2007-03-01: Sybil Unrest

Starring:

Lachlan_icon.gif Jack_icon.gif Cass_icon.gif Claudine_icon.gif Ianto_icon.gif Elena_icon.gif

Summary:

A group of people gather in a coffee shop in the East Village. Two villains decide to redecorate the place in blood. Enter heroes. And screaming. Oh, and vomit. We can't forget the vomit.

Date It Happened: March 1st, 2007

Sybil Unrest:

Violence, Vomit, and Victory


Hava Java, East Village

Hava Java is one of many coffee houses in the East Village, and it has the added bonus of being just around the corner from Enlightenment Books. It's half past eight in the evening and, as promised, Lachlan Deatley stopped by to pick up Cass Aldric from work for coffee. And awkward silences. This is to be expected from a first date of any caliber, especially from the Scotsman, whose previous ideas of dating consisted of a hotel room and cigarettes afterward. The evening air is brisk, fogging breaths before faces and reddening noses and cheeks (not that Lachlan needs any help with that). The dog trainer is therefore dressed accordingly: gloves, jacket, a long white knitted scarf, and he even put on a good clean turtleneck sweater (dark green) and dark blue jeans that don't look as though they've been chewed by rats. Padfoot wears a capelet made specifically for large, shorthaired dogs and accompanies his master (for moral support). Silence reigns.

So what do you do when you make an ass of yourself on a day that's important to your girlfriend? Go out drinking, that's what. Determined to do something useful today, Jack has pasted the two split halves of his horribly aching head together, dragged himself off of the couch, and caught a cab to the Village for a cup of coffee. The inherently suspicious portion of his nature can't help but be incredibly nervous about Cass's public display of a Mendez, so he'd made it his business to stop by a couple of times a day to look in on things. Today, though… Coffee first. Maybe a good, solid vomit. Then Jack will be productive. Honest.

For now he's perched at a table near the counter and register. Several empty, disposable coffee cups litter his table. Bleary eyed, unshaven, and black-on-black suit askew, Jack has definately seen better afternoons as he sips from his fifth cup.

Seated right across from Lachlan, is Cass. She's got a steaming cup of hot chocolate in front of her and is suitably dressed for the outside cold with a long black coat, striped rainbow gloves and her page boy hat, pushed up slightly so that she can see and be seen by her date better. For once her hair is down from those clips she keeps them in and simply curls softly around her face. Her bright red scarf is wrapped about her neck a couple times and she's trying to think of something to say to keep the reigning silence at bay. They've passed the point of regular small talk. "So, have really weird things been happening to you as much as they have to me, lately?" Hopefully this is a conversation topic that will last longer than just the 'yes' 'no's. As of yet, she hasn't seen Jack.

Wierd things have definitely been happening to Claudine as she realizes that there are others like her..or maybe it's the other way around, she's now like the others. Who knows? Oh well. To try to just get some semblance of normalcy, she's come to the java house since Cass wasnt around at her store with her backpack. She heads over towards the baristas and idly runs her fingers through her hair as she peruses the menu. She's so myopic it seems that she doesnt even know Cass is there…

Another person enters the Hava Java now after a few minutes. Doned in a brown leather coat, red scarf, jeans, sneakers, and his hands in his pockets is Ianto. White earbud headphones are placed in his ears and classic rock music flows from them. When he gets half way to the count, he takes an iPod out of his pocket, pauses it, then slips his headphones out with the other hand. He seems the be shivering a little as he walks himself behind Claudine to wait in line. Still getting used to those New Your winters… yikes!

Across the room is two young men at a seat, quietly talking to themselves in soft, murmured hushes. A pot of coffee is at their table, half drained from filling their thirsty cups, and newspapers clutter the table top. The older of the two, a black man with a shaved head to the skin, allows his dark eyes to cooly drift across the room as he leans back into a half assed slouch in his booth. His companion, looks to be asleep, while sitting. His eyes are narrowed, and he bobs back, and forth slowly in his booth, as if he was something floating along the ocean's currents. Across from them, is a young newly wed couple, who hasn't stopped chattering on, and on, and -on- about how beautiful the wedding pictures came out, and how excited they are about the money they made during the chicken dance. It seems that a down payment on a new love bungalow is in their future.

Around the counter is Julie, a young new hire with shocking red hair, and a handful of freckles continues to ring people up, smile, and enjoy her first work week despite having to take another closing shift on her own. At least she's had some good conversation, and the customers has been friendly. "Ya'll need anything else?" She asks of Lachlan and Cass in her husky, Texan accent as she props her elbows up on the countertop, cupping her chin in the palms of her hands.

Drat, this isn't a "yes" or "no" question! Lachlan actually has to come up with an answer. This is going to be disastrous. "Uh. Wha' d'ye mean?" he asks of Cass, glancing down at his latte with brow furrowed. The call of the barista at the counter startles him enough to make him snap his head up to regard her with an expression that shows surprise at first, then a frown. He starts to shake his head in response, then pauses. Oh, wait. There's someone else at the table with him. "No' me— " he trails off and looks to Cass inquisitively. The babble of the newlyweds is starting to get on his nerves — not because of the subject they're speaking on, but because they're doing it so /loudly/.

Jack lets out a groan and lowers his head to the tabletop very slowly and gently. After several long moments he straightens up, rubs his red-rimmed eyes, then stands a bit unsteadily and makes for the counter. Apparently, the structural soundness of his liver and kidneys isn't nearly so much a concern as coffee. As he slots into the line, one hand slips inside his coat to withdraw the silver flask that he's rarely seen without. Absently, Jack unstoppers it and takes a swig.

