Fast Enough (Closed)

[Ephemeron9]

Alex had to occasionally look into the reflective surface of the expensive-looking phone in his pocket to remind himself that he was in disguise. Not that matter since no one would recognize him even if he had been in one of his other forms, well, except for that one person who saw through disguise and probably had his key features remembered, or does she still? After all these days?

Just as Alex was feeling a little unsettled by the seemingly endless traffic of people which from time to time, shot him suspicious looks, he had his eyes trained on one particular girl who seemed to stand out somehow--she was leaning back a little, smallish frame contrasted to the sizable load she carried, short, dark hair swaying left and right in rhythm to her springy steps, and as she walked by, Alex caught a soft breeze across his cheeks, bring with it the faint fragrance of vanilla and apple blossom. He had his face turned in the other direction, not knowing the features of his current disguise made him nervous--could he be displaying an awry expression? What would she think if she saw him? A bulky Asian man with a twisting expression sitting on the edge of the flower plot as if he had been watching people for fun? It took him several seconds to realize that this had probably been for the best, as awkward as he might appear, the changed ethnicity will hopefully make it difficult for her to recognize whatever feature she used to identify him from before.

It took him another several seconds to remember that he should be following her.

"Where is she going?" Alex thought, following at a distance and trying to appear as unconcerned as is possible. The scenic environment of the city's university made him feel slightly uneasy, and he wondered if this is what Lucifer felt to sneak in to the Garden of Eden in the guise of a snake, as in Paradise Lost. "Hopefully she won't be going to her dorm...it'll be tricky to sneak in, considering the likely surveillance, but even if that were so, I should be able to figure something out. Would she be seeing her friends? It'll be useful for me to know what they look like." Following still, Alex did his best to organize his thought for the composition of devious plans, but at the moment, he tried most diligently of all to remember his original motive in coming to this place.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Halfway across campus she deviated off the main path and up the stairs to the library, ducking under the extended arm of a tall student who held the door for her. A cheerful 'Thanks!' and then she was inside the open, bright library, sunlight coming in from the large, tall windows between book cases.

She set her pile of books on the counter and handed two smaller ones over to the freckled blonde behind the counter. "How's it going Sami?"

"Hey Jenna." The softer voiced Sami responded with a smile. "It's going good-better if you'd come to that party with me tonight but..."

"I've got to study." Jenna responded in an almost sing song way, as if this was a recurring- and frequent-topic.

"You've got to study." Sami said with a pretend dejected hang of her head-scanning in the two books and sliding them into the returns bin before giving her friend a wave as she took the pile back up and headed into the historic building.

There was a cluster of tables set up in the center of the next room over-and shelves lining the wall, save for one small blank section with a wooden door to someone's office-and a round table beside it. Jenna slid her books onto the wooden surface and pulled one of the wooden chairs out for herself, plopping down and retrieving the coursebook in question. Yep, exciting life of a college student, right here.

 

[Ephemeron9]

"I wonder why..." Watching from a distance, Alex waited for the girl to settle down. If she really could speed up her mind and body, why not just accelerate her mind to the point where she finish each page in one millisecond? Maybe forgets as quickly as she learns, or maybe she's already doing that.

It wasn't until another student nudged him aside for a book he bodily blocked that Alex realized that libraries are generally not places where one stands around to stare at people. Thinking so, Alex grabbed a book off the shelf without examining its title, and went directly for Jenna's table.

"Hey~" He greeted casually, sitting down across her by the round table, cracking open the handful volume and made a quick glance over to the librarian in charge, who seemed to be Jenna's friend. "Whatcha looking at?" Deciding to go along with the frivolous tone he set with the oddly intoned first greeting, Alex asked as his peripheral revealed the book in his hands to be a hopelessly opaque discussion on biocentric philosophy.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Jenna was perched on the edge of her seat, right leg bouncing on the toes of her shoe silently as she looked over her notes and the book in front of her. It was better to study in her room, but she loved the library, loved the smell of books and the soft rustle of pages, the untold volumes of things she could learn about here-and of course, there was Sami, probably the closest friend she had made yet in college. They usually bopped off to get coffee after her shift ended-and then parted ways, Sami to whatever date or party or study session she had planned-and Jenna to the subway tunnel and her volunteer job.

"Hey~"

Jenna glanced up at the greeting, dark eyes inquisitive-and then a little surprised as he just...plunked down at her table, despite all the empty ones available. Well, hey, it wasn't like she owned it, and even if she did-

"Whatcha looking at?"

Wasn't the first time someone had suddenly struck up a conversation with her out of nowhere-but Jenna was a friendly sort. She wouldn't bomb her exam just because she chatted with a stranger instead of reviewing for the umpteenth time. Besides-maybe he needed a friend?

She smiled at him, a friendly, warm smile that reached her eyes-genuine, real-and a bit mischievous, as if she had some joke to share with him. "Oh, just some dusty old court case review. Ya know." She said breezily. She didn't look like a law student and she knew it-she'd rather leave the topic aside. Else-wise she'd talk his ear off, and given he was a complete stranger-would be kinda rude. She had read this section too many times. She had it memorized, why did she insist on looking it over again? To be sure, gosh darn it.

