Chapter 5: The Arch-Demon drops in (5)

"H…y…k.i…"

"Mmmm…"

"K…id…?"

"Wha-?"

"Kid, are you alright?"

The loud ringing in Caitlin's ears muddled the incoherent words of a stranger. But by the second, she was able to regain enough consciousness to finally open her eyes to see a concerned man watching her from above. She sat straight up in a panic as a whiplash of her emotions hit her all at once.

"W-Who are y-ow…" Caitlin lightly rubbed her arm of a light bruise.

"Easy, it looks like you took quite a nasty fall, but fortunately, you got off easy compared to the others." The man sadly looked on and Caitlin followed his line of sight and found such a horrific sight around her.

"Oh god…" Bloody and battered bodies laid on the ruined streets and sidewalks around the lot, or what could be what's left of it, as an array of destroyed flaming cars were strewn about the desolated area. Looking closely, she could even see cop cars capsized and flipped upside down under huge ridges of the torn apart street.

S-She could even see the bodies motionlessly hit their arms against the ceiling.

"W-What happened?" She could barely get out the words to say amongst all of the devastation around her.

"I'm just as lost as you kid…" The man groaned in pain as he clutched his bleeding head, "One second, I see a bunch of cops chasing after an armored truck, then next this huge random ass earthquake from nowhere tears everything up this whole street apart…"

"The whole street…?" Caitlin gasped.

"Yeah, I was able to check a bit ahead after your boyfriend saved me." The man coughed.

"My boyfriend, no, I don't have a-wait, Michael?" It hit Caitlin at that moment, just as they were getting in line, Michael was acting a bit weird before a huge SUV was hurtling towards her from the sky. Just after that, she heard Michael scream for her before everything went black.

"Yup, when those cars started getting thrown off the street, I was one of the poor unlucky bastards who got crushed by them." The man looked to trembling legs as he still felt the pangs of the impact on them, "Just before I could even call for help, that kid pushed it off me like nothing." He looked at said car in the ruined lot and shivered at the horrifying memory of almost kicking the bucket.

"And after that there I was blubbering a thank you to him, and he had already moved on to help someone else being crushed to death." The sight was uplifting, hell, he even found himself helping the kid especially when it came time to rescuing the vendors trapped in those tipped over food trucks, "He just kept on going and going. After a while, he told me to watch over you while he went out to see if anyone else was hurt."

"What?" Finally realizing the warmth wrapped around her, Caitlin pulled Michael's black hoodie off her shoulders. She didn't want to be dubious about his promise from earlier, he seemed serious about it too. She remembers. Him pushing her out of the way from that car. It was actually heartwarming and she was grateful that he was okay, but she couldn't just let him go off by himself.

They had to go back to the lab before something more horrible rears its ugly head around the corner.

Standing up on wobbly legs, Caitlin properly put on Michael's jacket, "Which way did he go?"

"Uh…up the street heading towards the highway."

"Thanks…" Caitlin breathed out before making a run after the boy on the demolished sidewalk. Even in a crisis, safety comes first after all, she thought.

"Hey, wait, where are you going!? The ambulance will be here soon!" The man shouted and waved his phone, suggestively.

"Thanks for watching over me, but I really have to find my FRIEND!" Caitlin made sure to emphasize that bit not just for the man, but mostly for herself before she gets too caught up in her emotions that might lead into some awkward territory once she meets up with Michael. Dear god, the damages just keep getting worse as she advanced down the road, the very street itself had a fissure going down it.

She's heard of California having some serious earthquakes, but this one seemed too isolated. If something like a quake was to tear apart the road and send so many cars flying, then how come none of the buildings are experiencing any damages?

'Whatever it was, please, just keep safe before I get to you, Michael…' She heavily breathed as she pushed herself through the smoky road.

*CLICK!*

'C'mon, Mike! You gotta move it!' Michael thought in a panic as he rushed down the destroyed streets of L.A. as fast as his legs could carry him. He didn't even waste a second to switch into his other form after seeing Caitlin unconscious. It was his duty to protect her, and he would have almost broken it had he not push her out of the way.

He doesn't know the extent of his own durability, but he can actually take most hits without feeling the pain. She couldn't. Most of the other innocent people laying about on the streets injured and unconscious couldn't either. That's why he needs to stop whoever made this mess, and the apparent source was the armored car that those cops were chasing.

"A-Anyone? H-Help, please!" The mumbled cries of a woman trapped in a flipped over van could be heard.

'At this rate…ugh…' Michael stopped his running and turned back to help.

The vehicle was only a few miles away, and he knew he would've been there to stop them by now, but the panicked cries of those around him were too much for him to ignore. From saving another man from getting crushed by his own car to using his own claws as a makeshift jaws of life to pull out an elderly old man, who crashed his car into another oncoming car. Most of his saves were met with a predictable scream to the face while the rare occasion of a few were too dazed or unconscious just to not notice his frightening appearance.

"I-I can't move! P-please! Anyone, h-help m-!" The woman's words died in her throat as five sharp claws dug into her car door and ripped it off its hinges, soon enough a wave of relief washed over her, "T-Thank you…!"

