Being confined to the school grounds for a still-to-be-determined number of days was @#$%ing boring, and she'd vouch for that. 

You'd think after being forcibly de-aged against your will there would be some leniency of the actions of your past self, regardless of what those actions happened to me. How was she supposed to know she'd set fire to a dozen dumpsters around the city, burn at least two small buildings to the ground, assault countless saps who'd gotten on her bad side, and also sorta stabbed someone? 

Well, ya know, she supposed that it was fair that she had attempted all of those things when she had actually been ten the first time... but it was whatever. She still thought being more or less grounded to the school ground and the shiny new ankle bracelet was a bit much. It wasn't like she didn't know how to get the stupid thing off, anyway. She was more or less just trying to play along until things got smoothed over and she could return to her dorm. 

She supposed, in an annoying and nice kinda way, that she didn't mind it as much as she might have before. Her dad was living back at the school so she got to see him often and make fun of all the new gray hairs that had popped up as a result of her childish antics. It was also nice that she got to see her little squirt of a baby brother more often than she had before. 

.. It was also fun watching all of the younger kids at the mansion flee from her in terror. Apparently the second coming of her younger self had been a little worse than the first version. Heh. 

She mused on the somewhat blurry memories of all that had transpired over the previous months as she trolled down a mostly empty hallway and munched on an apple from the kitchen. It was between classes, but most of the kids hightailed it out of her way if they spotted her coming... so the halls were usually empty when she was on her afternoon walks.  

It was the only time she had to herself between coursework to catch up with her peers due to her sudden absence at school, and planned training sessions with her dad when he was free from work and Junior. 

It was like a weird vacation, where the cops were locked onto her location at all times and people occasionally whispered about domestic terrorism while she was within earshot. 

Super fun!

So. Juniper had missed some school. Well... A lot, actually. Like, her attendance was a little spotty as of late. Also, there had been a lot of strange noises coming from her appartments as of late. Like, the normal ones, bed thumping and all, but... smoke detectors going off, and what sounded like an honest to gosh fire extinguisher? If he wasn't so busy studying for finals he would have been going over there constantly. It was crunch time, however, and he really needed to keep up his straight A's.

It looked good on college applications.

Was he still going to college? Was there a hero college? No, that was silly. Anyway, he'd found himself ditched with all of Juniper's study material as well as his own, and while he was there, his politeness had refused to allow him to turn down the teacher when she asked if he would also return all of the text books that were no longer needed to the library.

It was a larger stack than he had imagined. So, there he was, walking down the halls with a column of text books tall enough to obscure his vision. Which meant a lot, because he was pretty darn tall. He was a few turns down from the library, and even his considerable strength was starting to give out a bit as he struggled through it. Yeesh, what did they make these things out of, bricks?

He swayed a little bit turning a corner, and found himself bumping into something. "Oh, oops." Uh oh, the tower was tilting. tilting. Falling! He realised the thing he'd bumped into was a person, and he was about to spill a ton of books on them. Nope!

The other option was to use his ability to launch all of the books higher, and then cover the person with his body as they fell on them, bouncing them off harmlessy. "Watch out!" He said as he executed the plan, diving on the person, and sending books trampolining off in every which direction.

Once things had settled, he looked over his unfortunate bumpie. "Are... you okay?"

There was always someone who felt the need to RUIN her good moods. They were rare. This was clearly an act of aggression and would be dealt with accordingly.

Someone bumped into her gently from hind, and really they must have been a grade A idiot to not see her walking down the middle of the hallway. She spotted a @$%^ing TOWER of books when she half tuned to murder shriek at them, and for one brief moment wondered if this was payback for setting fire to a bunch of the library books while she had been homeless riffraff lurking in the school.

However, things took a turn when the books moved, and suddenly a super tall dude was there, and also suddenly so deep in her personal bubble she wondered if it had been planned. Who just @#$%in' launches themselves at a stranger like that? A pervert, that's who.

"Are... you okay?"

She aimed a perfect uppercut at his pretty jaw and made damn sure to put some power behind it, too. Teach him a lesson about lurking over a girl like a @#$%ing buzzard!

