Owner	Pose
Copperhead	It's late night on the college campus. Lots of students are out doing their thing, some partying, some learning, some learning the most important lesson of all, the power of friendship. A van is parked along the sidewalk just on the border of the campus between where the students walk off campus to go eat and the main campus itself. It's a van that has seen better days. One of those work vans that once was used by a glass repair company but the lettering has long since faded on the side of the old vehicle. It's parked in a parking space with an expired meter and the only visible occupant seems to be a man in a trench coat with a cowboy hat on. The van is parked between two street lights so the figure inside the van is cast in a duplex of dark shadows but there was the soft blue glow of a tablet inside the van up until two minutes ago when the light went out and never came back on. The man inside has a problem, a problem he doesn't know how to solve except for doing it the old fashion way so he rolls down the window to his van and waits for the next nerdy looking college kid to walk by before calling out, "Hey, you, want to make some money?"
Vorpal	Call it luck of the draw, or fate. Tommy just happened to be the currently-available nerdy college kid. His Media and Marketing class gets out fairly late, plus all of the overdue lab work he has been procrastinating on, so it's no surprise he's walking home at night, late and looking more than a little frazzled. Now, it is common knowledge that when someone in a van calls out to you suspiciously, you do NOT stop, you do NOT speak, you just move on and try to find a populated area. This kid, however, seems to have all of the self-preservation instincts of a ferret on speed, because he turns and raises an eyebrow. "Who doesn't? What's up?"
Copperhead	The dark figure in the old white van leans back as soon as he gets the youth's attention once more plunging him into shadow. He turns his shoulders away from the window for a second as if digging through something in the passenger seat of the van then he pulls out a wallet and opens it thumbing through the cash, "I got eighty four buckss if you have a working phone. I need to find ssome information." the shadowy figure explains. There is a strange copper smell coming from the van, blood if Tommy is familiar with the smell. Days old, human, and a dog. "Can you look up ssome one for me? I'm trying to find where they live."
Vorpal	"Ssure. I mean, sure." Suspicion, aroused. The cat's nose knows that smell, even if the human side of Tommy had never smelled it before in his life. The instinct *knows*. Underneath the illusion, cat ears perk and all cylinders are go. The human illusion, though, simply takes out his smartphone and opens his search engine. "Who are you looking for?" he asks, the picture of innocense itself. But the gears are turning already inside his head.
Copperhead	The man-ish figure which now that he gets a closer look doesn't seem quite right, the head is too wide and he has no ears or hair, there is another odd smell of something more serpentine from the vehicle too but what are the odds that there is a giant snake driving around the city asking for directions? That would just be ssssilly. "Her name is Mercedess Park, ssshe usse to live at 13 Newland ssstreet and work at that bakery." he says and for a moment a hand appears from the dark depths of the van to motion across the street behind Tommy, "I don't think sshe workss there anymore. I need know what happened to her. Find out and the money iss yourss." he promises.
Vorpal	The cat tries to focus his eyes. The owner of the van is clever- even with night-seeing eyes, it's hard to make out the figure inside due to the lights and the shadows. "Oh, right... let's see..." he does some searching. Now, because of all the warning flags his instincts are giving him, Tommy is not about to give this man the correct address. He finds her profile on facebook, and pinpoints the address. He opens his Google Maps app and begins to search quickly... aha. There's a park a few blocks from that address. That should be enough. "Looks like she's over at 412 East Oak, few miles from here that way..." he points in a direction. He also eyes the van, quickly. Yep. There should be enough room for him to squat on the roof if he goes invisible. "Can't miss it, really." Mysterious Stalkery Sstranger was about to get an unexpected passenger, because there was just something slimy about this guy that he didn't like. "So, do I get my bucks?"
Copperhead	A monster of his word the snake man tosses the money out of the window, unbundled it flutters towards the ground in a small mess as the man in the noir outfit starts the van. He doesn't say thank you, he doesn't say good work, he doesn't say anything, he just starts the van and gets ready to drive off. When he turns on the car the interior dashboard lights come on and illuminate his features. From under the hat there is a smiling face, not of a person but of a snake, a brown-ish copper colored snake with darker brown stripes. Now Tommy is faced with a choice, he can pick up the money or he can do the right thing and find out where the monster is going. Decisions, decisions!
