The grass swayed gently in the breeze as it blew through the field in a lazy manner. The stars above sparkled like distant jewels in the night sky and Danica gazed up at them. Hands in both pockets she was dressed down from in a simple pair of blue jeans and white button up blouse. Allowing her mind to wander the young woman thought for a time, curious about what was out there. In a moment of unusual calm for her in recent times, Danica wondered if there was life on other planets. That thought lingered for a moment and she chuckled, if there was it wasn't likely they'd be coming to visit Earth in light of the warlike nature of its inhabitants.

It was already turning bitter as winter set in, so Danica decided to enjoy this rare night of temperate weather out in the back yard. Living with her parents on the very edge of the city made it safer to walk around at night, something she likely wouldn't have done in a heavy metropolitan area. The brief thought of someone trying to mug her also made Danica think of her newfound abilities. Most of the time even thinking of her abilities made the young woman ill, tonight it just made her sad. All her life Danica had wanted to be normal, to be treated like just another person, first it was her dwarfism, now abilities she never wanted. It seemed to her life was becoming crueler and crueler as time went on.

Removing one hand from her pocket Danica pointed her index finger at a tree and willed the energy to come forth. At her beckon an arc of orange energy leapt forth, although describing it as a beam would have been a compliment. A more accurate assessment would have been raw discharge, so rarely had Danica used her abilities they were in poor condition. The discharge struck the tree spitting small chunks of bark about, but with no real effort put into it, the effect was minimal. Being a dwarf was something that she'd come to terms with years ago, but this, it was completely different.

Danica was well aware of how humans treated mutants, especially those that didn't have the power to defend themselves. For a moment she sighed realizing that neo-nazis and skinheads had more public acceptance and tolerance than mutants. It was perfectly acceptable under the constitution to spout hate and bigotry, some people didn't like it, but most put up with it because it was a right. In the eyes of the law mutants had few if any of those. Allowing another crackle of energy to travel up her arm, Danica collected it into the palm of her hand, then threw it forward striking the same tree much harder. This time splinters of wood exploded outward in a small could.

“There are so many humans who would kill me simply for this,” Danica said, speaking in a low tone. “And they call us the monsters.”

The still night air, arguably the nicest night of the entire month, was torn asunder by the sound of a lonely engine. Cafas was having trouble sleeping. He needed to drink, or to run. His body was telling him that in no uncertain terms. Since drinking would be breaking a promise to Maya, run it was.

Or find Maya to cuddle, but Rowan needs his mom more than I need my girlfriend

The night ari screamed past his helmet, the padded head protection barely doing anything to dull the sound of the fully opened throttle. He leaned into a corner, seeing no lights ahead, cutting a racing line through the left lane and back into his own. The engine screamed, high gear complaining at the revs it was hitting. If there had been a cop, or a slight pothole, he would have been finished. Forget oncoming traffic.

Who cares. I'm expendable. Damaged goods of little use to anyone.

A flash of orange energy caught Cafas attention. He skidded to a halt, x-man instincts kicking in, having been brought so close to the surface by his flashback. He stood the bike on its front tire in doing so.

What the...

Within seconds the kick stand was down as another, more concentrated bolt of orange flashed out. He was already off the bike and running, helmet discarded in the grass to clear up his peripheral vision. The engine on his bike still hummed, idling behind him, casting its faintly yellow light into the autumnal night.

Never a dull bloody night...

"Oi!" Cafas emptied his lungs on the one syllable, his throat burning from the raw force. "I am a law enforcement officer! Cease your hostilities or I WILL use force!" As he close Cafas could see that one of the two, presumably the mutant, was a child. The other's silhouette was disguised by the tree.

Actually... As he drew closer, and his eyes adjusted to the lack of light... Maybe it was just a mutant training on a tree...

Oops.

Danica looked at the tree for a moment and just shook her head, it was a pathetic attempt at best and she knew it. The abilities forced upon the young woman were something she despised, but for the past month there had been a nagging urge for her to practice. As much as they were hated, Danica knew it was a very real possibility that someone might discover what she was. In a scenario like that she would likely have to use her abilities for self defense. There might come a time when her .22 pistol and knife might not be enough, yet the idea of doing so terrified her. The last thing Danica wanted to do was unleash her abilities.

