The blue flashing lights was the first indication that there were now police involved. Shame, the giant shifter had been doing great about keeping out of trouble. The worst thing about police being involved was they had some officers who had the ability to shut his powers down, which was a pain especially seeing as he had escaped jail now two times. The first time was when his ex-girlfriend a boney bikini babe rallied some of the residents at the sanctuary to bust him out. Which was great because there was a tank involved, which was awesome. The second time was back home after he got into a scrap with his ‘family’ members after his past and his present collided resulting in him ‘being dead’ to everyone he held dear.

”I suggest you boys head home and call it a day.” One of the officers said. As he held up a flashlight onto Bacchus and the pair he had gotten into an argument with. The giant shifter’s pupils dilated. Coupled with him being drunk by anyone standards other than his own his mutation had been going into overdrive he covered his eyes which in turn covered his face as well. One of the perks of being almost seven feet tall. Sadly that in it self was also a liability, “Nah, all a misunderstanding.” One of the two said as he smiled to the police elbowing his friend.

“Just having a talk with the big guy.” They both reeked of cheap mix drinks one of them smelled of an appletinie. Truth be told Bacchus had no idea while they were out here. The giant shifter didn’t care though. He was feeling pretty down so a good beating might have cheered him up.

“That true?” the cop asked shining his light back to Bacchus aiming right at his face again. “Eh, why not.” Bacchus said shrugging his shoulders. Turning away from the cop to the two guys who asked him to step outside in the first place.

"WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, JERK!" She shook a fist at the taxi that was speeding off. The driver responded with an arm out his window and a finger aimed in her direction.

Smirking, she stepped fully out of the street. If she didn't say so herself, she was getting the hang of this big city thing. Back in Seattle she would have scooted out of the way of the taxi without uttering a word, but maybe shot a glare as his retreating vehicle. Twice now she'd opened her mouth and tried to mimic the New Yorker attitude in regards to the city's poor drivers. If ya can't beat em', join em' and all that jazz.

Glancing at her watch, she shuffled back into action. She was allotted exactly a half an hour to wiggle a jog in before she had to retreat back home to finish an essay. Being stubborn she'd decided that she absolutely couldn't put off her evening workout. Didn't want to get fat, after all. Heaven forbid she be a little squishy.

... Okay, maybe her late jog was more from being bitter about a comment about how 'curvey' she was, that someone who she'd never speak to ever again had told her a few days ago. She had a frail ego. And now she was torturing herself across the span of a few blocks to try and make up for it. Stuffing her ear-buds back into her ears, she drowned out the city sounds with music and took off down the street again, turning at the corner at the end of the block.

... she ran smack into the back of a cop. The both of them tumbled to the sidewalk in a mess of flailing arms and legs, while she cursed and got the air squeezed out of her lungs.

How she'd missed the lights in the first place, she'd never know.

Chris hated police, he had been picked up when a thieving attempt had gone wrong. The cops had noticed his face and were hauling him off to the station when they had stopped by some people causing a scene. When a girl carelessly bumped into the back of the cops he knew this was his moment.

He quickly looked around for anyone and turned to face his back to the door. It took some fumbling but he managed to open the door. Unfortunately the moment the door opened he rolled out and hit is head on the ground. Darn that hurt. He got up an nudged the door shut with his knee. When he tried to open the boot to get to his bag he found it locked. He wriggled his hand around and tried to step backwards over them, like the cool people in the movies always did. He managed with one leg but tripped on the other and face-planted right in front of the group of people.

Cringing, he tried to slowly crawl away to avoid attention. He doubted it would work.

The cop took a tumble, Bacchus didn’t know why till he saw the red head next to him. Bacchus smirked slightly then looked back to the guys who asked him to step outside. They stared at Bacchus trying either to intimidate him or make sure he didn’t run for it. Bacchus replied with a large middle finger while the one of the cops was pushing him self up and the other placed his hands on the redhead. Bacchus wasn’t exactly sure what was going to happen.

Lately he noticed the police had been a little more on edge, must have been left over distrust from the riots. That or Isabel must have gotten her point across. About time if it was the second reason, the police just never learned. Turning his back on the two that wanted him outside Bacchus’s skin hardened and became denser just in case the two idiots tried anything. Still holding his massive hand over some of his face so the police couldn’t get a good look at his face.

”Ya alright, love?” Bacchus yelled to the girl ignoring the police. He didn’t bother walking towards them. The closer he got the more likely he had to deal with more police getting involved. Two drunken guys wanting fight would have been his idea of some fun. Dealing with the entire police force and the MRD was his Boney Ex’s idea of fun.

