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Precariously balanced as he was atop the column of cardboard containers it didn’t take long for Zephyr to notice the vans sudden loss of momentum. Swiftly raising his feet the elemental dug the soles of his shoes into the back of the front passenger seat; in effect wedging himself between the stack of cardboard boxes and the seat in front of him. While it was obviously not the most efficient method to secure himself Simon was confident that it would do for the moment. It wasn’t as though the van was going to do perform a flip anytime soon, not without his help anyway, most likely they had just reached a series of stop lights or something similar and would be on their way again soon enough, his actions here were just to avoid the possibility of him becoming destabilized and landing face first on the floor like some absurd cartoon character.

However it was quickly revealed that the cause for their abrupt lack of acceleration was due to something somewhat more problematic than a run of the mill traffic light. When Hunter informed that the van had lost all four of its tires the young man let out an exasperated sigh, things just weren’t working out for him today; first he’d had to cancel/postpone his minor excursion to the Grand Canyon, then he had been delegated the task of moving man and now it seemed his journey would be delayed even further. He didn’t question the vampire’s orders that they were to kill whoever was stalling them; the merc had enough experience to realize that he had only been denied the use of lethal force earlier because they had been on the mansion grounds, a place where Hunter had little influence. However now that they had placed a fair amount of distance between the crippled mansion and themselves well… how did the saying go? Ah yes, “the gloves were off”, after all it would take the blood sucker almost no effort to bribe whatever authority to either ignore any death that took place or simply make it look like an accident.

‘What did I do wrong in a past life?’ the merc wondered bemusedly as he casually observed his employer struggle with the vehicles door, “We appear to be sealed in” he announced blandly as his senses failed to detect any openings within their metallic shell, he was still aware of, and could manipulate the air both inside and outside the van but there was no clear path for the air molecules to travel from one to the other. This problem was quickly resolved though as Zephyrs employer first dented, and then completely removed a section of the vehicles side as he vented his frustration and once more demonstrated his super human strength to give them a new opening from which to exit. ‘crude, but I suppose it will do’’ the merc thought critically as he evaluated his employers work. The elemental himself would have opted to make his departure via the tinted windows in the front of the vehicle, they were less durable than whatever alloy had been used to construct the van and would therefore require less effort to remove. Still what was done was done and merc had the sneaking suspicion that the vampire would be less than thrilled if he chose to voice his own thoughts on the matter and so he kept silent as he strode past Jazz and followed his employer out into the cold night air.


The individual before him something of a surprise for the British mercenary, he had been expecting an opponent around their twenties or maybe even thirties perhaps armed with some type of firearm and maybe even sporting an exaggerated hair style that was intended to make its wearer appear more “unique”. Instead what Simon faced was a lavender haired youth around the same age as himself who was armed with a single wooden staff and a cocky smirk. All in all the elemental was not impressed; however there were very few things that did impress him as a rule, so this did not amount to much. However that didn’t mean he wasn’t wary of his adversary; age was no indicator of an enemy’s skill after all, he himself was an example of that.

Even before Hunter had given the order to “deal with” the annoyance before them Zephyr had already begun to move, swiftly departing the pool of light which displayed his “teammates” and their van the elemental casually strode into the sea of darkness which covered the majority of this desolate back road. He wasn’t completely invisible though; light had this annoying habit of reflecting off every surface it came into contact with, but his form would now hopefully appear as nothing more than a vague outline to their inconvenient pursuer. “I don’t suppose I can persuade you to simply abandon your current course of action?” he inquired in a surprisingly polite, albeit bland tone. In truth Zephyr wasn’t really in the mood for any kind of mutant powered battle, he just wanted to get back to his apartment, maybe get a few hours sleep and then be on his way the moment the sun rose over the horizon.

Despite his words and current disposition though Zephyr wasn’t going to allow the stranger to simply walk away, even before he had started speaking the elemental had gradually began to leech away the oxygen from the air surrounding his lavender haired foe. It would not be anything immediately noticeable, not right away at least, but if the merc subtle attack was not halted then the young man before him would soon pass out from lack of oxygen and this little scuffle would be over before it even started.

