9948/Trouble in Mutant Town

Trouble in Mutant Town
Date of Scene:	06 November 2019
Location:	Bushwick (Mutant Town), Brooklyn
Synopsis:	Bushwick receives some cruel guests who've had a bit too much to drink. April O'Neil hits the scene with a tazer and sass to spare. Volt completes the ensemble cast, and in the end, the day is saved and the fledgling superhero finds he may finally enter the zeigeist.
Cast of Characters:	Volt, April O'Neil

---

Volt has posed:
The New York nights have gotten chilly. Relaxed dress codes seem to be in the rearview mirror now. Being outside casually may be a little more of a hassle for some. But for a newer 'resident' of Mutant Town, it's pretty convenient. Instead of standing out like a sore thumb for wearing bulky layers in August, people are starting to dress more like him. Granted, they don't tend to go to his lengths to 'casually' mask their identity, but it still makes slipping away into crowds easier.

That isn't the objective here and now, however.

Not far from Fred's Diner, an alley is filled with commotion. A small collection of well-dressed college-aged people seem to have surrounded a couple mutants. With beers in hand and sneers on their faces, they've surrounded the two not-strictly-humans to begin taunting them. It seems the two have taken a vow of non-violence, the winged woman and somewhat stone-textured male holding hands and weathering the abuse.

Volt heard it on the grapevine that there were some 'tourists' starting trouble. Hands are stuffed into the central pouch of his hoodie and his head is dipped low as he jogs in their direction. But he isn't going to get there before the first beer bottle is thrown and collides against the male's rocky skin, issuing forth a splash of glass and chemical alcohol odor.

April O'Neil has posed:
April has a car, a nice car, but she doesn't like to use it too much because she's been a bicyclist most of her life. Cycling to and from Manhattan when her primary job had been at Channel Six News at the Goodman building in the heart of the city. But now she mostly works in and around the Brooklyn area, just southwest of here. Mutant Town is a hotspot for activity related tot he things she talks about on her website and podcast though so she often finds herself cycling out here for interviews or to pick up pertinent tips and information from contacts in this area.

As such, while this latest kerfuffle in Mutant Town's alleyways is breaking out, April happens to be walking her yellow and black sport bike through the alleyway. She's wearing a matching yellow and black cycling helmet, her signature bright yellow leather jacket (it helps cars see her to have this much bright yellow on, and its also her favorite color!), her eyes are down on her smart phone, she's thumbing at the screen and muttering while reading a text.

The commotion up ahead catches her eyes though and the young reporter and internet personality looks up and narrows her eyes. She IS there as the bottle is thrown though and she sees it collide and smash. "Hey!" April reflexively calls out... not a super hero, not even a great fighter... she does have a tazer in her jacket pocket though, because... she's April and she's a trouble magnet. "What the hell do you guys think you're doing?!" She tries to help, as best she can.

Volt has posed:
The stone-skin mutant doesn't flinch. He tolerates the attack with grim dignity. The winged female at his side, however, cringes and shifts to try to tuck herself more behind him.

"You see that!?," the rowdy bottle-thrower asks his cohorts. "He likes it! You know what to-"

April's voice cuts him off. He turns to face her with a flash of concern at first; she could be something much bigger and much more willing to throw down. But what he sees is a sporty cyclist in bright yellow. She looks familiar. A booze-addled brain isn't helping him here. "Pfh, screw off!"

"Chad, that's O'Neil from the news!," reports a blonde. At least one of them is awake enough.

Chad, however, sees this more as a threat. "What the- Sarah, you /idiot/, don't use my name in front of the news!"

"You just used mine, douchebag!"

The group exchange glances. The question doesn't need to be spoken, but one of them gives it voice anyway. "We can't let'er blow this up. What do we do?"

"Grab'er! Trash her stuff!," Chad orders.

Two of the four punks, including Sarah, rush April with the intention to grab her at the arms and shove her down into the alley. The two mutants start to back away, only for their exit to be cut off and Chad to say, "You're not going anywhere."

Volt has gotten close enough to see April O'Neil, not someone he's particularly familiar with due to some very different priorities, make her proclamation, as well as see however this initial melee plays out. And seeing as things appear to have turned violent, his jog increases to a sprint. He'll be rounding the corner in no time!

