Only their two sets of eyes...? "But if the tip came from the cops, even after uhh not us trashed their robots..." Wait. She was doing this wrong. Maya took a breath to regroup and tried again. "I mean, if the tip was credible surely they have more info to go on than what they told us." So they wouldn't stop looking either.

Unless the tip didn't come from the cops.

Hadn't she asked? Maya was realizing that she'd only assumed. She hopped out of her seat after Cafas had. "No, I'll..." But she'd been too slow, caught up in the new melody and the realization that maybe this whole thing was a wild goose chase. Cafas was already trying to not be terribly obvious in leaving. Even though, to her, every time he left was terribly obvious. It meant he wasn't there anymore.

She felt silly so Maya sat.

Maybe he hadn't wanted her to follow. That was the most paranoid thought that she even let herself think in her head.

But, well... there were a lot of reasons why it might be true and every single one of them tried to eat at her until she had to hop up and follow him. She tried her best to "see" ahead and follow Cafas at distance.

This was silly.

Right?

Sometimes, Cafas' timing was just the worst. He turned back to face forward a short moment before the door opened a second time. He didn't ever see a cute spiderman step her way out of it. Maybe it was for the best he didn't see her deliberately hanging back. He'd probably earned the distrust, there had just never been a good time to mention Ragnarok, and his excuses for not being around as much weren't exactly stellar.

The X-man wound his way through the crowd, posing for the odd photo here and there, oblivious. He missed Maya every step of the way. The day just lost its saturation without her there, making fools of their masked selves together. His eyes flicked from person to person through the narrow aperture of his mask's eyes. The odd mutant here and there, some fursuits, costumes covering the gamut of quality from hopefully satirically bad, to indistinguishable from the actual character. No obvious terrorist threats though.

The stairs were a maze of seated people not yet moved along by con security, littered with hopefully fake weapons. One or two showed up as having metal parts, but nothing solid. Cafas picked a path between the people, his usual self confident stride turned into cautious steps as he was forced to keep looking down at his feet to make sure he wasn't stepping on anyone or any thing.

The mezzanine level was, compared to the floor, sparsely populated. People having lunch, people just observing the view, people adjusting make up or props. It was like the backstage of the congoers. He breathed a sigh as he relaxed a little, then remembered why he hadn't been doing too much of that. Cringing, Cafas moved his way over to the railing and peered over the con. It was like a where's waldo picture, except he had no idea what he was looking for, and it kept moving.

"Hi!"

He barely avoided jumping as the chipper voice startled him. Cafas turned to look for the source and...

Whoa.

It took a genuine effort of will to drag his eyes to the woman's face. Her Harley Quin costume was, on its own, actually really good, but the rather open neckline had something of a magnetic quality, and his eyes were ferrous. When he did get there he was surprised to find he recognized the woman in it. A something. Ashley! Paramedic. Thank god for the mask because he'd been an ass to her.

"Hey." He tried not to sound like he knew her. How did one sound when they knew a person? Hopefully not like him.

"I love your costume!"

"Thanks! I love yours! Did you make it yourself?"

An affirmative answer, a request for a photo. A minute to discuss the pose as a passing stranger held the camera offering suggestions. Given how well the characters would get along, at least in somebody's head canon, it was hard to avoid the topic of risque poses. What was eventually decided upon was borderline even for that. Cafas had started to protest, but Maya had told him to behave in character, right?

Photo taken, Cafas expected Ashley to leave. She did not. "So, how's Maya? I think I read you guys are still together somewhere. I'm honestly glad I wasn't run out on for a fling."

Cafas made several half sounds trying to overcome his shock and confusion to deny anything at all. Ashley didn't give him a chance. "I recognised your voice. With the build as well, it just had to be. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone. Really though, how have you guys been?"

Cafas relaxed a little. Denying it at this point was a lost cause. He couldn't exactly take off his mask and prove it. It did kind of make him question the pose though... If someone had missed the context on that somehow, it could be taken badly... "Good, actually. Listen, I'm sorry I kind of handled that night poorly at the end there, I just..."

