Just Another Day in Kansas City (Open)

[Tori Jacobs]

Gaia got dressed in her costume which consisted of everyday pieces of clothing, plus the bulletproof vest that she bought online, and walked out the walk-in basement door of her home and separated a piece of earth from the ground and formed it into a new platform before hoisting herself into the air and flying through the air to the main streets of Kansas City.

Ever since she took up the mantle of superhero, Mom had told her to take things slow. She started with getting cats out of trees, and grabbing balloons that children released on accident. To bicycle and car thieves, to date rape, and eventually to robbers of seven-elevens and drug dealers. She had already made a name for herself in the paper and countless news stations, as a being with superpowers walking through the streets was hard to ignore. It was all just part of the job now.

Gaia continued to fly through the air patrolling the streets of Kansas City when all of a sudden...

[Botchmun]

This world was strange. The building around her had a faceless, brutalist feel, slabs of oppressive gray. The people had a grayness to them as well, all business suits and black ties. Shannon found it hard to blend in, her vibrant orange body concealed under a Bullet Club T-shirt and some awkwardly fitting jeans, her wide helmet hidden (rather poorly) under a blonde wig. She stuck out like a sore thumb but people seemed to notice or care.

She stopped for a while, looking at her reflection in a store window. She was out of place to be sure, unique in this world. Well, "Unique" with an exception. She hadn't met anyone who compared to her, who she'd consider her equal. With a sigh, Shannon shrugged her shoulders and started walking again, contemplating the idea of robbing a store just to spice things up.

[Tori Jacobs]

Gaia continued to fly through and air when she saw someone on the ground below who stuck out among all the gray. Of course Gaia stuck out among all the gray in the city, too. That was part of the reason she liked to fly above them during times like these. But there was something suspicious about this person so Gaia decided to swoop down and get a closer look.

She couldn’t place her finger on it, but there was something ‘off’ about this person. Non human. There had been reports of people from other worlds arriving out of strange dimensional portals through unknown means. Making Kansas City a little bit more dangerous, so Gaia decided to be friendly for now until the person proved hostile. Landing in front of her and stepping off her platform.

”Hey stranger, what’re you buying?”

So it wasn’t her best opening line. Sue her.

[Botchmun]

Shannon turned to face the newcomer. She was... dressed like a hero. This world seemed to drab, to detached for heroes. Yet was one now, right in front of her. Shannon wanted to say something, to ask her where she was or what this world is all about. She wanted to ask how to get home or if this place really was such a drag. She wanted to do something, to say something.

Something other than what her programming demanded.

Boxmore was a company that catered to supervillains, and Shannon was one of the finest examples of their products. She couldn't fight her programming, she couldn't fight who she was. All shannon could do was sneer at this hero. "Buying? Honey, I wouldn't be caught dead looking at whatever you're selling." She put a hand on her hip, leaning to one side slightly and rolling her eyes. "Your mom help you make that costume?" Her snark capacitor was working overtime, it had been too long since she'd seen a hero.

[Tori Jacobs]

Gaia didn't seemed at all phased by the comment. It wasn't the first time somebody had to make a quip about her costume. It wasn't exactly the best costume in the world. But it worked for what she had to do. Of course, being quick witted herself, she already had a comeback for it.

"You try fighting crime on an allowance."

Had that one ready for a while, and she finally got to use it. It was true, too. On an allowance you couldn't buy much. Especially as a teenager who wasn't currently employed. But she had been searching for a job.

"Why the hostility?"

[Botchmun]

With a dramatic flourish, Shannon pulled off her ridiculous wig, revealing the synthetic flesh and brassy metal underneath. "Because I'm a villain, darling. It's what I do." She shifted one leg back, her knees bending as she lowered into an aggressive stance, her body coiled like a spring. "And if you think that was hostility."

The spring part might have been literal as Shannon's legs suddenly open up, orange panels extending and folding back as massive car springs at her ankles suddenly launch her at Gaia. "I'm just getting started!" She was going in for a wicked right hook, her arm cocked back and ready to throw a punch with all that momentum behind it.

[Tori Jacobs]

Gaia instincts had been correct. This woman wasn't even human. She was some kind of machine, but since when were machines this advanced? She couldn't have been from this world. Maybe one of the dimensional portals that have been opening lately brought her here? And she was a villain to boot. Well, Gaia was a hero, so the two just couldn't be friends.

Gaia raised up her hands and made a wall of earth rise up from the ground to block the woman's lunge so she would collide into the wall now separating the two from each other. Gaia could have exploded the wall in her face, but she wasn't wanting to harm her -- it -- that much yet.

"You know hitting a wall is bad for your hand."

[Botchmun]

There was a huge, resounding clang. The sound of something solid hitting something metal. The various people in the street suddenly scattered in fear, the few remaining forgoing basic survival instincts to film what they were seeing on their smartphones. Shannon stumbled back, her hand pulsing with pain, swollen and red. Wait, why would a robot's hand swell up and throb in agony? Deciding not to dwell on it, Shannon scowled at the stone wall between her and this hero.

