Abyss walked down to the cafeteria, He set himself up with some fruit it was the kind of mood he was in. Typically he was for the most part carnivorous, sure you could slap a bun around a hamburger, or put potatoes next to a steak, but the meat was the important part, today his body told him that he needed to eat some fruit. Supposedly, cravings were your body telling your stomach to eat things that it needed more of.

He plucked grapes off of a little stem, he even managed not to smash them before they got to his mouth most of the time. Behind him dangled a small boy, upsidedown, he was hanging from abyss’s tail by the foot. The boy had said he looked like a big red monkey when he at a banana. Abyss whole hardly agreed, however the way the boy stated it to his face earned him some good natured trouble.

“Take it back, kid and things don’t have to go bad for you. I’ll set you down and send you on your way.”Abyss stated reasonably.

The boy Shouted in protest. “No! You do look like a big ole monkey! You know what! It isn’t even just while you eat bananas! Its always…you red monkey man!”

Abyss raised an eyebrow in amusement. HE drew the boy around to his side so that the boy’s face was just to his left. “You got a mouth on you, kid. What’s your name?”

“elf.” The boy with the pointed ears grinned as the red man addressed him.

“are you getting dizzy elf?” Abyss queried.

~~“Nope.”

“well in that case.” Abyss flipped the boy around so he was facing right side up and planted him on the bench next to him. “I like you kid, you got guts, and you don’t back down. But try not to insult how people look around here, they might not like it, some of us are sensitive. I’m not one of them, but someone might feel bad about looking a certain way. Are you proud of your ears?”

Elf looked shocked that he might be hurting someones feelings. “yes…”

“Good, you should be. Just try to remember that, me looking like a monkey and you looking like an elf is a good thing. But other people might need time to realize that they are perfect how they are too. Besides they might have grapes to throw at you too.”

~~“huh?”

~plunk.~ a half smashed grape slid down elf’s forehead.

~~“Hey!”

“what?”

~~“I’m a kid, you can’t do that.”

“can, and did.” The big man smiled and the boy wiped his forehead off and grumbled. Abyss had a feeling he just started a war with the boy and wouldn’t be seeing the last of him today.

Jocelyn had a lot more down time at the Sanctuary than she'd ever had working down at the station. She wasn't sure she liked it much.

She was used to the constant bustle of activity, pitching in on everyone's cases, hearing all the news of the city as it happened, and being out and about tracking down leads. Lately she felt like she was in a kennel.

Sure, she had occasional chores to do, like collecting mutant insurance. There had also been rumors that she might be doing some prison guard duties starting soon. The only other thing she did was help out with small jobs, like flipping pancakes at breakfast or mopping the entryway where mutants, monkeys, and tigers tracked in winter mud from outside.

Still, she had a lot of down time.

No wonder the Sanctuary residents got into so much trouble, they didn't have anything else to do. She was about ready to pick a fight with someone just to change up the humdrum daily routine.

She didn't, though. Instead she started to do research. Missing children, murdered women, young men who disappeared in the middle of the night... most of them confirmed mutants, all of them completely unsolved. She would use her own unique abilities to try shedding new light on the cold cases. Normally she wouldn't discriminate between mutant and human, but since she was working undercover, it went better with her cover story to focus mainly on those that involved helping her fellow so-called homo superiors. It's not like there was any shortage of cases.

Today her research happened to be mostly flipping through posters of missing kids on her myPad, which she could only afford because rent and food were free around here. She flipped through photos and scrutinized the stories that accompanied them while she munched on her yogurt and granola breakfast. Never mind that it was well past noon. No one around here kept anything even remotely resembling normal hours, so Jocelyn didn't either. Sometimes she was up early to run. Other days... not. so. much.

As she flipped through pictures of missing children, her attention was somewhat diverted by the large red man with a child sized decoration hanging from his tail. The interaction between them left her with a slight smile on her lips. For such an intimidating place, many of the Sanctuary residents were surprisingly good with kids.

