((ooc: Continued from A pretty girl in a bad bad place.))

Mondragon Labs. The Kabal’s base, if such a group really had a ‘base’ of which to speak: in truth, Slate was the only one who regularly came here, and that was mostly because it was quite conveniently quiet for getting planning done. Also, when he forgot to eat (or get sunlight), the secretaries generally reminded him (by kicking him out of his office). He had a very comfortable bed in one of the guest rooms, as well. And, truly, the maze of white hallways was only confusing until you memorized their layout.

Something that had become readily apparent, after he and Zephyr—Lily, that is—had arrived: there was nothing physically wrong from her, aside from slightly elevated blood pressure. That, perhaps, could be tied to recent stress. Ahem. In short: the doctors at the Labs took a few samples, but made no promises about quick answers.

Which had, of course, lead them to this. A somewhat more straight forward action. Slate handed the phone to Zephyr’s body, politely.

It was time for him to call herself.

The Labs looked like something out of a movie - Jewel just couldn't decide yet which genre she would end up in. Her first guess would have been science-fiction (swapping bodies and being examined by doctors who used devices she'd never seen before - which didn't help with the blood pressure, by the way - made it kind of an obvious choice). Then again, the whole situation could have easily turned out to be either thriller, or even horror... she decided not to think about that. Hopefully the action part was over.
Of course they didn't have answers. She didn't really believe they would. But at least they were in a safe place (well, as safe as being with Tyler was safe, but definitely safer than the auction).
Talking about Tyler (Jewel had to remind herself he was actually called Slate): he seemed to be more than slightly amused by the whole situation. She didn't take it personal: she didn't know much about this Zephyr guy, but she could make a wild guess about how his attitude would be different from hers. The situation itself must have been amusing. For someone who was not trapped in a strange male body. Duh.
The phone call was a good idea. She would have thought of it herself too, if she wasn't so confused and stressed out. Taking the phone, she dialed her own number, and her lips formed a silent prayer to God, wishing that wherever her body was, someone would be able to pick up her cell.
Rrrring. Rrrring. Rrrring.

((OOC: My apologies for the delay, a mixture of RL and lack of creativity postponed for further than I would have liked.))
--

There is a theory that all events are governed by chaos, that order and reason are nothing more than a fallacy contrived by the human mind to aid in the apparent illusion of sanity. In times past Zephyr had always been rather dismissive of such a concept, after all order and reason gave rise to logic and it was this which separated man from other creatures ; the ability to plan and comprehend the possibilities of the surrounding environment. Such comprehension also led to other essential qualities such as imagination and creativity. Despite these stated gain though the hessian actually found himself giving some form of credence for he could find no other rational explanation for what had occurred, not only to him, but countless others as well. The sheer scope of the incident ruled out any single mutant. The event also failed to qualify under terrorism or government incompetency as no real terror arouse for the former and the latter wouldn't have been able to prevent something like this from leaking to the media.

That left very few explanations, none of which the mercenary was particularly fond of embracing, thus he had turned his mind away from problem of how his current situation had arisen and instead focused on how things might be resolved. A somewhat difficult train of thought when one does not even know the underlying cause for the problem but the British hessian was not one to abandon things lightly, especially not when they involved him. Therefore after finally managing to deal with the associates of the body he was currently inhabiting, no small feat in and of itself, a few minutes of quiet rumination however led Zephyr to conclude that the first step would be to ensure that his own body was still in good health. Worryingly however initial attempts to call his own cell phone had fallen on deaf ears and a visit to his apartment revealed nothing more than an empty living space. A slightly more in depth search unearthed his keys, cell phone and personal firearms, none of which left the displaced elemental particularly reassured.

It was as Zephyr sat hunched over on his couch contemplating his next move that he felt a fain vibration issuing from the small and, in his opinion, largely inadequate pockets of his jeans, it wasn't until the incessant ring tune of raining men filled the air however the mercenary managed to extract the silver rimmed phone from his pocket and saw precisely who was calling. The number wasn't registered on the phone, however the extension belonged to Mondragon labs and thus the fact that they were contacting the phone of his host body likely meant only one thing and so Zephyr had no absolutely no hesitation in answering the call and eloquently replying.

