8237/Chance Meetings in an Alley

Chance Meetings in an Alley
Date of Scene:	09 July 2019
Location:	Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Summary needed
Cast of Characters:	Pippi, Alopex, Nemean

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Pippi has posed:
    BROOKLYN, the final frontier! These are the -- no, no, that was the show Donnie was watching that she overheard. She had thought everyone either resting or on their own watches, and she had taken Cody's backpack, slipped a few cans of spray paint into it, and had made her way out of the lair, trying to be quiet enough that not even she could hear herself move -- worked out well enough last night, but now?

    Could be different.


    She had made her way up in an alleyway, away from wandering eyes, and set the manhole cover in Williamsburg back in place before raising her hood and taking to a fire escape and to the roof.

    She had headed south from there, then retraced her steps in a big U as she decided just where she was going to set to work, her heart pounding. Every little sound drew her attention, her ears pricking up.

    And finally, somewhere in Flatbush, she had taken her cargo out of her backpack, shaken the spray can just like she'd seen humans do, and she traced the outline of a circle, a smaller circle at the bottom, and eight inverted V's -- a spider, in white.

    Wonder who that could be a message for?

    She was on her way back down a fire escape to mark another area, and had begun another, smaller spray-paint spider when someone called out.

    "HEY! BRAT!"

    ... Six men were at the bottom of the fire escape. Wearing colors. Purple? Dark blue? Hard for Pippi to say as she pulled her hands and her head back, her eyes going wide.

    "Come down here, kid, we'll show you what we do to /taggers/ in our neighborhood!"

Alopex has posed:
    When you're a vigilante, or a ninja, or both, there's only a few things to do with your day. You train, you patrol, or you take care of yourself: Food, water, etc. For Alopex, her current role was that of a ninja on patrol, but with one little change. She haaad planned on grabbing dinner for herself and the one that moved into the Lair with her, but when she got back and noticed that Pippi wasn't there to be asked 'whatcha want?' it was .. well odd. As such, Alopex slipped back out of the lair again to see if she could find out just what was going on.

    Pippi's nose may be better than her own, but Alopex was the best hunter of her original family, and those skills were used in tandem with smell, not just smell alone. Finding the white-spider tag sets the fox curious. Maybe she was looking for Ghost Spider? That's all she could figure. The fox would just ask when she caught up. With a little more of the skyline crossed, she hears the call out from the gang members which gets her to pause a few buildings over. She can see the gang, she can see who they're yelling at. And she decides to let a lesson be learned, for now. If things got worse? Well then Alopex would step in.

Pippi has posed:
    The little dog mutant gives a soft huff out "You wouldn't like it if we did that!" she calls down, nervous, and the six men just laugh. One jumps up, grabbing onto the ladder and giving it a shake as he pulls it down. "Oooh we've gotta girl up there, guys! A girl tagger! I bet ol' Harris thinks we won't rough up a girl, huh!" he grins, and Pippi's tail draws back and down, and she goes to climb up, to escape from the humans below.

    "Nah-uh, little girl. You keep climbin, we're just going to come after you, and I bet a Glock runs faster than a little girl!"

    Pippi halts. She slowly climbs down, and she has her hands up, her head down, her tail still low.

    "Trust me, you're not gonna like it if you try to hurt me. I... I'm a fighter!" she stammers. Her ears are back, the motion in her hood showing their position.

    "Heeeey -- Jake, lookit that. She's got a *tail*. She's one a' those mutants!"

    "You're a ways out from Mutant Town, freak." the leader states.

Alopex has posed:
    Multiple thugs, guns, and Pippi is really looking like she's thrown in the towel already. ... Really? The Shard may be with the fox, but she isn't drawing it. Instead she's gearing up to hop the last few buildings to potentially meet with -- or not, she went back down. Mm. Well, the fox starts to cross for the last couple gaps and help! .. If necessary.

Nemean has posed:
These guys might be Purple Dragons. They're known to operate in a different part of the city but with all the chaos as of late, they may be trying to expand their turf.

The lion has been lying low for a week, after his encounter with Leonardo. It might have looked like Leo took the worst of it, but those joint strikes hurt like hell. And Nemean is also still suffering from...Well he's not sure. He's certain that Shredder is manipulating him but he doesn't know how and wants answers. Answers that a fox might be able to give him.

He's gotten better at using his enhanced senses, and has picked up on the vulpine's trail. But he's still never going to figure out how they do this rooftop running stuff. He needs a jetpack or something.

Pippi has posed:
    One of the gang members gives a laugh, and walks right. up. to. the. dog. He pulls her hood back, and outright laughs.

