Lights Out in Metro

Summary:
January 14 2015: Jericho runs into Lux and May by pure chance. No really.

St. Martins Island

Metropolis' St. Martin's island is upscale and very safe… usually.


Characters

NPCs

  • None

Mood Music:
[* None]


It's been a few days since Jericho talked to Audrey and gave her the keys to one of his safehouses. Which effectively burns the place for him so among other things he went about hunting for another one to set up. The process has taken a few days but he was fairly sure he had a decent spot lined up… which is when the power went out from a terrorist attack.

Citywide power outs are bad and even if power can be rerouted from nearby cities (which they will be shortly, he's sure), there's still a lot of interruption of critical services to contend with in that initial period and that tends to bring out the crazies and the criminals…

And the contract killers.

Jericho has K'nert exactly so that he can get out of these situations but sometimes there isn't a stepping disk to hand. There usually is but every once in a while that's just not the case. Which nicely explains, as the hacker vaults behind a hedge in a nice St. Martin's Island neighborhood, why his traces are glowing and his blade is stained with blood and arm and chest have feedback burns.

Audrey has yet to actually go into the apartment. She meant to. But then she ran into some trouble while she was scouting the area. And then when she was almost ready the second time, she ran into a very strange man at the market. Now she's watching the place again, and with the chaos of the power outage, she's finally close enough to a rock and a hard place to actually seek out some proper shelter.

Except she needs to get from the nice part of town here, back to there. Which is a time-consuming activity. Especially when she's not convinced it won't stay more orderly here in this part of town. Jericho's sudden appearance puts paid to that idea, though, and she jumps back in surprise as he pops into being practically in front of her.

SHIELD was mobilized the moment word went out about the multiple terrorist attacks. Every available agent is doing what they can to help, and of all of May's skills, her ability to pilot just about anything designed to travel through air is what gets tapped. She's just arrived in Metropolis piloting one of the Bus's more utilitarian siblings, and her personal phone pings the presence of a signal she would not have expected to see around here. Trent.

As the crew on the giant cargo jet get started unloading, she tells one of them she wants to check on an acquaintance in the area. The crewman, not knowing any better, simply agrees and she hurries away from the jet and 'borrows' the nearest motorcycle. Okay, so she told the MetroPD officer she'd return it as he was staring at her SHIELD ID. She'll get Coulson to help her write up the paperwork later.

Aviators protecting her eyes, she hastily links her comm earpiece to her personal phone and initiates a call. "Trent, if you can hear me, give me coordinates."

Jericho's eyes are wide and he's covered in sweat and panting from having run very hard and very fast. When Audrey appears in front of him his blade flicks up for an instant before he recognizes her, reaches for her wrist and pulls her down. "Shhhhhhh." He hisses, glancing behind him. He had been about ready to loose them. So long as Audrey doesn't slug him or scream they should be good. His wrist is burnt, Audrey can see. And his hand, the one he's grabbing at her with. And probably the arm behind all that.

May gets a text response from Jericho. 'St. Martin's Island. Coordinates incoming. Careful, Criminal Hitters active in the area. Think I lost them.'

Audrey ducks down at the pull, immediately and instinctively taking cover. Taking cover for her, though, is a little more intensive than most people. In the moment that she and Trent go down, both of them simply disappear as she forces the light to pass through both of them, rendering the pair invisible. To Trent, that's likely going to look a bit odd. Audrey can still "see" through the invisibility, but Trent isn't going to be able to see his own hands.

Melinda May is in the habit of preparing for the worst, so as soon as the coordinates come in from Trent she's off on the police motorcycle, only a smallish backpack in addition to her 'every day' attire. His message was worrisome. 'Criminal Hitters' from him likely means a HYDRA strike force trying to destroy him. Again. And as much as she hates riding motorcycles in winter weather, this is the absolute fastest way to get there.

Jericho's light goes out. Which is good it prevents him from being given away by his traces. Butass noted… he can't see himself. Or Audrey. He can still feel her wrist and the fact that she hasn't struggled, which is good. May gets another text. 'Am here with an acquiantance. Running from DoD. Careful how you mention SHIELD.'

He just crouches there behind the hedge panting for several long minutes, just listening. "I think they're gone." He finally whispers. "Nice trick by the way. Freaked me the hell out." Beat. "What are you doing here?"

