"Where'd he go?"

She could hear them behind her, keeping pace with her as she hurried around a corner.

"This way! There he is!"

She sped up, her breath ragged and stressed. A mantra of ohcrap was the only thing breaking the silence of her mind, as she concentrated on losing her pursuers.

She fully blamed that damn masochist for this... for making her give a crap about what he went through . For making her curious. He was the reason she had put on her vest, tucked herself into black cargo pants and an over sized hoody, and pulled a black ski mask on over her face. If she hadn't have been trying to break up a small gang fight, she wouldn't be running for her life.

As it had turned out, pulling a baseball bat on the hoodlums hadn't inspired as much fear in their hearts as she had expected. Instead, the three had simply pulled their own weapons and charged her. Turning another corner, she found herself on a relatively deserted road. Considering the time, she wasn't surprised.

Before she could make up her mind on which way to run, one of the teens got her from behind with a foot to the lower back. The bat dropped from her hands, and her knees slammed onto the pavement. It hurt, but not as much as swift kick to the ribs did.

“You think you can mess with us and just walk away? We’ll teach you a lesson you’ll never forget, man.” One boy spat, cracking knuckles clad in plated brass. The other two wielded a small knife and a length of chain. A fashion statement turned weapon.

Wincing, but managing to keep herself from making any sounds, she couldn’t help but grin behind her cliche disguise. They thought she was a man? What with how her vest hid her curves, and the size of her clothes made her look a little bigger, she could certainly understand the confusion. Especially with a mask on... But she honestly couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or not that they didn't recognize her as a woman...

Megan turned, scrambling away, and reached for the baseball bat. A fancy red sneaker stopped her before she could get her hands on it, by popping her neatly in the face. With a pained grunt, she fell over onto her backside. She could feel her nose already starting to bleed, and set about trying to prepare herself to the beating that was sure to come.

...Crime fighting looked way easier on TV...

"Well, this is getting me no where fast." Alex mumbled as he made his way through the dark streets of New York, examining several buildings that were either for sale, rent, or lease as he went. He wasn't actually looking for a place to actually buy or rent out for him to live in, but rather to start up a pottery shop, where he could make a living and finally be able to leave the stuffy motel he was currently staying in. What he needed though was a building in fairly good condition and in a location where he would have a large number of customers. Thus far, there hasn't been anything that fit the bill that he could afford.

Alex stopped and held up the electrical lantern he was carrying to take a look at the building marked 'for sale' that was in front of him, and his face expression quickly changed from curiosity to a total and complete 'ick' expression. The building was, for lack of a better word, dilapidated. There were more bricks missing and falling out then there were stable, every single window was broken, and the front door was broken in half. Shaking his head, Alex turned his back on the building and started to walk away, marking the building with an 'x' on the map in his hands. "Not setting up shop there. Time to get out of this area and head back to the motel." Alex said to himself as he rolled up the map and stuffed it into his pocket.

He was about the walk away when he heard what sounded like a scuffle. Not wanting to become involved, Alex quickly turned the electric lantern off and started to make his way through the dark, while hoping his eyes adjust to the dark quickly. As he turned a corner, he noticed someone dressed in baggy pants and a large hoody carrying a baseball bat trying to get away from three other people, whom Alex guessed were gangsters, and each of them were armed with either a knife or a chain. The three gangsters had managed to catch up to the person in the hoody and had knocked him down to the ground, and threatened him that they were going to make him pay for messing with them.

Hearing and seeing this, Alex's free hand curled into a tight fist. The lesson that those guys had in mind for that would person would leave that guy crippled for life, if he survived at all. Without even thinking about his own safety, Alex quickly started to make he way towards the four people. "Ganging up on someone like that? How cowardly can you get? If you really have to fight someone, how about someone your own size?" Alex stated in a booming voice that held a great amount of authority. Alex had spent five years in an authoritative positioned so the tone wasn't faked, but real. In order to make sure that the gangsters knew where he was, He quickly turned on the electrical lantern onto full so the entire street was lit up for a 30 square feet, and he was only six feet away from the gangsters when he had turned on the lamp, so they could clearly see the stern look in his cyan eyes, and the expression on his face showed that he was serious.

