"My child, I have much to do, and thus we cannot spend the day together; I apologize, I really do. It's a busy season for me, you know. I'll make it up to you, though, with a gift!"

He had been playing this little game for long enough, now; following this child about on her escapades; being her parental unit, and allowing her to do some of the most outlandish and entertaining things... He had to admit, he was slightly fond of her, but it was time their little game ended. She was a tool, after all, and it was time for her to be of use.

After that, she could be thrown away.

"My little seed of chaos, take a peek into that bag over there; don't mind the blood stains, they are of little consequence... Yes, there you go... Now, I trust you to use this fun toy I've acquired for you when the time is right; two groups will gather on this day, and then a video will play... When it does... Start shooting into the crowd, like a good little devil! I promise I will be there to help you escape afterward!"

That was a lie; she could get arrested for all he cared; She would be of no use to him with a record, and, frankly, she did annoy him just a little. More so, her stupid clones.

Maybe some time in jail would get her to stop talking so much.

"Well, now, I must be away! Do enjoy your day, young Moose! Remember, if you see any of those pesky X-men, give them a good beating for me!"

Today was a special day. Elke had prepared especially for it why getting all glitzy up and donning her best clothes. Her hair was braided back in tight rows, courtesy of a friend, and her brothers clothing hung off of her like a scarecrow was wearing them. The dark jeans had been rolled up on the bottom and looped securely around her narrow hips with a leather belt that had a crystal encrusted buckle with the phrase Big Pimpin slapped across the front. A baggy jersey with New York 34 in neon letters across the front was tucked sloppily into her pants, with a white tank peeking out from underneath. Large, dark cop shades sat balanced on the bridge of her nose, and a toothpick hung haphazardly out of her mouth, as she stared at Roach with a slacken jaw.

The 'gift' he had given her was easily the biggest gu she had every seen in her life. It took both hands to hold it up, and was heavy enough to equal the weight of one of her clones. She... she didn't know what to say.

"YAHOOO!!!" Or maybe she did. The Native ran an excited, tight little circle around the bug man who'd more or less adopted her, before coming to a stop directly in front of him. "I won't let ya down, Boss. Ya got my word on that." She saluted him stiffly, hefted the large launched up onto her shoulder and watched him depart.

Once she was along on the roof, just herself and two clones, she let a wide grin settle on her lips and studied her new toy. It only took a few minutes to figure out where the grenades were loaded and how to re-load them.

Settling one boot clad foot on the ledge of the roof, she watched the people down below mull about. "Ey, drag that bag over here and get ready to hand me some more ammunition." One clone hopped to it, while the other leaned over the edge a little to spy what was below.

Elke hummed, pressing an ear-bud from her cd-player into her ear, and nodded her head to the beat of the music while she waited for everything to fall into place. "...I come to bring the pain."

This was all a huge pain in the ass...

The thought had run through the mind of the X-man several times that morning, as he paced the barricade between two mobs of people... Saphirus reached down to the handheld radio strapped to his uniform, and spoke into it. "Check point 3 secure. For now." He could hardly hear the confirmation over the ruckus of a thousand people yelling at each other.


Some bone head had scheduled two opposing rallies in the same damned place. What's worse, it was the middle of time freaking square! The whole city's day had ground to a halt, and everyone was angry.

How could they not be? They'd seen the news this morning... Some goddam amateur reporter had a meltdown on camera, saying something about how the police officers from the Gargoyle beating had assaulted her. Bull... He'd met those people, and they were just tired officers doing their jobs. He knew how they felt, too. He'd only been policing this line for a few hours and already he was exhausted. Then again, they'd called on the X-men several times in the last week to help keep the protests under control... It was getting hard to find time to sleep.

"All units, we've been authorized to officially command the protesters to vacate the premises, Be on the lookout for any militants. let's make this nice and peaceful."

Thank god. With the large crowd of anti-mutants on one side, and the very visible mutant population on the other, the recently engaged X-man was starting to think this would go south quick... All they had to do was get everyone to go home now...

"TRAITOR"

...What?

