Prince of Thieves

[Captain Untouchable]

The city was quiet.

Okay, that was a total lie. Despite it being well past dark, the city was still a hive of activity. Several stories below, taxis caught the students and young adults as they stumbled out of clubs and bars, ferrying them off - at a premium fee - to wherever they wanted to go. Elsewhere babies cried, parents yelled, couples argued, and an alarming number of other individuals got up to activities that made a completely different range of sounds.

However, from his perch atop an appartment block, Captain Untouchable's eyes stared down into the shadows below and he heard none of it. He wasn't deaf; nor was his inability to hear anything to do with any superpowers that he might posess. The reason was rather simple: the volume on his iPod was turned up too loud. Some people found that music made it easier to focus; others found it calming. The Captain however found that it helped ease the boredom that came from spending all night sitting around waiting for something to happen.

Not everyone was in a taxi, it emerged: some people had decided to take the healthier and ironically more dangerous option of walking home. Those were the ones that Captain Untouchable was watching over. Despite the mutation that had excluded him from his previous life, he couldn't be everywhere at once. Fortunately, it seemed like New York had more than its fair share of "genetically challenged" protectors. While he didn't know many of them, he tried to allow himself to trust in them, and focus only on waging the personal war that he knew he stood a chance in winning.

As the playlist shifted to the next song - something by Queen - he spotted movement in one of the side streets on his turf. Eyes narrowing, he squinted to distinguish more information about the shifting shadows, and sized up the street. A little removed from the patches of activity around the bars, the street below was mostly empty, save for a few passers by who seemed either too drunk or too absorbed in their own little worlds to pay attention to what was going on. One in particular seemed the most likely target - a woman, fairly young from the look of things, walking alone in no particular hurry.

Untouchable felt his fists tighten inside his gloves, as he saw two figures emerge from the side street and begin to make their advance on their prey. Risking a glance directly down the side of the building, his hands went for his waist, retrieving the pair of Kama tucked into his belt - strange, ice pick-like weapons. Checking them quickly, he sidled up to the edge of the wall, and tugged on the heavy metal heads that topped off his weapon. Unusually they came free, a sturdy metal cable still connecting them to the handgrip that dragged the weapon back into one piece as soon as Untouchable released his grip. Satisfied with his brief inspection, he swung each axe hard against the inside edge of the concrete rim that edged the roof and stopped people from doing exactly what he did next: jumping off.

Sailing through the air, the folds of his ninja clothes ruffled in the wind, briefly disturbing the sounds of Freddie Murcury that blasted into his ears. Flicking his wrists, he tensed the cable and swung back towards the wall, landing in a crouch alongside someone's bathroom window. Springing outwards again, he descended further, absailing his way down the five stories towards the ground. With another wrist flick, the axes loosened themselves from the top of the wall, and plummeted back towards the ground, the mechanisms in the handgrips straining to drag them down faster than gravity itself wanted them to fall. Striking a practiced pose that held the grips well clear of his head, Untouchable waited until the last instant before his powers flared into action, a gentle telekinetic push arresting the metal weight's descent and bringing them safely to rest back in place.

Rolling his shoulders, his eyes returned to their scan of the street. The thieves were advancing, only a few moments away from their strike. Beneath the mask that covered the bottom half of his face, Untouchable cracked a smile.

"Hey," someone called. The thief turned, just in time for a lump of metal to catch him square in the chest, hurling him backwards into a trio of trash cans. The second thief's eyes widened; the metal lump to recoil and hook his ankle. His eyes followed the metal chord attatched to it to someone who obviously thought halloween had come early. The trick-or-treater's arm swung outwards, and Thief #2's leg disappeared from under him, dropping him squarely on his backside.

Returning the kama to his belt, Untouchable folded his arms across his chest, and scanned the street for their target. He frowned, not spotting her anywhere. She'd apparently run off and hidden, which was probably a good idea. He'd have to find her later, and check she was alright. But first, he had these guys to deal with.

Advancing angrily, no doubt snarling to cover the pain that must be rippling across the bin-shaped dent in his back, the first thief advanced. "Oi," he growled, not bothering with any further formalities as he swung his fist straight towards Untouchable's jaw.

Much to everyone's surprise - the thief in particular - his hand shot backwards, rebounding off an invisible barrier and inch or so from the ninja's face. Eyes widening in fear this time more than surprise, he began to back away slowly. Though they could barely percieve it beneath his mask, Untouchable threw them a broad grin anyway. "Evenin', lads," he greeted in a thick, Scots accent. His eyes narrowed. "I think you'd better leave."

The thugs didn't need further prompting, setting off at a sprint, pausing only to throw back a yell of "Freak!" before disappearing back into the shadows.

