The Church of Humanity had small chapels spread all across New York City but they were most well known for the large central location that fed information to all of its smaller satelite churches. At the actual 'Church of Humanity', confessions could be made, blood could be tested, lawyers and activists could be recruited, as well as so many things that actually took place in the shadows. Jacen King had heard of the church, though he had never attended one of their services. Being associated with such a bigoted organization had always seem like the wrong choice but yet somehow he now found himself parked down the block from the very church he had always sworn to avoid.

Leaving his wallet locked security in his truck, Jacen slowly walked toward the large double doors that marked the entrance to the church. A decent sized wad of cash resided in his pocket to pay for whatever fees were necessary but he refused to carry identification into the building. If the blood test came back like he expect it to, he didn't want anyone here to know exactly who he was. Taking a deep breath he pushed through the doors and walked toward the desk that sat inside. At the table a very friendly looking woman smiled at latest arrival, never once giving the impression that she was a person that looked down upon those that her evolved from her species.

"Can I help you, sir?"

"Uh... I... I need to see about having a blood test done." Jacen admitted after a moments hesitation. For a brief second, the woman's expression didn't change and then suddenly it became extremely serious. Pointing to a door to her right she began to snap out orders like some sort of drill sergeant.

"Through there. Fill out the paper work on one of the clipboards you'll find inside and then wait. A nurse will come in to get you and then draw enough blood to run the tests. Get a move on."

Walking inside, Jacen could almost feel the beads of sweat as they began to push their way up through his pores, wanting to pop out on the surface just to prove how nervous he was. After taking a seat, Jacen went through the process of filling out the paper as requested. Thankfully they didn't require you to leave any type of name or phone number but they did ask for age, weight, height, eye color, hair color, whether any diseases ran in the family, and whether any mutants ran in the gene pool. Apparently someone was watching him because the moment he filled in the last question, a male nurse clade in dark green scrubs walked into the room.

"Come with me sir."

After handing over his clipboard of information to the nurse, Jacen followed him back into the examination rooms. They bypassed a bunch of doors and finally walked through one that had a cartoony drawing of a vampire on its door.

"Hey sugah." The raven haired woman said with a grin as she chewed away at some gum, occasionally popping it in her teeth, "I'm the one that collects blood so the call me the vampire lady. Fits huh."

"Um... yeah... I guess." Jacen replied slowly as he took a seat and eyes the woman carefully. Last time he had checked most nurses didn't chew gum on the job much less pop it because they were worried about spreading germs to their patients. What kind of nurse was this?

"Right arm please."

In a relatively short time the female nurse had a heavy duty rubber band around his arm to slow the blood flow and then began feeling for veins. Using a needle that looked much to large for this particular job, she pierced his arm and then began to fill vials. After filling six small vial she removed the needle and then pushed a piece of gauze over the wound.

"Keep pressure and hold your arm up over your head for about two minutes." She said pleasantly as she took the vials and handed them directly to the male nurse that had never left the room. The male nurse left immediately and the young woman turned back to paperwork for a few minutes. After the alotted time had apparently passed, she turned back around and carefully bandaged his arm before sending him back out to the waiting room to await his test results.

"Shouldn't take to long... we have a DNA processor here on site."

The waiting room was vacant since there was no secret about what the Church of Humanity did here. Unless someone felt the need to be checked for an X-Gene there was absolutely no reason to be here. Jacen could feel his heart racing as he tried to look bored while flipping through a month old Sport Illustrated. He might have been more entertained by the current swimsuit issue but someone had gone through with markers and drawn clothes onto each one of the models in order to give them a decency more befitting a church.

"Sir?"

Glancing up, Jacen saw the same male nurse as before glancing around the room as though looking for someone. Why did he even bother to pretend? Both men knew that Jacen was the only one here. Was he just trying to make him comfortable or something?

"Yes?" He spoke as he laid the magazine down and then stood, walking over to the nurse with a gait that was slightly less confident than normal, "Did you get the results?"

"Yes sir. The nurse drew enough samples for us to run your blood through five times just to be sure. After all, we don't want anyone to come in an somehow get the wrong results." The nurse said pleasantly as he looked down at his chart.

"And?"

The nurse didn't bother to answer, instead turning his sheet around so that Jacen could see it. There were five columns of two rows each under the head of 'X-Gene Test'. The columns were numbered with the rows being labeled as either 'Positive' or 'Negative'. The sinking feeling in Jacen's stomach grew as he read over the results. Negative... negative... negative... negative... negative.

