Clare sat bored at her desk. Writing stories wasn't her job. She was a reporter and this definitely would be requiring overtime pay. Still, a job was a job. And honestly she didn't mind it as much as she pretended at times. She was just about to sneak to the break room when her manager ran up, "There is a story breaking down at the park. Don't know what is happening or why, but someone said mutants are involved."

"I'm on it!" Grabbing the van keys, Clare raced from the office and down the steps to the street. Opening the van's creaky door, she hopped in and banged it shut. Turning the ignition, she hoped the rest of the team would get there on time.

Across town, in a music store, Mike was strumming on his guitar while leaning against a counter. It was almost closing time and no one was around except his boss. Tweaking the string, he let out a blissful sound of electric goodness. It was with irritation that he stopped to pick up his vibrating phone.

Putting it to his ear, he heard the summons. With a farewell to The Boss in back, he was outside and in his jeep. Shifting into gear, he hopped from side street to side street heading towards the park. Clare wouldn't be happy if she arrived first with no camera man to film the action.

Tabitha was sat outside a quaint little cafe on the outskirts of town enjoying a cup of tea with a large, scruffy looking lurcher curled up on the pavement beside her. This was one of the pairs favorite past times - each time a person would walk past them, she would quickly scan the persons mind for something interesting and then inform the lurcher.

A group of men quickly ran past, some of them bruised and some covered in blood. A fight? Those were always fun to nose in on, though as she did so, alarm bells began to go off. Four burly men against a single teenager? Not just any teenager either. Tabitha shared the image with the Lurcher and she quickly finished her tea.

The Lurcher on the other hand, padded off down the street after the men. Standing and heading towards the park, Tabitha used her powers to spread the word of what had happened to some other members and they continued to pass the word via mouth. Within twenty minutes the park was packed with furious mutants, made even more furious by the fact that the local ambulance crew wouldn't tend to the wounded man. It didn't matter, they had their own doctor of sorts. A man with scaled skin knelt over the injured party, using his own healing powers to heal him.

Tabitha sat on a bench, watching her own occupy the park in protest and the ordinary humans began to gather around the park entrances, watching the scene unfold.

Mike reached the park and stared for a moment at the pure chaos. He had no idea who was even in charge or what had happened. However, it was pretty evident that some violence had occurred. Mike frowned as he took in the scene more, the group inside the park itself was growing. And some of those in that park were mutants. Obvious by their appearance. He wondered momentarily if he should split. He was a mutant and didn't want to get pulled into anything that might get him in trouble.

Opting to keep his job, Mike got up and started walking. A van pulled in precariously fast and screeched to a stop. Clare sat behind the wheel already whipping out her makeup. He rolled his eyes and changed directions. Reaching the side door of the van, he examined the camera equipment. It had survived the wild ride over.

Clare looked over from the front seat and noticed his guitar strapped to his back. "You might want to leave that instrument here."

"Not on your life. If things get hairy, I want an exit strategy."

Shaking her head, she muttered, "Just as long as you can operate the cam I guess." She slid out and walked around the van towards a park entrance and paused. She needed someone to interview. Seeing a girl sitting on a park bench, she strode confidently towards her. Mike had the camera propped on his should and was running to catch up. He had it switched on and filming as he reached her. Which was right when she reached the girl. Clare turned momentarily to the camera, "Today, events of conflict have unfolded here in this park. Hopefully we can get to you more of what is happening." Turning confidently back to the girl on the bench, she asked, "Ma'am, what is your name? What can you tell us about this park gathering?"

Tabitha sat enjoying the scenery of the park, legs crossed at the knees and one arm casually draped across the back of the wooden seat. There were more mutants than she'd expected which was always a good sign, the more that turned up the bigger the statement they could make. They weren't protesting because of poor pay or pension like the 'normals' did, all they wanted was to be treated equally. Months now they'd been protesting and still nothing, mutants were now becoming targets of hate and violence, yet the police would do nothing. Tonight that was going to change.

The Lurcher made a reappearance about fifteen minutes after he'd disappeared, using his size to his advantage, he had little difficulty making his way through the growing crowds outside the parks main gates. It looked like a good turn out and.. the dog spotted two people approaching Tabitha. A woman and a man carrying a camera? Looks like the newspapers had beaten him here.

"My name is of no importance." Tabitha tore her gaze away from the mass of mutants and let it rest on the woman trying to interview her. "I can tell you that this gathering is a mutant protest. We are all here because one of us was beaten and left for dead by four thugs."

