A stroll with the dead (Emily)

As Alex stopped at the bus stop and took another sip of his slushy drink, he started to consider maybe buying a loose white cotton button down shirt that had long sleeves so he could still hide the malachite bracers that were on his wrists, while keeping cool in a hot environment like this. The black leather jacket just wasn't going to cut it in this heat. He knew for a fact that the green T-shirt he was wearing was completely soaked from his sweat, but he had put on a whole bunch of deodorant that morning so there wasn't any smell.

As Alex waited, he started to notice a young woman with several bags of accessories in her hands call out to the kitten, trying to get it to come over to her in order to get it out of the parking lot. Alex was about to think nothing of it when he did a double take of her forehead. Everyone there was sweating to the point that they were soak, though he was sweating the most... but this woman wasn't sweating at all. Not a drop. Her skin wasn't red either... she was actually looking a little on the pale side. Now that was odd... almost as odd as a guy wearing a black leather jacket in 100 degree temperatures.

Alex's head wiped around when he heard the fanatic voice of another woman, and saw that she was calling out to her little girl, whom was making a B-line for the kitten and picked the small animal up in her arms. Not exactly a wise idea, since there was no telling if the kitten was carrying any harmful viruses, and it might scratch the little girl out of fear, but that wasn't what the mother was screaming about. A large heavy duty pickup truck had rounded a bend so fast that it had tipped slightly as it did so, and it was going down the parking lot road towards the child... and the driver wasn't paying attention because he was on the phone! From where the mother was, there was no way she was going to reach her child and pull her out of the way before the truck hit her. The woman that didn't sweat dropped her bags and was about to run out there to save the child as well, but there was no telling if there was enough time for her to save the child either.

However it didn't matter if there was enough time for either woman to react fast enough, for Alex had reacted instinctively and dropped his slushy, causing the blue liquid to go all over his new boots, as his cyan eyes started to glow a bright green. Alex's arms quickly reached towards the child and two rods of malachite shot out from under the leather jacket, ripping the sleeves to ribbons as they did since they were growing in size till the rods had the diameter of a base ball. The two rods combined as they shot towards the child, and glowed a greenish hue as they fused together so Alex had more control over the malachite. The combined rods quickly reached the child and opened up, forming into what looked like a bright green car seat, and swept the child off of her feet in a way that she fell back into the malachite chair, and a malachite harness grew out from the seat and wrapped around the child and the kitten as the rod retracted back towards Alex. He and pulled the child out of harm's way with several seconds to spare... and the driver didn't even seem to notice as his truck roared passed, still yapping away on his phone.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Alex slowly lowered the unharmed child onto the ground before the malachite harness retracted as well, and the malachite car seat retracted as well, leaving the child sitting on the ground next to Alex, but not in the puddle of blue slushy. Once the malachite rods were fully retracted, Alex glanced over at the speeding truck, lifted up his left arm so he could be looking at the bracer on that arm and at the truck's license plate at the same time... and an engraving of the truck's license plate appeared on the bracer. His eyes still glowing green, Alex knelt down to the girl to see if she was alright. "Sorry if I scared you. Are you alright?" he asked sweetly, and the cat only looked at him as if to say 'what they heck just happened?' Alex was so preoccupied with the child's safety that he didn't notice everyone around him running away, afraid of him because he was a mutant.

Seconds after Alex had asked the little girl if she was alright, the woman that didn't sweat knelt down next to him and thanked the child for saving her cat, and asked to have it back. The child handed the terrified animal back, and gave Alex the biggest smile he had ever seen as she said that his malachite was beautiful. The last time Alex saw such a smile was on his niece's face when he brought her a Christmas present. As the child reached for him though, Alex's right cheek exploded with pain and heat as the mother slapped him across the face. She hit him hard enough, and since he wasn't expecting it, that Alex went from his kneeling position to being on his rear end, holding his throbbing cheek. "OW!" Alex exclaimed just before the mother called him a freak and rushed off with her daughter in tow.

Alex slowly stood up while rubbing his swore cheek, which was soon going to be red and swollen from how hard she hit him. He glanced over at the woman holding the kitten, and finally realized that most of the people there had fled, while those that had remained had formed a circle around him and the woman. Glancing around and the crowd, Alex knew exactly where this was going to be headed. "Mutie! What the heck were you thinking?! Touching that woman's daughter with your power?? You contaminated her!" said one man as he prodded a finger at Alex. "Why do you mutants even exist?! Can't you just curl up and die so we can live our lives peacefully?" A woman shouted as she glared at him with a look that would've made him drop dead if looks could kill. "That guy in that truck was a friend of yours, wasn't he? An attempt to fake being a hero so we would like you! How stupid do you think we are?!" another man said as he threw an unopen can of soda at Alex... which the malachite manipulator caught in mid air with a bare hand and checked the date of the can before he wiped off the top of the can, then opened it and took a sip since it was still cold and he was still sweating a whole bunch. That one action that Alex just did made it clear that he didn't really care what people said about him at all. "All I did was use my gifts to save another person's life. And you condemn me for this? Geez, and you humans wonder why my kind doesn't like you." Alex stated calmly after he swallowed.