”Think, that be assaulting an officer.” Bacchus said letting out a small laugh. Was she with the two guys and was meant as a distraction? He couldn’t see it but the two guys used this as an excuse to take one step closer to Bacchus. The giant shifter was too focused on the police and the redhead and out of the corner of his eye another person who was face planting into view. ”And you must be all sorts of special.”

The swearing stopped the moment she realized what exactly she'd barreled head first into. She didn't need her glasses to easily spot a cop's uniform. Or his gun-belt for that matter.

Disentangled, she was promptly hauled to her feet. Thankfully gently. "-sorry! I totally wasn't watching where I was going... this guy just tried to run me over and--" Oh god she was rambling. She probably snapped her jaw shut and stared, horrified, at the two cops... as well as the small group gathered around. She'd just embarrassed herself of a handful of strangers. Lovely.

”Ya alright, love?” Her head snapped in the guys direction. Woah... he was huge! He easily dwarfed the two guys inching closer to him, as well as one of he cops. Well, both of the cops really. It was hard for her to really gauge height seeing as she was five-foot nothing. "..Y-yeah."

”Think, that be assaulting an officer.”

Her eyes widened a fraction and her spine jerked ramrod straight in seconds. Shelby'd never, in all her life, ever gotten in trouble with the law. She'd spent a good portion of her life remaining on it's good side. The very suggestion that she'd gone and done something like that, while ludicrous, still make her panic slightly. More rambling, nonsensical apologies spilled forth.

"You sure you're alright? That was quite a spill." The other officer swung his light around, temporarily blinding her, and added, "You should really watch where you're going, lady. You never know what you're going to run into in this City, speeding around like you were-- HEY!" His attention was promptly captured by the handcuffed detainee who was now outside the cop car. The blinding light left with him as he turned and hurried toward the guy.

"No one told you to get out of the car, kid!"

Crap. "Hey, does anyone here have something elastic, like say a hair band?" Chris looked at the girl eagerly.

Then the cop was on top of him and Chris back peddled to avoid him. His hands were in front of him now. Unfortunately that stopped him from being able to spring up. He scrambled onto his feet slowly and was grabbed by the cop. He looked up and saw that one of them had a hairband. Chris slowly followed the cop round the car and when the cop bent to open the door he reached out and grasped the hairband.

He jumped up and managed to wriggle onto the roof of the car. He grasped the hairband with one hand and twisted his other until it's palm was on the handcuffs. Now that the cuffs were stretchy he was quickly able to pull his hands out. AH that felt better. When he had swapped the attribute back he tossed the cuffs and the hairband back to the officer.

"Guess I won't be needing a hairband any more" He jumped down and looked around. "Please don't try and cuff me again. I will just get out of them again." Chris turned to face the huge guy and the girl. "My name's Chris. Would have been nicer to meet you under more inviting circumstanced but eh, what can you do."

Benny Hill music was playing in the back of Bacchus’s mind as he watched a cop chase a kid around the cop car. When he slipped out of the cuff’s and said he’d just get out again Bacchus smiked slightly. He recalled saying something like that to the police before. Up until the MRD showed with a guy who nullified the titan’s abilities. Wasn’t the first time that happened in New York either. ”Not stop and chat after you escaped the cuffs from the cops?” Bacchus asked sarcastically. The Aussie would have been gone by now, but then again it was obvious the kid was more interested in not incriminating himself further. How he was going to do that by slipping out of cuffs and escaping Bacchus wasn’t sure but he was somewhat interested to find out.

The giant shifter shrugged slightly with Benny Hill music still playing in the background as one of the guys he had his back turned to tried to take advantage of the situation. There was a slight shift in the Giant’s weight and Bacchus realized he had an appletinie smelling fly on his back.

Turning his head he shifted his hand away from his face revealing it in the light more. At this point he could have been made out for who he was but the momentary commotion seemed to distract him long enough to know he was still there, in front of cops with a drunk dude who is attempting to punch him in the neck. ”**** today.” Bacchus said allowed as he seemed to be unaffected by the guy climbing him and punching him in the neck. Got to love that mutation. ”Shoo fly.” Bacchus said clearly irritated now.

Blinking, she openly stared at what was going on. What on earth had she stumbled into?

The officer still holding her gently by the shoulder tugged her behind him as he stepped in front of her. Which unfortunately put her closer to the giant and his two booze hound buddies. She eyed them warily before turning her attention back to the guy attempting to evade re-capture.

