The lights weren't on. And no matter how many times Jude flipped the switch, they wouldn't turn on. "I'm not sure how zis works, but it feels colder inside zan it is outside." Despite it being mid-day, the walls and window placement made it pretty dim inside the lower levels. There were more windows on the upper levels.

With his meager resources, Jude had tried to come into this fully prepared. They'd grabbed sleeping bags, camping lanterns and snacks from the Mansion, pillows and clothes from their respective homes and finally repair supplies.

Some of the stuff Sebastian already had on hand like tools and extra molding, carpeting, and some paint... but that was mostly finishing materials. Jude picked up the stuff they needed for serious remodeling. Nobody lived here anymore.

They could turn the whole living floor into one big apartment if they wanted. Or, as they had planned, they would finish building out that second living floor, measure out Svetlana's radius from all angles and fashion a living space where a power booster and a power copier could live in peace.

Then, they would pick up the rest of the cash they needed by renting out the rooms and teaching Russian and French. Viola. Income to live on. Jude would still have to pop in to Future Sight to supplement that income (and to make sure they hadn't found a way to kill an immortal), but the building was paid for.

Jude brought in a third load of baggage with the taxi driver's help. Now... he just needed Svetlana to arrive.

"Helloooooooo?" The place was so empty, it felt creepy.

She arrived just in time to see the cab leave. So, Jude was already there. Good. She would have hated to go in there alone. It used to be her home for a long time, and it will be again soon, but that did not stop her from feeling as if the place was haunted.

"Hi" she smiled as she walked in, carrying a backpack and shopping bags "Brr, it's freezing in here! We will need to warm up at least one of the rooms. And sleeping apart is out of the question."

That was not all that bad, all things considered.

"I got food that lasts, but I guess one of the rooms could be a fridge like this... and I have stuff to cook with."

Standing next to Jude and looking around in their future home she couldn't help but smile a little.

"Is it bad dat this is not even the first time I'm doing this?..."

Was there... a rustling? Somewhere? Jude was straining his ears to hear when a very soft and sexy "hi" nearly made Jude jump out of his pants. "Ho! Hey. Hi. It's kinda creepy in here." Jude gave Svetty a quick hug and a forehead kiss before he bent down to gather up the mail that had piled up behind the door. "One of ze rooms withs a fireplace could be a good one to start heating up the place and old bills make for excellent kindling. Good job withs ze food." It was a little like camping indoors. Jude stuffed the letters into one of the bags and zipped it back up.

Sleeping apart was, of course, out of the question. It we her insistence on the matter that made him smile. "I got a good ability zis time. If I can hang onto it, it should help us make some progress." Jude moved his hands out with a grin and no small amount of dramatic flair. "Observe."

