Recruitment by Abduction

Brief Title:
RA

Characters:
Cloak, Nova and Krista

Scene Runner/Watcher:

IC Date:
02/20/2013

Location:
Mutant Town then Madripoor

Summary:
Cloak uses his own scary methods of recruiting Krista into the New Warriors

Social or Plot:

TS:
No

Log:
==[ Mutant Town - New York ]==

Mutant Town, also known as District X or M-Town, has become the mutant haven. This section of town located just south of Hell's Kitchen and slightly west of Chelsea doesn't judge you based on your race, species, or appearance. It accepts all mutants no matter their powers or the way they look. Most all of the businesses in this 10 square block area are mutant run and caiter to mutants. Ranging from convience stores, clothing shops, restaurants, night clubs, specialty shops and general stores. The buildings in this districts are rarely over 6 levels tall and most offer housing for mutants on the upper floors. There are even public schools dedicated to educating mutants - for those who have been oppressed elsewhere. Other public services include a local police and fire department. Overall, the area is fairly run-down and needs more upkeep. However, this is a section of town where mutants can feel safe and welcomed.

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It is somewhat late in the midweek of the busy lives on New Yorkers. The lone hero Cloak remains on a rooftop overlooking the sad and incredibly underprivileged portion of Mutant Town. The usually quiet and somber vigilante is once again in that mood. His experiences with the New Warriors has not been most pleasant or positive and he is somewhat opposed to bring in new blood. But he has been tasked by his leader, Night Thrasher to seek out one. He sighs heavily as he has tracked the person to Mutant Town and looks out over the section to try and spot her.

The rest of the neighborhood may be sad and underprivleged but the young woman, remarkably tall for one that has described as incredibly short, seems to be in a pretty good mood as she departs a brownstone apartment building a block down from where the morose Cloak lurks. She carries a sturdy looking all terrain bike on one shoulder, as she takes the steps two at a time. Considering the neighborhood she doesn't dare leave it locked up outside, it would be stolen in a heartbeat despite its apparent ugliness.

Upon catching sight of the oddly tall young woman, Cloak peers down at her from his rooftop hideaway. Looking at her, almost through her, he gazes upon her frame with his e'good enough' but also 'strong enough' outwardly and inwardly for the New Warriors.

On a goodness scale of 1 to 10, she would probably fall at about an 7.5, could be an 8, if 1 was like Hilter and 10, his partner Dagger. She's good, more so than your average New Yorker at least. Krista has no clue she is being scrutinized of course, she is no tourist so doesn't have the tendancy to look up. Setting the bike down she starts pushing it along, probably wanting to get out of the neighborhood before deciding to ride the thing.

Sighing to himself and not pleased with her brightness, yet none of his teammates save his paramour, Dagger, are very bright, Cloak has been tasked with a mission and despite earlier setbacks has pledged his allegiance to Night Thrasher. And so, the hero seemingly falls into himself, his cloak engulfing his body and simply popping out of existence and suddenly appearing in front of the bike-riding mutant, his cloak opens wide in an attempt to engulf her within his darkness to bring her away, unfortunately his manner is not the most civil or polite.

Far enough away from Mutant Town Krista gets on the bike, built specifically to handle her weight, sure she looks skinny, but its a really heavy skinny. It's not everyday that a dark, shadowy figure drops from the sky and tries to engulf you. And nothing in Krista's limited experience has prepared her for this, a few muggers, sure, hit them with your bike, but not the sudden manifestation of Cloak. The bike being heavy and not built for speed or manuverability, it doesn't brake fast, but keeps on going a few feet right into inky blackness, stifling her gasp/scream of shock/fear at the suddeness of it all.



==[ New Warrior's Digs -- Midtown -- Madripoor ]==




Suddenly and violently a pop appears opening up a small dimensional portal as Cloak appears and simply deposits the surely unexpected arrival of Krista to the makeshift headquarters of the New Warriors in Madripoor literally half a world away from her familiar Mutant Town surroundings of New York City.

Nova is posing in front of a full-length mirror near the front door, pointing at his own reflection in menace, spouting off what seems to be a standard anti-hero dialogue. He's in the middle of a one-liner and misses the *pop* of Cloak's teleporting in. "...you know the name."

The sudden braking followed by a sudden teleporataion through a cold inky darkness, that probably brought up images of repressed memories that are better left repressed, is enough to send Krista flying over the handle bars of the ugly metal bike. It just tips over, landing on the ground with metallic clang, while she goes a foot or too and lands quite hard on hopefully the floor, certainly hard enough to cause a small vibration to go through the floor, and depending on the floor maybe even leave a dent.

"Welco. . ." Cloak is about to officially greet Krista when he stops and catches sight of Nova in the mirror. Cloak simply stops everything he is doing and stares at Nova shaking his head and lowering it in a shamed manner. While only milliseconds of silence, it feels much longer but the clang of Krista's crash draws his back to his mission, "Welcome to Madripoor, Krista. The New Warriors have need of you!"

