2014.03.03 - The Beast Without And The Beast Within

Early evening in Midtown. Traffic is finally easing up and the mass of people trudging through the streets has lessened considerably. High above, the skies provide a are moment in the city's winter by being almost completely cloudless. If it were not for the lights of the city, you might even be able to see the twinkling stars above.

Down below, a determined figure makes his way towards the Embassy. Vorpal, aka Keith O'Neil, has had a mostly uneventful day. Some days are like that- low crime, no supervillains popping up to steal this or that or end the world... well, except Darkseid. The Dark One's ultimatum had been felt across the city and his pronouncement hung like the Sword of Damocles over the city.

Keith suspected that maybe the recent lull had something to do with that- criminals looking to ally himself with Darkseid, or people just too scared to try something stupid. In any case, the Cheshire had been summoned to the Embassy to speak to Princess Diana, and that's exactly his intent as he turns the corner and sees the splendid building of the Embassy.

"I wonder what she wants with me?" He mutters to himself. It's not like he's exactly one of the heavy hitters, and he had found himself entangled in her adventures purely by chance.

Same can be said about one Cassandra Sandsmark, that she met Diana only by chance, but she now lives with the Princess of Amazons and learns under her tutelage. As it is, though, Wonder Girl is now officially part of the Themysciran Host, at least for the time being, and she is playing that card HARD with the press.

Today was one of those that Cassie rather have spend drinking. A few fights earlier with the amazons got her feeling sore for the whole day, her favorite ice cream store was closed and the cute hot dog stand attendant that she had planned on asking out the whole week was feeling ill, and skipped work. As she returns to her new home, the blonde has that tired look on her eyes, eyes cast down, almost dragging herself to her bedroom.

And that's when she hears gunshot and police sirens at a distance, a frown on her face as her armor does not ressonate with it: The Silent Armor cares nothing for the well-being of the citizens of Metropolis, but it's guardian does, and taking flight, the blonde woman is now shinning as her uniform shows up, the scarlet fabric clinging to her body with the golden plates shinning on their own.

At a distance comes a couple of cars, followed by police vehicles. They trade bullets, but what draws attention is that the car in the front has it's top ripped off, and it's driven by a tuxedo-wearing gorilla, a gun in it's foot as the ape uses it to shoot back at the cops.

The Cheshire cat stops dead in his tracks. It's not the fact that there is a crime being comitted, that's par for the course in the city sometimes, it is the fact that it is being committed in THIS fashion.

Sometimes he wondered if he was a magnet for weird things. It had to be. The Cheshire Cat must have had some agenda when he created him... perhaps it was to bring sheer insanity into the world, or magnify it?

"This looks like a job for nah, that's been done before." The Cheshire says as he takes off his overcoat, revealing his uniform underneath. There's a bit of a shiver as the winter breeze catches him, but it's only minor. He IS covered in fur, after all. Vorpal enters the scene by jumping onto a parked car and then leaping upwards again as he levitates to get a better view. That's when he notices the scarlet-and-gold figure making its entrance.

"Nice night for a stroll, eh?" he quips as he looks down at the car chase to get a better bearing.

Cassandra arches a brow at Vorpal and looks down at the cars, shaking her head.

"This is such a weird town...", she mutters, and noticing the ape, the blonde just frowns and looks at Vorp "Friend of yours, Cringer?", she asks, really trying to push that nickname, apparently!

Before the catman can answer, Wonder Girl simply zips down to close in to the vehicles, not going so fast the feline cannot tag along, but trying not to lose them from view.

Mid-flight Cassie summons her golden lasso, made out of molten gold and light, and wills it to spiral around one of the thugs's tommy guns, burning and melting them on spot.

"'No guns for the deranged' policy in my city!"

Vorpal rolls his eyes at the nickname. "I'm not..." He watches her descend and he shrugs, positioning himself to dive and lets go of his levitation. As he falls down, he generates trapezes in midair to swing from and thus change his trajectory constantly- a good thing in order to avoid getting shot at. "He looks more like your type of foe, She-Ra," Vorp says, dropping down onto one of the hood of one the vehicles, two large gauntlets, purple and glowing, appear wrapped around his hands. He brings them down hard upon the roof, "Dingdong!"

"THEY WISH THEY HAD THE BUGDET TO FIGHT ME!", screams Cassie from the car she lands, ripping through the roof, smirking at the feline's comeback, but never admiting it was pretty good. She-Ra? Ohgod.

Suddenly, Wonder Girl bursts out of the vehicle through the front window, putting herself in front of the car so it will slam against her back, the driver flying forward right int the blonde's uplifted arm. She is trying SO hard to be stylish it's ridiculous, but damn it's effective for the crowds.

And then the superheroine slams the man's head against the car wreckage, knocking him out. SHe looks at the gorilla-mounted car still speeding ahead.

Vorpal's thugs scream and shoot up as they certainly do not answer the 'door', bullets zipping up the purple crimefighter rips a huge hole on the roof of the car.

