The sound of shattering glass could be heard from below, followed swiftly by a car alarm and the sound of many pairs of feet quickly beating a hasty retreat. From a rooftop nearby a shadow loomed, leaning against the lip of the building as she watched the scene play out below her.

She was dreadfully bored. 

Below, as one hooligan tried to duck into an alley, he swiftly encountered a thick soled boot to the chest. The impact knocked the wind out of him and sent him sprawling back on the ground. A stolen bag clattered to the ground beside him. "What, that all you got?" A female voice snickered. 

She moved in on him like a predator, straddling the boy and clenching his collar with her fist. Two well placed punches later and he dropped to the pavement unconscious. The figure giggled, and promptly stole his shoes.

Off further down the street another boy was sprinting like his life depended on it. An arrow whizzed by like a bullet, bouncing off the sidewalk ahead of him. He jerked away, flinging himself into the shadows of the alley beside him. In his haste he knocked a metal garbage can over. The sound echoed out into the night, shortly followed by a very boyish shriek. 

A moment later another figure, which looked suspiciously like the first, dragging a prone figure behind her. She deposited the dead weight on the side walk and started skipping away. 

That just left the third, who had run off in an entirely different direction. The girl on the roof stood, slinging her bow back across her shoulders and headed for the fire escape to make her way down from the roof. Looks like she would have a little hunting to do before the night was over...

It had been a good idea to follow her this time. Shelby had played along, saying they had a date tonight. The veteran crime fighter could already see the gears turning in his nearly legal daughter's head when he'd laid the trap.

Honestly, he'd always thought she was out partying... You know, smoking things she shouldn't smoke, drinking things she shouldn't drink... Making out with boys or girls or something. Or something.

This was worse. She was fighting crime, just like dear old Pah, but, you know, without the years of experience or X-man status. So, you know, against the law. Sorta like he had, but it looked like she was focusing her ire on people her age. This was a group of low-level hooligans. Not even worth his effort in most cases; they were likely just rich kids who wanted to break some rules.

Still, it could be dangerous. Saphirus watched Elke from a perch above the one she'd taken, observing her actions carefully.

Thus far, she'd been smart; staying safe was the number one concern, and she was doing a good job of that by using her bow and having her clones capture the runners. One was left, though, and she looked as if she wanted to go for that one on her own.

Bad idea. She didn't have a mutation like his; what if he ha a gun?

He couldn't let this go any further.

The Masochist jumped from his perch, and let his ability kick in, gliding through the air and swooping quickly into the alley. A couple turns later he was above the young criminal his daughter had been chasing. He dropped down right in front of the kid, who smacked into him, and fell back on his bottom. The X-Man was hardly moved by the impact.

"Drop what you got and get the hell outa here. Rethink your life." The kid was terrified, he dropped a carton of cigarettes, and ran like there was no tomorrow.

Saph watched him go, waiting moment to growl aloud. "MOOSE! I know you're watching. Get your @$% out here. NOW."

One of her clones stumbled into the alley, trying to tie the too-large shoes onto her feet. "Boss says she don't wanna talk to you until you calm down." She tripped over her own feet and face planted into the pavement. Another figure popped up behind her, messing around with a makeup compact she'd 'found' in the stolen bag.

"Yeah, you get awful mad and turn all red in the face. Scary." The other chimed in helpfully.

From across the one lane side street, Elke had been watching with a grumpy frown on her face. She hadn't even made it all the way down from the roof before he'd swooped in. Not only had he ruined probably the only fun she was going to have that night, but now he knew what she tended to do in her off time. The jig was up, so to speak. With a sigh, as her clones made fools of themselves she reached back to her quiver and felt around for a certain arrow. Hefting the heavy wooden bow out, she knocked it and drew the string back full tension. With a quick whistle the arrow arched across the street and embedded in the brick on the side of the building.

With a sharp tug or two to test how securely the grapple was hooked, she put her weight on the line and lifted a leg over the railing. He wanted her over there so bad? Sure! She would be there in a jiffy!

"Coming, DAD" Then she looped the rope around one arm, her waist, and the opposite leg and jumped. The tension in the rope jerked a little, but with it spread out through her whole body it was manageable. At the crest if of the fall she lifted her feet and caught herself on the side of the building, absorbing most of the impact with her legs.

One short climb down later and she dropped to the ground before Saph, with the biggest grin on her face.

"Boss says she don't wanna talk to you until you calm down."

