Tonight was a very good night. Skydancer could feel it in her skin, there was just something exceptional about that night. It didn't hurt that it was clear and warm out, with the moon nearly full in the sky but that wasn't enough to explain her current feelings of good will. Perhaps it had to do with the workout she had engaged in earlier, finally learning a difficult flip that she had been trying to master for more than a week now. There was just something in the air, something special that hadn't been there in a very long time.

Skydancer had experienced quite a few ups and downs since coming to the city. With the help of the kindness shown to her by those who ran The Mansion, she had managed to pull herself up and out of the destitute poverty of living on the streets. She had managed to get over the fact that her previous Olympic dreams were dead and dust and discovered new dreams of learning the skills that would allow her to join the circus as an acrobat and as the days ticked on and one, that particular dream became ever closer. Now, the dark moments of her past seemed to be fading to distant memories as her new life took route in her mind and she finally began to realize that she was capable of happiness again.

Skydancer didn't have any particular goals that night, except to enjoy the night time air and be content in the direction her life had somehow managed to go. As per usual, she travelled by rooftop in a combination of jumping and swinging, though for once she wasn't training and instead opted for a more leisurely pace. Stopping on a small three story apartment building just across from a gas station, she considered jumping down and grabbing herself something to drink. The question was, did she really want to risk the chance of some ignorant human in the gas station ruining her nearly perfect night?

Now that he was in NYC there was much to do. Not only places to burn but also a living to be maintained. The current priority was food.

Most of Sylus's funds had been spent on gas during the trip from Arizona.....not all of it being used for the car. His stomach rumbled as he counted the change in his pocket.

"Scora may watch over me, but apparently not my pocketbook." Sylus said with a weary look as his possiblity for legal sustenation crumbled beneath the weight of his poverty. The situation was not new to him, he had abandoned any semblance of a real job years ago. He could steal food or money, it was easy when locked doors meant nothing to you.

Stealing money or sellable goods did not solve his immediate hunger, so Soot hit the skies, searching for a place to take what he needed. He soared over the streets, blending in with the dark night sky.

Gliding swiftly past a three story apartment whose windows were boarded across the first floor and broken from there on up. The large smoke cloud settled upon the sidewalk just down the street from a gas station that looked as if it had survived little better than the apartments. At least it was still open for business.

The warm, gentle wind blowing down the street felt great on Sylus's skin. It reminded him of his home. Yet as it brushed across his fingertips, it reminded him more of what he had lost, for they felt nothing. He flexed his horrilby scarred hands and brushed the dirt off his clothing. Living on the run had left him looking like he belonged in this rundown area of NYC. The holes in his shorts, and the stains on his t-shirt came partly from extended and brutal use, but mostly they came from his pasttime. They remained as visible testaments to his holy work.

He strode into the store, noting a couple of other customers, and began to search the shelves for anything he could easily fit into his pockets. His hand darted into the stocks whenever he thought the cashier was not looking, and after roaming for a couple of minutes, a customer approached the counter. The man asked for a pack of ciggarettes and held a case of beer.

When the woman behind the counter turned around to grab the ciggarettes, Sylus grabbed a tall bottle of beer and headed for the door. With his foot on the threshold of the store, he heard the lady exclaim, in a loud yell. " Stop! Thief! Harold come out here!"

Sylus's feet hit pavement as he looked briefly over his shoulder and saw an older gentleman lift a handgun into firing position. The first shot whistled past Soot's ear, and as a second was aimed for his center of mass, He changed. The bullet ran through a smoke sillhouette at the shoulder, and with a brief wave at the owner, it floated off into the sky.

Sylus stopped at the edge of the apartment building that was facing away from the station, and as he returned to solid form, a smile touched his face. The adrenaline rushed through his limbs as he breathed in the night air, pulled a cigar from his pocket, cut it, and slowly puffed it into life.

He exhaled in a perfect smoke ring, and spoke to the night air. "Wow, next time, choose a gas station that doesn't look like it gets robbed every other weekend, Sylus."

After some deliberation, Skydancer decided that getting a drink was worth the risk of dealing with some idiot in the gas station. Besides, it wasn't as if everyone hated mutants and she didn't want to be the type to judge humans the same way so many humans insisted upon judging mutants. Thus, unless someone actually did or said something against her, she vowed to go in with a positive attitude. Sometimes a smile and a warm word could go a surprisingly long way.