"It's about bloody time."

The reticent mercenary allowed a moment for his greeting to sink in, for while his voice had not been particularly loud his cadence had been rather tenebrous and would likely cause one to pause for a brief period. "You're at the labs yes? Is my body in one piece?"

Priorities were an import thing.

Lily couldn't suppress a sigh of relief when she heard someone pick up her phone.
"It's about bloody time."
She'd never been so happy to hear her own voice. Even with the British accent. If she wasn't as tired and freaked out as she was, she might have found the whole thing just a tiny bit amusing.
"You're at the labs yes? Is my body in one piece?"
Right to the point. Lily, who was still being happy about hearing the voice of her apparently unhurt body, was silent for a few seconds before remembering she should answer.
"Yes. And yes. I'm at the labs with... um, Slate. Is my body all right?"

"Yes. And yes. I'm at the labs with... um, Slate. Is my body all right?"[/color]

"Assuming I'm speaking with Ms. Lafayette, then yes, your body is fine for the moment," Lafayette had been the name on the credit card he'd found in the mansion room when he'd awoken, annoyingly he hadn't been able to locate a drivers license or any other type of photographic identification but it had been better than nothing.

"Excuse me." Lowering the phone away from his ear the hessian began to move through his apartment.

The response the mercenary received from his body's current resident had been somewhat slow in coming however was somewhat slow in coming however once it did the succinct answer told the displaced mercenary everything he currently needed to know about the current state of affairs. The moment he'd confirmed his body was waiting at Mondragon the hessian had swiftly set about gathering various essentials from his quarters; his carbon fiber riding jacket was deftly withdrawn, donned and its pockets filled with a variety of essential items ranging from his own phone and keys to his carefully maintained firearm. It wasn't until the Zephyr was halfway out the door with a helmet under one arm on his way to collect his motorcycle from the lower levels of the apartment complex that he remembered he still had some on the line.

"I'm on my way to the labs now, I should be there within an hour, if you have anything else to say now would be the time to say it."

Locking the door behind him Zephyr made his way down the hall to the elevator, if he had been in his own body he likely could have made the journey to Mondragon in 30 minutes or less, however given his... unaccustomed frame, the mercenary's sense of balance was not quite what it normally was, and given that motorcycles relied mainly upon the users balance for direction circumstances dictated that progress would be somewhat slower that normal, still the end result would be the same; getting from A to B wasn't rocket science, not in this case anyway.

"Assuming I'm speaking with Ms. Lafayette, then yes, your body is fine for the moment,"
Lily let out a sigh of relief, and decided to ignore the 'for the moment' part... for the moment.
"Yes, you are speaking with..." quick glance at Slate "... Ms. Lafayette, Zephyr." she answered with a smirk. She waited patiently while the person on the other end of the line got ready to leave... wherever he was. She hoped it was not that far away.
"I'm on my way to the labs now, I should be there within an hour, if you have anything else to say now would be the time to say it."
Another sigh of relief escaped her as she finally sat down. Her body was all right, and on her... his... way to the Labs. Everything's going to be fine now, everything is going to be sorted out. Her voice sounded determined. Lily didn't really have anything to say, except...
"Be careful."
Putting down the phone, she sighed as she looked at Slate.
"And now we wait. He's on his way."

The streets of New York are, quite famously so, some of the most frantic and overcrowded sections of transportation infrastructure in the country. This in itself is not overly surprising considering the city in question is one of the central hubs of commerce for the civilized world and also possess a population density, while not the highest in the world, was certainly higher than was comfortable. Despite all of this though the number of collisions and other various transportation mishaps was quite impressive. This is due, in part, to the fact that many residence of the city swiftly garner a heightened sense of awareness that allows them to track their surroundings far more effectively than others, some even go so far as to label this expertise a sixth sense, specifically the driving instructor who had issued Zephyr his license during the mercenary's first few weeks in the city. The term had caused the hessian to smirk at the time as his mutation had endowed him a spatial awareness which could indeed be counted as a sixth sense, back in the present however the displaced elemental found himself cursing his new build as he haphazardly shifted what little weight he possessed against the solid metal frame beneath his slight form and swung the machine out into a new lane to dodge the oncoming truck and thus avoid becoming nothing more than a crimson streak on the road.

