"I've saved 27 lives so far. I have broken zero kneecaps in the process." They were going to have to agree to disagree on this one, maybe. "Studies show that positive reinforcement works better than harsh interrogation in information gathering from suspects."

He frowned a bit at the cheating talk again. For one, he studied hard to get in the 90's on calc tests... She was over here casually cranking out 100's for Samson, who was beginning to look a lot less likely to actually become the astronaut he always said he would be. Was Samson even smart, then? How many math assignments had she done for him? Bridgett didn't even have good grades! This was such a mess! But, she was smart. Maybe he could convince her to use her intellect for good?

His hand reached up to the back of his head to rub it in nervous frustration as she went on talking.

And then, as he spoke about the dangers of crime fighting, he saw it. A fire ingnited in her eyes. He knew that look. He saw it in the guy he'd fought in high level martial arts tourneys. "Woah, I'm not trying to-" She came at him with a punch, and he walled his arms, stepping in to stop her getting much force into the punch. In this close range he was able to tuck his elbows in for her uppercut and cut it off. A wince was drawn as she came in like a whip with a leg kick that stung, but wasn't about to slow him down just yet. "Hey, now, I don't wan't to-" She came at him with a takedown attempt, and he sprawled with the skill of a practiced wrestler, stuffing her try and bringing him to the ground, and instead pressuring her groundward before pushing off and stepping back. "Look, I don't think you know what you are getting into here."

He kept his guard up, now. In her experience she would likely be able to tell he was ready to stuff another takedown, but he was also keeping a general defense as well. Her strikes were hard, effective. She knew how to fight. That much was abundantly clear. "I get it, you aren't an amatuer... You're good. We can stop if you want."

He was good, but she didn't allow herself to get frustrated.. yet. Instead, she fueled the energy into being really @#$%ing angry as he talked down to her again. Her tackled was blocked with a move she hadn't ever encountered before. Wrestling maybe? Probably. She wasn't used to it though and it threw her off just a bit.

She fought dirty though and wasn't about to throw a fight just because he'd avoided getting sprawled on his ass. She geared up to free an arm and punch him right in the nards when he suddenly disengaged and she dropped back into a crouch and gathered herself.

"Stop? This is the most fun I've had in-"

"...Ahem. Megan cleared her throat softly. She was standing directly behind Elke with one hand tucked into her dress pocket. The other was palm up and had a large-ish jumping spider sitting in it. She'd snuck up on them while they had been busy with... whatever that was.

"Jesus@#$%." A little caught off guard, the girl's sudden appearance earned a slight jump from her. She'd slunk up as quiet as a goddamn ninja!

Megan's expression was flat, but her eyes were filled with mirth and her lips quirked juuust a little to show that she was amused.

"... You're down to ten minutes now, you know." She reached out and let the spider hop onto the wall, and then walked past them in the opposite direction she had come. The spider trailed along with her from the wall.

"Oh, and Xavier... your books arrived safe and sound in the library. The librarian was a bit confused but thankful." She waved slightly and then headed off for the final time.

Elke watched her down, fire doused a bit by the interruption, and grumbled. "...That girl is so @#$%ing creepy. I don't like that she hangs out around my dad so much..."

Whatever, though. She really needed to scoot now! The Native refocused on Xavier with a frown.

"...This isn't over. Are you coming or not? I don't have time to wait around for you to play devil's advocate here."

Here's the thing. He wasn't an amature fighter. He knew what she'd been up to there. She'd been going for a double leg take down. If he wasn't an experienced wrestler she'd be pounding his face in right now. He recognised that. He also saw her going for a low blow, so the disengage after stuffing her shot at a takedown was also as much for him as it was for stopping the fight.

His eyebrow raised when she said she'd been having fun. I mean, he liked a good fight, but it felt like she wanted to hurt him!

He saw Megan walk up before she announced herself, and raised an eyebrow at the spider. Oh right, that was her power, right? She talked to spiders or something.

She announced the timer, and... strangely enough, let him know that the books had been delivered to the library. Wait, how did she? "Th-thanks, Megan." He gave a sort of awkward wave, his body still being in fight mode.

