ic Star Meets Star (IC)

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star

12:45, Saturday the 29th of June

Above the Fens

 

Alice checked the time again, still fifteen minutes early. She had been super confused when first reading the message to her Shooting Star account asking for a meeting, most of the time her account just got tagged in videos of her doing her standard patrols, helping people move heavy furniture around and things like that. Most of the time when people messaged her to ask to meet she just directed them to try find her on patrol, but most of the time wasn't another hero asking to meet up.

 

She had looked up Golden Star, finding a few videos, plus some fans talking about him but overall he seemed pretty new. She could respect someone willing to ask for advice from someone with similar powers who'd been active for longer, and she'd agreed to a time and place pretty soon after that.

 

That had of course led to her scrambling together ideas for what she could teach him, but that was beside the point. Despite it being early she was still looking around for an early showing while stretching to limber up her new costume, the high tech fibers still adjusting to her.

[Poncho]

Michael was actually pretty on the ball about learning about Superheroes. His interactions with Paradigm had made him curious about who he could learn from, and he was constantly feeling under pressure from Parker; he was not as good as Parker, and he knew it, and he was fighting every day to try and keep up with Parker and Lawrence, even though he felt like it was kind of a losing battle. But he was a competitive person by nature, and he wanted to be a person who could stand up for what was right.

 

Admittedly, he did also have plans to go camping with Carmen and his family later this month, so his beginning of learning more about Shooting Star- wasn't that kinda funny to begin with? That they were both Stars?-, and more about her ideas on how to use their powers the best, was going to have to happen rather suddenly, and in between bouts of preparing for moving. But he also knew to bring a present when he was meant to introduce himself to someone.

 

So about 5 minutes before the scheduled meeting time, Michael made his way to the meeting zone. He wasn't going all out, and was relying on his natural speed, which meant that for many flying titans, he'd have been almost embarrassingly slow; a car going on the interstate could out-speed Michael when he wasn't glowing- so he almost looked leisurely as he floated towards Shooting Star and waved with his free hand.

"Hello, Miss Shooting Star. Thank you for agreeing to meet with me." He said with a smile. Then he held out his other hand, where he had a bundle of glass bottled sodas of various types. "I brought you a gift as thanks; these are some small batch sodas I picked up. If you want to take them. I promise they're all pretty good." he indicated a dark red one. "The Dragonfruit one is my favorite."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice waved as Golden Star approached at a leisurely pace, she wouldn't admit it but she was quite nervous about this meeting, but did what she could to act natural. "Just Shooting Star is fine, it's nice to meet you, Golden Star." She grins at the offered drinks, taking the suggested one, cracking it open to take a sip.

 

"Yeah this is nice, thanks. So I figured today we could go on a patrol, show the flag and all that. It helps keep crime down and let's people know that the heroes are out to help. It does end with us helping move a bunch of heavy furniture but that's fine. If you have any questions during feel free to ask." She shrugged with a grin. "We've got a bit before we start if you have any questions you don't want the general public hearing it."

[Poncho]

"Sure, patrol is pretty good. Plus I don't have to worry about getting yelled at since I'm out of school right now, so it should all be good." he said as he spoke. He actually was pretty calm; he was respectful, but not nervous or anxious really; he'd worked very hard to get most of that out of him unless he was actively in combat, so he almost had a casual view about the whole thing as he floated there.

 

"Actually I guess I do have some questions. Like...I don't remember you in any of the school yearbooks I checked, so you didn't go there, right? What sort of support network do you have for your heroing? Like I've got my classmates and stuff, do you have anyone like that? You don't have to tell me who, I'm just curious how you keep up with stuff if you're really operating at solo. I'll have to do that eventually myself, so I figure it's worth getting some help in that idea at least." He probably had some more questions, that was just the one he was starting with.

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice chuckled at the comment about school being out, it had been difficult to maintain her attendance as well as being Shooting Star so she could understand the sentiment.

