Little fish, Big Apple! (Shadowoof)

A small gasp broke out over the loud humming of the private jets engines. A solitary pink eye peered out the window at the approaching city scape. For this being Lorelei’s first ever trip in a plane, she seemed to grow more fascinated with the whole experience with each passing minute. Clover let out a small chuckle at the fascination in the young Atlantean’s eyes. Normally Clover would have left Lorelei back home in Los Angeles, with Winston to watch over her, but she felt this would be a good experience for the fish out of water.

“Clover! Look! Look how small everything seems from up here!” the little Atlantean shouted as she continued to gaze out the window. Clover took just a brief moment to look up from the book she was reading, to peer over her shoulder. She remembered a time when she was as excited to see a new city come into view just as Lorelei was now. Unfortunately, the view no longer had the same effect on her, especially after all the traveling she had been doing recently. “Just you wait till were on the ground. You’ll really get a kick out of the city then.” she said, humoring her adopted sisters easily incorrigible fascination with all things man made.

The jet would eventually land and as the two girls stepped out into the hanger, they would find Winston waiting for them by a car. Their luggage was offloaded from the jet and placed in the truck of the car and soon they were off to Clover’s flat. More gasps of amazement would highlight their journey to the flat as Lorelei continued to marvel at the massive sky scrapers. As the car pulled up to the large building that Clover owned, Lorelei couldn’t help but nearly throw herself from the vehicle before it had come to a complete stop, out of sheer excitement.

“Clover can we go exploring? Can we?” she said as she hopped up and down excitedly awaiting Clover’s answer.

The young raven haired girl stepped out of the car once it had come to a complete stop and was instantly barraged with an array of questions from Lorelei. *Man. Having a sister is harder than running a company.* she thought as she let out a loud yawn. The jet ride had been a long one and despite the numerous plane trips Clover had taken, she always found herself jetlagged every time. This didn’t seem to be the case however for the energetic Atlantean, who was to hyped up to explore every corner of this foreign city.

Clover shot a quick glance to Winston, who immediately knew exactly what the young girl had in mind. “Absolutely not Miss Sinclair. It is far too dangerous for such a young girl to wandering around a city such as this at night.” Winston’s words fell on deaf ears as Clover had already made her way around the car and was in the middle of talking with Lorelei and handing her a credit card. Her emerald eyes shot back to Winston with a wide grin on her face. “She’ll be perfectly fine Winston. She’s not a normal girl. Everything’ll be alright, wont it Lorelei?” she said turning back to her younger sister.

Lorelei’s head bounced up and down in agreement, before shooting a pleading look over in Winston’s direction. The old butler was powerless to the combined might of Clover and Lorelei and simply waved her off as he turned to retrieve their luggage from the back of the vehicle. “These girls are going to be the death of me.”

Before Lorelei could rush off, Clover gave her a cell phone and a pair of earmuffs. “This city can get pretty loud and I know your ear’s are sensitive so I thought you could use these.” she said as she handed them over to Lorelei, which in turn the young Atlantean returned the generous thought with a powerful hug. “Thank you sooooooooo much. I promise I’ll be careful. And…And I won’t be long.” she said, before slipping on the earmuffs  and pocketing the cellphone and credit card and rushing off down the sidewalk.

"Why you still here Jake?" Anita, Jake's coach when it came to gymnastics called out to Jake who was on a balance beam, doing flips and general balance practices. His mind was still on his previous event with a man named Redline and submarine base that.. put some things into perspective.

"I injured my leg Coach. I didn't want to get rusty." Jake responded as he jumped off the beam onto the safety mat and walked up to her. "Plus I needed to think and my mom was ok with me doing an all nighter." Jake half lied, his mom had said ok to him spending the night at a friends, he however had other plans for tonight.

"You've been missing your practices so it's good to see you come in... Jake. If you ever need someone to talk to. I am a good ear." Anita said with a small laugh betrayed by concern in her eyes for him. She was a good coach and he hated lying to her of all people but.. He wasn't ready to tell anyone of his nightly activity's, not yet anyway.

