[center][img]https://i.imgur.com/rlyp4kH.jpg?1[/img][/center] [sub][hr][/sub][COLOR=seagreen][indent][sub][B]Location:[/B] [COLOR=#bbbbbb][i], Dockyard, Star City - Night[/I][/COLOR][/sub][sup][right][b]Queen's Heir #1.04: Hitting A Brick Wall[/b] [COLOR=#bbbbbb][I][/I][/COLOR][/right][/sup][/indent][/color][sub][hr][/sub][INDENT][color=seagreen][sub][B]Interaction(s):[/B] [COLOR=#bbbbbb][I]None[/I][/COLOR][/sub][SUP][RIGHT][b]Previously:[/b] [url=https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/4900115][COLOR=#bbbbbb][I]Queen's Heir #1.03: Splitting the Arrow[/I][/COLOR][/url][/right][/SUP][/color][/indent] [center][sup]...You do not wait for fulfillment, but brace yourself for failure...[/sup][/center] [color=silver]"Connor?....Connor!"[/color] Connor Hawke snapped his eyes open, immediately alert. He was under a boat's tarp docked in the bay- probably belonged to some rich guy who only took it out once or twice a year -waiting for the boat carrying Brick's new super-weapon to finish unloading. [color=seagreen]"What is it? Are they moving out yet?"[/color] Overwatch had been keeping an eye on Brick's goons via the dockyard security cameras once they'd figured out that Connor had arrived too early. Connor was bored after the first ten minutes of staking the place out and decided to try and meditate, and he had [b]just[/b] gotten his centering right... [color=silver]"No, you just went dead quiet for like ten minutes. I turned your feed up and couldn't even hear you breathing! Where did you go?"[/color] [color=seagreen]"Oh, sorry. I was meditating, trying to center my chi before the upcoming battle, y'know?"[/color] [color=silver][b]"Your...chi?"[/b][/color] Did she just snicker? [color=seagreen]"Yeah! Chi is like...the breath of the universe, it's...sort of an energy field that exists in all things. It surrounds us, flows through our bodies, binds the universe together. With correct usage of chi, an ant can wrestle an elephant."[/color] That was how his Master had always put it to him, and it felt wise. [color=silver]"I mean I've seen plenty of kung fu movies, I kinda know what chi is, but you make it sound way more like The Force."[/color] [color=seagreen]"The what?"[/color] A moment of silence on the line and Connor had just enough time to appreciate his mistake before- [color=silver]"Oh [b]come on[/b] Connor, [b]seriously?![/b] You practically quoted The Empire Strikes Back line-for-line, there's no way you've never heard of Star Wars!"[/color] Connor couldn't help making a sorta half-embarrassed grin while he admitted he had no idea what a 'Star Wars' was. After almost getting blown up at the warehouse he'd ended up telling Overwatch...well, almost everything. He just didn't want to die without someone knowing who he was and what he'd been doing, as vain and reeking of attachment as that felt. [color=silver]"That's it! I can't take it anymore! The next time we don't have a city to save, we're doing a shared streaming movie night! All geek classics, all night long!"[/color] [color=seagreen]"Uhh...what does that mean in 'Bad with tech?'"[/color] [color=silver]"Your QPhone has an app that lets us watch the same visual feed at the same time. It's what I used to patch you into the security feeds on that Q-Store robbery a couple days ago, but we can also use it to watch movies together!"[/color] [color=seagreen]"I dunno if the Monastery has wi-fi."[/color] [color=silver]"Ugh, don't you have anything civilized?"[/color] [color=seagreen]"...No. That's...that's kind of the point."[/color] [color=silver]"Oh...yeah...well, it's no big deal. I'll show you how to set up a mobile hotspot. The way you're set up, it won't cost you anything. So, you really lived your whole life as a monk?"[/color] [color=seagreen]"As an initiate. I haven't actually taken vows or anything. But yeah, I lived my whole life as part of the [i]sangha[/i] as far as I can remember. Like I said Master Jansen knew Oliver Queen, apparently helped him train during a spiritual crisis. He'd never tell me who actually dropped me off at the monastery though. But he told me who my dad was when I was around...I dunno six or seven, when I started asking questions. I was only one of two kids around and there weren't a ton of other mixed race monks or whatever anyway so I knew something was up. The other monks and the abbot thought it was a bad idea, but Master Jansen said it was my right."[/color] [color=silver]"He sounds like a pretty cool guy."[/color] [color=seagreen]"The coolest! Sometimes if I did well during meditation or archery practice he'd sneak me newspaper clippings talking about Green Arrow stuff. I used to hide them in my pillowcase and look at them in the early mornings before meditation."