Blood Money

Welcome to the rainy city of Los Angeles. The busy city being drenched by droplets of condensation from the heavens above. The streets far from filled in this awful storm as the sidewalks and streets formed puddle after puddle, slowly morphing and reaching one and other. Of course on a day like today many decided to stay home on the busy Sunday afternoon. The black clouds rumbling overhead as thunder threatened the city in a boisterous boom. The soft pattering of the rain crashing to the earth made for a rather serene and lovely sonata to the ears of those whom were at peace enough to listen to it. Today, in this rain there was an alleyway where one unfortunate soul had had the displeasure of running into Miss Reine, whom the man owed a small fortune too. The man's yells and cried filled the alleyway, echoing off into the rainy afternoon and throughout the next few alleyways.

 A bloody, battered man in a white polo shirt and black dress pants was thrown to the ground. Water splashed and blood dripped into the pools, permeating through in a cloudy fashion. The man's face was bruised a deep purple with scratches and streams of blood flowing all over, even the once bleached shirt now having stains of red and pink splotching out. The beating was merciless and unforgiving as brass knuckles, rings and even a baseball bat was introduced to the man in order to break his body. A kneecap busted with a pipe. A gun shot through the hand and several broken ribs.

  Several blocks away a regal and prestigous looking woman with newly chopped hair in a  fringe with a dye job to a strange off colored maroon red to the tips as they draped over her eyes. A very fine pencil dress spliced from mid abdomen with a slight reveal to the chest though enough to be socially acceptable. The black fine dress was obviously of the upper echelon of society, though the umbrella she held over her head was symbolic that she was perhaps mourning. Truthfully she was just trying to get out of the rain. From behind her there were the firm steps of her protector, advisor and truest friend. Turning to look, she noticed the asian man standing six foot tall in his own fine suit, though his hair was matted form the rain and he was drenched to the bone.

 "He's not going to pay you." Jean said, though Zuri just looked away from him and held her umbrella up, allowing the man to slide underneath it. Doing so, he began to walk alongside her.

 "Of course not, but the money doesn't matter. What matters is that we make him PAY. If he doesn't want to pay his debt he can pay his own hospital bills." The woman explained, though her bodyguard only narrowed an eye and cocked his head to the side slightly, a display that he didn't quite understand. "When you refuse to pay your debts to me, you refuse to pay your debts to society. Your money that could be used to make its way back into our economy is being held by the greedy. So in doing this we are simply returning the money where it belongs." She said. Jean accepted that this was simply a dumbed down example, though he accepted it and simply moved on. Of course he knew it was not his place to question Zuri, his was to obey. Zuri and Jean continued to walk in the rain while a few blocks away a man was being made to pay for his transgressions against Zuri and her family.

LA had always been a rainy city, but today was quite the shock. Everyone was inside or bitter about having to be outside. Just the day before it was sunny and warm, and now it was wet, muddy, and miserable. However, you wouldn't get that description from Xavier Winters. He didn't understand what was so bad about water. He loved the rain, the smell of it, the feel of it. Even the cold temperature didn't really bother him much. He skipped along, running into puddles and cackling when they drenched him. He looked like he was having one heck of a good time while everyone else was held up inside. He randomly waved to kids in apartment windows to come down, yet they only shut the blinds.

It wasn't like he was lonely, though. He was perfectly content with playing by himself, like he always had. No matter the situation, the kid had an overwhelming amount of optimism. That was of course only true when it was only effecting him. He hated to see people hurt, hated to see them sad. He didn't care if something bad happened to him, but he cared if that same thing happened to someone else, anyone else.

So, with all that in mind, you can guess his reaction when he saw a man being beat in an alleyway as he trotted along the sidewalk. He stopped, stared, looked at the men doing it, then to the hurt man, then back to the men doing it...... The confused and innocent look on his face turned to anger, or, at least what anger he could show. His face wasn't really good at it, he ended up just looking unamused or sad. But none the less, he was mad at the men doing this to the poor guy.

