Another day, another regret of what happened several months ago... and another run in with an undesirable... Alexander thought as he brushed off his shoulder as he looked down at the ground where a man lay on the ground, unconscious. Alexander had just finished his breakfast and headed down what looked like an alley way that was devoid of people to gather up some discarded rubbish that he could use for range combat practice with when this man came out of the shadows and demanded Alex's money at knife point. What the would-be thief didn't know was that Alex wasn't a lost soul to be intimidated, but a trained warrior. The would-be thief's knife was taken from him and a right cross was delivered to the criminal's temple before he even realized what had happened. Alex shook his head as he drove the criminal's knife into a nearby pallet, then sighed. "I don't envy that headache you're gonna have when you wake up, but be glad that you're still breathing." Alex stated to his blacked out attacker before picking up an empty tuna can. "I would be..." Alex mumbled before going farther down the alley to see if there was anything else he could use.

After venturing through at least three more back alleyways, Alexander found himself carrying a small cardboard box full of used pop cans, empty beer bottles, and a few tin cans that were all perfect for using as target practice. Now all I need is an open area to practice in where no one will see me. Alex thought as he strolled out of the alley and walked down the street with his box of junk. Finding such a place in New York City was easier said that done. Back in Kansas it would've been a cake walk to find such a place. He would just have to head drive for half an hour and stop in the middle of no where. In this large city though, Alexander wasn't sure if such a place even existed. Sure, he could practice in the middle of the park throwing a rock at the stack of rubbish and box, but chances were he would either be arrested for littering or would attract a crowd that would laugh at how much he was missing his targets... hence the reason why he needed to practice alone but also so he could practice with his mutation, and there was no way he was doing that in public.

With a sigh Alex rounded a bend to walk down another alleyway, and found that the alley had a large open area in the back that was being used as a storage area for a few boxes, but that was about it. This place was away from prying eyes, and out of ear shot for everyone on the street. It wasn't perfect, but it would do for what Alexander wanted to use it for. Taking his time, Alexander started to set up every single can and bottle up along the ground so he would have a low target to aim at first. He then put the box down on the ground so the opening would be facing him once he starts tossing stones at it. After everything was set up, Alex and glanced around to see if there was anything nearby that he could throw at the cans and found a few discarded bricks.

After picking up the bricks, Alexander walked away from his targets before turning around to take aim. "First throw of the game, with Cardy Boxer up at bat, and with the new comer Rook up at pitch. Let's see how this game plays out." Alex stated out loud to no one in particular, choosing to have a bit of fun with this while he was at it. "Here comes the pitch..." Alex stated before throwing his first brick at the cardboard box, followed by the sound of brick striking brick. "... and the ball goes five feet to the left of home plate. How this flunky of a pitcher got this job is beyond me folks..." Alex muttered as he frowned. He threw a second brick, and that one went 8 feet to the right of his target. "This is gonna be a long practice session..." Alex stated with a frown.

The third and final brick more then missed the cardboard box, and it completely missed the tin cans and glass bottles... the last brick had sailed upwards and landed on the roof of the building that behind Alexander's targets. Seeing this, Alex's jaw dropped before he slapped himself in the forehead for being such a bad throw. "Good grief! I could drop a rock out of a helicopter and it wouldn't hit ground!" Alex ranted before he kicked a nearby box over out of frustration, resulting in the contents spilling out all over the ground. Alex stepped over the spilled out squeaky toys meant for dogs and headed over to the two bricks he had left at his disposal, and went back to try again, only this time he was ten feet away from his targets instead of twenty feet. The malachite controlling mutant dug his feet into the pavement, narrowed his eyes slightly at his intended target, then reared his arm back to throw that first brick. He took careful aim, tensed his muscles, and threw the brick.

This was followed by Alexander throwing his second brick onto the ground next to him in frustration. The first brick had gone wide and went down a sewer drain where the protective grate was missing. Now he was down to one brick and he still hadn't hit a single target. "This is getting ridiculous! How the heck could someone be such a bad throw?! I can throw a punch better then any of my brothers, but I can't hit a stupid box with a stupid brick!" Alex yelled, then walked forwards until he was about five feet away from his target. With a snort, Alexander just threw the brick without even giving himself time to aim... and the brick landed two feet in front of him. "Argh!" and with that final try, Alex gave up on trying to hit the cans and the box from a distance by throwing an object at them.