While in the process of thinking about this, the sound of a motorcycle engine could be heard, which drew her attention. Her parent's house was fairly isolated and there wasn't much traffic out this way after nightfall. Curious about what was going on she looked around as the sound of squealing tires could he heard, then came the sound of running feet in the grass, easy to hear against the backdrop of silence that pervaded the area. Startled by all of this Danica took a step back, not sure where the person was approaching from. “Oi!” a voice said, nearly causing the young woman to jump out of her clothing. ”I am a law enforcement officer! Cease your hostilities or I WILL use force!”

As the young man came into view Danica was surprised by his appearance, he looked too young to be a detective and wasn't dressed in police blues. He could have been an off-duty cop, taking another step back Danica looked up at him, not sure exactly what to do or how to react. More than anything she was afraid of being discovered and ready to do just about anything to make sure didn't happen. When the young man stopped Danica pointed behind the tree. “The mutant ran that way!”

While standing there with her arm extended a small crackle of orange energy arced around her hand. Looking at her hand without moving, then back to Cafas, Danica arched an eyebrow slightly. Because of what was about to happen next she was glad her parents were out of town for a few days. “I really wish you hadn't seen that.” Her hand jerked forward and another bolt of orange energy ripped through the air. While Danica's hand was aimed at Cafas' head, the arc went wide missing by a few inches. Aggravated by this she drew back charging a blast this time.

Cafas was closing distance fast, slightly damp grass crushing under each heavy step. The dirt below, having been rained on a lot over the Fall period, was making running difficult, especially in reasonably heavy boots.

>“The mutant ran that way!”

Cafas had to slow down to figure his memory out. The woman, for he could now see her well enough to determine that she was simply extremely short, had been the source of the flash, hadn't she? As if to confirm his suspicion orange energy coalesced around the woman's outstretched hand.

>“I really wish you hadn't seen that.”

Cafas did too a short moment later. Orange energy clipped his shoulder, the protective plate of his riding jacket taking the brunt of it. The force of that alone threw Cafas' shoulder back, the sudden movement causing him to stumble in his running.

Holy crap, of course I get the one that's going to try and kill me when I have no quick way to call back up...

Glad for his jacket Cafas' eyes flashed quickly back to the threat, as pink as his hair. He thought he could see more of the orange energy there, around the woman's fingers as she drew them back.

He had no metal on hand, even if he had he couldn't have touched it in time with his riding gloves on, so shooting her was out of the question. He swore and prepared to dodge as best he could should the woman fire. "I am an X-man, stand down!" Because he really didn't want to have to hurt her. He had enough problems sleeping without adding this mutant to them.

He continued trying to close with her. Maybe she wasn't much use at close range.

Kirsi was rather confused.

Here she was, just trying to walk in the park, and her senses were telling her that there was a massive source of kinetic energy somewhere here. She'd ignore it, usually, if not for two things - one, she had absolutely no idea who'd be producing that kind of energy without repeatedly throwing themselves off a cliff, and this park was very much cliff-less. (This was New York City - pretty much the whole place was cliff-less.) And two, she could hear somebody yelling that he was law enforcement, and somebody else responded with something that sounded very much not peaceful. Okay, so that meant he was getting attacked and was having trouble defending himself. Kirsi debated whether or not to go help him. On the one hand, she had a weekly quota of good deeds, and she hadn't done it yet. (It was all part of her trying to become a "good guy" again - one step at a time.) On the other hand, law enforcement.

Yeah, maybe not.

She could still feel the energy, though, which was intriguing. Maybe there was another kinetic energy manipulator. Maybe she'd just stop by and take a look. Out of curiosity. She could decide whether or not to help the law enforcement officer later.

So she walked towards the source of the noise, being decently close already. When she entered the line of sight of the two people standing off in the clearing - which, incidentally, was when they entered her line of sight, too - the first thing she saw was what looked like orange lightning streaking at her, clipping some guy with horribly pink hair's shoulder. Instinctively, she brought up her arm to stop it, automatically kicking her power into gear, considering her mind was screaming "PROJECTILE!" at her. Even though, last she checked, orange lightning was not a projectile. It was too late to stop her Pavlovian response to something flying at her out of the blue, though, and she didn't have time to dodge.

