At 10:55 a.m. Katran Kjaer walked into the Java Express(o) with a completely different look than she had the day before. The makeover had been sucessful, and she felt like she had never looked as good in her life. Although she regretted losing the nice red hair, the darker shade made her a little bit more mainstream, and she liked that in these times.

The black low cut shirt she was wearing fit her figure nicely, accenting her features, and the blue jeans that accompanied them made her fit in. She looked like any normal New Yorker girl in their twenties out for a good time and a cup of coffee. Good. At least, in her mind her disguise was good... maybe not not in reality. Maybe she didn't look like a New Yorker at all.

The black watch on her wrist told her she had two more minutes before she could expect the girl who called herself Teresa to appear. She slipped into a booth after three minutes spent ordering and recieving a coffee, and started to read the copy of "Gone With The Wind" that she had promised the girl she was meeting she would. She hated this book in particular, and wasn't really reading at all, but it was easy to fake, and she needed this to identify herself. At least in her mind she did.

She glanced up toward the door, expecting at any moment for the girl to walk in and be someone she recognized from the old days... but then again, that wasn't likely.

Sonya suspects she’s being overly cautious, perhaps even paranoid, but after the fiasco that her last “recruitment” mission turned into she supposes she’s entitled. She’s been sitting in Java Express(o) since 10:15, wearing a variety of different bodies, keeping an eye on the ebb and flow of customers.

At 10:55 she is wearing an elderly black woman eating a fruit salad, watching a twentysomething brunette order some coffee. When that brunette takes “Gone with the Wind” out, Sonya takes a last look around to satisfy herself that none of the other customers are likely to be bodyguards, secret agents, or anything along those lines. Of course, she can’t be certain, but she can at least be cautious.

She finishes her fruit and heads to the rest room, which is conveniently empty. A few seconds later she walks back out wearing Teresa’s body and sits down smoothly across from her. "Katran, I assume? Hi. I’m Teresa."

Sonya still can’t get over how much clearer her senses have been the last few days, or how much stronger and quicker “Teresa” is. She doesn’t understand how, but it seems that some of the physical capabilities of Sara’s body have stayed with her, even though the template itself is long gone. It’s a little overpowering, actually; now that she’s wearing Teresa’s body it’s like she can smell every roasting coffee bean, every bag of tea, every sprinkle of fake cinnamon in the entire store.

She sets it aside, though, and concentrates on the woman across the table from her. "So, you want to get re-acquainted with your old posse? Reasonable enough. Except, you understand, things are a little different now, what with the unexpected building renovations and our, shall we say, more aggressive relationship with the state. We need to be careful who we trust how far." She leans casually against the fake leather seat. "Suppose you start by telling me what you can do, and where you’ve been since you left?"

Eris waited for a few moments, looking up from her book every few seconds to check for the mysterious character she was waiting to meet. She needed to be very aware of everything around her. Suddenly, she saw a girl walk out the bathroom and head straight for her. She hadn't seen that girl enter the bathroom, but then again she could have slipped in there when Katran wasn't looking. Very strange... but maybe just a fault on her part. Eris forgot the matter as quickly as it was raised in her mind.

The girl spoke and a wave of relief swept over Katran. "Yes, I'm Katran..." She nodded to the girl somewhat coldly, acknowledging her existance, her old mannerism of cool tempermant had been easy to recover, "Teresa." Katran looked over the woman trying to read her. It was pretty hard... she wasn't going to lie to herself. This one was a tricky one, that much was certain. Everything in her demeanor demanded that Eris not understand her... not know what kind of person she was. The fact that Teresa was unreadable was her defining feature. At least in Eris' mind. It was indeed... the only thing she could read about her.

"Hmmm..." Eris contemplated the girl's speech about who to trust, and believed that she had summed the situation up very well. It was very true that it was hard to trust anyone these days. She sipped her hot drink. "Well, to start with, anyone in the quote, unquote posse would know me, and probably not like me. I'm fairly hard to get along with and somewhat cold." At this moment, Eris' demeanor matched her words. "They would know me as 'Eris', a girl with flaming red hair and a flowing red dress."

She rolled her eyes and recounted how she had altered her look the day before. So annoying that she had had to stoop to going into a disguise of sorts, just to stay out of the mutant camps. "Teresa, as you can see, I've had to alter my appearance a little in order to keep the Stalkers guessing. Anyway, when you ask what I can do, I assume you mean what is my mutation?" She chuckled, trying to find a way to describe it. She found the words. "Basically, if you can imagine it physically, I can do it physically. It's that simple really. I bend the laws of nature to the point before breaking them completely..."

She let these words trail off as she was distracted by that peaceful picture above Teresa's head... the same one that had been above Rupert's head the day before. It was a deja vu moment.

