Jade meets Argus

ARGUS: It was a classic supervillain robbery, straight out of the comic books. Some madman with way too much intelligence and way too little morality had built himself a gang of robotic drones, each six-legged and spherical, and each with a mounted turret and a pair of crab-like robo-claws. 'There really should be stronger gun control laws in this country' was likely on the mind of many of the patrons of the Prospit branch of the First National Bank. Equally classic was the cackling of the villain as he demanded all of the cash available, a drone eager to take the bags of dosh at gunpoint to deliver to the back of a commandeered armored truck just outside.

ARGUS: It was as the madman was giving some evil speech of somesort that someone arrived on the scene to help. Propelled by a motorized skateboard, what seemed to be a slender young man slid onto the scene, screeching to a stop before kicking off his board. He wore a black bodysuit with geometric yellow patterning, with matching gloves and boots, as well as a strange yellow helmet with a red and blue visor. There were subtle eye-shaped patterns on various locations of his costume, most notably his collar. The only visible part of his skin was his nose to his chin, a rich brown color, as well as a couple stray tufts of black, curly hair.

ARGUS: "Hey, moron!" He called, and the drones all turned their ocular sights on him, followed by their turrets. "Didn't anybody tell you that ain't how you take out a loan?" That quip obviously infuriated the man, who then ordered his drones to attack the 'wannabe superhero'. The drones all poised to attack, before pausing, and then promptly shutting down. "Sthorry 'bout that," The young man said with a toothy smirk, tapping the side of his helmet, the visor blinking like a screen, "Had to ask your buddies to take a nap."

ARGUS: But unfortunately, he hadn't gotten all of the drones- apparently, one had been in the back, keeping an eye on the workers to make sure none called for help. But it came rattling out, now, aiming it's turret at the mystery cape.



CANIS MAJORA: Today hadn't been a good day. It had been a year since the accident that had removed Jade's only familial relation from his mortal coil and now, here she was, still lonely and still having to deal with the fallout of the fall of a giant. She'd been trying to make it a habit to seem small, which wasn't happening. Her recent growth spurts put her on everyone's radar in some capacity. Her simple blue dress did nothing to hide the fact that she was apparently genetically gifted to draw the eye, a fact made evident by the constant glances the skeevy banker she was talking to with Ms. Claire gave her. She didn't like him. His eyes were too small and not in the cute way a hamster's eyes were small. They were unpleasant and made her think of tiny, spoiled eggs. She pulls her red letterman jacket closer around her as she looks at him and Ms. Claire talking, discussing the finances of SkaiaNet and how she would be involved with them. Reaching into the pocket of the jacket, she starts playing with her phone, trying to wile away the time with a little game involving frogs. Occassionally, Bec would give her alerts to cute puppy videos and that made her smile. She leans in close to her phone and whispers, keeping out of earshot. "Bec? Can you play with the lights in he-" She shouts when she hears banging, crashing, bullets flying.

CANIS MAJORA: The bank explodes into a mess. Everything is a blur as she's pulled to safety, the SkaiaNet guards assigned to her and Ms. Claire are gunned down, she's forced to hide behind a desk, and she begins fiddling with the multi-colored rings on her fingers. She takes her phone out again as Ms. Claire huddles close to her, the short, older woman clasping her hands tight at Jade's shoulders and trying to reassure her. Jade remembers her phone just as someone busts in to try and save the day. She shrugs Ms. Claire off, green eyes going with with wonder at the person who just showed up. There's a little smile on her dark brown, freckled face when he makes the drones shut down. That was amazing.

CANIS MAJORA: Unfortunately, he'd missed one. Taking her phone out, she called on Bec without a thought. "Bec? Can you hack that drone?" Bec responds with a whine, the display showing it was out of range. She needed to get closer. Taking a breath, she jumps out from behind the table, Ms. Claire shouting in alarm at her actions. She grabs a chair, lobs it at the drone to get it's attention and distract it long enough to close in, long legs carrying her toward it fast. She pulls the phone up just as it shreds the chair and brings the turret that made mulch of the chair to aim at Jade. "Bec! Sick 'em!" The drone suddenly lets out a noise like a mechanical squealing as it begins spasming, giving the new hero enough time to get to work.



