Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was afternoon, after school. Charles called Raleigh, Lorina, and Malcolm to the Safe Haven, and had them change into modified training outfits. When they came out, they discovered that about half a dozen soldiers were already there, heavily armored.

"These men and women will accompany you. They will be doing their best job to work without needing your help, but many of these missions they've tried and failed. Your abilities are particularly helpful to what we need. You are to listen your elders, and do as they say, but you are not to forget your training. Be wise. Your mission tonight will be to scout out a zoo that has been having some problems with some mischivious mutants. Perhaps you've seen it on the news. Up until now, we've had difficulty discovering them. I believe with your powers, we may be able to."

Charles put up a screen to show the zoo, a very large and distinguished one. For the past several weeks, some prankster mutant or mutants had been letting various animals out of their cages and graffiting nonsense words and pictures all around. Although no one had been hurt, a few of the animals were still lost or had been killed by frightened nearby residents.

"Everyone else has failed at this mission, don't be upset if you don't find these mutants. We have some suspicion that there are more than one. We do not know the nature of their abilities, but we suspect a metal-bender and a light control mutant, possibly with invisiblity or teleportation abilities. Some pranks have been pulled on previous officers, but they have not attacked anyone. No one should get hurt. I can send you now. Are there any questions?"

Raleigh looked distastefully over his outfit. The dark green suit was tight fitting, a modified version of the training clothes they'd worn a while back. The boy didn't like this one any better than the last. Yawning a little, Raleigh masked his excitement. They were going to get to go fight... a real fight. Damn. It just all sounded way too good. He stared with barely concealed interest at the heavily armed guards, before turning his head to watch Charles as he spoke. After catching the gist of the speech, Raleigh proceeded to ignore most of it.

Ruriska hadn't been too happy with this. She had wanted to go, and she certainly hadn't liked being told she couldn't. That morning the house had been filled with a fair amount of swearing and random objects hitting the wall. No doubt she was still raging around the place, taking her anger out on anything in sight.

Beside Raleigh sat the emotionless Yasuo, he dead eyed gaze occasionally sweeping the area as if searching for danger. The powerful creature was at least the size of a pony, and although he was made from wood, the muscles along his body were clearly defined. Absently Raleigh patted the creature on the head as he once more watched the guards. This would be great fun, and Raleigh had no doubt he would triumph with flying colours.

"Can we just go now?"

Charles nodded, satisfied with the children's answer, "Very well. You can drive over with the officers. That will give you some time to get to know them."

Or, rather, that had been Charles' plan. Unfortunately, the kids were all knocked in the backseat sitting beside each other. Apparently none of the soliders considered the kids very important, or maybe they were just too afraid. They seemed to get either get looked down at or stared at. Either way, there was no bonding.

Upon arrival at the zoo, the situation really sort of worsened. The soldiers that were afraid of the kids apparently had more say, they wisked them off, saying there was no trouble. Two shadow-followed them, but in a casual manner, apparently they were good friends and not expecting anything to happen that night.

OOC:
Permission granted for the kids to find some graffiti, which may or may not be new, and some animal. They might even find some clues/tracks/whatever, have them handle the situations. Don't bring in other mutants though. The soldiers are NPCs ya'll can take up, but remember their mission is supposedly to help protect the kids AND to keep the animals unharmed if possible. Take some liberties here. There's no reason to keep ya'll on a short stick. wink I'll jump back in when things start to lag, or if there's a contradiction, I'll decide which way it goes.

Shoved in beside Malcolm and Lorina, Raleigh looked ready to let out some really colourful language. Obviously these supposed guards wanted nothing to do with them. "Wait, don't forget Yasuo!" Raleigh's creature had so far been given a wide berth, but he was at least allowed to clamber into the backseat with the kids, which made everything all the more uncomfortable.

When they arrived at the zoo, the two stood at the gates with Malcolm and Lorina, looking one way and then another as Raleigh tried to decide which way to go. When Malcolm chose the primate exhibit, the young super instantly started on the path towards the aquarium. He preferred to work on his own.

