4847/Return of the Shredder: Alleyway Aftermath

Return of the Shredder: Alleyway Aftermath
Date of Scene:	23 January 2021
Location:	Alleyways: Brooklyn
Synopsis:	The 'Good Guys' take a pause in the alleyways after fighting The Foot to take notes and trade numbers -- as... you know... girls do...?
Cast of Characters:	Kainashi, Andi Benton, Leena Danvers

---

Kainashi has posed:
    The smoke bomb and flashbang had covered the mutants --and Symbiotes -- retreat, and Kainashi had lead the small group through the back alleys and tiny one-way access streets with surprising canniness, following her nose away from the smell of blood, up and over fences, and pausing to listen for anyone following. Content that she had lead them away from the Foot, she pauses, crouching down, and gives a loud sneeze that makes her ears flop back and forth.

    "Ah... I think... I think we're safe, for the moment." she says lamely, rubbing the back of her head as she looks between Mania and Ballista.

    "So.... fiiiirst time fighting the Foot Clan?"

Andi Benton has posed:
There's no trouble for Mania in keeping up. Whether it's parkour moves, weblines to swing on, or simply remaining at street level, following Kainashi is a simple task. Before long, they are blocks away. That mouth has since faded away to leave initial appearance the others had seen her in.

The canine, a canny one at that, sets the pace, and she follows it with the occasional look toward the raptor as well. A strange trio, but they were making their way through the Foot Clan without much trouble. At least that was good.

Once they've stopped, and Kainashi has sneezed, the otherwise silent Mania finally speaks up. "You mean they are safe from us?" A shoulder, which also hints at some of those spikes, shifts in a shrug. "Must have been."

Leena Danvers has posed:
Somehow Ballista manages to keep up with the ninja and the symbiote. Being a mutant does have its perks. Though when they get to the alleyway she takes a second to rest her hands on her knees, "The Foot? They some kinda Hand knock off or something?" She asks, not knowing how true that statement actually is, "I think we dealt with them a couple of times but they were always customers...And I was still human at the time."

Kainashi has posed:
    "I... don't know." Kainashi replies to Ballista, rubbing the back of her head.

    She looks to Mania. "I'm Kainashi. That's Ballista." she introduces the dinosaur easily, and then flops back against a brick wall, looking at the two of them.

    "They're the ones that made me. I think. They're the ones who did this." she states, pointing at the scars that crisscross her face, and then to the tattoo inside her ear. She frowns, though.

    Then sniffs.

    And she turns to Mania. "You smell... so weird."

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania's gaze turns between Kainashi and Ballista, repeating a couple times. The doglike mutant is one thing. Not the first she's seen. Then there was the blue elf girl that seemed lost. The one that takes after a dinosaur or a lizard is quite another thing.

What must she seem like to them?

"We are Mania," the creature says, a repeat of the introduction earlier before arms cross, giving off just the right attitude and appearance of punk, of goth. That strangely stereo-like voice that blends two different ones is another sign of something different going on, and the yes narrow.

"Who did what? What do you mean, made you?" This also follows Ballista saying she was human. Strange. "We have not thought of what we smell like." Closer inspection suggests the 'costume' could come off as..alive.

Kainashi has posed:
    The canine gives another sniff.

    "... yep. Weird." she announces, and then rubs the back of her neck again.

    "I... ah. Wasn't always like this? I used to have no scars on my face?" she replies, and then quietly. "I mean, no one's born looking like this."

Leena Danvers has posed:
"I try to do my best to ignore smells." Ballista says, "It's harder than you'd think." She runs a hand through her feathers and then rubs the back of her head, "Any idea who the crow mutant was?" She asks, looking at Kainashi, "I know you haven't exactly been with the Foot in a while but he could have been around when you were.."

Andi Benton has posed:
"Says the dog..thing," Mania responds.

//DOGGY//
<<Be quiet! This is serious!>>

An impatient sigh can be heard from at least one part of the bond, but exactly what the two mutants are dealing with remains unclear. They may have seen how she fought, how hands reshaped into different things for both offense and defense, how she looked more than capable of fighting lethally but tried to hold back.

The arms remain crossed, and she lets them in on a little of the secret. The head and face appears to draw back, altering into dozens of small, writhing tendrils that pull away down to the neck, revealing the pale face of a young woman, complete with purple-dyed hair and piercings in a few places, heavy eyeliner, and a frown. A normal human frown. "I'm Andi," she says, "and I..well, Mania and I were patrolling when all that stuff happened. We've never seen anything like that before."

Just then, part of the stuff at one shoulder bristles and reshapes into a smaller head that resembles what they saw before complete with the mouth. It more or less hovers a few inches next to her own head, connected by a mass of tendrils. "Hello, doggy," it says, the voice more distinct from Andi's now. "Hello..lizard," comes next.

Andi rolls her eyes. "Say hello to Mania," she mutters.

