It'd be stupid to say she could react to lightning. Lightning was fast. But reacting to the person shooting the lightning, well, that was another thing entirely. There was a bit of time wasted putting two and two together - why was the hero moving like she was gonna shove the guy in the helmet? - and a bit more time wasted weighing risks vs rewards - but at the end of it all, that time was microscopic. She was a woman of action, after all, and in this particular instance, that action meant shouldering the poor man out of the way of the hero's errant strike.
And golly-gee, did that not feel good.
She only caught the edge of the palm as they both went down, but it was definitely enough to notice. No pain to mask, she had the express pleasure of feeling the other heeby-jeeby sensations of electricity going through your body. Like - ice water under the skin, and jumping beans in her muscles, and pinpricks as each hair on her body stood on end. Collapsing in a thud and a smell of ozone, Siren coughed, glaring after the hero as she chased down the woman in the mask.
"Well, that was straight rude." She sat up, panting heavily, climbing off of the man she'd heroically saved. "You alright, love? Sorry for the shove, but I gotta admit, I only got a little taste of that hit and you are not missing out."
It was an odd thing, to declare attacks. Basskicker knew the trope from popular fiction— magazines where protagonists would shout out the names of their moves, valiantly confronting their opponent in a dazzling display of might— and hadn’t entirely prepared for the possibility of it carrying over to real life, yet. Nevertheless, the new arrival announced her move with fanfare, thundering off towards him and the terrorist while his hostage had already pulled away from him.
She had been rude for doing that, predictable as it was. He had half a mind to scramble her brain right then and there— just a clap of his hand over her ears. But… no, that would have been an error. Why hurt her when she was already keen on doing it herself?
Before he could even react to the attack thrown against him, the civilian threw herself between Basskicker and the taser-hand, miraculously biting the bullet meant for him. He didn’t even move— instead, he stared, first at the electrokinetic and then to the woman on the floor. She was smoking, slightly, but unharmed— and rather chipper.
As she spoke, he stared. Not even a scratch or scar— or an impairment to cognitive function, it seemed. Where others would have been neutralized by a glancing blow, she was still kicking. Interesting. Basskicker tilted his head to the side as she finished, not even answering her questions before launching an inquiry of his own.
“You’re different too.” He said, voice absent of sympathy for the electrocution victim. She was fine, after all, and her resistance was far more interesting than the injury itself. ”Aren’t you.”
She had a concerned look on her face. She’d asked him… how he was. Right. ”I’m fine, thank you.” Then, only briefly did he offer a glance towards the imminent confrontation that was about to occur. Would the terrorist be able to manipulate electricity, too, or was it just conventional metals and manufactured objects? Wouldn’t that include manmade electricity? The possibilities were intriguing.
A shame it’d get them both killed if they stuck around.
”I think we should let them kill each other and leave.” It was a statement delivered as simply as it could be. He looked back to Siren, head tilting again. ”That woman’s a hero, after all. She can handle herself, right?”
"Did you just electrocute someone?" Chromewrecker had told herself she wasn't going to look back, but the sudden zap and weird smell had turned her head anyway, revealing the young woman on the ground, her dress at this point much worse for the wear. That was a shame - it had been a cute dress, before all of this. Oh, well. It seemed like Standoff was helping her up and she was going to shrug it off pretty well aside from the casualty of the dress, so Chromewrecker could keep going the way she had been - albeit now with the costumed crazy in hot pursuit.
To be fair, it wasn't exactly hot pursuit when she was moving at a walking pace. Still, she didn't exactly want to be walking right next to the girl, since she was apparently prone to zapping people on a whim. Chromewrecker pulled open the door to the stairs, keeping an eye on the girl. She had a few flights to go, but fortunately it was down and not up. Walking up that many flights would have been extremely tiring.
Shame for the people who had to do it now that the elevator was out of commission. Oh, well. "So, are you just a crazy bitch, or are you trying to stand for something?" Presumably Zappy was still following, because it wasn't like there was anything better to do. Maybe it was some sort of anti-gun stance or something. Chromewrecker was noticing that while it wasn't all that hard to do things, it was a lot harder to get people to listen and get the message out.
