2016-07-19 Cheetahs Never Prosper

It's a bank in Metropolis at High Noon. A cheerleading competition sponsored by the bank has Bullet's school team present post photo op as people break apart after it to grab snacks. Nightwing is in civilian outfit after having gotten some good info from the bank that was being used to launder money for some of the Gotham Mobs to follow up on later. Michael Lane is sliping out after dealing with a haunted deposit box containing some demonic paraphenalia. The group is probably scattered, in civilian wear but with costumes on beneath or equipment otherwise accessible or hidden.

Michael has been getting out from Burnlen quite a bit lately. He totes his gear in a duffel bag on his back, a blanket and a couple tomes keeps it from rattling. He isn't about to be caught with his metaphorical pants down very often, but traipsing about by day in the Kryptonian backyard isn't a good policy to his thinking. He adjusts his aviator shades as he sits off to the side with his bag in his lap. He actually does have business here while he's in town besides the demon relic that's already handled. Ahh Metropolis, sometiems it is not ice get away from the twin dark cities of Gotham and Bludhaven. After working his charm a bit on a teller and getting the bits of info he needs to give Oracle a place to start looking he looks around. He notices the various cheer teams and smiles a bit, ahh the joy youth, he thinks as starts to make his way towards the door.

"Okay Becky! I'm gonna go grab coffee and meet y'all back at the hotel!" exclaims Eden as she waves and trots off down the sidewalk. So it is that she's in her uniform still with an oversized purse over her shoulder. Sauntering down towards the coffee shop over there just past the bank, her blonde hair bobs as she moves, tied back in a ponytail as it is for now. She's grinning happily, her squad placed second out of fifty squads, so that's something to be proud of! It's relatively quiet and secure inside the bank then,a normal day in Metropolis.. Then there's a sudden rush, a near blinding tornado force gale hitting the room and likely sending almost all of the occupants flying around to land on their feet! A curvy woman in dark spotted fur. "I'll give you all a tenth of a second to start to scream." Grinning, then heading over casually towards the vault in the back in a blur, the sound of it being physically WRENCHED off the wall arriving almost simultaneously with the registration of her own presence in her burst of superspeed!

Michael Lane is blown out of his seat by the arriving villainess, literally! As if that wasn't bad enough, his duffel landed on his glasses cracking them. So much for those. Someone needs to be taught some manners, so to manage that he needs to change. He isn't Kryptonian, so phone booths won't cut it for him. He needs to exit stage right into a bathroom. Rather than figure out who or what this person is, he crosses his fingers and creeps his way towards the nearest restroom or closet to get in uniform.

The burst of air takes Dick Grayson off his feet and he uses that to his advantage as he rolls with it to get thrown behind the tellers counter. Once there is is a quick change into he work clothes and he sneaks over to appear from a different side of the Cheetah and he says, "A bit far from the savannah aren't you Kitty-Kat." Yes taught the person who out powers you that is always a good idea. Also he has no room to talk really ranging a bit far from home himself.

Of course, since for Eden, superspeed is on or off, but doesn't trigger itself without willing it consciously.. she's caught off guard by the burst of speed. She's walking past the bank, isn't inside when the fecal matter hits the rotary wind impeller. However, Cheetah spent enough time speaking for Eden to narrow her eyes, blur with speed acceleration.. and swap her uniform for her costume which was in her oversized purse. That done, the purse is tossed over to one side and she blurs as she whooshes in through the front door. Okay, so she slows down enough to not rip the door off its hinges. But she hears Nightwing's slow motion speech and grins. She skids to a stop next to him, folding her arms over her torso, "Yeah. Plus.. I have a question for you kittycat?!" she asks as she blurs forward and skids to a stop again halfway between Nightwing and Cheetah. "Think you're faster than a speeding bullet?" As the group races to confront the speeding Cheetah, she just goes to grin over at them as they face off. "Oh, do you know what they said about the cat that got the canary, little bird? I'm going to eat you up, play with you, and string you up by your guts on a flagpole!" As Bullet skids to a stop, Cheetah just breaks into hissing laughter, "Oh, how.. /Slow/. Bullet, is it? How about I show you how -fast- is." Cheetah launches on the attack! Heading for Bullet in a sudden burst of speed from standing completely still to going at Mach 15. Nightwing, having fought speedsters would likely be able to anticipate her motion and brace for it or counter, and Michael, whom was not being attacked, would probably be able to react and plan to her.

