realmrsreynolds | Offworld shenanigans.

Offworld shenanigans.

Sometimes, the bar at the end of the universe - of all universes - doesn't give you quite the selection as the myriad of worlds that you can have access to when you are that bar's Barman.

"Are you sure that this is gonna work, Mike?"

Sallie is standing in Mike's suite, staring at the wall in front of them both like it's about to open up and swallow her. Which, in this case --

"Of course it will. And it'd be an easier way to stay subtle than going out the main door, if subtle's what you're still going for."

"You know it is. Your ba's such an awful man to shop for. It'd be nice to get him a little surprise." Been living together. I like shopping for folk is all.

Mike smiles, and draws the door.

Sallie's not precisely sure if Mike sent her to his New York or not, but it's close enough to the one that Sallie has visited that she doesn't look wholly out of place. (She doesn't yell at the fare machines in the subway this time either.) There is a fair amount of time spent in Williams Sonoma, but she does finally admit to herself that that store is more about herself than for Splinter, so she leaves and ends up finding a couple shops in Rockefeller Plaza that could prove fruitful. She even applauds her own forethought at bringing a charmed shopping bag, so she doesn't have to struggle with a million packages walking around the city.

It's time to hit the subway again, not wanting to walk the dozen or so blocks to her next destination, when she notices two men walk into the Cole Haan shoe store before she makes it to the door to leave. She sees the outline of the guns in their waistbands before the security guard does.

Oh gorram.

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Mike's enjoying the relative solitude of his now quiet living room when...he hears it.
The tell-tale sound of someone trying not to be heard.

Splinter is coming.

Slowly Mike looks up and over at the once bare wall which is now has a glowing chalk outline of a door on it.

"....oh crap," he says. A fraction of a second later he springs to his feet and then races around the living room like a chicken with its head chopped off looking for something to cover the door with.

First he considers a ficus, but no...no big enough.
Then he considers a sleepy Stampy on TOP of the ficus, but she's too squirmy once he's woken her from her nap.

When Splinter enters the house Mike is mid-way through attempting to relocate the fridge.

The old man merely stands and waits for his son to notice him.

Sallie has already been noticed.

The two men are gesturing-via-gunbarrel for all the people in the store to head towards the back corner of the showroom.

"Watches, purses, jewelry, cash, phones -- " one of the men orders, heading around the room with a military-style duffel.

Shit shit shit

"You wouldn't take an old lady's things, would you?" Sallie tries for unassumingly charming, and her purse (with her Security badge door backup to Milliways along with it) gets snatched out of her hands regardless.

It takes Mike a good long while to notice that Splinter is standing there. In fact, had the fridge been on a longer cord he might not have noticed until well after the appliance had been placed in front of the glowing chalk outline.

But as most fridges do not have a long amount of give in the power supply department...

"Master? Hey, you wouldn't happen to have an extension cord up your sleeve would you?"

"And why, my son, would you need such a thing."

"Oh...you know, redecorating."

"With the refrigerator in the living room. A rather bold choice, decoratively speaking."

"Well yeah...yeah....I mean, I spend more time in here anyways, so why not cut out the middleman and save me some steps."

"Mmmmm."

"Because, you know...step saving."

Splinter raises a single eyebrow.

"In the name of efficiency?"

"And surely it has nothing what so ever to do with the glowing portal drawn on your wall."

"What? OH! Huh! How did that get there."

"Michaelangelo."

"Lenny? Lenny let's go -- "

It's a little too late for that, given their questionable decision for robbing a store in Rockefeller Plaza. There are already a couple fed police here, Sal uniforms visible outside.

"Goddamnit."

One of the other customers starts making eyes at the robbers. One of them, he might take - the customer is pretty built, all athletic and broad - but two, no.

"Uh uh. Sit down, big guy."

"Yes, Sensei?" Mike tries his very best butter wouldn't melt in his mouth smile, but it's clear from Splinter's expression that he's not buying it.

"My son, is there any particular reason why there is a glowing chalk door on your wall?"

"No? No reason. No."

"I see. Is there any particular reason why you are trying to hide a glowing chalk door with the refrigerator?"

"Is that what I was doing?"

"Michaelangelo."

"Yes, Sensei."

"You are too old to be playing this particular game."

"But still young at heart!"

"MICHAELANGELO."

"You promise not to get mad?"

"It is a bit late for that."

"This is the New York City police department," an official intones into a loudspeaker from somewhere outside. "Come out with your hands up."

A younger man behind the counter is starting to tremble. "Oh Jesus! I'm not even supposed to be here today!"

"Shut up! Where's your phone at?"

Lenny looks to the other one. "What's the plan?"

"Call 'em, and get us the hell out of here."

What I wouldn't give for Splinter right about now.

Splinter stands there, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Again."

"She asked to go, and said she wanted it to be a surprise, so I thought..."

"You thought dabbling in the arcane arts of which you know precious little would be a valuable use of your time, and a safe method of travel for Sallie."

"Well...when you put it like that it sounds like a stupid idea."

Splinter looks to his son, eyes narrowed. It's a look that could cut through solid vibranium if he wished it so.

"Give me the chalk."

Mike, not having a death wish, complies. Chalk in hand, Splinter looks over the writing on the wall, making small corrections here and there where needed. The glow around the door's perimeter shifts to a slightly different hue, and then intensifies.

He slips the chalk into his pocket and without turning to look back at Mike says, "Return the appliance to the kitchen. We shall speak of this when I return, and then never again."

