Hammer and Anvil [IC]

[Electra]

Stesha gave her a skeptical look. "If you want to, but I'm not sitting next to him that whole time. I foresee having a hand up my shirt before the first schlub-flipping. Hey, I've got it!" she suggested. "We could go out and buy some pepper spray, and solve both your problems at once! Nothing like a little bit of chemical warfare. I once made a flower that I thought would put people to sleep, but it turns out to only work on me," she admitted ruefully. "That's sort of counterproductive. Do you really want to go in there with him?"

[alderwitch]

Taylor lifted her chin and grinned, "The Drew's of the world don't hold any fear for me. I think he's a perfect candidate for your stun flower. In fact, if we do the partner thing, I may just let him pick me. I'm pretty sure I can break his nose and make it look like an accident. That memory alone will tide me over for the next month and a half at work. If nothing else, we can rule out the sort of self defense we don't want to know."

[Electra]

"Okay, it's your party," Stesha agreed with a laugh. "But don't say I never ran interference for you. At least if he tries anything, I'm packing heat." She patted the daisy behind her ear. "It would be more satisfying to see you throw him, though. I'll try and have my phone ready." They joined the end of the line of people waiting to get a spot. Many of them seemed to have books with the same guy's face and impressive biceps on the cover, so maybe there was an autograph session at the end.

[alderwitch]

"Well, you know. I know kung fu." Taylor said dryly as they slipped in to seats in the back. Their martial arts 'guru' mixed his starting speech with a lot of buzz words. His spiel seemed to be how martial arts leveled the playing field and that you didn't have to be the biggest or strongest to be the best you could be.

Taylor murmered to Stesha, "Which is why, of course, he looks like he's done a zillion 'roids."

The talking part was blessedly short before he started first to demonstrate moves on some of his compaions (both Taylor and Stesha had seen better), and then began to pull up volunteers from the audience.

[Electra]

"Hey look," Stesha said with a grin, pointing up towards the front. Drew, with an empty seat on either side of him, was raising his hand. "He has no idea what he's in for. Go on, Taylor," she encouraged, "you know you want to. This could be your crowning moment. Raise your hand!" Helpfully, she began pointing to Taylor, trying to catch the speaker's attention.

[alderwitch]

Taylor grinned enough to dimple both cheeks before she dutifully stood up. It was the first - and probably last - time that Stesha had ever seen Taylor try to look as harmless and young as possible. She bounced up and down on her sneakered toes, pony tail bobbing as she waved her hand for all she was worth. To both of their delight, Taylor was chosen. Less pleasing, Stesha also managed to get their attention with the 'help' and they both were invited up for demonstrations. After all, they were both fragile and harmless looking, right?

With ill concealed glee that was fortunately misconstrued, she made her way up to the stage and let Drew do his usual thing of glomming onto her. It was easy for once to put up with the too friendly hand on her back as she dutifully watched the man make a fist and then did her best to produce the most limp-wristed loose fist she could come up with which she showed to Drew with a smile that had a little too much teeth.

Stesha's partner, on the other hand, was a slim young man who looked like he might either throw up or pass out. He, poor lad, had been shoved forward by some 'friends' who were now laughing and jeering from their place a few rows back.

[Electra]

Stesha gave her partner a reassuring smile even as she made a fist, using her other hand to make sure none of her hairpins were coming loose. Most of her attention was centered on Taylor and the abominable Drew. Drew was leering even bigger now, and his hands were making spasmodic little grasping motions, as though he couldn't wait to try and get Taylor into a hold. Eww. Despite Taylor's reluctance to make a fuss through official channels, that young man needed some dealing with. She wished Moira was around. Moira would know exactly how to dismantle a guy like that.

She grinned over at Taylor, then refocused her attention dutifully on the instructor as he started talking about the importance of maintaining focus in a fight. That wasn't always her best thing, so it seemed important.

[alderwitch]

Taylor forced herself to bid her time. She was pretty sure that she could toss him off the lifted stage if she positioned it just right. When the hand slipped up her thigh, however, all Taylor's good intentions flew right out the window.

Instead of the proscribed hip toss, Taylor stomped on his instep and twisted as she drove an elbow back into his nose with a far too satisfying crack-pop.

"Oh, no! I'm sorry, Drew. You startled me and I'm terribly ticklish" The lack of any actual remorse was covered by Drew's shrieked, "Augh!" and the response of medical personnel to the scene.

[Electra]

Stesha faked tying her shoe when she was supposed to be trying her throw, saving her hapless counterpart the stress of being practiced on, and allowing her to concentrate on the entirely satisfying visual of Taylor laying the smack down on Drew. It didn't look at all like Taylor needed any self defense classes. Bouncing up from her crouch, she raced loyally to her friend's side. "Oh, Taylor, are you okay?" she asked, all solicitousness. "Did you hurt your hand? Do you need some ice?" Drew was still sprawled on the ground while a paramedic wiped his nose and asked him how many fingers he saw, but a heroic effort kept Stesha from bursting out laughing.