"Thanks Ann. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going for a hour or twoish run. I promise I'll be back by then." Jake said as he jogged over and grabbed his bag before leaving though the door before Anita could get a word out. Running a block away from the Gym, Jake would stop and unzip his bag to pull out his rather large vigilante/hero suit, still there were signs of his previous battle, his suit had a few holes in it and a patchwork of patches covering others, his right leg was mostly patchwork, making the suit look less sleek and well made but more battle warn and on the spot sewing. Spending the next few minutes quickly working everything into place before hiding his bag in the corner of a dumpster with all his things for tonight he was Zaap.. The name was still in progress but at the moment it was the best he could do.

Jumping up to the roof of the building he was next to, Jake began to sweep along the buildings, jumping from one to the next. He found rooftops a quick and easy way to transverse during both the day and night, as many people generally did not keep an open eye in the sky and it allowed him to get the surprise on anyone he saw doing villainous things. It was something he found himself doing more and more after the whole submarine thing.. after that encounter with the demon known as Flatline. Jake felt that he needed to be out here more then ever, he had the ability to help people, so it was exactly what he was going to do. And no one was going to stop him.. Except for his Mom, his mom if she ever learned would chain him to his room and keep him there for the rest of his life if she ever found out.

But for now worry's for his mom were not in mind as Jake kept on jumping, up and down and across entire streets, flips and cartwheels to keep things interesting and not boring as he went along. It would have seemed tonight was going to be a challenge for the young man, to hunt for something he could do as his heroic personality, other wise he would have to run back to the gym and do nothing but keep training till the night took him to bed.

The blue skinned Atlantean continued to hop along the crowded sidewalks without a care in the world. Lorelei was completely oblivious to the judging eyes that surrounded her. This was Lorelei’s first time outside the Sinclair mansion and she wanted to see as many of the sights as she could before having to return back to Clover’s penthouse. Lorelei used the phone Clover had given her, to look up various places of interest in her general area that she could visit. She was going to be in New York for a couple of days, so she limited her first night out, to just seeing and visiting various shops and the like in area surrounding the building that Clover owned.

Though Lorelei had to wear a pair of ear muffs to block out most of the cities noise, she could still clearly hear everything around her, one disadvantage or advantage of having big ears depending on how you looked at it. As the little Atlantean continued her merry little trek down the streets of New York, her over sensitive ears caught a conversation that was taking place in one of the alleyways she walked past. It didn’t register to her until she had taken about five steps past the alleyway. Catching the curiosity of the young girl, Lorelei turned around and walked back to the dark alley where she picked up on more of the conversation.

Lorelei cautiously entered the alley, knowing full well that she was most likely sticking her nose where it didn’t belong. With each step she took the conversation became clearer and clearer. There seemed to be three people involved in this conversation, one female, one male, and another that sounded almost automated or very metallic as though they were speaking through a mask or something. Lorelei crouched down behind a nearby dumpster and began to listen intently.

“Where’s the shipment headed?” asked the metallic voice. “If I knew I would have told you I swear. All I know is their moving enough supply to set the boss’s plan in motion. That’s why we need to hit this now.” The female voice cried out, somewhat in a panic, as though the presence of the other two threatened her. The third figure had remained quiet, only chiming in to ask if the woman had any other information.

Soon a small delivery truck would roll into the alley from the opposite end, with several thugs piling out of the vehicle. The three continued to converse among themselves, but Lorelei could no longer hear them over the sound of the trucks engine. Suddenly a loud bang rang out, and it was enough to spook the young girl and pierce her sensitive ears. The sudden sharp pain she felt was enough to cause her to let out a small yelp.

