Reclaiming the Block [Open]

Sam stretched her wings and took off from the rooftop she was standing on. Tonight was the night, she decided, that she would finally do something. Earlier she had meditated on her abilities; her magic needed to be put to good use, had to be used to help people. She was tired of Chicago being overrun with gangs and corruption, tired of fearing for her family. Her neighborhood was hardly upper crust, but every night the police had to be called because of the warzone that occurred, and every night they didn’t show. She couldn’t blame them, though. It was never this bad, never this violent before. Probably because before the only tools they had before were guns. Now that there were metahumans, and not every metahuman was empowered enough to become a hero or villain. Some would settle for being top dog of their pack, and liked to show it off. So every night they’d throw their boys and their might against each other, with craters in their wake. Now was different though. If anything they were getting more organized, more efficient, and more dangerous. She was sure there was someone behind it, she just couldn’t guess who. For now what she could do was clean up the streets, and what better time was there to start, anyway?

She was quite a sight to behold, or would be if anyone thought to look up. Magic was hers now, grand powers, but we all know what happens when one gets power, right? She had transformed into a creature somewhere between human and moth, body covered with a brown and white exoskeleton that shielded her from Chicago’s notorious winds, six pairs of wiry limbs, and an expansive set of brown, red, and white wings that glided silently above the masses. When her neighbors first saw her, one could say that they reacted badly, if one were feeling in an understating mood. But her magic was running hot, her wings were flying fast, and she was ready to take back her city.

Looking down, she spotted something that looked promising. Gliding down, she saw a group of men, all clustered around one particular person. Swooping behind a building, she landed and tried to creep closer. There wasn’t a fight, at least not yet. They were talking, but she couldn’t make heads or tails of the conversation, she was too far away. She inched closer, straining to hear. One step. One step in the wrong place sent a can skittering across the concrete. Shit! She froze, watching the group carefully for their reaction.

Chicago always smelled bad. Exhaust from cars filled up the air with nowhere to go. Horns blared a protest at the congestion lining the streets, even once night set the calamity sat in the streets. But this was the outside world. An inconvenience.

Wandering off the streets and through the back alleys stalked the real threat of the night, or so Amethyst thought. She wandered the streets with her overcoat covering the white corset and black dress she kept underneath with her black top hat covering her head from the blasts of warm air shooting from exhaust vents. The wind picked up and howled through the alleys, knocking Amethyst's hat off. Repositioning her bag of tricks, she took off to grab it before it blew into a gutter. At worst she imagined the hat could get soggy; her imagination really needed to grow.

A large man placed his foot down on the brim of her hat and put his gaze on Ame. He flicked his cigarette to the ground and picked the hat up. "Nice hat."

"You know what, you keep it." She thought herself more of the brains of most operations, so she put hers to use and turned. A greasy chest blocked her body from leaving.

"We just want to have some fun."

"Buy some fireworks."

"We need some cash. And, we were thinking of having some fun with you."

Amethyst could feel herself lifting off the ground. She dug her teeth into the arm of the man holding her and slipped free. Her wand flew from her bag to strike the man across the face while a burst of light shot from her fingers to snare the man's legs. "Take a deep breathe." A flask shattered against the ground, releasing a nauseating gas in the alley. The air grew more rancid and Amethyst grew more bold, diving to grab her hat, just out of the reach of the main thug. Holding her hat against her head, Ame took a sharp turn and ran into a dead end. Turning back around revealed the rest of the gang cutting off her escape. "You guys don't want to talk this over do you?"

Now that she was close enough, Sam could tell the scene looked bad.  The gal was definitely outnumbered, at least 10 to 1.  Judging by her clothes though, she was either another metahuman, or an unlucky performer of some sort.  One way or another, it was time to move.

”Hey!” she shouted, stepping from the shadows.  She drew her two pistols from her utility belt and brandished them at the thugs.  ”Step off, or I’ve got a bullet with your name on it!”

All heads turned.  Well at least they were distracted.  “What the hell is that?” one of the thugs shouted, drawing his own gun.  Several others brought out bats and knives.  Sam immediately regretted escalating the situation, but at least the other person had the opportunity to run.  She gripped her guns tightly, waiting for any of them to move a muscle.