A moment later, she blinked as fuzzy realization dawned on her and her expression shifted into a slightly disgusted frown.

"...oh. It's you."

Blockhead pretty boy who didn't know any better than to turn his back on knife-wielding children. Gross!

It was a girl... It was... huh. That was a strange feeling. Wait, did he know her? She suddenly struck out at him with impeccable form, and he narrowly leaned back and away from the blow, staring at her silently as the books cleared, and she frowned and said it was... him?

A finger slowly pointed at his face. "M... Me?"

She did look familiar. But he couldn't place it. He just felt, I dunno, a strange heart wiggle? His lower back was a little sore all of a sudden.

"Do I... know you? Also, that was a really good punch. Woulda hurt. Where'd you learn to do that?"

His eyes widened as he looked like he was caught red handed breaking a law or something. "Oh! I'm being rude. I'm Xavier! Sorry about that... I didn't see you rounding the corner, and the only way to make sure you were safe was to get into your personal space."

He made a point of stepping back before letting out a small. "Uh, nice to meet you, though?"

Hm. He dodged well enough. Maybe he wasn't completely useless after all?

Ehhh... then again he still hadn't caught on to who she was yet, apparently.

"Y-you." She replied back, resuming taking another bite out of her apple.

He started back-peddling out of her space and she stepped easily right back into his. He had unfortunately drawn her curiosity out.

"My dad taught me." She said simply while eyeballing him a bit closer through squinted, suspicious lashes. "You do, but I'm not gonna tell you from where. You gotta use that big ole brain in there." Assuming it wasn't just more bicep.

Elke stepped in closer and off to the side a bit, the side he had been stabbed on. "You got a scar yet?"

She reached out to try and physically move his clothes out of the way with one hand so she could see the results of her own handiwork.

She fired back with a mocking stutter that made him tilt his head. As she stepped forward in response to him stepping back, his hands went up in a sign of surrender. She was... gauging him. He watched her silently as she talked. She... knew him? He knew her, apparently. His eyes squinted a little as he tried to draw recognition from her features.

No... Not really. She asked about a scar, and his eyes suddenly widened. "The girl... but you're not. You're a..." He paused a little, and reached back to touch his back as she went in to grab at his clothes.

In spite of himself his face reddened and he stepped a bit away. "No scar! Uhm, the doctor here healed it pretty quickly. Said it wasn't as bad as it could have been." His eyes drifted down to the device on her ankle. "Are... you in trouble for it?"

It didn't seem very fair, her grown form being punished for her mistakes as a ten year old last week.

Wow, that was a strange sentence. What a world they lived in.

Elke full-on sneered at him. "Stupid, I told you I had been de-aged. Weren't you listening?"

What?! He'd mutation-ed away her damn near perfect non-lethal stab! "Aw... that's @#$%in' lame. It woulda' left a really cool looking scar." She wasn't the type to hide her expressions or emotions in most situations, and very much let the disapproving look that settled on her face tell him exactly how she felt about that news.

She glanced down at her ankle, wiggled it and the bracelet, and then shrugged. "I mean, yeah? Stabbing you definitely was frowned upon by a lot of people who are currently on my case." The Native scowled, chewing on the chunk of apple in her mouth angrily.

"But mostly I got this for bringing down that old decrepit house over on 23rd." She shrugged again. Really, it had been a public service. That place had been a death trap waiting and she'd just finished it off before it claimed another life! "I had already grown up again so they wanted to at least try and hold that one against me. Dad's working with some people to figure things out, so... house arrest."

She didn't seem concerned. "I can always get the stupid thing off though, so it's not like I'm really stuck here. Just have to find some sap to stick it back on before I leave."

She kicked at one of the books he had been carrying.

"Into 60 shades of silver, are you?"

Xavier's eyes widened, and his hands remained between them as she sneered. Such ire! He felt like he was standing before a bull about to charge. "I was, I was! You're just, you know... A lot different." You know, he'd had a hard time visializing her as an adult when she said she'd been deaged as a kid. Now, though... He didn't mind the older version.

