Who Robs A Deli?

The day had been rather stressful. An intern knocked over one of the racks, causing quite a mess. Dirt and plants were everywhere and Holti was certainly frustrated. It caused him to only have five real minutes of eating lunch before it was straight back to work. Along with this, someone had forgotten to order new containers so they were set back even more. The most they could do is say that they'd catch up the next day and soon enough, Holti was sent home on time.

Normally, he'd make his own meal, but he was far too tired for doing that. Instead, he decided to go to his favorite deli, one that was a bit out of the way and was locally owned, rather than being a chain. It wasn't as popular with tourists since it was not on any of the main streets, but all of the sandwiches were sold at a wonderful price. Cheap-ish food in a big city was a blessing and Holti would gladly take it any day.

The air around him did feel odd as he made his way to the shop and he couldn't help but tense up a small bit, fiddling with his hands as he walked. Few people were on the streets and many people seemed to be avoiding the shop all together. He picked up his pace, searching for any reason on why people were behaving in such a peculiar way. It wasn't until he was a couple of stores away that he saw what was happening.

Only a few people in the deli shop were physically moving around, while everyone else stood quietly with their hands raised. It was a bit hard to visually make out, but Holti could see a few guns. He couldn't hear what they were saying but it was obvious enough to figure out the situation at hand.

A loud groan left the man as he ran a hand through his hair. “Great. Just fantastic. The one day I decide to get a sandwich and this happens!” Thankfully, he was wearing contacts today. Otherwise he'd be in some deep trouble. “Couldn't they have picked something different? Like an ATM robbery? And not where I wanted to get my dinner?” While he spoke, he quickly made his way into the nearest alley in order to get changed into his outfit. It was held inside what he claimed was a laptop case, except there never truly was any laptops. Only papers from work and his suit. He'd have to hide it somewhere and no way in hell was he going to let someone steal his laptop while he was dealing with something.

It only took him a minute or so to change, for now he was watching the shop carefully where he wouldn't be seen as easily, trying to come up with a plan of action. There were plenty of things he didn't want to do, such as kill them. So what was he supposed to do? Holti wasn't as used to dealing with situations that involved innocent bystanders. No. There was a reason he preferred dealing with ATM robberies. Only him and the culprits, never anyone to worry about protecting.

A layover meant Danny and Tsukimi would be in New York City for a little while longer. Neither made plans for this, nor packed enough clothes for the trip, so their afternoon plan involved finding the nearest laundry mat they could, and dropping all of their stuff off, pop in some quarters, and wait for the magic to happen.

With all of their real clothes swishing around in the washing machine, both girls opted for their best laundry day attire. Danny wore a pair of black warm up pants with her Stanford jacket, while Tsukimi opted to just wear the cheerleading skirt with a white T-shirt on top. "They said our plane should be good to go tomorrow night."

"It was good to go last night." Tsukimi rested her chin on her hand. "You weren't."

"I was saving the city. Maybe the world." Danny watched as the clothes continued to spin around the tub. "Cut me a little slack."

"I'm hungry. What won't kill me in this city?" The storefront window gave them a look at a number of hotdog vendors and other streetside views with a pizza shop thrown in for good measure. But, none of those fit Tsukimi's 'Won't kill me' clause. "Can you screw up a sandwich?"

"You have to work really hard at it." Danny pulled the load of laundry out of the machine and pushed it into the dryer. "We can wait there while out clothes dry."

"What if someone tries to steal our-" A turquoise lock snapped into place, sealing the lid of the dryer. "Well, I'm down."

Danny and Tsukimi both enjoyed what they ate at the deli, but the service could use some help. Not in the way of manners or timeliness, but more in the sense of dealing with the armed robbers who burst in.

"You know we have to deal with this right?" Tsukimi kept her hands in the air, straightening them for whenever the gun passed by.

"It's a priority. But, if I just try to fight right here, someone could get hurt." With her hands in the air, Danny could not ready her bracelet for an offensive display. She would need a distraction to help her out. "Let's try to keep it quiet though. I don't think these guys have the steadiest of trigger fingers."

"That can be helpful." Tsukimi leaned her head over to try and avoid her voice carrying too far.

