Tarin didn't find himself in Times Square very often. The fact of the matter was there were too many tourists, they were confused, and awed, and all those things that went along with being somewhere new and as awe inspiring as what Tarin thought of as the true crossroads of the universe.

There were people everywhere, concentrated and unconcentrated and Tarin couldn't help but wonder if this was how he'd looked when he first got to the city. A particularly large group of people drew Tarin's attention then and he made his way in that direction.

The crowd was indeed large, some kind of rally. There was a large podium and there was someone standing on it, talking. There were two kids there, kids that were crying and Tarin's attention was hooked. He walked up closer to the back of the crowd and started to listen.

"....she was a mother, a friend, and most importantly a community activist. The level of violence in this city is incredible and when a well respected woman cannot go out for a night on the town and feel safe, something has to be done."

Tarin frowned, this was tragic. Then he saw it, the picture. The face, the eyes, his eyes shot from there to the kids on stage....her kids. The shock was ridiculous he'd never forget that face. All of a sudden the ground started to spin a little and he felt the feeling that had washed over him in the park surfacing again.


She was sleeping, he was looking at her. It was time, the medium had walked her right into his hands, wrapped up in a sheet like a pig trussed up for slaughter. The sexual relations had been disgusting, there was no need when greater pleasures were to be had.

He had stashed his tools and it didn't take long for him to find them and prepare. The woman stayed asleep the whole time...until he began his work. She woke up then, and he looked into her eyes as he worked.




Tarin gasped and the ground came back into view, it was still spinning and suddenly it was much closer. Down on his hands and knees he went as the memory flooded his consciousness. Here he was, standing in the presence of her children, listening to them talk about how their mother, their friend, an activist , was gone.

"Oh god..." Tarin gasped as another feeling flooded through him, one even more terrifying that the memories. There were people everywhere, there were kids in the crowd, walking down the street. Families on vacation...and now this. Nobody could touch him...nobody could touch him...it became a litany in his mind even as his knees hit the concrete.

"Hey dude..." Tarin heard the voice and his head jerked automatically to the young man moving towards him, hand stretched out in front of him. "No..." he said, "Don't..." but it was too late.

The hand moved almost as if in slow motion and Tarin jerked away, but not fast enough, the feeling was coursing through him, becoming him and as the other man's hand closed around his exposed forearm it felt like a crackle of electricity surged through his body, then there was nothing.

The casual observer would have seen something they wouldn't be able to explain later. Something that made as little sense as what had happened next. There had been two men, one helping another who'd fallen. Then, all of a sudden there was one. The one standing there now looked nothing like either of the previous too.

This man was tall, muscular, long and stringy hair dropping to his shoulders. His eyes were alight with fire. He raised his hands and fire came from there too. He was alive...and he was going to make the most of it.

Sometimes the best place to hide, was in plane sight.

Sara was in the middle of the crowd. Her hood was up around her head, and long coat covered her body from her shoulders, to the back her heals, where her tail curled up. Keeping away from the ground, where it would either be seen, kicked or stepped on, by the people behind her. The crowd, around Sara, shifted on their feet as what was being presented to them brought on different reactions. One lady, stood next to Sara, sucking in air, with her right hand over her heart. Another stood with her mouth, slightly agape, and a man, somewhere behind Sara muttered about mutants. There was a hum of different reactions around Sara, and she monitored the different heart beats, that she was struggling to hear as she listened to the people at the podium.

Sara felt cold. Even with the bodies pressing around her, the three layers of clothing she kept between herself and everyone else, and the fur that smoothed over her body, everywhere, and I do mean everywhere, she still felt cold, because of what she was doing. She was taking advantage of a situation. The gentleman in front of her was revealed of his wallet and because of the podium, no one even saw it happen. Sara pocketed a twenty, tucking the money next to a washcloth, and gently pushed the wallet back into his pocket.

Luke was right when he told her, what she did effected others, but stealing was better than going hungry. Sara could commit worst crimes.

