A Cold Day in Mexico (open to 2. first come first serve)

In a small town, On the Mexican Side of the Border...

The weather in one Mexican province has been bizarre lately. Like, chilliest in its history bizarre. Crop failure had started to set in around the sparse few farms, and the drug cartels have been rather sluggish in their activities. Night time was even worse, as visible frost had started to creep in the deserts, and if the problem wasn't investigated soon, Mexico would lose this inconsequential province of high poverty and low economic significance.

Standing a head over the failing corn field, Xiao had been drawn to the region because of the bizarre weather.  The moon and stars were out, giving her draconic senses sufficient light to navigate around. Her weather worn boots na were made for walking, and she'd been walking for a couple of hours now on the trail of something that stood out- in this cold, there were trails of plants being burnt, and if it wasn't for the cold a wildfire would have erupted. She follows  the seared ears of corn and eventually reaches a clearing, where there was a stand-off, but not of the Mexican variety.

A dusty, beat up police car's headlines shone brightly on a young figure wearing a dirty white shirt and jeans. It was a malnourished girl with cheek length hair, who was likely in her teens.  She was confronted by three police officers- one fit looking latina lady, and her two male officer colleagues, both packing shotguns. She gestured them to lower their weapons, as toting a gun at a teenager was not good police practice.

"I said I had nothing to do with it!" The young teen cried out in anguished protest, in Spanish. Xiao didn't understand the words, but understood the context. She crept close but kept low, out of sight.

"You still gotta come with us, Isabela. We know you ain't normal! Your powers might have drained all the heat-" The officers speculated, but the girl would have none of it.

"Just leave me alone!" The child suddenly bursts into flame and flies off, leaving a flaming trail like a comet. The armed officers took aim, but their female leader quickly discouraged them by pushing their guns upward.

"Don't shoot her! She's still just a kid!" The lady said, and the cops promptly give chase in their car.  Xiao watched the event unfold and considered intervening. It wouldn't take her long- neither of them were going that fast. But first, she studied the fiery teen's blast-off scorch marks and obtained her scent.

Mexico, one could ask what he was doing there and Sebastian found himself asking the very same question. There were many reasons he was regretting coming here the moment he came here, such as the whole being hot as hell thing. Man that was something that he really hated, but then again things were as they were. In the end he could only really blame a whim for him being here, but then again whims were the only things that really guided what he did. Luckily he didn't dress warmly, otherwise he would have double regretted coming here. With one hand over his eyes, Sebastian squinted as he looked over what was before him. Well, it was nothing worth noting really unless you were into old Mexican Towns at any rate. Apparantly things were getting cold around here, but he had no idea what could cause something like that in the usual hot end of North America.

Call it misplaced patriotism or sheer boredom, but he found himself curious as to what could cause something along those lines. Dressed in a simple white shirt and faded jeans, he buried his hands into his pockets. Something was going on but the question that was likely plaguing many was what, though he had a feeling there would be a scapegoat somewhere around here. When things didn't make sense, there was always someone to blame and that was about how things worked really. Well, perhaps bundling up would have been smart for the night time considering that  things got pretty cold around this time, cold enough for even frost to form. Considering how weather worked, well frost forming was not exactly a good thing really when Mexico was brought into consideration. "So many questions and no answers. Nah, that's not gonna work." He muttered to himself with a sigh.

While it may have been dark at night for some, he could see everything as if the sun were up. Honestly, that gave him the advantage in the whole seeing in the dark thing, but then again it was not something that he thought too much about. What drew his attention was a beaten looking cop car and them turning their attention upon a a teenage girl, though the reason he could not help but wonder. Might have been that natural curiosity of his, because he was not known by many as a gentleman. Not that one would call him rude really, but he wasn't the chair pulling out type. Maybe they were the reason for the messed up weather, or maybe they were getting arrested for smack. Smack was probably a problem here too, so that sounded like something that was legit.

Within a minute they would take off in a burst of flame, cementing the whole possibility of her being responsible for this. After all, sometimes meta powers could do some pretty crazy stuff if someone knew what they were doing. So you could probably guess what he was going to do after this. Yeah, Espada was totally going to track her down, maybe find out what was going on before maybe eating a burrito.

Faith had no idea where he was, first it was beach, and that other city and now he was in sand again, dirt. And it didn't help that the he swam here, it was night too. And he needed to change his pants but no one was fitting his size in this world. And the leather was starting to worn. At least his sword would never dull, that was one thing that magic had it's advantages but the mage smith had said the magic would fall at some point.

After a long walk, Faith had found himself at the edge of a cornfield, the look of it said bad crops but the sight was something familiar, reminded him of his time back when he was a child, fighting in the cornfields, listening for the rustle of his trainer, moving without sound. Doe that was more difficult for him when it came to his size. The price of being a Soul man of the giants. He entered the corn field and walked around a bit before finding a path that was seared and burnt and for now Faith would follow this path, it was too cold to have a wildfire unless someone started it but that would remain to be unseen for now.

It would be a while as Faith had decided to move around to flank just in case the fire starter had not finished that path only to find a surprise. More metal box's with the flashing lights along with a few people and a girl. Something was happening that Faith was just out of earshot to hear but soon enough the girl would... start flying with fire and the flashing box's gave chase. Faith thought about following but wanted to check the marks that the girl would have left behind when she began to fly, to check what type of magic she was using and began to Jog his way over to where the group stood before their chase.

