Giving Derek the cockiest look he could, "Bring it on lad, but I'm not the most flappable guy around. Better make it a good one." Derek was definitely a person to keep around, he was far to much fun to not. God, Artair could only imagine what he'd be like on a night out. Or on a night out with Devon. That, that was an evil little plan he was keeping locked up tight for when he needed it.

The animals must be pretty spooked to not even want to chat with Snow on this and a tear? That sounded really bad. "I have no clue what a tear is or why it's freaking out the animals but it can't be good." Even as he talked he kept getting distracted by the people moving in and out of the park. "Be on full alert, and don't hesitate to say if something feels off. Any gut feelings on this one are more than nothing." Watching a kid run into the park, just a second it looked like he slowed down and not in a normal way, like a video tape had the speed turned down.

People weren't moving right, some of them looked just a little too slow, some were moving a little jittery and quick. A guy with a water bottle was taking long swallows just a touch slower than was natural. "Derek, look around. Don't ask me to explain just look, what doesn't seem right? What looks out of place." He had to be sure, sure it wasn't just his mind going off the deep end.

If not, then they were in much bigger trouble than either of them was ready for. 

If Artair wanted to challenge Derek, then he certainly up for it. He could make anyone feel uncomfortable. That's one of the reasons why he was single now. "It'll be good, alright. It'll be so good you'll avoid eye contact with me for a week." And that was a promise.

Derek didn't like what he was noticing concerning the animals. Even a couple of squirrels ran past them and down the sidewalk to get out of the way of whatever was happening. He turned his attention to Artair, then to the people around them and at the park.

People were moving slower one second, then moving faster the next. "...I don't like this, Artair..." Derek looked down to see a fox, a nocturnal animal that rarely seen in New York, came out and was about to run the opposite way until he called out to him,

"Hey! Wait!" Derek took a couple of steps toward her. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bit of dry dog food that he used to persuade the less willing animals to help him. Kneeling down, the fox cautiously made her way over to them and started to eat the food out of his hand. After she ate, she looked up at Derek.

"...things are worse at certain places...ah, this tear is causing more problems for the animals than it is for us. This beautiful girl was chasing a rat when she started to slow down and the rodent kept at normal speed." Derek looked up and over his shoulder at Artair. "What does all of this mean?"

He couldn't disagree with Derek, this was all so f----- up and he had no idea how, why or what they could do. All the animals looked freaked out but the people didn't even notice, or at least most of them didn't. Chances are they didn't know to look for anything weird or out of place like them.

"S---, s--- s--- s---!" This was way worse than simple anti mutant violence, that could wait unfortunately. "Lad, this tear, whatever it is, it's f------ around with time! Look, in the park people are moving either too fast or too slow." Something was causing localised time effects. "this is over our heads, but we need to see how far it extends, or if it's only in the park." If it was spreading, they were all screwed, He wasn't a physicist but he'd read enough that anything messing with time this much had mind boggling amounts of energy behind it. Gods, if this was a mutant they were on a scale he couldn't imagine.

"Come on, we follow our original plan, skirt the borders of the park and see how far this goes. After that we get back to Haven fast and report this." He was keeping a fairly good handle on his concerns, wouldn't do to act freaked in front of the new guy and worry him.

Offering a hand down to his companion, "Derek, if we're careful, we'll be fine. Promise."

Woah, Artair was clearly having problems coping with the fact that something seriously wrong. He continued to look over his shoulder at Artair, his brown eyes holding confusion and a bit of fear. "Over our heds?" Derek repeated, turning his attention down to the fox that was in front of him, then back over his shoulder at Artair. Was being apart of Haven going to be too much for Derek? God, he hoped not.

Derek trusted Artair. He had done anything but be kind to him since they met. He took his hand and stood up from his squatting position. "O-okay." He let his hand linger before letting go.

As they started walking, Derek looked over his shoulder to find that the fox was following them. "Looks like we have company." Derek said to Artair. "Alright, you can come help." The fox almost looked happy as she hurried along beside them.

"Aye, we're both not clued in enough to know exactly, what this is. If it's a mutant, we're so far out our league its a f------ joke. If not, Well something is way worse." But they had a job right now, finding it's limitations and mapping it was essential. Any information they could get would help, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant.

Raising an eyebrow at their new companion, he figured they might as well, after all the worst a fox could do it run off. "Fair enough, more eyes on can't hurt and she might be able to get a feel for it where we can't. Try to make sure she doesn't run into traffic though, rather not have drivers getting distracted right now."

As they moved he was roughly mapping the extent of the 'tear' on a note pad he had, trying to get an idea of its size, and hopefully with that they could get an idea of where about the tear itself was. This was meant to be a simple training exercise for Christs sake now they were dealing with time falling apart on a scale he was terrified of knowing the answer too. What more could go wrong today?