[/color] [color=silver]"Hahaha aww! Tiny fanboy Connor! My heart!"[/color] Connor grimaced, trying and failing to fight back more sincere embarrassment [color=seagreen]"Y'know you can always go back to fighting Brick's guys by yourself!"[/color] [color=silver]"Nice try, but we both know now that you've been handing out your sandwiches for free, the bums at Avalon Park won't be giving you even a quarter of the info I can."[/color] She was right, even if he was just kidding. Besides, it was nice to have a partner in all this. Kept the tension down when he was stuck waiting for hours. He couldn't afford to let his guard down too much, though. According to the reports Overwatch picked up over the dark web (whatever that was, it sounded bad) it was supposed to be some kind of earthquake machine he was going to use to level every part of Star City past Mid-Town so his gangs would have control over every part of the city instead of just the ones the police couldn't handle. The docks belonged to China White and the Triads, so Brick shelling out the cash or favors needed to ship in whatever this was by sea definitely added weight to the reports. It was a horrifying plan, but Connor couldn't help feeling a little excited too! His first real superhero scenario and a chance to save the city! [color=silver]"Connor, they're moving out. They hitched a big white container straight from the ship to the back of some truck somehow and it looks like they're getting ready to head back. Four guys on motorcycles, one at each corner."[/color] Alright, time to go. [hr] No elegant, precisely coordinated plan this time. Connor just positioned himself a little ways out from the dockyard and put a bunch of arrows into the truck tires. At first he was expecting it to be dramatic. He had always assumed the pressurized air in the tires would explode and the truck would flip or spin out, so he was kind of hesitant to do it in case any of Brick's people got seriously hurt. But Overwatch reassured him, and as it turned out putting a broadhead through a big tire just kind of rapidly deflated it. After that though, things got hectic. Connor sprinted toward the convoy full out as a pair of motorcycle riders peeled off to take him, engines roaring. They were both wielding glinting metal in the dark, crowbars or lead pipes, no way to be sure. He [color=seagreen][b]*twanged*[/b][/color] an arrow into the front wheel of the nearest rider and that guy [b]did[/b] flip. As Connor watched, he went soaring through the air to land in a tumbling heap of limbs that'd probably make Connor throw up if he wasn't fighting for his life. But the hesitation still cost him. Now the next rider was bearing down on him with his big metal club raised high, bike spewing exhaust fumes and snarling like a starving dragon while the headlight's glare burned his eyes. He ran toward the danger and launched into a flying side kick. He'd really just meant to leap over the motorcycle to safety, but reflex and adrenaline carried him into the kick. The jolt when his foot connected with the helmeted head midair would have shattered his foot if his form wasn't perfect. Instead the momentum carried the thug and Connor clear of the motorcycle and sent both crashing to the ground while the bike fell over riderless. Connor scrambled onto hands and knees, searching for his bow in the dark. Not enough time, in his peripherals he could see one of the cyclists dismounted, aiming an assault rifle. His hand found the club instead, a crowbar after all. He glanced up. No time to calculate, just whipped it end over end at the gun. A dull thud and no gunshot told him he was still alive, and it bought him enough time to find his bow. [color=seagreen][i]nock, draw, aim loose![/i][/color] Two arrows [color=seagreen][b]*twanged*[/b][/color] off the bowstring one after the other and pinned both gunmen to the trailer of the truck by a sleeve each as Connor rose from his crouch. He ran to close the gap as the one he hadn't apparently clocked in the face with a crowbar struggled out of his jacket. He got clear of it and pulled a switchblade just as Connor got close, and the two of them ended up circling, wary. Connor was too distracted by the the blade to realize the other gunman had slipped free and joined in too. He only noticed when he felt a forearm snaking around his neck from behind for a choke right when the switchblade thug darted in to open his stomach. He snatched the forearm away from his throat and whipped himself into a throw, sending one enemy thudding into the other. This was life or death, so he kicked both hard until they didn't get up, muttering apologies and mentally wincing while he did. Movement out of the corner of his eye..the driver peering out from around the truck's door, the glint of gunmetal in the night. [color=seagreen][b]*twang!