Summary:An altercation turns ugly in Central Park. Anya Corazon and Avery Aaronson involved, Avery ends up shot. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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Just after dinner time, and the park is a few degrees under eighty, so actually pretty pleasant temp. Pleasant enough that there's a fair number of people still out and about - including one Avery Amanda Aaronson! The girl is almost lethally energetic in her pastimes. At the moment she's jogging, wearing a sports top with an oversized half-t of grey over it, and stretch shorts. Ankle socks and vanilla sneakers complete the stunning ensemble, her hair gathered in the back in a simple knot.
Amusing herself, the girl runs at a pace that few could sustain for long, and just keeps sustaining it - today's exercise being endurance work instead of Parkour for once. Now…Central Park at night is /not/ the safest of places, not that Avery seems too worried about it. Of course then she runs right into a group of gangers looking for a little sport. The cat-calls are pretty standard fare, and the girl seems intent on ignoring them for the moment, until a couple firmly step in her path, and stop her in her tracks. "Where you going, little lady? No need to rush off, eh?"
Avery blinks, and then looks at the fella, expression curious. "I beg your pardon, good sir, but you are in my way." He actually /chortles/, and elbows the guy next to him as several more close in, cutting off any easy route of escape. "You hear that?" The other guy says. "She's /beggin'/ for it!"
Avery just looks at the man. "Oh no, sir, I assure you, I was merely being polite. I suggest you move ere I move you."
Innuendo? Clearly lost on the girl, and her stance…yeah, she's ready to take on half a dozen guys. She doesn't even look nervous.
Which gives one of them pause, but the bulk have the courage only numbers can give.
A trio of NYU students are walking through the park, cast in deep shadow now that the sun has dipped behind the behemoths that sandwich such an island oasis. The other two are decked out in similar fashion to Anya; today, wearing studded shorts, pink fishnets over black tights, and an oversized mens NIN tee. The backpack she wears is covered in patches ranging from a comic rendition of Fred Rogers to one that simply says FUCK THE POLICE in white on black. They're all just jabbering; one is smoking a cigarette, the other holding a brown bag, which he passes to Anya. She takes a swig of it and passes it back, snickering a bit as they discuss something in muted tones.
Of course, it's Anya who notices it first. She hears the catcall, and her eyes are drawn to the men who are surrounding the woman. "Oh, fuck no," she says, and the two boys alongside of her square up by her side. They know not to get in her way.
The Latina rushes over toward the boys, not yet recognizing that the would-be vicim they've surrounded is her friend.
"HEY DICKWADS!" shouts the fiery young woman, her eyes staring daggers. "Back the fuck off, or this is gonna get real ugly, comprende?"
"PUTA-pendeja, mind yer own business, eh?" One of them says, turning to face Anya, not having a clue what a world of hurt his just invited himself to. In fact, to underscore that he's got exactly 2, or maybe /3/ functional braincells he even draws a balisong knife, snapping the thing open with entirely unnecessary flash and flourish. The man is /big/, he's clearly strong, and has the scars on hands and arms to show he's got some experience at serious knife fighting. The sixth guy - the one who paused - steps back, hands raised, and clearly doesn't want anything to do with what's going to happen next.
The big chortler steps up, right into Avery's body-bubble, and grabs for her, fist tangling in her t-shirt. "You don' look like you got much meat on them bones…but that's okay…"
Grinning, the other starts to reach for one of her arms, and that's when Avery almost explodes into motion. Anya would get a lovely view of Avery hooking the thumb of the idiot who /gave her a limb to mess with/ by grabbing her shirt. A deft twist and he yowls, but the girl isn't even close to done, she pivots her whole body, down, and then rolls over the guy's back, legs scissoring as he literally flips himself to avoid the pain she's inflicting - she hadn't released the thumb.
Both feet kick into the other guy, off balance, one in the ear, the other into his side, sending him stumbling and tumbling him over a park bench to land in a heap. Even before the first guy thuds onto the running track, she releases, and lands ready to keep going.
"Twould seem that that you men be ne'erdowells…methinks some lessoning in manners would serve well."
Oh no he DIDN'T.
"Ohhhh, look, I learned a bad word in Spanish class!" Anya is clearly mocking the dude who's squared off against her, hands raised in the air. "And… le polla es tan pequena que tengo que compensar con una navaja!"
SUBTITLE: And my dick is so small I have to compensate with a switchblade!