Setting her pencil down and folding her hands neatly in front of her on the table, her eyes dropped down to the spine of his book-a blink and then a slight furrow of her brow, the hint of a smile playing around the corners of her lips.

"Um. Going into Environmental Protection? Looks a little intense-oh!" She leaned forward, stretching a little to reach across the table and extend her right hand for a shake. "I'm Jenna, by the way! Nice to meet you."

 

[Ephemeron9]

"Crap!" Alex internally flinched, and almost cursed out loud. "Crap" isn't exactly a good name to be stuck with, but the real problem were that, apart from funky nicknames he passed around the criminal societies that he was honestly not very familiar with, Alex haven't a talent for naming. Not checking up on the name of his disguise was another mistake.

"Alex." Too late. The delicate little hand had already grasped his. Without her gloves on, Jenna's hands felt soft, friendly and full of life. "Nice to meet you." He said, more serious now. His face was set in a mild, friendly and somewhat formal smile while he maintained contact to her beautiful dark eyes. In the particular angle of sunlight, her half-illuminated irises made a crescent shape of deep amber.

He might have held her hand a little too long. Hopefully, she was indeed reading with an accelerated mind, and would thus consider this slightly awkward prolongation of contact to be a result of her own perception.

"Oh, and yes-" Alex went on, resurrecting some of his earlier vivaciousness, "Environmental protection-" he repeated, scanning the lines as fast as he could, and feeling helplessly outpaced as he became even more acutely aware of his own sluggishness compared to the girl before him. "I don't know if these--what did you call 'em?--dusty old philosophers are really bothered by the number of trees they killed writing these repetitious rambles." He said, dramatically stressing the last syllables to sound as pedantic as possible.

"Funny~, don't you think?" Shutting the book and pulling it off the desk between his laps, Alex went on with a sly, almost arrogant smile on his face "that these people who argue for the metaphysical value of life would waste theirs and ours that could be spend making, or saving lives." As he realized that he had long ago abandoned the idea of engaging in any sort of coherently planned mischief, so did he give up all effort on appear "normal".

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Jenna settled back onto the edge of her seat, picking her pencil back up and absently turning it in her fingers as Alex began to speak again.

"Could have been full of themselves-thought the loss of limb-" Haha "-on behalf of the trees a noble sacrifice to preserve their thoughts on the matter?" She poked fun at the authors along with him. Maybe it was an assigned reading-he didn't seem very fond of the text, anyway. She probably wouldn't have wanted to read it either, and she read just about everything she could get her hands on.

This was kind of a weird situation. He seemed a little off but she couldn't entirely place why. Awkward. Maybe he was an introvert trying to make friends. She'd invite him along to Sami and her's coffee date. Hopefully she could do it in a way as to not give him the wrong idea, but at least he'd make two new friends!

He shut the book and pulled it into his lap, and Jenna slid herself back into her seat with a hand on the arm of it, her feet no longer touching the floor-they were crossed at the ankle and swinging back and forth idly. His demeanor had changed. Less nervous. Slightly arrogant-maybe she was already giving him the wrong idea.

"Well, if it was important to them-" She started to say in defense of the authors, a bad habit of interrupting or talking over folks surfacing-but then he finished his sentence and she hesitated, those dark eyes widening a fraction-and then averting themselves.

"I'm sure they thought, by spreading their thoughts around-they were saving lives, in a way. Or at least enriching human ones." She felt a little uncomfortable. There was no way for him to possibly know, it was just a weird turn of phrase. "I mean, what would you have them do? We can't all be heart doctors...?" A smile flickered back into life, this time a little uncertain.

 

[Ephemeron9]

"I guess you do have a point," he said, looking briefly towards the outside of the window to release the tension of sustained eye-contact, "although," turning back, Alex spoke in a darker, slightly repressed tone with a sly grin on his face, "you do strike me as the kind of person who would put academic kind of life-saving at a second place to...shall we say...more direct acts of altruism?"

There was no way, he thought--no way that she'd get up and start chasing him out in the public, given how secretive she seemed to be with her superheorine/everyday person identity. Of course, he might also had been too cryptic with his riddling language for her to fully comprehend his knowledge.

Thinking so, he added: "I can see you as someone who'd rush out of the classroom to save a brat from being flattened by...say...an out-of-control bus, isn't that right?" Just to help her along with the confirmation, Alex allowed himself to display a little more of the mannerism she had recognized in him before--slightly tilted head, tight-lipped smile and a sharp gaze at once acute and mischievous.

Of course, he figured, he might have been following the wrong girl this whole time! In which case, well, it's good practice partaking sociable roles he might need for the future anyhow.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Jenna froze up. It wasn't a dead giveaway, just a sudden stillness, dark eyes slightly widening and snapping to his. She covered with a joke, though the gears were turning now. "Haha, just dogs and cats in the shelter...I'm not going into medicine either. Law." Okay, no invite to coffee. What had at first struck her as some shy guy looking for friends now set off warning bells in the back of her mind. He was creepy. Even without subtext, creepy.