Kainashi has posed:
    Kai brightens visibly, seeing the purple-dyed-hair human face, and she perks up, ears rising. "Oh! Your suit's alive, not like Spider-Man's!" she states the obvious, "I love your hair! It's very colorful!" she gives a genuine grin to Andi, and a surprised look to Mania, her head tilting as she opens her mouth, holds up a hand, then closes her mouth, and gives a chipper sounding "Hello Mania!"

    "I was doing my nightly patrol. The Foot were the ones who made me into a mutant and scarred my face, shoulders, arms... back... legs... back of my left hand, I think that was them..." the red canine trails off, her left ear giving a flick.

    "That was the most Foot I have ever seen anywhere, but..." she frowns.

    "The crow-thing... that didn't look like a mutant. Not like us. Its face was --..." she rubs at her own cheek. "Really Human. And didn't smell right. We should have grabbed some of those papers that person dropped. Maybe it would have had more information? ... I could have taken it back to 'Pex. Or Donnie."

Leena Danvers has posed:
"Oh uh, hey." Ballista says to the small second head of the symbiote, "And hi to you Andi. Though I suppose if you're superheroing and giving people your real name that's...I mean is that normal procedure?" She really doesn't know, though when Kainashi mentions grabbing papers, Ballista hmms faintly, "Well I'm not exactly the ninja type, but maybe you could grab the fox and go check out where they pulled that doctor from? Might be something there still if they didn't scrub the whole site like I would." She's definitely done extractions before.

"But yeah like she said, I'm Ballista, I'm uh...Corporate troubleshooter for Null Inc. For the time being." She doesn't know how much longer that she's gonna be able to stay active with her primary goal being missed. She should be trying to capture Kainashi but the canine did just save her from the cops, so she's not gonna do it, "And you guys were patrolling I was just trying to get home. Just my luck."

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi's eyes shift toward one side at Ballista's question. "No, it's not really normal, but nothing about any of that, or this, is," she responds. "And I thought it'd be better to let you know what you're dealing with. Mania's a symbiote."

That said, she glances sidelong at the visage the symbiote itself has taken up, just watching the way it does, focus mostly on Kainashi. "Not like the Spider's, no. We are real," the creature says, adding, "And we want to pet you."

At which point Andi rubs a hand over her face. "Yeah, sorry. It's got this thing about cute animal, uh, people, I guess. We already met some cat person and it wanted to do the same thing." This is awkward, especially right now. "But..thanks. About the hair and stuff. I don't know anything about the Foot, or..making people into mutants, or what that thing was back there, or Null or any of this shit."

Kainashi has posed:
    "I don't know a whole lot either. I'm pretty dumb." Kainashi admits, giving a bit of a shrug, and she looks at the miniature smiling head, her own head tilting a moment as she raises one eyebrow -- or what passes for an eyebrow on the scarred up canine, and her ears draw back. "I'm not cute. I'm a mess of scars and I bite holes in refridgerators." the canine states, a little huffy about being called cute. "This would be a better conversation or Alopex, or Leo. or... anyone else." she murmurs.

Andi Benton has posed:
The symbiote's eyes droop, and Andi merely shuts hers for a few seconds. "You can't just go /pet/ anyone you see just because you want to. They're people too, or.." There's another awkward, even apologetic glance toward Kainashi that follows, "..well, they're not just animals. They have their own thoughts about things and space you need to respect."

By this point, Mania 'retreats' back into whatever part of the body it appeared from, and goes more silent. Andi adds, "..sorry. It's like a big child sometimes. A very, uh, dangerous and insistent child. And you look fine to me. You don't sound dumb, either. It sounds like we all went through some bad shit to end up the way we are, but we gotta figure out what we're gonna do about what happened back there. I don't know anybody you just mentioned."

Leena Danvers has posed:
"She also throws dumpsters like they're footballs." Ballista notes, "Don't let her appearance fool you. She's like The Adorable Hulk."

The raptor takes a second to peer down the alley as a cop car drives by, "Looks like the cops are doing a grid search to try to find any suspects, but chances are we won't get found out in here."

Kainashi has posed:
    "... maybe once we become better friends?" Kai offers as a compromise to Mania, feeling bad that the poor Symbiote got all excited. "And Andi's right. Would you like to be pet by strangers all the time?" she questions, a little more gently to Mania, and then her ears prick up at the sound of tires on asphault.

    "-- not adorable. Also not the Hulk." she states, and she shakes her head.

    "They're... friends of mine. Smarter friends. Who know way more, and I'm going to have to make a report on this... an' you're right, Ballista. I'll want to pull 'Pex for investigation aaaat some later time." she states, minding not giving a timeframe that Ballista can trap them.

Andi Benton has posed:
Andi waves things off, or tries to. The hands are back to a more normal size, still tipped with claws, the forearms still featuring a few rows of spikes along the outsides. "No, no, don't worry about it. /Mania/ still has to learn about self-control."

