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The evening had deepened into night some time ago, the overcast sky helping to lend to the quickening of the sun's setting. There were few stars to see in the overcast sky above, though the threat of rain seemed promising. Lorna Dane stepped into the lightened bus stop, hefting her purse higher on her shoulder as she waited for the bus to come collect her. It wasn't particularly late, and the buses wouldn't be making last call anytime soon.
Even so the green haired girl looked wary to wait alone. She had come from Mutant Town a block or two over, and has spent the afternoon at volunteer work, getting side tracked every so often that she missed her first bus out of the city.
Down the street, a few rowdy young men could be heard cat calling a woman that quickly crossed to the other side of the street. Lorna sighed, pursing her lips. "Oh please. Not again." She muttered under her breath, sitting down on the bench, her back held tense.
It didn't take long for the group to catch sight of her and then it very quickly became clear they were making their way toward the lone woman.
Nightwing has been splitting his patrol with Batman and some of his other associates, but while Mutant Town and the surrounding areas seem to be fairly well-looked after, it doesn't stop him from adding it into his patrol. No one's told him to leave yet, so he's going to keep it on his list of places to watch over. Bus Stops and Subway stops tend to be the most common places for petty larceny so it's most certainly watched. It's how he catches sight of the lone woman who is swiftly being approached by some rowdy young men. For now, he watches…to see if she can fend them off or if he needs to step in.
After all, Nightwing is all for Women's Lib…as long as no one gets hurt.
Lorna closed her eyes, counting down to the very moment that the group of young men finally caught up to her place on the bench of the bus stop. Cue the expected crude jokes, offers and catcalls that one could expect from a bunch of young, likely drunk, over confident, men out to amuse themselves. "Just go away. Please? This close to Mutant Town and you're really, really, going to try something?" She muttered, rolling her eyes.
There were at least three young men there, and at her muttering, one of them reached for her shoulder. "Hey c'mon girly, give us a kiss-" Lorna jerked away and twisted around, her expression shutting down even further to a look of clear irritation.
"Don't touch me," A chorus of 'ooo's followed from the two other boys who started giving their friend a hard time about being rejected and elbows, egging him on. The young man stepped forward again, grabbing at Lorna's wrist with another contrite pick up line that utterly missed. The green haired girl, yanked at her wrist, but his grip remained firm. Her cheeks flushed and she quickly threw up her free hand.
"I said don't touch me!" Her voice raised in pitch and volume. The bench behind her bent with a scream of metal and twisted, just as the other two boys were pushed back by their belt buckles and other bits of metal, sending them flying back to the side walk. Yet their handsy friend didn't seem intent on letting go.
Nightwing flipped and tumbled his way down to street level as the men started to surround the green-haired woman. He was about to step in and even out the playing ground some when the bench started twisting and some of the annoying boys flew back without any contact. Interesting.
"Like the woman said," he adds his voice to her sight of the altercation, "Let don't touch her." He doesn't even have his escrima sticks in hand but doesn't seem at all concerned with potentially kicking some idiot ass tonight. It's a good warm-up for anything that might come later.
The either dumb, or extremely over confident young man that had a grip on Lorna still, jumped at the addition of a suddenly there man dressed in a fancy getup. Rather than letting go of the green haired girl, he tugged her closer and wrapped his other arm around her body like a shield. The move so unexpected that Lorna stumbled into it, and promptly struggled in his grip. But it was clear she had no combat experience judging on her inability to wiggle free on her own. "Hey man, back off. It's got nothin' to do with you."
The young man's friends, or accomplices, as it were, were busy brushing themselves off from their tumble and were busily trying to figure out if Nightwing was infact jumpable. They didn't look particularly threatening, save when one of them pulled out a switch blade. "Yeah, hey, back it up. We don't have trouble with you." One of them added.
The switchblade seemed to give the green haired mutant something to do at least, and with a scowl she threw up her hand against the man's grip around her. The knife went flying out of the man's grip and straight into her hand, which she then jammed into her captor's grip, freeing herself. The one who lost his knife took off running, while the other went for Nightwing.
Nightwing looked completely unimpressed by the switchblade when it's flicked open. "Really?" is asked with a slightly bored expression but as it goes flying out of the man's hand and into the girls…who then uses it to free herself, he nods. Guess they're going to do the thing.