“That was a nice thing you told him,” Jocelyn commented to the Abyss brother as soon as the boy had run off in the general direction of the ice cream machine.

Abyss popped another grape into his mouth with a flick of his thumb and weaving his head to catch the tasty projectile. Red eyes appraised the woman addressing him, he had seen her around, He had gotten too far out of the loop. With Venus at his apartment he didn't know anything about the woman.

"I balanced it out with the grape to the head." he smiled guiltily " The kids around here could stand a compliment or two, a bit of guidance." Abyss shrugged. " besides, I'm a fan of the ears." he tilted his head to the side to show that his came to points as well, though not nearly as exaggerated as Elf's. " I'm Abyss, I haven't had the pleasure of making your acquaintance. Miss?"

Abyss approved of the woman's choice in snack, not too many other people around here appreciated healthy food. Part of the reason he was eating fruit in the cafeteria is to perhaps start a trend among those that looked up to him. there were a few that emulated him and those few tended to se the trends for the rest. It was odd to think that he was concerned with so many peoples nutrition. but with out parents to look after them, someone needed to.

“Lupe,” Jocelyn answered, with a wolfish smile. “One of the Abyss brothers, right?” She took the opportunity to look him over now that she had her first chance to see him up close and personal.

He was tall, had a nice strong jaw, was incredibly well built, and was, of course, red with a monkey tail. The view was even nicer up close than from afar. Up close she could see the twinkle in his eye. Was that mischief? Kindness? Curiosity? Maybe a mixture of all three.

He smelled alright, too. Not too flowery.

“There are a lot more kids here than I expected,” Jocelyn admitted. They weren't just drifting in and out either like they would at a homeless shelter. They were staying. Kaitlyn and her friend Stephan had been here for ages now, and Elf looked like he was going to be perfectly content to stay as well. Free room and board was nice for all ages, she supposed, though she wondered what they did about school, if anything.

“Wanna sit? I've got plenty of room here.” She slid her little screened device off to one side to make room. The face of a little girl with bright blue lips that smiled around tiny little tusks looked up from the screen.

“Lupe,” “One of the Abyss brothers, right?”

“Indeed. I’m Abyss, the original article, as for the other six, you aren’t missing much.” he smiled impishly, obviously jesting as any sibling did.

“Yeah, that is the only mission we give to the younger ones, if they come across a mutant, to make sure that they know if they ever need a place to go, they can come here and not worry about life’s necessities. It’s a particularly good job for them, as they are less intimidating than say, some of the lovely ladies that stay here. “Another playful smile made the comment about her somehow. “ seriously though, I think we have a low turnover rate for the younger ones, because they feel safe here, and they are. Most of them don’t have a family looking for them, or if so not in the way parents should look for a child.” Venus would tell him to make physical contact if he could. He wasn’t great at reading signals, but she certainly didn’t seem to think he was hard on the eyes; the invitation bolstered his confidence that much more.

Picking up his bowl of grapes and making his way around to the other side of the table. “Absolutely.” Came his answer. Abyss sat down next to the woman. “it’s nice to meet you Lope. Do you want some grapes?” Abyss held out a massive Red hand in an offer to shake hands. His brother would kiss the hand if offered; he however was a bit more discrete. He popped another grape into his mouth.

“who is the kiddo?” He nodded to the screen wondering how Lope was connected to the child.

Abyss, the original. She wondered if they were siblings that all claimed that, or if he truly was the original and the rest were copies somehow. His confidence and the ease with which he said it made it seem like the truth, and he certainly didn't give on odor of unease usually associated with lying.

“Nice to meet you, Abyss.”

Jocelyn appreciated the playful smile, but downplayed the compliment, choosing instead to be humble.

“Oh you can't mean me, I'm not intimidating at all. I'm barely 130 pounds and my mutation is about as innocuous as a mutation can be. It's hyperosmia, or in plain English, a ridiculous sense of smell.”

His hand, when she shook it, made hers look like a child's, but his grasp was surprisingly gentle.

