There was something to be said for hitting three consecutive bull's eyes in a friendly game of darts. That something that it was less than hitting three consecutive triple-20s. Ton 80.

Lenna bowed for the mutants in the rec room. "Thank you, boys. I'll be here all night."

A short mutant with pink hair muttered something under his breath, and turned away from her. A forked tongue flicked out of a lizard-man's mouth. "Thish ish ridiculoush..." He grumbled.

A three-fingered blue man reached up to high-five him (A high-three, in his case). "I concur. Let us leave her to her darts."

The two exited the recreation room in a huff, leaving a wave of conspiratorial whispers in their wake.

"She's gotta have some sort of marksmanship ability..."

"Or luck manipulation!"

"Maybe magnets?"

Lenna sighed. "I can hear you all, you know. Trust me. I'm just that good."

Her comment sent a ripple through the crowd of mutants. Some shook their head, tired of losing. They were done with it. They left. Others turned their attention to other options, like foozball, or ping pong. Of the large group of mutants that had been in the room, there were maybe five left.

"Typical," Lenna shook her head as she pulled the darts from the board. You topped one or two bulky mutants in a friendly game of darts, scored the highest possible score every time, and showed no signs of weakness, and all the cowards left the room. Wasn't the game supposed to be for fun?

Winning was fun, though, and someone always had to lose.

A house full of mutants, it was a dream come true. There was nothing to fear, not at the Sanctuary, no snakes to get her, no clowns to chuckle in her face, no prostitutes to wave their indecencies in front of her. The only down side was that not even a house full of mutants could coax Ahorta to come out of her shell. Although, simply being around other mutants calmed her down, so she sat in the Rec Room, keeping her eyes darting around the room from her seat in the corner. The sight of the girl winning the dart match caused a slight smirk to tug at the corner of Ahorta's mouth, but she didn't allow it to grow to noticeable proportion.

The mutants that left muttered some audible words, but Ahorta paid no attention to them. She simply watched them walk out, keeping to herself. She was the only mutant in the room who wasn't playing with anything. Ping pong was not her forte and foozball was a bit too overstimulating. Darts was her primary choice from the time she walked in, but there were so many people playing the game that she did not feel much like joining with such a crowd. Now that the mutant remaining at the dart board had wiped out the competition, maybe it would be safer to play.

Ahorta rose to her feet. She sauntered over to the dart board, or so she made it appear. In reality, it was more of a tippy toe. Her eyes darted around the entire time, making sure everyone stayed in the positions they were in before she stood up. When she reached the dart board, she looked at the girl for a moment and fell silent. She picked up a dart and aimed, but didn't fire. The center of the board was red, her favorite color, darts was so much fun.

Since arriving at the Sanctuary, Deirdra hadn’t had much of an opportunity to look around. She had gotten her things settled and her room put together for the most part. It was her first priority and she wanted to have it done. It would mean less to do later when all she wanted to do was sleep. When she had finally finished, the woman had begun her exploration. The blond had come across a room with many people in it and noticed that there was some equipment to keep the residents occupied. She glanced in and almost got flattened by a group of mutants who were storming out. They seemed to be complaining about losing darts or something of the like.

As the last one in the group walked out, Deirdra glared at them before turning her attention back to her discovery. The scorpion woman strutted into the room with her usually confidence. She had changed out of the police woman’s pants from her fiasco with Roland and now wore a pair of tight-fitting jeans. Her blond hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she wore a lower cut red shirt with matching high heels. This pair was one of her shorter and the heels were only about 2 inches tall. Deirdra Sykes disliked going anywhere unless she was looking her best.

The woman noticed a couple ladies playing darts and she smirked. Were those guys whining because they got beat by girls? A small chuckled escaped her as she shook her head. Men are so insecure sometimes. Deirdra perched on the edge of a chair and watched how the all the mutants interacted. She was curious as to how the dynamics worked and if there were any people who obviously demanded respect. She had seen it with Roland, but wondered if there was anyone else.

