The Crustacean Job Pt. I

Log Info

Title: The Crustacean Job Pt. I
Emitter: Amy
Characters: Alia, Amy, Linus, Sasha, Winter
NPCs: Angry Assassins, Frantic Cops, One Lucky Senator and his family
Place: J J's Crab Shack
Time: Evening
Summary: A 'cultural exploration' field trip to a local dive turns into a wild melee when a band of mysterious, heavily armed thugs attempt to take out a US Senator.


Tuesday night in Cove City finds Alia, Amy and Euiko on the hunt. Not for evildoers, not for justice, but something a lot tastier - crab! Though the new place is enjoying a great reputation among the locals so far, from the exterior, it doesn't look promising. A former biker and fisherman's dive, J J's is a weathered, old, narrow clapboard building, its dark red paint long faded into a brick color and hazy with the results of long exposure to salt water and Baltimore's often freezing winter temperatures. It's the kind of place that probably once featured prominently on Cove City TV news as the home of fistfights, stabbings and the odd shooting. They've made some attempts to clean up the seedy-looking establishment with new streetlights in the tiny, L-shaped parking lot, a new sign at the curb featuring a crab peering out from beneath the lid of a pot. The lot's already filled with a mix of motorcycles, pickup trucks and the occasional SUV or sedan. The line to get in is also wrapped almost all the way around the building.

This phases Amy not a jot, though. "Oh man, now I _know_ we're on to the real thing!" she grins, hopping a little in excitement. "We've got a place back home looks a lot like this and it's got the best shrimp in Jacksonville!"

Alia frowns slightly, looking ever So Serious as she sometimes does in these situations. "Are you quite certain? This does not appear to be quite a… proper eating establishment." She hrms, "I still maintain that a sushi bar would be a good place to get some crab."

Winter is here. That is, the new guy from school. He too has waited in line. When he could, he peered toward the parking lot; those were some cool bikes. But by now he's moved up in the world: way up toward the front of the line, where he waits as patiently as he can. Which isn't very. His foot taps, leg moving incessantly. Hands shoved in pockets as ever, and he's got an earphone — yeah, just one of the pair — tucked in place to help him kill some time.

The odd thing isn't that Linus is here, though it certainly does not seem like the sort of place one goes to alone, but that Linus is passing by, somewhat. The super powered teenager is staying in the proximity, walking past, and just keeping an eye on things. He's also wearing the standard Steranko Thunderdome uniform, plus a face mask. As far as these things go, it doesn't reek of professionality, but it's something, and it's a start. Linus is on patrol. Sort of. Oh dear.

"Hai." Euiko adds, stone-faced, as she looks the place over. The prospect of crab sounded interesting though, Alia's musings prompt a brief pang for some proper sushi. She is garbed in a hoodie and jeans, as well as a pair of cutoff gloves as she stands with the girls. Very softly, she inquires, "Is that Grumpy-San?"

"Yeah, it does look like him." Amy replies, nodding. "You can always tell Grumpy by that black cloud over his head." she smirks, falling into line out side of a thoroughly disreputable looking building labeled J J's crab shack. If she spots Linus, which she doesn't, she wouldn't mention it. "And come _on_ girls. Where's your sense of adventure?" she grins encouragingly. "Trust me, the best seafood and barbecue can always be found at places that look like this." she explains patiently. "It means they're spending more cash on their product than they are the building, for one thing, which means this stuff'll be good and fresh." she beams. "Not to mention that I dunno if you could even eat raw crab. Shellfish and all…"

Alia arches a brow, "I believe so…" to Euiko. Then she looks over at Amy, "I am not certain if that logic is exactly sound, but I will relent to it for the time being. This does not exactly seem like the best place, though."

Winter pulls out his MP3 player and skips a song, maybe checks the time. He then pauses, cocks his head, and turns it as he seems someone, something familiar. Not the girls; not yet. First he eyes Linus. "Christ," he mutters. And then he twists again, as some familiar voices float over. "/Christ/," he repeats.