With his heart just starting to settle he looked to the girl, who was frowning at him. She asked if he was coming. Was he? This was so wrong. She'd literally been trying to kick his butt seconds ago. She was skipping house arrest, and illegally fighting crime in a manner that was insanely dangerous.

Damn, he was coming, wasn't he? "Yeah."

He shook his head at himself, and followed her toward the exit.

"@#$&ing finally."

That was that, then. They were off, and damnit, they had less than 10 minutes to do so. She was going to need to hustle if this was going to be pulled off in time.

She marched them straight to her room and threw open the door, which didn't have any locks from the inside (Dad had been prepared for a ten-year-old ankle-biter after all). It was pretty nonstandard, honestly. Not very lived in. A desk, a bed, a lamp, and a chair by the door. The desk was covered with textbooks of course work she had been catching up on, and sat at it was the clone she had ordered to pretend to be her. Already asleep and drooling onto an open calculus textbook.

"Don't @#$%*&@ touch anything."

She knelt and dragged out a prepared backpack with the various things she would need, as well as a small quiver for her shorter sling arrows. The teen slung it around her shoulders and threw a jacket on over it, shouldering her back and picking up a small metal and wood slingshot from on top of her desk.

Then she shooed him out of her room and shut the door again, and they were off. Or, well, they were off to pick up whatever he needed. She hoped to @#$%ing god he wasn't going to insist on wearing that cornea burning costume of his...

"...That thing is hideous." It was almost worse than the trash her dad refused to stop wearing. Better made, yes... it certainly didn't look like something that had been picked up off of Desire for .99 cents. Elke had never gotten into the whole spirt that went along with crime-fighting and costumes.

She was sitting sideways on a seat on the bus taking them further into the city and in the direction she needed to go in. She had one leg tucked under her and the other carelessly thrown across the seats that made up the rest of her row. She was busy scrolling through the notes on her phone, re-familiarizing herself with the information she had gathered.

"They'll be holed up in a warehouse east of main. A few of them will probably be there about now, but not a lot of them... It's an offshoot of an organization that was taken down a while ago that had hoped to more or less step into the empty spot and take over. The two giants that were taken down before are the kids of the guy leading the whole thing. Police haven't been able to get a lead on where the guy is though. The kids won't talk."

She glanced at Xavier where he had chosen to sit, ignoring the other occupants of the bus who were for the most part all enveloped in their own little worlds.

"I'm expecting ten people there. I'll hazard a bet that they will have a few more guys hidden around, so maybe 15 total."

They went to her room. His eyes had an innocent tint of curiosity as she walked in, and he lingered by the door, looking in quietly. Huh. Not a lot going on in here. Sorta like Juniper's apartment pre- him commenting on it.

But in here there were some high level text books the reinforced the idea that she was pretty smart, and a sleeping clone that spoke as many volumes about how simple they were. He jumped a bit when she told him not to touch anything, stepping out toward the exit and shifting in place as she grabbed her things and they stepped out.

He blinked as she told him his costume was hideous. "I like it. Also, if I look like a hero, the people that need me will know where to run." He knew super hero costumes weren't everyone'd favorite fashion choice, but he wore it for a reason.

Their bus ride was uncomfortable... for him at least. You see, he'd decided to sit next to her. Next thing he knew, she was sticking her leg out over him. His face was stuck staring straight ahead as she poke.

"Oh... uhm... How'd you find all of this out, anyway?" She had locational info that the police didn't even have.

The numbers, he wasn't really worried about as much. "Any more mutants... like the ones we fought at the first place? Also... shouldn't we just call the police in if we know where they are?"

Elke blinked at him and made no comment. Eh, he had a point there, she supposed. It was easier to label things so that people who which way to run from a tsunami, or not to $h*t in bathroom sinks. Still, did the signs have to be so... obnoxious?

"Went back to that pawnshop from before and found a bunch of paperwork that had been left behind that the cops hadn't noticed. I sent dupes out to snoop around and when a few of them didn't come back from this place I figured I had a pretty solid lead." There had been faint, lingering pain too. Not the kinda clone would have felt if she'd tripped down a flight of stairs, or run in front of a car. Slow, deliberate pain.