".....Why......why are you hurting him? What did he do? No need to be so mean when you could be having fun. Come on sir, lets go get some ice cream to cheer you up!" Xavier said with a smile as he walked forward, not even caring there were men with weapons totally fine with hurting him right there. He then stuck out his hand to help the guy up, even though.....it probably wouldn't do much considering his noodle arms.

"You guys can come too if you promise to be nice." Xerxes continued, turning his head to the men intent on hurting this man, a genuine look of joy on his face. He really didn't understand this situation, that or he didn't care. He just assumed everyone deep down wanted to do good, and people doing bad was just a hiccup in that scheme of things.

Of course there would always be someone in the way. It just had to be a child as well. Of course the child just ran in when the battered and bruised ne're do well was laid out on the side of the pavement. None of the goons initially did anything, wondering what exactly was going on with a child simply storming in. What was a child like this even doing out in the rain? The men exchanged looks, each one looking more emotionless and stoic than the last, the final one whom had the gall to sneer as they looked at the child. The first thing they did was walk over and tried to pick up the child, trying to hold them high and about arms length away.

 "C'mere ya lil sqwirt." the thick accented, large, bulky man said to the little child. "Ya wanna get ice-cream? Yea, we gonna give ya a reason to want ice-cream." Immediately one of the members went to move, as if going to try and stop the much larger man, though a slight twang of fear causing them to retract their motion.

 The man actually didn't hurt Xerxes yet but held him up from under the arms and glared at him a little. Of course the kid would say something before a particular face turned around the corner with an umbrella overhead, bodyguard on her heels. Her face looked like that of genuine shock as her mouth dropped and her eyes scanned over what she had seen. The man looked like he was about to hurt a small child, and immediately her voice cut through the rain and the alleyway's silence.

"Put him down. Now." The way she said it seemed so calm, but the sheer force of it was able to drown out the battered man's cries. Zuri held out her hand, taking the umbrella from Jean as he stepped from underneath it and stepped forward. Despite being not as tall, and much slimmer the bulky man seemed genuinely afraid before hastily, but carefully setting Xerxes down and stepping back. Once he was substantial distance away from Xerxes, Jean stopped and kept himself positioned between the child and the mafia mooks. "What is going on here?" She practically demanded to know, she resumed walking towards Jean and looked over the scene of everything, placing her hand over her mouth at the sight of the battered man before turning her head away. She was no stranger to violence, but when a man's bone was sticking through his skin, she tended to get a little repulsed.

"Ya gonna beat me too, big man? ..............And um, you......you kinda smell. Like, it's bad. Maybe take a shower next time, kay?" Xerxes said. He was about to do something..... Nothing violent really, just defensive. But that's when a woman popped around the corner, using a commanding voice that told Xerxes she had some kind of authority. From there, he was put down, and he just brushed his coat off with a smile as the man walked away from him and the bodyguard took of a protective position.

"God i can smell him from here.... Miss! Please tell your friend to keep proper hygiene, it's really unprofessional to be walking around like that." Xerxes said to the woman, then turned away from her, ignoring everyone around him save the beaten man. He then held out his hand and touched him on the shoulder as he knelt down. He was taking the mans pain away, or at least trying to. He would likely feel a great sense of relief, despite the bone sticking out and such.

"That better? Of course it is! ...............Anyway, don't you think we should get him to the hospital, Miss?" Xavier said, all glassy eyed as he stared up at the mob boss. He did understand the situation.......but then again he still acted as if everyone here had no intend of hurting anyone, despite the broken man on the ground.

She didn't really know how to react to this. She watched as the young man walked over and began to do...well something miraculous really. The young man was able to somehow quiet the man, making his pain all but relieved, as if his pains had never truly been there. It was fascinating to be sure. How a simple genetic deformity could create such a blessing. The ability to remove pain from others. Though from what she had garnered from the boy's responses it was quite befitting of his personality. Of course she had no way of knowing what lies beneath.

