One nice thing about being a wannabe vigilante in new York city was that she was never short of things to do.

Stalk the streets, find bad guy, beat the tar out of said bad guy, then call it a day. Since she had left the school it had been that schedule day in and out for the last few months. The teen had found a place to stay with an old friend, in an attic of all things.

She was sure her old man would scoff at her. It probably wasn't good enough, but that didn't matter. His opinion of her was what drove her from home in the first place.

He could stuff his opinions where the sun don't shine.

But, she did suppose it was a part of why she was doing what she was doing. Currently. She was trudging down a dark sidewalk, hands stuffed in her pockets as she moved along. She had taken a clue from her dad in regards to how she dressed when she went out... instead of bright colors and her usual feathers, she had started wearing normal clothes. Easy to move in, harder to remember. Her hair was tied back in a braid, out of her face. All in all she looked like your average teen out too late past curfew. A great target for those looking for trouble.

And tonight she managed to catch an eager fish on her line. A guy had been following her for the better part of an hour. No matter how many times she turned a corner, or crossed the road, he followed behind. She had no doubt that he had I'll intentions for her... whether that was robbing her or more, she could only quess.

All she knew is that as she walked along, fully aware of his presence, she could help but grin. Elke loved teaching little @#$%'s like him a lesson the hard way.

She cracked her knuckles as she turned another corner and led him deeper into a less inhabited part of town.

Typically Erik didn't like going out in his much larger and more noticeable form, but today just wasn't one of those nights he was willing to spend cooped up. Not that he wanted to run into too many people however. The staring bugged him more then a bit and made him feel more freakish then he already just figured he was. Being a 9' slab of muscle did tend to make one stand out even if it wasn't for the red coloring to his skin.

In what he thought was a genius idea he simply went to a less inhabited part of town in his ongoing quest to memorize the entire city. That was until he noticed a feminine form up ahead and crossing the street as he rounded a corner followed a few moments later by another. Given the section of town he was in that struck him as more than a little odd as people travelling together usually walked side by side. Figuring something may be amiss the huge man engaged 'stealth' mode. Instead of the usually heel to toe method of walking most had he went toe to heel, dampening his footfalls and given his lack of shoes it was even more quiet. His previous life as a thief working hard to offset his near half ton bulk. Even though it was technically slower method of walking his longer strides made up for it. That wasn't even to mention the fact his blood red skin was covered by a stark white tank top and blue jean shorts instead of anything remotely sneaky. He was determined to try though!

Now if he could only keep from laughing as he slowly gained on the 'pursuer'. Unable to keep a huge cheshire cat grin from splitting his face as he made up ground inches at a time regardless of how ridiculous he probably looked. It would be worth it to give the man a scare if he tried anything!

Shady ass dude was still following her like some kinda shady puppy, which was good. It meant that he still felt like he had the upper hand. He hadn't caught onto her plan or been put off by where she was leading him. Elke had had that happen before and it was frustrating. Having her target chicken out and attempt to back off, which mean she had to turn and physically chase him down in order to accomplish her mission.

She liked it much better when they were caught with their guard down. Much easier.

Now, all she needed to do was turn slightly to peer behind her, as if she suspected she was being followed but was too scared to confront him. Then she could speed up a little and turn another corner, and then, when the guy ultimately followed, she would strike.

Yes, that sounded perfect.

With a little grin to herself, that she promptly wiped off her face, the teen started to turn to put her plan into motion. She tried to slap her most convincing 'oh gee I'm so scared' expression on and peeked over one shoulder.

"JESUS@#$%IN'CHRIST"

The shout ripped from her lips unbidden she spotted what appeared to be a goddamn giant, leering devil man lurking directly behind her target. The man was startled by her outburst and the fact that she didn't appear to be looking at him when he said it. He turned as well.

"HOLY@#$&IN'@#$%!"

Her target stumbled back a few steps, whipping a blade that may have been a little small in comparison... before rethinking that action and deciding to just try and book it.

