((OOC: This is set a little ways back, in September.))

It started out innocently enough. With the kidnapping of a child. That led to problems for a couple of rival gangs in New York. The Italian mob didn't like that their rival gang, the Triad, had kidnapped the child of their mob boss, Falcone. (They didn't. We'll get to that.) But from there, it had been simple to pin it on someone else, through their attempts to shift the blame. And then it got better.

Elliott stared at the explosive he'd procured from the Ragnarok side of Jaager worldwide. (Shhh. It's a secret). He was in a garage, away from prying eyes. He knew the Triad was at war with the Italians. He wanted the Russians brought in to the mix. There was to be a meeting that day with two heads of the mobs to discuss resolutions to their conflict. 

He put the bomb in a box from the Russian's shipping business that they often used for cover when they sold weapons illegally by the docks. Nobody cares about waste cardboard. Cops are terrible at putting two and two together. They hadn't busted the Russians yet. Or maybe they simply could not get enough to prove a single thing. But he didn't need to prove anything. He simply needed to cause reactions that would flare up a war. 

Honestly, he probably should have included Val in the bombing. It was something he was certain she would have enjoyed. But this was a discrete one-man job, kind of like blowing up the Death Star. And he didn't need any Han Solo popping in at the last moment to send Darth Vader screaming off into the void of space in his Tie Fighter and save the day. As far as he knew. 

The green man smoothed back his antennae, then packed the boxed bomb out of the garage, to the meeting point. The meeting point was the private dining area at a fancy restaurant. How'd he learn about it? Spying. Also, he'd gotten a job washing dishes. People will hire anyone if they volunteer to do something low that they don't want to do, themselves. 

The restaurant was Carscone's. It was an Italian place. It was pretty simple, a family business front, not so fancy people couldn't easily get a table... though not in the private dining room. He went in through the back. When the bomb went off, he'd have to flee, so he dressed in simple work attire that wouldn't draw attention. He was washing dishes, so that included jeans and a white t-shirt. Simple as that. 

Several Chinese men and Italians entered the Italian restaurant through the front. They briefly spoke to the front desk, and the hostess found someone to seat them. Anyone in the restaurant could have seen and sensed that something might just have been up. Criminals aren't always the brightest bunch. 

Great. This was just great. All PD Linely was trying to do was have a nice, relaxing day off after a series of riots. He'd taken Emily out for a restaurant meal, they'd given them a nice table by the window. This restaurant was reasonably priced, and the several empty plates on the table-namely Main course and Starter, testified to their good cooking.

"It was so nice of you to invite me out to dinner" Emily spoke , her cheeks flushing hard. She had always been one that found it hard to hide her emotions, particularly around Linely. Not that Linely was any the wiser " It was nice of you to accept my invitation" He smiled warmly "Would you like to order dessert, this place does an excellent Tiramisu".

Then it happened. Chinese and Italian individuals entered through the front door, he recognised one of them from a picture in the police station. Mobsters. He didn't involve himself with such things unless it was mutant related, so it was obvious none recognised him.

Emily saw his face fall, visibly worried. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I think we need to go" he whispered "and then call the police." Fortunately there was enough talking in the restaurant that people didn't notice. Emily nodded, and began packing her things. Everything was about to get worse before it got better, Linely thought.

Bonaducci looked at Chang with a look that bespoke inner calm. Deep down, he was nervous. He had heard what Chang had done to people in the past who had crossed him. What him and his compatriots wanted was peace. Business as usual. Territories staying under the control of their original owners, and people just staying within their means. No expansion, no seizure, and no fighting. They could all be just a little bit more understanding. That would be great. He had heard how this had all started. It wasn't clear how it had happened exactly, just that it had... and people were mad. Fighting in the streets. Crime lords taking out crime lords, and the grunts killing grunts. Today... today, there would be a change.

Yes. Change. A reckoning. That was what Chang thought as he was lead to the table. He had no intention of peace. If Elliott had known what the man was planning, he probably wouldn't have had to blow him up. Sadly, that wasn't quite the case.

Before they arrived at their table, he had placed the package neatly on the table's underside. It was stuck with something sticky, and was completely undetectable... if you weren't looking for it. And none of them were.

