Mind Boggling, the First of Many [Mary]

[scarlet]

Sunset had long since gone in Gotham City. The stars shone brightly across the clear sky. Little commotion beyond the average drug dealing was happening in the streets behind a small hardware store. Suddenly one of the backdoors opened, the loud bang of the metal against brick disturbing the unnatural silence.

Scarlet walked out into the bitter autumn night, a smug smile planted on her face, followed by a short, rather plump man. From a distance it looked like two employees leaving after a hard days work. But if you closed the gap enough to actually see the man’s face, you would understand something rather odd was going on.

”Now, you will go home. You have no idea what happened to the missing merchandise, but remember a rather suspicious looking man lurking around the store when you left. The video camera had broken earlier, so you have not been able to record anything until you replace it tomorrow. The man nodded his understanding as Scarlet filled his mind with the lie, causing a chuckle to escape her throat. Men were by far the easiest creatures to manipulate. Although, more and more woman as of late were becoming easier to bend to her will.

Everything had to do with will power, and lately the minds of citizens in Gotham City were filled with a mixture of fear and a false sense of hope of the FBI’s antics to lower the criminal rate. What a joke that all was.

Now, as Scarlet walked around the corner and out to the front of the store, she couldn’t help but think of how an amazing of an idea it had been to set up shop here. Maybe when she was younger it wouldn’t have been so great, but since she had her powers and was old enough to make a name, it was fantastic. Hopefully she would be able to find others to do her dirty jobs for her, and thus stay out of the sight of both the government and Gotham City’s vigilantes.

Scarlet held out a hand to call a taxi. The day had been long, and she didn’t feel much like walking all the way to her store and home. It wasn’t long before one had pulled up beside the curb. She opened the back door and slid into the seat. The driver was a woman, something that didn’t thrill Scarlet too much. Still, from the reading she was getting, it wouldn’t be too hard to tune her mind if needed. Scarlet gave the instructions to her apartment half-way across town and sat back in her seat.

[mm]

Ah Gotham. Home of dirty streets, a whacked out rogues gallery featuring clowns and waddling birds, vigilantes that sometimes consider themselves above the law and now FBI agents whose actions sometimes are not unlike the Stormtroopers from Star Wars. It was alot like an independent nation unto itself now. Closed off from the rest of the world, making it's own rules. Crime everywhere. It bothered the young woman in her late teens that she and the caped hero that was only the shout of a single magic word away were starting to grow accustomed to it as if everything that happened around her was normal.

For instance: It was two days ago that she had stopped outside of a small cafe in downtown Gotham, happily waiting for her next fare to hop aboard...until she saw him whip out a gun and shoot someone that had just come out of the restaurant behind him. Her foot the gas pedal before he could climb in and she heard him exclaim in a very loud voice as she drove out of sight...

"YOU LITTLE CHICKENSHIT!!!!"

"Yeah, same to you, pothead." She remembered murmuring under her breath when that incident happened, thankful he hadn't taken a shot at her as well. This place had a clever way of toughening someone up in a hurry. Of course the next call she made was to the dispatcher who called the police. with the location of the crime. She had to answer a few questions later so they could stuff the idiot in a cage where he belonged but she was only too happy to comply.

There were still plenty of other jobs she would rather be undertaking if she could but at least the schedule of a taxicab driver was malleable enough to allow her to sneak away and transform whenever Mary Marvel was needed then return to make the rounds and collect new fares.

20 more minutes and it's time to punch out. Mary groaned, her pink painted fingernails raising to her eyelids and rubbing them delicately as she sat behind a red stop light. It had been a long day. The busiest she had since taking this job and never had her bed back at the apartment she co-inhabited with Kitrina felt so inviting.

She dabbed at her lips, wiping away a small trace of tartar sauce that attached itself following two quick nibbles from the fish sandwich that constituted her dinner for the evening. Fast food drive through window hopping wasn't something she liked making a habit of but it all goes back to the beggars can't be choosers concept. You just have to take it where you can get it sometimes.

