It was empty. Empty. He had searched the house, high and low, scouted first, then infiltrated.

There had been guards, several, and varied. Two on the entrance, one at each corner of the house. The man He had watched had even had two, on body guard detail. Made him think of the song from the movie. Whitney Houston. So beautiful. But he had been careful. So damn careful.

Careful. He had not even hurt anyone when He had infiltrated the mansion. He could have. He had wanted to. It would have been easy. Servants to silence, guards to guard himself against. Disposal. Many tools, at his disposal. String, fist, hand, blade, other. But he had been good and avoided them, evaded any alarm. And now, He was here.

Victrola mansion. Wealth on a scale the poet-rappers sing about. The safe was empty, and few was here. He cursed softly, in his head.

Where was it? Had someone been warned off? Tipped? To guard against… him? His power welled up inside of his body, like a surging wave, and he fought to ride the current, rather than control it. Break it. That would have been impo—improbable, he mentally corrected. Not impossible. Nothing is impossible. But improbable, sure. Yes. Quite. When the strength came, he had to go with the flow, and use it. Or it would tumble him, like a surfer who turned into a wave at the wrong time, and got broken in the curl. Tossed and turned.

He clenched and unclenched a fist. Knuckles were white. It prevented him from crushing the wood of a nearby desk in one fist’s grip. Would not do to leave marks. Hand print. Fingers, dug into wood. Evidence.

He took a breath, then another. There had to be something he was missing, some detail, some hidden location. The man was better than this. He would not have… nothing.

… there.

~~~

A short time later, he left the mansion. His prize was stowed away in a small black bag, under one arm. Again, no one on the premises had detected him.

On the premises.

As he had left the area, he had noticed a set of eyes. Across the way, in a neighboring mansion, behind a window pane. A woman in a hazard-vest orange sweater, with brown hair, and those eyes. She was watching. Calculation? Was that calculation in those eyes? Judgment? Assessment?! Who was she? Who was she?! Identity. Why, the assessment? Witnesses, He didn’t want’em. Could not do anything. Now.

Now….

Later.

Later, how could do something. Later.

The headlines the next day spoke of theft. Any witnesses, step into light. Speak. It was just a Tuesday morning. She had no use for this much intensity, this early. She had work to do.

——

Some time later, Lenna arrived at the location. She had dressed in the colors of condiments, very trendy, with a visor that had a W on it. W, for win? No. WcDonald’s.
What.

Yes. She lived in a mansion. Her Aunt’s mansion. She still needs must work for a living. She was an actress. That means fast food. Do not turn up your nose, think of the “character it builds.” Her aunt was right, of course. And the place was not “slumming it,” as was put to her. They had Class. For instance, they were Now Serving Breakfast. See? Not Just Hamburgers, So Much More. Sausage. Eggs. And potatoes, fried a different way than the normal one associated with Freedom. Very fitting, since she was not. They were Now Serving Breakfast.

Lenna clocked in, and got behind the counter, by the register. A poem came to mind:

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the Golden … door… Arches.

Tired, check. Poor, check. She fed them coffee and bacon and sugary water it was far too early to imbibe. Like a new colossus, Lenna lead the people to their freedom and opportunities. With her best American accent, of course. This was New York.

Sausage, egg and cheese biscuit. Dating today, are we not?

” Woulf you like to upgrade to a large drink? Can I interest you in an apple pie?”

Freedom means the opportunity to make bad choices at 7AM.

Since Lee had realized that she could actually turn off her siphoning to avoid being awake all night, she had had far fewer long, boring nights awake than she had ever thought possible while in a relationship.

But it wasn’t foolproof. She had to actually remember to turn her siphoning off for that to work, and Lee didn’t always remember.

The night before was one such example where she hadn’t turned her siphoning off soon enough. When Tarin had gone to sleep, Lee hadn’t thought that she quite needed to go for a run, but dawn came and she was still quite awake.

And very much craving something sweet.

So Lee had gone out for a walk to a particular little coffee shop that always had delicious pastries. It was definitely further than she normally went for coffee but in this case, for the strawberry danish she was planning on getting, it was worth it.

Except that when she got there, the place was closed.

Lee grumbled in frustration. She didn't particularly like any of the other coffee places within a couple blocks.

