2014.05.23 - Night At The Museum

New York is a busy city of a great deal of electronics, computers, and all types of grid systems. From security cameras that watch the streets to wireless connections across the airwaves. If one understands how to access these things, this world is their playground. A such individual does and they have been very quietly, mostly because as a normal person they have acquired a job, an apartment, and even a cat. However the thrill calls to them and they have been quiet enough...

..It was time to go out and see what they could get away with. This time, it was time to see if they could take a very precious gem that was on display at one of the largest museums and what should be the hardest museums to get into-- a perfect challenge. As the sun starts to set and the museum locks down, a figure stands on the roof top, but unseen to the eye. Their foot steps move silently across the concrete roofing, and their form hidden by their own technology. Behind the helm in their own field of vision they are peering directly through the concrete much like how Superman can with his x-ray vision. They are watching the guards moves, what pads they are inputting in, and where the systems are all heading too.

So much information flooding into their field of view. As they come to the sky lite, they crouch down and place their hand on it very softly. More information comes in as a signal comes to arm the sensor and like a snap of a finger, the Tech Ninja disables that very device. Once down they carefully start to pick the lock with some very old fashion tools to get the pane open. Sliding it carefully to the side, they then lean in before firing off an invisible energy line to connect to the ceiling directly under them, before flipping inside and using the line to pull themselves up and then close the window just as carefully.

Very unaware that not far from them was perhaps in this time some of the most dangerous individuals-- and individual that Digital Shadow grew up reading about in history books...

And perhaps, the very reason they are here in the first place. Here in the past.

Kurenai is back! Alright, so Tommy confesses to himself he was excited. Disappointed she didn't contact him first and he found out because of his ties to the Academy, but it matters not. Tommy realizes he is a 'blast from the past', and not always a fun one. Kurenai is part of the future, a future that he has no right to. Still, he was never afraid to steal what he wanted, and hope he doesn't get caught.

As a result, he left a message for Kurenai to meet him atop a roof top. The roof is the one of the many museum buildings in this area. He is in full garb as Storm Shadow, something Kurenai has never seen before. She has only ever known him as Tommy, the martial artist, the nice Japanese man. For whatever reason, Tommy did not wish to be forgotten by Kurenai, so he pushes the envelope.

Still, Storm Shadow is not alone. Hunter is there; his silvery, black spotted Ocicat cat. The feline is currently sniffing around the roof top and exploring, following some scent that caught his interest.

...Do you hear something...

"Ooooooooo...."

Is...wait...what IS that...

"NIIIII..."

Oh....oh no. Oh no no...is that Kurenai?

"SAN!"

GLOMP

Though he must have seen her coming a million miles away, Kurenai comes rushing at him, making a full on jump to latch onto him. Miss Kunoichi 2014, she is not. Blade Miko's were meant to stand out, quite literally, to drive out demons from the shadows...which makes sense when your patron goddess of the order is Amaterasu. The interesting thing is why she decided to go for the guy in the weird white ninja get up that she had never seen before. Well..eiditic memory can be funny that way, giving her an intuative sense of body shape, gait, stance, etc etc. Not that Kurenai was studying Tommy's body intently, at any point in the past.

Ahem! Maybe a little?

But a glomping he was going to get, and a glomping he has received!

And for some reason, she looks like the tough Asian chick in some Netflix original drama about female bikers. That's.....new. The wild cat probably find the scent they are following leading now to a closed window. Sadly for the Tech ninja-- they were unaware that they have picked up a scent. They know the suit makes from dogs-- or it should-- probably when it got damaged at some point something didn't repair just right. A fix to the systems they will have to look into later if they ever /realize/ it.

For now though the Tech Ninja lowers themselves down onto one of the upper levels. the hook detaches and comes back silently, before they start to move along the upper level walk way.

The camera for the security shows nothing. Not even anything searching for heat signatures.

As the Tech ninja came around a corner, the door opened and a guard walked out, twirling his set of keys. At which the invisible Ninja stalks him before suddenly reaching up and placing their hand over their mouth, a hiss of air is released from something they held, before they slowly lower the man down with simple ease, then take the keys from him. It was in this slight moment they were visible, before they placed the keys in a case and then looking up at the camera before it came around had it repeat footage in order for them to move the guard out of site for the time. Including tieing them up in one of the storage closets. Sorry chump.

