Lumen had tracked the boy jack down the same way she'd track down most of her targets; through the internet. She'd brought it up with Paul once or twice... the possibility of a mutant with time travelling capabilities.

The instant she realized it may actually be legit she couldn't help think of Riori. If she could travel back 20 years and be her adult self... she could at least see who took him. Maybe even follow them. It was a shot in the dark but it tormented her thoughts day in and day out. She couldn't focus on the tasks at hand with the missing children with her brother always in the way.

After some talking with Paul, she decided the best move would be to contact the kids and at least see what would happen. Have a meeting, figure out if he charged, and lay some ground rules.

That's how it came to be that Lumen was dressed in her best sitting at a family restaurant by herself waiting for an aptly named Jack. She held a vague description of the boy on her blackberry. Fairly tall for his age, dark skin and hair, not as old as her but old enough (or so he said.) She'd left a note for Paul who was busy all day letting him know where she'd be and what time should he want to join. The table could hold 4 or 5 comfortably so Paul would be more than welcome.

And so she sat idling away on her blackberry. Her hair was down, pin straight, and white. She wore a plaid work-shirt fit for a woman and tight denim jeans. She wore a little bit of make up and her skin had a soft otherworldly glow to it.

Jack was supposed to show at 7. He insisted on meeting in a public place and not being sure of his age Lumen suggested a restaurant. Jack thought a good meal was a fair trade for consultation. They'd discuss his powers, she'd learn the parameters, and determine if this was the way she wanted to go.

The restaurant and bar portion were starting to fill up quickly as people piled in. Lumen looked almost odd sitting at the big table by herself. She picked away at her to-do list on her phone and found herself wondering if Paul would join her. Everytime someone walked by she caught herself checking to see if it was him or Jack. A waiter soon came by and offered her a glass of wine which she thankfully accepted.

Tonight would be interesting.

“But, I called in the order so that I could just pick it up when I got off work,” Jorge explained as he stood at the counter.

The young lady who stood behind it, making idle faces as if he could not see her, merely continued to file her nails as the various buttons and pins she wore signifying her length of service here at this particular restaurant chain, glinted in the light of the overhead lamps. Her brown, no, blue, no, pink hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail underneath her hat, as she continued to obnoxiously chew her gum and avoid eye contact with the good detective.

Jorge narrowed his eyes.

“You DO know that I can see you rolling your eyes, right?”

She apparently did not acknowledge this and continued to file her nails. Ugh, he really hoped that she was not the one who handled the food.

“Hello?” he asked once again.

ChewChewChew[/b]

Finally Jorge just sighed, pulled out his wallet and displayed his badge on the counter. He said nothing more but simply looked at her as he reflected the gold into her eyes.

When she finally caught sight of it, it was almost as if she had suddenly had her mind control collar activated (which is funny because she was wearing a leather studded collar! What was with young people’s fashion senses today?). She stood up straight, dropped her nail file, stopped chewing her gum and stood at attention.

“I-I’m sorry, sir.” She turned and began to type a few things into the computer behind the counter. “Um, I’m sorry. It looks like our computer server is being extremely slow. We just now received your order.”

Jorge sighed. Of course. Gemma had wanted him to pick up dinner for them tonight. Chase had said that he wanted to have food from here so Jorge had agreed to pick it up. But having just come off of work, the good detective wanted nothing more than to pick up dinner and return to his home to meet with his extended family. Unfortunately it was looking as if that plan was quickly coming to an end.

It was his turn to roll his eyes as he replaced his badge inside of his coat.

“Fine. How long then?”

“Um, w-we’ere a little backed up. But if you have a seat at the bar, we’ll bring your order to you,” she said with a forced, beaming smile of someone trying to avoid being in trouble.

