He had gone on so well before with broken parts that now when he got up and hurt all over, it surprised her. He needed adrenaline. Noel popped her phone out of her pocket and made a note to herself that she would need to keep some on her person. "If you were to inject adrenaline into your system, would that help?" She saved the note, scheduled a reminder for herself to look at it later and then slipped the smooth cell back into her pocket all in the space of a few seconds.

The agent freed the application from his hand, it seemed to be getting a bit wrinkled with his constant need to use those hands to steady himself. "Do I need to... shoot you or call a nurse or something?" She wasn't quite sure what to do with him. He was big and strong and fragile all at the same time. In the end, she offered him her arm. She was a gentleman to the very end.

"We wait for food to talk about the job, not that John doesn't already have opinions of his own."

Noel looked aver Nick and decided to flag down a cab even though it was a distance she would normally walk. A couple blocks over and the legitimate building faces turned a bit more ratty and a lot more seedy. Another cash and receipt transaction and the brunette was opening the door and helping Nick out of the cab. For all the faces he made, getting in and out of the cab may have been worse than just walking.

She helped him hobble to a building and after running her finger down the grimy panel, she stopped at one J. Smith with NO SOLICITING scribbled in red marker next to it. The button had been white once upon a time, but it was more yellows and browns than anything else now. Noel pushed it and waited. And waited... And wait-

"What?"

"Twenty bucks says it'll take you an hour this time."

There was a long silence. So long that Noel's smile faltered and she almost pushed the button again.

"You don't sound that hurt." The buzzer sounded and the door lock retracted.

"You are gonna love this." Again she held the door for Nick. One flight of agonizing stairs later and they were knocking on a plain, un-numbered door half way down the hallway. Noel understood John. She had many of the same precautions in place for her home.

There was a grumble that sounded something like 'took you long enough' and the sound of an abnormal number of locks being disengaged. The door opened to reveal a glimpse of a man in a avocado green velour bathrobe who may not have bathed or shaved in the last four days. Black socks pulled up almost to his knees, boxers and nothing above that excepting a pair of sunglasses, the robe and a shiny aluminum foil hat. He swung the door shut almost as soon as he had opened it.

Noel's bare foot went between the frame and the door and she regretted that. She cried out, leaned forward from the pain and just barely managed to head butt the door in doing so. "Ah!"

"Ho-no, missy. I'm not here to play games with you."

"Just a patch job, John. You get good business from me."

"No, I get funny business from you." He was looking around for something to dislodge her foot now and she used his moment of distraction to wedge her hip against the door.

"I won't make eyes at you. I can keep them shut if it makes you feel better. One teensy little wipe and suddenly we're not friends?"

"Teensy little-!" He huffed and stepped away from the door. Noel, with all her weight braced against it naturally went forward right on into his apartment which was composed of heaps of garbage, a cat and a clean hospital gurney. The bed was suspicious as the only clean thing there.

"I told you not to bring people here."

From the floor Noel motioned Nick toward that gurney and then put her hands over her eyes like a kid playing hide-and-seek. "John, this is Nick. Nick's applying for the job."

John huffed at Nick and closed the door after him. "No one followed you?"

"Not today."

After that it was all business. Paranoid business, but still business. John's way of healing felt something like having a blow dryer trained on you. From his hands came a warm rush of hot air that almost felt like it would bake away the wounds. All in all it took right around an hour. Noel, tired of holding her eyes shut, turned toward the wall and read through Nick's partially filled application. If she could memorize the info and they talked about it over lunch, she might be able to retain some it later.

She got a tap on the shoulder when the work was gone. She fished out a couple bills and held them over her shoulder. When they disappeared without complaint, she figured they were free to go. "What kind of food do you like?"

"No I honestly dont know how exactly my ability works... But I think for a time afterwards, my ability wont reactivate. But I guess an adrenaline shot would keep me going for a while. I dont really know the specifics." Bear grumbled a bit to himself as he used all of his will to climb into the cab that Noel had waved down. Grumbling simply because it felt awkward having a woman helping him in and out of a cab and holding doors for him and all of the stuff he should have been doing. But it was comforting knowing she didnt mind helping him out when he was out of shape. They pulled up to yet another ordinary looking building and yet again Bear used all of his will to climb out of the cab.

