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It was a pretty nice evening despite the slight chill in the air. The evening was beginning to wane on and people were going home from dinners out, but Monday night wasn't a particularly busy night for any of the local establishments. In fact, many closed around 10pm, though there were plenty of 24 hour joints, and one such joint was the little diner tucked just under one of the many overpasses going through the city. Its lights were bright and cheery and it promised breakfast 24 hours. There were a few patrons inside, but not more than a half dozen, one cook, and two waitresses who seemed to take turns attending those that were there.
Wiccan flies above, dressed in his Work outfit. That means a deep green suit with panels along the sides and arms that look like galaxies, and a deep red hooded cloak that vaguely hides his face in the shadow. Of course, night helps. Patrolling! The team is out patrolling, though since they haven't really found any trouble, maybe its time for eats. Billy descends to the ground to join one of them, pushing his hood back and giving a little shrug, "No news is good news?"
Teddy was the one playing bait, having taken the form of someone a lot less muscular and a lot more nerdy. But either all the muggers are busy elsewhere or they like nerds. When Billy lands, he resumes his normal form. "Guess so. Maybe they're all asleep. But since we're here, I want pancakes. With lots of syrup. And pie."
Her brother might be the magic one, but Tommy was near by enough that when mention of pancakes and pie happen she is suddenly right there next to them. "You had me at pie." Tommy informs Teddy, glancing towards her brother to give him a grin, "I second the motion where we all get pancakes and pie…maybe also a milkshake."
Kellan eventually comes down a side street where he'd been wandering and taking a look around. "All's quiet on the western front," he offers as he didn't run into anything too suspicious down that side street either. Perhaps it's the side-effect of scanning for thoughts, but suddenly his stomach rumbles and he says, "I heard milkshake?"
Within the little diner, a couple makes their way out the door and a bell jingles as the door swings shut and they head down the sidewalk toward their car. The pair get in and pull away from the dinner, heading off down the street, red brake lights coming on as they stop at the stop sign, and then take a right and keep on going. Inside, the cheery warm light continues to glow.
"Sis is a genius. My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard." Whatever the hell that means. Billy adds after a moment, "Though I want waffles and bacon, not pancakes. I second the tons of syrup thing, though. Also, pie. Ideally, apple cinnamon pie. Or chocolate pecan. Oooor… whatever. Its pie. Okay I'm fracking starving now." Billy laughs softly. He follows along with Teddy and the others.
Teddy mmms. "I take it back. Make it waffles and lots of syrup. And hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream. And maybe some french fries." Just because he likes french fries." Since everyone seems to be in agreement, he opens the door and walks in, heading toward a booth far in the back that's empty.
"Damn right, it's better than yours…" Tommy, at least, understands the reference. So much so that she sings her response just a little before nodding, "I did mention milkshakes, I'm hoping strawberry, but I'd take a vanilla right now if that was all they had." She falls into step with everyone else when they begin to head towards the little diner, "Mmm, fries. Ohh, I bet they make a mean burger, too…" Inside she pauses, takes a deep breath, then sighs before following Teddy to the booth in the far back.
Kellan takes up the rear, and opines, "Strawberry milkshake, grilled cheese sandwich, and chili cheese fries, because you can never have too much cheese." He follows them all on in and slides on into the booth once everyone's got a seat, making himself comfortable.
It doesn't take long for a dark haired waitress who looks to be little older than they are to make her way over with a tray of ice water, setting a glass in front of each of them before asking cheerfully if they'd like some time or if they'd like to place their orders.
Outside, there's the sound of a couple of cars pulling up and some general loud conversation that is largely muffled by the glass, though there's clearly at least three distinct voices.
For the moment, Billy is focused entirely on ordering food. Need time? Heck no! To the waitress he flashes dimples, "Waffles, *two* sides of bacon, a strawberry milkshake— if you could possibly *mix* half strawberry and half chocolate I'd love you forever—" He grins at Kellan, "Well, I can't disagree with the never too much cheese thing. I just am in a sweet tooth mood. Also bacon. Bacon will go *on* the waffles." He glances off towards the door at the loud conversation, but doesn't yet see any signs of trouble, and isn't really expecting it yet. He flashes a grin at Tommy, "Food's on me, sis. You can have a burge *and* pancakes if you want."
"I know what I want." Teddy states. "An order of waffles, a bacon grilled cheese sandwich, cheese fries and hot apple pie with vanilla ice cream. And coffee, please." Hey, he burns lots of calories.