With nary a word, a mutant approached her. Lenna looked the girl over. She seemed like the strong silent type. Strong silent, Lenna reasoned, or stuck in her shell. She hadn't noticed the girl before, but now that she was holding one of Lenna's darts, Lenna took the time to take note of her mannerisms.

She wasn't just quiet. She seemed a bit skittish. If the darting eyes were any indication, the woman liked to know her surroundings. Maybe keep an eye on people?

Hmm.

"Gonna throw that?" Lenna asked.

The girl hadn't thrown the dart yet.

Lenna's words were like tiny darts themselves, piercing her thoughts and reminding her that while she was in her own little world, everyone else could see her. Ahorta was ok with darts, she didn't do too terribly. From time to time, she could make it in one of the smaller circles, and maybe only twice she missed and hit the wall. The other mutant's eyes on her pressured her and she glanced over just as another walked in. The estrogen in the room was increasing. Thank goodness. When she had quickly regarded the girl who came in.

"Um, yeah," she said, taking aim. When she threw the dart, her arm dropped a bit more than usual, it was strangely enough heavy. The dart left her fingertips and embedded itself in the wall underneath it. She missed the board by about a foot. What happened? Embarassed at her ultimate failure at darts, she lifted her hand to grab another dart. Her arms were heavy. Why were they so heavy? She didn't bother to lift the dart again and she wiggled around her fingers and moved around her hands.

"That's strange. Do you feel heavy?" she asked. Something was happening to her bones. Was the mutant doing this or was something in the air poisoning her? She couldn't be sure so she decided to wait it out under suspicion of the one playing darts. Then her suspect changed to the blonde who had walked in as well. It hadn't happened until she came in. Or it could be where she was sitting. It didn't happen under she started moving. It could be a number of things: the breakfast she had this morning, the cleaning product in the room, an agency against mutants, a mutant, the darts. The suspects were endless.

The girl holding the dart tried to throw it, but missed the board by at least a foot. Deirdra raised an eyebrow at the worst dart throw she had ever seen. The blond stood as she watched the girl struggle with moving her fingers. The questioned she asked sounded very odd. Does anyone else feel heavy? Odd. “What exactly do you mean?” She approached the two women slightly, but was still far enough away that she didn’t realize what Lenna was.

“Why would you feel heavier?” It seemed that her bones were heavier than before, judging on the actions of the girl. “Do your bones usually feel light?” The woman looked at the two for a moment before laughing a small bit. “Excuse my rudeness. I’m Deirdra Sykes. I’m new to the Sanctuary.” Glancing at Lenna, she smiled slightly. “You really upset those guys out there. You’ve got good aim.”

The girl, Lenna quickly realized, was not so good at dart-throwing. The dart went wide. Wide, and low... into the wall. "Er... nice throw?" Lenna offered.

The girl seemed distracted by her own hands, now. Was she all there? She asked Lenna is she felt heavy.

Ah... Lenna noted. So that was it. Her aura must've been affecting the woman in front of her somehow. She didn't immediately claim responsibility, however. Lenna didn't feel like getting looked down upon for her 'power'. The mutants wouldn't like having a 'mutant' around them that weakened their powers, now would they? And she wasn't going to give anyone the full 'Adapted' story. They hadn't earned the truth. Lenna had to play that close to the belt.

A blond behind her spoke, and Lenna glanced to the new player in the scene. She let her talk. Lots of questions, that one. Then, Deirdra introduced herself.

"Name's Lenna," Lenna replied. "Those men before didn't like losing. It's a shame when good players turn out to be such sore losers..."

She glanced to the other woman. "Are you okay? Maybe you should sit down..." She didn't want her falling, now, and she definitely didn't want accusations flying around... or throwing darts at her. "We could do some other activity." Lenna suggested. "I'm game."

Nobody ever believed her. Everyone always thought she was crazy no matter what she said. She knew what she felt though, her bones were just malfunctioning. It could be something with the air. It was highly unlikely that the two poisoned her since they looked at her crazy due to her response. If they would have poisoned her, there would be some sort of pride in their eyes when they realized it had worked, but they gave her no such indication. One of them introduced herself as Deirdra, a fairly uncommon name. If she were a spy, most spies picked average names, names that people wouldn't take note of in case something happened, like Amy or Samantha. No, she seemed to be harmless, well, at least to the mutant species.

