Derek had no idea where Leon went. The Mansion looked for him after the survival challenge and was currently looking for him. The dark skinned mutant took it upon himself to go and find the manticore-like mutant himself. He first decided to look around in Central Park and when he couldn't find him, he decided that it would be best to search after he was able to sit down and gather his thoughts. 

The twenty-year-old mutant entered a bar and sat down at one of the tables. He would be lying if he said that he didn't feel responsible for the loss of Leon. He was his partner after all. Unfortunately, Derek couldn't drink so he tried to drown his worries in wings and carbonated beverages. After he ordered, he scanned the surroundings. Derek was about to look back down at the table cloth when he saw red. Leon. Derek immediately got up from his seat and rushed to the edge of the bar. 

"L-Leon?! Is that you?!"

Manti had been making due with whatever the hell was going on. Say what you wanted, he had learned how to land on his feet, even if the world had turned crazy all about him. His group of friends was missing, the bike shop was a car wash, and his bank account apparently didn't exist, leaving him without any money except what was in his wallet. Luckily he had enough to tide him over, but still it had been a hard blow. Even so he had managed to get a part time position at a different bike shop. Not as nice or welcoming as his , but they couldn't fault him when they had seen his ride, the one thing that had that hadn't mysteriously vanished on him. On the bright side, he the bars were decent, even if he didn't have his friends here to joke with. He was starting fresh again, not that he hadn't done this once before when he was younger, so he knew he would make it through it until he figured it out.

"L-Leon?! Is that you?!"

The mention of his name, his real name, came somewhat as a surprise to him. Not only had nobody recognized him over the past week, most knew him as Manti, or Manticore. Generally the only people who knew him as Leon was his Family. He turned to the voice, seeing a kid who's face he didn't recognize, which was usually not something that happened, but this last week had this being a common occurrence. "Do I know you?" he said, his tone not accusatory, but more inquisitive as he took n the scent of the newcomer. Very animal scents hung off him, but what caught his attention was a familiar faint but familiar scent he could have sworn was his own. Maybe he did know him, but it was strange he couldn't place the face. "Sorry, been out of sorts, you wouldn't believe the week I've had, care to clue a guy in?" he said, shifting into his friendly banter as he usually did with new friends. “Hey Barkeep, a Coke this way for my friend,” he said to the man behind the bar. The guy looked a bit young for a solid beer, so soda was probably more his speed.

His mannerism was normal for him, Manti was extremely confident in himself, and despite setbacks, let nothing pull him down. His tail twitched side to side in enjoyment of the new company, as he hadn’t had any of his friends about to bounce jokes and ideas off of while shooting the breeze. His first few days had been somewhat tense, he even popped his spine up once or twice out of agitation, but now they were smooth and relaxed, like silky awesome red lion man in a sweet biker jacket. Which he was.

>> "Do I know you?"

Sh!t! How many manticore mutants are there in New York City. Well, this was awkward. He stared at not-Leon for a while before shaking his head. He was about to say sorry and walk away when he spoke again.

>> "Sorry, been out of sorts, you wouldn't believe the week I've had, care to clue a guy in?...Hey Barkeep, a Coke this way for my friend,”

Derek blinked a few times before slowly sitting down next to whoever this was. Hopefully he was just as confused as he was. "Well, uh, where do I begin? Not-you and I was on a survival challenge at the Mansion when he went to get water. However, he never came back so we went looking for him. I did."

The twenty-year-old sighed heavily and scratched the top of his head. "...Personality wise, you're certainly different."

Manti examined the guy over, he was sure they hadn't met, but in his mind there was little chance that there were two giant red lions running around New York, especially two with the name Leon. "You did say Leon, right? Leon Manning?" he said, puzzling over this, "I mean, most people call me Manti, but it's my name." he continued, taking a swig of his drink. "And I don't think it would be easy to get me mixed up with anyone else, not with this stunning profile." he said it with a good deal of pride. Manti had always considered his looks one of his best features. Still, this was fairly confusing with everything else that seemed to be going on. Could there be another person like him? It would be one hell of a coincidence. "So the last place you saw... me... was in the woods? Doesn't sound like me, I mean, sure I'll take a stroll in the park every once in a while, and don't get me wrong, a survival challenge sounds like a ton of fun, but can't say I've done any of that recently." He scratched his chin, running his claws through the mane fur on his chin as he thought. "Hmmm... though honestly everything has seemed off this week," he said aloud, voicing his thoughts. Everything out of place, his bike shop gone, his place gone, had something happened to him he didn't remember? It wasn't like him to doubt himself, but he couldn't honestly say he was sure at the moment, after all if someone he didn't know knew his name, and how he looked... "I don't suppose you have anything from... me... on you?" he asked. If this guy did know him, and had something, he could sniff it for his own scent. People could look alike or even sound alike sometimes, but one thin they couldn't fake was there scent... well unless their mutant powers let them do that, but that was a whole other kettle of fish. At the very least he would be able to tell if the guy was legit or not.

