12390/Throwing poke'balls

Throwing poke'balls
Date of Scene:	27 October 2020
Location:	Holy Ghost Church, Clinton
Synopsis:	The Blue Beetle visits Dagger to make amends and give her some advice.
Cast of Characters:	Dagger, Blue Beetle (Kord)

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Dagger has posed:
The church has a few candles lit to give the darkness some visibility. Tandy is sitting in a pew with her new phone. One arm is in a sling while the other uses her thumb to flip a few times across the screen. ".. Come on.. get in there.. fucking.. bird... thing."

The phone came with two apps. A Beetle app and Poke'mon Go. She was never into Poke'mon as a child, but at least this is something to do. For the last few hours she has been wandering around the block 'collecting' bugs, birds, and other strange creatures that she can't really pronounce well. So far she hasn't found a specific favorite yet.

Next to her is a half-ate granola bar that she fished out of the box of food that was brought over. She has a sleeping bag set up in the corner next to a small portable heater that is plugged in through an extension cord. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a baggy sweater, her blonde hair is tied up behind her in a thick bunch.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Not too far away, a certain azure bug sits on the edge of a rooftop, looking at the church not too far away. The cowled figure looks down at a similar phone (though one with mny more apps) and sighs as he finally makes up his mind about something.

His thumbs bring up the messenger app and start tapping on the virtual keypad. It's only a few words and when he finishes he looks at the screen a moment longer.. and then hits 'send' and a few seconds later on /her/ phone..

>>BlueBeetle02>> Hey.. You busy?

Dagger has posed:
Glancing down at the message that comes through, Tandy presses her lips together in a thin frown. She gives a look around, then back down at the phone. She taps away slowly with her thumb on the glass.

<< Yes. I am trying to catch a Weedle. >>

That's it. No other response.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Blue Beetle blinks at the response... Then smirks a bit, shaking his head. "Because of course she is." he mutters and his thumbs start flying over the keyboard again.

>>BlueBeetle02>> Sounds fun. I think we should talk. Is it okay if I come over? Also, if I do, will your boyfriend try to eat me again?

Dagger has posed:
<< He's not my boyfriend. Yes, he will try and eat you, but he's not here. >>

Tandy thumbs out the response, then taps the game back on as she goes back to flicking a red ball at the stupid bug on the ground. She's gone through six so far and he won't be caught. That and she has terrible aim. Flick. Flick. Flick.

"COME ON MAN." She huffs out in an angry manner. "Get in the fucking.. you know what? Fuck you." She taps the 'run' button.

"Stupid .. dumb game.. couldn't stick Candy Crush on here.. "

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Of course, Beetle doesn't know she is swarting and hgaving a terrible time trying to capture a bug-type pokemon. He's a rooftop or two away and /not/ spying on her because that would be TOTALLY unethical...

>>BlueBeetle02>> Well that doesn't sound like a no.. I think.. Please don't shoot me when I show up.

And with that he snaps the phone to a special case on his belt, the device interfacing with the rest of his suit, and pushes himself up. And starts running towards the edge of the rooftop where he launches himself off towards the church.

It only takes a few minutes, and abouit three rooftops, before he lands atop the church, near a partially broken window. Squeezing himself through, he fionds himself high above the floor in the rafters.

"Don't zap me... please... I know I deserve it but.. please don't." he calls down.

Dagger has posed:
Glancing upwards to the ceiling, Tandy gives a visible frown upon her face. She puts the phone down, then lets out a heavy breath. "I'm not going to zap you. Sides, my good shoulder is fractured. I don't have the best aim with the other."

Flopping down heavily into the pew, she frowns at him. "Got your box of stuff. I guess you feel pretty bad for beating the crap outta me and letting that guy get away." Her face scrunches up some in frustration. "But, whatever, I'm over it. I had a nurse pop my arm back in the socket and I should be fine in a week or two."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Well, way to make him feel even /more/ guilty... Beetle winces and.. a deep sigh escapes the shadows abover her. There is a click and the sound of something uncoiling as he lowers himself down on a monofiliment line.

When he reaches the floor, he releases the wire and looks at her. There is definately guilt on his face.

