capitalh | i have no song lyrics for this post. oh well.

Entry tags:

i have no song lyrics for this post. oh well.

Who: The Hunter and You! (The Hunter is Aña. Not that she'll tell you that.)
Where: Some alleyway somewhere in a bad part of town
When: 1 or 2 AM, 3/12
What: Araña's stopping a mugging! Or just stopped a mugging. Your choice. She's on the prowl tonight.
Warnings: Stupid unregistered teen paranoia?

Araña isn't one to fully give up the life of fighting evil. Granted, muggers used to be more what she used to warm up, not her endgame, but when one is in a new town with no team, one shouldn't go looking for secret societies and supervillains right away. Plus, y'know, muggings are a good way to stay in shape, as a crime-fighter.

None of the muggings she stops are very complicated. Drop in, scare the guy, kick his ass a bit, zip-tie him to a lightpost and call the cops from the nearest pay phone before taking off. But of course, there's always the chance that someone else will have the same idea she does...

((Feel free to jump in mid-mugging or run into her in a dark alleyway/on a rooftop somewhere. She's on patrol tonight, so she'll be a little bit of all over. :3 ))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Rikki's sleep schedule is still all screwed up from the flight here. She's at least making her classes, since she had the forethought to arrange them all so they fall in the afternoon, but sleep at night? That's crazy. Superheroes don't sleep at night.

Restless and cranky, she's decided to go for a run, trying learn how to run on the rooftops here in this strange land where things don't rise higher than a few stories and just stretching her legs. The air in her lungs isn't quite the same - not as much bus exhaust, more smog - but the light-polluted sky is almost the same, and if she doesn't think too hard about how strange the skyline is, it's almost like home.

And, just like home, when she hears a scream, she veers toward it immediately, without pausing to think that she has rules now, she shouldn't be getting into trouble without a teammate... There's someone in trouble, and she's been doing this for what feels like her entire life. Of course she dives in without a second thought.

Thankfully (or unfortunately?), it's just a simple mugging, no firearms even, and Araña's already zip-tieing the guy to a pay phone stand by the time Rikki comes around the corner. She has her exo on fully, showing no skin. There's a patrol car that's due by any minute (if they didn't get a call), so she's eager to get the hell out of dodge when Rikki shows up.

Of course, when there had been screaming and somebody in a kinda creepy exoskeleton is fleeing the scene...

Well, if Rikki assumed that Araña was the one doing the attacking, it wouldn't be the first time.

When someone's fleeing the scene, there's not a lot of time to sit back and really consider your options. The scream sounded human, the thing running away does not look human at all... so Rikki launches herself off the roof and drops onto it feet first.

The impact knocks them both to the ground, but Rikki was expecting it, rolls with it and comes easily to her feet facing the creature. Her shield flares to life on her arm, a solid blue glow lighting her face in the darkness.

"Not so fast, buddy! Or... lady... Or whatever you want to call yourself."

Araña doesn't recover with quite the ease that Rikki does, but she's back on her feet within second of Rikki, crouched defensively and ready to spring into battle against yet another bad guy. Except--

"'Not so fast'?" she asks incredulously, her voice coming through clear (if garbled) thanks to the magic that gave her the exo in the first place. "Seriously? What, are you a comic book character from the 40s or something?"

Rikki frowns a little, behind her goggles and over her shield. So Cap rubbed off on her. So she sounds like him sometimes. She doesn't see anything wrong with that.

"How about, stay put or I'm going to knock you down again? Does that work for you?"

"Knock me down for doing what?" Araña asks, incredulously. "Stopping a mugging?"

She gestures to the payphone, still visible, and the unconscious mugger zip-tied to it.

"We're on the same side here, girl scout," she says. "Try to keep up."

Rikki stares at her for a moment, glancing back to the guy tied to the pole, and the... phone the creature... person... thing just indicated.

"You were running away..." she points out, a little defensively. "Wait, did you just call me 'girl scout'?"

"Uh, yeah, there's a patrol cop due by any minute and if you couldn't guess from not recognizing me, I'm not registered." She facepalmed and shook her head.

"Yes, I called you girl scout, what of it? You're talkin' like one."

Rikki lowers her shield a little, eyes still narrowed. This is one of the good guys. One of the unregistered good guys, which she's never really understood, but still...

"You're that girl from the Watch, aren't you?"

She'd actually thought it was a guy, at the time, but... the general outline of her body looks female, even with the armor-plated whatever. Her voice sounds vaguely female. She's going to guess girl and hope she's right.

There's a pause, as Araña processes that comment. "Dios, you're Nomad. You're. Uh." Cuter than the pictures she found on the internet would've made her believe.

Shit.

"Um, I was. You're. Well, like I said, stopping a mugging. And... stuff..."

Araña: much less cool and suave offline.

Rikki's eyebrows shoot up. Wow, that response... sure was something. She's not really sure what to make of it, but she's not attacking her or anything...