"Here…" Crouching down, Michael revealed his unsettling visage to the woman and expected an ear-splitting scream, but no, he actually received tears of joy from her. He placed a reassuring arm around her while cutting the seatbelt, and just she was no longer trapped, he quickly pulled her out before gravity unjustly slammed her face first into the glass covered ceiling below her.

"There you go…" He trotted over to the sidewalk and laid her down, "Don't worry, the ambulance will be here soon so just stay there and get some rest, okay?" He was about to jump back into the chase but stopped once he felt the distressed woman tug on his sleeve.

"Thank you…" She sobbed as her grip on his sleeve tightened.

'She's shaking…' He thought, poor lady must have been really scared after being forced into this mess.

"W-Who are you?" She shakily asked.

Gently removing her hand off him, he comfortingly held it and tried his best to dial down his distorted voice to say, "…A friend…" He was giving her what he hoped was a warm smile, but considering her startled reaction to it, he mentally kicked himself for thinking his terrifying appearance would translate that well to someone, who wasn't a sweet kid like Rose.

Stepping back, he gave her one last wave goodbye before taking off leaving a gust of wind in his wake as it hit the bewildered woman, who just watched the creature disappear down the street in the blink of an eye.

'C'mon, Mike, you can do it…' Focusing his sight, he looked a bit further ahead to see the darn armored car still ramming cars off the street or to the opposite facing lane. And to make matters worse, they're about to enter one of the busiest intersections in the city leading towards the highway! If that quaking thing was their work, then there was going to be a ton of damage.

Usually, him using his super speed would help him keep up with most cars but estimating the distance the armored car was from barreling through that intersection, he probably wouldn't make it before any of the chaos ensues. Meaning, he'll have to go all out with his running.

'I can worry about mom shouting at me about holding back later. This is actually an emergency!' In the midst of running, he took one long leap across one city block forward and tensed his leg muscles, 'If I don't then people will die!'

*THOOOOOOM!* *CRAAACK~!*

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

And just as his tensed front food launched itself off the ground, Michael had found himself leaving a large crater in his wake as he propelled himself through the air. He let out a panicked scream and flailed his arms about in the air as the force he had thrown himself into was way too much than he wanted. He just needed the extra boost to run with not shoot himself out like a cannonball.

Everything was a blur for him, the building, the demolished cars, and even the blue skies above were hard for him to discern. But eventually everything soon came to a stop as he faceplanted into some smooth pavement. Getting on his knees, he touches every part of his body as a way of verifying that everything was intact.

"I-I'm alive? I'm alive!" Michael happily cheered as his distorted voice bellowed out for all to hear.

"HOLY SHIT! What the fuck is that!?"

"Crap…" Looking around, Michael was surprised to find himself at the end of the road leading towards the busy cross-section, but before he could lament going a bit further than the armored car, all eyes from the sidewalks were all on him.

'Dammit, what do I say?' This was the first time that he'd show himself to a public crowd while in this form, 'Okay, just play it cool…'

"W-Wassup?" His nervousness was hard to be discerned on his demonic looking face, so instead his uncomforting smile only further frightened the surrounding public to either scream and run or stand completely still in either fear or bewilderment at the sight of him.

*FLASH!* *FLASH!*

"Whoa, man, did you hear that thing?"

"I know, just look at how metal it looks, bro!"

Laughed some skater teen with his friend as they pulled out their phones and started snapping pictures and recording the nervous devil.

'Oh no…'

"I can't wait to post this on youtube! Maybe I'll get as many views like that first ever Justice League video during that whole alien invasion in D.C."

'No, no, no, no, no!' Michael was literally breaking down from the inside, he was already pushing it with this whole car thing, but if he was actually shown like this on the internet his mom would kill him!

*HONK!* *HONK!*

But before he could stop the annoying skater dudes, he was reminded of the armored truck recklessly driving his way. His head snapped back to face the large vehicle charging right for him. His worries over being shown to the web was dashed by his growing anger at the destruction it had wrought to the people and Kit-Cat.

"Get out of the way or get ran the fuck ov-!" From out the armored truck's window, a man wearing a strange black mask with a lightning bolt shouted out to the teen in their way, but stopped after getting a good look.

"You…!" The distortion in Michael's voice only grew deeper as he lowered himself to take a few heavy stomps in the direction of the oncoming vehicle. Just as he was just a mere feet away from colliding with the truck, he quickly swung back his arms and threw them in front of his body.

*THUUUUUNK!* *SCREEEEEEEE~!*

"What in the hell…" The white eyes of the man's full faced mask widened as the armored truck was stopped dead its tracks as the two back tires tirelessly burned against the black pavement of the road. The two front tires were futilely running in the air as Michael not only caught the heavy vehicle, but was actually lifting its front half thanks to his claws digging through its thick, steel hood.

Barely exerting enough effort to match how he propelled himself earlier, Michael began to shift his weight to the side as he pulled the whole truck with him.

