She snickered to herself as she ducked into a corner, white bag in hand. She had seen the creepy, pale dude deep in thought and she instantly knew he was her next victim. Chump should know better than to get lost in his thoughts when in the lower districts.

So she worked her magic with a little switcheroo, and she was home free; with a bag of foodstuff. She didn't exactly know how to cook. She'd probably just sell most of the stuff and make a whole lot of money.

She didn't watch where she was headed and she eventually bumped into someone. Well, more like something. The dude was a brick wall!

She fell on her butt and let out a small grunt. She looked up and saw three men looking down at her. one she ran into was the tallest, with a shiny bald head, dark beady eyes and an "X" carved into his cheek. He was pure muscle and ink, with tattoos travelling from his exposed beefy arms to his neck. He probably had tattoos all over his back too.

When he saw the spilled contents of the white bag beside her, he smiled. It was so crooked and somewhat sadistic, a devious glint manifested in his eyes.

But that wasn't what spooked her...

It was the tank top he and the other guys had on that did. A black tank top with a bold yellow "N" in front. They were part of Nexus! She knew she had fucked up, badly.

She quickly rose to her feet and dusted herself off. She gathered the stuff that spilled, apologized and looked to be on her way. The bald, muscular man chuckled and grabbed her hand firmly before she got far.

"Slow down, little girl. God might've just sent ya to me," he said cheekily, his voice deep and gruff. The two other guys chuckled deeply along with him.

Sure, she was a tad bit short for her age, but no one got to call her little girl. She would have voiced her complaints but then again, there was three of them and one of her. And more importantly, they were Nexus members.

The bald man snatched the white bag from her grasp and examined the insides. He hummed in satisfaction whenever he saw something he liked.
"Almost like ya knew I was running low on them foodstuff," he commented and ruffled her dark-red almost brown hair, "Thanks, kid."

He turned around and started to leave the corner, the two guys behind him. They laughed loudly without a care in the world. Hearing their laughter made her blood boil. She hadn't eaten anything fresh in days! Only leftovers from behind a restaurant or stale food from a dumpster.

Which would probably explain her height, her gaunt frame and her pale, dirty complexion. When she finally thought she'd eat good, some dicks who already had everything, rode in and stole it from her.

She balled her fists and shook angrily. She started to feel hot inside. The cold asphalt under her bare feet started growing warm. Her temperature was rising by the second.

It was something she noticed she could do a while back. But she wasn't scared of it, like most people would be. Instead, she embraced it with open arms. She led a dangerous life. And this... thing she could do, well, it was extra protection.

Slowly but surely, the air before her started to sizzle and then, a spark of fire appeared. It grew little by little, until it was the size of a tennis ball. It might not do a lot of damage but it'd surely leave a mark on one of them.

She aimed for the bald one...

The fireball moved, speeding towards the retreating gang member. Sweat rolled down her stained face as she concentrated on sustaining the fire. She had never tried using it on a human being, so it was a first-time experience for her. That, and she had never sustained the fire for that long before.

As it neared the bald gang member, the fireball suddenly blew out. It wasn't like it burnt out or anything. It was more like a cold wind blew and it went off. Said cold wind reached where she stood and it chilled her to the bones. It must have hit the gangsters too because they stopped and turned around.

"Yo... did you throw something at us, haas?" the tattooed baldie asked. That was when she noticed a man of average height, standing by her side. His skin was pale and one of his exposed arms was tattooed completely. He was wearing a dark baseball cap and a faded Lakers jersey.

Wait a minute...

It dawned on her that he was the dude she stole the white bag from in the first place. He looked down at her and said, low enough for only her to hear, "Don't pick fights you can't win."

"Hey! I'm talking to you, haas!" the bald Nexus member didn't like to be ignored. Especially by chumps who didn't know their place. He moved towards the Lakers guy and the short redhead girl.

"Uh? Oh... my bad. Didn't know you were talking to me," the guy replied with a cocky smile. The fuck was so funny that he was smiling? He'd definitely love putting the chump in his place.

He stopped in front of the Lakers guy. He smiled a little when he noticed that he towered over the dude.
"Well... now you know, don't ya?" he poked the pale guy in the chest. The guy stumbled back a little.

The tattooed Nexus member couldn't help but laugh at the pathetic display. He stumbled back with just a poke. What if he actually shoved the guy? Oh, he'd whoop his pale ass back to wherever he came from.

"Uh... yeah, now I know. And to answer your question, no, I didn't throw anything at you. Though, I'd like to collect something from you," the guy replied, looking straight at him and his guys.

Oh, he'd collect something, alright. An ass whooping, that's what...

"And what is that?" he indulged the soon-to-be-beaten guy. He heard his guys chuckle and crack their knuckles behind him. They read his mind, as always.

"Oh, nothing much. Just my bag," the Lakers guy said, pointing at the white bag in his grasp.

The bald Nexus member had his mouth hanging open slightly. He looked at the little girl he got the bag from and she seemed just as perplexed as he was.
He wasn't perplexed because of the Lakers guy's claim. He was perplexed that the guy actually confronted him because of it.

Like, doesn't he know he's gravely outnumbered?

"It's your bag? Oh shoot, I had no idea, haas. I just got it from the little girl. And ya know what they say, finder's keeper's," he replied, turning to hand the bag over to one of his guys.

The Lakers guy moved faster and grabbed the white bag. He handed it to the girl and yelled, "Get out of here!"