Once he fell into a rhythm of stalking the stalker he realized perhaps this wasn't the greatest of ideas he had ever had. Was it shady to follow someone at night? Sure. Did it immediately make someone a bad person? That would probably depend on if someone had a heart condition and scared them, perhaps. Eventually he decided it was too much fun to rethink his life choices and settled into it. The waiting was the best part, a huge grin splitting his face again as he thought of all the possible outcomes. 

"JESUS@#$%IN'CHRIST"

The words almost caused Erik to flinch and turn around! That most certainly hadn't been expected. However it did set him up for the intended victim who whirled and despite their culturally diverse backgrounds ended up yelling practically the same thing. A question for the sages to ponder. The original stalker had whipped out a knife. Obviously the man was offering to butter biscuits or something given how small it looked from his point of view and his eyes narrowed at the man. All the while maintaining a maniacal grin. 

Then the man took off! Now this was the sort of thing he was used to a chase! Of course the absurdity of the situation dawned on him and the huge man started to laugh "BWHAHAHA" Propelled forth from his generous sized body as it rumbled out and strode after the man. Once again trading faster steps for a longer stride as he launched himself after the man. His backpack sliding off his right shoulder and into his hand as he bag and to twirl it suddenly feeling like some evil old lady fighting a man for the last can of prunes in the grocery store that was late for a Golden Girls rerun. The mental imagery sending his laughter into a more maniacal tone that no doubt the perp would remember until his dying day.

In a manner that felt like an impossibly light baby tap into the man with his bag sent the man sprawling sideways and dazed. The backpack returned to his proper place and he hoisted the man up by the front of his shirt a full foot off the ground and looked over to Elke "Should I eat hi'?" He was joking of course, but he doubted either of the two knew that. That perfect pearly white grin even wider then it appeared before as he shook the man some.

For a very brief, fleeting moment, Elke wondered if she was gonna have to try and protect the guy she was planning on beating the crap outta from some jolly red giant. That would be a first for sure.

Well, not today, Satan. She had a quota to fill!

Shady dude made a break for it and moved to follow. Until that is, Big Red started roaring with laughter and followed the guy himself. The native slammed on her proverbial brakes, damn near tripping over her shoes as she stopped suddenly.

She watched in a stupified kinda silence as Ol' Red used is shoulder bag like a @#$%in' mace and effectively whacked her target into compliance. Then, because she had obviously stepped into some kind of delirious hallucination, the red giant hoisted the man up with ease and turned to her with that sh*t eating grin on his face.

"Should I eat hi'?"

"...What the @#$%?" She muttered quietly, while the giant shook the man like a wet noodle.

Really, had she not run into a surprising about of people out there who actually did eat people, she probably would have scoffed at him. Now though... She tensed a little out of habit, preparing herself in case she was the next target.

"Eh... I mean, if you want sure. Probably tastes like trash though." After she recovered from the shock of him just kinda appearing there, speaking coherently was a little easier.

"Should warn you, I'm straight outta fiddles and not lookin' to wager my soul on anything tonight."

With most of his concentration on laughing and ensuring he didn't inadvertently shake the man apart he never noticed when the man decided being conscious for whatever happened not his idea of a good time. Probably right around the eating comment he figured. Mission Accomplished. Glancing over at Elke as she put in her two cents and nodded. "Good 'oint" Lowering the man mostly to the ground before dropping him like one would a trash bag. He flipped the man over with his toe and had been about to take the man's wallet when she spoke again. 

He turned to regard her with both of his eyebrows skyward and blinked once before resuming that grin. "All outta 'laning swords and golden 'iddles. Sorry 'ochahontas." Not saying the name in any derogatory manner. More an amused response to being considered a demon or the devil. Tit for tat as it were. He kneeled down to peel of the man's back pocket like a scratch and sniff sticker as the needlework barely had a chance and retrieved the man's wallet and peered inside it like it was a coin pouch. Carefully he extracted the cash and pushed it into his own pocket and offered the rest to the woman incase she was interested in running up the man's credit card. Afterwards he sent it skyward and in the general direction of the nearest large body of water before retrieving the man's knife and stuffing it in his bag after the appropriate amount of ham fingered fumbling to get it open.

