One of these days, Edward was going to learn that every other excursion into New York was going to end with him getting into a fight. Half the time, things went fine. He went and got some lunch, or some clothes, or a drink, or some cigarettes. The other half the time? He found a mugger, or a villain, or a bank robbery or, on one notable occasion, a demon who'd proceeded to kick his arse. This time it wasn't so bad. A small-time mugger who'd been trying to hold a guy up. Edward had thrown him from his alley into the street and hit him a few times, but he'd been too slow to keep the guy down. It had turned into what he supposed could be called a fight, but was somewhat one-sided. The would-be mugger was sporting a black eye, a split lip, and a bloody nose. Edward had some hair out of place and a broken button on his shirt. 

Maybe the guy was sporting a couple of broken ribs as well, from the way he was hunched over to one side. Still, he didn't let up, aiming both half-spluttered curses and plenty of punches Edward's way, which were either ignored or dodged. Edward hit the mugger in the ribs twice, and then decided to just put the poor bastard out of his misery and kicked his knee, knocking his leg forward and him onto one knee. 
"Just give up, mate," He told him, "Or I'm going to have to keep sodding hitting-"

Edward's words were cut off by the sound of sirens nearby. Had somebody watching this called the police on the mugger, or was it something else? Either way it didn't matter, because Edward's attention was momentarily distracted as he turned to look in the direction of the sirens, and he only caught the flash of silver out of the corner of his eye. Edward turned his head just as the knife caught him in the gut, cutting deep into muscle, and he groaned in pain. Incensed, he lashed out with a backhand that sent the mugger flying five feet back, and then turned away, gasping in pain. 

It took him maybe a minute to limp back into the alleyway he'd thrown the mugger out of initially, and nobody watching the fight had come to help him. Not even the sodding would-be victim, who'd scarpered. Typical. He could feel his flesh trying to close around the knife and, gripping the handle, knew there was only one way this would go.

His cry of pain as he pulled the knife out could probably be heard from several blocks, and a whole fresh flow of blood came out as he did, ruining his shirt further, but within ten seconds of doing so, it actually hurt a lot less. Not that it didn't hurt.
"Sodding, bloody Americans," He said

Elisabeth was running as fast as she could. She had finally escaped from her handler, after a screw up and poor planning. An underestimation made by the equipment and security that was around. With an EMP which shut down her ear-pod and then majority of her equipment either being used up, abandoned and/or destroyed. She was out for 12 hours in hiding in tattered clothing as Red waiting for new instructions, hiding, trying to find her handler or trying to complete her mission in a state of confusion, anxiety and a constant pain in the back of her head. After hours, which seemed like days, Elisabeth started getting back in some control and she did the first thing that came to her mind. Get as far away from here as possible.

She ran, ditching her outfit for some clothing she found drying outside on a lawn. She changed from wearing her purple outfit to a slightly oversized plaid shirt with the colours of grey, white and blue and a baggy pair of jeans tied tightly so they wouldn't sag with a rope she found on the floor. She however kept the shoes as they were comfortable enough. She even undid her hair and letting it hang down. She moved around several blocks trying to find her bearings and where she was. She didn't like being out here at night in the dark, she was antsy and was afraid to take a single turn in case it was someone trying to mug her, kill her or worse, bring her back.

She was reading a road sign with a vague street name which didn't help her at all. Then she heard the sirens which send her running as fast as she could in the opposite direction. She right now was afraid of everything and she hid in an alleyway until she was certain that the sirens were going away rather then towards her. She let out a sigh of relief and took a second to catch her composure and continued trying to find out where she was.

That's when she heard the shout of pain coming from an alleyway up ahead. Elisabeth was tempted to turn around and just avoid it, but she felt the need to help or at least discover what made the noise. She run towards the alleyway and cautiously peeked before she saw the young man clutching a wound and fresh blood running from the wound.

"Are you alright?" She said looking him up and down. "Sorry, stupid question... Let me help." she said tearing off a bit of the hem of her shirt and wanting to press it against his wound, she felt a bit awkward right now. She was not good at small talk and especially as this would be the first actual conversation she would have in a while. Then something hit her strange about this situation, he seemed to be very calm and collected about being stabbed. "This... Uh... This not the first time you've been stabbed?" She said cringing at herself.

Ordinarily, Edward would have noticed the girl a long time before she spoke. He'd have heard her footsteps, or smelled her. This time, however, hearing her voice was enough to make him jump, which in turn made him groan in pain. A sarcastic reply came to mind initially for her question, but he bit it back. It wouldn't do to piss people off now.
"I'll be fine," He said, "Just....give it a minute." He groaned as he shifted into a better position, even as she came along with a rag to press to the wound. Before she could, he shook his head. "No need. And no, it's getting to be kind of a habit. Terrible for me, I should quit." Well at least the pain had faded enough that he could be glib again. 

