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	The sun sat just over the horizon.  [i]Nocturne[/i] was an industrial night club, a perfectly rectangular building with windows that only appeared on the upper levels and a neon sign out front with stylized red letters backed by a blue crescent moon.  Inside, the house lights were up.  It was too early for patrons.  Men in suits were pulling down upturned chairs off of tables while others were rolling in carts of alcohol to the bar area.  Others, still, could be seen moving in a human caravan holding white bags and depositing them into one of the back offices on the first floor.  Alcohol was not the only thing they sold to their customers.  As one of the suited gentlemen wiped down a countertop, his gun harness could be seen peaking out of his jacket.  Every one of these men was armed.  This was a Stagnum establishment.

	Alexander Stagnum sat patiently in his office on the second floor.  As an albino, he wasn’t much of a fan of the sun.  Nighttime was when he really came alive.  His skinny, wiry stature made him look younger than he was and the fact that he was relatively short didn’t help matters, either.  He sat behind his very expensive walnut executive desk.  A one-way window lined his right side wall, overlooking the dance floor.  On top of his desk sat an open bottle of 30 year old single malt scotch.  Beside it was a half-filled glass and a manila folder with some words typed on the tab and other words handwritten across the folder itself.  Xander just stared at the liquid in silence as if waiting for it to do something.  Across the room was a glass coffee table surrounded by 4 black leather chairs.  Occupying those chairs were Xander’s personal bodyguards.  Big, burly muscular men armed to the teeth.  Just like nearly everyone under the roof of the Nocturne, these men were dressed all in formal suits.  The only person breaking code was Xander, himself, who was dressed in a loose fitting pair of slacks and a tanked undershirt. His feet were bare.  The rest of his outfit was sitting upon the coffee table folded up neatly with a black shoulder holster housing two twin Desert Eagles, silver with black grips.  Xander had no use for the attire now, though.  Not yet.

	Without warning, the front doors of the club erupted open.  Gunfire cracked and voices were heard yelling and groaning.  Furniture was being smashed.  Xander’s gaze did not move.  The bodyguards immediately sprung to their feet and viewed the scene below through the one-way window.

	“Boss, looks like a mutie,” spoke one of them, a tinge of panic in their voice.

	[/color]“Then why are you here?”[color=929292]  Xander’s voice was cool and calm.  It always was.  Half the bodyguards took off out the door and down the stairs to combat the situation.  An orchestra of gunfire and glass breaking continued to fill the club.  The remaining guards watched on from Xander’s office.  They visibly winced in unison right before a particularly loud crashing noise.

	“It’s not looking good down there.  They're hitting 'em, but it's not going down.  Bulletproof,” said one of them, turning to Xander.  “We could, uh, really use Lex right now.”

	[/color]“Well Lex isn’t here, yet, is he?”[color=929292]  The guard just gulped and returned his attention to the carnage.  Then, just as quickly as it started, the commotion stopped.  Hard footsteps could be heard outside the office door, coming up the stairs.  The guards within the office moved position and aimed their weapons at the doorway.

	[/color]“I thought you said he was bulletproof,”[color=929292] Xander chimed in, finally reaching out to pick up the glass of scotch.

	“Well yeah.  He’s like a rock monster thing…” the guard stammered.

	[/color]“So you’re going to shoot holes in my door just for fun?”[color=929292]  The two henchmen traded glances with one another before hesitantly lowering their weapons and slowly backpedaling away.  The thunderous footsteps persisted before the light that lined the door’s bottom was extinguished.  It was here.

	With a loud boom, the door was turned to splinters at a massive hand armored in earth came crashing through.  Xander let out a sigh and took the first sip of his drink, shaking his head.  The guards backed up further, standing on each side of Xander’s desk like a couple of frightened puppies.  The mutant forced himself the rest of the way into the room, just a little bigger than the doorway itself.  His entire body looked like it was covered in segmented stone.  His face was a helmet of rock.  You could just barely make out his eyes and mouth within.

