Welcome to the gunshow

[trustheart]

Who: Chris & you [open], plus a closed prompt to Hibiki and Maria
What: Getting Used to New Surroundings
When: Late September
Where: Excelsior, Central City
Content Warnings: N/A, will update if there are any

Comments

[trustheart]

"Who cares if I'm new or not?" she growled. "There's a job to do and I can't do it by myself."

So yes.

"...But either way, thanks."

[robintohood]

"You're welcome," he replies, still amused. She's spunky. Jason will give her that much. "You're lucky you landed in a city full of costumed weirdos."

[trustheart]

"Yeah, lucky," she replied. "Being taken away from my home and half my friends. And actually, I landed in Excelsior."

[robintohood]

"Oh? That must've been fun," he says. Jason also notes that she said "half" of her friends. Does this mean she already has allies here? "I heard things are starting to get bad there."

[trustheart]

"There were protests when I came to," she said with a nod. "But once I met up with the friends I did have here, we got out of there pretty fast."

[robintohood]

Jason nods, feeling a little sympathetic to her. He's seen the protests increase in intensity in Central City over the last couple of months.

"Lucky for you that you weren't alone then. They're metas too?"

[trustheart]

"That's right," she said. "But don't expect me to give up their identities or nothin'."

She finishes with the zip ties.

"Speaking of which, what do I call you?"

[robintohood]

"Red Hood," Jason replies with a little salute as he watches her. "You got a codename yet?"

[trustheart]

"Red Hood, huh? Makes me think of a fairy tale," she said with a smirk. "And you can call me Ichaival."

[robintohood]

Jason chuckles, unoffended by Chris's comment. He's self-aware enough to know it's not the most intimidating name to non-Gothamites.

"I'm my own huntsman too if I ever get lost on my way to grandma's house, Ichaival."

[trustheart]

"Nice," Chris replied, standing up. She grinned, and glanced down at his holsters.

"I see you're carrying. What kind of pistols are those?"

[robintohood]

Despite his helmet, Jason can't help but smirk back at her.

"Jericho 941s. Nothing too fancy but they usually get the job done," he replies. His arsenal is large enough that he's free to switch to whatever type of handguns he wanted. A vigilante with a reputation like his needed the variety, lest he be too easy to identify. Tonight just happened to be a Jericho mood.

"I've never seen your gear before."

[trustheart]

"A solid choice," Chris says with a nod. At his statement, she grins yet again, and holds up her weapons.

"As for my gear...it's custom," she explained..right before morphing them into a pair of heavy chain-guns, which she lifted seemingly effortlessly.

[robintohood]

Jason makes a low whistle, impressed by Chris's weapons. It seems very useful to have transforming weapons.

As he looks over them and Chris's armor, it dawns on him that it somewhat reminds him of Hibiki's. Sure, the armors' colors, weapons, and even fighting styles are different but it's not often that armor looks the way Hibiki and Chris's do.

"No kidding. I've never seen gear like that before," Jason says. For now, he won't mention Hibiki. Even if he was absolutely sure Chris and Hibiki are from the same world, Chris is understandably protective about who her allies are and he doesn't want to reveal his cards on the table. "Ever had problems reloading them?"

[trustheart]

Chris wonders if that's true, since Hibiki mentioned being a famous hero. Wouldn't lotsa of people have seen it by now?

"They reload themselves," Chris explained with a smirk. It was actually more complicated then that; her phonic gain turned energy into matter and auto-generated whatever ranged weapon her imagination could create. "I never have to worry about running out of ammunition."

[robintohood]

"Well now I'm jealous," Jason lightly jokes, though still impressed. "Do you know how expensive it gets to keep buying ammo?"

Jason guesses that there must be a catch to having that type of ammunition but he also makes a mental note that this means Chris could be a very tough opponent if they ever fight each other. He has to be careful.

"How long you've been using those guns?"

[trustheart]

Chris raised her hands again, and the chain guns seemed to fold into and disappear into her armor.

"I imagine it must be," she said, rubbing her wrists. "And I've been using them for a while...at least since I was 14."

[robintohood]

Jason's helmet hides the slight furrow his brow is making. 14 is too young for a lot of things, including fighting.

"That's a pretty early start for anyone," he says in a neutral tone. He assumes there are reasons why she started young.

[trustheart]

"...It's a long story," she sighed. "And...what's done is done. But I use these to protect now, not to destroy my enemies."

[robintohood]

"Clearly," he says calmly and not surprised. "Been doing that job long?"

[trustheart]

"A couple years now," she replied, wondering where the police were. But this guy seemed decent enough to talk to. "I just came in through the confluence in this world, though."

[robintohood]

"Seems like the case for a lot of metas in this world. There's a new batch every month as far as I can tell."

Jason's unconcerned with the cops' response time for now. It's typical for them to be this slow and at least the criminal they apprehended isn't going anywhere anytime soon.

[trustheart]

"...every month?" Chris asked. "What, it's not all at the same time, is it?"

[robintohood]

"From what I've seen, they seem to show up towards the end of every month," Jason replies.

He's lurked at the Diadem Hotel's lobby often enough to notice the pattern now.

[trustheart]

Chris blinked several times, before gritting her teeth and clenching her hands into fists.

"Okay, I can't speak to what exactly, but...that shit is definitely planned! It can't be random!"