The First time in a Long While

[Flux]

There was a mall in Westchester a few miles from the Cullen's Institute where the Gifted Youngsters were occasionally allowed to visit when the faculty could be bothered to load them up into busses and vans and drive them out somewhere fun. Flux waited just inside the main entrance, looking expectantly out the window and wishing they'd just HURRY UP so he could see his girlfriend again.

He was SO SICK of phone calls and instant messenger. He needed to see her face, and not just in the zillion pictures he has of her. He needs her to be in front of him. "Banner..." he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose, "I miss you." Idly he wonders how the hell they both got too busy to even sneak out and see each other.

[Banner Laverick]

The last few months hadn't been as busy as Felix thought they were.


With Mr Rhee being a new daddy and the whole "someone breaking into the school lab, we are on lock-down" thing at Cullens, Banner had spent far too much time in her room napping/chatting/doing nothing. And every time it looked like she'd be able to sneak out to see Felix, he was nowhere to be found! Yes, they'd talked online and on the phone, but it wasn't the same as actually seeing, touching and being with him.

Now she was getting off the bus that had brought a ton of her fellow Cullens' kids to the mall for a day of "normal" fun, keeping a look-out for her boyfriend. You know, the one she hadn't seen in FOREVER. Banner ran a hand through her long red hair, straightening her outift and trying to get the butterflies in her stomach to settle down.

[Flux]

He saw her coming from miles. Her bright red hair blew softly in the breeze, and the nervous way she was double checking her outfit reminded him so much of the early days of their relationship. He stepped out onto the sidewalk and caught her as she nearly ran into him.

"Hey you," he said with a broad smile, kissing her forehead, cheek, and lips. "I've missed you so very much. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her close, trying not to let his metal bands dig into her overmuch. "How's life?"

[Banner Laverick]

Banner made a small "eep!" as she walked into Felix, but returned his kiss and put her arms around him. She frowned a little at his question, so instead of answering, she gave him another soft kiss on the lips.

"Hey Stranger. I missed you too. Life is...pretty boring, I guess? You've been out in the big wide world living it up while I've been stuck in Cullens." She rested her head on his shoulder. "How have YOU been?"

[Flux]

Living it up? Not quite.

"Well," he started, sighing and interlacing his fingers with hers as they walked in, "I've been doing nightly patrols, that's going okay, I guess. Still going to mundane school, that's pretty boring, and aggravating. I've met some other vigilante types, but only long enough for a brief team-up. I don't think we're gonna really get a group going." He leaned over to nuzzle her cheek. "I haven't been keeping up with my comics, either."

[Banner Laverick]

"Felix Fletcher! Shame on you!" She gave him a mock gasp. This boy NOT keeping up with all his comics? And going on nightly patrols - he was taking this hero thing seriously. It made her smile, even if the mention of "mundane" worried her some.

"Teaming up with other mutants huh? You're trying to make me jealous, aren't you?"

[Flux]

"No, baby," he answered softly, slowing to let her walk in ahead of him. His eyes flicked over her hips and legs before he caught up to her, sliding one arm around her waist. "I'm sorry if I did tho." The mall was a blaze of activity, packed as full as it could get on this Saturday afternoon. The students of Cullens were immediately lost among the mundanes, each indistinguishable from the other. "We don't really stand out, do we?" he mused.

[Banner Laverick]

Banner turned and kissed him, pressing her body close to his as the rest of the students disappeared into the crowd. Did she really want to be spending their one day together hanging out at the mall? No...and his comment made a light-bulb go off over her head. They didn't stand out - so who would miss them if they snuck off somewhere else? No-one. At least, she hoped no-one would notice as she planted a kiss on his neck, leaning up to whisper into his ear.

"No, we really don't. So we should take this opportunity to sneak away and have some time alone."

[Flux]

That hadn't been what he'd meant, but he didn't really feel like pressing the issue. Really his concern was where they would go. The whole purpose was to get her out of Cullen's, and his house was too far away for them to get to quickly, have quality time, and then get her back.

"Where do you suppose we should go? Not like we have a lot of options."

[Banner Laverick]

"I don't know." Her face sunk into a frown. "Can't a girl want to spend some time with her handsome super-hero boyfriend? I mean, come on, Felix."

