A fly wheeled in the air above the plate like a vulture circling a meal. Wheels rattled down the hotel's hall. The trolley of food stopped. A nondescript black blob moved across the reflective surface of the domed silver lid. The blob's sleeve sunk. Two antennae wiggled free, sensing the air. A cockroach peered down at the floor below.

Something plopped. The worker glanced down at the roach as it kicked its legs against gravity. A gloved hand dropped, scooping him up.

"You have to be more careful," The waiter murmured. He held the roach gently in the palm of his hand. A gloved finger stroked back. The door ahead of him clicked open. The roach slid away. "Ahem, yes! Room service!" The waiter nervously announced.

Hazel eyes narrowed on the man. Eighteen, nineteen, with platinum blond hair and eyes like emeralds. A darkened hand patted a mouth. The Asian in the doorway yawned.

"Bacon and eggs, then?" Shin gave a content smile as his hand dropped to the blue side of a jean leg. His other hand scratched at white undershirt. His chest.

The waiter nodded. Shin yawned. "Well, wheel it in, then." He stepped aside to let the waiter through the doorway. The food trolley rattled in. The waiter turned.

"There you are, sir. When finished, wheel it into the hall. If there is anything else, you know who to call. Good day."

"Later," Shin waved. The blond slipped out the door, down the hall. Shin popped a head out, watching him go.

Strange... He thought to himself. The waiter had seemed worried when he opened the door, like he'd been caught doing something dishonest.

A sudden horror struck Shin. He turned back to his tray of food, and tore off the lid. His face inverted colors in shock!!

". . . " The egg yolk was broken. He'd ordered 'over easy'. A horrible offense, it wasn't. So, what could that waiter have been so nervous about?

~*~

A few minutes later, Shin knocked on the door to Fade's room. He had a theory... It was a wild theory, but a theory all-the-same. They needed to talk.

Fade had been sitting around in her room. Or so any kind of technology that logs what time she used her key in the door would assume. She had been out, phasing through walls, walking through other rooms just for peeks. Maybe someone was using their power in their room and hiding it. Most people were just watching television or taking a shower or still sleeping. Fade's ways of life had been becoming less and less X-Men-like, but she still had a good heart, even if she did unorthodox actions. Sauntering through everyone's room did not seem like something Shawn or Sam would do.

Speaking of which, when she left one of the rooms, she entered her hallway and saw Shin at her door, knocking. Slowly, she crept over to her wall and phased through, of course, she had been invisible this entire time or it would have been weird for a redhead to walk into all the hotel rooms. It wasn't that she didn't want Shin to know that she really was not in her room, it was just that she did not want to explain where she had been since she did not come up with any leads.

Before she opened the door, she took off her shoes and kicked them under the bed like she usually did and she threw off her light jacket and draped it over her bed. "Yeah, coming," she said, putting her hand on the door. Quickly, she jerked her hand down and opened it. "Hey, come on inside," she said, knowing that what they would be talking about wouldn't necessarily be discussed in the hallway. What if there was another little invisible phaser who could eavesdrop on their conversation? Then that power didn't seem too fair, did it? Hypocritical Fade.

"So, I think my waiter this morning was a mutant," Shin stated offhandedly after he'd safely entered Fade's room, and closed the door. He walked casually over to a chair, and spun it so he could sit. "Maybe we could spy on him, or check out the hotel's staff. There might be more mutants abound... so, how was your morning?"

His was good. The wrong kind of eggs at breakfast, but the right kind of mattress. He'd slept like a baby, except for the rampant dreams of triangles, and numbers chasing him in his sleep. Actually, he was kind of sleepy still, like he'd been running? Yeah.

"Also, have I showed you what my power is?" Shin changed the subject. What with her being the 'team leader' and all, she'd want to know...

He mentioned that maybe the Hotel Staff were mutants, which nearly made the redhead hit herself in the forehead with stupidity. Why had she not thought of that? It would have made more sense that the mutants were running instead of housing humans in their hotel. Then again, maybe that's why they did it, it would be the one place that no one would have thought of. All this thinking was giving the redhead a major head ache. Reason number one as to why Fade did not go to school: she hated thinking. Well, it was not that she hated thinking, she would die if she did not do that, she just hated thinking about what the teachers told her to think about, she had her own thoughts, right?

