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Few who pass by Central Park take care to look up where they move about the green break in the middle of the steel jungle. But those who do, may have noticed something that has become a fixture recently. Namely, the girl who is perched high on the tree branches, each time a different branch, but always doing the same thing. Keeping an outlook of the park, and only springing to action of some idiot dares harass a woman against her will.
*
It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood, a beautiful day for a… walk? It's not the kind of thing that you see every day. Well, a couple out taking a stroll through the park /is/ the kind of thing you see every day, but /this/ particular couple was a different story entirely. The platinum-haired boy and the redheaded girl at his side normally don't walk — they run, and they run fast enough that most people can't see them. Not today.
"So, April Fool's Day is coming up… I've gotta figure out a /big/ way to prank Billy, you know? Something he'll never see coming, even though I know he'll be on-guard from midnight to midnight." Tommy muses aloud, looking over towards Hope. "Any ideas?"
*
So there's a girl, and the crazy park forever under attack, and her boyfriend. Someone who is probably her boyfriend given she keeps pace with him, and random girls do not tend to run with young men side by side. It's 1964. They just really tend not to do that. All said and done, though, the trees conceal more threats than some, the zombified businessmen and unfortunate citizens converted into raving undead reason enough not to tarry around much.
"Seriously, a prank?" The girl doesn't even sound that winded, her feet slapping against the ground easily and springing off. "Why do you need to prank him? What is April Fool's Day? He is named Billy, not April."
*
Most entirely fail to notice anyone moving as fast as Hope and Tommy are, as they rush through the park, but the girl perched high on a tree branch tenses, and tilts her head downwards. She may not see, but she smells, she senses, she knows something down there is moving at ridiculous speed. She waits a moment, rather than leaping down below, recognize that at the speed whatever it is below is moving, she will likely miss her mark if she tried to pounce.
*
"Nononono. … you and I /really/ have to sit down and have a talk about holidays." Tommy retorts, sticking his tongue out briefly. "April Fool's Day — always on April 1st — is the day of the year where you prank the people that you care about to let them know you care." Pause. "…and laugh your ass off at the results."
…and when a relatively-zombie-free area of the park is found? (Conveniently, the part of the park that Laura's in!) The run slows down to a walk; the lovebirds seeming to materialize out of thin air as if they'd always been strolling along that path over there. "It'll be great and since you didn't know what it is you /have/ to do something for it." A decisive nod, there. … famous last words, anyone?
*
The scent of Hope: clean, terribly tidy, and marked with a bit of asphalt or tar as one would find on a roof more than on the ground. Just how far have they gone? The redhead casts a look back through the trees in search of those shambling souls hungry for humans, the reason the police cordon exists in the first place. Not that it does any good against her, or Tommy, or…
Her eyes narrow slightly. At a walk, she can process a few things at once, like the need to open a chocolate bar that she fetches up from that oversized, icky coat with a million pockets. Chosen more for storage than style, it allows her to filch everything up to the kitchen sink with no one the wiser. She breaks it in half and then hands a piece to the white-haired speedster, giving a longer look, and then a second one, up into the trees. "So like a person jumping out of a tree on you?"
*
Funny that Hope would choose that specific example, because when the whirling speed fiends come to a stop, it's exactly what happens. Laura isn't sure what they are after, but the fact they stopped exactly in her vicinity suggests they could potentially be after her. She rather catch them off guard before they start moving again. From her experience, it's usually the men who are in command capacities, so if she were to neutralize Tommy, it's likely he'll call Hope off as well. She leaps with abandon, directly at Tommy, meaning to pin him down to the ground with the momentum of her leap.
*
While Tommy could theoretically notice all the little things around him? Well, between hot redhead and newly offered chocolate, distraction is really a good way of giving the speedster tunnel vision. "Yeah, exactly, then you yell 'April Fool's!' and laugh at the poor fool in question." A shake of his head. "…where are you gonna get a person to—" That's the point where he's cut off by a flying Laura, sailing through the air to take him down to the ground and pin him there. There's a moment of shock, before he seeks out eye contact and offers a smirk, "Look girlie, you're cute and all but I'm kinda seein' someone."
…of course, whether he was in command of Hope or not? Hope was easily the superior fighter, and right now, he was going to be a distraction if needbe. Something he was pretty good at!
*
Hope can backpedal alarmingly fast, especially when it comes to protecting her precious food. Civility is not a very thick veneer on her, and she drops back several yards in the twinkling of an eye. Not even that, for the ghostly outline resolves into a solid figure. The coat doesn't do much for fashion but it certainly helps conceal things, like the reason to draw a machine pistol from a holster under her arm. Knife probably isn't going to be useful, nor the brass knuckles, especially against something potentially undead. Acting on sheer impulse, she has the time accelerated benefit of pinning a bead on a head shot, though there's no absolute retort yet, which says something.
