Lydia bobbed her head up and down to the beat of the drums, not regretting her decision to come to Central Park that night. She had seen a few flyers fluttering around the New York City streets about a free concert by some band she had never heard of, and decided it would be a nice way to spend some of the last days of the summer season. Granted, she hadn’t set her expectations too high since the flyer had been a tacky orange color with big! Bold! Lettering! Telling her how she shouldn’t miss out on the “BIGGEST CONCERT OF THE CENTURY!!!!!”

The turnout had actually been quite sizable, and Lydia found herself pushed to the outskirts of the crowd, getting jostled occasionally by over-excited fangirls and their flailing limbs. Twice she had to slap away scurrying hands and shoot dirty looks at their owners. And that was only by the fourth song. But besides that, which could be considered standard for alternative pop concerts, the music was surprisingly good.

The frontman had the sort of voice that made girls go weak in the knees, especially when he was whispering lyrics about how much he wanted someone, and had a pretty face despite the excessive amounts of eyeliner he wore (you know it’s a lot when it makes Lydia cringe).

The girl found herself singing along even when she didn’t know the lyrics, and found her height disadvantage increasingly frustrating. She knew better than to try to push through a flock of rabid teenage girls by herself, though, so she was stuck in her place all the way in the back.

Lyd sighed and crossed her arms when a particularly tall person moved in front of her, and turned away from the rather unappealing view of his backside.

“Freaking tall people…” She grumbled, looking off into the distant tree line. There was a shape in there, a shape that slowly revealed itself to be a person as it grew closer and closer. A male person, a tall person. Great, another tall male coming to further obstruct her view. Lydia whined some more to herself as the person came close enough to…recognize?

Is that…? “ANDREW!” She yelled over the music, unsure if he could even hear her. Wait…do I want to get his attention? The last time I was with him… Frightening images of her first and second meetings with Andrew flashed through her mind. Snipers, Spikes, cars being thrown into coffee shop windows... Nah, those were just freak accidents, she reasoned, He’s a nice guy.

She waved her arms around and called his name a few more times.

A little quiet time to enjoy the new aspect of his mutation was all Drew had wanted. Of course it still wasn't working right but he was sure that would sort itself out in time. For now he was just pleased to finally have a weapon of his own. Something he could use against those who would use him. It made him very cheerful to think about. However his quiet walk through Central Park was interrupted by the loud strains of some vaguely pop-ish band. Determined not to let this get him down and curious as to the source Drew headed in the direction of the music. One copse of trees later he emerged at the fringes of a large crowd watching a band of some time perform. A flyer on the ground indicated it was a free benefit concert, one of those raise awareness deals, for some nigh extinct animal or another. It wasn't one of the cute ones so he doubted anyone would care too much.

He drew a bit closer to the edge of the crowd when he heard the shouting of his name. It took a minute or two to locate the person responsible but when he did he was nearly tempted to walk away. Not because he disliked the girl in question but because trouble tended to occur when they were together. But it was a concert, Drew didn't think they could get into trouble at a concert. He managed to make his way over to her with a smile on his face.

"Hey Lydia. Been a while. What's up?"

Drew glanced up at the stage. The lead singer was one of those eyelinered pretty boys. His guitarist seemed to prefer a jeans and t-shirt combo with necklaces and studded bracelets galore. The drummer was shirtless and wearing shorts and that was it. The bassist...well there wasn't much to say about him. He fit with the guitarist in that he wore jeans and t-shirt but really the most notable thing about him was his dreadlocks. He just seemed to fade into the background otherwise.

The girl mirrored Andrew’s smile but faltered a bit when he walked over to her. What was she supposed to do? Hug him? Shake his hand? Stand there awkwardly? She hadn’t seen the guy since the wintertime, and now it was nearly fall. She had hardly known him in the first place.

Lydia stood there awkwardly.

>> "Hey Lydia. Been a while. What's up?"

“Hey Andrew. You look good,” which was true, but then again, she’d always thought him good-looking, “Nothing much, really. What have you been up to?” Her eardrums were a little shot from the concert, so she wasn’t sure if she was speaking at a proper volume. Lyd figured louder was better.

Of all the people to meet again and places to do it in, she was running into Andrew at a crowded concert in Central Park. Was the world really that small? She laughed, “So have you been avoiding me or something? I haven’t seen you around the mansion at all.”

She suddenly felt a sharp jab in her side, and nearly growled as she spun around to scowl at the perpetrator. It was the same tall guy who had shoved his way in front of her. “Jesus, I wasn’t even anywhere near him…” Lydia complained quietly as she turned back to Andrew, “Do you know this band? I’ve never heard of them but I kind of like them…a lot.”

His smiled turned self conscious when she said he looked good.

"You too Lydia. Uh, I mean you look good."