The angry teenager was off and the chase was on, Xiao sprinting through the corn, following the flaming trail of the child. The girl was certainly not in any mood to cooperate with authorities, and in mid flight she wheeled around in mid hover to raise a great wall of fire to cut off the police. Xiao could feel the unnaturally intense flames from ten feet away, and was in no mood to check if she could survive it. The police were forced to pull over and extinguish the fire with extinguishers, lest the whole plantation burn down.

Over the river, and the girl stopped flying to leg it the rest of the way. Her trail led to an old abandoned farmhouse and barn. Xiao was a bit glad, now maybe she could talk to the girl.

Approaching the barn, that was then Xiao realized she wasn't alone. Someone was downwind. She circled around the abandoned shanty houses to find Espada and Fath to confront them. "Who are you? what do you know about that girl and this weather?"

The police much like Espada had a similar idea when it came to chasing the flaming metahuman, though likely their reasons for doing so were far different. Luckily for him they were confounded by a flaming wall of...flames, and that meant he could continue to follow while they were busy dealing with the likely deadly flames. While the flames continued to blaze, he would slip into the shadows which received him easily enough. Within a matter of seconds he was in one location, and then the next somewhere else. His exit point was on the other side of the river from what he could tell, rising from the shadows as they slipped away from him almost like liquid.

His eyes would follow the firestar that was the metahuman, flying towards what appeared to be an abandoned farmhouse. That made things a little easier, unless she was going to go into some manner of psychotic burning rage upon seeing him. That would have made things so much harder that they needed to be really, and he hated fire. All those messed up shadows tended to make using his powers nearly impossible. Considering those were the only thing he had aside from his lovely personality and...well things that can't be mentioned in a PG-13 scenario that was no good.

That was when someone else appeared to notice he was around, but then again not as if he was hiding himself. It was a tall looking female, of asian descent if he knew anything about things like that. The question of who he was, well that was a good question really, but a nickname that had been thrown around once due to ignorance made things so much easier. "Names Espada, and what's your name?" He asked with a wink and a click of the tongue. "As for the fiery chick...well I don't know about her, but looks like everyone thinks she has something to do with this."

Faith had checked the circle but had found almost nothing that made any sense, no residue, no circles. Then it hit him, she was what he had been called a while back a meta-human. Not of his world but he couldn't blame himself, it was tough trying to remember he wasn't in his own homeland but in another world that had buildings taller then giants and people with strange and unique things.

Looking back in the direction that the girl had flown off too, Faith decided to follow and after a long jog, Faith had found himself near some not so good looking houses to find the back of someone he had met before and a funny looking person again, only she was tall, really tall. Taller then him. He wasn't too happy about about but she had asked a question in normal English, seems this giant was going to live for now. Standing behind the male Shade, Faith would rise his sword that was almost the same height as her and answer this question. "I am Faith and Fire girl is unknown to me and this weather is cold. HI Male Shade." Faith would wave at Espada, the voice defiantly that of the male Shade he had met before with the land kraken.

With the strangers introducing themselves either by name or nom de plum, Xiao returned the courtesy. "I'm Dragon Girl." She said, pausing to look over the strangers. So far they'd proven not so hostile.

"... Okay. Espada and Faith. What do you two want with the girl? Or was it the weird weather?" she followed up.

So he was dealing with a strangely tall woman as well as what looked like an equally tall male. Well, the guy looked pretty familiar and that was when he remembered that one time with the eldritch abomination thing. "Wow, I guess everyone's growing these days." Sebastian noted with a smirk and a shrug, though he didn't really have too much of a special interest within the metahuman girl. "Don't want anything with the girl really, guess you could say I'm curious about the whole strange weather though." He admitted looking to Faith who likely had similar intentions. "What about you? Are you here for the girl or are we curious about the same thing?"

Faith happily lifted his sword above the others while listening to Male Shadow and the small giant talk. Wondering a little more about the weather when he was asked the question. He wasn't aware of weather in different areas for he wasn't even aware of where he was currently. The thought was then interrupted by Male Shadow who re asked the question. "Faith Doesn't know anything about flying fire girl. Her pyromancy must be something of this world. And is this weather not your normal weather?" Faith would ask while looking around at their surroundings. Lowering his sword just in case they were not alone, he hated being in the open as much as he hated being under ground. Left him feeling like an attack could happen at any time.

"The weather, yes. It is strange. It was on the news and I came to investigate." Xiao said rather poignantly, and wondered if she could trust these two. "Still it's too dangerous for normal people, though I'm guessing you are not the sort."

"Not really. This is Mexico, and usually Mexico is usually hot. Is this not common knowledge?" Xiao explained to Faith, then asked. "It would not be fair to blame the girl for the weather. However, we can not overlook a chance to ask about it either. I guess we can work together... if we all promise to speak-" Xiao's speech was cut when, surprise surprise, the girl had slowly emerged from the barn... and was not happy to see she was not alone.

"I'M SO SICK OF YOU PEOPLE BLAMING ME FOR THIS WEATHER!" She screamed, still in her fiery bluish-white state, and unleash a torrent of fire against the trio... not exactly at them, but close enough that Xiao had to shield her face and eyes from the heat and light. "Wait...! we just want to talk-!" Xiao pleaded, but had to jump closer to the river to get out of range. The girl's volatile flames quickly set the farm house they were close to ablaze.

"GRAAAGH!" Angry teenager and flame powers. Definitely not a good combination.