Angel Springs, 2016. The middle of nowhere, United States and Americas, short US&A.

It has been 17 years since the last public incident. The city grew formidable in that time frame, becoming a central stop on road trips across country. It provides everything a person needs, from hotels, casinos, restaurants to schools, libraries and gyms.

On a daily basis, people come and go that leave the city always with fresh faces. The place blooms with its stores and malls.



In the middle of this place, the restaurant "Golden Peking" flourishes with customers from lunchtime to late dinner time, making the place a perfect place for families to eat and business meetings to happen.

It is currently lunchtime.

Sabrina serves a young couple that is having lunch in the restaurant. With a heat wave rushing through the area, she was glad that the restaurant has one of the newest air conditioner systems installed. That is the advantage of living in a city that is just three decades old. Everything is new here.

Sighing, the girl returned to the counter and poured herself a glass of water. Her eyes catch a sight glimpse of a person passing the windows and she thought that it reminded her of someone, but she shook the thought away and made her way back to the couple.

A sudden influx of hot air swam into the restaurant as a tall figure opened up the door and stepped into the Golden Peking.

Rodger wasn't exactly what you could call a regular, but he stopped in every now and again to sample the best Chinese in the city. He attributed his affection for the food to an old Cantonese woman who would babysit him sometimes when he was young and his mother had to work late. The woman had been a phenomenal cook, and the smell wafting out of the back of the restaurant always brought him back to a special place in his childhood. So every week he found he had a little money left over you could bet he'd be appearing at the Golden Peking sometime in the near future.

The door closed as the man walked forward to take a seat at a nearby table. His walk was graceful, in a strange way. He walked as though he was being dragged forward by the hair, sharply, without giving thought as to whether the rest of his body to keep up. At any moment you were expecting some sort of crash that was never forthcoming. Somehow his legs always manged to arranged themselves underneath him, steadying him just enough that he could move forward another step. Watching him cross a room was like watching a tree topple over in perpetuity.

He slid right into an open seat at an empty table and leaned back with a relaxed look on his face, deeply breathing in the cool air. Being outside today had been wilting. The man liked working up a good sweat, but out there work didn't come into it. It was as though the entire atmosphere were trying to wring people out like a dishrag.

Angel Springs. The name promised a backwater frontier settlement filled with dust, tumbleweeds and the withered corpses of cowboys downed in shootouts. Well, even if such a place had existed in its time, progress had since replaced it with a modern and developed small city. Rachel had been surprised when the bus kicked her off here for discovering she was a stowaway passenger. The poor girl hadn't seen places like this since Wichita. It was both a welcome and unwelcome change of pace; welcome because of new experiences and unwelcome because a city like this would surely drain her of money faster than she could say 'Shinee!".

Currently, she was walking absent-mindedly through the streets of Angel Springs, clutching tight to her Converse duffel bag filled with clothes (stolen), money (also stolen, most of it anyway) and tampons (okay, she bought these). Wearing a navy blue hooded jacket despite the weather, she made sure to also conceal her face. Why the surreptitiousness? Well, Rachel wasn't a fugitive in the sense of the word, but her actions had vexed plenty of people in her run. People who would gladly stab her a million times given the chance. She wasn't about to take any risks.

Abruptly. she stopped at some Chinese restaurant. The Golden Peking. It looked nice, from what she could see through the front window. Small, homely and not too crowded. Rachel wasn't sure why she stopped to window shop here; it definitely wasn't to check out the admittedly cute waitress on duty right inside. Maybe it was her Stand indirectly affecting her. Sure enough, Shinee had materialized and was gazing intently at the inside of the Golden Peking. Rachel couldn't figure out where its eyes were pointed towards (mainly because it had no eyes, just the helm and visor). It was weird how she and her Stand were supposed to be 'one and the same' yet sometimes it did things of its own accord. Oh, well. Who was she, a hobo, to question free will?

Deciding not to stick around and risk looking like a beggar, Rachel willed Shinee to dematerialize and kept on walking. There surely had to be better things to do in this town. Preferably free activities like stealing.