"Can be. It can also mean a stray bullet hits someone." Seeing the robbers begin to take notice of their talk, Danny straightened herself back up. "Now hush. You're going to make them do something stupid."

There was certainly a reason Holti preferred ATM robberies. For one, it was only him and the people causing the trouble with the occasional bystander. Still, they were not inside the room with him. For another reason, the people tended to not be as stupid about putting the lives of others in danger. Here though, here the people holding the guns were idiots. Holti could tell by their actions from where he was. One wasn't even holding the damn gun properly!

Now, he would be happy about this on most occasions, but not when there were other people involved to worry about. One shot gone wrong and they would hit a child instead of him. That was the last thing Holti wanted. But what was he supposed to do? First, he had to make a distraction, get the robbers off guard. Maybe then the owners could press a panic alarm or call for police.

He couldn't help but hope for some assistance. Sure, he could take this on his own, but people can pray.

Quietly, he made his way over to a car parked close to the shop. From there, he took out some seeds from his satchel and tossed them, getting a few to land in front of the shop. Then, he did something pretty stupid. He punched the car. Hard. This in turn triggered the car's alarm, blaring out. This alerted anyone who didn't already know about the robbery, along with possibly getting the guys off guard. Hopefully it wouldn't leave a dent.

That's when he took the opportunity. Using one of the seeds which belonged to a tulip poplar, he used as much energy to make it grow rapidl. The tree shot in through the glass, shattering on impact. If the robbers weren't already off guard, this would certainly do the trick. He could help fix any damages, no problem. The window being gone meant more escape routes...so it's fine. Not like he probably shouldn't have done that, nope.

Impulsive could certainly match with both of his actions.

Keeping the bullets in the gun served as the first priority Danny needed to address. Keeping Tsukimi from blowing everything by getting in a fight with a thug would be priority number two. At some point stopping the entire robbery would need to be addressed, so Danny put a pin in that one at number three.

"I've got an idea." Tsukimi leaned back into Danny's comfort zone.

"Is it to live a long life full of health and not die right now?"

"I find your lack of faith disturbing."

"If you aren't choking someone with your mind in five seconds, you don't deserve that quote."

"What quote?"

"I told you to stop talking!" A man with a gun walked over to the Danny's table. He pushed Tsukimi's hands behind her back and wrapped them with duct tape before sticking a piece over her mouth. "Now, be quiet!" The man scratched the side of his head with his gun before heading back to the counter.

Danny leaned over and whispered to Tsukimi. "You deserve that for not knowing where that quote comes from. But, I think I have a plan now."

Tiny turquoise bars began to form in the air, poking the man whom accosted them in the back of the leg. Once he pulled back around, another bar would appear and poke him from the other side.

"This place has bugs! Can't even run a restaurant! We should burn this place down!" While not the largest of the thugs, he did seem to have the most irrational of moods. At least, it appeared he did.

"If we burn it down now, we don't get the goods. We should shoot a hostage!" A car alarm blared in front of the store, prompting a slight look from those inside, but for the most part it would only serve to give Danny a moment to move her hand over to her bracelet.

Tsukimi turned to Danny with her eyes as narrow as they could get.

"Oh, like your plan was so much better." Knowing the time for subterfuge was over, Danny decided to get into the action. A splash of roots broke through the glass, sending shards all about the ground. "Fine. Time to speed up the process."

A turquoise shield emerged from Danny's arm large enough to protect Danny's entire upper torso, while a crossbow emerged in her right hand. Danny lifted the shield just enough to launch a bolt towards the two men. The bolt broke out into a net, ensnaring both men in a net. With two men under control, Danny moved forward, hoping the men would stay under control, but as Danny moved closer, a hand reached out from the net, grabbing Danny's ankle and lifting her off her feet and onto the ground.

