1867/(Possible) Trouble in Paradise

(Possible) Trouble in Paradise
Date of Scene:	27 May 2020
Location:	Upper East Side
Synopsis:	Donna Troy and Robbie Reyes encounter an interesting situation and get to know each other in the middle of the chaos.
Cast of Characters:	Robbie Reyes, Donna Troy

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Robbie Reyes has posed:
It was a wonderful day in New York City and surprisingly, nothing so far has decided to spontaneously combust with a villain at the forefront. For now, its calm. Relaxing. However, one Ghost Rider had just finished some business on a group of thugs who intended to mug and beat a woman in an alleyway.

Needless to say, their sins came back to haunt them.

All the same, Robbie Reyes had parked his car just outside of the Themysciran embassy, not like he knew what it was, after meeting Artemis he's kind of been staying away from badass warrior women. Or trying to.

Oh ho ho, wait until he finds out.

All the same, he leans against the (untransformed) Hellcharger, apparently eating a hot dog and just enjoying the sights. Not of any women coming and going from the embassy, but just basking in the sounds of the city.

Donna Troy has posed:
    There's no rest for the wicked, or indeed as is the case here, the merely wicked-adjacent. You'd hope that there would be time to take a break between bouts of having to deal with the daily madness of New York City, but sometimes you don't even have time to finish a hotdog.

    The first sign anything is up is a car suddenly veering sharply off the road and crashing into a hydrant. Just six feet closer and it would have crashed into the Hellcharger - instead the car is getting a free car wash, thanks to the fountain of water the collision has summoned up.

    Things like this can happen sometimes. Perhaps the driver fell asleep at the wheel - he's shaking his head as if in a daze, though that may just be from shock. He seems relatively unharmed though.

    No. Not just one of those things. Two of those things. Before anyone has had time to react to the first crash, another car veers across the road, straight into the line of oncoming traffic. Luckily the traffic is too dense for either vehicle to have been moving at great speed, so the crash isn't too serious, but the result is a snarl of traffic and a whole orchestra of honking horns.

    The doors of the embassy open, and out steps Donna Troy to investigate the noise. It may come as something of a relief to Robbie that she does not, at least at the moment, appear to fit into the category of Xenas. She's short by Amazon standards, if taller than the average American woman, and dressed with a distinct lack of armor plate in clothes that don't stand out in the Manhattan streets.

    Quickly she's over to the car that crashed into the hydrant, peering through the window. "Do you need medical assistance?" she calls in to the driver.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
No rest for the wicked or the divine, for that matter. Arn't Amazons technically demi-goddesses due to being daughters of Zeus or...grandaughters? Greek Mythology is weird and not something Robbie has studied at all.

ANYWAY.

Robbie had just finished heating his hot dog and cleaning up his hands when he -feels- the impact of the car hitting the fire hydrant and his car getting soaked with water....and thus Robbie getting a little wet himself. "Qué diablos!" Robbie shouts in his preferred tongue of Espanol (just one up from Spanglish) and he moves to check on the driver -just- in the knick of time as Donna does.

He looks towards the colossal symphony of cars as insanity just apparently seems to be happening. "Help him!" He tells Donna in a demand as he moves around the car to get a better look at what was happening. Granted, he might get hit by a car, but he's pretty tough - and strong.

He'll probably survive. "What the hell is going on..."

Donna Troy has posed:
    The driver of the first car raises a hand and shakes his head. "I'm not hurt," he says. "Just shaken. I'm fine."

    Donna looks at him with a puzzled frown. "Can you get out of the car?" she asks. The man nods his head and reaches for the door.

    The traffic snarl is barely moving, and seems to pose little actual of collisions to Robbie. The drivers of the two cars that had collided are already climbing out of their vehicles. The driver of the one that had veered across the lane looks shaky, the one he collided with angry. "What the hell do you think you were doing?" He spits, advancing on the other driver.

    "Woah, woah! Look I'm sorry, not my fault! I lost control of the car, it just started veering to the side!" the other driver insists, backing away nervously.

    New York being New York, as there's about space for half a column of traffic to keep moving in the other direction, obstinate drivers are struggling to occupy the partial lane and squeeze past the accident to get on their way. It's from this column of traffic that a third car veers suddenly onto the sidewalk and smashes into some construction scaffolding on the front of a store. There are screams as pedestrians dart out of the way, first of the car, and secondly from a scaffolding pole that crashes to the ground inches from the car.

    The driver of the first car to have crashed stops trying to get out and grips the steering wheel tightly, his face whitening.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie seems to tilt his head as thankfully, he's not even in the range to get hit by a car. He does however move to get between the aggressive and the meek drivers to prevent an incident. "Trust me, you want to back off. Get back to your car, I'll handle it." He looks at the meek one. "You just lost control of your car? Did it by itself? Didn't feel anything break or bust, car just veered strongly to the side?" he asks the apparently nervous looking driver like he was interrogating him.