A cacophonous concert of screeches and horns crashed through the air, echoing dimly behind the apathetic mercenary as he cut off yet another vehicle in order to gain access to the highway off ramp and depart the overall chaos of the interstate in favour of lesser traveled roads. Such a move irked the typically aloof hessian but while he may have been somewhat prideful of his driving abilities he wasn't suicidal, he needed to get back to labs in one piece and in his current state that wasn't something he could at high speed. Muffling a curse Zephyr shifted the engine down a gear before proceeding down the dual lane road, he had some time and so could afford to slow his pace but that didn't mean he had to like it.

Upon finally arriving at Mondragon Zephyr found that the labs security had been informed of his visit in advance as he was swiftly permitted access to the facility the moment he stated the identity of his host body. A short journey from the parking facility soon found the elemental wandering through the maze like nexus of hallways which made up the majority of Mondragon. Occasionally the hessian would passed another group or individual who would stare momentarily at the image of the casually dressed female in the somewhat bulky jacket however Zephyr pace and overall demeanor did no permit questions and so after a few prudent shortcuts the mercenary finally made his way to the board where the guard at the main gate had assured him his meeting would take place and, sure enough, upon entering the room Zephyr found both Slate and... himself.

"This is... different."

It was a rather surreal experiencing; being able to view oneself without the aid of a mirror or other reflective surface, something about being able to view your own body from the outside seemed simply... unnatural and it gave the mercenary a moments pause as his mind attempted to comprehend what he was seeing. The surprise passed eventually though and upon seeing no obvious signs of injury on his body the hessian lowered himself into a seat and slowly switched his gaze to Slate.

"Have you found anything?"

Zephyr was quite attractive, as females go. His hair was short and cutely cut; his face round, the combination of his mouth and eyes giving him an intelligent, somewhat playful look. His legs, however, did not hold the Kabal Leader’s attention in quite the same way as Tarin’s wife’s.

>> "This is... different."

That familiar British accent was not particularly attractive, either.

>> "Have you found anything?"

“The medical staff was unable to find anything physically wrong with Lily,” Slate said, inclining his head towards Zephyr’s body. “Have you two met before? Do either of you know any mutants who could have done this--a psychic with poor control, perhaps?” The psychic with poor control asking this question clearly did not qualify. True, he did not know what the full extent of his powers were; true, also, that even his telepathy was not yet under his full control. However, it was not as if he harbored any secret wish to replace the mercenary with someone more... pleasant.

Hmm.

Really, no matter how Slate looked at these two, the situation was not so bad. Both versions of Zephyr here with him were an arguable improvement.

If Lily thought she was prepared for seeing herself walk in, she couldn't have been more wrong. If she thought they finally got to the ultimate limits of weirdness... she was wrong again.
One half of her mind wondered if it would be awkward to hug her own body, and after half a step forward she decided on yes it would.
The other half was occupied by much more feminine matters.
"What are you wearing?!" she asked the new owner of her physical self, eying the outfit - she recognized the items, except for the jacket, but she'd never worn them like this. Even worse, she had to note what he was not wearing, and that made her cheeks turn pink. The next minute she was chuckling at herself. Was she really worried about the clothes she was wearing when someone else was wearing her body?!...
"... eh, never mind."
“Have you two met before? Do either of you know any mutants who could have done this--a psychic with poor control, perhaps?”
Lily shook her head.
"I only know a few people in the Mansion... but I don't know about anyone who's capable of something like this. We could always ask Sam, I guess, or someone keeping the student records, but..." glancing at herself sitting in the opposite chair, she frowned and shook her head again.
"Do you have any idea why? I mean... we don't know each other, and we clearly have nothing in common." she pointed out.

