[right][h2][sup][i][color=f07560]Knight[/color][/i][/sup][/h2][i]Rosaline  Buckner[/i]
[i]The Circus[/i][b][h3][color=ec100c]Ifrit (Bryson  Green)[/color][/h3][/b][/right][center]The Circus[/center][center]21st January, 2011[/center][hr]

The VTOL arrived on victory road, almost precisely on time. The "circus", as it was known, lay before them, hundreds of locals still trying to get in. There were still thousands loitering about the outside, some of which looked desperate, most of which looked suspicious. Shady vendors took advantage of the crowd, the attention, the people who had come here in an attempt to achieve some distance in their lives. Upon seeing the VTOL, many of them cast spiteful glances, rearranging their wares, or outright hiding, turning away. The area was too saturated for the PRT to make a direct attempt at restoring their order to the area, but truth be told, Wonderland did an ok job of it themselves. They were frightening when they needed to be, a force of chaos, feared for their unpredictability, but they were surprisingly proficient at keeping order in their territory, so an unspoken truce had held between them and the PRT, at least in so long as they maintained the status quo.

Emerging from the VTOL, the two armored heroes headed for the Circus. Ifrit knew how important first impressions could be, especially in a situation like this. So he made an impression. 

Today, his armor was multiple shades between violent Red and deep sunset orange, but it was overshadowed by the smoke which emanated from every chink in his armor, bright blue light splayed from the cracks, and his eyes glowed bright white. The result, was that of a demon. A meteor which had crashed down to earth, still steaming, and ready to unleash its unknowable power. As he walked out with night he was sure to take a confident, but alien stance. The armor helped his movements be perfectly smooth, efficient, powerful, like a cat. Every movement measured, the threat was implicit.

Knight too was considerably armored and walking with a purpose, the combo worked well, Knight didn't need any extra flashy effects, the fact that she could look so confident, walking without concern beside this unknown creature only increased the mystery. They made their way through the crowd, into the corridors of the building, and to the doors into the main area, where the betting booth was.

Before even coming this far, Knight would have noted how her power vanished. It caused her to feel extremely uncomfortable, for then any of the surrounding thugs had a reasonable chance of overpowering her. Without it, she was a but a young girl in an expensive armor. But, alright. Better learn this power exists NOW rather than… otherwise. 

Ifrit, on the other hand, felt the absence of his power as a sort of.... relief. Where ordinarily he would have to suppress the onslaught of ideas coming to his mind, the solutions to the obstacles he encountered, it actually cleared his mind. Made it a bit easier to focus. It wasn't dramatic, it was like when an air conditioner that had been making noise in the background switched off, and you had forgotten it was running. Suddenly, everything just seemed a little quieter in his mind. He wasn't sure what the affect was but... he could guess. 

He had actually researched the Circus to a degree before he had even come to Boston. This power dampener, whatever it was, had been precisely the subject of his interest. It wasn't known if it was an effect bestowed by a parahuman, or some sort of specialized tinker device, but he had tried to replicate it. Unfortunately, he had of course failed, but he still had a passing interest in how such an effect could be achieved, as well as how it would interact with different powers. One could only wonder how it might interact with a case-53....

Knight gazed in. A metal cage waiting in the middle, and the place where the fights would take place. How raw. The place was absolutely packed, the chance of getting seating was extremely low, if there weren’t special seats for the fighters. But, Knight was determined to watch. She saw Whetstone, on her throne of swords. Pipeline was there. [i]Sickle-Cell[/i] was there. Knight frowned. No, not now. She turned to check the battles and-

Knight(Pro.) & Ifrit(Pro.) vs Black Kaze(Ind.) & Talion(Ind.)

Knight froze in place. It… it took a few seconds. Oh, okay. This was shaping up to be a terrible day to stand out among terrible days.

With the assumption that Ifrit was still close, she’d grab him and gesture for him to follow her to somewhere where there was less people, a corridor a bit further away, before spinning and whispering.

[color=f07560]‘Okay. We’re fighting together, against Talion and Black Kaze. I don’t know Talion, but Black Kaze. Teleports a straight line, in which time innumerable hers occupy the space in-between, giving her an innumerable number of angles to slice at us with her sword.’[/color] Just one of the deadliest parahumans ever to walk the planet. No biggie. 