With one eye on Lorna, Nightwing waits for the guy to get closer before he swiftly drops down to sweep a leg to the back of the guy's knees to try and bring him down. Depending on their level of skill, it may not be a very long fight.
The fight was over within moments, the young man that had gone for Nightwing easily brought low and as soon as he was on the pavement he started blubbering apologies and pleading to be let up, how he hadn't meant any harm and please just let him go. The other young man, who was now bleeding from his hand was like wise freaking out, and turned and fled, leaving his friend to Nightwing's tender mercy.
Lorna though, was trembling faintly, and let the knife fall from her hand with a squeak. She shook her hand, reaching into her purse for something to wipe the blood from her fingers. Green eyes turned toward Nightwing and her eyebrows climbed higher.
"Really? Really? The second time I'm in the city after the sun goes down and not only do I get accosted, but some guy comes swinging in from the roofs to my rescue. What is this? A comic?" The brittleness of her voice lent credence to the idea that she was scared and merely talking as a defensive reaction. She had yet to stop shaking.
Nightwing straightens and looks at the lone assailant and just gives a little wiggle of his fingers, inviting him to get the same treatment as his friends. It's totally up to him if he fights or not; Nightwing will be happy to oblige either way. Blue eyes glance over from behind his domino mask as Lorna starts talking, "Hasn't anyone ever told you that women shouldn't walk alone at night in the City?" There certainly seems to be a justified reason for that.
The young man bolted as soon as he was given the chance, a last parting shot of 'Freaks!' follows as he disapeared down the street where his friends had left. Lorna shook her head and bit her lower lip, "No." She swallowed a hard lump in her throat, and seemed to take several moments to calm herself before she spoke again. At least her trembling had stopped.
"I can take care of myself." A pause, "Mostly." She added, her brows creasing. "You know, the green hair isn't a wig or a style choice." She laughed weakly and it died all too soon.
"You ok?" Nightwing asks, taking a step forward, but not breaching her 'personal bubble'. Not after that kind of attack. That's his first response even to her insistance that she can 'take care of herself'. "I bet you can, but it's probably surprising when a group of guys come at you like that." There's a glance to the green hair briefly before he shrugs, "Unfortunately, it probably calls a lot of the wrong kind of attention to you. I'm sorry about that."
Lorna wrapped her arms around herself and exhaled a slow breath, glancing back at the twisted metal of the bench. Slowly, she reached out a hand and the metal unfurled itself back into the shape it had been before with a soft pop and crack. "Y-yeah. I'm.. I think I'm okay." Smoothing out the steel seemed to occupy her for a moment and calm her racing heart.
A blink, a flutter of her eyelashes followed, "And yeah.. it.. it happened really fast and normally they don't get a good grip on me and I could shove them away." She mumbled, "Never.. never had.. had to stab anyone before." She closed her eyes.
"I.. I've only started keeping it green for the past month or two, so yeah.. guess.. it does do that. Draw the wrong sort of attention.."
"You have anyone who can teach you self-defense? Just a few simple moves in case something like that happens again?" Again, Nightwing keeps a respectul distance. "I mean, you'd still have to think of it when you get caught like that, but at least you'd have some other tools." He glances down to the blood, "He'll live. You didn't hit an artery."
A grimace followed, "Yeah. I know a few people." She colored, biting her lower lip, looking for all the world like she might say something else but thought better of it. Telling the stranger in a mask that you're starting combat training next week wasn't exactly par for the course and she was already strange enough with her mutant abilties.
Lorna sat heavily on the newly mended bench, closing her arms around her purse as she hugged it to her chest. "Uhm. Thank you. Promise I'm not usually a weeping damsal in distress." She mumbled, her features crumbling up as she fought back that very urge.
Nightwing moves over to lean by the bench, still keeping aware of her personal space, "Good. Get them to teach you a few ways to get out of certain holds…especially the one you got caught in." As she begins to crumble, he looks a bit concerned before offering, "Hey, I can wait with you until your bus gets here. It's ok."
A weak laugh and Lorna rubbed at her temples, "I can flip a car, but a bunch of noisy guys can just get under my skin and make me shaky. Gosh." She sagged back against the bench and as he offered to wait with her until the bus arrived she smiled.
"Yeah. I'll be asking about that." She swallowed and nodded once, shifting to settle her purse on her lap.
"And yeah.. thanks. I.. I appreciate it."