Kendra took one last look at the room before closing the door behind her. She left her body sleeping peacefully, with Emily. Her shoulders slumped as she moved out into the hall and down the stairs.  Back in her room, her sleeping form shifted slightly beneath the sheets.  Even her body seemed restless, she had a lot on her mind at the moment.  Kendra headed out the front door with her head down and her eyes staring at a fixed point on the floor. 

She didn't care what everyone else around the mansion was doing.  Usually she'd snoop around a bit before heading out, but tonight she just wanted the fresh air.  The chance to clear her head.  Should I even be doing this tonight?  She wondered.  So much has happened, is this really a good night?  Ignoring the voice in her head she felt the collapsible police baton hanging at her side.  She knew it was there but she check just to be safe, she sighed a little when she felt the weight of her tranquilizer gun hanging inside the lining  of her leather jacket.   Why did she feel the need to go out tonight of all nights and take out all of her frustrations on unsuspecting creeps.

Kendra was walking down the street with purpose now.  Every few steps she'd teleport a short distance ahead of herself.  She'd walk a few steps and then teleport.  The farther she got into the city the more her emotions began to swell.  Kendra was just hoping to find a mugger or a criminal breaking into a car.  I mean, it was New York, so chances were high.

She did in fact find someone.  "Hey honey what you got for me ?!"  Kendra heard someone shouting.  She heard several people shouting in fact.  It wasn't just one guy.  There were several and they were all ganging up on some poor defenseless woman.  Kendra teleported herself onto a fire escape high above the scene unfolding before her.  She was being reckless, stupid even.  She had not special training she didn't even know how to fight, but she was throwing herself headlong into danger just to distract herself. 

Kendra watched as the woman was dragged down into a shady alley.  Teleporting herself down onto a car's hood she hopped down and ran down the alley after them.  "What do you think boys? Who wants first shot?"  One guy reached out to grab the frightened woman by the neck.  There was the sound of a metallic snick and Kendra's police baton was fully extended.  Kendra smacked the guy's hand away from the woman.  "What the..."  Before he could finish his sentence she was backhanding him across the mouth with her weapon.

Kendra watched as the guy stumbled back into the alley wall.  "Jimmy?" Kendra went after the one holding down the girl next.  She swung the baton hard at his knee.  With every bit of force she could muster.  "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!"  He screamed letting go of the girl. "Run!"  Kendra shouted.  She didn't hesitate.  The woman ran out of the alley screaming.  One of the men went to give chase but Kendra swacked him in the shins with her metal baton causing him to fall face first in a puddle. 

"There's someone here with us.  One of those mutant freaks!"  Kendra was in a 3 on 1 situation.  The guy who fell on his face was starting to get back up, and Kendra ran across his back.  Stepping on his back  and using him as a step stool to run and jump to a fire escape.  She stuck her baton in her mouth as she ran and jumped to grasp the ladder.  Her hands caught it and slipped.  The ladder to the fire escape was wet from a light rain earlier in the day.  Kendra slipped from the ladder and crash landed in a pile of trash cans.  The cans tipped over and spilled trash in the alleyway.  "There she is!"  One of them pointed at her messy fall.

Kendra was trying to struggler her way back to her feet when the man charged at her.  She had given herself away and now there was now hands around her throat.  The man was bearing his teeth in her face and trying to choke her to death. "You stupid freak!"  He snarled bearing down harder.  Kendra's windpipe was closing.  She could feel the air in her lungs slowly churning.  She tried to cough but even that couldn't escape the pressure on her slender throat.  Kendra reached into her jacket.  Her hand fumbling fro her tranq gun.  She ripped it free and shot the guy choking her dead in the chest.

Finally he let go.  Kendra watched as the other two came charging over.  They had been momentarily dumbfounded by what was happening before them.  Kendra was on her hands and knees choking and crawling around trying to find her baton.  Still giving herself away.  The guy who was choking her collapsed to the ground.  "Freddy!"  One of them cried.  Kendra found her baton and struggled to her feet.  While the other two, clearly not the leader; assholes tried to figure out what to do Kendra smacked one acros the face with a metal baton, the other she busted his knee cap dropping him to his knees before coming down in a powerful downward swing across the side of his face. 