She let her arm fall away from him, hands folding across her chest. "If you don't want to do anything, then whatever. We can hang out or whatever."

[Flux]

Felix sighed. Again, that wasn't what he meant.

"Baby, I wanna spend time with you, but I can't think of anywhere for us to go, that's all. I've got some money saved up, but I don't know what we'll be able to do with it." He held her tightly. "I love you," he said reassuringly. "I really do."

[Banner Laverick]

"I love you too, but, it drives me crazy! We never see each other anymore!" She buried her face into his shoulder as he held her tight. "I wanna be with you, I'm sick of Cullens, I'm sick of everything. I wish things were the way they used to be."

[Flux]

"Me too, babe," he said, leading her aside so they'd be out of the way of the foot traffic. He leaned against the wall and nuzzled her nose with a smile. "So pick the place you want to go. Anything at all is fine." He lowered his voice conspiratorally. "We can even go patrolling if you like."

[Banner Laverick]

"Patrolling is the last thing I want to do when I finally have time with you. They can burn the city down and kill all the people, I don't care anymore,"

Banner rested her head on his shoulder. She didn't care, and that was pretty different for the girl who used to run around playing super hero. Maybe it was selfish, and maybe that wasn't the right thing, but so what? Staying at Cullens and doing nothing wasn't right either, in her humble opinion.

"I want to just go, and not ever come back here."

[Flux]

Flux wasn't sure what to do with that statement, but he began to lead her through the mall, looking about for a place where they could go to use their powers to leave. Waiting on a bus was out of the question; they needed to do what they were doing sooner rather than later. He kept squeezing her hand at intervals, just to show some affection.

"So, uh..." He didn't want to ask about her school again, but didn't know what else to ask either. "Been in any more fights?"

[Banner Laverick]

"No."

She squeezed his hand back, a little harder than she meant to as he lead her through the crowd. She couldn't help but smirk.

"This is a role reversal - I'm the one who usually drags you around the mall..." Banners' smirk faded into a slight frown. "I'm sorry I'm so grumpy. It's just, it's so frustrating. We should do something really cool to make the day better, right?"

[Flux]

"That would be the plan," he said wryly, leading her into an "EMPLOYEES ONLY" door that didn't appear connected to a shop. He was rewarded with the grubby back-area of the mall, where maintenance workers kept the power running and pipes connected and the cleaning supplies. He was also lucky enough to have entered as no employees were moving about. A camera was sweeping the area, and he unplugged it from the wall with his magnetism.

"Ok, help me find a ladder to the roof."

[Banner Laverick]

"Over there."

Banner pointed to their left. The ladder was a few feet from them, but the sound of workers was coming from the right. She gave him a quick grin.

"We could fly up, you know. Unless you're going to impress me with your new super-hero skills."

[Flux]

"I got it."

He ran forward, jumping and repelling himself off the metal flooring, flipping in air and kicking at the barely-latched trapdoor at the top of the ladder. It sprang open and Flux landed with a fair amount of grace on the roof, disabling the security cameras up on top the same way he did the ones inside. He turned to face Banner as she came up after him.

"Whaddaya think?"

[Banner Laverick]

"That you're being a show-off!"

She couldn't help grinning at him as she floated up after him, closing the door carefully after them. She landed gently on the roof beside him, planting a kiss on his lips.

"But, you're my show-off, and it looks like you've been doing really well with your powers, baby. I guess I won't need to carry you anymore."

She turned and walked towards the edge of the roof, close enough that she could see over, but far enough away that people wouldn't notice her up there. "If we were patrolling, you'd outshine me now."

[Flux]

"Maybe." He walked to the edge of the roof and pointed out at the city line. "You're gonna hafta carry me a little bit though. I can't jump the parking lots and roads to the next building." He tapped the roof with a foot. "It's not metal enough."

[Banner Laverick]

She shrugged. "Okay."

The parking lot was crowded, but sometimes places being so busy was a good thing. People were so preoccupied with their own lives to bother looking up. If they did, they'd see two teenagers taking off into the sky, heading away from the mall and into the city.

