Five hours and forty five minutes was far to long to spend on an airplane eating peanuts, trying to nap, and doing your best to ignore that little kid sitting behind you that keeps kicking the seat. As his seat shuddered against from yet another kick, Jacen King gritted his teeth and finally gave up on his attempts to nap. After retrieving his small carry on bag from under his seat he pulled out the briefing information he had been given on RUPERT operations in New York City and began to review them once more. For the most part, it was a whole lot of nothing. Instead of finding information that would be helpful in this reassignment, Jacen instead found himself reading a typical government document that had obviously been written by someone that did nothing other than writing reports. It was overly verbose with no real information in it.

"This is your Captain speaking. We will be arriving at LaGuardia Airport in approximately fifteen minutes. We would ask at this time that everyone turn off all electronic devices, close their tray tables, and return their seats to their full and upright position."

After putting the documents and his bag away, Jacen leaned back against the seat cushions and stared out the window once more. It had been right around a year since he'd last been in New York City and a lot of things had changed. After being recruited into RUPERT he had been sent to a training center in Nevada. Along with receiving further training in mutant abilities, battle tactics, and the such he had also taken the suggestion of one of his teachers to look a tad less military. He had grown his hair out to more of a normal looking haircut, though still not long, and he maintained almost a constant looking five o'clock shadow on his face. That slight bit of scruffiness that helped him to blend in to the crowd many times while on his first assignment in Los Angeles.

Suddenly his musing were broken by the feeling of the plane touching down. Focusing back on the situation at hand, Jacen waited for permission to disembark. Finally the time came and he joined the throng of people that were grabbing their bags and heading out to meet family and friends. Unfortunately for Jacen, there would be no such welcoming committee.

***

"Mr. Franklin" The sign had read and without a word Jacen had walked up and then fallen into step behind the man that looked like some sort of driver. Instead of leading out to the parking lot, the man led to a different part of the airport that led out to the tarmac and to a waiting helicopter. Once on board with a headset nestled over his ears Jacen once again found himself airborne.

Looking out over the city, Jacen had to admit that it was an impressive sight. He still preferred the great outdoors but there was no denying how good New York City looked with the sun glinting off of the skyscrapers. As he looked out, he thought back to all that he had done in this city. He had loved and lost two different women because of either his own stupidity, jealousy, or job requirements. There were pieces of a life scattered across the city that he might still be able to pick up but the question was whether he wanted to. Not only had his former friends and colleagues changed in a years time, but he had also changed and he still wasn't sure exactly what he wanted.

***

The helicopter came in for a landing on the apparently deserted Hart Island. Jacen's opinion of the island was somewhat mixed. While it was definitely remote and the fact that there had been restricted access for many years were positives for their current situation, the well known nature of the island and the transportation requirements were something of an issue. Being able to access the island only by boat or helicopter was at once a security strength but also a weakness for keeping travel to and from hidden.

"I don't think I'll be spending a whole lot of time out here." Jacen murmured to himself as the helicopter touched down, "I wonder if they've set up any meeting place city side."

In just a few minutes Jacen was out of the helicopter and several yards away, walking toward the only door he could see. Behind him the helicopter was already lifting off and turning back to the city, leaving Jacen King as the only visible person on the island.

No... Jacen was definitely not receiving a 'Welcome Home' like the rest of the people on his flight, not at all.

Finally. The flight wasn't delayed. The helicopter came right on time. So why was she anxious? Kael had been transferred to prison duty. PRISON duty. Granted, he had wanted something a bit safer than roaming the streets looking for dangerous mutants, but still! He'd left her stranded in cold cases and Police cooperations until they could mint her a fresh new adapted.

Granted, Noel still had managed to tag a good number outside of her partnership... but that was sort of official un-official business. It was hard to turn the agent off outside of work when she didn't have a life outside of work. Well, beyond stalking children and LARPing...

Before the heavy metal storm door even opened, the headache set in. She put her hand to her forehead in a feeble attempt to stav off the brain-freeze feeling. The man that walked inside looked fit, anonymous but with a military background, and had an aura that had nothing to do with the nullification of power. Searching? Unease?

