let me see you start a war, start a riot [OPEN]

[metalivore]

Who: Gajeel Redfox and OPEN
What: Someone who probably shouldn't be allowed to roam the streets unattended does exactly that.
When: Now-ish
Where: A park OR some science facility OR just about anywhere in L.A.
Warnings: Gajeel is kind of his own warning

Option A: Some Jerky Loser (day)

Oh, what, were you going to sit here? Was anyone going to sit here? Too bad. This entire park bench is now being taken up by a young man with pieces of metal embedded in his forearms and an expression like he is quite literally just waiting for an excuse to punch someone. He doesn't seem to have much of anything else to do, either, judging by how, if left alone, he will just sit there for a good hour, checking the time on a battered, bricklike cellphone every so often and glaring threateningly at anyone who walks by.

Apparently this asshole has just arbitrarily claimed this bench as his property.

[OOC: Feel free to ignore this starter; Gajeel can also be found either at the auto shop where he works (where he will stand off to the side and look bored until he's told to do something), or just about anywhere else in the city (where he will usually either keep up this same look-threatening-and-don't-talk-to-anyone crud or actively pick fights). Sometimes he might stand around in hardware stores and scrutinize packages of bolts and the like a little more carefully than is entirely normal. If you want a different specific starter, let me know!]

Option B: Some Jerky Supervillain (night)

Gajeel doesn't always have any sort of actual goal when he does things that could get him arrested, which makes tonight kind of a novelty. He figures it's about time he started moving up, getting a reputation beyond just smashing things, and he's pretty sure breaking into a science facility late at night and stealing some important science thing is a pretty effective way to do that.

Of course, he has no idea what any of this stuff is, he's literally just going to grab whatever looks important. He doesn't know what he's going to do with it either. Sell it, maybe; if he does that as Iron Dragon, they can't trace that to Gajeel Redfox, right? Sounds like a plan to him.

Any alarms he sets off in the process of breaking in are completely ignored, any guards met with a swift, sharp impact from a metal club. He doesn't really bother to check how much damage he did, not even to insure that they aren't conscious enough to call for reinforcements, because he's fully confident that he can take whatever they may throw at him. Instead, he just keeps making his way through the building, keeping an eye out for something that seems to be worth stealing.

Comments

Night

[metabee]

Metabee was so excited to be back on patrol, even if he was technically moonlighting and not on any official CONDOR business, but he didn't care. He'd had just about enough with hanging around the labs bored out of his mind. It hadn't been hard to find out one of the many science labs in the area was being robbed, and had high tailed it to the building fast as he could.

He'd passed plenty of unconscious guards on his way in, so he had his laser cannons at the ready as he ran through the hallways. He was not concerned at all when he finally came across the crook.

"Yo, I suggest you stop what you're doing if you know what's good for ya!"

[metalivore]

Gajeel spun around at the voice, already smirking... and then stopped. And looked in a more down-ish direction.

The smirk got bigger. He hadn't expected much from that voice, but this was even better than he could have expected. "Oh, what are you gonna do? Punch out my kneecaps?" Those cannons looked like they might be a problem, but in the meantime? Small robot, probably not a threat.

[metabee]

Metabee glared up at the guy, the height jokes were getting real old.

"I can do way more than that, buddy."
Metabee brought his arm to shoulder level, ready to fire, and took aim for the guys legs. Going for the kneecaps wasn't a bad idea, considering it was painful and probably non-lethal. The hallway lit up as the automatic laser bolts started firing, accompanied by a loud crackling. Look who's laughing now.

[metalivore]

Gajeel darted out of the way of the laserfire, just slightly faster than could be expected of a human, though a couple shots still managed to singe the edge of his coat. Yep, had to watch out for that gun alright.

With a clatter of metal on metal, silver-grey scales rippled across his skin, replacing every exposed inch within a few seconds. He dashed toward Metabee, making only a token effort to avoid any continued shots, assuming that his scales would just deflect them. Of course, he had no evidence of this, but he was confident enough in that assumption to mostly just head straight for his target, trying to get too close for the cannon to be a convenient option.

[metabee]

Metabee kept firing even as the other guy's skin turned to metal (or something). His lasers might be able to get through it or at least heat it up enough to do some damage, but it would take longer than he had when the guy started rushing at him down the hallway. Metabee did his best to try and run out of the way, not letting up on the automatic rounds. Time to try the age old tactic of distracting banter.

"So what're you stealing all this stuff for, cause you sure don't look smart enough to use it."