It didn't take that long to get to the bottom of the stairs and cautiously open the door to the lobby. There was at least one super weirdo over there, but he, she, or it was looking at the place where the elevator had fallen. Chromewrecker wandered over nonchalantly. "Wow. Looks worse from the outside. Oh, well. No harm, no foul. What's your deal, and why is Pittsburgh so full of weirdos? Did I miss a convention memo or something?"
“Right, okay, I’ll just wait here.” Eli said, lingering back at the doorway as the hero marched his way into the office building towards a newly crashed elevator. She wasn’t fully sure what he might want her to do to help, though it's not that he would know that being too close would steal his powers away. They hadn’t really introduced themselves had they? Maybe if there was a fight she could put herself in the middle of it and put a stop to any violence before someone got hurt. It seemed like there’d been enough hurt for one day.
The girl winced as the doors to the elevator burst open, crunching down onto the tile. There was simply a mess of twisted metal on the other side, and her legs were driving her forward before she could think about it. If there was someone in there they would need help now —
“D’you see anyone? I don’t have a trauma kit, but the reception desk might have something useful.” She slung her backpack off her shoulder as she spoke, quickly rifling through her belongings as she went. She had some things for lacerations but this was an elevator that had smashed into the ground. However, the entrance of a woman in a very sparkly party shirt and a mask Eli was pretty sure she saw in a cheap Halloween store once made her pause in place.
“What[/i]?” She blurted as she looked at the woman. It sounded like she was implying that she had been in the elevator but would someone really be so chipper if they just had been in a falling elevator? And, was she another meta? “Are you… okay? Did everyone get off the elevator?” She asked, changing direction towards the woman as she pulled a makeshift medical kit out of her backpack.
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
An effort was made to course correct, to redirect from an unintended impact with the hostage. However she was moving more like a charging vehicle in flight then a person. In addition to this the hostage had chosen to jump in front of the attack. So there was in the end a tasing slap delivered to the unintended. It brought the hero to skidding halt for a moment. Sort of sliding backwards rather then walking. "My bad. Aimed at one but held by other and glaring. Thought both bad." The pistol had maybe thrown her off on who to focus on she'd really thought this two against inst two. Thankfully she also had it on camera she knew most would hopefully see this.
Ellie already knew though she was going to take a bit of a hit in growth for this though. While most the stream was growing in numbers its gro as th probably dropped by a decent percentage and she would have to do damage control on social media. A handful of people would probably be campaigning against her now.
The helmeted guy helped the woman up. The woman seemed fine, dress little worse for wear but mostly fine. The impact was harder then a taser shot but the energy output was the same. Easy to walk off, with how swift the woman was back up maybe it wasn't her first time. At any rate the chase h a d to continue. Things did point to the woman in silver at least being still a threat and that lead would still be followed.
"Taser slap technique. Don't worry we can up the voltage for you." Ellie didn't think she owed an apology but for her image she did slow down to give one. Moments to help the pursued make it into the stairway and start heading down. So grab the railing and leap over the side. Fastest way down was a straight line and with flight Ellie could catch her fall instead of messing up her leg more with a shotty landing technique. "I'd say bit of both. To crazy for law enforcement, but all for their endorsement."
The silver lady was in the lobby now, the elevator shaft near by seemed rather blown open. Mix of debris from elevator mechanisms doors and walls just scattered every which way. Thankfully it didn't look like anyone had been in range of the impact far as she could tell. "She's the one to cause it. Or least the plane allegedly." It wasn't like she had evidence, but she saw a elevator as tor cable disapear, a hole in a elevator, and had a witness testimony from the plane suggest it. With the silver lady by those at the elevartor though there wasnt good space to just take action though. Or perhaps she was just hesitant do to the last civilian diving in the way of attacks. Her limited training had shown hostage cases to be a challenge anyway let alone when as all over this place as this one.
So for now she hovered, lightning sparking from her raised hand. More a Police stop pose then confrontational one.
"A bit," she admitted, getting slowly to her feet. Now that she was moving, there was a bit of pain there. Not wanting to think about how bad her insides looked to leave her feeling like that - she'd get it checked out later - Siren brushed herself off, pulled her coat around her singed dress, and gave Basskicker a bright grin.
The man was a tad off, but she was used to it at this point. This entire city was a tad off.
