

At the moment, his distraction prevented him from immediately retreating into the sewers. He said nothing, and kept low, crouched, but his head looked up, a bit of light revealing the face hidden beneath the hood, a sullen, starved looking boy with eyes laced in a black web.

Serena almost jumped out of her skin as the manhole right next to her was knocked against, then she lept backwards as it flew off of the ground taking the moss and rust around it with it. As the various things moved through the air Serena watched in Horror as a pair of clawed hands came around the entrance.

At first Serena thought she was going to be eaten by some sewer dwelling monster. Then she thought she might be having a nightmare, or she was hallucinating and then as the figure pulled itself out of the sewer the most logical explanation came to mind... of course he was a mutant.

She stood and curiously watched the figure, it hadn't quite occured to her that she may be in some sort of danger yet. The creature was on all fours, and was wearing a plain hoodie, it looked up at her, the light from behind Serena shining down at him.

She looked into his eyes, they were webbed over and black, must have been part of his mutation, poor thing. Serena guessed that he saw in some other spectrum, from her knowledge of biology. She bent down ever so slightly, so that she was at eye level, she knew that this might be dangerous, but it was a show of trust, he didn't need to be afraid of her.

Hopefully, that feeling would be mutual "Hi there, I'm Serena." She said with a warmth in her voice seldom heard in an area such as the one they were in. She saw that he looked starving. She still had some chicken and sanwiches with her... "You look starving, I have some food with me, would you like some?"

Sylar's distraction quickly shifted to anxiety as Serena moved to bend over slightly. He couldn't see her facial expression, nor her eyes, but his first assumption would be that she would scream. He quickly lifted his hands from the ground to make a "No" gesture, but instead she spoke.

He stopped suddenly confused, her first reaction hadn't even been to flee, but instead she spoke to him like a person? His expression probably looked as confused as he was by her. He rested on his feet, resting his hands on his knees, while his tail swayed back and forth, visible to the light now, a gleaming scorpion like appendage whose main purpose was violence. He waited a moment, studying her, trying to figure out the situation, but finally just spoke.

"Ain't you gonna scream? Or call the cops?" He asked, remaining distant from her, nervous, but his curiosity peaked by the woman who didn't lose her mind when a sewer mutant erupted from the ground like a horror story. His eyes looked at her, but they never met hers, more like he was looking behind her, or at her as a whole thing as opposed to her face. Once she mentioned food however, she'd have struck gold.

His face perked up naturally at the word, his timid nature unable to hold up against hunger. He leaned forward a bit, inching closer to her, away from his escape. His nose wrinkled, like a dog sniffing under the table. He was a little more assertive, his voice growing beyond a whisper. "You'd just give me your food? I mean, I'm like not gonna mug you or something if you don't lady, but people don't give me food." He lowered his tail down further, showing it off, the plating, the obsidian blade at the end, and spoke again. "I'm a mutant ya know, a monster." He finished, weary of Serena, but his interested held by offered food. He could always take whatever she had and bolt back into the sewers after word.

Serena gave the hooded figure a smile and with a gentle tone replied "I don't see a need to." Serena wondered how long the teenage boy had hung around the sewers, had he been under here for weeks, months... Or maybe even years?

Serena tried to imagine staying in the sewers and scavenging for years and barely surviving... She reckoned she wouldn't be able to survive, she bet only someone strong like Tses or Regan could do it, her mutation certainly wouldn't be helpful.

Serena shook her head at his comment "Being a mutant does not mean your a monster silly, I'm friends with plenty of mutants... actually, I think all of them are. I'm a mutant by the way, and yes. I am sure, you look like you could use something to eat, certainly more than I can." Serena's words flowed with a warm feeling, something sincere and from the heart, it was audible in her voice.

At the mention of her being a mutant Serena realised that she hadn't released her telekinetic grip on the cube, in fact, it was floating much more easily, as if it was responding to her words. The small amount of bleeding on her finger tip had stopped, yet the blood in the air hadn't really hardened, it was in a liquid like state still, just floating.

Serena reached into the back near her slowly and withdrew a Tupperware container and opened it, setting it down gently near Sylar, there was some chicken inside and a sandwich, she then murdered to the new mutant gently "here, take it."

Sylar wasn't entirely sure to make of Serena, his senses could easily detect fear in a person, smell the sweat, the jump in body temp, hear the terror, but she seemed genuinely unafraid of him. He almost let his guard down, but his instincts told him not to buy it, nobody had ever liked Sylar, some girl wasn't about to be the first, at least that's what he thought till she mentioned other mutants.

