2016-04-24 - Hick Dating, Kryptonian Style

It's an early afternoon, Central City time. Considering that this is normally the Flash's stomping ground, being silly enough to break the law here is a bad plan. Almost as bad as doing it in Gotham, with the horde of black-clad leather wearers there, or Metropolis. At least in Gotham, the criminals aren't actually sure if the Bat exists yet. Here, Flash has a freakin' museum.

Leah needed some ready cash, so she chivvied Kara into stopping at a bank, and there was discussion of the possibility of mutual funds and actually investing the money that she made in space work, so they find themselves headed bank-ward. A quiet afternoon, though that usually ends up badly.

With the bank mostly empty of customers, there's a little old lady tying up one of the tellers with a story about when she was seven and she broke her piggy bank and the events around that day. The teller, to his credit, looks pleasantly amused instead of outright bored.

Kara Zor-El looks at Leah as they waits behind the old woman for their turn. Kara responds to her earlier question about investments. "Leah, honestly, what do I know about investments. For the first couple of months I was just creating diamonds from coal, then after I got the million dollars, I just put it all in the bank. Not really an investor type person."

She pauses. "Although considering you live with a totally cool person so you arent paying rent, and your car's bought, you could probably take a good chunk of your money and put it into a long term CD?"

Leah leans against Kara, her elbow on her friend's shoulder as she models her pleated skirt and catholic schoolgirl outfit she decided to wear today. No reason, apparently. Just felt like it. With her smile beaming out, she says "I really can't spare the time to properly research it right now, but yeah, that's the general idea. Going to need to have the fine professionals advise me on my ill gotten gains, even if they're actually legit. The gains, not the professionals. I totally think that these people are pirates in disguise."

She's just like this, best to ignore it.

Which is when a car pulls up out front, letting out a bunch of guys. They're laughing and punching each other as they come into the bank, roughousing a little bit and seeming slightly inebriated. There's only three of them, but they come right in behind Kara and Leah and start talking.

"Woooh...hey Earl, you got yer eyes on? Lookee here, what we got us goin' on today?" The second guy, dressed in a plaid shirt and a ball cap, adjusts his glasses and looks ahead, then stops his two friends with a hand on each of them. "Lemme handle it, boys. You aren't gentlemen enough for this." Then he strides up toward Kara and Leah, and coughs delicately to get their attention.

Kara Zor-El is wearing a midriff-baring T-shirt with the words 'I'm not stubborn - my way's just better.' and some shorts and white sneakers. After all, she doesnt go everywhere in the costume. Plus she wasnt going to try and top Leah's outfit anyway.

When the men come in, Kara raises an eyebrow but hey.... it's not a bank robbery, just some people who were drunk.

Annnnd they were going to hit on them. Oh joy.

Kara puts one hand on her hip while one of them approaches.

Leah turns around to glance at Earl and his cronies as the lady keeps tying up the one open teller. She says, "Well, this is new," looking at her first honest to god redneck event.

Earl stands up a little straighter, his friends staying back as he suggested, and says, "I look upon you twose ladies and am reminded of a poem..." and then he's interrupted by a bank robbery.

The windows literally burst in, and about eight guys with assault rifles swing in with ropes, landing in combat stances. One yells out, "Everybody down! Nobody gets hurt," while they all aim their weapons at different targets.

Leah looks from Earl to the bank robbers and breathes a sigh of relief. "Oh thank god."

Kara Zor-El pauses. "I'm of mixed feelings about this." she says after turning her head to see the armed robbers burst in. She puts herself in front of Leah. See... this is why she didnt always walk around in a secret identity. It would cause too many questions if she did something, like she was going to do here.

What she does NOT do is get down on the ground. "I'm guessing you decided to do this because you saw on the news that the Flash was on a Justice League mission?"

The robbers keep their weapons trained on the people in the room, moving into positions that are defended from outside view. "Get down, now!" says the one aiming at Kara specifically, and he moves toward her to enforce the order. He pulls his right hand from the rifle trigger and tries to put it on Kara's shoulder to push her down, fast and professional.

Leah, for her part, goes down to one knee in what appears to be submission to the robber's orders. She says, "So I'm just going to do this," mostly to Kara, but in reality she's basically just getting out of Kara's way. Making herself one more thing that isn't likely to be threatened, so Kara can pay attention to the more idiotic civilian targets.