A gang cohort is never something people expect to see strolling down a street as nice as the one The Golden Peking is located on. Nevertheless, a four-man group of Kaisers does so, quite brazenly in fact, though said brazenness is a facet of their gang's purpose - to heal, not to harm, and to do so in a way that's noticed. Indeed, all four men are quite tall and strong, and all bear the bright green colour that indicates allegiance to the Kaisers in some form or another, though the standout is naturally the head of the pack, the Kaiser Chief himself, with his great musculature making him easily the most visible member of the group. Alas, their search for tasks to assist with has borne no fruit yet... though with the spotting of an elderly lady seemingly unable to cross the road nearby for traffic density, such a task is found at last.

'You know what to do, boys,' Nick states, the other three men leaving his side to head toward the old woman. Admittedly, the sight might seem tense at first, though they call out to her well before they reach her, asking if she'd like help crossing the road, and any fear she might have had apparently evaporates when the gang's name is mentioned. As the process of road-crossing (and donation gathering - community service unfortunately isn't cheap, and nor is feeding a street gang) is performed, Nick himself keeps an eye open for any other potential avenues of assistance, only to spy a girl who seems somewhat keen on hiding her face. She looks... run-down. Run-down in a particular way that Nick has grown to recognise rather well: homelessness is an unfortunate issue even for a city like Angel Springs, though moreso in the parts he typically patrols than the well-off places such as these. Regardless, it too is an issue he'd like to end round these parts.

'Excuse me, miss?' he starts cautiously, stepping toward her as she approaches him, well aware that a misstep could give off the wrong impression all too quickly. 'I, uh, couldn't help but notice that you seem a bit down about something. Sorry if I'm being presumptuous but... do you wanna talk about it?'

@Lazy Rocktime

Rachel almost screamed when some huge man came to her and practically overpowered her with his height. Her first instinct was to make herself appear small and not a target, but once he clarified that he meant no harm, she took a more relaxed stance. This guy was enormous, his physique spoke of a strongman or weightlifter, but his face was disproportionately young. As if his body suddenly grew out of control and left the face in the dust. That image was more amusing than it ought to be.

Thinking of a good response for this man's query, Rachel settled with a simple, "No, it's okay. I'm fine." Her grip on her duffel bag tightened and she tried to get it away from his attention. Instinctively, Shinee stood ready to materialize and carry her to safety if need be. It would look very strange for a non-Stand user (which he presumably was), but it was the easiest escape mechanism she could think of.

@BCTheEntity

Reinhardt was driving his car a 1972 Ford Mustang that he had bought some time ago around the block,Finally parking his car in the lot locking it and walking into the Golden Pecking.A restaurant that he heard was quite good and had a fair price so it would be a good place to have lunch while he was at work.Taking his seat inside one of the booths keeping to himself ordering Steamed Pork Buns and Jasmine Tea as a appetizer before he gets to the meal.

Looking around seeing two people talking to each other but not caring about that now more focused on his meal,His appetizer soon came thanking the old woman who served him.Blowing on the top of his tea sipping it slowly.

'Well, that's fair enough, ma'am,' Nick states. He detests how many of those on the street refuse help when it's offered, and can't help but continue to talk: 'But look, if you change your mind, come see me, alright? Ask around for the Kaiser Chief, people will know who I am.'

'Woah, Chief, who's the hot chick you've picked up?'

Apparently, helping an old lady cross the road had been handled nicely by his subordinates. Manners? Not so much. Closing his eyes and gripping the bridge of his nose with an exaggerated inhalation, Nick turns to the member of his group who had spoken, an unimpressed expression on a face where it doesn't quite belong.

'Hey, so, Jim?'

'...oh crap, right. Uh-'

'If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times, don't hit on the people we're trying to help, in any form.'

'Yeah, uh... I-I'm sorry, ma'am.'

'Cut that crap out, or it's the bat again.' To emphasize his point, Nick reaches down and pops the top off the tube at his waist, letting a hint of a reflective surface show- just enough for Jim to become visibly scared- before popping it back into place and turning back to the lady. He makes to say something else, but cuts himself off for a moment at the sight of someone in what appears to be an extremely fancy white dress entering the restaurant he's next to. The Golden Peking- and Nick notes to himself that that'd be a great place for his team to have lunch in. It looks good, anyway.

'...sorry about Jim, miss,' Nick finally continues, somewhat awkwardly after the mildly-exaggerated pause, 'he's pretty harmless if you're not a terrible person. Just a bit, ah...' He pauses again, turning back to look at Jim proper. The other two gangers- Rick and Mohammed- helpfully offer 'A pervert?' and 'Idiotic' as potential adjectives, which Jim himself takes offense to, though Nick ultimately turns back to the woman again stating 'Both of those.'

