capencowl2020 | Catch-all For Haru

Entry tags:

!ic,
!log

Catch-all For Haru

WHO: Haru + Open to All.
WHERE: The City.
WHEN: Over the course of the event.
WHAT: Jaded 22 year old government enforcer interacts with the world around her, spars with fellow enforcer(s), gets kidnapped near the end.
WARNINGS: Kidnapping, daily life of a government enforcer, propaganda belief, likely violence, more to be added in subject lines.

Training

a. Haru had come to be known among her peers for a decent number of skills. She was great at following orders, kept an eye on her teammates on the field, adapted very well in a fight going south, and was quite good at things that required stealth. She'd even shown a potential for leadership when the comms went down and the commander of the group she was in had been incapacitated. What she was most well known for, however, was the fact that she always gave everything her all, even when it could harm her. This included training.

From the range to the obstacle courses, Haru prided herself on doing whatever task was laid before her. She was goal oriented, and everyone knew it.

Sometimes this kicked her in the ass, though, and she found herself needing to take some time off, or, rather, needed someone to tell her to take time off.

b. Sparring was a blast. Whether she was matched up against someone equal to her, or greater than her, she always learned something new. She always got a decent fight. And most importantly, she always came out with a few bruises and bumps that left her feeling satisfied, like she'd given it her all and actually experienced a challenge.

Today she was hoping for similar results. She looked up at her opponent, grinning. "You about ready over there?"

On The Job

Some days there were raids, other days she was set to being backup for others. But tonight, well, she was on a patrol with only a few others. They'd been told this part of the city was showing more signs of smuggling as of late, to say nothing of suspicious figures who had only shown up after the porter came on.

Tonight she's on point. She is about to turn a corner she clicks the comm system between her and the other member of her group, a signal to stop, to be on alert. After a little bit of silence, some psychic communication with the local fauna to be sure they haven't noticed anything terribly odd, she slowly turns her head to look down the alley.

Off the clock

Haru has two modes. Go big - spend the night dancing and drinking and trying to forget about the world she's in - or go home - spend the night lazing around her government housing with her partner and just getting food from some restaurant they like.

She can often be found on the dance floor - sometimes dancing with Nikolai, sometimes just dancing on her own, ignoring as people occasionally catch light of all her scarring in the dark - or by the bar nursing a drink that never leaves her sight.

Other nights, well, she just puts on some casual clothes and goes to stand in line at a restaurant she ordered takeout from, scrolling through random things on her phone.

Closed to Harry

Getting a day off during this mess was unexpected, and she wasn't going to pass up the chance to take advantage. While she hadn't been running herself ragged more than usual - that was her default state after all - she'd found the pressure build up to be tearing at her in ways she didn't like. It was, after all, harder to resist the urge to object or point out flaws when she didn't have the mental energy to do it. Sure, she'd been safe about her activities, using phones that she'd just factory reset and buy more time cards for once she'd made the posts she couldn't risk having attached to her in any way, but at the same time the fact she was doing this at all was a sign her self control was fraying more than she should ever have allowed.

And that, in short, was why she decided to go to the park. Sitting on a park bench near a wooded area allowed her to just commune with the animals, to slip out of herself and instead focus on the birds and the dogs, the stray cats, the raccoons causing small chaos. She simply closed her eyes, tilted her head skyward, and took it all in.

It was in this state that she left herself mostly vulnerable - a few dogs near by kept an eye out for anyone approaching her at her request, but aside from that she had no real immediate protections.

Wildcard

[ Feel free to post a wildcard, or suggest one over on GreyWays on plurk. ]

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Jonathan was generally a slacker when it came to the enforcing business, doing what was required of him and no more. At least, when he was the only one who has anything to lose if things went south he was. When there were other meta enforcers out with him, he takes his job way more seriously. He might resent the fact that he was dragged into all of this against his will, but he's not going to let other people in the same situation suffer for his bitterness. After all, they're all in this together. And so when Haru signals him to stop he does, eyes focused on the entrance to the alley, listening intently, pulse blaster drawn and ready to spring to action at a moment's notice.