"I'll be ok in a bit... Dont worry too much about me.." Bear winced as they entered the building after an odd exchange between Noel and the speaker. "Thanks for helping me get healed Noel... But I guess you wouldnt have it any other way considering I'm of no use to you in this condition." Bear forced himself to walk up the steps as quickly as his wounded body would allow him. Noel helped him the entire way until they got to yet another ordinary door with not so ordinary sounds coming from behind said door.

Bear glanced at the man in the bathrobe with an odd look and tilted his head to the side a bit before watching Noel jam her foot in the door. "You may as well have had me do that.. It wouldnt be much worse than what I'm going through right now..." Bear had to laugh a bit about this with a cringe following closely behind said laugh. After the odd exchange between Noel and her 'friend' John he finally let the two of them into the apartment.

"So... How does this work? Do I just lay here or something?" Bear climbed onto the gurney and laid back slowly. John didnt speak only huffed before John sat in a rather uncomfortable looking chair next to the gurney. He put his hands over Nick and held them there before closing his eyes, as he did this, heat began to emminate from his hands, it was almost as if Bear could feel his body slowly mending from the heat. His muscles loosened and his cuts softened before filling in completely.

After a time, about an hour the heat stopped and John pulled his hands back before giving Noel a tap on the shoulder. As he did this, Bear sat up slowly, not feeling any pain and slowly turned on the gurney before lowering his legs. He felt a little stiff still like a very small car had been dropped on him instead of a train running him over. "I like food in general I guess... How do you feel about Chinese? I mean if you look at all the movies people always have weird conversations while eating Chinese Food. It'll make us feel like secret agents or something." Bear laughed a bit before he slid off the gurney and pulled out his wallet. "But I'll pay for the food. It's the least I can do."

"So.. What do we do now?" Bear smiled a bit and worked his way towards the door slowly. "Hey John, nice hat by the way... Make me one?" Bear opened the door to the apartment and held it for Noel.

She would have objected to Nick's observation that he was useless to her in his current, crippled condition but it was true. He could still relate the truth to her, but he wasn't a functioning partner unless he could portably relate the truth to her. It was a real shame she couldn't discern the truth from a phone or a recording. It made her dependent on someone else. Someone breakable.Not that she wasn't breakable...

"I need to stop and get some shoes…" She was on her feet now and Nick had the door. He wasn't hurt anymore. He could have it.

Her house wasn't far, but she was under no circumstances going there with Nick in tow. He might be her potential partner, but he hadn't earned that right just yet.

A pair of gnarly tennis shoes appeared in her peripheral vision.

"Twenty."

"What size?"

"10. Men's."

"Too big, thanks anyway."

"You will tell him, right? Before he signs his life away?"

Noel looked at Nick. "I'll tell him everything." She was happy that the words were like dew on her tongue. She fully intended to fill Nick in. On John's foil hat, on RUPERT, on her fears about her job and her life and everything. Because if he was going to be her truth, he needed to know it all.

A new pair of shoes appeared over her shoulder. They were older. Grosser. And rusty with dried blood. "Free of charge."

The soles were crunchy and they were a mite small, but they were shoes. Noel could get into a restaurant now. Funny, biohazard shoes were somehow preferable to bare feet.

"Chinese, huh? Sounds nefarious enough." John closed the door as soon as they were both through it. Locks echoed down the hall accentuating their carpet quiet steps.

"Now, I tell you everything and you either run screaming or decide to stick it out. You know a place close enough to walk to?" Once they were out on the street she had to get her bearings again. She had a map with all her favorite landmarks marked on it, but now didn't seem the appropriate time for maps.

"I'm a mind reader. That's why John wears the hat. Only, I don't get thoughts or pictures or anything. I just... I get flavors. If what someone is saying doesn't jive with what is in their head, it's tastes God-awful. You haven't lied to me yet. Not that I can remember." As they walked, she started at the beginning. Or close enough anyway. "That's the other thing. I can make people forget things. It's what I meant by clean up being half our... my job description." She was getting a little ahead of herself there. "My little slice government is in the developmental stage. The regular branches aren't sure they want to admit it exists yet because it's a potential political mine field. Technically we're spying on people. Granted they're destructive criminals, but I'm not sure how the legalities work out exactly."

Wow. she was getting a lot out there and they hadn't even ordered yet.

