4601/Brand of Justice

Brand of Justice
Date of Scene:	06 June 2018
Location:	Harlem
Synopsis:	Drake finds June beating up thugs, they argue about the ethics of when and how thugs should be beat up.
Cast of Characters:	June Connor, Slipstream

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June Connor has posed:
    Harlem isn't ever known for being a gentle part of town. The gangs are thick, most well meaning citizens after dark are inside, meaning that most of the characters who are roaming the streets are not afraid of fights.
    Fights are what they have found, as well. It's not an alley, though. It's the space between two run down apartments. Surely anyone could look out their window and see the black clad figure deliver a blow to the face of one of three standing hispanic opponents. On the ground behind that figure is another one, a teenager who looks like he has been already beat within an inch of his life.
    "Oh, you are gonna pay for that one," says one of the others, taking a swing at the ninja, who deftly slides in a rotation behind the man. It is a precise move, and another blow is sent into the kidneys followed by a rabbit punch to the side of the neck.

June Connor has posed:
    Harlem isn't ever known for being a gentle part of town. The gangs are thick, most well meaning citizens after dark are inside, meaning that most of the characters who are roaming the streets are not afraid of fights.
    Fights are what they have found, as well. It's not an alley, though. It's the space between two run down apartments. Surely anyone could look out their window and see the black clad figure deliver a blow to the face of one of three standing hispanic opponents. On the ground behind that figure is another one, a teenager who looks like he has been already beat within an inch of his life.
    "Oh, you are gonna pay for that one," says one of the others, taking a swing at the ninja, who deftly slides in a rotation behind the man. It is a precise move, and another blow is sent into the kidneys followed by a rabbit punch to the side of the neck.

Slipstream has posed:
As he watches from the rooftop, Slipstream appears to be eating a hotdog as his legs dangle over the edge. He quietly blinked into sight a few minutes ago, watching the black clad ninja in combat. Taking a long sip off his straw, he tilts his head to the side to watch the score. "Ow. That looked painful." He drawls out down to them once he watches the last teenager get bullied. "You all finished up down there?" He calls down towards the ninja with a grin. "Got it out of your system yet?"

June Connor has posed:
    The third character tackles the ninja, and the two topple to the ground. While the young man is much larger and stronger, an elbow is delivered to his throat upon landing, causing him to grasp his wounded airway. She rolls to the side, and the first goon that had been struck receives a foot sweep, followed by her rolling onto his chest, a kunai snapping out and driving down to stick in his forehead. It doesn't penetrate, which is obvious by the young man's scream after the fact as she sits with a knee on his chest, the blade pressed hard enough against his scalp that a trickle of blood runs from the point into his hair. She ignores Drake completely, face and hair hidden by the mask, it's hard to know which Foot ninja this is.

Slipstream has posed:
"Hey! Okay. Knock it off. Get off 'em." Drake says as he blinks out of sight, then reappears on the ground before them. "What the hell, you are seriously 'bout to kill this guy? Why are you even fighting them anyways?" He asks as he rolls his shoulder back. He's not in costume as it is, just a pair of destroyed jeans and a black shirt. Something simple and easy to move about in. "Hey, PJ's, is that you?" His nickname for his friend with the fiery hair.

June Connor has posed:
    The man looks in Drake's direction, "Get'm off me!" he begs. The ninja doesn't even look in Drake's direction, but June's familiar voice is heard from behind it as she corrects the young man's behavior.
    "Don't look at him, you look at me, here?" she demands. "You mess with him, you mess with me. I find out anyone comes after him, you are gonna have a lot more than this scar."
    "What Sca--OOOWWW!" the man's question is answered as she snaps the kunai across his brow. Like all headwounds, this one bleeds like it's killing him. It's hardly life threatening, but it will definitely scar. She stands to her feet, and looks back and up at Drake. That would be June's eyes.
    "What?" she asks in response to his question. "You fight people." She walks back to the badly beaten teen, and kneels next to him in a far less threatening manner. She pulls a piece of gauze from a small pouch on her uniform.

Slipstream has posed:
"I fight bad guys. These are just freaking kids, not much older than us. I also don't bring weapons out and slash people up." Drake says as he steps forward quickly, his hands giving a bit of a swivel. "What'd they do to you to get on your bad side, or is this you venting?" He says with a set jaw, stepping in front of the wounded men to prevent her from continuing.

