The Black Coat Does Not Make An Edgelord (Horigan)

I swear, it's just for the rain.

Close to midnight, way past regular office hours. A Craven Inc car had just departed from a non-company building, carrying a few Craven security staff and a female, blonde, bespectacled woman in business attire, working on a data tablet. She pays her fellow passengers little heed, until the car had come to a stop in the middle of a fairly empty road, in the pouring rain.

"Ugh. Why are we stopping?" The little blonde IT specialist asked in an annoyed tone.

"Sorry miss Madison, I think we have a flat tire." The Craven Inc driver said, opening his window to take a look.

"I knew we should have taken the armored car. Well, get out there and help the driver deal with it." She chided her bodyguards, who simply nod and get out of the car to assist.

The door opens and for a brief moment Madison hears the pouring rain beat down on the pavement. She continues on her work. However, minutes pass and they were no closer to being ready to move.

She could no longer see the security detail working on the wheel in the dark and the rain. She grabs an umbrella and gets out. "Is changing a tire in the rain that hard? What the... WHO ARE YOU?!" She saw her security were all scattered on the ground, out cold. Standing not five feet away from her was a figure in a flowing black coat, face hidden by a mask.

"The real question here, is who are you?" She retorted to the IT lady.

At that point, Megan pressed a silent alarm on her device, to alert Craven security that one of the company's executive personnel was in danger. "I don't know what you're getting at..." She said, trying to keep calm.

"Oh. But I think you do, Megan. If that's who you really are." Diana draws her sword and slowly approaches the woman.

Rafe had been working fairly late on this particular night, he had been handling business. He was on his way back from a meeting with a local crime leader, another gang under Rafe's thumb. Upon arrival, he drove into his large corporations parking garage and kept driving and activated a button inside the car that opened a secret entrance way, allowing him to drive through it. Once he entered the entrance he was then in what would appear to be a elevator and it began to rise. It had risen him and his car all the way to the top floor of the building and a section of the floor in his office opened up and he rose right on through. Once at the top he exited the car and stepped back, observing the beauty that now sat as a display piece inside his office. Rafe turned and would appear to be wearing regular jeans and a leather jacket with a reglar t-shirt underneath. He then sat in his office chair and sighed after he pulled out his phone, looking at several business related things.

As he sat in his chair, his secretary Megan knocked on the door and poked her head in saying, "Mr. Lenthal is here, sir.", Rafe smiled and nodded, "Let him in dear, and have the rest of the week off, I'll have my accountant send you a bonus for your hard work." After that being said she smiled and exited, and a large burly man that stood at around seven feet tall walked in with several other men, he simply smiled and sighed, "I see you haven't changed very much since I saw you last, how long has it been, a year?". Rafe simply nodded and gestured to the chairs infront of his desk, "Do sit.", the man nods and sits, once seated he smiled, "You know, your father and I, we were pretty close and when he was around, we cooperated while I ran brooklyn, I was wondering if we co-", Rafe put his hand up and shook his head, "No, that wont be happening."

The man simply smiled and snapped his fingers and the men that were with him quickly drew handguns, aiming directly at Rafe. Rafe analyzed the situation, in total there were four guards and then there was Mr. Lenthal. The man smiled, "Let me rephrase that, you WILL allow me to resume that postion, and while I'm at it, I think I'll take Hell's Kitchen as well.", Rafe just smiled and began to laugh and shook his head and suddenly disappeared. The five looked completely clueless and confused, and one by one the guards heads turned with a snap to the side in a way that shouldn't be possible and, of course, they had to fire a bunch of gun shots all around them frantically, ruining the wall with bullet holes.

One was left, Lenthal. Rafe reappeared and stood behind Lenthal, and he quickly stood up and looked to see what happened. Rafe smiled, "There's two ways you're making it out of this, one, you die fighting, two, you die like a bitch.", with that Lenthal's scared expression turned into anger and he used his large size to throw a heavy punch, Rafe in response simply moved to the side with his superior agilty and speed, driving a knee up to Lenthal's gut. Once hit, Lenthal leaned down and put his arms around his belly, feeling a large amount of pain. At the same time Rafe stepped to the side of Lenthal and drove a solid kick straight into the side of his knee, breaking his leg. Once on his knees in pain, Rafe smiles, "You know what? Maybe I'll let you leave.", with that he walked over to one of his displays and removed a cane from it, handing it to Lenthal. At the same time he called his guards in and said, "Show him the way out yeah?", as they began to help him up Rafe reached into his pocket and opened a cigarette case removing one and placing it inbetween Lenthal's lips. As they began to walk him out, Rafe reached for one of the handguns on the floor and turned around as they slowly hauled him out the door and aimed it at Lenthal's head, firing a bullet straight through his brain.

