The Red Hood Strikes Again! (OPEN)

[avia]

“Hey!”
“Hrk!”

While Avia only got the diminished shock, she still felt it course right through her chest and that hurt more than when he had hit her in the hand with his powers. The large man dropped her in surprise, much like she had dropped her grenade launcher after accidentally firing it, and shook his hand to clear the pins and needles. Avia, unprepared, slipped and fell to the ground. It was all well and good for her, because her chest hurt and the shock had caused her heart to skip a few beats, as light as it had been. She rubbed her sore sternum and watched the ensuing action.

The very large cigar man turned to Chris. He had indeed forgotten all about him. Chris was puny, weak, and easily looked over. He was not a threat. But that stupid stunt of his needed to be dealt with. He intended to scare the kid.

Pain was scary.

“Fists up,” Avia advised with a grunt as she situated herself on the ground. She could probably get up and fight if she wanted. But Chris wanted to be a hero. He needed to learn how to deal with these kinds of people. She wouldn’t let him get too hurt.

The first blow the cigar man dealt out was right into Chris’ stomach. Enough to knock the wind out of him, but controlled so that the kid could get back up if he were foolish enough to keep trying to take on someone well over twice his size. Avia winced when she saw it and felt a little back for Chris. Get up, get up, get up…. He’s just toying with you… she thought to herself as she watched. The great big cigar man just laughed.

[q]

"Ah," Chris said as their attacker turned to face him. It became a little more obvious now that they were face to face and both unoccupied that this had the potential to be a very one-sided fight. Even without Avia's instruction, he attempted to put up something like a guard. The blow to his gut still made him stumble backwards, barely managing to stay on his feet. Bent almost double, but still standing. He coughed, looking up at the cigar man with defiant eyes. He was weaker and less experienced at fighting, but he wasn't going to lose.

"Is that... all you've got?" he rasped.

There was one way Chris had the advantage. All he had to do was zap the guy. Taking him down in a more traditional way was out of the question. He'd be knocked down, knocked out, taught through fists that taking someone head-on was stupid and doomed for failure.

But... "I'm not going to lose!"

It wasn't Chris's intention to provoke. Like most of what he said, he believed it to be nothing short of stating a fact. He, Chris, was the unknown here. And he could take advantage of that. Being unpredictable could throw the other man off guard. He wanted to shock the man, but it would be much more difficult if he was doubled over in pain. Easier to hit from a distance. Cautiously, he had been inching back, trying to save all those precious millimetres in case he had to dodge again. Already, he had a coin clutched in his hand. The charge was already building. Aiming his hand in the direction of his opponent, he let it all go. The electricity fired the coin at the man like a bullet. It wasn't fast enough, nor the right shape to do the same kind of damage, but such a thing was never the point. All Chris wanted to do was cause a distraction, enough to get in, shock the thug and run for safety with Avia. And yes, in the process it would be nice to do something impressive. If only to show he wasn't completely ineffectual.

[avia]

Avia stumbled to her feet. Chris was going to need help if he was inching away from their attacker after one little hit. She got up as quietly as she could, because she intended to attack from behind, and leaned her hand up against the wall beside them. She was going to get in trouble when she got home, she just knew it. The cat would be out of the bag that she was sneaking out. She’d deal with that once she got home.

I’m not going to lose!

That sounded like something she would say. It was both incredibly crafty and incredibly stupid at the same time. Avia was willing to bet Chris was just being stupid. I hope you have a plan… she thought, watching his movements.

The very large Cigar Man, who had long since lost his cigar, moved forward to kick Chris this time and make certain he never got up. But then something hit him in the chest. It has a sharp little sting and made him stop moving to introspect upon what it had been. It would probably leave a welt. What the hell was that? Cigar Man wondered, glancing to where there was now a tingaling sound reverberating off the brick wall. In doing this, he noticed Avia was on her feet, and forgot, once again, all about Chris. Not his best decision ever, but he wasn’t known to be a mastermind.

“Aw crap…” Avia muttered, forgetting about Chris now, too, and raising her fists to fight once again.

((As I understand your post, Chis first distracts Cigar Man with his coin and then plans to next run up and shock the buh-jesus out of him? This is what I formed my post around, but if I am incorrect feel free to let me know and I will adjust accordingly.))

[q]

Chris had been bracing himself to be tackled, or generally beaten a bit more. But instead, Avia had stood up, become the big man's target in his place. In a way, he was disappointed. The image of him winning in an ideally epic fashion was diminished. It wasn't the same if they won as a team. He had been ready to shock the guy, too.

