ic Busy Little Fingers

[RocketLord]

Self defense? Alright, that's one thing. While she hoped to solve all this peacefully, Robin was well aware that you'd end up in fights when you were in this line of work. She wouldn't have built the Justice Buster if she didn't. But... and this was a big but... it didn't really sound like the Gas Man was going to settle for just self defense. And knee capping someone or dropping grenades down their backside did not sound like just self defense at all.

 

"That's nothing like poetic justice!" Robin protested. She was kind of happy that her mask concealed her face entirely, as she eyed the Gas Man's gun. "That's just excessive force. These guys just sound like thieves. Its not like they're super villains or terrorists or anything like that. If you were gonna hit them with poetic justice, then you'd be stealing things from them or something like that!" She was starting to get a bit worked up. Her first team up, and the guy turned out to be like this. Sure, you might hurt someone when fighting, but the Gas Man's plans sounded like, well, plans. Maybe she could salvage it, at least. "Alright, alright. I got an idea: If you don't use excessive force, like permanently crippling someone, then we can team up, and you can have the full bounty. How's that sound?" She didn't want to fight another super hero! Not for her first team up! That sounded way too much like a Silver Age comic!

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Hmmm....well it sounds light poetic justice to me" replied the Gas Man, although he did not disagree with Justice. 

 

"We'll see how it goes..." he said, non-commitally, and slung his gun over his shoulder. "I gotta get paid, and I gotta keep my reputation. Sounds like Finnigan needs his ass kicked. If you help me kick it, I ain't got no objections"

 

He flipped down the IR goggles and looked forward down the tunnel. 

 

"So you know where he is? I don't want to ruin my boots treading through a sewer all day. And I certainly don't want to be crawling through it...."

[RocketLord]

Robin frowned under her mask. He didn't exactly agree to her terms, but he didn't exactly disagree either. At least he seemed to want to work together with her for now. So, maybe it would be better to stick with him. At least she could try to stop him if he were about to go too far. So, that would probably be for the best. "I can agree on kicking his ass, if necessary. If we can get him and his crew to surrender, then no ass kicking."

 

So, this was good, right? She could keep this guy from seriously hurting someone without reason, and catch the bad guys, and hopefully gets everyone's stuff back. So yep, it had to be good. Robin really wasn't as sure about this as she tried to make it sound to herself.

 

"Right! These two," she gestured to the two thieves in front of her with her left hand, while keeping the Justice Buster aimed at the ground, "they're leading me there. Right, girls?" 

[Supercape]

GM

 

Right!

 

The two pick pockets were glum. Caught Red handed and now also caught betwixt Justice and Vengeance (how often those two danced together!). 

 

They did, as it so happened, have to trudge through some sewers, but not for long. The light was still dim, and hard to see through, but between the two thieves familiarity with the area, and the Gas Man's night vision goggles, 'twas no so hard to navigate. 

 

Soon, a half dozen other thieves, all in their teens (although some were so shabby it was hard to know their age) were scuttling around them, whispering, and trying not to get shot. 

 

"Finnigan! Finnigan!" hissed the orange haired theif into the broken area they had arrived in. It was so crumbling that it was hard to tell if it was an old sewer, and old cellar, or an old building. Fortunately, this area had more cracks of light from above, and whilst it was still dim, one could at least half-see. 

 

In the shadows, a terribly thin, rather tall, bald man with sharp pointed features and black eyes emerged, dressed in antique dusty clothes which had been patched together into a rather eccentric style of yesteryear. 

 

"Yes....my fingers...." he said, rasping voice, slow of pace. He moved slowly but quietly, and his voice was not loud. His eyes looked carefully over the Gas Man and Justice. 

 

"Get yourself caught, did you?" he asked, sternly. 

