>> “It’s got some pretty nice perks to it.”

“Like what?” Chase chirped, genuinely intrigued, leaning closer. Chase looked at the kids that had returned to the field as well. Apparently the presence of the mutant-man wasn’t enough to keep them away from the grass entirely, but he and his new company were regarded with suspicion. Chase stared back blankly. He was used to that stare.

>> “Are your parent’s mutants, too? I get the impression you’re pretty used to… our kind.”

Chase let his gaze return to Shane from the field.

“Nope,” he said simply, in response to his question, “My parents are human. I didn’t even know another mutant ‘til I came to the city. I live at a school full of mutants-” Chase shrugged as he said this, “So… I’m still getting used to… um, us. But a lot of mutants are... nice.”

Not that this was a difficult transition. Chase almost preferred the company of other mutants, as opposed to those who you couldn’t tell what they were.

>> “Like What?”

The kid seemed pretty excited by this question. Shane didn’t have any desire to disappoint, but he wasn’t really sure what would be the most satisfying answer, or if honesty was even necessary. He kid did have access to his powers, so it was probably best not get his hopes up by telling him could fly or something. Maybe it was better to start small and work his way up.

“Well, I’m quite the climber, if I do say so myself.” This was far from a lie, though he’d certainly had his fair share of falls too. “The stretchiness is great for reaching things, and you know… climbing.” He wasn’t a great salesman. He was surprised to notice that he did seem to be determined to convince this kid his power was cool.

“It’s a little like Spiderman, in a sense.” He held his hand up in the classic Spiderman pose, and with a cracked whip motion launched a rope out from his wrist. It didn’t go far, maybe 10 feet, but it gave the right effect. He hoped.

>> “I like at a school full of mutants.”

Hmm… Another kid from the school. He’d only ever met one other person from there, and his brief visit to the grounds themselves weren’t exactly ranking high on his list of fond memories, but he could respect it for what it was. He’d learned more about in recent weeks. He was starting to consider giving it a second chance. Not to move there, but perhaps not think so low of it.

“How’re you liking it there?” Shane asked. “Meeting any interesting mutants there?”

>> “Well, I’m quite the climber, if I do say so myself. The stretchiness is great for reaching things, and you know… climbing. It’s a little like Spiderman, in a sense.”

So he could climb. Chase hummed and nodded. He could being stretchy could help climb, and as a means of demonstration, Shane whipped a tendril of his own out from his wrist. Chase laughed. If was meant to be cool, but it struck the child as rather silly.

"I like to climb too, but my mutation doesn't help me do that," Chase confessed. Not in a direct way, anyways, "I met this lizard man, this one time, and he could walk on walls. You know, like lizards do."

>> “How’re you liking it there? Meeting any interesting mutants there?”

Chase kicked his legs absently as he contemplated his answer.

"It's fun," Chase replied, "I like it. Oh yeah, there are lots of cool mutants there... like... like... I dunno, lots of cool mutants. There's too many cool mutants to say."

Chase couldn't think of specifics, in other words.

“I’m living with a bunch of mutants right now too.” He said without much pride in his voice. He wasn’t sure what it was about this kid that left him wanting to open up, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. It almost felt like the kid what some kind of counselor in a strange way. Perhaps it was nice to just get some things off his chest, he thought to himself. His mouth seemed to start running on autopilot.

“They’re pretty cool, I guess.” His hand moved to the back of his head and he stared down at his feet. ”I’m just not sure if that’s where I belong.” It wasn’t until he actually started dumping his thoughts on the kid that he realized how awkward that could be for the boy.

And invisible blush popped up on his face as he avoided eye contact with Chase. “Sorry, you don’t want to hear about my problems.” He was very embarrassed and expected the kid to wander off any second now.

>> “I’m living with a bunch of mutants right now too. They’re pretty cool, I guess.”

Chase nodded his head in agreement, grinning. They were pretty cool.

>> “I’m just not sure if that’s where I belong.”

Chase paused, and inclined his head, teal-blue eyes wavering indecisively between their neutral teal, and a melt of other colors. Largely a puzzled sky-blue, and a confused yellow.

>> “Sorry, you don’t want to hear about my problems.”

Sometimes children made horrid sounding-boards. They weren’t sympathetic enough, or they were shallow and impatient. Yet there were other times in which they were perhaps the best listening ear that one could ask for. Some of them weren’t colored by harsh judgment, and offered guileless, honest answers.

“Why don’t you leave?” Chase inquired bluntly, fidgeting on the chair. He wasn’t at-all aware of Shane’s embarrassment, “I mean, if you aren’t sure about it, maybe there’s another place? That’s how I got here.”

You’d never know until you looked. Chase spun around slowly, so that he was sitting the wrong way on the bench, his legs pointing up and his head lolling off the end. He had to tuck his chin to his chest to regard the older mutant. His eyes held the open inquiry of a child, and nothing more. He simply wanted to know why.

“Are you scared?” Chase asked again. Chase had been scared too, when he first left. Grown-ups weren’t supposed to be scared of anything, though. Grown-ups were never scared, even grown-up mutants.

This caught Shane a little off guard. Of course he wasn’t scared! He was sure of it… or at least he was kind of sure. Maybe it was a possibility? Now he really wasn’t sure.

He was surprised by the kid’s unflinching interest in helping, though. No one had ever really asked him those kinds of questions before, and he’d never really put much thought into it himself. He sat in silence for a moment contemplating his answer while Chase leaned back on the bench marveling at the upside down world.

