8243/A Little Distracted

A Little Distracted
Date of Scene:	10 July 2019
Location:	Back Alley, Mutant Town
Synopsis:	Armor encounters some Darklings up to no good.
Cast of Characters:	Darkness, Armor

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Darkness has posed:
Just another night like any other, right? Summer heat setting in. The city gets a little... twitchy in the summer. Antsy. The potential hanging in the air like the calm before a sudden downpour and storm. A certain tension hanging in the humid night. On the outskirts of Mutant Town, that tension could be cut with a knife. Everyone feels it. From the elderly, ghost seeing shop clerk to the stone skinned street tough, they all can sense the possibility in the dark.

It's in that dark that little voices can be heard. Just off the beaten urban path, trash piled high on one side, forgotten and stagnant. Stale. Little voices, raspy and grating. Tiny whispers and laughs.

"-The Boss said we need to keep a low profile.-"

"-Nobody lower than your profile.-"

"-Shut up! Shut up! Help me drag this dead guy!-"

The scritch and scratch of dress shoes being dragged across gritty asphalt escapes the alleyway. A young man averting his gaze and hurrying past. The cackles and jeers from the shadows quicken the boys pace.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki was going into Mutant Town for class project of sorts. Her white socks and the striping of her outfit gleam under the street lights, though the bounce in her skirt is muted by the humidity. She's on her way back HOME though, having left later than she expected from doing an interview of an elderly mutant for a project. Right down the sidewalk, heading toward the nearest subway station.

Darkness has posed:
Scriiiiiitch. Scraaaaaatch. Draaaaaag. A bottle hits the ground, clattering noisily but not breaking as the three shadowy, mishapen figures drag what looks like an overweight private detective or a down and out door to door salesman. The shadows in the alley thicken, black and heavy like tar. Baleful yellow eyes glowing in the shade, glittering with terrible intelligence.

"-Hey, lookit! Lookit! A straaaaanger!-"

"-Nothing stranger than you!-"

"-Shut up, idiots! How are we supposed to work with... with... Wait, what are we doing again?-"

The little ragged voices grow bold, taunting. Laughter again, like the cackle of angry ghosts with smoking habits. A pair of tan slacks clad legs get pulled in small, jerking tugs from the light into the garbage strewn alleyway between that abandoned clinic and the closed pawn and gold shop.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki hears noises. And voices. Not entirely sure of what's going on, she adjusts the strpas of her leather backpack, and starts walking in the direction of the noises. "Someone there?" she asks crisply.

Darkness has posed:
Silence lingers for a moment when Hisako asks the million dollar question. Silence and then abrupt, sharp laughter. Cackles. Giggles and snickers. Another tug and the scuffed leather shoes vanish into the deep shade of the alley. The slow, reptilian blink of those six yellow eyes. If they belonged to people, they couldn't be more than two or three feet tall.

"-Someone here? Oh, yes. Yes, there is someone here.-"

"Come see. Come see. He's probably lonely.-"

"-Can you be lonely if you're dead? Hey, girly. Care to weigh in?-"

As Hisako nears the commotion, light seems to grow muted. Fading as if in retreat while the shadows grow longer. Even Hisako's own shadow seems to stretch and peer toward the three, malformed things.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki blinks, and takes a deep breath, Tugging on her backpack straps, steadying herself. Her polished shoes click on the sidewalk after having crossed the street to come closer. She stares at the eyes, into the alley, but doesn't go close enough to be grabbed, or so she expects. But onguard, definitely on guard. "Did you... what have you done?"

Darkness has posed:
Even with light itself having second thoughts on entering this particular alley on this particular night, it doesn't keep from catching the savage and uneven little smiles of too many fangs in inhuman jaws. The creatures grin, cheering and jeering. The low, pained moan of a man returning to consciousness is clearly the gentleman in the wrinkled tan suit and not the Darklings.

"-I didn't do it, I swear! I'm a good boy, momma!-"

"-You haven't been good since the Spanish Inquisition.-"

"-Shhhhhh. Shut up, she's onto us, boys!-"

The critters laugh and snicker. The man, waking further, starts to scream only to have his voice muffled by a taloned, skeletal hand. Unmostakeable is the sound of class ripping at wool and skin, muffled shrieks of pain as the Darklings drag and attack their prey. Dragging the man rapidly away from Hisako into the dark.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki shivers as this whole thing is quite weird. But she's a hero. Though one with only so much experience. Inhaling deeply, forcing herself to stare into the darkness. Then the attack, and she moves. Armoring up, the girl is elevated two feet off the ground, as a glow emanates around her body, and she races toward the sounds, doing her best to look.

Darkness has posed:
Quite weird is about right and getting stranger by the moment. The coppery tang of fresh blood on the concrete mingles with the stale stench of hot garbage. Muffled screams growing frantic as the man struggles against impossibly strong, tiny hands. The Darklings drag and assault the man with a glee that rivals a pack of sugar high toddlers on Christmas.

"-Make him scream louder, The Boss said to make it big!-"

"-Guys, is it just me or is that fresh meat over there glowing?-"

"-Did you eat that guys pills? What's wrong with... oh... yeah. She glowin.'-"

The largest of the three shadow cloaked gremlins takes his hand off the mans mouth. He immediately begs for his life only to have that bony, sharp fingered hand clap back down and Shhhhhhhhhh him. Drawing Armor deeper into what could easily be a trap.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki doesn't care. She borrows a move from wolverine, turning her armored hands into claws, and does a spinning attack at the ... creatures... around their target, tr ying to send them back and away, ideally with injurise in the process.

