1964-10-13 - Goons and Blanks
Summary: Who is the enemy?
Related: If there are no related logs, put 'None', — please don't leave blank!
Theme Song: None
danny keith chance 


It's evening, and as it happens, two not-quite-friends but friendly fellows and a certain fellow of secret feline persuasion find themselves as it happens in Manhatten. Coincidence? Fate? Absolutely crazy luck? Ask the Fates.

For his part, Chance— who at the moment is dressed in a black suit with a black mask and a pair of batons strapped to his back, and who will henceforth be referred to as Freefall— is hanging out. Literally. There's a skyscraper up there and he's just twenty stories up, sitting… on the building. He's not sticking to a building like Spider-Man might, he's not perching, he's not flying. He's just…sitting there. Gravity and him have a very special relationship.

Below is a diamond shop, though its closed.

And on comes a limo, that comes to a park, and one nerd and no less then six protective goons get out, and look around nervously, protecting the nerd and his briefcase. This isn't how diamond shipments usually go, of course. They're usually suave about it. Something's up.


For a well known rich CEO of a corperate conglomerate, Danny Rand does seem to just wander the fuck around on his own as though he had nothing better to do than stroll the streets at night. Oh, wait; he does, at the moment, have nothing better to do than wander the streets at night. He's left a party, and so is still in a suit, though his collar is loosened, his tie is draped around his neck, and his jacket is slung over his shoulder. He isn't, however, taking his own limo home. Instead he's simply wandering, and more than halfway down the block when the limo stops and the nerd hops out with his array of goons. Huh. Both eyebrows raise just a little bit, and he checks his watch.


Keith does not have anything better to do, really. He's wandering aimlessly because he has no place to stay at, no family to go to, and at the moment no idea where he wants to go. Motorcycle safely parked, he's decided to walkk around at night a bit to clear his thoughts, and come up with a credible excuse- to himself- as to why he hasn't yet dared to set foot in Westchester and knock at the mansion belonging to the people whose hospitality he left without notice almost a year ago.

The teen reaches for a cigarette, and then grunts as Wiccan's warning comes to his mind. He looks at the packet as he brings it out of his pocket and wonders, coming to a halt. It is then that he notices the limo, his night vision giving him very clear details.

The illusion that keeps him looking like a human doesn't show it, but his ears perk up. He pretends to light a cigarettte, apparently distracted by getting himself a good smoke. His natural curiosity has just spiked.
5r


A strangely indeterminate man walks down the street, towards Nerd with Briefcase and his thick security detail. He's a little hard to get a read on: he's just so plain as to be regular, boring, completely beyond interest. Eyes don't even want to stay on this man, and his clothes are something completely … what were you thinking again? Something about clothes. Just thinking about his outfit makes the brain blur at the utter dullness of it all.. Perhaps that's why he gets close enough to bump into a guard, muttering in a toneless voice, "Oh, excuse me, excuse me." Stumble through, bump, stumble.

Freefall tilts his head to the side, watching. That's odd.

As the nondescript man stumbles, he blurrs. Its like he shivers out of frame and then there's two, three, six, twlve. Two for each guard. Only they're… blank. He was nondescript before, but his dupes— his blanks— have no faces and no distinguishing features at all, but they clearly see because … they pounce, and a brawl ensues.

"… not what I was expecting." Freefall's voice is taken by the wind, and with grace he rises, and leaps into the air— diving down towards the ground. As he soars towards the ground, at the last moment he somehow manages a flipping maneuver and he lands in an easy crouch with… well, grace that is perhaps not what Keith can pull off, but second cousin to feline grace.

He rises up, and reaches to his back to pull out the long black batons, and stalks towards the chaos of the melee of Goons and Blanks.


The nerd with the briefcase and the goonds caught Danny's attention, but it's the sudden nondescript man and the blurring appearance of multi-blanks that has him tipping his head a bit to the side. The question in his mind is — whose side exactly should he be on? Nothing's happened thus far save for a random attack. And he seems to be weighing whether to step in at all when a familiar form suddenly descends. He doesn't immediately recognize Freefall, but there's that hint of something familiar in the way that the man moves. Draping his jacket over a parking meter, Danny begins to approach the ongoing melee. As he does so, he casually unbuttons his sleeves and rolls them up to his elbows, first one, and then the other. He doesn't seem in any particular hurry just yet.


