Streak hadn’t been in his office in quite some time. It’d been since before he lost his powers in fact. He’d been spending a lot of time in the Danger Room trying to get his powers back up but so far he hadn’t gotten jack-squat, except for maybe a few scratches here and there. There was something about being in his office that seemed to fit, seemed to make him feel better. What it was he didn’t know, but he was more comfortable in his office even with all the paperwork that was still piled up on his desk. He opened the door and walked in. Not much had changed since he’d been in there but it was good to be back.

The silvermancer walked in and closed the door behind him. Streak walked around his desk, taking in the familiar feelings and smells that were in the office. His hands ran over the desk and he shuffled through some of the drawers, just to make sure everything was still there. He sat in his chair for a minute before he had an idea. ”I wonder if it’s still here and working?” He said to himself. Streak got up and walked over to the wall. It’d been a while since he’d been in there but if the place was still there he would be one of the only ones to find it.

It didn’t matter if others used the office if they didn’t know it was there then they never would. He didn’t even know if it would work considering the fact that when he and Sam had made the place he had his powers. Now that they weren’t functioning it was a 50-50 shot. He put his hand on the wall; if someone looked in at this moment they would think that he was delusional feeling the wall, however, that wasn’t the case. In fact he was surprised that it worked. The wall gave a shudder and opened for him. Streak walked down the short, hidden hallway, and into their room. Man cave, might have been an appropriate word for this place. But it was also more than that. it was a place they could live if they needed. It was a place they could party if they wanted. And it was also a place to get almost everywhere within seconds. Streak smiled. He walked farther in and examined the room. It was the exact same as when he’d left it. Nothing had changed and he was glad of that. Streak decided he’d wait here for a bit. Sam was supposed to meet him anyways and so he made himself comfortable while he waited.

”Here I thought you forgot where this place was!” Sam said with a smile as he walked into the room glad that his most recent injuries had been taken care of thanks to the Doc. Sam still had the eye patch however so he wasn’t at his best, yes he could ‘see’ better than ever but it wasn’t the same. His ‘sight’ did however lead him to Streak when he entered the office. Only a select few knew exactly where the hidden room was and even those who knew where it was had no means to enter. Sam and Streak were both the only once who knew how to get in and as of late it seemed that the man cave was going neglected.

The metallic doors shut behind him as he looked around the lit up room that didn’t resemble a cave at all but in fact possibly one of the manliest rooms Sam had ever seen. A pool table off to one wall, a hot tub off to another, and then there was the entertainment system. Letting out a small whistle Sam took in the sights once again demonstrating how long it has been since he had last entered the room. ”Been way to long since I was last in here…” Sam said heading towards the fridge and hoping it was still stocked.

”I gotta say I was a little surprised when you called me up for a meeting, haven’t heard from you in way to long!” Sam said as he opened the fridge door and nodded when he spotted some beer, ”Still full! You want one?” Sam asked as he opened it and nodded his head making sure the beer was still good.

Not really waiting for a response Sam took a beer over to Streak and offered it to him before he went his usual recliner and kicked back. ”Not exactly a formal meeting so I don’t see why it has to be formal.” Sam said running a hand through his hair and leaning back after another sip of the beer. ”So what’s up?” Sam asked Streak curiously figuring he’d start off by asking how his old friend and colleague was.

(OOC: you accidently double posted man)

Streak was glad that Sam was there. There’d been a lot of changes since he left. They’d both seemingly been through a lot since he was gone and Streak was eager to hear about it all. ”I don’t think I could ever forget where this place was. But I do have to be honest… I wasn’t sure it would open for me anymore.” Streak wasn’t aware if Sam knew about his loss of powers. He was going to tell him about it but that would be saved for a little later. Streak was glad to be back in their… What was it? A man cave? A fort? A hideout? What? Well, whatever it was it was probably one of the coolest things in existence.

Shawn took the beer that Sam offered him and sat down in the opposite recliner. This was probably the most comfortable place in the entire mansion. ”Thanks.” Streak opened the beer and smelled it. A nice dark beer with a very woodsy taste. Perfect for him. ”Man I haven’t been in here in forever it seems. But nothing’s changed.” He said looking around the room for a second or two. ”I’ve missed this place.” He really needed to come in here more often now that he was back. And apparently so did Sam, judging by his whistle from when he first entered the room.

”Since when has anything we’ve done, aside from missions, been ‘formal’?” Streak took a sip of his beer. It was good and cold. He guessed it was his turn to start so he cleared his throat and said, ”I’ve been trying to figure some stuff out. You know… personal stuff.” Streak admitted. There wasn’t much that the two of them didn’t know about each other and he was glad that this time was no different. ”I’m back now. So I’m really curious as to what’s changed around here from the last time I was here? I haven’t seen too many people I recognize around here. What’s happening with the team? Any missions coming up?” Streak was really curious and was confident that Sam was moving things in the right direction.