What a crock of! He clenched his fists, looking around for the young woman. She was usually somewhere up high...

"Yeah, you get awful mad and turn all red in the face. Scary."

His face turned red.

"I DO NOT TURN R...You tell her she ain't a little kid anymore, she can walk her ass right out here and take responsibility for her action-""Coming, DAD"

Saph watched her silently as she fired an arrow into a wall and used it to climb down.

"Nice. That looks real cool. Tell me, Elke. Wachu gonna do when it rains tomorrow, and some dude has a leak in his wall because, look, there's a @#$^in ARROW sticking out of it."

He rubbed his face downward with one hand, and turned to the other two Elkes. He couldn't believe this.

"What the hell are you thinking, Moose? You could get shot! You ever think of that? What the hell would I do if you got shot, huh?" Yup. He was mad. "Grounded... You're so @#$^ing grounded." Damnit, he was pissed, but... also, there was another feeling somewhere in there.

He was struggling with that one a lot.

"Nice. That looks real cool. Tell me, Elke. Wachu gonna do when it rains tomorrow, and some dude has a leak in his wall because, look, there's a @#$^in ARROW sticking out of it."

"Oh, I don't know... probably whatever it is the owners of the walls you punch people through do. Management can deal with it." 

She nodded her twins over, who dug themselves out of their pile, and the three of them latched onto the rope and tugged. With their combined strength they tore the arrow from the wall with ease. Elke set about winding the rope back up.

"What the hell are you thinking, Moose? You could get shot! You ever think of that? What the hell would I do if you got shot, huh? Grounded... You're so @#$^ing grounded."

Her face turned red enough to match his. "Maybe I was thinking that I could actually do something good for a change!" She threw the bundle of rope at him, "Maybe I don't wanna sit around on my #$%&@# @$# all the time like some normal #%&$@# kid!"

He was always like that! Saying one thing but doing another! What a big hypocrite! "You know what? I'm really goddamn glad I only have one more year before I can move out!" She was aiming her words like arrows, attempting to spear him in the heart since she couldn't physically land a blow on him.

"Oh, I don't know... probably whatever it is the owners of the walls you punch people through do. Management can deal with it."

Okay, he almost had that proud feeling of a child following your footsteps there for a second, but then she had to be huge turd about it. Great.

"Oh here we go with the hypocrite argument again. I'm an X-Man, Elke. When I put people through walls I do it to save lives and stop really bad guys. I don't do it so that I can look cool climbing down a building. You didn't even look that cool doing it."

"Maybe I was thinking that I could actually do something good for a change! Maybe I don't wanna sit around on my #$%&@# @$# all the time like some normal #%&$@# kid! You know what? I'm really goddamn glad I only have one more year before I can move out!

There it was. The real blows were coming out. It felt like a kick to the chest to hear her say that last part but he took it silently, like he had most of the countless wounds he'd felt in the past. It wasn't the time to feel pity. It was the time to a message across to her.

He caught the rope, and tossed it to the side. "Great, then you can spend that whole damn year GROUNDED! You aren't leaving your room for the next year for anything but school, or training!"

"Oh here we go with the hypocrite argument again. I'm an X-Man, Elke. When I put people through walls I do it to save lives and stop really bad guys. I don't do it so that I can look cool climbing down a building. You didn't even look that cool doing it."

"I SO TOTALLY DI-" She cut herself off, fists clenching at her sides. It didn't matter what he said, or what she said back. It wasn't worth it in the end. 

"Great, then you can spend that whole damn year GROUNDED! You aren't leaving your room for the next year for anything but school, or training!"

A vein throbbed in her forehead and she honestly looked like she was about to explode like some kind of teenage volcano. The clones shared a look as they slowly got to their feet, and turned matching stares Saph's way. All three of them tensed visibly. Elke sucked a deep breath in...

"SCATTER!

She turned on her heel, putting enough power into her strides that she zipped out of the ally in a flat second. The twins were fast on her heels. All three of them sprinted out into the open road and to the left, down the hill that led into the less desirable part of town. She didn't care if he followed, but she expected him too. He probably wasn't done yelling yet. But, seeing as he could only hobble run, she had a lead on him when it came to speed. The teen was one of the fastest in her schools track team for a reason.

That meant he would have to follow her through some other means... or give up and leave his daughter in the seedy part of town at night.

He could see the wheels turning in her head before she even made the call. She was gonna bolt.

