One thing had led to another, and she'd got mad real quick. She'd seen red. Both literally, and metaphorically. She didn't know what had happened, or if it had had anything to do with what she was feeling, or any of that. Mad had turned to stunned, shocked, confused, and staring. To the outside observer, the red horseshoe had actually clipped Jameson's head while it was moving, but it sure hadn't hit it. And she sure hadn't noticed any of that.

A voice from nearby almost made Amelia jump out of her skin.

"Huh?" She blinked at Jameson. Who had fallen on the ground, and was hurt. When had that happened. She shook her head. "Sorry. I kind of missed what just happened. It all went by so fast. You didn't," she added jokingly. "See it at all, did you?" Heh. Because what could he have seen? His face was pointed at the ground...

"Yeah. I saw it all." Jameson admitted with a weak little grin as he stood wobbily in the middle of the alleyway. He'd just been having a literal out of body experience when it happened. His head throbbed, and the teen heaved a sigh as he looked at his would-be attacker.

It turned out that the lizard guy wasn't as out cold as Jameson had thought.

"Uh...Maybe we should get going...I'll explain later." He said, anxiety rising again. Jameson took a deep breath and let it out...he couldn't be phasing out of his body again. Not now. Ami might need some help. What good were all those mutant lesson at the Mansion if he wasn't going to put them to practical use?

Amelia shot Jameson a look like he was crazy. Now, how could he have seen everything from his position. And why wasn't he telling her exactly what had happened, if he'd seen it? She could have been mistaken about his position, but there was no way she was mistaken about her asking him to tell her about it, if he had. Even though she hadn't seriously thought he would.

A groan came from nearby, and caused her to recall that there was a very big, scary lizard man in naught but pants. Suddenly, Jameson's subject change and direction of 'get out of here' sounded more fair, and less like a punk kid with a head injury being a butt and not telling her what she wanted to know.

There were options, here. Of course, if she wanted, she could throw down with lizard guy, of whose motives she still wasn't fully aware. Kidnapping? Maybe. But she didn't care to ask him, once he got street under his toes. Or, she could run. And they could call the cops about it. It wasn't like she was a freaking X-man. She didn't have to do any more than she'd already done to help out a friend. Sure, they could fight, but he was fast, and she was still uncertain about how come he'd fallen, but... and they could run, and that'd be perfectly fine and dandy, and not cowardly at all, and... okay. Now, she was simply going in a loop of logic. She needed to get out of the roundabout, and back on the road. As a matter of course adjustment, Amelia shook her head to clear it, then looked Jameson in the face.

"Y-yeah. Yeah, sure. Sorry. Let's go, before this guy gets back up..."

She casually walked over and dumped the contents of an entire trash can on top of him, before moving to offer Jameson aid. "You said your apartment was close?" She asked, hoping the fall the lizard had taken would keep him tied up long enough for her not to get to see him mad about the trash.

Ami was confused...that made sense. They had just been attacked by a giant lizard guy, after all. Confusion made sense. Standing in the middle of the alleyway and watching the guy clear the cobwebs from his head did not.

Finally, Ami spoke.

Did he live close by?

"Yup. Less than a block if we go this way." He answered, pointing at the end of the alleyway. It was much closer than it had been a few minutes ago. Jameson supposed it was one of the benefits of his mutation. He'd kind of fast-traveled.

"Let's go." He said, then he went.

"We'll call the cops when we get back to my place." He added once they were back on the street. Experimentally, the teen reached up and touched his forehead again grimacing at the pain and the knot that was steadily rising. "My parents are going to freak out. I just got them to let me go across down on the bus..."

He sighed a sigh of dramatic teenage angst, forgetting all-too-quickly about the fact that he'd just been nearly kidnapped.

"Figures."