“You guys take care of that. I’ve got places I need to be.” Shouted the metallic voice. The person behind the voice, and the other male quickly hopped into the delivery truck and pulled out of the alley in a hurry. As soon as the truck was gone, things quieted down and the small group of thugs began to search the alley for Lorelei. Things were looking good for the young girl, until her phone began to ring. Clover had possibly the worst timing ever. As the ringtone echoed through the alleyway, the thugs grouped up and approached the sound. In a moment of panic, Lorelei crushed the phone as she tried to silence it. Before she knew what else to do, the thugs had found her. “well lookie here. We got us one of them freaks boys.” One of the thugs said, grabbing the young girl by the arm and tossing her out into the alleyway. The impact was enough to knock the ear muffs off and in that moment all the sound of the city began to bombard her, causing her to curl up on the ground and grip her ears, in an attempt to block or filter out the noise. “Pl..Please. Leave me alone!” she shouted, more as a warning than a plea. She could definitely hold her own against these thugs, but without her earmuffs the noise was agonizing and had her pretty much paralyzed.

It would be a few more minutes of jumping till Jake stopped and began to think about going back to the gym. He was in the middle of a handstand when his ears caught that of a engine pulling in nearby to his right, the distraction enough to cause him to fall onto his back with a thud. Crawling to the side of the building that the noise came from, Jake would see a multitude of people getting out of a truck. He was about to question what was happening when he heard a faint yelp that obviously alerted the people down there as if they were in a secret meeting that had been overheard.

Soon enough, the truck started again and drove off, the rest of the goons had stayed to find out whoever had intruded and Jake thought about jumping in when a loud ringtone came, clearly portraying where whoever was hiding was. Jake waited a few more seconds, trying to get a clear picture on where everyone was, he couldn't count the amount of goons but he could see and was focused on the ones that seemed to drag a young girl out of her hiding place, with words like freak being thrown out. Jake wasn't sure when to jump down but as soon as he heard the girls words to be left alone he knew he couldn't wait any longer and jumped.

Landing with his fist hitting the ground, cracking all around him as he landed. As he rose, a few centimeters away from the girl he eyed the man closest to him with a rather angry look on his eyes. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to call a girl a freak?" Jake said, his voice taking on his Canadian accent with it's usual muffle from the mask, the accent was something he stuck with after the submarine event. Not even waiting for a reply from the thug, Jake sprung forward, grabbing the closest man by his collar and pushing, sending the guy flying into a wall. Next, he went after the second closest, shoulder charging him into the same wall to which a loud thwack came as he bounced off the wall.

Turning back he quickly stood practically over the girl and held his fist's up, looking to each and every thug remaining. "Those two might get lucky with a few broken bones. Annoy me and you'll end up in the morgue.. So run." Jake yelled a empty but rather menacing threat that he hoped would in the end, scare off most if not all of them and that depended on his luck with the fact of any of them being metas. Other wise he would most likely have a troubling fight with more then a single meta and with a civilian right under him... He would have to focus on protecting her and that made any fight in the immediate future unfair.

The young Atlantean princess continued to squirm and roll around on the ground. Her eyes were clenched tightly shut mainly from the massive headache that was forming. Lorelei’s main goal was to get to her earmuffs and put them pack on so she could attempt to deal with the thugs surrounding her. She was completely oblivious to the fact that someone had swooped in and began to fight off and threaten the thugs. She remained oblivious until she had finally located her earmuffs and slipped them on. Her headache quickly subsided and the young Atlantean quickly staggered to her feet.

Once Lorelei was up on her feet she could finally make out just how many thugs had flooded into the alleyway from the back of the truck. The person that had come to her aid, had already downed two of the men, but there were still about seven left. One of the thugs began to slowly approach them with a metal pole in his hand. After batting the pole against his palm several times, he firmly gripped it and his entire body took on a metal-like sheen. Upon seeing this Lorelei leapt in front of her savior. The metal thug let out a small chuckle. “well isn’t that cute.” He said, the rest of the thugs joined in it laughter.

