[hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/skTh6iG.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/92QeUcz.png[/img] [sub][@Altered Tundra][@Spoopy Scary][/sub][/center] [b][code]Regal Square, Prince-Edfield_[/code][/b][hr][hr] Right when everything was going perfectly, it went horribly wrong. Johnny was slipping through the smoke Jake created, when he came to a sudden stop, as if somebody was exerting a psychic presence upon him. He felt something like this before... it must be a RAVEN, or that dreadlocked asshole. Of fuckin' course. Every time he does something, it became a fucking shitshow. Not even his fault, though. It was everyone else. But that didn't matter. [i]"This will be easier on the both of us if you don't struggle. You could strain something."[/i] He heard the voice in his head that reminded him of Mika prodding around in his skull... fucking Cerebral types. They were the most bullshit kind of Metahuman. He brought his head around the best he could, and saw that Jake was also stopped in his tracks! Shit! This didn't look good. However, little miss telepath made a slight error in her little Scruff Mcgruff speech. She let Johnny know there was an opening. There was enough negative emotions going on around here to power a jet engine! The only thing that Johnny had to consider was when was the best time to apply it, and if he could... He felt someone behind him, and that familiar feeling of handcuffs being applied on him, and there goes that plan. Of course some white motherfucker came by and fucked everything up. When he got out of here, he would beat the ever loving shit out of that asshole. "That's enough of that, I'd say," Francis cockily said as she put the handcuffs on Johnny. "I think it's time for you and your buddy to spend a little bit of time in a police station." He laughed, and Johnny was about to lose it. Other RAVENS and police officers were already on scene, and everything that he said was coming true, he was going to spend a night in a police station. He looked over his shoulder, and they were also arresting the other dude. Long as they don't frisk him, they won't find that firearm he had on him. Then the white boy had the [i]nerve,[/i] the [i]audacity,[/i] to say it was Johnny's fault. The fuck? This filthy, no good, cocksucking, unforgivable, trust fund loving [i][b]faggot[/b][/i] started the whole thing when he took his hat. "What happened Michael Cera!? Get in over your head?!" Johnny whipped around, and shouted at his opponent. "Next time, don't ever think about touchin' my shit again! Or there won't be no supercops to save your a-" "... That's enough out of you," Francis said as he pushed Johnny towards a police vehicle. Since he was white, blond, and had that disgusting... [i]fuckboy aesthetic[/i], he was probably going to get a slap on the wrist. Hell, they probably thought Johnny was the one who started all this. Nah-uh. He was going to walk away when this dicksucker took his hat. And since Johnny was black and fabulous, it'd be amazing if the police didn't shoot him in the head! But, the real difference is that Johnny belonged to an important family, and if Jake played his cards right, he could get them all out of jail in less than an hour. And he didn't see Gabe, Jaska, or the Liu sisters, so he had nothing to worry about. Even as he got shoved into a police car. But, when he finds that telepathic bitch... ... She better be ready to count what teeth she has left when Johnny clocks her. [hr] Phew! That was interesting to say the least! Francis didn't expect to go from eating icecream to putting a pimp in jail! It always had to be some jackass that starts a fight. Something about a hat? Eh, it wasn't none of Francis' concern. In fact, it was pretty funny! This whole situation was very funny! He arrested some wanna-be pimp over a hat! He definitely had to tell the crew at work about this. Well, after he pushed the pimp, who was mysteriously frozen (Maybe a RAVEN did it? Who knows.), was in the back of the police cruiser, he turned his head to the other brawler. But, before he could, his eyes landed on another dapper man that was frozen in place. He was curious as to why, because he wasn't fighting, was he? Eh, either way, Francis was going to ask questions later. He just scrolled on over to the other man, and knelt down to put handcuffs on him, when that familiarity finally came to him! "... Jackson?" Francis asked, with a raised eyebrow as he recognized the person. "My man... I thought you were still in Brazil, what are you doing up here?!" He looked over his shoulder for a moment. "... Well, sorry, still gotta