ARGUS: "Shit!!!" He'd shouted when he realized his mistake. He hadn't seen that one, and he couldn't hack what he didn't know existed. But, really, all it'd take was one mistake like that to be blown away and have your career neded just as it was starting, wouldn't it? But as he ducked his head and attempted to shield himself with his arms, hearing the sound of gunfire, he found himself... without a scratch. Someone had yelled, there was the tell-tale sound of a piece of machinery spazzing the fuck out, and when he lifted his head, he was suprised to find an incredibly tall young woman in the center of the scene, having apparently incapacitated the drone- at least temporarily.

ARGUS: He muttered something under his breath, his visor lighting up, and after a few short moments, the drone stopped spazzing out and fell inactive to the floor like its brethren. "Hey-" He shouted to the girl, before giving her a thumbs up. Whatever she had done, it'd just saved his bacon, and he appreciated it. "Nice one!"

ARGUS: He turned toward the villain, planning on asking him to kindly turn himself over and maybe he won't have to get utterly blasted. But the man wasn't where he was before the drone almost shredded the cape. That was when he heard the sound of slamming doors and screeching tires right outside- he'd made a break for it during the commotion! He was smart- better to get away with your life and some of the money, than try to salvage a losing situation. The cape cussed loudly, hopping back onto his board to rocket back out of the bank. The armored truck hadn't even left the parking lot yet, and it was cake catching up to it. It was then that the visor of the young man's helmet slid away, and it was unfortunate that no one was right there to see the brief, momentary appearance of a pair of heterochromatic brown eyes, before they were engulfed in red. A beam of heat and light shot forth from his eyes, blasting the tires, popping and then melting them, bringing the truck to a halt. But he wasn't done yet- he circled the truck, firing those beams at the seams of the doors and windos, melting them all shut.

ARGUS: Finally, the villain both stopped in his tracks and trapped in his own escape vehicle, the cape slid to a stop and hopped off his board, kicking it up to grab it with his hands. He snickered at the sight of the man banging his hands against the windows. "Maybe if you're lucky, the copsth will be feeling generous and bring the jaws of life to get you out." He said, raising his voice so the man could hear. "Though I wouldn't bet on it. Might be better to let you sit 'n think 'bout what you've done."



CANIS MAJORA: Her caretaker was having a panic attack at Jade, the older woman yelling about how she was crazy and how that was the dumbest thing she'd seen Jade do in a long time. "What about when I tried retrofitting that old Ford with a particle engine?" She grinned at Ms. Claire who looked like she was relieved Jade was okay, but wanted to be angry on principal. It was hard to be mad at that face, though. "Come on, I want to thank him." She turns to the drone, lifting her phone again at it. "Bec? Can you turn this on?" It take a second, but the drone whirs back to life. Ms. Claire is left looking between Jade and the Bec-enhanced clone with wide eyes and demanding Jade to turn that off, she shouldn't be doing this in public. "They'll get over it." Jade climbs up on to the drone, messing with the gun mounting. She manages to undo the bolt on it herself, no wrench needed and kicks the gun off, bullets spilling aside as she takes a seat where the gun used to be, holding on as she lifts a hand forward. "Mush!" The Bec bot obeys, walking after the man who'd just saved the bank. The drone spazzes occassionally, not liking having an intelligence too big for it's system in it's body. Jade smiles as she sees the cape come into view, waving at him. "Hey! Hi!" She stops to push some of her red hair out of her face before waving some more to get his attention. Once close enough, climbs off the drone, turns her phone to it, which appears to cause it to spaz again and shut off.

CANIS MAJORA: The smell of melting plastic and some sparks and smoke tell her that the drone is probably ruined. "Whoops."



ARGUS: At clanking, clacking sound of the crab-drone coming up behind him, the cape turned on his heel, the visor shooting back into his helmet yet again, mismatched eyes wide. They flashed red for a moment, before the light promptly died down, and he breathed a sigh of relief. A moment later, the visor had slid back over his eyes again, hiding them from view. "Don't sneak up on a dude like that, gurl!" He shouted, a hand over his heart. "Almost blasted you off the goddamn planet, then where would we be? Not in a good place, that'sth fucking where."