A couple of the robbers walked around the shop a small bit, one even grabbed a bag of potato chips from the rack, stuffing it into his coat pocket. The other seemed to aimlessly wave his gun at the patrons who were trapped, either out of stupidity or because he was attempting to threaten them. Both did not seem to really take notice of the two girls speaking, being far too occupied with eating a bag of chips, waiting for orders, or fixing their fly. One glanced over to the man who made claims of bugs. "Probably one of them flying cockroaches. Heard about them online." Just then, there was the loud blaring of a car alarm. The two seemed puzzled. This was not mentioned in the van! They talked about what to do if someone disobeyed or tried to attack, but not a car alarm. To make the matters even harder on them, a random tree burst through the windows! Now that certainly was not discussed!

Both Holti and the two robbers were certainly shocked to a see a shield form. He was not alone! There were people who too could do this sort of thing! And they seemed to be in the same situation as him. Had his horrible idea actually helped someone? There was no real time to think of this, though, he had other things to do. As the net appeared, Holti bolted into the shop, jumping in through the destroyed window. It was stupid, but there was no going back now. He was in it to fight.

Meanwhile, the last two robbers began to charge Tsukimi. One of them tried to shoot at Danny, but failed miserably due to his terrible aim and obvious lack of experience in handling guns. It all seemed like a mess to Holti, and truly, it was. The guys had no idea what they were going to do now. The last thing they expected were these freaks busting in and ruining their plan.

Looking around, Holti scanned for anything he could do. "Everyone leave." The robbers seemed far too distracted to notice any of the normal people, or well, people who seemed to be normal. As people began to flee, Holti moved his hand slightly, causing the tree to slowly grow more, moving into the shop itself. It spread into multiple branches that he planned on using later. His eyes shifted over to the girl with the shield as she was dragged onto the ground. Keeping an eye on the two robbers still standing, he moved down to try and yank he back onto her feet.

"Hey! Not so tough now huh?" The thug pressed the business point of his gun in Danny's chest. "What was that thing you just did? You know with the shield and all?"

"I'm still pretty tough considering I'm not having to use a gun to get my message across." Danny kept her head against the ground, looking at her assailant in the eyes. Even though the tree broke the shop window's the two men over Danny kept their focus on the fighter they managed to floor. "At least tougher than you."

"It's actually pronounced 'more tough'." The man pressed his hand harder against Danny's shoulder as he lifted himself up.

"No, it's 'tougher'." Arguing from her back pulled the attention of the man over her and his accomplish who duct taped Tsukimi a minute prior.

"I think I saw 'tougher' on a truck commercial." Free from the net, the other man turned his attention to the discussion. "They say 'tougher' on football I'm sure."

"They say lots of things on football. It doesn't make it word of god. Words need to go through certain channels. Does Webster acknowledge 'tougher'?"

"You're using Webster? That's not official." Danny's hands remained in a state of surrender, but her mouth did not. "You have to go by Oxford."

"She's right. Oxford is the most official." The man arguing from her corner pulled his phone out. "Siri, is 'tougher a-"

Before they could continue, a tree branch broke through the window. Another slew of branches followed, giving Danny a quick second to respond. Contorting her form to allow her thighs to generate enough force to situate her hips in an upward direction, Danny got off the ground. She formed a shield quickly and smacked her foe to the ground, before twirling around to backhand the man with the phone.

As the phone wielder fell to the ground, Danny grabbed the phone from the air. "Siri, is 'more conscious' a word?"

Are you looking for ways to make your words more concise?

"Nevermind." As Danny began to toss the phone to the ground, a bullet impacted just behind her. She lifted her shield, more glad for incompetence of others than her own vigilance.

Tsukimi watched as two men rushed her. The tape around her wrists still held her helpless to defend herself and the tape over her mouth rendered her unable to call for help. She leaned back, grabbing a shattered piece of glass off the ground, Tsukimi tried hiding the shard in between her wrists, occasionally leveraging the position of her wrists to try and cut the tape.

One man entered the deli as an exodus of patrons fled. "Hey. Guy." Danny moved over to Holti, offering her shield to defend him from the branches. "Nice tree. I like what you're doing with the place."

The two goons occupied with the girl who had tape on her face both proved to be incompetent. The large of the two ended up slipping on a cup that had been knocked over. His body came tumbling down and he let out a slew of curse words. “My arm!” Could be heard throughout the deli, causing even Holti to pause for a brief second. The guy seemed almost as though he wanted to give up, unhappy with the fact that now he'd have to possibly pay for a cast.

