Museums almost made it too easy for Jesse.

All the glass surfaces, all the polished marble floors, all the fancy floor-length mirrors in the bathrooms. Not normal for your run-of-the-mill local history museum, for sure, but as far as the Metropolitan Museum of Art was concerned... the mirrorwalker could have waltzed in and out with his eyes closed.

Which would have been stupid, obviously. But healthy self-appreciation never hurt anyone.

This was not the first time he had hit the Met, either. A couple of weeks earlier, on behalf of a very wealthy patron, he had already liberated some priceless artifacts from the museum's collection. He even made the newspapers for a few days, people speculating the mystery of no signs of breaking and entering, and some anti-mutant alarmists raising red flags about criminals with unchecked powers running rampant in the City. Jesse got a kick out of all that. The Mutant Cause was not something he associated with; as long as he got away, and got paid, he did not really care for the media hooplah. The only useful kind of fame was the kind that got him new customers. And the Met certainly did just that.

So tonight, he was back in business.

Jesse was male this time, light-framed and wiry, good for climbing and hiding. He had short, dark hair and mesmerizing eyes. If someone was going to rob jewelry from the nation's greatest museum of art, he might as well look good doing it.
He was not worried about cameras. He could put on and take off faces as humans did clothes; his powers supplied his own mask. In fact, he blatantly grinned into one of the cameras as he walked past. He had exited the mirrors in one of the bathrooms, before he walked out into the hallway. There was no reason to give away all of his cards.

Dressed all in black, Jesse was a ghost. In places where he knew he was not directly visible, he slipped into reflections, just to appear elsewhere a moment later, making a beeline for the temporary exhibit of ancient jewelry. No alarms were going off as of yet, as no door or window had been breached. Sure, there was a guy in the surveillance room belonging to this wing... but he was fast asleep, courtesy of some well-placed medication in his coffee mug.

Tonight, the museum was Jesse's playground.

Impact missed having a real team. She could take care of herself out in the field, but it was hard starting from next to nothing. Much of the equipment the X-Men relied on ended up destroyed when their base fell. She was still looking for a place where the team could operate out of, but the situation proved difficult when they were only a team of three. Geo and Doc had both lived in the X-Base, and the “event” left them homeless, so they needed a place to operate and live out of. Until the team grew, they were managing in a small apartment, and that provided… complications.

It had been almost a year since Impact and Geo ended things, and in that year, they were now sharing a workspace and living space. Having Doc around somehow made things less awkward, if only by giving the two ex-whatever-they-weres a buffer. Rather than deal with the tension, the newly appointed Team Leader was throwing herself into her work. When she was not working at the bar, Impact had her ear pressed against a police radio, listening for opportunities to keep the city safe. New York had to know the X-Men were still around, even if they were just a rumor in the minds of criminals.

Most of her crime fighting was purely street level, but there had been one group of criminals Impact had become particularly intrigued by. It was a troupe of art thieves. They were seemingly unrelated criminals, all appearing vastly different, but with similar MOs, and oddly similar techniques. Impact made a habit of checking security tapes and reviewing crime scene data, either by pressing one of her last remaining contacts at the NYPD, or breaking into the museums herself to review tapes. (She reminded herself it was okay when she did it, because she was only committing a crime to stop a crime, which was the very basis of vigilantism.)

Regardless of who this wide cast was, Impact noticed common trends; mirrors and arrogance. In the hallways through the museums and art galleries the thieves hit, they were seldom spotted walking through, so most observers would give the videos a passing glance before trying to puzzle together how the thieves were breaking in. Impact considered herself a person with an eye for detail, and noticed something peculiar: reflections. In brief moments, the appearance of a black clothing-clad figure would show up in a mirror or pane of glass, logically out of place. There was no body visible in the hall next to the reflection, so the picture never added up, and when there was a variable was missing from an equation in New York City, she could usually assume “x” equaled mutant.

The other unique thing about these criminals was a sense of shared arrogance. In most of the heists, there was at least one moment where the thief would notice a camera, and smile. No mask, no attempt to conceal an identity. Hell, the X-Men wore masks, and they considered themselves the good guys! It seemed cocky, which was only compounded by the confident, winning smile the thief would wear. Each member of the group had the same grin. It was almost eerie. Impact might have been obsessed with that grin.

One of the members of this odd thief’s guild attacked the Met weeks earlier, and they doubled-down, citing increased security measures, almost as if they were daring the criminals to return. Based on what Impact had assumed of her targets, she felt confident they would.