She was at the back of the coffeeshop, oblivious to everything as she types in mad speeds on her laptop. Elena's hair today is pulled in a loose twist, tresses pulled out from the bind to frame her face. A pair of cat's eye glasses are perched on her nose as she keeps her eyes focused on her notes. There is a book open and highlighted, and noted to death on the margins. She seems to be studying, her lips pursing softly as she leans forward. Using the coffeehouse's hot spot, she turns to her wireless so she can call up Google on the browser and types in a few words before hitting enter.

She looks focused in what she's doing, her eyes are narrowed and there's a slightest hint of a frown on her face. She absently reaches out to take a huge mug of hot chocolate from the other side of the table and takes a quiet sip.

Charts. Graphs. She groans when she hits a site full of conspiracy theories and 'weird encounters.' "Ugh…" she mutters under her breath, clicking out of it completely so she can start fresh on her search. She didn't even know what the hell she was looking for. She rakes a hand through her hair in frustration, her eyes glazing over a variety of neuroscience sites. She was a kid. She was just a kid. But there was no one else around to look after her father.

"Just, that. A lot of weird things just keep on happening lately, you know?" Cass leans forward and cups her chin in her hand, the other one wrapping around her mug of hot chocolate. This is an attempt to loosen Lachlan up, to see if he actually wants to talk. "Like, just yesterday a girl comes into the store and the entire thing starts shaking. I'm /still/ cleaning up. And the whole thing with you having that necklace. It just seems so weird." Finally, talking. A story even! She's completely oblivious to the fact that the girl in question is in this very coffee shop. Then the friendly Texan comes by and Cass shakes her head. "No, I'm fine, thanks." She gestures to still having liquid in her mug.

Finished with looking at the menu, Claudine sighs once more and hrmms for a few moments. "I'll have the cappucino.." she says softly while she starts to take out some money from her purse. Turning around, she smiles warmly at Ianto and gives him a nod, "It isnt that cold outside.." she comments, and that's something. she's just moved here from the tropics..maybe she's acclimated already? Who knows.

Her ears twitch as she hears one of the comments about the store shaking and she blushes. She's that girl who made things shake, and she still feels bad for freaking out in there. So she just tries to disappear and hide by pulling up her hoodie so her face cant be seen…

Humming to herself, Julie gives the pair on the date a nod, then goes back to the counter as she starts serving up Claudine, offering up a brilliant smile upon her face as she gives her hair a toss back. "Howdy, sugah. I tell you what, days like this makes me miss Dallas more, and more. It's too druned cold here." Jack gets a bit of a suspicious look as he goes for his flask, biting her bottom lip for a moment. It looks like she was going to say something about 'not drinking', but something about him causes her to wise up and she just smiles, like an idiot. After making some quick change for Claudine, she heads over to the machine to begin pouring her a cappuccino.

Perhaps to everyone's relief, the newly minted bridge excuses herself from her table with a bit of a high pitched giggle, then makes her way for the bathroom, blowing a kiss over her shoulder to her husband, who reaches out and catches it in mid air, then presses it to his chest, wearing quite a love sick smile upon his face.

His attention momentarily drawn to Claudine, Ianto shrugs and grins. "Right. Easy for you to say. You didn't have to chip off any icicles from your face before coming in, surely," he jests lightly. His accent is ever so clearly not one from here. Definitely overseas.
Ianto takes a second to look back toward the conversing newlyweds, right when the bride leaves, and he can't help but sign in relief. It isn't before long that he looks to the posted menu to figure out exactly what he wants. Chocolate does sound good, he thinks to himself.

Lachlan, too, is rather oblivious to the fact that Claudine is in the shop, so he has no qualms about recalling the events he experienced the other night. Both his eyebrows go up in surprise, intrigue. It's probably the most alive (read: not sick from nervousness) that he's looked since he walked into Enlightenment Books to pick Cass up. "Yeah? Somethin' like tha' happened ta me t'other nigh' too. Ground started shakin' a bit when I was takin' Paddy fer a walk. Dunna think there's an earthquake comin', d'ye?" Come to think of it, there was a girl present that night too. Then again, there were several. It /is/ quite relieving when the bride makes her exit, because that means the chattering stops. Yes. Lachlan is very grateful for this.

When Jack reaches the head of the line, he solemnly orders two large black coffees, pays, then slips sideways to make room for the next customer. He peers down at his normally spotless, spit-shined boots and sighs. Their high polish was another casualty of yesterday's binge. Moments later he has his precious, dark, lifegiving brew in hand. On the way back to his table he takes a long sip from one, then mashes several curses together into an unintelligible, under-breath sigh. Unlike most of the people here, Jack doesn't notice a damn thing. He's too busy writing long, long paragraphs about how miserable he is.

Cass looks very interested in this new development. "Really? Was there anyone else around?" She's trying to dig for information, trying to find whatever she can. She can't help but try and get it out of Lachlan. Then, deciding that if she waits too much longer her drink will be cold, she takes a long sip of her hot chocolate. Now it's really just warm chocolate, but that doesn't sound as good. "I don't know about an earthquake. But something's definitely coming." Look, they're finally talking and it isn't quite so awkward. But, her last sentence sounds ominous. Like she knows something, so she decides to cover that up with a smile. "Maybe it's global warming or something."

