“Mirror!” Danny shouted, storming down one of the hallways of the Mansion. She had better be here. He'd gone through all the trouble of actually using the front door this time around, and thankfully he hadn't been mowed down where he stood. But he really urgently needed some help, and that was why he was even awake at five in the morning.

"Mirror, where the hell are you?" he yelled again, having not heard any response. Maybe this was a little bit disrespectful to the other residents of this Mansion, but really. He'd "accidentally" won over six thousand dollars at a poker game at a mob-run casino, and apparently they hadn't liked that. So now either he was going to assassinate some political figure for them by the end of the week, or he'd have them on his ass forever. Which was not a pleasant prospect, especially after having to suffer through five days of them watching him to make sure he did as they said. He'd had to climb out the window at four in the morning to get out, and then push his motorcycle two blocks through a bunch of alleyways before he could quietly start it and drive to the Mansion. Which was how he got here, now.

This mansion had far too many hallways, in his opinion, as he turned down yet another corridor. It looked like everyone was asleep still, surprisingly. He growled, slamming his hand against a door, then wincing as he realized it wasn't actually a wall there. This was not a good day for him.

>>“Mirror! Mirror, where the hell are you?"

Angua's ears perked up first, and the gigantic Irish wolfhound let out a low growl at the yelling in the middle of the night. Gawain stirred in his bed, and the sound of someone punching a door jerked him wide awake. Someone was out in the hallways yelling his (code)name, and it was definitely not the middle of the night.

Throwing off the covers Gawain scrambled to the door and opened it, Angua squeezing her way past him and bounding down the hallway towards the guy who was standing there.

"Angua! Heel!" Gawain hissed and the dog skidded to a halt halfway, still staring at Danny. She would have been quite the menacing sigh, had she not been furiously wagging her tail.

"What the hell man?" Gawain yawned, walking up to Danny "Are you trying to piss off the entire Mansion?"

"Angua! Heel!"

Danny turned to the source of the sound, and two things immediately caught his attention. One, there was a dog, and oh my god was she adorable. And huge. Danny had always had a soft spot for big dogs, even though their lifespans were almost like a blink of an eye to him. Two, that wasn't what Mirror looked like last time he checked. For example, when they had first/last met, she was only a little bit taller than him. Now, not only was she apparently not a she, he towered over Danny by almost a foot. It was kind of sad that the difference in height surprised Danny more than the difference in gender. At least he had gotten it right by referring to him/her mentally as Mirror, not Maya, because otherwise this would've been a lot more confusing.

"What the hell man?" not-female-Mirror said, yawning as he trudged down the hallway towards Danny. "Are you trying to piss off the entire Mansion?"

Really, Danny just stared, one eyebrow raised, mouth slightly open. He made as if to speak several times, but decided against it, finally saying something after a few moments. "I'm going to go with there's a part of your mutation you neglected to mention?" he stated, almost as a question. This guy looked almost exactly as he would imagine a female version of the mutant he'd previously met would look like, which formed the basis of his hypothesis.

"But if you're not the Mirror I met before, then I can just awkwardly leave now," he said, motioning in the vague direction of what could be the entrance. Wow. Either way, this situation was kind of... well, weird.

Danny stared at him in stunned silence, and started to talk a number of times before sound actually came out. Gawain waited patiently, one hand on Angua's head. The dog's massive tail made quiet swooshing sounds.

>>"I'm going to go with there's a part of your mutation you neglected to mention?... But if you're not the Mirror I met before, then I can just awkwardly leave now,"

Gawain smirked.

"Gender shifting." he explained shortly "I shift every midnight, and it makes me drowsy, which is why I'm very cranky this early in the morning. But yeah, I am the Mirror you're looking for. Name's Gawain. And this is Angua."

Angua, one introduced, stalked forward and nudged Danny's hand with her nose. Despite her size, she really was a puppy. Gawain rolled his eyes.

"C'mon let's go down to the kitchen. If you needed to see me this urgently, I have a feeling I'm gonna need coffee."

"Gender shifting,” Mirror explained with a smirk, and Danny kind of just stared. "I shift every midnight, and it makes me drowsy, which is why I'm very cranky this early in the morning. But yeah, I am the Mirror you're looking for. Name's Gawain. And this is Angua.”

The dog was now nudging Danny’s hand, and he gave her an absentminded scratch behind the ears, still trying to work this out. He had known that Mirror was older than he physically was - that much was obvious. Even so, Maya hadn’t really seemed too much so. Gawain, meanwhile, was so much obviously older and, well, bigger. That threw Danny off a little bit, and he’d need a bit of time to adjust. He got strangely uncomfortable around guys older than he was. He supposed they reminded him too strongly of his childhood.

"C'mon let's go down to the kitchen. If you needed to see me this urgently, I have a feeling I'm gonna need coffee.”

“Uh, yeah, sure,” Danny muttered, still kind of lost. He had a strong suspicion this would take quite a bit of getting used to.