“I…I w-w-warned you to back off!” shouted the little blue Atlantean. She was visibly frustrated and the thugs had no idea what they were getting themselves into. As the metal thug advanced, Lorelei lifted her hand into the air. A brief rumbling of the ground occurred before a large stone pillar erupted from the ground, colliding with the metal thugs jaw and launching him several feet backwards. The remaining six thugs took this as their que to attack.

Lorelei once again motioned with her arm, this time pointing at a thug that was approaching from the front. There was a loud metal groan, and then suddenly the dumpster she had taken refuge behind earlier, flew past her and the boy and collided with the thug. After this feat the thugs began to rethink their life decisions and began to slowly back away. They weren’t prepared to flee, but they now knew that the two kids they faced were not to be taken lightly. The thugs pulled back and regrouped around the metal thug that was now starting to get to his feet. “You little bitch. I’ll make you pay for that!”

The large metal thug let out an angry roar as he rushed at the boy and Lorelei, like a raging bull.

It seemed like the men payed no heed to his threat at all but they were cautious, all except for one who began to ponder closer with a metal pole, something that would not have been much a problem for Jake but it wasn't the pole he had to worry for, it was the man.. the meta himself as his whole body took on a metal sheen, making Jake's thoughts on the situation much worse, the guy was made of metal now.

But then the girl he was protecting suddenly leapt in front of him and he was going to push the girl back but he noticed a few things. Not much from the back but he first noticed the rather pink pixie cut hair, which was pretty cool, but then his eyes discovered the main feature that made this girl different from the rest. She was blue. His eyes widened in surprise at this fact but the bigger surprise was when she lifted her hands and the earth rumbled, soon followed by a pillar of earth rising and slamming metal man back. "Woah.." Jake only managed right before the dumpster behind them flew right past and slammed into a nearby thug.

Counting, that left five very frightened thugs that began to back off and retreated to a sixth, the metal man who was still awake. "Catch him Rose." Jake said in his Canadian accent as he ran past the small pink haired blue girl towards the now charging metal man but before they could collide, Jake brought his hands to the ground and rose his legs before bringing them down on the metal thug's shoulders as he closed in. Tightening his legs against the mans neck, he fell backwards and rose the man before letting go, practically throwing him towards 'Rose' as Jake had dubbed her. Landing into a push up before jumping to a stand, Jake would stare down the five left overs and rose a single taunting hand.

"Alright lads. I give ye one more chance. Run, run very fast. Or I treat you to a much more aggressive version of Canadian Hockey!" Jake boomed at them, a very childish smile hidden under his mask all the while as he stared down the thugs, hoping Rose had at least disabled Metal man behind him, with her earth stuff she seemed capable and Jake felt somewhat foolish. She could most likely have dealt with all these thugs herself given the chance and he had to butt in and 'save' the day.

Lorelei wasn’t sure what to expect when the mysterious boy playing her would be savior rushed out from behind her and rushed after the metal thug. She was also perplexed when he called her ‘Rose’. *That’s not my name.* she thought to herself, before witnessing the boys immaculate and impressive moves. With little ease, the athletic boy had sent the large metal thug flying through the air and on a collision course with the young Atlantean. Reacting on pure instinct and shock at the boy’s display of strength, Lorelei threw her hand up, halting the metal thug and suspending him in midair.  

It was an odd sight to see, as the metal thug simply floated unassisted in the air. There was a mixed look of shock and confusion on the man’s face as the blue skinned girl held him hostage in the air. The little Atlantean narrowed her pink hued eyes and forcibly yanked her arm downward. The motion caused the large metal thug to come crashing down into the alleyway floor, putting a small dent in it from the impact. The metal thug wasn’t the only thing to come crashing down however. Since Lorelei still didn’t have a good grasp of her powers, she not only managed to bring the thug down, but also caused the dumpster to compress down on itself, and the nearby fire escapes to come crashing down around them.

