"Gonna Take it Out on the Little Buttwipes"

[JJ Johnson]

JJ's hand throbbed, and he kept cursing as he felt the little pangs. It hurt for a good reason: he'd slammed his fist into a locker back at the station. Thankfully the lockers were bent to endure even the powerful punches of mutants like JJ. Unfortunately, that meant that JJ's hand had gotten the worse of the exchange. He was fairly certain that he'd bruised something, and his hand might have been swollen a little, but it wasn't as if he hadn't been shrugging off injuries like this for most of his life.

There had been a good reason for the punch too, a very basic one: JJ had been passed up for promotion, again. Worse, they were talking about increasing the amount of time he spent on patrol with his partner. JJ had at last managed to get enough respect to do a little work on his own, but the complaints were starting to mount. He needed his partner to be with him, the more the better. So not only was he not getting upgraded to something cooler, with more power, but JJ was essentially being assigned a more long-term babysitter.

"Fuck this noise," he spat, just remembering. He looked around the mall, seeking out potential targets. It wasn't, strictly speaking, quite the Bellefonte curfew yet. However, most of the students should be heading home if they didn't want to end up being out past, and given that JJ was looming, being out past was definitely not a good plan.

So JJ approached the nearest potential victim, filled with misplaced rage and a desire to take it out on someone weaker than himself. "Hey, you'd better be getting your ass home. Don't want you making trouble now," he said, drawing himself further up and smirking. Hey, if they weren't a student, he could just find something else to harass them for; that was the fun part of being a cop.

[Elizabeth Edison]

It wasn't like Elizabeth to lose track of time but the bookstore had held her attention a lot longer than usual and when she finally left it, she didn't realise she was a potential victim for a nasty bully.

Gripping her newly bought book, the yell made her jump slightly and turn around. First in panic and then in surprise and then in anger.

"Dude, it's not even close to curfew. Could you chill?" She frowned, pulling down the beanie on her head in frustration. She recognised the guy to be in the police department, which made her anger dissipate slightly mostly out of respect for authority. But a bully was still a bully.

[Deleted]

"She won't be making any trouble, no more than you are now." Matt said, moving in front of the girl, Liz. This was Beau's girl and god damn if he was gunna let this punk ass cop harass her. "How about you go on and play mall cop somewhere else, huh? She's fine, I'll make sure she gets home on time." The man said, looming over the cop. Man, fuck cops. They were always out to ruin everyone's good times. He shook his head and looked back at Liz.

"Don't worry about him, alright?" He said to her. Turning back to JJ, Matt sighed. "Listen. We don't want no trouble, but for you to be harassing a Highschool girl. Come on man, ya gotta have something better to do with yer time huh? How about you go and do some actual law enforcement and get the shit heads off the streets. This girl isn't a problem of yours, you're just tryna pick a fight you know you'll win."

[JJ Johnson]

At first JJ was getting excited: a little blonde thing was being all uppity at him. Little blondes were some of his favorite targets, especially when they were cuties like this one. So cute with her little comment about curfew. JJ was all ready to turn that against her, and his eyes were definitely already roaming that fine little body, when someone else showed. JJ was ready to turn on the guy, not immediately recognizing the voice. He did, however, recognize the face.

Matthew Wilson; one of the few guys in town that could go rounds with JJ. He was moving in front of the girl, obviously thinking he was going to be the big bad protector. Technically the law stated that a student could be out past curfew with a vouching adult, which the bar owner probably knew all too well. This wasn't likely to be the first or last time that Matt had pulled shit like this. Right with the "don't you have better things to do?"

"Hey, you redneck idiot," snarled JJ, "you don't have any power outside of your bar, got it? This is between me and blondie there," he pointed at Liz. "So why don't you just head back to your little hillibilly hangout and leave the police work to the people with the badges and guns, kay?" he smiled tightly and then leered at Liz again. Yeah, he was definitely thinking he could do a few things with her, especially if he could get rid of Hillbilly Wilson there, which shouldn't be too hard.

[Elizabeth Edison]

Matt's sudden appearance both surprised and relieved Elizabeth. Where the heck did the giant even come from? You would think someone would have noticed a six foot five giant lurking around. But she was glad he was around.

When he ripped into the cop, the pyrokinetic couldn't help the snort that came out of her as she adjusted her beanie in an attempt to hide her amusement.

"Oh I'm totally not worried." She pursed her lips after, trying hard not to laugh. But what Matt said after did strike a little nerve with her. He didn't know that she could totally win a fight with this prick. One snap of her fingers and the guy would be on fire. But she kept quiet.

At least until the jerk called Matt an unnecessary insult. She pushed against Matt and shoved the taller guy backwards. "The hell is your problem?" She frowned in anger. "There's seriously no reason for you to be calling people names even though there are some very choice ones I could be calling you right now." She continued.

"And why is it that you're not actually doing any police work right now, Mr. Badge 'N Gun?"

[Deleted]

I don't have any power?" He asked with a laugh. "JJ, I'm pretty sure we both are aware of what kind of power I have. Aren't we?" His tone becoming more serious. This guy was a real asshole wasn't he? Matt balled his fist, ready to sock this guy right in the face but Liz stepped in. "He's not doing any police work because he likes abusing his power." Matt said, stepping back in front of Liz. He stared down at JJ. "Dontcha?" Matt asked, poking the man in the chest.

