2013.09.12 - Pug Mugging

It's Gotham City in the late-afternoon/early-evening. Not necessarily the WORST time to be handling money, checking, and so on, but it's hardly the best either. Actually, anything money-related is usually a bad thing to be doing in Gotham. Even organized crime isn't exempt. Sure, there is a LOT of money that passes through criminal hands, and a LOT of bad guys DO infact get away with their crimes unpunished. But there's always the chance Batman or someone will show up and then that's that.

Gabby Malone straddles an uncomfortable middle ground. She is neither honest citizen nor true criminal. She engages in illegal underground fighting tournaments upon which organized crime and various other bad guys gamble, but she also works to keep the neighborhoods under her protection safe, and the majority of the money she earns from her victorious fights goes to helping the people around her. That doesn't necessarily mean she has some kind of karmic protection -- she has to fight and scrape and kick and claw to maintain this nebulous balance, and she regularly meets hardships she fails to overcome.

But today, she has an honest paycheck for once. After she saved the mayor of Gotham's life when Harley Quinn tried to blow up his head and City Hall with an incendiary explosive, Gabby has been offered various jobs thanks to her sudden popularity. After all, she got a medal and everything! Many of the jobs offered were ones she didn't want to do. People saw a short, busty Irish red-head, and they didn't see a fighter. They saw a spokesperson for their beer or whatever crap they were selling.

But someone decided to offer her a job as a body guard/bouncer, and she took it. Because fighting is really all she's good at, and she's not cut out for posing in minimal clothing to help sell 'Irish Spring' soap. She's walking down the sidewalk with her paycheck, trying to get to the bank before it closes, and her short legs aren't doing it for her. Her motorcycle is in the shop because she decided to splurge and get it tuned and so on thanks to her paycheck. So that means walking.

Sadly for Gabby -- and perhaps others -- there is a MENACE lying in wait near the bank! A menace that lurks in an alleyway! ...WAITING!

There wasn't a lot of other time to be handling money... not for some people anyway. There was a lull now, from the preperation for a job later in the evening, and the job itself, and there simply was no other block that Martin could find to get this little job done. Besides, what was protection money good for if they didn't really protect you from everything.

What he carried through the street, looking around with the caution of someone who'd been in Gotham for a little while now, was enough money to keep his business operating for the next month. Payroll, expenses, invoices.. it was all there, ready to be deposited in the back down the street (the one built like a fortress whose armed guard looked like he'd rather have an assault rifle. He doesn't whistle, doesn't see the sights; just keep head down, and keep walking. Act like you have a place to go. They didn't mess with you in that case.

As Gabby approaches the bank coming from the opposite direction as Martin, THAT IS WHEN THEY STRIKE! ...Martin isn't the one struck though, because he is paying attention to his surroundings and keeping his head down and is thus immune to ambushes. Gabby, confident in her ability to kick butts, only pays cursory attention to her surroundings and relies mostly on her heightened senses to make her aware of trouble. And the only thing she detects is what smells like wet dog, just prior to being accosted by...!

A pair of big... Furry... Dog people!

Gabby only stares for a moment as what appears to be a pair of humanoids, one with the head and features of a bulldog and the other of a pug, leap out of the alleyway and stand in her path. "Grrr!" says the bulldog. "I am Colfax the terrible!" "Grr! An' I'm Mingo the friendly!" the pug growls. Colfax then continues on to say, "Give us your money and any snacks you have on you--" Gabby punches the bull dog right in the face. "OW! OW!" Colfax cries out as he cups his face in his hand... Paw... Things. "Aaah! Colfax!" Mingo yelps in surprise. "Are you okay!?" "Shut up, Mingo!"

Gabby bounces from side to side on the balls of her feet, hands up in fists, ready to fight, and retorts. "Come on then! Come at me! Ya' wanna' piece o' this!? I'll tear ye'r fecking heads off!" This, of course, produces quite a spectacle. It's not every day you see... Dog... People... Trying to mug a very tiny angry woman.

