Power House Cafe

Luke was at a cafe in Victoire city, he had heard that some of the most intelligent people in the world were here but so far he had yet to pick anything up. He was reading a theoretical physics book in frustration with a bit of coffee to keep him awake, so far this trip really hadn't been worth it. Hell the only interesting thing he had seen was the pale gentleman that ran the cafe.

Kellie had been doing her normal rounds until she decided that she should probably get to work on her latest research grant, so Shrike would have to take a break. She decided she would work in a cafe she saw as she was patrolling the streets. She entered the building wearing her usual university uniform and went to a vacant table. Before she would really get to work she decided she would tinker a bit and took out an ECM and a router from her bag. She removed the soldering iron she kept in her purse and got out two D batteries just in chase. She opened up one of the circuit boards on the jammer and got to work, as a cup of coffee sat next to her.

He put away the book, he couldn't stand reading the same thing twice, he already knew the books word-for-word after one read through. He was just about to leave when he noticed a girl tinkering with something on a table, and two more important things, one, that what she was doing was interesting, and two, her mental presence was amazing. He moved to a seat that was closer and looked at what she was doing, soaking in every action. He would probably have a heart attack if he approached her out right so he tried to study first, and see exactly what she was doing, ECM, Router, batteries, interesting...

Kellie had taken out some tin wires from her purse and was busy connecting them to the router's central processor and signal access point. By the time she had finished connecting them, she was already in her bag once again and pulled out what looked to be a small circuit board about the size of a dime. She then began to solder it before getting the right information on the device. After awhile she wiped her brow, showing off her looks inadvertantly as she took out about three of her batteries and connected them to the wires to the ECM Jammer before putting her newly created circuit board in a small switch that she had in her bag which she then connected to the ECM, effectively creating a device that can remove all electricity from an area in a five mile radius after charging four five minutes.

It looked like a jury rigged EMP, although it was very likely that it wasn't that. he decided now was the time to ask about it as he spoke up, afraid of a harsh rebuttal. "Um excuse me, what's that you're working on? It looks similar to an EMP but I'm not sure if that's what it is."

Kellie heard some talking behind her and looked at the person who asked the question, "A simple electricty emmiter designed to overcharge and shut down any devices in a 5 mile radius" she said as she sipped her coffee and arranged her device into a more organized unit and not a hodgepodge.

He looked at it closely and after a moment worked at how it could do that. "Hmm, it's a pretty good design, in fact I'm amazed you managed to make it in the middle of a coffee shop. None of the people at the university could've done it as well, if at all. How did you think of the design?" He asked, as he hadn't seen it before. He had already visited the local university and found that all f the people there were of absolutely no help.

Kellie looked at her machine for awhile and looked at him, wondering why he was so impressed, "I was just warming up for a research grant I was given, I made this using the spare parts I had on me." she said as she began to adjust the ECM for quicker deployment and putting her soldering iron in her ear like a pencil

"Well I'm surprised, especially by the fact that you're the most intelligent person I've met." He said, gesturing at the air. "Your mental presence is astonishing, you're pretty talented."

Kellie looked at this person curious and then held out her hand for the boy who seemed to be a bit weird. "Kellie" she said nicely as she gestured for him to shake her hand, readying to fire the wrist launcher hidden under her sleeve if neccessary.

He nearly had a heat attack when he realized he had just practically outright said he was a mutant, luckily she didn't catch it and thought he was insane... oh jesus. He looked ever so slightly panicked. He took the hand tentatively and shook it before quickly pulling it back, when he had shaken her hand he had glimpsed something under her sleeve, he felt it out a bit with his telekinesis and affirmed that whatever it was, she could probably mug him with it, not that she needed it from the looked of her build. "Luke, nice to meet you, do you go to the university?" He said, looking a bit more nervous now.

Kellie nodded as she looked at Luke, she was able to decipher is status as a telepath but was unable to determine what else he was capable of, as long as she made him believe she didnt know, she could determine, "Nice to meet you as well, and yes I am, they give good grants for development" Kellie said as she thought about whether she should consider this person friend or foe.

"Oh that makes sense, it didn't seem like you would have been able to learn much there. But what do you need the grants for?" He said, interested. He guessed that the kind of work she would do with a grant would be highly advanced and possibly even beyond his understanding, which made him want to see it more then any kid wanted Christmas to come already.

