Julia opened her eyes to the voice of the driver of the bus that she had been riding on. Instantly she jostled back a tad when she felt and saw the presence of the same person’s hand on her shoulder. Not that she could feel much other than the pressure, but nonetheless it was enough to know that it was there. She as a result shouted more explicatives at the man than one would hear from a drunken man picking a fight with another drunken man. She hates it when people touch her, stemming from her past history as well as her self developed coping mechanism of hating human interaction, and the idea of individuals figuring out that she was a mutant.

Julia stood up in haste, paying the bus driver that had a look on his face that Julia felt had a veil of fear written all over it. She then went over to the bus steps to see what town had she came across. Her facial expression turned into a shocked one when she saw the hustle and bustle of people on the sidewalk that made her figure out that this wasn’t a small town. She changed her expression to salvage some dignity as she tensley walked off the bus and onto the sidewalk. She looked around to see a bunch of ‘ welcome to NYC’ signs and similar pamphlets alike all over the place.

Furthermore people were just as all over the place as was Julia’s mind. That is, her mind became a bit scrambled with thoughts of apprehension, of anger, and of false pride. Her face turned from a neutral facial expression to a full out scowl. ‘Of course she would end up in one of the biggest cities of the world’ she thought to herself as she put her wallet inside her jacket pocket, zipping it up adamantly. Within seconds of walking, Julia’s shoulder was bumped into by someone despite her own carefulness to not deal with human contact. She gave a sentence in response that was filled with less child suitable words than one would find in an entire rated r movie. This had gained her quite a few glares which she would exchange back as she continued to walk.

She had been so caught up with her war on NYC, that she hadn’t noticed a five year old whom was trying to keep up with his mother as he ran into her. Julia felt the pressure of being ran into instantly, freezing for a split second as she somehow felt attacked before going to look at who was her attacker. Luckily for the little boy, Julia knew how to kind of censor herself as she said “what the f****n h*ll is wrong with you?!” It was way more toned down than what she would have said had this kid been a short adult instead, but obviously still quite rude. Julia had a some awareness of how rude she truly was, but she prefers to come off as rude and mean even rather than showing her emotions that she considers weak.

It wasn't like Jack to stick her nose in other people's business. Really, for the most part, she kept to herself in public. She would only deign to speak the absolute minimum, often using her phone as a crutch to interact with human-seeming types, and murmuring to those she deemed trustworthy.

She was one of numerous pedestrians on the sidewalk, walking close to the wall, shoulders hunched. Her phone was clasped in one massive, primary hand, and lavender eyes kept a wary watch of the passerby's. Most people paid her no notice, jostling into her like she was any other person on the sidewalk. That was New York for ya. Unless you literally burst into flames, no one seemed to give a rat's *ss about you. And even then, they really only cared if you caught some part of them on-fire.

Some chick nearly went *ss-over-kettle tripping over a kid, and rather than grunt an apology (a standard New York Reaction™), she instead opted to cuss the kid out, berating him for some apparent wrong. The kid, in-turn, burst into tears, running haphazardly after his mother. Jack's mouthparts crawled beneath her surgical mask. Something very flagrantly rubbed her the wrong way about the interaction.

The speech-to-text app was still open at her fingertips, and she hurriedly typed a rebuff out to you the young woman. Having typed her message, Jack hit "play".

<<Maybe you should watch where you're going,>> a cool, robotic voice spilled from the speakers of her phone. It was a masculine voice, here-and-there spritzed with a British inflection. The prawn stared flatly at the young woman from her place against the wall, passerbys continuing to brush past, maneuvering around the two of them like a river against two stones. There would be no doubt about where the reprimand sprung from, especially given the prawn's attention to the young woman.

And, if there was any doubt-- Jack's hands flew over the digital keyboard once again, penning another message to the young lady. She hit play again.