The other was nearly knocked down by the massive fall and stumbled around a bit, gripping onto the nearby booth to stay on his feet. This only influenced the idea of incoordination between the two. Both of the men shot each other nasty glances before the one still standing turned to look over at Tsukimi. Attacking her would be pointless, so what the hell was he supposed to do? Hostage? The idea appeared to be logical. It'd possibly make the two freaks with powers stop. Deciding this was the best idea, he hobbled over to the girl and pointing the gun at her head, a gun that hadn't even been loaded due to him forgetting the bullets on the counter.

The girl with the shield had certainly managed to grab Holti's attention. Her experience was obvious due to how she was dealing with this situation. It was a bit odd to have her talk so casually to him in the middle of this ordeal. “Um...thank you?” Judging by the sound of his voice, Holti seemed mostly confused, rather than offended or anything like that. If anything, he simply didn't understand.

“So, what do you say we do? Most of the people have cleared out. I don't know about the workers in the back of the shop, though.” Now would be a great time to have one of those fancy powers that allows you to sense people. “What kind of guns do they seem to have.” As he spoke, he began to expand the foliage, making it so that anyone above a certain height would only get a mouthful of twigs and leaves. It seemed minor and not quite a direct attack, but Holti thought it would help them.

Whoever owned this shop would certainly not be happy with the decorations he had added, but oh well. “Be careful, I think I might have a small idea. It will not solve the entire problem, but I think it might help somewhat.” with that, he grabbed onto one of the limbs and began to pull himself up into the tree. The gap was rather small, but if he got in the right position he very well could attack from above. In only a matter of seconds, Holti was up in the tree, concealed by the foliage.

“No problem.” Danny kept her shield placed by her side, ready to pull it up at a second’s notice to counteract whatever trouble these goons planned for their ill-planned escapade. “They have the type of guns that require skill. They left the skill in their other pants though.”

The deli still found itself filled with chaos and ruckus as Holti approached Danny with the layout for his assessment of the common area. “I think they all came in from the front, so if I were in the back- and didn’t have this-” Danny slapped her bracelet. “I would probably try to find an exit. No reason to stay behind and try to be a hero and turn into a hostage. That sounds kinda bad when I hear it out loud though. I would definitely call the police first.”

Danny watched as Holti made his way up the tree, hoping for him to get in position. The massive tree situated in the center of the dining area drew most of the attention, but a few threats lurked in the shadows. Pushing Tsukimi forward, one of the goons kept his gun fixated directly at her head. All Danny caught out of the corner of her eye was a goon about to hit the ground.

The goon did not think the same.

“No more weird green stuff!” The goon held the gun next to Tsukimi’s head. “Get over here!”

“It’s turquoise. It’s kinda my color.” Danny released her shield, looked for her absent ally, then stepped forward with her hands raised. “Not actually by choice though.”

“How’d she make the tree?” A goon who previously took a blow to the face wrapped Danny’s hands behind her back with tape.

“I don’t know. Why don’t you ask her?” The man with the gun examined the tree, trying to look deep into its branches.

“I was going to put tape over her mouth.” The goon looked over to Danny and back to the gun wielding goon.

“Well ask her then, then put tape over her mouth.”

Danny shook her head. “I’m not telling you. You guys suck.”

“Well that’s not very nice.” Suffering from a possible mild concussion from non-other than a certain member of the Tamamoa family, the goon taped Danny’s mouth closed before pushing her towards Tsukimi.

The goon who forced Danny’s surrender went over to the counter, lifting the bullets from the counter. “Now, I got my bullets. Didn’t have them before. Not so smart anymore are you?”

Danny demanded a redo while the goon taped her back-to-back with Tsukimi.

“I want to burn this stupid tree down.” The goon walked over to the trunk, thumping it once while trying to see the ceiling. “Think the boss would like that?”

“I don’t know, she said don’t do anything stupid.” The goon finished wrapping Danny and Tsukimi together with the rest of the roll of tape. “Don’t you think that’s a little-”

“I bet she’d think, ‘wow, this guy has initiative. He let this deli owner know whose boss’.” The gun wielding goon turned back to face his partner, unaware of anything living in the tree.