 

She paused at the mention of checking through school yearbooks, wondering what he meant there. Putting the matter aside for now she focused on his question about support, although she was starting to have questions as he mentioned his classmates being a support network for superheroics. Surely he hadn't handed his identity to his whole class. She put the thoughts aside again. What he did with his own identity was absolutely not her business. She should focus on the actual question. "Yeah I operate solo for the most part. Done a couple of teamups with others but mostly it's just me. I work with emergency services like the fire department and the police if they need me, and a few people in the community have helped me out which helps take the load off. I'd tell you to accept help from others, but given that you are here I don't think you need to be told that." She chuckled slightly, looking off to the city. "I think we cn hit the streets early unless you've got another question, but before we start I'd just like to clarify in the event something goes wrong, how tough are you, does your biology respond to modern medicine and if not do you have anywhere you can go for treatment?"

[Poncho]

"I see, that makes sense. Being part of the emergency services and helping out does seem like it would be an easy path to effective support. Plus it's not like there's a supervillain to stop every day or whatever, so any other place you can take a chance to do something helpful for the city makes sense. Plus, given your speed and strength, you could probably help people all across the country pretty fast." he mumbled, clearly impressed with her abilities. 

 

"And no, I don't need any help asking for help." he laughed. "I've got plenty of people I'm asking for help all the time; it's just how it is." he didn't seem to concerned about it. Eventually he wanted it to not be like that, but for now there was only so much he could do, and he had accepted it as best he could." he did admittedly look at her a little askew when she started asking quuestions about his biology. He hadn't actually thought about it before, really. He'd just always assumed everything worked fine on him. So he had to stop and ponder that.

 

"So...my strength sort of fluctuates. If I'm like this, I'm somewhat tough but not extremely; I'm about as strong as you could expect the world's strongest person to be, about as tough as that too. I'm about as fast as a car, as well. When I start glowing; when I really use most of my power, I'm about twice as strong as that, I'm able to be immune to most small arms fire, and I'm about 20 times faster than I was. I try not to use that too much, because if I start doing that I can run out of juice and be left with basically no power at all. But I can operate like this basically forever. As for the rest of it; I mostly heal as fast as a human, and I've not got any biological issues." he finishes.

 

"...Are those issues you have?" 

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice wasn't sure she liked the way Golden Star phrased his content about asking for help all the time, it sounding a bit too self deprecating for her tastes, but decided again against mentioning it. Instead she focused as he explained his powers and denied any special medical needs. She was already formulating follow on questions about his 'glowing' that might help crack the code on his short time span when he train of thought was derailed as he asked if she had issues with medical treatment.

 

Her first instinct was to brush it off with her standard bravado but she stopped herself from doing so. She wasn't reassuring an old woman that was worried about her going to get her husband from a fire or talking down a punk with a gun. She sighed, running her hand through her hair,  "My strength and toughness are derived from a difference in my body. I may not look it, but I weigh just over thirteen tons, my bones and tissues are denser than osmium, permanently. If I had a medical emergency an ambulance couldn't move me, things like X-Rays wouldn't penetrate my skin as easily for diagnosis, and special tools and4 materials would be needed to perform surgery, plus stitches would do about as well as you would expect. I'm hardly the only cape who might have issues along that line. Like that little alien guy, Blue Blast or something. If he gets shot would standard practice work? What if he's got acid for blood or something? It's something people don't consider much." She hesitated, realizing she'd gone on something of a rant and took a sip of the drink she'd been neglecting since starting talking.

 

"Anyway, I'd like to ask about your powers before a million smartphone cameras point our way. You mentioned that you can only 'glow' for a few hours. Do you know what mechanism fuels your power? Tiny fusionn reactor? Solar power? Secretly an angel transformed into a human and only just starting to regain your powers?"

Edited July 9 by Kaede Kimura

[Poncho]

"Thirteen tons!? That's incredible...I don't even know if I could lift you. I can't even lift you like this, you're far too heavy even for me." he was trying to imagine how this person who weighed that much could even exist in a normal way in the world. It must be a constant fight to do even the most basic and routine of tasks weighing that much. He pondered. "Blue Blast? Uh...you mean Blue Bolt? Yeah. She's got a lot of problems going on...me and a few of my friends carry around lists on her phones for her in case something bad happens so we have easy references for what we need for her if she's in trouble. So we try to be on top of her for that...it's definitely something that's been weighing on me lately though. I'm pretty lucky with my powers; they don't really adversely affect me at all, so a lot of what I've been learning lately is how lucky I am and how much I need to look out for other people with powers who aren't so lucky." he explained, floating this way and that.