June Connor has posed:
    "Yeah, well I don't bring superpowers," June answers, glancing up at Drake from her crouched position. "So I'll have to make due with weapons. Good to know you don't stop me from beating people up, but you do get in the way of giving first aid." She reaches up, putting a hand on Drake's hip, and decidedly shoves him to the side before returning to treating the battered teen. "And they are bad guys, should put your mind at ease. What they did they know, and they know not to do it again," she answers, continuing to dab the wound. The latino young man grunts, rolling over onto his back. He's probably fifteen years old, face bloodied, and his left arm is swollen, most likely broken. "Hey," she says softly to him, "Take it easy."

Slipstream has posed:
"Shit. He's barely in high school. The hell is wrong with you? What did they do?" Drake says after he stumbles to the side and straightens up. "He wouldn't need first aid if you didn't chop at his head. He need an ambulance." He says as he slips his phone out of his back pocket. "They all do. This isn't what being a hero is about. We don't .. do this."

June Connor has posed:
    "Good to know you still have a healthy dose of judgement," she comments. "This one is why I am here. He was having trouble, I was assigned to watch his back. These jackasses had it in for him. So I had it in for them. No ambulance," she says, not looking at the phone. "Hey, Julio, it's okay. Can you get up?" The teen grunts, that's probably a no.

Slipstream has posed:
"Look who's talking! You literally judge me and my friends every day, going so far as to make shit up like thinking we kill people when we don't. So these guys were messing with your buddy, there's no reason to go apeshit on them." Drake says as he lets out a heavy sigh. "Are you mad at me or something? Is that why you haven't came by?"

June Connor has posed:
    "Really? You want to do this now?" June asks, looking back up at Drake. "I reserve the right to hold a double standard," she says, confessing that in fact, it is a double standard. "You don't get it, this is how we handle things in my world. What's he gonna do, call the cops? They don't give a damn about him. Think if I had a stern talking to them, they would care what I say?" The smirk is audible. "Don't work like that here. You either can stop somebody, or you can't. This time I could."
    "I'm not mad at you, Drake. I just don't live in the same world as you. There's a reason our kind don't mix. I don't get paid six figures to sit on my ass and play video games. You do, and that's great, good for you. It's just not like that for my people."

Slipstream has posed:
There is a heavy sigh from Drake, throwing his arms up in the air. "Fine.. I guess you don't care enough about me as a friend to give my world a shot. To prove to you that you're better than this. Beating up kids like some thug." He motions with his hand. "Stealing. Being a slave to a bunch of pajama wearing pussies. It's not a family. It's a cult." He says as he looks to the injured kids, then dials the cops anyways. "They need an ambulance. So throw a smoke bomb or something and disappear. It's what you're good at." He grunts out angrily.

June Connor has posed:
    June turns, standing back to her feet. "Really?" she says. "This is all the family I've had for a long time," she says. "Sorry it's missing the picket fence. But when I was stuck, getting beat up by one asshole boyfriend after another, they got me out of it. I was already a slave, now I am free. Yeah I have obligations. Obligations to help kids like him that won't get two shakes from the law. Think he would be here tonight if I wasn't wearing my 'pajamas'? He'd be another footnote on the news. They'd close the case quicker than Firefly." She doesn't stop the dialing. "You wanted me to go join in beating up thugs a week ago, and now that I'm doing it you are salty because I did it without you? Or because I gave some jerk a scar so he won't forget not to screw with my family?"

Slipstream has posed:
Hanging the phone up before he dials the last number, Drake lets out a sigh. He stubs his foot against the ground a few times. "Fine, whatever. You were never gonna give me a chance anyways." He says as he rolls his shoulders back, then starts for the street as he heads for the opening of the alley. "This isn't even my turf anyways. I'll just leave you alone."

June Connor has posed:
    June keeps her stance up as Drake walks away, that defiant stance that says 'she's right'. A few seconds after he starts walking, she slumps her shoulders, looking up indistinctly, and then looks back at his retreating form. "Okay, Drake, give you a chance at what?" she asks, breaking the angry routine. "A chance to rescue me? A chance to be friends? If you want me as a friend, you gotta see it. This is who I am. I'm happy with that." Okay, that last part didn't even sound like a good lie to her own ears.

