104 W 83rd Street. This was it.

Worms smiled as he read the sign to the hair salon: Curl Up n'Dye. That was simply his kind of salon. This was going to be rather enjoyable, he could tell.

A few days prior, Worms had gotten a tip from one of his contacts Jimmy. Jimmy was a bright boy, and knew Worms was always on the look-out for interesting mutants he could bend and mold into his service, realign them to fit his own ordeals. Jimmy had gotten wind of a certain mutant that Worms found most enjoyable. According to Jimmy, she was a spider lady. That's all he knew, but that's all Worms needed to know. He was so happy he bought Jimmy a candy bar and didn't even hurt him!

Worms walked into the salon and sat down in a chair in the waiting room. He bluntly ignored the odd stares he recived. He knew this was a salon almost exclusively for women, but then again this WAS New York. The stylists and fellow customers weren't too surprised. Nonetheless, Worms felt many a wary eye upon him. He didn't care. In fact, he relished it. The feeling of being taken carefully, of people noticing his strangeness. These things made Worms thin lips grin from ear to ear. The mutant simply picked up the latest issue of Vogue Magazine and waited for his appointment: 12:30 with Megan, the supposed spider queen!

"uhhh... Megan?"

"What?"

"Your 12:30 is here..."

... Why did her coworker sound... wary? Blinking, she set down her cup of coffee, slipped on her apron over her tank top and jeans, and pulled back the curtain hiding her from actually having to work. "It's already twelve thirty?" She issued a soft growl and slapped her word search down onto the snack table. Short, lazy steps brought her out from the back, she ran her hand across the back of her station chair as she passed, and quickly checked to make sure she had everything ready.

Then, it was on to the front counter, to drag her next fashion victim back to her lair... "... Andrew?" She asked, her eyes landing on the only possible Andrew in the room. Unless old granny Cindy over there in the corner wasn't telling her something, that is.

"If you'll follow me please?" She smiled, a painful task when only three cups of happy inducing coffee were running through her veins. The man in question was... rather... odd... looking. With an icy blink, she surveyed what kind of hair he sported, and what she could do to make it better, then turned and headed back to her station. "I've never seen you around here before, are you new to the city, or just to our little salon?"

"...Andrew?"

Worms peered at Megan, just barely lowering the magazine he was reading. His eyebrows themselves smirked, a maneuver most comedians would kill to be able to do.

"Yeeeeeeees?" Worms said, lowering the magazine fully.

"If you'll follow me please?"

Worms nodded, his lips now mimicking his eyebrows.

"Of course dear, just a second." Worms replaced the magazine back on the table and stood up. His eyes lit up as he followed Megan. She was just as he'd been hoping. That fake smile she wore told him that.

"I've never seen you around here before, are you new to the city, or just to our little salon?"

"Oh, just to the salon." Worms let his slight Bostonian accent tell the rest of the story there.

"I had a friend come here once, said your style was superb. Made her frizzy hair smooth as spider silk. I just HAD to see what she was going on about." Worms let the feminine side of him out a bit. True, he wasn't often open about his dual sexuality, but in a situation like this, the time arrived to let loose a bit.

She couldn't help but puff up with pride a little. A compliment was a compliment, and she wasn't about to turn down a stroke to the ego. "Really? Isn't that so..." Whipping out the nice big white bib she forced people to wear, she turned it on him and winked. "We'll have to wash that hair of yours first though." With a wave of her hand, she turned and headed deeper into the back where the sinks were, squaring her shoulders as she walked.

"I'm glad your friend enjoyed my services, you really must tell me her name so I can thank her properly for spreading such a good word about me."

She paused by her washing station and pointed, blinking at him though half lidded eyes while she waited. With her shampoo and her conditioner at her side, all she needed to do was wet, scrub, and condition. Then she could cut the guys hair, and get back to her word search.

"What kid of a haircut were you thinking about getting today?" She asked, feigning a mild curiosity as she started the nozzle and tested the water out on her wrist.

"I'm glad your friend enjoyed my services, you really must tell me her name so I can thank her properly for spreading such a good word about me."

Worms smiled, for he had taken the time before had to check Megan's later appointments.

