Christopher LeBeau grabbed his bag and left the airport. This being his first time to the island nation, he wore his formal clothes, or more accurately, a suit of black synthetic armor designed to look like his father's battle attire. As he left the airport, he was approached by a frog-like mutant. "Hey, Man, mind helping out a fellow mutant?" it said.
"If I read the brochure correctly, more than 80% of the people on this island are 'fellow mutants', right?" said Christopher.
"Well, yeah, but most of us aren't homeless."
"Fair enough," said Christopher, as he pulled out his wallet. "How's twenty... Hey!" he shouted as the frog-mans tongue shot out to grab the wallet.
"Haha, thanks for the cash." said the frog-man as he hopped away.
Christopher pulled a playing card out from his pocket, charged it, and, careful not to hit anyone or anything else, threw it at the human toad.
"AY!" yelled the frogman as an exploding card hit him in the back, throwing him forward. He started to get up, only to see airport security run up to him.
"Here you go." said the security guard, taking the wallet from Toad and throwing it back to Christopher. "Now, Toad, you're under arrest for theft."
"Awe, come on man. I was just messin' with the guy." he pleaded as they put him in cuffs and started walking him towards the jail, a few blocks away.
"So, it was a con to get me to pull out my wallet?" Christopher asked another security guard standing by. "And I thought I knew every trick in the book. Is he even homeless?"
"Don't let it get to ya laddie." said a Scottish ape-man. "Toad's kind of a local pest. I'm not sure if he's really homeless, but if he is, you can bet it's by choice. We've got such a labor shortage now, half the stores on this street would hire him, even with his criminal record. Not ta mention there's three shelters on the island for homeless people that are willing ta stay on the right side of the law."
Christopher nodded. "Well, thank you, sir. Now, do you know where I'd go to find people willing to help me rescue my mother?"
"Well that really depends who's holding her. She's not in trouble with the law, is she?"
"No." said Christopher. "Xavier captured her, and has brainwashed her into fighting for him."
The ape-man nodded. "In that case, two blocks North you'll find a hall for Mercenaries to go and look for work. That's where I'd start, as anyone that goes up against the X-men had better be a hell of a fighter."
"Thank you."said Christopher, and the Ape man nodded. With that, he headed North. I'll pay them to help me to help me if I have to, he thought, though I'd rather find people who sympathize with my cause, or have even lost people to Xavier too. They'll be less likely to give up if things get tough.

Echo was enjoying the sound of her music while she was experimenting with the extents of her power. She had studied and learned that low frequency sound can actually be used to damage someones internal organs without damaging the outer layers of flesh. She knew her power wasn't that great but she was very confident in her abilities. She was sitting outside the hall of Mercenaries.

She had stepped away from the music store she maintained when she wasn't working with the mercenaries her powers while not the best front line abilities were very good at changing a course of a battle. She was currently bored out of her mind so she figured she might as well begin singing. So she proceeded to sing modifying her pitch to pitch perfect. While she began to sing she tossed her hat to the ground. Might as well try for tips. She was singing the new absurdly popular song Let it go. While doing so she was using the bouncing noise created for echolocation mostly keeping an eye out for toad who like to steal her tips.

Hamish sighed, it had been a long, long day and he was rather tired albeit still on his toes. How could he not be? He'd been training all day, mainly fighting and competing against other mutants inside the Mercenary hall. It wasn't where he worked but he picked up a few extra coins here and there from it. His abilities came in useful from time to time after all, he was a Telekinetic, nothing compared to what Xavier was rumoured to have though, which was why he was training. Aurum needed to be able to hold his own against The Phoenix. Severely unlikely.

Shrugging his backpack over his shoulder, he exited the Hall and was instantly hit by the sound of singing, he knew who it was and allowed himself a smile, Echo was working her magic on the people. Sometimes even he couldn't resist the sound and was drawn to it. He decided that he would tip her today as he had money for once, no one could say he was heartless then. He had a heart of gold, obviously. This got Hamish laughing and he strode forward, dropping a few notes and coins into the girl's hat. As the notes fell, Hamish reached out his hand and guided them into the hat perfectly, nudging them with golden sparks so that they didn't go all over the place. Showing off once again, he thought before taking a few steps back to enjoy the song, he didn't have anywhere else to be anyway.

The sound of three birds singing in the trees was soothing, their soft songs touching Damien right in his heart. He often found himself wandering through the forests on the outskirt of the built up part of the island during his downtime. He was accepted here, this island was home to many mutants, a fair portion which had visual mutations. Many still resembled humans in some capacity, but fewer looked like all their humanity had been lost. These were the ones Damien had grown closest too, but even so, they couldn't provide the feeling of acceptance the wild gave him. Something about being surrounded by nature made him feel like he was home. He put it down to the animalistic nature of his own mutation but he was always one for the outdoors as a child.