He couldn't possibly know, right? So why did she feel so cold all of a sudden?

"Y-you know, the opposite. Blood sucking lawyers and all." She wasn't going to be that kind of lawyer, but she made the weak joke just the same. Her left hand fumbled with the fabric of her dress, smoothing it over her left thigh and knee absently out of his line of sight. Her right was bouncing her pencil between her thumb and index finger, faster and faster.

"I can see you as someone who'd rush out of the classroom to save a brat from being flattened by...say...an out-of-control bus, isn't that right?"

If he had reached across the table and slapped her, she would have been less shocked. The pencil flew out of her hand and hit the wall, then the floor, rolling off into freedom somewhere while her heart lurched into her throat.

Shock, recognition-relief?-and then caution all played across her delicate features before Jenna slowly lowered her hand, dark eyes still rooted to his borrowed ones and her mouth closing from it's parted surprise. Her legs were tense and ready to move, but she didn't dare.

Her expression shifted into one of a determined stubbornness.

"I don't know what you're talking about." She said flatly, lacking any and all warmth her voice had previously held-though there was a slight tremor to it, the tough girl attempt rather flimsy. This was that guy she'd gotten jailed! The shapeshifter-he was alive! Thank God for that-but he was also here. He was here and that meant he knew what she looked like, where she went to school, and now her name.

No coffee for him at all.

She watched him, full of anxiety and nervousness. Would he try to pull something here? Would he expose her? Did he just want her to know he knew, maybe try to blackmail her into staying home or something?

Even if he did know, he couldn't hope to catch her, right? She could run circles around him. She could run circles around anybody.

...she would just rather not do it as Jenna Paige.

 

[Ephemeron9]

Watching Jenna's face drop into a set expression of determined antagonist after shifting through the myriad emotions she seemed to have no practice in concealing, Alex would have doubled over in laughter had he not reminded himself where he was and who he's facing--gentle and immature she might seem to be, he wasn't about to be directly affronting the young heroine who'd slam himself behind bars again faster than he could get out of that chair.

Just as he considered his next move, a hand suddenly gripped around Alex's shoulder and all but toppled him on his back, chair and all, had he not had the slight bit of enhanced reflex. "@&$#!!" Looking around, Alex saw a fashionable looking young woman looming over him with an expression of utmost anger and jealousy, recollecting the photo-album he skimmed through in his borrowed phone, he gathered that the girlfriend of his disguise had come demanding explanations--of his absence from whatever their previous appointments might have been as well as his apparent intimacy with another girl.

"Looks like I gotta go~" Facing Jenna, he stood up comfortably and waved goodbye, ignoring the incomprehensible jabbering of "his girlfriend" who had began slapping him around the elbow. "Have fun with your evening jog!" He added over his shoulder, a little clumsily, as he allowed himself to be dragged away by the sleeve.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Jenna rose to her feet, looking tense and uncertain. People were turning to stare at the noisy, angry woman calling him names in the quiet library, their stares and glares felt keenly on her back. The fashionable lady was gesturing pointedly at her and firing off in Chinese-Jenna felt her face grow hot as the two started to leave-she should do something, but couldn't, and now all these people probably thought she was caught up in some sort of love triangle or something.

Worse, he was so flippant, easy about it-she felt even more embarrassed.

Sami had half rounded the desk, about to tell the angry woman to shut up-when they made it clear they were leaving. Frowning, the blonde shook her head and walked over to Jenna's tense position.

"Are you okay? Who was that guy? His girl friend looked like she wanted to kill you."

Jenna tore her eyes from the door and started to gather up her things, feeling a little shaken and unnerved. Someone knew who she was. He hadn't made any threats or overtures, but it made her nervous.

She was also glad he hadn't died. But how had he gotten out of jail? They said he had died!

"Yeah, I don't know. Just some guy."

"You're not dating him are you? Your face is beet red."

"I don't have time to date Sami! I wouldn't go stealing anybody's boyfriend, either-he's just some creep looking for a side chick or something, I don't know-" Jenna defended. She didn't have an explanation to give, so she opted for retreat. "I gotta go. See you tomorrow?"

Sami watched her friend go. It wasn't like Jenna to let some creep get her flustered-she could usually joke her way out of anything with that friendly, flippant attitude of hers she used with jerks. Huh. Maybe there was something going on there, she wasn't sure.

Weird.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Velocity was kind of mad. Zipping through alleys and poking her nose where it didn't belong, making sure everything was on the up and up-her 'evening jog' wasn't bringing the fun or the stress relief it usually did, not with someone knowing who she was.

He had tricked the police, somehow! She had looked up the report again, it was written plain as day. Had someone died in his place? Did he have an inside contact or something willing to lie for him? She wanted to call and tell them they had had an escapee-but she didn't want to sound crazy. 'Hey, he escaped and now he's some Asian guy stalking me on campus!' yeah, sure that would go over just greaaaaat.

Ugh.

