Justice was hard work. Much like a traveling stand up comedian, you had to put the work in day after day in the smaller venues before you hit it big time. Sure, Xavier had put in some high profile appearances, but for the most part he spent his heroing days walking the streets of New York City and keeping the peace. You know, saving cats from trees, helping old ladies cross the street. Standard stuff.

Today had been a lot more of that, and he didn't mind. He was almost done with his self imposed shift! He'd caught a pickpocket, helped five old ladies across the street(one twice, she kept crossing and telling him he was handsome.), and found a lost puppy! It had been a pleasant day. He walked down the street with a big grin on his face, waving to passers by and taking a bite of his dinner, a hot dog from a popular street vendor. He stopped at a cross walk, tilting his head as he spotted a little girl peeking her head out of a dark alley down the way.

"What in the..." Was she... very conspicuously shading her eyes and scanning about in order to make sure the coast was clear, over and over again? Wow... That wasn't shady. It raised a lot of questions, honestly. Where were her parents? Why was she in an alley way next to a pawn shop? Were her parents in the pawn shop? Were they in the alley? The little man turned green, and he took the last bite of his hotdog, disposing of his napkin in a nearby trash receptacle and heading down her way. It was best to check it out real quick. Maybe she was lost?

As he neared, she spotted him after scanning past, and then doing a double take. Quickly, the girl disappeared into the alley, and he let out a hurried. "Hey, Wait!" He hurried into the alleyway after her, skidding to a stop as he walked in on a strange scene... 


 

"Boss!" A clone loudly whispered, running away from the entrance of the alley in a hurry. "We've been spotted!"

Elke, who was perched on the shoulders of another clone, who was braced against the wall so she could be a makeshift ladder, turned and frowned moodily at the girl.

"What do you mean spot-" Right then, a super tall male in a costume rounded the corner. He stopped and she stopped what she was doing so that they could all stare at each other in awkward silence.

Elke had a backpack on that was open and filled to the brim with homemade Molotov cocktails, and was perched with a crowbar jammed under the rim of a window.

"Well sh*t." They'd been spotted by a... um... what was he? Looked like some doofus in a costume to her.

"Eh, whatever." And she went right back to prying open the window with her crowbar.

"You keep him busy or something!." She hollered over one shoulder at the clone who currently wasn't being used as a step stool.

The clone flinched, turning to stare up at the really tall teen for a moment. Super-tall. Looked like a cartoon with all the muscles. Floofy blonde hair.

....Wait...

"You're that guy who rescues all those cats we keep putting in trees!" She ran forward and tried to kick him in the knee cap. "You jerk! It takes a lot of effort to get them up there!"

It honestly took a moment to register exactly what he was looking at when he rounded the corner.

It was a... stack of the same girl? With a crow bar... Breaking into the pawn shop. Was that... That was a backpack full of honest to gosh Molotov cocktails. Right? Hard to mistake that sorta thing for anything else. Bottles with rags in them? Molotov cocktails. 

"Wh..." They started talking. One called the prying one boss. What? How old were these kids, 8 or something? His brow furrowed as they kept talking about him when he was ten feet away. "look, I'm not sure what's going on here, but I need to know where your parents-"

She said something about putting cats in trees. "I'm sorry, wh-" He was kicked in the shin, and he jumped back, hopping as he grasped it. "Ow! Hey, Watch what you're-" Wait, this kid was seriously just yeeting cats into trees? All this time he'd thought New York's cats just had a climbing problem! How evil was this kid?

"Okay, kids, that's it!" He put his foot down, placing his hands on his hips. "I'm One In a Million, and I'm going to have to ask you to put that crowbar down, and come with me to find your parents! I'm sure they'd love to hear what you are up to!" 

Elke ignored him for the most part while the guy spouted off some nonsense about her parents and what he was gonna do. She got the window pried open, breaking the old metal lock on the inside and pushed the pane up before turning a blank look his way.

"One in a million? That like, your level of intelligence or something?" The clone was still dancing around trying to kick at him despite the obvious size difference.


"Look, pretty boy. I'm sure you're trying to compensate for your eyes being so small, but you should really consider finding a different way to end your night." She hoisted herself up and hooked a leg over the window sill, jostling one of the bottles out of her backpack. It shattered on the ground below.

