2013.03.28 - Hope Arrives

Suicide Slum. It's not exactly a 'good' part of The Island of Manhattan. It's not exactly a place where the police, let along most heroes appear regularly. But it is still a place where people live, and work, even if in a lot of cases the work is not exactly legal.

But it's that very fact that people live here that means certain things happen. Or more or less have to happen. For example, since people live here, there are mutants here. Maybe not as many as in other places, maybe more. But for some reason, not too long ago there was a rather /LARGE/ blip on cerebro. As if some sort of powerful mutant either just manifested their abilities, or somehow suddenly appeared from nowhere.

At, to at least around the same time two other things also happened. The first is that a small anomaly happened. One that only finely tuned detection equipment may have been able to pick up from a distance. Equipment meant to pick up this very sort of thing. That anomaly being some sort of 'time portal' that was open for only a second or two.

The other thing is that two local gangs, that for years had been in a state of uneasy peace, but had slowly had tensions building up in the past few weeks, had finally agreed to have a meeting of their representatives at a local basketball court...

Suicide Slum is a good place to blend in, and to find a place to stay with few questions asked even when you are a mutant, or a foreigner. It is also a place where crime organizations, like Intergang, thrive and recruit. Both things draw Nate to the area for different reasons. Not part of any gang, he shouldn't be at the basketball court, but he is able enough with small telepathic tricks to prevent the gangers from seeing him.

In contrast, Doug Ramsey has more of an intellectual curiosity. A quick check of Cerebros, and the young ex-SHIELD agent considers the blip. A powerful mutant. He could call in the X-Men... or he could head there himeslf immediately to see if he could talk.

Fine, he was going to check it out, and leave a note with the X-Men.

Arriving in a small car, Doug steps out, doing a quick check of the situation, noticing the gangs briefly... were they having a pick-up game? Better to steer clear of that and see where the blip came from...

MEET: You invite Jocelyn to join you.

Suicide Slum. It's not exactly a 'good' part of The Island of Manhattan. It's not exactly a place where the police, let along most heroes appear regularly. But it is still a place where people live, and work, even if in a lot of cases the work is not exactly legal.

But it's that very fact that people live here that means certain things happen. Or more or less have to happen. For example, since people live here, there are mutants here. Maybe not as many as in other places, maybe more. But for some reason, not too long ago there was a rather /LARGE/ blip on cerebro. As if some sort of powerful mutant either just manifested their abilities, or somehow suddenly appeared from nowhere.

At, ot at least around the same time two other things also happened. The first is that a small anomaly happened. One that only finely tuned detection equipment may have been able to pick up from a distance. Equipment meant to pick up this very sort of thing. That anomaly being some sort of 'time portal' that was open for only a second or two.

The other thing is that two local gangs, that for years had been in a state of uneasy peace, but had slowly had tensions building up in the past few weeks, had finally agreed to have a meeting of their representatives at a local basketball court...

Suicide Slum is a good place to blend in, and to find a place to stay with few questions asked even when you are a mutant, or a foreigner. It is also a place where crime organizations, like Intergang, thrive and recruit. Both things draw Nate to the area for different reasons. Not part of any gang, he shouldn't be at the basketball court, but he is able enough with small telepathic tricks to prevent the gangers from seeing him.

In contrast, Doug Ramsey has more of an intellectual curiousity. A quick check of Cerebros, and the young ex-SHIELD agent considers the blip. A powerful mutant. He could call in the X-Men... or he could head there himeslf immediately to see if he could talk.

Fine, he was going to check it out, and leave a note with the X-Men.

Arriving in a small car, Doug steps out, doing a quick check of the situation, noticing the gangs briefly... were they having a pick-up game? Better to steer clear of that and see where the blip came from...'

Jocelyn came with Doug, because she happened to be near the cars when Doug went to head out. And backup was good. Backup who could see weird energy fields might be even better. Jocelyn was dressed in typical street clothes for her, which meant a pair of jeans and a faded New York Giants t-shirt. She steps out of the car and glances over at the meeting gangs briefly, but not long enough to actually be accused of intruding. So, that was happening. Interesting. But it wasn't why they were here, so Jocelyn wasn't going to get in their way. Instead she shifts her shoulders a little bit to deliberately loosen up and present herself as a non-threat as she scans the area.