It was a relatively simple matter of balancing herself upon her tubes and lowering herself to the ground. Once back upon the earth, Skydancer retracted her tubes back into her skin and stood for a minute while her skin healed itself over. As far as she knew, it wasn't even possible for her to scar so her skin was always perfect and smooth.

Skydancer opened the door of the gas station and walked in. She wore a long coat and her usual wig, thus those who weren't specifically watching her wouldn't necessarily immediately notice she was a mutant. It was a small thing, but something she found made her life a lot easier. The place was relatively quiet and there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary going on. She walked over to the cooler, picked up a bottle of juice, and made her way to the front of the store in order to pay.

" Stop! Thief! Harold come out here!"

So much for nothing out of the ordinary. It didn't take Skydancer long to figure out what was going on. Before she could even think to react, however, the gas station attendant took out a shotgun and fired at the man who, miraculously, turned into a what appeared to be smoke and the bullet passed through him without harm. A mutant forced to steal in order to survive. Probably he was forced to live on the streets too, and she knew all too well what that was like.

With a disdainful look in the direction of the shotgun wielding fiend, a tube emerged from Skydancer's chest and casually slammed itself into the gun, causing it to clatter to the ground. A second attack at the offending instrument sent the spike into the gun, rendering it broken and inoperable. That done and despite the disbelieving looks of the people who remained, she ran out of the establishment, looking for the smoke man. She spotted him a moment later, smoking casually at the top of the apartment building she had inhabited herself, only minutes before. Sending out a second tube, she grabbed hold of a fire escape ladder and vaulted right to the top of the building.

"That was impressive."

The cigar was cheap by Sylus's standards, but still he took pleasure in the way the smoke tasted upon his tongue. With each exhale, a cloud grew above his head, which swirled and moved of its own accord. It refused to disperse into the air, and after a while it seemed to shadow the area around him. After a few puffs, the adrenaline began to lose its edge.

The cursing of the gas station owner was still quite audible from the apartment. However it did little to hide the clang of something hard hitting the fire escape, or the soft thud of a visitor upon this desolate rooftop.

In hopes to prevent identification, Sylus faced away from this potential pursuer. Wisps of smoke from the cloud fell occasionally as it danced above him, obscuring his features at times.

"That was impressive." A female voice remarked with a casual air. As if they had met on the abandoned rooftop for coffee.

The area underneath the cloud brightened slightly as he inhaled, the tip of the lit cigar giving off a dull orange light. He breathed out and caught the smoke as if it was a ball, it hovered an inch above his burnt palm.

"Ha! I dont suppose you meant my utter lack of stealth, or maybe my poor choice in a target for robbery." He chuckled to himself.

There was little reason to deny the proceedings at the gas station. If she had followed him up here then she was a witness. The only thing that mattered was her next move.

He gestured to the air in front of him with the cigar. "I don't assume you smoke."

Skydancer noted the way the mutant turned half away from her, the smoke billowing around his form. She suspected that might have something to do with his power, though she couldn't be certain. As for trying to obscure his face, she couldn't really blame him for that. She remembered all too well her time on the streets and the things she had been forced to do to survive. Stealing was the least of it; she had also hurt people. It wasn't something she was proud of, but she wasn't ashamed of a justified act either.

"Ha! I dont suppose you meant my utter lack of stealth, or maybe my poor choice in a target for robbery."

Skydancer chuckled back with a slight cringe. She also remembered what it was like not being the most subtle of thieves. Her own power didn't help much when it came to taking things quietly and as a result she had more than one bad memory of almost getting caught. It was a very good thing she no longer had to steal to survive because, in truth, she really wasn't much of a thief.

"Back when I had to steal, stealth wasn't my greatest talent either." Skydancer didn't make any hostile moves and tried to keep her voice casual and light. Her tubes she wrapped loosely around herself, keeping them outside of her skin. This was a new sort of experience for her, speaking to a mutant who might be in need of assistance after catching him stealing, but it felt like the right thing to do. This was a good act she was trying to achieve.

