Maya agreed with his dislike of guns, though he doubted it was for the same reason. Then again, he knew very little about this member of the team so it wasn't an impossibility that Maya could have shot and killed someone. It just seemed unlikely. Drew drowned any possible thoughts about it in beer as Maya explained that she used a bow and arrow. He chuckled a bit at her comment on trying jousting too.

"Eh, I've just never really picked up a weapon. Anytime I've fought it's been spur of the moment and there generally wasn't much for me to improvise with. The only time I've used a weapon in a fight was a gun and...well never again."

Drew listened to Maya list off some of her more interesting fights. He drained his beer while she did and began to order another only to stop dead when Maya mentioned a girl with pink blades. That sounded an awful lot like Aura. He looked over at his drinking partner with curiousness writ plain on his face.

"The girl with pink blades, her name wouldn't be Aura would it?"

He hoped it wasn't. Drew respected Aura a fair bit and he'd hate to find out she wasn't really worthy of it.

Andrew looked surprised; not at the werewolf or the ancient god, but the girl with the pink blades. Now that she came to think of it, she really was the scariest of all.

>>"The girl with pink blades, her name wouldn't be Aura would it?"

"Yup, that's the one" she nodded, looking into her glass "Creepiest woman I've ever met. Barely got out alive..."

She did not like to remember that whole thing. Not only did Aura murder a human right in front of her, but they also got into a fight against mutant-haters, which ended with injuries and a concussion, which ended with Twyla having to keep her awake, which ended with talking, wich ended with Twyla being jealous of Aura, which was ridiculous, and it also ended in kissing, but Maya did not want to remember that right now.

His face drained visibly of some of it's color as Maya confirmed that she was in fact talking about Aura. Damn.

"Creepiest woman I've ever met. Barely got out alive..."

Double damn. Drew took a long drink of his third beer and was definitely starting to feel it by now but that wasn't important.

"If ya don't mind talkin' about it, mind tellin' me what she did?"

Oops, there went the drawl. Oh well, Maya probably wouldn't care and if she did it would only be enough to laugh. Again, that wasn't the issue at hand! The issue was if the person he'd come to respect was as horrible as Maya made her sound. Aura didn't seem like the type to go after mutants but apparently Maya had squared off against her. Had there been extenuating circumstances or was the woman he'd fought with to protect Tasean really just that nuts? Also, the bartender looked funny. But that wasn't the issue!

>>"If ya don't mind talkin' about it, mind tellin' me what she did?"

Maya giggled. She was feeling the alcohol kick in, but all signs pointed to the conclusion that Andrew was much worse off than she was. Even with the giggling. That made her giggle more.

"Well... I met her in an alley, she was... practicing, with her blades. It looked pretty and awesome, so I talked to her, and she showed me a few moves... didya know she calls fighting 'dancing'?... Anyhow. Some mutant hating freaks thought it would be good to attack us... one knocked me around, and sheee... well. Aura kind of killed the other. With a lot of, umm, blood and gore. And she looked like she was enjoying it too."

She sighed. She really hated that memory.

"On top of all dat sh*t, my girlfriend... umm, my ex, she got jealous of me 'dancing' with other girls. Took me some time to explain..."

That hadn't been what he'd wanted to hear. Drew had hoped that maybe the human had already killed someone or something but no. He may not like humans much these days but he certainly didn't think killing them was the answer. They tended to get real fussy when people killed them. Fussy humans tended to mean bad things for mutants. All you had to do was look at all that stupid legislation they'd fooled with a while back to know that.

"Ah man, I'm sorry." he took another drink, "I sorta met her recently. Twice actually. She sorta helped me out when I was in a bind. We faced down a mob of angry humans for...uh...well Tasean. She didn't kill anyone though."

He stopped mid narrative just to think about that time. Drew couldn't say that if he'd had a weapon capable of killing those fools he would have been able to hold back. He counted himself lucky that he'd been fighting sans one as usual.

