[Monday, October 20th. 6:15 PM] [The situation: three groups of three pirates still standing on the flying ship, the S.S. Old Money, along with Christian, with Horus flying overhead. Captain Thurston Alistaire Vanderbilt IV is on the ground with three more groups (two with three, one with two) and Redcoat, who's hidden inside the wrecked store.] [Jacky's still on the roof, maintaining the field that's inhibiting the flight capabilities of the pirate ship.] [Oh yeah, and there's this one-armed lady with a staff in priestess robes where there was a spunky girl with a backpack and laser-sword hole in her torso. What's that all about?] [Session Start] [Whoops, Redcoat is actually outside the store, and has moved to sneak up on the captain from behind.] [Meanwhile, the port and starboard groups of pirates fire at Christian, while the aft group fires up into the air at Horus!] * Horus stares, still standing on the rooftop. "Mizuki?" As such, she's caught almost completely flatfooted and barely has time to wreath herself in fire before the lasers hit her. She frowns up at the pirate ship. * Christian drops down in a quick split-crouch as the lasers come, hand flying to the deck and ducking forward as the laser barrage flies overhead. [Meanwhile, Jacky readies her weapon to fire down at someone or other, but frowns when the beam from her device to inhibit the ship's flight flickers. "Oh, well, /now/ they're trying to override me; it's almost as if they think they're /competent/..." And she starts tinkering with the device] * Horus flares and takes to the air, great glowing wings spreading from her back. She swoops around the pirate ship before hovering over one of the groups firing lasers, and fires her own back: a tremendous, searing beam of light. [The pirates have no answer for that, and when the light fades, all three are singed and out cold. Or is it... OUT HOT?!] * Abby 's got the leader in her sights, and murmurs, She then gestures with the staff, rings clattering, as she tries to follow up her staff hit with a rising smash of concrete. [The captain deftly dodges out of the way, circling around Abby as he smirks. "No hard feelings about the whole stabbing things, my dear?"] [Meanwhile, one of the pirate groups on the ground fires up at Horus, while the remaining two turn their guns on Abby and send a barrage of laser fire her way.] * Horus tries to roll out of the way and gets shot up nevertheless as they eat through her weakening aura. She frowns down at them. "Don't make me regret keepin' you alive." * Abby keeps her eyes trained on him, basically ignoring the barrage of fire even as it slams into her. "Didn't you hear the girl? I'm a ghost. A vengeful ghost." * Abby smirks thinly. "I'm nothin' but hard feelings." * Christian smirks at the pirate groups and then shrugs as he walks towards them. "Well, as fun as this is, I think it's 'bout time to wrap it up." He grins and then dashes up one of the mast part ways before doing a flip off it and landing with his purple-auraed palm screeching through the air. "When ya get to Hell...." He plants the palm in the midst of them and lets the shockwave explode. "Tell 'em Shockwave sent ya." [Christian cracks the deck open as he lands in the midst of the starboard group. One goes flying into some rigging, unconcious; another falls down into the hole in the deck, while a third is sent flying over the rail, landing on a car below with a loud SMASH.] [Meanwhile, the captain raises his hook to the air in Horus direction, and it shoots out of its base into the air towards her, trailing crackling energy as it flies! As soon as he does that, he turns towards Abby, raising up his sword... then pauses, spins, and stabs at the air! "Thought you could hide from Captain Thurston Alistaire Vanderbilt IV, hmm?!"] * Horus 's eyes widen as the hook nears, and then she lets out a surprised shout which turns into a scream as it punches right through her aura and wraps itself, along with a rope of electricity, around her. That looks like it hurt. * TheRedcoat spins to avoid the stab, the coat falling to the ground as she does so. She grabs her hat from her head as she twirls into a defensive crouch and tosses it at him, while tossing off another shot from her Glock. [The captain's hook glows as the hat and gun approach, and both are slowed considerably by a force field, though they both manage to do a bit of damage.] [Meanwhile, the last group of pirates on the ship back away from Christian nervously, firing lasers at him.] * Christian shifts to the sides as the lasers go wild and laughs. "What's wrong? Your guys' aim was *so* much better before..." * Horus grunts and a halo of light bursts from her, destroying the electricity with her own energy. A bow of light forms in her hands, and she takes aim at the captain, releasing an arrow which lances the sky. [The captain deftly slides out of the way. Man, even the way