"Where'd they go?"

Somewhere behind her, Andrea could hear confused shouts.. and Angry ones.
The little voice in the back of her mind snidely commented on how this was all her fault, for trusting her scaled roommate again. Really, she should have known better.

Or at least questioned the motives behind her friend wanting to take a spur of the moment trip into the city. But, being the quiet, non-confrontation type, Andrea had simply shrugged with a weary sigh, and followed her friend out the door.

Right into trouble.

Now she was bolting down back alleys, diving behind dumpsters, and desperately trying to outrun distant sirens. All because her *friend* hadn't felt like paying for a bright, shiny bracelet and a ring. Of course, things really wouldn't have spiraled out of control if she hadn't of also assaulted the store clerk ... and pulled a gun on the security guards.

Somehow, Andrea was sure she should have seen this coming a mile away.

"What the hell were you thinking Allie?! You could have gotten us shot back there!"

Yelling and running were hard to do at the same time, she noticed, so she concentrated more on running for the moment. Her roommate just turned and grinned at her. Like none of the last ten minutes had just happened.

"What'dya expect me to do, pay for it? This piece of crap aint worth the gold it's plated with."

"It's a three hundred dollar bracelet! And that damn ring is worth more than both of us combined! You should have just given them back to the lady, and none of this would have happened!"

The two paused for a moment, resting in the shadows of a backstreet. The sirens were distant, but always growing closer. They didn't have long to rest.

"You saw the way she looked at us, Andy. Like we were trash that had just blown in off the street. I wasn't going to let her get away with it."

The Greek groaned, panting as she hunched over and caught her breath. This much exercise was too much, considering what she had been through in the last couple of months. Bruises had long since faded, but still ached. Cuts had just barely closed up all of the way, and her skull still smarted like there were fresh wounds.

... not to mention the headaches. Always with the damn headaches.

"And this was better than talking to her? Filing a complaint... or Anything else?!" Sloth curled tighter around her neck, reacting to the stress of the situation. Andrea patted him softy, trying to reassure the serpent that everything was Ok... for the moment, anyhow. Allie shot her a hurt look, and crossed her arms.

"You know how we're treated by humans... Someone has to stand up to them. Show them that we won't take this sort of crap laying down, you know?"

Her frustration growing, Andrea straightened herself. "And this is how we are to cure the hate? By stealing things and waving toy guns around?" She reach out with one gloved hand and angrily snatched the other mutants purse away. The stolen things had been shoved inside, as well as the gun- which was nothing more than a glorified air soft pistol. "This, if anything, will only make people hate us mor-"

Sirens picked up in volume, and both women froze. They exchanged a look, before turning and bolting down the alley. Toward the end, Andrea turned left.. and her friend split off to the right. "Hey! Where are you going?!" She could hear voices and footsteps racing down he path they had just come, and wasn't able to turn and follow her friend. Taking off again, it wasn't until after a few minutes of sprinting and wildly turning corners that she realized something...

She had run off with the evidence, and the gun...

A cross street came into view up ahead of her, and a small warehouse type building offered her refuge. She rounded the corner ahead, and was delighted to see that someone had left a door open. Without giving it a seconds thought, she was through the door and slid it shut behind her, before flopping back against a wall to catch her breath.

God... she was so screwed...

White chocolate. And dark chocolate. And milk chocolate. Chocolate truffles. And chocolate turtles. And cappuccinos. But mainly...

Ashton broke off a section from the bar, and passed it to Archer as they rode. She was driving. He was letting her. It didn't happen often. The chocolate might have been part of a celebration. It might also have been something he'd wanted because he'd been hungry, and skipped lunch. Bennings had had other plans.

Yup. He'd gone back to those ways. And she'd gone back on her decision, too. So. Chocolate. Mmm.

"Radio says two women robbed a jewelry store. Escaped with a bracelet and a ring. Keep your eyes out. Description said one was green, with shades and weird hair. Other one had scales. Eczema, maybe?" Mutants. You never knew with their range of mutations. He'd met a dandruff mutant once. It had almost been a crime.

~*~

A wheezing gasp trailed through the darkness of the warehouse. The hulking slouched form of the beastly mutant lumbered forward, towards the only crack of light. The door. In the inky atmosphere, all one could see was a silhouette. A patch of black a bit blacker than the rest of the essence of night. His face was long and wormlike, with a serrated circle of teeth at the end and no visible eyes. Just two nostrils. And his whole body was misshapen. Bigger on the front. Twisted and shrunk towards the back. With two massive forearms like a gorilla's supporting his weight, and the rest on two reverse-jointed knees, he looked quite the sight. Or would have. If one could have seen him fully. But you know, darkness?