"I'm afraid I don't smoke," Skydancer replied. "Its not good for my lungs." Ok, so maybe a statement that might be taken as scolding wasn't the best way to go about things, but it wasn't like that was the way she really meant it anyway.

"I don't smoke. It's not good for my lungs."

Her reply did not exactly surprise him, the habit was getting less and less common nowadays. Nor did her remark about her having been a thief. Though if she had lived a life of poverty, why worry so much about her lungs.

"If you have lived on the street then you should know that there are morre pertinent things that may damage our lungs or our body than a little smoke." He put no violence or anger into the remark, his posture remained calm and confident.

Sylus did not believe in unnecessary violence, it would only distract him from the two things that mattered to him anymore: his duties to Scora amd his own survival. However, leaving someone around to post his pictures around NYC would not help his situation.

He took a long drag and blew it out in another smoke ring.

"I think we both know that there is only one question that matters here. Why did you follow me and what do you plan to do about it?"

"If you have lived on the street then you should know that there are morre pertinent things that may damage our lungs or our body than a little smoke."

Skydancer shrugged. "I didn't always live in the streets. I'm an athlete and as an athlete I could never justify putting smoke into my body." In truth, however, she understood how living in the streets could bring someone to rely upon crutches like cigarettes. Really, it wasn't even the worst of the crutches out there and people with much more comfortable lives than mutants relegated to homelessness succumbed to that particular vice. In a way, her athletics were her addiction in a way that was just as real as those who smoked.

"I think we both know that there is only one question that matters here. Why did you follow me and what do you plan to do about it?"

A second shrug, this one much more unsure than the last. "In truth, I'm not entirely certain." She laughed nervously, beginning to wonder at her own sanity. Was it really her responsibility to help homeless mutants? Maybe not, but it at least felt like the right thing to do and where would she have been if not for the help of a couple of sympathetic strangers? With that thought in mind, she forged ahead.

"I guess I just wanted to see if I could help. Because I've been there before and I know how much it sucks. There's a place, though, that took me in and it was only because of a sympathetic stranger that I'm no longer on the streets. It only seemed fair that you be offered the same opportunity." Yes, it did sound a little off when she said it like that but that didn't make it any less true.

An athlete, huh? Sylus wasn't sure what an athlete was doing vaulting around rooftops in some rundown district in New York. Seemed like some college campus track would be a more fitting setting. He was not overly bothered by her modern attitude towards smoking. Sylus was a product of another generation, there was little need to justify smoking. During his childhood it was the norm, everyone smoked.

Sylus turned towards the woman, though the cloud he loitered under did not go away. The tip of his cigar lit his face, revealing his features to her for the first time. He studied her slowly in the bit of light he had from the moon, stars, and street lights below the level of the roof. She wore a long coat and had dark skin that seemed a shade off the normal hues.

Soot looked her in the eye as she began to talk about her past and hard times. Her salvation from the acts of some strangers. Same story told in a different voice. Everyone had one.

"It only seemed fair that you be offered the same opportunity."

This caught Sylus's attention, an old familiar ache in his lower back reminded him of the compact SUV that was all he could return to, and the restless sleep he got while laying down in the backseat. He couldn't live in a car for the rest of his life. Might as well try to find a residence and maybe some money. Hell if it did not work out he could always burn the place to the ground. He thought of a soft bed, hot shower, shelter. There was no gaurantee that this place had any of that, but there was much more to gain in complying with the woman than there was in staying on his own.

"What kind of place are we talkin about here? Because I will not end up in some center for drug addiction, or a psych ward." He replied without malice.

"But anywhere with a bed, a shower, and no immediate expectations would be great for me. You have no idea what sleeping in the back of a car can do to a mans back at my age." He said with a laugh and a grin.

The laugh was both for her and for every difficult situation in his life, because even if he couldn't outright beat a problem, he could always laugh at it.

Skydancer took it as a good sign that the man was willing to trust her enough to actually allow her to see his face. While the smoke still obscured some of the finer details, she could now make out some of his broader features. He was older than she was, that was quite clear, although she knew appearances could sometimes be deceiving depending on how long he had spent homeless. The streets, if one was there long enough, had a tendency to prematurely age people.

