Aura was in a much nicer part of new york city, then she normally frequented. It was also midday which made Aura slightly uncomfortable with only the black hoodie. Central park could be seen and looked crowded with people enjoying the nice weather. Aura had gotten a call from a contact about a mutant cult, she might not have caught wind of the issue except a mutant she recently met had been kidnapped, the man she had hired to quietly tale the mutant could turn into a small three ounce bird and little else. He had tailed the people as long as he could, however Aura wanted backup and the contact list on her phone told her, the order had an agent nearby. No one officially in the order but he would do as mercenary, Aura decided. She had never met the Mutant whose house she was looking for but if Lori had enough trust in him to let him know the order existed that was good enough for Aura.

Aura looked around, the calm situation made it easy to relax but Aura kept her guard up, their was a nut case who believed abusing mutants was justice on the loose. At least that was what Aura had taken from the attack on Sanctuary, and attack she wanted someone to pay dearly for. That would have to wait though as right now she had a pressing matter to address if what she heard from the blue bird man was true, time was of the essence. The only reason Aura had chosen not to run was because she knew it would attract far to much attention and the last thing she needed was to be recognized and have to fight the police.

Aura reached the place indicated on her phone and knocked on the door, she had called ahead to make sure the man had time to prepare for the job. Aura had no idea what the mercenary worked for money wise, but Aura felt assured she most likely could get the amount with ease. "it's me Aura" She said at the door. She considered simply breaking down the door due to her rush but chose against it knowing it would attract attention and police. With a sigh she only hoped they were not already to late, if they were and even if they were not Aura was determined on vengeance, the state of the kidnapped mutants would determine the humans fates. Death by default but Aura could have a cruel streak if pushed far enough. She smiled slightly recalling the Mutnats beauty from the othe rnight.

The news these days was depressing as hell. Countless assaults on mutants by human supremacists, dozens of rogue mutant gangs were committing unspeakable acts of violence and theft against the defenseless human populace, and gas prices were still on the rise with no ending in sight. The only bright side to it all was that the increase in societal chaos meant business was good. He was having to turn clients away just to have a couple days off, and even then he somehow ended up working!

He eyed the backpack full of cash from a couple nights ago. That had been one heck of a night. He made a mental note to avoid dealing with sociopathic femme fatales on a consistent basis. It wasn't good for a person's health.

The buzzing of his phone broke his thoughts of dangerous women. He didn't bother to check the number. He never checked the number. The conversation that followed put a serious damper on his mood. The client stated she was on her way to meet with him personally to discuss a job that needed to be done immediately and that the details would be discussed upon her arrival.

What struck him as odd was that she was intent on meeting him at his place. He'd never had a client request to meet him at his own place of residence before, especially in person. What really perked Jirou's curiosity was how abruptly she had hung up before he could give her directions. Whoever this particular new client was, they knew an awful lot about him already, and he wasn't ok with that.

He set about cleaning up his appearance, and apartment for that matter. He donned a pair of fashionable jeans, a white button up shirt, and a black vest he'd gotten as a gift from a friend; if you could call her that. He looked around for his side arm. It wasn't in it's usual place, which was weird. Instead of it being squirreled away in it's case under the sofa, it was sitting in his bedroom nightstand. How it got there was a mystery for a later date.

He checked the weapon over and loaded a fresh magazine, just as there was a knock at the door. He chambered a round and opened the door for her, grabbed her by the arm, and yanked her into his apartment before closing the door. The barrel of his .45 was leveled squarely on her head.

"You know it's a very dangerous faux pas in this business to simply show up at a person's door offering them a job, especially when that person has no idea how you figured out their address with out them telling you." He was clearly a bit miffed. "I suggest you explain how you knew where to find me."

After a year on the streets, the past several days still seemed more like a dream than reality to Skydancer. Staying at The Mansion, she had warm food, fresh water and a roof over her head keeping her dry. If she still felt confused and distrustful at the people that ran the place, she was nevertheless thankful that it was there. Maybe their intent was to make her another soldier in their idealistic war, but if so they had been pretty subtle about it and, thus far at least, hadn't actually asked her to do much of anything. How long that would last she had her doubts, but in the mean time she would take advantage of it.

Skydancer had always thought best when outside, especially up high. In desperate need of some thought, she dawned a trench coat, gloves, a wide brimmed hat and large dark glasses and made her way outside. The purple tubes under her skin couldn't be completely hidden, but at least this way from a distance she looked sort of normal. As long as she didn't actually approach anyone close enough to talk to them, she was fairly certain no one would bother her.