"Dang. They told me you had an 8 foot radius and they weren't joking." 8 feet was more than she was imagining and more than Kael had to offer. She dropped her hand from her head and offered it for a good agent to agent shake. There was an expected amount of mutual sizing up that happened in a handshake and Noel wasn't one to give a floppy fish. She might technically be a woman, but she was far mor comfortable as one of the guys.

"Noel Gage. Memory wiper and lie detector, not that you'll have to worry about that if we get partnered. Let's get you some paperwork." Because if there was one thing that this Government loved, it was paperwork. Through the corridor and down on into the depths of the complex, was a concrete and metal maze of desks and exposed lighting. The digs weren't bad, but they were in no way considered glamorous.

"There's a satellite complex in town in one of the boroughs. Looks like an apartment complex. Almost nabbed an Abyss there once." And that was the rubber ducky in the bathtub truth. "My cubicle is there —yours too probably— but we gotta check in here for all this official crap. Oh here it is." Noel motioned to a desk with a portly inhabitant. She had a whole heap of red tape just for their new pet adapted. "I'mma grab some coffee. Want some?" Anything to escape the paperwork and the headache. She would just be bored to tears otherwise.

"Long brown hair, hazel eyes, petite but not overly short, lots of piercings and a major scar." Jacen thought to himself, evaluating the woman on autopilot as soon as he stepped through the door and saw her. Slipping off his sunglasses he put them in the breast pocket of the black blazer he was wearing of his denim jeans and dark gray t-shirt.

"Mutant." Was yet one more piece of information added to everything when she made her comment about his radius. For a brief moment he was tempted to make an off-color comment about that not being all that was big but immediately rejected the idea. He didn't particularly care for those sorts of comments out on the street, though he had learned to use them to blend in, but work was definitely no place for them.

As she extended her hand in greeting he reached out and returned it with a firm grip of his own. Judging from the strength in her grip she was a woman that wasn't afraid to play rough and wasn't to be trifled with. Already his opinion of her was rising.

"Nice to meet you Noel." Jacen replied with a tight smile before turning his gaze to sweep over the room and get some idea of where he had just come, "I'm Jacen King. Former military, former SWAT, current Adapted.

Falling into step behind Noel, Jacen's mind finally locked on the comment she had just made. Partner? They hadn't mentioned anything about his having a partner before he was transferred. He'd always worked solo, unless he was actually going in for the bag and tag. "They hadn't decided on a partner before I left L.A." Jacen commented, lieing smoothly since he knew that little miss lie detector wouldn't have the slightest idea, "What sort of paper work are we looking at here?"

Cubicles... what was it with government offices and cubicles? If the government's first love was paperwork, then its second love had to be cubicles. "You'd think we could at least get a regular office to share or something'." Jacen muttered as he wandered over to look at Noel's office space and see if he could find his nearby.

"Coffee? Uh... sure. Black please." Jacen replied as he set his bag down on the floor next to what appeared to be an empty desk. With no name plates, there was no reason he couldn't claim this desk, was there? Sitting down he opened the drawers and found the standard issue paper, pens, paper clips, sticky notes, tape, etc. "I bet someone counts the paper clips on a daily basis too."

Jacen knew that the work that RUPERT was doing was important but he still had a problem accepting all of the bureaucracy that went along with it. But until someone came up with a way for an organization like this to work without paperwork, there was nothing he could do but grin and bear it.

"So what's our current case load look like?" Jacen spoke up when Noel returned with coffee cups in hand, "Anyone in particular flashing warning lights?"

Former military, former SWAT? So he was perfectly familiar with speaking in acronyms and breaking down doors. That was just fine by Noel. A more action-oriented guy meant more action. He might be rough around the edges with all that under his belt, not to mention a tad on the conservative side. Both bonuses as far as his professional career was concerned.

The black coffee she set on his desk (the mug she grabbed for him had a sea turtle on it) before she took the few extra steps backward to perch on the side of her own. "No point in an office. Around here we pound the pavement more often than not." An office would just sit empty.

