Andrea's stomach often ruled her life. A sad, but true fact. She found herself wandering around a local food mall, hungrily eyeballing the various stalls and shops. Her hunt was stopped, however, when she caught sight of a child. A kid who couldn't have been all that old, who was by himself. She knew this, because she had spent a good while watching him... just to make sure.

After building up the courage to approach him, she had asked as calmly and nicely as possible if he was alright, and where his parents were. The kid have given her a look of mixed panic and confusion, lowering the corn-dog he had half eaten. She had been just about to ask if he needed any help, when his face screwed up in the strangest manner... and he sneezed. Right. In. Her. Face.

The unexplainable pain and confusion that followed, was lost to her, as she shrieked and pitched head long into darkness...

---

When her eyes opened again, she could not help but cry.

She was in an unfamiliar place... There were strange people everywhere, and her parents where nowhere to be found. On top of that, she had these odd serpents stuck to her head.. and they were very mean! They bit at her, and hissed at her. She didn't like it all all. Andrea rubbed at her eyes, standing alone in the middle of a crowded food court. People walked on by like she wasn't even there... and she was too afraid to ask for help. Voices were buzzing everywhere, in strange dialects and unfamiliar tones. She could recognize some of the words, because her daddy spoke in the same way sometimes. Late at night, when he thought she was asleep. She always heard the hushed, angry conversations... but she could never make out the words.

Sniffling, she glanced around. The boy she woken up to had taken off, and she wasn't sure why. One moment he had been there, not moving an inch while staring at her, and the next he blinked, jumped, and had turned to run. The nine year old figured that he had hurt her somehow, even though she couldn't find a scratch on her body, and that was why he had fled. Everything on her just throbbed, and though it was getting better little by little, it upset her all the same. Rubbing at one eye with the palm of her hand, she turned and tried to find someone to help her. It would be hard, she knew.. since none of the faces around her were familiar at all.

Her confusion tripled, when she moved to take a step from the stop she had been standing in, and found that the clothes she had one were far to big for her. Her shoes slipped easily off of her feet, and she was swimming in a black t-shirt. The coat she had been wearing had slipped off entirely, and the arm length snake that had a hold of her refused to let her put it back on. The shorts she had been wearing came off completely, pooled around her feet, but with how long her shirt was in her, she hardly needed them. Sniffling, she turned and glanced around, taking the large glasses from the bridge of her nose. A man in a nice suit had been watching, though wary of the obvious mutant, he was still more than a little concerned for her. He walked over, kneeling next to her, and placed a hand gently on her shoulder. "...Are you alright? What happened to you?" He had seen the whole thing, or at least the transformation. It had looked... painful, and he wasn't sure if it was some strange power of hers or not.

Andrea sniffled and looked over at him, wiping her nose on the back of one gloved hand. "...Am lost... help?" The thickness of her accent nearly kept her words from being pronounced right. But, as luck would have it, he had heard her. The man's kind Grey eyes sought her's out, and he searched her face in a concerned manner. She was lost? He'd have to bring her to mall security, and let them handle it then. His eyes met hers, and he went completely ridged. Andrea blinked up at him, tugging on his arm when he didn't answer her. The action caused the man to topple over, and she barely scampered back out of the way before she squished her. Her heart sped up like a rabbits, hammering away inside her chest as she stared at the still figure of the guy, and when a woman caught sight of the fallen man and came over to investigate, she made the mistake of looking at the child beside him first.

The lady toppled over too, stiff as a board, and joined the man on the floor. Andrea shrieked and ran for it, frightened beyond measure and not understanding in the least what was happening. She didn't make it far, before running face first into someone's leg. The nine year old let out a soft oof! and dropped back onto her rump, frightened tears running down her cheeks.

Vicente was on a mission. It had been a full day since he had found himself like this, in his young body, apparently having regressed in age by SEVERAL years. And while every fiber of his being wanted to be looking for clarification as to what happened, as well as a cure, Vicente did not have that on the mind. Instead, he was looking for a way to make this last. He didn’t want to age again, he didn’t want to have to return to the person he was, who was apparently cold, heartless, and a monster. He wanted his second chance at life.

But, without knowing the exactly how long these effects were going to last, he couldn’t just sit around and do nothing. He needed to know what was going on and how he could prolong this, or even make it permanent.

The first step was looking for the boy in the picture that he and Megan had found in his apartment. She said that he looked familiar, that it was more than likely him who she saw moments before he was found in his young state. The boy was a target and Vicente (or his older self) managed to jot down locations where the boy frequented. That was why he was here, at the moment.

Not long after waking up from his night with Megan, Vicente managed to sneak out of the apartment and left her a note that he would be back. He needed to take care of something. Honestly Vicente didn’t know when he returned if he would even find her there. He would just have to wait and find out. But this was something he had to do.

His night had been sleepless, wondering if the second he closed his eyes he would find himself an older man again. A man who had sacrificed his youth and life to spill the blood of whomever he was pointed at. He wasn’t much more than an attack dog. Well, he was going to change it. The gods gave him this chance and he was not going to waste it.

