The job was easy enough. Watch the nanny and the kid as they made their way to the park, snatch the kid, into the van, then off to collect the pay check. Luckily the rich were predictable, everything had a schedule, right down to the stop at the ice cream stand on Tuesdays and Thursdays. They’d planned this down to the last detail, watching for weeks, figuring out the schedule that the nanny followed during the summer. This was the best time. The schedule was far more structured during the school year, the child was a virtuoso and school plus violin lessons equaled busy evenings during the academic year. Despite being one of the, ‘I played Carnegie Hall at 8’ types…the kid was still 8. The park on a summer day was impossible to resist. As long as it was Tuesday or Thursday.

The path that the nanny took with the kiddo wound its way past all the shops and stands that lined the streets leading to the little playground a few blocks west of Central Park. It was public enough that blending into the people on the street would be easy, but secluded enough that there wouldn’t be nearly as many patrols as one of the major New York thoroughfares.

They’d gone through the plan again and again and the young woman and her younger charge moved along the plotted route almost exactly as they’d simulated over the past few days. There were no ski masks, no dark clothing, just a pair of casual khakis, a button-up shirt and jacket, and a folded newspaper in one hand. The better to blend in. Anyone but a professional would miss the shoulder holster. To the casual bystander or commuter, the grab-man was nothing more than a guy reading a newspaper while he leaned against a wall.

The target and her nanny were approaching now, ice cream in one hand, each other’s hands in the other. It was so easy.

The passenger side door of the SUV opened as the virtuoso and her nanny passed by…and the grab-man made his move for the kid, catching her around the waist and heading for the open door.

The nanny reacted. She screamed, and refused to let go of the little girl’s arm. To her credit, the little girl also screamed…and kicked…and bit. The man’s hand reached for his gun, and metal glinted off guns from the inside of the SUV.

This situation was still salvageable…the pay day was still in sight.

At least until a redhead stepped into the picture, and hauled one of his associates from the back of the vehicle. The grab-man didn’t know that the woman had studied aikido since she was five. Turning the larger man’s arm into a lever against him had been easy.

”Let go of the kid. You’re all under arrest. Quin Archer announced, hand fishing for a side arm that wasn’t present in her jogging shorts and t-shirt.

That wasn’t going to happen. The man drew his gun and dropped the kid in favor of her nanny. They couldn’t stay outside though. Luckily there were plenty of quaint little shops just a few feet back, his buddy on the ground was getting up and suddenly the redhead looked like she’d made a mistake.

She had.

Quin’s ego had struck, and struck hard. It really was understandable, but definitely something Ashton would grill her about once she got out of this and made it in to the station. For now, though, she was more concerned with the gun, the fricken all-metal gun, stuck under the nanny’s chin and the grumpy thug getting up off the ground. This was bad.

New York City was always busy with people running around, loud as they had their 'private' conversations on the their phones, and chaotic as those people try to navigate around not just each other but the cabbies who get into fights with the pedicabs. Despite all this chaos it isn't every day you see a man try to abduct a child by grabbing them off the street and jumping into an SUV. If nothing else, you could say these guys had balls. Attempting a kidnapping in broad daylight.

The Ranger was down the street when it all went down. He could hear the voices, but the words were lost. So all he could tell was the men were abducting the girl and a woman stepped in. A woman who clearly was into martial arts, though a lone martial artist against a group of armed men wouldn't end well.

The Ranger dropped into his drill sergeant voice, "Make way!" and shoved men out of his way as he made his way toward the SUV. As he approached he could see that the man who had taken the child was now holding the woman the child was with and retreating into a Starbucks. One of the accomplices followed him in, the others, who were only in it for a quick pay day, made a break for it.

A hostage situation was a funny thing. If all they can do is point the gun at the hostage they have limited options. If they shoot the hostage they die, so they have to make threats and demands while retreating. The Ranger made it to the door of the Starbucks, lifted the hem of his shirt slightly, and drew out his P226 before gripping the pulling open the door before it could be locked.

Inside he pointed the gun directly at the man who had taken the hostage. "Let 'er go."

”Stay inside today Sagittarius. Foul things are afoot in your world, and you don’t want to be in the middle of them.

Horoscopes were rarely so explicit, and no matter how many Quin had looked at that morning, they’d all said essentially the same thing. Too bad this was real life though, and a person couldn’t simply lock themselves in a room when they were going to have a bad day. Sure she was off, and sure the pull of daytime TV was great…but she needed to go for a jog. The redhead had glanced at the newspaper one more time before going to get dressed. She’d just run her short route, then come straight home and hole up for the day. Surely in the short amount of time she’d be out, nothing bad would happen.

