Ryden had heard about the Mansion on and off for a few years, but he never took the time to visit the estate. As an adult, he thought it was silly to go to a 'school', but with recent events, he was more inclined to at least investigate the place. He thought he had a handle on his powers, but then things happened and he had to question it again. Light posts breaking, guns exploding... Cell phones busting...  It was harder and harder to pay for the things he destroyed, and he wondered if it was careless to avoid looking for other options.

So, here he was, outside the metal gates, the Taxi-cab already pulling away. He would have called ahead, but cell phones and he didn't exactly get along. So now he was standing facing his old nemesis. 

Metal.

He just couldn't get a break, could he?

Pushing the button, he waited for the buzzer to ping someone on the other side. "Yes?" A voice answered, and Ryden took a deep breath, trying to space out his words.

"Hi, my name is Ryden, I was hoping--"

CRACK!

The speaker gave a audible crack, and Ryden's hand hit his face in frustration. Of course the intercom had metal inside it. He let his head hit the gate as he groaned. "Just going to be one of those days..." He muttered. One of the bars snapped in response.
    

Ryden was not the only mutant on the mansion grounds having trouble with his mutation. Cole had recently been releasing carbon molecules from his skin at a rapid rate. This, combined with the necessity to wear heavy jackets in the frigid climate of New England,caused the inside of Cole's jackets to become covered in a black soot. And the fine powder was literally impossible to remove. The result was Cole looked very much like a coal miner. His face was streaks with random black smudges while his hands were covered in the stuff.

Feeling miserable and having completed his third shower of the day to remove the powder, Cole had decided to go for a walk. His walk turned more into a drudge as he pundered through the unfamiliar snow. The Florida native was not built for this kind of weather. Almost to the gat and thorough frustrated, Cole picked himself up from his fourth fall. He wiped his frozen hands off in the snow, leaving blackened snow in his wake. Stuffing his hands in his pockets, a torrent of black soot shifted and slid down both his jacket sleeve, depositing itself in his pockets.

"Great, just great." Cole said to no one. He grabbed a handful of the black powder and was able to throw it in the snow when he heard a sound like a gunshot. Cole nearly jumped out of his snow packed shoes, releasing a cloud of black dust that choked him terribly. Coughing horribly, Cole emerged, covered in the fine black powder. Making his way towards the noise, the teen was surprised to his a man resting his head on the gate to the mansion. The "gunshot" seemed to have been originated from a bar on the gate. It was fractured completely in half.

Hey man, you okay? That scared the crrap of out me." Cole said before immediately regretting his word choice.

"Not that that was crap. I swear...So, are you new here?" He said, changing the subject quickly.

Ryden was still grumbling at the fence, the vibration of his voice in the metal sending tingles through his hand as the quiet sound threatened to cause more damage. He couldn't even visit the school without breaking something, and was ready to leave when a voice addressed him. He looked up and spotted the younger kid and gave a somewhat rueful smile.

"Just a technical difficulty." He answered, a bar on the gate giving a visible wobble, nearly joining it's broken companion until he cut the sentence off. No need to damage more. He looked at the soot covered kid, and glanced at the broken call box. He wondered if he'd have to pay for that too.

"Not new, just visiting." Pause....pauuuussseeee. The vibrations vanished and he continued. "Or, trying to..." He looked at the broken box, then the gate. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed. "I'm Ryden, I live in the city." CRACK! Well, at this rate he was just going to end up breaking into the place.

Cole waited patiently at the visitor answered his question. At first, the teen thought the man might be mental slow before he realized that the metal gate would wobble horribly everytime the man spoke. Cole realized that the man must have a super charged voice. As the man finished another bar snapped from the wobbling. Cole winced at the sight.

"Nice to meet you, Ryden. I'm Cole." He stuck his hand through the new hole in the fence before realizing it was still covered in soot. Cole quickly wiped his hand off on his damp jeans before offering his hand again.

"How about you come inside before you tear the whole gate down?" Cole said in a joking manner, giving Ryden a grin. He waved the visitor through the hole in the gate from the two missing bars. "I'm kind of glad you broke a hole in the gate. That way I don't have to go someone to open it up. I have no idea where the controls are for that thing."

