Chapter One:

Throughout the night, a warning had been flaunting the air. Tinging it with a danger that couldn't be read or placed. The teen had done her best to shrug it off, but the watched feeling stabbed at her mind. It made her face cring every now and then as she tried to concentrate. The premonition would have to wait, she had work to do right now.

Eyes narrowing, she watched as the man ran. His black clothing made it hard to see him amongst the ally. He blended, going in and out so quickly that she knew he must have had years of training, or practice at least. But it wouldn't mater, she thought with a devilish grin as she stayed perched on the ladder, outside a rundown apartment. Doing her best to blend into the moment, her own recent training was that of mixing into the shadows. Her apparel made it a little harder, but she seemed to be doing alright. Or so was her best guess anyways.

The man was breathing heavily, as the night sky casted around them. He was looking around with a little paranoia, but he had a right. Gripping the sack tighter in his fists, he slowed down a little ways ahead of her. Not seeming to catch the tint of yellow extracting from her gloved fingers. She tilted her head to the side slightly, fluently so that it wasn't picked up as she continued to watch.

Training or not, he was being careless. All well, worked better to her advantage. She gripped the railing tighter, ready to hop down at him. Her grin grew larger, this was going to be so much fun. He stopped finally, bending over and taking in a deep breath his chest and back heaved.

She moved ahead a little, quietly letting her boots tap over the rail flooring with soft racketing. He didn't catch her at first, but soon her earth toned clothing became apparent against the gray backdrop. The blond stopped just above him, arching herself up to full height she smirked at him, hands going to her hips. He scowled up at her, backing a step.

Standing against the pale building, her earth-toned coat stood out some. Her black belly shirt, and brown shorts where a little out of the norm for the weather, showing her tanned out skin. Almost smaller in mass than before, she stood a little taller, her body curved with more maturity. But as her blond hair swirled into her face, those two familiar strands framing her curved features so well, but not hiding her large eyes, she still looked like who she was.

"I don't think that's yours." Terra said, blinking his way with the cock of her head.

The man turned quickly to face her, his hands turning white as he gripped the sack. "Who are you?" He sneered in a gruffy voice, raspy from lack of breath. Police sirens wailed in the streets, he glanced over briefly.

"Well, I'm not Batman, if that's what your wondering." Terra laughed, leaning down and gripping the falling rail with her hands, ready to lurch.

The man stared at her for a moment, taking her in fully before lifting his chin and snorting. "I'm not scared of you, go home before your parents find your missing." He shot with a raspy chuckle. Terra raised her brow.

Blinking once, her eyes reopened into a bright, and powerful yellow, she grinned again as if to debate his statement. The man's face seemed to drop as he side stepped further away from her. Terra didn't say anything else. As the man turned to run, Terra threw out her hand, her fingers straining in yellow power as the ally shot up in a block. As he skidded to a stop, Terra lurched from the rail and landed on his back.

The man grunted loudly and grabbed at her arms with one hand. Gripping his sack tighter he tried throwing her. But Terra held tighter as the earth started to rumble again in awakening.

"GET OFF OF ME!" He shouted loudly, finally dropping his sack he grabbed her arms, Terra, being so light, was swung over his head easily then. He tossed her towards her own wall of earth, but her reaction was quicker and the wall fell back down before she hit it.

Skidding her chunky brown boots over the ally pavement, Terra touched her fingers to the ground, the other hand suspended in the air. She watched him through her blond hair and grinned. He started moving towards her, but Terra rolled to the side and moved to her feet with liquid movement, her feet scraped over the ground, the earth followed and swung itself at him. He cried out as a pillar plowed him into the gray building. The pillar fell back into the ground as soon as contact was made, but the crack coming from his body, told her that he hadn't made away from pain.

Terra smiled, putting herself back into stance. She was playing with him, but she couldn't help it. Part of her darker nature was taking some pleasure in it, watching her powers toss this thief around like a doll.

He groaned and turned around, glaring at her through his bruised face and busted lip. Slowly he wiped the blood from his mouth, glaring heavily at her from his scuffed face. "Your going to wish you hadn't done that." He sneered.

She ignored him, placing her footing firmly on the ground, before throwing herself forward, making the earths vibrant push her faster as she hurdled towards him for hand-in hand combat. This he was more familiar with, and quickly grabbed Terra's wrist and threw her into the wall. She screamed with surprise, then pain as her face bashed into the building. Cringing, her eyes began to glow yellow again as she swung her head over her shoulder and glared at him. Her mouth gaped open as she summoned the earth back to power.