Vorpal	He is a college student, so he's usually strapped for cash. But damnit, he is also a superhero, and this smells more rotten than his attempt to make a good risotto last week (hey, don't laugh, risotto is *hard*), Copperhead will see Tommy scrambling to the ground to get the bills. It's all smoke and mirrors, though, since the illusion is left behind to fend for itself. The Cheshire cat, divested from his illusion and invisible, nimbly clambers up on top of the van to settle on the roof in a comfortable low crouch.
Copperhead	The monster snake man drives fairly well so the ride to the park isn't that eventful. He obeys all the traffic laws, does nothing to draw attention to himself, he doesn't even listen to music while he drives. Once he gets to Oak street the van starts moving slower as he starts reading the street numbers looking for the right house, the house he is never going to find. Tommy will have plenty of time to watch him drive up and down the street looking for the address that doesn't exist. This is the boring, cold part of being a superhero, the stake out. All he can do is wait and watch to see what happens as the man drives around the block over and over with his window down and the interior lights of his van dimmed as low as he can get them.
Vorpal	Vorpal is not, when it comes down to it, a NICE cat. There's the whole bit of playing with one's prey that he seems to have inherited as part of his transformation. He waits a couple of turns before finding the perfect spot. That one house that was clearly vacant. They had passed it a couple of times... the next time they passed by it, it would look actually occupied. A light shining from the top window, and the number on the house? 412. It was all his illusion work, of course. It was thorough- the grass on the lawn even smelled like it had been cut a few hours ago. The trap was sset. Set.
Copperhead	The monster in the van slows to a rolling stop and parks across the street when he sees the house number. Sure, it doesn't make any sense why the numbers are out of order but if you can't believe your own eyes, what can you trust, right? Turning off the van the figure shuffles around inside, moving to the back of the van. He does something back there, if the cat bundle of chaos peaks through the back window the snake man is kneeling down in the back of the van which is his home on wheels. There is a mattress in the back of the van with a circular nest of blankets and clothing. There is disgustingly enough, a cooler duct taped halfway up the wall on one side of the van with what looks like several dogs sticking out of it. The monster has taken off his coat and hat leaving them hung over the back of the driver's seat while he skins the leg of a large dog into a trash-bag with only his own claws. He's going to have a snack before he goes stalking. Now, clearly visible to the cat's night vision, he can be seen for what he is, a half naked snake man wearing only a pair of jeans. The kind of monster you just wouldn't expect to see in suburbia.
Vorpal	The cat's stomach turns, making him slightly nauseous, but a set of good breaths helps him regain his composure. After witnessing that gruesome spectacle, he slithers off the side of the van and, invisibly, tiptoes around until he climbs up to the second floor ledge of the house. From there, he will keep watch and see how the monster decides to enter this house. Now he feels better for having given out the wrong information- clearly this creature is on the prowl. Experimentally, he reaches out to jimmy the window... nope. They didn't bother to lock it at all. Keeping his eyes on the van, he slowly begins to push on the glass, in order to raise the window and leave a very enticing entrance visible, after which he takees a few steps back on the ledge to give ample space.
Copperhead	Alien? Monster? Mutant? Spirit of Ickyness? It's hard to tell what the creature's story is as Tommy gets to watch him skin the leg of an animal and swallow it whole down his large gullet. The lightless interior of the van isn't what you would call homey. There are no amenities to speak of. Old bottles of water are scattered around, some refilled with something that probably isn't water any more. There was one interesting detail Tommy might recall later, a stack of papers that look like they were printed out, one of them with a LexCorp logo on it. After the snake man eats his fill he cleans up the mess and gets dressed again. He slips out of the back of his van with a bag of trash and animal parts that he slides into the trashcan of one of the neighbors then he crosses the street and moves like a shadow towards the side of the house. He keeps his coat on, his hat down, he sticks to the shadows, keeping cover behind bushes and trees like he's had experience at sneaking into places, tactical training. This time however he isn't sneaking in, he's looking in.. His snake like head and wide brim hat peeks out of cover slowly from behind a bush just enough for his eyes to see into the windows of the house and watches, unmoving, still as stone, waiting for someone to appear in one of those windows.
