How she had gotten into this particular pickle was less important that what she was currently focused on. Yes, it was probably vastly interesting getting to hear all about how two men had tried to pull her into a van, only to discover that they physically couldn't get a hold on her. It would be a bunch of fun re-telling how she had stood there, watching them confusedly try time and time again while getting progressively angrier, all while casually sipping on a frappuccino. It might even be entertaining throwing in a little tidbit about how she had decided to humor them at the expense of her coffee, and allowed them each access to an arm so that they could drag her into their shady ass white van.

No, those details were not nearly as important as what she was experiencing now.

100% undiluted regret.

Perhaps it was the fact that they had produced a strange collar from somewhere that only seemed to activate if she tried to phase it off. Perhaps it was from the near crippling pain currently radiating around her stomach, due to the fact that her phone had been trapped within her bowels somewhere when they cut off access to her power... or maybe it was the crippling fear she had of not being fully in control of herself anymore.

Whichever it was it @##$in sucked and could go eat an entire ass.

"Raaagh!" Juniper was currently doubled over and heaving from the pain, strings of spittle still clinging to her lips from the last retching session. This was worse than every hangover she had ever had in her whole life, all combined into one. Worse than any withdrawal she had ever felt. 

A stupid little meme sending device was going to be her downfall, and she only had herself to blame. 

"Miri." Her stomach gave off a muted chiming sound as the voice assistant activated. "Call... Xavier." 

"...no contacts found under Savior."

"Rrrg!" Deep breaths, Juniper.. deep breaths. OW! Sharp stabbing pain, not that deep. "Miri, call X-A-VIER." 

"Ok. Calling Xavier." Her stomach started to ring. She could feel it in her ribs.

Her abductors didn't seem that smart. They hadn't covered her eyes or anything the whole drive over or anything. Maybe they had been a little too surprised by her nonchalant attitude about the whole thing up until now. Still, she wasn't exactly sure where she was, but it hadn't felt like they had gone very far from home. Whatever the case, they had locked her in some little room in an industrial garage of some kind and left her to her own devices. All that screaming probably scared them away she guessed.

The phone rang a few times before it was picked up. "Xavier! My buddy. Pal... Guess who needs saving? It's me-" She grunted at the pain, "-ya girl."

Passing along a few important bits of information, and a very strange struggle to get the maps app on her phone to list her location, she was able to hang up. 

All she had to do now was wait.

... And throw up again.

He should have been saved under Savior. He was doing just that, right this second.

Saving a cat from a tree. He'd been asked by a kid. He couldn't say no. 

He looked up at the tree, and down to the kid, and scratched his head. Yup. There was a cat up there. He could jump up, but how does one parkour down with a cat in their grip? You don't really. Eh, jump in and figure it out on the way, right?

He launched himself into the tree, which got a gasp from the kid. Awesome. Skillfully he latched onto the trunk and shimmied up toward the top, where the cat was. He'd climbed a lot of trees back home; this was a cinch. He was reading out for a cat when his phone rang, and he blinked a few times. One of the other students? He looked. Oh, his neighbor!

"Howdy neighbo- what?" He blinked a few times "Wait, what? Any you called me? Wow, thanks! No, I get it, sorry. Do you see where you are? Okay... Okay. You're okay. Okay, I understand that you might not be okay, but you'll be okay. I'll make sure." He looked down at the kid staring up at him. "Yes. Yeah, that helps. Alright, I got it. See you soon!" He hung up.

Wow. A damsel had called him, and she was in distress. He had to hurry. He looked to the cat, which was staring at him much like the kid. Well, do your best and hope for the best, right? He lunged for the animal, gripping it, gently, but firmly, and then bolted down the branches, scratching himself a couple times along the way before getting to the lowest branches he could... He then let go, doing a no armed roll when he hit the concrete below and shielding the cat from the fall. 

"oof." It was a bit of a hard landing, but he and the cat made it out okay. The freaked out animal wiggled away from him, and ran to its owner, who thanked him as he ran off, looking through his phone to plug in the address her phone had given him.

__

He didn't know how to save someone from an enemy compound. Like, he had no idea. He'd been a hero for, what, two weeks now? No idea. He was gonna, though. The Crimson Wombat would have told him to steak out the scene, find vulnerabilities, and hit them at the ideal times... That didn't seem super heroish enough to fit his style... So... 

One in a Million knocked on the front door, and set his jaw. The door opened. 
"@#$% do you want?"