Oye. Being talked about when you're not that far away is awkward. Very awkward. Claudine's cheeks flush a bright tinge of red as she nods while taking the cappucino, leaving a little bit of tip for the barista. "Well um, I do miss home, but I guess I like the snow. It's definitely a change from the perma-summers of the Philippines.." she admits ruefully while smiling to Ianto as well. As such, she's inching away from Cass and Lachlan's table while keeping her face hidden.

"Phillipines? Where's that at? Near Peru, right?" Julie says with a grin on her face, showing off her extreme geography skills as she mixes up a few more drinks, handing them out to the customers as they come, and go. "I always wanted to go traveling, but instead, I get stuck out here in the snow." She says with a loud sigh. "Dad got a new job." She twirls a finger in the air, before offering Claudine a smile, then gives Ianto a nod as she looks to take his order. "Howdy."

Either that lady really has to pee, or she got lost in the bathroom. It's been nearly ten minutes now, and she still hasn't came out. Her husband is glancing at his watch, then over to the door, then back out the window as he waits, sighing to himself, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. The two young men at the back of the coffee shop? Now, only lurks one. The young black man continues to sit there in his booth, humming to himself as he sips at another coffee, fingers brushing over the top of his news paper at times, waiting patiently, for something.

"Well, the grass is always greener on the other side, I suppose," Ianto replies to Claudine with a smile in exchange. When its his turn at the counter, he nods to Julie. "Hello. Could I please get a hot cocoa. A large." Forget the caffeine, tonight is a sugar night! He pulls his wallet out in preparation to pay for this drink, not paying the anything else any mind for now.

She was exhausted. Elena pulls away from her laptop and rubs her eyes. Standing up, she saves her work, shuts down her laptop and stretches. She ought to just listen to music and see whether Drake made it on Youtube for the other night's shenanigans. She didn't know whether he'd freak out or if he'd think it's awesome. With a smirk at that thought, the young woman gets up, and sets her glasses on the table. "Excuse me, do you mind if you watched my stuff?" she asks Jack, who is sitting near her. And if he says affirmative, she'll stand up and go. If not? She'll ask someone else sitting near him, and then she'll go. Either way, she'll make it towards the ladies room so she can splash water on her face and look at her research with fresh eyes.

"Yeah, there were some people 'round. Couple girls, the guy tha' busted up m'face— " Lachlan indicates his still-bandaged head with his left hand, which is no longer bandaged itself "— few thugs, an' a bartender." Cass' last sentence gets a grin from the Scot. "Ye dunna buy inta tha' sort o' thing, d'ye?" Then again, she owns a bookstore that sells poetry about alien abductions. She might believe in that sort of thing.

With yet another groan, Jack drops back into his seat. He pulls the plastic top from his cup and blows steam away from the coffee, then takes a more careful sip. However, this goes worse rather than better.

When Elena asks for what would normally be a benign favor, Jack claps one long-fingered hand across his mouth. "Love to, but…" He's gonna pop. Is he gonna pop? Wait for it… Wait… Jack swallows convulsively several times, restraining the urge to loose partially digested lox and bagel toward the world at large. Damn Eliana and her mostly kosher kitchen, anyway. "Whoa… Sure, I'll watch your stuff," he finally replies to Elena's retreating backside.

"A couple of girls, huh?" Cass thinks that over and wonders if one of those girls was her very own rearranger from yesterday. Well, more questions will only make Lachlan more suspicious and this is supposed to be a date, not an interrogation session. Something that Cass is tying hard to remind herself. So, she tries to steer it away from a conversation that might lead her to want to dig deeper into the strange world she's found herself in. "Global warming? Well, I definitely think that the world's climate is changing," she admits with a smile. "What, you don't think so?" She blinks and then goes back to something else that was said. "Wait, someone busted up your face? I mean, I can see that it's bandaged, but I thought it was an unfortunate run in with an iron or a doorway or something. Why did someone do that to you?"

"It always is.." Claudine quips to Ianto with a warm smile, though taking care to keep her face hidden from Cass and Lachlan. Then at the barista she just shakes her head and cant help but let out a little giggle of amusement at the girl's awful geography. "Actually, it's in southeast Asia..not South America. Southeast of Japan, northwest-ish of Australia.." she continues as she takes a sip of her cappucino now.

"Ohh. Yer' asian? I thought you was Spanish." Julie says with a giggle as she twirls a lock of red hair around her finger, then heads to the back of the coffee shop to snag up a few more packs of styrofoam cups. "Well, enjoy the drink anyways." She says to her, giving both her and Ianto a grin. Despite her Jessica Simpson education, she at least seems to be in high spirits, and friendly.

The young black man at the table continues to wait, though it seems as if he is getting impatient as he glances to the bathrooms, then pushes himself up, heading over, a bit behind Elena. "Yo, dawg. You fucking done in there, or ya' fall in? Taking a shit isn't like hailing a cab. It should be easy." He gives a light rap on the door, then tries the handle. Locked.

By now, the husband, who has waited fifteen minutes for his wife to get out of the bathroom, is looking just as frustrated, though, for some reason, he isn't getting out of his seat either. He seems more than happy to sit there, parked, and sip away at his coffee, while his eyes glance around from the bathroom, to the front door of the coffee shop, then quickly surveying the rest of the partons.