A few more seconds passed, and she then clicked the feed three times. Someone was in the alley, and the local fauna had found the situation to be odd enough to be worthy of comment. The leader of the group - a non-meta - motioned for them all to get into place.

Jonathan was motioned to move beside Haru, as the man wanted them both where he could see them. Working with metas on the field had its pros and its cons, and the captain of this excursion always felt better when he could see what they were doing so they would be able to avoid friendly fire.

Jonathan nods, quickly moving next to Haru. It suits him just fine. Jonathan preferrs to keep an eye on other metas on the field himself, but for completely different reasons. Mostly because the humans chose to be there, and chose to agree to the risks. The metas didn't, and as his teammates, he wanted to make sure they weren't in over their heads.

Sure, he's not the most powerful meta, and many of the ones he's worked with have abilities that dwarf his, but with his super strength and acid blood, he can still be quite dangerous to those who oppose him.

He waits, silently, not wanting to give away their position to whoever was in the alley until he has the signal letting him know he can act. Once he gets that, he fully intends to spring to action.

Haru gives him a nod of acknowledgement.

So far as she was concerned, his powers and her powers were a good fit on the field. She was a small target, not even having managed to reach five feet in height, and her powers were better for distraction or blocking things off than for a fight - well, if you excluded the ability to set hundreds of rats on a person and leave them half dead, but that took an appropriate number of rats to pull off. Jonathan's blood was a good defense mechanism, and so long as she stayed out of the way she wouldn't have to worry about it getting on her. And his super strength? Well, her being so small meant that moving heavy things was a challenge, and on more than one occasion she'd been cut off from a fight by someone slamming a heavy door closed, such as an air hanger.

Between the two of them, they had a pretty good spread for the work.

Soon enough everyone was in place, and the hand signal was given - it was time to bust whoever was around the corner.

Once he's given the signal, Jonathan moves quickly. He rushes into the alley first, taking a quick glance around to assess the situation. There were five men total in the alley. Four were moving heavy wooden boxes, a fifth was keeping an eye on things. The fifth man sees Jonathan and quickly pulls his gun, but Jonathan is already on him, tackling him to the ground and sending the man's gun skidding across the pavement.

He glances up at the other men, who have dropped their boxes and are reaching for their own guns.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he says. He still has his pulse blaster that he can use if he needs to, after all, and that's not even counting his back up.

Most of them don't take the warning, and the one who had been contemplating it sees that his fellows aren't going to back down and follows their lead.

Maybe they would have chosen differently had they seen more than Jonathan and what appeared to be a particularly short enforcer who darted out after him. As it stood now the numbers of four armed individuals against two was still not in their favour, not really.

And then the rest of the five-man-squad came around the corner to join Jonathan and Haru. The smugglers opened fire in a panic. Or, at least they tried to.

Haru, who had made herself as small a target as possible without sacrificing the ability to quickly run, took a shot at the person who had drawn his gun first and it travelled true, hitting one of the men in the right shoulder and causing him to drop his gun before he could get a shot off of his own.

That was still three armed foes, of course, but it had only been seconds and already two others were unlikely to poses a threat.

The bad news was that now the other three had the ability to use the boxes as cover while the enforcers had no real cover except each other.

Seeing the three men who still had their guns pointed at him, Jonathan lifts his gun and starts firing, but between his panicked shots and the fact that they had cover, none of the shots managed to land. They begin shooting back. Between the ones who decide to shoot at Haru and the ones who were afraid to shoot too close to their ally, most of the shots managed to miss Jonathan. Except one, that hits him in the left shoulder.

Jonathan cries out in pain, but that's nothing compared to the screams of the man he was on top of as his green blood dripped down and began eating away at this man's flesh.

