ic Supermarket

[Gizmo]

Jack didn't look concerned by the threat, per se, but his expression his harden immediately, smile fading from his face and eyes narrowing. Bounding into the air he spun about, using Smash's extended arm as a springboard to arc up and over the grey skinned brute. His energy blade plunged downward with all of that momentum behind it, sinking into his opponent to the hilt. While the sword left no actual cuts electricity coursed through Smash from the inside out, over-sized muscles convulsing until he collapsed on the park's broken pathway with a pained groan, acrid smoke wafting upward from his back.

Landing atop the unconscious criminal, Jack looked coolly over to Grab. "Cute. It's like a kitten thinking she's caught the laser pointer dot."

[alderwitch]

Bombshell had taken a deep breath as the elastic villain began her coil, her muscles going tense and tight. It was easy to mistake the tension in her body for fear - Grab likely presumed so - but Bombshell had never been the damsel. She only played the part when it suited her. As Jack's sword went clean through Grab's compatriot, Bombshell's blue-eyed gaze found Jack's. Just her eyes crinkled at the corners - her amusement brief before she let the breath she'd been holding go. It was an old trick, but still one of the best, as the sudden relaxation in her muscles provided just a fraction of breathing room. Twisting first one shoulder than the other, Bombshell twisted and compressed, her arms free first and once her hands slipped loose to brace on the top of Grab's coil, she pulled the rest of her body up, her hips shifting to slip free. It was smooth and remarkably fast as she twisted loose, braced for a moment on her upper arms before a final push cleared her from the coil. 

Bombshell's baton's lashed out as she tumbled loose, cracking Grab across the nose for her troubles as the blond made her escape in a controlled flip. As her booted feet hit the pavement once more lightly, she let the baton rest against her shoulder with her hip cocked to one side, "We don't dance to that particular tune, I'm afraid. Although, you've passed the thresh-hold of Jack's bar for annoyance. Care to wager what that wins you?"

[Gizmo]

Grab recoiled as Bombshell slipped away, both over-sized hands flying to her injured nose. She twisted about blindly, hoping to get out of immediate striking distance, before lowering her hands and taking in the scene in front of her: Smash knocked out on the ground and both the heroine she'd wrongly assumed was her hostage and a worryingly non-smiling Jack of all Blades facing her down. With her elongated height when she swiveled her head to either side she could see the police who had been chasing them having finally had time to leave their cans and come charging toward her, weapons drawn. Slumping in a gesture exaggerated by her putty-like form she sullenly muttered, "Fud youd guys. Fun, ah gid up. Ugh." Keeping one hand on her nose she raised the other into the air, resuming normal human proportions and glaring her displeasure.

[alderwitch]

"First smart move all day," was Bombshell's comment as she watched for a moment to make sure it wasn't a trick. Spinning the baton in her hand, she pressed it slightly against her hip so the weapon retracted back down to something that could once more be slipped away. It would be hard to mistake her as with these individuals but enough bad experiences had her moving away from the approaching police officers and towards Jack. It was really less concern over potential arrest and far more a desire to not be associated with these particular criminals. Bombshell had no patience for collateral damage. Her gaze skipped over the ruined market stalls and lingered on the people still being helped to their feet before turning back towards her partner.

"I wholeheartedly approve of the new costume but it seems like it might not be the most all-weather of ensembles. Not that I can throw stones, really. I used to wear a miniskirt and go-go boots after all." The light patter of Bombshell's flirtation was the same sort of banter that he'd always been treated to, and the sort that her alter-ego was well known for. The smile she offered, however, was real and mutely reassuring under her mask, "And the coat has such style. Didn't I owe you some swooning?"

[Gizmo]

Jack kept his crackling blade in hand a few moments after Bombshell had put away her baton, waiting until the police were within in shouting distance. A young officer reached for a pair of mundane cuffs at his belt before his more experienced partner smacked him unceremoniously on the back of the head and hefted a heavy duty plastic case from which she produced a field power dampener. Dragging the unconscious Smash away seemed to be presenting more of a logistical issue.

"Only if I don't beat you to it, mi cielo," the fencer answered with a returned grin, slipping his now empty hand around the blonde's waist. "Time to slip away before anyone asks us to fill out paperwork? Find somewhere private and see who can make the other swoon first?"

"Youd tood awr tha wurdst," Grab grumbled as she was cuffed and led away.

