Shana had been gone from the city for some time, and it was strange to realize just how much this place had become like home in just a short time, or maybe it was simply that she had begun taking for granted that no one knew her secrets here, her pain. She had gone back home for a months time to visit her mother, which would have been fine in itself but to many people knew her back there. Looking around she felt like she did the first time she had come to NYC, scared but confident things would work out for the best. The building were so tall here and their were so many people as well from so many different areas of the earth, nothing at all like home.

The blue haired woman attracted enough attention as she walked down the street as it was. She still had no idea why her mutation had chosen to give her a natural head of blue hair, it seemed to serve no logical purpose. Trying hard not to dwell on what had happened the past few weeks, she made her way down the block stopping when she stood in front of the coffee shop that had started all the chaos to begin with. She had met several mansion residents that day who had all helped her out. Quickly walking past it she tried her best not to look at it and just move on.

As she came to a sidewalk she looked over at a house with kids playing in front of it when their ball rolled out into the street. Stopping she looked at the ball grabbing it with her mind and making t float then returned it to the child. The Kid thanked her, but when his mother saw what happened she began screaming a curious string or colorful words including the phrase mutant freak. Knowing her explanation would likely just be ignored, she instead ran, as she did she lost focus on her powers making her more obvious as small objects began to float around her, but she was two scared to notice, barely even realizing she had enterd times square when she stopped. Breathing hard she focussed on the small objects that had come with her, mostly trash and made them sit on the ground as she rubbed her head, wondering where she had picked up a floating rolling pin. She grabbed this and looked at the marble rolling pin curiously,before remembering the kid's mother had it in her hand. She hoped no one around here had seen what had happened, the last thing she wanted was more excitement. Hopefully she had out run the issue.

A mutant. Ahorta had seen a mutant. Only a mutant could make a ball float, take off, and take a rolling pin from the mother's hand with her. The blue haired girl ran off and Ahorta turned to the children and their ball. The mother was scolding one of the kids about how not to encourage that sort of behavior from mutants and freaks. The other two were rolling the ball back and forth between eachother. Angered by what she had seen, Ahorta grabbed the ball from the children and removed her glove. It was a brave act, but she was acting on impulse and rashness instead of actually thinking it fully through. What if feces were on the ball, that carried salmonella (sp?) or some other kind of virus? No matter, she grabbed the ball with her ungloved hand and it disentigrated slowly. The mother looked up along with her scoulded son and her mouth dropped. Once the last bits of the ball dripped from her fingertips, she made her way to the children. However, they weren't children to her, they were slimy toads, trying to get away while leaving a long slimy path behind them. Disgusting.

The mother screamed for the children to come inside and they ran, the giant toads jumped their way to the door and the mother locked it, screaming from the inside. A handfull of people had stopped to stare, but Ahorta replaced her glove and moved as quickly as possible away from the scene, she did not want the men in the white coats to find her, so she fled. Rounding a few corners, she saw the blue hair, the blue hair friend. Blue was the color of Windex, that could clean anything so long as she did not make contact with it.

"Humans are so disgusting," she stated, standing in front of the blue haired girl. No introduction, no 'i'm sorry', just pure expression of her hatred for humans. Only another mutant could understand, although she heard there were some that liked humans. No, humans did not even make good pets, those mutants were fools.

Juka had spent a lot of time wandering the streets (or more often the skies) of New York City just thinking. Not so long ago, only weeks ago really, he never would have spent nearly so much time in deep thought, or at least not in deep thought about things that really mattered like his future and who and what he wanted to be. His encounter with Abyss and the blue skinned mutant and his later discussion with Van hand changed him and he still wasn't entirely sure what all of the changes meant. He knew this much: He knew that he wanted to do something meaningful with his life. That didn't mean he couldn't still be the fabulous performer he always was, of course, but it did mean that performing was no longer to be the center of his existance. There were more important things to focus on, more important things to dedicate one's life to.