Skydancer wasn't particularly concerned regarding where, exactly she was going and wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. Her thoughts were the things of important here and those were the things she was engaged in. Besides, she was decent with directions and was reasonably certain she couldn't get herself so lost that she couldn't find her way back again. As the minutes turned into hours and dusk began to fall, she found herself in a far less populated area. Still, it wasn't anything to be too concerned about; after all, she had her tubes to defend herself with if it should come down to that. So long as it wasn't another mutant or a gang, she should be fine.

What happened next, Skydancer was never quite certain of. She felt a sting in the side of her neck, walked a few more steps and then collapsed on the ground, unconscious. When she awoke, she found herself in a far too short white lace dress on a bed inside a large glass box. With nothing more than a thought, a tube shot out of her wrist and its pointed end collided with the glass with a 'ping'. Unfortunately, the glass didn't break, not so much as the slightest crack. Perhaps whoever had taken her had been studying her and knew the limits of her power, but the use of bullet proof glass left her entirely trapped and helpless. All she could do was wait.

Of all the tings Aura was expecting upon arrival being grabbed by the arm and yanked into the house was not one of them. It had been awhile since it had happened, Aura would have felt violated had she known this person to be human, in fact all that kept Aura from gutting the man before her was that simple fact. He was a mutant and she had no orders to kill a mutant. Her eyes looked up as she saw the gun pointed at her forehead, for many that would have been a threat. To Aura it was a toy, she did not even flinch, she simply smiled.

A moment after she was pulled inside, Aura was covers in an inch thick layer of solid pink energy. Where his hands grabbed, Aura's aura formed and tried to break his grip, by pushing trying to force his hand back. "If you were human i would have gutted you and taken your toy" She said her eyes looking at the gun to indicate she was referring to it. "Your a mercenary, if you were to unfindable you wouldn't have much work. Mostly though you were in my phone, as the closest available mutant of skill. The listing also had your address, known alias and witnessed mutant powers. Aura said with an annoyed shrug

"I am of the Order, and i don't have time for this. Some pile of crap human has been kidnapping mutant's and they must be rescued. I could go alone, but that might give time for the psycho to kill them while i ensure his friend's meat whatever god animals believe in" She said her tone becoming very serious. She reached into the pocket of her hoodie and took out three purple crown royal bags, each tied with small golden rope that was in the beg. Part demonstration of her power, part business, Aura used, her aura to cut the top of one beg, from within poured out, gemstones of nearly every hue. To anyone who knew gem's would know over five thousand dollars in gems were in the beg. "the other to beg's are the same and their is more, if your up to the task that is" she said lazily swatting at the gun, as if she had grown tired of it's presence. "put the toy away please, you won't harm me with it" she said shaking her head.

Begrudgingly, Jirou flicked the weapon's safety back on and lowered it to his side. He hated dealing with mutant's capable of projecting force fields. It made things so much more difficult.

He examined the gems that were now scattered across the floor. He wasn't an expert in precious minerals and stones, but it was certainly impressive. The only hard part would be moving them through out his network of trusted fences. The likely hood of those stones being hot was pretty high. The woman's power's were also of interesting note to him. Not only could she repel objects, as was made evident by her being able to break his grip, but she could also slice and dice as well.

Jirou wondered if she could make julienne fries too.

The Order? The young mercenary had heard of that organization a few times before, and on several occasions had even been asked if he was a member, though this was the first time he had actually ever been approached by a true member. He wondered how they knew so much about him already. Granted, there weren't many mutants running around New York City turning everyday items into deadly explosives, but he always felt he maintained a fairly low profile on the vast majority of his jobs. He always made sure to keep the use of his powers to a minimum and ensuring that he tied up any and all loose ends before the job was done. His address wasn't exactly public information either. He rented out this apartment under a false name. He even paid cash instead of checks or cards. So how the heck did they find him? Clearly the Order had some impressive resources for them to be able to track him down.

Jirou crossed his arms and leaned against the wall of the small apartment entryway.

"I see. I'm guessing time is of the essence then, isn't it?" Jirou reached over and grabbed his leather jacket and fedora from the coat rack. "Where do we begin?"

Although Skydancer had no way to accurately keep track of the time, she was fairly sure at least a couple of hours passed while she was in her glass prison. Nothing was inside her prison except for her and the bed she found herself on. Outside the little glass box was clearly inside some dimly lit building. She saw no people around and could make out very few of the details of the room. It was lit from above and the roof and walls, from what she could tell, were bare.

