"Come back! We just wanna talk, Lady!"

As naive as she could be sometimes, she didn't believe that for a second.

"Aww, come on... why you runnin' anyway? We aren't that scary!"

Yes, yes they were.

Magdalene didn't stop for a second as she hurried down the sidewalk. The group of three behind her seemed to be lazily following her, laughing and joking loudly as they did so. This had been going on for the last few blocks. She'd turned left and right a few times, and yet they still pursued.

Normally she wouldn't have assumed ill intentions, but in this particular instance, one of them had attempted to pull her veil off. She'd barely managed to duck away before it had been removed entirely... but her hair was peeking out and she was clearly disheveled.

"@#$%&!"

Of the three, a lone woman had been the most vulgar. She'd taken to shouting names at her, some of which Magdalene did not understand. Actually, in her stressed, rushed state she hadn't been able to process most of what they had been saying. She felt their intentions though.

To make matters worse at some point her chaperone had vanished earlier in the day. She was effectively lost within a concrete jungle and rightly terrified. She'd been on the verge of tears for the better part of an hour, and could not tell which way was best to go.

She'd tried asking for help at one point... but with her limited grasp of the language the responses she had received had been rude at best.

Turning another corner, she glanced back at her pursuers momentarily before turning back to the front.

Suddenly the road ended, and she was left in a dead end. A building wall before her, and wire fences on either side.

Chuckling from behind gave her reason to turn, and she took hold of the cross hanging from around her neck. The three stopped, talking both to her and amongst themselves. She didn't understand most of it seeing as she was desperately trying not to cry.

New York was a dangerous city, especially with the nightfall; that was just a fact of life. However, despite this common knowledge, it was still fairly commonplace to find people out and about. People who figured that the bad things they hear about in the news will never happen to them. After all, with how many people there were in a city like this, what were the odds? Sadly, as it would turn out, the odds were surprisingly good. That was the problem with hubris – the universe always sought to knock it down a peg or two.

It was for reasons like this that Agnes liked to come out at night. Not just because she felt at home in the darkness but because she had mobility, the element of surprise, and she got to knock a few heads in. There was something about beating people to a bloody pulp that helped to clear her head. On top of that, it helped to keep her chosen fighting skills honed. Active combat was much more effective than simply training. Sadly that made it sound like Agnes was actively seeking trouble – truth was that she was; New York at night was the perfect place to find trouble.

So far in this evening she had already stopped a purse robber on 4th and Sherman and a drug dealer on 33rd trying to sell to a couple of middle school kids who were out late. Agnes made short work of them, leaving them broken and bleeding, begging her to stop; she only stopped when they passed out from the pain. Now she was widening her circle, the evening still young.

Agnes had to have been one of the few X-Men who actually went out and actively did this stuff. The rest were so…peppy; it was almost disturbing. Still, despite their attitude, Agnes found some solace hanging with a family again, even if their leader, Impact, had a stick so far up her butt that she could be roasted over an open fire. Still, despite the family unit she had, there were some itches that even they could scratch – namely her need to make people hurt.

Kneeling down upon the edge of a building, straight from her latest beat-down, the young woman sighed. She was dressed in her usual uniform, a tight and form-fitting black ninja outfit with a mask covering all but her eyes. The only splash of color was a gold and blue insignia upon her belt, a buckle with the shape of an X on it, a symbol for her team. Such vigilantism was clearly against the law but Agnes didn’t care – she wore it with pride. The criminals of this city should know that X-Men were a force to be reckoned with, not rats who scurried around in the dark.

>> "@#$%&!"

From her vantage point she had heard the jeering a few blocks away but had thought nothing of it. Everything shouts obscenities in New York. However the words were chased by the sounds of hurrying feet – someone was running…someone was in trouble. Peering around, she sought the source of the sound until she glanced down to see several figures run into an alley that was directly below her. There was one person, draped in robes, who was clearly the prey, and the three that closed off the only exit to the alley were the predators. They advanced, their voices full of taunting and threats while the other backed away.

Though it was a terrible circumstance, there was the smallest bit of amusement shining in her eyes. She loved doling out a good midnight snack of whoop-ass.

With a skill unparalleled, Agnes moved down, climbing silently down the fire escaping, leaping between air-conditioning units until she found herself clinging onto a water pipe that ran down the length of the wall. Her eyes narrowed as she watched the three of them advance closer. Quickly she scaled down further, silent and unseen, her uniform blending her perfectly into the shadows. When she got low enough, she released her grip, fell, caught her feet on the wall and kicked off. With a flip she fell through the air and landed with a dull thud on the balls of her feet.

Straightening up, Agnes was now the only barrier between herself and trio of miscreants who were after the robed woman. Normally she punched first and asked questions later, but she couldn’t help but provide a little banter. ”Excuse me,” she started, glaring at the trio. ”Any of you have the time?”