Everyone who wanted to help Amethyst always brought guns. Sometimes it worked out and other times it didn't. Accosted by thugs in an alley would go down as one of her more mundane ways to die, but she very well could die tonight given the arsenal the gang members pulled out. She hoped to get the drop on them, but street fighters always prepared for a fight. She felt her flask shatter, the boiling contents falling her to feet. Ame lifted her hands in shock and she stumbled away.

"That'll be your head if you try anything else." He pointed the bat fearlessly at her head. "Drop your bag and throw that stick away." Her bottles clinked against each other under the heavy drop of her bag.

"Yeah, you might have a bullet for all of us, but you got to get it there. So, which one of us you going to shoot first, and how many of us are you going to get before we get you. So, we going to do this the hard way or are you going to come with us to the warehouse."

Amethyst felt the aggression of the bat starring her down. A warehouse never stored good things in Chicago. This situation could only get worse, but Amethyst saw her way out. Any of these doors could be unlocked by her magic, but she would risk leaving the new girl behind at the mercy of this gang. Sparking a magic incantation, Amethyst lit fire to the boiling chemical at her feet. A burst of fire shot up between her and the bat wielding brigand. Amethyst spoke another word and the lock in the door moved.

"Let her go. We got this hero right here for us."

Amethyst sunk against the back of the wall and waited to see if anyone would come after her. She cut her hand open and drew a small ward on the door to send a discharge against the man who threatened her with such resolve.

She couldn't just leave. Her goods were still laying on the floor of the alley.

Also, this girl might need to be saved after saving her.

Well that just went from bad to worse, Sam thought as the alleyway burst into flames.  Leaping back, she started unloading bullets above the gang’s heads, hoping that they would have the sense to scatter. Despite the warning shots, the gang charged her like a mob; they wanted blood.  The fire seemed to be spreading, creeping through the cracks of the concrete and making an awful smoky mess.  And then she realized: The fire was creeping toward the woman’s bag.  The same bag that had the boiling liquid that was currently fueling the little inferno.  What would happen if her flasks shattered from the heat?  She’d already seen the destructive power of two flasks, the result from the rest going up might amount to a bomb explosion.  Insane as it was, she’d have to grab the bag, going through the mob to get it.  First, she thought, let’s chase these bastards off.

Flapping her wings as hard as she could, she propelled herself backwards to get enough distance to shoot.  And this time, she was done with warnings.  The first one got it in the leg, falling to his knees and howling in pain.  That definitely caused them to slow, but the ringleader wasn’t changing his mind anytime soon.  Two, three shots, both of them missing.  

“Get her!” the boss shrieked, flinging himself forward with his bat primed to strike.

Her magic surged forward.  Her lower arms raised up, crackling with energy.  A brilliant array of lightning bolts shot forward, entangling with the mob leader.  The man fell to the ground, a twitching, spastic mass.  There was a scream and the rest of the gang bolted down alleyways and side streets, trailing into the night.  She stepped, dazed over the release of energy, over the now-still man at her feet.  He’ll get up, probably.  Propelling herself forward, she lunged into the smoke, holding her breath and searching frantically. Where is it, where is – there! Grabbing the strap of the bag, she felt another hand grab the bag.

She could hear raised voices getting closer. It came as no surprise, but still startled her. The brash eruption of energy at the door let her know enough about her environment. The heat of the alley wasn't going to cool off on its own and someone would need to stand up to these street gangs. Unfortunately it looked like it would need to be Amethyst and someone with double pistols who looked less crazy than her regular double pistol wielding accomplice. Amethyst could carry it out from here.

She hoped.

Writhing in pain, the baseball bat wielding maniac looked less threatening than previous. Amethyst picked up the baseball bat and thought about how best to bring it down on his forehead. He struggled to get up, but Amethyst didn't want to permanently damage him. A forceful blow could kill him, but anything under knocking him out would just make him madder. Gently the bat bopped against his forehead. It bounced with a loud thud. He shouted out in pain grabbing his head. "Sorry, I've never knocked anyone out before." Her bat bounced against his head again with the familiar thud. "I'm so sorry." Her wrists gave the bat no force; it merely dropped from her wrists and cuffed at the bottom of her palms. "This is just as bad for me! I swear!"