She opens the door, Elena stepping into the bathroom - which is empty, and looks over her shoulder curiously at the other guy behind her, rapping on the door of the other bathroom. With a shrug, she closes the door and locks it, turning the faucet and lowering her head so she could cup her hands around the stream of water and splashing it on her face, rubbing her hands upon it a touch. She sighs, and looks up at her reflection in the mirror, wrinkling her nose a little bit at what she sees. Her eyes looked bloodshot, she hadn't been sleeping well with how her brain has been firing these days. Rubbing her face again, she pulls out a length of paper towel and pats her face with it, drying off the drops and fixing her hair. When she steps out of the bathroom, she furrows her brows at the guy jiggling the other door. It's locked. Jesus, did he really need to go that bad?

Blam! Blam! Blam! Gunshots echo through the small shop, coming from the bathroom of all places. Three bullets, one which comes screaming through the wood of the door, and ricocheting off the counter next to Claudine. The black man at the door jumps back, his eyes wide as he practically dives to one side with a yelp. By now, Julie has also taken refuge, ducking down with a wild scream.

With his pending gastro-intestinal crisis averted for the moment, Jack returns his attention to his newest coffee order. Feeling far more confident, he takes a drink of the cooling beverage, then closes his grey eyes and sighs appreciatively. When his eyes flicker open again, Jack finally seems to notice the confusion and impatience of the people around him. And Cass, though embroiled in conversation as she is, it would hardly be polite to disturb her. Instead, Jack scans the interior of the coffee shop with eyes that are suddenly sharp and wary.

When gunshots shatter the relative quiet of the establishment, Jack drops his coffee to the floor with a splatter. "Ahh shit.." he murmurs. His fingers clench briefly, and the smooth, sleek shape of a well-tended Steyr machine pistol materializes in his right hand. With the other, he snags his as-yet unspilled coffee cup "Why the bloody hell am I always around when things go to piss?" The musing is entirely self-directed as he leans low, levers a shoulder underneath his table, and inverts it to form an impromptu visual barrier.

When the gun shots are fired, Ianto just drops his drink in startle! "Bloody hell!" he blurts out as he skitters for a bit, in near panic, before finding a booth to hide behind!
Ianto, then, peeks around the corner, eying for what might happen next! Should Claudine not be in such a panic that she's gone mentally, Ianto will prompt for her to hide, waving his and inward. "Hey!" he whispers sharply to her. "Down here!"

"Sure it's changin'; doesna mean the world's gonna end." Lachlan's grin fades a bit when he's asked about his facial injuries and he shrugs a bit, his eyes shifting away from Cass and into other parts of the coffee parlor. "Guy picked a figh', tha's all." The fact that the Scotsman rose readily to meet him? Has no bearing on anything at all. His eyes happen to shift to the groom at his seat, then to the bathrooms where the black man is rattling the door handle. Lachlan's eyes narrow a bit at that. Something wrong here?

Then shots ring out. Padfoot, who has been outside this entire time, begins to bark loudly from his spot tied to a tree. Lachlan instinctively ducks and drops from his seat, pushing himself forward with his legs to attempt a grab for Cass' arm. If he succeeds, he'll try to pull her down with a sharp, "Geddown!"

This is never good. Already paranoid from being shot at the previous day, when the screams and the gunshots can be heard, everything shakes. And it's a big shake. It's like woah, it's shaking so much, all accept Claudine of course. "No, no, no,no!" she says as she closes her eyes and when she feels the whizzing of the nearby bullet ricocheting off the table, she just goes on pure instinct.

Her adrenaline is pumping as the the floors start to undulate as the earth shifts below them. Her eyes widen and her pupils dilate, her eyes becoming completely black as she goes into an almost trance like state. As such, the floor starts to undulate a little as the earth underneath them has broken through the foundation of the building, doing what it can to just burst out through the floors..

Cass raises her eyebrows at Lachlan when he seems to avoid eye contact with her. "Someone picked a fight with you? About what?" She pauses and grins at him. "Did he not make your sandwich right?" She can't help the teasing, remembering the way he acted the other day. Before she can bring up anything else, or even tease him further, shots are fired from the bathroom. It takes a moment for Cass' brain to catch up with that thought and while she straightens to see what's going on. Lachlan's grab for her connects and finally realizing what's going on, she tumbles from her seat unceremoniously onto the floor. "What…someone's /shooting/!" she hisses at Lachlan. Then, the ground starts to wave, further jostling her. Floor shaking. Does that mean it's the girl from the bookstore? But where is she? Quickly, she glances around the shop seeing Jack - strange seeing him here - and finally spotting Claudine not too far off, standing as if nothing is going wrong by the counter. Oh God, this could get bad.

Now Ianto's even more freaked out and maybe even a little more perplexed. He was looking right at Claudine as the earth beneath him began to tremble! He thought in a bit of confusion whether her trancing was coincidental… or did she have an odd, freaky power like he does?
"Bullocks…" the Welshman mutters, nearly having a panic attack. He can't find it in himself to move yet. He ducks lower, putting his hands on his head. A second later, he decides to keep his eyes on the walls and the ceiling. This place better not cave in!
Oh my god. Another earthquake.

Elena clutches on the wall and braces herself against it as the building starts to shake. She doesn't know what's causing this, but her eyes are wide between this and the bullets punching through the door. The young man from earlier is busily crawling under a table, hiding. Her eyes widen still, her breathing elevating just a little bit. She looks around, and seeing the requisite fire extinguisher nearby, she grabs onto it, and rips it out of the wall, inching towards the wall.