He jumped a little bit away from her as she got angry at him. "What? I mean you stabbed me in the kidney. They would have healed me even if it didn't want it fixed!" Was she a little terrifying? Yeah, that was it. Just a little.

She mentioned stabbing him getting her into trouble, and he shrugged and nodded a bit. "Yeah... people tend to like me, so I can see how they'd be a little upset if you stabbed me." It was said matter of factly, and without a hint of hubris in his tone.

She mentioned her dad, and he tilted his head, wondering who her dad was. She moved on fairly quickly to how she would escape, though, and he raised an eyebrow. "Well, I can't just let you escape, though. That would be wrong. Why not just wait until they get everything sorted out? I didn't press charges or anything."

He paused when she pointed out a book, and he rolled his eyes. "Oh, that. The writing teacher was having us use it as an example of bad form in writing. It's pretty terrible. Glad we are done with that unit... I'm returning books to the library for class. You know, making the teacher's day a little easier." He paused, and looked down at the scattered pile of books.

"Hey, you wouldn't be able to give me a hand, would you? I don't want to run into someone else on accident."

Elke blinked at him and looked down at herself in visible confusion. "How the @#$% am I that different? The only things that really changed are my height and... well, the tits I guess." She looked at him unconvinced, clearly still in camp You'reanidiot.

"Yeah, they would have. But that means you ran to the doctor like a little @#$%& or passed out like a @#$%&, in the first place." She lifted the bottom of her shirt to show him the remains of an inch long scar with slightly puckered edges and obvious suture sites. "Got stabbed with a switchblade. Stitched it up myself." What a sissy.

Her expression flattened a little as she looked at him and her eyebrows rose. "You know you ain't the only person I've stabbed, right? The cops aren't mad I stabbed you, they're mad I stabbed a fifth person."

Her brows lifted even further as he had the gal to tell her he wouldn't let her escape. As if he was gonna be able to stop her? The spark of a challenge sprang to life in her eyes and she took a very slow, calculated bite of apple as she stared the tall blonde down. Challenge @#$%ing accepted, a@$wipe.

"That's the stupidest goddamn thing I've ever heard. You really think I'm the type of person who plays by the rules after I tried to burn down a building and literally stabbed you?"

She looked down at the books scattered around on the floor and blinked slowly.

... had... had he just asked her to help him pick them all up?

... what @#$%in' world did this guy live on?

She put her shoe on one of the books, 60 shades, no less, and looked back up to meet his eyes. Then, with the cheeriest smile she could muster, she launched it backwards further down the hallway.

"Give me a good reason, Biceps."

"I mean... Before you were, you know, a little kid. Now you're really pretty." He stated it plainly, like it was a fact. The sun rises in the morning, goes down at night, Elke is pretty.

"I think it's pretty normal to go to a doctor when you get stabbed." He blinked a few times when she showed off her battle scar. "Well, that is pretty cool." He nodded factually, leaning in a bit for a closer look. He then beamed a bit, and pulled up his sleeve to show a long, but shallow scar on his arm behind the sleeve. "I got this while skateboarding. When you go too fast you get speed wobbles. This is where I found that out." He nodded a bit. Yup. Those were totally comparable.

He leaned down to pick up a book as she stated she'd stabbed 5 people, looking up with raised eyebrows. "Wow. That's a lot of stabbing. Guess you got off light, huh?" He picked up another book, stacking it on top of the first one. She stated his request to have her pick up a book was stupid. He looked up again, and stated firmly.

"Because you're a good person, and you're interested in me. Otherwise, you wouldn't have stopped to talk. You strike me as the sort of person who would have walked away by now if you weren't going to help." He grabbed the next book and stacked it, reaching out to pick up the next one. "Can you get that book you kicked? Nice kick, by the way. Rude, but Good form."

Had she been a weaker person he might have blushed at someone attractive like him calling her pretty. Heck, she had blushed the last time a cute boy had called her pretty... but, she was better than that now. She wasn't nearly as flustered at hearing compliments as she used to be.

"Beats growing up to be ugly, I guess."