*[/b][/color][b]*shnk!*[/b] Putting arrows in gun barrels just kept getting easier. But the driver started to get out of the truck... [color=seagreen]"Oh c'mon! I just jump-kicked a man clear off a speeding motorcycle! I literally beat a guy over the head with another guy [b]right in front of you[/b]! Can we just not! Please?! I'm [b]so[/b] sick and tired of hurting people tonight!"[/color] ...The truck door slammed closed. [color=seagreen]"ugh, freaking thank you!"[/color] He took a calming breath, tried to center himself and walked toward the big shipping container hitched at the back. The one containing the doomsday device, the earthquake machine that'd destroy the city- [color=silver]"Wait, you did [b]what[/b]?![/color] [color=seagreen]"Overwatch, please. City to save, really long night.[/color] [color=silver]"Fine but we're coming up with a way for me to see you doing this stuff next time."[/color] Right, it was time to finish this. He reached to throw open the container door- only for the whole metal door to smash right into him as it got torn off its mountings. [hr] Connor's head was spinning even as he kicked the big hunk of scrap off of himself. He kipped up, swaying a little. The gaping truck trailer's insides were lit up with floodlights and a bunch of guys with heavy weapons were piling out of the container instead of a doomsday machine and... ...forming up behind the biggest, scariest looking guy Connor had ever seen. Maybe seven feet tall, so wide he practically had to squeeze through a door that could fit like three guys. Of course, he had white dreads and reddish-brown stone instead of skin, but that was like, the least terrifying thing about him. Connor knocked an arrow and drew on him out of pure desperation and a whole crowd of gunmen leveled bigger-than-his-arm guns at him in response. Before anyone could fire, Brick held a hand out and spoke up, smirking. [color=coral]"So, you're the little bitch who thinks he can play hero and mess with my business? A tiny green punk actin' like he's never seen a trap before?"[/color] He turned his back on Connor to address his hitsquad, not even caring about the arrow pointed at him. Connor's draw-hand was trembling a little, despite his best efforts. Things were looking bad. [color=coral]"You should all be fuckin' ashamed of yourselves! He's wearing a goddamned Halloween costume and I can't even tell if he's too old for it! You know how bad it makes me look to hafta take care of this myself!?"[/color] He backhanded the nearest thug hard enough that Connor was sure the man was dead, then turned back to regard the young vigilante as if nothing had happened. [color=coral]"Guns down boys. Kill him if he tries to run, but I want him to know just how [b]fucked[/b] he is, before the end."[/color] [color=silver]"GA? GA, what are you going to do?"[/color] Connor didn't answer. He didn't have any answers to give. [color=coral]"C'mon now, boy. Let's see 'em. Show me them ninja moves that have my best guys wettin' themselves."[/color] Connor slung his bow, stowed the arrow. He charged brick, wound up a big roundhouse kick that he knew could shatter trees... and screamed in agony when his leg became one giant bruise. He recovered quick, blocked out the pain, but Brick barely moved an inch. [color=coral]"Ha! Come on! You can hit harder than that! You can't take this city from me with one weak kick!"[/color] Connor launched into his attacks one after another all in the blink of an eye... Right palm strike, face. Front left elbow thrust, solar plexus. Spinning right side forearm strike, floating ribs. Muay Thai Flying Knee, face. ...But by the end of it Connor was the only one bleeding and defeated. Brick actually caught him at the end of the flying knee, a hand bigger than Connor's whole head wrapped around his neck surprisingly fast. Choking off his air as he looked at Connor, almost pitying [color=coral]"Don't feel too bad Baby Arrow. I fought the real deal before, and truth is you hit harder than he does. But you're dumber than he is too, or maybe just less experienced. Either way, you're gonna pay for it tonight."[/color] Connor struggled hard. He kicked, tried to pry the stony fingers off his neck, fought for air, but it was no good. [color=silver]"Connor?....Connor!"[/color] He squeezed his eyes shut, drifting off into the abyss.