"Thanks for the tip block-head..." Her hand folded in on itself, growing narrow and vanishing into her wrist. At the same time, the metal panels of her forearm opened up and a drill quickly folded out, taking the place of her hand before everything snapped back into place. Her new instrument of destruction quickly spun up as she pressed it against the slab of stone. With a mechanical wine and a grating hiss the drill pierced into the slab.

"...But I know the drill" Shannon had been constructed for combat by a brilliant, albeit petty supervillain, and his handiwork showed as she lifted the rock wall from the ground, advancing once more but this time looking ready to try and flatten her opponent with her own defences.

[Tori Jacobs]

"Blockhead? How rude!"

That's right, Gaia just quoted Stephanie Tanner from Full House. She loved that show, but enough about her favorite TV shows. She had a fight to win. Though the criminal really wasn't doing anything illegal now, she had decided to start this battle with Gaia, so Gaia was going to finish it before any innocents could be harmed in the crossfire. As Shannon drilled through the slab and lifted up the wall, Gaia took control of the wall with her geokinetics and lifted it up in the air before dropping it down right for the head of the machine as Gaia jumped back to create some distance between herself and the robot.

"Heads up."

[Botchmun]

This wasn't exactly going to plan, Shannon had to admit this now. she had spun up her drill to try and get free, but after being lifted off the ground she couldn't brace herself at, she was at the mercy of her own power tool. In an embarrassing display, Shannon spun herself around at 3500 RPM before winding up slammed down onto the ground, pinned under the stone slab.

Shannon wondered to herself, when did she lose control of the situation? She had fought heroes with telekinetic abilities before, she was well versed in fighting people with a wide variety of powers at their disposal, she should've had this! Shannon took a second to consider her situation. She was smooshed under a stone slab, pinned in a roughly square crater, and she looked like a total dork spinning around before it happened.

"Ugh..." She couldn't believe she had to do this so soon, calling on her trump card. "Grounder!" An upside down trash can in an alley suddenly skidded out into the middle of the street. "Yes, Boss?" Grounder still felt wrong calling Shannon boss, even after she kicked his ass and modified his programming. "Distract that hero." the trashcan split in half and a small, green robot on tank treads was sitting there, one of its arms ending in a blow torch, probably what it used to cut itself free of its disguise. "Sure thing, Boss." Grounder turned towards Gaia, the blow-torch vanishing into his arm and quickly replaced by a mechanical hand holding a pair of nunchaku. "I'm gunna put this damsel in distress!"

[Tori Jacobs]

Well, that was easy. Though Gaia had only spent her time catching petty thugs, so easy kind of became the norm after a while. She was glad the robot was grounded, until she called for help. Great, there was more of these things around? Gaia looked over to Grounder and it looked like she was going to go from one fight to the next with another machine that might have been unpredictable.

"Think about this. I just took out your boss, you sure you want to fight me?"

Gaia didn't know if she could reason with a machine, but maybe just maybe she can avoid another battle so soon.

[Botchmun]

Grounder paused, nunchucks falling limp. "Hey, yeah!" He turned to the stone slab stuck in the ground. "She beat you, how am I gunna have any chance against her?" The green little robot stared at the slab in confusion, something certainly wasn't processing here. "Grounder, please..." Her voice was dripping with disdain. "You're just distracting her while I get free." The voice was muffled, but loud enough for Grounder and Gaia to hear Shannon's plans.

"Oh, right!" The machine's head rotated 180 degrees to face Gaia, then the rest of his body turned as well. "I'll show you who's gunna beat who!" With a sound like a hot rod revving up its engine (despite the robot being on tank treads) Grounder raced forward, swinging his nunchaku in an aggressive flurry. It was clear he had no idea what he was doing, and was so short the highest he could reach was her shoulders with the weapon, but he was still a robot wielding essentially a stick on a chain.

Shannon took the opportunity to raise the stone slightly, her body transforming into a new form under the slab as she made ready to break free.

[Tori Jacobs]

Gaia had to sigh. No one ever wanted to listen to reason anymore. Though it was close until Shannon had to speak and reveal her plans altogether right in front of her. Not smart. But before Gaia could make sure Shannon couldn't break free, Grounder began to charge at her with a weapon.

"Please, you're embarrassing yourself."

Gaia shot out a vine from her palm to snatch the nunchaku out of his hands and smack him in the face with them when he got close.

"And now I have your weapon."

[Botchmun]

"O-Oh..." Grounder looked at his now empty hand, his head still ringing like a big brass bell after that vine whip. He had to change his tact a bit to deal with this hero, his other limb's drill head retracting into his arm with a metal clicking noise.

"Good thing I got back-up weapons!" From the hole in his forearm emerged a small rack on an extended metal gimble. The rack itself wasn't too threatening, but the three small rockets sitting on it certainly had an intimidating air to them. Grounder had to keep his arm angled up like he was holding three little darts, adjusting the gimble and lining his ordinance up with Gaia and grinning with malicious intent.

[Tori Jacobs]

Now he had rockets. Perfect. Well, he was a robot of course he would have rockets. Bunch of machines had rockets in the video games, so why not this thing. As a matter of fact, Grounder looked like something off of a video game, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"I hate to do this to you, but..."

Gaia tapped her right foot and the ground beneath Grounder shot up like a catapult to send Grounder flying into the air.