One minute. That was it. She had left her Banjo alone for one minute while she had gone to get a refill of her drink and some sticky fingered ass-hat had apparently taken it upon himself to try and make off with her stuff! 

"Hey!" 

She caught sight of the thief with her instrument slung across his back as he ducked out of the front of the bar and made his getaway. "@#$%!" Over her dead body! Juniper started sprinting through the establishment, running through people and tables alike as she headed for the wall closest to the door he had exited. Her sneakers flew off and were left in the dust behind her in her haste, but at this point she didn't really care a whole lot. Every week it was a new pair of shoes, or so it seemed. 

"Get back here!" 

She virtually appeared out of thin air. One moment nothing but sidewalk and a brick wall, the next there she was flying full tilt out of that brick wall. She had expected to maybe cut the thief off, or at least land and be able to give chase. She had NOT expected to slam bodily into someone else on the other side, sending them both careening onto the pavement in a flail of limbs and swearwords (on Juniper's part at least) 

Meanwhile, the sticky fingered thief paused to look back and see what the commotion was briefly and then continued sprinting as fast as possible down the street. 

A slew of curses popped out before she could reign them back in as she worked to phase herself out of the pile of limbs and figure out who she had just mowed over on accident. "Hey- Sorry! Some ass just stole my Banjo and I was trying to- rrgggh, are you okay?!" As much as she wanted to run off and leave her unintended victim there, she just couldn't. Maybe Xavier was really rubbing off on her after all.

“Hey, watch it!” Jack yelled as someone barged past him, almost knocking him over in the process. He swore under his breath, glad he had chosen to go out in his mid-thirties. He’d have been sprawled onto the ground as an old man. No manners, and always in a hurry. That was the problem with people these days. Shaking his head, he shoved his hands into his coat pockets and continued walking. He enjoyed this time of year. The energy of the city as it geared up towards Christmas. The cool weather, and the lights and decorations. New York had changed over the decades, but some things tended to stay the same.

Verticality, it seemed, was not one of those things.

She came out of nowhere. Or to be more specific, she came through the wall he had been walking beside. A flying tangle of blonde and limbs. She crashed into him, and they both fell to the ground. It took a moment to untangle, and Jack spent an undignified moment laying there trying to figure out what had just occurred. It had been quite some years since he’d had cute blondes throwing themselves at him...

“You mean that jerk who almost knocked me over?” That had explained why the guy was in such a hurry. Picking himself up, Jack brushed down his coat. He glanced towards the direction the thief had ran, then back to the girl. “There’s a pawn broker three blocks from here. Fellow by the name of Rudolph. It I were a betting man, I’d wager that’s where your quick-footed friend is headed.” It was where he had been heading. He scratched at his chin, calculating his options, before offering a smile to the woman. “Want me to show you?”

After all, it would be impolite not to help a damsel in distress. Especially one who could walk through walls.

"Yeah! Him!" She turned to try and figure out which direction the guy had gone, but... he was gone. Poof. She had no clue which way to go firs-

The stranger she had accidentally attacked offered an alternative and Juniper turned back to look at him. It made sense. Steal expensive things and sell them = profit. Not many people in the city played Banjo enough to want to steal it for themselves.

"Sounds like a better plan than running around all night looking for him." With a newly formed plan, she turned to the guy fully. It was the first full once over she actually gave him since smacking into him out of the blue. He was taller than her (not hard to do), seemed well built. He didn't appear injured which was great because carrying him all the way there like a pack mule would have been super lame. Overall she chalked him up to about a 7/10 on the first appraisal alone.

"Lead the way. I'm Juniper by the way." She didn't offer a hand to shake because she didn't often make it a habit to touch people she wasn't well acquainted with.

"Sorry again for smashing into you like that. I didn't have time to use the door."