The lurcher approached and announced his presence with a deep bark, then pushed past the cameraman to sit at the interviewee's feet, his head resting in her lap and their eyes met for the briefest of moments. The dogs tail then began to wag and Tabitha smiled.

"The police are useless and refuse to help us so tonight, we're taking the law into our own hands." The female stood and turned to face the mutant mass. "We know where the four are and they will be made to pay for their crimes." She looked over her shoulder to the two. "You're more than welcome to stay and catch it all on film if you'd like."

"Well if you don't mind having a camera capturing it all live, then yeah I want to come." Turning back to the camera, Clare said, "They are upset over a mutant getting hurt and the police not acting. So a lynching party is going to go corral the cowboys who did this and bring about citizen justice. We can follow along, but if there are kids watching then they should probably be supervised closely." Turning towards the park, she started to lead the way.

Mike grimaced at the word choice and followed, panning the camera to help get the whole scene. When he was standing by Clare, he whispered, "Huh, hey, Clare... thing is... our boss doesn't like mutants. He might use all this to get the media upset at mutants. You know, about not following rules or obeying the law..." At the look of disbelief on Clare's face, he muttered, "Forget it."

Clare turned a worried eye to the group. Mike was right. Unfortunately no one knew about her... that she was also a mutant. And now here she was possibly about to make life harder for those like her.

"Camera or not, we're still going to be made out to be the bad guys here." Tabitha stopped a few feet away from the mass of mutants and a single male, easily in his forties with a stern expression stepped from the crowds and approached the four. He didn't stop though, he merely slowed down as he passed Tabitha and the two shared eye contact for a few seconds, before he smirked and walked off.

The Lurchers ears picked up what was said to the camera and what the cameraman said in private to the reporter. Did she really think there was going to be a lynching? The dog snorted at the thought.

Tabitha led the way through the gathering, many moved out of the way for them, giving them a clear route to the heart of the group. The scaled doctor was still working on the injured mutant, though his injuries no longer seemed as severe as they had been.

"How is he?" She asked the doctor.

"He'll live." The scaled man replied without looking away from his patient.

The Lurcher left Tabitha's side and instead lay down beside the injured man, pale eyes resting on the two news people.

Stepping into the camera's view, Clare spoke confidently, "As you can see, this mutant was badly injured. Already fellow mutants are working hard to save his life and help him to have a speedy recovery." Clare paused a moment, then decided a little history would go a long ways. Her boss might not like it, but she had to try. "We are seeing history repeat itself. Just as the Irish so long ago were beaten and left for dead by the police, so now it is happening to these people. Thankfully, everyone enjoys Irish humor in this day and age with St. Paddy's day. Hopefully that same level of tolerance and living can be reached soon for mutants."

Mike suppressed another grimace. Just what she should have said. It wouldn't take long for haters to put St. Paddy's day and Celebrate Mutants Holiday together and just fight harder against mutants. They wouldn't want that day to come with their prejudices. Mike was not sure how to break it to Clare that she was saying all the wrong things. But the way he saw it, she wasn't a mutant so therefore she wouldn't understand. That was how things rolled. Unless you wore the shoes, you couldn't get the picture the same way as those who did. Panning the camera, he took in the concerned and angry faces of those who were treated badly because of genes they couldn't control. He focused on the most innocent ones there. Children. Delicate teenage girls. Worried brothers. Justifiably shaken and angered adults.

Perhaps letting this reporter so close to the scene hadn't been such a wise idea. Mutants were already shown in a bad light, but to compare it to another tragedy was going to anger all those affected and that anger would then be directed at them. For the moment, Tabitha let her continue and instead focused on the doctor and his patient.

The doctor finished cleaning up the last of the physical wounds he'd mended and as he did so, the patient began to regain conciousness. The thin, pasty teenage male opened his eyes and once they'd started to focus, they widened at the sight around him. So many faces staring down at him. The boy began to panic, the doctor tried to calm him but it was the lurchers wirey fur that did the job. The dog lay as still as a statue as the boy began to stroke his head.

"As long as you mind what you say and ask permission.." Tabitha began, standing and turning to face the two that she'd brought over with her. ".. feel free to try and interview some of my mutant brothers." She cast a brief glance to the watch on her wrist before looking to them again. "We shouldn't have much longer to wait for the culprits to be brought here."

Clare looked at this girl and thought to herself, but this one seems almost like a leader. I rather interview her. "May I interview you? You are right here and we have already started talking. Also, you seem to know a lot of what is going on. How did you learn of these event? What makes you a mutant?"

