Rocket Man (IC)

[Avenger Assembled]

Joan Collier sat at her desk, scratching away at her latest article on superheroic fashions. Her conversation with Erin White had gotten her thinking about the way that superheroines dressed, or rather were encouraged to dress by the pressure of gender roles and the way women's bodies interacted with society's demands on superheroines. She'd talked to Fletch Beaumont in advance, and he'd advised her to cut out the criticisms of particular heroines who might well take offense to the message. At least there's a lot of good to say, she thought to herself as she wrote, Those kids at Young Freedom don't dress like strippers, and whatshername on the Interceptors is well-dressed. It's just a few bad apples...

Outside, Lady Winter rode in on a column of ice, a note in her hand.

Dasha: I'm a friend. Come meet me in my office at noon Monday at the Freedom City Ledger so we can discuss a mutual problem of ours.

Joan Collier

It had come by mail to the ice-wielding heroine's seaside home, one of the first pieces of personal correspondence she'd gotten there. And what could be more mysterious, or more tempting, than this? There was a handrawn map on the back of the note, specifying exactly what window she was supposed to be at when the hour of noon came.

[Darksider42]

"Hmmm..." Lady Winter looked again at the letter as she slide across the skyline of freedom city. The name Joan Collier did not ring any bells, even though from what she guessed was somehow involved in the freedom ledger. The fact someone actually knew her name was actually some cause of worry. Had someone managed to find out about her past? Were they going to attempt blackmail or hand her into the police? Just because someone claimed to be a friend did not mean they truly meant it.

Still it peaked her curiosity enough to look into it. So here she was, sliding across a long pathway of ice towards the window marked on the map. The glass was already starting to show signs of frosting over when she peered through the window and knocked on the window. Lady Winter was in her usual attire for superheroing, a white bodysuit and a matching fur coat. Time to see who this Joan is and how the hell she found out about my name.

[Avenger Assembled]

Joan frowned when she heard the knock at her window, and tensed when she saw the blue figure outside. Isn't that...Lady Winter, the cryokinetic? It took her a minute to place the other heroine, who she didn't know at all. Hoping she was about to be confronted on a negative article rather than about her secret identity, Joan got up from her seat and carefully made her way to her window. The Ledger building was old enough that the windows actually did open, and she cracked her window open to peer over at Lady Winter. "Can I help you?" she asked, a little suspiciously. Joan was a tall woman, big enough to lean out of the window as she talked.

Looking down, she caught sight of the pickup truck stopped in the middle of the street, and the long metal tube in the back pointed straight upward. "I...GET DOWN!" Suddenly, gigantic tentacles erupted from the sides of the tall woman Lady Winter was talking to as Joan grabbed her and yanked her out of the way as a TOW missile's shell went flying past both of them, arcing into the sky to explode harmlessly away from the skyscrapers all around. Black was erupting all over Joan's body as her costume burst into view, covering her body as her tentacles whipped through the air. "What the devil!?!"

[Darksider42]

"Hello. I'm here about-" Lady Winter was caught off as she suddenly found a tentacle wrapping around her. DAMN! I knew this was a trap! She though as she was dragged into the window. She heard a distant explosion as she tumbled inside the building. Without much though, a very large hammer made of ice quickly formed in her hands. "Vat the hell iz going on?" She shouted, struggling to her feet, a little bewildered right at that moment to notice Joan change into Fusion.

[Avenger Assembled]

"You tell ME!" said the black-clad tentacled titan, her arms whipping out to rip the frame of her window right out of the wall, pulling it inside so that no one would be hurt by falling debris or broken glass down below. "They shot at _my_ window! Whoever they are, they're down in that red Ford." Suckered tentacles clinging to the hole in the window, Fusion turned and looked at Lady Winter. "We're going to need to move fast and hit them hard if they're carrying any more military-style ordinance. I can only do about thirty-five if I'm not high enough to glide on my mantel. How fast do you fly?"

[Darksider42]

"Fast enough if I'm sliding down." Lady Winter said as she dusted herself off quickly and heft her hammer over her shoulder. She was going to have some choice words with this woman once this is over and done with. She peered out the window and managed to squeeze past, another pathway of ice was already forming near the remains of the window as she stepped out. It wasn't long until she was sliding past, making a beeline towards the source of the attack.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Right then. I'll ride you, we'll get there faster. Depending on what armaments they're carrying, we can't let them get away, much less go crazy in a city this big. Let's roll." Fusion wrapped herself around Lady Winter without hesitation, black tentacles hanging onto the other woman's midsection as she joined her on the slide outside. "If you can get close enough, I can drop onto the truck and disable it; I've done it before," she said, her voice the calm, assured tone of an experienced superhero. "Or you can put an ice slick under the tires and throw them off, if that's something you do. Either way, time to go!"

[Darksider42]

Lady Winter nodded as they both made their way to the source of their attack. did not expect to be this close to another heroine so soon. She though, though the tentacles were not making her feel better about Fusions proximity. "You try jumping on top, I'll see what I can do about helping." She said as they got closer to the truck.

[Avenger Assembled]

"Faster," said Fusion imperiously, keeping her gaze fixed on the wildly speeding truck below them. "Yeah, you better run, ASSASSIN!" she yelled as the two heroines sped along on a column of ice, just inches above the cars below as they kept up with, but did not get closer, to the veering truck. The driver was good enough, and smart enough, to keep his car speeding along amid a legion of other cars to make attacks harder. "Just get me within fifty feet, and I can grab that little SOB..."

