Saph had been starting to feel as if he wasn't having as much of an impact as he hoped. Right now, he had a few articles here and there about people he had saved, robberies he had helped stop, but he had yet to achieve the level of notoriety he truly desired.

He wanted people to look at him as he walked down the street, and know him as a hero; so he took to the streets, found out about a big drug trade between two gangs that were on shaky terms with each other, jumped off of a building over and over again for thirty minutes, and then threw a truck through the meeting place's front door.

Apparently they didn't like that; gunfire was immediately heard, and moments later it was undeniably felt. Saph heard screaming from his spot behind a parked car as people darted to cover, and confused gangsters fired at each other, and no one in particular. Saph knew these types; the second a deal went wrong, they blamed who they were dealing with, and fired without thinking. He figured he could use the fact that these two gangs were on shaky terms to make them turn on each other. It had worked too well, as bullets were now flying everywhere.

The older mutant peeked up out of his hiding spot, and winced as a bullet smashed through the window, and into his right shoulder, sticking in his skin. He cursed and ducked back down, picking the bullet from his skin. "Jesus, If I don't put a stop to this, someone innocent is gonna get shot..." Yup, he had to get inside to make sure the gang's respective leaders got what was coming to them, anyways.

first and foremost, he had to make sure that everyone in the crossfire got to safety... He looked around for anyone that might need help.

Stop going into the city. The Californian had liked going in to New York City, even if the weather was never all that great before. The subway was by far his favorite part. Being underground felt as great as when he worked with the dirt. This however was not a good sensation. He had not been lost, as being lost means you care about where you were going, but at least he knew that where he was couldn't be the best place for him. The first gunshot had figuratively hit him with at least that much. In the reverberating echo Locke was reminded that he had things to do still, and that he was young, and that anyplace where someone was shooting was a very bad place to be.

He hit the ground like he'd been army trained to do so. Well, maybe not the army, but that Danger Room does cause one to develop reflexes otherweise not used. Like tentacle dodging. For Locke this meant that should he be forced to drop down, making sure to brace himself for impact, his mind went into the ground, finding whatever workable materials there was available to him and using them. He'd gotten faster at making the golem, and the upper half of the concrete and dirt that was underneath the sidewalk formed a good bunker to hide behind.

This kinda stuff always got his heart racing. The sound of a bullet zipping past his head brought a smile as another nicked his right arm, and fell to the ground. He charged headfirst towards his objective, feeling a myriad of taps against his skin as he went. He had learned by now that these taps he felt were just a fact of life, and there was not, in fact, an invisible man following him around and poking him for S and G.

The heroic mutant skidded to a stop, catching sight of an old lady hobbling away from the gunshots as fast as she could... It wasn't fast enough; he had to help her. He put her hobbling to shame with his speed limp, picking her up without a word, and rushing her over to an alley. She thanked him by whacking him with her cane in a panicked confusion; he responded by winking to her, and heading back into the fray.

He needed to find some cover or he was a goner, another bullet smacked into him, just barely on his right side, he stumbled a bit, and caught sight of what looked to be a mini-bunker make from street and earth... "the... hell?" He wasn't the kind to look a gift hole in the mouth, though, he dived on in, and nearly butted heads with it's current inhabitant. "This your cover? You don't mind, right?" He looked around.

"Jees, kid, you make this yourself?"

The nice thing about being in control of a golem is that Locke could block things out, like the sudden increase in the gun shot activity, that could cause him to panic. The downside of being in control of a golem is that Locke blocked things out, like the person who was running closer and closer to him. He was aware of it of course. Locke could feel the approach, but his attention was more on keeping up his human (golem?) shield. When Saph tossed himself into Locke's hiding spot, which was really more like an odd concave in the sidewalk then a ditch, it was a violent strike on the earth vibrations, as if someone had just turned a radio on full blast in Locke's ear. The golem fell apart, pieces of sidewalk becoming their own projectiles, but not hitting the teen. Whoever it was that was in charge of potholes and such was just going to love this.