Having already been to the arcade without finding hide nor hair of the boy, Vicente decided he would check the next place on his list…the food court at the New York Mall. Apparently the boy, though homeless, had a fondness for the corndogs here and always managed to get at least one or two from kindly patrons that did not want to simply turn him in. Unfortunately, he didn’t see the boy…but, he did run across something very interesting.

At the edge of the foodcourt, Vicente had been eyeing every single person who was sitting, standing, talking, or laughing as he tried to find the boy. Instead, his eyes settled on a young girl with snakes in her hair. He nearly passed glancing at her but it was the withering of a particularly large snake in her hair that made him pause on her.

Quetzalcoatl! he gasped. The feathered serpent! She must have been blessed by the great god of gods! He could only stare at her in slight awe as she sniffled and looked around in a completely confused manner. He too knew that sentiment all too well. But what was most interesting was that as some good Samaritan attempted to help her, one moment he was standing and the next he was paralyzed. He tipped over like a cheap statue. This was interesting; and it continued to be so as he watched another woman run up to help, but one look at the girl and she too grew rigid and fell over.

In a panic the young girl ran. Vicente would have normally just watched the young girl go, but she was blessed by the highest of the gods! He had to intervene. As he walked towards her, he suddenly paused as he caught the sight of someone else running. A small boy, with glasses (or he thought he saw glasses) charged out of the back door of the mall and into the parking lot. Vicente half-considered following, just to double check if that was the boy, when he felt a soft thump against his shin.

Confused, he glanced down to find the young girl sitting on her rear in, obviously terrified and sniffling up a storm. One blessed by a god so powerful should never be in such a state. He knelt down but made sure to avoid looking at her face. Whatever happened to those people, that seemed to be the source of the problem.

Kneeling down in front of her, Vicente offered one of his massive, strong hands, and smiled both warmly and respectfully.

“Hello, child. Do you need help?”

The thing she had run into turned out to be a man. A very big man. A really, big, scary man!

She trembled slightly, kicking backward with her feet, but stopped when he knelt down to her level... err, at least, as close to her level as one sized like him could get. She looked at him, not really noticing that he was actively avoiding her eyes, and sniffled. He didn't immediately fall over on her... so maybe it was okay if she talked to him.

Then again, he didn't look as nice as the man in the suit had, and her daddy always told her not to talk to strange people. Her eyes widened slightly as a realization sank in... he had also told her never to leave the house, or she would get taken far away!

The fear that maybe she had disobeyed him, and that was why she was lost in this big place hit her like a sack of bricks, and she wailed. New tears streaking down her face. The man who was speaking to her, she could understand him alright, but she still didn't trust him at all! For all she knew, he was the man her father had always warned her about!

She muttered a few things in her native language, thick accent flowing off her tongue like water, and looked at him again as she wiped at a cheek. "..do not know where I am...." She worked to fit her sentences together properly, the effort showing on her face. Struggling for a moment with translating words that she was still in the process of learning, she went over them in her head like she had been taught and wrinkled her nose in disdain. . "A.. boy, he is mean! He hurt me..." She sniffled again, her small face filled with confusion, fear, and a tiny hint of anger, and pointed in the direction he had ran. It was hard to concentrate on both speaking, and crying. So she gulped once more, her lips trembling in a child like manner, and attempted to force herself to stop crying... at least for a little while.

The more she spoke, remembering the many lessons her mother and father were teaching her, the easier it got to form the proper English words with her tongue.... like she had already learned it somehow, somewhere. Andrea looked back at the offered hand, before reaching out to take it gingerly. Surely, the bad man her father told her about would not help her... right? Bad men were mean... and ugly, and they did terrible things... Not helped little girls to their feet and asked if they needed things. That was a good deed, as her mother had told her!

The many snakes in her hair, which had been shrunk to child like sizes with her body, wiggled and stared up at the stranger with beady little eyes. The once great white snake still sat around her shoulders, half hanging off. It was fully the length of her body, having shrunk less than the others, and was more interested in the various people shuffling around behind her to pay any attention to the man Andrea was talking to.

"Are... you bad man? ...I wanna go home.. ..Am not, um.. suppose'ta be outside." She didn't let go of the hand that had been offered, latching onto one of his fingers instead, once she was on her feet. The dark glasses in her hand once again caught her attention, and she lifted them up to look at them. They seemed... familiar, but she couldn't figure out how. They were probably something she had seen before, on tv or in a magazine... Carefully, as if she would break them by being too rough, she plopped them onto the bridge of her nose to make herself feel better, like she was dressing up, and looked around. They wobbled as she turned her chin, being too big for her head, and she tugged on the man's finger.

"...papa will be very angry if am not home..."

Vicente knelt and held a hand out for the young girl but he did not dare to look her directly in the eyes. After having seen a pair of people already go down, more than likely for looking at her, the assassin did not want to share their fate. Not when this young child, this being blessed by Quetzalcoatl himself, was in need of assistance. The gods had already granted him his second chance at life, maybe this was a test in order to make sure that he was still thankful towards them. And he really was.

He would not abandon the child. Not even when he was so close to finding that boy that may or may not have had anything to do with this. The girl blessed by the highest of his gods came first.