"Let's see how you like it, assholes!"

*SLAAAAAAM!* *SHATTER!* *SHATTER!*

Like nothing, he flipped the entirety of the truck on its side while being careful of the remaining civilians watching from the sidelines. Good, now with that crises averted, he'll have time to finally restrain the guys responsible for the mess back there. Making his way to the roof of capsized truck, he could hear a pair of voices arguing from within.

"Shit…shit…what was that thing?"

"I dunno, but it just flipped our ride like nothin'! Guess it's time to finally use these suits you made us."

"Are you nuts, I doubt these things would work on something that could lift a twelve ton truck, Lester!"

"For the last time, no real names during a job, Cracker! If you wanna leave the dough then fine, but I'm not the one who's desperate!"

"I'm not saying to drop the dead weight, we can still carry enough and ru-!"

Having heard enough of their bickering, Michael dug his claws through the truck's roof and tore it open to see the two douchebags responsible. Looking up at him were two men wearing the strangest of outfits.

The one in the driver's seat was the more familiar one with the lightning bolt mask, but his entire look consisted of a faded black and red suit with a bit of insulated padding surrounding the upper part of it. He could tell because the suit had some rips in it probably from all of the dangerous circuitry that were sloppily ingrained into it from the chest to the suit's black gauntlets.

The other one in the passenger seat wore a yellow padded suit with brown shoulder pads and brown boots, and just like the other guy, he wore a mask except his was yellow with blue eyes and with a black crack symbol going down it. The guy also wore a bulky pair of brown gauntlets with digital screens attached to them.

The two were a rather odd pair to look at, their equipment was lacking, but despite it all they're still criminals, who caused untold destruction and apparently based on their bickering, robbery.

"Hey there, dudes. Wanna make this easy for yourselves by giving up now because I believe the cops can arrange for you guys to continue your little conversation in a ride to the big house." Michael threatened by purposely widening his creepy smile.

"H-Holy shit that's freaky…" The man garbed in the yellow suit shuddered.

"Especially up close, it looks like as if a devil fucked a jack-o-lantern to make this freak of nature…" The man garbed in the red and black suit whispered.

'O-Okay that was hurtful…' Michael sniffled.

"I-I guess you want it the hard way then…!" Doing his best to hide his hurt feelings, Michael immediately reached out for the one at the drivers as the pair of criminals screamed out of fear. Just as he grabbed the black suited man, their screaming only grew. He'll just give them a held back love tap and put them to bed.

'I'll just make this quick and…' His train of thought was interrupted as the black suited man grabbed his arm, 'What the-?" Soon a viscous amount of electrical sparks soon illuminated the man's tightened grasp as it began building up.

"Hands off, freak!"

"Gagagagagagagagagagagaga!" Getting a sense of deja vu, Michael experienced a painful surge of lightning going through his body. The sudden jolt to his nervous system caused him to jump back and start twitching from the sudden shock.

"Gagh, w-whwh-what the hell was th-ha-hahat!?" It was way worse than getting hit by the volt koi, way worse!

"Hehehe, see? That sure put it down." Crawling out through the roof's opening, the two robbers helped each other up as they looked down at the twitching young man(?) on the floor.

"Yeah, yeah, that's great and all but we lost our ride, and-!" The sudden flashing from the nearby skater dudes still recording caught the yellow suited guy's attention.

"Hey, punks! Did I give you permission to take my picture!" The black suited man aimed his gauntlets at the skater dudes and released a stream of lightning near the sidewalk at their feet. The now smoking crater gave the two doofuses an actual reason to run along with any curious bystanders, who weren't afraid by the red creature.

"Les-!" The yellow suited man screamed.

"Ahem!" The black suited man rudely coughed.

"Er…Electrocutioner."

"Thank you, yes, Cracker?"

"You don't have to shoot at the kids, we just need to get ourselves a new ride and book it before the cops get here!" The cars in the intersection were starting to slow as they continued making their way while still being nosy enough to slow down and look at the oddly dressed pair.

"Oh please, they won't be flanking us from behind so relax. And that's pretty hypocritical coming from you, I'm not the one, who leveled all those street blocks back there!" The Electrocutioner laughed, "By the way, you've done good work with this tech."

'So, then it was…?' Michael glared at the yellow suited man from below with most of the twitching almost out of his system.

"Though I appreciate the thanks, I only did that because I wanted to shake off the cops. Look, I'm trying to get in good with the big guys, but I'm not going to cross that many lines to do it…" Cracker soon walked towards the back of the truck and opened the doors with duffel bags full of money spilling out, "Grab a car and prepare our getaway before we're surrounded by the cops because I seriously doubt I'd be able to hold my body out long enough to shake them up again."

The intersection still had three roads pointing inward at their direction. They may not have to worry about the police going through that train wreck of a mess they left behind them but getting through three streets full of cops would be suicide.

"How in the hell do I even use any of those damned things back to work?" The Electrocutioner groaned, those quakes basically left most of the vehicles a mess.