Nova does hear the commotion of Krista's landing, whirling around and then taking a moment to try to understand what's happening. You can almost see the thoughts in his head as he looks from Krista and Cloak to the front door (which he was standing right next to), to the big bay-style windows (which are securely closed and don't even appear to open), then finally back to Cloak who is staring at him. Then when Cloak 'introduces' Krista, Nova turns to focus on her once again. "Uh...hi."

Krista just lays where she landed for a few long moments, her face pale and shivering a bit. She seems unhurt, but is certainly stunned for a few moments by the trip, if not the sudden impact at the end. Registering the greetings given by unfamiliar voices she is suddenly on her feet, a rush of adrenaline at the situtation giving her the boost she needs to shake off her shock. Her confused and certainly frightened gaze, goes from one man to the other a few times and she backs up so she can see them both. "Did you just say Madripoor?"

"I did. You are known to Night Thrasher, the leader of this band of. . .heroes. As well as the one known as Yishi." Hovering over the floor of the room a few feet, he lowers himself a bit and lowers the volume with which he speaks, "I apologize for the abrupt departure from New York. I am Cloak and my abilities allow for teleportation. You have been brought here to Madripoor from New York City. One of the New Warriors has gone missing. We require assistance from our allies. Night Thrasher has asked me to bring you here. I, perhaps, should have asked first. But. . .my rudeness aside. We are seeking friends, of which we apparently have few. We ask your assistance."

Nova holds up his hands in what he hopes is a calming gesture. "Everybody just take it easy for a second here..." he gives Cloak a glance. "Wait, you just...brought her here? Without asking? Halfway 'round the planet?" He lowers his arms to gesture at Cloak's billowing cape now. "Through -that- thing? Man, you have any idea how shocking something like that can be?"

It's a lot to take in, being abducted, taken halfway around the world to a tropical island run by criminals, through a place she hopes to forget, soon. Her fear is quickly fading as she is still alive and they two haven't tried to hurt her yet, there was ample time when she was stunned on the floor. As Cloak explains himself she starts to look a little miffed at the tactics taken. Her mismatched eyes turn to Nova when he starts to question those tactics. Any doubt of the situation she been pulled into suddenly dissolves as she notices the view through the bay windows, beyond the less intimidating looking man (Nova) and that most certainly isn't Manhatten on the other side.

Addressing Nova, "I have already apologized for the manner, but the need outweighs the manner." As Krista seems more stable at the moment as she views the skyline. "Madripoor is a horrible place. A literal den of thieves and yet as heroes we are pulled into this world to save one our own and do our part to help the innocent citizens of this island nation. I can return you to New York City or you can stay and help us." Cloak pauses a moment in a more quiet and sincere tone and looking right at Krista, "There are moments in our lives when we are asked to do things we may not necessarily want to do out of fear or the unknown. You have powers, Krista. Those powers can be used for good. While we are not the Avengers or the X-Men, we do our part and I ask that you join us in that endeavor. We are modest heroes, but we are still heroes. I joined the New Warriors hoping to act as agent of good. Perhaps you would join us and simultaneously learn more about yourself in the process."

Nova considers for a moment and then seems to accept Cloak's explanation, nodding and adding a half-shrug. He nods along with the speech to Krista as well, and then adds on. "Yeah - and those other teams? The Avengers and the X-Men and whoever? They're usually only concerned with the bigger problems. Super-villains taking over the world, crazy space wars --" his eyes grow just a bit haunted as he says that, but in a flash it's gone again. "--Atlantis invading the world. Again. That sort of thing. While the Warriors're all about catching the things those guys miss. Or the things they don't want to touch."

"Your message is good, but your approach could use a lot of work." of all the people they could have chosen to bring in Krista was probably one of the better ones. She is curious to a fault and having few people she counts as friends is certainly not going to do anything to jepordize those she has, even if NT and Yishi fall more onto the aquantinace side of the equation. And she is nothing if not adaptable, she's done quite a lot of that in the past two years. Something Nova has said makes her eyebrows furrow in a quizzical fashion "Don't want to touch? Because they aren't global threats or because they don't want to dirty thier reputations?

Nodding his head in agreement to what Nova and Krista says, Cloak allows the two to continue the discussion as his part of his task is done. He has brought Krista over. Now taking over his usual role, he plays his part as silent mysterious observer.

Nova hesitates. It's not often that he gets to spout the team catchphrases, and when folks ask for more details he's even more out of his element. "Well...yeah. Both of those. Well, maybe not the part about their reputations. It's not like they put their reps above doing what's right...maybe more that they don't always agree with what's right." He looks at Cloak and then seems to remember a good talking point. "Like part of what brought us out to Madripoor in the first place was trying to stop some drug dealers. Most heroes don't even bother with street crooks like that, they figure that's a job for...I dunno, the police. Or Spider-Man maybe." Nova smirks just a bit.

