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Summary: After questioning Shifter about the shootings in Mutant Town, Eris fights and appears to kill the other mutant. Not really dead, Shifter follows the woman and observes her spying on Stark Tower.
Log Title: A Shifty Character
Rating: PG
NYC- Thompson Square Park
Thompson Square Park is a small park in the middle of Mutant Town. The benches might need a fresh coat of paint, the fence might be rusted in places and the pavement is raised and has cracks but it's all part of the mutant haven and fairly relaxing. Trees and grassy areas are in between the many paths, there are a few structures and benches along the path as well as a special area of the park that is marked 'the dog walk'.
It is a bit warmer now that it was two nights ago when the now infamous Mason Concert took place in this park. The area had been taped off for most of yesterday, but it seems that they decided to release the crime scene a few hours ago. There is a woman standing in the park now, bent over a large pile of sand and looking around the park for any clues. Apparently the concert was attacked by a group of shooters, but after a few days of December weather and SHIELD investigation it just looks like a messy patch of park.
Eris stands up and sighs, putting her hands on her hips and tapping her foot in annoyance. She is currently wearing all black, black pants, black boots, and a long black trenchcoat. The woman looks as though she belongs in some sort of sci-fi movie, but that isn't too uncommon among people in this part of town. Eris takes out a camera and starts taking a few photos of the area, glancing around as though expecting someone to show up.
The woman isn't the only mutant on the scene, Shifter heard what happened here and has to have a look at the scene, it's things like this which led to the Morlocks living underground, he's dressed in black sneakers, grey (ripped) jeans, a black and grey hoodie with the hood up (all his clothing is rather dirty and has rips here and there), he has a dark grey and black scarf covering his lower face and is wearing sunglasses, he's standing in the shadows surveying the scene.
Eris continues photographing a few areas of the park before moving on to check out the perimeter of the area. She stops suddenly as she notices someone standing off in the deeper shadows of the park. She squints through the darkness and frowns. Who needs to wear sunglasses when it's this dark out? Assuming the man is suspicious enough to merit questioning, she decides to move toward the man. Her pace is rather quick and her direction is fixed. It is obvious that she is heading straight for Shifter.
Shifter sees the woman approaching him and begins to shift his leg muscles ready to jump away, he doesn't move just yet incase she's just gonna walk past him, hopefully he'll just be ignored as usual.
Eris continues to walk toward the man, interested that he does not seem to react to her approach. She stops about three yards away and just stares at the man. "Is there a reason that you're standing outside of the scene of a mutant attack?" She looks the man up and down. She thinks he looks suspicious, although many others may think she looks rather suspicious herself. Shifter may recognize the woman's face from "Wanted" posters a few months back. This woman is the "Mutant Terrorist" known as "Envy". Her lack of activity led the police to believe that she had fled the city after escaping prison, but she it apparently still here.
Shifter doesn't let the woman get past "Is there a reason…" before he leaps up to the top of the building and hangs from the roof by his tail, hmmm what did she want, she looked kinda odd, he doesn't really pay attention to wanted posters, sadly he can't read.
Eris steps back as the man leaps up to the roof. Another mutant? Well that would explain the odd appearance, but why did he run away from her? She decides this merits further investigation. Eris contemplates attacking the man for a moment before deciding that she'd rather not harm another mutant without fully understanding what his intentions are. The woman walks to the bottom of the building and crouches down to place her hands on the ground. There is a loud cracking noise and a spire of crystal rises up beneath her, elevating her up at a rapid speed so that she is about five feet below Shifter. Eris looks up at him and smirks. "I only want to talk."
Mutant? Shifter shifts the base of his feet to cling to the wall more comfortably, why does she wanna talk to him? He doesn't even know her, taking a deep breath he nods at Eris, he'll listen, he can't promise talking though.
