It was seven o’clock at night and the sun was now setting. Sam walked out of the ‘pizza palace’ that was a mile or so into the city from the mansion. Frowning Sam fumbled with his keys as it started to drizzle which didn’t bother Sam but with all the boxes of pizza he had his time was short before the boxes would get all gross and soggy.

“HAH!” Sam mused as he got the car door unlocked as he was bracing the 25 boxes of large pizza with one hand and his knees. ‘Won’t rain on my parade today’ thought Sam as he got the pizza’s into his white Pontiac G6. Sam muttered as he got to the drivers side and got in the car, “Can’t believe o got the short straw, next time Streak or Seraph can get it, they can fly said Sam a little upset that he had to come all the way to get the pizza.

Sam was complaing but he didn’t really mind having to go a little over a mile to get the pizza, wasn’t that far and lately he had been looking for an excuse to have some time for himself. The mansion might have been big but there was never a vacant room at the mansion.

After pulling out of his parking spot Sam began to drive back to the mansion smiling while the smell of ‘New York’s Finest’ was in his car. Coming up to a light Sam pressed the break down as he noticed a man running out in the middle of the street screaming.

Sam being Sam rolled the window down and asked, “What’s Wrong?” the man who was screaming signaled Sam into the alley and then ran in urging Sam to follow.

Hesitating Sam turned his right blinker on and pulled into an ally and hit the emergency lights and then got out of the car. “Hello?” Sam asked as he looked into the dark alley, “Everything okay?” Sam asked as he locked his car and put the keys in the pocket as the lights were still blinking.

“Help…”came a voice from behind a large dumpster. It was the voice of a panicked and injured sounding man.

“What’s wrong?” Sam asked as he walked around to the other side of the dumpster to see what was wrong. But to Sam’s surprise there was a man there but he wasn’t ijured in fact he was carrying a large chain with him. “Really?” Sam asked to the guy as his eyes shot to his left and right as a dozen so or more popped out from behind boxes and garbage cans as a few more jumped down from some fire escapes, “Give us the keys to your car, and your wallet and you won't get hurt.”

Sam frowned and didn’t move, ‘why the hell does this always happen to me?’ Sam asked to himself as he remained still waiting for one of the thugs to make the first move.

A different client, a different job, but still Ash was stuck going to New York City. But at least this time, Ash wasn't stuck following someone around, especially not a woman whose husband suspected her of cheating who did almost nothing but shop while in the city. Well, almost nothing but shop and go to his brother's shop...

This was a much better trip, at least, and hopefully with having to deal with Tarin over Christmas, Ash wouldn't have to see him again for a while. This trip was simply information gathering for a different client, and trying to get a hold of a couple people who seemed rather reluctant to be gotten a hold of.

But that left Ash to his own devices that night, which, as had been the case many nights since his college days, meant The Shadow.

It really wasn't a very hard costume, black pants, black shirt, boots. Really, it was the hat, mask, and cape that made the thing, but with a bit of hunting around, and a bit of sewing on his part (not that he'd actually admit to that), it had been rather easy.

Which meant that as the sun went down, Ash found himself prowling the streets looking for criminals. Back home in Dallas, Ash hadn't exactly had trouble finding his targets. Here in New York, it was even easier. Sure, there were more people who could potentially see him, but he had over ten years of experience now, and as long as he stayed in the cover of his shadows, in the alleys and side streets...most people tended not to look into the darkness of shadows.

Which is exactly where he found it; hearing the sound of yelling, Ash found himself in what should have been a nice, dark alley. Instead, he found a car at the far end, shining light onto what had to be a dozen figures. Most of whom were converging on one standing between the car and a dumpster.

“Give us the keys to your car, and your wallet and you won't get hurt.”

Yup, this was definitely what Ash had been looking for. Unfortunately, there were more of them than he would have liked to be dealing with, but he'd done so before in his life.

Moving forward slowly, carefully, quietly, Ash started forming his shadow people around the figures ahead of him. The lights coming from the car would pose a problem, Ash knew, since he couldn't get his shadow people anywhere close to those actually standing in the light, but at the same time it did help show him what was going on. Such as see that one man, over by the dumpster and most definitely in the shadows, was holding a chain, which glinted is the reflected light.

Ash had his first target, and two of his shadow people moved forward, grabbing the man, one removing the chain from his grip before the other tripped the man from behind, knocking him to the ground.

A slight smirk on his face, Ash stood back in the shadows, his eyes quickly and constantly scanning the scene in front of him, as he started to make his decisions of what he'd do next, what his shadow people would do next.

Looking around at all his new friends Sam was slightly surprised when he saw one of them get attacked by something he couldn’t really see in the shadows of the dumpster. ‘Defiantly have to thank whoever did that’ thought Sam as he looked at his next closest opponent.

