Closed RP Familiar Face

[Ira]

Mary sat quietly outside of the 'First Little Pittsburg Bank' in an unfolding lawn chair. In front of the main entrance, two burly men stood armed with Kalashnikovs slung across their back. They were focused and at attention, but that was mostly because the 'boss' was sitting outside with them. Mary didn't usually keep a close tab on her men while they worked their protection duties, but Avery said this particular location needed a bit of 'encouragement.'

Specifically, he said the boys were bored because no one tried to rob it. Something about a local kid getting run over by the nearby train? Whatever, weird superstitions and criminals did go hand in hand but that didn't make Mary any happier that she had to personally involve herself. Suddenly, a beeping on her watch notified her of 'time for lunch break.' Standing with a sigh, she looked over at the boys,

"I'm gettin' nom noms, you's want sumthin' sumthin'? Yeah you's do, I'ma go get us food."

The two men beamed, free food was always on the table. Grinning back at them, Mary strode off without hesitation toward the nearest mcdonalds. It probably would've been faster to call a cab, but the longer she could get away with not sitting in front of that bank, the better. Avery be damned, the boys could hold position for forty-five minutes without losing their minds. Surely they could do that.

Then, after less than a minute of walking, Mary saw something she swore looked familiar. The back of a head full of crimson hair. It wasn't curly, so surely it couldn't be- unless she had straightened it? Whatever, call out time baby girl! Mary flung a hand up and shouted at the red-head, "Hey you's! Yeah you's! Cmere! Lemme holla at ya!"

 

[Prudence]

Frankie walked along a busy street in downtown Pittsburgh, her eyes pinched shut. The city was busy, not as frantic as what she'd grown up around, but more active than anything she'd seen in a decade. Even with her eyes closed she still knew the movement of everything around her, she could feel it. The frame of each passing car, the small pieces of metal worn by passing pedestrians and the reinforcing metal beams of buildings she walked past. She could hear the city too. She could force the signals out of her mind now, but she was allowing herself to be overwhelmed by the crowded city.

She fished a crumpled piece of paper out of her pocket, then opened her eyes to glance down at it. It was filled with grainy pictures of a young man, only a few months past his 18th birthday, as well as a few lines of sloppily written notes. She didn't need to study his appearance so obsessively, she'd been stalking the boy for days now. She wanted to know who he talked to, specifically if he was working with other metas. She also wanted to know the full extent of his abilities. So far, he just seemed abnormally fast and strong; nothing concerning to her, he wouldn't be so fast with metal rods through his knees.

Frankie's thoughts were interrupted by someone shouting behind her. She spun around and saw the woman who had been shouting looking directly at her. She was heavily tattooed and stood a few inches shorter than Frankie. "Excuse me?"

 

[Ira]

No, it wasn't that Sam girl. This woman was a couple inches taller than Mary. couple years older too it looked like. Mary placed a hand on her own hip and leaned a little to the left. With a wicked grin, she snapped back, "Yeah girly, I'm talkin' to you's."

Mary made a few large steps, circling the other woman and sizing her up. Mary knew a meta when she saw one, usually, most of the time. They had that look about them. Dazed, overwhelming by every sensation they couldn't understand or control, and hyperfocused on something weird. The crumpled picture of some guy, way too young to be a boyfriend and too old to be a kid, did not escape Mary's eye. He didn't bear a resemblance to the woman, not family.

So either she was stalking him as a target, or she was just really, really weird. Meta behavior. Of course, these were just speculations! And Mary knew she was no Sherlock Holmes! No no no! The Demon beat the idea of Mary's intelligence out of Mary's thickened skull. The best way to tell if someone was a meta, the way Mary would default to, was violence.

Meta's loved violence.

"You's look new to the city, bitch. Wanna pass over you's cash quick and easy now?"

 

[Prudence]

To Frankie's displeasure, the little gremlin standing before her confirmed that she had been talking to her. She just shook her head and rolled her eyes. She didn't have any friends in this city and she wasn't looking for any, quite the opposite. She was here to make a lot of enemies.

Instead of just getting to what it was she wanted, the other woman was looking Frankie over. This she recognized. She had been in enough fights to know what it looked like when someone was sizing her up. She quickly crumpled the paper back up and jammed it in her pocket, freeing up both her hands. If she wanted a fight, she'd get a fight. Fankie didn't make the first move—she didn't know if she was one of the meta freaks—instead she remained still and presented what looked like an easy target. She would prove to not be so easy in plenty of time. In the meantime he was reaching out to her surroundings, identifying everything she could use to beat some sense into the other woman.

