Players:
Summary: A loud appearance of three teenagers. A thief. A lawyer. Put it all together.
Date: January 26, 2010
From Nowhere
Rating: PG
NYC - Chinatown
The hustle and bustle of Chinatown. Here the streets are always crowded, the traffic is always jammed and street vendors are everywhere. Chinese restaurants and Chinese bakeries litter the streets along with various small shops selling everything from swords to bowls to plastic toys. If your looking for bootlegged purses, movies, toys, anything, you can find it in Chinatown at low costs.
Crowded streets? Even later in the evening? Now that's just the ripe pickings for the filthy little mutant named Scout as pushes her way through the masses in Chinatown. It's the type of place with enough unique smells coming from all the restaurants and bakeries that most people hardly notice the stench coming off her never been washed clothes that consist of two torn black hooded sweat jackets and a tight pair of black jeans. Though hardly and most does not consist of everyone, which would explain many of the dirty stares and glares the little teen has been receiving so far. Obviously pickpocketing might not be the best of ideas right now, but there are many other reason for her to end up in this part of town and stealing a new knife is topping the list. There is still that horrible feeling of separation anxiety ever since she let her favorite be taken away from her.
Across the street from where Scout is there's a weird sort of noise as a blueish glow lights up the sky momentarily. In that moment a portal seems to open up about 15 feet off the ground and out falls a girl, slaming right onto the top of a delivery truck. There a mix of a loud bang of human on steel along with the sound of a bone snaping as she slides off the top of the truck and lands on the pavement looking quite worse for the wear.
Time is mutable. That's one thing that Shiro read. Or did he? He can't remember. The phrase has slipped from his mind. But then, he's slipped from his time. With an eruption of energy he appears, kneeling, right where a street vendor's stand is. Well, where part of the stand was. It's already vanished. His eyes open and he looks about, suddenly. Cute, boyish, slender, but with odd markings in various places on his visible body. Scars here and there. And a tattoo on his wrist. At least, it's visible for the moment. Within seconds, he dashes to a nearby building, planting himself against it. His skin and clothing suddenly shift, appearing for all intents and purposes, to be just like the wall behind him.
With another flash of light, another person appears. Najji hits the ground and takes a deep breath, pretty sure that he left his stomach back …there. Where? His expression is confused and nauseous as his senses tell him that the whole world changed at once. He stands, slowly, trying not to retch. Also young, but muscular rather than slender, he seems to rock back and forth on his feet a second, literally getting his balance. And then, seeing the girl who appeared before him, he moves closer to her, perhaps by instinct. He doesn't check on her, though, just stands over the prone form, giving the crowd an intent and focused look. Not quite hostile but definitely giving the impression that he's aware and alert. He glances down and back up quickly. "Functional?"
If there's one good thing about having hell, literally, take over New York, is that one can wear some good summer clothes out in the middle of winter, and taking advantage of this is She-Hulk. Right now she's wearing a light summer dress, a cool wide brimmed hat and some sunglasses, all a certain trademarked shade of purple and white that contrasts with her green skin. She's here to relax a bit and maybe get some good dim sum, since, for whatever reason, the rampaging demons don't rampage as much around Chinatown. And then she finds herself walking down the sidewalk, and witnessing three people appear out of thin air. "Well," she says to herself. "this can't possibly be good.
Scout doesn't exactly see the portal for it's full glory, but the blue lit sky causes a blue tint to those on the street, and that does catch her attention. That and the girl falling out of the sky. Who could pass up that opportunity? She's basically a wallet just laying there to be picked! And considering how dangerous it has been to rob people with demons running around everywhere, this is an opportunity she does not want to miss. Or does she? Gaining only a couple steps from her initial spot, she can't help but be blinded by two more strange flashes of light, a teenage looking male emerging for both of them, the first now standing somewhat protectively over the mess in the street. Damn. Moving towards the curb where the sidewalk meets the street, the little Latina sits down wrapping her arms around her knees, disappointed once again.
