"What do you mean it's declined?"

Emre stood at the front desk, surrounded by the baggage carts he had lugged there from the taxi cab. An assortment of brand name suitcases sat neatly stacked, and in his hand was his leather wallet. The clerk in front of him frowned, and pushed buttons on their screen before sighing.

"I'm sorry sir, but you will have to contact your credit card company to see what's wrong. It happens sometimes, especially when people are traveling. The companies have fraud protection and do their best to stop unauthorized charges. Don't worry, we can keep your things here while you sort out payment arrangements."

Em nodded, taking back his card and flipping it over to check the phone number. He should have known international travel wouldn't be this easy. After pressing a number of buttons into his phone, he was left in a heated argument of the hotel lobby. A few girls giggled behind him. He tried not to feel irritated. French is so cute... one remarked.

Cute, not hot, cute. He wanted to melt into the floor, and pushed his sunglasses down to cover his eyes. Deciding he needed the air, he stepped outside and waited for his bank to get back to him. The hold music was obnoxious.

However, it did not seem like he was the only one having troubles

"Listen, I think you have the wrong person..."

A vendor was standing at their stand, confronting a blond haired woman. The vendor looked angry, and continued where their argument left off. "I saw you take it! Your...your hand went right through the cart, but I saw--"[/color]

"You saw nothing..."

The voice had a sudden authority, and Emre froze, blinking at what he thought was a small bit of green light. Was this girl a mutant? He hadn't had a new power in awhile, and heck, reaching through objects could be fun. Then, the vendor blinked and returned to what he was doing.

"Whoa..."

Mind control? Heck, he needed to try this one!

Emre let his powers reach out and snatch hold of the woman before she got out of reach. His arm felt a little tingly as the copy activated. His skin had a warm sensation as the tattoo there change, and he looked down, blinking at the tiny moon tattoo with a little green wisp glowing between some trees. It was sort of eerie looking, but Emre sort of dug it. He was still staring as his phone clicked back to the bank.

"I'm sorry sir, we reached out to the account holder and this was not a mistake. We were notified this was unauthorized travel and have locked the accounts at their request. If you need to open it, I suggest you talk to them."

Frozen. Accounts. Emre cursed, hung up the phone, and cursed some more. He never thought his parents would go this far. It was just a trip! He was looking for his cousin! Why would they freeze his accounts?!

"Excuse me...but...are you a mutant?"

Emre looked over and a girl was standing next to him. She pointed to his tattoo, and Emre froze before he could lie. Ah, she saw. He nodded instead. The girl gave a little smile, then reached in her pocket. He was surprised when she pulled out a paper and pen and wrote something down.

"If you're having trouble, there is a school in town. They always seem willing to help a mutant in trouble. Maybe head there?"

"Merci beaucoup," Emre said, and took the note. Then he flagged a cab, heading to the new address....new powers locked into his tattoo.

---

It took almost an hour for Emre to collect his things, a cab, and convince someone to take him to the school. This used the last of his cash so he desperately hoped this mansion was all it was cracked up to be. At the front door, the mound of suitcases were dumped inside. Emre slouched against them. Now all he needed was for someone to greet him. That should be simple, right?

Sqwauk!

Emre jumped at the sudden noise and turned to look at a bird now sitting on his tower of suitcases. The bird looked at him, tilting its head to the side as if judging his presence there.

Emre looked at the bird. The bird looked back.

"Hey, you know where to find an adult around here?"

The bird looked away. Emre sighed.

"Hey, how about we trade. I give you some cool powers for the day, you help me find a place to stay?" Emre wasn't sure why he bothered. Maybe it was the jet lag? It seemed as good a plan to bribe the first animal he saw for help.

Even if it was a little suspicious looking...

To his surprise, the bird responded and hopped closer. Was that a yes? Parrots were pretty smart, maybe it actually knew what to do! Without thinking, Emre pasted the new set of powers onto the bird.

Nico was a smart bird. Lizzybeth always said so, but he was smarter than even she knew. She didn’t know he freely wandered the halls of the mansion whenever he wanted. She didn’t know he knew ways in and out of her room. Nico was smart enough to leave no evidence. If people saw him, he even had an alibi. “I’m Elizabeth Sundance,” he would say, mimicking her voice and inflection. Those were good words. Silly humans didn’t chase him when he said them.

Nico was a smart bird. But smart birds got bored. So sometimes they had to entertain themselves.

Nico managed to open Lizzybeth’s window and made his way into the open air of freedom. Cold! Very cold! His feathers ruffled. Too cold! But worth it for a little bit.

He saw something interesting down below. It was a good place to perch. So many nice textures to step off and scratch! He flew down and landed on a leatherbox. He nibbled at the corner. “Sqwuak!” he said with tasty delight.

And there was a human. Just watching. Nico watched back. He cocked his head. And glared. Human looked weak. Very biteable. No threat at all. The humans made words and Nico glanced away. More humans? They snuck up on him?! Oh, no humans. He looked back. Human talking to him? To HIM?!

Suspicious human. Nizo didn’t know all those words, but knew most. Trade was good. Nico liked trading. He got things. Powers? What about them? Nico didn’t feel any different. Lizzybeth had powers but when she talked, he usually felt something. Not with this human. He hopped closer. Weird human.