Except an attempted kidnapping right in front of her face.

Quin wanted to roll her eyes…hard. She really hadn’t thought it necessary to bring her side arm with her on a jog. This was New York, though, and the redhead wished she’d improvised some way to bring the gun along. It would have helped solidify her street cred after she’d pulled thug number two from the car. A badge would have probably been better than a water bottle too, while she was qualifying things.

Bad guy #1 still had his hostage and drug the woman back towards everyone’s favorite coffee shop and Quin winced, adding her radio to the list of things she wished she had as the guy she’d tossed followed. Of course they both had guns. She’d have to be careful. Tires squealed and the SUV tore off into traffic, leaving the two behind.

The redhead stood outside for a moment, mulling over her options. Moving into a hostage situation unarmed and out of uniform was probably not the smartest thing she could do...and was definitely against basic protocol.

Then some dumbass cowboy with a gun showed up and waltzed into the shop like he was John Wayne.

Quin blinked and peered through the window.

Great. Sure, he knew how to hold a gun…but that didn't mean much. Growling in frustration she pushed through the doors. She had to do something even if she'd probably catch hell for it later.

Cowboy John had his gun on Bad Guy #1 with the hostage, so Quin tried reason.

”You know there’s not a happy ending to this. Ten different people called the cops on their cell phones the second you marched in here with a gun and a hostage.” she said, steadily looking the man with the hostage in the eyes. ”Don’t make things worse on yourself.”

As to bad guy #2. His gun may have had little to no plastic for her to mess with…but it still had a hand grip. Sure he was pointing the thing right at her…and his finger was on the trigger, (Quin added her vest to the list) but hell…sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. The polymers sang to her and she moved them, pulling bits of the grip away from the metal and forming it into spikes headed right for the inside of #2’s palm.

”Drop your weapon.” she said with a smile.

"I'll kill her, I swear I will! Now throw away your gun!" The man demanded, gesturing a direction to throw with his head.

"No." The Ranger replied casually. He was aware that the man's accomplice now had a gun pointed at him. He would have to shoot that man, simple mozambique drill, and then kill the man who had taken the hostage. Ready and go-

The martial art woman had barreled into the Starbucks now, bursting into a diatribe aimed at the pair. She sounded like a police officer, which was not good for the Ranger. Upon his resolving this he'd have to make a break for it, NYPD wasn't fond of armed citizens, especially the unlicensed kind.

Upon her entrance the man with the gun pointed at him shifted to point at her, she instructed him to drop his weapon. Not like that was going to... A grimace of pain was followed buy him dropping the weapon. The Ranger glanced over at her, she must be a mutant cop. "Nice trick."

The first man saw his backup drop his weapon, shouted profanity at him and then faced the Ranger again. "Throw away the weapon now or she dies!" His threat was made with a face that said he was serious.

"If ya kill her ya die." The Ranger held his sidearm pointed at the man's head, from this angle there was rarely a clear shot. He kept moving back behind and around the woman's head.

”It’s not a trick.” Quin said stiffly to the private citizen who was pointing his gun at the armed hostage.

She concentrated again and Bad Guy #2’s gun started to slide slowly in her direction. It was hard to keep the grip where it was an use it to drag the gun without pulling it away from the metal any more than it had been by making the spikes, but it was the best option Quin had. She fixed the firearm’s previous owner with a hard stare.

”Go for it and those spikes won’t hit your hand next time.” The guy took her seriously. Quin wanted to sigh in relief, but kept her face clear of emotion, inching the gun closer to her.

Bad Guy #1 with the hostage was shouting about blowing the Nanny’s brains out, and to the woman’s credit she was not completely hysterical. Quin kept the gun moving backwards and let her eyes travel back and forth between the man and the civilian.

As she’d thought before, the man knew how to hold a gun. She winced at his negotiation skills, though. It was too late though, he’d already made the comment and the hostage-taker was panicking.

”Before she hits the floor.” Quin confirmed as the other gun bumped into her shoe. The temptation to pick it up was great, but she didn’t want to ruin the prints or spook the other guy with a gun. It looked like she’d have to play nice with cowboy John…at least until after they were done with the hostage situation.

Sirens wailed in the distance, and Quin looked at the man holding the nanny steadily.

“They’ll have SWAT with sharp shooters. Just because we can’t get the right angle, doesn’t mean they can’t. You’re busted, your buddies ran, you’re all alone, just cut your losses.”

