It had been a long, busy day for Allyssa already. Not only had she needed to work her full eight hour shift at work, but then she had an appointment at the financial aid office on the NYU campus to see about what else she could apply for to be able to afford going back to school in September. Her job at the coffee shop was allowing her to pay bills, but barely. She’d hardly been able to save anything so far for school, and it had already been five months. At this rate, she was never going to be able to afford school on her own. At least she had been given another, albeit short, list of grants and scholarships she could apply for.

Which left Allyssa stepping off the subway just after 6 in the evening. At first, she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Crowds and loud voices were common in subway stations, so Allyssa just thought that it was normal evening rush hour chaos.

A few moments later, when she saw a bright flash of light out of the corner of her eye followed by a scream, Allyssa finally realized that this was not normal. Turning her head, Allyssa saw what she could only describe as a fireball.

Allyssa blinked in shock, stopping dead in her tracks, as a fireball flew past her and hit a pillar behind and to the right of her. She knew that New York City could be crazy, dangerous, and that there were any number of mutants around all the time. But really, fireballs?!?

She hadn’t even started moving again yet, running toward the exit as many of the other people in the station were doing, when she saw another fireball flying straight toward her. Frozen in fear, Allyssa’s eyes widened as she watched the flames speeding at her.

Only for them to fizzle into nothing before they reached her.

SUPER's field protocols were shifting as fast as the administration could pinpoint new ones. Once the rip opened, everything changed; workload literally doubled, made more complicated by the other side's regrettably lenient attitude towards the mutant threat. Agent T, on her part, liked to do things by the book; but since the book was currently under revision, she had to accept that her field missions with SUPER were more than a little... flexible on the legal side. She was expected to hold her own in a strange universe. Improvise. Adapt. That last part was definitely fitting, given her status as a Kappa.

Mutant activity was easier to spot on this other side as well. They were less likely to hide. More.. out there. But, as far as Gemma was concerned, just as dangerous.

She just entered the platform when the first fireball went off. People started running and screaming. Someone was likely to get hurt, but before civilians could be helped, the immediate threat needed taking care of.

"Shut down the line!" Agent T yelled at the woman behind the monitors as she ran past, fighting the crowd. The last thing they needed was another train coming in.

The next fireball flew straight at a girl, and the agent knew she was not going to make it in time.

DAMMIT!

She shifted as she ran, kicking out to sweep the legs from under the attacker, and barely slowing down in the process. Maybe if she could put the fire out, she could mitigate the injuries...

... except, there was no fire.

Agent T skidded to a halt, staring at the girl.

"Did you... do that?"

Allyssa didn't see the woman running toward her, didn't see the mutant shooting the fireballs hit the ground. She didn't see that because her eyes were locked on the burning ball of flames hurtling toward her. And yet, even though she knew that it was going to hurt, that the flames looked hot enough to burn and blister her skin almost instantly, Allyssa didn't move. She simply stood there staring. Was there mass at the center of the ball of flames that would knock her over, she wondered, or would it simply be a wave of heat followed by the pain?

Was this shock?

And then, suddenly, the fireball was gone. But it took a few moments after the woman who was now in front of her had spoken before Allyssa was able to move her eyes over. Had she done that? Couldn't the woman see where the fire was coming from? It very obviously had not been coming from Allyssa's direction, that was for sure. "Of course not, I'm not a mutant," she replied after a few more moments. Well, she technically wasn't, was she?

Then Allyssa's eyes moved over to the man who had been shooting the fire to see him just starting to scramble back to his feet. She frowned. How and why had he been on the floor? And more importantly, how had she stopped his powers, she wondered. She was too far away to stop his mutation from working. She had seen enough mutations stop working when the person they belonged to got close to her to know that. "But why did the flames stop? I'm too far away from him..."

The flames disappeared before they hit the girl... or any other target, for that matter. Agent T arched an eyebrow. There were a precious few acceptable explanations for that.

>>"Of course not, I'm not a mutant,"

"Of course not. You're an adapted human." Gemma agreed with a short nod.

>>"But why did the flames stop? I'm too far away from him..."

"That's..." she began, but didn't have time to finish; there was a cry of anger behind her, as the mutant got back on his feet, and balls of flame began to form in his palms. Agent T smiled as she turned on her heel, and marched back to him. His look of rage turned into one of shock as the flames went out. A moment later, the Agent hand him knocked down, arm twisted behind his back. "Stay put. The authorities have beennotified. Don't make this any worse for yourself." she told him shortly, glancing up at the girl again. "You and I should talk."

Hopefully the other SUPER operatives your get to the scene faster than the poor excuse for a mutant police unit this side seemed to have.

