12688/High Pressure

High Pressure
Date of Scene:	05 September 2022
Location:	Centennial Park - New Troy
Synopsis:	Roland gets attacked at the zoo and Windrose comes to the rescue!
Cast of Characters:	Roland Livingston, Audra Meridian

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Roland Livingston has posed:
The park is big and there are many things to see there. Many people are enjoying the warm, sunny day, checking out the various sights and such. Among them is a young Englishman, Roland Livingston. He's hiding his eyes behind a pair of dark sunglasses and has a cup from a popular coffee shop in one of his hands.

Roland is over by the zoo, making his way in to see the exhibits and to check out the various critters in their habitats. He'll pass through the crowds smoothly, negotiating the greater density of people at the zoological center. Apparently it's a big day for families there.

But all might not be as peaceful as it seems. There's someone a particularly perceptive individual may be able to determine that's keeping an eye on Roland. They're in a non-descript windbreaker, ball cap and sunglasses and keeping their distance from the adventurer, at least as much as they can while still being able to track him.

Audra Meridian has posed:
A stop at the zoo wasn't a normal part of Audra Meridian's job, but today found the woman atop one of the taller structures sitting amongst a few wires and components. Lightning rods to be installed as a precautionary measure like on many larger buildings, since the park doesn't have the towering skyscrapers other parts of Metropolis does to draw the potential strikes of a storm away. And the last thing anyone needs is a thunderbolt frying whatever security keeps the cages locked, right?

Well she's also got a good view of the crowds passing along from up here, so a bit of people watching while waiting for a calibration sequence to finish is about all Audra has to do. People come, people go, as crowds tend to do. Nothing looks really unusual... though that one guy following the exact path another guy has from a distance does stand out, even if the guy doesn't. But it's not really any of her business, now is it.

Roland Livingston has posed:
Strolling into the zoo proper, Roland has a nice long drink from his coffee cup, emptying it down his throat before expertly tossing the rubbish into a nearby waste bin. Then he's off to look over the various animals contained in their enclosures. The young man is apparently not in any kind of rush as he moseys along, looking at the exhibits, occasionally giving a friendly nod to people he makes eye contact with.

The dude following behind Roland is speaking incredibly softly, though his lips are definitely moving. He's got his eyes on the Englishman for the most part, though he's now starting to look around. His eyes flash between other folks in the area, folks moving now to position themselves around Roland's location.

Livingston is unfortunately unaware as he's found himself some lemurs to watch. The tiny primates are climbing around on various branches, exploring their habitat. They don't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary, either.

Audra Meridian has posed:
From eye level on the ground it probably doesn't look like anything unusual. Just people moving about the crowd, finding space for themselves.

But from a higher point of view, the larger picture is visible. Audra just happens to glance away from her work and her sharp sense of detail notices something in the picture -- a pattern. Where some of the men are standing, surrounding a specific area. Their effort to be inconspicious make keep the crowd unaware, but from above it's more obvious when you can see several of them keeping their distance but acting together.

Something odd is going on, Audra thinks to herself, and quietly scoots back from the edge of the structure's roof. Up here hopefully she went unnoticed. She moves to the back of the building away from the crowds and view in general, sliding down the ladder there to get down quickly, and hops in the back of the SUV parked there. Tosses aside her blazer and practically jumps into her jumpsuit. Opens a storage locker and sticks her hands in, electronic sounds softly bleeping online as she pulls them back out in the hi-tech gauntlets. Similar is done to adorn a pair of matching boots. Grabs the mask-goggles and backpack as she bounds back out of the vehicle.

It's not the most graceful suiting up sequence but it gets the job done, and the now tech clad woman moves back to the end of the building to check on what looked like a bad situation forming...

Roland Livingston has posed:
The lemurs are pretty fascinating. They're masters of brachiation, after all. Their antics are quite amusing. Roland looks away from the small creatures to take a look at his surroundings. His brow furrows slightly when he notices someone looking his way, but it's quickly followed by a polite tilt of the head.

The primary follower continues speaking silently and the folks he's working with continue to get into their positions, standing near every point of egress.

It's starting to dawn on Livingston that there are other people currently looking in his direction. Frowning, he starts to move towards the nearest exit only to watch as a trio of people move to prevent him from leaving. Others start to close in from behind.

The guy in the ball cap and windbreaker continues his silent speaking as he watches things start to unfold.

Audra Meridian has posed:
Blocking off exit routes. That's not good. She has no idea why they're singling out this one man, but the fact that they're also obstructing the exits for the general population of visitors who are probably going to freak out if something more violent happens isn't good either. Looks like it's time for Windrose to step in before a disaster happens for once. She crouchs down a moment, then engages the air jets in her boots.