5 seconds later and she was rolling away again while her tailpipes emitted a trail of exhaust. her fingernails drummed on the cabs steering wheel on her way to and as she pulled up at a hardware store. She needed to pick up a new bucket of paint for the walls of her abode and a wrench to help fix a link under the kitchen sink and it looked like she would even get one more fare for her troubles. "Good day miss, could you please excuse me for a few minutes? I promise this wont take long and the meter won't start until I get out. I just need to grab a couple items if it's no inconvenience." She pleaded, hoping her newest passenger was of the understanding nature as she stroked her hair and pushed it back, out of her eyes and off her shoulders.

[scarlet]

Scarlet blinked and shrugged her shoulders. Would it be best to just let her go and find out about? Or should she come up with an excuse not to let her go in? After all, the store was closed, so it wouldn't be too suspiscious. If anything went wrong she could always see about using her powers.

Although she knew better than to under estimate an openant, this woman didn't feel like she would be hard to tune her way. The obviousness that she was tired and wanted to be home was written all over her face and in her body language. Then again, taxi drivers could be some tough nuts to crack because of the tolerance they build to the nonsense of the city.

"I don't mind, but it might be rather hard to get into since the last employee just left," she replied. Scarlet sighed and looked over at the dark building. Just minutes ago she had been causing a man to shut down the security cameras and sit idlely in his desk while she raided the shop. How fast crime went when there was no one to stop you.

[mm]

"Oh." Her countenance sank, her lips pursed as she dejectedly shook her head in defeat. "Guess now I've got something new to add to my to-do list for tomorrow." Mary sighed, a quick adjustment given to her rear-view mirror and a quick shift of the gear stick before she rolled away. "At least one of us was able to make it in and out before closing time. Looks like you had a wallop of a shopping list to fill." The way this curfew changed everything had a grating effect on Mary's nerves, oh let her count the ways.

Judging by the directions her customer had given it would take at least 10 minutes to get that far across town if she was lucky. Closer to 15 or a little ,longer if she hit too many red lights or if the traffic was too stacked. "Nice weather we're having, isn't it, miss, uh..." She asked, trying to stir up whatever sort of conversation she could with her passenger before she raised a paper cup that still was half full of Pepsi cola to her lips, one hand on that the other on the wheel before they reached the first stoplight.

"My name's Mary, pleasure to meet you. Having a decent day?"

[scarlet]

Scarlet chuckled slightly and shook her head. Maybe she wouldn't be hard to tune after all, if she was that easily discouraged. IHer mind started filling with ideas as the thought thought sunk it. A personal driver to and from "work" would be nice. Not to mention having back up for heavy hauls. All she needed was a little test to see just how strong the woman's will really was. The stoplight ahead could just be seen through the windshield from where Scarlet was sitting. Eh, that'll have to do.

"Scarlet, nice to meet you. Oh yes, it's rather nice for Gotham, although it's colder than I'm used to."

Scarlet's focus wasn't on the small talk, although to anyone else it might have sounded like it. No, her attention was on the light a few yards away that had turned to yellow then switch to red. Her cab driver had plenty of time to put on the brake, but she didn't. Instead she just went right through it as if the colors hadn't changed at all.

Well, that was easy, Scarlet thought, trying to keep the grin that threatened to engulf her face down to a casual smile. Now it was a matter of waiting to see if Mary noticed her little crime or if the impact was stronger than Scarlet had initionally thought.

[mm]

After a day of hauling people from one side of the city limits to the other, some of the grumpier than others, her body was weary, her nerves getting shot to pieces, lousy drivers passing her on the streets, traffic jams and a mind that was begging her to get home, thankful that she had her last fare for the day in the car, the mortal mind of Mary Bromfield was just as prone to slip-up's as anyone else's. Slip-ups like driving through a red light and not even being phased by it. As far as Mary knew it was green. It certainly looked green when she went rolling through it and didn't give it a second thought.

"Scarlet's a nice name. I have...oh my god.". She cut her sentence off halfway through, having to jerk the steering wheel sharply to the left to avoid the car coming from the right honking like mad before she avoided the near collision and kept driving. "That lousy jerk. Really makes you wonder where some people get their licenses." She grumbled, rubbing her forehead, driving on after a quick glance over her shoulder toward Scarlet. "Sorry about that. Are you alright, miss?"