2012-09-06 Big Game Hunters II

After the less that successful operation in Metropolis, a certain group of hunters has been laying low. With numbers reduced thanks to several members being in jail, they've decided to abandon further pursuit of the rare giant tasmanian devil and instead set their sights on something just as rare and exotic. A giant panther man. Secretly combing the area it had been last seen in with people and some tech, they just had to wait for it to appear. And once they got sight of that giant panther, they struck. Right now, several men and women wearing masks and weilding guns are chasing and hunting for Wildcat. There's also what looks like high-tech RC cars driving the streets in search of the big cat man.
In a parked cupcake truck...there are sadly no cupcakes. Inside are a few more of those masked men, controlling the RC cars.
The new hunt is on.
The Werecat Previously Known As Mittens aka Tommy, has gotten a lot more comfortable with opening up about his 'Other Form', though still hasn't really shown Zatanna or very many people at all what he looks like. But since they were in New York anyway, Tommy talked Zee into visiting his Brownstone in Brooklyn so that he could grab some clothes. And they could maybe go out and have a meal without everyone starring at the catguy in the buff. So that's where our story begins, as Tommy walks backwards and gestures over his shoulder while chit-chatting with Zee. "I live right down here. I'll just be a few minutes while I grab some clothes and we can go grab some din din." He hopes she doesn't mind a lil bit of a mess, it's your typical bachelor pad sort of place. Especially since his Mom died, and now the floor is littered with clothes and his sink with dirty dishes.
Zatanna strolls along with Tommy, wearing casual clothes being as they're planning to grab food, jeans and a cotton shirt with boots. "I can't believe I'm finally going to see what you look like without all that fur," she quips with a smirk.
Justin Hammer's car? Not remote controlled. It is, however, a very nice sports car, and he's yakking away on his headset while he navigates through Brooklyn. He is, at least, a good driver. "Look, I understand if you're not happy with the last shipment, but that's no need to burn our bridges," he says, the deep frown on his face not touching his voice. "I'm sure we can work this out..." As for anything unusual going on right now? Oblivious. Totally, utterly oblivious.
Unusual like, say, a semi-famous controversial mutant pop star on roller skates? Though depending on who you ask, it might not be THAT unusual. Alison "Dazzler" Blaire is grooving to her own beat on her S-Pod as she heads down the sidewalk on the opposite side and in the opposite direction, though heading towards the same general spot as Zee and Tom at this particular moment. Humming, too.
It's a good thing Justin is a good driver. Let's test his breaks! Three rather large men with guns are moving to block the street when they see his car coming. At least the guns aren't being pointed at him.
Sorry Zee. You don't get to see that quite yet. Why? Because one of those RC cars comes up and a compartment opens on it. Out pops a little gun that starts firing darts at Tom. Darts filled with some rather strong tranqs. As this is happening, a few people with guns are approaching. "Out of the way!" one of them yells to Zatanna.
Of course, Tommy's distracted by talking with Zee... plus walking backwards. So he's not really watching his surroundings, or on the lookout for danger. Besides, it's New York.... who the hell is gonna attack a weird Catguy in broad daylight. So he doesn't even notice the RC car until he's being hit in the back with tranq darts. Which elicits a felinesque yowl as he snaps aroudn into a crouch, snapping out a clawed hand and slapping the RC car towards a wall. "Shit! Damn Mosquitos!" He jokes, as the woozieness starts to kick in. And Tommy starts shaking his head and starts stumbling towards Dazzler, since she's coming right for him.
Well poop! This is not how Zatanna was planning to spend her day. "Sevitades ot enilas!" she casts at Tom, trying to turn the tranquilizer into simple saline solution, whipping a wand out of the back pocket of her jeans. "Krow sehtolc!" comes next, and she is suddenly in her tux and fishnets outfit from the stage. "Wrong job! Have to work that out," she mutters.
