Food with Friends

[GeneralArin]

"You dropped a girl in the pool with an alligator?" Christopher said, giving Axel a look. He ignored Tony laughing his approval in his head. "During a tour?" 
The usual group was heading to Benny's Diner for lunch: Axel, Catryn, Gypsy and himself. Well, Cat was running late, but would meet up with them. 
"You do realize that we're supposed to be helping new students, not traumatizing them," Christopher paused for a moment. "Where did you even get an alligator?"

[Axel The Bunny]

Axel found Indy's irritation amusing, sometimes he wondered if Indy was capable of speaking before he had taken the role of Axel's conscience.
Though he was curious how the taller boy found out, after all it wasn't like the newbies knew Indy, the boy rarely interacted with people out of their normal circle of friends.
"Somebody needs to keep the newbies on their toes..." Axel replied while he counted the money he had retrieved from some punks who had decided to pick a fight with him.
"Besides not like there's a difference." Axel made a point to ignore Indy's last question. Nope better to keep him guessing, besides it helped to avoid a lecture about him being a bad influence.
"What do you think Gyp?"

[Cerulaen]

Gypsy wasn't entirely paying attention to Ax and Indy talking, as it was just one of their usual exchanges with Indy scolding Ax and Ax brushing it off In favor of...well, being Ax. Per the norm of usual exchanges, she was rollerblading around the two a bit mindlessly as her mind flitted back and forth between the random things her brain told her to think about. Like whether or not altering luck probability would allow her to fly.
She cocked her head when Ax actually addressed her. "What do I think about what?" She tried to rewind her brain back to what they had said. "Jake being an alligator? I heard he was a crocodile." She turned to face the two, skating backwards with a quizzical look on her face. "What is the difference between those anyway?

[GeneralArin]

"A crocodile has a narrower snout, and you can see its lower--" Christopher broke off his automatic explanation to give Ax a stern look. "You dragged another student into your pranks? You can't just string them along with these things!" 
Well, I highly doubt it took much cohering... Tony commented. 
That doesn't make it okay. Christopher grumbled.

[Axel The Bunny]

"I was bored, besides it was his idea." Axel responded while giving Indy an amused look.
It wasn't completely true, but Jake had made some suggestions to help with their plan, so close enough to the truth.
"Besides that chick should have been paying attention instead of being on her phone, just imagine what Ms. Laurens or Cain would have done."  
It was true, compared to the two arguably psycho instructors' usual punishments Axel's little stunt was nothing.
Not that he wouldn't have done it anyways, but that wasn't important.
The trio had made it to the dinner, and that was important.

[Cerulaen]

Skating closer to Indy, she put her hands on his shoulders--or rather, on his arms, since she couldn't reach his shoulders--in a reassuring sort of way as she skated backwards with him into the diner. "Relax, Indy," she said with a copious amount of seriousness. "Just remember Ax had me doing way worse things when I came to the Academy."
    She smiled and turned back around, skating through the doors and to their usual booth. "In fact," she called back, "this is almost a step up!" She snickered at Ax. "Remember when I pretended to be dead in Ms. Laurens' shark tank for all the newbies?" She sighed. "Those were some good times."

[GeneralArin]

Christopher rolled his eyes. "You know that doesn't make me feel better." He walked into the diner, watching Gyp in amusement as she skated. 
He frowned when she reminisced something he didn't recall. 
Huh, I don't remember that. Tony said. 
"When did you do that?" He asked sternly.

[Axel The Bunny]

Axel mock glared at Gypsy. Though in reality he was more amused than anything.
"You're doing this on purpose aren't you."
They entered the diner finding their usual spots. Benny, was behind the counter, not too surprised to see the group.
They came here often enough he didn't really need to ask what they wanted either.
"Ya kids want the usual I'm guessin'?"

[Cerulaen]

"If by 'usual' you mean our obnoxiously large amount of food that includes my purple pineapple pancakes..." Gypsy paused for the correct amount of dramatic emphasis. "Then yes. Yes we would." She splayed her hands palm down on the table and leaned forward towards Benny. "You do still have my purple food coloring dye, right?"
Benny laughed and winked at her before walking away to the kitchen.
Gypsy slouched down in the booth seat and crossed her arms. She eyed Indy and Ax. "That'd better mean 'yes'."