>> "..do not know where I am…A…boy, he is mean! He hurt me..."

Vicente arched a brow. The boy had hurt her? He watched as she pointed in the direction of the door that he had just seen the kid with the glasses bolt from. It had to be the same boy! But, why would he hurt her? Why would he attack a daughter of Quetzalcoatl?

He turned his attention to face the direction and door that the young boy had ran through. He was so close. He could probably catch up with the boy. If he bolted right now, he knew that he could make it but he did not want to leave the Quetzalcoatl child behind. Her fingers were curled around his and Vicente turned back to face the young child. He was going to continue avoid her gaze when he noticed that she was wearing dark shades over her eyes…or at least trying to…

>> "Are... you bad man? ...I wanna go home.. ..Am not, um.. suppose'ta be outside."

He smiled, warmly in response. Was he a bad man? Maybe…once he was. Yesterday, before he leapt backwards through his age, the answer was more than likely yes. But was he still now? Now that he knew he was capable of being a monster, would he still consider himself to be one? Vicente couldn’t answer that question. But, since he did not want the young child to fear, he shook his head as he still shot her a warm smile.

“No, mija,” he said. “I’m not bad, just…different.” he said. He was thankful to see the glasses over her eyes.

>> "...papa will be very angry if am not home..."

He nodded. Gently he patted his hand as he leaned over, as if sharing a secret with her.

“Tell you what, help me find someone…and I’ll help you get home. Deal?” he said. He didn’t flinch away from her snakes, nor was he terrified by the color of her skin. Instead he looked as kindly, though still somewhat scary, as any man of his size and stature could. “My name is Vicente,” he said with a grin as he shook the little girl’s hands that clung onto his fingers. “Do you have a name?”

“No, mija, I’m not bad, just…different. Tell you what, help me find someone…and I’ll help you get home. Deal? My name is Vicente, Do you have a name?”

"...Meeha....Me-ha? Meeeha." She played with that word for a moment, casting her eyes down as she concentrated. It was an unfamiliar word... one she was sure she had never heard before. It felt funny on her tongue. "What is... Meeha?" She blinked, her mind wandering completely off subject, and she cast a curious look around herself, before quickly drawing her attention back. The fear of the whole situation she had found herself in was wearing off little by little, and her curiosity was growing.

"...Veh...ch.." She paused, before even finishing, and her features screwed up cutely. She did not like these strange words. Things that were hard to pronounce to someone so new to a language.... and she told him exactly so, with a few sternly mumbled sentences in Greek. "Vishentay?" She shrugged inwardly, struggling with her c's and A's a little, and gave up for the moment. Whatever she had just garbled sounded close enough to what he had called called himself.

"Me 'lene An-....um...no, I am Andrea...." She stated, dropping a little polite half curtsy, while still latched onto his hand. Everything inside her wanted to shift back to what she knew, her mother's tongue, but as of yet she hadn't heard a single familiar word spoken from any of the strangers around her. They all had the same dialect, the same funny way of shaping words that she aught to have been able to say. She was starting to wonder just how far from home she was. Maybe she had just wandered out into town, and her house would not be that far away? The Greek eyed the doorway the little boy had run out of, fidgeting on her feet. ... maybe it would smell like home outside? Like salt on the breeze, and she would be able to tell Vishentay where she was...

Turning her chin as a commotion started up behind her. Shielded orange eyes landed back on the forms of the man and woman who had first tried to help her. One had woken up, and was busy trying to wake the other. People still walked on past, their noses shoved in papers and books, with strange thin pieces of plastic help to their ears. The young Greek whined quietly, even though no one had yet turned to seek her out, and attempted to drag the giant man who was helping her away.

"Deel!" She wanted to leave those strange people behind, because the man who was helping her, who she would help too, (because that's what good little girls do!) was much nicer than he looked. "I am different too!" She stated, a little shyly, and looked back up at him once she was comfortable again. "Ma'ma say I am special... um, Aprosdióristos... Are you too?... Who are we finding?" She could feel question after question bubbling up inside. So many, that she was afraid if she asked them all too quickly they would come out as utter nonsense, massacred by her accent and inability to form words right... And if that happened, she knew Father would give her that look, shake his head and she'd have to start all over with her books again. and she reaaally didn't want to have to start over!"

"...Where are we? " She questioned, ceasing her tugging after a moment, as her attention turned to attempting to match how he walked with her much smaller strides. It was proving very difficult, but she was up for the challenge.

>> "...Meeha....Me-ha? Meeeha…What is... Meeha?"

Vicente arched a brow as he looked down at the young girl, struggling to pronounce a word. It took a second or two for him to realize that she was actually repeating the Spanish word that he had just spoken. She seemed to be really having some difficulty with it. And while listening to her talk previously, it was obvious that English was not her first language. But just what was that accent?

>> "...Veh...ch.. Vishentay? Me 'lene An-....um...no, I am Andrea...."

Still kneeling, Vicente nodded his head with a smirk. That was probably as close as she was going to get with his name. In a way it was actually kind of cute, but judging by how terrified the young girl was, it really was not all giggles. Quetzalcoatl’s blessed was lost, in trouble, and she didn’t know what was going on. The assassin felt that it was his duty to protect the young girl and take her to safety, but at the same time, he needed her to find this boy. She knew what he looked like and if it was the same boy, he needed that confirmation.

