ic Night Shift

[Huckleberry]

Saturday, September 11, 2023
Southside, Freedom City


The first week of classes, somehow, was over. The feline vigilante known as La Puma Negra reclined languidly on the big couch in the common area on the first floor of Kord Dormitory, non-commitally flipping through a magazine. Suddenly, her hair stood on end. Ugh. She knew this feeling. It had to be that weird girl on her floor . . .

Rot floated into the common area. She saw a wild tangle of black hair sticking up above the back of the big couch. "Oh hey, Carmen! I was just looking for you." As the matter-disrupting teen with the green dreadlocks flew closer, the feeling of unease just got worse.

"Uh, I know I'm kinda skeezy, and I know my bad vibe might be worse for, uh, cat people than for, like, non-cat people, but, uh, I've got this favor I was going to ask you.  . . ." Although she's floating in the air, the grungy teen still manages to look like she's walking on egg shells.

"So, uh, the first time I tried crime fighting, I kinda ended up getting a little bit, uh, arrested,  and I like, broke a bunch of stuff. . . . And that incident at the Albright Institute has got me more worried about my powers than ever. . . Anyway, now that I'm at Claremont, I was kind of trying to be a little less, uh, spastic with the hero stuff. So, um, people say that you do, like, crime patrols.  . . Uh, it's there any chance maybe I could like, you know, tag along one time maybe? Like maybe you could, like, give me some pointers on like how to do it without screwing everything up?" Consuelo finally takes a breath.

She seems to remember something. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the best part. I've got these bracelets now, of you wear it, that creepy aura that comes off me won't effect you.  . . Um, if you want.  . . " And Consuelo holds out a friendship bracelet made of black fabric.

[MoonSimply]

Carmen Arrache "La Puma Negra"

 

Carmen, otherwise known as La Puma Negra, was indeed reclined on the couch, having taken over and hogging the spot while she read a magazine. They were special ordered back from Puerto Rico, a month old, as they traveled first through the orphanage in Aguadilla before coming to Freedom City and finally Claremont Academy. They were all in Spanish, some on fashion while others more about soap gossip. Inane, but they kept her feeling like she was at home at the least. It was a nice feeling that was only ended when a certain smell came about. That smell oddly enough was the one thing that both of the cat like and very cat like peoples seemed to agree upon.

 

The young cat woman would frown, looking at the girl named Rot as she interrupted her time alone. Her face would soon cringe lightly, but unlike Neko, who seemed to get the Hell out of dodge as soon as Rot showed up, Carmen didn't. Instead, she'd stay there to humor her, "What do you want?" Carmen says before listening to her speak. She hadn't gone to Albright, or at least that was what she remembered. She could have sworn she had some sort of internship during the summer at some sciency place or something like that. The idea of going to it hadn't even crossed her mind, simply not caring about even putting her name down to go to it.

 

"I don't do any of that stuff. Seniors do that. I'm only allowed to go on mentorship trips," she responds, tossing her magazine onto the coffee table of the common room. No one dared to touch them as they knew exactly whose they were. Without a second thought, she'd take the friendship bracelet, breathing a sigh of relief, expression changing to a far more passive one, "Now, if you want to skip the wait and have me show you a fun time, certainly. 10 O'clock, after the prefects do their first inspection. See me towards the back of the property and keep quiet. Southside, I know the area enough."

 

[Huckleberry]

“Oh really? Like for real? Well, I mean, yeah, I guess you wouldn’t have said it if you didn’t mean it. Thanks, thanks! This is gonna be awesome!” And Consuelo starts grooving a little dance to music that isn’t there. “Oh, hey, I’m gonna go, like, start figuring out my outfit. Anything else I should . . . ok, no, cool. Great. OK. See you . . . tonight!” And Consuelo emphasizes this last statement with a poignant pointing of the finger at Carmen before flying out of the common room and up the stairwell, nearly running into the pterodactyl form-taking student, Terra, in the process. “Oh, sorry Terra. Uh, sorry.”

 

By the time evening rolls around, Rot is out waiting by the athletic field. It looks like she might have gotten there plenty early, since she appears to have gotten a bit cold out in the drizzle.

[MoonSimply]

"Just don't wear your school uniform, got it. Last thing we need is something being traced back to us. This should be all off the books, so don't tell a soul," Carmen says, as if almost threatening the other young heroine in a way. What they were doing was against school policy in a large way, something that she had to be careful about. She was already on some thin ice since acquiring somehow a certain magical stick that would not leave her protection, but what could she do. The fact that she had saved all those kids was the only reason that she wasn't finding herself in detention, or far worse for that matter.