Vorpal	Stalking and hunting. That's something else his feline nature understood. Why venture in if the prey isn't there? It made sense, in a sick sort of way. The cheshire cat remembers some of the pictures on the facebook profile. He thought for a second, and finally decided. The woman came into the room with the open window, a bundle of linens on her right hand arm. She looked a little tired and a little frazzled, enough not to notice the fact that the window was open. Instead, she dumped the linens in one of the closets in the room and walked out, turning the light off behind her... but leaving the window open. The house was dark now, clearly someone seemed to be ready to go to sleep. The fact that there was no car parked in the driveway might indicate that the woman was alone, the man presumably away on business or working late. Either way, she didn't expect him to come home within any reasonable timespan. And in the darkness and the shroud of invisibility, the cat's eyes study the creature. His supple muscles kept him perfectly balanced on the ledge, his breath slow and almost impercetible as he attuned himself to his surroundings. This was a dangerous, lethal creature. There was no room for jokes here, no room for mirth. He screwed this up, and he was as good as dead.
Copperhead	Seeing his target the snake-creature reacts but not in the way the cat might expect he gasps and starts to visibly shake with relief. His slit eyes widen taking in every detail of her as he breathes faster his body trembling. He watches her as she does the most mundane of things ready for bed his rapt attention focused on her taking in every single moment, every detail with his golden eyes until she is out of sight and the lights go out... then he falls to his side struggling to breath like he just ran a marathon and curls up into a tight, trembling ball behind the bushes just trying to breath slow enough not to pass out.
Vorpal	If only Copperhead could see Vorpal's reaction, he would probably laugh his ass off. As the snake-man collapses, the cat's jaw drops. The lowest it has ever dropped. His expression is one of simple and absolute dumbfoundment, and he doesn't know exactly how to react or what is going on. Not true. He gets a vibe of what is going on, in general terms, and he still literally can't even. For a moment he considers crawling over to the trembling ball and asking him 'Hey, dude, are you OKAY?'... but he remembers what happened to that dog leg. Nope. He's not going anywhere NEAR him if he can help it. He watches very, very carefully...
Copperhead	The snake creature takes several minutes to compose himself laying there on the cold ground, saying nothing, eventually becoming still once more, but if the cat is patient enough he is rewarded with seeing Copperhead finally sit up and start to move again. With the same practiced stealth that comes with years of experience he moves low to the ground until he is positioned behind a tree on the opposite side of the tree from the house. The tree is the widest one on the property and he does something to it. He peels off a section of bark and digs at the bare section of tree with his claw tip carving something into it... what could he be doing?
Vorpal	Alright, this was getting weird. REALLY weird. The cat narrows his eyes and decides to do something sneaky. He focuses his willpower into the known channels he uses to bore holes into reality and bring the rabbit holes into existence. This rabbit hole is tiny. The size of a peep-hole, which appears near his eyes. The other one appears a ways away, near street level so he can try to get a good look at what on sam hill this snake creature is doing to that tree. He has to admit, this is not going anywhere remotely where he thought he was going. And he doesn't know exactly how to feel about that.
Copperhead	It's hard to see what exactly the snake is up too but he clearly spends time carving something into the tree, some kind of circle? Then he make some other motion taking something out of his pocket and pressing his hand against the tree with a flat palm until the object is wedged into the circular hole he cut. Finally, when he is satisfied with his work he picks up the slip of bark that he originally pulled off. Opening his mouth wide two long tangs like giant toothy daggers unfold from the top of his mouth. He uses one hand to hold the back of the bark up to where the end of one of his fangs is and the other to squeeze the base of the fang making it squirt out deadly poison onto the back of the bark. It's not exactly super-glue but it gets the job done. The snake re-folds his fangs then holds the bark in place until the poison becomes sticky enough to hold on it's own. Nature will take care of the rest, over time the bark will be replaced and whatever he did will be hidden forever. Satisfied with his work, the snake man turns back towards the street to slither back into his rolling home and drive off. False alarm? The woman wasn't in any danger after all? So what was this all about? What did he hide in the tree?
Vorpal	This is cruel. A mystery hidden from a cat? Blasphemy. A quick Rabbit Hole and the cat lands on the van, invisible. And suddenly, there is Vorpal, crouching in all of his unashamed felinity on the edge of the van rooftop, peering down at the approaching snake. "Okay... I know you're not Cyrano de Bergerac, and that's not Roxanne, but help a fellow out here. Did you just make out with a -tree-?" The real Vorpal is standing a few feet away from the illusory one, invisible and observing. He may be curious but he is not ENTIRELY stupid. Much.
Copperhead	Either not wanting anyone to know what just happened, or just not a fan of people standing on his van, the snake answers the question by casually pulling out a 9mm pistol from his coat pocket, complete with silencer and shooting at the illusion before he even finished the word tree as if what he was going to say didn't matter at all. PFT! PFT! PFT!! How rude! .