Azrael creeps out of a janitor's closet, his duffelbag stowed holding Great Expectations and Moby Dick amidst a comforter blanket and his street shoes. He strolls up to the crime fighting duo on the scene with his arms loosely folded. Until she takes off. The shockwave wall plants him, his supernaturally enhanced gear absorbing it handily but it still isn't pleasant. Extricating himself from the wall he growls and draws the blue-white burning Sword of Salvation. Tracing a circle on the ground that hisses as it belches forth fog, he ninja vanishes in his own trademarked style to maneuver elsewhere in the room. He needs to figure out her pattern to effectively fight her, a complete stranger just yet.

Nightwing gives Bullet a quick smile, he does not know her but in a fight like this one any help is good help, then he notices the small twitches of Cheetah's muscles giving away the planed movement. He might not be Cassandra Cain but he can still read body language decently he calls out to Bullet, "Take cover." He dives to the left to try and avoid the incoming villain.

Okay. This was unexpected. Bullet expected the first superfast person she faced... to be.. you know, maybe a little bit less fast than her. She wasn't expecting for it to even -appear- fast to her hyperaccelerated senses. However... her own senses are spinning up to speed, and she grins a bit as she finds herself still able to track the Feline villainess's movements. She hears Nightwing call out and turns her attention his way for a split second. This gives Cheetah a bit more of an opening than Bullet had planned on. But she is already accelerating forward herself and launches into an acrobatic leap, a full flip, with a half twist to land beyond Cheetah but still facing her as she comes down and then feels it. There's a cut on her arm, and she looks down that way with a lifted brow, "I thought I was tough too." she states.

Cheetah slashes over at Bullet, Bullet's enhanced reactions and awareness kicking up wtih enough speed to allow her to not be cut in two by the charging Cheetah. "Oh, how lovely." Cheetah barrels past Bullet, charging over towards the stealthed Azrael with a hissing, singsong voice in her sybillance, "I can smellll~ you! Come out, come out, where you are!" Blasting towards him at high speed, going to try and slash at him in passing even with him being hidden in the smoke!

Azrael senses the superfast killer incoming as she gives her, ahem, catcall. The supernatural crimefighter sidesteps in the fog, hoping the combination of visual cover and the intertia of her superfast past will give him the edge he needs for his opted maneuver. Flipping the alchemically subarctic scimitar in his grasp around, he swings the concave flat of his blade in an arc that he times to impact with her shins. Visually the blade appears burning but the truth is that's arcane cold energy radiating forth and it's silvery blue color semi blends with the fog he's conjured, hopefully enough that his gambit succeeds.

When Nightwing sees Cheetah head towards someone he can't see he acts. He draws his escrima sticks and leaps at Cheetah attempting to bring on the butt of one of them down hard against the nerve cluster in her shoulder, it is not likely to hurt her but maybe it can throw her off her rhythm.

And what is Bullet doing? She's standing there staring at the blood coming down her arm. Well, the wound is closing but... she's mystified by it. Then her eyes narrow and flicker upwards with a growl in her throat. She can see Nightwing already moving through the air, and she bursts into motion herself. What's her plan? That's easy. She figures that Cheetah's attack will require -some- recovery, and that will give a split second opening. So she's going to try to anticipate.. the room has less room to maneuver to the left, so she'll try an intercepting charge to the right.. hoping to end with a superfast and super strong clothesline.

Sigh.

Can't have an evening without a threat these days, can we? Pulling off her glasses, a nerdy girl with a black pixie cut and oversized sweater about three blocks away finds her way out of the press of the crowd. Pulling off the glasses, she ditches those, the sweater, and the pants someplace that she hopes they'll stay, and then leaps into the air, the red 'S' on her chest visible for all to see.

There's the sound of wind rushing by, and then the ceiling caves in just by the water cooler! Landing on one knee, with her fist imprinted into the floor, another fighter has entered the room. Long legs, black boots, and a black leotard with a red symbol upon it designate her as Supergirl, but...that's not the one in the news.