[Catigatoroala]

"What did you do this time, Ax," Cat muttered to herself. She could feel Claudia's disapproval as well as she marched briskly down the street to the diner.
    The rest of the gang had already gone down to their usual hangout at Benny's. Typically, Cat would walk to the restaurant with them, but today, she had opted to go to taekwondo class with Amber first. The two girls had been chatting as they walked back to the Academy after class--thankfully, the dojang wasn't too far from their home--when Cat suddenly had one of those visions (and she really hated those visions). She recognized the scene as the diner, and her friends... they were involved in a physical altercation.
    After that, she had picked up her pace, hurrying back to her dorm to change and heading back out immediately.
    Chances were, it was Axel Stone's fault. It usually was; after all, the guy amused himself by pushing people's buttons. He ticked off a good portion of the people he met, including Cat herself, and considered those accomplishments. So she had to be there beforehand to try and prevent the confrontation from happening. And if that failed, she knew she had to stand by her friends and attempt to minimize the damage. At least Christopher was already there; it was hard to keep Axel in check, but the tallest of their group was definitely the best at it. She hoped that he, at least, could act diplomatically and get everyone out of trouble before they got into it.
    {Tony's not going to be much help,} said Claudia.
    Oh, darn, and I was totally counting on that, Cat replied sarcastically.
    She pushed open the door to the diner, eyes scanning the tables for her friends. Benny was taking their order, so she hurried over and chimed in, “BLT with a chocolate milkshake, please.”
    Benny chuckled pleasantly. “You got it.” He went off to get their orders to the kitchen.
    Cat plopped down in her seat beside Axel. “So, what did I miss?”
    {So far so good, it seems,} noted Claudia.
    Shush, you’re going to jinx it.

[GeneralArin]

"Just reminiscing about all the mayhem that Ax has caused everyone over the years," Christopher said wryly as Cat plopped down. 
And about to be introduced to some more, Tony interrupted. Angry gangbangers, two-o-clock. 
Christopher glanced out the window beside him. A group of five or six teens seemed rather rowdy outside, all dressed in a way he figured was supposed to look tough but looked more like they ripped apart their clothing and glued random bits back together. 
There's also a few tough talking wisps, Tony reported with interest.
Odd.
"Speaking of," Christopher said aloud, "Has 'everyone' included some guys in cheap leather, recently?"

[Axel The Bunny]

Axel turned his head to look out the window, he could sense the presence of the people outside with his powers, except his clairvoyance didn't give him much detail.
Still, a group of five or six walking towards them wasn't easy to miss.
Getting a real look at them simply confirmed that these were the guys Indy had referred to. He turned to his friend. "Why do you always assume they're here for me?"
Of course Axel knew that was a stupid question, but for once it seemed he was actually innocent. At least he thought he was, as none of these goons were familiar. And one of them was...short. A midget would be an accurate, if rather rude, description of the pint-sized punk. Axel definitely would've remembered shrimp like him.
Though considering the fact that they were definitely here for their group, it'd probably be best to double check.
"Gyp...have I pissed these guys off before?"
That was the part where the suspicious group came into the diner. Hopefully the teens from Hawthorne would be allowed back in after today...
Either way, the leather-clad boys were now approaching Ax's group,
Yeah...this couldn't turn out well. Benny had a no fighting policy.
The group spread out to surround them,
Intimidation attempt, perhaps?
Axel was amused, and allowed it to show through his smirk. This was going to be fun at least.
Then the head thug spoke up.
"Listen up, punks, we've gotta offer you can't refuse."

[Cerulaen]

Gypsy looked up and over at Ax, her mouth fully secured around the straw to her glass of chocolate milk, before studying the group of guys coming in through the front doors. She furrowed her brow as she thought back to whether or not she’d seen them before. “They kinda remind me of those guys from the Snowball Fight of Doom last year,” she started thoughtfully, “but they all had those weird, over-gelled haircuts.” She rolled her eyes. “Some people and their hair.” She flipped some of her colorful dreads obliviously over her shoulder. No, these were guys she’d definitely never seen before, and they all looked like wannabe sons that were trying to live up to the legacy of their fathers’ biking gang. Or something.
    When they walked over and surrounded them in a sort of semi-circle, with the short guy delivering the kind of line that usually rendered Ax into a snark-off, Gypsy cocked her head to the side. An offer? As had already been established, they didn’t even know these guys.
    Gypsy saw Indy raising an unimpressed eyebrow and Ax smirking. Cat was looking a weird kind of wary, almost like she’d been expecting something like this. Gypsy wondered if she had been, with her weird future-fortune vision things. Wait, Cat could totally tell fortunes, right?
    “Sorry, pal,” Ax said, lazily leaning back against the booth, “but we’re not interested in whatever your Girl Scout troop is selling.”
    “Unless it’s cookies!” Gypsy chimed in. “I’d bend over backwards for a Thin Mint.” She leaned an elbow against the table to prop her chin up with her hand. “No seriously, I would. I can totally show you right now.”
    A few of the guys scowled at her like they weren’t sure if she was being serious or not. Unprofessionals.
    “Actually, we’re here to show you kids don’t really have a choice in the matter,” the short guy sneered, cracking the knuckles on his hands like that was supposed to be scary or something. “It’s join with us, or find out what happens if you don’t.”
    Ax started opening his mouth to reply, looking like he was practically on the verge of laughing, but Cat beat him to it.
    “Look, we don’t want any trouble—” she started to say.
    Before she could even finish, though, Short Guy snapped his fingers at his buddies around him and jerked his thumb over at Gypsy.
    Dodging mooks Gypsy would’ve been prepared for. But unless Indy had been planning on going all telekinesis on her, she was not prepared for an invisible force tugging her out of her seat and pulling her forward.
    Needless to say, she wasn’t quite as capable of dodging the hard backhand to the face that she flew right into as she would have otherwise been. She’d been hit by kids in pique fit condition at the Academy during training before, but even they couldn’t send people careening back 10 feet into tables. Unless they had wisp-given super strength, of course.
    Thanks for the heads up, Indy.
    Ow, Puck complained
    You don’t feel it, I do, Gypsy grumbled back. So yeah, ow.
    Short And Now Super Strength Guy was making some bravado statement again, but she was more concerned with her split lip and the fact that her head was bleeding where it had hit the edge of the table. Most people probably would’ve ended up with a broken nose and she knew she’d avoided the possibility of a concussion, but man, getting blood out of her dreads was a pain.

