A Walk in Downtown Tampa

Working quickly and with precision, Neal grabbed the weapons chip and laptop, programming it to home in on a moving target in the line of sight. He realized that he needed some kind of camera, and quickly grabbed a cell phone and removed the camera from the front. There would likely be complaints, but that did not bother him at the moment. Following this, he would prepare to give the rocket to Shauna.

Glancing out the back window as he was about to give the rocket to Shauna, he noticed that the usual blast from the explosion of a rocket caused little damage to the stone creature. They would need more than a regular rocket to cause damage to this thing. He quickly started mixing chemicals that he saw in the back of the van, working at breakneck pace. Leaving the chemicals in a tube and capping it, he place the tube in the rocket and would hand it to Shauna.

"That rocket will likely destroy the thing, but you need to actually hit it. You need to make sure the eye beams from that stone jaguar do not hit it before the rocket hits the jaguar. If there is anything you have to prevent it, that would be the best option. Otherwise, try to convert attention away from the rocket. Oh, and the rocket will hone in on the jaguar, so you can fire it at a bit of an angle."

Neal would hope for the best, knowing that with the beams from the jaguar's eyes, there was nothing in here aside from that rocket that could effectively damage the thing.

"Oh crap we're running out of road!" Jenny was kind enough to remind them as the road took a sharp turn onto the cliffs. Both the van and the Giant Stone Jaguar took a sharp turn, the vehicle scraping the railing while the Jaguar kept pace.

"...Gee thanks, mister Exposition." Shauna had time enough to be sarcastic given the situation; it was her way of coping with a long and stressful life, one that led up to being chased by a giant Aztec construct. She clung onto a bar in the van as they veered into a very sharp corner, the van popping a wheelie as Shauna aimed the modified rocket.

This time the Jaguar fired its spirit blast, and connected with the vehicle. All around the van began to corrode, eventually turning it into something akin to an open air flatbed or pickup. Jenny was forced into another sharp corner as Shauna fired.

"Eat this!" Shauna fired the rocket, which smashed into the Jaguar's leg, causing it to lose a limb and skid to a halt just as Jenny crashed the destroyed car into the cliff wall. The airbag saved Jenny but rendered her unconscious. Hrothgar relieved himself next to Neal, the dog too frightened to move.

Shauna breathed rapidly and deeply, sitting on the road. The ordeal it seemed, was over... or was it? After a few moments, there were sounds of stone falling and crumbling from around the corner where the Jaguar's remains would've ended up.

As he gave the rocket to Shauna, she responded with sarcasm, something that he almost expected from what he knew of her so far. It seemed that she thought less of him than he was capable of, something which he did not think was a bad thing right now. As she fired the rocket, he noticed that it went quickly and destroyed part of the jaguar, even though the vehicle was rotting because of a beam it had fired from its eyes. He couldn't say much, but it seemed that this thing was magical and made to protect the statue at all costs.

Neal quickly moved from his place when he saw Hrothgar relieve himself, making sure that the dog's feces would not end up on his shoes or clothes. It took some care, but he was able to manage it without exceeding difficulty. Neal jumped from the vehicle, hoping that he could see what that Shauna girl went outside for. Neal was lucky though, the strength of his body had prevented any damage from occurring to it. Even with what would normally have seriously injured a human, he got up as if it was all inside of a balloon castle.

Neal heard the sound of crumbling from where the remains were, and wondered if it wasn't "shedding" to repair itself. It seemed unlikely, but it wasn't impossible. Magical beings or monsters were capable of stranger things than allowing stone to heal by shedding. He would need to hope that it wouldn't repair or revive itself, but if it did that Shauna had some weapon more powerful than the ones in the van.

"If that thing isn't dead, you have some weapon that is more powerful than the rocket... right?"

Shauna took a moment before answering Neal's question, looking at Jenny and seeing she was unconscious. She also took a while to look at Neal, as the man displayed a mental aptitude beyond human, being able to jury-rig a powerful explosive in the back of a moving vehicle.

"...Kind of..." She said, warming up to the idea of a fellow metahuman. The Stone Jaguar did indeed drag itself from around the corner, one limb missing, its stone skin cracked and broken in multiple places. Its baleful ruby eyes glowed with that unholy glow, signalling another attack. At this distance, and on foot, the metahumans would be unable to defend themselves in time...

