Hey, sometimes the stupid things were fun. A lot of other mutants she'd spoken with had been involved in crazy hijinks. Powers and boredom were an interesting, volatile combination.

Darkshift's preoccupation did not go unnoticed. Squinting, Glitch stole a look at the entrance herself. With the glare on the windows, it was hard to see anything. But, now that she was listening, she could hear muffled sounds coming from outside. “Sounds like something's going on out there,” she whispered. “Crap, it might be the META.”

Glitch stayed put in her seat. She didn't want to tangle with that thing if she could help it, and making a scene would just attract its attention.

Yup, now there was no denying the sound of commotion outside.  She tried to peer outside through the window in the door trying, probably unsuccessfully, to look as inconspicuous as possible.  Unfortunately there wasn't much noticeable from her vantage point.  She wanted to swear and swear loudly, but a rare moment of common sense silenced her tongue.

"Jumping through the window on the other side of the building wouldn't exactly be inconspicuous, would it," Darkshift asked sardonically.  She knew the answer to that one.  Crash bang followed by yelling and every single one of the patrons in the shop pointing at them, the culprits.  Maybe they could escape the META or maybe not.  Besides, weren't they supposed to get more aggressive the more aggressive their quarry got?  That was the very last thing she wanted.

"So, any bright ideas?"  Because she was just about out of them.

A dark figure moved in front of the store window. Crap with a capital C. It really was the META. Glitch guessed it was interrogating pedestrians about their whereabouts. It was only a matter of time until one gave away their location.

“Nope,” she agreed. As awesome as crashing through a window would have looked, she didn't need to add vandalism to the list of charges. Come to think of it, Glitch didn't even know what the META bot planned to charge them with. It couldn't be anything good.

Ideas? Glitch thought for a moment. “Maybe.” She held up her full cup of coffee. “I could throw this in its face.” She wasn't an expert on the META bots, but if their sight worked anything like hers, getting the lenses wet would be blinding.

Nervousness was not something cared to admit she possessed and fear even less though.  Yet, this was just the sort of situation where both applied.  Jail was not something she was prepared to deal with.  Maybe a career thief should have a more laisefair attitude about such things; after all, it wasn't like she didn't know the risks her lifestyle entailed.  Didn't matter.  She'd be damned if she was going to prison. Prison was for bad thieves, not good ones and she was improving daily.  Screw the risks.

"I'd say we've got a plan then."  One more drink of coffee in order to give her a moment to steel her resolve for what was to come and she was ready.  "Wait by the door, as soon as it opens you blind it and we start running."  A little bit reckless maybe, but wasn't that just the story of her entire life?

Darkshift tried to look casual as she stood up and walked to the door.  She tried to ignore the looks of the other patrons of the coffee shop, many of whom had obviously caught on that the two of them weren't exactly normal patrons.  Do or die, their freedom depended on it.

Glitch hovered near the door in wait. There was yet another problem for the pile: They had an audience. One that could describe them if the real police got involved. Darkshift might be hard to find, but a robot girl? That would be too easy. Attacking the META bot with that many people watching meant the police would hunt you down in an instant. Such situations required a more subtle approach.

Time to put on a show.

Right when the META bot entered, Glitch set the act into motion. She intentionally stumbled, swinging her arm forward to splash the coffee into its visual sensors. “Oops,” she told it as she slipped past. “Sorry about that.” No way did she mean those words. Not to a piece of junk like that.

Glitch couldn't stay long enough to see if the coffee did its trick nor if the audience even fell for the fake accident. Once outside, she ran like hell.

Tension thrummed through Darkshift's body as she waited for Glitch to enact her part of the plan.  Watching and waiting, she counted down in her head.  3...2...1, and the robot girl hit her mark, scalding coffee going directly into the Meta's eyes and she ran like hell past him.  Score!  

The briefest of delays followed before her own legs started running.  Just to ensure they had ample time to escape, as she ran past now now blinded Meta, she extended a foot and tripped it.  Oh the satisfaction when it fell to the ground.  "Halt mutants."  Of course she ignored the words, racing after the other girl.

Fortunately it wasn't hard to follow the robot girl.  Only slightly more difficult was weaving between people although that was made easier by the fact that it was late and the number of people on the streets were relatively low.  Fortunately.  How far would they have to run to ensure safety?  Hopefully not far as she was quickly discovering her stamina wasn't what it probably should be.

As Glitch fled the scene, she heard the clash of metal hitting the pavement. Sounded like there was a serious flaw in that machine's AI. As long as it was working to their advantage, it was great.

She sprinted full speed around the corner, across streets, and through crowds of confused bystanders. Somehow, she managed to keep the pace up block after block. A long time had passed since Glitch ran that fast, much less voluntarily.

After running for what felt like forever, Glitch couldn't run any further. She leaned against a street lamp, exhausted. “Did we lose it?” Her power level was low; Glitch knew that much. If robots could heave, the sidewalk would need cleaning.

It was amazing how long and how fast one could run when there was the fear of incarceration or worse as motivation.  Her new robot friend stopped her old mad dash just as stamina began fleeting and she stopped beside her, out of breath and panting.  She didn't hear any ominous robot voices around.  Nor did she immediately see any ominous robot bodies.  A good sign.  Probably.

"I think we lost it."  A pause for another intention round of listening and still no obvious sounds of pursuit.  "Remind me to never get in the way of one of those things again.  This is not the sort of adventure I feel the need to repeat!"

Relief at having gotten away washed through her and she even let out a nervous giggle.  Well, that was certainly embarrassing.  

Glitch couldn't see nor hear the META bot. Darkshift believed they'd lost it as well. Finally, they could relax. Tired, she dropped to a sitting position. Able to feel or not, the robot girl wanted to find the world's softest bed and collapse into it.

“Never get in the way of one of those things again,” she joked with a light laugh. Heh heh, that was bad, but Glitch couldn't resist. “Seriously, I don't want to tangle with a META again either. Messing with it was kind of satisfying, though.” Stick it to the man – er, bot. Yeah, that's what more people needed to do.

Darkshift laughed alongside her new friend, trying to ignore the note of almost hysteria in her voice.  They had won after all, right?  Escaped the evil police robot?  No need to feel hysterical anymore, none at all.  Apparently they made a pretty good team.

"No more METAs!"  She emphasized the last word, meaning it.  No need to mention that she had a bad habit of doing things that law enforcement didn't especially like given that these METAs were just fancy robot cops.  None at all.

"I really should be heading home.  I'm exhausted after all of this excitement.  Do you have a place to stay?  A number?  I figure since we we escaped certain doom together, we may as well stay in touch right?"

No more METAs. Glitch gave that a thumbs up. When she saw the long dark sleeve, she realized she was still wearing Darkshift's coat. Whoops. Don't want to accidentally walk away with that. She took it off and handed it back.

Unfortunately, they couldn't stay and talk; both had to get home. Glitch knew that if she returned much later, security might start asking questions. And questions could be bothersome.

“Sure! Here's my number.” She pulled out her phone, a rather thick and durable device, and showed her the screen. “I've been staying at the Mansion,” she added. “I don't know if you've heard of it – it's a place for us mutants. You can drop by any time.”