Whistling in the Dark (IC)

[Electra]

This used to be a nice neighborhood, Erin thought ruefully as she leapt from rooftop to rooftop in the Southside neighborhood, looking for the landmarks she'd marked on her map and getting the lay of the land. Some parts of it were still nice, but a lot of it was going to seed. Where she came from, most of it was a burnt-out ruin that had only been stopped by the freeway and the river, so at least it was better than that. It was good to keep low standards sometimes. In any case, she'd set herself the goal of getting familiar with the whole city before she applied to the Freedom League, and this was just one more step.

From her perch above a shoe store, she suddenly caught sight of a man running down the sidewalk, looking as though his life depended upon his speed. Curious, Erin watched him, wondering exactly what was causing him to run like that. Victim, villain, or neither?

[KnightDisciple]

The man running along the ground was, specifically, a robber. Or rather, an attempted robber. He'd tried to hold up a local grocer, when an...unexpected guest dropped by.

Said guest suddenly blurred through the air to stop about 20 feet in front of the man. Arms crossed over his chest, he was resplendent in his primarily white outfit. That he was hovering a few inches above the ground only added to the effect.

"You dropped your gun a half-block back. I realize you don't like the idea of jail, but maybe you should just give it up already? Would make it easier for you; you've not hurt anyone yet."

The would-be-robber, however, seemed...off. Probably high on drugs. He pulled a knife and waved it menacingly at the costumed hero.

"You don't scare me, man!"

The hero simply continued to float there.

"Really now..."

[tryrar]

Southside was pretty far from Dyne's usual patrol, but North Freedom had been pretty quiet for the last week or so, so Dyne decided he could use the variety. As he skimmed just over the rooftops, thinking it might be good to call it a night, he spotted the man running in the street. Curious, he followed the man to see what was up...and was in time to here the exchange between the hero and the now-revealed robber. He swoops down right next to them and addresses the hero. "Ho there! Do you think you might need a hand, or you have this under control, my good man?"

[Electra]

From above, Wander cocked her head and sized up the situation. She didn't recognize this hero off the top of her head, but he seemed to have the situation in hand. Still, it never hurt to have a little backup, especially with a squirrelly villain. She was about to drop in and offer a hand when suddenly a second, apparently unrelated hero dropped in! She'd seen this happen before, actually, it was bound to occur in a city like Freedom. Luckily, it almost always resulted in a team-up rather than a turf war. Fascinated, she perched on the edge of the building like a blue and gold gargoyle, waiting to see what the two heroes and their luckless quarry were going to do.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel turned to calmly regard the newcomer.

"I'm not one to turn down help, but I think I have this under-"

The twitchy robber suddenly lunged at Gabriel! Our charming hero calmly side-stepped the attack and gave the robber a firm slap on the back. The man quickly fell to the ground limp, groaning, as he seemed unable to move. Gabriel walked over and casually picked the knife out of his hand and slid it away on the pavement. He tapped the man once more for good measure, then stood and turned towards Dyne.

"As I was saying, I think I have this under control. He'll be fine, but he's not going to be moving much for a while."

He extended his right hand with a warm smile on his face.

"Call me Gabriel. I appreciate the assistance. Or offer for it, at any rate."

[rpgronin]

With the setting of the sun, Momentum bounded to and fro across Freedom City's Southside, the bitter chill of the constant rise and fall as he leapt and soared through the cool autumn air barely warded off by the tacky-but-practical hoodie the hero so frequently found himself garbed in. It was refreshing, really, the slight breeze on his face as he soared on high; a simple but familiar sensation which reminded the transplanted youth of his home he'd not so long ago left.

The night was particularly exciting, though that's hardly saying anything for a young man who frequently found himself sneaking out of his second-story bedroom window nightly after curfew. There hadn't been any crime, no hints of a scuffle or signs of a robbery to be had - at least not yet - but it was the thrill of traversing elsewhere, to someplace new and somewhat alien. Momentum had grown fairly familiar with the Midtown district since his arrival in Freedom City nearly a month ago, his nightly excursions to learn its nooks and crannies a testament to his strange sense of devotion or derangement as some sort of either inspired or delusional hero. But this place - Southside, as they called it - was wholly foreign, its seedier locale a nice change of pace from the middle-class and up-scale establishments the youth had since committed to memory.