"Second time was camping actually. Out in the middle of nowhere with her and a couple of other girls. She didn't kill anyone then either."

At least, anyone he knew off.

>>"Ah man, I'm sorry. I sorta met her recently. Twice actually. She sorta helped me out when I was in a bind. We faced down a mob of angry humans for...uh...well Tasean. She didn't kill anyone though... Second time was camping actually. Out in the middle of nowhere with her and a couple of other girls. She didn't kill anyone then either."

Maya almost spat her beer out.

"You went camping with Aura?!"

That just sounded... wrong. The only was she could imagine Aura was armed and bloody, not sitting by a campfire singing songs. It just... did not sound possible.

"She probably did not kill anyone because she is only after humans" she noted, wiping her mouth "She likes mutants a lot. That's why she was friendly with me too... I think she liked me. You know, in a friendly way, I was Gawain that day, and she's... into girls."

Weird.

"Anyhow. She is friendly with mutants, I guess. But she has more issues than National Geographic, an' I don' like my friends ripping people apart, human or not..."

Maya's sheer shock at the fact that he'd gone camping with Aura made Drew laugh. Long and loud. He just grinned at her once he finally got control of himself.

"Yeah, she wasn't that bad actually. Brought a pet skunk with her though."

He sat there and listened to Maya describe what she knew of Aura to him. It wasn't all that surprising now that he thought of it. Sure he was ok with most of what she'd said now but back then it had seemed pretty harsh and kinda crazy. To learn that she was a cold blooded murderer wasn't so shocking when he took another look at it.

"Yeah, I get ya. Sure they may not treat us too great but killing them just lands the lot of us in worse trouble than before."

That was Drew's take on it. At least, with the part about humans being morons incapable of accepting change taken out. Somehow he didn't think that would go over too well with Maya.

>>"Yeah, she wasn't that bad actually. Brought a pet skunk with her though."

Naturally. Because psychotic mutant serial killers with pink blades naturally come with pet skunks. Duh.
Andrew seemed amused. That was good, but it also disturbed May a bit to know he was not really taking the whole psycho thing too seriously.

>>"Yeah, I get ya. Sure they may not treat us too great but killing them just lands the lot of us in worse trouble than before."

"I don' usually think of humans as 'them'" Maya mused, finishing her beer "Funny isn't it? Mom's a mutant, I'm a mutant ever since I was born, all my friends are mutants, my... er, I date mutants... but maybe that's why I can't really think of humans as different..."

She was feeling light-headed now. It was a good feeling. Her bruises hurt less.

He quaffed some more of his beer while Maya talked about not really regarding humans as 'them' and about how everyone important in her life was a mutant. Drew snorted

"First mutant in my family. Haven't talked to my parents since I left two..or is it three...years ago. They don't even know."

More beer.

"I guess I started thinking of humans as them when I figured out what my mutation did. Or was it when a bunch of them decided to attack Tasean just because he was a mutant in their office building?"

Here he shrugged and stared at his nearly empty glass.

"I dunno when it happened I guess. It's just easier to think of them that way."

>>"First mutant in my family. Haven't talked to my parents since I left two..or is it three...years ago. They don't even know. "

Why did so few mutants come from happy families? Maya wondered. It seemed like everyone had a sob story to tell... including herself.

>>"I guess I started thinking of humans as them when I figured out what my mutation did. Or was it when a bunch of them decided to attack Tasean just because he was a mutant in their office building? I dunno when it happened I guess. It's just easier to think of them that way."

"Yeeah, sometimes they get really punchable huh" she grinned. She could not argue with that. She ordered another beer.