All that done he turned to regard the female and remained kneeled to try and be less devil like and imposing. "Sos 'hat you doing out this late?" Looking about to see if anyone was coming running in defense of the obviously ill intentioned man. "Need an escort to 'ere your going?" He didn't need anyone running around saying there was some huge devil running around terrorizing people and mugging them in this crappier portion of town.  

She was distracted from being completely offended at the nickname that had just been dropped on her by the fact that the big giant dude was now totally robbing the dude that had been stalking her, who she had been luring off to a dark corner so she could beat him up.

... It was a weird night.

She took the low road and accepted offer from the giant with a shrug. Yeah, she was totally probably gonna do something nefarious with his stuff later. Probably buy a sign him up for a ton of weird magazines and buy a bunch of incriminating junk.

"Sos 'hat you doing out this late? Need an escort to 'ere your going?"

Quirking an eyebrow, she pondered how to respond to that.

What was she doing out this late? Did she need an escort? Ehhh... The truth was less weird that what had just happened.

"I was kinda tryin' to lure that perv away into the dark so I could kick the @#$% outta him and maybe get him to rat on where the rest of his buddies are." She glanced down at the prone form on the guy, pursed her lips and shrugged. "Guess since you beat me to the punch i'll just break his legs and head home for the night. Don't look like he's gonna do much talking now."

She headed for the guy, giving ol' big red a little space as she went, and rolled her shoulders in preparation. "Never thought i'd get hero-blocked by a giant red dude in jean shorts."

She hovered over her not-so-innocent victim, pondering on who precisely she wanted to damage him, when she heard voices approaching from up the street. From the sound of it they were talking loudly... and there was an edge in their voices. They were also walking pretty fast.

"-Said he would be heading our way with the broad a few minutes ago... where the hell is'e?"

"Ah, shut it Mickey... 'e probably got sidetracked. You know how he-" Two men strode into side and paused, both catching sight of the giant red figure up ahead, the tiny hooded figure next to it, and the limp figure on the ground.

"Jesus christ! The Feckin' devil got Shamus!"

Elke, who had been silent while evaluating the change in plans, slowly grinned. ".... Perfect."

---

Many painful minutes later found one of the men, poor old Mickey as it were, writhing in agony and in Elke's complete control. After an initial fight commenced, she'd gained the upper hand against the man pretty quickly. Turns out Mickey was more of a fan of guns and knives in a fight versus an actual physical struggle. So, when the teen had darted in when given an opening she'd disarmed him pretty quickly, swept his legs out from under him and landed quite a few painful elbow blows to the head as she got him in a pretty little twister lock. One of his eyes was in the process of swelling shut and he was definitely close to passing out... but heck, when had that stopped her from interrogating people before?

Hey, hey... Buddy. Before you go and blackout on me, why not fill me in where the rest of your friends are? I've been wanting to meet them for an awful long time."

The guy was still for a moment, before trying to loosen himself with a surge of sudden movement. She flexed her arms, cranking his chin further toward her, and farther away from the direction it was supposed to face. If he wasn't careful, she'd break his neck.

Elke ignored the guys sounds of pained protest and craned her head around to see what the yet-to-be-named giant was going.

"Aye! You wanna help me out for a sec, buddy?" She cranked Micky's chin more when he tried to scratch at her face with a free hand. "How far do you think you can throw this guy? Few stories up maybe?"

Panicked gurgles of protest followed.

"Oh sorry." The big red guy did his best to TRY and give of the impression of being truely sorry. Not that his current form emoted all that well in that regard so he just gave a shrug and his best sheepish look he could. Now the whole situation he found himself in was beyond awkward. This was his first time running into another person who followed a moral compass that didn't quite line up with the rest of societies 'let someone else handle it' mentality or in layman's term a vigilante. Hero-blocked was certainly a new term for him and probably all of New York. As she approached the man to give him one of his signature leg breakings he moved away some to be less imposing to the girl.

Wait did she say perv? A perv with buddies? 

Now he was really curious. Of course he had to respond to what he felt was a slight on his fashion sense. "Not easy 'inding clothes in size. Did you say this 'ervert has 'riends?" 

Then the loud voices drew his attention. Typical sort of idiots who thought just cause they ran in a gang or thought they ran a section of town being loud as hell was cool. Well there was the perverts friends! Who also thought he was the devil. Devils had horns and whiplike tails. Truly he was in illiterate company or the very least the superstitious. 

