4865/One Cold January Night..

One Cold January Night..
Date of Scene:	25 January 2021
Location:	Location
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Inari Coltrain, Katsumi Oshiro, Naria Shepard

---

Inari Coltrain has posed:
It is a chilly January evening, and while the softly falling snow may look picturesque from afar, it is murder to be running through..Especially when you have a small handful of thugs on your tail. The young woman they are chasing is hardly dressed for the weather in a thin wool coat that doesn't absorb moisture or wind that well, but at the the running helps warm her up as she winds through the nearly empty streets, trying to shake off the thugs. "Come back here, mutant scum!" they yell at her, a dangerous look in their eyes as they follow her towards a nearby alley ..

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
It has been a /Hell/ of a day for Katsumi Oshiro. It started so well. She roused her best friend and romantic interest into trying to learn more about the magical hooey effecting her. And she was in good spirits! She wound up getting punched out, but it was made better by said romantic interest's sweet words. And then those sweet words turned horrifically sour. Ten minutes after getting knocked out, Katsumi was dumped. Why, she doesn't know. How, she has no idea. All she really knows is that she's no closer to knowing what's causing her life-altering changes, and her heart is completely broken.

Fighting might help. It'll put a little money in her pocket. It might be cathartic. Maybe she'll just let someone whale on her so she can feel something other than the emotional pain of what must've been her fault. Her latest trip to America has been one long string of misery.

On her way to the ellicit fighting ring, she catches commotion on approach. Dressed in an unassuming gray hoodie, black tights, and boots, Katsumi peeks around the corner to try to get a better look. Did they say mutant scum?

Naria Shepard has posed:
At the other end of the spectrum? Rave was having a pretty -good- day. The 'bluenette' speedster was herself only marginly better dressed for the weather, her usual skirt and 'club' top having been replaced with a grey hoodie and figure-hugging 'yoga pants'. It wasn't much of a superhero costume, but then she never really had one of those either. Bright glowing hair and eyes tended to make a mask kinda irrelevant after all! But things had been looking up, shows were going well and one light-speed hop across an ocean had meant she'd spent half her weekend in fun and sun in the southern hemisphere.

Okay, so the girl might violate the odd immigration law here and there.

Streaking across the rooftops and up the side of buildings, one particular pause at a ledge to lazily dangle her legs over the edge and take a lazy 'selfie' comes to a pause as those same words echo up to her.

Noone who screamed 'Mutant scum' was generally a good person to be chasing anyone. Time to check that one out!

Inari Coltrain has posed:
Inari Coltrain doesn't bother glancing over her shoulder. She just makes a beeline for the dark alleyway, which may or may not be a good place to be. Either way, the five punks chase her down the alleyway and smirk, glancing this way and that before pulling out various weapons - chains, clubs, knives, even a few guns.

"Thats far enough freak! First I'm taking back my wallet, then we're gonna have 'fun..' an evil look glints in the eyes of the leader, a tall, muscular you g man with a neon green mowhawk, dressed in leather and chains. His punk friends are wearing similar attire with various similarly bright mowhawks. When did that go back in style?

For her part, Inari seems in bad shape. Shivering in her thin jacket, exhausted and starving. She really doesn't need this. "Back off, I'm warning you.." but those threats don't seem to have much weight to them..

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro didn't see the guns. But she did see the weapons. In an instant, her mind goes to a dark place.

If her best friend - the only one she's had in years - doesn't want her, what's her life really worth? It used to be performing for shows. But that seems to be over. She made the choice to not go home for fear of being nabbed, for being inexplicably different. And she would've been fired for what happened anyway. She's sure of it. So now what does she have? Who even is she? Maybe stupidly buying someone some time will mean her life hasn't been a complete waste.

Katsumi glances down at her feet, sullen. Then across to the alley again. First thing she'll do: pull aggro.

Rounding the corner, Katsumi walks brazenly out into the open. Though nighttime, it may be possible to see those distinctly inhuman irises of hers - a jewellike magenta hue. Maybe they'll think she's a mutie, too?

