2007-04-06: Tunnel Vision

Starring:

Jessica_icon.gif Stuart_icon.gif Randall_icon.gif Ling_icon.gif Cass_icon.gif Benjamin_icon.gif

NPCs: Camparelli-Zukhovs Goons and Anh

Summary: An evening erupts into violence when a vendetta between rival gangs, the Tong Chow and the Camparelli-Zukhovs, comes to a head on the road. While Ling tries to avoid being gunned down, unknowing good Samaritans try to help out — not including Jessica, who acts very little like Cass's employee, nor Stuart, who has a lot of guns in his car.

Date It Happened: April 6th, 2007

Tunnel Vision


Kirby Plaza, Midtown, New York City

For some people in the Big Apple, business goes on regardless of the fact that April 6th happens to be Good Friday. Then, of course, there are the others that have places to be, family to see; there's a multitude of reasons the city is still bustling this evening, night having fallen a few hours ago. In Midtown, at the very edge of Kirby Plaza, its colourful sculpture some distance behind her as an abstract blur in the distance, is a blonde woman in an off-white, stylized trenchcoat, black leggings and high-heeled boots of the same shade. Jessica examines her nails in idle boredom while she waits.

Elsewhere in the city, a gang with a vengeful vendetta has plans entirely unrelated to her, the ride she's waiting for, or the business she just attended to. But it's one of those nights. The kind of night where things get messy and it doesn't matter who you are. You're in the way.

The ride Jessica is waiting for is only a little late, god damn New York traffic.

The Suv, a big bluish-black number, rather than a limo, pulls up at the edge of the plaza, it's driver not in his usual uniform, but in a casual leather jacket, t-shirt and jeans combo, incognito. Stuart winds down the window as he pulls up beside Jessica, "Sanders, right? Are they giving everybody my pager these days?"

It's mild out this evening, but a light breeze tosses the light fabric of Jessica's coat around as she waits. The look on her face is not one of utmost patience, but she hasn't been waiting all /that/ long in the grand scheme and really has no good reason to complain. All the same, when the SUV rolls up, she looks up from her nails and gives the vehicle - and its driver - a critical once-over. The result: unimpressed, but it's hard to tell, given that was her expression in the first place. Raising an eyebrow ever-so-slightly at the man inside, she says nothing, just hauls a back door open and slips inside. She hands him an address between two fingers. "Hurry it up."

The driver takes the address, looks at it for a few seconds and hands it back, "Righto." Stuart says, starting the engine and driving off once Jessica is ready.

The traffic on the road, thankfully, is thinning out enough that the trip, long as it is, goes relatively quickly. "Tunnel or the Park, Madam? Tunnel is usually quicker, but the Park has a nicer view," Stuart asks his fare, looking to perhaps spark a conversation, "Long day at work?"

Jessica tucks the slip of paper inside her coat as she sits back. The door's closed, she's ready to go. Crossing her legs, she shoves her boot against the back of the unoccupied seat in front of her. "Tunnel," she answers without hesitation. Already, she's looking out the window, but with that choice, it's clearly not for an appreciation of the view. "I'm betting they don't pay you for small talk, and I'm not planning on tipping, so save yourself the hassle."

"Yes Madam," Stuart says, adding "we can all see what they pay you for." in a barely audible voice afterwards. "Tunnel it is!"

A bit later…

A tunnel, somewhere in Manhattan

And so they go in that direction, approaching the tunnel in a steady flow of traffic without a further word between them, apparently.

In her own black SUV, that's been tinted and has a bit of extra protection, the crimeboss with many aliases relaxes a long day with meeting with a few of the gangleaders in the city. Yes, she knows that the Camparelli-Zukhovs are after her now, and that's why she's hired some thugs to take out the people who stole her stash of SOMA. She was not very happy about that afterall. And so, Ling's just going through the wallstreet journal as her car heads into the tunnel…

Having given up the gig stocking racks at the high-end secondhand clothing store, Randall is trying his hand as a cab driver instead, having hired on with one of those fringe companies that will either balloon or bust inside of six months. "This would be so much easier with a rocket-powered Ford," he muses to himself, weaving through traffic as the fare meter ticks upward. The tourist couple in the back shrug and nod.

Stuart, as far as Jessica is concerned, is now behaving perfectly: with silence. She tips her head slightly toward the window, which she leans an elbow beneath. Fingers run through her long and wavy hair idly. This is just point A to point B. This SUV is a few behind the one which contains the crimeboss.

