For the first time, Shard stepped foot upon a whole other world.  She'd heard about the rift that had opened, of course; who hadn't?  Even as cut-off from popular culture as she was, she wasn't an idiot.  It didn't interest her much.  Or rather, exploring the rift didn't interest her much.  What was another world likely to have that she didn't all ready have in this one?  She'd managed to find herself a makeshift shelter and she always had her pets to keep her company.  Between their skills and hers, she rarely went hungry these days.  She even had a small band of homeless miscreants that were willing to do her bidding in return for her protection.  She was beholden to no one except herself and life was good.

Then those meddlesome SUPER agents had managed to capture her and she'd been imprisoned with countless other mutants against her will.  Had she been there longer, she would have been experimented on like the others.  Instead, a merry little band of heroes had come to save them all and she'd managed to escaped.  Yay for her.  Yay for now being the target of evil SUPER agents wanting to tag and track her and take away her hard one freedom.  Oh goody.  What fun.  Except that it wasn't fun at all and that's where Poseidon came in.  She sought him out because he offered safety and support in exchange for joining his little pro-mutant group.  It rankled to have a boss man giving her orders, but at least the group seemed cool and it's ideals weren't so different from hers.  So, for now, it was worth sticking around and following orders.

First order of the day, it turned out, was to settled upon the new world and start to insert Syndicate presence within.  Not like there was much keeping her on the old world at this point anyway, so she volunteered.  Yes.  She, Shard, had actually volunteered for something.  Something must seriously be wrong with the world for that to happen.  Both of them.  Not only did she actually volunteer but she also followed directions, went through the rift and found herself on a nice new Earth that looked suspiciously like the old Earth.  Next step was to find the apartment she'd been set up with, but that could wait for a while.  First, she wanted to get a lay of the land.

Looking almost presentable with only a few small, visible crystals coming out of her skin and hair that was almost controlled, she even opted to bring only to bring the pets which would fit in her oversized purse.  Later, her wolf would be reformed to join her as well but for now it was best to remain inconspicuous.  Humming a slightly out of tune song to herself, she began walking down the street, taking in the sights and sounds of a new world.

If Elliott had chosen to pickpocket this woman, he would have been dumb. Real dumb. Like, certifiable. Dumber than a bag of rocks. The crystals were small, but they were visible, on  her skin. She was a mutant. Clearly, female mutant. You don't pickpocket mutants. Not if you had a choice. You never know what they have, or what their mental state is. They could be good. They could be bad. They could be grayer than an elephant's behind. Nope, he hadn't chosen to pickpocket this woman. Unfortunately, someone had.

Now, he'd been watching this person beforehand. A good pickpocket notices when another pickpocket is operating in the area. That's a good cue to stand low. To make observations. To avoid getting caught and blamed for someone else's lousy work. He'd been trailing this person, hot in his hoodie. Just watching. Every few minutes, he'd glance at his phone. Check up on his dragons in his cellphone app game. It was the one good thing he'd learned about from tiger secretary and Jaager bomb. Now, he even had a smartphone to play it, too. It was a horrible waste of time. But it gave him a reason to be walking around dumbly on the streets of New York. And also, to occasionally snap photos of the guy in the act. What? They say there's honor among thieves, really? REALLY? The next cop he saw, he was going to show the photos to. Because why not? This guy needed to get a handle on his life. Pickpockets are just plain criminal. 

Cough cough. Cough. Hopefully, he wasn't coming down with a cold. What with all this pot-calling-kettle-black nonsense that was going around. 

He saw the moment when the pickpocket made his biggest mistake. He reached into crystal girl's purse to see what he could see. He bit off more than he could chew. 

Being in an actual good mood might also be considered unusual in the life of Shard.  Feeling well fed was certainly a part of it as was the knowledge that she had her very own dwelling.  And money, not to forget that, of course.  Not a lot of money, but a lot more money than she'd had only a couple of weeks prior.  Oh, she had managed to survive living the street just fine, managed to thrive even.  Her pets always did her bidding when needed and, as a mutant who wasn't afraid to get a little blood on her, she'd been both feared and respected by her fellow street people.  Even so, it was damn nice not to have to worry about any of that anymore.  Damn nice.

As she walked, humming softly under her breath, she didn't notice the man trailing her.  While her past (and quite likely her future as well) had certainly involved it's fair share of theft, she was more 'the send her pets to do her bidding' than use her own skills to pickpocket type.  Not exactly the stealthy type anyway, why get her own fingers bloody when she had perfectly serviceable pets to draw blood instead?  Where the blood was a metaphor.  Of course.  The idea that someone might be trailing her didn't occur to her.  The even more absurd idea that someone might actually try to steal from her definitely didn't occur to her.  The idea that she even had anything worth stealing was something only barely accepted.

