A Meeting with Miss Fortune

The sun rose above the horizon and with it awoke Garry Grinnes, having only two hours of sleep in his system. The first thing he did was walk into the kitchen and grab a bowl from the cabinet along with a spoon from a drawer, which he found in the third one he checked. Making a bowl of cereal, he ate with little to disturb him. He then looked to the man sitting beside him and asked him a simple question, “How’d you sleep?” The man only sat there with his neck at an awkward angle due to the fact that it had been broken late the previous night. “Yeah, same here,” he said to the man as if in deep conversation, “the reason I never sleep more than two hours is because I got a lot of people who want me dead. It’s no big deal though because I like being on the run. I’m new to the whole ‘Super Villain’ thing.”

“Would you quit talking to the ugly old bastard?” a crow shrewdly yelled from his place at the table. “Go check your email. The computer is in the den’s stairway closet,” the bird continued to scream instruction at the man, “maybe your Craigslist ad got us some business.” The bird made its way to Gary’s Frosted Flakes and began to peck at them with quick and gentle taps of his beak before he stopped for a moment and spoke on last time, “And this time don’t kill someone for broken toaster, that didn’t work out so well.”

“Do you mind if I use the computer?” The man politely asked the dead man before he stood from the table, having not so much as taken a bite of the food, and walked to where he had been told the computer was while still in his underwear. Once he sat down at the computer he found that it was easy enough to navigate and quickly brought up his preferred search engine, AOL. Once he logged in he immediately received an email and being the kind of person who likes to make things easy opened it without hesitation. It was a very boring and dull message but it did seem to want to hire him for a job and they were ready to spend a lot of money for him to only cause a little property damage. But he was not completely sure because he did not read the bulk of the message and only read how much had been transferred into his bank account.

Four hours later, three bombs, three dogs, two big ass tanks of gas, and one matchbook, everything was in full swing with one bathroom on fire on the third floor, some closet on fire on the fifth floor, and three dogs running around with bombs strapped to their chest, the person at the store had called them corgis or something all that really matter to the villain was that they were small enough to get around in the vents and things like that. Twelve unarmed security guards lay on the ground dead from multiple wounds, as Mister Reaper held the last of them out a window, attempting to toss him in a manner that would make him do a flip. The guy would probably live if he landed right since they were only on the fourth floor. Everything was completely crazy and the villain loved every second of it with people running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

He began to make his way to the lobby again since there was not much time left for him to leave since he had forgotten how much time he had given the dogs before they would explode. His thick combat boots made a rhythmic pang as they hit the ground repeatedly. He again did not wear any gloves since he really did not want to keep his identity a secrete and really only cared for the mask, which is what made him the super villain he really was. His mask was dark with two yellow slits of glass that covered his eyes.

A few months passed since Elaine first entered into Los Angeles. When she came here last she scarred a young Asian Girl for life; life was simpler back in those days. A few underground ties gave Elaine a feeling that something in the Los Angeles corporate world played away from the legal world. Seth Khan owned many business's around the world that fronted a more sinister background. They tampered in war mongering around the world and backing many super villains; this included a very shady up and coming group that caught her attention. Elaine planned on scheduling a meeting with this group as soon as she walked in the door.

Screams broke the silence as a security guard spiraled out of a window. Elaine rushed to the defense of the security guard pushing past the stupefied onlookers. Concrete gave no cushion as she pushed herself into position to make a perfect shadow jump to catch the guard and usher him to safety on the ground. A conspicuous figure darted back out of the window. Purpose drove Elaine to get into the building faster.

"Well this should be a step up from the last guy I fought." She said in a cocky manner as she looked upon Mister Reaper. The lobby seemed large enough to impress any foreign investors, but she could only imagine what lie in the labs that would drop the jaws of any technological business man. Sometimes it seemed like it would draw the attention of more than just foreign investors. Scum always seemed to show up where Elaine set her mind to go. "So, how are we going to do this Mr. criminal?" She chewed up and spit out her fake Texas accent. "I reckon we should do some formal introductions, but I'm just thinking you may need to be taught some lessons. Now which do we get to first?"