"That may actually be a possibility. I can see what I can come up with, maybe do some eavesdropping and snooping around," she nodded in agreement. "My morning was nice, the shower had some warm water and fancy shampoo bottles," she admitted. Hotel rooms were the comfiest to sneak into when she had no home. Especially when her room in the mall attic got too cold. "I haven't noticed any of the guests here being mutants, not yet at least," she said subtly. Maybe Shin would be curious as to why she thought that, maybe he would just let it slide. Still, she told him what she had gathered, just not how.

It was a fact, that as an X-Man, you get to pick a nickname that fit your power perfectly. Fade had been called just that much longer than some had their nicknames. In fact, some of the X-Men preferred to use their real names, where as Fade hated her human name, primarily because it was posted on a few milk cartons and posters. HAVE YOU SEEN THIS GIRL? It should have said HAVE YOU SEEN THIS CRAZY CRIMINAL? Still, the name Fade clearly stated that she was able to turn invisible, although the phasing power was not to apparent. Shin was quite a tough name to figure out. Was it his real name or his X-Name? And if it was his X-Name, did it mean he was able to manipulate people's legs? Their shins? Or was it like a Shin-dig? "No, I don't believe I do know your power. I didn't fight with you at KP this last time," she said. Only a few people at that battle had fought at the first KP and could call it KP II.

>>"That may actually be a possibility. I can see what I can come up with, maybe do some eavesdropping and snooping around."

"Sounds good," Shin replied with a sleepy nod. Exactly what he'd been hoping for. Though, why she'd commented about the guests made him wonder. Had they suspected the guests? Maybe, she'd had a chance to look around the building before he arrived. Her power was 'stealth', after all. Maybe she'd slipped in and out of other peoples' rooms without them seeing her, doing her duty for the greater good... or more logically and ethically, she'd checked some of the other guests out at breakfast, and walking around the fancy hotel. Yeah. That made more sense. He let that slide for the moment, focusing on the more important matter at hand.

Showing her his power. "Yeah," Shin replied tersely at the mention of KP. She could probably consider herself lucky there. She got out of it with all her limbs intact. Shin, on the other hand. "KP was pretty crazy... especially the ending. Anyways," He held up his right hand, illustrating a point. Well, actually, three of them. A red 3" triangle hovered above his palm, tip pointed downwards. After three rotations, a few more joined it, forming a pyramid. Shin looked Fade in the eye. "I suppose some X-men have names that fit their powers. I usually go by my real name... if you want to use a codename for this mission... I guess we could go by what Shawn called me a while back? Shard."

It was a fitting name, Shard, but a dead giveaway at parties. If there was one thing Shin disliked, it was giving away the secret of the magic trick before the show. He liked that his power was unpredictable, had many uses, and had style. Now, for the trick of describing it ... his eyes focused on the pyramid as it rotated above his hand. "I control razor-sharp triangular mental barriers, and can use them to form all sorts of shapes... they're good for cutting, and blocking damage... I've also been working on using them as platforms for levitation. They've got quite a bit more lifting strength than I do on my own..." The pyramid vanished, and Shin looked back up at Fade. "What about you? Anything beyond the invisibility and the sharp fingernails? You don't walk through walls, and spy on people, do you?" He shared a weak laugh, because that was ridiculous, right?

Like elevens.

He showed his power, sharp triangles at his fingertips. How very odd. Shard did fit him more, but she was so used to calling him Shin that maybe she would just stick to that. Seemed like he enjoyed the name Shin more, especially if he had to think back and remember the name Shard. "Sounds like a good power to have in battle." Fade, on the other hand, was not good in combat. Her powers were stealth and reconnaisance. Why couldn't she have the power to throw giant boulders at people? Or cut people in half with a blade she can shoot from her spinal cord?

His mention of how she could walk through walls made her tingle a little bit, especially while on the topic of KP. Come to think of it, Hadn't Shin been in the Infirmary with her? Although she was in a little bit of a different care. While some mutants came out with bruises, cuts, missing body parts, and possible Post-Traumatic Stress, Fade left the battle dead. It was not a second of death, it was quite a few minutes of her in the other world. Her phasing powers nearly caused her her life. The punch that Shade sent before she could phase through fully directly impacted her heart, no muscles, no ribs, no lungs to protect it. It took her a bit longer to recover.

Shaking back to reality, she looked up. "Yes, I do actually have phasing powers. I can remain undetected by almost anything, just Luke and Ghost can find me when I'm hiding, and only Ghost can chase me. I can also manipulate my phasing powers in my claws, so I can phase them into a wall and then make them solid so I can climb walls, ceilings and such. So when you need someone to check if the coast is clear, just ask me.