he dodges pisses you all off.] * Abby grits her teeth and gestures again with the staff, crossways, a second upward jutting of concrete trying to nail the captain with the concrete. "Light on your feet, aren't ya, boy?" [The captain waltzes out of the way of that. Literally. He's humming a viennese waltz as he does so. "Classicly trained."] [Meanwhile, the three groups on pirates on the ground spread their fire around towards Abby, Redcoat and up at Horus!] * TheRedcoat 's eyes flash at the captain's line about training as she dodges around the fire. * Horus flits to one side, avoiding the lasers, and keeps her gaze on the captain. * Abby continues to take fire without flinching, except for a small step that doesn't take her out of the way. "Me too, actually. Funny how that goes." * Christian takes a bit of a casual stance and gestures to the other pirates. "Give up? I can go easy on you if you'd like." He glances off over the side of the ship for a second, half an eye on them. "But looks like I'm needed elsewhere. [The three pirates pause at that. "I would rather avoid a thrashing, Chet." "Yes, Tad, but would you rather go to jail!" "We'd lose our memberships at the yacht club if we were arrested for something as... as... WORKING CLASS as theft!" "Excellent point, Cornelius! No surrender!" "No quarter!" "For privlidge!"] * Christian shrugs slightly. "Don't say I didn't warn you." He runs towards them at full speed, streaking across the deck and grabbing one of them, crashing him into the other and sending them both over the fore railing. [Christian takes out Chet and Tad, leaving poor Cornelius all alone.] [Back on the ground, the captain fires another energy hook up at Horus, and then tries to run Redcoat through with his laser rapier again. "The Vanderbilt name shall never fall before plebians like yourselves!"] * Horus , despite actually paying attention this time and dodging as best she can, is STILL electrocuted by the hook. She droops a bit but remains in the air, burned and nearly beaten. * TheRedcoat narrows her eyes at him and snarls, "Don't make mouth at *me* about heritage, trash child," as she gets a slice in the thigh during her next twirl. * TheRedcoat brings the gun up to bear again and lets another shot off. [The bullet gets through a little more, but the shield's still up. "My, aren't we testy, Miss Eurotrash. Parentage a sensitive subject?"] [Back up on the ship, Cornelius stares over the side of the ship down to where Chet and Tad landed, looks back up at Christian, raises his weapon, and fires. "For Tad! For Chet! For TRUST FUNDS!"] * Christian slides to the side, although much better than that prissy punk down below. It looks like he's starting to step inside Cornelius's guard. * Horus growls and once again bursts the electricity away with her own aura. She flies to one side and raises her bow, notches an arrow which forms in place, and fires - this time, her aim is true. [Indeed it is, as the captain is evidentally too busy trading barbs with Redcoat to dodge the firey arrow, which almost knocks him over at is goes through his force field and slams into his side.] * Abby trades barbs with him the old fashioned way, which is to say, jagged concrete jutting up from the ground, quickly this time. She replies, lowly, looking right at him with her dully glowing eyes. "You aren't going to dance away from this one." [Abby counters the captain's waltz with HARD ROCK, which slams into him and knocks him flying. He gets up, though he's looking a bit worse for wear at this point.] [The pirates on the ground, thusfar mostly unscathed, fire bursts at Abby, Redcoat and Christian!] * Abby keeps floating towards him, feet still, as she continues to take more fire that the floating does not let past her. She is visibly bleeding as she points her staff straight at him, with a sharp jingling, her face a rigid mask, slightly upturned. "This isn't a game, prettyboy. People die. Girls die. Noble women... die." * TheRedcoat dodges their fire again, barely seeming to pay attention as she glares at the captain as though she wishes she were Spontaneous Eye-Laser-Power-Manifesting Girl. [Alas, Spontaneous Eye-Laser-Power-Manifesting Girl was one of the heroes that left on the space mission.] * Christian takes a laser scorch along his neck and hisses as smoke comes off the wound, but it doesn't stop him from doing what he intended to do. Which is snap his arm up at the elbow to smash his forearm into poor Cornelius's face to send him reeling, and probably mess up an expensive nose job too. After that, he hops over the railing and leaps off the ship to join the rest of the crew. [The captain tries to shake the cobwebs loose from the two big shots he just took. He glances over at the still-advancing Abby, the death-glaring Redcoat, and the just-survived-a-ten-story-drop-unscathed Christian, shrugs, and grins. "Rather hate to use this... terribly