It hadn't been long since Darkshift's recent meeting with Aura about joining the Aura before she got her first call.  The money she'd been given had gone a long way to paying her rent and ensuring she had plenty of food in the fridge.  A weird feeling, not having to stress about where her next meal was going to come from and whether or not next month would be her dreaded eviction.  Even so, she continued her thieving ways, in part because she didn't know any other life and in part because there was no way to know when this stroke of good fortune would suddenly vanish into thin air just as quickly as it had appeared.

It was Lisa who called her up to let her know that it was time for her to go and earn her keep.  A girl, not much older than herself, had been admitted to the hospital last week with a severely bruised face as well as a broken nose and several cracked ribs.  It had all the markings of an incident of domestic violence which was, in a city the size of New York, nothing unusual.  Nothing, certainly, for the likes of Aura and Darkshift to deal with.  Except that the girl was, apparently a mutant and that made it their business.  Because that was why she had decided to join, wasn't it?  To help mutants.  What bizarre twist of fate was that, turning her into some kind of vigilante mutant hero?

From what Lisa had been able to find out, the girl had pale blue skin and was some kind of seer of things far away although the details of exactly how her power functioned were unclear.  It wasn't all that important.  What was important was that this was the third time she had been admitted to the hospital with similar injuries and it was time to get her out of where she was.  A teenage runaway with a youth record, her arrest reports suggested that she was the member of a local street gang.  Numbers were unclear, but were likely somewhere between 4-6 including her.

The girl, who's legal name was Jessie Canales, lived in an old dilapidated house that was really no much more than a squat.  She was to meet Aura about a block and they were to go in together.  Darkshift arrived first and stood shadowed in a nearby alley.  She covered herself with a thick leather hide and black bear fur.  At the ends of her fingers were 2 inch black eagle talons and her face resembled that of a black panther.  A black panther tail grew from her tailbone in order to help with balance.  Now, she waited.

Aura had heard about the mission from Lisa and had agreed it would be a good way to break the Ice. As far as she could tell the mission if it got out of hand was survivable for them both. The girls powers could also be very valuable if she could get to work for the Order. She had not asked how Lisa had gotten such information as Aura trusted Lisa completely. Lisa had mentioned not knowing her exact power which would certainly prove to be an issue.

Aura put a backup on, noting it was a bit heavier then it should have been but thinking it might be her imagination she left anyway hopping in the back of a black beat up Chevy. It was a short drive and Aura arrived a few minutes later then she said, traffic was rough but it would have been longer had she walked. Part of the issue with being one of the top criminals in the city as far as homicides went is people learned what you looked like.

She stepped out of the car and nodded to the driver who would park a few blocks away in case they needed to leave quickly. SHe hoped they would not need to run from cop's but it was always a risk.

"You Look lovely Dark Shift, would you like to lead this dance?" she asked with a playful bow and wave of her hand. Aura considered her wording after she said it, she had did her best to eliminate such things from her speech. Most people got confused when one called battle or missions dances.

She glanced back to Dark Shift again to admire the form before looking down the street. She was distracted however when she felt something shift in her backpack. Taking it off as she walked, Aura unzipped the bag and a black and white head pushed out of it and looked around. Immediately she sucked her head back into the bag but a black nose poked out so she could keep sniffing.

Aura sighed, it was to late and cold to make the SKunk walk. "This is my pet, Solkat, it appears she decided to sneak along" she said as she picked the Skunk up with her free hand and looked at her eyes before putting her back in the pack.

Putting on her serious face, Darkshift mentally prepared herself for the mission to come.  She was nervous, no doubt about that, but it was the sort of nervous that she was able to control.  Nerves, so long as you were the one who remained empowered, weren't a bad thing.  Quite the contrary, a few nerves were sometimes just the motivation one needed to exceed your best and truly succeed to the fullest extent.  If this particular sort of situation was new to her, more general sorts of danger were not.  She was going to own this and make it her own!

