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[u]Downtown, Central City
February 14th, 22:20[/u]

As if things weren't hard enough, not only had the steady decline in crime since her membership in the Justice League left a rather decent lack of things to do in her off hours, but it was looking like her last few terms of college were going to be exceptionally lackluster as well. Verra did her best to stifle a yawn that was surprisingly mostly due to fatigue from enduring perhaps the least enthusiastic lecturer ever, and from just how late the class ran. She was partially regretting taking the late day slot for that course, now more than ever. At least a few friends were walking with her on their way home, though it seemed they intended to make a stop first.

"Ugh, before tonight I thought that [i]maybe[/i] early Indian History could be interesting and full of… I dunno, like intrigue and wars and stuff."

"Yeah, imagine if Mr Tamboli narrated their wars. Might have killed more through boredom than any battle."

"Hey Verra, you coming with us to the club on 5th? It's ladies night so half price shots."

She thought about it for a moment, up ahead was where she needed to turn to get the rest of the way home, but straight ahead was the club. As tempting as it was to unwind for a bit, she had other responsibilities. Besides, not like she could even get drunk anyways thanks to her metahuman abilities. That thought only reminded her how tiresome it could be to [i]act[/i] tipsy around her friends, and was quite enough to steer her away.

[color=ed145b]"No thanks, not tonight. I want to get some work done on my theoretical physics thesis, [i]and[/i] I've got that optional lecture for quantum mechanics at eight in the morning."[/color]

It was all easy enough for her, but she had never let on just how much so to anyone except her mother. For all her friends knew she was just "gifted" enough to breeze through the easy stuff and had no idea that while she appeared to be deep in thought here and there during exams or tough questions, she was really just daydreaming or working out new designs for her suit. The locket around her neck shifted a little as she turned and paused on the corner, smiling over at the other girls as they grimaced at her workload.

"Jeez, you really should take it easy. You know, [i]most[/i] people slack off in their last couple terms and breeze through. I think you're the only one who actually took more courses."

[color=ed145b]"Well Lisa, have to remember I'm not taking history or science as an extra, they're my primary degrees. Not all of us can rely on their looks alone."[/color]

A shared look between them and a long silence followed until it was broken with laughter. Lisa had been a friend of hers for years, since elementary and all she had ever talked about was becoming a fashion model one day. While she and her other friends ribbed her about taking courses on it seriously, it really was just friendly banter.

"Alright, well the rest of us are going to get hammered and try to forget that awful lecture. Try not to have too much fun at home yeah?"

[color=ed145b]"Yeah, I'll try. See you guys tomorrow at class."[/color]

And with that they parted ways. Her friends were soon lost in the bustle of late night Central City and the crowds hitting the clubs along the main streets of downtown. Verra quietly took her own way back, slowly walking along the street and pulling her jacket in closer about herself. Something about late winter in the city always seemed to bring out what she loved about her hometown. The snows hadn't been around for a bit now, but forecast was calling for some later in the week, and she couldn't deny being a little excited about it. At least now that she had some proper ice-shoes. That first winter after she got her powers and the Titan thing was wrapped up… That was fairly rough.

People thinned around her, such as it was that she was heading closer towards the edge of the downtown district and against the flow. It used to be fairly rough on the outskirts when she first got her place in the college housing district. Crime was on the rise, muggings, robberies, the occasional car-jacking or murder. All of that changed once she really started hitting the streets and put people behind bars. Now it was a rarity that any violent crime happened, and for most of the petty stuff she let the police handle it. That was a bit of a mixed bag as it were, on one hand they were happy to have [i]something[/i] to do, but there were always people who looked down on vigilantism and that was still what she technically was, even if she did help save the world a couple times.

Lost in her thoughts as she was, she wasn't quite aware of the person following her. It was the click of a hammer mechanism that drew her attention and abruptly away from her day-dreaming. Granted it had been awhile, but with how many times someone tried to pull a gun on her, she had gotten rather used to the sound and recognized a double-action revolver, probably a Colt or a Smith & Wesson. Turning, she thought she would let it play out for a moment just out of amusement since it [i]had[/i] been awhile since someone actually tried to mug her.

"The bag and your money."

It was always the backpack, and of course always for the textbooks. Nevermind that pawn shops around town wouldn't take them and it had been a while since the local colleges actually started requiring proof of legitimate purchases. Bad enough that some of the books were in the hundreds of dollars.

[color=ed145b]"No."[/color]

She said it exactly how she felt. As much as she felt like seeing just what the guy wanted, she was tired and didn't exactly feel like having to deal with this for the night. Verra wasn't exactly sure what to expect from the guy, but considering he was either bold or dumb enough to actually pull a gun on someone in Velocity's city, well… Actually, it was probably just dumb. Even through the rather poor face-covering that seemed to be some hosiery from the dollar store, she could see visible confusion as he seemed to struggle with the fact that he had just been told no.

"But… I have a gun."


[color=ed145b]"So?"[/color]

Now [i]that[/i] really seemed to turn things upside down for him, and as much as she thought it the responsible thing to do to turn him in to the police for his momentary lapse in judgement, it was clear that he had never actually intended to use the gun. Just a quick glance told her all she needed to know. It was likely just a moment of pretty bad luck that drove a normally decent person to an act of desperation, and most of the time just having a weapon and the [i]appearance[/i] of a will to use it was enough to get some easy money.

"That means you have to do what I ask."

[color=ed145b]"Yeah, I don't feel like it."[/color]

Yawning at that point, she rolled her eyes at the protesting tone of his voice and how it really didn't seem to click that she didn't much care that he had a gun. Verra gave one last shake of her head and turned around, giving a light wave as she started to walk away.

[color=ed145b]"Go home and rethink your life dude."[/color]