With the money retrieved, Sara lifted her chin, to move her hood, enough to peek at the stage. The children broke Sara’s heart as well. What ever had happened. Sara was growing uncomfortable in the crowd. She bowed her head to cover her face, and started shouldering her way sideways when a lady screamed.

Sara had forgotten about the importents of keeping her head down, and instead, she let her hood fall back, away from her feline face and ears. In front of her, was another obvious mutant. Fire rising from his hands, and there was something about the way he looked, that made her memory flash back to the camps.

Not good. Definitely not good.

“Hey!” Sara yelled over the crowd, as she walked Where humans were ducking and scurrying away, Sara was holding her ground. Pushing her way closer to the fire plus what ever power he had, with her shoulder. Someone did exactly what Sara had been working to avoid, the hole time she’d been standing in the crowd. They stepped on her tail, and her spine was jerked back for second, as she flinched, showing her teeth, witch made the crowd in front of her veer sideways. Good. About time they did. Stupid people.

“Hey you Pyromancing Grease head.” Sara yelled again. The separation of the croud allowed her faster movement. “I’m talking to YOU!”

Ok Plan A. Play distraction. Who knows. This fire fisted mutant could still be peaceful…. Where was a phone when you needed one….

(I can edit this if I need to.)

Tarin was out of the shop, again, and it was slower than normal that day, which had so far left Lee alone with nothing to do. So, since they still had no radio or anything in the shop, and Lee hadn't thought of bringing her iPod with her, that left her with virtually nothing to do.

At least there was still the small TV in the back of the shop that they had left there after getting a larger one for the apartment. Instead of facing out toward where the futon had been in the back room, it was now facing in toward the small kitchenette. Turned to a station that wasn't showing one of those gossipy talk shows so that Lee had some sort of background noise in the shop.

Or, Lee had been sure it had been on something like that until she went into the back again to grab a coke and heard a news bulletin. Grabbing a can from the fridge, Lee listened to the report about a mutant attacking a rally in Times Square. Like all the mutant attacks that had happened in the park, it was so close, yet was far enough away, they were out of the way enough that they didn't really have to worry about it. They were so close, yet to step out the front door and look, there wasn't any way to really tell that they were only 13 blocks away from Times Square.

Lee was just about to head back to the front of the shop when something on the TV really caught her attention.

"It started as two men, but then there was only one. One fell, and the other guy bent to help him up, and then they were just gone, and that fire dude was there. Hey! Don't look at me like that. I'm not crazy, that's what happened!"

Lee didn't care whether that guy on the TV was crazy or not; if what he said had actually happened, she knew what was going on. She didn't even notice the pop can that had dropped to the floor beside her feet, was heading out of the room, toward the front door, when they finally showed a picture of the mutant causing all the problems. Lee froze, the blood drained from her face, as she stood staring at the flames licking up the guy's face, shooting from his hands. How the hell was she supposed to get close enough to siphon from that?

What was she supposed to do? She couldn't just leave Tarin there, doing that in a crowd of people. But how the hell was she supposed to touch him to siphon if he was covered in fire? It'd probably be too hot to even get close to him, never mind touch him.

Then Lee's eyes widened in realization. She couldn't get close while merged Tarin was that hot, but what about if he was cooled down, such as by someone who could control ice?

Leaving the TV on, Lee ran out to the front room and tore open the drawers behind the counter. It was small, but Lee knew it was there, somewhere. Finally she found it and pulled it out, leaving the drawers a mess from her search, then reached for her purse. Pulling her keys out first, Lee ran out the door and locked it, then traded the keys for her new cell phone and dialed the phone number.

Then Lee started running toward Times Square as she waited for the other end of the phone to be picked up. After about three rings, and quite a few more feet than that down the street, the phone was answered.

"Sam?! Sam! There's trouble in Times Square," she said, not waiting to get more than just confirmation that it was Sam on the other end of the phone. "I think it's Tarin, he's merged. But I can't get close to stop him, I need help. Please Sam? Times Square. Please help me." Lee finished up her almost pleading request before hanging up the phone and stepping up her speed to get to Times Square faster.

