14300/Just Desserts: Sundae's Sunday

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Just Desserts: Sundae's Sunday
Date of Scene: 10 April 2022
Location: Southside (Suicide Slum), New Troy
Synopsis: Superman protects an innocent woman who has never done anything wrong from some thugs who surely mistook her for a villain, safely delivering her to a diner for milkshakes.
Cast of Characters: Superman, Berri Sundae




Superman has posed:
A figure looms above the stratosphere. Around it is the cold darkness of space, the twinkling of distant stars, and the cosmic dust of gaseous nebulae glittering like gemstones in a cave; beneath the figure spins the blue-and-green orb of the Earth. All is shaded and blurred, until at last, the planet turns and rotates in such a way that the blazing sun emerges, and the figure is transformed -- it is Superman, wreathed in a halo of solar energy, back-lit by tongues of plasma, arms folded and looking down on his home. His cape floats above him, immobile and still, and his eyes are shut.

"Happy birthday to..."

"... pronounce you, man and wife ... "

"I forgive you."

A chorus of uplifting messages in a thousand languages, voices united in a great paean to love and compassion. It is those messages that gladden the hero's heart, and lets him deal with the others more resolutely: screams of pain, words of fear, deeds of hate; he listens to gunfire in eastern Europe and the death rattles of the starving in Africa; people sob at funerals, mothers grieve lost children.

Amidst the melody of the world in all its good and evil, amidst the crushing grind of industrial machinery and the shaking of the plates, though, one conversation this morning happens to pierce through..

--

The sun rises on abandoned buildings and memorials to better times in the Southside of Metropolis, better known to locals as Suicide Slum -- it gleams and glitters across roads like dirty gums and buildings like broken teeth whose derelict facades are girded in the spinach stain of winding ivy. Here, the splendors of the City of Tomorrow are less than elsewhere, a pale shadow of New Troy's shining fantasy. Yet, nevertheless, civic spirit flourishes, and the area is ever flooded with attempts to improve it as much as attempts to prey on it.

It's this neighborhood Berri will find herself in, for one reason or another, striding past old alleyways. It could be fun to sightsee... if she weren't being pursued by a rather irritated gang of thugs quite convinced she'd cheated them out of something.

"Get her!"

Berri Sundae has posed:
In some ironic fashion, the 'noise' of so many thoughts, hopes and dreams, hate and love could be deafening at times. Certainly it was useful, sometimes it was even interesting...

And today it was an essential warning for the girl with the two-tone attire and hair, a frown crossing her lips before she turned to face the advancing numbers. Rival crew? Old employer cleaning house or someone she'd acted against? The young telepath really couldn't tell.

Instead she simply backs up, her parasol brought to her side as she tilts her head. Blank face, considering...this outing across town to find a new curiousity had somewhat backfired!

Superman has posed:
Metropolis' street toughs are a different breed from Gotham's, fortunately; had we been there, Berri would already be being shot at. These ones seem content to run her down as she turns to face them, slowing once she stops and spreading out in case she reveals some hidden weapon or the like. It's always mildly unnerving to have someone you're chasing turn on you, rather than keep moving.

Their thoughts, if she listens, suggest she's been fingered as the culprit in a recent theft, the latest spat in an ongoing feud between local (if incredibly minor) villains. She might be innocent, she might be guilty, these legbreakers don't know -- and they don't care.

"You've really stepped in it this time, girlie," one of the men remarks, circling around to her side. They keep their distance, for now, but she's being hemmed in, her back to the metaphorical wall -- or the literal wall of the old, gothic chapel they've happened to encounter her at. "Now, technically, we've just got to bring you back... so if you cooperate and come with us, we won't have to break that pretty face, okay?"

Berri Sundae has posed:
Hemmed in was a problem. Berri was trained, between her skills and a little psychic trickery she could handle mooks like this...but if there was no space to evade and outmaneuver. Which became a problem given how much smaller than them she was.

Of course, Berri couldn't argue, she couldn't call for help, all the young woman could do was exhale a small noise of irritation...and then drive her parasol into the groin of the man on her right.

This was going to suck!

Superman has posed:
The man doubles over with a gasping shriek of pain, clutching his battered balls and wheezing as he sinks to his knees. She'll need to hop over his now prone and whimpering figure, but she's opened a path to flee through as the group of brutes first wince sympathetically and then glare at her with eyes full of ill intent.

"Get the bitch, you idiots," the man groans from his near-fetal curl, sucking breath in through his teeth. "Beat her ass, now!" He stares up at the looming and abandoned chapel whose shadow this all took place in, seeing a stone angel look back down on him.

Maybe this will be what finally convinces him to change his life around. It's almost a religious experience.

At the orders of the leaders, the men move forward, weaponless; Berri's wanted alive, not dead, so the goal is to smack her around, not stab or shoot her. All she needs to do is find the perfect moment to escape and turn this around, and then --

"Gentlemen, I understand wanting to show a pretty lady around town, but we all know no means no," a deep and playful voice remarks, and from the sky plummets a dark-haired and lantern-jawed hero, cape blowing in the wind. He rides down on a shaft of sunlight before the church, alighting in the middle of the group with Berri clearly behind him.

Of course, everyone in the world immediately recognizes Superman. This immediately changes the mental calculus on the side of the tough's, who nervously look toward each other.

"It's okay, miss. Everything's alright now. Nice move, by the way."

He gives her a lopsided smile and a thumbs up.

