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WHO:

a_relative_hero, and Heroes (if you'd like to join in on the fun!)
WHERE: Corner of St. Nicholas Ave./125th St. a.k.a. The Bad Side of Town
WHEN: Tonight -- 11pm
WARNINGS: Ass kicking, awkward heroing, show-offing
SUMMARY: Batgirl takes Houston on patrol.
FORMAT: narrative cryptogram

Stephanie had to give it to a guy who willingly gave a robot a literal kick in the ass; he seemed like just the sort of person to relieve some of the patrol boredom. She gave Houston the address of a rather rundown and crime ridden part of the city. Waiting on the corner of a roof she kept an eye and ear out for Houston and any trouble that may come along.

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Houston had been looking forward to this meeting since Batgirl set it up. He'd almost gone early to wait but managed to resist the urge to do so. Of course once the time rolled around, Joel suited and and took off.

Rather suddenly, Houston appeared on the corner as if he just popped out off thin air. Stumbling slightly from the sudden stop, he looked around. Goggles over his eyes, he frowned as he looked for Batgirl.

"I might be early..." he trailed off quietly.

Stepping out of a small shadow Batgirl grinned at Houston. "Right on time actually."

Moving closer she held out a friendly hand. "Houston? Good to put a face to the ass kicking image I have in my head."

Houston jumped, startled. He looked around at super speed, blinking when he finally saw Batgirl. He quickly shook the offered hand.

"Sorry I'm not nearly as impressive as the image," he offered with a sheepish smile. "I should admit you're not the same Batgirl from my err...time. Man that sounded awkward."

That was a comment she has sadly become used to. Everyone expected Cass or Babs; Steph was barely a blip on the radar. Well, here she was, and damn it she was Batgirl.

She smiled and moved back the ledge. "I won't hold it against you. So, do you have your ass kicking boots on tonight?"

Houston moved to follow Batgirl to the ledge, smiling as well. When asked about his boots, he looked down at his feet and chuckled a little.

"Only pair I've got," he replied, shaking his foot slightly. His costume was all one piece, boots included, so he really did only have the one pair.

"Good enough for me," she said with a laugh in her voice. This guy was too much. "You alone in the City?" Steph had almost her whole family which was lucky, but mostly she knew people came here alone; 'strangers in a strange land' and all that.

Houston frowned at the question. "Yeah. I mean I sorta know Superman, Catwoman, and Impulse but I'm the only one from my team here," he replied in a more serious tone. "Unless you've heard about anyone named Blindside, Omni, Temper, or Allure being around and hiding for some reason that is."

Those names were more than a little familiar and that just gave her an even better feeling about this guy. She did feel a little bad that he seemed to be alone. "Sorry, but I'll keep an ear out for you." Not that anyone ever told her anything.

Bouncing back a bit she decided to make this a real lesson in patrolling. "Okay, part one of Batgirl's Guide to Patrolling: You spend a lot of nights jumping around roofs only to go home tired and nothing to show for it. Another words, not every night is as exciting as they show in the comics, mostly it's a lot of waiting around for nothing to happen."

It was the answer Houston had been expecting. He was hopeful that his family would show but doubted it was likely. Forcing a small smile, he nodded. "Thanks."

"Well, yeah that makes sense. Especially in a City like this where there's so many superheroes. Not only do we have to think about the probability of crimes occurring but also the possibility that another hero already got to and dealt with a situation before we ever got near it," he said, rubbing the back of his neck a moment. "Sorry, rambling again."

"Rambling is fine and I get what you're saying. Mostly you get petty theft, the occasional mugging, and some guy trying to make a name by taking on an Import. Boring." Of course there was also the days you got crazy man-eating pigeons and weird Nazi vampires.

Batgirl looked closer at Houston's suit with a bit of curiosity. "So, this suit of the Gods, what's it do exactly?"

"All more exciting than my old life," Houston shrugged.

He shifted slightly when he noticed he was being looked at more. "Well...pretty much this," he said with a shrug. "It protects me sorta. I can make it appear and vanish at will. And if you have something sharp I could show you how it heals itself."

