He always hated it when he had to tag along with people in order to help them out with things. It was very annoying since he never understood why people couldn't just take care of their own problems. That was why he was there with a group of idiotic members of his gang that had forced him to come because they outranked him and were older than him. Apparently they needed his help with a mutant that owed the gang some money and they were afraid that they wouldn't be able to handle him since they weren't mutants.

Unfortunately for Terry he didn't even get a chance to fight a mutant since the guy they were going after was just some old man with purple skin. Therefore he had to just lean against the wall in the back alley they were in while five of his seniors just beat the hell out of him. They didn't even let him join in since they wanted to have all of the fun. "Weren't we supposed to get some money out of the guy?" Terry asked the guy leading the beat-down as he glared at the kid for interrupting his fun. Terry scowled at him before walking up to the mutant and picking up a chain lying on the floor to the displeasure of some of the guys with him who didn't expect a kid to go out of line. 

"I'm getting tired of this so give us the money." Terry said as he glared at the old man who just looked up at him and shook his head. The kid started to shake in rage as his glare intensified at the old man. "Give me the money you old sack of @$#@! I will destroy you and your whole family if you do not give me that damn money! I do not have time for some senile Barney The Dinosaur! Now give it!" Terry shouted at the purple mutant as he started to whip him with chain. He just wanted this job to be over so he could get paid and get something to eat. It was getting close to dinner time and he was tired of hanging around the idiots he was with who were now debating whether to restrain a mad mutant or not.

The purple man let out a loud, raspy laugh. “Senile Barney the dinosaur!” He wheezed. “That’s a new one.”

Terry’s fellow gang members had heard the man’s bones crack, saw his limbs bend in unnatural directions throughout the course of the beating. This made them all the more surprised when he jumped to his feet like a man a quarter of his apparent age, seemingly uninjured aside from the gashes on his face. “Hittin’ me would just make ya tired, an’ I ain’t give a damn ‘bout the family.” He snorted loudly, and the gashes on his face closed up. “A for effort, though. Now, unless you kids…”

For the first time since Terry saw him, the purple man’s eyes filled with fear. He was looking up. A man in a plain white mask was floating down from the sky, one arm held up as though he was holding on to something. He landed gently on the asphalt and lowered his arms.

“Aw, no! I didn’t do nothin’ to make you mad!” Old guy pointed at him accusingly. “I already gave you your money!” The masked man didn’t even move. He just stood there, staring, motionless.

The purple man’s name was Parker, and Dorian was creeping him right the hell out. Dorian was pleased that he had made such a powerful impression on the man after his last visit. But that wasn't why he was here.

No, he was here for one of those kids. Gerald. The one slowly inching his way towards the back of the group. Wordlessly, Dorian shifted his gaze so he was staring directly at the older boy. Gerald flinched. Dorian smirked beneath his mask.

Terry definitely didn't expect the old man to rise up from near unconsciousness and be standing perfectly. Unlike the rest of the gang Terry didn't mind as he figured things were finally going to get interesting. "So you can actually do something interesting? I was starting to get bored." Terry was about to lift his arm to attack the old man until he saw the old man divert his attention to something else. He turned his head to see what it was since the old coot looked like he had seen a ghost, but all he could see was a stupid mime.

Apparently this person had already found a way to get some money out of the purple man, but he didn't have any idea as to why the mime was here now. Terry then got a shove from one of the kids behind him. "Fight him!" Some kid named Gerald said as Terry just looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. "You're the youngest and a mutant so I'm ordering you to fight him!" Gerald told him before Terry went up to his face with a scowl on his face. "Why in the hell should I attack some stupid mime because some idiot told me so? I just want to get the money from that purple SOB over there and go home."  Terry said before the Gerald kid pulled out a pill from his pocket that caused every other guy in the gang, besides Terry, to freak out. " Never seen some M before kid? It's the stuff we normal people when we feel like having some mutie level fun. So I suggest you do what I say before I show you what a real mutant can do." Gerald said to Terry who was now snickering at the idle threat posed by this moron with some stupid pill.

"How about I just stomp you to the ground, then I finish what we are supposed to do so that you can stay here and deal with the mime over there?" Terry retorted causing Gerald's face to become pale since he didn't think that his bluff would be called. Gerald's mutation when he uses the M pill usually isn't anything offensive, which was why he didn't use it against the purple guy and told the guys to get that Terry kid to come with them. All he can do is turn any liquid in alcohol which isn't very good to use in a fight. Now things got worse since he now has to deal with Terry and him. 