"Got any closer idea than here?" Jocelyn asks Doug quietly. She wasn't yet seeing anything too out of the normal. There weren't any obvious signs of mutant activity yet that she could see.

On that basketball court, there's some shouting. To be honest, what ever is being said is heated. But it just doesn't have the edge to it like things will break down just yet. Or does it...

"Look, I'm tired of your shit!" on of the gang bangers says as he pulls out a gun, only to have six others pulled out and aimed at him. "You posers just talk a big game. You guys probably don't have bullets in those damned guns!"

Yeah, they don't notice Nate, but then again with how focused these gangers are on each other, they might not notice him even if he weren't using his telepathy to keep hidden. Sure enough they aren't noticing the fact that there's someone else besides Nate near them. A girl with red hair who's sitting against a wall in some sort of green outfit and tattered cloak like thing on top of it, who's sitting against a wall with her knees pulled up against her chin. Said girls eyes are closed making it almost look like she's trying not to have some sort of strong emotional reaction for some unknown reason.

Now, if Doug or Jocelyn were to have one of the hand held cerebro units with them, they would detect not one, but multiple powerful mutant signatures over by the basketball court. Not that the gang members are paying any attention to the newcomers just yet.

Nate is not aware of any of the gangers being a mutant, or Hope for that matter. They are just gangs, which are a fact of life wherever more complex and interesting forms of social organization are scarce. He is not alarmed or worried when they pull out guns. Gang members kill each other, that is another fact of life, and they have chosen to fight each other. However, innocent bystanders are another question, so he does scan to make sure civilians liable to get hit by stray shots aren't nearby, which is enough for him to recognize Jocelyn's mind. That makes him stand up, and move to intercept the young woman, and Doug too, incidentally.

Checking the handheld cerebos unit he'd brought along to use as a GPS, Doug frowns. "... there's multiple signals," he notes. "A lot of them. And they're coming from..."

Eyes widen as he looks at the basketball court. the body languages they were displaying were practically screaming 'WAR'. "Jocelyn? I think we'd better get far away from here," he says. "We're going to need a -lot- of help for this one."

"Doesn't take much to tell that a fight is going to break out here," Jocelyn says, charging herself up with some random kinetic energy to toughen herself up. She glances at the unit briefly and her eyes widen before she looks at Nate. "That one is with us though," Jocelyn responds, gesturing to Nate, who was approaching them. She just happens to move in front of Doug, however, hopefully providing him a safe path back to the car if he chooses to take it in the near future. Just in case bullets start flying. She can take a hit. Doug? Well, she doesn't know if Doug can, but she thinks he'd prefer not to get shot if a stray bullet makes it's way towards them. "I can give you the history of these gangs later later if you want. We should move".

At that commotion, the girl in green opens her eyes and looks up. She even glances at the gang bangers and frowns slightly. And yet as she turns her head and notices the pair that arrived in that car, she even gives it a momentary curious look. That is before she starts to get up. And even tries to slowly slide out of the way before she's noticed.

But as for a lot of mutants at the 'party'? Counting Nate there's maybe 4 total by that basketball court. And only two are strong. Unfortunately by the time Doug talks about getting help, that first gang banger that pulled out his gun fires it.

But before it can hit anything, one of those other six bangers here fires his gun, before...

There's an odd gang of metal on the ground as both bullets fall. No they don't loose all momentum, but instead that second bullet somehow hits the first one head on stopping them both.

"And I said 'chill 'Tonio. You can talk a bit game, but you know I don't miss." is said by the other person who fired their gun. "Now..." is said before this guy glances over at Doug and Jocelyn, as if he just notices them. "We have an audience. So we better play nice."

"No dice, Big Shot." is said as Antonios gun starts to visible glow, before he swings the piece and aims it right at that girl in green.

"We've had an audience for a while now. And I don't care what the cops will think it we waste them."

Nate nods at Jocelyn and Doug when he is close enough. "Hello, what are you guys doing h..." the first shot interrupts him and he turns, not looking surprised until he sees the use of mutant powers. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter now. Seems we just got involved in a rather pointless turf war."

"You know the gangs---" Doug doesn't object as Jocelyn shifts into cover position. "We'll discuss it later."