"You know mutants? Mutants like me?" He asked, Sylar had never seen a mutant before, he'd only remembered his parents called them monsters, so he didn't believe they came in non monstrous forms, they all had to look different from normal people right? And he didn't buy that she was a mutant, she looked just like everybody else, besides the weird extra heat blob she'd had floating with her. "You don't look like a mutant lady, you look exactly like everyone else in fact." He finished, not believing her words, but struggling to find the lie or fear in her actions.

Sylar watched her move, and after the she removed the containers lid, his nose wrinkled again, sniffing the air like a dog. He inched forward, move of his body leaving the safety of the open sewer entrance, and then in a flash he reached forward and grabbed the Tupperware and immediately retreated back to the open manhole. He turned from her, immediately eating what she had offered, the sandwich and chicken vanishing within a few moments into his mouth. He acted almost like a starved dog at this point, before he realized something.

"Did you know you're bleeding?" He asked, he'd been so distracted by Serena's presence that he'd failed to register the light but readable scent of blood in the air. Having finished the food, he crept forward and placed the Tupperware back on the ground, his pitch black claws visible in the light for a moment, before retreating back, always staying with reach of the manhole.

Serena pouted, he clearly hadn't met that many mutants. Serena wondered what she could say, or how to word what she was thinking... Ah, she knew how. "I don't know how many mutants you have met, but mutations seem to manifest differently in different people, like my friend Regan, she has the body of a saber toothed tiger, and she is definitely not a monster, she is one of the most gentle people I have met,"

She thought for a moment how to word her mutation. "As for me, I might look normal in appearance, but that isn't the only type of mutation, my roommate can sense animal's feelings and transfer into them, Me... well, the reason you can probably smell blood, if you haven't noticed it yet is because I am levitating a block of my blood in the air...." Serena murmured.

She shook herself off. "Don't worry, I'm in control at the moment, I promise I won't hurt you. I know that probably doesn't sound like much, but I mean it, I know how cruel people can be, especially with something they don't understand." The same sincerity and warmth flowed through Serena's words, she didn't mean to be like this, she was simply speaking from her heart.

Serena paused for a moment, She wanted to see if the food had helped with the hunger he was almost certainly feeling. "anyway, did that food help with your hunger? You looked very hungry..." she was concerned for this new mutant, maybe she could get him to come back to the mansion and see a place where he wouldn't be called a monster or be looked down on.

Sylar wasn't sure what she was talking about, but it seemed like she was with a group of mutants, or lived with other mutants. He also had no idea what a sabretooth tiger was, but it must have been some type of cat. "You're getting confusing lady, but I should tell you, I've never met another mutant, or seen one. I'm blind." He finished, which was true, he'd never seen anyone in his life, until he mutated and gained an ability to sense heat.

"I only ever heard mutants were monsters, I just figured they all looked like me, or were easy to see." He remained crouched, his other senses looking for anyone else, he'd been here talking to her for so long he was starting to feel anxious. Then she explained what she was doing, and he realized that was why she looked weird to him, blood was warm, so she was stretching her image about. He didn't understand why you'd want to bleed though.

"So you're not a monster, you just make floating blood? That don't seem so bad." At least she didn't have to live in a sewer and eat trash every day, if mutants could look like people that meant most of them just went about like normal? Buncha lucky jerks. He smiled for just a moment. "I ain't afraid of you, I mean look at me, I could do alot more than you could, I'm just afraid of cops coming after me is all."

He suddenly felt a bit embarrassed, an emotion he hadn't had...since he was a kid? Or ever? Sylar hadn't been fed before, normally people just dropped their stuff and ran, or screamed at him, she though had talked to him and given him food, a new experience for him.

"Oh uh, yeah thanks lady. I haven't eaten since yesterday, so I was famished." He wasn't sure what to do besides thank her, he literally had nothing to offer in return but words, and it irked the little bit of his human side that remained in his head. "What're you doing here anyways? Not the best place to be alone at, you know." Why was she here, alleys, empty streets, the sewer manhole, this place didn't scream hang out for a young woman.

She listened to the boy go on, and he said that all she could do was float blood so it wasn't bad... Serena's face darkened for a moment "if you only knew... you wouldn't say that." then she realised the tone she had taken. And she felt bad, she shouldn't be chiding him like that, he had no idea after all.

"I'm sorry, that sounded mean, you see the thing is, I don't make blood float it seems to react weirdly around me, and change shape and form, Serena took a quick breath and continued. "the cops shouldn't hurt you, I know of a couple who are mutants actually... And the reason I am out here, is when my power manifests, it trys to do things, as if it has a mind of it's own...

