The two muggers were men in their early thirties. They was desperate, and they were sloppy as hell. The fight had lasted five seconds. The woman Elliott had helped was incredibly grateful, but he was wearing a motorcycle helmet and he sure as hell wasn't taking it off for a random stranger's indiscretion. He didn't accept her offer, for several reasons.

To start off, ew. What kind of woman kisses someone they just met, on account of them being a knight in shining armor (that looked like a leather jacket, tight jeans, and a biker helmet with a painted smile on it)? To follow up, the whole secret identity thing wasn't worth blowing over a peck on the green cheek. And to finish it off, he was very green. She might react negatively to that, as some are won't to do, and maybe the whole event would backfire on him. So Elliott said no, he wasn't in it for the reward kisses, thank you little lady, you can leave and I will flounce off with all this sexual tension, like a magnificent poof. Except he didn't flounce off. Once she left, he took both the unconscious men's wallets. Served them right. Then he flounced off, pulling his helmet off only after he'd walked several blocks away from the scene.

Elliott slipped into the nearest bar. There was a band playing. Fairly average. Run of the mill. He made a habit of knowing about all the watering holes in the area, if not for the lie clientele, then for their various boons. This one was nice enough he knew about it, but in an area he didn't go through often enough to be a regular.

"Whiskey, sour." The green man sat down on a bar stool by the bar. He set his helmet down on the floor at his side, discrete and out of the way. If anyone asked, he hadn't wanted to leave the helmet outside with the bike. These things were getting popular lately. He'd heard about people getting in fights with gangs and would-be muggers more and more recently, and not every single one of them could have been him. He chalked it up to popularity of the helmet design. He'd thought it was unique, but he supposed not? Whatever. His antennae twitched at the thought of someone stealing his bit, and making trouble in his fake name.

It was a pretty typical night. Lee was in and out of the back, getting paperwork done so she could leave right after close with Blaine. When she wasn’t in the back, Lee was walking around the bar, double checking that everything was good, everything was running smoothly.

And occasionally smiling over at Blaine, stopping by his post against the wall a couple times over the long hours to see how his night was going.

Then Lee saw something very unusual: someone with green skin and annentas sitting at the bar. Though there were at least three mutants working at the bar, and who really knew potentially how many others there that night, none were this obvious.

Hopefully, there wouldn’t be any issues, whether from her own staff or from the customers. Unfortunately, Lee knew that those kinds of wishes rarely came true, at least for her, so she made her way over to the bar. Best to be nearby and ready for if and when there were any problems.

Since his powers had come back on the other side of time and space, he'd started patrolling again. It had been a big deal when his mutation had stopped working properly. Mental block, plateau, whatever. He hadn't been able to generate new shards. He'd only been able to work with what he'd had-- which had been his wedding rings. Fighting crime with one flying silvery diamond wedding band isn't as easy as it sounds. He'd grown used to exercising a certain degree of mastery with his armor, and his creations. Losing that, he'd had to learn to be a minimalist, and to fight smarter. Now that he had it back, there was a bit of discord between his strategies. He was all about experimenting and creating... but he also liked holding back, and making what he did create important. His creativity was boundless, but the willpower behind it was at odds with, say, infinite Shard works? He'd been patrolling, and figuring his updated powers out.

It was good that SUPER hadn't decided to become active on this side of the rip in space time. He'd been so angry, at the idea of being held captive (like Romania), that he had powered through his stagnant powers and their block, in order to become strong enough to fight his way out of the secret SUPER lab compound... and that had been one hell of a time. Fighting crime in New York now, as an x-man... it was a lot easier. And he was keeping an eye out for them, because if he found them again, he was going to stomp them out. Too many negative connotations between them and the Romanian mutant registration act's internment camps and SUPER's mutant monitoring and cells. He was watching out for SUPER, but all he was catching were petty criminals. There was a guy in a leather jacket, and a motorcycle helmet with this weird mouth design on the jaw, for instance. What the hell?