Another man snorted at this, walked over to his car, grabbed a baseball bat, and came back over to the circle of people that had Alex and the woman surrounded. See the man coming back with a bat, Alex gave the woman a worried look through his glowing green eyes. "Ma'am, you should leave. This could get ugly." Alex stated as he unzipped the jacket and let it drop off if his shoulders to the ground, revealing that his forearms were encased by the malachite bracers from his elbows to his wrists... and that his green shirt was soaked with sweat to the point that it was sticking to his skin so the tattoo on his shoulder was visible though the material... along with all of the scars that littered his upper arms. The shirt hid the scars on his chest, stomach, and back, while the malachite hid the scars on his forearms. Alex wasn't running. He was standing his ground and was going to fight if he had to.

But only if he had to. What he wanted to do was to get these people to forget the idea of attacking him and to leave him alone, and at the moment they were beyond rationally talking it out. He had no choice but to scare them away. Thankfully that was quite easy with his power. "If you people are asking for a fight though, I will give you one, but you will be the ones to strike first." Alex stated as the malachite grew into his hands so he was holding a sword hilt in each hand, and from those hilts grew two three three foot long blades, each one with a bunch of jagged razors on their blade edges, and extremely sharp. The razors started to rotate along the edges of the blades so the swords were more like chainsaw swords, and they started to make a whistling sound because of how fast the razors were moving. "Leave me be. I don't want to hurt you." Alex stated firmly as he slightly narrowed his glowing green eyes. Clearly, several of the people were spooked at seeing what Alex could do with his power, and started to back away. The man with the bat only laughed. "You're just trying to intimidate us! For all I know you couldn't hurt a fly with that!" The man stated, and Alex glanced in that man's direction. "You don't recognize the material that my saw swords are made of, do you? It's malachite, which is twice as strong as concrete. That bat of yours will be nothing but saw dust if you attack me with it. I'll say it again, please leave me alone." Alex stated calmly, though it was clear that he was ready for a fight if it came, and his scars showed that he had been in his fair share of battles. Several more people left, not wanting to be carved up by Alex's weapons if a fight broke out.

As Alex stared down the mob that had him surrounded, he wondered why the woman that was holding the kitten wasn't running like he told her to do so. Wasn't she scared of these people? He was. Alex didn't have any shame in admitting that he was afraid of these people that had surrounded him. He could easily survive this fight, but chances were he was going to have a new bruise or scar from it... but if one of them pulled a gun, then he had only a fraction of a second to stop that person from shooting him. He would either have to kill them or encase the gun within a malachite crystal... but Alex wasn't faster then a bullet if it came to that. While it registered in the malachite manipulator's head that there were several people watching events unfold, including policemen, Alex was focused on the mob, ready to defend himself and the woman if he had to.

It was at that moment that the woman addressed the mob and tried to convince them to leave as well. So, she was taking his side. The woman was clearly judging Alex by his actions instead of his mutation. While Alex was glad to see someone like that at a time like this, but she was going to get herself killed. Sure enough, when see tried to talk to the man holding the bat, he lifted the wooden weapon to swing it at her. "NO DON'T!" Alex screamed as his malachite chainsaws quickly retracted as he tried to dive in the way of the bat so he would get hit instead of the woman, but it was too late. With his glowing green his wide with horror, Alex watched as the woman's body hit the ground.

"No..." Alex whimpered as he gazed down at the woman's seemingly lifeless body, then shifted his gaze so he was glaring in the direction of the running murder, and slammed his malachite bracers together in front of his chest so his arms were crossed in front of his chest. "Damn you!" Alex roared as the bracers started to glow the same green as Alex's eyes as they fused together and molded around Alex's right forearm. Alex then pulled his right arm back, and punched the air in the killer's direction... and a long yet narrow spike rapidly grew out of the malachite, heading straight for the criminal.

As the extending rod neared the criminal, the spiked tip changed form into what looked like a type of wrist clamp, and it closed in around the criminal's right wrist, forcing him to stop running. With both bracers fused together, Alex had a maximum range of 54 feet, and the criminal had only managed to get 36 feet away before Alex stopped him. The fastest cop that was there, a young woman that looked like it was her first day on the job, had her gun pulled out and was aiming it at the crook. "Drop the weapon! And before you say anything, I hate mutants just as much as you do, but the law comes before my personal feelings. You're a murder, and all that mutant did was save a child and stated that he was going to defend himself. Drop the weapon, now!" She ordered forcefully as her weapon was aimed at the halted killer's heart. Another cop caught up to the criminal and had his gun drawn as well.

Seeing that the police had the situation handled, Alex's malachite let go of the criminal and it retracted back to Alex, whom defused the malachite so he had two bracers again, one on each arm, and he knelt down next to Emily, a tear in his eye. "I'm sorry. This is my fault. I should've ran away. They would've chased after me and would've left you alone. Instead I had to stand my ground because I was sick of running all of my life... and you lost your life for it. I'm so sorry..." Alex whispered, his voice thick with sorrow as a few tears started to fall down his cheeks.