"You are holding a hostage. A woman you have kidnapped. Surrender now, or face a One in a Million Wrath!" He spoke boldly, making a super hero pose as he talked."

The door slammed in his face. Huh. Well, wrath it was.

Xavier placed his hand on the door, and with a CRRRRRRWHOMP! It burst off its hinges, taking the man behind it to the floor under it. The hero stepped on the door on the way in, getting a muffled curse from the man under it as he went. He then casually removed the door, and poked the man on the head, repelling it away from his finger, and causing him to smack the back of his head into the floor hard enough to knock him out. He smiled widely, and dusted off his hands as two more men rounded the corner to see what was up.

__


There was a bit of a hubub outside, and the sound a... whimpering puppy? The door opened up, showing the high pitched noise to be a man in a very painful looking joint lock, held casually by a tall blonde man with a few cuts and bruises, but largely comfortable looking where he was.

"Told you i'd be here soon. This is Mark. He's not very nice, but I motivated him to tell me where you are. Say hi, Mark!"

"I told you my names Earl-ow! Hi! Hi! #@$%!" He got another twist, and he fell to a knee before being allowed up again by his captor. "Atta-boy Mark. Are you alright, did they hurt you?" He couldn't get too much closer to inspect things; he was holding a guy by the pinky, after all.

Did she have faith that big, beautiful One In A Million would swoop in and save her?

Well, it'd be nice, but the guy was about as dense as a block of cheese in some ways.... so she could only hope and pray.

... She was gonna die in here.

She might have been freaking out more about the whole abduction thing and what they had planned for her, had it not felt like god was twisting a corkscrew into her guts.

Where had her phone ended up even? Was it just floating around in there between things? Was it currently making its way downtown to her lower intestine? She wasn't sure which scenario rang true, bit it felt like all of them combined.

Retching above a pile of both lunch and breakfast in one corner of the room, she was a little pleased that at least nothing else was going to come up.

"Hey Miri, play despacito."

And thus, when Golden boy actually showed up to bust her ass out of here, she was curled up in a miserable ball on the floor with that song having played on loop for nearly an hour now. The look she shot him was anything but impressed, thought maybe that was just due to the massive pain coursing through her body.

"... Hi Mark... Took you damn long enough to get here, Adonis." Her voice was hoarse from all that puking she'd done earlier. "Thought I was gonna die in here."

A new wave of agony spiked, and she curled into herself further with a groan.

"Unwittingly, yes, they're really @#$%ed me over one. Actively, no, they didn't actually hurt me."

She slowly pushed herself up into a sitting position, careful not to move anything directly tied to her midsection too quickly.

"Does Mark have something to unlock this?" She tapped a fingernail on the dark collar around her throat. "I can't use my powers with it on..."

Wait... was that... Despacito? "Niiiice." He was a Brieber fan. Not, like, buy tickets level fan, but a light it up on MRI-Tunes sorta fan. 

Her being huddled in a corner sorta tipped him off that things were not okay, though. He frowned a bit, and looked over to Mark. "You know how to get that off?" The man winced, and shook his head. "Mmm. Take a nap, Mark." He palmed his head, and his dome into the wall at a significant pace. The man slumped ending up head on the ground, bottom in the air. 

"Okay, c'mere. Slowly, let's see..." He moved in and gently placed a hand on her shoulder as he took a closer look. The hand, as spoken By Evangeline, the Angelic Canadian Hero, was a great way to let someone know they were safe. The physical presence of a defender often calmed them.

"Okay, I might have a plan... It clasps here... so..." Delicately he reached his fingers toward the sides of the ring where it clasped. With surgical precision, and a tongue stuck out in focus, he pressed on both inside ends of the clasp, and focused on making them separate from each other... There was a little wiggling... and then there was a LOT of wiggling.

TINK!

It failed, and the necklace popped open, scattering to the floor. He gave a satisfied grin, and looked down to her. "Better?" His hand was lifted from her when he heard footsteps incoming. Uh oh.

"Night, Mark."

She liked Mark. That was a lie, she hated his guts. If he died she wouldn't care at all.

Xavier came over to get a look at her collar and she helpfully pulled her hair out of the way. She didn't care if the damn thing shocked her again as long as he could get it off, and she could remove the foreign object wreaking havoc on her innards. She waited with baited breath as he worked, the fingers of one hand digging into the flesh of her stomach... waiting.

As soon as that wonderful tink graced her ears, she reached on in up to her wrist and ripped the newly phased phone from her stomach. It was still belting out Despacito at them, but the battery was close to being dead.