"Then just get one that works, dumbass." The Cracker pointed to the slowed cars on the other three streets.

"Sounds like a plan and I say we should get ourselves a truck…" Cracking his knuckles, the Electrocutioner slowly walked his way to the middle of the busy street as volts of lightning gathered around his fists. But as he takes his next step, a red hand latches onto his ankle, "Seriously, you're still u-uuuaaagh!"

Like a doll, the electrocutioner was effortlessly thrown down the ruined street past the Cracker, who was struggling to carry as many duffel bags as he could. And before he could react to his partner flying over his head, he found the air knocked out of his lungs as a red blur heavily slams him against the remains of the armored truck.

"So, you're the one who caused that earthquake…" Michael growled as steam began to emit itself out of his wide mouth, "Now let's see how you like getting your world shaken!"

"L-Let me g-aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Lifting the Cracker into the air by the neck of his suit, Michael used his strength to rapidly shake the man as violently as he could to give him the same taste of what everyone and Kit-Cat had to go through. He took heed not to go too far otherwise, he'd force the guy's neck to break.

'He's had enough.' A good scare like that should teach him a lesson.

"Y-You-hurp! No, can't-otherwise it'd get all over my face!" Cracker gagged as he held his mouth closed through his mask. There now that he's had a taste of his own medicine, it was time to knock him out with a good old backhanded slap, which would have done the job had Michael been more aware of the criminal's partner.

"Gaaaaaaagh!" Another bolt of electrified energy struck him from the side as the Electrocutioner limped his way over to the two.

"Try throwing me again you, asshole, see what happens!" The Electrocutioner continued blasting the teen as much as he could as Michael's grip eventually released the Cracker, leaving the crook to breathe heavily.

"Urp…thanks…" The Cracker gagged once more before clenching his fists, and soon after a beeping sound could be heard from his gauntlets.

"Then knock his ass out already!" The Electrocutioner growled as he began to notice his attacking steadily losing its effect on the teen as he began to pick himself up.

'I-I'm getting used to it…' Michael stuttered as he began to push back the lightning by shielding himself with his outstretched hand. Sure, the Volt Koi weren't this powerful, but the pain not so bad when he's not getting completely surprised.

"Step off!" Getting completely surprised, a powerful vibrational field surrounded the Cracker's bulky gauntlets and immediately sent Michael flying once it hit his chest. There's also the fact that like with the lightning, being hit with a force strong enough to make earthquakes freaking hurts.

"Gaaaaagh!" The sounds of honking mixed with the ringing sound from the impact ringing out in his head. Taking a deep breath, he looks back to see that he was hurtling towards the busy street ahead and into a bus.

"Oh, dear god!"

*SLAM!* *SKIIIIID~!* *HONK!* *HON-!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!* *CRASH!*

And from there it was like pushing down a row of dominos, after he crashed through the bus' windshield, the frightened bus driver accidentally crashed into an oncoming car which was followed by another car crashing behind the bus, and sadly with another car blindsiding the side of the bus as it entered the intersection. And those were the accidents that he could keep up with as the crashing only continued.

Picking himself up while the civilians in the bus and cars ran out screaming, Michael could hear the two familiar voices of the criminals amidst the maelstrom of panicked screeching and car collisions.

"There that ought to keep him down for a while."

"That's what you said last time after you literally blasted that thing with enough electricity to power a house. Just get the money into one of the cars so we can leave, Lester!"

"No real names during a job, call me Electrocuti-!"

"Who gives a fuck, just grab the money!"

'Oh no you don't!' Michael almost fell over his own two feet as he stood up on shaky legs, 'Damn that really hurt, and ugh…m-my stomach…' No, he'll be fine. He just has to power through the pain, and man, it hurts so bad. He's never been injured this much before, but thankfully, the pain was quickly ebbing away especially after getting back outside under the sun.

"There we go…there we…urp…go…" Steam flowed out of his jagged mouth, unconsciously as he pushed through the mess of empty cars towards the pair of masked men packing duffel bags into the trunk of a hot pink pickup truck.

"Really, Cracker, do we really need to take the car that'll make us stick out more like a couple of assholes!?"

"Shut up, it's the only one that's close and still functioning!" Both Cracker and the Electrocutioner slammed their doors as the pink truck's engines began to roar. They were getting away.

"Stop…hurk…right-oh god-hngh…t-there…" The steam flowing out of his mouth only grew as he stumbled his way after them, if he ran, he could definitely catch them before their tires would even leave tread marks. But that unsettling feeling in his stomach only grew worse, the pain was almost gone, but those vibrations really must have done a number on him because-because…

"I-I think I'm about to heav-!" And letting nature take it course, Michael only did what was natural and spewed from his mouth a fierce wave of flames that shot past the pink truck and engulfed the entirety of the downed armored truck.

*Kaboooooooooooooom!*

"…I am so going to be in a lot of trouble…"

Resulting in a huge explosion that decimates a quarter of the street leaving around a multitude of flames to spread around to the other cars. He quickly ran to the flames and patted them out with little to no injury before any more explosions would happen. Hearing the annoying sound of rubber skidding, he took his attention off the spreading fires and towards the hot pink truck already driving off into the distance.

