"Ugh... does it have to be so hot??" Alex groaned as he wiped the sweat from his brow with a damp cloth as he took a seat on a bench outside one of the many malls of New York City, and thankfully the bench was under the shade of a tree. He had just finished having lunch and was considering buying an ice cream as well, but he needed to sit down and take a breather. The temperature was over 100 degrees, and Alex felt like he was melting from the heat... and he was sweating so much he was soaked. He knew for a fact that he would be cooler if he removed his leather jacket, but he was currently wearing his malachite bracers on his lower arms and the leather jacket hid them from view. Anyone with a retail eye or an eye for jewels would know that the bright green bracers that went from Alex's elbows to his wrists were made from a solid piece of malachite, which was a gem stone.

Wiping his brow again, Alex squeezed the cloth once he was done mopping his brow, and a lot of sweat came out of the cloth. No wonder he was feeling thirsty and hot. Taking a sip of the slush puppy in his hand, Alex smiled slightly with relief before glancing around. The outside of the mall was rather active, despite it being so hot. Mothers with their children were moving quickly so their kids wouldn't get heat stroke, and several people looked red in the face from the heat... and every one of them were wearing shorts and short-sleeve shirts... which made Alex stick out since he was wearing pants and a black leather jacket... which was insane in this heat. Maybe I should consider turning my bracers into a belt when the temperature is this bad. I'll be able to leave the jacket behind then. Alex thought as he glanced around some more.

Taking another gulp of his slush-puppy, Alex heard a splat sound and glanced at his right shoulder... and saw that a bird that was in the tree had nailed his jacket on the right shoulder. With a groan, Alex stood up and started to walk towards the bus stop, hoping that the bus that would take him back to his motel would arrive soon. As he glanced around though, he noticed a stray cat running around the parking lot of the mall, and several cars were trying to avoid it... and Alex was starting to wonder if he should get it out of the parking lot and onto the grass where it wouldn't do as much harm.

Emily stood quietly waiting for the bus. She had been driving the Hurst occasionally, but she preferred public transportation. It was much easier and faster to get around in the congested New York streets. Then undead girl wore a white top with lacing around the neckline that went up to her chin. The lacing was thick enough to cover her scars that encircled her neck. She wore a pair of long, tan slacks that hugged her skin all the way to her ankles. White boots made her three inches taller. Gold jewelry adorned her ears, wrists, and belt.

All around her, people were suffering from the blistering heat. But, not a drop of sweat fell from Emily’s forehead. Her skin was a perfect pale color. She was happy she couldn’t feel the heat. The woman had had a wonderful morning shopping for clothes and scented candles. Not that she could smell, but people loved scented candles as gifts. Now she was going to go back to the funeral home and meet a florist for an upcoming burial.

Emily noticed a small kitten dodging the busy parking lot of the mall. She wondered if the little guy had lost its mother. She called out to the kitten to try to get its attention so it would come to her, but the small furball was too frightened to pay any attention to the woman. Emily was deciding if she should leave her bags where she stood and try to catch the little critter, but her attention was drawn to a man in a leather jacket. Why in the world was he wearing a jacket so heavy? The absurdity of it all. She wondered if he had something to hide. Had he been stealing at the mall? But the man appeared to be an honest man. Appearances could be deceiving. Maybe he was a mutant with tentacles, or wings, or something else you could hide in a jacket.

A cry was made from a woman pointing into the parking-lot. “Madison!!” A small toddler, maybe four years old, had wandered into the parking lot. She seemed to be going after the kitten. The little one reached the kitten and picked it up gingerly. It looked like the girl was going to make it back to her mother, when a monster of a truck turned the corner way too fast. The driver seemed to be on the phone and paying no attention to his surroundings.

Emily dropped her bags, ready to run into the street for the young girl and kitten.

As Alex stopped at the bus stop and took another sip of his slushy drink, he started to consider maybe buying a loose white cotton button down shirt that had long sleeves so he could still hide the malachite bracers that were on his wrists, while keeping cool in a hot environment like this. The black leather jacket just wasn't going to cut it in this heat. He knew for a fact that the green T-shirt he was wearing was completely soaked from his sweat, but he had put on a whole bunch of deodorant that morning so there wasn't any smell.

As Alex waited, he started to notice a young woman with several bags of accessories in her hands call out to the kitten, trying to get it to come over to her in order to get it out of the parking lot. Alex was about to think nothing of it when he did a double take of her forehead. Everyone there was sweating to the point that they were soak, though he was sweating the most... but this woman wasn't sweating at all. Not a drop. Her skin wasn't red either... she was actually looking a little on the pale side. Now that was odd... almost as odd as a guy wearing a black leather jacket in 100 degree temperatures.