It was good to be alive, very good to be alive. He didn't know how he'd come to be, didn't know why he was existing now, but he wanted to be there, wanted to make the most out of the fact that he was there.

There were people everywhere, a perfect condition to make his mark on the world. Somehow the being knew he wasn't meant to be there and that he wouldn't be there very long. Already there were people casting dangerous looks in his direction, simply because he was existing.

Then a woman stepped from the crowd, called at him and became his first target. The flames were licking up his body now, engulfing him like a blanket of armor. Towards the woman he turned and unleashed a pillar of fire, then to the podium. Up in flames it went and towards it he went, jumping up and walking among the flames.

There was panic, great panic, and the being grinned as he watched the mark he was making. From the flames on the podium he rose his hands, sending great pillars of fire from his hands over the top of the crowd of onlookers. They looked like ants panicking as someone poured water into their hill. Let them burn.

Sam was just about to turn off the news as a fire guy broke out in the streets of Times Square. His jaw dropped as his phone started to ring. The ringing was normal but who was calling wasn’t, ‘I haven’t heard or seen her in almost a year, wonder what she wants…must be important to call me.’ Thought Sam as he picked up his phone on the third ring, “Hello?” asked Sam in a confused voice.

"Sam?! Sam! There's trouble in Times Square,"

“Lee slow down, what’s the trouble?” Sam was starting to worry about her seeing as there were tons of other people that could help her so why was she calling him.

“I think it's Tarin, he's merged. But I can't get close to stop him, I need help. Please Sam? Times Square. Please help me."

Sam didn’t have time to respond before the call was lost. Either she was hurt, her phone went dead, or she was already on her way to times square. He really hoped it wasn’t the last one, she told him once before Tarin’s powers were sometimes dangerous but seeing the guy Sam couldn’t picture him the type of guy to hurt anyone. But Lee needed Sam’s help and he refused to let that go ignored, not only was she a friend but he was a hero, or at least trying to be. With that thought in his head Sam was already running down the hall way to the main exit.

Sam bolted down the hall way with determination to get to Times Square as fast as he could. Running down the hallway Sam paid little attention to the people he tried to dodge, he was a man on a mission and time was one of the biggest factors. Sam figured he could use the help after watching the news only moments ago thinking the fire guy was Tarin. Sam spotted two familiar faces as he ran faster to grab onto the guys arm. “Streak, Neena there’s trouble, Times Square, some ones got to stop him. Sam was fully aware he wasn’t making a ton of sense but he would explain on the way to Times Square. Sam was already out the front doors waiting for the two as he iced his feet and a large circle under him.

The further away from the shop, the closer to Times Square Lee got, the more out of breath she got. If she had the energy, and that meant lots of excess energy, she could run on a marathon pace without trying, but she didn't have that energy today, hadn't had that energy since after Tarin's last merge, after that mess she had found in the apartment...

Lee was breathing harder as she came to the outskirts of Times Square, only to find a slightly larger than normal crowd, all streaming toward her. That certainly slowed Lee down as she had to fight to get through the crowd, bumping and pushing through everyone she had to actually make her way through.

And then she saw it, the flames. Large shots of flames were shooting out over the heads of the crowd as they fled, coming from a firey figure standing up on a make shift stage.

Lee's heart felt like it missed a beat as she came to a halt, simply staring up at the man shooting flames, her eyes wide. How the hell was she supposed to stop Tarin this time, save him?

But she had to try, didn't she? So far, at least from everything Tarin had told her, she had been the only thing to be able to stop a merge before it ran its full course, whatever that might be. Hopefully she'd be able to help this time, without it being the last time she was able to.

That thought caused Lee's heart to miss another beat, but she still started forward again, pushing through the remaining crowd. She could only hope that Sam would actually come help like she had asked.