Shells spiraled around the chamber of her pistols as Elaine starred down the man. If this showdown presented her with straight forward action, Elaine would stare back with fervor and resolve. Fingers counted bullets, four explosive rounds, one remote detonation round, one smoke round. This felt good; it was time for action.

Nina's feet left noticeable dents in the sidewalk as she pounded onward, her strength pushing her faster and faster towards her goal. Watching the news from outside a bar had paid off; a building not far from where she had been was burning, and to a young heroine, that was enough of an excuse to go save the day. Burning buildings are nice... She thought, sharply turning a corner and shoving her way through countless ignorant civilians. They shouted at her, told her to watch out or slow down, but nothing could dampen her spirits. A burning building wouldn't attack her, wouldn't present a challenge. A burning building couldn't be evil, just on fire.

- - -

Once she reached the destination she recognized from the footage on the news, she managed to spot the news van and camera man, confirming what she already knew. At a fast jog, she elbowed delicately through the spectators just in time to see someone get launched from the fourth floor window. Before she could even react, someone managed to catch him, but not in any manner Nina had seen before. ''What the... what the fuck?!'' She now pushed a little less delicately, shoving her way to the front in time to see a girl dressed up like some midwest cow herder enter the building. Maybe she was another super...? She could only hope so as she chased after the stranger.

Nina squared her shoulders and barreled through the wall, approximately where the strange girl would have been if she hadn't gone far after going inside. Once the rubble settled and some of the dust dissipated, she felt relief to see the back of the cowgirl, but it was quickly replaced by cold logic when she saw the front of one rather sinister dude. In frustration, her brow knit. This was now the time for business; a villain had started the fires, and even thrown someone out the window.

"Hey fucker,'' she said as threateningly as she could, ''do yourself a favor and fall over, alright? I'd like to save you a trip to the E.R.'' In her classic naive and egotistical manner, she folded her arms and flipped her hair, exuding a confidence that could choke a horse.

Mister Reaper walked into the lobby and saw all the people outside and the camera crew. Perfect he could maybe kill a cop or two and get really well known for this whole thing, or rather his super villain persona could become well known. How could this day get any better? Then he looked at the lobby, it was nice with a tasteful mind behind the whole of it all from layout to the plants in the corners and it was at that moment that Mister Reaper wondered why he should even care about any of those things. Then he heard the sound of someone talking but what she was talking about seemed boring and went ignored. “Are you done…” he was unable to finish his sentence because a loud and foul mouthed little girl interrupted him.

He looked from the girl to the woman pointing the gun at him and decided he would try to send at least one of them on a wild goose chase, divide and conquer was always a good idea in these cases. “I’ve strapped a person with a bomb on every floor of this building, trust me they did not want it to happen, and will go off in about,” he then pretended to check his nonexistent watch, “maybe ten minutes.” He then sat and watched the both of them and felt that was a good enough lie to buy him some time before they realized that he had not in fact done that. Now he would either have to fight one or they would both go to look for the bombs, hoping for the former so he could kill a worthy opponent.

“So? What are we going to be doing?” Mister Reaper asked the both of them with mock terror in his voice. Today was turning out to be a splendid day.

Deep down Elaine knew she could make the rounds of the building to save those hostages, but that would leave this new girl, who made quite an entrance, alone with this villain. "You don't use doors..." Elaine tapped her finger to the brim of her hat. "...I like that." She turned her attention back to the assailant. "You, partner, well, I don't like you." Half cocked hips let her palms rest on the grips of her pistols. Brushing her black poncho to the side she flashed her pistols. "I reckon it's time for a reckoning of a wrecking."

In the blink of an eye Elaine tossed her poncho to the side. It reeked of poor decisions from a wild trip to Mexico, but that mattered little. Widening her stance, the lone gunslinger brushed the fringe of her dangling vest over her shoulder. Her eyes stared across to the masked man, sizing him up. "You're wearing a mask, but no gloves. Seems odd." Silence rested from Elaine.

"You go take care of the hostages..." Fingers tapped gently upon the grips of her guns. "...I'll make sure you get there without any problems." Elaine waited until she knew that her attack would avoid hitting her new best friend. As soon as Elaine brushed her eye lashes together she knew her time to attack entered. Flying from her right holster, Elaine fired a line of three explosive rounds and one smoke round towards Reaper. She aimed the smoke round at the ground, while the other three rounds would go straight for Reaper with the full force of their explosive properties.