Armed men in the street? Hammer abruptly cuts off his conversation and slams on the breaks, tires squealing as the car slides to a very effective halt before he can plow into the gun-toting pedestrians. He's silent a moment, peering towards them... and then he frowns. Those guns aren't his tech.
"I'm gonna need to call you back," Hammer says, and cuts his phone call short.
Some people don't NEED weapons to be armed. The commotion going on /just right there/ is enough to rile Dazzler -- especially since she's working out lyrics for this awesome beat she's listening to! She doesn't even /slow down/ on the roller skates; instead, she picks up speed and aims to barrel right into the closest armed goon! Feet first! "You crazy jamooks BROKE my CONCENTRATION!"
Nope, not Hammer-Tech guns. They're custom jobs with a lot of mixed parts so there may be a couple pieces of Hammer-tech in there somewhere. One of the armed men approaches Justin's window. There's a pause when he recognizes who's behind the wheel. Squinting from behind the wolf mask he's wearing, the man grunts. "You're gonna have to turn around. We're in the middle of an operation here."
The scene that occurs by Tom is not one any of the armed hunters is expecting. When Zee works her spells, they stare. Thre's a pause until Dazzler slams into a woman weilding a crossbow. "What the hell, bitch?!" she yells after hitting the ground and swatting at the pop star. And that's when hell breaks loose.
"We've got capes again. Repeat, we've got capes!" one of the men calls into a radio as two fire tasers at Zatanna.
Tom's swipe takes down one car and Zee saves him from one dose of the drungs but there are more. Three more cars make a bee-line for the werepanther and start firing darts once more.
Thank goodness for Zatanna's quick thinking... as the ammount of drugs that hit his system is diminished, as most of it is turned into saline solution. It's stil making him feel a bit wooozy, but he's not going to automatically faceplant on anyone now. Though his head is a bit swimmy. It's a good thing he drinks a lot and is of course in cat form, so his body has something of a leg-up on fighting drugs. "Thanks Zee..." Tommy offers, shaking his head a few more times. "And I think you should stick with that outfit for either job." Tommy snaps around towards the armed gunmen and leap-bounds across the hood of a car at one of the men firing tazers at Zatanna. "This is why we can't have nice things." Again, he's not really paying attention to the RC cars. Did we mention he's kinda green to the whole 'Hero' thing?
Zatanna wheels on the menancing RC cars and she levels her wand at them. "Srac ot steprac!" she casts, trying to turn the RC vrooms into useless rugs. Mind you, she probably should have specified. Hammer might be sitting on a carpet in the middle of the road all of a sudden. "This is Zatanna Zatara of the Justice League, and I order you to cease and desist your assault on a citizen of the United StatezzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZ!" she calls out, trying to sound authoritative. Trying is the operative word here as she gets tasered at the end of it and twitches spastically.
Justin Hammer actually /smiles/ at the armed man speaking to him from behind a wolf mask. "Hey, no problem. I don't want any trouble," he notes wisely, and reaches for the shifter to put the car into reverse. "I can't say the same for those people, though. Might wanna back your boys up," he says with a wink. Then he starts backing up down the street...
...and keeps an eye on the man in the wolf mask. If his attention turns away from Hammer's car, it won't be in reverse anymore, and it /will/ be speeding right for him instead. Stupid? Sure. But one must seize what opportunities for good press that one can, before some alcoholic clown in a suit of armor takes them away from you. Besides. He's insured, and so is the car.
"/YOU'RE/ the one with guns and things shooting at people just minding their own business, and /I'M/ the bitch?" Dazzler asks, incredulously as she retakes her footing as easily as someone /not/ on skates. Disgusted, she adds "Isn't that always the way?" And then SUPERFLARE in the chick's face before Z's sudden 'bzakt'ness commandeers her attention.
"Thank you, Mr. Hammer," wolf-mask grunts. He watches the car go a bit before turning back to his compatriots. They start to chatter a little quiet about meeting what they consider a celebrity before two of them see the oncomming Hammer-mobile. They dive out of the way. Wolfmask isn't so lucky, getting hit and going right over the car. Of course the other two start shooting as soon as they realize what's happened.