Zephyr stared at Hunter blankly for a moment when the vampire in effect told him to act as a delivery boy. Normally the elemental wouldn’t have problem with this if the object being delivered was relatively small and/or need to be transported a reasonable distance. In this case however the items in question were decidedly weighty moving boxes belonging to an adolescent girl which needed to be transported all of 30m. As the merc watched his employer walk away while carrying their target only one thought went through his mind, ‘I’m missing the Grand Canyon… for this’

As soon as Hunter touched down on the mansions fertile grounds the young man released a restrained sigh and methodically scanned the room with his headgear in order to get a complete picture of the area. This was another thing that was beginning to annoy him about Hunter, the blood sucker never told the whole story and while Zephyr could respect that for the most part it was the needless little secretes that were slowly getting to him, the cameras in the NVG were a perfect example, why couldn’t the man have simply told them about the cameras when they were still at the lab? It didn’t make sense; did the vampire expect one of them to go running off in the middle of the mission- ‘why the hell am I whining over such trivial matters?’ he thought with no small amount of aggravation, as he strode over to Paragon’s closet and slowly began removing various items of clothing. ‘I’m supposed to be a professional; as long as I get paid I’m not supposed to care.’ Indeed this was usually the case, whenever the elemental was on an assignment he was able to focus solely on his objective without caring about what he was doing, yet for some reason this wasn’t the case here and a little voice at the back of Simons mind was telling him why; he was bored. The urban sprawl of New York City had gone from exciting to mundane in less than three months and considering he’d been here for nearly six it was a wonder he hadn’t tried to stir up some excitement simply for something to do. ‘Note to self, negotiate holiday scheduling with blood sucker.’ A change of scenery was precisely what the elemental needed to return to his normally passive mind frame, however he couldn’t do that if he was constantly being called in for every little task his employer wanted doing.

After spending 10 minutes or so shoving various articles of clothing into a set of black oblong suitcases he’d found under the girls bed Zephyr zipped the containers up and shoved them in Jazz’s direction before walking over to the various stacks of moving boxes which littered the room. Closing his eyes and drawing in a deep breath the elemental once again called upon the gift granted upon him by his blood, with a single thought multiple gusts blew all of the cardboard boxes into the center of the room, with another though a small cyclone swirled into existence beneath the rectangular containers and lifted them off the floor ever so slightly. As the boxes left the ground they began to wobble ever so slightly and Zephyr reached out a hand to steady them; he may have honed his abilities intensely over the years but wind never was known for traveling in calm, level patterns. So it was with one hand preoccupied with the stacks of moving boxes that the elemental gradually made his out of the room and back onto the mansions grounds via the conveniently placed whole in the wall. After that it was a simple jaunt over the expansive lawn and brief leap over the wall to arrive at the van. This process was repeated multiple times until Paragons rooms was completely void of her possessions.

Zephyr watched impassively behind the night vision goggles as the few lights within the mansion gradually flickered out and died. ‘Another parasite, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised’ surprisingly the elementals thoughts were not overly negative as he mentally voiced observations. So far this “Jazz” had not done anything to offend him which was surprising given his current track record with red heads. Simon held a certain amount of respect for people who demonstrated good manners and even though the girl had not formally introduced herself she had not attempted to insult or mock him like a certain number of other individuals had done. In fact Jazz had spoken precious few times since he met and the elemental counted this as a plus in his book; she knew not to bother her betters with pointless chatter. Now if she would only do something about her appearance she could almost pass for a professional.

When Hunter scooped up their lone female member and effortlessly vaulted onto the mansions eight foot wall the merc slowly incline his head upwards and reevaluated his employer, ‘immortality, hypnosis and strength…I suppose he has speed as well, quite a resume’ Once his vampiric employer had decided that the coast was clear and dropped deftly onto the mansion pock marked front lawn Zephyr made to follow his lead. Flexing his muscles as he crouched down and then surged upwards with all the force his legs could muster, admittedly this wasn’t much as the merc physique was less than impressive, however a sudden gust of wind easily gaze the elemental the added boost he needed to land atop the granite wall in the same crouched position he had started with. He remained in the position for a few seconds as he performed a second scan of the area, it wasn’t that he doubted his employers skill, it was just that in a situation like this you never knew when someone would get into their head to go for a little midnight stroll; this place did house its own army of adolescents, Simon wouldn’t have been surprised if a few of them regularly visited each other after hours.

When his own sweep of the grounds revealed nothing suspicious Zephyr dropped down of the wall and landed gracefully on his feet and moved swiftly to catch up with Hunter who had already begun to cross the expansive lawn which separated them from their target. In truth the elemental saw this move as a mistake the lawn was a wide open space with absolutely no cover, there was no need to move this close until after he had sedated this “Paragon” and he could easily do that from atop the wall. However he kept his mouth shut; Hunter obviously had some attachment to their target for him to take part in the mission himself and would probably not react well to any constructive criticism until the mission had been completed.