Keeping her left hand open, Elaine unraveled her lasso and flung it to entangle one of Reaper's arm. With her tactics she hoped to keep Reaper in position to take the shells in his lower torso. She needed to keep this man engaged with her so Valkyrie could continue on her wild chase. All of Elaine's greatest ambitions would soon wrap around her like her trusty lasso.

The young girl smiled and gave an excited nod, ready and willing to follow the orders of someone so cool. ''No problem, brah.'' Even though she didn't know this cowgirl at all, aside from the fact that she looked badass as all hell, she obediently bolted for the stairs, using the strength in her legs to clear the space in one leap before she scaled the wall of the stair case; her fingers just as handy as ice picks. It was only in a matter of moments that she reached the next floor, and with that, she began searching every room.

- - -

Once the last door was was opened, she couldn't help but silently fume. There wasn't a single person there. There were potted ferns, tastefully framed pictures of sunsets and windsurfers, even a nice air conditioning unit, but not a soul to be found. Counting the seconds in her head with military precision, she reached two minutes and thirteen seconds. She was doing well, but she could do better. Excusing the formality of stairs, she concentrated power to her legs, knelt, and jumped, bursting through to the next floor like a cannon ball. Nina scraped and pulled herself from the hole she had just created in the floor before taking off at a sprint to check the rooms.

Just like the previous one, no one was there. Before she could launch herself upwards again, she heard a clang come from the air vent behind her, followed by a soft whine. She spun on her heel and faced the metal portal, fists raised in classic defense as her legs readied themselves for a fight. Another soft whine, then a small bark. ''What the...?'' Carefully, she walked closer, standing on her tip-toes so she could rest her hands on the sides of the vent plate. Inside, she heard snuffling, another bark, and some scraping. ''Is there a, uhm... dog... in there?'' she inquired in a hushed tone, afraid someone would somehow hear her and think she was just being stupid. Another bark, this one louder. ''Alright, alright, I'll get you out, even though I have no idea what you're doing in there...'' she said soothingly, peeling the plate back to reveal a small, fluffy head that stared at her before trying to pull the rest of itself out.

Nina pulled the plate back further, lovingly bringing the dog to her chest as she cradled it. ''Aw, look at you. What were you doing in the vent, little guy?'' she cooed, her hand moving to rub its belly. It panted and squirmed, showing a happiness that the heroine could not mimic. Her stomach went cold when she spotted the mechanism that had been strapped to its underside, her eyes fixated on a blinking red light that had been embedded in the cover. The dog yapped, pawing for attention. The light blinked. Her mind raced; no people, dog in a vent, strange device. The light blinked. There aren't bombs attached to people She panicked, zipping up the dog inside of her vest as she ran for the stairwell, They're attached to dogs, and they're loose in the ventilation system.

[[OOC : Shortened]]

Of course they both took the bait and the cowgirl was going to try to take him on single handedly, this was going to be a very entertaining day. Mister Reaper watched the girl leave and once she was out of earshot said, “What a weirdo, am I right?” and then he decided to answer the not question that the cowgirl had not asked him earlier, “The reason I don’t wear gloves is because I’m not hiding my identity. I’m just trying my hand at the whole super villain life, by the way it’s not that bad, pretty nice actually.” He then turned his complete attention back to the woman before him, she was attractive in a certain way but the villain had had the chance to fight better looking people in previous adventures.

Then it happened as fast as lightning, the woman shot three rounds but all three were easily dodged, seeming as though she had barely even aimed. The last of the three hit the floor in front of him and a thick cloud of smoke began to form, nothing too bad since he had been trained by a blind man to fight and he could do that if required and the glass over his eyes helped in case it was nerve gas. Then in the short moments he had noticed the smoke and that it was a trick bullet something else struck the villain. What did the other bullets do? Getting ready to run something else happened that he had not anticipated, a lasso found it’s way around his waist just as the bullets behind him exploded and threw him clean across the lobby.