	[/color]“Alright, mutant.  Here you are.  You’ve disrupted my business, you’ve cost me money, and you’ve taken out my personnel.  I assume there is a reason.  Who are you and what do you want?”[color=929292]  Xander sounded more inconvenienced than scared.  It was a reaction that took the attacker by surprise.

	“You’re Alexander Stagnum,” the thing declared.  Xander immediately looked up from his drink and squinted, trying to see the deep set eyes more clearly.  The voice was young.  Very young.  There had to be a teenager under all that rubble.  “You sell drugs... you steal...  You hurt people.  I’m here to stop you!”  The corner of Xander’s mouth moved up in an awkward, confused sort of smile.

	[/color]“Huh. And what should I call you, seeker of justice?”

	[color=929292]“I’m… well, I’m Clobberstone,” he said with an obvious lack of confidence.  “And you’re done for!”  Xander couldn’t hold back a chuckle.  It seemed to enrage the golem, as he reared back and prepared to charge.  Xander held up a hand, palm facing the mutant, and the latter hesitated.

	[/color]“Okay, Clobberstone. Great name.  I get it.  Like cobblestone, but… ya… Listen, the sun is nearly down.  You can walk away from all this.  The guys down there?  They’re a dime a dozen.  The mess?  I’ll get it cleaned.  I’m not worried about it.  You can walk away from this and everything will be forgiven, I promise.  No hard feelings.”[color=929292]  The mutant’s eyebrows weren’t visible, but Xander assumed they must’ve been furrowed at this point.

	“Why would I leave now?” Clobberstone asked before starting to advance again.  Again, Xander held up a hand and Clobber complied.

	[/color]“Because you lost this battle before it even started,”[color=929292] Xander calmly explained before glancing at a clock perched on the wall.  [/color]“But it looks like it’s too late, afterall.  I’m afraid I must rescind my offer.  You’ve run out of time.  He’s here.”[color=929292]  Xander put down his glass and stood up out of his chair.  With one hand holding up his very loose pants, he slowly shuffled out from around his desk to meet Clobberstone head-to-head.  A look of relief seemed to fall upon the guards’ face as they instinctively moved back further away from the action.

	“Who’s here,” Clobberstone asked, glancing around the room and out the window at the dance floor below.  His eyes then met Xander’s and he looked on in horror as the musculature of the abino’s body began to throb and bubble.  Xander let go of the pants as his waist began to expand, filling the band perfectly.  His legs began to stretch, swell, his chest bolstered, his facial structure even became sharper.  His muscles multiplied, amplified.  Veins began to spring to the surface of his skin as his body finalized its transformation.  Where there once stood a wiry kid there now stood a hulking man that was even more imposing than the Clobberstone, himself.

	[/color]“Me,”[color=929292] Lex said finally in a whisper.  WIth a grin that would make your blood curdle, Lex grabbed Clobberstone by the chestplate and pulled him in with his left hand.  His right rocketed forth in a fist that immediately collided with the earthen shell covering the mutant’s face.  The rock didn’t stand a chance.  Instantly,  it shattered and gave way to the vulnerable face of a dark haired young man with a soul patch and peach fuzz for a mustache.  Lex took the time to let out a huff of laughter before sending his fist back in for a second visit.  This time the fist went all the way through in a splatter of warm crimson.  Lex dropped the husk of Clobberstone and tried to shake the blood off his hand.  [/color]“Get rid of it,”[color=929292] he said without looking at the guards.  They complied nonetheless, both of whom ran over to the remains and attempted to drag it.

	Lex looked around the room as if trying to get reacquainted.  His eyes fell on the coffee table first.  He grabbed the rest of his attire and put it on, seating his guns in place beneath his coat.  Everything was a perfect fit.  He then strolled over to his desk and picked up the glass of scotch that Xander had started before sitting down and looking at the folder in front of him.  On the tab was printed 'Ashford Institute'.  Written across the folder in red ink was “I want this taken care of [i]NOW[/i]. –JS”.  Lex smiled and opened the file.[/color]