[IC] The X-Gene [Nyther & Andromeda]

[Andromeda]

The evening air was crisp and laden with the whispers of a light fog beginning to form. The streets were quiet, but not entirely empty, as the final remnants of the late afternoon rush hour was ebbing to its minimum and the overcast sky had darkened with the grey ink of dusk. The colorful host of shops and cafes lining the street were still open but no longer bustling with activity, as they had been previously. The shadows that cloaked the surrounding alleys were deepening.

Iris was settled into a far table, still donned in her smart work clothes - though, truth be told, she rarely wore anything else - whilst her trench coat lay draped across the vacant chair opposite her. A steaming teacup was nestled on a saucer besides her and she was stirring it absently, whilst her eyes browsed the newspaper laid out before her. But rather than any particular article, she was actually reading a classified case file that she had laid inside the page - if anything curious eyes joined her, it was easy enough to snap the pages short and claim an innocent interest in the daily news.

The case file detailed a Mr James McCloud, who was apparently aged 23 years old and not only suspected to be guilty of countless theft incidents which victimized many high status, notable members of society (whom, it appears, have been specifically targeted) but was also a suspected mutant. And this automatically - Iris noticed, with a hint of annoyance - made his crimes several times more serious and worthy of official, special branch investigation. She swiftly stifled her irritation. Bad things happened when she lost a handle on her emotion. In the background, she distinctly heard the jazz music drifting from a nearby radio stutter. She exhaled calmly and the music returned to normal.

Taking a tentative sip of her steaming tea, which thankfully did not burn her throat, she returned to the case file and committed the blurry, CCTV image of James McCloud to memory. The picture was unclear and limited by the fuzziness of low-res cameras but she was fairly certain she would be able to pick the guy out of a crowd. For one, he wasn't expecting her. People rarely expected people like her to be related to law enforcement.

She scanned the rest of his file but the detail on him were decidedly scarce. Mention of an orphanage, but there were no records. It was mild inconvenience but nothing she wouldn't be able to remedy once she caught the real thing. The only thing that made her thing twice was the lack of record on what his suspected mutant ability was. That could be a problem.

A headache began pulsing in the fore-front of her mind and she frowned. It was true that she had been working right through the week and would be doing so, right through the weekend, but this was no different from usual. She was a self-confessed workaholic and threw herself wholly into any case that was pushed her way, and that was the way she liked it. People only got in the way, controlled, expected. It was easier this way. A

The last thing that McCloud's case file detailed was where to find him. Though he had no registered address - presumably he had a property registered under a fake name somewhere - he had been sighted several times this week down this, and one other street. She taken a gamble, followed her gut and chosen this stretch. A quick tea break had been planned in order to refuel and brush up on her knowledge of this particular crook. After swallowing down the rest of the hot liquid, she'd left the drained cup on the saucer, along with a healthy tip, and slipped into her coat and gathered the files before leaving the quaint cafe. A faint chime signalled her exit.

The streets were darkening considerably and she figured these were probably better conditions for McCloud. Men and women clad in expensive, designer trench coats breezed past and Iris smiled, figuring she was in the right place. Her eyes darting around furtively, she jammed a smart, nondescript hat onto her brunette hair, currently tied back in a low bun, in an effort to obscure her face and scanned her surroundings. She could sense the hum of electricity coursing through nearby street lights, which were just starting to illuminate as night drew nearer and she found herself pausing against one, waiting.

Retrieving her cellphone out of her pocket, she dialed a number and listened patiently as it rang. Her eyes remained fixed on the passerbys.

[Nyther]

James awoke to the sun streaming through the window of the run down hotel room. He yawned awake and looked at the clock. "4pm" He thought to himself. "Time to get to work." He quickly showered and got dressed in the cramped place he had been staying at for the past few months. He knew he could now afford better, but he oddly liked it here. He didn't have to show ID to get a room. The owner took cash and never asked questions. It was a two-bit crook's heaven. He trotted down the steps into the lobby past the owner. They nodded knowingly to each other as James walked out the front door. Neither one knew the others name and it worked best that way.

The hotel was at the end of a dead end street that was pretty much empty until nightfall. James looked cautiously around and, when he was sure the coast was clear, teleported with a small poof of black smoke. He landed a few blocks away on a rooftop that overlooked a very fancy outdoor cafe'. This was his favorite place to "acquire folding money" as he put it. He never took too much and it was usually cash, rarely credit cards. They were too easy to trace and he had almost been caught the last time he had tried it. He leaned over the edge of the building and eyed the patrons of the diner until one caught his eye. It was a man on a laptop sipping coffee. That meant he was going to be there for awhile and would allow James to work at his own leisure.

