Fuel

Gee is now everyone at my back. What next? Does Aly or Caleb want to talk with me about sex, after all they are old maybe old enough to be my parents? Can’t they all leave me alone?

Lenna sipped at her beer. She was already pretty tipsy from all Champagne back at the hotel and the shots with who was it again that gave her the shots? She didn’t plan to stay with them for the whole evening. She would manage to sneak away and that Morrigan distracted Barbie was the moment to try and get away. She quickly finished her beer and stood up. Two heads spun around at looked at her. Lenna didn’t saw the second one, she spoke clearly with Barbie. “What? I need to use the bathroom after all the beer.”

“That’s a good idea, I’ll come with you.” Georgie was half standing when Lenna pushed her back down.

“No! No I can go alone, I’m fine. And I need to make a call. So I would prefer to have a moment alone.” Lenna tried to look innocently at Georgie, but she wasn’t sure if it really worked. Was it just her or did everyone of the team look at her. She felt like everyone was watching her and they all saw that something was different.

“So do I need to ask for your permission to pee and call someone?” Lenna looked provoking from one of the three girls at the table to the next.

Aly and Caleb sat at a table together alone, but within sight of the hunters. They had brought the new girl under their protective wing and that was good. Whatever it was they hunted might try to go after blood relations.

They both stared at their drinks, still looking like the agents they weren't on the outside, but feeling more like teens in the hot seat on the inside. At least, Aly felt like that. Her cheeks colored of their own accord. It wasn't cheating since there was nothing going on...but that's how this felt.

She stirred her G&T slowly avoiding his gaze. His eyes looked piercing and dangerous, and if she looked into them at all it was almost as if a caged monster followed her from behind bars. Had she actually hurt him? She shuddered, took another sip of her drink, and took out the files, spreading them over the table.

"Here's what we have so far. I'm thinking we have a paranoid hunter out there who sees werewolves around street corners. That hunter thought he was killing the wolf when in fact he killed two innocent people--obviously because the murders started again."

She took a long drag of her drink before meeting his eyes--now far away and...frightened?

"So, you're the resident werewolf hunter--what did you come up with and where do we go from here?"

"We look for cases in the surrounding area that were put down to Mass Hysteria. That's always how supernatural cases are dealt with. Sometimes the shot won't be listed as an execution style shot to the heart, just the fatal wound to the heart. Werewolves don't so much cut the heart out as much as tear it out. Claws, teeth, whatever they can do the job with. Sometimes they go through the stomach to avoid hitting the ribs when they go for the heart, like wild animals. Anything where a weapon was used to remove the heart can be ruled out as one of a copycat or a lunatic. We need to know if this werewolf travels, and look at the victims' autopsies to see if it's more than one wolf. Things won't add up. Severity of the injuries won't add up to the locations. Werewolves are stronger and faster than humans, so the injuries will suggest someone much larger and stronger than the location would."

Aly pulled a file to the top of the pile and handed it to him.

"This is the last recorded instance of anything like this happening in this area, though it is on the outskirts of town so it could indicate the wolf moving on to fresh territory. It's the last instance until now. Can werewolves not turn for five years? Or maybe it's after something that wasn't here for five years? Do they have any concept of revenge or can they sense a blood relative of their victims? I can't think of any reason for the five year gap except that. Sometimes serial murderers will take time off--usually the ones with appetites like sex crimes, mutilations, tortures--things that sorta fill him up for a while. He doesn't feel the need to kill anymore until a few years later when something happens in his life--the urge comes back and the murders start again, same MO, same everything. It's like they just snap. Can that happen with werewolves?"

She finished her drink and signaled the waitress for another and ordered an appetizer for them both.

"I hear if they don't sleep they can go through the Full Moon without turning. It's a long time to go without sleep though. It's nothing I've ever come across before after years," Caleb answered, finishing his own drink and calling another.

Aly dipped into the nachos. Everything was coming back to her. She was excited to actually be able to do her job again--profiling a werewolf was interesting.

"Alright, do we know if werewolves are conscious--like if you were one--would you be able to recognize people you knew when human, could you hold a grudge, act out vengeance, actually plan your killings or would it be completely random?"

His knuckles were white around his glass.

"Sorry...I get carried away sometimes when I'm trying to get inside a perp's head. I know it's the supernatural, but there's got to be motive--right?"

Georgina watched Elenna disappearing behind a group of older guys who couldn't resist but staring at her as she passed them.
"I put holy water in her drink", Rome said. "No reaction at all."