She was rather surprised when the lightning ended up feeling less like getting electrocuted to death and more like a sudden surge of power.

So the attacking mutant was the source of energy. Not only that, but she somehow manifested kinetic energy as... orange lightning? Sure. Kirsi wasn't really surprised by anything anymore.

But that was what her mind was going through. Her body stayed frozen stubbornly in place as Kirsi essentially gaped at her fully intact body, trying to figure out how to move without doing something bad. The surge of energy was more than she'd expected, and she hadn't absorbed it gradually like she normally did. Her skin was glowing a bit, the white light making her presence suddenly very clear, and she was so focused on trying to ration it out in a way that wouldn't cause damage to anyone - mainly her - that she completely ignored whatever the two other combatants did next.

When Cafas yelled that he was an X-man, combined with the appearance of someone else. It caused Danica to freeze, not knowing how to react to both at the same time. She knew the X-men were mutants meaning that it was much less likely that Cafas would expose her secret, then there was the young girl. The kinetic blast struck her seemingly to no effect, which was odd, even the short blasts seemed to stagger most. The wind blew through the field a little more intently this time, tossing Danica's hair about gently.

She looked between the two with a confused expression as the energy continued to collect in the palm of her hand. There was a part of Danica's mind that urged her to fire at one of them, though unsure of which, and another that didn't want to harm other mutants. Still looking between the two as her breathing picked up, the darkness only made Danica all the more paranoid, wondering if anyone else was out there. While the kinetic energy was orange, it gave off little ambient light and as such didn't help dispel the darkness.

After a moment the sphere of energy in her hand, almost a foot in diameter, began to arc and crackle. Having never experienced something like this before Danica looked down, still confused, as the sphere destabilized and exploded with a loud 'THOOM'. She was hurled to the left like a rag doll, stunned by the blast, and bounced once before landing face down in the dirt. The confusion and hesitation had caused Danica to hold a charge much longer than before, and she now knew it wasn't a good idea to do so.

Although not unconscious, movement only came in the form of small twitches. Danica groaned a little and it was hard just for her think. Sounds and sensations were distant and muffled as her mind felt like a sack of wet sand. Judging from the pain it was also possible that she'd cracked a rib or two because of the blast sustained. Just as suddenly as the situation had become tense, Danica managed to defuse it by nearly knocking herself unconscious through a lack of knowledge of her own abilities. At the moment the scope of her abilities consisted of grabbing a handful of grass.

Cafas watched the woman glance over his shoulder, then back to him, then back over. He had a nearly overwhelming instinctive urge to check behind him, but that orange orb posed a much clearer danger, and she may well have been trying to distract him.

The X-man jumped nearly out of his skin as the orb exploded. He had been ready for a lot, and very on edge given he'd just been attacked. His ears were left ringing as the short woman was thrown through the air, actually bouncing before coming to a stop. Cafas winced in sympathy. That looked like it hurt.

The woman didn't seem to be moving a great deal. Cafas began moving over to her when he finally caved in and checked behind him. Just in view he could see a creepy glowing little girl. That gave him pause. She was standing potentially in the path of the previous bolt too. Overall she seemed unharmed. A glowing child, sure, but an uninjured one.

What's a little kid doing out in a random field at night?

"Hey, are you okay? You lost? I gotta make sure this lady is okay, are your parents around? Do you need help finding them? I'm a police man, I'm here to help." Cafas was torn between helping the little girl and trying to save the woman who had tried to kill him. Maybe it was Maya rubbing off on him, but he just couldn't let his attacker die on his watch. That was, after all, what tended to happen to people that got blown up. He continued his jog over to the woman.

Damn it, please be okay! Mutation must be new to her.

She appeared to still be breathing. Groaning was more accurate. She had grabbed a handful of grass too, so it seemed like she may be conscious too. Cafas knelt down next to her, quickly trying to assess the level of her injuries. "Miss, are you alright? Can you hear me?" He was very much jealous of DocProf in that moment. The old man would have had the woman back on her feet in the time it had taken him to ask if she was alive.