The three thugs laid defeated in the alley, though Kendra felt like she was at death's door.  Every part of her ached.  Kendra dropped her baton on the ground and collapsed against the wall in exhaustion.  She was sitting right in front of the potential rapists.  She didn't care.  She was so tired.  Her chest was heaving up and down in heavy panting breaths.  Kendra looked at the assholes she had stopped tonight.  That woman.... She was ok, because of her.  She changed someone's life tonight.  Stopped something awful from happening to them.  That was worth it right?  Kendra wasn't really sure why she was going out on these nightly crusades.  Maybe she was trying to prove something, though she wasn't sure exactly what.

Spring was in the air. The nights were getting warmer and in New York City that was a bit of a double-edged sword. Warmer nights meant that winter was loosing its hold on the city and that soon the days would be longer and it wouldn't necessary to hide inside under blankets any more. It also meant that more people would be outside. More people outside meant an inevitable rise in crime that Quin had come to expect after all her time with the NYPD.

It was late, really late, but recent events had the redhead restless and unable to sleep. Tomorrow as a day off, and she could afford a late night walk through the streets. So she wandered, and she thought, and she looked at the stars. How long had it been since she'd looked at a star chart? It wasn't that she'd lost her faith in such things, it was simply the fact that there was too much work to do. Detective work was never simply, and sometimes it was a bit of a hassle not having a partner. Quin stopped for a moment and thought about that, not nearly as much hassle as having one...

A sound issued from an alleyway half a block away and Quin found her cop-sense tingling. Wondering suddenly if she'd brought this down on herself by musing about the correlation of warm weather and crime, she reached an unconscious hand to check that her gun and badge were accessible. Just because she'd been going for a walk didn't mean she wasn't prepared. As Detective Archer had mused just a few moments earlier, the streets could be dangerous at night.

Unsnapping the strap on her holster, Quin put a hand on her sig and started to cautiously approach the alleyway...just in time for a commotion to erupt and a woman to tear out of the alleyway like the devil himself were on her heels.

Prepared for a pursuit, Quin quickened her step, torn between going after the source of the girl's fear and the girl herself. The fact of the matter ended up being that the girl could get herself help now, the next girl...maybe not.

Detective Archer made a quick call. Surely there were a few beat cops in the are who could help with a crime in progress. Around the corner she went...

And found herself presented with a very interesting scene.

Three men were already down. Apparently the screaming running girl had taken matters into her own hands before running hysterically away. There was plenty of plastic in the alleyway in the form of spilled trash cans and scattered refuse. Quin called it and it came to her, a few quick motions later and makeshift riot cuffs had wound themselves around the hands of the three, who were moaning something about the unbelievable ass kicking they'd just gotten.

Sirens wailed.

Soon enough the beat cops arrived and hauled up the prisoners. Quin removed her cuffs and held the plastic in her hands as car doors slammed and the squad cars left with their prizes. It was quiet now, the odd sort that seemed almost empty after a commotion. Except for one sound...

Now that things were quiet, the redhead could hear breathing. The special kind of breathing that one only participated in when they'd given as good as they'd gotten. The only problem was...she was seemingly alone in the alleyway.

Concentration was the order of the day here. Almost everyone carried some sort of plastic on them.

The plastic and trash made it hard to find what she was seeking, but eventually Quin as able to pinpoint something that didn't quite fit in with the rest.

"You know." she said, walking up to the source of the plastic and squatting down next to something she couldn't see.

"There's this little thing called 911. It keeps you from getting as good as you give."

