The narrow hallway was both a blessing and a curse. It meant that the thugs could only come at her a few at a time, but it also meant that they made a clever shield for each other as they did. A couple of the men were on the ground already, nasty lumps forming on foreheads where Quin's improvised bean bag bullets had made impact.

Quin was ready for more though, and she'd given fair warning for use of lethal force. She had her gun at the ready, "Last chance..." she shouted, pulling back the hammer and moving a bullet into the chamber.

The redhead missed the movement out of the corner of her eye. A sharp crack sounded announcing a mutant popping into existence just to Quin's side. He grabbed her gun before she could react.

Gun wrenched free, Quin barely had time to shift her weight when the teleporter grabbed ahold of her. Luckily, Quin was ready. Years spent at her dojo had taught her how to use a man's weight against him. Over her shoulder the teleporter went and into the wall. Now he was just a heap.

1 down...something like 11 to go.

Somewhere down in the pit of her stomach, Quin started to get a little nervous. 11 men was a lot. Where was her gun? More importantly, where was that backup?

Unaware of what was going on upstairs, Quin turned back to the task at hand.

There wasn't time to think anymore, the rest of the men had made their way to end of the hall and the fight began in earnest.

Quin twisted and moved, swept legs and threw punches. She was good, she was very good and she felt more alive than she had in ages. Hand to hand combat was good for the soul sometimes...when you weren't outnumbered 10 to 1.

Punches slipped through Quin's dodges, glancing off her ribs and the Kevlar she still wore beneath her shirt. Fingers tangled in her hair momentarily as she ducked and rolled and one lucky SOB caught her in the side of the head with a fist. That...would leave a mark.

It also left the redhead dazed. Dazed enough that she almost didn't hear the elevator ding.

Faith was one of those strange things that manifested itself at the oddest times. Her horoscope had said that trying new things could lead to disaster, if she didn't trust her gut. Somehow that part had seemed irrelevant earlier.

Quin concentrated as she ducked a swing from one of the 5 men left standing in the hall with her and pulled the plastic from the elevator controls, allowing the doors to open.

Max stood nervously waiting for the elevator doors to open. He needed to get downstairs and find Quin. They needed to get the hell out of there. His heart was pounding from his exchange with the goons. Adrenaline and fear raced. He kept his eye on the goon who had surrendered, weary of a deception, but the man seemed honestly frightened and complacent. There was a nagging sense in the back of Max's mind that he was forgetting something. That sense proved correct when he saw a blur of motion out of the corner of his eye.

The goon whom Max had knocked out behind the counter was apparently up and he had retrieved his gun while Max wasn't looking. He was standing ready and the barrel was pointed at Max's face. The moment seemed to slow. There would be no blocking or dodging, Max was going to die.

"It won't be too bad. You've done it before" He thought to himself.

The man pulled the trigger...and a loud click reverberated through the silent room. Max had apparently unloaded the gun into the window when he shot it. He was saved. The man threw the gun and charged as the door to the elevator dinged and opened. Max threw himself inside. He pushed the button for the first floor and hammered the door close button frantically.

The doors began to slide shut and Max felt a burst of hope, up until the man appeared in the door and burst into the elvator with Max. He shoved Max into the back wall and the doors shut. They descended and a Max threw himself against the man. They struggled and Max could tell he was going to loose. The man was too strong. He pushed Max against the back wall and tried to choke him. Max held him back, his hands clamped on the arms of the man.

The door dinged and opened and Max took in the scene over the man's shoulder. Quin stood in the hallway facing down a gang of men. Her gun was on the floor behind her. She was in trouble.

"Q! Hit the deck!" He shouted.

He changed gravity on the man grappling him. Angling him so he would fall down the hallway horizontally. For safety Max doubled the gravity on the man and smiled as the two hundred pounds man flew out of the elevator with the weight of a four hundred pound man falling. He flew towards Quin and the horde of men.

"Duck!"