Kirsi was concentrating very hard, at this point, on keeping the energy in one spot. She was vaguely aware of a sudden surge of energy, and she instinctively absorbed some of it, much to her distress. She'd never been around an outright source of kinetic energy, so she didn't really know how to process that, leading to her normal responses to an abnormal situation. She was pretty sure that the X-Man was asking her something, but she was concentrating on pouring the energy into everything she could. A branch on the ground, about six feet from her, suddenly exploded, sending splinters flying everywhere at high speed. She stopped the ones coming at her instinctively too.

Eventually, she managed to get the energy stored away in a stable manner. She'd filled all the batteries in her satchel, along with a few miscellaneous items strewn around the ground, and her own body was no longer storing enough energy to glow. So now she could focus on the source of the orange light, who seemed to be another kid - er, no. Not a kid. A full-grown woman the size of a kid. Interesting.

Kirsi had very little idea of what was happening.

So she did what any sensible person would do when faced with an unstable and highly defensive mutant, when said person was also highly curious about said mutant's ability and really wanted to see it in action.

Kirsi took out her phone and dialed 911.

"911, what is your emergency?" the bored voice said, having picked up almost immediately. Kirsi, at this point, had dodged out of the way and was mostly concealed behind a tree.

"Help me," she whimpered, trying to sound about as sniffly and whiny as she possibly could. Which, to be honest, was really sniffly and whiny.

"Can you tell me where you are?" the voice said, suddenly alert.

"I'm in a park. There's somebody throwing orange lightning, and she's hurting someone," she whispered, trying to describe the woman's power in the most childish way possible. She squinted at a streetlight near the street, illuminating the street signs, and read those off too for good measure. "Please help me," she pleaded, trying to make the situation seem scary enough to warrant a META bot.

"Just stay there and stay calm, okay? There's going to be a robot who's coming soon. It's going to help you." Score. She just hoped they sent in one of the big ones. She'd wanted to see one of those at some point anyway.

There was a tremendous amount of pain from the explosion, it felt like someone had kicked Danica in the side. Her ribs hurt, breathing was difficult, and it scattered her senses badly. For the moment she made due with rolling over and looking up at the stars. Even her brain was rattled making the sensory input disorienting, like looking at the surface of a lake from beneath the water. Things started to clear up and Danica sat up shaking her head, while making a mental note she didn't appear to be immune to her own abilities... what a pain. Nothing appeared to actually be broken so after a moment she stood up and turned toward the others.

Upon looking to Cafas she began to regard the young man slightly differently than before. If he'd meant her harm, the explosion would have been the perfect time to do so. He actually seemed a little out of place in all of this, at least from her point of view. For that reason she refrained from attacking any further. This wasn't an attitude that would last for very long, and it completely evaporated the moment she looked over at Kirsi. Seeing the young woman on the phone she was fairly certain who was being called. In a situation like this most people would instinctively turn to the police.

The last thing Danica wanted were a fleet of cop cars, or worse a meta bot, storming through the field near her parent's house. The more she thought about the situation, the more anger rose to the surface. All Danica had been doing to start with was minding her own business, then these two show up and butt into her affairs, now to make matter even worse Kirsi was likely calling the police. The first time she'd hit the young woman with a blast of energy it had been an accident, but the more she thought about it, the more it seemed she likely wasn't normal either. The way things had popped and cracked, the glowing, then an idea occurred to her.

This time Danica acted with intent and pointed a finger directly at Kirsi before unleashing another arc of kinetic energy, curious to see how well the cell phone would far if her guess was correct. This blast was also stronger than the last as well.

Cafas' brain ran through the information presented faster than he could consciously register. He saw the young girl with her phone. He saw the orange energy slinging woman coming to. He saw the intent in her eyes and movements, as years of fighting had trained him to.

He reacted. There was no thought in it. Self preservation be damned, he wasn't letting some unstable woman attack a child. His body simply wouldn't let it happen.

