Oct 31th - Friday Night's Alright for Fighting

[Nailah Weaver]

Instead of being at the Halloween Party (What would she go as anyway? What a stupid holiday.) Nailah has grabbed a tracker from the armory along with a stun-baton and is currently flying through the air above London, slowly gliding alongside the skyscrapers, just kind of trying to keep an eye open for any altercations or trouble that isn't just drunk people partying.

[Narrator]

Nailah's cellphone rings.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah goes into a surprised dip, flapping her wings to recover as she reaches for the pocket with her phone. Who the heck would be calling her right now? She carefully pulls it out and brings it up to her ear.

"Yeah? You're gonna have to speak up, I'm in the air right now!"

[Narrator]

"What’s your favorite scary movie?" a deep, eerily familiar voice asks.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Very funny. Who is this? I'm kinda busy."

[Narrator]

"I'll give you a hint," the voice says playfully.

"What does man love more than life
Fear more than death or mortal strife
What the poor have, the rich require,
and what contented men desire,
What the miser spends and the spendthrift saves
And all men carry to their graves?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"What is this, some kinda riddle? Who are you? What do you want?"

[Narrator]

"Forgotten me already? Perhaps I should remind you. I wonder how I should. An explosion? Blackout? Spiders? Fire?"

[Nailah Weaver]

"You! I knew I'd heard that voice before! Where are you? Don't you dare set another fire!"

[Hazard]

"I'm on a rooftop, watching you through some night vision binoculars I stole. Don't worry, the weird old prepper downstairs won't be needing them anymore."

"And here I thought I was crazy."

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah's head swivels back and forth as she tries to figure out which rooftop he could be on, frustrated expression on her face when her power once again fails to produce anything.

"You're crazy and a coward."

[Hazard]

"A coward am I?" he asked, amused, "Funny coming from the girl who can't do much of anything without a precognitive cheat sheet."

A rooftop suddenly lit up, illuminated by Christmas lights forming a crude triangle around an exclamation point. A hazard symbol.

"By all means, come at me with the quips and the punching and the please don't hurt me scary lady," he said, concluding with a bizarre impression of Jerry Lewis.

[Nailah Weaver]

How the frick does he know about that!?

Putting the thought out of her head for the time being, Nailah banks hard towards the lights. If it's a distraction she's falling for it hard, going into a dive to ideally go straight into a two-legged kick should she spot Hazard.

[Hazard]

She spotted the blonde maniac just standing there, watching through his unkempt hair as she collided with him. He went flying and broke apart with a clatter on the rooftop. His white plastic head rolled to a stop against the stairwell door.

Wait what?

[Nailah Weaver]

"What the... Oh very funny!" she yells after recovering from the move and pulling herself up, clearly frustrated. "Where are you hiding!?"

[Hazard]

"Here," Hazard said to her left.

"There," he said to her right, closer.

"Behind you," he whispered with diabolical glee.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah spins to and fro to where the voice is coming from, fists raised and ready to punch the empty air.

[Hazard]

Nobody was there.

"Yoohoo! Over here!" he called to her right. This time he was there, just a few feet away. The problem now was the gagged old man he was holding hostage with a revolver. In nothing but boxer shorts and a white t-shirt, the wiry man was too terrified to be properly embarrassed.

"Would you believe this old fartweasel has a lovely little collection of weapons illegal in the UK? I mean look at him! This guy could never survive the zombocalypse!"

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah spins around and looks just about ready to pounce, but only takes an awkward stumbling step when the sight of the hostage makes her hesitate.

"Let him go." she demands, but she's sounding increasingly uncertain of her ability to enforce that demand in any way.

[Hazard]

"What will you give me for him?" he asked eagerly. "I'd rather not waste a bullet on him."

[Nailah Weaver]

How 'bout a fist to the nose, you creep?

"I dunno. What do you want? Not exactly carrying around a huge selection of stuff here."

[Hazard]

"Denounce your pitiful God," he said in a grim deadpan before breaking into a smirk, "Or was that Goddess? The cat not the triple-crow. I can never keep that straight."

"Anyhoo... howabooouuut you..." he pondered aloud, face scrunching in thought, "Well you are a Sphinx, so ask me a riddle. If you stump me I'll let him go. If not, he plays a round of Russian Roulette each time you fail."