As they then go to grapple onto the bridge walk way over the floor below and start to lower themselves, one of the security guard's flash lights move over the area. The light beam catches the suit as they lower down and causes-- a mild disturbance in the air. This is what gets the guards attention. He stares at that location for a long time, enough to cause the Tech ninja to halt themselves. Hanging by the energy magnetic grappling device and a guard who was determined their was something there.

Move on-- they think to themselves as they hang there. Just-- move on.

GLOMPED!!! "Ack!" Well, Storm Shadow could have dodged, but honestly, who would want to? Even briefly, he returns the hug from Kurenai, before he forces himself to step back as is proper, moving his hands to Kurenai's shoulders. "Kurenai-kun, it is good to see you again. Nice...surprise attack," his words in Japanese. Sure, that is what we will call it.

In reality, Storm Shadow's tone is struggling to hide his smile beneath his mask, it epically fails, because he's actually very happy to be glomped by a cute Asian girl. "How have you been? Though first, welcome home Kurenai-kun." A strange thing to perhaps say when the girl's home should be a temple back in Japan.

Hunter lets out a bit of a meowy whine by a window at this time, demanding attention right this second or else!

Her smile widens a touch, at the 'welcome home'. He might not realizing, but in Kurenai's mind, that was completely the right thing to say. Japan might have been where she was born an raised. But now? Metropolis is where the heart is. "I am...to be honest, I am very well! Much more so, now that I am seeing you again. I apologize that you had to be the first to contact me." She blushes at this, hiding behind her bangs for a moment, before brushing them back. "But the truth is I have been here barely a day, day and a half. And...my return came at a rather..." she purses her lips, twitching this way and that, in order to find the best word to describe it. "complicated and delicate moment at the school."

And once more, she hugs him and says "But my gosh, look at you! Oh...that is a rather...handsome outfit."

And just like that it's almost all forgotten as she spies Hunter, jumping up and down on her toes, and dashing over to give him a hug.

Or at least attempt. Disaster may soon follow shortly. The tech ninja continues to hang around, however the caterwauling is what now gets the guards attention as he walks past the point and aims his flashlight up in the direction of the skylight. "..what the..?

That is all he gets out before he too is suddenly knocked out. That is when the Tech Ninja known as Digital Shadow looks up directly at the wild animal and their sensors on the helm flash a bright purple in that moment. Before they gently cant their head and then grab the security guard to move him too out of sight. However as they do so, they can then hear a click and a 'hold it', this time from a female voice.

The Tech Ninja raises up their hands before they speak, their voice carrying several voices at once and also with some kind of interference. "You do not want to do that, ma'am." They say very calmly.

"I don't know what type of freak show you are, but you are under arrest." Though when she goes to reach for her transponder to alert the others-- its only but static. "...what?"

That is all the Tech Ninja needs as they spin around and fire off grappling device to actually wrap around the woman's legs and pulls it to trip them up. The finger on the hand gun fires however and the bullet flies through the sky light--- away from Hunter and the now human holding him, thankfully-- and the woman lands down hard on the back of her head. Knocking her straight out cold.

The gun fire however grabs attention, as gun fire will and the Tech Ninja watches the sudden activity through the walls, knowing where they are all going to come from, they go invisible once more and move in the other direction. Using the keys they stole to open a side door to lead to another section of the museum.

Though at this point the guards will find all their comms are transmitting static and their cell phones can't get any signal. Worse if anyone even tries to use electronic locks-- they wont respond.. The guards were locked in with Tech Ninja-- and whoever else dares to figure out what that gun shot was all about.

Storm Shadow actually blinks at the accent, "What happened to your voice?" He speaks in English, and though fluent, there is a slight Japanese accent he can never quite get rid of, or perhaps chooses not to. And he gets hugged yet again, though his hands carefully remain on Kurenai's shoulders. Wiser that way. At least until Kurenai runs off to pay attention to the little...wait, seriously, jealous of a cat?! "Handsome?" He sounds vaguely amused. "Where did you learn to speak like this Kurenai-kun?" But then..., "Wait!"

Suddenly, Storm Shadow goes to race after Kurenai, but it's too late!

Because the gunshot went off, and Hunter went WILD! He hisses and leaps back, and thus ends up tripping up poor Kurenai! Apparently, Kurenai really struggles to not stomp on a poor Hunter.

Then there is the skylight. Now that wasn't meant to quite hold the weight of an incoming Kurenai! It grunts, well, really cracks under her weight, and there is a half a second before it shatters. Storm Shadow is still moving, and he reaches out as Kurenai starts to go down to try and catch her! As that isn't exactly a light fall to drop. "Kurenai-kun!" The worry in his tone is obvious, as he's extremely worried about her safety with bullets flying, crazy feline, and shattering skylights! Well, life is always exciting with that girl!