"Hmm..." Bear had to think a moment, he hadnt been in New York long as of the current moment in time but before he left he was in town for quite some time. As he scanned his mind for places to eat, his eyes lit up and he remembered a decent Chinese place only a couple blocks away. "Yeah I know of one.. You can always find Chinese within a few blocks of anything in New York. Either that or Pizza." Bear laughed a bit thinking about it for e moment.

Then she started in as they began to walk to the Chinese food place, a warning of run away screaming or stick it out and tough it out. Bear not being one to shy away from a challenge was intrigued already. "Well to push to that, I kinda pride myself on being an honorable person and lying isnt a very honorable thing to do." The pair continued walking, talking openly about what Noel could do and what she typically does for a living. Bear couldnt help but be more interested in taking the job. He glanced at the application in her hand and thought about how he could fill it out to help him get the job, without lying on said application.

"So... You make people forget things? Can you make yourself forget stuff too? Can you make anybody forget anything? I mean.. What're your limitations or do you not have any?" Bear could feel himself wanting to ask more questions but instead he forced himself to stop talking as Noel continued on with what she was saying. He felt like a kid in a candy store or a military brat joining the military or heck he even felt like he was getting ready to simply do what he had always wanted to do. Help people in his own little way.

"In watching these 'destructive criminals' we're helping to protect people in a way right? I mean.. Isnt that all that matters? That we're protecting people? Err... You're protecting people... Heh.." Bear scratched at the back of his head a bit, realizing he wasnt yet part of the company or whatever it was called.

After a short walk the two arrived at this small hole in the wall Chinese Food place. The two walked through the open door and Bear smiled at the person at the door who gave him a nod and a smile before leading the way to the table. The pair sat down at the table they were brought to and two menus were set in front of them. "Whatever you feel like... Like I said, I'm buying." The waiter took their drink orders and walked off to allow them to think about what they were going to order.

"So... Tell me more... What would I be doing? I'd be your partner right?"

Honorable. He wanted to be honorable. Like that was his life's ambition or he was part samurai or something. She could tell already that he was a better person than she was.

>"So... You make people forget things? Can you make yourself forget stuff too?"

"Ah. Yeah... that's the crux of the problem. Anytime I make someone forget something, I forget that too. Or if it's something I didn't know I might forget something else. It's kind of hard to pin down what's missing when you don't know it's gone."

They were in the restaurant now and the smells were appropriately salty and drool-worthy. The menu looked pretty standard. It was authentic enough to have Chinese characters that she had no hope of deciphering and poorly translated explanations below, but American enough to offer egg rolls and egg drop soup that was bright yellow.

Noel would have to figure out a way to pay for her own meal later. For now she ordered General Tsao's Chicken. Spicy and sweet and it came with soup, rice and an egg roll. "My favorite." She explained that too because she wanted him to know everything.

"On one hand, I can get along okay. The lie tasting thing comes in handy when I've forgotten basic truths. The problem comes in when I get into gray territory or if I get fed a lie in a way that I can't tell what it is. I have to be next to the person to know if it's the truth, you know? Phone messages or hand writing doesn't tell me jack. And since I'm forgetting who knows what all the time, I have to find ways to let myself know what's what."

She frowned and it pulled her scar tight across her face. "If I'm gonna lie to myself or be lied to, that's the time to do it. Right after a wipe. I could believe anything so long as it's not suspicious. Do you see the danger there?"

The soup came in the first round. It was salty and made a nice contrast with her Diet Coke.

"I think I could make someone forget anything if I wanted to, but it's not always permanent and some things are harder to pick out than others. Like a weed with a lot of deep roots, you know? Something could remind that person of something that makes the root grow again."

>"In watching these 'destructive criminals' we're helping to protect people in a way right?"

"I'd like to think so. We're able to prove more with mutants under surveillance. Some abilities make the truth harder to track through traditional means and other times it's just nice to know when 5 or more destructive types are gathering. That kind of stuff." She shrugged. There were only a few times when she dealt with already tagged mutants. That wasn't really her schtick.

> "So... Tell me more... What would I be doing? I'd be your partner right?"

Well, he still wasn't running away. Brave. Or stupid. Didn't matter which, really, so long as he promised to stay close at hand and tell the truth.

