Winged Nemesis [Inari]

[Angel]

Wooh, fun times, this was~. Angel soared, alighting on the building of the mall, as her wings tucked themselves away, not shrinking, but folding themselves up on her back. It was a bit cramped, yeah, as she wasn’t the biggest, but it took less time to unfold them then to grow and shrink them over and over, so this would have to suffice. Besides, it wasn’t as bad as when she went incognito. That was a pain in the butt.

She glanced around with her luminescent yellow eyes, wishing that she had something to cover them up. Sure, between her wings and her helmet and her eyes, she wasn’t the most inconspicuous person ever, but this wasn’t the point. Most people never looked up, anyway.

Stepping over, the girl located a skylight (they were hard to find from the sky, as there weren’t any lights on), and pulled out a laser-cutter, one she had filched from Gizmo’s lab. Sure, if he knew that she had taken it, he would be pissed, but Elli had told her where there hide-out had been, and she went and took it. Wherever Gizmo was, he hadn’t been there right then, so why pass up such things so ripe for the taking?

Besides, she and the brat weren’t on that bad of terms. She tolerated him, at least, mainly because he was good with tools (which she needed), and because he usually got her jokes. As did Billy, but he was annoying with a capital ‘A’!

Regardless, it was simple to cut a hole large enough for her and her wings to slip through, and then carefully pull that hole of glass away. True, she nicked herself in the process, and now she was bleeding, evidenced by the fact that she stuck said finger in her mouth, but hey, you couldn’t win them all.

Making a mental note to get some gloves, because they’d make it way easier, Angel put a hand on either side of the glass hole, slipping through it with some difficulty, and then hanging there. Extending her wings, she flapped, and then let go and soared up so that she was as close to the ceiling as she could be without smacking her wings against it every time she flapped.

Eyes roamed the area (she was in the food court, sweet~) for guards, and at the sight of none of them (most people relied on the supers, nowadays, which was a crappy choice, if you asked her, but she liked crappy choices that made it easier for her to be bad), a chesire grin broke out on her face. Awesome! She was in!

'Greed, for lack of a better word, is good.' Truer words were never spoken.

[Inari Beck]

Today was the day! Er, night. Her father was on a nightshift, she had everything in order, and tonight, she had decided to make her first round as Menagerie. She had pretty much just modified one of her old leotards to make it into her costume, but she had done a rather fine job, she thought! Inari adjusted her mask with a grin and pulled her sleeve up a bit. And then, with a rather exaggerated, grandiose gesture, she brought her arms into an x-shape before her, concentrated very hard... And quickly opened her arms, the emergence of large wings accompanying the gesture.

Standing on the rooftop, she started to flex the wings slowly, silently, as if getting used to them, or as if she hadn't used them in a while. Which she hadn't, to be honest, this would be the first time she'd be taking a running leap as a test to get better altitude faster.

As she moved the wings, she noticed they seemed to be those of a barn owl, even in the low light. The light colouring and the darker spots were an easy enough identification. Not the fastest pair, but perfect for nightflying, and pretty easy to fly with. Menagerie started to flap the wings, rising a bit off the ground before landing back. She grinned, did a few excited jumps and looked at the edge of the roof.

Menagerie took a running start, leaped off the edge with a practice swandive and felt herself plummet. The feeling made her stomach do flips, and easily enough, she got air under her wings and glided. With a gleeful squeak, she started to move her wings, if a bit clumsily, and kept in the air.

It was amazing, wonderful! The whole sky was open for her to move in, she could see so much, so many thi- Wait, what was that on the roof of a mall there?

Menagerie squinted her eyes, thanking her luck that she was more or less used to owl vision already. A humanoid figure seemed to be moving there, and then disappeared out of view. Pursing her lips together, Inari picked up some speed and silently glided to the roof, landing a good deal away from the hole so she wouldn't make unnecessary noise. She crept carefully, the wings retreating back when she saw the hole. Hers were so large they probably wouldn't fit through that... But she had to get a better view somehow!

Waaait. Geckos. The rookie hero flexed her fingers and feet, feeling the skin change. She went on all fours, and started moving. Even in the darkness, she could see something was inside, something that didn't belong... The eyes helped her much in seeing that.

[Angel]

Absolutely delighted at the fact that there were no guards, Angel swooped down, and paused above the ground, flapping as she looked around. Hm, would there be anything good to steal in the food court? The pull-down fence gates were over all of them, but they could have quite a bit of money inside of them. Should she try for it?

Pausing a moment, the girl considered it. Money was a lot easier to handle than pawned items, because it both took up less room and was less traceable, but on the other hand, it was easier to get caught when one was breaking into a cash register, and there wasn’t always stuff in it. Still, money was good, for now. She could break into one of those, swipe some cash, and then head off to some other stores to pick up some items, maybe some that would actually be useful, and not just stuff headed off to the pawnshop. Sounded good.

