10632/Diamonds Are A Mad Scientist's Best Friend

Diamonds Are A Mad Scientist's Best Friend
Date of Scene:	02 April 2022
Location:	Midtown
Synopsis:	Satana and Invincible have a run in with the Zomborgs but are still left with no answers about where they come from or what they're after.
Cast of Characters:	Mark Grayson, Satana Hellstrom

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Mark Grayson has posed:
It is a cool but sunny afternoon in New York City today, a good day to get out and about as the spring thaw descends on the city. It would seem that a goodly number of people feel the same way as the sidewalks are bustling, people streaming this way and that through the heart of the city, the slow change in weather clearly a welcome break to some, something to take advantage of.

While he is not quite a local, Mark Grayson isn't opposed to taking advantage of things either. Happy Harbor isn't all that far from downtown Manhatten in the grand scheme of things and when one can fly it is even less so. And while he might make a habit of regularly patrolling the city as he continues to gain experience with the whole superhero thing, that isn't what has brought Mark into the city today. No, it is a simplier, more teenaged boy sort of thing.

It would appear today that Mark has dropped by his favorite comic shop, stepping out the door still casually thumbing through the latest issue of Science Dog before letting his backpack slide off of one of his shoulders, unzipping the back pouch and slipping his small haul inside. He might be graduating very soon, but he apparently fully intends to hang onto a few legacies of his past. And the occasional stop to pick up comics is one of them. He squints slightly as he emerges into the bright sunlight, glancing around.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     Satana is sort of becoming a local, moving soon from her hotel life to a more luxurious home life with her brother, but she still needs to get out and about. Otherwise, she'll end up with her nose in a book in candlelight for hours. And sometimes, she has to pick things up in places she might normally not go.

     But it's not like any of her enemies (AND THEY ARE LEGION! or so she thinks) would think to intercept her dark tasks here. And so, turning heads as she walks in despite being dressed down in black jeans and a black sweater and modest boots, comes the young woman with the long red hair in a low-slung ponytail.

     "Hey, I'm here to pick up a special order," she says to the nerd running the counter. She's polite about it, covered up and not at all trying to flirt. This is business.

     It's a quick interaction inside, and then she's also back out, a package wrapped in brown paper in her hands that reads PHOTOSENSITIVE!! in big letters. But even despite the light, she can't help but take a peek, peeling the paper back and then quickly placing it back down and pressing the tape over it again so secure it. And then over to see what Mark's taking in. He's a handsome young man, and she's peckish, but the comic throws her a bit. She giggles, "Dogs do science?" she asks, suddenly much closer. Like a sneaky crow perching near a much cheerier bird.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Comics are no longer the sole, exclusive domain of geeks anymore, but that certainly doesn't hurt. Still, it is not all that often that one runs into a woman who looks quite like Satana when stumbling out of a comic shop. At least Mark doesn't. Perhaps he is just frequenting the wrong sort of comic shop. Though today at least it would seem to be the right one.

Pausing half-way through the process of stuffing his purchases into his backpack he glances towards her and straightens a little, his gaze quickly shifting back down to the comics he still has in hand. "Uh, well not normally I suppose. But all things are possible in the world of comics right?" he offers up, giving a little shrug and a smile, flicking a brief glances towards her own package, the photosensitive warning making him blink briefly. That's a new one, but then hobby shops tend to have a pretty wide selection of things on sale to get by.

"I'm guessing you're not a regular," he offers up. It's a guess, sure, but he's willing to go out on a limb with that one. "Special order?" he asks, gesturing towards her package in hand.

Down the street, lost beneath the hum of traffic and pedestrians and loud thump is contained within one of the many storefronts that line the street.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     Does the package she has... growl? It almost seems to pulsate inside its wrapper. Warm. Living. And yet still book-shaped. She hugs it against her chest and gives it a little snuggle. Hey, she likes books a lot, it seems!

     "No, no, I'm not a regular," she says, opening up her bag and slipping her package inside. It rumbles and she snaps her bag shut. "Just like having some things sent to- never mind. Yes, it's a very special order. I haven't encountered your publication before, though," she teases. "I'm afraid I don't know the ways of canine science. Just a bit about people," she purrs. Flirting it seems, leaning a little closer, her dark eyes a strange shade, sort of a ruby brown? Red? Almost hard to tell.

     Maybe she's a little hungry, and this fellow seems like he might taste different than her current faire. Maybe he's just cute.