---

His own combat had been a rather simple affair and he was determined to make up for past mistakes as he charged the man and picked him up by the throat. Now things were making even less sense! Who sent three people to mug someone? His mind clicked fast as he made a connection between pervert and friends. Were they dealing with a bunch of rapists or worse abductors? Her voice brought him out his thoughts. 

"Hmm?" Eyebrows shooting high and lighting up as she asked him for help. Then that way too perfect white smile gapped his red face. "That depends on i' you 'ant used crash test dunny or hunan pancake." He heard Micky give another cry of panic, but nothing as far as giving out any sort of useful information much to Erik's chagrin.

The distraction had gave his own victim a chance to fish out a knife and stab him in the arm. A hiss escaped him then a growl as he squeezed a bit more around the man's throat. "Tisk tisk." His adrenaline was going now and he forced the man to his knees as he received a second stab in the arm for his troubles. Erik's free hand slapped around the other man's wrist and pulverized it with a quick squeeze. It was too easy to ignore the agonized scream as he turned the unnamed man to face his friend. Erik's huge right hand slipping to squeeze the man's shoulder painful to keep him in place as the flesh of his own arm knit itself back together.  

"See's these guys like unwanted penetration." The words growled out in a low foreboding tone. "See yer 'riend 'icky?" Making sure the other man had a nice view before his thump dug into the man's shoulder in a spurt of blood. "Not such a good tine now eh?" Before Micky had a chance to speak Erik simply tugged and the whole arm came off like some macabre mannequin. The now very dead irishman fell over as Erik stalked over to Micky and tapped him on the face with the hand. "Now ye tell us 'ere ya 'riends are at afore I pull-you-apart-like-taffy." His words steadily more growling and deep as he spoke.

Mickey was having a bad day. The big man in charge was mad and taking it out on everyone, they hadn't gotten paid in a week, and people to snatch were getting harder to find. And now, on top of everything, he was getting his ass handed to him by a muscular teenager and her giant red friend. He continued to struggle uselessly, unable to escape the MMA move. He shoulda gone back to Dublin when he had the chance!

The teen in question shifted her attention back to Big Red, who had the other guy struggling in his hand like a fish out of water. She was too slow to warn about the knife, but apparently, that wasn't a huge deal anyway because he just kinda shrugged the wound off. Well, sure. Why not? He was just as superhuman as the majority of people she knew. Mickey struggle in her grip as she turned slightly so he could see better.

The native and her captive watched while blood was drawn and an arm was neatly removed. It wasn't unlike when she had been little, pulling off the heads and limbs of Barbie dolls she had stolen from other kids.

Mickey wasn't sure what to be horrified about first. His buddy who toppled over dead, or the act that neither the girl holding him or the big red one reacted to the death at all. He was @#$%in' screwed!

In truth, the scene wasn't something that really bothered Elke. She had seen and done worse in her time. It was difficult to have reactions to stuff like that anymore. Releasing her grip on Mickey slightly so he could breath an talk, she repeated hr question.

"Who do you work for? Where do the people you take get sent to?" There was real fear in the mans eye. He was trembling from head to toe and felt like jelly in her grip. All the fight had gone out of him.

"W-ware house up by the docks. The boss, O'co-"

CRACK

Mickeys head jerked back and went limp in her arms. Some of him was splattered across her cheek and the road behind them, from the brand new little hole in his forehead.

Her head whipped around quickly, spying the first guy, her original target. Shamus had woken back up due to all the screaming. He was worse for wear and unable to get up, but he had managed to wiggle out a little .22 cal pistol from the front of his pants. He'd put a bullet in his buddies head without hesitation before any more information could spill out.

Before she could get in a position to bolt for the guy, he took himself out in the same style. Bullet to the chin.

"... Well... @#$%." No new leads except for something vague about a warehouse on a dock (of which there were many) and three dead men littering the street. Elke sat there for a moment in frustrated silence, before letting out a long sigh and getting to her feet.