Darkshift was only waiting a few minutes before Aura arrived.  If she hadn't been covered in black fur, the other woman might have seen her blush at the compliment.  Being called 'lovely' wasn't exactly a common experience for her and especially not when her head was something decidedly not human.  She returned the bow in kind.

"Thank you, Aura."  Was it even appropriate for her superior to compliment her like that?  Maybe the rules didn't apply in a situation like that.  Not that she minded.  "I think this is one you should probably take the lead on.  More experience and all."  Someone else and she might have felt uncomfortable admitting her lack of experience, obvious though it obviously was.  Aura, however, put her at ease in her casual acceptance of what she was.  "But if you ever want something stolen, I'm you're girl for that," she offered with a slight chuckle.

The skunk was definitely not something she expected and only served to reinforce how eccentric her new boss was.  Well, perhaps eccentric was a good thing.  She tended to get in trouble when trying to get along with normal.  "If you figure it'll be ok, then who am I to complain about its presence?"  She flexed her claws in anticipation of what was to come.

Fair enough" Aura said considering their options. The neighborhood was poor and this was not the only house in rough shape on it. They could always knock it was th simplest plan.

" I'll keep that in mind. Theft can be very useful and even profitable." she said remembering that she had once robbed a bank and Museum among other places. One of the first things she had done after arriving in the city was a rob a convenience store.

"I obtained her when a number of Animal mutants attacked a zoo. she had been a loyal companion" she said patting the backpack, even as her aura seemed to flow from her eyes across her face and quickly her entire body.

As they approached the house Aura could already her shouts. Aura began to run, closing the rest of the distance between her and the house quickly, before leaping head first at a window. Aura did not even feel the glass as it shattered upon impact with her Aura and she sailed through landing on and crushing a cheap coffee table as she landed sending empty beer bottles flying. As Aura stood up she began to scan the room for their target, quickly noting their current room was empty.

Break and enter wasn't really Darkshifts' usual method when it came to theft.  Not that she'd never done it before, but she'd found a decided preference to committing the act in person.  Money was preferable to electronics and jewelry that had to be sold for money and that might be reported and thus prevent the selling not to mention put her in greater danger of being caught.  Still, it wasn't as if this soft of thing was completely foreign to her.  In times of desperation, one did what was needed to survive.

The neighborhood she and Aura found themselves in was not exactly the sort of place she would have looked for targets in any case.  Poor neighborhood meant poor grabs.  The risk wasn't usually worth it.  Besides, thief she might be but she had a personal code of ethics she tried her best to follow.  Only steal from those who wouldn't miss the money.  This was a bit of a different situation though.  She wasn't here to steal.  Or at least, she wasn't here to steal physical objects or money.  She was here to help rescue a girl.

Darkshift didn't flinch or hesitate when Aura smashed her way through the window; it was the most obvious way in and she would have done the same.  She was quick on he heels of her companion, landing on her feet in a crouch as she jumped through the window her tail extended for balance.  A quick scan of the room confirmed that there didn't appear to be anyone within, but the numerous beer bottles littering the ground indicated that the place was definitely inhabited.

Pointing towards a nearby door, Darkshift darted across the room.  She stopped stopped just to the side of the door and quietly opened it, careful to remain at the edge of the door just in case anyone was on the other side with the intent to either rush in or shoot.

Aura made a mental note that the door might have been the less noisy option. It was to late to reconsider the entrance however and as she reminded herself they had not known the room was empty. Darkshift had followed her example which was a positive sign. Her Aura shifted forming long flat blade from her wrists as she glanced around to get the layout of the house.

As Darkshift slowly opened the door Aura braced herself in case anyone charged it. When no one did, Aura pushed the door open and moved into the room. She saw no one, until she glanced up the stairs at the same time the flash of the shotgun went off. The first slug struck her shoulder the other her head. The first she ignored the second knocked her back a few steps. She reached to steady herself but only heard glass shatter. Her other hand steadied her by putting her aura blade in the wall.

It was clear to Aura the man had been waiting for them, for someone or maybe he was just a guard. The man had withdrawn from his stair top perch even before Aura had began her rush up the stair's. She had barely touched the top step when she felt shotgun shells hit her from both sides on the intersection of the stairs with the upstairs hallway.

