Aurion grimaced and spat at the passerby's below as they started the song over again.

"Tis the season to be jolly.."

He smiled as he heard one of the women cry and freak out. 'I hate this time of year.' He said to himself as he looked over the streets of New York from the top of some apartment building. It was more than just the cold that he didn't like, it was the memories that it stirred up as well.

Aurion shivered a bit and tightened the strings on his stolen jacket. Even at 3XL it didn't fit him right, he had to cut the wrists to fit his hands through. When he thought about the two layers of stolen sweat pants he was wearing, also cut, but in the back, he felt like a giant marshmallow. He hadn't found anything, this year at least, to cover his tail, which was good and bad.

If it wasn't for his scales, Aurion would be quite cold most of the time. As it was though, he could hardly feel the cold or the bite of the chill air. That didn't mean he was safe, just that he didn't know he would be in trouble until he started to feel pain from the beginnings of frostbite. That had happened once before to his fin. It had gotten so bad he had had to amputate it himself. Using amputate is generous when one considers how he did it. Aurion had only cinder block, a broken piece of sheet metal, and his own body.

A violent shake went through his tail as that memory passed through his mind, dragging with it memories of his parents, of when they found out his tail would regrow. How many people paid to cut parts of his tail off and keep them? How many people have nearly 13feet of a mutant's tail hung up like some twisted trophy?

Sneering, Aurion jumped from the building, letting out a bellow as he did. His aim was true as he crashed onto and smashed the top some sedan on the street. Humans everywhere. Humans were the cause of all the pain he ever felt. They were looking at him, all of them on the street. He didn't know where he would go or what he would do, but he didn't care to hide. He didn't care to slink through the alleys, moving from shadow to shadow. If they wanted to get in his way this night, he would turn their dreams of a white Christmas to a red reality.

Lumen was just heading home after a good night of sleuthing. She'd been following one of the teen boys on the MIA kids list. She didn't think he had anything to do with the Unicorn Man because the trail he left was too obvious. She has suspicions he was just your usual run-away because of the obvious trail he left but being able to cross one name off her list would help her narrow things down. After a few hours of following it became aware that he was an average teen involved in an average New York City street gang. She felt for the kid, but the attitude she'd witnessed in him made her want to shove a nice heeled shoe up his butt. None the less she got as many photos as she could to take back to his rich parents. She wasn't able to bring the kid home- he didn't want to be there, but she had proof he was alive and relatively well.

She had stopped on the sidewalk to donate a few coins to the Salvation Army bell ringers, and found herself picking up the camera and scrolling through the images. It was cold that night, and it had been getting closer to Christmas Eve. People were still out even this late in the evening at the late-open stores getting presents. She was thinking to herself how annoying that was when some giant thing apparently fell from the sky on to the roof of a car just next to her. It made a sickening crunch and the creature let out an angry cry.

It looked like some sort of mini Godzillia in winter clothing. She stood motionless and unblinking. Centring herself, preparing to run at a moments notice. But hey, the local paper might pay her an extra hundred bucks to snap a pic of that thing. She wasn't ready to risk her life for it, but she was ready to wait 5 seconds and see how things panned out.

You could go quite a long way on self-reliance, but eventually you hit the point where you start to miss the company of other people. Real company, not just being around people you're likely never going to see again - friends is what you need. Luckily for Brody he had a knack at making friends. Until he got bored of them and moved on; or pissed them off; or took their things; or slept with their girlfriends, which goes right back to pissing them off. Friends were good for so many things when you knew how to take advantage of them. Right, self-reliance. That was the reason he was out in the cold, the hood of his jacket pulled up against the back of his neck, his hands kept warm in his pockets while he was on the look for new people to pal around with. And the holidays were always full of cheer and generosity, it made even the jaded, cynical people of New York just that more open to letting new people into their lives. Always good for him.

Other people.. well, they apparently had a different relationship with the Christmas season. He was just far enough away to catch sight of something falling, and to hear the resounding crash that followed its bellowing on the way down. With all the screaming that accompanied it from the bystandards who were looking on at the sudden surprise of whatever-it-was. Brody was like a moth drawn to flame when carnage turned up like this, if nothing else it would make a great story to tell someone later when he got them to buy him a drink. And if things went well here, who knows how many new "friends" he might come away with? Disaster is good for business, or so they say. Or so Brody says. He says a lot of things, infact, none of which should really be listened to.