Skydancer could see that she had caught the mutant's attention before any further words even came out of his mouth. There was a certain look that a person had when they didn't have a proper place to sleep that appeared in their eyes when an actual bed was mentioned as a possibility. It was a look she was certain she had when Aura and Saph had first come to her with promises of shelter. Suspicion had surely been in her eyes too, at that time. It seemed like a lifetime ago, even though it was really only a few months.

"The place is usually just called The Mansion. Technically its a school for mutants, but its also a sort of shelter even for those of us who aren't students. Really, there are people of all ages staying there. Its not a centre for drug addiction or a psych ward, at least not that I've ever been able to tell."

It was difficult to really get across just how wonderful The Mansion truly was, especially not without making him even more suspicious. Or perhaps it was only she who was overly suspicious of something that appeared to be too good to be true, which The Mansion certainly had. Although, as far as she had been able to tell, it actually was true as shocking as that still as to her sometimes.

"The place is usually just called The Mansion. Technically its a school for mutants..."

Mansion, that could mean some fancy living....... or just a big house full of souls to be scorched. A school full of mutants could create problems or possible allies. Either way it was nothing Soot couldn't handle, he was practically untouchable. In the end, his choice was obvious, and his whole body, from his stomach to his aching back, agreed with him.

A smile formed around the cigar clenched in Sylus's teeth. He stuck his hand into the air in front of him, palm up. With a bit of will, the cloud that had hidden the majority of Soot's visage began to swirl and condense to the size of a basketball, it floated above his palm and swirled counter-clockwise.

"A mutant academy, huh? I haven't been to school in years.....but something tells me I will fit right in." The ball of smoke exploded like a small fire cracker, but instead of rising into the air, most of the smoke floated down to cover the ground in a foggy field. "I hope this place isn't far, or im going to have to go pick up my car.......unless you think you can keep up with me." Sylus said with a fierce grin. He silently hoped she would take his little challenge, for there was a rather good chance that this woman was also a mutant. His curiousity nagged at him as to what she may be able to do.

"Im glad you came around tonight, i'm new to NYC, and i wasn't sure how i was gonna keep up this bs until winter. I'm a little to old to be living off scraps."

The few tendrils of smoke that remained around Soot began to take new shape in front of him, creating distinct letters.As they formed, he spoke once again. "To make this a more formal meeting.... you may call me...."

Both of his hands raised at the end of his sentence, framing the single word floating at chest height. Sylus

"You don't have to go to school," Skydancer replied. "I don't. And its not too far." Or at least it wasn't too far for her. When travelling from place to place, she tended to move a bit faster than a regular human, swinging from rooftop to rooftop.

"As for keeping up," Skydancer grinned. She was used to people just knowing she was a mutant due to her skin, but because of the dim light, she got the impression that he hadn't figured that out. That, and he must have missed her earlier display with her tubes. "I think I can manage to keep up." A mischievous expression settled across her face. So what if he could turn into smoke and fly around, she had tricks of her own.

"Living of scraps isn't fun for anyone," Skydancer agreed, cringing. She watched his display of his own power and was admittedly impressed. It was clear that there could be any number of advantages in being able to, not only control smoke but transform into it as well. Still, she was content with her own abilities.

"Pleasure to meet you Sylus. You can call me Skydancer." Three purple tubes burst out of her skin at the words, two from her front torso and one from her back. One of the tubes was sent out and grabbed a hole of a nearby pipe. "Care to see if you can keep up with me?" She waited, poised to move the moment he gave his ascent.

Skydanceer? What kind of name was that? The woman was a little odd to be sure. But she offered shelter and sustenance, and that was all Sylus needed. She had grinned at his proposal of her keeping pace with him. It looked like their would be a race after all. Good, NYC was a town full of surprises, and he hoped he had just met one.

The night sky shone down on the edge of the building, their starting line in this race to the Mansion. He grinned back at his soon to be opponent as she released what looked like purple tentacles from her body and gripped a nearby fixture. So thats how she got up here so fast.

"Looks like this will be interesting." He said, and tossed the last of his cigar to the ground. The smoke that had littered the area finally took its course and disappeared as Soot focused on the task ahead.

