9757/One. Two. Three (heroes), ding ding ding

One. Two. Three (heroes), ding ding ding
Date of Scene:	25 October 2019
Location:	Central Harlem, Manhattan
Synopsis:	Winifred gets lynched by FoH devotees, Witchblade and Sara rescue Fred. Katsumi gets caught up...and Sara leaves the NYPD to field all questions.
Cast of Characters:	Winifred Burkle, Witchblade, Bakeneko

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Winifred Burkle has posed:
It has not been a good day for poor Fred. The Friends of Humanity managed to find where she lived (possibly due to cat videos), drag her out of the Hyperion, relatively far away as it is, and dragged her here for the very public lynching. They're dozens of lethally mad people with melee weapons like knives and machetes, others with guns, and poor Fred has a potato sack over her head, so they're going pretty classical with this lynching. How classical?

Well, she's been tied to a tree, and one of these bozos actually threw gasoline on her (and the tree). They're laughing like they've been possessed by something or other, as they ask amongst themselves who'd like to do the honors of throwing a match at this situation.

Fred was unconscious, but the Friends wake her...they want to hear her SCREAM as she's beeing lit on fire. Some of them even start singing, rather mockingly, ~This girl is on fire...~

"Help!" That's all she's really got...a prayer that in a world full of heroes, at least a couple of them show up.

Witchblade has posed:
It's Friday. It's a little before nine. It's also fall....and Detecitve Pazini's just leaving a small family run bakery with breakfast bagels and cream cheese, because she's taken n a break to get food. Detective work is making her hungry. So her unmarked car is parked outside said bakery. She's got coffee. She's just got back into her car with her partner and taken a bite of bagel (she's got her partner a breakfast sandwich with eggs, sausage, cheese and bacon) when the call comes over the radio. Assaultt in progress. Units requred needed to assist officers.

"Son of a...." Sara says through a mouth of bagel. Manners be damned. Speed limits be damned too. Sirens, lights, she's cutting through traffic while stuffing a bagel into her mouth. Then it goes into the cupholder. Sarah swerves around a taxi, and floors it. She's needed somewhere, urgently. She's joined by more of new York's finest then it's just her, the Witchblade, and her partner that are rolling there when the call comes over the radio. It's a group. Sarah swears under her breath and calls for additional backup. She's gonna need it, by the sounds of it. And.....she's not liking what she sees. Calling for a fire truck, Sara's warning them there's weapons. Two detectives. One Witchblade. And a Fred. Sara doesn't even have time to go for her gun before the Witchblade has her covered from head to toe in armor. She's got blades out of her forearms, a sword in each hand, and wings out of her back giving her (some) flight. She's launched off of the roof of her car. And....she's diving at the group. Rescue that woman. Rescue her. If people die.....they were asking for it. Sara's quite literally dropping in. From above. Blades first on the crowd aiming to cut a path to Fred. She's counting on the other officers and fire department to get here quickly. Mostly since, well.^R
"Police. Put the weapons down" Sara screams as she soars through the crowd. Desprate times. Desperate measures. Fred's life hangs in the balance as Sara's aiming more to disperse the crowd than hurt or kill. It's hard though, the Witchblade wants blood and guts. Ssra's having to rein the Witchblade in as much as she can. An 'accidental' slice there, a mistaken stab here....

Bakeneko has posed:
Did someone order a hero!?

Because this ain't it.

"<Aya, if you were any lamer, you'd get a better parking spot!>," comes a girly voice in Japanese rounding the block. And entering line of sight is a pair of girls, both clearly Japanese; one is a tall brunette of a more average build with an annoyed look on her face. The other is a slender ebon-haired girl with a wickedly sweet smile. The latter has foregone her usual preference for skirts and instead favors a pair of hip-hugging white shorts, boots, and bright pink t-shirt. "<If you're gonna wuss out at the alst second, I bet you get fired!>"

"<I won't- he won't fire me!>," protests the other girl, scandalized. "<I'm just not used to that move- ah?">

They halt abruptly as Aya points ahead at the gathering. "<What are they doing? Is she-...?">

The ebon-haired girl's smile has completely vanished into a minute frown. Her almond eyes widen steadily as an armored woman leaps into the fray. The unfinished question Aya posed doesn't seem to need an answer.

