Mutants & Masterminds: The Indigo Children - Prologue: Observation 01

[Ramani]

Originally Posted By: Cole Mulvaney

As they run, Cole starts to relax, his claws sliding back into his fingertips. He quickly turns to Ramani on the round and inspects her wound. It doesn't look real bad, but for tonight their excursion is definitely over. He gently lifts her up in his armsnuzzling her neck softly. "Come on Ramani we need to get home and get that treated."

As soon as Ramani had shaken off the dizzyness she started to protest, half snarling at him. As she spoke her voice sounded very gutteral and she spoke with a strange accent. "Put me down! They are running away!"

She struggled to get free completely ignoring the girl and the Bat-Man.

[Cole Mulvaney]

He sets her down, but his grip on her arm intensifies. "You've done enough tonight Ramani!" His voice is sharp and his fur bristles. He looks her in the eyes. We need to leave now before the police arrive. The damage is already done."

His tail seems to flick in the direction of the dead man. "There will be other hunts. Now. Lets. Go. Home." There's a authorative air in his voice... Tiger's don't run in packs, and normally he would defer to her instincts on the hunt, but The police had been called, making this a more human matter, which was very much more his purview.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny eased away from the arguing tigers. It seemed to be a bad idea to get anywhere near the talking animals when they were snarling and growling. But he did call Penny's attention to the hurt man. Skirting all of the animals, she bent down and checked his pulse. His skin was still, far too still, and Penny swallowed as she pulled her hand back. It was stained red, and she rubbed it on the grass, attempting to clean it.

"You killed him," she said, her voice thick. She glared at the tigers, not sure which one had actually done it. She stood up, only vaguely aware of the tears that rose in her eyes. "You killed him! You... you animals!"

The make-shift club came up as she moved to stand by Katie. It was clear that she was very afraid of the tigers now. Her attitude toward the bat didn't seem much friendlier at this moment, from the glares he was getting.

[Ramani]

The screaming girl caught her attention and which made her forget Cole's argument about the police. Still in Cole's grasp Ramani faced the girl and looked angrily at her. "You would be dead now. He and his friends was about to kill you."

Ramani pointed with a clawed hand/paw at the girl with the red hair. There was some blood dripping off her claws and her fangs where bloody, too. It was obvious who most likely had killed the Leader of the thugs.

[Cole Mulvaney]

"Leave her alone Ramani, and let's go." He starts leading her out of the park, not back towards their home, but a course perpendicular to it. Once out of sight they'd head back to their home proper.

[z-Penny Mann]

"Yes, he was," Penny said, glaring at the tigress. "I was helpless to stop him. But you weren't! You had a choice, and you killed him! That was unnecessary and brutal. You don't have the right to rip his throat out!"

The night was too much for her to process, but this was something that she could understand. Someone was dead because of her. He'd been killed in her defense, and she felt a terrible guilt over the life snuffed in her name. He'd never had a chance to reform himself and become something more than what he was; all his potential was wasted by someone with the power to not kill him. It was senseless and stupid, and it was something that she could rail against.

[Rodney]

"Umm, he had a knife, you know," Rodney said softly to the human girl. "The tigers were just doing what comes naturally, and in your behalf ... what's your name anyway?"

"It would beat calling you You and I've given you my name already."

So far, his first non-HomeLife human meeting wasn't going well. Hell, they had managed to wound several and kill at least one. The one they had tried to help was now near hysterical, and that was no good.

Why didn't he just leave?

[z-Penny Mann]

"They're not doing anything natural!" Penny was somewhere beyond flustered. She was verging on hysterical. "Natural tigers don't talk, so they have no excuse for being murderers! Nothing about this is natural! Nothing!"

She was crying then, sobbing really. She'd been attacked, frightened, embarrassed, sickened and now she was arguing with a giant bat. One named Rodney. For some reason, that only made her cry harder.

[jameson (ST)]

Sirens. Distinct and drawing closer. By their pitch and pattern they were police sirens for certain, and very likely being drawn in by the mysterious 9-1-1 call that had been placed a scant few minutes before.

[Cole Mulvaney]

"Dammit." Cole's grip on Ramani's arm intensifies. "Now is not the time to argue, we have got to get out of here." With that he starts dragging her away, quickly trying to put distance between them and the corpse, and the ungrateful young woman they'd saved.

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny spun at the sound of the sirens, her wet eyes going wide. Turning back, she saw that the tigers were already running away. She looked at the bat and, not quite believing that she was going to do this, said, "Run! I don't think that the cops need to see a giant... um, bat. I tell them... something."

She hurried over to Katie and knelt next to her friend, holding her hand and hoping it'd be alright.

[Rodney]

Rodney nodded to the girl and took flight. He angled over the retreating Tigers, trying to make sure they escaped from the Park as well. It was good to be back into the wind, but he wondered what would become of this night's chance encounter.

[jameson (ST)]

The sounds of sirens began to fade, succumbing to both distance and the heavier breathing that came with full on flight. Where once Central Park had been beautifully kept with clear grass studded with well groomed trees, budgetary cuts had reduced the grounds keeping force and that in turn had led to a low standard of maintenance. The grass was long and tried to catch and tangle the feet of the tigers. While similarly wayward branches whipped at Rodney as he flew requiring an impressive display of aerial acrobatics to avoid. After five minutes they stopped, hunkering down behind a row of shrubs, breathing labored by the exertion of combat and flight. The edge of the park was little more than thirty feet off and from there cover would be less common. Ramani has visibly recovered and all their wounds had already begun to scab over as blood clotted and dried.

