|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 9, 2022 16:20:31 GMT
The morning was not how Zuko thought his day off was going to go. He had only gotten in thirty minutes of his extra sleep when work called, saying he was needed for at least an hour. He had sleepily walked in, and the day only got worse from there. The hour had stretched into . A woman ordered a drink he had to make five times in a row because she nitpicked everything; even the way the drizzle looked on the whipped topping. A group of teenagers said “The workers are real dicks about add ons” within his ear shot. He had been tempted to make that brat’s latte so hot it was undrinkable.
He was still fuming about it as he went over to the city’s fountain. Just sit by the water and think. That’ll cool you off. Nope. Instead, the fountain was decorated with cars tossed aside and people screaming. The cause of the chaos was a giant with a clumsy Easter Island head. He was swatting at civilians with pieces of rubble.
Finally. A way to release work related rage. Before the monster could hurl another stone, Zuko punched hard, releasing a fireball that connected squarely at the thug, who stopped to look at him dazedly.
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 9, 2022 23:24:33 GMT
Lunch!
Ruby's favorite time of day. She decided to take lunch at a cafe outside of the fountain area. Her lunch was on a little metal black table. She was just about to tuck in when a huge slab of rubble was hurled her direction, crushing the table, and with it, her sandwich.
"No!" she wailed over the loss of her meatball sub, "Okay! How's the wise guy?"
She reached at her side, pulling out crescent rose in its sniper rifle shape. Realizing she had brought a gun to a fist fight, she situated herself. Where were the heroes? The real ones, not the in-training ones like her? She glanced around, half expecting the capes and tights crew to show up, but after another piece of rubbles was thrown, she knew they probably had their hands full. Then she watched as a guy flung a fireball. It burst across the giant goliath's features before puttering out. Nothing on him to catch flame.
"Oh..."
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 9, 2022 23:47:56 GMT
The next second was like something out of a dream. A dream that frankly you woke up from and went “what?”
The fire didn’t do much as phase the stone giant. All it did was make him uglier. Zuko gritted his teeth in frustration. Damn it. Where were the other superheroes? On a spa retreat? There was only so long he could keep this creep at bay, and he didn’t have his dual swords with him to help level the fight.
But then Little Red Riding Hood appeared. Instead of carrying goodies for Grandma, she was wielding a scythe. So much for “not all heroes wear capes”. Even her just being there gave Zuko a bit of hope that he wasn’t the only one wanting to bash this creature.
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 10, 2022 0:42:58 GMT
Ruby blurred into motion. Quite literally, leaving only a trail of rose petals in her wake as she surged forward. Once she was close, she reappeared and swung her scythe with deadly accuracy. However, because her opponent was so thick, she didn't cut through him. She knocked him back as she landed on her feet.
"Hey, fire guy! How hot can you make your fire?" she called over her shoulder.
Heroes didn't get to pick who they partnered with. She had to use her resources. Currently, the pyro who had attacked the Cinderblock guy, was one of the few people who hadn't ran from the plaza, screaming. And he wasn't cowering like those who hadn't run.
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 10, 2022 1:18:33 GMT
Zuko wasn’t sure if he blinked or if Little Red was a superhero in training like he was with the gift of speed. In one second, all that been in her place was a glittering of rose petals. The next, Little Red was toppling the monstrosity over with the edge of her scythe. Clearly he misjudged her. She wasn’t a child afraid of the big bad wolf. On the contrary. The wolves should be running from her.
She asked him how hot he could make his flames, and he paused. Shit. He didn’t have a clear answer. But he could give her at least something to work with.
“Not hot enough to melt stone. Why?”
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 10, 2022 3:20:06 GMT
"We're not trying to kill him."
She watched their opponent slowly regather his balance. A list of things heroes had to do. Take the suspect alive. Protect the civilians at all costs. Keep property damage to a minimum. Well, the last isn't so much as a 'must' but a preference. These were the rules passed down to her by her family. Still, if he was this strong, she had a feeling they were going to have to go all out to keep up the first two rules.
"Any idea how to capture him?"
She didn't think a pair of handcuffs would hold this guy. He would probably sneeze and break them in half.
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 10, 2022 3:55:57 GMT
If Zuko’s frustration had been a 6 before, Little Red’s layout was slowly turning the number up. Not quite at the double digits. He’d blame that on the Easter Island head. Oh, and the brats at work. He stepped towards the monster, both to protect Little Red from getting burned and to get in a shot while it was still struggling to get up.
“I haven’t thought that far ahead! Before you showed up,I was focused on keeping him away from hurting innocent people!”
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 10, 2022 4:29:55 GMT
"Hey, you've done great!" Ruby said reassuringly.