[RocketLord]

It wasn't the best trip that Robin had taken in her lie, but it kind of made her wonder how difficult it would be to install some air filters or something in the helmet. Things that could keep bad smell and gas out of the mask. Just, y'know, making a trek through a bunch of sewers a bit more comfortable? Or if facing someone that throw a gas bomb or something at her. That's a thing that happens, right? Villains using gas? She eyed the Gas Man as she had that thought, but felt no reason to mention anything. She stayed mostly silent during the trip, only asking a bit about directions when going one way or the other. She was already kind of shiny, no reason to give their position away completely, right?

 

Soon, they were just about surrounded. A half dozen teens surrounded them, and they didn't look like they were doing great, judging by their clothes. Robin instinctively wanted to help them. Get them out of here, get them some help. Food, a bath, some clothes. They looked like they needed it. Before she could try and ask the teens anything, Orange called out for Finnigan. Alright, fair enough. She did ask the girls to take her to him.

 

The man that emerged looked weird. He looked so thin, beyond what would be considered healthy. His clothes were so old, and seemed to be patch together from so many different sets. Not exactly the height of fashion. His voice was creepy, and Robin could feel a chill running down her spine. Calling the thieves his fingers were just as creepy. Robin stepped forward as he talked to the two thieves. Holding the Justice Buster in her right hand, still pointed at the floor, she pointed at him with the index finger on her left hand. Time to put on a show. "That's what you get when you mess with Justice! So, give it up already and give back everything you guys stole while you turn yourselves in!" She sounded confident, her voice was loud, almost a yell, but to tell the truth, she was really creeped out by that Finnigan guy.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Dear dear" said Finnigan, softly. He moved slowly, almost as if he was in pain. And as he shuffled forward, Justice could smell something rotten about him. Literally. 

 

"Woah there....you smell like a latrine!" spluttered the Gas Man. He held his nose with one hand and unslung his SMG with the other. 

 

"I have...a condition" mumbled Finnigan, his voice so soft it was almost hypnotic. "...I steal only to feed myself and my fingers. Outcasts, forgotten, unwanted. Society has spurned them and me both, and we have to survive. What is Justice?" he asked Justice. "Do you serve the laws of man, the cruel fixtures of society? or do you serve a more moral cause?"

 

"Yeah yeah, blah blah...whatever man. I just want to get paid. Which means bruising my knuckles on your face and polishing my boots on your kidneys" said the Gas Man, recovering. His morals certain, he started reaching for one of his grenades attached to the bandolier around his chest....

 

 

[RocketLord]

"Hey! At least try to act nice! There's no reason for a fight if we can talk this out." Robin shot at the Gas Man, raising a hand to try and stop him from taking the grenade. Alright, Finnigan smelled bad. Like, really, really bad, but still, no reason to go and insult someone. Especially if they had a condition or something like that. And Gas Man seemed really intent on actually getting a fight going here, which was really not the thing a hero should do. 

 

So, she stepped in between the Gas Man and Finnigan, before things could escalate. "Sorry, but stealing's still wrong. Things are really not as simple as being lawful versus being good." She'd played a Paladin in enough roleplaying games to have had that discussion before. "I mean, look around," she made a grand gesture with the hand that didn't hold the gun, spinning around to point out all the teens around them. "No offense, but you guys are all just kids. There's no way that society's spurned you. There's social services and everything, homeless shelters, soup kitchens. I mean, it might not be the best life, but its better than stealing to survive. Besides, if you stole to survive you'd take things like food and such. Not jewelry and people's belongings." 

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Oh I don't mean eat. I don't even survive. I mean LIVE!" groaned Finnigan, looking weakly and venemously at Justice. "Society didn't do anything but crush bones and soul under the boot. Soup Kitchens? Homeless shelters? You call that living? Pfah, we live better this way, and have do not have to stoop and grovel, we don't have to answer to anyone but ourselves!"

 

"Right on!" came a few voices from the darkness. 

 

"Yada yada yada. Bleeding heart. Woe is me. Oh, I'm crying already...." mocked the Gas Man. 

 

A gas grenade fell from his hands. 

