Concert in the Park

The fresh, 3:00 am snow crunched underneath Nina's boots in a most unsettling way. Her breath swirled in great billowing clouds before fading into the rest of the frigid air, making her lungs burn every time she inhaled. Sweat beaded up on her brow and chilled her skin. Her hair whipped around her head and stung her tepid ears, but she pushed herself forward, her path illuminated by the city that never truly slept. Streetlights bathed everything in a soft, vile yellow, and as she jumped across a street and into an abrupt treeline, she left behind the concrete jungle to proceed into Central Park, where there currently rested a gang of thugs and their hostage; a young woman in her late twenties, the valuables of her husband being the main reason she was so sought after by the criminal underground. There had been close calls with this couple before, but never had someone actually captured her and successfully held her for ransom. This marked the first viable threat, and Valkyrie planned to be the one to stamp it out.

There were 3 gunmen in total, posted up on the small peninsula directly across from the Bethesda Fountain. The trees provided enough cover for the four of them to remain obscured, yet it was defensible. Any onslaught from the water could be easily seen, and the only egress was heavily guarded with gunfire, as a team policemen were unfortunate enough to discover. There was only one casualty, about five wounded, which was enough to make those on the scene decide to take some time to formulate a plan. It was then that a frazzled, sleepy reporter said the phrase that had caught Nina's attention on that sleepless night: ''Already the men in question have begun to take their toll on our local police force, but we citizens have to ask... isn't it time someone sent in a super?'' After the location was restated, Nina was out the door in a tank top, a pair of pink, floral sleep bottoms, and her trusty boots. Another blink and she was down the street. By the time anyone had time to think twice, she was bounding over buildings on her way to the park, but in spite of her normal routine, she was alone.

As much as she loved her mentor, she felt it time to establish herself outside of his sizable shadow. Alone, she would save the damsel in distress, neutralize the enemy, and walk home for some much needed shuteye. Tonight, she could prove to the world that she was just as much of a hero as Pain ever was, and make him proud.

Nobody would get in her way.

Why is it that I can never sleep on vacation? Andree thought to herself as her brown eyes stared at the light grey ceiling. Her eyelids blinked closed. Once, twice, three times before she sat up in bed. Her slender legs hung off the bed as her arm made it's way over to the ebony side table. On the table was the remote for the old television that they provided her with. Pressing the green rubber "on" button, she waited for the TV to turn on. The old thing took a few minutes to start up. Finally, the black screen had displayed an image: static. Andree's shoulders sagged slightly as the sight of the the static covered screen. Thank God this doesn't happen at home, I would die without my shows. Her fingers played with the up and down input switch as she sat there, trying to get the right input setting. After a few minutes, the screen was filled with something besides static. A dark blue background filled the screen behind the dark haired woman of Asian descent that worked as a news anchor. A little background noise while trying to fall asleep should help. She thought as her hands tucked under her pillow. Her legs stretched down the bed and her head rested on the part of the pillow that was over her hands. The voice of the female news anchor drifted through the back of her mind until she heard her say something that actually caught her attention. ''Already the men in question have begun to take their toll on our local police force, but we citizens have to ask... isn't it time someone sent in a super?'' Were the words that spilled from her mouth.


I thought I wasn't going to do this while on vacation. Well, I did it last week so whatever I suppose. Her hand reached up and tucked a bit of her brown and blonde hair behind her ear as her legs brought her to a standing position beside the bed. Better get moving. At superhuman speeds, she quickly stripped out of her tank top that she wore as a night shirt and slipped into her suit. After getting into the black costume, she walked over to the window and pulled it open before diving out of it, extending her cap to slow her fall. She landed on the ground in a kneeling position and adjusted the mask on her face. Her feet began to move almost as fast as her mind as she raced to Central Park. Seeing the police and ambulances up ahead, she stopped and shot her grappling gun to pull her up to a building nearby the park known as the Urgent Care Center of New York City. The sirens below wailed as the red and blue lights on the hood of their car illuminated the scene below. Her mind was racing, formulating multiple strategies and tactics in the course of half of a minute. Alright, so they are on a peninsula across from Bethesda Fountain. I have to make it over there without being spotted to apprehend them. Hmm, there's the Central Park Boathouse nearby. If I can get there without being spotted, the rest should be easy. Or there's the possibility of going underwater, seeing as my mask allows me to breath down there. That could be a good tactic except for getting to the gunmen after arriving at the peninsula. I like the tough problems like this, much more intellectually stimulating. I'll take the boathouse route. After finishing the train of thought, Mockingbird dived off the rooftop and went to put her plan into action.

