An anonymous tip (Pika)

It had been almost been an entire year since Ella began her war against the underground drug ring, she had stopped a lot of the crime that she could find, and even forced them to recoup at one point, a huge step for her. However, with her death and coming back just in time for the HIVE invasion, the drug lords were back at full force, now with more money and stock than ever. Sure HIVE had been run off, but there was still pieces that they left behind that aided the criminals once again.
Ella had finally been given permission to start this crazy thing again, and as soon as she started looking for clues she had come across some crazy guy who said he knew something. Sure, he looked like he was about to over dose on heroine, but he definitely knew of the attack Ella previously dealt with. Specifically when the drug ring lead her right to the human trafficking, right when she was going to save those girls they were taken from Ella, she couldn't do anything to save them... He knew where they were!

With this information, the hero hurried back to the hub, the time now reaching around 6 pm. Without saying hi to anyone she hopped in bed and fell asleep, thinking about her trip tomorrow. Ella knew she was going to have to get up in the middle of the night to slip out of the room without Fen knowing, so getting rest now was her best option.
Just as the clock hit 3 am, Ella woke up and slipped out of bed, reassuring Fen that she was going to the bathroom before he rolled over with a grunt. With that the girl threw on black jeans, a grey sweat shirt, and some good running shoes before attempting to leave. She'd slowly tip toe out to the door, hoping that she didn't wake anyone up.

Just as she was getting ready to go out, a voice called out behind her. crap. The blonde slowly turned around to see Meta, who looked like he just finished an intense work out. Did he ever sleep?! Does he even need sleep? She was 90% that boy ran on protein powder and testosterone. Thinking of a lie quickly, Ella straightened up so she wasn't bending her neck backwards to look at him. "Uhh.. I'm going on patrol... What are you doing up so late, you should be sleeping." She lied, which when she said it well.. it sounded like a lie. Hopefully Meta didn't pick up on it though, he seemed like he could be dense and took things too literally sometimes so it might work. She also tried flipping the question on him so he was forced to explain himself.

Wait, how did he know it wasn't her turn to patrol? She didn't really have to ask, he definitely memorized the entire schedule, she should have expected that from him. He was the one that was constantly in the training room lifting weights or beating the stuffing out of punching bags. "Can't two Titans be on patrol at once? That means the city is twice as safe!" She continued, backing up this time as she talked. "Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna go stop some petty crime. Make sure you get some rest tonight, okay?" Ella told him while she opened her portal, getting ready to go. The less questions aimed at her, the better. This lie made her feel bad.

Just as she was getting ready to leave, Meta pulled the pity card. Usually she could brush these things off, but Meta? The emotionless robot? Oh man she felt horrible. He was completely right, why did she feel the need to lie? Well she knew why, but he was her teammate, so he deserved an honest answer. Just as she thought she couldn't feel worse, he put his hand on her shoulder and said he thought they were friends. Ella groaned and put her hands on her face, dang it Meta! "Okay fine fine! You're going to make me throw up if you act this innocent and cute." Ella whispered, her eyes squeezed shut. "I'm going on a personal mission and I knew if any of you would find out, you'd want to come. I can't put you guys in danger like that, especially with all this crap you've been going through lately.. I'll be back by tomorrow afternoon, so don't worry about it alright?" Ella finally explained, looking up at Meta while doing so.

He mulled over her words for a few moments before saying she should have some back up. For whatever reason he called himself less powerful, which didn't make sense to Ella, on top of saying he had more experience. He definitely was more powerful than her, and it did make her feel better that he wanted to help, but... Ugh... They were going to keep running around in circles at this point, and if they started talking any louder Fen would definitely be up asking what's wrong, therefore starting another conversation. "Okay okay.. You've convinced me.. But pinky promise me you won't do anything stupid?" Ella asked, sticking out her pinky for him to grab. Once he did, Ella would begin going out the portal.

After making sure he promised not to do anything stupid, Ella opened the portal to the beginning of the docks, a little way from their mission point. She immediately crouched behind a shipping container and peeked her head over, watching some guys load one shipping container on top of another. "Okay, I don't know if you are familiar or not but I got pretty invested in a drug ring down in the slums. Essentially I started shutting them down, only to find out they had a huge hand with this human trafficking gang. I attempted to save all these girls but... they took them before I could save them.. I was too weak at the time, and well, if Harmon wasn't there I don't even know if I'd be alive today.." She explained, coming up with a game plan. "Besides all that sappy nonsense, I got a tip that the same people were back in town with a new shipment of girls, I need to stop that. Before it's too late." Ella continued, stretching her arms before the attack, she rested up well because she knew this day was going to take a lot out of her.
"So once my powers get going.. there uh.. loud... So could you take out those three guys by the shipping container, and then we can bust in the containment center and stop whoever is in there."