She stopped short in an alleyway full of litter, grumbling to herself as she raced off, found a bag, then came back and cleaned up before depositing the tied off bag against the wall and leaving again. She was so dumb-how had he figured out where she was? Lucky guess? She needed a better disguise, obviously. And to never, ever show up in street clothes again-that probably hadn't helped!

 

[Ephemeron9]

Trying to shake off the girlfriend that wasn't his turned out to be more difficult than he had antecipated, at least when he tried doing so without using his power and with a reasonable excuse while he didn't understand a word she spoke.

"I got to go." He finally said, storming into the bathroom heedless of the screaming accusations behind him. There, he left his clothe hanging to the wall while he transformed himself into another person. "I also got to learn how to mimic more realistic clothing." He reflected, hoping the plain t-shirt and featureless pants and shoes that he made from his body mass wouldn't look suspicious.

Walking out, he noticed the girlfriend was already working on her phone, perhaps looking to promote a guy she friendzoned. "I think your boyfriend is having diarrhea." He joked as he walked by, leaving the young woman staring in confusion.

He got what he wanted, right?

Walking homeward, or rather, hideout-ward, Alex reflected what he really feel about the petite heroine he just thoroughly crept out. Why was he obsessed with her? Was he out for revenge? If so, why not expose her identity to the world and ruin her academic career? Would he be happy to see her upset? He began to feel that watching her drop that friendly, warm expression of hers in the library displeased him more than a simple signal of possible danger did. Would I be happy to see her successful? Damn it! She's a law student--a cop for God's sake, and what he was, the two of them would never mix, would they?

At around 8:30 that evening, a young Chinese man woke up in his underwear by a dumpster tucked in a little alley. At least he still had his spike-studded hat on, and anything could have happened after last night's drinking. Nevertheless, coming to senses in this state sent the man yelling for help.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

The first cry for help hadn't been within the heroine's earshot-the second was, and luckily for him-she was ambling around at a speed she could still catch the noise going on around her.

The blue blur materialized at the mouth of the alley, popping on tip toe to peer down the narrow space between buildings. Uh oh-

She raced down to help with no small amount of concern-had someone been mugged? Stabbed and left for dead? Slipped in a puddle? Whatever it was, she was here to hel-oh.

Stopping short to find a half naked man with a face she recognized, Jenna's eyes narrowed behind her goggles.

"You?" She burst incredulously-causing the young man to blink at her in confusion. "Me?" He repeated back in slightly accented English, a blink. Jenna faltered, and he went on. "You're the hero yes? My clothes, my phone, my wallet-all stolen!" Oh. Oops. This must have been the poor guy this 'Alex' had impersonated. What had he done, hit him over the head and stolen his stuff-including an irate girlfriend?

"Hang on just a minute sir-" She covered with her 'professional' hero voice-vanishing. The man blinked, moving to rise off the wall uncertainly. Velocity hadn't seemed very happy to see him here, he thought. What must he look like? Very undignified! He would leave out the part of him getting drunk as a skunk...

Two dollars and fifty cents rattled onto the counter of a startled convienence store clerk's-a cheap fleece truckers blanket having been taken from a pyramid of them. Milliseconds later she was back, startling the poor guy, his hat whipped off his head and held over his particulars despite the underwear.

Jenna was embarrassed for them both-but hey, wouldn't do to have him freeze to death. "Are you okay? What happened?"

You should probably get in touch with your girlfriend-she thinks you're running around town with a Filipino harlot... Yikes. Remembering the angry Chinese woman, Jenna felt EXTRA bad for him.

 

[Ephemeron9]

Alex had used worse disguises in his time, but taking the form a busted TV set lined up against the dumpster still wouldn't be something he'd be eager to do, if it haven't meant a front-seat view of this delightful fiasco of a scene--a half naked dude wrapped in cheap blanket trying to explain what little he remembered in broken, hung-over English to the public heroine while a small crowd gathered behind them, phones in hand, videotape it all and chattering over whatever live-stream service with their social media followers. Like it's them who's important.

Not long after coming to his sense, all those years ago by the edge of those woods which constituted his first continuous memory, Alex found that he had supernatural power--a broken leg melting to goop and reforming itself good as new, instinctively taking the form of a rock when the beasts of the night came hunting and, of course, merging into the shadows when the granary owner chased him out of the storage house with a stick. "Beast!" He cursed, "Never show yourself again! I'll have my guardian angel reduce you to dust!"

As he recovered more and more of his declarative memory and general knowledge, Alex understood the people he subsisted on, together with their justifiable malice. Nevertheless, he made no effort to integrate himself among them--mere plebeians--he thought, and for a long time, he thought it quite reasonable that he should feed on them like a gnat on hogs, and his supernatural power did well to sustain his feeling of superiority, though such feelings have since faded after he came to know the existence of other like him, some much stronger than himself.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Jenna tried to follow along with the tale the poor guy told, but there were a lot of missing pieces. She had her arms crossed and was listening intently, gloved fingers on her left hand a silver blur as they tapped against her upper arm at high speed.