"Burger, all the fixings, no mustard though, with a side of fries, a slice of uh…whatever pie you have, a strawberry milkshake, cup of coffee, short stack of pancakes with a side of bacon." Tommy requests, grinning at the waitress, missing the sound of the loud conversation for the moment in her focus on food and the soon to be eating portion of the evening.
Kellan grins and says, "I'll have a strawberry milkshake mixed with chocolate too, and a grilled cheese, and cheese fries with bacon." Because bacon. Then he settles back in his seat just a bit.
The waitress takes down the giant order of food, looking at all of them with a kind of wide-eyed expression, "You guys must've been busy tonight! Coming right up!" She then hurries off toward the kitchen to put the order in. The cook leans over and asks, "We got a party of twelve over there?" She laughs and says, "Just four. But they're HUNGRY." Then she goes about making the milkshakes herself while the rest of the order is being prepared.
Three figures push their way in through the front door looking as though they'd done gone down a few miles of rough road. One guy appears to have rips in his jeans and the bandana tied around one thigh isn't doing a good job of hiding the dried blood there. The woman wears a long sweater that almost reaches her knees that is clearly ment for someone far taller and larger than she is, and a hat pulled down so that most of her face is obscured. The third figure, who appears to be a boy in his teens, wears threadbare hand-me-downs, but otherwise seems the least rough of the trio. All three of them make their way over to a booth near the door and settle into it, the shouting having stopped for the time being.
Magic burns calories! Or it just runs in the family. Billy dimples all the more at the waitress' surprise, "I'm trying to put on some weight." he explains with a quick wink, then settling back to wait. His eyes flicker over tot he people who arrive, brow furrowing at their state of clothing.
Teddy is no stranger to how much Billy can eat. And the superfast sister as well. He just sips at his water as he waits for the food, eyes turned on the door when it opens and then on those who walk in.
"You are looking skinny." Tommy agrees, reaching for her water before her attention is caught by the group that enters. At first, she notes them, then dismisses them as nothing more than down on their luck sorts. Until her eyes fall onto that bandana doing a bad job of hiding dried blood, "Anyone else see that?"
"See what?" Kellan asks Tommy, but his back is to the trio and he doesn't see anything from where he's sitting. He takes his time folding his straw wrapper in on itself, back and forth, back and forth until it is turned into an accordion which he stretches and compresses a bit, glancing over to Tommy.
The guy with the bandana gets up from the table where he's sitting and ambles on back toward the men's room, disappearing inside, leaving the woman and the boy at the table. The boy starts to get up, but the woman reaches across the table and grabs his arm and mutters something to him, and he sits back down again.
The other waitress, an older woman with greying hair but a bright smile goes over to the table to take their order. There's some mumbling back and forth and eventually she heads off to put in their order. Meanwhile, the four 20-somethings at the other end of the dinner pay their tab and head out into the night, laughing and talking amongst themselves.
Billy sticks his tongue out at Tommy, with a grand show of maturity, but then he waits eagerly for his milkshake, not contaminating his belly with the whole water thing. "Wait, see what?" He was focused on the food. But as he follows the bandana's progress to the restroom, he notices finally, with the prompting. "Ummm." Pause, "Should we check that out?" Pause, "One of the guys since he's going to the guy's room?"
"Looks like they're running from something." Teddy says quietly, watching the two still at the table. "Brothers and sister maybe? Hard to say how old they are but those two don't look like they are old enough to have a teenage son. Running from their father maybe?" At the question, he looks toward the rest rooms.
When the bandana wanders off to the men's room, Tommy lifts her chin up a bit in indication of what she means to Kellan. She then shrugs at Billy, "Maybe, but if they are running from something, that might just spook them." She glances at Teddy, her expression clouding for a moment before she shakes it off, "If they are, then we should help them."
Billy hops up and heads to the men's room to check it out, "I gotta pee." is his excuse.
"I can try to pick up on their thoughts.." Kellan offers, glancing to the others and trying to catch a glance of a reflection behind them somewhere, since he doesn't want to be super obvious and turn fully around to see what's going on. He watches as Billy goes off after the guy that he did see pass them. Then he goes sort of quiet, head tilting a little to the side, which is more of a habit than anything necessary.