"The very first day I arrived to New York City" she said, leaning against the counter "Someone broke a mirror on me, an' I fell into someone's bathroom lookin' for bandages. Turns out he's some mutant-hatin' gruff ex-cop. He made me clean up the mess in the bathroom at gunpoint." she chuckled "He's been lookin' out for me ever since. Hates my guts ten ways from Sunday but has not shot me yet. We had a very... interestin' New Year together. He shot himself up with some sh*t that gives people mutant powers. He ended up with mine" she grinned wider "I wonder who the hell came up with that crappy idea..."

He nodded while trying to decide if he wanted another beer. Yeah humans could be very punchable. Drew listened to Maya's story about this mutant hater that hadn't shot her yet. The end of it sounded real familiar. Maybe that was what spikes was on?

"Huh, no idea but whatever it was I bet that's what Spikes was on." Drew drained the last of the beer from his glass and decided that another would be fine, "The guy was massive had these long metal spikes poking out of his skin. Nasty piece of work. He just decided to rampage downtown and happened to pick the cafe that a friend and I were in to decimate. With some help from the cops and another mutant we eventually took him down just for the guy to turn into some skinny geek type right in front of us."

Drew chuckled.

"Rhy really wasn't happy about that."

He chuckled a little more before settling against the bar.

"Yeah, whoever thought that up was an idiot."

>>"Huh, no idea but whatever it was I bet that's what Spikes was on. The guy was massive had these long metal spikes poking out of his skin. Nasty piece of work. He just decided to rampage downtown and happened to pick the cafe that a friend and I were in to decimate. With some help from the cops and another mutant we eventually took him down just for the guy to turn into some skinny geek type right in front of us. Rhy really wasn't happy about that... Yeah, whoever thought that up was an idiot."

Maya frowned. "Yeah, they really were. I mean, if I was human, I definitely would not want to shoot some sh*t and then sit around waitin' if I'm gonna sprout fur or explode or somethin'. It's like Russian roulette with all the bullets. I mean, how many mutations are there that you'd really like to have is you could choose?..."

A lot?

Maya giggled again. "Don't say X-ray vision I've got dibs on that."

How many mutations are there that he'd want if he could choose? Drew could answer that quickly. Anything but the one he had. If he had to choose though?

"I'd like to be able to heal people. Or maybe make sure they didn't get hurt in the first place. Or maybe make things taste purple. That would confuse the heck out of people."

He grinned. Drew could just picture people's faces as everything started to taste purple.

"Another good mutation? The ability to make cream pies appear at will." if it were possible Drew's grin got bigger, "Just imagine all the slapstick comedy bits you could pull off with that!"

Maybe he was drunk. Just a little. Drew took another drink of his beer. If this was drunk then it was very fun.

>>"I'd like to be able to heal people. Or maybe make sure they didn't get hurt in the first place. Or maybe make things taste purple. That would confuse the heck out of people."

"It definitely would" Maya agreed, giggling. Looking at her bottle of beer she tried to imagine how purple beer would taste. Or rather, how purple would taste. All she could come up with was lavender, which made her gag. It really was confusing.

>> "Another good mutation? The ability to make cream pies appear at will. Just imagine all the slapstick comedy bits you could pull off with that!"

"Daaaat's really useful" she grinned, clinking her bottle of not-purple beer to his. "Or very useless? Healing people, that's good, I have no clue where we'd bee without Doc, right? Although I think I'm out of 'get this black eye off me' tickets for this month at least. Ya should see his face when he sees me walk in. Priceless."

He grinned wide when Maya mentioned DocProf.

"Oh he's not happy to see me either. I make him work all the time. I think he's tired of seeing me walk in with some new damage." Drew thought back to the last time he'd seen the mansion's healer, "Stupid doctors and their lectures."

What did he know about whether or not he ought to tell someone about that night!

Now he had this huge frowny face on and that was no fun. Drew looked at Maya. Why did she have to like girls? It was enough to make him pout. Drew drank some more of his beer. Hang on...Maya was also Gawain. Did that make her a him? Drew blinked. Nah, the simpler solution was best. Maya was a she and Gawain was a he. Yup, that worked.