The eyes, however, reappear over the other shoulder this time, and the voice follows. "Yes, we would like to be pet. To see if we like it." It goes away again.

Andi can only sigh and roll her eyes, giving both of them a look that seems to ask 'See what I mean?' Then she says, "I patrol around the city, sometimes with Spider-Man, sometimes on my own. If it helps, I can keep an eye out for anything else like this, but I don't know how to reach either of you. I'm gonna have to let him know, too. That big crow thing was crazy." She's trying to get back on track.

Eyes just dart between the two as Ballista suggests an Adorable Hulk thing and Kainashi objects to both parts of that. "Would you rather I say you're ugly and bad? Because I don't think you are, and I don't really want to make you feel that way," she says to the canine half of the two. "And you look like you got out of Jurassic Park somehow," she adds to the dinosaur half.

Leena Danvers has posed:
Ballista has no intention of trapping them. She's a good guy now! Though she looks between the two for a second, and then nods, "Yeah I don't know what that was. Didn't smell like a mutant, like Kainashi said." She rubs her muzzle for a second.

"Funny story. They actually wanted to try to make a real Jurassic Park but they couldn't get the cloning tech to work right so they just mixed the DNA with the mutagen and stuck me with it."

Kainashi has posed:
    "That sounds awful, Ballista. And mutation is pretty painful if they don't give you any medicine for it." the canine replies quietly, and she rubs the back of her head. "I don't know what the crow thing was. Did not smell like a mutant animal, didn't... really seem like one. It was weird. I'm going to take it up with Alopex." she remarks quietly to the dinosaur... and then she narrows her eyes a moment, then states:

    "Isn't there like, five movies and two cartoons about why making a Jurassic Park is a bad idea?"

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania takes to being quiet at the moment, even internally. It's a sometimes-needed break from being asked this or that, from wanting to do one thing or another. It truly is a test wills much of the time, but the symbiote is observing all of this.

Andi works a metal stud in her tongue around for a few seconds, the sound of it making contact with her teeth following before she rests a hand at one hip, by the spiked belt. "Mutagen..yeah. So they made both of you, and it hurt, and..damn." She's frowning, a shake of the head following. The name 'Alopex' is unknown to her, but while the mutants are considering options and taking the ball and running with it as far as Jurassic Park goes, Andi's eyes light up.

"I think that was a tengu. I've seen them in some stuff before, and in a game or two. But why was one here? They're supposed to be myths, from stories," she says.

Leena Danvers has posed:
"Aren't aliens and demons and amazonian warriors supposed to be myths too?" Ballista offers, "I think we're a bit beyond the pale when it comes to stuff that isn't supposed to exist.." She frowns a little bit, "The real question is what the Foot is doing with a Tengu and what a Tengu wants with...Whatever that doctor in the labcoat is."

Kainashi has posed:
    "Ten...gu..." the young canine rolls the word in her mouth and over a moment she considers. "I'm... I'm going to have to report to my friends on this. That... that can't be good where the Foot are involved." she looks to Ballista a moment. "I understand if you're out for investigation and fighting..." she states quietly. "Considering... y'know... Null."

Andi Benton has posed:
"...point to Barney's sister," Andi says after Ballista reels off a few examples of things that should not be, yet are, leading to her arms crossing again over the white spider insignia that takes up the majority of her torso, front and back. The symbiote covers over her head again, restoring the complete Mania look with the mouth gone, just a smoother surface from the eyes down.

When the voice is heard again, it's back to that combination of human and alien. "Probably a scientist doing scientist things. Maybe you should see your friends and we should see ours, and go from there. If you need to find us, uh..well. We have social media." She produces a phone and turns it on, showing the best account to reach her at. "Just send a private message. Or, uh, we could swap numbers. We also like chocolate, so you can leave some for us." The eyes turn upbeat.

Leena Danvers has posed:
"Alright well.." She hmms, "Tell Alopex I wanna talk to her when you see her." She says to Kainashi, "She knows where to meet. She can leave Kurt a message if needed." She nods her head a couple of times, and then heads for the exit of the alley, taking a second to peek around for cops before she bails

Kainashi has posed:
    "Will do." the younger canine states before she hops up -- and then, plain as day just reaches over and delivers a little 'pat pat' to Mania's shoulder, before she goes off in an opposite direction of Ballista. "Take care, Andi and Manic! Say 'hi' to Spider-Man for me!" she states, and she lifts a grate, and then hops right down to the sewers, neat as you can get.

Andi Benton has posed:
Mania pauses as Kainashi extends the hand for the patting, leading to a tilt of the head and a curious expression in the eyes. "It's.." not Manic, but the pooch is gone faster than the symbiote and host can finish the sentence. After a few more seconds of consideration, she tries patting her own shoulder, finds it to not be the same, shrugs, then sends a line of webbing out to swing her way through the adjacent neighborhoods.