Whatever delinquencies that she had committed prior to knowing that he was a cop, Jorge did not care. All he cared about was getting his food for his family, and leaving this place. So with a nod of his head, he handed over the cash, took his receipt and began to make his way to the bar stools. He really, really hoped that this was not going to take a long time…

Aura sat in a booth, her long black tresses held a slight wave in it, she had been trying to actually pay attention to how she looked. Her normal loose fitting rags had been replaced by a form fitting blue t-shirt. layerd with a pink hoddie and a long black skirt. Aura despised places like this, far to many humans around and the place seemed to be getting busier. As her eyes swept the place it caught site of yet another annoyance, a badge. A badge meant a police officer. Aura bit into her Cheeseburger and smiled.

The burger itself was not bad and Aura smiled at the confusion the girl had on her face, when Aura had asked the waitress for dog. Aura had settled on the chesses burger and had given the girl a $50 telling her to keep whatever was left. Aura had little idea she had given the girl a $40 tip. The woman, human or mutant aura did not know, but she was very happy now and asked a few times how Aura had liked her food.

Aura took a deep breath keeping herself focused and keeping her Aura on only under her clothing and then below her hood. The Last thing Aura wanted today was to have to kill a policemen in the middile of a highly populated restaurant. Picking up a french fry she ate it and once again scanned the room with her eyes. She did not like this, somthing in her mind was telling her she should go back to sanctuary but she resisted the urge and finnished the burger.

It was amazing how busy life could get even though a person was technically unemployed. Paul hadn't done a landscaping job since the winter chill set in but he still found himself rushing all over the world on occasion. He really needed to sit down and seriously look over his priorities. Was he going to tell Lumen about his meeting with the unicorn? Would he pass the information on to Jude? Would he report back to Lori to discuss the situation? It made him feel like he was stuck in the middle, being pulled in several different direction. It was like the world was trying to make him pick sides when he preferred the low key approach of sitting on the fence.

For tonight though his reason for running late was much simpler; he lived in New York City. It had started with a cab that got bogged down in rush hour traffic. Paul had bailed early, paid the driver, and then moved on to the subway. Unfortunately that was also crowded with people trying to get home or trying to get somewhere which meant that he had been stuffed into a card like a sardine and had even been unable to get off at the correct stop. Going one stop farther along the route, Paul had exited and then begun to jog back down the street toward the restaurant that Lumen had invited him to. The note had said she was meeting someone and would appreciate his company but hadn't said much beyond that. It had left Paul curious and since he didn't have to worry about 'curiosity killing the cat', he might as well satisfy it!

Slowing his pace, Paul walked the last block to the restaurant. Pulling his phone out of his pocket he noted that while he had missed their 6:30 meeting he had managed to make it before 7:00. That was something at least. Hopefully his blond friend wouldn't be to upset. Walking in, he scanned the restaurant until he spotted her platinum tresses. Immediately heading her direction he failed the notice either the police officer sitting at the bar or the aura caster concealed beneath her hoodie.

"Hi... sorry I'm late. Rush hour was longer than an hour today." He apologized quickly as he took a seat next to Lumen, "You're guest isn't here yet?"

Streak came into the resturant and immediately walked up to the bar. It had been a rough day and he needed to forget about it, at least for a while. He noticed Jorge sitting there, looking slightly offput by the fact that he was waiting. Shawn went up to him and said, "Hey Jorge, why so glum? Don't like the alcohol here?"

He joked, obviously not knowing that the cop had just been forced to wait for some time. The bartender came up to Streak, ID'd him and took his order of a guiness. After a minute or so he got his beer and started sipping it next to the detective. They'd worked together before over the Thanksgiving incident but it wasn't that often that they had actually talked. Shawn was very much aware that the man had helped Sam on the X-Men's latest mission but he hadn't seen him around since then.

ooc: I'm going to continue along, but people can still feel free to join!

IC:

Lumen looked up at the sound of Paul's voice. Without thinking she stood up to hug him. "Hey, I wasn't sure if you'd make it." she pulled apart and patted the seat beside her. "My... guest... isn't here yet." she admitted.

Out of the corner of her eye she thought she saw Jorge walk in, but he was out of her line of sight before she knew it. No matter. She wasn't doing anything illegal, just out for dinner with her, ah, roomate and meeting up with some kid? No harm there. "I'm not really sure what to expect."