The bags, the suitcases, the supplies everything he specifically pointed to floated upward until they bobbed halfway between ceiling and floor. "Pretty cool, huh?" Of course, with one last point, he had Svetty up off her feet as well. "I call zis one anti-gravity." Jude offered Svetty his hand and pulled her along like a balloon. The other items, he tried to push in front of them up the stairs. They had decided to leave the clinic alone for now and all of this had to get upstairs somehow.

~~~“Helloooooooo?”

Pluto tilted his head from his pallet of covers. He was cold and full on tonight’s deep-dish pizza; He added another pizza box to boxhenge. It would be gross if everything in the box wasn’t just going to freeze. Was it more squatters? He lived here before everything got turned off and the last legitimate residents fled. He wasn’t going to let this place go to crap, there were good people who believed in this place once, good people, and better dream. It was a place where you could go to get healed for free. Of course the government would shut it down. He was supposed to be the security… but he wasn’t. He was the worst security there ever was.

He thought being intimidating and sitting at the front would be enough, it wasn’t.

The world went to hell while he was out trying to save the world, trying to make things right. He had seven to make up for, with only his one. He was working hard to try to make criminals fear committing crime, that night he had saved a bus of full of passengers from a mutant that was thirsty for human blood. It was the night the monkey king was born, the mutant was a bit unhinged, he was also Chinese in origin. He referred to Pluto as the monkey king. And so he went with it, a monkey transcended to the level of the deities. He could work with that.

But by the time he got back from his week long spree of crime fighting and sleeping on roves, he came home to a disaster every gone or going, only one couple left and completely unaware of him. it was ok, they probably thought he cut ties and ran too. But no that apartment was a wreck. Jude gone, Maya gone, Sebastian gone. And the only thing left blood.


He had failed so miserably at protecting those he was hired to, he hadn’t earned his keep as protector, not in the least.. He had to make it right. He would chase off the squatters.

Pluto put on a pair of Jeans and boots, his tail poking out the slit he cut in back for it. He opened the window that faced the entrance wall and squeezed his heavy from through the square, he hung there for a moment as he breathed in the wickedly cold air and let go and dropped the one story to the ground, he landed with a heavy thud. And entered the door behind them.

The large Red man did not look like a copy of the other six, his once spiky hair was shaved to the stubbly scalp of his head, his torso was covered in tattoo ink, inspirational quotes and catch phrases from every kind of hero scrawled over the wide expanse of his frame, and his once red tail was now black.

He entered the door and looked to the well dressed couple, one was floating the other was making her float. They were not what he was expecting….he was pretty sure he recognized the blonde, she lived here after all…if she would recognize him, he could not say.

She chuckled as Jude jumped at her voice.

>>"Ho! Hey. Hi. It's kinda creepy in here. One of ze rooms withs a fireplace could be a good one to start heating up the place and old bills make for excellent kindling. Good job withs ze food."

"Good for a start" she nodded, looking around. The clinic looked abandoned and kind of sad, considering what a nice place it used to be when they were all still living there.

>>"I got a good ability zis time. If I can hang onto it, it should help us make some progress. Observe."

She tilted her head curiously and watched the boxes float into the air. That was neat indeed. She wondered how long Jude would be able to hold on to it.

>>"Prettycool, huh? I call zis one anti-gravity."

"Cool" she giggled as she floated up into the air, and reached out to hold his hand. It was interesting, floating like a balloon, but it made her laugh none the less. One can't take everything too seriously at once.

There was the sound of footsteps behind them; Sveta turned to look, and she would have jumped too, had she not been already floating. She let out a little yelp and bobbed mid-air, staring at the guy in the doorway. Uh-oh. There were not the only mutants in the building...

Jude shoved their luggage along merrily until he heard the strangest sound from Svetty. He turned and assessed the situation. Big red man with crazy look in his eye and a plethora of tattoos. Jude knew at least one big red crazy man. But he didn't remember him looking so... wild.

"Pluto?"

The boxes behind them dropped to the ground and Jude had to move quick to put himself between Svetlana and the ground. It wouldn't be a perfect catch but he did have his arms out. That had to count for something, right?

"Oof." If it wasn't Pluto, and he knew in theory there were others like Pluto that he hadn't met, Jude would take the big red guy off the ground. What good was strength without anything to use it on?

"Yeah." he tilted his head at the man before him, he had a familiar sound to his voice...a familiar look to his face. but it wasn't anyone he knew, based on the power alone. Maybe a relative of someone he knew, or a childhood friend...how weird would it be to come across someone from the lab. those were days best forgotten.

The intentional intimidation left his stance has he looked the pair over a little bit more carefully, was he interrupting a romantic get away...to an abandon apartment building of a freezer this place had become.

"You guys weren't the squatters I was expecting. You're the Russian girl that lived here before, but you..."

