12490/Caught by the Cheetah

Caught by the Cheetah
Date of Scene:	18 August 2022
Location:	Cloisters - Metropolitan Museum of Art
Synopsis:	Monet meets a crazed Cheetah in a museum and is left as a bloody smear to send a message over to the Amazons.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Barbara-Ann Minerva

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Monet St. Croix has posed:
The Metropolain Museum of Art is one of the finest art museums on the East coast. It's gallery and contents are passable compared to the great museums of Europe, Versailles, the British Museum in Londom.. But it's works are still broad, amazing, and varied to look over. It also makes many of it's contents no doubt popular to loot and resell, with numerous ones fetching multiple millions of dollars on the closed market.

It's near closing time, and Monet St. Croix is there looking over at some of the exhibits. She doesn't care if anyone approaches her telling her that the museum is getting ready to shut down. A few words on 'daddy' and 'board of trustees' should resolve any sort of issue there.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
While most of the exhibits are owned by the museum, a few are circulated around the world to draw in new investors. One such piece, is that was recently unearthed in South Africa. The individuals responsible for its discovery have spent the better part of three months attempting to decypher the glyphs and symbology, while it makes the tour of some of the most prolific museums for the viewing pleasure of scholars and history buffs specializing in antiquity art.

Named the tablet of the van die verboge vallei.

It depicts what some say is an forgotten ritual of sacrfice, at least by what has thusfar been translated, and is currently make the rounds at the Metropolian Museum.

Safe away behind security measures as the museum closes, it has drawn the attention of a particularly aggressive interested party.

Cheetah, hidden beneath a hooded sweater, stands before the protective glass enclosing the tablet. Staff busy themselves locking it away while security ushers patrons out with as pleasant a disposition as they can muster, "It's closing time, ma'am." One guard says to her, a young man wearing a smile that he doesn't fill.

Slitted yellow eyes cut towards him, meer moments before she attacks with a petranatural speed. Her claws extended as she turns her hips and slashes down across his chest, she twists fully through the attack and shoulder blocks him back away from her. Far enough that when she steps into a kick, she's got just enough space to send him hurtling towards the iron shutters coming down to circle the display... keeping them from fully closing by introducing his body as an obstacle. "Hissssss..."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Being elsewhere on the same level, Monet St. Croix almost misses the sudden engagement. Her senses are acute, but not that acute. What she does hear however is the sudden snap over of iron bars being blocked and quite possibly bones breaking. She goes on full alert, and goes to try and telepathically sweep ahead to try and get an idea of what's going on. Trying to scan the mind of the guard to pick up surface thoughts, and also possibly the attacker. Her powers, however, are rather minimal as is her skill, particularly when not within line of sight.

Monet goes to fly down over towards the area, hitting high speed on an intercept course. Even as she goes to make out the attacker on her approach, the golden slitted eyes catching her attention. "Why.. What an appearance. And here I was thinking I was going to have a boring night. Good. I'm going to enjoy showcasing all the ways that one can skin a cat." Monet is smug and self assured. There are few threats that she can't handle physically.

Brutalization some weeks ago by SUpergirl and beating to near death hadn't -quite- fully made the point yet. She's hovering about fifteen or so meters away and is in a defensive p osition, getting ready for a fight. And while she didn't have bracers on, she was taking an Amazon combat stance.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
The guard shouts in pain when the security fence drops down on his chest and continues to make agonized sounds even once Monet has arrived. He's alive, but has sustained pretty severe injuries. Both from the claw marks on his chest as well as the weight of that gate dropping down atop him.

Whereas the individual responsible has only malice and anger.

A beacon of it, in fact. Like every single thought in Cheetah's head literally drips with fury and violent intent.

The voice from behind, and slightly, above her draws a slow turn of her hood. Enough that golden eyes fix upon the woman speaking, to let her thin lips pulling back from fangs set in a small mouth at the combat stance the young hero has taken. "Amazonian." She hisses, criticing as she turns, a clawed hand on both hips. The right one is dripping with blood. "Your shoulders are rolled forward too far... and you lack the weaponry to make the position effective."