Kendra's breath hitched in her throat. This woman, this redheaded heroine.... She was a mutant. Kendra had watched in quiet amazement when she bound the bad guys in restrains of her own making. Seemingly without breaking a sweat and now.... Now she found me. It wasn't going to do any good to hold her breathe, but Kendra did so anyway.  She didn't dare breathe. Just go away. She thought. It wasn't but a few moments after she tried holding her breath to fool the woman that she erupted into a fit of coughing.

Kendra had caught something on her ribs in the fall from the fire escape ladder. Something hard and blunt that was already turning her ribs a nice shade of purple. Kendra's raspy weezing continued unchecked now.  "Arguh!"  She gasped. as her breathing started to return to something that resembled normal.  Kendra grabbed her police baton and collapsed it shut before slipping it into it's place on her belt. 

Using the wall as support she pushed herself up.  Still, she was invisible.  The bags of trash around her seemed to move and react to some unseen force. There was tension in the plastic bag being stretched as some unseen foot stepped on it.  Kendra stood up.  Began to move around just to get the feeling back in her finger tips.  Her arm was tingling with a pins and needles feeling that jolted down her right side.  The side she landed hard on her ribs.  As she  moved around in the small alley her boots echoed on the pavement.  The buckles of her leather jacket jingled and clanked with every step.  The soft sound of her slightly labored breathing continued to weeze.  Then..... Silence.

Kendra stopped and stared at the woman.  She was a cop. That much was evident.  Though, she was also a mutant.  They didn't have any 'out of the closet' mutants on the police force back home in Georgia.  Kendra stopped a minute just to imagine such a world were such a creature could exist.  Police, and mutant?  Kendra couldn't help that a stupid smile was slowly spreading across her face.   

Reaching into her pocket she pulled out her lighter and her pack of cigarettes.  Kendra slipped a cigarette in her mouth and lit it up.  She used one hand to cup the flame, and stop the night wind from swooping in to deny her cancerous vice.  Kendra looked back up at the girl now.  Kendra's wool black fingerless gloves stained with drips of blood from Kendra's busted lip.  Kendra blew a cloud of smoke out into the alleyway.  The sounds of her inhales and exhales voided the silence.  The smell of cigarette smoke could be smelled by any who cared to take a wiff.  "How'd ya know I was there?"  She finally said.  Kendra wasn't the tough girl she was acting to be now.

This performance was wonderful, to bad she was invisible.  If she wasn't she would have been rather mousy and shy, but the fact that she just took out three badguys by herself and managed to not get killed had her feeling a little cocky.  Kendra took another puff of her smoke as her eyes narrowed on the girl.  She wondered if she was in trouble or not with the law. Kendra waited to see what the lady cop had to say.  If she was in trouble.... All she had to do was disappear.  It wouldn't have been to hard.  Kendra could teleport. 

Good lord...did everyone in New York smoke these days? Even the invisible ones? A distinctly feminine voice asked how Quin had managed to find them and she shrugged her shoulders. Literally the only advantage she had over this...invisible woman...was the fact that she didn't know how Quin knew where she was. It wasn't something she was simply going to give up. The redhead truly did believe in the ultimate good of people, but she wasn't gullible.

"I have my ways. Are you hurt? Should I call a bus?" by bus Quin meant an ambulance, hopefully the invisible one was familiar enough with cop lingo to understand what she meant.

"So, I'm guessing you stepped in when those guys started to hassle the girl who ran out of here screaming a few minutes ago."

 "No. I'm fine."  Kendra said rather unconvincingly.  She winced a bit with each breath.  "I .... Uh, was out for a walk, heard hollerin I couldn't just not  help."  Kendra said putting out her cigarette and crushing it beneath the heel of her boot. Kendra didn't get the answer she was hoping for. She didn't know how this girl's powers worked only that she had some. For the moment she didn't seem to be under arrest. Kendra started to relax a little. She dropped the tough girl act and just reverted back to her natural personality.