"Well that's that.", the guards and janitor's begin cleaning up the mess as Rafe leaves his office, he then removed his phone as he walked and began to dial the number to his accountant. They answered quickly and said, "Yes Mr. Craven?", Rafe sighed, "Drain Mr. Lenthals bank accounts, his, his wifes, his kids, all of it, and send it directly to my secretary Megan, full name, Megan McNorm.", after that he hung up and walked to one of the vending machines in the hall and put a few coins in, then retrieving his favourite choice, Mountain Dew. Once he had his drink he walked back into his office and his phone began to ring as he took a sip from his drink, irritated, he places his drink down and answers the call, "Sir! Convoy 3-4 has been taken out, without a trace, we seem to believe that people that done it are extremely trained, or perhaps a meta human.", Rafe sighs and nods, taking a few seconds to think he responds, "Have the security forces withdraw and pull back to HQ, I'll handle it.", with that the person on the other line responds, "Sir, are you-", and Rafe hung up. Rafe simply walked to the back of his car and unlocked the trunk remotely. Once at the trunk, he activated the systems in the back remotely via implants in his head, and robotic arms reach out assembling armour around his body until he's fully equipped in his suit. Once equipped he closed the trunk and walked onto the balcony of his office, leaping off he activated the propulsion systems and began to fly in the air. Rafe then locked on to his destination with his suits "HUD", and flew straight there.

He arrived very quickly, and landed right next to the vehicle with the two in sight, one of them approaching the other with sword in hand, apparently he arrived just in time. He simply observed, waiting to see how it all played out with caution, he just asked, "You mind taking a moment to explain to me why you've gone out of your way to scare a ordinary IT girl that is barely over the age of thirty? She'll never forget this, probably gonna make her have to go to therapy for a week or two."

The swordsman's attention was diverted by the arrival of a flying power armor. The IT girl breathed an immense sigh of relief.

"Oh thank god, Horigan you're here... this freak... took out our guys!" Said guys though, were lying on the street unconscious but still breathing.

"So the company has a hound. Well Hound, do you know your little bird has been flying to other nests?" The swordsman said of Megan, in a most accusatory tone.

"I don't know what you're talking about! You've got the wrong person! Horigan... I'll leave this to you." Megan, with her umbrella, quickly makes herself scarce from the scene, fleeing across the road and heading into an alley, still holding her umbrella.

The swordsman made no sudden moves, knowing the power armored bodyguard might shoot energy beams or A fight was imminent. She spoke up over the loud din of the rain pouring around them. Lightning flashed, followed by a a peal of thunder in the distance.

"You sure you're supposed to be flying in this weather?" She entered a sword fighting stance. At this point, she'd have to rely on a 'friend' to get to Megan.

Rafe stood still, watching the girl infront of him curiously. He simply enters a combat stance and raises his gauntlets as she enters a fighting stance and sighs, "Hound? You clearly don't know much.", he continues, "You realize you're literally bringing a sword, to well uh, laser fight, right?". He uses his eyes to scan the girl and deduces the abilties they may have. They wield a odd looking sword and sport a fancy suit, with a really edgy coat over top. He turns his head all confused like, "You sure you didn't just accidently mistaken this for a cosplay convention? You know, I think the rest of your D&D crew is down the street at the comic book store."

This was an odd sight for Rafe, he didn't see this often, a young girl dressed up like that. He thought to himself, shouldn't she be in school or something? Like studying for her exams or something of the sort? As he began to go off topic, he simply waited for them to make a move. As Rafe waited, he observed her attitude and began to prepare for any attack.

He hoped that if it came down to it, he can resolve this with little effort. This all seemed overly complicated for what appeared to be a simple convoy attack.

"Oh... real funny. You'll see how real the sword is soon enough."

Still, Diana was surprised the power armor didn't rush into demonstrating his capabilities, and waited for her instead, to make the first move. Maybe he wasn't so dumb after all.

A second ninja, one in a biker outfit and a kitsune mask, had tailed Megan as she fled. Megan had made good distance and was now a block away. This ninja had more sensibility and packed a compound bow, not to mention a snare trap. Megan walked into that blind, and was promptly reeled up to the edge of a roof.

"HEEEELP! HEEEELP!" She cried out, determined not to blow her cover, but also calling for her real allies. These meddlesome humans were becoming very adept at finding them out.

"...Please don't hurt me." Megan pleaded, seeing a biker ninja come into her upside-down view, with bow and arrow in hand.

"Drop the act, reptile. I know the real Megan went to that clinic." Oyuki said, pointing an arrow at her head.

"Then you know... I'm not alonesssssss!" Megan's voice changed into a menacing hiss as she decided her cover was blown. Diana's ninja ally ducked out of the way of acid spit, which melted her arrow mid-flight... as well as a good deal of the HVAC unit on the roof. Snakey Megan spit a small amount of corrosive spittle on her trap, and she was freed, she deftly landed on her feet, from five storeys up and ran much more quickly than a human IT expert had any right to.

"You're not going anywhere!" Diana swung at air as Rafe teleported away, leaving Diana feeling stupid and unaccomplished. "I guess you are." She finished. Diana let out a sigh and sprinted to catch up to the scene of the attack, using her grapple line to good use.

The acid did not react well to the incendiary round, and now emitted a cloud of poison gas. This was a lot more than Diana's ninja help could handle, and withdrew. Diana herself caught up in under a minute, demonstrating her suit's grapple.