Unfortunately for him, as pleasant as he seemed, he'd just outed himself as a mutant. Both of the officers tensed, and the one guarding her swore under his breath. "You need to back away, ma'am. Now."

Shelby wisely took his advice and backed herself flush into the building behind her.

"Don't move, kid. Put your hands up and get on the ground. Now! "

The other officer swore, muttering under his breath about his now missing ponytail band, and reached for his weapon. The kid didn't look like much, nor did he appear armed... but you could never tell with mutants.

While that was happening, Shelby noticed the commotion to her right. One of the smaller guys was trying to start something, and the big guy was doing a spectacular job ignoring him for the most part. Still... shelby was flabergasted. "F***en seriously?"

She wasn't about to throw herself into the Frey to stop them, pfft, she wasn't crazy. But something needed to be said. "Hey! Knock it off! Can'take you see there's a criminal loose? Be careful!"

The cop who'd been guarding her turned to glance over his shoulder at her shout, and his hand froze over the radio on his shoulder. He'd been about to call for backup. His eyes were locked on the giant of a man-- he'd caught a glimpse of his face, and recognition dawned on his face. His hand rushed jerkily toward his gun as he panicked.

"Oh my god! He is a mutant!" Chris made a mock shocked face. "You should probably leave mutants alone. You saw what I did to those handcuffs, I wonder what it would feel like to have liquefied bones. Want to find out" Chris looked at the nearest officer and grinned. He couldn't actually do that of course, nor would he want to, but really did hate it when people automatically assumed the worst about them.

"Besides, you probably have a bigger problem with that dude over there, no pun intended." Chris motioned to the tall dude. "That and those other people are obviously waaay drunk. Really I am the least of your worries."

He didn't however want to get shot. He stuck his hand in his pocket and found the ball bearing. He discreetly touched his shirt and bulletproofed it. At least he hoped he had. He had no idea how much metal bullets could travel though but he hoped that his pseudo-metal-shirt-thing he had just made would at least stop him from dying. Not that he was going to be shot right...

He also fingered what else he had in his pocket. He still needed to get his backpack from the car.

With one hand Bacchus reached for the guy climbing him and grabbed him by the arm and pulled him off with relative ease. He wasn’t at his full-mutated height but at the moment his strength was. It seemed it didn’t matter at this point however if he tried to keep his identity a secret the cop standing in front of the little lady seemed to have been frozen. Meanwhile the guy who escaped was pointing a finger at the giantshifter saying he was going to be a problem. That and he was insulting him by calling him drunk. ”Wish I was drunk. Would have taken care of this before it even started.”

Just then his body puffed up another foot in every direction. He felt the strain on his loose pants and his looser shirt. One of the things he had learned to wear instead of becoming naked all the time. With ease Bacchus tossed the drunk guy climbing him towards the loudmouth who escaped the cop car, he didn’t aim just tossed him. ”Word of advice mate, don’t insult the giant nor point him out.” Bacchus shook his head and looked to the other drunk, ”Suggest you go back inside, I just want to be left alone now thank you.”

Looking back to the girl and the cop Bacchus noticed the cop shouting into the radio. Too bad he didn’t just keep staring. ”I’m leaving now.” Bacchus said raising his hands in the air. It was probably pointless but he was doing pretty good about not killing cops. Not unless they attacked him first.

Her eyes flew back and forth from the kid, Chris as he had earlier pointed out, to the Giant, who her cop-protector was suddenly overly aware of. She was more confused now than before.

... Especially when the kid mouthed off about being able to liquefy bones.

Eyes as round as saucers, she opening stared at the kid in horror. Who would even say such a thing? A terrorist? Maybe he was a gangster. One who went around doing bad things for fun because he could.

"How is that even supposed to help the situation you're in, stupid?! She half shouted, half mumbled; too caught up in the squabble to notice she was yelling at a potential criminal.

The other officer, it seemed, shared her sentiments. He drew his gun and carefully aimed it at Chris. "Seriously kid, this ain't funny. Get on the ground with your hands behind your head." He glanced behind him, "Matt. Hey, Matt. Call in backup already, will ya?"

Matt, however, wasn't listening. A face he'd seen on countless wanted websites and signs was literally staring him down. Pride be damned, he was frozen to the spot with his hand on the holster of his gun. It didn't seem like the giant, now even bigger than before, was really all that much of a threat.

... but the stories he'd heard..

Shelby squeaked in protest as one of the drunks was tossed away like an errant ball of paper. The dude was a mutant! Two mutants in one night! And he was huuuge now! Her gaze went back to flicking from one to the other, over the gun drawn in the middle of it all.