Then she saw a WcDonald’s up ahead. It definitely wasn't good, but she could get coffee and Lee thought that there was something sweet that she could get there.

They did, indeed, upgrade to the large drink. The pie was also in order. Americans, with their lust for sugar. She did not understand. Lenna filled the order and received payment with a smile, but this did not mean she did not judge them for dietary choices most foul.

The line moved along. Lenna built character. Hard work. Customer service. With a smile. Her best, she did. There was not even time to think on the strangeness she had witnessed the night prior.

Had there been news on her neighbors in the paper? No one had shared the details. She did not use the paper. No one had contacted her about any funny business, so…

She did her job and she did not think too much.

Eventually, she came to a customer who reminded her of a movie star. They had the appearance to have been in any number of films. Science fiction, fiction, non-fiction. Unpopular western. Hero flick. Her face kind of reminded Lenna of the widow of that president who had been assassinated, only she had better hair.

Lenna asked the woman what she could get her, in her best American accent. No Colombian slipped through. She practiced.

Nobody noticed the weird guy as her got in line. There were loads of weird folks in New York. In the line, too.

Into the restaurant and into line Lee went. Honestly, she couldn’t remember stepping into a WcDonalds since she had been buying Kevin Jolly Meals back in Toronto.

As she stood in line, Lee looked up at the menu. Then tried to see past the people in line in front of her to check if there was some sort of bakery showcase. Not that Lee was expecting anything huge, space was at a slightly higher premium in Manhattan than it was in Toronto, but as she got closer to the counter, she couldn't see anything.

And the menu didn’t show much in terms of desserts or sweets beyond “ice cream” (Lee was sure it wouldn’t have been able to be labelled as ice cream in Canada). Not that Lee had gone there often, but she was sure that there had been a lot more options in Canada. This place didn’t even have muffins.

Lee was just debating leaving and stopping at diner or something on the way back home when she was called up to the counter. ”Can I have a large black, please,” she ordered. Then after a couple moments pause added ”and two chocolate chip cookies?”

Lee may have spent the majority of her adult life living in New York City, but she was still Canadian.

A large black what-? Lenna did not know. Her whole body turned as she gazed up at the menu, for a sign of something black. She gazed a whole two seconds, and then she saw it. She turned, and quickly pressed the button on the register for one black… tea. The cookies, she found right away. One of their most popular sellers, cookies.

She read the order back off to the woman, and happily asked would that be cash or card? She was not at all prepared to be told black tea was not the appropriate item.

—

In the background, the weird guy moved. Looked, even. Impressive, when he was of average height. The big coat likely helped matters. And the big hat. Fedora? Trilby. He was impatient. Eyes flicked left and right. He sighed audibly when the order was announced as wrong.

— Lenna made amends. Fixed the order. Threw a free pie on. She could do that. It just came out of her pay. But who cares, she was not in this for the money. Finished the order.

She gave the woman a number and told her to come when it was called.

—

The next person in line approached. Lenna saw under his trillby, a face that— the man flew across the room, into a wall. Crunch thud. An even weirder man had been standing behind him, and he was the culprit.

She recognized him at once. He was not wearing a big coat or hat, to mask his appearance. He had a face like a Hollywood star that never ages, one who had entered the matrix, and done some silly gun films. You know the One. She had seen him the night before, in shade, crossing the grass. No mistaking the long hair and face though, or build. Lenna sensed where this was going.


”You are back.” she said.

“I’m thinking I’m back.” He said.

In broad daylight. Under cameras. Where his face could be recorded.

Stupid.

A guy walked up behind her, talking. “Hey Len. The drive thru is down. And registers. And—“

He winked at her. Then he reached up, over, and behind the counter. He hauled her up by her neck. Then, the screaming began. All the screaming, all the people.

Urk

The young woman on the other side of the counter looked confused when Lee ordered a large black. Lee was shocked into silence for a moment; surely ordering coffee at WcDonalds wasn’t that unusual that you had to spell out exactly what you wanted to that degree. Right?

It wasn’t like Lee had ordered a double double. At least then she would have understood the confusion.

After correcting the young woman and saying that she wanted a black coffee to go with her cookies, Lee paid, took her receipt, and stepped off to the side.

And saw that there was a free pie on the receipt.

