Jack, Entropy and Stryker furrowed their brows at the girl's comment, then Jack remembered the robot head in his hand.

"Oh, no, this was..." he started. "I mean..."

Stryker cocked an eyebrow at the cheerleader android head, this being the first time he had seen it. Jack threw it in one of his junk piles.

"It was nothing," he said quickly. "So, uh, who are you? How'd you find us?"

"I...took a cab..." the girl said, taking a quick look around the messy area. "My name is Cinder. Cinder Argent. I uh...I found this..."

She pulled out a strip of paper and held it out to Jack. Stryker and Entropy came closer and squinted down at the list of repeating phone numbers.

"...Jack..." Stryker started, giving the other boy a suspicious look. "Isn't that your phone number?"

Jack laughed nervously.

"Well..." he started. "I...may have slipped a...flyer into one of the stores in the mall while we were searching for that Komori Sword."

"What's that?" Cinder asked quietly.

"It's a Shen Gong Wu," Entropy explained, giving the girl her own suspicious look. "So what makes you so special?"

"Me? Uh, nothing really, I guess. I have some martial arts skills and I can...I don't know...organize well."

Entropy scoffed a little. Stryker and Jack gave her a weird look, since she suddenly seemed very offensive. She crossed her arms and gave a little hip sway as she came closer to Cinder, inspecting her up and down.

"So your a maid with some defensive whats-it?" Entropy snipped. "Not impressed."

"Well...I didn't think you needed to be," Cinder answered; this girl was starting to sound like her step-sisters.

"I'm the niece of a powerful man who's almost dominated the world twice. My cousin over there is also pretty cool and my father runs most of every software object known to man."

She stopped in front of Cinder and leaned forward so she was smirking in the timid girl's face. Cinder's brow narrowed threateningly.

"I'm a Young," Entropy gloated. "You need to impress me."

Cinder's lip curled as Stryker and Jack exchanged glances with each other. Wasn't this their job to be interrogating? And Enny's way wasn't exactly very friendly. Cinder startled them all by taking a step forward and getting into Entropy's space.

"My father was a firefighter, my mother was a police officer, my stepfather's a business man that could probably ruin your family in a second, and I have two step-sisters who could kick your hide from here to whatever run-down thrift store you came from." Cinder said.

Entropy shrunk a little at Cinder's glare.

"I'm an Argent, you probably need to impress me."

Jack, Stryker, and Entropy stared at her in surprise. Cinder realized the audacity of what she had said and took a step back, twirling a strand of her hair between her fingers.

"...So, uh, I'm sold," Jack said awkwardly. "What, uh, does everyone else think?"

Entropy coughed into her fist, then gave Cinder a final inspection; she smirked.

"I'm game," she said, much to Cinder's surprise. "Anyone with that much attitude can't be too bad."

"I still need a little convincing," Stryker said, crossing his arms. "After all, we are asking her to fight battles with us, and we've no idea who she is."

Cinder blinked in confusion.

"F-Fight...what?" she asked.

They stared at each other.

"...Jack?" Stryker asked. "Did you tell Ms. Argent here what she'd be doing if she joined up with us?"

"Eh...heh heh..." Jack laughed nervously. "I uh...may've forgotten about that..."

He gave Stryker a wide nervous grin as he glared at him in disbelief.

"This...is a gang, isn't it?" Cinder asked anxiously.

"Yep," Entropy said with a giggle. "Gang of three."

"Two," Stryker snipped. "Possibly three if Cinder works out."

"Hey, I'm just as much a part of this as you are!"

"Yeah, sure, even though I've been here a week and you've barely been here twenty-four hours."

Jack went over to Cinder as the two cousins began their arguing.

"My name's Jack Spicer," he said, pulling up his jacket collar dramatically. "Evil Boy Genius. I guess I'm the leader of this...gang."

"You guess?" Cinder asked quietly.

"Yeah, Stryker kinda appointed me. He has a habit of thinking I'm a good leader."

Cinder cracked a smile and Jack only slightly felt his face heat up.

"Are you?" she asked, almost coyly.

"I don't know," Jack said, scratching the back of his neck. "No one's died yet so I can't be too bad."

Cinder giggled quietly, relieved by his kindness. Stryker and Entropy stopped their bickering and watched them communicate quietly.

He moves fast, they both thought.

"So flirties," Entropy said blatantly, causing the other two to look at them. "Is the new girl going to show off or are you two going to continue to schmooze it up?"

Jack and Cinder flushed as Stryker smirked; sometimes his cousin could say the darnedest, funniest things.

"We'll use Enny as a punching bag," he said, starting towards the empty space he and Jack sparred in. "Show us what you got, Cinder."

Entropy stuck her tongue out at him as she and Cinder went to the opening.