As for the dress, Skydancer hated it. Not only was it far too short, but frills and lace weren't something she had ever been entirely comfortable in. It wasn't that she wasn't femanine, but rather the fact that she was an athlete and such things simply didn't mesh well with physical activity. The dress itself, if it had been longer, would have looked disturbing like a wedding dress and that was something she was even less comfortable with.

Being left with nothing but her thoughts made Skydancer profoundly anxious. Why had they taken her and what did they want with her? They must have been following her, she decided, probably for some time otherwise how would they have known to put her in such a prison? They were keeping her for something, that much she knew, and probably something that was highly unpleasant. The moment she heard echoing footsteps coming from a hall just out of sight, she blanched in fear. They were coming for her and she was helpless.

Aura, let her aura retract until it was a thin outline around her body. It lost most of it's shape as she did so and she nodded. "It is very much of the essence, humans rarely hold Mutants for anything good" she said. The very act of a human holding a mutant imprisoned was one Aura did not like at all. Aura felt a human had not the right to even touch a mutant without permission much less try and hold one.

"We begin roughly four miles from here, the abandoned orange Seed business park. We say them move into the park, but my informant was not capable of following. He turns into a bluebird" She said honestly. "Their seem to be a few guards on the ground floor but no trace of the mutants, so their likely underground" she said honestly. She had no way of knowing how the basement level was constructed.

"You drive?" She asked feeling that walking might not be the best way to get there. Aura had never learned to drive a car, at least not in a way that kept the car intact. her Aura faded from sight, though her hoodie seemed to grow a bit as she pushed her Her to appear under the garment. She had no idea why she had not thought of the tactic earlier. Aura would follow Jirou on wahtever way he chose to get to the place.

Jirou was only vaguely familiar with the location. He'd passed it a couple times while on his way to working other jobs for clientele, but he had never actually been there before. He quickly threw his coat on and double checked his pockets to make certain he had plenty of spare "ammunition" before fishing out his car keys, which he jingled in front of his eyes in response to Aura's question.

"Oh I can drive all right. Just wait until you see her."

After exiting and locking the apartment door, he led the way to the underground parking garage where he kept his pristine 1973 Oldsmobile Omega. It was really his one and only prized possession, next to his fedora and his jacket. Without any of those three, he would be an emotional wreck.

"Here she is. Isn't she gorgeous?" he opened the passenger door for Aura before climbing into the driver's seat. Like a dream, the classic muscle car came to life as he pressed the clutch in and turned the key.

"Before we get there we need to come up with some sort of a plan. What kind of equipment and weapons do they have? About how many did your informant spot? Are we going to just bust in there guns and...pink stuff...a blazing, or are we going to try and sneak in? Either way, I have a feeling things are going to get intense very quickly which means we are going to have to high tail it out of there in a hurry. Any ideas?"

Skydancer stood as she heard the footsteps, her body tense and ready. She hated that dress more than ever, in just that moment. It made her feel weak at a time when weakness was the very last thing she wanted or needed. If there was one advantage having purple tubes visible under your skin at all times should give you, it was intimidation but even that slim advantage felt robbed because of the horrible lacy dress she was forced to wear. Maybe if she were a less modest person she'd just remove it, but she wasn't.

There were two sets of footsteps and eventually those two footsteps emerged to become to men garbed in black robes and masks. "What do you want with me," Skydancer asked, feigning both confidence and anger. Well, feigning confidence anyway, the anger was very much real. The men did not respond, but simply kept walking up to her clear prison. They stopped in front of it and began conversing in voices too quiet for Skydancer to properly hear. "What are you going to do with me?" Still no response.

Finally, after several minutes of speech, the men seemed to have come to some sort of understanding. They walked behind the glass cage and Skydancer turned to follow their actions. The two men fiddled with something just outside her line of view before the entire enclosure began to move, the two men pushing it. "Where are you taking me? I demand to know!" Despite the fury in her voice, the men still did not respons.

Aura nodded happy he could drive it would certainly send them time. She had to learn one day to do so herself. "Good, i don't drive so well she said recalling landing in the pool last time she drove. Cars were far easier to destroy then to use though she had to admit they certainly had their advantages. She saw the car and did not blink to her it was a car, nothing more or less, though she noticed it was well taken care of.

"My knowledge of such things is limited but it is well taken care of" Aura said as she slipped into the car. The man was polite and she was trying to be the same, she needed him and so it kept well to be on his good side. Still Aura did not like to lie and so she rarely did unless ordered.

