"Almost there," Erg said as they climbed down a series of rungs made of rebar driven into the concrete wall.

"If we're going in circles to confuse me you can stop, I was confused to begin with," John said, getting a laugh out of his mutant guide.

"We passed through a couple of areas that would fry any electronic bugs or trackers you might have on you," Erg explained. "It's just a safety precaution."

"I wouldn't think anything like that would work down here anyway," John replied.

"If they did, they'd have to be really sensitive, so we had to detour past some unshielded sections of the electrical grid to make sure," Erg replied. "Also, I needed to charge up."

"Makes sense," John said as they reached the bottom of the ventilation shaft.

Erg opened a steel door and lead him into an unused subway tunnel. There were half a dozen subway cars, their windows blocked with cardboard or newspaper and various tents scattered about providing housing for the residents and it was surprisingly clean. There were half a dozen unique looking people dressed in heavily patched and worn clothing scattered about doing various things, most of them children.

"And here we are, home sweet home," Erg said cheerfully.

"Looks better than I was expecting," John admitted, surprised.

"What were you expecting?" Erg asked.

"A bunch of people packed into an old World War II fallout shelter," John replied, the glow snapping off. "It would seem to be the most secure place available."

"Callisto moved us out of that," Erg said, "too cramped and not enough exits." He led John to an old subway car that resembled a caboose in the middle of the tunnel and knocked on the door.

"Enter," a female voice called out.

Erg opened the door and lead John into what was obviously a small office, probably used by one of the early conductors during the early nineteen hundreds from the look of it, though the lights had been replaced with a bank of fluorescent tubes and the green metal filing cabinets were probably from a government office somewhere.

Callisto leaned back in her chair and looked him over. She was a thin muscular woman with pale white skin and short black hair. Her right eye was covered by an eye patch and a couple of scars peeked out of the tattered black half shirt she was wearing.

"I'm Callisto, the leader of our community," she said, "welcome to sanctuary. Most of the people down here are hiding from the world because they can't fit in. You look like you could blend in with any normal suburbanite. You have a power that makes that difficult?" She leaned back in her chair and cleaned under her fingernails with a switchblade.

"No, I've got a great power," John said, "but I've got no job, home, or identity. I figured a place for people like myself was where I should go, so here I am."

Callisto nodded. "And what's your power?"

"I'm a biokinetic," John replied. "I can heal people."

Callisto nodded. "We've already got one healer, but another is always welcome as long as they pull their weight and help out in the community. We work together here, so expect to spend some time doing menial labor like everyone else."

"What kind of menial labor?" John asked curiously.

"Cleaning, unclogging the toilet, stealing toilet paper from public bathrooms," Erg replied. "We always need more toilet paper."

"I can make toilet paper," John said.

"I thought you were a healer," Callisto said.

"I'm a biokinetic," John said, "I can manipulate organic material. Healing is just a small part of that. Give me a two by four and I can turn it into a large stack of toilet paper. I mentioned healer specifically because it's what most people need. I could regrow your eye in about five seconds."

"You can replace body parts?" Callisto asked carefully.

"Or give them ones they didn't have originally," John said. "If you'd been born without legs I could give you a pair, I just have to model them after someone else's."

"That's quite a bit more than simple healing," Callisto said.

John shrugged. "I never said I was a simple healer."

"Could you make people look normal?" Callisto asked. "We've got some community members would dearly love to be able to blend in so they can actually go above without causing a panic."

"I should be able to, I'll just need to touch someone normal looking so I know what to base their looks on," John explained.

"Why come down here?" Callisto asked. "With a power like that you could have walked into the Avengers' mansion and had them throwing money at you."

"And then I'd have to deal with all their drama," John said, shaking his head. "I don't want all that, no matter how comfortable it would be. I'm not saying I wouldn't help them if they needed me, but I don't want that kind of life."

"Sensible," Callisto said, sounding a bit surprised.

"I wonder if he could fix Masque," Erg said thoughtfully.

"Masque?" John asked.

"He's a mutant with the ability to alter the way people look," Callisto explained. "He was born horribly deformed but his powers don't work on himself, so he's a bit bitter about it."

"That's… putting it mildly," Erg said, thinking it was about the greatest understatement he'd heard in his life.

