Celestina had been doing a little site seeing through the big city after her shift at the diner. It was fairly embarrassing to be walking through the city with her diner uniform on still – old fashion, beep blue, button up, with a white little apron. She had to get a different job. She had never been in a city this large – granted, she had never left Regina before. This city was so huge. How would she ever figure out how to get around without the need for a map? It was pretty annoying trying to grab it out of her purse every few minutes to make sure she didn’t end up somewhere she wasn’t supposed to be. 

The city was beautiful, albeit a bit dirty – well, a lot more dirty compared to Regina. She saw a subway entrance and took a long, hard stare at it. “It really can’t be that hard to learn how to use the subway. It’s just knowing which exit to get off at,” she whispered to herself, mounting anxiety at the thought of using the subway system. “But what if there is like… A mugger? Or if someone pushes me into the tracks? It would make getting around so much easier.” She shuddered at the thought of being cut into tiny pieces of Celeste bits by a train.  

She snapped back to reality when a woman bumped hard into her shoulder. The woman muttered something that sounded fairly inappropriate. Celeste started walking then, occasionally taking a look at the map in her purse, wishing she had a smart phone again. Unfortunately, she quickly realized she had no idea where she was and began to slightly panic.

Turning a few streets, it was getting a bit late – around 6:30pm according to her watch. She knew it wouldn't be safe to stay out much later, especially considering she knew no one in this city. Heck, at this point she wasn’t even sure how she got lost, where she was at, or how time got away from her so fast. Stopping in front of a corner ice cream shop, she looked up at the name of the street. Then she tried to find it on her little map.  She sighed and realized that she would have to spend money on a cab to get her back to her tiny bedroom, money she really didn't have right now.

She was muttering some obscenities under her mouth before she noticed a few people making a ruckus down the street. It looked like maybe a man in his 40s, another in his 50s, and the woman was maybe 40s-50s but Celestina couldn’t really tell. The little trio was staring directly at her, she stepped against the wall of the building taking a deep breath. Hopefully they were just making a bunch of noises because of being drunk and would just walk past her.

The trio stopped right in front of her. “Well, looky here,” the older man said directly to her. She could smell the alcohol on them. “You’re not from around here.” "No, I just moved here from Canada," she stated as confidently as she could - although, it came out pretty shaky. Being nervous, Celeste had already began to very slowly charge a flare, which let a little glisten off of her arms. Apparently, they weren’t drunken enough to not notice. The woman eyed her down, “Oh, we got one of them mutants here. You know, the world would be a lot better off without your kind. Always messing s*** up, blowing s*** up, you guys really are good for nothing. Do you know how much damage just one of you cause?” She spat it out, and spit near Celeste's shoes. The women shuffled her shirt a bit, making sure Celeste could see the gun in its holster on her side, “It’s a real shame they got rid of those camps for your kind. At least we had a little bit of peace while you guys were being rounded up.”  Celeste gasped in shock, her eyes wide. She had heard about the Mutant Registration Act in the U.S. but didn't really pay much attention, at least at that time. Canada never passed a similar law, but the infamy of the law made waves into the Canadian media. She eyed the trio down, trying to quickly figure out what her best move would be. 

It was certainly strange, knowing his way around but not the smaller stores. And not knowing anyone, even when he thought he recognized someone and dared to talk to them. If he'd gone through that rip without knowing it, his only logical conclusion would be that something had gone wrong in his head, that maybe something hadn't put itself back where it was supposed to be or hadn't come back from being snow at all.

He did know, though, so it was just disconcerting. It didn't stop him from taking some anti-mutant idiot's wallet the day before. Seriously, how did a human ever think it was a good idea to pick a fight with a mutant? He didn't even need to use his powers on them, but they came on their own. Really, as power sets went he scored low on offence. Great on defence, though; between regeneration and snow it took a special sort of thug to do any lasting damage at all.

Well, he'd just think of the money he'd lifted as compensation for time wasted, and use it to kill time somewhere with air conditioning. Like an ice cream store. Like this ice cream store. Which had lots of windows looking out on a not-so-quiet street, despite the lack of people. Just a few middle-aged nobodies.

