basic_powers | Seattle Summer Showoff

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Seattle Summer Showoff

As they exist from the narrow door of the linen closet for his apartment, Dinah will see two doors down the hallway to her left. One has a biohazard sign hanging from it, and the other is part-way open, enough that one can see the window and bed inside. There's a couple of photos hanging from the wall, one of Beauford and a blonde young woman laughing with the lights of a carnival in the twilight background, and one with Beauford and a reddish-brown haired man in a repurposed tan flightsuit, grinning in front of a college graduation ceremony.

To her right, she'll see that Beauford was infact not exaggerating at all about the shoebox size of his apartment's kitchen, as there is only a tiny island seperating it from the small living room. There's a well-used black futon and coffee table with a little black laptop on top of magazines and comic books. Against the wall there's a shelf with a flatscreen tv, several videogame consoles and a dvd/bluray player. Light filters through the curtain outside and Dinah can likely see the door out of the apartment with three bicycles hanging from hooks beside it on the wall, and pannier bags for the bikes hung with coats and hats from the coat rack.

It doesn't take much guessing to figure out that the blue and gunmetal bike is Beauford's from the homemade welds and adjustments given to it.

"Welcome to my humble bachelor pad...I'd give you the tour but this is pretty much it."

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Decisions like this are what make being a leader really suck. Time freezes for 84 as her thoughts race. So many ways to do this... She starts to worry about what to do but then that old voice speaks up in her head. Be the person people need not the person you worry people want.

"I'd rather not," she says out loud, all banter gone. "Is it too hurt to be saved? Any signs of sentience? And where the hell did this come from?"

Too many 'if's! But if it comes to the city or this creature, well the answer's much easier then.

Dinah pulls the sweatshirt on, tucking her hair in at the neck but not putting the hood up quite yet, as she stands by Beauford and looks up.

And then she grins. For a second, because she'd figured out what he's looking at.

"No containment," she remarks, using casual tone that's just a touch above a mutter to herself. "It's all offensive, no grapple. They're going to have to kill it, aren't they?"

The Justice League would have...

...wait, is she turning into her mother?

"They're new to being a team...to goals...84's new to being the leader. Give her a moment." Beauford answers quietly, almost a little bit defensive.

...Dinah can probably recall why.

"I'd say it came from the ocean, and not too long ago, judging by how it's still wet!" Hat Trick calls as the joint she's accidentally gotten stuck in tries to either spit her out or suck her in. Befores she adds on the blue tooth. "...let's see if we can't convince this guy to get back into the water? Maybe carry it there, gimme a sec and I can restrain those claws!"

"...for how long, love?"

"...forty five minutes," Hat Trick replies, squirming out of the tail covered in ichor and black ink.

"If this guy is sentient, he is already in a lot of pain and probably pissed the hell off at all of this." Uplink adds as Steel Sentinel's helmet gets an image display of where the five transmitting devices are. "I know gentle isn't your strong point, but let's go for glancing blows at these transmitters."

"Hey, I can do love taps," Sentinel replies taking aim and readying a spread across three different spots.

84 notes those same spots and the others (thanks to a certain over ride the helpful friend who built these masks included in her leader unit) and dives for some love taps of her own on the final two nodes. "If we can knock it out, we'll get it back home!"

Alterity for his part starts working defense, knocking tentacles away from Sentinel before they can get a grip.

Dinah instantly picks up on the defensiveness and shuts the hell up, watching with one hand at her throat and the necklace hanging there. Which just happens to be where her JLA signal device is hidden.

On her own world, she'd have Arthur calling the shots here.

She's on the balls of her feet, up to the occasions when she realises this and forces her heels down, only to have them pop back up again whan she watches the fight.

This is killing her.

It's killing him too, but for entirely different reasons.

"...come on....come on...you can do it..." Beauford murmurs under his breath, hands clenched at his sides. "I've seen you lift battleships with less effort..."

As the five hits crack and disrupt the transmitters, Godzilla Octolobster shakes wildly, lashing out at one unfortunate building with his tail, giving it a whack strong enough to shatter several windows. The tentacle claws are another problem, as they aren't moving with a purpose, they're just flailing wildly, and two of them score lucky hits on Hat Trick and Crusade. The eagle-winged man recovers quickly, while the young woman bounces off the side of a brick wall and crashes into the asphalt of the street, leaving some dents in both before standing back up again.

"Ooogh." There is an audible wince over the frequency from Uplink's side. "Hat Trick, you alright?"

"Been better. Let's rubber band those things, alright?"

Nonononononono! Scream 84's panicked thoughts as she sees her team mates hit and the shattered glass fall towards the street. Remember that blue blur from before? Now it's a blue streak as she races to catch the glass before it shatters and sprays the crowd in shrapnel.

Sentinel keeps blasting hoping to drive the creature back while Alterity runs to deflect falling glass as well.

As 84 flies, doubts and worries fade like fog and she's solely in the moment. Glass taken care of, she turns to the monster with a determined look. She flies straight at it but the thing seems to have guessed her intent as it...well sits on her.

The crowd gasps in shock and her team mates freeze but then the creature starts to wobble and nearly falls over as it slowly rises off the ground.

"A little help here?" Lifting a giant monster that's shifting all over the place is harder than you'd think.

Dinah looks down, one hand covering her mouth to hide a laugh. It's not a cruel laugh by any means, more a symathetic one.

"Happened to John once," she says, figuring pronuonciation is close enough that he'll know who she means.

"....having a monster sit on him, or getting smacked like a tennisball?" Beauford asks, wincing as Hat Trick gets picked up by Crusade again and carried around the tentacles.