He made solid enough point's but brought back fully to the task at hand, Aura's mental planning might have made some of humanity most violent people blush. Taking a deep breath, her Aura formed around her thumb, and then moved from finger to finger untill in ended on the thumb of her other hand. Her mind cleared enough to think she explained. "my Aura can form a verity of weapons as well as shield me from attack, for awhile. Care to share what nature has blessed you with?" She explained feeling he should understand her power so he could better work with it.

"Their seems to be eight to twelve there now. We believe this phycho plans to sacrifice these mutants to steal their powers. We believe their using the drug M, to actually gain the power. This makes this situation volatile. Honestly i figured you would sneak in and figure out a way to free them, while i created a distraction Aura said and as she did she formed a drill around her fist, that spun rapidly for a few seconds before she let the weapon flow back into the pink pool around her. "I would focus on freeing those mutants who can fight first, no telling what these guys will be able to do" she said with a shrug. Looking over she smiled "Unless you have a plan you like better?" Aura said. She may have supported human use of M because it meant they could understand briefly what it was like to be mutant.Still they were human and thus had no right touching a mutant much less intending to kill them.

She was all business, which was a very welcome change of pace when compared to some of the women he had dealt with in the past. Especially that Turkish woman. She had scared the hell out of him. This Aura woman on the other hand was quite different. She was had a plan of action, and best of all it was fairly simple. Jirou liked simple plans. It meant there was less that could go wrong.

"Well that plan certainly sounds good enough for me, though I think I should be the one handling the distraction." He reached into his jacket pocket as he drove, fishing out a single playing card from one of several decks he had on his person. With his eyes still focused on the road, he began to charge the card's molecular structure, resulting in a neon green glow beginning to surround it.

"Watch closely."

With a practiced flick of the wrist, Jirou sent the card sailing out of the vehicle and onto a parked car's windshield. As soon as the card grazed the glass of the window it exploded like a hand grenade with a loud BANG and a bright green flash. Jirou hated having to reveal his abilities to people he barely knew, but if Aura was willing to trust him, it was only logical he do the same. He hammered down on the accelerator as he sped the Omega away from his little scene.

"Of course, my ability extends to more than just playing cards. Rocks, pens, keyboards, tools. As long as I can get my hands on it, I can detonate it." he paused to glance over at Aura before continuing "The bigger the object, the bigger the boom, basically."

His brow furrowed though as the subject of M came up. He didn't know much about the drug, but he understood the basic idea behind it. Human's artificially gaining mutant abilities was not a good thing. He had worked several jobs in the resent past involving that accursed poison. They seldom went well. There were few things more dangerous to mutants than regular human beings, but human's strung out on on drugs with uncontrollable powers was definitely worse.

The fact that they were dealing with a cult that was hooked on M made things even worse.

The trip down the hallway seemed very long to Skydancer's mind, although it could have just been the situation. She stood in the center of the cage, legs wide in order to ensure stability. Talking, clearly, didn't make any difference to the situation so she simply said nothing at all. Eventually they would make their intentions clear and when they did, she would be ready for them.

After a time, Skydancer's glass prison stopped moving in the middle of a large square room. In the center of the room was a large pentacle drawn on the floor with candles ringing the the outside. There were two other passages leading into the center room that she could see from her vantage point. The two that had wheeled her prison stopped just outside of the pentacle and joined another pair of blacked robed figures. They conversed in voices too low for Skydancer to hear.

After a few minutes a second cage was wheeled in pushed by 2 more black robed individuals. This one was a more traditional sort of cage than Skydancer's own, with mesh wiring on its wall and ceiling. The individual inside, clearly a mutant, couldn't have been more than 16. He had brightly coloured feathered wings, every colour of the rainbow in fact, and an equally colourful plume of a tail. He huddled in the bottom of the cage, clearly miserable. A couple of minutes later a third and final cage was wheeled out of the third passageway, this one made of what appeared to be plastic. The mutant, or at least Skydancer assumed she was a mutant, inside looked completely normal but had a look of defiance on her face that suggested she refused to be considered helpless. Once the third cage was wheeled out, all the black robed individuals converged in the center of the room, next to the pentacle.

Aura waiting to respond and watched what the man did with the card it, was impressive. Aura smiled as he explained his powers. She watched fascinated as he tossed the card and blew up someone windshield. The idea he could charge bigger objects as well was interesting. The Order file on jirou had not said much about his powers at all, now she knew far more and how better to work with him. She was unsure about him being the distraction in a straight up fight, but with his power....
She decided not to ask more as she knew they had other issues to address.

"You can be the distraction if you wish, im just not much for stealth. Plus i figure it's likely to get dangerous if these guys have any idea how to use their powers. Aura said more then willing to go with his plan. As long as the mutants were safe in the end she did not terribly care how they did things.

