9484/Whatever you do, don't go to Herowood!

Whatever you do, don't go to Herowood!
Date of Scene:	06 January 2022
Location:	Avenue of Tomorrow - New Troy
Synopsis:	Thugs with advanced weapons robbing a ... jewelery store? ... are stopped. But why?
Cast of Characters:	Aspen Matthews, Naria Shepard

---

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Avenue of Tomorrow is a great place to window shop. And to make notes of things to buy elsewhere at a reasonable price. And after her swim from New York, Aspen really needs to window shop. To erase that little taste of shame that she has in her mouth after talking with Aquaman.

He was so understanding. That's the shit of it all.

Well, it was a nice day and it doesn't matter what's happening in NYC right now. She's in Metropolis, the shining beacon on the hill. Having spent half the morning already looking at sporting gear--racy swimsuits in particular because, yes, she liked getting attention at the beach--she's found herself by a fountain, sitting and thinking about nothing in particular as her fingers swirled in the waters.

Behind her the fountain starts doing strange things that catch some attention as people take photos of what's obviously a new fountain feature: physically impossible water statues forming where streams merge, before collapsing and forming something else.

Aquaman.

Killian.

Her father.

Hawke.

Superman.

Namor.

Then, as her eye is caught by Booster Gold's garish and transparent attempt to cash in, members of the Justice League.

All forming in the fountain behind her without her a) noticing, or b) being connected to it.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Racey swimsuits were right up Rave's alley, that much was pretty true for the outed metahuman even before she'd gained the ability to channel light through her skin to power herself. She liked looking good and she didn't mind attention in the slightest...plus there was the whole fact that this was Superman's home town.

A chance to go shopping and potentially meet the big blue?

Definately a worthwhile reward to herself for stopping disaster at that bridge evacuation.

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Well, enough thinking about heroes. She's not one. That's a fact. She's just an oceanographer and a weird thing that's not even human.

"Dad, you should have told me," she murmurs to herself as she gets up, not noticing the sounds of disappointment as the fountain returns to its usual operation while she walks away.

Time for more swimsuits.

The prospect cheers her visibly and she heads to the "Surf Kahuna" shop. Like anybody in there has been within ten miles of a proper surfing beach. But ... that double-cross-over number in the window has potential...

...wait, she's seen blue hair before. That's normal. But GLOWING blue hair?!

"Excuse me," she says to Rave, spotting the girl in the shop upon entering. "Would you mind telling me where you got hair dye like that? That's gorgeous!"

Naria Shepard has posed:
Currently caught up pondering if a particular one-piece swimsuit was a good template for a 'super-suit' or if it was just asking for discomfort in the real world despite how flattering it would look, Rave blinks as she's addressed, a little laugh coming at the question she'd almost certainly gotten before.

"It's my natural color," she offers, shrugging her shoulders as her hair gives a little 'pulse' of light about it.

"I used to have to sleep blindfolded just to get any rest."

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Oh.

She doesn't say it, but she doesn't have to. Her face is saying it. Beginning with the open mouth. And the stare as she processes what she was just told.

Then she says it.

"Oh."

Followed by...

"Oh, I get it! You're a metahuman like ... the Justice League peeps! Only yours is glowing blue hair instead of ... I don't know, being invulnerable like Wonder Woman or screechy like that something-or-other Canary woman, right?"

Beat.

"Black Canary was it?"

She scratches her head and shrugs.

"Pity. If you could get that colour in a dye you'd be a billionaire in a week. 'Cause I'd buy a millions bucks worth just for me!"

Naria Shepard has posed:
Whatever that unasked question was, Rave was going to guess it was the second natural question that tended to come to that reveal...

But she moves on, a little laugh at the definition of 'screechy', Rave nods her head before shrugging. "Would if I could I guess. I know someone once tried just a bunch of glowsticks mixed into dye...didn't go well, did a real number on their hair too."

Hand raised in greeting, the swimsuit she was considering is held at her side.

"I'm Rave, nice to meet you."