Slipstream has posed:
"A chance for you to take all your fancy ninja shit and do some real good with it. To be a /hero/. To have a chance at a better life. To do something and feel /good/ about your actions, about yourself. To love yourself again." Drake says as he turns to face her, his brow furrowed. "I see that you're not happy, that you're in conflict with yourself, that you don't actually like what you do. You're just too scared to walk away from it because you don't know what's on the other side. You're scared that ... maybe I'll abandon you like everyone else did? I wouldn't. I'm not like that."

June Connor has posed:
    "Come on, Drake, you heard your friend. She assumed I'm a killer. First words out of her mouth." June shakes her head, masked countenance looking down to the ground. "You might give me a chance, but there's more than just you. You think the Avengers would just let me walk in, be best friends? Or the Justice League? Teen Titans maybe?" She considers, tilting her head, "They might not be discerning enough, they actually might. But really." She holds her hands out, and then tucks her kunai away.
    "They aren't gonna buy me? Why should they, they'd be stupid if they did. Your buddy Tony Stark? He's not stupid."

Slipstream has posed:
"Power Girl is uh .. very aggressive in the way she delivers .. feedback. I'm sorry she acted like that." Drake says as he shrugs. "Teen Titans.. maybe.. I have a lot of friends there and they're cool. If you want to be a hero, a good guy, all you gotta do is do good things and care about what it is that you do. The others will see you as a hero as well."

June Connor has posed:
    "You ever heard of the four brothers that wander the sewers?" June asks, in a seeming shift of the conversation. She assumes not, most haven't. "Before Karai commanded the Foot, her grandfather did. Four brothers, far greater in their skill than I can ever hope to be, fought the Foot clan. They stopped Karai's grandfather." She shrugs. "He was," she glances around, down at Julio, and then lowers her voice. "He was a monster. Also possibly the greatest fighter to ever walk the planet, if you believe the stories about him. You never heard about them, though, did you?"

Slipstream has posed:
"I'm a nerd that plays video games all day for a living. I don't even know the entire roster of the Avengers." Drake says as he gives a glance over to the other three at times now and then to see their well-being. "What does this have to do with your possible redemption?"

June Connor has posed:
    "It's a story," June says impatiently. "Designed to teach a lesson, like a fable. Except this one is true." She walks up to Drake. "You never heard of them because they are freaks of nature. Giant mutant turtles. They couldn't stop the Foot, but they managed to get Karai's grandfather, which I guess was good enough for them. Still, all they did, they can't ever come out of the sewers because people won't accept them. They didn't even do anything wrong by the world's standards. If real heroes can't even show their faces and be recognized, what chance does a thug like me have, who they shouldn't?"

Slipstream has posed:
"Maybe some heroes don't care for the glory and recognition. They'd rather solve problems their own way. Not everyone needs fancy spandex and masks." Drake says as he shrugs his shoulders upwards. "Real heroes comes in all shapes and sizes. But, I believe that if they're truly heroes, that they will be recognized as such through their actions. Even if people think they're weird looking or whatever, it doesn't matter. We don't do what we do for recognition. We do it because it's /right/."

June Connor has posed:
    "They can't even walk the streets, Drake," June reiterates. "I don't want to be a hero at all. But maybe I get to be a little one, for kids like Julio that come to us and have no one else. Is that so terrible?" She looks back at the injured teen. "Sure there's the Devil in Hell's Kitchen, but he scares the hell out of these kids. They know they don't have clean noses, they aren't going to turn to him. So they turn to my family. I know you don't like them, but they have helped me. Maybe they don't have clean noses either, but damn if they don't get the job done."

Slipstream has posed:
"You're just making excuses, June." Drake sighs to her. "They tried to kill me, twice. That isn't dirty noses, that's just being terrible people." He gives a glance down the street, then back to her. "Either way, I should get home. I got an early day of scrims and practice tomorrow.

June Connor has posed:
    "Three times," June corrects, not keeping him from leaving as she turns back to Julio. "Don't forget I tried to kill you, too." After all, that was how they first met.

Slipstream has posed:
"Whatever." Drake calls over his shoulder as he blinks out with a rush of speed, rustling the debris on the street around him, followed by another blink down the street and out of sight.