His distance kept from the impact itself he only closed in enough to where he could see what it actually was. "Wow." was an understatement, he couldn't even speak, all he could think of was- "Wow.." That was one serious mutation - and man did he? she? it? look really pissed off. Not half so much as whoever that car belonged to, which got a small laugh out of himm as he began to think of the owner suddenly showing up to confront the mutant and then running when they saw what happened. Now trying to blend in with everybody else as best he could - they looked shocked, some were angry, others terrified. He just looked amused. Not the best way to blend in looking on with a smirk the way he was, but he wasn't exactly the center of attention here for people to really be noticing his indifference to the other mutants altered appearance. Until it tried to charge him down. Then he'd care a bit more.

Aurion didn't think this through very well.

To be honest, he didn't think much about his actions at all, or the attention he would draw from them. It's one thing for a human, even a very loud one, to yell at the top of their lungs for a brief moment. People look their way, give the person a look or think, 'Drunk', 'Freak', Weirdo'. And then they'll be on their way again. Not so much when it's a 300+ pound mutant dropping out of the sky. And the mutant's bellow is reminiscent of a crocodile's while being heard clearly for many, many blocks. Then it all ended with a big CRUNCH!. That doesn't blow over so well. In fact that tends to draw a lot of attention, whether unwanted or not.

This was the issue Aurion now faced. He hadn't meant to draw everyone's attention, he just stopped giving a crap for a moment. As he stood there for so many heartbeats, his eyes took in everything around him, his yellow eyes seeming to glow with reflected light. He saw humans gathering in small clusters around him. It is actually somewhat amazing how fast people can move to watch something of interest, even if they don't actually move fast.

He noticed the woman less than 10feet away from him. She was hard not to notice, her hair was so light, it seemed almost white. But she seemed as still as a statue to him, he wasn't even sure if she was breathing at first. It would be so easy for her to be the first he punished, but she was like a mouse looking at a giant. That image did flash through his head before, causing him to grin at the woman briefly before something in front of him caught his attention.

There it was again, the unmistakeable burst of a camera flash. Aurion's eyes glazed over slightly as his second eyelid slid into place. He moved quickly, flawlessly, and smoothly off the car to the ground where with hardly pause, he jerked and ripped the car door off. He gripped the door like a frisbee and chucked it. Right at the group who sheltered the idiot that took a picture of Aurion.

He bellowed again, moving his head left then right, then left again. His lips were peeled all the way back, exposing ever bit of his fangs as they glistened in the light.

Joe bounced slightly as his motorcycle rumbled down the street, his fingers hurt and his face was completely numb now but it was a small price to pay for getting his motorcycle from Camp Lejeune. He had left behind most of his things anyways but that was of little importance to Joe now the things he wanted to keep rest in the saddlebags that hung from either side of his bike. It had been several years since the last time Joe had made his way through New York and to be honest Joe wasn’t sure why he was coming back to this place to begin with, there was nothing left here but old memories and dark corners for him to forget them in. all Joe knew was he had to leave the Marines so as soon as his contract was up he was packed and on his way home. Joe had planned in advance for his arrival and after a few calls to the local VA Joe had secured himself a little apartment in the city.

Rumbling down the street Joe twisted down on his accelerator letting the black and chrome beast between his legs free and it roared back its approval as Joe sped down the road towards his apartment. Pulling over to the side of the road Joe quickly found a spot big enough to slide his motorcycle into close to his new building and with a quick swing of his leg he dismounted. Adjusting his jacket he flipped the hood from his black leather jacket over his head and turned to the rear of his bike reaching for his saddlebags when he heard what could best be described as a roar echo down the street followed quickly by the sound of metal and glass being crushed. Joe felt his heart rate spike, instinctively he reached for a rifle that should have been hanging from his side and distress gripped him as he came back with nothing but air. As Joe’s eyes landed on the source he felt the fire in his chest ignite, Joe didn’t like to have flashbacks and within the first few minutes of being back he already was being thrust back into a combat situation.

