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New York City is a dangerous place, they say. Gangs, poverty, crime. It's all there, and it's all for the taking. Apparently, though, tonight is a bad night for one of those would-be villains. In the shadows of the alley, something strange is happening.
It's the shadows that are the strangest, at first. They're thicker than they ought to be, almost viscous, and gathered in places that don't match the light coming from the street lamp, which…is also dimmer than it should be. But stranger still is what's happening to the tough-looking Italian in a suit.
Because, from the mouth of the alley, through the thickness of the shadows, it looks like he's being thrown against the wall by…nothing?
Teddy wasn't out doing anything special. He wasn't hunting down bad guys or playing bait in order to get mugged. He was just walking down the street looking like he has nothing to worry about despite the hour. Which is, in fact, exactly the case not that anyone could tell. Passing the alleyway, he pauses at the sounds coming from down it and takes a look. Reaching up, he runs his hand over his hair as he considers the scene of someone being thrown against the alley wall by nothing. Telekinesis? Invisible guy. Guy's wearing a suit though so it's hard to tell who the bad guy is as he wanders closer. "Umm, hey? You should probably stop that."
The man suddenly bends over like he's been punched in the gut, leaving him too breathless to call out for help when Teddy stops by. Of course, is new stance also reveals a pair of guns in holsters beneath his jacket. So either he's a cop, or he's definitely not a good guy. Just as the guns come into view, one of them is snatched from its holster, apparently by nothing at all, before it also disappears and a young woman's disembodied voice calls out in warning: "Stay back!"
Two guns. In shoulder holsters. Cops don't usually carry two like that do they? Teddy should really find out sometime. Friend and foe identification is a useful skill. He does stop at the voice though. That of a girl. "It's okay." he assures her. "Just what's going on? Did he try to attack you?" Pause. "Are you mugging him?" She wouldn't warn him to stay back if she was mugging the other guy, would she? Then again, the one's in a suit and the other's a college jock. Guess who's carrying money?
The man's head snaps to the side like he's been pistol whipped before that disembodied voice speaks again, while he's still dazed. "We're having a conversation, aren't we, Guido? About shaking down people for rent money that they would have had if someone hadn't jacked up the rent." The shadows thicken around the man against the wall and his body jerks like he's just taken a knee to the groin before he slides down the wall. "About how it feels when someone else comes for a pound of flesh."
Oh, that explains it. The guy's muscle for the mob. "You know he's connected, right?" Teddy asks. He's about to lean a shoulder against the alley wall then thinks better about it. "They're going to start looking for you if you keep bothering their thugs. Being invisible kind of helps that, I guess."
"That does help," Harper agrees, her voice moving a bit to one side as she steps back. "I'm going to keep this one, Guido. I hear you're shaking down the building again, it and some bodies are going to mysteriously get tracked back to you. You hear me?" The man nods, wheezing, as he carefully scrambles up from the pavement.
Teddy steps to the side to make room for Guido to leave. "They may take it out on the people who live there." he tells the girl. "They're really not nice people." Cause she didn't already know that, right? "You should maybe just take him to the precinct and leave him there so he can't cause any more trouble."
Harper waits until Guido's left before she sighs, letting the play of light and shadow fade away to it's normal arrangement. "Half of the local precinct is on the take," she explains, though she's still invisible. "So it's not much of an improvement to drop him off there. And maybe it's not the perfect solution, but it's better than doing nothing, and it gives people a few more days and a little more time to organize."
"Or to gather up the money to pay them." Teddy agrees. "You can't be here all day, every day to protect them. But yeah, it's better than nothing. The mob's just too dug in to really make a difference by beating up thugs." He tried that too. Probably most people do. "So, what name do you go by? Invisible something?"
"I hear that one's taken." There's a note of amusement in the voice as Harper tucks the gun away. "Lux. I go by Lux." As the light settles back into place, there's finally a form to go with the voice, though it's hardly recognizable. Blurred by a static sparkle of light, it's something to look at, but clearly not what this woman actually looks like…unless she has a very strange mutation.
"Lux. Cool. I'm Teddy." he says, squinting at the sparkly form. "So, invisibility and sparkly stuff. "Can you just blur your face? Make it easier to look at you." Likely to cause seizures in epileptics too. "You don't live in that building, right? Cause that's the first place they'd look for you."
"I can do all sorts of things." Harper considers for a moment, the light shifting once more until she's a woman-shaped figure of softly shimmering golden light, like fine glitter suspended in something thick. "Better? And you don't need to worry about them finding me. They're not going to. Not many people stop to investigate what they think is a mugging in a dark alley, either," she points out.
