4379/Welcome back, Dinah Drake

Welcome back, Dinah Drake
Date of Scene:	03 May 2018
Location:	Mansion Alpha, Starling
Synopsis:	The return of Black Canary, and she has some pointers for Darkhawk
Cast of Characters:	Black Canary, Darkhawk

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Black Canary has posed:
Subtlety is not in the playbook of Black Canary. She is on her motorcycle, which was tuned to be extremely loud, heading right towards Mansion Alpha. A woman with blonde hair flowing under her motorcycle helmet, with a black leather bodysuit and fishnet stockings, with matching gloves and heeled boots, stops outside the gate and pushes the call button, waiting for an answer.

Darkhawk has posed:
The sun was just starting to set, and the way the amber lights lit up the trees would have made a great photograph, or painting. Of course, the woman on the motorcycle could have outdone that painting. Chris was just on his way back into the Mansion, having been playing some basketball with one of the other members of Beta Flight. Just as he opened the door to the foyer, he turned around, seeing her. He wore tracksuit bottoms, white with a red stripe down the sides, as well as a red waist, and above that, he had a black t-shirt with red and white writing across the chest, with the Alpha Flight logo. He had a basketball under his arm, and didn't even know he had done it, but he whistled at the beautiful woman. Of course, he's a 17 year old boy. It was to be expected.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake heard that whistle and grins as she got clearance as she drives her motorcycle in the gate. She goes to park it in the garage and sighs, taking the helmet off and sighs. She blinks. "Not many people around today, huh?" she asks as she just goes for a walk around the grounds, re-familiarizing herself. She hasn't been around in a while - newer members of the organizatoin might not recognize her.

Darkhawk has posed:
Chris knew her mostly because there's a big portrait of her, and all the other full members of Alpha Flight, in different parts of the mansion, though he hadn't seen her before in person, and she looked like she might not have been here in a while. Walking over towards her, he extended a hand, "I'm Darkhawk," he was dressed like a civilian, but he was still a bit more comfortable saying his code name than his real one, even in a place as safe and secure as this. "You're Black Canary, aren't you?"

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods as she takes your hand in her gloved hand. "Yes I am. Hello there, Darkhawk. I needed some time away from the... crimefighting stuff." She ponders, then notes, "Do you always whistle at pretty girls on motorcycles? You know I heard you, right?" She grins. "Anyway. I've been a quiet little birdie far too long. It's time to spread my wings and sing again."

Darkhawk has posed:
Well, there it is. He's blushing as if all the blood in his body wanted to get into his cheeks. Darkhawk was the wrong name, Redcheek might have been better. Or the Redbird, Red Riding Hood, something like that. "Oh, uh, nuh, no, not really, Miss Canary." She was a woman in fishnets and a glorified swimsuit, and she was stunning, how was he supposed to react? It wasn't fair. "I have a girlfriend," he volunteered, completely without provocation. He was in for it, big time, especially if Canary ever let it be known he whistled at her in front of the girlfriend. "It's good to have you back. I'm sure the more senior members of the team will be really glad, and people like me have a lot to learn." Yep, he said it.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "Yes, you do," she muses, grinning. "Awwwww, I didn't mean to embarrass you..." She ponders. "Just... still don't like going into space. But a hero has to go where she's needed, right?" she asks. "So - what is your skillset, Mr. Darkhawk?" she asks, treating this kid seriously - if he's here, he has to be someone interesting.

Darkhawk has posed:
Yeah, that did him no favours. He was already as red as he got, so at least there was that. But he looked like he was a deer caught in the headlights. "Uh, um, er, Darkhawk, oh, yeah, right, I'm Darkhawk. I uh, I have a suit. It's like Iron Man's, but, darker, and with wings, and it's way scarier. But it's mine and I have to use it to do good. People... they often run scared from the look of me in it." It bothered him how scary his suit was.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake raises an eyebrow. "Ah, a scary suit. Neat. What else do you have?" she asks. "Is it just your suit that has abilities, or do you have anything innate?" She is studying you now intently, like she would a fellow soldier. "I'm just trying to get to know you better. I'm sorry if I'm upsetting you."

Darkhawk has posed:
Chris actually had something. He had his good will, his heart, his determination, he had will. He was a good person. But he didn't really have any skills or powers besides the suit. "No, just the suit... I guess." He looked a bit down at that. "It's... it's okay, Miss Canary."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "Interesting. Do you know how to fight?" she asks. "You might know that I have one power. But I don't use it very often. I prefer good ol' fisticuffs." She ponders. "Why don't you show me your skills?" She ponders. "There should be some training dummies around here somewhere - ah, there they are. Show me some moves."

