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Summary: Jill's phone gets jacked by Kai. Being New York, nobody does anything to stop it. Special guest appearance by Robyn!
Date: January 9, 2012
Log Title: The Theft
Rating: PG
NYC - Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a residential and shopping area of Manhattan. The neighborhood is upscale and home to the richer residents of New York City. Row houses line the streets in-between the more commercial buildings of the city. Upscale restaurants, clothing and jewelry stores can be found on the Upper West Side.
Near-freezing temperatures do not bring New York to a halt, not even to a crawl. People might bitch about it, but they'll be damned if they're going to let it stop them doing what they want to do. A blonde girl, clearly still in high school, sits in the otherwise empty outdoor area of a Starbucks, bundled against the cold but as resolute as anyone else on the streets that it's not going to ruin her day. Jill exhales into the paper cup, steam billowing about her face like a tiny but determined chimney.
Heading out of the museum is Kai with a smile on his face and sporting an almost healed black eye. He's dressed in black jeans, a white t-shirt, a black peaked beanie, dark grey jacket and white Converse All Stars. Pulling his phone out and starting to text, Kai stops almost right next to where Jill is standing though he pays no attention to the bundled up girl.
Bundled against the cold, Robyn is on his way home from school, where he usually takes the subway home he's decided to walk. A large backpack is slung over one shoulder he passes by Jill sitting outside at the Starbucks and decides a warm drink is a good idea. Ducking into the coffee powerhouse he returns in a few minutes with his peppermint mocha and takes a seat at a table by Jill. "No wonder you're sitting out here, all the tables in there are taken up by people who think they're writers."
The girl raises an eyebrow. "It could be worse," she agrees after a thoughtful moment. "They could think they're screenwriters." She shifts in her seat, wrapping both hands around her chai latte and standing. "It's nicer out here, anyway. Cold air, warm drink, shops fulla stuff I can't afford." It's not that the talkative boy's appearance goaded her into getting up and getting moving, not that she'd admit anyway, but she moves around the low barrier that separates the outdoor seating area from the sidewalk proper. Her phone rings and she's forced to dig it out with one hand while holding her drink in the other. The division of attention sets Jill headed straight for Kai, head down and not paying particularly close attention to where she's going.
Whatever the boy is texting it seems it's long as Kai has yet to look up and is still firmly focused on what he's doing. Seems he's gotten way to lax of late as he's not quite aware of his surroundings enough to see the other teen with a phone heading his way seemingly on a course for collision.
Jill's brow furrows at her phone, seeing a number she doesn't recognize and her address book slow in popping up to identify it. Who could be- WHAM. Quite spectacularly, her chai latte is airborne and for a brief moment so is she, sneakers slipping on the wet sidewalk after a direct head-to-head with Kai. She lands on her ass, phone skidding away while still ringing with a piano rendition of The Beatles' 'Revolution'.
Kai's reflexes are luckily still very good, as he's knocked back a little from the collision he spots the hot drink in the air, not wanting a burn he quickly freezes the drink, catching the chaicicle he tosses it to one side as he looks round for his phone, spotting it he grabs it to check for any damage while checking his nose (roughly where Jill's forehead would of hit him) checking that for any damage too, didn't hurt but his pain threshold does tend to fool him injury-wise.
"Oh man!" The girl on the ground looks both panicked and ashamed, frantically feeling the sidewalk around her and eventually underneath her. Luckily, she apparently didn't see the magic chaicicle trick. "I'm so sorry! My phone, where is it?" The Beatles have stopped playing and her phone has gone silent, wherever it managed to land. "Are you okay?" she asks without looking up, her priorities warring for attention. "It has all my numbers in it." Not to mention the numbers and contact info for various teachers and staff for a school that would rather remain quietly off the map.
Kai concludes that his nose feels completely normal before he turns his attention to the girl that hit him, "Errm yes I’m fine", looking around he spots the thing the 'has all [Jill's] numbers in', as he's the only one of the two he walks over to the phone to pick it up, looking at it he frowns, he's seen this model before… "Is this yours?".
Jill rubs her forehead, but there isn't so much as a bruise on it. It's not even red. "I'm so sorry, I just wasn't paying attention and then it rang and… my drink… where is it?" She pulls herself up a little to a kneeling position, biting her bottom lip in consternation. "Oh!" The blonde girl's face lights up with joy. "You found it! Oh, thank you, they'd kill me if I lost it. Thank you." Climbing slowly to her feet, she brushes the wet knees and seat of her jeans off as best she can before scanning the sidewalk again in confusion. Her chai, it's just gone. Not even a milky brown puddle on the concrete.
Kai continues frowning before he finally realizes where he's seen this model before, Kevin pulled out the same model to contact his school when Kai was shot, while the phone could be school issued it could've been his personal phone, a mass produced model… then she says some thing interesting, "Yeah I found it, who'd be annoyed if you lost this?", he's tempted to steal the phone but that could be problematic in the crowded street.
Still holding her hands out to take the phone back, Jill balks at the question. "Uhh." Dead giveaway number one, she's stalling for time. "Well, my school. They, uh, they give one to everybody, but if I lost it I think I'd have to pay for it. To replace it." Dead giveaway number two, she's not telling the whole story. She stretches her hand out a little further, more insistently asking for it back. "I don't even know how much they cost. So… thanks. For finding it."
Kai hmmms, "Your school gives these out?, not many schools give their students cell phones, and such seemingly high tech ones as this", he makes no movement to take the phone though he doesn't move to return it either, "I can only really think of one in this area, would you mind if I was to check something?, it'll only take a second", another student from the mysterious Xavier School perhaps?