Like Earl! Who turns immediately to the bank robbers and puffs up, then says, "You heard the lady. She asked you a question." Him and his two cronies stand right in the way of the rifles, looking protective.

Luckily, the teller and the old lady have decided to hit the deck, so there's that at least.

Kara Zor-El rubs the bridge of her nose. "For Rao's sa-" she shakes her head. Her heroes - the drunk brigade. Guess you can't judge a book by its cover. "Guys... the chivalry? It's really appreciated. But I think you should get behind me instead." she says.

She looks around at where the gunmen are situating themselves. Just in case she has to quickly catch or block some bullets vs heat visioning and incinerating them. Not like she can be mad at some drunk guys who were just trying to protect her, but instead were getting in the way of a clear line of the robbers.

When the gunman plants his hand on her shoulder and tries to push her down, the effect is of course ... absolutely nothing.

Then, before he can react, Kara grips the hand that's on her shoulder, giving it a little squeeze, right before grabbing the gunman by the shirt and flinging him around, sending him into one of his buddies.

She whispers, "You three really do need to get out of the way, this won't take that long."

Throwing the one guy across the room has the desired effect. It knocks people down. Kara's aim is nigh-perfection, sending the guy to knock two others off of their feet like bowling pins. One guy who's still standing turns his weapon on Kara, trying to use the butt of the rifle on the back of her head. They appear to be trying to keep things quiet.

The attack has about as much chance of working as a flea would have on the Lincoln Memorial, but he doesn't know that yet. The two who were on the teller and the old lady get behind the till and start working to get the vault open, but everyone else is aiming at Kara now.

Leah's grinning, down on her knees and staying out of the way now. "Guys, seriously, it's best if you just get down here. Honest, she can handle it."

The two other rednecks, Steve and Bill, actually start to get out of the way and go down to one knee, but Earl says, "M'lady, ah got me my pride. Dis be a time for men!" He then strides directly toward a guy with an armed, aimed AK-47 and starts swinging.

The gunman just shoots at his chest. Fairly easy target. Earl's a big boy.

The bullet is maybe an inch from her chest when it's plucked out of the air by two fingers that catch it. The hand belongs to Kara. Kara's other hand whips up to grab the AK-47, and with a squeeze, crushes it like it was made of soft taffy. A swat of the back of her hand, and the third gunman is send flying across the room.

Kara then looks at Earl. "As a man, could you hold this while I handle this?" she says calmly as she takes Earl's hand, blows on the bullet to cool it, then drops the bullet in his hand. "It really will make my job easier if I'm not having to worry about catching more of these if they try to go full auto with their guns. Seriously though. Really brave of you."

Actually really stupid of him, but she wasnt going to insult a guy who was willing to take a bullet for her wiithout knowing that it was as dangerous as a spitball to her.

She then feels the butt of a rifle smash against the back of her head. The result of that? Eye roll. She turns to him, raising her eyebrows. "Really?" she says calmly.

Three seconds later, he's sliding across the floor along the length of the bank after she grabs his gun with one hand, and then hitting him in the chest with her palm with the other hand. She definitely held back - it's evident to Leah, since her hand didn't go through him and he probably didn't have broken ribs or an exploded heart.

The rifleman keeps sliding until he hits the wall with enough force to rattle it, whereupon a picture of the bank president falls off the wall and on his head.She looks at the remaining 5 men as she takes the gun and bends it into a pretzel, dropping it on the ground and patting her hands. She smiles playfully, and says, "So.... who's next?"

Earl stares at the bullet in his hand, then ironically says, "Ah really think," just before one of his friends tackles him to the ground. The two of them end up near Leah, who is desperately trying not to laugh. She's really trying, it's a bit of a struggle though because of how nice Kara was being about the situation.

"You can protect me here, guys. I promise it'll be enough, and I'm really not Supergirl. Y'know, like she is." A hand motion upward, and Leah lets the redneck trio in on the deal. Quietly enough that the troopers aren't informed though. This is always interesting.

Cue the bullet storm, as the remaining guys realize that they're being taken out. Flipping safeties, two of them fire full auto at Kara's body with their rifles, hoping to end this quickly. The two behind the desk look up from the vault and signal for backup.

Outside, another man steps out of the car. He looks into the bank and smiles, and his casual outfit changes form to a nicely tailored suit. Rather like someone molding clay.

