ic Breaking the Bastion

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

Oh, yeah. Of course he wouldn't stay. No, no, that would just make things too easy if the bad guy's accomplice would just stay still... and he ran right through Casper, looking so confused.

 

Honestly, why didn't they ever see that coming?

 

"And how about you don't do that?"

 

Ghost's arm shot out behind him, lightly touching the man... and then he found himself a few inches shorter, his shoes stuck in the floor.

[Spacefurry]

Even as Freestyle wriggled in her grasp, Chimera maintained a firm grip on her front of the villain's costume. With no effort the heroine lifted Freestyle up off her feet stepped forward and slammed the thief down onto the desk. She wasn't trying to hurt hurt the woman, just knock the wind out of her.

"Where's the thumb drive?"

Chimera demanded from behind her half-mask, her brows furrowed and eyes hard with anger.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The man almost fell over, face first into the floor, but being unable to move his legs stopped him. "Let me go! You got no right to do this!"

 

"Sure, that'll work!" Freestyle spat back, then twisted herself out of Chimera's grip and rolling back, out of reach. "How about a please? Maybe a little thank you, or a gift basket?"

 

Her hands quickly moved across her body, patting down several points, including several of the disks that she had used as weapons.

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

Ghost shook his head ever so slightly when Freestyle pulled back, then crossed his arms while he stood next to the man.

 

"Sure, sure. Nobody's doing anything wrong here, buddy. You're all innocent, it's all a setup. Heard it all before. So how about just sharing where that drive is, and we'll get outta here?"

[Spacefurry]

Chimera tried to hold on to Freestyle, but the woman managed to slip out from her grasp. She glared at the speedy thief, anger welling up again. Then a moment of clarity hit her and the anger started to fade. That wasn't her.

She wasn't sure where all the anger had come from  but she had seemed to have snapped out of it. Her shoulders relaxed and her posture straightened as she regarded Freestyle. Maybe a different approach might work better.

"It's two to one." Chimera said calmly. "You're not getting paid for this now."

She motioned at the captive man. "I'll ask once, will you come quietly?"

The silvery-grey tendrils along her body began to pulse and move. From her back several more tendrils began to grow and stretch out like spider legs.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"I'm not going to tell you anything."

 

The man wasn't budging, despite being stuck.

 

For her part, Freestyle stopped struggling, her hands instead darting to her belt, then quickly planted one of her disks on Chimera's side. "You're in way over your head. How about going back and learning how to do this?" She slipped to the side, out of the way and threw a disk towards Chimera that went wide, sticking to a nearby wall instead.

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

"Yeah. Didn't think that'd work. Anyway, 'scue me for a sec."

 

Ghost drifted forward, flying through the room and towards Chimera. He moved in between the two, a grin behind his mask. "So, Freestyle, huh? Don't think we've met. I'm Ghost."

[Spacefurry]

Both women were fast, Chimera knew this. While she wasn't sure which of them would pull ahead on the flat ground of a track, she only needed to worry about the ten or so feet between them now. Freetsyle's disc had missed her in the thief's struggle to get free and Chimera was watching her cautiously. She could almost feel the agitation from the symbiote. It wasn't something she had even felt before and it was going to take some time to investigate, but that was tomorrow Jennifer's worry not now Chimera's.

 

This standoff couldn't last forever and Chimera just needed to find an opening.

And Ghost provided it.

 

The other hero effortlessly drifted between the girls, breaking their eye contact and drawing the other's attention for just a moment. A moment Chimera wasn't going to waste. In a bust of superhuman speed launched herself forward... "God, I hope I'm not wrong about this." She thought even though she was already in motion. She passed through Ghost like he was his namesake, her fist already swinging, driving her fist firmly into Freestlye's stomach.

 

A chill clung to her skin but she wasn't sure if it was the sweat and adrenaline, or from passing through Ghost. Or maybe the office's AC was just set low. Either way goosebumps sent a chill over her exposed flesh.

Edited September 30, 2021 by Spacefurry

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"Leave her alone! What kind of heroes are you, going two against one!?" the man was shouting, sounding anything but happy about what was going on.

 

For her part, Freestyle was caught completely off guard by Chimera's feint, left gasping for air after the hit.

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

"Huh."

 

Casper was used to going through people, but it wasn't often that people went through him. Still, good move. 

 

"Good one," he quipped back, before floating forward, towards Freestyle.

 

He reached out with his right hand, grabbing Freestyle's shoulder, then pushed her down, just enough to get her wheels stuck in the floor.