Mark Grayson has posed:
He runs into a lot of strange things. That's just part of the life he leads. It is probably the case for most people who live a double life, particularly ones that superhero in their spare time. He has not, however, come across a book-shaped package that growls however. That's a new one. Still, as she clutches it close it occurs to him that the package is in a pretty enviable position.

"I figured," Mark admits with a wry smile. She's not exactly the girl next door, that much is for certain and as she teases and flirts he shifts just a little -- it seems a fair bet that he doesn't have quite the opportunity to do the same on quite so regular an occasion. "It's a very specialized sort of thing I'm sure," he manages as he zips up his backpack once more, slinging it over his shoulder.

Before he has the time to manage much more however that thump from down the street suddenly turns into a much louder crash and the sound of breaking glass as a man is hurled bodily through a window, landing in a heap on the sidewalk. Screams almost immediately follow as a trio of people stream from that same storefront racing away. As far as distractions go, it's a pretty good one. Though perhaps not an entirely welcome one.

And just what has everyone so concerned? That becomes apparent moments later when another trio emerges from that shattered window, stepping out onto the sidewalk. They don't scream, nor can they necessarily be considered people either. Instead they look more like walking corpses, their expressions fixed in a hideous, rictus of a grin. Metal components cover much of their bodies, making them appear as much machine as animated corpse and each of them clutches what appears to be a large sack, stuffed full of whatever they've taken from within the storefront.

The creatures turn up the street, starting towards the comic book shop and pausing only long enough to hurl an unfortunate man who moves to slow towards the conversing pair, the man landing hard on the pavement and very nearly taking Satana's feet from out under her.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "Oh yes, I'm someone with very specialized tastes," she says. "So much so that I didn't want any old person to see me pick it up," she says, just before she's interrupted so rudely by the sounds of breaking glass and the subsequent corpses that seem to be looting some sort of storefront. If they were regular ol' robbers, she might not care, but the look of them seems to set her off. Or it would more if she wasn't dodging bodies being chucked her way.

     And perhaps she would have been knocked over if she hadn't started hovering. She suddenly seems to be taller, but that's because she's about three feet off the ground. "Well that was unexpected," she says, peering down at the man at her feet, then seeming to realize that her empathy is probably lacking. "Ah... sir? Sir?" she asks, floating off to the side and leaning down to see if he's even alive. And then it seems to sink in that someone's thrown something at her, and she's very, very annoyed. "Kid, you might want to get out of the way, it's about to get warmer," she says to Mark, fire flicking up around her fingers, her hair shifting to white, and a pair of horns curling from her head.

     Maybe she just wants to draw attention, or maybe she's out for blood.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"Awwww greez, not these guys again," Mark mutters softly under his breath as the Cyborg Zombies make their reemergence onto the streets of New York. On the one hand, it's almost a relief because he got the distinct impression he was being sized up by someone way out of his league. On the other hand, hey, interrupting his conversation here. Also, the Zomborgs are a clear threat and not adverse to tossing people around. So that's bad too.

At least they don't seem interested in kidnapping folks this time and dragging them off to the underbelly of the city, so that's a good thing.

So as that man is tossed, as he rolls across the payment towards them MArk immediately stoops to give the unfortunate bystander a once over and make sure he's not too badly hurt. The man seems more disoriented and winded then anything else, pants torn and numerous scrapes leaking little trickles of blood. But nothing broken or anything more serious, at least on the surface.

So he starts to glance up towards Satana, finding her looking quite different indeed. Also, floating -- so there is that too. "Uhhh, I think you might be right..." he conceeds, grabbing the dazed man under his arms and starting to drag him backwards towards a nearby alley.

And the Zomborgs? They keep marching down the sidewalk in their direction, though the pedestrians on the sidewalk now know enough to clear out of their way, hurling themselves onto the hood of parked cars as needed to avoid the creepy cyborgs. For their part they seem entirely unconcerned about Satana's transformation, marching towards her, those sacks in hand.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "Again? You know these guys?" Satana asks, watching the Zomborgs as they approach. She's less concerned about the bystander as long as he's firmly in the category of not-dead. "Boys, boys," she says, rising a little higher, "You can't all have me," she grins. She seems unworried. That might change. "But you don't look human, so... I figure the rules are a little loose in this case," she says.
     Fire continues to plume around her hands, but it's odd, different. Soulfire.