<<He's just a kid. Bigger folks need to look-out for smaller ones.>>

This was coming from one of the biggest folks in the five boroughs-- you couldn't expect people to get out from under-foot, you just... had to watch out for them.

Julia had watched the kid run off to only notice the individual in front of her clicking away on her phone. Julia stared at the individual with no remorse. Julia was not ignorant to the fact that the individual in front of her was a mutant. However, Julia didn’t care, she wasn’t going to act any kinder to the individual even if a part of her felt a bit bad for being so picky about her own physical mutations when clearly many others had it extensively worse and apparent. So Julia scowled at her as the first line was spoken from the phone. As she rolled her eyes, Julia had been ready to just walk away until she heard the second part.

Julia had two options, she could just walk away with a few remarks( because Julia really felt as though she had to have the last word) or she could stand there and pick a fight. She stayed even as people permitted to rub up against her and past her in ways that made Julia want to light each and every one’s body on fire. (Not lighting them on fire because firstly she didn’t want people to know that she was a mutant, and secondly although she wouldn’t want to admit it to anyone, she hates unnecessary violence, even if she would appear that she seeks it. Granted it’s up for debate if her idea of necessary fell into a lower threshold than most individuals.)

Her words that came effortlessly out of her mouth next however were not so kind. “ You f****n think that I f***** give a f*** about any f****n person who f***** lives in this s***hole of a f****n place that you f*****n call a city?!” She said rather aggressively, even despite the air she gave off as her shoulders cowardly had tried to avoid the contact from others. The irritation in her voice had been fueled moreover by the failed attempts to avoid the contact.

The girl spouted-off a rebuttal at the prawn, and for a moment, a glimmer of bewilderment flashed in her eyes. Most people would think twice about rebuking a seven-and-a-half-foot tall monster. This girl, however, seemed fearless. Or perhaps just stupid? The prawn straightened her back, peering at the child down her nasal ridge. She had to be a teen with something to prove-- or maybe she was intoxicated. Jack had witnessed this sort of conduct in clubgoers routinely, particularly when she'd worked at Chrysalis and been responsible for "taking out the trash", as it were.

The prawn tilted her head.

"Guess not," she clicked, a tinge of humor in her contralto voice.

In Chrysalis, she would have just kicked this girl to the curb. But in public, the girl just wasn't Jack's f***ing problem. She could choose not to listen, and it seemed that was the girl's choice. The prawn pocketed her phone, exhaling sharply, and she began to pad down the sidewalk, massive hands partially wedged into the pockets of her cargo shorts. One day, that chick would find a bigger fish in the pond, one that wouldn't mind kicking her *ss. Jack, however, was not that fish.

Julia had been stressed out by all the people, all of the commotion in the city, the sights, the noises of people walking, and the normal construction noises that it all amounted to the fact that she needed a distraction from it all. She needed something to attack, something to aim her anger at, displace her emotions of being overwhelmed onto someone else. Julia made up her mind pretty quickly whom to take out her anger on, and Jack’s look of bewilderment made it easier for Julia to decide because it in Julia’s opinion, only proved that Jack deserved the rebuttal for talking to Julia like she had.

Furthermore Jack’s response from Julia’s point of view, had been nothing more than a cackle of ‘guess not’ at what she just said. It made it much easier for Julia to want to pick a fight or well continue an argument with her.Her thoughts had fluttered with embarrassment, with shame from being cackled at as her words that she had spoken were “ Guess not?! Is that f****n all you f****n have to say after you f****n went out of your f****n stupid nosy a** way to tell me what to f****n do” she said following Jack, albeit she tried to not get too close to Jack or anyone, she still followed her as if ready to fight, even if it was farther from the truth.

Jack heard the footsteps slapping the pavement behind her, the shrill, petite lady (though she used that term very loosely), pursuing her down the sidewalk. Jack turned her head marginally, feline lavender eyes pulling downwards. Ah, so she was one of those damn fool kids that wanted to fight everything that moved. This would be fun.