Alex wasn't intending to use his mutation for this fight, but if he had to he would. Also, he wasn't trying to be a hero. He just wanted to help out as much as he could. After putting down the lantern and cracking his knuckles and eyed each gangsters then smiled. "So, is one of you gonna step forwards or you gonna tuck your tails between your legs and run?"

The three turned as someone new joined the fray. At first they expected it to be one of the rival gang members they had been arguing with.... but, as it turned out, it was just some random guy.

"Oh look, another wanna be hero. You wanna share this guys punishment? So be it!"

Megan reached out an grabbed her weapon, getting to a knee. They had their backs to her, attention turned to the more capable target. They were going to rush him at the same time, more effective in a group than by themselves. She took the chance to get a little bit of revenge, and maybe help out the guy who had joined the fray, by swinging her bat as hard as she could into the knee of the kid closest to her. His friends didn't notice him go down, and he was more or less out of the fight. The kid threw a few choice curse words at the masked bat wielder, and hobbled off to the side to nurse a damaged knee.

The other two rushed straight at the new guy. One circled around, trying to get behind, while the other went for a more direct approach, head on, with his brass knuckles ready to do some damage. Both were rather inexperienced, used to street scuffles and brawls. Both were fueled by ignorant pride however. The few battles they had managed to win left them with over inflated egos, and the itch to prove themselves against the world.

Megan flopped back on to her backside, nursing a bruised side and a bloody nose. She felt more than a little lucky that the first hit had landed below the set of spiders she had incubating. Otherwise, she'd have been in a lot more pain. Meanwhile, the kid with the busted knee had decided that enough was enough, and was in the process of limping off down the sidewalk, leaving his buddies behind to fend for themselves.

When the three gangsters had turned around, clearly they had been expecting someone else, like another gangster from a rival gang or something else. Apparently the gloating that Alex had done a moment ago to get there attention had worked like a charm. When they saw him though, they almost seemed disappointed, and referred to him as a wanna be hero, to which Alex only responded to by shaking his head and letting out a sigh. "Me? A hero? Nope. Just a bystander that knows he can make a difference." Alex stated calmly just before one of the gangsters fell to the ground, and Alex realized that the person with the mask had used the distraction Alex had caused to swing his bat.

However the other two gangsters didn't even seem to notice and charged at Alex, one clearly trying to circle around Alex while the other, whom seemed to have brass knuckles on his fists, charged at Alex head on. Seeing this, Alex just rolled his eyes. They were just typical gangsters that were inexperienced. Still though, they posed a threat and Alex didn't let his guard down, and did something neither gangster would've expected... he just stood there and let the gangsters approach him. As that gangster tried to throw a left hook at Alex, the malachite manipulator simply side-stepped the attack and grabbed the extended arm by the wrist with his right hand. In the same motion, Alex turned to the right and slammed his left hip into the brass knuckle gangster's waist while bending over and yanking hard on the gangster's wrist. The result was the brass knuckle gangster getting flipped over Alex's back and being slammed into his buddy, whom was only half way around Alex at this moment.

Both gangsters crashed to the ground, and Alex then turned off the electric lantern with his foot, turning the whole street dark. A moment later a freaky bright green light shown from Alex's eyes as he glared at the two gangsters that were still on the ground. "Boys, you have let your pride get the better of you and have thrown yourselves into a battle that you have no hope in winning. I'm going to give you one more chance to get out of here alive. Do yourselves a favor and head home." Alex stated sternly. Getting thrown around like a rag doll was more then humiliating for any gangster that Alex had met thus far, but he had already found out that the gangsters of Kansas were wimps compared to those of New York City, so he knew these guys weren't going down without a fight... unless they were so scared that they didn't want to continue.

From her spot on the ground, she watched as the two remaining thugs were easily thwarted. It didn't take them more time than they needed to get to their feet, to decide that they were outmatched. They shouted some curse words and swore to come back with more people.

She would have grinned, if her face hadn't been smarting so much. With a little huff of a sigh, she reach up and pulled her mask off, blonde hair falling around her face in fluffy mess. She raised a hand and prodded at her nose, which felt fine other than a little throbbing and some blood. It didn't appear to be broken.. which was good, she guessed.