She was muttering prayer under her breath in Greek while scoping out which way might be the best to run. Logic told her that if she headed toward the side where the men were gathered her chances of getting out of the situation were slim. But, at the same time... the woman had been the most vocally violent.

She was nervous about her chances getting out of this unscathed either way. "Please, leave alone!"

They laughed among themselves, "Where are you from, sweetheart? Huh?"

Around that time someone else suddenly joined the fray, startling the life out of Magdalene. Her three aggressors were even more surprised, as they all paused their laughter to stare at the intruder in confusion.

"Excuse me, Any of you have the time?”

"The @#%#?" One guy muttered, his body language going tense. The other male was busy looking up in order to try and figure out where the hell she'd dropped in from. The woman of the group was the only one who seemed a little less phased.

"Who the @#$% are you, &#@$?"

She started toward the costumed woman with an ugly scowl fixed on her face, and the two men started after her. It was clear from her body language she intended to escalate the confrontation to a new level.

She would feel her heart pumping, course fire through her veins once she stood up and looked out over the trio of ne’er do wells who were chasing the robed woman. She had shouted for them to leave her alone but judging from their expressions and the twisted looks on their faces, they certainly weren’t about to give her the space that she wanted. As a matter of fact they wanted something far different, something that she was clearly not willing to give. Though she didn’t have a clear idea of what it was, all she knew was that this woman didn’t want to be bothered and she was scared – that was all she needed to take action.

Dressed in her ninja suit, Agnes looked practically invisible in the dimly lit alley. Her piercing blue eyes shifted between the trio, sizing them up, taking into account the obvious threats and trying to plan for the less obvious. They could be armed or they could be well-trained. Whatever the case Agnes would plan and react accordingly.

Keeping the terrified woman at her back, Agnes made and invisible wall between those perpetrators and the woman. They could snap, bite, and snarl all they wanted but she wasn’t going to give them an inch. The second that they set foot over her line, she was going to smash it in.

Fists clenched, the young hero craned her neck until she heard a satisfying crack. Her limbs and muscles were already loose from fighting earlier in the evening so there wasn’t need to stretch before this. Rolling only her shoulders she casually shifted her weight, slipping into a stance that she could easily shift into something even more effective. She was unflinching as they began to hurl questions in her direction…

>> "The @#%#?"

>> "Who the @#$% are you, &#@$?"

A grin slipped over her lips at the sight of her first volunteer of the fight. The woman looked angry. Whether she was really pissed off or that was unfortunately just her face, Agnes didn’t know, but she didn’t care. At this moment she was advancing on her with a clear attempt at being intimidating. However it was quickly going to go behind just being “intimidating” when the woman who advanced on her suddenly took a slow and clumsy swing.

Agnes’ reflexes were fast, probably faster than one would expect. Her arm snapped up, forearm strengthening to stop and deflect the woman’s punch. Agnes followed this up by lashing out with her free arm, delivering a strong punch to the woman’s mid-section, causing her to double over in pain. Another clear bullseye on her head, Agnes lashed out a final time, driving her palm into her forehead and causing her to stumble backwards as agony crashed like a lightning bolt throughout her body.

As the woman crumpled, Agnes straightened up and turned to glance at the other two who was watching her with surprise. Agnes just continued to grin under her mask as she kept looking between the two of them. ”Alright…which one of you pantywads is next?”

The men watched the fight mutely. Really, they weren't surprised that their female companion went down so quickly. She had the temper of a wolverine but lacked the strength or coordination to back it up.

Generally, the woman would start a fight and then depend heavily on her boyfriend to finish it if the person she was antagonizing happened to be better than her. She wailed like a siren as she crumpled to the ground, clutching her face with both hands. Her man hurried in to check on her before she aggressively clawed him away and pointed a well-manicured finger at her attacker.

"My boyfriends a @#$%ing MMA fighter, you %$#@&! He's going to kick your @#$!!" It was a little hard to understand her, considering that she was still considering that she still had a hand pressed to a bloodied face.

The man in question straightened up and headed for the costumed woman, dropping into a stance he knew well. He intended to go into the fight with his all, and right behind him his buddy headed into the fray as well.

Magdalene, currently forgotten, watched the whole thing go down with her hands pressed over her mouth. She didn't like violence. Hated that it existed. It tore her heart to bits that she had to witness it now, even though the three were clearly the aggressors.

The sounds of the woman suffering on the ground had actually brought a swell of pride to Agnes’ chest. There was a small, sadistic part of her like that to see people in pain, especially when she put them there; but the biggest draw was that’s she was hurting people who deserved it. In the end, that was all that mattered to her. These people deserved to be hurt and if she was the one who could deliver said punishment, then all the better.