Berri Sundae has posed:
And run she would, her petite form springing to leap over him and make to run before the men can seize her. Crowding the minds of that many focused on her -and- running was gonna be a little too complex, so she'd have to resort to some more old-fashioned tricks.

Like running the hell away!

Making to weave back, ready to run for it...and then there was seemingly divine intervention dropping from above. Or at least the next best thing!

Berri's miss-matched eyes go wide and the very much unexpected aid before she lifts her hand in a return of the gesture and then her gaze shifts back to the men with an expectant tilt of her head.

The message was simple: What now?

Superman has posed:
Superman takes a mere moment to do what any mortal man would do and look Berri over head-to-toe; it isn't so much that she's pretty, though she is, as it is the color of her eyes and hair makes for a magnetic visual lure. Still, it would be impolite for the Man of Steel himself to stare at a woman, so he turns back after getting that mirrored thumbs-up.

"Now, listen, fellas," he begins, even as one of the bolder ones defies his fear and swings a wild haymaker at that chiseled jaw. His eyes flit down toward it, watching it approach him in tediously slow motion -- yet rather than dodge, all he does is incrementally move his head upon impact, turning with it to lessen the impact's force and not completely shatter the man's hand.

To everyone else, it looks like the red-haired thug slugged Superman in the face... and then backed off yelping and clutching his bruised and swollen knuckles.

"So far, nothing worse has happened than a bit of bruises and wounded pride. This doesn't have to end with you in a jail cell -- apologize to the young woman, take your pal, and go home."

The small group stare at each other, and then at Berri, and then at Superman, and then at each other, and then at Superman again.

"S-sorry, miss," they mumble, before two quickly grab the ball-busted leader and drag him away. They look both ways, cross the street, and then slump down an alleyway, disappearing from view into a parking lot behind the buildings.

"All's well that ends well," Superman declares, turning back around to look down at Berri. "Those men seemed to think you stole something, miss Berri," he remarks. "Now, I don't know what happened, and I don't agree with violence as a solution to our problems... but if you get involved with bad crowds, this sort of thing happens."

Oh, god. She's getting a well-meaning talk from a grown man in tights.

Berri Sundae has posed:
Berri had worked with and -for- the man that considered himself Superman's mortal enemy. Right now? The young woman was very glad she hadn't come face to face with the 'big blue' before now or she herself might be prison-bound.

With the mooks retreating she -does- closer her eyes for a moment, drinking in as much mental detail as she could. She'd try and find them later on her own terms after all, and have a 'word' with their boss.

Superman's question and comment has her pausing, biting her lip with an almost bemused grin. It was a good thing she hadn't pulled the blade hidden in the parasol, or she wouldn't look like the victim in need of the friendly chat right now.

Nodding her thanks, the girl lifts her hands to respond, but unless the Man of Steel happened to understand ASL? It might well be lost on him.

Superman has posed:
As Superman looks over Berri and gives her a lecture, his surface thoughts are easy enough to read -- though it might feel a bit odd, given he is technically nonhuman. He thinks she's pretty, that she looks vaguely familiar to a face he thinks he saw once in a picture, that wandering around with a parasol in sunny weather is odd, that she has a unique sense of fashion, and, most of all...

That he's glad she's okay.

And fortunately, he is proficient in sign language. It's a necessary skill in his role as a symbol to all people, the same as his facility with language in general; communication is the very foundation of peace. So as he speaks, he more-or-less follows it with the appropriate signs.

"You're alright now," he says. "I can fly you where you're going. Do you want me to?"

Seems he really doesn't know who and what she is. As far as Superman can tell, this is a young woman who was spooked by a group of bad men, and might appreciate a quick trip to get off the streets.

Berri Sundae has posed:
She could go delving, try and manipulate the mind of the man of steel, tweak his memory of her appearance or otherwise try and make him forget the whole encounter...

But it was hardly needed or worth the risk.

With signing of 'thanks' and that she'd 'keep that in mind' clearly understood, the silent girl does smile ever so slightly at the rest of the thoughts she picked up before shrugging her shoulders and nodding.

Why not? It certainly wouldn't happen every day, and refusing would probably look all the more suspicious.

Superman has posed:
Superman steps in close, his shadow looming over Berri like that of a mountain -- the barrel-chested Big Blue is every bit the superhero pictures and videos show, but in person the fact he's a farm-bred bull is most apparent. Growing up in corn country and lifting tractors is a pretty good bodybuilding routine.

Not that the world knows the incredible Superman is a country bumpkin, of course. It's ridiculous to even consider!

But then the gentle giant takes a knee, to make up for the stark height difference, and scoops Berri up in his arms. In an instant she's plucked from the surface and left to be cradled in his arms, utterly weightless -- she's light to begin with, but to Superman? He could lift her with a finger.

"So where are we going?" He asks...

... and once she's answered, they soar upward, away from the unclean streets and the trashy alleyways, over the cracked asphalt parking lots and the decrepit, abandoned homes, the city shrinking beneath her as she becomes a peer of the skyscrapers and super-structures. He's pretty good at getting people to places quick and safe.

Berri Sundae has posed:
The temptation to go digging for Superman's real identity was there, even a passing thought from him might be a hint...but that sort of information may well make -her- a target to some of his rogues, so she 'behaves'.

That and she's currently headed skywards with only his grasp and a parasol to prevent a plummeting death.

Her answer? It was a small diner in one of the more upscale parts of the city. Apparently she felt like a milkshake after the apparent near death experience.