>> “Guess not?! Is that f****n all you f****n have to say after you f****n went out of your f****n stupid nosy a** way to tell me what to f****n do”

" 't's all I has to say," the prawn confirmed coolly, a thin amusement still in her tone. The girl was squared-up, her muscles tight. Wow, she really was ready to take-on the prawn. They came to a crosswalk where the the light was read, and a small cluster of people were awaiting, and cars shot steadily past. Jack slowed to a stop, and as she did, she pivoted slightly, her shoulders facing the child. She didn't hunch, now. And, for a moment, she was quiet. Her head was inclined ever so slightly.

"And now you's goin' outta your way to whine at nee," Jack observed, peering down her nasal ridge at the child. Really, she came up to about... the base Jack's sternum. She was tiny and ready for a throw-down. God, the guys at Chrysalis would've gotten a kick outta this, "So... are you gonna waste ny tine and your tine soll-owing sun stranger around, or are ya gonna get duh Hell outta here?"

Unlike the girl, who was all piss and vinegar and theatrics, Jack was cool. It was that deceptive kind of cool, though-- like the undercurrent of a river. On the surface, a river was glassy and tranquil, but the undertow wouldn't think twice before pulling someone under. It was a classic confrontation of youth versus experience. Jack had been that fiery fight-everyone person once. But then she'd gotten her *ss handed to her a good many times, and had settled down.

The signal changed, and Jack waited a few seconds to peer down at the kid, before turning once again to cross the street. She walked with long, casual strides. Which, given her size, meant the girl would probably need to jog (at least) if she wanted to keep-up.

Julia didn’t realize exactly just what she was getting into when she had decided to pick a fight with Jack, but that didn’t mean that she was going to back down just because of the savage phrasing used by Jack to insult or what Julia felt like insulted her as both an individual and an adult. Julia knew that there was amusement in every word she spoke. Heard it and took it ever more offensively as Jack continued to speak.

For instance, Julia knew that the word ‘whine’ was used by Jack purposely to equate her to a child. Julia was not a child. D****t she hasn’t been since she gained her powers. She was an adult, and just because the lady in front of her was acting as if Julia’s own words had been unwarranted, doesn’t mean to Julia that they weren’t warranted. Julia’s anger had been becoming more apparent with that wording. Furthermore she was becoming more irritated as more people had clustered around them waiting to cross what will be the busiest crosswalk that Julia has ever came across. Still, those eyes making eye contact with her, looking down at her at what Julia viewed as on purpose(granted most anything else would have been insulting to Julia as well) only made Julia more mad.

The final sentence matched with the look Jack had given Julia, had been the last straw, maybe Julia would have actually walked away given Jack had started to walk across the street seconds after at a pace that Julia would have detested even before she had the stupid *ss physical mutations that made it harder to walk fast, but since Jack had spoken seconds before with what Julia viewed as even more undertones, she had decided to follow.

As she followed at what was quite a fast pace for Julia, leading to the beginning of perspiration down her forehead, she spoke up. “Didn’t you f****n have a sure to be stupid a** place to be. To have spent your stupid *** time when you stupidly f****n decided to butt in my f****n business” the question was rhetorical, it had been meant to intimidate Jack to apologize for what Julia had felt to be an unwarranted interaction. Furthermore it was meant to distract Julia from all the other people around her. She needed the distraction whether she cared to admit it or not, even if it meant being a complete *** to someone else.

Years as a bouncer had made Jack keanly attentive to certain details, but absolutely clueless in other respects. For example, she did not intentionally use "whine" to suggest that Julia was a kid... although she did, however, think anyone who picked a fight with her was a damn fool. She noticed, however, that the girl was getting more and more taut with anger, and she noticed the hurried footsteps behind her. And then that girl's screeching voice cut-in again.

>> “Didn’t you f****n have a sure to be stupid a** place to be. To have spent your stupid *** time when you stupidly f****n decided to butt in my f****n business.”

