Conflicting Intrests (IC)

[Raveled]

Being a superhero was a world of brand-new challenges. How to use one's powers responsible, how to protect the most people at once, and just occasionally how to make the most dramatic entrance. That last was on Ironclad's mind as she floated above an alley in the city center, silent on lines of magnetic forces. Below her, half a dozen figures in long coats were haggling over a briefcase.

There was two obvious sides. One group of four seemed like standard mafioso-types: in other words, good suits and guns. The other pair were dirty and unwashed, the coats covering layers of grime. The power suited heroine wondered idly what these apparently different factions had in common, but once she saw large stacks of bills being exchanged -- from the dirty pair to the mafiosi -- her questions were answered. Now, how to catch their attention?

[Raveled]

The two groups began to break up, the mafiosi heading to the street and the grungy group heading deeper into the maze of alleys. Ironclad debated trying to follow both groups, but dirty money was something that happened everyday. Something about the dirty pair with the briefcase was twinging the superheroine's senses.

It was absurdly easy to follow the pair from the skies. They took plenty of twists and clambered over fences and dividing walls, but never one glanced up. Rather naive, considering the city.

They came out on a side street. There was a dirty white panel van parked there; they pair ducked inside and Ironclad herd the engine struggling to turn over. The time for a decision was here.

[Raveled]

Ironclad drifted down to the ground quietly behind the van. Once her feet touched the ground, she switched the suit over to increase her strength. Carefully, almost gingerly, she lifted the rear wheels of the van off the pavement. She heard the truck catch after a few more attempts, and the rear wheels started spinning. Of course, since there was no contact with the road surface, no force and generated and the vehicle didn't go anywhere. The driver floored it anyway and probably ended up flood the engine, to judge from the sound.

Satisfied that the van wasn't going anywhere soon, Ironclad set it down and marched around to the side. Her fingers were small enough, even in the gauntlets, to work the handle, but why bother? Instead, she formed her fist into a blunt spike and punched through the door. Judging that her hand was in open space on the other side, she splayed her fingers and hauled back, ripping the door off its hinges.

[Raveled]

The interior of the van was mostly bare, rusted metal; apparently at some point the seats had been removed and never put back. The two grungy types that Ironclad had tracked were inside, cowering against the far wall. Their eyes were wide with fear, but with a suddenness that surprised the heroine they collected themselves and rushed her!

The first simply grabbed at the suit, trying to get a hold on her; Ironclad twisted her arm in a certain way the man's wrist snapped with a tiny, crackling noise. He fell to the ground, skin blanching with pain and clutching his wrist with his good hand. His companion lunged at Ironclad, a small knife in his hand. The superheroine simply stood and let the tiny knife score a line across her segmented armor, then punched out and knocked the second attacker back against the far wall of the van. His mouth snapped shut and he fell to the floor, boneless.

Ironclad heard the door open and looked up to see the driver fleeing down the street. She debated taking him down, too, but decided against it; someone who dressed in pajama bottoms and flip-flops at three in the afternoon probably wasn't a criminal mastermind.

Instead, she reached into the van and retrieved the metal briefcase. It was surprisingly heavy, and as she rotated it in her hands the weight didn't seem to shift at al. Either the case was packed tight or something small and heavy was well secured. Part of the girl wanted to rip the case open and see what was inside, but if it turned out to be a bomb or something radioactive she'd feel stupid and guilty. So she made herself wait patiently while the suit's sensors probed at the container.

[Fox]

The fearsome pajama mastermind didn't get far before being hurled back the way he came, skidding to a halt in an unconscious heap a couple feet from the back of the van mere seconds before a low, pitched whine started up from behind Ironclad. There stood Dragonfly, one arm outstretched, the noise apparently coming from a heavy, high-tech gauntlet...which was pointed directly at the hero's torso. Dragonfly's face - what could be seen with the visor in the way - was cold and impassive.

battlesuit - high tech? - powers unknown strength likely / man holding wrist - blast possible / standard on suits - sensors interests supervillain? need to get database online "You get one warning only. Put the case down and walk away. Its contents are not worth the trouble."

[Raveled]

Ironclad looked the other woman down and, well, more down, while her sensors probed the odd gauntlets and obviously hi-tech chestplate. "You're probably right," she admitted. "I just grabbed it off of these guys." She nudged the dirty pair with one boot, glancing down at them. "They look pretty strung out, wouldn't be too surprised to see that they're high or something. I'd be happy to hand this over to the proper authorities." She cocked her helmet to one side, meeting Dragonfly's gaze. "Now, where's your ID again?"

Unbeknownst to the other technologically-inclined heroine on the street, Ironclad was furiously dictating a message to her grandfather. Near the city center, Malcolm Dawes was reading the text message. Age hadn't slowed down his typing skills at all, and his fingers flew across the keyboard, trying all his contacts to figure out who this new enemy was.