[metalivore]

He growled with a brief flash of fangs, but it was still more mocking than angry. Those lasers were starting to get uncomfortable, and he knew that they would start hurting before too much longer, but he could deal for now.

Of course, he didn't have an answer to that, so he was just going to default to threats.

"Why do you care? You oughtta be a little more concerned with what's gonna happen to you." He dodged to the side, trying to get away from the lasers for a moment, before putting on another burst of speed. This time, he raised one arm, turning it to a metal blade and slashing at Metabee.

[metabee]

"Crud."
Metabee stopped firing and dropped to the ground, managing to dodge the guy's sword arm just in time. He rolled to the side and scrambled to his feet, trying to stay out of the range and get a better shot.

"What's your deal anyway? Some kind of metal shapeshifter or what?"

[metalivore]

"Try 'or what', 'bot. Chances are, you ain't seen shit like me before."

He lunged again, a hint of a grimace pressing into his smirk as Metabee left his range. He switched his focus to charging again, trying to get close enough to attack properly. In the meantime, he would gladly keep talking. "You ever seen what kinda magic a dragon is capable of?"

[metabee]

"Dude, dragons are, like, giant lizards who breathe fire and fly and kidnap princesses. What does any of that have to do with you?"

Despite his best efforts it was getting more difficult to keep away from Gajeel, he was running out of hallway. He'd have to think of something else soon.

"I mean come on, you're not even trying to kidnap anyone."

[metalivore]

"I'm not talking about that fairy tale bullshit, I mean real dragons! Not that you'd know anything about those, huh?" With every word, he absolutely oozed smug superiority, even more so as he realized that Metabee was running out of room.

[metabee]

"Dude do you even hear yourself? It's not like there are dragons flying around LA or anything."

He started glancing around for some sort of escape, any way to get out of this hallway before Gajeel could catch him. Figuring one of the doors nearby had to lead somewhere, he turned and ran as quick as he could towards the nearest one. The door was thankfully unlocked, and he dashed inside and slammed it behind him, hopefully buying a few seconds to think.

Turns out the door led to a huge room full of cubicles, which worked fine for him as he ran towards the back, still trying to think of a real plan.

[metalivore]

Gajeel didn't even bother opening the door properly, he just knocked it off its hinges like the needlessly destructive jerk he was. "Yeah, why do you think most people've never seen one?" he called, grabbing the door by one corner and tossing it in Metabee's general direction. "Which you should probably be glad for!"

He shot a quick glance around the room - obstacles. He could handle those fine, but he didn't doubt that the robot would try to pull something in here. His sword shifted back to a hand, scales merged into skin, and he just walked after Metabee rather than running. Now he wanted to see where this went.

[metabee]

Metabee glanced over his shoulder for a moment to check Gajeel's progress, but didn't say anything back. He didn't really care why no one had seen any dragons, what he cared about right now was thinking of a plan. There had to be something.

He skidded to a halt as he reached the end of the aisle where it met the back wall. The back wall with windows. He glanced back at Gajeel, and back at the window. That might just be the answer to his problem. He turned right at the fork and quickly dodged into one of the cubicles, waiting to ambush Gajeel as he rounded the corner.

[metalivore]

He took his time getting there, the only break in his progress a slight pause to shift his arm back to a blade right before turning the corner. "What d'you think you're doing? You can't run 'n hide forever--"

[metabee]

"Who said anything about hiding, freak?!?" he shouted from his spot under the desk. He'd tried to get as far back as he could, because launching a pair of missiles in en enclosed space usually not great. Plus side, at this range it would be pretty hard to miss, as the pair of seeker missiles launched from his horns, heading straight for Gajeel.

lmk if i somehow managed to erroneously assume something, action scenes are hard

[metalivore]

Gajeel spun toward the sound of Metabee's voice, sneering for an instant before he caught sight of the missiles.

There wasn't enough time or space to dodge, and he didn't need to look behind him to remember what he was standing in front of. That fucking robot.

He jerked his arms up to shield his head, forcing scales into place faster than was entirely comfortable, but frankly it was a lot better than the alternative. For that matter, it was better than the actual impact even with his scales. The heat managed to scorch the metal plates, force slamming into him and hurling him right into - through - the windows.

He was just far enough away from the glass to start with that he managed to catch hold of the edge of the window as he went through, though his grip slipped at first - but he caught the next ledge below the window, and this time he dug in with his now-iron-plated fingertips, swinging his feet forward to brace his boots against the wall.