And then he thinks to himself, That group of three coming toward us seems a bit heavily armed for a street like this.

'Hey, so you four stay behind me for a moment, I think I may have business to deal with,' Nick states bluntly, stepping around the woman in front of him in a way that effectively guards her with his overlarge frame. Noting his behaviour, the three men approaching stop a few feet away from the group, the one in the back notably further away than his companions. A "leader from the back" figure, of course, though whether the leader of just this small group or of an entire organisation is impossible to establish.

'Sup, mister,' same-said guy says to Nick, his tone immediately threatening regardless of his target's size. 'You uh, you didn't happen to see, say, a woman in a white dress skulk into that there Chinese, didja?'

'Well, I've seen a lot of people walk in and out of that store since I got here,' Nick states bluntly, stepping forward a few paces to put himself ahead of the doorway too. 'If I have seen a woman in a white dress, though, I'm quite sure you three would be the last people I'd tell that to.'

'Cut the crap, buddy, I ain't got time for this. We have some stuff to, uh, reacquire from her, and your dumb ass isn't gonna stop us from gettin' it back.'

'Amazing,' Nick ponders to himself, 'so that's another three psychopaths to deal with. Seven this week! I'm on a roll, huh?' he asks the mobsters, who by now are very evidently frustrated.

'I'll say this once more,' the leader states slowly and deliberately, 'move, or somebody dies.'

'Yeaaaah, those guns? Not gonna help.' Nick points out, apparently bored and unconcerned. Though really, that'll only last as long as his fellows don't try to get involved. But of course, Jim turns out to be too big for his britches, and strides forward like the idiot he is, yelling 'Yeah, don't you morons know who this guy is?! He's the freakin' KAISER CHIEF, and if you don't back down now-'

POW.

Fortunately, the aim of whichever thug took the shot is quite bad, meaning the bullet fired isn't as immediately lethal as the claims made. Still, a high-up gutshot is nothing to sneeze about: Jim falls backward beyond Nick's position, screaming bloody murder about the brand new hole in his body, and the Kaiser Chief himself decides enough is enough. Time seems to dilate as he speaks: 'You just fucked up big-time, asshole. That's the last mistake any of you ever make; just for that, I'll take you all out with your own peashooters in three seconds flat!'

'Hah, as if you could!' the leader yells. 'Kill this kid-looking bastard, you two!'

And that's more than enough to set off an already-upset gangster. With a loud roar, the Kaiser Chief rushes the mobsters, the movement of their aiming arms seeming oh-so-slow from his perspective... until he grabs both and forces them up in a way that aims both pistols toward the opposite mobster's head, Nick himself leaning back to stay out of the line of fire, and from there it takes only a quick jolt of the Ripple to make the thugs' muscles contract in a way that forces their index fingers to bend inward...

POWPOW.

As the two creeps blow one another's brains out, and unfortunately shatter the window of the Golden Peking and create a small dent high up the wall of another builder across the street, Nick yells at the gangster 'That's one second for your minions, meaning I have two seconds to deal with you! Thread Barrier!' The two statements seem unrelated - that is, until Nick's wifebeater seems to unravel from his chest outward into a mess of bright green threads, covering a wide area in front of him and crackling with life energy, just as the leader manages to begin firing his own silenced pistol toward Nick. It is for naught, however, as despite the seeming impossibility of it, the individual threads of the wifebeater cluster together against each bullet, completely dissipating its force without so much as snapping, let alone being shredded the way one might expect them to.

'You see that?!' Nick yells at the final thug. 'This shirt is made entirely of cotton and wool! And so's denim, in case you weren't aware!'

'What does that have to do with ANY OF THIS?!' the guy responds, clearly confused yet still firing bullets. 'How the fuck-?!'

'We're at one and three quarter seconds now! AZURE PUPPET OVERDRIVE!' Nick proclaims, the jacket unravelling and extending rapidly toward the mobster, until it wraps itself around the forearm of the guy's firing arm, only to turn the weapon upward toward his head. The man panics, tries to drop the weapon before the inevitable happens, fails as yet more threads grip his individual fingers and physically pull his index finger inward toward his palm...

POW.

