Mae was done working for the day and couldn’t be happier. It wasn’t that things had been bad, just boring. They had two clients, both regulars who just wanted to sit and enjoy the silent waiting room, and that meant Mae hadn’t had time to upload her roommate ad. For the safety of their hard drive she left the computer off. Instead, it would have to wait for tomorrow. She didn’t even bother trying to have a computer at home due to the damage her powers would probably cause it from frequent hard reboots.

The streets were crowded as everyone made their daily commute. If it wasn’t so busy, what happened may not have even drawn an eye. A man jumped out of the car next to her, grabbed someone’s bag, and jumped back in. There was a cry of shock from the teenager, a few people pointed and exclaimed, and Mae acted without thinking.

One hand reached out and she took two steps forward, fingers almost brushing metal. The dead zone pushed past the hood and punched through parts, stripping power connections and leaving it dead where it sat. Sudden cursing could be heard inside the cabin and one of them noticed Mae.

Glancing to the backpack, to the teenager who lost it, and finally to the car she put on her most bored expression and waved at it.

”Give back their stuff, I let you go. Cause a scene, I’ll make sure you’re still here when the cops arrived.”

Could she really hold them there that long? It would really depend. She didn’t want to start a fight but sometimes, they just seemed to come at you.

Addy had been having a good day. Great day even. She'd actually stayed at school all day; it was boring but she had been in a good mood. She'd spent the whole day texting a...friend? Yeah friend was a safe word; they weren't dating or anything but they had technically gone on a date, and Addy may have been hoping for another one. The whole thing made her want to smile, and the scary things was, she kind of liked that. Alot.

As it stood, she was walking down the sidewalk with a dreamy look on her face when someone suddenly grabbed at her new leather backpack. Maybe it was her fault that it wasn't slung over her shoulder and she was just carrying it by the strap, but still. Someone snatched it from her hand, causing her to uncharacteristically yelp, and now suddenly there was this whole commotion going on.

She took after the jerk, and found that someone was already kind of taking care of it. That was...cool, actually. Did they just shut down the car? There was no time to fangirl, even though that thought did pass through her mind. Her eyes narrowed as her fists clenched and she approached the car from the other side.

"That's nothing compared to what I'm gonna do if you," she threatened, feeling power surging through her. She'd absorbed a lot of electricity today, and there were people with electronics all around, though...she couldn't feel anything coming from the car itself. It was completely dead. No matter. All she'd really need was a few more minutes.

"Toss the backpack at my feet," the blonde goth girl demanded, blue sparks arcing from her fists for emphasis.

It turned out, the person who lost the backpack was also a mutant. Thank goodness, there was backup. There was a small problem though, and that was the fact the girl seemed to have some sort of power involving electricity. Mae did her best to wrangle her powers in one direction. The last thing she needed was to shut off the only thing actually offensive between them.

"Give the bag back," one of the guys muttered to the other. There was a glance between Mae, the new girl, and then finally they gave in and pitched the backpack from the window. Mae held the car until the girl was safely back to the sidewalk, then moved a few steps back. Like magic, the car returned to life. Like the cowards they were, the criminals escaped and Mae turned her attention back to her companion.

"I'm hoping everything is still there?" There was a light shimmer in the air as she pulled her powers back to the base of her neck. She didn't want to kill anything she shouldn't now. "I guess I should have checked before letting go of the car. I just didn't want to block you on accident." Mae motioned toward the girl's hands where the sparks had been moments before.

It seemed, between the two of them, Addy's bluff worked. She couldn't have done anything besides potentially zap everyone within five feet, but she wasn't quite close enough for that, and she wasn't sure what the other woman's power was. The bag didn't quite land at her feet, but whatever. She picked it up and slung it over her shoulder, producing the distinct sound of metal clinking together.

"Oh uh....yeah everything's there," she said in a flat, deadpan tone, not really wanting to have to explain why she had a backpack full of cans of spray paint. "Oh, it's fine. I uh...couldn't have done a whole lot to them, honestly..." she murmured, looking down. "Just give em a static shock on steroids." She took a breath, finding herself in a weird situation now as she shifted her backpack to the other shoulder, producing another clank.