"I haven't got any parents to tattle to, and I don't think beating up a ten-year-old would look very good on whatever resume you are trying to put together by getting cats out of trees." She knocked something over by getting her legs inside and floundered for a moment to catch her balance. Regaining her cool after flailing for a moment, she glared at him as best she could through the hair hanging in her face.

"Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to get back to ridding this city of another parasitic establishment that preys on the poor but burning it the @#$% down like it deserves, so kindly @#$% OFF."

She dragged the edge of the window and slammed it shut, squirreling off into the building to get started.

Meanwhile, the clone she had been using as a ladder was resting against the bricks while her sister was still a flurry of flailing arms and attempted knee kicks. She needed a breather after standing like that for so long! Just a little rest before she had to join in with the shin-kicking, at least.

She was seriously breaking in! She got the window pried open successfully and everything. Heck, most kids her size weren't able to lift a pry bar well enough to use it! The one that called the talkative one boss was still trying to kick him in the leg again, and he handily danced around her as he tried to make sense of the situation.

He had to stop her. She was just a kid. He couldn't hurt a kid, right? She insulted his appearance, and he raised an eyebrow. Meh, the eyes were a part of the whole package, and the general consesus seemed to be that the package was sexy. He wasn't one to refute the general consensus. "Wow, that is incredibly rude, little girl. Now can you please stop! No! If you step into that building it is officially breaking and enter- hey!" a bottle dropped and shattered, covering the girl who was lifting her's legs in gasoline. "Hey, be careful! someone could get hurt!"

She was almost in, and talked to him more. She had no parents. "I find that profoundly sad. It'll look worse on your resume if you don't stop now. Hey, if this is a cry for help, i'm here! Just... come out from there and- ow- We'll talk about how to help you!" The clone got a kick in while he was distracted. He gently redirected her into a nearby trash can.

His eyebrow went way up as she started talking about the pawn shop like it was some sort of evil villains layer. "Uhm... This is a pawn shop, not a mob hide out..."

It was a mob hide out.

Elke dusted her hands of the matter as she reached back to fish out a flashlight from within the confines of her danger-filled backpack. She just needed to secure another way out and maybe grab any weapons that might be useful, set the place ablaze, and then scurry off into the night while avoiding the big blonde outside.

"Pfft... Mob hidout indeed. Pawn shops may as well-" She kicked open a door that led to the rest of the shop, getting herself out of the office the window had let her into.

Seven guys standing around a table in white aprons, butt ass naked with gloves and hairnets off looked up as the door slammed open and rattled a wall. Three more guys with largish guns who were lounging around on one side of the room jumped up and aimed at her.

Everyone was startled and confused right off the bat.

"-be..."

She won the initiative and darted forward to kick the closest guy directly in the d*ck, before scrambling away toward one of the large glass cases where assorted goods were held.

"It's a kid!?"

"What the @#$%?!"

Everyone started shouting as she pulled a lighter and one of the bottles from her backpack and tried to get it lit.

The guys in aprons were scrambling to get some white stuff on the table they were standing around put away.

She popped up briefly to chuck a bottle at one of the guys. It failed to stay lit but smacked him right between the eyes. He let out a surprised shout as he staggered backwards and took another naked guy down with him.

"@#$%IN' PERVERTS! PEDOFILES!"

Maybe she shouldn't have left her clones outside.

This was just... inexplicably stupid in so many ways. He actually considered leaving for a milisecond before his inner hero reminded him that this was simply a group of lost souls that needed proper guidance, and he would simply have to aprehend them in order to lead them to the promised land of 'doing the right thing'.

He stepped forward to begin his good work with the first girl, wondering how he could incapacitate her without harming her... Well... he could always shove her into a garbage can. It seemed sort of cruel to do that...

He was half way through shoving her into the garbage can by the time the commotion was heard inside. The hero looked up with a confused expression as he heard someone yelp in pain, and glass shattering.