She was glad he accepted her invitation to sit and she did take a few of his offered grapes, dipping them first into her yogurt before eating them. They were pretty good for being out of season, but they still smelled a little like the back of the truck that had brought them up from Mexico or wherever they were grown.

She finished chewing her grape as she propped up the little touch screen device with her hand. She pointed with her other hand and the child's obviously mutation enhanced mouth.

“She's a mutant kid that has gone missing. I was just reading up on her story and trying to figure out if there was enough information to start a little personal investigation into her whereabouts.”

She gave a little half smile, though it was a fairly serious topic, “I sometimes use my abilities to help find people like that.”

“Nice to make your acquaintance as well Lupe.”

Her skin was soft and warm, not clammy, just pleasant. He glanced at her fit form as she mentioned her weight she might weigh a fifth of what he did. He suddenly became glade that he had brushed his teeth before he came in here and showered He could only find some girly floral shampoo, but it did the job.

“Your ability is interesting, If ever I offend your senses, let me know so I can correct it. My gifts are a bit complicated, I’d hate to bore you with the details. That said, if you can find her, I’d be happy to help make the situation right.” He didn’t say it specifically, but he had seen too many horror stories to not worry for the girl, when people kidnapped mutant children, it was never simply to raise the child as their own, something darker always laid in wait beneath the surface

So, by correct the situation, he meant teaching that dark something the error of its way in lesson that would last a life time, however short it might be.He couldn't forgive those who would harm the innocent.

Abyss popped a Grape in his mouth and looked at the picture of the girl, it made him sad. It made Mercury sad too.he however was enjoying nothingness in the void.

Mercury spoke his agreement from the void. The little girl deserved to do little girl things she shouldn't be missing anything. His wild child brother even volunteered to teach the lesson while he escorted the girl and the pretty lady away. Mercury was the only one that frequented the void still by choice, taking solace in the safety and comfort of it, it also allowed the others a bit more distance to roam around and with Pluto and Venus out and about most of the time they could use the extra space.

Most of the time Jocelyn approved of the legal system's way of dealing with people, but every once in awhile there wasn't enough solid evidence to arrest or convict someone. Sometimes a detective knew exactly what happened, but a jury could never be convinced that scent was proof enough. Not when there wasn't also witnesses, a lack of alibi, DNA, motives, murder weapons and all other manner of things that they considered proof.

Sometimes a girl had to take matters, very carefully, into her own hands.

In this case, she and Abyss agreed on how to 'make the situation right'.

Was she a bad cop because she legitimately agreed with an Order member about something like taking justice into her own hands?

Probably.

She found that she wasn't too terribly troubled by that thought.

“If there is enough proof to make sure they were properly punished, I'd usually let the cops clean up the mess,” she answered truthfully. “If there isn't, I'll be sure to let you know if there is justice to be served.”

She didn't mind getting her hands a little dirty, metaphorically, but literally the less likely it was that she was linked to murders, even if the victim completely deserved to die, the less likely she was to lose her job. She was careful, but as she could attest, no one was perfect. Not when you didn't know who would be tracking you and what they could do.

Lupe was scraping the bottom of her yogurt bowl now, and there weren't many grapes left on their vine.

“If you're bored, she disappeared not far from here. We could go do a little investigating this afternoon.”

As for the evening, who knew?

“Before the MRC was around I would have laughed at the notion of justice. Now I have to consider it as a valid possibility.”

Abyss’s Jaw dropped hanging there, it was almost cartoonish. “ This happened in our neighbor hood?” the odds of Abyss letting the MRC handle the case just narrowed to a very unlikely window, though it depended very much on how bad she wanted it. “ so long as the girl is safe I can probably hold back, I won’t promise though, that I’ll stay my hand if she isn’t.”

Abyss wiped juice out of his neatly trimmed goatee. “I’m not bored, but I can’t imagine doing much else but looking for her. Just let me know, when you are ready to go.”