 

"As for the mechanism that fuels me...hrmm...Okay so some of this is ah...government secret. But I'll give you an idea." he said quietly. "So...there was a hero way back during the Revolutionary War right, Minuteman? He had a magic potion that granted him super strength and stuff when he ingested it. I accidentally got powers by being dunked in a vat of a formula of that sort of stuff. So his powers lasted for an hour. While I have some more basic, permanent powers like this, I only have an hour of 'Full' Power, so to speak. I'm kinda figuring out how I can fix it, but I'm still less than a year out from getting my powers, so it's not like I'm perfect at it yet. So, you know...who knows how it'll develop in the future. If I run out of juice, I go back to normal, but that's not really happened before, I usually have enough to last."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice grinned sheepishly at Golden Star's response to her weight. She wasn't too self conscious about it since it was pretty obviously power based, but a part of her always worried about how people would respond. She blinked in surprise as it turned out that not only did he know of the hero she mentioned, he also actually knew her.

 

If that had been a surprise though she was absolutely floored by the revelation that his powers were related to a government secret. She was about to acknowledge that she didn't need to know that badly when he started explaining. Was she on a list now? Did some agent in a black suit just write her name down on a piece of Paper That Did Not Exist as a potential leak?

 

... That was probably a bit dramatic, but still! But it did give her further points of inquiry. Definitely a topic to talk about while they were still in the air. "Okay, most of the ways you might extend the duration that I can think of you've probably tried, but the ones that pop to mind are trying to dunk yourself into that formula again or maybe seeing if you have greater metabolic needs? If you're burning through sugar or protein super quick that could be the problem." She pauses, trying to think of anything else that could help. "Uh, I can't really think of anything else that might be practical to try based on what you've said. Anyway, I think we can start our patrol. Any last questions?"

[Poncho]

"I've been trying to sort of 'stretch' myself if that makes sense. You know; do a little more each day to try and get more endurance. I figure it's like a muscle you got to work out, so you have to stretch it over and over and strengthen it until it can do more, same way you make your biceps stronger or whatever." he explained. He hadn't much minded talking about the source of his powers to this hero; what benefit would there be to her to know it, and what negative would happen to him? All of this was pretty well handled, he was pretty sure a lot of the more higher ranked heroes could have obtained the information he gave her pretty easily given the basis of his powers.

 

"It might not work, but it's what I'm trying. As for uh...more dunking, so to speak. Well, let's say the formula isn't exactly available for us to use...that part is an actual secret, I can't explain anymore than that." he held up his hands. "And as for food, it's kind of the opposite honestly...I've been eating less and less lately. So maybe you're right that I'm draining my powers by not eating properly." he mumbled, rubbing his chin. "I'll have to start trying that." he nodded sternly.

 

"I think that's everything I guess. Do you have anything I need to be aware of that you have issues with? I mean, we're partners right, so if I need to work on something or be aware of any problems you might have, let me know."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice nodded along as Golden Star explained his efforts to 'exercise' his power. She had a decent grasp on how exercise worked, years of physical therapy when she was younger hadn't gone entirely to waste, the fight to keep some muscle on her body may have been a losing one, but had taught her a great many things.

 

She had tried training her muscles after gaining her powers, but hadn't seen results even after she'd found weights that she had to work to lift. Her pet theory was that while her powers gave her a baseline strength, her condition actually remained and so kept her from exceeding it. As he went on to discuss the reason they couldn't just use the formula again she was quietly reassured to know that he knew where not to tell and shifted her estimated chance of getting black bagged by some government agency.

 

She considered his comment about eating less. It could be that his powers are providing him the sustenance he needs, like her own powers making her not need to breathe. But... "I think it's worth a shot, but if you feel sick or anything definitely stop, it's not worth hurting yourself, but... sorry if this is a bit presumptuous to ask, but have you been under a lot of stress? Stress and fear kill your appetite, and well you seem to be handling yourself alright being a hero can put you under a lot of pressure that never really let's up."