She didn’t bother offering a hand to shake, so he simply smiled vaguely and turned to begin walking, assuming she would keep pace with him. “Jack, he replied, stuffing his hands into his coat pockets, “And don’t worry about it. Some punk knocked off my stuff, I’d be barging through walls to get at them too,” he smirked. “Though in my case, I’d assume the wall might win,” he quipped, glancing sideways at the girl.

He had worked with phasers and mutants with intangibility powers before. In his line of work it was not to be unexpected. They had been few and far between but in his experience often morally flexible. A inevitably he supposed, when you could literally take what you needed or wanted without much trouble. Still, he couldn’t take a measure of the girl beside him based on that alone. There were other factors that needed to be taken into account.

Jack walked at a leisurely pace. He didn’t rush. There was no need to. The chances of them actually running into the culprit weren’t worth counting on, but Rudolph would know which way to point them, and that was in Juniper’s - and his - better interests. “So, you’re a musician?” There was still time for chit-chat. May as well get to know the girl better before he went to work for the evening.

Depending on how the night went, he might not have much of a chance.

She glanced back, but her expression didn't shift from the soft scowl it had settled into. She was busy rolling through various plans on what she was gonna do to that little @#$% if she managed to get her hands on him. Fuse him with a car and leave him to suffer? Maybe. Brick phased into his head and left there? Also an option. Phase his grubby little hands together so he couldn't try and get five-finger discounts anymore? She wasn't gonna say no just yet.

"Yeah," She finally replied, sighing deeply and temporarily putting revenge planning on hold. "I've been playing for years, but only recently started playing in front of people."

She offered as friendly a smile as she could muster with how angry she was inside, which, considering how good she was at hiding her emotions most of the time, was a pretty friendly looking smile.

"Thanks for the offer to get me to this shop. I'm still not super familiar with the area. Only been here about a year now."

She didn't mind a leisurely pace if that's what he felt like doing. She had all the time in the world and she was only going to get more grumpy about the theft as time ticked on. Pawnshops were supposed to have records of buying and selling anyway, right? And, if they didn't, she'd just take her frustration out on whoever had her banjo illegally. Maybe.

She'd decide when she got there.

“Hey, good for you,” he said encouragingly. “What made you finally take the stage?” Nerves, perhaps? Anxiety? Life circumstances? Maybe she simply wanted to be seen. A whole host of reasons for someone to step into the spotlight.

She wasn’t giving him much to read. She smiled friendly enough, but smiles weren’t hard to fake. She thanked him for showing her the way, and the corners of his lips curled upwards. New to the city. He took in her age, and wondered what bought her here. Was she running from something, or running towards something? Or did she just want to experience the city life that New York had to offer? Plenty enough of those types around.

“Oh yeah? Decided to try your luck in the Big Apple, eh? How are you finding it? Thieves aside, that is...” He rounded a corner and pointed down the end of the street, to a garish yellow sign with 24\7 written on it.

“Just up here.”

Juniper shrugged slightly. "Eh, it's a side gig mostly. I don't mind playing in front of people, but I tend to play more for myself. I needed a second job and there happened to be an opening for backup vocals in a band that had just lost a member."

Xander, the lead singer, was cute so that helped, but she was more a fan of the semi steady paycheck and tips than she was of any kind of spotlight.

"It's fine. I'm more of a small-town girl, I'd say. I don't tend to like crowds a whole lot." She glanced at him with a slight head turn and fiddled with the bottom portion of her form concealing sweathirt. "Honestly this was just the next spot on the map when I decided to move here. I tend to hop around all over the place ever since I left home. Pennsylvania wasn't all that great though so I figured New York couldn't be any worse off."

On a corner, he pointed out where the place was. Down the street a bit under a dingy yellow sign. Her fingers flexed at her side. "Thanks!" She wasn't sure if he was gonna try and tag along, or if that was it. She hovered for a second before ultimately heading off without asking him. That'd be weird, wouldn't it? Especially since she was very much intending on kicking someone's ass when she got there.