"The hell?" Locke demanded turning to glare at the person who had invaded his personal bubble and made him loose his focus. He was unsure whether he should scrabble out of the shallow dent or not. "Look what you made me do." he scolded in his best authoratative voice. The effect was lessened by his covering his head and shaking. You would be terrorfied too if a gang shoot out happened as you were walking across the street from a building. Earthquakes didn't bother Locke, he knew when they were coming. He could even force himself into a car after the crash. Subways were nothing to be afraid of because he was surrounded with supplies should someone try something with him.

Seriously?! He watched as their little piece of cover fell into the ground again. Jesus, this kid was green, wasn't he?! Just what he needed; an inexperienced mutant to babysit. Saph shook his head as he ducked, and heard a hail of bullets fly over head. The kid yelled at him, but the shaking gave away the truth; he was scared.

Not without reason, too, this little divot wasn't nearly enough cover. He and the kid would get filled with holes if they waited here any longer. Saph growled to the kid with much more anger than he had meant. "Stay down!" The older mutant moved his right side over the kid to provide him with cover, and was greeted by three more bullets slamming into his back, causing him to grunt painfully. They had to move, the gangsters near the hole he'd made with the car were now just shooting everyone they saw to get rid of any witnesses; they were the closest visible people.

His mind raced: they would get gunned down if they tried to retreat, they were simply too close. They had to move up. "Listen to me, kid, you're coming with me, and you may have to kill someone. It's either that, or we die." Saph didn't give the kid time to answer as he scooped up a hand full of the gravel the kid had pulled up in his left hand, and popped out of cover long enough to fling it at one of the shooters with enough force to paint the wall behind him red; he slumped down to the ground with a groan, and Saph charged forward. "Lets go!"

"Oh really? I thought I'd you know, try and sell them some cookies," Locke snapped, suddenly finding himself at the bottom of a human pancake stack. It was not the most comfortable position one can find themselves in, but given the other option it was pretty darn nice. Not sitting on a sofa with a BLT nice, but still good. Locke just hoped that the idiot wasn't going to get killed. Nobody wanted to be that person who had their life saved at the expense of another. Already Locke was that guy, and he did not want it to double.

They were moving out. Good. Bullets are something that one should avoid in life like, well like bullets. Too bad that the loon wanted them to go towards the people were shooting at them. Locke's brain managed to unstick itself from the fear long enough to say that does not make any sense. Self preservation is hard to overcome, and it can be even harder to deal with the idea of killing someone. What would his dad think if he did so? What about Chris and Mai? He watched the guy charge forwards and there was a surge of big brother nature. The guy was reckless. If he wanted to do something to stop the hail of bullets he was going to have to think first. "W.. wait!" he shouted, scrambling to his feet.

Find something you can use, something you can use...[/i] Locke thought rapidly, searching out for anything that felt familiar. He had not tried making a golem while on the run. About the only movement he had made while doing so was when he made hands to keep him from sliding into a wall. There was the sidewalk he could work with, if he stopped moving. Sand was in the brick buildings, he knew that, but to use it would to put a structure at risk. What else? Glass?[/i] it confused the teen who had never thought about glass being something he could work with. It was just windows, or a cup, not a golem. But there was that itch in his palm just looking at the windows.

Saph didn't take the some to look back and see if the kid was keeping up; somehow he just knew... He moved forward, reaching the hole the truck had made in the wall... He managed a little laugh at the gangster hand that poked out from the bottom, for some reason it was comical, like when a ten ton eight landed on a cartoon character.

A man with a shotgun rounded the corner, and Saph pulled out his crowbar, knocking the gun to the side, and returning with a back swing with enough force directed into it to send most of the man's teeth shattering into the wall to the side. The man fell clutching his mouth in pain. "Ouch... Well, you shouln'ta poked a gun at me..." He was about to step into the building when he felt a hard knock, crack, to the left side of his head, and fell clutching his temple. "Ahh!" He looked up at a gangster with a fire axe in his hands, ready to swing it down at him. He wasn't sure if he could move in time to block it.