Pat had always wanted to go to New York, this massive city of rising buildings and people always doing something. Having someone that could get him a flight there was rare but thanks to Brandon Hale that was very possible. The male had more money than he knew what to do with, and was willing to help out a friend to get places. A win win scenario if he ever knew one, though there was mentioning to his friends that he was going out of town for a week to enjoy the sights of New York.

A long day of walking around and enjoying the city, which came with a few souvenirs he ended up stopping at a deli for lunch. So he walked up to the counter, and ordered what looked to be a rather tasty sandwich. Despite what today was supposed to be, there was of course some protection he brought with him. Which came down to a good few pokemon cards stashed away in the jacket, in a way that no one would have actually been able to see them.

Vigilante training made one suspicious of everything afterall.

Going to settle down into a seat for the meal was cut short rather quickly when a robbery began. A few gunmen with the idea they could just rob a little deli, but hopefully they had insurance. He would of course hold his hands up and get close to the ground, knowing what bullets did to squishy people like him. Luke might have even had a laugh hearing about this, once the possible worry was over with. There was no immediate chance to get out of there or even take these gun men down so he just bided his time.

There always came a time to act.

Luckily heroes existed and they did their thing. Trying to stop the robbery until one of them got caught, lucky enough to get tied up rather than just being shot full of bloody holes. Thank whatever for small miracles. With them slightly distracted, he withdrew a single yellow card with a Pikachu emblazoned on it and let it fly through the air towards one of the goons. It landed arefully on the counter, causing them to aim the gun at it before seeing it was just a card, lifting it up a little too late to see the circuts which were disturbed and the electrical shock that sent them convulsing to the ground.

Digging for a fighting card, he slid it across the floor with the sharp edges, hoping it was just less than a foot from Danny’s feet for obvious reasons. With that done, he made use of all the acrobatic and just scurrying skills available to move around on the floor until he could hide behind something, likely one section of the counter not rife with the criminals.

The girl's comment certainly caused a small laugh to leave Holti before he quickly cleared his throat, acting as though he needed to cough. It did not seem to be in the least bit appropriate to laugh in a situation such as this one. Then again, Holti always had worked alone until this point. Never had anyone else ever gotten involved in these sorts of affairs. Was small talk...common? Maybe the small talk was to keep him upbeat? Holti certainly had no idea and decided to waste no more time on thinking this over. Once he was up the tree, all hell seemed to break loose and soon enough, Holti missed the wonder that was making jokes.

From above in the tree, he could make out quite a lot visually and he could still hear everything that happened below him. Hearing that one of the robbers believed she was the one who created the tree almost caused him to laugh again and he had to struggle to refrain from making any noises. Quietly, Holti moved his way through the tree, maneuvering above and below branches until he was above where the two girls were being kept. Something did catch his attention though and he quickly turned around to face the trunk. Burn the tree down? How fucking stupid were these robbers? Burning a tree in a deli? Where a grease fire might start? Holti certainly did not know much about cooking, but he did know that fire was bad news.

Before he could even act though, something, or someone, caught his eye. From in the tree he could make out someone in the deli, someone who had yet to flee. A man who appeared to be a couple years older than him. What the hell was he doing in there? Maybe he was too scared to move? Could not see or hear? Any of those things worried Holti and he almost made rescuing this man his next priority. A sound from the other side of the room caught his attention instead and Holti turned his head to look at the robbers, hoping they would not point any guns at the man left.

The next thing he knew, a card had been tossed onto a table with...something on it? From where he was, Holti could not make it out. It was colorful and a bit larger than a credit card, causing the man to visibly tilt his head in response. One of the robbers seemed to notice the mysterious card and reached for it. What happened next caused Holti to nearly fall out of the tree entirely. The man felt to the ground, seemingly been shocked, as though the card were a taser.

Was the...guy like them? Was that why he stayed? He threw the card, did he not? Yet, if he had powers, why had he not used them yet? Holti had heard of regular humans fighting crime using only their skills and any devices they might happen to have, so possibly this man was like them? He had managed to capture his interest, no doubt about that.