Twigs and dead plant matter snapped and crunched underneath Nina's tread, making her inhale sharply with every step as she proceeded closer and closer to her goal. Some sort of building, a structure she instinctively knew as the boathouse, crept into view, its usual silhouette shrouded in pillows of snowfall. By now, the cold had really set in. Her breath came out in ethereal clouds, and her skin was slowly punctuated with goosebumps. Snow dampened the hem of her pajama pants, and she winced with displeasure every time the wet fabric brushed against her skin. Tonight sucked, but it would hopefully be over soon. The only plan she had was to directly assault the men, charging in like a bull, taking the gunfire, and promptly throwing them through the layer of ice that no doubt covered the waterway. She would pull them out, of course, but only when she felt like they had learned their lesson. It wasn't the most beautiful or detailed of plans, but it was one that would work, and it's simplicity was something she enjoyed. Nina wasn't one for frills and excess, preferring the blunt and nitty-gritty, except when it came to fistfights. Man, she could make a bar room brawl look like a waltz, her punches sliding through the air in elegant arcs, kicks snapping in perfect tandem with the delicate sway of her stunned opponents.

She shook her head, temporarily sidetracked by her own anxiousness for a conflict. Maybe doing this thing bloodless would be best? After all, she was the only one in this situation who could take a bullet to the face and survive. The thought brought a smirk to her face, giving her pause to rub her arms in a feeble attempt to bring some warmth back into them. It was in this brief rest that she heard a sound that made her heart drop into her hips; a rustling, some 30 yards behind her. The sound closed in, almost like an animal was furiously climbing through the canopy of trees. Animal... She thought, or man? Her brain began chugging along, desperately grasping at straws of ideas as to what to do about the unexpected visitor. In a spastic swing, she plunged her hand into the snow, groping around until she found a rock. Her nearly numb fingers grabbed it and yanked it to the surface, mulling over its apple-like size before she expertly chucked it into the trees where she thought the sound was at that point in time. ''Heads up, fucker!'' she whispered, grinning when she heard it collide with something and stop the procession of whatever had been plunging into her hostage situation.

Once her train of thought had ended, Mockingbird dived off the edge of the building and into the line of trees below. The first tree was the weakest of them and started to move back and forth wildly once she had leaped onto it, as if it was in a wind storm. Once her feet had found their footing on a couple of branches, she used it to push herself across the clearing and into the next tree over. The large leaves on the evergreen tree rustled as she dived inside and started to try and find the best spot to jump to the next one from. Weaker tree branches from above leaned down to scratch at her arms as she attempted to balance on a thick-ish branch. A large burst of wind came by, threatening to knock her off her hiding spot. Once the wind had passed, she leaped to the next tree in her path. With this one though, she did not notice the girl under it.

As she did not spot the girl on entry or even now, she did not notice her grab the rock from under the snow. The moment she did notice the rock was a little late. Her mind had been distracted by thinking over the current hostage situation when the rock flew into her gut. With a grunt of quick, sharp, temporary pain from the rock's impact, she fell to the ground below. Thankfully, her cape slowed down her fall. She landed on one knee in the snow, eyes gazing up angrily at her attacker. As with most people, she did not like to be attacked or interrupted. She decided not to attack the girl, assuming that it was likely that she thought she had been an animal scurrying across the trees. Not sure if the girl was friend or foe, she asked. "Friend, or foe?" The voice she spoke in from behind the mask was her own.