     It does work best when the target has a soul, this mystical energy. It should rattle the very lifeforce of these things! ... again, assuming there's much to work with in that department. She might have to recalculate as she throws it, rising up higher to stay out of reach. Those things, whatever they may be, seem off in a way that she doesn't particularly like.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Ooops. He really needs to be a little bit more careful about what he says aloud it would seem. Live and learn, right?

"Somethings that look like... whatever these things are attacked the Columbia campus a couple of weeks ago. They were trying to carry off some of the students," Mark calls back as he drags the still dazed man out of the way, leaving him propped up against the side of one of the storefronts before he ducks around the corner into the alley, out of sight for the moment. It's not exactly isolated, but the crowds of people are mostly flowing in the other direction, or racing across the street even as cars are abandonned where they are, just trying to get away from the monstrocities.

It would be so much easier if he could just say a magic word and poof, he would be in his costume. Alas, no luck there. Still, it's cool enough that he can wear most of it under his clothes so while he might be stripping down in an alley at least he doesn't have to put the costume on. Tugging up his mask Mark Grayson is soon gone.

But Invincible is on the scene.

If there was any question of whether the creatures were truly corpses or not it is perhaps answered when that Soulfire hits and while it might flare around the Zomborgs, it doesn't seem to stop them. The cyborg part ofthem is clearly necessary as there does not seem to be any humanoid life remaining in them. One of the creatures hands off it's burden to another and the pair simply ignore Satana entirely, marching right on by beneath her as they continue down the street, heading towards that same alley Mark disappeared into.

The other however does not follow. With it's sack handed off it instead turns, it's flesh still smoking from the firey discharge from above even as it plucks a bench from the edge of the sidewalk, turning and hurling it towards the floating woman all in one motion. Even with that down it does not cease, instead leaping afterwards, propelling itself in the air towards her as well.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "Oh, hm... well how does one kill them, then- kid?" she asks, as he seems to vanish into the alley. Oh well, not surprising, who wants to get murdered by these things/

     The bench is a bit of a surprise, but she's able to dodge it. She laughs as it whisks by, but then there's the matter of the one that leaps. Huh, surprising amount of leap on that thing, and she manages to teleport out of the way. Not ideal, but hopefully it can't change direction mid-leap. There's a temptation to call her brother but... no! She can handle this herself. Hopefully with a little help!

     "No soul, hm?" she asks no one in particular, trying to stay ahead of this thing. The book in her bag growls, and she shushes it, trying to float high enough to not be jumpable. And from here, she should be able to see into the alleyway.

     She's not terribly hungry- yet. But that could change. She switches up her fire's force, no longer trying to pluck at absent souls, but instead to deliver concussive force and actual heat towards the back of the nearest zomborg.

Mark Grayson has posed:
For being animated corpses to all appearances, they things are rather quick. And clearly quite strong. But the creature that leaps at Satana is clearly leaping, not flying and the laws of physics do not change for it. Even it can't change in midair and apparently that array of cybernetic technology doesn't give it any sort of thrusters or anything else that might help it compensate. She teleports and it soars right through where she was seconds earlier, hurtling straight to the wall. But if that was meant to stop it, it does not. It hits the wall and simply clings there, the claws on the end of those metal arm implants digging into the wall casually as it cranes it's neck at an unnatural angle, twisting it's head in unnatural fashion as that single, glowing red eye tries to track her down.

Before it can find her however that wave of force and heat slams into it. That is enough to dislodge it from it's perch, crashing hard to the ground, the fleshy bits on the Zomborg blackening and giving off the scent of burning flesh. And while it is slow to get back to it's feet, it does manage to do so, shambling in her direction once more, slowly at first but picking up speed.

While one of their number occupies Satana, the other two continue on their implacable way, marching up to the mouth of the alley and starting to turn down it. If the past is any indication they likely emerges from the sewers and tunnels that run beneath the city and that is where they are returning to. Or they would, at least, if remaining unimpeded.

That is not the case however as even as the two Zomborgs begin to turn they are suddenly hurled back out into the street by a streaking blue and gold form. Those sacks go flying, landing hard in the middle of the street as they burst open sending a spray of gemstone and jewelery across the pavement.

Hovering there, in the mouth of the alleyway, a lean figure in a blue and gold costume floats there, a faint wince sliding over his expression as those sacks burst. "That might have been a mistake..."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     Oh hey, it's someone with the build of comic book boy, but in a costume. Satana smirks. Hey, it's not her prerogative to out anyone in the heroing community, she's almost good now! Almost. She is wondering if burning away flesh will be enough to stop the monstrosities. It's a good enough place to start with that theory, the succubus gearing up with another blast. It gathers power as she chants some unholy language, the book in her bag really getting into it, making quite a ruckus.