"Damien..."

The mutant turned to see Isabelle behind him, her long hair cut short from the last time they had spoke.

"How are you feeling?"

She questioned as he turned to look at the branch the three birds had been sat on, the feathery creatures flown away, scared by Isabelles presence. Damien lowered his head to the floor, using his telepathy to respond.

"I am alright Isabelle. What can I do for you?"

The strong Welsh twang to his voice could still be heard by Isabelle as he communicated to her.

"I just wanted to get away from everything for a bit."

Isabelle moved closer to him and placed her hand on his arm. She spoke softly to him, knowing that he was having a tough time with the recent news that his mother and father were lost at sea.

"They'll be ok...they were always the toughest of everyones parents..."

Her hand took hold of one of his fingers.

"Come on Damien...we need to get to the mercenary hall..."

He stood silent, his mind not saying a word to her.

"Ok...you know where i'll be...see you there soon."

Her hand let go and she disappeared towards the urban part of the island.

Damien craned his head back and looked up at the sky, spotting a flock of birds being harassed by a flying mutant. He flew rings around them causing them to dive out of way and break up. Something so simple ate away Damien, he had a respect for nature and its creatures, that was even before his mutation. The gift he had been given just reaffirmed that nature works in mysterious ways and it has a plan for everyone and everything. The right to life extended beyond just sentient creatures. As the flock and flying mutant disappeared from sight Damien bent his knees before springing high into the air.

I had better meet with Isabelle, she will only get upset.

Damien continued to leap with each step onto the floor, until his feet landed atop the first building he came across. Using his increased speed he propelled himself across the roof onto the next and continued to do so until he reached the building opposite the mercernaries hall. He enacted his camouflage and approached the ledge to look at those below. The street wasn't overly populated, a few groups walked together, several were stood outside a shop while one attempted to busk for money using her singing voice. A man approached and dropped coins into her hat before stopping to watch her sing. Damien sat himself down onto the ledge and decided to wait, his camouflage keeping him from view.

As Chris neared the Merc headquarters he heard one of the most wonderful singing voices he had ever heard. Removing his wallet from an inner pocket, having moved it there after the Toad incident, he removed the 20 he would have given Toad and threw it into the hat. When he placed his wallet back in the pocket, he noticed several people standing nearby, and wondered if any of them were Mercs.
When she was done, he thanked her for her song. "I'm not much of a fan of the movie, other than it's message that being a mutant doesn't make you evil, but that was a beautiful performance. If you don't mind, I was wondering if you could help me find people to help me rescue my mother. I know this is the mercenary's hall, but she was captured by Xavier, and I doubt most of them want to go up against the X-men."

Seeing all the people she loved to see her sing. she filled her pockets with the money. SHe looked at this new gentleman who was speaking with her and had given her a twenty. "Thank you for the money. Most of them won't touch it. I will I have some revenge to get for my parents who were killed because I was appaerently an unawakened mutant. I ran and here is where I ended up. I will happily help you get your mother back. Ask inside you might find a couple who will help you. SHe then turned to the hiding gentleman. "Hello there."

By time the singing had ended a small crowd had gathered, people giving money to the girl for her talents. Damien scoured the street and was unable to see Isabelle so decided he would just wait inside the hall for her. He dropped from the buildings roof and made his way across the street, dropping his camouflage as he did so. At 6'8" to his head and about another foot ontop of that from his mantis like claws, he towered above the huddled group. His alien appearance was an obvious shock for most humans, but even a large proportion of mutants were shocked by how horrific his look was. Rather than stopping to talk to the group, he went to move through into the mercenary hall, but was stopped by the vocalist.

"Hello there," she said in soft voice.

He turned to the group, each of them had a bright red aura surrounding their bodies. Damien scanned them all over briefly not recognising any beyond this encounter. He nodded and responded so that his voice entered the mind of all those in the group.

"Greetings."

His thick accent carried across his nervousness beneath a bravado of sterness.

Kim had arrived at the island and already was making bad money decisions. She'd seen a girl singing and the crowd that surrounded her. Kim was no fool and knew a great singer when she saw one. She had quite a lot of money she'd saved up over the years so she tossed a $100 bill into the hat while the girl was singing before moving away from the crowd to listen.

After she was done Kim was fully ready to leave in order to find the Mercenaries Hall. Hopefully to find some information on her sister and maybe do a little good on the side. When she was leaving however she'd seen this huge tower of a man go waltzing by.

