"Who the hell would leave something like that behind?" You ask. You've seen necklaces like it worth anywhere between 20 to 200 dollars, but there's no way to tell from about 30 feet away.
"I'm guessing it wasn't intentional" Jasmine says. She stuffs the necklace in her pocket. "I found it under the kiosk. I'm guessing that whoever was packing up just dropped it on the way out."
"Well, if it was that easy to spot, wouldn't a vagrant or something have taken it already after so many years?" You counter.
Jasmine looks at you for a few seconds with a raised eyebrow. "Well, most vagrants don't hang out around here." Jasmine says matter of factly. "Sure, it's a roof over your head, but it's a few miles by foot to the nearest cafe or gas station or anywhere else they could get food or score drugs. Most homeless guys live under the bridge a few miles up the way. Or they make their way to the Tent City under the Interchange." Her voice is dripping with skepticism.
"Look, I just have a bad feeling about." You say. You don't really know for sure if there's anything dangerous about the necklace itself, but you've seen enough movies where someone tries to take something valuable and gets killed.
Jasmine looks at you, then looks at the necklace, then back at you. She then puts the necklace on top of the kiosk. "Fine."
You both finish looking through the mall, and you don't fine much of interest. Half of a work boot, a few more cans of paint, and more evidence of an attempted remodel with a few of the interior walls broken down completely. But you don't find any evidence of habitation.
Finally, you rest in the foodcourt on the second floor. Most of the tables and chairs have been taken long ago, leaving a couple of benches that were build into the walls. Surrounding you are several places where different restaurants would sell food, but, like the rest of the mall, they're all abandoned. On the far side, there's a large window that overlooks a Jasmine still looks mildly annoyed on leaving that necklace behind, but you're sure she'll get over it by the end of the day. "Well, at least we know there isn't a meth lab or a dead bodies in there" You say.
At this, Jasmine cracks a little bit of a smile as she kicks back. "And no secret supervillain bases or nuclear silos either. I'd say we did pretty good"
You take a seat, looking out the window. Past the parking lot, there was an empty field, and past that, there were the elevated highways with cars speeding past. After a few seconds you turn to your friend. She's looking at an old article from a news paper found on the ground. "Hey, Jasmine, since you're here, won wanna help me test out my new barrier?"
Jasmine looks at you before nodding. "Sure thing. Though maybe shooting you wouldn't be the best move right now." You nod. If you succeed, then Jasmine might get hit with the force of a bullet. If you don't, then you get shot. Jasmine balls an old newspaper and climbs back to her feet.
"Well, alright."
Jasmine straightens herself up and "Now, I'm not letting a Sup in a ridiculous outfit get between me and the... cocaine... diamonds... whatever I'm after. Grenade out!" She lobs the "grenade" at you and, just as it's about in range, you channel your power and activate your reflective barrier.
Instead of the solid sphere of your normal barrier, this barrier is bade up of countless small hexigons, each one looking like a sheet of glass. When the ball of paper hits, it unimpressively bounces off, and a white beam of light hits shoots out of the barrier, and hits Jasmine square in the chest. She looks at the spot where the beam hit for a second before scream in an overly exaggerated manner.
"OH SHIT! OH FUCK IT! I'VE BEEN KILLED!" She says in a dramatic way before putting a hand on her forehead, and falling backwards, with legs in the air before they fall, loudly hitting the ground.
You look at the display as Gwen pretends to be dead and chuckle.
"Oh no. Jasmine's dead." You deadpan. "Too bad. She was so young. So much potential..." You say wistfully. But Jasmine doesn't move. If it wasn't for a slight rise and fall of her chest, she might look like a statue.
"Oh well, I guess I'll have to bury her and find a new best friend. Maybe I could call Ann..." You say. But still, Jasmine doesn't seem to react.
"I guess I'll take her car and go home" You say, reaching for her pocket. Immediately, Jasmine rolls to her stomach and pushes herself up. Covered in dust, she points at you with a stern look on her face.
"Look, you can kill me. You can bury me. But there's no way you're taking my car..." She looks at you for a few more seconds before a smile starts to break it's way onto her face. Then she starts laughing and you soon start joining in. Soon enough you and Jasmine head home, satisfied with the spot.
---------------------------------------------
It's late that night. You've recently gotten home from a date night with Adrian, Gwen's in bed, Adrian's asleep, and all you want to do is go to sleep as well but as you do, your phone starts vibrating. With blearly eyes, you grab your phone. You pick up the phone, and see that it's a text from Jasmine.
Gunfire over here. Keeping my head down but it's not stopping.
Immediately you text back Where r u
A few seconds later, you get a text back. At my apartment.
You know where her apartments are. You could get there in five minutes. Two if you had a "creative interpretation" of traffic laws.
[] Text back "Stay safe" and go there in full armor.
[] Text back "Do you know whose shooting?"
[] Text back "Are you ok"
[] Text back "Stay calm, and wait for the police.
[] Write in
