The long nights had begun to grate on Lena and increase the amount of concealer she had to wear under her eyes. But after so many hours, when she had finally turned into bed last night, she had done so knowing all was in place.
Now as she stood in line, waiting on her coffee, her purple heel taping to the sounds of the elevator music in the background café, Lena felt good. Well, as good as any women in need of a week of sleep might but that was what a double shot of espresso was for.
“Linda.” The barista called out causing Lena to roll her eyes. Her name was for letters and still they got it wrong. Oh well!
It was as she wrapped her arms around that warm cup of brown gold that her morning went to hell.
The sugar began to shake and suddenly a woman from behind let out a scream as others dove from the window. Lena herself turned only in time to see the window crash and to drop to her a**, drink spilling to her side.
---
The man who hit the floor and slid on the linoleum looked like he could use a double expression himself, as perhaps one did after getting pitched through a window. He shot a weary; exasperated look at the ceiling and started trying to pick a path to his feet; not easy since he was dressed like an extra from a gladiator film; with a particular theme of Bulls heads; including the pauldron, the horns of which ought reasonably hit him in the jaw when he raised his arm.
“Man I was thinking beating you would be -hard- or something”
The hefty figure in black with a crooked nose and an equally crooked sneer shifted their weight as they climbed through the broken window in a clearly showy gesture. “Ladies, gents; I'll be with you shortly…”
The crooked (man?) grinned as grabbed for the other man, fingers gripping tightly to a combination of the bulls head and tattered red cape, which released a few glass fragments as they were shaken loose.
“Yeah yeah…” The gladiator wiped at his face and gave a cursory look to see if anything was bleeding (it was), and dismissed this as minor, though based on the much faded claw marks on one side of his face, and the scars on his legs, maybe a toss through pane glass was comparable to a nasty paper cut. “I'm tellin you man; they're playing you. You don't have to do this crap.”
“And I told you…” The crooked man pulled back his arm and a weapon, an ugly heavy thing like some kind of gnarled club, appeared in his hand, his outstretched arm dipping slightly as it compensated for the weight. “I've got a parent; he’s got the flu. Sucks for him… And you.”
Instead of trying to swing at the crooked man, the gladiator put his bloodied hand around a cord around his neck, and… Grinned.
“About that? So do I.”
The air began to grow hotter as he said this; like sitting a little too close to a fire in the fall when it made your pant legs too hot, and something like oily incense filled the air as the shape of an enormous bull formed as improbably as the club.
The crooked man didn't so much wittily retort as turn the color of an unroasted marshmallow.
---
“What the hell is going on?” Lena spoke out as the man in red and gold stirred the air around them. It was warm as the beach on a hot day and getting warmer by the moment. Eyes shifted
from from the man on the ground to the man standing near him in black and holding a club.
Turning her head, Lena looked down at the coffee that laid spilled on the ground then back at the men. “Bad coffee…”
As the men were distracted with each other, people were making a run for it in every direction. Some were heading out of the broken window, some the door. Those around Lena seemed to be panicking that they were stuck against of behind the coffee bar. Lena herself though was getting to her hands and knees. Crawling slowly towards the wall and away from the direct line of fire, literally, she managed to make it to one of the tables that had not been overturned just in time to see the bull take shape.
“NO WAY!” The woman shooted, jumping to her feet as her clicked from the slight hop. “You two are the ones who blew up the place last night?!?” Lena was pointing at both men before she blinked and realized she was addressing two figures that had just summoned a club that made him look like an orc and the other a bull. At least the last one seemed to suit him. “Ugh…” She looked at both of them then around shoulders tensing. “Don’t mind me...I’ll just…”
After a second, Lena seem to try to slip to the side behind one of the chairs. “Be...here...until the fire department arrives…”Reaching out, she grabbed one of the knives someone had left on the table for their pastry and held it like a deadly weapon.
---
Kairatos had been briefly glad to see people leaving, and for one, gloriously optimistic moment, he’d been fairly sure that the coffee shop had cleared out… at least until one brave soul brandished a butter knife in their direction. He shot her an wide eyed look of equal parts surprise and embarrassment, starting to protest that it had been an accident and not… entirely… his fault… kind of… when the Crooked Man, whatever-ite, took advantage of the moment to sock him in the jaw with the butt end of his Crooked Little Club, which made the protest come out:
“That was an accid-” Before it was cut off with a pained grunt, causing a jerk from the bull that waved it’s horns around precariously. “a**.” Kairatos snarled, or… something that was probably supposed to be that epithet, and brought his metal boot firmly down his attackers shin and onto his instep with an sound that might or might not have been something inside the Crooked Man’s foot yielding, it was hard to tell under the protesting yell.
