DT1 - Solo Career

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:02 am

Nailah, wearing her mask and the utility belt Onyx had given her, is sitting on a rooftop in Maldon. She isn't sure if she's going to find any crime to stop here, but she doesn't quite have the courage to head into London all by herself. And she felt like she just had to do something after walking in on Sam and Onyx and this was it. Maybe she'd even get to beat up some lowly criminal, maybe that'd make her feel better. Unfortunately she had no luck so far.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:12 am

However, it looks like her luck might be changing! She hears a window smashing, a shout for help, and an alarm suddenly coming from a shop a little ways away. If she hurried, she might be able to continue putting off any sort of emotional introspection by beating someone up!

Just like a real superhero!

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:25 am

Nailah jumps up and looks in the direction of the noise. She throws herself off of the roof and let's her wings catch her fall before gaining some height again and flying towards the disturbance. She has a determined grin on her face.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:35 am

The first thing she sees as she arrives on the scene is the store clerk scrambling away.

The second thing she sees is two men coming out of the store. The first is quite possibly the largest man she's ever seen. He's accompanied by a shirtless man covered in tattoos and wearing a very racist hat.

"Are you sure this will draw them out?" the tattooed man says.

"As moths dance to the flames," the large man says in a calm, gentle voice. "The good dance to the sounds of suffering."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:40 am

Nailah briefly wonders what they are talking about, but she's too angry to care, so she dives in for an attack, aiming to kick down the shirtless man in a similar way she had done back in London, trying to overwhelm him and throw him to the ground.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:46 am

She hits him hard and manages to knock him to the ground.

"See?" The large man says. "What did I tell her?"

"Get her off of me, you overgrown idiot!" The tattooed man cries out.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:53 am

Nailah doesn't waste any time and starts pounding her fists into the man's face while he's down. She should probably be paying more attention to the huge guy.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:55 am

The large man she is not paying attention to tries to wrap her in a tight bear hug.

"Calm yourself, little sphinx," the man says. "Don't make this any harder than it has to be."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:58 am

He succeeds, though Nailah starts immediately kicking backwards with her clawed feet while struggling to break out of his embrace. "Let me go!" she screeches.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:10 am

The man winces a bit. His skin is incredibly durable, but it still is uncomfortable. "The quality of mercy is not 'strained. Calm yourself, girl."

"My name is Tough Love," Tough Love says. "My associate on the ground is Sign."

Sign stands up, glaring at Nailah. "You're going to pay for that. I'm going to take it out of your hide, girl."

Tough Love chuckles, "Now, I believe you've met some of the other members of our troupe. Spoilsport and Dragonwing?"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:13 am

"Yeah, I punched Dragonwing out of the air." she growls, trying to kick Sign's face in and hoping Tough Love is stupid enough to stay in range with her as Sign gets up.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:23 am

Sign swears as he gets a face full of talons from Nailah. The kick throws Tough Love off balance and he begins to stumble backwards, his grip on Nailah weakening.

"That is IT," Sign shouts. One of his tattoos glows a bright green as he points a finger at Nailah. "You're dead!"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:26 am

Nailah tries to use her wings and arms to give herself some more freedom while shifting her weight back as much as possible to try and toppled Tough Love. The fact that Sign's tattoos begin to glow only add a sense of desperate urgency to her struggling.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:45 am

Nailah manages to break free, getting out of the way just as Sign shoots a blast of green light in Tough Love's face. Tough Love roars in pain as Sign tries to take aim at Nailah again.

"You're dead!" Sign says. "I'm going to burn the flesh off your bones and put your corpse on the doorstep of Onyx's little pet, you hear me princess?"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 4:50 am

"Like she's gonna care!" Nailah yells back, kicking her foot into Tough Love's chest and pushing herself forward and into the air to dodge out of the way of the first blast. She opens her wings to try and extend her jump as she throws herself at Sign fists first. It's not very graceful, but it has the benefit of being fueled by a lot of pent-up anger and frustrations.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:07 am

The hit connects, but Sign just laughs as a tattoo on his chest lights up and a blast of lightning surrounds him.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:13 am

Nailah let's out a scream as she's thrown back by the discharge. She hits a wall and for a moment her vision swims. Smoke is curling off of her twitching wings as she tries to pull herself back on her feet. She's beginning to wonder if she tried to bite off more than she could chew.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:22 am

"That's too bad," Sign says, as he and Tough Love begin closing in on her. "Because that means that no one is coming to save you, princess."

Is it Nailah's imagination or does Sign have two shadows? Jeez. That blast must have messed her up more than she thought.

A green fireball appears in Sign's hand.

"Burn," Sign says, throwing it at Nailah.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:42 am

I really messed up. is what shoots through her mind. It's no wonder Onyx doesn't want her around anymore, she's reckless and useless and probably just got herself killed. But she wants to be a hero, Onyx be damned and heroes don't cower in front on villains. They stand up and they fight and they get the girl. Guy. Whatever! They don't just cower and die! Two steps. One, turn to the side. Nailah twists herself around and shields herself with her wing. A second later the heat sears her feathers and the actual wing itself, but it keeps it away from more vital areas. She grits her teeth through the pain. Two, throw yourself through his legs. She doesn't question the impulse, doesn't really have the time to anyway, and pushes herself off of the wall she'd fallen against, through Sign's legs and into his shadow...

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 5:53 am

And the last thing Nailah hears before she disappears into the shadow is Sign yelling out in surprise. Then everything goes black.

