Summary:On a stakeout, Nick and Isis run into more winged people Log Info:Storyteller: None |
Related LogsTheme SongNone |
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Nick takes a picture with a camera and a telephoto lens. Snap. Snap snap. This is an insurance case and they've been following the suspect for some time. Now they're just gathering evidence on what they've found. It's pretty open and shut. Not very intellectually stimulating. But long stakeouts mean takeout. Isis might call them takeouts. And the truck has a lot of food in it.
Or, well, the truck HAD a lot of food in it. But Isis has been in here for hours and she STILL eats like a black hole. Nick looks around to see what hasn't been eaten yet because he's kind of peckish too.
Stakeouts are sort of boring for Isis unless she can eat and sleep. Just a like a cat. For the moment, the feline-like mutant is curled up with her head on Nicks knee. When he moves, she hisses softly and grumbles. "Left you some sandwiches…"
And she has, a lot more than Nick might have expected given her voracious appetite.
"Did you get them? Can we go now?" She asks as she stretches. More and more feline each day.
"I did get them but no we can't-" Clatter. Nick looks up. That noise came from the alleyway up ahead. It sounded like someone or something knocking over a trash bin. Glass on concrete. He frowns and starts the truck up just to check what's going on there. This is a decent part of town so a noise like that is definitely out of place.
As he pulls up he sees that it wasn't a knocked over bin. Something fell and hit one of the dumpsters hard. It looks like…
Well, sort of like Shayera. It's a winged person. Must have dropped out of the sky.
Isis starts to pout even before Nick doesn't finish that sentence. Her ears tilt forward at the sound and she peers out the window "What was that?" As the truck moves, she's literally perched on the edge of the seat.
"Look Nick. Is that … Shay?" Before Nick can grab her, Isis opens the door and slides to the ground … looking around as she approaches the downed Birb carefully.
At least she's not pouncing?
"Hair's the wrong colo- WAIT! ISIS!" There isn't anyone else around at least to the eyes. Or nose. It does smell a bit like blood and the birb hit the dumpter hard enough to dent it. One wing twitches as Isis approaches.
Then the eye opens and she - for it is a she - goes for something on her belt that looks a bit like a lightsaber but probably isn't. She's moving in a panicked fashion. Fast and jerky and her eyes are wide and fixed on Isis. She babbles something but the language is unintelligible.
What is intelligible is the bolt that fires from the rod and hits the brickwork near Isis.
Nick knows Isis hears him by the way one ear swivels in his direction but she stalks closer still, nostrils flaring and then grimacing as she gets a whiff of the alley.
That was a mistake.
"It's ok…" The feline like mutant starts to say to the woman, holding her hands out to try and calm her. Her gift is bought to bear as well, calm and reassuring for that moment - until the light saber fires and the bricks behind her send detritus everywhere. "HEY!"
There's a corresponding spike in her emotional broadcast - shock and and … a small amount of aggression. Nick will get that as well, given how close he is. It's going to take a moment for Isis to get that back under control as she resists the urge to rush the woman.
Zap zap. The wild firing doesn't stop but it isn't very accurate either. It misses Isis by a large degree and by that point Nick is there to pull her back and out of the alley. It's just as well she didn't try to rush because moments later a second winged creature drops into the alley though this one in a more controlled fashion. It throws something at Nick and Isis which lands near their feet and begins to belch a foul smelling cloud that immediately begins to eat away at the brickwork.
"The hell?!" Isis can feel Nick panic a bit and yank her back more. His grip on her isn't very sturdy though and she might get around the cloud and back into the alley. It doesn't SOUND like there's a struggle there but it's hard to hear anything over the high pitched whine that canister is emitting.
Isis dodges - she's nimble and her feline instincts serve her well. It's good that Nick does drag her back because she was getting ready to leap. With smoke billowing and the cannister whining, Isis shakes her head and yowls a bit - the high pitched sound hurts but with Nick panicking, she can't let that get to her.
"It's alright, Nick …" she says, squirming out of his grasp, sending a wave of 'calm' in his direction. Knowing smoke rises, Isis drops low and tumbles around the cloud - claws extending from her fingers before she rises.
This time, it's something akin to lethargy that she sends out. Wouldn't it be nice to just curl up and sleep?