She advances on him, fists raised while her two friends square off against one of the other three remaining. "C'mon," she urges the guy with the blade, who advances upon her with a sneer and amateur, threatening stabs at the air. "C'mon, c'mon, COME ON!!!"
When he finally moves to stab her, Anya spins around to the side, catching his wrist with her left hand. She squeezes with no more than a tenth of her strength, but it causes the man to scream in agony, blade clenched in trembling fingers. Then, her right hand swings down and snaps the guy's arm in two just above the wrist, causing the hand to dangle in a manner that's likely to end up featured on @savage_parademics later.
Yanking his arm down, she brings a knee into his nose, breaking it and sending him to the ground, bleeding.
"Welcome to school then," she starts to say, joining in Avery's taunting. She stalls, however, and angles her head toward the would-be victim. "What the… AVERY!?"
Anya's friends stare at two of the three who remain, ready to join in the fight, even though… it would seem the girls have this handled.
He DID indeed go there. And he definitely did /not/ understand the dick-slam, the broken bones however — pretty clear. Apparently the jerkweed speaks braille!
The two that remain produce weapons of their own, one drops out a telescoping baton, the other a simple blade, nothing fancy, folding, or extending. In fact it is a commando knife, the Ka-Bar specifically, US military issue.
The guy she tossed over the bench is trying to regain his feet, and he's cursing up a damn storm…he's a master of Expletive-Fu, clearly.
The baton guy charges Anya, the knife guy at Avery.
She simply waits, and when he lunges, she grabs his wrist, tugging down and then twists and locks her feet about his head, continuing to spin, torquing her body to literally send the man off his feet, and onto the ground.The arm? Not so good…not if that wet crunchy noise, and his scream are any indication. Upon hitting the ground she rolls and ends up crouched low, one hand on the ground, legs forming a bent kneed V on the ground as she grins. "Hello Anya! Brisk night, be it not?" Yes, Avery's /chipper/ about being attacked!
"EEK!" Turning, Anya starts running, and not very fast; her hands are flailing about, her voice mock desperate. "Oh no! A big stick! I'm so scared! Someone help me!"
Anya's friends hang back while… she toys with him. Apparently, they've seen her fight before, and they're trying not to laugh.
Anya leads him right toward a park bench, which she jumps upon and springs clean off, flipping over the guy's head and connecting his temple with her knee in the process. When he hits the ground, he's out cold, likely facing a concussion. Anya, however, lands gracefully and smirkly.
"Yeah, she was a gymnastics nut in high school!" one of her friends calls out.
"Brisk night?" Anya replies. "I'd say, it's kinda muggy…" She spins her head to the one that remains, the guy with his hands up. "… and too full of toxic masculinity."
He gulps.
Anya turns her head back to her friends. "Right, amigos?"
Her two friends bum rush the sixth, and he takes off running, headed for the nearest exit. Had he been gifted a tail, it would certainly be betwixt his legs.
With a sigh, Anya dusts off her hands and cracks her knuckles. "So," she says, approaching Avery. "I grew up fending off assholes like these in the hood." A pause. "The ghetto." Another pause, and a frustrated look. "A neglected part of town overrun by crime and poverty." She upnods while offering a hand to help Avery up (as if she needed it). "Where'd you learn to brawl like that?"
Avery can't help but /laugh/ at Anya's antics, and then watches the other guys get run off.
She accepts that hand, needful or not, after all - it would be rude to refuse. "Aye, about that, no more than a brawl, alas." A sigh as she sees the blood on her top. "Well, bother." She mutters, and then shrugs. "As to the fighting - I trained since I was six, Eskrima and Aikido." A grin. "Acrobatics too, o'course."
She chin points at her fallen foes. "And you, dear friend? You showed great skill and strength! I am most impressed."
Anya's school friends probably find Avery /insane/. Who -talks- like that?
"Yeah, well," Anya says, eyeballing the ones who are out cold with broken arms and wrists. "It's like I said, you either break bones or get yours broken. Ian, Junich?" She gestures toward her two friends, then back to Avery. "This is Avery, she's a new friend of mine, who apparently downloaded Kung Fu from the Matrix."
The two boys grin and nod their heads. "We know not to get in between her and a fight," Junichi says.
"Yeah, I did it once, and she accidentally fucked up my leg," Ian adds.
