Long Road To Hell
8/9/17 13:46![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helpdesk_heroThis wasn't the day that he'd planned for. Which might just mean that maybe David needs to stop planning things. Best laid schemes and all that. Which isn't to say there are a few things he did that morning that have helped out. Like making sure his wallet had cash. Like keeping his big travel charger in his bag. Like having long since hacked his StarkTech phone to work on any network.
Plans that didn't work out as well? The diner he'd chosen for coffee after just about falling out of thin air. His whole body was sore, this wasn't his Earth at all, and he had a serious headache from crash landing and learning all of this. But the place had coffee, apparently a dollar was still a dollar, and it was pretty peaceful in here despite all the tough looking guys and truckers.
So he hadn't hesitated to go to the bathroom after he paid for his drink. No one would mess with his drink.
He hadn't expected to come back out to the mess he had. Someone really should applaud the soundproofing in the bathroom, actually. Because the way the things are when he comes out could definitely be counted as carnage. The waitress is still there, just short of cowering behind the counter. And outside an expensive black car, with a man in a black coat standing by it. And someone younger. David can't really make out details from here, but... Well, the person in the black coat wasn't there when he came in. The one with them, David vaguely remembers coming in from when David had gotten up to go to the bathroom.
Given the situation, there's only one conclusion as to who had caused this mess. Someone that clearly needed to be here when he cops arrived, and who was leaving. Which meant only one option really.
Damn him and this heroing thing. With a sigh David grabs his bag from his booth as he walks past it, and heads for the door. By the time he makes it the car is gone and the person from the diner walking away. And David following behind them.
Plans that didn't work out as well? The diner he'd chosen for coffee after just about falling out of thin air. His whole body was sore, this wasn't his Earth at all, and he had a serious headache from crash landing and learning all of this. But the place had coffee, apparently a dollar was still a dollar, and it was pretty peaceful in here despite all the tough looking guys and truckers.
So he hadn't hesitated to go to the bathroom after he paid for his drink. No one would mess with his drink.
He hadn't expected to come back out to the mess he had. Someone really should applaud the soundproofing in the bathroom, actually. Because the way the things are when he comes out could definitely be counted as carnage. The waitress is still there, just short of cowering behind the counter. And outside an expensive black car, with a man in a black coat standing by it. And someone younger. David can't really make out details from here, but... Well, the person in the black coat wasn't there when he came in. The one with them, David vaguely remembers coming in from when David had gotten up to go to the bathroom.
Given the situation, there's only one conclusion as to who had caused this mess. Someone that clearly needed to be here when he cops arrived, and who was leaving. Which meant only one option really.
Damn him and this heroing thing. With a sigh David grabs his bag from his booth as he walks past it, and heads for the door. By the time he makes it the car is gone and the person from the diner walking away. And David following behind them.
(no subject)
18/9/19 18:09 (UTC)Those words circle through Jayne’s mind, keeping a rhythm with her footsteps as she takes long strides forward and puts the diner behind her. She’d done an admirable job of holding a tough front with Bruce, telling him that she didn’t need to be involved in finding Roy’s killer, but - well, she still only half believes the news of his death is true. They’d been together just last week, and now he’s gone?
What Jayne told Bruce was true - she’s going to miss Roy more than she can wrap her head around at the moment. Every mask lives on borrowed time - no one knows that better than Jayne herself. And Roy would be pissed if she spent the rest of her time alive moping over him being gone instead of doing something to make a difference for the better. Roy is - was like that, more of a hero than Jayne could ever hope to be. He’d want her to finish what she’d started, tracking down and ending the Underlife. She can do that in remembrance of her best friend.
Aight rain begins to sprinkle down, and she pulls the hood of her red jacket up over her head - a shield, perhaps, not only against the weather but the world that has taken someone she loves from her yet again.
Jayne spots a wooden fence up ahead and decides to take a moment for the goodbye she never had a chance to say to Roy. The Underlife can wait a few more minutes. When she reaches the fence, she places the duffel bag slung over her shoulder up against a post and leans back into the sturdy wood for support while she digs her phone out of her pocket and pulls up Roy’s number in her contacts list. Seeing the picture of Roy that accompanies the entry - a shot she’d tried to take in stealth and he’d caught her anyway, pulling a goofy face just as she’d tapped the camera button - feels like a knife shoved hilt-deep into her heart and cruelly twisted.
Still, she manages to hold her composure as she listens to Roy’s voice rattle off the voicemail message. The recording beeps, and she takes a deep breath.