The masked figure peers at the familiar group. He pauses there, watching the crowd for signs of… I don't know. Criminalness? Criminality? Bad Person's Disease? Clearly, there's trace elements, but it seems there could be worse stuff elsewhere. Masked Linus continues on his patrol route, passing the place by and heading into a darkened alleyway.

A roar of an engine, squealing of tires, and finally, Sasha arrives. As she rolls towards the door of the crab joint, her lower body morphs back into legs, Sasha picking up the transition with not a hitch in her step. She shoves open the door and approaches the group, waving her arms in frustration. "Finally!" she declares. She has a pink slip in her hand.

A nod to Alia, then her attention returns to Amy as she explains, euphemisticly, about identifying Grumpy-San. "He seems to be looking for something." she offers softly, then turns her eyes to the rest of the patronage, then further about the neighborhood.

Dark eyebrows rise, and Winter turns again, quickly, when tires screech /really/ close by. He won't take the Lord's name in vain anymore, though. He just facepalms. Loudly.

"Right, right." Amy sighs, shaking her head a little. "Just _trust_ me." she says. "It'll be great." There's a genuine sigh of relief when Sasha turns up. "Hey, I thought you couldn't make it, she asks, motioning her to join Alia and Euiko and herself in the cue outside of a thoroughly disreputable looking joint. "Was just explaining to the others about the connection between seedy buildings and great food." she says. "C'mon, back me up, will ya? I think I'm just scaring them."

Inside, things look only marginally better. The walls have been freshly painted off-white to mask a few decades' worth of cigarette, cigar and pipe smoke. The scarred old narrow bar is still in place, with taps of Samuel Adams, Doggie Style and other favorites being served by the mug and still thronged with the very same clientele that used to frequent the place before J J's daughter decided to rehabilitate it's reputation. The dining area's a different story. It would seem the presence of immense quantities of excellent steamed crab cooked in the traditional New England manner has brought about a kind of peace accord between the seedier bar dwellers and the throngs of business people, families and college students that are packed around the narrow room like Lego blocks.

Alia hrms, "This is some part of human culture that no one saw fit to explain in the briefings…" She then glances around, "Well, this should be… interesting." The alien then glances at the others, "I believe this looks more promising than the outside would lead you to think."

Sasha stuffs her ticket into her bag. She'll deal with that later. Grumble Grumble. She follows the crowd in. "I dunno," she tells Alia, "the Maryland crab shack is kind of an institution. I think they have it on the flag or something." She breathes in the intense aroma of crab and old bay seasoning. "Spicy," she says approvingly.

"Damn," Winter says, when ushered inside — a bit before the girls. Hey, if they didn't want to take advantage of him as an escort, they can wait. So he actually has a seat. In the packed, packed, packed joint. He looks pretty pleased about it. As pleased as someone named Grumpy-San can be. Which is to say he's not glaring at anyone, or even frowning. He just has a bland expression as he considers his menu. One earphone is still in place, foot tapping not with impatience but with the beat, now.

"Oh my….this smells _good_." Amy sighs, chuckling as her tummy rumbles as they finally get inside. "See, see, didn't I tell ya?" she asks. "Heh, wanna go bug Grumpy?" she asks, inclining her head in the boy's direction.

Musingly, Euiko comments something about gaijin as she looks at the somewhat bizarre dichotomy of the establishment. The ambient odor of the food doesn't seem to give any offense to her nose and she rather dutifully follows Amy's lead, giving Sasha's arrival a faintly smiled, "Hi, Sasha-san." in that way of hers. Then Amy broaches the suject of pestering the ice man and a brow arches.

Alia glances over at Amy, "I would not /object/… but I doubt very much that he wants to deal with me." She shrugs a bit, "I could easily be incorrect in that assessment, as human motivations sometimes are obscure for me."

Sasha shakes her head. "Nah, Winter's not really a warm and fuzzy guy," Sasha tells Alia. She waves past to Euiko, "Hey there. Wouldda been here sooner but I got pulled over. Seriously, they want me to wear a helmet?" she says with a roll of her eyes.