He only caught the tail end of the situation. He heard a scuffle from below, albeit a brief one. Someone shouted, and a trash can rang like a gong as a body sailed into it. He didn't see that part, but elevated it in his mind's eye out of respect to entertaining narratives everywhere. He missed the part where the guy had been helping, missed the girl, and caught the guy stealing the unconscious, trash-covered man's wallet. He thought the guy was a violent mugger. So, he tailed him.

Shin tailed the man, from the alley all the way to the bar. The man took his helmet off at one point, and to hell with secret identities. He was green. Green, with black antennae like some sort of insect. If it weren't for the helmet, he would stand out in a crowd. Even with the helmet, honestly. That was sort of a situation where secret identities were absolutely dumb. Shin glided silently on his black Shard triangle overhead.

He decided this mugger was stupid, and stood out. He probably had been pushed into the situation by hatred, because of his green skin. He was sloppy, because he was wearing clothes that attracted attention, and while Shin knew nothin about robbing people in alleys, he had to wonder if there wasn't a better way. Not to rob. To make money. To do something with his life. If he didn't turn the man over to the police, he might have to try and help turn the man's life around. Extenuating circumstances might be involved, he reasoned. But, Shin decided, whatever he did would depend on this strange green man in a leather jacket. And he want going to jump to any hasty conclusions. Nor would he attack. He'd learned his lesson about coming off aggressive... and stalking. Maybe less so on stalking, since he was flying overhead like a creeper.

The man went into the bar. Shin landed, and let the Shard platform vanish. He didn't begin the process of imagining some sort of armor construct. If he had, he could have had it on tap in the back of his mind to snap into place, when needed. But that seemed way too presumptuous, and too quick to action. Maybe there would be no fight at all? If he went into a situation with violence in his mind, even in the back of it, he wouldn't be able to help anyone out. Sighing, Shin pushed his worries out of his mind and strode into the bar.

The Asian looked around. He felt underdressed. It was a nice bar, with live music. He was in a black winter jacket and blue jeans. He had a goofy anime t-shirt underneath it, and he was all zipped up partially to hide it. If he had to costume change, it would be more to hide the dated cartoon character tee than to protect himself. Laundry day bites. He briefly calculated all the angles of all the surfaces in the bar in his mind. For good measure, he figured out the sizes and number of nearby bottles, too. Can't be too careful about improvised weapons, even though he wasn't going into this looking for a fight. He glanced at his wedding band on his right hand, then calmly approached the bar. The stool next to green man was open, so he plopped down next to him.

Kealey might not like it if he got drunk while out, doing the whole x-man late night vigilante thing. He ordered a beer. Not a Kirin, or whatever Asian beer they served there. He ordered a brown ale. As he waited, Shin let his attention drift around the bar. Then, he did a double-take at one of the people working there. Triangular pupils got wide.

"Lee?" Shin said. What was it about today and remembering Romania? He'd spent a lot of time with her and her husband there. A lot of bad stuff had gone down. Hadn't she died? He couldn't remember every single detail. A lot of it was blocked. Or black, cuz he'd been blind.

Elliott turned as he sipped his drink, and arched an eyebrow at the Asian man next to him. The man had unzipped his jacket enough to bare his chest, revealing a t-shirt for some cartoon. It looked like the cartoon was about a prepubescent blond girl with a ponytail and a metal arm. She was standing next to a giant suit of armor, striking a pose. He didn't get it. Didn't understand the weird red circle and dragon-looking symbol in the background, either. He couldn't read Japanese. He had no clue what show it was. Elliott did not do cartoons... or tv, for that matter. Wasting time sitting on your ass catching up on the latest TV show when you could be working is bad for business.

He had no idea what goofy Asian man was doing, goggling at the woman. She seemed fairly average to him. IE, a knockout, and out of his league. The average woman. Way better than him. He kind of woman one really had to try hard to keep. He was sure she was a very nice woman... but triangle-eyed Asian mutant had a ring on his ring finger and Elliott didn't think the man's wife would approve. Chatting up other women in a bar, at night. Shouldn't he have been out working or something? Judged.

Come to think of it, the man looked a little familiar. Hadn't he noticed him around the mansion... wasn't he one of the teachers? Elliott DID NOT go to classes at the mansion, but one makes a point to learn the staff when one is crashing for free at their cushy mansion. Just to know who not to rob. Or who to protect, if someone else is attempting the job.