"Well, that's good." Georgie turned towards him. "But on the other hand we still don't have any explanation for her weird behavior."

Rome snorted. "I wish I could say this was just a girl thing." Rome took a gulp of his drink. "Women are all..."

"Choose your words carefully, Remington", Georgina interrupted him with a warning grin.

"Glorious examples of human perfection which man could never hope to achieve?" He grinned apologetically.

"I know what you mean. Something's up, something quite different..." Georgina toyed with the idea of following her to the bathroom, but she decided against it because she knew that Elenna would get really pissed at her.

Lenna quickly stepped out of friend's view. She didn’t plan to call anyone, but she needed a minute away from her overprotective team.

“Elle.”

She looked angry around to see who had called her by that name when she spotted a friendly, hot face. She smiled at the guy and he smiled back.

“Hey there sunny boy want some company?”

“Sure have a seat.”

“No, not here. Let’s go somewhere else, but through the back door my big brother sits at a table and he won’t be too happy seeing me talking to a guy. You know my family is really conservative Christians and he thinks I should not talk to guys alone.” Lenna grinned wicked at the guy.

He grinned back. “Great. I’m Adam.”

“Lenna. Give me two seconds.”

Lenna went to a tall, not friendly looking guy.

“Hey, do you see the group with the blond Barbie over there? I heard the goofy grinning guy say that he would bang your girlfriend even when she looks like a sea slug. And the grumpy looking hot guy at the table next to them said that he can punch you KO in less than 5 seconds. All what I am trying to say is that they are really mean, and you should know what they say about you.”

Lenna followed wicked grinning Adam when the large guy gathered his friends together and went over to her team. She was gone through the backdoor before Rome or any other of her friends could notice her gone. Lenna whistled when she saw Adam’s car. Lenna took her cell out of her pocket, looked at it.

No this time I do what I wanna do no matter what one friend says.

She turned her phone off.

“Nice ride.”

Adam grinned. “Thanks.”

A huge guy just walked over to the team’s table.

“Who of you douchbags is banging my girlfriend?”

The guy looked angry and Rome, and realized that he was the goofy grinning guy the hot girl meant. He didn’t care that the other at the table were girls. He pushed Georgie of her seat to get to Rome, while his friends went to Aly and Caleb’s table.

“I don’t care what badges you have, but no one is threatening my buddies. So get up and fight like a man you suit b*stard. You too girlie.”


((OOC Have fun fighting some huge, strong, bad jerks))

Aly shook her head at his last comment.

"I know the supernatural can be pretty messed up--but so can normal human beings. I've gotten into the heads of men that made the most vicious animal on the planet look like a domestic pet. If they're so hungry, why don't they consume the entire body..."

She trailed off as a large group of rough looking men approached the hunters table. Within a blink of her eye the lead man had impacted Rome's jaw with such force he was on the floor. Another bruiser aimed for their table and Caleb.

Aly nodded to Caleb and they both stood up, weapons ready but not out.

"Break it up, FBI!" Allison commanded.

"I don’t care what badges you have, but no one is threatening my buddies. So get up and fight like a man you suit b*stard!. You too girlie."

Aly glanced at Caleb, that rage rippled beneath his neck again, this time with considerably less restraint going into it.

Morrigan stepped back, grabbing Rome away from the beefy man intent on smashing in his brains, but not before the guy had gotten a good hit in on Rome and he went sprawling.

She noticed Aly and Caleb fingering their weapons. This was about to get ugly.

"Hey, I don't know who told you that load of crap, but this guy here doesn't even know your girlfriend." She helped Rome stand, grabbed Georgie off the floor and moved to get out of the way. It was time to let the big guns handle the situation.

“F*ck you. I don’t care what you try to tell, but I don’t believe you. He looks exactly like the guy who was hitting on my girl yesterday.”

He punched Rome hard while his maybe smaller friends but still jerks started to threaten the girls.

Caleb rolled his eyes. He removed his (fake) badge and both guns, handing them to Aly.

"I'm not a Fed any more. Come get some," Caleb ordered, tossing his jacket to the side and gesturing for the thugs to make their move, "Come on. I'm not too big to hit am I? D'you just punch the pretty boys and threaten the girls? Come on. Try that bullsh** with someone who can grow a beard."

The one who'd landed the hit on Rome glanced at the man to his immediate right.

"Come on. Try to hit me like you just hit my friend," Caleb barked, "Come on. I dare ya. I f***in' dare ya!"

