Both of them, however, wanted money up front.

Of course they did.  But surely anyone would want proof before sending money, right?  He looked for it, and then, if that wasn't available, he reached out, asking for proof.

One of them email you back, refusing to. The other one sent you a video file.

Jake examined it carefully.

It features a figure in shadow.

"Yeah, the process works great," he said, as he shot out a blast of flame that covered his face. "I'm in the big time now!"

Well, that looked very likely.

"Hey, mom," he said.  "Can I borrow some Bitcoin for the cause of justice?"

"I'm low on it at the moment. Ask your sister," your mom said.

"Sooooo," said Jake.  "How's my favorite sister?  Up for making sacrifices for the cause of justice?"

"I'm your only sister," she pointed out.

"I admit that the competition doesn't have a chance," said Jake.  "However, you also beat out hypothetical alternate sisters, and that's more impressive.  Anyway, someone appears to have given some people fire powers that they used to burn down a building.  I'm trying to track them down.  Can you help me, one way or another?"

"What do you need?" Kate asked.

Jake showed her what he'd found.

"One option would be to borrow Bitcoin from you and pay the guy," he said.  "Another would be if some kind of genius I am in awe of could somehow backtrack this, get metadata from the video so I can find them, something like that."

"I can do both," Kate said. "But you owe me."

"Yep, I do," said Jake.  "Thanks."

He tried to set up a meeting...

Sunday, at Warehouse 13 on the Waterfront. - the email said.

"Okay," said Jake.  "Looks like we have a plan.  Can you get anything out of that?"

"I'll try a few things, but no promises," Kate said.

"Can't ask more than that," said Jake.  "Thanks."

"'Kay, I'm gonna go play some games," Kate said as she headed downstairs.

Jake sent a email telling his teammates what he was up to.

How do you want to deal with it? - Longbow texted back.

Setting up a meet.  Probably could use some backup.

Sure, but us hiding outside waiting for a signal or something? - Grendel texted.

Yeah, most likely.  Unless my expert buddy can track down info from the guy's email.

Maybe you should introduce us to them sometime, Hurricane said.