Dragon On Your Heels

The ice cream vendor was an urban legend, more of a myth really. As they walked along the paths of Central Park, Kealey in her pink sundress and Shin in his brown board shorts, Hawaiian t-shirt, aviator sunglasses, and twine-stringed tri-force necklace, Shin searched every square inch of the grid, looking for the larger-than-life Excellent Joke ice cream salesman. He didn't find him.

They did, however, find a green dragon on the ground. Shin stared at the spectacle, and pulled a Kealey move he'd seemed to pick up over the last few weeks. He tilted his head.

Huh?

There was a person in a green dragon costume a very specific distance away from them... and they were being beaten by small children. Why, an act of such blatant animal cruelty had to be stopped! Except, in this case, where...

A small smile tugged at Shin's mouth. "I think it's fine, Kealey." He answered her, watching the scene through his shades. "It's a kid play. See the stage? Let's go watch. Maybe they'll have a heroic knight popping up next. Or another dragon!"

His interest was piqued. Shin took hold of Kealey's hand, and led her over to the patch of grass a small ways away from the stage. He found a good seat, plopped down, and watched. Fairy tales always made the best plays.

Shin said that he thought everything was fine. Kealey nodded her head, he was mildly amused, and she was a little confused. Shin pointed out the stage and Kealey ’ohhh’d’ in understand just a little bit sheepishly. She was a bit prone to paranoia in crowds, though, so she didn’t dwell on it for too long. After all, if someone really had been hurting that poor creature, she’d have been ready to leap to its defense.

Shin suggested that maybe there’d be a knight and Kealey couldn’t help but laugh a little, ”Maybe if there is, you can get some ideas for the joints in your shard armor. I’m not sure traditional seams are going to work….”

Kealey moved with Shin as he grabbed her hand and he searched for the best place for them to sit. The blond had never seen a play in a park before and the children really did look like they were having a good time. Down she sank onto the ground next to Shin, leaning slightly against his side and already absorbed in what was happening on stage.

The dragon who had been on the stage suddenly leaped back to its feet and Kealey found herself giggling with the shared delight of the mob of children as they feigned terror and huddled on the far side of the stage.

The dragon really was quite good.

Out came a knight and Kealey grinned, the child, while seemingly older than the others was still young enough to be nearly bursting with confidence at his role. He waved his sword and declared his intentions towards the hapless reptile. As sorry as Kealey felt for the dragon, she clapped for the young Sir Knight.

The boy’s vorpal blade went snicker-snack, and while he was denied the pleasure of galumphing back with a head to proudly display, the dragon stumbled off stage.

The scene change ensued and Kealey turned her head to smile at Shin, ”This is lovely. Do they do things like this often in the park?” She didn’t know if Shin would know the answer, but it was still a question worth posing. A series of pops rang out in the park and Kealey was among the people who turned their heads to look for the source. Nothing stood out. Kealey focused her powers in that direction but didn’t find anything incredibly out of the ordinary when there were large crowds around.

”Huh.” Kealey stated, ”That was odd.”

The scene had changed now, and a young princess completely decked out in princess gear was flouncing around stage and trying to pretend like she wanted to ignore the young Knight as he tried desperately to impress her. Kealey awww’d and went back to watching, trying to ignore the nagging feeling of unease that was stuck in the back of her mind.

The sharp noises got to Andrea last. The protective stage dimmed it, and her felt helmet deluded it even more. She thought perhaps it was the chair under her squeaking, and shifted to get a better look.
The play went on, knight dipping to one knee to propose to the fair princess, and the audience Awwww'd softly. The resulting moment of silence afterward was broken by a shrill scream. A group of people approached the stage, women and men covering their heads as they ran. The play came to a screeching halt, and Tim jumped onstage to ushered the children out of the way.

Andrea stood from her seat, wondering what had happened, and rounded the corner to see the audience jump to her feet. Her eyes rose as people scattered, and she spotted a group of men rushing towards the stage- with another group chasing after. One paused, lifting his arm, and she heard a louder version of the pop pop pop as he fired a gun. The man he had aimed at was hit, and fell.
She felt fear well up in her chest, overtaking her lungs, and she froze to the spot as people rushed past her. Children were hiding behind the stage... men with weapons were heading her way... She needed to do something.