As the woman who had instigated the initially volley lay screaming on the floor, Agnes slipped back into her fighting positon, changing it up to something that would not be familiar to her attackers. She cast a quick glance over her shoulder to the cowering woman before turning back to the those who had wanted to hurt her. In her mind Agnes made a line that she was not going to allow these fools to cross – she was that line.

>> "My boyfriends a @#$%ing MMA fighter, you %$#@&! He's going to kick your @#$!!"

As the man approached, a wicked smile slipped over Agnes’ lips which were hidden beneath her mask. He was a massive, muscular man, at least a foot higher than Agnes; his shadow probably had muscles. But even as the man approached, giving her an eye that would tremble the hardiest of souls, Agnes merely kept her cool and remained in place. Of course she had words for the pained and bloodied woman.

”Good,” she said with a bit of lightness in her voice. ”Maybe he won’t be as much a p**** as you.” She arched her brow and shrugged, glee still in her eyes. ”Then again…”

The man shouted as he went on the attack. Agnes was immediately met with an opponent that wasn’t some raging woman trying to cause trouble. The man took several hard jabs at her, aimed to precision, but Agnes still had the speed and skill to deflect and move about his blows. Catching his wrist after one misplaced hit, Agnes wrapped her arm around it, before she hefted herself up and used her momentum and weight to suddenly tug the man back to the ground. He fell with a scream as Agnes began to dislocate his shoulder. However the sound of rushing footsteps from the other kept her from completing the task.

She just barely caught the movement in time. As the man came up behind her, seeking to tackle her to the ground, Agnes released Mr. MMA’s arm and laid herself flat on her back to dodge a clumsy kick from the other. The foot missed her entirely but did manage to kick Mr. MMA in ribs, causing the man to grit his teeth and fall to his side. Flipping onto her feet, Agnes grinned to the Sneak as she nodded her head.

”Thanks,” she said as she moved towards him. With a fake out, she suddenly closed the gap as she started to lash out with a series of roundhouse kicks before faking out on the last one and driving herself forward with a knee to the man’s stomach. She was having far too much fun…

What was with everyone in this country having such a loose tongue!? Magdalene watched on as the fight escalated, half worried for the smaller figure... but also increasingly becoming more and more fascinated with the fight. She had seen many in her time abroad, unfortunately... but rarely got to witness one so close.

The woman who more than likely had broken nose was still wailing and cursing on the ground, while both of the grown men were becoming more and more frustrated with the fight. One of the men was doing his best to try and dodge a quick series of hits from the mystery woman (and failing horribly at it) while the other was pushing himself to his feet quickly in order to try a sneak attack while she was distracted. If he could just get an arm around her neck and lock it in place, he was sure the scuffle would be over quickly.

"Watch out!"

Magdalene wasn't about to stand idly and watch any further. For the first time that night she spoke, and loudly at that.

MMA fighters friend succumbed to a knee to the gut, dropping to one knee as he doubled over.

Combatant was having a grand time. Though she had been hoping for more of a challenge, the trio at least managed to get her moving. Their fought like headbutting elephant seals fighting for beach territory, slow and loud, but Agnes was never one to resist teaching a lesson or two to people who absolutely deserved it, and these individuals deserved it. They had chased a young woman, seemingly ready to attack if it hadn’t been for her intervention. They were not going to go unpunished for the crimes that they were more than likely to commit.

After laying into the last guy with a series of kicks, she finally found home when she drove her knee deep into his stomach. Feeling his sternum crunch under the pressure, she watched as the man nearly vomited over her leg before she withdrew and watched him keel over like a lumpy sack of potatoes. Agnes took only a second to breathe but it was cut short when someone, her rescuee, who shouted at her from her hiding place.

>> ”Watch out!”

Agnes turned just in time to watch as the MMA Fighter suddenly barreled towards her with a look of murderous intent in his eyes. Had she been turned away any longer, she could have found herself, in a whole lot of trouble. He was big, he was strong, and a sneak attack would have surely rung her bell. But thanks to the other’s warning, Agnes turned just in time to slip into a fighting style a bit more suited for her needs.

Slipping into the Jeet Kun Do, a style created and popularized by the world famous Bruce Lee, Agnes immediately became like water. She flowed in easy movements, slipping around the man’s clumsy grabs which quickly devolved into rushed punching. Agnes deflected and moved and delivered powerful, barely seen punches that none but the most skilled would notice.

Delivering a harsh blow to the man’s throat, she watched as he stumbled backwards, gasping and coughing. With distance between them, Agnes turned her neck until she felt that satisfying crack. Rolling her shoulders, she started to move in a small line, side to side as she eyed Mr. MMA trying to catch his breath and stop from wheezing. When he had finally started to straighten up, Agnes suddenly bolted at the man, a war cry falling from her lips before she launched herself in the air and kicked out, driving her heel square center in the man’s chest. Despite his far denser musculature, it was going to hurt.

