The carrying capacity of a 12 year old was... sadly lacking. Still, there she was, slowly, steadily dragging a full grown man by the foot. Inch by inch she made progress, grunting as she tugged, and nearly got him around the corner into the alley way she'd been heading toward. It was late; she wouldn't have gotten away with this if it weren't. All of this dragging was threatening to rough up her frilly pink lolita dress, so the situation wasn't ideal... Truth be told, things weren't going as planned in the least. She'd been trying to glean information about a local strip shop operation run by the Russian mob when this man had spotted her.

Questioning why a 12 year old was out here alone, he'd opted to try and bring her to his garage to get his friends involved. He'd said something about a pretty little girl like her might fetch a good price. She'd simply been forced to stun gun him several times between the legs. Did she have to continue after he'd passed out? Technically, no, but it was so hard to stop once you started! The little 12 year old pulled a few more times, and then looked up... he was... sort of hidden, right? Like... Hidden enough. What now, though? He'd seen her face.

"Awwww, @#$% nuggets, you're really in a pickle now, EllaLouise... Maybe I should... I dunno... Chop him up or something?"

She rubbed her chin, looking down at the man, and opting to prop him up against a wall next to a dumpster. He started to stir. She zapped him again. "Oh no, none of that. Maybe I can sell him! That'd show him... Do I know anyone who buys people?" I mean, Haven did have a lot of contacts... 

"Aleksii! Aleksii! Where have you gone? We need you to scratch out the vin numbers!" Aw crap. Someone was already looking for him... What do, what do? 

"Oh, hey!" She hopped out of the alley, and walked toward the man. "Your friend! I think he's over here! Looks like he fell!" The man, a 6'3 giant stacked with muscle looked at her suspiciously, and walked over to her, reaching down to grab her hand. Crap... There went the whole strategy of tazing him in the butt when he turned his back on her to check on his friend. "Um, let me go, please. Your friend needs help!" She looked about to try and find a way out of this mess.

Sometimes Zek got bored. No, scratch that. Zek tended to live in a perpetual state of boredom. He’d thought moving to the Big Apple would solve that, but....well, it kinda did. He’d certainly been meeting a colorful cast of characters lately. But Zek also liked seeing what was out there. So on his off nights when he wasn’t expected to be at the nightclub, Zek liked to explore different parts of the city. He was always looking for new sitting buildings, at least. As in,buildings on which to sit on top of and watch everything around him.

But tonight he wasn’t really finding any good buildings, or even good actions or distractions. He’d gotten a kitty out of a tree for a little boy, but that was it. Still, it had been enough for him to decide to treat himself to a giant blueberry slushie, the 64 ounce kind that was guaranteed to give you brain freeze and a sugar high.

This part of town just made Zek think of plastic apples. That had been left too close to a fire, and now they’re mostly turned into a congealed puddle of grossness and stank something fierce and persistent that was going to stay in your nose all day.

So not a total waste of a night off, really.

He slurped his slushie through the big ol’ straw and continued walking down the sidewalk. Ahead of him, a big brute of a man was kinda ,shouting/talking loudly for someone else, something dealing with some mildly illegal activity. Zek’s interest was piqued. GRanteld, it was late, but anyone being so open about stuff was either really ldumb or really didn’t care.

Either way, Zek was curious. Especially when a little girl popped out of an alley to bring the guy into it. Now why do I feel like I watched a Venus flytrap in action?

By the time he reached the entrance of the alley, he could hear the girl distinctly voicing her lack of consent. Zek quickened his step and came into view, his slushie in one hand and a golden orb in his other hand. He quickly took in the not-pleased look on the girl and the guy’s hand on her and made his choice.

“Smile for the camera!” he called out cheerily, snapping the ball at the guy. The guy vanished in a quick burst of light. “Whoops! My bad! Forgot to change the white balance!”

Zek looked down at the girl. “You okay? Was the guy bothering you?” he asked. He slurped his slushie.

L never looked worried in life threatening situations. It was a side effect of her mutation, perhaps. She always knew she would be fine. What where they going to do? Kill her? Still, this man was large, and she was little. When he grabbed her hand, she wasn't going to get free of her own strength. As he dragged her to the alley, she protested, planting her feet and being moved along just the same.

