Victoria was still shocked to have a second of down time during her trip to New York. Her skating coach had something big planned for training the next day, it's why they were here, but on this morning, she was allowed to relax.

"Bye Mrs. Askley! I'm going for a quick jog!"

Victoria closed the door to their hotel room even as her coach rattled off a list of reminders to be safe. She had spent the last few years of her life in metropolitan Minneapolis, she figured Central Park had to be at least as safe and it was right next to their hotel.

The blonde figure skater took to the park's pathways with a smile. She kinda hoped someone might recognize her, but knew nobody would. She was accomplished...but not that accomplished yet as her coach liked to remind her. Hopefully after this year's season she would be, but Victoria tried to forget about all that as she ran. It was a chance to unwind and see an iconic sight.

"Morning!" She smiled to everyone she passed around the lake. Most were quiet in response, but it didn't phase her, it was early in the morning after all. The sun was shining; the air was cool and crisp. It was the perfect morning for cardio.

Whoofta! Victoria stopped to rest a bit in the grass. She stretched her legs on the soft lawn and watched a squirrel play in a tree. That's too picture perfect...She reached into the waist pocket of her spandex shorts for her iphone and froze in full panic mode. Where is it?! She patted all around her waist and the grass around her. "Hey!" She called out to the first person she saw, springing up from the ground. "Have you seen my phone? It's in a glittery silver case. My name's inlaid in pink!" She hardly paused to listen for an answer from the stranger as her eyes darted along the path she came. Out of all the places for her to lose her phone, it had to be in New York City.

Mornings were constructs designed to punish the world. For what, Astrid didn't know, but that thought invaded her head as she walked through Central Park at the butt-crack of dawn. She wasn't usually up that early, but someone had told her that people were more generous in the mornings, so she decided to test the theory. They were dead wrong.

She had packed up after only half an hour of busking, and instead decided to walk around the park for a while. People gave her an even wider berth than usual. Her appearance was still as off-putting as ever, but coupled with the fact that she looked like she would murder the first person to speak to her wasn't exactly helping.

That's why she was so surprised when someone decided to speak to her. Her jaw clenched and all of her muscles seized at once upon hearing the horrid English that spewed out of a blonde girl's mouth. Her head turned very slowly to look at the girl. 'Princess' was the first thing that came to mind as she studied her. Maybe it was the long blonde hair and fair skin, or maybe it was the way she actually seemed to be enjoying the morning, Astrid didn't know. She did know immediately that she didn't like her.

>>"Have you seen my phone? It's in a glittery silver case. My name's inlaid in pink!"

Astrid understood the first sentence, but some of the rest was lost on her. The winged girl's black eyes searched the girl for a moment. Did she seriously think that she would have any idea where her phone was? It was a big park, and she wasn't exactly looking very closely at her surroundings. But alas, she figured, if you're a princess you don't really think of anything except what's immediately in front of you.

Then, Astrid spotted something. It was shiny, and glinted in the light. It was just laying there on the ground, waiting for her to pick it up. She reached over and held it out so that the girl in front of her could see it. A cell phone in a silver glittery case with a name fit for a princess written in pink.

"Fifty dollars," Astrid demanded and smirked at the girl as she held it out.

Aha! Victoria saw her phone sitting in the ground just as the person she had asked for help picked it up, only now did she get a good view of what the person looked like.

Large menacing dark wings, demon eyes that pierced the heart, and skin far paler than her own...Looks can be deceiving. Victoria hoped as she drew back for just a second. After all, mutants couldn't be all that bad. I'm one too. She reminded herself. But jeeze, she's intimidating.

"Thanks!" The blonde offered a most grateful smile and reached out to receive her phone from winged girl's outstretched hand. She was startled when the winged girl didn't give it to her. That smirk sent shivers down her spine.

>>"Fifty dollars."

Now, Victoria was a deer caught in headlights. Normally she might of been mad and just grabbed it back, but right now she feared for her soul. "But I uh...I didn't like bring any money with me. Just please give it back! I need it for skating." She begged the girl, looking up straight into those pitch black eyes. She was still trying to be 'Minnesota nice'.

The blonde glanced around. Where are all the cops supposed to be? She never thought in a million years that she'd ever be bullied, and here she was, being blackmailed for cash by a mutant in a city park. "This is uber mean ya know..." Victoria wasn't sure what she accomplished by saying that, but it came out nonetheless. "Why are you doing this?"

