A Bitter Pill To Swallow

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

Augusta whispers to her, "You're safe now, let's get you dry then a cab. I'm Augusta. Did he take anything from you?" Augusta hopes so, then she'd have an excuse to give that guy a big piece of trouble. She feels the need to punish him, and resists the urge to abandon her charge. Dave had a plan, and knowing him, her being the rescuer was some kind of therapeutic response.

Holding her tightly around the shoulders, protecting her from the rain, she waits for an answer before she will lead the woman either into the church, or if she resists that, down the street to a bodego called Juan's.

She watches the fog where the mugger was.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
Mike blinks after Eva, clearly surprised by how easily she managed to get up again after that crash and somewhat taken aback by the anger she's showing, stomping up to the unknown man again and kicking anything in her path out of the way. He for his part stays back, observing the scene for now, though his eyes dart to the phone behind the counter, probably considering calling the police.

The stranger by the door seems to still be confused and disoriented. His eyes dart between the two arguing blondes but don't come to a stop on either of them. He stumbles backwards a bit, closer towards the entrance door again, while around him, objects continue to fly through the air. As he moves away, both Eva and Melissa catch a glimpse of something attached to his leg. It's mostly covered by his cheap pants but there appears to be some sort of dark rubber bracelet around his ankle. While Eva doesn't recognize it, maybe thinking it's some sort of strange fashion accessory, Melissa recognizes the logo of the Terrorist and Anarchist Neutralization and Correction facility on the object.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

The two men collide in the heavy must and torrential downpour with enough force to be hard over the pounding rain. The mugger hits the alley wall, bounces back and both men splash into the gray brackish water standing in the alleyway. The mugger scrambles to stand up as Dave crashes into him again, pinning the man face down under his considerable weight. "Community Potluck was a couple days ago, Pal. Dave growled at the mugger. "But I got all the left over knuckle sandwiches you want if you make even the slightest move."
Pushing the mugger's face into the rising polluted gray alley water and pressing his knees into the man's back, Dave frisked the mugger for a wallet, keys or anything else he could find.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

The man struggles underneath Dave, but Draven's weight is enough to keep him down for now as he searches the would-be mugger's pockets. He quickly produces a wallet, phone and key ring. The wallet has a bit of cash in it as well as bank cards, a driver's license and anything else to be expected. The man appears to be called Timothy Judge, going by the contents of his wallet, and his car keys and phone give no indication that he is anything but an ordinary guy, seemingly neither particularly well off nor poor.
"A-are you crazy, man? Let me go!" Judge protests, working hard to keep his head above the water of the deep puddle. He sounds scared.

Meanwhile, the young woman seems to be getting a bit better of a grip on herself, now that Augusta is speaking calmly to her. She takes a couple of breaths, then looks over to Dave and the mugger. "Your friend isn't going to"—She draws a finger across her throat—"this guy, right?" She seems genuinely concerned about the possibility.
When Augusta asks whether the man took anything from her, the woman shakes her head. "No, but... my glasses. I think I lost them when he pushed me." Noticing that Augusta is guiding her slowly towards the church entrance, she then adds, "I'm looking for a Mr. Draven. Do you know him?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store

Melissa keys in on the man, ignoring the objects flying through the air. She now realizes that the man is not some down-and-out drunk but something much more. Her eyes rest on the ankle bracelet which she recognizes immediately, and her heart leaps. It's the same ankle bracelet Belinda wore when she last visited her at the TANC! This changed everything.

Her bestie, the closest friend she'd ever had, was set up. She was sure of it. Yes, Bel, as she called her, had her gambling vices but she was otherwise a good soul, and Melissa worried about her every day as she tried to figure out a way to get her out of there or moved to another facility. She was also very puzzled. Why she was not in some ordinary jail to start out with? Everyone knew about the TANC.

"Hey Mister, Raven is it?" she shouts. "Wait! Maybe we can help you." She had no idea how but she wasn't going to pass up this opportunity.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

"No, no, he won't, unless the man has a gun." She pauses then and points at the church. What does this girl want with Dave, has she had trauma from metaviolence? "Dave hangs out inside, there is a group meeting he runs. Hot coffee sounds good doesn't it? But he's really helped me deal with -- what I've gone through."

She points at the side door. "Do you want to wait inside? It'll be safe there. I'll get your glasses."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
"Melissa," Eva says as the woman keeps getting closer to the man, keeps trying to engage with him, "hold up! Don't you see all the crap flying in the air? He's doing that! This guy is dangerous!" The barista has hold of her temper for now, though... despite the tears in her dark leggings, the hyper-fit metahuman holds fire on just trying to plow the guy outside, straight through the front of the building.