As she closed the distance, Lee saw another figure closing on the flaming man, only this person she recognized. Sara.

Angling herself slightly, Lee made her way closer to the feline. "Sara!" Lee called, keeping her eyes on the man as she spoke to the other woman. "I think Tarin's merged. We need to take him down, but not kill him."

(OOC: Most of you already know, but just reminding that my posting speed will be snail's paced this week. Feel free to skip me if needed, and minor godmod permission given as well.

Neena grumbled to herself as she exited the Danger Room. Her arm and leg were still sore as it was from her little nighttime rollick with Roland. An energetic targeting class did nothing to improve things, especially since she was still avoiding the DocProf. At least the holes had closed up. Blood would have drawn too much attention....

She nearly bumped into Silver Streak as she made her way into the hall. All she managed was a half-hearted, "Hi," before someone came barreling down the hallway from the opposite direction. She opened her mouth again, this time intending to chastise the reckless runner.

“Streak, Neena there’s trouble, Times Square, some ones got to stop him."

"Saywhatawho?" Neena turned as Sam grabbed Streak's arm and tugged. "Who's 'him'?"' she asked. She followed the pair, a bit slower and obviously confused, but still tagging along. She wasn't looking down, and nearly lost her balance on the ice circle, having to throw her hands out to steady herself.

"Who's 'him'?" she repeated as she floundered.

(OOC:Minor permission given to gmod)

Streak was aimlessly walking down the mansions hallway. Obviously he hadn't heard the new and wasn't paying much attention to Neena. He was looking the other way when Neena appeared right in front of him. "Hey." He managed to say to her. Streak was about to continue on his way when his attention was caught by someone barreling down the hallway at almost break-neck speeds. Or at least speeds fast enough to knock people out of the way.

Shawn was about to give a casual 'hi' to the runner, who turned out to be Sam when he stopped and started babbling incoherently about some trouble in Times Square or something ridiculous like that. "Say what?" He said as Sam started to pull him towards the outside of the mansion. Neena was following along; however, not as fast as Sam seemed to think "Dude. What's goin on?" Streak said a little worried. Sam wasn't usually panicked like this, so something had to be going on.

As he went outside he saw Sam standing there already icing his feet and getting ready to fly off on one of his ice slides.

Sara shoving her way through the crowd. One man was running backwards with his cell phone held up in front of his face, trying to line up a picture of the burning man. Sara shoved the phone out of her way, and he went to protest, but the light around his face brightened to hot, orangey, red, and he faltered as he fell over his own heals to try and run faster. Sara was about to say something, when she looked back over her shoulder at torch fists, to see that he was now completely covered with fire, and aiming at her. She shoved the man, and her, apart and the flames shot between them.

Sara spun on her heals and pushed off, away from the flames. Her coat fanned like a cape behind her as she tumbled across the sidewalk. At least the crowd was out of her way now, so she had plenty of room to move, but the hem of her coat had been caught in the blaze. Little flames danced up the fabric, trying to reach Sara’s shoulders. Sara yanked the fabric away from her shoulders, and shrugged out of the jacket, before it could burn her fur, or smolder against the rest of her clothing.

“I liked this coat.” Sara grumbled as she dropped it on the pavement, where the fabric continued to burn and she no longer had her cover against the rest of everyone else.

Ok so the peaceful thought was a nice thought, but it was obvious that peace, with this mutant, wasn’t going to happen.

"Sara! I think Tarin's merged. We need to take him down, but not kill him."

Sara was about ready to charge the Flaming mutant again, when she heard Lee coming up behind her. So the feline angled her head so she could hear Lee out, and not let Tarin out of her sight. Wait. Tarin?

Sara’s mind traveled back to the last time Tarin had spoken to her. He told her to either put him down or to run. Sara couldn’t do either but that was beside the point. Sara turned her head a little farther around to give Lee a dead pan look. She just lost her favorite jacket. There was Tarin, who had lost control, flames were shooting everywhere, and Lee… “What ran through you're head just now? ‘Hey, Let’s make things more difficult?” Sara started walking back towards the stage. “Hope you made some phone calls.” Sara said. She scooped up a stone and started running

Once Sara was away from Lee, she flung the stone for Tarin’s head. “Hey you! You missed me you big pile of Ashe!”