Eris nods as the man seems to be in a listening mood. She points to the side of the building and causes a platform of crystal to grow out of the side of the brick. She steps off of her spire and onto the platform, snapping her fingers and causing the spire to crack and shatter before collapsing to the ground in a pile of dust. "A fellow mutant? I'll assume you aren't associated with the shooting that took place here the other night." She waves a hand dismissively at the field below. "I'll also assume you've heard of it? Otherwise why are you standing here staring out at the scene? What can you tell me?"
Shifter nods, yes he is a fellow mutant and yes he did hear about what happened here, some sort of demonstration against mutants, he shakes his head, there’s nothing he can tell her that she mustn't already know, why is she here anyway?
Eris crosses her arms and taps her foot a little impatiently. "What, don't you know how to talk?" She makes an annoyed expression. "Look buddy, I'm sick of the gun-crazy disgusting human filth rampaging through our city and killing our people. Obviously you're here for some reason. There was a shooting here the other night, they release the crime scene, you and I show up to look at the area. Why are you here? It'd be best to tell me."
Shifter does know how to talk he just finds it hard to and Eris' tone is really not gonna make him put in the extra effort, plus it kinda sounds like she's threatening him, he shifts his hands so his fingers are more bladed, his way of matching the threat.
Eris glances down at the claws and laughs. "What is that? You don't answer my questions and then you extend your claws at me? Sounds to me like you're hiding something." She shakes her head. "And your little claws aren't frightening to me." She holds up her hand to Shifter so that he can see as long blades of crystal grow out of where her fingernails should be.
Shifter frowns, she wants to fight him? Fine lets do things her way, he jumps to the opposite building away from Eris, then shifts his hands fully into two sword-like blades, he's gripping the wall with his tail and the base of his feet.
Eris frowns as the creature jumps to the opposite building and looks up. Crystal platforms jut out of the building she is standing on and form a staircase so that she can reach the roof. Once she reaches the roof she jams the blade of her sword into the roof and holds back her hand, materializing several small crystal stars which she heaves at the creature.
Shifter jumps back and shifts one of his forearms from a blade into a dense shield which he uses to deflect the stars, he then charges at Eris with his bladed arm, he's aiming to more freak her out than actually hurt her.
Eris smirks as the stars deflect from the creature's arm. As he prepares to charge her she simply crosses her arms, making no motion to pick up her sword or to dodge the attack. The roof makes a cracking noise and a wall of diamond shoots up from the ground in front of the woman, forming a shield against the attack. "Interesting ability." She decides at this point to pick up her sword again.
Shifter eyes the wall and just stops, she's gotta take down that wall when she attacks next, she thinks his ability is interesting she hasn't seen the half of it, he shifts the bladed arm back into claws.
The wall in front of Eris cracks and breaks apart. The woman charges forward toward Shifter, swinging her massive sword down over her head toward the creature. She she moves toward him a second crystal wall appears to be growing up behind him.
Shifter jumps backwards trying to evade the slash but hits the wall behind him, he jumps up and grabs the top of the wall and lets himself be pulled up with it as it grows, the beginings of a plan forming in his mind.
Eris lands where Shifter was standing and reaches out to flick the wall, causing it to crack horizontally about three feet off the ground. The top half of the wall shatters as the bottom reconfigures into a series of spikes. "If you tell me why you're here I'll let you keep your life." She looks up at Shifter as the wall he is clinging to begins to break apart and raises her sword toward him again.
As the wall shatters, Shifter shifts his organs ever so slightly to the side and lets himself fall onto Eris' sword, he's seen how people getting stabbed looks like on TV so he bites his tongue and lets some blood dribble out of his mouth.
Eris actually looks shocked by this. "Idiot!" The sword actually cleaves in half, leaving her holding the hilt and lower section of the blade. The woman backs up slightly from the creature, looking at him with mild concern. She hadn't actually intended to cause him a fatal wound, which is what this seems to her. "Why would a fellow superior rather die than help destroy those who would kill us?"