Joe quickly became engulfed in a small group as people sub-consciously moved to get a better view at the freak of nature that was obviously preparing to terrorize the city. Joe hated people like this they spoke of the horrors of war and how it was an atrocity but the minute they got the opportunity they would try and get a clearer view of a body mangled in a car wreck or some atrocity of nature like this monster of a mutant in front of them. Joe prepared to turn and grab his saddlebags off his bike again, this wasn’t his fight there was a reason this city had cops and Joe wasn’t one of them, when the flash of a camera went off next to him. Again the anger burned in Joe’s chest again at the stupidity of this man, sheep was more like it calling the weasel of a human man was a step up he didn’t deserve and the situation spiraled out of control very quickly now that someone had finally decided to make a move. The monster moved quickly and fluidly sliding off the roof of the car and with minimal effort ripping the door off and flinging it at the moron stupid enough to take a picture and draw attention to himself.

Joe instantly slid into a combat mindset gripping hold of a dark haired woman in front of him he pulled her back out of the line of fire and reaching deep into himself he tapped into his mutant powers and from the ground in front of his boot a cluster of three crystal spires erupted from the ground impaling the flying car door in midair a foot from the group spraying them with glass and metal shards. Joe didn’t need this right now, he thought to himself as his hands and forearms began to be encased in a pair of crystal gauntlets, he just wanted to go into his little apartment and drink himself to sleep but it was obvious this monster was preparing to go on a rampage in front of Joe’s apartment building and he couldn’t run the risk of letting this thing destroy his motorcycle.

Lumen stood motionless and unblinking as the creature looked at her, he was taking her in and she was doing the same. A mutant she thought with shock. That creature was a mutant. For half an instant her heart went out to him. If she looked like that and couldn't change into anything else, she was liable to start smashing some cars up too. Especially on Christmas.

But that was about as far as it went, because half a second later the guy standing only 5 or 6 feet behind her snapped his camera and like most idiot tourists didn't think to turn off the blinding flash. The creature seemed to blink or something, and then Lumen learned just how bad it would have been if she had taken a photo.

The car door came hurdling toward the guy who was standing behind her. Everything seemed to go in slow motion for Lumen. She centered herself and instantly became aware of a man to her right (ooc: that's you Brody!) and another man rushing up from the left (ooc: Joe!). Maybe the man rushing in meant to knock her back but there was another darker haired woman closer that he got. So in the split second that followed, Lumen found herself pushing a gloved hand into the spot just between the shoulder blades of the man on her right with the dirty blond hair. "Down. Now!" and she shoved him down to the side walk along with herself.

She was low to the ground and waited to hear what was sure to be a sickening crunch when the door hit the stupid man with the camera but something else made a strange crunch instead and she was sprayed with a fine powder almost like snow. Her eyes darted up just in time to see the man who'd been coming in from the left, the guy who got the other girl out of the way. He'd thrown something at the car. No, maybe thrown wasn't the right word. She kept an arm around the blond guy (hey. blonds had to stick together) still huddled close to the ground but realized that the man who'd stopped the car door was also a mutant and he was using some sort of power force.

"Get out of here, NOW!" Lumen commanded the other people behind her while she fell back on her haunches pulling the blond guy with her. She exchanged a glance with him. "You alright? Sorry for the shove. Flying car doors and all."

It's all fun and games until somebody starts hurling car parts at people - then it's still kind of fun, unless things are coming your way. He could totally handle this without breaking a sweat; the distance the door needed to travel, the time it would take to get there - not a problem, just a little change in direction an-.. down he went, shoved forward to the ground by the woman he had been too oblivious to see reaching towards him.

>> "Down. Now!"

He really needs to rethink this whole 'Go see what's going on' thing of his, it's starting to become a serious hazard to his health. Now everything was crashing around him, the glass raining down, the crunching metal sounding like thunder just overhead and.. this woman, draping herself over him? Alright, it wasn't such a bad position to be in. Not. At. All.

Peeking up from his "hiding spot" splayed out on the sidewalk more surprised to have the woman hauling him up than to see the crystal spires that had appeared to protect them all.

>> "You alright? Sorry for the shove. Flying car doors and all."

"Nah, I'm fine, thanks.. Hi." Smiling broadly at Lumen, the danger they were all in briefly forgotten, atleast until the next piece of car comes flying along, threatening to cleave them in two. "This wasn't the time, idiot!" Pushing back up to completely rise to his feet, a quick glance given between Aurion and the new guy growing.. glass? on his arms. Yeah, he was way out of his league with these people.

