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As far as fighting crime goes, tonight was mostly low key stuff. A purse snatcher and an attempted kidnapping. It wasn't until Able and Jean stumbled across two handfuls of gang members in the middle of a large-scale arms deal that things started to get a bit wild.
Still, they managed. As an old-fashioned gentleman, the doctor offered to split the thugs with her equally. Right now they're wrapping things up.
His revolver is empty, so he springs on the last of his bad guys and smacks him with the butt of his weapon, but not before taking a shotgun blast to the center of his armored vest. There's a wince from the doc and he clubs the thug one more time, mostly to make himself feel better. It's not the first hit he's taken during the fight, and though his vest wasn't penetrated and no skin was broken, a twelve gauge isn't an easy blow to soak up. "Alright?" he calls out to his partner as he cracks open his wheelgun and stuffs in some fresh rounds. "I'm bruised, but I still feel pretty frisky."
There was no fun in this. Not this night. Jean typically wasn't some school yard bully who enjoyed the fact that she could hurt people when the need arises, she also thought of this as her duty. A job. Something that needed to be done even though her mind kept being elsewhere. But doing this? This took her mind off of national things for just a few moments, favoring focusing upon the fight instead of letting distractions get her down.
The thugs weren't easy, simulations of a fight were completely different than the actual. She took a blow to the jaw, and another to the back earlier in the fight, nearly suffered a cracked knee which was deflected with a row of TK. Her strength gained a tiny boost as she figured out how to weave her gift with her muscles, biokinetics in a sense, but not quite. But little did Able know, or perhaps he did know, that the shots that he cracked off became non-lethal. Sure, he put them down, but Jean made sure that he didn't kill them. Gotta preserve life, give them the hope of turning themselves around after a beating just by two people.. (one in a mask, of course).
A final punch to a thug was given that brings Jean down to her knee, her fist hitting the pavement which soon lifts and is shaken rather then left there to show face. Her cheek was bruised, naturally a black eye was forming beneath the mask, her back.. well.. she held up alright but there was an obvious limp. "I'm good.." She manages to croak out, her tongue glazing over her teeth to make sure one wasn't dislodged. "You?"
Once he's reloaded, Able scans the area for potential targets. Things seems to be fairly well handled, though. He stows his weapon under his coat in a battered leather holster and looks himself over. The buckshot more or less bounced off, but there's a few pistol rounds lodged in his vest from early in the fight. Wincing, he starts to pluck them out and toss them aside.
"I'm good. You know, you usually make this look a little too easy," he quips. There's a wry smile as he hauls himself to his feet. "It's nice to fight proper villains. I don't feel like an also-ran."
For him, there's no costume. Just a scarf tied around the lower half of his face, and only after a lengthy conversation about discretion. Until recently he's rarely left any of his targets alive to tell the tale. But tonight, per Jean's request, he's aimed for shoulders and knees. Mostly. It's about as civil as a gunshot wound gets, though their foes clearly weren't as kind.
Once he's standing, he approaches Jean and takes her chin in his hand, tilting her face to one side and then the other while he looks her over. "You appear none the worse for wear." Though he'd never admit it, he's clearly relived that her injuries aren't more severe. "You fought well."
Jean lifts her gloved hand to wipe away at her mouth, which soon bunches as she gathers her spit. A turn of the head, and she's harking up blood which was soon spat to the side, just in time for her to see one of the goons attempting to rise and crawl to his feet. She doesn't say much, but her eyes were telling. They squint for a moment, waiting until the man disappears. With Able's approach now gaining her full attention, she lets out a little bit of a smile and quiets as soon as he inspects her face.
"Proper villains are pretty much the ones who.. well.. you've seen at the UN summit. And heard." She slowly draws her chin away, stepping around him to begin walking, tugging her cape around her as if she were a magician who finished a trick. "Sure, this is small fish, but we need to get to the root of the problem, at least ahead of it.. and I really have no clue -how-." She was frustrated, but she does stop to turn back towards him, a little smile curling her lips. "And thank you. You're not so bad yourself in a scruff."
Able bows neatly. When he straightens, there's a smile on his face. It can't be seen through his scarf, but his eyes tell a different story. "Thank you, milady. I do try."
