Turns out that you can find some nice, stylish stuff at the mall if you know where to go. She didn't bother with JC Penny's or Belk at first. Although she did think it would be a good idea to maybe have a look around there after she was done with Hot Topic and K-Mart. She went to K-Mart first, deciding to take full advantage of their clearance rack.
She had just gotten into the store and lost herself among the many clothing colors, styles and designs when she found her first few items and was putting them into her buggy when a couple of people walked by and noticed that they were staring at her really hard.
What the hell is that about? Tempest wondered when another small group of people came around the corner and stared at her.
An icy sliver of dread slid down her spine. They couldn't know who she was. It was impossible. She tightened her hands on the bar that people use to steer buggys and tried to think of a way to get out of the store before someone approached her.
So turning abruptly she headed over to another clothing rack and looked through it and found a chic looking long sleeved emerald green shirt, and a black knee length jacket and grabbed them both.
Next she went over to the shoe section of the store and took a moment or so to find herself some black boots with three inch heels. Once she had all of those things she headed towards the fitting rooms and happened to pass a sunglasses display where she grabbed a pair of sunglasses, on the way there.
The second she was in the fitting room Tempest locked the door dropped her things and started ripping tags off and striping.
She knew it was petty, and perhaps bordered on stealing for her to be taking the clothes like this. But she had the tags for everything and already planned to leave some money behind to cover everything when she left.
So it wasn't like she was really hurting anyone. She merely couldn't stay in this area any longer. Not with the way people kept looking at her. Once she was done redressing she dug out the money, fake ID's, social security cards and the bag with the earrings and the piercing gun in it and stuffed them into one of her pockets and put the sunglasses on and stepped out of the fitting room.
Heading for the door at the front of the store she timed her exit perfectly. Waiting until the cashier at register five had his back turned and walked by and placed the ripped tags for her new clothing, sunglasses and shoes on the counter along with a five hundred dollar bill and walked on without looking back.
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Leo cracked open his eyes and looked around his surroundings tiredly, part of his mind registering that he must have dozed off in Tempest's bed while waiting for her to come back. While part of his mind wondered how he had gotten there in broad daylight.
It was well after two p.m. now and Tempest still wasn't back.
Slowly pushing himself upright he put her pillow back in the middle of the bed and rubbed his eyes and looked around again out of habit. Why wasn't Tempest home yet? Had she gone in to talk to the police? Or had she run into trouble?
"I don't know what to do..." He muttered to himself, his anxiety mounting. God I hope that she's okay. He thought as he got up and decided to try moving around a little bit while he resumed his wait for her.
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It was close to three thirty when Tempest finally managed to reach her apartment building, her temper flaring a little bit after the run in she'd had with a guy on the street who had grabbed her and called the cops to inform them of her where abouts after she had come out of a store where she had managed to purchase two disposable, untraceable phones.
Needless to say that fellow wouldn't be grabbing random people on the streets again. At least not for a little while. She had broken his arm in three places and nearly broken his jaw too before finally dropping him and walking away.
Pushing open the door to the apartment building she walked up the stairs, needing to get back to her apartment before anyone else noticed her. By the time she reached her apartment, she felt a deep weariness and staggered a little bit.
Crap. It looked like all of the stress was finally getting to her. She felt more exhausted than she should feel considering that she went to bed fairly early last night after her new friend had left. She banged her head softly on her apartment door and dug out her key and unlocked it and started to turn the knob when the door swung open and she gave a startled squeak just before hitting the floor at the feet of-
Her large angry looking green skinned friend. Good grief. Had he been like eight feet tall last night? Tempest wondered as he stared down at her for a moment before reaching out and pushing her door closed before speaking.
"What did you do to yourself?" He hardly recognized her with her hair dyed, cut and styled in such a way. In fact she looked like a total stranger to him. She made a huffing sound and looked up at him.
"What are you doing here in broad daylight? I thought that you hated being seen." Tempest said. He gave her a pointed look and crossed his arms over his plasteron and waited for her to answer his question while ignoring hers. Finally she sighed and pushed herself up a little bit, causing some of her curly dark brown hair to slip over her shoulders as she answered his earlier question.
"I changed my look."
"And what was wrong with the way you looked before?"
"Nothing except I was more easy to spot." Leo blinked at her and leaned over a little bit and offered her his hand so that he could help her up.
"Did you run into trouble? Are you hurt?" He asked in a concerned tone as he helped her up and looked her over for any injuries.
"Depends on your definition of trouble. And no I'm not hurt. But there's a guy a few blocks over who may be sipping fried chicken through a crazy straw for a little while." He hummed and helped her out of her jacket and then folded it and set it aside and grasped her wrist in his hand and said quietly.
"Your picture was on the news this morning. Along with a report about a crime syndicate-" Tempest looked at him wide eyed in shock and horror. A crime syndicate? Seriously? "Tempest, your in trouble and I need you to tell me how you got tangled up with a crime syndicate like the Foot Clan so that I can help you."
