"It has its moments," Amelia shrugged. She didn't quite get what he meant by curses and Chinese proverbs. But they did certainly live in interesting times. Costumed vigilantes walked the streets, and an organization called SUPER really existed in the shadows, tagging mutants and doing interesting things.

She left him to figuring out his shot. He took a minute. Then, he knocked one of her stripes balls in by mistake.

"Whoops," she teased him. "Not quite what you were going for, I think." She moved, took a moment, then knocked one of her balls around the table. She'd hit it a little too hard. It rolled into one of the solids, nudging it a hair. "Darn," she commented dryly, glancing his way. There was a small smile perched crookedly on her face.

Manti gave a soft chuckle as Ivy missed her shot, "Careful now," he said teasingly, "You might give the impression that you going easy on me." He wasn't above a bit of flirting. He didn't know if she had missed on purpose or not, but it was fun to tease her regardless. "If I didn't know any better I'd think you liked me or something." He knew most women wouldn't touch him, he was way too intimidating for most to handle, but he knew a few women that may take him up on a date, even if it was just out for a couple beers and a game of pool.

He rounded the corner and lined up a shot, glancing the side of another solid into a side pocket. By now his hands were feeling a little cramped from the billiard stick. He really should look into getting a custom one made. "Any interesting cases?" he asked, inquiring after her job, "Must be difficult, mutants and all making it unpredictable." Manti wasn't the type too assume guilt or innocence at a glance, for him actions spoke louder then what a person was, so being a mutant didn't automatically equal innocent even if he was one himself. He could see he didn't have a clear shot, so he instead aimed at one of the striped balls sitting near a whole, and hit it, making it roll away and make the shot more difficult. Manti also wasn't one to pull his punches.

"Careful now," he teased her. The rest of his commentary made her laugh and shake her head. She wasn't laughing at him. No. She was just laughing off the blatant flirting from the large hairy charmer in the room.

"Easy, tiger." Amelia chided him. "You haven't even bought me a drink."

He teased, she teased back. All friendly-like. He seemed like a nice guy, and she didn't want to snub him point blank. He probably lived with that side effect to his mutation: A severe lack of dates. Women could be so cruel. For her, if she turned him down, it was out of professionalism. SUPER agents don't date prospective mutants. He didn't have to know the inner workings of her mind, however. And she wasn't going to be rude.

It's worth noting that Amelia most certainly did not bat her eyelashes at the man when she chided him. Not even a little. She only smiled.

Any interesting cases, he'd asked. "Plenty," she smiled. "But you probably don't want to hear a police blotter. Can be challenging, though." She agreed.

The woman did some quick geometry in her mind, and went to another side of the table, to attack a ball from a different angle. The ball rolled across the table, and just when she thought it would stop before rolling into the hole... she sunk the shot. His ball was in the way of her followup, so she just hit the next ball to get into position. The game was nearly done.

Manti chuckled, glad she was getting his humor. It could have been easy for her to take offense, so he was glad she was easy going and wasn't taking him too seriously. Manti had his fair share of interest from women, he hadn't settled into a real relationship with them, but got along with them well enough to know his appearance wasn't going to get in the way should he decide to go for it. Contrary to what one would assume, Manti was in no way hindered by his appearance, and others seemed to be drawn to that confidence he exuded. He knew Ivy had no real interest in him, they had just met after all, but he could tell she was enjoying herself to some degree, even if it was nothing to do with chemistry.


"I don't know, seems with the crazy stuff going on, knowing a bit about the stuff going on seems more advantageous." Said Manti, interested in what was going on in the city that he didn't know about. Having info never hurt, especially in these times. He examined the placement of the remaining balls, two remained on each side, then the 8. They were coming down to the line, and his cramped paws were making it difficult. He took aim at what should have been an easy shot, but the pole slipped in his hand again, and he missed the white ball completely. He lifted the pole and cracked his fingers and knuckles to try and work the cramp out, then lined up the shot again, this time hitting it into the corner. One more to go, his not so steady paws tried aiming for the last one, but while he hit the white ball, it rolled passed the other, bouncing towards the center of the table.

He missed. Amelia shook her head, and hid a smile as she moved to line up her next shot. Whatever she would have done, though, got lost as someone barged in from outside the bar, breathing heavily. He rushed up to Manti, and got the man's attention. "Hey man," the brown-haired mutant said. His eyes were a neon green glow, full of excited nervousness. "There are three guys out front, messing with bikes. YOUR BIKE, especially. What do you wanna do?"

Well, now. Amelia placed her cue on the wall near the table neatly, and approached the two men. "Problem?" She asked.

She hadn't heard the situation clearly, from her space several feet from the mutants, but it SOUNDED like there was a disturbance out front. A disturbance she could use, perhaps? As a fake cop, and a very real law enforcement agent for SUPER, she could step in and help handle it. Who knew what might happen during a scuffle? Maybe Manti would get tagged, after all (since alcohol didn't seem to impare his judgement one whit). And as a SUPER agent, she was there to help protect people, in addition to everything else.