"Now that's the most sense I've heard so far." Zuri said to the young boy before looking to the mooks, the previous one quite clearly still angry by the child's interference. "Take him to the hospital. Don't harm a single hair on his head. Do I make myself clear? If you hurt him...You'll wish you were lucky enough to have this boy save you." She said, of course the men all nodded, though Zuri pointed to the one man who was going to hurt Xerxes, indicating he was to take the man. The bulky mobster looked like he was about to say something, probably with his fist. But that all changed when Jean's head rose just a little, quickly putting the mobster in his place, nodding in acceptance.

"That was incredibly dangerous. Are you okay?" Jean asked the child, turning to him as Zuri looked at her other two associates. Her eyes were fixated like a predator, unblinking as he head tilted to the side, examining, looking up and down these henchmen as if appraising a piece of artwork.

"Don't think you two are off the hook... WHY didn't you stop him?" She asked, almost seething underneath the stone, stoic demeanor. Neither of the men spoke up, neither of them having a good answer for their fear in the underboss they had failed to stand against. "We are NOT hoodlums, we are NOT gangsters. We are different BECAUSE WE HAVE CLASS." She explained to them through her teeth sneering at them with a vein in her neck distended. She backed away before sighing and looking over to the young child, Jean taking his coat off and offering it to the child for him to use as a makeshift covering from the rain. In that moment the boy almost looked familiar. But why? She had never seen him before, no matter how much it felt like she had. I was a nagging feeling, one that just didn't want to leave.

"If you don't have the tact to do the job without collateral then maybe you should find a new position in the family. Perhaps in the kitchens... because I can tell you boys one thing." She said before looking from the child to the men. "We got a reeeeal problem when a kid has more balls than the two of you." She said as she turned her back to them and continued with her usual strut over to Jean and the child. Once there she looked at him and smiled a moment before squatting down and looking at him on eye level. Well, close to eye level.

"That was pretty brave of you."She said with a slightly genuine smile. Forcing it through the disappointment she had for the situation all around.

Brave as it may have been, Xerxes didn't really think of it as that. Maybe because he was naive enough to believe he was in no real danger, or confident enough in his abilities that he really wasn't in any danger. Either way, the situation seemed to have been resolved with the arrival of this woman, who seemed to be in charge. This did bring up a few questions, like why she seemed so friendly despite the fact her men were beating the guy halfway to death, but then again he didn't really understand the whole criminal thing.

"And it's pretty hypocritical of you to be so compassionate when you were the one who doubtless ordered this on the poor man. If you're going to be a horrible person, you might as well own up to it. But thanks anyway." Xavier said, sticking out his hand to shake the womans. If she accepted, she would feel the boys hand grip firmly......before it felt like her hand was being crushed by the slamming of a bank vault. No actual damage would be taken, but it would feel that way.

"Sorry, i have one heck of a handshake." Xerxes said, a wide grin on his face.

The boy spoke truth, it seemed almost hypocritical, didn't it? Of course Zuri would never tell the child exactly WHY she had to practice such hypocrisy. Truthfully she would actually much rather the boy see her as a monster than try to convince him otherwise. Of course the child's brash speaking only lead to Zuri smiling and laughing a little, nodding in agreement. "Indeed it is." She said simply as she shook the young man's hand. Unfortunately for her the grip was incredibly painful and it immediately caused her to retract her hand, her knees going weak as she tried to stifle a cry of pain though failing. Jean immediately went to move before Zuri shot him a glare, causing him to remain at bay.

  "Quite a grip." She managed to say with a smile as she looked from the boy to her hand, her hand trembling as the pain still radiated from it. What happened? She could almost feel her entire body responding as she began to become numb in the area, her body almost feeling...drowsy and weak? Jean quickly recognized the issue and went to her aid helping her stand upright.

