I told her once I wasn’t good at anything.

[controlledvariable]

Who: Stephanie Brown and Ilde Decima
What: First meetings!
Where: Howl Barrow, the river nearby
When: Night! Sometime this week.
Notes: SORRY FOR SPAMMING THE LOG COMMUNITY I DO WHAT I WANT THOR ETC
Warnings: Violence

Bar fights are not Steph's specialty.

Which is, of course, why she ends up trying to break up one outside Anarchy 99. She has no idea what started it, or even who started it, but it's a messy, all out brawl and she leaps down into the fray in an attempt to stop it before anyone gets seriously hurt. She puts herself between two guys trying to gut each other and manages to disarm them both while also dislocating their wrists. One howls in pain, the other scowls and tries to kick Steph in the face, but she blocks it and jabs him in the solar plexus; it's plenty of pain for them both to decide they're better off slinking away. It's makes enough of a ruckus within the brawl that suddenly she's drawing too much attention and the focus of the fight shifts from 'all out' to 'who the fuck is that girl in a weird costume and why is she trying to break up our perfectly good fight?'

"Fuck." She should have thought this through.

There's a moment of almost complete stillness as they all size each other up, Steph barely daring to breathe as about twenty pairs of eyes - and some trios of eyes, which is extra worrying - stare at her. She's not quite in the middle of the mass of bodies, but she's too far in to cut and run without having to fight her way through at least a few people. She could use her grapple, but she's not sure she could pull it out and get up in time to avoid a fist to the face. She wishes she'd taken her bo staff out earlier; there's no time to do it now.

The stillness is broken by a shout of "get her!", followed by a fireball being hurled in Steph's direction. She dodges, bringing her cape up at the same time to block the flames -- thank god for fireproof material. It leaves her open to someone kicking her in the ribs, driving the breath out of her, but before they've even pulled their foot back, she's grabbed onto their ankle and thrown them over backwards. The commotion of that is enough for her to get back up and start fighting her way through the crowd. There's no temptation to stay, she'd been outnumbered even before she'd realized some of them had magic, or powers, or something that was gonna end with her turning into a charred crisp.

They move like a swarm; any time she thinks she's getting near the edge, more break around to block her way. They tug on her cape and her hair, trying to get a hit on her despite the fact she's lashing out, delivering punches that connect with the sound of noses and jaws breaking and smashing her feet into knees to send people down. It's messy and painful and makes her appreciative of the armor in the Batgirl suit. Her Spoiler costume would've been a mess by now.

They've gotten close to the river when she makes it out of the brawl, with a lot of bruises and a bloody mouth, but she's out and she can start running. They pursue, of course, and when another fireball flies past Steph's shoulder she decides 'fuck it' and angles towards the bridge she can see ahead. The next fireball hits her in the back, fortunately most of the force is absorbed by her cape, but she's pretty sure the ends of her hair got singed.

In the middle of the bridge, she stops and turns, the surprise of the move enough to bring her pursuers up short. Without a word, she flips the bird, on both hands, then turns to the side and dives straight into the river. The shouts from above are muffled by the water as Steph pulls a small Bat designed rebreather from a pocket on her thigh belt and lets the blood in her mouth get washed away by the probably polluted water. With the device in her mouth, giving her a half hour of oxygen, she starts swimming.

Comments

[rhinemaid]

"Most people in our cohort aren't the sort," she observes; more of them than not are proactive, the kind of people who get into things and investigate and do something. If one assumes that new Baedal residents are chosen to a purpose - and Ilde does assume that - then it's an interesting indication of what that purpose might ultimately be. Something worth thinking about.

[controlledvariable]

"I'd almost think we were being recruited for a war, but I don't know what against." The militia seems the mostly likely, but she's not sure if they're over-matched there, even with the powered, 'xenian' members of their cohort; the militia are just so entrenched in Baedal in a way their cohort can never be.