It was mostly experience with that sort of expression that encouraged him to finish his drawn-out ice cream, and a dose of gut instinct. He dropped the empty paper dish and napkins in the trash and slipped through the door with enough curve to drawn a cooler breeze around himself, and a scattering of stray flakes. Three adults, two male and one female, and a teenaged girl who looked to have clued into her situation. Not a ton of confidence, though, or muscle tone. Unless she was hiding an especially powerful ability, and a good amount of skill with it, it wasn't looking all that great for her.

So he walked up beside her, thumbs loosely hooked in his jeans' pockets and chin raised enough to make slow, quiet eye contact with each of the three humans. Their vitriol had already made their position clear... and the nature of their intent, if not the details. And hey, if his sharply mismatched eyes didn't clue them into the fact that he was also a mutant, the heavy white streaking on the same side as his silver eye would do the trick. Or the snow hanging around him despite the summer heat.

And if they still didn't care, and if him standing there silently didn't dissuade them, and they didn't care about the defined, lean muscle cording his arms, or his loose, mobile, faintly martial stance... well.

At that point, they had it coming.

Celestina was trying to comprehend how mean these people were. Were Americans really like this? Hopefully it was a minority. She stared them down, “Look, I don’t want any trouble. I’m just a little loss, trying to figure out how to get home. I have nothing against you guys and you guys shouldn’t have anything against me – I can control my powers, okay? Please just leave me alone.” Her voice was shaky and she was nervous – she wasn’t good in social situations either way but this type? She wasn’t exactly sure what to say. If the lady went for her gun, Celeste wasn’t sure if she’d have enough time to blast her, especially if the other guys jump her. She might could do a body flare but what if someone comes out of the store? It looked like there might have been some kids in there but she wasn’t sure.

The older man huffed, “Does it look like we care if you can control your powers? You’re a FREAK! You don’t deserve to be alive. That’s why me and my friends here are starting a new group, it’s called “Kill the Freaks.” Celestina perked her eyebrow at that, muttering “Seriously? That’s the best you guys could come up with?” Apparently, that wasn’t an appreciated response because the middle-aged man began to clench his fist and was about to throw a punch at Celestina. 

Celestina was preparing to do a body flare. When she saw Aiden come out of the ice cream shop, her eyes screamed for help – she wasn't sure what to do, she had only just moved into NYC a couple weeks before and she wasn't exposed to these type of situations back in Canada.

After he stood beside her, she took a small breath of relief. At least she wouldn't have to fight these guys alone. Plus, if the police came, at least she had a witness to back her up. He had really pretty eyes, actually, Celeste quickly thought. He seemed like he could handle himself in a fight too, but now she definitely couldn’t do any type of body flare. She paused, waiting to see the reaction of the trio. She started charging her right arm, just in case they didn’t back down, the air around her arm sparkling. Would they seriously try to fight two mutants? Granted, she would have to be careful if she decided to release it – she noticed the snow around him, but wasn't entirely sure what he could do with that snow or other powers he might have.

The woman laughed, “Oh, what do we have here, a snowflake? Coming to save your little mutant, freak girlfriend? What’s your freak power? Little snowflakes?” she taunted towards Aiden. The other two guys began to turn their attention to Aiden as well. “Wow, you think you’re really something huh? You think you can take all of us?” the middle-aged man threatened. Celeste kind of nodded, thinking yes, he probably could. The middle aged guy was preparing to throw a punch towards Aiden but hadn’t quite made the swing yet.

Snowflake, huh? "Does everyone think that's new?" He rolled his shoulders, and spoke softly. "I actually have no clue who she is. This is clear enough anyway... and yes." He smiled faintly, as much for the girl's benefit as for her aggressors' discomfort. Easiest time to smile, really, even if the woman was at least used to wearing her gun. More snow, then. "I do." Especially if they all fought like this guy punched.

He leaned around it, adjusted his feet, drew thickening snow along his motion, and drove the heel of his palm into the old fogey's gut, angled to avoid the ribs and instead strike the diaphragm. While that idiot bent over - he'd be able to breathe properly soon enough, but for the moment he was distracted - Aiden spun around him, feet shifting as if in a dance, wrapping himself in flurrying snow and making for the woman with the gun.

He might have good odds of surviving a gunshot, but that didn't mean he wanted to. And if she missed him, and hit the girl? Or some uninvolved pedestrian?