The husband on the side grabs onto the table, just as shots are fired. Seeing everything else going on, and his eyes wide at the sudden earthquake, he staggers a bit to the side. And then? A strange thing happens…

He stands up, whipping a gun from the back of his pants and aims it…right for the young woman with the fire extinguisher waiting to ambush who was in the men's bathroom, where the shots were being fired. "Back off the door, bitch!" he yells — but things go from bad to worse as the earthquake? Causes him to lose his balance. He makes staggering steps to the side, but given his finger is on the trigger, it squeezes, and fires. Blood sprays as the bullet cuts through the air and hits Julie, the red-haired waitress, and she goes -down- behind the counter, her red hair spilling behind her head and her sightless eyes stare upwards at the ceiling.

"Yeah, I /bloody well know/ someone's shootin'!" Lachlan snaps irately back at Cass. It's not /her/ fault he's upset. It's Claudine's fault. And the "groom's". And whoever it is that's shooting in the men's room. Still, Cass is the closest one and she's the one who's talking to him, so she gets snapped at. Meanwhile, the Scot's arm moves to snake around her shoulders in some instinctive attempt to keep himself between Cass and the bullets, and his head twists wildly around as he tries to assess the situation. The roiling earth beneath him doesn't help matters at all, and neither are the major alarm signals he's getting from the panicking Padfoot outside. "We need ta get the fuck outta here," the Scot adds after the second gunshot goes off and the waitress goes down. Yeah, they need to get out of here. But /how/?

Jack drop the magazine from his weapon to check its load, ratchets back the slide and peers down the barrel, then reassembles the whole unit and jacks a round into the chamber. When Cass makes eye contact Jack waves to her with his pistol-wielding hand, then looks at the firearm and winces. Not exactly the most cordial of greetings. But then this isn't the most cordial of circumstances.

Then the floor starts to quiver and roll. "Sonofabitch," Jack mutters. The second set of gunshots is enough to really piss him off. He takes one last drink of his coffee, then tosses it out over the table. Just behind it, Jack vaults out, the muzzle of his gun flashing as a burst of automatic fire is loosed toward the shooter.

he blood from the waitress splatters onto Claudine and with the gore covering her, it's almost like a scene from Carrie. With that, the ground rumbles again and a wall of earth, mostly left over pieces of foundation, gravel and soil raises up and covers her and Ianto from any more bullets. It's then that she finally snaps out of the trance and looks over to Ianto while cursing a lot of Tagalog. "We..we gotta get out of here.." she says, still not really taking everything in as it's a rather chaotic site with the wall now separating her and Ianto from the shooters.

Cass is trying to figure out what exactly is happening. The floor is shaking, foundations are moving, and people are shouting. Jack has a gun? That just adds to the confusion and terror of the situation. When the second attacker yells at someone by the bathroom, Cass can't see that it's Elena. The table that she and Lachlan were sitting at obscures a lot of her view. However, it's impossible to miss the shots and Julie, their nice waitress, being hit by them. There's blood and death and Cass's face turns chalk white when she realizes the situation they're in. In fact, she feels a little faint. While normally she'd be angry at Lachlan snapping at her, she's just trying to keep from passing out. She doesn't respond to his second obvious statement, instead blanching when she sees Jack attempting to shoot their attacker. "Oh God, /no/ Jack."

The door to the men's bathroom bursts open, and the blushing bride? Is wielding a glock, blood spatters on her blouse and the man's wallet in her other hand that she shoves into her back pocket. "Christian!" she yells. "Christian let's get the hell out of here!" Earthquakes in New York? -New York-??? She was as far away from Los Angeles as she could be and there are -earthquakes in New York-? What the crap is going on?

More guns. Elena? Doesn't wait. She's scared out of her mind, but with Jack defending the others, her eyes widen as she sees the pistol lowered towards the stage magician. "Get the hell away from my husband!" she screams.

There was no time to think. With a grunt, Elena swings the fire extinguisher upwards, slamming it towards the woman. Another missed shot is fired to the ceiling before the gun spins wildly away from both. The young teenager loses her grip of the fire extinguisher, and both that and the gun is sent skittering towards the epicenter of the miniquake hitting the coffee house.

"Sybil!" Christian yells, before a shot is fired. Thanks to all the shaking, he collapses on his arse, the table toppling over him, but he shoves that out of the way, and starts exchanging gunfire with Jack. "Sybil, let's get out of here!"

"You little bitch!" Sybil screams, lunging for Elena's throat.

Okay, this is taken as very strange to Ianto. Earthen walls and such, earthquakes? Holy crap! But, when Claudine looks to him and prompts for an exit, it takes him a second to take that in, and then he nods. He still looks panicked, but he takes in a deep breath, composes himself, and stands up slightly to find… ah! The way to the back area from behind the counter! With the front area being an autobahn for bullets, it's the only course of exit to take!
Ianto quickly makes his way to the back. How quickly? Well, by quickly, we mean being gone only for a second while he sees he has a straight shot to the back door, opens it, and comes back to where he was. He almost looks as though he disappears, then reappears, but he looks blurred for a split second, and the napkins on the counter blow in both directions as if hit by gusts of wind.
When he comes back, he immediately dashes to Claudine, wraps his arms around her waist, then zipping her through the back! The view is that of an immense blur, and they both find themselves outside in the back.
"I will get the others," he says to Claudine after lossening his hold on her. "Are you alright?"

he girl is a mess, but at least the tremors have stopped. She's just saying, "Calm yourself down.." in a mantra like fashion as if her saying it over and over again will really help. It's then that she's whizzed out of there and her eyes widen. What the hell?

