Starring:
There's a shootout. Samantha heals, Namir and Jack run interference, and Lia shows off some skills.
Date It Happened: May 9th, 2007
Baby Petrelli Goes Flying
The Bronx
It's late evening when Yankee Stadium empties its patrons into the Bronx. The game was uneventful — a win for the Yankees over the Tigers — and the aftermath is (thankfully) equally lacking in anything out of the ordinary. It is because of the completed game that the area around Joyce Kilmer Park is so crowded. The throngs are thick, most of them dressed in some sort of Yankee paraphernalia.
Being not a fan of baseball (and dating someone who is also not a fan of baseball), Namir is here for a wholly different purpose. There is, believe it or not, a nice little restaurant the owners of which he knows personally. He knows he can get food that suits his dietary needs there, and so it was only logical to take Sam there for a date. Now strolling along near the park, he's starting to wonder if this was a mistake. It's very crowded.
It's true, Sam is not a baseball fan. She far prefers hockey, especially now that the NHL keeps really good cosmetic dentists on staff. As they thread their way through the street though, Samantha's more bemused by all the baseball /fans/. "Some of them will park just about anywhere, won't they?" she notes absently as she lets Namir guide her along. "I can't believe you got me to come to the Bronx."
Lia wasn't at the game, nope. Instead the little girl clad in a wheelchair is on her way past said Stadium and on her way towards the Subway and then home. She's all alone, and although the bright pink gets some laughs, most people leave her alone, even as she sings softly, just over the hum of the electric wheelchair, not paying attention to much; just the road, and herself.
Victor is one of those baseball fans. Well, perhaps "fan" is the wrong word - he went to the game, though, and vaguely enjoyed himself. He's not quite sure what the big fuss is, though. Weaving his way through the crowd, he really, really wishes that he got one of the mp3 players today.
Unlike the masses, Jack's also not here for baseball. As an Irish immigrant, he has a hard time understanding non-contact sports that involve clubs and helmets. (Go Hockey!) Instead, he's here to see his favorite hot dog vendor, who stakes a daily claim just outside the park. After parking his classic GTO, the bartender purchases his frank and speaks briefly with the owner of the stand as onions,
"It will be worth it, I promise," Namir responds with a small frown as he's bumped by a particularly overweight and brazen fan who smells quite badly of beer and sauerkraut. "If we ever get there." The last is noted wryly before he ducks his head a little to allow for more intimate conversation: "Here's the plan: you scream, I will amplify it, and the path will be clear." No, he's really not serious.
Besides, his little idea is wholly unnecessary. A dark green SUV rolls its way along the street and as it approaches the area nearest to Jack, Victor, and Lia, one of the dark-tinted windows rolls down and the nose of an automatic peeks out. There's a sharp repeating blast that sends a spray of bullets into the crowd not far ahead of Sam and Namir. Screams erupt as the hot dog stand takes a few holes and people start to panic. Some drop — a few of them injured — others start to run. The SUV starts to speed off.
It's very likely that Namir is pulling Samantha down, and that's alright. Because Samantha's quite willingly hitting the ground anyway, scuffing her chin on the pavement. But once the SUV starts to roll off she lifts her head, and without waiting for a consultation from her cop boyfriend, sprints off toward the nearest victim of a GSW, as they say in ER-speak.
GAME: Lia has rolled STRENGTH and got a result of GOOD.
GAME: Lia has rolled I BELIVE I CAN FLY and got a result of GOOD.
GAME: Jack has rolled RECKLESS+WILLPOWER and got a result of MEDIOCRE.
There's that slow, double-checked reaction time, then Lia pushs down on the armchairs of her wheelchair and she's not only floating, but flying above the bullets. The girl is crying as she goes though; she's not good with bad frights and she just stays there, with no thought in the world on the reaction of people in the room.
GAME: Jack has rolled NOW I KEEP IT and got a result of AVERAGE.
GAME: Jack has rolled DEXTERITY+FIREARMS and got a result of GREAT.
Jack has his hot dog raised halfway to his lips when a bullet clips it in half, spraying his face with fixins and bits of bread. This vexes him. He is sorely vexed. Dropping to one knee, he makes a vauge grasping motion with both hands. In reponse, a stubby, rifle-like object appears in his grip. Hoisting it up to his shoulder, he tracks the SUV with his weapon's integrated laser sight before squeezing the trigger. Instead of a bullet, it fires a large, dartlike projectile that's designed to pierce the body of a vehicle and disable it with an electrical surge. This pose brought to you by gear stolen from the NYPD.
