2012-07-04 Chinatown Surprise

It's Gotham City.
A city known for being one of the darkest, gloom ridden places on earth. That being said; there's an underbelly that most people don't ever realize. A blister that hides in plain sight beneath the odd villains that the place has become known for. A horrible scar that's deeper than any individual would ever be able to understand unless they saw it first hand.
This is the world of John Constantine.
The old sorcerer runs across the rooftop with an iron crossbow shaped like the epitaph of Christ on the Cross. His trench coat flares out behind him as he huffs it after 'something' that's leaping easily from crouching positions... clearing a great more distance than anything has any right to do in a single bound.
"For fucks sake..." Sucking in deep breaths as he slides up to the edge of the building he's on, sending gravel over the edge into the alley below.
A good four foot leap... John turns and trots in the other direction and runs.. leaping with his arms waving in the air frantically... and more so when he realizes he's /not/ going to make it.
"OH! OH FU---!" Strambling with his hands as half his body hits the edge, legs dangling over the side... steadily sliding backwards while holding that crossbow like his life depends on it.
John's not the only one who has taken to the rooftops tonight. The leather-clad Catwoman has decided to 'go out for a run' herself, her path first leading around the financial district only to eventually loop around to Chinatown where she is now. The sound of scrambling and then the voice catches her attention, causing her to divert her course a bit.
It takes a second for her to find the hapless sorcerer and realize the man's plight but while some would rush to help him Catwoman merely approaches the ledge at what might be considered a casual pace, a hand on her hip.
"What do we have here," she intones in a voice that's just as much curious as it is wry. "I do believe you're in a bit of a bind. But... well, what do you think we should do about this, hmmm?"
The crossbow is noticed and Selina quickly frowns. "Just promise me that if I help you won't go and shoot me for my kindness, hmmm?"
Constantine is having a time of it; this whole not falling the three and a half stories into an alleyway trashcan business. Scrambling, scraping his dirty fingers into the gravel trying to find some sort of hold to keep him from going completely over.
It's not a winning situation. He's barely holding on when Selina comes swinging her hips up to the ledge to look down at him.
"I promise you this.. if you let me fall off this ledge, I definitely will shoot you..." That, in a nut shell, is why nobody likes him.
"Yes, for fucks sake woman... And wa-!" Too late.
The creature and it is definitely a creature, takes that moment to pounce. It was coming for the sorcerer, but it's not picky in its prey. A catwoman will do.
It has rending claws, leathery flesh, and is about four and a half foot tall with gremlin like eyes and sharp teeth. Snarling at her from the air conditioning fixture about five feet to her left and a little behind her.
And now it's sailing through the air towards her, shrieking like a Monsterous monster.
And Catwoman was just crouching down and offering a hand to the poor man when the thing puts in its appearance, it distracting her from bracing herself to compensate for John's weight which means he's not going to be hoisted up just yet. As her head turns she looks at the creature, her eyes widening at first only to narrow when she realizes just how much of a nasty thing it is.
"You got five seconds to get your ass up and take that thing out," she whispers as she now prepares to pull the man up, her hand shaken towards him in a 'hurry the hell up' kind of gesture. She's not wanting to give the gremlin a chance to get the upper hand...
"Oh... damn..."
The thing's leap has Selina having to roll to the side to try and get away, her whip managing to stay in hand. Oh boy. If this didn't start out as a night she should have stayed home, it's rapidly becoming one.
Constantine isn't in the demands and reprocutions sort of mood. Dangling off a four foot ledge has a way of doing that to people.. "Well, if you weren't running around the rooftops dressed like a call girl..." He sarcasms at her while she's pulling him up...
Then the gremlin attacks, he's released, and falls right back into his original position and sliding down a bit closer towards certain displeasure... "ugh! Women, make up your mind!"
It's unfair, we all know it's unfair. She's being attacked by a gremlin.
But it's still her fault.
The short creature lashes at the catwoman, but comes up with only air in its claws after she dives away. Scampering over to a little bit of darkness once it lands, traveling quickly with use of both its stubby legs and hands... alternating between all four and bipedal motion indifferently.
"Gooooood damnit!" Scraping at the gravel, with both hands now, since holding onto the crossbow just became entirely too cumbersome.
"Oh will you shut up and get up here," Catwoman snarks back, making it sound like they're an old married couple fighting instead of two strangers who happened upon each other. She scrambles to help him up, realizing that the ranged weapon he had in his possession is now gone, that getting her to groan.