She hadn't been up to much it seemed so she asked him what he was up to. He grinned widely at her.

"Oh a little of this and that. Nothing fit to talk about in a screaming crowd at a concert."

He sure wasn't going to shout about how he thought he was gaining the ability to control people in a crowd full of humans. That would be just stupid. Instead Drew just grinned like the cat that not only got the canary but all of the canary's friends, that pesky worm, and a fancy french meal too.

"Just been busy is all. Working a second job for a very strict taskmaster with odd hours. Between that and I just haven't been hanging around the mansion much lately, well it's no surprise you haven't seen me if you were there."

It was an elegant way of explaining the relationship between himself and Martin that took up some of his time. Drew decided not to think about that at the moment. He could ill afford to get lost in thought at the moment. Instead he looked over at Lydia just in time to notice a guy elbow her. Well that was just rude. He shook his head in response to her question.

"I didn't even know this was happening. I just heard the music while I was on my walk and came to investigate. Glad you like it though. We could get closer to the stage if you want."

Lydia smirked when Andrew complimented her back, amused with the slight stutter. He said that he hadn’t been up to much, but the Cheshire grin on his face suggested otherwise. He was really happy about something.

>> "Just been busy is all. Working a second job for a very strict taskmaster with odd hours. Between that and I just haven't been hanging around the mansion much lately, well it's no surprise you haven't seen me if you were there."

She nodded, mildly curious about his second job. She didn’t exactly remember what his first job was, but knew it had something to do with the mansion. She smiled a little wider, Andrew’s grin rubbing off on her. “Aw, too bad. I kind of looked around for you after the whole coffee shop thing…” She admitted, unsure if that was something she should’ve told him, “But better late than never, right?”

>> "We could get closer to the stage if you want."

Lydia snorted. “I don’t know if I want to chance getting trampled by these girls. I mean, you’d probably make it fine since you’re so tall…” She said, almost jealously. She wasn’t exactly short, but she wouldn’t mind having a few more inches added to her height. She was barely average.

The next song was simply infectious, and she hopped on her tippy toes to get a better view of the stage. She put a hand on Andrew’s bicep arm to prevent getting separated in the frenzied mass.

Drew nodded to Lydia.

"Yeah better late than never."

Lydia seemed to like the idea of getting closer to the stage if it weren't for the fact that the crowd was close and rude. That and her height seemed to be a problem. The next song started and Lydia put a hand on his arm as she bounced to try and get a better view. Drew coughed and pointedly looked away for a minute.

"Well you could sit on my shoulders or something. I'm tall enough for the both of us."

Drew grinned lopsidedly at Lydia.

"Besides, I can move this crowd."

He made a show of flexing one arm and then laughed. It felt good to be this carefree. If only it could happen more often. Drew would savor this for now. Until his new ability started working right he had all the time in the world to anticipate it and enjoy things for a change.

((OOC: I have gotten permission for the shoulder shenanigans. ))

>> "Well you could sit on my shoulders or something. I'm tall enough for the both of us."

Lydia turned in surprise, and started giggling. She cocked her head and stared at Andrew, trying to figure out if he was serious or not. His smirk threw her off a little, but she responded with an impish grin of her own. He certainly did have…sturdy looking shoulders, she supposed. He looked buffer than before. Not that the girl was checking him out. She was just making sure he’d be able to support her, solely for security reasons.

>> "Besides, I can move this crowd."

She laughed with him and hooked her arm with his. “Of course you can, tough guy. I can feel your muscles rippling as we speak.”

She raised an eyebrow when he actually crouched down and pointed for her to get on. “…really?” Lydia giggled again, although she wasn’t quite sure why, and tentatively slipped a leg onto a shoulder. “Are you sure about this…” she mumbled mainly to herself, feeling him grab her shins when her other leg slid onto his other shoulder. She gasped when he suddenly stood up, and nearly grabbed his hair when she felt herself waver.

The girl felt her cheeks flush, but reasoned it was from the sudden shift in altitude. “So uh…how’s the weather down there?”

He laughed at her teasing.

"Hey now, you're looking at the guy that pinned a fierce and dangerous mutant the other day! Probably saved him and a load of other people's lives."

Drew preened as though he were royalty for a second before settling down as Lydia climbed up and he grabbed her legs and straightened up. At her question Drew just laughed.

"Quite fine."

Then he waded into the crowd. They were packed fairly tight but it didn't matter to Drew. He slipped through politely where he could but other times he shoved. He also made sure to give the guy that had elbowed Lydia earlier a good hard elbow in the ribs as payback. Muay Thai lessons from Rhy were handy for something. He got a glare from the guy in question but an answering glare shut him up and Drew moved on. Soon enough they were close enough to the stage that had this been a paying concert they would have been paying top dollar. He tipped his head back just a little bit and shouted up to Lydia.

