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Felicia had felt the pull first, like she always did. It was an old and familiar instinct, not one she could ever forget even if she wanted to. Patsy had asked her to help patrol for a villain since she was sick and Felicia decided to help out her roommate, especially since she was still trying to recover from her ex. So she had gone out patrolling but besides a few muggers it had been a rather quiet night, which if she was honest wasn't what she had been hoping for. She was an adrenaline junkie at heart and while she liked some peaceful relaxation like anyone else, tonight wasn't a night for that and she wanted to something out of the ordinary and exciting to happen. It's what gave her life meaning, it made life worth living.
She was starting to regret that attitude as she followed the instinct towards a window, a clean circular hole made in the glass. The connection told her what she would find and her brain told her to leave, but she couldn't help herself as she gracefully leaped through the hole. She wondered if it was curiosity, a very famous fatal flaw for someone with her name, or just overwhelming regret that made her go in, in search of the person she knew was in the apartment. Looking around she didn't notice anything especially valuable, just the usual nonsense a celebrity or someone new to have more money than they ever had in their life would waste their finances on. A few "art" pieces, tacky furniture and, much to her displeasure, stuffed animals on display. Everything needed to give the illusion of class and sophistication.
She slowly made her way through the apartment, observing everything she saw in case of a trap. She spotted a few things, like a camera that would be child's play to disable, but nothing to justify such a stylish break in. A real thief, someone with actual experience and commitment to the lifestyle, wouldn't have been so haughty as to break in that way for something as unremarkable and downright pathetic as this. Even though she knew what she was going to find as she went up the stairs, following the familiar instinct that led her closer and closer to the sound of movements behind a partially opened door, she still hoped that she was wrong. She hesitated as she reached out her hand to the door, telling herself that there was still time to turn back and forget all of this.
"Are you going to come in or not?" a familiar voice suddenly called out from the room. Felicia's eyes widened slightly in surprise before glaring, and she pushed open the door to see who she expected to see.
"Cheyenne." she said, doing her best to hide her nervousness with a tone of annoyance.
"You're getting lazy, you were so loud coming up I didn't need to be able to sense you." her brat of a sister replied, standing in front of a mirror and holding a purple dress against her body. "And what happened to codename? You're supposed to call me Talon, remember?"
"What the hell are you doing?" Felicia asked as she looked around, seeing the piles of clothes scattered around the room. "Did you seriously break in here to steal dresses? That's not even a good brand, you won't get any money from it."
"Of course I'm not stealing dresses, I was just seeing what her collection is like. I'm not impressed." she responded, dropping the purple dress and then reaching inside the wardrobe next to the mirror and pulling out a skirt. "I came to steal that."
Felicia frowned as she followed where Cheyenne was gesturing her head, before responding with genuine annoyance in her voice. "A golden globe?"
"Yep. What do you think of this? Just short enough to still be hot or so short it's embarrassing."
"You broke in here for a golden globe?"
"Well she definitely didn't deserve it." she said with a shrug as she looked at herself in the mirror. "Silk is really good, but I'm going with too short for me."
"A fucking golden globe?!" Felicia repeated, Cheyenne annoyingly ignoring how raising a voice and simply swapping the skirt for a top.
"Yes, that's what I said. Keep up."
"Is you brain damaged!? Is that what's wrong with you?"
"Well I'm not the one dressed as a cat, so I'm going to say no." the black and purple haired woman replied, briefly looking over her shoulder at her with her goggles hiding her eyes. "And seriously, aren't you getting too old for that? It was a little cute when you were a kid, but now it's just kind of sad. Dad didn't dress up like it was Halloween."
"Oh yes, because crop tops and a tramp stamp is so much more professional." Felica spat back, before crossing her arms in anger and breathing deeply.
"Uh oh, Furious Felicia getting mad again. I'm shaking in fright, whatever will she do to me." Cheyenne said mockingly.
Felicia liked to think that she had grown since she was a teenager and could now rise above any petty squabbles with her sister, but like always Cheyenne was doing the one thing she was truly great at despite Felicia's attempts to push the growing anger inside of her down. "Don't push me Cheyenne. Dad isn't here to stop be beating you anymore."
Cheyenne opened her mouth to respond but then for some reason paused, before holding out the top in front of Felicia with a frown. "Weird, I could have sworn this was your size. Have you put on weight?"