"Jane Deere" the man replied as Megan (tried) to wash his hair.

"What kid of a haircut were you thinking about getting today?"

"Oh, I don't know...maybe just a trim around the ears? I don't want to start growing a mullet either. I don't want to do a spring cleaning on my head just yet, the cobwebs aren't -quite- thick enough"

Megan hovered over her hair, her lips curled back as she tried and failed at pin pointing what exactly it was that he had in his hair.... like... goo?... but not gel. She twitched a little, and rummaged under her counter for a pair of nice, clean gloves. Whatever was on that mans head, she was not about to touch it.

"Oh? Jane said that, did she?" She blinked, snapping the last glove into place menacingly, and narrowed her eyes a little. That was strange... Jane was usually quiet. One of her more tolerable clients... she hardly ever spoke, let alone complimented. "I will have to speak with her then." She finished off the sentence with a curt smile, and squeezed a good amount of shampoo into her hand.

Then, he answered her last question, and she paused once more.Cobwebs... First spider silk... then cobwebs. He was bringing up the spider issue quite a bit... Perhaps just coincidence, but still... She had the distinct feeling something was up, and narrowed her icy eyes even further. She'd be paying extra attention to this client...

"Oh, don't worry. I'll just trim it a little here and there, and I'll be extra careful with my shears." With a little more strength than she usually used, she dropped her hands to his skull, and worked the shampoo into a lather. If that goop didn't come out, she'd have to shave him bald for sure...

"I'm sure you'll be as dainty as a Daddy Long Legs...won't you..." Worms said. For the first time yet, his dead gray eyes locked with Megan's. He knew she knew. She knew he knew she knew. But what did he know?

Everything...

One of her eyes twitched, ever so slightly, and she removed herself from the sink. "Daddy long legs...eh?" Slipping the gloves off her hands, she dropped them in a waste basket at her side and leveled a scowl in his direction. her co workers were all busy, tending to their own, far less annoying customers, and she could hear her children chattering silently in her head.

"I think... you should join me out side, Mister Andrew, Where we can talk a little more freely." She didn't bother to hose the soap from his hair, no, he could deal with that on his own. A man she had never met before was dropping hints about her mutation, and she did not like that one bit. She turned without another work, leaving him with white apron and all, and marched through the curtain into the back, where she snatched up her coffee and her word search and bumped open the back door with a hip.

The alley was as good a place to chat with a creepster as any other. She plopped herself down on one of the many chairs scattered about for employee's on their smoke breaks, and sipped at her drink casually while she dove back into her game.

Worms smirked as the lady got all huffy.

"If you say so dear." Worms stood up, his hair dripping wet. Megan had only partially washed all the slime from his hair, so the man casually picked up a towel and rubbed it in his hair as he walked to the door.

Slowly going through the doorway, Worms tossed the towel to the ground. His eyes spoke to the world, of his glee that he'd gotten Megan right where he wanted her. That she was agitated already. He didn't really like it when people liked him. Not when he didn't need them to like him. He just wanted her to be like him.

Alone.

Spiteful.

Strange.

A real mutant...

Worms reached under his shirt, his hand gathering a dose of worm slime.

"So...Miss Megan. Allow me to introduce myself properly." Worms slicked back his hair again with the slime, then with the same hand offered it for Megan to shake.

"Call me Worms."

He reappeared, and she lifted her eyes in time to catch him slicking back his hair with... what ever that was on his hand. Her lip curled up and she tucked her word search under her butt, while staring at the offered hand blankly. It was... slimy. He expected her to touch that thing?... how gross.

"Uh... yeah." She left the hand hanging, sipped her coffee, and offered back a small smirk of a smile in return. "It's a pleasure." While she remained rather fixated on the strange man's once again gooey hair, she couldn't help but set to the task of furthering all of the little sores on her back, as well as starting new ones on the visible flesh on her arms. Within a few minutes the ones under her tank top would be ready to pop, and she would have a small army of fresh widows and jumpers at her disposal.... in case they were needed. The others would take a little longer, but generally watching a bunch of red, puss filled spots pop out out of no where turned people off of polite conversation.

