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~~((National Rescue Dog Day - page 3 of 20))~~
"Pretend all you want. It's obvious that you're just--"

"Cool. Yeah, I'll wait right here. Hmm? No, I'm not too worried about that. They seem pretty toothless, honestly. All bark, know what I mean?" He broke for a laugh. "Really? Wow. Okay, awesome. Thanks so much. Yeah, I'll stay on the line."

The loudmouth was no longer loud. Instead, he was red in the face with visible veins around his temples.

Leo was just tapping his foot as he waited. His face was still mostly obscured by his hood, but he looked in the direction of the most talkative Abolisher again. "I'm not sure what local response times are, but if you plan on attacking us, you'd better get on with it."

The other man just scowled.

"Or could it be that you were actually trying to goad us into attacking you for some reason?" said Leo. "Heh. Afraid of the law around these parts, maybe?"

And abruptly, Evangelina understood. It seemed odd at first that any servants--especially those of Abolish--would be wary of conventional law enforcement, but Ridgemark was no normal city, was it? Somehow, it was maintaining order despite harboring seemingly huge numbers of both Abolish and the Vanguard.

So who were the peacekeepers around here?

If the nervous looks on the Abolishers' faces were any indication, then Leo had hit the nail on the head.

They still weren't down, though. The loudmouth had apparently run out of tough talk, but none of them were budging.

And so they had a silent standoff, of sorts, as they waited for the authorities to show up.

Supposedly. Even Evangelina wasn't sure if Leo had actually called the police or not. He could've just been acting. Perhaps that was why Abolish wasn't leaving. They wanted to see if he'd been bluffing or not.