The big lizard was angry, understandably so, if some jerk were taking his picture without permission he might throw a cardoor at him too. Or maybe just take the camera and smash it, both good choices. "Somebody should do something?" It was question, rather than a statement. He looked to Lumen again and quickly rethought his opinion on the other two: He could take them out.. maybe just this once he'll play the hero, anything to impress a pretty girl. Of course, playing hero rank the risk of you getting your head knocked off by an angry crowd who doesn't appreciate being saved.. decisions..

At one point Aurion would have stopped in his tracks and been completely shocked, frozen if he had seen something appear from seemingly nowhere. That point had been before he knew of other mutants. The first he had ever met was Lydia. That had been such a surprise to him, he hadn't eaten her. That was pretty big considering his situation at the time. Since that time he had seen a number of mutations, and gotten somewhat use to mutations that did things from seemingly no where. Like Kaitlyn, who's power had not only busted up the library, but also broke his tooth.

So seeing what looked to Aurion to be glass-like things appear, impale and stop the car door barely slowed him down. He gave it a slight head-tilt and a quick double-blink as he had sped towards the man who had taken the picture. Using his powerful frame he sent himself into a quick tight spin. After one full spin to gain speed he threw one fist out while extending his tail. His fist was aimed to backhand the glass-like spire, with his knuckles, as hard as he could to see how strong it was. A flick of his tail sent his now stiff fin cutting through the air towards the group on the ground.

His tail was not aimed to maim, maybe cut a bit though. The main purpose of the action was to gauge how they'd react, and to try and flush out whoever had made the spikes. Not to mention see who else thought it was a good idea to play a hero.

ooc: I think it's my turn since I originally posted after Aurion, but Joe if anything doesn't add up right PM me and I'll fix...

IC:

Everything was happening so fast before she knew it Lumen and the blonde guy were back up and he was basically asking if they should help. She hesitated. Did he assume she was a mutant or was he simply saying this as a shocked statement? Lumen hated using her powers but even more-so she hated using them in public. She looked around- so many people. She really didn't want to use her powers. Besides, what else could her powers do but make him really really mad? Camera guy had all ready proven how irritating bursts of light could be and it wasn't like she could move something so big with her eyes.

"Maybe we should call the police?" she stammered it out knowing full well how stupid it sounded, but she really didn't feel like being ousted as a mutant today. Who's to say what might end up on a certain news segment with a certain red head. Yup, she was playing the cop out card. Quite literally.

"It looks like that mutant's got it under control." she took a nervous step back ready to run in an instant. "He must be a mutant too." she pointed to the creature who was clearly ready to fight. Over what? A dented car? Why anyone would want to fight with him was beyond her. She wondered what he looked like before all this or if he was born this way. She felt bad for him.

"At least... I guess we can get these people out of here." she said turning around trying to get all the gawkers to move.

Joe’s heart felt ready to burst out of his chest as the door hung in the air in front of him impaled by the crystal spires he had created. Joe really didn’t want to get into a fight with this beast of a mutant but as the thing sped towards him and the rest of the group it seemed that the possibility of this thing ending peacefully was slipping away. Joe watched as the monster spun and punched the spire he had created and wondered if this was it testing the strength of the crystal or was this thing a brainless monster just attacking anything it considered a threat. The crystal remained unaffected from the blunt force trauma of the beasts punch and Joe wondered if its hand was broken remembering when he himself tried to punch the ballistic ceramics of his flak jacket. The beast moved quickly again flicking its speared tail at the group and raising up his arms the tail slashed across the front of his crystal covered forearms nicking his left shoulder only slightly putting a hole in his leather jacket.

Rotating his shoulder around feeling out the pain on his new injury Joe began to push the crystal armor further up his arms and onto his back and chest in an attempt to protect his vital areas from damage. Lowering his arms down and to his sides he opened his fists revealing each finger covered in a point creating a hand of claws and bending slightly at the waist he entered into a combat stance. Joe could tell he wouldn’t be able to match this thing for speed he just hoped he could last long enough and protect these people, and his motorcycle, till the police or someone better able to handle a situation like this appeared to take over.