This isn't his problem. This isn't his fight. He doesn't have to get involved.

And then there is dramatic drop and landing from someone he doesn't know. He takes a few seconds to appreciate the skill and obvious *something* behind that landing, but otherwise does nothing. When Freefall stalks towards the confrontation, he looks around quickly and notices one other person, apparently getting ready to contribute to the fight.

It wasn't his fight. He didn't need to get involved. Billy could believe whatever he wanted, he was no hero.

The Cheshire cat frowns and vanishes into the night. That is, the young man becomes invisible.

And he starts walking towards the fight, but not directly. He is flanking, so he can get a better look at everything and see where he might provide a tactical interference. If he needed to. Purely theoretical.


Someone might see the black shape of Freefall stalking, but they're busy fighting: a shot fires out as a goon has a gun, and a blank slams back and… blurs out of existance. But the gun is wrestled free by another blank, and a goon subdued, hands up.

And so it is that Freefall lifts a baton and slams it HARD into the skull of a blank, and the other into the skull of a goon. They both go down with a hard thump. Sides?

Freefall figures that out when shit is done hitting the fan.

Unfortunately, the remaining blank on that goon blurs into a second, and both leap at Freefall.

They're skilled at fighting, though not that skilled, but two on one in closer quarters is a lot for the masked and armoed man. He takes a few hits and grunts, until suddenly he shoots into the air, spinning feet up and head down in some airiel acrobatics, and hangs there a moment, re-assessing. Only then does he notice Danny: and he remembers Danny, but can't remember what to call him in Covert Situations. So: "Hey!"


There is just nothing about Danny that is covert. He's in a suit, with a white shirt, not in slick all black, or armor, or even shoes fit for a combat situation. But when Freefall pulls that maneuver, he can't help but grin a little bit. "Every time I see you, you're getting yourself into trouble. Want a hand? Which ones are we fighting?" Okay, so this is only the second time, and it does seem that Freefall is fighting both sides. It's about then that one of the blanks notices him, and takes a swing at him. Well, that decides that.

Danny moves with impressive speed and quickly delivers a series of quick blows to the blank that overcomes it, sending it to the ground with a thud. "These guys, I guess," he answers to himself. He's never been one to shy away from a fight, even one that's not his, perhaps even especially ones that aren't his. And soon he is in the thick of it, moving with the practiced fluidity of a highly trained fighter. He takes a few hits, but it doesn't seem to slow him down as he moves into the fray.


The Cheshire raises an eyebrow. "Well, I guess we are doing this," he says to no-one in particular, because no-one can see him.

Except when they suddenly can, as he drops his invisibility and his illusion. So, suddenly there is a Cheshire cat there, in a leather jacket.

Which he shrugs off, because jackets impede your freedom of movement. "Let it not be said I'm not a team player." He isn't. He justs doesn't like people to say it.

He jumps into the fray with a gusto that is rather contradictory with his earlier reluctance. Once he is involved, he fights with his knowledge of martial arts and the clever viciousness of felines, who never fight fair. He attacks Goons and Blanks alike, with a gleeful amount of kicks to sensitive parts and clawing at faces. And then he gets knocked on his ass by a blow he didn't see coming.

He blinks a couple of times and he recovers in time to see a Blank bearing down on him, ready to stomp him as he lay on his back, but he manages to hastily roll away and onto a crouching position to better evaluate his options.

He wishes he had taken up some of the Mansion people's offers for sparring.


"Not quite sure." admits Freefall with a serious, but calm voice; now that he's removed himself from close-melee with a pair that had the edge on him, he's calmed a great deal. "But yes, those seem to be the aggressors." he remarks reasonably, and then he sheathes the batons and falls again, spinning agian and landing on his feet as he reaches out and touches those two blanks. Just that, a touch: and they both slam sideways crashing them all into a heap of bodies against the wall to the side. They aren't dead, but a bit out of it.

He then notices the cat-man, and this makes Freefall pause. He just wasn't expecting that.

This earns him a punch in the face by a goon, which has him stumbling back, and then reaching out to touch the blank which falls. Up.

Freefall pulls out his batons, engages some mechanism and six inch blades emerge from each, and then the batons are stuck together through some mechanism and— its a double bladed spear.

