So in the end the girl was just another little girl. She had power but she was still far too young to be of much use without careful handling. Cosmina already had one toy that required that sort of gentle touch. She didn't want another. This toy was better suited to people who had the patience to deal with it. The girl loosed another blast, this one seemingly brought on entirely by fear, and with it unleashed even more animals from their cages. This place would be a mad house soon. It would be best to just get the heck out.

Now that the girl realized just how dangerous Cosmina was she cowered on the ground. The girl even begged forgiveness and begged Cosmina not to shoot. This toy just wasn't fun at all. Cosmina shook her head, dislodging more tears from her slowly clearing eyes.

"You need to learn to control that, kid. You'd be a lot more effective if you did."

The kid hadn't asked for the critique but Cosmina felt like giving it anyway. If the girl was foolish enough to let herself be drawn into a fight with an unknown adult then she needed to be either better at fighting or much mire level-headed.

"Good job on the pepper spray though. Handy for someone your age who can't really fight."

Whoever had given the girl the pepper spray had been fairly intelligent.

The gunshots didn't come. Instead, as animals ran free and chaos spread like wildfire through the zoo, the crazy lady was giving a commentary about the fight they'd just had.

Kaitlyn shook her head until her vision cleared, then stood upright and gave the lady a confused stare.

"...What?"

Confusion gave way to anger. But not the burning rage that she'd felt earlier. This anger was cold. Clear. Calculating. She was slowly coming to the realization that she had been toyed with.

Two could play this game. It didn't take long to realize that the cops were going to show up soon, and they were going to find an armed, dangerous blond woman waving a handgun at a small child. All Kaitlyn needed to do was buy time, then watch the magic happen.

"I can fight!" she shouted eventually, "It's just that my power just doesn't work on you. If it did, I woulda beat you..." She grasped around for a way to to keep the conversation going. "So, why couldn't I hurt you with it?"

Kaitlyn was just a little too caught up in her little, ill-begotten plan to remember that this lady was pointing a gun at her.

Ooo now there was some spirit! Foolish really considering she was facing an armed gunman but it boded well for the girl's future prospects that she at least had some guts. Of course she needed to learn when to display them but that was a lesson for another time. It was cute that she thought she could fight though. By the sound of it the little one needed reminding just how flimsy she was.

"No girl, you can't fight. You can't control the strength of your power when you use it. Nor do you have absolute control over when it gets used. On top of that you don't seem to have an ounce of fighting experience outside of using your power. What happens when someone comes along that is stronger than you, faster than you, and can render your power utterly worthless, hm?"

Cosmina smirked and fired a bullet into the ground beside the girl.

"You end up dead, that's what."

She paused to allow that to sink in before saying something else.

"I will say you were very lucky to get that power though. It will be very useful once you actually learn to use it properly."

There was still the matter of the girl's query about why her power couldn't effect Cosmina. What to tell the girl though? Perhaps a fun lie.

"As to why your power didn't have an effect on me? That's simple. I'm invulnerable. Mind you pepper spray still stings like mad."

Streak had been intent on spending a nice quiet day at Central Park. His meditations hadn’t been working. He still wasn’t getting his powers back. After all he had been working on them, spending pretty much day and night training trying to force his powers back into action. Finally he moved on to central park figuring that some peace would help him refocus his mind for before getting back into practicing. The calm day really seemed to clear his head. Even out here he could practice using his powers. He seriously doubted that something this simple would work. Either way he enjoyed looking at the water and listening to the animals be themselves.

All this was short lived however when someone, or something cause a giant ruckus. People were screaming and running this way and that. Animals that shouldn’t be loose were running rampant discovering their newly found domains. Suddenly the peace wasn’t so peaceful. Streak got up and, like was his habit, he ran into the chaos. He ran towards the area where the people were running from. A couple of monkeys dashed passed him as he headed towards the zoo. The police sirens were getting louder by the second and he knew that he’d be running into some cops soon. Of course they’d all try to keep him back so he had to get there before they did.

Luckily he made it before the police and started to look for the cause of all the commotion. However, this was pretty foolish considering he couldn’t do much against mutants that could use their powers. The silvermancer snuck around until he found the area where the ruckus had started. Apparently a woman was threatening a little girl with a gun. This isn’t good. Streak thought. It didn’t matter how many times he had been in fights he couldn’t help but be astounded at how easily mutants seemed to head in the direction of lawlessness and degradation. It was no wonder people didn’t like mutants; stuff like this happened. If the news got a hold of this they’d have a field day.

