King Cosmos

HEROIC

Good opening. I'll see if King posts and if not I'll get something up after sleep to continue the slap fight.

@Blazion

I'll get a post up today.

HEROIC

King, do you want a chance to reply or shall I launch into another post?

@Blazion

You can go ahead, I have nothing to add at the moment.

HEROIC

Kitsune

Akeno had never fought a super villain before. Not that the term really applied to the five low rent thugs in front of her, they were barely ‘super’ and even ‘villain’ was kind of a stretch when they were closer to common criminals than anything else; the point was that she had never had to fight someone who had powers like herself. Five minutes ago she hadn’t even seen anyone with powers, not until Grim had jumped out of the shadows and begun to put on a one-man show.

It wasn’t like she had avoided them intentionally, although she likely would have if given the chance; it was just that her world was small and people with powers were big, or at least moderately sized, and didn’t fit into her life. The crimes she dealt with were relatively minor; muggings and car jackings and break-ins and things like that. The kind of people she ran into were usually normal people; less than law abiding sure, but normal. It was why she never really thought of herself as a hero, despite the fact that she had powers, put on a mask and an approximation of a costume and stalked the night looking for evil doers. It was why she had never officially claimed the name that the media and people online had given her.

Any other night, she likely wouldn’t have gotten involved in a fight where seven or eight costumed people were trying to kill each other. It was out of her league, above her non-existent pay grade and more trouble and danger than she ever expected to find herself in when she first grabbed a store bought fox mask and made the dumbest decision of her life. But Grim had brought this to her attention directly, had asked her if she was going to do anything about it, and as much as she didn’t want to the reason she had made that dumb decision was because she couldn’t just stand by when bad things were happening and she felt like she could do something about it.

So when she found herself at the edge of the fight and she saw Shank rise to his feet and palm a knife while looking at Grim’s back, she made the second dumbest decision of her life.

Kitsune rushed forward and as Shank was pulling his arm back to throw the knife she kicked him in the back and sent him stumbling forward. The knife clattered to the ground as he used his hands to steady himself. He turned, easily spotting her white costume in the dark, and reached into his jacket for another weapon. Kitsune responded, but unlike the last person to try this on her Shank was faster and was able to draw the gun and point it at her before she could reach him. She had expected that though and instead of trying to stop him from drawing she sought to knock the gun away instead and lashed out with an outside crescent kick, her foot sweeping the gun from his hand before he had a chance to realise she was even attacking.

Using his momentary confusion she stepped forward and planted an elbow in his stomach. He double over in pain, but at the same time she saw his over hand reaching for another pocket and backed away just as he swung upwards with a second knife he had pulled from somewhere. A quick movement of his fingers saw the knife flipping around and he brought it back down at the end of his swing almost immediately to try and stab her. Catching the inside of his wrist with her forearm she was able to stop the knife before it and quickly moved to wrap her hand around the wrist before he could pull away or try anything else. He still managed something, letting go of the knife and letting it fall even as his other hand snapped forward to catch it out of the air and drive it into her gut. She saw it in time though and was able to catch the other wrist with her remaining hand as the knife fell to the pavement.

The whole exchange had taken maybe a few seconds at most and left them both tangled up with each other as she tried to hold both of his arms in place even as he struggled to free himself. She watched his legs in case he tried to kick her and watched his hands in case he had any other tricks, but he didn’t seem to have any moves that weren’t knife or gun related and she had deprived him of both of those for now. Having to maintain this position meant she couldn’t do anything either though and judging from the smile on Shank’s face he seemed to realise that too.

“So what now? Do we just hold hands until myyyaaRGH!”

She burned his wrists.

HEROIC

Kitsune

By the time Grim finally got around to telling her the point of this conversation, Kitsune was starting to reconsider whether or not she could get away with punching him.

All of these theatrics might have been cute had she not been bleeding, exhausted and in pain; as it was she was all of those things and her temper was a little but short as a result. She could admit that the sudden shift into seriousness gave his words some weight however, her spine stiffening unconsciously, so maybe there was a purpose to the performance.

“Don’t know for certain if they were all kidnapping attempts, but sure let’s say they’re all connected.” Six was an unusually high number of incidents for her to have to deal with in one night, but not unheard of; particularly on weekends and during certain parts of the year. It was unusual for everyone she ran into be in groups of at least three, carrying so many weapons or for them to put up so much of a fight. She had been growing increasingly certain that something was off as the night went on; a human trafficking ring wasn’t what she expected the answer to be, but it kind of made sense.

Before they could talk on it any longer, they were interrupted by Grim’s phone ringing; a fight, nearby, between powered individuals. Not something she wanted to get involved with if she was being honest, not already hurt as she was, but if it was happening close enough that they could already hear it then it was kind of her responsibility to do something. She would not, however, be accepting Grim’s invitation.

