Anthony stood, staring up at the large European style building in front of him. It could have been, loosely construed, a church. An extremely open and mutant friendly feeling seemed to pervade the area, where small groups of mutants commingled. A few went in and out. Big doors, garish and bright in the late afternoon light. Calls of Hey Brother and Welcome and other things along those lines followed him towards the doors. Apparently the regulars knew a newcomer when they saw one.
That's unfortunate for me.

As Anthony got closer, he couldn't shake the feeling that there was something interminably wrong about the place. Not a lot of wonder at that...

Several Hours Earlier

Anthony usually slept in on days like this. Days ending in Y. But the sun had risen to a very unaccustomed sight, a furry man elbows deep in newspapers and internet news searches. X-men and a vague supremecist organization, occasionally mentioned as an order or brotherhood amongst other things (monsters and devils were the runners up.) This city was a madhouse, almost the center of the Mutant universe. And Anthony didn't know it. If it hadn't been for Meld, he probably wouldn't have ever gotten curious. A little digging into Xavier's led to a lot of digging into the X-men. It wasn't like the fireworks had been particularly quiet over the last three to four years.

But during one of the more disastrous lunches he'd ever had, Meld had mentioned brothers in arms and fighting for the cause. Not as a metaphor, either. Like an organization. The mutant Chris Berg had thought food and shelter meant Xaviers. She meant the Sanctuary. It hadn't clicked at the time.
That is because you are the densest person in this room. If that was where she intended to take someone for help, who isn't to say others like her aren't there? Otherwise, none of it makes sense. Anthony glanced at the bird cage in the corner of his room and smiled.

The Sanctuary had been founded, November of '06. And shortly after that, the supremacists became a little more organized. The Registration act pushed them underground near the end of '07. Dorian King, the man who opened the sanctuary, also owned a pharmaceuticals company. Near the end of '09, the company literally blew up, and there was a scandal involving a mutant amping drug.

There wasn't a clear connection, but it all seemed to come back to something organized against the X-Men, and that the Sanctuary was the place to start.

Which leads us to

Standing in front of the doors, staring inside like a rube, Anthony started to actually use his brain for the first time all day. There was literally no reason for him to be here. And he'd left Dilbert in the hotel room untended. The bird was sure to get into trouble. Escape artist bird is an artist at escaping, so to say.

Despite dressing down, Anthony hadn't shined his shoes and the only precious metal was the silver around his neck, Anthony felt like he stood out. A shoulder bag with a dozen apples helped him look down and out, at least. But still...

Anthony turned around and began to walk away. Staring at the street, he couldn't help feel curious, so he turned around and began to walk in, but stopped. Turning around, he walked towards the street. And back again. Too and fro, back and forth, Anthony spent the better part of 5 minutes wearing a trench into the sidewalk. The thrill of adventure, and his love of doing whatever he wanted, called him to the door. His grim idea that it really wasn't his business and the love of staying alive kept turning him around.

Too and fro, stop and go, that's what makes the world go 'round. Anthony smiled and was singing to to himself and when he paid attention, he was standing inside the Sanctuary.

Anthony found himself frozen, standing in the door way. Truly, a day full of uncharacteristic things for Anthony. For my next trick, I'll imitate a baddie. Move, feet. Come on, mooooove. Anthony stood, completely with anxiety.

Deirdra stood in front of her mirror, fixing her long, blond hair into a bun with many bobby pins. After a few moments of shaking her head to see if any hair would fall out, she gave herself a quick smile. She intended to go look around the Sanctuary a little more. The woman hadn’t looked at too much, just the important rooms that would be almost impossible to avoid. She was wearing a red dress that came half-way down her thighs. There was a black sweater over it, paired with black heels, and silver hoop earrings. After all, Deirdra Sykes didn’t do anything without looking her best.