Oh god, she was assaulting someone else in their own establishment. He would have to help her from Juvi at this point. His eyes widened, however, when he heard the call about perverts and pedophiles. He quickly moved toward the window, hopping against the opposite wall, and then boosting with his powers to fling himself neatly through the window, landing with a neat tumble to his feet inside. It would look a lot cooler than being boosted in by a 10 year old.

"I'm here, I'm here! Are you o-kay?"

He was running into the next room when he froze at the sight of a real ass power packing operation. Wow. Like, Wow. Wasn't that something that only happened in movies? Some of them were armed. He stood firmly, looking at the men. "Drop your weapons and prepare to be apprehended. Looks like it's not your lucky day!"

"What do we do!?" Shouted one man, who was armed but very confused.

"I don't know!" Hollered another, trying to keep track of the small girl who darted from one side of the room to another, grabbing things off of shelves and counters and chucking them at the naked men scrambling to keep their product from being disturbed.

"Do... do we shoot her!?" The third, who had gotten pegged in the face by the thrown bottle gestured wildly at her and ducked as a vintage metal pencil sharpener in the shape of a cat sailed past his head.

"I didn't sign up to shoot @#$%ing children, David!"

The tall blonde rolled into the room right then, and almost all of the attention shifted to him.

Three guns lifted and aimed at the much older boy, someone the criminals might actually be willing to shoot.

"What the @#$%?!"

"I've seen him around! He'll ruin everything! Take him out!"

Elke took that moment of distraction to dart out of hiding and head straight for the table, kicking another naked man firmly in the coinpurse.

She had the faintest idea of what was going on something illegal and whatnot, but at ten years old she didn't have much of a grasp of what was on that table that they were all so protective over.

"Gotcha B*TCH!" She grabbed the edges of their lightweight folding table and flipped that thing faster than a pancake. White powder flew everywhere. A few scales that they had been using clattered to the ground and the room fell into a heavy silence as white dust started to settle.

"WHAT THE @#$%!?"

Elke turned and punched another guy in the crotch through his apron, sending him to the ground beside his comrade.

Three down! She turned to scurry away again out of the potentially dangerous cloud.

He hadn't been in a lot of scraps yet, not compared to some. Still, it never ceased to amaze him when people tried to shoot him. How could you just attempt to take a life like that?

At least they'd had the decency not to shoot at the kid. He would have been real mad, then. As the bullets flew his way he locked himself into his full repulsion mode, bouncing them off harmlessly in every which direction. It took a lot less time to empty a whole clip than it did in the action movies, so it was only a few seconds later that he released his special move and shook his head at the men, wagging a finger at them.

"Now that you guys have that out of your system, I'm going to need you to-"

The table was tipped over. Oh, dear god, the table!

The room filled with white dust, and the hero immediately popped his repulsion back on, sending the nearly settling powder near him well and far away from him... No way was he letting that happen to him! 17 years and he hadn't even touched a beer! No plans to, either.

The men in the aprons, however... were now painted white with chalk.

Xavier bolted forward to sent an elbow into the face of one of the gunmen, who dropped like a sack of bricks of powder. He dusted his hands off as he turned to the other two. One was hurrying to reload as the other one was throwing down his gun and heading for the exit.

The child escaped the cloud of whatever that was unharmed and hunkered down in another room, which seemed to be some sort of storage area. Boxes here and there. She peeked in one and noticed it was full of baggies of that same white stuff. Huh. Much had been selling it somewhere. Whatever though, it would just go up in flames with everything else-

....wait.

Crap! There were people in  here now! She couldn't torch the place! 

"@#$&!" Angry that her plan had been squashed, she hurried to get her backpack in the front and dump out the bottles still in it. She didn't wanna carry them around if people were going to be shooting around her. Getting coated in gasoline wasn't on her list of things to do for the night. 

Bag now empty, she turned to peek back through the doorway. Blondie had taken care of one of the armed guys it seemed. One was gonna bolt, the other was gonna fire his weapon off again. Elke lurched out of her hiding place to slam her elbow into the stomach of the one who was fleeing, but missed since she was so short and got him in the crotch instead. 

Four down. 

Hero boy and his fancy cape would be fine apparently since he could deflect bullets, but she was gone for the night. With her mostly empty bag slung back over her shoulders she hauled herself toward the exit. 

