John had lived in New York city for a few months now. His days have been spent in a haze of training, working and trying not to get lost along the way. The city air was not agreeing with him, he had decided to wear a cone mask whenever he went jogging. It was a double edged sword, filtered some of the bad stuff out but made it harder to breathe and keep pace. John's trainer claimed he would get used to it, that in the end it would be even better than regular jogging, the lack of air would make his cardiovascular system work harder giving him more stamina in the ring. John was sure he would get there eventually but for now he was having a hard time.

But tonight there was no more training for him to do, and he had the night off work. He had no messages on his phone and his trainer said to take a break for a few days, so no late night gym. Chilling on the couch was not a option, he didn't even own a T.V. , but he owned a computer. A quick internet search later John had dressed up and was walking to a local club. Boxers are not allowed to drink alcohol, but he had a few days off training and told himself he wouldn't drink that much.

Inside the club was not as cramped as John expected, it being Friday night in the city and all. This suited him fine, no one had fun in a cramped place with guys sweating all over you and people stepping on your feet, unless you were into that or something. He decided on a beer and sat down at the bar for a while to get his bearings. The music was great and loud and people were enjoying themselves.

Off to a good start I guess. He thought to himself.

Allison, as a general rule, did not go to clubs. Or bars. Or movies, or really anything other than isolated parks, work, and errands. There was just something about being in a solely social environment and still being by herself that made Allison feel more out of place than usual.

Allison also, as a general rule, did not get possessed by slugs, brainwashed into thinking she had something important to do, and have a breakdown when the brainwashing got undone. Especially that last bit about breakdowns, she really preferred to avoid those. As such, the no-social-area rule was quickly broken down and stomped on the instant she started thinking too much. Even though she had to be at work (probably, hopefully, she still wasn’t sure they wouldn’t just fire her) at six the next morning, even though she had no one to go with, even though she didn’t even know where she was going. Out, looking for something to do, was as far as she got before she was out the door in jeans and a red tee shirt (tight, fitting, alluring; warning, danger, stay out of my way), still covered in the black and shining red angular abstract tattoos she’d been building on for the last two days, radiating out from her eyes and hands and the back of her neck.

She was going to be seen, anyway. What reaction exactly she’d get, she wasn’t sure, but she’d get a reaction. Good, something more to interact react; more distraction from doing something stupid and reckless that she wasn’t sure what she’d do, but knew was going to happen soon if she didn’t find an outlet for the frustration-shame-rage she’d been trying to ignore.

Squishing slugs, unfortunately, was not an option as she hadn’t seen any, nor did she think that was likely to be enough. The mental images were fun, though.

The first club Allison saw--that she was sure was a club, at least--had her veering for it, crossing the street a bit on the tail end of the light. She ignored the annoyed looks and shout that probably came from a car; no one hit anything anyway, and her thoughts were racing on adrenaline and anticipation. She didn’t really care if she was a few seconds late getting out of a street.

She was pretty sure this was the kind of mindset that got people arrested, but she was also fairly sure she was still aware enough to not actually do anything that stupid. Besides, her choice of clothing hadn’t really factored in the temperature or rain, and she was starting to get noticeably cold. The club was much closer than Sanctuary at this point.

Getting into the club didn’t get any particular reaction that Allison noticed, though she was fairly focused on trying to finger comb some of the water out of her hair. That failed completely, so after a moment she gave up and wandered over to an empty table, dropping into it to watch the room while her hair and clothes (but mostly hair) dried.

Darcy headed straight for the middle of the dance floor. Being Irish she couldn't help but like a good party...and drink.

Getting past the bouncers had been a breeze. They hadn't even asked for ID at the bar. She took this as a good omen and let the music carry her away.

Unfortunately, her power had a different idea of how this night was going to go. Soon all the people surrounding her felt the affects of her aging mutation and most left her isolated on the dance floor while they went to go sit down and have a rest.

Time for another drink she thought annoyed.

Aura had decided to follow Allsion, the girl was prone to danger and Aura liked the look of her. Aura watched as she went into the club and smiled, she knew the owner of the place a she was a mutant as well. The noise and amount of people however were less to Aura's liking, she disliked crowds but felt a strange need to want to be close to Allsion. Aura was unsure why she felt the need to brave such a horrible place but she did anyway.