“Lots of dangerous people out tonight; not safe for a girl to be accepting invitations from strangers. Just point me in the right direction.”

HEROIC

Yeah, that sounds fine to me too.

HEROIC

Kitsune

Her first instinct was to punch the figure as it began to rise out of her shadow. It was only caution that held her back, the uncertainty of who or what it was she was dealing with, whether or not it was a threat, but it was a close run thing; if it was a threat, better to be on the offensive than not, but the deciding factor was the fact that though she was confident in her skills Kitsune doubted her ability to beat up a shadow. Better to play it safe for now.

Safe, in this case, meant shifting into a loose fighting stance as the stranger bowed to her, angling her body she had one shoulder and one foot in front of the other; ready to react without looking overly threatening. Bad jokes and an introduction followed, the name Grim being thrown out, but it told her nothing; she had, unfortunately, never paid much attention to the heroes and villains of the city she lived in despite arguably being one herself. It had never seemed important, never expected it to matter in her small corner of the city where she stopped late night robberies; clearly she was mistaken. She had no idea whether the person in front of her was a hero or a villain, a saviour or a psycho.

A shadowy hand rising from the ground beside Grim had her body tensing, fist clenching; even more so when the hand opened to reveal a knife. But it wasn’t being brandished threateningly, it was being presented; the same knife that had cut a line across her ribs a few minutes, still with her blood staining the edge. It gave her pause, even more so at Grim’s next words.

Would the police run a blood test on a knife found at a random crime scene to find out who she was? Even if they did, would that be enough for them to figure out what she was spending her nights doing? She assumed not, someone like her was hardly important enough to warrant the effort, but she couldn’t be sure. Something to keep in mind the next time this happened. The last thing she needed was attention from the police.

Still, as much as she appreciated the advice, if that’s how she chose to take it, she wasn’t going to let this person know that. The mask hid her face and the frown she wore, and when she spoke she tried to keep her voice as unconcerned as possible. “Half the heroes in this city don’t even bother to hide who they are, or work for the police themselves. I’m not worried.”

Her hands unclenched then, body relaxing as she remembered that she was still tensed up for a fight. “Vaguely threatening warnings aside; what do you want?”

HEROIC

Okay, so assuming you're down to clown with this, would you like our characters to meet up beforehand or just end up joining the other two?

@Blazion

Them meeting beforehand works for me. It'll be her first time interacting with another hero.

Also, I guess Kitsune is going to have to join the fight with a hole in her side, since I'd rather that than having her get stitches only to immediately pop them beating up supervillains.

HEROIC

Decided to make a second post so Kitsune could catch wind of the abductions taking place, since everyone else was already on the trail.

Maybe my next post won't involve fighting people.

HEROIC

Kitsune

It was turning out to be a busy night. Kitsune didn’t think anything of it at first, but after taking down her fifth group of thugs for the night, all seemingly stalking or cornering someone alone, she had to concede that it was a little too busy.

When she saw the sixth group trying to drag a homeless man into a van, well that just cemented her concerns in reality didn’t it?

Two men this time, tall, muscled and wearing dark clothing, plus a third in the driver seat. The man they carried between them was struggling mightily, thrashing around in their grip, but that didn’t seem to be slowing them down any as they hauled him off the ground and threw him bodily into the back of the non-descript vehicle. Kitsune took a deep breath and moved towards them, the fresh bruises she had accumulated over the night protesting as she ran. They heard her coming this time and by the time she reached them they had both turned to face her; still didn’t stop her from slamming an elbow into the face of the first man before he could react, but it did mean that when she got to the second he was aware enough to dodge her kick.

Behind her, she could hear the man she had elbowed recovering, the shock of her first hit wearing off, so she pressed a foot into the back of his knee and elbowed him again in the back of the head to finish him off. She did all of this without taking her eyes off of the man in front of her, which was a good thing since it allowed her to dodge the jab he sent her way even as his friend was slumping to the ground behind her. Any further violence was interrupted briefly as the homeless man bolted from the back of the van, running between them as he took the abductors distraction as a chance to escape.

The abductor followed the fleeing man with his eyes, looking like he was going to give chase, before he gave up on the idea and turned back to her instead, bringing his hands up in front of him and shifting a foot forward. He had a little bit of training then; nothing special by the looks of it but he’d at least been inside a boxing gym at some point in his life, which was more than most of the thugs she fought could say. Potentially a problem. Behind her she heard the door of the van open as the driver inside had finally taken notice and decided to join in. Better make this quick then.

A quick step forward was enough to bait out another jab, which she slipped under before rising inside his guard and slamming and elbow into the underside of his chin. They fell back, dazed, and she stepped forward again and feinted a roundhouse to his ribs; he fell for it, bringing his guard down to his side even as her knee twisted, lifting her foot up to hit him in the temple instead. He dropped like a puppet with his strings cut, as much from surprise as the way the hit scrambled his brains, and Kitsune turned to face the last abductor just as he was coming around the corner of the van. She was ready for them as they lunged at her, but she didn’t see the knife in the man’s hand until it glinted under the streetlights and that almost cost her. Grabbing his wrist she diverted the knife away from her, still feeling it graze her side and draw blood even as she spun in close to his body, used her free hand to reach up and grab his collar and dragged him over her shoulder to slam him to the ground.