He opened the void toward the entrance of the cafeteria, Mercury, get any of our brothers that are here, let them know what’s going on, Someone needs to learn a lesson.

“I hope I’m not being pushy, I just,” he looked toward the screen again. “ well, you understand.” He didn’t mean to be oblivious, but in the shuffle he was missing the appreciative looks the young woman was giving him. did he have something else on his face? Abyss wiped at his mouth once more.

Mercury bounded out of the void and skipped ddown the hall to find Jupiter, Mars,Venus, and Saturn were all accounted for and interested in helping look for the young lady. Mercury flicked Venus on the forehead when he heard about Lupe, "Leave her alone Neptune has dibs." Abyss hadn't said any sort of thing, if a woman preferred Venus, they preferred Venus, he didn't love it, but A woman was not to be owned.

Venus however put up his hands in surrender. " If he can reel her in, then by all means let him, with the whole deathstar and Syn thing, he could use a woman that won't leave him in the cold." the clones viewed their sisters a little bit diffrently than abyss, it was like they were characters in a show that they watched as kids and found out later who the characters turned out...Crazy! still they were blood and it was sad that they were missing, but they were strong confident women, they were fine.

An Order member admitting that the MRC might be a good thing, while an MRC member admitted that sometimes justice needed to be handled personally. If this kept up, the next thing she knew lions and lambs would be lying down together. Cats and dogs would start getting along. Cobras and mongooses would become friends, start dating, and eventually marry.

Then again, maybe it was a little early to jump to any of those sorts of conclusions. Nature was nature.

“Yeah, I understand,” Lupe responded with one more wistful look at the little screen. “Just let me change out of my pajamas quick.” She hadn't done much to get ready for the day other than brushing her hair and pulling on yoga pants to make herself decent enough for the cafeteria. “I'll meet you in the garage.”

She slipped out through the door and down to her room. It took only a few moments to pull on her hunting outfit: a red tank top, black shorts, and boots with heels short enough to run in and tops high enough to slip a gun in one and a bowie knife in the other. She pulled her hair back into a loose pony tail so it wouldn't get in the way.

When she got out to the garage she was slightly surprised to find that all the brothers had amassed themselves, six in total.

She shook each of their hands in turn. Or rather each of 4. One she had shaken in the cafeteria, and the other kissed her hand instead of shaking it.

“You're not all going to fit on my motorcycle,” she pointed out her little bike, the cop one she'd reacquired with Calley's help and redecorated with newly painted order symbols over the NYPD ones and all red bulbs in the flashers. Actually even one of them might not have fit. It wasn't that heavy duty. Well... maybe, but there wouldn't have been room for her, too.

“Here's the address of her school. We can pick up her trail there.”

Abyss nodded his agreement to her getting ready, not that he was complaining about the comfortable at home look the gold hearted fox had going. Yoga pants were the best thing a woman could wear, ever. People could go on about slinky dresses, bikinis, lingerie, but a tanktop and some soft cotton yoga pants, delicious. His eyes may have followed her out of the room a little longer than he would admit to.

He made the walk to the garage, catching a glare from elf on the way out to which he only responded with a smile. It looked like it confused the kid? Maybe he should make sure there wasn’t any actual animosity later.

Abyss grinned, but didn’t argue. “ let’s get on the Bikes, boys.” Jupiter and Mercury headed toward a heavy duty hog with a side cart that made Mercury look like he was over stuffing a kiddy ride at the carnival, yet he still insisted. Mars hopped into a jeep ignoring the call to get bikes, the last thing he wanted to exposé some little girl to was riding on a motorcycle with one of the guys, Saturn hopped into the jeep with a simple nod. Abyss and Venus went and got a pair of oversized sports bikes. The supports were reinforced. And the engines were made to drive the same with the heavier riders. And so the motley group set after the lone wolf, today she ran with the pack. If Abyss had it his way she would get a taste for the benefits of having other wolves at her side.