----
Lena felt herself wince when she saw the club head straight into the jaw of the man in red. Logically she had no way to tell which man was the ‘good guy’ and which guy was the ‘bad guy.’ But her feeling bad for the man in bull heads was fleeting when she was pretty sure the one in black yelled in just as much pain.
Okay, this was ridiculous and what the hell was the bull for? Show? At least the club was proving to be useful whereas the creature/hallucination was just sitting there.
“Figure it out later Lena.” The woman muttered, as she gazed at her butter knife. “What are you thinking…” She muttered, throwing it to the side and allowing it to slip within reach of the hiding person at the other table. The back still had people…
That was when she realized she wasn’t alone. But was she the only one to be brave enough to try something...or stupid…
Grabbing the legs of the chair she lifted it up, still holding it/stumbling with it to the side around the fighting men. Looking at the guy in the back she mouthed…’pull the fire alarm.’
He looked at her like she was insane.
Lena rolled her eyes and now whispered. ‘Fire Alarm!’ Before she moved within reach of the fighting two and swung the chair not chairing who she hit.
---
To be entirely honest, he’d never, for a second, wondered what it had felt like those couple years ago when he’d hit a couple other people in the head with a chair. Not even for a passing moment. Karma, or some other cosmic force with a somewhat twisted sense of humor, had other ideas.
Long story short: he wouldn’t recommend it as a personal experience. He caught a flash of motion, distracted by trying to wrestle in place with his opponent, who had been all too happy to call the bluff of calling his summon up here, and then he had his bell firmly and loudly rung, and his head was still spinning and he was trying to find his sense of orientation again when the Crooked Man let go of him to let him stagger and marched grinning on the remaining staff, and Lena, knocking his club aimlessly on anything in his path to make an discordant drum beat.
“Thanks hon, very helpful.” He grinned at Lena, raising an arm to ward off any further chair swings.
”Now I got a quota to meet so let’s make this order speedy. Who wants to donate to the greater good… “ He flexed the knuckles on his free hand and glanced over the staff, deciding, then dismissed Lena and made a lunge for the nearest Barista and their starseed. Quota’s quotas, greater good, yada yada. He was cashing this s**t in like box tops for a nice medal, but the stuff you got out of a cereal box was never this much fun.
---
Lena honestly wasn’t sure for a moment if the chair had made the breaking noise or if it had been the face of the male she hit. Looking at the chair and then back at the man in red, she had to guess it had been his face.
Well, served him right for getting flung into the window and summoning a fire bull…
The Bull…
Her head turned that moment coming face to face with a flaming red mass. Nearly ignoring what was going on with the cloaked man and the barista, Lena let out a yelp and stumbled backwards and into the mass of fabric that was the man in black as he made a dive. Chair still in her hand, she hit against him and lost her grip on it sending it to the floor.
“Would someone pull the damn fire alarm before this place burns down with us in it!” Lena screamed.
As if on cue, the water from above and rained down on them with the sound of an alarm in the background. At least the fire department would know now…
----
Kairatos thought the sound of the alarm was part of the ringing in his ears, at least briefly, and the bull… well… for something that looked like a natural disaster with a penchant for grazing, it just kind of… stood there, looking up at the sprinklers and kind of steaming like the world's weirdest sauna. It was a little difficult to tell but even under the fire it appeared to be -red-.
The Crooked man, still happy to take advantage of the situation, turned as Lena bumped into him, raising an eyebrow, and perhaps because Kairatos appeared to be shaking off the chair enough to not look quite so drunk and confused, moved to grab her. “Man they better give me two goddamn medals for putting up with this s**t. Why didn’t I just go to the tracks or the bar or something. Too tapped out I said. People will be expecting weird s**t I said… Ugh.” He sighed impatiently, holding up a small glittering stone, and eyeing it critically. “The colors of these things can be so random.” He concluded.
“Write a thesis paper on it.” Kairatos growled, shaking his head to try and clear the ringing. Man that lady had a swing on her. “But put that back where it came from first.”
“Oh sure, you’re gonna make me right? With what, Ferdinand there? If you were going to let that… freaky thing loose in the store you’d have wrecked a lot more s**t than the floor. You’ve got your hands tied and I’ve got a hostage.
“Yeah but… the ringing in my ears kinda suggests you may not have the upper hand you think you do… Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” She might not have powers but he had to give her props for creativity… and even if she didn’t pull a soft ball out maybe he’d have a window to sucker punch the guy and get the starseed back… “Speaking of which, that’s pretty fragile, Miss, if you could keep that in mind…” He nodded to the starseed, earning a sceptical, confused look from the Crooked Man. Like a civilian was going to do jack s**t if they didn’t catch you off guard…
---
The hand around her should have been expected. Of course being the frontrunner and the only one standing was going to get her nabbed. Of course as the water beat down on them, her clothes were now sticking to her body. And of course the man in red had to be corny.
