Two Speedsters Try To Stop A Mugging (Velocity)

Crack, all of Chase's fingers went simultaneously to someone who couldn't perceive the speeds he was going at. To him, he had cracked them at what the speeds he used to. Chase's eyes suddenly lit up as he realized how he could fill the boredom he was experiencing. He rushed to his room and into his closet, pulling out his superhero suit. Let's hope this thing can handle my new speeds, he thought to himself as he put it on. He ran out the door and off into L.A.

He sprinted around the city, his main goal being to alleviate his boredom, his secondary being to stop minor crimes going on. Through crowds of people, he easily stepped past them, sometimes only being able to avoid hitting them by a narrow margin. As he ran, Chase chuckled at the thought of people around the city being scared shitless by a blur of a person running past them.

"Give me your purse and you don't have to get hurt!" Chase barely heard as he ran. He backtracked a bit to see a mugger running in seemingly slow motion away from an old lady yelling for someone to stop him. Who robs old ladies when superheroes exist? Chase thought to himself as he sped towards the man. Chase took his gun and put it on a nearby roof. Rushing back, he punched him slowly in the face, knowing that something slow to Chase would probably be devastating to a normal person. As he began to fall to the ground, Chase yanked the purse away from him, running towards the old woman to return it to her.

"This seems to be your lucky day." Chase said as he handed her the purse. He watched her face as it slowly contorted into horror. That's when he realized he was talking normal for himself, not for everyone else. Great, I have to talk to everyone like they're toddlers. "Sorry, I tend to talk a little fast at times. What I was trying to say was this was your lucky day" Chase told the old woman, speaking painfully slow, trying his best not to start tapping his foot out of boredom and scaring everyone around him.

"Oh, thank you!" The old woman said, going to hug him. Chase could see tweets arising saying Superhero refuses hug from old lady if he ran away, tried to hug her at his speed, or anything else. So he slowly wrapped his arms around her at the speed she was and waited for what seemed like an eternity for her to take her arms off of him so he could do the same, still having to do it slowly. Holy shit, super speed sucks.

Samantha had never been to Los Angeles before. She had heard the city felt short compared to New York but to see the contrast first hand was something else. She had come to check on one of W. Industries other projects; she had a grasp on all the Techno-Babel where the executives did not.

She was out running...an activity that seemed to never bore her. After spending years confined to a chair she was obsessed with running.

After finding the alien trap rigged to her suit, it had taken some time to remove the issue. Now the suit was mostly hers. Still, after running at mach 2, she had trouble giving that up.

With the right gear, anyone could beat a Meta.

She had been running through one of the rough neighborhoods when she heard a call for help. A perfect opportunity to prove she could do everything a meta could.

Except, when she came to where the crime had happened, Sam only found an unconcious man and another speedster had returned the stolen purse. "Bullocks," she cursed under her breath.

She wanted to punch the man and felt her fist tighten. No, she told herself. It does not matter if he stole your thunder.

The dazed mugger moved, much to Samantha's surprise. Believing he was going for the gun, she moved. Her fast moving heel came down on the man's hand. She could hear the chrunching sound, even through her helmet. She was not disturbed.

Come on, old lady. Could you be moving any slower? Chase thought as the lady he had helped save inched away from hugging him.

As he was just about to run off again, he heard a very defined Crunch! Knowing that sound by heart from having his bones do the same so wearily often, he looked behind him to see a woman in a black suit with red bands on her arms and her thighs with a 'V' on her chest crushing the mugger's hand. Oh, that looks like it hurt.

Chase rushed to the new person who had arrived, the only distance between them being the mugger on the ground. "Mind explaining why you did that?" Chase asked, talking fast as first but slowing down his speech in the middle of the sentence, realizing most people probably couldn't understand him like that.

"He..." Sam began. Then she remembered who she was talking to. And she remembered the chip on her shoulder. "I don't have to answer to you," she seethed, accent obvious.

In a blur she reached down. Another thing she could not do in her chair, she realized. It was so jarring that Sam froze, holding the gun by the barrel for a moment. When she returned to her senses, she dismantled the weapon in a flurry. One by one, she tossed the pieces to the other speedster...the metahuman, saying, "If you must know, he was going for the gun. You're welcome."

