A slim figure with blond hair pulled back into a ponytail entered the mall during the busy after Christmas season. As shoppers hustled to and fro, she rolled her eyes and slunk her way around shopping bags and hysteric mothers. She thought once Christmas was over the mall would be quiet. But no; there was always a sale, always an after something and always some bargain these people couldn't get enough of. But she had forced herself to come here today, all for a vain mission: earrings.

Tses had her ears pierced as long as she could remember. One in the lobe of each ear, and two additional studs up in the helix. Normally she never took her earrings out, but she somehow she lost one in her sleep the night before. Desperate to avoid having one of the piercings close up, she was on the hunt for a new set of earrings for the tops of her ears. And while she wasn't a diva, she decided to hit the high end jewelry store and try to get something decent that wouldn't be overcome by a mere pillow.

Her combat boots blended in with the crowd today, which was a bit abnormal. There were a large amount of teens, both human and mutant alike. Some had skirts barely hiding their butts, some had shirts barely hiding their cleavage. For Tses, she couldn't imagine dressing that way; not that she was too modest, just too uncomfortable with her own appearance. Her black leggings, shorts, skirt and long sleeved shirt were a staple attire she couldn't break free of. She considered buying a pair of jeans the other day, but when she tried them on her legs felt a bit suffocated. So she donned the whole assortment, and risked being recognized from a number of security videos she was sure the local PD had put together by now. Not that she cared. They'd have to catch her first, and it gave her a little thrill to think about a chase.

She moved around a pack of teenage boys with chains hanging down like tails on their butts, and past a few mothers with strollers, until she walked into the fine jewelry store. In a number of display cases, diamonds and other jewelry glimmered, and she scanned her eyes across the shelves. In the front case were the earrings, and she approached them slowly, turning the display and searching for the right pair. She lucked out: there was a set of three earrings in the bottom section, with tiny diamonds in the loops of one of the upper fairs. It would work great: not too flashy, but decent enough to wear.

While the employees were preoccupied with the busy front counter, she made a tiny orb of energy and slid it into the display case lock. She felt it drain from her reserve of energy, but it was a necessary risk for now: her piercings had to be saved, even if it meant stealing on the waning edge of the New Moon.

There was an inaudible pop as the orb pushed the pistons out of the lock, and she slipped her hand in and grabbed the earrings, closing it before anyone was the wiser. The door shut easily, and there was no sign anything happened, except for a small empty space in the display she gently turned it, before moving back into the shopping crowd, earrings tucked safely in her jacket pocket. It was a risky move, but what could she say?

Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Malls were so busy with poor people and useless people during the winter months, but Chrys was pleased to know that the unwashed masses were running like a current through the halls, the clothing stores, and the electronics shops for those parents who needed a way to shut their kids up. They would not bother peering into the haven of high-class jewels Chrys was treating herself to.

She was one to complain about work (a lot) (because of how boring it was,) but there were benefits. She already had plenty of family money to live happily with, but with her job working maybe forty hours a month, she was getting her own convenient wave of disposable income. Her paycheck was impressive enough, but Christmastime also meant bonus time, and bonus time meant flashy jewelry time!

The trip to the jewelers was like a trip to the candy store for Chrys, who carried herself with roughly as much poise and composure. It was an endless chain of, "Let me try that bracelet!" and, "Can I wear more than one necklace at once?" and, "Do you carry tiaras?" The only thing professional about her was her attire; she had to go into the office for an hour in the morning, (which was a drag,) so she was still wearing a white blouse and a pencil skirt.

The staff would most likely love to ignore her or punch her in the nose if they did not recognize her name and her debit card. There were other shoppers when Chrys entered, but they all filed out, which she was fine with. It meant she was the princess and this was her royal jewel collection! No one would dare mess with her collection.

Or so it would seem. The employees were in the back looking for a necklace with "bigger sapphires," and the only employee on the floor was crouching, pulling out a ring from the display case. None of them caught the girl with the punky-looking blonde finagling her way into a jewel case.

Her royal jewels!

Sure, it was an earring shelf, and Chrys's mutation kept her from piercings that lasted more than a day or two, but she could totally wear those on days when she felt like stabbing her ears!