She needed to find an opening. Maybe he would let go to check on his friend when they actually got into the alley. Her eyes darted about for a solution as he maintained his grip while he leaned in to shake his friend. Suddenly, a voice chimed in. L looked up just in time for a... shining ball came in and hit the man, making his disappear. Well, that worked.

The other man stirred for a moment, slowly opening his eyes. She pulled her pink stun gun from her howdy kitten mini purse and zapped him again. After a moment of pause, she zapped him again, and then stepped back to look over to the boy. Oh, he'd asked her something.

She looked him up and down quickly... Huh. He looked like... a drisney kids live action male protagonist. Or like... The kid in the teen boy band that everyone called the chubby one, even though he wasn't exactly chubby... oh! Or like a nice guy that might actually be a nice guy! Either way, he seemed to have completely vaporized a 6'2 russian.

He was useful. She looked away for a second to hide a mischevious grin, before looking back with a straight face. "Oh my gosh, you are a life saver! He was gonna sell me to a peruvian child trafficking ring!" I mean, some of that might be true. "and you know what? There's a bunch of them in there!" She pointed at the building she'd been staking out.

New plan. She was taking out this cell, and then planting evidence that it was the italians who did it. That would get them squabbling amongst each other. Haven would benefit from the chaos. This white knight here could be helpful if she could convince him to help... Idea. "They... They have my sister in there... I dunno what they are gonna do to her..." aaaand, put on the pouty face, look like you are about to ugly cry! OSCAR WORTHY ACTING YOU DEVILISH HO, YOU!

Zek was wondering what a little fresh-faced girl was doing in this part of town at this time. He was also wondering why a full-grown man was stretched out on the ground of the alley by the girl. That question, at least, was answered a bit when she tazed him to render him unconscious again.

Well that told him a few things about her, but now he had so many more questions. Like, was that a genuine, limited edition Howdy Kitten purse from the exclusive 1989 run? By the time the girl answered him, Zek was already figuring out that, yeah, this girl was okay. Well, maybe not okay in the head or in lifestyle choices, but at least capable of handling herself.

Also, there was something about child trafficking. And a missing sister.

Right. Riiiiiight.

Zek’s face was impassive, almost downright bored, as the girl seemed to start breaking down right in front of him. He took a good, long, noisy slurp of his slushie. Sluuuuuuuuuurrrrrrp.

He looked down at the girl. Then at the stunned guy. Then back at the girl. “Sounds to me like they’re going to sell her to the Peruvian child trafficking ring,” Zek said thoughtfully. Zek had dealt with enough underaged girls trying to get into the club to get a sense when the big ol’ teary puppy eyes were a fake. He was getting a similar sense here. He just made sure he was outside of her range with the stun gun.

But on the bright side,” he continued, plastering on a smile like you’d see on someone in an infomercial. “This just means more presents for you on Christmas, huh?” Zek jerked a thumb in the direction the girl was pointing. “And I’ll bet if you go over there, you could convince them to cut you in on a little of the profit. You know, hush money.”

So, her knight in shining armor made some observations. He was an observant knight in shining armor. Those were the worst. What ever happened to the good ol days, when you could point a hero in a general direction and they would go fight the bad guys for you?

To be blunt, the boy wasn't moved by her oscar worthy performance. He took a long slurp of his slushy. She dropped the hands shed been using to cover her totally weeping eyes, and puffed her cheeks up at him as he thoughtfully mused about where her totally real sister was being sold to. So, definitely not a nice guy; he could still be in a boy band, though. "I mean, well, obviously." She gritted her teeth as he went on, and stared at him for a long few seconds.

"I haven't gotten christmas presents since I was 12." She stated bluntly, standing there in all of her 12 year old looking glory. Her cheeks deflated, and she placed her stun gun back into her limited edition Howdy Kitten purse from the exclusive 1989 run. "So, you ain't fallin for that @#$%, huh? What're you, some sorta vigilante? You often vaporize random men who are bothering women?"