Megan continued her inhuman abilities, easily leaping 30 feet vertically to another building's roof in a single bound.

"Wow, athletic and she spits. where did you find that girl?" She said with a dose of sarcasm, wishing she could see Horigan's look of surprise. The jokes could wait though, as Megan completely abandoned all pretense and shot at Diana and her former employer with an alien plasma pistol.

FZZZT!!! The beam audibly sizzled in the air, burning a wide hole into the roof. Diana instinctively got out of the way, taking cover behind a billboard. A few more beams came their way before Megan sprinted away once more.

"Wait! don't just tele-" Diana warned Horigan, but he was gone before he could be told how sneaky these snakes were. She sighs and keeps tracking by grapple hook.

Megan finally stopped when she reached a partially done construction site, dark but sheltered from the rain. Megan began completely shedding her human guise now, and her scaly, reptilian nature came out. She brought out an alien communicating device, along with her Craven Inc computer. It was apparent now, the aliens were gaining intel on Horigan's company.

Stealthed as he was, Horigan could not hide his mind's presence. A malefic alien influence creeped into his mind, to deceive his senses. The psychic attack attempted to conceal Megan, while attempting to convince him that the now arriving Diana was some kind of demonic monster with a sword. Diana tried to speak to Horigan, but his hearing was muddled, and all he could see and hear was a demon come to kill him.

Diana cautiously approached Horigan who seemed a bit out of it. "Hey, what's going on? Did you lose your IT girl?"

Out from the shadows they slithered, Megan's "sisters". large humanoid snakes, these ones armed and armored as soldiers, unlike their infiltrator kin. It seemed they were communicating among themselves a moment, before they set their sights on Horigan.

While his mind was still muddled, the snake-aliens begin their attack. Megan demonstrated she had a tongue that could lash out and grab Horigan, and pull him over in the blink of an eye, an attack that happened very quickly. Once he was pulled over, one of her snake companions would begin constricting him in his armor, trying to make him pass out with the sheer constricting strength of her tail.

Diana was not on their capture list, so she was dodging the rapid firing energy beams coming her way. She ducks behind stockpiles of steel, rebar and drywood, materials that exploded violently or melted into piles of slag. The air sizzled with the sound of the plasma beams.

"SNAP OUT OF IT!" She tried to call out to Horigan, who may not have experience with the aliens yet. She returned fire with shurikens, but the reptilian aliens proved highly adept at dodging projectiles.

Rafe slowly began to go back to normal for the time being to keep himself safe from harm, he put himself in a bubble of energy that acted as a forcefield. The forcefield like construct would come from his suit, allowing him to take a small break to create a plan of attack, he'd have to do this soon enough though, since they may turn their attention back at the girl. The tongue from Megan shot out and was blocked by the shield Rafe was inside, in response Rafe would say, "I don't normally do tongue on the first date, perhaps next time? It's nothing to do with you, it's me, really...". Rafe for the time being was safe.

Multiple reptiles appeared, though they appeared to be physically different compared to Megan. Perhaps they had different assigned roles. Whoever, or whatever they were, they needed to be put down like the dogs they are. The inhuman abominations had to be gotten rid of for good. They had pissed Rafe off, and this time, things were about to get real. Rafe contacted his security head with a secure line using advanced communication technology and demanded, "Bring in Normandy one and two on my postion, prepare to be given further instructions."

Once said he looked at each of the reptiles and made sure to scan each and every one of them precisely. Once done he stood up in his shield and called out to the girl, "Your anime crew still around to lend a hand?"

Diana weaved through the enemy fire, avoiding enemy fire by sheer reflexes alone. She inched closer to the snakes until finally, she was within melee with one and demonstrated the blinding speed of her blades, even these lightning quick snakes unable to keep up once within Diana's reach.

Still, Diana found her coat grazed by fangs, and she promptly loses it before the acid did any further damage. "Ugh, I just got that last week, you slimy snakes!"

The alien reptiles regroup, seeing their attacks not so effective. Megan and her snake friends, having nowhere to go, were going to ground, hiding behind cover.

Megan keeps shooting at Horigan regardless of his force field, if only to keep his attention from one of the snakes tossing an alien grenade his way. The massive plasma detonation would blow a hole beneath Horigan, sending him falling down to the next level.

Diana kept her head down while tossing shurikens, which were more nuisances to the snakes but nonetheless kept them from staying in one place. "I know!" She answered Horigan, being the experienced one with these aliens.

The snakes proved to have no great durability, and were quickly pulped from Horigan's rocket assisted bullrush. Horigan was rewarded by being coated in its corrosive blood, which was quickly eating through the environment around him.

Megan proved quite agile and the hot shot grazed her, blackening part of her scaly skin, but otherwise she survived and was once again fleeing. With her allies reduced to puddles of gore, Diana would not have her fleeing again and quickly returns the favor by shooting her grapple and catching the snake woman. She tries to claw away, but her acid spit was dry. "Alright, enough." Holding her sword to Megan's throat, the infiltrator was quick to stop resisting, seeing how Diana fillet'd one of the warriors.