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Aspen takes the hand and shakes it with both hers. "Aspen. Aspen Matthews. Nice to meet you too."

Her eyes fall on the swimsuit, then.

"Good choice as long as you're not doing a lot of movement. Very nice outfit for showing off, but you go running with that and you'll risk a Jackson. You want something binding at the sides if you're moving."

Beat.

"Don't ask me how I know."

Aspen's eyes twinkle as she lets that go to Rave's imagination.

"I'm kinda an action chick. Surfing mainly, but diving, swimming, scuba ... anything like that. Hell, even beach volleyball. I've had every kind of wardrobe malfunction incautious clothing selection can have happen. You're hearing the voice of bitter experience."

Naria Shepard has posed:
Running? Wait, did this woman recognize her? It wasn't like she hid who she was but...oh no, hang on, normal people ran at normal speeds in swimsuits.

Right.

"Huh, never tried surfing or scuba diving..." she muses, chuckling a little at the thoughts before replacing the swimsuit on the rack. A 'maybe' as it were.

"And here I though I took enough risks just wearing the skirt all the time."

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Oh, never think of it as "risk". You've got the looks, show it off. It goes away fast enough, so enjoy the time you've got with them."

Says the woman who's got the looks and even when in ... wait, is that an AQUARIUM worker's uniform?! ... an aquarium worker's uniform goes out of her way to show herself off.

"And if youv'e never surfed, you've never LIVED!" she adds as punctuation with a guffaw. "Nothing like it in the world. Just you, the board, the water, and gravity. Any of that goes out of sorts and you're heading for a bad time. But when they're all in sync? It's sublime!"

That last spoken with a broad grin and closed eyes.

The eyes open.

"I'm gathering from your hanging it up that you're interested in action girl stuff. Well, I'm on the lookout for something new too, so let's see if we can't find something for you together."

Out in the courtyard the armoured people, marching out of a maintenance exit, make a straight march toward a nearby jewelry store.

They probably want to decorate their armour...

Naria Shepard has posed:
"Looks sure, but I have a lot of followers too and...well, the drama with having that kinda photo out there accidently is..."

Rave trails off, her words of agreement to company in shopping (that would always be quite a bit more fun than alone.) But thos armored men?

"Huh...do the uh...Asgardians go on shopping trips?"

Aspen Matthews has posed:
"Wait, you mean you wear JUST the ski..." Aspen flushes as she pictures the kind of accidents that could entail. "Honey, Rave, I surf waves people think are too dangerous on 'beaches' best known for their massive tooth-like rocks. And even *I*'m not brave enough to do that!"

Her eyes are DEFINITELY not looking. Not even peeking. They're so openly and obviously not looking they might as well be staring and lifting up the hem.

"I'm always covered by so..."

Pause.

"Asgardians?"

Her eyes are drawn to where Rave is looking.

"That's what Asgardians look li...?"

One of the 'Asgardians' splits off from the main body and puts down a device that looks like a cross between a nuclear power core in a B-movie with poor special effects and a sundial. A flick of a switch later, a large lattice of retina-burning red starts to form in front of every visible door and window in what looks like at least a hundred yard radius. Maybe more.

One customer at HeroWood, reaching out to open the door, touches the lattice and screams in pain as instant third-degree burns score the palm of her hand.

The rest of the armoured column enter the jewellery store.

Naria Shepard has posed:
"Not just the skirt, but my underwear choices require s-" Rave begins, but one of the armored men setting up that death-beam-field thingy? That was probably not Asgardians.

Or maybe it was? Did 'gods' rob jewelry stores?

Giving a little whince at the burn she straightens up, approaching the field with a soft 'huh' before glancing back at Aspen.

"So I'm gonna go deal with..." she gestures about as she lifts a hand towards the lattice without touching it. "We can continue this later, maybe grab a coffee or something."

Okay, if these were lasers? They had light, light enough that she could hopefully absorb enough to make a gap...right?

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Not touching it seems wise, given how suddenly the hairs on Rave's arm begin to stand as the hand approaches. Whatever it is, there's a light component certainly, but also a very strong electrical one.

