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Post by q on Aug 16, 2011 9:45:26 GMT 10
All of the disbelieving looks were lost on Chris. He was too far gone. His mind was already walking down a dozen paths of what-comes-next. He had somehow taken it as a given that she would need backup, sooner or later. How he actually helped was still a little fuzzy, but it did seem a little unlikely that he would be fighting next to her. He was getting better with his abilities, but right now, his speciality was machines. Hacking into a United/Reaver system was possible. Taking the groups head-on was unlikely.
The rest of his brain was occupied with all the things he would have to look into later.
He meant well. He didn't want to help her just because he wanted to be a hero. She was his sometimes friend. He could do something good because he genuinely wanted to help her; being a hero was an added benefit. It didn't occur to him that he might be in the way, nor did he think that she wouldn't want his help.
"You don't need to say yes now," he continued. "Or ever." He still found it unlikely that she would turn him down forever, but it was important to make it a distinct option. "But if you want to get in touch, just post on that scrapheap website. Scrapbot-dot-com. Ask for parts for, um... The blender mark two thousand. I'll find you based on where you were when you posted, and drop off some kind of long distance radio. I'd give you a radio now, but mine was, er, broken. So..." He trailed off. It sounded silly how paranoid the whole thing was. Illogical. The more he thought about it, the more obvious it was that there were better ways.
"Actually, it'd probably be better if I just posted a radio thing to you now... I'll make sure the signal is encrypted enough and all that. The other thing's an option, but I guess only if you can't trust anything else. Um." Did she even still live in the same place? And would it be a good idea to send anything directly there? Given his previous paranoid ramble of a plan, he might as well keep on being paranoid and send it to a middle ground. But before he mentioned any of that, another thought struck him.
"Do you know morse code?"
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Post by avia on Aug 18, 2011 3:11:53 GMT 10
Avia stared at him with her eyes opening wider and wider as he elaborated on his plans to pass her a radio. It was ludicrous. Absolute insanity. He wasn’t even speaking English anymore. Finally, as he bumbled his way through the weeds of insanity into Morse code, she held up both hands to grind him to a screeching halt. “Whoa. Whoa! Hey!” she waved her hands at him for good measure, just be sure she was actually getting that attention she was demanding. “First of all, I haven’t got the slightest clue what Morse code is. OR what the hell you’re talking about. The geek speak is backing up and all I hear is mumbling, okay?” she sighed once she had gotten that out, satisfied that now he would pay attention. She usually only had to yell that at him once or twice before he would slow down and speak intelligently. Now that she had him calm, she sighed and swiped the hair off of her forehead absently. “Okay…. Okayokayokay…” she mused to herself. She had to think of a way to compromise. Obviously he was just trying to help her. She could see that easily enough. She needed to figure out a way to not tell him to bugger off but not tell him to tag along, either. Avia hated to be mean to him, especially when he was trying so hard. She rubbed her forehead, and the dirt and soot from her gloves rubbed off onto it in a light grey smudge. “Look, you remember Abiba, right?” she asked. It was pretty hard to forget Abiba, who posed as a governess but was really her bodyguard. She was the one who would go to the mall with Avia and make sure nothing happened to her. She was easier to spend time with, mostly because Elmo and Jameson (her real ‘governess’) were guys and annoying. “If you insist upon giving me some stupid radio, just drop it off at my place and make sure Abiba’s the one who takes it if I’m not there. I’ll make up some story about running in to you at school or something,” she decided. Abiba knew for a fact she was sneaking out, but had yet to figure out why. Or at least on that she had figured it out. Avia could only imagine the insinuations Chris coming to her house would make. Ew.
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Post by q on Aug 19, 2011 4:11:42 GMT 10
At first, Chris thought he could explain the 'geek speak' to her. He was already readying himself for round two, thinking how he could explain in more ordinary language what me meant; but then, she mentioned Abiba. The more Avia spoke, the more he seemed to deflate. He was trying his best to keep that fervent need-to-help demeanour, but with thoughts of Abiba, it was difficult. They hadn't met on more than a few occasions, but Chris didn't like Abiba. She didn't tolerate Chris's need to do science all the time in some capacity, specifically when he dragged other people into the science. Other people like her. So he became rather nervous when Abiba was nearby. He claimed it was a form of respect.