 

Later that night, Carman was there, dressed only in a plain grey hoodie while underneath she wore some form of black unitard, something she used as an alternate for practice. She was pouncing rather quickly up towards her, using the concealment of trees and shrubbery to get to the proper spot. By the time she was there, a light rain had begun to fall, leaving the ground wet as she stood in a crouched position, nice and low. Carmen really was a cat person, "Not followed?"

[Huckleberry]

Consuelo puts on a brave face, despite being a bit cold. “Oh, hey. Um, followed? Uh . . . “ And then she gets a devilish grin. “Well, a couple RA’s actually asked me where I was going. . . . But don’t worry, I disintegrated them.” The awkward teen waits a beat to see if the joke will be appreciated, grins nervously, and adds: “Uh, just a little ‘disintegration’ humor there. . . . But seriously, I’m, like, so pumped for this! Too bad about the rain, though. . . . “

 

It is too bad about the rain. Carmen knows that the precipitation will make several varieties of crime harder to catch this evening – muggings, street corner drug sales, pretty much anything opportunistic and out-of-doors. On the other hand, the reduced visibility and muffling sound of the rainstorm could encourage more thieves to attempt break-ins. Perhaps it would be wise to choose a route traversing the warehouse district as the pair set off on their night prowl?

[MoonSimply]

Carmen didn't seem to get the joke at all, just staring at her. Rot would understand that La Puma Negra had a reputation as a sort of loner, and for that, she had been able to get away with being the few non-Senior students to get away with having her own room. No others having that sort of freedom. Counselors had spoken to her about it but decided it was more for the best due to her more aggressive nature. Rot may have had her own sort of aura, but the young cat woman had her own sort of aura about her as she went back to reading her magazine, picking it up from the coffee table once more.

 

In the present time, Carmen was out now leading them both through a discrete way over the perimeter fence. It honestly wasn't that hard to do so, and few patrolled the grounds this late at night as Puma jumped over the fence with an ease and grace, treating it like it was nothing as she stood on the other side of the fence, watching her fly over, a trivial task it was for both of them. It would then be an hour's time trip into Southside, the very outskirts of Freedom City. The rain was dulling her senses a bit as well, reducing the sense of smell and hearing but not her keen eyesight. In that time, Carmen didn't speak too much, only doing so to ask if she wanted to get anything from a gas station that was along the road, used to the strange students of Claremont coming in at odd hours.

"You know... there's this cool place called Eclipse. A club if you want to go?" she says, eventually coming out with a sugary beverage. Carmen seemed more relaxed now, taking a swig of her drink before continuing to walk down the side of the road, of course with Consuelo in tow, "Maybe after we beat on some losers?"

Edited December 1, 2023 by MoonSimply

[Huckleberry]

Rot

 

On the trek over to Southside, Carmen's preference for saying less was counterbalanced by Consuelo’s compulsion to talk about whatever crossed her mind. "You know, it's kinda nice to travel more slowly across the city like this. When Rosalind and me flew over to Southside the other day, it only took a couple of minutes. But you see all sorts of stuff going low and slow like this that you miss when you fly high and fast. Rosalind can fly, like really fast!" She goes on a bit about just how fast Rosalind can fly before moving on to a more personal subject.

 

"So, uh, the first time I tried crime fighting was, like, uh Monday. . . . I was going into a convenience store and, like, these two guys were totally robbing the place. So I knocked one of them out. And the other turned out to be David, this kid that used to be my friend. I scared him into telling me where he got his gun. And I broke into this, like illegal arms dealer's apartment and scared him too. But he said, like he could get guns from, like, lots of legitimate firearms dealers, which was really frustrating. So I made him pick one that was maybe the worst about selling weapons illegally. I broke into his store and started destroying stuff. But the cops came and I got arrested. And like there was no evidence the gun store guy had done anything wrong. So, I don't think it really turned out too well. . . . But, uh, the guy did shoot me with a machine-gun and it didn't hurt, so that's good. . . ." Consuelo gradually trails off as she runs out of steam for her diatribe and the gas station comes into view.

 

"Yeah, uh, we could try that club. But I don't, uh, have an ID though. . . . Um, yeah, I could go for a Mountain Dew."  Consuelo gets a can of pop and makes a bit of a mess of things by trying to drink through a straw while keeping her mask on. 

