|
   |
New York has been going through a lot lately. One of those issues seems to be monsters from fairytales coming straight out of Central Park and terrorizing the poor citizens of NYC. Today seems to be, sadly, no different. But instead of a dragon, this time, a pack of gargoyles comes winging through the trees of the city and starts to swoop and attack the poor passersby.
Humanoid in shape, with faces bearing curious beak-like snouts and carrying an assortment of weapons in their leathery claws, from swords and shields to spears and bows, around 10 of the beasts come flying out of Central Park and start to cut through the air. On occasion, one of them swoops low and strikes at a human, dealing a not quite lethal blow to the citizens, but enough to set them low. A pair of officers draw their guns and start to fire on one of the gargoyles, bringing it to a crash. So they can be beaten with firearms… but there are still 9 more to deal with.
*
Strictly speaking, Amelie wasn't working. Technically she was on a holiday after all, between work. But after a while it was simply boring not to do -something- to stay loose. Most people would flee from the stories of stone monsters in central park, but for the mercenary? Well, it had been a while since she'd hunted anything not quite human.
Having selected her toys of choice for the evening, the woman was wrapped in her customized figure-hugging suit. Her harness, not unlike that of a trapeeze artist or a stuntman, clipped around her hips as she'd lept from the rooftop of her hotel until she'd found herself a spot with a good line of sight to the park. Unslinging the old-fashioned but exceptionally well-maintained rifle from her back, the woman exhales, adjusts and fires. A shot from that far away? The precise bullet slams into one of the beasts in flight before the 'crack' of the gunshot is even heard.
*
The bullet cleared the other side of the gargoyle as it flew, eliciting a pained gutteral cry from the beast as it struggled to stay in the air before finally crashing into the hood of a car. Another swoops low to grab a civilian on the run and latches its clawed feet around the shoulders of the person, lifting the poor businessman into the air. Meanwhile, another swooped for the the prey being carried, aiming to ram his spear through the human.
But as if on cue, an uprooted parking meter went flying through the air, crashing into the spear gargoyle and sending him crashing into a nearby building. At the same time, a human in royal purple and white spandex, complete with matching aviator goggles and a trailing white scarf of about 3 feet in length leapt for the captured citizen. Dealing a crippling punch, the gargoyle recoiled and flapped back as the hero-apparent grabbed hold of the man and landed with a heavy *THUD* on the street below, dropping him off. "Clear the area! I'll handle these beasts!"
The businessman nods and runs for cover as the other gargoyles, now realizing a new, flashier target has made itself known, start to circle and congregate overhead. Making them easy pickings.
*
One shot, one…shattering. Close enough, Amelie's lips come to a soft smile as she peers through the optics of her weapon and then starts the 'ballet' of ballistic motion all over again. Another adjustment, the Gargoyles don't seem to realise they're being picked off from afar. Perhaps snipers were an unknown concept to the stone creatures, but it mattered little. Another squeeze of her delicate fingers and the rifle gives its harsh retort before another bullet crosses the space with inhuman aim, headed straight for the 'head' of one of the remaining Gargoyles.
*
New York has it's share of weirdness, but he wasn't aware of how 'weird' it had gotten in the few years he had been away. When he caught sight of the…gargoyles? he couldn't just sit there and watch. Donning his new masked outfit, the newly monikered 'Nightwing' gets to the top of one of the buildings overlooking Central Park. He waits until one passes by close enough and then he leaps.
There are no flight powers, no nets…he just throws a lined escrima stick to catch onto a bit of a flying Gargoyle to go with it.
*
BANG! Another gargoyle comes crumbling to the ground as the bullet hits its mark and comes out the other end of a gargoyle's head. Most of the gargoyles seem to think the purple and white hero is doing something, and immediately change flight patterns to try and confuse him, flapping in erratic patterns to catch him offguard. For his part, the goggled hero stands firm, until one of the gargoyles comes swooping into to strike him with a greatsword. The blade connects, but bends harmlessly over the hero. Clearly, the beast wasn't expecting him to be sword proof. Nor did he expect the raging fist in reply to strike him in the face and shatter it into tiny stone bits. That left 5 to go…
As Nightwing grabs hold of one of the gargoyles by the leg, the creature seems to notice it has taken on some extra weight, namely by the way it starts to cry and growl angrily as it takes higher to the air. Another winged brute seems to catch sight of the newcomer and barks some kind of command to a companion, the pair changing course and aiming to run Nightwing through with their spears from his perch.
*
Five to go, but only three bullets left in Amelie's russian rifle. A sigh on the French woman's lips, she leaps again into the air, twisting with all the grace of her former trapeze days and fires off another round towards her next target mid-air, seemingly unbothered by her inversion or the freefall with that same inhuman aim. Her twisting coming to completion, she fires her grapnel towards the nearest building and lets the motion carry her gently through a spooling 'flick' until she finds herself at ground level, amber eyes already making calculations while her hands work the bolt for her next shot.