Kellie looked at him skeptical and kept the thought out of her head to defend her mind, "Well lets say I use it to help people" she said as she hid that she used alot of the money to fund Shrike, as alot of her grants didn't need the full sum of money to create.

Used it to help people? Well that was unnecessarily vague, so she was trying to keep it secret and didn't come up with a good excuse in time? Either that or she was working on a secret project for the government, not a military one or else she wouldn't have even mentioned it in a public place. He would just assume the first one. He guessed that it had to do with engineering since that seemed to be her specialty from what he could tell from the ECM and the thing in her sleeve. Would it be for combat? Judging from the two things they would be especially useful for that, but he already established that it wasn't military so it had to be for her- it clicked in his mind what this meant, judging from how nice she was and how open she was with him, he guessed she was using these to be a vigilante (And not a robber or something). All of this went through his head in a second or two as his eyes widened slightly. "Have you been using them to help people already? And if so how has it been going?"

Kellie saw the look of connection in his eyes and knew that he was starting to break through, so diverting would be necessary, she thought of her usual excuse and smiled, "Yeah the hospital has been using my tech for 3 years now" she said thinking in her head that this is true to throwhim off.

That would have definitely worked if he hadn't already broken through. He had to admit that was a good excuse, and judging from how readily she conjured it up it must have been true, but that didn't explain the combat equipment. If she was as intelligent as he had believed then she knew that he was a mutant already, and that meant that she could black mail him if she wanted to, seeing how hated mutants were. He shifted nervously a bit before continuing, still not any less nervous. "Well that's quite a good deed. But you know that wasn't what I was referring to. I would venture to guess you know what I am too because of my slip up earlier." There he put it out, either she would think he was crazy, or something else would happen... and possibly she would still think he was crazy. He also pulled his sleeve, which if he was Kellie, it would be the one with the device under the sleeve.

Kellie saw what he was doing and narrowed her gaze as she now knew he was onto him, she knew one thing and that was that he could not read the minds of machines. Using this to her advantage she took a moment to pull up her sleeve, pushing the device with it and making sure that her AI assistment would begin to send out telekinetic interference.

Alright, this was going nowhere, he had to guess which vigilante she was if he was to just tell her outright that he knew she was a vigilante. He went through the possible suspects in his head before settling on Shrike, from the blond hair and the kind of technology and resources he thought it fit the bill. "Did you know that Shrikes like to impale the bodies of insects and small vertebrates on thorns so that they are easier to eat? I just learned that today and thought it interesting." he hoped he wasn't going too far with the subtlety of his accusation, if so she would just reflect it again. "And I would like to comment again that those grants are being used well, not just for the hospital." He added this, to try and show her that he wasn't hostile or anything like that, and that he was mostly friendly.

Kellie nodded and said, "Indeed I did, bird watching is one of my hobbies, would you like to see one of my spots?" she said curiously as she wanted to leave this shop before confirming her identity

He nodded and smiled, even though he was still visibly nervous, although he was like that all the time. "Sounds fun! Lead the way." He said as he stood up. He had a small lingering suspicion that she was taking him to a secluded area to kill him quietly, or somehow erase his memory, even though he knew that that wasn't the case.

Kellie nodded as she got up and put the machine she made in her bag and paid for their coffee before leading Luke to a secluded building in one of the worse neighborhoods in the city.

When he saw that they had arrived at a secluded building in one of the worse neighborhoods he started to think that maybe she WAS bring him out to a secluded place to kill him. Just to be safe, even though he knew he was being paranoid, he disarmed the thing under her sleeve using his telekinesis, as quietly and with as little movement as he could manage. He guessed she probably had many more ways to kill him if she wanted to but one less way was one less disadvantage for him. He looked at the building up and down, there had to be some other reason for her bring him here... "So why'd you bring me here?" He was sure that that was the most direct he had been all evening.

Kellie entered the room and threw her bag on the table before cleaning a mess off of a couch for Drak to sit down, she then rearmed her wrist launcher and said, "Try next time to disable the thing that isnt connected to my AI" she said as she noted how Jennifer was able to notify her.

He blushed in embarrassment, and it also made him think he was more of an idiot as that would mean it would be harder for any trust to be had. He sat down while he started to organize the stuff in the room absent-mindedly with his telekinesis. "Sorry, I got a bit paranoid when you took me to such a secluded location... so you're Shrike?" Nevermind, THAT was the most direct he had been all evening.