It took all in all around another twenty seconds to heal, and that was only because the wound had been so deep. As soon as it was, and he was sure he wasn't going to tear it open again, he got to his feet. Even after nearly twenty years, it still amazed him that there was no pain just seconds after blinding agony. In response to her probable surprise, he gave a week.
"Lucky I can sorta handle it," He said. He wasn't usually cocky about his powers, anymore at least, but right now he felt like he had the right to be. "Give me a second." He crept to the edge of alley, and looked out into the square, where the police were checking if the mugger he'd laid out flat was still breathing. They apparently decided he was, because they cuffed him and bunged him in the back of the car. Well, good, Edward's punch had been hard in panic, but he hadn't quite wanted to kill the fucker. 

With that concluded, he made his way back and properly checked out the girl who'd helped him. Close to his age. From the haircut and general togetherness, she looked like she typically enjoyed a good life. Not today, however. Somebody else's trousers, held on with rope, not a belt. The outfit in general, while mostly clean, smelt....damp. Taken from a washing line? Or hurriedly dressed in before escaping.
"Thanks," He told her, "Lot of people here are happy to leave a guy bleeding in an alleyway." Not that he was one to get mushy, but he still wanted to thank her - and see if she needed help herself. "Runaway?" He asked, in regards to her general state. "Sorry, none of my business."

Elisabeth was worried for the boy on the ground, for many reasons. He either was a street tough trying to be tough, but due to his accent being more foreign she suspected he wasn't a local tough. He could've been a crazy person who was scared due to the battle, worst of he could've been a mutant and both put her and his life into trouble by even being near him. She removed the rag as he requested and watched with slight awe and fear for his action, but watched as the wound healed extremely fast. She was dumbstruck when Ed made his remark as it healed. She didn't know how to respond properly as this was the strangest, yet intriguing conversations.

"Well... that... Mutant? Experiment? Alien? All of the above?" she asked both with a slight of humour and genuine worry in her voice. Her worry went away once she realised that he could help her. Someone with abilities like that would probably have people who could help, or at the very least, if the shit really hit the fan, he might heal and remember her. She really hoped it would be the first option, and really really hoped this wasn't some ruse they were using against her.

She was still kinda nervous with the ease and tone he was talking with. "V-very lucky indeed." She said backing off a bit from him as he got up. She felt like running when Ed walked away to look around the corner. Run in the opposite direction and hope he'd just forget all about her. All those thoughts rushed through her head, but something made her want to stay. She didn't know what it was, but there was just... something about this boy that she felt like she could innately trust him, even if all her other feelings screamed out 'trap'.

She stuck close to him as he looked around the corner where the cops were treating to a hurt person, and arresting him. Elisabeth guessed that must've been the person that hurt him. She stepped back not wanting to be seen by the cops, she didn't know who was or wasn't in the pocket of the people who wanted her. So she laid back waiting nervously, standing like she could run at any minute, to finish whatever he was doing.

She felt nervous as he looked her up and down. She blushed slightly and looked away, avoiding eye contact. In fact, she hadn't made eye contact with him the entire time. Either looking at the gash in his shirt or at his neck or chest, but never looking him directly in the eyes. She wanted to, but it was too difficult for her. She just felt the moment she did he would see everything she had done, everything she was trying to forget and see her.

"Well... I've got... huh... bad karma to rectify or something." she said in reply to his question, and with the next question, she looked down at herself and her outfit she was wearing. It did make sense why he thought she was a runaway. She was wearing stolen and clothing and pants that without the rope would instantly fall down.

"I am... in a sense... It's..." she took a big breath in and relaxed. "Complicated. Very. Very. Complicated" she said matter of factly. It was hard to even start talking about these things

"You're... not from around here are you? English accent and all. You go to Xavier?" she asked with a tinge of hope in her voice. The X-men could help her, and if he was maybe he could do something. It was a long shot, but it was something, and something was more of a chance than she'd ever been given.

Edward was pretty sure that without his powers, he'd make a pretty crap superhero. If Adam ever got knifed, he'd have to spend like, a month in bed. But, when it happened to Edward, as it seemed to do an unfortunate amount of the time? He was right as rain within a minute. Only issue was the blood on his shirt and the long slit in it, showing off more of his torso than he usually liked doing. 
"I'm actually the experimental mutant alien the US government's been working on since Roswell," Edward told her, his tone glib as usual, "Nah, just a mutant." Maybe that wasn't the safest response to give, given how things were going, but he figured the sort of person who stopped to help a stabbing victim wasn't also the sort to try and beat him to death for being a mutant. 