"It's fine, really. You two are adorable together. I was disappointed at the time, but I got over it. Is Maya here?"

"Yeah, I just left her watching that internet show about the evil but not actually scientist. The sing along one..." Were they standing too close? They totally were, though it was more a question of necessity in the somewhat crowded space.

"Doctor Horrible's Singalong Blog?"

"Yeah! I'm kinda meant to be looking out for trouble. We're here on business, even if the suit doesn't look it." Where was Maya, actually? She'd stayed, right? How long did it have left? He really was missing her, and part of that was almost certainly the fact Ashley had just checked him out.

Well he found trouble alright. Maya recognized her voice. The paramedic.

Spider!Maya taped her fingers on the railing of the staircase, just around the corner of the landing where paramedic and Dead!Cafas were chatting. Yeah. Cafas!Pool had been upgraded to Dead!Cafas and it wasn't even really his fault. Because she trusted that paramedic chick wasn't a secret unibomber. Just some chick. And it didn't feel like a clandestined meeting. At least not from the few words of conversation she'd gleaned.

Was she being too trusting again?

Maybe it'd been a mistake to move in. Too hasty.

There was something, some movement or sound, that caught Maya's attention on the stairs where they turned toward the dealer room just below. Maya popped her head over the railing in time to get a cape tossed in her face. Not that it stopped her from 'seeing.'

Huh. Looked like a fight was brewing between a recently de-caped hero and a short man in the traditional brown monk's garb. There was shouting. Hair-pulling. Sign bashing. The works.

It was also incredibly not her boyfriend standing close to another lady. So, Maya did the most sensible thing. She hopped up onto the handrail and skittered down past all the tired con-going roadblocks until she was close enough to hop over a few final heads and put herself squarely in the squabble-zone.

God bless the little grippies on the soles of those spandex shoes.

"Hey, hey." Spider!Maya ducked under a grab and stepped between the two, cape still on top of her head. She put her hands out, as if that would stop them. For her efforts she got kicked in the groin, facegrabbed, and jabbed in the back with a large poster on a stick.

"I, uh. Found a cape." She wheezed and tried her best to slap away the petty little jabs the two were throwing at each other. The cape-bearer had already reclaimed his cape and nearly unseated her mask in doing so. She didn't currently have the hands to pull it back over her chin, though. "So. No hard feelings, right?"

"You kidding? He's not my hero. Damn vigilante! We don't need you now that we got the METAbots."

Maya slapped away the sign as the monk-man tried to hit her or the recently re-caped, she wasn't sure which. It might have been helpful to be able to read what the sign said.

"I'm dressed as Cold Steel, you lunatic! I'm not actually Cold Steel."

"What? He doesn't wear a cape..." But she did notice the eyepatch when he got close enough to try to reach around Maya again.

"Business? At a con? Can't be too serious, can it? Come on, let's get lunch or some..."

She kept talking, but Cafas had stopped listening. There was something going on below. He could hear some shouting, and if he didn't know the sounds of a scuffle, then he seriously needed to reevaluate his choice of... Hobby? Certainly not profession, you got payed for those. Volunteer organisation maybe?

Probably a question for another time.

He leaned over the railing to try and get a better view just as Maya's voice met his ears. Under normal circumstances he might have let con security deal with the situation, after all neither seemed to have trained in any way. Maya getting involved forced his hand though. When they decided to use her as a punching bag, that was the final straw.

"Man, our meetings keep ending like this. Nice to see you Ashley." He didn't pause to see the offended expression on her face. Cafas snapped back into character, hoping it might be enough to keep people from thinking too hard on who these people were that kept showing up wherever danger was. With a quick scoping for a landing spot, and a cry of "Maximum Effort!" Cafas was over the balustrade and dropping.

Fifteen feet never sounds like how much it is...