April O'Neil has posed:
April is internally relieved to see the mutant who tanked the bottle seems to be okay, what with a mutation that is 'built' to sustain such damage... some might say. April herself may be a News reporter who's job is to cover things like this, but she's the kind of reporter who doesn't give up her humanity for the story, she's not the type to record the event and not try to intervene to stop it.

Her phone is in her right hand, and her tazer is tucked into her left jacket pocket, she keeps it inside of a small 'holster' that she'd sewn into the pocket's interior just for it so it didn't fall out as easily. This has a side effect though, it makes drawing the tazer a little more difficult in a pinch.

So when the two attackers start to rush her, April drops her bike in front of them to create a hazard that hopefully will tie up at least one of them for a moment or two while she struggles to get her tazer out and backward walk at the same time. "Wai-wai-wait!" April calls out to those rushing her at the same time.

"Sarah! This is a bad idea!" April tries to use one of their names to connect a bit closer with them emotionally. She yet remains unaware of anyone else rushing to help at this point, too busy to notice.

Volt has posed:
It's an understandable distraction. April has drunk, aggressive 18-to-20-somethings attacking her. And they don't seem to care. The bike tactic does work in getting one to stumble and break formation with Sarah. She, however, seems desperate to seize April and prevent what would no doubt become an expulsion from their college. "Stop saying my name!," shrieks the blonde, dogged in her pursuit of the other woman. She isn't above grabbing onto lapels and trying to strongarm her into the cover of the alley. "You're just making this worse for yourself! Shut up!"

Meanwhile, within the alley, things have cranked up another notch. After another bottle erupts against stone-skin's, well, skin, Chad moves in closer. "You may not care about bottles being broken. But what about when I clip your girl's wings?," he sneers as a switchblade is produced. The winged girl in question whimpers and tucks herself closer behind the wall-of-mutant.

April's erstwhile attack collects himself from his stumble over the fallen bike, and he starts in again towards her, full-tilt. There's a flash of brilliant blue lightning, and he's sent into a haphazard sidelong tumble along the sidewalk, ending in a twitchy heap.

"School may be out for the day," says the newcomer, his head bowed and bolt-slinging hand still extended as he approaches in a more slower, deliberately dramatic stroll, "but you've still got some learnin' to do."

April O'Neil has posed:
April's not necessarily defenseless though, especially against a drunken college girl who's a few years younger and probably a lot less experienced at tussles. So when the girl does grab hold of April's jacket, what she finds is April allowing her to get in closer, and then, just as the lightning from the newly arrived 'Teacher' sizzles through the air, April is stabbing her tazer into Sarah's stomach and squeezing the trigger on the device to fill the girl with even more electric volts!

Through gritted teeth, and with her chin held up a little higher than normal, April defensively says to Sarah while shocking the ever living hell out of her (Maybe not as much as the new guy is doing to the other though!), April snarls out. "Back off!" To Sarah, and then attempts to swipe her phone holding hand at the side of the girl's face to backhand her with the back end of her knuckles.

One thing about April is that she did do some hand to hand training at a gym near-by. Until her trainer got a little too creepy with her, so she backed out of it. The Turtles have always offered it too, but she never felt their style would work for her and didn't want to disappoint them.

Volt has posed:
It helps that a bolt of lightning is also a bit distracting. Sarah only gets as far as the start of a sideways glance before April is jamming up her works with a taser. Teeth chatter, eyes unfocus, and she makes a very unsophisticated, "Dgghhddt!," sound as the personal defense weapon goes to town on her. The backhand nails the girl across the cheek, sending her to the asphalt.

Volt, who was in no uncertain terms shooting for the cool theatrics of a superhero and all the mindgames that such pageantry would play on evildoers, actually pauses. His hand lifts to pinch the edge of his shades, tugging them down a hair to regard April. "Holy crap."

The shades are shoved back into place. Ahem.

Seeing the tide turn, one of the aggressors turns and bails, running for the opposite end of the alley and into obscurity. Chad's eyes widen. "Don't you run!," he shouts after him. "Fine, screw it!" As Chad attempts to shove past rock-skin, he finds his neck seized in the mutant's grasp, and his not insubstantial frame lifted off his feet.