He then spoke to the vocalist before the word 'Greetings' popped into her head. This caused her to raise an eyebrow. A telepath maybe? She gave him a small 2-fingered wave and a small smile. She then realized she'd have to ask someone for directions in order to find out where to go.

She silently sighed looking around for any nice faces. Or kind hearted people. She felt both her hearts beat with mutual nervousness.

Hamish grinned when she finished her song, he couldn't find words for it, it had been perfect as usual. He was reminded, by the lyrics "Let it go", of a completely different situation: One of the missions he had been on, he was a back-up to the two other people on the team, both non-mutants, and they had all been captured. It was pretty much the plan though, as the people that they had been chasing were non-mutant terrorists who were extraordinarily difficult to locate. He remembered his only comment during the whole thing had been towards the terrorists themselves, "Oi, I'd let those weapons go mate." To which their reply had been the childish "Make me" Regardless, they had been caught and Hamish, or "Golden Touch" As he'd been called then was easily able to get out of the ties and destroy their weapons before forcing them to the floor and make them several hundred times easier to capture.

Breaking him out of this reverie, was the telepathic thought which was projected into his mind, instantly putting him on guard, no matter how much it reminded him of his home country.

"Welsh is it?" He asked the air, his own accent slightly less thick than usual so that those around could understand him easier.

"Nice to meet another countryman, I'll see you in the Mercenary Hall sometime. I need a good fight." and with a chuckle he nodded to everyone there politely and took a step or two back to maneuver himself out of the crowd slightly, before he tripped over someone's foot and was forced to coat himself instinctively in a golden aura, pushing himself back up, levitating slightly and placing himself back on the ground.

"I'm so sorry, I'll be more careful." He said slightly embarrassed. He wasn't usually clumsy but telepaths always put him on edge, made him lose some of his focus as he tried to reinforce his mind against mental attacks. Aurum was a psychic of sorts but he was just as susceptible to them. The only main advantage he had was that he knew when one was in his head. He was still determined to work on that. He hoped he'd have it under control before he went up against Xavier and the X-men.

Chris threw the singer a cashcard worth 1000 USD. "For expences," he said, "I'll need to test you before I take you on for good. I need to know what you can do, and how tough you are before I can know how to use your talents. Meet me inside and I'll see if I can borrow one of the sparring areas for testing people."
Unsure what else to do, Chris entered the Merc base and immediately noticed four "training areas" around the place. One was for a cage match, one was a boxing ring, one was a sparring mat, and one looked like something out of a TV villain's lair. It had spikes coming out of the walls, flamethrowers in the floor, ceiling, and floor that fired at random times, and the floor was covered in broken glass and random lengths of razor wire. If anyone in here's going to be tough enough to take on Xavier's people head-to-head, he thought, They'll be the ones in the madman's cage.
He walked over to it and saw two guys clawing and biting at each other, occasionally throwing the other into the wall or a jet of flame. Definitely tough enough, he thought when he had seen them stand back up from it the third time, and walked over to the spectators who looked like they were waiting their turn. "Excuse me, but I'm looking to hire some people to help me get back my mother, who was kidnapped." he said to the first guy that noticed him.
"Well, you've come to the right place. We can take on anyone you throw at us, up to and including the US armed forces. And that's not just a boast. Several of us have done just that. So, who's got her? Honduran rebels? Al Qaeda? The Yakuza?"
"Actually," Chris said, "It's the X-men."
The man looked at Chris for a second, then started laughing. "You're joking, right? No one would go up against those guys unless they're either insane, desperate, or have a score to settle."
"Do any of you guys fit into any of those categories?"
"Well, Deadpool would, but he got hired up by some US general he use to work with, so no. There are too many easy jobs out there for us to take on the X-men."
"Well, in that case, thanks for your time. I'll go see if anyone else fits the bill."
"Yeah, you do that." the brawler said. "Come back when you just need us to take a Sidewinder to the face. Some of us would actually survive that."
As Chris walked away, he heard the guy mutter something about "nutjob" to his buddies. Well, at least I know what kind of person to look for, now.
Chris walked up to one of the computer terminals at the bar and copied the files of everyone who fit the profile onto his smartphone. "Hey, do you mind if I borrow the cage later?" he said to the bartender, who was apparently also the manager, "I'm going to need to audition a few people."
"Sure, it's $20 an hour, Genoshan dollars. Just come back when you've got some folks together, and I'll open it for you."
Chris nodded and started flipping through the files he had just downloaded. Hey, here's something, he thought, a telekinetic that wants to test himself against Phoenix one day. And I just saw him outside.
Chris got up and quickly walked towards the door, hoping the man hadn't left yet.