To her own mug (adorned with the slogan "The true way to a man's heart is between the ribs"), she'd added more cream and sugar than was probably healthy. One good swig later and the pinching feeling in between her eyes was starting to relax.

Noel could be doing some documentation now... but it was more fun to watch the newby check boxes. Watching paint dry would also qualify as more fun than her documentation.

One minute he was sloughing her off, the next he asked about their case load. She smirked behind her mug. Gee, she was growing on him fast. That probably wouldn't last long once they were out in the real world and she had forgotten who he even was.

"Ever heard of Roland Pruitt?" He left a sour taste in her mouth not for the lies, but for a whole other set of dislikes. "Word is he's flown the coop so he's off grid. For tags, we're looking for Swiss Army AKA: Meld and her partner in slaughter a chick we like to call the Pink Hammer." She sat in her chair, set her coffee down and flipped through some pages. "We've got a potential viral mutant weapon to check out, not to mention rounds."

There was a whole stack of mutants on their watch list. With their current man power, there just was no way they could handle it all. "There's a guy who absorbed another guy then wrecked Time's Square, there's a guy who's been messing with police scanners, the girl with the green bow, some kind of kinetic energy dude, malicious teleporter..." She ruffled through the manilla folder before plopping it on his desk. "You might want to get to know these guys."

So she got a little caught up in paperwork after all. Noel finished a note to herself before leaning back in her chair. "You sign up for this?"

"Well that's something positive at least." Jacen said with a slight smile as he picked up the mug and lifted it toward his mouth, "Field work is definitely better than paper work."

The coffee was hot, thank goodness, but had that slightly scalded flavor to it as though it had been sitting on the burner for much to long. It made the coffee only taste more bitter than usual but Jacen chose to ignore that for the moment. Really, it was just par for the course when it came to government coffee but it least it was giving him a shot of caffeine to try and get his alertness back after such a long flight. Setting the mug down, Jacen found himself staring into the face of a sea turtle swimming happily through the ocean. Colorful and rather nice looking, it was definitely a surprise for an office like this. Had they not gotten the memo that government offices were supposed to have plain black mugs or white Styrofoam cups?

Taking the files from Noel as she handed them to him, Jacen flipped through the information. Roland Pruitt was new to his radar, he didn't recognize Swiss Army or Pink Hammer either. There had been rumors of a viral weapon while he was on the west coast but nothing confirmed.

As he opened the next file, Jacen paused as he looked at the picture. Taken from what appeared to be a traffic cam, Jacen didn't recognize the burning man but he did recognize a woman in the background. "Lee? But if you're there... could this be Tarin?" Setting aside the file he look over the police scanner man and then moved on to the girl with the green bow and, surprise, surprise, once again he found someone he recognized.

"I met her once." Jacen commented, thinking back to when he had first been trying to come to grips with his ability, "Both of us got swept up in a stampeding crowd at a store, or something. She was pretty freaked out when her powers wouldn't work."

Once again the following two files were newbies, people he had never met or even heard about. Yes, it looked like life back in the city was going to be very busy. The real question would of course be whether he still had any time for some sort of personal life, or if he even wanted one. After hurting both of the women he cared about, he wasn't sure that he was in a position to desire anything like that.

"I was recruited but I already had a pretty good idea what I was in for." Jacen replied as he continued to read over the last file, "I ran into quite a few dangerous situations while I was with SWAT and more often than not they involved a mutant in some way. Either someone losing control of their abilities, abusing their abilities, or being attacked by others because of their abilities."

Jacen knew that not all mutants were bad, but he knew that even the good mutants could be the spark that would ignite problems. It wasn't their fault, but prejudice and suspicion ran deep in the heart of pretty much everyone especially after some of the different massacres that had happened over the years.

"What sort of sighting do we have for these different mutants? Any getting close to the point of being tagged or are they all still ghosts in the wind?"