A brief glance at Nate, as Jocelyn declares him safe, and Doug nods in affirmation, as he retreats further, hands up. "Look guys, we're not interested in your fights, we were just checking out -something-... you know, like, something that might be really dangerous that's around your area. And I'm not talking about guns. There's.. metahuman activity in your area somewhere, and it's probably not safe to stay around, and even -less- safe to be waving those guns around..."

"You know a bit of my past. I hear things". Jocelyn moves forward with Jocelyn, charging up and watching. A nod is given to Nate. "Looks like". Yeah, that glowing gun was a problem. She looks at it and gets ready to diffuse it if necessary, fully ready to draw the energy out if the thug actually fires it even as she increases her reflexes with some local kinetic energy. A shift in her stance and a slight headtilt may give away to Doug that she's spotted something and may have to take some sort of action. Of course, she can't really speak it, not without setting off the gang member at the very least. The girl is otherwise silent. Regardless, she was not going to let some girl get shot in the face with that, no sir.

"You know a bit of my past. I hear things". Jocelyn moves forward with Doug, charging up and watching. A nod is given to Nate. "Looks like". Yeah, that glowing gun was a problem. She looks at it and gets ready to diffuse it if necessary, fully ready to draw the energy out if the thug actually fires it even as she increases her reflexes with some local kinetic energy. A shift in her stance and a slight headtilt may give away to Doug that she's spotted something and may have to take some sort of action.

Of course, she can't really speak it, not without setting off the gang member at the very least. The girl is otherwise silent. Regardless, she was not going to let some girl get shot in the face with that, no sir.

There's an eyeroll from some of the gang members as they hear Doug. One or two even laugh. Heck, most of the guns that are out are put away as they hear that statement, before one random thug shouts, "I admit, I'm Captain FUCKING AMERICA! Happy?"

But... Not all the guns are away. In fact that glowing gun is still aimed at that girls head....

Just showing how that things aren't totally defused just yet. In fact...

Metahuman...?

Yeah. At that word the fact that there's a gun aimed at her becomes the last thing on the girl in greens mind. After all, who in their right mind wants to be around if something involving a meta happens? Then again, considering who this girl is, she may very well have her own experience, possibly bad experience regarding them. An experience that's about to get worse, as the glowing gun that's aimed at her is fired, and what appears to be a beam of energy comes flying at her.

Energy that is stopped with a very familiar effect. As if somehow she were using the same ability that someone else here has, or like that other person possibly blocked that shot from hitting her.

Either way, as that happens, the thugs stop laughing. Half of them draw their guns again. The other half look more than a bit dumbfounded.

Nate had assumed Hope was a member of one of the gangs. Otherwise her presence in the meeting was hard to explain. When one of the gang members hints she is not, he prepares to shield the redheaded girl with a telekinetic shield. Looks like it wasn't necessary, though.

Of course it also looks as if there are several other mutants involved already. One in each gang, plus the redhead. And he still does not know what are Doug and Jocelyn doing here. So much for not getting involved. He steps forward, "yeah, I am Batman, now stop pointing those guns, they are not going to be of much use if there is metas get involved in the fight, right? And they just did."

"Well, Captain America," Doug can't help but be sardonic, tempting fate. "Maybe you should get busy being the Sentinel of Freedom and start protecting, yo?"

The energy signature is familiar, and Doug jerks a look towards Jocelyn. "Tell me that's a relative of yours?" he murmurs, already shifting to keep himself behind Jocelyn from the direction of the other energy user.

Giving Doug a glance that is very clearly meant to indicate that she didn't know how Hope did that, Jocelyn turns back to the gang. The woman gets a brief glance, but she doesn't say anything, finally addressing the gang. "And seriously, you guys make a mess of this shit and you know Georgie over in Brooklyn is gonna just come in and try to clean things up. Nobody likes a third party in politics". She figures that mentioning one of the more opportunistic gang leaders in the area might just get this group to abandon their little bravado. "Get in a fight with metas, you're licking your wounds, even if you win somehow, and then, well, you know what Georgiee does".

Yeah. Not even the members of the gangs here can explain who the girl in green is or how she got here. But even as the energy is absorbed, the girl looks both surprised and pissed. Almost pissed enough that she could charge right at the idiot who shot at her and throw him around. Or at least like she'd try. Odds are his buddies would get involved too, thus...

Thus for the moment she holds back. And doesn't say anything. Apparently waiting for an opening of some form.

