Plainclothes Day {Open to all!}

Today, Enaliss wasn't up to stealing. In fact, she had enough money in her account currently to hold her over for awhile, so she might as well treat herself to something nice. She was feeling in the mood for some new clothes, perhaps even a couple books, so she made her way to the Galleria. The place was usually crawling with teenagers, but it was the middle of the day and most of them were still in school. Personally, she had dropped out of high school because her father needed her to steal, so she hadn't attended school in ages. She was smart and had continued to study on her own, but she didn't have the whole high school experience with friends or anything. She so desperately wanted friends. Well, Enaliss did. Sabre was fine just causing mischief and teasing people, but Enaliss wanted some friends for when she wasn't in disguise.

The brown-haired girl strolled into the galleria, heading for a clothing store first, as she was in need of new jeans and shirts. It was quiet, which was alright, but she was hoping to maybe meet someone around here. Maybe if she went to the food court there would be more of a chance to make friends...Who was she kidding? She was a villain, villain's didn't have friends. They had enemies and people who tolerated them, not friends. Still...it would be nice to have someone to talk to about things when she wasn't stealing.

Why he decided to come to a mall of all places still alluded him. Maybe it reminded him of better times, maybe it was just really hot outside and he wanted some cool air. The most likely reason though was that he was hungry and the mall had cheep food. He was broke after all. Just because he was a hero didn't mean there was a paycheck involved. He was running off fumes for the last few months. Ever since he got out of Steal City, things had been worse off for him ironically enough.

He gave a shrug as he dug into his pocket. His wallet held six dollars and twenty seven sense. He glanced around the food court. It was deserted spare for a couple of random people. He shrugged his pack a bit, shifting it on his shoulder. He forgot how heavy his gear was when he shoved it into a bag.

Then he spotted a MacDonalds ripe for the picking. His stomach growled at the prospect of food. Aaron absently wondered how low he had fallen that even the death on a bum concoctions of the fast food chain sounded good to him. He gave a shrug, determining beggars can't be choosers and moved towards the place.

He set his elbows on the counter, eying the one dollar menu. It was pretty sparse and probably wouldn't keep him full for more than a couple hours, but it was his best option. He ordered a couple burgers and a small fry, totaling out to three dollars and some change.

"Man am I broke." He thought bitterly. He took his food before he glanced around the cafe again. That's when he spotted her. She was familiar some how, like he had met her some time before. Her hair was brown and wavy and her face had something animal like about it despite looking so lonely. He had to have met her before. He never forgot a face.

Curiosity got the best of him. It was more the detective in him wanting answers. He needed to know who this girl was. If he didn't figure it out, it would drive him up a wall for days. He decided to go talk to her. He absently wondered as he walked toward her if he could even strike up a conversation. He was terrible with meeting to new people after all.

Enaliss paused by the food court, thinking she could use something to eat before she went through the whole arduous process of shopping for clothes. While she had the money to spend on all the clothes she wanted, she rarely went shopping because trying on clothes, finding ones that didn't fit and trying to find something that looked good just wasn't exciting for her. She didn't need to feel back about herself by going to the store, she wanted to feel good about herself in new clothes. It was all just so frustrating. Hence why she was thinking she could use some food before embarking on such a quest. Well, quest was a bit over-dramatic, but still. She was hungry.

She wasn't usually into fast food, but right now anything was good, so she just got Panda Express. She was about to go sit down when her sharp eyes caught someone staring at her. Her nose detected a familiar scent but she didn't recognize him by sight. Her cheeks grew hot as he didn't look away and she smiled awkwardly, trying to figure out why he was staring so much.

"Can I help you?" she asked, balancing her tray of food on one hand and leaning slightly to one side.

Aaron was caught off guard by her talking to him and floundered, trying to look at anything but her.

"Uh, hi," He said rather quickly, his unprepared state coming through in his voice. He had wanted to think of something to say before he talked to her. He wasn't good at just speaking with people. He hadn't been able to hold a normal conversation in more than a year. Suddenly needing to talk to someone without having to get information or defend himself, or at the very least, without a plan, was more than what he was ready to handle.

He managed to take a deep breath before he panicked and said something stupid or outright ran. He was overreacting. He needed to calm down. This wasn't combat. He smoothed out his nerves and recalculated his current situation. He decided to make a more intelligent reply.

"I was wondering if you wanted to..." He stopped to think. What could he do that wouldn't frighten her off?

"Um, I...Would you like to eat with me?" He finally spit out, it the first, and sadly, the only thing that came to mind.