"At duh rate you're goin', guess yer gonna sine-d out, aren't ya?" the prawn clicked. She didn't look at the girl, this time, and the humor was trickling out of her voice. Now the chick was just being f**king obnoxious, and the prawn's tone had grown droll. She brought this on her self, honestly... but any decent person would've called the chick out for swearing at some random lady's toddler.

"So... new s'riend..." Jack remarked, referring to the screechy brunette that was at her heels, "I interru'ted you cussing-out a kid, and now you're harrassing nee... so I has t' wonder... do you harrass duh elderly, too? Religious sig-ures? Your own san-ily? Or is dis just a treat-nent reser'ed sore total strangers?"

She might as well converse with the child, if they were so insistent on sticking around.

Julia had been pretty much running to keep up with Jack at this point. Julia wasn’t the fastest given her physical mutations and Jack being as tall and as fast as she was didn’t help Julia to keep up at no less than a faster jog. All of the thoughts that Julia wanted to spit out of her mouth had been put on the back burner as word by word the insults, direct and indirect insults were said towards Julia. It didn’t matter how valid they may be nor how warranted they were, they all bothered Julia and made her only more angered.

Furthermore Julia had been busy trying to keep up, trying to not trip over the uneven sidewalks, not trying to be touched by other individuals shoulders, not trying to care about how many people were near her that she had lacked the time and the energy to rebuttal Jack. In the heat of the moment, Julia made a decision that even in her own right mind she wouldn’t have made. That was to show her fire powers. She stopped chasing Jack as she began to make flames on each of her hands, pointing the palms where the fire grew upwards. She didn’t attack Jack yet with them but had caused quite the crowd to start to walk and or run around and away from Julia.

Julia had regretted showing her powers instantly, since she hated anyone, even a mutant knowing that she was a mutant too. It was traced back to her first couple years of having powers and yet hiding them at her father’s orders and her own willingness to follow them. Julia had changed from a girl who was always willing to please to a women who acted as if she didn’t give a f*ck and yet somehow still wanted to be viewed as ‘normal.’

Despite her regretting her actions, as soon as Julia had stopped on the sidewalk, she had spoken up in frustration “Listen here f****n *sshole. You f****n start a f****n fight you f*****n finish the f*****n fight.” It didn’t matter if Julia had been instigating this whole thing, in Julia’s own eyes, Jack was to blame for ‘telling her off.’

“Turn around or your f****n stupid *ss people’s f****n deaths will be on your stupid *ss conscious.” She said the threat with too many explicatives as if she was sincere, even though it was all a bluff. It was a bluff she had used since she hadn’t seen a way out of this situation without acting as if she had a willingness to kill. Julia frankly didn’t know what she was planning but she had to commit to the act at this point. Some may call it pride or arrogance, Julia though knew that she couldn’t run away at this point given everyone around her who were now walking quite a bit around her. It would have been difficult to be lost in a crowd that had been avoiding her and her powers.

The girl answered, but not in a way that the prawn was expecting. There was a flare of heat behind the prawn, as though someone had suddenly poured kerosene onto a campfire. Jack's stride slowed to a halt, and she glanced over her shoulder. The girl was on fire. People were scattering. Great, a metaphorical and literal hothead.

>> “Listen here f****n *sshole. You f****n start a f****n fight you f*****n finish the f*****n fight.”

"I didn't start a sight," the prawn said, holding her hands up placatingly, "I told you to sto' cussing-out a kid. Totally diss-erent."

The drollness was gone out of her voice, too, now. She'd seen enough stupid mutants to not brush the threats off so casually.

>> “Turn around or your f****n stupid *ss people’s f****n deaths will be on your stupid *ss conscious.”

Jack's expression tightened, her hands fell to her side.