He hit the ground on the balls of his feet and rolled out of the fall. All the assorted weaponry strapped to him made it a cumbersome move, but with minimal damage to props, he was back on his feet and moving through the crowd. He could see over them well enough, the rising and falling of the "Sebastian will return!" sign made it all the easier to track where the fight was.

Oh great, one of these lunatics.

Something something Cold Steel filtered through the general yelling and his mask. The whole thing made no sense at all, a monk of Sebastian beating on a guy in a costume, but it was funny to note that Sam had people who dressed up like him. Cafas cut a path through the crowd with presence alone, no-one particularly wanting to stand in his way and alerting others that they might not want to either. He came into the fight ring just behind the monk. The backswing of another sign strike brought it careening towards Cafas. He caught it by the pole easily.

Always wood with these things. Just once some metal would be nice. Actually, not for beating Maya.

"I'm taking this." Cafas gave the sign a yank, and surprise over-rode grip strength for Mr. Monk. Cafas broke the pole of the sign over his knee, unflinching. The Monk seemed to regain some of his fight at that and plowed an untrained fist into Cafas' chest. Again, the X-man did not flinch. Following the cracking sound his hand made though, the monk very much flinched. "You alright Spidey?" Cafas asked, keeping his eyes on fake Cold Steel. The monk seemed a little preoccupied with his broken hand. If he'd not just been punching Cafas' girlfriend, the X-man might have felt some pity.

A few things happened in quick succession. Cafas shouted something and then dropped in. Crazy shouted something about Sebastian returning. Cold Steel wannabe chose his moment to try and get a sucker hit to the monk in. Maya put her shoulder in the way. Cafas took the sign away from Mr. Monk. Mr. Monk tried (and succeeded) in hurting himself on Cafas.

Holy. Cow.

"Stop." The air in the immediate area constricted and her voice carried. Maya bodily shoved the fake CS back with more gusto than was needed. He barely misstepped, but it was still more physical force than was her typical. "No more!" There. Now she had space enough to yank her mask back down so she could address the monk. .

"No more Sebastian." Spider!Maya pulled the monk away from Cafas by the robe. "He has abandoned you. He is gone. Move to his church in Nowhereville or go see the convention nursing station, I don't care which so long as you get. out."

Next she rounded on the Faux Steel who was taking a moment to mop the sweat from under his eyepatch. "And you. No more being petty, Mr. Steel. You got your cape. Move it along." There was enough mom in that voice that he actually took a step to obey before it sank in that he'd started to auto-comply.

The CS imposter left, but the monk stood blinking.

Screaming, crying, and falling into an incorporeal puddle all seemed like incredibly viable options right now.

> "You alright Spidey?"

"No. I'm going home." This thing was a waste of time. Fun, for a hot second, but ultimately a waste. There was no threat here. Just people. Dumb, sweaty, stinky, hormonal, wannabe-someone-else people.

Cafas stood, stunned, trying to figure out how to react. He wasn't used to Maya tantrums. They were scary, how the very air would warp with them. Had it been anyone else, he might have told her to fall in line and suck it up, they had a job to do. She wasn't anyone else though, she was Maya, and Maya was upset, and there was an overwhelming part of him telling him to make sure she was okay above everything else.

I mean, we do have a job here though...

Sebastian monk opened his dumb mouth to speak. He made it through two very vulgar words before he had a leather gloved hand clamped over his mouth, accompanied by the clattering of sign on floor. Cafas' grip strength alone was enough to stop any attempts to resist. He was glad for the leather though, it made the biting absolutely ineffective. "Shut up and walk away, and be very grateful no one is pressing charges against you." The robed man stumbled back as Cafas let go with a shove. No witty repartee after that, Cafas had made his point with the slowly fading marks on the man's jaw. The robes quickly pushed through the crowd, nursing a broken hand.

None of Sebastian's healing in him I guess.