Quin was breathing hard now. The fight was really starting to take its toll and she knew that there was no way 10 minutes had passed. When had all of this gone so far to hell? If she'd have had time to think about it, Quin would have been worried what the fallout from all of this had been. She'd sworn up and down to the captain that this was a low risk operation and that everything would go smoothly. There wasn't time to worry though, another guy came at her and Quin found herself grappling with someone who also happened to have martial arts training.

Hello worst case scenario!

As she grappled, Quin listened for the chime that would indicate that the elevator had made its way back to the ground floor.

The grapple was intense, and occupied Quin to the point where she couldn't watch her flank. Another one of the flunkies came up on her side and the redhead had to lash out with a foot to catch him in the legs. One buckled with a satisfying POP, but the body attached to it had hands too...one of which happened to reach out and grab her lag as he went down.

The elevator doors opened.

>> "Q! Hit the deck!" .

They were really going to have to talk about that whole nickname thing.

Still, she listened and dropped where she stood, completely unaware of why she needed to do so.

The man holding her in the grapple didn't duck, however, he'd obviously missed the fact that the code word for "duck" was "duck". As she hit the ground, Quin looked up just in time to see a rather large man flying through the air, taking guys out as he went...including the one holding Quin's arms.

Luckily surprise was on her side and the force of the flying dude was enough to rip her assailant free.

Now on the ground, Quin turned and aimed a swift kick at the guy holding her leg. He could add a concussion to the list of injuries to go with his knee.

Rising slowly and glancing back at Max, Quin had to grin, "Nice save. You could have mentioned you were a mutant." . He might have been fit, and a great dancer...but there was no way Max had tossed that guy without the aid of powers.

The hall was mostly quiet now except for the sounds of quiet moans from the downed thugs and quiet whimpers from the kids who had hid out in the picture rooms while they fight happened.

The remaining thugs ran out of the front of the building, just in time for the cops to show.

"You want to get out of here or do you want to have to explain what just happened to my backup? We can talk later.". Just how many limbs was Quin going to go out on for this kid?

Apparently one more.

The man flew down the hall and slammed into his fellow criminals. Quin was able to break the grip of the goon holding her and he got slammed into by the makeshift projectile Max had created. Quin finished off the latest few enemies and turned to Max.

- "Nice save. You could have mentioned you were a mutant."

Max gave a little shrug and smiled at Quin.

"I mean you never asked, didn't think it was a big deal." He said.

The last of the standing goons took off outside as sirens range out. Max figured that meant backup was here. Quin told him to bail, to save himself some trouble and he nodded in agreement.

"Give me a call when your free. I hope you can trust the guys in the van. They may have seen me vault out of the fifth story window." He said sheepishly.

He took off up the stairs, heading for the roof. The door to the roof was ajar and as Max burst into the sunlight he saw the goon who had surrendered standing on the roof heading towards a small gap between building. Max grabbed his phone and turned on the microphone app. Max chased him down and overtook him easily with a burst of low gravity he tackled the man and they landed, him on top.

"Who do you work for?" He shouted.

"Arrest me but I ain't talking." He spat back.

Max pulled the man up and threw his power over him. He reversed gravity and the guy flew upward. Max gripped the goon by the front of his shirt, holding him at arms length.

"You can either talk, or you can take a little trip up. I don't know how far up you will go before you come back down." He said coldly.

The goon swore at him but Max could see the panic in his eyes. The pull of Max's gravity pulling him ever upward.

"Getting pretty heavy holding you." Max said, he let two of his fingers slide off the man's shirt and he cried out in terror.

"Okay, okay. S**t. Lorenzo it's the Lorenzo family. Dominique is the son. They run most of the small scale crime." He said.

Max reached in an grabbed the man's phone. He let go and then released his gravity on the man. He flew up about two feet and fell back down to the roof. Max took off, pocketing his phone. He would pass this along to Quin later, though his methods of obtaining information might be less than approved.

And off Max went...he was in the wind, as it were.

Backup arrived and the next hour or so was spent bagging evidence, putting cuffs on bad guys, and calling for more wagons to take all of them to the county jail. By all accounts, the night had been a success. Saying it had gone off without a hitch would have been a stretch though. Things had gotten violent and an under cover investigation that had been going really well was now out in the open. Chances were they would never get a chance to bring down the fraud ring, and while they'd managed to catch some low level thugs, their bosses would get to go right on doing what they'd been doing. It'd be next to impossible to get someone inside again.