He smirked as he slightly bowed his head. “Nice to meet you, Andrea.”

The girl was innocent and terrified. Vicente doubted that his older self would have given a single care about her. Well, he was not going to be like that anymore. A new chance to be someone he always wanted to be, someone how had a chance at life, he was not going to waste it. He would help this blessed child get home, and seek out the boy who did this to him. That was why he offered his deal; killing two birds with one stone…

>> "Deel! I am different too! Ma'ma say I am special... um, Aprosdióristos... Are you too?... Who are we finding? ...Where are we? "

So many questions and so fast. Vicente grinned, in a nice manner, as he nodded to her first question. He knew that he was blessed by the gods, just as she was, but he was not going talk about that at the moment. There was obviously too much going on in her mind right now, too much confusion for her to make any sense of what he would be saying anyways. Therefore he would keep that secret for now and simply agree that he was just as different as her.

In regards to her other questions…

“I’m looking for a boy. With glasses. He hurt me too. I think it was the same boy that hurt you. I just need to talk to him,” he started. But then he sighed as he got into the worst answer. He had a feeling that she was not supposed to be here at all. “Andrea,” he said calmly. “You’re in New York City. Are you supposed to be here?” he asked cautiousy…

“I’m looking for a boy. With glasses. He hurt me too. I think it was the same boy that hurt you. I just need to talk to him,”

Her cheeks browned slightly, little mouth flattening out into a thin little line. Her mother often told her that it was a trait she got from her father, she honestly did not see it. "Yes! Glasses... He stared, was very rude." She nodded her head in agreement with herself, and pointed the way he had run. "Mother always say that when a child is bad, punishment is...re... required?... yes, required."

She tugged a little more, he didn't budge. Maybe he was tired? She turned back, snakes wiggling in her hair, and eyed him curiously.

“Andrea, You’re in New York City. Are you supposed to be here?”

The child stared for a moment, putting two and two together slowly in her mind. New York...? Where was New York?

She dragged up a mental map, and thought as hard as she could until all of the lessons in geography her parents had put her in paid off. New York was in the Americas... The States, as her father called them... The brown drained from her cheeks, leaving her looking even more reminiscent of a corpse than she had before.

"...New...York?" She repeated, willing him to shake his head and tell her something else. She didn't like that answer! She could feel tears welling up again, and curled in on herself, too shocked to even weep standing up. Her grasp on his finger slipped, and she curled her arms around her knees.

She was... across the world... There was a whole, huge, GIANT SEA between herself and her house. The Serpents in her hair coiled back, reacting to the strong wash of emotion flowing through her. The seven as a whole hissed and spat, too young for venom sacs to have developed, thankfully. She opened her mouth to say something, to ask more question maybe... but all that came out was an upset blast of Greek words, thrown together in hasty sentences.

Where was her mother?! Her father!? Had she really wandered off, and would she really never see them again...?

"... This is not home..." She sobbed, lifting her chin to stare up at him through tilted sunglasses. "Papa said not to leave the house... I must have though... He will be so mad! Ma'ma will be so worried! I... am supposed to be home, in Greece... not the Americas."

She rubbed at one cheek with the palm of her hand. "... I will not ever see home again... Papa warned me."

Vicente arched a brow as he tilted his head a little to observe the young girl. One look at her and he could instantly recognize that mark of confusion on her face. It just looked so similar, like, yesterday he felt exactly how she looked now. The haze, the inability to make sense of the situation, the confusion, the fear, maybe a little twinge of anger, but for Andrea there seemed to mostly be fear behind her eyes. He could tell as she was making the connections that this was more than likely going to come to a bad end.

>> "...New...York?"

He nodded. Then he began to wince at the look that was coming across her face. She was suddenly realization that absolutely nothing was what it should have been. Maybe she was not always so young? Maybe she was a victim of the boy, the power, whatever it was that had affected him too? It was a long shot. Maybe she was just another lost girl? Victim of a kidnapping? There was no way to be sure but that look on her face…it just seemed too familiar.

Then…he was hit with tearful babbling of a language that he simply didn’t recognize. Vicente, tried as he might, couldn’t pick out a single word of that that was familiar. It was all Greek to him. But as her sniffling began to die down, slowly he realized that she was starting to make a little bit more sense….

>> "... This is not home...Papa said not to leave the house... I must have though... He will be so mad! Ma'ma will be so worried! I... am supposed to be home, in Greece... not the Americas."

Greece? She was supposed to be in Greece? Though Vicente had never been he knew that that was a LONG way off from where she was supposed to be. And if that was really her home and she knew nothing else, then he definitely could not leave her alone.

>> "... I will not ever see home again... Papa warned me."

Vicente waited until the young girl was calm enough to understand him. When he finally felt that she was, he spoke as calmly and as gently as he could to the young child.

“Andrea, I don’t know what happened to you. But I’m also going through the same thing, which is why I need to find that boy,” Vicente explained. “But, listen, calm down, okay? I’m your friend. And I promise, I will help you to get home. I swear I will.”