He hung there for a moment, head ducked down and hands trembling slightly - though closer inspection might reveal that it didn't seem to be out of exhaustion, judging by how his grip seemed to be tightening every second.

looks fine to me action scenes are ridiculous

[metabee]

Metabee couldn't help congratulating himself as Gajeel went flying through the window. A well executed plan, if he did say so himself. He scrambled out from under the desk and ran over to the shattered window. He wasn't entirely sure how far up they'd been, so there was a sliver of a doubt that he might of overdone it. Maybe.

He leaned over the window sill enough to get a clear look down and- well crap.

"What the heck, dude!?" he yelled down, sounding mostly annoyed and somewhat incredulous.

[metalivore]

At the sound of Metabee shouting down at him, Gajeel's hands jerked against the ledge, threatening to crack the stone entirely. He hauled himself partway up, then there was a flash of metal as one sword shifted to a blade and was promptly embedded in the wall of the building a little further above him.

"You." The word came out as a snarl. Annoyed did not even begin to cover it on Gajeel's end. He yanked his arm back out of the wall, shifting it to a hand again and clutching the newly-formed crevice as his head jerked up, showing bared fangs and singed scales. "You are going to be fucking scrap metal when I am through with you, do you hear me?!"

[metabee]

Metabee's eyes narrowed, hands curled into fists. He was absolutely done with this guy, shaking a little with rage.

"What did you say!?! You aren't gonna take Metabee down so easily!" He got onto the ground to he could get a clear shot straight down without falling out the window, and started firing another barrage of lasers while Gajeel was stuck in the same place.

[metalivore]

Gajeel snarled harshly, flattening against the wall as best he could and shifting his other hand this time, stabbing another handhold in the building and hauling himself up further. With the damage he had already taken from the earlier laserfire and the missiles, this really might be a problem; the sooner he could get hold of something to eat, the better.

As soon as he managed to pull himself up close enough to the window, he clutched the wall with one hand, keeping the other turned into a blade and slashing at Metabee. There was a pretty good bit of damage to his scales now - as always, it was nowhere near what regular human skin would have suffered, but he wasn't exactly immune to lasers. He seemed to be largely ignoring that for the time being, though, focusing on trying to drive Metabee away from the window.

[metabee]

Metabee's arm jerked back as Gajeel's sword blade scraped along the metal with a flurry of sparks, shots going wide. He stopped firing, leaning back up out of reach. This whole sword arm thing was getting really old.

He scrambled back from the window, waiting for when Gajeel inevitably climbed up (this guy sure was persistent). He kept one arm up aimed at the window, prepared to launch another pair of missiles if it came down to it. No way was he going to let this guy beat him, not on his first solo mission!

[metalivore]

With a grunt of effort, Gajeel hauled himself up to the window - then, catching sight of the missile launcher, paused, eyes narrowing. He had one boot planted on the floor, meaning he could actually spare a hand - so, in a flash, he darted forward and to the side, reaching outside again as he went (broken glass scraping against his scales, those really came in handy sometimes) to rip a piece of metal trim off the edge of the window.

As soon as he was no longer standing between those missiles and the window, he spun to face Metabee again, and, glare still fixed on the robot, lifted the piece of metal and took a bite out of it.

[metabee]

"Hey, get back here!" Metabee snapped as Gajeel rolled to the side. He darted to the front of cubicle, carefully leaning around the corner with one arm held steady for another volley of lasers. Until the guy looked him straight in the eye and ate a piece of the window. Metabee just stared, arm lowered slightly as he dropped his guard in sheer disbelief.

"Dude, did you just....eat that?" He wasn't sure whether to be impressed or concerned.

[metalivore]

Gajeel finished off the chunk of metal and made a noise that started out sounding like he might be choking, but turned out to be laughter. "Whaddya think? Looks like you've picked a fight with the wrong guy, 'bot."

While the robot was distracted, he shifted a foot back, cupping his hands around his mouth, and took a deep breath. Metabee wasn't the only one with ranged attacks, and Gajeel practically radiated smug superiority up until the instant he unleashed his own: A whirling vortex of wind and shrapnel, threatening to hurl around and slice up anything in its path.

[metabee]

Not only had not expected the guy to eat metal, he was also really unprepared for him to breathe metal. He barely managed to get his arms up in front of his face before the blast hit him, knocking him back and into one of the cubicle walls. His internal readouts were going crazy, his arms were taking a lot more damage that was really safe.

The sound of screeching metal on metal was horrendous, and the metal shards were gouging away at his outer plating. He got lower on to the floor as quickly as he could with being blown away again, and managed to sort of tumble into the cubicle he'd hit, the flimsy walls taking at least the brunt of the damage. The tide had definitely turned here.