"I uh...thanks, I guess. It's a new backpack. I guess they thought since it was leather, it had something valuable in it."

Mae listened to the girl's explanation and moved so they were safely out of both traffic and the general pedestrian flow. "I've seen sillier things get stolen. Heck, they may not have even thought the leather was a sign of value, just hoped for an easy grab."

Putting her hands in her pockets, she listened as horns honked and the general noise of the city seemed to gain volume. She was more than ready to be home and back in her little cocoon of quiet. "Still, static shock is more than what I could have done, honestly. My power is only good for shutting things down. Unless one of them was an android, I probably would have had my bluff called fast," she smirked.

"I'm Mae. Are you living in this area? Hopefully you don't have more issues on the way home." The kid seemed younger than her, and the older sister type instinct kicked in, making Mae want to be sure things were fine before she took off. She didn't want to abandon someone if they were attracting danger or bad karma all at once.

"Well, nothing about me is an 'easy grab'," she retorted with somewhat of a cocky grin. "Most of the time guys like that don't want trouble, and aren't usually willing to risk it. They just a quick and easy cash flow," she said with a shrug, before looking over at Mae. "My mom is a lawyer," she clarified, hating using that word to describe the woman who birthed her, but she didn't want to go into that tidbit anytime soon.

"Addy, and I live a good little ways from here, but I can catch a subway or something," she said with a shrug, not really thinking about it as she shifted her backpack, which wasn't totally zipped, and inadvertently caused two cans of red and blue spray-paint to clatter onto the ground and a couple of expletives flew out of Addy's mouth as she stooped down and picked them up, stuffing them back into the bag, that obviously was packed to capacity with similar cans of different colors.

"It's uh....class project," she lied, shrugging lightly.

The kid was confident. Honestly, Mae wished she had that level of energy when she was younger. Saving a backpack had been one thing, but actually fighting would have been another matter. Mae had to wonder how the kid knew so much about these sorts of situations. Did she get mugged a lot? Or...did she mug people. That, was probably a question she didn't need to ask. Mae wasn't judging, but she also was not going to get a target on herself.

"I think the nearest subway station is actually back behind us. Around this...class project huh? For $8 a can? You didn't get the cheap stuff."

Mae crossed her arms, managing to look like an adult for the moment. Then she burst out laughing. Okay, that was not a good look for her. She quickly let the dead zone expand around both of them so what she asked wouldn't be overheard. "I didn't think kids actually did s*** with spray paint still. Are you tagging something? That's a trip." She pointed to the bubble, and grinned. "Don't worry I won't rat you out. Dead zone means no noise leaves, no noise comes in. Consider it stealth mode. Well, minus the electrical sparks. Those won't work in here. If that freaks you out you can exit," she pushed one hand through the bubble to prove it. "My powers are nothing more than a fun party trick."

"Class project, huh? For 8$ a can? You didn't get the cheap stuff."

Addy felt her cheeks flush pink as the other woman's arms crossed, and she tensed, taking a defensive position and prepared to attempt to verbally tear into this woman, even if she had helped a moment ago. Then...the woman was laughing and Addy wasn't sure whether to let her guard down or put it up farther.

"I...I fancy myself an artist..." she said, a little more confident now that she was sure they were in a bubble of silence. "My powers don't do much either, for the most part. I drain the hell out of batteries and I can give a shock that hurts worse than your basic static," she said sheepishly. "I'll be okay staying for awhile, but with no electronics in the area, I can't stay for too long because electricity is how I get my energy. I only need like two hours of sleep when I'm fully charged," she said with a slight shrug.

"I'm Addy."

The kid relaxed, which was a good sign. Cora didn't have to drop the bubble or avoid a fist-fight, both of which had been possible based on the initial reaction.

"Hey, giving someone a shock is still something. I mean, Not many people think you're a threat when you just shut their cell phone off. Unless they were on a killer winning streak on Flappy Penguin or something." She decided after a moment. "And I would love anything that meant sleeping less. Heck, I spend far too much time trying to sleep as it is."

Mae accepted the hand, and smiled. "I'm Mae. How about I walk with you at least to the subway in case trouble pops up? I have nothing better to do and I'm sort of enjoying hearing more about this art project you seem to be on."