“I’m a lover, not a fighter!” The man reached full size. They were 12 feet tall and friggin’ jacked. At this point, even a kick to the almonds wouldn’t bring them down.

The criminal swung their fist down vertically, trying to crush Gabriel in one fell swoop. He rolled out the way and landed back on his feet, ready to continue this game of cat and mouse. Er, bird. But without wings, it was only a matter of time before he got caught. Gabe wouldn’t last in a battle of attrition.

“Help me! Help!” Gabe called out to his new, wonderful, totally awesome friend. “I’ll distract him — all according to plan.”

Not his best attempt at covering up what was happening here, but it was… a movie-worthy performance, that’s for sure!

“You’re too pretty to die,” Gabriel muttered to himself.

---

The stories checked out. There wasn’t anything particularly suspicious. And the quirk usage they saw seemed to start and end in self-defense. There was no reason to keep these two preoccupied further.

“You’re free to go.” The officer said. Then, he went back to the car and radioed the other policemen.

“Jun,” Gabriel looked at her, teary-eyed — an age-old act she would have been tired of by now. If she ever believed it, it would have been during her freshman year. But with the amount of times he’s tried to pull this stunt… it was daring of him to do it again. “You saved my movie…” He wiped the crocodile tears. “I-I’ll walk you home.”

---

Gabriel slams into Iphi’s office.

Normally, he would never get away with this. In fact, he has gotten punished for this exact thing three times already. But he knew today would be different. He confidently placed a manilla folder on her desk, filled to the brim with research — most of it incoherent garbage to the layman.

“I made a breakthrough in the case.” He plays with the bookmark in the folder. “All we need is a little bit of elbow grease.” His ever-charming smile reveals itself. Wow, so bright. So, sparkly. Then, he flips open the folder to that bookmarked page.

Steaks. It’s a picture of steaks.

“It’s time for our weekly stakeout!” It was their first stakeout ever, but if he could make a good impression, then maybe he’d move up the corporate ladder. On second thought, it was more important to have fun, wasn’t it? “Are you in or are you in?”

---

Dead end.

“What the hell? You fucked us. You utterly fucked us.” The car came to a screeching halt as skid marks trailed. They could still make it on foot, but they seemed to have lost whoever was following them. The cops would catch up soon, but if they ran now, they’d get off Scott-free. “I’m gonna kick your ass!”

“Wha—” Gabriel was dragged out of the car as the man started wailing at him. “Ow, OW! I gave us an escape route, why are you—” The frustration was palpable. But that’s when inspiration struck. “They’re still following us!”

“Huh? What?” The man turned around preparing his fists for battle, only to get nut-checked by Gabriel as he swung his foot upward toward an unsuspecting criminal.

“Yeah, asshole. Bite me.” Gabriel said. “I owned your ass. Now I’m gonna tie you up and let the cops arrest you.”

“Like hell you are…” He took a tablet.

“Hey… what did you you swallow?” Gabriel gulped. “I said…”

Then, the man started to grow. And grow. And grow.

---