Quintessa stands up and winces, cracking bones into place as the cuts on her heal rapidly. She stretches, and pushes back the mass of blue hair out of her face. She's dressed in a pair of black pants and a sleevles black shirt with a duel set of sholder holsters, each holding a gun, and extra ammuntion on her belt. Like Shrio and Najji, she has on a set of dog tags and a tattoo on her wrist. Quintessa has no clue where she his and one of her hands starts to move towards one of her guns.
Shiro is still against the wall, but creeping down. Though, he's somewhat hard to make out and impossible to hear… at least until he does speak. It's not loud at all, 'perfectly fine' comes from the location where he is, still the same texture and appearance as the wall, though moving down to get nearer to the other two teenagers. He glances over the other two and judges them to be just fine. Tes can take a beating, after all.
Najji shakes his head at Quintessa. "Negative. Not battlefield conditions. Yet. Suggest retreat, secure staging grounds, proceed with mission from there." Scout gets a glare as she takes those couple of steps and a faintly orange sheath of energy appears around Najji, following the lines of his body and clothes, no more than a millimeter out from them. He waggles a finger at Scout. "Bad native. Stand down." He's still scanning the crowd as he speaks, obviously looking for a threat.
Jennifer scowls when she spies the girl packing heat. Looking around, and making sure that the nobody's raised too much of a commotion over this just yet she hustles to the girl's location, muttering apologies to the people that she has to push out of her way. "Hi, excuse me, sorry, pardon me, coming through!" Then to the girl herself she addresses with a smile. "Hi, I'm sorry for intruding, but people don't fall out of the sky every day around here. May I ask why you're in New York?"
"Bad… what? I'm not even standing!" Scout says, looking up at Najji while her head cocks to the side, giving her an overall appearance of a perplexed dog. Her eyes widen once she catches sight of the faint orange beginning to appear around the kid now talking to her. She doesn't like it when strangers wag their finger at her. In fact, she hates it even more when friends do! So her confusion is quick to turn to anger as her face epitomizes the definition of a scowl. She keeps her eyes locked with the orange kids, concentrating just enough to pull all the shadows in her near vicinity towards the spot she's still sitting at. Like long andboney fingers, they begin to crawling their way towards her, stretching and pulling from behind food carts, street signs and fire-hydrants; all converging to the center which is Scout.
Quintessa still has an itchy hand as she doesn't know where she is, who she is, or how she got here. "New York? What's a New York?" Asks the blue-haired girl. Her hands do move from her guns as she recieves the order from Najji and looks over at him. "What's the retreat point?" She asks almost confused as she looks between her brothers and the large green woman. "Give me an order!" She says not sure what to do.
"Recon. Explore. Find out." Then when asked, Shiro looks up at the green woman. He steps away from the wall, and his skin and clothes fade back to normal. "Mission objectives: locate #3ARMS. Locate…" He stops himself. He closes his eyes for a moment before he opens them again, a spark of… something in his eye. "Find our brother." His voice is exceptionally soft, even though it looks as though he's shouting to be heard.
Najji watches the rather tall green woman approach and then sees the shadows start to move. "/Now/ battlefield conditions." He crouches slightly and two long rods of the same orange light slide out from the field. From the length and diameter, they are probably escrima sticks or something close to them. He nods at Quintessa's words and then when Shiro gives them parameters to work with, he actually seems to become marginally more relaxed. Still glowing and holding weapons, though. He nods. "Find our brother. Report to …." He frowns. He takes a step to the side until he is between both siblings and the locals. "Initiate combat?" He's obviously asking Shiro, since he seems to be the one who knows.
Jennifer's eyes flick between Shiro, Najji and Scout. "No!" she answers Najji her voice loud and authoritative before Shiro can. "Stand down, soldier!" Yeah, her father was military, so she knows how to play the game. (Okay. He was a cop. Military enough.) "There are too many civilians present to 'initiate combat,'" she explains as she all but storms up to Scout. "Whatever it is you're doing, you better cut it out. There's enough problems with demons running around on the streets as it is."
