ic Rough cut diamonds

[Tiffany Korta]

Interrogation Room, NYPD Midtown North Precinct

28^th August 2020, well after Midnight

The young teen thief sat in the room glaring at the mirrored glass, even so she didn’t realize that there was somewhere else in the room until she stepped from the shadows. The older woman walked like a cop even if she reminded Maggie of a Schoolmarm, though she didn’t think the woman would be a pushover in a fight. And she’d fought enough tonight.

 

“So it’s Maggie right? Maggie Què? I’m Ms Summers. How about you tell me what happened tonight?”

 

Maggie sighed she was tempted to keep quiet, but after a few awkward minutes it seemed this Summers woman was just as willful as her mother. So she began to tell the tale of what happened…

 

[Tiffany Korta]

Rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen, several hours earlier

Callie was going to missed this city, having spent much longer here than Freedom City, but she’d promised elder her (for her sanity she always though of her other self as Calliope) to go back to school. But she’d decided to spend one final night enjoying the city in the real Raven suit. She was sure that Calliope was already working on improving the security on the suit for the next time she returned to the city.

 

She didn’t plan to enjoy this night alone, she’d invited someone she enjoyed from the rather eventful party from earlier in the week.

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

"Nice suit! Is that old you's old one?" Charlie came down from above, gliding on his cape before letting go and spinning before landing on the rooftop next to Callie. He was in his full costume, probably one of the first times that Callie had seen him suited up. All black, a full cowl that only left his mouth free. The entire suit was seamless, just one continuous piece of cloth, at least as far as the eye could see. Black cloak with dark blue lining. The black was broken by his silver belt with a stylized N, the silver gauntlets and the shiny teal lines running from his belt and to under his arms, teal soles on his boots and, of course, the shiny teal raven on his chest.

 

"Seriously, looks good on you, but what're you gonna do once we get to Claremont? I kinda doubt she'll let you run around calling yourself Raven there."

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

“Thanks, I know the older me retired a while ago but its a really good fit. Respect to me but she’s been keeping herself in good shape.” she ran her arm don one side to illustrate the point

 

“A few ideas that even I wouldn’t have thought of, though I guess I know about them now. Time travel antics get weird pretty quickly y’know?”

 

She’d already been thinking about what to do about the costume, even before they discussed it she doubted that she’d bee allowed to keep the costume.

 

“I’m getting together a few bits a pieces to make myself a new costume, I’m going to keep the belt though. Got to keep all these wonderful toys though!”

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

"Yeah, before my time. But its cool, old you did a bunch of stuff. Joined the Freedom League and everything."

 

Charlie was moving, not really standing still while Callie spoke. Balancing on one hand for a brief second, he then switched into a flip to land on his feet, quickly crouching. No, he wasn't trying to show off at all. This was the Callie Summers, after all. Showing off would be weird, right?

 

"Ha, tell me about it. I love my gadgets, tons of fun things they can do. Raven insisted I wear this thing. Keeps me safe, got a big cape like his, looks a lot like his old costume when he was Nevermore. I mean, its cool and all, but I didn't really get much choice in the design or anything."

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

“Or will do, or won’t all this time travel gets a little twisty after a while. Once a found the suit I check out what I got up to in the past, or will get to in the present. Even though I probably shouldn’t have done. It all makes me want to lie don just thinking about it!” she made herself go all cross eyed ad grinned, an odd look on the traditionally grim Raven herself.

 

“And you totally make the suit your own, from that research I shouldn’t have done, I know that each Raven and Nevermore puts there own mark on the costume. Beside, and it might I know be second hand respect, but Alek’s a total pussycat about such things.”

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

Nevermore laughed, shaking his head again.

 

"Its a trip, yeah. Takes a bit to wrap your head around, but hey, I figure you're you, right? You do what you do, you being here already changed things, so, why not just go do what you wanna do, right?"

 

Standing up straight, he let the cape fall down over his shoulders, wrapping it around himself. "You really don't know Alek the way I do. Sure, he loves milk and cookies, but you don't even wanna know about the vest. That damn thing's all him. But maybe one day, I'll come up with my own."

 

"So, what do you wanna do? Find some bad guys? Run around the rooftops a bit?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie stood on the edge of the building looking out over the skyline of Manhattan, it had changed a bit since she was young(ish) but it still looked mostly how she remembered. She would miss all this when she went to Freedom City, it was a nice place but it didn’t quite feel the same, this is home. Looking down 47^th she spotted a tall building in the distance and an idea sprung to mind.