Maybe it was a sign that she was carrying a rather unhealthy obsession, but Rebecca was in a storage closet at the Met for the third time in a week. It was not a patrol night, not a pub night, and Geo might be at the apartment, so she did not see the harm in breaking and entering blasting a small hole into the back of a storage space so she could be at the ready in case something happened. She had a laptop and a program written by Poppet, one of the X-Men who… was not with them anymore. Using the program, she could peek in on the security cameras from a remote location to watch for that telltale grin.

She knew the odds were unlikely that the thieves would strike again, and she had two failed attempts under her belt, so Impact was not getting her hopes up. When she looked over the displays on her screen and caught a glimpse of that winsome smile, she felt her heart skip, for no other reason than her absolute luck at being so right and so fortunate.

As someone who had been watching cameras for days on end, Impact was acutely aware of the placement of each eye-in-the-sky, and acted accordingly, using a low-level burst from her eyes; not enough to take the device out, but enough to disable them or adjust their line of sight to be useless. Impact hated to admit it, but thievery might have just been inherently easier with a mutation.

She kept her footfalls quiet, hoping not to tip off the thief as she made her way closer to the path he was taking when she saw him, moving toward an exhibit of priceless jewels that must have been catnip to a thief. This was exactly what Rebecca needed to take her mind off her present concerns. The idea of finally coming face-to-face with the thief she had been tailing for so long made Impact positively giddy.

The jewelry exhibit was truly spectacular. Jesse grinned as he walked into the room, where all kinds of necklaces, bracelets, and earrings sparkled in glass cases, arranged in a semi-circle along the walls. They were priceless, not only because of the gold and gemstones used in their creation, but also because they belonged to kings and queens that lived hundreds, sometimes thousands of years ago. Jesse was not a mere jewelry thief; he was stealing history. Not fir himself, which was kind of a pity, but the act gave him a high none the less. Not to mention the thought of the payday he was going to get out of this.

There was no need to break the glass. With the lights around the cases so tactfully arranged, Jesse could simply slip into his own reflection on one side, then appear from the other in the back, reaching out to pluck the choice pieces of jewelry from their cushions, and place them in the small velvet bag he carried for this purpose. He was not going to steal all of them, obviously. He had very specific instructions. Jesse slipped from one case to the next, humming cheerfully as he filled in his shopping list.

When everything else in life was growing increasingly more complicated, Rebecca could take comfort in pursuing criminals. Stopping crime was straight-forward; create a plan, prepare for variables, deal with new ones as they arise, throw a bad guy in jail, celebrate with a burger. Things were even easier on her own; well, maybe not practically, but certainly emotionally. The last thing she needed was someone to steal away fries when she was not looking.

Her approach was silent, or damn close; when Arclight taught her, Rebecca made sure to pay attention. Optic blasts were an offensive power, but it was always important to tend to the skills her mutation would not help her out with. Temporary black hair dye for anonymity, hand-to-hand when her powers were not the right way to pummel a criminal, and most importantly, body control for stealth. There were plans she had to deal with her mutant prey, but the pre-work would be for naught if she was heard approaching from the hallway.

Impact made a careful approach into the jewelry exhibit, peeking around the corner to make sure she was not walking into a trap, or possibly less convenient: a security sweep. Fortunately, the only person in the exhibit was the one man she was looking for. He was facing away from her, giving her the chance to watch him work for a moment. It was impressive to finally see what she had been suspecting since she saw the first anomaly in the tapes: her thief—rather, the thief, moved through the glass somehow. It was fascinating, versatile, and too dangerous to leave on the streets looking for a new score.

Crossing her arms, Impact called out calmly, ”I don’t know why you skipped over the emeralds. They’re lovely, no?” There was something about a British accent that often came across to others as condescending, and Rebecca was not shying away from that.

Jesse only realized he was not alone when the woman with the British accent spoke up. He was used to security guards and stomping boots; he did not expect someone to actually sneak up on him. Glancing up from the reflection in the glass, he saw the black-haired, freckled woman in the unmistakable X-men uniform.

>>”I don’t know why you skipped over the emeralds. They’re lovely, no?”

Jesse smirked, elegantly stepping out of the reflection to stand between two exhibition cases. He dropped the last piece of jewelry into the velvet bag, before, deliberately slowly, he pulled the strings closed. He kept his eyes on the woman. The X meant she was a mutant, after all.