"Ten dollars aren't that hard to come by--- whoa!" The cat is distracted by the quip and doesn't react fast enough to the bullets. One of them hits him square in the chest and cuses pain. A lot of pain. But not because it penetrated flesh-- underneath his quilted jacket, the body armor Tony Stark made for him saves his life, even though the impact will leave one hell of a bruisin'. Because he is not of Amazonian constitution, the bullet impact does throw him back- and off-balance, so that he finds himself flying back in the air.

This would normally be the end for a common person, as they would find themselves hitting the ground and becoming car fodder for incoming traffic, but Vorpal is not common by any definition of the word. As he falls back, a glowing purple trampoline materializes in mid-air to receive him. He deftly gains his footing in the backflip and manages to land on the front of the NEXT car, just one car away from the simian with the gun.

He loses his footing some and ends up slamming against the windshield, but he doesn't lose the opportunity to freak out criminals... he gives them a huge grin, and his eyes suddenly glow purple. "I'd buckle up your seatbelts if I were you... boys..." That is all he says before he jumps upwards towards the other car. The reason for his quick bailing? The fifteen foot wall, glowing and purple, that he summons on the road just a few feet away from the rushing car. He did warn them to buckle up.

Cassandra looks at a young girl by the sidewalk, cheering her own, before taking the air, giving her new fan a wave and a bright smile. "Study hard and date many boys!", she says, before zipping towards the Mob Gorilla. There's a brief pause when Vorpal is thrown from his car, but the cat's craftiness earns him a smirk from the blonde as she yells.

"Stop showing off! There are people around!", she says, because, well, only Wonder Girl is allowed to show off, apparently. Such an attention whore! Cassie misses what follows next as she goes directly for the girlla.

The thugs themselves, inside the car that crashes with Vorpal's brick wall, come flying towards it with quite some violence, their bodies hitting the hard surface and bending in strange, unnatural shapes, the car crumpling against the purple bricks.

Cassandra lands in front of the Gorilla's car, and the creature flies forward, it's strong hands gripping a street light so he can twist around it, avoiding the fall and hurling himself back to Cassie, hitting her square on the back, making her eat some concrete.

She mutters silently, slowly standing "You are going to regret this..."

"Forget that- you're not the only one with a fanbase here, you know."

The cat swings through the air on conjured trapezes and lands several feet away from the Gorilla, crouching around the same time as he slams Cassie into the ground.

"Hey, that's not nice. Why not play with someone of your own size?" The Cheshire cat says... and slowly he starts growing. Growing. Growing until he's twice the height and width of the gorilla, giving him a horrendous Cheshire grin.

In reality, Vorpal kickstarted his illusion powers and went invisible, replacing himself with the illusory double upon whom the growth spurt happened. Darting away from his illusory counterpart, the invisible cat seeks to flank the gorilla, ready to attack him the moment he tries to attack the nonexistent giant cat.

"SURRENDER TO THE POWER OF GORILON! AAAAAAAARRRRRR!", the creature's eyes panicked at the Cheshire grin, bullets zipping everywhere. The Gorilla does not notice the magic at al.

Cassie doesn't, too, but when those UZIs start to roar, she makes a fast jump forward, hitting the creature square on the ribs with the sole of her foot, doing the 'Leonidas Kick', if you'll, which hurls the monster a few cars away, as it's furry self bounces on top of roofs and lamps before it hits the wall, drowsy, holding his ribcage that is certainly smaller now, the bones there broken where Cassandra connected with her strike.

"GORILON? Really? That's the BEST name you could come up with?"

The gigantic Vorpal disappears as the bullets fly. It has served its purpose, and now there is nothing but a disembodied voice that echoes throughout the street. Suddenly, an enormous disembodied grin appears in the sky, hovering above Gorilon.

"Miss Punchy and your friendly neighborhood Cheshire are making you one last offer, banana breath: surrender and come quietly, and maybe I won't create some nice trampolines for her to bounce you off and see how fast you can splatter against a wall on the rebound. What do you think?"

Gorilon can barely stand, as Cassandra slowly approaches, letting her lasso drag along the asphalt to sizzle, the manimal drops to his knees, touching it's forehead to the ground, nodding at Vorpal's words. He has given up.

And it STILL is not enough for Wonder Girl, and her boot comes down to crush the creature's hand on the groun, it's right hand. As the beast roars, the blonde takes it's muzzle and closes hsi mouth, looking down at Gorilon as she stands.

"You gave no second thought when shooting at those people. Next time... I am going to finish the other limbs. GOT IT?", she screams as she finishes, pushing the creature on it's back.

Gorilon grabs his ruiend hand close to the chest, howling, as the police fast approaches.

"A little bit excessive, perhaps." The cat says materializing next to Cassie, the smile disappearing from the sky. "Effective, though, but it sort of skips the amazon chain of action." he jokes a little, taking his earpiece out of his jacket and putting it on as he switches it onto the BSA channels.