 

She gave the boy an appraising look as he asked about any weaknesses she might have. It was an odd feeling to be the one being asked about such things. "My powers come from a mutation caused by a divine artifact. One of the side effects of this is that my body is more receptive to such powers, so I'm significantly more vulnerable to them. Oh, and if I end up underwater or something don't panic, I don't need to breathe." With that said she finished her soda and waved for him to follow, flying at a leisurely pace towards a seemingly random street corner near the riverside, where she settled quietly on the ground. "There's a small flea market going on about three blocks from here. We'll head there on foot, do a couple rounds there and then make our way alongside the river. There's not a huge chance of trouble while at the market but the area after it is a bit rougher, and with more traffic we might see a few pickpockets or other low level crime.should still be relatively safe since most people aren't dumb enough to pick a fight with two superheroes. As we go feel free to talk to people and stop if they need help. Even small things like moving furniture can save people a lot of struggle and pain. Any issues?"

[Poncho]

"Haha, stress?" He grinned. "Ahh, yeah. My whole life is one big ball of stress." he said casually, following her. "I used to have one really good friend and a bunch of decent friends. Now I've got a bunch of great friends and I'm worried about all of them and some of them even ask me to help keep them safe. Very stressful time for a newbie like me. I've helped fight off dimensional time beings, aliens that want to conquer the stars, and magical school girls from another dimension. And that's not even getting into what happened with the Atlanteans and the Deep Ones. Or that thing with the Gorilla. Plus, I've gone from being the smartest kid in school to only average, if that, so I'm spending more and more time studying to try and keep up with some of my friends, who probably think I'm a total moron, so that's been a pretty big blow to my ego." he laughed. "Maybe I do just need to calm down and take a break. The world isn't gonna end just because I can't keep up with my smartest peers, I have other uses." he shrugged. Slowing down had never been in his nature but he understood he needed to do it. Teaching himself to let go and do it, that was another matter all together.

He followed her down to the riverside to sit on the corner, running a hand through his hair as he checked his grandfather's watch momentarily before putting it back in the special pocket in his suit.

"Nope, makes sense to me. Take a little walk, do a round or two, help some cats out of trees, help some furniture, just make sure people know heroes are wandering around. I like it."

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice tried not to stare as Golden Star described the menagerie of foes he'd faced. The most out there thing she'd fought were the Goblins she'd fought the month prior, and the most threatening was Aaron's team, or the construction equipment when helping out ASTRO Labs. Was he facing weirdly grand foes, or was she living a strangely mundane hero life?

 

She didn't want to admit that she didn't really have much advice on the friends side either, her own social life mostly atrophied in the face of her heroic endeavors. She was steadily growing more confused about what sort of school he went to, but that was beside the point. She'd always done pretty well at school without great effort, but never pushed herself to be the best, since that would have cut into her time as Shooting Star. This kid definitely seemed like he was overloading himself. "Being a hero and a student is a difficult balancing act, trying to maintain your grades while still helping people, and it sounds like you've been up to your neck in problems. I can't promise much, but if you ever need a hand either studying or as a hero just flick me a message and I'll do my best to get there and help. I haven't really done tutoring or anything before, but it sounds like you wouldn't be comfortable asking your friends, so I could be a lower stakes alternative, and in a fight I can at least hit someone really hard."

 

She gave him a small smile as he agreed easily to the patrol. "You got it. Follow me!"

 

(GM post to follow)

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

The patrol began just as Shooting Star described, the pair setting an easy pace towards the bustling market. Several people passed by the heroes on their way, some giving them wide berths and suspicious looks, but most seemed content to simply rubberneck as the pair of Paragons passed by.

 

Within minutes of departing word seemed to have spread of the duo and the standard cape watchers began to filter out, pictures of the duo being taken, and conversations kicking up. Golden Star would be able to pick out snippets as people talked.

 

"Who's that?"

"... related to Shooting Star?"

"... nice to see another..."

"... called Golden Star! He's really cool and can glow!"

"... hope there's no trouble..."

 

And many more in that vein. Before long, people grew confident enough to ask the pair for favours, one man needing help unloading a couch from his van, a kid whose ball was stuck on a roof and an old woman who needed help carrying her groceries. By the time they reached the market they had developed quite a following, and many upon seeing the wares on offer began filtering away to peruse, while some shoppers began to enter the pair's orbit in their place, wanting photos of and with the pair of superheroes. The market featured a variety of goods, second hand clothes, tools, books, CDs and DVDs of all kinds and even a few records. One stand featured sculptures made from aluminium cans, while another had handmade jewelry.

 

Shooting Star was friendly and smiling throughout all of it, nudging Golden Star as they got to the market. "If you've got cash feel free to buy something, we'll be hanging 'round for a bit and might as well see if there's anything good."