I burst open from the outside, the wood splintering a bit from the impact, as the huge frame of a person started to slink in. 

She hand only a moment to consider her options. Screech to a stop and turn tail, or keep going. Elke chose the latter and pushed forward harder, rushing forward as she came within striking distance of the huge figure. She dropped into perfect splits, partially sideways, and punched with as much force as she could muster directly into their crotch.

...Only... There wasn't anything there.

"Oh @#$%"

The ten year old hand just a moment to cringe and look up into the eyes of a very very square woman with short blond pigtails before one of her hulking feet punted her back into the building like a football. 

The Native rolled to a stop, dizzy from all of the spinning he had just been put through, before starting to get herself back up on her feet. 

"@#$%, her foot felt like a brick wall..." 

Actually, the woman did look like a brick wall too. 

"What the hell is going on in here??" 

She was also blocking the exit. 
All of the naked, apron wearing men who were still up and able suddenly converged on each other, melding together and growing in size until they were a much larger, squishy looking singular man. Still naked under the white, frilly apron. 

"Sister... intruders!" 

Well that was neat, and disgusting!  

In seconds the last gun holding man was on the floor clutching his nose, and Xavier was tossing the now broken rifle to the side. That was that. He patted his arm together, but gave a slow blink as, glancing to the room the little delinquent girl had run into to see... a giant woman, built like a fridge.

The naked men started morphing together. Gross. He looked over to the power pile on the floor, and then checked his face to see if he'd actually gotten any on him... nope. All fine. This was really happening.

"I hate to sound like a broken record, but you are both under arrest. Surrender immediately and await the arrival of law enforcement... please." He stated plainly, even as the blob man came running his way with a punch.

He didn't even use his powers, grabbing the blobby hulk of a man's arm as he ducked it, and pivoting his body to twist into a neat, well praciced judo throw to send them an head first into the ground. The whole damn floor shook in response.

He looked to see if the man was out from the attack.

"Young woman, I hope you aren't thinking of escaping... You're going to be held responsible for your crimes as well... as soon as we are done here, that is. For now... Truce?"

Blobby went for Blondie, so that was one obstacle she didn't need to worry about immediately.

How though, was she supposed to take care of Brick House over there without getting pulverized into dust? She'd put on a little muscle over the last few weeks being on her own, but she was ten and in no way capable of bulking up enough to take on any of the adults in this building.

She spotted one of the fallen ziplock bags that had been stacked on the table. It wasn't large, but it might be enough for what she had in mind. A brick house walking around might not be something she could defeat with punches, but... she still had to breathe, right?

Her two forgotten clones burst through the entrance behind brick lady around the time Blondie was finishing with his neat ass throw. She spared a brief glance as she tore the bag open, noticing that Blobby was starting to try and get back up on his feet. The throw had knocked him down, but not out completely.

"Truce!" She agreed, though she disagreed with pretty much everything else he had said. "I'm @#$%ing ten, don't call me that. My name's Elke!"

She loudly pointed out what she wanted her clones to do, giving away their presence to the lumbering woman who was stomping closer to her. That was fine though, she didn't necessarily need them to live in order to accomplish what she was gonna do. She just needed them to be good little decoys for a moment.

They grabbed anything close by and started chucking stuff at the woman, succeeding in catching her attention enough that she turned and took her sights off of Elke for a moment.

The young girl used that precious gift of time to surge forward, hopping up onto an old rickety looking chair and then onto the top of a glass counter. She used her height from there to take a running leap at the woman's back, snagging a pigtail to help hoist herself up higher.

That ripped bad came into play when she stretched it tightly over the brick lady's face, blocking her airways, and clung on as tightly as she could.

The woman's arms were so thick she couldn't physically reach back far enough to try and pry the girl off, so she turned to try and slam her into whatever was closest instead. Scrape her off like poo stuck to the bottom of a shoe on a shelf or the wall.

Elke's clones put themselves to work by linking arms and actively trying to trip the woman, which succeeded before their original was smashed into a pancake.