'Oh no you don't-!' But the moment, he set his eyes on the escaping criminals, the spreading flames eventually found its was towards of the nearby capsized cars leaking gasoline.

*Kabooooooom!* *Booooooom!* *Booooom!* *Booooom!*

"O-Oh come on…" Michael grunted as the car then caused another chain of tipped over cars to explode in unison as he laid flat on his arm upon hitting the ground after getting dangerously flung from the explosion's force. The pink truck was already off in the distance, he could catch up if he ran after them.

"Huh?" Funny, he right arm felt strange, it felt all loose. He soon began to panic afraid that he might have broken it but noticed no real pain, "Did the explosion knock something loose or wh-?"

*Plop!*

"The flip?" He finally observed his arm to see that his right arm limply stretched out to hit the floor, "Uegh, wh-what is this?" This was definitely new, but his thoughts couldn't linger for long on it as a news helicopter came on the scene right above him as the sounds of police cars blaring out their sirens were closing in on the ruined street.

Pupil-less eyes widening, Michael looked at the escaping pink truck then back to the helicopter obviously filming him.

"Yeah, I think it's time to go…" He gulped as he struggled to gather his stretched arm in his left and began to ran down the street that those bastards left a mess. And in a red blur, he was gone amidst the smoke and fires, and just in time too as the police finally across the scene in their cruisers.

He had to hide and going too deep down the road would escalate things since he could hear the sound some ambulances miles away. He did not want to bring any further attention to himself after that failed fiasco of a plan. So, he scurried over to the closest alley that he could find and hid behind one of the dumpsters while his stretched out arm was sticking out of the corner like a sore thumb.

"Deep breaths, Mike, deep breaths… This is obviously…new, but if you relax then may it will…" He breathed as his arm muscles soon began to contract, inching his limb back to its ordinary size.

"There we go, t-there we g-ngh!" The process was taking too long, and his muscles were actually getting too sore, and once he broke concentration, his stretched arm only grew further as the contracted muscles relaxed and released itself like a bullet and punched a hole into the other wall of the alley.

"Whoa…" Michael said breathlessly as he roped back his arm, "Strange, but cool…" It was going to be tiring to pull the whole thing back, maybe landing on his arm back there might have forced his arm to do 'this'. He needed to hurry back to see if Caitlin was okay, and he certainly can't do that while looking like this.

"Maybe my arm will go back to normal if I…" Reverting back to his regular look, Michael noticed his arm slowly inching back to its natural length, but it stops halfway, "Great, guess having half of my powers like this applies to the lengths that my arm stretches…" Well, at least it was shorter now, he can probably retract it without getting tired.

Gripping his arm, Michael's attention was drawn away from his predicament to focus on the distant screaming of a woman not too far from him. It could have been some lady, who just woke up after the tremors. But no, he recognized that horrified shriek.

"Kit-Cat?" And without a moment's hesitation, Michael transformed back into his devil form. Tensing his legs, he leaps on top of the nearby building's roof in the direction of the screaming. He growled out of irritation after realizing that his stretched out arm was flapping about behind him as he jumped from roof to roof.

'Doesn't matter. Have to hurry to Kit-Cat! Please be safe…' He was already near breaking his promise after she almost got crushed by a car. It hasn't been that long since he left, so what kind of trouble found her? Nonetheless anything or anyone else that's threatening her safety had to be stopped. And unlike with those jerks that escaped, he'll have to stop holding back too much of his strength to get more better results.

After bounding off a few more rooftops, he finally found the general area where her voice was heard, another alleyway.

"Oh, this can't be good."

Peering over the edge of the building, he spots the familiar red head shaken up as she stared at a man dressed in a leather jacket and a black mask with white eyes, the same as those fleeing robbers. Not to mention, he's holding some strange gun that appearance-wise looked awfully like that plasma knife that Rose's kidnapper had.

'Yep, he's definitely connected. Let's kick his ass…' Hopping off the side of the roof, Michael roughly landed in between the two with his stretched her arm flapping about behind him.

*THUD!*

"Sorry for dropping in, but I just had to come crashing the party after seeing this lovely lady getting mugged!"

"W-What in the world?"

"…!"

The two of them jumped back out of surprise of the newcomer jumping in between them. Kit-Cat obviously screamed from his abrupt entrance and his strange appearance, the other guy didn't look all at frazzled by him.

'Weird, I've never met anyone, who wouldn't freak out over me. It's oddly refreshing…' Shaking his head, he shook the thought out as he bared his claws, uh, well, the claws on his non-stretched arm at the masked man, 'Nope stay focused…And try to squeeze some answers from him…'

"Hey there…" Michael lowly growled.

"…"

"Hey there!" He shouted once he received silence as a response, "What did you think you were doing trying to steal from this nice girl in the middle of this crisis? Didn't your mother teach you any better?" It was one thing to even do it all but mugging during time like this was just stooping to a new low.