"I don't know, is that fair?" Jack asked. "Enny doesn't have any self-defense training-"

"Yes, I do," Entropy said, stepping into a fighting position. "I took karate from the time I was six to when I got instituted. I'm just out of practice."

Instituted? Cinder thought as she stood in front of the girl. Instituted to what?

"Out of shape, too," Stryker commented. "The only thing you still work out is your mouth. Now when Cinder gives the okay, punch at her."

Entropy nodded, giving Cinder a smirk. Cinder returned it, then gave her a sharp nod. Entropy punched at her, but Cinder dodged it and zipped behind her; Enny squeaked as the other girl wrapped a hand around her waist, knelt down, and threw Entropy backward. Entropy landed with a thwack on her back and stared up at Cinder's fist as it came inches from her nose.

"...Whoa..." Entropy gasped, as the air had been knocked out of her. "Think I need to learn how to fall again."

Cinder chuckled and helped her up.

"Not bad," Stryker said. "I could see you making it in this team."

"Yeah...about that..." Cinder started. The things Jack had said was starting to click in her mind. "Uh, I wanted to ask...are you guys...bad?"

The question obviously took the others by surprise, and they looked at each other to see if they would answer. Jack cleared his throat when Stryker and Entropy stayed quiet.

"Uh, well...yeah, a little," he said. "I...didn't put that on the flyer either...did I?"

"What did you put on that thing?" Stryker asked sarcastically.

"I thought you were all just...outcasts like me..." Cinder said. "That's what the flyer said."

"Oh..." Entropy said. "Well...yeah, that's pretty much true..."

"But we're also kinda what you'd consider bad," Stryker added, crossing his arms. "Although, mentionably, not as bad as we could be."

"Yeah, compared to the Heylins, we're saints," Jack said.

Cinder's eyebrows shot up.

"Heylins?" she asked. "What's a Heylin?"

"They're the bad guys," Entropy said. "Actually, our uncle is one of them. Like a big one, too."

Cinder's eyes widened at this news. Suddenly she wasn't very sure that coming here was a good idea.

"Yeah, I guess my...aunt is one of them, too," Jack said, the word "aunt" coming out very bitterly. "She's pretty big in there too."

"...Right..." Cinder said slowly, taking a step back. "Uh...yeah, so...I'm going to...go..."

"What?" Stryker asked. "Why?"

"Uh...just...because," she said, taking another step away. "My dad, stepdad will be worried about me if I don't show up at the hotel, so I should...probably get going..."

"Oh!" Entropy declared, seeming to understand now. "She's scared 'cause she thinks we're baddies!"

"Ooo-ooh!" Stryker and Jack said together.

"What?" Cinder asked, giving an unconvincing laugh. "No! I-I just...just..."

The others cocked an eyebrow at her.

"...Okay, yes! I'm concerned that you're the bad guys! But it's...I mean wouldn't you be if you were me?"

Stryker, Entropy, and Jack thought about that for a moment.

"No," they all said together.

Cinder shook her head in disbelief. These kids really were outcasts, but in different ways than she was; they seemed a bit more morbid than she.

"Well, excuse me if I'm just a little wary," Cinder said.

"You're excused," Entropy said with a smirk.

"We're not really the bad guys," Jack reassured her. "We're just...kinda bad. Like delinquents."

"...Still..."

"Come on," Stryker interjected, a knowing grin on his face. "You can't exactly tell us that you've never done anything to make someone think you're a delinquent."

Cinder's face turned pink as she stammered to say she hadn't. But now Jack and Entropy were also giving her knowing looks, and eventually she just sighed.

"Okay, so I may have," she admitted. "But...I mean...you can't..."

"Hey, hey, no pressure!" Jack said. "We're just assuming that since you came all the way here you're really outcasted."

"Like us, you know?" Entropy said.

"Like...you?"

"Yep, we're all pretty sad," Stryker sighed. "Now, are you joining or not?"

The question was so forward Cinder's eyebrow's raised again. She had planned to join whatever it was that they were, but after what she'd learned, she wasn't so sure if she should. Then again, she couldn't really go back home after all the trouble Shay went through to get her there.

"I don't really have anywhere else to go," she said quietly. "So...yeah, I guess I'm joining you guys."

"Don't sound so depressed about it," Stryker laughed. "We're not that bad."

"Uh, I'm not that bad," Entropy scoffed. "You and Jack are total...boys!"

Stryker and Jack gave her a confused look as Cinder giggled with her. A shrieking sounded on the couch that startled everyone.

"Alright, just in time!" Stryker said as he went to Jack's backpack and fished out the Wu tracker. "Looks like Cinder gets an early taste of what she's getting into."

Cinder blinked as Entropy jumped up and down, then grabbed her arm.

"I'll help you change into your new uniform!" Enny cried, dragging the other girl upstairs. "You're gonna love this!"