 

"Oooops. Butterfingers! I guess there will be plenty of tears now!" he laughed. 

 

Indeed there would be. He had dropped a tear gas grenade....

[RocketLord]

"Oh come on!" They had barely even made contact with Finnigan and his gang, and the Gas Man had already done just what she had hoped he wouldn't do: Escalating the situation without even needing to. They were just talking. No reason to get into a fight already! It was almost like the grenade moved in slow motion as he dropped it to the ground. The smoke rose from it, and even as she dodged to the side to get away from it, Robin was caught in the gas. Her eyes started watering, but she was somehow able to keep her lunch down. 

 

Still, she was blind. She couldn't just start shooting randomly. Robin grabbed the Justice Buster with both hands and pointed it around, listening for anything that might identify the Gas Man, or someone trying to attack her, as she furiously tried to blink the tears out of her eyes. It hurt like hell. She really had to install some air filters or something in the mask.

 

"I'm not with that guy! Can't we just talk this out?"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Bah! Talking never solved anything" grunted the Gas Man. "Certainly never helped when a man just doing his job accidentally dropped a tear gas grenade...." he added, with emphasis. 

 

Finnigan, for some reason, seemed quite unaffected by the tear gas. Still, worldlessly, he decided that this was not a fight he wished to engage in. He stumbled around, and started shuffling off through the cracks and debris of the ruined building. 

 

"Hmmm that usually works. I mean...that accident usually works" he muttered. "Still, looks like you are a skinny little thing, Finnigan. Gonna be a pleasure bustin you up. I mean, restraining you peacefully using minimum force"

 

With that matter cleared up, the Gas Man started after Finnigan. He was much faster, much fitter than Finnigan (who looked like he was a very old man by the way he moved) and had caught up in no time....

[RocketLord]

Robin's eyes hurt. She hadn't tried anything like this before, just this constant burning feeling, but even then, her vision started to clear. She could make out some of the Gas Man's muttering at Finnigan, and she at least knew it was enough that she had to do something about it. The second her vision started to clear, she set off after the Gas Man. Sure, all the thieves might get on her case, and Finnigan didn't exactly sound like a good guy, but she wasn't about to let the Gas Man try to brutalize him. Like, just look at them and all the gear that the Gas Man was packing.

 

Even then, she couldn't help herself. It felt wrong to shoot someone in the back. "Stop!" One warning, then she took the shot, the Justice Buster held with both hands. The gun itself was a bit oversized. It was custom made and designed, her special weapon. No bullets, just a shot of pure kinetic force sent straight for the Gas Man.

[Supercape]

GM

 

Right in the back! Zam!

 

The impact sent the Gas Man flying into one of the walls of the building, where he hit the masonry in a respectable cloud of dust. A few bricks fell. He slumped to his side. 

 

"Uhhhh..." he grunted. It was impressive he was still conscious, and no doubt his body armour had absorbed a fair part of the force of the blast. "You....you....damn Judas...." he mumbled at Justice as he tried to catch his breath. 

 

"Well done! You saved me! You saved us all!" croaked Finnigan, bowing deeply to Justice and doffing an imaginary hat. "Saved us from vagabond and vigilante both! How can I ever thank you?"

[RocketLord]

"Right, I'm the Judas here." Robin kept the Justice Buster aimed at him. She rolled her eyes behind her helmet, not that the Gas Man could see it. "You dropped a freaking tear gas grenade on everyone! How's that not excessive force?" She resisted the urge to give him a quick kick while moving near him. She was a hero, she wasn't supposed to do things like that. She remained standing near the Gas Man, opposite of Finnigan so she could try and keep eye on them both. At least her eyes was starting to feel better, even if they still itched. 

