Jimmy: Sir... please! It was a joke! We were just messing around!
General Vance: A joke?
Jimmy: Yes! Just playing around, I swear on my life!
General Vance: You flipped a handicapped girl out of her chair for a joke?
General Vance stepped closer, his heavy shoes crunching over the broken plates and glass shards. Jimmy cowered back against the counter, pressing his spine as flat as possible against the stainless steel paneling.
Jimmy: I didn't mean to hurt her! I didn't know who she was!
General Vance: So if she wasn't my daughter, it would have been acceptable?
Jimmy: No! That's not what I meant!
General Vance: Lieutenant!
Tactical Guard 1: Sir!
General Vance: Identify this pathetic coward.
The lead tactical officer stepped forward, holding a rugged military tablet. He scanned Jimmy's face with a quick red laser light, typing rapidly into the secure screen.
Tactical Guard 1: James "Jimmy" Miller, age nineteen. Father is Ronald Miller, owner of Miller Auto Repairs and local city council member. History of three assault charges, all dismissed due to family political connections.
General Vance: Political connections? In this county?
Tactical Guard 1: Yes, General. His father donates heavily to the local police union and municipal court judges.
General Vance: Not anymore.
Jimmy gulped hard, his chest heaving as sweat mixed with the blood on his face.
Jimmy: You can't do anything to me! My dad knows the mayor!
General Vance: Your dad doesn't own the Four-Star Strike Command of the United States Armed Forces, boy.
General Vance turned back toward Lily, kneeling beside her again. He motioned to two medic officers who rushed into the diner carrying a medical stretcher and a first-aid kit.
Medic 1: General, let us stabilize her spine before moving her.
General Vance: Be gentle with her, Captain. She survived a bomb blast in Berlin two years ago. She doesn't need to suffer in a local diner.
Diner Owner: General... sir... I'm her uncle. I told her not to carry the heavy trays, but she insisted...
General Vance: Thomas, you let teenagers harass my girl in your establishment?
Diner Owner: I was in the back kitchen stocking meat! I heard the crash and came running out as fast as I could!
Lily: It wasn't Uncle Thomas's fault, Dad. Jimmy came out of nowhere.
General Vance: I know, sweetheart. Lie still while they check your arm.
Jimmy tried to slowly slide along the counter toward the broken front window, hoping to slip out into the street while everyone was focused on Lily.
Tactical Guard 2: Freeze! Move one more inch and I put a round through your knee!
Jimmy: Ah! Okay, okay! I'm not moving!
General Vance: Lieutenant, call the state governor. Tell him I am invoking Emergency Executive Powers under Defense Directive 402.
Tactical Guard 1: Understood, General. Mobilizing federal legal teams now.
Jimmy: Federal legal teams? For a diner fight?!
General Vance: This isn't a diner fight, James. You just assaulted the daughter of the Joint Task Force Commander on active federal jurisdiction ground.
Jimmy: What does that even mean?!
General Vance: It means your father's money can't save you now.