A harsh twist of his wrist saw him release the knife as he yelped in pain, which she then kicked away so it skittered across the pavement and slid under the van. Hopping over his form, she knelt on his chest and pinned him down so she could ask him a few questions. “Busy night. Stopped a lot of these abductions. What’s going on?”

“Gah, get off me you bi-nnn!”

She twisted his arm another fraction of an inch, cutting him off. Yeah, it was probably hoping for too much to expect him to immediately tell her everything he knew. The problem was, she didn’t really know what to do if he didn’t; she’d never really interrogated anyone before, usually she didn’t say anything to the people she beat up. “Where were you going to take him?”

“None of your business!”

This was the part when the hero was supposed to start roughing up the suspect, she was pretty sure. Beating them up until they started talking, or in her case just turning up the heat until they talked or cooked, but she wasn’t willing to go that far. A couple broken bones and a concussion was about as much as she was willing to dish out in the name of justice and even then only during a fight; torturing someone didn’t sit right with her.

Which meant she wasn’t going to get anything out of this guy.

Her elbow cracked into a person’s skull for the third time in as many minutes, knocking the last abductor out as she let him go and stepped away from him. Letting out a sigh she pulled a burner phone out of her pocket and began to call the police, again, to pick these guys up. Exhaustion began to settle into her body as she walked away, the adrenaline starting to wear off and the night beginning to take its toll on her; time to call it then, time to head home. She pressed a hand to her side, the cut from the knife burning something fierce; a quick glance down showed that the side of her white top had started to turn red as well. It would need stitches, probably.

E.R. first, then home.

HEROIC

Kitsune

The first mugger never saw her coming.

None of them did really, despite that she was running towards them like a streak of white in the night, but it was only the first that she took by surprise with a flying knee between the shoulder blades. He slammed forward from the impact only to immediately bounce back from a second impact with the wall in front of him with a noise than might have been a crunch; he fell back and did nothing to catch himself as he fell to the floor.

The second did see her coming, briefly. He turned away from the young woman that the three of them were cornering in a dark alley, having just enough time to take in what was happening before her foot met the side of his knee and buckled the leg. As he dropped into a crouch, against his will, she caught him in the side of the head with an elbow that saw his eyes cloud over and consciousness leave him.

When she turned to the third, she had his undivided attention.

She’d ask why they thought it took three people to rob a single young woman but, well, the groan of pain from behind her kind of answered that for her. Kitsune spared a glance for the man behind her, who was slowly rising to his feet while clutching at his nose, before giving him a swift kick to the face that dropped him back down. Turning, she rushed the final assailant as he was reaching for something inside of his jacket, hand digging into an interior pocket of his jacket. A gun? A knife? She never found out, grabbing his wrist as the hand began to emerge and burning it.

The mugger let out a screech of pain as the heat began to do its work. It rolled off of her like a furnace, searing the exposed skin of his face and prickling at his body even beneath the layers of clothing he wore. The pain in his wrist would have been worse however, the direct contact with her own scorching skin so much more intense than the rest. He gave up on whatever he had been trying to pull from his jacket, letting it fall back into his pocket as he instead put all of his effort into escape. She held him for only a second before letting go, not wanting to do any permanent damage, and as he stumbled back from the sudden release she landed a high kick to his temple that put him on the ground with his friends.

For a few moments in the aftermath, the only sound was that of her own heavy breathing as the toll of what she had just done hit her. Her breath was uncomfortably warm and humid within the confines of her store bought mask, the same mask that meant she had to turn her entire head to scan the alleyway for more attackers, given the way it blocked her peripheral vision. No more muggers, but she was surprised to see that the woman, the would-be victim, was still there and looking at her with something like awe and fear on her face; most of the time people ran as soon as they had an opening, it was only a few who stuck around to talk to her afterwards. She wished they wouldn’t, but it made things easier in this case.

She pointed at the men on the ground and the woman was startled out of her daze once she realised the heroes attention was now on her. “Call the police and then go home. Avoid shortcuts from now on.”

The woman hastily nodded and was already bringing out her phone as Kitsune turned to leave. She’d wait a while out of sight, just long enough to make sure they really left once the call ended and to catch her breath; she’d move on after that, go back to patrolling around for a few more hours before calling it a night so she would be ready for classes. It was all the time she could afford to spare, though it didn’t feel like enough. It never felt like enough. Not enough time spent, not enough people saved, not enough of a difference made.

She let out a sigh.

Not enough. But it was all she could do.