The harder I try to control it, the harder it pushes back and fights for control, so I figured I'd come out here where I expected nobody else would be, because I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me, and I thought if I came here I might learn to control it."

Serena felt slightly embarrassed for having gone on like that. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to go on like that. Anyway, you sound like you've had a rough life. I can't pretend to understand what you have been through, but I live somewhere that mutants can be safe, and they won't judge you on what you look like or what you can do."

She cleared her throat "It's a mansion, a school of sorts... What I'm trying to say, is would you come with me to the school and see what you think? You could be safe there and you would be able to eat properly and you could sleep on an actual bed. I don't like suffering, so I'd like to help you, if you'll let me." This tine the words came out even more sincere and emotional than before, if that was even possible...

Her tone, even if he couldn't see her face, he could hear the change, far better than most. He knew it too, that feeling, having a nature, a curse, something that isn't normal. She'd kept him here with food, and now she'd baited him again with that one sentence.

She immediately switched back, it sounded to him like hiding behind a mask, being too nice. Perhaps she was that sincere, perhaps she was faking it, either way, he was always paying more attention to her actions than words, that's what an animal did after all. "So, there is more to you than a sandwich and a friendly voice." He felt a bit more comfortable now, knowing that she wasn't some normal person without a care in the world.

The cops wouldn't hurt him? That struck him as odd, they always chased him, always shouted, and ever since that incident with the girl, they'd been even more serious about trying to get him. At least that's how it looked to the starving sewer thief running from a crime scene. "Cops don't like me much lady, they chase me whenever I'm up here. The locals don't like me much either." She couldn't waver his belief, years spent in fear superseded logic, especially for a fifteen year old mutant with no schooling.

He'd always figured mutants would group up, and hearing it confirmed made him feel slightly less alone. "I wondered where all the mutants were. I went to a normal school before..uh this?" He said, motioning his clawed hands toward her. But when she asked him to go there, he suddenly felt his instincts taking control.

He backed up, retreating till the heels of his feet touched the manhole. "No...no I can't, I can't go in the streets. And not to some mansion, I mean look at me." He was conflicted, his curiosity and loneliness wanted him to reach out, but going to some place full of people? Even if they were mutants, he'd have to be around a bunch of normal looking ones, Sylar hated crowds, groups meant mob mentality, and mobs hated the monster. "I don't do so well up here lady, plus I mean I've been down there for like three years, it's not so bad." He said, which was both a lie and the truth, he lived in squalor, constantly hungry, walking a thin line between man and monster, but it was all he knew, to him, being alive, and away from the public was a good thing.

He didn't want to stop talking to her though, He'd wondered about other mutants for 3 years as he lived underground, and never met one until today. "Are...are you other mutants orphans too?" He asked, a question he'd always wondered, did all their parents abandon them, or was it just him. Was he alone the ugly one nobody wanted.

Serena listened to Sylar and felt a wave of sadness as she heard bits of his story. She felt truly sad for him. She wondered why he was so reluctant to come to the mansion, had he really been treated that badly? Serena hoped she could uncover the mystery and help the boy.

Serena thought about his comment for a moment. "Not all of us are no, I guess I technically am now though, my brother was looking after me and he was killed before my eyes a couple of months ago." Serena replied, slightly sadly.

She gazed at the boy again "The mansion isn't what you think, you would become part of the family, they look after mutants and treat them properly, we could even go there through the sewers if you want" Serena said, the familiar warmth shimmered through her voice.

Sylar wasn't aware his story was "sad", at least now the way she'd take it. Sylar wasn't much of a person at this point in his life, his emotions had dulled from solitude, he was lonely of course. But he wasn't actually sad, or depressed about it, to him it just was how things were. He cared more about hunger, and fear, than joy or anger. But hearing that some mutants parents didn't abandon them struck a cord deep down. Part of him felt jealous, jealous that parents could love and his didn't, but it was a fleeting thought.

"I see, I'm sorry for your loss." Sylar had never had siblings, nor experienced death, he had no attachment to it, but knew regular people did. Worse, Sylar had the potential to kill in him, after all, he was designed for it, and people were a very available food source. Only that little bit of conscious inside keep him to rats and dogs. "Did you get the guy who did it?" He asked, not wondering if the question could hurt her, or bother her.

Family? That wasn't a pleasant term for him. His father and mother only ever grew apart from him, to Sylar a family was about abandonment and passive loathing. He disliked the word, but wondered what the other side was like, if he'd been like her would he be in her spot now? The normal mutant, treating the monster like a person? Or would he hate them, just as his parents had him. Too complex, too deep, he let the through slip away.