Kurenai turns back to him a bit, on her way over to see the cat, "Had I not seen you since I...? I mean, I got English lessons, right before I was recalled back to Japan. Very thorough, very condensed. Very long story, will be happy to tell you about it shortly, but..." and then suddenly she switches into Japanese, with her somewhat wonky Hokkaido-ben thrown in with some archaic pronunciations that went out a style not long after World War I.

"Hoonter-u! Genki, deska?

Then the gunshot. Then Hunter flipping out, hissing and mewling, causing Kurenai to lose her balance somewhat, smacking onto the skylight, prompting her to instinctively swear, and then call out. "Gah! Baka neko!" It takes her a moment to start processing everything. She hasn't heard many gunshots, so she isn't immediately aware of what that loud, snapping noise that went off could have been, but she knows the sound of breaking glass. In fact, she's suddenly getting tremendously reminded of it, as the skylight gives way. She reaches out to Tommy, their fingertips brushing against each other. So close, and yet so far.

It's not a fun fall, but her acrobatics display in midair is nothing short of impressive, as she managed to twist about, until she lands in a low crouch that distributes a good amount of her weight across as wide an area as possible. Still, something got torn, cracked or worse, judging by the look on her face, trying hard to suppress the pain she's feeling. She sloooowly rises up though, and there is an odd cracking noise, as bits and bobs begin to slowly realign themselves, sprains working themselves out in supernaturally short order. She twists her neck around to get the last of the kinks out, and then surveys the situation.

Wait...what...the..

The mental calculus immediately works its way through her brain: Strange loud noise + fallen member wearing uniform of local constabulary plus museum = NOT GOOD THINGS.

She assumes a defensive stance, looking around. She starts to think about the wisdom of calling out, but then realizes that there is no element of surprise she possesses. "I'm fine!" she announces upwards. "But come down...something's wrong here!" The glass shatters and security team has to quickly move their people out of the way. It was a long fall down! Only thing the security could do was watch this event as it happened around them.

For Digital Shadow this was a perfect distraction really and one they took advantage of as they started to loop themselves back around to where they were trying to get too. Though when they do arrive, their was a security guard who decided to not go running with the others.

An older man who trained his weapon right on Digital Shadow when they appeared believe the close was clear-- ah, sometimes the mistake of ego. "You there, halt."

The Tech Ninja turned and looked at the man the lines on their body suited started to glow as they fully came into view, the suit itself almost gave them an alien look as the lines moved with power. Then the started to walk toward the man, the Kunai flipping easily into their hand.

"I said halt!" The guard says again. However Digital Shadow does not and only raises up the Kunai as the edges come to life with energy. That is when he fires upon the form, only to find his bullets almost bouncing off the odd material and doing nothing.

Which is when the Tech Ninja grabs the hand gun, pulls his arm to one side and strikes with the Kunai! -- Cutting the barrel of the weapon in half. Then looking directly at them. "Run." They simply to the guard, which he does so.

Then the Tech Ninja turns toward the gem. "Subtlety is no longer required."

Meanwhile...

The Guards where Kurenai were at had their weapons trained on her. "Hold it right there! Don't move a muscle!" One of them says. They were use to super villain types and such things, so the fact she survived was-- a little surprising but kind of becoming a expected thing as of late.

A few of them trained their weapons up on Storm Shadow above. Just what was going on here?

Storm Shadow curses beneath his breath, speaking in Japanese now, "Obviously, there was a gun shot." But he scans with his dark eyes as he pulls out a minimized grapple line from a pouch. "Are you truly fine?" He still worries, not taking Kurenai's initial response literal. He doesn't quote treat her as a true equal, acting in a protective manner instead.

He speaks in English to the guards, "We were free running; we are not criminals, we are heroes," the semi-lie coming smoothly from his masked lips. "We heard a gun fire, and the bullet weakened the skylight, causing an accident." Storm Shadow then slowly moves to lower himself via the grapple cord, his feline, Hunter, having leapt to his shoulders as he starts to lower himself. "Evil neko," he grumbles beneath his breath.