"I need someone who can tell me what's what and I need to be able to always tell if that person is lying or not. My previous partner was an adapted, a person that can nullify powers, but that's no good. They can lie easier than anyone else. Besides they give me headaches." She shrugged. "It also doesn't hurt that you proved you can keep going 'til the job is done."

When their soup bowls were cleared away and the main courses arrived, Noel put the application on the table between them. "I'm sorry to commandeer your life like this. You can say no. It's likely that you'll have your memory modified a good number of times. You could come out of this partnership with a brain like swiss cheese." She had to lay it out honestly. John the healer, she had not warned. Now he distrusted her enough to wearing his foil hat.

Bear smiled as he kept listening to Noel, his food came quickly, a plate of Chow Mein with some Fried Rice and a bit of Sweet and Sour Pork as well as a spring roll. Simply put it was a combo plate you can get at any good Chinese Food Place. "So... That's why you were acting all weird after we caught Rubber Man, you forgot about me because you made him forget about us. Hmm that really is a crux.." Bear picked at his plate a bit and continued listening to Noel talk about the job.

"Well I guess it's good you picked me to be a possible partner with all the problems you have with your memory. I personally will never have a reason to try and steer you wrong and as I said, I pride myself on honor so.. I'll always tell you the truth of the matter and help you easily suss out the lies in most situations." Bear picked at his plate a bit as he thought about the agency placing her with an adapted.

"So... If you were working with an adapted, and they nullify mutant abilities... Then basically you're useless in most situations when it comes to making people forget stuff or being a human lie detector." Bear got a funny look on his face as he thought about the logic behind the situation.

"I dont mind you 'commandeering' my life, and as far as memory wipes, as long as you dont erase who I am... All's well that ends well. I want this job... I like the idea of helping people in any way I can and as you said, I can keep going until the job is done even if that means keeping going while keeping you going. Just be ready for things to be worse with the repercussions from a chase if things are harder than they were today." Bear picked at his plate a bit more as he thought about everything he may end up doing and all of the good he could do simply by helping Noel do her job. Plus, simply having a job is a great thing in and of itself.

Bear couldnt think of anything other than what the job would entail, the kinds of people he may see, or chase or hurt. The places he may end up going simply to help catch a dangerous mutant. His job may even begin to entail the capture a dangerous mutant, especially considering Noel would have a better chance of surviving said encounter if Bear were taking all of the punishment. When it came down to simple pros and cons of the situation, the pros were much higher than the cons. The only cons Bear could possibly come up with in his mind was a memory problem and a few more holes in his body. Pros, well, there were way too many to even begin to count, aside from the ones his mind already hit upon.

Rubberband man. She vaguely remembered. She had made it to the check point soon enough that an Adapted had brought some of the chase back. Like... why her nose still felt a bit smashed.

>"...I guess it's good you picked me to be a possible partner with all the problems you have with your memory. I personally will never have a reason to try and steer you wrong..."

She smiled at her food rather than at Nick. Her food was easier to face than someone so... bright and shiny. God, she was so cynical. "You say that now, but you can't possibly know what you'll learn or forget. Things change when you're out there in the world. Things will affect your decisions. I can't expect you to uphold any bright-eyed promise you make now, before you've ever actually done any of it."

The agent did not make a habit of pouting at her food. If there was a tough road that she felt was better, she would take it.

"So I think it's time to play 50 questions." Because 20 just wasn't enough.

"Favorite flavor of ice cream? Dutch chocolate for me." It was implied that he would answer the question and then follow up with one or two or forty-nine of his own.

Bear sat for a minute, not really knowing how to respond to her point of truth. Anything could happen between now and the future, things could change, memory loss could cause him to simply stop caring about things he cared a great deal about now. He wanted to be abe to promise he'd never steer her wrong but nobody could make a promise like that with what was looming over him.Memory loss alone could cause him to steer her wrong, there really was no telling what was going to happen. But none of this deterred Bear from wanting the job placed in front of him.

"My favorite kind of Ice Cream has got to be Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough, now I know what you're going to say about that being kind of a kid thing but I cant help it. That stuff is so amazing, you got the cookie dough which almost everybody loves mixed in with Ice Cream. How can you not love it? Heh..." Bear smiled as he finished off what was on his plate before realizing he had done so.