SHe saw people dancing and although she knew what it was she had no idea how to do it. At least not in any way that would look like combat and she decided causing chaos here was likely a very poor course of action. One the stampeded of people could have easily trampled even with her her Aura going and the other issue was that many people here could have been mutants and so Aura was restricted on just what she could do.

Aura's long black hair trailed her, though it was unkempt it was shiny and healthy and fell just past her waist. She wore a simply black skirt that fell half way to her knee, paired with a silk top that tied in the back to give Aura a fitted look. She was dry by virtue of her Aura, spotting Allsion by her hair she walked over and slipped into a seat across from her. Aura did not understand the nervousness that came to her, though she was pretty sure it was not from the club itself. Twiling a finger around her hair she smiled. "It's been awhile my pretty freind" She said looking over Allsion with her eyes.

John rubbed the back of his neck, relaxed but wondering if he should get up and move around, so as not to look like a wallflower. His short blonde hair wasn't currently that short, he brushed it out of his face and reminded himself he needed another haircut soon. He wore dark blue jeans and a black leather belt around his waist. His silky button down shirt with the collar and un done tie might have been overkill he thought to himself, he didn't want to look like a douche or anything but it's been sitting in his closet for months and had never been used. His shiny black boots that were also collecting dust in his closet had been taken out to for their first test drive. He liked wearing boots in crowded places, they always made him feel powerful.


He was enjoying himself so far. One drink down, so far so good. The last time John could
remember drinking any alcohol at all was nearly six years ago, not that he didn't have friends or wasn't
invited to parties or anything, just that his training kind of took control of his life for a long time. He
spotted quite a number of cuties passing him by, which John didn't know if this was a good sign or a
bad sign, they were here but they obviously weren't here with him. They didn't exactly stop to chat
either.

He inwardly shrugged to himself, honestly he was enjoying himself just chilling at the bar and
taking in the atmosphere. He had always enjoyed parties but never really participated much. He wasn't
much of a talker usually, unless you got him going. He rather sit and think about the people who were
at the party, or in this case the club. How they got there, what lead them here, sometimes his train of
thought would lead him down some fairly philosophical roads.


John blinked as he stared out into the dance floor. Maybe he had drank to fast or was more of a
lightweight than he thought, but he suddenly felt quite tired, as if he came back from a good workout.

Iv'e only had one beer!

John tried to shrug it off , maybe it was the week's training catching up to him.

Darcy gave up on the dance floor. Most of the people had gone to sit down now anyway. This sucks she thought sadly before grinning to herself at the Americanism. I guess that's what vodka does to you. She slalomed her way to the bar. Can I get another vodka and coke? she asked the bar tender, who gladly took her money and made her her request.

She turned to her side and saw a guy (JOHN) stood on his own. Faux confidence leading her, she shouted over the music, "Wotcha thinkin boyo?" yes, she did go more leprechaun when she was tipsy.

Lumen felt out of place in the club lineup almost instantly. It was very clear that the majority of hopeful patrons were born in the 90's- while she was a child of the 80s. She shifted awkwardly but didn't leave. There'd been a few tip off about this place- about possible missing children being spotted- she could no longer ignore it, it had to be checked out.

So there she stood in a form fitting white tank top that would certainly glow under the blacklight and a pair of skinny jeans and boots. The advantage of clubs with black lights was that if for some reason she began to glow- most people wouldnt make anything of it. Her hair -for once- was hanging loose down her back instead of braided in the usual style. It went all the way to her tail bone. Her cell phone was still clipped on a belt around her waist- a more stylish version of her utility belt- and she wore silver hooped earrings.

As usual she'd left Paul a brief note with an explanation.She'd have invited him... but something told her the older than he looks mutant would exactly be comfortable in a place like this- especially if SHE felt out of place. Paul knew Lumen could take care of herself. Besides, this was a fact finding mission. Just a few hours of observation, talking to the locals, and maybe a drink or two... then she'd have all she needed.

She prepared to show her ID but the bouncer waved her in. When she got to him she smiled- this guy worked a daytime job doing mall security and she'd interviewed him previously about the missing kids. He didn't have any info for her, but was helping keep a good eye out. Lumen bobbed her head as a thank you in her usual Irish way and headed on in.