put ya' in cuffs," Francis answered. "My job demands it." [hr] Oh good, grief! Not only did Johnny get arrested, but he just had to drag Jake down with him. No good. She was about to charge in head first, when she received a look from Jake telling her not to. Well, how did these RAVEN fuckers know that Jake was involved? She knew that RAVEN probably did plenty of shady shit, they probably bullshitted it. The rage made Gabe's hand glow a red color as she briefly lost control, and was about to shoot lasers. Then a clawed hand placed itself on her shoulder, and she looked around to see the tall Jaska standing over her. In his heavy clothing to hide his demonic features. Then Gabe sighed, and noticed Lin and Mika walked over. "J-Jake!" Lin shouted as she put a hand out, before Mika gently put it down. "... There's another telepath in play," Mika nodded her head. "She realized Jake was apart of it... we should leave now." "Ugh!" Gabe facepalmed, as she realized that Johnny hadn't changed a day since the accident. They might as well leave... according to Johnny, a lot of these RAVEN and DOVE types took checks from the Founding Family. Gabe turned around, and took off with the rest of her posse. She'd figure out what to do later. [hr] Fortunately, the whole lot of them made it back to the Liu rented building in one piece. If only Johnny told her his contact... "... He's definitely a handful, isn't he?" A voice spoke to Gabe, and she quickly whipped her head around towards the woman. A tall, blondehaired, blue-eyed woman around the same age as Gabe herself. She narrowed her eye at the woman, and crossed her arms. "Yeah... he is, well it was nice seeing you," Gabe tried to move on, but the woman grabbed onto her shoulder. Persistent... ain't she? Gabe was close to clocking her, but the woman said. "I'm that contact Johnny was supposed to speak to," The woman said, and Gabe raised an eyebrow. Lin was also curious, but when she tried piercing the woman's mind, there was nothing. She must be in possession of a cerebral type ability of that classification. She made sure to alert Gabriela. [i]I can't pierce her mind.[/i] Lin sent the mental message to Gabe, and then Mika got in the way of her. Gently pushing her aside. Jaska raised an eyebrow at the mysterious woman, too. He made sure to remember her scent. "I don't have a lot of time to explain everything, I'm on a [i]very[/i] tight schedule..." The woman said, before sighing, "My name is [i]Miranda Mercer[/i]... I am the former member of the Founding family." "Knew that much," Gabriela said, before she narrowed her eyes at the woman. She leaned forward, and strongly jabbed a finger square into the woman's chest, and loudly hissed, "What I'm wondering is why in the hell we should trust you - the Founding Family ain't around anymore, which means that [i]any[/i] of you cockroaches that scurried away before anyone could step on you are...." She narrowed her eye, "... Former, or whatever the hell you want to call it." Ms. Mercer grinned. "... That's where you're wrong, Gabriela," Miranda looked at each member of the little group before them. "The Founding Family [i]is[/i] still around." And that caused the remaining Valos and Liu sisters to take on various expressions of shock. "The fuck are you on about?" Gabe growled, "The Family was destroyed by RAVEN." "Well, while RAVEN did behead the leadership, the Family's power was vast and never ending," Miranda crossed her arms as she looked the woman directly in the eye. "What's left is waiting in the shadows for the perfect opportunity to strike and take back the world that was there." Good grief... if the Family really was still around, she had her work cut out for her. But... again, fighting the Family was never on the mind of the Valos, or the siblings. Despite all the... things, they did for her. It was easier to ignore what apparently happened to Gabe when she didn't remember a single thing. She took a step back from the woman, and crossed her arms. "Any Secretaries that weren't already liberated are with the remnants of the Founding Family," Miranda started off. "They've been trying to recruit me, using one of their little lap dogs...." She reached into her pocket, and pulled out her phone. She quickly brought up an image of a brown haired woman with curly hair. She displayed the image to Gabriela. "This woman is Linda Dauer, she 'works' for the Savior Foundation, but her loyalty lies with the Founding Family," Miranda explained, and tried to get Gabe's attention. "If you want to find your sisters, you have to find this woman." "And why should we believe any of this?" Gabriela