  "This will be uncomfortable, but it will help." He said to her, immediately he pressed a knuckle into her back and she quickly seemed to come back to a state of total alertness. "Doubling over like that stimulated the vagus nerve..it was sending you into shock." It was moments like this that Zuri was incredibly grateful for Jean's knowledge of pressure points, nerves and overall anatomical equilibrium. Her hand still in pain, though dulling quickly, she tried to exercise it, the pain alone keeping most movement at an impossible level.

 "So... tell me... what is a boy like you doing out here all alone? You've proven you're more than perfectly safe on your own...but it still doesn't seem right." She asked, musing aloud almost as she took genuine interest in the child's being alone. Jean's obvious discomfort with the situation growing as he looked rather distrusting of the child, making sure tht if need-be he had a straight line between him and Zuri. He was, after all, a bodyguard.

Whether it seemed right or not was irrelevant really. He was out here and he could take care of himself, there was nothing else to it. She took getting the pain of her hand smashed with a surprising amount of contempt, especelly after her bodyguard worked his mojo on her. She just got right back to having a normal conversation with the boy, not that Xerxes found that odd or anything. He did things like that himself all the time.

"You know what else doesn't seem right? Someone of African decent ordering around mooks of the Italian mafia. It seems there's been some changes in how you guys do things, hm? Not that it matters, I'm putting an end to it soon enough. You should get your murder fix before it's too late." The boy said, it was a threat but wasn't delivered that way. He was saying it more as solid fact he was going to topple organized crime in this city. He had taken that up as a personal mission, for whatever reason. Xerxes would have a stare down with the woman's bodyguard, the same childish smile on his face the whole time. What was going to happen now was up to Zuri really, but then again there were other forces at play here.

A man approached the alley, he was wearing an all black suit, which matched his hair and his dark brown eyes that almost seemed black themselves, yet completely contrasted his pale white skin. He had a confidence about him, as if he just had a right to do whatever he wished. He would only glance at Zuri and her bodyguard, then turned to the boy.

"I've been waiting for you to throw your abilities off balance, you're like a needle in a hay stack to find when you're not using them. Lucky for me these savages gave you the opportunity to put them to use, and me the perfect opening i needed to locate you." The man said. Xerxes recognized him, the man had been chasing him for weeks now. Though Xerxes managed to stay one step ahead, despite not knowing what this man wanted from him. He just assumed it was anything but good. The man stuck out his hand, trying to utilize the telekinesis he had shown several times before, but Xerxes just smiled. He had balanced his powers out once again by using one from each side of the spectrum, and was now immovable.

"Not gonna be that easy this time, buddy." Xerxes said with a smile. "You two should get out of here, doubt you'd wanna be here when i smack this schmuck around."

"Actually..... I thought I'd keep them here." The man said, waving his hand to send out a telekinetic pulse, which would hold as he kept his hand raised. He hoped to pin the woman and her bodyguard to the wall.

"I know how much you hate death. You don't come with me, i rip their heads off."

Zuri listened to the little boy and she just chuckled warmly, as if genuinely amused by the little child telling her he was going to put an end to the entire organized crime gig. Though to that end she actually squatted down with her umbrella in hand and looked to Xerxes on eye level. She smiled and shook her head. "I don't need a murder fix. Murder doesn't solve anything. Beating a man will teach him not to steal. My men had their orders, but they weren't to kill." She remarked genuinely. Without a moments notice there was the clicking of footsteps in the alleyway. Zuri stood up and walked off to the side, as if distancing herself from the boy. If this were a hitman the child was the last thing she wanted in the way.

Jean stepped between Zuri and the powerful telekinetic pulse, of course not realizing that the pulse was a sustained one. Jean and Zuri slid back, though Jean was able to keep himself grounded his feet began to grit and slide on the ground, eventually sandwiching Zuri between the wall and Jean's back. Meanwhile Zuri's umbrella flew from her hand and she turned her head to the side, bracing herself for impact against the wall.

