As soon as the noise, and the lights, and the smoke assaulted his senses, Mat couldn't help but grin to himself. It seemed eavesdropping and following that crowd from the street had paid off. They had boasted the whole way, saying how awesome, how much fun this was going to be. Mat, having no other pressing engagements, decided to investigate for himself. So he trailed the group down several alleys and into some run down looking, nondescript building. A lone man had been standing outside by the door, built like an ox. He had given Mat a look over, before letting him pass, a stern nod being the entirety of the conversation.

And so, Mat found himself in the middle of the wildest rave he had seen in some time.

The venue was nothing special, a bar in the far corner, a small stage on the opposite side of the room and nothing but dance floor in between. Lining the walls were various booths and couches. Several hallways seemed to lead off, out into other more private rooms away from the noise. On the stage, DJ was standing at his decks, headphones covering one ear while he twisted dials and pushed sliders, music pounding and pumping through giant speakers. Beams of coloured light emanated from various corners of the ceiling, spearing through the smoke that was billowing from some mysterious location. Still...

The place was an oasis in Mat's growingly hectic life.

The past few nights Mat had found himself falling back into old habits. After the incident with the rogue golem, and all the hubbub that had followed Mat couldn't take being at the Mansion any longer. If he had spent another minute there he would have clawed his own skin off, he was itching to get away so much. So he took to the streets once more, crashing in an old haunt. His finances had been much healthier since living at the Mansion, so squatting for a few nights was more comfortable than usual. It was his vacation, away from the constrains of 'civilisation'.

Within minutes of being here, various people had sidled up to Mat, offering him an assortment of party enhancers. Seemed this place played loose with the rules and the law, then. That made Mat happy. Restrictions were what he was avoiding. If he had wanted rules, and laws, and creeds, he would have stayed at the mansion. He'd go back there eventually, of course, once he felt he could stomach it there. Could handle the disapproving glances, the preachy nagging, and the endless, endless scrutiny. Until then, however, Mat was going to relieve himself of all the growing stress that had been plaguing him since leaving the streets.

This place, it made Mat happy. Very, very happy.

It had been a long time since Mat had been to a rave. Back in the commune, when things were simpler, he had been to plenty. Himself, Trip, Downpour, and Pockets. The old gang. No cares, no concerns outside of running wild and having fun. Silly, reckless, unadulterated fun. The happiest moments of his life. The crew may not have been with him at this very moment, and he missed them like hell, but tonight was not a night for sadness or regret. Tonight, he'd hold them in his heart and cherish the good times.

Dressed in ragged, loose jeans and a grimy moss green hoody, hair all dishevelled, Mat garnered some disapproving glares from some of the more stylish patrons. Not that he cared. He had been let inside, after all. And he wasn't here to impress. He ran a foot along the floor, testing the sole of his worn down shoes. Nice and slippery. Perfect. So making his way to the dance floor, blood pumping through his veins, a stupid euphoric smile plastered on his face, Mat pulled his hood up over his head and closed his eyes. Let himself get in synch with the music, feeling every kick, every beat, every note...

Then he let himself go.

Tonight, he was going to bring the Melbourne scene to New York. Tonight, he was going to show the Yanks how the Aussies did it, in honour of his crew. He could picture the faces of his friends, all smiling, shouting encouragement, shuffling and dancing alongside him. They may have been separated by thousands of miles of ocean, but they were never apart from him. He always held his friends close.

This one's for you, guys...

Half the fun of going out to these things was the anonymity. For so much of her life she had relied on it, fake names, fake adorations, clothes that weren't her style... being somebody else was ten times as fun as always being herself.

Tonight, in heels with spikes long enough to make even her legs look long under her short dress, she looked like somebody who got dolled up to have a good time. All she really wanted was to have some willing participants for her to practice on and where there was M, there were budding mutants. Where there were budding mutants (and libations), nobody much cared if you practiced on them.

She had settled as near to the speakers as she could get and still be heard by those around her. The bass was strong enough that she felt it rattling up through her stool. Conditions were perfect.