It did not matter what else she could buy, (including the diamond-studded tiara she forgot she was still wearing,) because the out-of-place girl took the one piece of jewelry that mattered.

While the employees were still frantically trying to do their best for the big spender, Chrys took swift strides over to blondie and shoved her shoulder with a palm to get her attention. "Hey punk, those are mine." She was not being loud, but she was being huffy. The employees were clueless to what was going on, but the girl would know that Chrys was cross with her. "Give'em back."

When Tses felt a hand on her shoulder, her first thought was mild panic she'd been caught. But when she turned around, she found herself staring at what she could only assess was a spoiled little rich girl, with her skirt and blouse near on her body, complete with diamond studded tiara on her head. It was the same girl keeping the store employees occupied and on her toes, so she wondered for a minute if things were going south on her. Then the words that came out of mouth made her laugh slightly, even with the slight nervous element it gave her.

"Yours, huh? Yours like that little piece of work you got on your head?" She knew the girl hadn't paid for the other jewelry yet, because the employee at the jewelry counter behind her was still frantically fishing through the shelf.

She momentarily wished the girl would keep following her for a few feet. The clearly displayed glitter was much more noticeable than her comparatively low dollar earrings. She stared back at the girl in front of her, and kept her hands in the pocket. Subconsciously she slipped the earrings into the sleeve of her jacket and under her arm band, but the movement was slow and unnoticeable. Her attitude was cocky, even her accuser. Maybe she just couldn't leave well enough alone, or maybe she was just a little too much of an adrenaline junkie for her own good.

With a quick once over she mastered from the years on the streets, her smirk widened a little more when she realized the girl didn't even have her ears pierced. Unlike Tses with her highly decorated cartilage, this girl was virtually unpierced. "Besides, where are you going to wear them?" She chuckled, and pondered the slight ridiculous nature of this conversation. Of all people to try and corner her to reclaim the jewelry, it was the one girl who, for all she knew, couldn't wear them.

The younger woman was quick to sass Chrys for her "opinion," (which was not an opinion when she was clearly right and the ponytail girl was clueless and poor and rude.) It was actually pretty impressive for a girl who committed a crime literally fifteen seconds prior to be taking a screw off attitude with someone who clearly witnessed the act.

Her comment brought Chrys's attention to the presence she could feel resting on her head. Not one to get flustered quickly, she brushed off the accusation. "Yes. They have my debit card, so this is mine if I say so. Heck, this store could be mine if I say so." Admittedly, a propensity to gloating was never a great trait to take into a confrontation.

When the state of Chrys's ears were called into question, she found herself more annoyed. There was a simple explanation to counter the comment with, but Chrys had to follow rules, and one of Daddy's biggest rules was "no revealing her mutant identity," at least not in a public place and to a stranger who would walk away.

Chrys's urge to make sure the girl would not walk away was growing. "It's not too difficult a problem to fix now, is it? Just have to stab through a few holes." The "tough" exterior of the girl, with her many piercings and punk-rock get up, was not going to make Chrys back down, regardless of her attire. "Think I mind stabbing holes through things, blondie?"

Tses shifted her weight from one foot to the other, and sized up the girl again. The more she spoke, the more annoyed she became. To her, she just saw a really spoiled kid who thought they could demand whatever they wanted and get away with it. She didn't see a dangerous mutant, and she didn't see a dangerous person. Maybe it was the tiara. Or maybe it could be her childish demand for the earrings she just went through the effort to show, on the beginnings of a new moon at that. She wasn't just going to hand them over. Not unless she was using them to punch the girl in the face and bolt out of here. A considerable alternative...

"Well if you're that rich you should have bought them before I got them then, shouldn't you have?" She both envied and hated thsi girl for having that level of money. Tses could barely afford a roof over her head and shoes on her feet, let alone jewelry. Then again, maybe she could afford things if she bothered having a job. But what type of job would she have? Maybe she could be a locksmith... that was about all she was good at.

"Think I mind stabbing holes through things, blondie?"