And Nico started glowing. “Go dtachtfadh an diabhal thú! What you do?” he screeched. Nico used a lot of words there. The fun Irish ones. Better than the stupid Spanish ones Lizzybeth kept trying to teach him.

Nico took off from the leatherbox pile and made a beeline for the main doors to get away from weird human. He reached out with his talons to grab a handle but his feet went through it. And then the rest of him went through it too.

“Rawk?”

Xavier was very busy right about now. With such high ceilings, the many nooks and crannies tended to gather cobwebs like no tomorrow! Especially with Megan about! He was dusting. But how!? The ceilings are so high! Glad you asked, he was FLYING.

Well, technically he was holding himself between two points he'd touched before, but it was technically flying, right? He flittered about his duster in a corner, and sighed in contentment for a job well done as he looked around the game room from his nice vantage point.

His head tilted a bit, however, as he heard a loud squawk. A... bird? Just outside? Well, that wasn't wholly abnormal, but that squawk almost sounded familiar. Moments later he was poking his head out of the window.

"Oh... hey!" There was a person out here! And... Gasp! Were those bags that someone could use help lifting?! Was he going to get to help someone AND make a new friend? It was a good day! "Hello down there! Do you need help? I think security is at lunch!" He paused and started to climb through the window, floating down toward the lawn. "Also, did you hear a bird out here? I'm Xavier, by the way! Nice to meet you!"

He would land softly on his feet on the lawn behind their guest, turning to walk up toward the luggage to start helping him in.

To say a lot happened at once was well, an understatement. The bird glowed, the bird went through a door. The bird talked. Emre blinked and his mouth dropped open, and he tried to remember just what powers he had picked up. Was glowing normal? He thought going through things was part of it, but why the glowing? And what about the words? Why did the bird leave?

Someone approached and Emre stopped himself from going after the bird. "Oh! Hi! Actually, yes, I did need help. But, I think that bird lives here. Oh, this is my stuff." he awkwardly made a gesture between offering a handshake and turning to chase down the bird. Should he check on it? He didn't know what he did to it exactly...

Not cold anymore. Very warm. Good on the feathers. Nico approved. Nico wasn’t sure about the doors though.

Suddenly having to flap harder to maintain lift indoors, Nico glided down to perch on the arm of a chair. He stared back at the door.

It didn’t move.

He stared harder.

Still nothing happened.

“Huh,” he said. Weird door. He didn’t remember it doing that before. Lizzybeth always pulled or pushed it open, never just went through it. No more glowing, either.

Nico extended a wing and peered at it, his glorious feathers so flashy to his tetrachromatic eyes. But no green/white glow. He shook his head and scratched his head with a foot. Weird glow. What that human DO?! Make him glow like….that!

The glow was back! And Nico began sinking through the chair.

“Awwwk!” he shrieked and began beating his wings (which partially went through the chair as well) until he was able to flutter away. Weird chair too! He circled around the room to find a better roost and settled on the bust of some human near the archway that led from the entrance room to other parts of the mansion. From here he could see the weird chair and door.

He checked himself over. Glow was gone. He nibbled at some feathers just in case. Nope. All good. Whew. He stared at the chair. It didn’t look weird. But neither did the door. Only thing looking weird was awful glow. Which wasn’t there. Good.

But Nico was going to glare at the door and chair just in case they made him glow again.

Xavier had, of course, missed all of the business with the bird, who had flown through the door before he'd jumped from the window. He'd heard one, though.

Was he talking about which ever bird had made that sound? Well, that would make sense. Oh! A first handshake! One could never understate the importance of the first handshake one made with a new friend. It could tell you volumes about them.

Were they comitted, or nonchalant? Tense, or loose? Did they work hard and have calouses, or were their hands delecate like an artist, or a surgeon? Did the hand shake vibe? That was the most important part. A good old fashioned handshake could reverberate through space and time to affect the future of all mankind!

So he reached out to take the hand, but then it started drifting to the side, and then he was walking after the bird. Xavier's hand lingered for a moment before he wibbled it awkwardly and let it fall to his side before grabbing a bag and following after. He would... just have to shake his hand later, right?

"Is... Everything okay? Did the bird you were talking about fly off?" He looked around. No bird out here. He was headed toward the door, though. That didn't seem right, in order for the bird to be that way, it would have to be able to fly through walls or something.

He shrugged and moved to open up to the door for his new friend... Who... Oh god. He never got his name. He didn't know his new friend's name. Had he said it at some point, and Xavier had missed it? Or forgotten?! Oh jesus, was he a horrible friend?! Wait, he could still salvage this! He would find out his name during registration, and memorize it! Forever! Because they were going to be such great friends!

These were the thoughts going through his head as he opened the front door, and paused as he saw... "Miss S! Oh, hey! I have a new resident, here!" And he totally knew his name!

Emre was distracted, which was probably how he missed the new arrival disappearing. Maybe he went to get help from staff? Maybe he was staff? All Emre knew was his bags vanished, the boy vanished, and he was wandering down a hallway alone.

Was he alone? Was that the sound of the bird? How big was this school anyway? Should he even be allowed to wander the halls on his own?

"Hello?" he thought he heard an answer. He found himself on a kitchen. There were no bags, no stranger, just himself lost and now hoping he wasn't imagining the sound of a distant hello of a bird answering.