The man approached, standing a little taller and broader than Caleb.

"You said you're not a Fed any more. You some kinda tough guy now?" he demanded, "City boy."

"Son, I'm from Red Hook, Brooklyn. I was born with my foot up the ass o' small town wannabe hard-cases like you," Caleb answered, shoving the man back with all the strength he had - a considerable amount, given how close to the transformation he was.

Once the shock of how far Caleb had shoved - or tossed, rather - him, both locals moved at the same time. Caleb moved low, his shoulder slouching and his chin tucking as he slipped past the first one, coming up inside his guard with a hard elbow under the jaw. Thug went down, spitting his blood and his last drink on the floor. So much for a movement that'd put his bulk between Caleb and the second man. Caleb ducked again, hooking the attacker's elbow in his own and locking his wrist. Caleb twisted at the hip, breaking the wrist and throwing the man headfirst to the floor. He stopped himself just short of putting his boot down the man's neck.

Instead, he wheeled around and slipped by another punch thrown by the first one he'd hit. Caleb performed the single dirtiest block he knew. The key point of it was getting out of the way so if it didn't work, he still wouldn't get hit. That done, Caleb lifted the point of his elbow into the path of the punch. He'd never admit it, but it hurt when the thug's fist impacted on his elbow.

But that wasn't a problem. It wasn't his bones that had made that beautiful crunch as they shattered. Caleb responded with a stiff kick between the goalposts, using his shin for the sake of being mean. The job was finished with a slightly overzealous palm strike to the poor bastard's face as he went to double over, snapping him back the way he'd come, blood and mucous pouring from his shattered nose.

An unexpected punch from a third party spun him to the floor.

"Well s*** ..." Caleb thought, rubbing his bloodied face, "I did not see that coming."

Aly watched horrified as Caleb demolished the men with beyond human ability. She didn't have time to process it though as one finally caught him in the jaw sending him to the ground. She swallowed the lump in her throat as the bruiser turned in her direction.

Ripples formed in the drinks on the table as the entire room started to tremble. New York was not known for earthquakes. The lamps began to swing catching the attention of the man. She used it to sidestep him and kicked his shin. The man fell face first into the oak table breaking a few teeth.

Aly took out her gun and fired one shot into the roof to grab everyone's attention. She knew she was going to regret this later, but she clamped her foot down on the man's calf, took out her cuffs and pulled his hands behind his back.

Years of habit and training took over.

"Everyone stays right where they are. Bartender, call an ambulance and the police."

She turned to the cuffed man. Caleb stared at her from the floor willing her to stop and not make this a big deal. They were going to get caught if they had to file a report.

"You're under arrest for assaulting a Federal Officer."

She leveled her gun at the one using Rome as a ventriloquist dummy.

"Set him down, or you'll end up like your buddies."

The man slowly backed away with hands raised and wide eyes looking at Caleb who was standing again. The feral glare he gave the man made her blood run cold.

Apparently the vodka had kicked in before the Red Bull, because by the time Rome registered there was a problem and had grabbed Lily and Morrigan and shoved them behind him, he'd already sustained three solid hits--face, gut, and temple--the last of which had sent him flying.

He managed to catch himself on the billiard table, and came back armed with the eight ball, a pool cue, and a vengeance. Like a viper strike he slammed the pool ball full into the guy's nose--he missed, and ended up breaking a few teeth instead--oops--following up with a rapid thwack! to the side of the head with the cue.

"You look exactly like the guy who was hitting on my girl yesterday!" one of the blobs cried, coming to his friend's aid.

"My bad, man, I could've sworn that was your mom," Rome snapped back, holding the cue like a Samurai warrior and, as he goaded the man into lunging forward, slammed it into his gut with a powerful thrust and then breaking it over his back as he buckled forward.

But then a third guy--Caleb was wiping the floor with, like, six of them on the other side of the bar, so how many of these monsters were there?--broke a bottle over his head and, as Rome wobbled, the hulk snatched him up by the lapels and was about to beat his face in--goodbye, Hollywood--when Aly turned Texan on them all of a sudden and shot a hole in the roof:

"Everyone stays right where they are! Bartender, call an ambulance and the police!" Everyone froze, and in that time she cuffed one of the guys, talked another down, and wheeled on the one holding him aloft: "Set him down, or you'll end up like your buddies."

Rome wasn't going to tell anyone this, but he got all tingly when she took control like that.

