>> "Right, anywhere specific I should start?"

"The booths on the far wall there." Randy moved back to the bar thinking up a few other tasks for Alex to do after he finished the tables. He kept an eye on Alex but pretty much expected to let the kid work. He had seen Randy teleport already so even if the kid was a mutant it would be pointless to make a run for it.

It was still early so the crowd hadn't changed much since Randy had caught Alex. Three newcomers stood by the front. At just a glance Randy could tell they where all in a bad mood. Just what he needed. He walked towards them, purposely not teleporting just to delay having to deal with whatever issues they were bringing into his bar. "Welcome to Looking Glass boys. I'm gonna need to see some I.D. please." Being closer he could see one was the same age as Alex the other two where a little older but probably not twenty-one. They definitely meant trouble.

Alex generally did as he was told, cleaning the booths and staying out of the way. The slow crowd made it an easy enough job and he had to wonder if Randy was going to keep him all night or just for a few hours. Still, it took his mind off why he was exactly here. That is up until he spotted the small group at the front door.

Ducking into one of the booths where the high back seats could hide him, he immediately tried to think of an escape plan. But it wasn't like this place had a back door. He could try to go through the office or wait until the front door was clear, or, if he was lucky, make his way through the bar. God why did they have to show up here of all places.

In front the three guys showed their I.D.s. The drivers licenses looked legitimate enough and the boys themselves didn't appear nervous. All around equally annoyed. One of them had a visible mutation, so it wouldn't be a stretch to say that all three were mutants. "That good enough?" one of the older guys asked, clearly miffed by the wait.

((OOC: Alex will be controlling the NPCs))

>> "That good enough?"

The IDs looked authentic but Randy overly wasn't convinced. A perk of owning the place was that he could be overly paranoid of fake cards. One of the guys had quills for hair, it looked like they might cover more than his head as well. Interesting mutation to say the least but the group as a whole looked like trouble makers. "Just a minute boys."

Porting behind the bar he ran the cards though the register. The first two came through clean but the third was fake. That was more than annoying. Porting back to them he grabbed a wristband and passed it back with the fake ID then returned the other two. "You know its a felony to get caught with a fake ID?"

The boy with the fake ID sniffed indignantly, glaring at Randy as he took the card back. "Dunno what yer talkin' about. It's real." The other two boys had barely contained smirks on their faces, obviously knowing something about the ID's making and why it came up fake. "C'mon bro, just take the wrist band."the spikey one urged, nudging the other with his elbow.

The boy's eyes flashed molten gold before he snatched the wrist band and put in on. The second boy laughed and pinched gold-eye's cheek, "Don't have a fit baby." Spikes laughed and ruffled gold-eye's hair, joining in the teasing. Gold-eye looked ready to explode.

Alex watched for a few seconds, once assured they were distracted, skittered out of the booth and behind the bar. He ducked down, hoping they hadn't spotted him. He glanced up at the other employee, motioning for him to remain quiet. If he could just talk to Randy first maybe he could sneak out unseen.

Randy was half glaring the the trio as they took their IDs and wristband. Due to Alex Randy wasn't up for calling the police about the fake but he could feel that something was going to go wrong. If he was lucky they would leave before things got out of hand and he could just forget them.

His bartender gave a loud and painful sounding cough. Looking over Randy saw him motion down behind the bar. Well that was just great. Porting next to him Randy looked down at Alex and raised an eyebrow questioningly. "Friends of yours?"

Alex looked up at Randy, face the picture of innocence. "Riiiight, friends, good-good buddies of mine, good guys..." He cleared his throat, "Could you uh, ya know...get my friends to leave? Or, even better, get me out of here? I don't want to cause any trouble." He kept his voice low, not wishing for them to hear him, even though there was plenty of noise for his voice to get lost in.

Still there was no way he'd risk it. Those guys had very nearly kicked his ass for stopping them from being jerks. Sure he could have done it in a more subtle way but they deserved. It was only now he was regretting his choices.