And just outside of the tunnel's entrance, a sleek black car of a very expensive design, also with some protection, moves along in traffic several vehicles down from the SUV containing Stuart and his passenger. Jessica and her driver. However you want to spin it. It lurches suddenly off the straight track it's been moving in, veering to the right between the lane and what's about to be the side of the tunnel. As it creeps illegally up beside traffic - right past Randall's cab - a tinted back window slides down, and from a darkened interior… why, is that a semiautomatic rifle emerges? Yes it is! A spray of bullets erupts, aimed toward Ling's SUV - the bullets fly off of its surface and knick other cars, ricocheting everywhere and once people start to realize something's amiss, they duck and cover and cars go a-swerving everywhere.

It's an accident waiting to happen… or maybe, oh, /several/ accidents.

To his credit, Stuart barely flinches, eyes flicking up to the rearview, "Are you hit, ma'am?" obviously the reaction of someone more than used to this nonsense, "I would reach under the seat, if I were you, theres a wheelgun box beside the toolbox." As he says this, he unfastens the button on his shoulder rig, then puts both hands back on the wheel, "I think they're not shooting at us, Madam, should we investigate?"

Fortunately, she had invested in bullet proofing windows and the frame of the car since well, things like this had been foreseen. She is a crimeboss and lots of people want to kill her afterall. She keeps her cool though, also use to this as she looks up towards her driver to make sure he's okay. «Anh, make sure we get out of here unscathed. I dont care how many people the Camparellis kill in their stupid quest to eliminate me. Just make sure we get away scot-free» she says in Vietnamese as she unruffles her skirt.

She wrinkles her nose and braces herself for whatever sort of fancy driving her chauffeur is going to do, but then again, he's experienced..but who knows how good the attackers are? So, she ducks down just in case they get lucky..

From his lucky viewpoint, Randall spots the problem before the actual gunfire starts. "Shit. Hang on!" he calls out, glancing at his blind spot and then quickly veering into the next lane over. He hits the brakes; so do several cars behind him, though only about half of them react in time to avoid mangled bumpers. The cab remains stopped, on the presumption that the drive-by and its intended victim are both continuing forward.

It only takes the black car swerving onto the side of the road to clue Jessica in to the fact that something's going on out there on the road. She twists back in her seat to eye the vehicle responsible, and the second bullets start to fly, she ducks down without much of a flinch, herself - but she does glower at Stuart. "No. This thing is bulletproofed, isn't it?" It better be. She reaches under the seat without question, pulling out the wheelgun and automatically checks to see if it's loaded. "Shouldn't leave these babies laying around," she comments offhandedly, appraising it. "Keep driving." The command might have extra weight given the fact that the woman is pointing the gun experimentally in Stuart's direction.

Oh, the drive-by vehicle is definitely moving forward, trying to keep pace with Ling, but driving might be a bit difficult for everyone, however, as general chaos erupts in the tunnel. Car horns and screeching tires begin a cacophony, only made more deafening by the echoes bouncing off of the tunnel's walls. Accidental bullet holes in its window, an unnecessarily pimped out Honda Civic swerves around a careening minivan and almost collides with Ling's SUV; instead, it spins in front of her, into the wall.

The black car manages to maneuver through the violent traffic enough to gain some distance on the crimeboss. Its gunslinger is determined, despite the protections on the vehicle; with a burst of Russian curse words, he fires off another round. His aim is good, but that's a lotta metal and a lotta bullets in a tight spot. Ricochet time.

Randall's passengers cower in the back seat; even with his verbal warning, they barely had time to react to the first shots. If the car behind the cab had slammed into it, they'd be looking at serious injuries by now. Realizing this, they buckle up, and the wife asks "Is it over?" in a tremulous voice. The driver glances forward, squints. Panics. "No! Get down!" Half a second later, both the windows on the driver's side crack with spot impacts, and a patch of his hair is suspiciously singed.

"Cai deo gi day?!?" Ling cries out as the car is shot at again. Fortunately, her driver is good and she winces a little as the souped up Honda almost hits the SUV. "Dip Di Tung Ngo Nay Di!!!" she continues to curse as she shakes her head at the driver before ducking down once more. She's definitely on a roll when it comes to cursing, but well, people are trying to kill her afterall.

The driver, for the most part, simply blushes at all that she's said as he continues doing his thing. If he gets her through this unscathed, she's definitely rewarding him..in a way that only she can…

Though most of the time Cass is a subway kind of lady, this evening finds her in the back of a black cab. Exhausted from her last couple of days and nights, she's all but falling asleep in the back when there's a sudden burst of noise and crashes. And…is that gunshots? Before she even has a chance to turn around, there's the shatter of glass and a bullet flies right through the back window, grazing Cass right across the cheek. With a startled yelp, a hand flies to clamp over her cheek and she throws herself down onto the seat. The driver starts swearing in Spanish, ducking low over the steering wheel, jerking the car one way and then the other in an attempt to find a space big enough for him to get out of there as quickly as horsepower can go.