"Hey, cockatiels!," she calls. "If it takes five of you to hurt one girl, you must suck /so/ bad. Y'all a bunch'a b****es so much, you have to get those radioactive hairjobs done at a pet-groomer!"

The last few steps are taken with the intent to rush the nearest one with a wild haymaker. But little does Katsumi realize, she's not moving with human speed any longer. Her dash in is a blur of motion, and the haymaker packing superhuman force.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Rave -did- see the guns, of course she did. Excitable as she was, when the world might as well be moving quite a few steps slower than you, you've got time to take in a few more details. Of course, that didn't mean she was any more cautious for having spotted the weapons. What -does- however slow her roll just a little, is Katsumi moving a heck of a lot faster than everyone else seems to be. She might not be a speedster, but as the song goes: 'one of these things doesn't belong here'.

It's like a flash of light, a fading streak of neon behind her as Rave appears, her arrival announced when her running shoes are suddenly planted in the chest of one of the thugs as she emerges from speed and sends the man sprawling back before touching down lightly.

They'd ambushed Inari, but now the thugs were caught in the 'bad time' between angry Japanese superhuman and glowing laser girl.

Inari Coltrain has posed:
Okay, so these guys are pretty tough - or at least they think they are..But they clearly didn't factor in some kinda super speedster, and a girl with laser beams. What the heck's with that? The first guy doesn't even have a chance to react as Kats slams into him. He staggers back, stunned and bloodied. "Wha?!" he scrambles for his knife, swinging wildly at her, but in his current state, looks like he's gonna pass out any second..

The second guy sprawls to the ground, just as stunned by the flashes of pink light. "The heck? More muties!? Get em!" two thugs are starting to blast at them with their guns now..

Which is when the girl who started all this madness, steps forward and sighs, flicking her wrist at the first gunner, causing his bullets to curve, shooting into the sky instead, before his gun suddenly flies out of his hand.

Katsumi Oshiro has posed:
"Anh!," panics Katsumi as her actions catch up with her. She moved so fast! But she didn't hit as hard as she had when the powers first appeared. So that just means she has the capacity to hit /so much harder/.

The flashy lasers don't surprise her as much, oddly enough. She expected some kind of weirdness, given they were chasing a mutant. But seeing the guns come out, Katsumi's heart drops.

Here it is, then. This is how she dies.

She firms her jaw and shuts her eyes, waiting for the bullets to hit her. Of course, at least one gun's bullets will be curving harmlessly away. Not that she sees that, eyes closed and all. The question is, will any other bullet hit her?

She has every reason to believe being shot will end her. In reality, their small caliber arms won't really do naything.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Bullets -would- mess Rave up if they hit her, but that's a pretty big if. Seeing them come change direction mid-flight however? That's a new one. Still, there was more to go around! A lift of her finger, the grinning girl actually makes a classic 'finger gun' shape before a bolt of searing light lances into one of the men's firearms, shattering the frame and reducing the weapon to hot and painful metal fragments. The girl herself, she actually smirks.

"Pew pew," she teases lightly, straightening up and glancing between herself, the still startled Katsumi and the sighing Inari before addressing the thugs.

"I think you might have picked the wrong mutant losers...time to start running as fast as you can in the other direction."

Inari Coltrain has posed:
"Woah, did you see that? He melted his gun!" the second gun holder yelps as Rave melts it, and he hops back, dropping it. "Ouch, dammit!" but looks like they're out powered and dropping like flies. "Let's go boys..Well get her.lNext time..lMutant freaks! Get outta town!" and they start to scramble out of the alley, not really in the mood for fighting three mutants..

Inari breathes a sigh of relief, checking something in her pocket before glancing at the other girls, making sure they're ok. "Phew thanks for the assist, but I'm afraid I gotta run." she winks and thumbs-up at them..before darting off the opposite direction of the thugs.