The guy quickly let him go. But Aly still had fire in her eyes. As cops and ambulances arrived, she managed, in the confusion, to sequester the hunters from the thugs, like God separating sheep from goats, and more or less covertly got them outside and into their cars.

Once Rome was safely wedged into Caleb's truck between the two "FBI" agents and the doors were shut,

"OWW!" he bellowed, not sure what hurt the most. "What the hell, is this beat the sh*t out of Rome day?"

"Quit being such a baby," Aly said, dabbing where the guy had broken a bottle on his head with something that stung unnecessarily.

"You quit being a baby," Rome pouted, forgetting how enamored he had been with her ten minutes ago. "And where the hell did Elenna go?"

Georgina ran to Caleb's truck to check on the others.
"Hey, are you guys all right?" She scrutinized Rome who did not look okay, but he nodded, and so did Caleb and Aly.

"Listen, I just checked the bathroom and Lenna isn't there anymore, so she must have left during the fight", Georgie said.

"Or something took her." Rome bit his lower lip. Aly's and Caleb's eyes met briefly.

"She won't answer her phone either. I'm going to take my car now and look for her. This place isn't that big, we will find her. I'll ask the girls if they're going to help me." She turned around and walked towards Morrigan and Lily.

Allison shifted in her seat, practically sitting on Caleb's lap in the cramped cab. She closed her eyes and tried to picture what had happened. There was no way that those men could have known that her and Caleb were with the hunters.

She sighed, almost resting her head on Cal's shoulder but covering it up with the movement of the truck. After she'd handed those men over to the local PD and left to join the hunters she'd come to the only conclusion possible. It killed her to say it because she knew what it would do to Rome. While she didn't think of him as anything more than a friend, she knew how much he cared for Lenna and that it would break his heart.

"Rome...Lenna didn't leave after the fight. She caused it. She broke our cover and left with some guy I've never seen before. It just took me a moment to recall what happened. I'm sorry."

Lenna was sitting in his car, she felt great and free.

“So those guys back in the bar are they your family?”

“No, they are not, we work together. But that is not important. They are annoying, overprotective, bossy jerks.”

Adam started laughing. “You mean the conservative Christian family was a lie?”

“Um no not exactly, but hey I’m sitting with you in the car not them. This means you won the big prize while they had to fight their way out of the bar.”
Adam’s eyes wandered from Lenna’s face down her body and he grinned. “Yeah, I did win!”

“I think we both won.”

Lenna bend over and kissed him. “Hey stop it or we crash, wait until we are at the hotel. Or maybe I just stop here.”

Lenna laughed, but it was so unlike her normal laughing. But not just this was different, Lenna’s whole attitude wasn’t normal. She wasn’t the nice smart girl anymore, she was different. She was like a little female version of Rome, which was in a way scary to see. Lucky her no one of her friends saw her, especially the one she cared the most for.


At Adam’s motel room they had a few more drinks, and it was nice not to be responsible this time. Lenna could just let go.

“Hey this his hot.”

“Yeah, I got the tattoo a long time ago. It was a dare, some girls in school thought I would never do it. But I did. I never told anyone else about it.”

His finger was gently moving over shull on Lenna’s hip.

Lenna started to giggle. “No stop that tickles.”

He didn’t stop and Lenna didn't really complain…

"Yeah, no, yeah, I know," Rome groaned. "I saw that guy checking her out, too." He laughed mirthlessly: "Teach me to exercise restraint! If I was gonna be in a fight anyway I shoulda beat his face in when I had the chance. Now she could be anywhere with--hell, he could be the werewolf!"

"Easy, Rome," Caleb ground out, and Aly laid a hand on his arm.

Having driven a safe distance from the bar, Truckzilla and the Audi--what a pair--pulled into a McDonald's parking lot and slid the two vehicles up next to one another so they could speak through the open windows.

"Maybe we should split up," Rome suggested, absently licking at a cut on his lip until it bled again. "I hate to say it, but, threes? Someone could go after Elenna, there's a werewolf somewhere in this town, and there's a ghost back at the school, not that we have a name or any bones to dig up and burn."

Rome didn't like planning. He liked being told what his job was, complaining about it, and then doing it. Planning was usually something Elenna and Rawson did--and neither of them were here. Despite having five other people keeping him company, Rome felt suddenly lonely.

He caught Lily giving him a probing look, and quickly adjusted his mind--as best he could--remembering about his psychic sludge.

"I, uh," he offered, in a voice that was somewhat smaller than he'd intended it to come out, "I'd like to go after Elenna, if that's okay."