"<K-Katsumi.. are they about to...?>"

Another unfinished question. A few heads have turned in their direction, and fight or flight seems to kick in. Aya has turned tail and run. The other, Katsumi, bodily flings herself to the side in a vain attempt to go unnoticed after already having been seen, seeking shelter behind a couple newspaper and editorial stands. Huddled to reduce her presence as much as possible, she hugs her knees to her chest and tries not to breathe too loudly. A panicked mind prioritizes odd things.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
The friends see incoming super hero...not one of the more recognizable ones, and, "Shit, light her up! Heroes have to prioritize saving people." And, of course, the other guy standing next to him just...throws the match. The lynching more or less works as intended, and poor Fred is now doing her best Human Torch impersonation...without having immunity to fire. The screams are horrifying to listen to.

Many of the unruly crowd attempt to attack Sara as she comes in...which means she's got bullets, machetes and knives being swung in her general direction. They may not do any good, but the attacking mob sees a LOT of uncovered flesh to attack, and they do their best to aim for it.

Witchblade has posed:
Sara's not worried about the crowd, her healing will take care of that. Instead, she's directing flame at Fred. It may seem counter intuitive....but...her pyrokinesis allows her, via the Witchblade, to.....actually dampen the flames around Fred. She's shooting fire at the crowd as well. Bullets and knives and whatever else are fine. But can they compete with the Witchblade? Really? Sara's stood by Fred. Feeling showy, the Witchblade makes the flames form a dragon that rears its head at the crowd, naturally, spitting flames...as Sara' s watching through the Witchblade's eyes. Fire dragon's one thing. But. She found a smoker, and set their cigarette alight. As in, holy hell my cigarette's a blowtorch level of flame, which spreads to their clothingg. Now Fred has a nice, fiery friend. The FD's still several minutes out, annoyingly...so Sara's on her own. Wel, mostly. She's got the Witchblade's help too. The dragon's looking pretty and fiery, also. It's showy and there to keep the crowd distracted. More like the human on fire's there for being stupid and having it coming..

Bakeneko has posed:
Did anyone see her? Is anyone coming for her? What was even happening? It looked like a witch burning! And the screaming! She's made more than her fair share of people scream, but the context was always /so/ much different from what's going on here! This - this seems to be madness! Murder! Mayhem!

Katsumi, frame mildly quaking, tilts to steal a nervous peek around her cover at the goings-on. There's a dragon now. And people are catching fire. Her heart jumps into her throat again and she instantly tucks into the corner between newspaper box and building, exhaling an unintelligible, but horrified, noise. Her head ducks into her knees, and her arms lift to wrap around the back of her skull.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Fred is already burned, but at least she's not actively burning. For the moment. Dampening the fire didn't clean the gasoline off of her, so she could go up again at any time. And if she thought being blasted by Sentinels hurt, being set on fire with gas and a lighter hurts even more. It's amazing she's even alive, though she's probably in shock at the very least nonetheless, and her clothes are charred black. How much damage under that she's taken...is not the most wonderful thing in the world to speculate on.

The crowd begins to disperse once they see that shooting and stabbing don't appear to work, even against all that uncovered flesh.

Eventually, a couple members notice Katsumi huddled behind boxes...but, she's not a Mutant, and didn't betray humanity by getting Sentinels destroyed, so they leave her alone.

The most psychotic of the friends still around actually tosses a second match at her (he's the one not set on fire himself yet), and she once again goes up in flames...

Witchblade has posed:
Sara watches, and dampens the flames. She returns the favor by shooting fire at the match thrower. Fight fire with, well. Fire. By this time, sirens are heard as the NYFD and EMTs have turned up. Being torched tends to get doctors on standby. Sara though watches, then notes they're unwinding hoses and looking for places to hook into. Great. She's no desire to get blasted with various linesnozzles or water settings. She instead has a sword in hand. A sword that is, at least the blade, on fire. That's heading toward the psychotic match thrower. Oh she's not aiming to kill. Just to take them out of the picture. Fear itself's a good weapon. Sara is slowly coming back to herself She steps out of sight. Just, well, behind the tree and returns to herself. She's got her badge in one hand, and her other hand's on her pistol. She's stood in front of Fred, like she's willing to lay down her life for this stranger.