“He kind of has a point.” Lena said as she sighed, eyes looking back at the bad guy. Was she supposed to be scared of the ogre or the now steaming bull? The man in bull horns she had already written off. She could take him. Tall, dark creepy and holding a shiny rock…
But she had two things going. One, the were both soaking wet and two...Lena lifted one leg at an angle and with the heel of her of her purple pumps, drove it to where his balls should have been.
---
The Crooked man made a very… interesting sort of noise as he folded up under the weight of an impressive groin shot and probably a large dose of additional humiliation as the civilian he’d underestimated hammered private parts of him somewhere into a safe retreat inside his body cavity… albeit probably later than it should have, and the man in red hissed in sympathy. He nevertheless started forward to try and retrieve the Starseed, then stopped, palms in the air in a demonstration of being relatively harmless. “OK… just...I need to get that…” he pointed to the starseed. “Back to them.” He added, pointing next to one of the baristas, who had at some point become … well apparently unconscious, or perhaps worse given the state of alarm from their co workers. “...I get this is… um. Wierd. … But I need to put that back or they’re not gonna get any better.”
He glanced back over his shoulder at the burning bull and added, sarcastically. “And you. Go home, you’re makin’ me look bad. Look at you, you’re a sauna. You should be embarrassed.”
The Bull creature shook itself in a fashion that could have either been an appropriate level of embarrassment for ‘being a sauna’ or entire dismissal and simply… vanished… much the way it had appeared, though the marks from where it had stood did not so easily disappear.
---
The hold on her gone, Lena stepped free of the cloaked man as he doubled over but she wasn't done with him yet. Turning around, she jerked her other knee up and into his bed over nose
“You, stay down.” Lena said, her long hair sticking to her face and neck as she caught the eye of the male in red. Eyes locking with his, she jerked down at the stone he was pointing too, looked back at the panicked group and walked towards the stone.
The problem was as the floor became wet with the sprinklers, her ability to walk in those shoes lessened and...down she went.
Sliding forward on the wet ground, Lena pushed the glowing crystal with her hand towards bull man before smacking against him herself.
“Ow!” She winced rubbing her tail bone as others watched in fear. “What the hell is so important about a pendant?”
She was looking at him, her tail bone in pain.
---
“Yeah that’s the thing…” Here was the part he knew things got even weirder than summoning an flaming bull out of thin air. “It’s not a pendant, it’s more… it’s part of them. Once someone takes this, you just… don’t wake up again until you get it back… if you get it back. I really am sorry about the window by the way. I think he has something against plate glass…” He raised an unsympathetic eyebrow at the groaning figure on the floor, who didn’t seem to have his head together enough to do much right now.
“...I am fully aware that sounds like I’m going to start trying to convince you about an incoming invitation to Hogwarts but bear with me on this ok?”
This was the sort of thing that was -not- easy to explain to people who weren’t in the thick of it, and he knew damnwell it must sound… weirdly cult like at best… but letting her watch a starseed go back where it was supposed to might … well… he wasn’t sure. It might help. He snatched it up as quickly and gently as he could and stepped toward the counter and the unconscious barista.
“...Also he’s going to be way stronger than you if he figures out how to handle that broken nose you might want to … you know… move to the -other- side of both of us.”
Under slightly less… high heeled circumstances he’d offer her a hand, in fact his body language indicated he was seriously considering it, and weighing the odds of getting his own experience with her high heels.
----
“What is he, Bane?” Lena winced as she tried to turn around and face the blonde man who seemed to have a mission on his mind. The stone now in his hand, she watched as the baristas’ gazed up at him trying to protect their fallen co-worker. Well, some of them, Lena noticed, as two others were using this distraction as a chance to slip out the back. At least the team would know which ones could cut it.
Pulling her legs back under her, Lena rose back to her feet, nearly slipping on the water that had been forming puddles once more. Slowly, she made her way around a few tables and put some distance between herself and Mr. Blood rushing out of his nose.
“Not like you have done much anyway besides break a window and summon a bull.” Lena threw back, finding herself at the bar as she glared up at the fire sprinklers. Someone was going to have a water bill. “If you are supposed to be a ‘good guy’ then, you are failing capedwonder.”
---
“Fine.” He offered the stone out toward her raising an eyebrow. “You put it back.” He insisted. “You’re the hero of the hour, you can get the glory, I’ll get the broom.” Handling it might convince her it wasn’t about to stuff a ‘pendant’ in someone’s shirt and pretended to save their life. “Besides they trust you more. You aren’t the one who got to be a projectile, which I’m sure is great fun if there are more zip lines and fewer windows and tables involved… but it’s not exactly my idea of a fun night either. I mean I’m not planning on doing a goddamn tap dance and power-point on who’s good or who’s bad, that’s stupid. You don’t seem stupid.”