>> "Sounds like a good power to have in battle."

Shin shrugged. "It has its merits. It's dangerous, more than anything... though it is pretty useful if I had any furniture to move." He held his chin, contemplating. With all the lifting practice he'd been doing with Koga and Kasumi, and on his own, he'd gotten fairly good at making platforms to carry things.. it might apply to couches.

Further testing, required.

Fade spoke again.

>>"Yes, I do actually have phasing powers. I can remain undetected by almost anything, just Luke and Ghost can find me when I'm hiding, and only Ghost can chase me. I can also manipulate my phasing powers in my claws, so I can phase them into a wall and then make them solid so I can climb walls, ceilings and such. So when you need someone to check if the coast is clear, just ask me."

Shin nodded. That was interesting. Very interesting. And useful. "I see. Neat. Totally undetected?" He queried, quirking a brow. "Like, say if there was a heavy mist, or raining paint, or someone filled an entire room with razor sharp barriers, you'd remain undetected?" He supposed there'd be some displacement of the barriers... though perhaps, she'd merely phase through those. Shin shirked the thought. It didn't matter. She'd answered him enough. "That's very cool. Anyways, as I was saying earlier, hotel staff. Suggestions?"

She was the team leader, after all. This was her shot to call.

Fade smiled at how he can use his power to move the furniture. Then again, if it weren't for the mansion, she would not have any furniture to move. Still, she hated moving the bed away from the bathroom room so she could stop stubbing her two every time she danced out in her towel. Now that she was not stubbing her toe, it made it nearly impossible for her to stop dancing in her towel and occassionally, she'd just walk down the hall, into the kitchen, grab a snack, and then go back up to her room and change. Though no one really knew this because she'd rather be invisible and in a towel than visible and fully clothed. That was something that giant red man at the bar would appreciate...

"Razor sharp barriers? Well, I'm sure I'd be able to phase through them. The mist and raining paint, I don't think I can get through. Because I have to turn everything that touches my skin invisible to remain undetected, if I did that in, let's say, a shower, then there would just be a section of the shower with no water that fit my body shape. So yeah, water is a bit harder to remain undetected in, but I'm working on it. I'm also working on remaining undetected by heat vision, I think I almost have it down, just haven't tested it in a bit," she shrugged. Maybe she could work on that.

"I am sure the staff will be very careful with their powers, they wouldn't use it for small things. Perhaps, if I can sneak into some area and set a minor fire while you distract them, someone would have to put out the fire quickly, possibly using their power so that no one stopped by to make sure they were OK. The police in the staff room would not be a good thing if they really are mutants." Some would not go for the fire thing, especially if they were an X-Man, then again, Fade had been out of the game for a bit. She did not see any harm in a minor fire, so long as it could be put out easily. "Maybe if the fire doesn't settle, you can use your power to cut a water pipe to put it out?"

>>"Razor sharp barriers? Well, I'm sure I'd be able to phase through them. The mist and raining paint, I don't think I can get through..."

Noted and noted. It was as he'd expected. Showering invisible people could be viewed by the displacement of water, or whatever liquid they came in contact with. He assumed footsteps in sand or snow also gave them away. They weren't shinobi. There was no shadow step. No water-walking.

>>"Perhaps, if I can sneak into some area and set a minor fire..."

"Absolutely not." Shin hadn't needed to listen to the rest of her suggestion to deem it 'ridiculous'. "There's no guarantee that'd garner their attention. I'm not about to set fire to the hotel I'm sleeping in for the sake of this mission. And who is to say the mutants in-question wouldn't react violently to the fire?" They might be like Ghost, and burst into the flames. "Who is to say the humans in question wouldn't react violently to the fire-starters? No, we can find better methods. Like..."

He paused a second, looking off to think. Shin held his chin. He didn't suppose if they put up a 'this one, mutants' and 'this one, humans' sign on the public toilets, they'd see a notable reaction... the same went for 'mutant-only' snack trays. Cubed cheese wasn't worth imprisonment (even if cheddar was some of the best stuff ever). "Maybe we could do some sleuthing. They'd have to leave some sort of clues they were mutants..." Evidence was better than brute force guessing and assumptions, anyways. Really, he'd hoped Fade would be more logical about this!