As the man stumbled and fell over, Agnes landed swiftly on her feet and looked back to see that the three were still down and struggling to get ahold of their breath. With a sigh she turned and found the woman whom she had rescued hiding against the wall, in the back. Stepping over to her, and trying to appear non-threatening, Agnes held out her hands in a very non-confrontational way.

”Easy there. I won’t hurt you. And they won’t either.” she continued to advance, trying to get a better look at the woman. ”My names Combatant. You’re safe now…”

The holy figure watched as one figure took care of all three of her pursuers.... easily, too. The entire time she watched she flinched and winced with each hit, eyes darting from one injury to another in an attempt to try and figure out if they were dire enough to need healing. She'd been itching to nearly the whole time.

Thankfully, while the three were certainly injured to a great extent they weren't so badly hurt that she was needed. Still... it was hard not to stare at the woman with the loud mouth, who most certainly had a broken nose. It would scar.

When the figure turned to face her and approached, she did take a cautionary step back. It was apparent that whoever this person was wasn't a fan of the other three, but if she'd learned anything from her time abroad that didn't necessarily mean it was a friend of Magdalene.

”Easy there. I won’t hurt you. And they won’t either... My names Combatant. You’re safe now…”

Oh... well, apparently she was friendly. This eased some of the tension in the nun's shoulders, and she relaxed slightly. This revelation left her in an awkward place, though... what was she supposed to do now.

"...Thank you." She started, fiddling with the cross around her neck. "Combatant?" What a strange name. She chalked it up to another strange American custom and took another step away from the wall. The comment about her being safe also brought up some questions, but ones she wasn't sure where or how to get the answers too.

Instead, a worried frown settled on her features as she tried to figure out how to go about asking for more help from a stranger who'd already just saved her.

"Not safe," She started, with a small shake of her head. "Am a Mother... mm.. religious figure. Father was.." She faltered slightly, struggling both with raw feelings and her grip on English, "..K-killed earlier today." The wetness around her eyes that had dried up a little during the scuffle started to ebb back in, and she fought it back once more.

"My guide is gone, and not safe." She didn't even have to bother attempting to put on a pleading face... after everything she'd gone through during the last 24 hours she looked like a weepy, desperate child in a nun's robes. "Can you help me?"

Her opponents had been push overs. But while it wasn’t scary for her, the nun that she had saved must have been terrified. Agnes was careful as she approached her, not wanting to be misunderstood for some kind of monster out for blood. While, yes, in some cases that was her intent, she also just wanted to help the young woman. Now that the opposition was down, she could assist her. So she was careful when she approach and spoke in a low, soft voice like one would speak to a frighten animal. She priority was getting this person to safety.

Her words seemed soothing enough as the nun fidgeted with her necklace and offered her thanks to the young warrior. Though her fists were covered in blood, her eyes conveyed a peace that should hopefully ease the nun’s fear of her. As she repeated her name, Agnes had to smirk a little under her mask at the confusion that it caused the other. She didn’t know whether to be somewhat offended that her name drew that kind of reaction or not, but he wasn’t going to say anything about.

She approached. The woman seemed far more worried than before, a fear descending upon her. As Agnes stepped closer, she could see the finer features of her face and suddenly found herself caught with familiarity. This woman was…familiar to her. She knew her but…from where? As he mind raced to figure out this mystery, she tried to zero in on the woman’s words to get the gist of what she was saying.

Agnes didn’t get the full account of what she was saying but, from what she gathered, she was hurt, she was scared, and she was alone. Figures in her life were dead, murdered, and she looked worse for it. Agnes sighed, deeply, disliking seeing the woman suffer like this. Her mind raced as she tried to think of what she could do for her.

>> "My guide is gone, and not safe…Can you help me?"

Agnes’ crystal blue eyes locked onto the other’s. Of course she was going to help her. However she had been so distracted with trying to figure out how to help the woman that she didn’t notice the female attacker weakly moving onto her feet. By the time she caught the sensation of her stumbling nearby, Agnes turned just in time to see a flash of silver in the dim light of the alley. Agnes was practiced enough to disarm her, but in doing so, she didn’t notice the second blade the woman produced – butt she felt it as it entered her stomach.

A hiss of from her lips and Agnes twisted, hard, driving her elbow into the woman’s already broken face and sent her spinning in a spray of blood across the alley floor. As she stumbled down, Agnes shakily looked down at the knife in her toned stomach. She gulped, falling to her knees, and shook. She possessed a healing factor but it would in no way stop this in time. She gulped and fell to her side, looking back over to the nun who still looked so familiar. Weakly she tried to wave her away.

”Go…” she wheezed. ”Get…out of here…” Agnes didn’t want to die, but if she had to, at least she did it saving someone…