James looked down the side of the a building where there was a small alleyway. Once he was sure the coast was clear he teleported below. He often wondered about the limits of his powers sometimes. If he, in another reality where he wasn't a thief, might have made a great hero, or villain. He shrugged this off as he calmly walked from the alley to the sidewalk where the cafe' was located. Casually he strolled by the man on the laptop and pretended to accidentally nudge the table, causing the man's coffee to spill down his shirt.

"Shit!" The man cried placing the cup on the table and standing up to confront James.

"Oh, man. I'm sorry. I was in another world." James said to the man as he reached for some napkins on the table. "Let me help." As he said this James hit the laptop with his elbow causing it to crash to the ground.

The man cursed again, but ran to his laptop and knelled over it to assess the damage. James took this opportunity to quickly slide his fingers into the man's back pocket. Once her felt his fingertips touch the wallet he sent it into his own pocket. As the man stood up and faced James with rage in his face, James put up his hands. "That is one hundred percent my fault. Look, there's an ATM right there." He pointed across the street. "I'm going to go grab a few hundred out and come and pay for the computer. Cool?"

The man, still fuming, hesitantly agreed. James quickly trotted over to the ATM and pulled the man's wallet out of his own pocket. He rifled through it and quickly pulled out a credit card and pretended to use the ATM. James waited until the man's gaze had shifted elsewhere before ducking into an alleyway and teleporting to the rooftop. He laid back and deliberately went through it. He pulled the cash out of the wallet before dropping it to the sidewalk below. James heard the man shout something once he realized James had vanished. The man would run over to the ATM to look for James and find his wallet only a few dollars lighter. Meanwhile, James would sit up on the roof and wait for things to die down before continuing on his day.

[Andromeda]

"Shit!" a man called out, causing a small stir in the otherwise tranquil.

Iris' head snapped in the direction of the noise - which was barely noticeable in the quiet babble of everyday pedestrians - but to someone listening out for disturbances, it was exactly what she'd been waiting for. She cancelled the call before the receiver had picked up and slid her cellphone back into her pocket. She strolled closer, as casually as she could, keeping her hat pulled down low and watched with interest as a second man begun to apologize.

She recognized his face from the file photo. It had to be James. She smiled - today might be more productive than she'd have originally thought.

He was a good actor. If she hadn't been suspicious from the outset, she would have entirely bought the sincerity in his tone. The whole scene appeared like something out of movie, where the goofy hero is plagued by accident upon accident and Iris struggled to spot how exactly James was conning the man. She saw a flicker of motion as his hand disappeared behind him but a second later, he was using both hands to assist the bad-tempered cafe-goer.

He walked off and Iris followed his retreating form with eagle-like vigilance, keeping a measured distance behind the man. She saw him pause at the ATM but before she had caught up with him, he had darted into one of the alleyways. Breaking out into a barely-contained jog, she followed, rounding the corner with all intention of confronting the thief...but he had vanished. She skidded to a halt and ran a hand through her hair as her eyes desperately sought out the man's hiding place but he was nowhere to be seen. She flipped open the lid of a nearby trashcan but that was empty.

Damned mutant criminals.

She learnt back against the one of the alley's brick walls and banged her head back, frustrated. She was annoyed at herself. It was hard enough locating a lot of her cases - especially the mutant ones - but to let one slip away was virtually unforgivable.

"Come out, come out, where ever you are" she muttered, more to herself than the elusive, vanishing McCloud but she got the feeling that her efforts were now in vain. Surely - by now - he was long gone.

[Nyther]

James listened intently as he the typical sequence of events followed. Police were called and took a statement from the man. As only cash was missing from his wallet, it's considered a petty crime. So, the cops will just "keep an eye out" for the thief. James smiled as the man cured at how little the police seemed to care about it as James could hear him walk away from the area. After a few minutes, James peeked his head over the edge of the building. Looking out, he saw that everything had seemed to return to normal. Confident he was home free he teleported back down to the other end of the alley he had run down to case the other side of the block.

He stood there casually as he watched the people walking up and down the sidewalk. This wasn't home to a nice cafe like behind him, but he could do some basic pick pocketing. He often wondered if his own self-confidence would ever get him into trouble sometimes. It was great for pulling off con's, but maybe his was getting too brazen for his own good. He laughed at the thought. "So what if I'm barley a block away from where I just robbed a guy? I can teleport away worst case if anything happens." He thought smugly to himself.