"Oh for crying out loud." Amy sighs, shaking her head. "Nice to know the cops took time out of their busy schedule of solving murders and busting drug rings to give a speeding ticket." she grumbles. "Well, whatever we do, we better do it fast." she muses, then spies a group of college kids settling their bill and departing a nearby table, well, nearby, small as this place is, they're all _nearby_. "Bingo." she says, sliding into one of the seats just as the waitress starts bussing the table.

Over at his table, Mr. Not-so-Warm-&-Fuzzy attempts to order some beer. This of course gets him nowhere, and he offers a wolfish smile for it. Lemonade it is for the teen. And crab, duh. fries, too.

While Winter waits he unslings his backpack. No textbooks in there, but he does drag out a battered notebook with a pencil tucked into it. He takes it in hand, then glances up. Maybe he heard his name. Maybe he hears a relative lack of crude talk as college kids leave. Which means maybe he notices the girls nearby. "…"

Alia sits down next to Amy, looking back and forth with a curious expression, "I don't think I've been in an eatery quite like this one. It seems… diverse." She smiles faintly, looking at the menu. Such as it is.

Sasha takes some quick steps herself, snatching up a seat before anybody else gets a chance to do so. The cyborg lands in a seat next to Amy. "I know, seriously? First for speeding, then for not wearing a helmet, and *third* one for not being registered!" she declares in exasperation. "No idea wher eI'm going to get the money," she says. Sasha shifts in her chair, looking around. "Best food comes from places that don't waste time worrying about being pretty," Sasha tells Alia.

Euiko glides into a seat after the others and, after plucking her long hairpins free, letting her hair spill down over her back. Her eyes flit to the speakers each in turn, then, "Please, what is it to pull over?" she asks.

"If you're driving and you're doing something the cops don't like, they'll pull in behind you, flash their lights at you, right." Amy explains, picking up what must be the world's most simple menu card and giving it a once over. "Then you, well, pull over to the side of the road, out of traffic, like." she explains. "Then they wanna see your driver's license, your insurance card and, here, I guess, your registration." she says. "Well, I know what I'm having." she chuckles, putting the plastic-coated card back on the table.

J J's serves one thing, and one thing only. New England-style steamed crab. These come in a lidded metal pail with a tea towel under the rim. You get your choice of either fries, potato salad or Cole slaw and your choice of iced tea, lemonade, Coke products and bottled water. That's it. Need more crab? Snag a server and let him or her know and it'll be out to you within about five swallows of your drink. Oh, you also get a slightly disturbing array of crackers, pickers and little fondue forks to get at themeat with and a plastic cup of clarified butter. It's almost zen-like in its simplicity.

And into this serendipity of lemonade and butter and disturbing cracky things is Winter, demanding: "What the hell are you guys doing here? Following me?" He tugs the earpiece free to hear the reply, favoring the girls with a frown. He's just one table over, after all. Eatin' alone.

"The police," Sasha tells Euiko, "they didn't like how I was driving. Riding. You know, on the road," she says with a vague gesture towards the outside. Sasha does, indeed, snag the server to get herself a coke and some fries,a nd then she grabs one of the crabs from the pail and flips it over. Sasha looks at it intensely, working on cracking it open with a single-minded intensity.

Alia says dryly, "Yes, it's part of my master plan to abduct you to my homeworld." She then smiles faintly and requests a coke and fries as well, taking a crab and cracking it with a hint of subtlety, using the proper pressure points.

Euiko watches either of the girls as they explain to her the intricacies of the penalties of bad motoring. she takes a moment to assimilate that, then bows her head with a gracias, "Arigatou, sempai." Her attention is pulled first to the boy's outburst, then across her shoulder to alia's response where her brow arches again. She grabs a crap and plunks it down on her plate, then, almost absently begins to trace her fingertips along the surface of the crustacean's shell, leaving faint light trails in their wake, while the other hand reflexively gathers her pins in a chopstick-like configuration. As she finishes feeling up the shellfish it falls to pieces and she starts to pick at it with her utensiles.