He turned to the mutant side of the barricade, and looked into the crowd.

"F#$%ing TRAITOR! WORKING FOR THE HUMANS LIKE THE REST OF THE PIGS!"

"Oh jesus not this again..." When could he go home? He wanted to see Andrea... At least she would make this day worth it in the end.

Wait a sec... the crowd was silent... What was going on? Everyone was looking up... The display screens? He turned to see a very large presentation of what appeared to be a Viewtube video.

He saw a woman with red hair... And some police officers... Some very familiar police officers.

"Oh shit..." Yup... They started attacking her... But... He'd met them. They were just tired officers doing their jobs... He suddenly felt more tired than ever.

The video flickered off. The whole crowd was silent. Saphirus felt a weight in the bottom of his stomach that felt like it might drag him down into the core of the earth itself.

And then someone started firing teargas into the crowd.

"...came to bring the pain, hardcore from the brain, let's go inside my astral plane.." She had paced back and forth on the roof for the better part of twenty minutes, before she got bored and her attention shifted elsewhere. The Native shuffled with the beats in her ears, hopping and bouncing while waving her weapon around at nothing.


"..Find out my mental's based on instrumental,records hey, so I can write monumental Methods..."

The sight of the gun flitted here and there, before landing on one of her clones. Elke grinned, muttering lyrics to herself as her twin noticed it's predicament and reacted appropriately. It dove to the left, throwing itself onto the rocky floor of the roof in an over dramatic manner.

"But @#%$&* is decaf I stick 'em for the CREAM, check it, just how deep can #$%@ get. Deep as the abyss and brothers is mad fish accep-" The flicker of the screen caught her eye, and she paused her pursuit of trailing the terrified clone across the roof. The video Roach has mentioned rolled on, some red-headed broad getting the tar beaten out of her. Hefting her gun up again as the crowd down below started to react to the short movie, Elke moved into position.

Below, people were crying out on both sides. Some in outrage of the injustice of what had happened to the poor mutant women, others in support of the police who'd done it. Tension was thick, anger thicker. Threats, slurs, and curse words rose swiftly above the other voices... but before a single punch, bottle, or kick could be thrown, Elke acted.

"Who da boss? @&%$!@* get tossed to the side, and I'm the dark side of the Force-"

BOOMPH!

She pulled the trigger, and the first of her grenades sailed into the waiting crowd. "-I be hectic, and comin' for the head piece protect it #$%@ it, two tears in a bucket, @#%%$&* want the ruckus-"

BOOMPH!

A second grenade lunched into the other side of the gathered crowd, and then a third. "I'm sick, insane, crazy, Drivin Miss Daisy, Out her @#&*$% mind now I got mine, I'm Swayze-"

She paused her assault on the people below in order to saunter her way along the ledge, while her teargas grenades sent the people below into an all out panic. Both sides split as some people started to flee, while others went on the offensive. Mutants and humans alike swarmed the barrier holding them apart and a full out fight broke out.

The Native, proud of her accomplishment (and of how proud Roach would be of her) took a moment to savor the chaos before she re-sighted her weapon and fired a few more over the square.

"Tell who ever is shooting those grenades to shot right now!" He screamed over his radio.

Everything went bad from then on. The two crowds went at it, scooping the NYPD away like they were a door waiting to be opened. Saphirus knocked out three people in two seconds as they tried to get at an injured officer. They had to stop this; they had to make everyone calm down... That was getting really hard, though, as grenades kept plopping into the middle of the crowds. He followed one of the errant missile's path and saw their origin; A roof top? They didn't have any officers up there, did they? His eyes widened as a small figure appeared on the edge of the building.

...ohjesuschrist, REALLY?!

Was that a goddam 8 year old with a grenade launcher? Was he having a nightmare? That had to be it; he was asleep.

Pinch.

Nope, not asleep! Wait a second... That girl... She was familiar...

No... No F#%&in way! It was that crazy kid with the bow and arrow! Why the hell wasn't she in juvie by now or something? No, none of that mattered; what mattered was that this chaos wouldn't stop if she was allowed to continue, and they couldn't let this escalate... If it did, it could mean full scale rioting all over the city.