 

It was a nice night out, the stink of the sewers wafted into the air as a cool breeze pushed it Sam’s direction. Feeling the alcohol churn in his stomach Sam burped slightly and then continued to chew his gum as he walked on the sidewalk in a slightly run down neighborhood, probably not the best thing to do seeing as a few months ago last time he was walking in an area like this one he jumped and killed. Well maybe not killed dead but it was pretty close to that. The healers said he had died but Sam was still breathing so he was just gonna chalk that one up to luck. Since then he had drank nearly as much as he had when he left the bar that night, however that didn’t mean he wasn’t a little drunk now, but he was still walking in a straight line.

Whistling the simple beat to Deep Purple’s Smoke on the water, Sam walked with his hands in his pockets thinking about the days events and what he had to do tomorrow hoping it wasn’t much because well, odds were he was going to have a bit of a hangover. Granted he was able to function with a hangover it was just a ***** to deal with. If he could manage to sneak in without his girlfriend and or Sara knowing he walked home from the bar less sober he would have been well off. Was Athena spending the night? He couldn’t recall at the moment but he’d find out when he got home.

"How about I just stomp you then I finish what we are supposed to do so that you can stay here and deal with the mime over there?"

Sadly that was a familiar sound in his city, among the steaming sewer vents, the car alarms and traffic, and even the crying babies who couldn’t sleep due to all the other noise, the sound of someone threatening someone else was something that could be heard if you walked down any street. Something that was sad to Sam. You walk down any back alley of New York City no telling what you’ll find.

The air around him started to drop in temperature, heck it could have been nothing but just to be sure a little safety net never hurt no one. Just made sure he’d get home in one piece, his icy fog started to form around him and spread out as he walked. Solid ice started to coat his skin under his clothing as he continued to sing the song and round the corner towards the alley where he heard the voice, ”Smoke on the water, a fire in the sky.”

And then the god damn leader of the god damn X-Men showed up, drunkenly slurring Deep Purple lyrics.

Dorian looked at Steel. He looked at Parker and his fan club. He looked at Steel again, and got an idea: instead of dealing with both of these threats at the same time, he could pretend he was on Steel’s side, and let them neutralize each other. Once that was over, he could have a pleasant conversation with his good friend Gerald about his missing product.

So, how could Dorian communicate to a drunken, smoke-on-the-water-singing X-Leader that they were on the same side? With a shrug, the mime whipped out his air guitar. The dark alleyway was filled with Dorian’s sloppy, acoustic rendition of the riff from “Smoke on the Water.” He moved out of Steel’s way, and got ready to watch magic happen.

Was he being Punk'd? That was the only explanation Terry had as to why the freaking leader of the X-Men was strolling towards him while singing some stupid song in a drunken stupor while a mime, who he figured was also an X-Man, played really bad music from an invisible guitar. He just wanted to go home and eat but apparently the Almighty, if he was real, was being kind of a prick tonight and wanted him to go to crazy land. "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!" Terry screamed at the two newcomers before he shifted his gaze towards Gerald.

He then rammed Gerald, who was stunned by the arrival of Cold Steel, against the wall while delivering a few knees to his gut. "What in the world are two X-men doing here?! You better tell me what the hell is going on before I use my powers on you!". Terry said as he was about to raise his arm towards Gerald before he saw the purple guy trying to escape. "Where in #$%# are you going? Terry yelled as the rest of the guys started to surround him out of instinct even though Terry was ranked lower than him. Terry was even a little surprised by it but he figured that was the fear that humans had of non-mutants. Terry then turned back to Gerald. "Start talking Gerald." Terry said as Gerald looked to the mime for some help with Terry as he wasn't sure whether or not it was a good idea to tell a crowd of people about things that happened in the world of M trading.

First thing he noticed was the sound of Smoke on the water playing in the alleyway. Quite and entrance he thought it was a pretty awesome way to enter the fight until he spotted who was playing the air guitar. A mime. Sam shifted his eye from the group to the mime playing the music and he made sure to keep his distance from him. Sam never liked mimes. They were creepy and silent, on the list of things he feared the most it went, his loved ones being attacked and killed, paternity tests/lawsuits and then mimes. Clowns were right behind mimes; it was the makeup and creepy way they moved. However this one had a mask on. Also super creepy.

Walking up towards the group of thugs Sam stopped with some distance from the mime and looked at him as the alleyway filled with his cold mist. Not sure what to do to the mime or what to say Sam did what he normally did when he was in an uncomfortable situation ”You, nice.” Sam pointed to the mime and his air guitar then offered up a fist bump to the creepy mime. Confronting his fears and all that before walking a little further away from him. He didn’t know why the mime was there but if he was going to attack Sam he doubted he would have played his entrance music then step out of the way for him. Sam shifted his attention back towards the group still feeling where the mime was standing in case he tried swinging said invisible guitar in his direction.

"Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

‘Someone was upset.’ Thought Sam as he looked to the one who was yelling at him and the mime to shut up. ”He’s not that bad.” Sam said throwing his thumb up and pointing at the mime. ”Two X-men?” Sam said raising his eyebrow and over-exaggerating to look around. The only other guy there was the mime and while he knew he had been a little more hands off with the X-men he knew Shin or someone would have told him if there was now a mime in their ranks.

”I’ll have to ask all of you to stop what your doing and put your hands against the wall. A guy tried running as Sam decided to let him go. Purple skin would be easy enough to track and seeing as the only other guy he met with Sam and Mirror he figured his odds were that much better, put purple skin in jail. ”This is your first and last warning before I get serious.” Sam said as he brought his hands up into a guard.

Dorian set his invisible guitar aside so he could fist-bump the god damn leader of the god damn X-Men. Did this mean they were bros now? Good enough bros for Steel to not-try-to-subdue-him? At the very least, Steel would be a lot more preoccupied with the kids. The X-idiot’s arrival was turning into a surprisingly lucky break for him.

Gerald coughed. “That’s not an X-Man,” he pointed at the masked one. Dorian put a finger over the still, white lips of his mask, as if to tell him if you say one more word the last emotions you experience will be fear and regret. Gerald looked away quickly. “I don’t know why the X-Man’s here, though.” What he did know was that exactly nobody was about to comply with Steel’s request. And he wasn’t about to tell anyone that the mime worked for the M cartel; Gerald liked being alive.

So apparently the mime wasn't an X-Man according to Cold Steel and Gerald but that didn't mean he was letting his guard around that guy. There was definitely a reason why he was there and he didn't want to add any more enemies now that he had his plate full with a top tier mutant. Terry just threw a quick glance at the silent mutant just so the gut got the message that he didn't forget about him. He just hoped that the mime wasn't going to hit him from behind or anything.

”I’ll have to ask all of you to stop what your doing and put your hands against the wall. This is your first and last warning before I get serious.”

After hearing that warning released Gerald. He then took a few steps towards Cold Steel, while shoving the chain in his left pocket, as the rest of the guys standing there. That was more than fine with Terry since those cowards were the ones that begged and moaned for him to come along to help against any mutant that may be a threat."You messed a lot of things up for me tonight X-man by sticking your nose where it didn't belong.[/font] Terry said before taking a quick glance back at the others.

It seemed that they weren't planning on doing anything other than standing there and watching what would unfold. One of them even took out a smart phone and started to record video of it saying that he would put the video up online. Gerald seemed content with just hiding in the back away from everybody including the mime. Terry then turned back towards Cold Steel before he took a deep breath and lifted his arms towards him with his palms facing the ice mutant. "Now allow me to show you what I think of your little warning.

A second later the power started to travel from his body to his palms like a jolt of lightning before a blast of hypersonic sound traveled towards the X-Man. It felt almost euphoric to release the energy from the attack as nothing but the battle mattered to Terry. All he wanted to do was defeat this X-Man and show the world what Terry Green could really do. He may be some 17 year old kid but he felt that his years of struggle gave him enough experience to prevail.

Sam sighed as the one guy who was beating the tar out of one of the others stopped and told him he messed things up. ”I get that a lot actually.” Sam said nodding his head and reaching towards his earpiece that wasn’t there. ”Damn.” he said to himself noticing the guy with the phone pointing the lens at Sam. This was starting to seem very familiar. About to reach into his own pocket to get his communicator Sam stopped when the kid continued to speak.

‘A mutant great’ Thought Sam as his hands and face covered themselves in ice. Looking to some garbage cans Sam debated running for cover but didn’t have a chance to. He heard an all too similar sound and his ears started to ring again. ”****ing sweet Christmas!” Sam yelled as the ringing continued. His armor on his arms cracked and the non-covered part of his chest. Sam cursed to himself and shook his head. ”Sound based, it had to be sound!” Sam said more to himself though with his ears ringing it might have been a little louder than expected.

Unlike the last time when Leo attacked him his body wasn’t hurled backwards and his ice that covered his body wasn’t completely destroyed meaning. His thought process trailed away from a strategy as he leaned over and emptied his stomach. Luckily there wasn’t ice surrounding his mouth. The whiskey and beer poured out as he looked down at the ground his vision blurry but his sixth sense still activated. Instinctively the ice around his body that was weakened or absorbed most of the attack was repaired he could at least manage that while he was vomiting. ”Such a d---.” his stomach emptied itself as he threw up again.

The mime didn’t really want to see what that kid thought of Steel’s warning. He did the wall routine as fast as he could manage, pushing his hands up against an invisible wall between himself and the boy. The wall started being there just as the blast hit. Dorian’s ears were ringing, and he was a little uneasy on his feet, but at least he wasn’t doing as bad as Steel.