Martin Kavanagh looks up for a moment at the sound of a scuffle... and then voices, turning his head toward them, and even an experianced agent has to stop in his tracks and simply stare at the altercation off to the side, in an alleyway, looking at two dog people, who don't seem to be wearing mask, acosting a very small Irish woman who seems to be less of an easy target than she originally appeared. He stays still for a moment, looking back down the sidewalk. The smart thing to do would be to simply keep walking to the bank and leave that bit of Gotham color for others to deal with, but there are sometimes when the rational part of one's brain just simply flicks a switch and refuses to beleive something is possible.

THat's the only explination for Martin to tuck the deposit bag in his suit jacket, walk across the street, and raise his hands to his sides, looking at the entire scene with annoyance. "What the /hell/ is this? Will some one explain this to me? Anyone?" He says, before waving a hand at the dog people. "Who the fuck are you people and what are you doing accosting this woman here? Because it looks like you're mugging her. My brain refuses to beleive this, though, so... explain it to me."

"Aaah! Crazy little snack-person!" Colfax snarls back. "You better watch out! I'll do something! I'll... I'll summon giant flaming devil monsters... Who spit fire and carry machetes made of fire and..." Mingo seems startled and interrupts with, "Y-you can do that, Colfax?" Colfax turns to his companion just as Martin comes up and starts yelling at them too. "Wha--This is none of your bus--" Gabby punches the bulldog in the stomach. "OOF!" he lets out as he bends over. Mingo yelps again and announces, "We're sorry, Miss and Mister Human! Please stop hitting my friend! It's jus' been so long since we've had a real meal! Ever since we escaped from the lab--" "SHUT UP, MINGO! They don't need to know about that! Just shut your stupid face!" Colfax wheezes out. Then he backs up out of easy punching range and puts his back to the alley so he can see both Martin and Gabby at the same time. "Yeah, we're mugging her! We tried begging but we weren't getting any beggin' strips or anything. We're hungry, jerks!"

Gabby is not without sympathy but when they admit to trying to mug her she indignantly declares, "None o' ye damn furries are layin' a single paw on me! If'n you want help, ye'd better try askin' politely!" She looks towards Martin and could just SWEAR she's seen him somewhere before or at least heard that voice, but she can't quite place a finger on it. "Oi, ye' know anythin' about a 'lab' hereabouts 'n Gotham that'd be makin' freaks like this?" She jerks a thumb at the pug.

Mingo looks crestfallen. "Hey, lady! That's not very nice!" "Noir is muggin' people!" Gabby snaps.

Martin Kavanagh rolls his eyes. "Guess what? You're mugging a lady, and I'm a decent human being. That makes it my business, because I don't like to know that dog people are mugging pedestrians on the same route I take to my bank." One of the routes. It's called /healthy/ paranoia. "You're goddamn right you're sorry. Maybe if you tolk people about the problems you were having instead of trying to mug people... stupidily, I might add. You know this is the Vencetti's turf, right? And they don't like people horning in on the protection racket here. Or so they tell me when I pay my insureance." He says, before watching Mingo get shouted down. "She is, right, though. None of you are laying a... 'paw' on her. She looks like she'll beat you up. ANd I have a cell phone. Police don't come here often, but I know the right words to get a squad car. Just act rich. You don't want to end up in a cell, do you?

He looks over to Gabby. "I don't watch the tabloid shows. Some drunk homeless peolpe talk, but I really don't think I heard enough to take them seriously.

Colfax lets out a bark and says, "Oh, yeah!? Well, maybe we'll mug you instead!" Mingo says, "N-no, I don't think that's a good idea! I don't wanna' go back in a cage, Colfax!" Colfax is of course assuming that if Gabby is the tough one here, then Martin must be the weak one, not realizing he's just some kind of human-bulldog hybrid with no real fightng skills to speak of and could probably be defeated by anything short of a small child. As long as the child was not armed with anything more deadly than a pointed stick. But his pug friend holds him back and Colfax grumpily settles down.