This was coming very stressful for Derek. All he wanted was to find the real Leon Manning and bring him safely back to the Mansion.

"I don't have anythin' for you to sniff or anything like that." Derek chewed on his bottom lip and folded his arms over his chest. He had to think about how this Leon could help find the other one. He moistened his lips and tried to get himself comfortable on the bar stool he was sitting on. He ran a hand through his short kinky hair.

"Where did you come from exactly if you're not my Leon Manning?"

Leon gave a sigh that was somewhere between annoyance and contemplative. "I could maybe pass it off as coincidence if it was just a first name thing," he said, thinking over the situation as he pondered the unlikeliness of this situation. "But to have my full name and look like me is too much to be a coincidence." Then a thought crossed his mind, "Shape shifter maybe? If that's the case he wouldn't have my powers." he swung his tail around, stiffening the quills so he could break one off, "Does your Leon have this?" he said in a tone that suggested he had outsmarted something. He held out the red quill broken end first, for Derek to examine. Even an impostor wouldn't be able to replicate his quills and poison. The only logical explanation was that it was someone pretending to be him. He couldn't think of anyone who would do this. Well, maybe a friend would prank him, but this was much too elaborate for it to be that.

Derek turned his attention down to the quill that Leon just broke off. This definitely wasn't the Leon he knew. With wide brown eyes, he turned his attention back to Leon's face. "He does have those, but he would never hand me one of his own poisonous quills. Actually, My Leon wouldn't even be in a public place like this." This was getting too confusing for Derek. "...Wait! He did leave his jacket behind! I took a picture of it," The twenty-year-old mutant pulled out his phone and unlocked it. After a while of searching, he showed Not-Leon the picture. "Here. Does this look familiar?"

Manti was frankly annoyed at being thwarted in his attempt to make some sense of all this. There were too many things for this to be coincident, but the main differences that Derek seemed to be coming up with were personality rather then physical things. The implication was that he was not remembering things, which he was sure he wasn't, aside from losing time, it didn't feel like a break in his memories. Or was that just what someone who was missing memories would think?

Manti took the phone and looked at the picture. It wasn't his... wait... he examined it closer, zooming in on the phone. There was some familiarity about it, the color and design, he thought he wore something like this back when he was still in college. It was full of holes, rather dirty looking, and he couldn't really tell if it was the same jacket, but it seemed like a style he would have worn. "I'm not sure..." he said, his confidence wavering a little. "Can you show me this in person?" he asked, honestly a little hesitant at the idea, but he had to know if there was something wrong with his head. Maybe he was suffering some brain injury and he didn't remember what he should be remembering. It was worrying enough a thought to cement the determination to figure this out.

Derek nodded his head, "yep! I can show it to you. It's currently at the Mansion and if you'd come with me, it'll really help with the search as well as make some sense out of all of this." He was very much so relieved that not-Leon was going to help him find the other one. Hopefully, Leon would be in one piece instead of dead somewhere in a gutter.

"A mansion?" queried Manti, his interest peaked anew, he had never been in a mansion before, was this kid loaded or something? He doubted it, since a rich kid would probably have better hangouts then a biker bar. "Now how can I turn down an offer like that." he said before downing the rest of his beer. He wasn't going to be getting a hangover so he didn't have to worry about how much he drank, one of the major pluses about his particular mutation.

So, Derek was able to grab his attention? Good! That meant he would be coming with him back to the Mansion right? Well, there was only one way to know, "so...will you come with me, then?" He asked, feeling his anxiety going down dramatically. "If you could, that would be amazin'! Really!"