She seems to understand what Nova is getting at and nods at what he is saying, "Not necessarily the crimimals that are out to take over the world, but instead the heavily armed gang thug or bank robber." Krista makes a slight hmphing noise at the mention of Spider-Man, giving an indication that she may have meet him and wasn't overly impressed by the man. "You said part of what brought you here, what was the other part, or is it the missing person he mentioned." a gesture is made toward Cloak.

Cloak remains quiet in the background just staring at the two and waiting to see if Krista will join the team or not.

Nova nods at Krista. "Probably better if Dwayne brings you up to date on that. I've been...uh, kind of undercover." He seems to remember his bandana-mask and now pulls it off, revealing the youthful features of Richie Rider. "I'm Rich...Nova usually, but I ran into some trouble our first couple of nights down here, so I've been trying to go incongito when I'm out on my own."

"Krista, but you all seemed to have known that already." she isn't sure what all the team leader would have said about her, probably just that she was really short (which she isn't any more), strong, with different colored eyes. She moves over to the window to get a better look out of it, "I can understand that. I guess since your tall, dark and intimidating colleque over there brought me here I may as well do what I can to help you out.

Nova chuckles. "Lucky us." He follows Krista over to the window but stands beside her so that he can look out as well. "Seriously, we could use all the help we can get out there. This place is...well, it makes New York look like Coney Island, you know?" He points out a few of the landmarks that can be seen in the direction they're watching, adding a bit of commentary. To hear Rider tell it basically everything here is either dangerous, corrupt or both, often with a side of sleazy.

The expression she throws at him seems to say she could debate that luck assertion, but it isn't verbalized, instead she does the smart thing and listens to what he has to say about the dangers of the infamous Madripoor, "So from what you are telling me, I am getting the trial by fire and not the baby steps recruitment package." she isn't sure if she should be flattered or insulted.

Nova looks surprised now. "Trial? No, this isn't any kind of test. Like I said, we're just looking for a little help. Not that we can't handle it out here," he's quick to add. "But well...this one's not like our normal thing. Not mine, anyway. Just flying fast and hitting hard isn't working out."

"Well that is a releif at least. I'm pretty sure that failure here would be the death of me, and I'm past my quota on deaths for this lifetime." turning from the window she looks around at the posh surroundings she refrains from asking about throwing money at the problem, though from the looks of the place someone could probably afford to try, "I don't know how much I can help you, besides shrinking, hitting hard is about all I can manage myself.

Nova raises his eyebrows. "Shrinking? Huh...don't think there's anyone ON the team who can do that. Can you be small enough so that people don't see you? That would come in handy." He thinks back over the last few days. "You'd be surprised how handy that could be."

Krista shakes her head "Not microscopic no, but at five inches tall I can pretty much sneak around and hide in plain sight without being noticed. I suppose that would be handy in a place like this, especially if you are planning a rescue mission for your missing friend." she is thoughtful a moment "I could probably get in where ever they are being held and get them out without detection.

Nova nods thoughtfully. "That, or even just hide in a backpack or in the pocket of someone's coat or something." His eyes go towards the water from Madripoor harbor. "I've got a job, sort of, on this boat. It's got to have drugs or some sort of contraband on board, but while I'm down in the cargo holds it always seems like there's other sailors and workers around, so I never get to take a look..."

"If it has a cargo hold its a bit more than a boat. Sounds more like a ship." Krista corrects without giving it much thought "No time like now to make myself useful. I can get you into the cargo hold for that look around if you want." she looks him up amd down "That is if you don't mind being about eight inches tall." when she said shrinking she meant more than just herself "How far is this ship?

Nova blinks as he realizes what she's saying. "Uh...wow, never thought of that. You can make -other- people shrink too?" He points at the water. "You can't see it from here really, it's blocked by those buildings on the waterfront. But it only takes a minute or two to fly over there. Takes longer to sneak onto the roof and make sure no choppers or planes are up that might see me taking off - Dwayne says we gotta keep a low profile if we don't want to get kicked out of this place." He pauses and then looks at Krista again. "Wait, will getting shrunk affect my powers?"

Krista nods, "As long as the person or object does not exceed my base mass. Yes. And they or it always shrinks in proportion to me. So since you are.." there is a quick pause as she sizes him up again "about three inches taller than me, if I shrink you, you will still be three inchces taller than me. No, it just effects your size, nothing more." which also hints at the fact that she can't shrink someone else without shrinking herself at the same time. "How about we just take a cab? The ship isn't going anywhere is it?"

Nova purses his lips. "Hmm...s'pose not. Okay, just follow me." Richard checks his cargo pockets, finally producing some local currency. "Wonder how much you're supposed to tip in Madripoor..." still muttering he leads the way out of the hotel room...

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