"...Stupid thing, I should've known better than to get involved with magic..." Shauna remarked, before her own eyes began to glow with incredible intensity, before firing off emerald laser beams from her eyes that quickly sliced through the Jaguar's own eyes and head, decapitating it. Its spirit blast was strong, but Shauna's lasers were stronger, and she finished the job by melting the Jaguar head into a pile of slag.

Shauna's eyes smoked for a few seconds, before she turned back to Neal. "...we should check if Jenny's alright."

Looking toward this Shauna woman awaiting an answer, Neal hears her say just two words. Kind of was her response, hardly welcoming and definitely not encouraging. He was wondering if this girl had anything to hold him there, besides the obvious strength difference between them and the fact that Neal was practically defenseless. Aside from the fact that he had encountered very little aside from super-human feats of strength capable of damaging him. Still, that fact that the rocket had not caused enough damage to destroy this monster.

Neal watched as the eyes of this stone beast glowed, it was about to unleash another burst of the energy it had fired earlier. Neal was wondering if it was enough to damage him, and if it was, how much damage it would do. Neal had been rarely injured, but it was always frightening to him when he was. Ever since childhood, he had only sustained injuries from things that would have killed a normal child. He was afraid that in a weakened state, he would be more apt to getting hurt later. It was perfectly true after all, but Neal still feared the thought of injury.

After he saw Shauna fire lasers from her eyes, Neal wondered why she hadn't used this weapon earlier. She was capable of melting down the creature as if it were no more than butter. In moments, the head of that monstrosity was no more than a bubbling pile of slag. He knew that this woman was more than human, she was definitely capable of damaging him, and he was afraid.

At Shauna's words, Neal would do little more than agree, impressed by this girl's power. "Yes, you are right."

Shauna headed over to check on Jenny. The girl was unconscious; so Shauna quickly performed a scan on her, her eyes glowing with strange lights that enabled her to see the unconscious woman's insides. She breathed a sigh of relief, since the vehicle's safety features mostly prevented serious injury.

"...The seatbelt and airbag saved her, there's nothing or bleeding on her insides, but her arm has a minor fracture." She also checked Jenny's head and neck, a quick look telling her nothing else was wrong. Hrothgar whined, licking Jenny's hand like any concerned, loyal pet would.

"...If you have something to say... I don't like people knowing I've got metahuman genes, especially ones that give me 100-Gigawatt grade lasers behind each eyeball." Shauna remarked, retrieving her phone and calling 911, then proceeding to set Jenny's arm with torn cloth and wood to keep her from getting hurt any further.

Neal watched as Shauna's eyes glowed once more, wondering what that could be about. It didn't seem that anything was heating up, although if supervision was her power... 'It couldn't be, could it? She doesn't have x-ray vision, does she? Why does she seem so relieved just looking at her?' As he was finishing this train of thought, she spoke on how the seat belt and airbag had saved Jenny. 'She does have x-ray vision, I wonder what else she saw while she was looking. What has she seen while I was here in the van?'

Neal watched as the dog lapped Jenny's hand, and then as Shauna looked at Jenny's head and neck. It seemed that they were both very concerned about this girl. Shauna told Neal that she doesn't like people knowing that she has meta genes, something that did not surprise him. Even good meta humans were looked at with disgust, the ones that caused damage were practically top stories on the news.

"I won't tell anybody, about your powers. I have some of my own as you've probably noticed, so I would hate having people know I had them. Besides, if you were a meta-human, what would I give as my reason for escaping?"He looked at Shauna with absolute seriousness, showing that he meant what he said. It wasn't common for a regular person to get away from a meta unscathed, much less a weak regular human with only a brain for help.

Minutes pass and Shauna says nothing. She is gripped in worry over her contact's condition. Jenny immediately comes to, allowing Shauna to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Take it easy, Jen. You were in a wreck, I called the ambulance." the Florida girl looked at Shauna and Neal in shock, though listened and relaxed in her seat, trying not to move.

"Yeah, I suppose." She couldn't come up with anything more substantial, given her internal conflicts. She leafs through the wreck of her car to find the obsidian idol- she didn't need to do much searching since she could see exactly where it was, and cut through the rusted heap with laser vision.

"Okay then, you seem smart. I think I could use a famous egghead to plan my next heists in South America. You'll get a cut of how much it's worth, and whatever loot we find. 70-30?" Shauna offered Neal, arms crossed.

Neal looked at the two girls, Shauna standing right next to Jenny until she awoke. It was almost relieving to him, even though he had been held at gunpoint by the girl. Of course, it was probably something negligible. Still though, he couldn't help but feel that the killing he would usually have done in that situation may have been worse. 'Perhaps I should hold a higher regard for human life, after all I am supposed to be a super hero. Well, a hero at least, super may be pushing it.'

