A/N: Uh, this chapter actually involves the characters. Woo hoo!

Note before reading: Some of your characters have been given minor appearance changes – this was because I picked the characters based on their personalities and their powers – not what they looked like. I ended up with a team where three characters looked remarkably similar – which considering they're not siblings, isn't a good thing.

P.S The "Paige" mentioned briefly isn't a character who belongs to me, nor is she an OC - anyone wanna guess on who she is

DISCLAIMER: Refer first chapter for disclaimer on who owns who.

Koda © (wasn't mentioned in chap 1)

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Incognito

Chapter 2: Beginning the Tale

Warning: AJ's a bit of a pottymouth

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Tamara Johnson was many things.

Paranoid was one them.

Overprotective, another.

A sad little killjoy who could the suck the life out of the room faster than a man, who'd spent 50 years in the desert, could eat a whole lamb roast - That particular little title had been bestowed in her by Quinn after she'd insisted they head straight to the train station, instead of spending an hour at the nearby park.

Judging by the fact the Melody and Clarity (nicknamed Rita to the group) were now using the swings, Robert was building a sandcastle, and AJ was perched on top of the slide, (effectively baring any other person from using it) and trying to meditate, it was pretty clear she'd lost that little argument.

It didn't stop her from spending every moment since they'd arrived at the abandoned playground – it was 10pm and there was no one around – sitting on the nearby grass and almost grinding her teeth together in agitation.

Standing up, Tamara decided quickly that if they could have the park, she got to have a cigarette. Shakily lighting it and drawing and her first puff, she let out a shuddering breath before promptly taking another draw.

"Those things are bad for you, you know."

Rolling her eyes at her pseudo-brother, Tamara withdrew the cigarette long enough to mutter, "So I've heard."

Coming into step beside her, Quinn Fletcher grinned at her. "You should quit. Why'll we're at it, quit pacing too. You look like your wife has just gone into labour and you've had to wait outside."

Tamara rolled her eyes at him again and flicked the cigarette on the floor, crushing it under one of her boots. She turned to face the younger man. "What do you want, Quinn?"

"For you to smile, for one."

Tamara scowled. "We're frittering away any hour at some stupid park when there are assassins on our tail who want to kill us. Can you imagine why I'm not really up to smiling?" She ended the last sentence with an almost growl in her voice.

Quinn sighed and pushed his shaggy brown hair back off his face. "I get it, okay? We don't know where we are, we've got bad guys after us and we're running from something that could potentially kill us all. You think I don't know that? You think they don't know that?"

He waved a hand in the others direction, causing AJ to open an eye at them and the other three to look worried. Despite the fact neither Tamara nor Quinn were raising their voice, it was pretty clear they were in the middle of an argument.

"The thing you need to realise, Mara," Quinn continued, not noticing the four new spectators watching them, "is that they're kids! We're all kids! Sometimes we just wanna be normal!"

"I know," The older girl replied, her voice quavering a little bit. "You don't think I feel the same way? That I wouldn't give anything, anything at all for us to be a normal family?!"

"It certainly doesn't feel that way sometimes. Feels like you care more about HYDRA then you do about us!"

A second after the words were uttered, Quinn knew he'd issued a low blow.

He'd opened his mouth to apologise, when he was interrupted.

"You're right."

If anyone had been watching, they would've born witness to five people blinking in almost synchronised harmony.

Tamara turned to look at them all, as the others had been inching closer to their feuding older members for a while.

"Come on, guys. When was the last time we had an hour to do anything but run?"

No one answered her, for they all knew it to be true. Tamara was great at leading them into battle, or figuring out how to get from point A to point B without getting spotted by the bad guys. What she wasn't so great with, was doing something spontaneous – which meant a lot of the past six months had been spent playing duck and cover, without any breaks.

It was a wonder she'd be mutinied against when it came to the park visit.

"Yeah, but you have a point," Clarity Lawrence pointed out. "We're not sitting here for laughs, are we? We have dangerous people after us."

"And I really don't want to be caught unawares. Ii personally prefer being alive, over going back to those dickheads." Annabelle Jacobs (AJ) added.

Tamara was back on Mum mode, as she clapped her hands over Melody's ears, just as Clarity did the same to Robert.