Deadpool threw the last piece of the sign to the floor where it skittered off into the crowd. He stepped in close to hi girlfriend and placed a tentative hand on her upper arm. "Come on Maya, let's get you some air." His voice had lost any hint of sharpness it had possessed speaking to the monk. Just a gentle offer of support behind his softly spoken words. He wasn't sure what Maya needed, but natural air movement, as fresh as could be gotten in New York, that was a start. "Gonna have to walk though, okay? Other method's a bit too obvious right now."

Two words in and she was ready to stuff the breath right back down his— but luckily Cafas intervened and the man left.

A cold wash of shame doused Maya's anger. Making people stop and stuffing or shoving... those things weren't her. They weren't even Spiderman.

She folded her arms around herself and hunched. Everything felt decidedly less put together. Air was a good idea. "Yeah. No. I'll walk."

So she walked, not even paying attention to the where more focused on the action than anything else.

Why did people follow Sebastian anymore? He wasn't here and clearly he didn't care about them anymore than he cared about... her. Oh. That explained the angry embarrassed sadness that had been bubbling around the edges of her eyes that made her feel like she might spill over.

Dumb.

Dumb, dumb, du- oof. Someone clipped her shoulder as they walked past and it drew Maya out of her internal focus. A monk. Actually, a group of monks all with bulky robes and skinny ankles.

"That one." Their first monk friend was back and leveling a finger at Cafas. She recognized his voice.

Walking was a good start. Walking meant maybe, just maybe, he could find a way to salvage this. She wasn't angry at him if she was walking. Well, maybe she was, but she was burying it enough to at least get somewhere less public. A full meltdown was not something they needed the world knowing about, and with as many cameras around as they had, everyone would know if one happened.

Okay just move out of the situation for now...

He tried to think of something to say to her as he steered her in the direction of the exit. Nothing really came to mind. He really wished he could just magically be more practiced at dealing with emotionally tense situations. He didn't want to actually have to earn the experience though... It was quite the conundrum.

"You injured? Looked like you took a few hits before I could get there." Cafas couldn't see anything, but it was a red suit and he had compromised eyesight. It killed his peripherals too, or else he would have steered Maya further from the robe crew. Certainly wouldn't have walked her into one of them. Oh, it was that guy.

>>"That one."

"How's the wrist?" The monks all looked at him. He could feel their eyes on him. They spread apart slightly, into something of a semicircle. Time seemed to slow as his brain kicked into high gear, because he knew exactly what they were doing. "DOWN!" Maya would have to forgive him for being less than gentle as robes began to billow with rapid movement. Cafas all but threw her behind him by the shoulders, spinning his body to shield hers. A deafening spray of gunfire erupted almost directly behind him. The leather suit took the worst out of the relatively minor explosions, but at point blank he could still feel them.

Wait...

Cafas let go of Maya and turned to face the gunmen, ripping his mask off as he did. marginally fresher air filled his lungs, and he almost had to squint from the sudden return to normal visual input. It was worth it to see the shocked and confused looks on the faces of the monks as their bullets hung in mid air, physics seeming to have completely forgotten them. Cafas dropped them clattering to the ground. Their gun barrels ripped free and joined the bullets on the ground.

"Get. On. The. Ground." Cafas' eyes flared purple as his fists trembled by his side. He levelled what was left of the monks' ammo on them at eye level. He could kill them. It would be so simple, and no-one would even bother to question it. No body. NO BODY. Shot at his girlfriend.

She didn't know anymore if she'd actually asked Cafas not to patronize the men or not. She'd meant to, even if they were Sebastian's witness. Even if they had guns. Maybe especially because of the guns. Wait. Those were not fake guns.

Cafas pulled her around rougher than he meant to. Hugged himself around her. Bullets were a little less of a bother to him. Somewhere in her brain she knew that, but her initial thoughts were less than logical.

This was her Cafas. Nobody should put a dent in her Cafas, ESPECIALLY not Sebastian's witnesses.

The crowd reacted with shouts and many bodies dropped to the ground, aware that when bullets were flying that a prone position made for less of a target.

