13232/A random hike in the woods..

A random hike in the woods..
Date of Scene:	09 May 2021
Location:	Breakstone, Westchester County
Synopsis:	Megan and James go for a hike and meet an angry mama bear. Owen joins in on the fun.
Cast of Characters:	Pixie, Warpath, Captain Boomerang

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Pixie has posed:
Spring has sprung, and while the snow has all melted away and given way to green luscious grass and blue skies, there is still a lot of rain and occasional snow to be had in the wilderness known as Westchester County. It's a beautiful afternoon and the sun is shining, although there is a cool breeze, and some grey clouds on the horizon.

Megan had enjoyed the little excursion into the woods when she assisted in searching for the leopard that turned out to be Vitali, and she had come back to explore the woods some more.

While she is not a super experienced hiker, Megan did prepare with a solid green windbreaker, black cardigan under her white tshirt and jeans tucked into sturdy hiking books. She also brought a backpack full of snacks, water, her phone, emergency first aid supplies, matches, her phone, even a little blanket. Oh and binoculars for some sight seeing.

Too bad no one ever told her about the sudden upsurge of bears in this district lately..

Warpath has posed:
Spring is in the air. It is a relief for some who manages the winter, but isn't the biggest fan of the death cycle in nature. There were talks about an aggressive bear in the area and while he had his doubts, there is no sense in not having a look anyway. His world revolves around nature and he's an expert hiker as well as a tracker.

At some point his nostrils flare and he looks back over the land. Not exactly a student, but Pixie's presence concerns him if there is a mad bear out there. He pauses and kneels to the ground to look at a bear track and mutters,"That's what the problem is." A nod and he stands again. Complications.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn had paused in the main mountain trail at some point to step to the edge of the cliff and look down at the beautiful mountain view below. From this vantage point, the Beeakstone lake is easily visible, a shimmering sapphire jewel peeking through the mountain clouds.

"Woooow, I'm sooo high up..It's getting a little chilly..Good thing I dressed warmly!" she giggles aloud, drawing in a deep breath of fresh spring air. Oh...What's that? Is that..Bear poop? It's..Kinda big.."Ewwww! I nearly stepped in...Oh, hiii, Mister Proudstar! Whatcha up to?"

Warpath has posed:
Finding her wasn't too hard at least. He tests the air with his nose and motions her step back from the cliff. He looks around the area and says softly,"Tracking a bear. Wounded, though nobody bothered to figure that out."

He is stone cold, but she could tell he isn't comfortable with the current situation. Too open and too close to the edge,"It isn't far away either. Think you can go up and have a look around?"

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn bliiiiinks slowly, eyes widening at that. "Oh nooo, a bear? Like, fir real?" she frowns, peering around. Sure enough, there are tracks here and there in the sandy dirt road. Relatuvely fresh too, as is the bear poop. "Oooh noooo, like, do ya think he'll bother us? I mean, sure,y if we leave him alone, he'll leave us alone, right?" unlike James, Megan doesn't really know much about angry or wounded wild animals. "Ohh...Umm if it's wounded, maybe we can help it, or...I dunno, contact a ranger? But you're all into that nature stuff too right? Think you'd be able to help it?" really, she doesn't know James that well, and he is kinda scary looking..

Warpath has posed:
He looks around the area, eyes scanning for chances, listening for movement. The scent is just too prevalent to not notice it,"Yes a bear. Wounded and potentiall dangerous. It is getting closer to the population because it has an injured paw. Other, smaller game is easier nearby to say nothing for idiots that just leave food laying around."

There is a rumble in the distance and James looks that way. His eyes narrow and he looks to her, pointing towards the sky and then the direction of the sound,"I don't think we have time for the ranger, but you can try if you want. Just get me eyes on it first." He tosses her an ear piece as he places one in his ear as well.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn blinks and nods, deciding to defer to his superior experience and survival instincts. "Umm, right..Okay! You got your comm on you?"she taps hers, making sure it's on, and a moment later, Megan climbs into the sky, wings fluttering quickly as she glides effortlessly over the wilderness, keen eyes picking out anything unusual in the landscape..

It takes a moment or two to notice the broken brush, subtle at first, more noticeable as she flies closer towards the thicker parts of the woods and leads higher up towards a mountainous yawning carvers higher up the mountain and quite a distance from the trail.

She taps her comm, "I see a cave, oh wow! Little bear prints! Are there bear Cubs..? About 500 metres north of your location, and a hundred metres east of the trail..I'm going in.." Okaay..Maybe nit the wisest thing t9 do..