"As to where I've been, I can't sum that up as simply. Basically, I was in the middle of an operation with the Order when I was knocked out, and I woke up in a dark cell in the middle of England. A man had kidnapped me, somehow he could negate my powers. He tortured me for six weeks and then let me go... and ever since then I've been working my way back to the states, trying to get back in touch with the Order."

She gave a cold grimace after this rhetoric and then asked, "Now that you know me, may ask what your power is Teresa... because there's probably a pretty good chance your a mutant... I don't think we'd be talking right now if you weren't."

> "…anyone in the quote, unquote posse would know me, and probably
> not like me. I'm fairly hard to get along with and somewhat cold."

Sonya/Teresa allows herself a tight-lipped smile at that. Something about Katran’s delivery suggests that she’s not being self-effacing, merely accurate. She shrugs noncommittally in response. "As far as I know, we have no plans to start a social club any time soon. As long as you’re useful and not more trouble than you’re worth, you can be the biggest b---h that ever delivered a litter for all I care."

> "Basically, if you can imagine it physically, I can do it physically.
> It's that simple really. I bend the laws of nature to the point before
> breaking them completely..."

She frowns thoughtfully, unsure whether that was an honest attempt at an answer, or an evasion. Either way, it was a bit on the vague side. " I have a pretty active imagination, Katran… it would help to be more specific. Are you faster than a speeding bullet, leap tall buildings in a single bound, bend steel in your bare hands? Can you induce heart attacks from a distance? Transmute killer robots into harmless bunny rabbits? "

Her eyebrows go up in curiosity as she listens to Katran’s recounting of her abduction, torture, and release. "He let you go? That’s… interesting."

Sonya’s fairly sure Katran isn’t lying – not that she’s in any position to know for sure, of course – but her story arouses suspicion. An unknown enemy kidnaps an Order operative, tortures her for six weeks, and returns her to the Order… why? Maybe he just got bored… or maybe she escaped and is being modest about it… but it’s more likely that he has some plan in mind. Has Katran been turned into some kind of traitor?

Well, if she has, that can cut both ways… we can trace her actions, find out who her mysterious captor is. That telepath Syn recruited, Ash, might come in handy. Of course, Sonya herself could access Katran’s psyche directly, but without knowing more about the mutant woman’s capabilities and mental state that’s extremely risky.

"Well, anyway… you’ve gotten back in touch. Congratulations." She scratches her cheek idly with a thumb and adds "So, you have two choices. I can bring you in to our current home away from home, where you can get reacquainted with all your old pals… catch is, it’s somebody else’s “house.” We’re there on sufferance, they make the rules. " She lets her face show her own feelings about that option. "Or I can give Syn a call – she’s running the show, these days – and have her make this all official and stuff but keep you active on the outside. Your call."

> "Now that you know me, may I ask what your power is Teresa?"

"Costs nothing to ask..." Sonya/Teresa smiles, then shrugs. "Like the song says: I get knocked down, I get back up again. Comes in handy on recruitment runs like this one… last time, couple of trigger-happy bodyguards put a couple of rounds through my spine."

It’s a funny thing: when it happened, and for a couple of days afterwards, Sonya remembers she’d been a basket case. Looking back on it, though, she can’t understand why. Sure, it had hurt, but she’d made such a fuss about it! Come to think of it, she’s not sure why she let the guards live, either. Not that there’d been any overwhelming reason to kill them, granted, but why leave prey alive once the hunt is over?

Not for the first time, she feels as though she’d been a completely different person back then. Which probably has something to do with her newfound strength, speed, and senses, too… though she doesn’t think too much about those.

"I got better," she adds with a predatory grin.

A wry smile hit Eris' lips when she heard Teresa's comment about the social club. Sure, she wasn't really out to make friends. No, she was here to get what she wanted and needed, and hopefully enrich her own life. Others didn't matter so much, not even after her little adventure in England.

Yet it had changed her. More than she could possibly even know. Even now his face (or lack thereof) had burned an image in her mind. Something that would never truly go away. The outside of a dark shadow that was a twisted man. She couldn't understand what had happened, and she wouldn't. Maybe ever.

When Teresa asked about her powers again, Eris' anger started to hum behind her eyes. The rage that she had supressed so long was trying to manifest itself, and Eris half wanted the rage to suceed. Yet, he disallowed that from happening with a thought from her mind. The man. Suddenly she was back to her new sullen sarcastic self again, "Yes, I can run faster than a speeding bullet, of course I can leap buildings in a bound, and indeed I can bend steel, but why bother using my hands."

She chuckled softly as she thought of how true that was. Indeed, her powers made her almost limitless, and each one of those things she could do with a simple manuveur in her mind. The trouble was the fatigue afterwards. Daddy had always said that power came with a price, and this power certainly had. When you only had 36 minutes to hide from your enemies, it makes you double-think using your mutant abilities. Eris decided not to share all this, and instead comment with, "I told you, imagine it, I can probably do it."