Her ribs hurt like hell on one side though. Getting sloppily to her feet, she collected her useless bat and stepped toward the guy who had more or less saved her a good beat down. "...Thanks. Didn't think anyone else was out this late.."

Wiping her nose on the back of one sleeve, more to clean her mouth of the little blood that had escaped, she grinned at him in a lopsided manner, and leaned on her bat. "Guess I owe you one now... I'm Chelsey... and you are?"

He didn't look like any type of midnight vigilante, so she doubted that he had stumbled upon the fight on purpose. In a way... she was a little disappointed. Running into one of the city's self proclaimed super heroes was pretty high on her list of things to do... but, meh. She'd live with just some average joe.

As Alex watched the gangsters tuck tail and run while cursing him and saying they'll be back with more people, he just shook his head and let the green glow in his eyes fade to reveal his flawless cyan eyes. Since his foot was still on the switch for the electrical lantern, he didn't have a problem with finding the lantern in the dark and turned it back on before he turned around to face the person he had just saved, and was surprised to see that behind the ski mask was a woman's face with blond hair. As she checked her nose to see if it was broken, Alex walked over to her and offered her a hand to help her get up.

When the woman thanked him for saving her from being beaten to a pulp, Alex shrugged slightly and smiled warmly. "Don't mention it. As for why I'm out here, well, I was looking for a place to set up my small business and I didn't want to have to deal with any crowds." Alex stated, then turned to look in the direction that the gangsters had fled, remembering that they said that they would be back with more people which caused his warm smile to fade. If they did come back with more people, then he would be forced to use his mutation to its fullest, and that would surely get people killed.

His thoughts were brought back to the woman as she said that she owed him and introduced herself as Chelsey, and asked what his name was. At first Alex was about to answer her by giving her his real name out of reflex, but then decided that giving her his nickname instead since he wasn't sure whom she was. "I'm Rook. Mind if I ask you what you were doing out here in the dark picking a fight with a gang on your own? It's dangerous." Alex stated with a hint of concern in his voice.

>>"Don't mention it. As for why I'm out here, well, I was looking for a place to set up my small business and I didn't want to have to deal with any crowds."

She nodded slightly, arching a brow in curiosity. Small business?

>>"I'm Rook. Mind if I ask you what you were doing out here in the dark picking a fight with a gang on your own? It's dangerous."

With a dry chuckle, she dropped her gaze back down her to her boots, and tapped her toes against her bat. Telling him that she dd it to prove to a certain vigilante that she was not a useless waste of space just sounded... lame. So, she didn't think she was going to be treading that path.

"Guess it was just a lesson I needed to learn... you know?" Though, in all honesty, she knew herself to be far too stubborn to let one trouncing get her down... she would just have to plan her attack a little better next time.

"...So, what kind of shop are you trying to open? Judo or something?" Considering the kind of move he had pulled on the kid, she wouldn't have been surprised. Unless he turned out to be some kind of accountant... that is.

When Chelsey responded to Alex's question on why she was hear with a dry chuckle, something made him think that she either found the situation humorous, or regretted being in this situation completely. When she broke her gaze away from him and looked down at her feet, Alex guessed that she was regretting getting herself in this situation, and Alex quite frankly wouldn't blame her for that. However, when she replied to his question by saying that it was just a lesson she had to learn, Alex cocked an eyebrow, puzzled. "Uh... no, apparently I don't know. A gangster's idea of teaching someone a lesson is beating them to death, laughing as they do it. That is a fate no one deserves." Alex stated as he glanced around, making sure they were still alone in case the gangsters tried to approach them from multiple angles. He didn't see anyone, which made him relieved, glad that he have to hurt anyone today.

His attention turned back to Chelsey when she asked him what type of shop he was planning on opening. When she ventured a guess at a judo defensive shop, he almost laughed. "Nope, good idea but no. I'm no martial arts expert, and I'm no hero either. What I plan on opening up is a pottery shop, where I can make clay pots and sculptures and sell them. I'm actually quite good at it." Alex stated, then shrugged as he picked up the electric lantern. "How about we get outta here? Those guys are bound to come back if they keep their word."

