Serena grimaced. "Well... We might be a little screwed." now might not be the best time for humor, but yeah, attempted lighten the mood. As it was about to go to hell anyway.

She had previously noted the blood on their clothing and their weapons. She really didn't want to have to use her mutation on them, they could get badly injured, or Leon could.

The guy with the baseball bat swung at Serena she ducked and kicked him in the stomach with surprising speed, he stumbled back. And spat at her. "You're gonna suffer, mutant whore."

Serena didn't like people using the fact that she was a mutant as an insult, or the fact that he had just met Serena and was referring to her as a 'whore'.

The man was backed up, feigning aggression. He clearly hadn't expected such resistance. She was not going down without a fight.

Well, it looks like this is going to get messy either way, so I might as well use it.

"Again, I am surprised that you know the meaning of the word. You seem rather un-intelligent. Leon, get behind me, I have a plan, and You'll want to be behind me for it. Serena stated calmly.

Maybe now wasn't the best time to tell her that he isn't the best in a fist fight.
Well i didn't expect them to catch up so damn fast. Thought Leon with a slight frown, after all he really liked this waistcoat and would hate to ruin it. With a second to prepare himself he awaited the beating from the Mob.

Then the girl offered him a way out, get behind her? Could he really just hide behind this small girl. Well she obviously was confident and had a plan so it would be wise to do as she says.

"If you say so." He said, and made his way behind the girl leaving a few steps so she still had room to do whatever she was going to do.

I really hope whatever she does works.

 

Serena smiled. Good, even if he didn't understand what she was doing, which she assumed, he didn't, unless, in addition to the whole ashie-kinetic thing, he was also a mind reader. Which she somehow doubted. And also, she thought that sort of mutation would be a little... awkward.

She moved her arms forward and opened her palms. "Urm... Rioters? You might want to leave now, I don't have perfect control so you could be injured. I don't like injuring people, infact I detest violence, but if you are going to threaten me or my new friend I'm afraid you leave me no choi-"

Serena was cut of by the spit of the rioter. "Fighting it is." Serena said coldly. For such a warm and friendly teenage girl, when she acted cold... it was a little creepy.

Just to add to the creepy factor a little more, a blue aura surrounded the blonde girl. and the rioters backed up for a moment. "She's only a mutie, whats a glow going to do...-HEY! What are you doing to my bat bitch?!" the man exclaimed, as his weapon began to glow.

Not to your weapon fool, to the blood on it and you. The blonde thought to herself. Anyone observant, would note that the same Aura had surrounded all of the blood in the area.

As the men tensed, ready to unleash their assault. Serena moved her hand up in the air slightly and all of the blood in the area responded and then began to float near her and Leon, as if it was dancing around her.

She gestured to the men. "Still want to try me then?" she teased.

The man with the bat growled.

Well. Leon certainly didn't expect that to happen. When the girl had told him to get behind her his first thought was she has a gun and doesn't want to shoot me. He had some other ideas about what she was going to do ranging from hidden knifes to laser beams. However this had not made his list.

"AH WHAT THE!" Was all he could think to say as all of the blood in the area began to float around her. Even if there was a visible connection between the girl and the weird floating blood, he just couldn't help being slightly creep'd out, border-lining scared. The way the blood was moving in a seemingly unpredictable pattern around her. 

Although it did make him feel more accepted when she referred to him as her friend. On the other hand it started to bring up memory's of people that he had left behind, people who had helped him in situations with gangs and likewise people he himself had helped.

As he noticed the man with the bat growling he thought Well looks like things are going to get real ugly. Crouching slightly making sure he had a clear place to run away if things got a little... To rough.

Serena knew that Leon had been freaked out a little. Great. Someone to reject her for something she couldn't help about herself. Serena gave herself a mental slap. Not everyone is like that, and he eats ash. He was just a little startled, so she should not worry herself.

The man with the bat charged. Serena made a gripping motion and a hand of blood grabbed the bat and ripped it from his grip. "H... HEY!" was all he could manage as his weapon was tossed to the side.

She smiled. Impressed with her own control. She wouldn't cut them. That might just add more to her pool and make it more taxing to control. Less was good.