 

"Guess she doesn't want to fight anymore. Got something in her wheels."

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Watching as Ghost trapped Freestyle’s skate-boots in the floor Chimera ignored the businessman and flushed a little, embarrassed at the older hero’s kind praise and chuckled behind her mask.

“That’s a neat trick. Wish I could do something like that.”

She joked, well half-joked.

 

Still recovering from her last punch the thief was catching her breath. Chimera knew when she did she’d try to break free and make a run for it, but she couldn’t allow that.

She hated to do it but knew she didn’t have a choice. So, taking a deep breath, Chimera stepped up and gave Freestyle a right hook that would have made her parents frown at such an act. She felt a little guilty taking such a cheap shot, but after all the trouble she hated to admit it felt a little satisfying.

Stepping back again she glanced over at the trapped man and considered doing the same to shut him up too, but decided it probably wasn’t worth it. Turning to Ghost instead, her arms fell to her sides, not sure what to do with them.

“I guess we should call the police now.”

Edited October 8, 2021 by Spacefurry

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"No, wait! Do-!" Freestyle begged and tried to hold up her hands to defend herself before crumpling over, falling against the wall, her feet still stuck in the ground.

 

The man looked between them with wild eyes.

 

"This-this is assault! Breaking into a legitimate business, assaulting me and my guests! I got everything on camera! Do-do you understand this? Do you!?" 

 

He didn't sound quite as confident as he tried to.

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

Ghost winced at the hit, then slowly took a step back, turning towards the man. He let his hands fall to the side for a moment, before he started to move through the room, looking at nothing in particular, it seemed.

 

"Guy's got a point, y'know. Gonna need some evidence if you wanna call the cops. Sure, Freestyle's in here, but we did just kinda break in here. They'll be walking in a second if you just leave them with a note, y'know."

 

He reached up to adjust his goggles slightly, though making no motion to tell Chimera what he was seeing.

 

"So, what ya got? Lay the cards on the table. What kinda evidence, what kinda hunches?"

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Chimera balked a little at Ghost’s question. She hadn’t even thought about proof of crimes. She did her best to hide it by trying to look thoughtful.

She doubted Freestyle had already handed over the data. But now, she was afraid she may have hidden the drive somewhere else. If it wasn’t on her all this would have been for naught.

Oh god, was she going to be sick? Had she really messed up this badly on her first real supervillain outing? No, no, she had to stay calm and not let herself freak out. At least not until she got home later, but definitely not in front of another hero.

Swallowing back her worries, she stepped up to Freestyle again and started checking her pockets/pouches in search of the thumb-drive.

“Please let it be here.”

She prayed under her breath, but Ghost was probably close enough to hear.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

"You, you can't do that!" the man shouted, struggling to move away from where he was being held. "You've already assaulted her, now you're trying to steal from her? What kind of heroes are you supposed to be?" 

 

It didn't exactly take long to search Freestyle. She didn't exactly have a lot of pockets, but she did have a hidden compartment in a bracelet on her left wrist, which just happened to hold a small USB key.

 

"That's ours! Company secrets! Propitary technology! You can't touch that!"

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

Casper held a finger up to silence the man.

 

"Hush now, let her work. Gotta give the new kids a chance to learn the ropes. And you guys are perfect for that."

 

Turning back to Chimera, he continued.

 

"So, if you find anything, you better make sure you got the thing that you need, y'know. Can't just hope for it without checking it, right?"

[Spacefurry]

Chimera 

 

Chimera had started to worry as she came up empty handed at first. When she stumbled upon the hidden compartment she nearly jumped for joy as the thumbdrive tumbled into her palm. She managed to contain her enthusiasm and turned to look at Ghost.

 

On 10/20/2021 at 2:43 PM, RocketLord said:

GHOST 

 

"So, if you find anything, you better make sure you got the thing that you need, y'know. Can't just hope for it without checking it, right?"

 

She nodded in agreement and moved to the computer on the desk. Pulling up the chair she wiggle the mouse and stared at the login screen.

“Hm.”

She made an indifferent noise as she attacked the computer with far more confidence then she showed earlier. It didn’t take Chimera long to bypass the password login and gain access to the desktop. Plugging the thumbdrive into the computer and opened it, looking for the familiar files.

[RocketLord]

GM

 

The man looked at Ghost like he wanted to strangle him, but he stayed silent.

 

"That's our com-" 

 

He stopped before Ghost had a chance to silence him this time.

