Allison’s encounter with Charlotte and the drug men had been enough to make her somewhat paranoid about wandering around the streets at night. It had not, however, been enough to actually make her stop doing so, as the alternative was to stay in her room and think for hours at a time. Instead, she’d begun carrying a knife in both pockets of her jeans when she wandered around, and covering her arms in ink that was solid up to her elbows, with more curls winding up to her shoulders and out from her eyes. So far nothing in particular had happened, apart from a few less than friendly looks, but she’d gotten those no matter what anyway, so she wasn’t very bothered.

When someone she didn’t know showed up to tell her to go to the lobby, she waved them off absently and continued coating her arm in ink, then moved on to the designs around her eyes. It wasn’t until she finished an hour later that she remembered the message, blinked, jumped up, and hurried toward the lobby, hands brushing over her pockets to make sure the knives were there already.

It hadn’t taken her that long to get used to them. Or to start carrying them at all times, either. Feeling safe (dangerous) was satisfying (exhilarating).

She felt the need to hurt something, or, more specifically, someone. And who better to hurt than jerks who deserved it?

Megan had loaded herself up with all of the weapons she owned. A knife in her boot (which she had nearly thrown away because of who it reminded her of), a stun gun in her left pocket, another smaller knife in her right. A little pistol shoved into the back of her jeans, secured tightly by her belt... and two dozen widows hidden in the hood of her coat and her hair. The only thing she was missing, was her bat.

... and her new found companion.

Having forgotten to give the girl her phone number, or at least demand one. Which, since she didn't really feel like going out alone, left her in a bind. A bind that could only be solved by going to where Allison lived. The Sanctuary. Megan had never been behind those golden doors in all her life. She had never wanted, nor had to... until now. After standing around for ten or so minutes staring up at the building, before she relented and started up the steps. Once inside... she found herself burdened with another problem. She didn't know where in the building Allison was... and it was pretty big inside. Thankfully, there was a front desk, and a woman who she could ask.

A few moment's later, the woman got up and walked off into a different room. Megan watched her go, fidgeting on her feet impatiently, and checked her watch. The woman had promised a swift response... so, what to do while waiting? Her eyes darted around the room, spying all of the dark corners... and an idea slowly began to hatch. As fast as she could, she set about locating a particularly dark corner, just to the side of the doorway where the receptionist had exited, and set up a swift, half-assed web. It protested her weight as she climbed on it, but held. With a grin, she settled into it, grasping on with both hands, both feet set and secured as well, and she waited...

...and waited... and waited... and waited. Jesus christ! How long did it take to get a message to someone?!

The receptionist had returned what felt like hours ago, and had thankfully completely ignored her. But still, what was the hold up?! Her arms were complaining from the strain of holing herself up, her legs had long since gone to sleep... and she was so board, that she had sent out a few spiders to entertain her by writing terrible, nasty things in silk on the wall across from her. Until... FINALLY, Allison appeared!

With what was left of her energy, Megan launched herself from the web she had built in order to tackle the girl as she appeared. "Jesus, it took you long enough!" She rolled as she hit the floor, and stopped in a lazy, tired crouch. "Where's the messenger boy? I'm going to slap him."

After a moment, she grinned. "...Also, Hi! Wanna go find some trouble?"

Allison had, vaguely, gotten the idea that the Sanctuary was viewed as being dangerous by many people. Mostly non-mutants, but some mutants as well. The non-mutants, of course, could be worried about being surrounded by mutants, which… she couldn’t really blame them for. She didn’t particularly like being helpless herself, either. The mutants who were nervous, and not just helpless like she was, she had no explanation for. Regardless of rumors, though, she’d decided quite quickly that Sanctuary was like anywhere else. Most people there were capable of hurting others, but no one did, nor was there any reason to worry that they would.

As a result, being pounced on was kind of a shock. Not so much being pounced at all; there was a squirrel controller whose pet squirrels really liked to run around and jump on everyone they could find. Being pounced by someone who weighed more than Allison did (if slightly), however, was much more unusual. And painful, as she hit the floor with another person on top of her. “Sh**!”

Whoever had landed on her moved, fortunately, and Allison pushed herself back up to give a distinctly unimpressed look to… Charlotte, apparently. “I have no idea. Why were you on the ceiling?”

It was very tempting to refuse. Mainly, due to the newly acquired bruises, which Allison knew would be gone in ten minutes and weren’t actually bruises, but still, ow. Of course she was going to be going out wandering on her own anyway, and she suspected Charlotte would be too, so…. “As long as you promise not to injure me any more.”

“I have no idea. Why were you on the ceiling?”