Shaking hands through the busted hole in the fence had the same sensation to Ryden that talking over the dead dear had when he was with Sylar. Something about this odd situations made his brain hurt a little if he thought too much about them, so it was better to just got with the flow. "Nice to meet you..." He said with a slight smile. His eyes followed the soot again, and his curiousity lingered.

The suggestion to come inside was a welcomed one, and Ryden answered by wiggling through the gate. He laughed, and the metal buzzed behind him, and he glanced nervously back at the control box. "I can pay for that..." He murmured, hoping he wouldn't get thrown back out the front door as soon as the owners realized what he did.

Cole waited as the man maneuvered through the bars and onto the grounds of the mansion. Halfway through, he laughed, causing the metal gate to wobble again. The teen turned his face away to avoid the man was seeing his concerned expression. Cole could not help but think it himself that this man might not be the best person to allow in the mansion. The last thing they needed now was another mutant who accidentally destroyed things.

"Don't worry about it. There is this little redhead that is always making things explode. We'll just blame her." Cole said, regarding the broken control box.

"So what is with your voice? It destroys metal or something?" The teen asked blatantly. Cole knew it was rude to ask someone about their mutation, but for the most part, he just did not care. He still saw mutants as freaks, even if he was one, and their feelings did not concern Cole.

This kid was clearly one of the more outspoken sorts, but Ryden didn't mind. As a reporter, he had a thick skin and learned long ago not to get offended by what people did. He chuckled, and as they walked they were far enough away his voice didn't catch the metal bars. A pen in his pocket buzzed slightly instead. "It resonates." He explained, uncertain if his companion would know what exactly that meant. It was a school though, so maybe they studied it in science. Hard to tell with the schooling system these days. "Metal, glass. Resonance gives things a certain..." Forced pause. Last thing he wanted was something exploding in his pocket.

"Elasticity." He nodded his head towards the building and gave a shrug. "Heard there was an adapted here." He glanced back at the gate and sighed. "Figured might be time to... get a better grip on this." New York was a city of metal and glass. He couldn't spend his whole life walking on eggshells. Or maybe he had to... but he wanted to at least see if there were better options.

He glanced around the grounds. If nothing else, there was a decent amount of greenery around here. It wouldn't be a bad place to spend some time if he needed to stretch his voice without shattering things. That was why he was here though: options. He needed to see what there was.

Resonate. Cole had heard the term before. He remembered something with a wine glass. His teacher had made them try to resonate the glass. Everyone tried to sing it into resonance. It was not until after everyone had made a fool of themselves that the teacher used his finger and a little water. Cole never really liked that teacher after that, not that he liked many teachers to begin with. The man with the magic voice's next statement caught Cole offguard.

"An Adapted? What is that?" Cole asked. He had never heard of anything like that, let alone that there was one at the mansion.

~ "Figured might be time to... get a better grip on this."

"Have you ever tried whispering?" Cole asked, only half serious. He threw Ryden a cocky grin before breaking into a chuckle at his own joke.

Ryden was surprised Cole had never heard of an adapted, especially considering there was one here in the building. Then again, they were pretty rare, so unless he walked through the field he wouldn't have noticed. "Adapteds cancel mutant powers. They have a field, step in, no powers." Ryden explained. He could feel his voice drift along, catching a sprinkler, a few seconds later catching the door handle up ahead.

The next question almost made Ryden laugh, but considering that was such a dangerous experience, he forced just a smile to appear. "Whispering helps." He admitted with a shrug, putting his hands in his pockets. "Try whispering to a girl in a bar though. Looks creepy." Ryden shrugged in defeat. It wasn't like he expected to ever find a girl at this point in his life.

"They cancel out powers? That's bad ass! Then I wouldn't have to deal with this stupid- " Cole swung his arm and a cloud of black soot bellowed out. He growled in frustration as he dusted off his hand. If Adapteds were real, maybe there was a way for them to cancel out his abilities permanently. Then Cole could leave these freak show and get his life back.

"You would think that they would make a drug for us already." Cole said in frustration. He was going to have to take another shower when he got back. However, Ryden's last comment made Cole smile.

"Well it depends on what you are whispering." Cole responded with a grin.

