Participants:
| Scene Title | Pinatas And Do-Gooders |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | There's never a stick around when you need one. |
| Date | October 29, 2009 |
The call came in just a few moments ago and has Elisabeth just looking…. somewhat perplexed. "You're kidding, right?" she said into the phone. Because it's not exactly your normal call. "Right…. okay, yeah. We're on it." She hangs up and looks at Nash. "Looks like we're on, partner." She shrugs into her jacket and shakes her head. "You're not gonna believe this one." As they head out of the precinct, she says, "So…. there's this guy in the park, right? And he's busking along nicely and some kids start harassing him and they're going to take what little money he's made out there today, right? Sounds like the start of a joke. Until you get to the part that he gets ticked off and has all three of the kids stuck in mid-air and can't get them down."
Still waiting for the punchline, Nash stands and grabs his jacket from the back of his chair and slips into it. He checks his weapon, just to be sure it's ready to go, though this doesn't seem like the incident that will require any firepower. "So, we can't leave the little assholes hanging in the air.. why?" He glances her direction as he heads for the door, holding it open for her to pass through.
Elisabeth giggles softly at that, her expression purely amused. "I was sort of asking the same thing."
By the time the car rolls up at the park and Liz and Nash find their way to area where the kids are being held, there's definitely a crowd. Park patrol is holding back a small crowd of people — mostly so far not out of control — while the three kids holler and screech about their parents and lawyers and blahblahblahblahblah. The busker, a kid who can't be more than eighteen or nineteen perhaps, is standing below the three kids with this resigned, frightened expression on his face as the two detectives stroll in.
"I didn't bring my stick for the pinatas. Shit. I never remember to bring the fun stuff." Nash's voice is a tad loud as he says that, just so the flying kids know how stupid they look. He's going to let Harrison deal with the possible telekenetic as he goes to make fun of the floating morons. "Anyone have a slingshot?" What doesn't remain to be seen is that the floaters have no sense of humor as they find themselves offended at being subjected to the comments of the smart ass cop.
Elisabeth walks toward the kid sitting on the grass and squats down next to him. "So…. little problem?" she asks gently.
The young man looks up at the blonde cop and grimaces. "So, uhm… how much trouble am I in?"
Liz glances back to her partner and comments with a grin, "Well… depends on whether you're gonna press charges against the brats. For the power thing? None at all, so far as I know. We'll just get your paperwork filed and you'll get an appointment with Homeland Security to let 'em make sure you're in control and not a danger to anyone."
The words 'press charges' brings howls of outrage from the floating hooligans, though, and they start shouting at Nash. "You can't do that!" "He's a fuckin' Evo freak! Let us down!" "I'm pressing assault charges!" and assorted other not-as-intelligent shouts.
ORDER: It is now your pose.
Nash glances up at the jibbering teens. "You might want to shut your trap. I'm not entirely inclined to make him let you down, considering you were trying to rob him." He turns towards Harrison. "Hey, H. We got any of those testing kits handy? Maybe one or two of these jokers need to take a trip to Homeland as well. Since we did apprehend them as part of a criminal investigation, we can legally test them, right?"
Nash might have fun stabbing one or two of these kids over and over with the tiny little test needle.
"Yup!" Elisabeth calls back cheerfully. She gently pats the busker — who speaks up now and says, "Name's Gary Benson." — and moves to stand up.
Unfortunately for Nash, his quip has the effect of galvanizing some in the crowd to start rumbling. "What, now they're going to pull people off the streets and just fucking test 'em when they're accused??" "Good! Criminals shouldn't have the right to not be tested!" And the fists start flying.
And Elisabeth grimaces and says, "Aw shit."
Aw shit what? Nash turns towards the crowd and shakes his head. "No one was talking to you yayhoos. Someone get them out of here." He turns towards Liz and Benson. "Gonna let them down or what? At least low enough I can get some handcuffs on them." He points to the floaters. "Try and run and I'll have him stick you into that tree over there." You know, the one that looks like a skinny skyscraper.
Elisabeth purses her lips and suggests quietly, "Tell me how you got them up there in the first place?"
"I don't know!" the boy insists. "They came and started giving me hell, and I pretty much figured we'd get into it. That one," he points to one of the two blond teens in the air, "grabbed my guitar case, and dumped all the change out, and that one," he points to the redheaded boy in the group, "grabbed *me*. And I started to fight back, figuring I was gonna get my ass kicked and all, y'know? And suddenly they were up there! And I tried for like ten minutes to get 'em down, and that's when I called the cops."
Elisabeth glances at Nash and frowns slightly. "Okay, Gary… I'll be right back." She walks back past Nash and murmurs, "Gonna get the tests." And then whispers for his ears alone, "~Not sure he's actually the culprit here. Keep an eye on the crowd, okay?~"
"I never thought he was.." Nash pauses, then understands exactly what she's talking about. He glances back at the nervous kid, then turns his head to look around the crowd, looking for something in particular while he waits for Liz to get the test kit. He turns and starts to walk towards the crowd. Someone's playing games or playing hero. As he walks off, the trio in the air start to yell at him for leaving them in the air.