"What, are you crazy!?" Aspen asks, yanking Rave's hand back. "Didn't you see what that woman's hand did?"

She's talking about the woman clutching her hand to her body in agony as she crouches and cries.

"Look, it's not our jewellery store, is it? They have insurance, don't they? And Superman will be here soon anyway. We just sit and watch and don't get involved and it all works itself out."

She seems really earnest. And yet. There's something in her eyes. Almost like self-loathing.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Alright, Plan B.

The thing targeted doors, she'd have to improvise an exit and make sure she was faster than the machine if it might be able to adjust.

"Trust me," she offers, that trademark smile as she lifts her other hand, this time to point at the wall.

"Bad guys with tech like that? They've got hostages and they'll only get bolder. Besides, they probably planned for Superman..."

Light lances from her fingertips, the girl disappearing in a flash that follows in its wake, exiting the hole she'd carved.

"They didn't plan on me!"

The self-lothing was missed, or maybe taken for something else, but Rave was on the move and...excited.

This was what she lived for!

Aspen Matthews has posed:
The race begins.

In lane #1 it's the Blue Lighting Bolt herself: Rave. Complete with a skirt that may or may not have underthings beneath it. (There is NO WAY that Aspen is checking that!)

In lane #2 is some kind of advanced computer targeting and energy projection system. One that had already apparently recognized the threat from the hole starting (very quickly--instantly by human perceptions) to be formed in the Surf Kahuna shop wall and that started to:

1. Project a field around itself and its operator. Time elapsed...99.9%+ the speed of light divided by about three metres.

2. Project two more webs around two random civilians. Time elapsed...let's call it less time than it takes Rave to get to one. But possibly not both.

The threat was spotted. The threat is engaged with a countering threat.

And all this happens before Aspen can even begin to think of blinking at the sudden hole.

Naria Shepard has posed:
The problem with light speed was that she couldn't move people, rescuing others at her peak was impossible when she was basically light herself, she'd have to slow down and that wouldn't help matters.

In that hyper-speed moment she was little more than a silhouette of her form, hands extending as she attempted to blast a laser bolt outwards and into the machine.

Hopefully future-tech was fragile, or she was going to be out of ideas.

Maybe she -did- need Superman to turn up!

Aspen Matthews has posed:
The webs don't stop light (unless the light happens to directly hit the strands, of course). The laser blast hits the control unit causing for what seems like forever (in Rave's perspective) nothing to happen. The webs build up around the people and the control unit.

Then the shorts start, and the minor explosions as electrical components start to go on the fritz from being lanced through by concentrated light. The person at the controls gets zapped and falls backward with a cry, crashing to the ground. The various grids over doors and windows start to move ... into the buildings they'd sealed, slicing through stone and steel (and igniting wood) as if nothing were there. Thankfully the movement is slow.

Even more thankfully, the movement around the now-shrinking cages surrounding the two "hostages" is even slower. There's several seconds (an eternity for Rave) before the people inside them get diced and cauterized in one easy motion.

And several seconds is, quite by coincidence, how long it takes for the long tendrils of water from the fountain to snake across to the nearest hostage (a pregnant lady screaming and begging for her life) and ... touch the web. An instant burst of electrical power shorts the web, causing it to dissipate in a spectacular display of electrical carnage. The woman is knocked free and clear, safe, but terrified.

It's a pity that the web around the second hostage can't be reached by that tendril, despite its best speed efforts, before it closes down and kills the elderly gentleman with his old-fashioned newspaper tucked under one arm and an old-timey beret on his head.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Panic at speed faster than electrical impulses...then it seems nothing turns into a shock, a short and a reaction. Panic turns to elation....then panic again as the lights and energy starts to collapse inwards towards the hostages. Okay, now it was doing something, bad things....but at least it was doing it slower! The tendril of water sending one webbed 'cage' into shorts and disapaiting the deadly energy was suprising, it raised questions...but it also actually showed her how to save the hostage who was about to be turned into human-chunks.