Taking a page from Saphirus's book, she turned and picked up a metal curtain rod that had been left out of the set, then turned back and places herself at the side of the set. Let the scary, armed men come. Hopefully some of them would be terrified of reptiles...
The men in the front of the group were forced to stop when they hit the edge of the water, and turned around to raise weapons and ready themselves for a fight. The tension between the rival gangs had been boiling for some time until just a few minutes ago, when a new member had raised a gun and taken a shot at their rivals, and the pot had boiled over. It had only taken ten minutes for every available member within the area to arm himself(or herself) and join in on the fighting.

Watching through the netting in her costume, she shuffled back a little. The boy with the gun struggled with it. It was jammed. And the man he had shot had gotten to his feet again and was making his way out of the fight, towards the stage. He stumbled and fell before reaching it, and Andrea stood for a moment, staring, before she trotted out to see if he was alright. He was injured and bleeding when she got to him, and nearly begging for help. She hesitated for a moment, before helping the much taller man to his feet, and back to the shelter of the stage without a word.

He tried to focus on the play again, but he couldn't. Strange popping sounds were strange. They didn't just happen. Something had to cause them. He hoped whatever it was stayed away from them, hoped it really was nothing, and hoped...

>>"Shin... I'm scared."

Hoped Kealey hadn't said that.

It wasn't just his worry getting to her. If Kealey was scared, there was a darn good reason. As the scream sang out, and the children on-stage were ushered off, he learned what it was. People. Being stupid.

Why were people always being stupid!? A flash of anger went through him, followed by action. Shin moved to kneel in front of Kealey, placing his hands on her shoulders. He looked her in the eye.

"Try and stay calm," He ordered. He knew her powers were overreacting now. It was obvious from the look on her face. She was panicking, wasn't she?! He had to do something to keep her out of danger, jerk her back to the moment, stop her panic.

Shin leaned forward and kissed her...

A hasty action. He was panicking, too. That didn't mean he was worthless now. No. He was focusing that panic into action. He took a step back from the situation, and broke the kiss. His eyes were serious. He was determined, both to keep everyone safe, and to keep the peace. He knew what he had to do.

"We can do this, Kealey. I'm giving you my phone. Call the police. Tell them, there's gunfire in central park. Tell them where we are." He let go of her shoulders, pressed the cellphone into her palm, and stood. He looked down at her, small smile on his face. "I'll keep you safe."

The triangles appeared around her, lucid diamond in color. He focused on snapping them together to form a three-dimensional rectangle around her, let it over a few inches off the ground to give her air, and locked the shape into place. It took 10 seconds. He lowered his hands, and turned his back to her. "I'll handle the fighting. You call the cops. Keep strong."

He stepped forward, towards the gunfire. He wasn't scared anymore. He'd trained for this. He wouldn't let innocent people get hurt.

"Everybody, drop your weapons. Put your hands in the air. I'm Tetsuya Shinbo, honorary officer with the NYPD. I'm with the X-men." He held up his badge as numbers flew through his head, drumming up shapes.

A 3' x 3' shard shield hovered in front of him.

His triangular pupils swung to all the faces of the gunners. He didn't want to have to fight them. "Drop your weapons," He repeated.

A shot glanced off the shard shield, and ricocheted into a tree.

That wasn't dropping their weapons...

Rooted to the spot. Too scared to move. Kealey couldn’t have described the feeling if she’d tried because at the same time she was so terrified, so panicked, she was probably more frustrated than she could remember being in recent history. It was so angering to be so helpless. At least, the blond supposed, she knew what her own feelings were underneath everything she was getting from the crowd. That seemed to be getting easier, even if the other emotions were still constantly there. Practice made perfect, but it didn’t help the situation here.

Shin moved into her line of sight and Kealey stared back at him as he put his hands on her shoulders, trying so hard to just focus on him like they’d practiced. The proximity helped, Shin told her to stay calm and he was concerned, and determined, and a little frightened, and then he was kissing her….

Well. That made it easier to concentrate on him.

For a moment, Kealey forgot everything else. She was blinking when he pulled away, trying to get her head sorted out when he pressed a cell phone into her hand and told her to call the police. The blond nodded her head as the other emotions started creeping back in and looked down at the phone, quickly dialing the Police.

The shards started to appear and Kealey just stared as they formed around her in a solid little box. There was only one question on the blonde’s mind, though. Why was Shin on the other side? Oh right, X-Man, honorary NYPD, this was what he did. Kealey was worried for him, though, but she trusted that he knew what he was doing.

The dispatcher answered and Kealey quickly rattled off the details Shin had instructed her to give, then ended the call despite the woman’s suggestion that she stay on the line. Shin was walking towards the gun fight, with his badge out, instructing them to put down their guns.

