Once the bride was clinging to Noel instead of the palm, the brunette shifted her to carry over her shoulders and hustled down to the other side of the roof.

The bride tugged at Noel's hair and called her names, but Noel was hired to do a job and that job was to keep the bride safe. The Ranger was doing a bang up job of not dying, from the sound of metal on metal they heard, but that didn't mean that it was safe for them to go help.

Noel radioed it in. Ninja on the roof which The Ranger had engaged. Bride removal from the scene was well under way, but back up would not be amiss. And neither would a jacket or a towel. The bride's lace-clad butt cheeks jiggled next to her ear.

"Strike that." She stopped short from the edge of the roof as a man in some kind of ceremonial robe pulled himself up. He had two swords, one long and one short... and a demon mask. "We're not out just yet."

"Give me my bride."

If he'd had a long mustache and a pistol instead of the swords and costume, this was straight out of a spaghetti Western. Spaghetti Eastern?

"Abe!" The bride shouted, but it wasn't a happy swooning shout. She sounded angry. "This does not concern you!" It was impressive, actually, that she managed as much authority in her voice as she did from her position slung over Noel's shoulders and dressed in far less than Noel was comfortable being around.

"Lovely meeting you, but we have a wedding to catch." Noel darted over the lip of the roof and fell hard on the patio below considering the extra weight and couldn't stop herself from her legs collapsing under her. She let the bride squiggle out of her grip in her moment of recovery and the woman disappeared through the screen door and into the building like greased lightning.

"Bride's in the East Kitchens. Uh. Kenzo Abe is here?"

"Kazuo." He corrected her, before he landed far more gracefully on the patio. Noel crab walked back a step, but he grabbed her shirt with one hand and hit the trigger in her other hand before he spoke into her earpiece.

"You will surrender Hye-jin to me."

"Not if I can help it." Hopefully, someone would remind her of what she was here to do after this...

Noel caught Abe's eyes with her own and made him forget who Hye-jin was.

Block, strike, dodge. Parry, riposte, dodge. The fight with a pair of ninja carried the Ranger from one end of the garage roof to the other and back again. He had taken a few minor cuts, and delivered a few minor cuts of his own. The three of them moved with blinding speed metal flashing between them.

The Ranger could hear radio chatter carrying on in his ear, but he couldn’t be bothered to listen anything more than keywords. Noel had the bride, good. If Ranger could get rid of these ninja he could join her.

And he would need to deal with the ninja fast. His secondary power had by this point kicked in and was boosting the amount of air his lungs could take in to provide oxygen to his muscles. The problem was he could have all the oxygen in the world but if he ran out of glycogen and ketones he would be done.

Desperate times and all that, the Ranger let a sword slice across his left side as one of the ninja stabbed. It wasn’t deep enough to be serious. This put the ninja close enough that the Ranger could wrap his left arm around the ninja’s arms and and insert his own sword. From there he spun the ninja he held and used him to body block until he gave up the ghost.

Bleeding from his side, the Ranger now faced one ninja. He dropped his tomahawk, put both hands on the ninjato and stabbed straight at the ninja as his power stopped increasing his speed now that he was against a single opponent. As the ninja brought his own blade to deflect Ranger’s power shifted to increasing his strength and .the ninja was unable to deflect the incoming blade.

What was the last thing he’d heard? Bride in the east kitchens, and Kenzo Abe here. That name sounded familiar, he'd figure that out later. The Ranger dropped the ninjato, recovered his tomahawk, and climbed down off the roof. He could not make a superhero landing off this roof without something being injured.

His power shifted again to give him speed as he tore off around the building at over 70 miles per hour to reach Noel. The Ranger found her and a man in a ceremonial robe who had a pair of swords. The man had hold of Noel and was saying something to her. The Ranger saw Noel look into his eyes as he powered forward. the Ranger kept up his speed as he closed the distance and, as he burned rubber from the bottom of his shoes stopping, wrapped the man in a rear naked choke. Everything in his body was screaming at him from pain and exhaustion. He was running on fumes now.

”Nighty-night.”

Something zipped past Noel and Abe as their vision came out of the tunneled focus that Noel's power brought.

