Wild Things (open)

[Abigail Ravensdale]

The door chimed as Zoe walked into the convenience store and made a bee line for the very back of the store. She snugged her gloves up around her wrists before reaching for the clear door which displayed the latest energy drinks. Part of her couldn't believe what she was about to do, but then again, hunger and pain had a strange way of motivating people to do things they wouldn't normally. Of course for Zoe, her reasons where much less righteous. No, for her it was just exploitation and earning a little money for fun.

She grabbed two citrus flavored kick starts out of the fridge and held them together in one hand. Her black mo-hawk peaked just above the aisles like a sharks fin. Looking around she waited for a second to make sure she was alone. She was glad to see she was alone, after all, who wants to rob a store when there are people there? Walking to the front counter she set her two cans on the counter and pulled off one of her gloves.

I'd like all the money in your register," she said plainly.

The small elderly man looked up at her as if she'd just told a joke. He smiled and rang up the two kickstarts. She didn't smile or anything but hey, that just meant she'd have to give him a little incentive. There wa a thin pane of Plexiglas separating the man from the customers, for safety of course. Zoe reached up and pressed the palm of her hand against the pane and it splashed to the counter like a glass of water. She had just made it very clear that none off it was a joke.

"money...now

She certainly wouldn't have to ask another time. As the cashier began pulling open the register and pulling out the small wads of cash that it contained. Reaching out with her gloved hand she took the money and stuffed it deep into her pockets, at least, as deep as a pair of women's jeans would allow. The crumpled bills stuffed in her pocket and she'd probably only gotten away with getting a few hundred dollars, and when they were mostly in twenty's, that was definitely a disappointment. Picking up the two energy drinks now that she'd taken the dinero she would leave.

"Have a good night,"

She chimed with a smile as the door swung open and she walked off. Sliding her glove back on she popped the first tab on her drink and took a swig. Walking down the street at around 1:00 A.M. wasn't normally recommended but Zoe had the look of a girl who could handle herself. She walked boldly and her over all demeanor displayed the fact she wasn't going to be the one mugged but perhaps the other way around. Likely enough the store clerk would have called the cops, Zoe knew this, but had no rush to leave the area only walking casually away.

[Vidar Anfinson]

High above the city Vidar circled lazily in the air above nighttime New York City skyline. He was high enough to avoid the helicopters and low enough to avoid airplanes, really it was the ideal height for a night patrol and while the Norwegian didn't go out to patrol like this every night there were nights when it just felt right. This evening he was dressed from head to toe in black: black bandana and mask, black t-shirt which exposed his biceps and their rings of dyed feathers, black fingerless gloves that left him free to use his talons if he needed to, black military-issue cargo pants full of pockets, and black steel-toed combat boots specially modified to accommodate his taloned toes. He had a silenced H&K USP Tactical .40, silenced holstered on each thigh as well as throwing knives across his chest, a combat knife at his left shoulder and a boot knife in his right boot.

Far below his sharp vision caught the sight of a mohawked woman emerging from an all night convenience store and, ever so slightly, he could hear the sound of the silent alarm since it used a subsonic frequency as a means of transmission. There was further evidence of the woman's guilt in the theft from the bulging pockets in her jeans and the corner of a twenty dollar bill that he could see sticking out of a pocket from where he was at. Tucking one wing he banked in the direction of the woman and, when he was about thirty feet in front of her in the direction she was walking he tucked both wings and dropped several hundred feet towards the Earth, drawing a throwing knife into his right hand and one of the two pistols into his left as he dove from the sky.

A few feet from the ground he fanned open his wings with an audible snapping sound and then tucked them and dropped lightly to the pavement in front of Zoe. Rising from his crouch his right hand flashed out and released the throwing knife. The weapons sped through the air and slammed into the open drink can in her hand before continuing on. He had thrown the weapon from an angle that insured that the knife would not strike the woman. The remaining liquid in the can gushed out in a rush of sticky mess.

"Return the money to the store," Vidar said calmly, raising the gun in his hand. He pulled the trigger and fired a round that struck the other drink can which exploded in a mess of drink before the round continued on to bury itself in the building wall next to the woman. "Now." Vidar drew the other gun and pointed it in the woman's direction.

[Abigail Ravensdale]

Zoe hadn't gotten more than three sips out of the citrus drink before everything went to hell. A loud snap ruined the silent night as some giant bird man appeared. Needless to say Zoe was completely caught off guard, she stopped immediately and froze. Sure there were things that could prepare someone for certain things, but this was just something she wasn't prepared for.