Now that she felt perfect, she opened her bedroom door and stepped into the hall. She turned back to the door to lock it, since she knew for a fact that some of the Sanctuary residents seemed to have sticky fingers, so to speak. She slipped the key to her door into a pocket in her sweater. Even if it fell out, she had enough bobby pins to pick open several doors. The woman smirked to herself at the realization. Lock picking hadn’t been in today’s plans, but if she happened to come across some door that she really wanted open, she could probably get it open.

Humming to herself and walking confidently down the hall, she turned a corner that lead towards the entrance way. The blond was intending on passing the door to get to the other side of the hallway, but stopped when she noticed someone in the doorway. They were just standing there, not seeming to know where they were or what they were doing. He almost looked nervous. One of her eyebrows arched up in question. She wondered if he was looking to stay in the Sanctuary, or if he was just looking for a particular resident.

Deirdra approached the man, who looked to be spacing out. She smirked and waved her manicured hand a few feet in front of his face. “Um, hi there. Are you looking for something in particular? I may be able to help. If you’re looking to stay here, I’d have to find someone with that authority, because, well, I don’t have it.” She smiled at the confused looking man and stuck out her hand. “I’m Deirdra Sykes. And you are?”

Finally, there was purpose to Ahorta's life. Actual purpose. For the better part of her life, her phobias drove her insane, panicing around every corner, heaving heavy breaths and running from the creatures that ran the alley ways. Well, either that or a defensive fatal blow, but defenses were necessary in this world. Ms. Faust had placed her as Head of Security at the Sanctuary. It was such an honor to be given a position of respect and authority. She was in charge of something, actually trusted with a job. Who would have thought?

Since her fairly recent promotion, she had begun scaling out the building. Looking in every corner for possible new camera positions and extra added precautions. Her new job required a thorough break down of the building. While examing the lobby, she glanced out the window and cringed at the sight of humans hustling by. One of them had green snake eyes. It was a quick reminder that this place was the building to protect, the one filled with mutants all fighting for the same cause. The mutants that did not hide behind a 'oh I'm such a good mutant! I'll be your pet!' like some organizations did. No, the Order was more for the trainers, the ones who understood they were supreme.

Something caught her eye through the window and she blinked a few times taking it in. Someone was pacing up to and then away from the doors. He seemed to have mutant tendencies. Perhaps he was someone in need but was unsure the Sanctuary could help. OR perhaps he was an intruder, afraid someone would catch him before he exchanged words with the human desk clerk. Humans... she supposed Lisa was fine, so long as she never had to speak to the wretched unevolutionized human. Standing perfectly still, Ahorta examined this new person, watching him curiously walk in a long line back and forth like a drunken bee trying to explain it's flightplan.

Another mutant caught her attention, a mutant she had previously met before and deemed to be 'just fine'. Deirdra, if she remembered correctly. She could tell by the woman's brief introduction while playing a game of darts that Deirdra could definitely fend for herself if this mutant outside were a threat. Still, Ahorta found her curiousity raising. Perhaps she should meet new residents, or prospective ones. It would give her enough time to map out their personalities and figure out if they are friend or foe.

Nodding her head in agreement, she moved her feet, ignoring the slight strain in her muscles from finally moving them from their statued position. Taking her spot next to Deirdra, she kept her mouth closed under her face mask, simply looking at the new guy. After a few glances from the mutant to his wardrobe to his shoes to the imaginary line he was following, she finally spoke up. "Do you need assistance?" she said, saving her name for later. Even if Ms. Faust said she should trust a little more and not put up so many of her defenses, she could at least save her name until she deemed him safe.

Anthony was still doing the statue routine when a hand was rudely waved in front of his face. He followed the hand down an arm, across a shoulder (with a split-second's worth of detour elsewhere) then up a graceful neck to a pretty face.

“Um, hi there. Are you looking for something in particular? I may be able to help. If you’re looking to stay here, I’d have to find someone with that authority, because, well, I don’t have it. I’m Deirdra Sykes. And you are?”