She laughed out loud when she heard the bunny rabits quirk. "Sorry, I'm not into magic tricks, I tend to take matters a little more serious than that. But sure, I could stop a killer robot. I would just use a more efficient method of dealing with them." She took a sip from her coffee and spun the mug in her hands then set it down on the table. Show lowered her voice, "Strangley enough, people don't seem to realize the awesome powers of mutants these days. To try and and hold us down in camps, please. We need to be serious about the threats we face, and show the humans who's in charge..."

It was a very bad mutant like statement, but she enjoyed making it if only for the joy it gave her to say what she was thinking. The mutants really did deserve more than the humans ever would give them, maybe it was time to change that. Force a human hand or two.

Suddenly, after telling about the kidnapping, Teresa's face and words seemed to question the truth of the story. I wish it weren't the truth... but sadly it is. "Teresa," her face cloudy, "yes he let me go. He had accomplished what was his desire all along, a kind of personality re-education. I used to have a lot of anger, he forced it out of me with his twisted methods. Then, being as twisted and sick as he was, he just let me go..."

She turned away and gritted her teeth. "I hate him, but then again," she turned back and looked at Teresa, "I've forgotten how to hate."

Katran listened while she heard about Syn's taking control. Figures, the one girl I really didn't like ended up being the leader of the whole crowd. Looks like I'll have to deal with her after all... She offered a fake smile and said, "That sounds good, if you can take me to Syn I'd be grateful, I may have not had a good personal relationship with her in the past, but on a professional level we understand each other. I'd very much like to meet with her again. I don't really care if it's at some other group's place. Things can change quick..." she trailed off in her own sentence. She didn't really understand why.

She stared at the girl while she told the story of the spinal attack, "You certainly did get better. I'm amazed... you have a stunning gift..."

She took another drink from her coffee. "So, when can I get... 'reaquainted'?"

Sonya/Teresa’s eyes widen a little at Katran’s summary of her powers… if she’s not just bragging for effect, she sounds pretty much godlike. Good person to have on our side, I suppose… though she’s no longer naïve enough to expect that to mean much of anything. She had said it herself, a moment before: the Order wasn’t a social club.

I wonder if she’s going to try to take over? Not that that affects Sonya much; either way her position is fairly secure. And who knows? Maybe Syn can use Katran to take down Hunter, solve a lot of problems all at once.

> “We need to be serious about the threats we face, and show the humans who's in charge.”

"Sing it, sister! Maybe with a heavy hitter like you on board we can finally make this raid on the Camps we keep talking about." Not that she really cares that much anymore…. sure, sooner or later they’d have to rise up and crush the Camps, but much like Katran’s potential for mutiny, it doesn’t have much effect on Sonya herself.

She shakes her head to dispel a strange feeling, like double-vision of the mind’s eye. She knows perfectly well that, mere days earlier, she’d been a lot more concerned about the Camps and the state of the mutants in them, impatient and outraged at how the Resistance was delayed. And she knows nothing significant had changed in the world… which meant something had changed in her own mind.

Who knows? Maybe Calley left some of his me-first attitude behind in there. Whatever caused it, Sonya can’t imagine going back to being her old self… after all, what had all that worrying about other people ever gotten her, besides shot at?

Her internal ruminations are interrupted by Katran’s explanation of how her mysterious abductor had psychologically conditioned her, which does nothing to alleviate her worries. If she’s as powerful as she says she is, she might take the Labs out altogether, eliminate the Resistance in one fell swoop. Not that most of them would be much of a loss, but it would look bad if Sonya was the one to bring her in. Might make her enemies she really doesn’t need.

> “So, when can I get... 'reaquainted'?"

Sonya frowns and sucks air through her teeth. "So, here’s the thing. You basically just told me that you have pretty much unlimited power, and that some mysterious figure just got finished brainwashing you and sent you out into the world… conveniently, at the same time that half of the mutants in New York are gathered together in one, increasingly cramped, secret location. Can you think of any reason for me to believe that whoever your mysterious captor is didn’t turn you into some kind of anti-mutant brainwashed time bomb, primed to destroy the Resistance with your godlike abilities?"

Eris chuckled to herself at Teresa's persistance on the whole brainwashing bit. Sure, she had been put through some psychological training, but maybe she had come out better for it. Maybe she was now a little more powerful, a little more in control. She liked to think so.

"Did I say I had unlimited power? No." She shook her head and smiled wryly. "I merely said I can do what can be imagined. There are limitations to my abilities, but I prefer to keep them to myself. But know this, I won't pose a threat to your little group." She paused for effect. "I'm here to help."