Lumen made room for Paul in the booth and a waiter came by to offer him a glass of wine as well. Fast on his heels came a young looking man with dark skin and hair, and eyes that darted all about. "Jack...?" Lumen offered.

He nodded and slunk into his side of the booth. "Hello." he said quickly. Hmm. Awkward. Lumen was not happy to find she was no more sure of his age now than she was during their previous exchange. Young boys could be so difficult. Some remained looking very young well into adult years while others had beards before girls were even finding them cute. A waiter passed Jack a menu and he easily pointed to a spaghetti dish.

"Ah, that looks good. We'll have that too." the second the waiter left Jack reached for Lumen's wine glass and downed it quickly. He was a bit skiddish and now Lumen felt the same glancing over her shoulder to be sure Jorge wasn't looking. She had no clue if this kid was 21. "Would you like some, ah, water?" she pointed to the glasses the waiter had just left. Jack shook his head.

"No, why don't we get down to business." Lumen exchanged a concerned look with Paul.

"Ah, okay then. Well, I guess it's best if you just, go over the rules?"

Jack nodded. Another Waiter walked by and filled up the wine and water glasses. Jack again took Lumen's without a word. "I can't send you to a specific day, but I can aim for 20 years ago easy enough. It'll either be just before or just after your brothers abduction. You'll be an adult though so it should be easy enough for you to track them down..." he took another swig of wine.

"Alright." Lumen wasn't exactly pleased to hear she may end up a few days late. "Go on..."

Jorge took his seat and sighed as he sat back and awaited his order to be finished. After a long day at work the man only wanted to return home but fate apparently had other plans. So he sat by the bar, ordered himself a bottle of water and remained patient. Covering his mouth with a yawn, Jorge began to survey his surroundings. All manner of people were here: teenagers dining out, lonely female about to dig into thick hamburgers, white haired woman sitting by themselves and looking around expecti—

“Lumen?” he whispered to himself.

He remembered her all too clearly. She was supposed to be looking into the disappearance of the mutant children. He mused and wondered if she was having any luck with that. If so she had not informed him. But before he could think too deeply on the matter, another familiar voice rang out…

>> "Hey Jorge, why so glum? Don't like the alcohol here?"

He turned and spied Shawn Quincy, Head of Mansion Security, sitting next to him, sipping a beer. He smirked as he nodded to the kid. He was a good man, helped him out during the whole Thanksgiving fiasco and saw him around the mansion quite a few times. They couldn’t have picked a better person to be head of security.

“Eh, it’s nothing,” he smirked. “Curses of technology, is all.” He took a sip of his water. “Just waiting on my wayward order to miraculously appear again. Yourself?”

Aura Decided to order more and got a basket of fries as well. It was much better then the food she normally cooked. Aura handed the woman a $10 this time but she did not seem to mind, the 5$ tip, even asking is she was sure. Getting the basket of fries she dug in with a smile. Keeping her head low seemed to work well enough. Still she recognized the mansions head of security from the time she was david. She wondered if eating in public was always like this.

She was oblivious to anyone else in the place. Unwillign to cause a scene unless somone else started it she continued to what her food peacefully. She certainly wanted to try this again without the cop and manion guy. She cought site of paul and smiled reconizeing the man easily enough from the sanctuary Library.

“Curses of technology, is all.”
“Just waiting on my wayward order to miraculously appear again. Yourself?”

"Rough day huh? I hear ya. I'm just getting off of a rough day too." He didn't know if his guess was right but people don't normally look like that after an easy day. He took another sip of his beer. It was smooth to him; however, most people found it rough and biting. Most couldn't stand the taste and he never really understood why. It wasn't a bad taste, it just took some getting used to.

Streak supposed that it was a good thing that he didn't recognize anyone but Jorge. Most of the time he knew people from somewhere or from some trouble they caused, but today he didn't know anyone. He spied a kid sitting with two adults and stealing her wine. It was certainly unsusual but it wasn't something he was going to bring up. "I haven't even ordered yet, cause they seem so busy. I think it might be a while before you get your food. You may want a drink." He smirked taking a long sip.