Noel wasn't the only one surprised and confused when The Ranger took hold of Abe from behind. He jerked Abe backward which resulted in Abe jerking Noel forwards. She got an up close and personal view of the man as his eyes started to bug out of his face almost immediately from the pressure that the Ranger was applying. No blood to the brain, no fuss, no muss. He didn't even get a chance to use those swords.

As he passed out, his grip on Noel slacked and she stumbled onto her feet.

> ”Nighty-night.”

"Abe is down." Noel reported to the team through her mic, unsure if it still worked after the samurai had manhandled her radio in order to get his message through. She grabbed a zip tie from her kit and made sure Abe was firmly secured to the balcony before she confiscated his swords. To her, they were as good as ornamental, but she felt better about him not having them.

To the Ranger, she noticed that he wasn't dead. He wasn't 100%— No one would be after the kind of duel she'd heard. —but he was standing and that was saying something.

"Ninja?" She assumed he wouldn't be standing there if they hadn't been dealt with either through backup or some other means. And, she didn't mean to insult him, but... "You're not gonna fall over, are you?"

Abe gave a few moments of resistance, but there is not much you can do if a choke gets locked in. Once he was out the Ranger lowered the man down as Noel radioed that he was down and handled the restraint.

No longer having to hold up the momentarily unconscious Abe, the Ranger steadied himself. He was beginning to feel his fight with the ninjas really catch up with him. He brought his hand to his injured side, then took the hand away to look at it. Solid red.

"Ninja?"

"All dead. Bride?"

"You're not gonna fall over, are you?" As Noel asked this the Ranger put his hands on either side of the cut on his shirt and ripped it open. Before he answered he felt around the slash in his side with his hand. Deeper than he thought, but not life threatening or debilitating. Moving as much and as fast as he did since being wounded didn't help matters any either.

"No, I'm good f'r now. Y' wouldn' happen to have a med kit with sutchers with y'? This needs stiches." He planted his hand onto the wound to control the bleeding. If he had sutchers with him he could sew himself up, every SF operator could do at least that much.

"On second thought... I'm gunna sit." The Ranger, less than gracefully, lowed into a sitting position on the ground.He then keyed up his mic, "Status on the groom?"

"He's safe, we locked him down inside." Came the reply.

"At least there's that."

All dead. So casually did the Ranger espouse the murder of more than one human being. How many dead? Noel eyed the man. Could be upwards of 20 by how fast those hits had sounded. With an equally casual air he drove a spike of pain into her head by reminding of of what she'd so recently forgotten.

Forget Hye-jin.

Noel scrunched her eyes closed and then opened the wide with realization. "Oh! You knocked him—" Oh dear. Noel touched her mouth and then her head as backup radioed in about finding the bride. And her state of undress.

"Her dress is in the bathroom. Get someone medical here. Back of the building, second floor balcony." She growled over the com system and then pulled her ear piece out. It was lucky, really, that Hye-jin hadn't been able to fit the dress through the window. Sure, they lost a petticoat, but the dress would be perfectly unharmed.

The wedding could go on as planned.

Kneeling next to the Ranger, Noel dug through her bag. Other than some butterfly bandaids, she had nothing useful. She did what she could until the medic arrived, which was, admittedly not much beyond explaining her side of things.

"I erased his memory." She explained. "It would have come back in an hour with no harm done except that the changes are sort of cemented in place when you sleep and... you knocked him out." Not that she had minded the hand, but together they'd permanently altered this man's mind and how he operated as a human being. There was a gravity to such a thing. She'd have to remember to tell... someone.

The medic insisted that the Ranger go to a hospital for stitches. When he refused, the medic left the equipment for Ranger to carry out the deed himself and washed his hands of them.

Which... looked like it was going to be awkward for him to do himself.

"I'll do that." She took the needle from him after he'd threaded it. "Unless that's, like, your thing." One eyebrow went up in question. She wasn't here to judge...

Noel handled dealing with the bride via the radio, and called for a medic. That was a good idea, sure Ranger could have made his way to the Fordasaurus for what he needed. That would have likely left blood all throughout the house. Yes, good call for sure. She kneeled next to the Ranger and took stock of what she had on her. Then she explained that she erased Abe's memory.

"You erased his memory... That's a terrifyin' thought." The Ranger looked over at Abe "Sucks t' suck, Abe." No sense worrying about how this would affect him long term, the injury the Ranger currently suffered was a result of this man's actions.