She shrugged a shoulder lazily, fixing her eyes on the man, this Rook, as best she could from the light of his lantern. Had the poorly maintained street not lacked a few very needed street lights, she would have questioned why he was wandering around with a lantern. Instead, she moved onto more pressing matters.

"I don't know about that... There are a few people I think are deserving of being beaten to death."

More than a few, really. Of course, her views were pretty twisted... even she knew that, so her definition of deserving in this case was pretty loose. "But, I guess in my case you could either say I deserve it if I'm dumb enough to try, or that I felt as if I had something to prove. Obviously, I didn't prove it very well." The sore ribs that would probably stick with her for a while throbbed in agreement, and she swallowed a wash of spit and blood silently.

With both body and pride wounded, she was really already pushing the bounds with how much she was willing to say. Thankfully, he gave her something else to think about. Like pottery. Megan couldn't help but rise a brow, wincing slightly as she shifted her weight. He worked with clay? After pulling the ninja move on the hoodlums? Really, she shouldn't have been surprised. The artsy ones were always full of surprises.

"Pottery? That's cute." His warning about the boys coming back didn't fall on deaf ears. She glanced around, nodding her head slightly, then sighed deeply. "...yeaah, guess you're right. Question is, are we getting outta here to my place to yours?" She winked jokingly, and started walking past him, her mind drifting to what she wanted to do when she got home. Which more than likely involved claiming the couch as her own and hogging the TV all night while nursing her wounds.

Before she had taken more than three steps, she heard the sounds of approaching footsteps. Megan froze, eyes shifting around to where the sounds were coming from, and all traces of humor vanished from her features. It appeared that his warning had come a little too late... she had to give the kids credit, though. They had rounded each other up much quicker than expected...

From down the street, five bodies hurried toward them. Four rather tall, lanky looking kids, and one who was built like a brick wall. "There he is! And the guy who-... huh?" One boy stepped forward, the one who had been unfortunate enough to get thrown over with Rook's simple grab and twist. He blinked at Megan, head tilting in confusion for a moment, before his gaze stopped at the bat in her hands and he recognized the clothing she was wearing. "Holy @#$%! It was a chick! No wonder she didn't put up a fight at all!" The five boys chuckled amongst themselves, and Megan's cheeks grew red with anger.

She attempted to evaluate each new figure in turn. Poorly, mind you. The large one looked, from what she could see, like the strongest... and her eyes were probably playing tricks on her, but it looked like he was actually made of brick. The next, a scrawny kid, was an obvious mutant. His skin was gray, and he he had these creepy looking red and black eyes. She wasn't sure.. but he looked like he was drooling a sticky black goop. It was... gross. The other three looked rather normal. Two being the ones they had originally encountered, and the other being new.... and very quiet. Megan took a hesitant step back, raising her bat up to rest against her shoulder, and cast her eyes at Rook. Was he ready for this....?

She sure wasn't.

(ooc: Feel free to move about the thugs as you see fit, for the ensuing battle. :3)

((Whoops! Sorry for late reply!))

Alex had stayed quiet and listened to Chelsey as she replied to a couple of his statements and questions. She didn't give him an exact answer to why she was here again, those she did seem to think the idea of him working in a pottery shop was a cute one. However, when she asked if they were going over to his place or to hers while giving him a playful wink, he stiffened up as blush started to color his cheeks. It wasn't a light pink blush either, but a bright tomato red blush. Once again a person of the opposite gender had playfully flirted with Alex, and once again all Alex could do was stand there like an idiot and blush. He didn't have the slightest clue on how to react to the flirt. "Uh... I uh... didn't mean anything like that. I... eh... just meant we should leave this area." Alex stated as he started to stumble over his words.

However, the sounds of approaching footsteps pulled Alex back into the current situation and he quickly turned on his heel to face the sound of the footsteps, and there were five gang members approaching, and at least one of them was a mutant. They had returned far faster then Alex had expected, and he wasn't in the greatest of moods now. He had expected them to not know that the person they had tried to beat up was a rather attractive woman, and he didn't want to find out what they would do to her if they managed to get a hold of her if the two of them lost this fight.