"Oh." She paused a few steps away though and half turned, "Would you happen to know if this is like, a seedy pawnshop, or like.. a mom and pop place? I don't wanna go in there and @#$% up some grandad's family business or anything." ... That kinda sounded like she was going to trash the place willy-nilly, didn't it?

"Not that I'm gonna or anything, but I am certainly getting my goddamn Banjo back." She'd already broken it in and everything!

A small-town girl passing through the big city, then. A common story. A vague non-committal answer that could have hidden any number of truths. Good. She showed a healthy sense of personal safety. Harder to work with initially, but more secure to work with than someone too trusting. He didn’t enquire any further. He smiled good-humouredly at her question. “It’s on the seedier side, but I don’t think you’re going to need to smash anything.”

Still, the fact that she was willing to boded well.

He nodded his head at Juniper. “Good luck.” With that, he turned his attention away from the woman, inspecting the black Les Paul guitar in the front of the store window.

Now for some window shopping...


Rudolph’s was not unlike any other pawn store. It was small and cramped, a narrow strip of a store. A miscellany of parted goods lined racks along the length of the store. Various musical instruments, records, DVDs, televisions and stereos, video game consoles a d games. Displays filled with jewellery. Shelves of sacrificed belongings, ready to find a new home. The place smelled of old sweat and desperation. An electric chime at the door jingled as newcomers emerged inside. At the back of the shop was a counter, a security cage stretching from the countertop to the ceiling. Behind it sat a greasy, fat specimen of a man. His nose was a drunkards red, broken blood vessels lending him his namesake. Slurping noodles from a takeout container, he sat lounged back in a poorly abused office chair, absorbed in the glow of his small television.

"Thanks."

Juniper hurried along her way and left him behind.

When she got to the front glass door of the place she opened it like a normal person and glanced up at the chime as she stepped in. Whelp, whoever was in there knew she was there now too. She never had been one for big entrances or grandiose posturing (didn't even know what that fully meant), so she spent a moment looking around the stuffy place before heading for the back. Considering her size and weight she was light on her feet, always had been, and without shoes that just helped to further silence her steps. The only thing making any noise on her was her jeans softly rubbing together.

The man behind the counter looked up briefly to give her a once over, and then his eyes immediately went back to his TV. "Looking to buy or sell."

Juniper didn't reply immediately. She was scouting the cluttered counters and shelves for anything that looked remotely like her Banjo. Then again, if it had just been sold... it would be behind the counter, wouldn't it?

"Did someone just come in here and sell a Banjo? White body, with wood inlays and stickers on it?"

She stared, looking for a reaction from him, and he stopped eating for a moment to look back up at her.

"No. Nobody but you has been in here in the last half an hour."

... It was hard to tell if the sheen glinting off of his skin was from being sweaty with nerves, or overall just being the human equivalent of a slice of pizza that had been microwaved too long. Either way, she didn't believe him.

"...Sure." She remained standing there, unconvinced, wondering if she wanted to reach through and grab him from inside or just pop her head on through and see if her instrument was hidden behind the counter. She decided on the most non-violent way first, but just as she was about to lean forward and enact her plan a sudden noise cropped up from the back.

A toilet flushed.

The fat, greasy man's eyes instantly locked onto her's and a short staredown began. It didn't last long, however, as the moment it looked like he was about to reach for something behind the counter she lurched forward through the counter and bars entirely and grabbed the guy by his dirty, stained collar.

"Man, Rudy, thanks. I don't think I could have made it ho-"

A much smaller male in dark clothes and a back beanie shuffled out from a back door, froze at the sight of Rudolph struggling to try and free himself from being trapped in the hefty metal safety cage he had around his counter.

Juniper stepped out from around him, locked onto her target with a nasty scowl set on her features, and walked straight through the counter that lay between her and the thief.

If he hadn't just gotten out of the bathroom he might have very well shat himself right exactly then.

Grunting in a mix of surprise and fear, the thief turned to try and run right back into the storage/bathroom area he'd come from so that he could flee out the back door.

