(OOC: Ok, I am posting this a bit out of order. Kat's mom being at the mansion will be explained soon- like tomorrow. I apologize in advance for any confusion that I may cause.)

Katrina sat under the crab apple tree on the front gate of the mansion. She had only just escaped from her mother by claiming that she was a little hungry. Claire had perked up right away when she heard that and had dragged Katrina straight to the kitchen. She was happy to have any excuse to do something to take care of her daughter, even if it meant trying to remember long lost cooking skills that had laid dormant in the years since the family had hired a butler to look after things.

“I might as well cook dinner for everyone,” her mother had reasoned. Katrina, unfamiliar with her mother's culinary skills, had been a bit unsure about that, but hadn't said anything. Her mother had continued, “It will probably take awhile, so you should have an apple while you wait. It will tide you over until supper and will give you one of your five fruits and vegetables for the day!” Katrina had taken the apple, made excuses about needing some sunshine, and fled outside.

Katrina was glad to have her back, but all the mothering she had been receiving had become more like smothering. She had gotten used to being independent and it was strange to go back to having someone take care of her, whether she wanted to be taken care of or not.

While she knew she should probably do something useful to help with the massive reconstruction that was underway, for the moment it was nice to just sit quietly under the tree eating her apple and watching the hustle and bustle between the front gate and the front door.

"Where am I, what am I doing here?" Specter scratched his head as he looked up over the gate at the building that was being reconstructed. This was the third time he had walked around the same block, and each time he did he felt the same uncontrolable urge to use the front buzzer. Once again he pulled out his wallet hoping to find some clue as to what was going on even though he knew one wasn't there. There was his passport ID with his picture and the name Marcus Ravenous, Russian, age 17. That must be who he was, but Specter just couldn't remeber. There was also a few hundred dollars of assorted US currency. Other wise the wallet was empty. No clues to be found there. As he returned his wallet Specter agian looked up at the building. What was it about this place that kept drawing him here? Well only one way to find out. Specter walked up closer to the gate looking for any sort of name plate. Something to help him learn what this place was, but just like his wallet there was nothing there. That only left one finally option. If Specter wanted to learn anything anything at all he would have to use the intercom. "Um.... Hello? Hello; my name is Marcus Ravenous. I think I might have some bussiness here."

Katrina noticed an interesting looking character approaching the front gate. He wore a long leather looking trench coat that was all black and had very punk looking silver chains draped from it. His hair was either dyed white or was naturally that pale. Katrina couldn't help but think he looked a lot like Sephiroth. This guy was either a mutant or a terribly confused and lost cosplayer- who apparently had some business at a mutant school. His outfit didn't look very business like, but perhaps he was in a different kind of business- like ghost busting. Katrina saw his check his wallet, apparently checking an address or something, then heard him call out his name and business. Glancing around, it seemed like everyone else was pretty busy. Would her mother approve of her letting strange looking strangers in the front gate? Probably not. So that's what she would do.

Katrina picked herself up and wandered up the the gate, still crunching on her half eaten apple. She stood on the inside of the gate and addressed the man outside of it. “Are you the key master?” she asked in all seriousness, tilting her head.

Specter watched as a little girl walked up to the front gate. Maybe she was the daughter of whoever owned this place. No for some reason that just didn't seem right, but still who was she? Looking past the girl for a moment Specter got a better view of the Mansion. The placed looked like it was in the middle of repairs after being hit with a bomb. By now the girl had reached the gate, and seemed to be adressing Specter. Key master? What in the world was a key master? Maybe she was expecting a lock smith or something to help with the repairs. Anyway Specter didn't think he knew anything about locks, nor was he carrying any equpment with him. "Neight, sorry miss I not believe I am man you wait for. Are parents around? I maybe need speak with someone in charge." Well great go looking for answers and end up finding a kid. What was going on here? If Specter could just remeber something, anything. Lossing his temper Specter acted before he though punch out at the brick wall beside him. "Oh, apologies miss. I have.... have.... it has been long day."

The man failed the Have-you-ever-seen-the-movie-Ghost-Busters-test. He did throw an impressive punch at the brick wall though, and was as polite about it as one possibly could be about punching someone else's brick wall. It didn't seem like he hurt himself too badly, or the wall. He might need to be signed up for anger management classes. The accent reminded her of someone else she knew, but she couldn't put her finger on where it was from. She liked accents, even if they were a little harder to understand. Katrina's assessment: the man seemed somewhat dangerous, but most definitely cool and was thereby worthy of being let inside. Katrina's mother would not approve, Katrina half hoped she was looking out the window as she slid open the bolt on the gate to let the mysterious foreign man with anger management issues onto the grounds of the school.

