The Cash Cow wasn't the most elegant of names for a jewelry store but the name fit the location. Rather than engagement rings, the store specialized in eccesories that were more artistic. They made custom pieces that were more unconventional but they also had a cheep banner stretched across the awning out front that read 'We buy Gold!'

It was the 'We buy Gold!' banner that had lured Sara back the the city. Since we had last seen this friendly everyday mutant feline, she had been building her own business. Her past experiences in the streets had taught her what a safe ware house was and her experience working for Luke Jacobs security had taught her more about security systems, so she ran a storage business. As long as customers paid their bills on time, their valuables were secure. If they didn't pay the bills.... Well then that's why Sara was walking out of a shop with a new wad of cash in her pocket.

finally earning her own felt weird. Sara wasn't exactly sure what to think of it. Other than that, nothing had changed. Sara still wore the same cloths for comfort. She shrugged into a long coat as she stepped out the door of The Cash Cow. Her head was bowed so that the rim of her fedora covered her eyes from the crowd. People stared. Sara ignored and drue the collar of her coat higher around her jaw line. Ninja turtle style.

Same old Same old.

Certain things lend themselves to a happy fulfilled life as a vigilante, like masks, mutations, the general ability to look like a bad a**. Others did not, such as, but not limited to, broken arms, daylight and a killer craving for a whopper. This was why Cafas was wearing normal things, like a nice pair of pants and a shirt made of the finest materials $10 could buy. Such was the life of one who was saving money and had to buy a shirt to accommodate his arm due to all his others not quite going with his mood, and by that he meant he needed something to go with the eye colour of frustration. He wore his pink shirt with swagger however.

Stupid arm.

What ho? A person stepping from a jewellery store in suspicious clothing? Clearly plotting was afoot, or a hand, or perhaps a nose. Time to follow. Cafas went into investigation mode. Clearly something was up with this person, he just had to find out what. So he dropped into step a few paces behind the unknown fedora'd, coated, money bearing clearly a criminal of some description. no-one went through that much effort to try and remain un identifiable without a very bad reason, and Cafas would get to the bottom of it.

Not know for subtlety by any stretch of the imagination, it was likely only a matter of time before his quarry noticed him, however, if and when they did, he was prepared. He would find out why they were taking such payments from stores, and whom they worked for.

For once Sara wasn't paying full attention to her surroundings. For the first few blocks Sara's attention was focused on the pouch that tucked in the folds between her vest and her coat. She was more concerned about pick pockets and just getting to the next place to stash her cash and spend it. Food... Food was a decent choice.

It wasn't until Sara turned a corner onto a less crowded road that she realized there was someone walking behind her. And it took another turn to realize this person was making the same turns as she was. Sara's lips pressed together around her long teeth. Ok. One more corner she thought as she took a second left. This time strolling into an alley way. with a dumpster and a fire escape. Stopping with her back pressed against the wall. If she really was being followed. She would try attempt to pull her fedora over her followers eyes. Her other hand grabbed the young man by the fabric on his shoulder, twisted her hand in the shirt, and she tried to shove him face first against the wall using firm pressure and speed.

"Who are you?" She asked.Leaning so that she could ask the question with her mouth just behind the man's right ear.

The interesting thing about bricks, you see, is they're non-metallic, very hard, and taste distinctly like pain. Cafas knew this, because he had just tried to cushion his blow, assuming it would be against the dumpster less than an inch away. This resulted in quite a drain on him, as his mutation scrambled to save him against something it had no power over. He very nearly passed, and certainly went limp as a boned fish for a second before regaining his composure.

Assessment of this situation suggests I'm not going to be able to do much against my assailant, not until, she? Yes she moves into a more unstable position.

So now he was being questioned? Well, he supposed it wasn't really unexpected, he had just been caught tailing the girl, and as a relatively tall and well-built male, he wasn't exactly the type one tends to trust when being tailed by. "Funny, I was about to ask you that, until this whole wall thing clearly." He attempted to fix said wall issue but found he lacked the energy after the brief try at evaporating brick. "However it seems I have little choice in the matter. I'm Cafas, pleasure to meet you."

Being a smart-ass will get you killed one of these days.

Sara mentally checked her stance as their conversation began. Oh and he wanted to give her lip. She grinned. Though she was still standing behind him. "Actually the funny thing is that someone who is clearly going to as for someone's name walks up to that person. Maybe extends a hand and says' Hi How are you?'" Sara shook the young man's T-shirt as she spoke as if mimicking shaking someone's hand as she continued. "'What's you're name? nice weather out here. bla bla blahhh.'"

Why couldn't people just jump to the point anymore? At least he had answered her question. So Since he'd given Sara a little bit of info, Sara returned the favor. "Sara. And the pleasure is all mine." Sara shifted her weight so she wasn't leaning so hard into his shoulder. She was still confident enough for the moment to not feel like she was giving too much slack, but the confidence had betrayed her before. "Please keep facing the wall, Cafas. So Cafas, I am anunsiating you name correctly Cafas, am I not Cafas? Why were you following me Cafas?" Sara asked. Really only caring about the last question as she was beginning to feel full of herself.

Shaken, nor stirred, Cafas couldn't help but smile at the sarcastic sounding response. It was always nice to meet an individual who understood sarcasm, even under these circumstances. It told you they had a certain mental calibre. Though whether this served him for better or worse was yet to be determined. He felt some weight shift off of him, but in his current state it wasn't quite enough for a decent attack, though maybe just enough to get him into a more sporting position. He tried to work out what he could even do with one broken arm while she said his name a lot.