Morrigan hopped out of the car and stared up at the big golden arches. The last thing she wanted was a happy meal.

She felt horrible for letting Caleb, Aly and Rome handle the fight, but she'd always grown up knowing that the bigger you make a fight, the more people end up in the ER- and from what she'd seen of Caleb, he'd had things pretty much handled the whole time.

"I'll help you go find Elenna," she promised Rome, looking over at Lily and seeing if the other girl would offer the same. "Anything you need, but if we don't find her soon, we need to make sure we're all together before we go up against this thing. We've all seen...what its capable of."

Caleb and Aly nodded in total understanding from Truckzilla.

"There's a Werewolf active in this town Rome ... and I don't know about you but, splitting three ways won't end well if a Werewolf snags us," Caleb answered flatly, but authoritatively as he prepared to get out and offer to buy some Happy Meals, "And shooting down a Wolf on your own needs a lot of distance and one Hell of a rifle."

Caleb stopped as his pager buzzed.

"Allison, when did you give the local cowboys my pager number?" Caleb asked as he read the message.

Pausing and looking around the others, Caleb closed his door and re-buckled his seatbelt.

"Everyone saddle up. The cowboys found another victim," Caleb sighed, thumping the steering wheel.

"Holy crap, you're kidding me," Rome groaned. He had really wanted a cheeseburger. Or three. Anyway, he had better things to do: "Okay, lemme off, first," he said, fumbling for the door handle, finding his knuckles were torn. "I need to go look for Elenna." He certainly didn't want to, but it felt more like something he was obligated to do. Or, like, needed to, to live with himself.

"Rome," Aly warned, giving him the mom-stare.

"What? To go check out another dead body?" Rome said, struggling out of the seatbelt and getting out of the car. "I've seen enough of those to last me a while, thanks." He slammed the door, ready to hoof it if he had to. Or maybe that bike dealership across the street was still open. "I can't do anything to help, I'll probably just, I dunno, figure out a way to get possessed by it!"

"Get back in the cab, Romulus. Now."

Rome huffed. He looked out into the unforgiving night, wishing of all the superpowers he could have been cursed with that x-ray vision had been one of them. He didn't want to look like a pussy in front of a carfull of hot chicks, but Caleb was using his persuasive voice. So he got back into the car.

"I look like I just went twelve rounds with a semi-truck," Rome said as Caleb drove off, followed by the Audi, "so unless you want me to impersonate Mike Tyson, I'm not sure what you want from me."

"Allison and I will deal with the cowboys. You all stay in the car in case the Werewolf is still nearby. Or in case it's another screw-up Hunter kill and our misguided kid with a Messiah Complex is still nearby," Caleb stated before leaning out the window and calling to the girls, "Lily, Georgina, Morrigan, you three are watching Rome when we stop up. Lily, you page me if Rome tries to go walkabout after Elenna."

As he finished, he pulled away from the space, his Ford's engine hiding his next words from anyone outside the truck.

"Rome, if you try to go for a run after I tell you to stick close, I'll chase you down and kick your ass in front of anyone who stays to watch," Caleb stated over his shoulder to Rome, "And Lily will page me."

Caleb and Allison left the truck and walked the rest of the way to the crime scene. Fortunately it was a small town. They showed their badges at the edge of the crime scene and walked together to the coroner who stood over another body.

"So, how can we track this thing? Do we need to wait till it's human again?"

She was beginning to think of him as her partner--and a good one. Too bad this was all a farce. She would enjoy working with him.

"F this noise."

Rome glared from the truck bed at Lily. He watched as Aly and Caleb stalked off like they were on CSI or something stupid. Chump hadn't even left him the keys so he could listen to the radio. Still. Rome cranked up the radio volume to full, turned on the blinkers, the windshield wipers and every light he could find. Even if he spotted one, Caleb should have a surprise waiting for him when he turned the Fordosaurus back on.

And then Rome got out of the truck.

"I'm checking it out," he told them, as Morrigan rolled down the window. If he couldn't appear brave he could at least go for the defiant angle. "It's not like another ass-kicking will make much of a difference, now, anyway."

A small crowd had gathered beyond the yellow line, and Rome joined them. Boooring. He took his phone out of his pocket and tried Elenna again, but it went straight to voicemail.

He frowned, glanced around. He shrugged. He couldn't possibly get in any more trouble, could he? Rome ducked under the yellow tape and walked up to the crime scene.