A lot more apparently if the angry voices and small group ahead was anything to go by, they'd found their thugs. F------ perfect. Growling out his words. "I am really not in the mood for this. Lad, you might want to stay back unless I get hit. I might need to blow off some steam with our would be bigots." Artair had anger issues at the best of times. This wasn't the best of times.

This was definitely not part of the training, that was obvious. Although if this was a mutant, then they were in some major trouble. Derek hadn't known Artair long- not even a full day- but he felt like he could trust him. This may very well be a flaw of his, but now it was working in his favor.

"She won't. She knows that cars make her go splat." Derek looked over at fix hurrying along beside him. She glanced up at Derek and responded with a yelp. "See?" He looked over at a worried Artair.

They continued observing the time tear that had formed in and around the park. Chills ran up and down his spin off and on as they walked. His attention was caught by a small crowd oozing aggression. This must be what Artair had originally planned.

Bigots? Well, Derek wasn't a fan of ignorant a--holes. "Let me help," the fox yelped, "us help. We're a team, Artair."[/color

Nodding, he was trying to get his temper under control and failing miserably. "Right, cover my back and try to keep defensive. Only strike when you know you can get a safe hit. That and when they're focused on me go for weak spots." Eyeing them up, there was only five of them. Pretty easy for them both to deal with. "If they start something don't jump when the staff appears. Take it and smack one them hard."

Give Derek one last reassuring look, he marched up, masking his current concerns by letting the anger show. It certainly gave him a pretty menacing look. "What the hell's going on here then!" he shouted planting himself firmly between the group and their targets, a young couple both of them with small visible mutations. "We got a problem with mutants here then lads?" A couple of them were pretty shocked by the sudden and fiery appearance of Artair, the rest just looked like they had more prey. Big mistake.

"Yeah we got a problem, these freaks think its OK for them to act like normal people, throwing their unatural looks in our faces." Lord save him from bigots, they all thought the same. "We thought we'd teach them where they belong, so f--- off unless you want a taste of the same."

Yep, his anger just let loose at that,, but it burned cold, focusing his mind. "You want a fight, because I am not in a good f------ mood and I promise you, I will not play nice." The rest had rallied behind their leader and just looked at him like he was crazy. Bad news for them, he was right now.

Slamming a caestus on his fist, he brought his hand round and smacked the leader straight across the jaw, the bone loudly cracking. Then, just as his head bounced off the floor, he got another punch to the temple, just hard enough to knock him out. It'd been so quick, so brutal the group just stared at it.

Dropping a staff infront of Derek, "OK, who the f---'s next."

"Got it," Derek had only been in a real fight before. Once when he was picked on for catching ladybugs during recess in fourth grade and again on the school bus home in sixth grade. This time, there would be no one stopping him for getting hurt or hurting someone else except for Artair and the cops, "you can count on us."

Derek and the fox followed after Artair, making sure to keep a close eye on the thugs that were around them. When Artair stopped, Derek stood a two feet behind him. He let the hot Scotsman do the talking since he was way more fired up than what Derek was.

Watching his partner KO the leader made Derek both sweaty and glad that he was on his side. "S---," Derek cursed quietly. Suddenly feeling a weight in his hand, Derek looked down to see the staff that Artair was talking about earlier. He tightened his hold on it and got into the stance that he was taught.

"Man, f--- this!" One of the thugs tried to come to Artair from the side. Without thinking,

Derek stepped up and hit him on the head. It wasn't hard enough to knock him out, but it was to piss him off. In return, Derek received a punch in the gut. He quickly doubled over and winced. This is gonna be hard. With a growl, the fox bit into the man's calf and started tearing away at his flesh with her sharp teeth. Derek recovered and looked up at the sky to see a singular bird, then back down at the man that hit him and was now screaming. With his staff, he repeatedly hit him in the shoulder and chest.

Another one of the thugs stepped to Derek with a bat in his hand. Uh oh. Stretching his arm up, Derek's eyes glowed orange. He hated doing this, but had no time to ask for help. As the thug reared his bat back to hit the mutant, a hawk swooped down and started to peck and claw at his face. The hawk's eyes were also shining orange.

The man yelled, dropping the bat as he tried to get the predatory bird off before it clawed his eyeballs out.

Action exploded as soon as he'd finished, dodging a punch and moving back, he quickly confirmed the couple was running. Good, he had room to play with.

Derek had two of them busy for now, but this couldn't go on long, he'd already taken a hit and was down. If he didn't get up soon he'd be in trouble. Slamming more energy into the caestus he quickly swapped it into a mace and brought it round quickly into the hand one of the thugs had launched at him. The crunch was sickeningly loud. Moran like this just never learned did they. They'd watched him break a guys jaw in one punch and they went in for seconds? Eejits.

Kicking that one away and blocking the knife with a quick parry, he had to give the guy props. He saw a man, with a glowing wire mesh of a mace and went for a sneak attack. It was almost cute had out classed he was. "Really mate, you really want to go for me with a knife?"

