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Mean Street Justice

The scream made him turn, freezing at the sight of the woman being dragged down the cement steps by the strap of her shoulder bag. She let go and rolled hard against the wall, hitting her head and crying loudly. Her assailant skipped quickly down into the subway, shoving people without concern as he fled.

Carson felt his mouth dry and his eyes blur. People had gathered about the woman trying to help her, and the scene made him feel weak and dizzy. The sudden image of his mother being pushed into traffic by a purse snatcher years ago, and the sound of squealing brakes before the sickening thud that ended her life.

Passengers and rubberneckers jostled past, shaking him out of his stupor, and hastily, he sprinted down the stairs onto the platform; blue jacket, jeans and a ball cap, were burned into his memory of what just happened. Running toward the ticket gate he caught a flash of blue climbing up from the tracks on the other side of the station.

He instinctively took the same path and was rewarded with other bystanders pointing in the thief's way. When Carson spotted him using the escalator, he leaped up the steps two at a time. This time he would ensure that the woman on the stairs received justice, even though he had never responded swiftly enough for his mother and was powerless to stop it at the time.

He saw his quarry on the street, skipping past traffic, and then vanishing into a doorway. As Carson turned into the doorway he was hit in the face with the woman's shoulder bag, and struggling to recover, he felt hands dragging him inside the building foyer.

"Wanna be a hero do ya." The punch was partially blocked, and Carson looked up into the angry face while rolling away to scrabble to his feet.

"Don't need heroes to take down scum cowards like you."

The shoulder bag swung again, only this time Carson caught it, yanking the man forward right into a straight arm to the face. Grunting in pain he staggered back as Carson kept pushing until his head whacked the wall.

"Now you know what your victims feel like." Grabbing the bag, he hovered over the man, hoping to inflict more damage.

Another man came into the foyer from inside the building, his eyes taking in Carson and the shoulder bag.

"Looks like you messed up, Mickey." The man grabbed the bag from Carson and darted out the door.

Carson bent down and snatched a handful of collar. "You had a partner, eh? Where's he going?"

"Bite me."

"I wouldn't risk disease." He smashed the man's head against the wall again and left him unconscious, charging back into the street.

The crowd parted for the paramedics loading the body onto the gurney. Off to the side the car driver was being consoled by a group of witnesses. A policeman was checking inside the shoulder bag for identification. Carson nodded and walked away. Justice had been served with a side of irony.

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