It was the first time Kealey had seen Shin act in any sort of official capacity, and she was impressed…until a bullet ricocheted off the shield he’d made himself. Someone had shot at him? That hadn’t just happened…but it had. Not okay. Not okay at all. If he hadn’t had that shield…before she’d been scared and confused. Now she was scared and angry. Two very different things.

Up Kealey went to her knees, settling back on her heels and staring at the group by the lake. Two broke off towards Shin and Kealey stared at them through the solid wall of shards. She could feel them now, all of them, all their emotions sealed into little pockets of individuality, the anger, the adrenaline. She used it, bringing their feelings into sharp focus, each and every one of them.

Then. In the blink of an eye, they were gone. It wasn’t something Kealey usually liked to do, but she knew what kind of effect it had on people. The two thugs running at Shin slowed, then stopped, simply standing in the grass with their arms at their sides.

The others, who were further away, slowed as well, guns lowering as they lost all motivation to use them. It was a lot, and it was hard work holding all of that down when it had been so violently strong a moment ago. Their adrenaline had helped, now without it, Kealey didn’t know how long she could hold on.

”Hurry!” she yelled, wincing slightly at the echo of the sound and wondering if it would carry at all. What she wanted Shin to hurry with, she had no clue…but it needed to be something.

The guy took a step forward, and Andrea cranked her weapon back like a baseball bat. With as much strength as she could muster, she sent the metal bar careening at him- and watched as it neatly and easily bent around the guys upper arm. He didn't even flinch, but she did. His attention was fully on her now though, and considering the ugly scowl on his face he must have been pretty angry. Andrea stepped back a little, dropping her broken weapon, then turned and ran as fast as she could away from the stage. The thug dropped a few threatening promises on the injured man, telling him that he would return after he dealt with the little hero, and went charging after her.

With the faint sounds of sirens in the background, heading towards the park, any self respecting criminal would have been booking it into the shadows. The gang members stood though, unmoving. They knew they should run, obviously, but couldn't seem to actually do it. They just sort of stood there, staring at each other and the guy who was rapidly creating a cage around the two closest to him.

"Should we run...?" Asked one man, scratching the side of his head slowly. Another blinked, and looked at him.

"I don't know... I don't really feel like it..." The others within earshot nodded and agreed the same. One of them brought his hand to his chin and tilted his head in thought.

"Come to think of it, I don't really feel anything... what about you guys?" The others agreed once more. None of them would have guess that it was the innocent looking woman behind the mutant created shield that had ended their fight before it had even really begun. Spectators had started to gather around the perimeter, a safe distance away. More than a few of them had camera phones held at shoulder height.

Meanwhile, Andrea was slowly being gained upon by the much faster brute behind her. He reached out, snagged the back of her costume, and yanked her from her feet before she could even utter a gurgle of protest. Before she knew it, she was sent flying off into the grass, further away from the water. She landed soundly on her side with enough force to knock the wind from her, and managed to stagger to her feet in time to catch a solid blow from a fist she could have sworn wasn't there a second ago, right to the temple. Her vision spiraled to black for a moment, and she felt herself automatically getting to her hands and knees. It hurt. A LOT. But that was no excuse to lay about while someone trampled you. With her ears ringing loudly, she heard the guy demand something along the lines of get up, and shook her felt clad head. The sirens in the distance were louder now, even she could hear them through her felt hood.

A foot collided with her solidly in the side, just under her ribs, and she flopped over onto her back. Another swift hit, much lighter than the last one caught her on the bridge of her nose- and she felt a crunch. For a moment, she thought her nose had been broken, until her glasses slipped off at either side and disappeared into her suit. Andrea put a hand up to ward away any further hits, and saw him reaching back again. Fear took control of her chest and for a moment everything slowed down... she didn't know what to do, but there were strange urges bubbling up under her ribs. The man wanted to hurt her. He wanted to hurt other people too. She curled into herself, ripping off the green covers over her gloves- then the gloves themselves. When his fist came down on her again, she took the hit to her ribs and uncurled herself. A green hand flashed out and planted itself on the right side of his face. The man who had once been hovering over her reeled back instantly and clutched at the new patch of hardened skin he sported. Andrea took that moment to get to her feet and shove him back, planting to more small hand prints on his shirt. He landed on his back, and the Greek stood before him. She was shaking, terrified and.... something else. A different kind of emotion she couldn't put her finger on...

((Will finish the rest of her inner battle next post, didn't want it to get too long. Saph will jump in and Save her after that.))