"Was about to suggest the same thing," she admitted, then paused. "Not the - er - killing each other bit, but spark princess definitely seems like she's got things handled. Mind if I tag along? Gonna need a change of clothes, and I don't really have a place to stay at the moment. Don't think the guy I was flying with will be particularly happy I friendzoned him mid-freefall."
She laughed, a little awkwardly, running her hair - still staticky from the shock - back with her fingers.
Basskicker watched as superheroine chased super-villainess. What a time to be alive. They were all so nonchalant about the ordeal, weren't they? It was hard to be fazed, now that they'd acclimated to the absurdity of the situation. A masked woman who could control electricity was frolicking after a terrorist that had disintegrated a plane out of the sky. They'd nearly fallen to their death in an elevator. Superpowers were real. This would all take some time to be fully processed, surely. It would definitely not take place here.
Which brought him to the inquiry from his once-hostage. Basskicker glanced over to her for a moment, mulling over the proposal. She needed a change of clothes. Okay.
"We can go to a clothes store," He replied as he moved to the far stairwell. "You can buy yourself some clothes there. I know an Old Navy near here." Avoiding the route the others took would be a wise choice-- dodge the commotion, et cetera, et cetera. He'd had his fill of fun for the afternoon. Helping this woman would also establish credibility.
"Do you have a name?" Basskicker asked, looking over his shoulder in case she tried to pull a gun on him again. The question of her name was phrased as if there was a possibility she didn't even have one-- secret identities were a necessity, after all. He wasn't about to give her a name.
"You can call me Basskicker. Working title." Not his real one, at least.
"It was Sophia in the plane, but I'm off that train now. Call me Lainey."
She slipped her gun back into her purse, hoisting the bag over her shoulder, wincing a bit and glancing at the floor.
"Basekicker, huh? That a baseball thing?" she smirked. "Well, Basekicker, are we going through the lobby where our two friends might still be duking it out, or are we gonna find ourselves a back way to the street?"
Sophia— no, Lainey— followed closely behind as they descended the stairs. Basskicker gave her a look over the shoulder as she mused about his alias, the blank expression of his helm offering a strikingly similar portrayal of his actual reaction.
”No.” He replied, curt. ”It isn’t a baseball thing. B-a-s-s. Like bassline, drum & bass, bass clef.” They moved past the second floor landing, now approaching the first. He stopped outside of the exit door to the lobby, peering through the window at the gathered party waiting for them both.
”Mm. Place seems a bit packed.” He muttered, moving across the stairwell to the emergency exit. If the alarm sounded… well, an elevator had fallen down the shaft, so emergency services needed to come here anyway.
”If we’re stopped by the cops, you were an onlooker. I’m not interested in babysitting for an interview.”
And then he was gone, through the door and out into the side street.
Last Edit: Sept 1, 2022 15:50:41 GMT by Basskicker
Quetz studied the woman, about to declare her an innocent bystander. She seemed curious about why Pitsburgh was weird (who could say really) and what his deal was. He was in the middle of figuring out how to explain to some in the middle of a chaotic situation who he was, which would usually follow with "what's a feathered serpent?" and sometimes even "I didn't think they had pagan gods in Texas" (some people's version of 'south america' was interesting) when others appeared on scene.
After everyone stopped talking he lit silence sit in the air heavy as the elevator dust. "I'm Quetzalcoatl and I'm just here to help where I can." He didn't smile. Usually he smiled when he introduced himself, but this situation gave him little reason to, other than the fact no one had died, yet.
"Is what she says true? Did you bring down the plane?" He hoped she didn't. He wanted desperately for it to be an accident, not an act of violence. If it were an act of violence, they'd have to do something about it. He didn't want to have to do something about it. Let's just all get out of this without hurting someone. He would hurt someone, if he had to. He just didn't want to. He stood still, hands at his sides, entirely unprepared for a close quarters engagement if one were to come of it.
Of course if combat happened he didn't plan to use his fists to defend himself. With much of his former strength still yet to return to him, he'd have to rely on tricks and abilities outside the physical.