To be completely accurate, he was intimidated by her. But he thought that such feelings were illogical, so he had never admitted harbouring such a feeling.
"Hmm. Abiba. Yes, well, okay." The part of Chris that was happy to admit he was a little scared of Abiba was hoping that Avia would be home when he did go to drop off the radio. "I'll, er, come by when I'm finished. Making it. Er. Yes."
If nothing else, he was going to shove some kind of code in eventually. He wasn't going to abandon the need to be unnecessarily complicated just yet. It didn't even need to be morse code. He could make a code and transmit it in another code. His mind eased a little. Right now, technical thoughts were closer than Abiba. He could deal with the latter when it came time. If.
((Sorry, not sure how you're going to take Chris/Abiba relationship thing. Let me know if you want me to edit. ))
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Post by avia on Aug 20, 2011 2:33:55 GMT 10
((Actually, that's perfect. I imagine Abiba and Elmo to be somewhat frightening people, whom only Avia seems to not be afraid of, and Jameson is kind of bumbling and easier to get along with.))
“Okay, perfect,” Avia managed to relax and even smile a little now that that had been settled. She paused and tried to think of something nice to say, since she had honestly just gotten done snapping at him a bit harshly. He was only trying, after all. “Sooo… look, thanks… for wanting to help. Just… stay out of trouble okay? No more of this jumping in without thinking thing.” she was referring to pretty much every move he made during this ordeal as nicely as possible. It really did concern her that he sort of admitted to maybe having a habit of doing that regularly. He would most certainly get himself killed. “Or at least learn how to defend yourself. It’s not hard, just a few lessons in how to effectively punch or kick or something.”
Or dear god that sounded like an offer to teach him. It sounded like an offer to help. But it was already out of her mouth and there was no way to take it back if he picked up on it. She probably could teach him how to fight for himself, but that would only stick him to her more. He might take it as a team up. Then he would get them both killed. Or he would impose his morality on her and she’d wind up not being able to complete the mission she set out for. The realm of possibility to be royally screwed was vast, as she began to think about it. Even if she didn’t use him as a factor, she was taking huge risks every time she left her house. She was literally asking to die sometimes. She was insane.
Avia sighed and rubbed her forehead again. She was also getting tired.
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Post by q on Aug 21, 2011 2:50:36 GMT 10
Learn to think? Him? His mind was always buzzing with information, planning this or that, mentally constructing something, going over programming... He had more trouble learning not to think. But he supposed she didn't mean general thought. The problem was not thinking the right thoughts at the right time. He needed to learn how to focus. But breaking a seventeen-year-old habit was difficult. He didn't think it would happen any time soon.
And then she said it. Fighting lessons. So simple, and yet so perfect. If he was having a bad day, if he was low on power, he wouldn't be stuck as the one falling on his face (or at least, the probability of that happening would be slightly lower). Plus, since he was training his electrokinesis already, he could get used to fighting with electricity in a more active sense. Already, his mind was racing. All thoughts of Abiba had been abandoned altogether. He was already busy working out how he was actually going to get someone to teach him what he needed to know. He had tried martial arts lessons once, but it was so slow, nothing useful could be learned for when it was needed at a pace like that. The purpose of things like that was slightly different from what he was looking for, anyway. He needed someone who understood what he had to be taught and, ideally, why. Someone like...
"Avia. That's a great idea. That's just... Will you teach me?" He didn't even remember that not so long ago he had been treating her as a villain, an enemy. All he could see now was a slightly misguided friend who had kicked his ass. She knew how to fight. He didn't. And he was pretty sure they were actually friends. It was a no-brainer. He could even keep an eye on her. He thought that her intentions were good, her methods less so. If they spent time together, he could try swaying her towards a less murderous path. They could even become allies for real! This wasn't killing two birds with one stone, it was killing an entire flock.
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Post by avia on Aug 21, 2011 3:20:10 GMT 10
Avia opened her mouth and several attempts at speaking followed.
“Ah…”
“Wha-I…”
“Uhm…”
“Chris-…”
All of them took several moments collective to get out, and by the end of it she simply hung her head into her awaiting hands and wished there was someone there to save her. She had dug her own grave. She had dug her grave and then just tossed herself right in like an idiot. Avia sighed heavily, whining a little but of course all of that would be lost on him. He probably would make some crazy conclusion about how her actions were just part of a concussion or some other injury she had incurred during the evening. In a nutshell, she was screwed. And she knew it.