"I will say you were very lucky to get that power though. It will be very useful once you actually learn to use it properly."
"As to why your power didn't have an effect on me? That's simple. I'm invulnerable. Mind you pepper spray still stings like mad."

Shawn had heard enough. He stood up and cleared his throat, getting the attention of both the girl and the older lady. His plan… well he didn’t have one. Yet.

(OOC: come one how often do you get to use the word ruckus.)

Kaitlyn turned her head. The new guy seemed like one of those heroic types. Big, strong, and ready to fight. Running towards danger when others would simply flee.

Score.

If he hadn't already chosen sides, Kaitlyn was going to help the process along. The little Orderling sprinted towards Mr. Hero and hugged him, letting his abdomen absorb the best sobs and tears she could muster.

"She... she said she was gonna shoot meeee!" Kaitlyn moaned almost melodramatically, still clinging to the strange man, "And she won't leave me alone!"

A man cleared his throat and the little girl ran to him and started putting on what was an attempt at the act of the century. There was no need for this to get out of hand. Cosmina lowered her gun before speaking.

"This from the girl who caused all of this trouble with her mutation? Not to mention pepper sprayed me in the face. Alright, I got a little jumpy with the gun but when people are being flung off of their feet and animal habitats destroyed I'd say being jumpy is a natural reaction."

Cosmina smiled sweetly.

"No need for this to escalate. We can all just walk away from this."

Of course if they didn't take the offer then Cosmina would have to draw on them again. If she could disable the girl and the man with a bullet or two apiece then she could easily run off and join one of the panicked mobs trying desperately to get out of the zoo. It would work if she could get away. If not then this would get ugly. She'd have to call on a favor or two to avoid problems.

In more immediate concerns she could manage if the fight got up close and personal. She had her training and she had a gun. Even better, her powers inhibited the girl's. She had a chance to win and come away clean. Now to see what moves they would make.

Surprisingly enough the little girl seemed to think that his shirt would make a good tissue. He hadn’t been planned for being used as a tissue; but then again he hadn’t been planning on meeting all this commotion. They both seemed to be pointing the finger at each other for causing this. ”Whether the girl did this is irrelevant.” Streak spoke to the other with the gun. Fortunately, this person seemed to be sensible, unlike some of the others that he’d run into in the past. Maybe he could walk out of this and without another shot being fired.

”Apparently she can’t control it very well yet. Why don’t you cut her some slack? There’s no reason to shoot someone just because they don’t have the understanding that we have of our powers.” Streak said very diplomatically. He would have rolled his eyes at his own comment if he didn’t think that this woman might take offense to that. When did I become such a politically correct speaker? he thought. He didn’t used to be. Maybe it was his knowledge of these kinds of situations that made him more like this. Don’t get him wrong… he’d still be in for a fight, however, he just didn’t think that there needed to be a shooting at the zoo to go along with all the escaped animals.

Mr. Hero was being very diplomatic with them. He was the kind of guy who liked to solve problems peacefully, with words rather than violence. The lady with the handgun over there wanted peace, too, telling a lie to make it sound like she didn't provoke anyone.

Kaitlyn wasn't in the mood for peace, love, or understanding. Mrs. Invulnerable made her mad intentionally, and this little girl wanted more revenge than a grazing hit with some pepper spray could provide. People had tricked her into exploding more than enough back at the Sanctuary, and she wasn't about to let this manipulative liar go unpunished in the outside world.

Realizing that she had stopped crying at this point, Kaitlyn threw in an extra sob, then began to hide behind the designated diplomat like the bulletproof shield he was. She was the victim here, and she didn't want there to be any question in the new guy's mind that this was true. Hence the acting.

Sirens in the distance were getting closer. Kaitlyn trusted the handgun-toting lady as far as she could throw her, and this was one of the few people that she couldn't send flying a respectable distance. Any second now, the woman might decide that she would rather shoot the both of them and run away. Mr. Hero needed to know about this.

"Don't trust her," she whispered urgently to her human shield.

She wasn't going to be going anywhere with Save the Day Man protecting the girl. The sirens were getting closer and Cosmina just did not want to waste favors on this. Deciding that them knowing she had the gun on her was enough threat Cosmina stowed the gun back in her purse. This she kept close so that it would be easily reachable if need be.