“Hey… buddy.” Joe hesitated for a moment as he tried to figure out what to call the thing in front of him without pissing it off additionally if it was sentient. “You don’t need to do this it’s almost Christmas why don’t you just take it easy and go back wherever it is you came from. These people didn’t do anything to you.” Joe could hear the people behind him talking and he could hear them calling him a mutant, a term he still wasn’t all that used to referring to himself as but it was when they said if they should call the police that Joe hoped would become the consensus for them. It had been awhile since Joe had been in a fight he wasn’t sure he could win but as he looked at the horror standing in front of him he wondered on one level if he would be able to make it out of this fight alive and wondered on another level if he wanted to make it out.

"Yeah, must be." But not the rest of us, oh no, we're just completely normal onlookers scared for our lives.. yup. Nobody here but us humans! Watching the interplay between the other two - the reptile smashing his fist into the crystals and the one who formed them protecting the rest from the swinging tail while was ready to pull Lumen out of the way this time, but glad he didn't have to. He'll save that 'Oops, hand slipped!' moment for later, then.

"We should definately call the cops.. I think these two are going to kill each other." Said while Joseph attempted to talk the enraged lizard-man out of maiming the rest of them to death. Atleast Brody knew he and Lumen would be safe, she was nice enough, he wouldn't mind a day long headache to get her out of the way. The rest of them? Not so much. Eyeing them all now just to see how stupid these people were - standing around like it was some kind of a tourist attraction. Shouldn't they be doing something better suited to the situation, like.. I don't know..

"Run people!" Doing his best to look genuinely panicked; eyes wide, arms raising up to get their attention. "There's no telling what they'll do to us if we get in their way! RUN!" Maybe not one of his best performances being as improvised as it was, but nothing said run away like scared children than a pair of mutants about to brawl it out in the streets. Now all he had left to do was wait until he could break it up.. maybe slam the pair of them together.. or drop them out of the sky.. or just stand there like a dope while trying to look helpful for Lumen's sake.

Aurion was often glad to have his scales, they really did seem to act like armor. If he was a soft as everyone else, he would probably have broken a bone or two and had flesh ripped right off his hand. Thankfully that didn't happen and since he had just hit it with his knuckles, all he felt was a slight numbness in his hand, barely noticeable. He had let his wrist fold instead of staying stiff when he connected. The spire was definitely not glass, but it wasn't unbreakable either, it had moved just a little bit from the hit. He could break it if he really wanted to, though it make take a few hits and a lot of muscle.

And while that was interesting, what really got Aurion's attention was the man who had made it. He hadn't noticed before, but he could see it clearly now. The same glass-ish stuff covered the man's hands, arms and more. Raising his arm quickly he held his hand toward the glass-man, with fingers spread, in a gesture that could not be taken as anything other than 'Stop'. He moved forward until he was within arms reach (Aurion's arms at least). He curled two fingers into his palm so his pinky pointed at the man, and his thumb at himself and moved his hand to say 'You and I'. "Same." His voice was deep and harsh, with a slight gravely sound.

Some of the people had started to flee, but most were still dumbstruck. Like those standing there, mere feet away. Ignoring Glass-man, there were really only two people trying to get the human to leave, with surprisingly little affect. His eyes lingered on the white haired woman for a tad longer than was strictly safe, for her anyway. His eyes locked onto Glass-man again, "Humans hurt..hate me. Us." His eyes flicked to a woman who started to flee. "Want kill us." Quick as a whip, his tail snapped out and hamstrung her. "Do first." He said with a smile as his tail made another quick movement across the woman's throat, making it impossible for her to breath again.

"Calling the police, gotchya." Raina pulled out her phone and called 911. "Hello police? We've got a mutant related emergency on the corner of 5th and Munroe. Uh.. a big scary godzillia thing and I think an ice man? ...I am positive we need the mutant division." she turned to the blonde "They should be here soon, no sense calling the regular boys in blue they couldn't do anything against this guy."