The comment sounded threatening, and Tses's eyes flashed with irritation. It was a good thing it wasn't a full moon, or her arms would probably be glowing by now. She really didn't like this girl, and at this point she didn't care if she was pushing buttons. She was a good runner, or she wouldn't be the thief she was. Running away was the easy part. Leaving the confrontation was the harder part. "If you didn't mind, then you probably would have done it already." There was something this girl wasn't saying. Why would she be so insistent for the earrings... Plus, her attitude was bordering a slightly crazy sort of element to it. Tses's danger senses were tingling, and she was mentally mapping the best escape route if need be.

The girl was working on Chrys's nerves. Maybe it was how she was raised, or maybe her mutation drove her to seek a high level of control in her life, but Chrys was never a fan of being spoken at and against. "I could always buy them after pointing them out to the staff," she finished in a whisper. She could cause that scene and call her out on what was obviously a theft, but this was a problem she wanted to resolve on her own.

The staff noticed the tense altercation and one employee started walking through the space between the counter and the wall. "Are you okay, Miss Van--"

"You stay there!" She did not bother looking at the peasant worker. She was the princess; she had the tiara. The command was forceful enough that the woman did indeed stop, even if it was out of confusion.

The girl was still questioning Chrys's desire for the earrings, still insisting that she did not have pierced ears for a reason. What angered Chrys was the need to keep the reason quiet when it was such a good one! She would have to think of another plan of action!

With an annoyed sigh, she started digging through her purse, until she found what she was looking for, (sort of.) The long pin caught her palm. She pulled it out and a small dot of blood poked out from her skin. From there, it was a rather quick action: one hand grabbed her earlobe, and the other took the pin in its fingers and plunged through the soft tissue.

The employees gasped, but they did not move. Things were taking a weird turn, and they were not paid enough to intervene. Folding her arms over her chest, Chrys ignored the sharp pain of stabbing herself; this was no time for fun. "Okay, happy now?" The needle was still fitting neatly between her middle and index knuckles, the point coming outward from her fist.

Things were definitely heating up as the girl threatened to turn her in, and Tses had to rethink her strategy. Although this girl was a little nuts, and possessive about jewelry, she also seemed to command a bit of respect especially when she yelled at the employees to stay, and they mysteriously did. It was one thing to pick a fight with your average complete stranger, but this was apparently your super-rich-and-terrifyingly-powerful stranger. If she made enemies with the wrong person, this could turn south and have long term consequences. She was about to consider giving the earrings back and just calling it a loss....

...when the girl stabbed herself in the ear to prove she could wear the earrings.

Tses laughed. She full out let out laughed in the girls face and held a hand to her stomach as the sound popped form her mouth. She muffled most of it, so it came out as a bit of a snort, but it welled into a chuckle as she tried not to make eye contact. But she couldn't help herself. She looked up with the widest little Cheshire cat grin, and smirked at the deadly female.

"Sure, that solves the problem of not having pierced lobes. See, the problem is, these are helix earrings." With a little flick of her hand, she held up the earrings, adjusting them from out of her arm bands then letting them dangle from the tips of her fingers. The silver diamond studded loops glittered in the malls light, and she gave a smirk at the girl one last time. "But congratulations. Now you can wear the rest of them!"

Without waiting for a reply, she bolted for dear life for the murderous rage she felt was sure to follow, shoving shoppers out of her path and making a beeline for the door.

Chrys was victorious! She found a way to trump the bratty girl without revealing her power! Surely, the girl would bow to her superior willpower!

...or she would laugh. And then she would point out to Chrys what her folly was: due to her knowing nothing more about the stolen earrings in question than "they happen to be jewelry meant for ears," Chrys unknowingly pierced her ear in the wrong location. Frick!" she muttered after Tses's obnoxiously smug revelation.

Chrys wanted to reply with some snarky comeback, but there was no time as the offender made a quick exit from the store. Not one to leave well enough alone, Chrys kicked her heels off (and in the general direction of the employees, who did they best to keep the shoes from hitting jewel cases,) and also left, shouting, "I'll be back!" She did not want to get arrested for something silly like theft; it would upset daddy. She considered throwing the tiara back to the employees, but even she was not crazy enough to risk damaging something so pretty.

Chrys was in pursuit, but the girl was faster than her. Chrys's possibly advantage came from her tiny frame ducking and weaving through gaps in groups and her disregard for people she might shove along the way. The sheer tights covering her feet were sliding along the surface of the linoleum mall floor, so she had to avoid tumbling onto her own face. "Get back here, brat!" I want to pierce your face a few times! Certainly not appropriate conversation for a public forum. She had to be considerate.