She shrugged, and continued grinning. "I got bored of just waiting, so I decided to try and surprise you... Honestly, I'm a little weirded out that it worked." But, no looking gift horses in the mouths!

“As long as you promise not to injure me any more.”

She lifted her hand, tucking her thumb and pinky down, and tried to force a serious expression onto her face. "Scouts honor." Of course she had no plans on tackling or injuring the girl any more, she hadn't even really planned on tackling her in the first place. It had just come to her on a random impulse... probably brought on from spending way too much time around Roach.

Hopping to her feet, she adjusted her various hidden weapons (and clothing) and tucked her hands into the pockets of her coat. With a jerk of her chin, she turned and started heading for the door. "I had been planning on just walking around tonight... the usual route I'm used to, but then I heard about some jerks who've been harassing people at night a few blocks from here. I figured I might need some help showing them what's what."

The punks in question where considered more of a nuisance than anything, but they were getting bolder day by day. Compared to the people Allison and her had taken on before, it was sure to be a cake walk.

The cool air outside greeted her as she waltzed back out the front doors, hopped down the steps and waited for Allison to join her at the bottom. "...Sound good to you?"

“Of course it worked! Why would I be looking for you, or anyone, on the ceiling?” Not that there weren’t enough people in Sanctuary who could be on the ceiling, but they didn’t generally pounce on people. “The squirrels are on the floor! ...Well, most of the time.”

The promise was greeted with another flat look. “I’ve never trusted scouts.” That didn’t, however, stop Allison from climbing back to her feet and following Charlotte toward the door.

“Well they’re stupid. Half this building could kill them with a thought, and most of the other half still could accidentally.” And lucky, too, it seemed… unless one of them was a mutant, but a bunch of bullies with a mutant backing them could probably find something better to do. Anyway, Allison and Charlotte had beaten Joe, so if the bullies did have a mutant with them, they should still be fine. And it’d be worth a bit more (more fun), too, probably, since other people would be less likely to fight back, so the bullies would be more in need of a lesson.

“Sure, sounds great.” Allison would have thought following would indicate that, but she could confirm it, too. “Where are they?”

The air felt nice. Vaguely like a storm was coming, too, but nice. And it wasn’t like there weren’t enough buildings around for them to find shelter if rain did eventually appear.

She raised an eyebrow at the squirrel comment, but decided not to question it. It was probably something she didn't want to know about anyway... Instead, she grinned and shrugged a shoulder. "I doubt they are an intelligent breed, either that or they just don't care. Either way, I think the little punks are well deserving of a little neighborhood justice."

The reports she had heard of described them as male, averaged size and of an unknown age. The guys wore masks while running around terrorizing people, so their real ages were up for grabs. Megan didn't expect them to be any older than her, and was leaning heavily on the suspicion that they were younger. Because, really, what thirty year old wandered around causing childish mayhem in the middle of the night?

A really lame one. Her mind shot back, and she pulled a little slip of paper from her pocket. It had the address and a few little notes scrawled on it, she handed it to Allison rather than having to parrot the information at her. "It's not too far from here, only a few blocks. As far as I know they haven't branched out of their little hole yet, which is probably why they haven't bothered anyone around here." A smart, or lucky, move, considering the fight she had seen spill into the street not to long ago. Whoever those red dudes were, they were a scary bunch. Flying vans and monster sized fist fights.

...Just another average day in New York City.

She headed off down the sidewalk, tugged her hood up over her hair, then tucked them into the pockets of her coat. Tonight was going to be a relaxing, easy night. Beat up a few snot nosed kids, gloat a little bit, then head home and relax after a job well done.

Allison was glad that Charlotte didn’t ask about the squirrels. It would have been a bit embarrassing to admit to being frequently pounced by squirrels, not to mention probably making her sound more than a bit crazy.

Then again, Charlotte did control spiders. So probably it wouldn’t have seemed crazy at all.

“Only a little?” Of course, considering their last… meeting, that was probably not a good suggestion to make. It was automatic, though, and a common enough joke it could be easily waved off as just that. Well, it had just been a joke. Exactly how much pain the bullies deserved Allison could decide when she actually encountered them… but spider bites, mutilation and death was probably a bit much. For them.

Allison read the paper quickly before shoving it into a pocket, shaking her head. Masks, really? What was with all the comic book imitators she’d run into recently?

The fact that Allison was going along with Charlotte, and therefore arguably a comic book imitator herself, was ignored.

“Hm. Lucky for them.” Until Charlotte found out about them, anyway. Even that was probably still lucky for them, though; Allison at least was neither capable of nor inclined to the… extreme of violence she’d heard of from other Sanctuary members. She was fairly sure the stories were exaggerated… but they still had to have a base.

