(no subject)

[girlverine]

WHO: Laura Kinney and OPEN
WHERE: Random rooftops and alleyways in unpleasant parts of the city
WHEN: Different nights this weekend.
WARNINGS: Violence, probably!
SUMMARY: Laura is out tracking some drug dealers and runs into people! Specifically Dakan, but anyone else can start a thread too, just let me know when. Laura will either be out patrolling, sitting on a roof somewhere watching drug dealers, wandering around during the day, or...well, I can roll with anyone.
FORMAT: Para to start, then whatever.

Laura was perched on the edge of the rooftop overlooking the alleyway, her black clothing and dark hair shadowing her from view in the shadow of an old chimney. She was listening to a pair of drug dealers down below talking about meaningless things, the words weren't important really, just the tone of their voices, their smell, their heart rates, clues of what they were doing next. They'd been working for an hour now, and Laura was just considering the right moment to strike.

She always waited it out like this, since she tended to take their 'profits' to keep herself in house and home, and there wasn't any point in getting drug dealers without any money arrested. Well, there was the 'getting them off the streets' aspect, but they'd just be replaced by more drug dealers, which defeated the purpose, really.

Comments

Sunday night

[batghoul.livejournal.com]

Cass had been following a suspect most of the night, waiting for the right time to strike. He was probably a drug supplier of some sort, and his body language indicated that he was heading for a rendezvous with some other unsavory characters.

As he entered the alleyway to meet up with his two pals, she scanned the rooftops for the perfect place to drop down before noticing a familiar figure. A small smile formed on her face and she silently leaped over to the adjacent building. Holding her tattered cape close, she quietly approached Laura to take a spot next to her if the girl failed to notice her. But knowing her friend, that was unlikely.

[girlverine]

Laura noticed the costumed girl a few moments before she landed nearby, by smell more than anything else, and her green eyes flicked over towards her. She was bracing herself for a fight when she recognized the smell, and the body language, and even the heart beat. Cassandra. She had never seen her costume before, though. After a second or two she relaxed, nodding to the other girl.

It was safe to assume she was tracking the third arrival...that, or she had spotted Laura and just decided to stop and see her, though she wasn't certain if Cass was the type of person that did that.

"What are you looking for?" She finally asked, her voice barely a whisper.

[batghoul.livejournal.com]

Cass could see the recognition wash over Laura's body. It didn't really bother her--she trusted Laura, and the girl wasn't any looser with words than she was. She nodded back with a slight smile in silent greeting.

"Him," she replied quietly, pointing to the third man, who was starting to show his wares to the other two. "Works for... Ninja gang."

[girlverine]

Laura nodded, considering the third man. He was obviously here to sell something, which explained the rather rapid intake of customers her two fish had. They had probably been gathering extra money for the buy.

"I was following the other two." She explained, unnecessarily, as she considered them. "I was only going to wait another minute."

[batghoul.livejournal.com]

They were armed and clearly a bit on edge--she could see a subtle, nervous movement when one's hand brushed past his concealed gun. Cass had been squeezing the ninjas pretty hard in an attempt to shut down their drug deals, and she could imagine that Laura would inspire a similar fear in thugs.

Her smile widened slightly as she turned to Laura. "Why wait?" And with that, she vaulted over the edge of the rooftop, her torn cape billowing behind her.

[girlverine]

Congratulations, Cassandra, you'd actually managed to surprise Laura. The dark haired girl stared for a second as her brain caught up, and then she was following, tossing herself off the roof after the costumed hero.

She landed on the edge of a fire escape railing halfway towards the ground, dropping into a bunched up crouch and springing forward, using the momentum to slam one of them to the ground with her arm, curling into a roll as she landed behind him and spinning back around as she stood, several feet away.

[batghoul.livejournal.com]

Cass controlled her descent with her cape, and when she was near the ground, vaulted off of the wall and directly at her target. She placed all her momentum into a tackle that sent him tumbling, and she sprung off of him and back onto her feet. Only three opponents hardly seemed fair, really.