Mike shifted the camera so that he could get both of them. Easing backwards a little, he also managed to get a good number of the crowd. So far so good. He was still glad his guitar was strapped to his back, but if he needed an exit strategy, he surely had it.

Tabitha didn't like the idea of being interviewed, but she supposed that at the minute many of the mutants around her would not be willing to speak to a reporter, let alone an ordinary one. "What makes me a mutant?" Was she asking what unnatural abilities she had? It would be easier to just show her rather than try to explain.

"I learnt of these events while glimpsing into the minds of a group of thugs running away from the scene of the crime." Her lips didn't move in the slightest, instead her voice would be heard inside Clare's mind. "I spread the word to my mutant brothers and Bastian followed the attackers to their home." As she spoke his name, she motioned to the lurcher still sat with the young mutant.

"Please forgive the intrusion, I find it's easier to demonstrate my powers rather than explain. I merely opened a communication channel between us, your thoughts and memories are safe." Tabitha smiled. "I hope that answers your questions." She spoke again, this time using her mouth so all could hear.

Clare stared at her first startled, then terrified. It was only when she was reassured that anything she thought or knew was untouched that she could breathe again. And pick up the pace that she played her mental tetris came. Tetris of bejeweled. Either one was always playing in her mind in case she ran across people such as these. Regaining her composure, she said, "That was really fascinating. Turning to the camera, she explained, "As you saw, for a moment our mutant friend stopped talking. At least with her lips. I could hear her voice in my head explaining that this was her mutant ability." She decided to leave it simply like that and not explain Batian to the camera.

Mike blinked at the moment of silence, but with Clare explaining things, he felt a glimpse of hope that perhaps she might be one of the non-mutants to like mutants. That would be great if he could trust his partner. Not that he had a reason not to. She was just incredibly naive to him. Hearing a ruckus behind him, he turned and pointed the camera at them. Zooming in, he tried to focus on the exact place of incoming disturbance.

Tabitha had more important things to worry about at the minute, she'd read the minds of enough reporters and journalists in the past to know what to expect anyway. While her powers were explained to the camera, she could hear the noise picking up behind her and knew just what was going on. The man that had passed them earlier had returned.. all four of him. Each copy of the man had one of the thugs in tow, each had their hands bound with rope and held tightly by the copy.

The thugs were understandably not too happy about being treated like this and were doing everything they could to break free. Getting them through the crowd of onlookers at the parks gates was difficult, the man had to create a few more duplicates of himself to prevent those around him trying to free the guilty men.

But finally they made it into the park and began approaching the gathering of mutants, the thugs fell silent at the sight, now realising just how much trouble they were in.

"Our guests have arrived." Tabitha turned once more and walked towards the young mutant that had been attacked. Bastian, upon hearing the commotion, rose to his feet and stood protectively in front of the mutant. Nothing would happen to the mutant, but he hoped by doing this it would give him the confidence to do what needed to be done.

The mutants moved aside, clearing a path for the thugs directly to the one they'd attacked earlier. Tabitha helped the mutant to his feet and remained at his side, though her lips weren't moving it was likely she was communicating with him the same way she'd used with Clare.

Mike felt uneasy watching the thugs bring brought in. It had the makings of violence or misinterpretation. With Clare being the only non-mutant within the actual park, he was starting to get worried. If things got violent, it would all be captured on camera. The live feed going back to the office would still be used. Stepping around so that Clare was no longer in the view of his heavy camera, but the main action was, he motioned to her to get behind him.

Clare bristled at the intended advice. She was a reporter and reporters should be willing to go into the thick of things no matter the danger. She didn't need anyone pulling her. But she thought better of a lecture. Those at the office would think it unprofessional. So she stalked right on ahead, walking up close to where the thugs were being held. "Excuse me, pardon me, what are your intentions with these men? What are you going to do?" He aimed his camera in their direction hoping for sound bites or clues to what was about to happen.

Tabitha heard the questions and looked from the terrified thugs to the reporter trying to get an answer from anyone as to what was going on. "We are going to show these thugs just what sort of people we are." Was her simple but rather ominous reply.

The thugs were brought before the victim one by one and forced down onto their knees by the man of many clones. As the last of the thugs was forced to his knees, the clones returned to the original man and he stepped back into the crowd to watch. The pathway had now disappeared, the angered mass were all gathered to watch what was going to happen.