Alex clenched his fists and snorted. He wasn't sure if Chelsey was ready for a fight, and against these odds going barehanded wasn't a good idea. Alex didn't have a choice, he was going to have to go all out for this one. Slowly opening his hands and relaxing, the blush on Alex's face faded as he slowly walked towards the gangsters. "I offered to mercy..." Alex started to say as he unzipped his leather jacket, his voice filled with authority and a power that would make anyone face him feel a shiver go up their spine. "I gave you a chance to go home unharmed. I gave you the option to end this peacefully without blood shed. Instead, you chose to push your luck and came back here, slaves to your own pride, to face us." Alex continued as he removed the leather jacket and tossed it aside. Strapped across his green short sleeve shirt was a long scabbard with a green handle sticking out of it. "Now, you have forced my hand." Alex finished as he grabbed onto the handle with his right hand and drew the malachite dagger Defiance from the scabbard.

Several of the gangsters laughed at what Alex stated, and the large one that looked like he had bricks for skin, took a couple steps towards Alex. "Mighty fine speech there Mr. Chivalry, but do you really think that little butter knife can get through all five of us? I'll squish you like a pea and put you in my soup!" the giant stated, to which the whole gang responded to with laughter. Alex said nothing as his eyes started to glow green, and the malachite dagger suddenly grew in size till it was a large claymore that was six feet long that was covered with spikes. The spikes then started to spin around the length of the blade at high speed, similar to that of the teeth of a chainsaw, so they made a whistling sound. "Last chance. Back off, and go home." Alex stated as a couple of the gangsters looked at each other, clearly having second thoughts.

The brick wall guy though, on the other hand, didn't back down. He was either really confident in his abilities, was too prideful to back down... or thought Alex was bluffing. "Bah! Come on shrimp! I'll grind you into paste!" He shouted and charged at Alex. Alex charged towards the brick wall mutant, chainsaw claymore in hand. Neither looked like they were gonna back down from this charge.

Oh. Holy. @$%#.

Rook was a badass! Pure and simple. Megan went from staring down the group of thugs, to just staring at him. She had asked herself, 'who carries around a dagger these days?', and he provided the answer. A mutant, of course! And, apparently, one who was used to swinging around the giant sword of destruction it could turn into, too boot!

She could feel her children wake, shifting around in her clothes and hair. She honestly didn't know how the battle was going to go, but from the way it looked Rook was going to kick a lot of gangster rump. She was more than happy to be on his side, rather than on the other, for once in her life.

Brick boy launched into action, rushing Rook with the intent to mow him over with nothing but his size. While he moved, however, his arms twisted and reshaped into something completely different. A giant hammer on one side, and a good sized shield on the other. He angled the hammer to bring it down right on top of Rook, and kept his arm shield tucked closely to his chest.... Just in case that saw blade got swung at him.

Megan watched the whole spectacle on the balls of her feet, just in case she needed to move quickly. She caught sight of two of the others getting ready to jump into the action as well, and bolted around behind Rook. There was a good-sized ball of silk already in her mouth, which she was only too happy to send flying at one of the boys. It hit him smack in the middle of one shoulder as she neared him, and knocked him sideways. One ankle gave out on unsteady feet and the kid tripped, landing heavily on the shoulder she had webbed. He was stuck, so she turned her attention to the next guy.

The creepy one with black drool. God! Why'd she get stuck with him?! He had been about to launch himself into the fray of Rooks fight, trying to give the Brick man the upper hand, when he spotted Megan's little stunt and turned his attention on her instead.

She was a mutant, a spitting one. They had something in common! Grey lips peeled back to expose teeth stained black, and he started making an awful grating sound in the back of his throat. The twenty five year old raise a brow, her bat out and ready as she silently ordered her spiders to be prepared for action. The red eyed mutant stepped toward her, then opened his mouth and spewed (yes, spewed) a thick black liquid in her direction. She barely managed to get her upper half out of the way before it shot past her and sloshed across the pavement.

One of her legs, however, wasn't so lucky. The material of her pants up to her knee and her entire boot got caught in the blast. The goop radiated heat, enough that she hissed through her teeth. She snatched her leg away, bending it at the knee, and noticed that whatever he had gotten on her was sticky and had already dried into a rather hard substance. It was like tar!