Warpath has posed:
He nods and turns on the com,"Got it." he mutters. He waits for her to start directing and moves the way she suggests. He isn't real happy about the situation, but it can't be helped. He moves towards where she indicates, slow and quiet at first, but when she mentions the cave he catches his breath once and starts to move faster.

"Stand down. Do not go into the cave with the babies." he coms back, quiet enough so as not to give away his position, but loud enough to be heard on the coms. Of course that warning comes too late. The bear changes course when she scents Pixie near the cubs and races that direction.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn can be a little...Stubborn, impulsive even, when she wants to. And there is some radio silence, a bit longer than is comforting perhaps. Ten minutes maybe. When she does talk, it is quite clear that she has gone into the cave ahead of him. "Oooh this cave is really big and dark..Ummm, following the tracks, I see blood stains, could they be hurt?"

She frowns, dosing and slows her steps. "Umm...Okaay, I won't go any further, but Umm..What if the Cubs need immediate medical attention too?" She has pulled out her dagger bumpy now, using it as a light source as she peers around the dark, dank cavern. "Ooh this place is kinda spooky..Heading back to the entrance.."

Warpath has posed:
He can move fast, faster than most, but the bear has a head start. Before he can clear the area the momma bear arrives, a front paw bleeding and fangs flashing in the light. Of course Pixie will walk back out to find the roaring beast rising on her back legs.

Fast or not, experienced or not, running through the brush takes a few moments and he doesn't dare just jump through the woods. There is no way of knowing where he will land if he does. He hears the bear roar the challenge and he shouts,"Pixie fly out, retreat back, or lie down into a ball. Don't run. Hurt or not she'll catch you."

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn emerges from the mouth of the cave..But there's not much room between herself and the angry mama bear..And the trees here are so thickly wooded that there really is no room to fly without getting tangled in prickly tree branches!

"Meeeep! Mister Proudstar, where are youuuu?!" she practically squeaks, eyes widened in sheer terror as she stares at the big scary bear. Okaay, what are your options, Megs? Remember your training? If you can't run, if you can't hide, stay calm and confront your enemy, wear them down...

She stays where she is, backing up a few paces, trying not to look the big scary bear in the eye. "Umm...Nice bear..." she murmurs, trying to keep her voice steady..

Warpath has posed:
A sigh comes through the coms and a moment later James arrives in the clearing. He takes a moment and runs into the back of the bear. That will annoy her and maybe take her attention from Pixie. She takes a swipe at him and he manages to duck through most of it. One of the claws draws blood on his face and she starts towards him.

Pixie might be closer to the babies, but Warpath already presented an actual physical threat. Pixie might hear a grunt with the claw grazes his head. There are mature things to do, but instead he does something surprising and punches the poor old bear square in the nose and lands her on her back.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Pausing in his tracks, Owen Mercer listened intently. He could swear he had heard a bear, and being in Westchester County, he figured it'd be a black bear. They don't have bears back home. So, his first thought was it might be nice to see one. His second thought was that it sounded angry, probably a mother bear protecting her cubs, as if it was a male, there would usually be another male's voice, or the sounds of somebody having a really bad day.

He knew he could handle himself, he had a few boomerangs on his person even if he wasn't in costume, and when in doubt, he could run really fast. Then he heard a voice, a human voice, and he began rushing towards the source, using a bit of a speed burst to close the distant, but not wanting to show any old Sheila that he had powers, so he slowed as he closed the distance.

Moving the last bit at normal speed, drawing a weighted boomerang in one hand, and a bladed one in the other, he called out in his accented English, "everythin' all right, here?"

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn bliiinks slowly, peering at James as he tackles an angry Mama bear..And flips it over on its back! She knows he could probably kill a bear, even an angry mama bear if he wanted, but, this one is injured and needs their help! Plus, if it recovers, it could cause him major damage..

Right, only one thing to do.."Hey, hey over here!" she waves her arms at the bear as it starts to regain its balance, and while there isn't a whole lot of room to fly very high in this thickly wooded forest, there's just enough space for her to hover a few feet in the air, fluttering a bit closer to the bear. Her hands glow bright pink as she focuses a spell upon the angry thrashing bear.

"Mists of Morpheus, Go!" she shouts, showering the bear in a gentle, soothing blanket of pink light that should hopefully force it into a restful slumber.

Warpath has posed:
Getting ready to take another round with the bear, Warpath narrows his gaze and prepares to engage again. There goes another shirt as the bear shreds it and with it him too. He swears a little and prepares to tackle again before Pixie's power falls on the bear.