Luckily, Earl and his friends decide that protecting Leah is still being manly, and they set up around her. On the ground.

Kara Zor-El makes sure not to tense up when the hail of gunfire hits her. It's sort of important to NOT tense up when people are shooting at you if you're where bystanders are present. It's the difference between bullets flattening against your body and bullets ricocheting off of it instead. It probably came easier to Kal than Kara. There was always this instinct to tense a little, since she hadn't been invulnerable her entire life, when she was on Krypton.

The bullets do flatten against her though and she really had to admit to herself.... it was one of the best things about having powers. She'd always say in interviews the best thing was flying. But really... the invulnerability was. She's flown before she had powers - just with jet packs and flying vehicles. She never was invulnerable on Krypton. And there was really nothing like watching as bullet after bullet flattened harmlessly against her.

She checks her nails idly as they empty their clips at her. Then her eyes turn red and, since they were so kind as to stand right next to each other, she fires heat vision beams at both of the men's guns until they turn red hot - far too hot to hold - even if it hadnt melted the barrels of the gun into useless slag.

In a blur, she's in front of them. She smiles politely at them... right before grabbing both of them by the shirt, lifting them off the ground, and knocking their heads together to render them unconscious.

She looks at the last gunman standing. "And then there was one?" she says chirpily happy, until she sees the new man come out of the car - the getaway driver maybe?

Hmm... except he seems to be morphing. Oh great, why would HE be here? She was hoping to keep the damage to a minimum.

Striding into the bank, the tallish handsome man looks around at the mess. He puts his hands on his hips, then says, "This is what I get for hiring on without checking references. I'd tell you to be like the other girl and get down on the floor, but I actually like a good fight. And men hiding on the floor, too. This is just too good."

The middle finger Leah flips from the floor seems a little bit too little, too late, but Leah really means it.

The lead robber calls out, "It's Wonder Woman, or Supergirl, or someone! Take her out!" as his two remaining guys who were working on the vault tackle Kara from behind. Or try to, it's about as likely to work as if they were to try wrestling Manhattan.

Earl, unfortunately, has had enough. Having his manhood questioned, he and his two boys are up. "Ah'm sorry, ah don't think I heard you right," says Steve. Flanking Earl, him and Bill actually grab the new arrival's arms, who just lets them do it. Earl walks up to him, and says, "You do not insult a laydee in mah presence, sir." Then he tries to punch the man in the face.

Earl's arm actually buries itself in the man's face, up to the elbow. Like hitting...clay. Earl stops, then says, "Ah KILLED HIM!!!" just before the man changes shape to a gigantic brownish manshaped blob, flinging the three men to the far walls of the bank.

Clayface.

Kara Zor-El watches as the two men actually try to tackle her AFTER the lead robber says it's Wonder Woman or Supergirl. Oh well, he did caveat with 'or someone else.' But seriously, did they think tackling was the best option after hearing it's Supergirl. Or Wonder Woman? Hell.. or someone else who could do what she had just done? Also... since when was Wonder Woman blonde? She had to remember to tell Diana about this.

Kara looks as the three redneck amigos converge on the new participant in today's bank robbery, while she takes both gunmen by the back of their heads. She watches as they grab him, not bothering to actually look at the gunmen as she whacks their heads against her midsection to knock them out cold and let go.

Then Earl hits the guy in the face and his hand pretty much gets enveloped. She had guessed right. The new guy was Clayface. Even though he was FAR from his usual place of criminal business - Gotham. "Crap." she says as she flies in a blur to catch the three men before they hit the wall at FAR too fast a speed. Putting them down, she says, "Can you PLEASE let me handle this now?"

And with that little admonishment, she flies at Clayface to give him such a punching.

Leah actually scuttles out of the way for this one; something about Kara's reaction makes her think that it's a good idea, and she's learning to read her bestie pretty well after all this time. And all the attacks. She's got an online scrapbook of people who've tried things with her there, it's got more likes than Congress. "Knock him out, Kara!"

Clayface, now in his classic molten blob form, stands up tall. "Not so easy girlie, eat clay!" he says as he lifts both of his arms toward Kara, then what appears to be globs of his own body blasts out from his hands toward her, apparently trying to glue her in place. Or just make her really, really dirty. He kind of smells.