"STOP! N..." The bolt took him in the chest as he dove in front of the raised hand. No glancing blow to the shoulder. The armoured jacket took some of it, but not enough. Cafas was sent twirling through the air like it was a proper wire-fu movie. He landed with a thud and attempted gasp, on what was almost certainly a cracked rib. Just his luck, landing on the side he'd been hit on.

"ooooooow!" He wheezed the final syllable lamely, the air having been thoroughly knocked out of him. Stars danced in his vision as he pushed himself, swiftly and shakily, to his feet. adrenaline surged, numbing the injury and heightening his senses. He had to keep going, to stop was a death sentence in a fight. He blinked away the stars and focused on the assailant.

He wasn't about to wait for that to happen again. He found his breath as he ran to close the distance again. "Get somewhere safe miss!" The words were thrown over his shoulder without taking his eyes off his target. He wasn't sure if he saw a hand raise, but he threw himself into a leg first slide on the grass, aiming to hook the woman's shooting arm behind her back.

Hope she doesn't explode again...

Oh, yes. The woman seemed to be getting angry at Kirsi, having realized that the girl was calling the cops, even if she'd already hung up. And then the lady launched another bolt of kinetic energy at Kirsi. The little mutant braced herself, ready to handle the energy in a more dignified manner.

And the pink-haired X-idiot threw himself in the path of the shot.

"Oh, come on!" she ground out with frustration, as the guy flew backwards, lacking the convenient ability that Kirsi possessed to, you know, absorb kinetic energy. There was an almost audible crack as he hit the ground, and Kirsi sighed as he literally just got back up again, wheezing in pain. The guy had to be a mutant, if he was an X-Man, but his power clearly wasn't a healing factor or extra resilience, as evidenced by his current state. Meaning that if he charged the short lady again, he'd probably just break some more bones.

"Get somewhere safe miss!" he called to her nobly. Kirsi sighed, again.

"Do you like getting your bones broken?" she called out to him irritably, completely dropping the scared, innocent child farce she'd put on for the 911 operator. She moved forward authoritatively and with full confidence, towards where the two were, ready to take charge of the situation herself. "Move, you pink-haired lump. I doubt you're going do anything more here." Meanwhile, she very deftly picked a bullet out of her bag. It was a relatively large one, too - 51 mm - so it could be very clearly seen, even in the dark. "You control kinetic energy too," she called out to the woman, very calmly. "So you might just understand what this bullet can do when launched at high enough speeds to easily pierce a tank. Don't think you'll be fast enough to stop me. So why don't you just calm down and let the nice man know why you're randomly attacking strangers in the woods?" There. Situation resolved.

That guy's power must be totally useless.

[OOC: I'll put the incoming META bot into my next post, unless one of you wants to do it, doesn't want me to do it, or wants me to hold off on it, so let me know.]

As Cafas hit the ground, Danica watched him with a slightly arched eyebrow, surprised by the move. Then shook her head a little as he hit the ground. “Well, it seems chivalry isn't dead after all, just slightly broken from the sound of it.” She listened to the other two's short exchange, and from that started to focus most of her attention on Kirsi. Cafas seemed fairly straight forward, whereas the pale woman was less so. From the sudden attitude change she gathered the innocent little girl was just an act.

"Move, you pink-haired lump. I doubt you're going do anything more here." When Kirsi pulled a rather large bullet out of her bag, that just made the situation even better. "You control kinetic energy too. So you might just understand what this bullet can do when launched at high enough speeds to easily pierce a tank. Don't think you'll be fast enough to stop me. So why don't you just calm down and let the nice man know why you're randomly attacking strangers in the woods?"

Things just seemed to keep getting better by the moment and this new threat only pissed Danica off even more. Yet instead of opting for a direct attack, she decided for a different approach, however the last thing she was about to do was be intimidated into backing down. “One, if you're trying to scare me you're barking up the wrong tree sister, and two, I don't have to be faster than you, I can just wait until the police get here.”

Folding her arms Danica looked at Kirsi as defiantly as ever, “You want an explanation, how's this sound? That's right officer, I was walking out behind my parent's home minding my own business, on private property, when Pinky over here comes running up from god knows where followed by Snow White. They scared the crap out of me, I broke one of his ribs by accident and she made violent threats against me."