"I said I refused to fight you. Not that I would let you go."

If the rumbly words of Mr. Stone-Skin wasn't enough of an indication, the expression on his face is beyond seethingly furious. Chad panics and kicks, scratches his knife against the unyielding flesh, and all for nothing. Held aloft, he's brought out of the alley and into the open. He wants to do unspeakably violent things to Chad. The restraint on display is tremendous, but the struggle to resist is clearly written.

April O'Neil has posed:
April really does let Sarah have it with that taser, mostly cause the dumb blond actually went and put hands on her. That always is extremely irritating for the young reporter who's been a kidnap victim more than a few times in the past... When Sarah goes down itno the garbage bunched up at the foot of a brick wall, April glares down at her, panting lightly from the adrenaline of all of this. She'd seen the much larger lightning blast that had occurred to and for a second, she looked down at her taser that she holds up... thinking for a second or so... 'Is this more powerful than I raelized?'

But reason floods the young April's mind and she realizes there's a new player in the alley and fight here, and she looks at him just as his shades drop. He must've done it, another mutant most likely.

April's eyes sweep over to the Stone Guy who's holding 'Chad' and keeping him kept secure. As she recollects herself, April's phone comes up and she starts to dial the cops. She starts to walk over to where the others are, but on her way she makes sure to flare out her left hip to knock a trash can over that has an over-turned lid on it that is filled with trashy filthy water, causing it to spill down all over Sarah, onto her face and even into her open mouth.

"Oops." April says, spitefully, after doing so.

When she reaches the others, she holds up her phone while staring at Chad and she gives him a big smile. "Cops are coming, Asshole." She cheerfully says, before looking to the mutants. "Is everyone okay?" She asks them all, Volt included. For all she knows, he was more involved previously before she got here.

Volt has posed:
Volt is used to being more needed than this. Here, he took out one dude. The badass chick took out another. And now this guy is taking out the third and presumably last. Sharing is caring, right? His hands stuff into the central pouch of his hoodie again, head bowing to cast as thick a shadow over his features as his hood'n'cap combo can provide.

Coming to a halt not far from the other two, Volt's eyebrows raise at the hipbumped trashcan and trash gumbo now soaking Sarah. Yellow-coat here doesn't like being threatened. Noted. But as to her question? He spares a glance at the dangling Chad. "Things seem pretty well in hand," he puns.

Stone-Skin seems unsatisfied. Chad here threatened to hurt his woman. He could handle all the disrespect in the world, but that was a line not to be crossed. His response is a snarl, and Chad resumes panicking. It isn't until the winged female puts a hand on him that he seems to soothe again. Gradually, the tension fades - and he shoves Chad down to the floor.

Finally able to breathe freely, but surrounded, he has nothing to do but rage.

"Freaks! Nothing but freaks! Mistakes of nature, thinking you're better than everyone!"

April O'Neil has posed:
April's eyes take in the sight of Chad being held by the big stoney mit and she's not one to pass up on a good pun herself, so the 'everything's in hand' one gets a grin and a little snicker from the reporter. "Seems so." She says with a quick exhale before she looks back over her shoulder to the other two who'd been in the alley, Sarah and the guy Volt zapped.

She looks to Volt then and appraises him for a moment, he has a sense of 'street vigilante' about him - something she's grown pretty familiar with spotting over the years for a number of reasons - and she gives him a clear single nod then. "Shocking powers, huh?" She asks him. "Cool." She shows a hint of a grin before Chad's words draw her back to where he's now been deposited onto the ground.

"I'm not even a mutant, asshole." She replies to him. "I'm just not a piece of filth like you. I mean what is even your story here? Trying to show off for trash girl back there?" She motions back to Sarah. Then she uses the same hand to motion to him. "Let me guess, you come from a wealthy family where your parents didn't hug you enough, so now you want the rest of the world to pay for your inner sadness. Is that it?" April tilts her head in a sassy sort've expression for him. "Well maybe they'll come bail you out of jail. Though hopefully they just leave you there."