After she awkwardly knocked the man out, she noticed Sam struggling with her flaming bag. Amethyst's eyes opened with true surprise and shock at this new established threat. "Throw it in a gutter!" Amethyst pushed past one of the knife wielding men with all the courage of not knowing about danger, and grabbed the bag.

"Grab the girl, we need a hostage!"

Two men moved to grab Amethyst from behind while she struggled with the bag. Trying to extinguish the flames, she flailed the bag around in a circle. An unlucky gang member caught the blunt of the hard bottles and cinder in his chest, flooring him with prejudice. Fighting through the savage swirl, a man with a chain grabbed the chain with both hands and prepared to wrap it around Amethyst's neck. Her frantic motion caught him unawares and landed against the side of his head. Brushing off her combat vigilance, Amethyst saw her bag still ablaze. She reached in to grab the two flasks and pulled them out. One of the flasks went completely untouched by the flames, but the other in her hand found a warning kindling down a wick towards the volatile fluid.

The flames struck up the gases within the nauseating gas bombs, causing their contents to condense and seep through the lid, but they only made the alley smell worse; the bubbling concoction would do much worse. Amethyst threw the bottle against the wall, shattering and spraying the flaming fluid throughout the alley.

As the night grew cold and people emerged themselves from the shadows and clubs, things changed and behavior and attitude was different for every person. Things that were good went from bad to worse. It was no time at all when he smells smoke and looked around seeing a small light from an alley way. He rushed over seeing two girls fighting what looked like 12 thugs at once... no make that 10, as Mykel thought when he recounted. It seemed like the biggest issue was to save that bag and to get rid of the thugs. Should he jump and help, well hell yes. Everyone needs a helping hand.

He leaped off the roof top as he did the fire went from iys usuall color to white growing into an exstream heat. Things burned quicker aswell as her bag. Woops, I almost for got about this stupid effect. With a wave of his hand the fire gathered up in his hand and disapeared in seconds. One of the thugs picked up the gun from another and shot at Mykel. Seeing as he was a new target. Three shots went off, but they were a miss. He blinked his eyes and shot again. He pulled 2 more shots and was sure to hit Mykel, but still no luck. They completely missed and suddenly the gun dropped to the ground. Them man went to pick it up when he felt that he could not even get his fingers under it.

You know if you did get your fingers under that gun the weight I'm baring down on it would crush every bone in your fingers. Also those shots you took I congradulate you that were almost pinpoint in accuracy, but I simply altered the movement of the bullets by condensing the air around the bullets flight path from the nozzle of the gun.

Mykel looked at the other two girls and and sighed. Well this is usually not how I give formal greetings, but hello my name is Mykel Thames and it's a pleasure to meet you. Even after his display the other thugs never learned. And that is the difference from graduating jr. high as Mykel looked at them and thought to himself.

”Hey thanks!”, Sam shouted at the newcomer named Mykel. At least the fire was out, though how he put it out was a mystery. Eh, metahumans gonna meta. She elbowed the thug sneaking up behind her in the face, and pistol whipped him down. Why were they so determined to drag them off? Seriously, if she were caught in an alleyway with now three angry metahumans, she’d run. She’d do all the running. Some people just haven’t got any sense in them, she thought glibly.

She fired her gun again at a charging mook, hitting him in the shoulder. Running forward, she slammed into another one, cracking her gun over his skull. He fell to the ground in a pile. They get up. Probably. Hopefully. She didn’t want to kill them per se, but it was imperative she send them out of the fight as quickly as possible. Dodging a knifer, she wasn’t quite as lucky as a bat came across and hit her right in the gut. Air knocked out of her, she knelt, shielding herself with her arms. The bat came down hard across her arms, pain shooting up to her shoulder. Again the thug raised his bat. Oh no you’re not, she seethed. Again she drew up her magic. With a flash and a shriek, the thug flung down the snake he had found clutching instead of his club. That was all the time she needed to sock him in the jaw, and be off again. Bolting forward, she joined Mykel at the alleyway entrance. It had to be saner than fighting alone. ”I’m Sam Atterby. Nice to meet you.”