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

La Puma Negra leads the pair through the warehouse district of Southside, crawling up walls with feline skill and leaping from rooftop to rooftop to keep a better visual perspective. The rainy conditions would make good cover for a break-in attempt. The cat-like vigilante takes them on a route that covers most of the active and occupied blocks of the district. But nothing suspicious pops up. Maybe they won't find any action tonight?

 

Sometimes those with something to hide gravitate to the economically struggling, abandoned section of the district though. The prowling hero steers them towards an abandoned section of the neighborhood, and takes a perch atop an abandoned concrete warehouse. Her keen night-adapted vision picks up three figures skulking through an alley. Consuelo sees them too. But Carmen's superior senses alone allow her to notice a key fact: they are all hiding crowbars under their jackets. 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen would give her a look as they moved together, slowing down just a bit as they got closer into to town. Soon, farm field and forest gave way to a steady stream of road activity. More homes and shops on the side of the street and limited small suburbs as they reached the area around Freedom City known as Southside. Home to one the city's colleges, its economic state had fluctuated going into the 2000s, none of which Carmen seemed to know about or cared at this time as she herself was simply a transplant. In fact, she had only lived here roughly a year and change. This being her Junior year at Claremont and already a rather busy one to say the least.

 

It was clear that at this point that the relationship between her and Consuelo wasn't there yet to a more comfortable one, finishing her drink before chucking it over towards an open garbage bin. They were in the city now, able to abuse her abilities to the fullest as she began to clamber around through several of the buildings, leaping from one to the other with a feline grace that was almost supernatural it felt as her black fur melted in with the night and shadow. If it wasn't what light there was and Carmen's jacket that Consuelo was able to likely see her. 

 

"You see em too?" Carmen says as she crouches down, warehouses, several abandoned as they stood low on a roof. Men were there, obviously with ill intent as they hid crowbars and likely. hiding much more, "We have to wait until they do something, otherwise it will be a mess. All we can do is wait. You go by Rot right? From now on we go by the hero names, understand?" she spoke with some experience.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

 

Consuelo nodded in agreement to Carmen's assessment. "Oh, yeah, that's smart Carmen - errr, I mean Puma Negra." She whispered. "Uh, actually, when I'm talking to you, should I call you 'Puma Negra' or 'La Puma Negra'? My ma used some Spanish sometimes, so I sort of do a little Spanglish. But I don't know the, uh, what do you call it? Oh yeah - grammar!"

 

The two heroes leaned over the edge of the roof to watch the three men hurry up the alley below, dark and blurry in the obscuring rain. They appeared to be going for speed now instead of stealth. And the trio ran up to - what do you know - the very building that La Puma Negra and Rot were using as a lookout. Carmen's acute ears could pick out the clink of a crowbar being thrust into the meeting of door and jam almost directly below them, and then some muffled cursing followed by the distinctive wrenching sound of a door being forced open. A voice below made a jubilant "Yes!" down below. Surprisingly high-pitched. Then another said, "Let's go!", and the three rushed into the building.

 

[MoonSimply]

"Puma Negra is all you need to say," she says in response to her, "It's a title however, so La Puma Negra is for if you want to be more formal, but we aren't doing that."

Puma would use the darkness and the element of surprise to creep towards the building, leaping from building to building until she was on the roof of the building that the likely crooks were robbing. Of course, one of the few occupied warehouses, old and decaying and left practically unguarded as she went to see if there was any way to keep an eye on them without raising any sort of suspicion. Her hand and tail would motion the less experienced Rot to follow her, cat like eyes watching and piercing the darkness.

 

"We want to surround them, keep them disoriented and strike fast," she says while crouched low.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

As Carmen surveys the warehouse that was entered, she notices it's composed of a newer addition and an older, more dilapidated original building. Her keen night vision picks up a section of the roof with some missing sheeting. Motioning to Consuelo to follow, she peers through the hole into the interior of the building below.

 

The three men have turned on flashlights and seem to be searching around a mostly empty open space with a few old rusting pieces of machinery. "What do you think this place was?" Asks the one with the higher voice. "I dunno." Says another. 

[MoonSimply]

Carmen then holds herself. How old were these people, taking a few moments to look them over before seeing how young they were, just punks likely barely out of high school that weren't likely just looking for a good time and less a way of stealing or doing whatever else. The young heroine would have to wait, keeping low and quiet as she stalked them through at a distance, using whatever sort of nooks and crannies that were there all the while guiding Rot through. This was a different sort of Carmen, as if there was a switch that made her far more relaxed almost. Odd, considering they were essentially looking for a fight.