     There is a bit of a trick to it in places like this. Soulfire doesn't have to harm anything outside of the spiritual realm, but with Satana's gifts, it can be converted to thermite heat- which is not always great in an area with buildings and people and cars and combustibles. Precision is needed. She dips lower and hurls the heated flames down at the zomborg that targeted her at a downward angle, trying to avoid hitting anything else beyond it.

     Those jewels are almost distracting, though...

Mark Grayson has posed:
As flesh burns away from the Zomborgs it is quickly revealled that the cybernetic components are more then just a surface affectation. They run deeper. Much deeper really. All the way down to the bone. So even as Satana blasts away at the one approaching her, even as that dead flesh melts away it keeps right on coming. Again, those metal attachments flex and hurl it towards her. But even metal has it's melting point and while airborn it is possible to watch those metallic attachments twist and give way, beginning to actually liquify until the whole thing falls into an unrecognizable mass beneath her.

Scratch one Zomborg.

There are still two up however and despite being absolutely walloped by Invincible they are back on their feet. Again, they seem to have a programmed purpose -- acquire those jewels it would appear -- as one of them wades out into the street, scooping up one of those sacks and beginning to shovel the stolen gems and jewelery into it. While not ideal, it does convince the few people who stop to eye the fortune laying sprawled on the pavement to continue to run on by instead of stopping and competing with the creature for the prize.

The other however turns it's attention to the costumed young man. It does not pluck a bench from the sidewalk and hurl it however. No, it plucks up an entire SUV that has been abandonned on the street, lifting it with seeming ease before throwing it at the hovering young man.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     She pants a bit, dropping low for a moment. She's been out of practice. And maybe she's been distracted and not feeding as much as she should be. And those zomborgs are not a source of souls, and thus quite the annoyance. She tries to summon up another powerful blast, but it takes a moment. Robots have never been the easiest of things to tame in her experience, it's so much easier with true living beings to bind them or cast a spell upon them to force them to do her bidding.

     But she does launch a whip of that cutting fire towards the more aggressive of the two- after it throws the SUV. Invincible is going to have to catch that one, but hopefully the zomborg will be down a head or an arm or... something! She does need a recharge...

Mark Grayson has posed:
Catching a thrown car isn't quite as easy as it looks. Even if one has the strength to do so there's all sorts of subtlties to it. Fortunately Invincible has had a little practice by this point, quickly bracing himself so he isn't hurled back. Even then he can't help crunching the front of the vehicle -- just a little -- as he leaves an imprint of his hands where he snags the SUV out of mid-air, setting it down on the ground without any further damage.

The same can't be said for the second Zomborg however as almost immediately after chucking that projectile towards the teenaged superhero that whip of fire slices right through the abominable creation, practically bisecting it in half. One moment it is a whole menace, the next it is falling away into two almost even halves.

Two down, one to go.

The remainign cybernetic monstrocity abruptly ceases to gather up the scattered gemstones as it instead suddenly stands up and walks several feet down the pavement until it stands almost right in the middle of Satana and Invincible. Those cybernetic components begin to pulse, begin to glow and Invicible has just enough time to call out to his somewhat unlikely ally in all of this. "Look out! They're going to explode!" he cautions her.

The glowing cybernetics become almost blinding in their intensity and sure enough, seconds later there is a loud explosion, rattling and breaking windows dozens of feet in each direction, blowing abandonned cars outward, sending them careening wildly onto the sidewalk and just generally making an absolute mess.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     Hey, at least she's learning how to deal with them! She's so confident, this won't be a problem at all, one more to go! Until it isn't. She only has time to see it glow and to teleport up much higher, but not technically AWAY. Still, it could have been much worse, right?" She zips back down to see if her temporary companion has survived, guided a bit as wings sprout from her back to help her steer. It's one thing to float, another entirely to fly.

     Looking quite demonic, she has her eye out for anyone trapped under anything as well, snuffing out a few fires with a wave of an elegant finger. A shame to see the street in such a state, and the book in her bag is practically jumping up and down. "No, no, you stay put, I can't use you up NOW," she mutters. "Kid? I mean... heroperson. Are you alive?"

Mark Grayson has posed:
There is smoke and dust and the street below is an absolute mess to be sure with cars blown outward from the blast site, smashed into one another. Glass litters the pavement and the street has a not inconsiderable crater in the middle of it. Hopefully the jewelery store had plenty of insurance because those gemstones and jewels? Yeah, they seem to have been blown all over the place, in some case only fragments remaining in others, no trace of them at all.