Volt has posed:
Who doesn't like a girl who appreciates puns? The corner of his lips uptick faintly, but cautiously, as to maintain that dominant and 'in control' presence. Granted, no one is likely to out-menace Big Papa Stonewall, all things considered. Her assessment gets a nod, followed by a lift of his hand to tap a pair of fingers against the bill of his baseball cap in faux-salute. "That and then some."

Chad growls up at April, absolutely hating every moment of this; from his posse's untimely defeat to being stuck on his knees in front of mutants and a mutant-lover; weathering her barrage, the attitude, and when he tries to stand up, McStoneskin simply pushes him back down. He's not going anywhere. "No! I'm just not a /traitor/ to humans, like you! You skank!" He finally looks to the side, noting how the other remaining two are still down. "Oh my god you killed them! Murderers!," he shouts.

Volt frowns at this point. "Is it considered excessive if I shut'em up?" He glances to Stoneskin who shrugs, then to April.

"I'm gonna make sure you all burn for this! You can't do this to people! It's not right!," rages Chad.

April O'Neil has posed:
April glances back over her shoulder to where Chad indicates his other friends are 'dead' and it just makes her smirk. "Oh they are not. Sarah passed out, she's probably had more to drink tonight than she even weighs." She tries to spot where they other guy was, but she motions to Volt. "I don't know about the other guy, if he is dead, well it was self defense, so..."

April shows a grin down to the Chad. "Call me a nasty word again and I'll vote Yes on you getting a good dose of electricity. Maybe we can make you pee yourself too." April's phone is also recording, though she's aiming it mostly at their feet, and just letting the audio go, not wanting to put the Mutants on camera for fear of them getting retribution should any of this end up in the wrong hands or into the wrong eyes.

A smile is shown to the Stone Guy and his angelic lady friend. "If this guy ever bothers you again, I'll give you my contact information. My name's April, O'Neil. I cover this sort've bullshit online, and Chad here?" She glances down to him again. "Is the kind've a-hole lots of people are hoping to find out more information about..." A subtle threat, but one done in defense of the Mutants here.

Volt has posed:
Volt does not volunteer information on whether or not the unlucky cohort is dead. Frankly, he wants Chad to be afraid. Fear is useful against people like this. Knowing what could happen if attacked makes a nice deterrent, in his mind. But alas, no, he did not kill the other person. Mortality is a /huge/ no-no; a line he refuses to cross. Terrifying Chad is fair game.

"I seen you on the news," rumbles the behemoth. "I know who you are." His expression is tight, perhaps lingeringly defensive. But after a moment's hesitation, he nods. The winged female offers a warm, appreciative smile to April - then a scowl down at the man who threatened to maul her wings.

"Go to Hell, bitch!," snaps Chad at April. "You've got some gross fetish for freaks, whatever! Let the world know! Let'em get those giant robots back out here and level this whole area!"

A fist flies in from the side, landing a wild haymaker against Chad's temple and instantly dropping him. Volt stuffs the hand into his hoodie pouch again. His head turns first to the other two mutants, then to April, and finally back to the heap of now-quiet Chad. "Don't judge."

April O'Neil has posed:
Most Mutants around this area would likely enjoy April's efforts toward Mutant rights, she's very vocal toward helping them and toward pushing for them to get a better shot at better lives. But, people come in all shapes and sizes and sometimes she tussles with Mutants as well, plus its not like she's a mega celebrity either. Her podcast has improved that quite a lot and her tv appearances also help spread out face out and about though.

"Yeah, you're a real tough guy, throwing bottles at people and threatening to take knives to women. I hope you lay your head down at night and think about how great a guy you ar---" April is cut off by the punch from Volt to the side of Chade's face. The aggressiveness of it startles her and causes the yellow jacketed reporter to jump a little inside of her clothes.

When she sees Chad get laid out though, she just smirks. "Probably for the best..." She mutters before she looks up and out toward the street. The distant sound of police sirens are carrying on the wind. "That must be them, though its hard to tell around here if you're next in line or there's three more stops before you. Its like Amazon delivery." April says her own bad joke, and flashes a grin at everyone still standing.

She moves past it though, clearing her throat. "So uh, where did these guys come from?" She asks the Angelic-one and Stoney Guy. Then she looks to Volt. "You got a super hero name and want a 'thank you' plugged on-air?" She asks him.