[Poncho]

Michael politely smiled at Shooting Star. Honestly it did sound nice. He didn't want to appear weak in front of his friends, so having someone else to help him, someone who could take the slack off him if he was suffering, that could really be a great idea. But he didn't really want to bother her either. So even if he did ask for her help, he was certainly not going to abuse it. He had to grow on his own, at least at some point...

 

But he followed her down and smiled at the people talking to- or at- them. That was something he was good at. He had plenty of practice on his wave, he had a great set of selfie poses and a quick smile and was a quick hand with the pen and sharpie he kept in his pocket just in case. He talked gently, offered comments, and laughed. He talked about his relationship with Puma Negra, refused to talk about The Patriot or anyone else that he wasn't specifically related to; always talking positively but not directly about people he wasn't specifically connected to; he'd gladly talk up Spaceman or Gamma Buzz or Timeout right away with no issues, but he was more careful about other heroes, as an example.

 

Then he went about floating around softly; he helped move the couch, he floated up and grabbed the ball and even tossed a few rounds with the kid. Golden Star had a pretty good arm- almost as if he had been an athlete before he was a superhero- and he gave the kid a few pointers before they left. That was one thing that quickly became clear. Golden Star was extremely slow on this patrol, because he tried to stop and talk to everybody who wanted his attention and everyone that wanted his help. It was like he was carrying the entire group with him, which he kind of was.

 

"Uh, sure. That sounds nice." He said with a smile when Shooting Star offered it, heading towards the second-hand books to see if he could pick up anything interesting. He still wasn't leaving the group behind though, continuing to let them swarm him as he talked and took pictures with them.

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

If Shooting Star was bothered or concerned about the slow pace, she was much too busy smiling, chatting and helping people to vocalise it, although her selfie poses weren't quite as polished as Golden Star's own. Between the pair of them none of the small tasks took very long, leaving more time to continue engaging with the crowd.

 

Their arrival at the Market drew yet more people both to them and to the market itself, and it took several minutes to reach the book seller with the crowds forming around Michael. Eventually he got there, able to survey nearly a dozen large boxes filled with books, some old and well used, others less so, newer or obviously less read. It was a large mix, scifi and fantasy, textbooks, cookbooks, biographies, and even a large collection of vintage Freedom League Comicbooks from Castle Comics. The old man selling the books smiled under his moustache at Michael. "Anything catch your eye, son?"

 

Shooting Star meanwhile was surveying the aluminium sculptures, a soft smile on her features as she considered them. The duo enjoyed several minutes of this, before the crack of gunfire and the squeal of tires cut through the bustle. Immediately Shooting Star was on alert, seeming to jolt up several feet in the air to search for any immediate threats to the crowd. None revealed themselves, the gunfire echoing from the other side of a building, moving rapidly on a street parallel to the market. "Everyone stay calm! Golden Star and I are here and will make sure everyone is safe!" She looked over to Michael, her features resolute.

[Poncho]

"Oh let me look through those comics please. There are some from the older runs I'm missing for my collection. Assault of Adamant is one of my golden goose." He said, carefully flipping through the comics with the ateady hand of a practiced collector. If this was at odds with his class president looks and star player physique, he clearly didn't mind. "Some of these stories I've never even gotten the chance to read, other ones are absolute masterpieces." He was basically explaining to the crowd around him now, talking in depth about parts of the comics he liked, discussing specific linework by artists he enjoyed. 

 

When the gunfire shot out, he turned this way and that, trying to find the location. "Everyone down!" He yelled, grabbing the closest children he could and putting his body over theirs to try and protect them. His eyes were darting everywhere to try and figure out where the bullets would be comimg for before he settled his eyes on the first Star.

 

"Yes. No one panic, we're here." He said, floating up to move over to Shooting Star without getting caught up in the people. "We'll sort this out."

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

The crowd calmed quickly as the two superheroes took control of the situation. The gunfire continued to echo from the other side of the building, mostly single shots, but there was at least one automatic weapon. Shooting Star flew to meet up with Michael when another screech of tires cut through the air, followed by a loud crash.

 

It did not take long for the shooting to begin once more as Shooting Star spoke, "The market seems safe for now, let's go put a stop to that before it spills out any further." With that said she began to fly over the building, moving fast but not more than Michael could keep up with.