Enaliss smiled a little as he acted slightly nervous; it was a little adorable to see him searching for words. She nodded as he said hi, one eyebrow slightly raised as she waited for him to say something else, anything else. "Hello," she replied, wondering where she had heard his voice before. She was patient and waited while he took a deep breath to calm himself. She shifted her weight a little and took a sip of her soda, willing to wait to make new friends.

When he finally said what he wanted to say, she smiled a genuine smile and nodded again. "Of course I would! I love to make new friends," she said cheerfully. Her tone of voice was certainly different than when she was Sabre and out causing trouble. "My name is Enaliss, what's yours?" She sat down at a nearby table and offered him a seat, digging in to her chinese with relish. "I'm sorry, I'm just really hungry, forgive my table manners."

Aaron was surprised at how easy she just excepted his offer as if it were the most normal thing in the world. Actually, it was. He was just a teen in a mall, asking a pretty girl to eat with him. It couldn't get more normal if he tried.

It made his heart race.

He shed a glance on the rest of the food court, seeing it was empty. He caught himself calculating escape routs and easily accessible improvisational weapons. He shook himself, clearing his anxiety, realizing he was being foolish. This woman was not a threat.

He sat at the table she had, giving the best thing he had towards an apologetic smile. He then remembered that she had asked him a question.

"My name is..." He trailed off. Was it wise to give his name? His real name? He thought about it for a few seconds, then came to a rather depressing realization. There wasn't a person alive that could be harmed knowing his real name. He could spill his life story and cause himself no trouble.

He buried the depressing thought before he finished his sentence.

"My name is Aaron. It's nice to meet you Enaliss," He managed, surprising himself that he still knew how to be polite in such contexts.

He took a rather generous bite of his heart attack waiting to happen. In the small gap where both he and his company had food in their mouths, he thought of his next step. He had accomplished the first part of his improvised plan(If you could even call it a plan). Now he needed answers. This woman seemed open enough that a couple well places inquisitions could get him the facts and he could leave. He'd have to use the only model he had for this. He'd have to improvise something out of what he had seen in the few teen drama's he had seen. He had to tread carefully though. She was not to feel as if she was being interrogated. He knew civilians never took kind to such things.

Something told him though, she wasn't a civilian.

"So," He began as he finished his bite. "You live near here?" He wondered aloud, hoping it wasn't too intrusive.

“We're have a snack break.”

A snack break preceded by a toilet break, followed by a 'I can't take this anymore' break. Hugh wasn't exactly what you would call an avid shopper. To him the usual reasons for visiting a mall, were either socialisation or replacing defective technology. And in a way he supposed he was doing both right now.

His android, his clockwork android that he'd acquired the other day, needed clothes. While her figure was that of a teenage girl, she had not been accompanied by a personal wardrobe. Coupled with her hazy grasp of decency, and you had a situation that made Pix uncomfortable. She was a robot, she shouldn't look so... why did they have to make her... More clothes for Nix meant that these difficult questions could be ignored.

As members of an evil institute, stealing what they wanted should have come natural to the pair. And yet they had a grip on perspective. Why shoplift and risk drawing in Titans, when you could save the villainous theatrics for the big robberies? The robberies that paid out and afforded them money to pay for essentials like everybody else. Stealing clothes would have been dumb and demonstrated a poor understanding of the risk/reward ratio. Pix was smarter than that. It's what he brought to the table at H.I.V.E. academy, second guessing.

Thankfully both were safe from any heroic recognition as they went about their consumer ways. Hugh was always pixelated when running missions, his flesh and blood body was completely unrecognisable. To Nix they had located her space equipment, which had allowed her to pick a form more ideal for blending in around humans. Regardless of any enemies they had made – they were now incognito.

Thank goodness there wasn't a line. The food service staff were even off their feet by the time he arrived. Hugh drummed his fingers impatiently as they rose to take his order. Scarcely a delay, he asked for a typical burger meal and watched them go collect it. In his wait he noticed with dissatisfaction that the display was woefully short of condiments. No salt packets, and not even a spot for vinegar.

Gazing out over the table arrangements, he saw only one held the items he was after. Just typical that people had chosen that spot to sit at. His response was to turn to Nix, “Go ask them for the salt and vinegar. You can leave your merchandise here a second.” Yes, he could definitely get use to having a servant.

Enaliss didn't have many male friends, so being approached by a male in the mall and being asked to eat was...different. Her adrenaline was pumping as if she was in a fight, but that of course made no sense. They were just sitting down, eating and talking, so there was no need for her to be so nervous or to avoid looking directly at his eyes. This was a normal thing for people to do and she shouldn't be freaking out about it...right?

