((OOC: This happened on Jul 30, 2010. Invited players: Jocelyn, Alina, Shinny Shin Shin.))

It just didn't fit. No, it didn't fit at all... Shin shifted uncomfortably in his seat, glancing around the police station out the door of an office. There were other desks, other officers. He swung a blue leg over a blue leg, wished for bigger pants, and wondered idly why he, an X-man, was here.

No, it just didn't fit at all. An X-man working with the police. It was strange. Sam had said the officers would eventually get used to it, but things still hadn't improved. He got the feeling they looked down on him. Sam had said it might have been because honorary X-men officers got badges without having to go through all the training most officers on the force did... (even though he had gone through a few classes, and certainly been put through his paces). Maybe, they'd get used to it... or maybe something would have to change. Shin still wasn't certain what that 'something' would be.

Another shifting, one leg dropped from its perch atop the other. Shin winced. Honorary officers, it seemed, didn't get fitted pants or shirts. He wasn't tight with the idea of serving alongside the police yet, but his pants were certainly tight with him.

No, that didn't fit at all, either.

A day working alongside an officer, that's what the plan was. He still didn't know how good a plan it would be.

Shin swung his focus back to the woman behind the desk, and smiled weakly. She'd be his partner for today. "So..." Shin started weakly.

He didn't expand on that thought. He just let it float in the air.

Jocelyn had known it was going to be a bad day right from the moment the phone had rung on her bedside table. Wear blue today, they had told her. Wearing blue was like painting a freakin' target on her back. Wait for it, it got worse. The reason for the uniform? She was getting saddled with babysitting duty.

Sure, on dead trees it looked good: the NYPD was understaffed and underpowered and the X-men were willing and able to lend a hand fighting crime for free in order to promote peace and good will and lawfulness and rainbows and unicorns and all that jazz.

In reality, they were really just a bunch of under-trained and unpredictable vigilantes dressed in... oh my those were tight pants.

The prickly detective had been all set to glare as he entered, but she turned away with a sniff and adjusted her reading glasses to hide a smirk. She wasn't the only one that was wishing for more comfortable clothes. At least hers fit well enough, or as well as it could over the layers of kevlar and flame retardant long underwear. Long underwear. In July. She was going to die of overheating long before any pyromancing delinquents got to her.

Somewhere, someone had a complete file on the Asian X-man sitting in front of her. It would tell her his name, birth date, mutation, details on what training he'd had... or it would if she had access to it. Whoever had his file hadn't seen fit to share it with her. Jocelyn had gotten nothing more than a pat on the back and a, “Have fun!” Right.

“So.” She echoed the Asian's sentiments. “What do you do?” He smelled like a psychic, but she couldn't tell what kind. If they actually ended up in some sort of situation today, that would be really helpful to know.

Touring New York was like walking around in a mouse maze. Alina felt like a mouse, small and scared of the looming city. The day was warm and she felt tired from all the walking. She stopped at a vendor and bought a bottle of water and a bag of Skittles, a new favorite treat since coming to New York. She turned the corner, chomping on Skittles the whole way, and found herself in a viewing area overlooking the Statue of Liberty. This is what she had traveled so far to see.

It seemed huge, even from a distance. The water that stretched between Alina and the statue was gray and choppy. She seemed beautiful and elegant, and welcoming. Remembering all those people who came to the U.S. looking for a new life and seeing this beautiful green lady greeting them caught Alina's breathe. She was an stranger to this land herself. Her first sight of the “Land of Dreams” had been of the airport.

Saddened at this thought, Alina fumbled with her Skittles, spilling them everywhere. Cursing herself at her clumsiness, she attempted to clean up her mess, which seemed futile, since their was trash everywhere. As she bent down, she noticed a pair of shoes standing in front of her. Slowly, she looked up and met the face of a very sunburned man in dark glasses. His nose was protruding so far from his face, it looked comical, and his skin was so sunburned it looked Valentine's Day pink. Most of his face was covered with a hat and scarf, which was odd considering the weather, and he wore a long coat, also odd. Alina straightened up, wondering what this strange man could want.