Holding a cellphone hostage from a little princess was hardly the worst thing that Astrid had done that day (stealing ice cream from a little boy took the cake), but her reaction was the best one she had managed to get in a while. The girl looked frightened. Genuinely frightened. Huge black wings did have their perks, even if they didn't involve a comfortable sleeping position.

The girl begged her using the sweetest voice that had ever reached Astrid's ears. It was a grating noise, which only made her grip the phone tighter. So, she didn't have any money with her. The winged girl weighed the little rectangle in her hand and studied it. The thing looked expensive. She could probably get more than fifty bucks for it.

>>"Why are you doing this?"

Astrid merely shrugged at her question. If she were able to snark in English, she probably would have, but she simply settled for being aloof.

The smirk returned to her face as she pocketed the cellphone in her black dress. She had recently been in a kick of buying dresses with pockets. Exclusively in black, of course.

She turned back to the girl and gave her a mock salute. "*Au revoir, Princesse."

---

*Goodbye, Princess.

This was turning into a nasty morning for Victoria. She was beginning to shake ever so slightly as the winged girl turned to walk away. Her mind was racing. Her patience was running out.

>>"Au revoir, princesse."

"Wait!" Victoria stepped forward. "You don't scare me." It was a lie that was pretty far from the truth but she was too proud to admit what her body language betrayed. She was really trying hard to sound tough. "My dad's a lawyer and I'm a nationally ranked athlete so you won't get away with stealing from me. Just please give my phone back and we can forget this ever happened."

Victoria unclasped the silver necklace from her neck and held it out, unaware it was glowing bright white in her hand. Her soft blue eyes were on the girl. "Here, you can take this instead if you give me my phone back. It's not worth fifty dollars, but if you really need the money you can pawn it." She held her breath as she waited for a response. If a chicken's wing could break someone's arm, she hated to see what this girl's wings could do.

>>"Wait! You don't scare me."

Astrid let out a scoff and turned back to face the girl. She didn't look nearly as confident as she sounded. However, Astrid figured it was worth letting her think she could intimidate her. It might even end up being entertaining.

The girl continued to chatter away in her falsely confident voice at Astrid. Astrid simply raised a raven eyebrow and watched her make a fool of herself by handing her the necklace.

It was pathetic, really. The girl couldn't even stand up for herself enough to take her phone back, so she was offering a trade. A poor trade at that. What would she do with an ugly necklace not even worth fifty dollars?

She let the girl hold her breath for a moment longer before reacting to her offer. It wasn't a good deal - a necklace for an expensive phone, but the girl looked desperate. Astrid despised the fact that her face appealed to her mildly empathetic side. She made a 'huff' noise and took the necklace aggressively from the girl. She took a good look at it and then tossed the phone in the general direction of the princess.

Astrid looked back up at the girl, her face sort of annoyed. "You're welcome," she grumbled, her French accent evident. The necklace might end up being worth something, but definitely not as much as the phone. She really needed to get her caring side under control. Giving back a cellphone to a spoiled girl was far from evil.

>>"You're welcome."

"And you're not." Victoria rolled her eyes. She surely wasn't going to show gratitude to someone like that. I've got my phone back, that's all that matters. The blonde reminded herself. She could buy a new necklace.

The phone wasn't damaged when she picked it out of the grass, that was a plus, but it was still wet from morning dew. She wiped it off with her shirt and froze. Seriously?! The glitter on the case was shimmering like a star in her hand. Victoria quickly hid it in her inside waist pocket. She just needed to calm down. The last thing she wanted was to be seen as a mutant.

"Ya...I'm gonna take off now, have a good life..." Victoria turned around to leave, quickly. She kind of felt bad for the winged girl. It must of taken a rough childhood to become that awful of a person; she supposed growing up with raven wings and demon eyes wasn't easy. It still didn't give her the right to prey on others or be a bad person though. She casually snapped a selfie over her shoulder as she started to walk away, making sure to get the winged girl in it. Maybe she'd show a police officer if she met one on the way back to her hotel. Maybe.

Princess girl was sassy when she was mad. It almost made Astrid hate her a little less. Emphasis on the almost. She studied the blonde as she turned to leave, examining her phone for damage as she went. The girl was really attached to the thing. She held it up in front of her and opened it to... Was she taking a picture? God, she was narcissistic. Unless...

Astrid's face hardened as she realized the girl was trying to get her in the frame. She had no right to take a picture of her! That right was reserved for... Astrid didn't have answer, but it certainly wasn't the little blonde princess.

Her wings changed from black feathers to transparent crystals, making small noises as they did. Astrid's brow furrowed as she concentrated on the girl. She gained speed behind them with a couple of flaps towards her back. She released a row of crystals aimed towards the girl on a large one.