Scout is quick to jump to her feet, causing every shadow in the area to return to exactly how they were just seconds before. "Whoa Lady! I'm cool!" She explains loudly, throwing her hands up in the air in a sign of non-aggression before taking a couple steps to her side, trying to keep her sight on the kid now holding onto orange weapons. "What about him?" Point in his direction, and like an upset child feeling like they're wrongfully being the only one blamed, she bitches. "He's holding onto some weird ass sticks." Her finger is quick to point to the blue haired girl. "And her! She's packing heat! And in broad daylight! We weren't doing anything?"
Quintessa moves a hand on one of her guns but doesn't draw it. Instead she just looks around, not sure what to do. "WHERE ARE WE?!" She yells out kind of histerical, she's was never known to be the brains of the bunch. She then looks at She-Hulk and points a finger. "You. Where's our brother. He's here somewhere. You stole him." Well that's one way to locate, ask questions.
"She's obviously intelligence here. Stand down. Nonthreatening." Shiro says, in his loudest voice. And his loudest voice, unfortunately, is barely above a standard speaking voice. That's one of the downfalls of his abilities. "Our brother was brought here. This is the closest place we could get to his location." he doesn't mention time. After all, who knows about time travel? "#3ARMS. May go by the name Three." He says, trying to be heard above the din. But it just doesn't work out that well.
Najji gives the natives another dubious look but he responds to Shiro's command, though Jennifer gets a careful inspection as though he's trying to figure her out. The rods vanish and the glow fades away. He straightens, standing loose but obviously ready and lets the other two do the talking. Not his function.
By now, the five of them are getting a lot of looks from the locals, especially when one of the time travelers powers up and another starts shouting. Hoping to avoid an incident she repeats Shiro, "Three. That's an unusual name around here. Let's go somewhere where we won't attract the attention of the local authorities or demons and see if we can't sort a few things out." Quintessa's accusation only earns her a dissapproving look from the green giantess.
"Three you say?" The filthy teen repeats as she sees a potential opportunity at a new scam. And why not? They seem more lost than those usually lost around New York. "I may know of this Three and his where abouts." She's flat out lying, trying her hardest to conceal the fact. Then a couple foot steps fall and Scout is just that much closer to the three strange teens, a new spring easily detected in her movement. "I may be inclined to tell you, but you know how it works - I scratch your back and you scratch mine." Showing a toothy grin, she moves her focus to Shiro, the one that seems to be in charge. "So what do you say?"
Quintessa moves her hands away from her weapons and walks over to Najji, standing partly behind him. She doesn't even remember her own name right now but the name Three she knows that. Tes just looks to Shiro and waits for a command, once she knows what to do, she'll be fine. She's been trained to take orders, not give them or take the lead.
"Of course. Less obtrusive." Shiro says with a firm nod. He knows ALL about NOT causing a stir, after all. "Suggestions for locale? We do not know this area at all." Hearing Scout make her offer, he tilts his head, considering. "What does he look like?" He asks, looking at her from the tilted head. He has the type of stare that some call penetrating. As if he's trying to learn just by watching. AFter all, these are his other brother and sister. And really, they don't look that closely alike.
Najji gives Scout another disapproving look, shifting his weight subtly as she comes closer. His expression is cool and appraising, as though he's considering exactly where and how to hit her if it becomes necessary. He pipes up, still watching her, when locales are mentioned. "Cover. All four sides. View. Roof preferred. Parking garage optimal for security and random directional exfiltration."
"I know a place," She-Hulk says helpfully, "That's right around the corner. They know me so as long as we don't go about destroying things" and for some reason she directs this at Scout "we won't be disturbed." If the others are willing to follow her, she leads them all to a rather cozy, hole in the wall kind of dim sum restaurant. "I hope you're hungry."
Scout pauses, knowing all too well to have expected such a question. "Oh, you know what he looks like. About yea tall." Using a wobbly hand to implicate the height as she stands on tip-toes, which makes it really hard to tell exactly where she is trying to indicate, the little teen continues. "He's got…." She looks around at the three completely different looking teens. "…errr…lighter hair and blue eyes. Yeah, definitely blue eyes." She bites down onto her bottom lip, thinking hard before getting a rather harsh warning directed towards her. "Fine… whatever…" She begins to walk away, shoulders slumped down and acting the defeatist. "I don't give a shit if you find this Three or not…" She mutters, loud enough for all to hear but mostly for herself.