Sometimes, what you don't see is scarier than what you do. As he lurched towards her, his breathing got louder, alongside the drip drip sound of falling drool.

He was hungry. Thankfully, you couldn't get that from his face. Not-so-thankfully, the sounds he was making really made up for his lack of expression. And he smelled bad, too.

Rotten sewer crusted over with filthy decay. And yellow birthday cake with chocolate icing on top.

~*~

Chocolate sure was good, Ashton mentally reiterated. Sometimes, the smell of it even got overwhelming.

For one quiet moment, as her heart slowed and her breathing calmed, Andrea felt a rush of relief wash over her. It wasn't over yet... she knew that, but at least there was a small sliver of time for her to rest. Maybe she'd be able to think up some grand way to get out of this, like bad guy always seemed to do in the movies. Drop the loot in a river, tied to a brick, and come back for it later.

Though... she was hardly a bad guy, and she was more inclined to return the jewelry than keep it. It was dirty, after all. Something that had been stolen, rather than earned. Sighing, the Greek let her head fall back against the wall. She stared at the crack of light filtering in from outside, ears straining to gauge if the distant sound of sirens was coming or going. Hopefully going... maybe, *hopefully*, after her mutant friend.

It's not like she didn't deserve it.

A quietness settled over her, with only the soft hum of cars in the distance and city life to break it up. It was.. reassuring. Kind of. The calm before the storm, she guessed.

With the problem of outrunning authority temporarily dealt with, all she had to worry about was the merchandise she was carrying. It was Allie's bag... and Andrea had watched enough crime fighting shows to know that her gloves would leave no prints on it. Looking down at it, she decided that it would be best if she dropped it somewhere. If she stayed hidden for a little while, until things calmed down, then she could just walk out of the building and pretend like nothing happened. Then she could...

Something shuffled, very softly, off behind her. All thoughts were paused as she turned and looked off into the darkness, ears turning from city noise to listen for whatever had moved. She heard the noise again... like... breathing. Almost instantly fear overwhelmed her, and she froze on the spot, eyes staring vacantly into the dark. She was remembering things... horrible things, about the last time she had tried to hide in a vacant building. Her rational side tried to take control, chanting that it was just some animal, like a dog, or a cat. Something else that was frightened and hiding in a dark place.

...but then the sound grew closer. Distant breath turning into a sickly wheeze. The sounds of someone stepping... heavy footfalls, and an eerie dripping noise. Noises she had only ever heard from zombie movies and sci-fi flicks. Andrea held fast to the wall for a moment, but then the smell hit her. Like something dead, or composing, and her flight or fight instinct kicked in.

She chose to run.

Slamming the door beside her open, she turned and flung it shut behind her. Wide eyed, she staggered back a few steps, and simply watched it. She was almost sure than she was over reacting... she had to be. Her ears picked up a sudden thud thudding, like something heavy running, and the door burst open, almost off it's hinges. Andrea turned and fled down the back street to her left, shrieking as the beast lurched out into the alley and gave chase.

She was driving. Driving and happy to be driving. Ashton never let her drive. Then again, he never chain ate chocolate like it was going out of style either. What had he gotten up to over lunch when he hadn't been answering his phone?

"Thanks." Quin said, taking the chocolate as Ashton offered it. Yum. Chocolate. She was about to say something else, maybe poke the sleeping dragon of her partner's lunch plans, when Ashton gave her the run down on the perps they were chasing. Again.

Dammit. How had he known she was about to dig?

The one chick was green. That would be easy enough to spot in a crowd, the redhead decided as they moved slowly down the slightly crowded streets. Again, she thanked the stars above that her power had manifested itself in the form of a smushed eraser instead of purple spots.

The problem was that in a city of 8 million people, even a green girl could hide.

...until she ran out into the middle of the street. Right in front of a cop car.

"HOLY SHIT!" Quin shouted, slamming on the brakes.

Tires squealed.

The big loping wild beast squealed, too. As the cop car hit it.

Police cars can handle a lot. They're reinforced. You ever see The Blues Brothers, when the Bluesmobile Mk. II jumps the draw bridge, and they just keep on rolling, like nothing happened? Well, maybe that wasn't 100% authentic. But.