He never got the chance.

She snagged him by the back of the collar, phased him, and physically tugged him back into the main store. It didn't take much effort to get him lodged nicely right up there in the bars with Rudy, though he had a bit more time to struggle. She just had to dodge his swings as she worked.

As a bonus on the way back in she actually did spot her Banjo behind the counter, leaning up against the sliding doors where Rudy kept his snacks and a loaded .45. She stepped back out from the cage and counter before slinging her instrument safely back around her shoulders.

"@#$%in' @#$%! @$%^#! Undo it! Let me down! @#$%^#!" Wow, Rudy had a real mouth on him, didn't he? Real creative with the insults. The so-far un-named thief had just resorted to sobbing loudly while he struggled to try and get himself and the metal bars separated.

"No. I don't think I will. Keep it up and I'll stick more stuff in you, too."

“Oh just you wait, bitch! You don’t know who you’re £!€¥ing with! You hear me! When I get out of here I’ll be the one sticking things in y—“

The door chime rang as Jack calmly entered the store, closing the door behind him before turning the deadlock with a dull click. Slowly, he pulled down the small blind on the door and turned to approach the bizarre situation ahead of him. “Well done!” he cried out, clapping his hands in applause. “Very well done!” His tread was heavy and slow, his boots making every footstep a statement. He was grinning with his teeth, but the expression didn’t quite reach his sunken eyes.

Whatever vulgar threat Rudolph was about to spit towards Juniper died dead on his lips. The blood drained from his face as he slowly glanced up. He licked his lips, and swallowed nervously. The thief continued sobbing.

She had performed admirably! Oh, how Jack’s heart had began to race as he had watched Juniper stride towards the counter. How she had waited until the right moment to move. How she had acted swiftly and decisively. And how she had done so without a moment’s hesitation.

Beautiful.

He stopped before the girl, her reclaimed banjo slung over her shoulder. He gave her a slow once over, his eyes roaming up and down before his gaze settled onto hers. “You looked like you enjoyed that. How do you feel?”

His turned his head and glanced at the stuck pawnbroker, who was struggling to meet his stare. “Evening, Rudy.”

Rudolph gave another dry gulp. “A-Aion...”

Aion stared at Rudy for a silent moment, before sliding his gaze sideways to the weeping thief. “Who’s your little friend?” he asked in a hushed tone.

Rudy just really didn't know how to shut up.

The door chime interrupted him as he spit vile threats at her, and also her as she blindly reached out to pick up something heavy to throw at him from a nearby shelf.

Juniper froze with a very glitzy, fake gold nugget paperweight in her hand as none other than Jack walked in through the door. His meticulous show of closing everything up immediately sent her on edge and she tracked him with her eyes as he sauntered in calmly and made a show of... clapping?

... What kind of @#$%ing New York Weirdness had she stumbled into now??

Hmm. Did she enjoy it? How did she feel?

She pried her eyes away from Jack for a moment to look at the paperweight in her hand, and then turned and hucked it as hard as she could at the half of Rudy on their side of the cage. It struck him in the shoulder and earned her a squeal of pain. She had been aiming for his face.

"Annoyed." Was she short, clipped reply.

Another name. Aion? The thinner thief froze like a startled deer when Jack's gaze landed on him and struggled to crane his head far enough around to look at Rudy for confirmation of... something.

"D-davis...uh...s-s-sir..." Rudy was sweating bullets now. Davis was his brother's son. A little known contender who had only recently turned 18 and started working with him. He'd had his Nephew start lifting things around town in order to bring back more expensive items to help bolster sales in the shop.

"Anyone wanna clue me in on what exactly this is?" Juniper had armed herself with a rather fancy looking pool stick and looked to be trying to decide which trapped rube to use it on.

