To be fair, she hadn't intended to rob a bank. The opportunity had really just presented itself, and she'd have been an idiot to not take it.

Her surrogate father was off doing his own thing and had been for the past week, so she'd decided that it was about time that she learned to be financially independent. She'd scheduled a meeting with an investment consultant at the bank today, because when you'd accumulated as much money as she had from contracts, something needed to be done about it. So she'd come to the bank, fully prepared with a notebook and pencil and everything in her little bag, ready to learn about the stock market and all that stuff.

Of course, someone decided to rob the bank that day.

Multiple someones, in fact. It was a gang of humans led by a mutant who had the terrible power of releasing the most obnoxious odor, and they'd forced everyone down to the ground at gunpoint. She could've gotten out any second, but she was really still clinging to the hope that she would still be able to keep her appointment today (getting held up at gunpoint no longer affected her, to be honest). So she was going to be a perfectly good little girl and lay on the floor in apparent abject terror, but really impatiently waiting for these horribly inept thieves that would make Maddox, her surrogate father and master cat burglar, scream in agitation.

At some point, she got bored, and just shot them all with their own bullets. She would never admit that she'd done that because they'd been about to shoot the manager, but really, that was why.

She was about to just up and leave in the ensuing shock and stampede, but she realized then that the thieves had managed to get into the vault, which was sitting conveniently open. They'd even started packing the money away in briefcases, and there was one mostly full one that was just begging to be grabbed.

As the screaming horde rushed to the exit, trying to get away from the bodies bleeding out on the tile floor, she crept to the open vault and snatched the briefcase. Clasping it shut, she glanced around the bank, seriously hoping that no one had seen her. But no such luck - the manager was staring at her with the most strangely unreadable expression on his face, and she sighed. Deftly, she pulled a bullet out of her pocket.

"You see this?" she said, calmly. "I'm a mutant. Put very simply, I can shoot people without a gun. Unless you want to meet the same fate as those robbers, I suggest you move out of my way."

It was a bit counterproductive to threaten the very man she'd tried to save, but to be fair, there was a lot of money in that briefcase.

Of course the bank would be robbed. Of course, on the one day that Juliette had decided to finally just bite the bullet and cash her checks, and at the same time find out her dreaded bank balance, the bank would be robbed. And bite the bullet she had.

At first, it was just a bunch of regular humans, a typical thing in a city as large as New York. Well, not quite typical, but definitely more typical than the adolescent girl that interrupted them and took the briefcase. She didn't look more than eleven, but from what Juliette could make out of her saying, she didn't act her age at all.

She had missed the small window of opportunity to flee and had been one of the unlucky few taken as hostages. She sat with her back to the wall, her arms wrapped around her legs in a position reminiscent of the one she had been forced to assume during tornado drills in school. It was uncomfortable, to say the least, but she had no right to complain. At least she hadn't been shot.

There were bloody bodies at her feet. It was nothing she hadn't seen before, but she had always been able to do something about it. At that moment, she was subjected to hearing their cries as she sat, unable to move from fear.

She needed energy. Desperately. She was vulnerable without it. There was a lamp about ten feet away from her, but there was a clearly murderous little girl in her way. She inched forward slightly, hoping that the girl wouldn't notice.

There.

She was close enough to absorb the light. She only needed about twenty seconds to do so.

The manager looked torn between doing something rash and just fleeing like a sane person, and Kirsi was seriously hoping he'd pick the latter, because she could totally hear police sirens approaching in the distance. Someone must've managed to hit the silent alarm when the initial group of robbers had been raiding, and now she was suffering the consequences.

"Don't be stupid," she said. At some point she'd stopped caring about whether or not the law knew what she looked like, because to be honest, all children her age looked the same. "Would you rather let me get away with this, or die? No one will know."

