Summary:Paradox, Rainmaker, and Rocketeer team-up to take down some gang members. Intros abound! Log Info:Storyteller: Paradox |
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Night Time. Hells Kitchen.
Something was alwas happening in this cesspool of New York. Whether it was the gangs roughing someone up, whether it was the dealing of multiple kinds of drugs, whether it was the other shady back alley deals…no one was safe in Hell's Kitchen after hours.
But this was why some heroes arn't always out in the day.
Diego Barbossa was one of the resident vigilantes moving about. He wore baggy black pants with combat boots, with a heavy hooded jacket with the sleeves removed, his arms bare.
Where was he going, one might ask? Well…same place that others like him might be going.
Two gangs seem to be having a bit of a…heated conversation, and all of the are armed. The news has classified these two gangs as disruptive and dangerous.
When your chosen conveyance is literally a rocket strapped to your back, it can be hard to make a subtle entrance. That has its ups and downs. Fortunately for Sophie Rivers, right now, she's been hanging out on a rooftop in Hell's Kitchen with a decent vantage point since mid afternoon. (This wasn't by choice; her rocket is still slightly experimental, and it developed a fault that took her all afternoon to fix. Awkward.) Now she's got it sorted (Well, probably) and is standing on the rooftop, watching the gang disagreement develop. Casually, she swaps the magazine in one of her pistols from lead bullets to rubber ones, and checks her inventory of gas grenades. Yep; this might be an evening with some action. Worth waiting here afterall!
—-
Rainmaker is…well. Funny story. She thought she'd go out for a flight today. In costume.
There's reasons why this is an issue for her, mostly stemming from the fact that where she was forced to wear it originalyl, she was basically a test subject being experimented on as a (forced) ward of the government.
So she's got feelings about wearing it.
On the other hand, it's actually durable, works with her powers, and isn't terrible aesthetically, so she's trying to see if flying around when free to do whatever she wishes will push back some of the less happy memories associated with it.
She's currently flying over Hell's Kitchen, the yelling from below causing her to pause and hover, tilting her head.
—-
As Diego moves closer, Some of the Gang members turn to look at him. "El Diablo!" Apparently this is a look that Diego rocks quite often when he's out doing his duty. This REALLy causes things to escalate, and even from Rainmaker's point of view, she can see the guns already being drawn. Handguns, but guns nonetheless.
Good thing Sophie's got non-lethal takedown methods at her disposal!
Diego? Not so much. With a roar and without even so much as a warning, intense flames are created in his hand and he throws a fireball at one of the gang members! Blasting him backwards until he hits a wall, going limp as he's embedded in the stone.
Then they're firing at Diego, who covers himself completely in ice.
Interesting.
But while Diego has most of them distracted, two of the gang members spot Sophie on top of the roof with her guns and they start firing at her!
Rainmaker is currently incognito, which is entirely in her advantage should she choose to strike!
—-
A bullet flying past your head makes a really particular sound, and if it's really close, you can feel the breeze. If it's really *really* close, then you wind up with a couple of blond hairs fluttering in the air behind you, which is exactly what happens to Sophie before she ducks behind a chimney. "Son of a…" She draws her pistol once more and leans her arm around the chimney, firing a fully automatic burst more or less where the gangers were standing. "Right then!" With her other hand she pulls a gas grenade off her belt, and lobs it into the fray, followed by a second; the first one goes off with a loud 'phoomph', dispersing a cloud of tear gas for any mobsters nearby to enjoy.
The other grenade goes off with a similar sound, except this one isn't actually gas, it's just dye that splatters everything inside thirty feet. And, it's bright pink.
—-
Rainmaker isn't quite sure what is going on…but she's not really up to people trying to murder other people out in public like this. Just not kosher.
She holds out her hands, her eyes flickering with lightning as the wind around the area suddenly picks up sharply, then blasts downward into the massed gang members in a powerful downdraft strong enough to send them flying off their feet!
—-
Its Hell's Kitchen. Enough said.
But, its at this moment that Diego truly notices the other powers at play here, even as bullets just ping off of his armor of ice. Sophie manages to blind a few gang members with the gas, and…are now covered in pink. They mainly just look confused, but at least they arn't shooting at Sophie!…for like the next five seconds before they realize she's probably still there.
Rainmaker has probably the best result. Her blast of wind takes out a whopping SIX gang members and blasts them off of their feet, causing a few to land hard on the ground, another to land flat on a broken down car, and another to fly through the window of a nearby bar.
Ouch.