Ah. So he was from New York... or at least had lived here not too terribly long ago. That and he was mutant friendly. That was a real mark against him in Noel's book, but everybody got one. It didn't matter that she had an acquaintance or two that were mutants. Most mutants were just plain old bad eggs.

"Guess you know a few already." She sipped her coffee as if it were better than saying anything more. If he wanted to fraternize with the enemy so be it. Just not on company time. They already had a rat in this system and he went by the name of Garrett. They did not need an adapted one.

Noel was recruited straight from high school. There was no way she could have known what she was getting into then, but she knew that university wasn't an option for her.

>"I ran into quite a few dangerous situations while I was with SWAT and more often than not they involved a mutant in some way..."

Well... now that she thought about it and heard what he'd said she couldn't really put a black mark in his book yet. Mutants were naturally curious about the adapteds. And it wasn't as if anyone had made a nation-wide announcement about them yet. Not even all of the scientific community was aware of their existence so if a mutant was suddenly cut off from his power naturally he'd investigate. "We get a lot of that. At least you'll be used to it."

Noel turned back to her own paperwork and let him scribble away until his next question.

>""What sort of sighting do we have for these different mutants? Any getting close to the point of being tagged or are they all still ghosts in the wind?"

"Oh if they're on our radar they ought to be close. Sometimes it's just a matter of picking when to go in for the kill. Too public an event and we've got our own clean up to worry about. " Facing away from the newby she could touch her face without feeling self conscious about it. She hadn't the foggiest memory of how it happened. Oh, she knew how it happened. Roland Pruitt had made it happen, but that didn't mean that she remembered it. That meant she'd had to wipe at least one witness to her own attempted murder.

She looked down at her paper and erased the last thing she had written. "For some of the more violent ones the higher ups have been considering something more drastic, but tagging is all we got for now." Noel went back to her stupid documentation. At least if she finished this it would be done.

"Guess you know a few already."

The words hung in the air as Jacen flipped through the files. For a brief moment his mind was filled with memories of Lori (tennis, showers, grand theft auto, and so much more), Kealey (attempted assassination, double dates, library battles, and pools out in the wilderness), Isabel & Garrett (swept up in a store stampede and the rescuer), and others that he didn't know well but had met. For someone that had stayed away from mutants for much of his life it was amazing the sorts of relationships that could be built in a very short period of time.

"A few." He replied as his eyes locked on a name that was suddenly standing out from the page. The girl Isabel had been rescued by a man named Garrett and now there was a man named Garrett working for RUPERT. Could it be a coincidence? For a moment he toyed with asking the question and decided against it for the moment. Whether it was the same Garrett or not was really unimportant. Getting to know his partner better, that was important.

"Two questions for you." He said as he set the files back down on his desk and swiveled in his chair to face the young woman, "One... what do you prefer I call you? Noel or Miss Gage? Second... is it inapropriate for me to offer to buy you a late lunch or early dinner? My flight didn't serve a meal and I'm starving."

Noel glanced her her shoulder. Yep. She'd distracted him with those pictures. For shame. He'd never finish his HR requirements. Mentally, she made it a race between her documentation and his recruitment paperwork.

In the end... he won.

Dang.

She took her time signing the document as Jacen asked his two questions. "Call me pretty much anything, I'll answer." That was true on many levels. Once, around the office, they had convinced her that her name was Janice. JANICE for goodness sakes! She'd read that in her notes. (It's not a diary if it's written on a legal pad, right?)

And as for the other... She stood. "I'll pay my own way, thanks. Where'd you have in mind?" Depending on how public the venue was this could be... oh wait. 8 feet. She would likely get to taste her food. This called for the map.

The memorymancer put her foot on her chair, hiked up her pant leg and unzipped a small ankle pouch. She pulled out a map, stuffed the errant mini-sharpie back in with her emergency tag and laid out the map.

"This is every restaurant I've ever been to that is good. There are probably more, but these are the ones that made it on the map anyway. If you see that one of your favs isn't on here maybe we should go there." She wasn't badgering him to pick off the map, she was badgering him to add to it.