She hefted up her scythe. The guy had done great thus far. At least the criminal was focused on them and not the lingering civilians. But this wasn't like her 'pretend' games with her sister. At least with her, they knew each other's combat styles.
"Hmmm... Hey! If I run around him fast enough, I can make your flames hotter!" she exclaimed.
A bit risky on her part, since she would be closest to the flames, but if they encircled the behemoth, they could prevent him from moving forward, or retreating for that matter. He would be trapped.
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 10, 2022 4:41:24 GMT
Now on paper, the idea sounded good. A fiery globe would probably put him in a trance. It’d contain him for a while, giving people time to escape. However, Zuko had one hesitation. He had seen this stunt. Correction, heard about this stunt. His mother bragged about working together with a speedster and they were able to stop a getaway car. The catch? The fire hadn’t exactly been controlled and there was collateral damage.
“What if the embers get flung too far?”
While he was confident in peppering fire into air, Zuko wasn’t exactly sure that he had enough cool to make a controlled fire. Let alone accidentally hurting Little Red should he shoot and it nail her during her speed.
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 10, 2022 19:25:17 GMT
It was a good point.
"I'll dunk my cape in the fountain water!" she said.
Her wet cape would hopefully put out any embers before they spread too far. But they didn't have much time to talk over a plan. Big, mean and stony was getting back up. Ruby shifted Cresent Rose into its sniper rifle form. She fired a shot at the being's shoulder and then it's knee. The bullets only left tiny cracks in the surface. She would much rather prefer avoiding a head shot if she could.
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 10, 2022 19:49:25 GMT
The plan came together quickly. A wet cape probably wouldn’t slow her down, and the speed would snag the embers before anyone, or anything, got hurt. Welp, Zuko would follow her on this front. She had it all figured out.
“Okay. Let’s try it.”
Big Stoney was snapping out of his tumble. Time was up to them now. Little Red turned her scythe into a revolver - seriously a scythe and a gun? What person came up with that idea? - and fired several shots. The stone chipped away, and that was when Zuko took a chance. The bullets were probably wedged in the rock. If that was a case, shooting fire could heat the bullets, slowing him down.
With a quick exhale, he fired at the cracks. The flame blossomed and careened into the cracks, turning the black to orange. Like her, he avoided the head. Best to exploit a weakness while it was open.
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 10, 2022 22:16:24 GMT
Ruby hefted up Cresent Rose before she leapt into action. Rose petals danced around the pyro boy as she doused herself in water. Both to protect herself from the flames and to keep the fire from spreading. Then she began running in a circle around their enormous stone foe. One. Two. Three rings around him. Each time the giant tried to step out of the circle she ran, a shot was fired.
Fire began to follow her; chasing the wind she was whipping up. Things were getting a bit warm, but every time she was worried that she was drying off, she made sure to splash through the fountain at least once every five laps.
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 11, 2022 1:18:58 GMT
In a rain of rose petals, she was off. She ran so fast, that tracking her was difficult. The only time Zuko had a clue where she was had been when the fountain made a splashing and when Stonewall tried to break out of the tight globe she had put him in. He continued peppering the area around the giant, watching slowly as what was just a ball of air suddenly combusted into a controlled but very dangerous ball of fire. Little Red could break any time she wanted, unless she was using that scythe to get a few extra hits. A fireball to the knee sent the creature kneeling, and all it could do now was swat. Almost got him…
|
|
|
Post by skyeknight on Jul 12, 2022 17:25:06 GMT
Ruby knew her job was about to get harder. The Cinderblock man was wildly swinging, trying to get rid of her because he knew she was one of the sources for his agony. And she hated knowing she was hurting him, but he flung a rock at her table. If someone had been sitting with her, they would have been flatter than a crepe. And about 5 million times less appetizing. She looked at the creature as she ran, rose petals fell flat to the ground as she ran, less pretty now because they were damp. She was silently begging him to give in already.
|
|
|
Post by zuyuri on Jul 12, 2022 18:09:43 GMT
The cinderblock was not at all looking like, well, a cinder despite how many fireballs that Zuko had peppered into it. If anything, the creature was looking more annoyed. The beast was swatting, and now he was getting worried. The rose petals were starting to slow down from all the soaking she was giving in. The stone grew darker from the water, but the heat from the fire shield was only evaporating. They had accidentally made a convection oven, and while it kept him at bay, it was doing nothing to damage him. Zuko saw its had go palm down in a slap motion. "You might want to move!" he yelled to her, cooling his fire and rushing over. At the last second, he uppercutted with his hand ablaze, sending Cinderblock stumbling backward and landing butt first into the fountain.
|
|