What was the guy's name? "Shinbone?" Elliott said quietly. From the look the Asian gave him when he glanced his way, that wasn't it. Great, now they were in some sort of awkward three-way conversation. All they needed now was for someone to say his name. Then, the circle would be complete.

Nobody said Elliott's name. Elliott mouthed it to himself.

Lee was walking slowly behind the bar, down toward where the green insect alien looking person, not planning on actually saying anything, when she heard her name. She knew that it wasn’t Blaine, he had no reason to be up at the bar right then.

A slight frown on her face, Lee looked across the bar and saw a familiar face sitting there. A familiar face that she had never expected to see there. Lee blinked, then grinned as she recognized the man sitting there.

”Oh my god, Shin?” Lee asked, her grin growing. Then she hurried around the bar once more, moving up to the younger man and wrapping him in a hug. ”It has been way too long! How have you been?” Lee asked as she stepped back.

Holy crap, Lee. Blast from the past, that was.

He didn't know why the green kid was trying to say his name. He didn't know him. If he wasn't, he was just randomly saying Shin Bone, which was weird. Shin already had a lot of conflicting thoughts on the man, because of the whole "criminal" thing. They'd get to that. For now, Lee was his focus because they hadn't talked in, like ten years.

The Asian returned the hug with an honest smile. "Yeah. Way too long. I've been good. Teaching at the mansion now. Kealey still does the fashion thing. No kids yet. How about you? How are you?"

"How is Tarin?" He asked.

Elliott said nothing. Nobody was talking to him, which was fine. He'd tried to be friendly at the bar, but the Mansion teacher guy had been sidelined by the Lee lady. He just drank his drink.

It had been a busy few months. Lot of criminals had come since the rip had opened. Lot of new criminals. He'd been trying to monitor and figure out connections. He was just one guy, though. Not a detective. Didn't have resources. He just handled thugs when he could.

It felt kind of lame, just focusing on the few he saw when he was out. He needed to step it up, if he was doing this for real. Make it a job. Maybe steal a police scanner? He could show up quick when things went down, and do his little vigilante thing. Whatever. For now, he just drank his ill-gotten whiskey and wondered if he needed a real job. Not that he'd had a legitimate job his entire life.

Shin was teaching at the Mansion now. Well, he had been a pretty good tour guide and helper around there, so it did make sense. Lee just grinned at Shin. ”That's great, Shin!” Lee exclaimed. And him and Kealey were still together? ”It sounds like everything's going really well for you.”

But before Lee could respond to Shin's first question of her, he asked another. And the smile fell off her face as her eyes automatically darted over to look at Blaine before returning to Shin's face. ”Last time he dropped Kevin off, he seemed to be alright,” Lee replied with a slight shrug. ”We… Split up a few years ago. But me and Kevin are doing great. Would you believe that he's almost 7?”

((Ooc skipping Elliott for a post or so! To make it flow better.))

Shin's smile faltered alongside Lee's. Well, crap. He hadn't meant to drag up painful memories. He'd been out of touch with them for a long time. It had surprised him to hear that Tarin and Lee had split. He'd figured they had staying power. Those crazy kids would be together forever. But then, he'd drifted apart from them and time changes everything.

"I'm sorry," Shin frowned. "I didn't realize Tarin and you had divorced..." He tried to spin the conversation out of the weeds. "That's great, about your son! Time passes fast, doesn't it? I remember when Kealey and I took care of you after you got rescued. When you were pregnant. I'm glad that turned out alright." Both the pregnancy, AND the kidnapping. Man he couldn't help bringing up awkward topics, could he?

The green man drank, and tried to ignore the conversation now that it was awkward. If was hard, since they were so close, and the painfully awkward was painfully awkward. Ew.

Lee gave a slight shrug when Shin apologized. ”Life’s never pretended to be easy,” Lee replied, a small frown still on her face. ”Or easy. But it goes on.”

Lee’s frown turned up into a slight smile as Shin talked about Kevin. ”It does go fast,” Lee agreed. Because, how could it really have been about 7 years since she had last seen Shin?