Scrubbing her hands over her face, which was now dirtier than her gloves, Avia looked back up to Chris and considered him a moment. And then she set her face as serious as one could possibly be, and closed the distance between them. Standing toe to toe, she looked up at him with all of the might of someone much bigger and stronger than him and made a point to be intimidating. “If- IF I agree to teach you, IF I’m crazy enough, you WILL listen to me. You will not contradict me. You will not ask questions unrelated to the subject matter. You will not mention this to any of your geeky boy band hero friends and you. will. not make a single attempt to tell me how to be The Red Hood. Am I perfectly, crystalline, translucently clear? Are. We. Shiny?” she drilled out at him like some horrifying example of a Sergeant in the long forgotten Marines.
She did not want Chris to get hurt, or to see him go off and ask the wrong person for help. His eyes were so big and hopeful when he asked that it was all she could do to keep from going all squishy and agreeing to do anything he asked. She really hated that feeling. She hated feeling soft and mushy and girly. It took everything she built to protect herself from others. Both as Avia and The Red Hood. So she would help him keep himself alive. But she would not be nice about it. She would whip him into shape the same way she had been. The Hard Way.
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Post by q on Aug 21, 2011 6:15:07 GMT 10
As Avia put on her best intimidating face, Chris was tempted to back up, but he held his ground. Show no fear. He braced himself for the worst. Any second now, she would shoot him down. But the rejection never came. And her demands were... reasonable, actually. If he didn't listen to her, he wouldn't learn anything, and she'd probably beat him up. Asking irrelevant questions was a speciality of his, but he could try to stop himself. The contradicting was a reflex, but he could probably cut himself off. And naturally, he wouldn't mention anything to the other Titans. He didn't think they'd understand why he trusted Avia. They'd think she was suspicious, or something. But they didn't have the same context as him, so their opinions were biased. He considered that maybe he was biased, too, but he had a greater understanding of the situation, at least. And he did trust her, so it was probably okay.
The only difficult thing was telling her not to go around killing and stealing and so forth. He didn't know if he could manage that one. But maybe, just maybe, if he showed her that she could get the same result with a cleaner method, she would change her ways. It may have been a little naive, but he preferred to think of it as optimistic. It gave him one more reason to be a better hero. Another one for the collection.
"We're shiny. So shiny people would wear sunglasses if they saw us. Because of, er, how shiny we are. Blinding, even. We're like a second sun." He paused and looked down at her. She may have changed, but fundamentally she was the same. It was just another Avia iteration, based on the original. She wasn't evil. And she was still his friend. She hadn't agreed to anything yet, but by now, they both knew he wasn't going to let go of the issue. He wouldn't let her back out just yet. Before he knew it, he had already reached out and hugged her.
"Thank you." Realising that maybe she didn't want to have him violate her personal space, he let her go quickly and stepped back. "I'll do my best not to let you down."
"So... The Red Hood, huh?" He was already thinking of how 'helmet' was a more apt description, but just as he was about to voice the thought, he closed his mouth again. He had to prove that he could stop asking less relevant questions, at least occasionally. "It was a rhetorical question! Definitely rhetorical. Barely even a question." he added hurriedly. "So, er, when can we start?"
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Post by avia on Aug 22, 2011 0:50:12 GMT 10
Satisfied she had successfully scared the crap out of him, Avia let her guard down. It was a bad idea. Her entire bode tensed up in a war between instinct and logic. Chris had no idea how lucky he was she managed to restrain her first reaction: escape through force. She had long learned how to escape holds that others had on her. From the front, she would grab his testicles, had the attacker any, and twist. This would loosen his grip. From there she could take a step back and break his jaw. This is what nearly happened to Chris. He was very, very lucky. Instead, Avia’s entire body locked up. Only a faint “Hrk!” escaped her before her lungs ceased to function. It took all she had not to hurt him. Not because she wanted to, she was just not used to being touched.
