[October 5th. 6:30 PM] [Jacqueline Hyde's life revolves around her work in her lab at home. In part because of her insatiable desire to invent and build, and in part because of the partial house arrest that comes as part of her release agreement.] [Tonight, though, she's walking through the West Village, going to meet Louisville Lexy for dinner to celebrate two months since she last developed a malevolent AI that tried to take over the world.] [Progress, as they say, comes in many forms.] [This is a bit of a change-up; most sessions with Lexy have taken place at Jacqueline's house, but the e-mail she got earlier in the day from him said that he wanted to try changing things up a bit.] [He also suggested she come unarmed, but seriously, what are the chances of *that* happening?] [Session Start] * Ardle is now known as Ardweden * Jacqueline is more than just armed; she's actually costumed. Sleek red goggles with tinted lenses are resting atop her head, providing something of a barrier between her face and her carefully trimmed, neck-length black hair. A black lab coat with red trim is hanging from her, partly concealing a red leather getup that goes pretty much from neck to mid-thigh. * Jacqueline 's upper body sports a design of darkly grey chains that criss-crosses her chest and back, and a wee little flame adorns the right half of the coat, just below the collar. There is a small expanse of pale bared skin before nearly knee-high black and red boots are reached; it is rather modernized in comparison to some of the costumes she's worn over the years, but between the belt worn over it and the pockets of the coat, it is functional * Jacqueline The gun concealed in one of those lab coat pockets as a slim metal tube is, at least, the only weapon she's brought with her tonight. It's /kind of/ like she listened. A little. [Jacqueline, needless to say, does not believe in going out to dinner underdressed. Fortunately, this is the West Village, where her outfit will barely merit a second glance.] * Jacqueline is no doubt thankful for that; this whole business of walking down the street without starting some kind of incident would be a wee bit more complex if she were forced to defend her honor with plasma weaponry or something. [Jacqueline walks down Seventh Avenue and turns right onto an angled sidestreet, and sees the restaurant in question a couple of blocks down... well, she assumes that the big sign with the elephant on it is for the Elephant Cafe, since two elephant-themed establishments on the same block would be a bit odd.] [Though not nearly as confusing as Hell's Kitchen's famous 'Block Filled With Bars Named O'Leary's'.] * Jacqueline doesn't /really/ give it a second thought, because indeed, that would be one hell of a coincidence. She's sure, if there's someone just inside for seating, to flash them a bright smile before moving right by to find Lexy's table. [Jacqueline will have to wait a moment on that, because just as she gets to the door, a young man in a black suit steps in front of her. "Oh, wow. I know you. You're Jacqueline Hyde, the genius inventor and costumed adventurer!"] * Jacqueline 's hand immediately goes into her coat pocket when she's stepped in front of; these are not the sorts of things one does with a borderline supervillain. However, when he turns out to be an apparent fan, her muscles relax slightly and she smiles at /him/ instead. "Truth." * Jacqueline is still clutching her gun lightly, of course; it would be untoward to do anything else. [The man gushes. "I can't believe it! I'm like your biggest fan! When I was a kid, I built a scale model of that giant mechanical buffalo you set loose up in Buffalo!"] * Jacqueline 's eyebrow slowly arches, and with a headcant she asks, "And the flying jersey from New Jersey? The transdimensional road of Rhode Island? The explosive communion wafers of Sacramento?" ["I had the complete set!"] ["I totally need to get your autograph..." He pats his pockets, and eventually pulls out a throwing axe and a pen, which he holds out to you. "Could you sign my axe, please?"] * Jacqueline takes both, once she's convinced herself to let go of the gun. She carefully looks the axe over, tests its weight slightly, and then remarks as she scribbles on its blade, "No paper; very wise." Both are returned to him - the axe now has a series of pictographs that, if translated, would more or less signify her name. [As Jacqueline hands the clearly thrilled man back his axe, she notices four men, wearing identical suits, and looking remarkably similar to the man she�fs talking to, crossing the street towards her, each pulling a throwing axe out of their coat.] * Jacqueline sighs sort of wistfully as she reaches up to flip her goggles down into place. The world is suddenly overlaid with numbers, lines, and multiple view screens to keep her more abreast of it, courtesy of the goggles' HUD. "How nice for you all," she remarks once she's blinked away the initial shock and begun to once again reach into her coat. "Do us all a favor: form a line." [The men pause, then nod and form a line as they all pull out pens. "Can we have your autograph too?" "You're the coolest!" "You're the best!" "That coat is *awesome*!"] * Jacqueline actually hesitates for a moment when they actually /comply/, but winds up deciding to complete her draw regardless. She flicks a concealed switch along the tube's length, causing the whole thing to whirr, expand, stretch, and bend into the shape of a small, sleek, red and black handgun. Or at least, it /looks/ like a handgun; there are knobs and buttons on its side that should not be there, and the barrel not only a bit too wide for bullets, but has a smaller one attached to its bottom that is more towards being the right size. * Jacqueline holds her other hand out as if she didn't just draw a gun and