She chose to drop the subject about her bones until the proper time, when she could really find something out about what was happeneing to her. She enjoyed this place, she did not want to be thrown out for being so crazy. "Um, no, I'm fine. I'm strong enough," she said, stating her strength just in case they were out to get her. No, she will not sit down. If she sits down, then she would get tired, and if she gets tired, she would fall asleep, then she would be taken and experimented on. She did not want to be taken away, she liked it here.

"I'm Ahorta McCoy," she said, noting the name Lenna. The way she said it was a little informal, most spies introduced themselves formally. Something about the phrase "my name is" was so practized by spies that it became habit to say it and then fill in the blank at the end. Something so short and informal has to be said by either a good spy or by a harmless mutant. But she couldn't cross the girl off the list for that. She didn't want to trade games, just not play this one anymore. She held the dart out to the Deirdra.

The girl said she was fine, but looked a little scared. She said that she was ‘strong enough’, whatever that was supposed to mean. Deirdra raised her left eyebrow incredulously and listened as the other woman tried to get her to sit down. One introduced herself as Lenna and the other said her name was Ahorta. The blond had never heard either of those names before and thought they were quite unique, but Ahorta reminded her of ‘aorta’, a main part of the heart’s blood pumping cycle.

Lenna mentioned doing something else for a while, but the girl seemed pretty content to continue the game of darts. She held one out to Deirdra and the woman took it from her. Bringing her arm back and closing her right eye, the woman lined up the dart with the bulls-eye and then extended her hand forward, throwing the dart and hitting the center of the board. A smirk crept onto her face and she turned to the other two women,thrilled. “I figured that would end a lot worse than it did. I haven’t played darts in a while, but part of mutation requires a bit of aim so that gives me some practice, I suppose.”

Walking to the dart board, the blond pulled out the small dart and sauntered back towards the other two. Deirdra held it out to whoever wanted it. “Who’s next?”

Apparently, she was fine... and her name was Ahorta. It was a unique name. She seemed like a unique person. A unique person that didn't really want to play darts any more, and passed her chance away.

Well, whatever. She still seemed a bit strange to Lenna. The woman's mutation must've been heavily affected by her aura. Poor girl.

Would she notice it when she left? Would anyone care?

Lenna's attention swung to the Deirdra woman's dart throw. She hit dead-center. Lenna smiled at her. While dead center was good, it still wasn't going to bring about the top score one could get. The woman held the dart out for the next challenger. Lenna waited a moment, then took it. She got into position, then threw. The dart struck the bull's eye straight in the iris.

She smiled. While it wouldn't get the highest possible score for her, who cared? It was more fun when she beat others by just a few points.

Lenna retrieved the dart. When she returned, she offered it to 'Ahorta'.

"Still want to play?"

Deirdra? Again, too unique to be a spy. Could spies be coming up with better names? If they all went by James Bond, they would have to get caught. But Deirdra and Lenna were a little far fetched for a spy. She could see cultural names, like claim they are German and call themselves Gretel, but again, it was easy to pinpoint a false name, and these were not false names. Deirdra was better at darts than Ahorta seemed to be. It frustrated her because she really could play darts, but not now because she felt so heavy. Could the acid in her bones harden? She never really knew how her powers worked, just that they did.

Lenna shot, a good shot, but when she returned with the darts, she offered Ahorta another shot. What the hell? What else could go wrong? "I'll suck but I'll still play," she said, aiming. She shot her dart and her wrist dropped again due to the weight. It put a bit of a spin on the dart and sent it into the board, well on the outer circle though, she wasn't going to get used to her heavy contents just yet, that would be impossible. A slight huff escaped her lips. "A bit better, I really dunno what it is," she frowned.

