OOC: The point of this origin story is to get familiar with the system as well as your character. We are going to go into detail uncovering what happened that possibly made you the way you are. Feel free to let me know if facts/people/places need to change. Keep in mind this event takes place before you have your powers 24 hours after your exposure to your abilities

This origin will be much different as it is going to take place with two characters not 1. Good luck!


A few days after discovering my newfound abilities, I packed my essentials in a backpack and left behind a painful past. Born in Miami to a Cuban refugee mother, I had longed to escape the torment of my stepfather, a preacher whose violent rages had haunted my childhood. At just 13, my powers began to emerge, marking a turning point. With no ties to my family, I embarked on a journey to the anonymity of the northeastern cities, surviving through theft, phasing into shops and safes under the cover of night. I found refuge in off-grid motels, living under the radar, another nameless face in the bustling streets of New York.

Little did you know your latest heist would lead you into one of the most stressful situations of your life. A cloudy night in a pawn shop leaves you face to face with a young man wearing Helix clothes. You blink strangely and wonder how he was even able to find you? No one had found you in all this time and now right, here right now stood a Helix employee.

For a second you assumed running but you noticed that there is still a chain on the front door. He didn't break in, he didn't trigger alarms, how?

[I'm going to need a little more information here to know how to react!  :)  What exactly is "Helix clothes"?  Is that like, some sort of uniform, where the man would be armed?  Is he presenting threateningly?  Or is he surprised to see anyone here the same as Lucy is?]

OOC: As soon as Max makes his first posts you should have those answers. Helix is just the uniform/jacket/symbol you notice on his clothes. I don't believe he is armed. Max, Allison is not at your location yet. She is closing in but you found Lucy first.

"Doin' some late night shoppin'" the young man asked as he leaned on a wall, a look of relaxed indifference on his face. He was obviously older, maybe 17 or 18, and he was definitely cute, in a bad boy sort of way.

He wore a black t-shirt with a double-helix on the front and the words 'Helix Industries' in a half circle above it. Over the shirt was a well-worn black leather jacket while his legs were covered by a pair of torn and ripped black jeans and he wore well-traveled black combat boots. A pair of dark sunglasses were pushed up onto his head, pulling back some of his long, dirty blonde hair.

He glanced over at the chained door, and then back at the girl, "Neat trick, gettin' in here. How'd ya do it?"

Initially, Lucy just freezes, too startled by actually encountering another person during one of her "fundraising missions" to speak or react.  For that couple of seconds, she just goggles at the boy incredulously, as if she could hardly believe his nerve, intruding on her private business here (in a shop that would be gladly open to the public if only it were business hours).  "Who the fuck are you!"  The girl speaks with just the slightest Latina lilt, like she's spoken English all her life but there's likely another mother tongue in her brain.  She looks tensed and taut, like she's ready to bolt at his slightest twitch in her direction.

Max gave a relaxed smile, as if their meeting here was the most normal thing in the world. He still lazily leaned on the wall as he responded, "I'm Max, and you are?" His accent was nondescript, perhaps midwestern American if one were to guess, but the way he spoke indicated a less than formal upbringing.

"Max?!" she scoffs, as if him giving his name was supposed to have constituted some sort of explanation for his presence here, an explanation which she roundly rejects.  "I came in through the door, MAX, how did you get in here?"  (This has the happy benefit of simultaneously being both completely true and also utter bullshit: she had come in through the door.  Right through it.  She just...   hadn't opened it first.)

Max glanced over at the door again and nodded with a grin as he looked at the chain. "Through the door, huh? Interestin'. Surprised ya didn't trip tha alarm." He completely ignored her question as he glanced around the room, "So, mysterious woman, whatchya doing, just browsin'? Looks like there's a nice pistol in that case over there, if you're in the market."

She makes a little scowly frown, though on her, it somehow manages to feel like a softening from her to that point rather confrontational demeanor.  "... the fuck am I going to do with a gun?" she says, clearly not a question she expects an actual answer to.  Instead she just regards him flatly for a long several seconds, before apparently arriving at some sort of inscrutable internal decision.  "... I'm Lucy," she says, her tone another half-shade calmer in attitude, arriving at a sort of wary suspicion.  "Seriously, how did you get in here?"

Max smiled again, this time it was warm, friendly. "Lucy, it's good ta meet ya." At her question, he glanced around conspiratorially, then leaned forward, though still keeping his back on the wall, and in a mock whisper he said, "I have a, let's say special, way of into getting places. Much like you."

He leaned back into the wall and glanced around the room, "But why a pawn shop? There's gotta be better options?"

"Cash," is apparently the only answer she feels any need to give, as if it should be obvious.  "So am I going to have to split it with you?  Or are you here for a different reason than me?"

"Split it?" Max offered a nod of respect at the girl's willingness to avoid conflict by splitting the take. He shook his head, "Kind offer, but nah, I got myself a job, free food, room, and board. It's a pretty decent gig, and legit even."

He sighed, "Grew up on the streets myself; no matter what ya tell yourself, it's a shitty life. Thought I might reach a hand out to a fellow survivor, offer ya a chance at a better life."

One eyebrow arches sharply, and her striking blue eyes flash with a spark of indignance.  "You think you fucking know me?  You don't know me, pendejo."  She turns to move back behind the counter, glancing around for the safe.  "You don't know nada about me and my life," she muses idly as she searches.

Max's ear piece rings out in the darkness, "Bzzzz....we are two minutes away Max. Talk to me. Do you have eyes on the target yet...?"

Lucy isn't able to hear the conversation but is aware of Max's ear piece.

Max frowned and reached his left hand up and tapped the earpiece, unmuting so Allison could hear what he said. "You're right, I don't know about your life, but what I do know is there's got ta be somethin' more interestin' for you ta be doin' on a Friday night than robbin' a shitty pawn shop by yourself. Hell, I know there are places I'd rather be. So that tells me that whatever your situation is, it sucks."

He shrugged, "And as a fellow member of the shitty situation club, I figured I'd offer you a chance to break out, like someone offered to me not too long ago. Ya know, pay it forward, or whatever."

Lucy stops her browsing and straightens up, frowning at the indecipherable electronic buzzing coming from Max's ear.  The movements of her eyes are like the letters that one by one spell out the word that immediately fills her brain: from his earpiece, they glance down to the logo on his shirt, then back to the earpiece, then the logo again, and then his face as he speaks.

... BETRAYED!!

She instantly tenses and is clearly once again poised to bolt, terror-wide eyes darting around for the choicest escape route.  He may be talking but it seems like even odds that she's not hearing a word he says.  "What did you do?  Oh, fuck, what did you do?"