Hunter was expecting to have to deal with Abyss, not Kaz and Calley fighting. Putting a restraining hand on Kaz’s shoulder before Kaz had a chance to do a more painful retaliation he said, “Enough,” in a calm and level voice. This was not the time for Kaz and Calley to be bickering. “Calley, go outside and take a seat at the bar.” His tone clear stated that that was not a suggestion.

Turning to Abyss he gave the man a pleasant smile. “I would first of all like to commend you on putting all the pieces together and discovering Calley. Secondly I would like to like to say that he was only gathering intelligence for my meeting with Syn. I was in fact about to contact him and recall him from the Sanctuary when you intervened. He will not be returning to the Sanctuary without your prior knowledge.” At least not as a human or a tiger.

“I am also well aware that he is not to blame for being discovered, he did an admirable job. You have my word that he will not suffer any consequences for being discovered.” For revealing his abilities to Abyss however there would be severe consequences. “I am looking to have a most profitable alliance with the Order, and if you have any other concerns about me or my methods please voice them now.”

The dark purple sign gleamed in the gloom. Ahhh, success. An afternoon of wandering, and trying to understand the New York high street had turned out to be a more arduous task then Nox had anticipated, and now her prize - a tacky neon sign she mused. She turned over the card in her hand once more, Yep the Black Talon, there was no denying it, this was the place, she mused. Well having realised she had nothing to do, no where to go, and a growing sense of boredom she had decided to follow up on Kaz’s invitation , which was why she was standing in the street staring at a winding queue that entered the apparently popular club.

She decided to play her luck and started to stride confidently up to the door, which was being heavily guarded by a pair of bouncers. Her long coat bellowed out behind her as she simply appeared out of the gloom in front of the bouncers, “I’m here to see Hunter”. The weight in that one name was incredible; like open sesame, they parted allowing her inside, and, without an acknowledging glance to the queue she had just skipped, she stepped inside.

She would have liked to immediately go up on the balcony to survey the club, but she apprehended that thought before she reached the stairs, and instead veered off towards the bar. Her logic informing her this was a much less suspicious way of taking in her surroundings, and therefore far superior to her instincts. She personally disliked the crowded atmosphere, the sweating humans, all here ‘for a good time’, but all the lights and heat. It was nothing like sunlight, but the body heat was still quite something. It just reassured her; if something were to happen, well, there was enough energy from all the lights and people for her to put on quite a show. She sat down at the bar and ordered a drink, mindlessly stirring it as she began to take in her surroundings. It was the habit of a life on the run: noticing certain people, exits, entrances, any patterns in movement - anything out of the ordinary.

Calley was distinctly out of the ordinary. For one thing, he was about as clearly underage as you could get and still be past puberty--obviously, he wouldn't have been able to sneak into this club. So just as obviously, someone higher up had given him permission to be here. For another thing, he was clearly feeling rather ill. Now that he was out of Abyss' line of sight... Had Hunter given any of his employees orders to quietly take his little less-than-perfect spy back to the Labs? It was the sort of thing that would have a very definitive 'yes', but a 'no'... that would just leave him wondering until Hunter came for him in person.

As soon as he'd gotten the order to leave the room and take a seat at the bar, he'd left. This might have come as a surprise to Kaz. But he was in a little too much trouble at the moment to push Hunter with quips. He'd rolled off the couch, quietly exited, and come straight downstairs. What he needed now was to focus on something--anything--besides the upcoming something that he shouldn't be focusing on because it would be bad enough when it came. There was no need to think about it. What he needed to think about... was that woman's coat. Yes, that woman, and that coat, right there.

He sat down next to her, which involved more ignoring of the barstools and more hopping up onto the counter than the bartender was used to. Calley was very good at ignoring strange looks, though. And glares were no problem. The most dangerous people didn't glare--they just hurt you.

"Hello!" He said brightly, despite being rather abnormally pale. "Your coat is cool. Therefore, I shall speak with you. My name's Calley." He offered her his hand. "What's yours?" He slumped a little. "Umm, you don't work for Hunter, do you? Just checkin'. And if that question doesn't make sense, that's great." There might need to be much skittering if that was a 'yes'--he'd much rather talk to someone who wasn't likely to have orders to kindly escort him to his punishment.

What was it about her? Ever since she had arrived in New York whenever she was engaged in trying to blend in or take in her surrounding or even just think, some fool decided she lacked conversation. Well this one was an apparently young fool whose light blue eyes and friendly manner seemed to suggest hadn’t yet had to grow up. Nox doubted his childish dreams would be intact for much longer, and so refined from shattering them herself, which on any other night she might have taken some pleasure in, but tonight, tonight she was here for a reason.