She noticed that he glanced around the food court quickly, as if looking for something, although she couldn't have said what. His answer was hesitant and she found that odd, as if he was either weighing whether he should tell her, or thinking of a fake name. She brushed it off as her own paranoia though, smiling as he finally told her his name. "It's nice to meet you as well, Aaron," she said between bites of her noodles and chicken. Her wolf side wanted to be even messier eating, but she forced herself to slow down and use a fork, taking sips of her drink and trying to appear nonchalant. Her free hand attempted to smooth down her unruly hair to at least look presentable, but finally she gave up and just decided she could win him over with personality alone.

He seemed just as nervous as she, so that made her feel a little better, but she still had to tread carefully with how she answered his question. "Yea, I own a dog-training business," she said with a smile. That was innocent enough, right? ]"How about you? Is Jump City what you call home?"

She found herself staring at him for a second, trying to decide whether she knew him from somewhere. She blushed heavily and looked away, hopefully before he noticed, to see a girl walking towards them.

"Uh," Aaron knew his responses were utter brilliance. Every word he spoke came out stammered and nervous. It was so unlike him. Or at least, unlike his alternate identity Crimson Flash. A part of Aaron wished he could have the confidence of his other self now.

"I live," He paused as he noticed Enaliss's gaze change direction. Aaron heard a set of steps approaching from behind. He felt the urge to turn, knowing they were no longer alone in their short conversation. He shifted slowly and calmly, ignoring the urge to spin about face defensively. He wasn't sure if it was a common trait of a hero, but he hated his back being exposed and would normally rectify the opening quickly regardless of the situation. He was not Crimson here though. He was a civilian, having lunch with some woman he had met at the mall. He needed to keep himself level headed.

His eyes fell on new face, the person seeming to stand off a bit. their eyes were set beyond him and before Enaliss. He quickly gave a glance at their line of sight. He spotted (With muted relief) that their sight was on the small caddy that sported a verity of condiments. A part of him had thought for a moment they had noticed his behavior and was going to call him out.

Of course this was completely ridiculous and paranoid, but he wasn't about to admit that. So he chose the hide road. Rather then stare at the person sizing them up (which he was already doing), Aaron found the common sense to great them.

"Hi,"

Nix quite enjoyed shopping, though she much preferred stealing a things. No lines you see. Not to mention she could steal whatever she wanted. But Pix here had a limited amount of money, not to mention he didn't go for everything she wanted, not knowing that swimwear wasn't a form of commonclothing she had wanted some and was quickly dissappointed. Sane with several other stores which she hadn't even gotten to look through. As was the case with victoria's secret and...some sort of "Lingerie" store. Whatever that meant. He apparently had something more subtle in mind.

Though he didn't seen to want to be here in the first place, a fact he had made painfully obvious. Through moans, groans and various breaks of large duration and frequency. He even made her carry her own bags. She didn't see why, it seemed that whenever a male was around a girl in this building the male would always carry the majority of the bags. Currently she wire a hoody to cover her more robotic parts on her head. Other than that she looked normal, sure her skin was rather pale and her hair was white but her hair was barely visible and pale skin wasn't that uncommon.

As she began to sit down she glared at Pix for a moment as he ordered her to go ask a group for their condiments. Was he that lazy? That arrogant? She was a robotic person for crying out loud, and now she was reduced to serving as a waiter? "Ugh!" she said dropping her stuff then walking off, obviously perturbed by him. Nearing slightly infuriated. As she approached the two sitting together she dropped her frown and said "My, er friend, he was wondering if he could borrow your salt and vinegar" she wasn't sure what the objects looked like so she decided to keep her hands in her pockets. "Please" she tagged on quickly.

Well, he was no charmer, but his nervousness was kind of adorable. Still, she noted every time he hesitated, wondering why he was being so secretive. He seemed just about to answer her question when they both were distracted by the girl coming up to them. Aaron seemed tense as he sized up the girl, but then he relaxed a bit. She noticed all of this from the change in his scent and the tenseness of his shoulders, becoming more and more curious about this boy. She turned her own attention to the girl, her senses trying to figure out what was odd about the seemingly normal woman who was asking for salt and vinegar.

Suddenly, it hit her. She couldn't smell any human scent coming from the girl. Just a sharp metallic scent that struck her as odd...why couldn't she smell this human girl? Perhaps she wasn't entirely human. Despite all the thoughts that were going through her head, she smiled pleasantly at the girl, wondering why she had to ask and why she didn't just take the salt and vinegar. It wasn't like they were using them at all. If the girl wasn't human, then maybe she didn't know what salt and vinegar were...Enaliss decided to test this theory. Hopefully Aaron wouldn't say anything, but she couldn't be sure.