Her skin crawled at the thought of being stuck near the self proclaimed superhero. She took a step away before taking off in a blur of gray...

She figured the man would let her be...

Chase took a couple steps back, shocked. He had never encountered a fellow hero that spoke so rudely to him. He nervously scratched the side of his head and muttered "Okay then..."

Chase tracked her movements with ease as she reached down, grabbing the gun. For a moment, she just held it by the barrel, before finally she dismantled it piece by piece, tossing them all towards Chase. He caught all of them, then, after holding them in his hands for a moment, unsure what to do, he just dropped them.

Then she ran off. Chase noted the high speeds she was capable of reaching, and almost started running after her. On second thought, I have a feeling she's going to start throwing punches if I do. So Chase just sprinted away in the opposite direction.

Later that day, Chase stopped by a coffee shop. Out of his superhero costume and into his facade as a sightless man, he swung his cane, occasionally hitting the feet of others as he made his way towards the line.

After getting a cappuccino, he made his way towards the closest table. He sat down, seemingly unknowing to any passerby that there was a woman in a wheelchair who was already sitting across from him, but he was fully aware.

Samantha had been sitting at her little table for a few minutes, sipping on a cup of dark tea.  It tasted a little off to her. She blamed It on the fact she was in America. Out of her suit, Sam was dressed in a light T-shirt and jeans.

She had left her suit at her hotel, allowing it to recharge. Now, she had to make do with her motorized chair... The young British engineer gazed out the window, people watching. She had not taken a sip from her cup for some time.

That was around when a young man took a seat across from her, drawing Samantha from her reverie.  "Oh, um," she muttered in confusion.  Then she took note of the shades and the red-and-white cane and quickly put two and two.

Clearing her throat, trying to center herself, Samantha decided to speak up.  "Hello," she said.  "Are you looking for someone?" she asked.  She metaphorically kicked herself for saying it but poor Sam could not come up with anything else to say...

Chase set his cane down on the side of the table. He took a few sips from his coffee, trying to act oblivious to the woman right across from him. He ignored her when she started muttering, but his gaze turned up when she cleared her throat.

As soon as she said "Hello", Chase was certain it was the same woman from earlier today. The voice was less muffled than before, but it was undeniable the woman in a wheelchair across from him now was the woman from earlier. Not a bad disguise. No one would expect a woman who can't walk to be a speedster.

Chase could see that she was already beating herself up over saying "looking", so he tried to soothe her guilt by chuckling a bit, followed by "No, I can't really look for anyone. He grabbed for his cane and was prepared to stand up. "My bad, I didn't realize anyone was sitting here. I can move, if you would like."

"Oh, no," Samantha insisted.  "You just caught me off guard is all."

The woman looked down at her cup of tea.  At this point, it seemed to have gone cold.  Well bullocks.  She elected to push it aside, everything making a dull scraping sound against the table.

"Sorry, I've just been...lost in thought, I guess."  She unconsciously glanced away as she added, off hand, "I think I might be spending too much time there..."

Her thoughts shifted to earlier, to her encounter with that meta...to her own attempt at vigilantism.  God, one damned suit and she thought she could play hero, just like...No, get out of your head Sam.

Her attention returned to the blind man in front of her.  "Honestly," she said, "I could use the company."  She extended a hand, tapped it on he table just in front of him, and turned it palm up.  "I'm Samantha.  Or Sam, if you like."

When the woman affirmed that he didn't have to leave, he put his cane back on the side of the table and sat back down.

Chase took a quick sip of his cappuccino, then placed the cup off to the side. He just nodded to her when she started talking about spending too much time in her head as she averted her gaze, not quite certain on how to respond.

She returned her gaze to him. Chase slightly smirked as she said she could use the company. She extended her hand, tapping it on the table to try to alert the blind man that she was greeting him. Chase took Sam's hand, shaking it three times before letting go while saying "Nice to meet you, Sam. I'm Chase."