"It's…" The girl gives a little chuckle, though it seems forced. "It's just a smartphone. I mean, everybody has one of those. It's not even an iPhone or anything. They get some kinda deal from the provider, so, like, I guess it's easier if everybody has the same kind." Jill's hand drops slightly when the boy doesn't hand it over immediately. She self-consciously tucks it into the pocket of her coat like she meant to let him have a look at it anyway. "Are you, like, a big tech guy? Gotta see if mine's better than yours?" A casual roll of her shoulders passes for a shrug.
Kai shakes his head, "No not really, well I do have a solid grasp on several types of tech but I have no concern whether or not yours is better than mine, I leave that kind of behavior to children in playgrounds or small men showing off their big cars", he flips though Jill's phone for anything of interest, "You have a mis-call from a Nick G.", he pulls out his phone again and takes down the name before turning the two phones over, he's not really sure yet what he's looking for.
"F-from Nick?" Jill leans forward onto the balls of her feet, hands drawn from her pockets to reach out for the phone but not actually aggressive enough to simply snatch it away. Whoever 'Nick G.' is, she apparently doesn't want to miss him if he calls again. She looks confused when Kai whips out his own phone, even though he just said he didn't care about comparing them. "Did he leave a voicemail?"
Kai shrugs, "I figured it would be rude to check, wouldn't it?", without asking he moves away from the girl to one of the tables near the Starbucks, he pries the backs of both phones which he puts on the table, having apparently lost interest in the contents of the phone (for now anyway) and turned his attention to the hardware of the phone, "I'm Nathaniel by the way, if you were interested".
"Wha-… hey, don't do that!" Jill totters after 'Nathaniel' waving her hands in a futile attempt to get him to stop doing whatever he's doing to her phone. "C'mon, I said you could look at it, not take it apart. If you break it, it's my ass on the line." Having apparently had just about enough of this, she leans over the pedestrian barrier to make a grab for the phone before he can break it completely. Jill once had a mad inventor for a roommate, so she's actually pretty used to stopping people from taking her stuff apart. With mixed success, admittedly.
Kai isn't ready to give the phone back just yet but rather than attempting to physically stop her he aims to shock her into stopping, "I know what you are", he places a hand on the back of the phone and turns to look at Jill as it is said, looks like he may have to resort to thievery after all, shame he hoped to end this pleasantly.
That does indeed stop the girl cold. "What?" A mix of confusion and disbelief on her face, Jill's mouth doesn't fully close afterwards.
Kai smiles as he quietly tries to slip both phones and their backs into his jacket pockets, "I'm not going to say anything but I am going to go, you can have your phone back in two days time, go to Forest Hills High School and the phone will be in locker 1743, the combination is 42-56-12, I’d hoped this would go more smoothly but now I have to go", he starts to back away, "Oh tell Quenton I said hi".
"Locker number *what*? Forest Hills?" Spineless she might be, but just no. Jill's not gonna take this shit. Disbelief melts quickly into outrage. This boy Nathaniel might have her phone, but there's no way he's gonna get away with it. "You give me that back, right now!" the blonde girl snaps sharply. She lunges, throwing herself bodily at him with arms outstretched to grab and hold on. "You can tell him yourself after he beats the crap out of you!" Jill has no idea if Quenton would ever do anything she asked him to, but maybe the threat alone will be enough. It doesn't even dawn on her to ask how they might know each other.
Kai is a little shocked when Jill throws herself at him to stop him getting away with the phone, he attempts to grab hold of her arms and move her away from him using some of his enhanced strength, "Calm down, you will get it back, I just need it for a while". He doesn't see the need in hurting someone when it isn't needed, but he is willing.
Jill pulls and twists, but Kai has a firm grip on her wrists. "Let go! Give it back!" She turns, seeing the huge pane of the Starbucks' front window. "Help!" she yells at the people inside, and some of them actually turn their heads in growing interest. Unfortunately, drawing their attention now means she can't use her mutation to easily slip out of his grasp, but it does put a certain pressure on the thief. Someone pushes open the door, an employee from the look of his green smock and baseball cap. "What's going on?" he demands gruffly.
Kai tries to twist his wrists to obscure who exactly is holding onto who, spotting the employee he has to think quickly, "Help this girl is trying to get my money!, she's doing something, my arm!", starting at his shoulder a layer of ice begins spreading down his arm, "Please don't hurt me!"
The barista clearly doesn't know what to make of this development and stops with an abrupt jerk in mid-step. A few soft gasps escape the open door of the Starbucks. Jill's eyes are wide, afraid for a moment that she really is doing something. She recoils from the boy, forgetting for a time that she's not supposed to be showing any signs of obvious mutation. Her wrists just seem to melt away under Kai's hands, which they literally do, and suddenly she's falling backwards onto her butt yet again, empty coat sleeves leaking a thin trail of some blue, slimy substance.
The freezing stops and the ice breaks away as Jill slips away but before turning to leave Kai can't help but peer at Jill's power, "Oh, well that’s clever, makes for an interesting defense mechanism, but I should take advantage of your current lack of hands, remember Forest Hills High, locker 1743, combination 42-56-12, bye now", offering Jill a smile he turns and runs off.
A few people are starting to gather around the large front window of the coffee shop. Jill's mouth gapes, eyes flicking from the retreating boy's back to the gawking customers. She scrambles to her feet, hands suddenly back in place, and turns to run in the opposite direction as fast as she can. Nobody gives chase to either teenager.