Out came a Baterang and she carefully handed it to Houston. This wasn't ideal, but knowing what this suit could and couldn't do would help them both sharpen him up for patrolling.

"If this goes wrong you're not patrolling with me again until that suit in made of steel."

"Steel would be very uncomfortable," Houston replied with a smile. He took a moment to just look at the baterang because it was just awesome holding a baterang. Nodding, he lifted it to his chest and carefully cut into his costume. He held his hands out to the side to show that the skin underneath wasn't harmed. The cut in the material didn't last long, melding back together seconds later as if it had never been cut at all.

"What do you think?"

"Very cool." And handy. Damn, she could use a suit like that, not that she was knocking Babs' suit making abilities! Taking back the Baterange she motioned for him to be quiet a second when she caught a bit of yelling.

"That doesn't sound good...for someone who's not us. Come on."

{{ooc: con't in Lyra's thread}}

Lyra was very, very confused about what had happened. Sometime before midnight, she'd wandered away from the fair. Which left her standing on a sidewalk looking rather lost- and a rather obvious target for muggers.

Which was unfortunate for the muggers. The shouting could probably be heard several blocks away as a grown man started running away.

The shouting was hard to ignore and when guys like that started running and yelling Steph wanted to see what they were running from. Nodding at Houston she gave him a grin. "Lets go practice those dojo moves of yours."

Edited 2011-05-03 08:48 (UTC)

Houston blinked a few times at the yelling runners. That wasn't a sight he was used to. Returning the grin, Houston nodded right back to Steph.

"Sure thing. I'm not very good though."

What they would find was something out of nightmares. More than ten feet tall and with several arms, the monster had a mouth full of sharp teeth, several arms that ended with massive claws, and long, flailing tentacles.

Lyra, in the meantime, had made herself invisible and was reading a street sign, trying to work out the fastest route back to Awesome Base.

"That's why you're playing sidekick tonight," she joked as they found the source of the running. Holy giant monster. Damn, this wasn't exactly what she had been looking to find. Unhooking several Baterangs she gave a serious nod to Houston. "This could get ugly--er."

Letting the weapons fly at those tentacles Batgirl was already moving into position to jump down to the nearby fire escape hoping to keep this thing contained.

"Just don't call me Robin," he tried to joke back. The sight of the monster made Joel pale a moment and stumble back a step. "Whoa..." he trailed off, fighting off the immediate urge to go for 'Plan A'. He blinked a few times at the nod then returned it. "Right."

With a blur of gold and black, Houston rushed off the rooftop and down to street level. He didn't have any weapons or idea how to deal with the monster really so he went with what came to mind.

"Hey! Big and ugly! Over here!" he called, trying to get the creature's attention in hopes of distracting it.

The batarangs sliced off some of the tentacles, and the shouting got Lyra's attention, and she snapped back to visibility as the monste seemed to darken and liquefy, becoming shadows on the ground that flowed into Lyra's ownN until the only thing that remained was the girl's shadow.

Lyra glanced out unhappily, holding Pantalaimon close.

Well, that was unexpected. Steph slid down the fire escape ladder and frowned at the kid. "Pet of yours?"

Houston stared a few moments. Looking towards Batgirl, Joel seemed a bit lost before shrugging. He turned his attention to Lyra and waited to see what she said.

A little smile worked its way onto Lyra's face.

"You could say that. I just wanted them to leave me alone, was all."

"Good show. Uh, you're not hurt from the whole tentacle slicing, are you?" God, Steph hoped that wasn't how this kid's power worked because she's going to end up feeling guilty for a long time.

"Whoa," Houston smiled. "Was that an illusion or a transformation?" he was curious. The mention of the tentacle slicing made him wince and he gave a slightly worried look to Lrya.

"I can sort of feel it, but it doesn't hurt," Lyra told the pair, while Pantalaimon fixed the two of them with a stare. He wasn't too happy with the attention- not that Lyra was either. She really just wanted to get some sleep.

Steph relaxed a bit, but was still all business. "Lost? This isn't exactly the sort of neighborhood any sane person would travel alone at night."