She moved her hands as the guy with the knuckle duster charged from the left, moving a closed fist like a back hand towards him. A cylinder shaped collection of blood slammed into his chest, like a mallet. He crumpled, gasping for air as he had been winded.

Serena faintly smiled. She had done it, without hurting him. Well, not much...

The two holding the knives looked to each other and then ran at Serena screaming, brandishing their weapons. Kitchen knives, how eloquent.

She moved her arms. Even if they reached her and wounded them, they would not injure Leon. She shot the blood forward at them, but misjudged and missed one of them. The unlucky one however, was met with a ball of blood, which left him out cold on the floor.

The other one lunged. She replied with fist of blood, delivering far more striking force than she could deliver herself. He was out cold too.

Serena began to rest her hands on her knees bent over, panting. The blood landed on the floor around her.

The man who had his bat stolen had moved around to the side, grabbed a knife and charged for Leon from the side with incredible speed. Serena, without turning her head completely, began to glow again and reached out towards him, his blade was met with a shield, medieval style, but composed entirely of blood.

She stood and turned to him and then swung her other arm out. From the shield, a fist erupted, colliding with the mans face. He crumpled. They were all out cold.

The whole fight passed like a blur, as hard as he tried Leon just could not seem to come to terms with what was happening. This girl who he had just met took down all four men single handed, whilst he just stood there like a lemon. 

"What..What just happened?" He asked failing to keep his voice from shaking. After all he had just witnessed a innocent looking girl beat up four full grown men. With nothing but blood. That would be enough to shake anyone up, well at least anyone Leon knew.  

Looking around at the men on the floor. They where clearly breathing as he could see their chests moving up and down slowly. Well at-least she didn't kill them. He thought as he had no intention to commit murder. Although they where alive it would change nothing, if they didn't move fast they would either be found with the body's and arrested. Or they would wake up and attack again.

"You know what it doesn't even matter what you did. Lets just get out of here." He said. Thankfully some of the stability was returning to his voice so he didn't sound so pathetic. Then he turned and started to move away from the body's. Glancing back to check if the girl was following.

Serena was following Leon. She felt awful. Not only had she managed to completely freak out Leon, but she felt like she had run a mile, that was tiring. More tiring that idly using her mutation by accident, she had actually been shaping blood and using it to fight.

Fighting is so stupid. But maybe, it was necessary. She had freaked out her friend, but she had controlled it, and gotten it to do exactly what she wanted... She had never really done that before. Especially considering that Serena had never really fought with it before, not intentionally anyway, she had barely managed to defend herself when she encountered Regan for the first time.

And nobody had gotten badly injured. Still though, she had freaked out a person who could have potentially been her friend, now he probably wouldn't want to be friends with a blood mancer, judging by his reaction to her using her mutation.

She looked even more pale than usual. "Sorry... if... I... freaked... you... out." she managed while barely keeping up with him.

Leon looked back upon hearing the girls voice, what he saw did not fit the new image he had of her. In his mind he had a bad ass fighting machine, but what he saw changed all that and in a way made him much more sympathetic to her. As he looked at her he saw that she was quite a bit paler than before and breathing hard.

"Its OK, you know in its own way it was kinda cool." He said, as he spoke the apprehension and shocked look on his face melted into a smile, after all it was obvious this girl hadn't planned to fight, even if she did have the most dangerous weapon that he had ever seen. that was comparing to the knifes and occasional guns that roamed the streets of London. 

It was odd to Leon this girl seemed like a coin, one side was a sweet and innocent girl who just wanted to be friends. And on the flip-side was a high powered fighting machine, but at the same time they effected each other, noting the shortness of breath. He stopped as he noticed a familiar black/ grey mound on the floor.

"Just one second, it would be best not to let people find this." he said warmly, it was as much his fault that these people had gotten hurt and attacked them. Concentrating on the mound of ash he began to feel the warmth burn into the center of his chest and spread to his finger tips. Watching with a smile as the pile began to shift and rise like smoke from a chimney.

Once the cloud was in the air, slowly shifting never staying still for more than a second, Leon looked down to his fingertips to see the familiar flames starting to appear. they started from the very tips of his fingers, quickly spreading across his body like hairline fractures. each line was no more than a hair in width, and never touching the skin, always close enough to feel the warmth but never close enough to burn.