Quintessa stands back to back with Najji and watches his back, covering what sides she can, until Scout starts talking and she ends up pulling a gun on her. "He has purple eyes." How did she remember that if she can't even remember her own name. As Scout walks away, she puts her gun away and looks at She-Hulk. "Are we going with the green woman?" She doesn't mean it as an insult, just an observation.
"It's alright, 5… Q… Quintessa." Shiro says, very softly. He gasps as he suddenly remembers her name. "She was simply trying to help." But then, Shiro's a little sneaky and may recognize some of himself in Scout. He looks at the girl and smiles before following behind Jennifer. "Yes. The Green Woman. She seems to be authority of some type. People look up to her." Well, that and she's HOW tall? Not that Shiro's noticed.
Najji frowns and says, "She's probably a mutant." Why /that/ is important, he doesn't know. But it is. And not exactly points in She-Hulk's favor. "Eating local food is bad. We have ration bars in our… packs?" Well, if they /had/ packs. He frowns and shrugs. Falling in behind the others and glaring at anybody who looks like they might even be thinking of getting in the little parade's way.
The restaurant itself is, for the most part, empty save for the quintet that just arrived (if Scout decides to stick around). She-Hulk speaks to the proprietor in low tones, and the elderly aisian man nods and makes shooing motions to the only other patron yelling at him, "Restaurant closed! You go now! Food on house! Out, out, out!" The man looks as if he's about to protest, but once he sees She-Hulk and her companion he takes a few quick last bites before hurrying out the door. The proprietor then closes, locks the dooor, and flips the open sign to closed. As for She-Hulk herself, she doesn't seem to mind being called green. Or woman. She is, after all, very much both. She smiles pleasantly to the three and says, "My name is She-Hulk, and, yes, I have a bit of authority around here when it comes to things unsual like you three." To Najji she shakes her head, "And I'm not a mutant, actually," she explains as she finds a big enough table and sits down at it, setting her purse off to the side and taking of setting her purse off to the side and taking off her sunglasses. "Please. Sit down, and tell me a bit about yourselves and Three."
Scout would have followed them to the restaurant. A full meal would have been great. What is she thinking - it would have been more than great! But she can't help but feel an overwhelming sense of being out numbered, knowing all too well that good behavior and Scout do not go hand in hand. They don't quite separate like water and oil, but turn more hazardous like mixing gasoline andstyrofoam. So off she continues, wandering down the street, hoping to find some poor sap that is just right for the pocket pickings.
Quintessa follows behind and looks at the dog tags around her neck. "That's what it says here, Quintessa." She says looking at the oval piece of metal. "Quintessa. Quin. Tessa. #5ARMS…Quintessa." She repeats the name a few times to see if it rings any bells, and it just seems familar but she doesn't know why. "Three..he's our brother. #3ARMS." She remembers that more clearly than her name.
Once they arrive, Shiro sits himself a little bit further away from the group. "No offense. My body produces a natural sound dampener." He says, as usual, quietly. "#4ARMS. Shiro." Funny. He doesn't look like he would have a Japanese name, but hey. "We tracked our brother to this wh… place. Roughly. And we need to find him. We want to make sure he's fine."
Najji blinks as She-Hulk states that she isn't a mutant. He turns towards his siblings and knowing they have advanced hearing, barely breathes, "Designation: She-Hulk. No military identification visible. Classification: Unknown. Suggest maximum force strike and retreat if situation becomes hostile." His nose twitches at the smells coming from the kitchen. "Also, reassessing warning about local food." He looks at his own dog tags and says, in a conversational tone, "#2ARMS. Najji." Lord only knows where his name comes from. He nods, "Recovery of #3 is primary mission."