...which is why a civilian never should have be one to go inside in the first place.

...which is why they should have taken more time to set things up and make sure they knew what they were getting into.

...which is why something this size should have gone to the Captain before it went down.

...which is why Quin was going to be taking a couple of weeks mandatory vacation. Sure, the Captain had called it a 'suspension' and ripped her up one side and down the other...but the fact still remained that the redhead had some time on her hands, and a mystery to look into. Funny enough, she also had enough vacation time to cover the "without pay" part. People called her a workaholic...Quin liked to think of it as gap insurance.

This was easier, to be honest. Now she could look into the things Max had mentioned without having to worry about conflicts at work.

Speaking of which, Quin shot off a quick text, including her address. She was willing to help Max out, but this time they were going to meet on her turf.

Detective Archer had some questions.

Max hadn't stopped running till he was at least a mile away. He dropped from the rooftops into an alley and leaned against a wall. His chest heaved heavily as he tried to catch his breath. That had not gone as planned, hell it had been a disaster. He had used his powers in front of a group of cops and then vanished into thin air. Not to mention all the crap Quin would have rain down on her for it. There went his chance of getting a cop on his side.

It was due to that fact that Max was greatly surprised when a day later he recieved a text from Quin to meet at her apartment. He had slept in after a long night of work and sluggishly got up. If she was going to still help him he needed to find a good way to apologize.

***

Max stood outside Quin's apartment. He was dressed in his standard tee-shirt and jeans, for him it was like a uniform. I'm his fanny pack he had the cell phone he had taken off the gang member safely turned off. Best not to keep a device with GPS running after stealing it.

He was carrying a folder. A file he had put together on the Lorenzo family as an apology to Quin. Haven had a number of helpful resources and Max had used them to obtain information on them and their operation. He had been methodical enough to ensure non of the documents could be linked back to Haven. Hopefully it would earn him the detectives forgiveness.

He gave a nervous knock on the door and took a step back.

The rest of the night had gone as expected. After a chat with her Union Rep and assurances that she would have a job after her suspension was over, Quin headed home without her badge and sidearm. It had been a good bust, and there were fewer bad guys on the streets than there had been when the whole fiasco had started. That counted as a win somewhere.

It was weird to enter the apartment without her trusty Sig226 and almost immediately upon entering Quin had made her way to the small gun safe she kept in the top of her closet. A police issued side-arm had to be surrendered upon suspension, but police were allowed to carry their own weapons. This particular gun was a Smith and Wesson M&P9 Shield. It was much lighter than her service weapon, but also had more kick. Also, where her Sig was made mostly of metal, this one had a polymer components. Quin could stipple it with her powers when she grabbed it for better grip. It was a great gun, and Quin took good care of it. Removing it from the safe, Quin sat down to clean it just in case. Who knew when she would need it?

Once her gun was in working order, the redhead settled in for the night.

The next day, Quin got up and went for a run. How long had it been since she'd done that? Just gotten up and gone for a run without a bug in her ear about something at work. Maybe this suspension was going to be a good thing. Was that possible?

Home she went, palling around and wondering if she was going to hear back from Max. Jeans and a t-shirt were the order of the day and Quin was looking over her makeshift evidence board related to the fraud ring to see if there was anything she needed to send over to the Precinct for them to dig into when there was a knock at her door.

Snagging her shield (the gun, not her badge), Quin made her way to the door and looked through the peep hole.

It was Max.

Tucking the gun into the waistband of her pants, appendix carry style, Quin unlocked the locks and pulled open the door.

"I was wondering if I'd see you today. Come on in. The place is a mess, but grab a seat."

It was kind of a mess, Quin realized with mild embarrassment. Stuff was scattered here and there, and an entire wall was taken up by her makeshift evidence board. Still..it was functional.

"You get out okay last night?"