"It may be fare to say not all of them will have powers, but i would assume most do." she said wanting to keep on the side of coution. She wanted him prepared, M humans were more dangerous then normal humans. That alone would make this harder then it could have been. As they came near the spot, the lack of maintenance on the upper levels of the building were obvious. and so were one or two people on the second floor trying to look casual but obviously to old to be teenagers.

Aura pointed them out, though at their distance the two were paying no special attention to anything. The front door was obviously closed to them, but the building was hemmed in on two sides by tight alleyways. The fence around the place was in nearly destroyed condition with large holes in what fencing was left.

Aura's plan was a solid one, though he was hesitant to split up. He was certain she would be more than capable of handling herself, though in close quarters Jirou was certain his abilities would be severely hampered. He wasn't a slouch when it came to handling himself in a fist fight, he just wasn't keen on going up against a slew of M driven humans.

He parked the car in an alleyway nearby where it would be easy to access in the event they would need to escape quickly, which was a more of a certainty rather than a possibility. He just hoped he would have enough room for them all.

Following Aura to the crumbling wall, he paid close attention to the look outs and the guards. Most were armed with baseball bats and a hand gun here and there. Ultimately entering the building would be the easy part. The hard part would be getting the hostages out of there in one piece.

"Alright, I'll set off a distraction over there." Jirou pointed to a nearby repair shop that would have been used by the onsite mechanics to repair machinery and forklifts. "Once you hear it, wait for the guards to investigate. These guys are amateurs and they look pretty skittish, so they're bound to all go investigate. From there I'll keep them occupied while you enter the building and search for the hostages. Once I'm done out here, I'll make my way inside and rendezvous with you. You'll probably be more effective in close quarters environments than I will, I'm sure you'll be able to handle yourself until I reach you. I won't be long." he said that last sentence with pure certainty. Jirou may have been the ultimate opportunist, but when the survival of hostages dictated his pay he couldn't afford to take chances in. Time was a luxury they didn't have.

"Let's go."

Jirou quickly made his way around the wall's perimeter to the maintenance building. Before hopping over the wall, he was sure to check to around him to see if there was anybody watching. The element of surprise was key here. If he couldn't get the drop on them, then that element would be gone, and the hostages would be the ones paying the price.

Climbing over the wall, the agile mercenary made his way inside the rundown mechanic bay. It was dusty, and the hangar like door was partially ajar and open to the weather. There were a variety of old, rusted, and outdated tools hanging from the walls and sitting on work benches. He surveyed his options before settling on a large metal pipe wrench. That would certainly make for a large boom. He grasped the red and black wrench in his hands and began charging it. He hoped this would give Aura plenty of opportunity to enter the facility.

With a grunt and a swing, he hurled the wrench as hard as he could towards the hangar door of the shop and ducked behind an old broken down forklift. The wrench made a solid collision with the door and exploded with a violent green flash. A large six foot by six foot hole appeared in the sheet metal door, while smoke billowed out from it. Jirou reached for two smaller wrenches on another nearby bench and began to charge those as well.

The second those guards came through that hole, he'd blow them apart.

For long minutes the eight black robed figures converged at the edge of the pentacle, talking in low voices. Skydancer had no way to know if that was all of them nor if there were more, although the more she thought about it the more she was certain that what the group had planned was not going to be pleasant. The robes, the candles, the pentacle on the ground, the only thing that seemed to make sense was that they were some kind of cult and if they were a cult what did that make her and the other mutants? Some kind of ritual sacrifise? The thought struck far too close to home and chilled her to the bone.

If only she could be heard by the other mutants, Skydancer was sure she could coordinate some sort of defense. Her mutation made her far from defenseless, if only she could be let out of her little glass cage. She had never killed before but she had very effectively incapacited people and, if it came down to that most desperate sort of moment, she was pretty sure she was physical capable of it, though whether she was mentally capable of it was another matter entirely. No matter how much she banged on the side of her cage, however, she was either too far from the other mutants to catch their attention, or there was some kind of sound dampening effect in her cage.

Finally the leader, or at least Skydancer assumed he was the leader judging by the way the others looked towards him, stepped away from the the others and onto a small podium at the head of the pentacle. "My loyal followers." His voice was not particularly loud, but it was smooth and the way he carried himself demanded respect. "The time we have been planning for is finally at hand. We shall make the proper tributes and in return we shall recieve the power we so rightfully deserve." The cheering from the others sent chills of fear down Skydancer's spine.