xp_logs | Angelo in London, Friday afternoon

Angelo tracks down Amanda's muggers and - with a little help - fulfils his promise to Adrienne.

Some people might have described what Angelo was doing as loitering with intent... and they wouldn't exactly have been wrong. He was hanging around outside the pawn shop, unobtrusively for now, just another young man with nothing better to do.

Most wouldn't have given him a second glance. The two young men who approached the pawn shop did, but only long enough to give him a suspicious look, weighing up if he was encroaching on their territory. The large black man seemed about to linger, but his smaller mate, twitchy and impatient, tugged at his arm.

"Later," he said. "After we're done."

"You, my son, have a problem," muttered the other man, but took the hint, dismissing Angelo without another look.

That was their mistake. He'd chosen his position carefully, at the mouth of an alley, and with a glance around to check nobody was looking, he snapped out strands of skin and yanked them off-balance, into the shadows. "I think you both have more problems than you know."

The smaller man stumbled and fell into a pile of discarded boxes with a yelp. His friend, on the other hand, caught his balance, whirling to face Angelo with a sneer. "Mutie fucker, are you?" he said. "And a Yank, by the sound of it. Well, mate you picked the wrong bloke to go after." Light glinted off the heavy ring on one hand as he balled his fists.

Angelo looked him over dismissively, then shrugged. "You're not much, an' your friend's even less. You picked the wrong homeless girl t'mess with, a few days ago."

The man's brow wrinkled. "Huh? What the fuck are you going on about?"

He fished the pendant out of his pocket, dangling it in front of the bigger man's face. "Recognise this?"

There was a rustle as the smaller man pulled himself out of the rubbish pile. "It's that gold thing we got the other week," he observed, just as the other man was shaking his head in denial. "The one we got 50 quid for."

"You wanker," the black man told his talkative friend. "Don't admit nothing, remember?"

"Too late", Angelo said coldly. "I know it was you two, anyway. You were seen. You're just lucky I'm the one came after you - I might let you live."

The two exchanged a look, then started to laugh. "You and what army?" said the smaller man, pulling a flick knife out of his back pocket. "Mutie or not, you're still outnumbered."

"Two to one's not outnumbered when the one's me." That was delivered with absolute confidence. "An' the army's not far away, anyway." Seeming to decide he was done talking, he reached out almost carelessly - no matter that he was too far away for normal reach - and swatted the smaller man into the alley wall.

There was a yelp and a crunch as he hit the wall face first, sliding down it slightly dazed. His companion glanced at him, then back at Angelo, a flicker of worry flitting across his face. "What's the deal?" he asked. "She was just some homeless slag. What do you care?"

"She's my girl", he said flatly. "I've been lookin' for her, an' I'm not the only one. You scumbags hurt her an' robbed her, so now I'm gonna hurt you. Maybe less if you can tell me where she is."

"How would I know? She was just some slag on the streets. We saw she had something, so we took it." The larger man started circling Angelo, trying to get around him and make a run for it - the mutie Yank had a personal stake in this and he didn't like his chances. "'S the way it is 'round here."

Angelo stepped back, into the mouth of the alley, blocking the escape route. "It's the way it is a lot of places. But it's not gonna be the way it is for you two, not anymore. I promised someone that. You don't know where she is, then I guess you're out of luck."

There was a muffled moan from the smaller man, who rolled onto his back, clutching his bleeding nose. "Fucker broke me nose!" he managed to choke out. "Hurt 'im, Steve!"

"Shut it, Tommy." Steve's fists clenched nervously. "Let's see what you've got, then." And with that, he stepped in, swinging a fist at Angelo's head.

There were a lot of techniques available to a small man fighting a larger. Angelo opted for one of the simplest, to begin with, just ducking Steve's punch, then sweeping a leg at his ankles to knock them from under him.

Steve lurched back to avoid the sweep, nearly tripping over Tommy's legs instead. Catching his balance, he lunged at Angelo again, going for a grab - with his superior weight, he could perhaps put him in a headlock and finish this nice and quick.

What he got instead were five strands of skin wrapped tightly around each wrist, and then Angelo snapped out all ten "fingers" to their full length, slamming the bigger man hard against the wall before depositing him in a heap at the blind end of the alley.

There was a strangled cry from Tommy as he picked himself up, running at Angelo with the knife in his hand. "I'll do you!" he screamed, slashing at Angelo blindly, blood still pouring from his broken nose. "I'll fucking well do you!"

"Buddy, you don't stand a chance", Angelo told him almost kindly, and it didn't take much effort to relieve him of the knife, with the way he was flailing it about. "Now sit down while I decide what to do with you." On the last word, he 'helped' Tommy along to the ground.

Another contact with the ground took the fight out of him, and he lay there, whimpering slightly. When you got down to it, Tommy was just a junkie, whipcord thin and without any real strength, only viciousness. There was a groan and Steve pulled himself upright. When he caught Angelo's glance, he held up his hands. "No more trouble."

"Damn, I was lookin' forward to more of a fight. I've had a bitch of a fortnight." He leaned back against the wall, casually but keeping his eyes on them. "But I'm not gonna hurt you if you're not fightin' back, there's no fun in that."

"So what are you gunna do?" Tommy wheezed, with only a fraction of defiance. "Hand us over to the pigs? Not without landing yourself in it for assault."

"Nah, there'd be no point to that. I don't trust any court in this country t'keep you from ever hurtin' anyone again." He pretended to think it over. "I could give you to Amanda's uncle, he likes usin' hot knives on scum... or her boss, maybe, you don't wanna know what he'd do to you. But I've got a better idea." Glancing back at the mouth of the alley, he whistled sharply, just once.

The woman who entered the alley was small and dark haired, not particularly imposing to look at. But when she approached and looked down at the two young men and smiled, both shivered involuntarily. It was not a pleasant smile at all.

"Now then, boys," Romany Wisdom said. "Let's make sure you don't hurt anyone ever again, shall we?"