(Untitled)

[he_is_wild]

Who: The Joker Zulfiqar + Open
When: October 15th, post-siren
Where: Around!
Summary: The mysterious Zulfiqar makes his rounds to protect the city. He is also bird watching...
Warnings: Violence and language

Comments

early evening, Sector 5

[bodyreads]

[Kids this time. Cass has been running full-tilt since Batman died, picking up his mantle for herself. The cape and the bat ears make her shadow so similar to his, frightening anyone human on the streets, especially criminals. Tonight, though, it's monsters. She doesn't need to restrain herself here.

She throws the cat into a dumpster and picks up the two children she's been protecting. The grappling hook allows her access to the rooftops and she easily finds their parents a few blocks over.

There are no thanks. She doesn't ask for them.

She shoots out the hook again and takes to the rooftops once more, looking for her next target. It isn't long before she hears another cry of someone not too far away, someone struggling to get away from a pack of rope-faced dogs. She hurries towards them.]

[he_is_wild]

[He, too, hears the cries and runs towards them with considerably less grace.

When he arrives at the scene, he comes to a stand still at the top of a gable roof. It's not the best place for a perch but at least it's close. As he reloads his right pistol he digs his heels in and spreads his weight to prevent himself from falling and slaloming backwards across the shingles.

The cries gain in pitch and he takes aim only to falter for one brief moment at the sight of a bat leaping through the night. The vision makes his heart leap and, as he watches, the sheer blackness of those wings suddenly look like the color of his own madness.]

[bodyreads]

[Two batarangs stick themselves into the first dogs she gets to, but they do little but enrage them and get their attention. There's a teenaged boy, a little younger than her, who's pinned in the back alley and she watches as the dogs start to advance on him. His power makes him look like a night-light in the Darkness, attracting them.]

Move!

[The dogs glance back at her, weighing their options for food. It doesn't give her much to work with; she kicks one to the floor and jumps over the others to get between them and the boy.]

Over the fence. Go.

[She pulls out two more batarangs, one with an explosive attached to it. She'll wait on that one. The boy starts to scramble over the fence while she has the dogs, and she uses her weapon to stick one in the mouth when it advances too close.

She'll wait until there's enough distance to use the explosive. She can get away. He can't. But she might not get the chance with how many dogs there are.]

[he_is_wild]

[He comes back to himself. A girl. It's a batgirl. A bat girl.

He leaps across to the alley then drops down into the pack of dogs and starts to whirl, quite literally, like a dervish. As he spins he squeezes the triggers of his guns, shooting behind him, to the sides, and performing hip shots as the beasts leaped at him. The dance is not for show, as he manages to dodge their charges and each bullet hits a target. The pack is starting to flank him, however, and he will not be able to keep doing this for long.]

[whereismypizza]

[This wouldn't be the first night Dante ends up prowling in the Darkness in the same sector as this masked vigilante. Because Zulfiqar never showed an interest in hurting the innocent Dante had left the guy to his own devices but well, here he is again. Why not make conversation?

He sits on a rooftop deliberately in the vigilante's path, making sure he would be seen. This way if the mystery in the mask wanted to avoid the conversation he could easily do so by simply going in another direction.]

You're a pretty decent shot even though that mask looks like its blocking half your view. [He isn't facing Zulfiqar, but there really isn't anyone else around he could be talking to.]

[he_is_wild]

[The gunslinger pauses and shifts slightly to retreat another way.

But....the idea of being alone with his thoughts is too upsetting.]

It doesn't.

[whereismypizza]

[A thoughtful nod.] I thought maybe all that armor would bother you while you're running around too, but I'm guessing you'll tell me it doesn't.

But I can kind of see a point in wearing armor, whereas a mask is just...Are you hiding something? [And he asks in a manner he hopes doesn't sound prying, because it is a sincere question of curiosity.]

[he_is_wild]

Leather armor. It is light.

[He presses a finger to his mask.]

I chase criminals.

[And when someone chases criminals they need to protect their identity. Then the criminals won't target their loved ones. It's a topic he knows something about.]

[20_mentholkools]

[It's interesting how many people walk the city at night, despite all the warnings, the general sense of it being something sane people just didn't do. Riddick had been told that, when he arrived. He hadn't believed it then, and every night he goes out, he finds more to prove himself right.

It looks like another guy out hunting monsters, but it's still interesting, and Riddick follows him, keeping to rooftops and ledges.]

[he_is_wild]

[A tail. He's used to this. So he freezes in place and glances back.]

May I help you aught?

[20_mentholkools]

[He isn't all that surprised to be spotted, just stops on the ledge he's on, crouching down lazily.

It's strange, how many people ask that, offer it, like helping others is the natural response. Instinct. Or maybe they're just saying it because they think it sounds nice.]

I was thinking, most people stay inside at night. Do you know where you're going?

[he_is_wild]

I follow the screams.

deadbrain-iny whenever, rooftop of the Lux?

[athermercy]

[She's watching him. She's been watching him for a while. Truly, Elaine doesn't need to follow him with her eyes. Those are just habits -- bad habits she should stop latching to.

The monsters don't reach the building. The Darkness ruin does not rust the perimeter.

She still watches him as he fights. Saying nothing, just waiting.]

[he_is_wild]

[He saw the Lux from a distance and has been traveling towards it. The lack of decay on the building makes it seem almost like a beacon in the night, and a likely sanctuary.]

[It takes a while for him to reach the roof and when he does, he drops to one knee and blows a sharp breath out from the mask. Then he lifts his head and peers around, feeling someone watching him.]

[athermercy]

[In a way, the Lux has something in common with Heaven. It's the House of God now. It's the zone faraway from the Core where Elaine has decided to install herself, following Lucifer's departure.

She approaches him when he reaches for the rooftop, stepping closer to him and kneeling beside him.]

Hey -- Are you thirsty?

[She gestures at the open door behind her and the staircase inside.]

You seem tired.

[he_is_wild]

[He draws a breath to gently turn down her offer but his throat is dry and his tongue is thick. It's been a long and draining night.]

[When he turns his head towards her he feels uneasy. She can see through the mask. Or at least it feels like she can. For reasons he cannot explain, he wants to linger at her side, if only briefly]

A moment's respite sounds nice.

[isitablurred]

[OOC: Mind if I throw Clark at you here?]

[he_is_wild]

((nope!))

[isitablurred]

[ It's hard; somehow when he patrols, Clark keeps expecting to notice a dark figure on a rooftop, cape flickering, so that when he actually does it's all he can do to take a second look, to remind himself that Batman is dead.

This time he's caught out for maybe a whole second, but when he lands he already knows that this particular solitary figure is not the spectre he's looking for. ]

You're the new face from the network. I don't think I caught your name.

[ No cape of his own; a mourning habit. He'd given his to Batman after he'd found him without his own, and that was how he had been burned. ]

[he_is_wild]

[He tilts his head at Clark.]

Yes.

I am called Zulfiqar.