"What are you wearing?!"[/color]

Somewhat taken aback by his doppelgangers outburst regarding his attire Zephyr merely blinked as he watched his own azure gaze scout up and down his newly acquired feminine frame, evoking a slight amount of puzzlement within the elemental as he took a glance at his borrowed form. The raiment’s currently covering the displaced mercenary’s frame were neither elegant nor daring as the items had been chosen for their practicality rather than their contribution to fashion and so the elemental had gone with the bare minimum of clothing necessary to be considered decent whilst also allowing an unhindered range of movement. It was a rationale which had seemed quite sensible when the hessian had resided within the well heated mansion accommodations and made his selection. Mondragon labs however was, as the name might imply, a scientific facility and so the ambient temperature was kept moderately lower than that of most quotidian constructs which, when combined with the slightly flimsy material of a polo shirt, led to a somewhat interesting development likely to… peak the interest of any possessing a Y chromosome.

Having now grasped the underlying cause of distress from his feminine facsimile Zephyr merely raised his head back to the two individuals before him before shifting his shoulders in a nonchalant shrug, while at the same time consciously willing himself not to close the oversized coat hanging around his borrowed frame. This was not his body and the elemental would be damned before he allowed himself to feel self conscious over something such as this, in all honesty it was not a particularly trying task; a male mind, even one residing within a female form is rarely ever abashed by the sight of a shapely feminine figure, thus it required almost no effort for the hessian to dissemble a casual air as he idly worded his apathetic response.

“My apologies, your wardrobe was somewhat lacking in practical attire, oh come now no need to blush, I’m certain it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”

For some reason such a response did not seem to mollify his modest doppelganger who only seemed to turn a slightly deeper shade of crimson until she abruptly released an embarrassed chuckle and quietly dropped the issue, eliciting only another shrug from Zephyr before Slate spoke once more, delivering a disheartening summary of the current state of affairs which caused the displaced elementals countenance to darken somewhat and earned his employer a tenebrous glance as the self acclaimed physic proceeded with a series of self implicating questions whilst staring rather… intently, at the hessians new form.

After Lily had delivered her own succinct perception of events Zephyr shifted his stance slightly as he nodded in agreement with his doppelganger. “I’ve never encountered Ms. Lafayette before today, as for licentious physics, yours is the only name which springs to mind, perhaps if you are done gawking at Ms. Lafayette’s body though we might move on to more profitable endeavors? Possibly retracting our steps from the previous day?”

((ooc: Sorry for the delay! I think I’m going to duck out with this post, so you two can keep RPing without waitin’ on me. )

>> "What are you wearing?!"

Zephyr looked down at herself. Lily’s manly cheeks blushed. Slate blinked questioningly, and tilted his head.

>> “I’ve never encountered Ms. Lafayette before today, as for licentious physics, yours is the only name which springs to mind, perhaps if you are done gawking at Ms. Lafayette’s body though we might move on to more profitable endeavors? Possibly retracting our steps from the previous day?”

He gave up his search for the fashion crime Zephyr had committed, and drew his gaze back up to their respective (though reversed) faces.

“That sounds like a reasonable idea. I think I will leave you to it. Miss Lily, when you are done here, please be sure to give your banking details to one of the secretaries. As promised, you are entitled to triple Zephyr’s usual commission.” He smiled. It was partly for her, and partly for one of life’s more simple joys: paying someone else for doing Zephyr’s job. “Thank you for your help today. If you ever wish to join the Kabal, consider your audition already passed.”

With a respectful nod to each of them, the Kabal’s Leader left the room.