"I am please to tell you that you are free of disease." The nurse said with a brief smile before turning to walk back into the 'clinic', "Have a nice day."

Jacen stood frozen in shock for a few moments before turning and walking away. His mind was racing so fast that he failed to acknowledge the goodbyes that were offered by the receptionist, instead pushing his way out into the fresh air. How could it be? How could he do the things he did if he wasn't a mutant?

"Six times... six negatives." He murmured to himself as he walked down the steps to the sidewalk and began to trek the one and a half blocks distance to his truck. "What am I?"

People probably thought she was a wandering storm cloud. The mist of Ghost's body was making a slow and steady pace along the road, just out of the passing cars' reaches. She was really stressed out. Her immaculate schedule had been torn to shreds by people trading and swapping and that was fine as long as someone was there at all times to cover the store. Far too often, she'd said that she could do it and she did. But after waking up for the second day in a row in her office without getting her deposits in order, she was starting to feel the drain.

Little droplets of water splattered the windshields that passed beneath her. When Francine had woken her up, Ghost had checked her calendar. Test day. She'd slept though her proxy test. With her grades already slipping since the store incident, Ghost wasn't sure she was going to get her usual immaculate grades... in fact, with a thread of horror, she realized that she might not even pass.

The cherry on her day was the tomato that had been lobbed at her upon exiting the store. She didn't wait around to see if it was a protester or just some dumb kid, Ghost whooshed into the numb and unfeeling state of air and let herself drift slowly toward the safety of home. The safety of the Mansion.

What she would never have expected to happen next was that something forcefully pulled her out of her element.

Ghost clattered against something hard and cool, her field of vision only able to register a splash of metallic flecked dark blue before she tumbled off because of gravity combined with the inertia of the object. Wide eyes streaming with tears blinked and blinked again before her mind ever stopped to register exactly what happened. Ghost had materialized suddenly, bounced off the roof of a truck and now was laying in the bed with a smarting side, elbows and back of the head. The cherry of her day, the overripe tomato, sat upon her shoulder... taunting her.

Jacen was a little out of it as he began to drive down the street, heading away from the Church of Humanity. His worries had been confirmed and now he was left in an awkward position that not even mutants had to face. Humans knew what they were as did mutants but he... he was left wondering. What was he? He didn't have the X-Gene but yet he still had a mysterious ability that nullified mutants nearby. How did he do it? What was happening to him? Was he some sort of freak? Had he been exposed to some sort of chemical while over seas?

"What the hell is going on?!" Jacen suddenly yelled as he slammed his hand against the steering wheel in frustration. Suddenly out of nowhere he heard a thud on the roof of his truck followed by a slightly softer bump in the back of his truck. Quickly braking, Jacen's eyes immediately moved up to the rear view mirror and widened slightly as he took in the young woman that had suddenly appeared in the bed of his truck.

"Oh no... not again." He groaned as he put the truck in park and then quickly climbed out. Walking around the vehicle he stopped at the side of the bed and look down, momentarily forgetting his own problems with his concern for this young woman.

"Are you OK? Here, let me help you out of there." Jacen said quickly as he offered a hand to the young woman, "Are you hurt?"

Long pale fingers gripped the juicy tomato and let it fall away from her body in an overly loud squish. Ghost realized the truck had stopped moving, but it didn't really mean anything to her until she heard a too-close honk before she was offered a hand. She jumped, clearly startled by all this. With the back of her hand she wiped at her eyes, rather embarrassed as she took the offered hand.

"I... I'm sorry." Her voice was shaky which was even more embarrassing since it made it that much more clear that she had been crying. "I think I'm having a bad day..." She rubbed her eyes again, relying on this stranger's help to stand. The honks were longer and sounded more frequently as the cars began to stack up. She considered erecting a vacuum film just for some peace, but decided against it. She tried to stay away from frivolous use of her power in front of strangers... angry strangers with cars that looked like they wanted to hop out and gut her.

Ghost swallowed and clumsily made her way over the side of the vehicle, her natural grace leeched away by nerves. With a shaky breath she nodded to the man whose truck she'd fallen into and took a step toward the sidewalk. The sidewalk in front of the Church of Humanity, the place that had publicly denounced her store and condemned any human shoppers to hell. If possible her eyes became wider. This man... had he come from the church? There was only one way to know...

"You're not going to shoot me are you?" Her voice was tinged with a bit of panic.