"Yes, the fucking thing is bulletproofed," Stuart says, turning on four-wheel drive and using the sheer brute force of the vehicle to drive on, "its a backup, in case some dumbass leaves their own shooter at home!" he says, of the wheelgun. Then he concentrates on driving, letting the big vehicle do its work and smash its way through to safety, or at least, as best he can.

Randall and his passengers are staying the hell down until the sound of crossfire is well distant. If another stray bullet manages to punch through the body of the car and then some of their various internal organs, well, the only way they could have escaped that would be to run out of the vehicle— and into the path of several hundred others. Not a smart trade-off there.

The black car and its Tong Chow-hating gangsters does something a little unusual for a group with a vendetta. They come to a complete halt. While Ling seems to be getting away, the back door swings open and a man steps out, pulling a different sort of weapon with him - bigger and bulkier. Maybe they're getting more ballsy. Maybe they want to be seen as a force to be reckoned with. Maybe they really, really just hate Ling. Probably, it's all three and more. "This is OUR TURF, HUA YAN!" His weapon? An M79 Grenade Launcher. Ironically, from Vietnam, but if anyone mentions that they'll get a mouthful of explosives. Speaking of which? Aimed. Fired.

… Except it goes a little high and sails above and beyond the Tong Chow vehicle - and instead, collides with the wall a good thirty or so feet ahead of the crimeboss's SUV, exploding and rocking the tunnel. The unfortunate persons nearby are the victim of hundreds of sharp fragments, but our heroes - and/or anti-heroes - should be safe. But unluckily for them, the vehicles up ahead create a veritable wall of crashing cars and shrapnel and screaming passengers, a pile-up that blocks the tunnel pretty effectively. Behind them isn't much better.

Amidst all of this, Jessica looks this way and that, an air of self-assurance going along with her movements; there's no panic here, but she's on high alert. "I don't think we're going anywhere."

"Fuck," Stuart snarls, as he slams on the breaks too late, managing to slam his head against the steering wheel and then the window at the jarring stop, "Fuck." It takes him a moment or two to shake enough of the dazed feeling away and pick up his radio, which has wonderful reception in the concrete tunnel, "Control? Dispatch?" Static, "Aye, well-" he says, just in time to be interrupted by a piece of the tunnel above falling onto the roof, which holds, but buckles enough to deliver another nasty impact to Stuart's head. The radio drops and the man slumps with a low gurgle, knocked out.

Even if Jessica isn't panicking, Cass is. There are explosions, people screaming in another language and some guy with a grenade launcher. Oh good God. Do things actually /happen/ like this outside the movies? The cab driver screeches to a stop when the cars in front of him do so and Cass jerks forward, the seat belt the only thing keeping her from flying right into the front seats. "What's happening?" Cass calls out to the driver. "Why are we stopping? Can't we get through?"

"Some crazy putas trying to kill us all." The driver explains in heavily accented English. And with that, he tumbles out of the driver's side and goes running down the now all backed up tunnel lanes to try and flee on foot. Much like one sees people doing in those disaster movies. It really doesn't look like anyone will be going anywhere in the car.

And that's when shit hits the fan. They are pretty pissed, and it seems what she did to them has finally caught up with her after all these years. Fortunately, her driver is good and they dont get crushed by rocks, but he does slam his head into the window, and Ling gets tossed around in the car due to all the forces acting on it.

A few moments pass and she grumbles a little as she curses, this time in English. "Fuck..fuckity fuck fuck.." she says with a bit of disgust as she's bleeding all over her Gucci, and it's Gucci, so she's pissed off.

Not a complete coldhearted bitch, she checks on her driver, "Anh..you okay?" she asks, as she knows he hit his head hard before looking towards the car that stopped. "We probably need to get out of here..this chaos will give us a way to escape.." she says,still trying to think clearly, and so, she tries to get out of the car, but on the side that isnt exposed to the Camparelli's. Of course, she'll have Anh help her out as well.

Evidently feeling a bit suicidal tonight - or confident, because holding what basically amounts to a grenade launcher does that to a person - the rival gang member stands his ground, but he doesn't fire his weapon again. Yet. Instead, he starts picking his way through the wreckage toward Ling's vehicle, perhaps unaware that she left it. Toting the M79, he's quite the sight as he strolls in front of Randall's taxi.