>>“Uh, yeah, sure,”

Apparently the gender shifting really threw Danny for a loop. Gawain smirked as he led the way down the stairs and to the kitchen. He had gotten used to most people around him knowing about the gender shifting, or at least not questioning it, even though he grew up thinking it would make others look at him weird. Then again, he never thought he'd have a girlfriend either, and that ended up being a false assumption.

Gawain put the coffee machine to work, and pulled up a chair to the kitchen table.

"So... do you have any questions about me shifting genders?" he smirked "Most people do, and you really can't ask anything I haven't heard before."

He really couldn't.

"Or, if you don't, you could just tell me what's so important you had to come barging in."

Danny trailed after Gawain, still trying to wrap his mind around the gender swap. He wasn’t sure why it affected him so much, but it was just so confusing, dammit. By the time they reached the kitchen, though, he was fairly well adjusted. Gawain went to the coffee machine and started to fiddle with it, and Danny pulled up a chair, turning it so that he was sitting with his front pressed up against the back and his chin propped up on his arms. After starting the machine, Gawain sat down at another chair.

"So... do you have any questions about me shifting genders? Most people do, and you really can't ask anything I haven't heard before. Or, if you don't, you could just tell me what's so important you had to come barging in.”

He could try, really, but he didn’t really want to go there. Also, he had maybe an hour before they figured out that he was gone and started pursuit. So better get to the point.

“Yeah, I think I’ll opt out of the questions to save both of us the awkwardness. Anyway, remember when you said I could come if I needed some help? I kind of do. I may or may not have, well, cheated a mob casino out of a few thousand dollars.” He scratched the back of his head sheepishly, saying, “Swapped out the deck for marked cards. Anyway, they got pissed, and I either have to assassinate some government official or I’m screwed. And I’m at a bit of a loss on how to fix this, considering it’d be far too much trouble to actually kill the man.” With that, he glanced at his watch. “Also, they’ll probably notice that I ran within a half hour or so. They usually only check at six, and it’s almost five thirty, so yeah. Also a problem. And I also have a time limit, and that’s tomorrow? Just thought that might be important too."

>>“Yeah, I think I’ll opt out of the questions to save both of us the awkwardness. Anyway, remember when you said I could come if I needed some help? I kind of do. I may or may not have, well, cheated a mob casino out of a few thousand dollars. Swapped out the deck for marked cards. Anyway, they got pissed, and I either have to assassinate some government official or I’m screwed. And I’m at a bit of a loss on how to fix this, considering it’d be far too much trouble to actually kill the man. Also, they’ll probably notice that I ran within a half hour or so. They usually only check at six, and it’s almost five thirty, so yeah. Also a problem. And I also have a time limit, and that’s tomorrow? Just thought that might be important too."

Gawain blinked, then blinked again, and now it was his turn to start saying things multiple times while nothing came out. Finally he stood and returned to the counter to pour himself a generous amount of coffee, straight up. He leaned back against the counter and stared at Danny over the steaming cup.

"So... let me get this straight" he sighed "You cheated at a mob casino, got caught, and now you have to either kill a guy, or face the mob."

That sounded like... well. A pretty large problem.

"Do you do this often? I mean... since you can't die, wouldn't it just be easier to let them put a hit on you?... Wait, do they know you come back from the dead?"

Okay, so all of that sounded kinda cold. But Gawain had not had his coffee yet. He held up an apologetic hand.

"Hey. Just askin' about the options here."

Gawain gaped a little bit, not unsimilar to what Danny had done when confronted with a Mirror of the opposite gender, before saying, "So... let me get this straight. You cheated at a mob casino, got caught, and now you have to either kill a guy, or face the mob."

Danny winced. That was pretty much spot-on, to tell the truth.

"Do you do this often? I mean... since you can't die, wouldn't it just be easier to let them put a hit on you?... Wait, do they know you come back from the dead?"

Well, that was harsh. But he was going to brush it off as an early-morning phenomenon, especially since it was accompanied by Gawain's hand motion that was probably meant to be apologetic. It was five thirty AM, after all.

"Hey. Just askin' about the options here."

Danny sighed, shifting in his chair a little. "Usually that would be my MO. Except they tried the execution tactic already, and ended up blowing apart half the casino." He paused. "Did I forget to mention that?" Giving a sort of sheepish smile, he continued, "So they know after I woke up in the wreckage. The actual threat consisted of - well, all I caught was 'experiments,' and that's never a good thing. Although, I do suspect that no matter what I do, they'll commence with the experiments anyway. Another reason I came here for help."

>>"Usually that would be my MO. Except they tried the execution tactic already, and ended up blowing apart half the casino. So they know after I woke up in the wreckage. The actual threat consisted of - well, all I caught was 'experiments,' and that's never a good thing. Although, I do suspect that no matter what I do, they'll commence with the experiments anyway. Another reason I came here for help."

Gawain let out a low whistle and shook his head.