The *fwoosh* is easy to hear as she leaps over the building she had been previously on, and drops down to land behind the men advancing on Roland. It's strategically meant to put herself between them, and the other casual visitors. "If you want to see the lemurs that badly you should just wait your turn like everyone else."

Now we see if they give up on whatever they were planning and flee, or try to do something brash. As other than being creepy and stalker like they haven't actually done anything worth throwing an attack at the men. Yet...

Roland Livingston has posed:
The folks heading Roland's way stop suddenly when someone lands in front of them and starts talking. They continue moving towards their target, two of them stepping towards Windrose. The bigger of the two says, "Who are you? The lemur police?" His partner says to her, "Why don't you take off back where you came from?"

Hearing the pair's fairly threatening tone Roland says to those approaching him, "Are you certain you want to do this?"

Then one of them replies, "Where's the ritual chalice, Livingston? We know you took it from its rightful owner and we're going to bring it back, possibly along with your head."

Audra Meridian has posed:
"You will probably wish that's all I was." Okay so the witty heroic retorts isn't one of Windrose's stronger suits. But she's at least stalled part of the group from all ganging up on the one man.

Ritual chalice? Sounds old. And things with 'ritual' in it's name tend to be weird and non-scientifically dangerous. Also that threat of taking his head is pretty nasty, even if he did take something from someone else.

"No," She raises her arms forward. "I think you guys should back off." A short but powerful burst of wind is released from the Galeforce Gauntlets, aimed at blowing the men back from their intended nefarious acts.

Roland Livingston has posed:
As the approaching crew meets a powerful gust of wind and find themselves being forced back from their prey one of them lets out the words, "Damn! Wasn't expecting that!"

"Hiding behind your girlfriend, Livingston? That ain't going to help you," another bad guy tells the Englishman as the small group blocking his escape move towards him from the other side, producing large knives from sheathes concealed in their clothes. "Last chance to talk before things get ugly."

When the weapons come out the non-combatants start looking to get the heck out of Dodge. But they're at least a little bit trapped amongst the villains.

Letting out a low growl, Roland says in his upper crust English accent, "Alright then. We'll see who ends up with a detached head when it's all said and done." As the first couple bad guys get ready to go for him Roland instead dashes towards them with speed usually not seen in human being. Almost like some sort of predatory animal he attacks the pair, dancing between their attempts to slash him to ribbons as he delivers a kick to the outside of one man's knee that sends him stumbling to the ground. The second's knife wrist is grabbed by Livingston who pulls the threat's arm straight and then slams his palm into the arm, behind the elbow. There's a loud CRACK as the knife falls to the ground and the guy now missing his knife grabs his injured arm and falls to a knee. The young adventurer says to the costumed vigilante, "You have excellent timing, by the way."

Audra Meridian has posed:
Windrose glances over her shoulder a moment. "I caught sight of them trying to creep through the crowds from overhead." Which technically is true. But when the stabilizers deploy from her backpack and she lifts off the ground it's easy to take it meaning she was flying overhead, which certainly would be more heroic.

But the would-be target appears to be capable of handling himself, so Windrose turns her attention to other matters. As she hovers a bit farther from the ground her attention goes to one of the exits being blocked. The bystanders need a way to get clear.

She points one gauntlet clad hand towards an exit, switching gears as it were. This time the windpower is drawn to her, directed to make a small cyclonic vortex to pull the hoodlums away from the exit point. "Holding up the crowd is rude you know!"

Roland Livingston has posed:
The cyclonic winds do indeed pull the crew that's blocking an entrance away from their positions, sending them stumbling and enabling non-combatants to escape. But there are a bunch of knife wielders moving to close in on Roland while another touches his throat and then goes to draw a pistol from under his shirt, his eyes focusing on Windrose.

As he's beset upon Roland lashes out at each of the attackers as they get into striking range, skill, speed and strength on full display as he sends his opponents flying with powerful kicks, punches and the occasional throw. One of the villains is sent tumbling, though he's agile enough to roll to his feet. He too starts to draw a gun, saying the words, "Screw it. Just waste his ass."

Audra Meridian has posed:
Good the civilians can escape. Still got to be a little wary of the animals but as long as they're in their enclosers it should be okay.

And not a moment too soon, as some of the men start drawing guns. Windrose frowns. Things just escalated, even if the non-combatants are getting clear. And while that fellow is moving like a beast she has no way of knowing if he can dodge or resist bullets.

"Look out for the guns!" Followed by a thwoom of force as Windrose engages the maneuvering boosters on her boots and backpack. Which sends her surging towards one of the gunmen, hopefully with enough speed to tackle him in surprise before he gets off a shot.