"Snooped around a bit myself, pulled a few all-night stakeouts, saw enough to warrant wanting to bust the place up a bit before it gets any bigger."

She tucked her phone away and let her head lean against the rail behind her, quietly mulling over his question for a moment.

"Didn't you think it was weird that an operation that big was being run smack in the middle of a pawnshop and not a soul noticed?" She frowned slightly and made damn sure to make eye contact. This was important. "... They've got a cop on their side. I'm guessing a cousin, or some other sorta distant relative. Never directly involved in touching or transporting, but showed up a few times brazenly in uniform. I'll bet a desk jockey with a gun, who's capable of shifting paperwork around to suit their needs."

She didn't bother to hide the bitterness that colored her words, nor the sour look on her face.

"This city is soaked in @#$% like that. Everybody's got a guy on the inside, somewhere. Pick a few up and toss them in jail and they'll be out a few days later. Evidence mysteriously vanished, or something equally as @#$%ed."

She snorted and crossed her arms. "I haven't even gone to my dad with this yet because it's likely he's run into the guy at some point. If I can get evidence of what he's doing, not only can I knock down a few jackasses and maybe save a few idiots from killing themselves, but I can expose a fake little piggy while i'm at it."

Her explaination made perfect sense. His last forensics seminar went over how often details at a crime scene were overlooked by overworked and hurried officers. If she was careful, she could find something they missed. Everything he'd seen and heard told him she was certainly intelligent enough for investigate better than an uninvested investigator.

"Wait, the duplicates didn't come back? Are... they okay?" Of course he was worried for them. They seemed to be disctinct individuals to him. What happened if they... He shook off the thought. Better not to jump to conclusions.

She mentioned the strangeness of the open operation in the pawn shop. He gave a short nod. Sometimes people hid in plain sight, but that had been a lot of product. His brow furrowed in concern when she mentioned a dirty cop. Weren't they in over their heads with this? She started listing her theories, and he frowned. "That seems like an awful lot of conjecture. I can't help but think we are going in mostly blind, even with all of this information..."

He went quiet for a moment, and looked down at the slingshot sticking out of her coat pocket a bit. "Elke... I saw you grabbed arrows... For the slingshot? If I'm doing this... I need you to know that I have rules. No killing. Not if you want my help. You're good, but this is a lot to take on alone. You could use me. So. No killing. Agreed?" He looked down at her leg sticking over his lap.

"I think... what you're doing is right, but I can't allow it if people die as a result. If not... I would have to try to stop you instead."

She hardly batted an eye at his question about the clones. She was used to seeing them die for various reasons, and sure, it bothered her a bit more while she was older than it had when she was a little kid... but they were still just products of her power. She wasn't going to sugar coat their fates just because he seemed to view them as something other than duplicates.

"Dead. Whether from the torture or from the 24-hour time limit. Dead all the same. I felt it all."

She waved off his concerns with one hand as like they were errant flies in the air. "So what, wait it out and let more people die? If they're willing to murder teenage girls for wandering into the wrong place, they're sure as @#$% willing to take other people out for other reasons too. Or do you wanna go run off and tell an adult, and by the time they round up a group to investigate the whole operation is gone on the wind?"

She snorted at him and stuck her other leg out so that they were both draped over his lap and crossed at the ankles. "I don't know if we're going in blind, but we're sure as hell going to catch them off guard." A nasty little grin settled on her lips.

She noticed the glance at her choice of weapon and for a moment thought he was going to comment on it for a different reason. Instead, he tossed out some sissy notion about everyone coming out of this alive. Her dark brows pinched slightly as she lifted one at him.

"First off, I never said I was going into this with the intention of mowing everyone down like the Judge used to do." Good ole dad in his glory days. She missed that big ass hammer sometimes and being able to quote 'hammer time' at him relentlessly.

"Someone needs to live in order to talk, obviously. Other than than, if someone comes at me with the intention to @#$%ing kill me, you better bet your ass I'm going into a fight with the intention of killing them right back. Whether they live or die is all up to luck, but if you half-ass a fight because you don't wanna hurt people too bad you're doing it @#$&in' wrong."