he shook his head lightly. "You, I don't recognize. Listen guys, everything is off and there are some rooms better left untouched." He cleaned the blood up and did what he could to take out the stains of the apartment, he put things to rights while he wept at whatever had happened there. police tape be damned if they had something to say about evidence, they had better do so with some good news about everyone being ok. He took a deep breathe and finished his thought.

"I've been keeping it clear of vagabonds in case anyone came back." never mind the fact that he was both a squatter and a vagabond these days.

>>"Pluto?"

The boxes fell first, and then Sveta did too, with another one of those small yelps; Jude was there to catch her, and she ended up with her arms around his shoulders until she managed to steady herself. So maybe anti-gravity wasn't all fun after all...

>>"You guys weren't the squatters I was expecting. You're the Russian girl that lived here before, but you... You, I don't recognize. Listen guys, everything is off and there are some rooms better left untouched. I've been keeping it clear of vagabonds in case anyone came back."

She recognized him too, and it took a moment or two for her to realize why he was looking at Jude so suspiciously. He must have seen him only as a kid...

"It's okay" she nodded with a small smile, now that she was over the intial jump "We came back to fix tings up. We don't really have anywhere else to go for now. Have you... been her for long?"

Someone had been looking after the place. That might mean the place was not a complete disaster... but he was also a mutant. So much about a safe place of their own...

The name did the trick. Big red went from attack dog mode to something less intimidating. If big, red and over 6 feet of pure muscle can be considered not intimidating, that is.

"Woo. Glad it'z you." Jude helped Svetty find her feet again. For all the "working out" he had done to prepare himself for growing up, he just didn't have the strength for bench pressing females. Hence the anti-gravity power. He'd been hoping to let his power do the heavy lifting.

> "but you... You, I don't recognize."

Jude shrugged. "I lived here too withs Ghost and Sebastian too. Jude. You know." He made a hand motion at about the height of a little 12 year old squirt and then moved it up to his current height. "I grew up." That about covered that.

Svetty explained that they were here to fix the place up and Jude expanded that idea. "We want to get the power and water turned back on, but... we may 'ave to save to pay off what's overdue. Also..." He took a quick glance at Svetlana. They had planned on camping out. Alone. "We didn't know anyone was left here. Togethzer our powers sort of make trouble for mutants."

“I never really left, for a little bit there my crime fighting sprees went for weeks at a time, but I always checked back in, until…” He didn’t want to talk about it, he cleaned up that apartment, what wouldn’t clean, he removed entirely and replaced. All of the things in the apartment were put into plastic bins and set aside, he packed away what he assumed was the last of some good friend’s lives.

He squinted and looked at Jude in the dark, tilting his head slightly. “nuh uh!” He grinned at the kid. “You grew up well and, you don’t have to steal a peek at that one” he nodded toward Svetlana. “from the corner of your eye anymore.” It wasn’t hard to tell the kid crushed on Svetlana. “I’m happy for you two, I have some money saved, it felt like a waste if it was just me. But I can help put a dent in what we owe, as far as needing some space, I’m out of the building for days at a time. What kind of trouble are we talking?” His eyes bounced in-between them. “Speaking of which, I can, uh, go fight crime tonight.”

These were the first people that he knew and didn’t hate that he had talked to in about over a few months. He didn’t want to abandon them, but he didn’t want to interrupt either. He stood at the doorway of the building he had been squatting and felt like he was asking permission to stay in the place he called home for the last two years, but then Jude was their kid, the founders and Svetlana looked like she was well on the way to becoming Mrs. Jude. Though he could be jumping to conclusions.

Jude explained who he was, and the red guy seemed to finally catch up to speed with the whole aging issue. It was certainly a lot to wrap one's head around. She knew that from first hand experience.

"We want to get the power and water turned back on, but... we may 'ave to save to pay off what's overdue. Also... We didn't know anyone was left here. Togethzer our powers sort of make trouble for mutants."

>>“You grew up well and, you don’t have to steal a peek at that one from the corner of your eye anymore. I’m happy for you two, I have some money saved, it felt like a waste if it was just me. But I can help put a dent in what we owe, as far as needing some space, I’m out of the building for days at a time. What kind of trouble are we talking?... Speaking of which, I can, uh, go fight crime tonight.”

That whole speach made Sveta blush a deep red color. Oh well. Nothing she did not know before, but still... other people recognizing their relationship, that was something new. She wondered what Maya and Sebastian would say...

"He copies powers, and I boost them." she explained, just to get out of the rest "When he copies mine, we boost each other." well that did not come out right... "It's dangerous for other mutants to be around us. But I don't want you to go away. If we stay upstairs, you should be fine."

About the offer for tonight? She'd just let Jude handle that.