Numerous locked clicked behind the door and it swung open. Max saw Quin gesture for him to enter. He stepped into the apartment as she apologized for the mess. His eyes scanned the living area and the stuff laying around. Max knew the look, it was much like his own place. Single and working long hours left little time to tidy up.

"No worries. Cleanliness is over rated. I prefer the lived in look." He said.

She was wearing causal clothes, much better in Max's opinion. He took a moment to look at her evidence board. It was detailed, organized, and seemed to be well worn from use. He had picked the right woman to help him with his problems. He sat on the couch and placed the file on the table. She was going to have a few things to add to the board. He smiled as she inquired about his escape the night before.

"Oh yeah I was fine. I can be pretty light on my feet when I need to be." Max replied, " Did any of your team have anything to say about spotting me? I hope you didn't get into to much trouble."

Cleanliness could be overrated, Quin mused as Max made his way into her apartment. It wasn't like there were rotting food and dead animals floating around the place...just general clutter and a great sense of...disuse.

"I haven't had company in longer than I can remember." When was the last time?

It didn't matter.

Max studied her evidence board and Quin smiled wanly, "I'd been working the case on that fraud ring for a couple of months. We'd chased down a lot of leads." Leads that were probably going to go to waste now. Maybe she had been a bit rash with her mini-sting operation.

Apparently Max had made it out with little to no trouble, and when he asked about whether or not he'd been spotted, Quin nodded her head. "The window thing..that's about it though. People at the Precinct are surprised by mutants anymore. What would the point of a Mutant Related Crimes division be if people got all up in arms every time they saw one of us in action."

As for whether or not she'd gotten in too much trouble...Quin shrugged her shoulders, "I'm taking a couple weeks of mandatory vacation. Apparently my captain thinks I've been working too hard." Good looking out there Cap.

Noticing the folder in Max's hand, Quin nodded her head in its general direction, "That all the info about your particularly interesting problem?" They were still talking in euphemisms at this point. It was too weird to think she'd just let a zombie in her apartment.

Quin seemed quite a bit less intense in her apartment. Perhaps it was the fact that he had met her while she was in detective mode that the shift to casual Quin was a big one. She told him about her work on the fraud ring and Max felt a pang of guilt. He had messed up the operation for Quin and felt even worse after she mentioned she was forced to take a vacation.

"Sorry about that. I wish things had gone a bit better with the job. You got any plans for the time off?" He asked.

She inquired about his folder and a broad grin spread over Max's face.

"Not quite. This is an apology for the op." He explained.

He opened the folder and pulled out a picture. The man scowled back.

"This is Dominique Lorenzo. His dad is Antonio Lorenzo, a crime boss in Chicago. Dominique here came to New York with some of his cousins and bought out a pretty pricey apartment complex." Max said.

He pulled out the information on the sales of the apartment and placed it on the table. He pulled out the thugs phone and placed it on the table. His own phone followed and he played the recording of his interrogation on the roof.

"This phone belonged to a guy who worked for him. I got it at the bust. Dominique is apparently keeping to the shadows in New York, but oddly enough there is a warrant in Chicago for him on assault charges. Might give your guys what they need to get a warrant and if they happen to find some materials connecting him to the fraud ring all the better." Max concluded.

He looked at Quin, a proud grin plastered on his face.

The folder was not information on the problem that they had met up to discuss. As Max described the contents Detective Archer moved towards the table to look at the various items. There were sales documents, pictures, a copy of a warrant, and a cell phone. The cell phone was playing a recording of one of the thugs from the night before spilling his guts on the whole operation.

Honestly, it was more information than the NYPD had collected in 2 months. This kid had found it in less than 24 hours.

"This is...amazing information." Quin said, crossing her arms in front of her body and considering everything on the table in front of her.

"Most of it isn't admissible as evidence, but you're right. It would probably be enough to get us on the right track." .

Quin tapped her fingers against her arm, "It'll have to be dropped off as an anonymous tip. I'm not supposed to be working on the case anymore...but this is more than I had found the whole time I worked on the case." . Suddenly her evidence board didn't seem so impressive.

One more thing.

"Do I even want to know how you got ahold of all that?"