As he leaned against his wall, he pulled a piece of chalk out of his pocket and began to write backwards on the invisible wall, so the others could read it: ‘That was rude.’ The words seemed to float in the air in front of him. He shook his head to clear it out.

Now he needed to figure out how to deal with that kid.

Terry was surprised at how strong his attack was against Cold Steel then he heard him complaining about sound based attacks and realized that maybe he was weak against powers like his. He did a little smirk as he looked around at his handy work as some of the weaker members of his gangs were complaining of headaches. He didn't care too much for them, especially that idiot Gerald, so he felt minor satisfaction from their suffering. He then heard  a strange sound coming from where the mime was causing him to turn his head. It seemed that the mime had a message for him. 

That was rude.

That was kind of ironic considering that things started to go awry when he decided to rudely interrupt what they were doing with that geezer who was long gone. "You have no room to talk. This fight is between me and the wannabe cop over there so stay out of it." Terry said to the mime before turning his attention back towards the vomiting mutant in front of him.

He saw that the ice around Cold Steel's body was starting to go back to its original state while his guts were emptying themselves. He figured that he had to finish the X-Man off quickly since he knew that his energy levels were poor and he would not have nearly the amount of stamina to go the distance with someone of his opponent's caliber. He had his alcoholic, so called, mentor to thank for that glaring weakness since he trained him once a month if he was lucky.

He then shook of the thoughts of his lack of training and fired off another attack at Cold Steel. After the attack was over he definitely felt some sweat coming down his face and his breathing increase as if he had just done some amount of exercise. He wiped the sweat off of his face and moved towards the chin mutant with the chain now in his hand.

Muffled voices could be heard as the ringing started in his ears started to decrease. Sam shook his head once the vomiting stopped and he willed the ice around his head to flow down to his body and reinforce his midsection under his shirt. His clothing it seemed offered a little protection for the ice and as long as he could keep that up the only weak point on his body was his face, which could be easily covered with his hands and arms when he was in a guard.

Sam’s vision started to clear as he focused at the pool of vomit that was slowly spreading out in front of him. Sam shook his head again as more mist surrounded him and he willed a bit to freeze the vomit. That was when he heard the sound again and his vision blurred a second time. This guy sucked. His eye closed and Sam tried to focus on his heat signature the way he normally did when he couldn’t see anything. However it seemed this guy’s attack also managed to cloud his heat sense as well. He felt the kid in three places walking towards him.

Taking a few steps back Sam shook his head again and shifted his eight as he caught himself from falling on a dumpster. He had to at least create some distance till he could actually get a lock on the kid. Otherwise he was going to be seen on the internet again and he wasn’t sure he could come back from the dead again.

Dorian didn’t want to get involved in this fight until there was one substantially weakened victor left for him to clean up. He responded to the kid with a shrug, then sat down in an invisible chair. Here, he would watch the fight unfold, safe behind his invisible wall. And thanks to the chair, he wouldn’t betray any weakness by stumbling or falling over. Damn shame that kid was stuck messing around in a small-time gang like that. That power of his packed a real punch.

While he sat, he had an idea. He pantomimed picking up a pair of earmuffs, then put them over his ears. He felt them cover his ears. Would that actually help anything? He held his hands next to his ears and snapped his fingers. It did muffle the sound a little. Maybe even enough to help him deal with that kid, if he had to.

Terry had stopped paying attention to mime and the guys he came here with as he focused on the mutant in front of him. He saw Cold Steel start to cover and fortify his body with ice which was going to be kind of annoying since he was trying to attack him physically instead of using his powers. As he watched the ice form over parts of his body he saw that his face was largely unprotected. This caused him to wrap the chain around his fist so that he would provide a maximum amount of damage. 

As he walked up to the leader of the X-Men the reality of the situation started to flow over him. He was fighting the leader of the X-Men in front of a various number of people and it was going to be shown all over the internet for everybody to see anytime. He also had the man on the ropes and was looking like a bad-ass. If things went smoothly and the right people saw this then he was going to become a made man. He would be in the position where he would really be known and respected in the world. The times of him wandering homeless in Detroit after being kicked out of that orphanage (before meeting the gang) would be nothing more than a distant memory, and he would no longer have to be a grunt scraping to survive and feed himself by doing trivial jobs. The scratching and clawing to make it out of the basement of this world would finally be over. 

The promise of relief from the struggle against mediocrity in life caused his lips to form a smile and his eyes to become wide open as the extra motivation served to pump him up even further. He saw his prize in front of him and aimed a punch towards Cold Steel with the hand that was wrapped up by the chain.