Her muscles locked after she'd taken a step back from the strange mutant that had just fallen onto her path. The next thing she knew her drink was spilling out all over the ground splashing onto her feet. "ugh! She tossed the can away now that it was useless. "Woah man! Calm the f*** down!"

It would have been anyone reaction as the bird swung its arms towards her with a gun in hand. The can in her other hand exploded drenching her hand and side in the sticky drink, on the plus side, she smelt like oranges now. Now she knew how to react, she'd been pushed; which made her want to push back as hard as she could.

She took off her gloves which were covered in that deliciously sweet sticky energy drink. She was livid, to say the least. Her fist were clenched and she held herself back only because of that piece that thing had in its hand, then she hit a mental brick wall of realization. Who the hell sold that thing guns. It was a different world and all for sure, but seriously?

She crossed her arms pressing her palms to her purple shirt. "You'd better point that thing somewhere else or you'll find out what it means to bite the bullet." she said as she focused on adjusting the density of her shirt. Her arms were exposed but hell it'd be better than anything. Once she was convinced she could take a bullet she reached down into her pants pocket. Pulling out the small wad of twenties she held it out to him. ""Take it," she said as she walked towards the bird creature. It was more than obvious this guy was a mutant, but hell he was freaky.

Stepping closer to him, hesitantly, she curled her fist around the money and ended up being just a few feet in front of him. Opening her hand quickly the once crumpled up twenties had turned into a solid, all of them had molded together and where keeping their form unnaturally. The ink on the bills had swirled together in a green and black mess. She turned her hand over and the crumpled wad of ruined bills fell to the ground, the bills had merged together and weighed about six pounds now. "Woops.." she said furrowing her brow as she tilted her head down and looked at him with a fairly intimidating demeanor for such a small framed girl. "What happens now Tweety bird?"

The question was rhetorical, Zoe wasn't about to let Tweety make the first move. Following the question came a swift kick towards Tweety's hand hoping to knock the gun away. Zoe had picked up a bit of fighting on the streets, she definitely wasn't one to run so Tweety had better hope he brought his A game.

[Vidar Anfinson]

Vidar had expected the woman to start a fight when she had been approaching him. Years of military training had taught him how to read body language and his enhanced vision meant that there was really very little that the feathered Norwegian missed. He noticed when she shifted her weight and tensed to begin her attack. Given her closeness, his massive height advantage over her, and the fact that his hands were both full with the guns the winged mutant decided to take the blow from Zoe.

When her blow connected with his side he went with the kick and used it to help him gain some distance, holstering both pistols in the process. Judging by the power of the blow relative to her distance from him Vidar made the assumption that, when it came to fighting this woman was relatively untrained. That would make things easier though it also meant that he could not, in good conscience, kill her unless she pulled a deadly weapon of some sort. Taking a few steps back Vidar dropped into an easy fighting stance from Systema, the hand-to-hand combat system favored by the Norwegians and Russians among others.

"So, you prefer hard way," the Norwegian said, shrugging his shoulders before moving in to attack. His left hand shot out, talons flashing, and slashed at the woman's face the attack was not designed to hit her so much as it was designed to make her react to defend herself from the talons. He followed the talon attack with an uppercut punch aimed at the woman's stomach that was designed to knock her breath out as he pulled back his left hand. Curling his arm he launched a forearm strike at the woman's temple with his left arm that was intended to render her unconscious before aiming a low muy thai style kick at the outside of one of her knees.

[Abigail Ravensdale]

Zoe's foot crashed into Big Birds side and seemed to send him flying off balance. She smiled satisfied but she wasn't about to let him off that easily. She was pissed, one good hit wasn't going to sate her anger. She noted him putting the guns away. "Careful you might just need those," she had no idea the extent of training this man had. She acted a little brashly and was about to swing at him before he took his own swing.

She raised her arms just like he'd planned and cursed feeling the sharp talons cut into her arms. Her mid section was exposed but not unprotected. She'd hardened her shirt to take a bullet, mind you it was still fabric, but if it could take a bullet it'd lessen the extent of his punch. Not severally enough however, she still crumpled over his fist but she recovered sooner than he probably would have hoped. Jumping out of the way of his elbow she splashed into what became a wet puddle of cement. The whole gloves thing off seemed to be working against her now.