Though the two seemed to prove too much for the common low level thugs to deal with, they pressed their luck regardless. They were far more afraid of the metal voiced figure from earlier, than they were of two punk kids with powers. Despite the masked boys warning, the Thugs nervously advanced undeterred from their objective. Lorelei quickly rushed to the boy’s side. “They…They don’t seem to be running.” Her glance was fixated on the approaching thugs. They were all lightly equipped, only possessing small knives and lead pipes. “I-I-If you don’t listen to us, you’ll be really sorry. Final warning!” she shouted nervously. Though Lorelei had enough strength to crush them all by herself, she was very doubtful of her own strength, and this entire altercation had shaken her up a bit.

“We aint goin anywhere. So whatcha gonna do about it, huh?” a voice echoed from behind them, the metal thug had already gotten back up. It was going to take a lot more than being forced into the ground to harm this chrome dome. The little blue Atlantean grew visibly angry that none of the thugs seemed to take her seriously. She spun around on her heel, now facing the metal thug, she quickly dropped to one knee and placed both of her palms on the ground. There was a small rumbling noise and this prompted the metal thug to leap backwards. “you aint getting me with that again sweetheart.” He mocked. Suddenly the asphalt at his feet liquefied and he fell partially through it, before it solidified once again, trapping him chest deep in the alleyway floor. The remaining thugs took this as their que to rush the two kids in an attempt to overwhelm them.

Jake did not see what happened behind him, only beside him. That being the fire escapes quite literally falling down around him, a scary situation for the normal person, for Jake this was almost normal. Funny how in so little time this became something that was 'normal'. Maybe he just needed something more scary then a undead woman who was the unknown daughter to a man possessed by the father's other half just so he could break the father cause who knows.

Soon enough, the little blue Rose came to his side and said the ovious, these guys were not backing down, maybe they thought they could get away with this, maybe they just feared what would happen if they didn't take down the two meta's. One a small blue girl, the other a tall red covered worn and torn suited looking man who was possibly just as young as the girl beside him in age. When Rose tried her own threat, a voice boomed behind them, the voice belonged to the metal meta who seemed like he wouldn't be giving up too easily. Seeing that Rose turned to take on metal head, Jake stared on at the five who had seemed to wait for a signal and soon enough they charged. "Canadian Hockey it is." Jake hollered in his matching accent as he charged the five, thinking of how unfair this was, five against one? They'd need three times that to make this anywhere close to fair.

Overconfident? Maybe. But Jake was indeed confident he could take on the five thugs himself as he clashed into them, sending the lead charger on there side of the field stepping back in pain, pressing his advantage, Jake brought his palm to a second's chest and pushed hard, making them fly into the wall. Suddenly he felt a fist connect to his cheek, followed by a silent crack of the fist that was the thugs and Jake looked at him, grabbing the broken hand and crushing it, Jake would pull and swing the man by his broken hand into the Fourth thug who got too close for his own good, letting go just as they connected to let the two crash land onto the nearby wall. All this left was the fifth who stood in stunned silence as he stared at the red hooded man, taking a step back as if he was about to run. "Ohh no no. This is my game lad. You stay till your.." Jake followed up in this words by stepping closer to the man and bringing a leg up high, the heel of his boot making contact with the thugs chin and sending him flying up a little before crashing down on the ground.

"Out." Jake said as he hopped back before losing balance and ruining how great and cool he felt. Sure they were just thug's with no powers to really fight back but damn did that feel satisfying. "Did you deal with Metal head Rose?" Jake said as he turned to the blue girl, a hidden smile under his mask barely shown by the contours of his cheek.

Having dealt with the large metal brute with relative ease, Lorelei decided to park her behind right next to her handy work. The metal thug continued to struggle against his concrete bindings while the rest of the thugs got taken to the school of hard knocks by the mysterious disguised boy that had shown up to lend the little Atlantean a hand. Her eyes lit up like a Christmas tree with each take down her savior made, eventually giving a small celebratory clap as the last thug was taken out. When the kid turned around to ask if Lorelei had dealt with the other thug she shot him a sinister glance. “My name is not Rose! Its Lorelei.” She stated with a pouty expression before rising to her feet.