And, thankfully, after a good thirty seconds of standoff, he made the right decision and bolted. Kirsi couldn't hold back a smirk as she straightened up, and was about to put the bullet away when she sensed something else.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see someone reaching out towards a lamp, in a gesture that would look positively schizophrenic had mutants not existed. Instantly, Kirsi whipped around and aimed her left hand - still clutching the bullet - at the woman on the floor.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," she said coldly, assuming that the woman was a mutant. After all, the only other reason for her to be inexplicably fixated on a lamp (as if it were life and death) was that she was delusional, and if she was, then Kirsi wouldn't have had to worry about an embarrassing wrong call on her part being known by other people.

On another note, now seemed like a great time to debut a catchphrase. She'd been toying with the idea, trying to think of ways to make the Renegade persona even creepier and more intimidating, and after copious amounts of research (watching movies), she'd settled on disturbing pet names.

She started to slowly walk towards the exit, still keeping her arm and eyes pointed at the woman on the floor. "Are you going to try and stop me, chickadee?" she said in the most patronizing way possible, before (successfully) holding back a wince. Okay, scrap chickadee. That was not intimidating. Back to the drawing board on that, then.

The girl had seen her. Juliette muttered a curse under her breath as the girl spoke in a way that was obviously meant to be intimidating, but coming from her small frame it didn't sound as such.

Whatever. She had gotten what she needed.

Juliette stopped moving and put her hands in her lap, the lamp successfully drained of all energy. She could feel it coursing through her veins as her body took hold of the new power. It definitely wasn't as much as she was hoping for, but it would have to do. It danced off of her fingers as she tried to decide on a course of action. She hid them casually, hoping no one had taken notice.

She figured it likely wouldn't be a good idea to just go and blast her while the girl was staring at her. She had no idea what she was capable of, but she didn't seem to have many reservations about murder. Definitely not smart - especially since she didn't get all that much energy from the lamp.

Glancing around at the crowd surrounding her, she tried to make eye contact with some of the other hostages. Perhaps one of them was a mutant as well?

No movement.

New plan, then.

She fixed her eyes on the little girl, willing her to turn away. She only needed a few milliseconds.

Another miracle.

Well, clearly, the woman wasn't impressed. She also wasn't intimidated, which was the more unfortunate part. Kirsi, as someone who'd spent all of her (admittedly short) life dealing with mutants, hadn't missed what looked like sparks dancing among the woman's fingers, and that was a definite sign of some form of defense being readied. In fact, much to her irritation, it looked like a relatively viable form of defense that she was readying. She hated random vigilantism, especially since it so often got in the way of what she wanted to do.

But she did have one advantage over the woman, from what she could tell - experience. Kirsi had spent her whole life running, and she'd done it pretty successfully at that. Her codename was even Renegade, as a reflection of her skill in not getting caught. She wasn't about to break that streak now.

Kirsi did turn around, then, but she had a plan. She immediately changed course from the bank's exit - where she could hear the police pulling up - to the elevator that would take her to the roof, fifty-three stories up. A short burst of kinetic energy dragged the doors open, and she sprinted in, slamming the doors shut with another burst. She could hear META bots outside, presumably called because of that one stupid mutant in the original heist gang, and she jabbed at the button for the top floor. With a ding, the elevator started moving up. It was little effort for her to shoot open the grate on the service elevator's roof and open it, and she took out another bullet as she eyed the neighboring elevator, which was a lot closer to the top of the shaft than the one she was in was. A neatly-placed shot severed the cables, and as it fell, she was careful to absorb everything she could, but moved most of the energy into things in her bag. She didn't want to overload, considering what she was going to do next. She still kept enough energy immediately accessible so that she seemed to glow beneath her skin, knowing that once she was ready, she could dump all that was stored in her body in the air around her for future use.

As she looked up at the floor number - twenty-eight, almost there - she heard the other elevator fall with a loud crash at the bottom of the shaft, shaking the cables on her elevator for a moment. It was okay - she wasn't scared of falling. She was scared of getting caught, though, as much as she refused to admit it, so she was never going to let that happen.