Allison followed Charlotte, letting her fingers brush over the knives in her pockets. They were small, and wouldn’t be easily recognized as anything until they were out of her pockets, but they were there. Most likely she wouldn’t need them… but it was nice to know she had them if they did turn out to be needed. Or just convenient.

The blocks passed quickly, with only odd snippets of conversation between them. Sooner than Megan had expected, she recognized the numbers of a street, and paused. After a moment of though (since Allison had the paper with the address on it), she came to the conclusion that it was the correct intersection.

"This... is it." She stopped at the edge of a cross walk and glanced around. The streets were quiet so far.. but she'd need to broaden her range in order to figure out where the hoodlums were, if they were even out tonight. The twenty five year old knelt, placed her palm on the ground, and off loaded a few spiders from her person. They marched off with silently given orders to head for high places and locate any shifty looking people. Once the last straggler was off of her, she stood back up and glanced around.

"...And now we play the waiting game." With a grin, she started across the street.

~

Just a block away, a group of six stood huddled together. Two of them were busy defacing the side of an apartment building with a brand new tag (As the other had been scrubbed away some time during the week), while the others shuffled around behind them. They ranged in age from sixteen to twenty seven. The eldest had been around the longest, and stood out as a shining example of what to strive to be, for the younger ones. The youngest was a quiet lad, who hung back from the joking and banter. The others were more than happy to leave the kid alone, if he wanted to be alone, too. He was the only mutant of the group, and with a power like his, he was a force to be reckoned with.

As the two taggers finished up with their work, a sound greeted the groups ears. Giggling. Grins were slapped onto the faces of the one man and boys, and with a nod of his head the eldest turned and started walking out of the alley.

Up ahead of them, waiting by herself (or so they thought) was a girl. She looked young, anywhere from eighteen to mid twenties. As they approached, the boys got louder and rowdier and a few of them slipped on plain white masks. If there was one thing they liked doing, it was harassing people... especially pretty girls. Of course, most of the boys didn't know (or ignored) that their leader, their shining example of what they wanted to be when they grew up, was also a terrible, terrible man. (Gang habits aside) He wasn't content with merely harassing women... he had much darker intentions.

~

Her spiders had found themselves pretty good look outs, or were still searching about for one. Megan was in the process of tugging her hood back up for the hundredth time, when she heard the first soft spidery voice chatter something back to her. A large group of people wandering about. Though it could have been a gang of friend wandering home from a bar or something, she asked for some clarification. ".... Hold up... might have something here." She stood and listened for a moment, waiting for her child to gather some more info, and set about rearranging her various weapons. The knife in her boot was safest there... so she left it alone. The stun gun in her pocket however, was taken out and glanced at. She didn't know what kind of weapons Allison had on her, if any at all... She she patted herself down to make sure her other knife was present, as well as her gun, she held the stun gun out for Allison to take.

"Take this, might come in handy for ya." A moment later, and she heard back from the arachnid. A grin curled her lips, impatient and a tad bit sadistic. "Got 'em!"

The corner that they arrived at to wait was… boring. It had been interesting to watch Charlotte send out spiders, but… that was about it. And then there was, as Charlotte put it, ‘the waiting game,’ which mostly consisted of being bored.

Allison really wasn’t very good at being bored. So she at least didn’t surprise herself when they passed by a small, unexplained stick on the ground (trees were nowhere in sight, and hadn’t been any time recently), and she picked it up and started spinning it between her fingers as they walked. At least her hand wasn’t bored, and when she occasionally dropped it she had something to do for the second it took to pick the stick back up.

The stick was more deliberately dropped at the first sign that Charlotte might have found… heard… become aware of something. Allison watched as Charlotte stared off into the distance, then handed her… she was fairly certain that was a stun gun. She sort of remembered Charlotte using it when… when they’d met.

“How’s it work?” Allison held it up at eye level, keeping her fingers away from anything that looked like it might possibly be a trigger and keeping the end pointed away from herself and Charlotte. That much, at least, she could figure out even without an explanation. What, exactly, she would gain from studying the tiny details of scratches and fingerprints on the side she wasn’t sure, but it was more interesting than doing nothing. “Okay.”

Allison… actually didn’t have a pocket the stun gun could fit in. She wasn’t entirely sure she would’ve put it in a pocket even if she had, anyway. So she carried it in her right hand, grinning as they headed for where Charlotte’s spiders had found the gang, letting the fingers of her left hand brush over the subtle bump in her pocket that was a knife, just noticeable enough for her to feel more secure.