Alex's head wiped around when he heard the fanatic voice of another woman, and saw that she was calling out to her little girl, whom was making a B-line for the kitten and picked the small animal up in her arms. Not exactly a wise idea, since there was no telling if the kitten was carrying any harmful viruses, and it might scratch the little girl out of fear, but that wasn't what the mother was screaming about. A large heavy duty pickup truck had rounded a bend so fast that it had tipped slightly as it did so, and it was going down the parking lot road towards the child... and the driver wasn't paying attention because he was on the phone! From where the mother was, there was no way she was going to reach her child and pull her out of the way before the truck hit her. The woman that didn't sweat dropped her bags and was about to run out there to save the child as well, but there was no telling if there was enough time for her to save the child either.

However it didn't matter if there was enough time for either woman to react fast enough, for Alex had reacted instinctively and dropped his slushy, causing the blue liquid to go all over his new boots, as his cyan eyes started to glow a bright green. Alex's arms quickly reached towards the child and two rods of malachite shot out from under the leather jacket, ripping the sleeves to ribbons as they did since they were growing in size till the rods had the diameter of a base ball. The two rods combined as they shot towards the child, and glowed a greenish hue as they fused together so Alex had more control over the malachite. The combined rods quickly reached the child and opened up, forming into what looked like a bright green car seat, and swept the child off of her feet in a way that she fell back into the malachite chair, and a malachite harness grew out from the seat and wrapped around the child and the kitten as the rod retracted back towards Alex. He and pulled the child out of harm's way with several seconds to spare... and the driver didn't even seem to notice as his truck roared passed, still yapping away on his phone.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Alex slowly lowered the unharmed child onto the ground before the malachite harness retracted as well, and the malachite car seat retracted as well, leaving the child sitting on the ground next to Alex, but not in the puddle of blue slushy. Once the malachite rods were fully retracted, Alex glanced over at the speeding truck, lifted up his left arm so he could be looking at the bracer on that arm and at the truck's license plate at the same time... and an engraving of the truck's license plate appeared on the bracer. His eyes still glowing green, Alex knelt down to the girl to see if she was alright. "Sorry if I scared you. Are you alright?" he asked sweetly, and the cat only looked at him as if to say 'what they heck just happened?' Alex was so preoccupied with the child's safety that he didn't notice everyone around him running away, afraid of him because he was a mutant.

Emily was ready to run out into the street. She wouldn’t have time to grab the child and run. She would just have to push the girl out of the way and bare the impact of the truck. Lovely. But before she could sacrifice herself, the man she had noticed before suddenly began to grow. Not his stature, but his arms. Emily knew he was hiding something!

His arms seemed to be made of some sort of greenish rock. They reached out and scooped the little girl up in a small seat. How very clever of him. Emily noticed people beginning to run from the scene. It took the undead girl a second to figure out why. It disgusted her that they were running from a man saving a child. It was because he was a mutant. It was because he was different. Ugh! If she were a man she’d spit on the ground.

The man gently deposited the girl on the ground near his feet. The girl, Madison was it, had been holding on the kitten quite fiercely. Now the kitten struggled to get free. Emily walked over to the little girl. “Thank ya so much for savin mai little kitten. Cain I have her back, please?” It really wasn’t her cat. But she believed the little furball had had enough excitement for the day.
The little girl smiled and handed the kitten to Emily. She stood and reached out to her hero’s arms. “Pweddy gween!”

Suddenly the girl’s mother came up. Where had she been this whole time? She reached out and slapped the hero in his face. “Don’t you DARE touch my daughter! You FREAK!!” She grabbed the child and stormed off.

A small crowed had formed around the two and the kitten. Jeers were being made. Hateful words about mutants. One delinquent threw his soda can at the man.

Emily hadn’t seen this type of hate since her sit-ins during the 60’s. This was disgusting and horrific. Whatever happened next, Emily would follow the hero. If he fought, so would she. If he ran, she would be right beside him.

Seconds after Alex had asked the little girl if she was alright, the woman that didn't sweat knelt down next to him and thanked the child for saving her cat, and asked to have it back. The child handed the terrified animal back, and gave Alex the biggest smile he had ever seen as she said that his malachite was beautiful. The last time Alex saw such a smile was on his niece's face when he brought her a Christmas present. As the child reached for him though, Alex's right cheek exploded with pain and heat as the mother slapped him across the face. She hit him hard enough, and since he wasn't expecting it, that Alex went from his kneeling position to being on his rear end, holding his throbbing cheek. "OW!" Alex exclaimed just before the mother called him a freak and rushed off with her daughter in tow.