John offered his hand to Callisto and she looked at it.

"Depth perception is a wonderful thing," John said.

Callisto chuckled and grabbed his hand, her grip startlingly strong for a slender woman.

John noted the multitude of scars as well as the way her mutation had altered her body, heightening her senses, enhancing her strength and reflexes as well as some facet of her mental processes. As mutant abilities went, it was fairly tame but quite well rounded.

He leached off some of his excess weight and fed it into her body as he worked, smoothing out old scars while rebuilding her eye, mirroring the left one. While he was doing that he altered his own body to copy the changes in hers. "Done," he said, releasing her hand as he blinked and tried to adjust to the way everything was so bright and loud.

Callisto took off her eye patch and looked around with a slowly growing smile.

"You okay?" Erg asked while Callisto was distracted.

"Boosted my senses," John replied, "this may take a minute to get used to."

"What did you do that for?" Erg asked.

"It looked useful," John said as he suddenly adapted to the enhanced input of his senses, the small section of his brain he'd altered becoming very active for a few moments.

"You can alter yourself to copy mutant abilities," Callisto said, her dark eyes focusing on him.

"Biokinetic," John reminded her. "I'd be stupid not to use it on myself."

"And if you were just seeking power, you'd have pretended to be a fan and asked to shake the hand of various Avengers during one of their public meet ups," she reasoned.

"Not real interested in becoming all powerful, but enough strength and speed to protect myself would be nice," he replied honestly.

Callisto nodded and settled back behind her desk. "Welcome to Sanctuary. Erg, give him the nickel tour, let him know the chore rotation, and introduce him to Masque. If we can get Masque on board with making people look more normal, it'll improve things around here."

"I'm on it," Erg said, leading John back out into the station. He waved towards the platform. "Bathrooms are up there, use the appropriate one and try to keep them clean. If you want a shower, we've also put one inside each bathroom, but there isn't a lot of privacy. Communal supplies, toilet paper, and the like, are inside the ticket booth."

John nodded.

"The newspaper stand is filled with old clothes, we raid the donation drop offs of some thrift stores for those, that's also one of the chores. We go for serviceable or warm clothes over stylish," he explained. "Not that we don't have some upscale stuff, but that's for when one of the more normal looking people have to blend in somewhere to try and make some money."

"Like your healer?" John asked. "That's a good power for making money, if you're careful about it."

"Our healer can only heal mutants," Erg said. "Hey, Doug!" he called out and a thin man with dirty blond hair, wearing a tattered white doctor's coat came over.

"New resident?" Doug asked, offering his hand.

John shook Doug's hand, finding the older man had some age related aches and pains while he parsed the way his power worked. "Nice to meet you," John replied. "Want me to heal you?"

"There's not a lot to heal," Doug replied, "just age catching up with me."

"I'll take that as a yes," John replied and started removing the obvious signs of aging while increasing bone and tissue density, a task made easier as his power figured out how Doug's mutant power worked, based as it was on reading a person's DNA.

Doug took back his hand once John had released it and examined it with a smile as he saw that the skin looked smoother and younger. He ran his fingers through his now thicker hair and laughed. "Amazing."

Erg grinned. "We gotta get you a name."

"Name?" John asked, though he was sure he knew what he was talking about.

"We mostly go by our mutant names down here, Doug is called Healer for instance," he explained. "Not sure what yours would be. Fixer? Shifter? Miracle Worker?"

"Fixer is fine," John said, not wanting to get stuck with a name like Miracle Worker, which would make him a target.

"Fixer it is," Erg said. "Let's see if you can fix Masque."

"Good luck with that," Healer said, shaking his head. "If you can help him, you really will be a miracle worker."

"As long as he's organic it should be easy," John replied.

"This way," Erg said.

John followed him as he pointed out various points of interest as they continued down to the station until they reached an old-fashioned canvas tent almost the size of one of the train cars.

Erg rang a bell hanging from the entrance. "He doesn't go out much, for reasons that'll be obvious."

The tent's cloth door was pushed aside and a man in a red monk's robe with the hood up, hiding his face came out. "What do you want?" he demanded.

"Masque, this is Fixer," Erg introduced him. "His power has a bit in common with yours."

"Really?" Masque asked intently. "How much?"