[Fox]

Dragonfly didn't move an inch. confidence - experience? - quality construction on the suit; built it herself built for her inherited found too many variables - possibly outclassed "It's pointed at you. The contents of that case will not be reaching your 'authorities'. It's not leaving in any hands but mine. Drop it -" She paused, and winced a little. possible contents of case - tag and power source reused too many times - GXA-1202 HYE-80 too large CRS-5 would eat through case HYE-39 SDG-01 SDG-4x series possible case construction unknown impact dangerous? "-...carefully."

[Raveled]

Ironclad gave a small shake of her head. "I've seen bigger guns than that," she informed the visored woman in front of her -- and spun with surprising speed, rotating her hips to put her body between this new threat and the case. At the same time her fist came up, aiming a blow at her enemies' head!

[Fox]

"It is not a gun. And the size of a weapon is not--!" Cut off, Dragonfly ducked to the side, the armored hero's fist meeting nothing but trailing hair. "Fine. The hard way." far too close - defenses! Taking a quick step or two backwards, Dragonfly called up her force field, and a shifting...something sprung up around her, as if the air two inches from the edges of her profile was being distorted. Every few seconds a flicker of refraction would dart across her figure, like long pieces of space were being cut up, jumbled, and pasted back together.

offense - counter seek opening there! Throwing up the still-whining gauntlet and taking another step back she released a similar distortion straight at her new enemy - like a focused, rippling shockwave in the fabric of reality.

[Raveled]

Ironclad's armor took the shot, flexing slightly to disperse the blow, but some of it managed to get through. It wasn't like anything she'd encountered before in her short career -- certainly not a physical blow, but not quite a form of energy, either. It was more like, just for a second, her various bits didn't line up properly. It was a thoroughly unpleasant feeling, and it left her feeling a bit shaky on her feet. Don't know who this woman is, Ironclad decided, but she can't be allowed to just throw something like this around! The powered armor superhero charged again, not looking to land a punch this time but more interested in getting her opponent in a grapple. There, her suit's augmented strength would tell.

[Fox]

it worked! it worked it worked it worked it worked - tested on thugs but never at this range - interesting suit density resists scatter effect? good data - power loss minimal also good, effect needs adjusting more shockwave less fracture danger to fabric cohesion - coming to attack ag--oh jeeze Dragonfly barely snapped out of her thoughts in time to dodge the charge, swinging her other hand around to let another blast fly. "Really don't want to hurt you. Give up the weapons case, explain how you found it, will be happy to walk away."

[Raveled]

Ironclad felt another cold burst of dimension-distorting energy passed through her, and for a moment wondered if she was going to pass out again. Instead, she managed to shrug off the odd tingling in her limbs and turned to face her attacker again. This time though, instead of aiming a blow at the girl, she stuck the ground between them. The heroine's super-powered blows caused a localized earthquake, making the ground shake and jump beneath both women's feet.

[Fox]

Dragonfly was clearly expecting another punch, but didn't have much time to appreciate not having a fist fly towards her head before the ground bucked under her and knocked her flat on her back.

what was - physical power incredible - power supply must be - More than a little dazed, Mara scrambled back up onto her feet and threw out a hand for another blast...which completely missed its mark. stupid, stupid - care and precision - aim before releasing - reach dangerous, too long to stand up, need to get out of reach rapidly getting outclassed....

[Raveled]

Ironclad was quietly pleased that her groundstrike had worked, since she'd never tried it in combat before. Still, it was apparent that just trading blows wasn't working out in her favor; she had to get sneaky. She blink-clicked to a different configuration, and her suit shifted to a black-and-silver coloration. Turning, she dashed at a nearby building -- and disappeared inside without so much as raising the dust on the wall.

The building seemed mostly deserted, and the heroine moved easily through the structure, phasing through the interior. She trusted her suit to keep her oriented on the visored woman. If Ironclad could surprise her and catch her off guard, she might get in one good hit and be able to finish this.

[Fox]

Dragonfly blinked. "...what...?" phasing permeation insubstantiality - changing suit? very quick hard to catch possible methods? - reassess - shaken but undamaged, target is....

"....she took the case with her."

[Raveled]

Freedom City's history was a long one; the city had been one of the first settlements in the New World, and was fairly modern for its time. What that meant today was that many of the city's older districts, like the Waterfront, had wide, vaulted sewers running underneath. Ironclad was glad for that. Her suit would let her 'swim' through solid earth easily enough and her suit had an internal air supply, but she didn't want to try and blunder through blindly. Instead, she found the proper spot and rose behind her visored foe, grinning under her helmet. It took but a moment for her suit to switch configurations, and another moment for the suit's targeting systems to lock on. Her own blaster hummed as it spun up, and then she blasted away.

[Fox]

Dragonfly'd already turned around go head home and sulk when a glitchy, twitching warning indicator came up on her visor - she looked down just in time to see her adversary emerged and charging. "What-?" was all she got out; then life was brightness and pain for a moment. Though she couldn't appreciate the effect, being inside it, from the outside the lightshow likely looked impressive - as the blast hit it scattered, splitting off into a series of twisting, darting streams that flowed and jerked across the force field to the other side, where they shot off into the sky as largely harmless streams and sparks. For just a moment before settling down, the field was almost completely refracting her image, making her look less like a hero and more like a modern art piece, a thousand shards of herself sewn back together out of order. When her vision cleared she was - to her great surprise - still standing, though a quick query to her gauntlets told her that the force field had lost some strength. need to work on force field stability - rotation dynamic regeneration restructuring physics problem stabilizing - cannot take more hits like the last

Making a short sprint to put some distance between them, she whipped around and fired off a shot, hoping but not expecting much. losing ground - need other options....