"Yep." Amy replies, pulling open the lid to her own pot o' crab and snagging some napkins to use as an improvised bib. Alas, her powers do not extend to the easy dissection of crab, so she has to do the whole 'surgical deconstruction' routine, which she leans into with gusto. Snap, crackle, pop! "We're her backup team, just in case you get frisky." she chuckles, dipping a big chunk of crab in her butter and sighing happily at the tastee.

"Well, put on the gold bikini and you've got a better shot at it," Winter blandly tells Alia. He shakes his head as he closes the notebook. It gets nudged over when food is actually brought; for some reason he thought he'd have a little more time. Hunh. He himself snags a few fries, and chews on these as he reaches for crab with one hand, cracker with the other, and proceeds to make a fine mess of things.

Sasha's formed a hammer from one of her fingers and smashes into the crab with glee. She looks over at Winter. "Stalkin you. Right. Becuase we're all so smitten with you. I mean just yesterday I was thinking about killing Amy so I could have you for myself," Sasha says, deadpan.

Alia arches a brow, "I didn't realize you would be into something like that." She smiles faintly, her expression rather inscrutable as she nibbles at the now-liberated crabmeat. Then the fries and Coke arrive, and she nods in gratitude to the waitress, "My thanks."

Silence reigns at Euiko's corner of the table as she experiments with the dipping and eating of her first bit of crab. She chews slowly for a good while while she watches the girls and boy toss lines back and forth at each other. There's a Spock moment at the bikini part, but instead of commenting she plucks another piece of crustacean.

Winter doesn't quite have the hang of this, so he'll mostly be eating cold crab by the time all is said and done, but at least a portion of his wasted time goes into staring at Sasha. First: hammer-fingers. Second: "Killing… what?" He rewinds that bit of convo, and then smirks.

Sasha looks back at Winter. "What? I'm kidding," she says with a snort.

Alia hrms slightly, "This is similar to the hnoiykar from home… but there are some differences." She glances over at Winter, and tilts her head, "You are welcome to join us, if you like. If nothing else we could be sarcastic towards each other with proximity instead of from a distance."

"Hey…wait…" Amy chuckles, picking at her potato salad before tucking into it with her fork. "Damn…that's good…Don't kill me, please." she says. "I'm too cute to die." she chuckles. "Okay, Sliders, you have met your match…" she says, using her fondue fork to prize out claw meat…"This is to die for." she sighs happily as she tucks away the rest of her crabs, making something of a mess and not caring.

"About killing? I'd think so," Winter says blandly to Sasha. "About Amy?" About him and Amy? He seems amused. He's amused all through his mutilation and devouring of some grab. Then he swipes up a napkin, and glances up toward his waitress, wherever she went. He recalls it's the same woman that served the girls, so he allows "I guess." And without asking anyone else's permission, grabs his belongings and shifts it all over to the others' table. He's not picky about who he sits next to. He does, however, make sure to grab up the notebook and begin shoving it into his bag.

There's a loud ringing noise. Sasha yelps and just about knocks over her chair as she stands up. A quick dive into her bag pulls out her phone and silences it. "Yeah. Hey! Wait, what?" she asks. A quick look around. "Shit. Important," she tells the others, tossing a few bills and rushing for the door.

Alia glances over at Winter as she winds up being the person he's next to, grabbing another crab, "At some point, perhaps next summer, there could be a field trip to my home. I think it would be interesting for you all to see it." She then reveals how she's been getting the crab out so easy, as she generates very tiny lasers with her fingers, helping the tools with their destruction of the shell to get the meat inside.

Euiko meanwhile, consumes her crab at a more sedate pace than the other girls, though with the ease of the shelling, she ends up finishing about the same time. She pulls another hapless crustacean from the pot and begins again to trace her cutting lines through it as the boy joins them and Sasha takes off. "Grumpy-San." she intones with a polite nod his way.

"Look, Princess. If you want to bring me home to Mom and Dad just be up front about it, it's cool," Winter drawls. A nod goes to the not-Yakuza girl he remembers. He remembers she doesn't talk much, at least. "…and you all are cheaters," he belatedly adds, somehow taking note of the mini-laser business. Sasha of the similarly cheating hammer-fingers just gets a vague, buttery wave.