Shoot her? Shoot her?! Where in the world had that come from? Jacen just looked at the young woman blankly as his overwrought brain tried to make some connection between her words and whatever would have given her the idea that he might be out to hurt her. Did he look like a murderer or something? He thought he was dressed normally but maybe she could see something that he couldn't.

The honking was getting louder and stronger as the cars stacked up and it was beginning to annoy Jacen. "No, I'm not going to shoot here. Here, get in the truck. I'll give you a ride." Turning toward the cab without waiting for a response a thought suddenly occured to the man and he glanced over his shoulder at Ghost. "You weren't going to the Sanctuary were you? I know a guy named Garret and a woman named Isabel over there."

That was a lie... he didn't really know those two names but maybe saying he knew a couple of other mutants would make the young woman more comfortable. There was no way he was going to mention Lori since she probably wouldn't have given her real name to this particular mutant anyway, but perhaps one of the other two names would open doors.

"Look, I can give you a ride and you'll be safe. Trust me. I'm not out to hurt anyone!" Jacen said before opening his door and climbing back into the vehicle. If Ghost was going to ride with him then she'd have to climb in but he couldn't just sit around waiting for her to make a decision... not if he didn't want police to be called out for a traffic backup.

She nodded a bit too often and a bit too rapidly. Good. If he said he wouldn't shoot her... he wouldn't shoot her. "I don't need a ride... thank you." She breathed in quickly as if someone had just scared her. Nothing. She wiped her eyes and tried again, someone honked and it really did scared her into a sharp intake of breath. Nothing. Maybe... maybe she hit her head too hard.

Ghost put her hand on the side of the truck feeling a bit faint. "Okay... maybe I do..." Hopefully she didn't hit it so hard that DocProf couldn't fix her.

He turned to re-enter his car and Ghost cringed at another honk. Why were they being so loud? She started to make her careful way around to the passenger side of the truck when he spoke. The Sanctuary? Her heart squeezed painfully at the mention of someone she loved living there. Ghost waited to answer until she had opened her door and sat in the passenger seat. She breathed out a ragged sigh and ran her tapered fingers through her snowy white hair to feel the offending swell of skin that must bee keeping her from ghosting away safely. "No... I do not live at the Sanctuary. That place is full of violent human haters... and Garrett... he doesn't belong there any more than I do. I don't know any Isabel."

Ghost wiped her eyes again.

"I am sorry about all this." Ghost spoke slowly and as calmly as she could muster, her eyes locked on some unseen point on Jacen's dashboard. She huddled in closer to herself squeezing into as small a space as possible and trying not to touch anything. "I'm... Vega." She'd hesitated. Vega the store clerk didn't fall out of the sky and into strangers truck beds, but she didn't feel like explaining the Ghost thing when it couldn't happen. "I live at the Mansion. I can tell you where to turn."

The young woman insisted that she didn't need a ride but after several moments of trying to use whatever ability she might normally possess she admitted that perhaps she did need a ride.

"So, I take it that you're not one of those psycho human haters." Jacen observed dryly as he put the truck into gear and drove forward, ignoring the frustrated and angry honks that continued to sound from the vehicles behind him. Even though his mind was still whirling from his earlier discovery he noticed two very important items about the young woman beside him. She was extremely nevous and skitterish and she said she new Garret. In fact, if her words and tones were to be examined more closely it was quite obvious that the two of them must have been friends of some type.

"If the mansion you're referring to is the Xavier School, then I already know where it is." He replied as he made a turn to begin heading in the apropriate direction, "I had to take a couple of young men and a young woman there a few months back. What were their names... Slate and his brother and a young woman... Patty? Petty? Something like that."

If Jacen had known he was a mutant or at least something other than human back at that moment he might have paid more attention to their names. As it was the only one of the three he remembered was the conversation young man that hadn't seem the slightest bit fazed by his own nudity or the nudity of his companions. Wierd, very wierd.

"My name's Jacen. It's nice to meet you Vega."

"So, I take it that you're not one of those psycho human haters."[/color]

Vega laughed abruptly and the sound was flat to her without it's usual carry throughout the air, it left a taste in her mouth like broken glass. She seemed to regret the sudden burst of sound as soon as it had escaped her lips. "That would be a no, mister human. You would never have to fear me." She rubbed at the throbbing bump on her head and hazarded a glance in the truck driver's direction. "I run a store that is mutant and human friendly and people shoot me and throw tomatoes at me for it." She plucked at her blouse that smelled vaguely of rotten tomato. "So I'm sorry that I laughed. It's just that I am no more a human hater than you appear to be a mutant hater."