She can see the uniformed one in the process of dragging the non uniformed one out of the alley though whether or not there is a struggle is unclear. The more able of the two birdmen lets out a cry of alarm and pulls out a long knife from his belt only to stumble when the wave of lethargy goes out. The injured one does too. And fortunately that rod has been dropped.
"Isis!" Nick calls out. He's not as nimble and that cloud is… caustic or something. It takes him time to get around it.
"Hurry up, Nick." Isis calls out. She's going to have to take Nick out training - see if he can learn to keep up with her.
"Stop!!" The slim feline slides in to scoop up the rod and keep it out of the hands of the two. "Who are you? And what are you doing to them?" That's to the uniformed one. The knife is eyed as Isis circles slowly. She's not even going to try and work out that rod - knowing her luck, she'll blow Nick up.
Or shoot herself. Does she know which end shoots, after all? Nick comes around the corner and picks up the dumpster. Yes. Picks it up. And holds it over his head, menacingly. Which is a hell of a thing given that the alley is relatively narrow and there's only about two dumptster lengths in it.
"Don't interfere." The one with the knife says with a very thick accent, and slow like he had to think about what the words were.
"Not any of your concern."
The injured one is silent and looks terrified but whether that's because of the other birdman or because of Isis and Nick is entirely unclear. Isis also knows that the more able one is pretty scared. And that probably DOES have to do with her and Nick. She can 'feel' him get an idea. Something he thinks will get him out of this.
"With what? Don't interfere with what? You don't get to bully people in our city just because you want to." Isis says, giving Nick a sideways look as he lifts that dumpster. Maybe she'll accept he can do that and not be quite as quick as she is.
"Whatever it is you're thinking about, don't do it." That will tell Nick that she can feel that, at least. Maybe this one will believe that she can read minds too - and it will make him wary.
"Who are you? Who do you work for … with?" Carefully, Isis takes her phone from her pocket and starts to call the NYPD.
"What… are you doing?" The bird man slowly turns the knife in his hand and then hurls back and throws it at a pipe which bursts into a gout of steam near Nick. That makes him yelp and throw the dumpster but it's a hasty throw and not well aimed. It cuts him off from what happens next which is the one birdman trying to heft the other onto his shoulder and run.
It may be a mistake to turn his back to Isis though.
"Nick!!" Isis flashes her fangs as the steam gouts out and doesn't stop as she launches herself at the man.
Feathers and wings, she knows how to hurt him and her claws - even though they're just claws - are sharp and strong. "That was mistake…" the feline-like mutant growls as she lands on him, claws ripping through small bones to begin with. "… I asked who you are and who work with."
The only answers she gets are screams. Having your shoulders broken is painful and this is very much like that. Wings are sensitive and they're not very durable as it turns out. The other one goes sprawling and tries to crawl away as Nick comes over the dumpster looking angry. He grabs the injured birdman and throws him back against the dumpster, hard. Then the turns to the one that Isis has pinned, who is scrambling for the knife.
Before Nick can get there he turns the knife and presses something on it, causing a liquid to coat the edge. Then he awkwardly tries to stab back, over his shoulder at the cat-mutant's face.
When Isis fights, she becomes feral. It's the way AIM 'made' her. There's not a lot of thinking beyond what she has to do to to win and failing that, get out without getting caught.
With the birdman down, Isis presses a knee between his wings - it's going to hit like nothing else with the damage she's done to his wings.
The knife flashes, slicing her cheek just before her hand catches his - and she twists it. There should be be the very satisfying sound of snapping bones - as she's not being gentle.
There's a burning sensation from whatever was on the knife but then there's a crack of bones. By the time Nick gets there Isis already has him disarmed in more ways than one.
"Isis!" He snaps. Snaps mostly to get her attention. He knows full well how she gets when she's in a fight and how difficult it can be to bring the person back.
Gingerly he bends over to pick of the knife and sniff it. His face twists. Whatever is on that edge it doesn't smell good.
There's no sizzling of skin but the slice hurts like hell. Isis yowls and growls and if it wasn't for Nick snapping at her, she'd likely tear the birdman to shreds.
"Burn, Nick…." The scent from the wound isn't pleasant either but she keeps her knee on the birdmans back. "Answer my questions…" She's still growling. Probably not far from spitting either.