Shaking his head, he turned his attention back over to the goons. One of the men with a gun began to back up. What Holti decided to do next would probably be one of the stupidest things of the night, especially considering the man had a gun.

Freeing up both of his hands, Holti flicked his wrists, causing two branches to quickly wrap around his arms. The branches began to wrap around his arms, keeping them in a secure position. At the same time, the branches began to lift the man off the ground. If he were to shoot at anyone, hopefully it'd be into the tree. Meanwhile, more branches began to spread into the deli, slowly moving out towards where the other goons were. If it all went as he had planned, it would distract them for long enough to free the two girls and possibly give this new guy enough time to do something helpful.

Most likely the robbers would kill every single person in this deli. Nothing particularly malevolent about their personality or nature, but many times being stupid hurt more people than being evil. Especially with fire.

Danny mused all of this over in her current state of inaction. Putting a hurting- well more of a hurting, on these guys would be great, but she needed her hands. And, ankles. And, arms. Hell, she gave them so much sass she could probably talk those guys into giving up if she could use her mouth. But, she could use absolutely none of those things. She could not even use her partner, whom insisted on not taking her advice of 'don't poke the idiot' earlier, but she did she a massive tree and a number of branches moving in through the window.

She also saw a Pokemon card slide close to her. "Hmmm?" Danny leaned forward, pulling Tsukimi along with her. Hitmochan? It did not make much sense until a burst of electricity buzzed on the other side of the room. "Mmhum." It should not make sense in any world full of sense, but this made sense. Danny hoped this guy would not mind getting back a messed up card, but she needed to get back into action.

Scooting along the ground with Tsukimi, Danny used her feet to fold the card from the center, allowing her to create a wedge in which she could apply the pressure of the edge against the tape around her ankles. More foliage grew around them, covering the duo from the eyes of the goons. The strands of tape slowly split, carving a suture between the adhesive with enough of a gap for Danny to begin splitting the initial covering around her ankles. It would take her sometime to split the tape going up to her knee, but Danny knew her lower body strength could handle the challenge.

Once Danny could pull her feet apart, she could push herself back with more leverage. Whatever Tsukimi felt about this plan did not pass Danny. All she cared about remained hidden in the dense treeline now cascading through the deli. A thought she never really thought would cross through her mind. Looking to the branches, Danny looked for the man she met a few minutes before in the branches, trying to call him over, knowing keeping her voice down was done for her with tape.

"Well dammit looks like we've got Pokemon masters riling up problems now." A thug came out from hiding behind a trashcan.

"Naw, can't be a master. That's a Pikachu. A master would have gone with a Raichu." The jolt of electricity sent one of the thugs to the ground, holding his hand over his chest. "You can tell the difference by looking at the-"

"Now, I do not need to have this explained to me by someone who just immediately assumes I would overlook a better solution. I'm just saying, this guy is making Pokemon cards shoot out powers." The gun wielding thug put his hand on his hips as he stared at the counter.

A snap of the fingers brought a thought out of the other goon's head. "I bet that girl did it."

"The one you tied up with the other one you tied up? Isn't tying someone up supposed to make them not mess with our plans anymore?" The goon dug around in his jacket for his phone.

"Well, one of them is Asian, so she might be-"

"Hey, now I'll rob a store and tie some girls up, but I don't want to be associated with racism." The man shook his phone at the insensitive "Also, I'm pretty sure the other one is Asian too. Like something vaguely ethnic, possibly Indian. Now, let's burn this place down. Siri, how do you start a fire?"

Times like this he really appreciated his own paranoia, prepping for whatever scenario he would find himself being thrown into. Pressing his back against the smooth exterior of the counter, tongue licking out over his lips which tasted oddly dry. There was always the worry he would get hit with a stray bullet, bleed out and maybe even die. There was a metahuman controlling the plants, and someone else that he was currently trying to help escape from her bonds. Not like his electric card would keep them down for long, just create a momentary lapse within combat and attempting to get com leverage within this situation.

Feeling through his jacket, he saw there were at least eight more cards, and likely only six of them that would prove any real help. Really wishing I had some superpowers right now. he thought to himself, frowning slightly at the state of their affairs but not complaining. A few of the goons were being taken up by branches, lifted and blinded in ways that would make them lesser threats.