Noticing the next close one to him Sam just lifted his hand and shot an ice beam out like a shotgun as it splattered around a man with a knife and pinned him to the wall so he couldn’t move. “You guys really want to do this?” Sam asked curiously, as he looked at the next closest one. “If you hadn’t noticed I am not the only one here…”

Sam didn’t know where the help had come from but he didn’t complain anyone who helped him cleaned up the trash in his city was a friend of Sam’s.

Lowering the air temperature around him ice formed over the areas that weren’t clothed. Sam now had his ice armor up and made it as scary as possible hoping that they would get the hint and run away. “You have any idea who I am?” Sam asked curiously, “I’m the one the papers are all talking about, the mutant that helps the police.”

Hoping that this would scare off the thugs Sam exhaled as his breath could be seen, which was followed by a loud sigh as he noticed that Sam shouldn’t had said anything.

“You're the icy wonder? One of the men said. “Shoot we take care of you our rep will go up…” another said, “Let’s get’em boys!” came another voice.

Though Ash was paying at least a bit of attention to everyone he saw in that alleyway, he was paying more attention to the men who seemed to be attacking the one between the car and dumpster.

At least Ash was paying more attention to the attackers until he saw the intended victim apparently shoot ice, which not only knocked one of the attackers against the nearby wall, but also froze him there for the time being.

What the hell?

This guy was a mutant, another mutant. Ash had met other mutants before, that fact was almost unavoidable he knew. Even his own younger brother was a mutant too. Hopefully this encounter would turn out better than his previous three encounters with mutants in this city, one of which being his own younger brother.

And then the man, previously the intended victim, pointed out the fact to his attackers that he wasn't the only one there they should be concerned about. He'd noticed what the two shadow people had done.

Of course the guy noticed. This wasn't some guy terrified about what was about to happen, this guy knew what he was doing, at least in terms of protecting himself. Still, Ash couldn't even think about leaving, there were far too many against the one guy for him to even consider that.

Ash would have thought that that ice display would have turned the attackers off; back in Dallas, his own shadow people had a tendency of doing that most of the time. Ash didn't know if it was the city in general that didn't seem to make sense to him, or if it was just this particular group of thugs coming up against this particular man, but it appeared they thought continuing their assault was a great idea.

It was time to act.

Taking a couple of slow steps forward, Ash focused on his shadow people. Only five of them tonight. Not as many as he was capable of, but with this many people around, he couldn't spare his entire concentration, he had to pay attention to what else was around him. Plus, not all the attackers were actually in the shadows, and so it was no help.

Corporeal shadow hands reaching out, grabbing for weapons, pulling them from grips. Shadowy hands and arms snapping out, hitting, punching, knocking the attackers into each other. Yes, there were more there than Ash would have normally been able to deal with on his own, but it looked like the person he had come to 'help' would be able to help with that.

Sam knew there was someone else out there in the shadows or that someone was the shadow himself or herself, either way Sam wasn’t to surprise when the shadows started their assault. ‘Thanks again’ Sam thought to the shadowed person as he watched as most of his attackers were taken out quickly and efficiently.

Laughing as the numbers of the thugs dwindled Sam said, “Right, guess I’ll take these ones…” Sam pointed to the group that were closest to his car which had a glow about them that flashed on and off thanks to his car’s flashing panic lights. ‘Makes sense though’ thought Sam ‘Shadows and lights don’t mix to well I guess’.

Sam lowered the temperature around himself making his ice powers easier to control at a distance. The alley had an icy cool chill about it now. Smiling Sa waved his hands in their direction as an ice wall formed behind them. In seconds the wall was formed behind them all Sam had to do was push them into it and they would be stuck like flies on a spider web.

Running and shoving his way threw the thugs that swung their chains, crowbars and bats all hit but didn’t have the right power behind them for the ice armor that was around Sam was bullet proof. Three shoves was all it took for the men to get pushed back far enough for them to be stuck to the wall of ice. Sam’s power controlled the ice so it would melt slightly then freezes around them.

‘Think that’s most if not all of them…’ thought Sam as he looked around to see what else was happening.

Ash felt the already chilly temperature of the air around him cool even further after the other man, the much younger man, it appeared, said that he'd take the guys closer to the car. For a moment Ash was confused, if anything he would have expected to start feeling warmer as he focused on his shadow people attacking; it wasn't exactly exertion on his part, not the same as if he was actually attacking the men physically himself, but the concentration and focus to direct the five shadow people did take something out of him.

And then Ash remembered; the ice that other guy had shot out. With that, it really did only make sense that the alleyway grew noticeably colder all of a sudden.

But Ash had more important things to focus his attention on, at least the main portion of his attention. Namely those men still standing in the shadows who still thought it wise to fight.