Making the decision to run was always the easy part; staying ahead of pursuers always seemed to end up being more difficult. Especially since she made the decision long ago to have combat boots as her attire of choice; good for traction, good for fighting, but awful for speed. At least her ponytail kept the hair out of her face as she moved; she could see every leftover candy cane and trailing of tinsel scattered across the mall ready to trip her up. She felt momentarily confident as she flew through the crowds, long legs pumping and hair blonde hair streaming behind her.

Little did she know, however, her pursuer seemed to have opted for panty hoes as her foot attire of choice, which could give her a bit more of an advantage, at least for now; it was an advantage that wouldn't last long, because an angry female seemed to have a different type of fuel to move when it came to revenge.

Tses scrambled around a few shopping bags, skittered to avoid a group of teens, then did a jump over a park bench as she slid into the children's play area. Cutting across it, she leapt and pulled herself onto the plastic toy house, glancing over her shoulder from her higher vantage point for a second before she leap over another bench and raced towards the general direction of the exit. She rethought her strategy at each turn, but that came when she noticed a few people starting to glance at the pursuit and whisper amongst themselves. Certainly security would catch on soon, if the other girl didn't catch her first. Yet she couldn't help herself. After shoving a teenager out of her path--his pants low enough on his legs the action caused him to fall flat on his face--she turned and stuck her tongue out like a little kid, and smirked again.

Some people were gluttons for punishment, some people were adrenaline junkies: Tses seemed to be a dangerous mix of both. Especially when she noted that, although she had a good head start, after her cocky gesture, she made a wrong turn and ended up running the wrong direction from the exit she was aiming for. Instead of seeing glass doors, she saw toy shops with 50% off signs glittering in their windows.

"Shit..." She said, skittering to a halt, and doing a quick about face, and cussed again when she realized the detour put her pursuer between the moonlight powered mutant and freedom. It looked like in this flight or fight scenario, fight was about to win.

"Hey, I changed my mind! I decided you can have the earrings!" She called out to the girl, and she made a tiny orb of energy in her hands. With a grin she tossed it to the girl, and waited for the outcome.

She was in the middle of a pursuit! An honest to... well, not goodness, but, well... a pursuit! It was a bizarre set of circumstances, but there was a level of thrill to running through the mall, trying to gain on a specific person. She was used to a much more subtle, stealthy hunt, where the goal was to lead prey into her trap, like a sexy spider. (If spiders could be sexy.)

Now, she was truly hunting. Weaving through obstacles, (since people held about as much worth as trees and stones,) and heatedly tailing her target. There was an obvious reason why this was not her custom: mall police would notice the running and find them eventually, but Chrys could play the role of the justice-minded citizen! (Certainly a stretch, but it could work.)

The girl was quick enough to keep Chrys at a pretty constant distance, and gained some space with a few rather athletic feats strung together into a shortcut while Chrys begrudgingly went around the play area, hoping the goal was not too far out of reach now.

And then good fortune struck, as it often did for bad people. The punk made a miscalculation and ran herself into a dead end. Chrys expected the chase to continue into the toy store, but to her surprise, the thief turned to face her and toss something in her direction. It was glowing, and Chrys figured it was not an earring. She put on the brakes to get out of the way.

Except brakes did not work in pantyhoes. Chrys stopped running, but her momentum carried her forward. The orb hit the top of her head and there was "fwoosh!" sound, popping Chrys like a small punch hit her in the head in the spot where the tiara sat.

The impact knocked Chrys back, but did not stop her forward momentum as she slid toward her attacker.

Meanwhile, the tiara made a trip of its own, flying through the air to nail a tall, muscular man square in the forehead. Annoyed, he turned to face the women, assuming Tses to be the one in control of the situation, rather than the falling girl. "You," he growled, perturbed and driven by aggravation and substances that would ban a man from the MLB.

Tses was both amused and surprised at the outcome of her actions. As the girl came into view, the glittering orb sailed through the air, and Tses finally got a glimpse of the shoeless girl behind her. It was almost ridiculousness enough for her to laugh, as the girl in the pencil skirt and nice shirt came flying her way, glittering diamonds perched haphazardly on her head.