It was the sound of crystal tinking softly against crystal that alerted her to the invasive and uninvited hand within her purse.  Bats, 6 of them all in brightly different colours and weighing no more than a cell phone each, lay nestled within and, unless one anticipated such a finding, it would have been difficult indeed not to make any noise as one brushed against another.  Intruders made her angry and when she was angry her pets were angry.  Angry bats bit and the closest bat tried to take a bite out of the intruding hand almost before it's mistress completely registered what was happening.  Instincts..

Spinning, she set her glare upon someone who could only be described as a green alien.  "How dare you?!" she demanded.  Her bats flittered in agitation.

The pickpocket didn't curse, but he recoiled. He shook his hand, and managed to extricate himself from the Thing that had bitten him. He'd been shocked by the contents of the purse. Shocked and appalled! Where was the wallet? The cellphone? The MONEY?! He didn't want bats. Even ones that looked like they were made of precious stones. When everything went to Hell, he reacted faster than anyone would have had any reason to. As the green man stepped forward to try and catch him and hold him, the pickpocket... flickered... and suddenly, it was Elliott standing behind the woman, and the actual pickpocket was gone.

Oh dammit. God. Frick. The woman spun on him and exclaimed 'How dare you?!' It didn't take a rocket scientist to realize she'd misunderstood the situation, and decided he'd been the pickpocket. He WASN'T. WELL. Not THIS PURSE IN PARTICULAR! It wasn't fair, but it was fitting. Like karma, even. That didn't mean Elliott had to like it. It meant he had to defend himself or he was going to get raked over the coals on a trumped up false accusation.

"Whoa whoa whoa," He held up his three-fingered hands in a gesture of peace. Of stop. Surcease. He spoke fast. "Think we got a misunderstanding, miss. A miss-understanding. Wasn't me. But I got a picture of who it was."

Glaring at the green man, she could have sworn that she saw a flicker but just as quickly as it was there it was gone again.  Some kind of trick of the light, surely.  Green Man seemed pretty upset that she'd just accused him of trying to steal from her, but any would be thief would deny their transgressions if caught in the act.  Words of innocence were no proof at all.  Words were easy.  She'd offer similar words in his position.

Narrowing her eyes at the man who had tried to take advantage of her, 6 colorful gem bats flew out of her purse and landed upon her neck and shoulders.  Small as they were, they weren't as dangerous as some of her larger pets, but when all your edges were razor sharp even small creatures could draw blood.  Besides, no point in keeping them hidden now.  Her profile was so much the better with her friends to accompany.  

"Innocent?  And a picture to prove it?"  She tilted her head to the side, considering.  Did he look trustworthy?  Did she believe him?  Did it matter?  Maybe not, but she was curious. If this picture was a fabrication or if she decided that she just didn't like his answers, she could always draw blood later.  There was still time.  "OK, I'm willing to listen.  But only because you're a mutant."  Humans were boring.  Maybe this one would be less boring.  

It was true. Elliott did not like the weird bat crystal things. Any more true, and he'd feel dirty for oversharing. He didn't like her glare, didn't like her power, and if they were being honest, quite respected her very reasonable (if misinformed) reaction. He didn't like it, because of its direct involvement of him, but he respected it. So many idiots lack the healthy paranoia true city life requires. He'd met quite a few, and robbed them blind. He wasn't repressed enough to consider it s public service announcement that taught them a lesson, but they'd certainly learned a valuable life experience from the whole matter. Most of the time.

She was willing to listen, because he was a mutant. Well okay. He'd take advantage of her very generous offer. Even if she didn't know how wrong she might be. His alien status was a matter of debate in many circles. Some said alien, some said mutant, some said human with a really bad skin condition and some missing digits. He discounted the opinions of the last group. The other two, however, were fair game. He didn't correct her with his own opinion on the matter. It didn't matter.

"I'm reaching into my pocket," Elliott announced. Slowly, he slipped his hand into the pocket of his black hoodie and withdrew a phone. He unlocked it briefly, then brought up the pictures in his album. He showed the phone to the woman.

"It's a little slideshow of him following you, and reaching towards your purse." Elliott explained. "With a bit of him at the end as he turned to look at me. See the motion blur? Then I hid my phone. Then he tried to rob you for real. And vanished. And left me staring at your pretty face." She knew the rest. If she flipped through, she'd see it as it had played out till the bit at the end. It was really unfair. He'd of reported the guy to the police for her. Maybe even stopped him if things had gotten violent. Though picking fights with pickpockets is a great way to become noticed and hated on the street.