“Um... Hello there,” she said, always polite. “Can I help you with something?”

The man pointed his long nose down at her and removed his sunglasses. His eyes were extremely black and beady. He smiled at her in a pleasant way, but his teeth were small and sharp. Alina took a step back, her heart racing.

“Excuse me, little one,” He said in an Japanese accent with a shockingly high voice. “I was wondering if you could tell me where I might be able to find some tako.”

Alina relaxed a bit. He was just a nice man asking for help, that's all. “I'm sorry, sir,” She replied, cocking her head to the side in confusion. “I don't know what a... tako is.”

The man laughed, a high-pitched squeaky laugh. “Forgive me, I should have explained.” He began removing his hat, scarf and coat. Alina gasped. He looked like a very large, pink pig and white, angelic wings protruded from his back. He flapped them lazily in her direction, ruffling her hair.

“Tako is Japanese for octopus.”

He lunged at her with such speed, Alina had no time to react. He grabbed her by the shirt and pulled her into his arms. Alina couldn't help it. She screamed. Loud. Her feet were no longer touching anything. She looked down and the ground was slowly shrinking away. Alina couldn't think right. She tried to force herself to ink all over her kidnapper, but she just couldn't control it. Instead, she turned a light shade of red that matched his skin. Great, she thought. This will help!

They flew towards the Statue of Liberty and Alina stopped struggling. If he dropped her now, she would crash into the water so hard she would die, no matter how good a swimmer she was. She waited for her fate to be decided. Hopefully someone had called the police after hearing her scream, but it was unlikely. It was so loud in New York, her scream would have been drowned out.

Suddenly, they stopped climbing and she was dumped on her feet. Ears still popping, she looked up to see the man... although pig was a more accurate description, standing there, rubbing his hands together. They were on the torch of the statue. He grabbed her arm to prevent her from escaping, like that was gonna happen, and held her close to the edge of the torch. He was trying to frighten her by dangling her over the edge, and he was succeeding. Alina felt tears run down her face.

“Now,” He said with glee in his creepy high voice. “How best to cook you...”

Sigh... The toughest thing was always fitting this description into the fewest words.With a multifaceted power like his own, there was just so much to list.

Shin did his best. "I make and control triangular barriers of various sizes and colors. I can use them to make floating platforms, block bullets, and create a variety of shapes... the triangles are diamond-hard and razor-sharp." Did that cover it? He paused, then continued, focusing harder with his eyes. "I can also see and calculate exact distances and angles. I'm good at math."

He didn't list Porygons, or unpracticed abilities.

Would a cop even know what a Pokemon was? Shin didn't think cops were usually roleplaying game-savvy. The basics, he'd already covered. "I can carry things on platforms, cut things, and wall attacks. What about you?" He turned the question back on her. "What do you do? Human or mutant?"

It was a valid question.

Psychic smell plus 'barriers' descriptor equaled force fields. Diamond hard, razor sharp, and creating a variety of shapes with a force field sounded like a certain glowing pink girl from the tippy top of the most wanted list.

“Sounds useful,” she conceded with a shrug. 'Useful' could do a lot of damage, either intentionally or otherwise. Since he was supposedly one of the good guys most likely any damage he'd cause would be of the unintentional variety. One would hope. Though, maybe they'd get lucky and he wouldn't have to do anything at all today other than sit in the car.

As for his questions, “Mutant. Heightened sense of smell.” Heightened may have been a bit of an understatement, but it made for a nice, simple explanation.

“And your name? Mine is Jocelyn Banks.” She didn't go for the whole fancy name plaque on the desk kind of thing. It seemed a bit pretentious for a back corner office filled with second hand furniture that still smelled vaguely like the previous owner, a brandy drinking detective that had left his butt imprint in the chair and his dirty coffee mug in the window sill.