Seven years, because the last time she had seen him was when he’d come to ‘babysit’ her after she’d been kidnapped. Lee’s frown returned. Yeah, because that was something Lee liked to think about, the three months she had been kidnapped by an adapted.
Giving her head a slight shake to get rid of those thoughts, Lee turned her attention back to the man in front of her. ”But you said you’re teaching?” Lee asked. ”What are you teaching?” Yeah, best to get the conversation off of her, Lee decided. At least that might stop it from becoming any more awkward.

That frown came and went way too rapidly. The conversation was a struggle. It's kind of sad when time passes and people drift apart, and friends you were once close to start to lack things in common. He wasn't going to call it or let that happen, because Lee was a good person and Shin didn't give up on people like that-- but he was having a hard time not bringing the mood down around them.

Lee tried to turn the conversation to his teaching which was a welcome topic change. "I teach math at the mansion, mainly. Also Japanese if people want. Somehow," Shin added with a small smile. "The Japanese is more popular."

"I blame the anime." He explained. "Kids want to talk about it and I am ten years out of date."

Lee laughed slightly when Shin said that his Japanese classes were more popular than his math classes. ”Honestly, I can’t really blame them,” Lee replied, the laughter still in her voice. ”Back when I was their age, I likely would have chosen Japanese over math too. But for anime?” Lee thought for a moment before shaking her head. ”I would have just done it so I didn’t have to take math.

“No offense, but not everyone likes math.”

At least that’s how Lee as a teenager would have felt. Her older brother was the one who was into the math and science and all that. She had been interested in music. ”But I’m happy for you. It sounds like you’re doing well.”

Drink done, tab paid, nothing kept him drawn to the bar. Elliott rose and pushed away. He snagged his helmet on the way up, then started towards the exit.

The night stretched ahead of him like a darkened tunnel with a faint light at the end. He'd hunt for more bads, protect whoever he saw, and move on. The whole tunnel metaphor might not have just been for how he saw the night going. Might have also been how he saw his never ending task. Fighting for good karma, of the non-internet variety. Anything to make up for who he'd been.

He got to about the doorway of the entrance before a voice called out to him. A "hey you" of some intent. Red eyes narrowed as Elliott glanced over his shoulder. His hand was still hovering on the handle of the door.

His smile turned wry at Lee's response. It was a fitting one. Of course he knew kids would prefer a foreign language over a... foreign language. (Though many took math and Japanese, wasn't really an either / or. Lee would be sad). He totally got that people didn't all like math.

"Gasp!" Shin feigned mock horror. "You mean not everyone loves fractions and geometry? How did I never make this calculation?"

She was happy for him. He was doing well. The Asian nodded. "Seems were both doing alright."

He was about to make a joke about it being really strange that people didn't like math, when the bar was chock full of people who loved fancy solutions, but then Shin noticed the green guy leaving. His dumb joke stopped before it could make it from idea stage to actual humor. "Excuse me one moment, Lee." Shin said mildly, eyes locked on green.

He projected his voice across the bar so it caught the green man as he left, and smacked him upside the head. "Hey Green. Wait. I want to talk to you."

The look Green gave him was suspicious and dark. Who would expect anything less from a mugger? The Asian got up from his seat, and stood facing Green, impassive. "I saw what you did."

Though she had come to see more of the importance of math as she got older, and gotten quite good at things like budgeting. But geometry and fractions? ”Oh god no!” Lee said in mock horror of her own. ”I don’t know how you could have missed it, but you can keep all the fractions, I don’t want to deal with them.”

And it did sound like they were both doing very well, though before Lee was able to say anything else, Shin was excusing himself. And calling for the green guy who had just gotten up from the seat beside Shin.

Lee frowned. If Shin had wanted to talk to that guy, why hadn’t he, even if she had been there? So Lee followed slowly, unsure about what was going to happen. But if there was going to be trouble in the bar, especially mutant trouble, Lee was going to make sure to be nearby to help break it up. And, though Lee knew that Blaine was constantly scanning the bar, and he had a good eye for catching trouble early, Lee still cast a glance over, gaging how far away he was, just in case.