Well, Jude had certainly not expected to find a) someone living in the Iris Apartments or b) someone willing to help pay off some of those bills. Jude was finding that he rather liked this arrangement. Pluto had always been courteous and protective and self-sacrificing. Always really self sacrificing.

"Itz not like we uh..." He noticed the pink in Svetty's cheeks only after he started talking and now realized... Ohhhhh. Jude started to get a little pink as well.

"Ahem." Let's try that again. "If you don't mind, downstairs is probably safe enough. You said ze last time you went off to fight crime went poorly for you so..." So he should stick around and make sure the last two residents didn't get killed just because they wanted some privacy.

"We had some ideas for renovations too, if you're at all handy withs a hammer." Jude had borrowed a handyman book from the library. He hadn't yet cracked it open except to find what materials they would need and it sat somewhere in all the luggage. "Fixing the broken stuff, sure, but also finishing out ze attic so it is livable space and making an apartment withs enough room to keep double boosting away from ze other residents." Which currently consisted of Pluto.

Brr. It was cold in here. "Can we move zis upstairs? I sink we're going to leave ze clinic in tact... just in case." Just in case Sebastian stopped being crazy and came home and needed it.

Pluto thought for a moment what he might do if boosted…would his mind fracture further, like Abyss’s had when he made them? Would he gain the strength to destroy the world with a single blow? He could see how things would be bad.

He nodded to Svetlana “ I appreciate that and I’ll try to stay out of the way.I don't want to become dangerous to any of you.”

Pluto smirked “I didn’t mean to imply, its just you two make a good couple, natural even.” He wasn’t used to having to skirt around romantic issues, Venus’s bold declarations had desensitized him to anyone being less than blatant about such things.

“Sure, I have a generator tucked away for snow days, but if we are getting the power back on soon, you two are welcome to it. from there I’ll get started.” He stood back and presented the stair case to them ‘ I’ ll get the bags if you wanted to get the lady. He walked forward cautiously wondering how much space they needed exactly.

"I think they would like that, keeping the clinic in tact. I, couldn't leave the apartment how it was though, I salvaged everything that could be and cleaned the rest, I didn't mean to intrude, but I couldn't leave it either." all of the things that were keep sakes and blood free he boxed and put in the area that was the least messy, the rest of the apartment got scrubbed clean, and with super strength and an iron bristle scrubber meant it was spotless.

Sveta nodded at what Jude said; she was happy he took the lead, that's what guys are for. Jude was getting better at acting like a grown-up. Well, better-er. He needed that.
Pluto was a nice person too, and she was glad they were not completely alone in an abandoned building. Having friends around, mutatns even, made her feel safer. That was a rare luxury in her life lately.

>>“ I appreciate that and I’ll try to stay out of the way.I don't want to become dangerous to any of you... I didn’t mean to imply, its just you two make a good couple, natural even.”

That made her blush, but it felt good. She had not talked much to others about Jude, and some details were still hazy; she did not get to break the news to Maya or Sebastian. But an actual grown-up friend of the family giving them his blessing, that felt reassuring - both about relationship stuff, and about the danger of their combined powers.

>>“Sure, I have a generator tucked away for snow days, but if we are getting the power back on soon, you two are welcome to it. from there I’ll get started.”

"Warm sounds good" she commented as they started walking up the stairs. They were not alone, they were safe, they had a home, and things were going to get better from here on...

Hehe. They seemed a natural couple did they? Jude pulled Svetty in close to him for a quick torpedo-like smooch on her cheek before hefting some of their luggage and running up the stairs in pure muppet fashion. Ok. Not totally grown up. That or he was running high on smooches and a caffeine aura.

"Yes. Warm. Absolutely." Jude surveyed the upstairs and tried not to let the drab emptiness get him down. No one lived here anymore. No one but them. But he had known coming in to this that they would have to fill this place with life again.

"Any room you want to call dibs on?" Staircase there... a short hall with several doors... his manliness dictated that they take the most defensible position, but also one that they wouldn't get trapped in. So... "End of ze hall? Or... where do you sink people will walk by ze least?" He couldn't seem to decide except to rule out the apartment that was at the top of the stairs that everyone walked by. There would be a roof escape if they worked their magical plan to extend an apartment into the attic floor so maybe the end of the hall?

"I will check ze attic." He dropped his things and jogged up the next set of stairs. Sebastian had finished the floor, but the walls weren't done. They needed insulation (brr!) and rock sheeting... rock wall... dry wall... whatever people called that stuff that made walls look like walls and ceilings look like ceilings. There were stacks of it leaning against a wall as well as some light fixtures still wrapped in their plastic. Combined with the wood Jude had brought and the paint... they just might have enough stuff to get one apartment extended upward.

Jude jogged back down to report his findings. "Yep. We can take up ze flooring from up top, zen demolish ze ceiling between on ze apartment of Svetty's choosing, et là~! I sink we can safely contain our radius." Radiuses? Radii? Stupid English.