[Catigatoroala]

Cat looked to the window when Indy questioned Ax about ticking off any guys in cheap leather recently, and dread filled her stomach. Crap.
   {Game plan. Go,} ordered Claudia.
   Um, make sure Ax doesn't say anything, try to placate the punks, make it very clear that we want to avoid a fight, but if they start looking like they want to get violent, warn them that we'll defend ourselves if we have to, Cat recited as the boys--one of which was even shorter than Ms. Laurens--walked in, horsing around in ratty, ripped-up clothes. A few of them had their eyes trained on the Academy students, their cocky expressions making it clear to Cat that they were here to cause trouble. And if it comes to that, keep the damage very minimal.
   {You know Benny is quite serious about keeping his restaurant violence-free,} Claudia reminded her. I'd say take it outside if you can.}
   Mhmm.
   Cat assessed the leather-clad teens warily as they surrounded their booth. A flicker of slight confusion and uncertainty came over from Claudia, although the wisp couldn't quite discern what was the matter. For the moment, Cat had to leave her to it and focus on what they could figure out instead, glancing at her friends to see their reactions.
    {Ax is smirking,} warned Claudia. {Make him stop smirking. Ax, don’t you dare provoke them.}
    “Listen up, punks, we’ve gotta offer you can’t refuse,” announced the short one, who appeared to be the leader of his little group.
    Cat knit her eyebrows together warily, wondering what they were talking about. And why they were calling them punks. Before she could attempt to politely turn them down, Ax spoke.
    Cat tensed and gave him a look, but then Gypsy piped up in her typical cheerful way. Claudia relaxed slightly, but both Esper and wisp remained alert. If these boys were here with bad intentions, even Gypsy’s amicable attitude and randomness might not be able to change things.
    “Actually, we’re here to show you kids that you don’t really have a choice in the matter,” said their leader, proving her right. He cracked his knuckles. “It’s join with us, or see what happens if you don’t.”
    Cat’s eyes narrowed a bit at the guy’s obnoxious attempt at threatening them, and she said, “Look, we don’t want any trouble-”
    He interrupted her by snapping his fingers, and suddenly, Gypsy came out of her seat, as if pulled by an invisible force--right into the back of his hand. He knocked her aside, and she flew over a table, crashing into the next. The diner fell into complete silence.
    {...Oh,} Claudia realized faintly. {They’re Espers.}
    They could sense it now--the presence of a wisp with the short guy, and one of the others, who Cat automatically deduced to be a telekinetic as well, having pulled Gypsy out of her seat like that. Her eyes cut back over to her, and she felt an angry tightening in her chest. Gypsy was just a fourteen-year-old girl, the youngest of all of them, and she had even tried to be friendly with these guys. And these jerks thought it was okay to just attack her like that for no reason? No. That was not okay.
    “So you see,” the short guy was saying smugly, “we’re not people you want to mess wi-”
    He stopped mid-sentence, because that was when Axel punched him in the face.
    The guy who had moved aside when the midget hit Gypsy, began to step forward, and Cat took the opportunity to telekinetically yank at the foot still on the ground and send him crashing on his rear end.
    “Indy, go check on Gyp,” she said sharply, glowering at the punks. They were looking around in confusion, as Ax and their midget leader had disappeared. “We don’t want to fight you,” she told them loudly. “But we will defend ourselves, and each other. So I suggest you leave now. Or I promise you’ll regret it.”