His next forkful went unanswered and he looked down at the plate and pouted a bit. "Favorite Color? Mine happens to be green..." Bear smiled a bit sitting back in his chair as he looked across the table at the young woman.

"Do you do this with all possible candidates? Or are you just trying to get to know me because we'll probably be spending a lot of time together... Speaking of which... What are the hours like? 24/7?" Bear laughed a bit, kinda expecting her to say yes but still joking all in the same.

Noel's favorites were, to be entirely honest, variant. "Today my favorite color is red. Forget a few things, learn a few things and it could be something else. There's a lot of red in my closet, though, so I think I may be relatively consistent on that like."

She was chewing over her next question when he asked another, more probing one.

"I've had plenty of partners before, but none that I've picked out myself so... no. Never done this before." She hadn't been as interested in the truth before. Not the honest to God, no matter what happens it is the truth kind of truth anyway. Her faith in the company had kept her compliant for a long time.

"The hours are pretty regular. We've got assignments that can take an hour or several days to complete. It sort of just depends. We've got a fair amount of paperwork to shovel and that has to happen some time when we're not out in the field." She shrugged. "Emergencies can crop up and we're all sort of on call for those. Depending on the size, they may call us all in or just the closest."

And then it hit her, her next question. "Parent's names?"

"Hmm the hours dont sound too bad, I mean I cant really complain too much.. I currently dont even have a job so you know..." Bear sat back in his seat and grabbed his cup in hand, slowly sipping from it as Noel explained a bit more about the hours. "Well either way, I dont mind working all sorts of hours. I can work nights, days, weekends, it doesnt really matter that much. So being on call all the time isn't a bad thing at all for me."

Bear looked at Noel when she asked her question, it caught him a bit off gaurd, considering he and his parents didnt really get along all that well. They didnt like the fact that he was a mutant and he didnt like them for not liking what he was, especially considering he hated what he was. "Well... My parents names... Heh... My dads name is Paul and my moms name is Melissa. Paul and Melissa Orthin."

Bear sighed a bit thinking about his parents. "They werent that awesome.. My best friend from home found out she was a mutant at an early age and I helped her deal with people. I didnt find out what I was for quite a while but when I did find out, because of the way my parents reacted to my best friend being a mutant I didnt tell them for quite some time. By the time I told them, I was just about to move out this way. They practically packed my bags for me."

"How about you? Parents names? Oh and.. What did you want to be as an adult, when you were a kid? I always wanted to be a police officer. For some reason, I just like helping people and being a police officer seemed like a good way to do that... But I do have to say, when I was a kid, I just thought it was cool that everyone was afraid of them and they got to carry guns." Bear laughed a bit, thinking back to his imagination when he was a kid.

Noel was very cautious with her personal memories. She was glad to share them with Nick in case she would ever need help preserving them. And despite her strict no-forgetting-family rule, her distant Californian past always had a surreal quality to the memories. Like they might have been eaten away at the edges a bit, but the bulk remained.


"Rick and Caren Gage." She rolled the names around on her tongue after she had said them to test that they were true. Tasted true enough so she was pleased with herself.

"At first they didn't think my power was mutant ability. They thought it was synesthesia which is a semi-normal explanation for crossed senses. I had pretty normal childhood aspirations. Firefighter, matador, public defender... if it was slightly dangerous and a male dominated field I wanted in." She shrugged and felt like that needed a bit more explanation. "I have brothers. I was more used to dealing with boys than girl crap."

The agent folded her arms over her happily full belly and tried to think of another question. "What is something that you regret?" She couldn't ask for his deepest regret because she couldn't be sure of her own. Noel touched her cheek, but the scar and the circumstances surrounding it didn't bother her as much as this.

"One time after a really brutal fight, a girl needed help. The ceiling had collapsed so we all had grime in places I don't even want to think about and debris made moving around a real pain... anyway, I knew I could have helped her. I was maybe the only one who could have fit under that space to reach her, but I walked away. I don't know why. I really could have helped, but I just didn't..." Another thing about Noel, she was sexist to her core. She would go out of her way to be chivalrous toward women and had a sort of savior complex. She could be suckered into saving a distressed damsel as easily as any man.