Billy goes off into the men's room where he finds the guy examining a nasty wound under that bandana, looks like something animal rather than a sharp blade, something that did a good job of tearing which would probably indicate teeth, claws, or a really big rusty fork. The guy grunts a bit and ties the bandana back tight, only giving a cursory glance at Billy before he turns to wash his hands and head out.
Out in the main room, their waitress returns with the shakes that she made herself and says to those there, "Your food will be a little bit longer, but I'll bring it over as it comes up so that you can get it all hot." She smiles brightly and then off she goes, disappearing back into the kitchen.
The woman keeps looking out the window, her eyes turning toward the street, searching, perhaps, for something. But she doesn't seem to find it. Her shoulders slump and she sinks further into her chair. It's hard to tell how old they are. The guy in the bathroom looks probably in his late twenties, the woman is impossible to tell since she's mostly hidden, but they don't seem like they're old enough for the boy to be their kid.
"Uhh, that looks bad. Do you need a hospital?" Billy asks the man, concern showing on his features. He hesitates a long moment, "Oooor I can help with that if you need me too?"
"Looks like they're waiting for someone." Teddy observes. "Someone who's not showing up." Catching their waitress' eye, he motions her over. "Those three over there?" he says, nodding toward the table with the woman and boy. "We'll pick up their bill. And toss in a large order of fries or onion rings or something. Say the guys who just left had ordered it but changed their mind so they might as well eat it or it gets thrown away. And when they ask for the check, make em each a sandwich to go."
"Mm." Tommy glances towards the window, then the two still sitting in the other booth, "Might be their ride to freedom." She suggests, a hand raising up to rub at her ear before she pushes herself up onto the seat of the booth, onto her knees, starting to turn towards the pair before she leans over, "Psst…"
In the men's room, the guy looks at Billy suspiciously, "What? Are you some kind of a boyscout?" But he does slow down his departure, because his leg really hurts.
Out in the main room, their waitress, whose nametag reads "Becky", nods to Teddy and says, "Okay. I can do that. So.. you've got their bill, bring them some fries and don't tell them it's from you, and when they ask for the bill.. sandwiches to go." She gets it all in one. If she could remember their giant order, she can remember that. "Surething. That's awful nice of you." She smiles brightly at Teddy and then heads off toward the kitchen to talk to the cook again.
When Tommy turns around, the boy looks up and over at her over the shoulder of the woman slumped in the seat across from him. He glances back to the woman, then back toward Tommy and there's a look in his eyes, almost a pleading, but then he quickly looks down when the woman suddenly sits up and fully turns around in the booth to stare at Tommy. Fully facing them, with the hat not quite shadowing all of her face, it's easy to see that there are dark circles under her eyes, and a fresh bruise across her jaw. The rest of her is pretty much hidden. She stares at Tommy for a moment, and then she turns back around and mutters something to the boy.
Kellan says quietly, "They're running. They took the kid. He's scared." His brow furrows. "He thinks his father's after them. Something attacked them. He doesn't know what."
"Hey, do you want help or not?" asks Billy, eyeing the man a long moment. He holds out his hand, closes his eyes and murmurs, "Just what the doctor ordered. Just what the doctor ordered." Does the man walk off and think he's dealing with a crazy person? Or does he stick around to get healed?
"I'm going to look around outside." Teddy decides and stands up. "I'll be back in a little bit, assuming there's nothing out there. If I'm not back soon, I found something."
"Yeah?" Tommy glances over at Kellan when he chimes in, her brows lifting a bit before she turns around to pick up her milkshake, and then her brother's before she scoots out of the booth. She starts then towards where the pair are sitting, moving to slide into the booth herself as she sets the milkshakes down, "You two like strawberry? Looks like they got ours wrong, but I hate to see good milkshakes go to waste."
In the men's room, the guy squints as he stares at Billy and his mutterings and says, "What're you doing? You some kind of crazy?" But he hasn't left yet, and it seems that whatever Billy's doing is working, and that only perplexes him even further, and perhaps disturbs him a little. He reaches down and tears of the bandana.
In the booth, the kid looks even more nervous when Tommy suddenly comes over and sits down with them. He smiles, a nervous sort of smile and says, "Uh, sure, strawberry's good. Thanks." The woman at the table says nothing at all, and just continues to stare at Tommy for several moments before she watches Teddy going out the door and into the parking lot. Her gaze follows him, instead.