Elliott was in the kitchen, washing dishes. Alibis are good. The timer had been set for five minutes. Enough time for the men to talk.

The criminals sat and began talking. For a minute. Then, Chang pulled a gun. The first shot resounded through the restaurant. Elliott's eyes widened in surprise. His mouth tore in a jagged sneer. "I didn't even need to be here today." He said dryly.

He was cleanly out of the bomb's explosion radius. He went with the other help, to cover. Shots were being fired, and it only served to act like the rest of the common folk. More gunshots erupted. He checked his watch carefully. Two more minutes. Whoever was left wouldn't be, shortly. Maybe he shouldn't have set the timer for so long.

Emily had finished packing her things. Linely threw money on the table. "Keep the change". He didn't want to be here when bullets started flying. "Just walk quickly out of here Emily with a smile on your face." She looked confused. Linely had never acted like this before, when she'd sat down on his table just after her shift at the coffee break. She didn't ask questions, but stayed in a dead silence, smiling as genuinely as she could. She walked briskly to the front door of the restaurant.

Linely followed swiftly behind. He turned around, trying to confirm his suspicions. Yep, there was the gun, and bullets were about to start fly-
Shots. Screaming. Blood. Linely rolled behind cover. Looking back at Emily, good, she wasn't hurt. His instructions were clear:
"Emily ...run ...call the police"
His tone was serious, loud, calm.

Her footsteps were not interrupted. At least she was safe, but obviously terrified. He would need to talk that over with her later.

Thankfully, he hadn't left home without his pistol. His mutation would help somewhat with this situation as well, mobsters normally had a lot of pain to be getting on with. Little did he know that this situation was going to turn from a death prevention scenario to a cleanup operation.

The seconds ticked by quickly as the fire fight went on. It's surprising how much can happen in so little time. Men were shooting at each other, and injuries piled up from shattered plates and broken glass shrapnel, but once they dove for cover, things slowed down to what could only be described a Mexican Standoff (between Chinese and Italians). Neither side wanted to break their cover, but every few moments a gun would dart up to fire blindly at where they thought the men were. Then, another gun would appear moments later to return fire in the direction of the sound. Chang and his men were hunkered down behind the bar. The Italians had knocked over several tables and propped them up like shields... though they were at that moment more similar to Swiss Cheese than they were to shields. Shields don't have so many holes.

Elliott listened to the sounds of gunfire from the alley behind the restaurant. The kitchen staff had evacuated when the shooting started. Things had been silent for a minute. He wondered if they'd all killed each other, or if they'd simply run out of ammo. Then, the shooting began again.

There was a minute left on the bomb. If any police officers wanted to yell at the people in the fight fight to stand down or freeze and drop their weapons, now was the perfect time. Any later, and they certainly would have an explosion to contend with. Idly, Elliott hoped nobody was stupid enough to wander into an active shooting scene in the dining room of the restaurant. He didn't much care for unintended casualties... which seemed a funny thought to have, seeing as he'd set off many bombs, caused as much, and planned to cause more gang violence in the future that would lead to further death... but... well. He didn't have a leg to stand on. As he'd decided, the whole notion of lessening the death toll in the restaurant bombing incident was foolish.

Goodness he was not going in there with the amount of firing going on, he'd been in enough situations like this that the calm was only temporary. Sure enough the firing started up again. Great, this was just great. There was no real way of stopping this kind of mob violence. He hoped Emily was OK. Needless to say the police would be there soon, probably for a cleanup operation.

Linely looked up from his cover, the Italians were having a harder time of it than the Chinese. Rule number one of a firefight, pick solid cover. Linely himself felt less than confident about that single rule , considering the shattered glass surrounding him from the window.

He would just have to wait it out until he got more backup, meanwhile staying behind the brick wall next to the shattered window frame looked like the best idea, that way if anyone had any molotovs or weird mutations then he would have some cover.