Cheetah is, aside from those who live there perhaps, a leading expert on the warrior women.

When she smiles, there's no humor.. and she steps back around a pillar with a deliberate purpose as if fading into the background. "I'm going to hurt you very badly."

Monet St. Croix has posed:
In a defensive stance, Monet St. Croix's attention is over on the guard. Dammit. He's heavily injured and needs moved. Quickly. But not while there's a fight going on. And she isn't sure on touching him. But it's that or leave him further impaled and crushed. She doesn't have time to evaluate him to make the call as to whether it's safe or not.

Monet would respond over to Cheetah with an arrogant sneer, "You can /try/ and fail." Evaluating the other woman. Claws. Limber. Acrobatic. Combat style will be close range and melee. She doesn't know how strong the woman is, how fast she is, or what those claws are capable of. So that means that until she gets a better idea she'll have to engage in hit and run tactics.

M goes to charge in over at Cheetah, fist cocked up. Not being sure how strong or durable she is, her intent is to hit her with restrained force if the blow does land. The blow will be enhanced, but not immensely so. The intent is to more drive Cheetah away for a moment so that she can have some room to free the man.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
Cheetah is watching Monet, whose attention is, at least indirectly, split between her and the guard. She doesn't give a squat about the guard, whether he lives or dies doesn't matter one bit to her. Instead, she's focused, and almost appears to be playful.. a cat sizing up an unknown prey before pouncing. Suffice to say that she's arrogant, but for very good reason.

And she's fast.

And strong.

Monet sweeps in and Cheetah is acting with the kind of raw speed and fury that one could, and should, expect from a large predatory jungle cat. Rather than attacking the young amazon trainee directly, however, she attacks the very pillar she'd stepped towards. The woman is flying, so it's time to bring her down to her level.

She turns and slashes her claws through the pillar, leaving four large gashes with one set of claws, and spins through to slash it again with the others on the oposite side. Several large chunks of the mortor fall down towards the place where she'd been and where Monet currently is, but Cheetah's not there anymore. Sumersaulting away towards another section of the display area.

Her intention is to knock the little birdie out of the sky.

"Ahhh, you think you're fast enough for that, little girl?" Sneering arrogance in every word. A taunting laugh echoes all around them.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The woman is fast. Very, very fast. Far faster than Monet's estimation of her speed was going into the fight. She's moving faster than M could process or assess. Faster than almost anyone she's ever seen. Speed approaching that if not better than when a berserk Kryptonian cut loose on her. She's only able to brace herself over as the debris goes to fall over on her, and she goes.

"Nice little trick. Do you do parties as well? I'm sure that you would get excellent rates if you went to a Furry convention." Baiting designed to try and draw the woman in. Monet clearly couldn't tag her and the other woman seemed primal. So much for hit and run. Debris grounding her partially, Monet goes to hurl it off her.
    The woman is incredibly fast, so M goes to adjust her trajectories. Presuming that Cheetah goes in fro the direct attack with intent to gut and dismember her.. Monet goes to mentally calculate the arc, the angle, the speed.. And goes to swing her fist not where Cheetah is but where she -expects- someone to be that's intent on going in at her at superspeed with intent to slash her down the middle and cleave her in two.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
It is true that Cheetah has a temper and is quite arguable that playing with it is dangerous. There's a low growl at the barbs, but it's not as primal and furious... more a terrible creature alerting someone they're getting too close to a nest. Warning off potential predators, or in this case, unlucky prey.

"Furry convention." She muses from 'somewhere'. While Monet was dislodging bits of fallen brick, she didn't stand idle waiting. Taking a vantage point, she lays in wait for her opening... which comes, not once Monet is READY, but while she's trying to unpin herself.

And she doesn't come from ground level.