Lizard man tried to recover once, and failed. And he was never the type to try things again and again upon failing, so he just decided the concrete was as good a bed as any, and let himself be blanketed with trash. They could leave. Frickin' kid wasn't worth all the trouble, even if his parents were rich. ... Rich. Ah, to hell with it. The bed of concrete wasn't nearly as comfortable as the beds he could buy if he kidnapped that kid and held him until his parents paid for him. His eyes seemed to light up a vicious red as he lay there and waited.

Their backs were turned. He sprang.

>>"Figures," his prey muttered.

A trashcan clattered over as he rounded the corner, onto the street, clawed hands up, fingers ready to snatch.

It was the can that got her attention. That caused her to look over her shoulder and see the guy was no longer on the ground. The scent of rotting fruit and coffee grounds didn't help to mask his presence. The guy was big, ugly, and stank. He was way stronger than either of them, and that gave him an edge. She'd gotten lucky with whatever had happened before. She wasn't about to try flinging her powers at him again. Not this soon, not without knowing what the hell had caused the guy to fall minutes before. If she wasn't using her powers, there was no way in hell she would win against this guy in a mutant-on-mutant fight. He would clobber her mercilessly, and steal Jameson, either to hold him hostage, ransom him, kill him, or eat him, and if he beat her by power alone, there wasn't a thing she could do to stop him. It was a good thing she wasn't planning to go mutant-on-mutant, or trying to overpower the guy. She'd been training in aikido, and whatever other martial arts she was learning from her two distinctly different teachers. She may not have seen Megan in ages, but that hadn't stopped her going to self-defense class.

Amelia centered herself, got into the right form, and got in his way. He changed tacts once he saw the interception, bringing his arm forward in what would have been a crushing blow. And things blurred, sneakers scuffed on sidewalk, as she diverted the force of the blow with her arms and her body. She didn't block it, or try to beat his force with her own. She went with it, moving with him and using it, to turn his attack against him and send him tumbling to the street. One second, he was lunging forward, the next? Still forwards, and past her... and down. A passing car slammed on its brakes. It made it in time, just barely, but that barest breadth let the bumper clip the would-be attacker. He sucked in a his of air as he lay there end over end and defeated, utterly shocked. Amelia was a little shocked, too. That was straight up Murphy right there. She hadn't been training hard enough to be that good. But whatever she'd been doing, she made a mental note to thank Quin, to thank Lenna, and to keep it up. It didn't even cross her mind to thank Gawain.

Amelia's eyes shifted Jameson's way. As if trying to play it off casually, Amelia's whole demeanor slackened, and she calmly said "You were leading, yeah? Let's get back to that." as the woman in the car got out to scream at the guy who'd dented her bumper. She had a varied and impressive vocabulary to use for it, too. Lizard-man groaned.

The lizard guy just didn't give up...did he? This time, Jameson turned as Ami did and was determined to stay in his body. He'd stand and fight, not phase out like a little girl...all though if little girls were like Ami...maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

The lizard approached, and Jameson set his feet, running numbers in his head. He wasn't good at math or physics, but he was decent at football and great against basketball. He also tended to play against people bigger than him...maybe he could hold the guy off long enough for help to arrive.

It was all a moot point though. Ami flipped the guy right off his feet and into oncoming traffic. A jaw hit the ground. It was Jameson's. In fact, he was still winding it up when she spoke to him and started back in the direction they'd started.

"Yeah...my baby-sitter wasn't anywhere as cool as yours."

The walk wasn't a long one, and soon enough they were being let into Jameson's building by the door man. "She's with me, Matt." he said, nodding to Ami and they were let through the doors.

"Elevators are over here." He said, slightly uncomfortable now that they were actually there. His parents would be home...and now he realized he'd never called...the lizard guy had gotten in the way.

"My parents are going to be awkward..." he said with a bit of a wince. "If this isn't bad enough," he said, pointing at the rapidly bruising lump on his forehead, "I didn't call ahead and I'm dropping in with a girl. Ignore anything humiliating they might say please...they're a little...overzealous sometimes."