Audrey is very still, concentrating on keeping them from being seen by whoever might be after Jericho. Only when he speaks does she let out a slow, quiet breath, though she maintains the veil for the moment. "Sorry," she says quietly. "Instinct. And I was just…looking into some things. And then apparently something went down, because the city's sort of been in chaos for the last couple of hours. Where did you come from?"

Pepper Potts arrives from OOC Land.

Pepper Potts heads to the IC Nexus.

Melinda May arrives within a block of Trent's coordinates and kills the motorcycle's engine, letting the bike coast as far as it can before pulling it off to one side of the street and continuing on foot. She's moving with extra caution (and her sash whip in hand) just in case she runs afoul of the people that had been chasing Jericho. No one yet, but she maintains vigilance.

"Don't be sorry. Good instinct." Beat. "Power's out." Jericho murmurs. "Terrorist attacks. Multiple locations. Lots of services got interrupted. They're rerouting power from other places but it'll take a while." He glances up at the sound of a motorcycle engine, shifting to see who it is. Ah. May. She must have been close.

"I was running from people who want me dead, long story short. That's not one of them though, lady in the black motorcycle leathers."

"So you're ready to be seen?" Audrey asks quietly, throwing an illusion of the back side of the hedge over both of them and letting the invisibility fade. They're not likely to be seen from the outside of the illusion tent, but at least they're visible inside of it now.

Melinda May approaches cautiously, almost directly on top of the coordinates but not yet able to see Trent or his acquaintance. Of course, she knows that Jericho will make his presence known when he's ready. So in the meantime, she takes the moment to secure the area. Then, unwittingly just a yard or so from their hiding place, she taps at the comm in her ear still linked to her phone and hence Trent. "Area is clear. You gonna keep hiding?"

"No, I think we're about done." Jericho stands slowly. He's still got a bloodstained gunblade in his left hand and his right is burnt. He looks like hell, honestly. Only mild amounts of hell though which is somewhat appropriate. "Don't move suddenly. Audrey here is keeping us hidden ish. Long story." He takes a deep breath.

"How'd you know I was out here?"

Audrey lets the illusion fall, adding a bit of a shimmering effect only to soften the reveal and avoid startling Trent's friend. She stands slowly, just as he does. But there's a slight change. Even as they stand, she's crafting a more delicate illusion over the man, hiding bloodstains, burns, and weapons. Trent may trust May, but Audrey isn't quite so inclined. Especially when that's the question at hand.

Melinda May turns in the direction of Jericho's voice, then watches the faint shimmer as the two of them reappear from seemingly nowhere as her hands start to fold up the length of black silk she'd been holding. "My phone," is all she offers to the hacker as a reply while she gives Audrey an evaluating visual once-over. Finally, she seems to be standing down from full alert. A little anyway. "I can smell the blood. Which of you is injured?"

She's good. Jericho glances down at himself. Ah. Audrey hid it. Interesting. Well he won't out her quite yet. "I am. Took some fire while out here seeing to some details. Was extending my safehouse network."

Audrey will probably bolt if she learns that May's with SHIELD, or at least if she learns the wrong way. On the other hand, if they hide it from her and she finds out… she'll go to ground and they won't find her again. Maybe it's just a case of breaking it easy. "What's going on out there May? You're normally in New York. Work bring you here?" Now there's a leading question…

Audrey straightens slightly under the inspection, an unconscious, involuntary, trained response that reads US Army loud and clear. But this girl? Clearly too young to have that sort of response without some sort of story behind it. When May asks about the blood, she lets the illusion covering Jericho's damage fade, this time without the obvious shimmering effect. And the gun-blade stays hidden. Just in case.

Jericho glances over at Audrey and quirks a brow. He gets hiding herself. Why she'd bother to hide his own injuries is an excellent question. It's not like they really know eachother that well. He offered to help her, sure, but kept his distance for the most part afer that. The exchange is wordless but she might catch a gleam in his eyes. A literal one. Odd amber light giving his look a rather curious cast to it.

Melinda May looks from Jericho to Audrey and back as if unsurprised by the hacker hiding injuries. "My agency heard about the attacks on New York, Gotham, and Metropolis. Sent out support and relief crews immediately. I flew the relief supplies jet." Hopefully that's enough to calm the girl a bit. Her reactions are … not normal for a girl her age, and she can see why Jericho offered the warning he did. And, thankfully, what she said was completely true. She just conveniently omitted the part about the quinjets with strike forces that accompanied her.