"Fun fact: Emeralds are not even in the top ten most valuable gemstones in the world." he tilted his head "But they are quite lovely, yes. And they compliment red hair really well."

It was a shot in the dark. Jesse recognized quick hair dye when he saw it, even if he'd never needed such things himself. And the girl's pale skin and freckles peeking out from under the mask were a tell-tale sign. Worth a gamble, anyway.

"I don't usually indulge in freebies... but I don't usually have attractive women sneak up on me either" he shrugged, giving her a flirtatious look. He extended a hand towards the emerald jewelry in the case "Would you like some?"

Impact was curious to see how a serial art thief would respond to the realization he was not alone, but the reaction was not quite what she expected. She now knew how the thief’s mutation worked, to an extent, and her eyes were at the ready if he chose to make a break for the nearest reflective surface. She was in no rush to use her powers, mainly in the hope that she could avoid tipping her hand until absolutely necessary. There were secondary concerns about property damage, but in her opinion, the cost of replacing glass cases or mirrored surfaces would be a fair casualty of keeping priceless jewels safe and in the museum’s possession.

If she had just caught someone logical, she was sure they would make an attempt to pass through the nearest glass surface; it was what she would have done. This man, in the face of being busted by an X-Man, flew in the face of that logic and decided to engage with Impact. The way he looked at her and the tone he took, she was almost certain… was he flirting with her?

The man was observant, finding some flaw in her disguise and mentioning her red hair. She kept from flinching in case he was just probing for the natural color behind the obvious black dye, but he was looking her over rather closely. Impact dismissed the concern; she was not the only redhead in New York. She had to focus on the man and where he was, perfectly between two display cases. He could stand there, move toward her, or motion toward either case; she would deal with the first two, but the third would result in a blast and a shattered case.

Banter was not usually Impact’s style. The occasional snarky comment was right up her alley, but she had a flirting burglar in her sights. Maybe she was feeling the lack of a good back-and-forth in her life since Geo, but she pushed onward. ”Mother always said not to take stolen gemstones from strangers.”

Impact was still not a fan of how close the man was to the display cases. It could be a close call if she was putting her reaction time and the speed of her blasts against his ability to move a short distance and escape. For the moment, she was hoping to just keep him talking. ”Then again, we could always spend some time getting to know each other.” She took one casual step closer, hoping she would not scare him off. ”I brought handcuffs and everything.”

>>”Mother always said not to take stolen gemstones from strangers.”

Jesse chuckled at the masked woman's jab at his line of work. She seemed like a smart girl; the X-men were a bunch of bleeding heart vigilantes for sure, but they had a knack for survival, for what he knew about them. This one seemed to be alone, and more than a little annoyed at his presence. Jesse found it amusing.

>>”Then again, we could always spend some time getting to know each other. I brought handcuffs and everything.”

She stepped closer and so did Jesse, with a low chuckle in his throat. The girl had fire, like her hair, even if she covered it up. He arched an eyebrow at her.

"Oooh. Enticing." he cooed smoothly, tilting his head as he looked down at her "I am very tempted to say yes... But I am guessing playtime would involve some of your other X-friends, and I don't agree to that kinda thing without looking first."

He was talking a big game, sure. But he had the upper hand here, at least for a moment, and he was going to make the most of it - if he could make the girl a little less sure of herself, maybe he could catch a break to get away.

"Also, you are not police. Handcuffs or not. In fact, in their eyes, you are not much better than I am." he pointed out with a smirk "What is your... vigilante name? Sharp Steel? Cold Ice?..." he grinned "Ginger?"

Stepping toward the thief could have been the wrong move if he was too skittish, but Impact took the calculated risk. Skittishness came from a lack of confidence, and the man showed no signs of lacking in that department. His tone, his posture, and that damn grin on his face all spoke to a man who was sure of himself and in control of his own destiny. It was important to play to that, and see if he slipped somewhere along the way.

Her new criminal friend considered her offer to play, but raised his concerns about her fellow X-Men. No one outside the team knew definitively how small the team was these days. The deaths of her team members were closely guarded secrets, so most people still assumed the team was larger than it was. ”Who said I was looking to share? I’ve been chasing you and your friends for so long. How about you? Bringing any company of your own? The pale blonde girl? The brawny bald man? There seem to be so many of you.” She knew none of the others would show up; everything she learned about them suggested they worked alone. Impact just wanted him to know she did her homework.