Anthony was, momentarily, set aback and mentally adjusted his previous idea of pretty face. Classically gorgeous. High cheek bones, well defined jaw line, a nose which some might define as upturned, though someone who disputed that statement might be right also. And her eyes. Oh god, those eyes. Anthony felt like his fur was standing on end, and as he was about to answer, someone appeared (though they could have been there the entire time and Anthony might not have noticed past the blond bombshell in front of him) and spoke.

"Do you need assistance?"

Neither malice nor warmth tinged the voice, just as neither colored the woman behind the blond. Brunette hair, and possibly cute, though behind a surgical mask it was hard to tell. Looking at this woman gave Anthony the creeps. She was, considering his location, a mutant. Behind a mask. What was behind the mask? And her voice, which should have been nice but carried no tone.

"I am fine, I was just looking around, I am attempting to learn a bit about this place, because one never knows, ya know?" Anthony closed his eyes, creased his brow, and sighed after the tumultous and terribly guilty sounding jumble left his lips. His fur literally stood on end, mostly from the unaccustomed anxiety.

But, one cannot stop at the first obstacle. It's just not done. Anthony, now the Film Noire Detective in his mind, bolstered with newly found false confidence, continued.

"I'm Anthony. I'm curious. This is The Sanctuary, and I kinda just want to look around. I've never been to a place like this. I've never needed to. It's just that..." Anthony shrugged. He felt a little guilty about leading the cutie on, and didn't actually address either of them, though he was looking at the brunette. He couldn't really do anything until the introduction were done, they'd coo'ed over how sad everything was like mother hens, and left like everyone else usually did. And then, he'd crack this place like a bad egg. As long as the place didn't stink.

Deirdra turned when she heard another voice join the conversation. The lack of emotion sounded a bit familiar. It was Ahorta. The blond recognized her from when she had played darts with Lenna and the girl. As before, she was wearing a facemask. Deirdra remembered how paranoid she had been and was a bit concerned that they were meeting again. Last time, Ahorta had accused Deirdra of hurting her. She attempted to explain herself, but didn’t get worked up when the odd girl didn’t believe her. It wasn’t a big deal to her whether or not people thought she was telling the truth or not.

The blond looked at the man who was covered in fur. It was an obvious mutation, but she wondered if any abilities came with all the hair and the pointy ears. She would ask later, depending on how long she stayed. The varieties of mutations were interesting, but usually she wasn’t all that impressed. Though she was curious about the newcomer. She guessed that it had to be different and be related to his rodent-like appearance. She looked at Ahorta and forced a smile on her face. “Wow, how are you? It’s been a while, hasn’t it?”

Deirdra noticed the new mutant look at her for a moment and she smirked. She loved when she got to see people’s reactions to her appearance. A lot of people could be pretty nonchalant, but sometimes the woman would come across someone who couldn’t keep their ogling a secret. It made her feel good about herself. If someone were to dive into her mind, they’d find out that it was the only thing she truly liked about herself and she felt it was the only way she could get people’s attention.

The man introduced himself as Anthony and looked very nervous. “No worries, we could probably give you a tour. Well, that is if Ahorta wants to come too.” She gave a smile to both mutants and placed a hand on her hip as she waited for some sort of answer.

Sentence fragments. They were most likely the most annoying thing about people, when they never finished their thought outloud. These were clear indications that something was amiss in their mind. It either meant they could shut off their mind easily without realizing it, which could be symptoms of a mental instability. The other possibility was that the sentence did not have an ending he thought they would enjoy. No matter what the end result could be, Ahorta's defenses moved up and she continued to eye the newcomer.

He said 'he never needed to (look around a 'place like this')'. Most humans were not comfortable around someone with visable mutations, and his mutations were clearly visible. What could possibly make him comfortable around humans? Perhaps he was a shape-shifter and spent more time as a rodent than a humanoid. Rodents, they were gross and carried disease. "Why would you never need to come to a place like this?" she asked, her tone still in monotone. The only change in muscle structure on her face was in a curiously raised eye brow. No, she was not the polite greeter, it was her job to look out for the Sanctuary and everyone in it, including Dierdra.

