Breaking In [Open, feel free to join]

Cosmos strolled calmly down the sidewalk, wearing a fresh dress shirt, and a nice pair of jeans which he had lifted from the mall. He had left his apartment building with no plan, simply driving for hours. He had not realized as he sped down the interstate, that something had been drawing him to this area. Something in the self professed demigod's head which compelled him to be here. And so he was here, and had dressed himself in a new outfit. It was late however, and he was out of gas and money, and needed somewhere to stay for the night.

He had decided upon the library, feeling as if he could remain hidden there for days, all the while satisfying his brains constant desire for knowledge and understanding. Covered by the dark of the night, the man strolled right to the library's door. Using his Telepathy, Cosmos picked the lock. Finding the alarm keypad inside, he disconnected the motherboard with his powers in order to turn it off.

The library was an old building, with a large basement in which there were several rarely used rooms. Stacks of boxes, filled with old books which no librarian could bring themselves to toss, could be moved easily with his powers, and would barricade a room from any unwanted visitors. He had found his "hideout" so to speak, but for now he remained in the upper level, sitting at a desk and reading an encyclopedia by the light of a desk lamp.

Shadow walked as quietly as she could through the semi-lit streets of Bayville, trying to pick up on the trail of her father once more. Anything. A torn person, a small amount of fur. Hell, at this point she'd even take a ball of yarn as a sign he was near. "Well, probably too late to go home now," she muttered, looking up at the sky. Something told her to just go home, but instead she decided the library was a good place, hoping to at least find a good poetry book. Maybe even find some of Alan Edgar Poe's work. He was always a favorite of hers. She made her way towards the door, pulling a paperclip from her pocket. She wasn't always the best at lock picking, but she could do something. But, the door was already unlocked by how she could get in. It was always a good idea to check in case. Shadow lightly crept in, heading towards the basement to try and get an extra chair. If anything was moved out of place, someone would probably know. She fell though towards the last step and screamed slightly, surprised, before biting her lips.

In the dead silence of the library, Cosmos heard the soft distinct click of the door he had just came through. he rose quickly from the table where he studied, and pressed himself deep into the shadows, his powers immediately flaring to the ready, a vicious tide which he held at bay. As he held his breath he could hear soft footsteps somewhere in the building, but could not pinpoint where.

He didn't have to wait long though, as he heard a girl's scream, sudden but clear. She was heading to the basement. Cosmos moved across the library quickly, hiding in the shadows behind a bookshelf near the staircase, waiting for the girl to come back up them. he wasn't sure yet, whether she would be a threat to him or not, but he intended to watch her... that much was sure.

After a few moments of silence, Shadow got up and tried her best to find a chair, a stool, or even a box. She pulled out a small pillow from a corner eventually, deciding she could just use that. As she went back up the stairs, she could've sworn she had seen something in the darkness around her, though she was unsure. "Hello?" Shadow said quietly, clutching the pillow to her chest.

"Hello?" the girl called. Cosmos could still not be sure as to what her status was, but he could soon discover whether she was a threat or not. Using his telekinesis, he knocked several books of a shelf which was in the opposite direction of where he hid. Hopefully she would take the bait, and head towards the noise. Like a lab rat in a maze, he needed to let her run, and watch her reactions to know whether or not to show himself to her.

Shadow sighed in relief when she was not answered, but several books fell instead. She bit her lip, igniting her hand to use a bit like a flashlight. She backed towards the stairs, keeping an eye out for any movement. "I know you're here, whoever you are, I'm not going to harm you, I just need a place to stay for the night. I'll stay with the poetry, and the rest is yours, sound good?" Either someone was here, or she was talking to herself and gravity.

Cosmos' interest was peaked when he saw the teenage girl's hand burst into flame. As it did, there was a distinct, slow "thumping" noise, similar to that of a heart, which pervaded his hearing. This young woman had a gift like his... like the one he had acquired in his past life... As she stood in the aisle where the books had fallen, they picked themselves up, and were placed back into their proper places on the shelf. One particular book, a collection of gothic-era poems, remained floating in front of her.

"Is this the kind of book you're looking for?" he asked from the shadows, as the book flipped open to a random poem. His voice was harsh and steely, and had a very sharp quality to it. Cosmos then removed himself from the cover of shadow, and stepped forward to make his presence known to the younger girl, "What's a pretty young thing like yourself doing out here so late in the night?"

Shadow's head whipped towards the voice as it spoke in a cold, harsh tone. She couldn't help but smile slightly though as the book stayed floating. "The Raven by Poe, huh? Was that intentional or random?" she asked, reading over the title before taking the book with her free hand. As the owner of the voice revealed himself, she stepped back, not exactly out of fear, but more of something else. "Was looking for my dad, but didn't stop in time to try and make it home."

"Intentional how? Its a book of poems.. and that's what you wanted to read is it not?" he asked plainly, "Though it is a good one...