Meantime, Diego punches a mobster hard enough to send him sailing through the air until he hits the ground like a flat rock being skipped across a lake. He freezes another with an ice blast.
The only mobsters standing were the four members covered in pink (a la Sophie) and two others…but one more joins the fray. Big guy. Probably a mutant.
His knuckles crack, and he lobs what looks like a street light at Rainmaker!
—-
Okay, well…the guns were bad enough, but now streetlights are being thrown her way! The Apache girl drops rapidly about ten feet, free falling until she hovers again to avoid the light as it goes whipping past her, spinning off, before she holds out a hand to summon another gust of wind to keep it from flying off to slam into some poor kid's bedroom somewhere! That done, she eyes the mutant, then mmms, pointing at him. "You are entirely too careless with streetlights." she calls down, threads of electricity running down her arm, before with a loud *CRACK* a small bolt of electricty leaps from her fingertips towards the man in question…
Annnnnd promptly arcs into a nearby fire escape.
"….goddammit."
—-
Oh, well then, a man throwing lampposts. That's just not reasonable, but an airborn lamppost isn't something Sophie can really do anything about, as she huddles behind her chosen chimney that's rapidly disintigrating under a hail of gunfire. "Bugger," swears the Rocketeer. She ducks reflexively after a ricochet, then her rocket flares to life and she literally blasts off. As she ascends she spins around, looking down on the boys who were shooting up her chimney; and another grenade is dispensed off her belt. She drops it right in the midst of the shootey boys; when it goes off it releases an ugly green cloud, that burns the eyes and just smells… hellish. Like ohgodwhy.
And with that accomplished, Sophie angles to land not far off from the probable mutant, and takes a second to reload with another magazine of rubber bullets. "Hey, big fella," she drawls, "How about we call it a night, yeah? Call off your crew."
—-
"Yeah, what are you gonna do about it?!"
The big thug grimaces at Rainmaker, with her lightning looking to probably smite him before it just arches towards the metal of the fire escape. "Hah! You ain't got nothin' little girl!" Then he looks at Sophie. "We'll call it a night when you and your pals are dea-" then he gets laid out by a fire hydrant thrown at his head. He's big and tough though, so he'll live…but probably with an intense concussion or mild brain damage.
Diego never much cared for the gangs that infested Hell's Kitchen like a plague. Meanwhile, Diego looks up at Rainmaker, his eyes locking onto her own as they narrow. "Who are you?"
A few of the goons go down from Sophie's rubber bullets, but one still remains, and he's coming after Sophie. Good news, he's the last one! Bad news: Does Sophie do hand to hand?
—-
Sophie turns to face the one remaining guy coming after her just in time for him to be right there; she turns around just in time to receive a fist straight to the face. At least she's wearing goggles, but she still staggers back a step, and the second blow comes down on her arm and sends her gun clattering to the ground. She's clearly got another one, but she doesn't opt for it; instead she comes up with a pair of brass knuckles. "Alright then," she replies, as if the mobster had just said hello and asked for go for a walk. She steps into it, swinging one fist, then the other. Perhaps all it does is drive the man back a step, which is fine; she leans her shoulder forwards, and just bullrushes him. With a little help from her rocket.
Rainmaker folds her arms over her chest. "…Rainmaker." she says after a moment of thought. "Shouldn't you be helping your friend there?" she points out, drifting down to touch down easily on the ground, a little swirl of air flowing around her for a moment, sending bits of trash in the area flying around.
—-
Diego looks at Rainmaker as she lands. "Shouldn't you not be throwing trash all over?" he counterpoints, before he looks in her direction. "Besides, it looks like she has it handled well enough on her own."
Especially since Sophie is currently beating a man with a pair of brass knuckles, only to knock him back with the bullrush, knocking him into a brick wall, and thus…rendering him unconscious.
Lowering his mask from his face, Diego reveals his features to Rainmaker and Sophie. "Thanks for the assist, Chicas, but I had this covered." he says stubbornly.
He looks at Rainmaker. "Paradox." he returns the greeting. "Most people just call me Diego." first name! Though he looks to both of them now. "Either of you hurt?"
—-
Sophie kneels to make sure the guy she just body-checked into oblivion isn't critically injured or anything, before she stands, puts her brass knucks away, and goes to collect her pistol off the ground. She checks it over briefly to make sure skittering across the pavement didn't leave a scratch. …It did, of course, and she fingers the blemish with an irritated tsk. "Rocketeer," she replies, "Or… Sophie, amongst my friends." She perks an eyebrow upwards, and chuckles. "Of course you had it handled," she acknowledges, "But us 'chicas' weren't going to let you have all the fun, right?" She pulls her goggles up onto her forehead, mostly so she can wink at Sarah. "Nah, I'm not hurt, aside from a bit of hair. …you?"