The smile on Dierdra's face seemed less than happily placed there. Was it something Ahorta had said? Was her emotionless approach not the right one to take? Then again, Dierdra had never seen the world like Ahorta did, she was too beautiful to have to see the dreadful terrors within the world. "I am relatively fine," she nodded in response to the blonde one. "And yes, it has been a while, I've been a little too busy to try my luck at darts lately," she said. For some reason, the new job title had given her the motivation to actually try to talk to people, slightly more polite than she had done previously.

If Anthony was going to tour around the building, Ahorta would find it her highest priority to accompany them. Sure, she had some stuff layed out on the chair in the lobby, little notes that she had been scribbling about the revised security measures she had been planning, but she could scoop them up relatively quickly and walk with them. "I'll be walking around the Sanctuary anyways, so a tour is fine with me," she said, taking the moment to gather her notes off of the chair, looking back at the newcomer every few seconds until she returned.

Anthony felt his stomach attempting to drop, and wrangled with his inner nervousness. The dire brunette was asking the intelligent, probing question of the day. Anthony opened his mouth to cover himself, but Dierdra engaged in some light opening conversation with the shorter woman.

Anthony felt a little relief. Banter and intrigue is the favored past time of polite society (an oxymoron if ever there was one) so covering himself was no problem. But he didn't want to be caught in an outright lie, and it's rude in the first place. Better to have people distract themselves.

When Dierdra suggested a tour, and the Other, whom Anthony was beginning to believe suspected him of shenanigans (Had he said he planned no Shenanigans? No? Best to keep his options open, then.) went along with it, Anthony felt the double edged blade of opportunity rest itself in his hands.

One edge was lined with guidance from experienced individuals, willing to show him around, keeping him out of restricted areas where he would get himself into rapid trouble. The other edge, he'd have to be careful of not coming off as too sketchy. They might not be the authorities of the place, but Anthony wasn't The Authorities period.

Anthony smiled at the cautious monotone drone of the brunette as she wandered off and began gathering scrap paper. He would never ever turn down the opportunity to take a stroll with two lovely ladies (even if one was, to put it mildly, off putting.)

"That would be absolutely amazing. What a relief. I thought I was going to get lost or worse. Very kind of you to volunteer, Deirdra. I would never forgive myself if I didn't take you up on your offer, I'd regret the day I walked away from one of the most beautiful women I've met." Anthony offered his hand, as a gentleman should, to Dierdra. "And I'm glad you are coming with us, ah- I'm sorry, I think I missed your name?" Anthony didn't have to put a fake smile on, he had committed to a course and felt relieved.

Right away, Ahorta’s paranoia came forward. She questioned the new arrival on why he would come to a place like this. The blond felt a light sigh escape her red lips. She thought the reasons a mutant would come to the Sanctuary were obvious, but decided she would let the man explain his reasons for himself. It wasn’t really Deirdra’s place to stick up for the stranger, though just knowing that he found her attractive did make her want to defend him a little bit more. The blond could be swayed easily, depending on the situation and if the person was a mutant.

Ahorta had stated that she would be around and therefore would be able to help with a tour. Deirdra plastered a smile on her face as she looked at the other young woman. It wasn’t that she had anything personal against the girl, there was just something about her that made her nervous. Nervousness wasn’t a new emotion to the blond, but it wasn’t usually so present around other mutants. She felt the least uncomfortable and worried when she was with other mutants. It was even better if she knew she was by herself. Out of all the people she had met, she herself was the only one she had deemed as trustworthy enough to trust.

She smiled at the man and placed her hand on top of his. “So, you said your name is Anthony, right? I always enjoy meeting a new mutant. The options for mutations never cease to amaze me. I hope I’m not being rude, but do any abilities come with this look of yours?” The woman was being polite and kept a sweet smile on her face. She didn’t mean to say he was weird looking, just implying that it was different. Deirdra had never seen a physical mutation that disgusted her, only intrigued.

He had complimented her on her beauty and she shook her head slightly. “I must admit, my more natural form isn’t as beautiful. Actually, most people that have seen it seem to be repulsed.” She began to lead him down one of the halls toward the dining room. “You see, the lower half of my body would prefer to look like a giant scorpion body. 8 legs, tail, stinger, carapace, and all. It feels much more normal to me than these human legs of mine.” She glanced down at her smooth, tan legs as she planted one of her high-heeled feet.

The two began the typical 'I'm a boy and you're a girl and since I'm a boy I like girls and you happen to be a girl and an oh so pretty girl' routine and Ahorta decided to retreat to the silent side of the conversation. Just because she was accompanying them, it did not necessarily mean she had to talk the whole time or join in the flirtatious actions. In fact, flirting scared the already paranoid mutant, though lucky for her, no one flirted with a girl that appeared, acted and overall was mentally unstable. Though even through all the compliments, Ahorta noticed he did not answer the question she asked, even if she meant it to be rhetorical, most people would answer it anyways.

She decided her place in this tour would be the observer, she would see if this new mutant's intentions were good concerning this place. Honestly, she did not mind if the place housed murderers, thieves or coopes, so long as they did not pose a threat to the Sanctuary, who cares what they did to humans? Take Ahorta for example, she really could not be too judgemental knowing the body count she had piled up outside of those doors. Ahorta did not have to be richly educated to see that others were uneasy around her, but she preferred it. If anyone was comfortable around her, it either meant she knew them well enough and they knew her well enough or it meant they were going to attack her and were attempting to appear calm. No, she preferred people's defenses up around her, it was much better than their offenses. "-orta," she finished Anthony's 'ah'. "My name is Ahorta."

Deirdra asked about his mutations, what an excellent question! Ahorta glanced down at them since her eyes had been surveying the ceiling, still looking for cameras and such. Then Deirdra began to speak about her own mutation and how people found it to be repulsive. If normal people were repulsed by a mutation, chances were, Ahorta was terrified of it. Then again, she had never met a mutant who could transform into her fears, more than likely because she never had a long enough conversation with anyone to figure out they were a mutant. Now that she was at the Sanctuary, it only seemed like there was a limited amount of time before she found a mutant with the power to transform into her fears.

She listened intently, simply blinking her eyes as the mental image of Deirdra formed in her mind. She was a half-scorpion! Yes, scorpions happened to be one of the things she fears, but Ahorta had never had episodes where the scorpion matched Deirdra's description. The memory of past scorpion episodes made her cringe, but she continued walking, wondering if she found mutants with fearful powers to be quite as frightening as she found humans that looked like that.

Anthony enjoyed her description. He felt something scratching at the back of his mind, scrabbling in dark corners, when she mentioned scorpion, but it passed and Anthony continued walking.

"That's interesting. At will change? And something pretty useful. And keeps your face the same. I have to say, that's really cool." Anthony thought for a second. "Not like me. My mutation did something weird. I started to turn into a mongoose. Genetically, that is. So I grew fur and a couple other things. You'd think it itches, but it doesn't, not unless my clothes decide to move weird and brush my fur the wrong way. The only real downside is how obvious I am."

Anthony let his mind take a quick detour and blurted out. "I was a spoiled rich kid and my family disowned me. Other then what I tucked away and what I know how to do with it, I'd be broke, and that scares me." Anthony mentally chastised himself. One part truth, and one part blatant, ugly lie. But enough of this. Time to get to the bottom.

"So, tell me about this place. Where are we, exactly, Ahorta?" Anthony stopped smiling when he looked at her. She was of the 'Leave me alone or I might break' variety of person, or she hated Anthony. He wasn't sure.

Deirdra glanced back at Ahorta over her shoulder, hoping she wasn’t leaving out the other woman. Of course, she didn’t seem very interested in manners or what they were talking about. Ahorta seemed to like being alone and didn’t really appear to feel insulted. The blond looked forward again as she lead the new mutant toward the dining room. She stopped and hoped everyone else would stop too. Deirdra didn’t want everyone else to bump into her, though it wouldn’t have been too big of a deal.