>>"Yeah...my baby-sitter wasn't anywhere as cool as yours."

Her head bowed in a tiny laugh at the thought. It hadn't been her babysitter that had taught her to manhandle men, no, but the thought counted for something. And Miri had been good. "Amen," she agreed. "Amen."

~*~

He had a doorman. A doorman. Lots of buildings in New York had doormen, so this wasn't a huge shock. But it made her glance his way with the tiniest of amused, yet impressed, looks. Especially the 'she's with me' comment. Posturing, maybe? She gave the doorman a polite smile as they passed him by.

Hopefully, someone handled lizard-man. She was sure the police would be called on him, what with how the woman with the car had been shouting and invoking all sorts of crudely-referenced deities and various activities. They'd be sure to help him into a nice cozy cell. Or he'd run. Sometimes, they ran and lived to frighten another day.

She noted the change in his body language, now that they were in the building and in front of the elevators, and put musings on what would happen to the thug on hold. Apparently, his parents were going to be awkward. Weren't parents usually awkward? Definitely more-so, with how he'd gotten banged up. She eyed the lump as he gestured to it and summarized the days events.

"If they argue against my presence, just tell them," Amelia stated primly as the doors parted and she walked on in. "That I just saved your life." One turn, and she was facing him. Her eyes begged for a response.

Ami's excuse made Jameson laugh and shake his head.

"You've got the wrong idea." He said with a grin as the doors opened and they entered the elevator. The building had a lot of floors, but there'd only been once as a kid when he'd hit all the buttons. He reached out and just hit one.

23. The doors shut.

"They're going to be thrilled you're there." He said, eyes focused on the numbers above the door as they steadily rose.

"In fact, I might be in luck. They might not even notice the bump on the head. They'll be too busy trying to be cool and unobtrusive."

It was unlikely they'd miss the head injury though, and Jameson sighed at the thought. They probably did need to know what had gone down, and at least he'd have Ami to back up the fact that it had happened in Manhattan and not on his trip to the other side of town.

The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.

"Brace yourself." he said with a slight smirk.

"Parental Units are coming."

Oh, they'd think she was his girlfriend. Aha. "Gotcha," she quipped. Parents. Silly loving things.

For just having downed a lizard thug and had something weird happen with her powers(?), she was oddly cheery. She supposed it was their youth that allowed them to laugh the crazy things like kidnapping attempts and bumped heads off. She grinned at the Lord of the Rings reference, then frowned at it.

"You know, I died in Lord of the Rings..." she noted seriously, staring ahead.

As they stepped from the elevator, Jameson had to decide that Ami was pretty cool. She'd taken the awkwardness that was going to be his parents completely in stride once she'd figured out what he was saying. He knew his mom and dad, and while they were about the best parents a guy could hope for, they were a little too excited when he brought home potential dates.

Ami said she'd died in Lord of the Rings, and Jameson made the only logical assumption, "Yeah, that game was pretty tough. I feel like the gaming company was trying too hard to make everything realistic. I might have given up, I can't remember if I ever finished."

They were at the door now, and he took a deep breath before reaching into his pocket for his keys. Luckily they were still there, and Jameson unlocked the door.

...all the lights were off.

"What the..." he said, making his way into the apartment and flipping on lights.

"Come on in." he called to Ami as he went, wondering why he hadn't gotten a text. Reaching for his pocket, Jameson found it empty...that explained it.

"I guess they're not home. It's okay though, we'll just stay in the family room." He pointed towards the large, airy, many-windowed room. "The phone is in there on the end table. Want a soda?"

She'd given him something serious, that could very well have degenerated into talking about her Ex, and he'd... completely gone for the more logical conclusion that let her off from that dead end street. If she had been more tense about it, she might have let out a sigh of relief. Awkwardness avoided, she stepped off the elevator, falling in line with Jameson. She didn't even drop a "right, game."