"Can you stop with all this?" she adds to Melissa's message, calling out to the man as she gestures to the whirling debris. "You're going to hurt someone..."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
As the two women are talking to the unknown man, Mike is calling all the other customers further into the back of the store, as far away from the man and the flying wares as possible. Then he dashes over to the desk and picks up the phone. "Stay away from him!" he calls over to Eva and Melissa. "He could hurt you!"

The grey-haired man rubs his temples again, his expression grows a bit more focused for a moment, but that doesn't last long. He looks like he's trying to break through some mental fog but not succeeding. He shakes his head in response to Eva's question. "No..." he croaks, his voice weak. "No control."
A toaster suddenly whizzes past both women, narrowly missing them both. The man stumbles backwards, maybe trying to leave the store and get back out on the street.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina
The blonde woman looks surprised when Augusta says that Mr. Draven is inside. Her eyes dart over to Dave before she turns her head to the church's side entrance behind her. "I, uh, yes, I'll wait in there," she says. She takes a step towards the door, then looks over once again to where Dave is holding the mugger down with his weight and says, "This guy... don't... I'm okay, I think. Don't hurt him. Please."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

"Go, wait inside, get warm. Two of us can handle him more safely than one." The thin, delicate Asian woman seems confident, unperturbed by the violence, but she purposefully waits until the blond is out of harms way before she goes to assist Dave. She gestures kindly at the side door.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina
The young woman nods and, after another glance in the direction of the struggle going on at the entrance of the alley, heads into the building through the door Augusta indicates.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
Eva's blood is still up from the tension in the situation, but her temper is under control as she moves forward. She, as much as anyone, can sympathize with someone who's not in full control of their metahuman powers. With the terrible notion of hurting people without meaning to.

"I get it," she says to the man, risking the tornado of objects and lifting one arm to deflect anything that might hit her in the head. "Let me help you outside! That way no one will get hurt..."

Taking a cue from Eva, Melissa calmly and quietly moves a few steps closer to the man. She now sees the confusion in his eyes and that he doesn't appear to be entirely in control of his actions which might explain the projectiles floating about.

"Yes, Eva is right. Let us help you outside. We will be safer there and you can try and tell us what's going on. Okay? We only want to help."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
The unknown man continues to back away, his eyes now darting between the two women as they both continue to talk to him. He seems to be somewhat pacified by Eva's words - maybe he can sense how she relates to his lack of control - but when Melissa addresses him, something appears to snap in him.
He screams "No!" at her and that same moment, the entire glass front of the store, including the glass doors and the display windows shatters, sending shards of what is clearly not regulation safety glass through the store. Eva gets strafed by it but it doesn't do much more than slash her clothes. There's a scream of pain in the back of the store and on a quick glance back, Melissa and Eva see Mike holding a bleeding arm. It doesn't look like he's in any serious danger because of the injury but it does look painful. The glass breaking also sets off the store's alarm, causing a siren to blare through Caine and Sloane and simultaneously sending a call out to the police.

Despite all this commotion, however, Eva's words appear to have the desired effect of calming the man at least somewhat and maybe even clearing some of his brain fog. The pressure surrounding him drops off significantly, though not completely. "Where am I?" he asks in a hoarse voice as Eva leads him out of the store into the pouring rain.

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

With the potential 'mugger' having become a 'mugee', Dave stuck Judge's wallet and phone in his shirt pocket and freeing up a hand to twine into the guy's hair at the back of his head. "I didn't have 'drown a man in garbage water' on my bingo card tonight but hey... So, if you value the idea of not getting pneumonia from sucking up a lungful of Graybridge's finest vintage, you're gonna explain to me who you are and what you were doing with that girl." For emphasis, he pushed the man's face into the pool as he heard Augusta's footfalls splash up to them.
"The girl okay?" he asked his hooded compatriot. "Guy's name is Timothy Judge. Ring any bells? He's not armed, hasn't displayed any unusual abilities yet either." he gave her a quick report before remembering he had the man's face underwater and pulled it back up for him to breathe. "Better start talking, Tim...

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

It's not immediately obvious with all the rain running down his head and the dirty puddle water splashed over his face but the man is crying now. It's mostly his sobs that clue Dave and Augusta in. "Please, I'm nobody," he begs. "I wasn't doing anything. I just needed some cash and she looked like an easy target. Please, man! Let me go. You'll never see me again, I swear!"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Outside Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina

Augusta looks carefully for the glasses, and let's the fog disperse a little. "We have ways to make sure you don't assault women again. Men too."