Meanwhile, the human enforcers were joining in on the gunfight. Jonathan noticed one of the other smugglers get hit with one of the shots, but he's not really focusing on that too closely, as he's distracted by the pain in his shoulder and the sounds of the screams beneath him. He scrambles off of the man, but his blood has already been spilled.

Edited 2020-02-01 19:24 (UTC)

Haru doesn't waste time, she rushes over to Jonathan, trying to keep herself low to the ground as she moves to his right. She makes herself known to him, then tries to drag him down into a crouch as bullets whizz about them. She takes the moment to take aim and shoot at an enemy that had moved from behind one of the crates. She didn't hit, but she came close.

If he'd gotten down into a crouch like she attempted to get him to do, she was planning to lead him to be behind cover. The higher ups may not look out for him, but she wasn't one of the higherups, now was she?

Jonathan follows her lead, going down into a crouch and getting behind cover which, thankfully, is enough to keep any further shots from being fired. He still hears the sound of the battle raging on, a couple of the smugglers crying out when they get hit by the enforcers bullets, and the guy that got hit with Jonathan's acid goes quiet. Whether he's dead or simply unconscious, Jonathan doesn't know. At the moment he doesn't care, either, too busy focusing on the stinging pain in his shoulder. He looks at it, seeing the green blood and knowing he doesn't have anything that would help with the bleeding on hand.

"Shit," he curses, looking at it, before looking at Haru. "Thanks for the assist."

"Not a problem." She takes a moment to peek out from behind cover, then looks back to him. "Can you stop the bleeding, or staunch it in any way?"

She knew his blood was special. She knew it was dangerous, but goodness did she not have any idea how to handle it. The fact of the matter was that if he'd been wounded on the job while she was around, they'd had commanders that saw to all of that. This was supposed to be a routine patrol, and honestly still qualified as one, but their captain hadn't been particularly interested in using them effectively so she doubted he'd be much more knowledgable than she was on this matter.

"I...I'll need something it won't just melt through. Like plastic. Or cellophane. In the mean time I'll just use my jacket, at least that'll slow it down while my blood's eating through it."

And he pulls off his uniform jacket, wadding it up and pressing it against the wound.

There was a pause as she watched him, the gears in her brain spinning. When she spoke she was uncertain, not knowing if she was being silly to suggest...

"Would a freezer bag work?"

She always had trail mix on her on the field, something that had come in handy a few times in the past. She had to keep it in something.

"Does your blood clot when pressure is applied?"

"Yeah, a freezer bag would be perfect, actually," he says, relieved that she has something. He really should start keeping a roll of saran wrap on his person. "Yeah, my blood'll clot."

Technically it would clot regardless, but it certainly helps to apply pressure.

Harry had been plotting for a while. Using sources inside to find those who might be vulnerable, who might be turnable. And it was not too hard to get one agent alone, to arrange for some time off for a good worker in the name of efficiency.

Harry was wary of anyone and anything nearby. And he veiled himself, his scent, sound, and sight cloaked from notice as he moved closer to her.

He was not someone who was fond of hurting anyone, so his first move was to try to capture. Which was why he spoke a single word, and slammed a cocoon of force down around her, trying to close her in and cut off her air. If he could knock her out fast, he could keep this clean, and maybe just maybe make things better for everyone.

One moment she was just taking everything in, the smell of the park and the animals going about their day, and the next she couldn't breathe. She couldn't breathe, or move, or make heads or tails of the situation. She didn't panic, however, no, because she'd been in enough situations that this wasn't enough to rob her of her mind - surprise or no.

As she tried to look at whoever her attacker might be, she reached out to the nearby animals with all the fear and anger she could muster. She reached out and bade them for help.

And naturally, if they could see her, they would.

At least, that was what she had come to expect.

The animals started to respond, flooding toward the woman, but he was not near her, not yet, and his shield, thank the gods, was hopefully able to take them.