    "Whoa, man, check this /out/! This is wild man, I've never seen a mutie that was a mutt before!" he laughs, and Pippi draws backwards, her ears tugging back. She feels her hands curl into loose fists, her tail stiffening.

    This was a bad idea on so many parts -- but she moves quick, grabbing the laughing man by his forearm, swinging him around and with somewhat aim she tosses him at his compatriots!

    The five other humans give cries out -- but apparently they're not all armed, and they go to storm the dog!

Alopex has posed:
    On one hand, Alopex wants to trust Pippi to get through this thanks to her training. On the other hand, there's a gun in the mix. If the pup got shot she'd never forgive herself. Result? The fox dashes, crosses the last gap, and drops in on the gang members and Pippi. That stern glare, that perfect stance, she probably gives off a far more intimidating aura than Pippi does, especially when the first thing she does is to sling a kunai at the gun before producing a trio more in one hand.

        "Try me."

Nemean has posed:
There she is. Nemean finally found her. He is ground level, but Alopex is hard to miss. The gang is between him and her. Part of him wants to rush in there and demand answers. But another part of him thinks he should wait and see how this plays out before he does.

He presses himself against the wall near the entrance to the alley, waiting, watching. As soon as the moment to strike arrives, he will do so.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi, meanwhile, had stumbled and nearly gone down of her own accord, being off-balance and throwing the guy. His friend had drawn the gun, and was taking aim at the off-balance teen when a kunai strikes it, knocking it away with a clatter. He gives a growl, and draws a knife, ready to take on Alopex -- but the other members of his group don't seem too keen.

    "H-hey man, that one's armed. Maybe we should let 'em go?" one of them asks with hopefulness in his voice.

    "No way, Jace. We're gonna send these freaks back to Mutant Town in boxes!" the leader growls.

    Pippi, meanwhile, gets a distraction. She smells Alopex (fox, incense, friend). She smells the men, who are staring slightly agape at the arrival of a fox into the mix (a mixture of Axe body sprays, various fruity vapes and one who smokes menthols).

    And then there was...

    Pippi stays low. Her ears draw forward, then go limp. The dog drops the spraycan that was in her other hand, and it rolls along the broken and cracked pavement. Something didn't smell right.

    "Pex. /Pex/. We should go."

Alopex has posed:
    The fox sideglances, peers toward the gang members, considers a moment, and then nods. "You'd be in the boxes if I decided to stay," the fox growls before in a fluid motion, she brushes her free hand across her waist, palms a smoke bomb and drops it.

        *PAFF*

    Pippi would feel a familiar hand take hold of her wrist and move through the alley, "Down," is the only word she whispers before sliding under... something, but when the pops up they're actually inside?! It was one of those narrow windows that goes into a basement. The fox lets go, turns to close the little window, and then pushes something infront of it. She takes a long breath, glances up, then she turns toward Pippi. "I'm not mad.. but did you learn from this..?"

Nemean has posed:
The sudden burst of smoke makes the lion growl in annoyance. Stupid idiots ruined everything. He turns around from where he had been hiding and walks into the smoke.

Inside, the strong hearing of the two mutants would be able to hear the sounds going on back in the alleyway. Cries of pain, sounds of bodies hitting the floor, walls, and in one case a dumpster. And then silence. A long silence. Someone or something decided to get involved after all.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi never liked the acrid scent of the smoke bombs. Why can't they be nice scents, like bacon?

    But she obeys, she's grabbed by the wrist and she turns to follow, sliding in without argument as the pair sit in the basement before the smoke clears -- and the canine mutants are gone.

    Pippi, on the other hand, looks positively reluctant to say anything when the sounds of pain errupt.

    Her ears flick fowards, and she turns to the window, drawing slightly away from it.

    "... I should have followed the rules?" she whispers.

Alopex has posed:
    "You should follow the rules," Alopex repeats. "I happened to be in the area, thankfully. I do have one other thing to say, though. You should be confident in your abilities. I've trained you, Leonardo has helped, I'm sure Splinter will give you pointers sooner or later, but I honestly think you could have handled those six. I moved in because of the gun, but you looked defeated before anything even happened, Pippi. If you feel that way in a fight? You've already lost," she explains before looking to the window again. "Again, I'm not mad, but if you really want to go out.. at least tell us what you're doing? I know we're new with the brothers, but they're a family, and if we're going to be fighting alongside each other, we need to be close like family too."

    The bit dresser she had shoved in the way of the window is slooowly moved back away, trying to make less noise. "And I have a feeling either me or you were followed, and considering the violence in our wake..." she sighs, "Well, we'll find out. Care to peek or should I? I won't even lie that your nose is better than mine."

    Questions about the spider tag can come later.

