[Deleted]

 

- TANK -

"I'll see you on the other side, drink in hand, smile on my lips."

His eyebrows drew down further as she continued to speak. The recognition in his eyes clicked, as his earlier suggestion came to a thicker fruition. "Sonnet?" He glanced at the man that slid down the stairs, unconcerned with the officers well being. Holding attachments like that in time of war was tantamount to an achilles heel. He could care less if the man bled out and died- his goal was to make sure he didn't join them. He turned toward her as she appeared with her cracked mask and smirked.

"So, you were hiding little secrets of your own, huh?"

As she vanished and appeared behind him he'd rotate with it, blinking as she took off at a sprint. He'd rush after her before she vanished, Aaron cursing as he slid to a stop and turned back to eat a angry boot to the face. She was right about one thing- his reaction time was incredible. But it wasn't because of his power- it was his training. He was built to be a man of action, ready for death from the moment he opened his eyes til the last time he closed them. His hand would snatch up after her foot hit, attempting to grab her calf right after and pull her ass out of the air. If it worked, he'd shift his jaw and glare.

"Um. Ow. Can we not talk about this?"

If his grab missed, however, he'd still roll his jaw in appreciation at the force which she could hit before spinning and slamming his back against the wall once more. He'd grin.

"Now....this could go on forever, Sonnet."

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

513

@aaron

Realising that the man had now worked out the connection simply made Sonnet shrug.

"I wouldn't have called it keeping secrets. You could have asked anyone in there who I am. Admittedly they probably wouldn't have told you anything. I would have taken a finger for that."

He'd tried to grab her mid kick, but once she'd felt the impact she'd vanished again. It hadn't been hard, it had felt a little like kicking a wall and her instincts had kicked in to whisk her away from danger. The guy was beyond tough. It would almost have been unfair, except the only blow he had landed so far had been as a result of her own arrogance.

He was speaking to her as though he were familiar with her, not as if he had just met her for five minutes in a crowded burger joint. That damn Father Mathias did the same thing, talking to her as if he'd known her for her entire life. Of course, the real reason she found it so annoying when the Priest did it was that he was always infuriatingly right about things.

Unfortunately, so was Aaron. At least about this. He couldn't catch her, and she would struggle to do much more than scratch him. She could have dropped him off the top of the Empire State Building, but that might have been too far. Killing a cop would bring out the fire in the NYPD, she didn't want to think what killing a Hero might do. There were three in New York, and none of them worried her much, but there were others across the country, and they'd already shown that they were quite happy to transfer cities if the threat demanded it. She doubted her boss would appreciate it if she brought the full might of the Hero Program down on the Yakuza's operations in the city.

"It could, but it won't."

That just meant she'd have to step up her efforts. It was a pity none of the ESU officers had been carrying anything with much more kick than a shotgun, although she still had no idea if he could take that at close range. Maybe she should try it out. Having seen his reflexes in action already she knew better than to try and attack him from the front, but with his back against the wall she was faced with something of a problem.

He was playing defensively, no doubt in an attempt to counteract her clearly superior mobility. Her eyes concealed in shadow behind the mask, flickered to the wall he was stood behind. Then she vanished.

She waited this time, not long enough for him to let down his guard, but long enough for him to begin thinking that she might have just left. The room that bordered the one they had been fighting in was suddenly different. With the slight sound of an exhalation she appeared holding the shotgun she had taken from the now unconscious officer in the alleyway outside. She pressed it against the portion of wall he had been standing against when she had vanished, pulling the trigger.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

 

- TANK -

"I'll see you on the other side, drink in hand, smile on my lips."

When she vanished, and didn't reappear in a few seconds, He'd run along the wall to the window and peer out. The cops were still there, not under attack. He hummed to himself. Did she make an escape? No, she had retorted that it wouldn't last. She was intending to finish the fight earlier than he wanted. He'd slowly glare around the room, attempting to notice any shift in attack pattern, when suddenly a blast crashed through the wall where he had been standing previously. He moved back near there quickly and let out a loud groan....as though he had been shot and injured.

Assuming his ruse worked, he'd attempt another wide-arc arm swing, intent to grab the re-appearing jacket so long as she poofed into the vicinity. If it worked, he'd promptly jerk her close and try to throw his head forward to smash through her mask and headbutt her viciously. If he grabbed nothing but air, he'd roll to the side in a crouch to avoid the shotgun strike that would probably follow. They couldn't break his skin- but they could actually hurt him. There would be bruising and flecked skin. Too many in a row might tear- he wasn't really sure. Probably depended on the gauge, as it had never happened. And with a teleporter it was plausible.

If he succeeded in rocking her with a headbutt, though, he'd aim to tear off her mask and throw a hard enough punch to the button on the chin to put her out. He'd then sniff, throw her over his shoulder.....and head down the stairs and out the back, intent to escape with her toward the alleyway down the road, where he would gently set her down and against the wall, pulling down his mask and letting out a few deep breaths before sitting down across from her, wiping the sweat from his brow while he waited for her to awaken.

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

####

@aaron

Whether he'd simply absorbed the shot and played dead, or if she'd been unlucky enough that he'd moved out of the way she didn't know. What she did know was that his wildly swinging arm caught her by the jacket and yanked her close, greeting her with a rapidly approaching forehead. It caught her in the face, shattering the mask entirely and snapping her head back. She went limp almost immediately.

She didn't know how long she had been out, but when she woke up she was not in the back of a police car as she had expected, but propped up against a wall in an alleyway. She curled her lip as the stench hit her, there was an open and overflowing dumpster a little way down the alleyway, and one of the bags dumped beside it had split, letting out a pungent aroma.