Once everybody is seated, glasses of water is placed in front of everybody (whether they wanted them or not.) She nods at Shiro "As long as that's what you're here for, and as long as #3… Three… is willing to go, I'll be able to help." She takes a sip of water before asking, "So, where are you from? Different dimension? Planet? Time?"
Quintessa takes the glass of water and sniffs it, making a face at smell. It doesn't smell right but then they do add a bunch of minerals in water and the pipes that it goes through. "I…I don't know where we're from. Just that we need #3 back. We work better with him."
It takes a few minutes for Shiro to figure out a wording to the question. "Where: Unknown. We were never given geographical knowledge. When: Unknown. But we do know it was… another when. I… I had to build… rebuild…" He looks confused. "What did I rebuild?" He asks, looking at Najji, confused.
Najji frowns and says, "Transport. Non-tactical. Mutant-tech. Contraband." He shrugs, not knowing more than that. Apparently, for him, those things that are within and outside of the rules are what trigger memories and associations. He nods at Quintessa. "We're a unit. We should be together for maximum efficiency. Also, I can't fulfill my function if #3 ARMS is MIA."
Jennifer scowls in thought as Shiro answers her questions both directly and indirectly. "I see. The transport must have done a number on your memories. How much do you recall about your brother?" As she's speaking a large plate with a wide variety of steamed buns and other goodies gets placed before them with just a wide variety of sauces. With a nod of appreciation, She-Hulk takes a couple of the buns from the large, communal plate and places it on a smaller one that was placed before her.
Quintessa lies her head down on the table and yawns. "He's #3." That's what Quintessa remembers about him, she doesn't even remember his powers. "He has purple eyes." She closes her eyes trying to remember more but ends up falling asleep. It seems the time travel took a lot of energy out of the youngest ARMS.
"Unfortunately… we only met him about a year or two ago." Shiro says with a shake of his head. "We were raised apart. But I can't remember … Crowds. That's all I can remember." He says, relaxing into his seat. His skin and clothing suddenly begins to take on the color and texture of the seat behind him.
Najji frowns and says, "I just remember he's lost. And maybe injured. We need to recover him and report." He frowns, knowing he should know to whom they need to report but he just can't find it.
Jennifer scowls as she munches on some Dim Sum. "Purple eyes, memory loss, and from another time," she muses. "That's not a lot to go on." She tilts her head curiously. "By the way, what does ARMS stand for?"
There's a deep yawn from Shiro as well. "Advanced Recon and Military Specialists." He says with a nod. The food smells amazing so he does keep himself awake enough to get something else to eat. But he's fading quickly. Hopefully Najji can keep him awake and carry Tes if need be.
Najji sighs and gives the food a regretful look. Sometimes being the designated protector sucks. He pushes the plate away. "Need to establish tactical safe house. ASAP. Units are fatigued from transit." He, of course, is totally immune. And it's the room swaying a little not him. The past must be unstable. He gives Jennifer a long look and then decides, perhaps based on the orders she was barking before. "Designation: She-Hulk. Can you help me get them someplace safe?"
"Mutants," She-Hulk muses thoughtfully popping another bun into her mouth. "I know some people who know how to find mutants. They're mutants themselves." Looks like it's time to make a trip over to Xavier's. At Najji's request she nods. "I can," she says as the store's owner comes out with another heaping plateful of food. "Can I get all this in a box?" With a nod the owner disappears and reappears with several boxes in which he stuffs all the food, and places it all into a giant plastic bag. "Thanks," she says. She picks up her purse with one hand, and with the other she gently picks up the sleeping Tes and holds her like she would a small child, effortlessly. "Follow me. I'll get you a good hotel room."
Najji actually tenses when She-Hulk picks up Tess. He gives off an impression almost like a guard dog seeing a stranger around a child he's tasked to protect. After a moment, he takes a deep breath and nods. And then, "Thank you. I am in your debt." Not 'We'. He won't speak for the group. But he will obligate himself as far as his duty allows. And then, smiling faintly. "Not a mutant?" He arches an eyebrow, indicating the easy way she is hauling Tess as he props up Shiro. "Interesting place." Perhaps indicating the past in general.