 

The bow was a bit weird. Like, why did he need to do that? "Wait, what vagabond? And this doesn't mean that you're not still in trouble, Mr. Finnigan! You and your gang still stole all those things from people. You gotta return everything. I get that you don't want to just survive and gotta live, but c'mon, you hurt a lot of people that wouldn't do anything to you." She paused. "I mean, I don't think stealing's easy or anything, not that I would know, but you can't just go around hurting other people like that. How about finding some actual jobs or something like that? There gotta be something you guys can do."

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Puh-please!" croaked Finnigan, dropping to his knees and shuffling forward. He actually crawled towards Justice. "I am crippled! weak! I cannot survive in Prison. My talents are few, and all I wish to is to carve a little happiness for me and my fingers!"

 

"Yuh damn waste of space" grunted the Gas Man to Finnigan. He tried to get up, slumped a little, then staggered to his feet, almost bent over, his breathing laboured and his brow sweating. 

 

"We got him, didn't we?" said the Gas Man to Justice, now. "Quite complaining. Just kick him in the teeth and finish it" he said, firmly. "Do that, and I can forget you just shot me in the damn back...Jesus, you do whine on. We got the job done, didn't we? Justice is served...."

[RocketLord]

Alright, that was freaky. Robin did not like Finnigan crawling like that. On one hand, it was just creepy. On the other, he was pushing it just a bit too much. If he was crippled, then how could he even crawl like that? She was about to reply when the Gas Man weighed in on the subject. Alright, sure. They got him. But what was that the right thing to do here? Finnigan and his gang had stolen all those things, but the Gas Man wasn't exactly a shining paragon of justice, here.

 

"You be quiet." She motioned with the Justice Buster to the Gas Man. He had to have some respect for her gun now, and she knew better than to not watch him. Still, she kept some distance to Finnigan too. They both seemed tricky. "Everything's not as simple as that. Do as you're told, then its done. But you guys did steal a ton of stuff. There's living comfortably and then there's just wanting the easy path. You gotta give everything back. You can't just go around stealing from others. You did a bad thing, and you got caught. Whatever the reason, you gotta face justice." She didn't even intend to do that pun.

[Supercape]

GM

 

The Gas Man grunted himself back to standing. "What? He just returns what he stole and you let him go. You call that justice?" he snarled, angry and contemptuous. 

 

Finnigan, for his part, gave the Gas Man and Justice a long hard study. 

 

"Of course....of course...." he muttered. "Everything we stole....we will give to you! Just don't throw us in prison!" he pleaded, clasping his hands, kneeling, thanking Justice as if she was some merciful diety. 

 

"Fingers...my fingers! Quick now, gather our ill-gotten gains!"

 

There was muttering and disquiet from the shadows. The fingers were not happy about being gassed, and not happy about returning the goods. 

 

"Finnigan! we can't just.." started the orange haired punk. 

 

"Do as I say!" interrupted Finnigan, a glare from his eyes. "Finnigan always looks after his fingers, does he not? Just trust in Finnigan, for he surely knows what is best!"

 

The Gas Man gave another long look at Justice. "Seriously? You gonna let him walk?"

[RocketLord]

"Well, that went over better than I expected." Robin muttered to herself. She honestly hadn't expected Finnigan to accept this at all. Maybe there would have been another fight, but really, she would much rather prefer that didn't happen. 

 

Still, the Gas Man was right, much as she hated to admit it. Returning everything was the first step, but as she said, they had to face justice. If she just let them walk, they would probably start another wave of pick pocketing as soon as they thought she couldn't find them again. And Finnigan still just rubbed her the wrong way. The way he spoke to the kids, calling them his fingers, that was just wrong. "Sorry, Finnigan, but even if you return everything, I can't just let you go. Its a great first step, really, and I know it'll look great for the cops, but, I gotta turn you in. If you'd just stolen food or something, then maybe I could look the other way, but you went for valuables. But hey, just look at a headline like this: Thieves have a change of heart! Stolen goods returned, amends made! Everyone will love that!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

Finnigans face grew stony and defiant.

 

"Never!" he said, his voice now firmer, louder.