"Okay, then, what motivates you. y'want money? Hoes? Other gardening implements? You're a mutant. How's about helpin a sister out, eh? Help me serve some just desserts and i'll make it worth your while, eh? Plan A didn't work, so I could use a hand."

Sluuuurrrrrrrp. Zek met the girl’s stare as he continued enjoying his treat. THen she gave up on the act.

“My heart bleeds,” he said offhandedly before going back for another slurp. Oh no, the girl hadn’t gotten any Christmas presents since she was 12. Oh no, how could she stand having gone a whole seven months since Christmas. Oh no. The poor wretch. Such an awful childhood. No wonder she was reduced to zapping guys and dragging them into alleys. Seven whole months. Zek was surprised she hadn’t already gone on a murder spree.

“Actually,” Zek said. “I have never vaporized any random men who were bothering women. Scout’s honor.” He held up three fingers. They were the wrong three fingers. He had never been a scout. The girls had figured him out pretty quick when he’d tried to infiltrate their organization to get a drop on the cookielicious loot.

He had to admit, though, the kid talked tough. And it didn’t seem like bluster. Something was weird about the girl. Well, weirder than what he’d already seen. Which was fine by Zek -weird people made life interesting.

“Nah, keep your hoes - they’re only good for ploughing and unsuited for fertilizing and stuff,” Zek said, waving a hand dismissively. “I’m more interested in these desserts. What are you thinking? Apple pie? Creme brulee? Heads on a stick? Low-fat froyo with a side of pain and torture?” He indicated the unconscious guy, in case the girl had forgotten him. “And should I assume the, ah, catering is for a party this guy’s supposed to be at?”

Slurrrrrrp.

His heart bled. His nose might have to. She hadn't yet decided. Actually, she wasn't set on a lot of things yet. Did she like this boy? He wasn't likable so far, but she almost exclusively liked unlikable people, so that meant nothing. She squinted at him. He had no way of knowing it had been 20 years since she'd gotten a christmas present, but that didn't mean she couldn't be grumpy about it.

Her little eyebrow rose when he stated he hadn't vaporized anyone. Her hand motioned to the empty space where the man had been. "So, uh... what did you do? Also, that's- No, it's not important. What did you do? Turn him into a newt? Are you a witch?" She glanced about for any newts.

He spoke about hoes. She stared at him. That was pretty decent word play. She was impressed. On it went with the desserts. She stared more. Aww, #@$%, he was witty. It was a crush now. Son of a- Change the subject.

"Since you're so curious. Motherf#@$er jones here is a member of the Russian mafia. Ima bout to end his whole carreer. I was trying to learn more but I was spotted. Situation is too f@#$y, now, so I gotta improvise..." Maybe... Maybe she didn't need to frame the Italians... Make it look like an accident. Oh! Take them all out, and make it look like a series of unfortunate accidents! Then, she could poke around a little bit, get any evidence to hold over the Russian's heads, and call it a night!

She had a tub of rocky road at home with her name on it just waiting for a night of Binge(MRO netflix) and Binge(actual bingeing).

"I'm an excellent judge of character. You look like the type to do fun things for sh#$s and giggles. You in for a good time, maybe earn some money on the side? If not, there's always walking away and pretending you never saw anything. That's an option."

Zek barely held himself back from responding to the witch comment. He settled for not reacting whatsoever. Instead he filed it away for later, since the girl was willing to...look for the next Zek was accused of making. Well, a little witchcraft never hurt anyone, he thought, conveniently ignoring most historical accounts of witchcraft.

It was always good to play up the mystery. The time for blatant lies would come soon enough.

Zek continued maintaining an expressionless expression…the mafia?!

How. Freakin’. COOL!

Zek stook a small series of sips from his slushie. Slrp slrp slrp. He smacked his lips together and let out a contented, “Aaaah…” deliberately drawing out his response. He furrowed his brow and stared off at a fixed point in the distance. An eyebrow arched. A thumb and forefinger stroked the scruff on his chin. Thinking. Thinking. He was thinking. Didn’t he look like he was thinking? Or contemplating, even! Contemplating, meditating, weighing, considering, PONDERING.

