The After School Grind (Open!)

The man managed to turn just enough to mitigate the force of the blow- he was not nearly as drunk as the one wrestling with Andy on the ground. The man pivoted one of his heels and a blade slid out. However, this was hidden by the smoke and by him throwing a right hook followed by a left uppercut at Patrick.

One of his friends was moving for an advantageous position behind Patrick, trying to go unnoticed and failing when he choked on smoke.

Meanwhile, the drunk man had managed to roll on top of Kestrel. Luckily, Andy fought dirty. Unluckily, Kestrel could not breathe the smoke covering the ground. While the drunk man rolled off her body, hacking between wails, doubled over. Andy fought for breath as he pulled Kestrel to her feet.

A set of arms groped blindly towards Kestrel's coughing and wrapped around her torso. Andy, continuing to cough, yelled something unintelligible and tried to stomp on the guy's feet.

The smoke that had been slithering and writhing about on the ground soon created tendrils, rather than the thick sheet that had been covering the ground, each tendril rushing to the nostrils and eye sockets of the aggressive men, and away from the face of Kestrel/Andy. They weren't quite out of the dark yet, Patrick was ducking and weaving between the punches, eyes focused on one clear target at the moment. And in this bar-fight that had been going on, Patrick attempted something that would hopefully be unexpected. He took a quick step backwards, then, rather than throwing a punch, he lifted a leg and aimed a powerful, straight kick towards the chest of the man, he goal to knock the wind out of the man and throw him into the wall.

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The man who had been thrown against the door got up once more, staggering slightly as he looked at Avery, who had taken a defensive stance in preparation to defend herself once more. The drunk growled and let out a yell, charging blindly at Avery, no clear thought process behind the action, but when he got close again, she once more smacked the shit out of the man, sending him flying back against the door, this time, bending the doors dead-bolt just enough to send it swinging inwards, the wood cracking behind the force of the flying mans weight, this man ending up inside rather than outside, and most likely crashing into one of the drunken brawlers. Smoke spiraled from the room at the sudden draft that had been created.

Finally able to breathe, and gulping lungfuls of clean air, Kestrel's sneaker-clad foot stomped down hard on the man whose grip had already loosened. The man shouted and coughed. Andy kicked him in a place that most certainly counted as "below the belt" and he staggered away from Kestrel's body. In the next second, another brawler crashed into him.

Kestrel's mouth twisted into a gleeful smile, then it faltered at the sound of police sirens in the distance. The bartender effectively silenced the rest of the room when he pulled out a wicked-looking shotgun from behind the counter. Though he didn't raise his voice much, he could be heard very effectively over the din of the brawlers. "Get out of this bar before I do something we'll all regret." From his bearing, it was easy to gauge how livid he was. Whether his anger stemmed from the fight itself or the fact that it had gotten so out of hand that it now involved a broken front door remained to be seen.

Andy was all for taking on every drunkard and bartender on the island, guns or no, but he could sense Kestrel's growing panic that they would get arrested and fired from the school. It also helped that a couple of the brawlers immediately staggered out the door.

Patrick, upon hearing the police sirens muttered quietly beneath his breath and shook his head, then he saw the shotgun and immediately backed himself away from the barfight, his eyes narrowed slightly at a man who had still seemed to be a bit ambitious, moving on him in a head on way. As the man saw the warning glare from Patrick, he hesitated before he noticed the shotgun as well. His body stiffened and he nodded, backing against the wall near the door. Patrick nodded at the man and, without a word, walked through the door, the smoke tearing out of the door as though a vacuum had been opened.

He gave a dismissive shrug to Andy/Kestrel as he walked out,a slight smirk spread over his face at the action that had taken part over the past several moments, his right hand dipped into his pocket while his left arm still clutched his book to his side.

"I suppose that's that, isn't it?"

He chuckled and walked into the brisk night air, lips forming a small 'O' as he whistled, smoke shooting out of his lips as he whistled his small tune and took place against the wall of a building across from the Tavern.

---

Avery had figured the man had taken enough as hr crashed through the door, but at the sound of approaching sirens, and the sight of one of the new school-teachers she lost it, her mouth went agape and she dashed down the road, heading towards the school. This action, though, likely would make others suspicious of her, as to her involvement in the ruckus that took place.

Andy didn't react to Patrick's assumption that everything was over right away. The night was still young and he wasn't done with Kestrel's body. He snagged somebody else's drink with Kestrel's nimble fingers on their way out the door. The liquid burned a path down Kestrel's throat, but Andras adored the sensation.

It looked like a student was legging it in the direction of the school, but Andy was far from concerned about Kestrel's job babysitting the offspring of people who couldn't handle their own. Besides, the girl was heading in the opposite direction Andy wanted to go.

As they passed Patrick across the street, Andy saluted the other teacher and called, "Ciao! See you at school!" Andy winked at Patrick and started loping down the street, the very image of a late-night jogger. Kestrel's appearance tended to disarm people. With the police coming, he really didn't want to get held up by potential legal troubles. Or even social ones.

Even if his plan was to do some relatively illegal things while still free.