ARGUS: He laughed at the sight, though, even as she slid off the drone and did... something to it, using her phone. Even if it broke the fuck down right after, the cape was still impressed. "Damn. You must have some sthkills, what'd you even do? You stopped that thing earlier in the bank, too, right? Thanks by the way, probably saved me from being made into swissth cheese." He said, stepping over to lightly kick the smoking drone. "Are the others still intact, or was it just this one you fucked with? I was kinda wanting to take one home and crack it open, y'know?"



CANIS MAJORA: "Oh no, it's not all me! Bec does most of the heavy lifting. I just manage to help him get where he needs to be." Bec turned to look at the van, walking around it to the driver seat, where the thief sits, arms crossed and looking more like a pouting child than any sort of menacing figure. He glances out the window once, glaring at Jade, before double taking. He recognized her. That was the SkaiaNet heiress. He'd had his last drone ruined by the fucking heiress of a mega technology company and now she was outside his makeshift prison, making faces at him by using her fingers to pull her mouth too wide and let her tongue loll out at him, eyes crossed. Jade shoots one more raspberry at him before turning back to talk to...uh..."What's your name, by the way? Wait! I got it," Jade lifts a hand to her chin, tapping a curled finger at it, eyes narrowed as she tried to suss something out. "Oculus. Robobee. Neo." Jade was trying to come up with names, more as a game than anything. She turns back to the drone. "Oh, right. To answer your question, this is the only fried one. The others are fine. Thank you for saving everyone, by the way. That was sooooo cooool!"

CANIS MAJORA: As if she was physically unable to contain her excitement, Jade hops in place, hands pulled in and curled into fists that shook in glee as she expressed how cool he was.



ARGUS: "Oh nice, sthome kind of virtual intelligence I'm guessing?" He asked, "That's pretty impressive. And convenient. I never thought to use anything like that, mysthelf." He'd put his hands in pockets if he had any. Instead, he lets his hands rest against his narrow hips, snickering as she made faces at the foiled thief in the car. Unlike the man, though, the cape completely failed to recognize Jade as anyone other than an ordinary citizen, albeit one with technological prowess that impressed him.

ARGUS: The suggestions on what his name could be made him laugh out loud, though, grinning toothily. "Okay, I gotta admit, I did almostht pick Oculus when I was thinking of a name, so you're not far off. It's actually Argusth- I mean, Argus." He apparently struggled with a lisp, likely due to those teeth and his overbite. Regardless after listening to her response about the drones, he glanced back at the bank, his visor flashing a few times, before turning back towards Jade to offer a hand to shake. "Glad to have helped out. And met a pretty rad chick while I was at it, heh."

ARGUS: Argus, no, I know it's hard to tell, but she's six years young than you and a minor. Suddenly, a clanking sound announced that another drone, this one unscatched, had walked right up to them. Its turret slid away into its body, before it hunkered down to let Argus use it as a rather ostentatious victory seat. The fight was over, now all there was to do was wait for the police to arrive and answer any questions they had.



CANIS MAJORA: "Hey, you stole my idea!" Jade said, teasingly and giving the drone a little punch. "Hmm. You know, this thing is just regular steel, right? Do you plan to make it something else? I'm guessing doofus in there built these as shock troops. Someone with electrical or magnetic powers could put these out of commission easy. Plus, steel is so heavy. It must take a lot of energy to run these for more than...I'd say two hours?" Jade was looking over the joints, raising an eyebrow as she checked it out and knocked on it in places.



ARGUS: "Hey, I didn't sthay I'd do it, just expressed my feelings on it! Calm your expansive tittiesth." He said, snorting. As she looked over the drone, guesstimating at its make and energy life, Argus just smiled and watched, swinning his leg to bump his heel casually against the side of the drone. "I wasn't planning on really doing anything with it, just take it home, bust it open, see how it ticksth and how buttmunch in there put it together. Just take it apart to give mysthelf something to do. I prefer using my own skills and abilities than rely on a bunch of lame-assth robot shocktroops. Or gunsth in general. Who needs guns when you can melt shit with your eyeballs, right?"