Waiting behind the shipping container, Meta quickly headed out to do as she asked, making Ella grateful that he came. With his distraction she was able to peek through a side door, there was too many shipping containers inside to get a clear view, but she definitely saw a group of people in there, or at least they were walking by at some point. Just as she was heading over towards him, he called out on her communicator saying that he was ready. "I'm on my way over." She told him, clipping her communicator on her belt as she walked over to him.
Ella walked out behind him, still crouching slightly as she prepared herself. "Okay, I saw a group of guys walking around, there was at least 7 or 8 of them. They were looking at the containers and writing things down, so you have to make sure not to do anything to them. We don't know if anyone's in there." Ella explained to him, walking to door as she did. "They usually have automatic guns so I'm going to give you cover right away, yell if you need some more."

And with that Ella slammed the door open and lifted her hand, causing the earth to the left of them rise and create a rock wall. This was so Meta could hide behind it so he didn't get shot. IN the meantime, Ella's body flashed and suddenly she was in that ridiculous suit once more. Suddenly 6 guys started running at them with something that resembled a gun, but instead the tip was open and was glowing purple. Ella was not going to find out what that did. They started yelling in some foreign language and began shooting at Ella, not knowing Meta was there at the moment. The girl flew straight in the air and summoned a cloud, starting the down pour on them.
The guns shot a single purple ball with a wire attached and by the look of it, it would shock the hell out of you. Now with the water in place, the girl was able to control it and freeze the men where they stood.

Freezing them in place was the best thing she could do at the moment. Meta took out all eight guys with ease, he made it look incredibly easy actually, it made her lose focus for several moments. Of course the roar of gun fire was enough to bring her to her senses, and luckily it brought her back in time to see multiple guys run out above them on top of the crates, each with the shocking guns the others had. Ella reacted by splitting the ice on the ground and mixing it with the earth walls from earlier, she used this creation to trap each man on the side of the walls, not able to reach their guns or able to move.
By the time she was done, Meta was bashing two guys heads together, knocking them out. "Alright, we have ten-ish minutes before they get wake up, go through and check every single storage container as quickly as possible!" Ella told him through the communicator, wrapping earth around the guys that were unconscious. She was putting them in mini constraints before actual police showed up, and so if they woke up they couldn't do anything.

Ella quickly ran over to a container and covered the lock in ice, followed by squeezing it and ripping it off. She ran inside and saw... nothing... Okay no big deal, there were tons left! However, every time Ella and Meta opened one of these crates they would be empty, every single one. She finally flew over to Meta with a downcast tone to herself. "I'm... not sure what happened... I thought this was the place.. why would they all be empty?" The Titan asked, unsure of what to do next. As she listened and waited for Meta's answer, he would be cut off by a door behind a crate being thrown open. A girl would be screaming as she was dragged out into the middle of the floor, a gun placed to her head. Ella immediately jumped down and was getting ready to attack when he began yelling. "NOT ONE MORE STEP OR SHE GETS LEAD IN HER PRETTY LITTLE SKULL" The man called out, making Ella stop dead.
Just as she was taking in the scene, it clicked, that was the girl she saw that was shipped out months ago. The girl she promised she'd save... They had to get her. "We don't have to fight, nobody has to get hurt, please.. .let's talk this through." Ella said carefully, putting her hands out slightly. "I warn you little lady, I am not afraid to kill this piece of meat. I want you to give yourself up now with no questions, along with blonde boy over there.... Unless of course you want friend of yours to die." He said with a thick Slovic accent, making Ella wait and look over at Meta. Of course they weren't going to surrender, but maybe, just maybe they could pull something off.

While making eye contact with Meta she attempted to tell him with no words 'I'll get the guy, you save the girl'. Nodding, she slowly put her hands up. "Okay.. Please.. just don't hurt her." Ella asked of him, putting her hands high in the air. Now Ella had only been out on the field for a few months now, her eyes weren't as trained as Meta's. Because of this, she didn't noticed the cloaked man on the crate above them, he was in an invisibility outfit, but if you had a trained eye you could detect something like this.
Without this knowledge, Ella twisted her fist up and shot earth at the man with the gun, throwing him off balance and into a wall. However, as soon as she did this the cloaked man shot one of those purple lasers at her, and as soon as it hit her body she went completely numb, falling to the ground.