Nor does her entrance words sound like the goody girl in the clips. "Damnit. Again with the roof? Does nobody reinforce ceilings anymore, seriously?"

Brushing her bangs out of her eyes, Cir-El stands up and looks around to figure out who to hit.

Cheetah's slash attack that would have brutalized Azrael through a wall is intercepted in three ways. Bullet goes to slam through the air to body tackle her mid-rush, Nightwing goes to slam over to the nerve cluster of her shoulder even as his escrima stick SNAPS in half from the blow, the metal being blunted and jagged from the sheer force required to hit her. The Cheetah cries, even as Azrael gives her legs the deep freeze, encasing them with a half foot thick of solid sub-arctic frost and heavy, bulky ice as Cir-El goes to slam in through the ceiling!

Cheetah is quick to flip up to her feet, leaping up in the air as her legs snapped apart, the ice blocks shattering off them with a hint of blood on the sides. "Oh joy. Another Super-Brat. Do they mint you off an assembly line? how about we cut you up and see so?"

Cheetah goes to charge, her right arm partially numbed from the shoulder blow inflicted b Nightwing and a bit slower, but still having a brutal edge in speed as she launched herself towards Bullet, slashing at her quickly, brutally, and at high speed, claws and tail and teeth going in a high arc and slashing, trying to get the fast paced girl to go on the defensive! This would hopefully give her the opening to yank up the torn off halves of the bank vault door, lunching them at Azrael and Nightwing over like brutal heavy metal missiles at the pair! Then she would go to leap, bouncing up and off the wall to go to a full speed somersault, magical claws almost seeming to glow up and out as she tries to hit Cir-El with a brutal cross-slash at speeds and strength that would give Wonder Woman trouble!

And there it goes. Speed speed and more speed. Then.. a Kryptonian. As Cir-El comes down from above, Bullet glances upwards and whistles. The House of El sigil is hard to miss, and it's quite impressive to see. "Is that... Supergirl?" she asks even as Cheetah is attacking. Again, Bullet got distracted, and finds herself on the defensive right away. She blocks seven attacks, but the eighth one strikes her in the temple and she drops like a sack of potatoes. No banter, nothing said. Just makes her whole bravado at the start seem even more childish. Maybe someone will make sure she gets out of here alive and with her mask intact?

The shadow knight flips the blade upside down as he vaults out of the way of the massive chunk of metal hurled his way, holding his weapon in a kumatra style posture as he lands in a half crouch. Azrael isn't sure how to compete with the combination of speed and ferocity except to maneuver behind her and hope she's too focused to pay much attention. If he can get behind her as planned, he has a nasty surprise.

He'll whip out the Sword of Sin and thrust it at her back and deliver his Confession from behind while she's engaged with the Kryptonian.

Nightwing gets hit by some of the debris form the vault door remains that Cheetah is slinging around. His reinforced costume absorbs most of the impact but he is still knocked for a loop as he looks up from his position on the floor he notices Bullet fall, and starts to scramble toward her to make sure Cheetah does have a moment to finish the young heroine off.

Attacked by a brutal cross-slash, the only thing that saves Cir-El from having her head severed from her shoulders is the fact that Cheetah has to deal with a bunch of other heroes at once; she can't put her whole attention to ruining the secondary supergirl's day. Still...even if she is a fill-in and less than Supergirl on her worst day, she's still Kryptonian. Or enough of one to get by.

Cheetah finds her claws barely missing as Cir-El squeaks and ducks backwards, falling on her butt with as much awkwardness as her earlier moment was awesome. Eyes flashing with embarrassment, Cir-El puts her hands on the ground and says, "No. I am NOT..." and she kicks out at Cheetah's ankles with both feet, hands planted, and finishes her sentence. "I am not...Supergirl. Get over it."

Then with a second to think, she tries to see what the others in the room are doing and who needs help first. Because triage. As Nightwing scrambles to protect the unconscious Bullet, Cheetah barely misses cleaving Cir-El in two. If her claws aren't stopped or dodged, they are more than capable of doing it. Cir-El blocks her and falls back, kicking Cheetah off her hard and still with enough force to slam the supervillainess back to the wall. As Azrael goes to flank her and try to get her from behind, -something- alerts her. Whether it is her own innate supersenses, the magical source of her own abilities, or just her greatly enhanced superspeed letting her perceive the attack and respond faster.. Cheetah tears concrete out of the wall, slamming both halves together to make a barrier, then releasing them and dropping over to the ground to dodge as the bricks being smashed together and crushed creates a debris inferno!