She stood as he was about to answer and gestured for him to follow as he was speaking. They had patrols to do today, which hopefully meant nothing more exciting than driving round and round the town making sure people felt like they were being watched. Maybe they'd even set up a speed trap once rush hour ended and it was actually possible to speed.

They had barely even climbed into the car (Cinnamon Gum's usual ride, little silver wrappers littered the ground around her passenger's feet) when Captain Cynthia Myers' voice crackled to life over the radio, “Banks, change of plans. We need you down by Liberty island ASAP. Hostage situation up on the torch apparently.”

Jocelyn didn't voice the few choice words that came to mind, and was glad that her triangle barrier kid partner wasn't the type or psychic that could read what she was thinking. Instead, she opted for something a little less likely to make a sailor blush, “And this is why we have sirens.”

SLAP!

The pig-man's stubby fingers raked across Alina's face in a devastating slap. Her cheek was sore already and this slap literally spun her in a circle. She didn't see stars, they were more colorful, flashing blotches. Her nose was bleeding slightly and her lip was swollen. Her arm hurt from where he had grabbed her and dangled her over the edge. She felt like one big sore, but was thankfully still alive. For now.

“I know what you are,” He snarled. His grin had been replaced with an angry smirk after she had proved her unwillingness to cooperate. “If you change now, I will make your death quick and painless. Then I can enjoy my delicacy.”

Alina gulped back a cry. Her body hurt so bad she thought she would faint. Part of her wanted to change into her octopus form and be done with it, the other part of her screaming defiance. She was too tired to shift now anyway. All she could do was wait.

Frustrated at her silence, pig-man lashed out at her with his foot, catching her in the ribs. The kick sent her tumbling over backwards and she almost fell over the edge. She curled into a ball around her throbbing side. She then noticed flashing blue and red lights far below. Relief filled her whole body, but she knew pig-man had seen the flashing lights too. He laughed menacingly, which sent chills up Alina's spine.

“Too bad your little cop friends are going to be too late.”

Alina broke down and sobbed.

>> “Sounds useful,” Jocelyn shrugged.

Shin gave a one-shoulder shrug in response. "Eh." It seemed neither of them really felt into this whole 'team-up thing'. She certainly wasn't bouncing in excitement hearing his power description. It was making him less willing to bounce with excitement over her power.

Heightened smell certainly wasn't an amazing-sounding power, anyways. Was there more to it than that? She just... smelled good.

Well... Maybe she was like a bloodhound? It could be useful... whatever.

He gave a single nod of understanding. Yup. Now they both knew what they could do.

He rose as she gestured, and did as she probably wanted. He was being led like a puppy now.

"Tetsuya Shinbo," He replied to her introduction, as they walked. "Shin, for short." Accent on the 'i' sound, like Sheen. He didn't give her his codename. He wasn't gung-ho on codenames these days. It was far cooler giving your name dramatically. Or, at least he thought so.

The buckle clicked into place as he got in the passenger side of the squad car. He eyed the wrappers. It was messy. As least there weren't donuts, though.

Actually, now he kind of wanted a donut... or maybe a maple bar... his stomach didn't grumble just then. Nope. Nobody heard that. And there certainly wasn't enough space in the seat for him to cross his legs in tight pants. He sat simply, to avoid any uncomfortable shifting.

Luckily, he didn't have long to sit idly by. The radio rose from the dead to give them a mission.

It was a hostage situation... he didn't like those. Not that he'd ever dealt with one...

Shin looked to Officer Banks, seriously.

>> “And this is why we have sirens.”

She delivered a witty one-liner.

"... Yup." Shin replied, gripping his knees. Why was he suddenly wary of his seatbelt's ability to keep him in his seat? "Let's go."

Not that he needed to tell her anything at all.