To start with Raleigh didn't find anything of interest, and instead leaned on the railing of the aquarium looking exceptionally bored. He stared at the fish at the darted past, with the occasional shark swimming lazily along nearby. He had been hoping they'd get into a fight instantly, but it seemed he would have to be patient.

"What should we do now eh Yasuo?"

If they were going to be able to fight in any productive way, Raleigh would have to find some dead natural material. There was nothing in the aquarium to use... unless... Raleigh stared at pieces of coral that floated here and there, and the one or two dead fish in the glass tank that hadn.t been cleaned up. Maybe he could... Raleigh looked down, for the first time noticing the little dead fish by his foot and a splattering of red graffiti. It didn.t lead anywhere, but it was a start at least.

"Let's keep going."

They continued onwards to the Polar Bear exhibit.

Malcolm had zoned out for a moment, and didn't even hear the clapping of Lorina's shoes on the pavement. It was only when she said hello to him that he snapped out of his daze. He blinked a couple times before saying anything.

"Hey." He ran a hand through his messy hair and said with a sigh, "I found some graffiti on the wall...so I'm just following it. It's pointing towards the gorilla exhibit."

He didn't really mind having someone with him, but he barely knew Lorina, so he was a bit envious of Raleigh for being alone. But, Malcolm figured it would be good to have her around in case anything...happened.

[RALEIGH]

At that point a young woman, somewhere in her early twenties, came jogging around the corner. As she panted and puffed away she made a beeline towards Raleigh and came to a sudden stop in front of him.

"Heya kid! Pfff, is it just me or is s'riously HOT today?" She puffed again as she wiped her brow. She was wearing a black trenchcoat which covered her from from neck to toe. Underneath it she seemed to be sporting a pair of bright red fingerless gloves. Apparently this woman had decided spring was too cold. Or something.

She let out another sigh as her breathing became a bit more regular.

"So yeah. You can't go on. They're a bunch of seriously EVIL evo's over there." She waved in the general direction from which she had just come. "You shouldn't mess with them because... ya know, they're like... mean and they kill. And stuff."

She took in a deep breath to regain her normal breathing pattern as she flicked a few strands of her aquamarine (dyed?) hair out of her face.

"Yeah. So you like shouldn't go there. Y'know? 'cuz they're evil and all that. Very evil." Where the look on her face at first had resembled something that appeared to be horror, now it seemed more like apprehension.

((Malcolm and Lorina, I'm giving you guys some more time to interact and all that stuff. ;D ))

Lorina blinked dumbly, then glanced over her shoulder to check at the crimson graffiti she missed while trying to catch up with Malcom.
"Mmm-kay."
She nodded her head happily, and skipped forward a bit. As she peered down the walk, she got really 'squeeish'. Lorina's green eyes were filled with a hyperactive glee, and she turned on her heel, still walking although now backwards.
"So, do you think we'll find anyone? Like a bad guy? Then capture him, and put him to justice?"
The blond made a puching motion with her fist, stopping before she accidently hit Malcom in the nose.
"This'll be great, don't you think?"

[MALCOLM & LORINA]

The next graffiti you encounter is quite large and has been sprayed all over the ground as well as the surrounding wall/buildings. It's been done in bloodred spray and has been leaked around quite a bit forming something that at first glance would appear to be blood splatter.

The graffiti reads:

- (C/R) -



(Yes, it has indeed been done carelessly and is quite a mess)

A man stands to the side, scratching his head as he looks at the graffiti with a pained look on his face. He has long flowing blue (probably dyed) hair. It seems to be well taken care of. He wears a black hat and a black trenchcoat with some blue gloves underneath it.

He glances at the two approaching children and grimaces while motioning to the graffiti. It's as if he's about ready to burst out in tears.

"Look at this! LOOK at this! It's so-- so--- Ugh." He hangs his head and sighes deeply. "--such a mess..." He groans and seems to absentmindedly let his finger wrap around his long and (also dyed?) blue goatee. That's not all. He has a pretty large mustache as well. It's ALSO blue and pretty long. It curls at the ends. Like a big french gentleman-type mustache.

And as weird as that may be it seems to be even weirder because the man seems to be just in his early twenties.