"I never intended to actually shoot her. I thought it would be better if she focused on me rather than the bystanders. To that end I antagonized her a bit so that she'd get angry and attack me rather than hurting ordinary folk."

Cosmina sighed as though this had all gotten too far out of hand.

"I didn't expect the pepper spray and over reacted. That's all."

She looked around at the destruction and then back to the man.

"We should probably either start rounding up animals and helping the injured or get out of here so the cops and emergency personnel can handle it."

All in all Cosmina considered it an elegant little lie that wrapped up her antagonistic behavior in such a fashion as to make her a hero. Not to mention it gave a reason for the girl's distrust. With luck he'd believe her over the girl and all would be well. For Mina at least. The girl would have to go home angry and bitter.

Apparently the little girl decided he’d do better as a shield from bullets than as a tissue. She ducked behind him and whispered to him. Both seemed to have their own side of the story; however, neither seemed to be telling him the whole truth. ”As much as I’d like to believe that…I think it’d be better if you weren’t so trigger happy.”

In his experience people who really were being noble and protecting bystanders didn’t pull out a gun and let a round out. ”You do know there’s way easier ways to keep attention than shooting at someone right?” Streak said a little rhetorically. He did have to admit… the woman with the gun did give it a good try at being innocent; however, he wasn’t about to leave her or the little girl alone to disappear. From what he saw he didn’t see many bystanders. ”It’d probably surprise you at how versed the cops are at caging animals around here.” Obviously, the gun lady hadn’t been here very long. ”Tell you what I’ll do. I’ll let you just leave and won’t even mention to the police that you or your gun was here.” Streak said offering her the deal. He got the strange feeling that she didn’t have a permit for the weapon either.

There was a part of this deal that Kaitlyn didn't quite like. Namely, the part where the armed bully gets away scot free after waving a gun at a kid half her age. Was there no sense of justice in the world?

Either way, she had a feeling that Mr. Hero recognized the gun lady's lies for what they were. But there was no harm in reinforcing the idea. "She's lying. The first time I blew up was an accident! I can't control it! And when I was trying to run away, she stopped me. She wouldn't let me go away and made me mad so I'd blow up more! She... she said bad things about my mom!" Truly, that last part was worthy of scorn. Who could blame her for attacking somebody that insulted her mother?

Well if he was going to let her leave it didn't matter whether or not he believed her. It was quite charitable of him to let go a woman with a gun. Of course he could simply be trying to avoid a fight. Either way suited her just fine. Mina grinned and spread her hands wide with the palms facing him.

"Say what you like. I did what I had to. The gun was a mistake but as I said, I didn't expect her pepper spray."

It couldn't hurt to reinforce her version of events. Even with the girl shouting and whining it was better to keep things up.

"And do you make a habit of running away every time you cause trouble girl? That's no way to live. I'd suggest finding some sort of training to control that power."

Mina approached the man slowly until they were awfully close.

"Take good care of the girl. Wouldn't want her getting hurt."

At which point she leaned in and kissed him on the cheek. Following this she turned to leave. No point in staying here any longer. She did have a permit for the weapon she was carrying but it was in fact a fake. A very good fake but a fake none the less. It could stand up to scrutiny long enough for the gun to convenient disappear at least. It would be better however if she or the gun in question never saw the inside of a precinct.

Streak wasn't surprised at what the little girl was saying. It didn't really matter whether or not it was an accident or not. He did however feel inclined to believe the little girl. He wouldn't have put it past the older lady to actually do something like that. After all she was carrying a gun. Shawn seemed to ignore the girl's pleas for being on her side. He'd already made up his ind and since he didn't have his powers right now he was in no hurry to get into a fight with someone. Whether they had powers or not and whether they had a gun or not.

The sudden close proximity of the older girl didn't phase him. It was an odd tactic for someone that was trying to get away without any problems or without a fight. Although it must have been the first time he'd ever been kissed by the person he was confronting. Most of them were more interested in running away. But no matter he didn't care as long as she didn't pull the gun again. It wouldn't have been smart on her part as the police were probably already there and searching the zoo for the people responsible for the disaster. It seemed that Streak had convinced her that she should leave. She seemed to take her cue after that and left just him and the little girl.

Once she was gone he turned to the little girl and said, "It doesn't matter what happened but you probably shouldn't stick around here. Come on let's get you out of this place." Streak motioned to the exit and slowly started to walk that way. It didn't matter that the police were probably there; he could get her through them but if she tried to stay she'd have to deal with the police by herself and he doubted if they would believe her.