She turned back for a moment to continue shooing people when the creature started to speak. She spun around and strained to listen. She suddenly felt very sad for the beast. He hadn't asked to be this way and it was clear he'd been hunted before. But how could he know who was a human and who was a mutant? If he looked at her he'd think she was human. Perhaps he only considered those with visible mutations. She was about to yell out as much when the creature sliced open the throat of a woman. Lumen's hands rushed to her face and without thinking she turned and buried her head in the blonde's shoulder. Lumen was good as masking emotions and even better with surprises but this was a little too much with all the conflicting emotions.

ooc: we may want to consider inviting Jorge or someone else from the mutant division to join us

Joe watched ready to engage the freakish beast if things began to get more volatile but as the creature began to slowly move and raise its hand up in a way that Joe could only interpret as stop Joe’s jaw dropped down slightly. As the monster moved closer to Joe he got a good look at the thing he had just stepped up to challenge, its arm reach was impressive and he noticed the plate’s of scales that covered its entire body, not to mention the wicked claws that tipped each finger. When the fingers began to curl leaving only, as far as Joe could tell at least, the things pinky and thumb pointing at Joe and the thing itself and when the word “same” escaped from the monsters mouth Joe felt his mind just about explode. Letting his arms slide out of his combat stance he straightened his back and stood up, at least it seemed like this thing had some intelligence maybe this situation could resolve peacefully.

Joe watched the beast’s eyes as they scanned the area behind Joe and as the creature began to speak again Joe began to understand some of the motivation for this mutant’s hatred. “Human’s hurt… hate me. Us.” Joe hadn’t really experienced a whole lot of discrimination because of his mutation having kept it hidden pretty, well up until today at least, but Joe didn’t even begin to think that he could empathize with what this mutant had experienced but if he could try and talk this guy down then maybe the situation could be resolved without any additional violence or injuries. That is until he saw the mutants eyes flick to focus behind Joe again and the beast spoke, “Want kill us.” Everything began to slow down as Joe watched the monsters tail whip out and turning his head Jo e saw a young woman began to fall towards the ground as the back of her legs felt the sting of the monsters attack. “Do first.” Again the tail moved and a thin red line appeared across the woman’s throat and Joe turned back towards the monster.

Negotiations were obviously out of the question and Joe moved with quick determination towards the tail that had just murdered the young woman. Stretching out his crystal covered hand he attempted to snatch the bladed tail as it returned from its execution mission prepared to chop the thing off with his other hand. Joe kept his combat mindset and watched for movements from the monster it was quick and Joe wanted to avoid getting to ruffed up before Calvary arrived, but until then it was Joe’s responsibility to make sure no one else was injured. Where the heck were the damn cops?

"Anybody ever tell you how attractive you are when you take charge like that?" It really wasn't the time for that kind of thing, but wow, this woman was impressively handy to have around when things went sideways. Though the way she was talking it probably wasn't the first time she'd called the cops on mutants - he may let that go, always a sucker for a pretty face. His attention remained split between the woman on the phone and the other two mutants looking like they were going to slug it out infront of the remaining crowd.

A smile started playing at his lips when the bestial mutant started to speak, relating and reasoning to the man (and by proxy, Brody) of the similarities he (they) shared. Neither of the two were in as bad a boat as the lizard-man-godzilla-thing, but if it was still capable of thinking things through even at a time like this, then maybe it couldn't be all ba- HOLY S%#T! The smile became quickly replaced with horror as the lashing tail took a woman down then finished her off in as much time as it had taken him to blink.

Frozen in place with the woman pressed against him after witnessing the callous murder, where in truth if she hadn't done it first, he may have been the one to bury his face into her shoulder. All at once his mind was made up under a flurry of thoughts revolving around the situation; wrapping his arms around the woman infront of him they both fell backwards, but didn't hit the ground. They, and those few bystandards who hadn't fled already - especially after the sight of seeing a woman getting her throat slit - were yanked backwards to distance themselves from the once again fighting mutants.

Those who had just now turned to run were flailing through the air, those still standing their ground as frozen in shock as he had been were pulled backwards, legs kicking. Brody and the woman he held remained upright but moving backwards just the same. It was only a few seconds before it was over, the pair of them landing feet first against the sidewalk while others tumbled to a stop. Scrapes and bruises were a sight better than getting ripped apart. Don't be fooled, this wasn't an act of heroism, it was all about self-preservation with a clean conscience.

Hands finding the woman's shoulders he stepped back to get a look at her while he spoke. "We have.. " Suddenly out of breath he had to stop to inhale again, smacking his lips together as a wave of confusion washed over his face. "I taste blood?" A trickle of the red stuff starting from one nostril. That wasn't good. Too much all at once. He should've just launched the lizard into the air and run away. The iceman could have skewered him on the way back down - much easier. "I.. just.. whew" He turned to make his quick exit before any questions could be raised, but instead found himself face down on the pavement as everything went black. Much better.