He waited until an awkward amount of time had passed, then waited another couple of seconds. Sluurrrrrrp. Mmmmm. Enjoy the melting ice and syrup. Luxuriate in it. Close your eyes and count to four. One.

Two.

Three.

“Yeah, okay,” Zek said chipperly. She really wasn’t that bad a judge of character. “I’ll do it for half the profits you make off this adventure. So what’s the plan, Judge Judy?”

The line of questioning about his powers yielded no results. She huffed a bit. She thought the line about the newt was pretty clever.

She squinted through puffed cheeks as he casually sipped at his drink. L was honestly confused about this guy. On the one hand, he was witty. On the other hand, he was so... nonchalant. Smug, even. The developing crush ebbed quickly as he took his sweet time deciding if he would help her.

During this time, he went from hopeful, to confused, to slightly mad looking, to deadpan. She crossed her arms and folded them, tapping her feet impatiently. And, there came the chipper response. Cool, she was into it. "Deal, and if you cally me Judge Judy again I'll taze you in the taint." Just like that, the devilish smile was back on her lips as she turned to exit the alley.

"Call me L. Here's the plan. We sneak in. We find ways to make it look like each and every one of the people in there had a terrible accident, and then we search the place for clues. If it all goes bad, you turn people into newts and I'll zap everyone you miss." I mean, anything could happen. Worst case scenario Mr Slushy ended up dead and she left, right?

No harm no foul.

"Sound like a plan?"

No one was outside of the building at this point... There were probably a few ways to get in. The front door, a fire escape leading to a roof or second floor entrance. Options were nice.

So she didn’t like the nickname. He shrugged. “No biggie, L,” he said. “I’m...Spartacus.” He barely managed a Zen expression.

Zek nodded along as the little girl went about her master plan. His face went from hopeful, to confused, to slightly mad looking, to deadpan. The plan was nice. Simple. Clean. Probably because all the pesky details fell through large chunks in the plan. But hey, it wasn’t like she’d written it down with a pink pen with a super fluffy feather on the end of it or anything. If she had, he totally would’ve asked her where she’d gotten it because those things are amazing.

“Nice. Simple. Clean,” Zek said. He raised his free hand. “So about the whole ‘making people look like they had accidents’ thing. What are your thoughts on that?” Zek took a quick, loud shlurp. “Cause we know that I, like, consort with the Devil and afflict people with the ill humours and stuff, but like...what do you do?” He lazy waved his hand in a circle in her general direction. “Sell people boxes of cookies until they go into diabetic comas?”

Shlurrrrp. Burp. Sip.

Like, he wasn’t concerned that she was a little girl. Nah, she could probably handle herself. But ambushing people and dragging them into alleys was a little different than sneaking into their base and messing them all up. He wanted to know her plan so he could, you know, know when to bail and leave her to deal with all the consequences. And if he knew what she could do he could completely avoid it.

“Oh, by the way, taze me in the taint and you’ll wish you were turned into a newt,” he said cheerily and smiled in perfect counterpoint to her devilish grin. He totally wasn’t above threatening 10-year old girls. She started it.

"Smartassicus, got it." See, she could make nicknames, too. She watched him as his expressions changed, and squinted a little bit. "You takin this seriously? Cause this is some serious shit, okay? We gotta pull out all the stops, go ham on these fools!"

She paused at his round about way of asking her what her powers were. "Nothing can hurt me. Also, I sell people boxes of cookies until they go into diabetic comas."

Her eyes drifted down to his drink, and then back up to him.

"I figure it shouldn't be too hard to make something happen in there... They pretend to be an autoshop, and they've been fined for countless safety violations in the last few weeks. All we have to do is... go in... and get creative. Then, when we have free roam of the place, we find something flamable, and burn it to the ground. After I have what I need."

She raised an eyebrow at his threat, and then smiled a bit. "It'd be worth it. You coming, or not?"