Splinter pushes the door opens and disappears into the howling din of the city beyond.

The phone requested, despite it doing its job of communicating between the thieves and the police outside the store, really doesn't improve anyone's mood. But there are other problems to be considered as well.

"Gentlemen?" Sallie asks, affecting an older, more arthritic posture and tone, "Might I use the bathroom?"

Both thieves blink.

"Can't you hold it?" One asks.

"Well that's just rude to ask, isn't it?" Sallie retorts, losing her false accent for a moment. Shit.

The sun is as blinding as the sound of the city streets disorientating. And for a second there Splinter finds himself with an overpowering need to get underground. With his heart racing, he ducks down a nearby ally to get a handle on himself, to push his way through the panic.

That's when the sound of the sirens reaches his ears.
It's not that sirens in and of themselves are foreign to him, he's lived most of his life under New York City, they're a minute-to-minute occurrence. No the problem here is that they're getting closer. And that they're stopping near a shopping center.

A shopping center close to the spot where the door brought him in.

"...ut oh."

They eventually said no to the restroom visit, which led to a fair amount of griping. At least Sallie served as a distraction for the other customers.

That being said, sitting this still in one place was starting to make Sallie want to get up and do jumping jacks - anything to move, and especially move away from anyone with a weapon.

"I'm not dying today, Len."

Good? We don't want to either!

This would be an entirely different tale were it night time, he told himself. If the Sun were down, if it were dark...

No, he's going to need help. Someone far more comfortable with large numbers of people. His first reaction is to go and fetch Michaelangelo, but he knows that both he and Sallie cannot be out of Milliways at the same time.

But, there is another...

Quickly he fumbles for the chalk in his pocket, drawing another door on the brick wall of the alleyway. It's much quieter where he's headed next...

It's quiet in the backroom of the store, until it's most certainly the opposite of that.

"What the fu--"

"Go find out, Jace -- "

Lenny stays in the room, getting more and more panicked, while Jace disappears into the back room.

To a very short and intense burst of gunfire, and several heavy thumps.

All goes still, and worst of all quiet.

"Jace? Jace, man..." Lenny starts to pace. "C'mon man, Jace."

Silence from the back room ... until...

The door swings open and a very large, angry looking bald white man comes striding through. He's dressed as though he's just come from some sort of Renaissance festival, and behind him he drags the still form of Jace.

"This belong to you?" His voice is all Bronx, with a slight touch of BBC.

"No, no, no, you don't take another step -- " Lenny's pointing a gun straight at Raph's chest, and meanwhile in the chaos of it, Sallie's brain does nothing but Raph's here Splinter's here too on a frantic loop.

Not that she has moved an inch from her position, but she knows that Raph has seen her by now.

"No. I already got tagged once today, thanks."
And he has. There's a tear on the sleeve of his shirt where a bullet had grazed his arm. Flesh wound, but it's enough to make him less cordial than he's already got a history of being.

"Lower it, or I'm gonna beat you to death wit' your friend here."

While Raph keeps all eyes trained on himself, Splinter sneaks from the backroom to as close as the shadows will allow him to get to Sallie.

That's about 5 feet away from Sallie's left arm. She gasps but does not reveal anything else.

She doesn't like the risk they're taking.

She loves it anyway.

Sallie sticks her left hand out at her side.

For a brief moment Splinter's hand is in hers, and then it's replaced by what feels like, but is too light to be, an egg.

Smokebomb

Just in case Raph can't diffuse the situation his own way.

"I'm gonna give you until the count of three to drop the gun."

"Or what?" Lenny all but yells, the muzzle of the gun vibrating slightly as the man shakes.

"Or I'm gonna take it from you, and break your wrist while I do it."

"You're bluffing!"

"One."

"You. You stay right where you are."

"Two."

"I'm warning you."

Raph doesn't get to three, though in his defense he never really intended to. He moves far faster than a man his size should be able to. Jase drops to the floor with a sound not unlike an apple hitting a brick wall. Raph darts forward, one hand to block, the other reaches behind his back for the sai slung from his belt.

Lenny's wrist never stood a chance.

Everyone else in the room is screaming - Lenny the loudest of all.

Sallie just looks surprised. It's...she's never really seen any of them hurt someone. Not really. (Not physically, anyway.)

She actually turns to try and see Splinter now. How do we get out of this one?

Splinter just sighs at Raphael's antics. While he will fully admit that as diversion tactics go, this was a good one, but at the cost of efficiency. Sloppy. Just sloppy.

"this way," he says quietly, his voice beckoning Sallie into the shadow.

"I did try to warn you," Raph says evenly as he pins the man to the floor and begins an attempt to field strip the gun.

"Down - put the gun down!"

At least ten officers, more, continue pouring in the front door.

Sallie's moving towards Splinter's voice, but Raph's in the center of everything. Sallie can't leave him --

For a second there Raph doesn't realize they're talking to him, but it's kind of hard to miss that particular shade of blue. The fact that they're all wearing vests that read POLICE in bright white letters is a pretty good tip off too.

He looks up, makes eye-contact with the officer speaking, and then very slowly puts his hands up.

"Okay okay, let's just take it easy."

"move very slowly," Splinter tells Sallie, in a voice just barely above a whisper. "Do you have everything?"

"No!" she hisses back, "My bag from the bar, it's here somewhere -- "

It's probably not the best thing to leave in the world.

Splinter swears under his breath.

"Do you know where it might be?"

Meanwhile...

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