It really didn't take much longer. The smarter men, those who realized they really didn't stand a chance there, especially against shadows that hadn't been effected at all yet by their chains and crowbars, ran. Those who weren't so smart stayed, only to end up being knocked out as they were thrown to the ground again, or thrown into a wall.

And that seemed to be that. Looking around the alley, Ash saw that the only people still appearing conscious were him, the man who had been shooting the ice, and a couple of the attackers who were now stuck to a wall of ice.

That went well, Ash thought to himself as he walked forward slowly. Everything seemed to be finished, and he let his shadow people start to fade away, drawing back deeper into the shadows and becoming much less corporeal, but still there, just in case. Much better than I thought it would.

Coming to a stop just before he walked out into the glaring lights from the car, his cape swirling around his legs as his forward momentum stopped. “That looks to be all of them,” Ash said, still standing in the shadows as he looked over to the man by the car. He was at a bit of a loss, though. The people he came to rescue didn't normally help him fight like this...

Pulling out his phone Sam dialed the number to one of the detectives he had met several times before, “It’s Frost…” Sam hated the name they and the stupid tabloids had given him ’Jack Frost’ the thought made his eyes slant towards the crook that was plastered to the wall, “Got another one for you, 6th and main the alley way, you’ll see him, think he is with the car jackers you been looking for…’ Pausing to let the detective speak Sam frowned to the shadowed direction, “Sorry, got a delivery to make, last thing I want to do is go back and get more pizza…”

Walking over to the man plastered in ice to the wall Sam let out a small laugh, “I need you to chill for a second,“ Sam loved the puns, “one of my friends is coming to pick you up so just… well sit tight he should be here soon.”

Walking over to Sam’s car he unlocked it and turned off the hazard lights hoping to bring the shadowed helper to come out of hiding. Walking back to where he was before near the man stuck to the wall Sam waited a second before he spoke.

Sam looked around to the voice and said, “I’d thank you but… can’t really see you…” said Sam as he looked around to see where the voice was coming from, “Name’s Sam!” Sam called out to the general direction he thought the voice was coming from. Almost sure that the ‘friend’ of his was a man Sam said, “What’s you Name man?”

The next thing that Ash knew, the man who had been shooting the ice had a cell phone to his ear, calling himself Frost and saying that he had 'another one'. Ash frowned, not that it would be all that visible in the dark where he was standing, and started pulling his shadow people closer to him again, making them more corporeal. Another what, he wondered, but had that question answered just a moment later when Frost said he thought they were part of a car jacking operation.

And that, pretty much, was that. Frost's phone was away shortly thereafter, and he was walking toward the men he had frozen against a wall. Telling them to hold on, that someone was coming.

Ash could only assume that meant the police. At least he chose to believe that meant the police. If that was the case, he was free to leave; these men had been stopped, and the police would take care of them from here.

Which also meant that Ash should be getting out of there. Vigilantes were rarely looked favourably upon by the cops, even if they did help, even if they did bring down crime and stop criminals.

Ash was just turning to leave when he noticed that the flashing lights from the car had been shut off, and heard a voice a moment later. "No thanks necessary," Ash called back, his accent slipping out more and more as he spoke. It wasn't something he normally had to think about, since normally he was in Dallas when he was out like this. Ash had stopped though, no longer retreating, but not making his way into the light, either.

Apparently, this guy wanted to know his name, too. And while he might be comfortable sharing his actual name, if Sam was his actual name, rather than just calling himself 'Frost' out here, Ash most certainly was not. There was a reason he had this name, a reason he wore the mask.

"The Shadow," Ash said to introduce himself, not that it would really mean anything to Sam, or to the men still frozen there waiting for the cops. New York was a long way from Dallas, after all. "That's quite the talent you've got for a delivery boy, though."

Smiling over to the darkened alley Sam smiled and asked “The Shadow huh?” Sam tried not to laugh for ‘The Shadow’ sounded like a vigilante from an old 70’s television series, but he wasn’t one to talk he was doing the same thing basically he even had a cheesy name that was given to him by the papers and police, ‘Jack Frost’ it was a lame name but Sam didn’t really feel like dishing out his code name to others less someone tracks him down.

Sure not all the police officers were grateful for what he did, but he still helped none the less, the ones that were grateful often verbalized it to him after he saved their life, hell even one of the head detectives often asked for his help more than once, it might have been the fact that he could become almost completely bulletproof at will not to mention he could easily seal off a escape or the fact that he can create ice golems.

Either way he had proved his worth to the police once or twice. It didn’t help much when the news made Sam out to be a criminal from time to time but he didn’t really care what they had to say, they were just doing their job just like he was doing his.