Okay. The front end still didn't like colliding with a big orangish-tan hairy monster with massive gorilla arms.

The candy bar flopped down onto the floor of the squad car. Archer's comment was right.

There was their perp. And. She was not alone.

Ashton's door lock clicked as he stepped out of the vehicle, drawing his side arm.

"This is the police. Stop where you are. I need to talk to you." He glanced towards the green girl and added. "Both of you."

Yeah, hopefully the goliath would act a bit more like a sensible David and talk, instead of turning and hammering on the hood of the car.

He was wrong.

A gunshot barked. A flash of red on the big guy's shoulder. The monster had given him every reason. He'd exercised his judgment.

The big guy didn't like the judgment call.

Funny thing about running for your life... you don't realize where you've run to, until you stop, or something forces you to pay attention. Like, say, tires screeching as a car comes flying toward you.

Andrea Shrieked again, and tried to back pedal away. Instead, she tripped and sent her purse flying, while Mr. big and ugly careened into the car instead of her. The contents of the bag rolled out into the street, her fake weapon flopping out into plain view.

She didn't notice, considering she had just narrowly escaped being roadkill... She scrambled away from the collision, as the beast turned it's attention to the car, and those inside. It didn't seem to have been harmed much by the impact, if at all. With her heart thudding away in her chest, Andrea simply sat where she had landed and stared like a deer in headlights.

As it turned out, the car she had run out in front of was a police car... or at least that was what she was led to believe, considering what the man who had gotten out of it stated. She didn't know if she wanted to cry because of being more or less caught, or cry because someone was going to take care of the giant dog...mutant...thing... that had been chasing her. Either way, she nodded stiffly, unable to form words, and didn't move an inch.

... though, she did squeal and flinch, when the cop shot the beast.

"Stay where you are!" Quin said, using the open car door as cover and aiming her service weapon at the green girl on the floor.

It was hard to resist moving forward after Ashton shot, but Quin stayed where she was as the big, yellow....thing snarled and grumbled. The redhead's eyes scanned the scene and fell on the weapon peeking out from the bag the girl had been carrying.

"Keep your hands where we can see them and away from that weapon."

Archer had things under control with the girl. Which meant. Ashton could has chaos with big woof.

The thing exploded in a bounding leap of sinewy muscle and even-stronger arm. It hit the ground where Ashton had been standing, hard.

Its fists smashed into concrete. Its fingers were smeared red.

"Keep your hands where we can see them and away from that weapon."

With her ears still ringing, she flinched and turned all of her attention to the red haired woman. Who.... had a gun pointed at her. Glancing at the fake gun in not to far from her, she blinked and froze. They thought it was real...? Duh. Of course they did... who wouldn't?! The bottom of her stomach dropped away and she threw her hands into the air as high as she could possibly get them.

"I-it isn't rea-!"

She hadn't noticed the yellow thing attack, until it leaped at the other man. She heard the concrete crackle from the force of the things attack, and little bits of rubble peppered the ground in a circle around the beaten up car. Andrea's reaction was delayed, but she cringed, squeezing her eyes shut, she ducked her head down and yelped loudly.

God... she just wanted to run... but her legs were shaking and she was in enough trouble as it was.

The girl was terrified, that much was obvious, and Quin chanced a glance in Ashton's direction to make sure everything was going well. The yellow thing had jumped, and he had done his switching thing with...something. Oh well, whatever it was, it had worked and the monster was pounding the pavement in frustration.

The girl, was still staying where she'd been told to stay, cowering in fact. The gun hadn't been touched, and if Quin had heard right while she was watching Ashton...the gun wasn't even real. Still..cops had been fooled by lamer sounding lines.

"Just keep your hands where I can see them. " she said as she started to approach, reaching with one hand to the plastic riot cuffs in her belt and keeping one eye on the scene transpiring in the corner of her eye.

'Now slowly get down on the ground and put your hands behind your head." she said when she was nearly within arm's reach.

Funny thing about fists. They usually get hurt when hitting hard things. Like trash cans or the ground.

Ashton crossed his arms at the monster and tutted his tongue as he shook his head. "Sloppy."

And messy. Ouch, the repair bills. And that car was his.

"You'll pay fer that."

What the hell was that thing, anyway? It looked like some children's show reject. Some sort of alien X.

The thing sniffed the air blindly, then turned around to face him. A bullet grazed its shoulder and it clenched it. It sneered at the wound.