[borntobewildcat]

Tom wasn't hunting anyone in particular tonight, but he was definitely looking for a fight. He'd calmed down substantially, but he was still stuck in his werepanther form, still looking for something to sharpen his claws against without feeling guilty. His instincts demanded it, and they wouldn't subside until he tasted blood, even though he was feeling more rational than before.

He moved from rooftop to rooftop, seeing and smelling Laura before he was anywhere near, and he immediately went to her. Hers was a powerful presence, one that he really liked, and was comforting in its own way. Most of all, though, Laura knew where the fights were, and could protect herself from him.

Tom landed silently on the chimney, crouched low and looking from Laura to the criminals, fidgeting in an almost excited way.

"What are you waiting for?"

[girlverine]

Laura could smell Tom approaching, but she didn't move from her perch...if he wanted to find her, his senses were nearly as good as hers. And if she moved, she'd risk being spotted and throwing away hours. She did smile, faintly, when he finally settled on the chimney above her.

Green eyes glanced up for a moment at him, then back to her prey. She could smell the frustration in the furry boy, hear his heart racing with the need for a fight, the excitement. Part of her was suddenly a little worried that he might be too unfocused to actually fight. But it wasn't her place to stop him...and she knew that feeling, a need to get out there and throw yourself into a fight.

"They have only been working for an hour." She answered finally, her voice barely a whisper.

[borntobewildcat]

Tom knew exactly what that meant. He had to wait. Right now, though, he wasn't really in the mood for waiting around and doing nothing, not when he was practically growling at the idea of such a thing. He wanted to tear into them, into anything, but he wasn't going to ruin her hunt because of his renegade instincts.

"Isn't that long enough? How much have they sold?"

[girlverine]

"A few hundred dollars," Laura normally waited longer, but she could tell Tom didn't want to, at all. It wasn't exactly his party, but...well, she didn't want to leave him sitting here when she could actually smell his frustration.

"We do not have to wait." She added, pushing slowly to her feet.

[borntobewildcat]

"Hrm," Tom actually growled a little, leaning move over the edge of his perch, watching the men below. He knew that wasn't much for this kind of thing, but at the same time, he was chomping at the bit to tear into these guys.

"We can find more later. I'll find them all for you."

[girlverine]

Laura considered the furry boy for a moment, her eyes slightly narrowed. She knew what it was like to be in that place, but Laura could take foolish risks because she was almost impossible to kill. Tom wasn't.

"...You will have to be careful." She said finally.

[hellionated]

Julian didn't hunt drug dealers. Not exclusively, anyway. If they happened to be stupid enough to deal where he could see them, he'd take them in. Usually he looked for gangs, groups of thugs who guns around back streets and nightclubs. Sometimes he double-teamed with Raph; tonight he was out alone, but that didn't stop him from wanting to live up to the whole 'hero' deal he'd been playing to since he got here.

Tracking criminal types from the air was his preference since the average City-dwelling criminal didn't have the advantage of flight on their side. But thanks to the neon green glow that accompanied his telekinesis, flying could sometimes draw attention. So he was alternating between rooftops and the street, until eventually he looked for the next roof and saw a familiar figure already on it. He turned into an alley and floated up to the roof, landing at the opposite side to Laura and coming up on her. He wasn't worried she'd attack him; her senses were second to none, so he figured she'd recognize him. It took him a second to identify the group she had her eye on, but he frowned and crouched beside her.

"What's their deal?"

[girlverine]

Laura was used to tracking Julian by the green of his powers, so she almost missed his initial arrival on the roof, noticing the smell a few moments later, and then the familiar combination of scents that was 'Julian.' She shifted faintly as he approached, turning without really moving so her attention was split between him and the figures on the ground.

They'd never really had a chance to do this, back home. Just go and stop someone you knew was bad. Even when they had been going after the mutant haters, it had been breaking rules and with a whole group.

"Dealing." She answered finally, shifting her attention back to the criminals. "Cocaine, mostly."

[hellionated]

Back home, he wouldn't have been able to do this. He'd have been too bound by what he was caught up in, by what rules the X-Men set. That wasn't the case here. He didn't have to wait for anyone's orders here. The whole point of being here was to play hero, according to the Porter. So he didn't see the point in hanging around the sidelines. He'd always hated doing that anyway. He'd rather be taking the fight straight to idiots like this.