"You think that gun and badge protect you from everything, guess what buddy. It doesn't. Just because you're a dirty ass cop doesn't mean you can go around harassing teenage girls. How about you take that gun and badge off and see who the real man is, huh JJ? Or are you too scared that I'll whoop your pathetic ass."

[JJ Johnson]

Not worried? JJ actually got a little worried himself as the cute little blonde said that. He'd kept close track on who in town could actually kick his ass, but there were always new people coming in. JJ might have been stupid, viciously so, but he knew that there were some people with whom he could not fight and win. With Matt, it would depend entirely on how things went down, and they both knew that. But with this little girl? Hell, maybe she could make someone's head explode with a thought. JJ wasn't going to dwell on that long though, mostly because thinking that far ahead made his head hurt.

So instead he laughed as she got all riled up about his "name-calling" with Matt. The Mr. Badge and Gun had JJ lifting up his hands, clearly indicating that he thought he had quite the little spitfire here. In truth, JJ was now thinking of how very nice little spitfires like that were when you got them pinned down in a more enjoyable position. She looked old enough too, though he doubted he could get away with something like that in a public place like this.

He definitely couldn't with Matt there. The guy was reminding JJ of the whole super-strength crap, which just made JJ grunt. He joined the little blonde in ganging up on JJ, and the cop swelled at the challenge. Oh, he so wanted to go toe to toe with the guy. Let them whale on each other for a while, see who ended up coming up on top. Hell, if JJ was losing, he could just beat up the little blonde for a while. Goodie two shoes like Matt always jumped in the way to save the little bitches when they got put in harm's way.

"Are you threatening me?" he asked, his tone icy, his eyes flicking from Matt to the girl. "Because you know that threats against officers of the law," he tapped his gun, since that was obviously where the real power was in this case, "are taken very seriously. I could arrest you for that, hillbilly," he drawled the last word, "take your little cute piece of ass in with you too. Maybe I'll even put her in the cell next door, so you can hear it when all those inmates enjoy a pretty young thing like her."

[Elizabeth Edison]

"Jesus Christ." Elizabeth hissed when the cop called her Matt's "little cute piece of ass". His ensuing sentence riled her up.

"Son of a bitch." She responded, her hand curling into a fist as the heat in her body rose. Her other hand reached into her pocket for the lighter she had taken to bringing with her. She knew she shouldn't, she knew she would get into trouble but that mouth of his had to be burned.

The heat was rising considerably. It was affecting even her. "You take that back right now."

[Deleted]

"Liz." Matt said, looking down at the girl. "Go on, you don't needa get caught up in all this. Don't do somethin' your gunna regret, alright?" He then turned his attention back to the cop. "You don't know what this girl can do, do ya?" He asked with a grin. "Sure, I might be able to beat your ass all around this place but she-" Matt paused for a second to laugh. "-she'll burn ya to a crisp right where you're standing." Sure, he didn't want Liz to do it. One, she'd be in a world of trouble for it. Two, he'd be in even more shit for letting her do it. "So how about you turn around right now, go harass someone who won't turn you into a burnt piece of shit and leave us the hell alone. How's that sound JJ? Or are you too daggum stupid to understand when you're not needed or wanted?"

[JJ Johnson]

Was it just JJ, or was the little piece of ass getting hotter? He didn't mean in the attractive sense, though there was something pretty appealing about a girl getting all hot and bothered, but JJ thought he could feel a literal heat coming off her. She certainly looked pissed, which just made him grin all the wider. Yeah, keep working yourself up, girlie, that'll go real well.

Then Matt spoke, which caused JJ to flick his eyes toward the guy. Yeah, there was no way that in a straight up fight he'd win, not against both of them. The part of JJ built for surviving kept screaming that at him. As Matt's talk entered into threat territory, however, JJ's smirk grew. He even grunted, obviously thrilled.

"Are you threatening an officer of the law, hillbilly?" he drawled, throwing a horrible accent onto the last few words. He looked over at the girl. "And she's not stupid enough to use her powers in public, especially not to assault a police officer. You think assault charges are fun, girl? Try being the one arrested for going after a cop. And how do you think your precious little school is gonna react when they found out that you went after a police officer?" he smirked at both of them. "Face it, you two are fucked. I've got the power here. So why don't you just settle on down; I'm sure we can work something out," and he eyeballed both of them, first Liz, who was definitely more in his age range, then Matt, wondering. Wouldn't that be a power play? Take the bar owner and bend him over just right...

[Elizabeth Edison]

Matt's voice sounded mighty distant right then as she focused on the cop. She was aware that her temperature had risen considerably and one look from that cop told her that he was aware as well.

And that was enough to bring her back to the present. Enough to lower her temperature to the bare minimum. She had to admit defeat. She didn't want Matt to get in trouble for something she couldn't control. Let this guy have his day. He probably had his own problems if he would even pick on a teenager.

"Matt," Elizabeth called out through gritted teeth. "Could you please send me back to school?" She asked, her breath a little laboured. "I think...I've had my daily dose of douchefuckery." The pyrokinetic grabbed Matt's arm, tugging him backwards.