"Better." Teddy agrees with a nod. "How do you do that? It's kinda neat." Though at the comment, he shrugs. "Oh, I can handle myself. I played football, work out, do a little martial arts, that kind of thing. If someone had a gun, I could go call the cops."
"Mutant, I assume," Harper shrugs. "If you mean the root cause. The detailed how is a little bit more scientifically complicated," she smiles crookedly back at him, leaning back against the wall where just a few moments ago she was accosting a mob enforcer. "Nice of you to check in on Guido, at least. He could have been some innocent man just out for a walk getting accosted by someone trying to steal his wallet."
"Actually, I meant what are you doing to make yourself invisible?" Teddy corrects. "Though if you're a mutant, that rules out magic." Glancing at the mouth of the alley where Guido disappeared, he shrugs. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Or some old lady or someone else who needed a hand. Sometimes, just showing up makes them run away. Especially if you look like you know what you're doing."
"It's a trick of the light," Harper clarifies. "Bending it, shaping it. I ask, and it answers. Has for a while now." Which is to say, mutant is the most common answer for that sort of thing, so it's most likely to be true. I don't look quite as intimidating as you do on my own," she adds with a wry smile, just before the light shifts again, and instead it looks as though he's looking into a mirror. "And the voice usually gives this sort of thing away."
"Light control. Very cool. And useful." Teddy adds as Lux becomes a mirror. Checking out his reflection, he reaches up to pat his hair back into place and then give his shirt a tug down. "Yeah, you sound like a girl even without seeing you. You need to work on sounding more menacing."
"I will keep that in mind," Harper laughs, the image of Teddy shrinking back into the glowing girl. "But there's not much that light can do for that. Which is why I don't usually do much talking. Believe me, people are sufficiently terrified of what they see and what they don't see without words most of the time if they need to be."
"No, that would be sound." Teddy agrees. "You ever go to Mutant Town? They could probably use a hand now and then too. I was there once or twice and it's not really a nice place. Sometimes it's even cops giving them a hard time, I hear."
"I go all over the city. There's plenty of suffering to go around here, unfortunately. But…I don't spend a lot of time in Mutant Town," Harper admits, shaking her head. "Light, illusion. It's all about misdirection. And hanging out in the biggest concentration of mutants in the city? Not very misdirecting, I'm afraid."
"I suppose that makes sense." Teddy says after a moment's thought. "So you can't use your powers offensively in any way? Other than, I guess, a really bright flash of light to blind someone?"
Harper smiles slowly, head tilting. "You know, we just met," she points out. "For all I know, you're one of Guido's friends and you just happen to be a little bit smarter than he is. You really think I'm going to tell you all my tricks?"
Teddy chuckles. "Okay, guess not. I was just curious. I never met anyone with light powers before. Or dark powers. Or weather powers. Or lots of powers. It's pretty interesting to talk about. Seems like more and more people with powers are starting to show up. Plus aliens. It's all pretty cool."
"Powers come in all shapes and sizes, sugar," Harper drawls, almost as if it's something she's heard a thousand times before. "What they're good for sort of depends on just what it is you need done. And how you think about them. I figure most people who are different, it's just something they live with. Maybe you've got blue hair and you can turn fabrics purple if you touch them, you know? If every power was impressive, mutants wouldn't be living in a ghetto all their own, would they?"
"Well, they might if they wanted to get away from everyone staring at them and calling them names." Teddy points out. "Away from people throwing rocks at them and blaming them for whatever goes wrong that day. It can be nice to have a place where everyone is just like you."
"They call that place the army, and the way I hear it, most folks these days aren't in a rush to join up," Harper points out, still sounding amused. "To be fair, I can see where it's scary for the normal folks. Seeing all these people crop up who're…special. I mean, you work on the shop floor, how're you going to compete with the guy who can shape metal with his mind, right?"
"Same way you compete with someone who's just better at it without having any special power?" Teddy suggests and shrugs. "Just do your job and not worry about it. Not like there's a thousand guys like that putting you out of work. But I should be getting back home. There a way to get in touch with you in case I need someone who can control light?"
Harper tilts her head at the question, considering it for a moment before she nods. "Yeah." She pulls a pen and a notepad out of…well, it looks like just out of the glowing light that's moving around her, but it must be a pocket, writing down a number before she offers it over. "Just tell them you're calling for Lux. Word'll get through."
Teddy takes the paper and stuffs it into his pocket. "Okay, I'll do that. Or hopefully not. I don't plan on running into any mobsters but you never know. Nice meeting you."
"Nice meeting you, Teddy," Harper tips her chin up, smile easy. "Hope you don't need to use that number, too." And with a glimmer of light, she fades away to invisibility once more.