It had been quite some time since Nika last set foot on the mansion grounds. Though it may have only have been several months it seemed like years for the cat girl. The mansion still looked the same as she remembered it.

Her time spent at Mondragon Labs was alright because Slate was welcoming and he tried to help Nika feel comfortable. However, living in Roland's cellar felt like it passed so painfully slowly. The only time she noticed that time felt to go by quickly was when Roland had her set doing challenges to test her physical and mental abilities. At the same time he trained her to be better than she previously thought possible. She learned various new forms of comabt from unarmed to using weapons of both the close combat to the ranged variety. Often times she couldn't sleep because her head felt like it wanted to split open.

Yet she retained the information and continuily passed Roland's horrible tests, but in doing so she lost part of herself. Yeah she knew how to make herself appear to be her usual self. All cheerful and likeable, but hidden away there was a new Nika. A colder and more calculating Nika. She was now a trained killer.

Passing through the front gate Nika's eyes looked around. She saw some of the younger children running around outside playing. No inital signs of any of the older residents were evident, but the mansion was always full of surprises.

Cailyn was outside today walking up and down the pathway in the mansion grounds. She was counting the tiles that it was made of . It was a weird thing to do but very normal for her. She payed no attention to the garden and everything else that a around it. She just kept on counting. "39, 40 , 41 , 42 ,43 " She counted softly in herself as she walked down the path. The people who where playing around looked at her very strangly. It was like they never saw anybody count the tiles of a path.

As she came close to the front gate she looked up and was amazed by what she saw. It was a kitty lady that stood there. If there was something cool it was kitty people. She already met another kitty lady once and she was very nice. She fairly fasinated with animal people, though she only met two. She looked up at the kitten lady with big eyes of amazement. "Hello." She said shortly and a bit shy. There was something about her though, like she was not acting normal. It was not that it looked that way but somehow she knew.

Making her way up the path from the front gate Nika started hearing someone counting. It was a feminine voice and wasn't very loud as if counting to herself. Looking for the voice Nika saw the female. She had short blonde hair and she was kind of cute. The other girl greeted Nika while wearing an astonished expression on her face.

"Hello."

Nika tried to remember if she had seen the girl before. Searching her memory turned up a blank however. Nika didn't remember the girl at all. Maybe she came while Nika was away or perhaps they just never crossed paths before. The mansion is a big place ya know.

"Are you new here?"

"Hello."
"Are you new here?"

She nodded to the second kitty cat person she met in her life. The thought of them having a secret city of kitty people ran through her head again. Maybe they where eventually going to invade when they had enough kitty people to do so. Lots of other things just ran through her head about kitty people. Not that she disliked them. In fact she really liked them. The other kitty person was very nice and this one didn't seem any different. "I'm Cailyn." She said with a honest and sweet smile as she extended her hand. "What's your name?" she then asked after introducing herself. She just hoped that she didn't lost count and where she was with counting the tiles of the road to the mansion. That or get lost again.

Streak watched the activities that were going on outside. Usually he would spend his time in the War Room watching the screens and looking for anything unusual. But today there were plenty of kids out on the grounds and he decided to spend it outside. In one of his favorite places around the mansion, the roof. He could see and hear everything the kids were doing plus he could see the gates. Speaking of the gates… there was a woman who looked very familiar standing there. Streak decided to go check it out. There was someone else there that she was talking to but he wasn’t to familiar with her.

Streak flew down and landed on the grounds near them both. He walked the rest of the way and finally recognized Nika. “Hey Nika. Welcome back.” He said once he was close enough to the two girls to be heard. They had a lot of catching up to do and they would need to discuss a few things with the X-Men. Of course he wasn’t going to ignore this other girl and so he said, “Cailyn she’s cool. She can come in.” He’d seen Cailyn around but he didn’t know her all that well. However, it wasn’t that hard to change.

The girl was pleasant to the catgirl. She seemed like a nice person. Nika smiled back at the girl.

"My name is Nika. Nice to meet you Cailyn. Pretty name you have."