And three, two, one. Explosions rocked the building. The shock waves from the explosion could be felt all the way out where linely was, but shrapnel and destruction were largely confined to the private dining room, which was... absolutely trashed. The C4 had done what that type of explosive usually does to an area. The men in the room hadn't survived it. They were all caught in the poses before the explosion, but twisted by the force of it. Weapons and people had been thrown. Without getting too deeply into the gritty details... it was grisly. Anyone entering the remnants of the room would be quite unhappy.

Elliott stayed with the staff outside. There was little doubt there would be interviews afterwards, but he'd had the foresight of setting up the basic background ID for it. Leaving afterwards before the cops showed would create its own problems. Too many questions. If someone fled right after an explosion, people would talk and ask why the new hire had run?

Police arrived shortly after the explosion. They wouldn't find anything at the scene that connected him to it. He checked his watch. He was still getting paid by the hour. Plus whatever he got from Jaager. It was a good day for being bad.

And then an explosion. Linely heard the sound, felt the shockvwave blasting from either side of him. He saw the almost beautiful shower of powdered glass, thank goodness he'd been in cover. Then there was heat, but not really severe enough to cause Linely panic. Someone had known this mob fight was going to take place. Another group of mobsters perhaps? Then how did they get inside the dining room without being noticed? Aaybe the Italians had overlooked the power of C4?

Even for Mobsters, getting themselves killed by their own C4 was pretty stupid. Linely looked at the shattered remains of what used to be the Italian and Chinese men. It wasn't particularly pretty but crime never was. Linely was glad Emily didn't have to see this, if she had been in the vicinity... he dreaded to think what might have happened.

He could see pretty easily where the explosion had started, he was after all a Chemist by profession. The blast had emanated from where a table was... had been. The Mobsters didn't know about this, Linely suspected, but the forensics team could perhaps give a better idea.

There were several staff members outside, a couple of obvious mutants included. Figured. Mobsters weren't particularly bothered with who they hired given the actual business they conducted. Most of them looked pretty scared, others were in shock. Maybe they saw something? Often mutants had better senses than some humans after all.

"Hey there, Officer Linely, MRC." He addressed a green skinned fellow, who looked somewhat like a bigger, badder version of ET. Mutations could do all sorts he supposed. Still, this guy's mutation looked pretty darn extensive "It looks like my meal and your service have come to an unexpected end. How are you holding up?"

The green man grimaced. He had done this "acting" thing before. "I'm shaken, officer." Elliott said, rubbing at one arm distractedly. "I just hired on here a little while ago. I don't know anything about the customer base here, but... I never expected men with guns."

He shook his head. "I just work in the kitchens, you see? I wash dishes. Sometimes, I might take something out to a table if they're shorthanded. Hard to get work sometimes, when you look different than most folk. Oh--" He caught himself. "Sorry. I never gave out my name. Like I said, bit rattled. Name is Ellis. Ellis Thompson. Ell for short."

In the area behind him, the other help was waiting to be interviewed patiently. Some glanced around nervously, still upset by the gunfire and the explosion. One woman stepped a ways away in the back alley to have a smoke. It wasn't like she was going anywhere today. The police would be all over the scene for hours. Elliott had realized this. He was already prepared for the long haul. He'd just give a helpful, if vague, interview with details that went nowhere and set him up as the most uninteresting person in the world.

As already stated, aside from the explosive residue being C4, there wouldn't be anything that could lead back to Ragnarok as the supplier or buyer. They were careful. He had been vigilant about keeping anything incriminating off his person, and away from the scene. The most incriminating thing CSI would find would be the firearms the criminals had used. Anything he may have left as evidence on the explosive, like fingerprints and such, would have been burned away in the charred crater left by the bomb. Or so he figured. Why would anyone suspect an honest dishwasher, any way? There was no motive. The restaurant owner who was paying protection money to the mob, and had been forced to rope off the private dining room for the men would have had a far better motive, if asked. Elliott cared not a whit about collateral damage.

>> "I never expected men with guns"

"Frankly neither did I, here I was trying to have a nice time with a good friend of mine, and in come the mobsters..." Emily was his friend now? Well, that's how it appeared at least. She was such a nice young lady, always smiling when she saw him. She was so shy around him though, and this had been their first proper meeting outside of Church or her parents Cafe. Well, that plan had been ruined. He hoped he could arrange another meal without mobsters bothering it. She was such a friendly young lady...