If she took two steps toward him, she was confident she could blast the glass cases before he could get to them, but if she was too forward, he might jump back. It was either two steps, or she had to goad him into another step. Impact’s nerves were steeled; they game they were playing was slow and calculated. The talking was new to the woman who was used to crime-fighting with fists and powers. Someone might get the impression she was even having fun.

He was right in pointing out the X-Men’s unique relationship with the police. If she walked him to the precinct, they would gladly throw them both in a cell, but that was not going to sway her course. He was a mutant criminal, only making life more difficult for their kind. A charming criminal, but a criminal nonetheless. ”Impact,” she greeted, knowing her codename did not give an immediate hint to her powers. ”And does your group have a name?” she asked, taking just one step closer to the man who was still well out of arm’s reach. ”The Window Shoppers? Thieves Through the Looking Glass?”

>>”Who said I was looking to share? I’ve been chasing you and your friends for so long. How about you? Bringing any company of your own? The pale blonde girl? The brawny bald man? There seem to be so many of you.”

There was a moment, the splinter of a second, when Jesse's eyes narrowed in hesitation. That was exactly how long it took him to realize that she was talking about him, without knowing it. To someone investigating a series of seemingly unrelated art thefts done by different people... a shapeshifter was enough to appear like a crew. Jesse had to bit back an amused laugh, and it took him serious effort to keep a pokerface.

"Nah, it's just me tonight" he shrugged "Although something tells me you and the blonde would get along."

She came closer, and so did he. He was not stupid enough to miss that she was playing a game of patience, or maybe chicken... but he was content to play along for now.

>>”Impact. And does your group have a name? The Window Shoppers? Thieves Through the Looking Glass?”

This time, Jesse did not manage to bite back the laugh. For a moment his smartass act dropped with it, and it showed in his eyes that he found her comments genuinely funny. Too bad the girl was here to arrest him.

"I'll make sure to bring those up at our next book club." he grinned at her, before bowing with a ridiculous flourish "But alas, I am on the clock here, and I need to go. I shall cherish the memory of our encounter." he winked at her before he stepped backwards towards one of the glass cases.

Taking a step was a calculated move, but one that paid off when her thief took a matching step forward. Impact could feel it; she had opened up just enough space to react to his next move. She could get down to business and fire away at the display cases at any point, but why rush? The conversation for the evening was unexpectedly enjoyable, especially when she might have the chance to wipe that grin off his face.

Both participants were clearly enjoying themselves, and Impact’s joke was rewarded with genuine laughter. In her opinion, it was well deserved, but tragically short lived as the thief let her know it was time for him to depart.

The moment he started moving toward the nearest pane of glass, Impact reacted instantly, firing off a blue-and-green eye beam, passing over the man’s shoulder and shattering the case instantly. She quickly shifted her gaze to the second case and repeated the action, leaving her prey standing between two pedestals covered in small shards of glass.

Pleased with herself, Impact took three steps closer, so he could get a good look at the grin she was sporting now. ”Why leave so soon, love? I was sure we were having a moment here.” Impact was proud of her initial success, but she was keeping herself attentive in case he had funny ideas about making a break for it. ”So will you behave and come with me? Or would you rather things get rough first? Trust me, I plan to enjoy this either way.”

Jesse stepped back towards his reflection in one of the cases, and for a moment, he was sure he was about to make an elegant yet slightly roguish exit.
And then the glass exploded.

"Whoa!" he flailed, and he was not proud of it, as the girl shot freaking laser beams from her eyes right over his freaking shoulder. "What the..."

Another beam hit to his left, and the other case shattered; Jesse was now standing between two tables covered in ancient jewels and glass shards, staring, bewildered, at the X-woman.

>>”Why leave so soon, love? I was sure we were having a moment here."

"Holy f**** property damage, woman!" Jesse exclaimed, his jaw still dropped from the shots that came out of nowhere.
And, as a result, Jesse was going exactly nowhere. Not easily, anyway. A careful glance in both directions told him he was not in jumping distance from the nearest reflecting surface; and even if he had been, the girl was likely to blast the glass, and him in it. Which was lethal.

>>"So will you behave and come with me? Or would you rather things get rough first? Trust me, I plan to enjoy this either way.”

Jesse clicked his tongue, not happy with the development. Whatever way he was leaving this place, he had to take the girl down first. He was not a fighter, or a brawler, if he could avoid it... but handcuffs and all, tonight was clearly not his lucky night.

"Look, I'm a thief, not a bandit" he sighed, touching his pocket to make sure the pouch was secure before he tried to get away "But I also have my reputation to think of, so I can't really let you take these back. Believe me, you might enjoy this, but I won't."