Alex slowly stood up while rubbing his swore cheek, which was soon going to be red and swollen from how hard she hit him. He glanced over at the woman holding the kitten, and finally realized that most of the people there had fled, while those that had remained had formed a circle around him and the woman. Glancing around and the crowd, Alex knew exactly where this was going to be headed. "Mutie! What the heck were you thinking?! Touching that woman's daughter with your power?? You contaminated her!" said one man as he prodded a finger at Alex. "Why do you mutants even exist?! Can't you just curl up and die so we can live our lives peacefully?" A woman shouted as she glared at him with a look that would've made him drop dead if looks could kill. "That guy in that truck was a friend of yours, wasn't he? An attempt to fake being a hero so we would like you! How stupid do you think we are?!" another man said as he threw an unopen can of soda at Alex... which the malachite manipulator caught in mid air with a bare hand and checked the date of the can before he wiped off the top of the can, then opened it and took a sip since it was still cold and he was still sweating a whole bunch. That one action that Alex just did made it clear that he didn't really care what people said about him at all. "All I did was use my gifts to save another person's life. And you condemn me for this? Geez, and you humans wonder why my kind doesn't like you." Alex stated calmly after he swallowed.

Another man snorted at this, walked over to his car, grabbed a baseball bat, and came back over to the circle of people that had Alex and the woman surrounded. See the man coming back with a bat, Alex gave the woman a worried look through his glowing green eyes. "Ma'am, you should leave. This could get ugly." Alex stated as he unzipped the jacket and let it drop off if his shoulders to the ground, revealing that his forearms were encased by the malachite bracers from his elbows to his wrists... and that his green shirt was soaked with sweat to the point that it was sticking to his skin so the tattoo on his shoulder was visible though the material... along with all of the scars that littered his upper arms. The shirt hid the scars on his chest, stomach, and back, while the malachite hid the scars on his forearms. Alex wasn't running. He was standing his ground and was going to fight if he had to.

But only if he had to. What he wanted to do was to get these people to forget the idea of attacking him and to leave him alone, and at the moment they were beyond rationally talking it out. He had no choice but to scare them away. Thankfully that was quite easy with his power. "If you people are asking for a fight though, I will give you one, but you will be the ones to strike first." Alex stated as the malachite grew into his hands so he was holding a sword hilt in each hand, and from those hilts grew two three three foot long blades, each one with a bunch of jagged razors on their blade edges, and extremely sharp. The razors started to rotate along the edges of the blades so the swords were more like chainsaw swords, and they started to make a whistling sound because of how fast the razors were moving. "Leave me be. I don't want to hurt you." Alex stated firmly as he slightly narrowed his glowing green eyes. Clearly, several of the people were spooked at seeing what Alex could do with his power, and started to back away. The man with the bat only laughed. "You're just trying to intimidate us! For all I know you couldn't hurt a fly with that!" The man stated, and Alex glanced in that man's direction. "You don't recognize the material that my saw swords are made of, do you? It's malachite, which is twice as strong as concrete. That bat of yours will be nothing but saw dust if you attack me with it. I'll say it again, please leave me alone." Alex stated calmly, though it was clear that he was ready for a fight if it came, and his scars showed that he had been in his fair share of battles. Several more people left, not wanting to be carved up by Alex's weapons if a fight broke out.

Emily had witnessed a number of lynch-mobs. The southern belle had watched friends tortured and killed just because of the color of their skin. It was a new century and a new group to hate. Humanity never changes.

Emily watched as the mutant next to her grew chainsaw swords. She watched as more people left the group of hate. But a group of spectators watched several yards away. Even a few law enforcement type people looked to be in the crowd. Emily wasn’t surprised they didn’t try to stop the fight. People seemed to always want to see what would happen before anyone intervened.

The undead-girl looked her companion over. He wasn’t too bad looking. His shirt was drenched in sweat and several tattoos and scars showed through the damp fabric. Emily yelled at the man with the bat. “Don’t be fools ya’ll! Yew saw his malachite pick up tha girl, what makes yew think it can’t cut threw yew!”

Emily held the kitten gently in her arms. She had no where to put it if I blows were made. Emily had an idea. She approached the man with the bat. “Yew wouldn’t hit a girl with a baby animal, would ya?”

“Wanna bet?” The man yelled and swung at Emily’s head. It struck, knocking her unconscious. Her head spun back 140 degrees. She fell and the kitten fell into one of her sacks. It was too frightened to run away.