[Raveled]

The shot was poorly-aimed and she ducked to the side easily. Even if her opponent hadn't gone down, Ironclad was willing to call the tactic a success. She'd never tried it before, and she supposed she could take out the visored woman by constantly popping out of solid objects, but the heroine still had no idea whats was in the case, and without knowing that she couldn't guess how it would react to the Phantom Generator. Nothing had happened the first time, but there was no way of telling what would happen next time. Besides, there were easier ways to fight.

Ironclad marched over to an empty car and lifted it with one hand, the case dangling from her free hand. She prepared to throw the car at the visored woman when a polite cough interrupted them. Ironclad's peripheral sensors showed a man in a loose business suit walking up the middle of the street. "I do hate to interrupt a good fight just as it's starting, but at this rate you're going to damage my employer's goods. And I just can't allow that." He stopped directly between Ironclad and the visored woman, smiling at them both in turn.

The heroine was put off by this sudden interloper, the vehicle still held over her head in one hand. She stepped to the side so that she had a clear line of sight to the other woman and called over to her, "Is he with you?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly slowly shook her head. unknown quantity - employer? - couriers unprofessional - this one wearing suit - dignified - organized? "....no." She frowned, taking a step backwards and flexing her hands. minor tingle - nerves or spacial array needs adjusting "....and no one buying what's in that case can be trusted with it."

[Raveled]

Ironclad would've shrugged, but with the lifting servos engaged that wasn't really an option. "Doesn't matter," she said. "I'm taking this to the police. Now, sir, if you'd move out of the way, I have a villain to subdue."

The suited man gave an overdramatic sigh, then he blurred and was suddenly standing in front of the armored heroine. His fists swung too fast to be seen as he swung a dozen punches at her in the space of a few seconds. Ironclad staggered back from the force the blow, but once she got her feet underneath her the heroine swung the vehicle straight down, like a hammer. The suited man blurred again and was suddenly standing next to the visored woman. "You'll have to swing faster than that," he sneered.

[Fox]

unknown enemy - super-speed - magic technology mutation inhuman parahuman variables - consider sna-- Dragonfly did a double-take, stepping away and throwing up one hand to blast the suited man who was now entirely too close for comfort. Her attention, though, was almost immediately turned back to Ironclad. "Excuse me? A what to subdue?" villains subduing villains? - unlikely speech for criminals - bluffing? hero?

[Raveled]

The suited man dodged easily to the side of the dimensional blast, suddenly appearing on the other side of the woman and repeating his flurry of too-quick-to-see punches. As his target staggered away in disorientation, he frowned between the two women. "You blasted heroes don't go down easily."

Across the street, Ironclad's suit shifted again and she aimed another shot between the suited man and the visored woman. "I'm the hero," she clarified. "She's the villain! I beat her, take her stuff! That's how this dynamic works!"

The suited man glanced between Ironclad and the other woman, a slow smile growing over his features. "Yes, it is, isn't it?" With another blur of motion he was behind the visored woman, pulling her to her tip-toes, his hands bending her neck at an acute angle. "So here's how it's going to go. You put that that case on the ground and fly up to, oh, the top of a building, or I break the girl's neck. Understood?"

[Fox]

Dragonfly spoke carefully, trying very hard not to move her head much. "Not...a villain. Can 'take my stuff' when you pry it from my lifeless fingers. Case included."

As she spoke, the force field around her wavered and fell, a couple tiny lights on her gauntlets going out. buy time - reset field - can't risk damaging gauntlets - barely holding ground as-is

[Raveled]

Ironclad held her hands up suddenly, going very still. Damn. Freaking villains taking each other hostile. "Alright! Just... don't hurt her, okay?" She walked to the curb and slowly, carefully set the metal case in the street. Glaring at the suited man from behind her helmet, she silently drifted up and over to the one of the buildings overlooking the street.

The suited man leaned very close and put a peck on the cheek of the woman in his grip. "Such a pliant human shield. It's so much more fun than when they wiggle." In a blur, he was bending next to the case. He picked it up, blurred, and was gone.

Swearing loudly, Ironclad floated from her perch over to where the visored woman was still standing. She didn't land, staying well out of arm's reach. "Well, that sucked," she announced to the world at large.

[Fox]

Dragonfly wiped her cheek with disgust, bringing her force field back up the moment she saw Ironclad coming back, glaring and muttering impolite things in two languages before lapsing back into English. "You...you...! You should have attacked him anyway! Should've..."

personal sacrifice for unknown case - one item safe too many others on the street - ultimate utility in staying alive - irate - calm thoughts "....nevermind." She threw her hands up, turning her glare to where she last saw the...disgusting villain. "Nevermind! Now a super-powered mystery man has goodness knows what to inflict on people. Will have to track it down again."