Untouchable let out a sigh, watching their retreat until they disappeared from view. His mind jumped back to their intended victim, and scanned the street again. Though he'd dismissed her disappearence as a run-and-hide tactic, he couldn't see anywhere she could have vanished to so swiftly. "A thank ye would'e been nice," he muttered to himself, turning his attention back to his purch, ready to make the ascent back to his watchtower. Much to his surprise, the woman - or at least, someone who looked exactly like her - was standing five stories above him, watching down at the ground.

"How the hell...?"

[Chartis]

High above the city streets, Clarity Cleine was alternately berating herself for being quite possibly the worlds thickest woman and trying to regulate her heartbeat back to normal. It had been stupid to think that she could just walk the few blocks from Desoto Gallery to Atlas Cafe at half past ten, particularly in this part of the city.

It had been years since the woman had last spent substantial time in New York and without realizing it the slow pace of living in the Cayman Islands had crept into her subconscious, altering her sense of safety. Clarity took a moment to mourn the changing pace of the world, her delicate European features pinching, before she brushed back her fine blonde hair - almost white against the evening pitch - and peered over the roof.

The man - was it? - garbed in black was still there. Clarity wasn't afraid of him but it had been disconcerting that he'd just appeared out of the shadows. She contemplated just 'porting back to Cullen's, to the cluttered comfort of her parlour and the whirlwind energy of her son. An evening out had seemed like a nice idea in theory but hadn't been as magical in application.

In the end curiosity won out and she postponed her leaving. Clearing her throat, Clarity stepped perilously close to the edge of the brownstone's roof. The shrouded figure was looking up at her.

"Thank you, that was quite brave," Clarity called down with a sly smile. "Do you make a habit of swooping out of the shadows?"

[Captain Untouchable]

Folding his arms across his chest, he peered up at the figure leanding over to look at him. Her mouth was moving, which probably meant that she was trying to talk to him, but at the moment the upbeat crooning of the Beach Boys was drowning out the background ambiance. With a sigh, his hand delved into the depths of his hood and liberated the earphones, before roaming around inside his shirt to find the pause button. Unfortunately, while the new fangled shuffle design made it small, unobtrusive, and far less likely to break - and cheaper to replace - when you got thrown into things than the more expensive variants of the design, it was absolutely tiny, and that made it a pain to find, particularly when you were busy descending from rooftops and the feeble clip managed to detatch itself.

Finally able to hear again - and, ears assaulted by the screach of a howling banshee child, wishing he couldn't - he peered back up at his damsel in distress, and wondered if she had properly thought through the connotations of standing at the edge of the roof in a skirt. Deciding the probably hadn't, he averted his gaze slightly. "Ye'll have tae say that again, lass," he called up to her, eyes scanning around for a way back up the building. "I couldnae hear ye just now."

Spotting the ladder of a fire escape, annoyingly out of reach, he ducked into a slight crouch and sprung, pushing out against the ground with his mind to utilise the Newtonian mechanics principles that had been drilled into his head since High School. Springing gracefully upwards, his hand snagged the ladder, and he began to sprint upwards like some kind of large, hairless, human-proportioned clothed monkey.

Finally making it to the edge of the roof, he threw himself into a spectacular vault that ended in a particularly cool-looking crouch, only to find that his damsel - whoever she was - had moved yet again, this time several meters back towards the door that led down into the building below.

Straightening up, shoulders slumping in disappointment that his entrance had been ruined, Untouchable let out a sigh. "Fer god's sake, woman," he muttered under his breath, arms folding across his chest again. "Would ye stay still fer a minute?"

[Chartis]

"Stay there please." Clarity said pleasantly, raising one palm in front of her. She was keeping a healthy distance between them out of common sense but there was no need to be rude. He had, after all, saved her the trouble of having to drag her defense skills out of retirement.

A soft smile remained on her face as she studied the gentleman with a keen eye; if it struck her as odd that a ninja had come to her aid, she didn't show it.

"I asked," Clarity began again, a faint accent of undeterminable origin painting her voice, "If you do this often. And my name is Clarity, not woman."

[Captain Untouchable]

Content that he wasn't going to get any closer any time soon, Untouchable settled himself down, sitting on the roof ledge, brushing a few battle creases out of the folds of his trousers. Clarity, he mused, shifting his shoulders a little beneath the robes, shrugging the crossed katana and lonbow a little higher up his shoulders. An interesting name for someone who's so bloody confusing.

"Do I do this often?" he repeated out loud, brow furrowing as he mulled the question over in his mind. What was often? He breathed quite often; certainly that took place with more regularity than his little night-time jaunts. He got paid quite often too, but probably did this more often than that happened. How often did he blink? How often did he head to the store for supplies? Everything was relative, and for someone so well versed in the intricate tangle of advanced physics, the word "relative" was more than enough to prompt a mental shudder.

