capeandcowllogs | HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO

Entry tags:

HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO

WHO:

brevipennate
WHERE: SOMEWHERE IN THESITY!
WHEN: Today
WARNINGS: showboating, loud rock music, and an ego 8(
SUMMARY: SHE NEEDS A HERO
FORMAT: Words! AKA I don't care, whatever Iola wants!

The sun was bright in The City, very bright indeed. Save for the moments when an entire flock of maddened pigeons were flying between one and the sun. Then it was temporarily dark. If that happened, you were either only left with some cool shade for a scant few moments, or you were going to be attacked when the birds noticed you.

Megamind didn't have that problem! It was because he was a genius, after all. When you had a rocket pack and a DE-gun to your name, it wasn't hard to make sure that you weren't going to get torn to tiny pieces. By birds. Embarassing! That's what that was! How anyone could be braindead enough to let that happen, in a city where people supposedly got powers? Maybe they weren't useful. Although, he didn't have any powers. Not that he could tell, anyway. He'd tried everything he could think of, but he was out of ideas. For the moment. It wasn't important! He'd gone this long without powers anyway, and he'd still managed to take out someone with all the powers of Metro Man. Not that he'd done it with anything than his infuser gun, but that wasn't important!

What was important, was that he was a hero!

So obviously someone needed saving, right? Right?

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Birds had never bothered Nill before. on the contrary, they were something of a welcome sight, most of the time; there weren't any in the Underground, so it was nice to see them around the City. It meant that she was able to see the sky, to feel the wind and the sunlight.

But these birds were a different story. She had seen them pecking and clawing at people, and she knew that it wasn't natural. She'd never seen them do that before. So she tried to go to the store for bread quickly, but she wasn't fast enough. Soon there was a cloud of them over her head, all cooing with rage, their talons extended. Running wasn't easy for a girl in a lolita dress, but Nill was doing her best. She was just a little bit too slow.

What was that? With his jetpack flaring, he swooped closer to investigate, only to find a younger girl getting attacked by those birds. Wait, he narrowed his eyes, and frowned. She looked familiar-ish.

He didn't know too many people here yet, and none well enough to actually know them, but it tweaked a memory, and on an approximate 2.5 seconds, he had it. That girl, Nill.

So he pulled out his DE-gun, setting it to dehydrate with a flick of his wrist, before aiming for the birds. One shot, two, three.

Three birds in a succession, 3 small, blue cubes dropping to the ground.

She was trying to bat them away when there were suddenly... fewer birds. She allowed herself to look up and a little, blue cube fell on the ground at her feet. She stared at it for just a second, and then looked up. ... Blue? Who did she know that was blue? That one teacher at the Institute, and... she had talked to that man on the Network once. Yes, that was him. She recognized the leather and spikes.

Floating, he decided it was time for the dramatics! After all, a good hero didn't get away with just zapping things with no presentation!

That was when he took the opportunity to toss down a small smoke bomb, letting it explode on the pavement before he swooped down, whispering into his watch for one of his brainbots to come to position, and start the music.

Not quite as great as he would have liked, but it would have to do! So as the wind and angrily flapping birds cleared the smoke away, he was shooting another one, and then the small cyborg was at his side, with a small bowg before it's small speakers, which were much better than they should have been thank you, started up, guitar solo blaring out as backdrop music.

Nill wasn't quite sure what to do with the loud music and the smoke. It certainly startled her; she took a few steps back, almost dropping her loaf of bread. But once she saw the person with the blue skin actually trying to get rid of the birds, she calmed a bit, her wings relaxing from their tensed positions. What he was doing to the birds she didn't know, but at least they had stopped attacking her for the time being.

The smoke was finally starting to clear, and by the time it was, the last pigeon was being reduced to another blue cube in an explosion of small blue bubbles that compressed into a cube, and dropped to the ground.

Another citizen saved! Okay, what was next? Was it the dramatic flying off part? No, he knew there was something else he was supposed to do for someone before he flew off to save more people, but for the life of him, he couldn't--

Oh, that's right! "Citizen!" he exclaimed, yelling over the music before he scrambled to signal to the brainbot to shut off the music. "Ahem. Are you okay now?"

She shrinks away from the yelling until the music was turned down. Nill straightened, looking at this... man? She was pretty sure he was a man. He sounded like one, at least. And looked like one... mostly. The blue skin and large head were a bit confusing, but she had seen stranger things. She nodded at his question, smiling shyly, holding tightly to her loaf of bread.

Wait, why wasn't she speaking? "Did they tear out your voice box!?" he almost shrieked, starting into a long running set of movements. First his hands were up, then they were down, then they were toward her, trying to tell her to tip up her head so he could look at her neck. "If that's the case then I'm supposed to--" what was it? Oh yes! "Take you to a hospital!" That a in the last word was a little drug out though, extended with an 'ah' sound.

The sudden movements make her want to step back again, but she resisted the urge; he had saved her, and that was definitely worth politeness. She did tilt her head a little bit without even thinking about it, revealing no injuries or scars. And why was he speaking so strangely? Maybe he was from a place where they didn't speak much English. Not that she knew much about speaking aside from what she'd heard Heine, Bishop, Naoto, and Badou say, of course. Which, when it came down to it, still wasn't a whole lot.

The blonde held up one of her hands, hoping to make him pause. After a moment's thought, she stretched that hand out towards him, the gesture asking for his.

He stopped his constant chattering of theories to look down at her, where she'd asked for his hand. "Oh. Um," he said with as much eloquence as he could muster. It was quite a bit when a little girl was asking for his hand.

The last time he'd held anyone's hand had been-- Oh no! He was determined to not think about Metro City at a time like this! Maybe later, when he wasn't saving someone. When he was alone. In the dark.