calmly states, "Give me your pens. Hold your weapons up. Worship me in no more than ten words, preferably with a rhyme; I do have an appointment." * Jacqueline waves the gun slightly. "Admire it if you like." ["Oh cool! That's her gun!" "Awesome!" "Can we worship you in haiku?" "Dude, she's a classy lady. Obviously she prefers iambic pentameter." "Or binary." "Binary! That works... anyone know binary?" "Zero." "... asshole."] [As the five men discuss the best way to properly venerate Jacqueline, she is apparently the only one who notices a grenade drop into their midst.] * Jacqueline takes a small step back as baby blue energy flows protectively around her, originating from the buckle of her belt. She doesn't bother to warn any of the arguing guys, although she's at least nice enough to try and line up a shot at the thing in the hopes of detonating it harmlessly above them. * Jacqueline winds up failing in that, however, and as a result her force field ripples, her goggles go staticy, and her gun jitters briefly as its inner workings are somewhat mauled. * Jacqueline , with a very much put-upon sigh, turns her eyes upwards to try getting some kind of a bead on her attack, muttering, "Tartarus," to herself as she searches. [Jacqueline's fan club fares worse; though the actual blast from the grenade isn't that powerful, it's enough to send them flying, knocking them all out. A woman's voice calls out from behind Jacqueline: "Useless. Utterly useless."] [Jacqueline turns, and sees a woman standing there with a posture of annoyance. Her torso is bare except for two strategically-placed bandoliers of grenades, and she's wearing Native American-style leather pants and moccosins. Her long, dark hair spills out from under an animal mask/helmet with two large antlers on top.] [Jacqueline quickly recognizes her as a famous merc for hire, the Grenadeer.] ["I didn't expect those clowns to provide anything more than a distraction, and they couldn't even do *that* right." She shrugs. "If you want something killed right..."] * Jacqueline softly sighs, slips her hand into a pocket, and smiles a thin and unseen smile. "Just when I was about to scold them for doing it wrong; at least we agree. Now, I'm going to do the sporting thing and warn you that with the current global situation, I worked the odds of a randomized attack by a so-called 'supervillain' out to a roughly 57% chance; an extra five or so for one of you mercenary types. * Jacqueline turns around to actually face the Grenadeer and reveal her concealed hand. "The highest odds were between you, that unfortunate man in the gasoline powered armour, and the Caryatid. You can imagine the emerging pattern, no?" She gestures towards her hand with her gun. "I discovered a way to remotely catalyze any and all combustible materials nearby, non-electronically. Back off, darling." [Grenadeer scoffs, and pulls another grenade off her chest. "Bring it."] [She chucks a grenade at Jacky, further cementing her aforementioned desire for it to be brung.] * Jacqueline 's casual backwards movements somehow leave her just to the side of the exploding grenade this time. The smoke doesn't even get to clear from the explosion before a number of twisting, spiralling, impossibly mobile lasers are breaking through it to surround the Grenadeer. [Grenadeer takes a laser to the thigh. With a growl, she chucks another grenade at Jacky.] * Jacqueline misjudges the second, unfortunately, and so instead of casually walking backwards, she winds up thrown onto her backside by the explosion. Her barrier ripples and dims, having done its best to blunt the impact; at least it's kind of keeping her from getting too dirty. Another switch is flicked, and then she takes the gun in both hands so that a knob near its back can be slowly twisted as she stands. * Jacqueline isn't standing for very long, either; she sort of lunges forward to land in a crouch, her gun - beginning to shake with energy that's getting to be difficult to contain - held up towards the Grenadeer. "If these next thoughts are your last ones, make sure they're warm, and of me," she requests before firing a very, very bright ball of coruscating blue energy towards the mercenary. [Grenadeer evidently wasn't expecting that, because she takes the full brunt of that and is launched, smoldering, into a nearby car.] * Jacqueline 's arms are send nearly above her head by the recoil, and the 'FWOOM' as the energy leaves the gun can be heard for a ways away. She shakes her arms out a little once she rises, then sighs and mutters, "I've changed my mind; I think I'd like my fans back after all." [She quickly rolls to her feet, though, and chucks yet another grenade at Jacky.] [Who, thrown off balance from the recoil of her previous attack, is a sitting duck as another grenade explodes in her face.] * Jacqueline is caught in the middle of her faintly solipsistic muttering by an exploding grenade that sends her flying in a high arc away from the Grenadeer. As she flies, she tries taking another shot - a single twisting beam that flickers through different colours seemingly at random - but it does more damage to the street than anything else. * Jacqueline then lands in a seated position on the roof of a car, crunching it inwards to the point that she's almost in one of its seats. [Grenadeer allows a thin smile as the shot goes awry, pulls another grenade from her bandolier, and throws. If she uses too many more of those, things are going to get a bit risque around here.] * Jacqueline dives from atop the car just as the Grenadeer's grenade settles into the divot she made; there's rather a lovely fireball as she rolls away, comes up into a crouch, and fires another many-coloured beam at the mercenary. [Grenadeer sidesteps the beam, which destroys the car behind her. The front fender of it goes flying into the