Meld laughed a little at the thought of the stranger coming to play with them. While she didn't let her guard down completely, something told her that this individual wasn't really the 'playing' type. It was in the way a person carried themselves. If one knew what to look for it was usually possible to tell, even from a relatively short glimpse, wither someone was a truly skilled combatant or not. There was a certain smoothness of motion, a certain constant watchfulness that almost all skilled combatants seemed to have, especially those who were trained, wholly or in part, by life's experiences. Only a few short years ago and Meld would have considered her training incomplete, lacking that certain extra something that the truly skilled ones had. But since that time she had been forced out of the gym and away from contrived competitions and into harsh reality, where it was necessary to fight and to watch for threats in order to survive.

"We have as much time as we could need," Meld agreed. She opened her back carefully, depositing her makeshift shield within, careful not to take her eyes off of the stranger. She also made sure to take another careful look around to ensure that there were no other hidden threats close by. Seeing none she nodded at Aura, a signal that they didn't need to worry about anyone else sneaking up on them. At least she hoped they no longer had to worry. One person had managed to surprise both of them, surely another couldn't manage to do the same thing? She growled to herself at the thought. Such carelessness was unacceptable.

Meld looked at the stranger funny as he mimed two thumbs up not understanding why he didn't speak. Was he afraid of them or something? He didn't seem to be afraid. Finally he made a gesture to indicate lack of speech and Meld almost laughed out loud, but managed to keep it contained. There was just something amusing about the fact that the two of them, veteran combatants both, had been snuck up on by a mute man; almost a mute boy really.

"Glad you enjoyed the show," Meld told him, although she couldn't' quite keep the tone of suspicion out of her voice. "I hope your alone and there won't be any other unexpected surprises caused by you?"

Aura was very confused though releived no one else seemed to be near them from the look she received back from Meld. Tilting her head as she watched the punches and the thumbs up made Aura think he wnated to join them, although Aura was not entirely sure. She wished he would just tell her what he wnated or was doing. The boys lack of speaking wa susueally a fear responce, but the boy seemed for the most part unafraid and he was not screaming so atleast that was a possative note.

Aura watched as the boy tilted his head back and made a cutting motion and at once Aura's eyes lit up in a glory of misunderstanding. "He wants us to slit his throught!" She explaimed with far more glee then neccasry. Aura's happyness came from the idea she had solced the puzzel. "You could have just asked, we don't bite" Aura said with a smile rying to be freindly even with the rather unseual cicumstances.

"Relax suicidals are useually alone, what's the point in killing yourself with others who would stop you around" Aura said with a shrug. "It was fun though, you sure you do not wish to play before you go?" Aura asked thinkng it would atleast give them a serious traget. Aura dissaproved of suicide in general but if somone wnated to die you might as well put them to use helping people who did wish to move on. The idea idea of being snuck up on by a suicidal struck Aura as funny why would a suicidal jst sit thare and hide, somthing did not make sense here. Turning to her freind she tilted her head. "But why would a suicidal try and sneak up on two people more then capeable of helping him, i mean i dissprove of the practice but...." Aura trailed off maybe he would sa somthing.

Skipper nodded and smiled at the older girl as he rested a hand on his hip. It looked like there was really nothing to worry about. Until the other girl mentioned the words "slit" and "throat" in the same sentence. He listened wide-eyed as the other girl continued with her conclusion. It looked like his most recent assessment was correct.

He shook his head violently and began waving his hands in front of him. He then began searching through his pockets frantically for his wallet. he should have still had his medical card on him somewhere. When he yanked his wallet out of his pocket, he ended up losing his grip, sending it flying up over his head by a few inches. He fumbled for it twice before he caught it in mid-air, then began sifting through the abundance of cards in the pockets.

Gamestop, Sam Goody's, Tower Records, YMCA, Game Crazy, Starbucks, Hot Topic, Social Security...

"I'm pretty sure he doesn't want us to slit his throat," Meld informed Aura sardonically. She knew that the other woman hadn't experienced much of life but that was certainly a most unusual conclusion to come to. Not, she supposed, that it was probably unheard of for someone to commit suicide through the violent act of another but she couldn't imagine that it was a common occurrence. "Has someone asked you to help them end their own life before?" She was pretty sure that nothing could surprise her anymore.