In a tiny girlish British voice, it said. "Oh come now, officer. You must be joking. I'm a great bloody beast. I don't pay. Ever." There was a dark tone to that 'ever'. Then, it sprang.

Things went into motion again, fast. And it wasn't Mr. Teleporter the thing had sprang at, either. The beast had scented weakness somewhere nearby, and that, it decided, was worth exploiting to the fullest extent of the word.

It moved fast. One second it was a reasonable distance away, and she was doing as instructed, the next it was flying directly at her. Or... at least that’s how it seemed. The command the other officer had given her was still registering in her mind, her hands were even tucked neatly behind her head, when she fully grasped what was happening. Pure, unbridled terror griped her and she completely forgot what she had just been told and why she was doing it. Andrea screamed at the top of her lungs, and threw herself away from the woman approaching her.

Big Beasty was going to land too close for comfort, much too close for comfort. Within one long arms length away from the two women, it came crashing down. Teeth bared and nostrils flaring. Sloth didn't even have time to hiss defensively at it, as Andrea was up on her feet and sprinting as fast as she could take her away from the huge mutant, as soon as her feet found purchase. Everything sort of tunnel visioned around her into a mad sprint forward, toward an escape route... somewhere. Panic had taken over. She wasn't thinking anymore, merely acting.

...The day had started off so nicely, too. But then Alli had ruined it... and gotten her into this awful mess. If she hadn't have been so terrified, she'd have been angry. Very angry.

She took off down the road as fast as she could, hoping quite selfishly that the monster would stay where it was and the police would deal handle it. She’d probably, most likely, feel terrible later... but that was then, and not now. Her foot caught on the edge of the sidewalk and she stumbled, before catching herself on a light pole and taking off again. There wasn't even time to look back, to make sure it was staying put. Something about it, the situation, was far too familiar. She didn't feel like she was running from some stupid misunderstanding anymore. It was starting to feel like she was running for her life again.

Her fleeing, though... was not as quick as she thought it was, and Beasty was far quicker. It disentangled itself from the pavement, almost lazily watching her flee. Then turned and sniffed the air in the female Officer’s direction. With a toothy, lopsided grin at her, it hopped forward again, landing none too gently on the hood of a parked car. Had it eyes, it would have cast a pointed look over it's shoulder at the other cop. A shrilly, high pitched giggle carried over the air as it took off on all fours, chasing after the fleeing Gorgon.

Don't run...don't run....don't run... Quin repeated the mantra in her head. The girl had that look, the twitchy eyes. She was so close now, so ready to slip the riot cuffs over the girl's wrists and end this whole thing.
Somewhere over her shoulder, the redhead could hear a conversation going on but Ashton had things under control.
Quin wasn't ready for the thing to spring though. She also wasn't ready for the green girl to jump up and run away. She'd already shifted positions and aimed her gun at the beast, but she'd hesitated when she realized she didn't know exactly where Ashton was. There was too much happening too fast, and Quin cursed as she turned to see the girl moving down the alley followed by the monster.

"DAMMIT! I said stay down!" she said. How was she supposed to protect anyone like this!

"NYPD!" she shouted as she took off in pursuit. "Stop where you are!" They needed to end this soon...before they ran into a more public area.

There was one happy four-letter profane word for a time like this. Ashton uttered it mentally as all things went to hell. The girls scattered, one down an alley, one after her (after the massive barreling dog-beast, that is).

A car alarm wailed as he sighed and chased after the green girl, the dog, and the fiery redhead he called 'Quin'.

Have you ever woken up one morning, looked over at the alarm clock on your nightstand, and already knew that the day was not going to end well? What did you do? Did you say to yourself "To hell with it, I'm going to kick today square in the butt and to hell with remembering names!" or did you just roll over and go back to sleep?

Jirou was seriously wishing he had just gone back to sleep right about now.

The day had been going so well too. He'd grabbed a nice cup of coffee, had a nice old fashioned New York style hot dog, and was just enjoying the beautiful New York city day. He even decided to go for a walk around town, just for the heck of it!

That nice day of his suddenly came to a crashing halt the second a green skinned mutant lady came barreling out of an alley and knocked him off of his feet. Both he and the the girl tumbled to the ground in a heap of flailing appendages. An incoherent string of less than polite Japanese and English escaped his person as he tried to make sense of what the hell had just happened.

King Kong's mutated, and seemingly less than friendly, cousin probably had something to do with it. It looked like it had been playing bloody knuckles with a wall while the high pitched cackled really added to the peculiarity of the situation.

He definitely should have slept in.