CANIS MAJORA: "I was wondering about that," Jade said, referring to the melted tires and ignoring the comment about her chest. She still pull her letterman jacket a little closer, though. "I don't think the police will miss one of these. So are you sticking around to lay claim to beating him, or are you just enjoying our conversation? Most capes I've seen tend to just..." She lifts her fists, opening them quickly and slowly moving her hands to the sides. "Poof! The police have mixed feelings about capes, but it's not like you're taking their job from them! Just handling what they can't."



ARGUS: "A mix of both." He said simply with a shrug. "Thought it'd be decent to at least stick around for any police questioning. It'sth how I did it when I did this shit back home. Don't really care how other local capes do their shit, I've got my own methods." He made himself comfortable, bending a leg and bringing it up farther on the drone, so he could rest his arm on his knee, his other leg still dangling and heeling the robot now and then. "Plus I didn't wanna passth up the chance to chat with someone who could technologically disable a drone almostht as quick as I can."



CANIS MAJORA: "Just one. Bec doesn't have the capacity to do what you did. Not yet. But in time, I'm hoping to get him up to being able to not only disable, but control stuff!" She looks over at the wrecked drone. "Without thaaaat happening," she says sheepishly, thumbing at the downed drone. "See, he's...not my design. He's my grandpa's. I'm sort of working with stuff that's already been made and computers and technology aren't really my forte. Physics is more my thing. Nuclear, applied, you know all that fun stuff where you figure out the math to make things go nyoom." She had walked over to the van, back against and hands touching at her waist. She was playing with her rings again as she looked up at him. "I forgot to introduce myself! My name's Jade. Jade Harley. It's nice to meet you Arguth Argus." She gives him another teasing grin.



ARGUS: "Ohhh, stho you're less of a hacker like me, and more like a rocket scientist, unlike me?" He asked. Sure, he was a little bit disappointed to find that he didn't just meet someone he could chat to about data structures, codes, hacking, programming and the like. But he was still pretty damn impressed- rocket science was no joke! "That's pretty rad, though. I know a thing or two about needin' to know the mathsth to make the thing happen, though in this case it's less physics, and more calculus. And lessth making actual, physical things go, and instead making software and the virtual world bend to your will."

ARGUS: For a moment, though, he suddenly paused, bringing a hand up to one of the bulbous sides of his helmet, turning his head as if he was listening. Then, after a few moments, he said. "Sthounds like the police are almost here. You stickin' around? You'd probably make a good eyewitnessth for puttin' Dr. Robotnik here in jail."



CANIS MAJORA: "I'd be happy to! My caretaker will probably be here soon, anyway, and she's way scarier than this guy when she's mad." She gave out a low whistle and lifted hands. "I'm definitely going to get a talking to after this. I'd say getting to meet you was worth getting grounded for a week." She grins at him again, one hand coming up to loop one finger through her hair. He was interesting, funny, smart, and cape. A little crush never hurt anyone. Of course, she wasn't about to act on it. The type of danger she presented wasn't something she was going to put someone else through. Jade looks up as the police drive up. "Here they come." They cops got out of their cars one after another, a couple moving to the vehicle while another two walked over to Jade. They told her to step away from the vehicle and asked her if she was a witness. "Yep. I saw the whole thing. I'll happily make a statement. First of which is that you should thank Argus for catching him and putting him a little box for you." Jade points to Argus on his makeshift throne. "He's a very cool hero." The officer she was speaking to turns to look up at Argus, lifting a hand to make some of the other officers who'd lifted guns at him stand down. As he approaches Argus, Jade is pulled aside. She manages to catch his eyes once more and mouths the words "See you around." at him.



ARGUS: "Grounded?? That'sth some way to thank a chick after she just helped save the goddamn day. If I were in charge, you'd get a medal." He was entirely unaware of her little schoolgirl crush on him, especially since the mention of her having a caretaker and being able to be grounded tipped him off that maybe he shouldn't be flirting with her anymore, subtly or otherwise. And that's when the police finally arrived- it's a good thing he was around, this asshole would've long since gotten away before they'd gotten here if it weren't for him! He wasn't surprised when they drew guns on him. He just sat very still on his hijacked drone until Jade introduced him, and when the guns were lowered, he struck a bit of a pose, grinning with his chest puffed out. And then Jade was led away to be questioned more thoroughly as a witness, while a few officers remained with Argus to ask him his point of view. He caught her eye as she was pulled away, though, and he gave her a playful salute with two fingers.