"I'm Freefall." says the man in black to the feline man, even as the spear is swung deftly around him to create an area of denial. "The faceless guys we're thinking are bad."

The blank keeps falling up.
… and it keeps falling up.


Danny nods to Freefall and apparently decides that works for him. He continues to work on the blanks; however, the one that he confronts suddenly blurs and splits into two, and then four. Well, that was a couple more than he'd planned on. He's only peripherally aware that a third combatant has entered the fray who wasn't among the original two groups as he's almost entirely focused on the four that now surround him.

It's almost as though he has a sort of second sense as to the source of incoming danger. He moves with an uncanny ability to dodge most of the oncoming blows, even from multiple attackers, and uses the momentum of one to follow through and push him straight on into two of the others, as though he were a bowling ball. The maneuver leaves him with one to face head on. They trade blows, but the blank provides little difficulty once he is on his own and Danny gives him a few solid punches that eventually lands him on top of the others. It's only then that he truly notices Keith and he blinks, pauses, blinks again, and then says, "I'm thinking subdue them all and sort it out later."


"Hello, Freefall. I don't have a name." The need to get a silly name seemed to be getting more and more urgent. He'll come up with something, one of these days. In the meantime…

Subduing all sounds like a good idea!

The Cheshire leaps, avoiding an attack, and then he realizes he is doing all of this wrong. They can multiply?

So can he.

Suddenly, there are half a dozen Cat-men, running at different people. Each one of them happens to be immaterial, vanishing as soon as they are touched.

The real Cheshire cat is the only one that doesn't disappear, but he's bought his impromptu team some time by the ruse of illusions. When he is ganged up by a Goon and a Blank, he recoils and instinctively opens up a Rabbit Hole, causing a Goon to punch out a Blank with one solid blow, thanks to the portal.

The cat blinks for a couple of seconds, realizing what just happened. "Heeey… why hadn't I-"

And then another punch knocks him back, this time making him see stars and dazing him long enough to be vulnerable to another attack.


A blade goes right through a goon's skull, and a moment later Freefall pauses, as a body twitches at the end of his weapon. In his defense, a gun was almost pointed at him. Against that position, its not entirely clear he cared.

"… right. Subdue." A click and the blades slide into the ends of the staff. "On that."

Fallling, fallling, the blank is still falling up.

With Danny's martial arts and the innate senses he hs for combat rivaling his own pure acrobatic skill, and the cats causing chaos, Freefall takes advantage. His staff whips around to strike one head then another, but then Keith is hit. Freefall takes a few quick steps in a run and jumps— and soars over them all, with a grace born only of a creature to whom gravity serves, flipping at the end to put himself between the cat man and his foe. His hand reaches out to graze just slighlty against that goon, and he goes flying like a bowling ball through a few of the melee. Its not taking anything out, just buying time. He looks behind him, "You okay?" he asks of Keith-Cat, and then looks to check on Danny.


There's that sound of the blade going through skull and Danny looks over at Freefall just as the Goon slides off the blade. He takes in the goon, the gun, and the man, and then he turns back to the fighting that he is embroiled in all without missing more than half a beat. When it's clear that Frefall has KeithCat covered, Danny continues to fight the remaining Goons who seem intent on getting knocked out rather than backing down. "Seriously, just.. stop.. fighting," he mutters. Oh, he takes a few hits. He's not entirely able to fend off all of the ones nearby at once, but that doesn't seem to stop him from pressing on with a single-minded stubbornness. Eventually, though, he begins to work his way toward the Nerd with his case. "Call off your goons," he says to him, "Or everyone here is going to end up unconscious… or worse."


|ROLL| Keith +rolls 1d100 for: 78


Or worse is definitely on the menu. Keith has seen some things, in his short stint as an X-ally. But he has yet to see… well. A sword going through someone's skull.

"That… that…" the nearest Goon and/or Blank are in for a treat, as the teenager who has never had the pleasure to see grey matter up close is now made keenly aware of it. It doesn't help that his enhanced sense of hearing allowed him to hear the crack and the squish… and then there is little that needs to be said about the enusing smell that results from it.

It is not his proudest moment, but Keith basically yarks. Considering that he had had a full meal before this… well. Let's just say that it proves to be a very effective way to temporarily put one or two of his nearest assailants out of combat as they, unfortunately (well, depending on whose side you're on) get caught in the line of fire. One or two of them may also have to take a moment to visit the goddess Nausa herself.