"Yes I did feel bad about hurting you..." he admits, "I still do. It /was/ an accident.. and me acting on a bad assumption. Not about the guy you were chasing, but assuming you were physically tougher and.. better trained." he says with another sigh.

Dagger has posed:
"I am /perfectly/ trained. You used a noise gun on me that hit me like a sonic boom. I can't dodge an invisible gun blast of noise you know. If Cloak and I really wanted to take you and webhead down, we would have just swallowed you up and left you to rot in the dark." Tandy says with a defiant snort in her throat.

"And we aren't hunting super powered up bugs in stupid technology suits. We're taking out gang members and methheads who are hurting children. We aren't trying to be the next Avengers." Giving a flick of her good hand, a blade of light appears. She gives it a hard throw forward, then watches it curve around swiftly in a wide arc before returning to her palm as she snatches it out of the air.

"We went easy on you." Scoff.

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Okay, that was a LITTLE bit insulting wasn't it. Thinking that he and Spidey would be /that/ easy to take down. He's fought off alien INVASIONS before and survived..

Except for when...

He shakes that off and regards the cocky young woman and sets his expression. "Believe what you will... But in the end what you are doing is making yourself out to be the bad guys.." he tells her, and watches as she idly tosses the light dagger, "What were you going to do AFTER you zapped him, hmmmm?"

Dagger has posed:
"We aren't /good/ guys. We're not some kid's role model. You may want to sell toys of yourself and have a poster on the wall or a cereal named after you, but that is not who we are. We are anger and fury. We're the ones that fell through the cracks and got forgot about. Someone has to fight for the little people that no one cares about. It's easy to shine when you're fighting whatever alien race or super power that stomps through New York, but no one cares about us." Tandy says angrily with a crack in her voice.

"No one cared about us when they took Ty .. Cloak and I. No one cared when they held us down, put their drugs in us and then left us to rot on that island. We had to watch forty other kids die around us." She says, her tone coming out trembling and strangled. "Forty kids! CHILDREN! No one cared about us!" As she shouts, she glows brighter and brighter as the shadows of the church wash away to reveal a broken girl.

"So why the fuck should I care about those who hurt them!? The police don't care! You don't care! No one cares! So Cloak and I will do whatever it takes to protect them!"

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Blue Beetle stands there as her ire rises, as her fury grows. He doesn't step back, doesn't wilt under her explanations, her accusation, her growing glow. He stands up to her verbal and emotion onslaught and when she finally pauses...

"Because if /you/ don't care, then whats the point?" he asks. "You've been hurt, you and /Tyrone/ and a whole bunch of others. You didn't get the justice you deserve."

He takes a deep breath. "You have.. every right to be angry. To want vengence. But you should be fighting for /justice/. The justice /you/ didn't get but you know others deserve. You say you don't want to be a role model well guess what, you are! When you /torture/ these people you are telling others that it is TOTALLY okay to do the same. That due process doesn't /matter/. Now I'm not saying I haven't roughed a few hoods up in my time, but I always try to make sure that they pay their dues to society, to the law.. To /show/ them they can't escape their responsibilities. Does it always work? No. ANd it piosses me off.. But I /try/."

Dagger has posed:
"Because due process and justice doesn't matter! It doesn't. No one cared when the cops gunned down Cloak's best friend in the street in cold blood for something he didn't do. No one cared when we went to the cops and told them about the island. No one cared when they saw how sick I got, or how Cloak turned into a monster. There is no such thing as justice, or due process. It's rich people lining their pockets on dead bodies." Tandy's voice comes in a rumbling snarl of frustration.

"You don't get it. Fancy suit. Few hundred dollars worth of food and gear. Look at you. Rich kid in an Iron Man suit playing super hero. Take all of that shit off and who are you? Some dude in an expensive car who got bored one day with his money. You don't /get/ it. You don't know what Hell's Kitchen is all about. You aren't down here with us, the Devil, Luke Cage. You aren't .. you're not /defending/ those who need it."