There was no way to really know for sure whether this was a good idea or not. When Lumen had first begun to discuss the possibility of a mutant with time traveling powers he had thought it sounded a little bit odd but now he found himself at this restaurant, waiting alongside Lumen for the little time traveler to show up. The only piece of information that he didn't really have was exactly why she was going to go back in time. Maybe it had something to do with the missing children she was trying to track down or maybe it was something more personal. Either way, he was here to support Lumen.

After placing an order for a glass of red wine with the waiter, a young man suddenly appeared and took a seat at their table. He was fidgety and extremely nervous. Almost without thinking, Paul glanced around to see if there was someone here that might be spooking the young man. As he scanned the room, his eyes paused as they fell on a figure that jogged some memories in the back of his mind. Hadn't he been questioned by that... detective, if he recalled correctly?

Turning his gaze back over to Jack, Paul's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. Was this kid running from the cops? Paul knew exactly how trouble he personally was dealing with so he could safely judge whether he was endangering his friend in any way. This young man was an unknown quantity and that made him slight nervous.

"It'll either be just before or just after your brothers abduction."

Turning his head, Paul looked at Lumen with one eyebrow raised. He had known that her brother was missing but she had never mentioned the fact that he had actually been abducted. "You sure about this Lumen?" Paul found himself voicing his only concern, softly so that it couldn't be overheard by anyone else and would probably even be difficult for Jack to hear, "Is this really the route you want to take?"

Lumen looked at Paul with heavy eyes. "If I find out who abducted him- maybe follow them... maybe I can change the outcome? she explained

"eggggghhhh" said Jack making a sound like a game show buzzer "If I send you back nothing you do will affect this reality. It'll go off onto it's own time stream... probably... sure... I don't really know... but you can't just find your brother and come back with everything honky dorry He sipped on more of Lumen's wine and he cheeks blushed a bit.

"Well then..." began Lumen feeling her own cheeks blush- more out of anger. "I can at least follow and find out where he went and what was done. I can be a detective and learn everything I can. When I come back maybe I can track him down or do something..." she reached under the table and squeezed Paul's hand.

She knew she was going to do this with or without him. If he came along for the ride she'd likely feel safer. Be less inclined to get too emotionally involved and swoop in to save Riori. "How do we get back?" she asked.

"I've developed a few methods, I'll either come back and get you but I think it'll also wear off within a few days. You could be gone for years in that time line and have only hours or days here. Time jumping is a fickle thing. I'm still learning." replied Jack as the food was placed in front of them - along with more wine.