"I can alter you however you like," John said. "Not just flesh, also bone and muscle."

Masque pulled back his hood, revealing a twisted visage that held quite a bit scarring. "Can you fix this?!"

"Without a doubt," John said, offering his hand.

Masque grabbed his hand and John felt the fingers form themselves into a flipper under the other's power. "Fix me and I'll restore it, but if you're just screwing with me, I'll turn you into a living nightmare!" Masque threatened.

"Hey, take it down a notch, he's here to help," Erg said, unconsciously raising a hand to his eye patch as he pushed between the two.

"Relax," John told Erg, "He's probably dealt with a lot of people screwing him over because of his looks." His power had found Masque's easy to understand and it provided a myriad of shortcuts for how to mold living matter to whatever form he could clearly imagine.

"Or trying to kill the freak," Masque muttered angrily.

John held out his flipper. "I need skin to skin contact."

Masque nodded and grabbed his flipper.

John started with the slight hunch in Masque's back, allowing him to straighten up fully before he started working on the myriad of other physical deformities that were hidden beneath the angry mutant's robe. Masque let out a relieved sigh as pains he'd long since even noticed existed, faded away.

John felt his hand reform as he worked, Masque gaining enough hope to extend a sliver of trust in the new Morlock. "Who do you want to look like or should I just go for male model handsome?"

"I'd settle for someone people won't throw bricks at when they see me," Masque said.

"Alright," John said, shifting Masque's face into a copy of his own as a place holder until they could figure out what he would like.

"Is it done?" Masque asked anxiously.

"Check a mirror," John suggested.

Masque ducked into his tent and returned with a hand mirror. Holding it up to his face, he frowned. "I said a face that wouldn't get bricks thrown at me!"

John looked stunned for a second before Masque burst out laughing and he couldn't help but join him.

"I can walk out in public, I could get a drink at a bar, I could get laid!" Masque enthused, tears running down his face.

"So, Brad Pitt with more muscles?" John asked.

"What?" Masque asked.

"If you want to go bar hopping, let me give you a leg up on the competition," John said, offering his hand.

Masque took his hand and he grew slightly taller, his form filling out and his face altering to becoming movie star handsome.

John's pants fell down and he let go of Masque's hand to bend down and retrieve them. "Oops, used a bit too much of my fat stores."

"Are you going to be okay?" Erg asked.

"Yeah, I just gotta eat more or I could just wear different clothes. I was thinking about making some major changes to my appearance anyway," he tightened his belt so his pants wouldn't fall again.

"Your power works on yourself?" Masque asked in disbelief. "You got lucky."

"And that luck is now rubbing off on you," John replied.

"Good point," Masque said with a smile that lit up the tunnel.

"Damn," Erg said, "I don't look half that good."

"You are a miracle worker," Masque said.

John winced. "Fixer, I'm a Fixer," he said quickly. The last thing he needed was for people to be talking about how amazing he was, it would attract attention.

"You are far too modest," Masque said, running his fingers over his features, overjoyed to feel smooth flesh.

"I want a nice quiet life," John explained. "If people start talking me up, someone will show up to screw that up."

Masque shrugged. "Well, to each his own. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to grab a shower, clothes, and see if I can talk a woman into bed." He vanished back into his tent to gather his things.

"He's never been that nice," Erg said, "though he had some good reasons for his attitude. Come on, let's introduce you to some of the others."

"Sure," John said, "It'll be nice to meet some more people. Will Masque be okay going off on his own?"

"He'll be fine," Erg waved it off, "he's been out before on his own and this time he's not likely to be attacked, so what's the worst that could happen?"

John stumbled. "I am so glad I included strength and healing in his upgrade," he muttered.

"What?" Erg asked.

"Nothing," John waved it off. "Let's go meet some new people."

He was sure something was going to happen to Masque now, but that was something to deal with later. For now it was time to meet new people and expand his medical database. Let future John deal with the fallout.

Typing By: Abyssal Angel

TN: Well crap. With his luck, Masque's gonna end up picking up Mystique, who's going to be oh so intrigued once Masque's alcohol loosened tongue starts wagging about the 'Miracle worker'… Never split the party and never taunt Murphy, for there lies ancient Chinese curses about forever living in interesting times…