Nick looks at Isis. There's an orangish tint to the skin around her cut but it isn't spreading. They can get that looked at. It IS making it kind of hard to think though. Sort of like it pulls on the atavistic parts of her psyche. And his.
The birdman doesn't answer. It looke indeed as though he has passed out. That's not surprising given how much Isis has hurt him. People can only endure so much pain.
"Search his pockets." Since she's sitting on him. And he has them. There's several devices in his pockets that look like those used by the thieves that hit the city some time ago when Shayera first appeared. And there's an ID. It isn't in English, but from the symbol on it he might be some sort of official agent.
One of the devices is… quietly humming.
The wound hurts a lot, but Isis is sufficiently wound up that it doesn't bother her. The sense of vagueness though, that's a bit different and Isis just growls lows as she kneels there. "He's out." She sounds angry about that but she starts to go through his pockets, handing them to Nick as she does.
"These look like those things …" it takes her a moment to get the right words. "… the devices that the other bird people had." beat "This one is humming. What is it?"
The ID has the slim mutant frowning. "I can't read this but it looks like a police ID or something."
Nick takes it and looks at it for a moment before he peers at the device. "I'm not… sure…" The wolfman pokes at it for a moment before it opens to reveal an odd brownish crystal. It looks like smoky quartz and it is definitely humming in a harmonic frequency. Nick sniffs it. Frowns and sniffs it again. He's smelled that scent before. Where was it? Oh yes. That ruined tenement building in Queens…
"Isis… I think this is Terrigen."
"Terrigen?" Isis has to struggle to remember what that is. "That stuff … that makes people mutate?" There's not a lot known about it and right now, Isis is working in 'cat brain' primarily.
"Were they going to use it on the other one?" Because that sounds horrible and dangerous and from what they could see, the other one didn't want that.
"Could be…" Nick says as he carefully closes the box. It's still humming but everything he knows about terrigen - which isn't much - says that it's dangerous. And fragile. So best not to disturb it overmuch. "Or they might have been going to use it on someone else. The real question is… where did they get it? And how do they have this much?"
Terrigen is rare. Nick has seen it twice, by accident mostly ,and it was in minute flakes. Not finger sized crystals like that. It'd be worth a fortune on the black market.
"Do we give it to SHIELD or Shayera?" Isis asks, finally moving off the back of the downed birdman. "Add to those questions, where did these guys come from and who are they? Then we'll probably find out the answer to the other two."
The slim mutant hasn't connected the size of the sample yet but she can tell that Nick is nervous. Trying to send out reassuring emotions, Isis turns her attention to the other bird person - going through their pockets looking for anything that might tell her where they were staying.
"I'm… not sure." Nick is indeed nervous. The other birdman has less… obscure things. Lockpicks. A couple of knives. Some… things that look sort of like batteries and might indeed be them. And also an aerial photo of what appears to be the military section of JFK Airport in New York. Photos of specific military hangars and several specific people. This is possibly not good.
"What do you think Isis?" SHIELD or Shayera? Either way they need to call the police and have these two picked up. It won't do to just leave them here.
Isis frowns at the photo's and hands them to Nick. "Were they planning to hit this, do you think?" It's certainly surveillance but Isis isn't sure what for.
Blinking as Nick asks what she thinks, Isis mutters "You're the boss." It's shocked her a bit to be asked like that. "But … Shayera, I think. Maybe she's had some success in finding out about these guys."
"Alright. Then we go to Shayera. Call the police. I'm going to put the more dangerous stuff in the truck. And then we should go. We don't know if there are others about." Had the two been fighting? Had one been rescuing the other? Impossible to say. Maybe they'll get answers later. But right now this has the feeling of something… unpleasant.
Maybe it's just the edge of the feral emotions.
It's impossible to say and Isis knows that. "I'll call the police and then, can you take me to the clinic? My arm is still burning."
And yes, the slim mutant is still growling as she pulls out her phone and makes the call. They'll head out in just a moment.
"Good. And then you can show me where you hid those sandwiches because I can't find them." He's already decided they'll stop by the school. Best to deal with whatever was on that knife directly. He doesn't need her getting sick tomorrow. Or worse, later tonight.
And then they can head out, leaving the two broken flyers behind them. And more questions than answers by a country mile.