Volt has posed:
At the sound of sirens, the coupled mutants are already starting to shy back. Nothing is ever simple in Mutant Town, especially when it comes to college kids getting their crap kicked in. Sometimes the best play is to just not be present when the authorities arrive. The locals have learned to be cautious and take care of their own. But the winged woman pauses long enough to answer the question, "They were coming out of a bar over there," pointing across the street. "They saw us and cornered us in that alley. We need to go, bye!"

And just like that, the pair is hustling away.

The remaining mutant, however, isn't in as much of a hurry, though his posture noticeably sharpens at the sound of oncoming police. "Except Amazon won't maybe take you back to the warehouse for safekeeping," he muses dryly. The question directed at him seems to shake him out of his thoughts of arrest, attention snapping to April. Though his eyes are obscured behind the sunglasses he's wearing, rest assured they're widened substantially. "For real?," he asks. It's almost a flounder. "Volt- Volt's what people around here know me as. What I- uh, go by." He's suddenly nervous. Or giddy. It may be difficult to tell. "You're gonna... say that? On t.v.?"

April O'Neil has posed:
April's not even remotely afraid of the cops. In fact she used to date one who worked in Mutant Town, so most of the cops around here she knows on a first name basis. She watches the Mutant couple make for an awkward retreat and she gets it... it doesn't make things easier for when the police start asking questions but she's got enough evidence on her phone to corroborate her story here... plus, its April, this won't be their first dance with her in these kinds of things.

"Good luck!" April calls after the other two before her eyes sweep back over to Drake. She raises her hands up and removes her bike helmet from her head then latches it to a leather strap on the back of her jacket. Her left hand sorts through her wealth of dark hair and she offers a small smile to him as he seems taken aback by her offer to give him a shout-out.

"On my podcast." She says to him. "It gets more views than Channel Six broadcasts do anyway. Its the only reason I still have a job at Channel Six in fact, they woulda fired me a long time ago by now otherwise." She grins softly then.

The blue and reds can be seen now and April nods once to him. "Volt. Got it. Wait- isn't that an energy drink?" She asks, tilting her head a little and grinning. "I'm just teasing. You did great here, it was really impressive. Thats an awesome power to have. Definitely is on my list of ones I wish I had." But, she's just a normal boring human, sort've.

Volt has posed:
Volt nods slowly at her, processing. So it's not on television. That's a goal he's yet to achieve. But on a podcast that gets more views than the actual channel itself? That's a heck of an accolade, too! And absolutely worth it. God, it makes all of this feel a little more legitimate; and odd as it may seem, that makes him deeply happy.

A wistful smile edges the corners of his lips. It falters when she mentions the energy drink. "Man, all the really good names were taken," he sighs. "And-"

The flashing lights catch his attention. He glances over his shoulder, noting how close they're getting. There's just no time to enjoy this. His focus returns to April. "You may not be a mutant, but you've definitely got a gift." He shoots her a boyish smile, which quickly turns regretful. "I have to go. Cops and people like me don't really mix. But-"

He hedges.

"Let's talk. If you're out here again. Or just have some time. People around here know me, they-"

Another glance back. Cops are rounding the block. Time's up.

"-Just ask!" And with that, Volt turns to dash off into the alley. And ultimately, into the neighborhood beyond, where he could blend in with the usual foot traffic and disappear.

April O'Neil has posed:
April shows him a grin then at the part about names being taken. "There's a lotta competition out there for the good ones. I like Volt though, so don't worry. Its easy to remember and it cuts straight to the point." She glances over her shoulder then. "At least the point of what I've seen you do so far."

When she looks back, he's making for his exit and she's raising a hand up to wave him off like the others. "Good luck to you too. I imagine we'll run into each other again. And thanks!" She says loudly enough for him to hear as he goes.

Then, April is back where she has been before, surrounded by garbage in an alleyway, both the literal kind and the garbage people kind. So she walks toward her bike to pick it up while muttering to herself as April's do. "What a night... I should've just drove my car. But then I wouldn't have been here to help, duuuuh, Scatter Brain!" She talks to herself, she was raised mostly as an only child, they do that!