[alderwitch]

"I never stay to fill out paperwork as a general rule. Besides, I can only presume that any case is strengthened by not having my name attached," Bombshell agreed with a wicked grin, as she leaned into the hand on her waist. Pausing, she gave Grab's grumbled comments a jaunty wave. "Do give my fan club my fond regards."

Catching Jack's hand, she turned to lead the way through the overturned stalls, in the vague direction that they'd left coats, clothing and groceries but mostly away from the crowds. She had a knack for it, shifting between groups of people like it was all a rather large dance and towards emptier environments. When they slipped between building and an upended booth, Talya paused to reach up and peel off Bombshell's mask with gloved fingertips. "I swear, whenever I put this on in a hurry it ends up pinching like the devil," she commented absently, the cadence of her voice softening around the edges as she turned towards the fencer. Reaching out, she reached up to twine her arms around his shoulders, her mask still held loosely in one hand, "Would you believe me if I said I hadn't the faintest idea where we left your pants?"

[Gizmo]

Slipping off his own bandanna mask along with his wig Erik replied by pushing Talya up against the back of the utility shed and kissing her with a near-frantic urgency. One hand cupping her cheek while the other slid under her left thigh and pulled it up toward his waist, the swordsman broke away only far enough to press their foreheads together. "You're alright?" he asked breathlessly, searching as much of her expression as he could see from so close. Out of the rush of combat he had time to second guess himself and worry in a way training and instinct glossed over in the moment. "I didn't think she'd be able to hold you for long but I was just about ready to put her through the paper shredder..."

[alderwitch]

"You looked ready to cause more than a bit of mayhem - I saw your expression. But I'm fine. There's not a mark on me," Talya assured him with a soft smile, a little breathless from the kiss. Her hand, still in the soft leather glove, came up to mirror his; warm through the thin leather as she touched his cheek. "Though, to be frank, if I hadn't gotten a good breath in I might not have been able to get my shoulder up to break the hold. Those rubbery-sorts are a lot more of a pain to shake off than a pair of steel bracelets."

It was an admission she'd never have made before everything had changed. Talya had always taken 'never let them see you sweat' to a different sort of level but Erik deserved more than the utter confidence she projected at the world. After her honest admission, Talya leaned in to steal a kiss of her own, the gesture no less urgent than Erik's as she held him tight. Her gloved hand slipped down when she broke away, dropping to his shoulders as she ran light fingertips over the lines of his shoulders and arms. Talya's hands traced over the bare skin, as much caress as it was silent inventory. "You?" She wanted to know as the leg in his hand tensed against his hip to keep him close. "It didn't look like they were able to get a hand on you."

 

[Gizmo]

Erik make a sound that was halfway between an approving hum as Talya's knee cinches tighter against him and a laugh at the idea that the hulking bank robber might have managed to hit him. "Haah, that guy? That guy couldn't hit a coma patient who was trying to let him win." Intellectually he'd known that the former thief hadn't been injured in any significant way - he was confident he would have been able to recognize it in her movements even if he'd somehow missed it during the fight itself - but there was still a rush of relief to have it confirmed. Tilting his head he brushed a kiss against the edge of her jawline on his way down her slender neck to the collar of her catsuit. "...I guess we really ought to be putting on more clothes, huh?" They were still close enough to the scene of the fight to be able to hear more emergency personnel arriving to see to the market goers hurt by Smash's rampage. "Put a pin in this until we get home?" Despite the very good suggestion he didn't make any move to stop pinning her against the utility shed or fitting his bare torso against her leather sheathed curves as closely as possible.

[alderwitch]

"Why? Are you cold?" Talya murmured as her head tipped back to allow him better access to the delicate skin of her jaw. Her soft, husky laugh caught in her throat as Erik's stubble rasped against her sensitive flesh. The laughter they got from Talya in these private moments was such a different sort than her public face. The leather mask fluttered from Talya's fingertips, forgotten, to the ground below and she tangled both hands in Erik's short hair. Arching her back so that her shoulder blades pressed against the wooden shed, Talya shifted so that her other leg wrapped around Erik's hips as well; trusting that he'd have no trouble with her slight weight. Her voice dropped to a teasing whisper, "Because, I can help you with that, you know."

Honesty. Fidelity. Trust. She was working on all of those things for these people. But that didn't mean she'd hung up the devil on her shoulder entirely. No, sometimes the devil had the best ideas.