Trying to calm down, Alex slowly breathed in through his nose, then slowly let that air out through his mouth. Afterwards he felt a little calmer, and reached for the malachite dagger that was at his hip, hidden by the leather jacket. The moment that Defiance was in his hand, Alex looked around to make sure that there wasn't anyone around him to see what he was going to do next. Not seeing anyone, he drew the dagger and held it at his side. From the tip of the blade to the end of the pommel, the Defiance was only two feet long. That will change soon enough... Alexander thought as he looked down at Defiance, listening to the chiming noise the malachite was making for him, and that it only made for him. Alexander let out a sigh as he slowly closed his brilliant cyan eyes.

After standing motionless for a half a minute, Alex opened his eyes to reveal a bright green glow coming from his eyes, and the small dagger suddenly grew into a long sword that had a three foot long blade. With a smile, Alex charged forwards and with one clean sweep of his sword, he cut three of the pop cans in half and shattered a glass bottle, sending the shards into the box. Another swing cut the tin cans apart while shattering the second glass bottle. With a final upwards slash, Alex had sent the box skywards while cutting it in half at the same time, so the two halves landed on either side of him. With a satisfied snort, Alex's eyes stopped glowing and Defiance shrank back down to normal size.

With a sigh, Alex slid Defiance into it's scabbard noiselessly and started to head for the alley that would take him back to the street, making sure that his leather jacket covered Defiance completely so the valuable knife was well hidden. However, he stopped when he was half way there and turned back around on his heel to look at the dumped over box of squeaky toys in thought. I wonder. Defiance is the perfect melee weapon for me... but could it also work as a ranged weapon?

As Alex considered the possibility to use the Defiance as a ranged weapon, he kept running into problem with his ideas. I can't make a malachite gun, mainly because I need a gun license to buy ammo and I refuse to resort to stealing ammo. What about a crossbow or an actual bow for a bow-an-arrow set? No, in both cases the bow part has to be able to bend back to provide the arrow the needed force to fly... and malachite doesn't flex. Alex thought as he fingered the dagger in his hands and slowly walked in a wide circle. Moving around always helped him think out a problem weather it be how to get a permanent marker stain out of some wood, fixing a broken clay pottery jar, or working on a character's personality in a short story. His mother told him that walking causing his blood flow to speed up so it brought fresh oxygen to his brain at a faster rate, thus letting him think faster, or better depending on your point of view.

Alex stopped pacing and looked down at the ground. My short stories...[/i] Alex considered as his light bulb went on. In my last story, the main character used a grappling hook that fired out of a compressed air gun to take out the main villain because his gun jammed. The hook had nailed the villain and got stuck in the cement wall behind him. Afterwards the rope connected to the grappling hook was so tight that the hero was able to walk across the rope as if it was a solid pole. Alex thought as he looked down at the dagger, then back at the squeaky toys that were sprawled across the ground. The blade of Defiance extends at a rather rapid rate when I turn it into a long sword. If I maintain the blade's shape and as I extend it, would it work? Alex wondered, then shrugged before he aimed Defiance at a squeaky toy that was shaped like a hot dog.

Alex's eyes started to glow green, and the blade of Defiance rapidly extended at the hot dog like a harpoon is shot out of a spear gun, and nailed the hot dog on the first try. Alex smiled and recalled his power over Defiance, causing it to rapidly retract to its normal size... and it brought the hot dog squeaky toy with it. Once Defiance was back to normal, Alex pulled the dog toy off the knife and nodded. The toy had been at least ten feet away. Not bad a range, but Alex hadn't put all of his power into the dagger. and he wondered what would happen if he put all of his energy into Defiance. One time he had detached the pommel of Defiance to make a lock pick to help open up a crashed police car to get the hurt policemen out of the burning car without hurting them, and it had extended 18 times it's normal length, and wondered how far a whole Defiance could extend.

Taking a deep breath, Alex walked to one corner of the open area, and faced the opposite corner. He aimed Defiance at the far corner and focused. The end of Defiance extended just as fast as last time, only Alex made it extend as far as he possibly could... and when it stopped growing, Alex's jaw dropped. The dagger had extended so far that he could measure how long it was with his eyes! Putting the super long malachite weapon down, Alex measured out how long the weapon was now while making sure he was always in contact with it. He knew full well that if he wasn't touching it for only a fraction of an instant, it would shrink back down to its normal size of two feet.

By the time Alex had reached the other end, his eyes were bigger then baseballs, and the green glow coming from his eyes made them seem even bigger. "Impossible... it's 36 feet long! That's 18 times its normal size!" Alex exclaimed as he stood up rapidly. As his finger wasn't touching the weapon., the Defiance quickly shrank faster then the rubber of a popping balloon, and was back down to two feet, chiming as it always did for Alex. The mutant known as Rook slowly walked over to the malachite dagger and picked it up with a shaking hand.