"Diana might have killed him. And I am not entirely sure she shouldn't.", says Cassie, folding her arms over her chest, cocking a hip to the side, looking heroic even after breakign a poor gorillaman's hand.

As she turns to the crowd, the blonde smiles at the cheers and snapping of photos, blowing kisses and winking at the good people of Metropolis.

Vorpal looks at Cassie and raises an eyebrow. "I'm not sure. Whatever happened to the don't--- nevermind." Vorpal stops himself. He was confused, but decides that the questions are better aimed for Diana than Cassie. She seemed a bit on the impulsive side of things. The waving and kissing makes him a little uncomfortable, getting flashbacks to Looker. People hardly ever thanked him like that, but then again, he was Cringer-- the freak. It only seemed like yesterday that he had stepped into LOOKER Inc. on Garfield Logan's misguided but well-intentioned advice, and had received a stone-cold 'Can you look like anyone but you?'.

"My handler's on the way, I'll get the statement done." He says, the humor absent from his voice but speaking rather politely as he leaves the blonde's side and walks towards the arriving policemen, trying to ignore the burning in his ears.

~It's the job that matters, it doesn't matter what they think.~

~You keep telling yourself that. Maybe someday you'll believe it.~

~Oh, shaddup~

Cassandra is not only about the job. It's about the people aswell! So she is not hesitating when the reporters come for her asking questions, or the little girl from before comes begging for an autopgrah. Of course she DOES get shut down the second she starts dissing Congress for the current state of affairs or the connection betwen the US and foreign interests or that corporation are not people. The second Wonder Girl stops being a hot body, a cute face and a bland heroine type, it's the second she is off the air.

But she seems to pay it no mind, smiling at the girl and signing all she wants signed, ruffling the kid's hair before standing up and going to the catman.

"HEY, Cringer.", she starts, hands on her shapely hips, smirking at the pondering beastmorph "You can do some kick ass things. Creepy, but nice.".

Vorpal signs off on the report and he gives his handler- a japanese woman in her mid thirties- a smile before turning to Cassie, all serious again.

"If he had been human, would you have still considered killing him?"

It had to be said. It was nagging him hard, and he'd be dishonest if he didn't bring it up.

Cassandra tilts her head to the side, her eyes going wide for a moment, before she peers at Vorpal, folding her arms over her breasts.

"Are you going to play the race card on me? Because I take a LOT of insult to that.", she says, her voice losing the friendly chirp, becoming something else altogether, almost a warning.

"Feel free to answer the question at your leisure." Vorpal says, taking his earpiece off. "Thanks, Jen. Sorry about the mess... I'll have donuts delivered to the clean-up crew." A friendly wave to his handler as she walks away.

"Don't give me the outraged look. I've been told by other heroes, who shall remain nameless, that my appearance makes me unfit to be digested by the general public. Less than human. And I just saw you apply excessive violence to a sentient animal, even talking of killing him." his face darkens. "And no. I do not think Diana would not have killed him. Diana refrained from killing the fricking *Jabberwock*, and that was ten times more dangerous than a gorilla with a gun. So you'll excuse me, but I'm getting fed up with this sort of crap." He turns around and picks something off the floor. A steerig wheel. The things you could find on the streets nowadays.

"I see. Your question is all pretty valid and all, and I will do my best to answer the best way I can.", says Cassandra with a tilt of her head, letting her golden hair whip a bit behind her, as she raises both hands.

"See, it's like this: screw you.", and she gives Vorpal the finger. Double finger. "I don't owe you a thing. And I have all the right to feel like this question is absurd. I don't like race-baiting, it's done, and accepted, way too much. So I will NOT answer this shit of a question, and I am going to LEAVE here. If you have your own problems with other " - and she does the quotation sign with her hands - " 'heroes' that say whatever they say to you, it's YOUR problem, not mine. Resolve your issues, don't you dare accuse me of that kind of shit. I'm OUT. And keep away from me unless you feel like apologizing."

Cassandra does move past Vorpal. She has the presence of mind not to butt shoulders with the magician, but the temptation is there. She doesn't vanish, she walks, and when she does fly, it's at a reasonable speed, to the Embassy.

Vorpal's arms tense as Cass makes her exit. All of the pent-up rage and humilliation he had been carrying around for weeks, neatly tucked away, locked behind reassuring 'It doesn't matter', festering and fostering, all of that finally comes to the surface.

Animal Monster  Freak  Weirdo  Cringer.

Without realizing it, he bends the steering wheel in half and slams it against the farthest wall with a roar that echoes down the street.

The wheel hits the wall... and suddenly something bright and glowing appears on the wall. Like a doorway to another place bathed in light and shadows, unsettling and unnerving. It lasts for an instant... but that instant is enough. Vorpal's eyes go wide and he takes several steps back, now looking at the empty, normal wall. And then he peels off in the opposite direction, not looking back.

A shadow is cast across the wall, but there is nothing that would cause it. It stays there on the wall for a while before giving a silent laugh and moves on.