Azrael growls like an attack dog as he dances away with the agile footwork of a boxer, the red burning Sword of Sin presented before him right side up as the cold burning Sword of Salvation is gripped defensively upside down behind him. His mask protects him from the flying particles but he's still hacking up a lung from breathing and hard pressed to see. He only hopes she is too, mentally cursing his luck that her senses are as sharp as they are.

The swordsman circles silently in the debris crowd, his attention focused completely on sensing out the superfast villainess as he trusts the others with superior abilities to his own to take care of the injured.

Cir-El? She's in front of Nightwing and Bullet, her cape spread around the two of them just as the bricks fly. Oddly, the fabric cape seems to be, like, titanium or something because everything just bounces off of it like it was. Because kryptonian, though the whole concept's always been kind of hazy to Cir-El herself, who knows it's just a cotton-polyester blend. But hey, who argues with results.

"I'll get her out, just stall the cat bitch for like five seconds," she says to Nightwing as she gathers Bullet up. It's a heck of a cape, though she can't see if Cheetah's attacking again through it or anything. She knows that Nightwing is the better fighter, and has no idea who the swordy guy is, but the fact that he's not dead yet speaks well of his ability.

Stall the raging superpowered psychotic cat woman. Yeah that is a lot easier said then done but he has a plan, it is a bad one but it just might buy them the time they need and with luck he will live through it as well. He nods to Cir-El and says, "I will give you eight." Bat-cockiness deployed. He then crouches down and leaps into the are coming down on the shoulders of Cheetah. He uses his one remaining escrima stick to attempt to choke her as he tries to play bull rider and keep her busy long enough for someone to be ready to be the rodeo clown when he gets tossed off.

The blast of debris floods the area then as Cheetah keeps Azrael positioned in her mind, letting out a snarl over at Cir-El as she has her advance blocked off by Nightwing. "I'll rip off your head and shove your guts down your throat. Think I'll use them to write out a card for the Bat with them. I'll even SIGN it." She's in a bloodlust mode as Azrael coughs, Cir-El evacuates Bullet, and Nightwing bars the way. She goes on the full attack with NIghtwing, and then gets chokeslammed HARD by the escrima stick, and she lets out a horrid COUGH as Nightwing slings his way up and onto her back, yanking the escrima stick HARD on her neck that for a normal person would snap it - but for the feral woman is an irritant. And Nightwing rides him some pussy in ways that Batman never could.

Azrael wonders for half a heartbeat if Nightwing seriously did what he just did. Not waiting any longer for the verification of reality however, the shadow knight charges full tilt. His blades flash through the air, twin burning arc as he whirls through the air at the last second. The blade tips will menace the feline woman yet again, threatening to supernaturally impale her with the power of his Confession ability.

Nightwing has whirled around, yanking his way hard up and over behind Cheetah's back then as he slams her head, choking her with the hard escrima stick. And then Azrael is in front of her, whirling together the twin swords of Salvation and SIN to hit her. A magical weaopn to force one to confront thier own guilt, self loathing, and the suffering they have inflicted upon the innocent.

Cheetah screams. In agony and raw suffering.

And then starts to break out to laughter. Mad, mocking laughter. "Cute TOY little boy. I am forged in the fires of something more ancient than the heaven and the hells you serve!" Her hand swept up, slashing the escrima stick in two, throwing Nightwing brutally off her. "Give my regards to the second when you get there! YOu'll be joining them in a few moments!" She's going to charge Azrael full power, who can't let up Confession to defend himself without opening himself completely. And Cheetah will vivisect him either way. The shadow knight has never tested the powers of his Raiment against a divine being, so he honestly wasn't certain what to expect. Azrael is surprised to see her still fighting with his twin blades of Ice and Fire still in her, Salvation and Sin respectively, he holds her at bay with eyes narrowed behind his crimson emblazoned faceplate as he digs his feet in,"I know not what you are, but be still with your lies..." He hisses with the excretion of an adrenaline charged man doing all he can to hold a demigod at bay with force of will.