“You probably will be wanting to talk to Neena,” Katrina informed him. “I don't know where she is right now, but I'll help you find her. She's got to be around somewhere helping with the reconstruction. I'm Katrina, by the way.” She took another bite from her apple as she waited for the man to enter before closing the gate again.

Specter walked pasted the gate and the girl quickly glazing over his surroundings. He couldn't put his finger on it, but Specter could tell that there was something different about this place. It wasn't just some rich mans home. No there was more here than a normal persons eye was meant to see. Though he didn't understand why Specter was about to detect some very well hidden defenses around the place. Every step he took seemed to just add more questions, and he still didn't have one single answer to any of them. The girl had mentioned trying to find somebody else. Neena, who could that be? This girl didn't seem the type to call a parent by their first name. Maybe a sybling then. Specter just didn't know, and he couldn't find out unless he asked "Neena is sister? I'm sorry I do not know what goes on. What is this place? Why is such mess? I do not understand."

Katrina let the gate shut again, and followed behind the chain-clad mystery man. When he asked about Neena, though, she stopped short, the half eaten apple in her hand, momentarily forgotten, hung down by her side. This businessman was certainly odd, and he seemed to be completely clueless about where he was. Indeed, this was a strange business.

“Neena isn't my sister- she's a teacher. This is a school. Everyone here is either a student or a teacher, mostly. The school helps mutants learn about their powers, I think. I haven't been to any classes yet. It only just reopened, because it was raided and a lot of the mutants here were taken away to the Camps. We're working on fixing it again. There are lots of repairs to be done.”

She looked at him quizzically, her head once again tilted at an angle her eyes narrowed just a little bit. “What kind of business do you have here anyway? Where are you from, Mr. Ravenous?”

A school for mutants? Well that was one answer out of the way. Specter didn't know how, but he did know what a mutant was. He was one himself. Even now he could feel the power of his ecto energy flowing through his body. Of course he didn't have a clue what this energy really was, where it came from or even why he called it ecto energy, but he did know that he could use and cotrol it with the help of his other ability. Specter had limited telekintecs which helped him control his ecto blast as well as allow him to levetate. He was also able to use his telekintecs to move regual objects as long as they weighed less the 100 lbs. So he was a mutant, and this was a school for mutants. Did this mean he was a student here? Some how this felt both right and wrong at the same time. To begian with if he was a student then why didn't this girl already know him. Also he knew about his powers, knew how to control them, but still it was the only thing that made sense. Maybe why the girl didn't know who he was was because he hadn't started attending yet. After all she did say that the school had just reopened. "I think I maybe student? Are all mutants? Are you?"

Katrina started walking again, leading Mr. Ravenous around the side of the mansion toward the gardens and the swimming pool. She had seen Neena over there earlier, she thought, but that could have been the day before. The cool-teacher lady with the sense of humor and sunglasses was always busy it seemed, running here and there and greeting new residents to the mansion and finding them rooms. To Katrina, Ms. Nightowl seemed like the perfect woman to be in charge of the school. Out of all the people there, she seemed to be the most organized and the most respected.

“Yes, I am a student too,” Katrina responded to Mr. Ravenous' question, “although, I don't think we'll be in any of the same classes, since you're so much older than me.”

She took a moment to consider his second question before answering, “I think everyone here is a mutant. At least, I don't know of any humans that live here.”

Why that was the case, Katrina wasn't sure. It seemed like schools were segregated between mutant and human schools, once you were found out as a mutant, you were no longer welcome at a human school. And humans wouldn't think of coming to a mutant school. It sort of seemed like the school systems trained mutants and humans to live in separate worlds. Maybe if there was a school for mutants and humans together, they would learn to get along better with others who were different. Maybe it would help them learn that mutants and humans aren't so different after all. Even if mutants and humans are different species, they are both people and they both have to share the world with each other.

“So, where did you say you were from?” Katrina grinned up at him apologetically; either she hadn't been listening when he answered, or he had forgotten to say. Either way, Katrina wanted to know where his cool accent was from, because it sounded so familiar.

Specter took in everything around him as he walked along beside Katrina not really paying attention to what she was saying. His mind was still a jumbled mess as he tried to think of anything at all that had happened to him before he arrived here. It was just no uses though anything before coming to the mansion was just a complete blank. It was almost as if somebody had built a wall around his mind, and even he wasn't allowed in. He vagely heard her say something about there not being any humans at this school. Well maybe that was for the best after all he knew that if he didn't have the control over his powers that he did they could be very dangerous. Besides if mutants where only put up agenst their equals or betters it would give them more reason to push themselves harder to become better. Atlest that's the way Specter saw things. To him nothing was more important than building his own power. Nothing that was except finding out who he was. When asked where he came from Specter was so lost in thought that it took him a moment to answer. "Apologizes, I am Russian I do not know how to answer better." This was true his passport hadn't even mentioned where Specter had come from other than that. Now that he thought about it this was very odd, but what could he do about it.