 

"Told ya so" said the Gas Man, feeling smug despite his pain. 

 

Finnigan ignored the Gas Man and stood up straight, tall, thin. "I was once a man of sunlight, I played by the rules, worked hard, got fair wages. Then, I got sick. Nobody could cure me, and I ran out of money trying to find some miracle cure..."

 

He face grew lined. 

 

"I was nearly dead when I found a so-called cure...."

 

Then, his face was gone. His flesh and clothes too. In it's place stood a half-dead, rotten man who was just skin and bones. If he had not moved, one might think he was a corpse. He certainly looked more like a zombie than a man. 

 

"Behold!"

 

"Sheesh...I wasn't expecting that...." admitted the Gas Man. 

 

"Black magic. Sorcery. A Hex, a Curse. But at least I am alive! A man of the shadows, now! and I will survive! We are survivors, me and my fingers!"

 

And with that, a cloud of horrible fumes flew from his body!

[RocketLord]

"GAH!" Robin quickly backed away, out of Finnigan's reach the moment he changed. This was just like in her Tokusatsu shows when a bad guy that masqueraded as a human threw away the disguise, and it still caught her completely off guard. The stench that spread from him was bad, but nothing she couldn't handle, at least. At least the Gas Man was caught off guard too.

 

Switching her stance, she held the Justice Buster up, aiming it directly at Finnigan. He wasn't gonna survive prison? He didn't look like he was even alive. He looked like a zombie, for crying out loud. And Robin hated zombie movies! "Is that what you call surviving? You're a freaking zombie! Is that what you're gonna do to all the kids here, turn them into zombies just like you?" She hoped the kids would hear her, and hopefully his reply. Anything to get them out of here, maybe turn on Finnigan a bit.

 

Then she pulled the trigger. Was excessive force even a thing when you fought against a zombie?

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Im...not a zombie...not yet!" retorted Finnigan. "And I don't want to be like this. Nor would I inflict this on anyone!" he pleaded. 

 

The Justice blaster was true, in fact, Finnigan was slow. Canny, cunning, and defiant - but slow all the same. He shuffled rather than ran, and he was not a hard target. The blast knocked him off his feet, ten feet clean, and he crunched into some more masonry. 

 

The Gas Man gritted his teeth and pulled out a grenade from his bandolier. 

 

"You are all crazy!" he muttered. 

 

There was an ominous creaking, grinding sound. 

 

The building was a ruin, and the Justice Blaster had slammed both Finnigan and the Gas Man against the remnants of the wall. 

 

A few bricks fell from above, along with an alarming amount of dust. 

 

"That ain't good...." muttered the Gas Man, looking up. 

[RocketLord]

Boom, right into the wall he went. The gagging feeling was starting to disappear, so that was nice, at least. The entire building starting creaking and grinding, like it was about to come down. They really shouldn't stay here. And if Finnigan wasn't a zombie yet, then they couldn't just leave him behind, right? And the Gas Man had another grenade in his hand. This was really not the time for using grenades of any kind!

 

"And a grenade is not going to make it better!" she shouted at the Gas Man, in response to his statement. Hopefully he would realize that and put it away. "You!" she pointed at Finnigan with an accusing finger. "You behave and stop fighting, right now! And you!" Robin spun her accusing finger right at the Gas Man. "If this guy and the kids get trapped in here with everything falling down, you're not gonna get any bounty, right? So, help me get everyone out! None of us are gonna get out of here if we don't stop fighting!" Another shake, and the entire place might come down. It might even be starting to fall apart already.

[Supercape]

GM

 

"Collateral damage" sniffed the Gas Man, although he was looking upwards and the creaking masonry. And not looking upwards confidentally, either. 

 

"Fingers! Fingers! Flee!" shouted Finnigan - and the kids needed no encouragement, for they were scuttling away as he spoke. 

 

He turned back to Justice and pointed a bony, almost petrified finger. 

