The Adventure

Rocketeer's aerial acrobatics concern Ragnar. Not a lot, just a smidgen. He wields Lightningfang, after all!

But just to be safe...he conjures up a pea-soup fog, chilling the air and reducing visibility to just a few feet. The more timid bystanders rush inside, not liking where this is going. The more courageous ones fiddle with their phones, trying to see if there's some special option that'll let them see through the fog.

Ragnar stalks Rocketeer through the fog, focusing on her last location. He's certain her high-tech armor has scanning functions, but maybe he can get the jump on her before she can activate them....

"Huh?! Oh, I didn't want you to fight me, just demonstrate your skills! I'd scan you while you did your thing, then make a determination of your ability!"

"Buuuutttt...since you're so gung-ho, why don't we have a little scuffle? Just something quick...and friendly...."

"Friendly" doesn't sound very friend-like....

The girl genius clicks a button on her tool-belt, and a faint shimmer surrounds her. Some sort of force field? She then grabs her antimatter shotgun from a nearby table, loads a shell, and points it at Fei-fei!

In her best Michael Buffer voice: "Leeettttt's get ready to rummmblllee!"

---

As Ragnar fights Rocketeer, Tomo sniffles as she calls the police.

"Snff...y-yeah, h-he stripped right in front of us! And he chased after me with a w-weapon...now he's chasing the woman who was trying to h-help me! W-we're on Rivercreek Ave."

A fog, seriously? Engaging infrared.

Her visor shifts modes, allowing her to see Ragnar and the few bystanders who were brave, or foolish, enough to stay outside. She kicks over a nearby trashcan to make some noise intended to draw him towards her, then she sneaks away on foot. From behind a car, she watches his approach carefully, trying to judge the right moment to strike...

She comes out of hiding and rockets towards him. However, she knows she probably can't beat him in a straight fight... so long as he's holding the source of his power. When she comes close, she reaches out for Lightningfang and tries to swipe it as she's passing by!

"Hey now, guns are against the rules." Fei-fei's tone is petulant, but the aura around her grows until it seems as though she's surrounded by a see through snakelike entity.

She takes a breath, her eyes set on Eliza's and when she hears the bark of the shotgun she drops to the floor with an inhuman grace. She darts forward closing the distance in the time it takes her to let her breath go. As soon as her front foot is planted she delivers one, two, three and more arrow fast strikes.

Ragnar is flabbergasted as Lightningfang is suddenly...not there! He thought he had a tight grip on it, but Rocketeer's powerful blow-by ripped it right from his hands!

The fog immediately dissipates, and the lightning that perpetually crackles around him is reduced to just a few sparks. However, he doesn't transform into a powerless form, a la Bruce Banner; this is basically his form. Losing the sword is still a major blow...as his red face and crazy eyes indicate.

"GIVE...THAT...BACK! It's bonded to ME, foul woman!"

---

Round Three

11: Rocketeer – down to Mad Rocket Scientist (3), High-Flying Daredevil (1)
11: Ragnar – down to Demi-god (3), Alcoholic (2), lost Lightningfang
5: Tomo – down to Another Weird Day (0)

Rocketeer, you're up!

"Aw, shit! Is that magic?! It's always----"

Having dodged the shotgun blast, Fei-fei's rapid-fire strikes send Eliza hurtling towards the large mound of dug-up dirt! She crashes into it with a THWUMP, sending up a cloud of dust.

Her mother and her robo-minions are at her side instantly, pulling her out of the mound and checking her for injuries. Between the squeaks and squawks of the robots and the worried/lecturing tone of Sarah, the noise is overwhelming.

"ENOUGH! I'm fine! My forcefield protected me. I'm just dirty...and pissed off. I can't believe she dodged that blast. I thought I'd calculated the spread to hit anything in front of me at that distance!"

She slowly walks over to Fei-fei, trying to delay her admittance of defeat. But it can only be avoided for so long, so finally she says....

"You've got some skill...looks like you've got a martial arts style that lets you tap into special powers? Hmmm...wonder how many there are, and if they could be isolated...."

"Anyway, you won (barely!), so whaddaya want from me now? Make it reasonable! I'm not gonna hand over my robot army or anything like that!"

Rocketeer skids to a stop, digging into the asphalt with her boots. Lightningfang is gripped firmly in her grasp. Picking up reduced atmospheric charge in his vicinity. That definitely dealt a blow to his power.

Picking up on his impotent rage, she decides to piss him off even further by poking at his insecurities.

"So you say. But wouldn't you rather bond with me, oh powerful Lightningfang? I'm not a useless, alcoholic piece of shit still stewing in their breakup," she says mockingly. She brings Lightningfang up to her ear, as if she can really hear what it's saying, if it's even sentient at all. She can't, of course, but she proceeds with her lambasting. "Oooh... Looks like your precious sword is breaking up with you too. Without it, what are you? Just a man, and not much of one. Using your great mighty power to get piss drunk and pick on women. This is why she left you."

Fei-fei blinks, taken aback by the question. "Huh? No, I don't want anything. I thought we were just-"

"I believe the agreed terms were that you'd point us in the direction of the supers, and we could deliver a hard drive." Boodha interjects before she can sabotage herself.