The hacker nods. "Ah. That makes some sense." He glances over. "Her name's May. She's helped me out before. Off the books. Knows how to stay quiet about things." He pauses for a moment for emphasis. "I trust her." Which is saying something considering who's after him.

Trent offered Audrey help. And even if she hasn't trusted the safe house enough yet to actually take advantage of it, she's also not inclined to hand anyone over to anyone else. So she's not going to let him appear weak until she's sure May is a friend. "What happened?" she finally says when May explains. Her voice is low, and soft, carefully modulated. "People are close to panicking. The slums are emptying out like the tide before a tsunami."

Melinda May carefully pulls her backpack around then after a quick glance around, gestures for Jericho and Audrey to move to a park bench a few feet away. "My agency is still trying to find out. Looks like terrorist attacks, though. The main power plant here in Metropolis was hit. Last I heard, my Director is trying to get in touch with Stark Industries to get some of their power generators down here."

Jericho looks about, frowning. "Nothing no the networks I monitor so it must have been from an outside source." He doesn't offer his assistance to May because he's plenty busy as it stands but she knows that all she has to do is ask. He's never refused to help her before.

"Is there any chance that there will be follow up attacks." Knocking out power grids is a prelude, often, to more concerted military action. He's asking partly for himself and partly so Audrey will know if this area's going t obe safe.

Agencies. Directors. Audrey knows what those sorts of terms are connected to. She hangs back a little bit from the bench, hands in her pockets, but doesn't run. "It's cold," she points out quietly. "There are going to be a lot of people in a bad place if the power doesn't keep running." Not that May doesn't know that. Audrey grimaces, looking off toward the deeper parts of the city. "Trains are down, aren't they?"

Melinda May waits for Jericho to sit then kneels in front of him and opens the backpack, revealing a neatly packed and conprehensive field medical kit. And two bottles of Gatorade dumped unceremoniously on top. She offers one to Trent immediately before digging for the supplies she needs to deal with his injuries.

"Everything's down. Why my director is trying to get Stark to send down as many generators as possible. Gotham and New York didn't have their power grids hit, thankfully." She looks up at Audrey briefly, and offers intel that could very likely get her in trouble. "I heard chatter that the person responsible was apprehended already. By Wonder Woman."

Jericho snorts. "You mean 'Agent Diana Prince' don't you?" The wryness in his voice is apparent. Seems a lot of people are going government these days. Sure, the JL:A isn't on paper a direct reporting unit of SHIELD but it's hard to escape the impression that the agency wields a lot of influence there. Especially with people like Wonder Woman becoming UN Agents.

"You thinking it might be hard to get across town?" He glances over at May's bike and up the street. "My car isn't too far from here. Has a rack we could put that bike on too if all three of us are going." Or if May doesn't want, the offer still stands for the young Mutant.

"Do they know why yet?" Audrey does her best to look like she didn't hear Jericho provide a name for Wonder Woman. That is not something she needs to know. Or for people to think she knows. Especially if they're from some sort of agency. Trent's offer gets a long moment of consideration as she catches her lower lip between her teeth. This isn't where she wants to stay. But getting in the car with Trent and some sort of Agent is a big step for trust.

"Well, I did promise that police officer I'd return it," May offers a bit wryly even as she offers Trent a brief warning glare at the comment about 'Agent Diana Prince'. "And I can't stay long. I have to get the jet back to base for the next load of relief supplies as soon as they're done offloading the current run." She makes a mental note to ask about getting a SHIELD issue vehicle included in the next run. Just in case.

Looking up at Audrey again while prodding Jericho to drink the Gatorade (it's the blue stuff), she shrugs one shoulder slightly. "Not that I've heard. But then, I'm just a pilot."

Jericho nods. "Sure thing, then." That went less disastrously than many of his introductions. He does catch Audrey's hesitation though.

"Audrey… you know that I'm on the run and you know why. I'd never, ever, put you in a position where you could be brought in, okay? Promise. And I wouldn't expose you to anyone who I think would either."

Audrey takes a breath, then lets it out slowly, nodding. "Yeah," she says quietly. "Yeah, of course." And also, if she stays in the nice part of town with panicked, middle-class people, someone's eventually going to call the cops on the strange girl wandering around, which is going to make things worse. She falls in with the hacker, though she's still keeping and eye on May.