Kara Zor-El oofs as she's stopped halfway through her charge by globs of clay enveloping her. She starts pulling at it, and while she looks like she'll be able to get out of it, it's not instantaneous. Plus it was yucky. "Ewwwwww." she says, her nose crinkling. Sometimes superhuman senses is NOT a good thing. "This... is... SO .... GROSS!" she said as she tried to get free of it.

Then she remembered something she read in the Oracle Files. That he's one of those types that need to be immobilized first. Like Sandman or Tar Pit. She squirms a bit more, looking at Clayface, then around the bank, getting an idea. "

"So why are you here in Central City? Batman got you too scared to be in Gotham anymore?" she says as she locates where the ceiling fire sprinklers are located.

"Well, you know," Clayface says as he admires his handiwork, "sometimes you get an offer that's too good to turn down. No supers for two whole days does turn a city into a very tempting target." He walks sloppily toward Kara, checking her out, and then adds, "Expected more out of you though. Unlike my associates, I recognize Supergirl when I see her. Your friend's cute, maybe I'll take her with me when I go."

Clayface motions toward the remaining troopers, then says, "Well, what are you waiting for? Open the vault already!" The three troops get up, working to get back to work.

Leah is fuming, but quiet. Not a good sign. She's always most dangerous when she's planning someone's imminent death.

Kara Zor-El frowns as her eyes glow red. "Wouldn't want to disappoint if you were expecting more..." she says as heat vision fires at a point on the ceiling. Two seconds later, a fire alarm sounds and water starts spraying down EVERYWHERE. Followed by Kara pushing her arms out, breaking free of the clay globs. She starts racing around Clayface in a blur so he couldnt just get out of the water pouring down on him. After all, Central City probably preferred more 'Flash-type' responses to crime. Not to mention it created a funnel effect in the center

Leah gets down and stays the heck out of the way now. She'd like to be tossing things, but it doesn't seem like the right time. She does however head over to the guys working on the vault and pull out her tazer and can of mace. The sound of animated yelping and such noises is mostly drowned out though, as Kara takes on the massive Clayface in the center of the bank.

The water pouring down has the immediate effect of making Clayface howl with frustration. He immediately tries to flow toward an exit, but finds that to be impossible; faced by the whirling motion of Supergirl, he's educated on why Central City is not to be trifled with either. These tactics are, indeed, the Flash's bread and butter.

Because they work. The twisting knocks down the drop ceiling and papers fly about, but the main damage is definitely internal. Not only is the water diluting him and making him lose cohesion til he's unable to manifest arms anymore, he's being whipped like a pudding. Clayface's voice sounds harder and harder to understand, but it sounds like, "Hate you Supergirl!" You know, if it were being gargled in the shower.

Kara Zor-El stops running around him when it looks like he's seriously losing cohesion. "Aww... sorry that you hate me. Here... let me blow you a kiss." Then she purses her lips together and blows, freezing the already drenched and half-cohesive Clayface into a frozen statue.

Fortunately, with the water spraying down like it is, Kara's T-shirt is pink, not white.

"Could someone turn off the water now?"

Clayface hardens into probably one of the most repulsive statues in the bank's history, which is saying something. They've got some really interesting art up in the lobby, which was only improved by having a big fight there. But he's pretty thoroughly frozen through, and the quiet after Kara stops spinning allows other sounds to penetrate.

Like Leah, spraying mace on one of the robbers and then kicking him squarely in the nads. She's got a very definite fighting style, and it's almost ridiculously effective. Unfortunately the last two robbers come out at that moment and see the scene, with Leah downing one guy and Kara having taken out their best hitter, and raise their weapons almost reflexively.

Kara Zor-El gets in front of the men in the blink of an eye as they raise their weapons at Leah and her crotch-kicking irish superpower. She looks at them sternly as she casually bents the barrels of the rifles backwards.

The two guys remaining pick this time to raise their hands and give up. The way that Kara bends steel with absolutely no effort seems to be enough. Leah claps Kara on the shoulder and smiles, then says, "Made a hell of a mess, hon. We should probably go though. I think Earl and the boys are waking up, and nice as they were, well..."

And a few minutes later, the redneck gentleman do wake, to find the bank torn up, the bad guys arrested, and the ladies long gone. At which point, Earl looks at the mess of the room and the unconscious baddies and asks, dead serious, "Did I do that?"

And both Steve and Bill look at Earl, and say, together, "No."