When he caught up with the vampire Zephyr remained silent as his employer directed his attention to small hole in one of the mansions walls and handed the elemental a small monitor. The merc almost sneered when he received the advance piece of electronics, but he kept his impassive mask in check and took the device without comment, people placed to much stock by what their own eyes told them, not realizing that sight was one of the easiest senses to overcome, for Simon the air was all he needed.
Allowing his azure orbs to slide shut Zephyr crafted a gentle breeze around his person, directing the light gust to swirl around him the elemental paid close attention to its influence flow and when it encountered any resistance, as it did now, he instantly became aware of it. In this case the elemental knew from the shape of the obstacle that the wind had only encountered Hunter and so he took no action. Instead he increased the area of the breeze until it came into contact with Jazz, having now identified his allies the merc took a light breath and direct the air current to flow along the mansions walls until it came across the conveniently placed hole Hunter had pointed out. Letting his consciousness to flow within the wind stream Zephyr gradually became aware of the contents of the room as the breeze traveled back and forth. It had been a long time since he had needed to use this technique in such detail; whenever he rode his motorcycle it was no great effort to sense the metal monstrosities that traveled the roads, this scenario required a greater level of delicacy.

After a few minutes Simon had managed to get a general layout for the room, it was remarkably similar to a university dorm room. There was the usual furniture; bed, closet, desk chair, a few rectangular objects he believed to be moving boxes and what seemed to be a small bathroom behind one of the doors. It was a quaint little setup though Zephyr couldn’t really care less, there was an unusual form in the middle of the bed which he believed to be Paragon, it had all the usual curves for a human female and it shivered when he increased the air flow to a suitable degree, however despite this minor success a small frown tugged at the elemental lips; he couldn’t find the girls cat. He had checked all around the bed and under the desk and even briefly scanned the bathroom but he’d found nothing, refusing to let his annoyance get the better of him Zephyr began a slow methodical scan starting from the floor and slowly working his way up until he discovered a curiously shaped object perched atop the stack of moving boxes he had dismissed earlier. Focusing his attention upon this new anomaly the merc sent out a slightly stronger breeze toward the foreign object and was rewarded with a movement which indicated life.

Back outside a small smirk decorated Simon’s features as he kept his eyes closed and withdrew two of the modified darts his employer had given him earlier. Holding them in one hand he raised the sedatives until they were level with his closed eyes and released them, only to have them fall less than a foot before they were caught in a sudden updraft which left them hovering at the elementals shoulder. Leaving one of the darts to float by his side Zephyr took control of the second and sent it flying silently through the small hole and into the targets room, almost immediately his sensitive hearing picked a low hiss from within the room and he swiftly erected a thin shell of nothingness around the cat to block out any noise the pet might make.

Returning his attention to the annoying feline the merc experimentally floated the dart closer and he was rewarded with a series of movements which left the cat shaking atop his podium. Although he could not in fact see the creature he could easily imagine it hissing at the sedative that was the slowly floating closer, when it came within a certain range Zephyr felt the animal take a swipe at the surrounding air and swiftly moved the dart out of it’s reach before slamming the dart forward and into the cats chest. The vibration of air molecules around the creature told the merc that the feline had given some cry of outrage before it collapsed on its stack of boxes, however thanks to his little sound proofing of the creature no audible sound was made.

With the cat now taken care of the elementals smirk became slightly more pronounced as he focused his attention upon the second dart that had been hovering at his side, With a single dart the sedative left his shoulder and went flying through the conveniently placed entrance in Paragons wall and soared swiftly over to the bed where the dozing the female remained blissfully unaware of the events around her. The dart penetrated her skin easily and released it sedative into her blood stream where it quickly went to work, ensuring that the naïve girl would remain unaware for the next few hours.

Outside Zephyr calmed his features back to his usual bored mask and turned to Hunter, “I’m done”

Simply taking an idea off the top of my head, which I believe was inspired by Gladiator, would it be at all feasible to add some kind of arena to the camps? It would add to the sense of cruelty and brutality that the mods seem to want and it would give some of those in the camps a chance to do something with their characters.

As you can probably tell from what I mentioned above I envision this as being a type of miniature coliseum where the more violent mutants and the occasional troublemaker would be forced to fight each other for say a meal, a bed, or depending on far you want to take this, a "bunk mate" of their choosing.

The interesting thing about this is that anyone taking part in these fights would not be able to use their powers because of the bracelets and so would have to demonstrate real initiative and skill in order to emerge triumphant.

In regards to the Xmen there are two options as I see it:
1) The suggestion of having the group go in guns blazing only to be met with total defeat at the hands of stalkers and such. Not only would this show them what they are truly up against it would give them more incentive to work with the resistance/order/kabal becuase they will have realised that they can't do things on their own.

2) Skip the impossible battle and go straight to working with the resistance, I believe Cass that you and Calley have a going somewhere which could create an ideal opening for communication between the xmen and the resistance (something to do with rocks through windows and such, sorry I'm tired and my mind isn't at it's best).

Alternatively both ideas could be performed although this would require greater organization among various individuals.

Flying out of the country on the 4th and depending on whether or not my relatives have internet access in their new house yet I may not be online again as late as the 14th, hopefully it won't be that long though.

I'm flying out of the country tomorrow at midday so I will likely not have an internet connection from Thursday to Saturday at the latest.