"…" The masked man sighed, he turned around and started walking away.

"Hey, I'm talking to y-!" Michael's words fell short as the masked man stopped near a dumpster to pull out a drooling unconscious man dressed in a dirtied red hoodie sporting a bloody welt on his cheek.

"If you're looking for answers then ask him." The masked man dumped the unconscious man to his feet along with the weapon.

"I see…so you not only tried to mug this girl, you also beat up some poor defenseless dude!?"

"He was far from defenseless, and I doubt carrying around a huge wad of twenty dollar bills is poor."

"Okay, then explain how you know the amount of cash he's carrying?"

"…Look, I only came here to settle some business with a target of mine, and before I completely lose his trail, I'd rather not get interrogated by some kid." The masked man soon returned to walking down the other end of the alleyway, not even sparing him a look, he simply waved, "God blessed."

"Nope, you're not going anywhere, guy!" Oh no, he wasn't just going to walk out of this without giving Michael some real answers, and without thinking, Michael threw his elongated arm after the masked man. Realizing this he had expected the attempt to fail spectacularly, but no, like elastic, his arm stretched out over a good ten feet to clasp onto the man's shoulder.

But before he could relish the moment, the masked man immediately grabbed the teen's stretched wrist and pulled it off with his bandaged arm.

"Kid, you even try to push me, and you'll find yourself having a bad time…" The masked man softly threatened.

"Hah, real scary. What? You so poor that you even have to steal some from the great Smiling Trash bag himself!" Michael laughed, but truth be told, he was having some difficulty pulling back his arm. It might be because he's fairly new to this sort of power, but either way this guy was strong. He could even feel his own wrist start to cramp up in pain.

"…" The masked man gave him one more glance before releasing the devilish teen's arm as it contracted itself back to the teen and roughly snapped itself back into place like a rubber band as the recoil caused Michael to fall flat on his back.

"Ouch…" Michael groaned as he looked up to see Caitlin cautiously walking past him as she looked out to towards the masked man already nearing the other exit of the alley.

"T-Thank you!" She timidly waved but only received a grunt from the strange man either from him immediately hopping onto his motorcycle, or just as a passive and silent 'your welcome'. Either way, he kicked on his engines and rode himself out of there, leaving a cloud of dirt to follow.

'Great, I let another bad guy get away. At least I think he was… Anyway, he was surprisingly strong, and…hard?' Yup, that man's grip definitely felt thick and weirdly cold. Michael rolled his arm as it was now back to normal, 'Must have snapped back to normal after he let go.' Well, at least that was one worry to cross off the list now onto another to cross right off.

Picking himself up, he was face to face with a frightened Caitlin who just now realized that she was alone with the devil like creature.

"O-Oh, h-h-hi there. T-Thanks for worrying, b-b-but you don't have to be mad at that man. He actually saved me fr-fr-from-!" Michael had to fight the urge not to facepalm as Caitlin slowly back away from him with each step.

"Okay, calm down, Kit-Cat. Take it easy and go at your own pace." Michael sighed as he lowered his distorted voice down to a calming tone.

"R-Right, sorry about tha-?" Caitlin paused, "Wait, did you just call me, Kit-Cat?"

'Welp, looks like I don't even have to beat around the bush at this point.' Michael let out a relieved sigh as he slowly returned back to looking like his usual normal self.

"Sure did, and thanks for noticing the hint, Kit-Cat." Michael dusted his superman shirt off despite the tears and burns on it.

Caitlin's eyes were wide but were no match for her gaped mouth as she was stunned at the sight.

"Michael, w-what? You-I don't understand…What happened? You were way up ahead where all of those explosions were! I thought something bad had happened…WHAT happened!? And how were you able to do that thing you did? Turning into that red thing and stretching your arms, and-and-!"

Okay, she sounded like she was on the verge of having a panic attack at this point, so calmingly, Michael placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled, "You look like you're doing fine, I hope." He was incredibly relieved to see her doing okay after faint like that, but he'd rather avoid answering all of those questions or else she'll be overwhelmed.

"Y-Yeah, I-I'm doing fine. Um, thanks for you know…" She was still shaken up, but her mannerisms was much more calm as she gestured to his jacket on her shoulder, "Taking care of me…"

"Hey, I promised." He chuckled.

'Which was almost broken if that guy wasn't there to save her…' He sadly thought, 'Next chance I get, I'll thank him.' Well, if he will ever get a chance like this once they get back to lab.

"Do you want to, um…?" She offered him back his jacket.

"Nah, you hold onto it. I'm not particularly cold after everything that's happened." Michael shrugged and held a hand out to the confused girl, "And I promise to explain everything to you, just let me handle something real quick…"

Walking over to the beaten red hooded robber, Michael grabbed the dropped gun and recognized the design by memory to be similar to his plasma knife. Testing out what it was, he points it at the ground to be safe much to Caitlin's confusion before firing a red beam of energy into the ground, leaving a carved smoky hole.