Once inside the music was pounding, and she was most certainly glowing in her very very white skin and top. Hordes of youth were on the dance floor, lounging in chairs, off in the corner playing pool, or leaning against the wall in conversation. If she had to bet money on it she'd say at least half were underage. But hey, she was just an NYPD affiliate, not an actual cop.

Lumen made her way to the nearest end of the bar and propped herself up on the chair looking the least wobbliest. "rum and coke please." she put her money on the table and looked out at the room under her thick dark eye lashes.

Allison’s choice of club hadn’t been the best. It was full of a range of people, most of whom were younger and louder than her, with the exception of a few people who seemed not entirely pleased with the place. On the other hand, no one she knew from school was there, so perhaps her choice was much better than she’d first thought.

And anyway. Rain. She wasn’t going back out until she’d dried off, and been dry for a while.

And, these tables had fascinating designs in them. She didn’t think they’d be quite as fascinating if the club was decently lit, but it wasn’t, so she was only getting fractured glimpses of what she guessed was just abstract swirls of clear and dark lines. It was like watching clouds; there was a spiral, there was a dragon’s head, there was a flash of lightning and a shield, there was a voice....

"It's been awhile my pretty friend."

Allison blinked, looked up, and grinned. “Hi Aura!” ‘Pretty friend’ was... not something she’d been called before, she thought. Normally it was ‘pretty girl,’ or something like that. “Going to rescue me again? From boredom, hopefully.” 'Pretty friend' Allison had no idea what to do with, so it was assumed to be normal.

Aura disliked crowded places in which she could not be sure everyone was in fact a mutant. She felt surrounded and kept looking around. Specks of pink some the size of dime's popped into existence and left as quickly. Her Aura was reflex and it was hard not to keep it entirely off in the club they were in. Aura's natural tendency to note the people around her failed her however and she did her best to focus on Allsion which she achieved mostly with success.

"I would rescue you from anything, including this place....." She said against sweeping the room with her eyes. It was taking her a bit of will power not to make the place two exciting. "What kind of excitement did you have in mind?" She asked curiously, her hand swatting a shape that appeared in the air away, unware of how black lighting worked.

Aura was startled when a waitress approached and asked her if she wanted anything. Aura requested a Lynx and was puzzled when the lady had no idea what she was talking about. Aura instead ordered a bacon burger. "You want anything?" Aura asked handing the man a credit card. Aura had recently come to the understanding that the order had a large sum of money and that she was getting paid for her work.

Half way zoning out half way thinking to himself John stood there empty beer in hand just chilling. It never occurred to him before now that maybe he just didn't have the stamina needed to stay up late and drink after weeks of training.

I should train harder then.

He decided to wait another five minutes and if nothing fun happened he might make his way out.

"Wotcha thinkin boyo?"
A voice called to him over the noise. John saw a young looking woman standing close by, even so she had to yell to be heard. She had blue eyes and her skin seemed milky in the blacklights. He had never been called a boyo before though.

He turned around, no one was behind him, he pointed at himself.

"Me? I'm thinking..."
A sudden rush filled him, his second wind of the night?
" Thinking you and I should go dance."

He felt more intoxicated just off his words, guess there was a first time for everything. He rarely took the initiative in these sorts of things, but knew he should always try to. The last time he asked anyone to dance with him was high school prom, and that ended in disaster, but what harm could this do? How was he to make friends if he didn't do things he normally might not do?

He wished he felt a little better though, he would just have to try to make do with a dance or two.

Darcy giggled which was a really unusual thing for her to do. She was never usually asked to dance. She took another swig of her drink before saying yeah ok letting him lead her out onto the dance floor.

((btw, you may feel a wave of her power hitting you now))

Allison smiled. “I probably don’t need to be rescued from here, I’m pretty sure. Not yet, anyway.” She hummed, letting one of her feet scuff over the floor. She could barely reach the floor while sitting back in the chair, just enough for her shoe to catch as she swung it.