As a fake cop, she could even call the real cops once they had the people in-hand.

Anyone could tell you that Manti was pretty hard to get upset, he was easy going and most potential problems were solved by his intimidating size and appearance. However, everyone had limits, and everyone within Manti's circle of friends knew one thing. You NEVER, under ANY circumstance, messed with Manti's bike. The moment the green eyed mutant made his announcement, the sound of splintering wood could be heard as the pool stick disintegrated in Manti's grip. His teeth were bared, and the spines on the back of his tail raised visibly in reaction to the news. I was plain from the look on his face that he was absolutely livid.

"Problem?"

Manti had to force himself to remain in control of himself to answer. "NOOOOoooo..." he said, the tension in his voice palpable, "I just need to TAKE CARE of some PEOPLE..." he said, moving towards the door. He was moving fast, it took all his self control not to rip the door off it's hinges in the rush to get to his bike. His eyes immediately shot to the line of bikes where he had parked, falling on the group gathered round it, the sound of drunk laughing coming from them. The line of bikes was piled against one another on the ground, toppled like a stack of dominos, Manti's bike in the middle of them.

"WHAT the HELL do you think your DOING!?!" roared Manti storming towards the group of inebriated men. They were about to get sober VERY quickly if they knew what was good for them.

Oh goodie. He'd smashed the pool cue and stormed outside. That was her CUE to follow.

Amelia stepped out, a heartbeat or two after the man. His roaring was more than loud enough for the both of them. She held back, and let him make the first moves. She wanted to see how the men reacted. Their reactions almost made her stop the scenario before it began.

They were rude. Hopelessly rude. A more self-aware thug might have changed their tune, or politely pissed themselves when the rather large mutant started shouting at them. But nope, they strutted up and smiled knowingly at him, then spouted some racist anti-mutant garbage that was sure to get them in a body bag within the next few minutes. Clearly, they thought there was strength in numbers. Their sobriety was also in question. But when the leader of the three men poked Manti in the chest, Amelia couldn't hold herself back anymore.

Amelia slid an arm between the leader and the mutant. "Easy, boys. This isn't going to get nasty, is it?" She asked. It was a loaded question, sure as water is wet. The leader smiled at her, hauled his fist back, and aimed a punch square at her face. That wasn't even his first mistake. Amelia caught it in some circular motion, and used his speed and weight against him to send the man stumbling backwards towards his group of friends. Her arms came up in a martial arts guard. Aikido. If they wanted to fight, she'd use the distraction. In a way, her intervention had been to get her into the thick of things and cause the most disorder possible. Just so she could utilize it to her advantage. It was a crappy thing to do, but then, it's a crappy world. Full of dangerous people.

Manti took the verbal abuse of the group with astounding patience for his mood. Bigoted words meant little to him, racist comments were so overused by racists or professional victims that the shock reaction they had lost whatever value they had once had on any side. IT was clear by the staggered movements that this lot of braindead individuals had no idea who they were dealing with. It was clear they would not be intimidated by his size or even the row of teeth, in no state of mind to grasp the self preservation signals no doubt buzzing into the wall of alcohol induced stupidity. "Wha, you gonnna do?" said the one closest to Manti poking him in the sternum, since he couldn't reach his chest. Manti gave a almost evil grin, ready to take the guys hand and show him the fate of the pool cue so recently destroyed, when Ivy slipped in to try and break it up. And then the guy tried to punch her.

Manti was already pissed at these guys for messing with his bike. Yeah that was a big button pusher for him. But what was rarely known about Manti was what pissed him off even more then that, since it came up so infrequently that none of Manti's friends had really seen it. You did NOT try to hurt his friends. If not for the fact that Ivy had managed to toss the guy herself, he may have just launched the guy across the block with a backhand. But when the guy suddenly ended up thrown into his group of friends, Manti caught himself before he did something that potentially life threatening. However, the guy, though surprised, did not take the hint. "GETUM" he cried, only to be dropped by his 'friends' as they let him go and rushed in. Not the sharpest tools in the shed it seemed.

Manti spun, using his tail like a whip and tripping up the two charging at Ivy. "Watch your back," he said, noting the others surrounding them that were trying to take Ivy from behind. He flexed the spines on his tail, the bundle stiffening as he brought it around into the leg of another attacker, leaving a few stuck in his leg as the man crumpled, howling in pain. They were lucky he wasn't using his poisonous quills, the guy would get off with a few small wounds, but nothing life threatening, and hopefully this would sober him up enough to reconsider anything like this in future.