expensive you know... but you know what they say about discretion and valor."] [He fires a hook at Redcoat before holding up his hook arm, which glows as he and the three groups of pirates teleport back onto the deck of the ship!] [The captain poses at the front of the ship, laughing... then pauses when the ship doesn't go anywhere. From the rooftops, Jacky laughs louder.] * Horus catches that, and she grins at the captain. "Aw, you guys are fucked now." * TheRedcoat lets out something that's almost like a screech and leaps forward as though she's trying to kill him with her bare hands, but pauses to dodge the hook, which gives him just enough time to go away. She glares upwards, panting, swings her coat off the ground and on herself in one smooth motion, reaches into a pocket reflexively, and...smiles. Evilly. * TheRedcoat whips out some kinda contraption with five barrels with five hooks sticking out of them, aims it at the ship, and fires. [Three of the hooks grapple onto the rail of the ship! The other two slam into the group of two pirates, knocking them out as Redcoat rises into the air.] * Horus flies to the opposite side of the ship as Redcoat, firing another arrow at the captain as she goes. [The captain takes that one in the chest, and stumbles as his force field cracks and fizzles away.] Sucks to be you, don't it? * Abby looks up to him, and then flies straight up in a spiral, appearing right before him in a mere matter of moments. She then says, "Shoulda got a money-back guarantee," as she swings her staff around like a windmill, over her head, with her one arm. "Fall." [Abby rears back and, as the staff passes through the captain, sends him reeling back with a bitchslap right to the soul. He scrambles back. "What the hell?! I felt that! Feeling is for people without roman numerals at the end of their names! Get away from me, you demon!"] [Meanwhile, the two remaining groups of pirates, near panic, fire barrages of laser fire at Horus and Redcoat.] * TheRedcoat manages to twist herself out of the way of the fire as she rises, eyes trained on the captain. * Abby lets out a low chuckle as she continues to advance on him in her slow float. "Demon? Then you'd better yield, or I'll hit you so hard that McJackassington the Third will feel it." * Horus dodges, almost in as much panic, and takes a number of hits as they go right through her aura. Now she's looking in a VERY bad way... and also looks like she definitely wants to kill some yuppie scum. * Christian tsshes under his breath as he sees the pirates teleport back on deck. "Goddamn it." He turns around quickly and finds a nearby building he can use and bolts straight for it at full speed. He goes streaking straight up the side of it and then *leaps* off the Apex to get back on deck, grinning at the Captain. "Miss me?" He rushes forward full force and clocks him with a sonic elbow. [The captain, panicked as he is by Abby's attack and continued advance, never sees that coming, and gets knocked for a loop. He looks around wildly, seeing Horus overhead, Redcoat getting close, Christian right on top of him... and Abby, burned and bleeding and glowing and still fucking coming for him.] [He freezes, eyes wide, and then drops his sword as he falls to his knees. "I surrender! I surrender!"] [The other pirates quickly (and rather eagerly) drop their weapons as well.] * Horus shoots forward, practically becoming the sun itself before she lands, blasted and burned but not yet beaten, in the middle of the deck. And glares at the rest of the yuppie crew. "Fuckin' right." * Abby puts her staff on his shoulder. Not quite a sword, but possibly just as threatening. She then looks around to the other heroes, and says, "Let's... someone set this down." * TheRedcoat flips aboard deftly and strides up to the captain, drawing her glock from her pocket and placing it firmly against his forehead. She leans close, lets him see the hate in her eyes, and pulls the trigger. * TheRedcoat whispers, "Bang," as the empty gun discharges mostly harmlessly, and backs off. * Christian blinks as he notices Abby for a second, and gives her a bit of a stare. "The fuck?" * Horus waves almost offhandedly, attention still on the crew, and the wind scoots the weapons on the floor to her. [Jacky calls out something you can't hear, and the yacht decends to the ground. On top of a row of parked cars.] * Abby glances to Christian and gives him a faint smirk. "I'd say long time, but... it's not been that long, and we haven't met." * TheRedcoat is still staring daggers at the captain and flexing her fingers thoughtfully. [The Captain flinches hard, and nearly faints as Redcoat's gun clicks empty. Then he looks back at Abby, smirking right behind him, and keels over to the side.] What, you ain't Mizuki? * Horus looks to the ghost now that the weapons have been gathered. * Abby pulls her staff back over her shoulder, looks to