Distractions! Oh yeah, her hand! After several long moments of peering at it, and her, and then finally back to the hand, he finally took it.

She waited patiently; she remembered how long it had taken Heine to get used to being around her (even after he realized he could touch her without tearing her in half), so a few seconds wasn't a long time to wait. She was pleased when he did give her his hand though, and gently placed her grocery bag on the ground so she could use her left hand to trace out on his palm: Thank you. Her wings fluttered happily, and she smiled at him.

Feeling someone's fingers through leather was never the same as actual touch, but being someone who'd spent about half his adult life wearing gloves, he was used to it. The other half, of course, being in prison he was forced to go without.

He understood what she was trying to say though, that was easy enough to get through leather gloves.

"You're welcome!" Was he supposed to address her by name? Or was it citizen? His rival, the idiot that he was, had always just called people 'citizen', except for, of course Roxanne. It was so impersonal! "Your name is Nill, right?"

Part of her was... well, she didn't exactly understand the idea of flattery yet, but flattered was certainly how she felt. It wasn't the first time she'd been saved by a hero, but it was certainly the flashiest. Usually she preferred things quiet and simple, but even Nill couldn't deny that he had a certain kind of flair that was... she'd have to call it appealing, in a strange way.

She nodded, a little blush tinging her cheeks. Her wings fluttered harder, almost flapping even though she tried to get them to stop.

"Well then!" he exclaimed, his hand that wasn't being held by the young girl now coming up with his index finger extended in a familiar gesture to only someone who would know the guy. "Nill, will you be okay from here? Or would you like an escort?" he asked.

That was the way heroes worked, wasn't it? He thought so. It was better to play it cool, like he totally knew what he was doing. And he did! Kind of. From watching Metro Man all these years.

He actually made a good point; she wasn't sure if she wanted to go all the way back to the apartment alone, especially since it didn't seem like the birds were going to just leave her alone because of one person. But he had that gun that turned them into cubes. He could protect her, right? Picking up her groceries with her free hand, she gently gave him a tug, an urging for him to go with her.

Well, he supposed that was about as obvious as you could get. "Okay, I get the picture!" he said, finally fully landing on the pavement. The jetpack shut off with a press of a button on his wrist.

Although, it was kind of awkward, walking with someone who at least didn't participate in banter.

"So, you can't talk, right?"

Happily, she started to lead the way towards her apartment. She wondered if Heine would be there. She hoped so; she wanted to introduce him to the man who had saved her, to show him that not all men were bad for her. There were some good ones besides him.

At Megamind's question, she shook her head, a bit sad. She had always wondered what it would be like to talk, what her voice would sound like, but less and less often as the years had gone on. By the time Heine had found her, she'd almost forgotten about it completely.

"Okay, well that cuts down on the possibility of witty banter, I suppose," he paused, and just smiled. "That's alright though, I shouldn't expect that of you! You've been through a traumatizing experience!" Although perhaps listening to him talk was traumatizing enough, especially when the word sounded more like it was precisely spelled, emphasis on the 'au' sound in the beginning.

"So how many heroes have you met thus far? How many are there?" Of course it occurred to him that she wouldn't be able to actually answer, but silence was generally not something he was particularly comfortable with. It reminded him too much of prison.

She wasn't exactly sure what "witty banter" was, but she figured she could do her best to talk to him. At the question, she thought for a moment before holding up three fingers on her free hand. Heine and Nightwing, first; after a second she pointed to him. He made three. She shrugged at the second part. Definitely a lot. She couldn't count them all, though.

He was surprised that she was actually making sense. Obviously, the girl had experience with not talking, which was reassuring, but there was still the problem that she couldn't really talk. Or even write on the street. It would be something of a hassle if her hands were full, like now!

He was silent for a moment while they walked, and he was thinking up solutions. Maybe it was because it was a puzzle, how to program and build something that would work? Of course, he was the hero now! This was the perfect opportunity to help! It might be best to leave it for now though, he was walking her home.

"Three! Only three? You must be good at avoiding trouble."

She opened her mouth in a silent laugh at that; her shoulders shook a bit with the inexpressible sound. She shook her head a bit at him; that wasn't quite right. She found plenty of trouble. It was just always the same people that happened to be there at the perfect time. It was usually Heine. He hardly ever let her go out alone anymore. Even though Danny had taught her some kung-fu, he didn't think she was ready to defend herself from a real threat. And she knew he was right. It was comforting to know that someone would be there for her.

Edited 2011-04-23 02:59 (UTC)

"Oh, so you're frequently in danger!" he lit up at that. "Do people get kidnapped, or in trouble often?"

It was easy to use an opportunity near someone to actually find out information. He'd scanned through the comms, of course, but sometimes that didn't tell the whole story, or really enough of it. As much as he was often secluded from other people, he knew the rules of the game. If he was going to be a hero, he had to get over the hang-ups, and that included talking to people.

People he'd saved was easier, thankfully.

She didn't want to admit it, but he was right. She always seemed to find whatever danger was lurking around at the time. She nodded a bit at the second question; there was always something bad going on, even if it wasn't always apparent.

"Exciting!" he exclaimed, jumping a little bit at the prospect. Very exciting, in fact! That was a little reassuring, he had to admit. If there were things to do, he wouldn't get quite as bored as he'd been worried he would.

Of course, maybe heroes were supposed to get bored? He didn't know. Did Metro Man get bored all the time? Waiting for him to break out of prison and do something outlandish?

She wasn't quite sure it was... exciting, but it was definitely something. She turned a corner, taking the scenic route to the apartment. She felt like he might not have seen much of the City before.

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HOLDING OUT FOR A HERO

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