She probably shouldn’t have smirked at how Aura batted at the air. It wasn’t... well, it was amusing. But she probably shouldn’t show it. Hopefully the darkness would hide her expression, it had been small anyway. She shrugged. “Nothing specific. Just... something interesting. I don’t want to spend the entire night laying in bed thinking again.”

The waiter seemed to appear out of nowhere. Allison was used to waitresses doing that, though, and apart from idle speculation on some sort of common, mild enough to be unnoticed mutation never gave it much thought. Instead she dropped her hands to brush her fingertips over her pockets, checking them. What had she even brought with her? “Um.” She blinked for an instant at Aura’s offer before recovering. “Um, sure, thanks. Lemonade, please?” she directed at the waiter.

Allison refused to feel odd for not wanting alcohol in a club. There were plenty of reasons why she wouldn’t want to drink, and even if they didn’t apply to her no one could know that. Unless there were mindreaders here, in which case, get out of my head! And anyway, no one’s opinion of her mattered anymore, not that much. Probably. Being weird was good now. It wouldn’t matter if anyone here disliked mutants and figured out she was one anyway, Aura was here.

This was all way too complicated and Allison didn’t have the energy for it. Maybe she should have stayed at Sanctuary. Anyway, she did not care.

Lumen was quietly sipping her drink and scrolling through her phone when she spotted a redhead meeting up with another friend- just out of the corner of her eye. At first it was the red hair that caught her attention- under these lights it seemed even brighter. But for some reason her eyes lingered on the young woman and she couldn't quite put her finger on why.

It bothered her, and while she tried to turn her attention back to her phone she found herself looking up at the girl again. She didn't seem extremely special, and seemed far too young to be someone she'd met through her work... but maybe... that was it. She was young. Not too young, but young enough. Lumen frowned and knit her eyebrows in concentration. Was she one of the missing children?

"Perhaps im the one who need saving this time?" She said with a smile, nervously looking around herself again. She really did despise this place. Crowded and likely human infested and yet she could not tell who was who well enough with this lighting to tell. She realized their was only one thing keeping the people around her safe and her heart told her it was the girl in front of her. Little did she know the calming aura was actually sapping her energy.

"Long nights thinking i find lead only to pain. I prefer a nice dance to clear my mind. The elegant. calming effect it has has brought me less clarity over the years then it once did but i still enjoy it" Aura said speaking of combat. Aura had never actually danced much at all, at least not that she knew of. Unfortunately Aura useually only found gang members or homeless people to dance with and the fun was fleeting.

Aura for a moment let her aura cover her body, the thin line hugged her body. Aura took a deep breath and raised her right hand, spreading her fingers. As she did her Aura seemed to drain from her body to just around her pinky. It faded as it did her Aura appeared on the next finger so that it blinked from her pinky to her thumb, fading out on one as it peeked in the next. The act served to help her focus a bit and calm her.

Aura rarely drank much other then water or soda, she disliked booze as it made it harder to control her power and thus left her more vulnerable. Wrapping a black lock of hair around her finger, she looked back at Allison and smiled. She really was lovely to look at to Aura and she simply wished it could have been almost anywhere else.

(( yeah I mentioned it before, I was gonna expand on it in this post to ))

John smiled at the girl. He hadn't even asked her name, but he took her hand and led her out onto the dance floor. This was really unlike him, but he wanted to try something new for once.

It already felt like his second wind of the night was fading. He would try his best to not act tired for now, though he might leave early and crash. Though he really didn't want to, he wanted to stay and dance as long as this girl wanted to.

As they waded through the shifting sea of drunk college students John could have sworn a girl had light coming off her for a moment. Before he could look closer a few people crossed his line of sight and he couldn't see past them. He dismissed it to being tired in a club with tons of bright dance lights, besides he wasn't thinking about much right this moment besides the fact he couldn't dance to save his life.

They finally arrived at the dance floor, surrounded by people moving in what seemed to John as seemingly thoughtless flails, but it did flow a little. It was something John could not do at all, even thoughtlessly flail. Whenever he tried, he thought to deep into it and ended up standing there thinking about how to dance right, instead of actually dancing.

He stared at the girl, hoping she would give him a hint or something.

" So, now what?"

God he hoped he wouldn't act like a tool, if only he felt normal instead of so tired and blah.