"Do you enjoy being beaten up by women or something," his crow screamed at him from his perch in a fake tree. "It's all you seem to do lately," he was quickly ignored."

Hitting the wall rather hard Mister Reaper slowly got to his feet though being slow would soon change. He grabbed a chair with wheels and threw it at the girl to distract her from his next move. Running full sprint at the girl, Mister Reaper advanced on her with intimidating speed attempting to close the distance before anything else could happen. If he made it to the girl he would not hesitate to go for an arm lock to try and disarm her of the weapon so that she would not have the long range advantage. This was a risky move because while it would momentarily leave him without defense it would be to his advantage to at least disarm the woman. This would be a close fight he knew it.

Bullets erupted just the way she wanted them to. A good assortment of tricks would always prevail, but only if she held the element of surprise with them. Too often Elaine resorted to throwing the kitchen sink within the first few moments of a battle, hoping to lay her enemies out, but this time she would play a more conservative tactic. She watched as the man flew across the room with her lasso connected to his waist. A chair flew across the room targeting none other than the lovable cowgirl. She gave a little laugh and dropped the lasso. While the chair flew in through the air, Elaine fired a smoke round that would impact with the chair. A cloud of smoke would fill the area, giving Reaper less disclosure on where Elaine would face the attack.

Reaper tore across the room at full speed to grapple with her, but that did not seem like a viable option for Elaine. To avoid the unfavorable situation, she moved forward and employed her shadow jump to the other side of the room. His lack of defense brought a smile to Elaine's face as she realized he just placed himself in a very compromising position against Elaine. Smoke parted into the vacuum Reaper's fast movement created and Elaine saw her chance. She reholstered her pistols and replaced the explosive rounds and the smoke rounds that she previously discharged at the villain. "You're quick." She gloated. "Almost makes it a fair fight." Grips provided a round resting place for her palms to rest up, as her fingers ran across the chambers, counting the engravings on her bullets.

The woman dodged his frontal attack with some kind of weird jump move that must have been related to whatever powers she had, something that would make a close range fight with her all the more difficult. He stayed in place as he watched her reload her weapon and prepare for a shoot off if he tried anything to get closer to the girl, fighting her was getting more and more difficult by the second and making a plan was far from easy with so much going on at once. To give himself a little more time he began to speak so he could think a little more freely, but he kept his eye on the woman for any funny business.

“Should be a fair fight? Don’t make me laugh I’ll rip you to shreds if the two of us got into a fist fight, after all it is my specialty,” the villain began to walk casually back and forth as he watched the girl and tried to come up with a plan. “I wonder if your friend was smart enough to find the dogs I strapped bombs to up there? They were called cronies or something like that, didn’t really care to find out. Have you ever seen a dog explode?” He still could not make a solid plan until his eye caught sight of a small baseball that read “#1 Dad” on the side. Trying to not raise the woman’s alert level, he touched the desk and slipped his hand over the object and got a firm grip on it. “I wonder how many people have died so far from just the fires alone? I used a lot of gas so they should be pretty big by now,” once the sentence was over he made his move.

Quickly he threw the baseball directly at the woman and then grabbed the desk it had sat on and lifted it into the air and broke it over his knee, throwing the two large pieces as best he could on either side of the woman to try and narrow her escape path. Once all three objects were flying through the air Mister Reaper began to run for her as well, if she did not move he would attack her head on and try to out muscle her and kill her that way but if she tried to do that jump move again and she happened to go over him he would attempt to jump directly in the air and tackle her to the ground. If he managed to get her to the ground in any of those instances he would then proceed to trying to bash her skull in with his bare hands.

"There you go! Now you're using the old noodle," Edgar screamed from his perch that he had not moved from the entire time, worrying not as to what flew his way. He simply adjusted his fez wanting to make sure it was on straight. Then he looked out the large glass windows and said it the audience that had begun to develop outside, "I taught him everything he knows!"

Preparing her pistols gave her a small amount of clarity into the situation. It looked too easy when Mister Reaper tumbled with all his diligence into the other side of the room; spinning chambers and a handful of explosives awaited the man if he tried charging again.