Jessica, with an arm wrapped around the seat ahead of her, holds on tight as the vehicle lurches; and then, when something falls from above, she ducks down and eyes the ceiling. It's only afterward that she notices that the wrecked metal from the rubble had an incident with the driver's head. She leans forward, grabs him by the collar, rolls his head around to face her with her gun-hand, and determines by his unresponsiveness that he's down for the count. "Perfect," she mumbles, high on the sarcasm, and lets him flop against the steering wheel. She cautiously emerges from this SUV, holding her gun low with rather professional poise.

Okay, the bullets seem to have stopped; Randall finally shifts into park and kills the ignition, then eases the door open and gingerly steps over the bits of broken glass. As he straightens up, the first two things he sees are Grenade Launcher Guy, followed shortly by one or two familiar faces from the bookshop - one of whom looks like she's about to plug GLG. "Holy shit!" he exclaims instinctively— and then hopes to God that all the other noise still going on is enough to have drowned him out.

Badly bruised and bleeding all over, Ling and her driver, Anh are hobbling away from the vehicle, trying to remain low so that Camparelli goons dont see her. Of course, it's entirely possible that she'll be spotted, but she just wants to get out of here, and there's still a bit before they reach the light at the end of the tunnel so to speak.

Water starts dripping from the ceiling though. Could it be pipes or maybe something more sinister? Who knows, but for now, she doesn’t care. She just doesn’t want to get all exploded..Stan would be sad?

With her driver fleeing the scene, Cass is left alone in her black cab. Why oh why didn't she take the subway? The car is still on and not exactly in 'park' when he went fleeing, so Cass goes scrambling into the front seat, somehow managing to not kill herself as she does so. Stomping on the brake, she flings the car into park and kills the engine. She takes a deep breath. The shots have stopped for now, but that doesn't mean that Cass is going to be heading outside of the car any time soon. But, she doesn't know what she /should/ be doing. Peering cautiously outside of the car, she notices Jessica stepping out of the car. With…a gun? What?

Going after Grenade Launcher Guy? Hardly. Jessica eyes the rocks atop the SUV, then eyes the tunnel above in turn. Drip. Drip. Drip. But water is not rushing down on everyone yet, right? Small blessings. Glancing about to make sure nothing else is exploding, nor crashing toward her right this second, she clucks her tongue and opens Stuart's door to lean in, holding onto the frame of the vehicle so that it doesn't go rolling forward. Her mission is much like Cass's: kill the engine. That done, she slams the door and, watchful of the gangsters that are about, starts to saunter through the mess of cars - which is about to take her straight past Cass's window.

The man with a vendetta against the Hua Yan spots the object of his current hatred. "Hua Yan!" he calls out gruffly, striding toward Ling and Anh at a fast pace. Shooting at a car is one thing, but now that he's spotted her? He wants to meet her head on. He does, however, pull a revolver out, unbalancing the other, even more destructive weapon, and fires straight at Anh. Get him out of the way.

The bullet grazes past the younger Vietnamese man, and he wrinkles his nose, not quite sure what's going on. He's a driver mainly, and one of her bodyguards, so what does he do? Well, he pulls out his own firearm of choice, a silenced pistol as he shoots back at grenade launcher guy.

Ling's eyes widen as she's now being shot at. Too bad, that the launcher guy is still out of range of her powers, or she'd either have him writhing in pleasure, pain, or both. And so, she dives down behind another car while letting the two more experienced hitmen shoot at each other. Of course, she motions for Anh to do the same in the end, cursing at him in Vietnamese. «Idiot! Go behind a car or something!!»

From her spot, crouched down in the front seat of her car, Cass' eyes widen when she sees Niki walking toward her. She doesn't really look upset or scared, which is weird, but people do weird things when in stressful situations, right? The door still open from when the driver went the way of the dodo down the tunnel, the bookseller hisses at Jessica. "Niki! Niki! Quick, in here!" This is the thing to do, right, when you see someone out in danger? Give them a place to hunker down?

Cass does get Randall's attention, right after he finishes waving at his erstwhile passengers to indicate that they should stay put for now. He hurries over to Cass and crouches down. "I don't even know who's on what side of this!" As the folks with heavy ordnance seem focused on each other, he doesn't worry too much any more about his voice carrying— he just keeps an eye out for further stray fire.