Darkness has posed:
As Hisako becomes a glowing, bladed and armored wall of justice, the Darklings cackle and taunt her still. The man reaches out toward her, trying to grasp at anything at all to get away from the little fiends that have tormented him. When she lashes out, the trio of darkness minions scatter from their prey. One climbing up the wall, one swatted by her armored fist to fly into the refuse noisily as the last lunges at her hissing.

"-No fair! No fair! We don't have glowing stuff!-"

"-I think she broke my everything. I taste my lungs. Ow.-"

"Die, Sailor Moon! Diiiiieeeeeeee!!-"

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki ends up standing over the man, protecting him in the most basic way she can. "Stay back! In the name of the mutants I Will punish you!" And she does the hand pose! They did ask for it. At that, she then trise to pick the man up and run back OUT of the alley. She has to try!

Darkness has posed:
With Hisako towering over the man now drifting into unconsciousness at her feet, the mutant psionic defender now has a Darkling up close and personal. Skin dark grey like charcoal. Eyes glittering yellow, teeth long and sharp. Dripping saliva and breaking against the armor it tries to bite. Another jumps from high on the wall to land on her back. The third one dragging itself and the near severed half behind it on a slow path toward her.

"What'cha gonna do, Sailor Sparkle?! Gonna saaaave him?!-"

"Nnrrgfff! Ngrgglaaagh! PTOO! She tastes like my teeth!-"

-Death from abooooove!-"

Semi-Swarmed by Darklings, Hisako has her hands full. Well, sort of. At least one hand full.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki winces as monsters fall on her, and grows her armor. The teen grew two feet taller, filling the alley. At best, she'll scrape some of the beasties off. At worst, she'll just hold them off long until until she can get the man ot of the alley, put him down on the sidealk, and whirl bak around to start clawing. "I'm warning you," she pants, "My energy level is over nine thousand."

Darkness has posed:
Darklings start coming out of the wood work as Hisako fights back. One after the other springing from the shadows to pile onto that armor. Scraping and clawing, biting and striking with more force than the little monsters look capable of. Luckily, Armor is holding her own. Fighting back the tide of wildly shaped, foul mouthed Darklings and dragging a half conscious man out of an alley.

The strange thing is... it almost feels like they let her. As she turns to face them again, the man in the tan suit left safely in the light, she hears it.

BANG.

A gunshot. Just the one. Decisive. Then the creak of a steel door, a tall, shadowy figure in a long coat stepping into the alley. The Darklings all eyes on Armor and... not the stranger? As he lights a cigarette, orange light flares against Jackie Estacado's movie star good looks. A faint, amused amile as he exhales a cloud. "Good work, boys. You pissed off a Mutant."

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki puts her armor to good use once the victim is out of the way. she starts BANGING herself on to the brick walls on either side of her, and well, if the darklings are in the way, it's their own fault. A few claws get to work too, trying to scrape them off of her armor. But itall stops when the gun fires. She turns around, spinning another darkling off of her and into the wall with the move. Staring at the new arrival. "Are they yours?"

Darkness has posed:
Darklings shriek and curse as they get mashed between insanely powerful armor and old brick. Stone turning to a mess of ground up darkness demons... and with Jackie now behind them? The little monsters back off Hisako. Some of them dragging their busted and mashed bodies past her toward Jackie and Company.

"Yup." The man says, a cheerful and all too dangerous smile creeping to his lips as he boldly holsters that shiny handgun inside his jacket. A dark eyebrow lofting high as he looks Hisako and her armor up and down. "Thanks for playing with my boys. I'm sure they weren't too rough on you. Say... you a cop?" He asks with a bemused, easy going baritone voice. Smooth like late night jazz music.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki glances at the man JAckie shot, grimaces, and at that, she lunges. Leaping forward, she puts her armor's strength, the will of her ancestors, into trying to grab Jackie's shoulders, which will amount to a pretty rough bodyslam attempt. "No!"

Darkness has posed:
The grimace from Hisako is met with a careless, confident smile. Murder clearly meant nothing to this well dressed monster in the skin of a man. When she leaps forward, Jackie takes a long drag off his cigarette. Beckoning her closer with his free hand.

"Closer, sweetheart. I can't hear your pulse pounding from there." Just like that, she charged. That's when all Hell broke lose. Shadows explode in size and depth, swallowing the alleyway whole and plunging it all into abyssal black save for the glow of Hisako's armor. She's like a beacon in the pitch night. A void populated by howling, screaming abominations that crash against her in a tidal wave. Her armored fingers just barely missing Jackie as the shadow serpents, dragons, ogres and nightmarish demonesses pound at her defenses.

"No? I was thinking the same thing, babe. Don't wrinkle the jacket." A wink and the killer starts to melt into the black void around them. "Love the skirt, by the way..." A devilish Cheshire grin lingering in the shadows.

Armor has posed:
Hisako Ichiki lets out a small curse in Japanese as he gets away. Claws returning to her hands, she spins around again to face what's after her. Clawing as she backs up, backs up, backs up until she can scoop up the body of the man who was shot, and take off RUNNING. Unfortunately her skirt does move with the run, but so it goes.