Allyssa blinked when the woman spoke. Not only did she know automatically that she wasn’t a mutant, even though she had done something to another mutant’s power, but the woman even had a name for it. But, wasn’t an adaption just another name for a mutation? Allyssa wasn’t entirely sure on that, her focus was on chemistry rather than biology, but it sounded right. A mutation may be a little more random, but it was the same idea she thought.

Or maybe the woman just didn’t really know what she was talking about. That was a possibility, because Allyssa knew from experience that she was too far away from Mr. Fireball to be able to do anything to his mutation.

And then Allyssa heard a cry of anger and saw the woman turning away from her. And moving toward Mr. Fireball. What was she...The flames that had grown on his hands sizzled out. Again Allyssa blinked. New York City was crazy, but this was going a little too far. But did this mean that the woman was able to do the same thing that she could? Was that how she knew that she wasn’t a mutant? Allyssa had met - no, she’d heard - a few other people who seemed to know something about what she was able to do, who seemed to know even though they hadn’t been able to see her, but that hadn’t exactly been a good time for a Q&A session. Not that this was much better, what with Mr. Fireball.

Though apparently Mr. Fireball wasn’t much of a deterrent for wanting to talk in the other woman’s mind. She seemed rather calm and collected despite the fact that mere moments before there had been literal balls of fire shooting through the subway station. And the woman wanted to talk with her. ”Uh, ok, yeah,” Allyssa replied slowly, eying the woman and, more importantly, the mutant she was holding down. The mutant who didn’t have fire coming from his hands anymore, even though Allyssa was too far away to be effecting him. Did that mean that this woman could do the same thing that Allyssa could? Maybe that would mean she’d actually be able to get some real answers.

But first, there was the fact that this woman was pinning the mutant to the floor. Sure, the guy had been attacking people, but… ”Are you a cop?”

The man did not resist much; whether he knew why his powers fizzled out or not, he was smart enough to know that the fight was over. Without powers, hand to hand, Gemma had the advantage in training. And in not giving a damn about his well-being.
The girl, however. She was a whole other story. Agent T half expected her to bolt when she saw a way out, but she didn't. That was a start. SUPER had its many ways of recruiting people, but Agent T personally had precious little patience for rookies who did not want to do the work in the first place.

>>”Uh, ok, yeah. Are you a cop?”

"Something like that." she allowed. Footsteps echoed down the platform, as two other plain clothes agents joined them. Gemma surrendered the man to them and rolled her shoulders as she walked back to the girl.

"Were you hurt? What's your name?"

She was something like a cop. Allyssa really wasn’t sure what to make of that as she stood where she was watching the woman hold the mutant pinned to the floor as she was. She wasn’t a cop, but was something like that, yet hadn’t called herself a federal agent, either. So...what did that make her?

Whatever it made her, there were apparently two more of them Allyssa noticed as the woman released the mutant to the two who had just arrived. That was a good sign the woman was legitimate even if she wasn’t a police officer, right?

Which Allyssa hoped a moment later that that was what it meant since the woman was now walking toward her again. And asking her questions. ”No, I’m not hurt,” she responded after a moment, her eyes moving back and forth between the woman approaching her and the two with the mutant. ”I’m Allyssa. What’s going to happen to him?”

The fireball had not hit the girl because of her adapted aura, but Gemma wanted to make sure she had not sustained other injuries either. Sometimes people in shock only noticed after the fact that they had been hurt.

>>”No, I’m not hurt... I’m Allyssa."

"Agent Taylor" she introduced herself, offering a handshake as the other agents in the background restrained the man and walked him off the platform. In a humane manner, which was a waste of resources, as far as Gemma was concerned, but they were in public, after all. And on the wrong side of the rip.

>>"What’s going to happen to him?”

"They will record his information" Gemma said "And tag him to make sure we can identify him if he causes trouble again. After that... that depends on the authorities."

She kept it deliberately vague. She did not want to dump too much information on someone from this side of the rip; there were already scare tactics at play from SUPER's enemies, and a lot of rumors going around that painted them a lot more evil than they were.

"Let's go somewhere more quiet to talk" she suggested, nodding at the stairs. Outside the subway entrance there was a small diner. It would be as good a place as any. "How long have you known about your aura?"

Agent Taylor, Allyssa thought as she shook the woman’s outstretched hand. So she was some sort of federal agent, though she didn’t say with what agency. But she went on to explain what was going to happen to the mutant now that he was under control. And it made sense, other than the fact that Allyssa wasn’t entirely sure what was meant by ‘tag’. But criminals got photographed and fingerprinted so they could be more easily identified in the future. And sure, the fireball mutant might not technically be a criminal because of what had just happened, but it so easily could have been worse. If Agent Taylor hadn’t been there to take him down so quickly. If somehow Allyssa hadn’t cancelled out his mutation from much further away than she thought she could. She shuddered thinking about what could have happened.

