A/N

I am really sorry about the delay. It's been a month and a half since I last updated. It's that time of the semester the work starts piling in. My Christmas break will be here in three weeks though, so I'll do the best I can to put up a few updates.

Allen K. Roderick. Fourteen years old. Bright kid, a little on the daydreamer side. Withdrawn, noted on several teaching faculty lists to be 'distressingly rebellious in lieu of group activities.'

Well, duh.

I put down the pilfered reports and worked the stiffness out my shoulder. The car was a little uncomfortable, and my arm stung if I brushed up against anything too hard.

Dex opted out of helping me recruit. Instead, I directed him to a library he could easily get into. If he was going to be working with me, he'd better bring up his knowledge on these wonderful things that humans are so well known for. Ignorance would get us into serious trouble.

I glanced at my wristwatch. Twenty after midnight. I glanced down the street. A cop had come down not an hour ago. I had to hide down in the front seat. Somehow I don't think 'I'm out here recruiting for a subterfuge war against warriors from another world, officer' would get me out of any tickets he might decide to give.

I checked my watch again. Almost show time.

Allen K. Roderick often left the confines of his pretty little duplex that his mother and brother lived in (the whereabouts of his father seemed pending) to wander the streets and talk to himself. I'd been watching for two days on the trip over. He had a pattern: get out the window, walk two blocks away until he was under a streetlight (which I was parked beside) and argue for a few minutes, then walk all the way to the bus station, but never actually go in, then turn around, go back to his house, pretend to sleep till morning.

I felt a little trill in the back of my head: he just left. I hopped out of the car and went around to the trunk. I sat down out of sight and waited.

Footsteps sounded hollow against the ground as he moved. There was an echo, unnatural. Almost as if the footsteps were followed by another pair that never quite touched the ground.

"Whoever has this car is going to have it stolen in the morning." A voice muttered. I smiled thinly.

"What do you mean, it's probably already stolen? You're paranoid." The voice continued after its quick halt. It paused again. "I don't even know how to drive."

"I suppose that's good for me then." I said getting up. I 'saw' the boy whirl around and stare at me in shock.

I rounded the edge of the trunk and gave him my best smile. He quickly ran to the other side of the car.

"Who are you?"

"Danny. Danny Nesmond. Recruiter, of sorts."

"What are you recruiting?" He asked guardedly. He was trying to stall for time, trying to tell if I was dangerous.

"You."

"What!"

"I didn't stutter."

"Why me?"

"Because you're gifted-ha, no, I can't say that and keep a straight face. I suppose it's because I can help you and you can help me. It'll be mutual helping."

"Like what?"

"You want to leave right? Probably don't have the money though. Don't have the strength either. It's difficult, leaving home. I can help."

"I don't want to leave!" He said hotly as he moved directly under the streetlight. "And I have plenty of strength!"

Thin. Really too thin. Probably had some sort of metabolism problem. Couldn't be due to lack of food in the house-his mother had food left every meal. Black hair, defiant looks, and sharp brown eyes. He stood up ramrod straight, bringing his eyes level to mine. He seemed to want to make himself tall, and to take up as much room as possible.

"Really? You don't seem all that strong to me. You seem kind of lost."

"How did you find me?" He asked coldly.

"I know your brother."

"You know Theo?" He asked suspiciously.

"Sure. We've never been introduced, of course, but one can't have everything. But I know a good many things about him. For example, he hits little girls without even moving an inch-"

He moved so fast I didn't have time to get out of his way. He was up in my face yelling at the top of his lungs.

"THAT WASN'T HIS FAULT, IT'S NEVER HIS FAULT! I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU THINK YOU ARE, BUT YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPY ON MY BROTHER, AND YOU BETTER GET OUT OF HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"How can I if you've got me three feet off the ground?" I asked with complete calm. Working for years without emotion has certainly helped in these rather stressful situations.

He was struck dumb for a moment, and then looked down. We were, indeed, floating. Three feet off the ground.

"You have a little more control over this than your brother. And you get very angry when someone makes any comments about him don't you?"

"Everyone says he's a demon."

"There are other explanations."

"We had him tested, and me. We're not mutants."

"Mutants aren't the only creatures that can do interesting things."

"What else is there?" He asked miserably as he put us down. He sat down heavily on the pavement. "I'm such a freak. My mom would be better off without me around."