"Ok, glass," Locke said. He could feel the people on the other side of the wall so he knew that crazy man was charging into an unsafe location. You don't ever go through an unsecure door. Ever. [/i] Locke had learned that watching the fourth Saw movie. Apparently Count Crazy did not watch it. With the material in mind Locke felt a bit better about going so close to the source of the shooting. He still would rather be back at the school where it was safe, but the guy was going to get killed if he didn't slow down.

To say that Locke was shaken would be a pretty accurate description when he saw the window that he was going to use. It was still in one piece, mostly. The problem was that there were bullet holes in it. Bullet holes that he was pretty sure would line up with instant kill zones. It was hard to see much through the grimy glass, but he could make out someone with an axe going towards the gaping hole in the wall where Locke's mentally unstable companion had gone. "Notgoodnotgoodnotgood," he mumbled placing shaking hands on the window and forcing his mind into it. He didn't like the idea that he'd be exposing himself, let alone would be defenseless if his plan worked, but the guy was going to play the part of Lizzie Borden's dad if Locke didn't do something.

The window started to buck wildly, looking more like it was bubble soap just barely being blown through. It felt uncomfortable to Locke, irritable. The familiar thing in it, the substance that he knew he would be able to effect had undergone a lot of stress and was not happy to be bothered again. Just when he thought he would be able to do something with it, the window shattered inwards, forcing Locke to tumble in. He rolled with it as best he could, hopping that he wasn't going to get cut to shreds. The golem did not form. He was too afraid at that moment to get the focus right.

The man raised his axe, a look of triumph on his face, and prepared to bring it down in a way of killing that was way too personal for Saph's tastes. Saph killed people because they were bad people, not because he liked it. In that one moment, he could tell this guy liked it.

A loud shattering was heard, and both Saph and the man were peppered with flying glass; Saph was only hit on his exposed right side, the one that didn't mind getting hit. The axeman wasn't so lucky; shards of glass tore his from his concentration, and he swung the axe just a little slower than he might have. Saph jerked his right palm into the path of the blade, and let the sharp part hit it. It stopped in mid swing as if hitting a brick wall, and the man, who was clutching his scratched face was too busy screaming in pain to realize that he hadn't killed his target.

Saph gave a nod to the kid, and reminded himself to thank him later, before climbing quickly to his feet, sending a knee into the screaming mans gut, and then applying pressure to get him to his knees. "Cover your eye's kid, this ain't for you." He pressed his index and middle finger to the back of his would-be killer's head in the form of a mock gun, and then unloaded all of his reserves into the guy's skull. It wouldn't be pretty to look at.

He looked down at the now late man for a moment, and took a breath, looking up to Locke. "Thanks, pal. Prolly woulda been pretty bad if you wouldn't have helped me out there." He heard footsteps approaching, more gunshots, as if the fighting was making its way toward them. "Listen, eh... I'm Saph, by the way... Anyways, listen, I know that you don't want to be mixed up in this, but I can't leave you here, you'll get killed. I wouldn't feel right if I didn't know someone who saved me wasn't safe. So... you gotta stick with me, alright?" It sounded as if one of the gangs was winning, and he was willing to bet they would be watching the streets to make sure any of their rivals didn't escape intact; there was no turning back until they incapacitated every gangster in this building.

"From what I've see you're one of them earth movers, yeah?" He started moving down the hall, away from the commotion, and then pointed to the marble floors. "Can you work with that?" This would be a lot easier if the young man could help him out... He was sure there were plenty of trigger happy gangsters in this building... Having the floor on his side would be nice.