 

“Race you to that building over there.” she pointed to one of the smaller skyscrapers a good few blocks away “Last one there can buy lunch!”

 

Not waiting for a reply she launched herself off the building, firing her grapple gun at the last minute to swing to the other side of the street.

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

This might be home for Callie, but not so much for Charlie. She was already moving across the rooftops, swinging like she was home in this city. Which she was, of course.

 

"So that's how it's gonna be, is it?" 

 

No fear, then. Alright, he wasn't about to let Callie beat him that easy. She might be quicker and have a headstart, but... she was using outdated tech. At least compared to his own.

 

Taking a few steps back, Charlie leapt out from the buildings. Grabbing hold of his cape, he stretched it out to the side, activating the signal to stiffen the cape. At just the right angle, he soared past Callie towards the building, a huge grin on his lips. 

 

"C'mon, I thought you wanted to race!"

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie might know this city well, able to cut corners and time swings perfectly to make up precious seconds, but even she couldn’t compete with a parawing. Though she made a good try of it only loosing by a few minutes when by right its should have been much longer.

 

She was about to admit defeat, she was planning to pay anyhow, when a shrill alarm rang out from the street below. They’d come far across the city that they were now near the diamond quarter, just the kind of place where trouble would start.

 

With a grin Callie said nothing, but began to swing down towards where trouble was starting. Now this was a way to spend an evening.

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

Callie was good, but Charlie was going to beat her to it... and honestly, it felt good to be able to show off a little bit. She was going to be the second Raven at some point in her future, and he was winning!

 

The alarm instantly broke him out of those feelings. His GPS told him they were near the Diamond Quarter. Alright, yeah, Charlie could only wonder what was going on here.

 

While Callie swung down, Charlie set into a dive, racing down towards her.

 

"You're the local, any diamond thieves running around you know about?"

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie had spent a lot of time and energy getting to know the various villains of New York, but even if it didn’t have the numbers of Freedom City it was difficult to keep up with all the new villains crawling out of the woodwork almost everyday.

 

“A few but none that would be quite so blatant. I guess we’re going to go take a look right?”

 

Boht knew ever way they were going to take a look either way, Callie picking a location above the area where she could scout the area before determining a plan of attack. After all it might be a false alarm of some type, best not to jump in blind to the situation.

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

Below them was three thieves dressed in dark clothing and hiding there faces under mask, whilst the fourth was dressed in dark but less practical clothing. Her face wasn’t hidden either, though she was faced away from the to heroes.

 

She seemed to be arguing with the other three, they couldn’t make it out over the sound of the blaring alarms. It was hard to tell for sure but they were obviously not expect the alarms, or that they thought that maybe someone was going to deal with the alarms. With there training it was obvious that things were quickly going to devolve into violence.

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

"You really gotta ask?" Charlie asked.

 

Alek was gonna be pissed. He really wasn't supposed to go out on his own like this at all. Only on patrols with Alek, but, technically, he was doing the hero thing with a Raven, right? Even if she wasn't a Raven yet?

 

Anyway, there was no way he wasn't going to show off here. 

 

"Here, watch this."

 

Reaching into his belt, he pulled out a little device. It looked like a little dark raven that fit into the palm of his hand. It quickly hovered, then zipped down below towards the group, quickly starting to transmit everything it saw and heard directly to Charlie's H.U.D., while staying out of sight.

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post
Below the three figures were having a heated argument in whispers about the now blaring alarms. All were dressed in black and there face covered making it difficult, but not impossible to tell who was who.

 

“Why did you get us out of there?” hissed the larger of the three at the shortest of them

 

“Can’t you hear the bloody alarm?” retorted the apparently female

 

“Who’d have thought motion alarms, seeing as I’m all motion.” the skinnier one added with no sound of irony.

 

There was a minute of awkward silence before the female one added.

 

“Look the cops aren’t here yet and no supers have shown up we should split whilst we had the chance.”

 

“No!” said the larger one with a touch of anger “this is our chance to make it big, take us back inside now!”
 

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

"Sounds like a group of wannabes. Three people, arguing about the alarm. Talking about taking them in and out, so they might have a teleporter in the group, that could be trouble."

 

He paused briefly.