A round of M, it didn't bother her to take the little red tablet, and wide eyes was all it took. One guy figured out that when he snapped, sparks flew. Like his fingers were flint and steel. He lit a bar napkin in flames and they were all giggling.

Then it was Lori's turn. She specifically caught a little skin contact, brushing one of their hands on her way to her drink. The loud noise helped her tune out what the others were actually saying (something about one of their powers being about bubbles or smoke?) "Did you say something?" The girl did a double take because she knew she hadn't. Not out loud anyway.

"Oh! I think I'm psychic! Somebody hold up some fingers behind your back!" She shouted and there were a few immediate volunteers. All ripe for the picking.

She grinned and picked one, a little skin to skin and... uhm... oh dear. This happened some times, the brain was a tricky place.

> "What did you say?"

She was copying her thoughts to him and copying his sight to her. Of course, he would hear that.

Lori turned to the bar under the pretense of ordering another drink. Staring at her own blankly staring eyes was unnerving. If she could look at least in the same direction as him...

>"Un-do it!"

Suddenly she was moving backward. She could see his hand on the back of her shirt dress.

"Hey! I'm new at this!" That was true. Mostly. Oh damn, but he could hear her thoughts. Think of baseball! Think of baseball!

>"You did it on purpose!"

"You wanted me to!" He was still dragging her. She could defend herself if she could have seen something besides the direction they were going and if she hadn't chosen that particular set of electric blue high heels.

Mat was lost. The good kind of lost. Lost in the music. Lost in the dance. His eyes were clamped shut, and his body was now moving on instinct. He had forgotten how good it felt, to just let go and lose himself in the rhythm. Hands flailed and circled through the air as he shuffled, and kicked, and spun. It had been such a long time since he had last danced like this. His muscles were remembering their old tricks, their old moves. Settling into their forgotten grooves. Memories of Trip teaching him how to shuffle came to mind, and Mat felt his grin widen. He was in his own little world right now, and nothing was going to bring him out of it...

He felt his back hit something, heard a squawk, and sensed something thumping onto the floor.

That brought him back to reality.

Opening his eyes and turning to see what damage he had caused, Mat noticed a man and woman on the floor. The man was grumbling and swearing, and did not look happy at all. The woman...well, Mat's focus wasn't exactly on her well-being at the moment. He was too busy eyeing that wonderfully short dress.

Nice shoes, too.

The right thing to do was to check whether the pair had been hurt. “Hey mate, you right?”

There, that was the bloke attended to.

Mat knelt down and offered a hand to the woman. Blonde hair, and most importantly, blue eyes. Lovely, lovely blue eyes. “Are you alright? I'm sorry, I didn't see you. Must have gotten a little carried away,” he shouted over the music, with a sheepish smile. She seemed a few years older than him, not that it mattered. Mute had been older too, as far as he had been able to tell.

It wasn't overly appropriate of him, he had to admit, fussing over this woman when she was with a guy. He may have been a friend, he may have been a boyfriend. Possibly, Mat was overstepping his boundary. Still, Mat wasn't in the mood for caring tonight, about anything. He was past caring about things. If this guy got jealous at his giving this woman attention, well then, that was his problem.

As it turned out, it wasn't a problem at all.

The man pushed his way to his feet, swore at the girl and stormed off. Not very gentlemanly behaviour at all. Mat gave a tisk. Still, that probably meant that he wasn't her boyfriend...

Mat turned back from watching the man huff and puff his way out of the club, and focused his attention back on the woman. The incredibly sexy, and now alone, woman.

“Isn't he a happy chappy...”



((OOC: I took a few liberties godmodding Lori onto the floor. Let me know if you want me to change anything.))

Better than baseball, Lori started imagining all the ways that she planned to defend herself.
Thinking that she wouldn't mind driving her spiked heel through his foot was enough for him to know she would do it. Add on a flurry of other planned hits that fell into the less-than-sportsman-like category and the guy was slowing down his dragging pace.