Meld turned her attention back to the mute stranger. "Relax we aren't going to slit your throat," she informed him dryly. "My companion simply misinterpreted your gesture of muteness for something else." She smiled to herself, quite enjoying this despite the oddity of the situation. Or perhaps because of the oddity of the situation. Here she was with a murderous, some might say psychopathic, mutant sparring companion who thought the mute stranger spying on their little sparring competition wanted them to help him kill himself. Of course, some might have accused her of being similarly psychopathic at times and she knew absolutely nothing about the stranger. Was it a bad thing that she felt so little at the prospect of helping someone commit suicide? Something that, perhaps, was worthy of considering at a later date. Mental health was important, after all.

Meld watched as the stranger dug through his wallet, assuming that he probably had a piece of id that he meant to show them. Hopefully with some sort of name that they could call him. "I'm Meld," she told him. In normal circumstances she would have introduced Aura as well but this was far from a normal circumstance. She wasn't really sure what this was.

She look at the man shake his head no, and atleast this sign she understood well, and Meld's comment helped to prove she had been mistaken, she was releived, she never liked helping people end their lifes, but it necasary somtimes. "Well yes, In the woods, somtimes friends would get to wounded to far from our healer and charge Miracle, to end their pain and to prevent capture, we were tought to help them kill theirselfs. I never aproved of the practice but the first time one of us had been captuerd all my friends wound up dead becuse he revealed their location, i am releived that is not what he wanted" she said her voice having returned to normal, the excitement of being right drowned by knowing she had not drawn the right conclution.

"Mute?" Aura said thinking for a secound before the truth finnaly struck her. "So he can not speak and was just enjoying a good fight. I can understand that" She said nodding, glad they had uncoverd her mistake in time. Things had come together though and she now knew why the man had been spying on them. She had never met a mute before but she had heard the term before, useually used as a possible outcome for wounded though it never seemed to happon.

"My name is Aura, so are you a mutant to?" she asked casually without thinking of holding back like she tried to do. Some mutants did not like to speak about it, normally those who still felt ashamed. She then realized he might have no way of giving them this information and with her interpretations of his gestures a bit unreliable she decided to let Meld ask all the questions from here on out, she seemed to have better luck then her

Skipper grinned a bit at the awkwardness of the entire situation. His face showed a bit of concern and a slight bit of fear as Aura relayed her story. Who WAS this girl? She sounded like she'd been a soldier of some kind, or otherwise went through SOME kind of hell in her short life. maybe that was the reason for the... behaviour...

Finally finding what he was looking for, he held his medical card out for them. It had his name, Devon Sanada, blood type, and other medical information on it, as well as a few lines in the "notes" section: Disabilities: Mute. Answers to "Skipper". He'd suddenly noticed that his arms were beginning to tingle a bit. He rubbed his fingertips with his thumbs on both hands, wondering what was up. He shoved him hands back into his pockets and shifted his weight onto one foot.

Upon hearing Aura's inquiry his brow furrowed as he once again scratched the back of his head. The answer was yes, of course, but... well... it wasn't like it was something he was used to yet. But then again, he already knew that both of THEM were mutants, so, telling them that he was would really only be fair. He let out a heavy sigh and then nodded to Aura.

Meld couldn't imagine living in a world where she would sometimes have to end the lives of those she cared about in order to prevent capture. She couldn't' imagine living in a world where she would be forced to end the lives of the people she cared about period. She had been through some tough things in her life, dealt with some very nasty people and was far from a stranger to the acts of death, torture and cruelty. But nothing she had done could be considered...that difficult. The kinds of men she most often worked for were not the kinds she would ever consider friends and even if it came down to capture or their deaths, well, if it had ever come down to that she would have chosen what was most beneficial to herself. What did she care of some crime boss offed himself or got caught by the police? "I can't imagine," Meld told her friend, keeping her voice neutral. She wasn't good at showing sympathy, even if it was what the other woman would have wanted and she was pretty sure it wasn't.

Meld took a look at the card the stranger displayed to the both of them. "Skipper. Good to meet you." She wasn't exactly used to dealing with people who couldn't talk and wasn't quite sure how to act. If she asked questions he wouldn't be able to answer, but she couldn't' just say nothing either. Especially given the revelation that he was a mutant. "So," she finally asked, "if your a mutant what can you do? What's your power?" Surely that was something he'd be able to answer. Depending on his power anyway.