She was so consumed with regaining her normal functionality that she missed what he said at first. His words were far away. Avia was still attempting to figure out what had just happened. She had never been hugged by anyone who was not her father before. She had been hit, slapped, kicked, yeah certainly, but never hugged. The closest thing anyone else in her life did to that was pat her shoulder in an affectionate yet distant way. Finally, she found herself and relaxed, patting down her coat and pants as if to remove cooties. She unzipped her coat and pulled it off, revealing that the red hood sticking out from her collar connected to a cropped red hoodie. She tossed it down on top of her helmet and took off her gloves as well. She now looked almost normal, if not dirty. Avia proceeded to hide all of these things under a pile of old furniture that had been abandoned where they stood in the shadows. A small family of dogs, judging by the skeletons, had died down there. “I came across news about the old heroes…” she explained calmly, standing back up to face him. “Back when the world was better. The Red Hood was a villain. I wanted to be someone the United and the Reavers would be wary of. Why? What do you call yourself, hero boy?” she asked, brushing her hair once again out of her face.
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Post by q on Aug 22, 2011 6:54:50 GMT 10
Chris supposed that her title of choice was logical. Maybe he was a little disappointed that she had named herself after a villain, but at least it made sense. The connotations of a name could be changed depending on who was wielding it and how. It didn't have to be a villain's name forever. He was reassurred. The fact that there was logic behind it was much more important to him anyway. What seemed less logical was the fact that she seemed to be removing her costume. His first thought was irrational: was he covered in dirt? Of course he was, but it wasn't like her costume was clean, either. Hiding from the police and whoever else seemed likely. In different clothes she would be less recognisable.
"Me?" He tore his eyes away from the spot where she'd left her costume. "I'm Shockwave." He seemed quite proud of this, but frowned after a couple of seconds. "It's not because of the electric thing. Not directly. I can, er, break the sound barrier, so a shock wave kind of, um, happens." He could have explained how breaking the sound barrier resulted in the compression wave, but he was trying really, really hard to not have a science explosion. It wouldn't do to deter his teacher/friend after less than five minutes. Still, he didn't like people mistaking the origin of his name. He had thought it was really clever at the time. Changing it was out of the question. He wouldn't lose to ignorance. But he did feel a compulsion to explain whenever it came up in a relatively normal conversation. It certainly didn't have anything to do with zapping anything or anyone.
"By the way," he continued, eyeing the shadows under the armchair with trepidation. "Why're you leaving your stuff there? Afraid of getting caught? Or was it something in the park or, or something?"
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Post by avia on Aug 22, 2011 23:31:56 GMT 10
Avia noted his hero moniker for future use, to hide herself from his band of friends should they all be gallivanting one evening. The wall she could put up between herself and Chis, now that they knew each other’s titles, would be useful. She ignored his explanation about why. She didn’t really care why he named himself Shockwave, only that he had. Once she was certain she had her stuff good and hidden away, she untied her hair and shook out the braid. Except for being dirty, she now looked like a normal teenager. “Because,” she explained, “I don’t feel like skulking the whole way home. Come on.”
Avia headed out into the former Times’ Square and blended in with the straggling crowds effortlessly. She was completely ignored, despite being out well past a normal teenage bedtime. Considering how naturally she melded, it was obvious she snuck out a lot. She didn’t even bat an eye at armed men three times her size or the prostitutes trying to flag her and Chris over. She was heading home.
“So, if you want to learn to fight, Chris, I suggest you start by figuring out why. Don’t tell me, I don’t need to know,” she added before he could launch into yet another lecture about her methods as a vigilante, “After that, I want you to start running. Every other day, as long as you can, until you can run a mile without needing to stop. Once you’ve completed this, we’ll talk about learning not to get your ass kicked by a girl.” she explained to him. When Elmo and Abiba had come in to her life to teach her to fight, they had taught her first how to run. Well, Abiba had anyway. She first taught Avia how to run long and hard without needing to stop, and then they moved into the actual martial art. Elmo taught her how to use any weapons they might have against them. His obsession with guns and heavy artillery was comical, but useful. If he’d never shown her how to use a grenade launcher, she would have just stolen a rather heavy paper weight that could go off at random. She would teach Chris the way Abiba taught her first, but eventually he would have to learn how to use weapons, if for nothing else than to get them away from his enemies.