As she walks back to the car, Elisabeth's attention is on the small crowd of brawlers — a situation she's leaving in the hands of the park patrol and the four or five uniforms on the scene at this point. She listens to the conversations when she can to see if anyone's doing anything out of the ordinary, and on her way back she meets Nash's eyes with a silent query — did he see anything? Her own expression is neutral, but if she had, she'd have told him.
Well, there is this one guy. You know, the guy who's starting to flee. Coincidentally, as the three stooges fall from the sky and crash to the ground. "Aww fuck.." Nash says as he starts to sprint after the fleeing youth. "These are not running shoes, dammit!" He yells at no one in particular. He's quick though as he starts to close in on his prey. He gets close enough to give the boy a push into the building. The kid careens into the wall and then falls onto the sidewalk as Nash comes to a slow stop, leaning over with his hands on his knees and panting. "Stupid shit.." he says as he walks over to the kid and pulls him up by back of his shirt and pushes him upright against the wall. "What's the big idea, kid?"
The foot chase draws the attention, obviously, of everyone else in the crowd along with the uniformed cops. Elisabeth barks, "Ramirez, back him up!" She stays with the three teens who dropped to the ground in front of her, glaring down at them while they start whining. "Do not even think about getting off that ground right now," she says in a tone that brooks Zero Tolerance for Bullshit.
The uniformed officer chases after the detective and his quarry, but stops when Nash grabs the kid, merely covering his back. He does not look thrilled to be here.
Gary looks entirely confused about the whole situation, and the three kids try to brazen their way out. "Hey!" one of them says, "My dad's a lawyer. He used unregistered Evo powers on us! That's illegal, so you can't arrest us!" Elisabeth's expression merely says dumb ass.
"Hey man, I was just trying to help." The boy was probably 17, 18, 19, somewhere around there.
He was scared to death as Nash holds him up against the wall. "I saw those three were going to beat that other guy up so I wanted to help. I just didn't want them to know it was me." Nash releases the kid's shirt and then straightens out his own jacket and tie. "Show me some ID kid." The evolved kid reaches into his pocket and pulls out two pieces of ID. One is his evolved registration card. "Okay Harvey boy," Nash starts as he reads the name of the ID. He pulls out a small notepad and jots the information down. He nods to the uniform as he approaches. "Everthing alright, Nash?"
Nodding, Nash waves him off. "Go put those three brain-children into custody and make sure you read them their rights. Get for assault, attempted robbery, littering, being stupid, anything you can think of. Make it a long list." The beat cop wanders off and Nash hands back the IDs to Harvy and nods his head to the side. "Beat it. Next time you're going to play hero, don't be so shy about it." Then Nash turns and heads back towards the others, watching the crowd finally starting to disperse. Once Nash turns his back on him, Harvey runs like a madman, except for then he rounds the corner and sound of someone tripping over a trash can and cursing is heard. Nash just shakes his head and can't help but grin. "Idiot."
"All three of you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say — and I do mean anything — can be used against you. You have the right to an attorney. Guess it's a good thing your dad's one," Elisabeth tells the one kid. She waves the uniforms over to cuff the three and she moves to Gary. There's a faint grin. "You're off the hook, kiddo. The reason you couldn't get them down is that it wasn't you who put them up there."
Gary, for his part, looks part relieved and part crestfallen. "Really? Shit… here I thought I might get to have a really cool power."
Liz smirks faintly. "You'll need to come down to the station to file your statement."
He eyes the kids and shrugs. "Nah… it's all good. I won't press charges."
There's a look of surprise on Elisabeth's face for a moment, and the three boys all stop pissing and moaning to stare at the busker. The redhead's voice cracks as he squeaks, "Really?"
Gary shrugs. "Don't be assholes anymore," he tells them.
Elisabeth shrugs and says mildly, "Let 'em go, Carter. Take their names and IDs — if they ever pull this kinda shit again, they'll get booked on both charges." She looks back to Gary. "Good luck, kiddo."
Nash approaches Liz, just as Gary is wandering off. "He's just gonna let them go?" A heavy sigh from the male cop as he shakes his head. "All this excitement and nothing to show for it." Unless you count one guy being a hero, and other turning the other cheek. A couple of nice guys. Of course, then there are the Darwin triplets being uncuffed with a look of relief on their faces. "Those three belong in jail. I don't imagine it'll be long before we run into those assholes again."
Elisabeth grins at Nash as he rejoins her. "Well… considering they ran afoul of an Evo this time, they might rethink their life of crime?" She glances toward the kids being uncuffed, watching as they hand over their IDs in subdued fashion. "Eh… who knows? Could have been a lot worse." She jerks her chin back toward where the kid he grabbed ran off. "Take it he was registered?" Because she can't imagine Nash would have just let him off if he wasn't.
"He was all legal and shit. He was trying to help, so I can't fault him there. On some level, there needs to be some of that sometime." Not too much, mind you. He watches as the three turn to finally get the hell out of here, and not a moment too soon. "You sure we can't run them in? I'd look good grabbing the three by the neck and dragging them into the precinct." Well, Nash only has two hands, but that's besides the point.
Rolling her eyes, Elisabeth comments, "I still can't get a handle on you. You'd 'look good', huh? Is that all you're out to do? Look good?" She turns to start walking back toward the car, shoving her hands in her pockets.
Nash stays in stride with her and opens the driver's side door for her to get in. "I always say that if you're going to do something, you should at least look good while doing it."