Darkhawk has posed:
Chris headed with Dinah into the Mansion, heading for the elevator, and taking it down to the first sub-level, where the the gym and training room could be found. Once inside, the lights came on, being motion activated. A holographic training dummy came to life. Chris wasn't used to fighting except in his suit, so when he took a defensive stance, the hologram attacked, he didn't dodge it very well, and found himself on the floor. The hard light hologram helped him up without a word. He tried a second time, and this time he managed to sweep the holograph's leg, knocking it over.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "You have some skills," she muses. She smiles. "Learn from your opponent. It's set to level 1. I take it that you generally don't fight like this out of your armor. But if you rely on equipment to fight - you have to be ready to defend yourself if it stops working. I can proffer a demonstration if you want... I could use some practice."

Darkhawk has posed:
"That'd be great," he says, largely because he doesn't want to be beaten up by the level 1 trainer anymore. It had knocked him down twice more while she was talking, and would have a third, if not for him giving a timeout signal as he was talking to her and his attention diverted.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "Sorry. That's not fair." She steps into the ring. And the hologram blinks out, and is replaced by something far more intimidating. With a '6' on its forehead instead of a 1. "This is more like it." She snaps her fingers and she starts to fight the more advanced hologram using several advanced martial arts, like the hologram. Her focus is on the opponent and eventually takes it down with a spinning roundhouse kick and phews.

Darkhawk has posed:
Chris blinks, she's so fast, it's hard to keep track of some of her moves. He's little league, but she's the pro. It was a sight behold, and she was probably not even breaking a sweat against that level 6 adversary. He clapped his hands, applauding her effort. "How high have you ever fought?" Yeah, he was a kid, wanted to see the end, without all that hard build up, training, just get to the ending, with the explosions, and such. He probably liked Michael Bay films too.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "Six is a fair challenge. Seven I'm about 50/50 against. And... eight is starting into the superhuman levels and last time I tried, I was bruised for two days." She looks around. "I'm a good fighter. But other than my voice, I'm a normal human. And... a female. It simply is biological fact that the average man is stronger than the average woman. Though I'm far from average - a man with my same training and conditioning could probably beat me." She winks. "But I don't fight fair. Fair is for suckers."

Darkhawk has posed:
"Woah," he said, still admiring her fighting ability. "You know, I don't hear many people talking about it that way, especially women. I guess it's just not politically correct, but yeah, there is a size difference, muscles are bigger, though reaction time might be better, there are probably advantages and disadvantages. But my teachers say use what you have to the best of your ability. I have a suit. It's really tough." It wasn't really a suit, but it was too complicated to explain properly without having her go crosseyed. The less he said about null space, the better. "I guess I'm a sucker. I always try and fight fair."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "How tough?" she asks softly. "I would recommend fighting practice without it. If you can fight without your suit... imagine how much better your skills will be with it enhancing you... or however it works. I am half-curious how tough it is - say - against sonic attacks."

Darkhawk has posed:
Chris gave her a curious look, and shrugged his shoulders, then reached into his shirt, pulling out a crystal, which he held aloft. A beam of cyan light emanated from the red scalenohedron-shaped gem, lighting him up briefly. Cyan lines began to radiate over his clothing, moving upwards, downwards, whichever way they meant to, until they had formed a pseudo structure. It looked as if it was making a suit around him, but out of nothing but light. In a flash of light, the lines were gone, replaced with some kind of solid, and very dark, metal. Where Chris Powell had once stood, Darkhawk was there now. Taller, bulkier, and with every inch of him covered. Technically, he had switched places with the android body, but he was still in control, had all his senses, even touch. It was as if it was him, except it wasn't. That was the beauty of Shi'ar tech. Radio Shack had nothing on it. "Give it a try." He spoke, his voice louder, stronger, more confident, and deeper.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake blinks. "So your 'suit' is some kind of... magic?" she asks, pondering as she reaches forward and taps it. She is studying it, walking around it. "You even look bigger and stronger. Not like a kid." She is studying it a bit more, then without warning, when mostly behind you, she emits a quick Canary Cry with a loud SKRRRREEEEEEEEEEEE to see how well the suit can handle it. A normal person would be flung like shoved by a powerful force, their ears ringing.