If he thought mustering threats would turn the tides his defeat would come soon. "I don't know about that fire; that's why the other girl went upstairs." Hands on pistols, always keep your hands on your guns. This guy wanted an old school fight with her, but she knew nothing good would come from granting this guy usage of his strength. Her take downs could buy her time, but she would not last long. That of course is why smart girls carry guns.

His first action proved only to bolster Elaine's bravado. Reaper flung a baseball at her with all his strength, triggering her reaction skills. A great deal of force impacted upon her hand, a little more than she anticipated, but the throbbing in her hand stayed within the radius of her hand that caught the baseball. While a desk flew at her, Elaine quick drew her right pistol and fired a remote detonation round and fired it into the ground in between her and Reaper.

Actions dictated that the next course of action would involve both of them taking one or more steps towards each other. She took her step and faded into her ethereal state in an adjacent office. She ran her finger up the grip of the gun and pressed the button to turn that bullet into an explosive surprise. Not wanting to keep her adversary guessing, Elaine fired another detonation round into the wall. Now she just needed to see if he would play the reckless villain card and charge the wall.

Mister Reaper ran at the girl as quickly as he could but her reaction time was obviously better than his own, though it would be a point he never truly accepted. She shot down below her feet as she jumped backwards and through the wall, beating his plans again with her quick thinking, she had better powers than he had realized. Then realization hit the sinister man with monster truck force, two of the last bullets the woman had fired were explosive and to Mister Reaper it was always better to be safe, at least when it came to explosives. He stopped as quickly as he could and hunkered low to the ground attempting to avoid the blast as best he could. It was powerful to say the least and pushed the man back a good ways but he was for the most part unhurt, though he had a slight ache in his shoulder which had been closest to the blast.

The villain stood and looked at the area of the blast for a short time before he started making more and more plans, though honestly they would always be half baked to some depressing extent. Fighting a ranged person was proving to be much more difficult than he had originally imagined, there was only one way for him to win and it involved him getting inside of her bubble. It did not seem to matter what he did though she always found a way to get away and it was very quickly pissing the man off. “When I get a hold of you I’m going to kill you in the most painful way I can imagine,” he yelled at the top of his lungs even though he was not sure whether or not the woman could hear him.

The woman had jumped into what appeared to be a small section of office rooms that were meant for the security guards to use when not patrolling the building but it was unused since most of the were dead or running for their lives. She had a lot of time to prepare for him to come barreling through the wall, which would be fun but extremely stupid, and might certainly be a trap. He then looked over to his left and saw the door to the rooms she had escaped into and thought it might be better to use that entrance instead, unless she was expecting that and had bobby trapped that door as well. He decided after a few moments of internal conflict to go with his gut and walked over to the door that he had noticed earlier.

For only a moment he prepared for what he was about to do, planning had never really been his strong suit and he usually simply went with the flow. He charged the door at full speed and burst through with little effort, knocking it clean off it’s hinges, he then rolled to a stop and as soon as he could found the girl waiting for him to use the wall as an entrance he sprinted for her yet again. There was a chance she would simply run but he hoped he had caught her off guard enough to at least close the distance for a brief moment. If he did make contact with her he would go for nothing less than to break one of her limbs.

A rolling chair welcomed Elaine with its plush leather. Brown, leather boots forced papers and family photos off of the desk. Crashing on the ground almost drowned out the sound of the angry man shouting his undying hatred for her. Elaine spun her pistol around her finger, and gave a sly smile to the angry man who entered the room in a less than conventional manner. He looked mad.

She pointed her pistol behind her and fired off a remote detonation round behind her. The bullet pushed her chair towards the back wall. The hot lead impacted into the wall just below the window, catching the room in between two explosives. Elaine felt the motion project her away from back wall, and she could feel her fade from the room and make her way back to the spacious entry way. Elaine pressed her fingers to the triggering mechanisms on her handles, detonating the two explosives in the room.

Debris from the impact flew towards Elaine; she needed to react to the explosion to keep herself safe. She rolled to the side that hosted the entrance, putting a distance between her and her trusty lasso. "That was a little too big."