"I hope you know what to do..." she hisses while grabbing towards both of John's wrists, intending fully on having a superhero moment of her own. Grunting, she strains, trying to pull him up quickly, praying for a miracle or a rush of adrenaline or something.
Fat lot of good praying seems to do. We're talking about John Constantine here, his involvement almost guarantees the Host aren't interested in giving a hand...
That's why he's gotten so good at being self sufficient. The Crossbow isn't gone, it's just out of reach... So both hands are free and he's using a Catwoman as a pivot to pull himself up onto the ledge with her.
Quick and Dirty.
It almost pulls them both over the edge, even.. but eventually he's back on his feet and grabbing for his weapon... bringing it up to swivel around quickly...
"Which way did it go? You lost it didn't you?" Because this is, again, her fault. But at least he's not completely judgmental.
Then it's rushing at them both... and leaping in the air. John whips the bow around and pulls the trigger, but the quell that was loaded has been discharged in the fuss... so he does the only smart thing and dives out of the way.... which clears the path towards Catwoman.
Catwoman smirks as she looks at the man, a brow arched slightly albeit unseen under her hood, the red lenses of her goggles hiding the amused gleam that brightens her eyes. "I think you mean 'thank you'. To which I'm not sure if I want to say you're welcome or not. You're a pain in the ass, after all." There's a pause and then she's looking over her shoulder, reminded now that they're not alone. "I might have lost sight of it," she admits, not even bothering to be snarky now.
Lept at again serves to annoy her this time and she can't help but to shout, a disgrunted, incorherant sound instead of anything intelligently spoken. But while she's reduced to near-babbling at great volume she's otherwise able to act, the thief moving to meet the little bugger with a swift kick to it's head. Here's for hoping all those martial arts classes she took pay off.
The thing is surprisingly agile, or maybe not so surprising really... It's tiny, tiny things are naturally fast... It's really a matter of matter.
It isn't fast enough to avoid being kicked, however. It takes the swift martial arts move in the kisser, and what a face for radio it is, and tumbles over backwards onto all four of it's quarters to roar, rear, and return to trying to cut Catwoman with its claws.
"It's an imp, girly!" Constantine calls out, kneeling behind something thick and metallic. The crossbow is pointed down at the ground and a wooden bolt is held into the loading section with his thigh... both hands are tugging at the torsion cord trying to get it into place on the firing hook. "Keep it busy!"
Okay, Catwoman is no Bruce Lee or Jet Li or even Jackie Chan but she did place that kick well enough that it should have knocked the damn thing out. Instead it just made the thing angrier and it has her heart sinking a bit. "This is not my idea of fun," she yells just before she flips out of the way, a little display of acrobatics that should get her out of range of anything potentially dangerous.
As John is trying very hard to reload his weapon she's busy getting her whip ready to be used, the length of braided leather allowed to lay out at her feet once she regains them post-stunt. "Now it's your turn old man," she grumbles just before she uses her whip to try and snare the imp around its neck, her aim a bit off for how hurried she does so. "Hurry the hell up otherwise I'm feeding you to this little shit." Yes, she's irritable now, not too happy /at all/ over being used as a distraction. Does it show?
Nobody wants to be a distraction...
That's sort of part and parcel to the job, really. John certainly isn't inclined to do it. He's not build for it, honestly. What with his solitary desire to continue living and his general disdain for things that hurt... Still...
Catwoman isn't doing so bad, as far as distractions go. The whip was a nice touch. It doesn't catch the thing around the neck, but instead ensnares it's arm which throws it off balance when it tries to turn too sharply and is pulled down off it's feet. Gravel sprays out from its taloned claws when it scampres back up to them and changes directions hurriedly to come back at the woman now wielding a leathery weapon...
CLICK!
About time... Constantine whips out of his cover with the crowbow coming up to rest in his shoulder.. taking his time about aiming it, since he'll only get one shot before having to reload... and they both know how that'll go.
When he fires, it's half a second before the thing is going to eviscerated the woman (or try to anyways, it's had poor luck in that regard). The wooden bolt slams home in its chest and drops it straight down onto the ground for a good ol'fashioned writhing session.
John tosses the weapon away and steps fully out from cover with his trench coat opening as he rushes over, a silver rod and a glass vial in each hand respectively. "Move!" Smashing the vial against the things teeth, splattering it with clear water that gets leather skin to boiling, hissing, and popping.. "This is for makin' me jump across a god damned roof!"
Irate stabbing motions with a silver stake. Again and again.