—-
"He's a lousy throw with a street lamp." the tall girl says wryly, thumbing back towards the unconscious big guy, then raises a brow at Diego. "You probably did. Doesn't mean you can't be happy someone was willing to help you out around here? Or is this a testosterone thing?"
—-
Diego looks at Rainmaker for a little bit before he just grumbles. "Whatever." he crosses his arms and looks away. "…Gracias." he thanks them in his native tongue, though his eyes then fall upon Sophie. "I don't think I'd call it 'fun'. Its the job." but, it looks like nobody was hurt, so…mission accomplished.
At least in Diego's book. "So whats your schtick then? Gadgets?" he says to Sophie, then he looks to Rainmaker. "…weather lady?"
—-
Sophie smirks, and nods to Rainmaker, "Yes, it's definitely a testosterone thing. Be glad we're members of, if nothing else, the less ridiculous sex." She stretches, and clasps her hands behind her head. "Yeah, gadgets, I guess you could put it that way," she agrees. "Rockets, grenades, guns, brass knuckles… plus whatever I come up with next. No, I'm not going to tell you what it is." The blond Irish girl laughs softly. "Do we need to restrain any of these people, or are they just going to disperse when they pick themselves up off the floor? …I gather you've been in Hell's Kitchen longer than me so your call."
—-
Sarah eyes the first guy who was fireblasted into a wall where he's smoldering a bit. "…well, I don't know about nobody being hurt…" she says, shrugging. "But they did start shooting first, soooo, I suppose it's the best they could hope for really." She nods to Diego. "Lady is better than girl, I suppose." she says wryly. "But yes. Weather control is the simplest way of putting it." She glances to Sophie. "Definiely…nice rocketpack." she says curiously.
—-
Diego rolls his eyes at Sophie. "and the least humble of the sexes too." though at the question of cleaning up the place, Diego shakes his head. "Cops have already been called by now. They'll take care of this mess." Then to Sarah. He nods only once. "Fair enough. Though apparently your lightning thing isn't that accurate. Probably has to do with science." He wasn't THAT smart…he was good with engineering, but not with physics and electromagnetism.
—-
Sophie shrugs her shoulders. "Nah, that's just me. I used to be a fighter pilot and arrogance is part of the job." She glances at a couple of the guys she shot rubber bullets at, and ehs softly, "Well yes, they *did* start shooting first… they picked a fight with me unprovoked, and they used lead where I used rubber, so I'd say they got off pretty light, all things considered, yeah?" She takes a step back, and grins at Sarah. "Thanks," she adds. "Built it myself. …Still some kinks to work out though, I was on that rooftop all afternoon trying to sort out a manifold. That was awkward, let me tell you."
—-
Sarah wrinkles her nose. "If I was wearing my gloves they'd be a bit easier to aim." she admits. "I mean, I can aim fine with large bolts, but smaller ones tend to jump to grounds when they get close." She shrugs. "It works most times at least. Oh, you're…a fighter pilot? Neat…." she says to Sophie, then nods to Diego. "Probably should mosey along then before they show up, hmm?"
—-
Diego looks at Sophie for a moment. Jetpack. Well then. "They're gang members. Usually they do a lot worse than just shoot at people in this neighborhood. So be happy you know how to fight back." Then he looks at Sarah. "Probably a good idea." Diego turns on his heel, and starts to walk away, his hands entering his pockets before he pauses and turns his head. "I'll return the favor soon." of course, the 'favor' being that they helped him.
Now he's gotta help them somehow.
Settle the score. But, in any case, Diego is soon out of sight as he disappears into the darkness of the night.
—-
Sophie chucles softly. "Good thing we all know how to fight," she acknowledges, watching Diego disappear into said darkness. She smiles at Sarah, and lifts one hand for a quick wave. "Well, see you next time," she adds, cheerfully; and then her rocket ignites, and she very rapidly takes off into the sky, leaving a bit of a scorch mark on the pavement. …Eh, it'll wash off, surely.
—-
"Huh. Very mysteeeerious." Sarah murmurs in a creepy voice after Diego walks off. "I was expecting a smoke bomb for a moment." She grins a bit, winking at Sophie, then watching her take off. "….meet all kinds around here…" she murmurs, then lifts her hands, shooting upwards, before she changes course and shoots towards the Baxter Building downtown.
END