Talk of the UN wipes away that smile in a hurry. "This?" he pauses to nudge an unconscious gang member with one toe. "This I can handle. It's logical. Quantifiable. Reaction to an action. And if you can find whoever's in charge, it's not that hard to shut down. Another day and I'd be extracting answers as we speak. All that, though?" The doctor gives a vague wave. "I understood what the blue folks came to say. They might be rough around the edges, but they make sense to a guy like me. In a fight?" Lengthy, weighted pause. "More your weight class than mine, I think. I would've had your back, but I'm glad it didn't come to that."
There was a tiny little laugh as she turns to continue walking, gesturing towards the men. "Don't bother. I already know who the boss is. And he's going to call an ambulance and the authorities to tell them everything they've ever done." Sure, that was a little bit manipulative, but its a price to pay to keep the streets safe from the thugs.
Still, weight classes aside, there was a little niggling at the back of her head. She -knew- she could handle them all if a fight broke out.. but how kosher would that have been? "That's the thing, Doctor." Jean states, gesturing him along the tunnels, they were taking a different, much darker way out. "People think that they can't do anything, that its all about how much power you have, what gifts you have. You already have one leg up on us, because you empathized with them, you knew what they were about due to your experiences." She pauses, then looks back, "I could only guess.." At least she didn't pry..
"But, the mind. We're brilliant, we're also terrible. We have people like Tony Stark and Mr. Reed Richards. Hell, our Hank is brilliant. Maybe that's all we need to solve that problem. We just need a starting point."
"I've fought in two world wars and countless smaller ones. At least up here." Able reaches up to tap his temple. "Some in countries most people haven't heard of. I've led men into battle with everything from horses and swords to artillery and machine guns. I know a warrior when I see one."
There's a sigh and a shrug. "I hope I'm there when he shows up again. The guys in their pajamas almost got us all into a world of trouble before you jumped in. Still, I'd rather you didn't do it alone next time. Just in case."
"It was a risk." Jean finally states after much silence, her hand lifting to ignite the soul-fire to give them a bit of light as they travel. "Make an enemy of potential good guys by protecting our would-be destroyers, or.. stop an all out slaughter where probably only a few of us would survive." She huffs quietly, then steps over fallen rock, her eyes darting left and right to find the embedded ladders.
"The man, he said that he will see us again in a week. I hope to at least make some progress before that. Which means, I'll probably have to try to track down Medusa to see what she knows. I could feel it. Anyone could. It's like she knew what those aliens were, especially how boldly she spoke to them. The rest of them, just noise." She lifts a hand to tap at her temple. "I people watched at school."
"I'm glad we were there." Able pulls in a deep breath as he remembers the incident. "As you say, it was a risk, but a worthy one. I think things would've been much worse if we weren't there."
The doctor gives the rock in question a poke with his foot, which produces a scraping noise that's very loud in the otherwise quiet area. "I think if we weren't, someone would've picked a fight just to pick one. Or made enough demands that something just as bad would've happened. Let me know what you find out. I'd rather watch your back than patch it up."
"I suppose I am too.. though I regret offering us up like lambs to the slaughter." She frowns, finally finding the steps against the wall, that leads to the sewer grating in Midtown. She gestures upright, taking a step aside so that he could take the lead and do the heavy lifting. And so that she could hunch over and take the pressure off of her back.
"I don't think I have to let you know anything.." She says frankly. "..if you're going to be with us, doing this night by night, then why can't you come along?" She asks. "I mean, doctor duties aside. I think we all kind of get banged up in the mansion a lot." The scraped knee that Jessica got the other day was pretty gnarly..
"I have… enemies. Sometimes there are issues I can't put off." Able yanks the grate free and slides it to one side. "It's a family matter."
He gestures for Jean to lead while he covers her. When he does, he gives his head a minute shake. "I'll try not to let it interfere, but no promises. As it is, I already worry about trouble following me home. When I disappear, that's where I go. I'm troubling trouble before it can trouble me. Or nipping it in the bud before it gets out of control. But aside from that, I'll always be available, you have my word on that."