Nemean has posed:
After the smoke clears, the rest of the gang members are loaded inside of the dumpster, which is pushed out of the alley. They'll probably be fine.

Nemean turns and sits down, "Alopex." He says, loud enough that she should be able to hear him with no issue, "I am not going to fight you. At least not unless you give me a reason to. Come out here."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi opens the window, just a crack, enough to let some air movement in -- but it's obvious, even before Nemean spoke, just who waited outside to her nose. The voice carries in, and the smaller canine looks to Alopex for guidence on this one.

    She doesn't feel that she has to say who it is.

Alopex has posed:
    Ah. Cody. Hmm. The fox whispers, "Stay here.. just in case he decides to do .. something,". Leonardo's account had her curious what the lion may have to say. The events as she knew them, and the events as described by Nemian weren't exactly in line. "I'll be okay," she insists with a smile for Pippi before she pulls herself up and out of the basement window, stands fully up, and then regards the lion mutate fully. "Speak."

Nemean has posed:
The lion remains sitting even as she emerges and rises up. Sure he's armed with the same array of weapons he was the last time she saw him, but he doesn't seem to be making for any of them, "I ran into your turtle friend. I'm sure he told you what happened." He honestly has no idea where he's going with this.

His head is already starting to hurt from trying to poke and prod at the locked away memories. The same dull throbbing it has been for weeks now. Kitsune said she'd help him get his memories back, but he's convinced now that she'll change them more, so he has not sought her out.

"I'm...Trying to find the right things to say. I know you weren't faking your confusion when we first met, but I cannot tell why. Everything I know says you're a traitor and a murderer. Yet I constantly see you hold back. You could have killed those morons without a moment's hesitation. Why didn't you?"

Alopex has posed:
    Well, if Nemean is going to remain seated, she'll do the same. It was the way Leonardo first met with her, she'll pay that forward. There's about ten paces between the two, but she does take a seat directly between the lion and the window she emerged from. "I only kill when I don't have another option. People make mistakes, Cody. Nobody in this world is perfect, and certainly not me. What I do -not- do is force people into things. I do not make decisions for people, and I don't, and would -never-, force you to become like me. I don't care -what- you have been told.

    For now, she won't press that further. She isn't going to go over her memory of the series of events. She will let -him- make the decision that he wants to hear it. "Take your time. I appreciate that you aren't lunging at me right away. That's a first step like Leonardo gave me. Now try to take another, okay?"

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi was about to protest, but she gives a grump of a look, and gives a nod -- but sits right by the window, just in case. Alopex is poised as always, of course, the younger canine watching with nervousness in her eyes as the lion speaks.

    Her nose does poke out though, snuffing the air, one amber eye able to peer towards Nemean.

Nemean has posed:
"I want to. Everything is telling me I should tear your head off." He replies to Alopex, "I've been in a constant state of pain since running into Leonardo. Something he did, I'm not sure what?Every time I try to think about anything it hurts. Anything except hurting you and the turtles and the Punisher."

He slams one of his fists into the wall, cracking the brick there, "I know I'm being manipulated. But I can't fight it. It hurts." He's in pain just sitting here talking to her, she can probably tell, "I don't know what to do. I want to make it stop but to do so I have to get rid of Shredder's enemies."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi interrupts:

    "Even if that means getting rid of your friends?" she inquires from behind Alopex.

    She slides up and out of the basement window, and she's holding the backpack.

    Cody's backpack.

    It's cradled in crossed arms as she sits behind Alopex, her legs in a W instead of being properly tucked under. Her amber eyes are on Nemean, though, her ears drawn back. Meek. Good dog.

Alopex has posed:
    While she may not know exactly how it was done, it's clear to Alopex that Nemean has been a bit more than indoctrinated. She only needed to be trained from the lab she walked out of. Nemean had to be tricked, brainwashed, indoctrinated, or something more? She was aware of the existence of mystical arts, but it wasn't something she had participated in, was trained for, and certainly didn't encounter herself.

    The fist going into the wall pulls her free of her train of thought. "I'm sorry that it hurts, I truly do, but if you are going to break through, Cody, you're going to have to push a little harder than you already are. Let me try this. This is What Actually Happened. We went to the docks. We were able to find the cargo container. We found the mutagen. We argued for a little bit about what to do with it. Ghost Spider even offered to analyze it, but that was decided against. Instead, you said you'd take it home for safe keeping, and I offered to check in on you after a few days. When you found us? That was us checking in on you. You are missing an entire day, Cody. You're missing the day you had the mutagen, was tracked down by the foot, there was a brief fight, and then you -went with them- and they took the mutagen with you. THEY. DID. THIS. TO. YOU."