For a few tense moments nothing happened, the victim eyed up the men before him, a look of terror in his eyes as his beating replayed in his mind. It replayed several times until he finally looked at the dog beside him. Bastian was sat glaring at the men in front of them, they were nothing but bullies and thugs, lashing out at anyone or anything different.

Finally, he worked up enough courage to get to his feet and though he refused to step any closer to the men, the look of terror had all but disappeared. Well it had disappeared from the victim but the thugs seemed to have adopted it. "I..." The male started, his voice catching in his throat. "I forgive you. A-all of you."

The crowd was enclosed around the men and the victim. The sense of anger filling the air. Mike felt grumpy and a bit alarmed as the path closed up and he lost camera view of what was happening. Not just the camera view, but also sight of Clare. She was there as he could see the top of her head, but he didn't know what was happening. The only thing that came through his ear bud was the sound of the victim. The words also reached the office. Simple words of forgiveness.

Clare stood shocked. Her mouth hanging open. That was it? This was justice? If society ran that way, then there would definitely be more crime. Still, she could see how this was a good move. No violence meant a better rep for the mutants. She almost thought of herself as a mutant, but her mental game of tetris increased faster blocking out that thought from forming. She simply stood shocked, mouth obviously hanging open.

Back at the office, silence greeted the display screen and speakers. Their boss, Berns, stood there arms folded. His brain taking the footage that was captured and already twisted it for the next news segment. Not just the news but the newspapers too. Those near him saw the look in his eyes and edged away.

It had taken a lot of talking and convincing to get the mutants on her side, to prove to them that violence was not the answer in this day and age. They had to prove that they were just as human as the normal folk around them and in her mind, this was how they did it.

Though it wasn't just the peaceful way of resolving the issue that thugs like these had to deal with, they also now knew that the mutants knew where they lived so if they did choose to attack another, they would have to watch their backs. Who knew what would happen if they were caught a second time?

The doctor appeared beside the teenager and eventually led him away through the crowds to take him home. Now that the main event was over, the mutant mass began to disperse in all directions. Many of the mutants gave the thugs dirty looks before they left, though a handful laughed at how pitiful they looked at that moment.

Tabitha stepped in front of the thugs and looked down to them. "I don't think you were expecting that, were you? A mutant more human than you."

The lurcher walked around the left side of the thugs and by the time he'd reached the right side, he was a dog no more. Bastian completed the circle and stopped beside Tabitha. "Get out of my sight. Now." The man growled and the thugs did as they were told. They rose to their feet and scarpered towards the crowd gathered at the gates.

Clare followed the men, wanting to interview them. The crowd at the gates though didn't realize at first she was a reporter. They let the fleeing men through and stepped between them and those who might follow. She stood there frustrated, knowing that the crowd was rather clueless. Clenching her fists, she let out a sigh and turned around.

Mike stood before her, a little out of breath from working his way through to her with a big camera on his shoulder. "Can we get out of here? Please? There is no more story. Boss will take this and do what he wants with it." She noted that the camera was turned off and nodded assent. "Good." He turned and began to lead the way out of there. She followed in a more subdued way.

There was a lot of food for thought in what had happened. She appreciated how things were handled, but wished that the forgiving part had been captured on film. As Mike reached the van and opened the door, she piped up, "Hey wait, give me the tape from the camera." There was always two pieces of the recording. The one in the camera and the one that went wirelessly to the office. "I want to keep it for a bit." Just in case...

Mike gave her a long look, wondering if she wasn't as dumb as she appeared, and then set the camera down on the floor of the van. Opening of the side, he pulled out the tape and quietly handed it over. "Thanks" was all Clare said as she pocketed the tape.

Tabitha was the last mutant to leave the park, she'd thanked many for keeping their cool and even more for simply turning up. Surely if they kept this up the rest of the world would realise that mutants weren't really any different to the rest of them? Changing someone's perspective wasn't that easy, this she was aware of and she was fully prepared to wake up the following morning to see the film the cameraman and his journalist shot twisted so as to make them look bad. Still, she supposed as much as they could twist it, the thugs were still alive and unharmed so they couldn't be blamed for that.

"Let's move already, someone in that mob will have called the police and I don't want to be here when they arrive." Bastian looked to the crowd still gathered at the gates, there weren't as many but he still didn't like the look of them.

"You're right, lets head home, we won't know what the damage is until morning anyway." Tabitha turned on her heel and with Bastian the lurcher back at her heel, the two walked across the park, taking the long way back to the apartment block they shared with not only other mutants, but normal people society had forgotten or neglected.