Mister Reaper looked for the woman as soon as he came to a complete stop inside the room she had fled into seeing her as she shot her gun again and escaped through the wall once more. Everything seemed to slow down for a little while as he took in a few key factors in this whole situation. First, the chick doing all the damage at the moment was leaving the room. Second, she also shot another bullet into the wall and that did not bode well for the villain. Third, odds were looking pretty good that there were going to be some sort of explosives in the room, which was never a good thing.

All of this information flooded the villains mind in a matter of nanoseconds and he was able to respond within a fair amount of time, especially since he had no powers to speak of. He leapt from the room as fast as he could and pushed off the ground with all the strength he could muster, pushing hard and fast so that he could avoid whatever happened in the room. He barely made it through the door before the explosion erupted behind him, throwing him farther than he had wanted and tearing him up something fierce. There was definitely a cracked rib in him somewhere but he would take care of that when he could.

With little effort he both forgot the pain and stood to look for the woman he was trying to kill but heard instead the bark of a dog. Looking to his left he spotted the animal with a vest of high explosives strapped to it, for a moment the man freaked out remembering that he had set all the animals to explode within a time limit. “Oh crap, did I put that little rat on this floor,” Mister Reaper said aloud, “that wasn’t very smart,” he finished with a shrug before he turned to walk to the door.

Taking one step he felt the weight in his pocket that he had been ignoring and remembered what it had been the whole time. The detonator, with a sly smile the man pulled it from his pocket and spoke as he continued to walk out of the large building. “If you try to attack me and I’ll blow everything up,” he yelled as he continued to walk.

A corgi walked through the delightful game of cat and mouse. All the attacks and ploys Elaine used to keep Reaper off balance amounted to nothing when he summoned his detonator. He took his leave and slowly walked out of the building as though he won something. Not wanting to allow the man any reason to send the building up in flames Elaine dropped he pistols to her feet and watched as he took his leave.

With a sense of adventure, the corgi walked over and tugged on Elaine's pant leg. Her priorities shifted as she gazed lackadaisically at the small bodied dog. Quickly, she took to tending to the creature's immediate needs. Ammunition and explosives followed similar patterns. Remote detonation rounds held a replica of what the furry bomb contained. A direct intrusion into the small animals face caused the frightened creature to snap at Elaine. "Ow. I'm not helping you anymore." She yelled in the dog's face. "I'm sorry, puppy. Let's be friends." The companion barked up at her. "I'm going to call you Seymour. I like how you're not always judging me like all the other dogs. Are you?" Her nimble fingers removed the ignition wire from the explosives. At least it wouldn't explode in her face now. Unless it contained a back up, of course; time to just get this thing off, she thought to herself.

The buckles and straps gave way and the vest slid off. Elaine threw the vest as far as her arms would allow it to travel, sliding across the floor. She grabbed the corgi in her arms and prepared to make a jump in case the bomb exploded.

Once outside the building Mister Reaper saw all of the people standing around and all of the police officers watching as well. The pedestrians were most likely there to see all of the blood and death that people these days always wanted to see but never admitted to wanting. Mister Reaper knew that he could not blame the people for being sadistic after all hew was just as cruel as anyone of them, although he was much more honest about it. Looking at the obvious spots he saw the trained snipers with their crosshairs focused on him, most likely his chest since it was where they were taught to place the bullets.

“Hey everyone, it’s nice to be here today. I’m having a lot of fun here today and I swear I don’t want it to end but sadly all good things must come to a close,” he spoke, giving in to his flair for the dramatics by bowing here and there as well as waving to all the snipers. “You should know though that I have a bomb,” he said as he pulled out the detonator and showed it for everyone to see, especially the reporters covering the scene, “and I have backups on my body and should anything happen to me the explosives I left inside will go up like the fourth of July. I’m sure you know what that means.” He began to walk away but stopped shortly in front of an open alley.

“Again, loads of fun but if any of you follow me the whole place goes down,” and with that said he began to run, as fast as he could, down the alley and did everything he could to lose the police officers that would obviously be following him. After only a little while he was fairly certain that he had managed to get away and with that knowledge in mind he looked down at the detonator in his hand and knew exactly what he wanted to do. He squeezed it and made sure it would make the bombs go off. Those dogs were going to be paste on the walls, and if they did not there was nothing to make sure they would since he had not made backup planes in case they would be disarmed but he did not care about th