Detective Quin reappeared before him as she scanned the documents he had acquired. He couldn't help but interpret her tone as impressed. Yeah he was forgiven. Haven was pretty good about tracking criminal activities in the city, best to know what was going on behind the scenes if you wanted to make an improvement to the world.

She started planning how to turn over the evidence anonymously. Even when she was taken off the case. She wanted the fraud ring taken down, it showed a desire for justice that Max found admirable.

-"Do I even want to know how you got ahold of all that?"

Max gave a little shrug, "probably not to be honest, though nobody got hurt and I didn't break any laws if that helps."

He leaned back into the comfy couch and relaxed. He felt like he'd been going full sprint for the last few days. Taking a little down time wouldn't hurt.

"That aside I know I'm not here about that case. You have questions I have some answers." He supplied.

Time to open up that can of worms.

None if it had been illegal, and nobody had been hurt. Quin still had question, but there was a point where you just stopped asking. Especially when it was about a case that you no longer had any control over. They'd drop off the information at the Precinct and be done with it.

Max mentioned the real reason he was there, and Quin nodded her head, moving around the small coffee table to sit in the single chair she had besides her couch. It was true, she had questions.

"The first thing I have to ask is going to seem rude...but your death wasn't staged, was it?" .

Everything had looked like it was on the up-and-up, but considering the fact that he'd had such good fake documentation, the investigator in Quin had to ask.

"That being said, I want you to tell me literally everything you remember about what happened, and not leave out a single detail.".

-"The first thing I have to ask is going to seem rude...but your death wasn't staged, was it?" .

Max gave a laugh at Quin's question and sat up.

"Afraid not, we'll at least if it was I wasn't in on the plan." He said.

-"That being said, I want you to tell me literally everything you remember about what happened, and not leave out a single detail."

This was the part he'd been dreading. Thinking about his death always made his head hurt, like he was pushing against a locked door with his forehead. He clasped his hands together uncomfortably.

"I was headed to go get dinner at the Chinese place on 4th. I was listening to my music with headphones and like an idiot stepped out into the street without checking the light. I'm from Virginia, city still confuses me sometimes. I heard a horn over my music and turned. There were headlights and I felt myself get hit. Then..." He cut off and leaned back, taking a breath.

"Darkness. I didn't feel anything. I remember someone laughing. People talking, I couldn't make put what they said. Then my whole body felt like it was burning from the inside and I woke up. I was naked and alone in an alley on 7th. I got picked up by an Xman on patrol. Thought I must have partied too hard and forgetten." He continued.

He looked into Quin's eyes.

"That's when I found out what year it was and that I had been dead. The police report said I hit my head when I bounced off the car, broke my skull. I was dead on the scene. They called my parents and they claimed my body and brought it back to Virginia to be buried. I have no idea how I got back to New York." He completed.

He leaned back and felt himself shaking. The pain had returned in his head and was pounding away like a bass drum. He felt nauseous.

"I'm sorry can I have some water?" He asked looking at the floor.

The story was just too damn mundane to be made up. It was tragic how many people fell victim to the exact situation Max explained. People were so distracted these days that accidents happened. Hell, if she looked hard enough, Quin figured she could probably find the police report from when it had happened. She added it to her mental list, just because she wasn't working right now didn't mean she couldn't call in a favor...

Max's parents had apparently brought his body back to...Virginia and had the full rigmarole of a burial...and then he'd woken up and learned what year it was?

Holy shit. He'd looked her right in the eyes when he said it too.

So caught up was Quin in the story that Max was telling that she nearly missed how uncomfortable this conversation was making the kid. He asked for water and Quin summoned one from the pack she made sure was in reach of her powers any time she was working. Snatching it from the air she held it out to Max. Good lord the kid looked green.

"Here you go." she said, holding the bottle out for him to take.

Pushing up from her chair, Quin started to pace in front of the windows at the front of her apartment. "Have you looked into things back home at all? I mean, if you...went home..." Good lord this was difficult to discuss, "Then ended up back in New York...then what's back home?" ...in the grave.

A thought occurred to Quin and she turned to Max, frowning.

"Have you told your parents?"