Elke crossed her arms and looked down her nose at him as she leaned her head back. "Second... are you saying the people that murdered my sisters don't deserve to die...? You can still get off this bus you know. I didn't ask you if you wanted to come because I needed to rely on your power." Actually, she'd asked him to come because she could use a second person as a credible excuse for using deadly force if needed, seeing as she could claim she was worried for both his safety and her own.

... He didn't need to know that though.

"You can do things however you want, but I'm not going to hold back against murderers."

His face went a little pale at the blunt response to his question about the clones. First, they were dead, and second, she could feel it. Did that mean she felt it when ever they got hurt? He frowned a bit. "I'm sorry..."

As she waved him off, he considered her words quietly for a moment. If there was a mole on the force, they could very well get wind of a raid and scatter. When they returned they would be more cautious. That wasn't good. Now was probably the best time for this. It didn't mean he had to like it.

He nodded a bit, and sat back. She brought up the judge in her response. His eyebrows furrowed once more. What did that monster have to do with this? He hated the idea of someone running around acting like some sick representation of justice.

Then she went on about killing people who were willing to kill her. "I obviously disagree with that... I have managed to avoid killing all of the people who have tried to kill me so far just fine... I honestly thought you were stronger than that."

He looked out the window as she invited him to leave, turning back to her. "I didn't say I wanted to leave. I said I would have to stop you if you just plan to just go and kill people. It's not my place to decide who lives or dies. It's no ones place. I'm just here to save as many people as I can. Even if those people aren't on my side. If you don't like that, you picked the wrong person to invite along."

"Don't be. I'm used to it, and they are tools. Don't get emotionally attached when they are going to melt at the end of the day."

She checked her phone again to see how close they were to their stop. She glanced at him again and snorted at first. "...Says the guy with a hefty amount of privilege to back him up. Not everyone can make themselves @#$%ing bulletproof."

And then she paused, thinking over what he'd said again, and deciding that she was going to be pissed about it for a bit. What the hell did he mean by he thought she was stronger than that? Like deciding to take someone's life wasn't a hard @#$%ing decision?! Was.. was that another weird goddamn challenge??

Elke squinted at him, slightly red in the face from stewing on her own anger while she picked through what she wanted to say.

"And I didn't say that I was planning on running in gungho and offing everyone. You inquired about my arrows, I answered. Not every arrow has to be a kill shot, stupid." Did he think she was so incompetent she couldn't take someone down without an easy kill??

"I am fully @#$%ing capable of handling things without resorting to instant death all the time, you little @#$%." She removed her legs from his thighs because he didn't deserve her using him as a cushion anymore.

"I better not hear you whine about me crippling some of this @#$%*&@#$% for life, or so help I will start up a tussle on this @#$%in bus."

By the time they made it to their stop, she'd split off two clones and handed off two much less pretty slingshots to them from her bag, as well as a handful of various sizes of ammunition to use. She kept her arrows to herself and tied her jacket securely around her waist and flipped her braids over her shoulders.

"I'm gonna send one of the clones in first. Let their guard drop when they think it's just another of the same idiot teenagers wandering around, and then we rush in while they are distracted."

.... @#$%er. She was gonna down so many of those goons just to prove his smug face wrong.

He frowned at the way she talked about the clones. "But the one from before remembered me... If they retain memory then they obviously have their own independant emotions, right? It seems a little calous to just... send them to their deaths."

She pointed out his privilege, and he nodded. "I won't deny that I come from a place of privilege. I maintain that my philosophy toward killing is in line with my views on equality and equity... but that's all beside the point. Okay... I'll trust you to honor my wishes, and I'll do what I can to help you." He spoke decisively, seemingly having swayed her a little bit.

He smiled a bit when she called him names. Was that her stubornly yielding? It was... oddly adorable? Wait, what was he thinking. She was being rude this whole time. At the same time, she was clearly trying to do the right think. He'd been right when he first met her. She was a good person. Even if she did stab him in the kidney soon after he'd said it.

He opened his mouth to speak up about maiming people, but thought better of it.

He nodded as she spoke tactics. Lure them out with a clone, and pounce. "Sounds like a plan... I don't know the area or anything, so I'll follow your lead."