[alderwitch]

Taylor gave Stesha a look of wide-eyed innocence. "Oh, some ice would probably be good. I think I bruised my elbow. Ouch!"

She closed one hand around her elbow as if it really hurt and with one more abashed, "Sorry, Drew!" quickly made her way out of the crowd with Stesha before she lost in completely. It would completely ruin the scene if she burst into laughter. It might have been a little mean spirited but that memory of her sketchy supervisor sitting on the floor and clutching his bleeding nose would get her through many a long night at the library. As they made to the edge of the crowd, a few stifled chuckles started to bubble out.

[Electra]

"Uh-uh," Stesha muttered, biting her lip, "if you lose it, I lose it..." They both held it together just long enough to get outside before Stesha broke down in peals of giggles. "Okay, that was worth the whole evening, right there," she said between spates. "The look on his face..." She wrapped her arms around herself as a few mirthful tears started to gather. "Maybe you can wear an arm brace to work, really rub it in a little."

[alderwitch]

Taylor laughed until she was holding her stomach and leaning against the wall. Just when she'd start to get herself under control, Drew's shocked expression would come to mind and she'd let out another peal of laughter. "I don't need to. I'll just keep appologizing. 'I'm so sorry, Drew'. 'How's your nose, Drew?' I'm pretty sure I broke it. He'll be black and blue for days!"

Finally she managed to catch her breath, "It was worth it. Even if everything else was a total wash."

[Electra]

"Well it's not like you need a lot of lessons, at least, not the sort that guy in there was teaching," Stesha pointed out, mopping her face with the edge of her sleeve. "That was some kind of textbook jujitsu move or something you used in there, I'm sure of it. Maybe they should have you teach the class next time. 'Self Defense Against Jerks,' they could call it. I'm sure it would be a big draw on a college campus. Especially if they put this on the poster." She pulled out her phone and called up a rather decent photo of Drew reeling backward, his hands over his nose. "I couldn't get the actual moment, but I thought you might like to get this framed," she chortled.

[alderwitch]

"I'm not sure what it was. It's just something I picked up from one of my instructors. It's just an elbow to the face. I don't actually know any martial arts, just some catch-all brawling," Taylor demured. "I'm sure you could pick it up in no time. Mostly you just find the fastest way to drove their nose into their brain pain or smack 'em once in the throat. It's all pretty basic."

She leaned over the phone picture and started laughing as she pulled hers out. "You have to send that to me. I'll make it my background."

[Electra]

"Nose in the brainpan seems pretty effective, though in this case I think it was more like an empty skillet," Stesha quipped, punching buttons on her phone to effect the transfer. "There you go," she said when Taylor's phone chirped. "I didn't even have to use my flower. Though he might have appreciated it, come to think of it. Oh well!" she decided cheerfully. "And I even put on my workout clothes, so that totally counts as working out, even though I didn't do a doggone thing. A good hour's work, all around."

[alderwitch]

"Ha!" Taylor crowed as she pushed buttons on the phone to set the picture as its background. That would make her smile everytime she saw it for a good month. For once her mood matched her outward appearance, as she wasn't focused on this or that crisis. Instead she looked young, with a happy flush on her face as she leaned against the brick will with her eyes down on her phone. It was a bit of a window into what Taylor must have been like before the cloak and cowl.

Her smile dimpled her cheeks and she looked up announcing, "Got it. So, where would you like to go to, to celebrate our triumph. My treat!"

A rare treat indeed. Usually she avoided any sort of dining engagement but she didn't feel awkward around Stesh. She knew the other woman wouldn't care about whether or not she picked at the food or avoided it altogether.

[Electra]

"Let's go to Coldstone Creamery," Stesha suggested brightly. "They've got one right next to campus, as I recall. Ice cream is the perfect way to celebrate a triumph. Especially," she added with a chuckle, "since we have gotten our exercise already today. It's a gorgeous night, we can walk there and make our virtue complete. And you can give me the full account of what it feels like to deliver justice with your elbow of fury."

[alderwitch]

"That is my official wrestling finisher, I'll have you know," Taylor tossed her cell phone into the void with a distracted gesture and threaded her arm through Stesha's as they strolled to the brightly lit ice cream store. With most people still watching the spectacle of the martial arts class, the store was blessedly empty so not only were they able to grab ice cream, but they also snagged one of the better tables just out side. Perfect for people watching.

Taylor stuck one spoon in her Love It' size of mint and brownie ice cream and cocked a brow at Stesha, "So! There I was..."