"It was a time i wish to never repat" Aura admitted, it had been a hard thing to do, but they were following orders and those always came before personal convictions. The rule had proven it's effectiveness all to well as when somone had been captured they had crumbeled under interragation and bbetrayed the teams location. Still she had disliked the practice anyway, certainly suring calls that were close between gettibng a freind home and having to finnish them on the feild.

Aura ahd to admit she was curious what the mute boy could do. She largely stayed dilent as she gave skipper more distence. She wa sunsure how to communicate with him, well she knew how she could but other then yes or no questions, it did not seem possible. Then Meld asked her question and Aura nodded n understanding realizeing he could at leats show them that much. She did wonder just what he could do, if his muteness was apart of his mutation. She had heard of stranger things happoning when mutations sprang up. Unsure what to do Aura stood thare and awaited Skippers responce to Meld.

Skipper took his card back as Meld asked what he could do. He looked kind of surprised at the question. He wondered if this was a normal thing amongst mutants. Sort of a "Show you mine, show me yours" kind of thing. If that was the case, he already had seen theirs, so it would only be fair.
But the question was: Could he?
He'd only intentionally "fired" it once.... and no one was able to see it, he had figured out. Chris had only seen a ripple. How could he "show" them anything? He was, however, aware of the tingling in his arms. It hadn't faded at all. He rubbed them a bit as he stared at the ground for a moment, pondering. Then, the idea formed.
He took a few steps back, then held one of his arms out at the ground in front of him. he focused on the tingling, then. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated. One word came to his mind.

Fire!

Suddenly, a green globule shot from his hand and onto the ground, forming a large green oval on the ground. He took a deep breath as he realized the tingling had stopped in that arm.

Okay.... that's one....

He then held up his other arm, concentrating again as he aimed it just a little bit to the left of the green oval.

Fire!

With that, another globule, purple in color, shot out of his other arm and hit the ground, but this time, instead of being solid, he was able to see the sky above them through it. He stared, wide-eyed. A sort of finality to his realization. He now understood what it was he was able to do. He looked up. He wondered if they were able to see what he was seeing, if their being mutants could let them see the portals. Just in case, he took out his keys, then tossed them into the green portal. He then watched as they flew up out of the purple portal, then fell back down to pop out of the green one. Back and forth the keys flew, up and down, over and over, jingling all the way. His face seemed alight with wonder at first, but then, slowly gave way to sadness as he finally accepted.

Everything had changed.

Meld watched, fascinated, as Skipper fired to the two colored globules. She couldn't imagine what they might be and when the second one formed and sky was visible, she thought that, perhaps, they were scrying mirrors of some sort. But when he threw the keys into one of the ovals and it came out the other, everything fell into place and she understood that they were portals.

"Amazing," she told him. In her relatively short time in the city she had seen many unique mutant powers, ranging from Aura's aura, to invisibility to the touch of death, but nothing quite like this. Meld was beginning to understand how it was that Aura found mutant powers to be so beautiful and amazing. Such diversity; no one quite the same as any other one. It truly was amazing to think of.

Meld almost missed the look of sorrow that passed across Skipper's face. So, he must have been new to his mutation. She remembered when she had been new to hers and how difficult it was to accept. She took the few steps over to him with the intent to put her flesh and blood hand on his shoulder in a gesture of comfort. "I know it seems daunting at first, being a mutant and all. But it gets better, I promise. You, as all mutants, have been given an amazing gift. Learn to treasure and embrace it."

Aura watched intently with a child like smile as she watched the display of power, she wonderd just how far his power could be used at. The power would seem to have many more uses to Aura that way. She had many questions but tried to limit them to ones that were just yes or no, still unsure how to deal with somone who could not talk. Finnaly thinking of one she smiled and took a few steps vloser both to talk and to watch the powe rin action.

Aura did not miss the look of sadness that over took the boy, who she now understood might be somwhat new to his powers. "Yes each of our kind has a beautiful gift to share with the world, you could do so many things with such a power in time." She said trying to highlight the beauity of the gift he had. "Can you move somthing living the same way?" she aske curiously though only thinking after that he might not even know after she said those words, but then she decided to try and ask another question. "Have you had your powers long?" she asked as a way more to understand the first question.