From above, Noah peered down at the barely illuminated streets below; the tell-tale signs of streetlamps flickering along the roadside to light the path. And then something caught his eye: there, along the street, was not one, but two costumed individuals cornering a man. Even through the opaque goggles straddling the boy's face, the sight looked odd. Was the man in trouble? Was he a criminal about to be paid his dues? A misunderstanding? It was impossible to tell from so high up, the behooded teen already plummeting from his previous jump.

"Ooo! This looks like trouble."

As Momentum came to a clumsy, almost hapless stop as his feet touched down on the small roof of what he could only surmise to be some sort of shoe store, the teen hero ogled the spectacle more thoroughly. One of the gentlemen he readily recognized; it wasn't the first time they had crossed paths, Momentum and Dyne. But this other guy... no one he was familiar with. But hey, he didn't seem to be picking a fight with Dyne, despite the civilian lunging about dangerously towards the two, and that was good enough for him.

It was kind of neat, Momentum found, to watch more experienced heroes do what they did best. Sure, it might seem lazy, but sometimes it's better not to get in the way like that; a fact Momentum had learned the hard way since his heroic tenure in Freedom City began. And so he watched like some sort of red-breasted shmuck, hands stuffed in his pockets as the scene unfolded. Beside him, however, remained another individual, one he'd wholly failed to notice during his descent; too busy staring at the pair of men in heroic garb as they dealt with the odd-ball individual between them.

[tryrar]

"Name's Dyne. I am always happy to offer assistance for a fellow hero." Dyne smiles sheepishly. "I would shake, but I'm still trying to get the nuances of my powers, and I'm not certain of what the interaction of my field with you would cause." He turns to the robber on the ground. "I do have some simple plastic zip-ties on me that I carry for tying up subdued criminals. Want that I should go ahead and bind him?"

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel just smiles and nods.

"I understand. No hard feelings. And yes, that would be rather helpful."

He moved aside to allow Dyne access to the robber; the poor man still wasn't moving, and seemed barely aware of things.

"So...Dyne. You're pretty new to the hero scene, I take it?"

His tone was one of honest curiosity, as was his expression (what Dyne could see between the mask and hood, anyways).

[Electra]

Momentum suddenly felt a cool wind on his face, and before he could blink, he was suddenly face to face with his heretofore-unseen neighbor. She was obviously young, an older teenager in a blue and gold spandex uniform, but she held a five-foot-long baton with the ease of long practice, and her face was set. "Who are you?" she asked softly, "and what are you doing here?" One hero was coincidence, Erin figured, two was happenstance, but three... Well, three could still be coincidence in a city like this, but she was paranoid enough to be taking no chances. She wasn't in a threatening posture, exactly, but it was clear that she wouldn't take well to being messed with.

[rpgronin]

If there was ever a moment Noah could vividly feel his heart skip a beat, it was now. The woman had startled him more than a little, his own wiry frame whirling to meet hers not out of self-defense, but earnest fear. His eyes were wide, mouth slightly agape even as the femme fatale brandished a baton in the boy's face.

"I... uh..." he stammered, hands upraised defensively as his mind raced to find the words that would save him from being beaten about the face and neck by a gold-and-blue spandex clad girl. "I'm... uh... M-Momentum."

Swallowing to clear the familiar tightness lodged in his own throat, Noah peered back at the girl sheepishly.

"Who're you?" came the slightly muted reply, voice cracking under the sudden surprise and duress from the taller girl.

[tryrar]

Dyne carefully pulls out his zip-ties, and quickly binds the robber with them(making sure they were snug, but not too tight. Not good for his reputation is criminals were losing limbs due to cutting off the circulation to their extremities!) An observant person would note he was very careful indeed to not touch the ground at any point, though that left them to wonder why.

"Well, I have only been actively heroing for the last couple months, though I highly doubt you would have heard of me here in Southside. I mainly patrol North Freedom, but since there has really been no activity for about a week or so, I decided partolling in the south would be a refreshing change of pace." Straightening up, he spots a motion on the nearby rooftop, and points it out to Gabriel "Well, what's this? I just saw some movement on that rooftop over there, I think we should check it out." With that, he hovers over to the nearby building to investigate further.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel idly watched Dyne tie the man up, slightly curious as he just barely noticed how careful the man was being.