Horus, then says, "C'mere, Horus. It's... complicated, and we're bleeding to death." * Christian raises an eyebrow, then sighs and gives it a shrug. "Whatever." He heads off a bit and then contacts SPLEE-NY over the comm. "Yo. We've got a few jokers for wrap-up 'round here." * TheRedcoat snerks and spits on the captain's body, then eyes Abby cautiously. * Horus winces. "Tryin'... not ta think about that, y'know?" She stumbles over to Abby as the weapons seem to crush themselves into a ball behind her, where they gathered themselves. [Stone's voice comes over the comm's. "That you guys with the sky pirates? Good job. I've got people inbound from another scene, ETA five minutes."] * Abby closes her eyes a moment as she whispers something in Japanese, and then the area glows slightly, slight laughs on the wind as some of the wounding is undone. * Christian responds. "Gotcha." He chuckles. "We'll make sure no worms slip away while we're waitin'." * Horus hisses through her teeth as her wounds partially close. "Heal like Mizuki," she comments. * Christian shuts off the comm and walks over towards the captain. "Wonder if he got that porter from Magus." * TheRedcoat lowers her eyelids a bit as the healing kicks in. "Thank you..." She pauses and looks up at Abby directly. "And, ah...sorry. About...you know." Didn't look like the same thing but never know. * Abby smiles, but it's a little wan. "Call me Mizuki, then. It's as good a superhero name as any, yeah?" *Still* gonna call ya Priestess. * Abby nods slightly at Christian. "Fine with me. She'd... like it." She then looks over at Redcoat, saying with a faint smile. "Yeah, well, we'll bill you for the outfit." Heh. Nah, it ain't her. Is it? Y'sound too different. * Christian rubs his head. "The fuck. I'm too stupid to figure it out anyway." * TheRedcoat half-smiles. "Understood. Anything you like." * Abby licks her lips and looks between Horus and Christian. "Like I said... it's complicated. And not really somethin' for the schlubs we just knocked around, no?" * TheRedcoat then extends a hand. "...so what else *would* we call you, then, eh?" ...good point. [Abby's casual demeanor quickly disarms the group. Get it? Disarms? HA, I MAKE FUNNY.] * Horus looks at the priestess again, a bit wonderingly. "Yeah." * Christian casually punches Jesse in the face. Or would if there were someone named Jesse here. Is one of the pirates named Jesse? * Abby nods and says, "So let's find somewhere else after the Spleeners get here, and we can talk." [No, none of the pirates are named Jesse, because Jesse is a good, strong name, not an annoying waspy name.] [Also, Christian gets a splinter. A really bad one.] * TheRedcoat goes to the deck and stretches her arms out along the railings, leaning her head back a bit to catch the breeze. "Yes, and then we can all buy you many drinks, as you surely deserve them." * Horus nods again, moving quickly into a daze of some sort. "Yeah." * Christian makes sure the captain is sans hook as well, because he doesn't recall him actually taking it off. * TheRedcoat looks over at Jackie working the tech, the captain out cold, and Abby floating above, and a corner of her lip raises in a part-smile. [That proves to be a problem, as the hook is attached to his arm. Jacky, having just descended from the roof, comments that she doesn't see that as being much of a problem, really.] * TheRedcoat 's smile widens. "Nor do I." She entertains the notion for a bit, but then drops it with a sigh. * TheRedcoat reloads her gun while she pouts. * Christian folds his arms. "Yeah, I figured. They'd probably take it off him anyway. It'd be stupid to leave it to him ta port outta jail." [Several SPLEE-NY powersuit officers arrive and secure the scene, allowing our heroes to move into the ruins of Tiffany's for some privacy, alone amongst the shattered display cases and scattered jewelery.] * Abby lets out a soft sigh as she glances around, then back to the group. "So... you're right. I'm not really Mizuki. I mean..." she gestures absently at her arm. "You don't just lose an arm doing what we did." * TheRedcoat tilts her head thoughtfully as she listens, cigaretting as she does so. Hey, the place is trashed anyway, and with the broken windows it's not really an enclosed area, and since it's a crime scene it's not public, so! * Christian leans against the wall as he listens, folding his arm and staying quiet. [A large, sparkly ruby-and-diamond necklace sits on the floor, next to Redcoat's foot. It sparkles at her.] * Horus nods to Abby, not noticing the sparkly necklace. She must not want it. * Abby closes her eyes for a moment of silence, then adds, "I'm the woman whose body she was using. Ran into her a long time ago, on a dig." ... Oh. So, she's... gone? Like, really gone? * Abby then reopens her eyes. "Guess I'm the only one of us that survived being crushed to death." Doesn't explain how you ended