"Are you s'run around here?" the prawn asked, her voice booming at the girl. Her expression had turned sharp, her pupils thinned to scathing slits, "Do you know what dey do to nyu-tants who start shit in duh city!? Dey gots ro'ots. Big ones, designed to take us down. Iss you really want to 'e collared and s'rown in a cage like an ani-nal, 'lease, kee' doin' what you're doin'."

"I ain't got sh** to do wiss diss, iss your stu'id *ss wants to get arrested, go ahead," Jack began to back up, but she did not turn her back. She wasn't going to give the brunette b***h that kind of opportunity. The prawn's hands, which had previously been flexed in a frustrated gesture of "why?!" had now balled themselves into fists, and were imperceptibly shaking. Jack stole a glanced at her hands, and noticed an almost imperceptible glimmer of blue was creeping along the pores of her carapace.

"No..." she murmured. Even if she was maintaining her outward composure, internally she was terrified. Scared of this obviously unhinged child, scared of the cops... and her body was responding. Her body responded to the mounting pulse, the racing thoughts, and was arming her the best way it knew how, "No, not here..."

Her lavender eyes watched the kid carefully as she continued her backwards retreat, "Well?"

Julia had regretted all of her previous actions as Jack had turned around. A part of her knew that Jack was right and that she was to blame for all of this, but her own pride and well the fact that anger was her defense mechanism didn’t allow her to give up. She did want to bolt out of there, but there were so many people, and they were all scattering away from the scene. She more than wanted but felt like she needed to as Jack exclaimed that there were robots meant to hurt mutants. Her heart had started to pick up at those words. “ You’re f****n lying!” She shouted, wanted it to all be a lie, almost said it as if she was trying to force Jack to say it was a lie.

Julia hadn’t been running from her past all this time to only run into a very similar problem. She ignored the words that pointed towards a simple way out and instead took Jack’s ‘well’ as instigation. As a result of the ‘well’ and the fact that she wanted to be told the truth or what she wanted to hear, she ran towards Jack. She ran fire being created in both hands, but pointed upward and not towards Jack as if unsure if she was going to attack or just go to intimidate. However, in Julia’s haste and lack of agileness, she tripped over the sidewalk less than a few feet away from Jack, the fire going towards Jack as Julia fell to the ground.

The prawn didn't move. She didn't speak. She only looked at the girl with this taut, forlorn expression. She was so f***ing stupid, and the prawn knew she wasn't going to back down, especially as she yelled... she just kept yelling, and the flames didn't go away. So either... she wasn't from around here (and lived in a hole), or she was strung-out on something. The girl charged at her, flames still whipping around her hands... Jack sunk her center of gravity, sitting on her haunches. She'd try and neutralize the kid without throwing a punch... the last thing she needed was to destroy public property.

The girl lost her balance right as she was within reach. Jack moved with practiced agility, pivoting her body out of the way, and one enormous hand settling on the girl's head, guiding her to the place where gravity was already carrying her-- the pavement. The prawn released her hold and took a few hurried steps back, steadying her breathing. The girl's toes pointed towards her, hands still smoldering, and she lay flat on the ground. It took every fiber of the prawn's being not to laugh.

"You tele-grass your news," the prawn advised the girl, deadpan. A kinder person would've asked if she was okay. Jack was critiquing her, particularly the girl's tendency to "telegraph her moves". Critiquing the hothead may have been regarded by some (or rather, most) people as a stupid move. But if the girl was going after Jack with a vengeance, she wasn't going to be going after bystanders. Well, if there were any. Most of them had cleared-out, "Iss you're gonna lay a hit on nee, you're gonna has to 'e nore subtle den dat."

"Cun on, teach nee a lesson," the prawn egged her on, sinking on her haunches, "Here's duh lot-ster, let's start duh cookout!"

Most people would have been grateful had someone who they were attacking saved them from slamming their face into the concrete, and quite possibly saved them from breaking their nose. To Julia however, she was p*ssed. Not only was she mad at Jack for touching her head, but also from tripping on the concrete to begin with like an idiot. The concrete was not a living thing nor was it something that could be destroyed, and so naturally the anger was going all towards Jack.

