Jake had just finished fighting for the night. As he stepped out into the semi-dark alleyway he put his hand up to his sore lip. When he drew his hand back he didn't see any blood. Good, won't be too long before its completely healed again.

He glanced down the alleyway when he heard some noise and saw someone getting roughed up. On closer inspection, he saw it was one of the bouncers of the club. Jake was just about to turn away from the scene. It was better that he just not get involved. But, he noticed that someone seemed to suddenly appear at the street.

"That's probably the guy's friend coming to check up on him", part of his brain told him trying to get him to continue his previous course of action. But, something was bugging him about the suddenness of the friend's appearance. He stepped further back into the shadows to wait and see what happened.

The bouncer held onto Jimmy with one hand and had the other raised ready to strike. "Guess, I'm going to have to mess up that pretty face of yours!" Jimmy closed his eyes wincing at the oncoming attack.

Clark blurred forward grabbing the man's arm before he could strike. He knew something was wrong immediately. A burning sensation immediately started going through his hand. Clark tried to not show the shock but he knew his eyes grew larger as he had to let go of the man.

"You shouldn't have interfered." The man's voice was low and cold as he sneered at Clark. "Guess, I'm just going to have twice the fun tonight."

The man grabbed a hold of Clark's neck and gripped it tightly. The burning sensation intensified and the man's grip was so strong Clark had to gasp for breath. The man raised his other arm ready to strike his second victim of the night.

Clark didn't know how he could fight back, it seemed any contact he had with the man would just bring about more pain. Clark did the same as Jimmy had done earlier and closed his eyes awaiting the blow. He opened them a moment later still awaiting the blow to see another young man was holding on to his aggressor's arm preventing the strike.

"Leave me alone, Jake! This is none of your business." The man seemed to snarl at the newcomer. "I'm delivering a message for Mr. Synde, and you don't want to make him mad."

"The message has been delivered." Jake said calmly but forcefully. "Now, leave them alone." Jake began to apply more pressure to the man's arm hoping to get him to release before he broke it.

After what seemed like an eternity the man finally relented, letting Clark from his deadly grip. "I won't forget this."

Clark coughed and gasped for air as he silently thanked his rescuer. "You don't need to be in this part of town." Jake turned and headed into the shadows back down the alleyway.

"Ohhhh, man" Jimmy moaned as he picked himself up off the ground. "I think he might be right." His whole body felt sore, he even thought his teeth had been rattled.

"You okay?" Clark was shocked at the raspy sound of his voice. His throat felt like it was being stuck with a hundred needles at the same time.

"Yeah," Jimmy rubbed his hand against the back of his head and when he pulled it back he saw just a very small amount of blood, probably just from the rough surface of the wall. "I think so. I'm just sore and have a humongous headache."

"Good"

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine."

"We need to call Chloe. She's probably worried sick by now." Jimmy reached into his pocket and pulled out his now crushed phone. "That's just great."