Abyss caught up with Lupe with a bit of less than legal maneuvering. Venus and the others trailed them at a distance, at mercury’s prodding and Jupiter’s enforcing even Venus saw fit to hang back and stick with his earlier vow to ensure he didn’t get in the way of anything possibly romantic, He should have hopped in the void and advised from there.

Lupe couldn't tell by smell which of the brothers had caught up to her, due to wind and the air filter built into her helmet that cleared out a lot of the road smog... and a lot of other smells, too. Another sense, her woman's intuition, told her that it was Abyss, the alpha male of this little pack.

She smiled inside her helmet, gave him a little wave, then pulled a couple of not quite legal moves of her own. Illegal while she was dressed like this and not in blues, anyway.

“Catch me if you can,” she whispered, though he'd never hear.

She wove through the traffic, taking risks she normally wouldn't unless she was trying to show off, which she had to admit she was. At one point even jumping up on a deserted sidewalk before darting back out in front of a taxi driver who didn't have to swerve to miss her, but did anyway.

And so the criminal chased the cop through traffic. Talk about role reversal.

He couldn’t hear her, but the tilt of her helmet and the mockery in her good bye wave said it all and more and that was before the fact that she starting showing off her skills.

Abyss shadowed her albeit a bit less gracefully then she did, when she zipped onto the side walk he went the other way, and the cab followed. Abyss placed a hand on the back of the trunk that left a mark to be remembered, He pushed himself up throwing him and his bike into the air. He landed in the street with his bike above his head, he sat it down lightly and hopped back on to continue.
He had to work to catch back up but when he did he stayed close. if this was a chase, she was the fox, and he was the hound.

The other’s motored through traffic the old fashioned way, they would have forced their way through, like normal except for the fact that Mercury insisted that they give them space and simply follow along at a distance until and unless they were needed.

Jocelyn skidded to an almost halt, ie. 25 mph, when they were a few blocks from their destination. That's right, school zone speed limit. She may be reckless, but she wasn't about to risk running over a kid. As she putted along, it only took a few second for Abyss to catch up to her. She had to admit she was impressed that he could get through the traffic so easily on his bulkier bike.

She pulled into the parking lot and slid her bike home into one of the available spots. It was late enough that there were already parents starting to accumulate in their cars, waiting for their children to be dismissed by the final bell of the day.

Dismounting and shaking her ponytail free from her helmet she smiled at the big red mutant that pulled to a stop next to her.

“This is it. This is where Annabelle was last seen,” it had actually been her kindergarten teacher that had reported her missing, about two weeks ago. “Somehow we need to get in so we can sniff around for clues. If I could get her scent from her locker or a jacket she wore or something, that would be best.”

She put her hand on her hip, as if to say, 'Any bright ideas?'

Abyss zipped around a corner still intent on catching his quarry so much so that he did a double take as he passed her and circled back when he found that she had decided to abide by a school zone of all things.
Abyss beamed right back at her. There was something hypnotizing about a woman shaking out her hair, it was why all the shampoo commercials did it, she needs a shampoo commercial, her hair was glorious and her skin was such a smooth shade of brown. Abyss swallowed as his thoughts got away from him and thought more upon what a shampoo commercial might Intel.

Abyss blinked his eyes and shook his head a little to get the tunnel vision out of his eyes.
He nodded as he listened. Waited wondering why she was just standing there until he realized she was waiting for him to take the lead. “ I’ve always been a fan of the direct approach there aren’t too many teachers or principles willing to get in my way.”

Abyss stalked over toward the school and he could see the alarm going off in parents eyes as he made his way toward the building. As he closed on the building he opened the door only to find himself faced with row after row of little person a few women stood at the front of the lines telling the children that they needed to work on hallway behavior. Several of the children had their hands over their mouths, as if covering them was the only way to keep the sounds that they would normally chatter in.

All five class lines and their respective teachers looked to the man that filled the doorway. Fear in everyone of their eyes.

“my friend and I are here to look for clues concerning Annabelle.” He moved aside a bit and pulled the other door open to let Lupe through.