He let her go. She let go of her physical form.

She should have ghosted them both when she'd felt the guns. That would have been safest. Maya really needed to work on her emergency response conditioning. She was as good as the masses now. Twice, twice today she'd gawped instead of taking the action that would have resulted in the highest success or survival rate.

It was a good thing Cafas hadn't needed her here, right now.

"Whaaaat theeeee heeeeck?"
"It's Neo!"
"Is this a show?"

A large, blunt force of wind buffeted the crowd back from the area around the men and their stopped bullets. Just because time had stopped for the projectiles didn't mean that the monks were incapable of turning their weapons elsewhere.

"Stay back." She tried to warn the crowd. Some of the con-goers had made a break for the exit, but there was a solid group left to rubberneck.

"Dial 911!"
"Isn't that the Dusk guy?"
"Duskpool! Yaas!"

Cafas was growling at the men in a way that scared even Maya. She went to touch him and her hand dissipated around his biceps before he even had a chance to feel it. The monks seemed at a loss for what to do.

Well, they needed to disarm, at least. She could tell at least that much. "Drop the weapons." The ghost of SpiderMaya demanded. This would be 50 million times better if all of civilians had evacuated. There was still a clot of people panicking at the doorway.

She moved closer, as if the swarm of bullets weren't hovering in midair and ready to reverse trajectory. "Please. This isn't the way."

"It's the Ghost." One intoned with reverence on his lips.
"Sebastian's chosen?"

"Weapons." She reminded them. Because Cafas seemed really, really mad.

What am I doing?

His ears were filled with the sound of his own pulse, strong and fast. He could feel his heart beating, and a growing tightness in his chest. He was aware of sounds outside his body, but no meaning could be found in them. His nostrils flared as air ran into his lungs, cutting a cold, cordite laced path through his sinuses. The coppery tang of fear bit at his tongue.

Robes stirred. Sudden movement.

Cafas could see the bullets, feel them hanging in the air exactly how they shouldn't. Brass jacketed lead with ultimate potential. For not the first time he was faced with the split second choice between life and death. Was that rapid movement trying to catch him off guard, or was it surrender rendered too fast by fear? He didn't have the luxury of waiting to find out. He had to act.

Metal accelerated. Cafas' breath caught in his throat, his heart hammered a drum roll against his rib cage.

The gun hit the ground, black plastic clattering and rattling with the impact. Cafas' breath released as the rest soon followed. The density of the bullets expanded as suddenly as the air leaving his mouth. Metal dust rained to the floor as he relinquished control of the would be projectiles.

Right call.

They were alive. That was about the only concession they were going to receive. "Get on the ground! Get on the ground now!" He could see they wanted to run. He wouldn't recommend it, they were unarmed in a scared angry crowd. "Ghost, crowd control." The crowd was already looking liable to form a lynch mob. "The rest of you stay perfectly still!" Cafas threw the nearest monk to the floor, dropping with him and planting a knee in the would be murderer's back. Sturdy zip ties were fished from a belt pouch. The X-man wrestled the other man's hands behind his back and reefed the zip tie tight around his wrists.

He was rough enough in voice and manner that Maya cringed on the Sebastian's Witness' behalfs. She didn't ask him not to, though. They deserved it at least on some level and she didn't want to undermine Cafas' authority. Not in front of them.

Meanwhile, Maya had a job to wrangle the crowd and she intended to fulfill that request. Demand. Whatever.

"Please evacuate the building."

Another large, sweeping gust gave those that had stepped forward a reason to step back. While the wording was firm, her tone was not and that sapped most of her authority.

"They were shooting into the crowd."

"And the police will appreciate taking your statement." She summoned another gust, but instead of just using it to sweep the bystanders back, Maya started a tight circulation to effectively wall off the area unless someone was determined to bull their way through.

The panic at the doors had died down a bit since the gunshots were no longer sounding, but the exits were still clogged. Since Cafas seemed... busy, Maya let herself be pulled into the barrier she'd made and got spit out somewhere near the ceiling.