Zoe was either too dumb to realize she was just completely out matched, or she was just too pissed to give a shit. She dug her hand deep into the wet cement and came out with stone cold fists of fury (lol). With her hands now covered in cement she went for a swing right to his side. Hell, she wouldn't mind beating this guy with a couple rocks.

[Vidar Anfinson]

Vidar was tempted to shake his fist out a little bit after he made contact with Zoe's midsection. He hadn't expected her to be wearing some sort of body armor. As it was he pulled back a few steps and thanked his lucky stars that he hadn't broken his hand, wrist, or any of his fingers in delivering the blow. As he backed off to get a little distance between himself and the woman, not as big a deal to him since he had considerably greater reach than she did, he watched as she also hopped backward and into a puddle of what had, moments before, been solid cement.

Quickly the trained ex-soldier put two and two together in his mind, obviously this woman's powers revolved around some sort of ability to alter the solid state of matter. That explained the shirt and the concrete. What he did not yet have enough information to work out was whether or not the mohawked punk could similarly dissolve him if she made contact with his body. Vidar made a mental note to avoid letting her grab him.

As these thoughts were racing through his head Zoe had dunked her hands in the concrete and given herself what were, obviously, very dangerous boxing gloves. This was especially true for someone with a hollow bone structure like Vidar's. When she swung he used his left hand to block the blow at her wrist, pushing the concrete fist up as he ducked underneath it and drew his H&K pistol with his right hand. The concrete fist assault constituted a deadly weapon as far as the avian man was concerned.

Ordinarily he would have preferred to combat roll away, but wings made a combat roll something that was not really an option, ever. Instead he pressed the barrel of the pistol into the woman's side, up under her rib cage. He was reasonably certain that, if he pulled the trigger right now body armor or not the woman would be killed. Still, honor and religious duty dictated that wanton murder not be engaged in.

"Enough," he commanded in an authoritative tone, jabbing the woman with the gun again as he drew the second pistol with his left and held the gun up pointed at her head but not touching her skin. "No more struggle or I will shoot you. Twice," the Norwegian continued calmly, thumbing back the hammer on the pistol in his left hand which gave an audible click.

[Abigail Ravensdale]

Zoe had him now, or at least she thought so. Swing after swing missed, but all she needed was one good contact to the head and he'd be out. She swung one more time just as confidently as any other time and before she knew it she felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed into her side. Her fist was reeled back ready to let loose at a moments notice. Her teeth clenched and her lips pursed she was ready to let out but she held it in on account she could be killed.

Zoe found herself quite literally staring down the barrel of a gun with a fist full of rocks ready to flatten his big bird face but she found herself stuck. The uncomfortable nudge of the barrel into her side got a reaction. She opened her hands and the cement dripped off "Can't handle it?" she asked with a scowl that'd turn milk. She slowly stood up straight, her hand up with her palms facing him.

"So what now big bird? Ya gonna take me to sesame street to meet all your friends? Cause to be honest, I'm pretty much over you guys." she wasn't even trying to hide the fact she was pissed off at the giant chicken man. For now she'd go along with him, the second he made a wrong move, the second he let his guard down, whenever she got a chance, he'd find her hand right on that beak of his. She couldn't make him disappear, but people seemed to scream whenever she touched them and that was good enough for her.

Their little tussle hadn't taken very long but it had left plenty of signs. A square of solid concrete was a puddle now, which would harden again eventually, but for it was a sopping wet puddle. There was a solid wad of money that now weighed five pounds, crumpled up on the ground, and oh yeah, that bozo had shot at her. Her blood was boiling and it was literally taking every fiber of her little Wyoming body not to keep on throwing punches at him. He'd seemed to stall her long enough however, in the distance the sound of sirens was coming their way and she wasn't going to stick around for them.

"Ya hear that bird brains? You ain't got no proof I robbed that store back there. That crumpled mess ain't gonna prove nothin'. And seein as you're the big ass bid with the guns and knives, I'm suddenly the damsel in distress, you may wanna be the one to get outta here. Don't worry, when I tell 'em Big bird attacked me they're sure to be confused as fuck and probably think I'm trippin on some shit, course I don't doubt that I am."

She didn't see any flaw in her logic. The green and black swirled mess showed no signs of ever being money. Hell if the cops questioned her she could blame this guy, she'd thought of everything, she was an expert at getting out of these types....out of sticky situations. This was honestly a new one. "Run along now chickie," she said making a shewing motion with one of her hands. The cops could have been more than a block away now, the lights were shining off the buildings and anything reflective.