The guy rushed her, red eyes gleaming, and she pushed her bat out in front of her. He latched on, and they stared at each other. Red eyes empty and cold, Blue eyes angry and cautious. "You just ruined my jeans, you @%#$@*$&!" The guy chuckled, and replied in a voice that was akin to car tires on gravel. "I'm gonna ruin your face next..."

Of the two left, the other kid (who had tried to attack Rook previously) whipped out a good sized knife and attempted to circle around behind the malachite wielding man. The other, the quiet one... just stayed put and watched. With his hands tucked into pockets of his jacket, dark eyes calmly, casually watching Rook take on the Brick mutant.

As Alex rushed at the gigantic brick man, he arched an eyebrow when the brick man's hands changed shape into what looked like a large hammer and shield. So, this gigantic walking wall of bricks was capable of changing the shape of his body, eh? This could be a little harder then Alex thought it might be. Then again... any fight could start off as easy and then turn out to be very tough. However, Alex wasn't backing down... he would just have to change the shape of his weapon into something that would have a better chance at getting passed a shield, something that could break through... or maybe he just needed to keep moving and use that big guy's own strength against him. Alex voted for the third choice, but he also chose to improvise.

When the hammer started to come down towards him, Alex suddenly stopped running and jumped backwards and turned around in mid-air to face the gangster that tired to sneak up behind him. The large hammer crashed into the ground and missed Alex, whom had grabbed the knife wielding gangster by the wrist with one hand and with the other hand he used his malachite saw sword to knock knife out of the guy's hand. A bash to the nose with the handle of the malachite saw sword later, and the knife wielding gangster kneeling on the ground in a daze, holding his nose as blood started to seep out. Alex had clearly broken the guy's nose.

Hearing the sound of brick grinding against asphalt and knew that it was the brick man lifting his hammer arm off the ground, Alex quickly pushed the gangster to the ground, gave him a kick to the right temple to knock him out, and then turned back around to face the brick man, whom was about to sweep his hammer arm at Alex's feet. Alex jumped backwards again and managed to avoid the attack... but the gangster that he had just knocked out wasn't so lucky and he got it. Alex couldn't help but wince when he heard he sound of the bricks hitting flesh, and the gangster that was on the ground was sent flying into the nearby wall and then crumpled to the ground, not moving. The brick man had just killed one of his fellow gangsters by mistake. Alex hadn't gotten out of that attack scot-free either, since chips of concrete or brick had broken off from either the road or the brick man and had managed to hit Alex's left forearm, leaving some rather bad gashes that started to leak fresh blood.

However, the brick man seemed to be unaffected by the turn of events and came at Alex again, this time with another swing from above. As he lifted his hammer, Alex glared at him coldly. Brick man had such an amazing gift... but what he used it for was unforgivable. That was it, Alex had enough. Before the brick man could bring the hammer down on Alex, the malachite manipulator aimed his saw sword at the brick man's face and the weapon suddenly extended at a very high speed, resulting in the whistling sound from the spinning spikes to grow louder. Seeing this, the brick man lifted his shield to protect his face... and the malachite weapon stuck the shield, cracking it. Alex quickly retracted the weapon before lashing out with another extending attack, this time at the brick man's left foot which was protected only by his boots. Alex's attack stuck home and left a large gash in the brick man's foot, and managed to tare a howl of pain from the brick man's lips as he fell onto his left knee since the damaged foot couldn't support his great weight anymore.

Now have a fraction of a second to spare, Alex glanced over his shoulder to see how Chelsey was doing before he turned back to the brick man and jumped to the right to avoid another hammer blow. This time however before the brick man could pull his hammer arm back to attack again, Alex jumped onto the hammer arm and ran up the brick man's arm, and swung his saw sword at the brick man's chest just as he jumped off of the brick man's shoulder to avoid getting hit by the shield. Alex's attack struck true, and left a large gash in the brick man's chest, though Alex didn't land on the ground properly and ended up twisting his right ankle.

The brick man couldn't handle Alex's last attack though, and started to crumble. Alex watched with amazement that once the brick man had finished crumbling that there was scrawny kid there, no older then 17, on his hands and knees on top of the pile of crumbled bricks. The kid had used his mutant powers to turn himself into a brick golem. Feeling exposed, the shrimp of a kid got off of the pile of bricks and ran for his life. Instead of watching the kid run away, Alex turned back to see if Chelsey was alright.