Chromewrecker looked over at the young woman who'd come to check on the elevator. She seemed nice. A decent human being, concerned for the welfare of others, all that jazz. "Oh, I'm fine. That's why elevators have emergency stop buttons - so if someone jumps on top of them at high speed you can still get out. Or... something. Anyway. There were two other people, they were fine until Little Miss "Putting the cute in electrocute" zapped one of them, but the other guy is probably taking her to the hospital. I don't think they want to socialize. Can't really blame them." Chromewrecker stood up, and right on cue, there was the zappy one, hand outstretched and mouth full of accusations. Chromewrecker gave Tazer another looking over and a regretful sigh. "Great outfit though."
And now she was being questioned by Cosplay Boy. At least he'd bothered to introduce himself. Chromewrecker commented a quiet: "Oh, is that how you pronounce that?", mostly to herself. She couldn't quite remember who Quetzalcoatl was supposed to be - probably the Ancient Aztec God Of Consonants or something like that. Ancient Mayan? She could never keep those two straight. Maybe if she hadn't dropped out of college for an asshole, she would have gotten to take comparative ancient religions at some point.
Oh, and he was giving her a look. Right, there was that whole business. "Really, the plane was bringing us all down. Do you know how terrible private jet travel is for the environment and the economy? It's an affectation of the super-wealthy meant to show the common people they're beneath. If you want to help where you can, you should lobby for stricter taxation laws on the upper echelon and require harsher emissions laws for private jet travel. Write your congressperson! Congress...deity? Change needs to happen, and the world isn't going to be changed by people standing around. Want to get involved? I'd love to have some help."
"Okay firstly that fall was soft shudup. Secondly helmeted dude is told to let go, the obvious free fall lady points a gun at you. It's not like either seemed her best friend. And thirdsly...no thirdly thank you. Real do try for a striking image." Ellie remarked arriving more on the scene in full and seeing the situation. Wait was that Quetzacoatl, good to know there was back up. "Actually and ya know what fourthidly..fourthly I'm streaming the whole thing. Not the best first livestrem but the evidence won't lie."
Her quick mind, or jumbled one depending on point of view did catch up though. Evidence was a good point of issue. The cable of the elevator was seen dissolving but it wasn't clear how that happened. There was a hole in the elevator, that was squished now hard to use for evidence. Ellie realized if they were going to prove Ms Silver caused the plane crash they needed to see an ability in action. Ellie had armor and her phone streaming maybe someone would want to dissolve that? Cutting the stream like that eould suck but proff was important. She had to move, so Ellie moves forward.
A hovering lady of Sparking currents then dropped to the floor. Her footing started out good, then a stumble hand catching the fall. She tried to make it look like a three point landing, dramatic and smooth. The soft "ow." And the twisted position of her ankle made it clear she wasn't as smooth as she wanted. The elevator had broken her ankle and for some reason now she couldn't fly.
No it was more then that, she was dizzy? Tired? Hungry? Thirsty? All of the above?
And while she seemed in a awful way she also seemed likely to the rest glowing. It was like all the electricity in her was trying to escape her. Eyes like light bulbs, strobe lights for where cuts had been. There was a sort of feedback loop going on around her. Because her powers were tethered to how her body worked, it was natural to her but to a certain Null ability of course this wasn't the norm. A force tried to pull the electricity from Ellie while her entire being tried to pull it back in.
She felt sick, this wasn't right. And maybe she would have been fine if not banged up, but catching falling people had sort of denied her the option. "Ooookay not sure what that was, is. But if a plane killer wants to prevent me from chasing her, from trying to outrun lightning, then she knows what to do. Now excuse me while I go electroCUTE myself." It was a gamble trying to goad the terrorist, but Ellie needed some play she'd thought. She wasn't here to talk how rich people sucked, but save lives and help stop villains. And maybe she'd be currently low on battery but if it proved who the threat was maybe it would be worth it.
A less then stoic hobble looked to limp towards a electrical box along a wall in the lobby.
“Someone fell onto the roof of your elevator?” Eli felt the color drain from her face. The woman was talking so casually about it like she was answering some questions about the weather and not about being in an elevator that had just crashed into the ground. ‘Well you see today it’s going to be cloudy with a chance of airplane’ or something like that. The rest of what the woman had to say seemed to be directed at Quetzalcoatl (which she couldn’t help but feel a little relieved that she didn’t have to awkwardly ask for his name later) but it made her bristle all the same. That cold disregard in her voice wasn’t so much something that she understood as it was something she could feel prickling the hairs along the back of her neck. Eli lingered in place, not quite wanting to close the distance or to make a quick retreat.