"Look, they melt like @#$&ing ice cream after 24 hours, so what's the point of trying to get attached. I make more, they melt later too. Everything becomes goo. We all play our roles, the job gets gone, they get ice cream as a reward."

Both twins immediately perked up at the mention of ice cream, shared a glance, and threw silent celebrations where they thought she couldn't see him.

"They function in a limited capacity, so that's why you see different things with them. They're mentally still 12. They remember everything I remember up until the point I created them, so yes, they are going to remember you. You're kinda hard to forget after I stabbed you."

Elke turned and focused on getting her sister's attention, filling them in on the plan in the simplest of manners, and then getting one of them to choose which one was going to act as bait. They played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide and the clone that lost was obviously upset, even if she managed to keep it together and not cry too much.

"If She dies can I have her ice cream too?"

"What!? How dare you! I don't wanna die and miss out on ice cream!

The native felt the usual muscle in her forehead twitch at their antics. "No, you don't. No, you ain't gonna die. @#$&ing focus, girls." And stop embarrassing her in front of the closest she currently had to a sworn enemy. Jesus Christ!

Once a solid plan was formed and they understood it well enough, she led them all to the last stakeout place she had used and crouched in position. Her ammo was ready, the clone at her side was ready, and she figured Xavier was probably ready too.

Her depressed chosen twin wandered on down the alley like she had been told, hands shoved in her pockets and bottom lip out so far a bird could land on it if it wanted too. She got to the rickety-looking door toward the center of the alley, paused, sighed as loudly as she could just to make sure everyone knew how she felt, crossed herself a few times (even though she didn't believe in that nonsense) and sucked in a deep, calming breath.

.... and then she reeled a leg back and kicked the door in, before taking off inside with a manic giggle.

An eruption of shouts popped up from within, mixed with the clone loudly screaming TAG and YOUR IT and more shrill giggling. Quite a few voices filled the air distantly with colorful curses, and then it started to quiet down.

Elke held a hand up, gaze focused on the ground as a creeping sense of pain started crawling up her arms. They had gotten her... were busy doing something that hurt mildly. Not distracted enough to not notice the rest of them yet, though.

She waiting until the cursing died down a bit and the pain spiked dramatically on the left side, as well as across her right cheek, and dropped her hand.

"Go!"

She bolted out of cover and down into the alley below with practiced ease, landing and rolling, and was back up on her feet again swiftly. Her clone followed after a slight bit more clumsily. She didn't bother keeping tabs on X.

A figure popped out from the open doorway, presumably to try and close it again, and she already had a bead on him with her slingshot and a goodsized ballbearing. It didn't take much to gauge the distance and force she would need; she drew the band back and popped the guy neatly in the forehead with the metal ball. He dropped like a brick. Instantly out.

"One.

She led the rush inside with a grin on her face that could hardly contain her excitement.

"But didn't one of your clones have a crush on me? Wait, does that mean..." He didn't dare continue. He felt ice about the air having gone as far as he did.

Change the subject. "Weather's nice." No it wasn't. The clones were playing rock paper scissors to see who would be put into the most dangerous position, and thier seeming lack of worry over the whole thing was slightly reaffirming of her stance on all of this. Still, it seemed wrong in some way.

Still, it was hard not to chuckle at them a little. Death in the air and they were worried about dividing up ice cream shares. He did his best to comfort the sullen twin that lost the little game and was sent into danger, encouraging her, and patting her shoulder.

It wasn't long after that the action started. The clone caused an initial ruckus, and then Elke ran in. He Moved to follow, but then stopped as he saw a fire escape off to the side before the entrance door. The ladder was up, but that wasn't a problem for him. He used his power to launch himself up and grab the ladder, pulling himself up, and toward the entrance to the inside. If there were people on a walkway up above, they might pose a danger to Elke. If he could come at them from behind while the native pulled their attention he could improve their odds of getting through this unscathed significantly.