There was only one real option for getting to her fast; Saphirus vanished into the mutant side of the riot, still wearing his NYPD badge proudly. It wasn't long before he found what he was looking for; and exceptionally strong mutant to punch him.

The next thing anyone knew he was flying toward her building with a wild look on his face. He landed on the roof top not far from her location, and turned to her with a steely gaze. "You don't want to do this...Put it down."

She'd just finished re-loading the launcher, and aiming, when something caught her eye. A solitary figure escaping the swarming crowd below, via flight. It was careening her direction like a bullet; impact with the roof she was standing on eminent. Her clones skittered to hide behind her, one holding up a shaking butter knife, while the other was clutching the bag with the rest of the grenades in it.

The song being blared away in her ears was pretty effective at blocking out whatever the guy was saying, which didn't really matter to her all that much anyway. He was dressed like a chump and had a badge on. That automatically made him the enemy. So... Elke just went right on doing what she's been tasked to do before he'd shown up.

" -Take it as a threat, better yet it's a promise. Comin' from a vet on some old Vietnam @%#$. You can bet your bottom dollar, hey I bomb @#$%!"

Only this time, she was aiming her gun at him.

... while dancing threateningly at him.


" -And it's gonna get even worse, word to God. It's the Wu comin' through. Came to represent and carve my name in your chest. You can come test, realize you're no contest. Son I'm the gun that won that old Wild West!"

BOOMPH!

She forgot to position her feet in order to keep herself from falling back from the force of the recoil. It sent her sprawling on her backside-

BOOMPH!

-and she accidentally fired another grena-

BOOMPHBOOMPH!

...or three. All of which followed the first in it's path toward the spandex clad authority figure, in unintended directions, while she tossed the launcher away, accidentally knocked a clone over the edge of the roof, then scrambled to her feet and bolted. That left one clone standing like a deer in headlights, waving around her butter-knife as if it were all that stood between her and a shark.

"Don't make me use this!"

W... Was that... Method man?

She was shooting a grenade launcher into a crowd, and singing along to method man.

He pinched himself again.

Still awake.

She started dancing at him; yes, it is possible to dance AT someone. She was doing it right now; it was the dumbest thing he'd ever seen. Admittedly, he faltered. He would have laughed if this whole situation wasn't so goddam tragic.

"Kid, just put the gun down, were are your pa-" BOOMPH!

HOLYSH*TSHESHOTATEARGASGRENADEATHIM! By instinct he caught it, and hat to admit, it must have looked incredibly awesome. And then it started venting gas in his face.

"AAAGH! IT BUUUUURNS!" He tossed the grenade to the side as two more flew wide, and the last one arched over and into the crowd.

THIS WAS THE WORST DAY EVER! He stumbled about rubbing his eyes as the girl accidentally murdered one of her clones, and beat a hasty retreat.

"Get back here you freakin brat!" He tried to open his eyes, but made little progress as he stumbled after her, walking right past the clone with the knife, and grabbing it by the ear in order to tug it along in a painful manner. "I've had enough of this..."

At the edge of the building, Elke spun back to face the angry X-man and pulled out two objects from within the pockets of her baggy pants.

Two shiny black guns, to be specific.

Whipping them out, she made sure to arrange herself in the most threatening manner possible (which was hard, considering her height, sex, age, and currently wardrobe) and leveled the guns at him sideways. The only angle acceptable for true gangsta's. "Do ya feel lucky, punk?... Well, do ya?"

The native pulled the triggers and.... shot the hero with blasts of goopy, red sriracha sauce. As it turned out, the guns were just a rather realistic looking water toys. Which she had filled with hot sauce on a whim.

"TASTE MY  @$%# SAUCE VENGEANCE!"

Then she threw herself backwards over the edge, knowing full well there were people gathered below who would break her fall, all while furiously squirting liquid fire at the x-man.

This @#%^ was unreal. Seriously. These things only happened in crappy late night cartoon shows and bad, bad movies.