"Maybe I ought to consider getting some of those. And I actually haven't been doing hero work much more than that. I tend to stick to this area of town, myself, so no surprise we haven't met before. Glad to hear there are other new faces on the block. I've met other heroes, but they've all been pretty experienced, at least by and large."

Gabriel narrows his eyes slightly as Dyne points out movement. Rarely is such a thing "good".

"I've got your back."

With that, the sonic control quickly lifted into the air himself, matching Dyne's speed and elevation with little effort.

[Electra]

Erin eased back a little as she sized up her "opponent", who looked a little bit like he was going to faint. She flicked the bat closed with an expert spin and tucked it away, cocking her head to one side as she watched him. "Momentum, huh?" she repeated. "You're new at this, aren't you." He could be hero or villain, but he was definitely inexperienced. "I'm Wander. Come on, I'm not really going to hit you," she added with a sigh."

At that moment, she caught movement from the corner of her eye and turned to look. "Oh boy, it's a party," she muttered under her breath.

[rpgronin]

"Hey!" Momentum bites back cautiously as the girl retracts her extend-o-bat, unaware of the pair of men rising towards the rooftop he and Wander currently shared. "I'm... I'm totally not! I've been doing this for, like, ever!" he pleaded, more for himself than the bat-toting vigilante who'd so deftly snuck up upon him. The boy's voice, however, was about as confident by comparison to the spandex-clad counterpart present; nigh non-existent.

Momentum trails off, his lower lip locked in a death grip in his mouth as he bit down in contemplation. To say that the young would-be hero was rather awed by the woman's obvious talent, experience, and confidence would only be putting it mildly. She could have easily thrashed him in his moment of indecisiveness, frozen in fear and surprise. Either she was particularly benevolent for a criminal, or - at least Momentum hoped - was of a similar ilk as he was... or hoped to be.

"Is it, like, really that obvious?" the hood-clad hero whispers, still affixed on his respectable better.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel gave a polite cough as he hovered close enough to land on the roof.

"Evening kids. Everything alright up here?"

Here he looks awkward.

"Hm. I'm at a loss for either of your names. Name's Gabriel, at least with this mask on. I take it we all just ended up patrolling around here?"

Gabriel's voice and mannerisms might well go a long way to putting both kids at ease; he seemed like a likable fellow, after all. No aggression or condemnation; just amusement, curiosity, and calm.

"So, who're you kids? Code names are fine, I understand how things go. You need any help, or is this just random happenstance?"

[tryrar]

As he settles above the roof, Dyne spots a familiar hoodie-clad speedster...and actually bursts out laughing. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were stalking me!" Still chuckling, he shakes his head. "Hello, Momentum, it's nice to meet you again, but we sure seem to be bumping into each other a lot." He turns to the young lady with Momentum. "And you are?"

[Electra]

Erin took a moment to size up the two adult heroes, now that she had a chance to get a closer look. Neither of them were familiar, and once seemed to be little more than a shadow. The other one was pretty good looking, in a clean-cut sort of way. Neither of them appeared to pose any kind of threat. "I'm Wander," she told them both. "I'm with Young Freedom. I was just passing through here, when I saw your bad guy come along," she told Gabriel. "I was going to see if you needed help, but you had backup show up anyway. And then he dropped in on the roof here. Some nights are just like that," she said with a shrug. "You all typically work in Southside?" She decided now was not an appropriate time to critique Momentum on his poise, there was no need to embarrass him.

[rpgronin]

Rolling his eyes as the familiar silhouette of a figure greeted him, Momentum barely contains himself from making a particularly childish and sarcastic remark in regards to his supposed stalking. If it weren't for the fact the situation was already awkward enough for him, Noah might very well have given in, Dyne's mask-clad partner-in-crime-fighting presence withstanding.