She pulled herself together near an exit and spared a glance back for her barrier before she started physically tugging at arms or shirts or anything that might get people to stop pressing forward. Maya fished a child dressed as Predator from near the bottom. And tugged an errant wing that was wrenched the wrong way.

Cafas lost track of his partner as she ghosted away. Unfortunately, he lost some control of the witnesses too as she left. He'd just got the zip tie onto the second of their number when the next in line kicked him in the ribs with as much force as he could muster. The leather and cloth of his costume took the worst of that one, but it would bruise. Cafas rolled off the now struggling terrorist and pushed himself to his feet in time to dodge a second kick.

A punch came in, clumsily too. Cafas used the force from it to hip throw the monk to the floor. He got the zip cuff treatment too. "You just shot at someone I love buddy. My temper is very limited right now, so I would just stay down if I were you." The fight seemed to have gone from the remaining monks as they realised they were surrounded and unarmed. Cafas ended up with six monks all sitting in a line, hands cuffed behind their backs.

12 months ago there'd be 6 corpses... Thank God for Maya.

Cafas examined the group, a glower in his eyes. "Are there any more of you?" None responded immediately. The one with the broken wrist did feel like being smart, though. "Gotta read us our rights before you interrogate us, vigilante." Cafas turned a hard gaze on the monk. "Not when lives may still be in danger I don't. Now, I'll ask again. Are there any more of you?" Just a gob of spit at his feet in response. Disgusting.

"Fine. Understand that if there are any more of you, you will be charged as accessories to their crimes." Cafas sighed and examined the swirling barrier around them. It had picked up quite a lot of dust and debris. Cafas couldn't see Maya through it. He couldn't actually see much beyond the rubber necking crowd. "GHOST! YOU ALL GOOD?"

She gave one more tug and then a puuuuuush on what appeared to be the right person and the entire mass of bodies at this exit fell free in a jumble of props and groans. She apologized to the person she'd landed on and took yet another elbow to the face before the elemental extracted herself from the pileup.

Already firemen and paramedics were there, they'd been tugging from the other side.

She assumed there were police there too. Honestly, it was hard to tell. So she tried to get them a report, but no one was taking her seriously. The man she'd tried to talk to thrust Maya aside in favor of helping someone up from the ground. That was cool and all, but there were still people inside.

It was Maya's turn to unmask— not that she was a celebrity, but at least now she was a person with a bloody nose instead of just another Spiderman.

"There are men with guns inside." And that got someone's attention. Finally.

Police, or... whatever, Maya wasn't focusing too hard. He asked her to show him so she tried to make it past the mulling group of cosplayers and back into the open ballroom without taking any more accidental elbows.

Her barrier wavered when she heard Cafas calling. Maybe he was done? Maya forced the middle of the barrier to bubble outward in order to make the rubberneckers take yet another step back. She lifted her chin and readied herself before she let the whole thing destabilize and spin out in a sprinkling of dust.

That's when he grabbed her, one hand squeezing Maya's arm and the other with something cool and metallic pressing into her throat. He tried to make some kind of demand about his comrades.

His vest probably wasn't a bullet proof one, then. His badge, likely a fake. Maya felt sad about the whole situation, really.

Because she didn't even let him finish his demand.

The words caught in his throat. His eyes bulged and he squeezed and pressed her painfully tight in his panic. She could only do this while touching someone. While solid.

He would turn red first, no matter what his natural skin tone was. Purple next. Little red spots would start to show on his skin and in his eyes, like little freckles of blood.

Suffocation was never pretty.

Cafas sneezed as the dust started to settle, trying to spot Maya over the crowd that seemed to be considering their options. None of them were terribly keen to mess with the X-men, especially not when one had just summoned something of a twister inside a building, and the other had just dealt with six armed men as if they were children.

"Ghost?"

"He's got a knife!"

"He's going to kill her!"