There were very few times when Noel cooked so adding to her options was always a good thing. She just couldn't seem to make grocery shopping worth it. The agent would forget an ingredient when shopping (that never happened to anyone else without her disability, she was sure) or she would forget to cook and the groceries would go bad. Or, if she did actually manage to cook something, she would forget how long the leftovers had been in the fridge.

Recruitment paperwork was always shorter than incident reports and so it was really no surprise when Jacen turned around to find Noel still studiously writing notes and comments here while checking boxes there. Without even glancing up she gave her answer to his first question, though it was something of a strange one. Who didn't care what they were called? Everyone had at least some sort of opinion but here she was accepting whatever name or nickname he might come up with.

"As tempting as it is to call you 'legs' or something similar," Jacen said with a sly smile, "I'll stick with Noel so please call me Jacen or if you prefer last names, just King. No Mister... makes me feel old."

An ankle pouch with map, sharpie, and at least one or two other items was suddenly revealed as Noel opened it to pull out what must have been important information. Why in the world would someone that was living and working in New York still need a map? Most streets were known by everyone and even if you did still need a map, who carried it on their ankle?

However, with the thoughts of ankle pouches, Jacen's mind went to the thought of holsters and how unnerving it was to not be feeling the press of a gun against his back, side, or even ankle. "I should write a suggestion to send on to the higher ups." Jacen commented somewhat to himself but loud enough for Noel to hear while making a mental note to retrieve his guns from the apartment and gear up before the next outing, "We could really use some air marshal badges in case we ever have to deal with a situation midair."

Rising to his feet, Jacen moved over to look at the map that Noel had spread out. There were a few good locations marked as well as a few locations he had never heard of but there was also one glaring option that was missing.

"Donovan's Pub, on Roosevelt in Queens." Jacen immediately said as he pointed toward the location on the map, "It's your typical Irish tavern but along with the standard fare they have one of the best burgers in all five boroughs."

"Legs?" Her eyebrow twitched, but otherwise she tried to ignore the skirt chaser. "King, go fish in some other pond. This one is Federally regulated and they don't restock too often." In other words, these legs weren't on the market. Neither were any other office legs, if they paid attention to regulations. Which Noel imagined they usually didn't.

> "We could really use some air marshal badges in case we ever have to deal with a situation midair." This time it was a slightly amused eyebrow twitch.

"Write away if you're that uncomfortable without your piece." Nervous Nelly wasn't he? The powers that were took away her gun with relative regularity. She had to test weekly to keep it on her and... Yeah. It did make her feel better to keep hot lead between herself and the unusually freakish.

"Donovan's it is. You got a car on the island., right?" Driving was like riding a bicycle, but that didn't mean anyone would sell her a car (or insure her). She folded the map up and slipped it back into place. If the burgers were worth it, then she'd add it to he map. Then and only then.

The brunette check her phone for he time. "Almost time for the barge."

An eyebrow twitch? That was all the reaction he could get out of her? Maybe he was more tired than he thought. Not that he was really particularly interested in starting any sort of relationship with the woman but normally his comments got more of a reaction than that.

"Ok, I'll lay off the jokes and comments." Jacen replied with a slight shrug and a non-repentant grin, "We're partners for work and each has their own 'ponds' as you described for other interests."

And could they get off on the wrong foot any more than they already were? Apparently she didn't really like his comment about air marshal badges either. Maybe she just hadn't seen the sort of action that he had though, judging by the scar on her face, he doubted that was true. She had said her ability had to do with lie detection but was there any more to it? He made a mental note to requisition her file and look over any and all information that the agency had about her.

"Yes, I have a car on the island but as I remember it's parked back at my apartment so for today I guess we'll just have to take a cab." Jacen replied before receiving one more interesting piece of information. Apparently there was a barge that ran on some sort of automatic schedule. Hopefully there had been enough common sense to disguise it so that it didn't look like it transported people but there was no telling.

"How often does the barge run?" Jacen asked curiously, waiting for Noel to lead the way out of here when the time came since he still didn't know the layout, "And what's our standard schedule? How often are we supposed to come here and do paperwork?"