"Well, are you hurt? I can...I can look into the stolen phone, maybe, but safety first-" Her head turned as a crowd started to form at the mouth of the alley. The decision to bring him a blanket had been a good one-and while she knew they didn't mean any harm, she didn't want to add to his embarrassment.

"C'mon guys, would you want an audience?" The heroine reasoned with the crowd, stepping around the Chinese exchange student with her arms slightly out to block him from view-not that that was entirely effective, given their size differences. "Somebody please do him a solid and call an Uber-"

"No wallet."

"Right, I know buddy, we've got it covered." And by we, Jenna had apparently meant the would be internet celebrities-they all pitched in a few bucks and more than covered the ride home. Someone even offered him a hoodie. "You guys wait with him, okay?" And she was off.

By the time the ordered car arrived, the driver was met with a small crowd of people and one shaken exchange student wearing a blanket tied around his waist like a sarong and an undersized hoodie that said 'Tigers'.

Then the crowd dispersed, excitedly talking about what they had seen and trying to guess what sort of antics the man had gotten involved in.

 

[Ephemeron9]

"Now let's see you dorks being so generous off camera..." Alex snickered mentally as the people searched their pockets at the heroine's command. Meanwhile, he focused part of his body mass--enough material to form a human hand with the right density--into a tiny speck, no larger than a grain of sand.

Carefully, he maneuvered the speck of himself through the air, concentrating hard to maintain both his disguise as well as the split-off body mass, until the speck handed right on the back of Jenna's costume, there, he allowed the particle to adhere to the costume's surface and let go of his pseudo-telekinesis slowly, so as to avoid drawing the girl's attention to the small, yet otherwise alarming addition of mass.

This was a technique he developed when he took on paid mission from various employers--having such a concentrated part of himself split-off and attached to a target would allow him to track the target's location from a fairly long, though still finite distance away, and on this day, he was eager to know the swift vigilante's night patrol routes.

With the scantly dressed young man settled on his way home, Alex waited eagerly as the young heroine took off, and tracked excitedly as he felt the speck of himself zooming across the streets with her, only...she stopped right at an intersection no more than 2 blocks down the road.

"What's this?" He asked himself, "have to be a law-abiding star-citizen when you could no doubt hop right over the traffic light sixty times a second?" However, after a while, he noticed that "she" had apparently lied down on her back, right in the middle of running traffic no less!

Feeling odd, Alex nevertheless remained in the odorous alleyway, and waited until the crowd had dispersed to prepare to move out, his patience barely sustained by his limited prudence.

At the intersection, he found the grain of dust he had split off lying on the middle of the road, with no petite heroine attached. It had spread out a bit, a tiny black sphere staring back at him like the eye of a puppy who just failed to retrieve the stick for its master.

"I guess she does bend the laws of physics then." Alex reflected, he had tracked helicopters by planting such trackers on their propeller blades, but either his current target had been way too fast for even that degree of adhesion, or that the young superhuman was somehow generating a force field around her as she ran, transporting the air from in front of her to behind her seamlessly with minimal disturbance, and that coincidentally served as a great counter to anything trying to stick on. "Guess that explains why she doesn't make a sonic boom every time she takes a step in that glossy suit."

Nevertheless, Alex felt frustrated and uneasy as he took the sidewalk of suspension bridge homeward, he have had his plans foiled before, but having failed without his target even trying to counter him was a different feeling. Beside, the frustration of his plan had made him realize the nebulousness of his own motivation. What exactly did he want from this girl? Was he angry she made him crawl through a chimney lined with ashes of cremated human body? If so, why haven't him taken the myriad measures to ruin her? Was he lustful for her body? No, it can't be.

Throughout his years, Alex have had his fair share of sexual knowledge, either by accidental witness while sneaking through bedrooms at night, or by passive observation at the side of crime-lords with their harems and raunchy nightclub visits. He had wished, from time to time, that he should experiment first hand with a woman he desires, but never seemed to have the will when the opportunity is present, or the opportunity when he felt eager enough.

This girl, Jenna, however, was altogether a different problem. He cannot explain why, but he felt happy and at ease merely by being near her. He smiled as the distant city lights lit up in the rising veil of night, perhaps it's for the best if he just kept his mind elsewhere for the time being, watching from the shadows until he could be sure what to do with himself.

Although, the particular shadow that he would be watching from could use a little home-improvement. A fridge and a proper bed would go a long way in making the concrete hovel more habitable.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

Wesson and Sons Jewelers had been in business for over fifty years. An Italian immigrant learned the trade from a kind older man, married his daughter, had sons-and went right on expanding a quality business designing and handcrafting necklaces, bracelets, watches and rings.

They had a few locations across the country, but here-this city, where it all started-here was the crown jewel, pun intended. A handsome brick building housed a showroom full of beautiful pieces, as well as an old fashioned bank vault in the back room where countless prized diamonds, gems and precious metals were kept, ready to be set and molded into wonderful pieces of custom made jewelry.

In her heyday, Laura Mansfield, AKA Velocity, had had a rogues gallery to call her own. Sure, she had faced many a major villain, but there were rivals that particularly seemed to vex her and be vexed by her, and Rachel McCullogh, better known as Mistress Rush, was the worst of the worst of them.