"Yeah. I'm Nomad. Hi." She lowers her shield entirely, though she doesn't turn it off. "I heard the shouting and I thought..."

She glances back to the guy tied to the lightpost, frowns. She doesn't actually know this girl. She could be lying, but... Rikki trusts her.

"You don't have to run."

Araña doesn't scuff her toe against the pavement, but everything else about her posture says that it's a force of will not to do so.

"Look, I don't know how they do it out here, but back home we stayed the hell away from anybody official." She tilts her head a little. "You're not gonna report me or anything, are you?"

What does out here even mean? Where's back home? Rikki figure those questions are better left for later, maybe...

"I, uh... Well, I have to tell the cops something." She tilts her head, almost in echo of what's-her-name's movement. "But like I said... you don't have to run. I know people who can protect you, if you want to... you know... come out or whatever."

Araña almost laughs. Almost. The "come out" comment is just... both so ridiculous and so accurate for her. Not that she's ever felt the need to announce her sexual preferences to anyone, but stil.

"Yeah, I really don't think coming out would be a good plan," she says dryly. "All it would do would make me and anyone who was a known associate of me a target of an organization I can't fight effectively anymore."

"Why?" She steps forward, just a half-step, everything in her posture friendly, non-threatening. "You'd be safer with CONDOR than you would be out here on your own. They could give you a new identity, they could make it so the people you're hiding from wouldn't be able to find you. It'll be okay, I swear."

She doesn't pull her exo back, not entirely. But she does, extra effort involved and all, pull it back enough that Nomad can see her mouth. Hear her voice. Her real voice, not the vaguely alien thing that poses as her voice when she's in the exo.

"You're super sweet," she says, with complete honesty. "The problem is that my powerset is known by the people who have it out for me. My powerset and face are known by the people I technically work for. There's no way to completely erase somebody, and unless you wanna give me a whole new set of powers, and new DNA, they'll know it's me."

She shrugs a little, and takes a risk by jumping up to the fire escape above her head - easier to run from without notice, still close enough to keep chatting - and smiles faintly. "It's kinda cute you still think it's that easy, girl scout. Hang on to that, ok?"

"So you don't go public, you can just..."

Rikki growls softly under her breath as she jumps for the fire escape, and launches after her, catching the ladder and sliding to the ground with it. This is familiar at least, one of the rare buildings in LA that has a fire escape like she's used to. As soon as the ladder hits the ground, she's climbing it, stubborn as ever.

"Who are you afraid of, anyway? Pretty sure we can take them."

It is maybe telling that she refers to CONDOR as we. Rikki doesn't even notice.

She can follow. That's a good sign. Or a bad sign, depending on your point of view.

"Maybe," she says. "But since it's ultimately the fate of the world at stake, I'm so not going to risk it." She smirks a little, almost-sadly. "Face it, chica, you ain't gettin' me in youre little club."

"So what, you just run away?"

Rikki hauls herself off the latter at the landing of the fire escape, acutely aware of how easily Araña could take her down if she wanted as she come up. She doesn't, so that's a good sign.

"You know that's not how a hero acts, right?"

"Who's running away?" Araña laughs, and there's a bitter tinge to the sound. "I mean, okay, I'm running away from this foiled mugging, but as much as I wish I was home free when it comes to secret societies and all that crap, the minute I'm going to be useful to them again, they'll pick me up."

She sighs, looks up at the sky, trying to pick out a few stars. "I even am okay with that, mostly. Like I said, it's the fate of the world we're talking about. When they find me a new partner, I'll be back in New York doing the same shit I was before, and not complaining about it, because I have a responsibility. And sure, maybe if we got CONDOR in on it, we could fight the Sisterhood better, but maybe not. Or maybe CONDOR doesn't see them as a real threat and would just get in the way. Or maybe something else. I don't have enough information to make that call in good conscience."

It's a lot to think about, for a kid her age. She's turned it over and over in her head since heading out here especially, and her position is basically "I don't know enough about what's going on to try to change what's working."

Rikki narrows her eyes, but doesn't argue, for the moment. The police sirens are getting closer, and she's not about to run away. In fact...

She leans out from the fire escape, looking down the street at the approaching flashing lights.

"Fine. I need to stay. It's easier to convict if the capturing hero gives a report. If you wanna stick around and help a little... you can tell them you're a Trailblazer and they won't question it. I won't say a word - promise."

Legion doesn't fly much on patrol - it makes them too visible, and muggers more careful. The gray polymer of their mobile platform blends in much better with the city streets then the night sky in any case.

Thermal indicates six hostiles holding up a store on the far side of the block - far too many to be worth the effort for a single shop. A serial mugging, Legion concludes, and moves to intercede.

Araña doesn't have anything fancy like "thermal scanners", she just has to be alert. But she noticed, from her perch on a nearby rooftop, that there's a commotion in that shop below her, and decides to check it out. She in full exo, not even a flash of skin showing, and more than a little freaky looking.