This night was getting to be very confusing indeed, although the fact that he was over-thinking things probably had something to do it. "Which part?" he asked eventually, throwing her a shrug. "Thwartin' acts o' petty crime, followin' victims tae make sure they're okay, or sittin' around on rooftops chattin' about it afterwards?"

Deciding not to let this Clarity woman answer that question in the interests of keeping things simple, he decided to answer them all in one go. "This is more of a hobby than a day job," he admitted. "Or night job," he corrected, risking a glance upwards at the starless skies, the constellations hidden from view by the vague haze of light pollution and smog. "How often d'ye wander around alone and unprotected in the deep o' night?" he threw back, trying to shrug the attention away. "B'cause if this is gonnae be a regular thing, I might need advanced warnin' so I can be in the right place at the right time."

[Chartis]

A quiet laugh fell from her mouth and Clarity arched her shapely eyebrows at the absurdity of the situation. To date, this was the only rooftop conversation with a disguised crusader that she had ever had. While odd it was also strangely enjoyable - whoever this vigilante was, he had an unintentionally witty streak to him that was simultaneously reassuring and endearing.

Following his heed, Clarity eased herself onto the bricks lining the perimeter of the building, crossing her ankles over one another. She canted her head to the side, squinting at Untouchable just as she had at the abstract paintings she'd been viewing only a few minutes earlier. "This is a strange hobby - most people build models or collect stamps."

Though he couldn't see it in the dim glow from the streetlights, the woman's jovial blue eyes were alight with interest as she continued to hold his gaze. She leaned back, sighing. "I suppose it was foolish, a bit. I'd forgotten how dangerous cities can be at night.

"Although," Clarity winked, coyly, "It's not entirely accurate to say I'm unprotected."

[Captain Untouchable]

"Most people are pretty boring, I find," Untouchable observed casually, developing an extremely un-ninja itch just to the right of his nose. He tried wrinkling the muscles, vainly attempting to press against the course fabric of his hood to find some relief, but ultimately failed. He considered his options, remembering the various things he'd tried when an itch had appeared in the small of his back; an arrow shoved through the hood, over his shoulder, and down his back had done the trick last time, but that seemed overkill in this case. Maybe a knife?

Not entirely unprotected, eh? Untouchable considered the words as he rummaged through the pack of supplies that he'd somehow had the foresight to place exactly where he was sitting. Pushing aside the wrapped package of sandwiches and the lunch box sized container of jaffa cakes, his fingers grasped around a carton of fruit juice. He smiled as he retrieved his prize, carefully teasing apart the plastic wrapper to retrieve the straw. Bending the end over, he hooked it over the corner of his mask and scratched furiously. A sigh of relief escaped him as the itching eased; slipping the end of the straw into his mouth, he stabbed the carton up into the other end, and sucked in a mouthful of blackcurrant-flavoured addatives.

"Not entirely unprotected, eh?" he said aloud, echoing his thoughts from a few moments before. His eyes flicked up, breaking the look of concentration that had been painted across his brow ever since he'd begun his curious in-costume drinking ritual. He gestured vaguely with his head towards a non-descript patch of space a few meters away from them. "I take it ye'r bodyguard'll materialise outa that thin air over there and rescue ye in a minute?"

[Chartis]

"Something like that." Clarity said. The space between her eyebrows creased as he drew the straw from his nose into his mouth but she refrained from saying anything; if her own son didn't pay attention to her hygienic counsil, this stranger was even less likely to.

A lull in conversation dropped between them, punctuated by slurping noises from the juicebox. With a wry shake of her head Clarity stood, idly running her hands down the length of her skirt to fix the crease.

"Well this has been most unusual. Thank-you again for your assistance." Clarity nodded once. "I'd better be on my way."

Quite abrubtly the woman vanished.

[Captain Untouchable]

The sudden disappearence of what had seemed to be a perfectly real and tangable individual was definately something that Untouchable hadn't been expecting, and was enough to make him doubt the contents of his juicebox. It wasn't entirely unprecedented he supposed: rumours of mutants who could render themselves invisible were not uncommon, and the internet was filled with reports of mutants who could walk through walls, and even teleport themselves from place to place simply with the power of their mind. Of course, there were also telepaths capable of making you think they had disappeared when in actual fact they were standing right in front of you.

Untouchable pondered the idea of throwing something at where the Clarity woman had just been standing, but even if she was still there, she had likely moved by now, and he didn't really feel like stumbling around the rooftop, waving his arms around in a vain attempt to find her. Obviously she had wanted to disappear, and wouldn't reappear unless she wanted to. A shame, really: he'd always had a thing for cute blondes.

Heaving out a sigh, Untouchable rummaged through his supplies again, pulling out a power bar and, after one last scan of the rooftop, tugged down the mask from over his mouth. Tearing the wrapper away, he set about demolishing the mix of carbohydrates and dehydrated fruits as rapidly as possible, attention ever on his surroundings. It would be embarassing if someone showed up now, while his pants were down.

Well, his mask, anyway.

[Chartis]

Very rarely did Chartis redirect herself mid-'port (it was a confusing and mildly unpleasant sensation, reminiscent of spinning on a tire swing until nausea set in) but the intrigue of the stranger was too strong to abandon. In her time the woman had met many a mutant worth raising an eyebrow over - first at Cullen's as a student and then through therapy work as a counseler - but none quite so enthusiastic in their acceptance of ability.

Doubting that the crusader was still there, Clarity wrenched herself back to the rooftop.

There was a slight crack as the air to the right of Untouchable was disturbed, Clarity appearing simultaneously with her arms crossed over her chest. The woman's mouth was open to say something, but the sight of the unmasked face stopped whatever syllables from falling.

"...Oh." She finally managed. For an absurd moment Clarity felt as though she'd walked in on him in the shower; she averted her eyes and put a hand up. "I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to catch you out."

She risked another quick glance up, absorbing the exposed features of his face in the half-light. "It's an improvement, actually."

[Captain Untouchable]

Untouchable muttered something indistinguishable: a sentence that annoyingly contained a lot of outward sounds that propelled precious crumbs of food out of his lips and onto his trousers. With a frustrated frown, he waved a hand in front of his mouth protectively, and munched through the remainder of his mouthful as quickly as he could.

Chunks of power bar still lodged uncomfortably in his teeth, he wrestled them free with his tongue while trying to speak again. Another pair of activities that apparently couldn't be multi-tasked. With a sigh he stopped, let his hand fall away, and narrowed his eyes at Clarity, an awkward, twisting sensation forming in his gut.

"Y're not really bad wi' faces by any chance, are ye?"

[Chartis]

"Just names, unfortunately." Clarity replied with an apologetic grimace. "That's what I came back to ask - your name. Or alias."

[Captain Untouchable]

"The baggy pants didnae give it away?" he asked, watching as another fantastically whitty culture reference crashed and burned in front of him.

His brow creased into a frown, mulling the situation over in his mind. "The boys back at home used tae call me 'Captain Untouchable'," he answered, decidsing that the damage was probably already done. Using the same mentality that he'd used when accidentally walking in on shirtless women in college - the "Might as well leave it off - I've seen it already" approach - he let out a sigh, and grabbed at his hood, pulling it free of his chair.

Face completely exposed, he threw Clarity a shrug. "If y're bad wi' names, I guess ye'd better just call me Tom."

[Chartis]

She didn't quite manage to stifle a laugh at his unusual nickname - it was just so patently male and ridiculous.

"Tom. That's a lovely name." Clarity repeated warmly, hoping that a benignly friendly interest would help to soothe his deflated ego.

"That's a very interesting ability you've got, Tom."

[Captain Untouchable]

Tom shrugged, wrapping his arms across his body and gripping his elbows. He felt strangely naked, the alias he tried to hide behind completely stripped away, along with his mask. He considered suggesting that she remove something as well to make him feel a little more comfortable, but past experience with women warned that it probably wasn't such a good idea.

"Not as interestin' as yours," he countered, shoulders slumped and head bowed a little in nervous reluctance. "I can project an energy field around by body that effectively imbues any object passin' through it with negative momentum. If its an object wi' low mass or movin' at a low velocity, I can make it so that it begins tae move away from me. If its movin' fast, or is a high mass, all I can do is deflect it a little."

His shoulder twinged in sympathy as it remembered the gunshot would he'd recieved when he got a little overzealous when a bunch of thugs tried to raid a convenience store. That was back in the days where he genuinely thought himself to be indestructable: boy, that had been a shock. The bullet had been heading towards him at ever such a slight angle, and his powers had been able to deflect it away from his chest and through his shoulder, but they hadn't slowed it enough to make it stop or miss him entirely. If the bullet had been just a little straighter...

His eyes squeezed closed, trying to shove those thoughts out of his head. "I cannae stop bullets," he ammended with a shrug, "But a couple o' ham-fisted thugs donnae seem tae be a problem."

Eyebrows creasing downwards ever so slightly, he cocked his head to the side and regarded Clarity sceptically. "If ye can transport y'rself about the place, why on aerth were ye out here in the middle o' the night?"