Some of the gang members blink at the person Jocelyn mentions, but it's Big Shot who actually smiles as he moves to put his gun right against Antoninos head. And Antonio doesn't move, possibly because of the pure shock related to what happened to his shot.

"Good call girlie. Why don't we call Georgie and see what he has to say? Oh wait, he told you loosers to back off and not mess with others..."


 * BANG!*

At last second, before that shot is fired, Big Shots gun is jerked up towards the air.

Thus the bullet goes up, and not into Antonions head.

Of course 'Captain America' grins as he notices that, before he glances at Doug.

"With Big Shot around, all I need to do is protect my beer." Then he jerks a thumb at Nate. "Then again with Batman here, I might not have to even do that."

Nate looks at Hope briefly. What is she does here anyway? He has not time to scan her mind now, though. "Batman is bullet-proof, as everyone knows," he notes with a smirk, raising his hand and pulling the handgun out of Big Shot's grasp telekinetically. For a couple seconds, it hovers a foot over Nate's hand, then his left eye glows golden and the gun is pulverized into fine metal dust, which scatters several feet around him. "Next clown that tries to use a gun will get it shoved where the sun doesn't shine. Got it?"

"Right, Captain America," Doug nods quietly. "Mind if I, uh, talk to Wonder Woman there?" he asks, keeping his hands up and showing empty hands. His body language is concillatory, but not -stupid-, just ready to move quickly if he has to. "Maybe we can get her out of everyone's hair, then you can go about your business of, uh... having a discussion." Offering a smile. So -not- going to try to talk their languages, because there was nothing -more- horrendous than Captain Whitebread trying to speak gang language.

Jocelyn just shakes her head. Why were all the gang members in this city stupid and full of giant egos? Oh, right. New York. "Hey, I've just gone and done a bit of courier work, you know? New in town and ain't got no affiliations. Figured a bit of friendly advice couldn't hurt nobody, you know? Now, I would suggest not making the guy who can grind all your pieces into dust further upset and puttin' them away".

A brief, momentary scan of the girls mind would bring up the fact that she feels that she can take these guys down, that she knows she can. But she also feels like can't risk it. At least not until she gets the lay of the land. After all, she may need these guys help later. Thus as soon as she gets an opening...

She starts to slip towards the entrance to an alley way, step by careful step.

But while she does that...

All eyes among the gang members are on that gun as Nate yanks it clear, and then destroys it. Even Antonio manages to gulp at that, and he didn't even blink when that gun was pressed against his head.

That is before one or two glance at Jocelyn, as if hearing what she says, before the guns, al the remaining guns, are tucked away, or in one or two cases just flat out dropped on the ground.

'Cap' on the other hand takes a few moments to gather himself before responding to Doug.

"I don't see any Wonder Woman here, but go and do what ever." is said before he nudges some of the guys near him. "Let's get going."

Thus, slowly the gathering of gangs starts to break up.

All though as it does, a certain girl in green has managed to get into that alleyway, and is running.

Nate scowls as the gangs start to step back. "I didn't want to get involved with this crap," he mentions Jocelyn and Doug, "we have not really acomplished anything useful, y'know? And... where is that redheaded girl? She was strange, and I think also another mutant."

As soon as 'Captain America' granted approval, Doug was off and running, like a former SHIELD agent, dashing towards the alleyway. "Hey hold on!" he calls out. "Wait, I want to talk to you!"

Heedless of whether he was actually being covered or not, the blonde mutant goes after the mysterious redhead with alarcity, taking note of whatever he could that might have indicated where she'd gone to.

Jocelyn looks around the area. "She's heading that way. I can track her," Jocelyn states, pointing down an alleyway. "I think I know a shortcut that should get us around to her". The long-time street rat takes off at a blistering pace, her daily runs paying off as she attempts to take a shortcut and cut Hope off before she could make her way to a more populous area, tracking the girl's heat signature and keeping it in sight at all times during her chase.

Jocelyn's route is not the route that Doug takes, instead ducking down a different alleyway that should be a shortcut. If she ever gets to the point where there isn't anyone around, she takes to the air to speed things up, as she can fly far faster than she can run. But that would only happen if the area was clear of people. No need to advertise that much today.