"I don't want to go back in a cage neither... But we can't exactly just walk up to a pet store and get snacks, you know!" "We kind've tried that already," Mingo admits. "They just screamed alot." Gabby grumbles, "'A lot'. 'Alot' is 'n imaginary mix o' yak, bear, and pug--" Mingo's ears perk up and he turns his head towards Gabby. "Pug?" Gabby changes conversational gears, "Err... Anyway, this lab place sounds like bad news." As she calms down, Gabby's accent becomes less noticeably. "Not sure if'n I want to get involved in that mess. But I'm plenty sure I don't want dumb and dumber here wandering the streets pickin' through dumpsters and scaring old folk and chasing cats and what not."

Mingo gasps! "I-I knew that cat chasin' would catch up to us! ...Or us catching up to the cat would... Chase our tails... Or, um..." "Shut up, Mingo. Just... Stop talking." Gabby stares at the pair and then sighs. "I've not anywhere to keep them aside my apartment, and if'd bring trouble to my neighborhood I'm not too keen on trying there. I'm no hero." When Colfax AND Mingo look kind of saddened by this, Gabby rolllllls her eyes at the puppy dog expressions and says, "...But something should be done for them. Maybe there's one of those hero organizations with an embassy in town or something of that nature, aye? I'm sure they'll be happy to investigate this lab business."

Mingo shudders and says, "Please just don't send us back to Doctor Feral!" Colfax shudders too then. "Don't say that name!"

Martin Kavanagh looks slightly incredulous at the threat to mug him, opening his coat to reveal the nine millimeter revolver tucked into a shoulder holster. "This is my business, and I really don't like to get mugged. Let's stop those thoughts right there, right now, okay?" He says, bringing his coat closed again. "Now, I'm not calling the police. I really only get one of those phone calls, and I'd rather spend it on some... Joker coming down here and dosing the homeless with gas, or something. Crazy fucking city." He mutters that last part.

At the talk of cages and attempts, Martin sighs, and nods. "So, you've asked for food at petstores. That's not going to be the best route to go. There's a church down a few block. Saint Micheals. Those people have seen everything, so I'm sure if you're /polite/, and /ask nicely/, they might be able to help you. I run a deli, too. I can bring in some... food." The old stuff.

He looks over to Gabby, noticing that she now seems to sound less like some immigrant from 1910 straight off the boat. "I'm sure those people at the church know the right place to call. I send some homeless near my business to them a times in a month. Decent people. But, like she said, we aren't heroes here. Just people who get /angry/ at muggers. You understand?"

Mingo looks very relieved that they're not going to have the police called on them or sent back to a lab, Colfax covers up his relief with grumpiness and just says, "As long as there's food. And pillows. Mingo snores, so sometimes I have to cover his face with a pillow until he stops--" Mingo somehow doesn't seem fazed but does furrow his wrinkly brow a bit. Gabby just facepalms and says, "Oi, that's fine and all. To the church with you. Nice, fine, great. But there's just one problem." She looks at Martin dead in the eye and says, "...The bank has closed while we've been standing here chatting."

Colfax just sniffs. "Not my problem." Mingo looks heartbroken. "Oh no! ...That's bad, right?" he asks as he turns his attention on Martin with big, bulging, looking-in-two-directions-at-once pug eyes. Gabby rubs her forehead. No good deed goes unpunished.

Martin Kavanagh pauses, as Gabby makes her revealation, a blank look on his face, before he sighs, and turns around. "This is why I don't try to be a hero. Lord. It's fine, fine. I'll just do it tomorrow." He says, before turning around, snapping his fingers. "I think I remember you from somewhere. Not quite sure /where/, though, but I'll recall." HE says, walking over to her, and flicking out a business card. "I run a deli and catering company afew blocks away from here. I actually remember, now. I saw you on the news a while back. If you need a job, let me know."

Then he turns around, and makes that quick walk back to safety. Night was falling, and comical dog people or not, the /real/ muggers would be out in force soon.