Storm Shadow is careful to move in a confident manner so not to make the guards further suspicious, but to hopefully force them to relax, but now he has a part to play. "What happened to cause a gun to fire?" His tone is confident, but also demanding sounding. His dark eyes are already searching for clues even as he finishes lowering himself to check on Kurenai's well-being. He does not wish to cause problems for his brother by accident. On purpose, is another matter. Hunter leaps down from his shoulders and starts sniffing around for that scent that attracts him.

Oh....THERE are the other guards. Funny how that detail got initially missed, you know, on the whole way down and trying not to break her neck part.

Her hands immediately raise up. "Wait, no! I'm..."

And then she had a rare, odd moment of clarity, as everything seems to slow down, perceptually. She may not fully understand the complexities of the modern world outside the Blade Miko temple, but one thing she DOES understand at present is that she is currently an illegal alien, having entered the country...shall we say, improperly. Furthermore, she's also registered as a hero...highly useful, but it would also nail her immediately if she cooperated with the cops, and they checked her credentials. So no matter what, it seems clear (to her at least) that she absolutely, positively needs to get as far away from the cops as possible. On the other hand, the honor code by which she is bound makes it very clear that she should respect the local forces of law and order. She was already having issues with the whole "illegal entry into the country" thing, but this situation is prompting a terrible conflict in her brain.

She makes a few more hurried, frenzied calculations in her head, trying to break the stalemate caused by her flummoxing. Finally she concludes: The code is going to need to take another one for the team.

She murmurs softly, under her breath, as she begins to prepare to strike, "Please, forgive me."

And then Tommy arrives. All competent and fast-talky and yes! Yes! Let HIM handle this. Right.

She lowered her hands, assumes a more nonchalant, yet vaguely heroic pose, and says. "Yes. That's right. We're here to aid you." The guards lower their weapons but they stay on defensive. They were keeping their eyes trained on both of them. "We don't know." One of them says. "The lines are scrambled, we can't even get a call out--"

Then another one interrupts. "And we been locked out of our system!" That is when suddenly a door slams open as one the older guard shows up, the one that had his gun cut in half. "They are taking the--" His eyes then go over to the White Ninja then to the woman,

"Are you with that thing??"

One of the guards walks over placing their hands up, "Easy Pat, they apparently heard all the commotion and came here, now what is going on?"

"This-- I don't know.. it was half visible, then came into full view. It had this odd armor, purple lines and eyes.. its weapon cut my handgun in half-- like it was butter." He then closes his eyes collecting himself. "I think they are after the precious gem stone from the great kings we have on exhibit."

Then again, he is illegally in this country. In reality, he is legally dead! So let's not talk about legalities right now, or the fact that Storm Shadow is a wanted terrorist. Oh, the complications! In either case...

"The technology ninja," Storm Shadow comments. "I have been hunting them." He then realizes they are saying communications are down, so he can't reach out to Snake Eyes either. He then tosses his wakizashi to Kurenai, "They are highly dangerous, but they did not try to kill my brother and I previously, so motives are unknown. History unknown, identity unknown, uses a lot of technology and has the ability to cloak themselves from visuals so use your other senses."

And as Storm Shadow is explaining this to Kurenai and giving her a weapon, Hunter is then darting off. "Hunter!" And then Storm Shadow is running after his cat! Apparently the cat is heading toward the door that 'Pat' just came throgh and throws himself against it with a yowl! Storm Shadow has to hurry up and open it before the cat injures himself and the two are off again, hopefully with Kurenai behind them like a strange parade! A very noisy parade!

Kurenai snatches the blade instinctively out of the air. She is about to tell him that she has no need for a physical blade at this point, when she realizes 'ix-nay on the identifying ower-pay ype-tays.' Tucking it into her belt for now, she nods to the police, trying out the whole authoritative trick. "Please cover the entrance, in case they attempt to escape by this door. Do not worry, we will defend all of your antiquities. And as for the criminal...We will bring them...to justice!" She turns away, hiding the embarrassed grimace, as she humms very softly under her breath "Irma is going to killl meeeee."

With that, she follows Tommy along, letting him take the lead. By the time Hunter gets down the hall with the "ninja" party, the gemstone was already gone, but was the collaborate really gone?

Hunter's senses would tell him no and the fact they are actually up above them high on a rafter. Sitting their all casually like, while holding the gem in their hand.

That is when the Tech Ninja stands up and then tosses the gem to Storm Shadow to catch. "I think last we fought, you and your brother my have damaged part of my gear... or that mutant did." That is when the Tech Ninja tilts their head, looking at Kurenai. They seem to stare at them for a long moment before they speak again. "..and you can hand that back to the authorities," Then looks at Storm Shadow. "..and continue to play.. hero." Was this technological ninja monitoring them the whole time?