Kellan shifts a little in the booth so that he can keep an eye on Tommy, and he opens up a telepathic link with her. «She's got a gun. The guy in the bathroom has a knife. The kid thinks they'll kill his dad, or him, if he doesn't cooperate.»
Meanwhile, their cheerful waitress, Becky, turns up with a plate of fries which she says, "That other table ordered these but.. they decided they didn't want them. Wouldn't want it to go to waste!" Becky seems a good sport and is willing to play along. She then drops off the remainder of the food at their table in front of Kellan.
"Justwhatthedoctorordered!" Billy rushes through the end of the spell as he usually does, healing the man back to shape and shrugging, "I'm various kinds of crazy." replies the boy witch, turning, and heading out at that, thinking he helped a good guy! Even if outside they're finding out he just helped a bad guy. Billy with the judgement? Not always a great match.
"Yeah?" Tommy grins at the kid, reaching over to carefully place the milkshake in front of him, "Then you can have this one." She doesn't miss what Kellan tells her, but she keeps her head for the moment. She then picks up the second one and goes to set it in front of the girl, only when she does she "accidentally" knocks it over, directing it towards the girl. "Oh! I'm SO sorry!" She starts to stand, doing her very best to look stricken by what she just totally-on-purpose did. "You should go wash that off…."
In the men's room, the guy continues to stare at his leg, which has, miraculously healed, with only dried blood left on the outside where the wound had been. He just kind of stares at it, and then stares at Billy, and says, "Hey.. how the Hell did you do that?" Baffled, he pokes at his leg a few times.
In the main room, when the woman gets the milkshake poured on her, she reaches into her pocket and pulls out her gun and points it at Tommy, "I'm not going to tell you to get the fuck away more than once. Go back to your fucking table and eat your fucking food and leave us alone."
The kid takes the opportunity while the woman is facing Tommy to slide out of the booth and make a break for the door.
Kellan tries to reach out to Billy, «Guy's got a knife. She's got a gun on Tommy. Kid's running. Teddy's outside.» The thoughts come fast and loud in his head. Then he tries to reach out to Teddy, to warn him as well of what's going on.
Pausing at the door, Billy blinks. He wasn't going to answer the guy, not here, not now. Someone has a gun on Tommy? Oh that's downright hilarious. But he turns to face the man, reaching a hand out and in that instant trying to wrap him in bands of pure force to lift him, "If your lady-friend tries to shoot my sister, her day will be really bad. After Tommy deals with her— because, really, she pointed the gun at the wrong girl— if anything is left, I'll turn her into a frog. Why is the kid running?"
"No?" Tommy replies, watching the woman with amusement before she reaches out, quick as she can to snatch the gun out of the woman's hands. It's true, she really is the wrong girl to have pulled a gun on, for a multitude of reasons. Only one of which is that now the woman has the gun pointed back at her, and Tommy barely appears to have moved at all, "Maybe I'll tell you to sit down and shut your mouth, how about that?"
The guy in the air flails a bit when suddenly his feet leave the ground. He was still stunned over the healing of his wound, and now he's floating, but the mention of the gun and his friend out in the other room sobers him quickly, "Fuck, put me down. We gotta get that kid to our boss. If we don't, his dad's as good as dead."
Suddenly the gun that the woman had in her hands is in Tommy's and is pointed at her, and she realizes that the kid has made a run for it. She snarls at Tommy and says, "You better get that kid back, or it's blood on your hands for puttin' your nose where it doesn't belong."
Outside, the kid goes tearing off across the parking lot and doesn't show any sign of looking back or stopping. Kellan gets up out of the booth, and suddenly there's two of him. One goes over to Becky and pays her for all the food and says, "How 'bout.. everyone stay in the kitchen for a sec while we sort this out. And um, hold off on calling the cops until we've got things under control?" The amount of money that he gives her is not insignificant, and he hustles her, the other waitress, and the cook back in away from the gun. The other copy goes running after the kid.
Billy steps out of the bathroom, tugging the goon along with him, frowning. He makes it so the guy barely is an inch over the ground so its not super obvious? Then again his legs aren't moving? Still, he comes over to the table, "Right, so you guys tell me why we don't turn you into the cops for kidnapping, and who your boss is, and whatever. Teddy might have gotten the kid."
"I can get the kid back, but you've got to tell me why I should get the kid back." Tommy points out, moving to lean against the side of the booth, the gun still in her hand, although it doesn't look like she's going to do anything with it. She glances over at her brother when he returns, "If Teddy doesn't grab him, I can catch up, if you two have these two."