Roland Livingston has posed:
"Guns now, too? These lot are not making it easy on us, are they?" Livingston asks. Dashing towards the guy pulling a piece on him, Roland quickly twists the weapon out of the gunman's hand and strikes him hard across the face with the pistol's barrel, sending him in a heap to the ground. Firearm in hand, the adventurer quickly racks the slide, ejecting a cartridge from the chamber before aiming at the guy lining up to shoot at Windrose.

When the weather controlling superhero flies at him, though, Roland quickly lifts the gun away and watches as Windrose tackles the guy to the ground, the dude hitting hard enough that he loses his grip on his weapon.

Others start to go for their guns when they realize they can't get through Roland's guard with their knives. "Damn! Everyone's got a gun!"

The Englishman charges the nearest group, getting himself mixed in amongst them before they can use their firearms so that he can start rendering them insensible or unconscious with barrel strikes from his newly acquired gun, an elbow strike here or there and a roundhouse kick to the face of one particularly unlucky individual. One of the villains gets a shot off in Windrose's direction but Roland sees it at the last moment, shoving one of his opponents in front of the gunfire in an effort to prevent his new comrade from getting shot. Another shot rings out and a bullet tags Livingston, creasing the outside of his left arm. Without hesitating in the slightest the adventurer turns towards the shooter and fires his newly acquired gun into the man's center of mass, rapidly cycling the trigger to fire off several rounds in short order. As the rounds strike him he goes down with a yell of pain.

Audra Meridian has posed:
As Windrose gets back up from the tackle she gives a kick towards the dislodged gun to knock it farther out of the man's reach. As the situation is still escalating as her impromtu ally shouts about more guns she doesn't really have time to doublecheck if her impact knocked the man out or not.

Reflexively she air-skates sideways as shots are fired back and forth, trying to get a better angle of the remaining men. "Okay, we will be having none of that." She clenches her fists and ionized sparks crackle briefly about her gauntlets. Then thrusts her arms forward to release it... though not directly at the men. Instead she arcs the electricity at their weapons. Lightning also creates some considerable thermal energy and she's hoping the combiniation of shock and hot metal will be enough the men can't hold onto their weapons.

"And all this is over a fancy glass, huh?" she quips back to Roland.

Roland Livingston has posed:
The electricity does the trick and the few attackers still on their feet drop their weapons. The guy who'd been following Roland earlier says something under his breath. A moment later, just before he's about to get grabbed by a perturbed Roland, one of the gunmen says, "Time to book it! V is going to be so pissed..." He finds himself unable to speak when Roland's fist collides with his jaw, sending him to the ground.

Sparing a glance at the superhero Roland lets out a half chuckle, followed by a wince as he twists around to look for additional threats, "It's a magical artifact. Supposed to have amazing healing properties, but nobody's gotten it to work in close to a century. My grandfather was the last guy to get it to work, helped him get back into fighting shape after his leg was twisted around backwards by a demon."

Livingston makes sure that those who aren't fleeing aren't in any position to be a threat. Most of them seem unconscious or too heavily injured to keep up the battle. Reasonably certain that no one's going to continue to try to kill him, Roland drops the magazine from his weapon, locks the slide to the rear and tosses the gun aside, well away from anybody.

"Is anyone hurt?" he asks. "Anybody that didn't attack us, that is?"

Audra Meridian has posed:
The would-be gunmen are either running, or out cold, or in no shape to fight. That's at least a few for the cops to take care of in the aftermath. More importantly, no civilians got hurt that Windrose can see.

Magic. Demons. A lot of non-scientific stuff. But Windrose has seen enough weird things and weirder news to not be too flustered by such things existing. "I probably don't want to think about what they'd want a super healing artifact for. Hope it's somewhere safe." Considering they had to come after Roland in public, probably.

"Yes," she replies to the 'anyone hurt?' questions. And it's apparent she's talking about Roland himself as she pulls a roll of bandage out of a pocket of her jumpsuit to wrap around his bullet wound. "Looks like just a graze but you might want to get it checked to be clear of fragments." A hero with a few first aid skills, how handy. "The call me Windrose, by the way." She figures that question was going to come up sooner or later.

Roland Livingston has posed:
"They're never going to find it," Roland says to Windrose with a quick smile. When Windrose checks out his injury the fellow nods, "Thank you. Almost forgot that I was hit. I'll make an appointment to be seen by a doctor later today."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Windrose. Roland Livingston, at your service." He reaches into a pocket and pulls out a small metal case from which he produces a business card. It's got the usual means of reaching someone on it. He offers it over to his new acquaintance, "I strive to protect magical artifacts from those who would use them for nefarious purposes. Used to be a sort of family business." He looks again at the bandage on his arm and nods, "If you've got a moment I'd love to hear a bit about how you summoned up the wind and lightning. I'm always intrigued by people with superpowers."