"Take care, Sasha." Amy replies, turning back to her mostly dismembered fourth crab. "Heh, I always wanted to go into space, Alia." she grins, using fingers, forks and suction to prize out the harder parts of the legs and head, pausing now and then to attend to her potato salad on a paper plate. "I wonder what Sasha's call was about?" she asks, looking up towards the windows. "Hope it's nothing…."

SCREEEECH! BANG! SCREEECH!

Alia arches a brow at Winter, "That's hardly necessary, as they're currently in New York at the Embassy…" She then blinks at the sudden noise, "What was /that/?" Her head swivels in that direction, quasi-flirtatious behavior with Winter being discarded for the moment.

Euiko is practically on her feet in an instant when the screeching starts, looking around with a intent, even suspicious eye. Her hairpins are debutteringly flicked and tucked into her pocket as she tries to spy what the noise is all about.

Winter finally gets a good crackin' going, and picks out succulent seafood. While they're still hot no less. A li'l butter, a li'l bliss. He then looks sidelong at Alia. "So… party at your place while the parents are away, huh?" He nods slowly, knowingly. He then twists in his seat, looking toward the kitchens as though he expected some kind of mishap there, eyebrows quirked. "Uh," he says eloquently.

Amy looks up, and peers through the window. "Oh holy _shit_…." she breathes, gesturing for the others to look as well.

The street J J's is on is a four-lane affair. Two one way, two the other. A shiny black Escalade has been flanked by a quartet of anonymous looking vans, one in front, one beside, one behind, and one, in the opposite lane, facing. Doors are rolling open and a brace of men in black ski masks are racing out, each one armed with a sub-machine gun.

Alia blinks, "Amy, does this add to the flavor of the food as well?" She arches a brow, "Looks like a kidnapping, or possibly a… how you say, a 'hit'." She glances over at Winter, "I'm not entirely sure what you mean, but we can discuss it later."

One of Euiko's hands draws some small blue cloth from her back pocket and she edges to the window's edge, trying to get a real sneaky-like eye on the situation developing outside.

Winter grunts a response to Alia, just slightly — slightly — distracted by the chaos going on outside. Shoving himself away from the table, he immediately shoulders toward the exit, meaning to confront rather than run away. Someone's gonna ruin his dinner? Someone's gonna pay.

Outside, the traffic is starting to play pinball and bumper cars as the men level their weapons and commence firing! Screams inside J J's, screams outside, much honking and hooting of horns..Curiously, there isn't much noise of the actual weapons themselves, especially not for those inside the restaurant. Of muzzle flash, there's only a little, just enough to light up the Escalade like the 4th of July. Funny that it doesn't start to disintegrate under such withering fire.

For her part, Amy dives for the door. "It's a _HIT_!" she calls to the others, following Winter's shoulder-created path outside.

Alia glows suddenly, turning a brilliant emerald hue as she flickers towards and through the door, "No time to waste, then." She gains a bit of altitude, looking for a better vantage point as she then lets loose a blast of light, blinding one of the gunmen.

Euiko turns from the window and amidst the chaos of the panic, hunkers low and dons her hood even as she vanishes amongst the people. She sneaks out the kitchen door and Jackie Chans up the wall in a blink before hopping across the street to the opposing rooftop in a whisper. From there she tries to get a better tally of the situation.

Smart people, those with common sense and an ounce of self-preservation, /would/ dive for cover. Winter has never been accused of being brilliant, however. So he rudely shoves a few people out of the way, provides a little incidental cover for whoever following, and simply stalks.

That stalk builds to a jog, and with a raw shout he levels out, charging into the bullet-flying midst. He leads with a shoulder, ramming into one of the gunmen. The blinded one. Honorable combat is for honorable folk. And if this gunman wants the Escalade so bad? He can feel it close and personal, tackled and slammed against it. It makes a satifactory thud-clang in Winter's ears.

"Fuckers," he growls. "Who's next!" Granted, it's a purely mortal maneuver; anyone could do it. It just speaks to aggression. Winter: slightly hostile persona.