 

"One of them wants to go, but the big angry guy wants to go in there again. The usual make it big, yadda yadda yadda speech." 

 

Looking up at Callie, he grinned.

 

"Strike hard from the shadows and fade away sound good to you? Sounds like the small guy is the one that'll get them in and out."

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie had spent a lot of time studying tactics and she’d been looking at the three below, though not with the detail that Nevermore had to hand. She wasn’t sure but they might be more dangerous that they looked, after all who would be stupid enough to try and pull off such a bold heist in the worst possible circumstances? Or she would if she wasn’t ready to tear down towards the trio.

 

“Let’s do this then!” she whispered “Stick to the shadows and lets do this quickly and quietly.”

 

They’d practed together enough that she knew that he’d be more than up to the task. Really she was more worried about letting the both of them down.

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

Shadows it was, then. Small guy was the one that'd get them in and out, so taking him down would be priority, but keeping the big guy from fighting would be good too.

 

Taking aim with his gauntlet, Nevermore fired a line, aimed at the big guy's legs. The snare connected, slipping around and then, Charlie pulled at the big guy, pulling him off his legs and away from the others.

Edited February 24, 2021 by RocketLord

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

Later at the Station

Maggie sat apparently unnerved as the woman read out from the report.

 

“So the two cowls hit you out of no where suddenly, Tough Thug… Tough Thug really?”

 

Maggie shrugged apparently unconcerned with this whole thing “Guys were idiots, hadn’t even bothered to come up with stupid code names yet. Tough went down wrapped in some sort of cable and caught in some kind of cable and stunned at the same time, I guess the other was okay as I did the sensible thing…”

 

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie was pleased with how she’d time her stun grenade to go off at almost the same moment as Charlie caught the big guy. They fought well together and she always looked forward to chances to work with him. Sometime she wondered how she’d feel if there wasn’t the whole time travel / age difference thing going on.

 

There victory was a little undercut when the woman blinked away suddenly with a flash of light, she frowned at how wrong they’d called the situation. Still there was still the two left here to sort out first, then they’d worry about the fleeing teleporter.

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

The fast thug was torn for a few moments as what to do, literally vibrating between also running away and attacking the cowls. The moments hesitation was probably enough because when he finally decided to stay and fight, zipping up the line to try and find Nevermore, his flurry of punched weren’t particularly well thrown, even without the darkness that was home of any well prepared cowl.

 

It was probably at this point he realised right now that he was fighting on his own, but for now it was far to late to flee to safety.

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

One guy bound and knocked for a loop and... Wow, this other guy came running straight at him. No fear at all. That was cool, he could work with that. 

 

"I guess you're not the brains here?"

 

Letting himself drop, Charlie caught on to the line to make it swing, spinning around it with one hand while he reached for his staff in the utility belt with the other to disturb him a bit more. Letting go again, Charlie pushed against a wall and swung the unfolding staff at the guy's side.

[Tiffany Korta]

Madame Raven

Callie kept her moving as she’d been trained, noting with some pride how Charlie took down the larger thug and almost took down the faster of the two. It didn’t quite work but it gave Callie an opening, striking from the shadows she managed to give the still distracted foe and quick but effective chop to the side of the head.

 

It was powerful but she’d learned how to strike pressure point to stun her foe and she caught the faster thug in a particular nerve cluster that caused the man to collapse to the floor.

 

“Hmm, guess they are better in Freedom City! Should we ask them where there companion went?”

[RocketLord]

Nevermore II

 

"Or maybe we're just that good," Charlie added with a grin, while he got out a snareline and threw it towards the fast thug, watching it quickly expand around him.

 

Leaning over his staff, shortened to a more comfortable length for doing just that, he looked down at the pair of thugs. 

 

"So, where'd your friend go? We'll find her either way, might as well make it easier on yourselves, right?"

[Tiffany Korta]

GM Post

The villain looked up at the pair of cowls and had a moment of resistance spitting as he declared.

 

“Children I’ve been taking down by mere children?” he left out the point that he himself was barely in his twenties.

 

His bluster quickly evaporated as he looked at the stern looks of the pair, he probably would have put his hand up if they weren’t bound.

 

“Okay, okay, if things went south we arranged to meet in a small lock-up down by the Hudson. I’m guessing Magpie would have gone there to see if either of us got away.”

 

In answer to his statements police sirens could be heard getting close, finally responding the diamond exchanges alarms.