Life had been surprisingly good recently.  Surprisingly, deceptively and untrustingly good.  Between a couple of very successful break and enters and recently signing the papers to rent a room in a new apartment, Jayden felt on top of the world.  She had enough money to be secure for a couple of months and her apartment was way more fancy and high class than any place she'd ever lived before.  Mostly, she even got along with her new roommates or, at the very least, her new roommates were mostly willing to leave her alone to her own devices.  Life was fantastic.

It couldn't last, of course; it never did.  Every time things started to turn positive for her, something would happen to pull the rug out from under her and bring her right back to square one.  Last time around it had been her mother calling up out of nowhere to say she was dying from cancer and needed her estranged daughter home to take care of her and say goodbye.  The possibly stupid decision was made that yes, in fact she would do just that and so she left her recently acquired position with The Order, her little bachelor apartment and all semblance of the life she had just started to build.  Upon her return she was once again living on the streets without so much as a few dollars to her name.

Now, finally, she was making real progress on turning things around.  So what if her good fortunes were at the expense of others?  Aside from one accidental mishap, she was careful to only target humans for her thefts, and preferably wealthy humans.  She also did her best to use as little violence as possible; the ultimate goal was to get in and out without even being noticed.  Yes, she'd cut a few people along the way and probably left a few scars in her wake, but its not like she'd ever killed anyone and the rich and famous could use to lose a few excess dollars into the pocketbooks of those less fortunate.  Some of those dollars were even going towards charities that helped her fellow mutants because that sort of thing was important.  

This afternoon she was out to find herself a new laptop.  Now that life's essentials were taken care of, it was time to start taking care of some slightly less than essential comforts.  As always, black cat claws were shown proudly at the end of her fingertips, but unless one was looking for it, she appeared otherwise human.  Hopefully the task would be quickly and easily completed and she'd be back to more interesting things.  

"Stop!  Thief!"

Lost in thought, she didn't immediately realize the shouted words were directed at her.

"Hey!  Stop right now!"

She turned in confusion.  She hadn't stolen anything, at least not today and certainly not in broad daylight.

This afternoon, Shin was shopping for pens. Ballpoint pens. He stepped into a store, bought some, and left. It's really easy to shop for pens. They sell them, like, everywhere. But what don't they sell? Ways to stop pickpockets and thieves on street corners near busy stores.

Shin glanced at his watch and sighed, then shifted his grip on the plastic bag with the box of pens in it. He really needed to help whoever was calling for help. Even if he wasn't with the police any more, he was an X-man, and they usually did things like this. It set a good example for the little X-men out there. And the little boy and girl mutants who would eventually grow up to be contributing members of society. But it wouldn't be easy helping out. He really didn't have much to him beyond muscles and words. He supposed he had a cellphone. If he just grabbed the thief, he could call the police. That was the smartest course of action.

It wasn't as if he were dressed in slacks and a nice button-up shirt, fresh off work. He was clearly wearing a TAC vest and kevlar body armor. No? Just teacher clothes and comfortable shoes? Okay. He'd had to check his X-men outfit to make sure 'Mansion Teacher' was represented loud and proud.

The Asian walked the few steps from where he'd exited the store towards where he'd heard the rough accusation. And he glanced around. He almost wanted to ask if someone had called for a superhero, but that felt campy as hell. So he did not.

"Thief?" He asked, instead. "Where?"

Glance, glance. Glance. All he saw were a lot of confused people and some woman with claws and a black mohawk. Maybe some people were looking at her? He just didn't get it. "Who's the thief?" He asked her, as if that would enlighten them all. If she'd been the thief, she would have been running or reacting with more than simple dazed confusion. That spoke of a lack of guilt, in his estimation. But what did he know? He'd just been a cop for a few years. Nothing special.

Everyone around her was looking around to try and spot who this thief was. Maybe he wasn't actually pointing at her? Maybe there was someone behind her or near her that was actually the culprit? She took a glance around herself, but no such luck. Of course no such luck. When had luck ever been in her favor? So the next question was, where and what had she stolen? And maybe add 'when' to the list as well.

"Thief? Where?"

She glanced at the Asian man and shrugged her shoulders, otherwise ignoring him.  She had more important things to worry about at that exact moment.  Like the fact that she didn't even recognize her accuser and shouldn't she recognize the people she stole from?  

"You took all my uncles money at the pawn shop.  You and the stupid plant girl!"  The boy yelled.  And he really was only a boy, likely not any older than 14 or 15.  Well, that explained why she didn't recognize him.  That night had been a disaster.  One of her first really good scores, she had gotten away with the money but hadn't researched closely enough to realize the owner was a mutant and mutants were supposed to be off limits.  Some kind of hell hound, he'd attacked her when she fled and might have done her serious bodily harm if not for Xavia the 'plant girl' saving her ass.  Maybe saying sorry would help?

Before she had a chance to even think of apologizing, the boy's body began to change.  His form grew and doubled in width, skin turning black and rough.  A moment later, it started smoking and red fizzures opened across his body between the patches of black.  If she didn't know any better, she could swear he'd turned into a creature made out of burning coal.

Well crap!  Double crap!

There weren't many plant girls Tetsuya Shinbo knew. He knew of a plant man, Kai, and a plant woman, Xavia, and thought the mansion might house others that he hadn't really met. But plant girl? He didn't know. But the child was accusing Mohawk woman of teaming up with a plant girl. Shin knew that much.