She had made a killing today. She could actually afford now to start hiring someone to work her store when she wasn't there. The man gave her a 1000$ card. Now she was confused but she walked inside ready to take on whatever he threw at her. She stood next to the cage of doom. She smiled. Her abilities were not combat major but what they would let her do is incapacitate teh wolverine for a short period of time.

It was a long night, Drake had traveled for 24 hours without resting, he wanted to make as much as possible space between himself and CoM and he wanted to be as far away as he could.
A new start at a new place, a place where others won’t depend on him, where they would leave him be at the sidelines, a place where he could live with others as normal as possible but with no or at least minimum contact with others, no connections would give him less reason to get angry or depressed and so less ways for the beast to take over.
Yet something had been feeling bad for a while now.
He had made so much space and he had reached the outer boarders of the place he was heading to, yet he kept on smelling a scent.
At first he was so sure it had been nothing more than a trick of the mind, he had been living with all of them for so long, it would not surprise him if his mind did not wanted to let go of a scent, keeping up with his regret for leaving, but he was sure he had traveled long enough and far enough to get the scent to lessen, yet it remained.
Drake stopped walking, his wings folded around him as a cape or a robe “Chii, are you there?”
At first it was quite but then he heard movement as someone came out in the open.
“yeah”
Drake sighed and turned around to look at her “have you been following me all this time?”
“yes”
Again Drake sighed “why?”
“cause you left” the little girl replied.
“you were not supposed to follow me”
“you were not supposed to leave”
Drake sighed while his eyes shifted into a mixture between green and blue, He loved the talks with this little girl yet she was not supposed to be here, and in a way he would miss it once she gets picked up.
“do your parents know you followed me?”
“nooooo” she said cutely.
Drake sighed again “you know it’s dangerous to go out like that and that your parents worry”
“Im fine, I got you with me and if any bad guys come, Ill make them nice and sick hihi”
Drake shook his head and looked past the hill he was crossing “if you followed me this far we might as well continued together, I shall make contact when we are there”
“where we going?”
Drake walked to the 9 year old girl, folded his wings open and lifted her to see past the hill, giving her sight of the city “we are going there, the city of Genosha”
“whats it like?”
“your home but bigger I guess”
“why did we never moved there together?”
“cause its not your home, and its not mine”
Ÿet your going to live there?”
“yes”
“why?”
“cause its where I can keep you safe from me”
“Drake wont hurt me even if he loses control”
Drake said nothing, his face revealed nothing, but his green eyes said enough even though he knew it was she was wrong and it scared him…

After some more time they had entered the city, Drake had folded his wings around himself again, wearing a knitted cap to hide his ears, his left hand sticking out from between the wings holding on the Chii her hand, making sure she wont walk away for some reason.
He walked into what looked like the main building and walked to the first person he could find.
“I wish to speak to someone about registering myself and calling this girls parents so she can go home”
The person nodded and left to find someone

Christopher ran out the door, but didn't see the man he was looking for. Hope I see him before he signs up with someone else.
After that, he walked down the street, staring at his smartphone. He didn't see a man in front of him, and bumped into him. He looked up to see a man wrapped in his own wings holding the hand of a small girl. "Oh, I'm sorry, sir. I didn't see you there. I was kind of distracted."

Drake looked at the man that bumped into him, his face as emotionless as ever.
"That is alright, could you perhaps tell me where to go in order to register myself, as that I need to make contact with this little girls parents"
Drake then looked at Chii who was smiling and looking around interested in everything at the same time.
"She has followed my while not warning her parents, I am sure they must be very worried by now"

"Register?" asked Christopher. "I hope you don't mean like they force you to do in those stupid countries with Mutant Registration Acts. You'll find none of that stupidity here. If you are simply looking for the local law enforcement, there is a Genoshan Security Force office about a hundred yards that way." He pointed behind him. "If you're looking for work, then there's a Mercenary hall a couple hundred yards further down the street. I'm new here, so I don't know where much else is."
He looked at the man and wondered what sort of circumstances could have brought this man here with a child that wasn't his. "So, what brings you to the island? I'm guessing you're a refugee. Fleeing persecution?"

"not so much, I have my reasons for leaving my group, yet I felt like I needed a place to live, one that is secluded"
Drake looked towards the Security force, he guessed he could call CoM from there.
"Also about the register, I meant no such thing, I just thought that if I were to live on in this city of mutant"
Chii giggled at Drake's comment, knowing where CoM stands for.
"It might be nice for others to know that they have a new inhabitant, a neighbor of some sort, or can people truly enter and leave this place without anyone ever knowing?"
"Drake, drake, can we get some candy?"
Drake sighed and put his hand on her head.
"who run's this place actually?" he asked to the man while looking at Chii with green and blue eyes, he would truly miss the little girl.