As Juka wandered, deep in thought, he wasn't really paying much attention to what was going on around him. He didn't see his darling shy Shana, that was for certain. If he had he would have run up to her, given her a big hug, and tried to convince her to come out of her shell a bit more. A day of grand adventure would have followed (whether Shana came willingly or not). While he might not have seen the blue haired mutant, he certainly did hear the yells of the angry mother, a mother who clearly did not understand that mutants were people to and deserving of just as much respect as regular humans and having just as real emotions as regular humans. It was up to Juka to show her the error of her ways.

In the merest moment of decision, Juka bubbled and began floating towards the scene of such discrimination and hatred, only to discover that he was not the first to arrive on the scene. No, some other mutant girl arrived there first, dissolving the kid's ball and causing the mother to panic even further. Oh, she did look angry. Angry and afraid. "You deserved that for frightening an innocent mutant," Juka yelled after the fleeing woman and her children. They hadn't actually been hurt, after all.

Since it was apparent that Juka was not to be the one to teach the unpleasant woman a lesson (she was terrified enough as it was and he wasn't about to break into her house), he instead floated after the second mutant woman to see who was the initial cause of the commotion. It was with some surprise that he came upon Shana. "Shana, dearest? Are you all right?"

"Humans are so disgusting,"

Oh no. That was never a good sentiment. Things tended to go badly when people of that mindset were around. Hopefully, Juka thought, this would be the exception.

Still holding the rolling pin she tilted her head as the woman mentioned humans being disgusting. Shana had never met a mutant that was of this mindset, and so it took her by surprise entirely. More of the hatred she had tried to leave behind, not directed the same way but hate was hate after all, even if it was slightly better when you were not the target of it. Still she had met many kind humans and many who just wished to harm her.

Before she could respond, the lovely voice of Juka alerted her to his presence, she had never been so glad to see him, so relieved was she, she almost forgot he had been talking to her. "yea i'm all right, my powers got away from me again" she said looking back to the brown haired girl. "Well that one maybe, but she is just acting that way because she does not understand and is afraid, humans and mutants, their both the same, both bleed, and can be happy or angry" she said hoping the girl would stay calm.

ANother thing dawned on her, whoever this girl was, she had to be a mutant, why else would she hate humans? Shana quickly worked to second guess herself be reasoning the girl might just be insane. Then again maybe she was judging to early all together. People acted as they did because certain events in their lifes shaped them to do so, which meant no one was really evil, because they were simply doing what they believed was best, even if no one else understood their plan. All she could o now was wait for the girl to reply.

((SORRY! My birthday was around this time and my mom flew out from CO and now I'm in the process of getting promoted so work is crazy! SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG!))

Another entered the scene. Apparently Ahorta's hair color was out of style since it was natural, the two looked like an American flag together. It almost caused her to laugh, but only almost. Oh great, they were sympathsizers (sp?). Even though the disagreed with the humans, they still took pity on them and tried to understand where they were coming from. Lucky for Ahorta, she already knew where they were coming from. Hell. Humans were from the pits of hell. Not as if Ahorta really believed in Heaven or Hell or any higher being, but there was this bad place that all of the scum of society supposedly went to when they died or came from when they were born, that four letter word H-E-L-L.

They came up with excuses for the woman. "Afraid? They were afraid? How are we supposed to be brave when we are ridiculed, criticised and hunted by these humans who are so-called afraid." So maybe Ahorta should never speak at a rally, this was the one cohesive arguement she could make. "And besides, those weren't humans for long, they were toads," she said non-chalantly. Only Ahorta could see a human's true face, according to her shattered mind.

The way they both looked at her suggested they weren't in the same boat, so she shrugged it off. At least they were mutants, humans always scared her. Not her species though, they were the most normal in the world. Humans were to simple. She stared at her shoes, gently erasing the memory of what just happened so she could stay with the two sympathsizers a bit longer. There was comfort in numbers, though most of the time, Ahorta wanted to be alone.