crossed her arms. "All I know is that you could be bullshitting me." "And that's why I brought..." Miranda pulled out a USB drive. "... This." "The fuck's in that?" Gabriela asked, before she put a hand up, "Lemme guess, 'it's everything you need to believe me?'" She chuckled, and grabbed it. "That is right, it's all the information I gathered on the remnants," Miranda said. "But, even if you don't believe me now, you should at least take a look at this." She hopped off the wall, and started walking away. "And another thing," Miranda looked over her shoulder. "I wouldn't show that to RAVEN if I were you... right now they're cocky, making moves. If they get exposed too early they'll go underground." Then the mysterious woman disappeared into the festival. "... She wasn't lying," Jaska added, "I paid close attention to her heartbeat... and it never changed even slightly." "And we accomplished far more than what Johnny has," Mika said, and shook her head. "We should at [i]least[/i] give it a look." "Well..." Gabe said, she stared at the USB drive. "... Might as well." "But, let's not stick it into any of our computers," Lin added. "Last thing we need is to catch a virus." Gabe rolled her eye. [hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/U5iaTPQ.png[/img] [/center] [b][code]Regal Square, Prince-Edfield_[/code][/b][hr][hr] Step one of Operation: Funnel cake was finally complete! Really, how could anyone eat this? But, at least Daniel was going to be open minded. He was holding the two paper plates with the funnel cake in hand. However, he was alternating hands to keep the funnel cake nice and warm using his fire powers. Probably not what his "mentor" Blake had in mind when he gave him the powers in the first place. He was going to make sure- His line of thought was interrupted when he heard shouting, and a line formed. Curious... Daniel walked over to the scene, and poked his head over the shoulders of the crowd to get a good look at them. There were two men fighting, nothing that really interested the young Daniel... and his heart sanked when he recognized one of the men almost immediately. Daniel was frozen in place, fear overcame him as a dark part of his past came back to the forefront of his mind. [i]He was a Valos.[/i] The same people Daniel helped brutalize under the mentorship of Blake Schmidt a few years ago. The shame almost made Daniel drop the funnel cake... but his quick eyes caught glance of a fast girl zipping around. Obviously a Metahuman, but she had a hat. The same hat Johnny thought the other man took. Daniel was going to move in her stop her. "Hey, wait!" He put a hand out, but, alas, she was far too quick and she was long gone before he had a chance. If he wasn't holding this funnel cake, he could had at least stopped her - but, sadly, he wasn't holding the funnel cake anymore. He dropped it. He clenched a fist, and let out a sigh. Okay, maybe it was time that Daniel just left. Rosalyn Street shouldn't be that far away. Daniel quickly ran away fast as he could, and ran towards where he left his bicycle right outside the gates. He hopped on it, and sped his way out of Regal Square, and sent Maximilian a text message. [quote][code]I'm sorry, Mr. Cornell, but something came up. I have to head home.[/code][/quote] [hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/qJpiKJq.png[/img][/center] [b][code]Regal Square, Prince-Edfield_[/code][/b][hr][hr] While marching her way through the rally, Noelle had little interest in the food, or the people here. She would rather not get overwhelmingly fat, and she wasn't the most talkative person in the world. She had one goal, in mind, and... A crowd had formed, and why. A fight had started. Noelle merely glanced over at the scene, with a strange curiosity - and she saw something very interesting. A man in a garish outfit that she immediately recognized, fighting some acrobat. Not for the fighting itself - because it was stupid. But, she knew the man that was dressed as a pimp... Johnny Valos. [i]So, he's in Baybridge?