[Gizmo]

"Nnnh, Talya, you are a baaaaad influence," Erik bemoaned, dropping the hand on her cheek to support her other leg more comfortably and burying his face in the honey blonde locks cascading over her shoulder. He knew there was a very good reason that this wasn't the best time to focus the whole of his attention on the zipper of her catsuit but he had a tough time remembering specifically what that was until the recognizable sound of a rolling stretcher being hastily unfolded cut through the background noise of statements being taken and clean-up being organized with the West End's typical stubborn grit. "Alright, alright, home first," he insisted regretfully, the sounds coming out his mouth sighs as much as words. "This would be a really fun but really stupid way to blow my secret identity." Still lifting her off of the ground, he leaned back enough to give her a sly grin. "Plus we could borrow some training equipment and you could show me how that escape trick works."

[alderwitch]

"Well, you can't say that you weren't aware of my nature before all of this," Talya pointed out when he pulled back to grin at her. The corner of her lips kicked up in a bemused smile and she dropped her chin just a little to eye him, letting her blond hair drop back down to obscure that side of her face in a tousled version of her familiar look. Her gloved fingertips slid down his collarbone to rest against the hard muscles of his chest with her gaze dropping to follow her hands. "You have to admit, the risk of being caught does make it all the more enticing.... Oh, alright."

Her agreement was a soft regretful sigh. The temptation to test just how far this resolve went flickered through her clear blue eyes clearly before she gave in. Her lips curved for a moment in a siren's smile, her tone teasing, "But, if you're committed to this particular course of action, the question is am I demonstrating or explaining. Who gets to be the captor? Of course, you'd have to put me down first. Are you really certain you want to do that?"

Edited October 25, 2015 by alderwitch

[Gizmo]

Looking profoundly pained, Erik muttered, "Rub salt in the wound, why don't you. If we didn't have costume pieces lying all over the place..." Letting that bit of wishful thinking trail off he took a brief moment to enjoy Talya's fingers tracing the lines of his chest before rocking his hips slightly and gently easing her down to the ground. Even so he leaned forward to mouth another kiss on the opposite side of her jaw before finally stepping away and scooping up his shirt from the pile of discarded clothes in the grass. With the literal heat of battle having faded and his jeans and jacket slightly damp from the ground he actually was edging toward uncomfortably cold, shivering as he stuffed his bandanna back into an inner pocket. "Probably wouldn't take much to convince me to get wrapped up just now."

[alderwitch]

"All work and no play," Talya sighed with great regret. When Erik shifted, she dutifully unhooked her legs from his waist, landing lightly on her booted feet. Talya bent over to retrieve her mask from where it hand landed on the ground, tucking it into her coat's pocket before she began stripping off the tight leather gloves. Those also went tucked into a coat pocket. Once her hands were bare, she reached up to pull her hair out of the way and reach for the zipper on her catsuit herself to wiggle it down to where it wouldn't show below the neckline of her outfit, leaving her pale shoulders bare before she shrugged into her tailored coat once more. With her coat on, she reached up to put her hair to rights with quick flicks of her fingertips, adjusting the part to the one she wore in the dojo. Talya restored herself into order with a frightening amount of efficiency, really. She was about to offer more teasing commentary when she caught sight of his shiver.

Stepping forward, Talya reached out and slipped her arms around his waist, under his jacket to share her body warmth. She hadn't spent the fight half naked, after all, "Now's when you could use the hot cider, I imagine. Perhaps a warm shower before any further antics, hm?"

[Gizmo]

Erik looked considerably more pleased with his overall situation as Talya wrapped herself around him, placing one of his arms on her hip while the other heft the bag holding what little they'd managed to purchase at the farmer's market before being interrupted. "Before, during, something like that," he agreed easily, lopsided grin returning. Extricating himself from half of the embrace while keeping the shapely heat source close to his side the athletically built West Ender led the way carefully around the outer edge of the market, taking care not to be spotted until they were well away from the scene of the fight and could slip back into the crowd unnoticed.

By then the bank robbers had been carted off and most of the focus was on administering first aid to those who'd been injured but not badly enough to need to be taken to the hospital and on the smattering of news crews taking statements and shooting B-roll footage. "Think we might have to give up on the butter thing for today," Erik commented quietly, tilting his head toward Talya's ear.

[alderwitch]

Talya kept one eye on the news personnel as while at a cursory glance, she'd not be mistaken for her alter-ego's public face but it wasn't something she really wanted to trust on film. "Let's avoid being caught in any background shots, hm?" She suggested in undertone to Erik before turning her attention back up towards him. Her smile returned then as she tipped her head in towards his, "I'll make do somehow. If it all ends up going poorly, at least I can blame my ingredients. It's not like I promised anything more fancy than some biscuits. Hopefully the next market might prove a little less exciting for everyone involved."