Don't you do it. He thought to himself as he watched her every move. Don't you #$%&in do i-

"SCATTER!"

She did it.

He watched her with a scowl on his face as she bolted off. Great. This again. She had to know by now she couldn't really outrun him in the city. Especially when it meant running down hill... Sure, she was a faster runner, and she got a head start, but after a few impacts of his right foot on the ground he had enough energy to lurch forward suddenly. He used this to launch himself into the air with some speed, and then coast with his falling with style mutation.

Since it was all down hill, he seemed to gain elevation as he went, keeping an eye on the real her with his sixth sense. Soon, he was catching up to her with ease. Now all he had to do was drop in.

Elke's sprint would be rudely interrupted by an X-Man falling neatly into her path

"You done?"

She glanced over her shoulder once, but didn't see him. That meant he had either taken to the rooftops, or was going that weird freaky floating thing he could do. 'Falling with style', he called it. So lame. She changed tactics , dropping back slightly so that one of her twins was in the lead, and continued on. When he dropped down in front of her, seemingly from the sky, she was prepared. She shoved the clone in front of her forward, towards the x-man. Then, using her own momentum and strength, she planted a foot on the sacrificed clones back and used her as a spring board to flip herself over the top of her surrogate father.

She landed in a roll behind him, rose into a crouch and glared at him. "Am I done?" She questioned, shifting back and out of his reach. "I haven't even started yet."

She turned her chin up at him, stubborn and angry. She was going to bolt again, but... hesitated. She was angry for a lot of reasons... for the life that had been handed to her, for the way people still treated her like a kid. There were a lot of things she held bitterness in her heart over, but him... he was one she couldn't quite figure out. He was constantly yelling at her, constantly giving her grief for all of her shenanigans. Like a little annoying gnat she couldn't get rid of.

...and yet... he was always trying to get her to better herself. He was always encouraging her to work harder. He was the one that had crawled into her little makeshift tent all those years ago and told her that every thing would be okay. She didn't know how to feel about him. He wasn't her real dad, but he was trying to fill the gap. Hell, he was doing a better job than anyone else before him.

Before she could ponder it further, headlights suddenly sprang to life and were on her like a spot light. She turned her head, still crouched in the middle of the road, to see a small compact car speeding toward her. The driver was currently digging around in her purse in the passengers seat, oblivious to the teen and the adult situated in the road.

The Natives eyes widened and she tensed, unable to move out of the way of the vehicle in time.

He had to admit, her acrobatic skills were impressive; she'd never pulled a move like that on him before. He caught the clone the poor thing didn't fall on it's face, and watched her vault over his head, landing neatly on the other side.

"Am I done? I haven't even started yet."

Really? What was this, a B movie? She really had to work on her one liners.

He stared blankly or a moment as the young woman seemed to falter a bit looking his way, but then turned as he felt the car coming in fast. @$%^, without even really thinking about it, he launched himself forward, and turned the right side of his body outward.

The car hit him hard, stopping in it's tracks, and knocking him on his keester.

"@#$%, Lady!" He climbed to his feet slowly, and dusted himself off. "Elke, don't you go another damned step." He predicted another attempt to leave. "Ain't you ever heard of looking where you're going?!" The grumpy side came out as the girl behind the steering wheel freaked out.

She had just barely started to tense enough to throw herself out of the way... either to the side, or onto an over the car, when Saph appeared in front of her and took the impact. It hit him hard enough to knock him onto his butt, and left a good sized chunk of the front bummer and hood caved in. "Dad!"

"@#$%, Lady! Elke, don't you go another damned step."

She didn't. But not because he didn't want her to. Nope, she stayed because she wanted to. Totally. It was also probably going to be amusing watching him chew someone else out for once, instead of her.

The girl behind the wheel did indeed freak out, and just kind of screamed at him in response. The front of her car was dented in and steaming slightly from where she'd hit him, but more importantly in her mind she'd just HIT SOMEONE. Unfortunately her panic translated into a very bad decision to throw her car into reverse to try and flee the scene.

Elke reached back and plucked an arrow from her quiver, eyeing the metal tip for a moment before she knocked it and aimed at the front tire closest to her. With a THWUNK she released the arrow and it flew neatly through the tire and out the other side, hitting the ground somewhere under the car. The punctured tire quickly deflated. The native lined up another shot at one of the back tires, just to be safe, and took it out of commission as well.

She could heard the female inside the car flipping out and rolled her eyes.