Laura and Rachel were both tall women, and they were both speedsters. That was where the similarities stopped. While Laura had been full of honorable ideals and committed to using her gifts for good and the betterment of man, Rachel had never given a damn about anything or anyone but herself since day one. She had never worked an honest day in her life, either. Why would she? She was so very good at taking what she wanted and always had been, even before she had powers. The world was a stage and its inhabitants mere extras-she was the star, she was the only thing that was real.

It made it easy for her to steal. To harm, maim, and sometimes murder. A complete and utter lack of remorse. Sometimes she killed in contrived, cruel, and creative ways-other times it was business, plain and simple. She would drive the flat of her hand through her mark's chest and rip out their heart to the horror of soon to be eliminated witnesses. She would vibrate their body along with hers to force seizures and death when discretion was required. Chillingly efficient, when you could be half way around the world in mere moments and with a valid alibi.

Not that there was anyone to catch her, these days.

Ah, Laura. Laura had been a goodie two shoes out to ruin her good time. That selfless act and hero talk made Rachel gag. But the shimmering blue heroine's horror with her actions, the few times she had occasion to witness them-well, that had been quality entertainment, at least. But it didn't last.

Laura had been one of the few who could keep up with her-and Rachel had hated her for it. Being caught and jailed that one time-humiliating. They had placed her in special unit to prevent her escape, shocked her out of her senses every time she came to. Laura had shut that place down. Laura had, hilariously-helped her escape. Rush hadn't paid the favor in kind. Didn't like the competition of a female speedster in her spotlight, in her business. Half a decade after her removal, she was no more keen on the idea-especially not from some little upstart wearing her old rival's costume. That stuffy damned thing.

Not like her costume. It was fashionable, did a woman's body justice. No high collar or thick modest material, no head to toe coverage oh no-it was a thinner, sleeker material than Velocity's. A deep inky purple, it looked nearly painted on, outlining toned thighs, a curved rump, and voluptuous, full breasts that had always been, in her and everyone else's opinion, her best asset.

Her suit was low cut, split roughing down to just above her navel, an intentionally sexy V tight to her skin so it didn't balloon out when she ran, not that the Speed Force would have allowed it. A thin gold chain spanned the cap between the two sides at her throat. For her other accessories she wore black gloves and wedge heeled boots to add to her already impressive height, a black half cowl on her head, a long, pretty blonde braid trailing down her spine. A whip was coiled on a thigh holster on one side, and a matching black strap was around the other, a few shiny, sharp looking little knives sheathed in it.

And here this vision of a cat burglar was in the back of Wesson and Sons, trying on rings. All around her were open drawers emptied of their contents, diamonds spilling onto the floor from others. Necklaces were pooled over knobs here and there as she pawed through them, filling a velvet draw string bag with pieces she liked.

She could have been perusing in super speed, of course. But where was the fun in that?

Trying on an emerald ring that she thought would bring out her eyes, Rush held her hand away from her face and admired the glittering stone at arm's length.

 

[Ephemeron9]

Alex didn’t want to pat himself in the back too hard, in case that, combined with the boredom in being a FedEx cardboard box would actually make him fall asleep and mess up his disguise, here in the storage vault of the prestigious jewellery store that nevertheless had no TV in every room.

Pawn_55, the man he hired for the bus incident, had found a connection to buyers of high tier jewels and refinement gears, and if he had the modesty to call it a job well done after squeezing into the back of that truck and fishing out those surprisingly expensive machine components, he wouldn’t be stuck here, waiting for the last of the staff to clear out.

Just as the clock ticked past closing hour, however, he heard a low rumble followed by a crash, not loud, but nevertheless audible even from the adjacent room of the multi-room vault. What is this? Had that little Velocity been tracking him after their last encounter? Could his plan to put tabs on her backfired more than he imagined?

With his back against a literal wall, Alex was sudenly overtaken by an irrational impulse that he was too slow to resist—he had, in his panicked reaction, reverted to his human form. What are you thinking! He berated himself as he stood around cluelessly, forgetting the shape of his last disguise. Did you think clever banter would wriggle you out of this bucket of syrup?

However, when he saw the tall, curvaceous shadow cast on the doorway to his section of the vault, he knew that it wasn’t the familiar city vigilante that he will be dealing with.

Using his shape-shifting body as padding to reduce noise, he slipped under the curtained table of a nearby display, and as quietly as is possible, he parted the velvety curtain ever so slightly, just enough for him to peek out from the shadows without being shone upon by the light from the emergency exit sign or the suddenly lit-up other room.

Almost as soon as he was in position, the tall, slinky woman strode comfortably into the room, heels clicking with each step. Presently, Alex heard what sounded like a light huff, and watched as an elaborately engraved golden ring tossed on the floor, follow closely by what sounded like fine metal wrestled from its cushion on the table just above him, and the crisp ring of metal sliding on finger.