"Care to see if you can keep up with me?" Sky said in a friendly challenge. Sylus did not need to find out this fact, he already knew he could.

"I don't think that will be a problem. But you may want to take a minute head start...... I don't want to be the old man who shamed you on the way home." His challenge was just as friendly, though a little more direct. He faced the right direction and waited, his feet planted solidly on the ground. There was no other preparation to be done.

With a look to the mutant who was his opponent, Sylus shifted his weight and waited for the race to come. His heart beat a little faster as he thought of the trek ahead. His stomach churned as a child's excitement filled his body. In his soul he was still young, a boy wanting to prove himself to the world. In reality this was not much different from the truth. After all, the new him was only a couple of years old.

"All you need to do is fire the starting gun"

Maybe it hadn't been the smartest to challenge a strange mutant to a race when she didn't have the most comprehensive idea of what, exactly, he could do with his powers, but Skydancer couldn't really help her competitive spirit. Maybe she should have at least tried to get an idea of just how fast he could travel in his smoke form, but what's down was done and she couldn't exactly go back on the challenge now.

If Sylas was going to offer Skydancer a minute of head start, she wasn't about to say no to that. When it came to competition, she had a sense of honour about it but that honour didn't prevent her from taking advantage of any beneficial situation that came her way. Besides, this was something of a competition of mutant powers and she didn't have much of an idea of what, exactly, he was capable of.

"Go!" Skydancer called out. At the moment of the utterance, she jumped, allowing the tube attached to the nearby building to carry her from the building she was currently on, to the next building. From there it was a case of running, jumping and swinging, navigating from one building to the next. It was much more complicated than flight, she was certain, but it was also both exhilarating and challenging in a way she couldn't imagine flight being. She travelled faster than a regular human would travel, though admittedly not nearly as fast as a bird might. Still, win or lose it was this sort of competition that made her love her power all the more.

With a flexing of her mutant tubes, the young woman vaulted into the air, and began the race across the rooftops. Sylus watched her go analyzing her abilities. She was quite agile, and if she was any type of athlete he would guess gymnast. As Skydancer moved, Sylus began to understand not only her mutation, but also the nature of her name. The woman seemed to float upon air as she took advantage of her head start.


"38, 39, 40, 41," Sylus quietly counted aloud. The headstart did not bother him, it would simply make the race more enjoyable. After all, he could essentially fly, it would otherwise be a landslide victory. As he began to finish the count, his body slowly began to transform. First his fingers, wisps of new vapor joining the air.


"46, 47"

His arms fled him as he began his gradual change. Bits of his torso went with it. With each number that escaped his lips, new sections began to form into an ever-growing cloud of dark smoke. The change was slow. Sylus took the time to enjoy the gift that Scora had give him. As he lost his body, he gained excitement. The thrill of the race was upon him.

By the count of 60 there was nothing left of Sylus Ivander Kade. In his place there was only smog. It glided after the woman who was now rooftops away, at a speed much faster than a human. Soot whipped around obstacles, flying after Skydancer. His smoke trailing her as if she were a running flame, instead of a lilting acrobat of the streets.

"And so it begins." Sylus thought as he started his steady trip to the finish line.

Next stop, the Mansion.

There were few things in life more thrilling than jumping and swinging from rooftop to rooftop at top speed. The risk of serious injury or even death was always there because there was always a risk, with every leap, that she'd miscalculate and miss her next handhold. It was that risk that made travelling in such a manner so addicting; a risk that no flyer could ever fully appreciate. Because in flight, or so she imagined, everything was certain and there was very little skill involved; unlike with swinging.

As Skydancer swiftly made her way back towards the Mansion, she maintained her awareness behind her, seeking any sign that her opponent might be catching up. At first there was no sign at all of him, but she had been given a head start so that wasn't surprising and that didn't cause her to slow her pace any. Competition was what she lived for and it jut wouldn't be right not to give it her all.

It was the smell of smoke that eventually gave away the fact that her opponent was catching up to her. Skydancer smirked to herself, re-applying herself and attempting to gain speed. A tendril shot out and grabbed a hold of a fire escape ladder and she swung onto the next building, this time a story up. Faster he might be, but that was no reason to give up or give in. Besides, The Mansion wasn't much further.