Near light meant there was a loud 'bang' of force, a rush of wind in her wake, but it was going to hit -after- she'd finished. Rave's hair tears loose of its ties, her form rushing to one of the outdoor stalls and shattering the nearest window when she reverses direction and heads back to the old man...a pair of bottled water clasped in her hands. Technically it was shoplifting, but well...

It would be too slow to throw them, they wouldn't accelerate enough to uncap them...so Rave exhales a breath and rushes -into- the web, water bottles held out first so that the beams slash into the countainers and splash the water across itself, causing another dramatic crackle and short.

It would look downright heroic and dramatic...if Rave's sudden direction changes, holding out the bottles and desperate maneuvering -not- to hurt the bystander meant she had to hurl herself sideways. A loud, glowing, tumbling impact as the world goes back to 'normal' speed and Rave appears tumbling on the pavement, a burn across one bare shoulder and only a -very- repeated lesson from a certain 'Screeching' heroine saving her from hitting her head.

Dirty, burned...and a good percentage of the water had splashed back on her. Not exactly the heroic pose of victory.

Aspen Matthews has posed:
Of course this all comes out in a string of motion so blindingly fast that nobody can spot what happened who wasn't themselves in some way a speedster. Aspen, for example, standing in the hole that Rave burned, her arms outstretched in the direction of that water tendril was only part-way through turning toward the second hostage, hopelessness visibly chiseled across her face as she realized she couldn't stop the web around the second target.

Wait.

What?

Then the shock on her face as the second cage vanishes and in its place her newfound acquaintance bounces across the ground in an ugly, road rash-inducing way.

The tendril of water collapses as Aspen's hands come up to her mouth, eyes opened wide. She takes a few steps toward Rave before more shouting reminds her that there's still webs threatening people. Troubled eyes land on Rave before she turns her attention back to the fountain.

This time there's no tendrils. This time there's huge balls of water rising out of the fountain, emptying it, each ball filled with coins as they fly out, one to each web hitting a wall and two at the controller. It's all very impressive and takes a lot of concentration...

...that distracts her from the armoured figure coming out of the jeweler's and aiming some kind of weapon at her, finger tightening over the trigger.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Ow.

That was going to hurt, at least until she could heal herself, which compared to the rest of her abilities was considerably slow. Rave could feel the pain, the compulsion to lay there a moment longer and let it pass before trying to move...but even for her, there wasn't any time for that.

Eyes lift, still aglow as they widen at Aspen's display of Aquatic power, the water projectiles infused with the coins of many a wish adding quite a bit of 'umpf'. It was a sight to appreciate...but not so much that she didn't spot the man emerging from the store and raising the weapon she doubted was a bullet. Lasers sucked when they were shot at her, like lightning bolts, the real things were almost as fast as she was, if not equal depending on the nature, no way she could stop it like a bullet...

So she didn't try, instead she channels a bolt of her own, the intense beam of laser light intended to simply slice the weapon apart and offer the very same threat that he'd pointed to the hostages right back at him.

Aspen Matthews has posed:
In rapid succession (for everybody except Rave) the scene explodes.

First, and critically, the globes of water hit their targets. Whatever it was that was forming the laser grids seemed to employ electrical force that got thoroughly disrupted by the mass quantities of water (and coins) that doused them. Spectacular lightning flashes and the smell of ozone accompany the rapid succession of strikes.

Then Rave's strike hits the weapon, causing it to start cracking and, indeed, evaporating small pieces of it, giving it something critical: thrust that moves the point of aim ever so slightly, away from Aspen's head and instead right across the front of her eyes. Before full destruction is reached, the finger triggers the beam and it leaps the distance, albeit shortened compared to what was desired, crossing in front of Aspen's eyes and, being the same oddly electrical form, dazzles her and makes her stagger back, leading to her hitting the pavement hard.

Then the laser explodes.