>>"How's it work?"

Megan blinked, already in the process of heading off down the street, but decided not to ask any sarcastic questions. Some people just weren't familiar with things like that. "Here.. like this." She mined holding one in her own hand, and pointed at the one Allison's hand.

"You need to hold the switch down, and make sure those two prongs are firmly shoved into your attackers skin. Like... up here in the neck." She pointed at the sides of her neck, "Or the shoulders, gut, or chest... pretty much anywhere, really."

Dropping her hand, she continued walking. "You should test it out a few times, to make sure you've got it down before you have'ta use it."

It was actually pretty easy, and waaay too effective... but she liked it that way. One direct zap, and down they go! The twenty five year old tugged a red handkerchief tied around her neck up to cover the lower half of her face... it was her new cover, seeing as the Ski mask had been hot and itchy.

Stuffing her hands into her pockets, she walked on, securing her knife in her hand as she went. From down the street and around the corner a short shriek broke the silence in the air. Megan paused, shooting a glance over at Allison, before she took off running down the dark sidewalk.

Allison raised an eyebrow. Charlotte, apparently, never thought what she said through. How exactly was Allison supposed to practice with the stun gun? She wasn’t zapping herself--that would probably be an ineffective test anyway--and the only other person around was Charlotte. It was a tiny, tiny bit tempting to test the stun gun on Charlotte--it was her suggestion, after all--or at least to point out that was the logical conclusion, but Charlotte was busy with a handkerchief.

Hm. Perhaps Allison should have some way of covering her face too… she could always change her tattoos, but the fact that she could do that was more identifiable in itself than her face was. Well, whatever; she’d think about that for next time.

…She should not be assuming there would be a next time.

…She kind of hoped there would be one, though.

…Which probably meant there would.

Someone screamed, and Allison should not be happy that someone was upset. They were running toward the scream, though, and Allison supposed she could be happy that whoever was upset had screamed, because that way they knew, so that way they could do something about it. And, maybe, find the bullies they were looking for.

Around a corner, and there were six men and a girl, who looked scared and angry and was almost certainly the one who screamed. Two of the men were turning at the sound of footsteps, and Allison didn’t bother to wait to say anything as she continued running, ducking at the last second to slam her shoulder into one of the guys, knocking him back a few steps and putting herself in the middle of the group with the woman they’d been harassing.

“I don’t even need to ask to know who’s wrong here.”

Woah. Allison was fast. Megan would have to up the ante in order to keep up. The guy who Alli had barreled into and out of the way toppled over when she placed a shoulder of her own neatly into his. He fell and she stepped back to aim a swift kick at his ribs, which hit and earned the desired effect of a gasp and a hiss. He rolled out of the way as she practically hopped over him and skipped in beside Allison.

...The skipping was probably a little unneeded... but meh.

"I suggest you lot back off and leave the girl alone, before you get your arses handed to you." Was her ego showing? Yes. Was it more than a little boosted because of a class she had recently taken? Hell yes. Should she probably tone it down a little, before fate decided to turn the tables on her (them)?

...Heck no! They had weapons, plenty of them in fact, there was no way they could lose!

But, boy, did the older fellow look angry all of the sudden. Apparently he didn't like it when people burst in of him while he was having fun. The other boys eyed Allison and herself carefully for a moment, before the leader let out a bark of laughter. The other boys reacted similarly, while helping the other guy to his feet. Instead of anger at what they had just done, he got a few pointed jabs at the fact that a couple of broads had knocked him on his butt.

"What the hell is this? You chicks just fall off the circus wagon or something?"

The lady behind them eyed Allison and Megan herself, a look flashing through her eyes swiftly before they came to rest upon the oldest male once more. Megan's lips pursed behind her makeshift mask, and she squinted at the guy before withdrawing her knife from her pocket. The rest of the children on her person shifted restlessly in their various hiding spots. "...Funny. Really funny. You a comedian?" She flicked a quick glance at Allison to see if she was prepared for a fight as well.

"What say skip the annoying banter and just kick their asses?" The last of her question was slightly altered as she started pulling together a ball of sticky silk in her mouth. A few more seconds and it'd be big enough to neatly blind someone if spat in the right place.

Allison approved of Charlotte’s knocking over the guy she’d run into, and of kicking him. The skipping was… not so necessary. None of the gang of boys were doing anything, though, so that wasn’t really a problem. The boasting, too, she was fine with; intimidation was a perfectly valid tactic, if you could back it up well enough. Or just be so intimidating that no one ever challenged you.