"AJ! Ix-nay on the wearing-say!"

"Please," the fifteen year old girl said, rolling her eyes, "She heard worse from the dickheads we had for guards, remember?"

"Stop using that word!"

Quinn stepped in, glad that Tamara had returned to normal, instead of the emotional wreck she'd been a minute ago.

Well, as normal as Tamara could get.

"Hey, Mara." Said girl looked up and released Melody, who ran back to the swings, clearly interested in them. "How about you start on that 'being nice' thing and get us some drinks? There's got to be a convenience store open."

The young woman raised a dark eyebrow. "I don't recall promising to be nicer…" She rolled her eyes at the look she was getting from Quinn and sighed to herself. "Fine, but this means we're train hoping tomorrow, alright?"

"Yes, sir. I agree with that statement completely, sir!" Quinn mocked-saluted and Tamara half-heartedly swiped at him.

"I'll be back in fifteen minutes, okay? Then we're leaving." She turned on heel and started walking in the direction of a convenience store she saw open.

Quinn grinned before calling after her, "Don't worry, Mum! I'll take care of the kids!"

Tamara simply flipped him off, while AJ and Rita each buried an elbow into his side simply for being called 'kids'.

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"Yo, Aaron!" Dakota Shade, a teenage girl with short, choppy black hair, lines of dark fur running down both arms and hunter green eyes called to the young Japanese-English man in the living room.

Said young man was currently reading a large book – she thought it said something like 'Dan Brown' on the cover, but she really couldn't care – and ignoring her.

Thinking he couldn't hear her, she raised her voice. "Hello! Earth to Aaron – I'm talking to you!"

When he did nothing more than sigh and turn the page, Kota went with the more direct approach – pick up the nearest thing and throw it at him.

Her weapon turned out to be a stress ball which bounced off his head and fell to the ground, before turning to face her and glaring. "What?"

Throwing on her best, 'I'm innocent' smile, which evidently showed off her pointed canines, the wolf girl held up an empty carton of milk. "We need milk. Go get some."

Deciding that it really wasn't worth finishing the book when Kota was liable to throw something at him again if he went back to reading, he closed said book with a snap. "Why do I have to go out and get some? You clearly finished the carton."

"Yeah, well, unlike you – it's pretty obvious to tell I'm not normal. I'd ask Paige but she's asleep." Kota shrugged, "Besides, if you 'port there and 'port back, you'll only take five minutes at most.

"You know that's not how my powers work. If that's why you want me to go, you'd be better off asking Kurt."

Kota sighed. "Can't. He's still moping about how Kitty came back today with a sparkler on her finger." She snorted at this, "Not that Kitty'd notice. The girl's seriously oblivious. Why in the hell did she agree to marry a human, when she knows all her friends are mutants, by the way?"

Aaron rolled his eyes at her antics. Kota didn't care about the gossip that went through the house, she was just confused about the actions of some of their friends/teammates. It was part of the pack mentality, or so he'd heard.

He went on the assumption that because wolves didn't lie, she couldn't fathom why people did. Especially to themselves.

Aaron pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his dark brown eyes in the process. He knew Kota – she'd arrived at the Institute 3 months after he had, 4 years ago. He also knew that because of her mutation, she liked to back people into a wall (both metaphorically and physically) and would argue for days just to get someone to yield to her.

"How far away is this damn store?"

"Uh…" Kota frowned, clearly trying to remember. "Twenty minutes I think..."

"Twenty – twenty minutes! And I'm supposed to walk there?!"

Kota grinned. "Not unless you can hotwire a car. Which, by the way, I'd like to see you attempt."

Gritting his teeth and getting out of the chair, the tall twenty-one year muttered something like, "fine, but you owe me," before stalking out of the house.

AN: Sorry to cut things short – but the original idea I had for this chapter ran waaaaaayyy too long and ended up sounding disjointed.

Next chapter will be up sooner, due to the fact I already have a third of it already written.

(Also, I had a surprise assignment for university which has eaten up all my time.)

Uh,, I hope you like (and I hope I got the characterizations of the OC's down.. or at least partially recognizable.)

P.S There will be a poll going up on my account soon, that involves this story - make sure you vote! :D