The row flew forwards, the one on the end hitting the side of the princess' phone. Astrid cursed under her breath, having meant to hit the phone dead on. Instead, it hit the side and took a chunk out of the sparkly case. The phone, however, was fine. The rest of the crystals hit a nearby newspaper stand, burying themselves in some magazines.

"This a warning," Astrid told her gravely, trying to cover her mistake.

And to think Victoria thought it was over. She screamed loudly as a shiny missile tore her phone from her hands. Swooping it off the ground, the blonde dove under the closest park bench and cowered in a ball. Demon child was back.

As fear gripped her, the closest street lamps lit up like the sun and burst, showering the ground with glass. Across the parkway she could see a few people paying notice to the commotion. She prayed they'd get help. It was hard to believe the winged girl looked even more menacing then she did before.

>>"This is a warning."

"Get away from me you freak!" Victoria managed to shout from her cover as she checked her phone. She cut herself on the case but the phone itself wasn't broken. She quickly set the camera to video and shoved it in her waist pocket before taking off in an Olympic sprint towards the nearest group of people.

Her mind was made up. She was going to the police, and when she was safe, she was calling daddy. Any pity for the beast behind her was replaced by a mix of fear and anger. It attacked her; it'd probably attack someone else unless it was put away.

As much as it frustrated Astrid that she missed her target, it had been an excellent scare-tactic. The princess ducked for cover under a nearby bench, breaking a street lamp in the process. It was interesting; the girl hadn't struck Astrid as a mutant, but she supposed that everyone had their secrets. And to think, she was calling her a freak.

Freak.

Or, as it was in French, une fille bizzare.

It was a phrase that had followed Astrid from place to place, country to country. It seemed to be a common word that people resorted to in times of fear. It was a word that people used when they couldn't think of any others. When they were at the end of their vocabulary. In truth, Astrid sort of liked the title. It made people uneasy. Especially when it was coupled with the bitterness and hatred in the princess' voice.

The young mutant puffed out her chest a little as she looked over the forming crowd that the princess had joined. Everyone's eyes were on her, watching what she would do next. Astrid's eyes fixated on the girl that had caused the trouble in the first place. The girl that now appeared to be filming her.

Astrid mustered up her toothiest, most menacing grin, and gave the camera a little wave. She even turned a little so that the girl would get a better view of her wings and how they reflected the harsh sunlight. It was time that the world saw her in her true glory. She was no longer just robbing stores or stealing ice cream. No, now she was terrorizing Central Park. Perhaps it had been worth it to go out so early.

After giving the crowd a good, long moment to take in the scene, she addressed them. "What wrong," she cooed, trying her best to form an entire sentence, "never seeing mutant? You are scared? Scared is right." Cue even wider grin. 

Victoria stumbled into the small crowd. The people tried to shield her, or so she thought, but they parted like water for the winged girl who seemed to be basking in the glory of the moment.

<<"What's wrong? Never seeing mutant?"

If only she was right. Thought Victoria. She wasn't a mutant, but...well, she was a mutant...but she didn't identify as one. Proof that biology trumped the blonde's mental classification of herself, the streetlights above the crowd flickered bright even against the daylight as she stood back up. She had no control over her power. It seemingly had a mind of its own.

The winged mutant smirked at her. Victoria stuttered too much to say anything discernible. Instead, she clenched her fists and began to cry.
First for her life, and then for joy as she saw flashing sirens coming down the street.

Little princess girl had started to cry. It wasn't an attention cry, either. She was really crying. At first, they looked like fearful tears, but then her expression changed. Princess' eyes seemed focused on the street behind Astrid and the lights and sirens coming from it. Of course they were in a part of the park with street access. Of course.

Astrid turned around to face the cop cars that had gathered around them. Who had even called the police? The worst thing Astrid had done was steal a necklace; a petty theft that they couldn't arrest a minor for. At worst, she would receive a slap on the wrist and be told to give it back.

Then, she realized how the situation looked. Although no one had been injured, it probably looked as if she had caused some harm. Likely someone had called out of fear for their safety. Which meant there would be META bots.

The police unloaded and kept their eyes on Astrid the entire time. From what she could see, there were about four or five METAs with them. It was strange; Astrid had only ever seen them on the news before. She felt sort of honoured that they had been called on her behalf.

"Put your hands in the air and don't move!" A police officer yelled to her.