In a cab a little farther back into the tunnel, Benjamin has stayed put. Wrecks, traffic jams, all sorts of things tie up the flow of cars in the tunnels everyday right? A few months ago, he could have ignored or excused the strange happenings, but not now. It's a brave (read: stupid) thing to do as he thoughtfully pays the driver and slips out of the cab. Something's awfully wrong up ahead and he should help like the good samaritan he is. Keeping low, and minding where he walks, he edges forward through the tunnel, sticking close to the wall.

Jessica has her sights set on a person-sized gap in the wreckage. It's all easy enough to maneuver around on foot, if you're not afraid of shrapnel and debris and the possibility of things exploding. Her mission is derailed when she hears Cass's voice; coming to a halt, her borrowed (read: stolen, thanks, Stuart) gun held toward the ground in a clean-lined diagonal pose, the woman looks inside the taxi. The very epitome of "oh, great" flashes over her features for a second. Niki's boss. For a stupid job she doesn't even need. Randall gets a similarly disinterested glance. "Stay down." Jessica pauses, looks away - at the taxi's mirror, for the home viewers - then proceeds to rolls her eyes. Sigh. Bullets are ringing out somewhere. "Fine, get out. Taxi's not bulletproof." That's a command /and/ an offer, for the record. One time only.

Grenade Launcher Guy? He's ready for Anh, wielding his larger weapon of destruction; the other hitman's bullet hits that instead, sparking. He takes another step forward - brazen, this one - and he fires again at Anh. What's really pissing him off, though, is that he can't see Ling anymore.

The bullet grazes Anh in the shoulder and he lets out a cry of pain since well, he wasn’t listening to her and didn’t duck down towards the ground once more. With that, he fires off another shot towards grenade launcher guy before ducking down towards the ground now. He decides to follow his boss' advice afterall.

Meanwhile, Ling is looking around for the other Camparelli-Zukhov goons. Hopefully they dont have grenade launchers either. That would suck..epically.

Cass takes in Jessica with her gun and self assured posture and does a double take. "Niki?" Does she have a twin? This does not seem like the same woman who works for her. Randall appearing right nearby also startles her. "/You/?" She doesn't know Randall's name yet, despite the fact that he's been in the store many times. She'll have to get it if they survive all this. The command from Jessica is almost automatically followed before she realizes what she's doing. Already crouching down outside of the taxi, she stares at Jessica. "Get out and go /where/ exactly?"

Randall stays crouched down, glancing from 'Niki' to Cass and back again. "Do you /know/ these guys?" he asks, continuing to glance past the car toward the front-line aggressors from time to time.

Benjamin sticks to the wall, staying low. "Sugar cookies," is uttered as he hears the gunshots up ahead. Just another day in New York huh? He hurries his steps as he stays down best he can around the cars as he proceeds forward. His progress takes him right up to the car where Cass and company are crouched. He completely misses the familiar faces. Eyes, guns, assorted weaponry, hello!

"Away from the crazy men with guns and explosives?" Jessica answers as if it should be obvious. Because it… should be. As if she should be one to talk about crazy people with guns. Tipping her head for Cass and Randall to follow her, but looking none too happy about it, she moves around the taxi, keeping low, to skirt along the tunnel wall using the cover the cars provide. Incidentally, this brings her in line with Benjamin, heading for the same direction. "You've got to be kidding me," she mutters under her breath.

Luckily for Ling, there is only one grenade launcher in this tunnel. There are, however, more Camparelli-Zukhov goons, and two of them emerge from the black car. They only have run-of-the-mill guns, however. Splitting up, they roam the maze of vehicles. Meanwhile, the explosives-toting man is missed by Anh's bullet, and when the other hitman dives to the ground, he switches tactics. Tucking his revolver away, he grits his teeth, aims with the M79, and fires it at the vehicle Ling was traveling in. Just incase she's nearby. BLAM!

Explosion equals heat plus flying sharp bits and pieces of stuff. And since they were only 30 or so feet away, Ling winces in pain though she doesnt cry out, keeping it in as a couple of sharp pieces find themselves embedded in her back. There goes her Vera Wang business suit. Damnit! Now she's really pissed. Very pissed even, and she tries to go closer towards grenade man. He needs to be taken out, and so while she's risking imminent death by going closer to him, she has to get within five feet to use her powers on him…and here it goes….

"By…what, going toward them?" Cass retorts. Yes, she wants to get away from these crazy people, but it'd be good if she could just hunker down in her cab until they go away of their own accord. And then she can crawl out and take a subway home. However, if Niki has a plan, she'll trust her for now. Trying to mimic Jessica's movements in keeping low, she kind of just crawls around the cab behind the gun-wielding woman. Poking her head around the figure of Jessica, she notices Benjamin as well. "Benjamin!" she says, surprised to see him. "Is there anyone /not/ in this tunnel?"