She barely listened to his introduction as she simply set her drink down, with rather more force than was necessary, and then fixed him with a rather polished cold stare, hoping that he would pick up the hint and leave. That was until he mentioned Hunter. And then it clicked – why a teenager was in here when the entrance was so well blocked, why he knew Hunter’s name, - this…this boy was an associate of Hunter. Well that changes a few things. Maybe in this case an introduction was necessary, “I’m known as Nox”.
She came to the conclusion that she could tolerate his company if for the better good of learning something about this Hunter character. The boy, however, seemed a bit scattered and jumpy so Nox realised she would need to lead the conversation if anything worthy was going to be gained.

She leaned back slightly, and took him in – nothing special just a pale, scrawny teenager - before she spoke. “I’ve never met Hunter before, but I hope to tonight. Anything I should be aware of?” She let the question drift off, like it had just been an after thought. She was happy with her choice words; they indicated the need of information, made this Calley feel as if he was in an position of power, which he wasn’t, and it wasn’t a lie. Not that she had anything against lying, in fact she normally found them more effective, there had just been no need this time. She placed her hand on her thigh feeling the reassuring shape of her blade under her coat, if he decided to be difficult she would be ready, as she waited to see if he would give anything away.

Calley was grinning a lop-sided grin that had nothing to do with either amusement or happiness. “First time meeting the Scary Boss Man, huh?” He asked, completely unnecessarily. He slid down off the bar onto a stool next to her, resting his elbows on the counter behind him, and stretching out his legs in front of him. He didn’t really like to be above people when he talked to them. Not that it came up frequently, with all the towering giants he’d been talkin’ with lately. “Not much I can say.” Though honestly, he’d be hard pressed to say anything that would make more trouble for himself. He could pretty easily say something that would guarantee this woman either had to join Hunter, or stop breathing, though. For instance: guess what’s really at Mondragon Labs? Or: hey, what do you think a Scary Boss Man wants with mutant blood samples? Not to mention a private army, mutant and otherwise. “Guessin’ you’re looking for employment? The perks are amazing: great pay, lots of time to do whatever you want, access to anything in the world.” He scratched idly at his necklace—a habit he’d been trying to kick, what with the chance of inadvertently blowing himself up being very real. “The only thing you’ve gotta be aware of is that employment with Hunter is for a lifetime. Your lifetime.” Calley smiled through all of that. But it was just his default expression, nothing more. This lady didn’t seem particularly friendly and she was probably just using the annoying teenager in front of her to get information, but Calley didn’t mind. She still had a chance to walk away. That’s one thing Hunter didn’t give people. “Hey, would you mind buying me a drink? I can pay you back—I just don’t think they’d give me anything with alcohol in it.” He slid a little bit down the bar stool. “I think I would like some alcohol.”

(OOC: I'd like to note that Calley's not getting alcohol. The barman has strict orders not to let him drink, as if he's drunk his senses will be dulled, including his sense of pain. Hunter wants to keep that nice and sharp for when he debriefs Calley)

((ooc: ..."debriefs"...))

---

Abyss gave a wry smile at the fact that had discussed his leveled headedness, prior to the visit that signified that they believed he was coming here for trouble or might be any how. Calley indeed had an object that at the very least recorded just the same as the watches. Abyss shook his head slightly at Kaz whenever he mentioned the bit about fear being healthy. As far as the quips and quarrel of Kaz and Calley were concerned Abyss remained uninvolved, he wasn’t here to join in any petty arguments, and he didn’t want to show that he could be drawn into such silliness at the moment. Any other time the argument might appear like that of three brothers. For what it was worth Kaz was a found believer of tough love and truly meant to improve Calley by the reprimand, but if he doggedly obeyed that would be no better than him sitting on the floor. He was just as happy to see that while Calley begrudgingly stayed seated in the chair he still showed to be resistant too Kaz’s threats and harsh words. That proved all the more to abyss that Hunter was more than pleasant smiles. A man didn’t accumulate the sort of power that hunter wielded unless he had a purpose for it.

“Any concerns I have, I am sure will be answered with time, Antonescu. I am afraid I have very little use for words, but perhaps time will change my mind about you." Abyss doubted it very much and his lack of any pleasantries said as much. “oh, if you would like the car returned from that fellow that no longer has a head, I will drop it off whenever is convenient. I didn’t think you’d appreciate the police force that was in tow, impounding one of your vehicles." Abyss then stood up, deciding that here wasn't the place for putting any fear into the man, having said his piece he didn't have much use for Hunter. Abyss walked toward the door dismissing Mars back to the ranks of darkness, he the walked out the door and down the stairs pausing for a moment near Calley. " He gave his word you were not to be punished, tell me if he breaks it." Abyss missed the subtle lie wrapped in the sentence before and took it as something to measure Hunter by. Without a glance at the blond,his mother was a blond and thus he didn't care for the trait. Abyss handed Calley a card with his contact info on it. He had a feeling that Calley would indeed be in a bad situation and soon, the only thing he could think to offer the boy was well timed vengeance. His eyes glanced about Calley and marked the only piece of jewlery he wore.

