xp_logs | Amanda, Artie and Jen Walters. (Backdated to Friday the 25th of January.)

Back on his feet, Artie approaches Jen and Amanda for help finding his family following this journal thread.

Artie settled back into the bench on the diner booth and nodded thanks to the waiter for the coffee he'd brought around, and quietly pointed to the fries on the menu, ordering a serve. He took a moment to set up his laptop (it was fastest and easiest to use the text to speech program on it) while Amanda and Ms Walters settled themselves. "Thanks for meeting with us," he said. "I'm sorry if I get a bit spacey later. I was doing some training before and I'm kinda wiped now."

Walters waved a hand in response. "No worries, I remember all too well frantically trying to get my powers under control so I didn't accidentally turn the gym floor into a gaping hole. I didn't tire out but damn, I remember emptying out the fridge almost every day." The text to speech program didn't seem to phase her - she hadn't really encountered anyone with Artie's unique mutation and mutation-led handicaps but she'd had several clients who had used it for one reason or another.

Ms Walters went up a couple of notches in Artie's estimation as she looked at him, rather than at the computer on the table. "I've seen the stuff you super strengthers have to go through." And, you know, some of it was pretty funny. He turned to Amanda. "You were right, you know - Sarah is kicking my ass like nothing else."

"She always enjoys a new victim," Amanda replied with a chuckle. "And at least it's education arse-kicking?" The waiter reappeared to take drink orders and she ordered a coffee. "Something for you?" she asked Walters. "'S on the Snow Valley tab, since it's technically a client meeting."

"I'm good with coffee for right now but I'll probably add a few sandwiches to that tab after a while," Jen responded cheerfully, more than willing to abuse someone else's tab to help fuel her stomach. She rubbed her hands together and nodded ad Artie. "So, what's the basic story behind all this? Behind you?"

"You mean my background?" Artie shrugged. "I don't know who my parents are. I was raised by a crazy lady who lived in the Morlock tunnels under New York after most of the Morlocks were killed. I don't know who killed them. I want to find out one day. Eventually, she gave me up to Xavier's mutant home and I grew up to be a fine young lad with no issues at all. I don't even know if this my real name and we picked my birthday because I didn't have one. Annalee said that she thought I was six and she stole this cake for me..."

"Artie asked me about a year or so ago to look into his background," Amanda chimed in before Artie could continue with his version. "I looked into birth records for mutant babies in New York around the same age, but came up blank. And then work kind of got in the way and I didn't get a chance to widen the search."

Walters had leaned back in her seat and had let Artie's words, and then Amanda's, sink in. The truth of the matter was that Artie's was a situation she hadn't really encountered before - living on the streets, yes, in the tunnels with a group of mutants? Not so much. But strip all that away and here was a kid who'd been abandoned not once but several times and was now trying to pick up the pieces of his history. That, she'd seen before.

"Considering all you don't know, I'm not surprised you came up blank," she commented to Amanda. "He could have been born outside of New York, the birth could have been unregistered - hell, there's a chance," Walters said, looking back at Artie, "that your mutation didn't start at day one, too."

Artie just looked at Ms Walters, stunned. "I never even considered that. Do you think it's a possibility?"

"I'm no scientist but it seems to me that the majority of mutations tend to hit around puberty. You could have been born with your powers but we have to factor in that maybe they didn't kick in until later." She grimaced at Amanda. "Which, unfortunately, if that's the case actually makes this a little harder."

Amanda, in the meantime, had slapped herself on the forehead. "Of course," she groaned. "I should've gone national with the bloody births search," she complained. "Tho' you're not 100% right about mutations kicking in at puberty. My brother Kurt was blue and fuzzy from the day he was born."

Walters pointed at Amanda. "And that is why I leave the sciencing to my cousin. My side of the family came with different types of brain power. But don't beat yourself up too much. It's a pain in the ass to search that thing and it takes time. And it doesn't sound like you had a lot of that to spare." She turned back to Artie. "Well, that's one place where we could start; we'll widen the birth search and throw out the search for active x-gene births and not active -" Walters squinted at Artie. "I ... think you're too young for testing to be more available in hospitals, so there probably won't be a record of if you had the potential."

Artie shrugged. "If I wasn't born a mutant, I did manifest when I was a really little kid. I don't know how likely it is that you manifest when you're less than, I don't know, five."

"I think Walters here has got the right idea. And yeah, you're unusual enough in terms of manifesting that we'll be able to find some kind of record, I reckon." Amanda sipped at her coffee. "So, Walters... you all right to work together on this? I admit, there's probably some stuff you don't want to know about as far as my research methods go."

" Then as long as you don't mention them, we should be good. I'll tackle it my way and you'll ... do whatever it is that you do." If she didn't know too much into what Amanda did, the better she'd feel. She wasn't naive enough to think that no lawyer ever got what they were after by using strictly legal means but keeping her distance was only smart. At least with the 'research methods'- she rather liked Amanda so far.

Jen turned back to Artie, saying, "Is there anything else you can think of for us to use in our search? Or anything else you'd like us to dig up for you?"

Artie shook his head. "I just want to know who they are, you know?" He looked across at Ms Walters and Amanda and said, "I think you know everything I know. If I thought we could trust Annalee to be honest, we could ask her, but that won't be happening."