ic Celebrity Skin (IC)

[MoonSimply]

It was only a second after Patriot waved her had towards Puma that the young heroine realized that maybe what she had said wasn't the best in terms of dealing with whomever this was, and she was immediately punished for such actions as that. She didn't even feel any change besides her senses quickly having to update to the slight change in the environment, realizing that she was far back on the ground along with Patriot, standing right before the anachronistic thugs that didn't seem all too happy to see them standing before them all of a sudden. In fact, it felt like there was a slight pause between the chaos of them soon taking in the fact that both of them had suddenly appeared out of thin air, whisked away to be before them.

 

"Mierda," Puma's eyes were wide as a feeling of panic began to spread.

[MoonSimply]

Puma didn't notice it at first, her senses quickly sensing the change in environment as they were teleported it appeared back down to the ground below. Her mind however quickly caught up and soon without it a moments hesitation five forward on pure instinct. The young heroines fight or flight instincts were firing off, chasing obviously the former as she moved forward towards the center of the grouo, clocking the closest one in range with a clawed strike.

 

"It's La Puma!" she spoke with an angered look, not liking so many folk calling her some sort of cat. At least to herself she was still Human.

 

Agile and swift, her movements were almost dancer like, never staying in one place with acrobatic zeal. She would hold herself up with a handstand, kicking at several other of the crooks around her with claws at her feet. While she may show some inexperience with heroing, Claremont looked to be teaching her well enough, barely appearing to break a sweat.

[Avenger Assembled]

About half of the thugs went down before La Puma's feline assault; grunting and cursing, throwing aside their weapons as they went down rather than being taken down more forcefully by tooth and claw. But the other half opened fire, old-fashioned Tommy guns rat-a-tatting in a roar of gunfire much louder than any old movie! Luckily all of them missed; except for the shots fired by the man in the rear, a sinister-looking fellow with a thin mustache who took careful aim with an old-fashioned revolver - 

 

Only to have his bullets bounce off the badge-shaped shield of the Patriot, which erupted from around Ashley's wrist and held the shots as she bulled forward and took that guy out by smashing her bladed baton against his chin. The others went down even faster, the Patriot's batons cracking skulls and knees, knocking them down with a savage fury that matched La Puma's. And for the moment, they had quiet. 

[MoonSimply]

Puma had made short work of the criminals, save for having missed the more hardened one that was taking aim towards her. In reaction, she put her arms up, as if to stop the bullet that would be coming her way. Closing her eyes, she awaited what could possibly be her end before hearing the ping of metal on metal as several rounds bounced off of Patriot's shield. She'd open them, looking up towards the older and more experienced hero as the fight was quickly finished without any sort of fanfare. Now that the immediate threat was over with, her thoughts went to whomever it was that had sent them down from the fire tower.

 

"Who the heck was that, how was he able to do something like that?! Estábamos allá arriba, ¿cómo llegamos aquí? (We were up there, how did we get down here?!)" she spoke, speaking partially in Spanish as a feeling of panic began to set in. She had thought that this was just going to be a simple mentorship thing, something to get her mind off of things, or whatever else the school wanted, "This isn't your idea, is it?"

[Avenger Assembled]

The Patriot exhaled - and then exclaimed, briefly. "Mary and Joseph! Thank God, I can talk..." She shook her head and looked down at the thugs, then at La Puma Negra. "Quirk is - very powerful. He's an extradimensional entity who has been playing with the heroes of Freedom since I was - well, for a while now. Recently he got married and had a kid, no idea how that works, and it seems Daddy's girl likes to play too. The only way out of the game is to figure out the rules and how to win." She bent down and began searching the unconscious thugs, automatically zip-tying them in advance of their waking up. "Looks like...time travel? Recreations? Could be anything." 

[MoonSimply]

"So, he is just going to keep playing with us. Just does whatever he wants until they've had their fun," she spoke, quickly making her way towards a fallen wallet. Looking inside, she could see the New Jersey license and a date that she had to double take on. 1933 was far away from the current year, just like the outfits, the cars, the guns, everything. Things were starting to click for her.

 

"It says August Roman, he's the one Centurion fought in the old days right. Is Quirk able to pull people from time as well?" voice obviously concerned at how powerful this entity could be.