"You really gone and done it this time, huh." he sighed. One would have thought that a person over 200 years old would have a better judgment when it came to organizations he probably saw come into being. Oh well. No use bringing that up now.

"So... yeah, I guess the phoenix trick's not gonna work, huh. Well then." Gawain sipped his coffee, mulling it over "First off, we gotta get you out of the Mansion. If they found out where you'd run, they'd come knocking, and we definitely don't want that with all the kids around. Second, we gotta deal with this, once and for all. You can't just run and hide from the mob. Never works out on the long run."

"You really gone and done it this time, huh." Heh. That was about right. So... yeah, I guess the phoenix trick's not gonna work, huh. Well then. First off, we gotta get you out of the Mansion. If they found out where you'd run, they'd come knocking, and we definitely don't want that with all the kids around. Second, we gotta deal with this, once and for all. You can't just run and hide from the mob. Never works out on the long run."

Danny nodded, fully understanding where Gawain was coming from on that. If it were up to him, he would've never gone to the Mansion to begin with to contact Mirror, but he had never gotten a phone number or anything from the other mutant, making that difficult.

"We could always just head back to my place," he suggested. "I could always say I just left for breakfast or something. That way, we've got two days to plan without them chasing us. And I've actually got a secret room thing where you can hide." Also known as the guest bathroom, but it really was a secret room. He'd renovated it a bit just in case something like this happened, meaning that it was near impossible to find if you didn't already know where it was and how to get in, and it was slightly more comfortable to stay in. "Also, an arsenal," he supplied, leaving the thought unspoken - massacre every member of this specific mob.

>>"We could always just head back to my place. I could always say I just left for breakfast or something. That way, we've got two days to plan without them chasing us. And I've actually got a secret room thing where you can hide. Also, an arsenal."

"You might have come to the wrong place with that one" Gawain smirked "X-men don't kill, not unless we really have to. Kinda ruins the team's profile with the police..."

Not to mention... well. Killing. And possible media coverage.

"At the same time, police or not, I don't think giving them up would work either. They'd be out in no time and back to hunting your ass down for fun."

It was not a very optimistic view of the world, but it was fairy accurate. Gawain finished his coffee.

"I'll take you back to your place through the mirrors so they can't tell where you're coming from. We'll figure out the rest there. Let me... er. Get dressed, I guess, and grab my gear."

"You might have come to the wrong place with that one. X-men don't kill, not unless we really have to. Kinda ruins the team's profile with the police..." Oops. He understood that reasoning, but damn was it annoying. It was nice to not have very many morals. "At the same time, police or not, I don't think giving them up would work either. They'd be out in no time and back to hunting your ass down for fun." Another problem. Danny preferred when his ass wasn't being hunted down, for fun or for business, thank you very much.

Gawain finished up his coffee as Danny waited patiently, finally saying, "I'll take you back to your place through the mirrors so they can't tell where you're coming from. We'll figure out the rest there. Let me... er. Get dressed, I guess, and grab my gear."

Danny nodded in response, saying, "Yeah, sorry about the whole coming at five am part. I've been having trouble getting away, and this was really my only choice. I can wait."

Meanwhile, he'd have to start thinking up other ideas. There was bribery, though he suspected that wouldn't last for very long, or just making his peace with them somehow. How exactly he would do that was the real question.

>>"Yeah, sorry about the whole coming at five am part. I've been having trouble getting away, and this was really my only choice. I can wait."

"Be right back" Gawain knocked back the rest of his coffee before he walked out of the kitchen, only to return a few minutes later dressed in civilian clothes, plus his archery gear. "Come on. I'll take you back home, they'll never know you left. We'll go from there. Can you tell me the general area where you live?"

Once he had the information needed, Gawain pulled Danny into the mirror world, and navigated through reflecting surfaces until they were back at his apartment, avoiding most places where they could have been spotted even this early in the morning. Merging out of the mirror, Gawain sighed.

"All right then. Let's go over our options, shall we?"

"Be right back." Danny nodded, settling down, starting to mull over his options. He didn't have very many, and so was still deep in though when Gawain returned, dressed more acceptably. Also, armed. "Come on. I'll take you back home, they'll never know you left. We'll go from there. Can you tell me the general area where you live?"

Danny stood up, saying, "Uh, Manhattan, Chambers Street? I'll specify when we're on our way."

It took some navigating, but eventually, the two of them stepped out of a mirror into Danny's loft [OOC: Ignore the weird paintings and the children's rooms. Danny does not have kids.]. The sun was just rising, and Danny lead the way to the kitchen/living room area of his loft, motioning at Gawain to sit down on one of the couches if he wanted to.

"All right then. Let's go over our options, shall we?"

"What options?" Danny said, almost sarcastically. "We have massacre them, ineffectually bribe them, actually kill the guy and hope for the best, or...wait it out, I guess. They all have to die sometime, but if I thought that was a good idea, I wouldn't have gone and asked you for help."