The medic arrived. And was less than helpful. Just wanted to throw a big bandage on it and get him to the hospital. "I'm not goin' to the hospital for this." He was still on the job. Even wounded he was still useful. After a brief back and forth the medic dropped a kit off and left.

That was fine. The Ranger could sutcher himself.

"I'll do that. Unless that's, like your thing."

The Ranger, already reaching into the bad and pulling out a needle, with his not bloody hand, looked at Noel for a moment. He then pushed to bad over to her. While he could do it himself, it was infinitely worse. And where was a bottle of whiskey when you need it. "Thank y'.

Moving his hand away from the wound he steeled himself for what was going to be an incredibly painful experience.

"It's usually temporary. Sorta like your choke hold— it's a block. The longer you let the block rest on that neural pathway, the more likely it is to suffocate. Hold it too long and it'll just die." She kept talking to keep up the air that this was normal despite the fact that Noel was opening packs of gauze and wiping her hands with alcohol to prepare herself for what felt like minor surgery. Wasn't this going to scar? Michael seemed the type to not exactly care, though...

Noel wiped the area clean with less attention to being gentle and more on efficiency of movement so that she would have to touch the wound as little as possible.
"Hold this here. Like this." She positioned his hand just so to press against the wound and help keep it shut before she made a knot in the suture string and leaned in close.

Dumb man and his dumb avoidance of hospitals.

Noel tried to be even if not straight with her stitches. She tried to be smooth with the way that she pulled the string. She was a novice, but she was at least trying.

"Is there a reason you're avoiding the hospital? Nobody would blame you, ya know?" She spared a glace for Abe who was being collected by the backup and moved elsewhere. Another dab of gauze to clear the area and she went back to work. "Is it because you're a mutant?" She couldn't let him think that she hadn't noticed after the rubber skid marks he'd left on the ground.

Noel elaborated on her power, it was interesting, but to the Ranger it was still a terrifying concept. He was by no means a fan of psychics or other assorted mind tinkering mutant powers. They were the one thing he couldn't defend himself against. He did not like the feeling of helplessness. "Do you just block and, in this case accidentally, erase memories? What did he need to be on guard for?

Once the area was clean and Noel was ready to go she instructed him to hold his skin to keep it in place. And then she began.

Yup. It hurt. The Ranger was no stranger to pain, he gritted his teeth, made a fist, and made it through it without a sound. Once it was done however he let out a held breath and breathed heavily for a moment.

It wasn't a professional job and would certainly leave a scar, it didn't matter to the Ranger. Scars told stories. Not many people had a scar left by a fight with ninja.

Noel asked him why he didn't want to go to the hospital."It idn't because I'm a mutant, well it mostly idn' that." He wasn't surprised Noel had guessed he was a mutant, he'd fought off three ninjas and left skid marks from stopping in boots. "No sense in goin' to a hospital for somethin' superficial like this. Damn medic could have patched me up an' I'd've been fine." he started with that before deciding to expand with a more complete truth."The real reason is I've been involved in a lot of incidences that have put me on the desks of a few officers. Anythin' t' keep a bit lower profile when I can. Money can fudge paperwork investigatin' a shootin' at a mansion. Paerwork at hospitals is more thorough."

Did she just block memories? Noel worked in silence for a moment while she debated answering, but she couldn't really lie about it and he had asked. "No. I can take in memories as well." There. That was nicely diplomatic. She got her pocket knife to trim everything nice and tight.

She wiped everything down once more with chilly feeling alcohol wipes as he explained why he avoided hospitals. The final step was antiseptic and a fluffy gauze pad which she taped in place with medical tape. There. One 3x3 square of him was dressed as a mummy.

"Everybody makes mistakes, but that doesn't exactly sound accidental." That wasn't judgement, just a statement to prove that she understood. She had her less than legal moments. Most private security did.

Noel tugged at the rags that used to be a shirt.

"Are you sure you're up to the rest of this gig?" She packed up the few bandaids and trash before she stood and stretched. She would have offered him a hand, if it'd occurred to her.

Blocking or erasing memories and taking them. The Ranger wasn't sure if this meant she appropriated it or just copied it. Though maybe she could do both. Whatever the case this was not a power that made him comfortable.