Shifter almost grins, people assume he's stupid because of how hard it is for him to talk and his inability to read or write, but that would give the game away, he pulls the blade out and falls to the floor, he shifts to close the wound, puts his organs back in place and does his best to look dead.
Eris shakes her head and drops the hilt of her blade. The remaining crystal constructs on the roof seem to sink back into the roof. She closes her eyes for a moment as she reconfigures the minerals she pulled out of the building, replacing them where she took them from to keep the building structurally sound. After a few frightening cracks and groans from the building it seems that she is finished. Eris walks over to the mutant and frowns at him. "What a waste." She bends down and pats the creature, looking for a wallet or anything else that may give her some information.
Shifter tries not to move as Eris starts searching him, but he is still breathing, there’s not a whole lot he can do about that, he's just gotta hope that Eris doesn't notice, she won't find a wallet or anything that can identify him.
Eris sighs as she fails to find anything of use on the creature. She appears not to notice that he is still breathing, and seems not to be too terribly torn up about killing him. Sighing, the woman shakes her head again. "Oh well, might as well make the best out of this situation, eh?" Is she talking to a corpse? It would appear so. The woman reaches into her coat and pulls out a large permanent marker. She bends down and scribes "DIE MUTANTS!" across Shifter's forehead. The woman stands, nods, and begins to walk away. If she can use his "death" to spur anti-human sentiment, then at least he won't go completely to waste.
Shifter opens his eyes and grins as Eris walks away, he pushes himself to his feet and watches her walk off, the marker on his head is annoying but it'll come off with a good scrub, where he’s gonna find a place for that he doesn't know, hmmm maybe this woman warrants following.
Eris walks to the edge of the roof and walks down her crystal staircase. The steps jut out of the side of the building in front of her and recede into the building behind her. Once she reaches the ground she glances around quickly and ducks into a nearby alley. That park had a lot less information than she had hoped.
Shifter follows behind Eris by crawling along the walls and leaping into the next alley, still wondering what it was she wrote on his head, all he really knows for sure is this woman is dangerous and he's gonna find out what she's up to.
Eris continues to move in an unpredictable pattern, seeming to double back in a few places and walking through buildings to come out side doors and back doors. At one point she goes underground into a subway area and comes back up with a black duffel bag. After a while the woman wanders over to a building and takes the stairs to the roof. Once their she opens her duffel bag and sets up a telescoping camera. She aims it at one of the buildings and begins writing things into a notebook. It would appear that she is taking notes on the goings-on in Stark Tower.
Shifter continues to follow Eris and almost loses her a couple of times, man this woman is weird, her movements seem completely erratic, when they finally reach the rooftop things seem weirder, why's she watching Stark Tower?, he gets closer in an attempt to see what she's doing better.
Eris stays on the roof for several hours, moving her camera from one floor to another to another. It looks almost as though she is following the movements of a person or group of people. She takes notes on her notepad and then pulls a touch screen computer pad out of the duffel bag. She makes a few notes on it and packs everything back into the duffel bag. Eris glances around once more but appears not to notice anyone here. She takes the duffel bag with her and heads back down the stairs. She takes the duffel bag back into the subway tunnel and jumps down onto the tracks when no one is looking. She stashes the bag in an alcove under the platform and goes back above ground.
Shifter actually falls asleep for a while due to how long Eris is on the rooftop for, man what could possibly be so interesting about Stark tower that Eris could spend so long taking pictures, maybe she's a reporter or something, he doesn't follow Eris into the subway due to how hard it is to avoid people down there, so he doesn't see where she puts the bag.
After exiting the subway Eris continues to weave through the city for some time. After about a half an hour she comes to a motorcycle and climbs on. The woman starts up the cycle and takes off toward the East.
After following Eris for another half hour Shifter finally loses her when she gets on the motorbike, it's gonna be to difficult to keep up with her now and stay hidden, instead he goes to find somewhere to wash his head.
~ Fin ~