“Andrea, I don’t know what happened to you. But I’m also going through the same thing, which is why I need to find that boy, But, listen, calm down, okay? I’m your friend. And I promise, I will help you to get home. I swear I will.”

She sniffled, but nodded all the same. She was right, she need to calm down. If he had gone through the same thing and had been hurt too, then she needed to be just as strong as he was being! He wasn't crying or anything! With half of a pout, she stood again, and tried to pull herself together.

"...Okay. I promise not cry more." She slapped a determined look on her chubby face, and pushed her glasses back up. They were kind of annoying, but for some reason they felt right sitting on the bridge of her nose. Sloth calmed, as well as the other serpents, and the large white snake curled defensively around her shoulders. His scales on the skin of her neck made her jump a little, but she got used to it quickly.

After wiping her eyes, again.. for the last time, she turned and took a look around. The boy had gone somewhere, she couldn't see him... but she could easily remember what he looked like. With that image in mind, she turned back to Vicente, and smiled. "Will find boy... We help each other." Sloth's tongue flicked out, and he pointed his head in one direction. The other snakes followed, and she felt a sudden tug at her scalp. "Ow!"

The little girl huffed, reaching up to tug one of the snakes back, and received a little nip for her efforts. They tugged again, orange eyes and pink tongues pointed in the same direction. She didn't even realize what they were trying to do, but took a few steps toward the door that led outside to stop the incessant tugging. "Stamáta ! Stamatí̱ste na mou traváei to! Ponáei..! Tha akolouthí̱soun ... O̱ch! Eípa óti tha akolouthí̱soun.." She shouted, asking them as politely as a little girl with annoying serpents in her hair possibly could, for them to stop tugging at her. Since they were a rather... new... addition to her already strange looks, she hadn't quite gotten used to them just being there. It was just so shocking to wake up and find yourself suddenly in a far away place, with new things attached to your body. Mean, hissy things.

They tugged again, and with a wince she turned back to latch onto Vicente's hand again. She wasn't going anywhere with him, now that she trusted him. In such a strange place, she didn't want to wander around by herself. Surely there were mean people, bad people, who would try and take her away more. If that was even possible at this point. "I... think they want to follow. Boy went that way anyway..." She led the way, if a little more slowly than the large man she had a hold of.

"...How did boy hurt you?" She question after a moment. He didn't seem injured... but, then again, she didn't look injured either. In fact... the pain she had felt was already gone. She felt perfectly fine save for the obvious problems. Her eyes alighted on the strangest of sights all of the sudden, and she stumbled to a stop. Her question forcefully shoved to the back of her mind.

There.. there was a walrus. A walrus man... with floppy fins for feet and hands, dressed in a t-shirt and ill fitting jeans- with suspenders to hold them up-... and he was eating an ice cream. Andrea froze, and stared. She stared like she had never stared before in her life, at the other mutant who shared the pain of being different all of the time.

"....What is that?" She asked, and pointed, rather rudely, at the man. He was the first thing she had seen in her young life, that looked visibly different. Like her! Excitement bloomed in her chest, overshadowing the fear and pain. She let go Vicente's hand, and hurried toward the man, snakes bouncing as she ran. The small Greek stopped before him, glasses hanging off the bridge of her nose, and stared up with wide Orange eyes. "Hullo..." She greeted, voice full of wonder, and reached out to poke him in the belly with a finger.

Walrus man, with ice cream smeared in his whiskers, was startled by her sudden appearance. He locked eyes with her, tusks slathered with chocolate and vanilla, and froze. Andrea continued staring, and poked him again. He hadn't fallen over like the last ones, so she didn't realize anything had happened to him.

"....You are fuzzy." She stated, and giggled. And reached for one of his flippers.

Andrea seemed to compose herself and Vicente had to be thankful for that. The young Greek looked like she was finally getting herself under control, no longer a sniffling mess, or sitting on the ground like a panicked child; she looked nearly ready to tackle this situation that she had gotten into. Though it was unfair to ask so much of her at this terrifying stage in the game, Vicente knew that he was going to need her help to locate the boy. He doubted that she actually knew where he was, but at least with her help in picking him out, he could finally learn something a bit more about him.

>> "...Okay. I promise not cry more…Will find boy... We help each other--Ow!"

Vicente nodded firmly. It was good to have a partner in this little trek that he was about to undertake. But before he could say anything, suddenly he watched as the young girl winced and began to be pulled away. It seemed as if the withering mass of snakes had been intent on heading in one direction and they were going to take Andrea with them, whether she wanted to go or not.

Fingers curled around his hand and suddenly Vicente felt himself being tugged in that direction as well. He had apparently won enough of the young girl’s trust for her to not want to be led off without him. Standing to his full height, which towered over her, Vicente followed along as Andrea tugged on his fingers and led the way. Wherever those little snakes were going, they were definitely going to drag her there, willingly or not.

>> ""I... think they want to follow. Boy went that way anyway...How did boy hurt you?"