As she heard Agent Taylor’s voice again, Allyssa turned her attention back to the present and the woman standing in front of her. Somewhere quiet? Allyssa knew that those were few and far between in New York, but there had to be somewhere quieter than where they were currently standing, so she nodded and started walking toward the stairs that would lead them to street level.

And the woman certainly seemed to know a fair bit about what she was able to do. Allyssa frowned slightly as she thought. It wasn’t like she had marked the day on the calendar. ”A little more than a year, I think,” she replied after a few moments. ”But thinking back, it must have been there longer. There’s quite a few mutants around NYU, and I definitely remember hearing some very vocal ones complaining about their powers suddenly not working before I realized it was me causing it.”

They walked up the stairs, and over to the diner nearby. In the meantime, Agent T tried to get as much information from the girl as she could. She knew that discussion of SUPER work was likely to put her on edge, so she wanted to know more about her before they got to that point. At least she seemed interested.

>>”A little more than a year, I think. But thinking back, it must have been there longer. There’s quite a few mutants around NYU, and I definitely remember hearing some very vocal ones complaining about their powers suddenly not working before I realized it was me causing it.”

Gemma nodded at that.

"That is a common experience."

She didn't elaborate. Or bring up the fact that she was married with children before she ever knew that she was different than other humans. Adapted.

They walked into the diner, and Gemma picked a booth away from the crowd.

"You should get something to eat. My treat."

Allyssa nodded as she listed to the older woman. Not that she really said all that much, but Allyssa was able to infer quite a bit from those few words. So as they sat down in an out of the way booth in the diner they'd made their way to, she thought.

Then Agent Taylor said that she should get something to eat, so Allyssa looked down at the menu. Her mind was still turning things over, though.

”So there's a lot of people like me?” Allyssa asked after a few moments. Then she looked up at Agent Taylor once more. ”I've never heard of someone else like me, but I've met mutants that don't seem to be very surprised by it.”

At that moment, the waitress came over, and Allyssa turned her eyes back to the menu for a moment. ”Could I get a… Chicken club sandwich and a coke?”

The girl's mind must have been reeling. Encountering someone who had answers, she probably had a million questions to ask. Gemma could be patient, in answers where what she needed to earn the girl's trust, and move forward. At least adapteds were a lot more manageable than mutants, on any given day. And the answers were more uniform.

>>”So there's a lot of people like me? I've never heard of someone else like me, but I've met mutants that don't seem to be very surprised by it.”

She made the order first, getting some strong coffee for herself before she answered.

"Adapted humans." she nodded "Not a lot, but we do exist. Ranges of our aura vary, but in general... we are evolution's response to mutant powers."

Agent Taylor didn’t answer until after the waitress had walked away. But when she did open her mouth, there were finally answers. But adapted human? Wasn’t that what mutants were, humans who had changed for some reason or another to become different? Biology was not Allyssa’s strong suit, but it sounded the same to her.

Though, if there really were more people like her, surely at least one of them would have had that X-gene testing done. That had to be why Agent Taylor was calling her an ‘adapted human’ rather than a mutant because there was proof of the difference.

Maybe she’d have to stop by and talk to her friend in Bio-Med soon.

Then a small detail that the older woman had said clicked in Allyssa’s mind. ”You said ‘we’. Are you an...adapted too?”

It took the girl some time to process the information. The existence of mutants was fairly well known by now, but adapteds had managed to fly under the radar of media attention - mostly because they needed chance mutant encounters to show their potential. It made sense that someone would need time to process the fact that they were neither mutant, nor human. Binaries were outdated anyway.

>>”You said ‘we’. Are you an...adapted too?”

"Yes" Agent T nodded. It was obvious, but things had happened fast, so confirmation was needed "I found out... in a similar manner as you. It took me a while to see the use of my abilities."

Allyssa nodded as she listened to Agent Taylor. Not only were there others like her, others who seemed able to cancel out mutant powers, but the woman sitting across the table from her was one of those people. And, though she had known for a while that she was different, it was nice to have the confirmation of just what she was; not a mutant, but not quite human, either.

”And just what use are abilities like this?” Allyssa asked with a bit of a frown. Yes, it had come in very handy that day, causing the mutant’s fireball to fizzle out before it actually hit her, but there were other uses? Maybe she was slightly in shock and so not making the connections as quickly as she should have. ”Because other than today obviously, they haven’t seemed to be good for much.”