“Hey ... it’s me. Jaybird.” God, she’d hated that nickname he’d insisted on using for her, back when they first began working as Outlaws together, and yet he’d managed to charm her into finding it endearing. “I heard about ... you know. This is exactly why I’ll never try to get my head together.” She huffs a quiet laugh. “Look, I just want to tell you. You may’ve been a mediocre archer and a half-assed ‘superhero’ ... but you were the best friend I ever had.” She can feel the tears approaching, the telltale tightening of her throat, straining her voice as she tries to hold herself together. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, but there’s still a faint waver to her voice as she finishes her message: “Next time I see you, I’m gonna kick your ass for dying.”
Jayne presses the button to end the call and slips the phone back into her pocket, and her self-control finally cracks. She buries her face in her hands and finally allows the tears that have been building to spill out. Let them come. This road is deserted, and she deserves to allow herself this moment of undeniable grief.
(no subject)
18/9/19 18:44 (UTC)He's got to wait. Too far back for him to hear the words. Too far back to tell there's grief there. No, he waits until the phone goes back into the pocket and the person's distracted by something else and then he moves forward.
Better to approach from behind, his tactical mind says. Sure, the individual would be between him and the post if he came from the front, but the person might also see and hear him coming. So he slips through the grass as best he can, coming from behind her until he's in lunging distance. And it's only once he's that two body lengths off that he moves quickly, a hand on the cross-beam of the fence to vault it and kick at the person
woman, not expecting thatas he comes over. Better to use the element of surprise as he has it. Just take her down, find something in her bag to restrain her with, and then use her own phone to call the cops.(no subject)
19/9/19 04:13 (UTC)A deep scowl overtakes her expression. She doesn’t recognize him, and she doesn’t remember him from the diner. All traces of sorrow except for the evidence that she’d been crying - a redness to her eyes and damp lashes - is gone, replaced with indignation and a single-minded focus on the man in front of her.
“Look, kid - I don’t know what you think you’re doing here, but trust me when I say that you don’t wanna do it. Not today.”
(no subject)
19/9/19 16:05 (UTC)"See, if you were concerned about having your ass kicked, you wouldn't have attacked that diner. What was it, desperation? Needed the money?"
Because what else could it be? That many people, taken down like that? That wasn't just a lady defending herself from untoward attention. Especially not with how easily she'd been striding out of there, talking to some wealthy asshole.
(no subject)
20/9/19 04:27 (UTC)“I didn’t start that fight,” she says, coolly, and it’s true, from a certain perspective. “I just finished it.” She scoffs loudly at David’s guesses for her motivation in brawling with truckers nearly twice her size. Thing is, Jayne’s never needed a reason to fight - she was born a fighter, felt that thrum of violence run deep in her blood long before she ever trained as Robin.
“You really don’t know anything at all,” she says, shaking her head, almost like she’s disappointed with how clueless David is. “Tell you what - you turn around and head back the way you came, and I won’t be forced to lay you out like the rest of those pricks back there in the diner.”
(no subject)
20/9/19 18:47 (UTC)The offer for him to leave, though, earns a chuckle. Just because she recovered quickly doesn't mean she can take him. He's trained with Wolverine. He's beyond too good for some punch who fucked up a diner.
Oh how wrong he is.
"Tell you what. This is a citizen's arrest. I'm holding you for the authorities. So why don't you just stand by the fence, I'll tie you to it, and call the cops. And you'll not have to deal with someone who knows how to fight."
(no subject)
22/9/19 00:34 (UTC)Much like how David seems to be underestimating her now, despite having seen her handiwork at the diner. Maybe he thinks she had help from the guy in the fancy car who drove off when Jayne took off down the road? Maybe he's just an idiot. Jayne doesn't know and doesn't really care; she's got a mission and she's not letting some Dudley Do-Right with delusions about arresting her get in her way.
"Y'know," she says, almost smiling in amusement, "if I had a dollar for every time some moron tried to arrest me, I sure as hell wouldn't ever get accused of robbing a diner out of desperation." She folds her arms across her chest and takes a lazy step forward, toward David - a nonverbal statement that she isn't even the slightest bit afraid of him.
"All right, Jon Snow - " yeah, that nickname's sticking, David, you brought it on yourself - "if you're itching for an ass-whooping that badly, I'm happy to oblige. Seeing as how I'm such a gentleman, I'll even let you take the first swing."
(no subject)
22/9/19 03:51 (UTC)Besides, those guys in the diner clearly aren't as well trained as he is. Taking this young woman down shouldn't be so bad at all.
(no subject)
28/9/19 02:58 (UTC)Going for the legs is a pretty standard opening, and Jayne smoothly launches herself out of the way with a side aerial flip. Once she lands, she uses the momentum to push off the ground and aim a punch at David's kidney. Maybe it's a dick move, going immediately for the hurt, but she's found it to be effective.
figure her next thing can trip him up or otherwise knock him down
28/9/19 03:11 (UTC)