He made it to the door, and tried it. With a click, it opened, and, sure enough, led to a walkway with two men who were looking down at the commotion with guns ready. In a quick movement, he was upon them, launching one into the other, and then landing on the two as they collapsed in a heap. Two solid blows as they were both in sleep mode. He quickly removed the clips from the guns, and tossed an empty pistol at the back of the head of a man who was walking out of a sort of overseers office to see what the commotion was. He clutched his forhead and fell against the wall. Xavier kicked him once in the head, sending him to la la land. He then turned to watch Elke enter, surveying the room quickly to see what needed to be done. This half of the building look like some sort of feed bagging facility. There were offices on the other side. The first clone wasn't visible at this point. Where did she go?

"Who the-"

There was another figure just inside the doorway as she rushed in. She didn't have the time or space for her slingshot, so she whistled to her twin and both of them tackled the figure to the ground. It didn't take more than a few well-placed hits to leave them lying there, unconscious, and the sisters were back up and running. They entered the large, open main room about the same time Xavier entered from above, and after spying him up there taking care of the three people on the walkway, she turned her attention to the few on ground level with her. There were two more on the opposite side of the room as well, on a different walkway above her head.

"Maneuver 4!" Her twin shouted back an affirmative and ran for the two people ahead of her. Elke Focused on the opposite walkway. She selected a few smaller sized ball bearings, aimed, and took the first one down. Guy had had a gun, which clattered onto the cement below as he toppled over sideways where he had been standing.

She took aim at the last one up there, who was seemingly having a hard time figuring out who to point his gun and fire at. Which one was the most dangerous?!

Elke pegged him in the side of the skull from where she stood. His head rocked to the side and he stumbled, pulling the trigger on reflex and firing randomly off into the room. She caught him in the back of the head with a second shot and down he went.

Her clone was in the midst of a fast-paced dance with the two others. Ducking, dodging, and laying a few solid hits here and there as she kept them occupied. A woman had gotten a good right hook in, when Elke sprinted out of her blindspot, secured her arms around the woman's waist and bodily threw her backward in a damn perfect suplex. Her brothers had thought it was all fun and games performing the move on her when she had been little until she grew up and started using it back on them in friendly fights. Anyway, the @#$%& stayed down after that.

"FIVE!" Her flexibility aided her in springing back up and moving in to quickly take down the last one her clone was still fighting. The two of them combined had the guy on the ground in seconds flat, and after a few solid punches from both girls he was out like a light as well.

"SIX~"

The sounds of shouting and approaching feet got louder, coming from the side of the building where there was a hallway and what appeared to be a few rooms. Elke cupped a hand around her mouth and whistled loudly. A feet seconds later a slight distance whistle responded back... from down that hallway.

Four burly men came charging out of the back with bid ass guns drawn, in protective police quality armor and helmets.

Things were progressing reasonably smoothly. Elke and her clone her handling things well, and they weren't getting peppered with bullets from the walkway, so that was a plus. Still, a quick glance told him the walkway was clear. Elke was finishing up front... was she... counting? Really?

Wait, was she making a contest out of this? He... really wasn't sure what to think about that. No time to linger on it, though. He saw a way down on the other side of the walkway, which spaned the room lengthwise. As he made his way to the stairs, four men came out from the back room in honest to goodness riot gear and heavy weaponry. That wasn't the sort of stuff just any thug could get ahold of, right? It looked like there really was a police officer in their midsts. As they leveled their guns toward Elke across the room, Xavier made his way down the stairs and jumped into their way, yelling out. "Put the weapons down and submit to a citizens arrest!"

Did he think they were going to? Heck no! But he had to pull their attention toward him.

He bent his knees and got into a defensive stance as a hail of bullets came his way. As his repulsion field came on, the steady stream on bullets bounced harmlessly off of him, landing a few feet away in every which direction.

It was honestly surprising to most how fast a clip emptied when you were firing a fully automatic weapon. In moments there was a slgiht pause in the shooting as they ran out of ammo in unison, and he was on them. "Should have surrendered." He landed between them, and with a quick spin poked them all, sending them careening into the walls in their respective cardinal directions. A quick hop to each to finish them off with a head bounce, and he was standing at the entrance to the back rooms, looking back toward elke. The whistle had come from here. The clone was in danger. He moved foward with her, leading the way, ready to defend himself and the less bullet proof Elke from gunfire.