There's no having to tell Selina twice who is more than happy to let John have the floor. Scampering out of the way once told to do so, she takes to a defensive crouch once the man starts to do his thing, her shoulders heaving as she works on getting her breath back. It isn't until the creature is taken care of that she realizes just what happened, the realization that her life was (once again) in danger drawing an explosive snort from her.
She wants to look away, the sight of the treatment a bit much for her stomach, but she manages to keep her dinner down and herself in check. "What did you do to piss that thing off," she asks once she's sure the stake is in the imp's body, not wanting to risk being the next subject of the stabbings.
Constantine falls back onto the ground, bracing his weight on his elbow with one leg elevated and the other laid beneath it in a position that somehow screams exhaustion, despite having only really done a very little. A glance is spared over towards Catwoman, eyebrows elevated, mouth open to bring in large droughts of air...
Her question directs his gaze to the creature, already turning to fiery ash on the gravel just spitting distance from his knee. One shoulder shrugs and his hand dips down into the inner pocket of his coat, coming out with a crumpled pack of silk cut clove cigarettes. A little toss of his wrist brings one out from the package and between his lips.
The cigarettes are replaced by a box of matches which he rattles up by his ear.. just one.
Struck, cupped, and a long drag to fill the air with sweet smoke and the orange glow from the end of his cigarette. "He cheated at cards."
As if that's all the explanation he'd need.
"And he's an illegal alien. No greencard.. polica.. whatever.." Dry, dull, very uninterested in trying to come up with a convincing story as to why he just stabbed a demonic creature to death with a silver stake.
"Huh." A hand comes up and draws along the back of Selina's neck, a classic puzzled pose if ever there were one. There's quiet for some time, several minutes passing before she speaks, her voice kept low. "Are there anymore of these things around or was that the only one?"
A well practiced motion has the whip she has a hold of swiftly, neatly coiled, it then clasped to her hip via a small strap somehow cleverly concealed upon her costume. Sure, she might need it again, especially if there are more of the little monsters that need taken out but she needs to do something to vent the nervous energy standing around's bringing about.
Constantine almost seems to have forgotten the vigilante was there, until she speaks her question. Staring off at the middle distance with that cigarette burning periodically between his fingers when brought up for the intent, purposeful, drag. Smoke coils from his nostrils after each, even when he finally looks back to the leathery woman and her leathery whip.
"What?" Shaking his head like he might not have heard her, but immediately answering the question anyways... Don't you hate it when you do that? "Oh.. no.. Well, yes, there are.. but not right now. What the fuck are you wearing? Are all of you Gotham tossers caught up in Halloween? Expecting free candy or something?"
Booze... that's what he needs. The silver flask comes out from his coat pocket, a cross edifice on one side, and is turned up for a long pull... after a moments consideration he holds it up to Selina as well. "John Constantine."
Well, at least she has that to be relieved over. Catwoman really wasn't wanting an extended fight tonight. Especially an extended fight with things of a supernatural nature. "This isn't a Halloween costume," she murmurs, the fight nowhere to be heard in her voice unlike earlier when she was more than happy to snip at John every chance she could get. "And... I'm not exactly one of the tossers, if you know what I mean."
The flask is looked at and refused with a shake of her head, Selina not wanting to risk taking a drink of whatever the stranger might have in it. "You can call me Catwoman," she gives for her name, it given with a slight laugh. "And I'm sure you'll just have all sorts of cutesy remarks and barbs to give me over that so go ahead. Get them over with now before I go."
"Well, it's stupid... but other than that, I don't judge." John offers with a shrug, raising the flask once more with a perked brow, doubling up his offer before taking another quick drink, capping it, and sliding it back into his coat. Now that he's caught his breath and got a cigarette lit, it's time to get up to his feet.
Turning over and pushing up with a little huff, black coat opening wide over the 'Cure' t-shirt and black slacks he's wearing beneath. Real professional over here. "Catwoman..." Snorting quietly, drawing in another long drag with his finger hovering in a hook around the end of his cigarette. Cheeks pucker in slightly and smoke rolls steadily out of his nostrils. "Seeya around kitty cat."
She actually smiles at John when he gives her his assessment of her name. "It isn't the most creative, I suppose. But it suits me." John turns which encourages Selina to do the same herself, leather creaking slightly when she shifts positions. Probably a good time as any to get the hell out of here since the police might have been called if anyone took notice of sounds from the roof.
"Yeah, I'm sure you will," she murmurs after looking at the man from over her shoulder. "Stay safe out there. Lots more than imps to worry about, you know." A few steps turns into a run and soon Catwoman's no longer to be seen.
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