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Post by q on Aug 23, 2011 0:32:36 GMT 10
Chris was a little less inconspicuous as he followed after her. If he'd really wanted to, he could have blended. He looked pretty harmless and, judging by what he normally wore, not likely to have more than a dollar on him. Being innocuous made him less interesting. The problem was, while the crowd may not have been interested in him, he was interested in the crowd. If that voice at the back of his head hadn't been reminding him that he was still accompanying Avia, he might have drifted off after someone else. Still, he couldn't quite stop looking at the spectrum of people they were passing. It was no wonder he was rarely on time for anything.
Still, he was on the verge of following a heavily tattooed man, when Avia's voice brought him back to the moment. He almost started explaining to her the exact reason why he was fighting, but then she silenced him with "Don’t tell me, I don’t need to know.” For once, he didn't argue. It was one of the few things he didn't think he could put into words; not for lack of trying.
And then she started telling him to run. "A mile," he repeated. Right now, he wasn't exactly the peak of physical health. His exercise consisted of running up the Tower stairs and after people who he was pretty sure were wrong-doers. The rest of the time was spent with machines. His typing fingers were given their daily exercise on the keyboard, but he didn't think that really counted as strenuous. And it would be nice to get up all those Tower stairs without having to take a break every few flights. If anything, a mile was too short. But, picturing himself jogging a mile was connected with the picture of him sitting on the pavement, gasping for breath. He'd work his way up, then. He was determined.
"Okay, yes'm, I'll run that mile ragged." If it didn't run him ragged first. "And then, the punches and kicks and all that stuff? Though... I don't understand what gender has to do with it. I'd rather not get my ass kicked by anyone."
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Post by avia on Aug 23, 2011 1:30:14 GMT 10
Avia neglected to tell Chris that the first mile was only the beginning. She would have him doing laps around the city by the time she was through. He didn’t need to know that, however, because he sounded daunted enough by the simple mile. She glanced at him when he first said it, and then cringed heavily when yes’m came out of his mouth. Avia waited until he had finished talking before she whirled around on him faster than he could blink, pinning him to the wall by his neck, which was saying something since he was several inches taller than her. Avia fixed him with the same intimidating death stare she had given him in the alleyway, her grip on his neck firm but not bruising. Although, it was obvious it was only out of restraint that it was like that. “Lesson One:” she ground out tersely, “do not say ‘yes’m’ to me. Or ma’am, or miss, or anything else. My name is Avia and you know that.” outside her vicious ‘Lesson One’, her voice was calm and quickly growing sweeter as she spoke. “And I’ll amend that last claim for you: we’ll talk about learning not to get your ass kicked by someone a head shorter than you. Kay?” she asked with all sorts of sugar in her voice. Her eyes, however, betrayed her short fuse.
The only people who really ever called her by honorifics like ma’am and miss were either United or kidnappers. She hated being called by these things for that reason, because she hated the people who tended to call her by them. While it was probably overreacting toward Chris, she still wanted to be perfectly certain she got her point across.
While she was doing that, she wasn’t paying attention to anything around her. Which was a bad thing. Her sudden movements had been taken notice by a small crowd across the street which would otherwise had never known she was there. Four prostitutes and one tall, ape looking gentleman looked up from their various dealings. One girl had her hand on the gentleman’s private areas. Another, his rear. These two were pressed up against him cooing to an obvious regular. The other two girls were standing aside and giggling at whatever he had just said. He was smoking a hastily rolled cigar and looking pleased with himself. They had been discussing taking things somewhere cozy when he saw an unusual flash of movement, usually an indicator of a fight, and looked over. This very large man separated himself from his crowd of women and plodded across the street to the two teenagers.
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Post by q on Aug 23, 2011 2:10:32 GMT 10
"Okay, okay," he replied, still struggling under her iron grip. In a futile effort, he had grabbed her wrist, but she was too strong for him: she wouldn't budge. It had been a while since he'd last spoken to Avia; but he wasn't sure how he could have forgotten how pissed off she could get at completely illogical things like that. Saying something like miss or ma'am or whatever else was surely a form of respect. There were plenty worse things he could have called her. Being a pedant himself, he could understand being pedantic, but why over something that made so little difference? He got called plenty of things that he was fairly sure were meant to be insulting all the time. But it was just another way of getting his attention. Just another pronoun.
Still, with a hand over his windpipe, Chris didn't really think now was the best time to debate with her over it. Especially since, pissed off as she was, she had at least corrected herself. Height, he felt, was much more significant than gender. A more quantifiable variable.