That was how the fight broke out...

Whyte saw the bald guy's fist approaching his face and he knew he couldn't avoid it in time. He squinted his eyes shut and took the punch head on; literally. His baseball cap flew off his head, revealing his long dark hair.

He fell to the cold asphalt and saw white for a brief moment. All he could hear was a loud ringing sound. The right side of his face stung and he could feel it start to turn a bright red. He started to get up on all fours and spat out blood. He didn't realize he was in the perfect position to receive a vicious kick to the ribs.

The bald Nexus member accepted the invitation with glee. He looked as giddy as a schoolboy, with a maniacal grin on his scarred face.

Whyte doubled over in pain and grabbed his stomach. He coughed and groaned, spitting blood on the ground again. He opened one eye and saw the redhead girl at a safe distance, watching. Why the other Nexus members didn't go after her, he didn't understand. Maybe they wanted to get in on the action as well...

The bald gangster grabbed him by his faded jersey and lifted him off the floor roughly, then he wrapped one of his meaty hands around his neck, suspended him in the air and started choking him.

Whyte could feel his windpipe start to get crushed. He swung his legs around wildly and hit the gangster's arm. Anything for him to be released...

Seeing that there was no other way, the evolved human grabbed the bald man's wrist and said man hissed in pain. He dropped the Lakers guy and grabbed his wrist. He didn't understand what happened.

The guy's palms were so cold that it... burned?

Said guy was wheezing while on his knees and rubbing his neck. His guys touched him to ask if he was okay but he shrugged them off. He checked on his wrist and saw a portion of it was discolored in the shape of a palm.

Lakers guy's palm...

He fumed and rose to his feet with renewed anger. "I'm gonna rip you apart," he told the guy, his voice grave and serious.

"That's funny... I was just about to say the same thing," Whyte replied, wiping the corner of his dry lips.

«»

Brie typed in a few more codes without staring at her keyboard. She had been working on this side project of hers for a while and she had kept it a secret. That was why she opened a new tab when Eliot and his unit arrived at her desk.

When she was done, she ran the code and closed her eyes, with her fingers crossed. She really hoped it worked. She could not afford to start from scratch... again. She opened one of her eyes slowly and stared at her monitor.

"Fuck yeah!"

She jumped out of her station and danced around for a few seconds. She was terrible at dancing. It was more of her jumping and waving her arms around. The rest of her IT buddies paid her no heed. They did whatever they wanted, no judgement whatsoever.

The college student quickly copied the whole thing to her flash drive and pocketed the pitch-black device. She made her way to the elevator and pressed the 13th button. She hardly went to the director's office; heck, she hardly even saw the man, but what she had on her flash drive would definitely interest the dark-skinned man.

The ginger-haired girl got off the elevator and made a beeline for his glass office. She ignored the stares she got from the more "official" people on the 13th floor. They were a bunch of stuck-up douchebags.

Before she even crossed the secretary to the director's desk, the brunette woman already stopped her.

"Bridget... how lovely to see you," Katherine said to her with a lovely smile plastered on her face. She was wearing a pantsuit; as usual. She was the only one on the 13th floor Brie could stand. She was also the only one in The COSP who called her by her full name all the time.

"Hey, Kat. Nice to see you too. Eh, is Director Gray in? I'd like to see him," she replied, trying to look into his office. But the brunette secretary was in her way and her view.

"He's not in, Bridget. Besides, why do you want to see him exactly?"

She could understand why the secretary was asking. It wasn't usual for someone in IT to request an audience with the director. But it was important...

"I have something I want to show him. I think it'll really help with this whole recruitment business," she explained eagerly.

"Oh wow! That's great news. But shouldn't you just give it to the head of IT and then he'd give it Director Gray?"

Brie wanted to say something but then she stopped. That was the normal way to go about things. She was too excited and she forgot. She face-palmed and nodded her head.

"Yup... I'll go do that," the curly-haired girl said and made her way back to the elevator. Katherine watched her go with a small smile on her face. The college student tended to forget things when she's excited. The smile faded from her face when she saw DeShawn leaning on a wall and staring at her, a grin on his face.

"It's not cool to eavesdrop, you know," she told him as she went back to her rotating chair. The dark-skinned supervisor kicked off the wall and approached her desk.

"Oh, I've been told. But you also know what's not cool? Harvey not being in his office when he's needed. Where'd he go, Donna?" he asked, smirking as he leaned on her desk. It took all of Katherine's self-control not to stare at his muscular arms.

"That's none of your business, Mr. Festers," she replied him curtly.

"Oh please, call me DeShawn," he told her with a wink, "And also... it's definitely my business. It's the whole reason I'm here. So... spill, Donna."

Katherine leaned into her chair and stared straight at the supervisor as she tapped a pen against her cheek. "What's with this whole Harvey-Donna names you keep calling us?" she asked. She was half-curious and half-trying to change the conversation. And it worked...

"I could explain it to you now, or I could do it over dinner... tonight," DeShawn replied, standing up straight and keeping his hands in his pocket. If Katherine was stunned, she didn't show it. She turned her chair left and right briefly before she sat up and said, "We'll see... Now shoo, I got work to do."

The supervisor smiled even wider and nodded his head, "Roger that, Donna."

He turned and headed over to wherever the winds took him. Katherine stared at his retreating form, still tapping the pen against her cheek.

"Oh, good Lord. This guy is trouble..."