Almost instantly as soon as it was removed all the pain went away... She would probably need to swing by and see about getting it all checked out, but she was willing to bet that it had just been stuffed somewhere too small for the space it needed.

Really, she could have cried some more from how happy she was to be pain free and able to use her powers again. "So much better..." She launched at him, gifting a quick thankful hug before disentangling to straighten her clothes back out and put her phone away. She probably would have kissed him too, but she kinda needed a stool for that.

The approaching footsteps brought a whole new feeling into the mix.

She was pissed! How DARE they take her power away from her? Her control!

Her face was red from anger and set into a deep frown and she stooped to pick up the broken collar. The second someone poked their head around the door frame, she rushed them. A few bullets popped off from a gun the guy had been holding, but they passed right through her. She trotted to a stop just outside the room, past the man who had dropped to his knees while screaming and gripping onto his midsection desperately.

She had his gun in one hand, and the collar was mysteriously missing from the other.

He froze a bit when she hugged him. Wow. That was his first Super Hero 'thank you for saving me' hug. It felt... Nice. His chest swelled up a bit, and his smile widened. He could see why people were willing to die for this. He patted her back, and then prepared for their next challenge.

Before he could do too much, she stepped into action, and... Wow. She grabbed the collar and charged forward with wrath. He saw a gun, and only had time to shield himself as a few bullets flew into the room. One bounced off of him and into the wall, but more importantly, Juniper moved forward unscathed and juked past the man, somehow ending up with his gun in her hand, and... He was injured. He dropped his full area repulsion and ran forward. 

"You okay?!" She was fine. The guy, not so much. Was that a shock collar sticking out of his stomach? What. the. hell. He threw a quick punch, hitting the guy right on the button and dropping him. He then looked to her, and made a real serious expression.

"Juniper, No one dies when I do my work. Can you throw that away?" He pointed to the gun. The sound of another man running up distracted him for the amount of time it took for him to pick up the man he'd just knocked out and repel him into the man running up. They both landed in a heap, and neither were getting up any time soon.

"Just as important... Were you alone here, or are there others?" If there were, he couldn't just leave them behind.

She blinked at him for a moment, a little confused. Then it clicked. "Oh, yeah.. sure." She tossed the gun over one shoulder without much care. It misfired and she jumped a little. "Wasn't really planning on using it. Not much of a fan of firearms." She glanced at the dude on the ground behind him. "And he probably won't die. I survived for like, an hour with a phone in my stomach."

She didn't explain further. She could hear shouts and footsteps heading toward them. Xavier took care of them though, so she relaxed a little. Her anger was already wearing off since she had kinda taken it out on the first guy.

"Well, considering that they just swung by and picked me up off the street, I can hazard a guess that there are probably others." She could recall the size of the building, and looked up. There was a floor above them.

"Hey, gimme a lift so I can check up above us." She lifted her arms and wiggled her fingers in a very gimme fashion.

If she could stand on his freakishly tall shoulders, she could poke her head right through the ceiling and hopefully the next floor above.

Once she had her feet securely planted on his shoulders, she got to concentrating on what she needed to do. First the head, hands and forearms. She reached on in, visually disappearing up to her neck into the ceiling. There was a little bit of space between the floors she needed to travers first, so she ended up having to climb and crawl in an upward direction, effectively removing herself from his shoulders. By the time she had gotten her upper half secured on the floor above all that was left for him to see her legs kicking about a bit, until those too were extracted up. She wasn't the fastest at climbing, so it was a slow process.

She had ended up in an office of some sort. A desk off to her left, with a computer on top, a door off to her right with a metal filing cabinet next to it. She could hear more shouting and some banging around from outside the office door. They were probably headed down to where Xavier was. There was also a very distinct sound of someone crying.

Laying on her stomach and keeping her legs whole, she phased the upper half of her body so she would pop back down and warm him. Her head, shoulders, and one arm reappeared where her legs had vanished. "Hey! I can hear someone crying up here, and there are others heading down--URK!"

She hadn't been able to see the office door open, or the figure that had come in. She only realized she wasn't alone again when someone grabbed her by her belt and physically yanked her back up to the second floor.

He smiled in relief when she tossed the weapon, and also jumped a little when it went off. "Woah! You okay?" He patted himself down. No holes. Good! None on her. Even better!

He then looked over to the knocked out guy... These dudes would probably need to go to the hospital before they went to jail, but they were all going to live. It was an important rule for him. No one dies. He saw her looking about as she mentioned there were probably more people, and then tilted his head a bit when she asked him to lift her up so she could... check upstairs? He looked up... No holes or anything. Still, she seemed to have a pretty big bag of tricks. Maybe there was something he was missing. 