[/i] She knew that, after what went down at the Valos manor, he would hate her until the end of his days. Seemed as if he was on the same old shit he always on... so he still didn't matter much to Noelle. But, she was curious what brought Johnny to Baybridge - she could only hope they never cross paths. Despite that, she felt it was inevitable. She turned her head away as if she never saw it... the fight was over, and the authorities moved in to arrest them. Hopefully, they would keep Johnny there for good. But, her devious eyes fell upon just the person she was looking for. A Hispanic woman with brown, flowing hair, and a very curvy figure. Her most notable trait. The woman smiled as she closed in on her prey, and got behind her. She put both her hands on her shoulders, and longingly looked her in the eyes. "Oliva!" Noelle said, rather cheerfully, "It was so nice to see you here! " Immediately, Olivia was startled upon hearing the woman's voice, and she immediately knew who it was. "Vero-" Olivia choked. "No, it's [i]Noelle,[/i]" She chuckled, as she wrapped an arm around Olivia's shoulders, and pulled her away. "We have so much to discuss! Don't mind them! Your RAVEN buddies have it [i]all[/i] under control." She went into an alleyway with Olivia, and pushed her against the wall. That smile changed to a stern facial expression, as she stared Olivia right in the eyes. She jabbed a finger right into her chest. "Listen, Olivia..." Noelle said, "Normally, I would let you enjoy your sad, sad, little life, but I have something I need out of you." "I'm not giving you anything." Olivia hissed. "Libby... I know a lot about you, remember?" Noelle answered. "You were one of the many DOVEs that were taking checks from the Family, and in addition..." She leaned into Olivia's face, and stared her directly in the eyes. "... I know you have a hand in Happiness." Noelle hopped back, and loudly laughed, "What a dirty, dirty, girl you are! You can't go five minutes without doing something naughty!" She giggled, putting her fingers in her mouth, and made Olivia feel shame. "So, I have plenty of leverage over you, all it takes is one anonymous tips, and boom! You're in jail." Noelle taunted the woman. "Imagine what your family would think!" "... What do you want, Vero- Noelle." "Well, listen, I have nothing but good intentions, if you were in my shoes, you'd do the same thing," She leaned into Olivia's face again. "... I just want you to use your clearance to find my sisters... they were in the little DOVE protection program. Even think they have different names." She laughed as she bit her bottom lip. "I mean, it [i]is[/i] your job to set it up in the first place," Noelle said. "Just find Sophia and Quinn Rory for me, whatever name they're currently running under, and their phone numbers...." Then that grin faded, as she said. "... I just want to talk to them." "Fine..." Olivia groaned, as she looked off to the side. "I'll do it." "I knew you would!" Noelle clapped her hands. "Probably to save your own ass, and without my [i]'trademarked'[/i] good intentions." She laughed as she reached into her purse, and pulled out a card. "When you get it, call me, love." She walked away from Olivia, before she looked over her shoulder. "... And remember, your reputation is in my hands." [hr][center][img]https://i.imgur.com/1G9aah6.png[/img] [img]https://i.imgur.com/KNwZBsF.png[/img] [img]http://txt-dynamic.static.1001fonts.net/txt/dHRmLjExNi41RjlFQTAuVW1WcGJtRnNaQ0JaYjNWdVp3LCwuMA,,/mr-de-haviland.regular.png[/img] [sub][@Mr Allen J], [@Zombiedude101], and [@tsukune][/sub] [/center][hr] Crowds of people definitely were not Wendy's thing. Normally, when things like this were going on, she'd take to the rooftops. The best shots always came from the rooftops. The satchel hanging off her shoulder called for her as she was reminded that old habits definitely die hard. For a moment, to distract herself from her discomfort, Wendy pulled out that camera and gazed through a few of the pictures. Damn... she took many. Almost [i]too[/i] many. They went on quite a journey... and Wendy felt quite fulfilled! Now, it was time for work. "... Hey, what was going on in [i]that[/i] picture?" Kumiko peered over Wendy's shoulder the whole time as she looked at the pictures. The picture in question was of Rowan standing overtop of a shirtless Wendy, tattooing the large album cover of a butterfly on her back. She looked rather uncomfortable, but she soldiered on. "You got tats now, Wen?" "Oh..." Wendy felt embarrassed, and awkwardly stammered out. "... A few, yeah." Kumiko could only playfully shake her head when she noticed Wendy's awkwardness. "C'mon, Wen, you should show em' to me sometimes." "She's not the only one," Rowan remarked, drawing back the sleeve of his jacket to reveal the terminator-inspired tattoo running up his arm. "Ooooh, nice," Kumiko looked over the tattoo for a moment. "... But, I hope neither of you got tattoos anywhere inappropriate!" She chuckled, and earned an eyeroll from the pair. "So..." Wendy crossed her arms, and spoke in a low tone. "What do you two want to do?" "Eat food, and scam these carnies out of their hard earned prizes!" Kumiko chuckled again, as she summoned a