Lee was about to step back up to the counter to say she didn’t need that pie, nothing had been messed up, the misunderstanding had been corrected before her order could have been made wrong when everything went south.

There was a man at the counter now, wearing a large coat despite the warm weather who was thrown against the wall by the man behind him.

Everything in the restaurant went into shocked silence for a moment as Lee sighed. This was why she had basically done nothing for six years beyond taking Kevin to school and stopping by the bar for paperwork and inventory. She couldn’t volunteer without a building collapsing on her and Tarin, and she couldn’t get coffee at WcDonalds without a mutant throwing another customer against the wall.

Then the man reached across the counter for the young woman, grabbing her by the throat, as the screaming started.

”Really?” Lee sighed. At least she still had energy from the night before and this wasn’t a pre-Tarin early morning coffee run where she was barely conscious.

Stepping forward quickly, Lee kicked at the back of the man’s knee, hard, hoping to drop him to his knees as she increased her siphoning. And if that didn’t get him to let go of the woman’s throat, she was prepared to make him.

Things happened quickly for the man, and for Lenna. Before she could think, really. A strong hand, grasped her throat. She was about to return the favor with a “force choke”, a rapidly shrinking bubble of telekinesis. She could not crush bones with tk, it only applied force equal to what she herself was able to apply… but she could choke plenty strong. And yet— someone else was attacking the man, before she could.

The thing about joints is, even if you’re mighty strong and durable, with a resilient body, a joint is still a joint. It will bend. If enough force is applied in the right area, it will bend. And so it did.

Lenna found herself falling, and the grip loosened and the man holding her dropped to one knee. Her feet hit floor as he quickly recovered from the unplanned pose. Lenna surged forward, rather than backwards, and thrust two thumbs at the man’s eyes. Eyes, like joints, just work.

He was bent slightly forward, from the knee kneel. So she got in under his guard, from out of his sight. Her hands came up, just as he began to get fully upright. She drove them, thumbs first, other fingers there to catch against the sides of his face. Lenna dug in with her heels, for balance and support, as she ground thumbs in eye sockets. She got the man good enough for pain, and seconds, beautiful seconds, of being blinded. But nothing fatal or permanent, as he reacted almond instantly, by pulling away. Then. He gave another reaction. He swung out blindly with one arm.

She was braced against the ground with feet, and turned slightly with the blow to lessen what might have knocked others senseless. Instead, Lenna took it on the cheek and— instant headache. Instant bruise. Her body went fully horizontal as she flew from the blow. But she was still conscious. She still had a reaction.

The weird guy in the coat groggily opened his eyes. “M’hat…” He murmured. Head hurt. He’d lost the hat. Could not feel it. Had He been… tossed? And hit the wall. He was spreadeagled on his back. And above him. “Wha’?”

A woman in a restaurant uniform was hovering above him.

Lenna had caught herself in an invisible bubble of telekinesis. Still horizontal. Floating, back towards the ground. Several feet above it. And him. Weird coat, no hat. But she had not hit the wall. Her eyes snapped open.

”We have the right to refuse service to anyone. Please leave.” Lenna said tersely. Past clenched teeth.

The sound, then, of several phone cameras powering on. His attack on electronics only went so far.

Beep. Recording. “Did you see—?”

“He totally—“

Hushed voices. Chatter.

The strong man screamed. Then He took a blind swipe at the nearest warm body, which happened to be behind him. The person who had kicked his knee. This whole thing was exhausting, and had probably been a bad idea.

The man dropped to a knee when she kicked him. That was good. She wasn’t dealing with someone completely out of her league. It still could be tricky with the energy that she currently had, though.

Plus the fact that they were in public

Lee honestly didn’t know what this guy was thinking doing this in a public restaurant in daylight.

But regardless of his reason, when he dropped to his knee, the man’s grip on the young woman’s throat was released and she was free. That was what Lee had been going for, that had been the current most important thing. Especially as he had picked her up off the floor.

Yet, while everyone else in the restaurant seemed to have been screaming, that young woman lunged forward toward her attacker to dig her thumbs into his eyes.

Damn, this girl was feisty, Lee couldn’t help but think. Not that it had saved her, as a moment later the man hit her and she also went flying across the restaurant. If Lee had only had more energy, maybe she could have stopped that. At least stopped the blow from connecting.