Once the recliner was in the laid-back position and Sam’s vision included the ceiling he turned his head, ”What do you mean it wouldn’t open for you?” Sam asked slightly puzzled at the comment, ”You did set up the automatic doors and most of the security, if the door wouldn’t open for anyone I always figured it was me.” Sam said taking a sip of his drink as the conversation continued to more business than casual.

”Well you have been gone for a while, not exactly a lot has changed, but there is some small changes.” Sam said correcting Streak slightly, Ghost was moved out playing mom; Shin was off as one of the greeters due to his busy schedule. Sam had a assistant to help with the paper work seeing as he was drowning under the amount of it seeing as he constantly busy with one thing or another and another one of the new greeters was Gawain/Maya. Not a lot has changed in Sam’s opinion but if Streak knew that much it would have been noticeable.

”True, Formal is often overrated.” Sam said lifting his bottle and taking a swig from it. He couldn’t do that on a formal meeting. However he did vaguely recall stopping by a bar on a ‘formal’ mission before. Not bringing that mission up Sam continued, ”Yeah. I’ve been pretty busy to…” Sam said starting to count on his fingers, ”Between the police calls, the classes, the extra training sessions, missions, paperwork, paperwork and paperwork my time is mostly spent doing well… paperwork.” Sam said shrugging his shoulders, ”I haven’t given anyone a tour or done any actual greeting in a while, been letting the newbies handle it and I do the paper work, I seem to get more work done but still, I always like that interaction and the jaw drop kids get when they see the Danger Room.” laughing slightly Sam took another sip of his beer and returned his glance towards the ceiling.

”Mission wise has been pretty slow, Gawain and I went to Germany in December other than that nothing of major importance but you know how that goes, calm before the storm right?” Sam asked rhetorically knowing the answer they both experienced it before a slow month followed by constant trips over the country or to another continent. ”I was thinking of focusing our efforts less on NYC and more on the big picture, you know? Like helping set up a few divisions like NYPD have. You know? Officers trained to handle dangerous mutants. We did a pretty good job here, why not expand a little?” Sam took another sip his thoughts trailing back on track to the present, ”So why were you MIA for so long?”

Apparently Sam didn’t know about Streak not having his powers. So he explained, ”Well, even since I was kidnapped I haven’t been able to access my powers. I’ve tried but nothing seems to be working. I think there may be something blocking my powers from activating. And I figured that the door wouldn’t open because I didn't have my powers active. Although the fact that it did open seems to indicate that I still have them, I just need to figure out how to activate them again.” Streak wasn’t comfortable discussing this part but since he didn’t really have anyone else to talk to he figured Sam might be able to help out.

Streak knew about some of the changes. He knew that Shin was a greeter and he’d seen the pile of paperwork on Sam’s desk. The last time he’d seen Ghost had been at her wedding day in the Danger Room and the fact that Sam needed an assistant to keep up with all the paperwork didn’t surprise him. The two of them were swamped back when Streak was here and once he’d gone he doubted that the workload had decreased at all. It was true, Shawn did miss the greetings and the sheer overpower nature that people often had when they were coming to the mansion. Mostly seemed to come here for the same reason but even he found that to be a bit monotonous. And that was probably why he took the security job… to keep things interesting.

The silvermancer took a long swig from his beer as he listened to Sam talk about all he’d been up to. They’d both been on different tracks in their lives. Streak’s just seemed to be a little more introspective and a little less X-men like since he’d been gone. ”I’m too paranoid for calm before the storm man, you should know that. I prefer the storm and the aftermath. It’s much more interesting and it always seems to prove that I’m right.” he said with a little smirk. Sam had a good point. They’d made some serious strides in all the aftermath that had occurred. Most of them were even positive and still in place. He’d met Jorge before and he’d even gone through the NYPD academy, short version for mutants. ”The only problem with setting up bases, or whatever you want to call them, in other countries is that things tend to get diluted. And foreign laws are different from here. We both remember Romania… and what flies here may not work here. It’s doable, don’t get me wrong, I just think it’s going to take more work than you expect. But I do like the idea of expanding. It’ll just have to be tightly controlled.”