Then again, fighting on his own was illogical. Proving something by getting his face beaten inwards was not going to prove the point he wanted to. Maybe it wouldn't have happened that way, but there was no point in increasing the risk. The most important thing was to win.

And it definitely helped that the coin had actually hit. That should be enough.

Trying to catch Avia's eye (or at least, her general field of vision), he gave her a thumbs up. Maybe it looked like he was going to leave everything to her. Really, he was just trying to say something like 'I'm going to take care of things in an amazing and generally inspirational kind of way so just distract him for a bit longer to watch the awesomeness unfold'. Maybe it was a slightly long thought to convey with such a simple gesture, but he figured she got the general idea.

And so, while Avia and the goon squared off, he took a couple of steps back to take a running jump at the guy. There was no weight behind it, but with his hands charged up, that didn't matter. Blindly, he groped for the man's face, trying his best to shock him before he could slap Avia around again.

"Did you really... forget about me again?" he said, struggling to zap the thug.


((Yep, you got it. Sorry, I was a little vague... Proof I should stop writing posts while I'm tired.))

[avia]

Avia’s eyes darted between her new friend and Chris’ expression. She made a face that obviously read ‘what the hell does that mean?’. She looked back to Cigar Man and took a step back to settle in a strong fighting stance. Her fists were up and she was ready. Cigar Man launched the first punch, which she dodged, grabbing his wrist and pulling him forward and to her left, towards the wall. Shifting effortlessly, she got out of the way when she saw Chris coming. She did not want to get shocked again.

”Did you really... forget about me again?”

Cigar Man cried out in surprise from the electricity running through his body. He fell to his knees, struggling to grab on to Chris and pull him off, but he was disoriented and confused. Everything was muddled. He shook his head, trying to clear the fog.

Avia took a couple more steps back, just in case the guy regained his senses. “Okay… points for the geeky voodoo powers,” she relented.

[q]

Although Chris's victim didn't manage to pull him off, he did manage to slap his assailant's face. Sadly, disorientation didn't do much to weaken the blow. Chris let go before he got slapped again, stumbling backwards, trying to shake off the disorientation. Grinning at Avia, he said ,"See? They can help too." Mostly he was pleased that she had praised him at all. The reason for the praise was of a lesser importance. There was still hope for him.

"So are we going to hang out here, or are we going to make our escape?" He found it more likely Avia would insist on knocking the guy out, but he would be dazed for another minute or two. In the streets of New York city, it wasn't difficult to lose yourself completely. If you knew where to go, you could simply fade away.

"Or I could shock him again and we could call the police?" Truth be told, he was starting to run low on power. Chris figured he could give the cigar man one last shock to knock him out, but anything more drawn out was out of the question. Even the idea of losing the rest of his charge was unappealing, however. Without his ability, he was just a weak, nerdy teenager with a big head. If he had to defend himself, he'd be powerless. Avia was there, but he didn't want to rely on her completely. He had no intention of voicing any of these concerns, however. Saying them out loud would make them true. Irrational thought, grated on his logic compulsion. But still, he couldn't stop thinking that way.

What he needed was a plug.

[avia]

“Call the police? Are you crazy? My father would kill me, do you have any idea what time it is?” Avia replied incredulously. She stood some few feet from her attacker calmly, as if this kind of thing occurred every day. Which, in the busier seasons, it really almost did. She gave Chris a look that indicated he was crazy for even considering the option of calling the police. Beyond the implications of her own presence outside her home so late at night, she was still partially dressed as the Red Hood, and the police had seen her before. She was willing to bet several of them were smart enough to string together a few brain cells and figure out that it’s not every day you see the kind of getup she had on.

Cigar Man groaned and shook his head, trying to clear it. He got up on one knee and scrubbed his face.

“You stay here,” she ordered Chris and turned to Cigar Man. She had some aggression to work off. “It’s because of people like you,” Avia kicked Cigar Man as hard as she could in his babymaker and he crumpled to the floor, “that I don’t have a life. No friends,” she kicked him in the solar plexus and took the wind from his lungs, “no hope,” she kicked him in the chest again, “no trust! What did I do to you people?! Why can’t you leave me alone?” she demanded of the prone man laying in agony on the cold, dirty pavement.