>> "Riiiight, friends, good-good buddies of mine, good guys... Could you uh, ya know...get my friends to leave? Or, even better, get me out of here? I don't want to cause any trouble."

Randy made himself busy organizing the bottles behind the bar. "I think i put your story together." He sighed thinking for a moment. "Looks like the mess you escaped into my office has just caught up to you. I understand where you're coming from Alex, but I cant kick out paying customers for no reason." Granted anyone could tell they where ready to cause a scene. Randy could kick them out for that, but not before.

He really didn't want to abandon the kid to his fate, but there wasn't a lot he could do either. This situation was getting worse every minute. "To be honest in your situation I would just run for it. Unfortunately you can't teleport. So I'm a bit out of advice at the moment, however i wont leave you hanging if a problem arises."

"I understand where you're coming from Alex, but I cant kick out paying customers for no reason."

He frowned at that, knowing it was a reasonable thing to say but still wishing Randy would just do it. Those guys probably weren't worth the money any way, might even skip out on the tab. Okay maybe not, all he knew was that they were picking on a homeless guy and he had done the right thing to interfered. He didn't want to get murdered for it.

"To be honest in your situation I would just run for it. Unfortunately you can't teleport. So I'm a bit out of advice at the moment, however i wont leave you hanging if a problem arises."

He glanced over at the three sitting at a table, optimal for scanning the room. Great, that was just great. Not only were they bullies, they were smart bullies. Shit... "Alright, run for it, you're saying I should just run for it. But they will definitely see me if I do that."

>> "Alright, run for it, you're saying I should just run for it. But they will definitely see me if I do that."

Randy nodded. The situation sucked. He liked keeping his bars popularity and atmosphere high. Tossing out three people on a slow night without a reason did not help that. Especially since they were mutants, that just wrecked his 'friendly to everyone' policy. "I also said i wouldn't leave you hanging. I got a business to run so I can't kick every person who looks like trouble or I start loosing money fast. However, I don't let people start trouble in my bar."

"If you stick around and finish cleaning those tables they can't do anything without me tossing them out, but they will probably wait outside for a while." Somehow Randy felt the trio wasn't the patient type so Alex could probably wait them out. "If you make a run for it, I'm guessing they're gonna follow you and then you get to start this whole situation over from step one. Of course I might just need to get some air right about then and add a pair of fists if it came to that." With a shrug Randy turned his attention back to cleaning the bar leaving Alex to decide.

"If you stick around and finish cleaning those tables they can't do anything without me tossing them out, but they will probably wait outside for a while. If you make a run for it, I'm guessing they're gonna follow you and then you get to start this whole situation over from step one. Of course I might just need to get some air right about then and add a pair of fists if it came to that."

Alex listens and rolls his options about in his head. He could do this, he just had to play it cool. No big deal, he works here and his boss would take care of any trouble. Yeah, that's the story and he'll stick to it. "Right, okay. The first option seems like the best one right now. I'll keep cleaning and if they start anything, I guess I'm trusting you to make sure they don't pummel me." The teen took a breath and stood up, straightening his cloths and playing it off like he wasn't just hiding like a scared child.

He looked back at Randy one last time before he went back to work, pointedly ignoring the three that were seated at the center of the room. They spotted him right away, nudging each other and pointing. Gold-eyes was fuming, looking ready to start throwing fire. However, they stayed seated, at least knowing that if they started trouble they'd get kicked out. For now both sides were stalled where they were.

Randy watched him go back to work. The trio had spotted Alex and where all clearly forcing themselves to stay seated. Smart enough not to cause trouble in the bar, for now anyway. Randy hated situations involving people like that. Clearly a problem waiting to happen yet untouchable until something set them off. Even without teleporting Randy would have run instead of trying to wait it out. He Had promised Alex a bit of backup if a fight started outside and it avoided the overly tense waiting game.