"Pleasure meeting you, Chase," Sam said, withdrawing her hand.

For a time, the engineer failed to speak. In that time, she came to realize just how out of practice she was when it came to casual conversation.

"So," she began when a rather obvious, if cliched starting point came to mind. "Were you born here, in Los Angeles? Or did you move here?"

ooc:

Chase sipped what little left of his cappuccino there was and set it to the side. "Actually, I was born in Chicago. I tend to move around a lot, and I just ended up here. He said, answering her question.

"So, what do you? Chase asked after a moment of silence, trying to not let it the silence last as long as their last pause. "I meant in your free time, but you could tell me about your job, as well."

The awkward distinction from work caused Samantha's attempt to play hero to come to mind. Still, she knew she could not mention this, not out loud and not to a stranger...

"Well," Samantha began to reply. "As you ca..." The young engineer trailed off, remembering he could not see her wheelchair. She coughed nervously.

"Actually," she said, starting over. "I'm mostly stuck in my chair, so I spend most of my time tinkering with gadgets and such." Sam shrugged a little. "Actually, I always liked working on things like this so I don't feel too bad about myself." There was some tention in her voice, suggesting she was not being totally honest.

Samantha quickly shoved her angst down before saying, "Lucky for me I get to do what I love for a living. I am an Engineer for Wang Industries. I focus on prosthetic devices for the disabled...like me..." Again, Samantha found herself trailing off again.

Again, she tried to push passed her angst. A stroke of her hand pushed a lock of hair bac over her ear. "What about you?" Sam asked, pushing the conversation away from herself. "What do you do?"

Chase widened his eyes when she said she was in a wheelchair. Not because he was actually surprised, but because he was trying to keep his facade as a blind man.

"I skipped two grades, and because of that, I got out of school a bit early. I don't go to college, so I mostly just watch movies, meet new people, take walks, stuff like that." Chase reached for his cane. "Speaking which, there's a park around here. Would you like to accompany me on one?"

Samantha took a glance out the window. As was often the case in Los Angeles, the day was sunny and clear. Unable to think of a reason not to go, Sam said, "Uh, sure. I could use the fresh air."

Tilting her joystick back, the young engineer wheeled away from the table. Pulling forward, she paused beside Chase. "Feel free to put your hand on the back of my chair if you need help," she advised the blind man.

Exiting the coffee shop, the pair moved in the directions Chase indicated. Half of the way there, the sound of the safety coming off a handgun reached Samantha and she paused. From the alley, a voice said, "Don't move." A bit redundant.

From the shadows, a skinny youth stepped out. Dressed in beanie, hoodie and jeans, the boy held a black pistol in one hand. Nervously, he said, "Gimme your wallets..." Rubbing his nose, he soon added, "and your phones and jewelry." Everything about the boy screamed "tweaker."

Keeping her hand hands visible, Sam said, "Alright, don't anything rash." Inwardly, she cursed at the man, calling him a "useless junkie cunt." Still, she reached for a purse tucked against her thigh. She fished the desired items out and presented them to the thief.

The boy stepped forward, training his gun on Chase now as his free hand reached for Sam's things. She wished she had her suit so that she might kick the twerp in the bullocks...

Chase stood up, putting his hand on her chair as she advised. They walked out of the shop, and Chase lifted his cane, pointing it off to the left. "I'm pretty sure it's somewhere in that direction."

Chase saw the skinny boy brandishing a pistol, but thought nothing of it. What cunt would steal from two disabled people? Well, apparently this one would. As soon as they walked by, he put gun up to Samantha's head. In fear of the slight chance that any slide remark would cause him to pull the trigger, Chase waited until the gun was up to his head to say "You're literally stealing from two disabled people. Things must have gone down hill really fast for you to need to do this."

In a flash of swift movements, Chase yanked the gun away from him, dismantling it piece by piece to leave on the ground. He then knocked the first item out of his hand. The boy, most likely thinking this would be an easy steal, started to run, and Chase let him.

Chase turned to his right, already knowing what the look on Sam's face it, just doing it more out of habit from when he still had his sight. "Looks like I have a couple things to explain..."