Mike was curious as to where they were going. This wasn't the route back to the office, unless it was the scenic route. Whatever the case, he kept quiet. Something at the park had changed Clare's normal no nonsense behavior. She was not being as reckless as she normally was. They pulled up outside of a cemetery and came to a stop. "I'm going to pay my respects to someone. Guard the van." With that Clare was gone. He watched curiously but said nothing more as she walked out of sight.

Reaching a small stone vault, Clare pulled out a key and unlocked the gate. Going inside, she pulled the gate shut with a click. It housed the cremated remains of her family. They cremated them because of a family secret that they had guarded for years. With the dawn of mutants, she learned that perhaps they were not so strange after all. There were numerous small vaults with their doors closed. She bypassed them and walked up to a plaque. It seemed like solid metal and so it was. She placed her hand over it and a moment later it was a lot larger and fluffier. Pulling the cotton back to reveal an entrance, she placed the tape safely inside with other documentation of "what really happened" that she figured should be saved in case it was needed. Then pulling the cotton back over the opening, she changed it back into a thick and solid metal.

It was not long later when they pulled up outside the newsroom. Mike grimaced, "I'm not needed now. Send a text if you need a camera man." She waved him away as she headed inside. He turned and started trudging down to the sidewalk. He would just catch a bus back to the park where his bike was left.

Clare reached the main office floor and saw that different people were working on assignments. Everyone was strangely quiet with little chatter going on. She went to her desk and sat down. Looking through the papers laying around, she saw no new assignments. It was then she realized that her boss was cutting her out of the loop on this one.

Berns was bending over the shoulder of the videographer. He wanted the news to be spectacular. They carefully pieced together the clips.

Clare turned momentarily to the camera, "Today, events of conflict have unfolded here in this park. Hopefully we can get to you more of what is happening." Turning confidently back to the girl on the bench, she asked, "Ma'am, what is your name? What can you tell us about this park gathering?"

"My name is of no importance." Tabitha tore her gaze away from the mass of mutants and let it rest on the woman trying to interview her. "I can tell you that this gathering is a mutant protest.

we're taking the law into our own hands." The female stood and turned to face the mutant mass. "We know where the four are and they will be made to pay

So a lynching party is going to go corral the cowboys who did this and bring about citizen justice. We can follow along, but if there are kids watching then they should probably be supervised closely." Turning towards the park, she started to lead the way.

Panning the camera, he took in the concerned and angry faces of those who were treated badly because of genes they couldn't control. He focused on the most innocent ones there. Children. Delicate teenage girls. Worried brothers. Justifiably shaken and angered adults.

The man that had passed them earlier had returned.. all four of him. Each copy of the man had one of the thugs in tow, each had their hands bound with rope and held tightly by the copy.

The thugs were understandably not too happy about being treated like this and were doing everything they could to break free. Getting them through the crowd of onlookers at the parks gates was difficult, the man had to create a few more duplicates of himself to prevent those around him trying to free the guilty men.

But finally they made it into the park and began approaching the gathering of mutants, the thugs fell silent at the sight, now realising just how much trouble they were in.

So she stalked right on ahead, walking up close to where the thugs were being held. "Excuse me, pardon me, what are your intentions with these men? What are you going to do?" He aimed his camera in their direction hoping for sound bites or clues to what was about to happen.

The thugs were brought before the victim one by one and forced down onto their knees by the man of many clones. As the last of the thugs was forced to his knees, the clones returned to the original man and he stepped back into the crowd to watch. The pathway had now disappeared, the angered mass were all gathered to watch what was going to happen.

The crowd was enclosed around the men and the victim. The sense of anger filling the air. Mike felt grumpy and a bit alarmed as the path closed up and he lost camera view of what was happening.

Berns smiled and grinned. Then he added the clips they had done with their newsreporter saying that there had been unrest among mutants today. It went at the beginning. Then at the end the reporter came back on to say, "And that folks is the beginning of the mutant revolt. Just like America's Revolution from Britain, the shot that was heard around the world has happened. Who is safe?"

With that days events still fresh in their minds, both Tabitha and Bastian sat in the lobby for a few hours discussing what had happened with the mutants who had been unable to make it. They seemed pleased that it had all ended peacefully, though they began to worry when they heard about the journalist and her cameraman that had been allowed to witness and record what had gone on. The event in the park was going to be twisted and mutants were going to be made into the bad guys, many of the mutants grew restless and retired to their rooms. Tabitha remained hopeful that at least some good would come of what they did, but Bastian didn't share her views, this was just the beginning and he had a bad feeling about what was to come.