Ok, Felicia definitely hadn't grown beyond the petty squabbling.
Cheyenne had clearly found the time to actually practise some real self defence, which Felicia supposed was impressive. This wouldn't be a problem though considering the teachers Felicia has had and the things she knew, if Cheyenne wasn't still a fucking cheater who did everything she could to annoy her. She threw the clothing and little knickknacks scattered around the room, rarely actually fighting back unless she had to, while laughing and calling her "Furious Felicia" every chance she got. At one point Cheyenne, while Felica chased her, leaped over the bed and grabbed the golden globe before racing towards the door. Felicia followed as quickly as she could, jumping over the railing while Cheyanne ran down the stairs from the bedrooms to the main room.
She had aimed her leap correctly as she slammed onto Cheyenne just as she ran past, the two tumbling to the ground. They quickly began struggling, Felicia attempting to rip the golden globe from her grip while Cheyenne started to hit her repeatedly. The two rolled around across the ground, bumping into the dinner table at times while the two eventually progressed to screaming at each other. Felicia wasn't sure how long this went on for, could have been a few seconds or even a few minutes, but they both only stopped when they noticed that, unlike when they first both entered the apartment, the lights had been switched on. They paused, frowning at each other as both gripped onto the golden globe, before looking in the direction of the front door where a woman, who Felicia vaguely recognised as a celebrity, and a man was watching them.
The silence seems to drag on forever, so painfully awkward Felicia considered just cutting her losses and making a run for it. Until the man made a weird smile, looking between them and the celebrity.
"Is this some sort of kinky roleplay thing? Because this is definitely hot." he said, his words slurring slightly and the wine bottle in his hand exposing his drunkenness while the look in his eyes making both Felicia and Cheyenne shudder in disgust, before making the severe mistake of taking a step forward.
Walter Hardy was rather famous, or infamous depending on the perspective, in certain circles for how he always seemed to be luckier than he rightfully should have been. Whether it was on a job, gambling or just generally living his day to day life, things always seemed to go his way and bad for everyone else. Guessing the correct combination on a safe on his first job, performing death defying stunts as if he feared nothing, and if you believe the rumours dodging a bullet. He became both a good and bad luck charm to everyone who knew him, something that could be useful but also destroy them. It was only in the last decade or so that people started to suspect how exactly he was able to do what he did, when mutants became less of an urban myth and actually confirmed facts of life, and while no less wary many of is enemies grew bolder once they figures out the secret of his talent.
It was a talent both Felicia and Cheyenne had inherited, in a way at least. They had always had a connection, Felicia having always had a sense for where her sister was ever since she was three years old and she became a big sister, but it was only when they became teenagers that things changed for them. When Felicia's hair turned ivory overnight and suddenly the people around her started having moments of bad luck that ranged from something as simple as tripping to something more severe and harmful. When Cheyenne's hair became a bright purple, which she more actively tried to hide through dying her hair unlike Felicia, she found that things just started to work out for her if she focused hard enough. They had, by pure genetic chance, inherited half of the abilities their father wielded so easily, but the connection that had always been there offered them something. When together, it offered them a connection to the power they lacked, and it was what Cheyenne quickly used when the man tried approaching them.
Felicia wasn't sure what she did, maybe all Cheyenne had to do was gently nudge him and let his drunken state do the rest, but she watched as the man slipped and fell against the wall, swinging his arms and letting go of the bottle in surprise. The bottle flew up in the air, spinning wildly before gravity took hold and fell like a brick exactly onto the man's head, and while the bottle seemed to bounce off without breaking the resulting banging noise was very noticeable. As was the man going limb on the ground while the woman screamed in a panic, crouching down to check him while Cheyenne took advantage of Felica's surprise to break free from her grip. Felicia hesitated, a voice sounding annoyingly similar to Peter telling her to check on the couple, but she ignored it and raced to follow Cheyenne outside, who she saw throw the golden globe into the metal backpack on her back.