The cars get off a few more rounds of tranq darts before there's a faint POP and...three lovely area rugs rest there. The car Wildcat just bounded off turns into a rolled up rug too. Oops. There are more of those little remote control buggers coming though. Apparently someone had too much time and too much money on their hands. At least it isn't helicopters.
"Hey, aren't you Dazzl--AHH!" the woman only gets a little out before the flare blinds her and causes a shriek of pain. Aww, she's a fan. An evil fan but still a fan.
Thankfully for Zee, those tazers are put to a stop. One by Tom...and the other by something big, furry...and Austrailian. Tazmanian Devil grins as he stands, having leapt off the roof onto the thug. "Been hunting these jerks for days," he remarks to no one. Looking to Tom, the fuzzy man flashes a grin. "You alright, mate?" he asks, even as a few more armed hunters open fire...with bullets this time.
Tommy knocks out the one he pounced, before looking up and offering a warm smile at Tasmanian Devil. "Damn, you're a big Ewok. But I'm fine, other than I think I have a dart stuck in my ass." He glances over to Zee to make sure she's okay, while everything is going mad around him. And here comes the guys with guns. "What the hell do they want?" Tommy calls out as he dives behind another car. Hopefully Zee won't turn this one into a rug. "I know everyone wants a piece of me. But this is ridiculous!"
"Snug emoceb sekans!" Zatanna casts, once she gets her facial muscles back under control. The Mistress of Magic is clearly hoping the gunman aren't fond of snakes once they're holding hissing reptiles instead of guns.
Ah, bullets. Good, old fashioned gear. They're usin' classics, Hammer can respect that. Once he's run the poor Wolfmask down, Hammer gives the steering wheel a sharp turn as he slams on the brakes again, bringing the car to a halt with its length facing the gunmen. It'll provide better cover for him as he darts out the door to hide behind it as the windshield and windows get blown out by gunfire over his head, a hand going into his jacket. He isn't unarmed, but he'd really rather not have to engage quite /that/ directly. The heroes can handle it, surely.
Guns turning into snakes, wowza! As Dazzler circles sideways/backwards on her skates keeping an eye open for targets -- Oh look, more cars! She points both hands like guns and starts shooting an array of multi-colored photon laser bursts. *ZAKKA ZAKKA ZAKKA ZAKKA!* Still, she finds time to comment to Zatanna, "Lady, remind me to catch your next show!"
"I'm no Ewok, furball," Taz replies with a laugh. He turns to check on Zatanna as well but ends up following Tom. Crouching with him, he grunts. "Basicaly? They think you're just an animal and plan on killin', stuffin', and mountin' ya on a mantle somewhere," Taz answers.
Those poor RC cars. They only just get their guns out before they're DAZZLED into little piles of smoking plastic. There's a small delay before that fake cupcake truck revs up and starts barreling towards Dazzler. Seems someone is mad their toys got broken.
Those gunmen are advancing on Hammer's position slowly. Just as one is about to come around the car, there's a yell of surprise and a snake thrown Justin's way. Oops.
It seems that Zatanna's spell goes wonderfully, several of the hunters yelling in surprise and flinging snakes away while a couple others get bit. This doesn't stop all of them, one flinging what looks like a bright yellow grenade at Taz and Tom. Another draws a shock-baton and runs at Zatanna.
"What? That's It? They just want me for my hot pelty body?" Tommy asks, kinda stunned at this information. "I don't think that'll work..." Don't werefolk tend to shift back to human after they're killed? Never the less, that's the idea that pops into Tommy's head as he leaps away from the bright yellow grenade, diving at the man with the shock-baton charging Zatanna. Once he's got the guy down on the ground, Tommy offers a shrill whistle and then actually reverts from his werecat form to his human one. Cover those sensitive eyes everyone! "Hey!" Tommy calls as he stands up... a convenient parking meter blocking him from the front. "Idiots! I turn back into this when I'm knocked out. I'm pretty sure the same is true when I'm dead!" Well, Zee wanted to see what Tommy really looked like. So... there ya go. Cue American Werewolf in London jokes.