Yeah I was just out for a walk and had to help.  That was partly the truth. Kendra neglected to mention the fact that she was actually out looking for a fight. She knew that the streets of New York had a reputation for being more than a little unsavory, and still she went looking for trouble. What was I trying to prove anyways? That I could get my ass kicked with the best of them?  Kendra moved around the woman with her eyes still narrowed.  She was awfully friendly to vigilantes.  Weren't there laws against vigilantism?  Was she going to kindly look the other way, because she believed in the value of a good deed. 

Kendra didn't fear this woman.  It wasn't as if she was suspecting some bigoted behavior from a fellow mutant.  She could be straight with her.  Kendra teleported up to the fire escape above the cop and was looking down at her.  Should have thought of that before I fell and nearly broke my ribs.  She thought bitterly.  She didn't speak at first wanting to see how long it took the cop to look up.  Is she sensing me somehow?  She was careful not to make noise.  She wanted to satisfy her nosey curiousity. 

She was interested in mutations.  People's mutations had fascinated her.  Back home in Georgia there was so much mutant hating going on, most mutants wisely opted not to reveal themselves.  Here in New York, they didn't have to hide.  It was culturally accepted to be a mutant for the most part, heck they even let you join the police force!  If her boys in blue even know she's a mutant that is.

Kendra crouched down on the fire escape.  Looking at her watch she saw that she had plenty of time before the sun would rise and she would wake up from this dream.  She decided that she was going to learn everything she could about her female friend here.  I got'sum time'ta kill.  Why not?

"Mmhmm. A walk with your trusty baton." Quin said, hoping to cut through all of the BS. The detective had come to terms with her feelings about vigilantism a long time ago and wasn't going to put too fine a point on the things she said.

Then the invisible girl...disappeared. Or at least her lighter did. Quin could still feel the plastic in the lighter though, singing slightly above where she stood. So Detective Archer took a step back and looked up at the source of the specific song she'd come to associate with the lighter.

"If I was going to take you in, you'd already be in cuffs...if you have hands that is." she said wryly, stuffing her hands in her pockets with a sigh. Why did people have to make it so hard sometimes.

"I'm more curious why you're taking three on one odds by yourself. Even a vigilante should know better." Quin stowed her mild irritation at the situation.

"You know, this would be a lot easier if I could see you."

Teleporting back down to where the lady cop stood Kendra decided to stop with the games. She was sure that playing find the mutie was fun in all, but even that game had it's limits. Kendra  wasn't sure what to make of the situation yet.  She seemed to not be in trouble.  Though, she seemed intent on lecturing her about being stupid about how she was doing things.  Kendra wasn't an expert at this.  Hell, this was the first actual fight she had found herself in.  On her previous nights of crime fighting she took the car keys of a drunk guy who pulled over to take a piss on the side of the road, and irritatedly threw a discarded can at some guy who littered and nailed him in the back of the head.   That was about it.  Her crime fighting resume was spectacularly unimpressive thus far.

Yeah I'm really changing the world.  She thought.  Maybe she's right.  This is kinda crazy. Kendra mused as Quin told her 3 on 1 odds weren't in her favor.  Kendra looked at the woman and sighed.  she wasn't sure if she was trying to reach her somehow, some heartfelt speech to get her to give up taking on bad guys or not. But her words were enough to make her question what she was doing at least.  It didn't take much to shake the novice vigilante to her core. 

- "You know this would be a lot easier if I could see you, you know."

Kendra laughed as she explained.  "I can't help'it.  I'm not even really here, I'm just'a dream. "  Kendra said in her sweet southern Georgia accent.  Her voice was rough and gravly, she sounded sweet and cute, but like she had a cold.  The typical tomboy voice if there ever was one.  Her voice sounded like caramelized sugar. She realized as she said it, that it sounded ridiculous.  It was always odd trying to explain her dream walking thing to someone.  Her astral projection ability.  "I'm miles away from here, sleep'n my bed.  I'm an astral projector.  This body...." Kendra placed a hand on Quin's shoulder to show her that she was in fact here in the alley with her in some capacity. "It's just part of the dream that my'sleepin brain has conjured up." 