"Okay, just tell me what you want me to do, 84." Hat Trick replies into her headset as Crusade flies her over. "You still want me to play rubber band on the tentacles?"

"If you're still up for it," 84 manages through clenched teeth. "Keeping those things from any more property damage would be good. Or if you could make this lighter?"

"Sentinel, try and blast any that she misses or get free. Then maybe help with clean up, I'll be back for you. Alterity, Uplink, clear a path for me to the harbor. Warn Police and the Coast Guard. Also, Uplink try and get as good a picture of those controllers as you can. Some one is going to pay for this."

Carefully, the group begins the laborious flight to Elliot Bay and beyond to Puget Sound.

Hands in pockets, Dinah watches, letting the crowd following the team pass them and move on.

"Both," she says. "You want to follow and catch the aftermath?"

"I'll grab em, and then i'll see what else I got that could help." Hat Trick replies as Crusade swings her out....really out like a long line of silly putty to wrap around one claw and hold it shut, and then around to the other tentacles. Soon enough, Hat Trick has wrapped most of the tentacles...but sadly can't grab anymore, so it's the next best thing and chanting out a spell to make Godzilla Octolobster here weigh half as much as he did before.

"...I'd really like to but..." Beauford looks torn for a moment, as the group gains speed, passing out of sight behind a few buildings. "If we go after them, there's a greater chance of you being found out."

And without any sort of identification in this world beyond a few fake ids...which are great and might hold up to Uplink's scrutiny, but not her level of curiousity.

"...we'd better go. Unless you want to say hi to the group, and spend an hour answering questions."

"I don't mind answering questions," Dinah says, "but I don't want to get you into trouble."

Because let's face it, Dinah has nothing to hide from fellow heroes. In this world, the Bar is not her secret to keep.

"...let's stick to the story you thought up for if you'd meet Julie." He says after a moment of deliberation. "You're here visiting a friend of a family friend, who's showing you around Seattle while you....make up your mind if you want to start over with college here or not."

"And that little helping hand?" Dinah asks, then shrugs. "I'll anser that if they noticed."

No point making things more complicated. She jerks her head towards the sea. "Introduce me."

....Craaap, she's not going to let him hang back and hide out is she? Beauford looks...well anxious about the entire deal before nodding.

"...introduce you to the team?" He asks, innocently enough, looking at the buildings before taking a different route than the rest of the foot traffic. "Or to Puget Sound?"

"Whichever you prefer," Dinah says. "Really, we don't have to if it'll be awkward. But you obviously want to check on," her "them."

"And you obviously want to meet them and chat them up on technique." Beauford replies, surging down a narrow alleyway.

"Try to keep up!"

It's parkour time again, and the only way they'll get close enough to see how it ends for Octolobstrosity in time.

Try, huh?

Dinah rolls her eyes and runs after him, rapidly drawing close to his heels. She even overtakes him on the first vault, and for a few seconds she's running ahead of him.

And it's for those first few seconds that Beauford makes the most of technology and his cellphone to text someone a quick message.

84J: W/COUSIN AT SITE OF LOBSTER, CUZN WANT 2 MEET'N'GREET. WE R INCOMING. I WILL EXPLAIN L8R. XOXO -BFRD

Then he's making the big push past Dinah because WHO here is the native of Seattle, hunh? Don't outrun your tour guide, you might've missed that turn up ahead.

It's 15 minutes of hard parkour later that they arrive at a beach walk in time to see 84 finally out over open waters with the lobster.

Edited 2011-08-04 02:08 (UTC)

"Tell the Aquarium they'll have to rely on camera footage and anything you want to share with them Uplink. There is no way I'm keeping this thing here long enough for them to get here. Did you place the tracker on it? Okay then, back up everyone," 84 is saying out loud and once the team gets clear she'll spin in an arc (like any good discus thrower) and throw the creature out to sea.

"Sure thing, they can go throw screaming hissy fits all they want, I don't blame you for holding onto that thing..." Uplink replies, "Oh...and I'm forwarding something that just came in on that encrypted number you think I don't know about."

Hat Trick, now clinging onto Crusade's back as he sweeps over back towards the shore, speaks tiredly. "...our adoring public awaits."

"It'll only last a few minutes." He tries to assure her. "And then straight back to home for both of us."

"Mhmm...my sweet comfort eagle."

"...and the award for schmoopiest conversation over the open comm lines goes to..."

"Uplink, I know where you sleep, and I keep a bowl of cold butterscotch pudding just for you." Hat Trick warns softly, though with a small smile.

"Comment withdrawn, Steel Sentinel and Alterity are already there waiting for us."

"Rrrghg," 84 says as she throws the creature as far as she can into the
ocean (careful to avoid any shipping lanes).

"I saw it Uplink thanks," she says with a wry grin once she catches her
breath and turns to fly back to the wharf. "And keeping the fans happy is
what keeps us in business guys. Hat Trick, thank you for your help. Are you
going to be okay?"

"...I've been worse than this, some food, an herbal soak in the enchanted bathtub, and some sleep and I won't even remember if I got hurt today." Hat Trick replied. "Don't worry about me, I took worse hits during my solo act in Ohio. I can stand up, smile and make nice for a half hour, I'll be fine."

She pointedly ignored the snort that came from Crusade at that last comment, and leaned with him as he banked to land at the end of the wharf for the gathering crowd.

Dinah slowed and stopped as they got to the wharf, hanging back as she waits for Beauford to take the lead.

And waits.

And finally elbows him in the arm. Go.

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