car Jacky just leapt off of, scattering the white phosphorous grains into the air, some of which land on Jacky!] * Jacqueline tries her best to shake some of the fire from herself; mostly, she is groaning in frustration to herself and muttering, "How droll." [Meanwhile, the immodestly-dressed merc tosses another grenade at Jacky!] * Jacqueline has even more to be annoyed at after that last grenade; she'll have to fabricate a new costume, because the stomach of this one is gone when the smoke clears from her force field snapping and the grenade exploding. Her hand goes to the bared skin briefly, and then she levels a glare and her gun at the mercenary. Another bright flash, another deafening recoil, and another ball of energy. * Jacqueline is also burning, but really, there are more important concerns. [Grenadeer really needs to work on her 'dodging giant balls of energy' skills, because she eats this one just like she did the last one. She goes flying, and isn't getting up quite so quickly this time.] [She does manage to struggle to her feet, though, using a street lamp for support, much like the bad statistician in the famous line. "This round to you. We *will* meet again." And then she disappears in a puff of smoke.] * Jacqueline brushes herself off - including what bits of phosphorous linger - and mutters, "Yes, yes, yes, you'll /get me/, you'll have your revenge -- I've done this a few times," as the mercenary disappears. She quickly inventories the scene, decides that a couple of busted cars and some broken concrete are pretty much acceptable, and concerns herself with more important matters, like her aching shoulders. [A couple of minutes later, Jacky hears the sweet sound of jet thrust above her, and sees Solaris coming down from the sky, in her usual red jumpsuit, with rocket boots and a rifle. "What the hell happened here, Jacqueline?"] * Jacqueline has, somewhere in there, availed herself of a few of the more useful pieces of the wreckages; mainly just small parts that aren't too badly burned or anything. She looks up towards Solaris with a thin smile, shrugs, and replies, "Well, I certainly didn't /kill/ anyone, if that's what you're wondering..." * Jacqueline gestures towards her stomach. "Although I'd have been in the right." [Solaris shakes her head. "I know you were attacked; I heard about it over the police band. I'm just wondering why you're even here. Louisville Lexy called me from your house, saying you weren't answering the door."] * Jacqueline rolls her eyes, glances towards the restaurant, and breathes out a soft, "Ah." of understanding. * Jacqueline then fires a simple bolt of energy into the elephant sign before returning her attention to Solaris. "Well. Let's move on to why someone attempted to entrap me." [Solaris blinks, then nods as she gets a grasp of things. "You were lured here by someone pretending to be Lexy? That's... worrisome." She takes a deep breath. "A list of people we were planning to recruit for a new team somehow got into the wrong hands, and they've been getting attacked over the past few days."] * Jacqueline flicks a switch, then sort of twirls her gun as it is collapsed into its more compact form. She spares a smile that, were someone other than Solaris seeing it, might be easily construed as one full of sincere emotion, but in truth is kind of a joke. "You thought of me; I'm touched." ["Actually, you weren't on the list."] ["We were going to recruit Schrodinger's Hyper-Intelligent CyberCat, but they apparently got to him before we could warn him."] * Jacqueline 's fake smile is replaced by a very real look of annoyance, and once her weapon has been pocketed she crosses her arms and coolly replies, "Better you find out now rather than later what a poor idea that was." [Solaris shoots Jacky a look. "SHICC might not have been in your class intellectually, but he was a damn fine hero. He didn't deserve what they did to him."] * Jacqueline finds her smile as she takes a few steps nearer and reaches out to try putting her hand to Solaris' face. "Yes, but I'm a damn fine everything," she humbly remarks. "Why waste the time? Your 'damn fine hero' who's out of my league probably wishes you hadn't." So. When do I start? [Solaris catches Jacky's hand before it reaches her face. "You're right. We needed a tech person, and you're the best we have left. We should've approached you first." She lets go of Jacky's hand. "But you need to be careful about that kind of attitude... that kind of callousness about a fellow hero isn't going to earn you much trust."] * Jacqueline shrugs, smirks, and puts her hands to her hips as she replies, "Breathing still doesn't seem to earn me much trust. Don't worry; I won't spend too long pondering what'll happen when his coffin is opened." [Solaris scowls, and you can start to feel waves of heat coming off from her... but after a few moments, she regains control. "... fine, Jacqueline. We're getting the new team together tomorrow night at 10 PM. Go to any Metrocard machine and touch the upper-left corner three times, and you'll be brought to us."] * Jacqueline smiles again, and it's actually sincere this time, though she's still kinda sarcastic as she remarks, "Oh, don't go getting all hot and bothered on /my/ account." She then slips her hands into her pockets and manages to sound properly genuine when she adds, "I shall be there; thank you for the invitation. Finally." [Solaris shoots you another look, then her expression softens slightly as she nods. "Stay safe, Jacqueline." *flies off*] * Jacqueline is smiling all the way until Solaris is gone, at which point she remarks, "Ah. Hero worship. Perhaps she'll find herself a nice pair of goggles next," to herself and turns her attention to trying to scavenge up bits and pieces of spent grenade. No reason not to waste the night entirely. [Intro End]