Holding that piece of plastic there honestly seemed to be taking too long by the third time the woman stumbled and tried to mash her into a door frame, so Elke dropped it down instead, wrinkled and twisted, and tried to choke her into submission with it. That plan didn't work when the bag stretched and eventually ripped, and she was left clinging to the giant's bag as she regained her footing.

@#$%!

She hung onto those blond pigtails like they were her lifeline, pulling the woman's head back with her weigh.

One of her clones, bless her, appeared out of nowhere with a slugger in her hands, and Elke dropped like a sack of potatoes.

CRACK

The bat broke clean in two, and splinters flew in all directions. Brick House stood still for a moment, then staggered forward a step and fell to her knees. Then onto her front. Down for the count!

Elke heaved herself back up onto her feet, coat askey and hair all over the place, and gasped from the sheer adrenaline of the scuffle.

She wasn't even sure how Blondie was doing, seeing as that fight had taken all of her attention.

Okay, they were square, great. Now, there was this guy... A quick assessment told him this blob of a man was barely fased by being thrown to the ground. He had a mutation that made him sturdier than a normal human, then.

"Oh, I'm Xavier, by the way! Nice to meet you, then!"

Before the man could fully get up, and make this an even fight, Xavier opten to place a palm in them man's face, and repel his head into the floor. He was still moving. He did it again. Hardly any effect... He triggered it again, and again, and just left it activated as the man struggled. The blob's head bounced about like a quickly dribbled basketball against the floor until the very moment his movements stiffened as if he were knocked out. The Young hero didn't hold it any longer, because he didn't need to.

No unneeded violence. As he turned to see what was happening with the kid and the giant woman, he winced at the loud crack of the baseball bat as it shattered. Yikes. That was gonna hurt in the morning. "Well, that takes care of that... Police will be here soon to round them up, what with all the racket." He walked over to the woman, standing next to Elke before nudging the brick-like woman with his foot to make sure she was out for the count. Sure enough. "We should tie them up..." He produced some rope from... somewhere, and got to work, speaking over his shoulder. "Hey, thanks for the help! I'll make sure they go easy on you when you get brought in... Just don't try to escape, okay?" She already had a long list of crimes for him to report, best not have resisting arrest added to that.

Xavier.

Nice to meet her? She blinked at him owlishly, glanced around the room for a moment, and then scratched her head.

Had... had she not just insulted his looks and threatened to burn a building down? Was... was she dreaming right now? Was he dreaming? That was not a normal reaction she got from people. Usually, people yelled or looked at her like they had just swallowed their own puke.

"Yeah... okay, sure." Whatever. No skin off her nose if he wanted to be weirdly cheery. She watched him walk over like he was a predator about to pounce, slinking back a bit as he checked Brick woman and then pulled some rope seemingly out of thin air to tie her up with.

"No go, Captain. Cops and I don't get along. Who knows where they'd try and send me this time."

She didn't have a home to go to as far as she was concerned. Officially cast out my her birth givers, that probably only left that grumpy X dude who was supposedly her adoptive dad.

@#$% that though, he seemed like a tool and had a baby. She wanted nothing to do with that right now.

"You have fun being a babysitter for these fools. Imma head out now. Byyyyyeeeee!"

She turned on her heel toward the exit, which was still a gaping hole in the wall from when brick face had torn the door off its hinges. Her clones shifted uncertainly, though one still looked pretty peeved at Xavier for having undone all of her hard work relocating those cats.

He wasn't lying, she could hear the sounds of distant sirens. It was very much time to go.

He looked up from his tieing as she politely declined to get arrested. He heard the voice of an old woman exclaiming that that wasn't how any of this worked in his head.

As she headed for the exit, he was in her way in an instant, using his ability to neatly take two strides and end up in her way. "I'm sure you and the cops can work out your differences, but it really is in your best interest not to try and leave."

He placed his hand on his hips, and stated firmly. "I already have you for vandalism, breaking and entering, assault, and attempted arson. Don't add more to that list, please. I'm sure we can work out a plea deal for you if you stop now." He seemed honestly concerned for her future and wellbeing as he talked, even though he was clearly lecturing her.

"Now... Help me tie up the big guy, will you? We can consider it pre- community service! You're a minor, so they can't exactly keep you forever." He nodded, at gestured to the large man on the floor behind her.