 

The other street was half blocked by a van that had tipped on it's side, five people, two young men with pistols and three teens with knives and bats huddled behind it, while a pair approached wearing all black metal armour, the design a strange fusion of medieval plate and power armour, with reflective glass making up the faceplate. One was armed with an assault rifle while the other had a shotgun. They had clearly departed what appeared to be an armoured muscle car to flank the tipped van. The shotgun wielder called out, their voice revealing them to be a woman. "Okay you rats, we can do this the easy way, or the fun way. The only question you need to ask yourselves is do you want a closed casket funeral?"

 

The people behind the van were pale, but didn't seem willing to surrender, the ones with pistols checking them over, before whispering something harshly to their young compatriots.

 

Neither group seemed to have noticed the heroes cresting the roof above them, allowing the pair the element of surprise.

[Poncho]

Michael followed behind Shooting Star once the people at the street market had fled. He cared a lot about making sure other people were okay before he headed off, following the person he was basically interning with at the moment. His face was conflicted and concerned at the war going on, not the least of which appeared to be how imbalanced the sides were; a brutal beat-down or street execution was worse than two supervillains tussling; at least you could be sure that those two weren't going to immediately kill each other or something, but if one of those two armored goons got ahold of one of the other five, they'd probably be toast.

 

And that meant he was ready to draw attention to himself, instead of the others; he could probably handle a shotgun or assault rifle better than a totally normal person, even if he also wasn't immune.

So he landed on the roof and prepared to announce his presence.

[Kaede Kimura]

Shooting Star 

 

Alice looked dow ln at the street next to Michael, recognizing the group behind the van but not the armoured duo. In a hushed whisper she filled Michael in, "The five are part of a small local gang, they have more guts than sense, normally not much trouble but I'm guessing they pissed off someone with more firepower than they can handle. I'll engage the pair if you could keep the others from getting away, we need to find out what they did."

 

Her piece said she flew off the edge of the roof to land silently behind the duo, hand reaching for the one with the assault rifle as she spoke. "I think playtime is over everyone. Put the guns down or I'll be forced to confiscate them, and I have a bad habit of breaking them." She lifted the man off the ground to demonstrate as the woman next to her swore, readying her Shotgun.

[Poncho]

Michael nodded, then did as asked, going bright yellow as he descended down onto the street, behind the car where the other gangsters were hiding with their guns.

 

"Hello, Hello there. I'm aware you're in the middle of a firefight but I'm going to have to ask you to cease your shooting; there's a street fair going on nearby and you're disrupting it. If you'd be so kind as to put down your weapons and relax, we'll get this all sorted out and no one will have to worry about people getting hurt or killed. That'll be easier than any sort of brawl or fight."

 

He was ready if he needed to be, ready to try and keep them all pinned down, but he was hoping they would just stay put, though.

[Kaede Kimura]

GM

 

The armoured man cursed viciously as he found himself suddenly jerked from the ground, Shooting Star's grip upon his armour much to strong for him to break as he struggled. Instead he slammed his chest into a marking in the center of his chest which lit up dark blue, calling out "Taibhse!" before suddenly turning translucent and colourless and sliding free from the heroine's grasp. He spun while retreating rifle lining up on the heroine. Once more he spoke, "Mallacht" and four blue runes lit up down the length of the barrel.

 

The crack of automatic fire tore through the air as ghostly bullets slammed into the heroine, and one of the runes faded away. Thankfully for Shooting Star, she managed to launch herself backwards at a similar speed to the bullets in time that they barely impacted. This quick movement also saved her as his compatriot had just lined up her own shot, gleefully shouting "Lasair!" Five runes glowed an evil red before flames spewed forth from the shotgun and one of them winked out, buckshot scraped across the ground, leaving scorch marks as smoke poured from the barrel.

 

"F***ing missed! She's quick!"

 

Alice, for her part swung around to strike the villain who had tried to shoot her, but her own disorienting flight and the smoke filling the air caused her fist to sail past the villain who ducked away from any follow up strikes or grapples.

 

On the other side of the van, two of the teens seemed receptive to the idea of having a superhero in between them and the gunmen, although the two older gang members, and the smallest of the teens seemed more willing to defy their saviour, even as they all flinched at the roaring of gunfire behind them.