Kendra took her hand off Quin's shoulder.   Moving over to a pile of trash she saw a hand mirror that had a crack in it.  It would work for the demonstration she supposed.  Kendra was invisible.  Everything she fell asleep with, her clothes her jacket was also invisible.  The only time she could be seen was reflections.  "Unfortunately any injurires I get while asleep show up on'ma body in the morning, so i'd imagine that somewhere in this city, I'm just'a tossin and turning right now."  She said placing a hand on her still aching rib as she bent over to grab the mirror. 

Kendra moved back over to where Quin stood and turned her back to her, but standing directly in front of her.  Holding the mirror up in front of her face she smiled.  The mirror appeared to be floating all on it's on in front of Quin, though there was surprisingly a reflection in it.  A reflection of a young 21 year old redhead with brown eyes and a pretty smile.  "This'is the best I an do I can't just stop being invisible, I don't now how.  I can teleport though." She said teleporting over to a dumpster.  She was standing on top of the dumpster now and looked up.  The gutter from the roof above was dripping some water down onto her shoulder and she looked up and held out a hand to catch some laughing a little. 

"This is New York, detective, an invisible girl can hardly be the strangest, thang you've seen so far!"  She exclaimed loudly as if she was giving an announcement to the whole block.  Kendra was smiling.  She normally used her invisibility to become a bit of a trickster, a prankster.  She wasn't pulling pranks now.  Kendra dropped on her but so that she was sitting on the dumpster.  The dumpster rang out with a thud and there was the sound of a light tapping as her feet lightly banged against the side of the dumpster.

"You wanna take me on a ride along?  Show me how crime should be handled?  You seemed awfully concerned about my well being.  Could be an eye opening experience."  Kendra was in a playful sort of mood.  Despite getting her ass kicked, she had won.  That kind of triumph had a way of putting you in a good mood.  Besides she had hours to kill and besides, she thought it'd be rather interesting to see how a mutant cop operated.  Quite interesting indeed.

Just a dream...Quin really couldn't do anything but shake her head as the girl described her powers. It would have to be something like that, wouldn't it? People weren't just invisible these days, they were astral walkers. The girl sounded young the more she spoke, and Quin had to smile a bit at the delight with which the young woman spoke. If the invisible girl wasn't comfortable in her skin, Quin was either sorely mistaken or the girl was an excellent faker.

It was singularly bizarre to watch the girl pop around the alleyway making noises here and there in a way that would have been very startling if it wasn't for the lighter that Quin was able to follow with her powers. The girl came back with a mirror and Quin peered over her shoulder, a face not entirely unlike her own looked back in the reflection. Red hair, brown eyes, could have been any of a million cousins at an Archer family reunion. Small world.

Was an invisible girl the strangest thing that Quin had seen? The redhead crossed her arms and thought for a moment, "Not the strangest, no. There was a cannibalistic pink elephant that wins that prize." . Maurice had tried to drown her in a bucket full of beer...right before Ashton had cut him in half with a door. Yeah...that probably covered weirdest ever.

As for a ride along. "You come to MRC at the 18th precinct and register for a ride-along, and I'll take you with me. I'm off duty right now though...just taking a walk to clear my head. Do you have a name?" . There. The ball was back in the invisible woman's court now.

Mhmm  out for a walk with your trusty gun and badge. Kendra mirrored back in her mind with some admitted sarcasm.  She wasn't even going to begin to ask questions about the elephant.  Some dogs were better left in their cages.  On an average night, when she wasn't trying to be the world's clumsiest super heroine..... Kendra would find someone interesting to follow and make it her job to find out as much as she could about them through the course of a single evening.  It was investigative sure, but it was also fascinating.  Especially when the person didn't realize she was there.  The things she had seen... Ohhhh boy!  Talk about eye opening experiences. 

Still, if an official ride along was out of the question, a simple tag along would have to do.  She wasn't sure how the girl knew she was there still.  She still didn't reveal her cards.  Something that was still pulling at the back of Kendra's mind. Maybe she's like Emily, and can sense people's emotions?  Maybe she has X-Ray vision?  No that's stupid.  I'll figure it out.  I got nothing but time and opportunity.  Kendra thought as she continued banging her feet on the dumpster.