Her thoughts in his head probably didn't help, but he never saw impact coming. Lori knew this because by proxy, neither did she.

For a moment all she could see was movement. Flesh on flesh and then flesh on floor. The floor was disgusting, but at least she could see it and could command where and what she wanted her eyes to see. What had broken the link? No matter how hard she had tried before only distance or maybe time had done it before. She took a moment looking down at the sticky, dirty floor to think about it while whatever had knocked them over apologized to the man.

And then she looked up at the apologizer with the full force of blue she'd been born with. Just enough moisture in her eyes to make them gleam wet in the dimness, but not wet enough to spill over.

Her thoughts were her own and the man's and sight was his own. He cursed and was gone and that made Lori giddy enough to laugh out loud. Tears weren't needed here. She didn't have to turn one on the other in order to make her exit. She could stay and play for a while longer.

Lori took the offered hand with the hand she knew had landed in something syrupy. If she was grimy, she was going to share it.

"You saved me."

Guys always seemed to like to hear that. And between looking at his clothes and her own, it was clear that (at least monetarily) they were in totally different leagues. The blonde could appreciate every flavor of person. Especially a poorer one, since she had been that way for most of her lifetime.

Once she was on her feet, she made the heels look easy. Lori was only petite because she was small. Had she been a more average height, her solid body would have stood out as one that was regularly put through its paces. Lately, she had lost some of that muscle since the Sanctuary provided such a comfortable lifestyle.

"I'm Lori." It grated overtime she gave out her real name, but she was stationary at the Sanctuary now. Stationary objects were easier to trap in lies.

Gah! Sticky!

The woman had transferred general floor ick from her hand to his when she took it while he helped her to her feet. Probably spilled drinks, knowing the environment they were in. Mat wiped his hand on the back of his jeans and resolved to wash it later, not all that concerned in the scheme of things. After all, grime was second nature for the homeless. For now, he had company.

Company that was very easy on the eyes.

>>> “You saved me.”

“Actually, I knocked you over because I wasn't watching what I was doing,” he laughed. He glanced in the direction the man had stormed off. Had that guy been troubling this woman? If so, he was no longer a problem. “But hey, I do what I can, right?”

>>> “I'm Lori.”

“Mat,” he replied. She was a tiny thing, Mat realised now that she was on her feet. Even with the heels, she was inches shorter than him. Dressed as nicely as she was, it was clear that she was in a different league to Mat. Chances were she was one of New York's wealthy, independent young professional women, with the world bowing at her feet. Honestly, she looked like she could have been a model.

Had Mat been ashamed of his less-than-shabby appearance, he probably would have bidden the woman a good night, turned and left. She didn't seem the type that would bother with someone like him. Still, appearances could be deceptive. It was possible that she wasn't completely shallow and superficial, like so many of the beautiful and rich New Yorkers Mat had seen. That, and he honestly didn't care if she would look down on him. He wasn't ashamed of anything, especially not being homeless. Not tonight. So Mat smiled at Lori confidently, like he had a million dollars in his pocket.

“A nice little secret, this place. Glad I stumbled across it.” He chose his words carefully. Stumbled across. Not heard about. Not invited to. He wanted to make it clear that he didn't actually belong here. He was curious to see how she would react.

With snobbish disgust? Or something different?

He gave her a classic once over and wasn't shy about letting his eyes linger. Had Lori actually been the kind of girl that went with her clothes, she would have taken offense. As she was, she took the compliment with a growing smile.

"What were you doing that you couldn't see where you were going?" She knew why she couldn't have seen him coming, but she didn't know why she could see him now.

> “A nice little secret, this place. Glad I stumbled across it.”

He was being careful with his words. She could tell by the subtle inflections. Somehow it was easier to hear out on the dance floor. He was careful so she would be too.

It was tempting to let it pop that the whole shebang was partly her doing. Oh, she didn't know any of these people, but she knew the drugs that were making their circuit around the dance floor. And there wasn't a party in New York that would shut its doors to her now that she controlled a portion of the market.