She glanced towards a young man getting a scrape looked over and tsked under her breath. "So sloppy. I mean, I can't exactly throw stones about the re-appropriation of goods - although I have only very rarely lifted anything so mundane as money. Money is a rather boring theft. But all this damage, and those poor people. There's no need for it." Her arm remained around his waist, her bare hand warming the back of his shirt, "I mean there's six different ways one could lift a tidy sum from Freedom City National without anyone the wiser. Maybe seven."

Her lips pursed as if she were considering the matter.

 

[Gizmo]

"Hypothetically, you mean?" Erik added with exaggerated sweetness, raising his eyebrows a bit to get Talya's attention before she got too deep into her pondering. It wasn't as though he wasn't familiar with her less-than-legal past dealings but he also wasn't expecting to actually relapse any time soon. In an abstract way he actually found the idea that the Englishwoman really was skilled enough to pull off that sort of crime without ever endangering herself or anyone else sort of comforting.

His expression darkened a little as the walked through the debris of an overturned stand, the worst of the mess hastily kicked to one side while splinters and spilled liquids still covered most of the pathway. "...this is why I do it, you know," he spoke up again, almost talking to himself and the melodic hint of laughter gone from his voice. "The police would have run those idiotas down eventually but how many more people would have gotten hurt or hurt worse if we hadn't stepped in, yeah? Look at all this, I bet most of these guys don't have insurance or whatever for this sort of thing. Dammit." Talya could feel the muscles in his back ratchet tighter as he started to get himself worked up. "Should have been patrolling or at least paying better attention, stopped them before they got anywhere crowded."

[alderwitch]

"Hypothetically, of course," Talya agreed with a brief impish grin as she was drawn from her musings. With her free hand, she gave his chest a small placating sort of pat. She wasn't really pining for days gone by, so much as she enjoyed the puzzle of a good heist. Some people did crosswords, after all. Her head tipped towards the side to listen as his tone darkened and her gaze flicked up to take in the grim cast of his expression. Bumping her hip against his deliberately, it was Talya's turn to arch her brows at him. 

"You can't be everywhere at once - you already know that, really. It's all a balancing act, my love, and part of that balance is in keeping yourself sane. Human, even. Eden and Mia need their father and Min needs a husband. And you, dearest, need to be that for your own mental health. That includes trips to the market, and afternoons at rest. Vanishing down the abyss to try and stem the darkness will only ever drag you down with it." Talya paused as the tip of her boots almost tapped into an overturned flower pot from one stall. She unwound herself from Erik's embrace to bend over and pick it up with careful hands, cradling the wilted flower in her palms, "I bet Min can save this one. We'll give it back if she can rescue it. Regardless, though, it's a very long climb out of that particular pit. You did well - stopped a lot of further harm. Let the onus of the misdeeds rest on the shoulders of those who committed the crime. As to financial loss, well, perhaps you could suggest a fundraiser?"

Talya's tone was phlegmatic although the briefest flicker of expression came from skirting her own demons. Those were old, though, and familiar. Her tone lightened as she suggested the fundraiser, lifting the cracked flower pot slightly as if to elucidate her point and falling into step with him once more. "It seems like you already know half of the vendors already."

[Gizmo]

"Yeah, I do know, just hard not to play the 'if only' game," Erik admitted, shoving his hands into the pockets of his coat as he looked around. They'd been lucky, really; no one had been hurt so badly that a few weeks in a cast wouldn't have them literally back on their feet. The cracked and ruined pavement of the pathway were a reminder of how much worse it could have been but even that was no great hardship. The city was quite good about affecting even those repairs too minor to warrant Dr. Metropolis' direct intervention. He'd read somewhere that there was a higher than normal concentration of architects and civil engineers in Freedom specifically for that reason: lots of opportunities to pitch improvements when something needed rebuilding anyway. "I used to be a lot worse about it, believe it or not, before I met Min. Old habits die hard, I guess. Not as old as some people's old habits, sure..." He allowed himself a teasing grin, his momentary dark mood broken and some measure of levity restored.  "So, fundraiser? That's a good idea."