"Dad!"
He heard his adopted daughter call him.

Saph's anger had abated a good bit when he saw how terrified the young woman behind the wheel was. He supposed he could let her off with a warning.

He was scary looking, wasn't he? The frightened looking young woman behind the wheel threw it in reverse, and tried to flee. Saph was willing to let it lie, considering he wasn't really hurt, and they were sitting in the middle of the road, but Elke escalated some s@#$.

Two very well placed arrow shots on moving targets in rapid succession... She really was good.

The girl in the car wasn't happy, but the car was clearly going nowhere fast with two tires out and an inexperienced driver. Saph reached out to grab Elke's shoulder. "Jesus, Moose, stay next to me, don't shoot anything else... @#$^s sake."

He let her go when he got close to the car, and approached the window. The girl had gone a little more silent, she was staring at her lap an mumbling about how her daddy was going to kill her.

"You're just full of bad decisions today, huh? Call your parents before I call someone else you don't want me to call." He turned an leaned against the car, looking at Elke. "You, eh... Called me dad... Wasn't sarcastic, either."

He paused for a moment, scratching the back of his head while he failed to force himself not to smirk. "There's a soft center 'neath the hard shell, eh? Heh heh..." He got a little more serious.

"Elke, you can't keep doing this... Why not... Why not try out for the X-Men? You're old enough, now. You could be a trainee... I could teach you a lot."

"Jesus, Moose, stay next to me, don't shoot anything else... @#$^s sake."

"Well excuuuuse me, but hit and run can be a felony offense, you know." Elke muttered in reply, letting him lead her away. The girl in the car heard her and started crying harder. Elke threw a hand in the air in exasperation and crossed her arms impatiently. After her dad's warning the girl scrambled for her phone, clearly intent of following his direction.

"You, eh... Called me dad... Wasn't sarcastic, either. There's a soft center 'neath the hard shell, eh? Heh heh..."

The Native blinked, turned red in the face, and opened her mouth to swiftly shoot that notion down... but, well, she couldn't think of anything to really make up for the slip right then. Instead she went back to crossing her arms and glowered off to the side at nothing in particular. 

"Elke, you can't keep doing this... Why not... Why not try out for the X-Men? You're old enough, now. You could be a trainee... I could teach you a lot."

Spearing him with a curious look, she pondered on his words. She'd considered it already, actually. It wasn't like she didn't think they'd take her, either... they'd taken Saph in after all the crap he'd pulled, after all. She just wasn't sure if she wanted to be in an organization. With a leader. With orders. She liked CS and all... but she still had a lot of old scars beaten into her from when she and a bunch of other kids had been lifted from the mansion. 

"...I dunno. I don't like taking orders from people."

He stared intently at her as she thought.

"...I dunno. I don't like taking orders from people."

"Listen, I know the feeling. You know I tried to do it on my own. But you don't do this kinda shit cause you wanna hit people. Not really. You do it cause you want to make a difference. The X-Men make a difference, it's the best way... Even if it means you gotta listen to people with frosted tips and severe drinking problems." He couldn't really talk. He'd ha both before, hadn't he? To be fair, the first had been Andrea's idea, and she had the fashion sense of a clubbed seal, bless her heart.

He grinned a bit, an turned back to the girl in the car, who was bitching about them just having a conversation while she was having a real crisis. He gave her the look, and she shut up quick.

"Elke, let's go. I don't wanna deal with this... You want some food?" He turned and started walking away, shoving his hands into his pockets as he went.

The teen squinted at him, screwing up her face in a very typical manner. Yeah, she got what he was saying, but she still didn't want to hear it. He'd done it solo for a long time! Everything had turned out fine and he'd put a lot of really bad people away. The X's had been around for how long? ... and how many terrible people were still running around wreaking havoc on the city? "... I'll think about it... okay?" It was as good as he was going to get from her on the matter, at least for now.

"Elke, let's go. I don't wanna deal with this... You want some food?"

She watched him walk off, and turned to look at the girl and stuck her tongue out with an eyelid pulled down. Immature? Yes. Satisfying? Also yes.

"I guess." She grumbled in response, trudging after him with her bow around her shoulders. Her clones caught up with them then, and with a wave of her hand she shooed them off. They didn't have terribly long left to live anyway and she didn't really feel like dealing with their stupidity.

"...Did you really mean it?" She asked a little bit later, "That you'd teach me stuff?"