But if he stumbled in, then he might not know about any of that. He might even be... human. She couldn't tell. He didn't have fins or anything obvious like that.

"The place will still be standing, but the party's always moving on." She grinned. It was easy to be casual with someone who wasn't expecting anything of her. And the fact that she could possibly change his world with her next few words was thrilling. "Especially parties like this."

She leaned in conspiratorially. "Did you see that girl by the speakers? She's spewing bubbles..." Lori motioned her head back toward the way she had come. Not that he would know that.

Bubbles. HUGE bubbles and small bubbles poured out of a black haired girl's ears, nose and even her mouth when it was open. The air was slick with little rainbows that accented the stage lighting nicely. If that girl didn't stop soon this could turn into an inadvertent foam party and there was no way that Lori could fake being a psychic when her electrical powers would start triggering on liquid contact.

Once she was sure Mat had seen the unnatural event, it was time to drop the bomb. "I heard she took M."

She noticed his roaming eye, and smiled in return. That was good. A lot better than a drink to the face. Or a slap to the face. Anything to the face, really. His eyes flicked down to those monster heels once more. Yeah....they could do some damage. She asked him what he had been doing that he couldn't see. Mat grinned and gestured to the room around him.

“What d'ya reckon?” He shuffled to the side, gliding across the floor, and threw a few kicks in for good measure. “It's a party right? Gotta dance.”

>>> "The place will still be standing, but the party's always moving on. Especially parties like this."

“A nomadic party, huh?” Mat gave a chuckle. He knew all about moving on. He did it for a living. “Sounds like my kind of thing.”

He wondered who organised this event, if it wasn't an in-house thing. Was this place even a real club? Or had it just been occupied for tonight? Not that it mattered. It would serve for the evening. The party, according to Lori, would pick up, and move on. Just like he would do tomorrow. Mat also wondered what she had meant exactly by 'parties like this'. Though, judging by the merchandise Mat had been getting offered since arriving here, he had a decent enough idea.

Lori leaned closer to Mat, and he felt a tingle run down his spine due to proximity. That stupid, giddy excitement that any man feels when close enough to a gorgeous girl. Men, really, didn't evolve much past teenage-hood.

>>> “Did you see that girl by the speakers? She's spewing bubbles...”

Mat glanced over to where Lori had indicated. Sure enough, there was a dark haired girl, shimmering bubbles pouring from her head and into the air. Like one of those bubble blowers he used to play with when he was a kid, only without the stick and solution. It was quite a sight, really. The lights of the club caught the floating bubbles and turned a nice rainbow sheen, turning vibrant colours and distorting the light. This girl would prove to be quite popular at a party like this.

“Yeah so? She's probably just a mutant,” he replied, matter-of-factly. Mat wondered if Lori was one of those anti-mutant types. She didn't seem afraid, or disgusted, or hateful when pointing the girl out, so he didn't think she was. Still, one could never know.

>>> “I heard she took M.”

Mat's brow furrowed in puzzlement. M? He had known many drugs with single letters and syllables for names, but M was not an illicit member of the alphabet he was familiar with. “M? Never heard of it...” He gave a sly grin towards Lori.

“Is it any fun?”

She was probably a mutant? A little trill went down Lori's spine. So he didn't know. Most people didn't. Even the less than kosher ones so she shouldn't have been so surprised, but her world had so fully revolved around the development and release of this drug that not knowing was like not being able to do simple addition.

It was the thrill of teaching. Lori was so very altruistic.

> “M? Never heard of it... Is it any fun?”

His face said the devil might care, but Mat didn't. He'd be the one driving that bus to hell. Lori matched his smile devious tooth by devious tooth.

"It's fun if you're human." She was fishing. If he was human, this was it. If not, well, she would want to see what he could do. It always seemed to go down easier if she shared a bit first and since the bubbles threatened her time here anyway the electric girl could only see advantage to a little light show.