He conceded quickly for a wolf on the prowl. Agent King must have found her scar unappealing. That thing seemed to work every now and again. About time something good came of it. She smirked and it tugged crooked because of the puckered skin.

A cab? Ah well. It was about quitting time anyway so they couldn't take something more official. Of course the rookie had a lot of questions about the timing of getting on and off the island. Noel just shook her head. "You are going to love this." Without any further introduction she flattened her pant leg over her ankle pouch and motioned with her head for him to follow her.

Thought the rigid structure that used to be an insane asylum, Noel led the sort-of rookie out onto the overgrown grass. A skinny path had been matted down so that people could walk through the tangles of brush growth single file without incident. At the end of the tunnel of green? A garbage barge had temporarily moored. The garbage was real, but the boat had extra below deck storage for those ready to go home at the end of a full day's work. Seagulls squawked over head, angry to be disturbed from their buffet meal by the rocking of the boat.

Below deck, the memorymancer settled into a painted bench of metal next to Gil from accounting. (His name really wasn't Gil, but Noel really couldn't remember his real name after Gil had popped into her head because he could water breathe.) The smell was atrocious, but it was worth every breath just to see King's face. "Why don't you just swim home?" She asked him. Really. His gills were showing just barely out of his starched collar.

"Don't want to get my clothes wet."

Huh. Well that actually made sense.

The smell and/or taste of garbage didn't especially phase Noel. She dealt with it every day with the sheer amount of lies people tried to tell her. "Don't ya just love that fresh summer air?" She clapped Jacen on the back hard enough to register as a masculine movement.

"Trash barge every morning at 8 and every day at quittin' time. Lunch preparations are different every day, but there's supposed to always be something here. Only those three times are access times to the island." The boat engine started its pitiful chugchugchug across the river. It was a short way, but a long ride. "Nobody bothers these things. We disembark at the treatment facility not too far from a subway stop. Paperwork is due before Monday rolls around the next week, but Cap'n could ask for it at any time so it's better to not let it pile."

Love? Love was such a strong word and yet people used it so frequently. Food was not something that a person could truly 'love' and neither was a mode of transportation. Even the idea of 'love' between different individuals was something that could be debated but Jacen wisely chose to keep his mouth shut.

"Was I this cynical before I left?" Jacen silently pondered as he fell in step behind his partner. He had thought that he loved first Lori and then Kealey but yet when the opportunity to put his skills to use came he left without a word. It was an interesting question but it was something to be pondered over a nice glass of brandy not on...

"Ah hell... why am I not surprised." Jacen muttered as the garbage barge came into view. "I knew there was going to be a catch for working with a secret organization. Traveling to and from work in a garbage barge is definitely one of those catches." He thought to himself as he took seat along with the other RUPERT employees.

Glancing over at the other man, Jacen listened with rapt interest as Noel engaged one of their co-workers. From her comments about swimming and the small slits he could see on the side of the man's neck, it didn't take a rocket scientist to realize that this was yet another mutant. While Jacen really didn't care that much he had to admit that it was a little strange. Here they were working for a group that was out to stop rogue mutants by tagging them and possibly arresting them and yet every employee he had met so far was also a mutant.

Out of nowhere there was a hard clap on his back along with Noel's smiling comment about the wonderful smell. What was it with women that tried to be one of the boys? Sure a woman could handle most any situation just as well as a man but that didn't make her any less feminine. Why couldn't she just stick with being the sexy side of the sexes that still kicked but?

"Absolutely." Jacen replied with a forced smile, "I particularly like the gentle call of the birds combined with the soft purr of a well oiled machine." Or maybe it was really the screeching cry of seagulls combines with the rattling of an engine that sounded in desperate need of a tune up. Didn't really matter. He was stuck here until the barge made land fall.

Suddenly the subject went south as Noel began to lecture him on what he knew would be the bane of his existence... paperwork.