"You may not like our methods, but we get results. I'd rather put some asshole who raped a child and stuck her full of heroin through hell than gently pat him on the head and hand him to the cops so he bails out and disappears. I don't want /justice/. I want to punish them until they are nothing but smoldering ash and this city is finally free of the sickness and cancer that runs through her veins."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
It looks like her shots have hit a few buttons there, by the way he winces at her accusations. Each one almost forcing him to take a step back... But.. He doesn't. At one time he might have. But not now.

"You're right..." he says slowly. "Not about Due Process not mattering regardless of how often it seems to fail. You're right that the system did fail you and cloak.. and others. ANd you're right.. Take this suit away and I am just a rich white guy with no powers..."

He shakes his head. "But I /try/. I don't have fancy powers, gained by nature or by unethicl experimentation. I may be one of those billionaire superheroes, but I started my career on the streets of Chicago, defending the little guy and gal. Not because I was bored but becauise I had a responsibility. To my fellow man and woman. Not my social class. I may have worked my way up from the street, but I never forgot it, even when I was fighting aliens and robots and nazis and dinosaurs. Iwas doing that so the ones who COULDN'T could protect the streets in ways I never could. But I never /forgot/,

"Your fight is just but no, your methods are not. No, I don't want some SCUMBAG like that to get off free but that wouldn't happen if you provided some PROOF as tro what he's DOING. When you /purge/ the bad guy of his addiction, when CLoak pulls that nightmnare whammy, " looks like SOMEONE has been doing some detective work, "Then you are LITTERALLY contaminating or even erasing evidence that COULD have put the bad guy away. You aren't cutting out the cancer, you're helping METASTISIZE it. So I'm not saying stop your crusade. I'm saying fight it /smarter."

Dagger has posed:
"That's the thing. We can't just deliver proof. It's not like we can set up cameras before hand, or tell them to pause so that we can record them raping someone. That's not how it works." Tandy says with a rumble in her throat. "You know how many people walk because a superhero took them down? No proof. They look like innocent victims. No court will throw them in jail just because Spider Man webbed some guy to a building."

Shaking her head, she stares at the wall for a long time, away from him. "I don't care about evidence. I just want to make sure those kids are safe."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
A hand gently rests on her shoulder. It doesn't sueeze, or rub.. It just rests there. Long fingers dressed in blue material.

You may not realize it but.. We /all/ want the kids to be safe.. All kids. But there /has/ to be a line or else some of these kids don't grow up to think that the ends /always/ justify the means.." he says softly. "You think I haven't wanted to exact.. vengence.. on someone before. You think I haven't, that /any/ of us capes haven't, at least come across what you have seen at least /once/? Powers or Tech or just plain insanity, we're all still human. It HURTS us. But we /try/. And we keep trying. I'm.. I'm sorry we didn't save you. I really really am..."

Dagger has posed:
"I'm not a superhero. I'm not even human anymore. I'm something else. A monster. It's what it turned Cloak and I into. These powers are killing us. I'm burning up inside and the dark is driving Cloak insane. One day, it will consume him and there will be nothing left after I explode. This is all we have until that moment comes." Tandy rasps out with a loud sniff, reaching up to wipe at her face with her good arm.

"You have your ways, we have ours. They don't have to be compatible, and you don't have to like it. We aren't going to tell you how to do your job. Just leave us be. These people that we hunt are the worst type of people. They're taking these mutant kids and shipping them to Singapore to experiment on them. Poor, scared, kids .. who is already hated by the world for being born the way they are. Now they have to deal with hired thugs stealing them, and then cutting them open."

".. that is why Cloak and I are hurting these people. They trade cash for lives. They see kids as furniture to move around. They aren't deserving of their light."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Blue Beetle is silent again... just for a moment... Then drops hgis hand.. But she can feel that he doesn't walk away. That he stands there.. resolute. "If you weren't human, it wouldn't hurt so much." he tells her. "And... you're right. My way doesn't /have/ to be compatable with yours. But I can't.. I can't let you guys do this alone."

He takes a deep breath. "You act like this isn't my fight or anyone elses.. That you need to go it alone because people don't understand you or believe in you. I.. know what /that/ is like. When you are alone. When no one else believes in you..."

