Summary:Lena Snart is planning to use her five finger discount to acquire a gift for someone, and Shayera Hol catches her at it. Much snark ensues. Log Info:Storyteller: None |
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What does one do when that sliver of emptiness settles in? Distraction. Always distraction. It was getting to the point that these little trips to 'five-finger-discount' town were just getting old and boring. She wasn't stealing for anyone anymore. She also wasn't stealing /with/ anyone anymore, either. When the chips are down and the heart is heavy, most return to what they know best. What Lena knew best was thievery.
Dressed in her wintery gear that is not at /all/ what would sould be wearing during summer months, the snowy blue thief skulks about the rooftop of a rather impressive skyscraper. Goggles down, mask up, hood in place, she strides silently toward the first of a few doors to come. Moving her fingers, she lowers herself to start work on the electronic lock.
One of the things that Shayera Hol will NEVER get used to about this Grounder city called Manhattan — traffic. Regardless of the hour of the day or night except for that tiny sliver of quiet stillness around 3:05am, the roads are clogged with vehicles of all sizes and shapes. And smells. Ugh.
Because she can, Shay is flying OVER all of the traffic, managing to avoid both private and public transportation. Yes, there are likely many people out there that HATE her for that alone. Not that she cares at all. She's banking around one of the many skyscrapers this city boasts, catching a thermal up past the roofline just in time to see someone fiddling with that door there. Weird. Especially the really not a maintenance worker outfit there.
Having been swept well up and past the roof, she flaps her wings a couple of times to stabilize herself before folding her wings to dive toward the aforementioned rooftop.
Lena Snart counts the seconds. Timing herself as she often does. Planning - that is Lena Snart. Her fingers moves and shift before the lock beeps and the inner bolt 'shunks' out of place. Tsking at herself for being slow, she moves her hands to the handle and opens the barrier. What's happening above her hasn't tickled those hairs on the back of her neck. At least not yet.
Into the dark the figure in black and frosty-blue travels. Stairs feed down to another door in the way and yet another locksystem. This one seems double layered. Good, she wanted some fun tonight.
Shayera's dive does not bring her close enough to stop the black and blue clad person from getting through the first door, but seeing as that just LOOKED fishy, she opts to try and follow the would-be burglar.
One teeny problem with that. She has never been and will never be a stealthy person. (She's not an OWL, okay?) So rather than trying to sneak after the thief, she just touches down on the roof and uses the forward momentum remaining from the dive to charge right through the door and after Lena, furling her wings tightly so they don't get hung up in the doorway. Yes, that's happened before, but it was a long time ago. Grounder doorframes are too narrow. Shut up.
That got her attention. The shift in light from above, the shadow and pressure of air changing - something or someone was behind her. Her fingers leave the set of buttons and glide down to the holster on her thigh. This area was NOT the best place to be fighting anyone. But…maybe it'll help with the range of her weapons.
With one foot on a lower step and the other one platform up, the masked figure levels two weapons toward whatever was coming up from behind. One weapon Shay might remember. Triangular barrel and brilliant blue lines showing it was ready to fire. The other is more streamline, silver-white with a glimmering arctic liquid sloshing about its tubing.
Oh yeah, those weapons are distinctive, and if there's anything Shay is good about remembering it's weaponry. One other little problem. She's barreling down those stairs at a pretty good clip.
The expression on her face goes from determined do-gooder stopping a bad guy through recognition straight to oh-crap-I-can't-stop. She grabs for the staircase railing with one hand and actually manages to stop her forward momentum, but in the process yanks a fair bit of said railing straight off the wall.
Oh, and she all but slams face first into said wall as well. Cue wing flail. Roll to dodge grey-tipped white wings of doom that would put the tail on a hyper Ridgeback in a room full of breakable-topped coffee tables to shame.
Lena Snart just stares. She's thankful for her mask and goggles at that moment of face meet wall. With that shift in light and with the figure coming to an abrupt stop, Cold is given a chance to recognise who this actually is. Huh. Unexpected. Lowering her guns ever so slowly, her body begins to relax. "Cool landing." She quips apathetically.
"What're you doing here, birdgirl? This your building?"
Shay pulls in a deep breath to regain her bearings and to try and mentally collect her dignity, then huffs audibly on the exhale. Then, after furling her wings close against her back again she turns to look at Lena with a decidedly unamused expression.
"No, this is not my building, Frosty. I saw you opening that door illegally. Did you forget your housekey or something?" At least her mace is still hanging from her belt?
"Can't say I did. Few doors can stop me, though. Never really needed silly things like keys." Guns down, but still in hand, Lena gives an off glance toward the door behind her. Two locks still up and secure. Granted, she couldn't see much due to the fluff of her hood but hey…
Back to Shayera. "Let me guess…you're a goody supe?"
If Shay rolled her eyes any harder, she'd likely see the inside of her skull. "No. I work closely with the NYPD so I can learn their tricks in order to get around them." Sarcasm much? "Yes, now. Back out on the roof. March." She's SO not letting the kid get through that second door.
Of course, there's still the challenge of getting PAST Shay and her wings that are taking up almost the entirety of the stairwell despite her having pulled them as close as she can. Grounder architecture is so… claustrophobic.
Muttering something to herself akin to a snarl really, Cold doesn't move. It was the first time she shows any sliver of anger in a good long while. Her finger twitches on her Cold Gun, teasing off its guard toward the trigger fully. She could slow her down, get inside, go about her business. But that slow doesn't last forever and she had already been given a sample of how Shayera fights.
Begrudgingly, she holsters her guns and follows after.
