Paige made her way through the park, pulling her zipped blue hoodie tighter as she made her way through the lake, fighting the bitter January cold that New York was so stupid for. Heh...stupid. She was one to talk about that, wasn't she? Since she'd gotten to New York, all she'd done is get beaten up, made a fool of, and bested at what she once thought she was among the best at. No. In Los Angeles, she may have been top of the totem pole. Or maybe she wasn't; it was just her family name and their money making it seem that way. But here...she was nothing. She was weak.

Here, she had to make a name for herself. Get better, stronger. Toughen up. And what better way than what she had in mind? Okay, there were probably much better ways to do this. But maybe Paige had gone off the deep end. Or maybe she was crazy to begin with, who knew. Alright, Paige. Time to toughen up...

Unzipping her hoodie, she let it fall to the ground, followed by her tank top, shoes, jeans, and the rest of her clothes. At this point, the wind picked up a little and she began to question her idea. But standing naked in the park, this was no time to turn back. She gave one more quick look into the darkness to make for sure no one had seen her.

Then, gracefully, she dove into the lake. The ice cold, bitter, unforgiving lake. Butt naked. "****!" was the first thing she exclaimed, then bit her lip, swimming across the lake and then diving under for a spell. This was unbearable, but she had to do it. She had to.

Masque had been thinking a lot about learning to better defend himself in recent weeks.  Everything had changed since his coming to the Mansion.  At first he had believed it had all changed for the better and that all his problems had been solved.  Finally he might have the opportunity to actually start pursing his dreams and no longer would he have to worry about basic things like food and shelter.  In some ways, he had been right.  Basic life needs were no longer an issue and he had more time than ever to pursue his art.  In other ways he had been very wrong.  As it turned out, there were more dangers in the city than he ever could have dreamed of, especially for a mutant like himself.

The first part of learning to keep himself safe, Masque had decided, was learning to truly master his power.  When actively thinking about it, he was all ready quite proficient in creating whatever images he desired, but when he wasn't and especially when his emotions were strong it had a tendency to do things on its own.  Not only that, but there were other uses for his power that he had barely even begun to learn about.  Among the most potentially useful, at least in his mind, was learning to become hidden and stay that way.  He knew his skin could match any pattern he desired but it wasn't something he had spent much time pursuing as of yet.  It was time to change that.

It was to that purpose that Masque had made his way to a small, relatively private park long after dark not too far from the Mansion.  Private was the key because he could only change skin and not clothing.  Of course it was freezing cold in the middle of winter but that could only serve as an added challenge to his concentration and maintaining patterns no matter the distractions, right?

Hiding himself behind a tree next to the lake, he removed his clothing, everything but his boxers, and stood shivering the in dark for a moment.  When it came down to an actual situation where he'd truly need to hide himself he knew he'd have to get over his modesty, but tonight was not that night.  Taking a minute to concentrate, his skin took on a dappled dark green and brown pattern, mimicking the trees around him.  He then stepped out from behind his tree and began walking towards the lake, taking things slowly and carefully and trying to maintain his illusion.

James had spent all day pacing his room at the mansion considering if he should go see his mother and apologize for his behavior. The idea was scary, but it needed to be done. By the time he had plucked up the courage it was getting dark.

The walk was torturous and James was losing his nerve, by the time he got to the other side of the park it was dark and he had pretty much bottled it. Looks like I'll have to ask Serena to come with me, I guess. He pivoted on his heel and began to walk back. The darkness made him feel slightly paranoid and he pulled his jacket closer around him, looking about for strangers.

As he circled the lake he saw a stranger alright, way more of a stranger than he had ever thought possible. The girl was stripping. Literally stripping in the middle of nowhere. Time was short, James had to hide.

The blush which quickly took over his face was as red as red can be as he dived behind the nearest tree. God knows what she would have thought if she knew he had been looking. The last thing he wanted was some woman thinking he was a pervert...which he wasn't, just a teenager.

"Why me?" he asked the sky. Why, of all people, would the guy who suffers from social anxiety from just being in the same room as a woman? There was a splash. Okay, on one...two...three.