He showed her a scar, one she didn't have but was familiar with and she reached out and poked it with a finger. "Ah, yeah, eating s$&t like that sucks. I used to know a kid who lost a few front teeth from that." It was great. He whistled whenever he talked because of it. She shrugged but didn't comment right away when it came to the bit about getting off light.

"The things I've gotten away with would literally astound you." The system really was very corrupt... but it worked in her favor sometimes and she wasn't about to complain about that part of it.

"How does being a good person suddenly mean I'm more inclined to help you with picking up all the books you dropped yourself? And, for the record, I didn't stop to talk. I stopped because you almost ran me over and I wanted to punch you in the face for it. You should really watch where you're going."

He had a lot of really weird notions floating around in his head, didn't it? It kinda negated from the looks, if she were honest.

She had more to comment on, but from around the corner at the end of the hall came two figures and the footsteps drew her attention. Another Elke striding along with her hand's links behind her head and at her side a somewhat tall girl with piercing blue eyes and a very Gothic fashion sense.

"Hey, Boss!" The other Elke waved, then spotted the blonde kneeling down on the ground collecting books and staggered to a stop. The clone recognized him pretty much instantly and turned a very interesting shade of red.

"Ah! I'm not ready for this! I just got over puberty again!!" The clone then proceeded to try and hide behind the taller goth girl, who looked rather worn out from having to walk the duplicate all the way to where Elke was.

"... I almost feel like you should owe me double just for having to deal with this one."

She stooped to pick up the book that had been kicked further away, blinked at the title, and shook her head slightly. Megan joined them and handed it back to Xavier. "...Xavier." She turned to stare at the Native, next. "You're dad's finally gone off to have a nap with Junior. I'd guess that you have about 20 minutes or so to get whatever plan you have going."

Grinning around a mouthful of apple, Elke clapped Megan on the shoulder, which was reciprocated with an eye roll and the blue-eyed girl stepping just back out of reach. "Awesome! Thanks!" Elke pointed at her clone next, "You! Pick up all those books and get them to the library."

The duplicated jumped, saluted, and hurriedly started scrambling about collecting books without getting super close to Xavier.

"Oh, also-" She spun the ankle bracelet around a finger, which she had gotten off at some point, and then tucked it neatly into the back pocket of the clone's jeans. "Make sure to go pretend to do homework after you'd done with the books."

Megan stood there with crossed arms, looking very unenthusiastic about the whole situation. "I'll have that math assignment by Thursday, yes?"

"Yes, yes. Thursday by the latest. You're in line behind Samson and Bridget."

Megan shot Xavier another look as she turned to walk away, her task done. "... You didn't hear anything... okay?" She squinted and pointed two fingers at him as she walked away, before turning her back and vanishing back around the corner.

Elke finished chewing her apple and looked at Xavier also. After a thought, she moved to take the books out of Xavier's arms that he had already collected and give them to her clone. Said clone was still blushing like an idiot, which Elke was forced to feel to a watered-down degree.

"Let the peon do the work, Xavier. You're gonna come destroy some criminals with me."

"I mean, looks aren't everything." He shrugged. He'd seen some pretty attractive people that were pretty terrible. The would-be X-Man nodded as she talked about her friend that lost his two front teeth. Rough, he liked having all of his teeth, and really couldn't imagine being short a few. Didn't sound like fun.

She talked about how she'd gotten away with a lot, and he nodded. "Oh, I'm sure. I've always directed my energy toward helping people, so I can't say I've gotten away with much at all."

He stood for a second with the few books in his hands, and listened patiently as she went off on a bit of a tirade, She even seemed like she was going to say more before two others rounded the corner. Oh! It was Megan. There was a clone as well, who drew a smile from him when she immediately went beet red and screamed about how she wasn't ready.

Adorable.

"Hey Megan!" He allowed the book to be added to the stack before he was immediately flummoxed at what Megan was saying. She was HELPING Elke escape?! What?! But... that was against the rules!

He paused as the clone was ordered to gather the books. He was still looking bewildered at everything happening before him. Elke had gotten the tracker off. She was escaping. She was doing math for Megan? SAMSON AND BRIDGET were also cheating?! Really?! I mean, bridget wasn't a surprise, but Samson wanted to be an astronaut! You can't cheat at Calc and be an astronaut!