*
Nightwing uses the momentum as the other flies to try and swing to try and get enough momentum to leap from the one he's grappling to the one with the spear. After all, if he lands on the one's back he might be able to at least take that one out. No guns…no knives…he has his excrima sticks and some throwing star-type things that are whipped back at the gargoyle he initially grappled.
"Waahooo!" is called as he tries to ride the gargoyle like some sort of rodeo cowboy.
*
One more gargoyle makes a nosedive into the ground, shoulder shattering as it crashes, turning into a pile of rubble. Meanwhile, the purple and white hero grabs another by his throat and swings him effortlessly overhead, slamming it into the ground and crushing it into the asphalt. With the remaining three occupied with Nightwing, the unnamed hero looked up to observe the one riding gargoyles like horses. He evidently lacked any sort of ranged way of dealing with the monsters… which is why he was grabbing a sword one of them dropped and leveling it to chuck up into the air.
The gargoyle that was freed from Nightwing's grapple started to fly up very high, evidently not realizing he didn't have to carry the extra weight. Meanwhile, the one he'd chosen as a mount started to buck and fly erratically, clearly trying to get his new rider off its back.
*
Amelie however had no such issues of range. Having landed at a crouch, the french assassin simply lifts her rifle at the high-flying freeded gargoyle and fires, once into its 'heart' and then a second round into its head. It wasn't that she didn't expect to kill it with the first, but rather she prefered smaller chunks of stone raining downwards. With the rifle empty she smoothly slings the weapon over one shoulder and draws her handgun from her thigh holster, a quirk of her brow given at the 'rodeo' of Nightwing while she steps up towards the unnamed sword-thrower. "Do not throw it, if you think you'll miss…" she speaks calmly, no attempt to hide her accent given as she takes aim with her pistol at another. "You would not want a bystander losing their head, oui?"
*
Nightwing is trying to get the gargoyle he's riding to lose wind. He pulls another wire from his belt and tries to loop it around the thing's neck. Sure, it's stone, but if it can be shot, maybe it can have its windpipe cut off? Granted, it means keeping an eye out for when he can safely leap off of the thing. Noting that one of the others fighting has a sword he calls, "I'll try and bring him lower…" so that he can be stabbed easier? Maybe landing wouldn't be as rough if it's from not as high?
*
The high flier twitches into a shocked pose for a moment, before the head shatters and the remainder of it starts to crumble. Only 2 left!
As the french gunwoman mentions not missing, the purple hero paused a moment, before replying in impeccable French. "<Trust me… I know the consequences of missing… all too well…>" As the gargoyle Nightwing was riding had it's neck wrapped around by wire, it clearly was losing the balance it had from him being on his back, maintaining being airborne… but failing miserably at flying. It was bound for a quick descent.
As Nightwing brought the gargoyle down, the remaining one swooped lower to try and free his companion. By stabbing Nightwing with his spear. But not two seconds before impact, the sword the purple hero had been holding went flying at impossibly fast speeds! It effortlessly shattered through the gargoyle, practically exploding it into crumbled rocks, and kept going, finally lodging itself unelegantly into the side of a building. Meanwhile, the final gargoyle could no longer keep his flight up and Nightwing would come down quickly, but not at lethal speeds, while the gargoyle, in an effort to desperately regain momentum, crashed into the ground and broke its head along the street.
At last, things got quiet as the threat was subdued. The masked hero looked about for a moment, before turning to Nightwing and Amelie. "That was pretty damn impressive. Been a while since I had someone alongside me on… well, anything, really. Pleasure to meetcha. I'm The Ego. Been out of action for a long while… glad to see others were keeping things safe." Ego extended his white gloved hands to the duo, offering to shake them.
*
"The Ego?" Amelie repeats, another quirk of her brow given at the introduction. The french woman had her hair down, her amber eyes visible and her rather distinct costume worn, but she has no actual mask on her face. Extending a hand in greeting she offers an introduction of her own. "I'm occasionally called 'Le Bien Qui Fait Mal'…but that is often rather long for one to speak."
Seemingly amused by her own words, she turns her gaze towards the acrobatic rodeo that was Nightwing. "That was some impressive 'flying'. Rather…unconventional, but certainly effective enough." As she speaks, the woman holsters her weapon once more in a single fluid motion.
*
As the gargoyle descends, Nightwing prepares to dive off, landing in a tuck and roll, unhurt aside from a little road rash. He's certainly had worse. He glances at the others, especially the one who introduces himself. "'The Ego'? That's…quite the name there." Although by the way he's even introducing himself, it seems appropriate. "Yes, well…there are a lot of us about, trying to keep things safe." He'll take the white-gloved hand in his own dark-gloved one for a friendly shake. "Nightwing. Although shouldn't we be figuring out where those gargoyles came from instead of chit-chatting?"
