Derek was out on a not-mission. It wasn't official since he didn't tell anyone in the Haven that he was heading out toward the part of town that had become hostile toward mutants. It was around nine o'clock at night which meant that Derek had his pick of nocturnal animals to assist him if things get out of control.

With his hands in his pockets, Derek continued to walk down the sketchy street. It may have been a quiet night which was a good thing considering the alternative. The African American mutant ran his fingers through his curly, wiry hair and sighed. He could be doing anything right besides walking down sidewalks with cracks weaved into it. Derek could be hanging out with Xavia or Allegra or Artair. He could be at X-Gene Persuasion drinking his body weight in strawberry daiquiris while staring out very attractive men, but instead, he was doing the right thing.

Plus, he somewhat liked being alone.

After about fifteen minutes of walking around, Derek decided to head back. That is until he heard screams. Being the hero that he wanted to be, Derek jogged toward the sounds to see what the problem was. When he found a girl around the age of twelve with glowing white eyes and purple hair being cornered by a couple of guys.

"Hey!" Derek shouted, "get away from her!" He quickly took his hands out of his pockets and balled his fits. The guys turned and looked at Derek, allowing the girl to run off. At least she would be safe. Himself, not so much.  He took a couple of steps back.

"What the f*** are you gonna do?! You one of 'em mutaties too?!" The larger one barked.

"You want to find out?!" Derek got into the fighting stance that The Ranger taught him. "She wasn't messin' with you!" The two guys started to rush toward him. Before they could land a punch, Derek kicked the smaller on in the chest and threw a punch at the other. This wasn't going to end well.

"Just a trip to the shops" Emily had said. Yeah right, and it had turned into what exactly, walking round NYC,visiting the sites, popping in for a coffee once or twice and then having an evening meal. Good lord she had a way of finding things to do! Still, he was finally able to walk her home and get back for the evening. 9'o clock...great, that was just great. Sure, it was nice to be with Emily for all that time, but he still had work tomorrow!

He would have to take a short cut. He knew the back alleys around here like the back of his hand. He'd either chased a criminal, met a criminal or shot a criminal down one of these streets. The shadows of this street were not too long, meant there was little place to hide, even on a night with a new moon. The fact that it was summer was telling though, which allowed Linely to see in front of him, even as the sun was setting.

A bright light burst through the darkness. A teen girl's glowing eyes, she was running pretty fast. Out of breath. She clearly wasn't stopping for anyone as she promptly pushed past the officer. He could only hope the girl was ok, there were more than a few ne'er do wells that would do highly unpleasant things to a lone young mutant.

Then came the sounds of a fight, complete with rather colorful language that would not be appropriate in front of a police officer. Three men came into view, just as a rather muscular man kicked a smaller guy, and landed a punch on the second one. They reeled from the strikes, but got back up and lunged at the muscular black man. Was this gonna be a non-mutant related hate crime to stop for once? Linely could only guess at it, looking at the two skinheaded men...

"If you don't mind me saying, dear fellows. This doesn't look like a fair fight." Linely tried to sound as painfully British as he positively could. "I suggest you two run before you make yourselves look like idiots, I mean more than you already have done." He pulled out his gun, sometimes the threat was more effective than the execution.

All three men stopped and turned to face the man that pulled out a gun. Derek's heart skipped a beat, but realized that he was on his on the same side. Derek looked to the two men who put their hands up and darted away.

"Thank you. Those two guys were harassing a mutant and I had to step in." He shook his hand and looked up at other man who came to assist him. "I wasn't sure I would be able to take on the two at once." Derek chuckled a bit breathlessly and looked around the alley.

"Are you an officer or law enforcement?"

Joseph couldn't help but smirk as the two men took flight at the sight of the gun. Too bad for them he wasn't actually the best shot in the world. Still, they didn't know that, and given they'd decided to harass a kid, they probably weren't the bravest individuals in the world. As the black man thanked him for his intervention, Linely listened to what he had to say.

So this crime was mutant related? Great, now he was under obligation to investigate and take a witness statement from the man. "Detective Linely, MRC." Joseph stated showing the man his badge. "I'm glad I could be of help, though I'm going to have to ask you to file in a statement at the station as soon as you can. We'll get somebody looking for the girl as well, when we have the time." He placed his badge back in his pocket and holstered his gun. He hadn't even loaded the bloody thing.

"Now that formality is over with, that was a rather brave thing you did. Mr...?" Joseph held out his hand to the man, hoping that this wouldn't be too stressful for the civilian.

>> "Detective Linely, MRC... I'm glad I could be of help, though I'm going to have to ask you to file in a statement at the station as soon as you can. We'll get somebody looking for the girl as well, when we have the time."

Dammit, Derek didn't mean to get involved with the police. All he wanted to do was protect that young mutant girl from being ambushed by those mother f-ers. "A-Alright, then. I can go and take care of that. Thanks again for the backup. I wasn't completely sure that I would be able to take on those three bigots." Derek felt a lot better with the gun being put away. An owl hooted overhead causing the twenty-year-old mutant to look up. A smirk came to his face as he looked back down.

>> "Now that formality is over with, that was a rather brave thing you did. Mr...?"

"Oh, no mister. Just Derek Menes." Derek shook the detective's hand. "...has anyone ever told you that you look like that one guy from Adolescent Werewolf?"