He took a moment to unlock the door. While he fumbled for his keys, Amelia rocked on her sneakers slightly, hands in her pockets, focus drifting down the hall. It was a pretty big building. He had to have some rich neighbors. And if he had nearly gotten kidnapped, that meant he was rich, too. She didn't know what to think of that... other than 'don't care'. She supposed it meant he got nice sneakers, now and then. The whole 'being kidnapped' thing, though... that had her more concerned. He needed to be more careful if he planned on 'almost being kidnapped' again.

They guy's exclamation snapped her attention back to him and the door. Beyond the door was mild dimness. She followed him a few steps into the apartment, hands still in her jacket pockets, glancing around as he found the lights. Light spilled in from the windows around the area, making it so the light he'd flipped on didn't do much more than scare away a few shadows. There was simple, smart-looking furniture, and a phone on the end table by one of the couches. Another stood at a right angle to the first, and a beige chair sat at another corner, adding to the sort-of feng shui of the room. A glass coffee table with black trim lay in the middle of it all. There were a few magazines on it, arranged neatly. Some of the magazines had pictures of buildings and bridges on the covers. One lay open, on an ad. Someone had circled the ad in red, like they'd wanted to remember what they liked. There was a potted plant by the window, and Amelia didn't place its species. That was the extent of what she took in with her first glance.

"Root Beer," she said, jerking her eyes back Jameson's way. "Thanks." She sat down on the couch by the magazines, near the phone. The girl didn't jump for the phone yet. She felt she could kill a little more time talking before she called for a ride. Her eyes dropped to the magazines, and she asked "What do your parents do?" loud enough he could hear from wherever he was going to get soda.

Root Beer?

To be honest, Jameson hadn't expected such a specific request from his friend, and he hoped she wasn't setting herself up for disappointment. He opened the fridge, and was relieved to find that they actually did have rootbeer. He grabbed one, then on impulse grabbed another. Jameson didn't usually drink soda, but it had been a rough night, he could stand to indulge a little.

Into the freezer he reached, grabbing a package of frozen peas, then made his way back to the living room in time for Ami to ask what his parents did.

"My dad's an architect." He said, glancing at the magazines she'd found. "And my mom is in advertising. They're both very creative people in very different ways." Hopefully that wasn't awkward... it was something his mom had said at some point.

"What about your parents?" It was a fair question in response, and as he made it he held out one of the root beers. "You're lucky. We had a few in stock."

Architect and advertising, huh? She took the outstretched root beer, and told him what her parents did. "My mom runs a restaurant, and my dad helps. It's a family thing. Real good food."

Obviously, the peas he'd grabbed weren't for eating. That goose egg was swelling. She nodded to the package. "You should use that, before you become more bruise than man."

Jameson smiled a sideways grin as he put the frozen veggies to his forehead. It stung, and he winced a bit as he lowered himself into the chair he usually took when he was in this part of the house. Hopefully the swelling would go down enough that he could convince his parents that he'd simply had an accident.

"What restaurant?" he asked, "I might have to stop by and try it out."

Jameson didn't know why he'd said that. It wasn't like he was a Manhattan food connoisseur or anything. In fact, the best he was good for was finding a good pizza shop. "What kind of food do they make?"

Man that goose egg was throbbing. Before Ami could answer more about the restaurant, Jameson spoke again, "Actually, before you answer...do you think you could not mention what happened if my parents come home soon? They're just letting me go across town by myself, and they'll go ballistic if they know we nearly got mugged..."

She opened her mouth to answer, but he cut her off, so she settled for wrenching the top off the bottle instead. Her eyes were on the bottle. She didn't look at him as she told him "I think it was a kidnapping attempt, not a mugging. You might actually want to tell them, so they can file a police report to be on the look-out for the big lizard guy. There's always the chance he gave up on you, but it'd be good to catch him before he tries it on someone else."

Food talk, for the moment, was not as important as the current topic. He'd kind of shot himself in the foot with the dialogue choices, there.