Sure enough, the next time the gremlin opened her mouth, it was in a half-assed attempt at a robbery. Frankie laughed in response.

"Honestly, you'll have to do a lot better than that if you want to rob me. Walk on little bitch, find somebody more your size—maybe you'll scare them."

 

[Ira]

Mary laughed. A cruel, mirthless, forced laugh followed by a quick shout, "Oh yeah? SHABOOM!."

In a flash, Mary's hands flew up to eye level. Twin finger guns pointed directly at the older, larger woman. This bitch was standing, what, ten feet away? About? Yeah about that much. As twin beams of burgundy force flew from Mary's fingertips aimed directly at the other woman's chest. They looked a little bit like burgundy lightning, but they were anything but.

Pure force would fly through the air at the other woman. The beams were not particularly powerful, Mary had neither said the 'right' words nor had she experienced or drawn from pain to increase their strength. Still, for a normal, unaugmented human, the beams would have broken every rib in their chest.

But Mary was betting this bitch wasn't normal.

 

[Prudence]

The gremlin just shouted something and made finger guns at her. Frankie arched an eyebrow in confusion.

"The fu—"

Suddenly burgundy lightning crackled from her fingers, aimed straight at Frankie. If it weren't so confusing it would've been funny. Frankie had enough time to get an amused smirk on her lips, not trying to dodge it or anything. The bitch would learn, and then she would die. She'd found herself a meta, one who's powers were poorly matched against her own.

Things did not go as Frankie expected. She was suddenly knocked back on her ass, her chest ached in a way she'd never truly experienced before and she felt like retching. Was this what it normally felt like to get punched in the chest? Whatever that was, it hadn't been lightning, and Frankie hadn't absorbed a bit of it.

Rage surged inside her but she didn't have the time to stew on her emotions. She lashed out at the gremlin, her mind seizing the nearest car to her—some piece of shit Mitsubishi Minica—and hurled it at the gremlin. The car had been driving on the street and had passengers inside, but Frankie didn't really give a shit. Frankie struggled to her feet as the car sailed through the air. "Shaboom this, you raggedy bitch."

 

[Ira]

Now this was interesting.

The girl at the blasts to the chest and hadn't died? Better yet- she was grabbing a car with her mind and throwing it at Mary. Now that was fun. The car seemed to move in slow motion as it soared through the air at Mary. There were a few options she had here that she knew, but this was a public setting. Mary was a public figure now, she couldn't just ignore the plight of a family in danger!

It was terribly annoying.

Mary had to be strong to catch the car. It wasn't flung with incredible speed or power, but was still a car sailing through the air. There was pain from the other woman from taking the blasts, Mary was already drawing from that. But that wasn't enough- SHIT. How much power did she need? How much pain? How much painhowmuchpainhowmuchpainHOWMUCHPAIN?!

"Oh FUCK!!"

Mary screamed as she used the pain from the other woman to stamp her own leg into the ground with all the force Mary could muster. In an instant, her femur SHATTERED along the fault lines crafted from the last time she had broken it and tried to repair it. In an instant, her arms shot up and she snatched the car by it's front engine. Instead of trying to catch it like a superhero and hold it aloft- like an idiot would- she did the smart thing.

Turning with the momentum of the vehicle, she allowed it to twist around with her hips and used her strength to slow its movement. Essentially allowing her to set the car down with just enough force reduction to rattle the occupants, but no more than that. With her shattered leg, she forced the bones back together and spot welded them. Then, she set her welded leg's foot onto the inner axel of the wheel, holding the vehicle down. Turning to face the other woman, Mary pointed a finger and smiled.

"SHABOOM!"

Burgundian lightning surged through her body and toward her finger, but it was no more than a feint. This is not how she would use the next surge of energy from her shattered leg. But she did hope it would stop the woman from simply trying to grab the car and yank it over Mary's body.

 

[Prudence]

Frankie wasn't sure if any of her ribs were broken or if her chest had just been thoroughly bruised. An aching pain soared through her with each breath as she struggled to her feet and wiped blood away from scrapes on her elbows. Surprisingly, the Gremlin didn't fully dodge the car—instead she was trying to arrest its momentum. If she had that kind of strength it would've been more efficient just to grab and spin it, so its flight path was directed towards her. Is she trying to save them? Weak.