Somewhere along the way he ended up with a glass of lemonade, and he's already drunk a lot of it from what anyone can see. Still, he takes a sip before continuing, his eyes closed in a feline smile. "And if there's anything else you'd like us to pass along?"

Fei-fei rolls her eyes and scoffs, not really sure why winning made her an errand girl.

"Useless?! How dare you?! I've saved thousands of people all over the world! What have you done that's comparable?! You couldn't even find Raines without me, and he was in your own backyard!"

"And picking on women?! That fool puked on me twice, and you did nothing but watch! I guess you thought it was humorous! 'Ha ha, look at Ragnar covered in vomit! Maybe I'll take a photo and put it online, so everyone can laugh along with me!'"

"I've had enough of your hypocrisy and callousness! It seems you want a serious fight, so you'll fuckin' get one! But first, I WILL have my sword back!"

Powered by anger and desperation, he lunges towards Rocketeer, grabbing her gauntlets before she can jet away! He wrenches Lightningfang from her grasp, then shoves her aside.

Back in its owner's hand, the blade glows bright blue, and lightning swirls rapidly around Ragnar. Dark clouds appear above, blotting out the sun and giving the battlefield an apocalyptic vibe. The remaining bystanders decide they're not that courageous, and scurry inside, leaving you two alone to duke it out.

Ragnar advances towards Rocketeer, his eyes literally spewing blue fire!

---

Ragnar gets Lightningfang back, and restores 2 dice! This is again a "special attack," so Rocketeer doesn't lose dice, like Ragnar didn't lose additional dice earlier.

Round Three

11: Rocketeer – down to Mad Rocket Scientist (3), High-Flying Daredevil (1)
11: Ragnar – Demi-god +2 pump this round, Alcoholic (2)
5: Tomo – down to Another Weird Day (0)

Ragnar's turn coming up!

And as he stated, this combat is now serious bizness!

No less than five lightning bolts slash down from the roiling, black clouds, hitting Lightningfang and causing it to vibrate with power! It no longer looks like a sword, but some item of pure, unstoppable energy!

Ragnar then sends the empowered blade directly towards Rocketeer's head in an arcing slash...and he's not using the flat of the blade this time!

"Hmmm...fair enough."

Still not wanting to enlist Fei-fei, but obligated to because of her own agreement, she takes her sweet time fiddling with her Eliza-pad.

"The supes went that way [points]...huh...those menacing clouds weren't there before. Safe bet they're involved in whatever that is."

Now that Ragnar is unleashed, you really don't need Eliza's directions to find them. You do, however, need the flash drive...which she finally hands to Boodha, not Fei-fei.

"Hold on a sec. I need to update my contact. I'll tell them anti-heroes are coming to the exchange, so don't act too heroic. They don't seem to like the run-of-the-mill beat-up-poor-people heroes."

"And I say them, because I don't know this person's...group's?...gender. An analysis of their messages indicates a woman, but ya never can tell on the dark web...they think I'm a dude, after all...."

After a few seconds of tapping, she's apparently exchanged a few dark web messages with her contact.

"OK, they have no objection to anything. Their name is Echo, by the way, but dunno if you'll meet them or not. They might send a middle-man, just like I am."

"There's an abandoned church to the south of Small Town called the Pillar of Fire Hope Center. Ugghhh...creeps me out just sayin' the name. Glad they ran outta money and had to abandon the place...."

"Meet 'em there, give 'em the flash drive. It has a bunch of engineering stuff on it...blueprints, theories, etcetera. This Echo is plenty smart, but I've got the edge in engineering, so we barter our knowledge. And the drive is encrypted, so don't fiddle with it. They'll already know how to open it, don't worry."

"And remember, you're picking up an impregnium ingot. That stuff is rare, I know, and I don't wanna get duped, so scan it with this before you hand over the drive. That's why I don't just shoot them all this info over the Internet...don't wanna get backstabbed."

She hands Boodha a device the size of a playing card. It has a small screen and some sort of LED-scanning thing on its top edge.

"Scan it with the Analyzer 5000. If it says it's impregnium with at least 95% purity, we're good to go."

She rubs her chin, pondering if she's missing anything.

"Think you're all set! Guess you're gonna rendezvous with the other supes and then head to the church? Oh, and don't worry...I don't think I've mentioned a reward, but I'll cobble something together for you all if you bring me back that ingot!"

Rocketeer gets back up after being thrown to the ground. Faced with Ragnar's wrath, she can't help but grin. This is the sort of danger she craves. "Now we're talking. Look at you, finally putting on your big boy pants!"

He got his sword back, but he's pushing himself. He can't go on forever.

Neither can she, but she's willing to bet on outlasting him.

She stands ready for Ragnar's next attack, but he's far faster than she expects. She quickly surmises she's not going to be able to retreat into the air or dodge in time, so she reaches out with her technopathy. Immediately, every street lamp in the vicinity is turned on, their lightbulbs pushed far beyond their normal output, bathing the street in intense light. Rocketeer's visor protects her eyes, but Ragnar is effectively blinded for a moment right before he swings. Taking advantage of this, she manages to narrowly avoid being hit in the head, but the slash still scores across her chestplate, nearly reaching her flesh.