Last time he and Laura had fought together, things had been a little different. He'd barely known her then. But he'd learned pretty quick that she wasn't big on hesitating, or holding back.

"What're you waiting for, evidence?"

[girlverine]

"No," Laura wasn't sure how to answer that. She considered the alley below them for a long few silent moments, listening to the two men talk about nothing, and then shifted her gaze back to Julian.

"I usually wait until they've earned more money." She finally explained.

[hellionated]

He looked confused, since that meant she was letting them deal. Which seemed kind of counterproductive to the whole crimestopping nature of this escapade.

And then he gets what she means.

"The drugs aren't what you're after." He didn't entirely agree with that. "If we took them now, we could bag what they're selling before they get the chance."

[girlverine]

"No," she said with a shrug. They weren't, frankly. Laura was a realist. Just because they stopped two people from dealing didn't mean anything, there'd be two more tomorrow. It was the nature of things like that...as long as there was a consumer base, people would sell.

"If you wish to stop them now, we can." She added after a moment.

[trollverine]

It was usually business that brought Daken to the city, but tonight he had come back for the singular thrill of being in the only place on Earth where anyone knew who he was. No other city held that threat, that potential to turn the corner and see Frank Castle through a window or Scott Summers getting out of a cab.

Of course, Scott Summers would never deign to be seen in this part of town. His idle path had taken him to a darker street: a late-night talk show flashed blue through barred windows in place of neon lights; trash and dead leaves mingled in the gutters, and he was-- following something.

It was faint, but it was new; not yet destroyed by the wind. He moved faster, hugging the buildings. It was Laura, he realized, and then he was almost sprinting. What would Laura be doing out here at night? Inevitable answer: something entertaining.

He turned into an alley. Empty now, but she had just been there. She was nearby.

He looked up. A vantage point, maybe. "Oh Laura," he called, spinning around; there had to be a fire escape, "come out, come out, wherever you are."

[girlverine]

Laura noticed the smell a few moments before Dakan began speaking. She was seated on the edge of a roof two alleys over from where she had just tied up a pair of drug dealers and called the police. She'd left their drugs in the trash can next to them and taken their money, which she was counting quietly as she considered whether she was done for the evening.

She stood immediately, stuffing the bills into the pocket of her pants as her green eyes searched around, and she spotted him heading towards a fire escape at the far end of the roof. Dakan.

"...What do you want?" She said, just loud enough to carry towards the ground.

[trollverine]

"No need to be so hostile," Daken replied, pausing to pull himself up the ladder. There were just a few sets of stairs between him and the roof, and he took them casually, unhurried, hands in his pockets. "You and I have no reason to be enemies," he said, stopping when he was a little closer. The metal grate of the top landing was obstructing his view, so he leaned backwards over the railing and smiled up at her. "Anymore."

[girlverine]

His self-assured comments didn't actually make Laura relax anyway, though as he got closed she could smell that he wasn't necessary hyped-up enough to attack. Not that she could actually tell with Daken, his scent was too close to Logan's...and she could never get a very good read on him either.

"The last time I saw you, you tried to kill me and my friends." She said, by way of shooting down that 'no need to be enemies' thing.

[trollverine]

"Yes, I did." He slid off the railing and moved up the last set of stairs, same languid pace. "But the last time I saw you, we destroyed an operation that was experimenting on children. An aspiring Weapon X project," he added, offhand.

That was for the ridiculous conscience she was trying so hard to cling to. No need to mention any of the myriad things he'd done in service of that operation.

"Of course," he stopped on the uppermost landing, "you can believe me or not. There's no one here who'd know it's true." An unapologetic shrug.

[girlverine]

Laura considered that carefully. She knew there were people here from home who were ahead of her on the timeline...a concept she was completely uncomfortable with, frankly. Knowing your own future was something she never wanted to do. But the idea that she'd work with Daken was...unsettling.

"What reason do I have to believe you?"