"yea i'm all right, my powers got away from me again"

Juka grinned sheepishly at Shana and reached over to give her a conciliatory pat on the shoulder. He'd had his own power issues recently what with the fact that they seemed to have a mind of their own preving his need for sleep or food. Or, in some cases, interacting oddly with other things he decided to bubble with them. Luckily the problems were pretty much self contained within the bubbles themselves and therefore he didn't get any badly reacting humans, but he felt bad for Shana nevertheless.

"Well that one maybe, but she is just acting that way because she does not understand and is afraid, humans and mutants, their both the same, both bleed, and can be happy or angry"

Juka nodded his agreement. "It really is a shame sometimes. People need to learn about mutants, that most of us aren't that dangerous and really aren't all that different than they are." It really was a sad state of affairs. Why should a mutant be more disparaged than a human with a gun? That human could do just as much damage with his weapon as most mutants could and guns werent' exactly hard to come by in this country.

"Afraid? They were afraid? How are we supposed to be brave when we are ridiculed, criticised and hunted by these humans who are so-called afraid. And besides, those weren't humans for long, they were toads,"

Juka blinked at the woman. Toads? What? He was beginning to relaize that that woman wasn't all there mentally. "Toads? What are you talking about? Besides, we can be plenty brave and help educate those fearful humans in the process and show them that they needn't fear mutants."

Shana was surprised by ahorta's reaction to the human, as well as ahorta argument, which made almost no sense to her. Still Shana forced herself to stay calm, which was not easy for her and reminded herself, this girl likely just had bad experiences with humans who were fearful of her and developed a dislike of humans from that. Shana smiled though a finger played with her long blue locks of hair, fear was common, it caused almost every issue on the planet in shana's opinion.

"Toads?" she asked not understanding the woman's questionable mental state, and though about to reply she let Aura Juka reply instead. "We all have fear's and this is what causes things like what happened today, as well as the way each of us has learned to look at humans. I have been ridiculed and made fun of my entire life even before i realized i had powers. I even fled my own country becuse their fear of me became to great, being brave can be very hard at times, it is certainly for me anyway, but i think thats what makes it more worth the pursuit" she said looking a little tired from the long speech, long for her anyway.

Shana could not help but wonder what happened to this girl, to make her dislike humans so much. "Humans and mutants can both be dangerous toads when they wish to be. " Shana replied now thinking Ahorta had referred to humans as toads as a way of calling them evil, but if that were the case their were many evil mutants out there if you wnated to use the term, which Shana tried hard to stay away from. Shana still was unsure why everyone could not find a way to just get along and treat eachother with respect.

Of course they didn't know what she meant by toads. No one ever saw humans' true forms. Everyone thought they looked just likt mutants, except without visible mutations. A human mutant was someone with braces, odd hair or too many piercings, but no, the real mutants were something completely different. Some mutants believed they could be accepted after time. Just like how the Irish were accepted in America after hardships, or the Chinese, or how women were accepted and African Americans. But mutants were different. Women were not stronger than men. African Americans were not more ferocious than their caucasian coutnerpart. The Irish and the Chinese were not more adapt to surviving severe conditions. Whereas mutants were stronger and better. Humans would not just integrate them into society. Humans needed to be weeded out.

Still, most mutants did not understand this. They weren't ready for it. Ahorta simply shut her mouth and remained with them. She hated being alone. Hated it so much. Mutants were the only non-scary creatures. Ahorta could be brave, only when she realizes that the only way to escape the grasp of death was to chop it's head off. No one really understood fear, what fear could become. People were afraid of what mutants could do. Some may have been hurt by some rogue mutants, including herself, but there were few people in the world who shared the overstimulated fear that came with paranoid schizophrenia. Ahorta couldn't go outside without seeing snakes. She couldn't get on a Subway without being corned by alcoholics, clowns, and prostitutes. She couldn't go to a diner without her food being poisoned. It was a different sense of fear. Some people could block it out, but Ahorta couldn't, she refused. It kept her sane...or so she thought.