Ok, that did not go according to plan. No golem had formed, not even a hand or a lump. All Locke had done really was make a large and rather pointy mess. The noise had been loud enough to draw attention to the awkward teen, and he more than expected to be shot as soon as he stopped rolling. For some reason he was still alive and being told to shut his eyes from the man he'd chased into the building. Locke was still dazed from his first experiment with glass, and barely registered the statement. He did so, and jumped at the unusual and moist sound. It was vaguely similar to noises from his favorite movies. Despite being an atheist, Locke called on a deity, convinced that the noise was coming from him.

Nothing was hurting to the extremity that such a noise would produce, and he uncurled himself, feeling somebody drop. A dry heave went through Locke at the sight. Movies was one thing, reality another. He was stubborn though and refused to throw up now."What do you mean, I've been covering your butt because you're too reckless." Locke shot when he was sure his stomach was settled. "Locke," he answered, standing on shaky legs, and brushed off the small bits of glass that he had rolled over and had decided to stick to him. On the whole he wasn't in too bad of shape. His palms had gotten scrapped up from the fall, and his outermost shirt had a rip in it. "You know the killing and the crowbar don't exactly say good guy."

He was being questioned if he could work with the floor. Marble. Nice.[/color] Well if it was indeed marble then it was a type of stone. Experimentally Locke crouched down and brushed his fingers on it. "Maybe parts. Marble doesn't have a definite hardness. Parts of it feels workable. This doesn't feel like it all comes from the same place."

The kid called him reckless, he smiled, looking around cautiously as he talked and walked. "I can afford to be reckless. All I gotta do is keep my right side forward, and I can't be hurt... Thanks, though, Locke, That guy mighta ruined my day." He talked about the killing, and the crowbar. "Sometimes it's kill or be killed. No wishy washy hero boy with a no kill ideal ever got far before someone offed em, or worse, went after their family and friends... I learned a long time ago that leavin a killer alive is not a good idea."

He rounded another corner, checked a few of the rooms, and finding only bodies and bullet holes. He returned to the hall, looking to Locke, reconsidering the idea of recklessness.

"No one got nowhere by standin still, kid. If we woulda stayed where we where we woulda been pushin dasies faster than you can say- Duck!" A man rounded the corner with a pistol in hand, and caught sight of them, lifting the gun to aim at the strange people who definitely weren't his fellow gang members.

Saph ducked into the nearest doorway, his crowbar in hand. He heard gunshots , and was relieved to find that the man was aiming at him, and not Locke. A bullet punched through the wall and hit him in the right elbow, causing him to wince, and rub his now sore appendage. More gunshots ripped through the wall, but missed horribly. Saph hoped Locke had found cover in one of the other rooms. The older mutant knew that they had to take this guy out, so he started moaning loudly as if he were hit. The plan was that the guy would try to chase his wounded prey down, and get a crowbar in the face for his efforts. That, or Locke would take care of the guy...

"If you stick your right side forwards you still could get hit on the left, and that's where the heart is. Turning sideways will also make you turn your head so that the left side of you neck is a longer target, putting a strain on the muscles so people could see where the jugular is better," Locke pointed out. It surprised him that something he had read from those biology and anatomy books had stuck with him. Not that it made all that big a difference. His golems still had only the vaguest human shape to them, they lacked a neck, and Saph seemed intent on rushing in everywhere blind. He who hesitates is lost might be a pretty good motto for the guy, but it wasn't necessarily the best tactic.

As someone approached Locke ducked into the closest unoccupied room, noticing that Saph had gone a different way. If they had stayed together maybe Locke could inform him that he knew where other people were. More shots were fired and Locke found himself to be lucky enough yet again to not be the target. Was Saph enjoying this? Did he think that even if he got shot on his right side he wouldn't loose blood? Wait... would he? Locke was not sure, but he knew he better do something.

Breathe in for three seconds. Hold for three. Breathe out for three. Locke fell into the pattern, eyes glazing over as he worked his way into the marble. Even the softest parts of it was harder than he expected. He found himself dancing about the stuff that was just too hard, pulling from the floor what he could. The end result was a golem just short of his own height, but with the exception of its hands, considerably trimmer. He stood back up, focus on the golem and urged it forwards. Sweat broke out on his skin.