Looking back at a startled Caitlin, Michael quickly apologized before going back to identify the laser gun, which was some pretty high tech. Flipping it about in his hands for any clues like a registration code or even a company logo, he came out sort with no potential leads at all.

'Tch, just like the knife, there's no way to identify the source of where it came from.' He clicked his tongue out of annoyance, 'Well there is…'

He hates to say it, but Kit-Cat basically brought someone with knowledge of the weaponry to him. If only the jerk were awake for him to question, but right now he needed to get Caitlin back to the lab safely.

"So, let's go back to the lab, I'll explain as much as I can during the walk there."

"But shouldn't we at least stay with everyone that's here? The paramedics just got here, and it may be safer to be with them…" Caitlin suggested.

"Kit-Cat, you're a one hundred percent safe with just me being here with you. Trust me no muggers will want to mess with this…" For a split second, he turned his facial features to that of his devil form briefly scaring Caitlin, who yelped out of fear.

"Whoops, sorry. Besides, we'd be better off at S.T.A.R. Labs right now, and I don't want to draw further attention to myself since I'm quite literally wearing the same clothes that I wore while saving people."

"I guess I see your logic there. So lead the way." And with that they were off.

Michael nodded at her to follow, but paused once Caitlin held out her wrist to him, "What's up?"

"Oh, nothing, I just thought that you were going to lead me like you did last time." Caitlin pulled back her wrist while her cheeks strangely tinged a slight pink.

"I thought I hurt you by doing that?" Michael asked, completely confused.

"Nope, I just thought it was weird before and…"

"So you want me do something weird to you?" He raised an eyebrow at that.

"N-No, I just…never mind…" Caitlin sighed, wistfully, "Let's just go."

"…You know, Kit-Cat, you're strange, but that's cool. C'mon!" Michael laughed it off and started walking with her in tow.

"Strange coming from someone turning into some sort of devil…" Thanks to his super hearing, he was able to catch that silent remark.

"I heard that…" Michael said.

"Really? Good for you." Caitlin smirked.

'Oh, she has that sass just like Aunt Kate after all.' Michael laughed, it may have just been a day, but he could see that a friendship was blossoming between the two of them. He just hopes his explanation won't be too much for her to handle.

"Say are we taking the gun with us?" Caitlin muttered cautiously as she stared at the weapon used to mug her.

"Oh, right this…" Remembering the weapon in his hands, Michael made quick work to destroy by tossing it to the ground and decimating it into ash with his fire breath. He wasn't going to get much out of the weapon anyway better to be safe and carry around the portable plasma knife.

"You can breath fire?" Caitlin looked at him with wide eyes of wonder.

"Yep, and apparently a lot more than I initially realized, like I said, we'll talk on the way to the la-."

*BEEP!* *BEEP!*

"Hold on…" Pulling out from his pocket his cell phone, Michael checked to see that it was his mother calling him, "Crap…" Putting the phone to his ear, he prepared himself to get his ear chewed off as he meekly whimpered, "H-Hello?"

["Where the fuck are you?"]

*BEEP!*

That low venomous tone that seeped through the speaker sent chills down Michael's spine as he quickly hung up the phone. If she wasn't yelling, then he was damn sure that she was positively livid at this point.

"Was it your mom?" Clueless, Caitlin asked.

"Nope, wrong call, ehehe. Say, Kit-Cat, has anyone called you?" He needed to know just in case.

"Can't tell, my phone slipped out of my pocket and got caught in that whole earthquake fiasco." She pulled out her phone and showed its screen being so cracked open that she can close the destroyed device like a book.

"T-That's horrible, hey, are you hungry?"

"I was but after almost getting crushed by a car and being held at gunpoint, my appetite naturally went away." Caitlin rubbed her neck.

"That's no good, Kit-Cat, you can't let this experience effect your eating. You have to get your protein, helps your brain, helps you cope." Michael nervously laughed as he ran a bit ahead to lead her in a direction away from the lab, "That's why we'll just go to a McDonalds somewhere and make up for that Food Truck incident."

"Okay, but shouldn't we be getting back? My aunt and your mom might know that we're gone after all this time." Kit-Cat caught up to him and worriedly looked in the direction of S.T.A.R. Labs.

"No, just trust me, they're really preoccupied with their work. They don't even detect high magnitude earthquakes while they were in the development of a new experiment." That was a necessary phib because if they went back now then they would obviously, be preoccupied with screaming his ear and much worse if his mom and potentially Aunt Kate were that mad at him.

"Well, I suppose going out to eat wouldn't hurt. Plus, we can hang out and talk more about…what happened." Caitlin tiredly shrugged, "But wait won't the workers be surprised with how filthy we look?"

"Kit-Cat, we're in Los Angeles. Besides I highly doubt that a couple of minimum waged workers would complain about getting money from us." And just like that Michael goaded Caitlin to share in his last meal before returning back to his mother to experience his a punishment beyond death.

Ain't this just great, he was finally able to figure out Ronnie's 'Big Break' as soon as the news started that report of a bank robbery down in the Financial District. He was already in the area and had a full stomach after eating that leftover sandwich that he's been saving for the last few days. Chance was finally on his side today, but no, he decided to bend chance over and give it a real hard reaming.