The bear shakes her head a few times and tries to clear her head. Warpath is moving fast now and back on the offensive. Seeing the bear stop he stays out of her range and glances towards the new arrival briefly and then back to the confused, angry bear. He is bleeding a little, but not too bad and the bear seems more confused than anything.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
So, there was a guy wrestling with a bear, and a girl that was a human light show. Owen scratched the back of his head with the weighted boomerang, and is very glad to have used that one as opposed to the bladed one. "Uh... do you two need help?" He asked, uncertain of what to do right now. He knew enough not to deliberately try and piss off a bear, especially one that was already confused. He could hit the bear with his boomerangs, but that wasn't likely to stop it, and if he hit it with enough to stop, well, it wasn't going to be getting back up again.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn breathes a sigh of relief, glancing between the bear and James, "Oooh, how many shirts do ya go through a day anyways? You're almost as bad as Mister Hulk!" she giggles as she steps towards the bear, then pauses, glancing over at the newcomer. "Oh Hii, dont mind us, just a couple of random hikers trying to help a wounded bear..,Ohh Heey.." she peers towards Owen curiously, "Do ya know animal first aid, mister?"

Warpath has posed:
Time to get serious. He really does go through a lot of clothes,"I don't know how to take that." he mutters and does the unthinkable. He grabs the bear and takes her back, falling on his to stretch her out and make the legs less dangerous.

Noting the other person he calls back,"The left front paw has something driven into it." he tells him,"I don't know what but it needs to come out." After a few moments the groggy bear, mixed with the wrestling skill of the Apache makes it easy to get near the bear safely...ish.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Owen Mercer says, "Afraid not Snagglepuss," he said, nicknaming her after the Hanna-Barbara character, "I have... I have boomerangs." Yeah, he had nothing of help with a wounded bear. But he was here, and that was the important thing, right? "Oh... kay," he says as the other guy mentions something about the front paw. With the bear being... hugged by the man, Owen bravely, or insanely, approaches, moving quickly and as if he weren't afraid, which he very much was, to take a look.

As he got to it, there seemed to be a broken bottle. That was going to be a tough one. He did show remarkable reflexes if the bear moved or shifted. From the positions of everyone, Warpath didn't have a good sight to it, and Pixie didn't either, so Owen used a speed burst to very slowly, and very carefully, remove them, in what amounted to a near instantaneous effort. It would take him a few tries, but when doing it at super speed, it made life easier... if you can call helping an angry bear easy. "I think I got it!""

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn blinks slowly, co I guess cautiously closer, although she has enough faith in her spell, which she has been practicing a lot lately, to know that it will keep the bear unconscious for at least ten minutes or so. "Oooh, broken bottle. Ouch! Oh here, I can wrap that up if you can keep the paw steady.."

She watches his quick reflexes with an appraising nod and smile, then pulls her first aid kit out of her backpack, grabbing some antiseptic and bandages, first cleaning the wound then starting to wrap the bandage around the bear's wounded paw. "Hey mister, can you hold it steady?" she asks of Owen, still not knowing his name yet.

Warpath has posed:
The bear finally settles and Warpath doesn't. He holds the animal like it might come back to and start shredding,"You need something to cauterize the wound or else wrap it tight. Neither option is great. If you wrap it, it'll eventually fall off. The cauterize would be smarter, but we don't have a fire unless one of you can make one appear."

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Keeping a bear paw steady was no easy feat. The claws were quite sharp, and there was a lot of power in the paw. But the other guy was keeping her steady, so the least Owen could do was keep a single paw steady. He was also keeping an eye out on the other limbs, just in case, ready to pull Snagglepuss, since he didn't know her name yet, from danger. The wrester was a harder proposition. Moving him would be easy, but moving him out from under a bear was another matter.

"Cauterize..." he repeated, thinking to himself, and he reached into his jacket pocket, pulling another boomerang out. He seemed to fiddle with it, pouring some stuff out of a hole in it. And then a bit more. At some point he had put the other two away, likely when he moved down and removed the glass. "Stand back, Snagglepuss, you ready mate? This is gonna sting, and I don't think she'll take too kindly to it." And with some indication to do it, he would use a depleted explosive boomerang on the bear's bar, likely risking blowing his own face off in the process. It was a good thing he was fast enough to dodge bullets.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn blinks slowly and nods to James, "Cauterize? So you don't think the alcohol is enough?" but he's more experienced at this than she is. She nods and steps back, letting Owen do his thing.."Waait a minute, who's the snagglepuss?" she makes a face but nods, stepping back. "Oooh careful! Dont fry yourself!" but he seems to be pretty quick on his feet.