It wasn't hard for Edward to pick up that this girl was about a second away from gunning it. Apart from anything else, she looked terrified. He could see her legs preparing to move, her eyes darting around. As he walked past her, he could hear the nervous step, the intake of breath. And then she just smelt like terror. Like anxiety. Not something he knew all that well, but it was a pretty distinctive scent.
"You can calm down," He told her, "I don't care what you've done. I'm not about to jump you or anything." He paused. "Unless you're a drug dealer. Then we're gonna have some issues." But either drug dealers had raised their standards recently, or she wasn't one. 

Bad karma. Complication. A more callous man might have decided that this wasn't anything to do with him, but Edward knew he'd never be able to live with himself if he just left her. 
"Bet it's not so complicated you can't summarise it in ten words," He told her, his eyebrows raised, and then paused at her question. "Like there are no Brits in New York," He said, slightly sardonically, but then nodded, "Yeah, I'm at Xavier's. Why?" And then it dawned on him. "Alien, mutant or experiment?" He asked her. 

Elisabeth relaxed slightly as Ed said she could. It was weird that she did, but there was just something she innately trusts about him. Maybe due to the fact that he was the first genuine nice person she met. No ulterior motives, no weird vibe that she got when talking to him. It felt… weird. Really weird. It was a feeling that she had never got before. Although it was probably a good idea to not talk about some of the things she had done to him seeing as probably his views on people involved with drugs equal the same with his views on assassinations. Which she, or more her, were involved with. There were some things that were best left unsaid at least for now as whatever she did say to him about her operations would most likely end up with him hating her guts and she didn’t need to be judged right now.

”Well you don’t…have to worry about that” she said in slightly unconvincing way. Which seeing how well he read her meant that she could tell she was lying. It was kinda shoddy attempt but she needed to hear him out. She wanted him to hear her out. It seemed he kept on going so she just silently relaxed a little and took a deep breath and sighed.

He looked at him as he continued talking. It was difficult to explain her predicament in less the 10 words. It was really really really difficult because it was hard to simplify her situation. It really was, she knew he had to tell her eventually so she just had to make it swift and easy to say. I’m the lost Luther turned into a brainwashed meta assassin she thought to herself. Huh, maybe it could be simplified to 10 words exactly.

A hopeful smile spread across her face when he confirmed he was Xavier, that means he could definitely help. Hell, maybe he was part of the new X-Men! That would be amazing and she would finally be free. When he asked the question she asked early she finally started talking again.

”Alright. I’m a bit of 3. Mutant by birth, Experiment before I was even a teenager and an alien for the fact I’m… strange… sorry" She took a deep breath in ”So to make a really, really, really long story short… I’m the lost meta assassin turned into brainwashed Luthor. She then realised what came out of her mouth ”I mean I’m the lost Luthor turned into a brainwashed meta assassin. By AIM if turning it into 12 words is better and describes more.”

”I would love to talk about this more but uh… I want… I want… Somewhere more public and the closer to a police station or hero hub, if those exist as possible.” she said still being nervous and looking around for any sign of her handler. He wouldn’t take her from somewhere public. Would they?

Edward was getting the feeling that this situation was turning more and more out of his depth. He wasn't quite a one-trick beatstick as a superhero, but he definitely wasn't the sort for dealing with cryptic runaways who sounded like they had something serious going on. Maybe it would be an idea to ring Lydia or Gabby. Not somebody with more tact than him, but maybe somebody a bit more sensitive - plus the Titans have better connections if it was required. Still, right now he was the one here, and this girl needed him, and so out of his depth as he was, he was still going to help her. It might be nice to have a method of helping that didn't involve splitting his knuckles open and getting punched in the face. Less painful, at the very least. 

The girl seemed unconvinced that she wasn't a drug dealer, but Edward was going to give her the benefit of the doubt. She wasn't the type, and she'd come to try and help him. He hadn't needed it, but the thought was what counted. At the mention of Jean Grey, a smile spread over her face. Brilliant, it also meant she wasn't an anti-mutant bigot who was going to try and murder him. Which ruled out two things she could possibly be, leaving a great many alternatives. Why couldn't he have wandered into anything simple to understand? 

The girl giving more information really didn't help, but he got that she was a mutant. A mutant who had had bad stuff happen to her. Well, she could join the club, quite frankly. They didn't just have jackets, they had a whole uniform. But then she went into detail, and Edward blinked twice.
"You're the what turned into a what by who now?" He asked as his brain tried to make sense of it. Finally, as he rearranged the pieces of her sentence, he got what she was saying. Well, that didn't help his opinion of her. He didn't like Luthors and he definitely wasn't a fan of assassins. 

"Yep, this is definitely something I'm gonna need help with," He told her, looking down the alleyway, "I'm going to guess there's no way for you to explain that in a way I'm going to like in about two minutes, so yeah, we should probably get back to the school."