"Dude. What's goin on?"
"Who's 'him'?"

Sam was already starting the high-speed slide that would take them over all the traffic and obstacles towards Time Square there were no time to lose, he had to help Tarin. Sam stuck both of his hands in front of his body and looked back towards streak and Neena, “Hold on to my shoulders and don’t let go…Time is limited.” With that they started to go on an upward slope as ice built up under them. Once they were high enough Sam took a deep breath and leaned forward starting their descent as ice shot from Sam’s hand as they slid forward. “A friend of mine is in trouble, mutant trouble.” Sam was hoping that would be enough so he could concentrate on forming the ice evenly so the ice under Neena and streak would hold.

Sam regretted not covering his body in ice as they continued there very fast decent. Wind kept buffering his eyes drying them out as he started to tear. With a mere thought small goggles formed around Sam’s eyes protecting him from the wind. He didn’t dare freeze his entire body other wise it would have been that more dangerous for Streak and Neena. “You’ll see what happened once we get there…”

It took just under twenty minutes and Sam was exhausted, it would be a few before he could get his second wind back, “first time…” he put his hands on his head as they landed just outside a huge panicking crowd, “I ever carried anyone so far…” Sam started to work his way through the crowds as he saw a familiar face, “what you doing here kitty?” It was Sara, he only met her twice before but it was hard to forget her, not only did she look different but she had an interesting personality to boot. Sam was completely oblivious of the man attacking her and Lee.

(OOC: Feel free to fill in the time between Werecat's last post, and this arrival.)

Neena's sunglasses kept most of the wind out of her eyes, but she was not enjoying the trip. She did not like cold, and after twenty minutes of it, without an explanation of the necessity, she really wanted to just curl up by a fire.

Of course, when they finally landed, and she got a chance to look around, she began to rethink that desire. The first thing she saw, actually before they landed, was what looked like a music stage doing a wonderful impression of a bonfire. Too much heat even for the African-borne woman.

Next thing was the man inside the flames. Neena blinked. Yep, that was right. Inside the flames. Hmm....

“what you doing here kitty?” she heard Sam gasp out.

Kitty?

Neena turned to look around, and spotted two familiar figures, one of them sporting a fur coat. She snorted.

"Talk about deja vu...." she murmured to herself.

Okay, first things first. Pyromancing mutant plus big crowd of people equals 'very bad'. Subtract big crowd, and you're left with Pyromancing mutant, and a bit less 'bad'. Since the crowd was doing a fairly decent job of subtracting itself, so that just left Pyro-Happy. Best way to put out fire? She glanced at Sam, still spent from the trip over. Next option? Well, water and flour work well at home.

She made a beeline for the nearest fire hydrant.

People were scattering, good, let the ants run. There were far larger things that could be destroyed. People were insignificant, if they got in his way, they'd be disposed of, but it wasn't an immediate necessity.

Tarin was there, he could feel it, the confusing array of thoughts and emotions that went along with being trapped inside a sentient being with another person's essence. There was nothing to be done, nothing to be seen. It was like it always was, the new being only wanted to destroy. Hurt and destroy. Tarin didn't even fight it this time, if he was lucky, someone would stop him before he could do any more damage.

The ants were scattered effectively now, and he moved onto the cars. They exploded with an incredibly satisfying amount of noise and shrapnel and only after he'd disposed of three did the being notice that he'd missed the one obnoxious little ant who'd dared to try and bother him.

She was taunting him now, and while he was far above her petty humanoid outburst, the being didn't want to let any of them think they could get away with drawing his attention. If he dealt with the one, perhaps the others who were gathering would get the idea.