James peeked from around his tree, just in time to see the girl dive downwards. Now was his chance, he could get out of there as quickly as possible while she was under the water. James jumped out from behind his tree, eyes firmly planted on the ground he quickly power walked as fast as possible around the rim of the lake. Almost there...almost at the path and then he would be behind some bushes where he would be out of view.

James's leg caught on something...what? He only just had time to think; S*** before his leg twisted and he splashed into the lake. The water was so cold it felt as if the air had been sucked from his lungs. James splashed around a bit, unsure what was going on, until he sunk to the bottom. It seemed the splashing around had pushed him deeper into the water. That was fine, he could just swim back up...

Nope, apparently not, for some reason he was just too heavy. Why the hell couldn't he swim? Looking around to see if he had snagged anything on the bottom he noticed a glinting. Oh dear, ohdearohdearohdear.

It seemed the shock of getting thrown into the water had caused James's mutation to activate, the hand made of steel was weighing him down like an anchor. James tried to think...nothing came...what exactly was he supposed to do?

Right..take a deep breath...NO! don't do that, bad idea. Panic started to set it, he had been underwater for what? fifteen seconds? James knew he still had at least another minute worth of air in his lungs, the advantages of regular exercise! Yay!

Now, how to get out? How. To. Get. Out.

Before the naked girl saw him, that was.

Positive, positive thinking was his defining aspect. That made him feel a little calmer.

It was bloody cold out here, and the thought came to Paige that this had to be one of her worst ideas ever. And to make it worse, she thought she heard footsteps. Then another set of footsteps. Then a splash. Oh crap! In a flash she was out of the lake, running for her clothes. Her body shivered from the cold breeze that picked up as her feet hit the icy grass.

But she couldn't find her clothes. She'd left them right here next to the lake! Without thinking, she shifted, and in a split second there was a beachball on the ground by the lake. The question that would remain unanswered was whether or not that was her intention. Well, at least she wasn't cold anymore. Hopefully nothing would pop her.

Why oh why had Masque decided to come out and strip naked on this night of all nights?  Sure he had a good reason; practice his powers he said to himself.  Learn to properly control what he had and do things more useful than draw pretty pictures.  Sure, that all sounded wonderful and practical and all the rest of those good positive words but damn was it ever cold!  He really should have thought this over better ahead of time.

Still, despite the cold he was rather pleased with the illusion he was pulling off and if he could properly critique his own work, he'd say he was doing a pretty darn good job of looking like the forest around him.  He felt just like a chameleon and that was good because wasn't that the entire purpose of this late night adventure?  Tentatively and despite the shivers rattling his body, he smiled.

Suddenly Masque felt something lock into the back of his ankle. He flailed, trying to retain his feet before losing his balance and falling half into the lack.  A moment of panic and a shock of cold as he scrambled from the edge of the lack back onto dry land where he remained on his hands and knees panting and trying to slow his racing heart.  That was close, had he been any further from the edge drowning would have been a very real possibility.

It was only after that thought that Masque realized that something or someone had been responsible for his tumble and they might not be quite so fortunate as to remain half on land.  He looked towards the lake just in time to see a human shaped metal form sinking down into the water.  Crap.  His skin began osculating between red and yellow, trying despeerately to figure out what to do next.

The burning in James' lungs was not such a lovely sensation. Regardless it had caused him to calm down a little. His arm had changed and he was under water. The question was, how much of it had changed? James pulled his sleeves up to the elbow. It stopped just before the joint, he could see the jagged line where the metal stopped and the skin began.

James unceremoniously underwater facepalmed. Luckily he could think straight and he forced his hand to change back. It worked, slowly. The transformation took a good five seconds and then he was free to go.

With his body screaming, James pushed against the bottom of the lake and shot upwards towards the surface with a pretty underwater mud explosion. Ten seconds later stumbled up the bank, dripping, cold and freezing.

Gasping, James made it two meters away from the water before his legs twisted underneath him and he fell onto his back with a soft groan. He vaguely registered a strange coloured person in the corner of his peripheral vision but ignored it.

James looked to the left sluggishly and saw a twisted lump of clothing. Well, at least the girl was still in the lake, she would've taken her clothes with her otherwise.