chain from underneath her oversized shirt that covered her waist (and most of her hips), it floated in the air for a moment. "I mean... if they set in a 'city of freaks,' and don't expect to get made fools out of, then hey, I don't know what to say." "Just like old times, huh?" A wry smile formed across Rowan's face as he remembered the [i]first[/i] time he and Wendy had embarked on such a venture, at the festival three years ago. "What do you say, Wen? C'mon, I could use a little fun before I drop by to check in on things... remember that time we won those biker assholes in Cali' with that bet?" "Yeeeeeah, I remember," Wendy rolled her eyes when Rowan brought that up. That was definitely something, alright. She thinks that she even took pictures. Wendy looked at her mother for a moment, before she looked at Rowan. "Well, where do we start? And make sure you make it look flashy." Wendy briefly went through her camera again. "And make it flashy, I want to take pictures." Kumiko grinned, "... I want to look at that camera sometime, Wen." "You really don't..." Kumiko shrugged, and just chipperly said, "Okay!" Wendy (or Wen as she was affectionately named), looked around at the carnival games... and eyed the high-striker. She grabbed onto Rowan's arm, and nudged him in the direction of the high striker. Her mischievous smile told him everything he needed to know, and Kumiko followed along. She pushed him towards the striker as she slipped into the shadows, with her camera in hand. This was going to be sick. Rowan recognised that look of hers in a heartbeat and responded in kind with a similar look of his own, before turning his gaze back towards the striker. After approaching the stall-runner, responsible for the striker, he was quickly prompted with a short, to the point answer his question of how much it was, "Three tries for five dollars, you ring the bell you win a prize." Shrugging, he eventually fished out the requested five dollars and passed them over to the stall-runner, then headed over towards the mallet waiting by the mark. He decided that on the first try, at least, he'd try and be fair - [i]some[/i] of these stall-runners had grown wise to metahumans trying to beat them at their own game and he didn't exactly want to make it obvious, assuming the game wasn't rigged some other way. That aside, Rowan wasn't exactly the scrawny kid he'd been a few years ago - he wanted to try and win this by himself, just once. He grabbed the mallet, took a step back, then raised it overhead... and brought it down upon the mark with all the might that he could muster. A great clatter erupted from the machine as the 'puck' was thrown upwards, yet just as Rowan thought that hey - he might have made it this time - only for it to run out of momentum just shy of the buzzer. "Two tries left!" The stall-runner declared, probably having done this a thousand times before. [i]Alright,[/i] Rowan thought, this time deciding he'd tried playing nice. After taking a moment to focus on his mark yet again, he raised the mallet overhead, then brought it down with an equal degree of force as he had last time. The only difference, however, was that he'd perhaps given a [i]slight[/i] nudge to the mechanism. There was a thud, followed by the familiar sound of an electronic buzzer as the striker registered a hit. A smile crept across his face as the stall-runner gave an expression which suggested he wasn't particularly impressed, before reverting to his previous expression. "Alright, prize is yours." Glancing over his shoulder, Rowan wondered where Wendy had gone off to It was incredible, Wendy was smiling the whole time (she really tried to suppress laughter, but Kumiko had already broke out laughing). And it was up to Wendy to pick something... though, at the corner of her eye she saw somebody stare at her quite intensely. She whipped her head around, and only got a brief glimpse of a blonde haired Caucasian woman. She didn't even get a chance to look further beyond that before the woman dipped into the shadows, never to be seen again. Wendy would had payed it more mind... but it was just so confusing, and she had better things to worry about. Like what stuffed animal she was going to bring home. Wendy had plenty to choose from... a duck, to a pink bear - her eyes rested on a skyblue bear that was her favorite color! She smiled as she pointed at it. "I want that one." Wendy said, she tried not to sound like a giddy child. "You heard the lady," Rowan said with an almost sardonic tone, gesturing to Wendy's chosen bear, "That one, please." With a nod, the stall-runner quickly retrieved it off the