More wierdness ensues and she just feels like she's a wierdness magnet. She's sniffling a little, wrinkling her nose a bit as she peers rather curiously at Ianto, "What the..how did you?" and she puts two and two together. Another one. "Go..get..the others.>" she says as she tries not to freak out still as the tremors are only localized to within a couple of feet. ONce Ianto heads back inside, Claudine will run like the wind. She needs to get home or just somewhere not here as she's a mess…

All the gunplay is making Lachlan increasingly nervous, as are the screams of the terrified Doberman outside. Shame he doesn't have a license to carry, because he'd sure be glad to have a gun right now. In all the commotion, he doesn't notice the speeding man, but he does notice that the tremors suddenly stop when Ianto whisks Claudine out the back. /Good/. "Bloody hell," he growls before taking a firmer grip on Cass' shoulders and glancing at the door, the glass of which has now shattered. "C'mon, we'll make a run fer it. One, two— " his legs bunch beneath him in preparation.

Jack is a little busy right now, thankyouverymuch. He lands on the floor, tucks into a roll, and flops his body ungracefully into the sheltering cover of a booth. He jerks his head in just fast enough to avoid being pasted by return fire. Leaning out, he stitches lines of high-caliber automatic rounds back and forth across Christian the Hapless Gunman's position. "Bleedin' fuck!" Jack growls. He pops the clip out once again and checks it. Half empty.

Trying to keep herself from fainting, Cass has closed her eyes and is trying to block out the sound of gunfire exchanging not so far away from her and Lachlan. However, the ground has stopped shaking, and that worries Cass. Snapping her eyes open, she looks around, but doesn't find Claudine's body on the ground or anything of the like. In fact, she doesn't see Claudine anywhere. What? When Lachlan holds onto her shoulders tighter, she nods at him, readying herself to run. But there are more shots. "You want to just /run/ through gunfire? We'll get shot!" She looks over to Jack, where he's exchanging gunfire with the Gunman. And…is that…crap. It has to be. "That's Elena! We can't just leave her here!" Not when she's being attacked by crazy people. Jack, at least, looks like he can take care of himself, or at least looks like he can with his gun. She's not sure /how/ she can help, but she's not sure she can live with herself if she just leaves them here.

Christian grits his teeth, still behind his cover as his wife decides to get in a brawl at the other end of the coffeeshop. At the very least, it's stopped. With a determined, grim smirk, he lifts his gun and, seeing the fire extinguisher rolling around to the middle of the room and stopping right near the counter. With a snarl, his eyes focused on Jack, he turns the gun towards the metallic object rolling around near his position.

"Boom," he growls, firing a single round.

The bullet hits the tank, causing a small explosion and forcing shrapnel flying - and perhaps blasting Jack's cover apart.

Sybil manages to knock Elena down, and plows a fist into her to cause the young woman to choke and gasp for air, clutching at her abdomen as the woman dives across the floor to snatch up her gun. With a clear view of Jack in her position, she smiles grimly, and lifts her gun to fire….

"NO!" Elena cries, stretching a hand out from where she lies. "LEAVE HIM ALONE!"

The world gets a little stranger as Sybil? Suddenly screams, staggering against the counter and clutching at her head, dropping the gun. And the pain looks particularly massive, the woman quivering and shaking and writhing as she claws against the counter.

No mercy. This is a dangerous pair. With a roar of his own, Jack steadies his weapon and rattles off a three-round burst at the incapacitated Sybil without emerging from cover. He's officially lost what little patience and tolerence that he normally possesses, and his grey eyes are fierce and joyous. Maybe /this/ is why people say God invented liquor so the Irish wouldn't rule the world.

VOOM! He races in and stops at the doorway to the counter. At first, he spots a couple (Lachlan and Cass) seemingly at their own wits ends. Then, that bride screams as she backs into the counter. Ianto's eyes widen at the sight of her. His thoughts race, but there's no TIME for that!
As quickly as, if you'll pardon the comparison, a bullet, Ianto darts around from the counter, past Jack, and right next to Cass! In the same fashion as he did Claudine, he wraps his arms around her waist and ZOOM! Around the tables, behind the counter, and through the back in a half of a second flat with her, effectively snatching her from Lachlan! It would be worth noting that Ianto is visible enough for that time that he grabs her before he goes.
Once outside, he lets go of Cass, and Ianto quickly says to her, "Okay, stay put, stay calm, and I'll be right back!" Then he dashes back in again, leaving a small tailwind.

Damn Cass and her morals. Lachlan doesn't get to say "three" as he's cut off by his date's protest. He glances toward Elena, then Jack, and swears under his breath. However, before he can say anything on the matter, Ianto appears in a whirl, snatches Cass, then vanishes in a flash. Lachlan is left staring stupidly at the blank spot once occupied by a woman. /Well/. He barely gets any time to ponder this when the gunshots pick up again. From his position behind the table, the Scotsman can see Christian, and he scowls. Damn it. Thinking quickly, he snatches up a nearby chair that fell in the earthquake and, with a gutteral cry, he half-spins and /flings/ it directly at Christian with as much force as he can put behind it. In doing so, he has to partially stand, which may put him in the line of fire.

Elena backs away in horror, clutching her side and using her feet to slide her along the floor as Jack, with a roar of rage emerges from his flaming position and pops several bullets into Sybil. The woman's body jerks with every shot, and she slides off the counter to slump into the floor, her eyes staring at nothing.