But before the young woman hit the wall, she just…kind of stopped in midair. And hung there. Was she the mutant who had done that, or was it someone else in the restaurant?

Lee didn’t have time to ponder that, as at that moment she could hear phone cameras (Really? You scream in fear, but then stick around to record it?), followed by a scream as the man turned to take a swing at her.

Upping her siphoning since it was really starting to look like she needed more energy, Lee easily dodged to the side due to her height and the fact that the man couldn’t really see.

Taking the opportunity of the man being off balance from the unlanded hit, Lee swept his leg, pushing the now exposed back of his shoulder to help tip him over.

There was an odd feeling. He felt less energetic, less agile. His attack missed. He still hadn’t regained sight. He missed seeing the leg sweep coming, as a consequence. He hit the floor. He hit it and turned the fall into a tumble. Rolled, regained feet. In a crouch.

As he moved and fought the woman, Lenna also moved to regain footing. She landed from her levitation position, and sat up. Her back was inches from weird man. This was fine. She could fight from here. Seated out standing, it made no difference. If she wished to get into melee, she could stand later.

Lenna raised her right hand.

The man lunged at the woman, from his crouch. Seemed his sight was back. An invisible bubble yanked it from under him, just as He was about to put his whole weight down on the step. As a result, he never reached his target. He crashed, directly to her left.

Lenna rubbed her hand. It had taken all her mental power to apply the required force and direction to do that. Or a great deal.

”He has superior strength,” she announced loudly, and blandly, to the room at large.

A metal napkin holder launched itself from its place on the table, into his skull.

He said ow.

She did not need to direct with her hands.

The man went down when she swept his legs, that was true, but he rolled as he hit and came back up to his feet. Not completely out of her league, Lee thought as she watched the man. But definitely a challenge.

At least the man seemed to be aggressive enough that he would be more offensive in this fight, Lee thought. And that’s exactly where she liked to be, on the defence,when she wasn’t entirely sure what she was up against and didn’t have surprise on her side.

Then he lunged toward her, as Lee had expected. She took a half step back as she braced herself, watching the man’s arms, shoulders, torso for any indication of what he was planning to do.

Except, he didn’t do anything other than fall flat on his face.

That was unexpected.

”He has superior strength,”

”Kinda guessed that when he threw a man,” Lee said, moving quickly (though not that quickly due to lack of energy) around the man to his side, staying out of his arm reach for the moment. And hesitated as a metal napkin dispenser came out of nowhere and hit him in the head.

Lee then moved in, closer to the man grabbing his wrist as she siphoned. Immediately after she got a secure hold on the man’s wrist, Lee dropped her knee onto the small of the man’s back as she pulled his arm with her, behind his back and pulling it up toward his shoulders.

The woman was smart, as well as skilled in martial combat. To move out of the way, to avoid being in the path of her missile, to take advantage of the opening, using leverage and joints to her advantage… These were all things Lenna healed would do. This was high praise. The woman also had strength to back the efforts. Very Good.

—

Her knee was on his back, his wrist, caught, arm pulled, hauled, behind… begging him. Begging him to… free it. Pain. She was using his body against him. Joints don’t move that way. Difficult to get moving, to extricate himself from this woman’s grasp. She had heightened strength, yes. Like him. Inferior, though. He was stronger, He should have been able to shake her free, and yet He was feeling tired. Drained. As if He had put in far more work than He thought He had, this fight. And also— something else.

—

Lenna knew it this man had a tougher body, his constitution might make the fight take longer. He might shrug off damage, might out weigh the woman. Rise again. Fight. And he had physical power she suspected outranked them both. So… Using joints and leverage was good. To think beyond the box was key. Thus… Now she attempted the force choke. To take his air, that was simply smart. No air, no fight.

The man felt the unseen bubble of force as it began to enclose his neck, felt it shrink. It applied human levels of force, but Lenna could apply a lot in one location if she focused. It would not crush his neck. He had the constitution for it. It would restrict air flow, any pressure on veins, key veins, can do so.

He began to struggle against Lee. Strong, for a moment. Then it grew weaker. It took a bit of time, but— the fight left him. Air left him. Consciousness… left him. Lights out.

The man was struggling to start with. But that was also why Lee had dropped (not just placed, but dropped) her knee into the small of his back and yanked his wrist so high toward his shoulder blades.