The man then claimed he was looking for this child, and how this man had been stalking him. Following him. For whatever obscene reason this was it called something to Zuri's mind. She closed her eyes and listened as the man ominously mentioned how much the boy disliked death. Though upon feeling Jean's back clench up Zuri let out a little hiss of air between her teeth. "Wait..." She commanded. Jean, of course obeyed, though his back did not unclench, still causing discomfort for the crime-lord.

"I know how much you hate death. You don't come with me, i rip their heads off."

Zuri's mouth clenched to a flat line and her eyes sternly fixated with her eyelids partially dropped, a persistent "I am not amused" look quite clear upon her features.

"You know what to do." She said quietly, a little drawl and snarl to her voice, perfectly fitting of her distain for this individual telekinetic already. The only thing Jean did in response was let out a little hum from is throat, a sign of acknowledgement.

"Brace yourself." Jean said as he actually lifted his hand from the telekinetic pulse with relative ease and then slammed an open hand on the wall behind him. The force generated coned out causing the wall to crack and a large portion of it to collapse inside. Zuri herself went through the wall, as did Jean. Jean quickly rolled off to the side and stepped out, walking towards the man, as if the telekinetic pulse has absolutely no bearing on him. Zuri on the other hand slipped back and made her way out of view.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that. Take this boy, or otherwise." Jean said as he continued to walk, ready to put up a fight at any second. The only displayed power thus far was Telekinesis...a very bad power to have against Jean. "Please leave. The longer you stay here the greater the chance that someone will die." Jean said simply to the child as they passed.

The man was completely unimpressed and remained confident even when Jean somehow broke free of his telekinetic grip. He acted as if he knew something the others didn't, or he had something in store that made all this completely unnecessary. He decided to humor them however, make them think this actually had a point. He was getting Xerxes one way or another, it didn't really matter what Jean did here.

"You're out of your league, metahuman. This is higher business your trifling with. If you won't be useful as a hostage, why don't you help me capture the boy? You will be rewarded for your assistance." The man said, though he did seem to know Jean wasn't going to go for this, as a long silver revolver appeared in his hand. It seemed to be about nine inches long, and it was glowing a pale orange like no earthly gun. Whatever it was, it was more of a threat then the man's telekinesis.

Xerxes eyed the weapon, seeming to get some form of information out of that. Like he just realized why this man was after him. He ignored Jean's comment and stayed firm, pulling out a rubber band and simply flicking it at the man. His assailant let it hit, but when it did, a surge of white light flashed over the hit area under his skin, and he seethed in pain. Waving his hand, he launched Xerxes back and down the alley, as he was no longer immovable, then pointed his weapon at Jean.

".......it's your choice really, reward or death. Either way though, I'm leaving with the boy." The man said after sighing. He looked as if he wasn't going to put up with this much longer.

"This isn't open for discussion" Jean said as he clenched his hands, his knuckles cracking as he focused his eyes on the man's posture. It didn't take long, but Jean went from standing still to outright flying in almost no time. He anticipated the gun to fire the first move he made, his response was to initially drop to the ground before using the recoil to almost literally bounce back and into a dead-on sprint to disarm the man.

  Zuri had seemingly vanished from the battlefield, though in truth she did not go very far. She was still watching, still waiting and observing from reletive safety. She initally questioned Jean's logic. The man could quite easily take two shots, though what she saw him do then seemed to make sense. The drop to the ground was utilizing gravity to generate force then pushing off with a foot to launch himself. The disarm would likely be tricky, but she had faith in Jean.

 His disarm attempt was to be close and to use his minor power to cause a generated force remotely close to the gun, with that being said he could likely just twist his own wrist to cause an uncomfortable wedge and force the gun to the ground. Unfortunately Jean wasn't quite sure what he was up against. So time would only tell.