Apparently he did, and his friend was getting up again. F--- this, he was done messing around. Shifting the weapon again into a what was essentially a solid steel bar, he flicked the knife out his hand, brought it back quickly in a stunning hit to his head before going for the coup de grace. A low, powerful swing broke both the his shins in one. The first one he'd dealt with just bolted at this point. At least one functional brain cell then.

His done with, he moved over to help Derek.

Derek's eyes were still glowing as he influenced the hawk to leave the guy alone. When the hawk flew around to take a break, Derek got a glimpse of the scarred, bloody eyes that the thug quickly covered an his. When Derek saw this, he quickly loosened his influence from the hawk and watched as the tall, beefy man ran away screaming about his eyes.

"Oh, God..." He covered his mouth in awe at what he'd done. Derek then looked over at Artair, watching him beat two of the guys with long a long metal bar. What had he gotten himself into? Was this something that he honestly wanted to get involved with an organization like this? He was so in shock that he didn't notice that the fox had been kicked away by one of the men he was fighting. Derek was about to turn around when he felt a sharp pain in his back.

"Agh!" Derek flew forward onto the his stomach. The guy had kicked Derek in the back and was about to stomp on the back of his head when he rolled out of the way before the deadly blow could be felt. "Artair!" He called out as he rolled himself into a ball.

Right now, if Derek had give himself a grade, it would be a D+

The hawk must've had pity for Derek because when he circled back around, she attacked the thug's face with her sharp falcons.

F---, he'd lost his temper and gotten his friend into trouble. This was exactly what he was there to stop, instead he lead the lamb into the wolfs den himself!

Ignoring his weapon he dashed up and spun the guy around, dislodging the bird in the process before going for pure and simple brutality. Head butting him hard in the nose, breaking it in the process he swept the staff through the air, taking the thug off his feet. A heavy boot to the temple put him under faster than his brain could process any of it, his eyes rolling up into his head.

"Jesus Derek are you OK?" Dropping down to curled up figure, he gave him a quick once over for any broken bones or internal injuries. "S--- mate that should never have happen, I'm sorry. I lost it and cost you some damn nasty bruises."

Offering a hand to help him up and giving him a smile, "But you didn't do horribly. You tried your best and shouted when you were in trouble. Good job man."

"But don't beat yourself up over this. You are not at fault here, I am. The time s--- threw me and I let my anger get the best of me." Looking over the thugs, most of them would need medical care. "They might have done as much or worse to people, but we have to be better than them."

Derek didn't move until he knew that the threat had passed. Though, when Artair came to touch him, the darker skinned mutant flinched. He quickly calmed down after he realized who it was. He usually uncurled himself and took his hand, standing up. Derek panted and rested his hands down on his knees.

"T-thank you. One of 'em tried to get ya from the back. I couldn't let that happen," he explained with a smirked. Derek finally stood up straight and looked at Artair. He studied his face before glancing down at the limp bodies around him. There was also specs of blood in various places. Derek tried to take his advice about not beating himself up, but it was hard. His job was to keep the guys away from Artair, he only half achieve that.

"I-I think I made one guy go blind. I didn't mean it. Like you said, bigots like them have done worse to people like us. We have to be better," he searched for the fox who was limping toward the thug that kicked her and started to lap up his blood. Derek chuckled lightly and shook his head. "Though sometimes I want them to suffer...hurt, bleed," Derek sniffed and clicked in the fox's direction. She turned her head and made her way toward Derek. Scooping her up in his arms, the mutant smiled, "good job." She yelped.

"What now? Do we report this to the police?" He asked Artair. The pain was starting to set in. Yep, he'll definitely be feeling that in the morning.

"Then you did your job lad and I'm glad you did, saved me a nasty hit or worse." Derek need a wee confidence booster right now and Artair was pretty sure he'd done good anyway and he was usually a fan of not taking blows to his back.

"Aye, trust me on that I understand but you let your anger control you an this is what you get," he gestued sharply down at the groaning forms. "I'm responsible for this, I lost control and I started the fight. You just tried to keep me alive. That was a good thing you did, only I have their blood on my hands Derek." Which was true, his anger had gotten the new guy hurt, worse it had shot his confidence through the floor and heaped guilty on top of it. He should have been better.

This was where he knew that when people called him a good guy, they really didn't know him. He'd enjoyed hurting them, gotten a thrill during the fight. Worse he'd wanted to take it further and make sure they couldn't do it again.

Calling an ambulance on a burner phone and giving them the address and severity of the wounds he turned back to the worried young man. "Come on mate, we'll get this thing mapped and get back to Inferno. I could do with a drink and I definitely owe you one."

Derek snorted and nodded his head, "thank you, Artair." He gave him a kind smile, then looked down at the fox. He wanted to make sure she was okay before dropping her back at the park. However, the fox had other plans. After that the town car pulled up, all three of them got inside and headed back to the Haven to report what they saw.