After getting up to her feet, Lorelei turned to look at the trapped thug who had now reverted back to normal after realizing that his struggling was futile and that he was only wasting his energy trying to maintain his metal form. “Y-You’re going to tell us everything you know right now or I’ll…I’ll. I’ll turn your insides to stone.” The little Atlantean nodded to herself confident in her threat, even though it was entirely false and it was way beyond the scope of her powers.

“I ain’t tellin you shit, you understand me freak! I aint afraid of you. It’s the boss that scares me.” This of course was inference to the mysterious person from earlier with the metallic voice. Lorelei became visible flustered by the thugs stubbornness, as was indicated by the raising of her hand and a sudden rumble of the ground around them. “TALK!” she shouted. Suddenly the little defenseless girl seemed more like a monster than anything, as she demanded the thug give up any information he might be withholding.

There was a sudden shift in the thugs facial expression as the threat of having his intestines turned to stone quickly became a very possible reality as he had upset the little blue girl. The thug shot the masked kid a worried glance. “Look man, you seem like the reasonable one. Get your little girlfriend to stand down alright? I don’t know anything I swears.” He pleaded.

The rumbling came back again, this time much stronger, causing several stress fractures in the ground at Lorelei’s feet and shaking the dust loose from the nearby buildings. The young girl knew all too well that the thug was lying, especially after he and his posse had shown up in the same truck that the metallic voiced figure drove off in. “YOU’RE LYING!” she shouted, even more visibly pissed off than she was a moment ago, especially at the fact no one was bothering to take her serious.

"Sorry.. Lorelei." Jake said the name slowly, trying not to butcher it as he walked over and stood beside her as they stared at the half buried not a metal man thug. Jake remained silent as the blue girl spoke, making a threat that could have seemed rather menacing if he wasn't a meta himself or the fact she kinda stuttered to make it. However the thug remained rather head strong in not talking, that was still Lorelei began to make the ground rumble and she yelled at the defenseless thug to talk.

Jake's perception on the girl changed from that of a small blue girl to a rather vicious monster as even the thug seemed to have a change of heart and looked to Jake and begged to get him to calm her down to which Jake considered as the ground began to rumble even harder. Another shout from Lorelei, and Jake moved a single gloved hand to her shoulder before she started a earthquake or brought down the nearby buildings, softly and reassuring... As reassuring as he hoped it felt to have a gloved hand rest on your shoulder. "Calm down Lorelei.. Calm... And let me try" Jake said as he patted her shoulder and knelt down next to the man. "Actually you were wrong.. Now." Jake rose his left fist. "This would send you to intensive care." He rose his right hand. "This, sends you to full body surgery.." Jake focused his right hand as a red like energy grew over it, small tendrils began to form over his hand and spiked around like a uncontrollable form of power. "This blows you into many, many small pieces..."

Jake stood back, his eyes on the man with a rather evil and angry glare. "Now. Apologies to Lorelei here for calling her the F word. For rudely saying she is my girlfriend as she and I are not dating. AND ANSWER HER QUESTION!" Jake said that all in his smooth Canadian accent except for the last part. The last part was a angry shout that had no accent, just roughness, roughness he would hope that would convince the man that he was dealing with two very annoyed metas and that talking was his only way out.

The shaking slowly subsided as Lorelei felt a hand on her shoulder. Her pink eyes locked with the distressed thug. It wasn’t her intention to cause the rumbling, but with the lack of control over her power things like this were bound to happen. “He’s not my boyfriend.” she mumbled under her breath, partially blushing as well. Lorelei hung her head ashamed of the scene she had just made, no doubt the masked person and the thug both thought she was some kind of monster. The young Atlantean took a few steps back as the masked boy stepped forward to try his hand at getting the thug to talk.