She tucked a bit of blonde behind her ear. "Does me no good." Her power was actually a bit hard to show off. So she went for the simplest route. She licked the cleanest looking of her fingers and then rubbed it against her forefinger. When she pulled the two fingers apart a string of blue electricity crackled and jumped. This was the most she could do to maintain an on-purpose spark. Air was not a great conductor.

>>> “It's fun if you're human.”

Mat couldn't help but be both a little puzzled and a little disappointed in that. How could a drug only be fun for a human? Did that mean that it didn't work on mutants.? As if reading his mind, Lori spoke once more.

>>> “Does me no good.”

She licked a finger and rubbed it against another, a small arc of blue electricity jumping from one to the other. Mat watched, amazed. So Lori was a mutant. Explained why she was so casual mentioning the girl with the bubbles. And despite the small demonstration, Mat was impressed. Did she create electricity? Manipulate it? Discovering another mutant's power was always a fascinating and exciting process. Though, it still didn't explain what Lori meant by M only being fun if you were...

Mat glanced over to the bubble girl once more. She was giggling uncontrollably, pointing her bubbles out to her surrounding friends while they all watched on in amazement. “Wait... Are you saying that M can give humans...powers?” Mat stood, jaw wide as the realisation of Lori's words hit him.

As the whole severity and consequence of what such a drug could do hit him...

Could it really be true? Had someone found a way to synthesise the mutant gene? Mat knew nothing about science and biology and chemistry, nor did he know anything about mutant genetics. But the idea of a superpower in a pill seemed like something out of a comic book, rather than a real, viable thing.

Still, people who could create electricity, and golems, and bubbles all seemed like fantasy as well...

It all made sense now, the direction their conversation was taking. She was fishing to find out whether Mat was a human or a mutant. Which, logically, meant that she was fishing to see if Mat was interested in trying M. Which meant that she was probably on the business end of the drug. His lips curled into a smile, as it all dawned on him.

So. To tell, or not?

When in Rome...

“Well then, I guess it won't do me any good either.” And Mat stomped his foot onto the polished stone floor, willing a sculpture of Trip to life. Tall, lanky, and polished black. The Trip golem gave a lazy salute to Lori and started dancing. Mat could only give Lori a foolish a grin.

>“Wait... Are you saying that M can give humans...powers?”

The electric girl shrugged and rubbed her fingers dry to extinguish the spark. "X genes don't grow on trees." He had no idea what it had taken to get to this point. Raiding a drug lord's domain for his equipment, sending a roach man to die for the press plates, having a fight with the X-men, kidnappings for the sake of diverse gene sampling... not to mention initial research, development and testing.

"Too bad it's not permanent." They never could seem to synthesize anything that wouldn't dissolve eventually. "Of course, that makes for a more lucrative business."

As all of this was running through her head, Mat must have gotten bored. A stomp of his foot and... and Lori's hand was reflexively going for Mat's throat. She didn't like being outnumbered or outmaneuvered. Years and years of watching her own back put her into instant action when she sensed a threat. She could have run but they were so close that he could have caught hold of her and then it would have been a fight anyway. His throat was a lot closer.

She realized a few seconds too late that her perceived threat was dancing away.

Blink. "You surprised me." That was about as much apology as he would get tonight. Little pricks of electricity gave the impression that Lori's skin was vibrating or biting where their skin touched. She was all keyed up and that made her powers leak.

The blonde straightened and smoothed her hand around Mat's neck so she could just slid her arm around his neck. Casually she flicked a bit of floor debris off her short shirt with her other hand as if she hadn't gone primal for a bit there. All alone here and having already gotten jumped once...

Cough.

Ah well. The nice girl in the club illusion was probably shattered for good now. Probably for the better. "Neat trick. Buy you a drink?" She watched the... thing. Whatever it was moved really fluidly. She would leave her arm around his shoulders if he would let her. Insurance.

"Did I mention that I sell insurance?"

The reaction he got to his golem wasn't the one he expected. Normally, Mat had no objections to gorgeous women throwing themselves at him. Who would? Except that this woman had decided to go for the throat. Before Mat had a chance to react, Lori's fingers had slipped their way around his neck, and he could feel a tingling, pinching sensation.