She kicks off another pillar and pounces down towards the young heroine from over her left shoulder, she's just suddenly THERE in Monet's face. "Spend less time thinking up insults and more time practicing, little girl.." Every word is mocking and seething. Ducking her own shoulder and bending so the counter attack aimmed to hit where she was passes righ over the back over her shoulders. One palm extends out to brace her weight and her left foot kicks around in an attempt to crack into the back of the womans knee, followed by a sweeping set of very dangerous claws towards her chest.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Monet doesn't bother to resond over to the counter-taunts; namely as she's got too much pain heading in her way. Her calculations are -rather- off. As well as her evaluations o fher adversary that's thinking and -toying- with her. Whatever it is the other woman seems to want to draw this out and make it -fun-. She can use that..
    Of course, right as she's thinking that and drawing her arms in to defend herself Cheetah's already on the attack and slashing in. She cries in pain as those claws cleave cleanly through her, over her torso and through most of her outfit. The slash pierces two ribs and only her ducking back prevents it from piercing a lung or tearing out some of her gut.
    She immediately goes to counter-attack with whatever force she has, moving to try and strike over at Cheetah's mid-section wiht her own moderately capable speed and power. She goes to strike with the force that could knock down a full truck and speed that could keep up with a trans-atlantic supersonic plane.
    It's likely nowhere near enough. But if Cheetah'sa t close range and fully extended in the attack, the other woman might not have the -room- to dodge fully when she was already fully committed to the strike and the leap.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
What Cheetah has in raw power and speed, she lacks completely in form and technique. Though it would take an expert in combat to recognize that she has absolutely no formal training, it's rather obvious that everything she does is all and then nothing. She's tough, strong, and absurdly fast. This almost always makes up for what she lacks...

It does, on occation, leave her open where someone more versed might not be, however.

The counter-attack very nearly misses and it doesn't quite hit as intended, but it does hit... Striking her in the shouldr, when she moves around from her claw, rather than in her chest. Some of the force is absorbed, so it's not like gettiing hit by a truck, but rather a very well aimmed baseball bat. Which would knock almost anyone out.

Cheetah isn't almost anyone.

She stumbles a step and growls. A terrifying sound that, where they in the plains of Africa, would send birds scattering from the tall grass and gazelle running in fear for their life.

She was playing before, toying with Monet. Almost like she was having fun... Now?

Now she's pissed off.

She bobs into a forward run towards the injured heroine and dives out to catch the marble floor with her claws, pulling herself as her powerful back legs kick out to add more momentum to the insanely fast attack. At the apex of this, she pushes off into a leap and attempts to latch onto the young hero. Claws stabbing down to grab her shoulders, feet pushing in towards her abdomen, and her sharp fangs biting for the side of her neck.

The ferocity and killer intent of a very dangerous being who clearly has no qualms about killing their target. This isn't a play fight anymore. Cheetah is done screwing around.

"I... will... kil... you."

And damn if she doesn't mean it.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The blow did very little. Other than irritating her adversary. Normally Monet might try to fly away or psychically attack, but not when she's badly injured and barely has time to think. She's not going to be doing anything to anyone's mind anytime soon. She's barely able to react as Cheetah somehow goes even -faster- in the attack at her, taunting all the while.
    "You'll have to stand in line, there's a long list." Monet is only moderately trained by anyone's standards. Whatever the normal X-Men self defense tactics are and a few months of sparring with Amazons. She's not going to win on technique anytime soon nor recognize the flaws in her opponent to take advnatage of them. Even if she -could-.
    The kick goes over at her before she can do more than partially brace herself, even as the claws set her up for it by slashing her -hard-.
    A hand snaps out even as more o fher blood sprays along the area. Whiel Cheetah is kicking and brutalizing her, she goes to try and yank her hand -solidly- over on the other woman's leg to yank her right along! If she remotely can, Monet is trying to yank Cheetah underneath her, attempting to in desperation use the other woman to soften her landing and try and use Cheetah's brutal force against her.
    With how the fight is going and the speed the insane woman has, it's likely to come to naught. But M isn't going to back down and abandon the guard to his fate.
    Or what is inevitably looking like her own right about now.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
While not trained traditionally, Cheetah is an armchair student of warriors. She's studied them for her entire adult life. She understands how they fight, if not why, and can see where influences of Amazonian training are in oposition to some regular self defense techniques. Monet's style of combat, though flawed, has merit. It's a combination of two very different techniques that are, if not very effective against someone as fast and strong as Cheetah, are interesting.. from a scholastic point of view.