Back to the situation at hand, "Do you have any enhanced senses that your mutation gives you?" Only the MRC generally asked that question, he doubted this fellow was particularly interesting though. His name was amusing though "Ellis Thompson... E.T ... how apt"he joked. This situation needed a bit of lightening.

"How long have you worked for this restaurant?" Obvious questions, but they needed to establish contexts as much as possible. Most likely this guy would be sent on his way once they'd interviewed everybody. Linely took down Ellis' responses on his phone-the memo function was so useful on a smartphone, particularly when good recording equipement wasn't available.

"How would you describe your relationship with this restaurant? I have to ask everybody this question. Would anyone want to harm the people working here?" Again standard questions, hopefully E.T could give some information of use.

"Other police officers will be here shortly, they will ask you for contact details if we need to reach you for whatever reason" Yeah, that wasn't going to happen, this guy was just your run of the mill dishwasher.

>>"Frankly neither did I, here I was trying to have a nice time with a good friend of mine, and in come the mobsters..." The man said.

"Dang," Elliott drawled sympathetically. Or at least, in a tone meant to convey sympathy in the briefest, most eloquent way possible. He even frowned.

The man asked about his mutation, and Elliott shook his head. "I don't have a useful mutation. Not like that, really. Just the whole "alien appearance" thing. Since I was little. E.T. initials, huh? Never thought about that. Maybe my parents had a sense of humor." He commented wryly. He was not a mutant, but he didn't want to play it that way. Just going with bland 'alien appearance' worked fine for him.

"I've only worked here a couple of weeks. Not even a full month," Elliott answered the cop. He had worked in the kitchen around two weeks, just to establish a cover. It had been a pain in the ass, but he'd gotten paid for it. It wasn't much fun having prune-like green hands.

When Linely asked about his relationship, Elliott shook his head. His voice was meant to sound earnest, helpful. "These are good people," he said. "They hired me and gave me good work. Not everyone would hire someone who looks like me. I don't know much about them, outside of work. I mostly keep to myself. They're friendly, but I don't spend time with anyone outside of work. Even good people can have enemies, I suppose." He shrugged one shoulder, and frowned at Linely. "I think it was just a coincidence, what happened here today. Wrong place, wrong time. But I can't give you anything cement."

Elliott nodded at Linely. Routine. "Sure." He said. Elliott would give out a number of one of his numerous burn phones, and the address of one of his apartment safe houses if they needed that. He'd put it in the name of the alias, and paid that one till the end of the month. It'd look like an honest enough blind.

So his mutation was useless aside from odd appearance, well, that was a pity but not altogether unexpected. Not everybody could make use of mutations that they had, Rachael the plant-mutant was a typical case and point.

"I'm afraid I doubt it was simple as a coincidence, in the police force you learn there isn't such a thing as a coincidence." This was probably not what E.T wanted to hear, but it had to be said. Didn't he mean concrete? "Cement" was not particularly hard when it wa am finished with you though." Sirens blared. Blue lights. Linely turned around to face them. Cement was wet... probably some American coloquialism he hadn't heard before. 

"Very good, please stick around until told otherwise Ellis . Emily was in one of the cars, and she rushed to him. She'd been crying... she looked awfully relieved to see him though. She must have heard the explosion from where she called the police from...and assumed the worst.

She got out of the car. She rushed towards him... this was going to be a little embarrassed, but given how scared she was, it was not unreasonable. Still he was not quite prepared for the sheer strength of the hug that she forced upon him as she practically leaped on him.

"Oh Joe you're alive, I heard the explosion, when the police came they picked me up and I told them that you were there and I was so worried and-" it became sobbing pretty quickly. Right into his shoulder. "Emily, I'm OK. y colleagues are going to ask you and I a few questions, after all we are witnesses." He returned a gentler hug, and she relaxed.

Eventually she let go, seemed to compose herself. She blushed once again , and joined the throng of witnesses to be questioned by the police. Obviously she had nothing to do with this, but routine was necessary.

Some of the officers were already looking at this scene with considerable looks of amusement on their faces. Too professional to actually tease until they were in the precinct, but Linely could tell he was in for some very crude banter. She was just worried about him, nothing more.