She didn't like those things. For obvious reasons. So when Matt the cop started to pull his out and aim it slowly at the figure of the giant, she felt something swell in her guts. Maybe bravery? ... Naww, probably terror. She wasn't sure why, but her brain at that exact moment decided that he was most definitely going to shoot the weapon. Maybe he was a crooked cop like the ones who so often made it into the news back in her home city... or maybe he was new and scared, but she couldn't sit by and let someone who had yet to even take a step toward the cop get murdered by him.

"No, don't!"

In a moment of pure stupidity, she lunged forward from her perch by the wall and full-body tackled the young cop to the ground. The gun went off, she wasn't sure where the bullet ended up, but she had more pressing matters to attend to first. Mainly the elbow that hooked her neatly under the jaw, and then the knee in her ribs and hand pushing her face into the pavement.

... She'd just assaulted an officer, hadn't she? Crap.

"Okay, okay, just don't shoot me. I like myself intact thanks." Then the body of the drunk crunched into the sidewalk and Chris jumped.
"Did you. You just."He bolted upright. "That nearly f&%@ing landed on me!" He grabbed another marble from his pocket and slowly walked up behind the cop that was pulling his gun. He didn't get to aim it however because he was bodyslammed by a whirrling ball of female fury.
When the young man had picked himself off the ground Chris poked the cops shirt and stiffened it with the marble. Another marble took care of the trousers. It was then a simple matter to grab the keys off the belt and then... Crap, there were two cops.

Bacchus looked as a bullet hole appeared in his now stretched shirt and he sighed. He liked that shirt it hadn’t been ripped yet due to a size change. He puffed up a bit more and he ripped the shirt to prove a point. ”Now I’m right pissed! Buncha bull dust!” Bacchus watched as one mutant turned some clothing stiff to one cop while the little lady was on top of a cop. Turns out she just actually assaulted an officer for him. Cute, unnecessary but appreciated none the less.

”Threw ‘em at ya cause I wanted him to hit ya!” Bacchus yelled as he walked over to the two on the ground and picked up the girl with one hand and gently placed her on his shoulder. The officer on the ground couldn’t move for a reason Bacchus didn’t know but didn’t think much of it. ”Yer coming with me. Officer, I’ll leave that one to you and yer boys in blue.” Bacchus said as he started to walk past the other mutant without much thought at all.

Bacchus ignored the other cop for now and the two drunk moved towards the back to the police cruiser and upped his density and stuck his foot under it and flipped it over with a small grunt. ”There, that’s how I like them.” Looking back towards the drunks Bacchus pointed, ”I see you again and I’ll ground you inta dust got it?” he turned around again shrugged his shoulder with the girl on it quietly he added ”Now, where ya heading?”

Suddenly the weight was gone and her arm was no longer twisted awkwardly. She figured that the nice police officer had figured out that she had panicked, and was going to give her ears a lashing, but maybe not smash her face into the pavement anymore... and then all hopes of that being the case were dashed when she was bodily hoisted into the air like she weighed nothing. One squeal and a yelp later, and she found herself perched precariously atop the giant man's shoulder like some weird human-parrot.

Naturally, she latched onto the shoulder like it was her lifeline, not wanting to tumble down however many feet she was off the ground. She wasn't that eager to meet the pavement again.

The Younger cop swore and made to stand, but a shout from his older companion stopped him dead. They were, for lack of better words, up sh*t creek without a paddle. Both knew they couldn't stop one mutant by themselves, let alone two. The rookie had been too quick to jump for his gun, and if they weren't careful they'd both pay for it. "Just let em' go, kid. This is above our heads." He wisely muttered. The younger cop opened his mouth to argue, glanced at the back of the giant, and then snapped his mouth back shut and remained on the ground.

Shelby shot a panicked, owlish look at them as they passed, before settling her eyes on the other mutant boy present and her expression morphed into a confused owlish stare.

The Giant spoke, and her head whipped around so fast she felt dizzy. "...E-excuse me?" Had he been talking to her? Why would he talk to her? Why was she on his shoulder?! She dangled a leg down, trying to gauge how far down the ground was. if she just jumped... maybe tucked and rolled? Did that even work when falling straight down?

"...Were you talking to me?" She blinked, brows knitting together in confusion. She shot a look at the other boy, and then the cops, eye pleading for an explanation.

... and maybe a little help. "... I'm not being kidnapped, am I? Because I seriously don't have time for this..." Shock at the whole incident lubricated her words, and enabled her to speak much more freely than she rightly should have been. It also didn't hurt that she had no clue who the Giant was, or the other boy for that matter.