"We are what we are becuse nature chose us to be, not to be ashamed of what we are, but to be the proud noble species we truely are" Aura said though even she felt it was just a bit preachy. Still she did not like seeing anyone upset over the gift they had received from nature. Aura felt each mutant was as they should be and had their power for a reason. A world run by mutbnts would be a far diffrent world, certainly so if this guy could move a truck across acity.

Skipper looked at Meld as she placed a hand on his shoulder, offering a weak smile. Gift? Treasure? Too bad the rest of the world didn't see things that way... He still had no idea how he was going to explain this to his parents. Hell, he didn't know if he was going to tell them at all. Plus, the demonstration at the coffee shop didn't help his disposition. He realized then, that he was throwing one hell of a pity-party. It wasn't like him. As Aura added her two cents, he closed his eyes and tried to shake off the doom and gloom attitude he'd been having all day.
He took Aura's questions into account. Well, the first time he even used it, he AND the asshat tackling him had gone through the portal. So that was a yes. As for if he'd had them long, it was a no, so he shook his head. As she continued, he was still a bit unsettled about being considered a whole different species, but, that was it... and he realized he'd better adjust quick or he was going to be permanently depressed. He then decided he should answer Aura's question.
He swung his arms a bit as he stepped to the edge of one of the portals, grabbing his keys out of the air. If his knowledge so far of these portals and what he understood about momentum were correct... then....
With that, he let himself fall face-forward into the green portal. Instantly, he was falling up out of the purple portal, managing a smooth, perfect landing on the ground just at it's edge. He then held his arms out to his sides.

Is answer question?

Meld hoped that her and Aura's words got through to the man. It was one of the things she hated most about humans, the way they made so many mutants loathe everything that they were. It was nothing to be ashamed of and yet countless mutants were. Because humans made them think that they should be. Meld growled to herself, not being able to help it. These sorts of thoughts always got her riled up and it was why she had decided to do something. In a way, human propaganda was worse than the more overt forms of mutant discrimination because so few actually realized its existence or its harm where as militant anti-mutant groups were at least obvious enough that even many humans disapproved of their tactics.

"Don't think of what you are as something negative. As Aura said, you have been given something wonderful by nature. And beyond that, you have discovered your people. Whatever difficulties you may have with your gift, however hard it may be to accept your new reality, know that if you want them, you have friends. I and others are here for you if you ever need help. We've all been there, each of us have experienced a time when our powers were still new and unknown. Never think that you need be alone." Meld wasn't quite sure where that little speech had come from, but she thought it might be what the boy needed to hear. It certainly would have been easier for her had she had someone she could turn to for advice or help.

Meld was fascinated as she watched Skipper enter one side of the portal and exit the other. She approached the green portal tentatively, peering down inside of it. "Can anyone travel through the portal?" She had an overwhelming urge to step through just to feel what it was like.

SKipper answerd Aura question easily as he fell into one of the portals only to reappear out the other one, it was cool to watch, and Aura could not help but think of the uses for such a power. His landing was good to. Every question he answerd brought more questions to Aura's mind, but she did not wnat to be rude and ask to much. Aura now understood that most likely the boy could not have played with them, but that made his power no less amazing.

"Their are also places that can help you learn to control your powers better, Like sanctuary" she said trying to inform him that he did have a few options to try. Melds speech was good to Aura but she hoped the pair of them, were not giving to much information at once. Aura tilted her head when Meld asked if anyone could enter the portals she had been wondering the same thing herself. If he could then he might be able to move troops from one area to another provided he got powerful enough. "I am cuurious on that to, Have you ever tried to move somone else?" Aura asked him as she looked at the portals from whare she was, not sure how close he wnated her to get.

Devon listened intently as the two women continued. He was feeling much better now. He smiled at Meld and gave her a thumbs-up. He appreciated the kindness.

My people, huh?

The words sounded nice. He wondered just how many other mutants there were out there. And what was this "Sanctuary" Aura was talking about? As Meld asked the question, he smiled a little bit to himself. He remembered how freaked that guy had been when he fell through the portals. He nodded to both Meld and Aura, and then held out an arm toward the portals, an invitiation to try it themselves. But, just as he did, one of them closed, then the other. He blinked a bit. He'd wondered if he had done something to close them himself, but, he didn't think that was the case. He shook his head and quickly made two more portals, immediately noticing that it had been much easier that time. He scratched the back of his head as he looked at his hands again.

A time limit?

That could complicate things, he realized.