"Unless there's actually an incident report, how much paper work do we really have to file?" Jacen asked as he once again focused his attention on the woman, "I mean, I'm on salary so I don't have to track hours and unless there's actually a run in, what else is there to report?"

***

The trip was far to long, especially when it was spent talking about the required paper trail set forth by the federal government, but eventually the barge arrived at the treatment facility. The employees of disembarked from their fantastic transportation and then made their ways toward the subway station. Jacen had been thinking they would need a cab but with the subway so close, it would be faster and easier to just take that.

"Have you been in the city long?" Jacen asked as he and Noel made their way through the turnstiles and then on toward the apropriate platform, "I'm sure you already know about my background but I haven't had a chance to see your file yet."

What else was there to report? Noel chuckled. He would learn. Oh. He would learn. "You did say that you lived here before, right?" She waited for a nod before continuing. "And you know this is one of the highest density populations of mutants in the world?"

She was leading him somewhere, he would get it eventually. "Yeah. Incident recovery alone, not even counting run ins, could keep you busy for life. They have paper pushers working general incidents, but, man, if you were there or even close they want to know about it." Like the adapted at the KP brawl. Noel was glaaad she wasn't that guy, though he could have had the decency to hang around and help her wipe the area clean. By all accounts that untrained was a RUPERT now. They probably still had him filling out paperwork somewhere on everything he'd seen.

The garbage smell clung on them like a thick blanket that couldn't be taken off. Perhaps another reason Noel avoided the main base if at all possible.

>"Have you been in the city long?"

"Bout two years now? California before that, but all the action is here. I wouldn't miss it." And she honestly wasn't good for much else.

>"I'm sure you already know about my background but I haven't had a chance to see your file yet."

"Nope. I haven't seen your file for more than a second and that was for the picture. Most of it is on your sleeve anyway. You're ex-cop, ex-military. Didn't need a file for that with your posture. Fresh off the RUPERT mint so the powers sayith. Lived here before and made friends with the natives, you told me that much." She raised her eyebrows at him and waved for a cab. The first rushed by her and a plastic bag wafted in its wake. Noel was now comfortable as a New Yorker. Comfortable enough to show that taxi wither her gestures that he should have been more considerate.

"What'd you want out of my file?" Because one could spend weeks reading it, that thing was so fat. It contained every piece of paper for gun licensing, issuing, re-issuing, removal, incident report, wipe, note... there was more documentation for Noel than even the troublemakers because of her condition.

Lucky for the second cab, he stopped before he rammed into Noel's legs as she waved a bit more visibly from the street. "Come on." He had said to take a cab, right? Noel slid in first.

"Yes, I live here before and yes, I know this is one of the highest density populations for mutants." Jacen replied with a nod, "But I didn't realize they wanted to know ever single time we were involved with mutants."

For the moment, Jacen was just glad that noone was asking for him to report on the various run ins he'd had with mutants before joining RUPERT. Just the slightly illegal things he'd done while spending time with Lori would have probably gotten him thrown off the team much less if they covered everything he'd seen and faced at King Pharmaceuticals. Of course, he was sure that the RUPERT higher ups knew about the KP situation and probably quite a bit about Lori. He honestly didn't care what they knew as long as they weren't asking him to either confirm or deny what had happened.

"They sent me to California for my training." Jacen commented without thinking. It was kind of strange that they had both been to the same places and then ended up in the same organization in the same city. It was sounding like they were alike enough that they would probably make pretty good partners. Nothing else quite obviously but decent partners for sure.

And now it was suddenly time for Noel to point out her own powers of observation. She could tell he was ex-military, "And here I thought my change in hairstyle might help disguise that," he was new to RUPERT and was comfortable in New York.

"You missed my love for good brandy." Jacen commented dryly as he watched Noel go through the process of trying to wave down a cab. Finally there was a cab in front of them and she was already sliding in. Taking his own seat, Jacen passed on the address to the cab drive and then turned his attention back to Noel as the vehicle pulled away form the curb.

"Basic background information. Recent run ins with mutants that I should know about. Mutants that might be gunning for you for revenge. Just the normal stuff you want to know about a partner."