What? Cafas took steps in the direction he'd glimpsed his partner. Fast steps. Steps that involved bodily shoving the few people still left in that part of the ring. They needed to be out of his way. Standing between Cafas and a Maya in danger was rather akin to being between a bear and its cubs. A very bad idea.

"Stop! Don't move vigilante! Just turn and let those men g-"

Cafas could see the scene clearly at that point. A cop, or at least someone dressed as one, had a knife to Maya's throat. Cafas was going to have to kill him if he kept that up. It would seem, however, that someone was already doing so. The man had stopped yelling demands, and was mostly just doing a great impression of that one fish teacher at the Mansion. Obviously he was being strangled, Cafas recognised the desperation in his face, but where from?

Must be a mutant in the crowd.

Cafas quickly scanned the crowd, eyes lingering on a Darth Vader cosplayer. Surely not, that body language was all confusion. Might just be good at acting the fool. Whoever it was, they needed to be stopped, that man needed air, however much Cafas would like to hurt him for threatening Maya.

Air...

With his shock and confusion written across his face as clearly as a neon sign in an empty desert, Cafas' gaze returned to his girlfriend. Surely not. Strangulation killed people, Maya didn't do that to people. She didn't hurt people at all if she could avoid it. These were truths of the world in his mind.

But... She didn't have a choice...

The man dropped her and the knife clawing at his throat as his eyes bulged and lips blued. The gawkers had all but forgotten the six gunmen with a new spectacle to watch. The Sebastian's witnesses were keen to take advantage of that. They were looking between each other and making moves. Cafas turned to check on them just in time to see them get to their feet.

Their gun barrels sprang to life at their feet and wound around their ankles. Let them try to hop away. The loss of evidence would cost him some yelling from the police, but less than losing the gunmen. Without so much as a second glance, having already wasted precious seconds on his inability to do such a complicated task to all six at once, Cafas pushed the last person out of his way and ran towards the suffocating man.

"GHOST! STOP!" His voice was tinged with desperation. He had no idea if she meant to go through with killing the man. She couldn't, could she? But then, he'd threatened her life, and he was affiliated with Sebastian. Cafas grabbed the man just before his legs gave out, securing his arms but trying to think of something he could do. He didn't know what she was doing, that was the problem. But he had to do something, the guy was doing well just to be conscious.

No no no, she'll never forgive herself. She doesn't know what this does to you...

Without any better options available, Cafas pinched the fake cop's nose, took a deep breath, placed his mouth over the frightened man's and exhaled, trying to force air into his lungs.

Once he let her go, Maya couldn't keep forcing the air away from his lungs. She could try to encase him in a vacuum. Keep the air away from him that way, but she hadn't been maliciously strangulating him. Besides. Just the fact that Cafas was there and moving around would have popped the delicate soap bubble of constructed air that would be required to continue suffocating him in the first place.

Ghost was feeling entirely too distanced from the situation. Didn't his life matter too?

Except that the bad man didn't get better right away.

The police arrived. The real police. She could tell a difference this time in how they moved and there was a definite difference in how they spoke to her. If nothing else there was more than one.

"Can you get a paramedic? I think that guy's having a heart attack or something." Or a stroke? Strokes were a thing people had sometimes.

"Omigawd. He's totally making out with that guy."
"It's CPR, you twit. Take a picture, though."
"No. Video! We need moar gifs on Tumblr."

Maya missed what the officer had asked her about the men on the ground because she sent a little air power to nudge the phone that was out and in front of a girl's face. It tipped back and thwapped the Tumblrjockey in the forehead.

Then she tried to give her best report of what had happened. It helped probably that she was a woman. That she was bleeding. That just about every move from the zip-tied men made her jump.

They had her sit down. That was okay. She should probably check on the guy who Cafas had been reviving, but there was a seam on her finger that had a loose string. And that loose string kept getting caught under her nail. It felt weird.

Someone tromped near. She didn't bother to stop picking at her finger. But she did have to ask. "Is he dead?"