[q]

"Alright, alright," he said. He was tempted to point out that no, he was fairly sure he wasn't crazy, and no, he didn't know what the time was, either. Not even vaguely aware. Too busy with his head in the clouds, the only way he could tell time was by the angle of the sun, and even that was of a mere passing significance. He never wore a watch, since his powers and a small magnetic/electronic device near his hand wasn't exactly a winning combination. After frying a few watches, he had given up. As for his cell phone, he had tried adding a few nifty attachments to it; they weren't his most successful. Actually, this whole line of thought reminded him: he really needed to get a new phone.

But he knew that Avia look. She looked like she was out for blood. He wasn't going to volunteer his jugular.

While thinking all this through, he watched as Avia beat the tar out of their attacker. Some people might have winced, but Chris was vaguely interested. Especially after their encounter earlier, he was hoping that she would demonstrate some impressive fighting technique. It wasn't the same, he decided. This wasn't a real fight. And wait - "What do you mean, 'no friends'? Don't I count?" Chris was trying to use the most neutral questioning tone he had, but it was clear he was a little hurt by the statement. Even if it was in the heat of the moment. They had fought plenty of times, sure; for a decent fraction of high school, they had argued, she had been mean to him, and he had found the whole thing entirely illogical. But he had never stopped thinking about her as a friend, not really. From what he understood of the word, it covered that much.

[avia]

Avia was contemplating kicking this man in the babymaker again, just to be extra certain there would be no more like him in the future, when she heard Chris pipe up behind her. She paused, all of the anger and resentment she had been channeling into Cigar Man’s long-term recovery plan fading in to the background for the moment. Avia turned to look at him as if the thought had never occurred to her to do so before. Seeing him for the first time, she stared for a solid minute.

“Count?” echoed. In all honesty, the fact that Chris would even consider her a friend never crossed her mind. She knew she was awful to him. She knew they fought all the time. She thought he didn’t even know what friends were, let alone considered her one. She was seeing Chris in a new, foreign, light. She had never had a friend in New York.

Cigar Man took this opportunity to kick her legs out from under her, and Avia hit the pavement hard. His knife swung, but she was fast enough to avoid most of it. Avia rolled away from Cigar Man, towards Chris, and up on to her feet. She had a gash through her pants at the thigh that hurt like hell and bleed spectacularly, but that was the worst of it. Despite the attack, Cigar Man was still too hurt to stand up. Avia kicked him again, this time in the face. Cigar Man didn’t move after that. The force of her blow snapped his head to the other side in one rapid movement. He was out.

[q]

Chris almost went to check if the man was still alive, but stopped himself. Instead, he did a strange on-the-spot stumble. The guy would probably be okay. And anyway, there was someone else he was more interested in who seemed to be bleeding. "Er. Is that as bad as it looks?" Chris asked cautiously, pointing at the bleeding gash. His scientific knowledge didn't really cover anything medical, so for all he knew, she was going to keep squirting blood for a while. But then he remembered the guy on the ground. "Actually..." This time, he did drift towards the hopefully-just-unconscious guy, grabbing the bottom of his shirt. He tried ripping the fabric, but nothing happened. With a sigh, Chris reached for the knife on the ground, using that to cut a long strip of fabric off. Dropping the weapon with distaste, he presented the strip of fabric to Avia.

"It's not all that great, but you could tie it above the cut or wrap it around or something." She'd probably say something about how he was being an idiot, or that she would be fine, but it was better to be more than fine. He wasn't going to push the issue, but figured he might as well try.

"And sure, count. Do you go around giving fighting lessons to anyone who asks?" He considered this. "If you do, you really shouldn't. There are plenty of weirdoes out there. Oh, but I guess it's worth saying... Well, I think of you as a friend most of the time. Whether or not the feeling isn't mutual."

[avia]

Even though she had to take time to knock the Cigar Man out, which, by the way, there had been an audience for the entire time on both sides of the street, Avia still regarded Chris with a somewhat startled expression. The wound on her leg hurt, but she was still dumbfounded by Chris’ indignation over the fact she felt she had no friends. Didn’t he count? Because of this, Avia had no eyes or ears for the audience milling around them, although they were beginning to dispatch now that the show was over. Some were even collecting bets.

Avia watched Chris mill about as he spoke. He handed her the pseudo bandage and she took it, looking from it to him quietly. It really wasn’t that great. He was a bad nurse. But, all the same, she leaned awkwardly to tie it into a tight tourniquet around her wound. Avia listened to him as he rambled on with not trusting everyone and teaching them how to fight. Weirdoes, he called them. She was pretty certain she fit in to that category of weirdo. She did just beat the tar out of a man several times her size, after all.