There was another humanoid besides the first, and the being looked right at her through the flaming armor. There was something about that one, something different and he waited a split second. The slight hesitation infuriated the being, he was a god, why should something so simply as a human cause him pause.

The flames were roaring around him now, pulling oxygen from the air in a huge firestorm, street lamps melting as his ire increased. Towards the two he sent a flaming tornado, pulling more flames from around him to replace the ones he'd just lost.

There were more of the sniveling ants assembling now, did they think to fight him? Up the flames went, hotter the flames got. Let them come. He thought as he sent pillars of flame towards them all in turn.

All Lee could do for a moment was blink at Sara as she raced away. Yeah, cause in a situation like this, her first goal was to make things harder for herself. As if dealing with a merge in general wasn't problem enough, never mind the fire that was keeping her from actually getting close enough to be able to do anything.

By this point, though only a couple seconds had passed, Sara had moved far enough away that combined with the roaring of the fire, Lee wasn't going to bother trying to call to her again. She had called someone to come and help, but that didn't necessarily mean that help was on its way; Lee could only simply hope that it was.

And then he was looking at Sara, and her. Really looking at her, and ever through the flames, Lee could tell that they were not Tarin's eyes, not in the slightest.

Next thing she knew, there were more flames, more heat, shooting straight toward her, swirling, circling, rushing. Running to the side, sweating from both the extreme heat and the exertion, it was all Lee could do to get out of the way of the fire vortex without it hitting her. She didn't have the energy for this, didn't have the energy to move faster than the fire, and as she looked toward the form up on the podium, knew she didn't have a chance of doing anything even if she did have energy; the street lamps were melting, she'd fry before she even got close enough for her siphoning to have the slightest effect.

This was it, Lee couldn't help but think as she dodged another shot of flames. If she didn't find a way to stop the merge, and quickly, the cops would end up showing up and would Kill Tarin. It might take a while for it to happen, but she was sure it would. Yet at the same time, Lee was sure any attempts she made to stop Tarin would end in her death instead because of the damn heat. It was hopeless, she knew that, and yet Lee kept looking for a way closer, looking for an opening where the flames were dying down

And then, as she was getting out of the way of more flames, Lee saw it: the cavalry had arrived! Lee couldn't stop the small cry of relief from escaping as she saw Sam.

But he wasn't doing anything yet, he was simply standing there while the fire danced. What the hell was he waiting for? Her to actually get burned?

"Sam!" Lee yelled over to him though she kept her eyes on Tarin's merged form. "A little help? I need to get closer!" As she waited to see what, if anything, Sam was able to do to help, Lee amped up her siphoning. At this distance, it was pretty futile, but it was all she could do. But at least now she had at least some chance of this working.

Sara was noticing the bad habit she had, again. You see, Sara had this bad habit of tempting fate, weather it was in her pick pocketing, or breaking into warehouses, or just plane being herself. She tempted fate a lot. This tempting of fate was stupid. She was taunting a mutant, who was Tarin. Tarin told her if he ever merged, to run, and she was being her stubborn feline self. Sara chose to do exactly what he told her not to do. She was standing her ground, she wasn’t killing him, and she was fighting. At least this time, she could, sort of, justify her habit of tempting fate. That’s right. She was risking her life, for people who wouldn’t give a rats tail side about hers. As twisted as that was, at least this tempting of fate was justified.

Plus she thought she knew who the real Tarin was. Through the brief meetings she had. He didn’t deserve to get shot in the head, and the police didn’t deserve to get Bar-BQed. After all, they did sort of help Sara make a living… Sort of.

For a second, the being, that was Tarin, hesitated, and Sara slowed her pace towards him. The hard look she had in her eye softened as that little voice in her head pleaded for the flames to die completely and for Tarin’s merge tantrum to end. Being that, as Sara stared before, things always had to get more difficult, that didn’t happen.

The tornadoes of flames headed for Sara, and she Dove out of the way. Sara narrowly avoided getting her fur singed. For a moment, she was unable to see Lee. The best thing she could do was continue to be the distraction.