Why am I following her? You'd think that would be self explanatory.

Cafas decided answering the question of the woman who had him pinned to a wall might be the best option for him. He sighed nonetheless. "I was following you because you have your hat pulled low, a form hiding coat with the collar turned up, you're pocketing large amounts of money after leaving a store and I have a vigilante streak a mile wide." there, he said it, he figured her for a criminal. He hoped very much that hadn't been a mistake. The telling her, not the assumption. "Current circumstances support my hypothesis. Normal people aren't this paranoid."

And don't make me eat brick.

The Vigilante thing made sense. This city seemed to grow and harvest them like a farm. Sara listened to the rest quietly then let silence fall between them for a moment as she thought about what to do or say. He wasn't fully wrong. Sara was once a criminal. In fact she had no qualms with becoming a criminal again if it was under the correct circumstances. But there were bigger more dangerous fish out there than her. She'd worked for some of them.

Then there was also something about this young man that reminded her of another friend of hers. Luke Jacobs. AKA Wraith. Ok. So he had her attention. "And you're probably familiar with the mutants at the Mansion." Sara sighed.

"Wouldn't a paranoid person who was being purposefully paranoid leave out the back entrance of the shop and not allow people to see a wad of cash?" Sara left her hat where it was so her face was still uncovered. She reached out and touched Cafas on the shoulder, "I'm not saying that you're entirely wrong, but by that definition that you have just given me, any mutant with a visual mutation, who doesn't want to be gawked at, is a criminal." As more and more mutant popped up, Sara could only imagine all prisons going broke trying to house them all.

"You're cute." Sara said. Not talking about his looks but the way he had just acted. "Child like cute." She amended. "The cash that I have right now, is legitament." Sara backed farther away from him so that she stood at one side of the alley way and he faced the wall at the other. Tail twitching.

Unfortunately, Cafas knew this new mutant was right. He was being a bit broad on his definition of potential criminals. Still, criminals weren't always great intellectuals. nor was Cafas it seemed. Well he really had misjudged this woman by the looks of it, though he doubted he was totally out of the ballpark with his estimation of her. It was just something about how she seamlessly blinded and immobilised him.

This is no time to be picking further fights with someone who has already proven more than capable of beating you.

"Damn I was going for overzealous and moralistic. I guess I just don't pull it off as well as I'd like."

You know we both have to live in here, so I'd appreciate you not getting us killed.

Mouths, they have a mind of their own. Cafas stayed facing the wall, though did stretch a little; the impact hadn't exactly been comfortable. Something he touched felt metallic. He tested to find out if the metal was exposed. Something was unfortunately covering it, by the feel of it paint. Cafas' knees threatened to give out as a pounding headache set in. He was making too many mistakes. He let go of his metal object and instead steadied himself against the wall.

"Does everybody in this festering hive of scum and villainy know of the mansion? Or do I just have a knack for finding them?" He was not pleased about the headache. It hurt. This made him grumpier. He tried to hide it. "Well if your money is not ill-gotten I apologise for my misjudgement of you." He kept his voice apologetic, despite the fact that at about that time his eyes were pink, pulsing black, in time to the throbbing in his head. "In a world of mutants I still never consider the possibility one would like to hide their abilities. It's not as if I don't understand what it's like to be persecuted for ones genetics."

You sure are a jerk Johnson.

Sara smirked. It seemed that he was still giving her a little lip. Should the circumstance be any different she might be annoyd but right now, it was fun. A fun that she hadn't had in a long time and she began to realize exactly how much she had missed this city. "Are you kidding. the mansion seems to be the fastest growing rumor since Big Foot." Sara shifted her weight and her hunters eyes picked up on a little something sticking out of Cafas's pocket. Old habit's die hard and Sara had been sure that she'd kicked the theft one, but this would be in entertainment. "Witch come to think of it, I suspect big foot is a mutant too." She mused and continued. "A few years ago, I used to live at the mansion. Tell Sam 'hi' for me."

Target lock.

Sara's eyes shifted to the left pocket of Cafas's pants. There was something inside just large enough to see that it wasn't papers or trash. A wallet? Sara wasn't sure but he'd already done all the accusing then apologizing. Why not have a little fun now. "Apology accepted." Sara worked to keep the mocking tone out of her voice. She wasn't trying to be mean, it was a statement that was just automatic and so could come out sounding unsinsere. Though that made no different with what Sara was going to do next.

"Broken arm or not, you look like you could be fun Cafas." Sara repeated his name again and she took on step closer to him. "And I admit that you're not completely wrong about me." As she spoke she plucked what ever it was in Cafas's left pocket out with a smooth practiced movement. Then uickly she ducked and danced out of reach around the corner of the industrial sized dumpster. Amber eyes looking down to see what she had.

Before Cafas knew what was happening the weight in his pocket was gone and the other mutant had disappeared behind the corner of the dumpster. "OY!" Cafas' good hand shot into his pocket to confirm what he suspected. She had pick pocketed him. Well he could not have that, especially not given that what she had taken was his x-communicator. That one was truly an important piece of kit.

Smooth talking b****

He gave chase, and nearly ran right into the other mutant, who was standing just out of sight of where he had just been. Well, perhaps she had just been messing around. He was inclined to believe so, given how she'd been speaking before. He sighed with relief.

Fighting one handed would have been interesting...

"I'm going to need that back, and you can probably say hi to Sam yourself, I doubt he's far from his own, I don't expect he'll reply though." Cafas an expectant hand, wishing he had taken better care with his communicator to start with. His wallet he could live without, if he lost the communicator and something big went down, well, Sam would likely encase his head in ice.