It takes Shay a moment to realize that the cold gun girl can't actually GET past her, so she does turn and lead the way back up and out onto the roof proper. And yes, she is fully aware of the temper that got limited only to some dark muttering. She's actually a little bit proud of the kid for not being a brat teenager and mouthing off right away. She must have a decent role model somewhere. Though, not one that's pounded into her skull that B&E is not only wrong, it's stupid.
"So," she starts once they're out on the roof and the wind cutting across the skyscraper is blowing her hair and wing feathers around messily. "Wanna explain why you were busting into this building?"
"There's a nice thing inside and I want it." Lena explains flatly. "Why else do you break into buildings for?" Her fingers twitch briefly before she finally settles her hands on the mostly hidden rounds of her hips. "Why are you diving in to ruin someone's night?" Cold counters.
Shay looks at Frosty, clearly unimpressed. "Let me guess. This nice thing you want. You want it merely because it's not already yours." Figures. And when the younger woman puts her hands on her hips, she crosses her arms, her wings flaring for a moment before settling down again. "Well. Y'see, I hit a thermal, then I saw this little punk picking at a door she hasn't got any reason to be touching. That usually doesn't end well. So I thought I'd drop in and remind her…"
And at this point the joking air to her demeanor drops completely and she is fully the extremely competent and dangerous Enforcer of Akah Ma'at. "Crime. Doesn't. Pay."
"But fencing does." Lena retorts calmly. "Go catch your thermals elsewhere and stay out of my business." Hands down, Lena takes a step back ready to turn and head back to work. "If you want to know, no. I don't want it because I don't have it already. Someone I know might like it for when he gets back. You get gifts for people you love, don't you?"
Shay steps after Lena, extending a wing to block her path to the door. "No, you BUY a gift, you don't steal it. I mean, think about it. The item is stolen, and reported as stolen. The person you love gets caught with said stolen item and is the one that gets in trouble for the theft. Does that really sound like the kind of gift you want to give? A criminal record?" If need be, she'll reach out and grab Frosty by one arm, proving that while she is way too strong to pull free from, she's by no means gripping said arm with enough force to even cause a bruise.
"What's so special about this thing you want to get that you'd be willing to put your loved one at risk of taking the fall for you?"
"He already has one." Much like she did. After all, with where they met, well…Glancing at her arm, Shay can probably feel the limb under her grip tense. "It's Rome Burning. Trust me, he'll adore it." If he ever comes back.
"Either take me off this roof by force, or take me to the cops. Get it over with or leave me alone."
"Okay then." Shayera steps right up to Lena, wraps her arms around the younger woman, and with only a small hop to accompany a strong wingbeat, they're aloft. It's a solid several seconds of flapping before Shay settles into more of a glide which makes it easier for them to talk.
"What is this 'Rome Burning' thing? Also, tell me where to drop you off. And if you say anywhere, I'll let go right now." At least there won't be any traffic to contend with? Has Frosty been flying like this before?
"Wait-" But they're up and there's nothing Lena can do about it now. No, she had never been flying like this before. Or flying ever…So, her arms wrap around the stronger of the two, her body curling up fruitlessly as her fingers dig in, hands clinging, head down.
"What?" Rome Burning. "Oh, uh…historical event where Rome caught fire. Apparently the Emperor of the time was mad and fiddled while it happened but that's impossible. Fiddles weren't even invented yet…"
Do not say anywhere, Lena. For the love of all that is holy…this woman might actually drop you. "Just a roof. Somewhere. I don't care I can find my way back home from anywhere." A beat. "Anywhere where my feet are touching something solid." She was shaking.
Shayera is flying fairly close to the ground, at least, though that may not be a consolation. "Huh. So some city somewhere caught fire, and the leader was so much of a dumbass he played music instead of, I dunno, trying to help his people?" She scoffs. "Please tell me your city leaders have gotten better than that."
She can definitely feel that the kid is shaking, and her arms around Lena's torso are solid and steady. The kid's as safe as she can make her. "So there isn't a specific address you'd prefer? I mean, look at that traffic down there, yuck. How often can you get taxi service THIS fast?" Other than every night at about 3:05am, anyway.
"Sadly, can't say most have." Politics. "Just…in an alley or something. No address. I'll walk it. I always do." It was dawning on her, however, that this trip was to take her home and not to the authorities.
"After all that, you're not taking me to the cops?"
"Let me guess. Most city leaders are also male." Ooh, derision there. But, it's something her own city has in common with Manhattan. Politics. Ugh.
When 'an alley or something' is Lena's choice of destination, she banks VERY carefully, aiming for one of those more modern and super wide alleyways that isn't cluttered with fire escapes, trash dumpsters, and the occasional clothesline. Those damned things are LETHAL.
"The cops? For a little unauthorized locksmithing practice? Nah. Not this time, anyway. But if I bust you doing something like this again, I'll carry you to the closest precinct by your ankle."
"I'll probably throw up then kill us both if you do that." She confesses. "I'm never going back into a cage…" At least, by now, the girl has stopped trembling so badly. "Yeah," she mutters at length. "Most leaders are men. Some aren't bad but I've never really lived on that side of the line anyway…"
"Maybe that's what wrong with the world. Too many dicks." She gently angles them toward her target alley and back flaps to slow their descent. "Pick up your feet for a second." When Lena does so, Shayera lands about as lightly as if she'd hopped off the bottom step of a staircase. And then she keeps her arms around Frosty until the kid's steady on her own feet. She's dealt with uneasy passengers before, and having them immediately crumple is just embarrassing for everyone.
"There. No cops, no puking. Buy your love a postcard of that Burning Rome thing from the Met or somewhere and spare you both the trouble, huh?" She'll make sure Lena's safely on her way before taking back to the air.