Vorpal	And Vorpal is hit. "... now that's just fricking RUDE." The cat stands up. There are holes in him, holes through which you can see the houses behind him. "Dude, I worked -hard- on this body, you know how hard it is to get good muscle tone?" The illusion tugs and pulls on the costume over the holes, until they are sealed up. Then those green eyes turn a disapproving glare at the snake, like every Grammar school teacher just found you cheating on the test after she personally tutored you at home. "Wanna try that again without the Hissy Hissy Bang Bang?" The invisible Vorpal crouches and says nothing. Okay, the snake was as violent as he imagined it would be. Let's see how he deals with a touch of the surreal...
Copperhead	The snake deals with it the way he deals with everything. He leaps into action, literally, he leaps up to land on the rooftop as well shooting three more times at the wanna-be hero. Sure it's not going to be any more effective than last time but it's a distraction more than an attack so he can close the distances. Still he says nothing. Man, what's it take to get this guy to banter? Worst villain evah. .
Vorpal	Alright, so talk was cheap, and so were bullets. The illusory Vorpal jumps high in the air as the bullets start flying, describing an arc to land on the tree that Copperhead finagled with. "HEY!" he calls out, grinning with a shit-eating grin, "I bet I can find out what ya did!" and he starts crawling down the trunk, clearly going for the piece he had ripped off. The invisible Vorpal slinks down the side of the van, trying to stick close to the vehicle. He hopes the snake man will not chance to shoot towards the house and risk hitting the occupant over whom he clearly had a Something About Mary moment. If he jumps towards that tree, he has a plan. Hopefully, it will work.
Copperhead	Vorpal is correct the snake man won't risk shooting at *that* house. He instead takes out a long metal canister out of his coat pocket with quarter inch holes drilled in it like polka dots. There is a core inside the metal cover with a combination of mechanical and liquid parts. The snake walks towards the house on the other side of the street putting his gun away as he casually strolls towards the unsuspecting family no doubt sleeping inside their home carrying god only knows what kind of device. It looks like a really big smoke grenade but can you really be sure?
Vorpal	rpal narrows his eyes. Oh, now it was *on*. He touches the Van and whispers to it, "Time to go for a ride!" as he releases the Chaos Wave spell on it. The vehicle sparks to life and screeches away in a mad dash down the street, imbued with temporary magical life. "Uh oh, dude," the illusory Vorpal calls out from the tree. "Don't look now, but Dude... where's your car?" The invisible, real Vorpal flanks the snake and keeps his eyes on the explosive device. He was -not- going to let him throw that device.
Copperhead	The snake man watches his van drive off his face scowling. It's hard for a snake to scowl, their faces are usually so cheerful looking with that rictus grin plastered on their face but he manages to pull it off. His forked tongue slips in and out of his mouth as he contemplates chasing the van. He stands there for a moment as if he doesn't know what to do, helpless prey powerless against the mighty hunter... until the mighty hunter gets close enough and suddenly the real vorpal is being choked by the snakes large, crushing hand. Lifting the invisible boy off the ground the snake turns to look at the empty air, "Why were you ssstalking that woman? Did Luthor pay you kill her? To kill me? I won't let you hurt her." he says as he squeezes harder and harder. Well, he's talking at least, right?
Vorpal	And Vorpal is completely unprepared for that. And then, a split second later, he remembers that thing about snakes. And tongues. And hearing. So ten points for style, minus a million points for execution, right? The cat flails in midair, trying to struggle an answer out while his windpipe is being choked isn't exactly easy. "-----" he says, and points to his throat. The message is very clear: If you want answers, stop choking the cat.
Copperhead	The eyes of a killer gaze into the depth of the cat's, eyes of a cold, remorseless, soulless thing, eyes forged in the fires of pain and fury like the heat from the forges of hell itself and for a moment Vorp may be left to wonder if the monster cares about answers at all as the fangs in his mouth slide forward and his jaw distends wider than should be possible but then when the proper level of panic is achieved the grip releases the cat and he falls to the ground able to breath again, "I don't see killer in your eyesss. Why are you harassssing me?" he asks as he relaxes his fangs and lets the young man catch his breath.
Vorpal	Vorpal's hands go to his throat and there is the obligatory wheezing, coughing, hacking and the like. But, fortunately, no hairballs or anything of the like. When he has finally regained his breath, the cat remains sitting on the ground, knowing that any sudden movements would look like he was trying to attack. "A guy comes up to this kid on the street and you ask him about finding someone... and it's shady as hell. Then I follow you and you're going Silence of the Lambs on a dog leg in your van, I'm thinking you're going to murderate anyone in that house. I wasn't hired by anyone to kill you or her, dude, I was trying to keep her from getting killed. I'm a hero." And then his ears wilt. "... okay. I'm trying to be. But my answer's still the same." He looks up at Copperhead. "And you're afraid someone is going to come after this woman?"