[Flux]

The only people to note the passing of the mutants were the children in the lot below, distracted by the world around them. Their parents, eager to shop, placated them with smiles and empty acknowledgements. When the pair set down a few minutes later in territory Flux could traverse, he climbed a metal water tower and looked out over the cityscape.

"Hrm. Well, there was that one nightclub place that used to be a haven for mutants, but I don't know that it's still running. I can't keep you at my place, because my mom will call your mom, then we'll be busted." He considered for a moment introducing her to his Brothers, but then decided against it. She'd chafe at that kind of environment. "So...you just wanna go away?"

[Banner Laverick]

"Yeah, but I don't know where the heck we would go."

Banner settled down beside Felix on the water-tower. Home was completely out of the question, so was Cullens (although, if this DID actually work, she would have to get her stuff from there...). She didn't know of any other mutants they could stay with, and a hotel was not an option when neither of them really had any money.

"I doubt my friends from my old school would be able to help either. Someone would find out and then we'd both be busted. I wish I knew more people. Or had more money. That would make this a lot easier."

[Flux]

"Yeah, really," Flux quipped grimly. He felt like a pair of grinding gears, unable to think or act on the request put forth to him. "Well, whatever happens, I am not leaving New York. I've got too much here to just walk away from." He lapsed into another silence, pulling his mask from his hoodie pocket and sticking his hand inside, filling it out enough so that he could stare into the mirrored lenses. "Blah."

[Banner Laverick]

She wrapped her arms around him from behind, planting a small kiss on the nape of his neck. "We don't have to leave New York, but Cullens or our parents isn't going to cut it. "

Banner rested her head on his back. This wasn't going as well as she thought it would have. They needed a place to stay, a way to make money and support themselves in order to make this work.

"We could go into the city, maybe. I don't know. This is never going to work..."

[Flux]

"It'll work, its just gonna take some thinking. We'd need a secure place to stay, warm, and access to water and electricity. Maybe we could find a building that hasn't had that stuff turned off to it yet and live there, at least until the owners notice the bills for the place have gone up." Which would give them, what, a month? It'd be enough time for them to get something to work. Probably. Maybe.

[Banner Laverick]

"Maybe."

That *might* work - but what if they stayed too long and got caught? More trouble for the both of them. And possible trouble with the authorities, not just their parents. They stood in silence, both of them thinking.

"It'll be okay, whatever we end up doing."

[Flux]

"Yup. OK, so let's go house shopping." He yanked his mask on to his nose, then turned and kissed her gently on the cheek. "C'mon, let's see if you can keep up." He pulled it on the rest of the way and leapt off the metal roof of the water tower, bounding out across the rooftops like a mental patient, looking into the windows to see where they could stay.

[Banner Laverick]

"Hey!"

She flew after him, quickly catching up and matching his pace, laughing the entire time. Most of the windows were occupied; luckily there were no people there to see a masked man peeking in. Or no people who noticed.

[Flux]

"You'd think there'd be at least one unoccupied craphole apartment," he quipped, doing a triple flip over Banner's head. "You don't mind rats and roaches, do you?" They were passing through an old warehouse district, full of crumbling brick buildings with fresh graffiti tagged over faded company names and advertisements. "Maybe we could live in here. It's getting warmer, it's not like we'd freeze." He jumped to a tall metal smokestack and started climbing, stuck to it by his metal bands. "Plus we could use these as like some kind of badass entrance/exit."

[Banner Laverick]

She rolled her eyes as he flipped through the air - he was such a show-off!

"I do mind rats and roaches, actually, even if we'd have a fancy entrance and exit. It's a smoke stack, we'd come out looking like an extra from Mary Poppins."

Banner settled on the top of the smoke stack Felix was climbing, surveying the area. Sure, all the buildings here were old, but one of them had to be a little less...ew than the rest. "Look for one that's not so run down. We could find some camping stuff and use that if it rains or gets chilly. We could zip two sleeping bags together, that would keep us warm."

[Flux]

Flux was feeling iffy on the camping idea. It'd never been all that appealing to him. Sharing sleeping space with Banner was an idea that he'd wished he'd had sooner tho. "Hrm." He stood on the lip of the aged smokestack, dusting the rust and grime from his hands and onto his pants. "I don't see anything from up here. Can't really tell where the residential part starts. He bumped her lightly from the side with his hips. "What about you? You're more accustomed to this up-high view than me."