Megan got a slow blink in response as she told him he didn't hear anything before leaving. He watched her go as Elke grabbed the books from him, and he looked to the clone, giving a short. "Thank you." before turning to Elke once more as she... demanded he go fight crime with her.

"Uh... You are aware that this is completely insane, and very illegal, right? Also, Samson? Can't he do his own homework?"

She shrugged and set her apple core on top of the mountain of books her clone was struggling with.

"Hey, you don't wanna go break a few kneecaps with me, stay here and be boring then."

She was gonna go get her gear and find some trouble while her dad caught some well deserves z's. Man, he'd be pissed when he woke up, though. It was a great idea all around, really!

"Samson's also got a billion other things to be doing, so what's it to him if I do his homework for him in exchange for cash? It's a win-win."

She started heading toward the room she was temporarily staying in, which thankfully nowhere near where her dad and Junior slept.

"I tracked down the extended line of dealers from those people at the Pawn Shop. It was a bit of a @#$%^ since I have to be here most of the time until this all blows over, but it was easy enough sneaking out when Dad's not looking."

What was she gonna bring? Hm. All she had on her were a few knives and her slingshot... so those were just gonna have to do. She still had her fist and was pretty good with them, so she wasn't really worried.

The tall blonde brick house could not have been more out of his element than he was right now. He looked over to the clone, who was struggling with the books, and then back to Elke as she started walking off, no longer tracked by her bracelet. He had to follow.

"I don't break kneecaps, I save lives. Also, there are so many things wrong with that statement. First off, why would a girl smart enough to do Samson's homework need to hustle for cash? Second, I am so dissapointed in everyone involved in this. I don't even know what to say."

He looked honestly hurt that so many people were cheating, and that she was helping them do it. He was reigned in a little bit when she started explaining some things. "You investigated the Pawn shop ring... 20 minutes at a time... While on house arrest. How?"

To be honest... He wasn't much of an investigator. Not yet, at least. He'd read a few books, and taken a class or two, but he still felt like he had a lot to learn, there.

"And... What makes you think I'm going to let you leave? Fighting crime is dangerous business. We got lucky last time, but you really can't just go around trying to break up drug empires without proper training."

"Listen, dude, sometimes you gotta break a few kneecaps to save lives." Her dad had taught her that well enough, even though she'd been trying to break kneecaps ever since she was little. Helped to validate things for her. "If you've got someone who you need info from and they aren't going to talk, break a few fingers. Eventually, they will talk. Boom. Lives saved."

She snorted at him in regards to the homework thing. "Being smart doesn't mean @#$% in regards to how wealthy someone might be. I don't have time for an actual job between hobbies and college, so I earn my cash on the side. You'd be surprised how much some people are willing to pay to have last-minute assignments done with a guaranteed 100%?"

How else was she expected to afford all of the @#$% she bought and wasted on a regular basis? Effing replacement arrows, ball bearings, etc. She sure as hell wasn't getting a typical allowance or anything.

"No, you misunderstood. It takes about 20 minutes to get ready and get off school grounds. Once I'm out in the city I'm out there as long as I like. Usually come home for dinner, though."

Ah, there it was again. A challenge. He thought she was an idiot, apparently. A noob to the game who was gonna go and get herself killed. A normal person might have given him some slack seeing as her younger self had definitely not been a professional in any regard. Elke wasn't a normal person though, and she immediately took offence to his fairly simple statement.

Elke stopped, her shoulders squared, and she turned to face Xavier with her jaw set and a dark look in her eye.

"That... is the second time you have challenged me." She was gonna kick this kids ass, and she had the upper hand since he didn't know what the hell to expect from her. The 18yearold launched into an offensive attack immediately after the words left her mouth. To be fair, she didn't know what he was fully capable of either, but could hazard a few guesses based on the build of his body and how much muscle he had and where. She'd start with a cross punch, then a second attempt at an uppercut, and a swipe at his lower leg with a kick. Depending on how those went, she was prepared to drop and try to flat out tackle him to the ground in the event that he evaded her first attacks.