"I wasn't planning on it!"

The two of them were both beasts let loose on a pack of unaware prey, all power, and fury... were as she felt a little like a flustered Shepard trying to smack away wolves with her wooden crook.

Only in this case, her stick was an actual crook, and also human.

Elke and Xavier drew most of the crowd since she was between them, but a few people tried to be sneaky and get through to her. She ducked and dodged while keeping herself and Azar phased enough to avoid trouble. She didn't have brute force or kick-ass moves to rely on and being out in the open made her power harder to use.

"Thanks, Xavier!" She definitely appreciated the judo throw.

Using Azar a few times as an improvised weapon sent a few people running for the hills, as did fusing two of them together when they got too close. Enjoy holding hands forever, jerks!

But, the kicker that sent the last straggler running screaming was Juni grabbing the heavy metal body of a car and hefting it over her head threateningly. The message was clear and those that didn't wanna get squashed beat a quick retreat back into the bar or off into the night.

Once the coast seemed clear she dropped the shell of the car back down on top of all the things that had fallen out of it (oops!) and dragged Azar with her back over toward Elke and Xavier.

"Oh, dude, your arm!" She was instantly worried. He was burned pretty good. "You should get to the doctor and get it healed or it'll scar."

Behind her, Azar groaned lightly.

Oh, they put work in. Boy did they! A whole crowd of thugs was out or running in record time. True, he may have gotten a bit overzealous and left Elke to do more of the defense work, but Juniper could also take care of herself too. Turning around to her lifting a car into the air sort of cemented that thought. Holy cow.

Wiping a bit of sweat from his brow, the young hero chuckled, interrupted by a small wince as he accidentally touched his burn. It was pretty red, huh?

"It's okay, Juni. It looks worse than it feels. I can get it healed in a bit. We have to deal with him first.

With that, Xavier walked up to the groaning Azar. "So... Azar... Do you feel like talking, yet? I don't want to have to hit you that hard again..." Did he just threaten this man? Well, what could he say? He'd threatened to cut Elke's head off!

Juniper popped up by his side, with Elke following from the other side. The three of them looking down at Azar from above was surely a frightening sight.

"Want me to pull one of his lungs out?" Juniper added in helpfully since they were apparently threatening people now and she was pretty decent at that.

Elke managed not to look surprised, and without missing a beat tossed in, "Start with the left one."

Azar, because he was a semi-smart man, threw in the towel immediately.

"Okay! Okay, I'm sorry! I lied, okay?! I didn't set all of those fires. Someone else did!"

Elke didn't look won over and looked over at Juniper. "Can he live without a liver?"

Juniper smiled pleasantly back at the Native. "For a while."

"No, wait! I did do a bunch of other stuff though! I confess! I'll confess okay?! Don't take my organs out!"

A few minutes later he had confessed to exactly zero murders, a host of assaults and some arsons, and a few robberies. Juniper wasn't surprised, of course, because she knew he hadn't committed some of that stuff, but Elke looked a little miffed. Her lead had ended up a dead end. Some poser trying to be bigger than he was by taking credit for worse crimes.

The police were on the way, which meant they would need to give statements about what had happened and... Juniper was not enthused.

She was visibly nervous even though she hadn't done anything wrong.

"So, you guys don't need me anymore, right? I should probably go pick up more apples and-"

"Hey."

Juniper turned, looking over at the taller teen who was watching her with arms crossed and a frown. "Don't go..."

Was she about to say something inspirational to get her to stay? A compliment on how she'd done, or something to reaffirm that she didn't need to be worried?

"They need your statement you dip@#$%, or else they won't get the whole story. You're the one he originally bragged too."

....nope.

"Wait, hey-huh?" Things were escalating way too quickly for his liking! Oh, they were... Where they bonding? Over... this?

Sure. You know what? He would take it.

The man confessed to lying about doing a bunch of things. Xavier stood up and crossed his arms. He believed that, honestly. It seemed to fit his character; he wasn't the big bad, he was a henchman at best. Even looked it.

He looked to Elke, who was clearly frustrated at their results today. Still, he had confessed to some things. Police sirens were heard, and Juniper turned to leave.

Elke stopped her. "Elke, he's bragged to a lot of people... and." He lifted his phone, which was set to record. "I taped his confession... If she wants to go, let her go..." His face paled for a second as he looked to the man still pinned to the floor. "Uh. oh... I was recording you. It's legal in this state as long as one of the concerned parties is aware. I considered myself a concerned party. Sorry."

Sheepishly, he tucked the phone away, and looked to see if Juniper was leaving. He knew she had anxiety... he would understand if she didn't want to talk to police officers. Though... It was probably going to be a fire truck that arrived first.

"You're out in the open on a public street, the one-party consent law doesn't apply to him anyway."

Azar saw fit to try and loudly argue, but Elke ignored him in favor of putting her boot on his ankle and applying just enough pressure to warn him not to try anything funny.

"Isn't it illegal to witness a crime and not report it? Pretty sure you can be charged with a felony, or at least fined and thrown in jail for a bit." Elke didn't get what the problem was. Sure, she didn't like cops much even on the best of days, but they were kinda here for a very specific reason and Juniper had gotten dragged in unintentionally, or intentionally... depending on what her side of the story was. "Besides, it would help to clear your name and make it look less like you hang out exclusively with wannabe murderers if you stayed and gave your side of the story."

Juniper had paused and was staring back at them with owlish eyes while gnawing away at her lips.

"...No, it's okay. I'll... stay. I'm fine. This is fine."

She edged back over, uncertainty in every step. This was... big. Too big. She didn't wanna do this. What if they didn't believe her? She hadn't done anything wrong though and Xavier was here so... it was fine.

...it would be fine.

"No reason not to belived me, right?"

It was cold. She looked down at her bare feet and remembered that her hoodie had flown off. She was outside in the middle of winter in a t-shirt and yoga pants. Barefoot.

"...Totally won't think I'm crazy, nope. It's fiiiiine."

A red, gleaming fire engine with lights on and sirens blaring ripped around the corner at the end of the block and headed their way.