Darkhawk has posed:
Darkhawk really didn't give off emotions. There was no face, just a visor, and a mask over his mouth, it was full helmet. Nothing to see, or read into. But his voice did have emotion in it. "Yeah, you might call it that. Technology that is sufficiently advanced can only really be perceived as magic. Would you believe me if I said I found it in an abandoned amusement park?" He had to be joking, was he joking? His tone suggested he wasn't. He feels the tap, and would be smiling at it, were he capable of showing a smile. He was flung by the force, but even in mid air, he opened his arms, wings appearing between them and the torso, and he slowed himself. He did a sort of somersault in the process, sliding backwards, but facing her. Then he got up. He didn't seem phased by the sound. His audio receptors dampened them before they could do any harm. "That kind of tickled."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "Very interesting. But I stand by my statement that you should learn to fight in your human state. I'm sure that this armor has some weaknesses or times where you can't use it..." She ponders. "What is your armor capable of doing?" she akss as she gestures back towards the holograhic sparring ring.

Darkhawk has posed:
Darkhawk ponders, "flight, really manoeuvrable and over great distances, able to operate in space, invisibility, enhanced senses, concussion blasts, grappling hook, claws, wings, energy absorption, force fields, self-repair, super agility, strength, durability, speed, reflexes, a built in translator, calculator... but it doesn't have WiFi, or electronic surveillance... I might not have figured those out yet. It didn't really come with a manual."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods slowly. "How durable is this?" she asks. "That was my Canary Cry on low. I do prefer to fight just using my fists when bad guys are about on the 'normal' level. I save my voice for more special cases." She hmmmmmms softly. "I mean... if I really tried, I could probably collapse this mansion from down here."

Darkhawk has posed:
Darkhawk looks around, knowing this room is soundproof and structurally sound, it was built for people like Canary in mind, but he doesn't know that. "Can we not do that. I don't get that much allowance, and I really don't want to be paying for it for the next 80 years."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake grins. "Yes, I was just saying that I've done some great things with my voice. But I would never do that." She ponders. "And... I'm a small business owner and I could'tn pay for the building either." She hmmmmmmms softly. "I seldomly use my Cries except in battle. Punching people is far more fun."

Darkhawk has posed:
"Feel free to punch me. Just, be careful. I can feel through this thing. It's weird. But, it's like skin for me. I feel everything. Yeah, magic." He shrugged his shoulders at the last bit, since he really couldn't explain how his suit functioned.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake smiles. "Nah - just show me your skills against the hologram. Would rather not do a punchout against someone with superstrength of unknown skills." She smiles. "Let's try setting 3." The hologram appears, changing to a decent-looking boxer.

Darkhawk has posed:
Level three proves to be totally ineffective against Darkhawk, as he is too quick for the hologram, though his strength doesn't seem that out of whack. In fact, he's only been rated at 2 metric tons on one of the machines that can record that sort of thing. But his suit wasn't designed for brute strength, it's far more stealthy and quick. After making short work of level 3, he brazenly ups it to level 6, which also proves to be a pretty quick match. The odd thing is that he seems to have technique in the suit that he didn't have out of it, almost as if the suit were preprogrammed with it.

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods. "Interesting. You have strength, but it seems your armor is more tuned for agility. Also, it also seems you have skills you didn't out of your armor - does it sometimes move for you?" she asks, eyebrow raised.

Darkhawk has posed:
"Yeah, it's even dodged things I didn't know were coming. It's pretty neat. I don't know what it was designed for, but I'm pretty sure it's something to do with infiltration, espionage, or things like that." He turns on the invisibility mode, and moves, soundlessly, "Dr. Hudson told me that there's a vibranium weave involved, which means I can really sneaky... when I'm not talking."

Black Canary has posed:
Dinah Drake nods slowly. "A great asset. Does it serve as life-support?" she asks. "As in - underwater or space?" She smiles faintly. "Still, practice your martial arts without your suit. It'll help you. The hologram has a training mode that can teach you all sorts." She then sits down. "It's good to be back."

Darkhawk has posed:
"Yeah, I've used it outside Mackenzie King," referring to the space station, "without issue. I was a little worried I'd feel the cold, but I think it numbs any sense too strong, like it did with your scream. Anything, so far, that should hurt a sense, is muted down to something I can take. It felt a little chilly in space, but more like being outside on a cold day. Glad to have you back, Miss Canary."