Riley listened intently while Ashton explained how they’d caught the bad guys. The beginning made sense, he’d done what Detectives do..he’d sat and he’d watched, and he’d figured out the patterns. This was a smart cop, Riley decided and smiled at him.

It was the next part that didn’t make any sense. Riley frowned again, and let him finish talking, trying to work through what he was saying in her head and figure it out without having to ask.

It didn’t work.

The migraine, the switching, the dogs being able to track down his…scent?

”Alright.” she said with a grin, ”Explain how it all went down. You’ve got me hooked on the story.”

"Alright," Ashton smiled. "Like I said, we figured out where he was going to strike. I was waiting when he got there. He didn't think to hide himself with his power. Just started stuffing jewelry into a gray sack. The guy was wearing a stocking face mask and way too much black. I stepped out of the shadows, and. Wham." Ashton smacked his palm into the back of his balled fist. "Smacked the back of his head. He turned. I traded places with him using my power. He got turned around. He dropped the bag. He ran. My head was throbbing. I called it in."

He looked at her frankly. "See, with my mutant power, I trade places with things. People. Objects. But if they're too big, it's hard on me. He was big. A headache. And when I trade places... whatever I trade places with... and, I guess, myself... is left smelling a little bit like a stick of bubblegum. The Cinnamon stuff. Big Red. Dogs tracked him by the smell." He shrugged with his hands. "Simple as that."

And there it was. First he was a cop…now he was a mutant. Man…that almost made Riley wince at the way it sounded in her head. Good thing it had all stayed in her head though…she didn’t have a problem with mutants…not at all. Usually they had a problem with her, and what she did.

But then again…she’d expected Ashton to have a problem with her profession too.

Riley smiled, ”Ahhhh excellent. You physically change places with things?” she asked, ”Just how big does something have to be before it gives you a headache?”

The questions were inevitable. ”Can you only change places with things…or can you make other things change places with things?”

And most importantly? ”I’d ask you to show me. But it wouldn’t work.”

There. He knew. Sort of.

So many questions. He could only answer them one at a time. He started from the top. How much was too much? "People-sized, I guess? I don't know. I've never tested my limits. I've never tried to make something trade places with something else, either."

It wasn't likely he'd be able to, though... unless his power had changed while he wasn't looking. "Mainly, it's good for getting out of jams... or into jams... why do you say it wouldn't work?" He eyed her curiously.

Why wouldn’t it work? Riley looked steadily back across the table. Just like a Detective, he had to ask more questions. Couldn’t just let it go…kind of like when she’d been talking about her job. That was okay though. If he was a mutant, he’d have found out soon enough anyway, even if it didn’t look like he used his powers a lot.

”It wouldn’t work…because mutant power things….don’t work around me.” she said it simply, she said it plainly, and she shrugged her shoulders. It had been a while since Riley had worried about what people thought…and she’d just wait and see.

”I’m not a mutant…but that’s kind of how it is.”

"Huh..." Ashton brushed a thumb across his chin and looked away for a second, to see if he was on some candid camera show or something. "That's strange." His focus swung back to Riley. "You're sure you're not a mutant? Because that sounds kind of like a mutant thing, and... what else would explain it?"

He was a logical man. A man of science, if not science fiction. He believed that things could usually be explained as more than just 'miracles'. This was one of those things. "Powers don't usually just stop." He assessed. That just wasn't how Ashton saw it work.

”Positive.” Riley said when Ashton asked if she was sure she wasn’t a mutant. ”I used to even carry the results around, just to prove it when people got up in arms during the whole registration thing.” she shrugged her shoulders, ”Most people thought I had ‘mutant-envy’ or some crazy thing.”

Riley’s ponytail tickled the back of her neck when she shook her head and gave Ashton a slight smile, ”I’m as normal as a person can get. At least genetically speaking.”

She waited a moment to let everything sink in, then leaned across the table, ”Creeped out yet?”

"Why would I be creeped out? Hold on a second."

Ashton slid away from the table and stood up. He took a step away from his chair, then focused on it. He tried to use his power.

Nope. Nothing.

"Nothin'."

Test concluded, he sat back down. The chair legs scraped against the floor slightly as he scooted back in. "Absolutely nothing. That means something." He looked at her expectantly.

”It means…” Riley said, raising her eyebrows at the expectant look on Ashton’s face. When he didn’t immediately say something she realized he was waiting for her. The realization brought another shrug of the shoulders from the dark haired woman across the table from him. He’d taken it well. At least so far…he took lots of things well. Riley was even more intrigued.

”I don’t even know when it started, or how it started.” she said, looking right back at him. ”I just know it works, and what the blood tests say.” she looked at where he’d stood, then let her eyes shift across the room where she nodded at another table.

”If you’d tried there…it would have worked.”

"Should I?" He asked.

If what this lady was saying was true, it wasn't the world's strangest thing. There was more to this world than what the science men said they knew, and knew they'd said, after all. Discoveries happened when people tried to do what they thought would result in result A, and they got result B. A theory could be smashed in an instant. Maybe she was a theory-smasher.

Did she want to test her theory?

Riley shrugged her shoulders yet again when Ashton asked if he should try. This wasn’t something outrageous, it wasn’t even going to prove anything she didn’t already know. ”If you want to.” she said, then was completely honest with herself, ”Besides, I’d kind of like to see.”

She paused to let him decide, then grinned, ”I know it will work though. I’m a proven phenomenon. They’ve even got a name for me.” Riley didn’t know who ‘they’ was…but Lori had said it. She made the little quotation marks with her fingers that some people seemed to be so in love with, ”Adapted.”

"Okay," Ashton shrugged. He got up, away from the table, turned to look at the other table, and tested her theory. It didn't work. "Nope." He said, efforts handily defeated. "Your theory got disproved."

Why had she thought it would work at all? Strange? "Do you suppose it has to do with proximity, rather than just your presence? Maybe if I tried it elsewhere in the room... but it looks like the lady behind the counter is giving us odd looks. Maybe we should finish up here, and try it somewhere else?"

Hmmm. She had meant for him to actually walk to the other table and try. She already knew about proximity. Riley opened her mouth to tell him that, but he kept right on talking. He also presented an idea. He wanted to go somewhere else to test out the his proximity theory.

Not that she cared….but Riley looked at the woman behind the counter…who was indeed giving them a strange look. She smiled and waved, then finished off her drink. Finished, she stood.

”Where did you have in mind?” She still didn’t point out the fact that she already knew about proximity. If he had something in mind…he’d find out soon enough.

"Nowhere specific," Ashton replied. "Alley. Park. Wherever we can. Just as long as we aren't attracting a bunch of attention while testing the limits of whatever power you've got. Some people don't like that, and... I don't feel like arresting anyone for being idiots tonight."

He scooped up his cup and drained it, then led away from the table to the trash can, and hurled it in. They'd already paid, right? Right. They could go.

"Up to you. Where do you want to see me show off?" Ashton said. He looked over his shoulder at Riley, waiting for a reply.

Riley raised an eyebrow when Ashton suggested an alleyway or a park. She had to laugh a little at the suggestion…where did she find these guys?

”Probably not an alleyway, but there are parks all over New York City.” she said, making for the doorway. He’d said that people didn’t like showoffs sometimes , and Riley couldn’t help but think how well she knew that.

”I don’t even do anything…but people react the same way.”

She paused and thought…yet another shrug.

”Then again…I made a guy blind once…apparently his powers had something to do with his eyes. Goofy kid.”