Aion’s gaze grew hard and cold as he watched the young thief. “Well,” he began, “I suppose that depends on who you ask.” He broke eye contact and began wandering, inspecting items on the shelves like he was browsing for a Christmas gift. “For Rudolph here, this is the night he is due to pay some associates of his, so that he may stay forever in their good graces. It’s also the night he found himself mixed up in something he wasn’t expecting.” He picked up an electric drill, turning it over in his hands, before placing it back down.

“For young Davis here, I imagine this is a rude awakening, rather than the easy score he thought it would be. As for what this will end up being for him, well...” He paused to flick through a milk crate of records, pulling one out to rest on top.

“For me, this is a job that has become a curious turn of events. One that I am curious to see play out.” He halted in front of a plastic toy stegosaurus. Inspecting it closely, he slid this into his coat pocket.

Completing his circuit of the row of shelves, he returned to stand next to Juniper. “As for what this is for you?” He glanced at the pool cue in her hand and smiled as charmingly as he could manage. “Well that’s the big question, isn’t it?” He arched his brows towards Davis, then back to Juniper, holding her gaze. “What do you want this to be?”

Was..... was this a monologue? Oh, man. Xavier would be pumped right now to hear it! Actually, she kinda was too. It wasn't starting off as cheesy as the last one she had heard.

Jack mosied about while talking, filling Juniper in at the same time, and... well, honestly she didn't put much thought into it. She liked to think she was a pretty simple person and tried to avoid things that complicated that. In this case, Rudy and his dumb Nephew had blown it and it sounded like it had been a long time coming, maybe?

The pool stick in her hand-dipped as Jack walked around, gradually ending up in a slow sad dip to the floor. Was this like, a mob thing? A different mob, or the same one she had pissed off that one time?

"Huh. Okay. So. To boil this all down; They @#$%ed up, and I get to do whatever I want in retaliation and you are presumably fine with that and not about to run screaming to the cops?"

She hummed slightly, rather pleased with how things seemed to be turning out, and turned to focus her attention back on Rudy.

"Hey, what was that you were saying before? You know, before you were interuppted?"

--

It always seemed funny to her that even though putting things in people with her power didn't hurt, they sure screamed as if it did. Rudolph apparently didn't take kindly to her making sure that he could never act on his presumably empty threat in the future by permanently phasing that pool stick into him. Regardless of if he sawed the pieces sticking out off, the knowledge that it would always be in there with him unless she decided to take it out or he happened to find himself an Adapted, was right there in his face. Really, she couldn't blame him for screaming. She'd probably be freaked out too if there was a stick poking out of her pants and she didn't know how it had gotten in there.

"You'll probably wanna get that looked at by a doctor, my dude, but I dunno how you're gonna explain it. Sucks to be you I guess."

Davis, she was undecided about. He was only a year or so younger than her, apparently, and new to the slimy criminals guild. He also hadn't blatantly threatened her with assault, so... maybe she'd take pity on him. Right? That was totally a thing normal people did.

"Oh wow, you live in that sh*thole? Damn dude." She had taken the liberty of lifting his wallet so she could take his ID card. It had his full name and address on it, so if he tried to mess with her after she could come over and kick his ass all over again.

"You should really consider getting a normal job. Like at a fast-food restaurant or something." She got a whiff of him as she bodily pushed him through the cage and freed him from the metal prison. "And for god's sake, take a shower. You smell."

She pocketed the ID and turned away to face jack, fully expecting the kid to make a run for it like he had before.

"Run Davis! Run! Go get Joseph!" Rudy hollered, somehow overcoming the terror of newly being a percentage pool stick.

Davis, unfortunately, had other plans. There was a little click from the other side of the counter as safety was switched off, and then he popped back up with a 45 in hand and his finger on the trigger.

Vindictive and creative. Those were the two adjectives that sprung to mind as Aion watched as Juniper added a length of wood to the man that he wouldn’t be bragging about anytime soon. Even he gave an internal wince at the sight. He watched the glee she took, her willingness and ability to not only disable but to psychologically damage as well. A mental checklist had forming in his mind since he had seen her move through that wall.