And with the thugs permanently disabled, Nick's jacket unwinds itself from the dead mobster's arm, then reknits itself alongside the wifebeater as both revert to their usual form. Nick takes a deep, slow breath, both to calm himself down and allow his body to effectively scan itself for damage, though none has in fact been taken from the fight itself.

'Not even two and a half seconds,' the Kaiser Chief laments, rising up on his toes with one arm extended toward the falling body of his dead foe dramatically. 'I offered gold, and was given dirt in return. What a pity.'

The screams of pretty much everybody in the area ring out as the corpse hits the floor and the gang leader's perception of time reverts to normal, not least of which are Jim's cries of pain at the wound in his abdomen. Turning back to his gang members, he treads toward his companions, the pooling blood from the other two thugs seeming to ripple and spread away from Nick as he walks past them. More dramatic is the effect that arises when he comes near his own gang member's blood: it almost seems to flow backward, returning into its owner's body as though it had never left, and even seeming to remain where it is meant to as Nick lays a hand upon Jim's chest, eyes closing in concentration, sensing his own team member's life energy, where it's strong, and where it weakens.

'D-dude, I think I'm done... he... h-hit something big, probably a-a lung... I can f-feel it,' Jim says weakly, coughing up yet more blood to prove his point. Certainly, the bullet seems to have rebounded and passed out of the target's body cleanly, meaning one of his lungs is punctured twice, amongst other less serious injuries such as a rib cracked at the base near the spine, but nothing that Nick cannot undo in short order. His breathing remaining steady, several pulses of the Ripple spread through Jim's body in just a few seconds, first closing up the holes in his body and realigning the bone fragments of the rib, then reconnecting blood vessels (blood inside rather than outside, of course), bronchi and bronchioles, marrow and nerves, and restoring as best it can the tiny alveoli and bronchioli that have been destroyed outright - quite well, Nick believes, for a severe injury to a complex organ like that - and finally sealing off the holes proper, muscle and bone fusing back together as though never damaged at all.

It doesn't take long for Jim to get back on his feet, a smile on his face and words of thanks on his tongue, at which point Nick slaps the smile away just for good measure. 'Consider all that karma for not learning your lesson about when to say nothing,' he says unsympathetically, to which Jim simply hangs his head and nods.

'Now, is anybody else hurt? Rick, Mohammed?' Nick asks, to which both shake their heads. 'Then miss, are you well?' he continues, turning to where the woman from before ought to be, if she hasn't fled by now.

@Dark Eternity@Gentlemanvaultboy@Lazy Rocktime@Eviledd1984@Lurkerlurks

@BCTheEntity

Reinhardt was watching what was going on with amazement in his face on what he was seeing,"A stand user...i thought..their would not be others like me in this place..." The finely dressed man said watching the other man searching for a woman whom he believed he had saw before this fight.

When he was asking someone where the woman was the older man was frozen for the time being,He wondered something if this stand user was looking for this woman who might be another stand user and he was going to kill her.Of course if this was the case then he would have to stop him.

Or perhaps he was over thinking things and should just stay out of their way and not get involved.

Rodger hadn't even gotten his menu yet when the woman walked in. His eyes followed her as she crossed the room. Well, not her. Her friend.

That was too bad, he thought. He'd been hoping for a nice lunch but that just wasn't going to happen now. Walking around with your Stand out was like walking down the street with a gun in your hand; you didn't do it unless you had cause to use it. Whenever a Stand showed up, mischief always followed. It was the law of the universe, one he'd learned quickly.

It didn't take long for the peace, as well as the window, to be shattered. Rodger ducked his head low along with most of the patrons as the restaurant erupted in screams, keeping focused on the open window to try and get a good idea of what was happening. He didn't see much. It was all over almost as soon as he started watching. Curiously, and to escape the cacophony inside the restaurant, he drew himself up and crunched across the busted glass scattered on the floor. Looming out of the window into the fresh air he saw dead men littering the street and the one who was responsible tending to his wounded comrade. He reached into his back back pocket for a packet of seeds, thumbing one into his palm. The dead men he couldn't do anything for, but maybe...

There was no need though. It a moment the young man was mended back together, good as new. Rodger sighed with relief, placing the seed on the windowsill as the Kaiser Chief stood. The Kaisers were okay in his book. They'd done his neighborhood more than a few good turns, kept peace in this city in their own way. He held them in the highest esteem. Their reputation was such that if they had killed these men outside there must have been a good reason for it, though the cops probably wouldn't be nearly as understanding.