"I think it's more a matter of /how/ do we go away from them?" Randall points in the other direction, and all those other cars blocking the way. "Or, well, it's going to be slow going at best." At the mention of Benjamin, he looks over and squints: oh yeah, he saw him that one time, right? But that's really all he knows about the guy.

Benjamin skids to a stop in his tracks, "Niki?" Talk about not so happy coincidences. ".. Is.. that what I think I see up there?" he says, stunned and gaping up ahead. "That's so not legal!" He drops to the ground, hands thrown over his head at the explosion. When it's a sign that he's free from shrapnel and such, he peeks over at the bookseller and blinks, "Cass?" He glances from Cass to Randall, then faces towards the front of the tunnel again. Crazy person, holding a launcher? Anything else? He's not seeing, cause that guy, so obvious. He can't see Ling approaching GLG, so he does what he knows he can do.. or makes the attempt anyway as he focuses.

The man with the M79 suddenly becomes rigid, his eyes widening as he's struck with sensations from an unseen source, having not spotted Ling in all the fiery glory of the explosion. Then he goes limp, falling to his knees. It's enough for him to drop the weapon, but he hangs on to his consciousness - versus Ling /and/ Benjamin. He whirls around on his hands and knees, reaching for his gun.

And trying to sneak up behind Ling, cautiously moving past Randall's taxi, is another goon, trying to set his sights, not firing just yet.

Jessica swings her head sharply around at the sound of the explosion, waves of blonde following the movement; she crouches down on reflex, but slowly starts to stand up when all seems safe. Relatively speaking. Narrowing her eyes, her watchful gaze happens to fall on Ling… where it narrows further. "Hey, yeah, actually, I do know /her/." It's in that realization that her trigger finger gets a little twitchy, and she lifts her gun ever-so-slightly, but smirks when she spots the figure sneaking up on Ling. Looks like she has it coming. "It's not us they're after. Just keep moving," she tells the others in brusque command and follows her own orders, skirting along the wall toward the wall of wreckage swiftly. Sucks to be them if they fall behind.

Anh finally gets up and tries to look around for the bosslady. Cant find her. Not good, so he starts moving around to see where she is, cause well, he's her body guard afterall.

Meantime, Ling was concentrating on goon 1, when she rolls over and spies goon 2. Her gaze immediately focuses on his crotch, as well, she cant do the whole overdosing thing too often. It hurts her head, so hopefully he'll get happy in his pants and be distracted from ya know..trying to kill her.

The sound of another explosion causes Cass to duck down again and cover her head. Since when was Niki so cool in this sort of situation? Not quite ready to move just yet, she stays in her position while listening to everything going on around her. "Who's not after us? Who /are/ they after? And who is /they/?" She's got a lot of questions and while this isn't really the time to talk about it, she can't just walk away when there's someone else on the receiving end of a bazooka. Now it's not fear that's keeping her rooted to her position, it's the idea of leaving someone in this death trap if they could help. "We can't just leave them to die."

Randall looks over at Ling, who as far as he can tell is badly outgunned, and moves to open the door and shoo his fares away— but whoops, that would send them right into Goon 2's line of fire, wouldn't it? Damn inconvenient principles. Fishing out his cell phone, he punches buttons to activate camera mode and then the little built-in spotlight, then whips it around toward the gunman. C'mon, someone else take this opportunity to take him out already!

"Did I get him?" Benjamin asks, daring to poke his head up to get a glimpse of the guy with the launcher. Get what? Who? Huh? "Know who, Niki?" Poor Benji, still clueless on the MPD his friend has. He reaches ahead to tap at the blonde woman, "Shouldn't we do something? Even if they aren't after us?," he whispers, albeit shakily, as he still is y'know. A coward. He looks at Jessica, then back to Cass and Randall, as if seeking confirmation or help or hide. Although Cass seems pretty gung ho on the whole not leaving people to die and be killed… but he doesn't have time to question that as he just thought he saw.. yup. He did. Goon 2 there behind the taxi, with a gun. Sweet Lincoln's mullet. There's an audible 'ulp' as he gives his little ability another go.

Goon Number Two gets a weird tingly feeling and wobbles on his feet for a second, but chalks it up to being excited over the prospect of gunfire. When Randall shines a spotlight in his face, her throws an arm over his eyes. "What was that!" he shouts in accented English, then lashes out blindly. Operation distract and stall: success. The grenade launching man, sans grenade launcher, however, is on his knees by now and he has his revolver out. It's pointed at Ling and fired, though it's a low shot toward the legs.