Celeste watched Aiden dodge the punch by the guy and made a little clap,cheering him on. The man was gasping and moving his arms about, trying to get his breath back. He didn’t seem to even be focusing on the sudden snow storm heading towards the woman and the older guy.

Celeste quickly ran over to the middle-aged guy while he was unfocused and trying to breath, and blasted the flare she had been charging up directly into his body.  It took a few seconds, but he crippled over, and vomited what seemed to be straight up alcohol. The sudden smell of alcohol even made Celeste a bit nauseous. Celeste crinkled her nose, “Seriously? You should at least eat something when you’re drinking like that,” she grumbled towards the guy. The middle aged guy had curled up the sidewalk. He was still trying to catch his breath after Aiden hit him in his diaphragm. And now he was trying not to vomit again, which would probably be more of a dry heave at this point. At least he is taken care of for now.

Celeste turned her attention to the older guy, who had actually started running away. What a coward, Celeste thought. He had practically abandoned the woman and the middle aged guy. Not to mention, for an old guy he did run pretty fast. 

Celeste backed up against the wall again, knowing she couldn’t do much now that he had created so much snow. It would be hard to aim. She might hit him or some pedestrian, and she didn’t want to risk anyone else’s harm.

The woman watched the older man run as she slowly backed away from Aiden, her fingers trying to grab the gun. She finally got it out of the holster and was preparing to aim it, “Back up! Don’t think I won’t shoot you if you get any closer to me, snowflake!” Celeste paused, unsure of what to do - should she intervene? Should she left Aiden deal with her? She would have to wait a few more minutes before she could charge either way, so she got her taser out in case she could maneuver herself to taser the woman. 

All right. One down, one running, and one fumbling for her gun but clearly not as experienced with this sort of situation as she'd been pretending. Guns were only a threat at a distance. Up close, dancing within arm's reaching? A liability at best for most people.

Of course, she theoretically could have been faking the whole thing, but he had yet to come across anyone that experienced and professional in the years he'd been doing this. Just thugs and drunk idiots, sometimes with weapons.

He, on the other hand, did this often enough that he specifically trained for things like disarming people with guns. A hand under the gun itself as he twisted in close, forcing it up and away from anything fleshy, and then both hands to wrench her arm over her head and shoulder. "Wouldn't do anything anyway." Snow didn't bleed, after all. He leaned his shoulder into the woman's back, increasing the pressure on her shoulder and wrist until the gun dropped free.

He kicked it back into the air and caught it himself as he spun away, putting in some extra effort to refresh the snowstorm after the brief inactivity, and checked the gun. "Especially with the safety on." He popped out the magazine and pocketed the bullets before tossing the empty gun down the road. Not like he was going to steal it and give the cops here something to come after him for.

Since when did the girl have a taser? Better than nothing for sure. "You okay?"

The woman screamed as Aiden forced her weapon out of her arm. It was obvious she was in a ton of pain, angry, and scared. And she knew she deserved it too.

Once Aiden let go of her, she began to run away in the direction of the older guy, yelling back towards Aiden and Celeste: "This is not over! We'll get you guys eventually! It might not be us, but the government will realize they made a mistake!" She didn't even grab the gun, she just kept running as fast as she could. She also left behind the other guy, who was still curled up in fetal position. It looked like he was retching. 

Celeste clapped as she ran away, putting away her taser into her purse, content that she wouldn't need to use it after all. After the woman yelled out to Aiden and her, Celeste rolled her eyes. From what she understood, the Supreme Court struck the law down. Hopefully it wouldn't make any reemergence's. And if it did, she imagined the reaction internationally and domestically would be pretty severe.

She was a bit intrigued by Aiden's mutation. Snowflakes, blizzards, what an intense power. She wondered how cold his skin was, actually. She theorized that he had to move to make the snow begin, but she wasn't entirely sure how it all worked. She could control her own powers, but granted, she didn't really understand the mechanics behind them either. 

>>  "You okay?"

She smiled towards Aiden, relief washed over her. She was better than okay. It made her feel better knowing there was good people in the world. She walked over towards him, reaching her hand out. "I'm Celestina, thanks so much for helping me out back there. I was a bit worried there for a minute."