Spirits and weird shit is kind of Robbie's field of expertise, though how he wishes that was by choice. No, instead, its just quite....well, ask Eli someday.

This was all just....very strange. And of all places to have an accident. He does seem to be keeping an eye on the more aggressive of the accident victims though, its usually people like him that do things that are foolish.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Standing between the two drivers is rather like Robbie having two conversations. "No, nothing at all!" the meek one insists. "I swear, the car is fine. It just suddenly... it was like someone yanked the wheel to the side."

    "I ain't getting back in my car until I dealt with this jerk-off," the aggressive one snarls at Robbie. He waves a hand towards the dented front of his car, and the broken light. "See what this guy did? Yeah, well I'm gonna do that to him. So get outta my way. Who the hell do you think you are anyway?" Ironic.

    "HEY!"

    This last word comes in reaction to the sudden thump of Donna leaping onto the roof of his car. She's off it a moment later though as she leaps to the roof of another car, and then down onto the sidewalk beyond. Given the tangle of cars, it's certainly the quickest way to cross the road.

    "MOVE! Everyone get out of the way!" Donna's voice rings out in a richly-accented voice. The scaffolding creaks dangerously, and another pole swings loose, but doesn't fall yet. Donna makes a fist and punches in the side window, knocks knocks out a couple of shards and takes a grip on the frame of the door. Bracing her knee against the side of the car she yanks hard, and with a loud cracking sound, she yanks the door open.

    Moments later Donna is hauling the unconscious driver from the seat and pulling him clear. Moments after that a scaffolding pole comes crashing down straight through the roof of the car.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie nods softly to the nervous driver. "Head back and stand next to your car, alright? We'll get the authorities in on this and you guys can swap insurance companies." When the aggressive guy starts talking shit to him, Robbie gives him a -stare- that basically reflects the Hellfire in his eyes. "Trust me. You really don't want to."

He's about to let Eli do the talking, but then suddenly he turns to see Donna as she's leaping across car roofs to pull a man out of the car before some scaffolding falls on him. Robbie's head tilts before he approaches her.

"The hell is going on? Its like chaos is just everywhere. Tlkaed to the guys who crashed, said it was like something else took the wheel. Could be a demon." Robbie tells Donna, assuming she's apparently the heroic type.

But...could he sense anything? Thats the real question. Robbie can sense evil.

"Where are you." Robbie whispers as he tries to find whoever's...or whatever...is doing this.

Donna Troy has posed:
    For a moment... just for a moment... the aggressive driver stands up to that stare, and it looks like he's going to do something extremely foolish. It's only for a moment though. He raises his hands and says "Look man, I'm not after any trouble, just want to make sure I don't have to pay for the damage, that's all."

    Donna lays the driver down carefull on the sidewalk, well away from the scaffolding. "You!" she calls to a pedestrian. "Call 911, now." She checks the unconscious driver's pulse, quickly studies the growing bump on his forehead, and lifts his eyelids to look into his eyes for a couple of seconds. Apparently satisfied, she stands and dusts her hands off.

    On Robbie's approach, Donna's initial reaction is to raise a hand to him, a 'one moment' gesture. "You!" she yells at another pedestrian. "Stay away from the scaffold. It could come down!" Then her attention turns to Robbie. "Demon?" She asks with a frown. She glances around. "It seems a little... ordinary, for a demon."

    Ordinary? Three cars suddenly crashing isn't ordinary - but it doesn't feel to Robbie like there is evil at work here.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie doesn't seem to pay the aggressive driver any further heed, but he does give the fellow a soft nod. "Don't worry, something tellls me you won't have to, because it wasn't your fault." he tells the driver, before he looks at Donna as she's demanding people to call 911.

It makes sense, that guy did NOT look good, but he'll probably make it.

Meantime, as Robbie approaches and he's given the 'one sec brah' hand gesture, Robbie just crosses his arms and watches her as she takes command of the situation. "Nice leadership skills. You call this ordinary?" he jerks his thumb at the weird pileup they have going on. "Scaffolding crashing down, three car pileup, tensions rising, cars going out of control for no reason and feeling 'like something forced them to veer off' Doesn't feel like a coincidence. But whatever's doing this...its not from some evil source, at least. I can sense that." he waits a moment, perhaps tempted to transform into the Ghost Rider. He does look at Donna though. "Your thoughts?"

He does keep his attention on the surroundings in case anybody else happens to be in danger of something about to fall on them.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Ordinary is relative," Donna points out. It's a valid point. Robbie's head catches fire on a regular basis. This /is/ ordinary, compared to that. She studies him carefully. "You can sense the presence of evil?" she asks. "Useful." She seems to take the claim entirely in her stride. "Come. Tell me if you sense anything on that first driver."

    Donna crosses the road again, this time by the more traditional route. The driver is still stiting there hands gripping the wheel, looking white. She taps on the window, and when he looks around, gives the wind-it-down gesture.