If it was someone he knew, he'd have to ask about it and learn more... Xavia did not seem the type for robbery. She was a teacher at the mansion. But her face had been the first he'd thought of at the mention of plant girls, and she said she'd had a rough time for a while... he stowed the thought away for a later date. Not now. No, now he had to stare at the boy as his body grew and changed.

Coal? Molten rock? He looked dangerous. Accusations of theft are one thing. Assault is another. The Asian stepped between the flowing coal mutant and Mohawk woman, holding up his hands, palms outward to either party in the universal gesture to stop.

"Hold it!" He shouted. "I'm an X-man and I can't just stand by and watch you two fight! Can't we talk this out?"

Things had just turned from bad to worse and as much as she could surely spend days berating herself for her stupid rookie mistakes (and probably would when all this was said and done) now as not the time to do any of that.  "Would it help if I said I was sorry?"  It could hurt to try diplomacy, right?  A low growl that sounded more like an angry motor was the only reply and she interpreted that as a very definitive 'no'.

The Asian man also seemed to think diplomacy was the best way to sort this whole mess out and if it had been up to her, she would have tone right along with it.  Hell, she'd even be willing to get back some of her ill gotten gain, not that she had all that much left.  But it was the thought that counted, right?  

"I don't think he's willing to talk."  Not her fault he was being so unreasonable.  Reinforcing his lack of reason-ability, he ignored the very suggestion of talking and instead charged her, smoke now rising from his fully transformed form.  Instead of talking, she should have been acting.  With a barage of very colorful language, she barely dodged and performed a barrel roll to the side.  Jumping to her feet, black scales came up to envelope her body from head to tow and claws transformed from understated cat claws to much larger eagle talons.  What resistance it would offer against and flame was dubious, but if he insisted upon a fight, she was going to give him exactly that!

Well, poop.

He really had no adequate response for a flaming coal man. The lady did. She transformed. But him? Throwing his ring out there was a surefire way to get it damaged, and he liked it. That was his only weapon. His only physical weapon. He couldn't grapple with the guy. The Asian couldn't do much of anything. But he could use his brain.

"Listen," Shin insisted. "If you keep this up, I'll call the police. I really will. And then you'll have the SWAT team shooting at you, or MRC handling you in a more appropriate way." Dangerous mutants required dangerous responses. He wished the man would listen to sense and end this in a non-violent manner. But the man really seemed to want to get himself in the worst kinds of trouble.

If the comment didn't evoke an appropriate response, he'd handle it. How would he handle it? Well, gee. Fight fire with fire extinguishers. He would pop off to the nearest shop, and get a fire extinguisher or two. But first, he'd chuck his bag of pens. That would stop him.

Coal boy glanced down at the Asian man but otherwise ignored him.  His sight was single minded and he was intent on making Jayden pay for whatever slight he imagined she'd made against him and his family.  Okay, so maybe 'imagined' wasn't exactly an accurate word since she actually had committed a slight against him and his family, but that wasn't really the point.  The point was that the harm he wanted to do her far outweighed any harm her little theft could have possibly done to him and therefore this really wasn't fair at all.  Not at all.

Jumping back to her feet, Jayden stood still waiting for the lumbering beast to charge her again.  He had all the advantages in size, strength and fire so she'd have to rely upon her wits and her speed.  Of course, if her claws couldn't penetrate his hide she'd be in some real trouble but when all else failed, there was always running for her life.

Her foe did not disappoint as he spun and punched wildly.  She ducked under his punch and slashed at his unprotected side with her talons.  Had he been mere flesh and blood, they would have sliced large chunks out of him and he'd presently be bleeding like a stuck pig.  Being made of coal and fire, they barely chipped his flesh and she felt his heat through the scaled protection of his aura.  He laughed at her pitiful attempt to harm him, preparing himself for another great blow.

Distantly, she was aware of a crowd starting to gather round them, pointing and watching the spectacle.  If they weren't careful, it would be more than just those involved in the fight who would be at risk for grave bodily injury.

Okay that was just rude. He'd been ignored. It made him want to revise his plan, and get in there to make the man take him seriously. He was an X-men. Even if he was a down on his luck x-man, he still belonged to an elite group of badasses. He could ass with the baddest of them! Well, what did they say? Ignorance is bliss? He'd shatter that coal dudes blissful idiocy sure enough.

Step one. While the two people were fighting, Shin stepped inside the nearest shop and briefly explained the situation. It took barely a sentence, and though he wasn't quite sure the exact wording he'd used later, he was fairly certain it had involved 'dude,' 'on fire', and the phrase 'extinguish his X-men ignoring ass'. Okay. Maybe he'd not used that last one verbatim. He'd said "Extinguish the bad mutant attacking people"... probably. The sentence had likely been "dude there's a fire! A dude on fire! Gimme your fire extinguisher so I can fight him!" Or something equally helpful. Hopefully, the woman with the Mohawk had lasted the thirty seconds or so it had taken him to get in, get out, and get on with it.

By the time he was back on the scene, a crowd had formed. He shouldered through the people, announcing official x-men fire fighting business, out of the way. The second he was close enough, he got the fire extinguisher ready, and then sprayed the coal man liberally, from head to toe. He made sure to avoid the woman fighting him, but if they were closely entangled, there wasn't much he could do but hope she didn't inhale the spray. It wasn't good to touch it, or eat it, or breathe it... but it was better than being fried.