The woman informed him it wasn't a trick. Clearly his use of the word and her connotation of it didn't jive. Regardless, the gun was on the ground and making its way to her. A quick glance and he could see spikes on the grip, made out of the grip. The Ranger deduced that she was a plastic manipulator, or something like that.

His counter threat to the man was added to by the cop. And it was a true addition, were the man's gun to fire a .357 diameter piece of copper jacketed lead with a hollow point would be through his head while his spent casing still made its way across the room.

And then the cop made her attempt at negotiating. Letting him know there would be SWAT and he has no chance. Defiantly not what the Ranger would have done. Threatening is fine, making them uncomfortable is good, making them feel like they have absolutely no options... not so good. There are some people that would rather just die then visit prison. Hopefully this man wasn't one of those kinds of people.

The man's posture changed, the bit of his face that was visible was clearly much more worried. The woman, still looked as scared as ever, though at the mention of SWAT coming she looked more hopeful.

Seizing a moment when the man couldn't see the Ranger, due to his attempt to conceal his head, he looked the woman dead in the eye and mouthed, 'stomp and duck.' It was met by a slight shake of her head. 'Trust me,' he mouthed to her. This time she nodded, slightly and brought up her leg to slam her heel down into the man's heel.

The sudden strike surprised him, he yelled briefly and his arm jerked away from her enough for the woman to lean forward giving the ranger a clear line of fire. An opportunity he took. He squeezed the trigger, there was a loud bang, and now the Starbucks would need a new paint job.

Wow. The action had sure kicked off all of a sudden. Quin had been focused, working to convince the man with the hostage that he was making the wrong choice. She had a gut feeling about him. He wouldn’t shoot the Nanny…if he’d been willing to go to those lengths, he’d have started shooting out in the sidewalk. Injured people were far more distraction than a hostage in a crowded public shop. This guy was either incredibly stupid, he’d never put himself in a situation like this before, or maybe a mixture of both. Shooting wasn’t necessary.

The guy looked terrified, and Quin was almost certain that he’d break within moments, then she noticed the extra conversation going on. Realizing what was about to happen, just a moment too late, the redhead made feeble protest as the hostage ducked and the bystander with the gun put one through the hostage takers head.

”Are you out of your damn mind!” she shouted at the man who’d just shot, ”Stay where you’re at! Don’t. Move.”

Furious, Quin took a step forward to do…she didn’t know what, but then the usual happened. People started screaming and a good number fled for the doors. Bad Guy #2 included. Quin wasn’t about to let that happen, and before he’d gone ten steps she’d grabbed him by the wrist and shoulder of one arm and swept his legs from beneath him, the guy went down hard on his stomach and Quin took advantage of the situation to gain leverage and pin him down with his arm. She’d hold him until backup arrived, which would hopefully be sooner rather than later. The cowboy needed dealing with too.

The man went down, his body limp, the gun clattering to the floor. The hostage, straightening back up, breathed a thank you to him and made her way to the door. Meanwhile, The cop was now shouting at him and was under the delusion that she could tell him what to do. She then took a step forward before stopping to apprehend the other man.

The Ranger slid his gun back out of sight and addressed the woman, his voice calm indicating this wasn't his first rodeo. "He was backed int' a corner an' ya told 'im SWAT would be arrivin'. No doubt he has a list of priors an' followin' a trial would be locked up for a long time. I wadn' willin' t' risk 'im optin' fer suicide by cop, or in this case suicide by soldier."

He bent down and took hold of the silver, necked down, cylinder on the ground. He intended to leave before any other police arrived and no sense leaving his brass behind. From there he to face the cop, pinning the man to the ground and took a step backwards giving a lackadaisical salute.

”You idiot!” Quin snarled over the din of the crowd, ”If he’d had any idea what he was doing he’d have ran off instead of heading in here. I was unarmed. He wasn’t exactly putting himself in mortal danger until you stepped in.”

”And I told you to stay where you are!” Quin shouted, as he saluted her and picked up the bullet casing from the ground. She had a choice. The gun from the second thug was a few feet away. To get to it, though, she’d have to let the second bad guy up…he’d be gone.

She glanced at the gun, then swore, shifting her weight again and eliciting a pained groan from the bad guy.

”I’m going to plaster your face all over MRC.”

The cop yelled at him some more, he just turned and kept walking. She shouted some more and he kept on, but when she next spoke he stopped. She'd plaster his face all over MRC. Something he couldn't let happen.