"C'mon... better scram before cops show up." She gestured vaguely at the men. "Dont bother touching them. People might think they all got in a fight and took each other out if we're lucky."

She headed off regardless of what he chose to do, navigating back roads and alleys until she was a safe distance away. And old, overgrown park was the next stop. She plopped herself onto an old rusty bench to recoup.

At least the teen girl hadn't started screaming. That could have been a bad sign.. or good. Things got real convoluted he realized when you made certain things a priority. Still the lack of female screaming made this situation work perfectly to intiidate the man who looked one more step away from bowel loosening terror. He gave himself an A+ grade for that little bit of theatrics. If he had a single inkling of regreat it fled the moment kidnapping were mentioned. The world was definately a better place in his mind. 

He blinked when a hole appeared in the man's head and a crack sounded. Turning his head just intime to watch the guy off h imself and his eyebrows were straight in the air. What the actual hell had he just stumbled across? Then he quickly loked ot make sure his newfound conspiracy friend hadn't caught the wild veer of a bullet and sighed in relief when he realized it was a just a new makeup job. 

"... Well... @#$%."

"Indeed." His own mind thinking through everything he had just learned. Irish human traffickers? On a dock. Nothing there rang a bell, but he tended to stay away from docks as a rule unless he had a specific reason. Too much chance of getting caught up in some illegal activity he wasn't actually apart of. 

As she got up and gave some very good advice he nodded and wiped off his bloody thumbprint on Micky's hand before setting it in a believable manner into it. Not having the luxury of doing anything else if he didn't want to lose his new partner in crime he set off following her quickly. Mostly cause he figured if this was her turf she would know the best unseen ways away from the little scene and partially because he was curious. It didn't hurt the view was good and she was one heck of a fighter.

As she settled onto a bench he sat on the ground outside of his arms distance so he wouldn't intimidate her. He rummaged in his bag a moment before pulling out a protein bar and munching on it. "Learned alot tonight. 'ant one? Or a nap'in?" He knew he wouldn't want somebody's leftovers on his face that was for damned sure. Pulling out another protein bar and some napkins and extending them out for her to take if she wanted as he mused. "Prolly O'connell. Soneone scary enough or a mutant to keep people 'rom talking." It took some serious sort of something to get someone to kill themselves for you. He thought it was a bit stupid personally. Much easier to just have him and Elke track down false leads. "You 'ight good." He offered with a smile that wasn't quite so scary and manic looking as before. He wasn't sure how hard the girl was taking the loss of information so it was best to play damage control.

She was gnawing on her upper lip while he settled himself down. Playing information over and over in her head on repeat as she tried to figure it all out. The big red guy had followed her, which was good she guessed. She reached up to scratch her chin, and her fingers came away red. "Tch." She started trying to wipe it off with her coat before Red spoke up again.

"Eh..." She eyeballed the food and napkins. What an odd way to end an odd, unproductive night. In a park, sharing a snack with a giant while splattered with someone else's blood. Her mood lightened considerably. "Sure. Thanks." After retrieving the items from him, she sat back down an cleaned herself up, then peeled open the bar and dug in.

" Haven't heard the name O'connor before. Could be it though." She munched away and leaned back. pondering. "Last couple of guys I ran into didn't know anything. Junkies. Paid in fixes, so they didn't bother to learn anything about what they were doing."

Dark brown eyes landed back in Red, and she huffed. "People been up and vanishing, and i've been able to track it to a specific group. Lot of them are brought in from outside the country. Those three were the first ones who seemed to know anything though."

Still, three fewer jerks on the street made her job easier. She hummed happily as she finished off the protein bar an stuffed the trash in her pockets.

"Say.. what's your name? Can't promise i'm gonna call you anything but 'Red' from now on, though." She hadn't seen him around before, that was for sure. Other big red guys, but not this one in particular. She squinted at him.

"You ain't related to them space brothers, are ya? The ones with planet names?"

O'Conell, O'connor. Whoever it was had information on lockdown though some means. Especially if they operated more exposed positions through junkies. "Still can't 'e that nany O whatists 'oogey nen 'eople are 'illing to die for." He responded thoughtfully. If it was really some sort of humans only organization someone somewhere could be a leak in the right circumstances. It was just a matter of hunting one down. 