As the orb blew, the girl's tiara clad hair was barely low enough to avoid taking the brunt of it, but the glittering object went sailing back through the air as the girl teetered backwards, with forward and downward momentum acting against her. There was a moment of skidding, as Tses scrambled to the side to avoid the collision, but her actions put her closer to the man who took the tiara full in the face. Opps.

He was a bear of a man with large beefy arms, a bald head and no body hair to be seen. His muscles seemed to glitter with body oil, and his t-shirt was sleeveless to show off his arms. There were no tattoos on him, which was lucky because Tses couldn't handle much more irony at the time, but as his hand closed around the tiara he had a murderous glare.

"Hey punk, you better watch what you're doing!" He snarled, and Tses felt that grin cross her face, a twinkle in her eyes as she shrugged her shoulder and sighed dramatically. At this point, it wasn't even worth trying to talk her way out of things. If she was going down, she was going down her way: swinging and with a smart ass remark on her lips.

"Sorry, my bad. Wait, maybe this will fix it!" Throwing her stored energy into one last orb, she threw it straight into the man's chest, and it exploded, sending him flying backwards as the tiara clattered on the floor. The large monster of a guy was flattened and winded, struggling to spew profanities at her, but Tses didn't give him more attention. She just scooped up the Tiara, tossed it at her pursuer, and sarcastically quipped, "Think you dropped that!"

The girl managed to avoid Chrys, who did finally skid to a halt, rubbing her bottom after a pretty harsh landing. She straightened out her skirt and turned her head to watch a brand new altercation develop.

The man was a lumbering giant; certainly the type she would enjoy giving a lesson in the pain of a frail girl's constitution. Looking at him made him innately difficult to root for, but the girl was also a remarkable bitch. Still, as rude as she was, she took no pleasure from watching a thug-type beat up someone smaller. That was no fun.

Except that did not happen. The girl created another of the glowing orbs she originally tossed at Chrys, which made it more obvious that Chrys was dealing with a mutant. The orb exploded and the man went down. To top it all of, she picked up the tiara and tossed it back to Chrys, who managed to catch it, despite the suddenness of what just happened.

Maybe the pauper girl had some spark to her worth a little bit of respect, Chrys thought with a grin.

Unfortunately, the oaf was not cooperating with the glorious plotline her frenemy was drafting. He slowly to his feet, his bulging eyes now focusing on the two women without discrimination. He was still struggling and having difficulty breathing, but he took a few stumbling steps toward the pair.

What was worse: Chrys could see mall cops turning the corner toward the scene, clearly following the running maniacs from moments earlier.

Chrys thought quickly, which was not difficult when her plan was similar to almost every other plan she had in her arsenal. She lifted the side of her skirt to pull the syringe held to her leg with a garter. Before the man could react, Chrys had popped the safety cap off and plunged the sharp metal into his neck. The plunger was pushed, and the man's eyes began closing. His body grew heavy(/ier), and he fell forward onto Chrys, who just barely managed to push him off before his unconscious body fell at her side.

Putting on her best mimicries of emotions she hoped were panic and fear, she shouted. "Officers! Over here! This man was attacking me and my... cousin!" They looked nothing like sisters, but cousins were not always close matches, and she could stand pretending to be just barely related to the poor girl.

She shot a quick glance at the other troublemaker, hoping she would be willing to follow along with the ruse.

As the lumbering man started rising back to his feet, Tses tried to assess her next move. Without powers, she would have to resort to hand to hand combat, which would require some careful maneuvering to leverage her small size against him. Yet she never got the chance to do anything, when she saw the girl reaching up her skirt for something out of the corner of her eye. Blinking in confusion, she turned to see the slim figure stab what looked like a syringe into the base of the guys neck. Like the figure of Goliath in nearly ever cartoon she'd seen, the giant form toppled forward with an almost comical thump. Watching the large figure crash made her wonder at her choice to intimidate this girl, and Tses was glad for now, her assailant was assisting her, instead of attacking her.