The man sat opposite her was still in costume, at least mostly. He had pulled down his mask to reveal a strong jawed face. It was the guy from the burger joint. She didn't move, wary that he might attempt to put her down again, more permanently this time. Rolling her eyes, she examined him, looking for any evidence of damage. There were a few scratches and rips in his costume, but whether she had caused that or it had already been there she had no idea.

Her head hurt, and she grimaced as she spoke "So what… you liked the look of me so you aren't going to turn me in?"

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

 

- TANK -

"I'll see you on the other side, drink in hand, smile on my lips."

He shook his head, eyeing her as she woke..

"I mean, I do, but no. Putting you in a cop car would only end with dead cops- I doubt cuffs can hold you. In fact, I'm uncertain anything the world has can hold you just yet."

He smirked. On top of that, he didn't want to make a habit of killing everyone who fought him. The rules at the program were pretty firm, and though he had killed some on his first few missions, he'd actually been body count free for a while now. Well...before today. Technically, she'd killed the man at the bottom of the stairs. The others were just severely injured. He reached up and wiped the sweat off his brow before coming to his feet.

"Maybe I'm banging my head against a brick wall here but....why the fuck do you work for gangs or mobsters? My abilities are cool, but teleportation? That's life changing stuff. Something you could actually use to do something other than break fingers in a burger joint or kill cops."

Yeah, he'd been reading up on exploits involved with the gangs that were here and with that food place. A man with broken fingers, vast wealth. He shrugged.

"Just disappointing, I guess. Here I thought I'd found a real diamond among all this rough. Maybe a future friend. But turns out you choose to be a dirt clod. Just don't get it."

He shook his head, pulling up his mask, looking back down at her. She was right- he knew very little about her, except that she chose to eat shit, was snarky and had cool abilities. But based on their short back and forth, he thought maybe patrolling these run down parts of town wouldn't be such a drag. Of course she had to be a killer. Of course.

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

277

@aaron

So he was pragmatic at least, which she hadn't expected. After all, the Hero program seemed to be an invitation for its members to dress up in tights and wear underwear on the outside of their costumes. This guy didn't fit the image at all. In his slightly homemade looking gear he looked more like a vigilante than someone who was actually licensed to enforce the law. Not that he was doing a great job of that.

She wiped at her face, "I don't know, I'm sure they'll come up with something."

She stood a moment after he did, not willing to display weakness even if it was too late to really be worrying about that. It was humiliating to have been spared like this. At least if she'd woken in Police custody she could have facilitated her own escape, but this was infuriating. She didn't appreciate being treated as if she needed help.

"You white Americans are all the same, you assume that because we live in the same place that we live in the same way."

Her voice was flat, with that strange hard edge that made it clear that it was a language learnt of necessity, not from any love of the place it was spoken. She wasn't as dismissive of America culture as many of her… colleagues… but she was hardly one of its greatest fans either. Right now she couldn't believe that he was behaving as if she needed to be saved.

"A diamond? You think you're going to convert me? Be my white knight?"

She spat, "It's always something like that with men. Got to save the day. Redeem the irredeemable."

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄

[Deleted]

 

- TANK -

"I'll see you on the other side, drink in hand, smile on my lips."

His brow knitted together as his face scrunched up with a look of disgust. He began to readjust his clothes and gloves, talking as he did so.

"The hell are you talking about? You think I don't understand priveledge because I said you could do something else with your powers?" He shook his head. "I can think your cute and misguided without thinking im superior or treating you differently than I would a man or a white person. If I had it my way, I'd have snapped your neck the minute I knocked you out. Unfortunately, the program is resistant to killing people outright, and since I'm not about to facilitate the senseless slaughter of more cops by sticking you in a cell...."

Man, that was a mouthful. He didn't normally talk so much, but this one wanted to argue for her honor some more. He stood straight and looked at her, leaning against the wall.

"You can take what I said and twist it if you like, Sonnet. But don't take me for someone who's gonna feel bad for letting you live or feel bad for watching you die. I had a job to do and I did it. You're free to do whatever the fuck you want, now."

He'd start walking away, pushing off the wall. He'd talk as he did so.

"If you ever wanna try something different though, let me know. I'll be around."

He'd keep tabs on her, in case she decided to attack him again, to try and kill him to redeem herself in some way or keep him from talking. As it was, he doubted the program would be happy with him for letting her go, but in truth he was saving future lives. Keeping her from them meant they'd survive- fighting a teleporter was no easy feat, and most people would only end up dead.

JUNIER of GS + Adox

[Sonnet Matsuda]

In the end everything collides

288

@aaron

Sonnet glared at the man, being reminded that he had beaten her did not do much for her mood, nor did the reminder of just how vulnerable she had been once he had knocked her out. His power seemed to be a physical change to his body; hers was entirely dependent on being aware in order for it to protect her. That and he had that unbearable quality about him that reminded her so much of the priest.

And just like that, he was letting her go, which made her even more furious. Perhaps it was pragmatism. After all, she hadn't found anything that could stop her teleporting. She'd spent some time experimenting with her powers, working out just what she could and couldn't do. As a result she'd actually rented a tiny little apartment out of Manhattan that she'd simply stacked mattresses in. It wouldn't help her if she hit terminal velocity, but it should at least keep her alive if she fell off a building.

She wondered for a moment if dropping this guy off a building would do any damage. He'd seemed fairly tough, taken a kick to his jaw that should have knocked him out without even flinching. But he'd beaten her fair and square; he'd at least earned a respite from her attacks, even if holding herself back felt like a physical effort right now.

She watched as he walked away, itching to try something, but not stupid enough to do so, still groggy as she was from unconsciousness.

She cursed under breath in Japanese, it would take some explaining to not lose the tip of a finger for this failure. With a sound like an indrawn breath Sonnet vanished from the alleyway.

My childhood spat back out the monster that you see

► kaigra ◄