She pulled two gun on him. two. Not one. TWO. Where does a child get two guns?! Hell, where does a child get a FREAKING GRENADE LAUNCHER?!

"Do ya feel lucky, punk?... Well, do ya?" He walked toward her, still rubbing his eyes with one hand and clenching the clone's ear with the other. "Not at all."

She then pulled the trigger, and he admitted he flinched a little as red sauce came flying at him... It all missed because you really can't hit a damn thing with two guns aimed sideways, but he decided not to comment on it. It was too stupid. Similarly stupid was her trying to fling herself from a building in order to escape onto the crowd.

At this height she had to understand that she might as well be jumping out onto concrete. Concrete that would die when she hit it, too. He snarled as he sprang forward, letting go of the clone in favor of grabbing the back of the girl's shirt as she started to fall.

With a harsh yank he pulled her back onto the roof. "That's it. You're coming with me. You need some sorta help, kid." He adjusted his grip to her arm, and then started dragging her toward the roof's exit. "Jesus, how do you even get close to this messed up? I was freaking HOMELESS and I wasn't this bad."

"Hurk!

Her descent was stopped abruptly, and her shirt yanked painfully into her throat. One of her toys slipped from her grip and fell into the crowd below, bonking some unlucky fellow over the head.

"Lemme go! Police brutality! Ow! You'er hurting my ar-- OW!" She was dragged, unwillingly, across the roof and there wasn't really a damn thing she could do about it. He probably could have picked her up and carried her via her arm, given their size difference. Her twin was shuffling along behind with her butter-knife in tow, sobbing and whining about how her clothes were ruined because the big man was scary. Elke continued to struggle, before going completely dead weight on him.

If he was going to drag her, dammit, she wasn't going to make it easy. "HELP! THIS MAN IS TRYING TO ABDUCT ME! SOMEONE CALL DATE LINE!" Where was he even taking her, anyway?

"Oh jesus, would you just shut up already?! I got half a mind to slap some sense into you, kid."

The little girl went limp, and he grumbled as he faltered a little, still hanging on. With one mighty heave he lifted her over his shoulder and continued toward the other edge of the roof.

"HELP! THIS MAN IS TRYING TO ABDUCT ME! SOMEONE CALL DATE LINE!"

He'd made it to the edge of the roof, and then, hearing that, he dropped her to the ground, and stared intensely into her eyes. "Is this some sort of game to you?! Do you have ANY idea what you've done? People are going to die because of you!"

Already the chaos was showing signs of intense scuffles and attacks. If one looked closely, the color red would definitely be present.

"I should have you put in jail... Tried as an adult. But you're just a stupid goddam kid! So I'm going to take you somewhere for mutants, like us, and you're going to tell me who gave you that weapon. Do you under stand? It's that, or PRISON." Not that they would be so different.

Concrete met backside painfully. He dropped her from his shoulder onto the ground and stared at her. She kicked herself back a little, but couldn't help but freeze up at his tone...

"Is this some sort of game to you?! Do you have ANY idea what you've done? People are going to die because of you!"

Her eyes widened slightly, and her mouth clamped shut. That was ridiculous... people weren't going to die. Just... get roughed up a little. Even than that would only be humans, and they deserved it. She shook her head slightly at him, but didn't manage to voice any of the thoughts going on in her head.

"I should have you put in jail... Tried as an adult. But you're just a stupid goddamn kid! So I'm going to take you somewhere for mutants, like us, and you're going to tell me who gave you that weapon. Do you under stand? It's that, or PRISON."

She half blinked in response and the glassiness that had crept into her eyes suddenly vanished. He was a liar... another example of mutant kind bending down to humankind. A glorified lapdog. He didn't care about what the fight really stood for. Whatever place he was talking about wasn't for mutants like her, it was for mutants who were ashamed of their heritage. For mutants who'd rather hide among humans and play nice, than stand up for themselves and fight for what was right.

The teens expression hardened, and with the aim any teenage boy would be jealous of she spat directly at his face.