As more and more responded, he swore, and kept his concentration high. but that meant that his own veil started to thin and he became more visible and more audible to those animals around them.

He just hoped he would have the time to knock her out before they turned on him.

It was his distant proximity that saved him a great deal of trouble.

While the majority of animals scrambled towards her, only a few were smart enough to even think to attack the man, or, to attempt to do so. Some crows would swoop down towards the vague figure, only to hit the veil and decide the target couldn't possibly be the source of fear. Any attempts made by other animals were just as short-lived. Between his lack of visibility and the fact that they couldn't really conceptualise something so far from Haru being the source of her emotions they just continued to surge forward, seeking desperately for that which was the source.

And finding nothing.

Haru tried to keep her pulse reasonable, hoping to extend her consciousness as she sought her captor, but as every second ticked by it became harder and harder to keep her cool. Try as she might, she couldn't see whoever was causing this. She could turn this around in mere moments if she knew where to turn her small army of claws and talons and fangs. She could possibly end this just as quick if it was just a hand full of opponents - in one of the few strips of nature that The City had she was at an advantage!

That was a part of what made it so frustrating as she found her eyes closing against her will. The fact that she was here in a place where great numbers of animals congregated, not just rats and pigeons, should have meant she would succeed against any attacker that couldn't just wipe her off the face of the earth, should have been some measure of safety in this fucked up mess of a world.

The fact that it didn't, and the fact that she was sure this was how she was going to die, made it all the more terrifying when the world went black.

Almost instantly, the animals all stopped. (Well, those that could. A good number of birds found themselves flying tail over beak and ramming into whatever surface could stop their momentum.) They seemed suddenly confused, and a good number of them darted away in fear soon after. A small group of deer seemed especially startled, though the suddenly very angry swans from the nearby pond no doubt added to that.

Aside from the fact that such a large number and variety of animals were in one place, things all seemed to be relatively back to normal. If he gave the animals some time to disperse, he would have a clear shot to the now unconscious young woman.

Or he could brave the swans, but that really just came down to how much reasonable fear he had in his body.

Harry had a lot of fear, but he also did not want to wait too long. He concentrated and spoke a new word, and a gentle wind swirled around Haru and lifted her, lofting her up above the swans and away from them, pulling her toward him.

He was not sure how the swans would react, but if they did not follow, he would be ready, as he drew a circle around him, keeping an eye on the way he was bringing her to him.

If they did follow, he was hoping he could still reach her, and teleport out with her. If he did, and even if they followed and a few came with, he hoped he could deal with them at the warehouse base.

At first the birds tried to follow, deciding that the target of their ire was to be the unconscious human who was defying gravity. Thankfully the little bastards didn't get to go to town on her, none of them really having enough interest to follow that far up in the air. Their angry vocalisations followed after her even once they stopped following.

Haru didn't stir at all, luckily.

As soon as his hand touched her side, they were gone, teleporting into the warehouse he had prepared. With gentle hands, he bound her hands and slipped a blindfold over her eyes, then settled her into a comfortable chair.

He doubted this would go well, but he could hope that this would go better than it might. His hope was to convert her, and to convince her that her best interests lay with him and his more outside group.

And if it failed well... he would talk to the others to find out their verdict. There were holding facilities, and if they were full, well...

she would not be the only enforcer he had canceled permanently.

Once all was ready, he broke a vial of smelling salts under her nose and stepped back to his own chair.

The smelling salts did the trick, causing her to awaken with a flinch and instinctively try to pull her head away from the scent with a guttural that wouldn't be out of place in the throat of some animal. It took her a moment to adjust to being awakened so suddenly, but once she was she seemed quite alert, and twice as tense.

"I don't suppose there's any point in asking where I am?"

She sounded pretty annoyed, but so far not particularly violent.

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Catch-all For Haru

On the job

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Capture

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