She sighed deeply and continued. "As for the brainwashing bit, there is no reason for you to believe me. None whatsoever. If you're one of the Order, I know you'll be skeptical no matter what I tell you. You'll believe that whatever I say is a lie after a lie. So I can't convince you, you'll just have to not trust me." The truth of her words cut her own self pretty deep, because she knew how true they were. Bad people don't trust others, they only trust themselves, and maybe their fearless leader. But then, not even then. "And by the way, I'm not a goddess, I just call myself one. Now when can we leave?"

Sonya chuckles at Katran’s response.

Of course, she’s right… there’s no reason for her to believe anything this woman says. But she would like some level of plausible deniability, if this self-styled goddess of chaos turns out to be danger to the Order or the Resistance.

Besides which, for all of the woman’s attitude, she’s the one asking Sonya for a favor, and Sonya intends to extract a price for it.

> “Now when can we leave?”

"Just as soon as you let me know what those limitations I’m supposed to rely on are."

As soon as Eris saw the look on Teresa's face, she knew that the girl was out to get the absoulte truth, or at least as much as she could harvest. It would cost Eris dearly to tell anyone of her weakness. Indeed, only one other mutant in the world knew of her problem, and even if that mutant was part of the Order, it was highly likely that she hadn't spread the news around. In this kind of world, knowledge of each other's problematic elements of personal mutations was power. Eris certainly couldn't allow the girl to know the full truth behind her abilities.

She glared at the girl as the rage inside of her started to build again. Hold up Katran. Wait, no. Eris. Yes, Eris. No more with this Katran business, at least not right now. Katran is a thing of the past, a handle of saftey to hide behind. Eris is the depth and source of the power. Leave Katran behind. Do as Eris would do. Lie.

She did, as well as supressing her anger, "Though I hate to admit this, I see your a hard woman and won't be easily convinced," she gritted her teeth a little, then relaxed them, "My limit. Have you ever heard of a substance called lead? Well, it tends to hold me back from using the full limits of my powers. In fact, whenever lead is touching me, or in close vicinity, I can't use them whatsoever."

She paused, keeping a genuinely straight face. She had practiced and used this lie before, enough times that it would seem natural enough. The girl should have no problem believing her. "Now, you know. Let's go now. Please." She was getting extremely agitated and her voice said it all. It wasn't a question, it was more of a polite demand.

Sonya responds to both the angry glare and the subsequent submission with the same blank, vaguely curious expression. Sure, this woman might strike out if balked, but the prospect doesn’t frighten her as much as she’s pretty sure it would have once… it might even be an interesting challenge.

Lead, huh? Neat. Easier to find then Kryptonite, anyway. Of course, she might be lying… that’s certainly what Sonya herself would do, faced with that kind of demand. Then again, Sonya wouldn’t have admitted to her real powers in the first place... and in fact, she hadn’t. (Indeed, it seems to be a tradition… Calley hadn’t fully disclosed his own, either, and Syn has never actually said what hers are. Sonya supposes it’s rather a lot like a first date… a certain amount of lying is expected. She’s not sure why she’d made such a fuss over it with Calley.)

Come to that, Sonya has no particular reason to believe the woman is as powerful as she claims, either, and as before it really doesn’t matter… all she’d really needed was plausible deniability, and now she has it.

"Sure thing, sweetheart. Can you teleport us over if I tell you where to go? Or should we rely on more conventional transportation?"

Eris was getting bored and a little annoyed with the fact that they were still sitting around this coffee shop, especially when their were Stalkers everywhere in the streets of the city, and one good look, a lucky look, could land both her and Teresa in prison perchance. Eris didn't want to gamble on this, she just wanted to move on and find the Order members.

The fact that Dorian was no longer leading the Order made her slightly angry. She had a better relationship with him than anyone else who was part of the group, so naturally she wanted that bond to stay. Plus the romantic tension between them was always fun. But, if Syn was in charge now she would just have to deal with it, despite the fact that the woman was probably the last person Eris wanted to be working with. She would just accept it and move on. Hopefully no hard feelings.

And then there was Menace. Dear old Dr. Menace.

Her coffee had distracted her and affected her thoughts, and she was drawn away from Teresa for a second. Then her mind jumped badck on track and she remembered why she was there. "Well, I would teleport us, but that would take far too much energy. Let's just go with a normal mode of transportation." She stood and finished the last sip of her coffee, dropping the empty mug back onto the table and turning to leave, "Lead on Teresa."

OOC: You can probably go ahead and finish up this thread. I guess just RP us leaving and then maybe start another thread in the Labs with us arriving there or something? I'm not sure... up to you.

(( OOC: Syn will post a thread at the Labs when she has one available for RP; we can join it then. ))

(( Edit: thread continued here))