He knew about the Mansion? She was opening her mouth to ask how, but he answered. Vega's face scrunched in pain as she tried to think of any students by those names. Her response was quiet as she turned back to watching the dashboard. "I don't know those people either." The fast passing scenery outside of the car was making the waves of pain run down from her head down into her roiling stomach. She did not need to puke in a stranger's car. It was embarrassing enough that she no longer knew every student at the Mansion by name.

Vega pulled her knees up against her chest, probably not the safest car ride position, but it made her feel a bit better to rest her chin against her Khaki pants. Stupid pants. She couldn't exactly say that it was nice to meet Jacen so she refrained from reciprocating and instead pursued a separate avenue of thought. "What do you do for a living, Mister Jacen?" She ended her words with a strange yawn sigh that left the skin on the back of her head prickling. It seemed only fair that she would get to ask him about his work since he already knew of hers. The rumbly vibrations of the truck were meanwhile lulling her into an uncomfortable rest. Her eyes were hard to keep open.

Jacen laughed, but it wasn't exactly a nice laugh. In fact it was a down right angry sounding laugh but there was no question that the anger and emotion was not being directed at Vega. "No, I'm not a mutant hater... not a human hater either. In fact, I don't know what the hell I am!" Jacen replied a little more forcefully than necessary as the frustration of the past several hours and days finally bubbled over. "You want to know why you fell into my truck? Because I nullify powers. That's right... I emit some sort of field, or aura, or friggin' fairy dust that makes mutants unable to use their ability. Obviously that means I'm a mutant right? Hell, no! My hospital ran blood work and then the Church of Humanity ran blood work FIVE FRIGGIN TIMES! I'm as human as they come but obviously I'm not!"

Vega didn't deserve to be the target for his venting but at the moment Jacen had nowhere else to turn and she just happened to be in the truck with him. In fact, now that the words were out he actually regretted having told some stranger what his abilities were but could anyone blame? Honestly, could anyone in the whole messed up world blame him?

"I'm on the S.W.A.T. team and I work along side guys that bitterly hate mutants." Jacen replied after a moment, his voice evening out slightly but still maintaining something of an edge to it, "So you would think I'd be a mutant hater but I'm not. Of course, since I'm friends with mutant haters you're probably wishing right this moment that you'd gotten a ride with someone else. Practially anyone else."

Vega looked at Jacen long and hard blinking as her brain tried to process the shouting. He was obviously upset, but it horrified Ghost to think that someone existed that could nullify her power... just flat out nullify it. Obviously he didn't sound too happy about it either, but then again how many people had fallen on his truck or him in the last few weeks to get him so riled up?

And what was she supposed to do if he did decide to hurt her? What did normal people do? She obviously should stop trusting people so blindly because short of Jacen stopping the truck, there was no way for her to safely exit the vehicle and run away screaming as was her urge. But that wasn't right... he had made no offensive action. He had just unwittingly nullified her power. It wasn't malice and he confirmed as much in his tirade.

Vega turned to look out the window. She wasn't used to being normal and she felt like a brat for missing her power, her safety blanket.

"Does it really matter what you are?" Labels really didn't seem to help any parties involved. Labels meant organization and separation. Vega wanted a world where no separation existed that would make people be unkind to one another. She slowly ran her hands over her knees and down her calves in a nervous gesture. Because she was nervous.

This man had her in a very fragile moment as Ghost imagined he must catch many a mutant. The difference being that this seemed to be a breaking point for him as well. "You are you no matter what you do. It's how you chose to use it... your gift." She'd had this talk with so many new mutants. He wasn't a mutant, by his genes, but certainly he was something else. "Please continue to operate in kindness." She set her chin on her knees again, some formality to her words that felt very binding and contractual.

Her eyes were very carefully burning an imaginary hole in Jacen's dashboard as teh cogs in her mind were turning. "Could it be you are nature's answer to mutant kind?" Her voice was very soft. She'd almost been afraid to say it. Because if she said it, maybe it was true. And if that was true... there could be more of them. Dear god, she had to go home and tell someone.

Everyone knew that mutant kind had been oppressed, but what most mutants refused to see was that they were taking advantage of their power. They abused the gifts they had been given. It was only a matter of time before someone came along to balance out that threat...

