14457/Lush Verdance

Lush Verdance
Date of Scene:	20 March 2023
Location:	Rooftop Garden - The Thrones Art Complex
Synopsis:	Macguffin acquired! The flower that was needed is achieved, a vampire dusted, and Cass totally got to eat her sushi. Which is important!
Cast of Characters:	Cassandra Cain, Susan Sullivan

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Cassandra Cain has posed:
The art complex is closed. The arrival of an oil mogul has caused it to shut down, his art collection being stored on-site as a favour to the man involved. Jamiez Corza, a rich Spaniard, in America for only a week, paid well for the favour. For the security, and for the men with guns on the floors below keeping close eye on his flowers.

There is a certain arrogance to such a setup. Humans below who are not allowed to see the beauty that's gathered above, whose lives would be made better by it, and only electronics to keep the garden company. Electronics, and anyone who is brazen or desperate enough to be there anyway.

The walls of glass keep the birds and insects out, and allow the sun in. They also allow points of access. Which is why there's a girl sitting on the top, eating some sushi and a cookie that her friend made for her lunch. On top of a tall building, in the wind. Cute enough if you like them muscled.

Nom.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    With feathers of plucked leaves and a carefully constructed skeleton, it's a very unusual sight to see a fiery phoenix of autumn plumage carrying a metal stick that's being clung to by a woman. Dropping the woman, the bird flaps with the sound of rustling leaves, raising higher up as best it can as the woman sprints then jogs then walks across the rooftop, slowing down. She spins the staff with a bit of martial arts flair that shows she's very comfortable with it, and only then does she turn to face the girl sitting on the rooftop with her lunch. She doesn't say a word, but instead raises a curious eyebrow.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Said girl is sitting there, a piece of sushi held halfway to her mouth with chopsticks, and looking at the incoming woman. Phoenix. Person. She sits there, looking at her quietly, and her eyes just look the woman over, up and down. Up and down again. Then she looks at the phoenix in the distance.

She shrugs a little, then puts her sushi back into the little box she'd held it in, and slides it into her pouch. Then she looks at the woman, still sitting crosslegged on the roof, and raises an eyebrow expectantly. Hasn't even glanced at the staff.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    The woman is definitely a confident sort. Her 'costume' is a skull themed gas mask. Everything else, while black, is just street clothes. Hardly worthy of a good superhero. She is quiet as she moves across the roof. She leans over the roof a bit to look at the windows just below. She takes a few moments to listen, then holds up two fingers with an expression in her body language like it's a question.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass, because that's who it is, shakes her head. She lifts herself to her feet, ignoring the crossbreeze, and walks toward where Susan is peering into the roof. She hunches down and then makes a fist, closed, as a response. She looks Susan over though, making sure she wants to be involved with whatever this is.

"Why?" she asks, the only word she's used thus far. She knows how to get in, but she kind of insists on knowing some stuff before helping out. Random plant lady on the roof.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    The woman that was dropped speaks quietly, just barely enough to be heard over the ambient air movement up here. "Something inside I'm looking for. I don't know if it's here, but if it is, I want it." She's showing concern in her body language like one might for something or someone of great value. Not quite the urgency of trying to rescue a human prisoner, but whatever this is, it evokes some reverence from this stranger.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Ah. One of those, got it. That's what Cass' reaction says, as she nods and looks down into the rooms below. It'd be easy to just break the glass, but neither of them wants to alert the security forces. She taps her own chest, then thumbs toward the front of the building. "Watching," she says by way of a very limited explanation.

Then she looks down, seeing all the foliage below, and shrugs. She doesn't know why -anyone- would want the stuff. It's not like it's edible. Snap peas, mmmm...

Making a decision, Cass pushes off and slides down the roof. She stops, on the outside of a window below, and waves to get the lady to join her. She pulls something from her shirt, then starts to fiddle with the lock. Apparently she's ...helping?

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Well, it's not like the other woman can't use the help. She moves very quietly, but there's something about her movements that betrays her having less capability than she once did. She's a martial artist of the highest calibur, but it's like she keeps trying to will her body to move in certain ways that she's been doing long enough to make part of her habits.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
There are high caliber martial artists, and then there's the top ten. Cass is in the short-list, but she doesn't seem inclined to fight right now. She pops the window, a wire linking the leads from the alarm points, and then slips inside with grace that'd make a ballet dancer envious. She holds the window open, then motions with a jerk of her head.

Inside, the scent of blooming flowers engages the senses. It moves, almost like the room is filled with song. A very gentle mist of water comes from the ceiling, touching every surface, and each flower in the room is given a space of its own. Ghost lilies from Africa, unseen on this continent. A cascade of falling colour suggests that the hanging gardens of ancient times have returned within the room.