The cat hunches over and tries to take a deep breath, coughing.


There's a critical mass, for the blanks at least, it seems; the Blanks hesitate a moment as one, and then run in another direction. There's not a lot left, but as they run they blur-shiver into less, and then as they run, they blur-shiver into even fewer. Then one nondescript man is running. The goons? There's two left standing, and the nerd with the briefcase looks at Danny, and barks an order, and is quickly seen to and dragged into the limo, to flee. Some unconscious goons are around. A few dead blanks, and a dead goon, are there. The dead blanks… become blurry and just sort of dissolve into a clear goop.

Freefall regards Keith, and the blink can not be seen, "He tried pointing a gun at me. I can't do anything about guns but kill the person before they shoot me." is his calm reply. He glances over to Danny, "Any serious injuries?" And back at the barfing guy, uncertain how to deal with that. Oh, he'll take a step or two back. Just in case like, you know, barf on his shoes.


The nerd fleeing seems to irritate Danny a little bit, but he makes a note of the plate (if any) on the limo and what details he can. He may do some searching later. But for now, for now he turns to survey the damage. The blanks turning into goop is a thing. The one dead goon, another. Finally, he turns and looks over to Freefall. His shirt is torn, bloodied in some places, with his own blood and that of the goons. He's got a split lip, but aside from that seems to be alright. "I'm fine," he says and then looks over to the KeithCat. "You alright, buddy?" he asks, running a hand with some bruised knuckles through his hair. Then he looks over to Chance and asks, "How bout you? You good?"


After several deep breaths, the Cheshire slowly straightens up. He has that bleary-eyed look one often tends to have after puking one's guts out. And also the accompanying embarrassment that is common in cases like this.

"Y-yeah…" obbviously too shaken up to try the cool and aloof route, his eyes travel down to the mangled Goon on the ground, and then look quickly away as he fights another wave of nausea. On the whole, he has his share of bruises, but he also has the embarrassment of being the rookie who lost his cookies in the middle of it all. He runs his hand over his forehead and closes his eyes for a moment.


Freefall gestures in response to Danny's question, "Balistic nylon; doesn't stop bullets, slows them. Does a solid job on …" He nods to Danny's torn shirt and bloody wounds in some places. He's armored, somewhat. Its not kevlar, because kevlar doesn't exist yet, but its the next best thing. "I'm fine." But the state of his other injuries are hard to read: the armor has taken some damage, clearly. "Nothing… serious." he admits. He looks to Keith a moment, "I don't enjoy killing people, but guns are serious. I have a special arrangement with one fundamental force, but the rest aren't my friends. A gun turning towards me…?" The masked man shrugs. In body-language if not facial its like: What can you do? As if it weren't really anything at all.


Danny is not armored but despite that, he seems alright enough. He'll be a bit sore tomorrow. He glances over at Chance and asks, "You sure? I can help if you need it." But then his attention shifts over to the cat and he says, "I'm Danny. We should probably move away from here.. " For a number of reasons, among them being any law enforcement that decide to show up. He then wanders over to the parking meter to reclaim his jacket, slinging it back over his shoulder. He's not looking at the dead guy on the ground, but neither is he avoiding him. The man is dead. There's nothing more to be done about it. "Got somewhere you can go? Need a ride?"


Not looking at dead people helps you not throw up. That's the strategy he is going for, for now. Once he has established a regular breathing pattern, Keith quickly puts up the illusion that displays his old human form to the world. Unlike his real face, his illusion bears a calm expression that does not betray how vulnerable he currently feels.

"Not… really." The voice. He can't do anything about the voice, yet. He might figure that out in the future, but right now- "I usually crash somewhere. I'll be fine." He tried to find somewhere to sleep that was out of the way and hidden. It was the best way to hold on to the money he had made while traveling through England. He didn't want to spend it before finding employment.

"Right, should probably make ourselves scarce… do we… do we know what was going on here?"

Belatedly, he realizes he now has two names, and none to give back. At least, no codename. "I'm Keith" he blurts.