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,
Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,
While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

he recited, moving his hand across the books on the shelves, and gently tapping his fingers on their spines as he reached the last line.

"Now how did you lose your father? This doesn't seem like such a large place that you could misplace him?" the man inquired with curiosity. Besides the lover Anthony Strauss had carved to pieces, the man who called himself Cosmos had never met another mutant. he was inclined to learn more....

"Yes, but I was actually looking for some of Poe's work," Shadow explained lightly, looking over the man before her now. "What are you, some kind of mind reader as well?" It was only a joke, but she bit her lip. "Sorry." She watched as he ran his hands over the spines of the books.

"My father and I aren't exactly people who see each other often. These days, even a shredded newspaper could mean he's near. I have yet to actually corner him and tell him who I am, but still."

"Not a telepath... just lucky I guess. I happen to enjoy his work myself"

The man listened as the young girl explained her situation with her father. Seemed to Cosmos as if dear-old-dad was purposely running from the little miss. Cosmos even got the distinct impression that this father she spoke of, may not even know she exists.

"Odd... and yet you still look for him. Why not give up on him? Has he really given you anything yet to deserve your dedication?"

"I know, I'm sorry, it was just a joke," Shadow explained.

She laughed at his question slightly, knowing it was more of something for just the sake of him knowing that she and her siblings existed. "It's kinda for my brother and sister, too. But, they're not mutants so I didn't want them to get hurt if he attacked. I'd never be able to live with myself if I knew it was my fault either of them died.""

Cosmos nodded kindly, and followed the rest of the girl's story, but was simply feigning interest to be nice. When she finished telling about protecting her siblings from dying, Cosmos gave a soft chuckle.

"Sounds like a good sister, or a really bad father," he said, turning on his heel. He headed back towards the table he had been sitting at, telepathically grabbing a medical text along the way. It floated before him, open to the first page, and Cosmos read as he walked. He suspected the girl would follow, but he didn't bother to wait.

"Little bit of both I guess, he doesn't even know we exist," Shadow muttered. "Mom had a slight drinking problem, and I guess he didn't want to deal with the grief of us not making it or something." She watched as he walked back to a desk, a floating book with him. She figured it was his way of saying he didn't want to talk anymore. "Um, if yoou need me, my name is Shadow, and I'll be sleeping beside the great artists. Poets." She dimmed the fire in her palm, walking slowly in case he had an objection and wanted to talk to her.

As Cosmos made it back to his table, he heard the girl say she'd be near the poetry if he needed her. he couldn't possibly conceive of a situation where he would, but he waved his hand politely to show he had heard her. Apparently she didn't intend to follow him, which he was fine with. He buried his nose in his books, studying topics ranging from medicine to psychology, to ancient history. he sat at the table for hours, but all the while his hearing was strained, listening for a sign that the girl had fallen asleep. Her hand had burst into flame right before his eyes... and there was an itching in the back of his mind which compelled him to understand why.

((Don't worry, he's not gonna murder you lololol. He's mostly gonna just listen/watch/examine you, and probably do something that could wake you up. If you're okay with my character messing with your sleeping character, than just reply about going to sleep or something, but if you're not okay with that then you can say so lolol))

Shadow had laid on her back, just stairing at the ceiling for a few minutes before finally realising she wouldn't truly need to worry about falling asleep in a library around this guy. She took a book from the shelf, some of Emily Dickinson's work, to use as a pillow. She never really like that particular poet. Nothing about the work. Just something had always struck her as terrible. Shadow rolled onto her side, the book under her head slightly, and eventually, though slowly, fell into an uneasy sleep.

((As long as you don't violate her or hurt her, she's pretty much a heavy sleeper (from my design of her). Just don't hurt her.))

The hours slowly ticked by, and the stack of books on Cosmos' table slowly grew higher and higher. As he closed the last book in his pile, his mind drifted once again to the young woman who was sleeping in the poetry section. How had she lit her hand on fire? Why had it not burned her? She had a special power that was for sure, and Cosmos couldn't stop thinking about how it must work. Granted there were many books around, and plenty of things to occupy his mind so that the thrum of her power wouldn't bother him, but what harm could come from simply looking. Surely she was asleep...

He made his way to the young girl, her slow steady breathing verifying his thought that she was asleep. He leaned in close, pressing his ear barely inches from her chest. He could hear her heartbeat, but underneath there was another noise. Two of them actually. One was the thrum he had first heard when her hand lit aflame. The other was a soft ticking-clicking noise. The thrum was clearly caused by her pyrokinesis, and seemed like it echoed through her whole body. The sound seemed to center in the top of her head, the mechanism for this power obviously held somewhere deep inside her parietal lobe. It seemed as if her ability to start fire was an extension of the human ability to recognize sensory input; the way we tell hot from cold.