 

"See what your violence has begat?" he commanded, angry and judgemental. "Only more violence. You may say what you like about me, but I never hefted blade nor bow towards anyone!"

 

"Then you are a fool. Nobody goes to a fight unarmed" muttered the Gas Man, still holding his grenade. He brushed away some dust that fell onto his shoulder. 

 

"Now...time for me to go!" said Finnigan, boldly. "Don't try to follow, or I will bring the whole house down! Ha ha ha ha!" he chuckled, before shuffling off towards one of the shadowed cracks in the wall. A tough squeeze for anybody, but Finnigan, being so deathly, impossibly, thin would fit quite fine...

[RocketLord]

"But... hey!" The kids were getting out of there, on Finnigan's command. That was good at least. But everything was still about to come tumbling down, and Finnigan was sneaking into the cracks and the Gas Man was still being annoying and to be quite honest, Robin was thinking she might be out of her depth here. She took a second and calmed herself. The most important thing was getting everyone out, right? Make sure no one got hurt? This would all have been so simple without the Gas Man showing up. She glared at him behind the mask. Shooting him and Finnigan might not have been the smartest choice she could have made, but he hadn't helped.

 

"You're the one that made this into a fight! Just... Just go and get the kids out or something! Do you want to be the guy that let a building fall on these kids?" He'd wanted to stay out of jail from what he said. Maybe she could appeal to that? 

 

For her own side of things, Robin went for a dash after Finnigan. The crack in the wall was slim, but she might be able to make it. She made a few calculations. Where to push, where not to, then followed. And oh god it was tight in all the wrong ways, but she managed it, and sort of kept up. "Stop! You gotta get out of here! You'll be killed or trapped if this collapses!" She was starting to get a bit desperate here. Getting everything stolen back would be great, but it was more important to make sure that nobody died, right? "I didn't want to start a fight here, but you and the Gas Man didn't really give me much of a choice! C'mon!"

[Supercape]

GM

 

"I didn't go round firing a blast pistol at a condemned building with kids in it" replied the Gas Man. "It ain't me whose going to jail!"

 

He dodged a falling brick. 

 

"On the other hand, I'm not going to the morgue, either...." he added, more slowly, shuffling his feet. 

 

Finnigan was on his knees, weak. There was no muscle to speak of on his wasted, leathery limbs...he was only walking because he was so light. "Frankly, I don't even know if I can die...." he croaked, not moving. "It would be a relief, in some ways...to sleep...."

 

"Ooops, butterfingers!" came a call from behind them. The Gas Man was calling. 

 

Clink...clink clink....

 

"You might just get some sleep after all...." said the Gas Man, as the grenade he had lobbed through the crack started pouring fourth a gas which was a rather nice shade of pink. 

 

For all his bravado, the Gas Man did not seem to be inclined to stick around any further, and - careful not to make too sudden a move - quickly scuttled out of the building, towards the tunnel they had came in from...

[RocketLord]

Alright, Robin was really starting to hate the Gas Man. Butterfingers, again. Right. She didn't have long with the pink gas filling the room they had moved into, and she had no idea what it could do in the first place. Sounded like some kind of sleeping gas from what he said. Really not what he needed right now. And he could be lying. He was kind of right about her firing the Justice Buster in here, but to be fair, she had managed to hit her target with every single shot. She needed to get some other weapon too. Somethin

 

She looked down at Finnigan. The Gas Man was out of their reach, and going in here to save Finnigan might have been the right thing to do, but it still hadn't been smart. So, what should she do? Try and brave the gas, hope she could fight it, or find some other solution? It wasn't like they would have long, even as she started to back away from it. 

 

"How about we don't find out about whether you can die or not and just try to find our way out of here? Gotta be someone that can help you get back to normal, right? I promise I'll help, but how about we help each other first?" She offered a hand to help Finnigan get to his feet. "How long do you think it'll take for the kids to get out of here?" She tried to look around. Any way out. Maybe up, or another crack or a room they could squeeze through.