It took a little while for Alex to get a hold of himself after discovering how far he could extend such a small object, and was quite frankly stunned. If my opponent was charging at me from a distance of 35 feet or less, I could kill him by simply extending Malachite into their heart or neck, or knock them out by turning the edge of Defiance into a ball and then extending that ball into their forehead at high speed. Just how powerful am I anyways?! Alex thought as he gazed down at the dove wing shaped knife in his hands, and ran his fingers across the engravings that gave the malachite dagger its feathery appearance. As he gazed at the weapon, he started to wounder if he could extend and retract the Defiance at a rapid rate in order to attack multiple targets.

With a shrug, Alex turned to face the tipped over box of squeaky toys, and aimed the malachite dagger at the doggy toys. A moment later his eyes started to glow bright green and the dagger extended at a rapid rate, pierced a squeaky toy, and then quickly retracted... and that whole process had taken only half a second to pull off. As soon as he possibly could, Alex tried to extend the Defiance once again, but the dagger didn't react to Alexander's command until another half a second passed, only then did the weapon extend once again and pierced another squeaky toy. Alexander tried his best to quicken the pace of his attacks, but nothing he tried made the weapon extend or retract any faster, nor did anything he did shorten the wait time between attacks... but then again, waiting half a second before being able to attack from a distance again wasn't that bad at all. When Alex was all done practicing, the Defiance looked a lot more like a squeaky toy shush-ak-bob, and Alex had to pull each toy off one by one. I hope I don't have to do this with human bodies... Alex thought with a shutter as he pulled off the last squeaky toy and tossed it aside.

Tasean was mumbling to himself as he rounded a corner in the alleyway. This was the worse part of being a social worker, hunting your clients down. The one he was looking for was a young man who had an affinity with thorns. More specifically if the boy stayed in one place too long, thorny vines would grow and writhe around him like over eager snakes. Needless to say the ability freaked out most people. Tasean has been trying to find the young man a home, and someone to help him learn to control his powers, up until he had disappeared a few days ago. Now Tasean was scoping out some of his old haunts to see if he could find the young vine growing mutant before anything dire happened.

Tasean shrugged himself more into his salt and pepper pea coat, it was very chilly outside. He rounded another corner, still mumbling to himself about all the things he would do to the kid once he found him when he stopped abruptly. In front of him stood a man, with a whole lot of shredded stuffed animals and stuffing at his feet and a tip over box of even more stuffed animals.

"Great....junkie" Tasean gripped aloud.

As the squeaky toy rolled away, Alex glanced down at the malachite dagger that was in his right hand, and looked at his reflection in it. It was only a few months ago that his cyan eyes were filled with such joy that he could make a person smile simply by walking into a room. Now look at them... Alex thought as he sighed and looked away from his reflection and started to put Defiance away. Instead of joyful eyes, he now had sorrowful eyes that were filled with a pain that would never fully go away. As far as Alex was concerned, he deserved to live with that pain for the rest of his life and then some.

With a mournful sigh, Alex slid Defiance into the scabbard on his left hip, then zipped up his leather jacket to help keep out the cold. He had been moving around so much that the body heat he had built up had been keeping him warm... so now that had calmed down, he was starting to feel the cold and was glad that his leather jacket was lined. As soon as his zipper was up to his neck, Alex jumped slightly when he heard a voice from behind him that sounded like it belonged to an adult male. Alex glanced over his shoulder and saw an African-American man that looked to be about his own age or close to it.

At first Alex wasn't sure how to greet this man since he didn't recognize him at all... and then it came to Alex's attention that he was standing in the middle of what could be considered a massive amount of property destruction... and he looked more then guilty. Oops... that was beyond stupidity Alex... Alex thought to himself before he noticed the word 'trash' written in bold marker on the side of the box that the doggy toys had been in. Phew! Alex thought in relief. The contents of that box were already condemned, so chances were no one would mind the contents being torn to ribbons then turned his attention back to the stranger. "Uh... hi. What's up?" Was all Alex could think of saying at that moment.

Tasean grimaced slightly as his hands search the pockets of his coat and realized he had nothing on him that could be used as a weapon, in case this person tried to attack. When the man spoke, Tasean only stood for a moment, without responding. He certainly didn't sound like he was high or influenced by some type of drug. But who went around tearing up stuffed animals in alleyways? Something was definitely amiss. Tasean continued to inspect the man, and judged that they were probably around the same age. Could be the man was a psychopath, or maybe the toys were a gift to a girlfriend that he broke up with.