Crap! Zee isn't great at casting when someone's charging her with a weapon and she's already burned up a lot of her magical mojo. What to do? What to do?! Oh, right. She swings her fist out to try and deck the shock-baton wielder. Hopefully she gets there before Tommy tackles him. "You're gonna make me want to join PETA aren't you, jackasses!?" She nods to Dazzler. "Right back at you, disco ball."
Hammer peeks up over the hood just in time to see a SNAKE FLYING AT HIS FACE WHAT THE HELL. The yelp he lets out is highly undignified and he falls over backwards, scrabbling away from the snake and further out into the street. "What the hell?! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY THROWING SNAKES AT PEOPLE? WHY WOULD YOU EVEN DO THAT?"
Shock batons are bad, and so are speeding vans! Poor Dazzler, she is NOT going to see the amazing sights of Naked Tommy - at least not right away, and not unless he stays naked - because suddenly she's VERY BUSY beating a hasty cartwheel and GET THE HELL OUT OF THE WAY circle-back maneuver that will hopefully be /too/ maneuverable for the van to follow. "We should BE so lucky!" she shouts in reply to Zee while all this is going on.
Thankfully for them, both Taz and Tom get away from that spot sincce seconds later...bright yellow grenade becomes big glob of bright yellow goop. That would be hell to get out of fur. It's just as the two ferals are coming to a stop that the hunters notice Taz. The one that got away! They set their sights on him as well...then they and Taz get distracted. Full frontal Tommy. Taz stares for a moment before moving to stand next to the werepanther. "And before ya get any ideas about trying to come after me again," he shifts as well. Yep, two naked guys in the streets of New York. Perfectly normal.
Zee does indeed get there first and that hunter is very surprised. He was not expecting 'fishnet girl' to throw a punch...much less one that knocks him on his ass.
Thankfully for Dazzler, she is far more maneuverable than a clunky van. So when she's out of the way, the truck hits a wall. That horn? That's the KO'd driver's head on it.
"The hell?! It was a gun a minute ago," the hunter by Justin protests, drawing a new weapon. He pauses though as a radio call passes to all the hunters that aren't out cold. They all stop for a moment before backing away cautiously. Then almost in unison..."Withdraw!" "Retreat!" and other more colorful and less polite things are yelled as the ones still standing make a break for it.
Tommy glances over at the Tasmanian Devil, or what once was the Tasmanian Devil. And then glances away with a heavy blush, rubbing the back of his head. He watches ats the hunters start to scatter, and then glances back towards Zatanna and Dazzler. "You ladies okay?" Justin doesn't get ignored, it's just they're behind him. "Thanks for your help." Tommy calls, offering a wave... and then coughs softly. "Yeah..." He rocks on his feet just a bit and coughs. "I think for everyone's comfort I'm gonna go ahead and shift back." Tommy grins, as his human form is swiftly once again replaced by the werepanther form.
Zatanna grunts and shakes out her hand. "Dammit Jim! I'm a magician, not a boxer!" she mutters. She turns to look at Tommy and Tas and sees, NAKED GUYS. "Well, you don't have that happen every day." She sort of recognizes one too, from a trip to a department store. "Stnap no eht dekan nem!" She casts, and the two dangling dudes are quickly covered up in sweat pants. Which Tommy then shreds when he shifts anyway. Dammit.
Angry snake. New weapon. Justin Hammer is not having a fun time anymore -- but at least the goons start to retreat. That means he can focus on the /angry snake/. And by 'focus', we mean 'scramble up onto the back of his car to get the hell away from it before it can get any bright ideas.' Dignity. Always dignity.
He peers around before his gaze settles on the (thankfully pants-wearing) people nearby, and Hammer cups a hand around his mouth to help his voice carry. "Is this your snake?!"