Ifrit listened carefully, at first he was puzzled at both of the names, although Black Kaze definitely sounded familiar.... As Knight was speaking he pulled up the PRT database on his HUD. Ohh..... well Talion didn't come up, but Black Kaze definitely did, and he definitely recognized the name. He spoke over his communicator, as much to remind her that they should be able to speak without anybody knowing regardless of where they were, s to preserve secrecy. [color=green]"Ahh... they have been looking for her you know? There is a kill order and for good reason.... she has an extraordinary body count."[/color] 

Knight didn't need a reminder. She nodded, grimly. [color=f07560]‘She’s too fast for me to box in. I’ll attempt to freeze her sword or other weapons if she’s close enough, but I think she can hurt us anyways. I could [i]potentially[/i] cut part of the battlefield and one enemy away from consideration with a wide and thin wall, but they’ll need to be in one of the hexagonal corners, and I’ll be using too much of my potential just to wall off to be of much use against the other enemy. I could just go armor-mode, but I don’t think I can hit Black Kaze with that. She’ll teleport out of the way. No idea who Talion is. If he has projectiles, I can attempt blocking them with my walls, but Black Kaze can just teleport around them. ... What do you think?’[/color]

He shook his head, [color=green]"You are thinking too directly in fighting her, first lets think about their strengths and weaknesses. Part of the reason Black Kaze has been at large for so long, and racked up so many kills is because she is really, really difficult to contain. She is extremely mobile, and able to get out of bad situations, then return at opportune moments to take advantage of any openings. She is as though somebody went out of their way to make a physical manifestation of the queen in chess. Extremely hard hitting, extremely mobile, the perfect piece to either put your enemy in a bad position via deterrence, or to take advantage of their weakness. We have to fight her in the same way you fight a queen in chess."[/color]

He eyed the crowd, looking for Black Kaze and her companion cape, hoping that maybe if he caught sight of them he could get a hint as to Talion's identity, and more importantly, their capabilities. [color=green]"Like I said, her best advantage is she can always reposition herself to the best possible location, and be there to strike immediately. Imagine a chess board without any limits, the queen could go anywhere in her sight, instantly. That is Black Kaze. Fortunately for us, the very nature of this fight limits that. We are in a cage, she can't leave the cage, she can't instantly escape from anywhere to anywhere, this is almost a worst-case scenario for her power. We need to leverage that disadvantage, figure out how to further limit her mobility, force her into a poor situation, and most importantly, avoid exposing our weaknesses."[/color]

He finally noticed Black Kaze, after what was an embarrassingly long time. She was beside Pipeline on his throne, along with another cape he didn't immediately recognize. He started a search for that cape in his database, perhaps it was Talion? He then gestured toward Black Kaze so Knight would be aware of her too. [color=green]"Another major limitation of hers is that she is going to be visibility limited. I am not sure if she can teleport somewhere she can't see, but regardless we can vastly limit her effectiveness in teleporting if we can limit her visibility. Fortunately I have the tools for that. Finally, another way she is similar to the Queen in chess, is that while she is undeniably deadly, she is just as exposed as every other piece on the board. Even if she wears body armor, she doesn't have any known ability to make her especially durable. We only need one good hit on her and she is down, we just have to not die in the process. Fortunately, both of us have power assisted durability, you have your costume, but more importantly, your power. Put simply, even if it means we castle up, lock ourselves away in a shell, we stay active at all costs. We use our durability to outlast her, get her to expose herself. The problem is.... I have no idea who Talion is. Not in the database, I have never heard of her."[/color]

Knight kept silent, and made a note to herself. Ifrit says a lot, and she was too polite or insecure to interrupt. She wasn't entirely sure what he meant with that she thought too directly about it. But, yeah. She knew of Black Kaze. She had coincidentally been one of the capes Knight had looked up in order to disguise that she had been looking for Conflux's file, but that only because Knight had already known of her. The "queen in chess" analogy was apt. Yeah, the amount of space would be limited. So... in the end...

[color=f07560]‘So, I should cover myself in my power, make myself invulnerable?’[/color] Knight simply asked. [color=f07560]‘I can't hit a mobile Black Kaze like that, I'll have limited senses and won't be able to protect you, but perhaps I'll be safe. I will be able to go on the offensive, hunt them.’[/color] She told, looking at him. Should she mention the toll being in armor-mode took on her head? ... Probably, but if there was anything she didn't want to mention in a hive of enemies, it was her own weaknesses. Who knows what could be listening in.