With what little information he gathered so far, Alex felt confident that whoever is picking through the jewellery vault like a grocery store would probably not mind seeing a colleague politely introducing himself, not to mention the fact that, had she similarly supernatural power as himself, it probably would be better if he had just showed himself and dispelled all possible suspicions of hostility.

“That’ll be seventy thousand dollars, thank you very much~” Emerging from under the table in a confident and not altogether inelegant gesture, he greeted the woman on the other side of the display table, taking no small surprise in the stunning flagrancy of her beauty and sensuality. “I’ll waive the decades of jail for you, just because you are eager enough to visit on after hours.” He added, without breaking the flow of his facetious pretension while taking in all the details of the woman before him.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

There was a flash of surprise in those glittering green eyes as they snapped to the table-raising a brow as a man rose from beneath it. After a moment, she smiled in amusement, turning her hand around to display the ring currently on one of her graceful fingers.

"Do you think it suits me?" Her voice was sultry and melodic, a rich velvet feel to her inquiry. She studied him in return, curious but not at all intimidated or perturbed at his arrival. She picked up another ring, this time a ruby, gaudy setting- even by her standards. She tipped her head as she gazed upon it-then tossed it aside with a shrug, returning to her perusal of the rings.

"Do you often nap in the vaults you guard?" She inquired curiously, rejecting a pearl ring in favor of a rose gold one studded with diamonds. "Or..." A new thought occurred to the thief, her red painted lips curving into a smile. "Are you here to shop also? For someone special, perhaps?" How amusing, for them both to hit the same vault at the same time?

"I didn't think there was anyone fun around here, anymore. Was I wrong?"

 

[Ephemeron9]

This is new. Throughout his experience with legal unscrupulous personages, Alex had rarely encountered anyone with such spontaneity and composure, especially on their job—that is, of course, if vault plundering and other errands akin to it can be considered a proper occupation.

Watching as the suavely beautiful woman gave him a cursory glance, Alex knew that her confidence in his presence was probably more than mere pomp. Not to mention, her choice of style didn’t exactly strike him as the utilitarian outfit of a professional thief, so her swift intrusion of the treasury could only be explain by her mastery of some form of superhuman power. Interesting, it would seem like he won’t be the only meta-human in this city roaming beyond the bounds of law.

“Do you think it suits me?” She asked, yet by her fixation on the decorative object, Alex gathered that she was confident enough on her own stylistic preferences, and only smiled in response, and by examining her selective attitude to the numerous extravagant items, it was obvious to him that she had no interest in the monetary value of the fineries, at least not when they were aesthetically useless.

“Do you often nap in the vaults you guard? Or... Are you here to shop too? For someone special perhaps?” Surprisingly enough, she seem to take an interest in him despite his presentable, yet not exactly eye-catching appearance.

“I’ll admit,” he began, reeling back his head ever so slightly in an attempt to enact some sort of Victorian party host, “I wasn’t expecting other visitors so soon, so I might have dozed off a little while I waited to see if the real owner of this place would come and introduce me to his guests, but it appears that our good host had entirely forgotten his implicitly broadcast invitation—in setting up shop where the likes of you and me are about.” Okay, setting up a jewellery store in a world where superhumans are scattered about without special precaution is probably a little arrogant, but Alex certainly didn’t consider his visit of the vault as if dropping in on a party, but this woman just might feel that way. “As to special someone who I might be shopping for,” he went on, “unfortunately I have yet to come across anyone I’d be getting gifts for when I planned my visit to this place, but that may just change tonight.” He didn’t thin she considered “fun” people to be things one would pick up and sling into a shopping cart when she said “shopping for special someone”, but just as well, this woman could specialize in human-trafficking, and cat-burglary was only her hobby.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

"And no refreshments. Tsk, tsk, such a poor host he is." The woman continued, trying on and inspecting another ring, this one with a simple but sparkling topaz. But it was blue. Blech.

"But he did do well on favors, if nothing else." She pretended to be begrudging about this concession, but the act lasted for mere moments before she dropped the topaz ring on the floor in disinterest, removing the emerald one and dropping it in the bag before cinching it closed. She looped the bag to the strap on her thigh, green eyes lifting to his face again, a considering expression. "Likes of you and me?" She repeated, a look of innocence. "Polite, pretty party guests?"

She grinned them, dazzling and imprudent, tugging her glove back on and propping the hand on her cocked hip, the other gesturing to him.

"So. What's your name, stranger? Quite the coincidence, hitting the same vault at the same time, isn't it?" She gave an airy wave towards a broken, dangling security camera in the corner. "Good think I took care of that, hm?"

It might occur to Alex that the vault door was still closed and still locked. There was no discernible explanation for her being inside the vault-she hadn't arrived as a Fed Ex box as he had, after all.

 

[Ephemeron9]

Knowing in fact quite little about how posh, upper-class folks really act in social gatherings, Alex opted to simply grin and nod to the seductive woman’s first few comments.

“My, my,” he exclaimed with deliberately halfhearted drama, “wouldn’t a dainty, diaphanous lady like yourself feel nervous in the presence of a stranger without any supervision?” He joked with what he hoped to be just enough benevolent sexism to engage the woman’s pride, but not to a degree of flippancy that make him come across as not having realized turn for the serious in the tone of this conversation.