Aura moved to her right, her Aura blade missed her target but struck his gun, which bent the gun at an angle but did not cut entirely through, forming an aura hammer with her other hand she struck the man clear in his stomach, he fell alive, but out cold. Aura was pretty sure the idiot would live, but their were other things to worry about.

Adrenaline ran through Darkshift's body, making her extremities tingle in anticipation.  When the door first opened no one appeared but as soon as Aura walked up to the door that changed.  Two shotgun blasts ripped through the quiet room striking her partner and Darkshift winced involuntarily.  However, despite being driven back a couple of feet, the other girl appeared unharmed.

The appearance of the shotgun came with the sudden realization that she wasn't just playing at being a hero anymore, this was the real deal.  She was putting her life on the line for some mutant girl she didn't even know and although the pay was handsome, it wasn't enough.  Not for her.  To continue or not to continue with this insanity, that was the question she asked herself right then and there.  If there was a momentary hesitation as she decided whether or not to go on, and there was, the hesitation was brief.  She was committed.  More than that, the mutant girl needed her and as irrational and baffling as it might sound, she wanted to help.  Maybe she needed to prove to herself that she was something more than a simple thug.

Only moments after Aura entered the room, she ran in herself, rolling as she entered the door and found herself behind a chair.  The fact that the shooter had been waiting for them meant it was likely there were more of them around as well.  Unlike Aura, she couldn't take a bullet to the chest, which meant she had to keep moving and make sure she didn't have to.

Before she could prepare herself to move a second time and follow down the hallway, a knife wielding man came at her from behind, apparently hiding behind another piece of furniture.  Fortunately, it seemed, not everyone was armed with guns.  The knife struck her side and might have caused significant damage if not for her thickness of her leather hide.  In reaction to the glancing blow, her talons flashed, causing deep fissures along the wrist of his knife wielding hand and along his side.  Leaving him bleeding on the ground, she swiftly caught up to her partner, taking note of the not insignificant carnage she had all ready caused as well.

Their were more of them then she thought. Still they seemed to fall easily enough and Aura glanced back to see the men Darkshift had laid out as well. Aura approved, smiled moved toward the door at the end of the hallway. Aura assumed the door was locked and with all the noise also figured they were expected at this point. The noise and the nature of the girls power meant she may have told them something weather she wanted to or not.

It was clear to Aura that well this mutant precog had told these people someone would be coming, they had stood zero chance. Nether of them had broken a sweat yet. Her instincts told her this would likely get worse before it got better. She really hoped not but she had done this thing a few a times.

With the idea of stealth basically dead, Aura cut the lock in the door with a jab of her Aura dagger and pushed the door open. Moving in she saw three people, A male and two female, one tied up with a sheet over her, the other however was quickly turning a shade of black as his skin looked to be hardening and a an arched tail shot out from behind him to sit just above his head. The other was quickly turning into what looked to be a werewolf like creature. M it made some fights fun, it made fights for missions tougher however.

Darkshift probably should have expected that having a precog they wouldn't be able to surprise their targets.  It was abundantly clear that they had been expected and the little gang was well prepared for their arrival.  This was her trial by fire, to prove herself useful both to Aura and to the Order.  Failure was not an option.

When Aura cut open the door, it was not unexpected to see their target of rescue tied up on the bed.  What was unexpected, at least to her, was the two humans rapidly transforming into things that were more than merely human.  Of course she had heard of M before, who hadn't?  But this was the first she had encountered of the drug in person.  Well, it would certainly make things more interesting.

"I'll take him," Darkshift spoke rapidly, pointing at at the werewolf whose transformation was just completed.  Apparently he had the same idea as, before she could react, he darted towards her moving almost impossibly fast.  He crashed into her hard as she braced herself, forcing her back several inches.  If not for her tough hide, she might had a far worse time.  As it was, she let out a growl and prepared to show him what it mean to be a real mutant.