And everyone lay around her in a pool of blood while fires still sparked along the alley. At least they did for a moment. Some manner of devilry snuffed out the fires she created in a manner she really did not understand, but now a third person joined their party. The mystery of how the fire expunged itself cast a little light upon itself in the now more darkened alley.

Amethyst's initial benefactor walked up to greet the new combatant who showed up to assist at a perfect time. Her name was Sam and his Mykel. Good things to know, even better to remember. Might even be prudent to let them know her name too, she thought. "I'm Amethyst." She brushed off flakes of skin and shards of glass from her overcoat. She held her hat in her hand, not sure if she should properly put it back on or keep it hidden. This entire spat did happen due to the complexities brought on by chasing the damn thing, but no one needed to know that.

She flipped the fat off of her wrist and put it on her head. "Thanks for the help. Things were getting a little too rough for me. I guess I should be glad I only lost some potions, but I fear one of those potions was pretty important. You see..." She tossed her finger to an angle as though she had something important to say. "I'm an apothecary." She did not.

As the two took charge again of the situation and handled the thugs by one shoting them or knocking them out all the comotion came to a quit very suddenly. They both introduced theirselves, Sam and Amethyst, and gave their thanks for his arival. Those are beautiful names and no need for thanks. I'm just a regular good person helping people in a higher way. Just like what you two were doing. I bet if the two of y'all did not find this group they would be off trying to over power some other woman. He put kindness to his wording as they did a good job here. A few more seconds and they would not have needed his help.

He lifted his hands as all 10 men rose into the air and then gathered in a straight line to lay beside on another. Using air he made an invisible clamp then removed all the bullets that were still inside the thugs at the same time. He burned all the blood off the bullets and put them in his pocket. After he singed the wounds together. Sure he was all willing to stop evil people, but not in the killing method unless it was a last choice.

The sirense were moving closer and they now needed to leave. The thugs were uncontious and would stay that way do to the extremities of their pain and with their gun, knife, bat, and etc. weapons laying around a simple note will be enough to get them thrown in prision not to mention 3 of them had warrants for arrest. Television was a help this time. He placed a note in the middle of their chest and turned to the two. So... Now what do we do. If you need anymore help tonight I will come help. My night is free to do what ever. So your choice.

He was really hoping to run tag teams with the other two people stoping larger groups than the one they just took care of.

Sam gawked at Mykel's display of healing the gangsters. That's got to be really handy, she thought. Composing herself, she turned toward Amethyst. "Sorry about that one potion you lost. What was so important about it anyway?" She thought for a moment. Maybe we could help you with making a new one. I mean, I've got no clue how you'd make 'em, but we could get stuff for you."

"Well, one way or another, the night's still young, and I've got plenty of time to burn."

These people helped from becoming a crime statistic, so by all means they should be able to help her get what she needed in this case. "A couple of weeks ago, a spider witch tried taking over Chicago and now she's dead, but all the spiders she spawned didn't die. A few of them are still riffling through the sewers. I used the blood of one of them to make a potion an associate of mine is going to use for..." Amethyst nodded her head back and forth while waving her hand in a circle to try and grab a thought. "Fighting monsters that come out of a time spiral." Her brow twisted. She spoke the truth, but the truth often sounded odd.

Amethyst emerged from a sewer entry point only half a mile away before coming across this engagement. "We can go down together or try to find these things separately. I know a way down, so if you want to help me, it's going to be a little walk, but we'll get there."

The sewers smelled of a new kind of terrible. Not just waste, but of sweat and sinew. They would all stretch out, but the spiders skittering could still surround anyone entering the sewers. The only other place to find spiders came from a source Amethyst never thought to look. Under overpasses near the river, a spider set up a large nest where no one would think to disturb it.

Amethyst stepped into the sewer entryway and took a breath of stank air. "I hoped it would smell better this time."

As the plans were made to make the girl her potions since it seemed like her way of combat he decided to pitch in. As she began conversating about the things she needed it stuck to his mind as he followed her to a sewer entry. As soon as he caught the wiff of the surrounding air is when he realized where he was. He was very skilled in magical knowledge since he came from the Thames and had to study it almost 24/7.