Sam blinked at his title for him “delivery boy…” Sam slapped his head laughing as he remembered what he told the detective on the other line, “right not really a delivery boy actually said that cause I have a good amount of pizza in my car, been charged with the delivery fro the night, actually a teacher.” Thinking to himself Sam asked, ”You gave me a hand least I could do is offer you some pizza, but if you want some we got to grab it at the mansion cause there are gonna be some angry kids if they don’t get their pizza soon.”

Ash blinked at Sam and took a couple of slow steps forward when he said that he was a teacher, not a delivery boy. Not that the Registration Act had been as quite as severe in Dallas as it had appeared in New York, but it really hadn't been that long since it had been revoked. Not even a year. And while it was no longer 'illegal' to be a mutant, that didn't mean that the population had all of a sudden grown welcoming. Sam wasn't exactly an obvious mutant, but he sure didn't seem to hide the fact, either.

"What kind of school would actually let you teach, kid?" Ash asked, though he decided to go a different route than his thoughts had been going. "You look rather young to me."

A good thing that Ash had asked, since now Sam was going on to offer him some of the pizza he was apparently delivering, though the offer was only good if Ash went with him to some sort of mansion. Come on, really? First Sam expects him to believe he's a teacher, despite not only the fact of how young he looks, but also the fact that he has no qualms about using his powers in public and associating his real identity with it, but then makes mention of delivering the pizzas to said students at a mansion?

"Appreciate the offer," Ash ended up saying. "But as I said, no thanks necessary. Besides, I doubt I'm dressed properly for any kind of mansion."

Sam just smiled as Shadow’s disbelief, “Only 19but I am very skilled at what I teach other wise I wouldn’t have accepted the post,” Sam looked in the shadows as he continued to smile, “Self Defense” said Sam as he looked at the guy stuck to the wall, “Even without your help and my ice mutations they would have lasted fifteen minutes at most. Also a lot more would be around here than this fella here.” Said Sam as he pointed to the guy stuck to the wall.

Martial Arts was something Sam was confident with as well he should be fourteen years training missions day in day out no rest, if he was bad at it he wouldn’t be around today. He had to excel kill or be killed that was one of the teachers said to him when he was learning kung fu. A quote he remembers all to well even when he tries to forget it.

Laughing now Sam looked in the shadows, ”This ain’t a fancy dress mansion far from it, you ever hear of the Xavier Sister School?” Sam asked curiously as he let a small grin show, greeting was another thing he was good at and that's what he was doing now, “It’s a school for mutants, our kind. It also is there to help mutants who need it.” He walked back to his car and said, “Think you might like to see how things look at the top of the hill.” He paused for a second and added, “Promise you won’t be disappointed!”

Ash blinked as the man spoke. Make that the kid in front of him. Ash had figured out that he was young, but hadn't thought that Sam was that young. Nineteen, and a teacher?

He also seemed to be rather sure of himself, much more than Ash had been anywhere close to his age. Thinking that all those men would have lasted, at most, 15 minutes even without his help and without powers was quite the claim.

”This ain’t a fancy dress mansion far from it, you ever hear of the Xavier Sister School?”

Xavier's Sister School? "No, can't say I have," Ash said slowly. He wasn't from New York, after all, just there on business and had decided to put The Shadow to work here, too.

Sam went on to explain what the school was about, and Ash cocked his head as he regarded the younger man. A school that was actually for mutants, to help mutants? That was certainly an interesting concept, and Ash couldn't help but think that something like that could be useful. He'd been able to figure things out on his own, but other mutants weren't able to hide their powers in the dark like him.

Taking a quick glance at the car Sam was now walking toward, Ash unconsciously shrugged his shoulder. What could it hurt? No one really knew him here in New York, no one other than his brother of course, but Ash was fairly sure since he hadn't heard the name before that it'd be safe to go there.

"I didn't have anything else planned for the night," Ash ended up saying as he finally walked forward, into the light for the first time so that his full ensemble was visible, hat, cape, mask and all. "Let's see what this 'mansion' of yours has to offer."

Snorting a little at the sight of the ‘Shadow’ Sam smiled and said, “nice cape” going back to his car Sam muttered to himself and said, “I need a cape” from there Sam turned his car on and waited till ‘Shadow’ was in his car which smelt like a pizzeria before he drove off to the mansion.

On the way Sam spotted a few police squads shooting down the street to turn down the alley where they came from. Sam looked over to ‘Shadow’ and said, “well good thing we got out of there huh?” turning down a side street and headed up a hill. From there Sam turned down a drive and clicked a button that was attached to his sun visor.

Off in the distance the gate opened up and once they sped past it it shut behind them. From there Sam pulled in the driveway and popped the trunk where all the pizza was residing, ”mind helping me carry a few of these, I would use my golems but I don’t want to ruin the boxes…” Sam picked up half of the pizzas and walked inside the house yelling, “PIZZAS HERE!!!”