"SYBIL!" Christian yells, watching his wife fall and rage twisting his features. "YOU SONUVABITCH!" Another pistol is brought to the fore, to the man's free hand, and he whirls around, pointing both right at Jack….

And then Lachlan's chair is spun, and throw, and slams right on the gunman, shattering in brute force. He staggers against the counter, dropping one gun behind it as he tries to recover, slipping a bit on his footing. But he's still armed, and he's enraged. His wife just got killed in front of him - he's going to be even more murderous.

The sudden appearance of Ianto right next to her startles Cass into giving a yelp. Before she can ask who he is or even protest that he's grabbing her around the waist, she's outside. Her hair's windswept and now she's all disoriented about what in the world just happened. Then, Ianto's trying to tell her to stay put and stay calm. "Wait…" but then he's zipping off again into the fray. "/what the hell/!" she yells after him! That's her version of 'thank you for saving me from a gunfight'. But, her friends are still in her. As is her date. So standing around outside is not really where she wants to be. Cautiously and still with woobly legs, she edges her way back toward the door, looking for some sort of weapon.

When Jack emerges from behind the wrecked, burning remains of the booth he's been sheltering behind, he comes up shooting and diving simultaneously in an attempt to make himself a more difficult target to hit. Ragged bits of formica and fire extinguisher are imbedded in his cheek and patterned around the same eye he narrowly avoided losing at Common Grounds. Another close call. This time his shots are directed at Christian again, and he empties the last rounds in his clip. It's now or never, it seems. Especially since as he slides behind the counter, both Julie and Sybil's broken, mangled bodies are in clear view. The site causes the normally stalwart Irishman to turn his head and spew out coffee and bagel bits. "Oooh.." he mutters weakly, horrified.

Hopefully, Christian won't get the chance to turn away from the counter long enough to put that second gun to use. As soon as Lachlan has let the chair loose, he's charging in after it. If he manages to get to the shooter before he can turn around, the Scotsman will bodily slam into the man's back to pin him against the counter, grab for his head, and attempt to slam Christian's face into the smooth countertop. Multiple times, if he needs to.

Christian manages to twist around, though a bullet hits his leg from the spent bullets. With a snarl, and favoring his other leg, he spins around to aim the gun at Jack. Nights out, bucko—

— except Lachlan, being the angry Scotsman that he is, leaps out from his periphery, slamming him into the counter and forcing him to let go of his gun. And then his head gets bashed repeatedly on the counter. Whamwhamwhamwham. His arms flail a little bit, but with another good whack, he's down for the count, bleeding a little bit, and the other gun sliding harmlessly to the floor.

Elena is crawling from where she had found refuge, forcing herself up and off the ground to stagger towards Jack, who is puking, and she kneels near him. "Are you okay?" she breathes, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Did you get hit?"

"Just a moment!" Ianto hollers as he disappears back into the building.
Once back at the doorway to the counter, there are now two dead women, one alive (the one from that Starbucks, if he remembers correctly), and one Irish gunman behind the counter. At the counter is Hubby the Horrible and the man he was going to move out next coming in for an attack! The Welshy grits his teeth. "… Bullocks!" be spats in frustration.
The bartender ducks down to Jack and Elena and says quickly to them, "Look, we need to get out of here! I can get you both out quickly, okay?" And with Jack vomiting, he adds, "We can better take care of you outside. What do you say?" He hopes they reply soon, there may not be a lot of time here.

Jack snags a loose napkin from the floor and wipes his mouth. "Yeecch. No, I'm fine. You ok, lass?" He props himself up, then laboriously hauls himself off the floor just in time to watch the show that is Lachlan bashing Christian's head most of the way in. When the man falls to the floor, Jack's eyes narrow dangerously. He lifts his own weapon to train on Christian unerringly and pulls the trigger. Click. Empty, remember?

With a sigh, Jack offers an arm to Elena. "Don't worry about us, kid," he says to Ianto. "The danger seems to have passed in here." After all, Lachlan's strong-like-bull stunt seems to have done the trick.

The pickings for something to defend herself with are few outside in the back. However, Cass picks up half of a brick that lays broken on the ground and edges her way back to the door. She's terrified, but she's got to do this. By the time she reaches the doorway, she ducks down to avoid any stray bullets and clutches on to her brick. She crawls in, but there are no gunshots. Looking around, she realizes that the whole thing is over now. She scrambles to her feet, still holding her half brick. "Wha…" Lachlan's standing over a prone gunman and the other one, the woman, is laying dead on the ground. By the poor dead waitress. Suddenly, Cass starts to feel woozy again. Dead bodies, not something she's used to.

"I'm okay…" Elena says, taking Jack's arm and gets up with him. "A little bruised but I'm okay…" She looks a little ashen, but she looks at the very least stable. She watches the carnage around the coffeehouse, and blinks as Lachlan keeps bashing Christian's head into the counter. Him again! What was he doing here? She exhales softly, looking relieved it was over, and that the only people dead and down were the perps…..and Julie, the poor waitress.

She swallows. "…we need to call 9-1-1," she says. Because it's the right thing to do - and it looks like someone already reported it because sirens could be heard wailing from the other side of the city, and there's only one place where it could be going. "Someone was killed….and…..they should put him behind bars." Her eyes are on Christian, flopped helplessly on the counter.