Was the feeling mutual, she wondered. Chris had always been nice to her, so to speak. The only time they fought was when she started it. Avia relaxed ever so slightly after knotting off her bandage. “I haven’t had friends since we moved from Gotham… Nobody likes me much here,” she said quietly. “I don’t even remember what being friends with somebody feels like,” she laughed.

[q]

"Huh. Well, all of the sources that I've ever read or listened to or, well, you get the idea, say different things about it. Come to think of it, it's based on something as factual as a feeling. Which is to say, not factual at all." Chris frowned at this. He hadn't spent as much time dwelling on this as he should have. Maybe they weren't friends after all. His feelings were no more accurate than anyone else's, as far as he could tell. They could be wrong just as easily. No one but the two of them could really confirm that a friendship existed, and one of them didn't even know. Even a one-sided friendship sounded shaky and unlikely, if all it had to validate its existence was Chris's feelings. He didn't have enough friends to consider his feelings on such matters reliable.

Then again, he had to start somewhere. And, more importantly, friendships were built entirely of feelings. Inaccurate and sometimes wrong, but true, nevertheless. Maybe there was something factual in them after all.

"Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we're not friends after all. But... we should try it. This whole friendship thing, I mean. I don't hate you, and you don't hate me." He paused. "Do you? If you don't, we might qualify. We could find out what being friends means." Chris was already preparing himself to make notes later. He would get to the bottom of this 'friendship' problem. He would make sure that the whole thing was more sound the next time they had a discussion like this.

[avia]

Avia rolled her eyes. “Shut up, Chris,” she sighed in exasperation. Avia turned fully away from Cigar Man and headed back down the street the way they had been heading in the first place. She took his arm in order to pull him along, just in case he was too busy psycho-analyzing to pay attention. “You think too much. I don’t hate you… I just… can’t trust anyone here… Everyone just wants to hurt me to get to my father…” she sighed.

“That’s why I’m going to change everything. I won’t live like this forever.” she declared quietly. Avia had her arm looped through his as they walked. It was the longest she had been in physical contact, not fighting, with anyone but her father. “Sometimes I wish we could go back to Gotham. You’d like it there. Once, I found a cave… it had a lot of old stuff in there that you’d know how to use. I think it belonged to an old hero… but so much has been taken away I couldn’t tell you who.” She walked calmly, although it was getting close to the time that she needed to sneak back in. If her father caught her out of the house, there would be no more Red Hood.

[q]

Chris shut his mouth abruptly, before more babble could come out. It wasn't as easy as it should have been, but he settled for dwelling on the topic instead. Back in his own world in less than a second, it wasn't a surprise that the sudden contact made him jump a bit. He stored the mental discussion for later.

Instead, he listened. Several times, he almost interrupted to ask a question or to point something out, but he held the words in as best he could. He wasn't sure he had heard her talk so directly and honestly before. It was a phenomenon on its own, one not to be cut off. So he held his breath as they walked.

"An old hero... Huh. Maybe we'll be like that one day." It was hard to tell from his tone that Chris wanted to be like that more than anything else in the world. He'd let people pick his bones dry after he died as long as he knew that he had helped some people. "I wonder..." His knowledge of old heroes was very limited. He wondered about the lot of them. What happened to them, what they were like behind the masks, what stories there were that hadn't survived the test of time... "I need a time machine," he proclaimed. "And incidentally, I don't want to hurt you or get to your father, so it can't be everyone. You're short a person. You'll just have to take my word for it, though."

[avia]

She sighed heavily, not sure if she wanted to believe Chris or not. On the one hand, she knew him well enough to know that he was a horrible liar. He had tried lying to her once about something in school. He failed so miserably that she immediately forgave him. She laughed at him and gone on with whatever they had been talking about. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing, Avia figured as they walked, that Chris counted himself her friend.

She laughed at his theory that one day they could be like the old heroes. “The old heroes are dead. They aren’t any good to us anymore.” she said and let her grip on his arm loosen as they turned a corner into a somewhat lighter, more populated area. People actually seemed to live here, as opposed to where they had just come from. It wasn’t any safer, however. “If you want to be a hero, Chris… be careful. It’s more dangerous to be a hero than it is to be a villain,” she told him succinctly. She was a villain, she was implying. As a villain, she could make allies with other bad people. She had no rules. As a hero, he would have rules that could get him killed. His only allies were other heroes. Without them, he was in even more danger. His powers would help him out, but he couldn’t fight. She would teach him, Avia decided. He was, after all, her friend.