It rumbled, starting to break under their feet, but the man grunted and swung Terra back to the ground harshly. She yelped, her eyes returning normal blue. Feeling pain vibrate from her head, she shook it and stared at the ground for only a second, when she heard the fateful and deadly "click" of a cocked gun. Her eyes broke into wide expression, as she turned around and looked into the barrel of the handgun.

Her mouth gaped again, as she gasped, feeling rush of surprise and fear flood from her veins and into her stomach, swirling into a frozen state. This was SO cheating...

The thief chuckled, grinning darkly towards her. "Not so tough now, are you sweet heart?" He spat out some more blood from his mouth, before returning his look to her. Terra gulped, breathing heavily as her fingers gripped the pavement. Slowly, he aimed it to her forehead and eased his finger to the trigger.

Terra closed her eyes and looked away upon instinct, feeling the rush painfully jab at her.

The gun cocked again, reminding her of the danger.

Terra bit her lip and trembled.

Sweat beaded down her forehead.

Thoughts blankly left her mind.

She went numb.

Then she heard something hit the pavement. Loudly, with a THUMP the thief groaned out and the gun fired needlessly into the air.

"Oh, you had it real down." A voice said with a irritated, but cocky tone all the same.

Terra's eyes flew open as she turned around and scrambled to her feet. Her cheeks flushed from embarrassment at first, but then she looked down at the man, laying on the floor groaning, with a gooey red X patch over his face. Then she crossed her arms and snorted. "Yeah, I did have it down."

"Yeah?" Red X said, his cool tone taking back over. "That's why you where about to get another hole in your head, right?"

Terra twisted her lip. "I was just waiting for the right moment."

The thief groaned, sitting up slowly and rubbing his head. Red X casually punched him to the side of the head, sending the skinny man back to the ground. Both ignored him as he moaned out again. "Of course you where." He shook his head at Terra.

"That's right, I was. Because you know what?" Terra flew her hands to her hips, and watched Red X drag the man to the side, before throwing him against the building roughly.

"Stay." He said, ignoring Terra as she continued, even as he poured xynopthiem from his palms around the thief, sticking him to the wall.

"I know how to play the good guy, I didn't want to hurt him. So I was going to take him by complete surprise, you know? And startle him so bad he couldn't fight back!" She rambled childishly.

"Yeah, I know." Red X played with sarcasm in his monotone voice, still practically ignoring her as he then walked to the bag.

"I WAS!" She stated again. After a moment, she shook her head, settling down, but keeping her arms crossed tightly, half of that was from the nip of the cold weather. She decided to just drop the stupid argument, because she knew she had messed up. Not that it would be admitted though. Her face softened some as she shifted her weight, watching Red X snatch the bag up and look inside it. Glancing down for a moment, then back at X, she asked; "So what did he steal?"

Red X didn't answer at first as he stared inside. "Not sure." He muttered. "Some kind of computer chip, a couple of them."

"Computer chip?" Terra asked, blinking now she walked forward she stood beside him, looking in the bag. Sure enough, there where three chips, rather large, but complicated looking. "Weird," she commented, shrugging her shoulders. "So when are we giving 'em back?"

Red X didn't respond. Terra narrowed her brows, before lifting one as her hands went to her hips. "We ARE going to return them, right?"

"Why?"

"Uh, because then it would have just been stealing! You know, the same thing we just busted this guy for," she jabbed her thumb at the man, who was struggling against the red substance. "Actually, that would be more like mugging someone for stolen goods. That's even better!"

"Keep it down," X hissed at her, closing the sack and holding it in the hand away from her. "Your going to wake someone up."

"As if that fight didn't." She rolled her eyes. But Terra saw Red X was ignoring her, as he quickly climbed back up the metal ladder, swift as he carried the sack. She grunted, he never waited up.

Terra paused for a moment, looking over her shoulder and around the alley way. A shiver rocketed down her spine, but no wind blew. The air became stale, ad she didn't like it. Shaking her head slightly to rub away her paranoia, the blond looked to where X had taken off too. Dashing forward, Terra jumped onto the ladder as he finished climbing it and went after him. Not sure where they where headed to spend the rest of the night.

...

With the red X patch over his eyes, the thief couldn't see, although he still looked around in hopes of catching someone. He listened as the two teens ran off, and he still heard the girl arguing over something, but their voices where fading. "...Hello?..." But of course, they had just kinda left him there. And as the police sirens rang again, stopping outside the ally, the thief cursed under his breath. Sighing and leaning against the building he was stuck too. The guy who had hired him was going to be ... upset. And he hadn't seemed like someone the thief wanted to disturb.

Oh, for some reason I just felt that for an opening chapter, this seemed a little weak. I'm trying to show Terra a little differently than in the first fic (for now anyways -evil grin). I want to show her healing some from her trauma, a little bit of a lighter look, but keeping those memories with her still. If that made any sense.