The man at the end of the hall stared for a moment, as he heard Saph's moans, a smile started to form on his face. He'd got one! The man, lets call him Frank, moved quickly to finish off his prey. Who was he shooting? Didn't matter; he didn't know em, and they weren't with him, which meant they were gonna die, and he was gonna be able to tell the guys that he was man enough to smoke someone. He hurried down the hall, the other person he'd seen lost from his mind.

He stopped cold before he ever made it to the door Saph was waiting for him behind. What stopped him, also made him drop his jaw to the floor. "What the..." A man made of rock?! He lifted his gun and started firing, too scared to look or aim properly. Saph, behind his cover, blinked, and looked around quickly. Had he found the kid?! Saph looked over to the room and saw another exit to it. He hobble-sprinted to it, bursting out into the hall behind the shooter. He paused, too, blinking at the rock monster in front of the man. His mind did a little two plus two, and he grinned. This was the kid's power, huh? He snuck forward as silently as he could, which wasn't very silently, but since the guy was firing a gun, it was silently enough. Once he was close, he lifted up his foot, and sent a boot into the man's lower back as he fired, making him drop his gun, and stumble toward the golem. "Get im, kid!" Sure, he coulda taken the guy out himself, but the kid had to get some fun outa this too, right?

Keep moving, Locke commanded his creation. It was pointless really since it was his mind moving the thing, but a little motivational word or two never hurt. Nor did bullets on a marble man. Maybe if Fluffy had a mind of his own he would feel pain and express it to Locke, but the teen felt nothing more than one would if you threw a paper airplane at them. They were a distraction, one that Locke was having major issues with. Just getting the golem to move was challenging enough and he could live without having it get pecked at. This must be what a statue feels like right before the pigeon lands on it. The only upside to working with the marble was that it did not crumble like dirt and sand did.

Bullets were one thing, but a body hitting the golem was another. Granted it hurt the poor sod more than it did damage to the golem, but it still was unexpected. Locke panicked slightly. Never before had something that large hit Fluffy. In the hallway the marble creation did a slow motion bellyflop, melding back into the floor. The person that had been firing at them was now in a sort of turtle-shell/cage/sandwich, effectively trapped.

Locke asked his dad once what the world looked like without his glasses on. A psycho-show merry-go-round of color, had been the response. Flash forwards several years and the teen now knew what he meant. Each wobbly step he took made him wonder if the room would stop spinning around and around and going up and down. "Told you we don't need to kill," he said leaning against a wall to regain his sense of direction. His voice had dropped down even further, and rather then a grandpa voice, it was like two cinder blocks being dragged. His hair had gotten stringy with sweat and no longer covered the scarred eye.

Saph watched with an arched eyebrow as the golem melted into the floor, and the man was trapped. After a second he grinned widely, and walked on up, poking at the guy's foot, which stuck out to the side in a very uncomfortable looking fashion. He let out a little laugh as the man grunted, and then looked left and right, sticking his finger into his mouth, and then right into trapped man's ear.

He giggled like a wee school girl, remembered that Locke was watching, stopped, cleared his throat, and then turned to travel further down the hall. "I didn't kill alla them guys... Some of them will prolly wake up in a few days...in jail... You see, when I see that lust for blood in a guy's eyes I just.... gotta. If they survive me, they will go on to kill more; some poor innocent might die cause I didn't crush some scumbag good enough." He shrugged, peeking into another door way. "Look... if you wanna try to escape now, I won't blame you... I am looking for someone... someone I know... When I find them I will kill them." They were heading towards the action once more... He had moved away at first so that they might circle around the action and hit the source of the gunfire from the back. If it worked, he might be able to get in, knock everyone out, kill a certain someone, and get out... maybe alive. He started hitting himself in the knee with his crowbar as he walked, a look of dead-set determination on his face.