The food court of the shopping mall was quite crowded considering it was a Sunday, the various aroma of fried food, and cheap dinning filled the air as Lennox sat at a corner table. He had no real purpose for being here, no money to shop, no friends to meet and hang out with, he knew no one. Yet being around all these people brought him a feeling of belonging even normality. Considering what he was and had to do to live it was nice to feel normal.

*You will never be accepted as one of them, no matter where you go our kind will always be looked down upon…*

“My goodness don’t you ever shut up?” Lennox asked the voice in his head, mindful to keep his tone down, so not to draw unessesary attention. “For once I would like to have a moment to myself without you expressing your opinion, just one moment of peace please…”

*I’m merely telling you the truth child. You may hide and reject what you are but the fact remains, they are lambs and we are wolves…*

“I can’t wait till I find a way to get you out of my head.” Standing from his table he began to make his way through the mall. “Then I’ll be rid of this nightmare you call a gift.”

*Ha! Boy do you really think it is that easy, that the bonds we have can be severed so easy? Tell me boy, how exactly do you plan to rid yourself of me, do you think I’m just something you can cut out?*
Lennox felt his right hand rising on its own as the voice spoke. His fingers gently caressing his face and neck without him willing it to.

*I am you and you are me. * Lennox felt his finger tense around his neck as his right hand had begun choking him. Instinctively Lennox started to pull at his arm attempting to free himself from the death grip from his own hand, the odd scene of course drawing eyes as he battled his own limb.
“Let me go…” He demanded before the voice surrendered control of his arm. But the ten second display had already created a small scene.

*You see how they stare at us, can you feel there judgmental glares, hear their words? To them your nothing but a freak child. A monster that needs to be locked away, I merely want to show the truth boy, and deliver you from this fantasy you so desperately believe in…*

“Stop it, stop it stop it!!” Lennox cried out as he made his way through the gathered masses and into a rest room. “Why must you pull crap like that in public, huh? Do you enjoy making me look crazy?! Do you think that’s funny?!”
There was no response from the voice, as Lennox stood yelling into the mirror.
“Answer me!!” Just behind him a stall door opened and a young male emerged slowly, a look of concern and fear on his face
“Hey are you oky man? Do you need-“

“I’M NOT CRAZY!!” Lennox barked interrupting the man before he could finish his sentence, the abrupt outburst sending the man running out the rest room. Lennox would take a few moments to compose his self. Pulling his grey hood over his head he exited the bathroom and again made his way through the Sunday mall crowd.

Gina was enjoying a small container of chow mein and a small soda while she scribbled notes in an open sketchbook. The seasons were changing, which meant her rendition of “shopping”, thus Gina was practically residing in the mall for the past few weeks. At the moment, she was eating lunch and making notes, which would be mostly gibberish to the outside observer. Occasionally she would raise her head, if a sound snagged her attention—a child crying, another teen shouting—but her head would then duck back down, and her focus would return to her sketches.

She didn’t lift her head until she heard the shouts from a guy about her age. He was battling with his arm, and yelling for someone to stop something or other. He ducked into a bathroom, and Gina believed the show to be over, when suddenly—

>> “I’M NOT CRAZY!!”

Sure you aren’t, dude, Gina countered, smirking and refusing to lift her gaze. If there was one thing she’d learned from living within the city, it was that everybody was crazy. Gina kept a casual eye on the Men’s restroom, taloned feet swinging absently whilst she worked. She was on the outskirts of the food court, at a table that was taller than most. Her tail was looped casually through the open back of the stool and tucked under it, her wings casually folded behind her. People gave her enough distance that being jostled wasn’t an active concern. She adjusted her hair, humming lightly, and continued to draw.

As he pushed his way back to the food court, Lennox’s only intention was to leave. At this point nothing else mattered except escaping the scene of his latest breakdown. And then he spotted her, or more so spotted her wings. Lennox lived a mostly sheltered life before escaping to New York and besides himself this was the first time he had ever seen another physically altered mutant.
By this time he had reached her table, hood still pulled down over most of his features.

“You’re a mutant right?”

His eyes glanced down at the random drawings on the table, slowly taking notice of all her hands and feet, staring quite rudely.

“I was wondering if you, could help me?”

>> “You’re a mutant right?”

The tail that was tucked beneath the chair flicked, and then curled with a mild humor, holding its curl as the gargoyle lifted her gaze. First, he stared at her sketchbook—Gina shifted the book under her arm uncertainly. And then he was staring at her hands and feet. A smug expression flickered across Gina’s face.

“No, it’s a cosplay,” Gina retorted fluidly, utilizing terminology that she’d acquired from her previous encounter with Calley. She looked like this for kicks and giggles, she didn’t look like this all the time. That was unfathomable. He was still looking at her feet. Gina hooked the rear toes around the crossbar beneath her, curling her feet and accentuation her talons. Go ahead and stare. This wasn’t the polite, curious regard of a child. This was the scrutiny of an unkind eye. She didn’t like it when people looked at her like that.

>> “I was wondering if you, could help me?”