The trapped thug had finally had enough. These two kids were far too stubborn for their own good. He’d talk, but he’d try to do something good in his life for a change. “Look, I’ll talk alright..Just, ease up a little.” The thug stared at the masked kid before looking back to the blue girl, they were definitely a force to be reckoned with, but the person he worked for was a monster he hoped to spare them from. “The guy I work for. The Boss, he aint like anyone you’ve ever met. That’s a good thing. Just take my advice and drop this alright?”

Lorelei stepped forward, undeterred by the thug’s sudden change of heart. “Your boss, he was talking about a shipment. What kind of shipment? What’s in it?” She said sternly. She could tell the thug was trying to hide something still. Her actions were very uncharacteristic of her, but lives could potentially be at risk if she didn’t find out and try to stop whatever it was that the three mysterious figures had been talking about earlier.

“Awe geeze kid can’t you take a hint. You don’t want to mess with the boss. Just drop it and go home, I’m trying to do you both a favor.” He continued to plea. He may have been trying to hurt the two kids just moments ago, but whatever harm he was going to inflict on them, was nothing compared to what the metal voiced person would do to them if they crossed paths.

Jake calmed down himself as the guy began talking, words came from his mouth, a warning that the guy they were looking for, that Lorelei wanted to know off, was a monster, something they haven't met before and Jake only frowned at those words. But Jake also realized that this guy, this guy, this guy wasn't as bad as most, his voice gave a genuine plea to stop, to think about this, to go home and forget...

Jake however, had already had that conversation with himself too many times, he wasn't having it now with a man he and Lorelei defeated. "Mate. I met a woman.. A woman who could move ten times.. hundred times faster then me or you ever could. I punched her so hard her head snapped backwards and she laughed.. She was the undead daughter of a man, possessed by his evil nature just so that evil side could mess with his head. And I dealt with that in a deep sea underwater Dome with a broken leg." Jake motioned to the patch work like fabric that covered the leg while looking at the man as he told the story, his tone calm as a Canadian accent should be but the story was far from calm or nice. "That's a monster.. Your boss.. He will never come close to that.. And as people with powers, we have to stop whatever he's doing. So tell us. The location." Jake said the final part slowly and again, calm like.

Jake knew he could deal with whatever his boss was and he knew the blue little girl beside him was strong enough to deal with it herself because of her ability's to both move rock and metal. They would be a scary combo and he was sure that in the end he may be a little late in getting back to the gym but so what, life's were possibly at stake.

The thug shook his head at the masked kid, well about as well as he could with his limited range of motion. “what you’re talking about kid is just spooky. The boss is literally a walking nightmare.” He let out a small sigh seeing the looking of annoyance that was slowly forming on Lorelei’s face. He finally saw that thy weren’t about to let up. They were too good for their own sake, it was going to get them killed. “Look I can obviously tell neither of you are going to heed my advice so I’ll tell you what I know.”

Seeing that the thug was finally going to come clean, Lorelei approached him and crouched down in front of him, her eyes lit up like the night sky. “The truth is, the Boss and us, were mercenaries. We was hired to go after some truck that was supposed to be hauling some serious tech.”

“What kind of tech? Who hired you guys? Who does the tech actually belong to?” The little blue Atlantean interjected before the thug could finish his sentence.

Another sigh escaped through the thug’s lips as he was interrupted. “Geeze your impatient. I was just getting to the details alright? Now you wanna here what I gotta say or not?” He asked, looking the young girl in the eyes. Her little pink head bobbed up and down in quiet shame. “Look I don’t know who hired us, or what’s exactly in that delivery truck all I know is its from that Sinclair company. One of their high-tech labs was working on something big. Apperantly the chick who runs the company is in town, they was supposed to deliver the shipment to her place.”

Lorelei’s narrowed in anger. The thugs were looking to steal something from Clover, and the little Atlantean did not like that. “That ‘chick’ is my sister!” She said in anger. Her fist slowly began to clench and the earth began to rumble again, a byproduct of her anger and lack of control.