Hearing the clank of hydrants and the hiss of water, and seeing the hoses jerk as water's sent through them, Sara uses the Witchblade to summon a knife to chop the fraying rope. The knife goes back in her pockett. She's keeping watch on the guy who threw the match. Sirens are heard more as the cavalry arrives. the NYPD's here in force with two dozen cars, six vans and a whole lot of uniforms and detectives. They even took their sweet time to get a water cannon. Thatt's retreating, but the police are fanning out.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
Once again, Fred was set on fire. Once again, Sara doused the fire...it's difficult to tell if Fred is even alive at this point. When the rope is cut, she just falls to the ground, more than a little unconscious. There was a potato sack over her head, so it's not possible to see, yet, just how badly burnt she might be, or where the burns might be worst.

The psycho crook wishes he hadn't, because now he's on fire...and nobody's putting him out. So he runs around screaming like the burning man. Cause, ya know. Burning man. The crowd is trying to get away now...and for the most part, they don't. Police tend to win vs. mobs, particularly when they've got numbers.

And, naturally, news media is there, reporting live from New York...and it's clear this is national news now.

Witchblade has posed:
Sara glances to the media, then over to the EMTs that are running over. She's got her badge out, she's waving them over but making sure she's not on camera. Instead she's keeping her head down, giving the medics room to work. Watching them, Sara looks to Fred. Oh, the paerwork on this is going to be a bitch....all the paperwork, all the investigating she'll have to do. It's a massive, massive case, lynching, setting her aflame, but hey. The PD's got their hands on a lot of the mob. Police have numbers, and tactics, and equipment. Sara's relieved. Watching Fred, and the medics, Sara is quiet, though she's glancing over her shoulder ever so often to the media and police.

Bakeneko has posed:
Things are settling? Sirens are sounding? Perfect. That's good, right? Means things are under control? Katsumi is assuming that's what it means. And when she lifts her head enough to take a peek around, she confirms that indeed, the psychotic mob has - or is - dispersing. It's good enough for her!

She takes a moment to refocus on her limbs and get them working again. You never realize just how /sore/ tension makes your muscles until after the fact. But when she finally gathers her legs beneath herself, it's with the realization that this sort of publicity is not good publicity. She's supposed to keep out of trouble. She's supposed to be on her best behavior. She didn't do anything wrong here, but it's best that no one see her as someone to question. Her boss doesn't need excuses to sideline her!

Katsumi wobbles once as she stands, a hand quickly setting to the newspaper box to steady herself. She peers towards Sara and the other woman. God, how awful. Her expression is tight, both with concern and fear. This? This is not something she sees back home. This is a unique brand of American weird. And that monster-thing going on with the fire might decide to torch her.

She takes a quick inhale and turns, head ducking to try to hide as much as she can in plain sight while sprinting back the way she came. Get her the eff outt'a here!

Winifred Burkle has posed:
By now, Fred has been put on the ambulance, and carted away. The police fan out...and Katsumi is stopped at last. Thankfully she's not wearing a FOH shirt, but they believe she might be a witness to the events that just transpired. They're only asking her questions about what she saw and who did it and identify this person and that person.

Meanwhile, since Sara is both super hero and badge wielder, they're basicallty going to make her fill out a LOT of reports, because this is a nasty situation. Sara's also getting questions from reporters now...

Witchblade has posed:
Sara's not a fan of paperwork. Not in the least. She's glad Fred's off to hospital, mind since Fred'll get cared for there. If only. If only Sara was going with Fred mind, instead of an officer and another detective. Great, Sara's stuck here cleaing up the mess the FoH created. Without being snared by the media. She's deflecting questions to the NYPD's PR department, they're earning their keep, overtime and then some. Shaking her head at the firefighters and EMTs, Sara's convrsing with them as they walk her back to her car. The bagel and breakfast sandwich are cold and horrible now...the coffee's sludge. She just sits there running what happened through her head, hands through her hair. She's looking plane and worried, mostly since well, she saw Fred set on fire and lynched, and felt it could have been worse. If anything, Sara feels Fred could have been far, far worse.

Bakeneko has posed:
On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Japanese visitor who had hoped to get out of this without drawing any lingering attention to herself. Nothing that would get back to her boss and wind up causing her, or the event, problems. But as it happens, no such luck. She finds herself confronted with questions, namely from police. Her normally perfect American accent slips as she's answering, a clear indication of her fraying nerves. And it mostly boils down to: I din see nothin'. Which is more or less true. She couldn't identify anyone. The organization, she didn't get a good look at. Sara, she's giving less information on other than she jumped in. The victim, she knows nothing about - or even her condition. But she does inquire about Winifred's state, and whether or not she'll make it. Katsumi's not in full panic mode anymore, but her gaze is definitely haunted.