[Avenger Assembled]

"What the hell!?" The Patriot, appalled, looked past the teen's hand to confirm what she'd seen. "Well either this is just some bs replicant, or-" 

 

"No, that's the real deal, I'm afraid," said Quirk, reappearing behind them with a sharp smile and a happily cooing baby. "That really is the one, the only, the original August Roman." 

"Kitty!" declared his daughter, waving her chubby fists in La Puma Negra's direction. 

 

"The game ends when you decide what you're going to do with him," said Quirk with a smirk. "Killer, criminal, torturer? You can spare the timeline from him now if you're willing to take some action..." 

[MoonSimply]

"Yes yes, ¡miau!," spoke Puma as she was deeply terrified at the power that this Quirk possessed and was able to do. It wasn't natural that sort of power, a god-like power to change seemingly reality it his own will. To have such power she could only think that he was some sort of Devil, a demon here to test their faith and devotion. To lower herself to such a standard, to bring low her own self-respect for herself all to appease the cruel machination of such a being and their young child's will.

 

She'd bring her hands before her, "See... see... just like kitty, un gato, ¡miau!" she spoke once again before looking over towards Patriot. She didn't really know what to do here as for her she didn't really know Roman much other than he was a bad guy, one that had hurt so many throughout the years. From how it sounded, Quirk was telling them that they could easily take out this dangerous criminal and save countless of lives. Yet something didn't sit well with her. She didn't trust any sort of devil to keep his word.

[Avenger Assembled]

"If you teach your daughter to pick on things smaller and weaker than she is," said the Patriot, her back going up when she saw Puma's obvious fear, "eventually she'll try that out on dear old Dad." The 'cat show' seemed to be working on Quirk Jr, who was watching with great interest, smiling and laughing. 

 

Quirk yawned. "You were much more interesting when you were a catgirl," he said, patting his hand against his mouth. "In fact-" 

 

The Patriot sat down on the ground and took off her helmet. The costumed adventurer and new American icon revealed herself as an Asian woman, her hair dyed blue at the tips, dark paint smudged around her eyes by the helmet. "Ugh. I hate this stupid helmet sometimes, but I actually do want to have a secret identity even though speculations about my sex life are evidently number five on reddit behind 'who's really the father of Fleur de Joie's baby'. They give you that talk yet, about all the pervs out there?" The Patriot was not looking at Quirk at all. 

[MoonSimply]

Even if it was all under duress and Neko would have a field day if she ever saw this, Puma made sure the small baby child continued to happily keep them infatuated with her. To an extent, she really didn't mind it all that much. She liked kids, even if she didn't like being called a cat, Puma at least could put up the charade just for a bit while they deal with a way of dealing with the baby's father, one that from her understanding could very well snap her out of existence if they really wanted to. So, going on with it she would do her best to try and give Patriot whatever time she needed in order to figure out what to do. So, when Patriot did begin to speak, it puzzled her somewhat as to what she was trying to do.

 

"Wait... no, I don't think I have. I knew folk liked weird stuff but that sounds rude," she spoke as she stopped for a few moments. She wasn't sure what Patriot was going for with this, but she'd try to follow along with the bit the best that she could, even if she didn't fully understand the end goal, "I guess it's good I'm not as well-known, I guess? Wait, what about a cat girl?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"When I was coming up, there was this guy, Solo Takashi, who went by the name Otaku if you can believe that #($#, who built himself a legion of schoolgirl sexbots and used them to be a supervillain." The Patriot spat, loudly enough to cut off whatever it was Quirk was trying to say. "And you can imagine what that was like, being sixteen and Asian, and having a guy like that running around. I hear the robots got him finally, and good for them I say." She considered her response, then said, "I...used to have a cat-themed super-identity, back when I was in high school. It was just a pun, Copycat." 

 

Quirk had appeared behind her ear. "Because that's all your powers are, aren't they? Just copying, no, stealing from better people-" 

A furry bundle toddled over and plopped into Puma's lap, looking up at her cheerfully. "Kitty!" waved the little girl happily, wrapping chubby arms around her midsection.

 

"Anyway, there are a lot of real pervs out there. But you don't have to take their crap just because of how you look or who you are. You never do." 

 

"Pay attention to me!" Quirk yelled, the air around them crackling white, August Roman and company vanishing. The little girl, eyes getting wide, clung nervously to Puma, Quirk not seeming to notice as he focused his attention on the Patriot. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT I COULD DO TO YOU!?" 