Copperhead	Copperhead considers his answer for a moment like he isn't sure what he should or should not tell the trickster, "Yes. Sssshe was my wife before this." he says and motions to himself, "LexCorp ran a trial on a new medication. Sssomething went wrong. Made sssome of us monstersss. I didn't come to hurt her, I came to sssee that ssshe was ssafe." the snake man says as he looks down the street where his run-away van went. "Ssshe thinksss I'm dead. Hopefully that will keep LexxCorp from conssidering her a problem. " he says then he looks back down at the cat.
Vorpal	"And the thing you did to the tree?" the cat asks, standing up and slowly dusting himself off. He has questions, but he needs to make sure everything is on the level. "And you can call me 'Vorpal', by the way. Sorry if I sound nosy, but I've got to know you're on the level. I don't want anyone to get hurt out here."
Copperhead	Copperhead pauses again considering what to say. There is a strain on his face, even with the face of a snake that shows how hard it is for him to talk about the subject. "I hid my wedding ring in the tree. Once I find the people who did thisss to me and find a cure I will come back for it, for her. We will be together again, I ssswear it." he says as he looks across the street at the elaborate illusion that has lead him through such personal trauma and given him such hope all under false pretense. "If you want to be a hero, protect her. Sshe dessserves it." well, isn't this just getting more awkward by the moment? Should he tell the psychopath that it's all an illusion or should he just keep diggin this hole?
Vorpal	"Well, that's not the address." The Cheshire cat crosses his arms. "I messed with that kid's device, kind of like how I messed with your van." He waves a hand. The van appears , rounding the corner and approaching them. It's hard to say how this is conveyed, but it looks like a repentant puppy coming back after running away. "Like I said, I thought you wanted to harm this person. I needed to be sure." The illusion over the house vanishes as well, and it looks like it has been abandoned for a while. The number changes, as well. "I can take you to her actual address and you can put the ring there. Or you can give it to me and entrust me to do it. Do you trust yourself, though?" the cat says. Hopefully the fact that all this trickery was performed by Vorpal in order to *protect* his once-spouse will register. "And you don't have to fight Lex-Corp alone. It's not like there aren't people out there who don't know what it is to be different. I mean..." he gestures to himself. Walking, talking cat.
Copperhead	Well, honesty is the best policy... most of the time. Copperhead stands there watching as the house transforms into an empty husk just like all of his hopes and dreams once did. He doesn't say anything. He doesn't move. He just goes deadly, silently still not even visibly breathing. He just stands there like a statue as if seeing the illusion disappear broke something inside him? Maybe he's in shock, or maybe, and from the way his iris has closed into tiny, tiny black slits, he's trying really, really hard to keep himself from going on a murder spree. After a few moments of terrifying stillness he finally takes a breath and calms himself. Focusing he tries to force himself to relax, "It would be better if I didn't know where ssshe lived. Ssso yes, if you would be ssso kind. But ssshe can not know I am alive. Her hussband is dead, for now. "
Vorpal	"Alright, I will do it." The cat says quietly, and then he turns to look at Copperhead. "How can I help you?" he asks quietly, because he knows that's what Wonder Woman woul have asked. "And if I can't help, I may find someone who can."
Copperhead	The man starts to walk away towards his puppy-van, "The cruelest thing I could ever do to sssomeone like you is let you help me. I don't want you to ssee my world, Kid. It'ss not pretty." the snake says as he walks away but pauses and turns back before he gets into his van, "I will give you thiss advice. The only thing that matters in life, the only prize at the end of the game, is dying without any regrets. Ssstay a hero, ssstrive for love and try to remember ass you grow older, ssself awarenesss is not a get out of autissm free card." then with those parting words of wisdom he steps up into his van to leave behind the last piece of his humanity.
Vorpal	Well, that got dark fast. "How's a Raven like a writing desk," Vorpal tells the man before he gets on the van. "Put that in an ad on the paper with a date and a place when you need help." "Just... don't forget it. No matter how deep the rabbit hole goes, there's always a way out if you stick to it." He stays by the curb to watch Copperhead drive away. He will take the ring and put it in a safe place at the correct address, later.