Joel relaxed as well. Pantalaimon got a curious look before Houston smiled. "I can give you a real quick lift home if you'd like. Super speed and all," he offered.

The carnage from a battle in one of the City's numerous dimly-lit alleys could be heard from a block away. Cass was surrounded by fifteen ninja-themed thugs wielding swords. She seemed to be more than holding her own, lashing out in all directions with lightning-fast strikes, and soon she'd taken one of the swords and was smacking them in their faces with the blunt end.

She kind of wished they were real ninjas. Then it might have been an almost fair fight.

Overall the night hadn't been too bad. She'd gotten to know Houston and kicked some ass along the way. In fact this night was pretty damn good. There was still a lot of night left even this early in the morning, so Batgirl spread out their patrol to the side streets only to hear that oh so familiar sound of someone getting a beat-down.

Cass.

Batgirl smiled widely at Houston and gave him a 'shushing' gesture. Free falling into the alley she landed with her legs around some wannabe ninja giving him a good hit to the head, and rolling off him as he went down. Standing there she let Cass finish up before she spoke. "So, does my fellow hero have a name or should I just call you Madame Kicker of Ass?"

Joel had been enjoying the night of patrol, getting to know another hero and being generally distracted from his own issues. He wasn't even getting tired. When he noticed the sounds of the fighting as well, Houston looked quickly towards Batgirl.

The gesture was met with a nod. He jumped in surprise when Batgirl just fell. Looking around quickly for a safer way down, he frowned. In a blink, he appeared next to Batgirl in the alley, hopping over the downed ninja. "Never seen an actual ninja before..."

She let her sword clatter to the ground and navigated the fallen ninjas to where Steph and Joel stood. She shrugged at Steph's question, smiling a bit under the half-mask. "That's okay." She hadn't really thought about a codename.

"They're not," she said to Joel, recognizing his familiar body language but not making it apparent. She'd wait and see if he recognized his teacher outside the dojo.

Steph couldn't help the wide smile that crossed her face. Even now watching Cass in action was amazing, of course Steph was hoping that should real trouble arrive her friend would hesitate to knock her out.

Bending down she lifted the mask off the guy she had taken down and frowned. "It's not even a full moon. Seriously, what's with the gimmick? Being regular looking muggers just not fun enough?" Straightening up she nodded at her partner for the evening. "This is Houston," she introduced the young man fully aware that Cass already knew him.

"They're not?" Joel blinked a few times behind those goggles of his, looking down at the fake ninja before turning his attention back to Cass. He paused, getting a weird sense that he'd met her before but shaking it off.

He offered a wave when introduced. "Hi," he chimed.

"Second time I've... fought them," she said with a shrug. The weird ninja gang apparently hadn't been deterred when they got their asses kicked on her first date with Reilly. They'd just invested in better swords. That they still didn't know how to use.

She nodded toward Joel. "Training helping?" she asked with a slight tilt of her head. If he hadn't at least kicked someone through a window, she was going to be a little disappointed.

"That's just sad." One would think an ass kicking from Cass would teach these jerks a lesson. She pulled out a few zip ties and got to work preparing them for the local cops. At Cass' question she looked to Houston and grinned. "He does have his ass kicking boots on tonight."

"Wow. Think more will be back for a third try?" Houston asked curiously. "Want a hand with the tie wraps?" he offered. The question about his training had Houston a it surprised. He stared a moment, getting an idea but not sure yet. Steph's comment got a smile though.

"Only boots I own," he tried t joke again. Sadly, he'd yet to have a chance to kick anyone through any windows.

One of the ninjas started to rouse slightly, and Cass bent down next to him, pressing two fingers into his neck and causing him to slump back to the ground. "Maybe," she said. They'd probably just buy more swords and try again.

"Mm," she muttered at the joke, smiling a bit. "Kicked... much ass?"

Steph smiled at Cass' question and let Houston field this one since that was who Cass was asking.

Houston gave a bit of a sheepish smile and rubbed the back of his neck. "We've been doing okay. Beaten up a few muggers and drug dealers. Nothing too big," he replied.

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Some time after midnight? I hope this is okay.

Always okay!

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the wee early morning hours?

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