[alderwitch]

“Older person, older habits. I have had much more time to get set in my ways than you have,” Talya pointed out airily. She shifted the plant to her outside hip and linked her fingers with Erik’s once more. Without her gloves, her hands had started to grow chill so the fingers that threaded through Erik’s were colder. Lightly linking their hands palm to palm, she pointed out, “But you can play the game the other direction. If you’d been out crouching on rooftops there would have been no undercover heroes at the market here today. We also wouldn’t have eggs for tonight’s dinner. Both tragedies..”

A small smile curved her lips and she glanced over. Her blue eyes sparkled, “I have the occasional good idea, now and again. Plus, who doesn’t like a party?”

[Gizmo]

"So old!" Erik agreed enthusiastically, throwing his free hand up in the air for emphasis. "I see your point though, yeah. Brooding successfully avoided, promise." Giving their linked hands a brief squeeze he began heading toward the end of the park where they'd entered. "Not sure what we could really do as a fundraiser, though. I mean, like a bake sale or something? Because apparently I have the same level of creativity as a high school marking band director." He scratched idly behind one ear, shoulders shivering involuntarily again but starting to warm back up. "If we had a good spot for everybody to sell there stuff we wouldn't actually need to worry about raising money to get all the stands and carts and stuff replaced in the first place."

[alderwitch]

"Well, that's excellent. If you're going to brood, you really need to dress for it. Some place you can put one leg up and look out over your city with dramatic lighting. Can't just do it any old place," Talya teased him with a smile curving her red lips. She tossed him an amused glance and pointed out, her clipped words dry, "You're not supposed to agree that a lady is old, you know. Just because Min can blink her pretty eyes at me and declare my airs of wisdom 'cute', doesn't mean you're supposed to balance that out."

 She glanced back towards the ruins of the market at his commentary, "Well, you did mention the other, less enjoyable marketplace but I like the open air personally. I think you'd need more than a bake sale, though, for a fundraiser. Let's see, figuring that there were, perhaps, fifty-odd vendors of various stripes. Let's round it to sixty to make the math a bit easier. Most of those pulling in a few hundred dollars per day in various goods and the day is half gone already. So, sales today and tomorrow plus the replacement of stands... Thirty-five thousand in damages? Give or take, there were a few booths selling more expensive goods but most of them probably actually have personal insurance. Assuming a total loss, at least."

Talya shifted then, lifting her other shoulder in a slight shrug as she turned her attention back up to Erik. Apparently a life of larceny could be put to something like good use; at least in the calculation of monetary damages, "That's not so bad. That's really in the getting a few wealthy donors to take interest in giving back range easily."

Edited October 26, 2015 by alderwitch

[Gizmo]

Erik laughed out loud as they left the confines of the park and the concerns about drawing attention to themselves diminished. "Ha, I totally know the look you're talking about. I think the version I get is a little more 'you're lucky you have a nice butt'." He affected a passable impression of the expression but without the bottomless pools that Min called eyes he couldn't really pull it off. Nor was he entirely up to following the numbers Talya rattled off, where she was pulling them from or how she was using to calculate other numbers. He tried to do a rough count of the stands based on what they could see from where they were standing and how large he knew the park to be and quickly felt his eyes glazing over. "Um. Sure, that sounds right. ...I mentioned I have a nice butt, right?"

[alderwitch]

"Even if you hadn't mentioned, your jeans demonstrate that fact eloquently for you," Talya replied with a grin of her own as she hung back a bit as if to elucidate her point. Her eyes crinkling at the corners, she provided explanation, "I'm no polymath, I'm afraid. It's more really of a mental trick - a mnemonic, if you will. Honestly, most of the original training I had wasn't in acrobatics or how to throw a punch. Those skills were largely a later addition, on an as needed basis. It was in how to gauge the numbers of tanks, or planes or men. That and how to safely get the information back."

She offered a side long smile, "Pretty packaging aside, you have plenty to offer, I assure you. Math might not be one of them, but there are several others that more than make up for any lack there." 

[Gizmo]

Flexing his calve muscles obviously in response to Talya's exaggerated gaze, Erik twisted at the waist to waggle his eyebrows. "I like how you think my ego needs boosting, mi cielo. It totally does, though, so definitely don't stop talking about my many excellent and attractive qualities!" He maintained the grin even as the blonde touched on the danger fraught nature of her early exploits but the smile faded from his eyes, which turned searching. "...do you ever need to talk about that stuff? The war, I mean. I'd get it if it's not really something you can talk to me about; I had all those Ace Danger books as a kid but, y'know, pretty sure those were just straight up fiction, really."