And there is something in that tone.. something painful... something soul-deep in the way he says that.

"And while I do not like your methods.. I will not let you guys fight this /alone/. And.. I'm not going to let you guys die, either..."

Dagger has posed:
"You keep saying the words "I will not let", as if you have some type of say in any of this." Tandy says as she swipes her hand beneath her nose. "We aren't going to die if other people don't get in our way. It's when others intervene is when it always goes sideways."

She heads over to the box of supplies, nudging it with her foot before she leans down carefully to fish out a bottle of water, cradling it against her so that she can fumble the cap off. A bit of liquid sloshes out from the top.

"Out of sight, out of mind. It's how Cloak and I operate."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Ted Kord makes a frustrated sound.. and mssages the bridge of his nose.. thank god the goggles ride high. "Are you always this obstinant?" he asks,, then drops his hand and regards her.

"Other people 'intervene' because you don't freakin explain what you're doing until /after/ you jump into it. Perhaps more people would actually offer to /help/ if you asked. You really don't need to do this alone. Thats your /choice/, not the reality. You can't win the lottery unless you buy a ticket. You can't expect help or even sympathhy when you don't communicate /first/.

Dagger has posed:
"How many people 'intervene' when Spider-Man is roughing up some carjacker and sticking him to a wall? No one. Or Captain America? I know us D-Listers don't get the same level of respect."

Tandy says with a wrinkle of her nose as she finally gets a sip of water. "I don't want sympathy. I just want to finish what we started so that we can end this nightmare." Her lips press together in frustration. "I'll talk to Cloak and see if he wants your help, but he isn't very trusting."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Ted Kord sighs and wishes he could run his fingers through his hair but, you know,. cowl and secret identity and all that. SO he settles for shaking his head. "Even you know, deep down inside, what you do and what Spidey does is different. From what I've seen, Spidey doesn't operate on out right vengence. You're operating somewhere between Batman and Punisher and.. thats not the /best/ place to be." he says, his voice hitching a bit with.. anger maybe, when he mentions Batman.

"And I can /tell/ you don't want sympathy. Well you're getting /some/ regard;less of what you want because I can't help but feel /some/ sympathy. You and CLoak have been hurt. You feel like no one understands,. That all you have is ech other..."

Beetle suddenly clenches his fists. "But you're wrong. I may not understand /some/ things but I do know what it is like to fight alone." his voice bcomes harder, that anger coming back. "I know what it is like when people don't stand by you when you /need/ help. I know what it is like when people think you aren't you aren't worth the damned effort. And I know What is like to be alone in the very end, facing the darkness. with no one at your back. Not the shadow liuke thatof your friend but the shadow of the end of life itself as it takes on the face of one of your friends and fucking kills you!" he seethes.... THen blinks.. and steps back.. turning away..

"Sorry I-I.. " he takes a deep breath and looks at his hands. "I just.. I just know.. I just don't want that to happen to anyone else... Ever again.."

Dagger has posed:
"I'm thinking maybe you need more therapy than I do." Tandy says as she wrestles with a cheese stick wrapper as she listens to him. She tugs on it with her teeth, then finally gets it to peel it back to free her snack.

"Fine. You can help us. But if things get a bit crazy, I don't want you to giving us a lecture. We have methods that you may not agree with and it's what we have found to work on these assholes. Just remember, we're dealing with people who kidnap and chop children up."

"I'm not pulling any of my punches with them. If I need to break every bone in someone's body to cough up information I need, I'll do it."

Blue Beetle (Kord) has posed:
Ted Kord drops his hands again and glares at Tandy. "You think I don't KNOW I need stherapy. I willingly put on a rubberised kevlar costume and chase bad guys with SUPER powers. But the point remains I don't want to see anyone else with so much damned potential to be more then they think they are, or think they deserve, to fall by the wayside." he tells her, his voice still grim. "And if your methods were TRULY working, there would be a lot less of these assholes. There just has to be a middle ground that works BETTER. And that has longer lasting effects. So while I will do my best to not lecture you, you need to do your best to realize their may be OTHER ways to get what you want done, done."