"It was - hrk - just in the moment. Avia, then. Avia, Avia, Avia." He realised maybe it was childish repeating her name, but he felt it was entirely justified. Not only was he proving that he could, but it wasn't any more mature to attack him for what he felt was no good reason. It was annoying him too. He let go of her wrist, realising his free hand was already emitting a couple of sparks. Now was not the time.
Just as he looked away, attempting to calm himself, he noticed the man and his cigar. Maybe he was going somewhere else. But no, it was pretty clear that he was focused on them. And neither he nor Avia was in a prime position to deal with anything less than friendly. "Avia," he said, still looking at the approaching man. "Er, you may want to let go. Look behind you!"
Maybe if Chris hadn't been distracted, he would have realised that it sounded like a trick. A shamefully obvious cliche of a trick.
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Post by avia on Aug 23, 2011 2:46:11 GMT 10
Avia relaxed her grip each time he ground out her name at her. He was irritated with her, which was actually a good thing. It meant he might one day actually stand up for himself against her. If he could stand up against her, he could stand up against those he wasn’t so fond of. That had been another part of her training. It was incredibly easy to stand up to strangers. Standing up to people you cared for, however, was hard. With them, you not only faced their face, but a shared past that could directly influence the future. You stared at emotions and not just your enemy.
The large man and his cigar reached the pair as Chris was attempting to sway Avia to turn and look. “Shut up, Chris,” Avia sighed, but she was letting go, to her own credit. At least she half listened to him. However, it would have been much more beneficial to listen to all of what Chris had said. The man nabbed Avia by her shoulder and spun her around, pinning her to the wall next to Chris with his fist balled up in Avia’s hoodie. He lifted Avia up off of her feet to the point that she was now eyelevel with Chris, just to her left. The very, very large man pulled his cigar out of his mouth and blew smoke into both teen’s faces. “Merle’s bitch…” he mused after he had a good look at her.
“Actually, I’m his daughter. But I can see where someone of your brain capacity would be confused. You must be a fan.” Avia replied cheekily. She had been a bit dazed at first, and shocked that she was actually snuck up on, but had reacted quickly and calmly. She had wrapped her hands around her wrist to help support herself, and had braced her feet against the wall. She intended to fight back, but needed to level the playing field psychologically first. This was her plan. Not that she told Chris any of this. So to him, the situation probably looked slightly different when the very large man lifted his free hand and slapped her stark across the face. Avia’s head snapped to the side, only a soft whine escaping her lips as pain laced across her face but seemed to center on her eye. She bit her lip, too, dammit, so now she could taste blood. Awesome. Well, at least when she claimed kidnap attempt she wouldn’t be lying.
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Post by q on Aug 23, 2011 3:41:38 GMT 10
Chris had enough faith in his friend to believe that she would be alright. She had been doing a pretty good job up until now, hadn't been caught or anything. Maybe she beat up burly men like cigar man as part of her morning routine, like brushing her teeth or eating breakfast. That's what the rational side of his brain said. The less rational side thought it would be a good idea to get in on the action and defend Avia. Currently, he was stuck somewhere between the two. He was still trying to recover from before, balling and unballing his fists.
Reason shut up when the man slapped her. So far, Avia hadn't made some miraculous comeback as he had expected. At a definite disadvantage. Chris believed in her, but he wasn't going to stand by like an idiot and wait for a miracle to happen. He was going to bring the miracle in by force. He couldn't claim to be a hero of any kind if he didn't at least try something.
And so, quietly, Chris snuck up behind the man. Absentmindedly, he thought it was rather like the situation before. The roles were reversed, but it was essentially the same. Chris was still annoyed, less by Avia, and more by the guy who had interrupted their conversation and slapped her. He had no right. He was what Chris was fighting against, the greed, the unnecessary violence, the crime, all of it. Chris could feel the electricity flow to his hands with ease. He almost zapped the man, but held back. The current would flow to Avia, too, and he didn't really fancy dragging her across town; or accidentally electrocuting her. He took a deep breath. A little shock would be okay. Momentarily stunning the pair would be enough. He could attack properly after.
"Hey!" Chris shouted at the man's back, reaching out to give his arm a small shock. Enough to loosen the grip, at least. "You forgot about me!"
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