The fight around her intensified, but she didn't see it. She was locked in an arm wrestling match with the grey skinned boy. He was tugging her bat, trying to forcefully pull it from her grasp.

He was also winning.

She couldn't keep her fingers from starting to slip, and physically she was the weaker one. But.. she wasn't out of the game yet. Megan tugged back, pulling with all of her strength. He had to pull harder, and when he did, she suddenly pushed it toward him.

The metal neck crashed straight into his nose, and she heard an audible crack!, even over the sounds of others fighting. With a gasp, he staggered back, loosening his grip on her weapon momentarily. Before she could yank it away though, he was back on the offensive.

A deep, dark gash had opened up on the bridge of his nose and red poured from it like a small waterfall. The kid lunged at her with a growl, knocking her back off of her feet. Pavement didn't feel very good when you were smacked into it with someone's full weight on top of you. It felt even worse when the weapon you were trying to defend yourself with was suddenly pressed into your throat. Roughly.

With a strangled cough, she wiggled to get her arms free, as the guy pressed some of his weight onto the bat. She was forced to grab onto it with one arm, in order to keep it from fully crushing her windpipe and various other needed neck parts. "That... was a nice trick." He shifted until he was straddling her waist, a prime position to continue to choke her. "Unfortunately, it only pissed me off, and look! Now you can't do anything."

He was right about one thing, she had pissed him off something fierce... but, she didn't entirely think herself helpless just yet. The pressure on her neck prevented her from talking, or spitting for that matter. If she didn't get him off of her before he fully cut off the blood supply to her brain, she knew very well she'd pass out, possibly even die if he held it there long enough.

She bucked and shifted, lifting her hips with the powerful muscles in her legs.... but he managed to keep himself on. All of the jolting and bouncing however, knocked a small silver rectangle from one of his pockets. It clattered to the ground, just as he leaned over her and pressed harder. "How about a kiss, sweetheart?" Those black lips of his peels back, stained teeth peeked through, and he opened his mouth. A lengthy tongue lolled out, coated in black, sticky tar, and he made those awful choking sounds again.

Tendrils of gooey tar dribbled down toward her. She managed to wiggle her head to the side enough to avoid them temporarily, but if he freakin' vomited up the stuff right on her face she'd be screwed. A glint caught her eye, and she glanced over to the item that had fallen from him. It was a lighter... One hand flashed out and grabbed it, and she flicked it open with her thumb, wincing as the pressure on her neck increased ten fold.

Tar burned... right?

Well, she was about to find out. With a twitch of the thumb, a little flame jumped to light. She was quick to thrust it up into his face, where it contacted the black dripping from his mouth and.... he immediately caught fire. With a scream the guy jumped back, and the pressure on her neck vanished. She rolled over and gagged, then coughed for a good minute and a half with her hands at her throat. The mutant rolled off to the side, trying in vain to put himself out. The tar that he had been building up had all ignited in a fluid wave. She really didn't want to see what was going on, on the inside of him.

"F@&#in' creep..." A glance over her shoulder showed her two things. One, Rook was nowhere to be seen... and two, a dense fog had overtaken the street. She would have cocked an eyebrow and openly question the likely hood of such a thing.. but then it started to move...

A dark shape became visible, and within seconds the quiet, nonthreatening boy who had been standing quietly the whole time appeared. A malicious, twisted smile sat smack on his lips. It was concerning, especially since she couldn't seen her fighting partner anywhere. The kid closed in on her, one slow, measured step at a time, and suddenly the air around her started to change.

It got wetter, and heavier. Suddenly, it was hard to breath all over again, and yet no ones hands were around her throat. It was like a sauna sprang up out of nowhere to smack her in the face. The kid stepped closer still, and the pressure intensified. Megan, not understanding in the least what was going on, coughed and choked some more, before she decided that sticking around was a bad idea. Scrambling to her feet, she dragged herself up and away, her bat clutched tightly in one hand.

Rook was somewhere, but with the odd, creepy mutant kid making it impossible to stay, she wasn't about to loiter around and try to find him... She hauled ass up the street, until she couldn't see anything remotely fight like anymore, then headed home as fast as possible...