"Ok, so you were out for a walk, you were admiring the pretty stars.  You find'churself arrestin a couple'o creepos and stumble on an invisible girl.  Typical night for you then?"  She asked.  Kendra normally was very shy and mousey, but being invisible gave her the confidence to be more forward with people.  She felt more confident when people couldn't see how scared she normally was of things.  Something about being invisible just made her feel untouchable. More confident.  It made her feel like a completely different person.  So usually that came with a little sass.

Well she thought.  Maybe I'll get to know the girl.  If she's off duty maybe she would like to stop get some coffee or something.  She was actually kind of cute now that Kendra actually looked at her.  It seemed decided at this point that she would be spending a good chunk of the night with the lady cop.  "Buy'u some coffee honey?"  She said with her southern bell voice.  The voice that sounded slightly rough as if she had a cold, with a sweet southern drawl.  Her voice sounded like caramelized sugar. 

Kendra normally found ways to get herself into trouble.  Like sneaking into movie theaters, or finding some poor person to prank of spy on.  But now she had met someone who was like her.  A fellow mutant, and that was interesting in and of it self, but she also found someone who had noticed her, even while invisible and that was more interesting.  She didn't care if she went on a ride along with her, if she sat down for coffee with her or followed her home. She felt that familiar itch tugging in her mind.  When she was intrigued and just HAD  to find out more.  She was hoping for more.... A lot more.

The invisible girl seemed skeptical of Quin's night-time stroll and the redhead shrugged her shoulders, "Anything but usual. I needed to clear my head." was all she said by way of explanation.

"I have to say this is a first for me. At least off duty." It was true, Quin wasn't in the habit of stumbling on crimes in the middle of the night...especially of the type she'd managed to find here.

And then coffee was offered.

As a general rule, Quin didn't drink coffee. It was dark and bitter and left an acid feeling in her stomach that just wasn't conducive to productivity. Tea was much better, loose leave and a blend that suited your particular needs at the time.

It was the middle of the night though. No tea shops were going to be open and gods be damned if she was going to have tea steeped from a teabag. Quin was wide awake now, any thoughts of the walk relaxing her to a point where she could sleep had vanished when she'd stumbled on the scene in the alleyway. Adrenaline was a hell of a drug.

The redhead shrugged again. It seemed to be the order of the night, "How does a dream order coffee? You carry your purse along with that baton?"

Kendra really hadn't thought about it until she brought it up. Usually when she was invisible she tried to hide in the shadows. Not let herself be known. But when she did find herself striking up a conversation she sometimes had to remind herself that she was invisible. It was just so easy to forget you were when you're talking to someone who seems to sense you and isn't freaked out by your ability. Kendra could see herself. Though she appeared slightly translucent and with a pink glow.

"Ok... That was a stupid idea I suppose. No one at the coffee shop would problly take to kindly to a floatin coffee cup. Well. Ok than, guess Ima put a hitch'n ma giddyup and skidaddle on outta here." She said turning to leave. She didn't seem to be under arrest at the moment. "Night officer." She said starting to head out of the alley.

Kendra did have to get back soon anyways. Her injuries weren't unbearable but she supposed she needed to get them looked at anyways. She wouldn't last long out here as a crime fighter if she didn't take care of her body. Kendra started to walk and the shifting of her body wihle just walking and not teleporting caused a strain on her ribs. She instinctively reached a hand up to nurse her ribs as she started to limp away.

She was going to walk home just for the fresh air, but walking actually hurt at the moment. She left Quin alone in the alley.  She began to teleport in little bursts.  A few feet here, a few there.  She teleported from the alley and on the next street without another word.  She teleported until she was back at the X-Mansion and was able to collapse in a comfy chair.  She spent most of the rest of the night thinking about her crazy adventure.