The man holding it is similarly blinded and, on top of that, badly burned, with two of his fingers charred to the bone near the tip and the rest of his bare skin, where not covered by armour or cloth, burned from first to third degree according to exposure and distance. A shout of anguish from him alerts the remaining people in the jewelry store to the changed situation.

Looking back at where Aspen was, it's ... weird. There's nobody there, just a pile of very wet clothing.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Sympathy for a robber who was willing to use 'future-tech' or alien weaponry to rob jewerly stores was pretty low for Rave. He'd live, and he'd have a hell of a reminder of mis mistake.

Not that such ruthless thoughts were on Rave's mind at the moment, instead her gaze was on the puddle that had been Aspen, eyes wide and mouth a little agape.

She really, REALLY hoped that was deliberate and that the girl she'd only just met hadn't been popped like some kind of delicate jellyfish.

Back to the shouting thug and Rave lifts her hand, a warning punctuated by the glow of energy dancing across pale skin and down to her fingertips.

"Time to surrender, before you're on the wrong side of another laser."

Aspen Matthews has posed:
"Surrender?!"

Aspen's voice speaks from where the pile of sopping wet clothing had been, the woman standing once again in them, bone dry.

"They tried to KILL me!"

The voice is angry. And scared. A dangerous combination in someone who can do what she just did.

"Surrender!? Surrender this!"

And to Rave's senses, another ball of water forms, different from the rest in that it doesn't flow, starting to launch slowly toward the doorway that the laser-armed thug and two shadowy others behind it are in.

A very dangerous combination.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Angry (but alive!) Aspen, stubbon and frightened thugs. It was likely to end badly, or at least brutally.

She should probably put a stop to it and quickly, before either side got carried away.

Then again, she'd been the one to threaten with lasering-.

She moves, a flash of light and the now soaked heroine zips forwards to lash out, that same 'throw' she'd been taught to use, to accelerate up, and throw one of those two rear thugs into the other.

Aspen Matthews has posed:
That shut up the screaming. Hearing his two friends' skulls cracking together behind him in the wake of a streak of light got the splody-thug to stop screaming and whirl in place, eyes wide open.

Just in time for the ball of water to hit him in the back of the head.

Knocking his head, followed by the rest of his body, forward as the very solid, ice-like ball knocks him face-first onto the ground and the water ball bounces away.

Then collapses into a sheet of water (and coins and assorted weird underwater growths) covering the ground.

Aspen, pale as a ghost, stands there staring at what happened and what she'd done.

"Is he...?"

Tears seem ready to flow when ... the semi-conscious man coughed and moaned on the ground.

He wasn't.

"Oh thank goodness!"

Naria Shepard has posed:
"He's alright," Rave speaks, doubling over with a soft sigh and shaking her head. She was splattered with water, very glad for the darker colors and wishing she'd actually considered the swimsuit...but they were okay.

"We're alright," she adds, straightening up to close the distance and pat the other woman on the shoulder before whincing a little at her own burn. "You did great. That was awesome."

Aspen Matthews has posed:
"I did what now?" Aspen is weaving backward as the shock of the situation sets in and adrenaline's flood leaves her body, giving her the shakes.

She focuses, brow furrowed, "How did you ... ?"

She gestures to the second hostage, the one she couldn't save. Then, as if just remembering, gestures to the hole in the wall she exited through.

"I didn't even see ..."

Her eyes now go to the pair sleeping it off behind the burn-handed man.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" she finally agrees. "You didn't even need my help!"

Naria Shepard has posed:
A grin, practiced and honestly pretty natural in the post-heroics rush. Endorphines, adrenaline, all of it a heady mix before she lifts her arms and the light around her wraps, glows and flows light liquid.

Her form becomes that silhouette, devoid of detail until it resolves and she stands, still dirty, still wearing a soaked shirt, but her wounds fully healed.

"No way, if you hadn't shown me water worked? I would have been in some trouble. So would they!"

A point to the civillians, Rave's eyes finally move back to the store she'd blasted a new exit into with a little bite of her lip and a grin in humor.

"Think they'll still let me buy a shirt?"