"What he said," Momentum finally murmured out in response to his identity, clearing his throat afterwords in some vain attempt at regaining some semblance of dignity and professional self-esteem in the presence of his sometimes-colleague and the dapper looking guy now perching himself on the building. Four people with superpowers, gathered on a rooftop in the middle of the night without prior plans to do so; What were the odds? Pretty good, Noah surmised, as circumstance had brought the crew together in some strange mish-mosh of once giant odd-ball coincidence. Returning to the now, Momentum returned to face Wander before continuing the conversation.

"Sometimes," he again murmurs, a halfhearted truth if he were counting this first excursion. "I mean, not every night and junk. Can't, y'know, be everywhere at once."

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel smiled and nodded at the kids.

"Wander, Momentum, nice to meet you. And I do typically work in Southside, yes."

He turned slightly to face Wander.

"Thank you for being willing to lend a hand. Even if I didn't end up needing it, it's still an appreciated sentiment. And I think you're right about some nights. So it goes."

He turned to Momentum, a bemused smile on his face.

"Yes, I suppose we can't. No shame in that, Momentum. So long as you're doing your best, that's the most important part. Glad to see all ages are looking to the hero business."

He looked around at the group, and then the night.

"It's been a pretty quiet night so far. Do you all want to go somewhere slightly more comfortable? Or would you rather move and talk?"

[tryrar]

"Actually, I mostly patrol around Hanover and North Bay, but it's been so quiet the last week or so I thought coming to Southside would bring some more action. And well, I guess it did." He turns to Gabriel.

I don't mind walking and talking-or in my case, floating and talking." Though it's really hard to tell (what with light seeming to actually bend away from him, giving the impression of really being composed of shadows), one could swear he was smirking at his little joke.

[Electra]

"I'm down here because I need to get more experience with this part of the city," Wander told the others. "If any of you know a lot about it, I'd appreciate whatever tour you'd like to give. I figure if I get at least some patrol experience everywhere, then if I get called somewhere on a mission, I don't have to worry about getting lost or being in a strange place, you know? Anyway, walk and talk works fine for me. Are you all new in the city, or have I just not run into any of you before?" she asked.

[rpgronin]

Blinking for a second through his tacky goggles, Noah takes a breath as he considers how to answer. It was a delicate question; he didn't want to seem too amateurish, especially given the presence of no doubt more experienced individuals than himself. He had to be self-confident and poised, a heroic symbol of youthful optimism and enthusiasm!

"Uh..." he stammers, a great start to any confident statement, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Kinda new. To Freedom City, I mean."

"Smooth, Noah. Real smooth."

Looking downwards towards the incapacitated fellow from the clear vantage point, the subject of walking-and-talking proposed by Gabriel struck the young hero-in-training as a bit strange. It's no wonder that when he turned to face the shadowy floating form of Dyne and the white-clad man by his side that he cocked his head, jibbing a finger off towards the slumped over man with the zip-ties taught around his wrists.

"What about, y'know, that guy? You're not just gonna leave him here and stuff are you??"

[tryrar]

"...Good question. Have you alerted the police to the whereabouts of this robber, Gabriel? Or should I go ahead and call them?" Dyne makes a gesture, and suddenly a cellphone floats out of his pocket and turns on by itself.

[KnightDisciple]

Gabriel eyed the floating cell phone.

"Seems you're quicker on the draw, so you can make the call. There will likely be a couple of cars at the grocer he tried to rob, so he ought to be picked up rather quickly."

Still looking at all of his fellows, his attention nonetheless shifts somewhat to Wander.

"I'd be happy to give you a "tour" of this place. Even if I've only been operating for less than half a year, I have a pretty good mental map of the place. Do you want a street level tour, or a rooftop tour? As for route, I think I'll show you areas that tend to get more active, the major connecting roads, and any other places that come to mind."

He started to hover into the air, clearly waiting for the response of the rest of the group.

"Does that sound alright to everyone?"

[Electra]

"It sounds perfect," Wander told him with a nod. "I usually work from the rooftops, to get a better view. I've been spending too much of my time in Bayview or downtown when I'm in the city, so it's easy to get lazy and not bother to learn other things, you know?" She looked over the edge of the roof down at the captured robber. "As soon as the police get close enough that we can stop watching your guy there, we can take off. I've got pretty much the rest of the night open, so whatever you want to show me would be great."