The ticking-clicking though, seemed to be centered in the girl's heart. It was hard to tell exactly what the power was that caused this sound, but he could ascertain that it had something to do with her blood. Suddenly a dark ambition formed in Cosmos' mind, and as he stared down at the girls chest, he couldn't help but imagine slicing it open, dissecting her to see what secrets her heart held. Luckily for him, or maybe more lucky for the young woman, there was nothing he could have used to open her up. He leaned his head down close to her chest once more, and closed his eyes as he listened to the beating of her heart, accented by the ticking-clicking. He tried to allow the sound to fill his senses, and though maybe without his vision clouding his thoughts, he could understand the meaning of this sound.

Shadow woke with a start, something in her mind telling her she was in danger. It couldn't have been long that she was actually sleeping, but she was certainly aware of someone leaning over her. Forcing herself up, She noticed it was the guy and she was still in the library. "Get away from me!" she yelled, scrambling back as best as she could and unsheathing her claws, holding them out as weapons against the man.

"I'm going to give you thirty seconds to explain what the hell you were doing!" Shadow warned, her eyes darkening slightly as the Wolverette threatened to take over her mind.

When the girl suddenly woke up and yelled at the man, he panicked slightly. He was too lost in his own mind, still trying to figure out how her powers worked, to hear what she was saying. as he watched though, the skin of her knuckles spit open, and metal claws slid from beneath her skin. She looked ready to attack, and Cosmos couldn't help but act instinctively. A wave of telekinetic force blasted forth from the man, knocking books off the shelves, and likely sending the girl sliding across the marble floor. As one of the shelves toppled away from the man, he picked up four books from the pile, and held them floating in front of his body, acting as shields in case she attacked.

"I wasn't going to hurt you... I was simply... studying," he explained, trying to find the best words to describe his actions. "I don't want to hurt you, so I suggest you back down little girl," he warned, fully convinced in his own mind that he could break this little girl in two if he needed.

"Well, sorry, but the last time I wound up waking up with someone leaned over me, I was nearly raped, so how was I supposed to act?!" Shadow growled, watching the books carefully As she dug one set of claws into the flooring of the library to stop herself from sliding. She was fully aware that she could burn the library to the ground with enough energy. Not like she really had enough, but it was still something she could do. An explanation would be hard as hell to find, though.

"I'm not a little girl, I'm seventeen!" she retorted. She hated being called a little girl. If he'd attack her, he'd know she wasn't just some little girl. She left her claws out though, only changing her postition by standing up. "And I won't put these away until I know for certain you won't hurt me."

"I'm not a little girl, I'm seventeen!" the girl yelled. She seemed quite annoyed by his condescending attitude, but it did not bother Cosmos in the least. "And I won't put these away until I know for certain you won't hurt me." she added, showing just how naive she really was.

Cosmos let out a cold, harsh laugh. "If I wanted to hurt you, I would have snapped that pretty little neck of yours while you slept. Grow up." he said plainly, turning on his heel to head towards his desk once again, "You're broken. I was only listening to see if I could fix you."

((Sorry its so short))

When she thought about it, most would have decided to kill her immediate. "Look fella, I've seen people who wait to catch their victims with their guard down. My mother used to let us see a few of her cases. She worked with forensics," Shadow said as a cover. Sure, it was true, but that hadn't really been what she'd thought at first.

"Broken? How so?" That got her. Maybe if he was some kind of mental healer, she could understand. Mostly. Last she'd been to a doctor, which was about a month before she'd gotten to Bayville, she was perfectly healthy. Mentally and physically.

Akachi came towards the library to get something and some peace of mind. But as she walked in and went towards a section. A peice of raw meat in her mouth, she heard something while walking towards the conversation. She saw the new brotherhood Shadow as well as a man that seemed to be brotherhood or xmen. Her eyes looked at the man and the woman. Keeping her otherside at bay in her mind, she stood a good ten feet behind them listening to them.

She looked at the girl that seemed to be scared for her life at least that is what Akachi thought. With a snap of her fingers a chained cage appeared around the girl as Akachi stood there in silence.

"The hell is going on?!" Shadow screamed as a cage of chains burst from the floor to form around her. She cautiously stepped forward as much as the cage would allow her and pushed at the chains, trying to free herself. "Whoever the hell did this better get me out of here!" She bit her lip and tried to calm herself as she engulfed her body in flames, hoping to try and heat the metal enough the bend it away. Please work, please work, please work! she growled mentally.

((I hope you don't mind me intruding.))

Evan went to the library to read some books, as the proffessor had forced him to go and study, as the next week would be nothing but the end of Level testing. Evan always hated those. After he was done he decided to walk home. Then something had caught his attention. A man, a flamming torch woman, and as always Akachi. Spyke did NOT want to fight her. Spyke looked as the chains wrapped around the girl. Spyke threw his Exoskeleton Bones that he called 'Spikes' at he chains. Then he took out a giant spike, that was like a staff with pointy edges. Evan couldn't tell which ones were good or bad. But Spyke had thought that if evil Akachi was using her chains, then they must be good. "What the hell." He grunted like Snake from Metal gear.