 

With the thumb drive plugged in, it wasn't exactly difficult to navigate the folders. After a short time searching, she found files that seemed to relate to movement and specifications for advanced prosthetics.

 

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

Casper just glared at the man, then floated across the floor to Chimera.

 

"Alright, grabbing their own computer? Bold move."

 

He paused briefly, looking over his shoulder at the man when he started to speak up. When he stopped talking, Casper returned to Chimera. 

 

"Anything good on there?"

[Spacefurry]

On 10/30/2021 at 4:41 PM, RocketLord said:

GHOST 

 

"Alright, grabbing their own computer? Bold move."

“I didn’t a laptop with me, did you?”

Chimera smirked or at Ghost, seeming to actually relax for a moment. A moment later she seemed to realize she who she was talking to and looked away in embarrassment.

”Sorry.”

She apologized as she searched through the files. 
 

On 10/30/2021 at 4:41 PM, RocketLord said:

GHOST 

 

"Anything good on there?"

“Hmm.”

Chimera’s eyes darted down file lists as Ghost watched.

”A-ha.”

She elated as she clicked on the familiar file name andr complex may mathematical and engineering data filled the screen.

”Those are the files that were stolen earlier today.”

Closing the files and properly ejecting the drive, she stood and faced Ghost.

”I suppose we call the police now.”

Edited November 2, 2021 by Spacefurry

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

Casper shrugged at the comment about bringing a computer. Sure, he was good enough at computers, but he wasn't some kind of computer genius or anything like that. Besides...

 

"Don't worry about it. Got no pockets for that, anyway."

 

He whistled, as Chimera pointed out the files.

 

"Yeah, that sounds about right." With a grin behind his mask, he looked over at the man, then back at Chimera. "Nice work."

[RocketLord]

GM

 

Once Chimera called the police, it wouldn't take too long for them to arrive. Ghost had put in a word, asking for detective DeMatteis, who luckily believed them. He made some grudging remarks to Ghost about him owing him for this, but he accepted the testimonies and the evidence.

 

It took a while, but with the evidence handed over and both Freestyle and her employer being taken away, Chimera and Ghost were left to their own devices, with Ghost having led them back to the roof.

[Spacefurry]

Chimera

 

Chimera did her best to present a confident face as the police arrived and questioned them. She recounted her encounter with Freestyle at the campus and told them that a ‘reliable’ source pointed her towards Bastion Tech.

 

Statements taken, Chimera followed Ghost and retreated back to the rooftops. She looked out over the scene then turned away and sat down, leaning back against the ledge. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and exhaled it, allowing herself to relax some. Opening her eyes again she looked up at Ghost, her mask drawing back as she smiled thankfully up at him.

“Thanks.”

She said with obvious relief.

“I’m sure I would have royal screwed that up without you.”

She hugged her knees and rested her chin on them.

“I’m still not sure what makes me think I’m cut out for this. I have this power, but half the time I’m not sure I know what I’m doing.”

[RocketLord]

GHOST 

 

"Nah, you did fine." 

 

Ghost stood leaned against the small rooftop access house, his arms crossed as he looked back at her.

 

"Bit rough around the edges, sure, but you did fine."

 

He had pulled his goggles down so they rested around his neck, leaving his unnaturally blue eyes visible.

 

"But hey, nobody's forcing you to do anything, y'know. Powers or not, nobody's gonna make you go out and fight crime or anything."

[Spacefurry]

Chimera’s smile brightened a little at Ghost’s reassurance. Her gaze moving to his face as he pulled his googles down. A warmth flushed her cheeks as she saw the unnaturally blue eyes that were revealed.

She looked away when replied, brushing stray hair behind her ear.

“I know I don’t have to, but it just feels wrong to not try to help if I can.”

Chimera shifted her position to crosslegged, resting her hand on her lap.

”If it wasn’t obvious, I haven’t been using these powers for very long. Honestly, this was the first ‘villain’ I’d gone after.”

She actually made air quotes when she said villain.

”Sure, I stopped a mugging once and l stopped a couple jerks harassing a stray dog. But I never faced a real villain with powers.”

Chimera paused then added thoughtfully.

”Though I guess she was more gimmicks, since she used gear.”

She shook her head, as if it clear it of distraction.

”I was confident at first. But when she got away so easily I kinda got mad. Not just at her, but at myself. I suppose that got the better of me when I saw her again.”

The young hero looked up at Ghost again, giving him a lopsided smile.

”You’ve been doing this for a while. Got any tips for a newbie?”