There is a lot in here, certainly, and all of it stolen from other lands.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    A lot of it has botanical significance, and a lot of it could be valuable to the right buyers. However, the skull-masked woman shifts through, ignoring almost everything. She ducks this way and that between the various plants, clearly searching for something.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
It's there. In the corner, a simple plant surrounded by dozens of much wilder colours. Simple, green leaves. Little white flowers, the shape of a cross, growing up the stems of a central stalk. The leaves look sharp, almost like thorns. A crown of thorns, with a cascade of white above.

The Flowering Cross, a rare plant that seems like so little. A species of Acanthus, it lives for an unknown amount of time, but no more than any other perennial. This one has been alive...longer.

Susan knows. This one has lived for 2000 years, give or take. Since the son of a carpenter died, and was reborn. The very idea of a flower living that long, being that immensely valuable. Linked indelibly to the death and rebirth, it was taken from its home in Italy by the mobster.

There it is, just...sitting there. Just sitting, waiting.

So easy to reach out and take, now.

Cassandra dives at Susan, hoping to tackle her out of the way of the laser sights that are targeting the woman. Before the attached guns take her head off.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Not only does Susan allow the tackle, as she notices the movement in the corner of her eye, she goes with the tackle. "There goes our element of surprise," she says, calmly. "You bulletproof?" she asks the other woman, simply as she makes sure all of her body is in cover. Her expression was clearly confused that there would be guns opening fire among fragile and precious plants, especially since there were cheaper and quieter options that wouldn't hurt them, but she wasn't the one who made the security decisions, apparently!

Cassandra Cain has posed:
She shakes her head, whipping her hand up at one of the roof-guns. A dart flies from her hand, striking the weapon, and causing it to be limited in its range of motion. Giving them some reprieve, hopefully. Then the girl indicates the flower with a glance, while backing away from the zone.

The air starts to smell, then, as a gas is released. And probably a silent alarm has gone off, the guards are on their way! Admittedly the guy who put the flower here didn't make the security either, though one imagines he'd want the plant to not die from any released gasses?

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona stands once it's clear that the gun isn't tracking. She doesn't have a cool utility belt, but she does have a backpack. She swings it off of one shoulder and unzips it. As she moves toward the flower, she takes more care than she has time for digging around it. This is possibly more precious than her life, even to her. She speaks as she works on digging out a ball of earth, not just roots. "Any other ways you can buy me a couple minutes would be great," she offers to the other woman.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
She places something on the earth beside Susan then. It looks like a miniature breather, which is good because that's exactly what it is. The gas isn't healthy for people to breathe. But as Cass stands there, arms crossed, she looks at how intensely Susan is digging away.

Then she throws her hands in the air, and turns toward the door where the guards are about to exit, and sighs. Then she walks to that, opens it, and closes it behind her. But not without a glare that promises further annoyed glares later.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Demona looks around briefly. She picks up the rebreather with her increasingly limited set of hands. "Uh," she says. She sets it back down as she realizes time is very much of the essence. She swallows hard as she carefully scoops up the oldest living thing she's ever seen, roots and all, all in a ball of soil that almost certainly has had its PH carefully balanced. She rests it into her backpack and zips up the zipper to just nestle against the stem of the plant. That's not going to be awkward or cumbersome at all. Snatching up the rebreather and her staff, she turns toward the other woman's...previous known location. She looks around, finding the path she must have taken and carefully walks it. "Don't rush," she starts repeating to herself. This thing is going to get the ride of its long life when she gets picked up.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Good, because holding a plant might not be the best idea, as the door that Cass just exited through opens again. This time a larger man enters, dragging Cass behind him. She's unconscious, which is probably a bad sign. He looks around, breathing deeply of the gas-filled air, and then smiles.

"I suppose an evil monologue would be cliche? I'm just going to say, you can't have that," he says, his voice deep and scary. His eyes glow red, as he drops Cass to the floor, then starts to walk toward Susan. The teeth show, glinting in the dim light. This is not a hired guard.

Vampire? Of fucking course it would be a vampire.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Finally, a goon Susan can handle! She unzips her hoodie just a bit and draws a crucifix on a chain. It's already harder and harder for the vampire to approach the holy artifact that is the staff Susan wields, all covered with religious iconography, but there's so much more to it than that. Demona looks the undead squarely in the eyes, standing her ground.
    With true, unshakable faith that has been tested through the fire of being an undead herself, Susan's voice is projected by speakers built into the functioning gas mask she wears. "I am a servant of the most high God, covered in the grace of the blood of Jesus Christ. You stand in the presence of a saint. Fear me, child of darkness!"

Cassandra Cain has posed:
The vampire's eyes narrow at the sight of the cross. It's not a cross that matters, it's the faith behind it. Which is solid, he pries at it and prods, and it does not move. So he nods, then grumbles. He bares his teeth, he backs away a step, then another. Then...

He steps on Cassandra. He looks down, then he smiles.

"I have a holy symbol of my own," he says, snarling. And he reaches down, coming back up with the unconscious body of the girl in one hand, held in front of him. "Put. The plant. Back."

This is not the fighting Susan was hoping for!