He took another gulp of his beer and almost choked when Sam ask his last question. It was the million dollar question. One that he knew would come up but he still wasn’t ready for it. He took another drink to calm himself down before explaining where he’d been. ”Well, like I said… after I got kidnapped and couldn’t get my powers to work I freaked out a bit. I mean, wouldn’t you? You’ve been a mutant, and a pretty powerful one at that, most of your life and then out of the blue… BAM, you’re human again. It’s disturbing to say the least. The only comfort I have to know that I haven’t completely lost my powers is that my eyes are still silver and I still bleed silver. That just tells me that I can’t access them. So I went on a little trip. I took a trip to China…not as much fun as you might think. I managed to get in touch with some monks out there and studied quite a few things. Kung fu, Tae Chi, Buddhism surprisingly enough didn’t make me any less paranoid. I’ll be honest the Tae Chi wasn’t as much fun as the Kung Fu was.” Streak took a pause and took another sip before continuing.

”I’ve learned quite a bit but even all that time away didn’t help me figure out what was wrong with me. I think I’ll have to track down that electric chick who tried to help me. That should be fun.” Streak said. He wasn’t sure if Sam would have any other questions but he was sure that he could answer them if he did.

Kidnapped Sam was aware of, he was there for that scare and it only made him want to beef up security a bit more, which was why they hired a few extra eyes to roam the grounds at night. It however didn’t take back the fact that Streak head of security was taken along with the X-jet, something they recovered shortly after. ”I wasn’t aware that your powers… weren’t accessible…” Sam said looking back to the ceiling feeling bad and ashamed that he wasn’t as up-to-date on the situation as he would have liked.

”I’d prefer no storm at all.” Sam said with a smirk, true he liked the action and excitement, he lived for it but at the same time he wished there wasn’t a need for the X-Men to begin with, something he didn’t vocalize as much as he should have. ”Calm is a nice change of pace, a pace that doesn’t happen often.” Sam said shrugging his shoulders deciding that it there was a ‘storm’ at all the calm through the aftermath should be ‘enjoyed’.

Nodding his head Sam agreed with Streak, ”Well aware of the time that would go into it, doesn’t meant that I wouldn’t mind putting the time and effort in. We can’t be around the world within minutes like I’d want us to if the need called for it.” Another point Sam thought of that Sam didn’t give much thought to when it came to expanding, ”Laws…” Sam gave a quick snerk and a small laugh, ”True, but you if remember laws were the last thing we were worried about in Romania… was more focused on getting everyone out of there.” Just them being there was against the law.

Then again, laws could be handled once a team was stationed. If anything Sam would want to round up a few mutants with like-minded individuals in the country they were in to handle any major problems. Sure Sam would be their if need be but what he wanted was people that could handle situations when he wasn’t around. It wasn’t like Sam was going to be around forever, it was more of an idea to set up for a legacy one that could be carried out long after he was gone, but that was way down the line something Sam didn’t have to put much thought into for now.

What Sam was really focused on was the conversation he was having with an old friend, ”Kung fu is fast paced than Tai Chi most people take a liking to it, Tai Chi requires a hell of a lot more patience…” Sam said thinking back to a few lessons of his own back when he worked for T.A.T. his training focused more on the killing and disabling than everything else but it didn’t mean he didn’t pick up the more passive techniques or the side effects of learning said style.

Nodding his head Sam added to Streak’s thoughts, ”Or it could mean your powers are growing or changing, wouldn’t be unheard of or the first time that something like this has happened. Mutations are usually affected by emotions, who knows the kidnapping could have done something psychological to you.” Sam shrugged, ”My brother Dom is a prime example of that, he gets a little to worked up and he ends up beating his chest and running around for a few hours.”

”I wouldn’t be too worried though, your eyes are still silver and you still bleed silver, its just trying to control it.” then again Sam probably would act the same way if his powers were on the fritz as well.

Streak listened to Sam's answers. "True we weren't focused on breaking laws back then but that was more because we were already breaking the laws just by being there. We did get the law changed though so in the end it turned out to be a good thing." Through Streak had to admit... Sam did make good points.

Once they had a team stationed there it wouldn't be that hard to get any laws that didn't treat mutants fairly changed. It would take some work but they would still be able t do it, especially if they were backed by an established and recognized organization like the X-men. As it stood right now they were able to get around the world within hours of any notification with the jet.

He knew that emotions triggered their mutations. It seemed to work that way with a good majority of the mutants he'd had an encounter with over his lifetime. He just didn't know why this was happening. The only thing that he'd done was get captured, although now that he thought about it, Lori did try to fix him with her powers. "Maybe i just need a jolt of something to help trigger it again. Something that I doubt I'll get from just being a security guard around here. No one's going to challenge me here, and that's a good thing, but if I want my powers back I'm obviously going to have to do something big." He didn't quite know what he would have to do but he was sure that something was going to have to happen for him to really get this all taken care of.

(OOC: sorry t took so long I've finally gotten everything set up with college)