Just as she finishes her statement A familiar scent was picked up by Nika's nose. She hadn't smelled him nearby in quite some time. In fact, the last time she smelled him was inside King Pharmaceuticals, but his tone didn't carry any hint of missing the girl other than a general welcome back. It was almost as if Nika had just gone to the mall and was gone for several hours instead of the weeks or months she really had been gone. Nika's response was much different however.

"STREAK!"

Shouted the catgirl as she leapt at the man and wrapped her arms around him. Oh how she wished he could've been there to save her from Roland. Streak was the closest person to a friend Nika had, or at least that's how she thought of him.

A flying man flew towards the ground. She never seen a flying man that flew. Cailyn tilted her head at him. Strange one, why fly down if you can walk. If Cailyn could fly it would make her pretty darn lazy, she'd never walk again. Lazy was bad.

Anyways where was she, ow yeah kitty person and flying man. Strangeness was sure to come next. Specially since the kitty person, who's name was Nika, was very interrested in the flying man, who's name was Streak. Odd name for a flying man.

They seemed to know each other very well. "Nice to meet you too." Cailyn said a bit absent minded as her eyes driffted towards the tile she was counting. Where was she again, ow yes 43. "44, 45 ,46 ,47 ,48" She softly said to herself. If the two of them needed her she would be there but at this moment she might aswel continue counting.

Streak couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Nika. It wasn't unusual for someone at the mansion to leave for brief periods at a time. He was surprised at her reaction to seeing him. As Nika jumped on his he took a step back to brace himself. Streak wrapped his arms around her when he caught her. "Where've ya been girl?" Streak asked. As they were hugging he realized that he didn't know why she'd left or even when she'd left. Being very busy certainly did have its disadvantages.

The main one was not being able to spend lots of time with friends and knowing if they were going through a bad time or if they're planning something. Streak unwrapped his arms from from Nika. and patted her on the back. "Glad you came back. You've got some splainin to do." Streak said joking around. He didn't mean to ignore Cailyn so he said, "Hey you can join us to Cailyn." Offering her the opportunity to spend time with the two X-Men.

Hugging and being hugged back was very refreshing. Nika couldn't remember the last time she had been hugged. Her heavy heart felt as if all the weight had been lifted if only for that moment. Streak welcomed the cat girl back, but his statement about her having to do some explaining was met with a smile and a slight giggle. Taking a step back from the man she calmed down.

"Oh, I've been around."

Nika started to hear...counting? She looked to Cailyn who was counting something on the ground? The girl seemed a little strange as if in her own little world.

"Excuse me Cailyn. What are you counting?"

"Hey you can join us to Cailyn."

She continued counting like nothing was going on but added something in between the count."Ok." She added between the counting. It would give her to oppertunity to double check the number of tiles by going back up the path. Though she didn't have any clue about what she signed up for in the first place. What where they going to do.

"Excuse me Cailyn. What are you counting?"

"The bricks in the road." She answered as if it was the most normal thing in the entire world. It had probably be done by somebody before but not by her. It was kind of a weird hobby doing weird things nobody else did. Well it wasn't that weird for her though. It was exactly the oposite for her. She thought it was normal and "fun".

“Well, it may not be that long of a walk but I’m sure you can start to tell me while we walk.” Streak said cheerily. He was glad the cat girl was back. She was always good for conversations, or a mission, or just a little training fun. Streak definitely thought that Cailyn’s current task was odd; although he didn’t think that anyone would be doing that unless they were really bored.

Streak put his arm around Nika’s shoulder and started to walk back up to the mansion’s doors. “So start talkin’ kitty.” The silver eyed man said to her. He was curious about where she’d gone and with the time that she’d been gone it would probably be a good story.

Counting the bricks was an odd task, but then had anyone ever counted them to see how many there are? The way Cailyn answered made it sound like it was no big deal to count bricks. Maybe she just liked counting things when she was bored.

"So how many have you counted so far?"

When Streak spoke up Nika turned to him and listened. He then put his arm around the catgirl's shoulders and instantly Nika felt more safe. That only lasted until he started trying to get her to talk about what she had been up to. Not missing a beat Nika went into her sarcastic mode.

"Well, the sky is blue. The grass is green. The mansion looks nice..."