"How's this m'lady?"

He could hear the band much better up here. Even Drew had to admit they had talent, even if he could care less about the music they were playing.

Lydia chuckled at Andrew’s joke, although part of her wasn’t sure if he was kidding or not. “You didn’t get beat up again, did you? DocProf must be so tired of seeing your pretty face all the time!” He had clearly demonstrated a habit of running head first into danger before, so it was probable he really had bumped into trouble the other day.

Her Drewmobile elbowed the guy who had elbowed her, making her smirk. She stuck her tongue out at the annoyed man as they passed him. Andrew wove through the crowd like a pro, getting harsh when he needed to, and gave the girl a fairly smooth ride. She received a lot of dirty looks, but flippantly ignored them, enjoying the shoulder-carrying too much to give it up. Eventually they were so close to the stage that Lydia probably would have been able to touch the guitarist if she reached far enough.

“Andrew, this is perfect!” She exclaimed. Her ears were completely ringing now, so she really had to yell to hear herself over the music.

Jake, the bass guitarist, was jamming out when he started feeling tingles all over his body. They were the tingles that preceded the use of his mutation, his poorly controlled but greatly concealed mutation, and he started panicking. Of all the times, why when he was on stage?

He twitched, trying to hold back his power, but to no avail. The metal strings on his bass began to bend and warp towards him, as did the metal bits on the drums, and the strings on the guitar. Even his ring was trying to fly off of his finger. Pretty soon, everything made of metal on stage ripped apart from whatever they were tethered to and flew to Jake’s body. He absorbed everything.

“He’s a f***ing mutie!”

Lydia was shocked when she saw what was happening to the band, but was even more shocked when she felt her necklace tug away from her neck. Before she could catch it, the chain broke and started flying towards the stage, eliciting a loud, “NO!” from the girl.

“Stop!” She yelled as she tried to reach for it, grabbing Andrew’s hair in her panic and leaning too far forward. She felt a prickling at the corner of her eyes as the topaz slipped right past her fingers.

In retrospect Drew should have known better than to think that he and Lydia could meet without trouble. He hadn't even been there for two full songs yet when things started to go wrong. He was just having a good time with a friend. Why did that have to automatically mean chaos? Oh well. No point crying over spilled milk. Or in this case a ruined concert. The bassist suddenly began absorbing any and all metal near him. The stage was collapsing, his band mates and most of the crowd were fleeing, and those that weren't running away from him were running toward him to 'get the mutie'. Drew grumbled as he tried to stay steady with Lydia on his shoulders amongst the panicking crowd.

"Ride ends here m'lady!" he shouted up at Lydia though this time because of the screams of fear and hatred rather than the sound of the band.

Drew let Lydia down just in time too. He was bowled over by the guy that had elbowed Lydia earlier as he raced toward the newly revealed mutant.

"It just figures that jerk would be a hater." he muttered and turned to Lydia as he got up, "Well, I'm gonna go help the bassist out. It was great seeing you Lydia!"

With that Drew ran over to the fast forming crowd and began throwing people aside to get through to where the bassist was panicking and wielding his bass at the small mob. He looked scared out of his wits so he probably wouldn't be getting over this any time soon. If they could just get rid of these idiots though he'd have time to calm down and take back control.

Lydia was still upset over her necklace when she was suddenly let down and pushed around by the fleeing crowd. She snapped to attention when Andrew was knocked over, by the same jerk that had elbowed her before, and realized what was happening.

There was a group of angry humans charging towards the bass guitarist, shouting various obscenities about mutants. And Andrew was going to go get between them and their mutant target. By himself.

She swore as she chased after him, feeling a vague sense of déjà vu. She had difficulty fighting against the wave of screaming concert-goers, and saw the distance between her and Andrew growing. Damn you Andrew and your f***ing hero complex!

Of course she was going to help the poor bassist out too. It was obvious he wasn’t doing anything on purpose, from the way he was freaking out. And yet the humans were pursuing him with blood lust. They were going to get it from her, that much was sure. As was Andrew. He was going to get it the worst when the situation was over.

The angry mob was reaching the mutant by the time Lydia was clambering onto the stage, and she sprinted to the bass guitarist as fast as she could. She figured it was finally time to put Aura’s training tips into use, not that she had any confidence in her abilities. She wasn’t really thinking straight at the moment. "Leave him the hell alone!"

It took him a minute to fight to the center where the bassist stood. When he did the man flailed and took a swing at him. Drew dodged it.

"Relax man! I'm here to help you not them!"

He turned to the crowd.

"I'm giving y'all one chance to get goin'!"

Laughter rippled through the group of angry humans.

"Suit yourselves then."