Neal listened to Shauna speak, and watched as Jenny simply looked about before remaining still and calming down. It was amusing to him that he found himself being empathetic toward the two girls, two girls that had just kidnapped him and brought him out into the middle of nowhere.

She quickly went to find the obsidian jaguar that she had stolen, something that Neal watched her do with effortless precision. 'Well, at least it seems that she is calmed down. I could probably speak to her again now.' After she found the jaguar though, she asked if he'd like to help with her heists in South America. She told him about a 70-30 cut, something that Neal was intrigued about. It worked with him, he wasn't breaking the law, and getting some extra money would always be nice.

"I would be glad to work with you, and I think that the price sounds fair. Just be sure to give me a warning in advance when you plan on going. I need to make sure that I can prepare and call off lecturing." He spoke with calmness and a downcast look. However, as he was about to finish talking, he noticed a resemblance she had to a certain super hero from the 90's and early 2000's. Curiosity tinging his voice, he would speak once more in a calm voice. "You wouldn't happen to be Laser Ladette would you? I can't help but notice a major resemblance to her, I doubt many else would, but I have read about you when I was younger."

Of course the question would eventually come out. There weren't that many eye-beam based metahumans around as far as she knew, and Laser Ladette was particularly famous for having a particularly green laser beam. She was too tired to get upset, and thus her mood was more of that of surrender and exasperation- like shame.

There was a long pause before she answered. "What do you think? I'm not wearing the frilly pink dress anymore, am I? No... that was a long time ago, when kids could believe in superheroes. Now I'm just another metahuman trying to get by." Shauna helped Jenny out of the melted car and sent it down the cliff. One thing landslides don't do is melt cars.

Shauna said no more, and went to sit on the edge of the cliff road. The stone jaguar's remains had changed from obsidian to common rock as the magic within subsided, and as the ambulances arrived.

The paramedics rushed to Jenny's aid, looking around the place. Shauna explained that a landslide occured and their car took a nasty dive down the cliff; fortunately they all made it out. They also approach Neal to see if he had injuries.

Neal looked carefully at this woman, seeing her exhaustion and irritation about his words. It bothered him that he had hurt her, she had done nothing truly dangerous toward him, and yet he anted to know more about her and her opinions. Of course, the lasers she showed were a major giveaway as to her original identity, she still looked a little like that superhero. Even through all the sorrow she must have suffered while growing up, she still had some of the same willing to do right look.

Of course, when she spoke, Neal felt bad about having mentioned anything about her past. It was obvious to him that she had some bad memories from that time, and didn't need to suffer like this. "I apologize for bringing it up, and you are right. There is really very little trace in your appearance as to who you really were, so I shouldn't have mentioned anything about it." Neal let himself show sympathy in his voice when he spoke, knowing that she needed to feel that he was sorry about whatever changed her opinions.

'It seems that the obsidian monster that had attacked us earlier is turning into regular stone, definitely a powerful spell that was placed upon it. More than likely took all the magic out of it now though, especially since it is completely destroyed and back to regular stone.' As he waited a little while longer, he watched as the ambulances arrived, immediately rushing over to Jenny, the girl who had received a majority of the injuries. Neal looked down at himself, realizing that he had taken very little in terms of damage. He hardly felt fatigued to be honest, but he needed to fake something. For him to get out of a vehicle that was supposedly in such a tight situation, Neal knew that he would have had at least some fatigue.

As the paramedics arrived at his location, he looked at them with weary eyes. It was something he had practiced at times, showing fatigue through the eyes when very little to none existed. Still though, they looked him over to ensure that he hadn't sustained any injuries. They asked him to perform a variety of small fitness activities, but they found no problems in his reactions or anything so much as a bruise on his skin. They told Neal that he was lucky to be alive after something like this, but Neal knew that it wasn't really shocking for somebody such as himself. "Yeah, I get that quite often." Responding with very few words, and sounding exhausted when he spoke, Neal knew that the paramedics would at least think him fatigued from this accident.

He would walk over toward Shauna, hoping that he could speak to her before he left the scene.

Shauna hopped into the same ambulance as Jenny, while Hrothgar took up space in the vehicle. "...if you're in Chicago drop by Billy Ray's Bar. Look for Shauna."

With that, the ambulance was off, Sean's waiting for him.