His own masked eyes look to the Frenchwoman when she addresses him, "Thanks. I never try to be conventional. I mean…we just fought gargoyles…"
*
Ford grimaced and rolled his eyes under his goggles. "Yes, The Ego. My confidence fuels my powers. The more I have, the stronger I become." He placed his hands on his hips and sighed. "Makes the hero schtick hard to do when folks expect some humble down-to-earth type to not enjoy the fact that he can outpace cars, smash through steel, and shrug off gunfire like it's rain. Nice to meet you both, Nightwing. Le… erm… I'll just go with Le Bien, if that's find. Full thing is a bit of a mouth full…"
At the question about where the gargoyles came from, Ford waved a dismissive hand at Central Park. "I have it on good authority that place is something of a magical hot zone. A damn dragon came crawling out of there a day or two ago. As I've been told, it's… sensitive. Best to just contain whatever pokes its head out of there." He tightened the glove on his hand as he mused. "Really would've liked another dragon… would've like an actual challenge for a change…"
*
"That…explains a lot," the French mercenary chuckles softly, nodding at the abreviation of her moniker. "Understandable." Nightwing's words earn a smile while Amelie bends down, collecting the casings of her rifle fire casually as they speak. "Would you believe they are far from the strangest thing I have seen." A pause, she looks sidelong at Ford. "Although, a Dragon is a new one even for me. Magic is…not my area of expertise in most regards."
*
Powers. Nightwing gives a little grimace at the explanation of The Ego. "That's…well then." As far as the explanation is given, he turns back towards the Park. "Seriously? It's magic? Since when?" What the heck happened to this city in the last three years? "Well, I'm sorry we crashed your party, but it seemed better to get rid of them than to have them hurt some innocents, don't you think?"
*
"And yet people still look to bring me down a couple notches…" Ford mused, before folding his arms. "Oh no, I don't begrudge you joining in. In fact, I'm glad you did. Gave me a chance to see other heroes in action… actually, leads me to a good question: about how often do you both do this sort of thing? I'm guessing, given you already have the costume, you've kinda invested in this role, but… I could say for you, ma'am."
Ford tilted his head a bit, as if pondering whether he should keep asking, before grimacing a bit. "…I've been thinking about putting together a team. Or, more accurately, a network of some kind. A way for us powered types to stick together and keep ourselves above water. Nothing formal, at least not at the moment, but so we can keep ourselves good on what we want to do. Like the Avengers, but… on a bigger scale. Would that interest either of you…?"
*
Well that was…forward. It was enough to make Amelie tilt her head curiously at the explaination and invitation all in one. His assumption of powers however makes the woman chuckle softly to herself before she tucks the still-warm casings into her harness/belt at her hips. "Costume?" she questions. "Can you imagine how hard it is to find something sturdy but flexible, for a woman no less? Most standard protective gear gets…restrictive. A costume is for parties a play. Neither of which are something I do…not often anyway."
Corrections aside, its not strictly a no. Regardless of her current path, the French woman still carried a lot of respect and admiration for a certain Star-spangled hero.
*
"What's 'The Avengers'?" Maybe he's new? Maybe he's been away for a while? Batman didn't fill him in on anything by that name. Nightwing tries not to pull out too much snark but he does offer, "Most folks aren't used to tooting their own horn so much. Good for you that you have that confidence, but…might want to keep that a little quiet. I'm guessing folks are just trying to bring you down because you're so sure of yourself." Powers or not.
As far as doing this for a while, technically, yes. Although he doesn't need to give his life's story to the stranger.
*
"Pffft. Again… more I have, the stronger I am. I didn't choose this name for giggles, you know?" Ford replied, letting his arms fall at the question about the Avengers. "You… you really don't know? The… Avengers. I mean, like… Earth's Mightiest Heroes, all that? Disbanded because they were believed to be a government project? Thor? Iron Man? Captain America? …any of that?" Ford seemed incredulous that nobody would know about this group. Then again, he never questioned that that was even a possibility given how big the coverage seemed.
"…you know don't have to wear a costume. This isn't my usual gear anyways. I'm just… getting used to it again." Ford replied, directing his attention back to Amelie. "…look, if… if you're even remotely interested, I'm holding a… thing, an interest meeting, I guess you could call it, this Friday. A cheap bar in East Village, Tanner's Nook. 8 PM. I'm hoping to get a few other folks interested together and talking about it… you're welcome to come, if you like. Just offering… I've gotta get back to my work. Take care." And on that, he turns and races off, easily reaching 100 mph. He's fast, to be fair…