He just had to be a non-crappy human being and save that carrot top from some asshole mugging her. The Scrounger angrily tapped on the throttle of his motorcycle as traffic started to pile up. It wasn't uncommon for this damned city, but with Ronnie causing that huge fucking racket, the police were busy directing cars to a much safer route away from the destroyed intersection.

Had to take his mask off otherwise the cops would suspect him of being in league with them, or some other petty shit. Give them a reason, and any cop would make a mountain of a mole hill. Compared to some of Gotham cops, the LAPD look like saints, but it doesn't detract from the fact that they were cops nonetheless.

'The trail must have grown cold at this point.' Scrounger pinched the bridge of his nose, 'There goes my plan of arriving back with an ice cream cake…' He was tired, he's been searching for any leads the whole week, but at least pocketed enough cash from that asshole to make it through the next 3 days. So, in a way, helping that 'I love Lucy' girl almost balanced out losing his target.

~My Little Pon-!~ *BEEP!*

"The fuck are you looking at?" Scrounger tossed a nearby car a dirty look after the driver tossed him a curious glance. After the nosy jerk rolled up his window, Scrounger groaned and opened his phone to check a new text message from EX, his client.

'Great, this guy…' Scrounger sighed as he read the first message.

[Yo, its been a while. How goes the hunt?]

[Fine.] Scrounger texted, he didn't want to give too much away before he could finally get another solid lead. Playing it coy would be too obvious and playing dumb would only rile EX up even further.

[Fine? How fine? On a scale of 1 to 10, tell me how fine your hunt is going.]

[…]

[No need for the silent treatment, I honestly want to know how your doing, pal. So, are you any closer to bagging the target?]

[I am.] Playing it straight and simple was gut wrenchingly tense especially when his pay on the line.

[I see. That's good…good…]

A moment passes before EX texts back a message along with a picture.

"Dammit…" The bastard was watching the whole thing go down from the start.

The picture was taken from a high vantage point as it looked down onto the intersection a few moments before its destruction. Standing on the street were a pair of strangely dressed goons in masks, Scrounger quietly cursed to himself, one of them was obviously Ronnie. They looked to be transferring their cash to the back of a hot pink truck.

'Won't be hard to look for that piece of shit.' Scrounger thought, but what took him out of the loop was the appearance of the odd devil-like kid that he had seen just a couple of minutes ago, and he was breathing fire?

[Now tell me, does this look fine to you, Scrounger?]

[Look, I was preocupied, but with thisI ca actlly find him…] Scrounger rushed to text.

[Hey, hey, no need to panic, bud, I'm not mad. I just wanted to show you that I'm always keeping track just in case your starting to slack. I'm not gonna fire you, your way to valuable an asset for us to lose.] EX texted.

'Then why are you-?' Before he could finish that thought, EX sent out another text.

[Heck this is simply just a warning to you, now that the police have Ronnie or whatever his alias is, in their sights, I just want to warn you that you won't be paid if they or anyone else turn him in. Is that clear?]

Scrounger's bandaged hand tightly clenched the handle to his Harley nearly ripping it off.

[Peachy.] Scrounger texted.

[Great, that's just wonderful because I'm pushing up the deadline.]

'What!?'

[You only have until next Sunday to get the guy and bring him to the designated location if not then no pay for a while, and I mean a long while. If you get lazy then it reflects poorly on me too. No rest for the weary as they say. Now show me what you can do when the chips are down.] Suddenly EX texts another message with a new picture attached.

[Oh, and before I leave you to your work, make sure to keep track of your competition. Wouldn't want to be outshone by a new guy showing so much potential, now would we? Ciao.] This time the picture focused on the devil kid spewing out fire.

"Son of a bitch…" It took all that Scrounger had not to just fling his bike into slow traffic ahead. EX was always a manipulative prick, but he was going too far. At worse, he expected a pay cut, but now with the job being all or nothing, he'll sacrifice too much of his time on getting Ronnie.

He let out a sigh, "Guess I won't be sleeping much after this weekend." Going home was supposed to make him chipper, but now he's filled with dread and eventually it will become guilt after he sleeps through another day with no money and answers to placate any worries.

Taking a closer look at the devil kid in the picture, Scrounger bitterly deleted the image. It may have been or may not have been that kid's fault, and he won't make it personal, but next time. He'll be sure to take him out if he gives him an excuse to do so.

With traffic moving once more, Scrounger steadied his bike and drove it down the street and heading up towards the 66 California Highway ramp to home.

Next Chapter- A lone Robin takes flight

Welp, I hope that you guys enjoyed the chapter. What did you think because right now we're shifting focus to this Universe's very own Boy Wonder.

Also, yes, Michael's still developing his powers, well, he re-learning to use the powers that he was essentially born with. Yeah, this is going to be a serious conflict that will arise between mother and son. Stay tuned not to miss any of it next time.

Welp, I'm Out So Peace Out and have a blessed day.