He nodded. Maybe however those snakes worked, they had an inkling of wanting to find that boy as well? For whatever reason that may be, the assassin would go along with it. But before there could get very deep into their journey, the girl suddenly paused. For a second Vicente thought that maybe there was trouble and he readied himself. But the girl pointed off to the side and he followed her pointing until it led to a rather robust man.

>> "....What is that?"

“I…don’t know…” Vicente responded.

Peering closely, he slowly began to piece together that the man was not simply just large, he was also gifted…and fairly physically. His thick bushy mustache and tusks were what gave him away. It was obvious that his gift had to do something with the walrus. Though what god or goddess would bless him in such a way…he’d never know.

Andrea ran off to look closer at the man, giggling a little and trying to start up a conversation. Vicente, awkwardly, kind of just hung off to the side, not wanting to interrupt anything. He was not in the mood to really strike up a conversation with a random stranger. But as he stood off to the side, waiting for Andrea to get her curiosity sated, Vicente suddenly realized that the large, ice cream smeared man…wasn’t moving. Eyebrow arched he stepped closer to investigate…

>> "....You are fuzzy.”

“Andrea…?” Vicente muttered as he slowly came up to her side. In doing so, he glanced at the large, man who stood unmoved. “I’m, uh, sorry sir. I hope she didn’t bother…you?”

Vicente also poked him…and realized just how rigid the walrus was.

The walrus didn't reply, but his ice cream, started to drip and fall off of his cone.

Andrea was just about to start pushing at him, to see if she could get a response from the giant round mammal man, since he seemed to be ignoring her statement, when she spotted someone who looked like the kid they were after off behind him. She pointed, the English words for 'There he is! Get him!' evading her in her excitement, and glanced at Vicente.

The nine year old moved around the walrus man, bare feet taking her swiftly toward the doors she had just seen the exit. The Walrus suddenly jolted, blinked, and looked up from the spot Andrea had been standing. He spotted the ...erg, giant man before him, and raised one whiskery eyebrow. "....um, hello? Do you need something?"

He didn't remember anything past the child capturing his attention, but since she appeared to he gone- replaced by this odd, imposing man- he struggled it off.

Andrea circled back around before she hit the doors, remembering that she needed Vicente with her, and raced back. She paused by his side, glasses once again righted, and latched onto a hand once more. The walrus noticed her, recognition flashed across his face... and then he noticed his ice cream too late. It slipped off and splatted on the tile floor. Andrea wrinkled her nose, stepped back from the mess before it could get on her toes, and tugged at Vicente's hand.

"Goodbye Fuzzy!... Oh... um... you have stuff on your face. There, and there... and there..." She pointed out each, being a very helpful child, then turned and headed for the doors. Outside somewhere, amidst the hustle and bustle of the street, she was absolutely sure that the boy they were after was wandering around. Of course, it had looked like he had been holding hands with some woman... but that was besides the point! It had looked like him, however brief a glimpse, and she didn't want to let Vicente down!

They hit the sidewalk outside, and Andrea spotted the back of the boys head, bobbing not to far away. She hurried toward him, dropping her grip on the man's hand. The Greek ran around the boy and his female companion, stopping right in the way, and threw her hands out to the side with a triumphant giggle. "Got you!...Now y-..oh... you are not him.." She blinked, staring at the brown haired boy who was staring at her in a shocked manner.
The woman, who as it turned out was his mother, put herself protectively between her child and the wild mutant girl who had appeared out of nowhere, eying the snakes in her hair cautiously.

The woman's eyes turned to Vicente, and her face screwed up into a parental look of contempt. "Sir, please keep your child in control!" She huffed, collecting her boy, and stomped off in the opposite direction from them. Andrea was disappointed, if only until she looked around at the outside surroundings. The buildings were.... huuuge! It was so much busier than her quiet street, and there were soooo many people mulling about! She felt a pang of fear shoot through her at the prospect of getting lost again, and latched back onto Vicente. She didn't think she would be letting go of him anymore... Sloth and Ira picked up on the scent again, a tad bit stronger than before, and they turned together in one direction. Andre turned her head also, blinking.

"...I think.. he is that way?" She pointed, and tilted her head up the man helping her. Their target was a smart one, choosing to stick to the more shaded, darker areas , rather than walk around a busy street. He knew that there was the chance he could be spotted if he was out in the open. The serpents in her hair were following his trail, however. The faint smell of him based on places he had brushed up against. Unfortunately, they were being led further from light and people, drawn into darker, tighter places. Andrea gripped the man's hand tighter, unconsciously, and reminded herself again to stick close. After a while, Sloth and the others lost the scent... and she found herself suddenly lost in the search, for some reason. But! She was at least happy that they had stopped tugging a her...

"...Where are we now?"

Vicente looked awkwardly at the large, walrus man as he tried to understand what was going on. Having just gotten out of his daze from staring at Andrea (Vicente still had not really figured out the connection there) he found himself staring into the confused eyes for the blessed creature that had ice cream slathered all over his huge, bushy mustache. Strong and dangerous as Vicente was, unfortunately none of that trained him properly for being caught poking the extra large mutant in the belly when he was frozen.