The thug immediately lifted his hands up and tried to calm the girl down, seeing as how he had obviously hit a very sensitive button. “look kid I didn’t know ok? Were just doin our job! If…If you get me outta here I could give you my phone, it has the route the truck is supposed to be taking. You can use it to try and stop the boss. Deal?” His glance shifted back and forth between to the two kids awaiting their response.

Jake was a little annoyed his story didn't make the guy think any different, because what he went though wasn't spooky, it was a living, horrifying nightmare, the kind of nightmare that almost cost him his life and the life of Redline, heck the sanity of Redline. Even so, Jake remained silent as Lorelei did what she did, asked the questions, the guy answered, not always the best answer. But what caught Jake's and Lorelei's attention was the Sinclair company, Jake had not heard of it, not that he was into that kind of thing, he was still focused on making sure he got his math's homework in rather then study business. Maybe he should take some time, be prepared in case this happened again.

All he knew was that this guy was not good business when it came to Lorelei and keeping her cool as already the ground once again began to rumble as she rose a single, closed fist in anger. Jake reacted quickly, too quickly as he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a hard squeeze in an effort to calm her before almost immediately remembering he had far more strength then the average human but rather then the scare and bad thought's of Lorelei's blue shoulder getting crunched by his strength, he felt nothing. She was durable, that would be the only explanation and Jake let out a silent sigh for it.

When the man finished with his offer, Jake let go of Lorelei's shoulder and gave him a long look before speaking. "Raise him from the ground but leave his feet in, ankle deep." Jake said before stretching a arm. "You, metal dome, will give us the phone and then show us the route with it." Jake would wait for this transaction to be complete, and the man had given them all the information they needed before speaking once more as he looked to Lorelei with a hidden smile under his mask but amusement in his eyes. "Lorelei, I give you the honors of his fate, leave him to the cops or release him." Jake said this with a slight bow before backing off to let her choose and waited.

If anything, they could stop whoever was going to mess with Lorelei's sister, save the day and Jake could make it back to the gym before Anita began to worry. All without having to use his red energy, tonight was going to be a good night.

As Lorelei’s temper flared, the masked boy reached out to try and calm her. She could feel the pressure being exerted by his grip, though it did not cause her any pain or harm, she was after all build to survive the crushing depths of the sea.  The action had succeeded in its original purpose thought, and soon the rumbling would come to a slow stop. The thug had finally cracked and decided to give the kids what they wanted. The masked one seemed to agree to his proposal, but the look on Lorelei’s face made it seem like she was still on the fence. Eventually she agreed to let the man out of his concrete prison, just enough for him to retrieve his phone.

The ground bubbled a bit and the thug lifted himself cautiously up out of the ground till Lorelei solidified the ground again around his ankles to ensure he wouldn’t escape, though at this point he was more than likely to do whatever they told him. Again the thug took every precaution to comply with the two vigilante kids as he reached slowly into his pocket to retrieve his phone. It was a miracle it hadn’t been crushed when he was entombed in the ground, or from the mini quakes Lorelei had caused.

Within a few seconds he turned on the GPS and a route was laid out on the screen. “We had a tracker placed on the supply truck, this will show you where it’s at in real time.” He said as he handed the phone over to the masked boy. “Just….Just don’t say I didn’t warn ya alright?”

Lorelei immediately rushed to Jake’s side, getting uncomfortably close as she obviously had no concept of personal space. Peering over his shoulder, Lorelei looked as a little red dot crept along the screen. The information did very little for Lorelei as she was still learning all there was to know about the surface world. She placed her hand gently on the boy’s shoulder, seeing as she was new to New York, she had absolutely no idea what any of the streets were, or just where the truck was headed. “Can we catch up to the truck? Think we’ll make it in time?” She was more concerned with the fact that the truck belonged to Clover’s company, than the actual danger they could potentially getting themselves into.