Ifrit thought on that for a moment. It was a really difficult situation to be sure. Black Kaze could and would take advantage of any vulnerabilities they left open, and if they were out of the fight it wouldn't matter what they did. But by the same token, completely surrendering the initiative might just leave them on the defensive, it would be a slow loss but getting the edge on Black Kaze would be impossible if they just tutled up. Still, in reality it wasn't a dichotomy between the two. There were solutions that could avoid the worst of both worlds. 

[color=green]"No, not completely."[/color] Ifrit said, over their comms unit so nobody could hear him. [color=green]"I have a plan, I will fill you in while we wait, but you shouldn't need to turtle up completely. We need to leave open the possibility of you delivering an attack while preventing you from being taken out in the process. I think I have..."[/color] He faded off as he watched Praetor stride in, to the shock of apparently everyone. [color=green]"....seriously?"[/color] What the Hell was a Protectorate team leader, doing here? I mean, Ifrit realized he didn't have a lot of room to speak, but he was here on orders. [i]Praetor's[/i] orders. What was up with this? His suspicions of the man grew ten-fold, as the only reason a Protectorate leader would do something like this, was if he had no reason to fear the consequences, or there was some other consequence he was much more afraid of. Could he be being manipulated? What did he have to gain or lose from being here or not being here? Needless to say, Ifrit was baffled.

Since they were apparently in the stadium area, Knight’s now going to catch up with a few reactions.

While she kept her helmet still, she gazed through her visor at numerous of the individuals present. Pipeline was to be expected, he still ruled this part of the underworld. Whetstone as well, Knight’s eyes lingered on her for longer, not entirely sure how to place her among the villains of Boston. Then… Sickle-Cell. Knight frowned, turning her head a little to glare upon him. She had lingering anger from the earlier confrontation towards him, blaming him somewhat for having been chewed out. But… she sighed. This was no time to focus on him. She’d look towards the stage, and just keep calm.

Maxwell arrived. Huh, Knight didn’t think he would. He wasn’t a cape, wasn’t this really dangerous for him? … Then again, knowing the power of the Consortium, perhaps it wasn’t. Knight’s gaze was still lingering on him, listening to what Ifrit was saying when his last word surprised her. She blinked, then checked him and followed his gaze towards… Praetor. … … … 

Knight momentarily short-circuited. She didn’t have words to speak or feelings to put into words at this. Just blankness. Okay. So Praetor was here. To… see the powers of the Circus in action? To evaluate her and Ifrit’s performance? He had nowhere better to be? 

[color=f07560]‘I-I’m… sure he h-has his reasons?’[/color] Knight said, her stuttering voice blanketed in uncertainty. But why hadn’t he told them he was coming? Um. Knight was feeling a lot more doubtful, now. So Praetor had personally come to see her get floored by Black Kaze. Wonderful.

At this point, Ifrit wasn't even thinking about Praetor's motivations, he was way past that and now on full alert. If his experience as a parahuman had taught him [i]anything,[/i] it was that when things don't add up, something is very wrong and you will probably die if you don't figure it out [i]fast.[/i] As Knight reeled, he was already activating his large drone, Griffin, and directing it to a surveillance position high above the arena. It was using all manner of sensors to meticulously scan the area for all anomaly’s, check for traps, anything. 

He doubted that Knight was a problem but in the world of Parahumans, you could never be sure of anything. He literally kept one eye on her (a camera) and the other thoroughly searched their surroundings, not just the obvious points of focus that would be meant to attract attention, but EVERYTHING. He looked for any sign of danger, but was very [i]very[/i] careful to not let anything show in his posture, his mannerisms, nothing. He [i]knew[/i] he was probably overreacting, he had talked with others about this before but... the stakes were too high. As far as he was concerned this was a combat situation, and he wasn't trusting anything.

[color=f07560]‘Th-this changes nothing, as far as we’re concerned. We must still focus on our battle.’[/color] Knight eventually said, her mind coming to a compromise to continue functioning.

Ifrit nodded, and to not break patterns he responded [color=green]"Of course, the mission always comes first. We simply adapt to the situation."[/color] He couldn't be sure about Knight either way. He would trust her in as far as he had to, for now.