[MoonSimply]

"Eso es asqueroso" (That is gross)," Puma responds before suddenly falling on her behind with a swaddled small child on her lap, the child that this Quirk individual was the father of now grabbing at her waist. She seemed to now enjoy being so close to her, after all, thinking she was nothing more than the largest kitty that she had ever seen. If it wasn't for the life-or-death situation that they were currently in Puma would have happily for once let her general appearance be a positive and play with child. Of course, that wasn't something that was very tempting at the moment as Qurik seemed to intensify his anger for Patriot.

 

She could feel the toddler grow scared from her father's rage, holding her close as a way of comforting them the best that she could possibly, "It's alright, it's going to be ok," she calmly spoke to them. Carmen looked towards the godlike being with an angered look, "Can't you see, you're scaring her!"

[Avenger Assembled]

Quirk looked down at the sad little catgirl on Puma's lap, his eyes widening. "Ah, jeez!" He dropped to his knees and started smiling real big. "It's okay, honey-baby, I'm sorry! I get so mad playing these games, I forget to make them fun for you too. Look, funny face! Funny face!" He did something to his face then, the lights around them settling back to normal. It was hard to describe exactly what it was; not necessarily frightening or gross, just that suddenly his face had the usual three dimensions and then maybe an extra two or three in there, Ashley and Carmen weren't really sure. And then he did it again and again while making noises that no earthly creature could have made. 

 

What they were sure of was that Quirk's daughter thought they were hilarious - or at least worth a smile. "Funny face! Kitty!" She gave Carmen an exuberant small child's kiss on the cheek, then hopped off to toddle into her father's arms. "Bye-bye!" And then, with barely a sound, they were gone, and so were all the prisoners and other toys he'd brought with him. 

 

And then Ashley stood up. First she said something the nuns had told Carmen you were definitely not supposed to say; then she said something else in French, then something else in a language Carmen didn't know. Then she looked down at Puma and said, "Oh, hell...you okay?" 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen eyes widened as Quirk came towards her to pick up the baby. Of course, she didn't realize that, closing her eyes as her relatively short life flashed before her. It was then suddenly that it came not to be. The baby had been taken out of her embrace and into this apparent god-like being. The peak at his face only did far more to confuse her as she didn't what entirely that she was watching. One of the noises he made, ones that she had never heard of, made her ear tingle as it shocked through her senses, causing her to flinch. Then, suddenly within a blink of an eye, both of them were gone.

 

It was a moment of quiet before she plopped back down to the ground, laying our sprawled on her back, "Oh Dios mío, gracias (O my God, thank you)," Puma pleads out near breathless as she closed her eyes again for a while. She was mentally exhausted, unsure of what sort of ordeal that she had just gone through. She'd look over towards Ahsley, "Was this all part of the trip or were we just that unlucky?"

[Avenger Assembled]

"This...city," said Ashley, biting back another oath. Her helmet in hand, she sat down heavily on the gravel next to Carmen. "There's always some god, or terrorist, or pervert, or some..thing like that." She held up her helmet, looking at their reflection in the costume's eyepieces. "There are other places like it; the Emeralds, Vibora, that craphole up in Wisconsin...but there's no place like Freedom. I'm actually from New Orleans," she admitted, "I only came here to go to school." Twice! She began fastening the helmet back on, carefully setting it on her head and then strapping it around her ears. "It's a good place if you're not like everyone else," she allowed. "How do you like it?"  

[MoonSimply]

Carmen's face cringed as she heard the pervert line but sighed as she pushed herself back up to sit up properly. She was calming herself down, getting off the high of emotions that she had been feeling for the past several minutes, tail shifting back and forth to and fro.  The young woman had been listening to her quasi mentor, thinking over where she was, "It's not home, but it's the best I can do with what I have. Maybe I can go home one day, but not now, not for a long while I think, at least until I figure things out, what my powers are and all. This city is home for now."

 

"I don't think I ever wanted to be a hero I guess, but whatever I am, what thing I am, I suppose that this is as good a place to start," she responds back, brushing back the curly long black hair off her shoulders.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Good enough," said the Patriot easily, her helmet strapped back on. Standing up, she offered a hand to Carmen. "Come on, let me finish showing you around the park." She smiled. "I'll tell you the story of the first time I met somebody like Quirk, and how the Raven got him to..."