After they say that however, they turn and starts to easily walk the rafters. That is when there was a beeping above them, before suddenly a loud beeeep and then several silent pops went off before the upper roof came down, which is where Digital Shadow aims their arm to fire off their grappling hook to swing themselves up into the hole. "So long... Storm Shadow."

Storm Shadow's only warning was a hiss from Hunter. He shifts, and soon catches the gem that is tossed at him. His dark eyes narrow, "Hero, villain, it is all in the eyes of the beholder. What matters is honor and what is within one's heart," he states firmly, and with gruffness behind it. Perhaps words stated to soothe his own morals, or something deeper? In either case, Hunter is twisting about to try and find a way up there, but the leap up the wall isn't helping!

And Storm Shadow leaps forward to grab his cat and leap back as the explosion sounds. Though he soon pulls something out and tosses it at Digital Shadow. It is a throwing knife of all things! He has deadly aim, though the echo of the noise of the explosion could cause a ringing in his ears and throw his aim off.

Huh. Well that was easy. Still, the villain is escaping, and she intends to catch him, or at least give it her best effort. The Code demands it! She glances around, trying to match her recollection of the outside of the building against where she is now, using her near-perfect memory. Wasn't there another skylight that might correlate with the next room? She dashes off, trying to see if that is the case, and if so, she would attempt to make her way up and out acrobatically, to try and head them off at the pass. Digital Shadow was on the move and they were quick, but yes-- they were getting away. At the peek of their escape flip out, the knife comes from Storm Shadow. The Tech Ninja sees it, but has zero time to react, so it nails them across the arm. It cuts into the material, but doesn't get the skin.

When the Tech ninja lands they actually look at the spot and the armor is already starting to self repair itself, before they see Kurenai making her way out. Those eyes flicker brightly before they dart across the roof top with a great deal of speed and they shove off one roof top and then go to tumble land onto the next rolling back up their feet and continuing to run.

As they do so, their hand points out to the side and then motions up. What was--oh... That is what that was all about--

The spot lights out pointing a the sky, suddenly change their axis on their mechanical joints and go to aim directly at Kurenai in attempt to blind her and throw her off as the Tech Ninja hops off the side of the building onto the escape ladder and then kicks the latch to slide it on down to the ground.

Storm Shadow would remember them taking a high fall before and they didn't need assist-- so why were they giving them one to use to follow with?

Storm Shadow makes a sound with his tongue, and soon Hunter leaps up along his back and to his master's shoulders. Storm Shadow then tosses his grapple line up there that he still held within his other hand and starts to pull himself up to the roofing. However as he sees the escape ladder, he doesn't chase after it. Instead he fetches his knife, and looks over at Kurenai. "We will discuss this later."

As the security guards come after them after the explosion, Storm Shadow looks back down and tosses one of the guys the gem, making him panic and almost drop it! "I retrieved that back, but the criminal got away. I rather my involvement not be mentioned, consider it a simple 'thank you' for retrieving your precious gem." He is then disappearing from view, slipping his knife away as he wonders if it caught any of the fabrics on it for evaluation.

One impressive feat of acrobatic parkour later, and she's quickly flipped up onto the roof in record time. Spotting the fleeing criminal she begins to burst into an impressive dash of speed that is clearly past the limits of normal human capacity. But then...GAH!

She was not expecting those spotlights. All of them. All of their million-bajillion candlepowers trained right at her. It completely throws her off.

Worse yet, she's blinded. Her vision will ultimately return, but even if she had use of it at the moment, the rest of the lights make it too difficult to keep going. She tries to rely on the rest of her senses to try and find a way out, but soon realizes that she lacks the proper training, an unfortunate shortcoming in her overall skillset. Internally, she laughs to herself, bitterly. "And when you anointed the first of us, Amaterasu, you commanded us to cast perfect shadows of righteousness in your light. And now light has become my enemy. How ironic." Eventually, someone would grab her hand and lead her off, and it would be obviously Tommy. Grateful that he managed to pull her bacon out of the fire, and take a bad situation and salvage it. It also highlighted no small amount of her overall greenness.

Later on, she would not be up for much other than small talk, and not for very long. Suddenly, she checks the time, and gasps. "I'm late!" She starts to head off, and then zooms back to Tommy, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you, again. You were fantastic back there! Really. And yes, we do need to talk, about many things!"

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