((Ooc chipping approved by Manti trough PM. Pm me if anything needs changed! ))

It wasn't hard to dodge and weave in and out of the attacks of the group of men who had tried to take her. What was hard was "accidentally" luring them close enough to crash into Manti's back as he fought off other men. In the middle of a fight, it's easy to accidentally hit your own just as much as it is to hit your enemy, and as she rushed to haul one of the men away from the mutant, she flourished her chip gun, and stealthily forced it into his hand. She made it look like he'd forced her towards Manti, then caught him with a brief click of pain as she crushed the thugs hand down on the gun's trigger. With luck, the chip would set and stay beneath Manti's skin and fur, and SUPER would have him tagged. The only question was how thick was his hide?

"Bastard!" She shouted, as the woman shoved him away and caught him with a fierce left hook. The thug crumpled. The gun dropped down next to him, for her to either retrieve later, or chalk up to damaged equipment lost in the field.

Amelia turned back towards the group, ready to have he Manticore man's back for the rest of the fight. Hopefully, he wouldn't connect any dots.

Manti was too occupied with his own fight to really second guess anything Ivy was doing. He wasn't too worried about these guys hurting him, though he watched for any glint of metal. Though though he was, a knife was a knife, and for all his impressive physique, he was not blade proof. However, t seemed if they guys had been armed, they were too drunk to really think to bring anything out, charging Manti in a was that seemed so... lacking in self awareness, Manti could have almost laughed at it. Instead he opted to catch the two by the front of their shirts and lift them simultaneously off the ground. "Maybe you two should take a nap," he said in a annoyed, but at the same time amused tone, before bashing the two together, knocking them out.

Then there was a sudden stab of pain in his back. Crap, had someone just stabbed him? He dropped the two, pulling away from the source of the pain and turning, just in time to see Ivy pulling some sort of weapon out of the guys hand. He reflexively felt where it stung, feeling a little blood, but little more then a shallow stab wound. At least he hadn't managed something vital, as far he knew he didn't need to worry about toxins, but he was sure he still needed his kidneys.

Three for three. All of the men were down, and unconscious.

"You okay?" Amelia asked Manti. "I dunno what he had. Some sort of TASER or something. Doesn't look like it worked how he wanted it to, though. Those things shoot little needles that prick you, but it didn't shock you at all." She glared at the man she'd knocked out. "Idiot probably got a defective weapon. I hope you don't mind me calling this in. These guys should probably spend a night in jail to clear their heads and cool down." She bent to snag it off the ground, as "Evidence."

Once she had her weapon, Amelia pulled some zip ties from her jacket pocket and used them to bind her man's hands together. Then, she walked over and did the same with the unconscious men. She had zip ties for days. Read: Cop.

Amelia turned away, pulling out her cellphone to call the police.

Manti grumbled a little still peeved at these guys. A taser, seriously? Was the guy asking to be poisoned? With Ivy securing they guys with zip ties, he did his part, dragging the unconscious into a pile. Literally. He left them piled on top of one another, if noting else then some small spite he felt for the trouble they had put them through. He then went and inspected the damage to the bikes, lifting them up one by one and checking the damage. Scratched paint, dents, even a few holes. His own bike was a bit less worse for wear, just the paint would need to be re applied, his was built to support him, so it was made of stronger materials, Still it pissed him off that everyone else's bikes were also banged up because of a few people who didn't know their limits had to make a scene.

"Guess we'll have to delay the end of our game," he said, a bit disappointedly, "I'm going to be cleaning up this mess for a while." He planned on fixing up everyone's bikes, free of charge or course.

"Guess so," she nodded. "Damn. And I had you right where I wanted you, too." She smiled wolfishly.

Amelia glanced towards her bike, which thankfully had escaped unscathed. They hadn't gotten to it. She'd parked just a little aside from the main group, and the man had alerted them before her Harley got hurt. It was kind of unfair, ultimately, that they'd gotten vandalized while she'd been unhurt. But such is life. And it had worked for her, rather than against.

"I'll call it in and get a squad car out here to pick these guys up. You and your friends can talk to the officer. Get these guys charged for what they did." She'd offer her own report, if they needed it, but sticking around would just draw more attention to her. That was one thing SUPER didn't like. Attention. The officer would work with the mutants and be helpful. She knew a guy. He'd be sympathetic. And when they went to trial? Well... she knew the D.A.

With the ruckus settled, Manti's anger began to settle. As peeved off as he was at these guys, they were just drunk idiots. Manti was never the vengeful type, and he wasn't going to start now, even if they did mess with his beloved bike. "Don't go too hard on them," he said, "They are just a bunch of drunk idiots." Of course, even if he was not the vengeful type, that didn't mean Ivy had to be, and they had tried to taser him.

Amelia nodded. "I'll keep that in mind," she said.

The men would be handled. Her tagging of Manti had been a success. It had been a productive evening. She'd even had a drink.

His character was something to consider. Not all mutants act as dangerously as their mutations appear. But that wasn't a new revelation, and unimportant. After all the opposite was also true. Her own mutation seemed useless at first blush, but she had found ways to make it a threat. That was one thing SUPER had appreciated about her.

She bid Manti a farewell, then left the scene to make some calls. A few minutes later, police arrived just as she'd said they would. Things were handled.


((Ooc end.))