Alex chose to stay though. Randy hoped that business picked up soon, something to change the mood of the bar. Maybe the three would get bored and leave. Or Alex could slip out unnoticed by them. Running the situations over in his head just made Randy frustrated. "How the h*** did I get myself into this..." he murmured running his fingers through his hair.

An idea popped into Randy's head. A stupid one. Those where always a gamble to act on. Force the three guys to act. Make them throw the first punch. Alex was wearing a uniform, well an apron anyway, and looked like a worker. Alex! You able to work 'till closing?" Bars didn't close until Four in the morning. It was only Eight thirty. The guys after Alex did not look that patient.

Alex kept his back to the trio, hoping that they would decide to leave on their own. Or at least just leave him alone. It felt like he had fallen in a bull's pen and was hoping the bull wouldn't get angry. Fat chance of that but there was still a chance. He just needed to stay calm and wait things out.

"Alex! You able to work 'till closing?"

He blinked and looked over at Randy, "Um, yes sir. Closing's past midnight right?" From his peripherals he could see gold-eyes fuming, literally, the glass of water he was holding was starting to boil. The other two didn't look too happy with this turn of events either.

To the surprise of no one, gold-eyes stuck first. Glass in his hands shattering before he stood, "That's it!" Alex barely had enough time to duck down before a fire ball flew over his head. The other two mutant joined in, jumping out of their seats and after Alex who was desperately trying to crawl away. He would have stood up if not for the fact that he didn't want to catch fire with his face.

>> "Um, yes sir. Closing's past midnight right?"

The sound of breaking glass caught Randy's attention first as the angriest of the trio threw a fireball across the room. "OH S***!" In hindsight forcing a mutant bar fight was a bad idea. In foresight this gave him a clear reason to kick all three from his bar. While the rest of the crowd on the bar gave them all a wide berth and several ran out completely Randy ported between them and Alex.

"Hey, You three out NOW!" He doubted they would listen but it was worth making the effort. Of course if this did turn into an all out brawl Randy was definitely at a disadvantage in numbers. Alex technically was the target and Randy was back-up. Time to see what the kid could do, if he did anything.

Randy ported between them just in time, allowing Alex to skitter back some more and stand back up. Thankfully he could see plenty of material around them that he could fight with. But that didn't mean he wanted to. This was the thing he was specifically avoiding. Yet here he was, about to get into a fight and potentially ruin someone's livelihood.

"Hey, You three out NOW!"

Gold-eyes hands flared up in fire and the other two...looked bored? What? "This is dumb. Let's just go."the spikey mutant sighed, slumping out of his fighting posture. The fire mutant looked at him in shock, "What do you mean?! He-" The third mutant stepped in, placing a hand on the pyro-mancer's shoulder. "No he's right, this is dumb and I'd much rather drink then get in a fight."he murmured.

"Then you go! I don't need you! I'll take care of this myself."Gold-eye's snarled. The other two mutants backed off right out the door, presumably to wait out their friends tantrum. Which was good for Alex and Randy. It made things a little more fair. With just one to deal with, even if he had fire control, he'd shouldn't be able to take two on one.

Alex reached for the material from the various food items around the bar, forming an aggressive swarm of biting, stinging insects. A swarm should be able to handle fire than better then a single construct on it's own. It wouldn't be fun, but it would get the job done.

>> "Then you go! I don't need you! I'll take care of this myself."

Randy was glaring at them as the other two left. Well they did have a few brain cells between them, that was something. The third was still fuming, and smoking a bit. Numbers wise the odds where now in Alex and his favor. On that note though, he had no idea if Alex was a mutant, or any real good in a fight. Considering how Alex had gotten into this mess Randy assumed mediocre at best.

Turning back to the golden hot head Randy brought his fists up slowly. The kids was a minor but well, tossing fireballs counted as assault right? Randy was just acting in self defense. "Kid you really should take me up on that offer and walk." He had no idea what Alex was doing behind him but hopefully it wasn't hiding in a booth.