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Regardless, it's the fight Susan is getting. She keeps her staff in hand as she lets the crucifix drop against her bosom. She shrugs the backpack off her shoulders as she squats down. She lets go of the staff for the blink of an eye to let the backpack's straps fall before standing quickly to her feet again and snatching up the metal stick. She does another flourish, spinning the staff with one hand. She grips it, letting the momentum carry it to point it toward the vampire.
    As she holds out her staff, she touches the tip to the girl he holds. She serves as an effective barrier so he isn't hurting from touching the holy thing, but it's not a comfortable place to be that close to it.
    "Fight you for them," she says. "To the death or equivalent. Winner gets both."

Cassandra Cain has posed:
"How stupid do you think I am?" the Vampire says, wincing away from the closeness of the staff. "I can't even approach you." He tightens his grip around the girl's throat, which would be horrible if she were awake.

If she were awake.

Her eyes are open. She is awake. The girl, Cass, is looking down the staff at Susan. Her eyes say yes. Do it. Go.

Damn.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan makes eye contact with the girl. With her free hand, she reaches into her jacket and flips something out. It's a wooden stake, aimed directly at Cass, not in a way to pierce through her and hit the vampire, but in the manner of a hand-off at a distance.
    Immediately, with the stake still in the air, Susan kicks off against the ground, then against an architectural box built into the structure that's filled with plants. Susan isn't aimed at killing him with this first touch; she needs to get close to him. The first thing she does is slam the end of that staff into the knuckles of the hand that holds Cass. It's going to suck for her, too, but it's the follow-through that's going to suck for the vampire. Turning the staff around its axis, Susan swings it like a bo staff at first, then like a bat at its length, swinging it beneath Cassandra's raised feet to smash at the vampire's ankles.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Well, the vampire did turn down a fair fight. He deserves this.

The hit to the knuckles feels like her throat is going to collapse. Cass ignores it, the fact that he releases her the only issue. She twists, then drops and grabs the stake just over her head now, and the staff passes just beneath her as she falls.

Cass hits the floor as the vampire's ankle shatters, and props the stake beneath the guy as he topples. She glances at Susan, checking to see if she's got it right, but there's no time. In the last moment she rolls out of Susan's way, still unable to breathe, and hopes that the guy falls on it properly.

He did, and he didn't. The stake seems to be stuck into his back, but he didn't get enough oomph to push it all the way in.

And Cass doesn't have the vampire-hunting experience to finish the job.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan pulls out a hip flask from her jacket as she rolls to her feet. The vampire, she sees, is incapacitated, but the stake missed thanks to those bony shoulder blades humans have that prevents simple staking from behind. Still, not a bad effort from her new accomplice.
    Susan moves and plants the holy staff on the vampire's chest, followed by her boot. The area where the cap of the silver-trimmed iron staff touches smokes and hisses as pain racks his undead body. She flicks the cap of the hip flask with her thumb, unscrewing it.
    "You look thirsty," Demona says. Flipping the cap open, she turns it over and shoves it into the vampire's mouth. Holy water dribbles into his screeching maw. Eyes move through bloodshot to something beyond wounded as the vampire is turned to ash from the inside out. Soon, he stops struggling, though he doesn't fall limp. His flailing body is gripped immediately by rigormortis, pieces falling as the connecting segments turn to ash.
    Susan stands and walks over him, moving to her assistant in this particular act of holy vengeance to check on her before anything else. "Are you alright?" she asks. She offers what's left of the holy water in her flask. "It's just water," she points out.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass is watching during that. It's a lot to take in; all of her opponents have been human, or robots at the worst. This is new. But she looks up as Susan walks toward her, after it's done, and motions to her throat. She leans her head back, opening the passage of air as well as possible, then slowly and hesitantly nods.

When she takes the water, even after it's melted someone? That's because she can read the woman's body language. She knows that it's not a lie. But it's got to seem like serious trust, right there.

Then she motions to the backpack.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan nods without looking, always keeping at least a peripheral eye on what she's come for. "I'm on it," she says. Echoing the trust, she turns her back on Cass to jog over to the backpack. She carefully puts it back on, then follows the other. "You need a ride?" she asks.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
Cass shakes her head. She's standing up, and motions upward. To the roof? Yeah, to the roof. She pats her pouch, then motions ...eating? Oh, she's going to finish her meal. And, probably, her mission whatever it was. Got a bit sidelined here, it seems.

But she nods to Susan, then to the exit they came in through. "Police soon," she says, her voice seeming to smile.

Susan Sullivan has posed:
    Susan nods. "Thanks for the help." She walks the way she came to the edge of the roof, then raises her staff upward in both hands like a mage in a movie. A gliding phoenix made of leaves swoops down and grabs hold of it. Demona is lifted up by the odd-looking sight, then carried away as it glides past various skyscrapers.

Cassandra Cain has posed:
And below, a simple little shadow climbs back onto the roof. She hesitates to report this one. I mean, it's not like Barbara is going to believe it anyway.