[Vidar Anfinson]

OOC: If I need to make any edits to this please let me know, up to and including a full re-write. You weren't around to poke before I started writing, so if it needs to be changed that's COMPLETELY fine with me.

Vidar narrowed his ice blue eyes in the direction of the woman. While her insults mattered not a bit, he had been called far worse, he had to admit that she had a point. A very good point considering the prejudicial nature of law enforcement towards mutants in America. Of the two of them he was the one that was obviously a mutant. There was certainly no denying that fact and he had his doubts that the police had any kind of test they could administer on the street that would allow him to prove that she was also a mutant. Of course, he was also well aware that the store security camera footage would show that he had never set foot inside and that she was the one that had robbed the place. Then again, the police would also be likely to only arrest him in this scenario and tracking down a petty criminal wouldn't be high on the agenda for the NYPD.

As he saw it there was only one logical course of action.

In the blink of an eye the pistols were back in their holsters and snapped in. Vidar lunged towards the woman, grabbed her to him, coiled his legs beneath his body, and sprang into the air all in one fluid motion. Someone her height and probable weight couldn't possibly weigh all that much, and he was right in that assessment as his wings beat and the pair of them rocketed into the air. Well, they rocketed as much as Vidar could ever be considered to rocket, which wasn't all that fast but more than quick enough to be alarming for someone that didn't expect it. In the process of grabbing her some of the woman's bare skin had made contact against his body and that had certainly stung, but it was nothing compared to being shot.

Shrugging off the pain from holding on to the woman he carried her higher and higher into the air. One thousand feet. Two thousand. Three thousand. Four thousand. Five thousand. Surely that would be sufficient. Then he let go of the girl, giving her a little shove in the process. As she slipped from his grasp he caught her by one ankle and held her danging head down at five thousand feet over the New York City streets.

"Listen well, this is the only warning I will give you. If I catch you out breaking the laws again I will kill you. Bullet, knife, drop from a very high place... it really makes no difference to me," the Norwegian said in a low, dangerous tone. "In this society there is no place for a mutant that wantonly commits crimes for no other reason than because they can. The actions of a few color the way a fearful society views the whole."

He tucked his wings in and dove towards the ground, being sure to modify the speed of the dive from normal to avoid injuring himself. Leveling out at rooftop level he dropped the girl about five feet down onto the roof of one of the many high rise apartment buildings in the city. "I am always watching. There, but for the grace of God, go you." The bird man crossed himself, banked over the street, tucked his wings and dove out of sight.

[Abigail Ravensdale]

Zoe had run the facts and it was obvious Tweets saw her way. He had no bearings with the cops, she couldn't be charged with anything, and if shit was going to happen he''d be the one left to deal not her. She crossed her arms feeling a bit secure now that she had actually won a fight with words instead of her fists. It was half as satisfying but, it was a win. Just when she thought she had the upper hand he holstered his guns and jumped at her.

She reacted enough to move one of her arms down to her side but as his arms wrapped around her she had no chance of escape. "OI! What thu feck!" she shouted as they started soaring upwards. She looked down as the ground started to fade away and the group of police cars went zooming past where they were. They'd escaped the cops but he didn't show any signs of stopping. "Ar you Daff?! Le't me go"

What a poor choice of words that was. Suddenly she felt gravity take effect and she started falling. She covered her head with her arms, not that it would do anything from this height. She started screaming but was caught by the ankle. Her arms never left her head until she found herself lying on her back on the safety of a building rooftop. After she stood up and overcame her shock, which had her shaking a bit she blew up. "You bloody arsehole! I'll fucking gut you next time!" He was out of view but she'd seen where he'd last been and picked up a fistful of rocks and through them in his direction, whether or not they hit didn't matter, it was just an anger release.

She screamed from the rooftop, not at anything in particular, just a another way she was getting over being dropped. She stormed to the rooftop to the door quickly reducing the door to the consistency of sixteenth inch plywood and easily kicking it down.She stormed down the stairway grabbing the handrails and twisting them into messes of steel pipe which she dropped on her way down. The stair case was a huge spiral and you could see straight to the bottom, so dropping the mangled mesh of steel pipe that had become lighter and just as flimsy as aluminum foil was just as good a place to put it as any. The entire way down she muttered and cursed to herself, punching the wall effectively turning the motel she'd been dropped off on, to what was soon to become a rather cheap place.