WAIT. THE GIRL IS FLOATING AGAIN. JACK CAN SEE IT. SCREW YOU, YAEL.
Indeed, the first trained reaction Namir has to gunfire is to grab whomever might be nearby and drop. He'll apologize to Samantha later for the scrape to her chin — if she survives the night. Yes, he knows she's been in a war zone before, but initial reactions to one's girlfriend dashing into the fray do not usually include, "It's okay, she was in the Sudan." He snaps out a very harsh word or three in Arabic as he picks himself up off the sidewalk. "Sam!" His eyes go to the vehicle as it flees, but it's at such an angle that the license plate is obscured. He starts after Samantha, not more than a foot behind.
The first victim the good doctor will find is a teenaged girl — fifteen years old at most — who lays on the sidewalk clutching an oozing hole in her side. She's already begun to go into shock and she's bleeding out quickly. The wound seems to be centralized near her left kidney. Scattered about the sidewalk are various others sporting injuries, some minor, others quite severe. Three of them are obviously dead, two of them are men in business suits.
The floating girl has attracted some minor attention as bystanders who have lifted their heads spot her. There's murmurs, then a few pointing. "She's floating!" "Oh my God, someone get that girl down from there!"
Jack's aim is true, and the vehicle is brought to an abrupt halt as the weapon does its magic. It bumps harmlessly into a parked car, the alarm of which starts to screech wildly. One of the passenger-side doors is blocked by said parked car, and all the people in the SUV start to bail out: three men dressed all in black, one of which carries an Uzi.
GAME: Lia has rolled PHOBIA + WILLPOWER and got a result of MEDIOCRE.
Samantha immediatel clamps her hand down on the, applying pressure to try and stop the bleeding. "Honey? Honey, can you hear me? I'm a doctor. You're going to be okay…" And now Namir is introduced to a new side of Sam, the side that comes with power in her voice that doesn't come from Evolved genetics. "Someone call 911 right now!" she says, loudly and so sharply that more then one person reaches for their cellphones despite the air of lingering danger and the the unexpected floating girl and the impending Uzidom.
Gunshots sound like breaking buildings. Meet Lia's biggest phobia. The girl turns so enraged at this, that she turns without a thought in the air, and then, with putting power and speed behind it, she flies straight at the group, intending to tak eone down and bury him in either the car, OR in the ground. Whichever oen will hurt worse.
GAME: Jack has rolled NOW I KEEP IT and got a result of AVERAGE.
"Yes! /That's/ what I'm talkin' about!" Grinning fiercely, Jack pumps one fist victoriously. Then he waves both hands, producing a black balaclava and a much battered and scraped Steyr machine pistol. He quickly dons the mask, leaving only his eyes exposed and both hands free to support his firearm as he draws down on the trio. Unfortunately, his line of fire is blocked by FLYING GIRL. Swearing, he skitters to the side in search of a clear shot.
The teenager's companion — an older boy of about seventeen — scrambles over to Samantha and her impromptu patient, a look of panic on his face. "Beth? Shit. Beth? Oh my God!" The girl herself is mostly unresponsive to either of the people near her. She's trembling, eyes wet as she attempts to breathe through the pain and confusion.
Namir makes it to Sam's side not too long after she's begun administering to the girl, and he stares down at the victim with a scowl. Damn it. "Is she going to be all right?" he asks, but his attention has already snapped elsewhere — namely back to the vehicle, which has stopped. Lia's attack has taken out the gunman, who is ground into the pavement and rolled a few feet. The speed and force behind the attack (not to mention the fact that there's a wheelchair involved) puts him out of commission. He's only half-conscious when he's come to a halt and can only lay dazed where he's landed. The other two criminals manage to disappear into the panicked crowd.
Because of this, it isn't the Uzi that Namir spots — it's the Steyr in Jack's hand. A Steyr wielded by a man wearing a ski mask. The lawman reaches around for his off-duty pistol — which isn't there! — as he wades his way through the crowd toward the Irishman. "Freeze!" he shouts. "NYPD! Put it down!" Maybe it doesn't have the same effect as it would were he armed, but he's got to try.
Samantha doesn't even hear Namir, her attention is all on the girl with the gun shot wound. For the first time in her adult life, Samantha genuinely wishes she were someone else. Even as her hand presses tightly to the girl's bleeding wound, it's a bitter pill that she couldn't have been blessed with Bekah's healing abilities. "Beth, is that you're name? Beth, can you wiggle your fingers for me? Move your fingers for me if you can hear me." Looking up at the young man, "An ambulance will be here soon." Samantha is…urgent, and yet calm. All the action around her fades away, it's just her, her patient, and the patient's loved one.