"I don't know, and it's not my problem," the blonde answers with brutal honesty - not like the Niki that Cass knows at all, to be sure. Jessica only glances at Benjamin for his questions, having a look about her that suggests she's just about had enough of this group of whining goody two-shoes. "You guys do what you want." With that, she starts to take off, and even though she spots that third gunman skirting the explosion site? She does nothing.

The bullet grazes her leg and she winces once more. It seems though that there are a few good samaritans coming to her aid. Good, she must give them lots of money later, note to self, lots and lots of money. Since it seems that Randall is taking care of one of the goons, Ling goes back to grenade guy and calls out for Anh in Vietnamese. He needs to know where she is!

And running on over is Anh, prepared to make with the mcshooty at grenade launcher guy.

Meanwhile, Ling decides to help Randall, by this time, trying to make goon 2 hurt..a lot. Also in the crotch area…

Randall drops the phone and takes a step back, reaching for the door and swinging it open in front of Goon 2 for another quick delay. The couple of seconds spent reaching for the handle and pulling at it could have been disastrously ill-spent, if not for Ling's timely intervention.

When Jessica makes off, Cass stares after the woman, unsure of what just happened. She's pretty sure that Niki wouldn't have just run off and left her in the middle of explosion heavy tunnel, but who knows. From there, she looks over at Benjamin with a scared look and then over where there are more goons and fighting. She's not sure what to do other than the 'not leaving people behind' thing. Randall is having is own fight with the car door and the goon right by him. "Hey! Watch out!" she calls out. It's not as specific as it could be with his name, but she hopes that it'll do it's job.

When Goon 2 doesn't keel over asleep, Benjamin gets a frustrated look on his face as he raises a hand to smack himself in the forehead. "Idiot. Useless lump," he mutters angrily at himself. Then, he's just staring at Jessica. "What the.. Niki!" This is not the Niki he knows, but this isn't really the time or place to confront her about odd behavior. He's looking back at the goon hiding behind the car.. which gets his attention again.. even if it's coming at the same time as Ling's assistance.. which he's not aware of. Too busy trying to do some good here! E for effort! Sorry Cass! Trying to focus here! Key word, try!

The instigator of this bout of violence is struck soundly with a bullet in his chest. Not so pleasant. As he slaps a hand over the wound, he falls forward onto the pavement, shouting in pain. But even so, he's not dead. Yet. And that means he has enough vigor to fire a shot up at Anh.

Goon Two, on the other hand… is… experiencing a good deal of unpleasantness. In the form of pain. /A lot of pain/. Clutching himself, he makes a surprised and incredibly pained expression and, to make matters worse in his distraction, he's hit by the car door and just keels the hell over and … falls asleep? Good samaratins on overdrive!

Goon Three, seeming to have gone unnoticed by anyone who cares, thinks he has his shot at Ling - and so he takes it.
Meanwhile, Jessica, glancing back only to take note of where bullets are flying, is in the midst of lifting a van door out of the way, slightly off the ground, she makes no show of it, however, just letting it fall to the ground like the heavy object it is before sneaking between two collided vehicles. Flashing lights are up ahead, as well as oncoming sirens from either distant end of the tunnel.

The dice gods are definitely on her side tonight. Somehow, she miraculously dodges bullets like Neo, and she starts to hobble away. She was all hit and bloodied and bruised and there are things sticking out of her back, so Ling just needs to get away. Flee! Flee like woah! If she wasn’t all burninated, mcstabbified, and other such things, she might use her powers on goon 3, but she's way too fatigued and she's hobbling towards Cass, Randall and Benji now. "Thank you.." she says while still trying to go towards the flashing lights and sirens.

Meanwhile, Anh dodges bullets too, either that or GLG is just out of luck, and so he'll go for a headshot. Should he miss, or even if he makes it, he'll rush to Ling's aid to try to get her out there. He'll even scoop her up in his arms if he has to. Whitney Houston would definitely be crooning about this..

"~And I will always love you, oooooooooooh~" Kevin Costner, eat your heart out.

Randall stares at the downed Goon 2 as the door swings back. Whoa, he didn't get /that/ lucky, did he? He /did/. He hits the dirt as Goon 3 fires, then looks up and nods to Ling as she approaches, one hand closing over his cell phone. (Fortunately, it's one of those military ruggedized types, so it actually survived the drop earlier with just some scuffing around the corners.) "Uh, yeah, sure thing," he offers, taking as much credit as he figures is rightfully his.