Astrid froze. Should she run? Should she fight? Should she just give in? She couldn't decide which would have a better outcome. On one hand, running would make her look dangerous, and there was no chance of being arrested. But if she were arrested, she could make a whole show about busting out. But what if she couldn't get out? Whatever she chose, there always seemed to be pros and cons. What she did realize, though, was that if the meeting was publicized, it might help someone notice her. So, she needed as much screen time as possible.

After a few seconds, she stood still in front of the police with her hands in the air. On her face was a smirk. She was going to find a way to use the situation to her advantage.

The META bots circled around her and the crowd. Three of the five seemed normal, like they did on the news. The other two, however, seemed sort of odd. Their movements were less precise, and one of them was scanning the crowd instead of dealing with her.

Astrid smirked. If the glitchy bot was scanning the crowd, that meant that the princess was in trouble. Calling the police had really worked in her favour.

Victoria was happy the police were here, but she shrunk down as they passed. Her stomach was in knots as she contemplated tomorrow's headlines. "Figure Skater, ranked 15th in the nation, attacked by Mutant!" There was no way this wouldn't make the news. She'd be the poster child for the anti-mutant movement. Except that...Shoot!

The police had those gene scanning robots. She casually slipped behind a middle-aged woman as one scanned the crowd. It missed her, but she was still paranoid. That was something that would ruin her life forever. No one would just let a mutant skate in the olympics, no matter how mundane their power was. She sent a frenzied text to her coach. 'Need help. Come quick. Park.'

Fly away gosh darn it! She hoped for the winged girl to leave or fight or do something that would make the bots go away. The tears kept coming and she must of looked particularly distraught, because the woman in front of her turned around and bent over to console her. As luck would have it, the META was making another pass at the crowd at that exact moment. It stopped and stared at her.

"Humans need not fear. Criminal under arrest."

That synthesized voice struck fear into her gut, but as the bot moved back to the others surrounding the winged girl, she let out a small sigh of relief. Had it misread her? She was in too much shock to wonder why. Her phone pinged; it was her coach on her way.

Aggravating little princess girl got off scot-free. Of course she did; life served the perfect. Astrid's face twisted in anger as she watched the META bot pass over her. Maybe she could... No, it wasn't worth it.

What was worth it was getting her screen time. The news cameras had already begun to gather, and one was being set up to film her arrest. A bot on her left was getting ready to put the cuffs on, which was far too early. Astrid swung her wrists away, dodging its attempts to cuff her. The faulty bot - the one that had scanned princess girl - raised its gun to her level. The girl smirked. That was just what she needed.

She began to flap her wings again, gaining speed in order to shoot it. Several of the other bots tried to restrain her, and the faulty one fired. The bullet ricocheted off her wing and flew through the air, in the direction of the crowd.

Screams erupted from the group of bystanders. A man clutched his chest, his hand covered in blood as he fell to the ground.

Yes, Astrid grinned at the ensuing chaos. It was perfect. It looked like the work of a true villain. She stepped forward through the mess of distracted people and made sure the cameras got a good look at her as she shot a row of crystals at the META bots. A few made their target, and a few disappeared into the crowd. It was difficult to see whether or not anyone was hit.

Astrid knew she only had a small window of time to get away. Soon the police would bring in reinforcements and she would be taken down. She also knew there was no going back. Busking was going to be difficult from then on out.

Her wings transformed back to their natural feathered state, rendering her defenceless. She took off, flying towards a tall tree from where she could still watch the people below suffer the affects of her actions.

Bang! There was a gunshot and Victoria tripped backwards onto the ground. A man almost stepped on her but she rolled out of the way. The winged girl was taking off and someone lay dying. It was complete chaos as the crowd fled and the police rushed forward under a hail of crystals. An officer tried to manually disable the bot that was still shooting but failed to get close enough. Victoria was almost stepped on again before someone picked her up and carried her behind a police car. She huddled low behind the cruiser, even after it was said to be all clear. There was blood on her arm. She knew it wasn't hers.

The paramedics arrived and took the man who was shot away. She was checked along with a few others in a second and third ambulance. The police took a statement from her and she shared the photos and video on her phone. It felt like hours, but she was finally released to her coach with an apology from the police. They'd need her to come back to the station in a day or so.

Victoria and her coach got in a taxi and left, dodging all the cameras. For safety, they'd be staying in a different hotel. As they pulled away, Victoria took one last look at the sky with teary eyes before resting her head and falling asleep in the cab. She was luck to escape with only bruises and a broken phone case. Somewhere up in the clouds soared an evil she never wanted to meet again. Her phone pinged but she didn't look at the message. It was her father. He'd be placing a reward on the mutant's arrest.