"The hostage was most likely a way t' keep you back while he retreated out the back. Police tactics are highly predictable." He turned to face to cop. "My intervention possibly saved that woman's life an' stopped him, had I not fired there was no guarantee she'd survive an' most likely he'd've gotten away t' make another attempt at kidnappin' that little girl an' that is somethin' I will not allow to happen given the chance."

Quin deadpanned as much as she could while holding a man down on the ground. At least she’d gotten the guy’s attention before he’d left. Maybe now she could keep him talking while they waited for backup to arrive.

”If you’d cared to notice.” she said, working still to prolong the conversation, ”All of his buddies had already gotten away. You weren’t saving anyone by blowing his brains out. We had time, and two are easier to interrogate than one, now we might never find out what the plan was. Police tactics might be predictable, but at least they’re legal. As opposed to running in like a cowboy and screwing everything up.

The guy under her tried to roll her off and Quin shoved him back down into the floor, " But...thank goodness you were here to play hero."

"I saved that woman. There's no guarantee that me not shootin' him would have led t' her safety, only me shooting him could guarantee it. As for interrogation, ya only need one."

He stopped for a moment before continuing, he had told her he was a soldier if he didn't phrase this right he might give her too much information to go on should she pursue him later. "Water board him or shoot out his joints startin' at the ankles an' work yer way up. Dont accept any information given durin' the interrogation as true, only information given later... It idn't the police way, the police way is hamstrung to keep from convicting the wrong person. Yet, these tactics served me well over seas."

He knew the police wouldn't go for it, but he was trying to scare the man into talking now. At best he was a man payed to do the job not a zealot doing it for personal or religious reasons. Enhanced interrogation techniques and torture, or at least the threat of them, should make him talk.

The wailing sirens were getting closer, and it finally seemed like the man she was pinning down had given up the fight. The vigilante who’d shot the other kidnapper, however, seemed to just be warming up.

”Right.” Quin said, the whole idea that she was arguing philosophy in this situation trying to beat its way out of the back of her head as a headache brewed there.

”But you start shooting people like this when they do things…and they’re always desperate because they know they’re going to die.” He was doing a fancy job trying to talk his way out of trouble…but Quin didn’t buy it.

As to all his fancy talk about water boarding and torture. She sighed.

”We wouldn’t do any of that. It would invalidate your testimony. What I will say...is that you have the right to remain silent…”

As she read the man his rights, and the sirens got closer, Quin looked steadily at the guy with the gun, trying her best to set his features straight in her mind.

This was becoming absurd, this cop was clearly green. Up to this point she had proven herself naive, but Mirandizing someone when she had best go for a public safety exception was just inexperienced folly. Unless she was Mirandizing him, which she needn't do as he was not being custodially interrogated. "All that matters is I saved her life, taking a hostage is de facto abduction and New York law authorizes the use of deadly force when there is reasonable belief that another person may use deadly force on me or someone else, or committing an act of kidnappin'." As someone who carries a firearm he has made it a point to know New York's penal code's references to weapons and deadly force. The latter being Article 35.

"Also, enhanced interrogation doesn't necessarily invalidate their testimony. " The Ranger lifted the hem of his shirt and took hold of the grip while looking at the man on the ground. "Now, where were you an' yer buddies gunna drop off the kid! Hurry up, or I might have t' start with yer ankles... Don't look t' her, I have the gun I make the rules!"

"A warehouse in the Bronx, please don't shoot! I-I can show you on a map!"

The Ranger let go of the grip and slid his shirt back over it. "An exited utterance is considered true, both practically and legally. Ya only discredit information taken during the interrogation as inherently false, not before."

” You are quoting the law to me.” Quin sputtered, staring incredulously at the stranger as she held the perp down and resisted the urge to do anything else. He continued with the threats. Apparently now his high-and-mighty cowboy highness was going to start with the ankles. If Quin had had an empty hand, she’d have slapped herself in the forehead. As it was, she promised herself never to ignore the horoscopes again.

The perp gave up the information, which would undoubtedly be useful, but would have undoubtedly been obtained by far more legal means had the guy been interrogated at the precinct. Sure the stranger had gotten the words more quickly.

Seething, the redhead stared at the man again for a moment, trying to record even more detail for when she found the sketch artist later at the precinct. “Since you’re such a student, then you’ll know that you need to stick around and give a statement.” she barked.

”Also, while you’re at it, why don’t you show me you registration for that weapon Mr…?” Yeah, chances were small that he was going to stick around to do any of that. Quin had already known that though, and even if this guy was a vigilante…hell, they had city-sanctioned costume-wearing freaks running around already. What was on more. The guy she was sitting on had tried to take a kid, and it had been organized.