Noel was now just trimming and cleaning up her work. This left the Ranger with a section of his torso padded up. "NYPD hasn't liked my approach t' saving people I come across. Well, they don't like me shootin' the people who hold hostages t' rescue the hostages. Long story, short I saved a woman before a negotiator got t' the scene. Officer beside me didn' like my method f'r a swift resolution. I've mostly got it brushed aside now, but still better safe than sorry."

The Ranger took a moment and realized he had now causally spoken about killing people twice in a single conversation. "It isn't that I like kllin' or anythin'... He took a moment to decide what to say. "I was a soldier, good at what I did. At this point any one death is jus' another I'll have to pay for in the nex' life. What's one in one-hundred?" He looked at his bloody hand for a brief moment.

Noel tugged at his shirt and asked him if he was good to finish the job. "I have a change of clothes in my truck... And thanks t' y' I can make it through." The Ranger climbed to his feet, noticing Noel hadn't offered to help. Once standing he drew his SIG, dropped the mag, looked at how many it had left, slid the mag back in, and press checked the slide before returning it to his holster. "I was hired because Mr. Soo Nyoung wanted someone virtually unstoppable. Can't disappoint." The Ranger gave a slight smile as he said it. Even if he wasn't being paid he wouldn't leave until the wedding was over just in case.

So he put the emphasis on saving others instead of the deaths. Coping mechanism? Or was she thinking about this too hard? At least he said he didn't like it. It was the people who truly enjoyed bringing harm to others that disturbed her most.

So. What was one in a hundred? Still somebody's baby, Noel assumed. "What happens when you go over a hundred?" Since her question was mostly rhetorical, Noel tucked her ear piece back in to catch up on what was happening.

If he said he could make it through, he would make it through. Near unstoppable was right.

"You change. I'll meet you at the alter." For real this time, hopefully. Noel went to clean herself up too. Her shirt had gotten wrinkled from grabbing and there was a little blood on her sleeves, probably transfer from the Ranger. Maybe it wouldn't be noticeable? She ended up unbuttoning and bunching her sleeves around her elbows to hide it better. She checked everything on her person for efficiency and presentability before she got back to the bridal suite.

Noel parked herself between the bride and the bathroom with the broken wall and missing window. The glass had been cleaned and the bride had been redressed. The bride's maid who'd been shot had been removed, but there hadn't been time to thoroughly clean the sauna.

They were trying to find a body to fill the missing bridesmaid's spot since they were one down, the whole party was now lopsided.

"Just ditch one of the groomsmen." That was Noel's vote and no amount of pleading eyes were going to fit her in that dress. Bridesmaid was not in her job description.

“What happens when you go over a hundred?” Noel asked and returned her earpiece. The Ranger took this as a rhetorical question. He wasn’t sure what to say to the question anyway. He’d stopped counting years ago, he wasn’t the type to make notches on the wall or inside a scope cover for every kill. He’d without a doubt killed over one-hundred. His military service brought him a fair number of confirmed kills, add to that the ones classified and you had a good start on one-hundred.

“You change. I’ll meet you at the alter.”

”Let’s hope take two is less eventful.”

The pair went separate ways. The Ranger heading down to the garage and to the Fordasaurus. Once there he opened the back and pulled out a spare suit. Once he was changed, he reloaded his magazine and pulled out a large hard sided briefcase with combination locks. He was in no condition to get in a knock down drag out fight, and knowing his luck something was bound to happen.

Once again ready to work the wedding the Ranger made his way back. He steered to where the groom was being held and relieved the security guy he’d had cover his charge. There was much talk about ditching a groomsman to balance the bridal party. Park Soo Nyoung, of course, wanted nothing to do with this. After a good half hour, and Mr. Soo Nyoung getting involved, the issue was settled. One of the groomsmen was cut loose.

Eventually it was time to begin. The Ranger led the way out to garden. He took a place near where the couple would exchange vows. Near enough to get the groom down if there was shooting, not so near as to appear like he was part of the wedding party. It was a fine line made easier by the fact no one cared where he stood in regards to how it looked. They wanted visible muscle after the previous attack.

The Ranger in place the wedding began.

Noel shadowed one of the auxiliary photographers in order to stay out of the photos and because she and the photographer both happened to be following the bride as closely as possible without actually walking down the aisle themselves.