[Nailah Weaver]

"What? I don't know any riddles!" she says, though the panicked looks of the man quickly make her realize that she's not exactly in a great negotiating position. "Uhm... uh..." Come on, think Nailah, think! "What two things can you never have for breakfast?"

[Hazard]

"Lunch and dinner," he grinned. "And now for our lucky contestant, iiit's time to play Wheel! Of! Death!" he announced in an impression of the stereotypical game show host. He then pulled the trigger.

Click.

"Wah waah."

"Ladies and Gentlemen! Shall we try again?" he grinned.

[Nailah Weaver]

"What's wrong with you!? Let that man go!" Nailah bursts out after Hazard pulling the trigger drives the point home that he doesn't seem to be bluffing or screwing around and is, in fact, kind of insane.

[Hazard]

"Oh I will, one way or another. When our little game is done."

He grinned wide, "But that's not a riddles is it my precious?"

Click went the revolver.

[Nailah Weaver]

"Hey, aren't you supposed to spin the chamber each time?" Nailah asks, suddenly having an idea. It's a panicked one and probably not very good, but she doesn't exactly have a lot of options at the moment.

[Hazard]

"Boring! But that would be fair wouldn't it?" he said, clearly giving it thought. "Fine."

He popped the cylinder and... laughed hysterically. "Well how about that... EMPTY! I knew one of me forgot something!"

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah doesn't even wait for the reveal. The moment he moves to pop the chamber she breaks into a sprint, barely registering the fact that the gun is empty she charges at Hazard, aiming to throw a punch at his face as she tackles him.

[Hazard]

Hazard's laughter was cut short when his face was turned to the side by the punch. Together they tumbled away from the hostage as he fought back, punching and clawing at Nailah like a caged animal. Then with a pop of displaced air, just as suddenly as her attack, they were rolling in the street. A horn blared as headlights rushed for them.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah's eye go wide but fortunately her powers kick in for the desire to not get hit by a car and she manages to vault herself into the air enough to catch the hood of the car with her hands, pushing herself up even higher to flip into the air and over the rest of the car as she locks eyes with the driver for a gut-wrenching second that feels like it lasts much longer.

[Hazard]

By the time the car skidded to a halt, Hazard was casually standing on its roof. He wiped the blood from his split lip and hopped, clapping gleefully.

"Bravissimo! Good my tricksy Hobbitses!" he cheered merrily, "You actually made me bleed my own blood. I'm impressed."

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah manages to land in a classic three-point crouch and takes a second to reorient herself, staring daggers at Hazard.

"Well there's more where that came from!" she shouts as she charges him again, looking to step on the car's bumper to give herself the leverage to jump up towards Hazard with another punch.

[Hazard]

Pop!

He vanished just in time for her to punch the empty space in which he had been standing. In a panic, the driver chose that inconvenient moment hit the gas to get the hell away from the crazy mutants.

[Nailah Weaver]

As if missing her punch wasn't unbalancing enough, the car lurching forward certainly does it and she's not fast enough to regain her balance to avoid going tumbling off the trunk of the car and landing on the pavement with her back. She lets out a short scream when the angle twists one of her wings and she rolls over on to her knees quickly before unsteadily standing up to look around for Hazard.

[Hazard]

He's there alright. "The game, she is afoot!" he said, because the foot flying at her face is also there.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah tries to twist out of the way and takes a kick to the shoulder for her trouble, spinning her around and sending her back to the floor. Gritting her teeth she tries to pull the stun-baton free to swing the electrified end at Hazard.

[Hazard]

Hazard took the hit, writhing in an electrified dance for a long half-second before stumbling. Somehow he still managed to look thoroughly amused with himself.

[Nailah Weaver]

Nailah takes the chance to climb to her feet once more, slipping one hand into the pouch with the small tracking chip to palm it.

"I'm detaining you for reckless endangerment and owning a weapon and arson and who knows what. Are you coming peacefully or do I gotta shock you again?"

[Hazard]

"Who... said... you... won?" Hazard panted, slowly righting himself and vanishing for a second only to reappear just a few feet further away with what looked like a detonator in his hand.

"Boom," he said with a smirk, pressing the button.

He looked absolutely puzzled when nothing exploded. He rapidly pressed the button several more times, growing furious. "Why. Won't. You. Go. Boom!"