The woman listened as Anthony asked questions and gave her some compliments on her mutation. Deirdra smiled and shrugged. “It is useful and I can change at will. If I’m stressed out enough or hurt, I change automatically. I suppose it’s just helpful that I can look human at all sometimes, though it doesn’t feel right to me.” She looked at the man. “I don’t know if that really makes any sense, but I just feel incomplete when I’m not in my scorpion form. Having more legs and a tail feels natural to me. As soon as I changed the first time, I was able to walk around as if I’d been like that my whole life.”

Taking a step into the dining room, she made a showy Vanna wave at the room and then gave a grin. He had asked Ahorta where we were, so the blond held the position and waited for the other woman to answer his question.

Ahorta's mind never was abstract. Her sense of reality was already twisted enough, to put in abstract questions and statements nearly set her off the edge in confusion. Anthony asked an odd question: where exactly were they? It took her a moment to process the question, had he meant where was the Sanctuary? Where were they in life? It seemed too odd of a question, but she finally figured out what it meant, or at least she thought that she did. Her eyes had been so set on the ceiling that she forgot they were on a 'tour' and her eyes quickly scanned around to see where they were. Truth be told, she had never lost track of where she was, then again, it was the Sanctuary, the most comfortable place she had ever been.

"Oh, we are approaching the Dinning Area," she said, not feeling the need to elaborate more on that. It was fairly straight forward, the dinning area was where the mutants ate their food, not much to discuss there. Then again, she was sure Deirdra would be able to speak more about it. Her two companions had been talking about their mutations, and while Ahorta did not join their conversation, she was listening intently. She needed to know who lived at the Sanctuary and what their powers were for future security reasons.

Of course, knowing the mutation of a possible new comer was a good idea as well, but if he began turning into a mongoose, was it possible that one day he would become a mongoose instead of a human? Was that his power? De-evolution? It was curious. Even if he was transforming into something small and nearly rat-like and could possibly be prone to diseases, she was sure it was a better life than having to actually have conversations with people.

Deirdra stopped rather abruptly. Anthony considered running into her on 'accident', and while it seemed like a good idea (a great idea) but Anthony wasn't sure how she would react.

Anthony smirked and looked into the Dining area. It was a dining area. How do you even describe something like it? It was boring. A dining area. Yup, one could not deny, a dining area. The most remarkable part of it was Deirdra's stage wave.

And nothing nefarious at all. Hardly unexpected, but still a little bit of a let down.

"Fabulous! And everyone eats here? Together? Amazing. It's like a big family! Albeit a family who could be anything from clergy to cons, but together! How fabulous. Tell me, do you eat here, Ahorta? Deirdra? Speaking of which, maybe after this, you'd like to go out to eat with me, Deirdra?" Anthony winked and looked around the dining area, then turned to Ahorta.

"Lead on, Frau Commandant!" Anthony stood at Mock attention and looked in Ahorta's general direction. He couldn't bring himself to stare at her directly. She gave him the willies.

Ahorta told Anthony where they were when she made the gesture. She grinned at the other woman. "We should start our own game show or tour service." Deirdra laughed and of course was joking. It seemed like Ahorta would be nervous around strangers all the time. Of course, they had even met before and she seemed nervous. Maybe it didn't really matter who you were. It was a bit sad to see someone always on edge, but inside, the blond herself was on guard even if it didn't appear that way.

Deirdra turned and smiled at Anthony when he asked if they ate there. "Well, it does seem like the most likely choice. I know it's a bit obvious, but we did say we'd give you the tour. And, yes, I do eat here at times. Though, I do enjoy eating in my room as well. I need my space at times."

The blond raised her eyebrows in surprise when he asked her out to lunch, but a grin followed. "Aren't you forward?" She chuckled. "I like that in a person. Sure, I would love to go to lunch with you. I am starting to get a bit hungry." She glanced at Ahorta and wondered if she felt left out, or just ucomfortable. Deirdra thought the young lady was pretty, but it was harder to tell with the mask. Her personality could be a bit off-setting, but mostly the blond wished she knew her better,