His own brown eyes watched hers and abstained from a chuckle at her endearing huff. Any good mood he might have had flew as soon as she mentioned human traffickers, a low growl issuing forth from his throat. "Hate'em." As if his previous demonstration hadn't been point of fact enough to determine that! "Trying to cash in on rift drifters?" It sounded plausible as no one would miss people who never technically existed on this side of the rift.

His eyebrows perked at her questions. Taking a moment to think on if she would turn him in and figured since she hadn't run away screaming and she was a vigilante herself it was an acceptable risk. "It is a good description. Though I don't understand the pop culture re'erance?" If he had was up to par on all the modern pop culture stuff felt like he still wouldn't get it. "Nanes Erik. Nice to neet you. You?" Squinting back some before smirking and shrugging. 

It seemed awkward or strange to just get up and leave. After mulling it over for a moment he decided to just go ahead and ask, "You 'ant to go grab 'reak'ast?" It was the best activity he could think of after having the protein bar appetizer. 

She grunted in response at first, swinging her feet off the side of the go around. "They've been snatching pretty much anyone. Men, women, kids. No specific demographic or pattern. The name list just keeps getting bigger."

She chuckled but decided explaining was too much effort. How did you explain a bunch of mutants who you've never met, and one of them happened to get in a fistfight with your dad?

Erik. His name was Erik. "Elke. You can call me Moose."

He asked about breakfast and she had to pause a moment and make sure she had heard him correctly. Had he just.... was that a...?

The Native blinked a few times. A giant red guy had just assisted her in taking out three poor excuses for humans, and now he was asking her to breakfast?

"...Eh... sure, why not. Pancakes? I kinda want pancakes now."

Just completely random targets? That made the huge men grumble. Kidnapping someone he could understand from a purely business perspective. Ransom, information, leverage, lots of things could be gained from targeting a specific individual, but wanton snatches of people off the street felt wrong to him and far more sinister. Either way the answers weren't going to come tonight. Eventually he decided it was best to leave it for future Erik to think on.

Wait had he just heard her name right? And her nickname.

"Noose or Elk? There a story there? Cause neither seen good nanes 'or a cute girl like you."

The nigh-morning was just getting stranger and stranger. Was she going to turn into an Elk or something at sunrise? He had heard of stranger mutations if she was indeed a mutant herself.

It was hard to read what her exact emotions were, but he figured it was mostly just suprise. He was determined not to let that sting a bit. He was currently a very intimidating large red person that towered nearly twice her size.

"Think there is 'lace sone 'locks over." Gesturing in a direction he thought might lead them to their nearest food source in the modern world. He took a moment after standing to brush off his shorts and start heading that direction with a slower gait then he would when travelling alone, not wanting to outpace her completely incase she wanted to be sociable and walk alongside him, even if his enthusiasm for food was usually unmatched. 

"This area nornal hunting grounds or do you 'ove around?" Attempting to strike up some sense of normal conversation as they departed. As normal as most of his were with anyone it seemed like these days.

 

She scrunched her nose up at his pronunciation of her name. He had a weird way of talking, but she didn't mind that much. A light blush bloomed on her cheeks, and she tried to cover it up by looking irritated. "Eh-l-keh. EL-KEH." Her brothers had found it just as funny, hence the 'moose' as her nickname. "Moose is what people call me. Started as an inside joke, but I kinda liked it so it stuck. You know, cus' moose look like big ole gentle deer, but they'll stomp your face in if your cross em."

She stood when he stood, following along a few steps back while pointedly staring at the back of his head. The compliment had thrown her off a little... she didn't normally hear them while out and about, threatening people and getting her fists all bloody.

"I move all over. If you stick around in one place too long it makes it easier for cops to track you down. The bad guys tend to get spooked and move anyway, so I help to keep them on their toes."

Her hands went back into the pockets of her work coat. "Do you usually pop into other peoples fights like big spooky boogeyman or is a one-time thing?" She was genuinely curious and tried to make the question sound a little humorous. Was he gonna be someone she needed to compete with from now on?

It would be a challenge considering he could rip arms off with ease, but she was up for it.