If she wanted to, she probably could have fried him to a crisp.

As is was, she saw his dancing golem, and must have realised that it wasn't a threat. Casually, she straightened her hands and slid an arm around his shoulder, as though she hadn't momentarily wigged out for a second.

>>> “You surprised me.”

And that was the end of it. She dusted her skirt off, and left her arm around his neck. Once Mat's racing heart had finally caught on to the realisation that he wasn't going to have electricity pumped into his spine, it began to calm and slow back to it's normal rate. Mat put his cheeky-bugger grin back on his face, to show that he wasn't concerned. That he hadn't honestly thought that this sexy woman was going to zap him brain-dead.

“Y'know, if you wanted to put your hands all over me that badly, all you had to do was ask.”

She offered to buy him a drink, and the incident was soon pushed to the back of Mat's mind. Accepting her offer, Mat began making his way over towards the bar.

>>> “Did I mention that I sell insurance?”

That was an odd thing for her to mention. “Really? I sell sculptures, myself.” Mat pointed back to the now frozen statue of Trip, stuck in a disco pose, like John Travolta. People were crowding around it, curious as to what it was and whether it was going to move again. One woman bravely approached it and gave it a curious prod, before scurrying behind her boyfriend. Mat chuckled to himself. “Can't say I have much need for insurance, myself.” One of the perks of being a nomad who travelled light.

Reaching the bar, Mat turned to look Lori in the eye. “So, this M. You seem to know a fair bit about it. I'm guessing you sell more than insurance?” Mat glanced around the room and began to notice sights he hadn't caught before. A man snapping his fingers and having sparks fly from them. A woman who was in the middle of a sneezing fit, her hair changing colour with every sneeze. Another woman, phasing her hands through each other, and through other people. All of these people, with the same look of amusement and wonder.

Mat nodded towards some of these people. “The humans, do they know what they're getting into when they take the drug? I was under the impression that most people in this city didn't care for mutants.” Not just in this city, but in all cities. “I'd have thought they'd all be horrified at becoming like us?”

Once they had drinks on hand, it seemed a lot easier to chat. "I wouldn't sell insurance to you, you've got your own security system built in, it seems." She used the mouth of her brown bottle to point back to the statue. And it was a statue now, even though it moved and flowed like real muscle before now it was either the world's greatest statue street performer... or an actual inanimate statue.

He either had a short time limit or some other factor was affecting his control. Maybe he could drop them and pick them up again at will? Like puppets? She couldn't be sure. That meant she had to stay on Mat's good side... not that she hadn't been aiming for it already.

> “So, this M. You seem to know a fair bit about it. I'm guessing you sell more than insurance?”

Ding, ding! Two points for Mister Mat.

"Oh, the insurance is money is good, but it's not enough to run an establishment like mine." Caution, meet the wind. "It's M that brings the real revenue." A combination of some gold they leaked back into the market every now and again, insurance, M and other mutant-ly pursuits. She smiled sweetly. And more sweetly until it turned into something a bit predatory. Yes, it did feel good to be truthful every now and again.


All in all he took it pretty well.

> "...Do they know what they're getting into when they take the drug? I was under the impression that most people in this city didn't care for mutants. I'd have thought they'd all be horrified at becoming like us?”

She sipped at her beer and rolled her response around before letting it out past her teeth this time. It seemed like Mat thought the drug was something a bit more than it actually was.

"Oh, it's not permanent. Even if they don't know exactly what they're in for it all wears off in the morning." And really, the first time, who knew what they were in for with any drug? She waved his concerns away. That was Lori, patron saint of mutant-kind. "Besides, for all the snubbing, sapiens just can't seem to resist. If you didn't already, wouldn't you want to know what your genes had planned for you?" The visuals were striking. The snapping sparks and bubbles and all that.

>>> "Oh, the insurance is money is good, but it's not enough to run an establishment like mine. It's M that brings the real revenue."