Rachel nodded silently at the kind and burly man. Inside, she was kicking herself. That was a disservice to him, pushing him away so uncouthly. It would be unwise, however, to dwell on that thought for long. She walked away from the barbershop quartet of unusual men. Well, duo of normal men and one unusual man. She wasn't sure if this was Shinee influencing her again, but Rachel had some disconcerting questions about this buff man. Why was he so buff? What was his training routine? When did he start lifting for him to still look so young now? why was he confronting a group of other men who were visibly armed?

Wait, what?

A chain of bloody events unfolded before her. A gunshot was fired at the dude that hit on Rachel earlier. Super Buff Teen then recklessly charged at them with his bare fists, yellow lightning coming from them. By diverting the barrels of the gangsters' guns, he made them shoot each other in the head, inadvertently shattering the window she had been peering in. Rachel knew something was off about that man. If he could do this, who knew what he could do...to her?

Fearing for her safety, the girl with the brown hair began to run in a random direction, anywhere that took her away from the scene of the crime. This was high-key murder; cops would sic them at a moment's notice. And that would be terrible for Rachel. Her running was backed up with Shinee's super speed, so within a couple of seconds, she was inexplicably at the rooftop of a building. From here, she could still see the Golden Peking, but the important thing was, those there couldn't. Unless they have binoculars or super eyesight or something. Rachel was safe, for now. Except...Feeling around her, she realized that she left something.

Her duffel bag. With all her stolen clothes and stolen money.

FUCK.

@BCTheEntity

A good day rolling downhill.

Sabrina was doing her work and taking the order from the couple, when people gathered in the restaurant. Quite a lot to be honest. For lunchtime, this was similar to a rush hour.

This turned quickly into chaos as a window smashed and people outside dropped dead. In shock, the girl dropped the tablet with drinks and splashed them everywhere.

"What's going on?", she said in a calm tone, looking outside at the events unfolding.

Her training might have been preparing her for some sorts, but straight and brutal murder was not in the list of things she should be prepared. In trance of shock, Sabrina stood there and let chaos wreck inside the restaurant.

"Everyone, please leave the restaurant quickly through the back." The voice of Sabrina's mother pierced the place and the old woman stood at the door leading to the kitchen, waving everyone over. Sabrina did her best to direct everyone to the back of the restaurant, while keeping an eye at the events going on in front of the establishment.

She damned herself a little for not having her Steel Balls with her. Those could be of great help at the moment.

'Oh, she's gone,' Nick realises, noticing the girl's absence... and, more notably, the distinct non-absence of a duffel bag. Come to think of it, she was carrying something around before... and now what? Should he leave it here, potentially for somebody else to find and steal, or should he pick it up and risk being snagged for theft himself on top of what will inevitably be considered murder? Or at least what will likely be considered murder, before a distinct lack of sustainable evidence exonerates him- the Ripple, in addition to many of its other effects, is very good at making sure spare threads and cells do not stick to anything, and he was quite certain there were no cameras around to document the fight in question anyway- but even so.

'Yeah, so we have to leave right now,' Rick says hurriedly, 'there's gonna be police here pretty soon.'

'Hell with it,' Nick decides (loudly, as an afterthought just to draw the lady's attention if she's still around), 'she can come pick the bag up either right now or later! She knows what to do,' he adds under his breath, hoisting the bag up under one arm and beginning to sprint away rapidly, along with the rest of his cohort. The Kaisers are liked by a lot of people, much of the city's police force included, but they certainly aren't above the law; though Nick has avoided trouble by making himself scarce before, there isn't much hope for his escape from prison if he allows themselves to fall into police hands at a time like this, and similarly for his fellows. It will take time for the police to show up, however, and should he be allowed to leave the scene so soon, escape is all but assured.

@Dark Eternity@Gentlemanvaultboy@Lazy Rocktime@Eviledd1984@Lurkerlurks

"Damn it.." Reinhardt said with annoyance in his voice as he stood up before taking a sip of his tea heading with were the other's were,Once the fight was over and the police siren's could be heard the man kept to himself while the commotion was happening looking down at the old woman with a pair of balls in her hands.