Gina twirled the pencil in her grasp, her lips tightening with distaste. As much as she hated to be stared at like some freakshow, it was in her nature to be helpful. Damn me… damn it…

Gina set her pencil down, combing her hair back with a taloned hand and tilting a gaze towards the boy who’d previously had some sort of psychotic-breakdown/fight with his own hand.

“Maybe,” Gina said frankly, “Depends on your dilemma.”

>>“No, it’s a cosplay,”<<
*Ha! You finally found one to help and even she mocks you. Face it, I am the only friend you have.*

Lennox head twitched slightly as he ignored the voice, taking a seat across from the winged girl.
“I don’t have time for your attitude little lady can you help me with this or not?”
>>“Maybe,”<< the girl said frankly,>> “Depends on your dilemma.”<<

He pulled his bandage from his hand and placed it on the table before her. That mouth opening and closing slightly exposing those fangs, before whipped its tongue out and around his palm. “I can’t control it and theres this voice in my head, telling me things…I’m not crazy I just need to be able to control it.”

*You think that girl can help you control me? Your more delusional then I thought. Although we’ve never had mutant before she might quite tasty*
That tongue snakeing out of the mouth and licking her fore arm slightly before Lennox could closed his fist.
“No, you can’t eat her, I need her to help me.” Lennox spoke to the voice in his head before speaking to the girl directly again.
"Can you help me of not?"

*Seems like more of a reason to eat her, we can't have people coming between us Lennox*

Gina’s lips thinned at the boy’s curt retort, and her eyes did as well.

>> “I don’t have time for your attitude little lady can you help me with this or not?”

The first place that the boy went wrong was that he said that he didn’t have time for Gina’s attitude. Gina’s attitude. When he was gaping at her like she was some freak. The second was that he called her a “little lady” which, given the context, wasn’t taken to kindly.

“Hey, now listen here-!” Gina began to protest, closing her sketchbook with a snap. She didn’t have to deal with this guy’s nonsense, “Just b-”

She was yay-close to ripping this boy a new one and teaching him some manners. First he stared at her, and then he was inviting himself to sit after he was such a jerk towards her. Gina was leaving. She didn’t have to put up with this—but then the guy took off his glove, exposing his hand. Gina paused at the sight of it. So the boy was a mutant and he was rude, to boot.

>> “I can’t control it and theres this voice in my head, telling me things…I’m not crazy I just need to be able to control it.”

The guy was new to the lifestyle. Not a mutant born-and-raised, but your run-of-the-mill one. Born a prejudiced human, bitten in the butt by karma. Gina rubbed her temples.

“To begin with, we don’t like it when people stare at us,” Gina said simply, “So don’t do it. Even if we're totally bizarre looking.”

As she said this, the hand-mouth-thing licked at Gina’s arm, and Gina pulled her arm away, disguising her wince as putting her sketchbook back into her bag. The disapproval reflected onto her face, however. Gina wiped her arm off on her pant-leg, brows furrowed.

>> “No, you can’t eat her, I need her to help me. Can you help me of not?”

“What kind of help are you looking for?” Gina inquired, tilting her head. Even if she was peeved at the guy, she was still inclined to assist him.

“No, just shut up.” Lennox spoke before turning his attention back to the little girl.
>>“What kind of help are you looking for?”<<
“I want it gone, the voice the craving everything I want to be normal.”
He paused for second before looking the girl dead in the eyes. “I don’t want to kill people anymore…”

*So naïve, I told you boy you can’t get rid of me. Everything would be so much easier if you just gave in to our needs instead of fighting me. Look at her Lennox and tell me you don’t sense the warmth of her blood, hear the beat of her youthful heart. She would be absolutely delightful!*

Lennox closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “He wants me to kill you…telling me how warm and good your blood would taste. You may not understand but I can’t keep living like some type of monster.”
Opening his palm slightly he looked into that gaping hole, that rows of teeth looking similar to that of a Great White’s mouth, before stuffing his accursed hand back into its glove. “ You seem comfortable in your own skin, I want to be too…”

*A GOD asking to be mortal is pathetic Lennox, There is no going back child! You can ignore me and fight me all you wish, but you will kill boy!*
Lennox placed his hand to his forehead calmly although the battle in his head was anything but. Softly he placed hi normal hand over the winged girl's.
"Please..."

>> “I want it gone, the voice the craving everything I want to be normal. I don’t want to kill people anymore…”

That’s when the little red flag went up. Creeper with a hand-mouth was now creepy-murderer with a hand-mouth. Gina’s gaze cut sideways, searching for the quickest exit route. When people started talking about mutations that killed people, that’s when other mutants made themselves scarce. They didn’t want to be associated with one of the rotten ones, one of the muties that gave everyone else a bad name.

>> “He wants me to kill you…telling me how warm and good your blood would taste. You may not understand but I can’t keep living like some type of monster.”

Gina’s eyelid spasmed, and she frowned, slowly beginning to shovel her drawing materials into a bag while her eyelid twitched anxiously. It was time for the exeunt, stage right when said psychotic mutant mentioned that their alternate voice wanted to kill you, too, and what more, was talking about how great you’d taste. Gina started to stand when a hand upon her own stopped her. She winced, believing that perhaps his normal hand had a mouth as well. But, when she didn’t feel that hand eating her own, she paused, leaning in to listen.