"Of course, we aren't using them," she said sweetly, taking the ketchup and pepper instead of the salt and vinegar and putting them on the edge of the table for the girl to take. "Why did your friend send you here to ask us instead of asking us himself?" she asked innocently, glancing over at Pix.

"Um..." Aaron spoke up as he saw the condiments that Enaliss set out. He went to say something about it, but then he held his tongue as he saw the spark in her eye. She was up to something.

His brow raised a bit, again his curiosity rearing its head. He glanced over at the girl again who stood by the table, wondering what she would do. While he looked, he found himself instinctively sizing her up, though he had told himself not to only a few seconds ago.

Old habits die hard... He mentally sighed.

He gave into the urge and began checking her over for anything suspicious. He saw the hoody covering most of her head and just how pail she was now that he was really looking at her. She stood board strait as if the idea of a slouch, or even a slightly bent relaxed posture was out of the question. At least that's how it seemed to him. He shifted a bit in his spot, the nervous feeling coming over him again. She seemed out of place in the food court, like a lake in a desert. He didn't trust things that were out of place.

Then he saw it. It was only a flash, a glimmer that had just happened to catch the light from just the right angle. There was something metal on the girls head. Aaron narrowed his eyes just a bit, suspicion weaving across his features. Something about this girl was off. He moved his hands from his lap to the table, making them high enough to defend or attack.

A flutter of realization caught him flat footed. He was overeating to the extreme. This girl was asking for condiments, not the security codes to nuclear war heads. She had picked the only table with people, but it happened to be the closest to her. It was all a normal interaction.

Aaron cast a glance towards the open hall of the mall, wondering if coming to the place was a bad idea. He wasn't ready for this. He wasn't ready to pretend to be normal.

Next time, just eat at a hot dog stand and deal with the heat. He thought bitterly.

Nix smiled as the girl set out two of the things at their table. Nix's hands came out of their pockets and quickly grabbed the two condiments. Not bothering to check labels or anything. Why would they lie to her? She hadn't ever even met them before and she was just asking for salt and vinegar. Not anything special. But when enaliss asked her why her friend hadnt come she froze for a moment. Her face taking on an irritated look. As she repeated the question in her mind. There were several answers but she get Pic wouldn't enjoy if she ruined the normal day and said 'I'm actually a robot and my slave driver of an owner made me come over here.' No he wouldn't like that at all.

"He's lazy, I don't know how he got around before me." she said with a smirk. She glanced at the boy at the table for a moment as he seemed to want to say something but quickly decided not to push it. She needed to get back to Pix anyways, before he started yelling or something else that would he equally as idiotic. Stupid human. Making her go fetch things for him.

As she got back to Pix's table she put on a smile and skipped the last few steps, then proudly announced. "Here's your stuff, sir" she said. Adding the last word in with a noticeable bit of attitude. To bad she had the condiments the girl had given her instead of the right ones.

More money, malls just seemed to hoover up green-backs, which is why he usually avoided both. The burger meal was paid for in plastic. Hugh took his food and half-kicked Nix's bags over to the nearest table. There were three french fries hanging out of his mouth when she arrived back. He noticed her special spin on the last word and shook his head mildly, finishing those fries and reaching out for the condiments, "Good girl~ Well fetched." A sing-song tone exemplified the mocking Pix intended. He went to pour the first condiment onto his chips.

Vinegar seemed a bit viscous today...

Grief, the ketchup bottle didn't even look similar. Hugh blinked in amazement at what he now held. Pepper as well? What was she trying to do to him? "Someone go cut me a switch." Pix combined his sigh with a massive facepalm. These were the simple tasks. He took one hasty bite from his burger before standing.

"Follow me." He linked the arm that held pepper with her left, and dragged Nix backwards. They returned to the occupied table whereupon Hugh completely ignored the two strangers. With a spin he turned Nix around to look the right way and then dragged forward the correct condiments.

"Pay attention. Salt. Vinegar. If you can't see that, then there's a simple test, but it involves putting the pepper up your nose! Again! Salt. Tomato sauce. Pepper." He grabbed something else off the table, "Fork. The differences are subtle, I know."

As if for the first time he addressed the other people, "Next week we're teaching her toiletries. Mixing up toothpaste with aftershave can be a painful mistake." The blunder was neither substnatial nor surprising, given that Nix was an alien android and all, but Hugh was driven to humiliate. He loved to make fun of the shortcomings and mistakes of others. Nix was an easy target.