Juliette let out a little sigh of relief as the girl turned around, but then frowned. Where was she going? Was she... Running away? No, she was heading to the elevator. Why would she go to the elevator? She would be trapped up there, especially with the quickly approaching police.

She stood up, ignoring the fact the fact that the bottoms of her pant legs were being weighed down by blood. That would bother her later. In that moment, the only thing she could think about was the girl.

She gave a quick glance to the people who had been shot, even though she was distracted. Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do to help without any of her supplies. To her relief, multiple ambulances had shown up on the scene to relieve her. She had ample time to follow the girl.

Upon further examination of the elevator, she realized that the one that wasn't in use had been put out of order. She jumped back as it fell to the bottom of the shaft with an ear-piercing crash. Judging from the screams that accompanied it, the elevator had been occupied.

Alright, then. Stairs it was.

She rounded the corner quickly, her legs pumping as she ran the many flights. Juliette was very used to elevators. If not for the adrenaline that had kicked in, she likely would have been very winded.

She reached the roof with a slight feeling of regret. What exactly had persuaded her to follow the girl, she would never know. She typically prided herself in non-violence, but for some reason that particular day was different. She wanted nothing more than to stop the girl.

Then, the fight or flight feeling vanished and she was left on the rooftop, stuck with her reckless decision to fight. She wished more than anything that someone else was there instead of her. She knew hardly anything about apprehending a dangerous young mutant, and most of the fight moves she knew were self-defense. To top it all off, she didn't even have all that much energy.

Well, she was there, and she would likely have to fight- whether she wanted to or not.

The elevator had been occupied.

She'd realized that last-minute, having been under the impression that it was entirely empty, and immediately did her best to try and catch it. But it'd been rapidly leaving her range as it fell. She'd managed to slow it quite a bit, though, to the point where it didn't crumple upon impact, and her frantic attempts to slow it even further did enough to keep the fall from being as bad as it otherwise would have. Yes, there might be trauma and all that, but she doubted there'd be any fatal injuries. She didn't generally condone collateral damage, unless they got in the way of her objective - like that manager had - in which case they ceased to be civilians and became targets as well.

She pushed away the sudden surge of guilt that she felt, telling herself that there was no way she could've known. It'd been a hostage situation, for Pete's sake - she would never have expected the elevator to inexplicably be occupied.

Ding. She'd arrived at the rooftop, her destination. But as the doors opened, she nearly groaned when she saw the vigilante from downstairs on the roof, winded but still ready to fight.

"Are you kidding me?" she said, exasperated, as she walked out of the elevator. A quarter was safely concealed in her palm, but the woman wouldn't be able to see that, nor understand its significance. She didn't like collateral damage, and she was especially wary after that mishap with the elevator, but she probably wouldn't need to use the quarter. She had enough energy stored up from catching the elevator to throw the petite woman back a good amount, and she needed to get rid of some anyway.

"Look," she sighed, as she backed towards the roof's edge, "Why are you following me? I really need the money." She added a desperate tone to her voice, flawlessly adjusting her body language to comply with her new "desperate, misguided, and poor mutant child" persona. It was at times like these that she was really grateful for being ten years old. "They're gonna hurt him if I don't get them the money. Please, just let me go." Who were "they"? She had no idea. Ambiguity was the lifeblood of improvisation, and she was taking that to heart right now.

As she'd been speaking, she'd been backing up slowly to the little wall at the edge of the rooftop. The wind was blowing through her hair, and she batted away at it swiftly as she scooted up onto the wall's edge and swung her legs onto the other side.

"Don't make me jump," she pleaded, totally milking the whole "innocent ten-year-old" thing. "They told me that if I get caught, they're going to kill him. I can't get caught."

Threatening apparent suicide - that had been her entire intention behind getting up here. She'd had the whole story planned out by the time she'd decided to sprint for the elevator, but she'd been hoping that the police would be up here, not some random vigilante. Vigilantes weren't restricted by law; officers were. She seriously hoped that this one would be held back enough by her own morality to not make Kirsi resort to Plan B.