The resulting race was exhausting as Felicia chased her sister across rooftops, sprinting and leaping to desperately try and catch up to her. She was reminded of why she always hated training with her sister, who was genetically blessed with the advantage of having luck on her side. Felicia can turn luck against other people, but she couldn't directly make it benefit her the way Cheyenne could which meant Felicia worked hard to achieve what she was capable of. Cheyenne had some training, but Felicia could tell she was just relying on her luck to guide her in making the right choice at the right time. It was clearly a tactic that worked well for her but it was the reason she never pushed herself the same way Felicia always did, as an idea quickly occurred to her when she spotted a pigeon as she followed her sister. Moving slightly to get closer to it, the pigeon flew away swiftly and Felicia immediately began to focus. She couldn't control animals, but she could make it so a brief gust of wind pushed the pigeon in a specific direction. Cheyenne, as she predicted, wasn't being aware of her surroundings and was stunned when the pigeon flew past her, pausing slightly in surprise which was all the time Felica needed.
She leaped at Cheyenne and grabbed hold of her tight, the two of them back to struggling against each other. This went on for a few minutes until they both stopped, partly out of exhaustion and just glared at each other. Then, slowly at first, a smile formed on Cheyenne's face before she started giggling. The giggling soon transformed into full on laughter while Felicia, still clutching at Cheyenne's wrists, just stared in bafflement.
"I'm sorry." Cheyenne said between laughter. "It's just...This reminds me so much of when we were kids."
Felicia couldn't help but laugh at that as well.
They soon let go of each other and, despite the roof being dirty, sat opposite each other as they laughed. Eventually the laughter became simple chuckling which in turn became a brief moment of peaceful silence as they just looked at each other. After a minute or two Cheyenne sighed slightly and removed her backpack after pressing a button on the strap, and then pressing another button to open up the hatch. She reached inside and pulled out the golden globe, chucking it at Felicia who caught it in surprise.
"I hope this means you will let me go? Or are you one of those principled heroes who refuse to let the bad guys go?"
"No, I'm not like that. But Cheyenne, what are you even doing? We weren't raised to be this stupid."
"Oh shut up Felicia. You can't judge me while wearing that." she replied as she nodded towards her suit. "If you're not always unzipping that thing a little to show some skin and surprise guys, I'll turn myself into the police right now."
Felicia wished she could protest that accusation.
"And what does that have to do with anything?"
"Well dad didn't raise us to do that either. Or at least I really hope he didn't. The point is that while you like to pretend you're different, you're nothing but a show off like me."
"No, I'm...I mean I was a professional. Sure I had a little fun here and there, but I was focused on doing the job right."
"That's another thing, what's going on with this whole crime fighter thing?" Cheyenne asked, a bemused expression on her face. "Is it some sort of con?"
Felicia sighed, internally debating her next action before speaking. "No, it's not. I just...I felt like I could be doing something more with my powers. I still steal, usually from crooks, but I also try to stop gangs and supervillains."
"And what, you think dad would be proud of that?"
Any feelings of a sisterly bond quickly vanished and was replaced again with anger by that comment. "I think he would be proud that I'm a world renowned thief who has saved lives. Do you think he will be proud of you, stealing worthless trophies you don't need while you live off that trust fund he left you?"
Based on how quickly that small smile vanished from her face, Felicia assumed Cheyenne was feeling the same as her. "Well, I guess if you got that stupid trophy back you can go and be a big hero. See you never sis."
As Cheyenne got up and began making her way to the edge of the rooftop, Felicia felt the urge to call out to her. To apologise for her words, to explain that she didn't hate her or think their father would be disappointed in her. Despite his training and despite the pride in his work he passed onto his daughters, Walter Hardy never expected anything out of them and always insisted that he was proud of them no matter what. But despite never expecting it, Felicia always got it into her head that she needed to prove how good she was to her dad. She didn't know why, maybe it's as simple as always being upset when he left for a job and telling her to always look after Cheyenne, who always seemed to be treated better. Looking back Felicia knew it wasn't as awful as her child self felt it was, but still she supposed she thought that if she proved how great she was then maybe her dad would have stayed or even took her with him. She supposed she never really grew out of that with Cheyenne, who was aware of how much Felicia hated being left behind with her which always led to arguments between the two that looking back she truly regretted.
But she didn't call out, she wasn't completely sure why. Perhaps it was simple cowardness that made her just watch as Cheyenne leaped off the roof and fired a grappling hook from her wrist gauntlets, swinging across to another rooftop and vanishing behind a corner. She sat there for about a minute before regretfully standing up and making her way back to the apartment.