Literally. She is now in a chilly, void of absolute darkness. Nailah is likely to be eaten by a grue.

On the positive side, Sign and Tough Love were gone.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:00 am

That was still a marked improvement over being turned into Fried Sphinx. Not that she had any clue what just happened, she'd just somehow known that that was the sequence of events that would get her away from those two alive. Her wing and shoulder still hurt like crazy though, beginning to throb from the burns. Next up she should probably try to find a way out of this darkness. She tries to feel her way around to try and find a floor or a wall or something at all, really.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:10 am

It's difficult to move around in the darkness. It feels like she's trying to swim through oobleck.

That was very clever, miss. A voice says.

Nailah briefly feels like she's falling and then she's...sitting at a kitchen table. A woman made of shadows is sitting across from her, pouring tea.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:13 am

"Tha--" she starts and then she seems to fall into a kitchen chair. "--nks." she finishes, clutching the table in front of her. "What happened? Where am I?" she blinks at the woman.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:21 am

"You are in Madripoor. Please, drink the tea, Ms. Weaver," the woman says kindly, setting a cup in front of Nailah. "It will help with the disorientation."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:26 am

Nailah looks terrified for a moment. Did she somehow play into the bad guy's hands and get abducted? But then she looks at the woman and notices the family resemblance. Not that she'd spend a lot of time thinking about Onyx' face without the mask or anything. Nope. "Are... are you Onyx' mentor?" she asks carefully, holding her left arm to avoid moving her burned shoulder too much.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:32 am

"I am her mother, if that is what you mean," Onyx says. The other Onyx. Mom-Onyx. She walks to a freezer and takes out a cold compress. "Press this against your burn."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:37 am

"Oh." she says, too baffled by the situation to properly fake surprise at that as she takes the compress. She realizes that she can probably tell and adds a "I mean I... knew that. She told me. About her mentor being her mom and all. I'm... uh... I'm Nailah." she stammers out. She carefully touches the compress against her shoulder where her wing meets her shoulderblade, trying her best not to wince too much. She's in the presence of a bona fide superhero and she wants to at least kind of seem like she has what it takes. "Thanks."

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:52 am

"You are welcome," Onyx-Mom says.

"I am aware of what Emily has told you. Still, I appreciate your honesty," she says. She puts a box on the table and takes out some burn ointment, disinfectant, and bandages.

As Nailah settles more into her surroundings and looks around, she'll see that she seems to be in some sort of concrete bunker. The walls are cold and concrete, but despite this there is a warmth that's hard to place. The kitchen is filled with the scent of hot food and exotic spices. There are small bits of memorabilia hanging on the walls, mostly weapons and trophies captured from superheroes. It feels very cozy somehow.

"My daughter speaks very highly of you," Onyx-Mom says, smiling at Nailah.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 6:56 am

"I... uhm... I don't know if she still does. I think I kind of messed up and now she's found someone else to train with..." she says, inspecting the cup of tea very thoroughly to avoid having to look at the older Onyx, only occasionally glancing around the room in awe.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:03 am

"Is that so? If you do not mind me asking, what happened?" Momnyx asks as she starts to fix up Nailah's shoulder.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 3:00 pm

Nailah minds very much, but she can't exactly tell her that. "Well we were training. Hand-to-hand stuff. She was showing me how to put all of my muscles into a punch and things got... it was... she was standing really close and... I... got nervous and I messed up and I got embarrassed so I took off." she kind of muddles her way through the story. "But it must have really upset her, because today I found her training with Sam and Sam... well... she likes girls and I guess I got jealous or something I dunno, so I went out to punch some thugs and then I somehow fell into the darkness and ended up here." All of this is made significantly easier by the fact that she doesn't have to look at Momnyx while telling her story.

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:42 pm

Momnyx chuckles, "That all sounds very stressful."

"The shadow was mine," Momnyx explains. "I have been tracking the Rising Sons ever since you and Emily fought them in London. I was prepared to intervene if you were in serious trouble, but I did not expect you to jump in. That surprised me."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 7:53 pm

"I didn't know that was going to happen..." she admits a bit sheepishly. "I shouldn't have fought them by myself. That was stupid." she adds, beginning to wonder what Momnyx considers serious trouble if she hadn't intervened up to that point. "I guess I just wanted to prove something."

by **Onyx** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:06 pm

"And did you prove it?" Momnyx asks, sipping her tea.

by **Nailah Weaver** » Mon Jul 13, 2015 10:28 pm

"Not really. Those two probably would have wiped the floor with me if you hadn't been there."

by **Onyx** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:43 am

"You did well," Momnyx assure Nailah. "But you are right. It was foolish to fight alone."

by **Nailah Weaver** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:51 am

"Is that why you send her to England?"

by **Onyx** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 4:53 am

Momnyx smiles a little, "Is that what she told you?"

by **Nailah Weaver** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 5:04 am

"No, she just said it was to further her training. I think it's because she probably didn't have any friends." she says, glancing around the bunker. Cozy as it may be, it's still kind of oppressive and, well, a bunker.

by **Onyx** » Tue Jul 14, 2015 3:48 pm

"I am glad that she is making friends," Momnyx says. "But the reason I sent her away is more than that."

"However, that is not something you need to burden yourself with. You seem to have enough problems figuring yourself out," Momnyx says. "I wish I could help, but I have never had much luck in love myself."

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