Thankfully it was the intervention of Andrea, returning to his side that broke the awkward silence between the two adults. His hand was taken and Vicente blinked as he looked down to see the young Greek with the sunglasses over her eyes. That’s right, they were after someone, weren’t they?

But Andrea’s attention was focused squarely on the walrus man as she beamed innocently up at him, waved, and pointed out a few…things…

>> "Goodbye Fuzzy!... Oh... um... you have stuff on your face. There, and there... and there..."

Andrea then rushed off and began to tug Vicente by the fingers. The assassin muttered the quickest of apologies to the walrus before he regained his momentum and chased after Andrea and straight into the outside world of New York City.

The Greek didn’t seem the notice any of the majesty that was around her. With perfect reason too. As Vicente looked around for which direction the Quetzalcoatl child had run, he was surprised that he saw her suddenly throw herself onto the back of another boy. She was apparently quite enthusiastic about catching him! Vicente dashed after her but slowly came to a stop as Andrea came to a realization…

>> "Got you!...Now y-..oh... you are not him.."

>> "Sir, please keep your child in control!"

Vicente eyed the angry mother, smirked and nodded as he gently took Andrea by the hand. He had to admit, she had the makings of an excellent soccer player. He nodded in agreement to the woman but said nothing in response. The last thing he needed was for police to suddenly show up because this mother wanted to press charges or something like that. So he feigned apology and watched as she stormed away. He smirked though, as he glanced down to Andrea.

“Nice job.”

But the snakes began to pull again and suddenly Vicente was being led another direction, this one, though, was much more dark and far more ominous. The assassin eyed the dark corners and checked his belt. He had at least two knives on him. If he needed to defend either himself, or Andrea, he should be able to do so without harm.

>> "...I think.. he is that way?...Where are we now?"

“Looks like we’re heading into the alleys of the city,” he answered.

New York, tons of buildings, all of which were pressed together with a maze of gaps and passages between them. He had no idea where they were walking to, but he was going to have to trust that Andrea’s snakes were actually leading them where they needed to go. But, when Andrea began to lead too far ahead, Vicente squeezed her hand. Slowly he pulled her back to his side as he eyed the dark corners fearlessly.

“Andrea,” he whispered. “Stay behind me.” He began to usher her behind him as they turned another dark and shadowy corner. Peering down the length of it, he paused…and swore he saw a reflection of glasses…

“Andrea, Stay behind me.”

The nine year old look up to him, in the process of removing the baggy glove from her freehand, large orange eyes wide behind her glasses. Was something wrong? Maybe he had seen something she hadn't... something scary? She glanced back to the darkness of the ally around them, and her serpents went oddly still. They were listening, not as you or I do mind you, but as a snake does. Many delicate tongue flicked out to taste the air, and they turned their noses this way and that to catch sight of the prey that eluded them Somewhere.. there was a small child. A boy, who's scent still barely lingered in the air.

One swift puff of wind and it vanished completely... but not before voices echoed out to them from further back in the darkness. Andrea tilted her head as the faint words reached her, and gripped Vicente's hand a little tighter. Boogie men of all shapes and sizes jumped to mind, and she shivered.

"Eh... Toni, we gotta be serious here. This' a big job ye know? So don't go @&^%in' it up, okay?"

The girls ears burned for a moment once it registered in her naive little mind what had just been said. Potty mouths! A bunch of dirty ole' potty mouths! Mother would have grabbed whoever had said that by the ear, and dragged them off to the bathroom for a good mouth washing with vegetable soap!

"Ey ey, why you always gotta talk to me like that Tony?" Another voice chimed in, as the owners moseyed closer. From where she stood, it sounded like someone was shuffling through things. Bangs and clanging followed each question, as if they were searching behind things for something... or someone.

"Why you always gotta make me talk to you like that?" Was the quip of a reply back. Three shapes became discernible to the Greek and her shaded vision, though her older companion would have probably spotted them much quicker than her. Andrea stared at the three men... of whom was barely more than twenty, in a confused manner. They spotted Vicente and his small green companion, and froze in the middle of the alley, some ways away.

"Ey, Anthony? Who're these a#$%&*es?"

Her ears burned again, and she took a half step forward, raising one small un-gloved finger to point at them. "You are very rude men! You are not supposed to swear in presence of a lady!"[/i]

The three shared a quick unbelieving look, before bursting into riotous laughter. "This freak serious?" Anthony cackled, and leaned against a wooden crate that had been stacked against the side of the alley. A lid that had been leaning against it haphazardly was jolted and toppled over... and someone squeaked in surprise. A small boy darted out from his hiding place in the shadows, panic clear on his face and fear in his eyes. He stood like a deer in headlights between Vicente and Andrea... and the three other men.

Andrea recognized him instantly. "It is him! We found him!" She tugged at Vicente's hand and bounced on her toes. The boy she was pointing at focused on her for a moment, then Vicente, and one of the men strode forward to grab him by the arm. "Whad'ya mean you found him? We've been chasing this little brat all day!.. and now that we found ya, ya little pest, You're comin' with us to meet the boss... Don't struggle or I-" A blob of saliva, the biggest the boy could possibly make, splattered messily smack in the middle of the Tony's face. Moments later, he released his grip on the boy and dropped to his knees as the pain of a very strange transformation overtook him.