"When mutants are toads, it's cause they are born like that. They're all slimey and gross, but they can't help it. That woman was hardly a human, she was a giant toad and she smelled like one. I hate toads more than humans. Why can no one see what I can see? We don't all bleed the same. The snake over there doesn't scare anyone by selling magazines, but everyone thinks he's human," she said, pointing to the newspaper vendor. "And the Ventriloquist's Dummy over there is seating people at that table, and no one thinks thats weird," she pointed to a human waiter. "But everyone thinks I'm abnormal. Don't worry, it's just because they don't see." It made perfect sense to her. Hopefully they understood, but she doubted it.

Clearly Shana was just as confused about the whole toads thing as Juka was which just served to reinforce his impression that the woman was crazy. Completely and utterly crazy. People were not toads, of that he was quite certain. There might be the occasional toad-like mutant or maybe even a mutant that could turn into a toad, but that lady didn't appear to be any such thing. Unless the woman could see through an outer shell of a person and divine that they had a second mutant form? But no, that didn't make any sense either judging by how the woman had reacted to the presence of mutants. She was human through and through and therefore not toady.

"We all have fear's and this is what causes things like what happened today, as well as the way each of us has learned to look at humans. I have been ridiculed and made fun of my entire life even before i realized i had powers. I even fled my own country becuse their fear of me became to great, being brave can be very hard at times, it is certainly for me anyway, but i think thats what makes it more worth the pursuit"

Juka reached over to give Shana a quick hug. He figured he was started to get to know her well enough that she could be considered a friend and all friends deserved hugs during their times of sorrow. "I fled my country because my parents kicked me out and disowned me for dressing like a woman," Juka stated with a grimace. "They didn't even know that I had powers; at least if they did they never mentioned anything. We all have our problems I guess, right?"

"When mutants are toads, it's cause they are born like that. They're all slimey and gross, but they can't help it. That woman was hardly a human, she was a giant toad and she smelled like one. I hate toads more than humans. Why can no one see what I can see? We don't all bleed the same. The snake over there doesn't scare anyone by selling magazines, but everyone thinks he's human," she said, pointing to the newspaper vendor. "And the Ventriloquist's Dummy over there is seating people at that table, and no one thinks thats weird. But everyone thinks I'm abnormal. Don't worry, it's just because they don't see."

Juka blinked at the crazy lady. So apparently she wasn't talking about mutants after all, by her words it seemed like she was actually seeing things. That had to be dangerous, for a mutant to be seeing things, right? Who knew what kind of horrible powers she might have and what kinds of things she could do to people, not even realizing that she was doing a bad thing? He gave her a long appraising look. "Maybe you should see a doctor," Juka told her. "They can help you with things like that. A mutant doctor even, Doc Prof at the Mansion is really nice. I'm sure he'd be able to help you." Now, hopefully she wouldn't go crazy and start thinking Juka or Shana were toads and attack them or something.

"Yea that's true" she said to Juka, he seemed to understand moire then she had given him credit for, maybe they had more in common then she thought. "People can be quite cruel for so many reasons" she replied hugging Juka back as he explained why he left his own country. For the first time she was beginning to feel an actual kinship with Juka. "Yea we do, what matters is how we address the issues that we have" she replied with a smile.