Then the officer's arrived, and Tses tried to plan her exit. She had learned better than to turn her back on a cop with a gun, so some form of action would be required to disable them. Once again, though, her thinking was interrupted as the girl acted first. "Officer's, over here!" Tses felt her stomach drop, and cursed inside her head. Why was she bringing the cops over faster? Then she called Tses her cousin, and the blonde girl quickly tried to keep up, even though she was thrown off by the sudden charity lie.

"We were just hanging out, trying to get some shopping in and this guy just starts yelling at us for no reason." Tses said, wiping away her sarcastic expression and pulling out the innocent damsel in distress face instead. "Are you guys seriously going to let people get away with that in this mall?" She forced herself not to glance at the girl for signs on what to say: always a bad idea when you were bluffing. The mark of a good lie was to roll with whatever the other person said, and don't hesitate. In the words of a good Drama Coach: never say no. Sometimes you had to do dumb things, but the believability increased when you just let it happen.

The girl was rolling with Chrys's lie pretty well, and the police were certainly confused. They were planning on busting the girls who were running like maniacs through the mall, so it was taking some effort to make the transition into a new crime.

Chrys had to do her part and tie up some notable loose ends. Thankfully, it was easier to believe a pretty, panicked young woman than a brutish looking "attacker" who could not defend himself. "I was just chasing her around because we were playing around like we used to in the malls in... Canada!" Why Canada? No idea, but it did give them a flimsy excuse for running like crazy. "We didn't mean to cause a ruckus, really! But then she accidentally bumped into this guy, and he went mad!"

And now to explain away the rest! "He had this look in his eyes! A-and! And he had that drug thing!" She pointed to the syringe in his neck, simultaneously pretending she did not know the name of the very familiar object. "I was scared, but my cousin Lori tried protecting me and I just barely got the... um, thing away from him!"

The police were still processing the quick stream of false information. It was Chrys's hope that the hectic pacing of the story would keep them from noticing how slapdash it truly was. "Um... we should probably take you in as witnesses... I think."

That would not do! Not! At! All! "B-b-but sir! I just wanted to enjoy my last day with my cousin before she returns to... Canada!" She wrapped an arm around the waist of her faux-relative, and gave her a kiss on the cheek for good measure. Did people kiss cousin's on the cheek? Alas, the clueless struggles of family estrangement. Regardless, she was able to sneak a quick taste of the girl's skin, figuring it could prove useful (and fun) if they got this trouble out of the way first. "I don't want this... this monster to ruin this last day! Right Lori?"

And take us away, punk bitch! Hopefully her long-lost, beloved cousin could finish the job and weasel them out of questioning.

Tses was glad she was quick with lies and on her feet, because her companion was sure spinning a big one. At the image of Canada, Tses tried to keep her voice as Canadian as possible: which did not mean dropping 'eh!' at the end of every sentence, but it did mean pronouncing a few of her vowels differently. "We have that giant mall with the amusement park in the middle of it, so we're used to malls being more 'running friendly'. I'm sorry if we upset people...." She nudged the ground with her boot like a scolded kid and looked sheepishly up at the officer. Then she nodded in agreement when Chrysanthemum started describing the 'attack'.

"He came at us and we didn't know what to do. I've never seen a guy try to attack girls before like that. I got the thing away from him, but now everyone's mad... We just wanted to hang out before I have to go home." Outwardly, Tses tried to act as sugary sweet as possible, but inwardly, she was gagging on the amount of bull shit going through this conversation.

"We were just kids goofing off; and we're awfully sorry. But my cousin and I will stay on our best behavior, eh cousin?" Ok, so the dreaded eh snuck in. What could she say? Sometimes authentic didn't sound authentic enough without it. She tried hard not to flinch as the girl kissed her cheek, and felt a wave of pure hatred nearly bubble to the surface. If there was one thing that she hated, it was people kissing her without permission, even on the cheek. They better get the hell out of this, because if they didn't, the first person she was hitting would be this stocking waring tiara clad little brat....

"Well, I'm sure you kids didn't mean it..." One cop began, and the other went over and started inspecting the man still facedown on the ground. "But if I catch you running in these malls again, next time I won't be so easy!"

Tses gave a little smile, and grabbed her 'cousin' by the arm in slight excitement. "We promise, we'll be on our best behavior!" She said, and felt like choking on her own words. Please, let this be over now.