stand and handed it over to Rowan, who promptly passed it on to Wendy with a satisfied grin. Upon taking the toy, Wendy smiled coyly, and turned away with Rowan in tow. Once he was out of hearing range, Wendy broke out laughing. "We sure showed him!" Kumiko loudly said as she pulled in the two. "Hey, Rowan, want to win me one?" She gave him a confident look. "... Let's not," Wendy pleaded, "We should probably not raise too much of a scene... there's probably still people looking for the two of us." At that moment, she looked over her shoulder and swore she saw that same woman again... probably not. Maybe she was just being paranoid. "Sure, let's find somethin' else." [hr] Despite the itching paranoia in the back of Wendy's skull that told her something was wrong, Eh, it was just nothing. But, this city... this was the city where Diana died. Where Wendy felt a grief like no other. It was hard simply just returning here, and act like nothing happened. Maybe she should just lighten a bit. She was with friends. Rowan and Kumiko. No - to Wendy, they were [i]family[/i]. She sighed for a moment... then remembered something that embarrassed her when she passed a kid with the DOVE logo on his shirt and a lanyard around his neck. [i]The Academy is going to have my ass.[/i] ... She remembered that little deal she made with DOVE that she forgot about. The simple "Go to the Academy and you stay out of juvie" deal that she stepped on like it was [i]nothing.[/i] Well, it was three years... they probably stopped looking for Wendy (or they didn't expect Wendy to [i]come back[/i]). Maybe one day she would come back just to finish her Academy training - but at the moment, she was more interested than an education. There wasn't a whole lot the Academy could teach her anymore. She looked at her palm as her hand turned white as paper, she spawned a dove made out of paper. It fluttered for a moment before it fell back into her hand. [i]What's next?[/i] She asked herself. "You okay, Wen?" Rowan asked, breaking the silence. "I just...." Wendy trailed off, "Was thinking about how pissed off Cindy would be if she found us." Wendy started laughing, as she told Rowan a lie to cover her own unease. She knew something was wrong, and Cindy was missing (or... she'd be on their tail the entire time). She just knew Rowan [i]didn't.[/i] Before she could finish, she heard loud swearing, and raised an eyebrow as she rotated her head in their direction. "Hey, faggot, stop standing around like a retard and get out of the way!" “Maybe take a chill pill. The food isn’t going anywhere, Pablo Escobar.” She saw a Caucasian guy, and another garishly dressed man arguing. Normally, Wendy would had ignored it, but she noticed the guy's hat get swiped away, and a fight started because the pimp-dressed dude thought the other did it. The guy wasn't even looking at him. That didn't happen normally... but in this weird, weird, world of theirs, there was no such thing as normal. "Aw, yes, Wen!" Kumiko said, "Let's start taking bets! My money's on the pimp!" It was strange to see someone who was supposed to be a parent acting against the example that most parents wanted to set, but Rowan couldn't help but think that as far as parents went, Kumiko was perhaps one of the entertaining he'd known. He too was curious to see how this showdown between the would-be pimp and the other guy would go. Wendy shook her head at Kumiko's enthusiasm, and Rowan's obvious curiosity. This fight was as ridiculous as it got. Well, Wendy's got her fill of fights from the road trip, so this didn't excite her at all. Hopefully, security would get in the mix and throw these two jackasses out of here. [hr] Before Rein could stop her, Kannix was already gone, just like the way she had appeared before him moments ago. He caught her wink on one of the rooftops before she disappeared from his sight. Even if he was amazed at the display of her abilities, he couldn't help feeling a tad annoyed inside. Aside from her unfiltered mouth, he wondered if she also had an uncontrollable urge to show off. [i]What a strange girl.