The air around Azrael seems to come alive with a cacophany of whispers. Not all of them are of the same tongue. His mailed grip is as solid on the handles of his embedded swords as he metal they are clad in.

The exertion of Azrael comes from more than just the will to live or win. The curse of Confession works two ways. He sees the crimes in his own mind that Cheetah is guilty of, and knows the revelry she finds in others suffering. He stands his ground out of loathing for her.

Nightwing goes flying off of Cheetah and while even his skill in acrobatics cannot change his trajectory that quick, he manages to curl into a ball before impact with the wall and while he does go through it his skill and his costume keep him in one piece, functional may be a bit of a stretch, as he is now unarmed and will definitely need some time to recover his senses but he did manage to by Mia nine seconds hopefully she puts that time to good use.

Luckily for Azrael and Nightwing, Cir-El picks this time to return, showing the big difference between her and Supergirl. The biggest difference? Superman and supergirl warn people before hitting them. And Cir-El has a human'ish system, so she's affected by adrenaline too.

As Cheetah launches herself at the unmoving Azrael, Cir-El breaks the sound barrier from behind him and smashes Cheetah squarely in the face with her right hook. The impact breaks every window in the building and fractures Cir-El's right hand, sending waves of pain through her arm, but she skids to a stop leaving actual grooves in the flooring. As the shockwave makes the room shiver and the government registers a small localized earthquake.

WHAM. The walls of the bank building are reinforced concrete and layered with steel and titanium supports. They nearly shatter. Every piece of glass in the building breaks at once whether or not it is reinforced for the normal supersonic flybys the city's defenders do on patrol.

CRACK. The sound is like a gunshot as the kinetic force of the impact arrives well before the blow does, and it's all one can do to brace themselves from both the dual sonic booms of a full power Kryptonian hybrid fist hitting someone who can take it out of a desperation to make sure no one else is hurt today.

No one but the villain. Cir-El stops Cheetah cold. And slams her THROUGH the building. And through the wall. And through several more buildings. It HURTS to be punched at tens of thousands of miles per hour and then launched like a projectile through the air at supersonic speeds from the force. Cheetah is blasted out over the harbor of Metropolis, literally skipping through the water so fast it turns superheated and steams as she flies off into the distance.

Azrael the shadow knight is blown aside by the arriving Cir-El, his ears ringing from the double thunderclap of her speed and the impact of her fist. He recovers with a slight headshake to recover his senses then slips his blades away with a display of second nature iai-jutsu.

The knight looks to the kryptonian and intones,"Thank you. I've one favor to ask, I'm assuming this is your turf. If you see her again, tell her to stay out of Gotham. I see her, it won't matter if she's half god. I'll still cut her in two."

Cir-El is holding her right arm with her left hand like she's in a significant amount of pain, which is probably the case. She looks at Azrael and says, "..." and then follows it up with a squinting of her eyes that kind of suggests she has other things on her mind than delivering messages. But glancing at Nightwing, she grits her teeth and shows some of that Titans spirit, by floating off the ground and saying, "Sure. I gotta get some sunlight on this, scuse me. AND check on the damage. F*ck." She peers out the hole in the wall, then sighs and zooms off afterward.

In the distance, you can hear horns honking and people wondering what just happened, and a girl's voice going, "Don't look at me, I just work here."

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============= Metropolis: Daily Planet ========================== Message: 6/17                     Posted        Author Skinned Cat                       Jul 19 2016   Lulu -- The supervillain Cheetah tried to rob the seventh National Bank in midtown Metropolis, a jointly financed venture of Hammer Industries and Lexcorp. In her attack she was intercepted by four superheroes, including Supergirl for some reason wearing a new costume and a wig, Nightwing of Bludhave, a demonic knight that authorities have been unable to identify, and an out of towner called Bullet. Damage to the building was extensive, but Cheetah was prevented from robbing the bank and Cheetah was noted as going extra-vehicular to Metropolis Harbor at several thousand miles per hour and could be tracked on radar for a brief time. There were few injuries from the aborted supervillain attack and the bank fully expects to reopen in the next few days and notes that nothing was taken frmo the facilities, and anyone who requires access to their accounts can call thier helpline or use their website..

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