Winifred Burkle has posed:
The police mostly take Katsumi's response as 'terrified of retribution by the mob', figuring she probably did see something but is scared to death of being set on fire herself. As for Fred's condition, "...We don't know. She was set on fire twice. She might not make it." They figure she needs time to calm down...and a feeling of safety. It doesn't seem to have occurred to anyone she might be a professional wrestler, at least not yet.

Wait a minute, there it goes. "Oh, hey, wait a minute, I saw her on Smackdown last week..." And now the cops switch, because it's not just a witness, it's a celebrity witness, and that complicates things further.

For Sara, the paperwork. Dear God, the paperwork. Lethal force was used, and not all of the mob survived. They have procedures for justified use of force, however, and seeing a woman set on fire in front of her means she won't be disciplined or anything, but she can count on all the paperwork. All of it. In triplicate.

Witchblade has posed:
Sara's dreading the paperwork. Dreading the bosses. Dreading it all. Why. Why was she called here and not Romine or any of the rank and file officers? THose are all good questions as she sits there and, just, finishes her bagel. Her partner's looking like he's seen enough for one week. She's gonna need anew partner after this, too. She's just so not looking forward to going back to her desk. Nor deal with all of this. The words cluster and fuck spring to mind for how it's gone down.

Bakeneko has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro is getting out of it. She's gonna be able to get away and hide somewhere and process and- oh crap. She's been recognized.

"What? N-no, I mean, maybe, sure, it's- I-," stammers Katsumi as she fishes for some means of speeding this along. She'll try to figure out why Smackdown is showing her off later. Probably a commercial. Probably a commercial advertising the event that's coming up very shortly. The one that she desperately doesn't want to be booted from for being a troublemaker.

"I said what I saw, I gave ya what ya asked, can I get out've here?"

Winifred Burkle has posed:
The cops try to be understanding, "We understand miss, you're worried they might come after you too if you tell us what you saw. Given a woman was set on fire twice, I can understand your concern. But we're trying to bring these scumbags to justice." Clearly they haven't been convinced that she's told them everything, but they are convinced she'd scared out of her mind. "If we could garuntee your safety, would you tell us the rest?"

Finally, the Chief of Police arrives for Sara. "...Do you want to answer media questions, or do you want me to do that? You're not in trouble, a woman being set on fire twice is plenty as justified use force goes, but they're not gonna stop asking."

Witchblade has posed:
Sara shrugs, setting down her bagel. "No questions" she says simply. "Lett the PR handle it, sir" she says curtly and shakes her head smoothing out her hair. It got messy, and, and...she doesn't much like messy hair. Still, Sara's willing to let the Chief take the mess and clean it up. Paperwork she can do. Investigations, sure, she can work this case from a desk if that's what the brass want her to do. But she's got a bone to pick with the FoH freaks. Which she lets the Chief know in no uncertain, unfiltered New York style. Looking over she asks one simple question. "Can I go home and take the rest of the day off?" Sara asks quietly, she's almost afraid of retribution. What if the FoH think she's a mutant. What if....oh hell, what if they come after her for saving that woman? She was doing her job.

All these thoughts swirl around her head. Which....thanks to her distraction, is how she's en route to the same hospital as Fred after getting into a fender bender. Oops.

Bakeneko has posed:
Katsumi Oshiro stiffens at the sudden addition of a voice. She isn't familiar enough with Sara to recognize her by voice, but her mind is jumping to the conclusion before she's even turned around. And once she does, lo and behold, there she is. But she doesn't just see Sara. She sees that... thing... she was doing. Was it even her? It's so confusing, so baffling, so alien, she's not sure she can really make heads of tails of it.

Certainly not right now, anyway.

"Um." Katsumi stiffly rotates to the cop again. "I told you everything. I've been here like one god**** day. I don't know anything else." She isn't angry. Just casually profane, especially when her mind is so frazzled. "Are we.. uh, are we done here?"

Winifred Burkle has posed:
The police decide it's not worth pressing. There were plenty of other witnesses, and even some cameras. "Alright miss. You can go." It's not like they can't find a professional wrestler again later if they really want to.

Meanwhile, the Police Chief sighs. "...Well, it was worth a shot." And then he's off to face the news media, looking about as grim as a tax collector. He has no joy for what must be done.