And as for Invincible? While he doesn't love the idea of answering to 'kid' -- he's got some pride afterall -- there is the creaking and grinding of metal against metal and he shoulders off several tons of vehicle that have been driven against him by the blast, pinning him to the wall. He doesn't look all the worse for wear, but his costume is certainly torn in a number of places and he couchs a little from all the dust in the air. "Yeah, I'm here. I'm fine. You?" he asks, still grimacing a little as he lifts his gaze to find her -- one of those lenses covering his eyes decidedly cracked.

She sure as heck does not look very much like the young woman he ran into outside the comic book shop, that's for sure.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "Oh good, you're not a stain on the pavement. Hold on," she says. "You're not going to die if I move these, are you? You're not cut in half under there? Not going to give me your last words and wishes, I really can't take *that*," she says. Not that she seems to be waiting, the horned demoness. She digs her fingers into the car and pulls it away from him. It's not even that difficult, it seems, for her to just move the damn car. "I'm fine. Mere mortal technology can't bring me down. Though I'd never encountered anything like them before," she admits. "I didn't think they'd explode like... that..." she says, looking back at the street. "... if you had to pick about... oh... a hundred or so feet to restore, which would you pick?" she asks, grumbling a little.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Fortunately it would seem that he is indeed fine beneath that mess of cars, indeed, shifting and helping her to remove some of that burden as well as he straightens, glancing around at the wreckage left behind in the wake of the Zomborg attack. "No, it takes a little more then that to do very much to me either," he agrees mildly. At least outwardly. Inwardly is a different matter entirely as he replays the brief but brutal exchange in his head, lookign for anything different that he might have done to limit the damage.

At least no one seems to have been hurt. That's certainly a relief. Things can be rebuilt afterall. People are another matter. Though perhaps the very presence of the Zomborgs suggest otherwise.

Her question seems to catch him a little offguard and his brow furrows as he regards her for a moment before a small shrug ripples across his shoulders. "I don't know. I guess, back towards where they came from?" he suggests, his tone suggesting that he's a little curious at least to see if she can actually do something about it, or if she's just merely curious for some reason.

Hey, stranger things can happen. And she is looking a trifle demonic at the moment.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "It needs to be a space," she says, as if he should totally know this, walking amid the carnage. Her bag is snarling, and she opens it. The book- well, the tablet, it's sort of a book-shape, but it's decidedly otherworldly. She opens it up with some force, which makes it growl again, and she flicks the panels inside. She yanks one out, making the book yelp. She puts the book away, holding up the panel, "Doesn't work on living things, buuuut it absorbs chaos. This seems appropriately chaotic, right?" she asks.

     The edges of the panel look... wet. A little bloody. The wind whispers, "Yesss... I must feed..." Where'd that come from? "Hurry up ad pick, or else it'll pick for us, and that's less fun?" she says as the panel starts to pulse and warp. She acts as if it's all very normal.

Mark Grayson has posed:
That's what she picked up at his nice little comic shop? He sure as heck has never seen anything like that in there. But that's a question for another time.

He really wishes that he fully understood exactly what is going on. For Invincible, this all feels like making a blind choice. In the heat of a fight of course he makes this sort of decision all the time. It's a judgement call. But in the middle of a fight he feels that he has some idea of just what's going on. That really isn't the case here.

"Pretty chaotic," he agrees, glancing around the ruins of the street. While she might feel that Mark should know what she's talking about, the teen hero plainly feels that he doesn't. But with the clock apparently widing down, he gestures, pointing towards the edge of the destruction up the street. "There. Starting from there back as far as it'll stretch towards us," he says.

Hey, she did help with the Zomborgs afterall. QUite a bit. Maybe she's trying to help here too.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     Demons aren't always the best to explain things, they are better at thrusting contacts at people and making demands. And thus, Satana holds up the panel, which screams. Is it delight? Or just some strange otherworldly emotion that no mortal can comprehend? It stretches like a surrealist painting as she holds it up and then shoots out, distorting time and space and... oh look, there it goes. Like a goopy rectangular blob, it coats that stretch and... huh. It reverts. There's another strange whistling sound, and the panel snaps back together, the blank panel drawing in fleshy lines and rivulets the chaos.