As the cloud of soot appeared Ryden sneezed slightly, trying not to make a face as some of the cloud got in his nose and mouth. He wasn't sure exactly what Cole's powers were, but if he had a guess, he'd have to say it had something to do with all the soot that hung around him. Ryden guessed it would feel like living in a fireplace. At least he had an option of just not talking if he didn't want things to break.

While Ryden disliked his power, the idea of a drug did seem a little overboard, and risky. He shrugged slightly. "Police have collars to suppress powers. Figure a drug might not be far behind..." Especially with adapteds around... that was sort of the unspoken theory in his mind. So long as they wouldn't take powers away from those who enjoyed them, having some way to suppress unwanted abilities didn't seem so aweful. Someone should just get to inventing that already.

Then Cole made a joke and Ryden snorted a laugh, a nearby sprinkler giving a rattle of protest. "Fair point." Ryden agreed.

By now, Cole had been accustomed to breathing in the fine, coal dust that he was producing. It hardly even burned his lungs anymore when he breathed in the black powder. However, the teen was certain that he would develop tuberculosis before he was twenty-five. When Ryden mentioned the police carried mutation suppressing collars, Cole was intrigued, but at the moment, he could not anything so he filed that information away for later. Maybe he might try to steal one of the those collars the next time he left the mansion. Speaking of, the large mansion was now looming in front of them.

"Well, let's see if we can find someone to show you around. I'm not much of a tou guide." Cole confessed. Instead of taking Ryden through the main entrance, Cole decided to use the informal entrance that led into the kitchen. "Also, you might want to be careful with your voice. They are a lot of kids running around in here."

Cole's warning caught Ryden a little by surprise, but he nodded his head and forced himself not to talk. Sometimes he got a little reckless when he was inside, but the mansion itself was no place to risk breaking something. A sprinkler could be repaired, but shatter a mirror or accidentally break metal, and kids here could get hurt. He was lucky when his powers manifested. The bleachers caving in had almost been comical rather than frightening. But looking back, he knew just how bad it could have been. Metal could shoot fragments when it shattered, leave splinters that tore skin. Those were realities he could never forget, because the moment he did, the moment he could harm someone forever.

Inside, his eyes wandered, taking in the sights. Long hallways stretched to all sides, branching in all directions. It was hard to think a bunch of mutant kids lived here. Ryden could never handle it. He was nervous enough in his apartment, but if someone tried talking to him here, it would take a lot of control not to respond. And as soon as he did...

He poked his head curiously into a few of the side rooms while Cole looked for a 'tour guide'. There was plenty to see at least, even if he couldn't ask many questions.

As they walked through the mansion, Cole pointed out the basic landmarks as they searched for a proper greeter. There was the kitchen and the dining room. The living room was crowded full of kids watching cartoons. While Cole walked, Ryden took peeks in some rooms that they passed. Probably be the worst tour guide ever, Cole did not wait for Ryden to finish viewing the rooms. By the time, they had finished exploring the first floor, Cole had to wait for Ryden to catch up.

"That's about it, unless you want to check out the rooms. They are on the second floor and up. The grounds are nice, too, during the summer. Right now, they are all covered in snow. If you want a room, I can try to find one of the staff members." Cole said, only half caring. He had become bored being a tour guide already.

The Mansion was actually pretty impressive for being a school for mutant kids. To be honest, Ryden wasn't sure how the thing was still standing. How could you keep a dinning room stocked with kids with super human metabolisms, and wooden railings seemed like a bad idea if you ever came across a fire mutant. Then again, he broke metal. A log cabin would be amazing if he could afford it. A log cabin would look silly in New York though...

As they moved, Cole kept moving faster and faster. Ryden wasn't bothered by the rush though. He was used to people shooing him from place to place. Reporters had to have tough skin. He just nodded as Cole concluded the tour. "You don't have to bother." He remarked. A nearby mirror rattled in it's frame. "I'll just leave an e-mail address or something to get in contact with someone, if that's ok..." He barely cut himself off in time. The bending effect of the glass was both frightening and intriguing at the same time.

"Maybe someone will be in the greeter's office." He mused aloud. A bit too loud. The nail holding up a picture frame next to Cole snapped and it hit the ground with a thud.