At the moment, there is only Billy and Tommy in the main room. Kellan #1 is in the Kitchen, and Kellan #2 is chasing the kid. Teddy is outside somewhere patrolling around to look for more potential problems.
"Look, the boss said get the kid, bring the kid back. Once dad sees we've got the kid, he'll cough up the money, and everybody's happy," the guy says. The woman continues to stare in silence. If daggers could fly out of her eyes, they might. But they can't, so they don't.
Outside, it seems that Kellan managed to contact Teddy who in fact did find the kid, and both managed to convince him that they weren't going to hurt him, or his dad, and that they were trying to help.
"Right." Billy says dryly, "That's not happening." He glances at Tommy, then up at the slightly floating man, "Here's what's going to happen." Billy flashes dimples, and lifts his other hand up, and electricity arcs down his arm to dance between his fingers, "One of you, exactly one, is going to go back to tell your boss you're letting go of the kid's dad, and he's gonna call here. The other is staying here with us. Right? You're going to tell your boss that you screwed up and met us, and we're superheros, and my sister here?" He nods to his sister, "…is the fastest person alive. She can chase him down anywhere he runs. Me, I'm a witch. Do you know what witches do to people that annoy them? Trust me its bad. Now if this all doesn't happen in an hour, its gonna get REALLY FUN, right? I don't know quite what its like to be a frog but I'm sure you'll enjoy the experience. I think flies might taste great to frogs. Tell your boss that I promise he will have all the frogs he can eat."
The gun in her hand is waved towards them both when it's said she is the fastest person alive, "There is no where he can get away from us." Tommy agrees, staring at the woman, squinting at her before she then reaches for one of the menus, "I bet the number is on here, so you can take this with you, so you're sure to call the right number."
The woman takes the menu and gets out of the booth, staring at them both and says, "Sure. I'll go." She's dripping strawberry shake from her sweater, which she just peels off and leaves in the booth. Beneath, she's got on a t-shirt and jeans, but it's easy to see how thin and wiry she is with the bulk of the sweater gone. She doesn't even look at her partner as she turns and heads toward the door, provided they don't stop her.
"Hey, why's she going? Why not me? I can take the message," the guy protests, but he's still trapped and hovering and so he's not going anywhere.
Outside, Tommy and Billy can see Teddy and Kellan #2 with the boy, standing off to one side of the parking lot talking.
"…chances that she's going to actually go and not just run?" asks Billy of his sister with a tilt of his head and a slight wince. He eyes the guy, "Does she like you at all?"
"I suspect she's just going to run…" Tommy shakes her head a bit, moving to set the gun down on the table, out of reach of the man, "Want me to go chase her down and march her to their boss?" She looks at the man, "It'd be easier if you just told us where…or it'll just be really bad."
The guy looks between both of them and says to Billy, "Uh, sure.. I guess? She doesn't really like anyone." Then he looks over at Tommy and gives her the address. What has he got to lose? He's the one safely suspended in a diner, and healed no less. She's the one who is going to have the gun-slinging Tommy after her.
Billy nods to Tommy, "You go check it out, sis. I'll keep things here. This sounds like a muggle outfit." By which he means: he trusts she's in entirely no real danger at all against muggles. He shifts his hand slightly, and lets the man settle to the ground, "You." He points, "Sit. Don't try anything. Please don't make me throw lightning at you: do you *know* what people who get hit with lightning smell like? Its terrible, singed flesh."
"I'll be back in a flash." Tommy assures Billy, giving the man a rather pointed look before she turns to head for the door. Should she go slow, so that the woman can get there first? Not at all. She has no faith the woman is even going there, so she sets out towards the provided address at a run, making certain that she makes good time.
It is true, in fact. The woman was about to book it right on out of town and not look back by the time that Tommy catches up to her. But catch up to her, Tommy does. And then she sees the woman back to the boss. There are some shenanigans, but in the end, they really are a muggle outfit, and Tommy manages to get the dad free and a call back to the diner to let Billy know that all is well there.
Billy manages to hold onto the guy the entire time, who just sits and waits, with no other option other than to stay put.
Teddy and Kellan talk the kid into sticking around and let him know that his dad is okay.
In the end, the bad guys go to jail. The kid is returned to his dad, and everyone ends up settling in with fresh food and milkshakes to close out the night.