up *here*. * Abby 's face tightens. "I've... yeah. I haven't felt her for days." * Horus sighs. She turns and pokes at some jewelry despondantly. Sorry, Horus. I... * Abby exhales upwards. "Fuck it. Whatever." She glances to Christian. "New spirit... new body." There was a twinge... don't know. Maybe you just got lucky. * Abby looks up and away. "It's not really easy to explain for me. I've spent the last few days... a little hazy. " * TheRedcoat looks at the jewelry, glances down, gulps, and takes very slow, very tiny and seemingly very difficult steps away towards Christian and the wall, smoking harder as she does so. Guess dying's pretty hard on the mind. Pretty fuckin' hard on the body too from what *I* know 'bout it. * Christian pulls out his own cigarette and lights it. * Abby glances to Christian, smirks slightly, then, "Did you find my body? I didn't hear about it on the news, which is... good." * Christian lets out a puff and blows it out. "This don't mean we're gonna have no American Fucktard rise from the grave too, are we?" I mean that'd just be creepy. * Christian then shakes his head at Abby. * Abby snorts, then, "I wish I knew what more to tell you. Really." 'Salright. I'm sorry, too. 's not really fair, right? * Abby looks over at Horus, then says more quietly, respectfully, "Yeah. Yeah, it's not." * Horus looks over at Abby. "We didn't find your body." * Abby nods a little. "Probably for the best. It woulda been nice to see her, though. With my own eyes." * Christian gestures to Abby slightly. "So...not Mizuki. What *do* we call ya then?" * Abby closes her eyes a moment, then, "On the streets... Mizuki's the name. I'll wear it for her." * Christian nods slightly. "Fair 'nuff." * Horus chuckles a little. "I get that." Y'want us to call ya Mizuki in general? * Abby reopens her eyes. "No... not really." She is silent a moment, then, "She's not really interested in talking, but I'm Doctor Abigail Kobayashi. Formerly, I guess, from NYU." * TheRedcoat lets another long puff out. "A doctor? Well, that explains the healing." * Christian snorts and almost inhales the puff through his nose. * Abby glances to Redcoat and smirks. "Oh, god no. Cultural Anthropology. Just think of me as Indiana Jane." * Horus nods. "Cool." And now she gives a smile. "Nice ta meet you, Abigail." * Christian takes out the cigarette and gives a half-smirk. "So...Abby then. It's a good name." * Abby looks back to Horus and smiles back. "Yeah. Call me Abby. We're all about as friends as friends get." Good ta meet ya all over again then. * TheRedcoat smiles. "Heh. Oh well. So...ahh, Abby then." She smiles again and holds out a hand. "It's good to formally meet you." Guess so. So, uh... didja hear an' see everything Mizuki did? * Abby looks back at The Redcoat a moment, her one hand still holding a staff. * Abby then glances to Horus. "Yeah." * Horus nods, clearly thinking about that. We were a pretty decent team. Me n'the new girl... we're gonna have to talk about this. * Abby chuckles. "Honestly, I'll probably have to hold her back." * TheRedcoat winces at that one, withdraws her hand and puts it behind her head a bit self-consciously. "...yes, I...noticed that. Mm." It's cool. Nice ta meet you, too, new girl. She got a name too? * Abby closes her eyes, and then a slower voice comes out, "Ah... thanks. I'm... not really interested in sharing my name right now." I mean... I do have family, you know? * Abby scratches her neck with the staff. "That ends bad for them." * Christian chuckles. "Fair enough. But I wonder if we're gonna have to introduce ourselves all over to you again or if Abby here's gonna explain it." * Abby replies, "Like me n'Mizuki, we share it all." Gotcha. You wanna, I'm not gonna stop you. * Horus shrugs. "I'm Horus. Should be pretty obvious." * Christian shrugs. "No point if it's pointless. But there's someone tellin' ya an' there's meetin' someone in person." * Abby nods a little, then smirks. "Yeah, well. Speaking about meeting, if she wants to do this, we're gonna have to have someone let us into the base." Yeah, sure. We'll just check with Sister Admin for that. * Christian shrugs and looks at Horus. "Guess we could all go together. You *still* look like hell, Horus. Even after all that healin'." * Abby nods slightly. "Yeah... I'll break into my apartment and get some of my junk, but my cellphone didn't survive the crash. I'm sure she can put two and two together." Yeah, fuckin' felt like hell. Jesus Christ. Yuppies ain't supposed ta shoot shit. * Christian rubs his neck. "Got me somethin' good too." He grins a little. "Scared the shit outta 'em though." * Abby glances, then says, "Second thought... yeah. If that doesn't bother you all any." * TheRedcoat grins a bit. "Why would it?" [And so, our heroes, triumphant over Captain Thurston Alistaire Vanderbilt IV and his Pirates of Madison Avenue, walk off down Fifth Avenue.] [Session End]