The only way out was through - with the least damage possible. Jesse lunged straight into the fight, aiming to tackle the girl to the ground. He was slightly taller than her, and even though his current body did not have much bulk, he hoped to get the upper hand...

Nothing about her night was going to be sweeter than her thief’s initial reaction to watching his exits from the room explode in front of his eyes. It was amusing listening to a criminal calling her out for property damage, but it was hard to blame him for saying the first thing that came to mind after her little light show.

Her offers were met with a disapproval click of the tongue. Arrogance came from plans usually going off without a hitch, and it was harder to be cocky when a plan was falling apart piece by piece. He prefaced what was going to happen by clarifying the kind of criminal he was, which she felt warranted a sarcastic, ”Oh, so much better.”

Impact had to give the man some credit; he was not going to roll over and accept his defeat—not until she took the choice away from him, at least. He made the choice to charge her, which made sense, given his slight height and weight advantage. The man must have been a lover, because he was clearly not a fighter. Unfortunately for him, Rebecca was trained to deal with men much larger than her. Some skinny, handsome rogue was not going to best her.

She focused, waiting for her moment. When her target was close enough to be in reaching distance, she grabbed for his shoulder with her opposite arm and guiding him and his momentum to one side of her. Her leg swept his shins, and she turned to follow him down to the ground.

Impact was looming over her opponent, pinning his chest with her forearm and his legs with… well, she supposed the most accurate description would be that she was straddling him. She chose not to give this much thought. Poorly dyed strands of hair had worked their way out of her ponytail, hanging down over her face as she smirked, feeling victorious. ”I’m so glad you wanted to play. I would have been disappointed if you chose to be boring.”

Jesse's attack on the girl came to a premature end when he was grabbed, his legs swept from under him, and landed on his back, air knocked out of his lungs by the impact, and the girl's weight on his chest. It would have been surprising, had she not been wearing an X-men uniform... even as things stood, Jesse could not help but be equal parts embarrassed and impressed.

>>”I’m so glad you wanted to play. I would have been disappointed if you chose to be boring.”

"Witch." Jesse gasped, struggling for a moment before he managed to plat his feet enough to shift the weight on top of him. His goal was to roll them both over and come out on top. She might have been well trained, but she was still light...

Impact was feeling good about herself, but in her mind, it was a well-deserved feeling. She had caught the bad guy, and she did it in style. Confidence was an asset in emboldening the young vigilante, but she had to be cautious. Arrogance was the very trait she exploited, so it was doubly important to learn a lesson from her prey. She needed to stop dilly-dallying and cuff the man so he could be more easily manhandled to the nearest available cement cell. It was time to stop playing, and focus.

She looked down, and could not help but be caught, just for a moment. He might be a dirty thief, but those might be the most stunning blue eyes.

It was a moment of distraction, but it was enough. The thief beneath her jerked and shifted his weight, taking Rebecca down with him. The upheaval was unexpected and there was no good way to prepare for it. It felt like an instant passed, and suddenly the tables were turned and Impact was the one on her back.

”Dodgy tosser,” she spat, annoyed and maybe a little embarrassed at how she was exploited. In her position, the best thing she could do was keep him where he was. Her legs wrapped about the man’s body and her arms wrapped around his arms, aiming to keep him from getting a handle of her or the ground so he could get to his feet. If she could keep her focus and keep him from slipping away, she could take her opportunity to fire a weak blast at him in hopes of knocking him out. It was just difficult to get in the right position for that shot when his weight was pressing down on her.

This man was turning out to be more trouble than she anticipated.

Jesse felt a flash of pride as he managed to tilt the girl off of him, and reverse their positions, so now he was the one straddling her. Rolling around on the museum floor was not very dignified, but he was trying to make the best of a very messed-up situation.

>>”Dodgy tosser,”

There it was again, the small snort of genuine laughter as he looked down at her up close. He expected a lot of names and swearwords, but her accent, and her choice of name-calling, was definitely amusing. The girl wrapped legs and arms around him, and now they were at an impasse, and very much up close and personal. Jesse raised an eyebrow as he looked down at her, close enough that he could feel her breath on his cheeks.

"You get attached very easily, don't ya" he smirked, shifting to see if he could break free from her hold. He couldn't. Girl had some strong thighs on her "So... what's the plan now? We wait for security to show? We negotiate?..." he glanced down at her lips in a deliberate way "... Do we kiss?"