"I had a family, they never really loved me. A disabled child who grew into a mutant? I don't blame them either." He said with no hint of emotion, no anger, just a fact. However he was curious to see other mutants. "I..I would be like to meet other mutants, but a family of them is too many. You...you're not so bad, by yourself, even if you look like everybody else." She was persistent, maybe this mansion of mutants did this, went out and brought all the mutants there.

If he couldn't be a person, he'd be a monster, that's how he'd lived his life. But could a monster meet a group of mutants? Part of him wanted to, most of him was terrified of leaving this manhole, his only escape back to his world. Down there, he wasn't afraid, he could run free, enjoy the dark, the quiet, and even meet the cats at the station. He realized he'd eaten but he hadn't picked up any food for them yet. Whenever this ended, he'd have to find a store to rob.

Serena felt a small smile as he said sorry, so he could care for others, that was a start to filling in some of the blanks to this guy. Serena's smile turned grim. "Yeah, he's not going to kill anyone else." Serena said quietly.

Serena wondered what the boy's family might have been like, either dead, or pretty bad for him to end up in a sewer like this. She looked grim when he answered her unsaid question. She felt bad, and then realised if he had been living like this for so long, he was probably far beyond anger or sadness by now.

Serena pondered what he said for a moment, what could she say? Her brothers words bounced about in her head, something about being sincere and true to your heart being all you could really do and hoping for the best.

Serena decided to listen to her older brothers words. "When I say family, I don't mean just blood ties, trust me I know about them. What I mean is a group of people who accept you for who you truly are, who will love you no matter what. That is what I have found there."

Serena got slightly stern, but still very clearly sincere and the warm feeling was still threaded into her words like a stitching she hadn't meant to implant and couldn't shake. "Stop calling yourself a monster, you are just someone who has been mistreated. My friend Regan is a bipedal human sized cat, who turns into a saber tooth, another friend has a pair of wings and a lions tail, he turns into a gryphon, another is a wolf that turns into a werewolf on fullmoons, they are no more monsters than you are silly."

on the last few words of Serena's sentance compassion flowed into them, like a river flowing into an even bigger ocean.

He guessed Serena had gotten the closure she needed with that statement. He'd ran from his world, abandoning it as it abandoned him, so he didn't know the feeling. Sylar couldn't even comprehend her explanation of her family. His parents had always felt distant, never truly accepting his blindness or his timid nature. No, Sylar had never known acceptance with no clauses, so to him, it was basically a fairy tale.

"I don't know of anyone like that. People scare easily, and if most mutants look normal, I'm sure I could scare them too." As if to emphasize his point his tail leaned forward slowly, the blade glinting in the dim light, an obsidian weapon with only one purpose. He wasn't sure how to feel about her next statement either. Sylar was a monster, that was truth to him. A sewer dwelling creature that fed in the shadows, what else would you call it?

"You can see me right? Monster is just the word for it. My mother said so." He said bluntly and without emotion, a fact for him, an opinion for her. She mentioned that the other mutants transformed, instead of just were. "So they aren't always monsters?" He'd never thought it you could control it. If you could choose to be a man or a monster, you could live with the normal people. Again he subconsciously cursed himself for being born cursed.

He swayed back and forth a bit, his senses scanning anyone else and making sure his time with Serena remained just that, a solo conversation. "What would a group of mutants even do? It's hard enough to hide by myself, do normal people just not know about you?" He asked, having never known mutant kind had reached some kind of acceptance with them, and still didn't believe her that the cops weren't a threat.

Serena felt awful for this teenager, he sounded like he had spent his whole life in fear and hiding, at that his parents had instilled a lot of that fear, that was despicable. "It's true humans are an easily scared species, but that is of things they do not understand."

Serena gathered herself, drawing on her feelings of compassion, she really truly wanted to help this boy. "If you saw a beautiful creature, of any kind, maybe a large cat, a lizard with shining scales, would you call that a monster? Serena said asking the question in a rhetorical way, with something warm in her voice still.

"Mutants are no different. We have every right to exist and sure some humans are scared of us, but some will go out of their way to help us because like I do, they see us as people, no matter our appearance or what we can do." Serena's voice was gentle, almost motherly, or what you would expect a loving parent to sound like, or maybe a sibling.

"And yes they know we are there, most of them don't mind, and because there are so many of us, the nasty ones stay far away, where they cannot ridicule us or try to harm us."

She took a deep breath. "By the way, do you have a name?" Serena's words would come across better if she could address him on a first name basis, then the words would make more sense. He might take to them better.