Tasean decided to give the guy the benefit of the doubt, but he never took his hands out of his pea coat pockets, and he never moved an inch. If it came down to fight or flight, the young light riding mutant would be prepared for either.

"Hello." he responded, somewhat tight lipped. Tasean vowed that if he ever found his thorn growing mutant client, the boy would hear no end of it.

When the man in front of Alex didn't respond right away, Alex couldn't blame him at all. Considering he was standing among a bunch of ripped up stuffed animals that were scattered all over the place. He must think that I'm either mad or a vandal. Alex thought as he glanced around at the torn up stuffed animals before glancing back over at the man in front of him with a guilty look. "I... uh... this isn't as bad as it looks. You see I was uh..." Alex started to say, trying to figure out what to tell this guy so he didn't seem like a bad man, but he couldn't think of anything that seemed like a good reason to rip apart a box of condemned toys... save for the truth and hope that this guy wasn't a mutant hater.

Finally, Alex just shrugged and gave up on trying to come up with a lie. "Oh forget it. I was practicing with my mutation so I wouldn't hurt anyone with it by mistake again." Alex said truthfully before he bit his lower lip nervously. "I guess I went a little overboard." Alex stated, then sighed. I wonder if it's like this for all new mutants. Alex thought. "I'm Rook." Alex introduced himself, thinking it might be a good idea to give this man his nickname instead of his real name. He wasn't sure why this man came the alley in the first place, but at the moment it was himself that was under the microscope, not this stranger in the salt-n'-pepper coat.

Tasean kept a straight face and tried not to react as Rook explained himself. Even though Tasean was also a mutant, he decided to withhold that information, until he could fully assess Rook. The young social working mutant knew that not everyone was happy to be mutant, and not everyone was a good mutant. Besides that, Tasean's mutation was more for reconnaissance, there were no offensive or more importantly in this situation, defensive capabilities. And whatever this Rook person could do, it involved the shredding of teddy bears, and Tasean didn't fancy being a human test subject.

"I'm Tasean" was all he said at first, still quite tense. Ever since the attack at the agency, Tasean had become a little more reserved and wary around strangers, even those claiming to be mutant. He didn't jump at shadows or whispers, but he was definitely more cautious, and being in an alley with an unknown mutant definitely put him on high alert.

"So you're a stuffed animal ripper mutant" Tasean asked, trying to interject some humor into the situation and lighten the mood a bit.

When Alex had finished explaining why he was in the alleyway... and why he was standing in the middle of a stuffed animal genocide, he kept his cyan eyes on the man in front of him, who seemed a bit tense from Alex's point of voice. After Alex thought about it for a moment he couldn't really blame this man for being tense at all. That man had calmly walked into an alley for who knew what reason and came face to face with a mutant, and to see the aftermath of a practicing session that left a bunch of harmless toys in pieces. It wasn't something that Alex himself would want to run into either because he would be worried if the mutant wouldn't come after him too. Even now as a mutant himself, such a thing would be a scary experience.

So when the man introduced himself as Tasean and asked if he was a stuffed animal ripper mutant, Alex smiled slightly and shrugged. "Only when I run out of used tin cans." Alex stated as he flicked his thumb over his shoulder at the shredded tin cans that were against the back wall of the alley. He then sighed and looked straight into Tasean's eyes. "Before you say anything, no I'm not going to use you as a human sized target. I'm just practicing with other people's trash so what happened when I first got my mutant powers doesn't happen again." Alex stated then turned away as a tear started to fall down his cheek. The very thought of what happen three months ago was enough to make him want to cry again. Luckily he was able to get a hold of himself and all that came out was just that one tear.

Removing the tear with a flick of his thumb, he glanced back at Tasean with a cocked eyebrow. "Well, that's the reason why I am down here. So, how about you? What brings you down this alleyway into this toy-mageddon?"

"I'm a social worker for mutants" Tasean informed the not so much a stranger, stranger. "One of my clients has not been showing up at my agency or at the home I had arranged for him, and this place was one of his old haunts. You haven't happened to see a young kid who makes thorny vines sprout with every step have you?" he asked.

Tasean was actually quite worried about the boy, especially after the conversations he had had with Lumen and Jorge about young mutant kids disappearing. The boy had been through enough abuse and trauma in his young life, and Tasean was trying to rectify that. But when the young mutants skipped out on counseling sessions, disappeared from your foster home and stopped contacting your case worker, making a better life for him became extremely hard for Tasean, said caseworker.