“Alex Whipple, at your service.” He said, looking directly at Rachel’s emerald eyes and extending his right hand, in such an ambivalent gesture as to accommodate her if she would offer hers for him to shake or kiss.

A kindred spirit? Alex thought to himself as the scene transpired. This woman struck him as someone out for thrills with no regard to the authority of law, bound only by her own wishes and desires, beside that handsome, sensually flattering belt around her waist, of course. It just might be the case that partnering up with her would bring him out of his state of confusion following the encounter with the young heroine. At the very least, she seemed rich enough to afford him comfortable residence, if he could get himself over her threshold.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

"If there's a reputation here to be tarnished..." She practically purred, green eyes glittering mischief as she pulled her shoulders back, supine body moving languidly to lean against the table. "Rest assured it's yours" And she winked.

He gave his name and extended his right hand, the gesture containing just enough energy to make it endearing rather than laughable. "Ms. Rachel." She said as she accepted his hand and gave a single pump in greeting. Her touch lingered.

"I used to live here, sometime ago." Her lips formed a pout. "I'm back and find there simply isn't enough dramatic flair for my liking, Alex. What I need is some excitement." Her tongue touched at her teeth, a wiggle of her eyebrows. "I don't suppose you're similarly bored? Two can get into more mischief than one, I've found."

 

[Ephemeron9]

The game has began, and he was more than happy to play along. The thought of the alluring villainess's companionship in supernatural thrill-seeking was intrinsically appealing enough, to do so in a city where the troubling little vigilante was guarding all but added to the excitement. To merely wonder how exactly would that juvenile heroine deal with the multiplied problem of two meta-humans on the loose was sufficient amusement to keep him up at otherwise boredom-stricken nights, not to mention the present opportunity to realize that situation first-hand.

"So I thought," he remarked jovially, "it made me wonder what was missing from this city ripe for ruination, and it was only you--who withheld the life of this party until now. Very well, I'd be overjoyed to wreak mischief by your side, only, I have yet to know if you operate by appointment or have a schedule compatible for drop-in side-kicks on call."

Alex was sure that a woman with so liberal a demeanor and so lavish a style would most likely have no regard of carefully timed plans or organized schedule for her villainy, but it never hurts to ask, he thought.

 

[Ambrosia_64]

"Appointments?" She laughed. It was a rich and wonderful sound, making the tall woman all the more appealing. "No, no-just when the mood strikes me."

She laced her fingers together and stretched her arms over her head, cracking the joints within the black gloves. The movement further outlined her form in that scandalous costume-something she was well aware of.

Rachel let her arms drop with a contented sigh. "The days of carefully laid plans and heists are behind me now. Just a game anymore....though to a degree, it always was one." She mused in mild amusement.

"So. You'll need a disguise, Alex. It's not as fun if there's no disguise. A mask and some flamboyant costume to really make a statement-particularly if we want to make the papers." Her tone was conversational and somehow vaguely intimate, as if they were planning a lover's getaway cruise rather than mischief. As she spoke she sauntered almost lazily to the large vault door, placing a hand on it towards the center.

"Shall I let us out, once you choose your own party favors?" How he had gotten in, or if he had already been in here, Rachel wasn't sure. But she'd never turn down an opportunity to perform. Her right hand started to look fuzzy-and then passed through the door along with the rest of her suddenly fuzzy form.

She was gone!

The sound of rapidly shifting pins and tumblers, and then the heavy door slowly swung open.

On the other side, Rachel was now poking through a filing cabinet. She thumbed through until she found a packet of insurance papers, deftly retrieving the entire folder and tucking it under her arm. There would be no easy claims nor pawn shop follow ups for the jewelers.

"The town hasn't had a decent mask's adventures to follow in far too long." She smiled again. "No doubt we can make a splash!"

 

[Ephemeron9]

"Thank you," Alex said pleasantly, stepping through the heavy metal hatch that he just watched this woman inexplicably phase through, not to mention opening it by some odd method that seemed to have required less effort than braiding her hair. "Though it should have be me who opened doors for you, my sturdy ego shan't take offence."

That was probably playing off the somehow intrinsically male-chauvinistic archaism too hard, too many times for one night. Better change the subject.

"Speaking of disguises," he said, "I don't suppose I have the same aesthetic sensibility as you do, dear Ms. Rachel. I fear that if I had to choose for myself, I'd either end up too dull to match your style, or too gaudy as to clash with your elegance, and so, I thought it would be best if you could instruct me on the subject matter of dress, perhaps even pass a sample or two over my humble frame. What do you say?"

Her mention of disguises made him a little nervous. Was she somehow aware of what his ability enabled? Is this some sort of trust-experiment, to see whether he would be willing to disclose the nature of his superpower? Or perhaps a test of intelligence to see if he was foolish enough to do so. Either case, Alex thought it best to keep his response ambiguous, showing no commitment to either excessive caution or rash disclosure by taking her statements at face value.