If she was paying a bit more attention, she might have noticed the other figure closing in when she did, but instead she just drops down into a crouch right outside the door with an unknown quantity coming up behind her.

(Nina would say she's getting sloppy)

"Cinco contra uno..." she mutters under her breath, readying herself to bust in. "I can take five."

"Correction," Legion offers quietly. "Six hostiles present within building. Inquiry: you are an unregistered superhero?"

Araña manages not to yelp, but she does whip around defensively, one arm up to block any incoming blows. Except one never comes - it's just a... creepy robot. Okay. Crap.

"Uh," she says. "I'm really not sure I should answer that question," is what she decides on after a few seconds. "But I gotta stop these guys, okay? Six isn't much different than five, and they're about to jet."

"You misunderstand," Legion says. "We are confirming your status as allied. Proposed course of action: we will intercede, disable the hostile in custody of the civilian, and shield them. You will disable the other five; we will provide covering fire."

"Oh." Araña hesitates for a split second, then nods sharply. There's no reason to take on all six plus worry about defending a hostage if a friendly is gonna help her out. She's used to this tactic - they usually weren't using it on muggers or stick-ups, but she and Miguel had done enough "protect the hostage and provide cover fire" runs together that she feels comfortable with it.

"Sounds good. I'll go in first and get their attention, can you get in behind the guy with the hostage?"

"Hostile can be disabled from a distance," Legion responds. "We will intercede on your mark."

"Right." she nods again. "I'll give you a thumbs-up once I have their attention, okay?"

Without waiting for a response (if he couldn't handle that, wtf was he doing offering help?) she slips in, to the side, and says, "Hey guys!" in a bid to get the thieves' attention. It took them a second to process the fact that some alien-looking thing had just sauntered in and said hi.

They didn't all have guns, she realized, as three got pointed at her. Fourth gun was still on the hostage, but two of the guys just had knives. She'd had worse odds.

"Hey," the guy with the hostage said, "Get the fuck outta here or I'll blow her away!"

"Sure thing!" Araña said chipperly, and flashed a thumbs up that should be clearly visible from outside. Then she immediately dropped, sweeping her leg out and around to take the legs out from under the nearest gunman, hoping the robot knew what he was doing and could take out the hostage holder before anything bad happened.

Legion moves in, raises their palm, and triggers their field generator. A complex system weights and counterweights the gunman with the hostage, increasing and decreasing the mass of his limbs in such a way that any attempt to move would require the proportional strength of an ant. The man manages to twist his face into an expression of shock before Legion dashes in, lightening their own platform to increase their speed.

They rip the gun away from the man's grip, toss it aside, and heft the man over the counter. A mass-raising field is cast around the hostage with one palm, ensuring that any stray bullets will be weighted to the ground before striking him.

"Gunman disabled, hostage secure," Legion announces. "Remaining hostiles are recommended to surrender with a minimum of violence."

Ammy has not been completely idle during her stay in Los Angeles, and despite being a solar goddess, she's more than capable of working at night. (Technically, she could turn night into day, but she seldom did that without very good reason, and no simple sun-dog was capable of such a feat!)

Mundane criminals are a little beneath her, admittedly, but they seldom need more than a threatening growl to get rid of. Disgusting, really. This one is made of sterner (or possibly stupider) stuff in that he has a gun. Amaterasu will never understand why this country allows such things to be purchased so easily.

This would-be mugger smells strongly of alcohol and desperation; he isn't making the logical decision to let his victim flee and hope that the older man takes 'his' dog with him.

Single muggers are really barely more than a warm-up, but they're everywhere, even in a city full of superheroes. Honestly, Araña had kind of been expecting them to be a little scarcer here than in New York, since they'd had fewer heroes working in that area, but apparently that wasn't the case. The old man and his dog probably would've been okay if the mugger had just had a knife, but guns...

Guns makes people bolder than they should be, sometimes.

Araña creeps down the wall a ways so she can aim well, behind the old man's back, and shoots a web at the weapon, yanking hard once she's made contact. Even if the punk shoots, the webbing should at least slow down the bullet to non-lethal speeds, and with any luck she'll get it away from him without a problem.

"Waving guns in people's faces isn't very nice," she says from her perch, her voice distorted to something with a hint of buzz and click, not quite human-sounding.

The older man yelps, almost as terrified of that voice as much as the mugger in front of him. The mugger swears, reflexively pulling the trigger into the webbing. The bullet scorches through some of the webbing, but enough to stop it. Spider silk is impressive stuff.

Ammy does the most expedient thing: she blows a short, strong gust of wind, a three-second gale enough to make the mugger stagger backwards. (It does no more than ruffle her fur, Araña and the old man similarly untouched.) The gun, fouled up in webbing and yanked the opposite direction, doesn't come with him.

The sun-spirit dashes forward a few steps, putting herself between the gun and the criminal. She doesn't growl; she doesn't have to.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

i have no song lyrics for this post. oh well.

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

I am totally not late to this reply

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject