The music playing in the background was just loud enough to annoy Danica as she sat in the bar holding a glass of Mountain Dew in one hand. Seated at the bar she was in a rather foul mood trying to figure out what to do about life in general. The other thought that crossed the woman's mind was finding a better place to hang out, bar's weren't exactly conducive to a healthy lifestyle. Swirling the drink in hand she continued to stare off into space thinking about the whole situation. At first the changes in Danica's life had been frightening, to the point she almost couldn't handle it, but that was starting to change. Already she'd accepted the fact that her old life was gone, and never coming back.

That was perhaps the hardest thing to deal with, but once the reality of it all sank in, it was time to do something about it. There was a lot that Danica still had to deal with, and the enormity of it all was simply too much to deal with at one time. That was why she was taking things one day and one problem at a time. Downing the last of the green soda she tapped the glass on the bar lightly for a refill, then thanked the bartender when he brought another glass. One reason Danica chose not to drink was knowing that it would lead to no good, she'd already seen her father battle alcoholism and adding that to the already long list to problems wouldn't help.

Right now more than anything she was trying to figure out where her abilities figured into everything and looking for a place to start. The biggest thing right now was trying to find a starting point and building a new life from there. Another reason for coming here was that Danica needed to distance herself from everything, get a fresh perspective. With a sigh she finally gave up for the time being, not knowing what to do about her new abilities. The only real silver lining to this dark cloud was not being homeless anymore and at least having one friend that understood her situation, Cafas specifically. Deciding to head out Danica slid down off the chair and walked through the back exit of the bar, only to get mowed down in the doorway.

“Hey, why don't you watch where your going you jerk!” Danica said.

As with so many night before, Darkshift found herself outside at night in an alley next to one of the local bars.  Covered from head to tow in black scales, she stood in the shadow of a dumper across the street, watching the comings and goings of the bar.  Silent and still, no one saw her.  Without giving them any reason to, no one bothered to look into the shadows in search of someone or something that didn't belong and even if they did, night black scales blended perfectly with the darkness.

Once, in the not so distant pass, she would have been standing there in search of her next target, someone who looked appropriately wealthy and appropriately intoxicated in order to mug for whatever worldly possessions they might have on their person.  Tonight this was not her intent, not since she had agreed to work for Aura and her Order and be paid handsomely for it.  Tonight she wasn't exactly sure what her intent was and so she stood and watched and followed her own thoughts in circles in her own mind.

Darkshift didn't realize how much pent of aggression she had inside her until she saw some inconsiderate dick run directly into a lady exiting the bar.  She could swear it looked intentional.  Maybe the whole mutant vigilante super hero thing was getting into her head more strongly than she had realized or maybe she just wanted an excuse to get into a fight.  Regardless of motivation, she didn't have a chance to fully consider what she was doing before she walked out of the shadows to confront the man.

"You should probably apologize to the nice lady."  Black clawed fingers twitched, anticipating confrontation.  That sounded like a lovely way to spend an evening, now that she really stopped to consider.  Sometimes you just needed and excuse to hit something.

Before her life had been turned upside down, the sight of someone like Darkshift probably would have scared Danica out of her mind. Now she was slightly startled by the young woman's appearance out of seemingly nowhere, but otherwise unphased. Mutants were her people now, and life for them was hard enough without other people freaking out at the mere sight of one. The man on the other hand, looked at Darkshift and began to come unglued. Before he could lose it completely, Danica stood up and delivered a knuckle sandwich between the legs. The man dropped and laid there, squealing quietly.

"Sometimes being four feet tall comes in handy, " Danica said, then looked at Darkshift. "Hey, what's crackin' tall, dark, and mysterious? Thanks for the assist by the way."

Darkshift's appearance was quite a curiosity to her. Standing there Danica looked at the young woman, however she didn't seem scared. It was quite possible the taller woman could be dangerous, however until some sort of threat was posed, she saw no reason to be hostile. Danica even went so far as to smile at her.

Well, it sure was fun to scare the living crap out of people every once in a while.  The look of shear terror on his face sent a shiver of glee through her body.  She'd have to remember to do this sort of thing more often.  Then the woman delivered a much deserved gift right between the idiots legs and she could help but grin at her.  Something told her she was going to like this woman.  

Black scales melted back into pale skin and within moments a more or less normal, if still somewhat eccentric, woman stood in the place of the shadow monster that had been there only moments before.  "Don't mention it, bastard clearly deserved it.  By the looks of things, I think you could have taken care of yourself though."  A wink of appreciation.

As fun as it sometimes was to engender a little terror, it was always refreshing to meet someone who didn't exhibit fear at her less human traits.  "I'm Darkshift.  Mind if I ask your name?"  

"The name's Danica, nice to meet you too," Danica said. Stopping for a moment she looked around to take stock of the situation, people were already starting to take notice of the scene that was developing. It didn't help that there was an eccentric looking woman and a dwarf standing around some guy who was laying on the ground. Still in something of a mood, Danica threw her arms into the air and waved them around at the onlookers. "Ooga booga booga!"

"I think it might be a good idea if we found somewhere else to hang out. Knowing our luck somebody'll freak out and start shooting, then they'll all end up dead," Danica said. Not exactly sure where to go next, and with Darkshift able to assume a normal form, she just started to walk down the street. All of the moping and grousing was starting to depress Danica, so she decided to lighten the mood.