With that, she would head toward the building, stepping out of the alley and striding toward an open garage door. Stopping at the side of it, she peeked in around the corner breifly. Okay... a couple things. A coffee pot was brewing against the wall of the small shop room. A man's legs were sticking out from beneath a car he was apparently working on. Music was drifting out from a neighboring room. Everywhere, there were oil slicks, loose tools, things hung up high, tripping hazards, badly done electrical. It was paradise for fans of the final stop series. You know, the ones where death hunted a bunch of teens with Rube Goldberg machines?

She looked to see if Sassicus had followed.

“That’s Mister Smartassicus to you,” Zek said reflexively around his straw. He was making some very decent progress on his slushie. This girl was giving him so many reasons to slurp it. Now he just had to ensure he didn’t get brain freeze or anything.

“And yup, totally serious about all this,” he agreed with a grin and a nod. “Don’t get your pigtails in a twist. We’re going in, hamming it up with some guys then cut their brakes so they can’t stop. On it.” He restricted a snicker that wanted to force its way out. He was very much looking forward to what this girl was actually going to do.

Even if she couldn’t be hurt and did sell people into diabetic comas. Zek wondered if she’d be hurt if someone stole her teddy bear. Or gave her a nice acid bath.

And when the girl went skipping away or whatever, Sassicus did indeed follow, slurping all the way. Honestly, he felt it was impossible for anybody to not know he was trailing this girl over to a mafia chop shop at night. And he peeked around the edge of the door as well, his head about a foot above her’s coming off as a very weird totem pole.

He poked at her. “So….is this the part where you ring the doorbell and offer them thin mints and Samoans? Because I only have lemon bars.”

"...You have lemon bars?" No! No distractions! They had work to do! L looked out into the room again, and then held up a finger over her mouth, before tiptoeing slowly into the room. She waved him in as she went, looking very much like the grinch stealing christmas as she stepped carefully across the room, stopping to turn toward him.

There was a jack holding up the car. She pointed to him, and then pointed to it, before nodding a head, and heading across toward the tool counter. They would need some material for all of this. What better than what they had on hand? Dainty gloved hands reached up to grab a heavy wrench as the man beneath the car paused, and spoke in a gruff voice.

"Demitri, that you? Need size 12 spanner." The man scooted out a slight bit, holding a blind hand out at if waiting for something. L looked to Zek, waving as if telling him to hurry. She turned and grabbed a paint bucket, starting to drag it across toward one of the entrances... Oh, someone had left a lighter out! Yoink!

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Zek said in garbled tones as he swallowed the last of the lemon bar and brushed the crumbs off his hands. He reappeared the slushie in his hand and took another slurp.

And watched L creep across the floor like a cat in a room full of rocking chairs.

Oh this was going to be interesting indeed.

And then there was a lot of pointing and head shaking, some waving, and a very confused Zek. He patted his stomach, rubbed his head, and did half the wave back at her with a very confused look. Was this really the best time for charades?

Actually, yeah. It was.

His slushie went bye-bye again and he made the hand motions for “film” and then held up two fingers. Then he began acting out the opening scene to Ben Hur.

Blue, doll-like eyes squinted at him as he chomped away at the last cookie. Rude! Clearly no one had ever told him that sharing was caring. Oh well, as long as he was the savage killer L thought he was, and he was on her side, they would be fine, here.

He had totally incinerated that dude, after all. What was dropping a car on some dude? Easy. Right? The lever was right there. You would have to be absolutely out of it not to know what she was getting at right away, right?

He started playing charades. What. The. Actual. F*%k? Her eyes buldged out as she motioned frantically toward the man, and then the jack release, and made an arm-cranky motion... wait, was he... witnessing the birth of christ? But... why though? I mean, excellent mime work, but, what? Wait, was he on a chariot now?

Incredulous. That was the only word to describe how she was feeling. Was this real life? Frustrated, the man under the car shook his hand and started shouting something in Russian.

L Shook her hands at him, looking to Zek. She shook her hands again. There was the telltale sound of someone moving about in the next room, though the loud music made it hard to tell what they were doing.

The man cursed impatiently, and started to slide out from underneath the vehicle. L hissed out, "The lever, you turd! Drop the car!"