Andrea found herself back behind one of Vicente's legs, peeking out from behind with horror etched on her face, and the two other Tony's raced forward to try and grab the boy and their newly transformed buddy. Before the the man and his green sidekick could.

Vicente had caught the scent before Andrea had ever been able to acknowledge it. It was not of blood or anything smelled through a supernatural sense of it. Instead it was the smell of very cheap, Italian cologne. He smelled it often enough whenever he was around various agents that Los Lobos tended to work with so he could only assume that these had to be low level enforcers. At first he thought that maybe he and Andrea had stumbled across something that they shouldn’t have. But due to the persistence of Andrea’s snakes, it was evident that they had be on the right track.

It became more apparently as Vicente listened to the men tipping over boxes and poking around in pursuit of something. From the snippets of their conversations that he managed to catch, it was obvious that they were looking not just for something, for someone.

But it did not take long for the three men to notice the presence of the large, muscular man, or the little green Greek. They had whipped around and glared at the duo. They could not have been anymore clichéd in their dress: suits, slicked back hair, they were trying too hard to fight into the idea of what a “mob” should be. Yet the assassin did not believe that that made them any less dangerous.

>> “Ey, Anthony? Who're these a#$%&*es?"

He growled. But before he could come up with any retort, the fiery child of Quetzalcoatl had stepped forward and chastised the irritated looking men.

>> "You are very rude men! You are not supposed to swear in presence of a lady!"

>> "This freak serious?"

They made a move and suddenly a discovery was made. There was a squeak and a small boy in glasses came tumbling out of from a crate. It took only a second for Vicente to recognize the boy from the photograph that he had found back in his apartment. That was definitely the boy. He still did not know why he was on the run, or what really made the boy so important other than the possibility of his involvement in turning both himself and, possibly, Andrea so young. But soon his thoughts would have an answer.

>> "It is him! We found him!

>> “Whad'ya mean you found him? We've been chasing this little brat all day!.. and now that we found ya, ya little pest, You're comin' with us to meet the boss... Don't struggle or I-"

A lob of spit shot from the boy’s mouth and struck a man across the eyes. He shrieked as he fell the ground, shriveling and changing before their eyes. Before they knew it, he had transformed, painfully, into a teenager of about 16 or 17. Vicente eyed the boy, wondering if this was the exact thing that had happened to him. It had to be. It was the only thing that made sense. So the boy must have been blessed as well. And it would explain why his employer was after him. Who wouldn’t want youth withing spitting distance at all times (no pun intended).

But it was time to get to business.

“Stay back,” he growled to Andrea.

Charging forward, the assassin came upon the two men that were struggling to get a hold of the twisting, biting child in the glasses. As Vicente stepped up, the assassin roared as he lashed out with a fist and connected solidly with one of the men. His fist drove into the man’s jaw and sent him careening backwards. But in doing so, Vicente had taken his eyes off the other. He just barely noticed the man lunge at him. To found that solid mass that flew, Vicente twisted his body just enough that he caught the man and went tumbling backwards with a snarl.

Back met ground and Vicente roared at the man who struggled to gain the upper hand. Pandemonium would soon ensue…

The little Greek didn't know it, but she hated violence jut as much when she was younger, as she did when she was older. The child watched, peeking through her fingers as Vicente took one man off of his feet with a solid punch.

She also watched as the other took her friend down to the pavement. The command he had given her, to stay back, kept her rooted to the spot for a moment. Only a moment, until the part of her that wanted to him the nice man overwhelmed the part of her that her parents had instilled within. The mean man was going to hurt Vicente! She needed to help him, and though she knew she would get in trouble for disobeying a direct order from an adult... she couldn't stop herself.

"Leave him alone!"

The boy with the glasses flew past her as she started toward the fight, but she paid him no mind. Vicente did want to talk to him... but the scuffle was more important. She stopped at the side of the man who was on top of her friend and reached out toward him. One gloved hand latched onto the cloth of his coat, while the other- the one she had taken the glove off of- was slapped onto his ear. She pushed, and he hissed loudly at the pain she caused him, reeling a little from her touch. The ear and surrounding skin was ruined, dead and fully hardened by the time he lifted a hand and swatted her away sharply.

She came back at him though swiftly, unrelenting and just as determined as ever, and tried a new tactic by latching one hand onto his hair, the other onto his coat, and pulling and tugging with all of her might. Sloth decided to help, by suddenly striking out and sinking the many rows of needle teeth into one of the man's arm. His coat didn't stop them from sinking into flesh, and causing a decent amount of pain.

Anthony pushed himself up onto one elbow, rubbing his aching jaw, and spotted the scuffle. He knew that his cousin could handle himself in a fight, he'd seen it on many occasions. Dark eyes scooted to where his other companion sat, in a daze over having just been aged backwards. With a few choice cuss words, he pushed himself to his feet and staggered over, grabbing the kid up by the arm.

"Tony! Keep that guy busy, we're going after the kid!" He hurried off the way the boy had gone, dragging the young confused cousin with him.