[GeneralArin]

Two espers present, Tony informed Christopher and the other academy students. He gave Christopher's companions the information telepathically. Guy in the back with an armband and a bad haircut uses The Force, and to state the obvious shorty here is Hercules.
Christopher tried not to roll his eyes at Tony's explanation, because it wasn't exactly straightforward or professional. But it explained well enough, he supposed. 
Anyway, Christopher was immediately going to check on Gypsy anyway, anger and adrenaline burning in his chest. It was times like these that he was perfectly fine with Ax's policies, though he did send his partner an obligatory reminder:

Don't kill him, Ax. Christopher told him telepathically. 
But please kick his sorry hide to kingdom come. Tony finished. Christopher did't correct him. 

Christopher helped Gypsy steady herself and examined her. Her lip and the back of her head were bleeding, and would bleed a lot based on their locations, but there wasn't any serious injury or head trauma.
He grabbed some napkins off the table and pressed it to the head injury. 
"Superficial injuries," he informed, keeping an eye on the situation unfolding in the diner. 
Tony was keeping an eye on the psychic wisp, to make sure that it wasn't able to seriously mess up their team. It looked like it was mostly telekinesis, so no worries about mental effects.

[Axel The Bunny]

Axel saw red when Gypsy was hit, and sent flying across the diner.
Now there were very few things capable of angering Axel, even death threats and attempted murder didn’t usually make him angry enough to actually get serious.

Unfortunately for these thugs, they weren’t aware of the signs of Axel being angry, nor aware of just how dangerous and capable he was when he actually got serious.

Axel only waited long enough to know Gypsy didn’t have any major injuries before he attacked.

Shorty didn’t have time to react as Axel appeared in front of him with a sucker punch. He was surprised even more to find himself 15 feet in the air directly above the diner’s parking lot.

Axel teleported to the ground while the short thug was forced to take the long way down. Of course, that wasn’t the end of it as Axel knew the guy would be harder to put down, and frankly was too angry to stop just yet anyway. So Axel kicked the shorter boy while he was down, only to get pushed back.

“That was a cheap trick asshole.” Shorty growled as he got back to his feet. "Now, after the beating im gonna give ya, what I did to that rainbow haired bitch is gonna seem like a friendly tap.”

[Cerulaen]

It only took a second for everyone else to fall into action around Gypsy, who was still sitting on the floor and a bit on the offended side that these dumb squats had interrupted their lunch. She was working on getting up when Indy came over.
After helping to steady her on her feet, he told her basically what she already knew before using some napkins to blot her head wound. Replacing Indy's hand with her own, she gave a huff.
"Can we go kick their butts now?"
Without another word, both of them plunged back into the fight.
Really, it didn't even feel like that much of a fight.
At the Academy they were taught to exercise their strengths into their fighting styles, and with Gypsy having the light frame and powers she did, her fighting involved a lot of dodging and keeping the other guys on their toes until there was a good spot for a shot. However, that sounded a lot simpler than Gypsy made it. Her kind of "dodging" usually comprised of doing cartwheels, back flips, and acrobatic leaps around her opponents, often while shifting the probability of them managing to twist their ankle and fall on their face or something. Why fight if you couldn't have fun, right?
And when it came to the rather noob fighters, like the one she was up against now, her tactics seemed to really confuse them. She had him spinning in circles in no time, and she very neatly tripped him, sat on him, and broke a tall glass cup over his head. He was out like a light.

[Catigatoroala]

Tony confirmed what Claudia had been guessing about the two Espers. {"Shorty here"?} Claudia questioned. {You mean "shorty not here,"} the wisp quipped, referring to the fact that the midget had been 'poofed' away by their kleptomaniac friend. 
     Cat wasn't really too surprised when the punks ignored her warning to back off. Oh well. Their loss.
     As the first guy stepped forward, Cat swiveled around to move her legs out from under the table, and swiftly kicked him in the shin. Too easy.
     That's when their telekinetic made his next move. Cat bit back a yelp as she was suddenly pulled out of her seat and towards the ground. The telekinetic, accurately described by Tony as the one with a bad haircut, laughed sharply as she flailed. Cat toppled onto the person she had kicked a few moments ago, her knee accidentally hitting him in the face and a hand reaching out to stop her landing, pushing the punk to the ground as he was trying to straighten up. As soon as she had more or less regained her balance, she used her own powers to make the telekinetic punch himself in the face, while he still had his guard down. He interrupted his own stupid laughing with a yell of surprise and pain.
     {Wow,} said Claudia mildly. {He's not really good at this, is he?}
     Thankfully, no.
     Cat was glad to see Gypsy back up and holding her own with no problem, backflipping all over the place as usual. And Indy was using his own telekinesis to defend against the mooks. As for Ax... well, she didn't see him anywhere, but she had a pretty good idea of what he was doing.

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