Besides… hard to argue that they were -always- the good guys when he’d seen enough evil on this side of the ranks anyway.
He was actually a little tempted to point out that he was arguably a little ‘bane’ like himself, but short of ripping the counter off it’s moorings and hitting the bleeding a*****e with it (overkill, he figured) it was a pointless exercise and he knew it was his ego talking. “They’re not necessarily bad anyway… just… doing what they think is the right thing… even at the cost of other people's lives.”
---
Green eyes glanced down at the stone and the back up at the man offering it to her. Her lips had formed a thin line at her annoyance with him but Lena stepped back and motioned with her hand to carry on. “Clearly this is more than just it appears Hagrid. So why don’t you show me the way to Hogwarts then because clearly I don’t know a wizard when one I see one.”
His ego might have been stepped on but he was doing a damn good job on her pride as she watched him closely.
“Please don’t give me the lecture on how there is no true good and evil. You don’t have time for that…” Lena sighed as she heard groaning from the blob on the floor. “Besides, I know Hollywood tries to make it so and gets paid so much money for BS. So do what you need to do and I’ll go back to being a Damsel in Distress if it makes your life easier…”
No she wouldn’t. She would stand back and judge him only to wait for the fire trucks and police to arrive. Lena had wanted to get out of there before then but screw it. His show now…
---
“Not the right guy for lectures, I just know what he gets to listen to before he goes out for the night.” He admitted. “There’s definitely good and evil it’s just… You know never mind.” He sighed, frustrated because he kind of wanted to chat with her (but that might have been something other than ego….) “Lady if you’re a damsel in any kind of distress than my armor is going to turn into a gingham pinafore.” He added, gently pushing forward to place the starseed roughly where he thought it ought to go. This was how it worked right? He’d never tried putting one back and he wasn’t sure what he’d do if it didn’t work. “Besides the proper title is Knight.” He added, with a flash of smile as though he’d just shared an inside joke. “I’m a knight of Mars. Make all the ‘men are from Mars’ jokes you want…”
Come to think of it he had met more men wearing Mars armor than women, Themi and Tanais were exceptions, but unless he was mis-remembering it seemed predominantly male. Huh. …Wierd.
---
Now THAT made Lena stop dead in her step away from him, turn and gaze back. For the first time, she took a hard look at the man. Outside of the giant bullheads and the cape, she realized he did wear the symbol they had recently come to know so well at work. How had she missed it glaring at her on his leg guards and arm bracers. Mostly because she was still trying to ignore the skirt piece to his so called armor.
“Do you even know about the symbol you wear then?” Lena responded, not angry but now...very interested. Now he was speaking her language as she glided back to him and now could see the stone glowing as it slipped back inside of the woman.
“Whoa what the…” She jumped back, with everyone else that had seen it. Eyes large and hair wild, she quickly shot the man a look. “You really aren’t from here...no, it isn’t possible. Mars can’t support life….”
---
His little ‘private joke’ smile widened into a grin and he chuckled, partially from relief as the Starseed did what it was supposed to do, even though he sort of wanted to just -sit down- and be relieved for a minute. Usually he just broke up energy gathering. Hostage situations were an entirely different circumstance.
He paused to shoot a glare at the Crooked Man who was scrambling up, but their bloodied foe shot them a wary look and then popped out of existence in a wise retreat, causing Kairatos to relax slightly. “Not these days no, it can’t.” He admitted, but the smile was still holding it’s ground. “...But it’s ok for a visit now and then.”
---
Reaching out a hand, Lena grabbed at one of the bull horns and tried to pull him forward. Failing at that, she stepped closer. “What the heck do you mean you can visit? That isn’t possible. I know every launch going on….legally.” She made out, glancing at the others still there before locking onto the man in red again.
It was then...finally...the sounds of the fire trucks came into range. Picking her head up, she glanced back and sighed as others seemed to relax as the woman came back too. This was as interesting of a day as anything else.
“Come with me Spartacus.” Lena snapped, turning, kicking off her shoes and heading for the front door. “We need to talk…”
---
“Kairatos....” He corrected, before remembering that it was technically unfair, he hadn’t actually told her what to call him. “Really? I just summoned a bull out of thin air, and the guy who threw me through a window vanished into thin air and it’s the MARS bit that’s got you confused?” He pointed out, but followed, because he was kind of curious to see where this went and he shouldn’t hang around for the actually paid disaster-squad to show up. Especially when he was part of the disaster in question.
He was half surprised she hadn’t just concluded that he was actually referring to some kind of ridiculous boys club with a penchant for barely useful armor, but then again… she had also just seen things appear in and out of thin air…
Ryuthulhu