Hunter listened to Abyss stated his position before leaving. At the mention of Derricks vehicle Hunter waved it aside as unimportant. You wouldn’t find anything incriminating about it so he was happy to let it disappear. Once Abyss had left Hunter turned to Kaz.

“This has been a most informative meeting. My measure of Abyss has gone up substantially. Syn, while tricky, is overconfident in her abilities to manipulate people, which leads to her underestimating me. Abyss on the other hand knows how dangerous I can be and is on guard for that. I’ll have to keep an eye out for him.”

He left the private room and came down to the bar. As he crossed the floor the people parted before him until he reached Calley and the woman he was talking to. “Calley, I need to have a word with you.” He ignored the woman, assuming her to be simply another patron and of no concern to him.

Nox waited as her patience wore itself down as he played a little state the obvious game with a rather stupid grin playing across his face. So except for confirming what Kaz had all ready told her about the perks, which in her opinion did seem rather tempting, he told her nothing, she concluded. Her lifetime, well she didn’t have any other plans for it, so why not? Well, quickly realising that at least this boy had been trained well enough not to let slip anything of any value, he, in her opinion, was now dispensable.

A drink? He wanted her to buy him a drink? She let out a little laugh, at the preposterous motion, as she leaned slightly closer. “You want a drink. Well,” As she spoke her arm came up in a smooth motion, her wrist twisted back slightly, exposing a knife. That instantaneously found its way into her hand before it was brought down, blade first, in one fluid motion into the table, landing perfectly between his index and middle finger, “many people want many different things in life, for example I want to sever your index finger from your hand. But I doubt you’ll bargain your fingers for a drink?” Nox smiled slightly as she watched the blade still quivered slightly from the force.

She turned, out of the corner of her eye she caught a strange red figure heading over to Calley. She sighed slightly, she had been enjoying herself, Oh well, she didn't want any unwanted attention. So once more with a fluid motion, which looked like she was simply leaning over to inspect the drink selection she retrieved her blade, locking it back in place once more in her sleeve. She went back to her drink, as the red man approached, ignoring her, and addressed Calley. Punished? And he? Nox doubted that meant anyone but hunter, and was mildly interested in what the boy had done.

She felt more than saw the floor part, the heat signature of the room changed, since her back was turned. The change, however, caused her to turn and see a figure crossing over. They say some people have a presence that when they enter a room everyone turns, everyone whispers for no reason, and everyone stares. This figure was one of them. He looked crisp, elegant even, in his pristine suit, his only questionable feature being his eyes, which, as he neared, she realised were silver. Hunter. He talked directly to Calley, but Nox wasn’t going to let her chance slip through her fingers, so she stood and faced him. She wasn’t sure if Kaz had said anything to hima bout her, but she was going to give it a shot anyway. She stared directly into his eyes as she spoke “I’m Nox, and I’ve been meaning to speak with you”.

Hunter turned to look at the woman Calley had been talking to. Originally he had dismissed her as a simple customer, but he was rapidly revising that conclusion. By the confidant way that she addressed him she must have come here to meet him. She carried that air of superiority that most mutants carried, so assumed her to have an ability that meant she had little to fear from humans.

“Do you know to whom you are speaking?” he asked coldly. Guessing who he was wasn’t much of a challenge, but the question carried the undertone that suggested that she also say why she was there. At this moment in time fully half the people in this room were armed and only awaited his order to fire. If she was here to start trouble she had picked the wrong night.

He turned, and this time actually noticed her. The room had hushed itself into a light murmur, and though everyone at the bar were finding the bottom of their glasses the most interesting focal point, everyone seemed to be listening. In the new void she clearly heard his cold response, his air of confidence carried through in everything apparently. She answered with an equal lack of warmth in a matter of fact sort of tone, and refused to divert her gaze to the floor, "Kaz gave me an invitation to come here, he said to ask for Hunter. Thus I'm speaking to Hunter, Am I not?"

So Kaz had sent her. Kaz would only send someone if he believed them to have strong enough abilities. This was not a conversation to be had at the bar. “If you’d like to follow me then we can discuss things in private.” Before heading back to the private room Hunter turned to Calley once again. “Stay here.” Those two words conveyed a terrible sense of what would happen if they were not obeyed.

He headed back up the stairs and back up into the sound proof room. Opening the door he motioned for Nox to go inside. He’d need to see what powers she had, but if Kaz had sent her it was likely to be powerful.

Well she seemed to have passed the criteria to be allowed a conversation, Nox ironically mused as she followed Hunter back across the floor to where they could talk without uninvited ears. Before he left he had ordered the boy to stay where he was, once more his self-confidence shone through. He was clearly very self assured that the boy would obey him, what sort of power did Hunter hold over him?