"So do you normally hang out in dark alleyways scaring the crap out of unsuspecting humans? Or is it just an every other week hobby?" Danica said.

"Pleasure to meet you Danica," Darkshift answered with a grin.  For once, she actually meant it.  Which was rare as people were rarely her favourite things in the world.  This person, however, had a delightfully twisted sense of fun which was something she could relate to.  She Jumped forward towards a particularly frightened looking girls and laughed in delight at her reaction.

"Somewhere else sounds very sensible," she agreed.  The choice of words was interesting, that someone might start shooting and they'd end up dead.  Normally guns implied the one being shot at would end up dead, not the other way around.  Perhaps the women thought her own powers were more lethal than they were and, not that she didn't appreciate the sentiment, but guns were one thing she didn't get along with especially well.

"Hang out in dark alleys yes.  Scare unsuspecting humans, not so much."  She followed beside Danica.  Now was probably not the best time to go into her history as a thief and a truant.  Not exactly the best small talk to start off a possible new friendship.  So, she changed the topic.   "Most people are afraid of mutants. Not you. Curious. You a mutant or have mutants in your life?"  Reasonable assumptions, all things considered.

Instead of walking toward the street, Danica walked further into the back alleys of the city, listening to Darkshift talk. They both seemed to be off to a good start, and also appeared to share a fairly twisted sense of humor. Although in recent times, there was very little about Danica's life that could be considered normal. "Most people are afraid of mutants. Not you. Curious. You a mutant or have mutants in your life?" Darkshift said.

The question didn't come as much of a surprise. Thinking on that briefly, Danica decided to have a little fun for once. Instead of answering, she stood still for a moment, then a modest burst of orange energy erupted from the little woman's legs, sending her nearly fifteen feet into the air. At the apex of the leap, Danica did a flip, then came down and landed on her butt. Obviously not how she intended to land.

"Ta-da!" Danica said, giving a goofy grin as she stood up. Things actually seemed to be going a lot better than when this whole outting began. In the matter of a few minutes Danica went from being fairly pissed off, to a relatively good mood. Perhaps it was from having another mutant to talk to when it didn't feel like your life was falling apart, at least not at the moment.

"Wanna show off abilities?" Danica said.

While she wasn't certain where the older woman was leading them, Darkshift had no unease about venturing down dark alleys.  The alleyways were her home far more so than the lighter and more populated parts of the city.  Too many eyes upon her made her uneasy, perhaps as a side effect of having a power that naturally promoted lurking in dark corners.  The deeper the shadows, the easier it was to remain unseen.  Unheard was another skill entirely, but she was getting better at that one with every passing day.

It didn't come as a complete surprise that Danica would turn out to be a mutant nor that she might choose to show off her powers, given what she all ready knew about Darkshift.  It was more surprising to see exactly what she could do and applause followed the delightful display, despite the somewhat uncomfortable looking landing.  

"Wonderful display!"  The words were spoken with authentic feeling.  Ever since joining the Order she had met more mutants than she previously thought possible and all of them were amazing in their own unique ways.  "As for what I can do, I call myself a partial shifter."  Instead of explaining what that meant, she chose to display her powers instead.  The other woman had all ready seen her scaled skin, so another direction seemed apt.  Pale skin melted into black fur and her head transformed into a panther's head.  From her back grew great black feathered wings.  She stretched her wings out before her shifts faded back into her normal human form.  "Partial animal shifter."  It sure was fun comparing powers.

With the look of a kid who just walked into a candy store, Danica let out a gasp upon seeing Darkshift's wings and stepped closer. Ever so carefully she reached out and touched one with her hand, feeling the soft black feathers. "Oh... my... God... I am so totally jealous! Your shifting abilities are awesome!" Danica said, then looked up. "What I wouldn't give to be able to shift about another foot and a half straight up, right?"

Scanning the area Danica located a small tin can, then pointed a finger, and knocked it down the alley with a small blast of orange energy that looked more like an arc of electricity. "I can do that too, and they come in stronger flavors. I even have eye beams, but they to make walls go all explodie, so I think I'll hold off on that one for now."

Deciding to show off a little just because she was in a good mood, Danica pulled more energy into her hand. From there she released a blast from her palm and hit the side of a dumpster. It left a fist sized dent along with a loud WHAM, making the refuse container shake lightly. "You know, now that I think about it, I don't even know what kind of energy this is. It just wallops the hell outta things."

"I can't fly, unfortunately.  The rest of my body is just too heavy.  But I can glide pretty effectively if I jump off of a cliff or building or something."  It was a strange feeling to have her abilities so admired but also a feeling she liked.  "Nor can I shift up my height," she added with a laugh.  "Unless growing antlers counts."  With those words an impressive set of moose antlers appeared on the top of her head only to melt away a few moments later.

"Energy beams, now that's awesome!"  The words were stated with authentic emphasis.  "For those of us who are, uh, a little bit trouble prone, energy projectiles sound amazing."  No need to mention that she was usually the cause of her own trouble and that she usually deserved whatever trouble found her.

"Well, for that matter I don't really know what my shifts are made of either.  I think they're kind of an extension of my aura but what really is aura made out of anyway?  I guess powers are sometimes funny like that."