“My apologies, your wardrobe was somewhat lacking in practical attire, oh come now no need to blush, I’m certain it’s nothing you haven’t seen before.”
That comment only managed to make Lily blush even more - that must look ridiculous on a guy's face - but now embarrassment was mixed with a hint of annoyance.
"That doesn't mean I appreciate everyone else seeing it." she muttered, before they all turned their attention to more important matters.
“That sounds like a reasonable idea. I think I will leave you to it. Miss Lily, when you are done here, please be sure to give your banking details to one of the secretaries. As promised, you are entitled to triple Zephyr’s usual commission. Thank you for your help today. If you ever wish to join the Kabal, consider your audition already passed.”
Lily blinked as she stared at Slate.
"Who... what?" she muttered. Was this kid for real? He not only managed to drag her off on some crazy mission and get her into a fight, now he wanted to pay a fee for it too?... And recruit her to some organization that employed people like the one whose body she was in?...
"Um... yeah, sure."
She'll deal with that later. She didn't really need money, but she was kind of curious what the 'usual fee' was for a job like this.
Later.
"...perhaps if you are done gawking at Ms. Lafayette’s body though we might move on to more profitable endeavors? Possibly retracting our steps from the previous day?”
Lily shook her head, and ran her fingers through the annoyingly short hair Zephyr had. Well, shorter than she was used to, anyway.
"That doesn't make any sense, I haven't even left the Mansion yesterday. I..." she sighed "... I have no idea what's going on. I just woke up in your body. Does that make any sense?... No it doesn't, does it. All right... did you talk to anyone in the school before you came here? Did you meet the other students?"
... did you manage to destroy my reputation forever?...

Ignoring the abashed mutterings of his unworldly other self Zephyr instead allowed his focus to wander as he slipped a hand into the pocket of his leather coat and idly sought out one of several metallic coins he'd placed there earlier in the day. Withdrawing one from the meager pile the displaced elemental began to carefully flip the argent disc between slender fingers, gradually gaining speed as an unnatural awareness flared within the hessian's mind; imparting information regarding the coins dimensions, mass and composition along with attribute which was almost impossible to put in words... the closet lexeme would, perhaps, be synchronization yet even that was somewhat misleading however in short it was simply a measure of how compatible a given object was with Miss Layfettes mutation as Zephyr so far understood it and although the mercenary had only spent an afternoon toying with the girl's abilities he was fairly certain he'd managed to grasp the crux of their nature.

To state it plainly the woman appeared to possess some form of metal manipulation, annoyingly though the power did not work with all metals. The jewelry which he had found in the girls room had responded surprisingly well, however keys, knives and watches all seemed immune to gamines gift. Coins in particular had proven to be perhaps the most irritating of items as they were not static in their response, penny's and dimes were as deaf as any of the other aforementioned objects; however when it came quarters the hessian had run across several which had almost seemed to glow and fell easily under the sway of Layfattes mutation, thus as has already been stated Zephyr spent the majority of his afternoon toying with the coins.

The above knowledge is important because it explains how, after Slate made his rather ill advised compensation quip, Zephyr was able to withdraw four coins silver coins from the lining of his pocket with only the pads of his fingers and, after a brief a moment to calibrate his aim, fired all four discs one after another with a flick of his thumb at the back of telepaths head just as the door to the conference room swung shut.

Petty vengeance thus delivered the displaced mercenary turned back to his demure doppelganger, an expression of mild irritation on his features as he spoke in a cold quiet tone, "What, precisely, have you been doing with my body?"

Lily winced as Zephyr used her powers to shoot coins at her... erm, his boss. That just didn't seem right, on so many levels.
"So, you figured out my abilities" she observed. Or someone else enlightened him. Either way, he was not half bad using them. Lily never thought about shooting stuff at people before.
"What, precisely, have you been doing with my body?"
Jewel raised an eyebrow. What does he think she's been doing?...
"Well, let's see. I escorted your boss to an auction to purchase some weapon of mass destruction, got attacked by the good guys, got hit on by some women who scared the heck out of me, and probably killed someone as well."
Or Slate killed her. The details were a little bit foggy on that.
"I do hope this is a normal day in your life, because it sure is not in mine." she sighed "So. What have you been doing with my body?"
Do I even want to know?...