Neena didn't hear anyone approach for the simple reason that she was sound asleep. She'd spent the previous few nights awake from dusk to dawn, then dawn to dusk again, and it had finally caught up with her.

She wasn't much of a gardener, but the gardens were a peaceful place to simply spend free time. Plus the sun shone its full warmth on this patch of the estate, warmth that she reveled in. So once the most recent batch of filing had been finished, repairs reported and logged, and a minor mutation-related kitchen fire dealt with, she had left the other teachers to handle things and retreated to the outdoors.

Finding a set of hedges large enough to give partial shade, she had curled up on the grass, arms under her head and baseball cap covering her face, and dozed off. The shrubery hid most of her body from sight, except for her long legs. Soft snoring sounds drifted up from behind the greenery.

Katrina made her way through the garden towards the pool area. Some parts of the garden had been worked on recently. The weeds were gradually being eliminated (poor dandelions, they were just as pretty as daisies in Katrina's opinion, but so unloved) and the bushes were being tamed by hedge trimmers. Some parts of the garden, however, still seemed rather wild. Ferns ran rampant in the pathways and lilacs sent runners into flower beds. Dandelions cuddled up next to daffodils and Katrina nodded to them as she stepped over some broken bricks that lay in her path.

Katrina thought the garden looked a lot like a jungle, and rather liked it that way. To a newly turned 13-year-old, it was magical. One never knew whether there would be lions, tigers, or bears sleeping in the bushes, (tigers being the most likely, of course). Katrina was busy imagining that she and Mr. Ravenous were in the African jungle, making their way stealthily through the brush, trying to escape their pursuers and deliver an important message to Commander Nightowl. This mission must not fail, for if they did not deliver their message in time Russia might decide to attack China and start WWIII. Mr. Ravenous was the only one who could convince the rest of the Russian military not to attack and Katrina was the only one who knew where the Russian base was located.

Any minute now they would stumble upon their destination. “Right this way, Mr. Ravenous,” she whispered to the white haired Russian as she held aside a fern frond to clear his pathway.

Specter followed quitely by Kat's side as they made their way through the more overgrown part of the garden. Apperently with all the repairs going on with the rest of the mansion this area had fallen into negelct. Presonally he found he didn't care for gardens such as this. Plants where only as good as the benifets they could provide be it cooking, medican, or oxygen. The concept of beauty seemed pointless to him. Though to be honest this was the way he thought about all things including other people. It was your skills that made you what you where not your looks. Of course this didn't mean he would fault somebody for using their looks as a skill. Use every advantage that you have. Specter and Kat then rounded a corner and suddenly ran into a woman sleeping under some shade. Specter could tell that this had been the first time she had gotten any peace for some time as the effects of the rest had not yet taken their toll on the bags under her eyes. "I believe we may wish to find 'nother way. I would not feel right desturbing her slumber." Specter then turned to head back the way they had come.

Katrina was still caught up in her reverie when they came upon the sleeping figure half hidden by bushes; she totally missed the brown legs stretching across their pathway dappled with broken patches of sunlight and shade in a camouflage pattern and was didn't catch what Mr. Ravenous said, because she was busy sidestepping as he abruptly turned around.

“Wha...? Wo-aaahh!” Already slightly off balance and filled with the grace of a quickly growing adolescent still unused to the size of her own feet, she sidestepped right into the brown legs and tripped. Apple cores went flying and were forever lost in the shrubberies.

"Mmmnah. Huh? Wha?" Neena snorted and sat upright as she felt something fall on her. "Whosat?"

She blinked several times to clear her vision, which had scrambled again in her sleep. For a moment all she could see were patches of orange, red and purple, on a background of green, zoomed in really, really close. She rubbed her eyes and blinked some more.

"Say wha, now?" A huge yawn pulled at her throat. Finally her left eye settled down enough for her to see where she was clearly.

"Katrina? What're you doing out here, kiddo? You and Tigger playing hide and seek?"

Her right eye clicked back to normal, and Figure Number Two registered in her brain. She squinted up at him in the light.

"You're not Tigga-ah!" A second yawn cut off her statement. She reached up to scratch her head, and pulled out a few stray leaves.