Pulling his hood forward and forcing it to stay with a violent tug of the strings, he removed a second fighting card, sharp metal edges gleaming. In a quick motion he popped up, noting the male speaking into their smart phone and throwing the sharp card across the room with a quick motion.

Thank goodness he had the foresight to wear gloves, attempting to knock the phone from their hand and sending it clattering to the ground. Not that it would stop him from just thinking about how fires were actually burned, followed by him picking up chair and putting all upper body strength in an attempt to knock one of them over with the fact they were going to be hit with a chair, darting back under cover and looking up to the foliage dominating the ceiling to see a humanoid shape within it.

As his eyes shifted around the deli, he could not help but listen in on the banter between the robbers. Who the hell even discusses pokemon whilst committing a robbery? As the men continued to talk, he turned his head to look at one of the girls, the one he had physically spoken to, and saw that she was indicating for him to possibly come down from the tree. He did have some doubts as to what she meant, but assumed that was the demand. One more glance at the robbers to make sure they were not looking up at the tree and he slowly made his way towards the robbers, rather than the trunk of the tree.

Hearing the robber make it official that he planned on burning the tree was the last straw. Holti gripped onto one of the sturdier branches, one that was above one of the robbers who remained standing. Taking one final deep breath, Holti swung down from the tree, giving a very strong kick straight to one of the robbers. The roughness of the branch did prevent him from being able to swing back up into the treetops, so he would have to make do with being trapped on the ground. His eyes darted around for anything he could use as a weapon before they landed on the branch he had just swung from. Using all his strength, he broke off the branch, using it to again whack the same robber in the side of the head.

“You know, it isn’t very nice to burn plants. Especially considering they provide you with oxygen. You should appreciate them, actually. Especially considering we have a whole holiday dedicated to them.” One more whack for good measure. Had he done a bit too much? Possibly, but nobody threatens to burn down his trees. Hell. No.

Three people and only a couple of robbers truly left. No way they would manage to shoot their guns...right? Holti certainly did fear that, especially considering how thin his suit truly was.

“Maybe if you guys stopped talking about useless shit you would actually manage to get some work done.” He attempted to whack another robber with the branch, aiming for the neck. He had no intentions of breaking the neck...just making him fall down. Yeah, he could have been smarter, but Holti was mostly worried about being shot. His eyes glanced around, searching for the man he saw from above. Where was he and his magical cards?

With a roll of his eyes, he walked over to Danny, ripping off the tape from her face a bit too fast. He muttered a quick apology before working on untying her arms, only glancing over at the robbers. They were probably too stupid to do anything for now.

“Also, just so you guys know, not everything is her work, but then again if you were smart enough to realize that, you wouldn’t be robbing a deli shop. What are you going to steal? Loafs of bread? So how about you guys just give up at this point. I came here to eat food, but looks like you guys just had to ruin it." Holti was certainly pissed off. He was starving and wanted food.

Inadvertently, the goons wrapped tape over Danny's bracelet, rendering her unable to make contact with her inner powers. She could hear footsteps moving through the foliage with little care for stealth. Definitely the goons- or at least she hoped Hotli would take more care for stealth.

"Now, you see?" The goons moved over the grab the card from Danny's ankles. "She is the one doing all of this!"

Danny tried kicking at her captor, landing a shot at his knee. When her head moved back, it allotted her a vantage point of the foliage above her- and the ally watching. No more direct violence. Just avoidance. Danny flipped her legs around to keep the goon occupied with trying to tie her back up, while the second goon went back to watching the storefront.

"It says we can start a grease fire. Now, where do you get grease?" The goon walked towards the front of the store, leaving his counterpart alone with Danny- and Holti. He continued to dial through his phone, watching the screen come to a stop as his finger found itself unable to push any further. "Can't wait to get paid for this job and buy a new-"

His request did not bring the just rewards he wanted. Instead, a card impacted into the side of his phone. One of the same shapes and designs as the card from the counter and from Danny. "But, if it wasn't her?" And, then the chair hit him in the head. Recent studies and consensus came to the conclusion very little good could come from a strike to the head with a chair. However, there is a distinct possibly if the chair he were struck with contained traces of radiation, he might become a super intelligent meta. Alas, there was no radiation in the deli.