She leans close to the partially drowning man. " After snapping your wrists, I twist them around, tearing the tendons. You'd be lucky to hold your tiny peepee again much less restrain someone by force."

Inwardly she winces. Peepee? That wasn't very intimidating. Got to work on that.

"This has a been a nice chat, Tim." Dave let go of the man's hair and stood up off the man. "I'd listen to her though. Next time that 'easy mark' could be someone like her.. he nodded towards Augusta's hooded form hovering above the would-be mugger "...and in that case there's a good chance you'll be either eating through a straw or re-learning how to walk. These streets aren't safe these days. Never know who...or what... you'll run into in dark alleys. Capiçe, kimosabe."
Dave hauled the man up from laying in the alleyway and pushed Tim against the wall under a broken gutter that sprayed ice-cold roof runoff over him to wash away a good bit of the alley slime. After effectively waterboarding the man for a minute, he hauled him back out of the numbing spray by the collar of the man's coat, "Luckily for you, there just so happens to be a support group meeting right next door for victims of meta-violence right over there. I feel like you might need to sit in and share your feelings about the matter. Not waiting for an answer, he yanked poor Timothy Judge down the alleyway towards the meeting room. Dave glanced back at Augusta and shrugged with a grin, "With you, me, Kaminski, the girl and Tim here we've got enough to mark the meeting as full so we don't lose our standing reservation time. I call it a win/win.
Dave resists the urge to throw the man down the flight of concrete stairs down to the cathedral basement and instead escorts him down with the collar of the man's coat balled up in his fist. "Everyone." he announced as they came back into the meeting room, "I'd like you to meet our newest member, Tim Judge. Now, Tim, I believe you have something to say to the young lady? " Dave unceremoniously pulled Tim back into the chair Dave had vacated earlier and stood menacingly behind him.

The glass hits Eva full in the face, and she only barely manages to close her eyes in time... just like the time...

It's Hong Kong and she's watching a bunch of bearded black ops beefcake rappel from the helo she's in. She doesn't rappel -- she jumps. It's a hundred feet or more to the rooftop of the towering skyscraper, but she jumps, then lands knees first on what is surely a reinforced glass skylight. It shatters like she weighs a ton, sending shards everywhere, tinkling in her ears, twinkling in the light of the gala below as she plunges down further...

It's Graybridge, she's still damp from her walk to Caine & Sloane, and the pressure wave is subsiding. Eva's clothes have been partly shredded by the glass, despite her skin not having a mark on it. Glancing down at her eye-catching chest, and at her shapely, powerful legs, she knows her turtle neck, her jean jacket, her skirt and her tights have all been ruined. When she keeps moving forward to 'Raven', or whoever this was, there are glimpses of firm flesh and torn underwear visible through the holes and slices in her garments. Her shoulder, her midriff, her hip and both calves, the side of one of the woman's full breasts.

"Come on," the unconcerned blonde says, leading the man outside, into the downpour. "You're in Graybridge, downtown," she says, loud enough to be heard as she takes him further from the storefront. "How did you get here? What's your name? Are you alone?"

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Episcopal Cathedral of St. Javelina, Basement
The woman, who appears to have found the meeting room after Augusta pointed her inside, stares at Tim, then throws glances at Dave and Augusta, clearly unsure what to think of them suddenly dragging her attacker into the room. "I, uh, what is going on?" she asks. She gladly takes her glasses from Augusta, thanking her for retrieving them. She checks them for damage but doesn't find any, then wipes them with a cloth she retrieves from her pocket before putting them back on.

"I'm sorry, Miss!" Tim tells her, though far more of his attention is focused on Dave and Augusta than on her. "Please, tell these two to let me go. They're going to kill me! I swear, I'm sorry. I'll never bother you - or anyone - again."

Brock meanwhile watches the scene with a mix of confusion and mild amusement. He sips his coffee and doesn't say anything.

"Please don't hurt the man," the blonde tells the two metahumans. She looks uncomfortable and more than a bit nervous. "I'm sure he learned his lesson."

GRAYBRIDGE, 25 OCT 2023
Caine and Sloane Department Store
Police sirens are fast approaching and the man glances in the direction of the flashing lights with a nervous expression. "I'm not supposed to be here," he mutters, barely audible over the loud drumming of the rain. "They're going to take me back."

He puts a hand on Eva's shoulder and looks into her eyes. For now, he appears focused and lucid. "I'm not sure how I got here or what's happening, but find David Draven. Uhm, check at Hu's Wok something. It's a restaurant. David Draven. Tell him Danvers says something is going on."