[/i] He could easily find her with his power, but it wouldn't be a good idea to do that in the middle of a restless crowd, especially not when a fight was about to break out between two grown men in the center of all the attention. It was also too late for him to bail out when someone caught sight of the volunteer shirt he was wearing. "Hey, you! Do something to stop those two!" Before he could stammer out a reply, he was pushed out of the crowd, right into the middle where the brawling had begun. The blond-haired man lashed out a kick to the Hispanic-looking guy. Thank goodness he wasn't in the way to take that kick, but watching at such a close distance still made the boy wince inwardly. He was merely a volunteer for this rally, not a cop or security personnel. He neither had any authority nor power to stop two angry men who easily towered over his small frame. Exhaling slowly, he tried to stop them. "Um, can you please stop..." But obviously they couldn't hear him, not with his quavering voice completely drowned by the jeers from the people watching the fight around him. Every blow they threw at each other was inching closer to Rein's poor head... And desperate times called for desperate measures. "I said [i]stop it![/i]" he finally yelled at the two hot-headed brutes with all the strength he could muster... but only enough to distract the crowd momentarily, and now people were staring at him instead. [i]Crap.[/i] Rein disliked drawing attention to himself, but now he had done it. Today was sure a bad day for him. An escalation of one unfortunate event after another. "... Hey, kid," Kumiko leaned in to the short Asian-boy until they were both face level. "You have some real deescalation skills! Where did you learn them?" Kumiko chuckled as she snarked at the kid, and Wendy was not amused. "Leave him alone, Kumiko," Wendy said... understanding the boy's silent rage at the situation getting out of hand. She faced him, gently placed a hand on his shoulder, and said, "You should save your breath... just let RAVEN handle it, alright?" Wendy said. There wasn't anything this boy could do by just shouting... he probably just let the pressure get to him, and understood that. Rein turned around to face an Asian woman (she looked very Japanese to him, and no way he couldn't tell her ethnicity straight away with just one glance), but whatever she said didn't really register in his mind. He had been tuning out most of Kannix's nonsensical speeches awhile ago, and it was no different with this person. Her companion, the much younger one, was a different story. He ran a hand through his hair, in resigned agreement with the girl. "You're right, I'm of no use in this situation." He stared at the tall girl for a moment. Maybe he could make use of this to excuse himself from the dumb fight behind him; which, from the sound of it, some RAVEN guy had stepped in-- Only to notice a strange, foul-smelling smoke covering the place, throwing the crowd into confusion. He could hear some shouting about a terrorist attack, while the others were too busy trying to scoot off the scene. Whoever it was, they must be aiming for this: the perfect chance for a getaway. "Ugh!" Wendy shouted as the smoke blanketed the area, she quickly covered her nose and eyes... and feared the worst. Someone like the Hound, or some other terrorist group chose this specific moment to attack. She reacted on reflex when she dropped to the ground knee first and slapped a hand on the ground. Concrete traveled up her hand, as she switched from paper manipulation to concrete manipulation. It was the best power for stopping gunshots and explosions. However, the smoke faded... and weirdly enough, she never coughed or anything. She looked around, confused, finding only that Rowan too had joined her in retaining a defensive posture. Unfortunately for them, another reinforcement showed up - this time a female - and something more... Something a cerebral Metahuman like him would feel its effects loud and clear, even if it wasn't directed at him. This lady must have powerful mental abilities like him too - nowhere similar, but a dangerous one still. Thanks to the training he got from his father and later on in the academy, he had substantial resistance against other cerebral powers but he wasn't that arrogant to get complacent about his own mental defense. Not like she had any interest in an innocent bystander like him, so he was safe from her, for now. Joining the mess of the agitated crowd and getting tramped over was a bad idea. He stretched out a hand to tap on the tall girl's arm. "Follow me," he said, loud enough for her to hear over the din. "I'll show you a shortcut out of here." Wendy nodded her head, and figured it was... for the best if they left. The last thing they needed was someone recognizing them. "Yeah, let's go," Wendy looked back. "This had become enough of a shitshow...." She rolled her eyes as she walked off, and grabbed Rowan's arm. Kumiko followed. Though, when Wendy looked over her shoulder, she saw that blond-haired woman again... maybe it was just her imagination. She wanted to get to know this boy... now that fate pushed them together.