Pragmatic as well. She took assurances, taking the boy’s I.D for collateral. He had to admit, she was impressing him more and more. Clearly, this young wanderer from small-town Pennsylvania was no country buttercup. There was a story, there always was. Still, wasn‘t Ike he didn’t have his own. Enough to fill a lifetime, and more.

There it was. Merciful. He had been wondering what she’d do with the thief. He was standing behind Juniper, having not said a word since leaving her to her audition. Watching, expressionless. Interesting how the girl’s anger had not been for the one who had violated her property, but the one who had threatened to violate her. Impulsive. He watched as she took pity on the boy, as she set him free. He watched as Rudolph make the dumbest mistake of his life. He watched Davis go for the counter.

Aion’s expression turned to ice. His hand reached into his coat pocket. He drew the snub nosed .38 revolver. He watched Davis raise the pistol towards Juniper’s back. Barging past Jupiter, Aion took three long strides, raising the pistol to Rudolph’s head.

Davis was young, frightened, and inexperienced.

He hesitated.

With a sharp bang, Aion blew Rudolph’s brains all over the counter and floor.

His dead-eyed gaze fell onto Davis, as did the aim of his pistol. “Drop it.”

Ironically, she was used to being around guns. Her dad was a firearm nut and a doomsday prepper. She'd helped load, clean, and modify more guns than she had ever actually used. A click like that should have been recognizable in an instant, but... well, she was young, and stupid, and never had focused on the details too much. It was an easy sound to ignore if you wanted to explain it away. Could have been the back door clicking shut, or something falling over, or...

What was a lot harder to ignore was the fact that when she turned around to Jack, he wasn't looking at her. His eyes didn't follow the form of someone running. They remained right where they were and his expression shifted into something much sharper.

Davis, you dumbass.

She would have run if she were in his shoes. Maybe that was just a reflection of the differences between their character, though.

Jack leapt smoothly into action and Juniper didn't move to stop him at first. She wasn't really worried about herself, but what was she supposed to say? No, don't? He's just a dumb kid? Plenty of people had tried to murder her in various ways in less than a year over less than threatening someone with a gun. That just seemed to be how the city worked.

One of them fired and she wasn't exactly sure which it had been. She hesitated to turn, once again caught between not wanting to know and needing to find out.

"Drop it.

Ah, well... Guess that took the guessing out, didn't it?

Juniper turned slowly, trying to avoid looking directly at a very dead Rudy and landed on Jack's back. She didn't feel bad for the newly dead- never really felt back for people with thoughts like him- but that didn't mean she wanted to see anyone else kick the bucket.

Like a blonde streak in the bright lights of the pawnshop, she wasted no time in rushing headlong through Jack entirely so that she could make it to Davis before he did anything else dumb. He was already shaking like a leaf in a windstorm from watching Rudy die and couldn't seem to be able to summon up the courage to do anything, not even drop the gun like he had been ordered to do.

She lurched through the counter already reaching, got her hand around the nose of the weapon, and immediately phased it right out of the teen's hand. Using the rest of her momentum up she reeled her other arm back and clocked him right in the throat for good measure. Davis immediately stumbled, already clutching his throat and gurgling from the pain.

She made a show of easily dismantling the weapon in front of his watering eyes by phasing each separate part and dropping them at her own feet.

"Unless you wanna find out how it feels to have your bones pulled out of your own body, I'd suggest you get the @#$% out of here like you were supposed to." She wasn't great at looking scary like Jack could, but she was great at looking extremely bored, Entirely uncaring. She'd perfected the expression while being trapped in an environment where showing anything but straight-up fear around a specific person earned her swift, intentional pain.

Davis thankfully took the option to run a second time and scrambled for his life toward the back door appropriately as if his life depended on it.

She turned sideways (unwilling to turn her back on the kid fully again) and pointedly avoided looking at the mess from Rudy all over the counter. She wasn't entirely sure if she was going to have to try and get the gun away from jack, too. Would he let the kid go?