"I think no one sees what you do, because what you see is not really there, how can you be sure that everyone else is sane and you are not?" she asked remaining calm, but the woman really did seem off her rocker. "Im trying to say you might be ill" she said trying to be gentile not sure how else to put it. She really did seem sick to her, i mean how else would she see normal humans as toads and the like. Unless they were mutants their was no way they could be snakes or anything else the girl mentioned.

unsure what else to say Shana decided to stay quite, regretting the things she had just said, wondering if the girl would be angry at what she had just said. She did believe the woman was in need of some help, like the doctor Juka had mentioned The very same doctor she had been avoiding for her own personal reasons. Still this woman seemed to be in much more need of him, then she was. "The doc, should be able to help you, and as juka said he is even a mutant" she said hoping the woman would agree to the help.

They didn't understand. Nobody understood and it only got worse. The world thought that doctors could solve everything. Got a cold? Go see a doctor! Have cancer? Go see a doctor! Had a bad life? Go see a doctor! Seeing things that aren't there? Definitely go see a doctor! No, Ahorta had heard of incidences where doctors just make things worse, she even went through it herself. No doctor can fix a broken family. No doctor can convince her things will be OK. Doctors were just there to mock us. The ironic part was that if a doctor ever had an illness that couldn't be solved, they became parodies of themselves. They were doctors, not God.

"No, doctors can't help, thank you," she simply replied. They were coming to take her away. A man that dressed as a woman was a particularly odd person to choose as a spy. Then again, it is hard to run into two mutants who disagreed with the gender they were born with, it could in fact be a set up instead of a rare coincidence. "Do you guys know eachother? If they denied it, they were in fact spies. If they knew eachother, the espionage was still up for debate and no verdict could be found. They were odd, just the kind of oddballs Ahorta enjoyed the company of.

Did the crazy know if they were crazy? A genius must know he's a genius if he sees things differently than the rest of the world. Where was the difference between crazy and genius? Ahorta saw the world different and most people could not understand what she meant. That was a sign of genius, not mental illness. "I'm not coughing, no one has poisoned me just yet, so no, I'm not ill. And I never said the rest of the world is insane, I said I see more than they do, it just means I am more advanced than they are," she huffed. Why did everyone automatically say she was crazy? And if they did not say it, they gave her odd looks and rethought everything they were going to say before speaking outloud.

Shana really was a sweet heart, Juka decided. He knew he was a terrible flirt and loved the attention he got for it and he was also aware that he tended to drop compliments, outrageous and otherwise, as often as possible. But Shana was one of those few women who were legitimately and honestly sweet and shy and adorable. Now if only he could work on helping her come out of her shell a little bit, they'd be all set. Something in her voice and her eyes made him think that her life hadn't always been happy and she often still wasn't entirely happy and all he wanted to do was try and change that for her, at least a little.

"The doc, should be able to help you, and as juka said he is even a mutant"

Juka nodded his agreement. Maybe if they two of them worked together, the woman might just see reason. "We're not just saying this for your own good but the good of others as well. Seeing things that aren't there, well, its just not healthy. I almost hurt someone very badly because of my own experience seeing something that wasn't there." An experience triggered by a near death experience that Aura had caused and in turn caused Juka to see Aura in someone who wasn't Aura and attack said person blindly. Luckily Mirror hadn't really been hurt in the incident and had forgiven him in the end. Just as thankfully it wasn't something that had ever been repeated. "We don't want to see you or anyone else get hurt."

"I'm not coughing, no one has poisoned me just yet, so no, I'm not ill. And I never said the rest of the world is insane, I said I see more than they do, it just means I am more advanced than they are,"

"We know each other," Juka agreed as there didn't seem to be much harm in admitting as much. Though given the present company, i.e. the crazy woman, he really felt himself wishing that he had his anvils with him. Just in case she should do something unexpected like see them as demons or something and come after them in a blind rage. Not only did he not want to make more of a spectacle than had all ready occured, but he also rather valued his own personal well being and the well being of his friend. Then again, given the woman's mindset, the more realistic outcome seemed to be her attacking some innocent toadish bystander and having to defend them. Funny how that didn't seem to be any more appealing than the first option.