"Young, our age. We can keep an eye on them, give them a good scare ya know," Puma says, knowing a bit better when and when not to engage now after having had time with the older hero Patriot. Mentor ship might have finally begun to pay off.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Consuelo looks a bit concerned, but doesn't say anything, instead following behind La Puma Negra as she moves through the exposed rusty steel truss above the warehouse floor. The kids below appear to be searching around in the building, more or less at random. Now that you've seen them in this context, they could easily still be high school age.

 

One of them appears to find something interesting along the western wall. The rest come over, and the heroes position themselves above to get a look to. The three teens down below are all shining their flashlights on something like a shiny black top, spinning and spinning. It could be a trick of the shadows, but it almost looks like the thing is spinning just above the ground, rather than on it. 

[MoonSimply]

Puma, acted as the leader in this little sortie would watch patiently from her shadowy position, waiting for a moment to act. Not like she was going to attacked them, more like scare them a bit, she sort of liked doing that sort of thing. It almost came naturally scaring people with her more feral were cat like looks, if it wasn't her own fellow students, it would be criminals or other ne'er-do-wells that stalked around the city. It turned out, she was the one stalking them.

 

"What's that?" she'd whisper to Rot.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

Looking down from the old rusty roof truss, La Puma Negra can clearly make out that the three teens below are utterly fascinated by the strange object.

 

"Holy frickin' cow! This has to be the awesomest thing we've ever found. Dude, I wonder if I can put it in my backpack?" Says the larger of the two boys. "Don't you think it's spinning a little too fast for that?" Asks the teen that you are pretty sure is a girl.

 

Rot shrugs at La Puma Negra's question and whispers back: "I dunno, I'm not really much of a science person."

 

Somehow, the word "science" jogs the feline heroine's mind back to some recent memory . . . yes . . . Physics lab last week. Carmen wasn't necessarily the biggest fan of the class, but her two lab partners were really into the hardware for the experimental setup. This black spinning thing kind of reminds her of a couple of the components that were used to hold something really still. What were they called? A gyroscope? A magnetic bearing?

 

"I dunno . . . " worries the teen with glasses down below as he slowly backs up. His nervous retreat bumps him right into some old rickety scaffolding which teeters, totters, and finally crashes down away from the teens with a tremendous racket, startling all three into screaming. The crash was so loud, it could probably be heard outside, even with the rain.

[MoonSimply]

Puma kept quiet, watching like a hawk from a far to field mice. There was almost a slight glow to her eyes in the dark, surely just like that of a cat in some way or form. Rot would have likely seen it, glowing faintly in the light, like a natural warning towards evil doers in the darkness... or just a weird oddity that seemed rather cute at times when it wasn't being used to stalk teenagers roughly their age. the only thing that she was really focusing on now was the strange device that was between them all. The young heroine would look to Rot with a confused look, very obviously thinking it over what the two of them were looking at. Some form of gyroscope, that's what she'd tell Rot.

"Not sure.... a gyroscope, something to keep things stable. Not sure why here though, what makes it important?" she says quizzically as she continues to watch from there concealed spot. She'd watch the scaffolding fall, ready to move in if the three got hurt, but instead continued to wait. A loud noise like that would likely draw a guard in or two.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

After the clatter, Carmen notices that a door to the newer side of the warehouse is slightly ajar. Was it open before? She doesn't think so. Her suspicion is confirmed when, a moment later, her keen ears just barely pick out a voice behind the door. <Wait.>

 

And there's something else. A dull humming? All such thoughts are saved for later though, as first a flashlight beam and then a dark figure come carefully through the doorway. The sparse light picks up the metal glint of his firearm, and La Puma Negra is pretty sure he's wearing a bulletproof vest. The three teens freeze as the man's flashlight plays over them, and he seems to relax a little and lowers his gun slightly. "Hey! Are you kids alright? It can be dangerous in an old warehouse. This is private property. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." And he walks over to where the teenagers are collecting themselves by the fallen scaffold and the strange spinning object.

 

"Yeah, we were just doing that. . ." Adds the female teen. "But we found this:" adds the smallest teen, pointing at the spinning object.

 

"Oh," says the young man that came through the door. He gets a strange, sad smile on his face and goes on: "You weren't supposed to see that."

 

And he starts to bring his gun back up.

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Suddenly they all weren't alone as gunman came into the room, armed and dangerous. It appeared like these kids, Rot and she included, had stumbled upon something far bigger than some near abandoned warehouse. If they didn't act quick those kids were as good as dead. Thinking fast, she tried coming up with a plan to save them, to get that guards attention without getting anyone killed in the process. 