With the warning out of the way, after all he was supposed to training to be an X-Man and Sam did say they were supposed to talk first, Drew tore into the crowd. The bassist seemed to accept his help as he smashed his bass over someone's head and dropped it. He held his hands in front of him and the metal that he'd absorbed began to materialize and form into a staff. Drew cast an eye at him to see that he was doing pretty good with his metal stick when he heard Lydia's voice demand they leave the bassist alone. Drew's eyes went wide at that. He really hoped she knew what she was doing because there was no way he'd be able to easily get to her and he wouldn't put it past this crowd to try something on a pretty young girl.

"Bloody girl..." he muttered.

She continuously lost and found sight of Andrew as he engaged the mob, but couldn’t really see what was going on with the bassist. By the time Lydia caught up with them, she realized the mutant wasn’t so defenseless after all, and that there were a lot more angry humans than she’d thought. Um…aim for their noses?

“Oh what the hell.”

The girl mentally shrugged and kicked a shin at random, apparently catching its owner by surprise. The sudden unbalance caused him to topple over, and Lyd took the opportunity to stick a good one in his gut. She almost squealed in glee at having beaten someone on her first try. Unfortunately, she also caught the attention of a few of the other mob members, who started for her.

Well crap. The duo coming after her seemed to hesitate for a moment, unsure if they should really be attacking a teenage girl, but one broke the barrier and dove for her. She ducked, just barely avoiding getting her face clawed, but unfortunately could not dodge the kick aimed at her side. Ow.

Lydia paused for a split second, a little winded from the hit, but only for a split second. The adrenalin coursing through her veins distracted her from the pain and made her focus on the pair still trying to knock her down. Let’s pretend every single one of these guys is Andrew. She sent her fist into Andrew’s one of their noses and almost smiled when she saw blood.

It was hard to keep track of Lydia among the mob. He kept his eyes on her when he could spare them. Therefore he cheered when she got her hit in and when she was kicked he wanted to go over and tear out the trachea of the person responsible. Unfortunately he had his own fights to manage and couldn't do so. So he settled for watching and grinning when she popped one of them in the nose. He didn't know what she'd been doing since they'd last met but she'd obviously gotten some help with fighting. Drew decided that he could afford to let her manage her own fights for now. Oh he'd still check on her regularly but he wasn't quite as worried for the girl that had followed him into the fray.

Why had she followed him? A question for later.

He drove an elbow into a man's throat and then spun and delivered a knee to the stomach of his friend. Drew spared a glance for the bassist. His little metal staff was doing the trick to keep the guy safe. He didn't seem any less panicked but something must have helped to calm him a little because pieces of metal, the things that had been taken by his out of control mutation, began to seep out of his skin. A screw or nut would drop here and there. Nothing large. Drew had heard, and his hair had experienced, Lydia's panic over the loss of her necklace with the yellow gemstone in it. So when his eyes caught something yellow glinting on the ground at the bassist's feet he made his way over and scooped it up.

The furor of the mob was dying now. The mutant was proving too hard to hurt and the cops and emergency crews could be heard approaching. That helped to scatter many but the most determined. The cops all over the city were gonna know him by name at this rate. Drew stuffed the necklace in his pocket, unsure whether it was the correct one. He'd ask Lydia later. Drew punched another guy in the side of the head and headed over to where he'd last seen her.

As far as Lyd could tell, the bass guitarist was doing just fine with his metal stick weapon. So was Andrew, with skills he must have picked up after their last meeting. He certainly had learned more than she did, as he made quick work of two men while she was still trying to get rid of the two who had tag-teamed her.

After she had hit the skinnier one in the nose, he was out for a few seconds he clutching his nose and tried to plug the blood flow. The girl almost cheered, but instead capitalized on the lost seconds to throw herself at the man’s legs, bowling him over quite nicely. Of course, the other man wasn’t doing nothing during all of this, and promptly she found herself being thrown off his buddy. She landed with a yelp in the pile of drum pieces left over from the bassist’s metal mania, and while her fall was slightly cushioned, she also had awkward shapes digging into her back. I have no freaking clue what I’m doing.

She lay there for a moment, thinking of all the ways she could kill a certain someone.

Lydia got up and marched back to the pair who was now trying to engage the bassist, winding up her leg for a kick in the place one is not supposed to kick. The man who had thrown her fell quickly. The other one she spared, and simply kicked him in the back. She was glad she was wearing hard-soled shoes. The bass guitarist finished him off with a wack to the head. A wail of sirens could be heard from the distance, and the mutant-hunting mob began to dissolve.

It was then she noticed the bits and pieces of metal falling out of the mutant’s skin. Rings, screws, small metal fragments. Necklace.

Right then and there, amongst the fleeing people, Lyd knelt down and began picking through the various metal objects littering the stage around him, like a child. She felt like a child. Every time she saw something shiny (which was…everything) she lunged for it, hoping to whatever higher power was out there that it was what she needed.