Audra Meridian has posed:
Windrose accepts the card, glances it over a moment, then nods and tucks it away for safekeeping. Her scientific prowess doesn't really cover magic well, so you never know when it might come in handy to know how to reach someone better versed in it.

At the question about her powers she grins a bit, holding up one arm to indicate the gauntlet. "Technology that allows the manipulation of several meteorological forces at a personal scale." Plus the boots and the pack on her back. There's glowing greebles and all those typical sciency details. "Being able to fly and move like the wind helps when there's trouble to interrupt."

Roland Livingston has posed:
"That is quite a set of abilities you've got for yourself," Roland tells his new acquaintance with a grin. "Certainly came in handy today. You're quite quick, too. I'm very glad you could handle yourself."

Emergency services have started to arrive now, the police leading the way into the zoo, weapons at the ready. One of them slows down when he sees Roland and approaches him and the hero, "Mr. Livingston. Nice to see you again, just wish we could meet under better circumstances sometimes. Ma'am." The cop seems friendly and professional and like he's the guy in charge. "Make sure to cuff and search all the suspects," the officer tells his comrades. He reaches for the radio microphone on his left shoulder and speaks into it quietly, "Send in EMS. They're going to have their work cut out for them."

For his part Roland is pretty calm. "Officer Park. I apologize for leaving a mess, these... individuals attempted to kill us. Didn't leave a lot of choice, but my lawyers will discuss this subject with you further. I assume I'll need to answer some questions."

Audra Meridian has posed:
It's a topic Windrose could probably go on about, but the moment is interrupted by the cops arriving. Which is a good thing, meaning these criminals will get properly put away. "Officer," she responds with a promp nod of her own. "They attempted to corner and assault Mr. Livingston," she adds to confirm. "I noticed their suspicious movement in the crowd from overhead and came down to assist. We made sure people could get clear before anyone got hurt."

A pause as she glances over her shoulder. "Well, besides themselves."

Roland Livingston has posed:
"Good thing you were here, it sounds like," Officer Park tells Windrose with a nod. "It's nice that our city has such upstanding heroes." He frowns a little at Roland and tells him, "We'll take a statement from you at the precinct house when you've got your lawyer present, make sure we can put these guys away for a long time."

At that Livingston will nod and say, "Thank you. I appreciate the quick response." Then the Englishmen looks towards Windrose and says, "I sometimes consult for the police. Travel all over helping them with their more magical cases and such. I usually just solve the problem myself if it's a monster or some such." There's a sudden smile on his face, "I was actually in town to track down some artifact smugglers and thought I'd visit the zoo. I'm not sure who they referred to as 'V', however, so I imagine they're paid muscle. At least there were no gargoyles sent to attack me in my apartment this time. That worked out terribly for the monster, by the way. Smashed it quite good with a warhammer before it flew off."

Audra Meridian has posed:
For a moment Windrose glances in the direction of the statue of the Man of Steel that stands proudly over the park. "I saw people in danger. That's reason enough to step in and help."

Followed by a nod at the consultation. "Makes sense. Mystical things are a little out of my airfield of knowledge." That is kind of a pun. Oi, how do some heroes crack those off so easily. And repeatedly. "So it never hurts to know who you can go to for the insight you don't have." Maybe someday there will be people wanting to contact her for weather related problems. But for now she's just doing her part. "Anything else you need from me, Officer?"

Roland Livingston has posed:
The police officer shakes his head, "I think you're good to get out of here. The both of you, at least for now. Mr. Livingston knows the drill." There's a faint chuckle at that.

Roland nods to the cop, then the superhero, "Well, I'm off then. I need a stiff drink after that ordeal." Despite getting shot a little bit he doesn't seem much worse for wear.

His attention focuses on Windrose again, "You know how to reach me if you ever need my help. It was quite good meeting you." His smile is bright and looks genuine, "Any time you'd like to get dinner or drinks feel free to text."

Audra Meridian has posed:
"I will keep that in mind. Both of those. Until next time, Livingston." Windrose turns and gives the policemen a respectful salute. "Officers. Keep up the good work. You're no less important than any of us powered individuals when it comes to maintaining law and peace." The stabilizers spread out, and with a whoosh of air from the pressure jets she takes off into the air to fly away.

And once she's far enough away she'll have to land, take off her gear, and circle back through the zoo to get back to her truck.

Audra really needs to work out a better method for this part. But she's use to being out on the road and dealing with disasters and such. Working in the city is a little different.