"That really is something tough to deal with... But I cant say that I would have saved the girl myself.. There's only so much we can do as people, no matter how special we are... I can be super strong and fast but that doesnt mean I can control my fears or everything I experience... You dont even have the luxury of being super strong... For the most part, you're a normal person.." Bear thought about it a minute, not really being able to come up with much.

"Well... The only thing I can come up with is something that I'm surprised didnt end me up on your radar..." Bear sighed a bit and leaned towards Noel, motioning for her to get closer. "I.." murdered somebody before, killed him in cold blood. "I abandoned my best friend Aris, you may know her as Meld... I left her here in New York without somebody to help keep her in line. I left her to become what she is... Because of me, countless people are dead." Bear let out a light sigh, quite a few regrets scattered themselves in his life and picking only one, really wasnt something easy to do.

"So... Since it seems like we're getting a bit more personal... How'd you get that scar? If you dont mind my asking..." Bear paused for a moment, before he pulled his jacket over his shoulders, revealing his scarred forearms. "I inflicted all of mine on myself... I did some of these to help myself help people and others to show off and yet others to simply figure out who or what I was. I also have two very large scars on my stomach from..." His mind raced, trying to think of a reason he did those wounds. "I guess you could say I tried to kill myself..."

Bear thought back to what brought him to slicing himself across the abdomen. "Oh and I've been shot a few times..." He thought back to killing his former landlord and leaving him for dead in the middle of the apartment. He thought about robbing that bank and collapsing only to wake up in some odd shack in the middle of nowhere. Bear's past was clouded and confusing yet clear and easily understood. He really couldnt figure out why he did what he did but he also couldnt figure out why he brought this all upon himself. He told a lie detector a partial truth, his greatest regret is a combination of things. His only hope is she cant tell that he didnt give her the full truth on the subject at hand. And if she questioned him, he would have to tell her the truth and probably go to jail. No less than he deserved.

"Maybe you didn't get it. I had a choice at the time and I chose blatantly and irrevocably wrong. It didn't take a super mutant to help someone, it just took someone, anyone. For whatever reason, I just didn't." She normally would have kept that to herself, but telling Nick was like telling her diary. The more honest she was with him, the better he could help her remember not to be that way in the future.


Admitting what she was ashamed of was as good as admitting weakness. That put her in a surly enough mood that she didn't remember any Aris at all. Though, there were a few mutants around town that weren't yet classified for capture that had pretty high body counts.

"She doesn't happen to wear a green bow in her hair, does she? Or maybe be part mechanical?" The girl that stabbed cops what a bone manipulator so the nickname 'Meld' didn't exactly fit there and she had no idea what metal face's name was mutant name or legal, but Noel figured she would ask anyway.

To make matters worse, he asked about her scar.

"I mind, but in the spirit of full disclosure, you ought to know anyway." She chewed her lip as she thought about how to best phrase how it all happened.

"It was a raid on an empty house, only, it wasn't so empty. We were chasing down some gun runners, I think that's what we were originally after anyway. So it was just me and a bunch of evidence collections teams, the place was supposed to have already been cleared." She shrugged, an effort at nonchalance.

"The only reason I'm alive is because Roland Pruitt let me live… I'm not sure even now why he didn't. He killed everyone else that he laid eyes on. Flipping one man massacre." As hard as she tried not to be bothered by the things that she had seen and experienced that day, it was clear that she was uncomfortable with it all still. "With the help of a cop, we tracked and tracked and tracked him until we realized we were chasing our tails and he was long gone. International criminals are a little like ghosts. Only appear when they want to."

If she had a choice, she wouldn't be carrying around the scar, but it did help her remember. "If I didn't think it totally creep-tastic, I would have tattooed his face somewhere that I couldn't forget it. I might not even recognize the guy if he walks by." But she did know his name. Roland Pruitt. She had barely kept herself from etching that name somewhere, but it seemed a bit too… wrong. Like a lover lost arm band or a hokey "mom" tattoo. Instead, Roland Pruitt would be memorialized in Noel's paperwork, in her phone and plastered on every interpol station's wanted board.

((I'm so sorry, I've been trying to think of something to type but my brain totally shut down for some reason... I hate to say it but I think this thread may very well be done... Unless you want me to try and force something out.. Otherwise, maybe we can start a new thread or move on to another point in this thread... I've just had horrible writers block... Seriously I spent the last month trying to figure out what I could do So it's up to you on what happens..))