He crouched down a bit to gently grab her by the hips and lift her up over his head, and to where she could place her feet on his shoulders. Heh... It was like some sorta straaange cheer routine or something. He looked up to see what was going on up there, and found himself blinking a barrage as he noticed her head had disappeared into the ceiling. He stared in awe as she slowly but surely made her way up through the solid material and onto the floor above like she was climbing from a pool. Holy Crap. That was so cool. Think about the sort of things he could do with that power! It suddenly made sense how she got into his apartment so easy, too. He'd been way off!

He was still staring by the time she poked her head through to talk to him. "Wow, that's the coolest-" She was suddenly yanked upward. He had people coming for him as well. They were headed down the stairs. They weren't going to have any luck.

As soon as he realized Juniper was in danger, he launched himself upward, grabbing the ceiling by the small metal rafters, and placing his hand on the wooden planking above him. 

He tried to isolate one plank at a time as he hung there by his strength alone, and POP! CRACK! PACRACK BOOF!

He forced his way through the layers of the ceiling one after another, applying his power over and over until finally he burst through the floor of the room above, launching himself upward and landing in a crouch with his cape waving wildly about behind him.

"Let her go. Or deal with me." 

If she had been thinking straight she probably would have just unphased her upper half and simply fallen back through to the floor below.. but, well, he'd caught her off guard, okay?

She'd at least had the sense once she was able to focus again to phase her lower half out of his grip. That turned out to be a good thing as by the time she had her footing back and had turned to see who her assailant was, she saw one of those effing collars in one of his hands. He'd been trying to get it on her!

Her face instantly flushed with anger. "Back off, @#$hole!" She took a step back, a little wary of the collar more than the man holding it. Would it activate on touch? Did he only have to clip it around her neck, or would it work if he caught her on the arm? Would it work even if she was phased?

The guy himself might have been someone a normal person wouldn't wanna mess with, but she didn't have a problem with most people. No one could hurt her unless she allowed them to. He was big in a retired pro wrestler kind of way, and hairy as @#$%. A weird mug and even weirder eyes. Completely black from the sclera to the Iris.

Her eyes snapped to his immediately, almost against her own will. She felt a cold sweat wash down her back as terror set in.... She couldn't move her body.

"Turn off your power." The command sent a shiver through her body. She felt her weight snap back instantly as everything unphased back into a solid. His command had been obeyed without her voluntarily giving the command. What the @#$%??

His eyes had a weird effect.. It was like being sucked mentally into a black hole. She could still feel her body, and hear everything going on around her, but her vision zoomed into that black and she lost track of what was going on around her visually.

"See, cooperating isn't so hard, is it doll?"

She could feel a thumping reverberating up through the floor under her feet, but wasn't sure what was causing it. It also covered the footsteps of the man approaching her, so when big meaty fingers slid through the hair behind her left ear, sharp nails dragging against her skin, a sound she hadn't uttered in years jumped from her throat. Some kind of mix between a strangled whine and a muted scream.

"NO, stop!" The fingers clenched roughly. She was jerked forward onto a hot, hard chest. She wanted to vomit again, but alas the tank was empty. Her captor shuffled a few steps back with her firmly in his grip just as Xavier burst forth from the floor like the hero he was.

--"Let her go. Or deal with me."

"Don't look him in the eyes, Adonis!" %$#@, if he got trapped too who was gonna save her ass??

Her unnamed assailant laughed deeply adjusting his grip on her slightly and turning her to face the hero.

Her pupils were huge and it was obvious she was staring off into space. There may have also been tears beginning to form in her eyes, but @#$% please don't pay attention to those. "She's under my spell, boy, why would I release her?" He was totally using her as a shield, too. A small one, yes, but one that would be in directly in the way if Xavier attacked.

"Ya come into MY HOME and start making demands from ME? I should show you just what I can do, shouldn't I?" The hand fisted in her hair jerked her head back a little. She hissed through her teeth, but couldn't do anything to fight back. Her body was still ignoring any commands she sent it's way. Humid, pungent breath washed over her face for a moment. "Sweetheart, bite your cheek until ya bleed."

Her teeth jumped into action unbidden, slamming down on the bit of skin just inside her lips. She whined through her teeth at the pain. This was her worst nightmare come to life... Every single fear that had haunted her from the age of twelve. Being 100% at the mercy of someone who was not her. Junipers expression pinched, lips curling and a thin trail of red trailed out and down her chin. A moment later she let out a grunt of disgust when her captor licked her chin clean just to try and barb the hero.