With one of their number suddenly blinded, then battered, the gunmen begin to divide their attention between the Escalade, starting to bash semi-shattered bullet proofed windows in with the butts of their sub-machine guns, the others, to begin firing at the new arrivals on scene. Their fire is disciplined and accurate. They're not playing games.

A fact Amy learns, nearly fatally as she's forced to dive behind a Honda in the other lane to avoid a fusillade of gunfire. "Shit!" she breathes, trying to collect her senses.

Well there needn't be any more of that! As one of the men opens fire on Amy, Euiko flips down from the rooftop with lines following fingertips that caress the gun and the fingers holding it as she lands in a crouch then rolls forward behind a car. The front of the gun to the middle of the receiver, trigger guard and trigger finger all sheer free as she comes to rest and the shooter screams, clutching at his afflicted hand.

Alia looks down at the other gunmen, smiling with dark amusement as the bullets pass through her, then she unleashes another bolt at a gunman. This one doesn't merely blind, but instead hits with a blast of concussive force as the solid light projection knocks the would-be assassin flat.

Seems gunmen don't like it when teens execute combative football maneuvers in their midst to disrupt their mission. Who knew. Winter now knows: he's shot for his trouble. He ducks and a few rattle-ricochet by; fortunately it's actually little /harder/ to tag him if the gunmen wish to avoid friendly fire. But not everyone has such scruples; these are villains, after all, who probably knew their risks. Blood mists as a bullet travels clear through the teen's arm. Another slug hits the opposite shoulder, spinning him around until he slaps a hand on a car to help maintain his balance. It's just a few seconds in, and already Winter is breathing heavily. Pain does that to a man. Then he curls that hand to a fist and slams it against the metal in defiance.

"That… all… you.. got?!" Winter thunders. With that shout comes the sharp report of ice forming, crackling. It's not an attack launched, per se, but a transformation and an unleashing. The young man looms larger than life as his very form is wrapped in armor formed of the essence of the season for which he is named: a head taller than most men, bulkier and weightier besides, a man (or monster?) clad in ice. Wuh-oh.

Those tasked to bashing in windows continue to do so, with great effect. ~POP~ ~CRASH~ ~SCREECH~ One by one, the Escalade's windows start to give way. One of the gunmen is taken aback by a three round burst of automatic weapons fire from within the SUV, effectively removing his head in a spray of pink and white foam. Headless, the corpse flops to the ground and begins twitching as it bleeds out.
Those tasked to fight the new threat find themselves in something of a bind. While one registers at least one good shot to Winter, Alia's blinding tactic sends one staggering, blind firing into the night sky as he tries to maintain his balance. Euiko's victim stares at his semi-severed hand in amazement for a moment before passing out from blood loss. Winter' sudden transformation into a Windigo gets _everybody's_ attention. Guess who they choose to turn their fire on?

For her part, Amy gulps down a breath, leaps to her feet and sends a few hundred thousand volts of potential energy towards the closest of her enemies, knocking the man flat instantly.

Hmm, the staccato melody of self defense. Euiko glances to one side as she hears her first target pass out and she tumbles forward from cover then leaps at another gunman as he brings his weapon up on a larger target. The angle of her stroke disarms the man bloodlessly, though a burst does end up passing through her airspace from a shooter further back.

Ice chips go flying, the majority of bullets pinging off of Winter, although some bore into the ice-armor of his newly formed 'skin.' He's sacrificed dodging for the ability to shrug off damage, however, and so remains an implacable foe. Aggravated by the disruption of his dinner and oh yeah some pain, running high on the adrenaline of a fight, the young man goes to town on his opponents. Does he have a perfect grip on the situation? No. Does he need it? No. There are targets and he has pretty big fists.

So Winter applies the latter to the former, knocking down one man and stomping on him with little thought for the crushed bones left behind; clothes-lining a second to outright send him flipping over that giant arm and clutching his throat when he lands, choking; and then stiff-arming another with enough force to dent the siding of the Escalade, driving the breath from him to leave him dazed. Restraint? What?