If the girls head is still being looked into, there may be a rapid flash of images. Each one appearing to almost be a different time. Some look like they could be the past, a handful within the last century alone, but most of them appear to be something else. Places and times full of chaos, destruction, and death. And in each and every time and place the girl is with a man. One decades older that Nate. And there's another man who is there, fighting them both, who always appears to be trying to kill them...

Or at least those thoughts are there before somehow the girls mind clamps down on any and all stray thoughts.

But as the girl runs, she tries to put as much room as she can between the girl tracking her and the blond who came here with her. Instead, she tries to focus on running. Heck, as she comes up on road at the end of an alley, she turns and starts to run down the road.

And of course, right around this time sirens can be heard, possibly responding to those gun shots from earlier.

There have been gunshots, so there might be already be cops on route. It is the Suicide Slum, though, they might take a while, or never show up. Nate does try to find Hope's mind, but the memories and images he gets make little sense... until he seem someone he has seen only once, in Domino's memories. Cable.

"What the hell?!" Wait! |"Wait!"| He projects into Hope's mind. Then he flies up, because he has little to hide, really. And Hope suddenly has become far more interesting.

"Fine, you go that way, I'm going to chase her, and hope -one- of us find her on time!" Doug tells Jocelyn as he continues pursuit.

Trying to keep up and finding her in an alley, Doug skids to a stop as she turns around from the dead end and starts coming towards him. "Hold on, hold on," he says, trying to adjust his body language to something, well... comforting. "I don't have time to explain, since the police are coming, but will you come with me?"

"Fine, you go that way, I'm going to chase her, and hope -one- of us find her on time!" Doug tells Jocelyn as he continues pursuit.

Trying to keep up and finding her in an alley, Doug keeps on running, as she turns onto a rod at the end of it. "Wait! C'mon, I know you're not a waiter, but how about -one- minute to explain this..." he shouts, trying to say something while running. This was -not- gonna be easy. "The police are coming!"

Jocelyn darts around through some alleys and actually comes out just alongside Hope and picks up the running pace. "Nobody is going to hurt you," the teenager says, doing her best to appear non-threatening. "We want to help you". Really, it was hard to give a detailed explanation while running at full speed in the city.

No. The girl doesn't stop. Not even with that voice shouting for her to wait in her head. She just keeps moving.

All though with Doug hot on her heels, she tries to run even faster. Heck, around the time that Jocelyn catches up, those three are coming up on a subway station. Thus as the redheaded girl says, "Sorry. Can't take your word for that right now." she runs down those stairs, jumps the turnstile, and head for the platform. And of course she's in luck, because there's a train there, just starting to close its doors as she rushes into it, before it takes off, down the tunnel...

Nate tries to establish a stronger contact with Hope's mind, but there are many other minds in the subway, it is not easy to do that while flying, and then running. When the train takes her deeper underground, he just stops, and reaches with his mind to get a good look to his psychic signature. That is what he needs so (maybe) he will be able to find her later. Right now he can't, he has business in the Suicide Slum and they can't wait.

Coming to a stop just before the turnstile, Doug sighs, tossing an arm out to try and stop Jocelyn in case she had any ideas of vaulting it as well. "No... let it go. Now's not the time..."

Fumbling at the Cerebos unit, Doug frowns. One heading away, the other hovering, and then going back towards Suicide Slum. "By the way, Joce..." Doug begins. "Who was -that- flying guy?"

Not being stupid enough to leap the turnstile, Jocelyn pauses and watches her go. "Someone like that will turn up again," the girl says. She'd just have to start listening in for reports of that weird girl on the streets. Instead, Jocelyn just watches the girl go. "She said she can't take our word for not wanting to hurt her right now. Means she's at least going to possibly be open to talking later".

"Nate is his name. He fought with us at the Artic," Jocelyn responds as she walks with Doug back towards the slum. She wasn't sure if Doug remembered that or not, but Jocelyn did.

The train is gone. The girl in green sits down...

And almost as soon as she does, she passes out.

It's been a long day. She's been running on empty, and there's no counting the number of time jumps she went through before ending up in this here and now. How many fights she fought in the last day. How many people she's seen killed. And now to end up alone...

Is it any wonder why she didn't fight?

Hopefully though she's left alone long enough to get a good nap, before the real struggle begins. And odds are she'll run into everyone here again, as well as others as that struggle starts.