    Pippi speaks, makes a very valid point, but now, Alopex is giving the pup her moment. This was something else she wanted to try, and there's the proof. "We've been friends ever since you tracked me down to the dojo. You was there when I found Pippi here. You gave her that backpack as a sign of friendship. Neither of us would ever betray you. In fact, if we had been at your apartment we would have -defended- you, not strip you of a normal life. The Foot Clan Did This To You. There's no other explination that makes sense."

Nemean has posed:
The sight of the backpack sends a sharp stabbing pain through Nemean's skull. He roars out in pain and rises up to his feet. His eyes are red normally, but he looks like he's in a daze. He remembers it, or at least he's trying to. But the magic Kitsune used on him is strong, too strong for him to break on his own.

He falls backwards, holding his head with both hands. His fight or flight instinct is going to drive him to do something. Either he's going to lash out at them or he's going to run.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi blinks, she hadn't meant to drag any further pain up. She hadn't meant to cause anything further to him, and she leaves the pack at Alopex's side, and heedless of any danger she approaches Nemean.

    "Cody? We're here for you, Cody! A-always, no matter what!" she squeaks out, and goes to lay a hand gently at his massive, leonine elbow.

Alopex has posed:
    Nemean's roar, and clear anguish, gets Alopex to rise to her feet, standing between the two others. "Cody you have to fight it! You have to keep control, and you have to break through it! There is absolutley no reason we would lie to you! If you can't remember it, it is because they don't want you to!" This may really be beyond her capability. This might require Splinter's assistance.

    Seeing Pippi move up to Nemean, the fox almost reaches out to pull her back... but... for now, she's going to let it slide. The way she's standing? She'll lunge at a moment's notice if she needs to.

Nemean has posed:
The touch of his elbow gets Nemean to seemingly relax, as he drops to a knee, "I can't stay here." He rises back up to his feet, "I know I'll try to hurt you if I do. I need to go." Everything that's happened he knows they're telling the truth, but all his attempts to think about it hurt.

He's trying to fight back against what Kitsune did to him, but he needs help and he's clearly worried about hurting them, so Cody is definitely still in there. Because being worried about them getting hurt was what got him into this mess in the first place.

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi lifts her hand, and she gives a smile.

    "Well, I'm patient. An' Alopex deals with me all the time, so she's patient." she states gently, and she backs up, reeal slow.

    Her eyes are still on Nemean, but her tail is wagging, clearly pleased. "An' I'm glad we didn't hafta fight!"

Alopex has posed:
    That... wasn't what Alopex expected. ... Though she isn't sure what she expected besides Nemean lashing out. ... This is progress! Her stance relaxes, still on guard, but at least it wasn't so close to lashing out. "She's right. We're willing to wait, and we have ... well, one ally that MAY be able to help somehow. If it happens though? It will be on our terms, alright? Give me a few days, I'll see what I can do." She starts to back off, likely ready to listen to Nemean's instruction. "Do you know who did this to you? Who did Shredder introduce you to..?" That was the question she had meant to ask! Was there someone in the clan she really didn't know about..?

Nemean has posed:
Nemean has to lean against the wall, "She said her name was Kitsune. She was a fox...Not like you, though." He takes several deep breaths, "I don't really remmeber much else. He starts to head towards the exit of the alleyway, "A few days. Fine..I'll meet you at the Bronx Zoo."

Pippi has posed:
    Pippi stands back, and she watches, fretfully as Nemean -- Cody -- shambles his way towards the exit of the alleyway. She takes a big, deep breath, and she turns to Alopex, trusting in the 'older sibling' to know what to do next.

    "We're gonna get him back." she states, and her tail wags. "I won't give up on him."

Alopex has posed:
    "Be careful, take care of yourself, Cody, we'll be in touch," she offers before looking over toward Pippi. "Mm... I think we will need to talk to Splinter about this. I've -heard- the name Kitsune but I didn't know she could do this.."

Nemean has posed:
After taking a moment to compose himself he does leave, rounding the corner from the alley and once he's out of their line of sight, breaking into a run. He wants to get as much distance between himself and them as he can. Shredder can't know about this, lest he get more mind control put into him. He's furious...But someone is willing to help. He just has to give them time now.

Pippi has posed:
    "Welp. I've never heard of her, I already don't like her." Pippi decides, scratching absently at her cheek.

    "Sssssoooo... I'm not grounded?"

Alopex has posed:
    "No, you aren't grounded. Remember one of the first things I told you? You only learn by making mistakes, and I didn't leap in until it looked like you had accepted defeat." Alopex explains, ears up as she hears Nemean take off. "Lets get back, .. the long way around, sadly. There's no telling if he has a tail or something else."