When Tasean said that he was a social worker for mutants, both of Alex's eyebrows went up in amazement and he let out a quiet whistle. Very few people knew just how hard it was for anyone to work as a social worker, though Alex had a guess since his sister in law worked as a social worker and it gave her at least two ulcers that were both stress related, but she did love her job. If being a social worker for humans caused that much stress, then Alex couldn't wrap his head around how much stress this guy was under for being a social worker for mutants. Needless to say, Alex was impressed with this guy since he was willing to take on such a hard job.

When Tasean started to talk about the child he was after, and that the kid had vanished suddenly, Alex's face went from being amazed to being worried. He had seen with his own eyes how traumatizing it is for a child to become a mutant whom had parents that stilled loved them even with that mutation. For a child to go through such a trauma without parents that cared about him... the very thought of it instantly made Alex's heart sink. The moment that Tasean asked if he had seen anything, Alex quickly started to rake his brain cells, trying to remember if he saw anything along the lines of thorny vines while he was practicing with his malachite abilities. With a sad sigh, Alex shook his head. "No... I'm sorry I can't say that I have. If you'd like though, I could give you a hand in looking around here for him." Alex offered kindly.

Tasean looked at Rook, considering. Two sets of eyes were better then one, to be sure. And with all the shadows in the maze of alleys, Tasean's own mutant ability was all but useless, the light wasn't strong enough for him to expand his consciousness. Rook seemed like a sane individual, except for the bane of stuffed animals part, but he had an explanation for that. Eventually the young social worker decided to take the man up on his offer. And he fervently hoped he would not regret it.

"Alright, you can help me look for him. However, if we do find him, stay behind me. The kid has a hard time trusting strangers, and it took me forever to gain his trust. I don't want to loose what little bit of rapport I have built with him, so don't approach him or even talk to him, let me do all the talking" Tasean informed Rook, with a no nonsense tone in his voice. Playful and flirtatious he might be in a social setting, but when it came to his clients, Tasean was all business.

Alex stood by patiently as Tasean considered his offer. This was not something that was to be considered lightly, and Alex knew it. There was no telling just how horrified or traumatized this poor boy was, so anything that could possibly make the child even more scared must be avoided. While Alex would never do anything to make the child anymore scared or traumatized on purpose, his power could easily do it by mistake. A moment later Tasean seemed to agree, but he gave several conditions that Alex had to follow, and Alex was more then willing to follow them. "I'll follow your lead to the letter. The last thing we need is for that poor kid is to freak out at me. You say the word and I'll leave." Alex said with a nod, then glanced at a nearby window that was to the basement of the building nearby. The window had something dark behind it that almost looked like a rope... or a vine.

"Hm..." Alex mumbled in thought. Curious, Alex walked over to it, knelt down, and opened the window. It took a bit of a push to open the window, but he managed to get it open, and found that all he was seeing was some cob webbing. Still, he wanted to take a look in that room, but if the child was in there, he didn't want to freak him out. So, he reached into his jacket and grabbed his dagger and, with his eyes glowing green, pulled it out while changing it's shape so it looked like a mirror, and it was reflecting just as much like as a mirror would. With it, he slowly rotated the malachite mirror to reflect sunlight into the dark basement. To his surprise, the basement was actually quite large, as if he was looking at the basement for the entire building. The basement of that building was empty. He didn't see a single vine. Oh well, it was worth a try.

As he stood up, Alex shook his head and closed the window. "Not in that basement. I was able to see to the far side. Out of curiosity, would this boy prefer to be outdoors or indoors?" Alex asked, wondering if they were going to have to check every single building as well as the alleyways.

Tasean grunted in frustration. If only there was enough light for him to scope out the place, this would be much easier. His young charge knew about Tasean's power, and that probably why he was hiding out in a place like this, somewhere.

"To be honest he'd probably prefer somewhere indoors and off the ground." Tasean answered the man called Rook. "If he stays in one place too long, the vines begin to grow rapidly, he really can't control it. So if he's indoors and not close to the ground, no vines."

Tasean had told the young mutant that he needed to find someplace or someone to help him control his mutation. He couldn't very well live in pent house for the rest of his life, if he could ever afford it. He had to come to the ground and sometime. Like most young people, the teenager wanted the quick fix, and not the one that required work, Tasean had though he was getting through, the boy was even willing to be introduced to some people over at Xaviers, but then he'd just disappeared. After the third missed appointment, Tasean had decided to take matters into his own hands, which is how he ended up in this labyrinth of alleys.