In rapid succession, the overworked bulbs of the streetlamps burst.

Piss him off. Keep making him exhaust his power.

"Like I said, you're nothing with that sword!" Rocketeer takes to the air. "And before you try to claim we're the same, I put this armor together with my own hands. I'm not suckling from the teat of some magical artifact."

Preparing the launchers embedded into her gauntlets, she circles around Ragnar while launching a small salvo of missiles. None of them are meant to truly hit him. Rather, they're meant to obscure his vision with smoke even as he takes them down by sword or lightning. Through the smoke, another missile comes flying at him, but this one unfolds into a spider-like configuration and attaches to Lightningfang with its magnetized limbs. The missile-spider drone tries to yank the sword out of Ragnar's grasp with the force of its jet, returning to Rocketeer if it's successful in its mission.

Ragnar's slash does more than score...there's now a roughly three-inch wide gash across Rocketeer's entire chest! While it didn't reach her flesh, it shredded whatever undergarments she was wearing.

"More hypocrisy! If you truly don't care about my sword, why do you keep trying to take it from me?! You know you'd gladly bond with it, if it allowed you to!"

And again, Rocketeer's clever missile array has stolen his sword! Sweat pours from his brow, and you can practically hear him grinding his teeth. But he has better control of his emotions now, or either he's maintaining his power with a terrible force of will. Only two shafts of sunlight pierce the cloud cover, barely altering the gloomy vibe.

---

Round Four

11: Rocketeer – down to Mad Rocket Scientist (3), High-Flying Daredevil (1), Technopathic Nanoimplants (1)
11: Ragnar – down to Demi-god (2), Alcoholic (2), lost Lightningfang
5: Tomo – down to Another Weird Day (0)

"If you're oh-so-special without that armor, then take it off! Let's see how you fare then! I've fought and trained alongside some of the planet's finest heroes! You're nothing compared to them!"

He rushes Rocketeer, readying a haymaker...but then he vaults over her entirely, even flipping mid-air! Before she can evade, he has her in a headlock...but can he hold on?

A van squeals down the street, knocking over at least three mailboxes in its hurry, as well as destroying a resident's roadside flower garden.

It's eye-burning logo shows that it's the BOOM Channel 10 vehicle. But who's driving? You know who: the intrepid (in her mind) and gorgeous (not in her mind) local reporter Erin Blount, and her long-suffering cameraman.

She bolts out of the van like she's running a 100m dash, quickly surveying the scene.

"Another battle?! And everything's so...so ominous, with those clouds, and the lightning, and the temperature drop! I'm gonna win another BOOMY, if I keep getting these exclusives! Hurry up, cameraperson! Looks like we've already missed a good chunk of the battle!"

The cameraman does his best to hurry, and Erin is soon reporting....

"This is Erin Blount, LIVE for BOOM Channel 10! Yesterday, a group of supers thwarted the dastardly Dr. Elias Raines, who had, to our collective surprise, set up a base just outside of Small Town!"

"Now there's another battle, right here in Small Town's residential area! Look at these apocalyptic clouds! The...the...destroyed mailboxes! [blaming the supers] But what's the purpose of this conflict? One of the combatants looks like Ragnar Thunderheart, a hero (some would say anti-hero) of some renown. The other is Rocketeer, an apparent newcomer! But weren't they allies just yesterday?!"

She then notices the whimpering Tomo, and is on her in a second.

"You there! Can you tell us anything about the battle?! Were you a participant? A damsel in distress? Is this some sort of love triangle?"

She doesn't seem that concerned about Tomo's obvious pain, nor does she offer to call the EMTs or police.

Rocketeer retrieves Lightningfang from her missile drone as it flies by. As the drone returns to a compartment on her jetpack, she smirks. "You'd like that, wouldn't you? No, the armor stays on when we tussle. Swords also aren't usually my style, but hey, I could work with it."

Once she's caught in a headlock, she immediately flies upwards, trying to shake Ragnar off with the sudden acceleration. It doesn't quite do the trick, but she doesn't stop until she's brought him up into the dark clouds hanging overhead. She eventually wrenches free of him and then executes a dive to pursue him as he falls. She comes in hot, attempting to sideswipe him with Lightningfang, putting gravity behind her strike.

Tomo hangs up the phone as it goes to voicemail. Someone probably tripped over the cord of the PD's phone a few years back and forgot to plug it back in. No wonder there are so many vigilantes and criminals in this town. It wouldn't be all that surprising if it turned out that the cops had no idea that supers were a thing.

When a mic is pushed in her face, Tomo sniffles and mumbles. Anybody who'll listen, right?

"Uuuuu...the rocket lady was taking me to my job interview, and this drunk guy started harassing me. I threw up on him, and he stripped in front of me and started chasing after me with his sword even after I said sorry...what was I supposed to do? I-I'm just a normal person, and he's a demigod...and now he's after the rocket lady too...!"