Pandemonium. Everywhere, people started yelling. Law enforcement finally got off their tails and approached the man with the bat. The man decided to run. People seemed to have forgotten the mutant, now that a dead body lay on the pavement.

A police officer eyed the malachite man warily as he approached Emily. He looked at her neck and knew she must be dead, but he checked her pulse anyway. He radioed for an ambulance. The dead body seemed to make the officer very uneasy. Or maybe it was the mutant. He retreated, mumbling about catching the murderer.

As Alex stared down the mob that had him surrounded, he wondered why the woman that was holding the kitten wasn't running like he told her to do so. Wasn't she scared of these people? He was. Alex didn't have any shame in admitting that he was afraid of these people that had surrounded him. He could easily survive this fight, but chances were he was going to have a new bruise or scar from it... but if one of them pulled a gun, then he had only a fraction of a second to stop that person from shooting him. He would either have to kill them or encase the gun within a malachite crystal... but Alex wasn't faster then a bullet if it came to that. While it registered in the malachite manipulator's head that there were several people watching events unfold, including policemen, Alex was focused on the mob, ready to defend himself and the woman if he had to.

It was at that moment that the woman addressed the mob and tried to convince them to leave as well. So, she was taking his side. The woman was clearly judging Alex by his actions instead of his mutation. While Alex was glad to see someone like that at a time like this, but she was going to get herself killed. Sure enough, when see tried to talk to the man holding the bat, he lifted the wooden weapon to swing it at her. "NO DON'T!" Alex screamed as his malachite chainsaws quickly retracted as he tried to dive in the way of the bat so he would get hit instead of the woman, but it was too late. With his glowing green his wide with horror, Alex watched as the woman's body hit the ground.

"No..." Alex whimpered as he gazed down at the woman's seemingly lifeless body, then shifted his gaze so he was glaring in the direction of the running murder, and slammed his malachite bracers together in front of his chest so his arms were crossed in front of his chest. "Damn you!" Alex roared as the bracers started to glow the same green as Alex's eyes as they fused together and molded around Alex's right forearm. Alex then pulled his right arm back, and punched the air in the killer's direction... and a long yet narrow spike rapidly grew out of the malachite, heading straight for the criminal.

As the extending rod neared the criminal, the spiked tip changed form into what looked like a type of wrist clamp, and it closed in around the criminal's right wrist, forcing him to stop running. With both bracers fused together, Alex had a maximum range of 54 feet, and the criminal had only managed to get 36 feet away before Alex stopped him. The fastest cop that was there, a young woman that looked like it was her first day on the job, had her gun pulled out and was aiming it at the crook. "Drop the weapon! And before you say anything, I hate mutants just as much as you do, but the law comes before my personal feelings. You're a murder, and all that mutant did was save a child and stated that he was going to defend himself. Drop the weapon, now!" She ordered forcefully as her weapon was aimed at the halted killer's heart. Another cop caught up to the criminal and had his gun drawn as well.

Seeing that the police had the situation handled, Alex's malachite let go of the criminal and it retracted back to Alex, whom defused the malachite so he had two bracers again, one on each arm, and he knelt down next to Emily, a tear in his eye. "I'm sorry. This is my fault. I should've ran away. They would've chased after me and would've left you alone. Instead I had to stand my ground because I was sick of running all of my life... and you lost your life for it. I'm so sorry..." Alex whispered, his voice thick with sorrow as a few tears started to fall down his cheeks.

She would never admit it, but Emily liked being unconscious. It was the closest thing to rest that the over-century old woman could have. The original plan was to calm the man by approaching him. He wouldn’t expect that. Most people would stand their ground, afraid of being hit by a bat. Someone who doesn’t feel pain and has lived as long as Emily had doesn’t fear blunt objects. She had not counted on the man actually hitting her, especially in the head. Didn’t he know he could have killed her? It was strange her head twisted so far. It wouldn’t have happened if her spine hadn’t been damaged.

Her plan worked, though it wasn’t how Emily wanted. The tension between the mutant and the mob had dissipated. Crisis averted. Now she would have to go to the police station and show that she was alive. She would try to get him convicted of attempted murder or assault or something. She would think of all these things after she woke up, of course. At the moment, she had no idea what was going on around her.

People came and put her body in a black bag. They loaded her onto a vehicle. Even if she were to awaken, Emily would stay in the bag. It would be easier to escape from a morgue than a vehicle or a crowed outside of a mall. But the man had hit her pretty hard. She wouldn’t wake up for another few hours.