[Banner Laverick]

She squinted, and pointed out to their right. "Residental is over there, but I somehow doubt there are abandoned buildings in the 'burbs. Maybe closer to the industrial stuff, but they'd be pretty worn down. Guess we'll just have to go and see."

Banner gave him a nudge back, taking to the air. "Come on, Mr Show-off. Keep up."

[Flux]

He leapt again, skirting just beneath her, mask pulled up so he could kiss her lightly as he went by. She could see his cheek scrunch up as he winked at her beneath the mask, then he pulled it back down and went leaping out ahead, watching out for a good spot, and as they entered the city proper, for the usual kind of stuff he'd look for on patrol.

[Banner Laverick]

They'd barely entered the city when the sound of sirens rose up from the streets below. Banner stopped mid-flight - she never realised how loud the city was, or how quiet and dozy Cullens' had been. She hovered closer to Felix, who'd stopped as well, scanning the area in a super-hero-esque pose.

"Looks like we're going to end up patrolling after all."

[Flux]

Reflex kicked in for Flux as he leapt down safely to land on the roof of a police van riding at the back of the line of squad cars, drawn to it by magnets. He crouched low on the roof to keep from being noticed by the cops ahead (once he'd been spotted in a rearview; that hadn't gone particularly well) and trusted that Banner was following along overhead.

[Banner Laverick]

Banner was scanning the city from high above, seeing a butt load of flashing lights ahead of them. A circle of police cars surrounded a barricade in front of a bank. She could see Felix crouched on top of an incoming swat van, heading into the heart of the action.

[Flux]

With a magnetic jump he made the roof, drawing the attention of the cops as he did five forward flips. There was an air vent on the roof, and he waved Banner down to it. "C'mon, open it up," he said as she set down. "We'll get in this way."

[Banner Laverick]

Banner smirked, grabbing hold of the vent and easily pulling it up. The metal groaned, getting pulled back enough for them to fit into.

"You need to tone down the acrobatics, babe. What if the cops down there saw you?" She sat on the edge of the vent. "We're gonna have to be very careful, we don't know what we're going to run into down there."

[Flux]

"I'm basically unshootable," Flux said dismissively. "I'm also pretty sure we're gonna find goons in masks with guns, and I already know what we can do when we get down there. I'll magnetize their weapons to me. When their guns hit the ceiling, you can burst down there and beat them senseless. Good plan?" His head tilted slightly, and she knew he was looking to her for affirmation.

[Banner Laverick]

"I guess."

She didn't say anything else, and disappeared down the vent. Let him be a know-it-all...

[Flux]

He was a little put-off that she hadn't been as enthusiastic about the plan as he'd hoped, but before anything more could be she said she was floating through the air vent. He followed, careful not to make too much noise, and caught up to her further down the way. They could kind of see into the lobby, and it looked like Flux had been right. He could clearly see at least one guy in a hockey-mask brandishing a pistol at a clerk. His head turned back up to Banner, his inscrutable mask hiding the "Told you!" look underneath.

[Banner Laverick]

She shot him back a look that said "Well?". Another masked gun-man moved into view, gun barrel pointed at the ceiling as he barked orders to the clerks.

[Flux]

The vent cover lifted up, so he raised it carefully, peeking down into the lobby. Flux was amazed at how rarely anyone looked up, but then, there was some help with that in this situation. The hostages had been commanded to sit with heads pointed at the floor, and the quartet of robbers had their eyes on the clerks, hostages, and the situation outside. He leapt down through the grate, landing in a crouch, taking the tone of a kid who'd been thrown a surprise party.

"Oh you guys!"

They spun, pointing their weapons, which flew into the air and stuck to the ceiling. One reached for a back-up pistol tucked in his belt.

"Keep it in your pants, shorty," he quipped, magnetizing the gun and its owner to the metal counter. "You, too, Slappy," he said to a second, who'd drawn a knife. It flew to Flux's hand, and he caught it easily, pinching the blade between gloved fingers.