As he listened to her answer, sipping on his own bottle of beer, Mat looked at Lori with a renewed interest. All veneer of the ditzy blonde club-girl had now been stripped away, revealing something much sharper, much shrewder underneath.

Something...dangerous.

Living on the streets as long as Mat had, it was hard to avoid dealings with those who worked within shadier employments. Back when he had first taken to the alleys, when he was still wide-eyed and innocent, Mat had found himself scared of the junkies, the dealers, and the thugs of the world. Time had allowed him to take whatever they said with a grain of salt. For the most part, he had found, if you made it clear that their business meant nothing to you, that you weren't morally or ethically outraged by what they did, then getting along was easy.

Going with the flow. It had saved his life more than once.

“What sort of establishment do you have? he asked. “I'm assuming it's mutant related in some way?” After all, it stood to reason that you didn't sell X-gene drugs unless you had invested interests in mutant affairs. He wondered if it was anything like the Mansion or the commune, and felt his stomach clench.

Honestly, he had had just about enough of mutant establishments recently.

>>> "Oh, it's not permanent. Even if they don't know exactly what they're in for it all wears off in the morning. Besides, for all the snubbing, sapiens just can't seem to resist. If you didn't already, wouldn't you want to know what your genes had planned for you?"

“You got a point there.” Novelty was the main reason people took drugs, wasn't it? The chance to experience things in a different light, whether that meant seeing things differently, thinking differently, or just feeling differently. M, Mat supposed, was the ultimate form of 'something different'.

He took another swig of beer, and glanced around the room once more. Then, he let out a chuckle.

“Well, this is certainly one way of advocating mutant awareness and equality. I bet some of the comedowns are a bitch, though...”

What sort of establishment did she have? Well, the Sanctuary was hers, but it also belonged to the xgened everyman. She was as much president and she was a resident. She made the money go where it needed so the place wasn't shut down. Other than that, the day to day was defined by the residents. So really, the Sanctuary was hers... but it was more than just hers. She couldn't claim it.

That left Faust Pharms. Only Lisa, the secretary, had any hand in what happened there besides Lori so if she was being honest about the kind of establishment that she had... "I have a Pharmaceutical Company. We've been looking for a way to jump start dormant X genes, but sometimes the byproduct of a search is a more important discovery than the actual thing. Wasn't that how Velcro and Slinkys were invented?" Yep. Velcro, Slinkys and M were all of the same ilk. Harmless, good old fashioned fun.

So yes. They dealt with mutants and pre-mutants mostly, though a good portion of the research staff was human. There was no way she could run a successful research company without the brightest and best educated minds. Not that mutants weren't brilliant and creative enough, but somehow as a whole, mutants made up a large percentage of all college drop outs. Lori made a mental note to start a college fund for mutants. Not that it was usually the funding that held them back...

Lori sipped. "Awareness we've had since the internment camps, but if you think handing a human a temporary power is going to make him consider you an equal, you've got another thing coming to you." Another thing called a reality check. "You can put any ideal on it you want. For me, it's about the money. Money in the right places makes far better policy than popular demand." And that was the sad truth about the world. Money really did make it go 'round.

So she slapped a ten on the bar behind them and ordered another round.

Whatever his thoughts were about this woman when he had first started talking to her, he was now seeing this woman in a whole new light. She wasn’t some club bimbo, some ditz. She wasn’t a petty pusher, a low-grade thug. She wasn’t even a manager, or whatever the seedy underworld equivalent was.

From the sounds of it, she ran the show.

She owned a pharmaceutical company? One that had synthesised the X-gene? This was a woman way out of his leagues. She mentioned something about internment camps, but Mat didn’t know anything about that. Instead, he focused on the other things she was saying. For the first time since meeting her, Mat actually felt small.

Still…

”Can’t say money’s been all that much of a concern for me. I go wherever my feet take me, earn whatever I can, and sleep wherever my body lies. Don’t need much more than that.”

Idly, he wondered if she could make a drug that could help him stay awake for days on end. A legal drug. He took a long swig of his beer.

Refreshing.