Juliette made it to the roof and was soon joined by the girl. Jump? She was seriously going to jump? This was why Juliette didn't get involved in things. If you don't get involved, you can't be blamed for the consequences.

She much preferred to be a part of the clean-up crew than to have to participate, but she was there already. It fell on her to deal with the little girl.

All of the sensitivity training she had taken failed her in those moments. What could she say to the little girl? Oh, please don't jump, I'm only going to hand you over to the police. Yes, a great plan when dealing with a murderous adolescent.

"I-" Juliette started to say something, but stopped. She thought through it carefully before she said anything else. The girl could be packing heat, for all she knew.

"Who are they? Who are they going to hurt?" She inquired finally. Her voice had a calming tone, and at that moment, nothing about her appearance would be threatening.

"I... Who are they? Who are they going to hurt?"

Kirsi glanced the woman over once, making multiple deductions that would impact her next words. Body language was non-threatening and her tone was calm - okay, she'd succeeded in making the woman think that Kirsi was a victim. Good. Unfortunately, in order to buy time (now she really was waiting for the police, because the more witnesses for what she was about to do, the better), she'd have to add to the story. And making a lie more elaborate always ended badly, because it was harder than it looked to keep track of everything. Fortunately, she wouldn't have too much to keep track of if she kept it simple.

"I can't say," she said, adding a touch of fear to her voice. "They're gonna hurt Jack if I tell anyone anything. I can't say."

She could vaguely feel the elevator she'd taken up going back down, the energy trickling in from a corner of her consciousness, which meant that there was still quite a bit of time she needed to stall. She glanced away from the woman for a brief moment to scan the ground below her. There was a slightly small apartment complex right across the busy street below, about ten stories down. That was good. She turned her attention back to the woman to see what she'd do next.

Juliette bit her lip. If the girl was lying, she was really good at it. But then again, she had just seen her kill people in cold blood. That was not something done by someone who just needed money. No, Juliette decided. There was definitely something else up.

"The police can help you," Juliette explained to her, stepping a little closer with outstretched hands. "Whatever's going on, robbing a bank is not the way to deal with it. You need to put the briefcase down and step away from the edge. Can you tell me your name?"

She hoped desperately that the girl would listen to her. She had even added a question at the end to try and distracter her - a common technique that she used when a patient was in pain. She didn't think that she would be able to forget a little girl jumping off of the edge of a multi-storey building.

Juliette glanced backwards. The police were on their way up and would be there any second. She only needed to stall her for a few moments, and then it would be alright. She hoped it would, at least.

"The police can help you," the woman said, and okay, that was expected. Doing well so far. "Whatever's going on, robbing a bank is not the way to deal with it. You need to put the briefcase down and step away from the edge. Can you tell me your name?"

"Huginn," she said, and was briefly entertained by the mental picture of the distress the police would be feeling when they heard that name, because it would most definitely be connected to Ragnarok, and not to the freelancer Renegade. "They told me to say that if anyone asked," she continued with a little bit of highly accurate panic, before she suddenly registered that the woman was inching towards her.

"Don't come any closer," Kirsi said immediately, holding out her hand. The quarter was still there, but now she shifted her palm so that it was more visible. "I'm really sorry. I don't want to hurt you. But they said that if I didn't bring them the money, they're going to hurt Jack, and I can't let them hurt Jack."

Who was Jack - her brother, maybe? Yes, little brother. That worked well. She didn't think she'd have to continue the story any further, though, because she could finally feel the elevator settling in at the roof. Weren't the police always late to the party, though?

Juliette stopped in her tracks immediately, not wanting to risk anything with the girl. She was better safe than sorry, at that point.

She sighed and shook her head. "Honey, I'm sure Jack - whoever he is - would want you to be safe. You're not safe right now," she pointed out and gave a long glance back as the police made their way onto the roof.

Juliette held out her hands at the police, a silent plea for them not to shoot at either her or the girl.