Sometimes Jocelyn loved her mutation. Other times she really wished it had manifested itself some other way. Smelling the New York harbor from two miles away didn't help her get there any faster. Time bending or teleportation... those would be useful.

As it was, the flashing lights at least did a pretty good of scattering taxis, buses, and civilians from her path. Car Moses would have been proud.

Another minute and she was wishing to trade in for the ability to fly instead. Boats were swarming the docks, headed for Liberty. More boats swarmed at the base of the statue. None of them were going to get her to where she needed to be: on top of the torch.

Curses.

“Your magical rainbow thingies can't get us up there by any chance, can they?”

At this point, Alina just wished it would end. Her body was one big hurt and she couldn't even think straight. The pig mole thing was taking a break from beating her and promised to return shortly with some sort of spice he proclaimed was good with fried octopus, she hadn't really paid attention to his rambles. It wasn't like she was going to go anywhere. She could hardly move. It took all her effort to pull in air through her cracked, bleeding lips and whistle out a shaky breath.

The sirens seemed to be getting louder. Maybe more police officers had arrived. She tried to sit up, but the attempt caused her head to roar loudly. Instead, she wiggled over to the edge of the torch and looked. More and more flashing cars were arriving by the minute, but no one was on the island yet. She raised her arm slightly and waved her arm slowly from side to side. Hopefully someone would see her shaky movements. Someone would come. Someone would save her...

She feinted, arm outstretched, head turned toward the edge of the torch, too weak to stay awake.

Rainbow... Magical... Thingies? Shin eyed her skeptically. Was she serious?

"Um." Who'd said anything about rainbows? Not that he couldn't summon rainbows, but... it was simply an odd request. Did he come off as a rainbow sort of guy? Was there something he didn't know about, some vibe he exuded?

Shin supposed it really didn't matter. It was a valid question.

"I can summon make a platform, any size, any color, and carry us to the Statue, or I can summon up something for us to ride." He answered her question honestly. Shin took a deep breath, focusing on Porygon.

It wasn't that he didn't want to show off any rainbow platforms today, but they simply lacked the balance and control his default steed had. He didn't want to force the nice detective to hold onto him while they were riding (especially on a day where his pants were too tight). He was already uncomfortable.

Shin sort of wanted to keep all platform rides Kealey-exclusive, as well. Was that... wrong of him? He didn't think so.

As he focused, triangular shards of various sizes and colors appeared, forming the frame of the Pocket Monster. Out came the face, and up jutted the tail. In a minute, it was there, with eyes narrowed in fierce determination, ready to carry them to the torch. Shin sat down on Porygon's back, and glanced towards the detective.

"Get on," He said, with a hint of impatience. He wasn't showing off. Someone's life was in danger. They needed to get there quick. The quicker they left, the sooner they'd be there.

Once she was aboard, Shin lifted off, towards the torch.

((OOC: Kat, feel free to direct how Shin approaches the torch with his flight plan. This ought to be dramatic. ))

Jocelyn didn't waste any time staring at the angular creature vehicle thing he conjured. So what if it looked strangely familiar? If it got her to the top of Liberty faster than a boat and a long spiral staircase would, she didn't care what it looked like.

She swung her leg over the back end of... the thing and wrapped her arms firmly around Shin's middle. She hoped to god he knew what he was doing.

It was kind of like a motorcycle in shape, but in every other aspect it was completely different. It was silent, smooth, had a really uncomfortable seat, didn't smell like exhaust, and it flew. It actually flew.

And quickly, at that. Jocelyn barely had time to catch her breath before they were arcing across the sky, already halfway to the statue. By the time she positioned herself to hang on with one hand and drew her gun, they were circling below the torch.

Porco Rosso was dangling his captive dangerously close to the edge.

“Police,” she announced loudly, “Step back from the edge. You don't have to do this. No one has to get hurt.”

She really hoped that if the snout nosed villain up there decided to release his catch that their pastel colored ride was quick and strong enough for them to snatch her out of the air.