Hotli's swing down promptly incapacitated the goon. The hit with the branch just let off some steam for everyone in the store. It did raise some noise for the not too far away goon looking for his grease. Hotli looked heroic, but a little wet behind the ears to this new world of bad guy dismantling. Maybe Danny would simply say the first part.

Before any rescue could happen, Danny needed to give her new ally some wiggle room to not need to wiggle out what she was in. Once another goon with a gun showed his face through the foliage, Danny started to make every sound she could muster under the weight of her tape. She struggled to try and break the contact point of her force, hoping it would allow her to break from Tsukimi, but more importantly, she wanted the goon to see if and get angry.

It would seem it worked. "What did you do? Well, it looks like-"

Hotli hit the goon. The goon hit the floor. After more of a rousing heroic display of annoyance, Hotli noticed the noises Danny making to draw his favor into now rescuing her. Hotli moved towards Danny, gripping the tape from the side, then with one forceful swipe, pulling it from her mouth. A red strip remained on Danny's face.

"OW!" Danny pushed her head forward, trying to massage her lips. "BE MORE- careful next time." The pain struck a nerve, but Danny knew she needed to stay much more calm in this situation. Especially considering how much tape he still needed to remove. Luckily Danny's jacket and jeans would take most of the ripping, Tsukimi on the other hand would feel the tape removed from her skin.

"You looked good knocking those guys out. A little new to this maybe, but you looked heroic." Danny took a moment to see the situation she found herself in and readjusted her ever freeing posture and her disposition. "I guess I don't look very heroic at all right now, and I know you're trying to not hurt me by taking it off slowly, but I assure you, we will both be fine as long as the rescue happens. We need to be ready for when these guys come back."

Once her hands broke from the tape, Danny conjured up a blade for a little quicker escape. One quick cut released Tsukimi's hands and arms. With a little more ease, Danny removed the tape from Tsukimi's mouth. The tape took a good amount of lip gloss from the two girls, leaving a lip print on the adhesive, but today was a pretty dressed down day, so nothing too expensive. "I've got some use for this." Turquoise bars wrapped the goons up. Danny grabbed the tape they placed over her mouth and walked over to the goons, placing her piece over the more belligerent goon's mouth and Tsukimi's over the one who tied them both up. "Looks good. Where did you get the Pokemon cards from though?"

A turquoise shield accompanied Danny. "So where were we before we were so rudely interrupted? I think we were about to lay down the law on some robbers?"

Okay, so throwing a chair did better than he thought, knocking one of them upside the head and down like a sack of bricks. Well he would have to give himself a pat on the back for small victories, but there was still a lot to be done before he could call this a victory. He rubbed his shoulder, a little sore from the shock of throwing the chair but there was a little time to complain about his aches when he was still in the middle of what felt like a robbery. ”Really wishing I had some super powers right now. This would be so much easier.” He muttered to himself, noting there was at the very least one more robber not reduced to unconsciousness.

Well that could be remedied.

They were more focused upon the two that had actually caused them issues, not seeing the one sneaking along closer to the ground, only reaching up to pull them down and hit their head against the ground. Took a few hits but they were out much like a light when you bashed it with a hammer. Minus of course the disgusting shards that came with shattering a light bulb of course. ”You just lay right there until the police get you.” Scuttling close to the floor, he picked up the few cards that weren’t being held and slipped them back into his jacket, scooting over to the two heroes with an arced brow.

Hearing something about someone being starving and remembering he did have a half finished sandwich.”Nice work there girl and...dude. Thought I would have to deal with all of them myself, but then you guys came around. Real convenient of ya.’ He slid the half eaten sandwich across the counter wrapped within a little wrapped, letting it fall in the sight of the plant manipulating metahuman. ”Heard someone was hungry and I was like...I have a sandwich here.” He shrugged, looking down to crooks. ”So let’s...just keep my involvement between you, you and me.” Charlatan then added shooting a small wink to Holti.