Avery laughs. "What is this 'Matrix' you speak of, Anya?" Yes. She actually DID ask what 'The Matrix' is, if there was every any proof she was from another planet, that's it right the heck there! Avery's gotten turned about a bit, and with her the conversation. She smiles to the boys, eyes fever-bright and breathing a little rapid from the fight, but only just. "Anya? Oh, wise indeed…she's a bad-ass bitch if ever there was one, truly and for certain wiser by far to err and give her enow room then to seek to help, and end up with a…um…a 'fucked up leg'." She can't help but laugh a little. "Forgive me, my speech be most difficult to understand, I know, but by my troth I am /trying/ Ian, and Junichi"
And it is then that she blinks, looking past Anya to where her first felled foes were, apparently one of them was not nearly as felled as Avery'd hoped. With a violent heave he whips up a hand. "Mother FUCKIN' BITCH!" In that hand? A machine pistol, the bullets already flying as he shouts. Avery doesn't even hesitate - she literally vanishes, as in GONE.
When she reappears a fraction of a second later she is BETWEEN Anya and the boys, and the gunfire. She has just enough time in that broken instant to slap right…DEFLECTING a bullet with her bare hand in a spray of blood, and then left, another deflect, another spray of blood…and even as she does this she twists -into- the path of the third bullet in the burst…which punches into her upper body, just about collarbone height.
She continues the spin, and starts to crumple.
All in less than a second…
"Wha…" Ian says.
"The Matrix-" Junichi says.
"It's a movie," Anya interrupts. "But it-"
She doesn't really have time to finish. There's a shout from behind her, and she spins around with eyes wide only to find Avery reappearing right there, in the way of gun fire. The boys dive to the ground, hands over their heads, leaving Anya to watch as a lot of stuff happens in rapid fire.
*THWIP!*
As Avery crumples, something wiry, black, and elastic in nature flies out from Anya's hand. The webline nails the gun, and with an angry rip, the machine pistol is whipped out of the thug's hand. It's a violent motion, sending the weapon flying across the park, very very far out of reach, with a black webline dangling from its muzzle in the breeze.
Anya is upon him like a blur. She dives into him, snatches him off the ground as if he didn't weigh more than a backpack, and carries him with her as she speeds toward the trunk of an oak tree. With a heavy sound and a crunch, she slams him into that tree hard enough to crack his head against the bark. Now it's the thug's then to crumple, out cold and bleeding from his nose.
Anya spins around, eyes wide like those of a caged animal. Her stance is inhuman in nature; legs spread far and angled oddly, palm on the ground, while her eyes dance rapidly from friend to friend.
"…. Mierda!!"
Avery's a tough little thing, even though she's a couple inches taller than Anya, wiry, but she does not have superhuman physicality other than reflexes. The bullet enter her body at an angle, didn't punch through. She hits the ground with a not-so muffled yelp of pain, back arching and bleeding hands clutching the wound as it pumps blood out to stain her top and the ground around her. Still conscious, she holds to the wound, and no, she did not have any attention to spare to see what Anya just did.
Fortunately the blood is /pumping/, and not -spraying-, the brachial artery has probably not been compromised, but that impact with the ground? Not a good thing for someone gunshot.
Insanely, her first words, in a voice thick with pain are. "Be…you…hurt…?"
"Why did you do that?" Anya asks, as she rushes over to fall by Avery's side. If only the other woman knew. She shakes her head, eyes wide with fear. "Why would you-" She looks up, seeing that Jun and Ian are starting to look up. "Go! Get help!"
Looking back down to Avery, she breathes, "I'm fine, Ave. Fine. And you're gonna need to keep a secret."
Reaching out, she takes the hand that Avery has covered her wound with, ignoring the blood. "Trust me," she says, before adding, "and close your eyes."
"How…could…I…not?" She asks with a truly heart-wrenching attempt at a smile. "…thou…no, /you/…are a friend." She almost shrugs, then thinks better of it. Eyes of hazel are utterly devoid of their usual verve, and nary a gold fleck visible, glassy with pain. "…thy secrets…will I keep."
Her hand grips that of her friend, and Avery smiles. "Trust thee…you…?" She closes her eyes. "…of course."
There's a LOT of blood.
Grimacing, Anya peels Avery's hand away from the wound, exposing the heavy blood flow. However, within moments the wound is being coated by white webbing, oozing from spinnerets in her other hand, just above the wrist. It tightens as it adheres to her skin, and she draws the webbing back to make it taught, clamping the wound together.