Melinda May starts working on those of Jericho's injuries she can see, pressing a packet of Advil into his hand after his first sip of the Gatorade. She glances toward Audrey again, then offers, "Maybe you should both go visit your friend Nancy." The burns aretreated with a mild ointment, as May knows they're not externally created so there's little to do but make the discomfort tolerable until they can heal on their own. "If it would help, I might be able to get you both over to New York." She puts a layer of gauze over one of the worst of the burns. "Just, steer clear of Central Park. Fire crews are still there, last I heard."

"I think we can make do here…" Jericho doesn't mention that Audrey has access to one of his places. He mentions this partly because he knows Audrey will feel safer if May doesn't know and partly because he knows that May doesn't want to know where his places are in case he ever has to use them to hide from rampant SHIELD insanity. It's been close a couple of times. He's takes the advil and downs it with another swallow of gatorade.

"Mmmmm. You know, May, I bet that with all the activity there's a lot of searches and data crunching being done on the computers at base right?" He's going somewhere with that. "I'll bet if you were to do some searches on the people behind the Army's next gen soldier programs yo might go unnnoticed?" He glances over at Audrey. He'd like that information. And even if she doesn't want it now, it's possible she might at some point.

Audrey glances to Jericho at his question, the flash of panic that he's provided some information soon followed by her own curiosity. She wraps her arms around herself, shifting her weight awkwardly from one foot to the other. "I know who was in charge of my unit," she says quietly, with a slightly pointed look at the hacker. "But someone has to be approving the funding for what's apparently multiple units."

Melinda May nods to Jericho as she patches the last of the hacker's visible injuries. "I could, but it wouldn't be right away. They've got me ferrying at least three more runs today, and no telling what'll come down the pike tomorrow." Now, she /could/ request someone else dig up that info for her, but that would cause someone to start asking questions, and she can tell by Audrey's defensive posture and quiet explanation that that's the last thing the girl needs.

"No rush on it." Jericho says casually. Unless he tells her later there is. Which he might if, for example, he had reason to believe Audrey's pursuers had caught up with her. The girl herself gets an apologetic look. He knows from experience that to end a pursuit of this nature requires leverage and information. Hell, he still hasn't ended his and it's been going on two years now. "Up ahead. The white X-5."

"It's okay," Audrey says quickly when May replies, shaking her head. "I don't exactly have the resources to do anything about it anyhow." See? Totally harmless here. Nothing worth looking into. Or possibly setting off alerts. Giving anyone any ideas. She keeps her arms wrapped around herself, like any lost girl being picked up after an emergency, but she's watching the surrounding area as she goes. Just in case.

Melinda May presses the second Gatorade bottle into Jericho's hands then closes up the medical kit and slings it onto her back again. "I'll leave you be to go to ground, then. But Trent," She looks at him levelly. "Next time, call me for an assist." With that, she walks back over to that police motorcycle waiting over there and starts its engine.

Jericho accepts the second bottle and gives May a pat on the arm. "Will do. Be careful out there. Folks are knocking over powerplants, who knows what's next?"

He walks over to the car and opens the passenger side door. It's… not a standard X-5, audrey can probably tell pretty easily. Armored. Run flat tires. HUD system in the windscreen. Up engined. This is a car meant to only look like a normal car.

The car, at least, is reassuring. At least at first glance. If Audrey stopped to think about what else a car like that could do, she'd probably be worried, but at the moment? At least she knows Jericho is on the run, too, and in worse shape than she is. But in that car? They'll be just fine. Before she gets in, she pauses to look toward May, clearing her throat softly. "Nice meeting you, ma'am," she says politely, dipping her chin.

Melinda May looks over at Audrey. "Likewise." She carefully turns the motorcycle, puts on her sunglasses, and starts off back toward the SHIELD landing area, intentionally not watching the other two go on their way. It's as close as she can get to giving the clearly nervous young woman her promise of confidentiality.

Once the police officer has his bike back and May is back in the cargo jet's cockpit waiting for the all clear to take off, she sends one last text to Jericho. "Couch is free if desired." It's code for an offer to stay in her personal home — a place she very diligently keeps SHIELD out of.

Jericho Trent grins. "I figure people will always eventually figure out I'm me. But if you're trying to hide it you're doing quite well."

Jericho Trent chuckles. "You do her well though, I think. And no, May. I haven't particularly heard any of those either."


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