Dazzler gets a good eyeful of Tas and Tommy before they get pants and/or shift, and she's not shy about the brief leer either. Isn't she dating Tony Stark? They probably /deserve/ each other. Especially since Justin is howling on the top of a car and... Dazzler holds up a finger to the others present, "Just a moment," before taking her S-Phone out of her pocket and lining up the camera for a shot. "Say cheese, Mister Hammer!" Fwash!
No blushing from Taz. He just gets a quick leer in on Tommy and glances over his should to see how the girls answer Tom's queestion. "Yeah, mate. Thanks," he adds to Justin. He then ends up laughing. "It's just a snake," he laughs. Yes, he's from Austrailia. That snake is as intimidating as an earthworm to him compared to the wildlife he's used to. Tommy gets a nod though. "We probably both should," he agrees, shifting back in time to shred his pants as well. "Bloody hell, what was that?" he asks, tugging ribbed fabric off.
The hunters are gone. But that snake? It's giving Justin one hell of a 'what is with you humans?' look.
Tommy had almost totally forgotten about meeting Zee before... and probably has a lot to answer for now. But then, he was kind of trying to keep Tommy Bronson and his Werecat Form seperate for the most part. See how well that ended up working. But at least most of the people here other than Zee don't know Tommy from Adam. "Magic pants?" Tommy asks as he moves to stand by Zatanna. "Isn't that kind of cheating?" He flashes her a wide playful whisker-grin, before glancing back to Taz. "Thanks for your help... so, think they'll leave us alone now?" Justin Hammer gets a few confused blinks, and a shake of his head. "It's just a snake. It's not going to kill you. Sheeesh. And people say I'm a wuss."
"Sorry!" Zatanna calls to Hammer. "Dnes eht sekans kcab ,emoh" she casts. In tiny poofs of violet smoke, the slithery creatures disappear. She doesn't blush at least. This is Zee we're talking about. She hangs with Constantine. Blushing isn't really possible after a few years in John's presence. "You have some splainin to do Meeester," she finger-waggles at Tommy. "For now though, I have to go talk the cops down from shooting the giant talking animals." She walks off to head off the police with her JLA ID in hand.
It's amazing, really, how hearing his name called makes Hammer react. Oh, he still looks as harried as one would expect of a man who is perched on top of a bullet-ridden sports car, his hair mussed from the scramble away from the snake... and yet. /And yet/ when he hears his name, he turns towards Dazzler and suddenly, his posture is confident. Back straight, shoulders squared. And on his face is a bright, easy smile.
"Cheese."
Hammer is not sure who Zatanna is or what she said, but he knows that the snake is gone, and he sighs in relief. "No harm done, it didn't quite get to make me lunch. Everybody okay over there? What was all of that about?"
Dazzler makes an 'Ooooooh' face - but there's a smile there. Holding her phone up for just a moment later than necessary, she just wears her 'Almost gotcha' face. "We're just fine, Hammer baby," Dazzler answers with sudden tiredness, slipping her phone back into her pocket and stretching her arms a bit like they're sore. All while balancing on roller skates. Yeesh. "Snakes and all."
Taz hasn't met Zee before but Hugh Dawkins did appear at a Dazzler concert before. "Magic pants could be useful for a pair of guys like us, huh?" Taz laughs, clapping a hand on Tom's shoulder. "Didn't think there was anyone else that had the same pants problems I did," he adds. "I dunno. I thought the thrashin' they got in Metropolis would have discouraged 'em but here they were. Name's Tasmanian Devil," he offers a hand to Tom. "I don't think they'll shoot at us," he shrugs. "Wait...she's with that Justice League?" that surprises Taz.
"Tommy." Tommy Bronson offers to Taz, as he takes the offered hand from Taz. "No fancy names as of right now." Unless of course you consider Mittens, but there's no way that Tommy's offering that to anyone. "Magic pants seems like such a cheat." He notes, watching Zee runs off to handle the arriving cops.
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