Linely walked towards the rest of the officers "Looks like we have a few mobsters to take off our database now" he remarked. "A shame really, they did very good food as well." Linely didn't know whether the mobsters actually owned the place, but it was a good bet.

Turning around, he could see that Emily was beginning to talk with the Alien man. What about? He didn't know. But small talk was probably necessary under the circumstances.

When the cop said he felt like it wasn't a coincidence, Elliott didn't react much at all. He didn't act shocked. He didn't act like he figured as much. He just kept silent and listened to the officer's voice.

As they wrapped up, he turned away from the officer to retreat back to a nice wall he could lean against, but he paused at the sound of footsteps. A woman rushed to embrace the man he had been talking to. She was distressed, so he turned away to give them some privacy. He walked away, to stand near the rest of the witnesses, just another sheep among sheep. Nothing of the wolf appeared in the bland look he gave everything as he stood around. No wolf in sheep's clothing here, folks. Baa.

After a few minutes, the woman who had hugged the officer made her way to the witnesses group and approached him. Crying made some women look bad. Made their eyes look puffy and red. He didn't know if the Linely guy thought his gal looked awful after crying, or whether she had the sort of serene face that could handle tears and still look photogenic as a super model. It would be rude of him to think either way, so he didn't let an opinion develop, merely listened to her talk. It seemed even after the officer had calmed her, she was still working through the entire ordeal. For some people, terrorist attacks were traumatic. Go figure.

"Yeah," Elliott agreed quietly. "It's awful. They think maybe the owners had some sort of connection. They seemed so nice." He donned a thin frown that hid his teeth. "Terrible thing. Just terrible."

Small talk was small talk. He shared his name as Ellis after she shared her's.

With Emily chatting to Ellis about how awful it was , Linely was able to properly chat with the fellow police officers "It was a simple thing really, gunfight broke out, calmed for a bit then fired up again. I got the civilian who called the police out of the building before it started and then around half way through the gunshots...boom. My guess that it was a 3rd party, rather than either of the mobster groups. Even mobsters know not to make explosions happen in the place where they're having a gunfight." The officers nodded in agreement.

"My guess is that someone wanted to send a message. But honestly, who would want to do that?" One of the officers piped up. This wasn't typical of human supremacists as the mobsters weren't mutants, this was too conventional to be Judgement Day (who would have used a mutation of some kind and besides were mostly a dead duck now) , and there hadn't been other mutant supremacists of any organised strength active in some time. Ragnorok could have done it in their hey day, but even they wouldn't involve themselves in senseless, untargetted violence. Would they?

Meanwhile Emily started speaking awkwardly to the alien mutant "So... what are you going to do now you've lost your job? I mean my parents have an opening at our coffee shop. We're not involved with any criminals and we're very mutant friendly...it's in our blood so to speak." She kinda blushed, recognising this was probably not the thing that this guy wanted to hear right now.

Linely walked up to Emily after the discussions about motivation were over. "Well, we're no closer to finding out who did this, but we're putting it out to the papers that we think that this was another mob who somehow got access to C4. We're free to go after you've answered some questions" directing this statement at Emily, he then turned to the alien. "As for you Ellis, you just need to have the statement dictated onto paper and then you're free as well."

What was he going to do, now that he'd lost his job? Elliott feigned discomfort at the subject, rolling his shoulders. "Dunno." He said. "Lot of other restaurants where I can work, I s'pose." She had mentioned a job opening at a coffee job, so he commented on that, too. "Coffee shops are good options, too. Less dishes to wash, though. More public. It's not easy, being green." His voice wasn't bitter. Elliott had smiled at her when he said that. "Very kind of you to offer, though. I appreciate it. Do you have a card for the place? Can always look you up if I don't find anything and get antsy." A light laugh. Yes. Always good to keep options open.

Emily was a nice person. Offering a job at her family's coffee place like that. Yes, indeed.

Linely returned. Elliott nodded at him, a slight bob of his head. "Okay. Show me where to go. I'll give my statement again." He said mildly. This seemed like it was wrapping up.