While the wave of spots flashes into existence though, she also went ahead and started a nice little ball of sticky silk inside her cheek. A good failsafe had always seemed to be spitting into your opponents face, then running into a nice crowded area while they peeled off the gooey mass... and it didn't hurt her cause that running into crowded buildings meant other people then became targets as well... "So... who exactly are you, Mr. Worms? ... and why are you here? I doubt it was really for a haircut..."

Worms withdrew his hand. He was used to that response.

"I merely like to offer my friendship Miss Megan. In this day and age, use mutants need to stick together! I like making new friends, so its a win-win." Worms grinned,leaned back on the wall, and crossed his arms.

"I have looots of friends. Some friends give me information. Some friends give me advice. Some friends help me, care for me. Those are the best friends. Do you want to be my friend Miss Megan? I'm sure you have lots of them already, but all my friends are friends. Especially my best friends..."

Worms felt his worms slither inside of him, anxious to get out.

"Do you want to meet my best friends Miss Megan?"

He wanted... friendship?

Her expression deadpanned and she tugged her word search back out from under her butt. What a waste of time. "You came to the wrong place then, because I don't do friendship." A pen was fished out of her pocket, and she brought it thoughtfully to her lips while her eys scoured the page. Her eyes picked out the word Fabulous, hidden among other things, and she ciurcled it.

Of course, she spotted a dirty word along side, one that was not on the list, and she circled it slowly as well, then glanced back up to the guy. He was a weird one... but not weirder than normal. Adopting a tiny smile, she pointed her pen at him and waggled it.

"Ya know, I've acvtually met more than enough 'friends of friends'. Enough to last a life time, in fact." She blinked, cocking her head to the side, and chewed on the cap of her pen. At least, in a way, she was getting a break from working.

Worms frowned, but his eyes gave away the smirk hidden inside.

"That's too bad Miss Megan...because they want to meet you..."

Worms was very glad he had scouted the area before hand. He had seen the alley behind the salon, but hadn't a clue if he'd go there or not. Just in case, he'd left two worms hidden under inside the open dumpster behind Megan. As their host talked, the had slithered out of it slowly, and were just about ready to start crawling up Megan's back.

She glanced up from her game, pen at frowning lips, and narrowed icy eyes at him. Why was he still here? Hadn't she shooed him off a second ago? From behind her ear, one of her children watched the conversation curiously. It could understand what Megan was saying, for the most part, but the other two legged one was a mystery. The others were wriggling around at the back of her head. One had spotted something moving behind... and they all wanted to see what it was.

"Are you here to try and scare me or something? Because I'll tell you right now, I've met scarier pe-"

Her sentence was cut off as her spiders spotted the worms crawling up on her, and practically flew from the back of her head, out to he front. The small black bodies skittered about across the front of her shirt, looking around for somewhere to hide, all while chattering on loudly about the creatures behind her. Megan took a moment to blink at her babies, then one more to force the sores along her back, shoulders, and arms to pop open. The spiders within would be a little small, yes, but sometimes small could be good.

"Sonofa-"

She stood swiftly, and whipped around. One hand snatched up the chair she had just been sitting in, while the other flashed back to withdraw a straight edge razor from her back pocket. Using the chair in a fashion any lion tamer would beam with pride at, she held her blade aloft and stared the horrific creatures before her down.... Well, actually, they were kind of cute. Not as cute as her babies... but still.

"These the 'friends' you spoke of?" She asked, shifting her gaze momentarily to Worms. "Because I have to tell you, I hate surprises."

Worms laughed heartily at Megan's reaction to his worms. It was nothing short of perfect.

"You don't like surprises? What's the fun in that?" Worms grinned as two more of his worms slithered out of his stomach and onto the ground, clicking menacingly.

Taking a single step forward, Worms sighed. "Very well, if you hate them, I must speak. My worms won't eat you. You have my word. However, if you stay to listen to what I have to say, then I'm afraid my friends will have to make you stay...and listen...are you listening Miss Megan?"

The two new worms crawled over the dirty pavement, trying to wrap around Megan's legs. The hadn't noticed the spiders, nor could they see them. To Worms, however, they posed no threat. In his mind that is.