It's not until Christian has stopped moving that Lachlan ends his assault. When he's good and sure that the bloodied gunman is down for the count, he releases him and kicks aside the gun that has fallen near his foot. Then, for good measure, the Scot spits on the unconscious man. /So there/. It's only now that he glances up to peer at everyone else, face contorted into a scowl. He listens to voices saying that they're all right, okay, fine, but soon his eyes land on Cass, who does /not/ look okay. Really. There's also a dog outside who is /very much/ not okay, and he gets sent some feel-good signals. "Cass?" Lachlan grunts. "'Re ye a'righ'?"

Jack takes Elena's chin in one hand and turns her this way and that. After a moment he releases her. "You look none the worse for wear, my fair lil' heroine. It was mighty brave of you to take charge like you did. You just keep that up when la policia arrived, yes?" He tucks his oversized pistol inside his overcoat and gives Christian a shrug, sending him tumbling limply to the floor. "Asshole," he comments. "Anyway, I don't plan on being here to tell the story. Be safe." That said, he gives himself a quick wiggle to shake off the whole experience and heads toward the door. He pauses only long enough to lay a friendly, steadying hand on Cass's shoulder briefly. "No bullet holes? Good. Bloodygoddamnfreakin'—Ahh, I need a drink. I'm going to my pub."

Ianto slowly takes a look about and stands up. He takes in a few deep breaths to calm himself down. "Okay. Alright. It's over. Done." He looks down to Jack and the Elena for a second, then to Lachlan, and then Cass. "Okay, everyone here seems to be for the most part fine," he states aloud, more to himself then anything.
Then, a thought hits him. Sharply, he looks to Cass, and whispers, "Hey, miss! What you saw me do, please, don't say anything to anyone about it, okay? Please?" As he asks this, he sounds a little on edge, as if the world would end in a flash if word about his ability got out!

"I….I had to, she was about to -shoot you-," Elena protests weakly. Heroine? Her? She didn't even think! It was reckless! Her father would -kill her- if he heard about this. But she flushes a little as her chin is taken and her head tilted gently for Jack's inspection. And when he lets go, she turns to see….Cass headed in as well, but Lachlan is assisting her. She blinks. Did those two come in together? And it seems one of the heroes of the hour knows Cass as well, watching Jack exchange a few words with her before departing. And with people going a little ….well. Crazy over -not- interacting with the police, Elena has no choice but to stay behind and do her civic duty. -_- She's going to be late for dinner. Ramon is going to go batshit.

Cass is blinking and trying to keep herself on her two feet. No sinking, no fainting. She can do it. Really, she can. But the sight of all the blood and the dead bodies, she can't even get rid of them when she closes her eyes. "I'm…not sure," she replies to Lachlan. She's barely keeping herself from fainting and it shows. The hand on her shoulder and Jack's comments get a slow nod. "No. No bullet holes." She gives the man a weak smile. As for Ianto, she finally gets a chance to get a good look at him when he's not just a blur. In response to what he says, she just shakes her head. "I won't," she replies just as softly.

Huh. What do you do when your date's about to faint and there's blood and gore and dead bodies everywhere? This was never covered in Lachlan's vast repertoire of experience. It takes him a moment, but he finally decides that letting Cass collapse on the floor might be /bad/, so he moves in after Jack has passed by and lifts an arm to rest over the woman's shoulders. He'll even prop her up against his side, if he needs to. His eyes, however, go to the front door, where Padfoot is still barking up a storm. It's cold, the earth shook, there were gunshots — he's not a happy doggy.

"You guys go on," Elena says from her corner of the coffeehouse. Save for repeated 9-1-1 calls from her number, to which Dispatchers can probably call her by name by now, her dark eyes fall on Cass and Lachlan. "I'll stay." Her eyes turn to the window, hearing the sirens come closer. But Lachlan looked questionable, and he seems to be Cass's company for the evening. She'll cover them.

First dates are sometimes frightening, but this is ridiculous. Cass gratefully leans against Lachlan, the support something she welcomes. Collapsing onto the ground wasn't high on her list of things to do, either. Noticing the Scotsman look at the door and to Padfoot, Cass nods. She looks over at Elena, visually making sure the girl doesn't have any marks on her. "You're alright?" The thought of staying and having to wait for the police doesn't really appeal to Cass, either, since she'll have to come up with a convincing lie about how she got outside so quickly and she doesn't want to have to deal with that. Plus, Lachlan was just held for drug charges. That could be a bad situation. On the other hand, she doesn't want to leave Elena to cover for them. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," Elena says, with a nod and a solemn look on her face. "Just hurry, they'll be here soon." Her hands shove into her pockets, glancing over at the window again and half expecting the police to burst in shortly. She'll pretend to crawl out of a table, so she looks for one. Part of her…..winces at deceiving the boys in blue, but -half- the people here tonight had abilities, just like her father. And if she included that in her story, no one's going to believe her. That and someone had to make sure Christian was taken to prison. WHERE HE BELONGS. >_<

Getting the hell out of here is a great plan, as far as Lachlan is concerned. And soon, before the front is swarming with cops, making it nearly impossible to get Padfoot away safely. He looks to Elena and bobs his head slightly. "Thank ye," he intones, and he does indeed mean it. Then, arm still around Cass' shoulders, he attempts to guide her out and into the street. Of course, they'll have to stop to pick up the terrified Padfoot, but then? Then he's totally okay with getting her back to the bookstore — or home, wherever she wants to go.

Cass nods at Elena. "Thanks." One less ordeal to worry about. Now, getting out of there and away from the carnage is the best idea she can think of. When Lachlan attempts to guide her out onto the street, she offers no resistance. As far as where to go, she has no idea. Somewhere away from the craziness would be lovely. If that's possible any more.

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