Warpath has posed:
Braced for the worst, Warpath nods and prepares for the bear to flip. Asleep or not, she isn't going to like this. To Pixie he replies,"The cauterize stops the bleeding and catches any infection the alcohol might miss. The moment the hot knife hits the wound the wrestling match is on again, though he has the leverage and the control for the moment.

The bear thrashes around and fights against him. Once the heat is off he comments,"You two get out of her reach and fast. Call me when you are at least three hundred yards upwind." He's settled for the struggle to buy them time,"I can't say you're going to get safe passage from her otherwise."

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Owen was quite glad that he hadn't identified himself yet, given what was being asked. Sure, his identity was known to government authorities, and he didn't wear a mask, but he didn't like to advertize that Owen Mercer was Captain Boomerang. Under the circumstances, he decided that it'd be best to get Snagglepuss, his nickname for the as yet unidentified Pixie to safety, and then run back for the man, whom he didn't know from Adam.

With a quick movement, he would slip his arms under Pixie', knocking her off her feet and into his arms, as he began running. The forest seemed to blur before her eyes, but a moment later, she was near the road, and an identified mile marker, hopefully with cell phone reception, before he was running back to where he had been, intent on collecting the other guy.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn flinches a bit at James' explanation and nods. Sounds painful, but he knows what he's doing. "Gotcha!" now that the bear is no longer blocking the way to open airspace, Megan starts flutters that way into open sky, "Heey Mister, need a ride?" she nods to Owen, then glances to Warpath with a frown, "Please be careful!"

Unfortunately, she wasn't expecting to be suddenly picked up and carried awaaaaaaay! And sooo quickly! "Meeeeeeeep!!!"

Warpath has posed:
Angry bear, always fun. At least he saw how the lay of the land was coming in. He nods and tells Pixie,"I will. Just call me soon." The rapid departure gets a laugh inspite of his situation. Sometimes there is more than can be avoided. He grumbles softly,"A little longer sister and I will let you alone." Of course the bear doesn't seem to care about that too much and wants his head really bad.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Owen is fast, but not as fast as some of the speedsters in his extended family, or as well versed on the tricks of the trade. He does return quickly though, "All right, if you can get yourself out from under her, I can take you to the pink haired girl," whom he kept referring to as Snagglepuss, because it was hilarious. "But there's nought I can do about the eighty kilo bear." At least it wasn't a male. They can be more than three times the size.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn pouts and scrambles out of Owen's grasp. "Heeey, the name is Megan, not Snagglepuss! But, I'm more worried for Mister Proudstar, and that bear is waking up now! We gotta help him!" she jumps out of his arms and is already heading back towards the bear and James. Cuz she's an Xman dammit!And Xmen dont abandon their team mates!

Warpath has posed:
Once they are gone and the other his back again Warpath shakes his head and sighs. He puts a foot in the back of the bear and kicks her backwards head over heels multiple times. He hits his feet and looks at Owen again,"I'd suggest you run." he tells the man.

While he isn't the Flash by any means, he can run and run faster than the bear ever dreamed of. Whether she tries to pursue or not he easily outdistances her and uses his heightened sense to track Megan's position through scent. Bad bear fixed, probably she will leave people alone from now on.

Captain Boomerang has posed:
Owen didn't know these people, didn't really want to know them when out of costume. He really should start wearing a domino mask or something. But it was the principle of the thing. "Gotcha," was all he said at the instructions, and would run alongside Warpath long enough to see that the guy was on the way to his friend, Pixie, before he would give a salute, and veer off, into the woods, going to wherever it was he had come from. He had been on a hike before all this commotion, and he wanted to enjoy the rest of the day, what was left of it.

Pixie has posed:
Megan Gwynn frowns, "Mister Proudstar, I hope you know what you're doing..." still she nods, not wanting to defy an order from a more experienced Xman, and she takes to the skies, but remains in visual distance of James. She's never seen how fast he can run, but she'll be on hand to port him to safety if need be. Owen is watched carefully too, not sure how fast exactly he can run..

Warpath has posed:
The running finally starts to slow down and after a bit Jimmy comes to a halt and listens. No bear in pursuit. The other guy has ran off. Leaning against a tree he mutters into the com channel,"Note to self. No more bear wrestling." After a few deep breaths he comments,"If I have to tell you to call me Jimmy again I am going to tatoo it on your eyelids." Of course he is kidding and that is amazing in its own right.

Once he is out of the woods he heads towards his truck and tells Megan,"Next time, don't go hiking with the nasty bears." He touches the com and speaks loud enough,"Drive me back to the mansion so I can concentrate on the healing." he adds.