He tossed the collar out at Xavier with a smirk on his lips. "Put that on, boy... or i'll command her to do something worse next."

So... This guy was a piece of work, then. Still, in the darkness of the room the tall, broad teen struck a sort of imposing figure as well. He stood to his full height after climbing through the hole he'd made in the floor, and looked to Juniper to make sure she was okay. She warned him about looking the man in the eyes. Oh, good, that could have been a short fight.

The man held her to him, a human shield, and his teeth clenched, his usual smile showing as more of a grimace. He stomped forward until the man bid him stop, and he bristled as the son of a @#$%^ yanked her head back. That was it, then... This man thought he was the big bad. "So what... you think you're some sort of villain." He ordered her to bite herself, and Xavier's eyes narrowed as he crouched a bit. Then, the big man leaned in to lick the blood from her, turning back to speak. When he looked back, though, he would realize he was talking to a dark, empty hallway.

As the collar hit the ground a flash of movement came from above him, and a heavy, metal soled boot heel clacked down on the top of his head as the young Hero ended a soaring leap with an absolutely brutal downward heel kick that rocked the man's head down violently enough to make his jaw slam shut so hard a couple teeth spat out either side of his mouth.

"WELL I'M A HERO!"

Xavier landed, catching Juniper's arm as she was thrown to the side and pulling her behind him as the man shakily managed to keep his feet. Okay, so he was tough. 

"NNNGUh YA @#$^in punk! Think- Guh- Think you can @#$^ with me! She's still mine! Kill hi-" CRRRRRACK! Xavier launched forward with surprising speed, admittedly using his power to do so, and landed a fist right on the jaw of his giant opponent, who seemed to take the hit well until he just... kept moving backward, flying through the room like a giant bullet until he smacked through a drywall barrier, and into the wall behind.


"Hate guys like that... You okay, Juni?"

Everything that happened probably would have looked really cool, had she been able to see anything other than terrifying black. Instead she had to listen, trying to gauge what was happening around her while simultaneously keeping bad memories at bay.

Her captor jerked forward suddenly and there was a heavy THUCK that tended only to come from something heavy impacting the human body. The hand clenched in her hair temporarily clenched a little harder, then loosened completely. She was free, which was good! But she also still couldn't move on her own, which sucked.

Thankfully, a different big meaty hand was there to catch her by the arm before she could topple over flat on her face. Still couldn't see a lick of what was happening though.

That same shiver raved down her spine at the half command, but he hadn't finished it so other than her whole body tensing like she had been shocked, nothing happened.

As soon as the big mutant settled in the dust, her vision started to come back and she got weird tingles all over her body as his power wore off. They were pleasant. She hated it. The more in control of herself she became, the more what had happened weighted down on her. She was fighting a losing battle with a serious anxiety attack if the sudden inability to breath was anything to go on.

"Hate guys like that... You okay, Juni?"

She snapped out of it. Blinking a few times to get her focus back, and glanced up at Xavier. He had saved her. This time someone had saved her. The smile that spread across her face almost hurt. "M'fine." She glanced around the room, eyes landing on the few bloody teeth scattered on the floor, and hummed in satisfaction. Xavier didn't want anyone to die... so she would have to be satisfied with that for now.

"Juni?" She questioned, as her pupils finally shrank back to normal sized and she lifted a hand to flex her fingers. For a moment there, before he'd distracted her, she'd just wanted t phase right back through the floor and take off.

But... he'd saved her butt twice at this point. She at least wanted to stick around long enough to see him finish the rescue mission. She could have a melt down later at home.

"I heard someone over that way, c'mon." Jogging off towards an intact wall that would lead to the hallway itself, she phased right through it instead of opening the door. She was pleased to have her power back it seemed. Once in the hall, she spotted another door down a bit, which was where the @#$% had landed (which she was going to avoid), and further past that a singular door at the very end. She headed on down with purpose, discovered that it was locked, and reached on in to unlock it. It swung open to reveal six teens and two adults of varying ages, all huddled in one corner together with bound hands and blindfolds. Some of them were wearing collars.

It didn't happen often, but a swell of empathy popped on up uninvited. Juniper grimaced.

There was also more shouting and thudding as the people who had raced downstairs, came racing back up them.

"I'll see if I can get those things off them, if you can take care of the other goons... sound good, One in a Million?"