He wondered what those was these were but rather would not want to ask since she might ask him at some point if he was a stand user,He did not want to make any more attention to him and once the police finish questioning he would leave the restaurant and have to apologize to his boss for being a hour late.

He just hoped he would not be yelled at by his boss he hated that.

Rodger turned away from the window as Mrs. Zen began ushering people out the back. He hung around for a bit, letting the room empty of witnesses a little before started for the door himself. As he went a green, snakelike arm whipped out from behind him and pressed down on the windowsill, burying the seed inside of it before retracting and vanishing into the mans back. Instantly roots began to spread from that point, wrapping around the frame. When it had completely encircled the frame something began to grow from it, filling in the area left vacant by the window. A thin green membrane of plant matter, thin enough that you could see clearly through it, cast a slight green tint as sunlight streamed through it.

He didn't look back at it, didn't break his stride at all in fact, but he knew that it would do to keep the bugs out, the cool air in, and was easy to remove when they wanted to really fix that window. He pushed his way quickly through the crowd streaming out of the restaurant and out into the street, casting his gaze around for the cause of all this. There! Ducking out of the crowd. The white dress made her stand out, but not nearly as much as her Stand. It made her stick out like a sore thumb. He followed after her, not really minding if she saw him or not.

He followed her behind a corner, and decided this was as good a place as any. "Hey!" He called out. "Hey, there's something I want to say to you. You and your friend." He didn't really care if she stopped or not. He intended to follow until he'd said his piece. "The Zen's are good people. It ain't fair of you to bring that sort of trouble to their doorstep."

By way of answer a long green arm whipped out from behind the man, snaking its way through the air and snatching up the gun before the girl had a chance to touch it. Slowly, the rest of a being began to reveal itself from behind the man. First its shoulder, cracked, stony, and caked in a layer of moss. Then the head, a solid grey visage of a monstrous face, eyes wide and teeth bared in a large smile. Its other arm wrapped itself around Rodger's neck like a scarf, resting its hand on his chest. It swung its lower body out, the palm leaves of its skirt fluttering, and gripped Rodgers side and leg with its feet to hang off of him. It pulled the gun back over in front of Rodger, then crumpled it in its fist.

"You didn't think you were the only one?" He said, curiously. He must be her first, he decided. It was weird at first, when you didn't know the rules. He'd gotten a crash course from a drug dealer who made the rounds in his neighborhood who could make lights wink out, who'd heard them from his defense attorney, who'd heard them from another guy, who heard them from another guy and so on and so forth into infinity. He guessed it was his turn to pay it forward. "Only people that have a Stand can see other Stands. That's how I knew you had to be involved in that ruckus earlier. Not many people just walk around with it out in their day to day."

"As for me and 「VITALOGY」," he said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling out two more seeds. One he passed to the Stand, who opened its hand enough to catch the seed without dropping the broken gun. Without a though it crunched its hand, and there was a sound of furious growth and the clattering of metal as the innards of the gun fell out of its hand, but when that hand opened the gun was back in its original shape. There seemed to be green matter growing in between the cracks that had been made and the end of the barrel had thin white flower petals growing out of it, but it was otherwise as good as new. "The only side we're on is the side of peace. Catch." He said, throwing the weapon to her. He held up the other seed to her between his fingers. "Now, what do you think about letting me patch that hole in your shoulder before you lose any more blood? That gun works perfectly if you don't trust me."

To call this a day like any other day would be a travesty! Only a short while ago, the man named Vinnie Pantera could have been said to be stuck in 'the grind', that lifestyle of routine and regularity that dominated so many men. Sleep, eat, work, eat, work, and then a late afternoon and evening of free time. While Vinnie spiced this familiar recipe up with his various ventures around town, included who he helped out on a daily basis, the rest of it differed only slightly. Were it not for novels, games, movies, and getting to know different people because of his activities, Vinnie would definitely call his life 'boring'. Yet all that had changed.

Yesterday evening, after an hour spent in a local bar with two friends, it happened. For some time he'd heard about the 'selfless barmaid', whose reputation in that area of Angel Springs rivaled mythology. Evidently, she greeted every customer warmly and listened to their troubles with open ears, ready with the exact right thing to say to make people feel better. The tales Vinnie heard filled him with admiration. He imaged this barmaid, not as a kindred spirit, but as his better. Most everyone who knew Vinnie might call him 'selfless', but he knew in his heart of hearts that he didn't do nice things for people for the sake of doing good, but for self-validation, and the pride of being held in high regard. Faced with stories of true altruism, Vinnie could not help but be filled with both respect and envy. That night, however, the myth came to life. For the first time the stars aligned and Vinnie saw the 'selfless barmaid' in person. Sheepishly he remembered being so captivated by her beauty that he could say nothing for more than twenty minutes, and of course his friends instantly caught on and wouldn't stop teasing him.