     In its wake, that part of the street is repaired, and Satana carefully jams the panel back into its book-case, which goes back in its bag. That bit of street, the portion that had been framed, is now restored. "Well, it's something," she says with a grumble.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Curiousity abounds. He no doubt has an endless assortment of questions, but apparently Invincible is concerned that sending a barrage of them her way might not exactly be polite. Again, despite the demonic appearance it would seem that she is here to help. And he has done this whole thing long enough now to not just judge by appearances.

He can of course lend a hand and help clean up. And he will certainly offer, though there are times that the authorities and Damage Control prefers to have the hero types just vacate the area to let the pros do their job here. But even with his speed and strength, he could never hope to restore a whole porition of the street back to looking like nothing happened in a blink of an eye.

"Seems like a pretty big something to me. It's like the whole thing never even happened," the teen hero comments, giving a little shake of his head in seeming disbelief. And curiousity finally gets the better of him, at least a little at any rate. "Magic?"

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     It isn't the whole street, but it's enough of it to make a weird situation weirder. "Yes. Well. I've used it up, so I'll have to find another one or work on repairing it. It'll be fussing over details forever about HOW everything was damaged and in what ways. Something to observe," she sighs. "And of course," she says, back to flirtation once the danger has passed. "I'm a very magical being," she says, looking him over hungrily. Though it's unclear if it's because he's a fit non-human that's not too much younger than she, or if it's because she's dying for a sip of a soul to replenish her.

     And you're more than just a regular guy, aren't you?" she says, suddenly too close. Again. Boundaries are rarely her cup of tea.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Magic... isn't something that he knows a great deal about. Having a one-time Superhero for a father helps get on initiated into this world, but his expertise is aliens, not magic. So Invincible is definitely swimming out of his depths here, much as he might wish it were otherwise. So really, all he can do is take her word for it.

Normally when he is in costume it is a little easier to project confidence. Mark Grayson is a reasonable good looking if slightly geeky high school student. Invincible is a superhero. He might not be exactly a household name yet, he at least has a growing reputation. And he's a superhero! How cool is that?

None of that really seems to matter though, not when confronted with Satana. Even with a much more demonic appearance, the whole hotness factor is pretty damn high. And it's just a little bit difficult to deal with, especially when she gets flirty. "Uhhhm I suppose I am. I mean, I have powers and stuff. Hard to hurt. Strong. You know." He's a flying brick. "I can't magically restore a street but I like to think I do some good."

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     Boys are so dumb.

     She can't blame them, being what she is, a delightful trap for the desires of men. But it's much more fun to see them fluster over her than to be aggressive or rude. She does love to eat the rude, the friendly are a little harder to soulsuck. From an emotional standpoint, anyway.

     "Oh, I can't, either. But that can. Could. I have my ways. But if you need another shopping area restored, I'm afraid I'd have to do it another way. For now," she says. "But it's nice to see you doing a bit of good, even if you have to put aside your reading to do so," she says. Her stomach rumbles, and she's so hungry! "I did not like those things. Way too strong, but... ugh. I need to get something to eat. I'm no fun at all hangry," she says, starting to float again.

Mark Grayson has posed:
He is not exactly the typical hero to be sure. There is no terribly tragedy in his background, no dead parents to motivate him. He is a rather typically middle-class kid, living in the suburbs with parents who are about him, with a reasonable social life and no big huge secrets to dominate his life.

You know, aside from the fact that he's half-alien. Which might be stranger to deal with if he hadn't know about it for much of his life already. Either way, it all goes to effect his outlook on certain things, that much is true.

"I appreciate that. You as well," he offers back at once, also beginning to float a little bit. He can't immediately race off of course -- he has to retrieve his clothes and backpack from the alley for one. But this will make it a whole lot quicker and easier to get home, that's for sure. "This is the second time I've run into them. Someone has to be responsible for them and that doesn't bode all that well," he admits. "You're... not exactly what I would have expected," he says, dipping his head towards Satana. "I hope you feel better after getting something to eat," he says politely.

He clearly doesn't entirely understand what she feeds on.

Satana Hellstrom has posed:
     "Well, aren't you a sweetheart," says the spider to the... well, in this case, something much more powerful than a fly. Seemingly she has no interest in pulling him into her web, so she considers the mix of flesh and machinery for a moment rather than being aggressive with him. "Interesting creatures. They're quite formidable," she says, stretching her wings. "It's nice to be unexpected. Maybe I'll see you around, should we end up at the source of them," she says. And then she's off. Seems that he's just too sweet to eat as she zips towards seedier parts of town to find something less agreeable to hunt.