The following morning Tabitha rose to the sound of her alarm clock at seven, though she had no need to get up early and would likely only spend the day in the park with Bastian. Still, she wanted to get her hands on the papers before everyone else was awake and see what the press made of their gathering in the park.

After throwing on a fresh pair of clothes, the female left her room and went to call on Bastian. Her friend, it would appear, was already 'dressed' too. The apartment door opened and the large, scruffy lurcher stepped into the doorway. A psyhic greeting occurred and the duo took the familiar route from the apartment building and into the park. There was a news stand on the other side of the park that they always brought the daily paper from and today would be no different.

Unlike a 'normal' dog, Bastian had no collar, was not walked on a lead and was not running across the park like a lunatic, sniffing and exploring everything. He walked alongside Tabitha, eyes and ears always aware of what was going on around him.

Approaching the stand as the seller was setting up, the two stood and waited patiently for the man to finish.

Mike slumped into the park. He had gone to work early only to be met by his boss. The man was nice and sympathic. But he explained that Mike was known at that store as a mutant. So he couldn't stay. In explanation, Mike's boss had pointed up at the TV. Clare's boss had put together footage and it was replaying over and over again on the news. He felt sick. Not even the birds chirping up in the trees did him much good.

Walking into the small, old ampitheater, his footsteps sounds forlorn and lost. He wanted to take off his guitar and hit it hard. Send his powers through it to blast everything in sight. But he had enough common sense to hold himself in check. Just what he needed was to have a battlezone at the very place of the news footage. Walking up onto the stage, he set down his equipment and hooked up his electronic guitar.

Then half standing, half sitting on the edge of a picnic table that had gotten dragged there, he started gently strumming. Willing some joy into not just his soul, but in the world itself. His music brought small children who were playing at a nearby playground. He smiled at them and started doing cute little musical jaunts. Maybe his real powers wasn't the mutant abilities. Maybe his real powers were playing the guitar for kids. It felt just as good.

The headlines caused Tabitha's heart to sink. Violence never solved anything and yet it would appear the peaceful approach wouldn't either. Or perhaps it would and she just needed another angle? Either way, she hoped there would be no side effects to these twisted stories, humans attacking mutants was bad enough, but mutants turning on humans was a whole other kettle of fish.

Having paid for the paper, she turned in the direction of the bench they usually occupied around this time and took a few steps forward before nothing something was missing.

Bastian had turned in the opposite direction, his ears having picked up the sounds of music coming from the old amphitheater. There were no events planned for the park for that day and after getting his friends attention and informing her of the music, the two of them went to see what was going on.

As they approached they saw a crowd of children all happy and dancing along to the music being played by.. the cameraman from the night before? Curious, the two of them stood a few feet away from the children, enjoying the music and the carefree atmosphere that came with them.

Mike felt a bit lost in his own world, enjoying the giggles of the kids. It was a bit of a shock when at one point he looked up and saw the lady they had interviewed the day before. Not wanting to interrupt the kids' play but wanting to apologize to her, he fretfully wondered how to achieve both. Finally, he simply slowed his strumming until he ended with a soft note. The kids came up to shake hands and give high fives before they moved off to play elsewhere.

Seeing his chance, he shyly ducked his head as he approached. When he was still several yards away, he paused and awkwardly handled his guitar. "Uh, high. Look I'm sorry about yesterday. Clare is rather naive and her boss doesn't like mutants. There was nothing that could have been done to avoid it. I'm sorry you got caught in that too." He blushed and looked down. Guilt warring on his heart.

Bastian had been enjoying the music, he'd just gotten settled on the floor when it came to an end with a final soft note. The kids ran off to play elsewhere and the man on stage began to awkwardly approach them.

"You don't need to apologize." Tabitha replied, smiling at the man in front of her. "The footage you recorded was the truth and you both witnessed it first hand, it's unfortunate but we've gotten used to the media twisting stories about us. But we will endeavor." Looking over the mans shoulder she glanced at the amphitheater and then back to him. "So are you a musician in your free time or a cameraman?"

He smiled. These two seemed very pleasant, even if one was in dog form. "I am a musician first and foremost. With every fiber of my being. However I am working part time as Clare's camera man. Each of the reporters are given a small expense allowance allowing them to hire their own workers. She hired me. Good thing too. At this point, her paycheck is my only paycheck. Who would have thought my own work would get me fired. But that is a rather sore subject so, let's move on. What brought you both out this morning? It seems you are tied to the park somehow."