I was beginning to have the feeling the boy was bi-polar. Raging one second, self-pitying the next.

"It is…my experience that daughters and sons think that at least one time in their lives. It's rarely true."

"How would you know?"

"Oh, I know. I know more about it than you can imagine. I'm a mutant. That makes me feared. I am someone's daughter, therefore someone is to blame. I've fought in a battle no one knows about, and as such, everyone in my family now suffers." Oh yes. I haven't forgotten that I haven't called my mother this month, and probably will never call again. They'll fear for me, and cry about the things I do. Maybe disown me. "There's a good chance that if you leave in your own way, you will cause nothing but heartache for your family."

"I told you I don't want to leave."

"Your actions say otherwise. But aside from that, tell me…you're not a mutant. How did you learn to fly?"

"I can't fly. Only float. And I just learned."

"Then wouldn't it be obvious," I turned my back on him, "that at some point you could learn so much, come back and help your brother?"

"You don't understand." He moaned. "There two of them, two of us! There's somebody inside my head with me, and when I was Theo's age the things that happen to him happened to me too! I can't stop it!"

"I know. I guessed that when I was watching your brother. But it would make sense that if you both have the same condition, you must teach him, right?"

"But what about those times I'm not there? Those times he needs my help?"

Hah! That means he's considering it.

"There is very little in the world a resourceful kid can't do on his own. Besides, I can set up a buddy system, watch over your brother for you. He'll never be in any real trouble." I crouched down until my head was level with his. "And coming back to help may give him more of an advantage. Though…I won't say our little partnership is without risk."

"Risk?" His head rose a little.

"I'm going to put together a team to help me save the world."

"Like the X-men?"

I snorted. "They couldn't do what I'm going to do. They spend too much time picking up litter and saving the park habitat that doesn't need them anyway. My team will take a different approach. One that includes bending a few laws and breaking a lot more."

"You're trying to turn me into a criminal?"

"You can call yourself a highwayman if you want. They're romantic figures. But I'm telling you this so you know what will happen. There will be fighting. The people will want to kill you. There will be stealing, and you can and will end up on wanted lists. You may end up a very rich or very dead person. I will do everything I can to prevent the latter."

"What can you do?"

"What can't I? I'm quite resourceful in my own right. I will promise you this, Allen-if you join me, I will protect you with my life. I will never ask you to do something that I won't. I will ask you to do things I can't, because in my experience, flying is not a skill I'm born with. Or floating."

He barked a sharp laugh. "I'm the first person you've tried to recruit, aren't I?"

"After a fashion, yes. How did I do?"

"Terrible."

"I guessed as much. Public speaking isn't my forte. Hell, speaking isn't my forte."

He stared off into space for a moment. The he looked at me. "Can I tell my mom I'm leaving?"

I didn't let my surprise show up on my face. For a minute I thought he was going to float back home.

"Sure. But there will be rules about the whole calling and visits and stuff."

"Okay." He got up. Then he looked at me. "I was going to leave. To stop Mom from having to worry about me and Theo. She should just worry about him. It's a lot tougher for him, I was home schooled for the first few years, and I still can't control whatever it is when I'm in groups. It hurts people. I don't know why."

"And you never will if you stay around here." I finished the sentence he couldn't speak. He nodded.

"I knew I was going to leave sometime. I didn't think it would be like this."

I didn't say anything. He looked around for a moment. "Will you wait for me?"

"Of course."

He walked away. When he was gone I breathed a little sigh of relief. This whole 'be honest and wow them with your intelligence didn't quite work like I thought it would. It shouldn't have worked, but I could tell he just needed an excuse. I'd have to work on my recruitment a little better.

One isn't lucky all the time.

Next chapter will take a jump into the future. Just so you guys are prepared. Sorry if this chapter wasn't quite up to par, but I'll do my best to bring the chapters back up to my standard.

Arin Ross: Sorry I haven't updated! Hope you enjoyed the chapter. Heh, glad you're enjoying the stuff about Magneto and Logan. Prepare fora whole load of OC's in the next chapter. Should be quite interesting. I don't know which brother you were thinking off, but I hope you found the brother I gave out pretty interesting! Hope you did well on your college APS! (Err...what are those, anyway, at the risk of sounding like a moron?)

Please leave a review!