>> “You seem comfortable in your own skin, I want to be too… Please...”

“You’re asking for a cure for a genetic quirk,” Gina informed the guy, her voice tight and slightly uncomfortable. He had, after all, just said that he wanted to eat her. Didn’t exactly make her want to stay around, “It’s like asking for a cure for curly hair. You can’t cure nature. You can only adapt.”

She pulled her hand free, anchoring it to her bag, “Believe me, if there was a cure for mutantism, I would have looked into it long ago.”

Gina fixed her hair, sitting on the arm of the chair that she’d formerly occupied, “The best advice that I can offer you is to learn how to control it. There are… places… around that help you learn how. Maybe if you control your urge to, uh, eat people, you can shut the voice up, too. Either that, or you learn to deal.”

It was harsh, but it was also true. Learn to work with it, or be one of those mopey mutant-sorts.

As Gina offered this grain of wisdom to him, she seemed to relax, if only marginally. He was only a mutant-- scared and confused like all the other ones that weren't born into it. He just needed help. Gina would still keep him at arm's length, though. For the sake of self-preservation.

The girls actions were clear, even she feared him. The voice sensing this instantly.
*Look Lennox, your own kind even shuns you. How very disappointing this must be, coming all this way for help and all you get is rejection. I'm the only one who accepts and understand us Lennox. I will teach you to appreciate the art of death, and the power we posses.*

>>“You’re asking for a cure for a genetic quirk, it’s like asking for a cure for curly hair. You can’t cure nature. You can only adapt.”<<

Her blunt response catching Lennox off guard, her hand slipping free from his own.

>>“Believe me, if there was a cure for mutantism, I would have looked into it long ago. The best advice that I can offer you is to learn how to control it. There are… places… around that help you learn how. Maybe if you control your urge to, uh, eat people, you can shut the voice up, too. Either that, or you learn to deal.”<<

*I will not be controlled Lennox. She knows notthing of our struggle for life. What it feels like to kill to live. No one but me will ever understand you. Let me kill her Lennox.* Feeling that unsafe tingling in his right arm, He would grab his wrist tightly with his left hand holding it still as he listened to the girl.

His head perked up as she said the key word he was looking for.
“Where are these places?” He asked her, sounding a little urgent with his tone. He was careful not to make to fast of a movement, still sensing a little uneasiness in her body language.

*Let me go boy!* The voice cried unable to break from the grip of his other hand.

“I need to know where these places are.” His voice sounding more urgent then before.

The boy released her hand, and Gina propped both of her hands under her chin. Now, she’d have more of a reaction time if the boy made a grab at her, because he’d have to span more of a distance to grab her. He didn’t seem pleased with Gina’s frank reply, and quickly demanded where the places were. Gina’s gaze went to where the guy was clinging to his own arm.

He then reiterated the question, and Gina leaned back in her chair. Her movement was casual, but what she was really doing was putting more distance between the two of them. His voice was tense, and if he was panicking, Gina wanted to get as far away from him as possible.

“There’s a place called Xavier’s,” Gina said, “It’s a school, but they’d probably be able to help you out.”

She paused, “I know of this other place too, a mutant sanctuary? Met a guy who lives there, I just don’t know where it is.” Gina was, of course, speaking of the Sanctuary, but she knew little of it. She didn't even know that it was actually called that.

Lennox could feel the sweat gathering in his palm from holding his grip so tight, but he couldn’t risk hurting this girl, not before she told him more about these places. He would stand from his chair abruptly, knocking it backwards. The girl was right to keep her distance.

“This school which direction is it…from here?” His right hand slowly slipping through his grip, Lennox clamped down with a bit more effort.

“Can I find these places on a map?” HE was getting so close, but time had begun to run out. If he didn't leave now she wouldn't be alive to assist me longer. He had to feed and this girl was proving to valaueable to be a meal.

*Lennox release me now!*

“No! I won't let you kill her." He turned his back to the girl and started to leave. He would have to find these places on his own. Or risk hurting another innocent.

"Thank you for you assistance, maybe one day we can met on better circumstances..."

The boy stood hastily, his chair falling back as he did so, and Gina stood as well. Though, she unwound herself fluidly, pushing her chair back as she got to her feet. She untangled herself, and stood, without an air of fear, her gaze fixing upon the boy before her, who was gradually surrendering to panic.

At his first inquiry, Gina pointed assuredly in the direction that she’d flown from, and answered, “Forty-five minutes to an hour that way, as the crow flies.”

A twinkle of humor within her gaze. Obviously, she wasn’t speaking of crows, but of herself instead. Gina stepped back slowly, her eyes shifting about the room. People were watching the two of them closely. Uncertainly. Like the two mutants were monsters.

“It’s called Xavier’s,” Gina answered, “It’s in the middle of a park—” And then, she rattled off the name of the park. The guy shouted and started stalking off. He muttered a farewell, and Gina shuddered.

“Maybe,” she agreed. But she certainly hoped not.