And the siphoning. Oh yes, the siphoning. As his energy was leaving him, causing his fighting to quickly become far less effective, Lee was getting stronger. Those first seconds, before she knew that she had the strength to restrain the person she was dealing with, were always worrisome.

It didn't take long for the man to pass out, less than two minutes. But that was almost a minute longer than Lee was expecting with how much she was siphoning.

Finally (after what felt like an eternity to Lee since she was trying to get him to pass out), Lee felt the man go limp under her. And while Lee brought her siphoning back down to normal, she didn't get up or let go of the man's arm. He'd taken longer to pass out than she had expected. It was possible he would wake up sooner, too.

"Please tell me someone's called the cops or something," Lee said as she looked up at the couple of staff still visible behind the counter. Rather than the people behind her who thought that filming was a better use of their phones.

Two minutes. Of strangling. Was freaking forever. Several seconds into it, maybe a minute? When Lenna got the feeling that maybe the other woman was doing more for putting the guy down than she was, somehow… she sort of stopped, and dialed back on the force choke. Choking was not really her thing, anyways. The guy had done it to her so she did it back.

Did the other woman have some sort of power drain power? Or, what? She was just freakishly strong. Stronger than the guy. But together, they put him down, so… eventually, she got up off the floor when it seemed he was not going to get back up. The guy was not down yet? Okay.

Since she was not force choking, while the woman kept kneeling on the annoying guy’s back, Lenna got out her phone.

”Yeah? 911. I want to report an assault. And also—“

She spoke for about a minute, about what she had seen and what she suspected. When the woman asked:

>>>”Please tell me someone's called the cops or something.”

Lenna called back: ”I am on it! They will be here shortly. He is a robber. And also, assaults people in poorly thought out and very public methods. Yes, Police, I am still here. Thank you.”

Lenna turned away from the scene with the man.

When Lee asked if anyone had called the cops yet about what had happened in the restaurant, what the man had done, the only answer she received was from the woman he had attacked saying that she was calling. Had called. That they would be there shortly.

It was good that someone had called, but really? The only one who called in a restaurant full of witnesses was the victim? That was bad, even for New York.

The young woman turned away then as she continued speaking on the phone.

That's when it hit her. The cops were coming. Unlike at the building collapse, she was going to have to talk to the cops about what had happened. About what she had done.

Lee had only wanted to get some kind of sweet pastry. And like so many times in her life, trouble had found her.

Lee didn't particularly want to be there when the cops arrived, she just wanted to make sure that this guy was taken care of. If the cops were going to be there soon, she didn't really need to hold onto this man who was passed out, right? If the cops couldn't deal with him like this, they couldn't deal with mutants in general, and Lee knew they had ways to do that.

Just to be sure, Lee tugged up on the man's arm a bit and when she didn't get much of a response, Lee let go of his wrist and stood up.

And while there were the recordings, most of the people had been behind her, and she hadn't looked back much. Surly that meant that she would be able to get out of there without having to speak with the police or being identified, right?

Slowly and trying to be as nonchalant as she could, Lee started making her way for the door out to the street.

”Hey. Wait.”

Footsteps sounded behind the woman. She was inching for the door. Lenna had not shouted the announcement. She was not projecting. And someone else was shouting something far louder, behind her. Probably a manager who wanted her behind the counter already. But she was kind of done with the job.

Lenna had thrown her apron at the manager and told him she was on break. If that was not enough for them, the break could be longer. That was fine with her. Not with the manager, but— Lenna could find another job. This was not her only option. She had contacts . And she really did not need the job. She had money. This was to build, how do you say? Character. Mostly to fill time and learn skills.

The woman seemed to be doing her best to escape unnoticed. Most people had not, well, noticed. Lenna was more perceptive. She was not leaving the job. She had to Return. Had to speak with law enforcement. The woman penalty also should stay too, but—

Lenna handed her the order that had somehow been filled. She then turned abruptly, and left her to her own devices. The woman could leave. Lenna let the food be her thanks. Maybe the woman wanted to avoid police.

She returned to her place by the counter and retrieved her apron. The manager began to complain, but she silenced him with choice words: she knew, she could tell. That was all Lenna stated. The manager promptly shut up.