Lia makes sure to leave a few wheelmarks before she viciously goes after another guy, trying to run her wheelchair into him at top speed, and the flucker can go pretty fast too as it is, and Lia flashes out with punches and teeth as she goes. It'd be cute, if it wasn't pathetically vicious.
Whirling, Jack draws a bead on Namir and his grey eyes narrow. Then, slowly, he drops his hands to his sides. He retains the weapon, though. "You're barkin' up the wrong tree, lawman." He nudges the spent, bulky VDW rifle with one booted toe. "I'm the one wot stopped the car for you. He," the Irishman gestures toward the floored gunman with the muzzle of his pistol. "Is the one wot did the shootin'. And. Uh. That." With one quivering finger, he points at the flying girl. In the wheelchair. With the punching? "Um. I. I wanna go home."
Unfortunately, because the other two men are already well into the crowd, Lia's rolling wheelchair attack might become a bit hampered. The contraption bumps and bounces into knees and legs and thighs, rolling over toes and knocking into heels of those who are unable to get out of the way. It might slow down her momentum and it will cause bruises to those in her way. Meanwhile, her quarry is not so hapless and bulky, and he's dashing through the crowd like a salmon upstream.
Namir's eyes go down to the VDW, at which he stares a moment before his attention goes to the downed gunman. The VDW is what makes Jack's case for him (as well as the Uzi next to the fallen man), and so after some hesitation, Namir starts to back away a few steps. "You stay there," he states, pointing at Jack before he turns and jogs off for the real criminal. He drops to his knees next to the injured man after kicking the Uzi out of reach. The gunman is alive, dazed, and it's not hard to restrain him.
Beth seems to be coming back from her initial state of shock, her eyes showing a little more awareness of her surroundings. Her fingers wriggle faintly, feebly at first, but then she begins to move them with a little more vigor, as though her life depends on it. Yes, she can hear. She's still alive. She's still breathing. Her boyfriend glances between the doctor and his girl, horrified. "Oh my God, she's bleeding everywhere," he whimpers. Meanwhile, somewhere in the distance, there are the sounds of sirens. Help is on the way.
"That's great, Beth. You're going to be fine, I promise you. When the ambulance gets here I'm going to go with you, and so is - hey, what's your name?" Samantha looks up at the young man, trying to distract him from flipping out. It's a kindness amidst the chaos.
Lia finally struggles with her own instabilities, then she sits there in her wheelchair, crying, after a few more ouchies. "No, no, no, no, no…" She whimpers. "Mommy… daddy…" And there go her prey, and Lia just narrows her eyes through her tears to memorize them. They got away last time. This time, she won't let them.
GAME: Jack has rolled NOW I KEEP IT and got a result of GREAT.
Stay here? That'll happen. As soon as Namir turns his back, Jack darts toward his car. After tossing both his weapons into the passenger's seat, he climbs in and starts up the GTO. As an afterthought, he relocates the used VDW missle and tosses it on the floorboard. Evidence, and all that. And now it's time to go. After he eases away from the curb and blends with other traffic, he pulls off the mask and stuffs it into a pocket. Man. Gotta go get drunk.
There's really nothing Namir can do about Jack's fleeing, though he'll have a hard time explaining how the VDW missile just magically disappeared from the vehicle. That isn't his concern right now. As police cruisers and ambulances arrive, New York's Finest and many EMTs start to flood the scene. The wounded are seen to as paramedics swoop in upon them. Jack's car makes it out of the area in time before the police even know it's there. As soon as Namir has passed off the man in his custody, he goes in search of Sam.
"It's, uh. It's Sammy," the boy responds, still pale and inadvertently welcoming the distraction. "God, she's going to live, right?" Medical officials descend upon the trio wielding a stretcher and other tools of their trade. They're followed not too long after by Namir, but he keeps his distance, not wanting to get in the way of their work.
Lia's crying pays off in the form of a Good Samaritan, who stops to inquire after the girl's wellbeing: "Are you okay, sweetie? What's wrong? Where are your parents?" The woman is a short, kindly blonde of at least 40 years old.
Lia looks up at the Good Samaratin, and she shakes her head. "Mommy?" She asks, before she looks again, and she backs off slightly. "No, you aren't mommy. Or daddy." She panics, now, backing up slightly. "/Daddddy/?" She calls out. Oh look, Namir. She wheels toward him. Policefigure. Is about to be adopted. "Daddy Petrell… daddy…" She mutters. "Petrelli." She just looked at a sign with Nathan's figure on it. Don't blame her. But o gods. Cue amusingness.
<For sanity, we ended the scene here. >