Kalith was taking a well deserved break from college, taking the weekend off to visit his family. His mother and father had not seen much of him since he went off to college, and though he spoke with them often over the phone, seeing them in person was just the kind of thing he needed to pick his spirits up after losing out on a gig to play at a local restaurant. His school bills were starting to pile up, and at the rate he was going he would have them paid of sometime next century.

When he arrived at his parent store, which was directly below their apartment, he was greeted with a warm hug from his mother. Rock music was playing over the loud speakers and the store was full of people browsing the CD's and listening to demo tapes from up and coming artists from the area. His parents were firm believers in giving everyone a chance to shine, even if it meant they carried products that didn't sell.

"How is my little rock star!?" His mother asked as she squeezed the breath out of Kalith with a tight hug of motherly love.

"I am doing fine mom." He said though gasps of air. Rubbing his neck when she let go of him and lead him inside.

"Are you eating ok? I know you college students don't tend to eat the right things. Do you have a girlfriend yet? How about a job? You can always come here to take over the store when you graduate you know." His mother asked, bombarding him with question after question.

"Yes mom I am eating just fine. No I don't have a girlfriend yet, nor do I have a job." Kalith said as he walked up to his father who was helping a young lady pick out a bass guitar.

His father still looked the same, like a hippy who didn't believe the 70's were over and done with. His mother on the other hand looked like she had lost a little weight, perhaps she was not feeling well as the bags under her eyes indicated she was not getting a lot of sleep. He looked worried but didn't say anything just yet, he would wait till they were in private before he asked if anything was wrong.

Saph had been tracking them all day. Them being a duo of suspicious individuals... One clearly a mutant, the other most likely the same. They went from door to door, moving at a relaxed pace. Like they owned the place. He stared down from his perch atop a building, careful to keep a low profile so he wouldn't be seen... At first he had thought them to be drug dealers- someone he could grill about that drug he'd been seeing way too often out on the streets. He wasn't sure of the name of the stuff, but he knew what it did. It actually gave regular humans powers for a short amount of time.

It turned out, though, that they weren't drug dealers at all... He raised his binoculars to view them as they walked into an antique shop, and addressed the old lady at the counter. She spoke for a bit, shook her head, and seemed to be a little defiant. One of them picked up a vase from the counter, and tossed it between his hands playfully. The woman got really upset, and opened the register, handing them a wad of cash. The men grinned to each other, and placed the wad into an envelope. The vase holder then turned around, and tossed the vase over his shoulder, which the old lady barely caught.

They weren't drug dealers, alright... they were parasites. He had half a mind to drop down, beat the daylights out of them, and then go on his merry way, but he wasn't The Judge right now... He was The Masochist... the X-man... And X-men didn't roll that way. He had to wait until there was an incident and step up as a hero... He watched as the men turned and headed to the next location... it looked like a music shop..

When Kalith's dad was done helping the young lady, Kalith pulled his parents aside and asked, "Ok, what is going on? Mom, you look like you have been losing sleep lately, and dad you look like you have been close to having a heart attack more than once since the last time I saw you."

His parents looked to eachother and sighed, "I told you we couldn't keep it from him Henry, he is too observant." Kalith's mother said.

Henry nodded, "Yes Diane you were right."

Kalith tapped his toes impatiently and waited for his parents to give him an explanation. They took him behind the counter and told him what was happening. Apparently some goons had started up a protection racket among the local shop owners. They kept demanding more and more money, and everyone was too afraid to do anything because they were mutants. One person had tried to call the police but his shop ended up a pile of ash.

His parents had been trying to keep up with the payments, but with the ongoing price of the shop, and the mortgage they had taken out on their home, the payments were just too much. The goons were threatening to destroy the shop if they didn't make the payments.

This pissed Kalith off quite a bit, so much so that his fists were clenched so hard that his nails were cutting into his palm and drawing blood. His mother noticed but when she tried to help him he shook her off and said, "No. Why didn't you guys tell me? I could have helped you."

They shook their heads, Diane explaining, "We couldn't do that dear. You have your own life to work out, we couldn't ask you to leave that behind to help us get money. No your father and I are trying to think of a way out of this ourselves, and in the meantime we just have to keep making the payments."

Kalith growled low under his breath and just as he did two men stepped into the shop. They looked mean and Kalith immediately got a feeling they were not here for music.

Skip and Flash didn't look nice for a reason. They were not nice. They were both grade A assholes, and they needed to be in this line of work. Flash was about six feet tall, a bit too skinny to be a normal human being, and if that wasn't enough of a hint, his skin was blue, and he had nubs along his arms and legs that wiggled a little as he walked. The other one, Skip, was a shorter man who looked human, but he wore a pro mutant rights pin on his coat. He walked in front of the two, showing him to be the designated talker of the two.

"Ahh, the Valen family... This your son? Charmed. You got your... monthly donation to the make sure your shop don't get burnt down/ supporting the cause fund?" He walked right on up to the counter next to the cash register and leaned against it, grinning widely.

"Y'know you've been a problem customer from day one... If you're late for another payment I might have to do something that I would feel guilty about later." The other man chuckled lowly in response- as if Skip would ever feel guilty for anything.

~~~

Saph had seen enough. He put the binoculars in his belt, and picked up his crowbar, walking to the edge of the building and dropping right off. He landed silently and unharmed, causing a few people to look his way. they didn't quite know him yet. That was fine. He was only technically an X-men trainee, but they would know he was soon. He would make sure of it.

A quick jog across the street found him at the music shop's front door. He leaned against the wall and spied through the front window, waiting to see what the men did before continuing. He didn't want to look like he was starting any fights, here, but he wanted to be 100 percent sure he would be the one to end any that started.

Kalith did what was possibly the stupidest thing he has ever done, he walked up to the thugs and said quite clearly, "Get the hell out of here and never come back." The look on his face showed that he was pissed off that these people were extorting his parents, forcing them to pay more than they could afford so they wouldn't burn down the shop. It was an outrage that Kalith couldn't stand, and he had powers for a reason, perhaps this was the reason.

He had the power to stop people like this from harming people, and to top it off he had been getting a lot of practice with his powers lately. Albeit he had not really been practicing their use in combat, he still thought he could use em to kick these thugs out of his parents shop. His Diane tried to get Kalith to back down but he shot her a look that made her back away, retreating to the arms of her husband as Kalith stood in front of these thugs without a weapon in the world, well save for that of a air horn he had taken from behind the counter and had hidden behind his back.

"Leave. I won't ask you again." Kalith said and waited for them to react before he responded with force...