She may have had silent tears streaming down her cheeks and more than one angry glare, but eventually Hye-jin was at the alter along with all her bridesmaids and security. Noel spared a glance for the Ranger across on the other party's side. With his new suit, he hardly looked wounded. In fact, she couldn't quite decide if he was favoring his side at all or if she was trying to read that behaviour into his stance.

Unstoppable, he'd said. She caught his eye and realized she'd been inspecting him for far longer than was polite. She went back to her job, eyes roving for the next threat.

Everyone seemed lovely and happy, if nervous. The open air made her nervous, but there were multiple layers of security. If it hadn't been the bride who'd made a break for it before, Noel might not have even seen any of the action before, like the chatter they heard about an old flame who'd shown up drunk and had to be denied entry.

The biggest surprise of all was that no one else managed to crash the wedding. All the "I do"s got done. After the groom whispered something to the bride, she looked a bit more relaxed. At least, she looked a bit less hostile when they turned around arm in arm.

Noel stepped in behind the pair before the bridesmaids and groomsmen started pairing off and expected the Ranger to do the same.

"Don't step on the dress." She muttered helpfully as they escorted the party to the reception area, complete with dance floor. Noel would be glad to get out of the open, but expected their duty to deteriorate from actual security to babysitters. "Open bar."

The wedding went off without any complications. Well, without any that were of any concern of the Ranger. Hye-jin had tears streaming down her face, but this was not The Ranger's concern. There was at least one attempt at wedding crashing, stopped at the gate.

As the wedding progressed the Ranger kept his head on a swivel. Standing with his injury wasn't an issue and was committed to powering through the reception as long as he could without showing outward signs. No one wants to see their hired muscle limping around on the job. At one point he caught Noel looking at him and met her eyes. The Ranger wrote it off to her knowing that he was walking around with a fair sized laceration like nothing was wrong.

The moment between them over, the Ranger went back to scanning. Nothing happening in the crowd, nothing on the edges, nothing from the bridal party. Just a lavish wedding. If everything could stay tame the rest of the event, that would be great. The Ranger did not want to have to open his stitches.

When the presentation of the couple finally happened and the couple was making their way down the aisle. Noel slid in behind the bride and groom, the Ranger was a half-step behind her but got into formation beside her like the pair of them were part of the wedding party. A victim of his injury, it took him that extra moment to get moving.

"Don't step on the dress."

"Ain't my firs' rodeo."

They trailed the bride and groom out of the garden up to the reception area. There was no walking on the train. Once they arrived the Ranger was split, on one hand they were no longer in the open but on the other it would now be a party which meant more people moving around and bright and changing lights.

"Open bar."

The Ranger wanted a drink, something to take the edge off the pain in his side. "We can raid it after the send off." It wasn't that he couldn't drink on the job, he just preferred not to. It would dull the pain, but it would slow him that little bit more.

As they approached the table the bride and groom were to sit at, the Ranger felt under the tablecloth to confirm the large briefcase he'd stashed there remained. If someone crashed the reception they'd have a nasty surprise. He was in no mood for fighting this time. Then, since two of the bridal party had been cut off a pair of seats at their table would be open. The Ranger made the executive decision that one now belonged to him. Kept him close to his charge, and let his sit a spell.

Not his first rodeo as in he was married? Or he'd worked weddings before? She tried for an oh-so-causal look at the ring finger, but she saw no rings and no tan lines. Of course, she probably wouldn't bother with a ring if she was working, not that she'd ever imagined having a ring in the first place...

Oh dear. He'd thought her open bar comment had been for them. He didn't have to know she was a teetotaler, but by the sounds of it, after their charges were away, he'd figure it out.

The Ranger sat. There was another chair, but Noel stood.

She did not like the revelry. She did not like the crinoline. She did not like that a few uncles came to engage her in conversation after the first course and left laughing. She did not like the tiny less-than-a-bite-sized hors d'oeuvres or the frilly cake.

Things were rolling smoothly as far as security went. The guest's cheeks and noses were getting pinker, including the freshly married pair. By the time that most of the chairs were empty and the bride and groom were twirling around in their first dance, Noel was in a rather dour mood.

She checked the exits, but no more ninja came to make things better.