The men laughing at them was a bit less welcome, if also unsurprising. Allison glared, sliding one of the knives out of her pocket. That… was kind of awkward, actually. Maybe she should get used to the stun gun by itself first. It could certainly reach anyone her knife could. She held the knife behind her, for the other woman to take. Hopefully she’d be helpful; if not, maybe the guys would leave her alone since she had it.

Allison was a bit too focused on what Charlotte said to notice any difference in how she said it. “Works for me.” She grinned--arguably, anyway; she was in a good mood and teeth were showing, at least--at the men as the woman finally, hesitantly took the knife. Actually opening the thing would be up to her; Allison was not going to stop to show her. And anyway, it was a pocket knife; a large, sharp one, but still a pocket knife. They weren’t that hard to open. It took a fraction of a second for Allison to pick which of the men was closest to her, and jump at him.

Charlotte had said she should practice with the stun gun. “Sounds good to me.”

A knife was passed back... small, sharp, and yet dainty. The girl stared at it for a moment, her movement's unsure, until she realized that neither of the woman who'd run in out of nowhere were looking her way. It seemed like the boys were also aiming their attention somewhere else for the moment. A small smirk flashed across her lips, there and gone in an instant, and she expertly flipped the pocket knife open...

Megan dove forward the moment Allison sprang into action. She chose to hawk a glob of spit webbing across a closing gap between herself and the male she'd chosen to bum rush. The blob connected solidly with his cheek, earning first a recoil of disgust and then one of mild panic when he realized that it wouldn't come off. She closed the gap between them, her knife already in hand, and thrust it toward him. He narrowly avoided being shanked cleanly in the gut by dodging to the side at the last minute.

..but, she'd sliced clean through his shirt. With a slapped together string of profanities that would make any grandma's ears bleed, he stepped back and allowed another boy to charge at Megan while he tried to pry her silk from his face.

Megan staggered back a few steps, nearly tripping off the edge of the curb, but managed to avoid a few swings the new kid sent her way. "Is that all you've got? Come on... I could run circles around you all-" She narrowly avoided a heavy fist swung from the right, but tried not to let the close call ruin her boasting, "-day!"

The twenty six year old lashed out with a leg as the over zealous kid kept swinging, and tried to scoop him off his feet. The trick half worked, ending with him stumbling to the side while she reached back into her hood and latched onto a handful of spiders. When the guy managed to catch his balance and turn back to her, he was greeted to said handful of arachnids flying into his face. With a shriek that could rival a little girls, the kid began to smack and claw at his clothing while her children skittered all over him, ducking into the dark, open spaces of his clothing.

An arm flashed out of seemingly nowhere before she could press another attack, and Megan suddenly found someone trying to lock her into a choke hold. She only barely managed to get her own arm up in time to stop the guy from fully clamping down on her neck. From the corner of her eyes she spotted who it was, the guy she'd spit at, who was now lacking a patch of beard, side burn, and a little bit of eyebrow.

Off to the side, the un-named girl with Allison's knife decided to join the fight... but, not before she had fished out a cellphone and tapped a few buttons. With a secret message then sent, the phone was tucked back into place, and she introduced herself to the battle by rushing forward and barreling into the nearest male. When she stepped back, her borrowed knife glinted red...

Allison managed to get the man she’d picked--boy, actually, when she looked--with the stun gun. Unfortunately, she only got his arm, so while he swore and stumbled away, he didn’t quite go down. She turned, perfectly happy to help him go down, and was interrupted as an arm caught her throat. She let it; her left hand came up, aiming for his eye; the right brought the stun gun up, pressed it against his forehead, and pulled the trigger.

“Look, bi--aaugh!” He fell.

Allison didn’t have time to think about it. Her left hand reached for her right pocket as she turned, pulling out her other knife, but kept it closed. She ducked under a punch from the first guy she’d hit with the stun gun, stepped back, tripped over the one who’d fallen, fell and rolled into the legs of a third. He looked surprised; she twisted and curled around his leg, he grabbed her arm, something pulled her hair, she pushed the stun gun into his leg; he swore and kicked her, she coughed and scrambled away, got pulled back by her arm and pushed herself up, swinging the stun gun at his head to hit him. He ducked, she missed, and he screamed.

Allison froze, blinked, and pulled her arm away as he staggered to the side, hands going to the back of his neck. She caught a glimpse of the other girl smiling before her hair yanked her head back and up and she twisted again, letting it pull so she could slam her knee into the guy holding it. He swore, let go, backed away, and she leaped away, out of the circle of people to look.

…Was Charlotte ever not in trouble? Allison rolled her eyes and jumped back in, toward Megan and the guy holding her, shoving the stun gun into his side and aiming a hit at his head with the still closed pocket knife.