Once more the sea of bodies, mindlessly dancing without a care for the transpiring events, parted before Hunter, as he crossed over back to the stairs. She didn’t hesitant when following him, this was why she was here after all, wasn't it? He led her to a room, clearly trusting the establishment to the extent he would hold private business here. How many meetings had transpired here that had ended with a silent cry in the night? Or a missing child in the morning?

She stepped through the threshold and her mind came across one fact - its was too late too turn back now. Earlier, at the bar, she could have left. Now she had signed off her soul. Not that she was signing away a clean slate, there were plenty of events that had long ago blackened her soul, to the extent now she didn't think it could get darker. She continued standing wondering how she would be tested, for prove herself she knew she would have to do. She didn’t think Hunter would accept someone just because of a conversation on a street corner. She felt the weight of her knife by her side, it was reassuring, it wasn’t that she wasn't scared; she hadn't been scared in along time, just wary. As she waited she explored the room: how much energy is was there she could utilise? There was the light, and then their body heat, and if she furthered her awareness she could still feel the throbbing heat and light from below. Without being in the open where she could get direct electromagnetic radiation form the sun, she still had plenty of visible light and infrared to manipulate. She was ready.

(OOC: Kaz, I’m going to assume you left to follow Abyss, I hope you don’t mind)

IC: Hunter shut the door behind him. At once all the sound from the club below vanished, leaving only a deathly silence. Rather than say any thing Hunter walked slowly around the woman, as if evaluating her. He could spot the concealed weapon she carried. It was well hidden and anyone else would have missed it, but not him. Not only did he have exceptionally keen eyesight, but over four centuries of experience of being in situations where the opposition carried a concealed weapon. He knew what he was looking for and had the ability to see it.

“Before we begin I’m going to ask you to remove the knife,” he said calmly as he went and poured himself a drink, “Now you said that Kaz had sent you. That means you’re a mutant. So, what can you do that would make you useful to me?”

(continued at leaving the Black talon. www.theultimatexmen.proboards26.com/index.cgi?board=newyorkcity&action=display&thread=1190856558&page=1)

---

Calley was numb. Not ‘numb’, exactly. Just sort of... off. He was currently leaning against a bar stool, with his head resting on the counter, staring up at the lights in the ceiling. Every now and then he’d turn his head to the side, and watch the afterimages burn amongst the crowd. Maybe ‘numb’ was it. But he didn’t think so. Mostly, he felt... like things were out of his hands, and there was no need to stress about it anymore.

It was funny how having a knife stabbed between your spread fingers can change, in an instant, your entire perception of the world. He doubted many people knew that. He didn’t really think it was the sort of wisdom he needed to go around sharing. But really, that woman, and that knife thrust of hers... he thought that’s when this feeling had started.

Abyss had been great—Calley really liked that the guy still seemed to not mind him, even after figuring out what the big red guy had figured out. He was cool. As was befitting of the bearer of the Awesome Monkey Tail. Too bad it sounded like the other Abysses didn’t like them—he would have liked to meet them.

Back to the knife. He... didn’t understand the knife. Except that, maybe, he did. He didn’t understand it because, even though the woman had acted pretty mean, she had no reason to do that to him. And he’d been trying to help her. But he understood: it was something she’d felt like doing. It was something he had no control over, ‘cause he was the sort of person who kept on expecting that other people wouldn’t hurt him.

Abyss was wrong about one thing: Calley really was stupid. And that’s why Abyss knew he was a spy, and that’s why Kaz had picked him up by his throat and tossed him around a little, and that’s why a knife had gotten stabbed down on the counter between his fingers by an irate surly woman who didn’t know what she was getting into. And that’s why, when Hunter came back for him, what was going to happen was going to happen. ‘Cause Calley was stupid, and he just kept letting these things happen. Because he kept thinking that people were, maybe, not as mean as he knew they were. Everyone could hurt him. But it was nice to find people like Abyss, who choose not to. And Calley felt a little bad for people like Kaz and Nox and Hunter, who thought that hurting him would accomplish something.

He closed his eyes, and watched the bright stars morph into strange shapes and colors behind the blackness of his eyelids. Calley was like that. He did what he wanted, shifted to what he wanted, and never mind the blackness all around. And that wasn’t something about himself he really wanted to change. He’d like to learn how to fight and he’d like to kick Hunter’s ass and he’d liked to hear the astounding echo of Kaz being shocked into silence, but he wouldn’t like to stop doing whatever he felt like, when he felt like, despite the consequences.

Whatever was going to happen when Hunter came back... was going to happen. And it would be really bad. And it would be really painful. But it would end at some point. And it hadn’t started yet. So he just wasn’t going to think about it. He opened his eyes, and stared at the lights again.

Numb wasn’t the word for this. But Calley didn’t really have one. That was another way he was stupid.