 

Sure, Puma could jump down and assault the guy, but if it didn't work, she'd be point blank to a gun she didn't want to get hit by. So, looking at an old stored away barrel beside them, she used her inhuman strength to lift it above her, aiming it towards the guard and throwing it down with all her might, hoping to hit him. It's relatively accurate, hoping to nail him by surprise.

[Huckleberry]

GM

 

CLANG! One thing always stops a guy, and that's a steel drum tossed at him from 30 feet above. The gunman is flattened to the concrete floor, gun skittering across the room, and drum lazily rolling off of him.

 

Already in motion, Rot continues her descent towards the scene. "Hey, is everyone alright?" She asks.

 

Between the man with the gun, the barrel suddenly crushing him, and the spooky lady inexplicably flying down from the roof giving off this hair-raising vibe of death and decay, the trespassing teens have clearly had enough.

 

"AAAAH!" They all flee in a panic, bashing and tripping into debris as they make there desperate attempt to reach the exit, flashlight beams winging about like some bizarre imitation of a dance club. 

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

With accuracy only someone like her could pull off, Puma threw the barrel with her impressive strength, lining up a shot that smashed right into the gunman and promptly knocking him out. It was with good timing too as she believed that anymore time and he'd have shot one of the fellow teens below them. Of course, this would prompt the teens running away when Rot came down to check on them, for once happy that it wasn't her that folk were afraid of.

 

"Now, looks like they're gone now," Puma says before jumping down to the ground floor, hand on her hip as she looked at the knocked-out guard and then to the weird device that had been left on the ground, unsure what it was, "Wonder what's so important about this thing."

[Huckleberry]

The kids make it to the door and back out into the drizzly night. La Puma Negra takes a closer look at the rapidly spinning, hovering object, and wonders aloud why it's so important.

 

"I really couldn't tell ya." Comments Rot. "Without the flashlights those kids were holding, I can't see a thing in here!"

 

Carmen's keen hearing picks up the squeak of the inner door opening again. She sees two men come through the door. They appear to be holding assault rifles with lights below the barrels. They start to play their lights across the warehouse, but they haven't seen the heroes yet. 

[MoonSimply]

"I think it was something in school we learned, don't remember off the top of my head. A gyroscope. It measures things, though not sure what?" Puma says as she looks at it inquisitively. The young heroine had wished that she had paid far more attention in school to remember what it could do or why it'd be so important. It stunk that she didn't know really as the class to her was rather boring. If only she had.

 

When more armed men came, Puma quickly went back into the shadows, motioning for Rot to do the same. In the dark and unlit corners of the room, it'd be hard to see Puma as her dark black coat of fur made doing so a rather hard task to spot her. La Puma Negra was excellent in doing such, "Be quiet," she whispers, putting a finger to her lips.

[Huckleberry]

La Puma Negra and Rot melt back into the shadows as the two armed men come into the room. One plays his light about, but Carmen is well hidden behind a large steel column and Consuelo had hidden behind a rusty old forklift.

 

"Jeez, would ya take a look at this?" The other one asks as he finds his other partner smashed under a steel drum. "Holy cow! Raymond! Man! I think he's breathing.  . .   "

 

"What a mess! . . . Hey, uh, isn't that one of those magneto-whatevers the squids were using to balance the, uh, big machine?"

 

"Yeah, I mean, I guess. But look man, the scaffolding is down, and this drum too." The gunman flashes his light up into the girders above, picking up a line of drums on a palet above. He drops his voice to a whisper, but Carmen can still easily hear. "Look, there's no way the scaffold falling and the drum can be from the same thing. That drum was pushed. We have an intruder. . . " He stands up and starts working his light from place to place.

 

"Hello. We know you're in here. Let's just talk, okay?"

 

 

[MoonSimply]

La Puma Negra

 

Puma put a finger over her mouth as she looked over towards Rot, motioning away from her as she slowly slinked through the shadows of the warehouse and towards the closest of the men. Whomever they were, they weren't the normal sort of armed guard, triggering her personal sort of danger sense when this sort of thing occurred. Like alligator shoes, La Puma Negra could feel that there was more to this than she believed, leaping forward with a clawed kick as the armed individual stood back up, "Lets talk then!" she growled out with a hiss. Puma surely seemed to be a person of action, not the best sort of negotiator it appeared, not at all. A brutish demeanor that seemed well at home in dealing with direct fighting. Others could talk for her. Her fist and claws just the same.

Edited February 21 by MoonSimply