Heading further in, she dropped to her knees by the closest victim and made a soft shushing sound. She couldn't have been older than 14. "Hey, a real honest to goodness hero is here to rescue you! Hold still real quick while I get this off.." Surprisingly, using her power on the collar externally didn't seem to trigger the shock, so she was able to remove it and all the bindings pretty quickly.

All eight people were free and a little less terrified only a few moments later. Juniper was all smiles, trying to calm one of the younger ones down. "See? All better! We're all gonna get out of here and you'll be home before you know it!"

The kid sniffled while rubbing at his eyes. "You two are heroes?" Juniper shook her head and thumbed in the direction of Xavier. "Nah, he's the hero here. His names 'One in a Million'! He rescued me too."

She ruffled the kids hair and turned to see if the coast was clear.

She smiled at him. A real, big smile. He hadn't seen her smile like that before. Wow. You know... She was really pretty when she smiled like that. He shook himself a bit as she asked him about the name. "Hey, a single syllable can take a lot of time up over long periods of time! Think of the time we'll save. If you like it, that is." He smiled to her, and then looked down the hallway she referred to. 

The energy she ran off with... It felt... Well, heroic, almost. He set his jaw, and ran after her, pausing for a half second when she ran right through the door. Wow, he was going to take a while to get used to that. He opened the door behind her to see her going through another door. He chased after her, and arrived at the final door just in time to see her throw it open. Around that time, it became clear that the rest of the house was headed toward him. He eyed her for a moment, and turned to charge down the hallway toward the oncoming attackers.

There were four of them... All armed. They all moved to aim, but he placed a hand up to bid them to stop. They hesitated just long enough to give him a second to speak. "Halt! I have defeated your leader... And this... This isn't even my final form... So before you fire... Are you sure you want to fight... One in a Million?!" He then planted his feet and started with his full body repulsion field, but at the same time, he clenched both arms in front of him and roared... "I'M CHARGING! YOU'D BETTER RUN!" 

They started firing, and the bullets bounced away harmlessly... Seeing this, they all froze, looked at each other, and ran for it, not wanting to know what he was charging for. 

As they all disappeared from sight, he stopped, and chuckled. "I'll have to save that one for later."

He moved to join Juniper once more. 

He put on a brave smile as well for the eight kidnappies... This was a pretty serious group of people to go missing. He didn't know what that meant in the grand scheme of things, but it was certainly headline worthy. He did his own turn in calming and comforting, chiming in as he heard a girl ask if they were heroes. He smiled his winningest smile, but blinked when Juni stated she wasn't a hero. But she was!

"Nonsense, this is... Shadow... Cat. ShadowCat! She's a little shy, though, so SHHHH." He winked, and then leaned in to Juniper once more.

"My father once told me... Anyone can be a hero. All they have to do is decide, just once, to do something heroic." He gave her a playful shove, and then started leading the hostages out of the building, pulling out his phone to call the police as soon as he got a reception.

She had a nickname now. That was a... first? She tried to recall if anyone had ever given her one before. Nope! Not that she could remember at least. Her tween years had been a little too wild and there were definitely some blocks missing here or there.

"I like it." She really, really did.

Here she was, feeling pretty good about herself for the first time in a while and he had to go and try to ruin it with a hero name. And a bad one to boot! Her expression deadpanned and she aimed it directly at him. "Don't listen to a word out of his mouth, I think he's hit his head one too many times. I am definitely just a regular person here-- Xavier what are you doing stop it." Her voice dropped in volume toward the end as she hissed at him when he leaned in. She was no hero; far from it.

She blinked at him, perplexed. When he nudged her she fully flopped over with an unattractive squawk. The kid she had been trying to comfort started to laugh, with a smile that lit up his face.

"You two are funny!"

Juniper decided it was best to keep her mouth shut and let him believe whatever he wanted if it made him feel better. She blushed furiously though as she got back up to her feet.

Anyone can be a hero, huh?

She watched silently as the real hero in the room rounded them all up and ushered them like a shepherd with a pack of lost sheep. She lingered behind and off to the side, listening as he rang up the cops. It was the proper thing to do; by the books to a degree she had come to expect from him.

She waited for a good moment to step backwards through a wall on the bottom floor, and made a break for it in the opposite direction. If there was one thing she didn't need it was local police knowing her face and name, or the papers for that matter.

She wandered the city for a bit to think on it, before eventually making her way home. She had promised herself a melt down, after all, and there was at least one bottle of rum there with her name on it.