    The driver complies, and without prompting, says "I don't know what happened. It felt like something took control of my car, made it drive to the side." He looks sick with nerves.

    Donna studies him for a moment. "And you're sure you are alright?" she asks.

    "Yes yes, fine. Just... is everyone okay? The guy in that other car, is he hurt?"

    "Unconscious," she replies. "Probably concussed, but I think he'll be fine."

    "Thank god," the driver replies, turning to stare blankly out the windscreen again.

    Donna turns to Robbie. "Well? Anything?" The driver is nervous, but evil? Not really any more than the average person. Demonic? Certainly not.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
"Describe 'relative' in this sense." Robbie tells Donna a moment as his arms cross, but when Donna offers for him to follow along with her to talk to one of the victims, he nods. "Sure thing." He follows, putting his hands in his jacket pockets as he slowly comes to a stop, letting Donna ask the questions while Robbie just watches.

While the driver speaks, Robbie is sensing him, looking through the very essence of his soul like it was laid out in a scroll before him. But...Robbie can't sense anything.

<Heh, he's clean kid.>

<Thanks, Eli.>

<Don't mention it, just don't make me wait too long before we put some scumbag down.>

Yeah, thats complicated. Robbie looks at Donna then with a shake of his head. "No more evil or demonic than me or you. But he said the exact same thing as the other guy. Worth looking into further if you ask me. Guy's just a little nervous."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna gives a quick nod when Robbie declares his verdict. In the background, sirens can be heard as the emergency services start arriving. She stares a little longer at the driver, then knocks on the roof of the car. "You. What /really/ happened. Tell me now."

    This time he doesn't turn towards her when answering. "J... just what I told you. I have no idea what happened. It was like something grabbed the wheel."

    Donna crouches down beside the car to get on eye level with him. "Look, people got hurt, but it could have been worse. Something happened here. We'd like to help. But unless you tell us what really happened, we can't help you."

    The driver still doesn't look around, but he shakes his head. "It happened like I said," he insists.

    Donna sighs and stands up again, arms crossed. She sighs, takes a few steps away. She shakes her head at Robbie. "He's lying. I'm sure he knows something, but he's lying about what happened. If my sister were here... but we have no evidence. The police aren't going to hold him."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie crosses his arms as Donna apparently gets scary on the poor driver, who seems to be telling the truth exactly as he experienced it. His eyes narrow, as if trying to discover if the man was hiding -anything- from either of them. Alas, he seems to be very genuine.

"Thats because he's not lying."

Wait, what?

"He's telling you the truth. The fact that he's scared shitless reinforces that fact. There is something else at work here. Though...I do want to ask the aggressive driver a couple of questions, he seemed very eager. But there's something we're missing here."

He looks at the Embassy and back to Donna. "Are you an Amazon? I don't suppose you chicas have any magic voodoo that'll help us here?"

Donna Troy has posed:
    "My /sister/ has some... 'magic voodoo' that would help," Donna confirms. "But she's not here right now." She frowns, turning away, and gives a jerk of her leg that would almost be a petulant stamp of the foot if she had let her foot move. She looks very frustrated.

    Police have moved in and have started taking witness statements. An ambulance crew tends to the unconscious man and another comes to check up on the first driver, still in his car. Finally he agrees to come out, repeating his story to them as they give him a once-over.

    "He is scared shitless," Donna agrees. "But you're wrong.Take my word on this. I am very good at knowing when someone lies to me. " She glances back at the man.

    "He /was/ lying. But I don't know what the truth is here. He was scared, yes. He was genuinely concerned at the thought someone was hurt, but he lied about what happened to him. Why would he lie? It's so... frustrating!"

    Donna frowns, and takes a moment to let the frustration subside. "Maybe he did it. Maybe he did it by accident, and he is scared to admit it. He doesn't... /feel/ guilty. So why else would he be lying?"

    She puffs her cheeks out and shakes her head, then looks over to Robbie. "Thank you for your help," she says. She holds out her hand. "I am Troia of Themyscira. Yes, I am an Amazon. Also I am with the Titans."

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie actually laughs. "Great! Maybe you can call her or something." Then the 'she's not here right now' reason is given and Robbie frowns. "Oh." he notices her do a little jerk of her leg like a frustrated stomp and he couldn't help but snicker a little bit. "Relax, nobody died, everything's fine. Police arn't gonna take in an innocent man, whether he knows he's lying or not."

He does look back over to the man, before he looks back to Donna. "It definitely probably was an accident -if- he had something to do with it. I wonder..." he looks at the guy a moment, tilting his head. "Unless he doesn't know he's lying. To him, he could be telling the truth as he understands it and not know if he actually had anything else to do with it."

But thats when shit just gets confusing, but he nods at the thanks. "Hey, anytime." The offer of a hand is met with a firm grip from Robbie. "Robbie Reyes...of California. I'm an Avenger." he smiles, and thus a new friendship was formed between two young heroes, who continued to converse and learn of one another.