He was suddenly very conscious that they where on a time limit, so he quickly willed the cloud to go down his throat and join the rest of his reserves. 

Serena smiled as Leon was being kind to her. Colour slowly returned to her face. A small amount redder than it had originally been. Her face felt hot. She had never had her mutation complimented before... Well she had, but not by a person who had actually seen it.

Serena gave Leon a red faced smile "Thanks... I've never really... Had it complimented before. I'm generally terrified that people will freak out as soon as they see it." Serena hated her mutation most of the time. Ok, nearly all of the time.

But today, she was happy that for once it hadn't felt like a massive burden, or a curse or anything of the sort. It was a part of her, something that would always be with her. Even if it was volatile, maybe that was good, some sort of vent for that aspect of her personality that she would normally just bottle up and leave alone.

It was something that she had been able to use to her advantage, something to protect her and her new found friend. Not something to hurt others.

"That's actually the first time I've ever fought with it... And the first time I've really been able to get it to listen to me in and like... not hurt me or anyone else. I'm glad. I was able to protect us." She cocked her head to the left slightly and gave Leon a smile.

The red in her face began to build again. She felt flattered by the fact that he wasn't scared of her mutation, he thought it was cool. Serena watched in amazement as he lit up like a camp fire.

After he finished she cleared her throat in an attempt to clear the awkward from her face and to get his attention. "Right then... Shall we get going? I don't really think hanging around is a good idea."

Leon turned to Serena when she mentioned the fact that they should be leaving. "You're right we should get out of here, sorry about the whole fire thing, I probably should have warned you." He said with a slight smile, the fact that this girl did not seem to be scared or a bit...weary was quite impressive to Leon. The few people that Leon had shown his mutation to either ran or where scared, not that he blamed them after all fire was a dangerous thing.

"Anyway shall we?" He asked Serena. beckoning to the walkway ahead of them, as he said this he felt a tickling sensation in the back of his throat, it was mild and nothing special but he couldn't help to laugh a little. This gave the comment a slight comedic hint that he hadn't intended it to have.

Without waiting to hear Serena's reply Leon started to walk down the path that he had motioned too. As he walked he couldn't help to start laughing more, using his hand to cover his mouth hoping that Serena would not notice and think he's slightly...odd.

There appeared that there was something a bit odd going on with Leon. He sounded more... amused. She wondered if something Serena had said caused it, or maybe he just found eating ash amusing.

She nodded to his comment. "Yes, lets get going." Serena smiled to him.

She wondered what he really thought of her mutation, after all making blood float and altering it's density and form was not the most light hearted mutation you could ever see.

She was getting quite anxious about it actually.

Serena turned to Leon as they walked. "So, Um... Leon?" she began, slightly awkwardly. "Um... Well, could you not tell anyone about my mutation please? I know that I should probably be less... Awkward about it, but it's not really the most family friendly mutation, if you get what I mean, and if word got out about it, especially around the mansion. More than it already has, I would be like... Well, I think the kids might be scared of me." She managed, barely stopping to breath.

Well that was new, never before had he laughed for no apparent reason and especially because of his mutation. Serena probably thought that he was a bit odd now that he laughed after those thugs got beaten up, them getting beat up didn't really bother him as he was used to gangs around places. However the way they had been beat up was a bit disturbing, and apparently she also thought that when she asked him to keep on the down low about her mutation. 

That got him thinking about how the others at the mansion would react to his mutation, after all its not everyday that you meet someone who eats ash and can move ash. That being said he was sure that there would be more dangerous and weird mutations at the mansion, how he would react to those though he was not sure.

"Yeah sure your secret  is safe." He said to Serena, he was happy to find that his voice had returned to normal so he didn't sound slightly crazy, looking around he thought that they ha stayed here far to long and the people would soon wake up, that or the police or even some more thugs would come running down the path. "Come on lets get off the track." He said very plainly, when you where running or trying to fight it was never a good time to crack a joke or make light of the situation. That much he had learned from gangs.

Without saying another word he ran sideways into the tree line hoping that Serena would be following. 

(Continued in)