*****

For Penny the sirens only got louder until the lights on the car could be seen. Katie had begun to rouse though she was still groggy and dazed as the patrol car stopped nearby and the two policemen got out. Additional calls were made for an ambulance and a paddy wagon as the remaining gang members were roused and bound. Finally the policemen came to take their statements; Katie explained that she had fled from her ex-boyfriend and been accosted by the gang who had knocked her out. From there the policeman turned to Penny, "And that is when you said you arrived after following your friend correct?"

[z-Penny Mann]

"Yeah," Penny said, tightening her arms around her torso. She was cold despite the blanket over her shoulders, and she suspected that it was shock. She had had a big shock to her system tonight.

With a start, she realized that she'd failed to follow up her answer, and the cop was looking at her with a mixture of expectation and irritation. Flushing, Penny continued, "Yeah, they'd knocked her out, and then someone jumped them. I didn't get much of a chance to see them in the poor light. And what little I saw wasn't recognizable to me." The teeth marks! "But they did have some animals with them, one, actually, a big cat. And the darkest guy - darkest skinned - had a knife." Held in his toes.

Bluff check (additional +4 if the subject finds her attractive) (1d20+4=12)

[jameson (ST)]

(12:48:32) (jameson): Sense Motive Check for the policeman (+5)

(12:48:37) ChatBot: (jameson) rolls 1d20 and gets 20.

The cop gives Penny a skeptical look, "I think you can do better than that. Here I'll give you a minute to get your story sorted out again and I'll come back and we can see if you want to tell the truth."

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny bit her lip as the cop walked away, but she was sure that the only way to get through this without getting locked up was to keep to her story. When the cop returned, she said, "I don't know what else you want to hear from me. But there were three guys who rescued me, one had a knife and there was a big cat. They didn't stick around to talk to you guys, so maybe they have records or were afraid of being locked up." In the zoo. She shrugged. "That's all."

[OOC: Bluff check +4, +8 if subject attracted to her (1d20=7) ]

[jameson (ST)]

(15:21:36) (jameson): Sense Motive Check for the policeman (+5)

(15:21:44) ChatBot: (jameson) rolls 1d20 and gets 7.

Result 12 vs 15 = fail

"OK, alright." He takes notes in a small notebook. "I'll have Officer Morris drive you home if you want, otherwise we'll wait with you until your parents can pick you up."

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny nodded and pointed over to the party. The cops were ignoring the rich kids, who were pretending they didn't have booze and joints hidden in their cars. So long as the cops didn't see something they had to investigate, they were not going to investigate the children of rich lawyers, businessmen and politicians. "My boyfriend is over there," she said, singling out Mike, who gave her a wave.

Her boyfriend was a bit taller than her, with dark hair and soft gray eyes. His friend Randy was taller still, enormous for a high school kid, with black hair and dark, brooding eyes. Randy also waved, giving her a rare smile. He was usually smirking, a sardonic expression designed to keep others away. But Penny was one of his few friends.

"Can I go?" she asked the cop softly.

[jameson (ST)]

The cop nods, "Yeah but you kids should go home now. No more mucking about tonight. Wait ..." he hands her a business card. "If you decide you remember anything else call me." He goes back to the other policemen and begins to speak to the coroner over the body of the dead man.

As Penny approaches her friend's Randy meets her part way, "You OK? We didn't even know anything was happening until the cops showed up."

[Cole Mulvaney]

Cole got Ramani home an hour before curfew as it were, long enough for his mother to look her over and treat her wounds. Cole meanwhile was chewed out by his father thouroughly. Their punishment was to remain in town today, and to be barred from going out again the next night too. It was steep, and Cole knew it would be worse if the death of the gang leader had been mentioned.

His parents left for the day. He sat down in the living room, in a rather gloomy and foul mood. "Dammit all."

"Where did those others come from?"

[z-Penny Mann]

Penny nodded to Randy. "I'm alright. I just..." Now that the danger was over, and the cops were gone, and there weren't giant animals around talking anymore, she could feel herself getting tired. As the adreniline eased out of her system, she felt more and more fatigue. She was also starting to feel all the bruising she'd sustained, too. The worst was the shoulder that had caught the guy.

"I would like to go home," she said.

Randy nodded and looped a platonic arm over her shoulders. "C'mon. Mike and I will get you home."

Penny smiled. "Thanks," she murmured, giving his hand a squeeze before disengaging to meet Mike. Her boyfriend hugged her and kissed her forehead, and made her feel like everything was going to be alright.

[Rodney]

The tigers were away and the cops were going over the crime scene. The girl that they had helped save was back amongst her own kind now, taking comfort from their proximity. For not the first time, he wished he had someone like that. Hell, even the tigers were companions. That gave him hope. Maybe there was a companion out there for him yet.

Large wings twisted him in the air and charted him a path homeward. There was little more he could think to do to find his mentor tonight. He needed to heal up and think of a new strategy. The wind caressed him and the night was his shield ashe soared away. His eyes still scanned the streets beneath him because ... you never know.

[jameson (ST)]

Rodney's story continues in Subject 17

Penny's and the Tigers' stories continue in On Being Different