"We know each other yes, in fact we have met a few times" Shana admitted smiling, moving a few stray locks of hair from her face. In fact she had started to enjoy Juka's company, more so now, with what she deemed an obviously crazy woman talking with hem, she just felt safer with juka by her side. She did not know that Juka had almost hurt someone with his powers, she would have to ask him about that in time but now was likely a very bad time.

Shan was starting to think they would not be able to help this one, she obviously did not want any help, even if she did need it. How could she help this woman at all if she did not want to be helped, she felt so powerless in the situation and meanwhile Juka seemed to be handling it so well. This woman was almost as scary to her as the human she realized except the woman's fear had a sliver of justice as many mutants gave them a bad name.

She wanted to ask juka what they could do and mentally lashed out at herself for her own lack of decision. What would she have done if Juka was not there, just say well don't hurt anyone? Could they really leave with her like this, a danger to anyone around her. Shan tried to say something but found the words escaped her mind before her voice could grasp them. "You don't see the same thing's in mutant's then? what about before you know their mutants?" she asked finealy able to say something and hoping she sounded calm and confident, though she was possative in her mind she was nether.

So they weren't spies, or they weren't very good spies at least. With every word they spoke, the spy theory came closer and closer to being thrown out the window. Good spies would deny they knew each other and they would not tell Ahorta she was crazy, they would convince her to come with them, say they understood what she was talking about. Anyone who called her crazy at least thought like everyone else who didn't want to catch her. Possibly, these two oddly clothed mutants, were harmless, yet naive, none the less.

"You two are a worrysome two," she smiled. "Don't worry, no one who deserves to live will be hurt by me. And you two fall in that category," for now she thought silently. Nothing was triggering her at the moment. So long as humans stayed their distance and she was surrounded by these two mutants, she would not have a panic attack and kill someone. Lately, she had been getting better at doing that kind of stuff in private as well. It's like an arachnaphobic spider living in a spider coven. Ahorta was stuck in a world that did not understand. Her only friend was spider food.

"Oh I don't know. That hasn't happened that often. Usually, you can tell with a mutant. They almost always have something amiss and when you spend your life watching both mutants and human's and their behaviors, you tend to know who is who. Also, the way people look at me. Most mutants think it may be a mutation that keeps this mask on me. Most humans don't bother to ask," she responded. She had attacked a mutant once, and they fought back with mutant powers, but she kept attacking because he was the enemy. Some mutant with odd triangles, he was asian or something.

How did one help someone who so clearly didn't want any help? Juka really didn't' know. An image of picking up the woman and forcing her into his bubble so that he could float her to the mansion and deposit her in front of Doc Prof for saving entered his mind, but he discarded the idea almost as soon as it appeared. That seemed like a very bad idea given her power and Juka didn't want to pop like that ball had. There had to be some way to get her help though, if not for her own sake then certainly for the sake of anyone she might hurt, accidentally or otherwise. If he had his anvils with him he could just knock her unconscious and then proceed with the floating but he unfortunately didn't have those with him. It just wasn't very practical to float anvils around everywhere he went.

"Well I'm glad that I at least deserve to live." Juka shot a worried direction Shana's way. Why wasn't it all that comforting to hear that the two of them deserved to live? For one thing, he didn't really like the idea of someone else saying that he 'deserved' to live. Everyone deserved to live. Even people that did bad things deserved to live, even if some of them also deserved to be punished. Even in the rare cases that they didn't, it wasn't up to anyone to decide that they didn't. Fate would take its course and, one way or another, they would be punished fittingly for whatever their crimes were.

"So, were you doing something in particular before you came upon us?" Juka asked. It just seemed prudent to change the topic of conversation away from humans and mutants that 'deserved' to live. "And no one tends to think I'm a mutant unless I start bubbling or something." Actually, maybe they would think he was a mutant by now. After all, her performed in a mutant band in public and was starting to care less and less about bubbling in public. Most people, surprisingly, actually reacted fairly well to it.