Lumen glared at the waiter- maybe he thought 3 people were drinking this much wine but she didnt want to have to continue paying for refills! "Still learning..." she mumbled. This guy really was just a kid- no matter how grown up he looked.

~~~

The evening spread on as Jack recounted some of his previous travels to Lumen and Paul. They ate their food mostly in silence while the young boy became drunker and bolder from the wine. She regretted inviting him to a place like this... but had to admit the excitement was bubbling in her stomach.

This was the first strong lead she had for Riori since coming to New York. She could actually know the names of the mutants who took him- find out their past locations, and maybe find out if they were affiliated with a group. She was a little afraid of what she might see too but as the night went on she was feeling braver and braver. She asked more direct questions making notes in her notebook.

Lumen hadn't picked up her blackberry all night either- a sure sign she was engrossed in what was happening. The little red light was flashing but she ignored it. She was trying to decide when would be a good time for this trip. "What's your schedule like in the next few weeks? I have a few cases I should wrap up first... and I guess I should pack a bag... but I'd like to-"

She was cut off when Jack jumped from his seat and stumbled on the floor next to their table. His lips and teeth were stained red from the wine and he gave Paul and Lumen a bloody grin. "We might as well go now," he said trying to hold his balance on the floor. "No time like the present!"

Lumen's eyes went wide with confusion while Jack pulled a candle stick out of apparently thin air... "Wait... what?" she let go of Paul's hand and went to stand up just as Jack lit and jumped over said candle stick.

It felt as if she'd suddenly been pulled by a huge smack of gravity face first into the table. She tried to pull her arms up around and right herself but the force was strong like an amusement park ride. Lumen was aware of a spinning- a sense of motion- but she was pinned firmly to whatever it was she was against.

Her stomach had butterflies and her ears were ringing. Her eyes stung and her skin felt like it was on fire. Lumen's skin was glowing full throttle and whatever was beneath her suddenly gave way. She was falling. She had no idea that practically everyone in the restaurant was having a very similar experience.


ooc:

Sorry for taking so long, so much going on. Feel free to respond what just happened and when you do start your own thread- link it here so we can all follow where you go

Lumen's arc continued here: theultimatexmen.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=europe&thread=9137

Maybe it was the alcohol that he'd been drinking. Maybe someone had spiked his drink. Those would be possible answers if he'd had more than half of his drink and if he'd even left his seat once. Thus far he'd been engrossed in a conversation with Jorge. The pull was strong and it couldn't be natual. Some mutant must have over done it on the powers thing.

The world was swirling around him and suddenly his seat was gone, right out from under him. The sensation of freefall came to him as felt himself being pulled into the gravity well that seemed to have opened up in the middle of the restuarant. It was definitely an interesting feeling whatever was going on. Hopefully he'd have an answer soon because this freefall felt like it was taking the air out of his lungs.

>> "I haven't even ordered yet, cause they seem so busy. I think it might be a while before you get your food. You may want a drink."[/color]

Jorge sighed as he glanced over at the take-out counter. It certainly looked as if nothing had changed. The young lady behind the counter had resorted to her prior demeanor as that of a woman who simply did not care anything about her job. And though he could not see the kitchen behind her, he was fairly certain that the staff there must be sharing the same sentiment. He was beginning to think that maybe Shawn was right, that he was going to be in it for the long run.

Might as well join in conversation with someone that he knew until his order finally decided to make it’s appearance. Though he truly doubted that it was going to be any time soon.

Sitting at the bar with Shawn, Jorge simply ordered a glass of water and drank from it as he conversed with Shawn. The time began to skip by a little faster, though still with no word about his order. But just as the conversation was getting good, Jorge suddenly felt his world lurch forward.

Jorge blinked as he eyed the glass of water. Was it spiked or something? But glance up at the confused expression on Shawn’s face seemed showed that he too was feeling odd. Unless Jorge was just hallucinating everything. But the suddenly drop of gravity, the pull of all the air in his lungs, and the darkness that overtook his vision was real enough for him.

The detective had never been one for rollercoasters and he sure hoped that this one would end soon as weightlessness enveloped…

((OOC: Hey Streak! PM me if you want to start the arc thread, or you want me to!))

Watching Jack guzzle wine while trying to prove just how experience he was with time traveling was not exactly what Paul would consider a good time. Any words of warning he might offer were obviously being lost on Lumen as she was completely set on trying to straighten out the tragedy in her past. He was beginning to realize that it was almost an obsession with her and while he could sympathize with her feeling of loss he couldn't understand the rest of it. He had never felt the desire to try and track down his family after they had been separated by the war but that had been a different situation. Lumen's brother had been taken not just separated by some sort of disaster.

"I can find some time if you need me to..." He was starting to respond to Lumen's statement about scheduling when Jack interupted them both. Paul hadn't actually discussed going back in time with Lumen, he had simply come to support her at this meeting. Did she really want him going back?

"Jack... Jack! This isn't a good," Paul began before he suddenly felt himself being pressed back against his seat with such force that it quite literally took his breath away. Right in front of him Lumen was pressed face down on the table while Jack stood there beside his candle stick. That silly grin was plastered on his face and if it had been physically possible for Paul to get over to him he would have slapped it right off of his face.

Unable to speak, Paul was cursing in his mind as he watched the room and everyone around him blur and then suddenly he was falling. The seat below him had disappeared as had everything else and he was just tumbling through nothingness toward the great unknown.