"Honey, I'm sure Jack - whoever he is - would want you to be safe. You're not safe right now," the woman said. Well, that was nice of her. Unfortunately, Kirsi wasn't one to drop a briefcase full of money when she had it. Yes, it was rather nice that the woman told the police to not shoot, even though it wouldn't've mattered anyway. But she was also the nearest person to take hostage. Kirsi would apologize, but she wasn't really sorry.

"Sorry," she said anyway, on principle, before grabbing the woman and leaping off of the roof.

She'd checked before she'd jumped, of course. The neighboring building wasn't that far off, in terms of horizontal distance, but was more than a little far off in terms of vertical distance. Fortunately for the both of them, Kirsi was very experienced in controlled falling. So when they landed on the rooftop, it felt more like falling ten feet than ten stories. It still hurt, but not as much as it otherwise would've. But Kirsi's skin now seemed to glow with energy. She'd expended some by essentially launching the woman - almost unnoticeably gently - upward, and by clinging to the woman, she was able to even further slow their fall. But she mostly just absorbed the kinetic energy as they fell, keeping them at a constant, relatively low velocity.

As they landed, tumbling onto the cement, Kirsi grabbed a coin out of her pocket and showed it to the woman when they slowed to a halt. "Don't move," she hissed, the coin clearly a threat. The police probably thought they'd died, and she'd let them. They'd move in a couple of minutes when the police left the opposite rooftop.

The quiet apology that the little girl had muttered didn't really cut it. Actually, that was an understatement. The apology was about as helpful as a polar bear in a snow storm.

Juliette was, without warning, thrust from the rooftop of one building to another. She wasn't sure exactly how, but the landing hadn't hurt as much as it should have. It probably has something to do with the morally ambiguous little girl's powers. Juliette hit the concrete with a thud and tumbled several feet in a poorly executed attempt at a barrel roll. It was nowhere as easy as they made it look in the movies.

>>"Don't move."

The little girl held a little coin in her hand as a sort of warning. In anyone else's hand, the threat would be meaningless, but Juliette had seen what the little girl could do already, and just the sight of the little object gave her a bad feeling.

Juliette weighed her options. On one hand, she really wasn't interested in getting any more involved in the fight that had already gone a little too far. But on the other, she also didn't want to hurt the little girl. Even with everything she had done, the woman knew she would have a difficult time trying to sleep at night if she were hurt.

"Fine," Juliette put her hands in the air as a sign of submission. "I won't move."

"Fine. I won't move." Did... did she literally just move in order to show how she wouldn't move? That was the most counterproductive surrender ever.

Kirsi was starting to feel like the money wasn't worth it.

"Hey, they're still alive!" she heard someone shout from the bank's rooftop. Well, apparently they'd caught the movement too. Great. There went Plan B. Somebody else had a megaphone, and they were shoving their way through the crowd towards the edge of the rooftop. They were high up enough that Kirsi and the woman would be able to clearly hear anything that was so much as shouted from that rooftop, but apparently they didn't care.

"You are under arrest!" the officer roared. Kirsi sighed. Okay, time to think of a Plan C - "Back away from the little girl and put your hands above your head!"

Woah.

Whaaaaaat.

Apparently the police were even blinder than she thought they were. They must've not come up in time to realize that she'd tackled the woman off the roof. In fact, from that angle, it must've looked like the woman tackled her. Oh, this was good. She could spin this to her advantage - say that the woman hired both the initial group and then hired her to grab the money and run to the roof. The first group was too dead to say anything, and the only person she'd explicitly explained her mutation to was the manager, who wouldn't speak because he literally let a little girl run off with a briefcase of money. Or, she could just jump off this building, though that would be harder. Just in case, she started slowly dumping the energy stored in her body into the building itself, as the glow beneath her skin faded away. Cement wasn't too conductive, so she'd lose all that energy, but that wasn't a problem.

Kirsi looked at the woman, almost smiling. "Your move," she said, amused. "The least I could do after taking you hostage is help you get away, if you'd like."