He remember a few potions that using powerful magic blood from the right spiders could take a usuall camp fire to a full scaleforest cleansing. Or could make poison for killing Elephants to things 10 or even 20 times larger. It should be really easy in finding something since it sounds like you have a deep knowledge in magic just like I do. He started to look around as all he seen was small webs spun by tiny spiders. More than likely the spiders of regular nature will off set themselves from the diverged spiders. So he was going to look for alot of web a big gap of nothing and then a large spool of web and a decent sized spider.

Trailing behind Amethyst, Sam shouted over her shoulder, “Hey, Mykel, wanna bust some spiders?”.  Stepping briskly, she tried to dust away the doubts that had started to crawl around in the back of her mind.  Spiders.  Magical spiders.  How big were these spiders anyway?  Were they venomous?  They were almost certainly venomous.  She felt a chill run through her spine as her footsteps echoed through the alleyway with eerie loudness, but shook it off.  She’d be fine.  Of course she’d be fine.  Of course.  She shivered again.

It was only a small ways to the entrance to the sewers, and the smell was obviously the first to assault her.  Sliding through the manhole, she landed skittishly on her feet, careful to not touch anything in the cesspool below her.  In the gloom of the tunnels, she strained her eyes to see anything.  Failing to adjust, she strained her ears instead.  Moving tentatively forward, she held a hand against the slick, grimy walls to keep her direction.  Every sound was magnified, distorted, thrown about the sewers, and set her nerves ablaze. How far had she already traveled?  She had taken at least three turns, left, left, right.  Or was it left, right, right?  Hang on, where’s Ame?  They must have turned in opposite directions.  Should she go back? Should she--.  Stop it, she snapped at herself, irritated at how jumpy she had become.  I’m good at fighting, I’m good at this, I’ll be…

Hold up.  Was that a spider?  She froze, every sense straining, heart pounding.  She reached for her pistols, drawing them slowly.  There.  Eight eyes glittered in the lowlight, fixed on her.  It wasn’t moving, and neither was she. Slowly, she aimed, fingers on their triggers.  Aim straight, aim straight, BANG!  She shot just as the spider leapt at her, feeling the claws gripping at her.  She screamed, falling to the ground, desperately trying to fling it off.

The good thing about spiders is you can always find their lairs by the layers of webs lining the walls. The bad thing happened when they moved away from the lairs to hunt. Amethyst kept a light illuminating from the tip of her staff as they moved through the damp sewers, just her, Mykel, and Sam. Of course, Ame never stopped to look back and keep tabs on the marching order, but with the night they started with, a trek through the sewers seemed much easier.

When skittering and chitinous chirping drowned out the ambient sounds of the sewer, Ame knew she needed a flask of the explosive stuff. She hoped to corner one in its lair. Set fire to the hole and just get her poison then and there, but more spiders in the area collapsed the once stable structures and created their own passages.

One creature burst from the wall, trying to catch Ame in its jaws. She turned to have the spider catch her wand through its head. Several muscle spasms moved the creature before it finally went lifeless. Ame pulled the wand free while a second spider tried to begin wrapping her legs in webbing. Ame threw her wand into its head and muttered the incantations of a binding spell to wrap the spider up in a brilliant light. The wrapping barely got around, so a quick step freed her from the creature flung across the room.

While a peace existed, Ame dripped some of the poison from the fang of the dead spider into a flask. She waited for Mykel to drive off the remaining spiders, but the time draining took too long. Maybe the spiders would continue their advance if they thought they could capture more food. Whatever their plans, Ame finally decided to simply pull the tooth out of the spider's mouth and put it in her bag. "Mykel! Let's get out of here." She turned to run back to try and find Sam, but she could find no trace of her. "Sam! Sam!" Ame yelled throughout the sewers, not knowing if that tactic would harm them in the future.

Four large men crawled through a hole leading down from a well lit exit. Each man carried a large sack and some rope. "I hate coming down here; how did we get stuck with this job."

"Boss says we come down here and find if the spiders got us fun. We find anyone, we take em back to boss back at the warehouse." The party would start searching for anything the spiders left behind, armed with a few crowbars and a stun gun just in case things got hairy down in the dangers of the sewer..