Jacen's harsh chuckle was the first thing to come fro his mouth when Vega asked her question. Did it matter who he was? Who in the world besides friggin' Mr. Rogers would ask that kind of question? "It matters to everyone around me." He responded quietly, the raw emotion still in control as he battled to try and find some semblance of reason for this whole thing, "Humans don't want to accept me because they think I'm a mutant and no amount of blood tests will disprove that theory. Mutants, like yourself, hate or fear me because I lack the X-Gene and yet somehow cancel out their abilities rendering them weak and helpless like any other person."

For a brief moment Jacen's head swiveled over, his gaze burning into the woman at his side before he had to look back out at the street in front of them. "And don't even try to argue that you're not afraid. It shows in every bit of your body language. You're scared beside around me you have a chance of being hurt."

He didn't really know what Vega's power was and honestly he didn't want to know. It was enough to see that she was afraid of him. Hell, most mutants seemed to be unerved by his powers and so far only two women had accepted him for the person he was. Maybe that would mean that if there was a small group of mutants that accepted him there might also be a small group of humans that would accept him.

"Another thought for another day."

"Could it be you are nature's answer to mutant kind?"

The question came out of nowhere and it was all that Jacen could do to keep his eyes on the road instead of staring at the woman beside him in some sort of disbelief. Who in the world would come up with some sort of crazy idea like that? As if nature could control something like this. Besides, even if it was nature, why would it choose him?

"That's just crazy talk from someone that wants to find a reason for the unexplainable." He spoke bluntly as he made another turn, drawing the vehicle ever closer to the Xavier School, "I prefer the idea that I was exposed to chemicals while over in Afghanistan and Iraq. That makes more sense that Mother Friggin' Nature deciding to have a field day and chance my molecular structure or some other damn bit of lunacy."

His laugh made her cringe. What had this man been through to give him a laugh like that? Vega didn't think she wanted to know. It just made her want out of the truck faster. Just because he'd promised not to shoot her didn't mean he wasn't planning worse. Crap. She never seemed to think of these things until it was entirely too late! It mad her sad to hear that labels still mattered that much to people. It seemed she'd been surrounding herself with too pleasant a folk if she didn't realize that.

She let out a long sad sigh. And it was just a sigh. Vega scrubbed at her cheeks again to clear the moisture. This man clearly needed a hug. But Vega wasn't about to offer. "It's not every day your escape route is blocked." She muttered. Wasn't her fault he seemed like a nutter who may or may not lash out at any moment to make her bleed just for the fun of it. "Most of us are just a little too used to how things are and you turn that on it's head so excuse my discomfort. I thought I was trusting of people, but it looks like I was just trusting my ability to escape..." Mental note: make sure to look up proper procedure for women's safety in New York City.

"You're not going to hurt me are you?" She did just want to check, something a bit more general than specifically being shot. There was a note of hysteria in his voice she did not want to trust.

"That's just crazy talk from someone that wants to find a reason for the unexplainable."

She put her head back on her knees. He spoke of war and chemicals. Maybe she didn't know anything about anything after all. "Then why did mutants happen?" Just a whisper this time. If he was going to hurt her it was probably because she just could not resist making little comments back to his.

"No, I'm not going to hurt you." Jacen said with a slight snort of disbelief, "I'm not one of those perverts that gets my kicks from assaulting helpless young women, thank you very much! If you want to get mugged or attacked you'll have to jump in some other strange man's vehicle."

Which, now that he'd said it, Vega had been pretty stupid. Even in the strange situation she'd been put in, what woman in her right mind would accept a ride from a complete stranger simply because he said, "Trust me. I'm not out to hurt anyone!"

"I will say, you've got to learn to use your head." He said out of the blue, "If I had been out to hurt you, what would you be able to do about it now? Or what if I was a mutant that could stop you from doing whatever it is you do by some other means? You're just asking to get shot, stabbed, or worse acting like that."

That was the way for Jacen to make himself feel more like a man. He was hurting and confused so he lashed out verbally at a helpless young woman. Wonderful... just peachy. Chalk an extra point up to the former Ranger.

"Sorry." Jacen said somewhat grudgingly after a few moments. He didn't really want to admit he'd been out of line but he still knew he had been. "I seem to have a way of confusing mutants thanks to whatever it is I do. And I have no clue why mutants happened." He continued, finally answering the last question she had asked in a barely audible voice, "We could always blame pollution, excess greenhouse gasses, or maybe the ever popular global warming. That's for better minds than mine to figure out."