She proceeded to tell an outlandish version of her vanquishing of Drew. There were chasms, and explosions. Even a car chase or two, before she mimed swinging her elbow back up, "-and, crack-pow! He was out like a light. I was going to use the double-axe handle, but that only works if you're Captain of the Enterprise."

After a moment or two after her story, she set in on her rapidly melting ice cream and asked curiously, "So, you and Dark Star?"

[Electra]

Stesha finished chortling into her birthday cake cone and wiped her mouth with a napkin. "Well, there's not much punching involved," she quipped, then settled down. "We've been dating for a little while now. Moira introduced us. I really, really like him." She considered saying more, but decided not to. Even she wasn't entirely sure about all her feelings at the moment on that score. "Sometimes he seems a little clueless, but then other times I think he understands everything and just doesn't let any of it bother him. Which is weird, but I'm getting used to it."

[alderwitch]

Taylor looked at her curiously as she finished the rest of her ice cream. She could sense that Stesha was picking her words carefully but she had no idea why, of course. It wasn't in Taylor's nature to press other people on their secrets. Considering the amount of emotional space she frequently demanded, it would hardly be fair to do so.

"He's an amazing person. One of the best I've met." Taylor said finally, wiping her mouth, "He was actually the first Knight, I fought along side... Do you want to hear the story?"

Maybe the story where Dark Star was stabbed in the chest and almost fell to the core of the earth wasn't the best story to tell his girlfriend, but Stesha might be curious about his Knightly exploits, and it was a curiosity that Taylor was happy to indulge.

[Electra]

"Yes, I'd like that," Stesha agreed, nibbling the edge of her chocolate dipped cone. "We don't really talk very much about what he does with the Knights, but I'm curious to know." She grinned. "Most of the time, when we're out together, it's nice to just be people and talk about normal things, even if we're a million miles away, but that doesn't mean I don't like to hear a good heroic story sometimes."

[alderwitch]

Taylor sucked an ice cream drop off of the side of her finger before she set down the cup and thought about the best way to start it.

"There were these two guys thrashing one of the precinct houses." Taylor explained, her hands raised and flattened out to gesture as she tried to tell the story. For some reason, she had a hard time talking about blasting someone without making the appropriate hand gesture, "Captain Knieval - I'm sure you heard about him on the news - and this bellowing wacko who was all head to foot in armor. Kneival was too fast for me to hit and couldn't do a blessed thing to me, so that part of the story is kinda uninteresting. Dark Star and this other guy, however, went at it. He had this black death-sword that could actually slice up Star's energy form. Dark Star threw some serious bolts at the guy but he was wearing some sort of hell-forged plate. Then the guy just stabbed Dark Star through the chest, and he fell down below the street. He stays ephemeral even unconcious. Not like me, you know. If I'm ever out, I'll pop right back into the closest dimension. Usually, it's this one."

[Electra]

Stesha's eyes were wide, a trickle of ice cream melting down onto her hand as she listened to the story. Absently, she dabbed at it with a laughably thin paper napkin. "He stabbed him? I didn't even know that was possible in that form," she admitted. "My hands just pass right through him when he's like that... so what happened then?"

[alderwitch]

"Things can affect us," In this, Taylor was actually a good person to ask questions of as she too spent a good deal of her time insubstantial. Of course, her transition back and forth was much quicker, "It just has to be out of synch the same way we are. I actually pass through Dark Star as he's energy and I'm out of phase with this dimension."

Science aside, she got back to her story with a little grin, "I fired off a blast that knocked both of the guys back and dove after him. I include that as my only moment of heroism because, really, everything else was Dark Star in the fight. So I found him recovering in a water pipe below ground and we teamed up to hit them at once. Focusing on the guy who stabbed Dark Star of course. I teleported above him and Dark Star came up right below him and we hit him with all that we had."

Her spoon twirled in her fingertips and she made a stabbing motion as she finished the rest of the story, "Dark Star and big ugly took each other out in this absolute explosion of energy. Star fell down again. I didn't know if he'd get better on his own, or solidify, or what so I went after him again. By the time I'd scooped him out of the earth, the bad guys fled and we had some very thankful cops. That's how I met Dark Star."

[Electra]

Stesha shook her head, licking up the ice cream that was threatening to fall out of the cone. "I don't even understand how people like you and him can keep doing that sort of thing day in and day out," she admitted. "I would've been scared to death. I know I couldn't have gone back the second time to take on the bad guy. Guess that's why they pay you the big money," she added with a wink. "Even if you aren't always hitting the bad guys, just being there is more than most people could do. That's one reason I was so reluctant to go out with Ace and do this costume thing. If you have a costume, that's a commitment, you know? You're saying, at least to yourself, that you're not some florist running around at night like a crazy woman, you're actually a hero. Which is kind of scary."