Deirdra admired Lenna’s dead-center hit. She nodded with appreciation and turned to watch Ahorta. She had a decently negative attitude and the blond frowned. Whatever was wrong with Ahorta, it was messing with her weight, or so it seemed. Deirdra’s eyes narrowed as she looked at her. She wasn’t sure what could be affecting her so much. Her eyes wandered over to Lenna. Is it her? I know it isn’t me. My mutation’s already fully developed. I’ve had it for about nine years now.

Maybe a test would help her understand the situation? The young woman closed her eyes, concentrating on transforming the lower-half of her body into her scorpion form. It felt as though it may happen, but then the feeling dissipated as quickly as it had came. Her blue eyes shot open and her attention turned to Lenna. Her brows furrowed together, frustrated. “You. Is it you that can cancel out my power?”

The girl didn't lie. She really wasn't very good at the game of darts.

She didn't know what it was yet. Lenna shrugged. "Maybe someone's cursed you." Bad luck, that. She wouldn't insult her by saying 'nice shot'.

Lenna swung a look to the third member of their dart party, and paused. She was trying something. She accused her. An eyebrow arched.

"Bad Luck." Lenna said.

Best come clean. "Totally not my fault." And that was as clean as she needed to get. "Going to take your shot?"

The blond looked at Ahorta in an odd manner. Her eyes seemed to be judging the face masked woman. Well great, she was under the impression that the Sanctuary was full of people who didn't care about how weird each other were, so long as they were mutants. Then again, she hadn't gotten a full dose of the Sanctuary yet. Rumors had been made that the Sanctuary was like an Anti-X-Men member group, but then again, what the hell was an X-Man? There were plenty of questions that went unanswered, but it was not like Ahorta asked that many of them. This woman was raining on her parade, but let her, some people felt the need to judge others, but everyone judged Ahorta as crazy. There wasn't a single soul that thought she wasn't.

She turned her attention from the blond and focused on her shot. It was lame and a bit off, but it was better than her last one, at least she made it on the dart board this time. This would be quite the challenge. The bullseye girl said something about a curse and Ahorta took it more seriously than one would expect. "A curse? Can curses be reversed? Who would have cursed me? Is there anyone here that is a witch?" she began asking, patting down her body to see if she had anything on her that did not belong, like how vodo people take something from their victims for their incantations to work. Everything was fine on her, maybe they were purely verbal witches.

The blonde concentrated on doing something, but nothing happened. She accused the dart girl. "Are you cursing me?" she asked the blonde. Was that concentration on Ahorta's curse? Did she accuse the other as a cover up? What exactly were her intentions by cursing the crazed mutant? Maybe she was going to take her to the scientists! The doctors! The therapists! The psychologists! They would have a field day with the mental instability of Ahorta's mind! She didn't want to go! The best option was to act like nothing was affecting her. "Doesn't matter anymore, I'm fine. Guess it was just from standing up too fast," she made up, keeping a straight face as she bent her muscles, acting as though they were fluid movements, they were rather solid, solid like bones, not liquid like acid.

Lenna denied doing anything, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t. Deirdra knew how well some people could lie. It didn’t matter too much to her, unless she was attacked. The woman relied on her mutation if something bad was happening and she needed to defend herself. Fortunately, the blond was quite good at lashing out when threatened. She’d most likely claw them and pull hair. Maybe even bite if necessary. Lenna didn’t seem like she’d attack her, at least not on this meeting. Something about the woman made her a bit suspicious. She had never met a mutant who could cancel out another mutant, but maybe she wasn’t a mutant.

The girl, Ahorta, seemed to think her problems were Deirdra’s doing. The blond narrowed her eyes at her. “I have a scorpion mutation, not some ability to hurt or curse someone. It’s affecting me too, whatever it is.” The woman angrily crossed her arms and sighed. She felt offended that she was being blamed, but at the same time, she could’ve been accusing an innocent person. Deirdra didn’t really mind that so much, even if it did seem hypocritical. She came first and if she thought someone was affecting her in a way she didn’t like, she wasn’t going to sit around and not say anything.

Deirdra Sykes was not the type of woman to sit back and watch things unfold. It just wasn’t her style.