fh_alumni | Friday evening, Neptune courthouse

Walking out of the courthouse close to sundown, Parker put her shades back on and sighed in relief. "Jesus. I thought Trina would never shut up."

	"She had a captive audience," Logan said. "We're lucky we escaped this soon."
	"Criminy. I should've brought tomatoes along for color commentary." Parker shaded her eyes, and grinned over at the others. "So. Where's the nearest bar? We have ID's that say we're twenty-one...."
	"I hate court," Zero complained. "Judges give me the willies. So. Yes. Bar?" she asked hopefully.
	"Bar sounds good to me. Logan? Where do we want to go?"
	"Somewhere quiet," Angel said.
	"He doesn't get a vote," Logan said. "We'd end up in a library or something if he had his way."
	"I'm not a bookworm," Angel bitched. Since that was the point.
	"Would you rather (a) go to a party with friends or (b) stay home and read a book in a dark room?" Logan asked.
	"Not my fault I can read in the dark," Angel muttered.
	"We're celebrating, and that means social interaction, not figuring out the best way to peer into the infrared," Parker said, mildly exasperated. "Logan's rich! Again! Justice triumphed! Public happiness and... glee...." Parker frowned over at the gathering crowd.
	Logan groaned when he saw the PCHers. "What're you doing here? Did Home Depot finally get guard dogs?"
	"Funny man," one of the bikers said. "We remember that about you." He scowled. "Except what you did to Felix, that? Was not funny."
	"Wow, blast from the past," Logan said. He turned to Parker. "How do you say, 'I didn't kill him' in Spanish?"
	"No le maté," Parker said automatically, then glared at Logan. "Say what? Who the hell is Felix?"
	"What, it's not in my dossier?" Logan asked. "Little bit of trouble I had end of junior year?"
	"Oh, for the love of... he didn't kill your friend!" Parker said, turning back to the gang of bikers, and looking around for a cop. Any cop. "And you don't want to start something with us. Seriously."
	Zero realized they were not, in fact, going to let Logan get beat up and sighed. "I can't go anywhere with you without having to beat up bikers, can I, Parker?"
	"Hey, it's not like I invited them!" Parker protested, and then frowned. "And we didn't have to beat any up at the last concert..." A couple of them were starting to take menacing steps toward Logan, one wearing brass knuckles and looking particularly pissed.
	Angel stepped forward. He projected a remarkably calm attitude. "Problem?"
	"Not with you. Just with the pendejo here," another PCH'er said, stepping up as well, giving Angel a wary look. "You and the chicas step off, and we don't leave him unable to drink through a straw."
	"Interesting," Angel said, still calm. His hands were in his pockets, even. "Random question: What if I say no?"
	"Then you join him in ICU and share a milkshake," someone else spoke up. "Or whatever you losers drink in L.A. Vodka like mommy, Echolls?"
	Logan laughed. "This'll be fun."
	And three of them rushed Logan at once, while a fourth moved to watch their backs in case Angel tried something.
	Well that worked in theory. It assumed that Angel couldn't move faster than four guys. It also assumed that a PCH'ers bones wouldn't break if his hand was grabbed by a vampire who wasn't going to let anybody hurt his ~~boyfriend~~ Logan. Actually, that was partially true. Angel twisted for a wrist snap instead. He always found that crunch more satisfying.
	"AAaaaaaggh!" The yelling distracted two of the guys trying to kick Logan's ass enough to see the third being pulped, and diverted them toward Angel, shouting curses, one of them swinging a knife toward Angel's head. And four more guys decided to pile on, half going toward Angel and the other two headed for Logan. Parker tripped one on the way over, then stomped a high heel down on his hand, aiming a kick for his head.
	Angel went to block the knife from coming towards him. While holding on to the PCH'ers hand, Angel used the momentum to toss the biker towards a dumpster. That done, Angel turned around and aimed a kick at another one of the would be attackers.
	"What the -- Who the hell are you, Chuck Norris?" demanded the guy, backing off and starting to look for an exit from the mess. Various friends and fellow bikers lay in stages approaching 'broken' around him. "Why you helping out this asshole?"
	Angel decided to answer that question with a punch to the biker's face.
	THUD. The budding film critic collapsed like a cheap tent, and the gang member trying to hit Logan decided he had better things to do on the other side of town. Which left about two guys who weren't hurt yet, backing up, holding up their hands and saying, "It's cool man, it's cool, no problema, we're going!"
	"Go faster," Angel suggested.
	"Gone!" They made it ten feet before the black-and-whites pulled up, saying, "Stop! Hands up, everyone! Hands up, on your knees!" One of the cops noticed Angel, and pointed at him, one hand on his gun. "You too, bud! Hands up!"
	Angel rolled his eyes. On the one hand, not like he was vulnerable to bullets. But on the other hand all of his companions were. He put his hands up and kept quiet. He didn't look happy about it though.
	Meanwhile, the bikers moving in would be about when Zero jumped on the back of a biker about twice her size.
	"Que es--? Get off me, loca!" The biker started turning in a circle, trying to reach back and dislodge Zero, meaty hands beating backward as he bent forward and back, starting to yell. "Jesus!"
	Zero grabbed his ear and pinched hard, hanging on like a burr. "Jesus can't save you!"
	"Whaaa? Dios, bitch, I cut you-- AIEEEEEEE!" The biker jumped, howled, and whirled the other direction like a merry-go-round ride. "Get her off get her off getheroffmepleeeease---"
	Zero drummed her combat boots' heels into whiny biker's sides. "Wheeeeeeeee!"
	Which put the biker on his knees, yelling, "I surrender! Pronto! Ahora! Stop stop stooooooop!" He waved his hands over his head, trying to turn his head to get away from Zero, and yelled, "Ayudame! Anybody! Heeeelllp!"
	If the biker had hair, about now would be when Zero started pulling it. If not, she was yanking on his nose.
	Or possibly his nose hair, since he liked to shave his head. "Aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" He shook his head back and forth like a whacked-out two-year-old, and tried to punch backward, still shrieking. None of his friends wanted to know him. Or help, at this point. That guy? So not getting beer from them later. "AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"
	"Bored now," Zero complained, and let go of his nose--and nose hair--to grab both his ears and slam his head against the nearest hard surface. "Night night."
	And the biker collapsed, almost thankfully, to the pavement, drooling a little as a bruise bloomed on his forehead. The other bikers? Were backing away from the little loca chica.
	Zero looked around at the other bikers and asked cheerily, "Who's next?"
	"A little help!" Parker yelled from off to the side, where she was fending off one big guy while trying to make sure his buddy stayed on the ground. Mostly by kicking him in the face.
	The guy he'd been fighting fell back and Logan hopped over to offer Parker some assistance.
	"Thanks!" Parker said, just as the guy backhanded her across the face. She managed to move with it, but it still stung. "Ow, goddamnit!"
	"Don't you know better than to hit a woman?" Logan punched the guy as hard as he could. "Especially this one, dude," he added, looking over at Parker. "She's lethal."
	"Got that right." Parker had recovered and now delivered a side-kick straight to the biker's groin, and followed it up with a knee to his head when it bent over, groaning. "Always a party with you, Logan."
	Which was when the police rounded them up, along with Zero, Angel, and the rest of the PCH’ers. Good thing Trina wasn’t there with her digital camera, or it would have made her week.