As Ling comes forward toward them, Cass goes rushing forward to help the woman. Even if the flashing lights are coming, they're not here yet. "Oh my God. Here. Wait. Stop moving." Already moving to help her, she gestures toward the ground. "Sit down. Moving around is just going to hurt you more." She's unaware of any other goons than the two already being dispatched. "Benjamin, help! Go flag down an ambulance!" As for Randall, she still doesn't know what to call him, but she's about to ask to help her when the bodyguard comes rushing to Ling's side. Oh. Okay. Well, that will work, too.

Benjamin stares over at Goon 2, looking surprised, and jubilant. He punches the air with a fist, "Sweet toffee candies, I did it!" Then, he clamps a hand over his mouth and lowers himself further in case more crazies with guns decide to fire. That, and powers really shouldn't be advertised.. even if he succeeded! Finally! His excitement melts away at Ling's approach. He looks up at the woman and nods dumbly. "Uhm.. you're welcome." Cass is given a stupid look while her command processes. "Ambulance? Oh right! Yes!" He scrambles up to his feet to go flag down an EMT.

Grenade Launcher Guy goes down, straight onto said grenade launcher, leaving Anh to do the heroic thing. As… heroic as it can be in the middle of a gangwar.

Goon Three, realizing his gangmembers are downed and the police are on their way, if not already here, books it - chances are, he'll run straight into the authorities anyway. Or Benjamin. Or Jessica. It's hard to say what the better option is — probably Mr. Winters, but he's just running in whatever direction he can find. Ignore the fleeing man with a gun!

Jessica slides her recently acquired gun into a deep pocket of the stylish not-quite-trenchcoat she wears, tucking both hands inside, and strolls down the tunnel where the chaos is not quite so prolific.

Anh blinks blankly for a few moments, looking over towards Cass, Benjamin and Randall as he nods. Ling's just resting now, but Anh heeds Cass's orders. It seems she has a commanding presence. Maybe she has powers, who knows. He doesnt seem to speak much English as he gives a soft thank you as well. The goons shouldn’t be shooting now anyway, right?

Though Cass' only wound is a scrape against the cheek, she should really get a band aid or something for it, too. Plus, it's starting to sting now. Realizing that this man is here waiting to take orders from her, she blinks. And looks to Randall and then to Benjamin, who is taking off down the tunnel. "Let's…let's follow Benjamin. It'll be easier to take her to the ambulance than for them to get here." Plus, they'll be better equipped to know what to do to help her than Cass would. "Come on!" she calls out to Randall, not wanting to leave him behind now, either.

Ambulances abound at the end of the tunnel - both ends, in fact. No one should have any problems finding EMTs once they gets past the wreckage, and EMTs are running into the tunnel to help people as well. The third gunman is being shoved against the wall by a group of police officers, and as for Jessica, she's making Niki really late for supper.

Anh follows the others and makes sure that the whole Hua Yan mess isn’t mentioned. It's maybe a case of mistaken identity, and so he just goes with her in the ambulance as the EMTs do what they can to stabilize her condition. Bad day to be a crimeboss in New York City..

Randall nods to Cass and follows the group toward the now-comforting sound of sirens, delaying only long enough to open up the cab door again and alerting his passengers that it's safe to come out now. "I think it's time to get out of this line of work," he thinks out loud.

"I think it's a good time to never leave my apartment again." Cass sighs, bringing a hand up to hold against her bleeding cheek again. "I…I hate to say this, but I still don't know your name. I know you come into the store all the time when things are crazy, though. I'm Cass. Just in case you didn't catch it before." The woman waits until she knows that Ling has gotten herself some attention by the EMTs before she focuses entirely on a different form of conversation.

"Randall," the cab-driver-this-week introduces himself. "But wait, you're saying it's not crazy /all the time/? I'm not sure I believe you." Amazing how quickly the tension drains away once the immediate danger is gone, though it may come back and whack him again later.

Cass waves off an EMT who wants to look at her cheek, assuring her that it's just a superficial wound and that she's got band-aids at home. "Okay, you've got me on that one. When it's unusually insane, then. Or when I happen to be wrestling on the floor over a note." She gives a wry grin. "I promise /that/ sort of thing doesn't happen all the time. Just on special days."

Randall smiles a little. "I'll take your word for it." Not that it was Cass's part of that encounter that he's smiling about, but still. At that point, he looks forward and waves to the folks behind the sirens, waving them over to help Ling and take statements and all that good stuff.

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