Alia hrms, and suddenly smiles, ignoring the bullets flying through her as she shouts at Winter, "Stay still a moment." She concentrates, then suddenly fires a powerful light beam right at Winter! The beam hits the ice form, and suddenly splits and blasts into two gunmen at once, leaving Winter unscathed as he acts like her own personal prism.

Meanwhile, those gunmen meant to attack the Escalade begin to fall back to their respective vans, not quite panicking, but sending _long_ bursts to cover their retreat as the sound of Cove City prowlers begins to fill the air from every direction.

Realizing the would-be assassins are about to flee the scene, Amy sends another bolt of energy into the hood of the closest van, frying the electrical circuits and blowing the head gasket in a spurt of hot, black oil. There's one vehicle not going anywhere in a hurry.

Euiko lands in a somersault, a leg and arm of her outfit parted by the telltale marks of grazing. She turns, seeing the rest of the hit squad breaking for vehicles. A hand extends toward one of the vehicles as she sights down along her arm… then lowers it.

"What…?" Winter's voice has a strange quality to it, not just deeper but with hints of an avalanche. He puts a hand to his chest and even this will not stop the light, but he decides that not exploding is a good thing. He spares just a brief glance for Alia……and that's enough time for the gunmen to begin their retreat.

The ice-sculpted face scowls, and then the fellow moves again. The ground quivers underfoot as he makes his way toward one of the getaway vehicles. Even as the engine rumbles and wheels begin to squeal Winter grips the siding. The metal wrenches as he digs in, and he braces to apply massive strength, a violent display abruptly flipping the vehicle over.

Although he is 'just' a living statue, there's a certain smugness to Winter's body language, like he feels a victory has already been claimed. So as the wheels spin ineffectually — can't go anywhere if they're not touching the /ground/ — he simply shifts his arms to protect vitals, hunkering down to withstand incoming damage.

Alia tackles the last van… well, not literally, but she doesn't hold back on the blast, this time crushing the engine with a powerful bolt of light. Then she flies down to hover in front of the car, the green light making her form somewhat indistinct. "You people ruined my dinner. I am displeased." Then she glances back towards the Escalade, wondering what exactly their target /was/.

~BOW-WOW-WOW-WOW …~WHOP-WHOP-WHOP-WHOP~ The Cove City PD descend on the scene in near company strength, with noise enough to scrape off nape hairs. A SWAT van screeching to a halt, back panels flying open as ski-masked, sub-machine gun-armed wanna-be soldiers begin to deploy.

Euiko takes that as her cue. The girl shrinks back into the shadows of an alley as the police begin to arrive and deploy. Her hands gingerly touch the graze wounds and, finding nothing terribly deep, she is soon bounding over rooftops in a circuitous path back to the school.

A police helicopter erupts overhead, spotlight bathing the scene.."YOU THERE! THROW DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND COME OUT WITH YOUR HANDS UP!" a voice calls sharply over a bullhorn.

"I think we should be leaving now." Amy calls, then freezes, caught in the spotlight like Winter and Alia.

Winter, not the aggressor! But he may still be considered a /threat/ yet. So while he gives the cavalry something of a salute, he does continue doing crunchy brick like things. In this case, he's tearing off an Escalade door, while his own bulk provides cover for whoever, whatever was targeted inside. Just in case some smart ass thinks to scoop his gun back up from the ground.

Alia flies over towards the Escalade, peering curiously at the target vehicle as she says, "Is everyone alright in there?" She then sticks her head slightly through the glass, taking advantage of her immaterial nature for the moment.

Who should come tumbling out, bloodied, battered and thoroughly confused? But Senator Kelly (I-MD), and his family, little kids snuffling in terror. "Thank God you all were here." The recently appointed young Senator calls. "I thought we were dead."

Euiko continues trying to get away with whatever combination of stealth and speed she can manage while the situation continues to defuse outside the crab shack.

"Could still be," Winter mutters (rumbles?), and a sweep of an icy arm brings a wall of similar substance up, an extra layer of defense while police-types clamber around and secure the area. He then leans back against the ruined Escalade, some of his hurts catching up with him.

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