Frankie raised a hand towards the other woman, palm out. She could feel the immense energy coursing through her outstretched limb. She wasn't sure just how tough the Gremlin was, but this would be enough to burn a fist-sized hole through her chest. Just as Frankie was about to fire her energy off, she saw the other woman point and smile at her again. She'd learned her lesson this time and jumped to the left, ducking down to avoid whatever the Gremlin shot. She still fired energy off at the other woman, but not as much as she'd been intending to. Even as she jumped, Frankie could tell it hadn't been a clean hit. She couldn't tell where the beam went—into the Gremlin, the car, or someone unsuspecting beyond them.

What she could see were the scared passengers inside; a pair of terrified parents and their child, banging on the windows for help. A moment of her own weakness overtook Frankie. Instead of gearing up for another blast, her mind wandered back decades into the past. She remembered being a scared little girl, balled up on the pavement as she watched her family's car burn. She hadn't been aiming to kill them either. You're good at killing people without aiming to, her mind taunted.

"Shut up! Shut Up! Shut the hell up!" This was both aimed at her taunting thoughts and the Gremlin's incessant 'shaboom'.

 

[Ira]

Power surged up through Mary's body as the beam from the other woman cut a chunk out of Mary's shoulder. The feint had been bought, if it hadn't then Mary wouldn't have feinted with it anyway. But instead of completely disorienting the other woman, it had only managed to throw off her aim.

At least the people in the car were al-

Why did Mary care?

Mary's mind was- somewhere else. Not in the moment, not present. It was strange. She could feel intense burning in her shoulder, redirected to weld the shards of her shattered leg back together. The pain was not consumed, but the power that could be drawn from it was. Mary was learning so much about herself in this moment, but she couldn't think about any of that. All she thought about, all she could think about, was the wondering- the confusion.

'Why do I care?'

Mary was vaguely aware that she was screaming as she charged the other woman's position. Mary could feel the pain in the other woman's body, and she drew upon it to gain strength once more. It surged through her legs and arms, increasing her strength and speed. She felt like a freight train as she charged the monstrous woman. An unstoppable force, preparing to crash into this woman, screaming and screaming.

 

[Prudence]

Frankie was backed against a wall now, finally back on her feet after her frantic dive. She couldn't run, but nothing she threw at the gremlin seemed to stop her. She'd thrown a car at the other woman, but that'd been caught. She'd blasted away a chunk of the other woman's shoulder but still she was charging at Frankie.

She'd read about Metas, but absent personal experience Frankie had thought she was one of the strong ones. Instead, this fight was far closer than she'd like. That was why she'd picked out a relatively weak Meta for her first 'outing', she needed practice.

In a panic, Frankie grabbed for anything she could throw at the charging troll. By her command projectiles came forth to strike out at her foe. Rusted metal pipes clinging to a nearby building were ripped away and hurdled at the charging woman. Likewise, the ball bearings she kept in her pockets soared forth, tearing holes in her pants to seek out their prey.

 

[Ira]

Mary needed to THINK. To use her head and not her body alone. She wasn't some brute that could just block everything with their face! The pain would be clarity, good thinking, and a purifying force- if it wasn't just all of Mary's own pain. Her own pain liked to muddle the focus the power usually gave her. That's probably why she had saved that car and those people.

That had to be it.

The pipes and ball bearings came flying at Mary at an alarming speed, but they weren't fast enough. With a motion unlike anything else, Mary transmitted her body forward from her charging position to directly over the other woman instantaneously. Misty Step. Of course, the woman had been throwing everything she had at Mary. So Mary had inadvertently Misty Stepped into some of the ball bearing projectiles.

She'd have to remove those later. One of the was definitively lodged inside the bone of her right shoulder too- it didn't respond when Mary tried to lift her right arm to strike the woman below her. It was probably for the best, both fists might've killed the woman. Concentrating all the strength of the pain into her left arm and fist, Mary began viciously striking at the other woman's body, shoulders, arms, and face.

The strength of every single one of Mary's strikes was enough to blow through a concrete wall as if it were paper mache. If the woman wasn't actively defending herself, she'd die. Simple as that. As Mary attacked, she screamed-

"LIKE HURTIN' PEOPLE BITCH?! LIKE MAKIN' THEM SUFFER?! HUH!?! CMON BITCH!! SPEAK UP!!!"