Where Cheetah so inclined, she may be intrigued by it.

She's not.

At least not right now.

She's blood thirsty and furious that the girl was even able to hit her.

And hell bent on punishing her for it.

Monet clamps down on her leg and keeps her positioned against her as they fall, with Cheetah twisting and pushing off with both legs as they fly through the air. Her intention is to launch Monet off of her towards the pillar she'd originally clawed. The broken pieces standing there like an ancient statue half crumbled from time...

Time that Cheetah will use to further distract the young heroine by rolling over to the security guard... The claws of her right hand stab down into his thigh, causing him to scream in agony.. "That's his femoral artery." She growls, a sadistic grin on her face now that the hood has pulled back off her head.

"Make a choice. Him or me..." The claw twists in the wound. More screams... and a big grin on her mawl.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Brutlaly slammed once more and bouncing hard off the pillar, she goes to crack fully through it and shatters it, and pieces rain down on the area. She's hissing over in pain, even more of her ribs collapsed and a lung punctured. A hand goes down to fully snap the rib -out- if not into proper place, blood pooling over on the ground.
    "Then flee while you can." She goes to try and stand up and look like she's winning. "Go -now- and be out of here by the time someone else arrives." The fight has lasted -maybe- three minutes tops and the alarm was maybe rung two minutes ago at most. By the time an alert goes out and another hero bothers to respond Cheetah will be long gone despite the girl's bravado in the matter. It's very much bravado and little else, hwoever. Though her confidence won't let her back down any.
    "Next time, /cat/, I rip off your tail and use it to choke you to near death." Her hands still up and over in a defensive stance and braced on her ankles, ready to fight despite the brutal internal injuries, broken bones, and everything else she had suffered in the minute or two the pair had been brawling.

Barbara-Ann Minerva has posed:
Arrogant grin turns to furious snarl at Monet's attempt to stand victorious despite the obvious lopsided combat. The shift is sudden and the response is savage. Her claws, dripping with blood, slash at the marble floor and grab a bit of brick that had fallen close to her. She hurls it at Monet as she trying to stand there 'smug' with 'bravado'.

Then growls in her face, baring fangs at her with lips pulled dangerously away from those sharpe teeth.

The alarms, however, are a problem... and her message is left on the body of the young amazon trainee. If that doesn't get Diana's attention? "Tell HER the next time I run into one of her little children, I'll be leaving a corpse on her doorstep."

Those same claws slash through the thick glass of the display so she can swipe the tablet and tuck it into her jacket. Then she turns and practically vanishes for how fast she's running. The guard is rapidly bleeding out.. those who remain behind are terrified...

And Cheetah is gone.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Alarms are going off. The man is still alive. The tablet has been stolen and the other woman is gone. Whatever sort of chaos was in here will be barely discernible to whatever security the museum has. And Monet doesn't have much more time herself. Blood is everywhere. Mostly her's and the man's. The man is carefully pulled off the impalement now that Monet has the time to prpoerly evaluate him and remove him safely. Then taken to cover. About ten seconds later, the fire alarm is pulled, water blasting down everywhere as the protective casings go over the rest of the artwork. The water will make more of a mess of things and conceal anything of her own presence.
    The X-Men are still supposed to be reasonably covert. And the last thing she needs is for a massive amount of mutant blood to be spread all over the art gallery. A shove of her fist to make sure her ribs were back in place, and she's flying away through the museum as she's soaked, bleeding, and barely managing to clear the area before the authorities arrive.