Before Julia could spule off some hateful words for Jack touching her head, Jack was already goading her. Julia was able to stand up fairly quickly thanks to her inability to feel pain and therefore ability to ignore the cuts and burn marks located on her hands, arms and a small cut on her face.

Once Julia stood up, she was ready to seek vengeance for Jack’s irritating words. Even if Jack was giving a diss that Julia could easily use against her, Julia hated the diss, because she hated verbally attacking people based on physical mutations. She found it a low blow even if other people would find most of what Julia said as low blows. Suffice to say every word Jack spoke only fueled Julia’s rage in ways that even Jack wouldn’t have intended. “ F*** you” She said as she went to use her powers to attack Jack’s feet, indeed it was holding back since very deep( very very very deep, where she would never admit it) in the back of Julia’s mind, Julia knew that Jack had saved her from an annoying bloody nose, and she knew it even if Jack was clearly instigating her now.

The smirk had returned to the prawn's eyes as the girl muttered a terse "f*** you" in her direction, followed by a quick couple of fireballs hurled at Jack's feet. The prawn barely avoided the first one, but the second one broke over the carapce over the top of her foot, licking at the skin underneath. Jack sucked air through her teeth, her arms tensing. Do not punch the kid, do not punch the kid... she reminded herself, trying to unclench her fists to no avail.

As Jack danced further back, something stopped her retreat-- a solid, steadying metal grip upon her shoulder. The METAbot stepped past her, its gaze focused on the brunette. It released its hold on Jack shoulder. Jack's heart hammered into her throat, backing-off ever so slowly. She'd already trashed one of these once before, and... if Jack was being entirely honest... while she was usually ride-or-die for other mutants... this girl kind-of got what was coming to her. The robot emitted a series of clicks, its helm pointed towards the fiery young woman.

[Citizen,] it intoned, [Deactivate your mutation, and place your hands upon the wall. You must desist in this unruly conduct.]

The prawn peered past the robot, at the brunette, an unreadable look in her lavender eyes. Jack had tried to warn her. Really, she had. And here was one of those robots that Jack had been "lying" about. That'd show her. Jack continued her deliberate steps backwards... once she was around the corner, she was going to get the f*** out of there.

Julia had been so mad that she had started to just throw fireballs at the concrete that had once stood Jack. She glanced up ready to ‘re find’ Jack again so as to… attack, but would see the robot thing standing behind Jack. “ what in the f***” She said backing up, swearing as she realized that she had forgotten to turn off her powers in the process of all of this, burning her jacket and therefore her parts of her skin in the process. She patted them out, but kept her fire blazing, albeit now was cautious to not catch her own jacket on fire in the process.

She started to back away when the bot spoke. Spoke as if she was stupid enough to surrender, as if her mutation was… a mutation. That was the word she really didn’t like referring to her powers as, and detested when others made it sound so…. not human. This robot was doing just that. “ Aren’t you going to f*****n help?” She said towards Jack, as she backed up, she didn’t mean to say it as cowardly as it came off as. It was meant to be aggressive, to have been blaming Jack for all of this as. To note that she saw Jack backing away as if like a smug coward herself having ‘created’ this entire situation. Despite what Julia had intended her words to come off as, it ultimately came off as cowardly.

However the split second of fear that she had shown had faded as she replaced it with her showcase of anger towards the robot. This thing had made her feel like a ‘thing’, like an inadequate non living being, like how her dad had made her feel so many years ago. It was such an immense feeling that she couldn’t even articulate what it made her feel like nor why she was reacting the way she was.

Julia hated this city and now she had yet another reason. She was done with this sh*t and she figured that she was only going to get out of it if she did something, and so she went to throw immense flames at the robot. Sweat was starting to pour down her forehead that signaled she herself had wasted time fighting futile battles and was now running out of time before she can’t concentrate, can’t use her powers and or passes out.