[Darksider42]

Annoyingly fast. She thought as she leaned forward, ice forming ahead of her much faster as she gained speed. Her hair and coat whipped around her as she raised her voice to fusion. "OK, I think we can reach him in a few seconds, hold on tight until you are ready to drop down." She focused hard, trying to make sure she could keep forming a path to slide on without moving faster than she could make ice.

[Avenger Assembled]

When they got close enough, Fusion dropped onto the back of the truck. "Hey, jerkwad! Welcome to Freedom City!" she yelled, her tentacles lashing out as they burst through the back of the truck's cab. She caught the truck driver around the midsection, and yanked him out of his seat, through the broken window, and into the rear of the truck bed with a shriek of rupturing metal! Before Lady Winter could be in shock at her companion's brutality, she saw the spray of gears, and realized the now-shattered driver was a robot! But that might not help, because the robot's unexpected fragility meant that the truck was speeding out of control!

[Darksider42]

Thats...going a little too far. The blue Russian though as Fusion yanked the man out of the cab and essentially broke him into pieces. Even if he was a robot, she was certain that heroes do not practice that sort of brutality. Seen worse though She didn't have much time to contemplate on that thought though, the fact the truck was now starting to veer out of control without its driver drue her attention. Lowering herself not far from the runaway vehicle, she willed a blast of cold air towards the center of the cars wheel and froze the moving parts as best as she could.

[Avenger Assembled]

The truck shrieked to a stop, Fusion's quick tentacle-jostling enough to make it freeze to a stop off the road in an unfortunate construction ditch (though luckily empty) rather than actually blocking the traffic. Fusion bent over the broken remains of the robot, sorting over it with a disconsolate look visible on her masked face. "Well, I botched that one," she said out loud, glancing up at Lady Winter. "Do you know anything about robots? Or do we need to trace through the truck? I know a guy at the DMV..."

[Darksider42]

"I really don't." Lady Winter said as she stopped on the grown next to the truck. "I usually just end up smashing them to pieces." She looked at the smashed pieces of robot and sighed. She figured that they wouldn't be getting answers from it, or at least to her limited knowledge. "We will have to go with DMV. Robot not much use to us like this."

[Avenger Assembled]

Fusion did manage to find the license plate, picking through the rubble with her tentacles like long sinuous fingers, but couldn't pick up anything else from the debris. "I suppose we'd better get moving, then." She studied the ice-wielding Russian carefully, her narrowed eyes visible as great white silhouettes through her costume's confinement. "Why would anyone want to kill you, anyway? And do it right in front of my office?" She hmmed, and went on, "Come to think of it, that might have hit both of us from the angle it came at."

[Darksider42]

"There are plenty that would like to kill heroes...Though I haven't angered anyone that can fire rockets at me." Lady Winter said, crossing her arms and looking at the tentacled heroine. "Main reason why I show up at window was because someone sent me letter. They knew my old name so I came to the spot dictated on note." She quickly fished through her coat and pulled the afore mentioned note out. "It says that the person who sent me note was Joan Collier and made referenced to a "mutual problem. Whatever that meant."

[Avenger Assembled]

Fusion's blink was visible through her costume. "What? I didn't send this! I've never seen you before in my life!" She hmmed for a moment, rubbing her chin absently with a long, suckered tentacle. "They must have been going after both of us...which means it must be someone who knows your identity! And MY identity!" She advanced on Lady Winter, tentacles lashing. "Who knows who you are?" she demanded, careful to keep the note from getting lost. "Who could have found out? If they could get you, they could target your friends...and my family!"

[Darksider42]

Lady Winter frowned at the Tentacled heroine. "I figured as much. I never even heard of you before today. Had I known who sent letter, I would not have willingly walked right into an obvious trap." She explained as best she could. She was trying her best not to show the same amount of worry as Fusion. It wouldn't help if tempers flared right at this moment. "I suspect a few people, though none of them would have been so brazen as firing missile in the middle of downtown and I have long since abandoned my old identity when I became...This. It would be a little harder trying to find out who I was I think" She crossed her arms and thought about who could have done it. The gears in her mind turning. "Though why take you down as well...That is something I am yet to come to an answer to. They must desperately want to see us both dead for some reason"

[Avenger Assembled]

"I've made a lot of enemies over the years," said Fusion shortly, restraining her lashing tentacles by sheer force of will. "And apparently so have you. I might have survived the rocket blast, I've taken some big hits in my time, but probably not that AND the fall out the window. Not to mention all my coworkers...Lord. Look, let's get out of here." Her tentacles whipped up, high up, wrapping around the light post overhead with a wet schlucking noise. "Do you have a place to stay?" she said suddenly. "Somewhere you can defend in case of attack?"

[Darksider42]

"I have a small home near the ocean." Lady Winter said as she kicked off the ground and started forming a pathway of ice underneath her. "Though if you are suggesting that you wish to stay there, I would bring something warm." She said, looking at the heroine. "Should look into that licence plate, unless they just stole that van. If it is, we hit dead end." She really hoped they did not. The Blue Russian hated the idea of not knowing who would want her dead this badly.

[Avenger Assembled]

"I was going to offer you space in my home, actually," Fusion admitted. "And...and I'd appreciate it if you did," she said suddenly. "If they know you, they'll be gunning for both of us anyway, and I'd like to think that someone will be watching over my family in that case besides just me. I'm not on a super-team, not anymore. I haven't exactly made a lot of friends in this community, either, not after that thing with the Scarab." She sighed softly. "I'll get the license plate looked up, I know people who can do that. But I doubt they can get it done before tomorrow."