"Bruises, maybe a cracked rib, nothing important." Freefall nods to Danny on his offer, a faint wince heard in his voice. Away? There's a moment of hesitation, and Freefall splits his staff into two batons, and slides them into their sheaths. He extends a hand to each of them; Danny and Keith, gloved. They sure saw what happened when people touched him, so its up to them if they take his offered hands. "There was a diamond robbery, we foiled; I meant to stop the sell itself, as it was laundered money, so, neither side was actually a good guy." he explains, and adds. He glances at Danny: he knows who that man is, both names, and the power of those names. He still doesn't give his own behind the black mask. But he looks to Keith, hands still out, "I can get us away, quick, and I have a safehouse you can use until you get on your feet. Keith."


Danny reaches out to take the extended hand that is held out by Freefall. He knows the names, but he doesn't seem inclined to use either. He knows when Danny is talking to him, and he has no hesitation about taking the man's hand. It's not the first time he's been offered that hand, and he survived it just fine last time.


As both takes his hand, there's a shifting, as Freefall takes a more serious *grip*, and then… They fall into the sky.

It feels exactly like falling, but shooting up towards the stars. There is a shift, and they art hurtling through the air up and forwards. It defies all sense of direction, this motion; they are always *falling*, but falling was up, now its forward, and always there's this sense of *down* in the rush of air when the eyes of all three men defy them. Its rapid, the world spinning through them as directions shift, but always Freefall keeps a firm grip. Then there's a slowing, an ordering, some sense of normalcy, because down that they see is down that is and down is down and gently they sort of… float down to settle on a random apartment building in Brooklyn. "I can call anyone a car that needs it. But we're safe, from here."


It's seriously disorienting, but through it Danny manages to keep hold of his coat, which he slides back on once they have touched down on the rooftop and he no longer has to hold onto Chance. With his jacket back on, Danny takes a card out of his pocket and he hands it to Keith, "If you find yourself in trouble. Give the number a call." It has his name, his office number, likely the name of his secretary, and of course the Rand Coropration logo on it. There's no special name given. Just Danny. He then moves over toward Chance and says "Hold still." He takes a slow breath and focuses for a moment and his hand begins to glow. He touches it to Chance's side, unless he moves away from it, and indeed if there were any cracked ribs, they mend, and the most serious of the bruising does as well, until his hand fades once more back to normal.


Perhaps it might surprise Freefall that Keith does not puke yet again when experiencing this … well… free fall. But having practiced short-distance traveling using his Rabbit Holes as a sort of roller-coaster, the mercies of gravity are far less upsetting to his stomach than the sight of brains. If anything, the trip is a great way to just surrender to something else and not think of anything.

When they arrive, he nods to Freefall. "It's ok… I can bring my bike here and drive on from here."

He demonstrates this by opening a Rabbit Hole that leads to the garage where his bike was parked. He passes through, and in a few seconds he emerges again, walking his motorcycle through and closing the hole behind him. He is stable enough now to work the portals, he wasn't so much in shock anymore.

"Thank you, Danny…" he says, and looks at the card an the corporation logo. He slips it into his jacket pocket (because he did grab a hold of his jacket before flying), "I'll keep it in mind. I'd give you my card, but I don't got one." Unless he could get himself a business card done for being the professional disgrace of the family.

He observes the strange ritual, and then feels something that sets his fur on edge. Something was just done. Something interesting… his curiosity demands that he find out what that was.

But he is tired, and drained. And needs to find a place to crash. Thinking better of the offer, he decides that right now he needs somewhere calm and quiet to recover. Far from anyone's eyes.

"I'll be seein' you guys around. Freefall. Danny."

And, after he gets on his motorcycle, he drives away towards a portal that opens before him. This one leads to something that looks like a tropical beach, bathed in moonlight. Warmth and humidity briefly contrast with the cool of Autumn, and then the portal closes, leaving behind the scent of the ocean and the brief, blessed touch of a vernal warmth that is quickly dissipated by a chill breeze.


It isn't in Chance's nature to admit weakness, to accept healing; but. Most people don't accept falling through the cosmos, and he's fought twice with Danny now. So he stills himself, and stills, and clenches his jaw. The cracked rib mends, and there's a grunt, and though none of this ishow he usually operates, he has the grace to say gently, "Thank you." to Danny. He looks to Keith, not fully understanding what the feline guy is, or … whoa, portals? Freefall shakes his head slightly, "Come here, and ask for Mister Roberts, if you ever want to find me." he says as Keith gets on his bike, before he drives off. He nods to Danny then.


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