“I…” he started, taking a second pause to orient his gaze on the inverted boy. He regained his composure a bit. “I’m not scared.” He announced in the most matter-of-fact voice he could manage. "I’m just…” he gaze wandered to his feet. “I’m just not sure what the future has in store for me.”

That was really what had been eating away at him. His whole life he’d been a bit of an “in the moment” kind of person, but lately the present was the only time he didn’t have any interest in. He spent all his time thinking about the past or the future, but only in comparison to how things were going for him at that very moment.
He probably needed to do something about that.

>> “I… I’m not scared.”

Chase smiled impishly, forgetting that he was speaking to a grown-up, for a moment. He fought the urge to counter, “Are too!” and simply smiled at the stretchy-man, waiting for him to speak.

>> “I’m just… I’m just not sure what the future has in store for me.”

“Why not find a future-seeing mutant?” Chase suggested, his tone casual but devoid of jest, as if suggesting that he look for a missing article of clothing in the Lost and Found at school. His head lolled over the edge for a moment, looking away from Shane towards the inverted landscape. It felt weird, when he swung his head from side to side.

“I know one,” Chase added-on casually, and as if to prove that he was telling the truth, “His name’s Alister.”

He reoriented himself on the bench, so that he was sitting the right-side up, and he sat sideways, so that he was looking at the other mutant again, arms twined around bony legs.

“Alister could tell you what your future will be,” Chase avowed, “He told me my future. And then you won’t have to not be sure.”

Well, that grabbed his attention. He actually wasn’t entirely taken back by the idea of a mutant who could see the future. If anything, he’d started to just assume that there was a mutant with any ability he could dream up floating around somewhere out there just waiting to be found. What surprised him was Chase’s knowledge of him, and the fact that he’d had his fortune read by this psychic.

The more he thought about it, the better an idea it seemed. He definitely wanted to hear what this boy might have to say. He’d just have to figure out how to track him down now.

“Alister, eh?” He asked Chase. The boy was right side up again, making conversation slight less awkward. “And he lives with you at the school?” He felt a bit like he was interrogating the boy for information, which wasn’t what he wanted. He backed off a bit, relaxing and releasing a bit of the urgency from his voice.

“It must be pretty cool to know what’s in your future.” He said calmly, trying to imagine what could be waiting for him.

>> “Alister, eh? And he lives with you at the school?”

Chase could tell that the stretchy-man was eager to know more, and Chase was only too willing to help. He liked to be useful, so he’d tell Shane what he knew.

“Nuh-uh, not at school,” Chase corrected, “He visited me at school, once, but he doesn’t go there. He lives somewhere else. I don’t know. There’s a shop.”

Chase paused contemplatively. A shop that he’d never been to, but there was still a shop nonetheless.

“It’s called… uh… the Oracle Shop,” Chase recited. That sounded right, “I don’t know where it is, but that’s what it’s called. That’s where Alister is.”

>> “It must be pretty cool to know what’s in your future.”

“I guess,” Chase agreed, “My vision wasn’t that exciting, didn’t tell me a lot.”

“The Oracle Shop…” he echoed softly under his breath to himself. He wanted to internalize that name; he’d be hunting the shop down later. He’d never heard of this place before and he had his doubts that it would be easy to track down without a name. He was aware of more then a dozen psychics in the city, and he could only assume that was just a fraction of the total. A name like Oracle at least narrowed down his options.

“What did he tell you that wasn’t very exciting?” He asked Chase with only an ounce of interest in his voice. He was curious, but by this point he was fully living in his head planning out his next move to look for the shop, not to mention imagining what kind of events were in store for him in his future.

>> “The Oracle Shop… What did he tell you that wasn’t very exciting?”

Chase shrugged his shoulders, initially, unsure of how to go about telling Shane about being a secret agent, without telling him about being a secret agent. At least, Chase thought he was a secret agent. He wasn’t really all that sure.

“He said I could be a member of his secret club,” Chase said with an air of childish nonchalance. Kids had clubs all the time, specifically ones that were kept secret from adults. So if he kept it that vague, then Shane (being an adult) probably wouldn’t think much of it. Chase let his legs swing lazily over the edge of the bench again, looking at his shoes, when an echo of noise caught his attention. He looked up, and saw Gemma waving her hand.

“Cha-a-a-a-ase, time to go!”

“That’s my mom,” Chase announced, hopping to his feet. He turned to Shane briefly.

“Nice meeting you,” he mumbled, and extende his hand for a handshake.

>> “That’s my mom. Nice meeting you.”

Shane popped back into reality again at the sound of the boy’s feet plopping onto the ground. Seems the kid had heard his mom calling for him to come back, though he didn’t hear any of that. Chases little arm shot out shake Shane’s hand, and he just looked at it for a moment. Only a second though, then he was back to reality, running through all the things that had been said in the last minute. Something about a secret club. Not likely something that he needed to know about.

He popped up onto his own feet as well and took the boy’s hand with a firm shake. “It’s been nice meeting you too,” he said with a smile and a wink. He looked out into the park, but he didn’t see anyone who seemed to be watching the two of them. At this point it didn’t really seem like anyone was going to take issue with him and the kid sitting together, but he still felt like an over protective mother could come charging at him any moment.

“And stay out of trouble,” he added, remembering Chase’s stories of joy riding. A power like his could definitely lead to mischief. He felt like he needed to leave with some sort of adult advice.