Sara continued pushing her luck. Hoping that this being Tarin had become, would tire, or that Tarin would gain control. Something, anything. She’d get close enough to be a general pain, then Sara would have to retreat, or take cover, because of the heat that was growing as cars exploded, street lamps melted, and who knew what else. The entire situation made Sara feel like nothing more than an annoying house fly, as she flipped back to avoid the flames, the way that flys avoided fly swatters.

Somewhere along the line, Sara had removed the hooded sweat shirt, that she had used to hide her face, so that now she was in a black tank top. The less loose clothing the better. Because of her healing, Sara wasn’t an easy individual to tire, but the various injuries, burns, and long time with an accelerated heart beat were starting to take their tole. Her shoulders started to look a little bonier under her fur and around the brand number on her right shoulder blade.

“what you doing here kitty?”

“Getting a tan.” Sara hollered back. Looking down at the three new arrivals from the elevated side of the stage’s backdrop. Flames headed her way, yet again, and she was forced to retreat. Dropping and flipping back down to the pavement, that was so hot on her leathery feet, she felt blisters try to form, before her healing cleared them away. “Hot Hot, Hot, Hot” Sara’s run turned to a bit of a high stepping skip, till she reached pavement that didn’t blister.

Her attention divided between Tarin, the pavement, and the group that had just arrived. “How about you, Slick.” Was it just her, or did Sam look tired? Crap on toast.

"Sam! A little help? I need to get closer!"

“I’m up for a little air conditioning.” Sara’s eyes scanned from Lee, to streak, to Neena and she gave her a nod. Fire hydrant was a good idea, Sara had been a little busy to get to one. Silently, she wondered if the hydrant parts would be melted like the street lamps were.

Garrett felt like an idiot. Sure, his mind was about as solid as cottage cheese lately, but his wallet? His only form of identification? Short of what was held in the registration files, of course. His cash was in that wallet, too. That posed a problem. He might have made it all the way home to the Mansion had the driver of the bus been less than sympathetic about his lack of wallet. It seemed liked she had heard that one, at least twenty times that day. So, here he was, going back to work. He had thought getting off early was so good that he didn't even think twice, just bolted as soon as Lee had told him to go.

The shop was still open. Garrett breathed a sigh of relief. Lee would be in there and he could explain his little stupidity and reclaim his wallet. Everything was okay after all. He walked up to the door and turned the knob, ready to greet her when...Locked? He checked it again. Yep, it was locked. He wished he had been there long enough to deserve a key, but his time away had short circuited much chance of trust. They had let him continue to work there, though. He sighed and walked around back. Locked too. Why were the lights on, though? She must have just stepped out in a hurry.

He had just sat down on a bench near the shop to wait for her when some people came by. Rather, they ran by as if their lives depended on it. Garrett's street sense kicked in and he stood quickly, gazing around. He probably looked like a bald gopher, eyes alert, ears tensed, probing the horizon for a predator in pursuit. But no one came after them. Still, something was up. He started walking in the direction they had run from. Walking became a sort of speed walking. When something big was occurring in this city, you could literally feel it.

As he moved further out of the park and into the streets, speedwalking became a slow jog. People had looks of frenetic panic on their faces and they were going in the opposite direction he was. he passed some people sitting on a stoop. The radio was saying some odd things. "....man is on fire, everything is on fire! We've got to get away from the scene as our equipment is malfun---the heat--" Man on fire. Not man burned alive. Man on fire. Big difference.

The jog became quicker, becoming a steady gait of trotting. More faces of panic as he got closer. Someone even told him to run. He agreed, though in hindsight, as his sneakers padded the sidewalks, they probably meant in the other direction. It wasn't long before he saw something familiar, which also meant something was definitely up. Ice cold water dripped on his head, though nothing was above him. Stopping and looking up, there was the melting remnant of an ice slide. Sam. Man on fire. Man of ice. Yes, time to run.