"Get off of him, or you lose your head." Her tone of voice isn't someone happy. It's the comment of a soldier, someone raised from the mobile cradle to take chances. "Back two steps. You want the chocolate bar, you can have the chocolate bar. After you move." Yeah, so about those broken dystopian future timelines…
*
"Who. Sent. You?" Is the words Laura whispers calmly at Tommy, perhaps to help him focus on what she is asking of him, after being jarred and taken to the ground unexpectedly. She keeps one hand pressing him down over his throat, just in case he had a funny idea like struggling. Her other hand lifts to point at Hope, though there's no weapon held by it. "Shoot," Laura whispers at Hope, "and I kill him." Apparently the girl has this weird notion that the shot will not end her life. Curious threat to give to be sure.
*
Eyes flick away towards Hope in motion — the girl's a wonder to behold, to be certain — before they focus back on Laura. "/Oh./" Tommy replies, eyes rolling. "I get it now, you're just another one of the slug's pawns, aren't you? This is some kinda… spy thriller or something, right? Well, let me save you a little bit of trouble. In the time that it takes you to /think/ about blinking? I could be on the other side of the city. Couldn't stop me if you tried. Guess you didn't get the memo, huh?"
Bluffing? Maybe; with Tommy it's tricky to say. He's a whole lot of ego in one speedy package.
*
Hope stands on her toes, the gun still pointed at Laura. She adjusts with the slightest hint of motion, braced on her back foot to absorb the likely kick pulling the trigger will induce. "No one," she says, in much shorter sentences. "We don't know you." Clearly her absolute lack of concern about shooting a total stranger is reason enough to mark her as seriously messed up, and not at all like the normal teenagers strolling around New York. "Doesn't matter him. Off him. Then we talk." Every sentence gets a pause to help it sink in, considering adrenaline is swirling through her system and locked down.
She doesn't stink of fear. Her heartbeat is accelerated somewhat, answering the threatening situation, but there isn't any hint to Laura's senses, likely, that she's panicking.
*
Laura apparently has sufficient ego of her own, though the cold manner in which she talks might suggest it could just a little bit more than bravado. She doesn't so much trying to impress Tommy, as much as making a point, "you'll be on the other side of the city, bleeding to death, so answer me. Who sent you?" She still seems under the impression that it is Tommy and Hope who were after her. Rather than the other way around.
"You don't?" Laura asks of Hope, whilst keeping her full attention on Tommy, "then why are you after me?" Clearly, it had yet to occur to her the two might have stopped her in sheer coincidence, having nothing to do with her being there. Either way, Laura doesn't seem to gather that Hope is in command of the situation. She's not afraid, but she's not the first person she encountered who didn't panic when a situation developed out of thin air. But she also hadn't shot yet, which means she likely did consider Laura's promise on some level. She needs to ascertain Tommy isn't a threat, to see Hope wasn't bluffing her. But on the plus side, she didn't hurt Tommy, didn't hurt Hope, if she even could from her position. Tommy can feel Laura's hand easing around his throat. "Don't speak about me. I let you go." Seems fair enough offer to her.
*
"Nobody /sent/ me, dimbulb." Tommy replies, nose crinkling up a bit. "I mean, if Mojo was going to send a pawn after us, you'd think he'd have the sense to arm them with a better scr—" …that's about the moment it dawns on him. This might /not/ be another act in the ongoing chapter they're dealing with. This could be a real situation where snark and script-breaking is not the best offense, rather actual /offense/ would be.
Of course, Hope's also pretty much gotten the situation defused by now. These were among the many times that the speedster was glad she was around.
"Pretty sure you're the one who jumped me," Tommy points out, crinkling his nose. "…but if you don't want to be talked about? Fine. Don't really even know enough /to/ talk about. You're hops-out-of-space-girl. Kinda the start and end of the story right there. Not that impressive." …although pretty amusing in relation to their earlier conversation, admittedly.
*
"Don't know you," Hope reiterates this point with a certain sort of steely familiarity. That point she knows indeed. "Got nothing to say about you. Five million people here. Good to hide in."
Her shoulders lift and shrug, and then she gazes calmly across the distance. Tommy's the talker; she most definitely isn't. Instead, she gives Laura a lift of her chin slightly. "Got it. Back."
*
"What's a Mojo…?" Laura asks hesitantly, slowly getting the idea that Tommy and Hope really have nothing at all to do with her, the Facility or Weapon X program. It alleviates her concerns and she finally gets off Tommy, allowing him to get back on his feet. "Fine. I am not here." Laura mutters, and with complete disregard to Tommy and Hope, she turns her back on them while deftly climbing up the tree like a little monkey.
*
Of course, if they were going to attack her? This would probably be the time. While her back's turned and she's not seeming to pay them any attention. Tommy, though? He stays on the ground for the moment, only going as far as to prop his head up a bit…. and attend to the half of the chocolate that he'd been given by Hope before. Which had remained secure in his hand throughout the entire event — because frankly? The boy thinks with his stomach a lot of the time. Even in the face of danger! …especially when he doesn't realize just /how/ dangerous the danger in question is. "So, clouds up in the sky and definitely not anyone who might be listening, a Mojo is an ugly yellow alien who watches too much television and thinks we're pretty enough to be celebrities. Or something like that." he offers, before nomming on the chocolate. Don't mind him. He'll just lay here for a few more moments.
*