After that, though, he quietly seated himself at the bar and ordered something. When the barmaid served him, the two slowly struck up a conversation. Vinnie learned that her name was Alice Benning, as well as other things about her, and he quickly found that he could not stop telling her about himself, especially his problems. Nevertheless Alice consoled him and, after hearing that he who cultivated an image of selflessness thought of her as that virtue's pinnacle, laughed and treated him to a dazzling smile. “Don't let your insecurities rule you,” she told him. “We're all insecure on the inside. It's the action you take that makes you who you are, and from that standpoint, you're every bit as good a person as you think I am.” This one statement convinced Vinnie: he was in love.

The jolt from that encounter elated him, keeping him in a sort of joyful high through the night and to now, the early afternoon. Questions plagued him, even as he strode along the sidewalk with his left hand in the pocket of his suit jacket. How could he get someone to like him who was kind to everyone habitually? As far as he knew, he was no special case, and she might not have felt anything for him at all. Barring that, how could he get someone to like him, period? Vinnie knew very little in the ways of love. How could he avoid seeming obsessed, or creepy, or stupid, or weak?

And how could anyone really connect with him when he couldn't tell anyone about Back Door Man?

My awful secret, he thought wryly. No matter what, he couldn't bring himself to tell anyone about the terrifying apparition that haunted him. Sometimes it seemed like some kind of guardian spirit, the way it went after people who troubled him, but even when he was alone it would be there. When walking in the dark, he might hear footsteps trailing behind him. In his apartment at night, he might look up from his computer and see some of the light coming from his bathroom blocked by a dark shape. And whenever it appeared, there would be wheezing. It wasn't very loud for Vinnie compared to how loud it was toward the Back Door Man's victims, but it still freaked him out to no end. Only last night had he enjoyed a perfect night's sleep. Maybe it responds to my emotions? he wondered. But it's no use wondering. No matter how hard I work to earn Alice's affection, I'll still have this curse. “Man...”

Vinnie broke out of his reverie when the sounds of gunshots reached him. Instantly he was on alert, watching the place the sound came from with wide eyes. Just down the street, someone in front of the Golden Peking restaurant had just gotten shot. Before a few seconds could pass, more bodies hit the floor, with only well-built youth standing in the middle of it all, splattered by blood. Shivering, Vinnie instinctively edged toward the nearest building, his phone already out of his pocket. He dialed the emergency hotline, and in as calm a voice as he could, reported that there'd been several shootings near the Golden Peking, and he looked around to find the signs with the street names before relaying those as well. The operator thanked him and Vinnie hung up. He continued watching, mostly staring at the dead bodies on the street in horror, but he saw something else only a few minutes later far more disturbing. An adjoining street on the other side of the Golden Peking had been the route of a steady stream of people from the restaurant, fleeing by way of a back door as far as Vinnie could guess. Now, though, it held only one person, who was currently crossing it to go somewhere else that Vinnie couldn't see.

He saw it only for a moment, but that moment changed everything. Enormous, white, and seraphic, it was something ghostly and unnatural—like Back Door Man. One thought seized his mind: there are more!? The next instant it was gone. Another person, harder to make out due to lack of distinctive white dress, followed Kijo, but without any sort of spirit of his own he did not make any kind of impression. Vinnie, meanwhile, slumped against the nearest building, his brain feeling like a bunch of bouncy balls. “What...the hell.” After a moment his grey matter started feeling heavy instead, and self-doubt kicked in. “Maybe I'm just seeing things...God, I hope I'm not crazy.”

Reinhardt made his way away form the group not wanting to be spotted by the police leaving out of the back door,Making his way out of the door and though the alleyway and towards his car.Hopefully he would not be spotted by anyone and if not then he would be spotted by the people outside leaving the building.If he was not caught then he would head back to his car to head back to work.

He did not want to have attention on him and would rather being left alone to life his quite life.Making his way though the kitchen and trying to go outside.