“And what about the people who almost had the contents of the plane fall of their heads?” Eli said. The rich people, they were… probably didn’t deserve to fall out of the sky, but that old man she had pulled into the coffee shop definitely didn’t marit having them land on him. The lightning lady cut in, claiming to have evidence of whatever it was the other woman had done before her levitating act seemed to come to an end. Her ankle was not something anyone should be walking on. Was she trying to goad the other woman into a fight? There were people just outside the building weren’t there?
“Stop! You can’t walk on that! You need to get it set before you do more damage to your foot!” Eli said quickly, the other woman soon forgotten for a far more pressing concern.
//... into the dark she stepped, but never did she feel free of the gaze...//
Chromewrecker didn't rise to any concern over recordings. What were they going to show, a cable snapping, a hole? Sure, some things had happened, but there wasn't any proof that Chromewrecker had been responsible. It wasn't like shooting someone, where you could analyze the gun and the bullets or whatever it was they did - her knowledge of the subject was largely from watching legal dramas on daytime television, and she had always been more interested in the drama than the legal.
And now she was going off to electrocute herself. Chromewrecker hadn't missed the emphasis. "You're just jealous because I thought of that one first." That much was obvious. Of course, so was the woman's weird limp, and given the whole situation between them right now, it wasn't like Chromewrecker really wanted to go over there and offer her a hand. It seemed like the sensible young woman who'd been by the elevator had a plan for that, though. "Maybe see if you can get her to a doctor?" Chromewrecker suggested, "I mean, I think she means well. And she's dressed well - you too, by the way - um. Anyway. I'm gonna head home as well, it's been a long day already. Stay safe, you guys!"
It wasn't like she wanted any of them getting hurt, after all. Not on purpose, anyway. Sometimes accidents just happened. For now... well, for now it seemed to have worked out pretty well for a debut, all things considered. Not bad! Now she'd just have to see if she could hail a taxi, get cleaned up for work...
"Maybe a little." ElectroCUTE had been a good line she thought. And she didn't mind admitting it. Her leg hurt and she felt remarkably underhanded. She had to think this through.
There was a stumble a hand catching a counter to help keep her up. Eyes looked to the woman who spoke. They were more flickering like strobe lights then their usual self. "I'll actually feel better once I stick a fork in the socket. Uh eye witness probably gone. No direct links or footage for us to use. I'll check security footage in a second. Maybe one of you can try and follow her?" Ellie remarked. The connections to actually take action were kind of minimal. Right now it wasn't like heroism had any real means to force someone to stay. Nothing was stopping the others from walking out however and following the silver woman.
Again the others though, her ankle was bending a way if wasn't meant to go. This hadn't been the heroic outing she wanted when it came to stopping criminals. She couldn't stop any later today though or help others in her current condition. So the limp carried her over to a power box. Electricity helped her unscrew what she needed to to gain access to the wires. "Note to self add some tools to utility belt. Help do this without trying to have sticky fingers" electrical fields being used to move metals wasn't off the table but it took more concentration. Ellie was more just zappy about things.
She looked for the least useful plug and removed it. A needless system on the floor somewhere shutdown and then the electric hero stuck her finger in the socket. "Knife to, fork maybe. Really get in there to help with.."
The lights on the current floor and two others flickered off and on for a second. Some of the exhaustion and sickly feeling rolled away as the power of the building flowed into her. A snap echoes in the halo as a stretch turns from holding her foot to breaking it back into place. She would need more electricity to fly or heal. Least she felt like she could walk on the leg now however.
So it was time for the next step. Heading to the security room, or managers room. Get whatever footage she could to help build a case. Ellie figured the roof wouldn't have any. Neither would the elevator shaft, however Ellie had footage of the elevator cable disappearance. The hall with a hole in it would likely have an angle looking down the hall. Turns out the aimed center of random spot incase of hole, wasn't a popular angle. However it wasn't like there had been a bunch of smoke or debris from the hole. So camera would likely catch the hand as it dropped from where a wall had been. Would capture who came through the hole. Leads to help establish how something was done. Perhaps cameras looking outside could help follow the woman.
And well if any of the other heroes did follow, it wasn't going to be hard to find Ellie. She'd been plenty vocal of her platform. And ways to reach her.