"Don't look," Anya repeats desperately. "Please don't look," she repeats, and adds another layer to her field bandage. "It'll hold until paramedics get here, okay? Trust me."
The webbing finally stops flowing. She let's go of Avery's hand, then spins around and leaps into the air.
*THWIP!*
The sound is not far from Avery, but Anya is fast. She's zipping off into the forested area nearby, body curled into a ball and aiming for a small break in the trees, where she can get out of sight.
She really does have to peel Avery's hand away, instinct is a powerful thing…and really…pressure is in fact the right response to the injury! As Anya works and pleads, Avery just nods, a little weakly. "I will…not…" She promises. She can feel the sticky strands adhere, but she's not looking, nope. She promised!
"Anya…I…Corazon means…heart, yes? Thank you, friend…for…all you have done." A slow nod. "I will…bide, aye, and patient…be."
A snort of laughter, a wince of pain at it. "…literally, yes?"
There is no answer. Anya, it would seem, has gone. Disappeared from the scene. Avery isn't alone for long; soon enough, Ian and Junichi are back, with a police officer in tow.
"Dispatch, we have a code 65, shots fired, civilian injured. Requesting EMT." The Officer crouches down next to Avery, eyeballing the bandage over her wound. "Hey, kiddo. Can ya hear me? We got an ambulance comin'."
Back on the radio, he says, "Dispatch, I need backup!" His eyes are on the downed thugs, worries they might get back up again, or that another gun might make an appearance. Anya's friends are booking it, and when he notices, he calls after them. "Hey! You two! Come back!" But he can't leave the injured woman, especially considering all the blood.
Avery finally opens her eyes when a strange man is taking with her, her eyes widening with distrust at first — after all, she's been warned by more than one source that the 'pigs' will likely search and book her, perhaps for littering the ground, you know, with her blood. Yeah, both Maya and Anya were in support of this, one more overt than the other of course, but still. "Aye, officer…I hear you well." She manages to say without too much slurring of speech.
Still, with no sign of Anya, and the boys beating feet Avery, nods. "The…ambulance…is good." She manages. Then points roughly which way the gun went flying, okay, so…she might have seen a LITTLE of what Anya did. "…pistol..dangerous…"
As for the gangers…they are mostly just looking surly, those that are even awake. NO WAY will they admit that two /unarmed/ girls kicked all their asses. Nope. Not going to happen.
From her hiding spot in the trees, Anya wishes she could help. She considers quickly changing into her costume, but then she's sure Avery would piece it together. And the thugs! How many of them saw… should she just curse herself for even having a social life?
"Well, the bleeding stopped, I think," the officer says. "Just don't move. I'm not going anywhere, okay? What's your name? I'm Officer Jim McCarthy."
Sirens are audible in the distance; police and EMT alike.
And bless her soul Avery is covering for Anya! "Aye, Officer McCarthy, I thank thee…/you/, for your…assistance." Avery closes her eyes a moment. "These roughians were…difficult, aye? I am Avery Aaaronson…mine papers…my /ID/…in…pocket…" She nods…and regrets it, hissing a bit. "Aye…bleeding stopped."
A soft sigh at the sounds of the sirens. "Please…do not leave me." She asks finally.
It isn't very much longer before police and the EMTs are on the scene. No doubt Officer McCarthy asks Avery about what happened, that's SOP, he has to have the info for his report. Sadly, the EMTs are going to ask a lot of the same questions, and keep her talking even as they carefully get the girl onto a board, and then lift her to the gurney used to get her into the back of the ambulance. Her vitals are checked, and she's hooked up to some fluids, but no pain meds, no blood on hand, and transported to the nearest hospital with a trauma ward.
And through it all no mention is made of Anya, or of Ian, not even Junichi. They wanted to avoid entanglement, well, Avery will do her best for her friend and for Anya's friends by extension.
As soon as the EMT's arrive, Anya breathes a sigh of relief. She turns around deep within the cover of trees, her hand clinging to a high branch. However, she just can't leave like that.
Reaching beneath her oversized shirt, she draws the mask in black and white, up and over her head and face. She wriggles out of the shirt, webbing it quietly to the branch while clinging to the one below with her boots. In time, she's completed her transformation, and is ready to track the ambulance…. so she can visit later.