Angelique was about to flit forward, headed to the nearest one (Subway), when she felt the tell-tale prickle of eyes on the back of her neck. It was one of the first things one learned how to recognize in HIVE, how to see if someone was watching you, and the winged humanoid could certainly tell. Narrowing her pupil-less eyes, she glanced around, eyes roving for a guard, and then, in the practice of all of those that were of the air, looked up. And there was something on the ceiling.

What, she couldn’t tell. Too dark to see that.

But what to do? Admit that she had seen them, tell them to reveal themselves, or just carry on like she didn’t know anyone was there? After a moment, Angel decided upon the last one. She didn’t know if it was a hero, a villain, or if she was just imagining things (which was a possibility, cause it could just be a trick of shadows or something), so she flitted over to Subway, and then, her wings enlarging and outstretching, blew a tunnel of wind right at the gate.

It cracked, buckling underneath the high speed pressure, and Angel smiled, ready to do it again. Just a few more times, and it’d be good. An easy way to get it without disturbing any sort of alarm, and then show her the money~.

[Inari Beck]

Slowly, awkwardly, but as silently as she could, Inari crawled into the hole and stayed attached to the ceiling, miraculously enough. She continued to move across the ceiling, trying to remain as flat against it as she could but discovered it was a rather arduous task to do. Her heart was hammering in her chest and she swallowed, suddenly very nervous. As far as she could see (and she could see far with the eyes she had now), the person she had followed was a female, a winged one, and currently trying to make a gate buckle in the food court.

Inari's stomach was doing a good sommersault at present as she took a few breaths of courage and shifted. This time, it was faster, and the owl wings emerged once more as she flipped herself over and flew- or rather, glided- closer to the target.

She landed a good deal away form the target, as she seemed to have a lot more control of her wings than Inari ever would, and spoke up.

"Terribly sorry, but usually when the gate's down it really does mean they're closed." By some miracle, her voice came out sounding fairly normal. Perhaps deeper and huskier than her usual speaking voice, due to being nervous, but at wasn't broadcasting her nervousness that clearly.

"I'm sure there are 24/7 pizzahuts open somewhere with easier access if you're that hungry." Inari really hoped she wouldn't be terribly beaten up after this. There was only so much she could explain to her father.

[Angel]

She was just preparing for another strike of wing, hopefully one that would collapse the whole thing altogether, when a voice came up from behind her, and Angel whirled around in mid-air, ready to blast whoever it was with a nice ball of wind, only to blink in surprise at who she saw. Another girl with wings? She hadn’t… she hadn’t even know there were other people like that, like her!

But the other was an obvious hero, and Angel folded her arms, giving the girl an askance look. She was definitely new at this; it was really obvious. Either that, or she wasn’t good at using her wings. No self-respecting ‘angel’ would be standing on the ground when they could be enjoying the air, no how, no way. “I really hope you’re not stupid enough to think that was actually funny,” the villain deadpanned, before she sighed, resisting the urge to facepalm.

Angel really didn’t want to have to fight and smoosh this noob. For one, she was a master of the air, so there was no way that she could be beat at this, for two, it wasn’t very satisfying, and for three… seriously. Not fun to smoosh the newcomers. It just wasn’t.

“Look, dollface,” Angelique spoke up, giving her a look. “We can do this the hard way, or the easy way. You can leave, and later give some sob story to the police about how a demonic angel broke in. Something like that, I still get in trouble, hoorahs all around.” She shifted stance in midair, and tipped her head, a smirk playing across her lips.

“Or we could do this the hard way, and you’ll be pancaked. It’ll look bad on my resume, sure, but angel against angel, right?” Seriously, at this point, she was hoping for the former. She just wanted to hurry up and get this over with, so she could head back to stealing, and then get the heck out of dodge.

Simple, right?

[Inari Beck]

"Funny? Hardly. Merely helping you see the forest from the trees." Her tone of voice was dry, almost bored. Two could play at that deadpan game! Also, when in fear, snark. It usually saves a lot. one of her arms draped across her stomach, the other arm held by the elbow while her fingers drummed her lips as if in thought. She was trying really hard to seem nonchalant about the whole deal, goodness knows if she even succeeds.

Inari listened to the winged one explain the options she had. Which, to be honest, annoyed Inari, as well as the dismissive attitude the girl had towards her. Granted, she probably did have a point because this was her official stint as Menagerie, but it wasn't like she was TOTALLY helpless either.

So, Inari chose the third option.

"Terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but I can't allow you to proceed with good conscience. I would rather if you just left, but you're not going to, are you." Maybe she'd grow annoyed at her needlessly polite speech and run away, huh? Still, Inari was sure this girl was no angel, despite her outer appearance. She'd probably end up hurling chairs at her or something while scrambling to escape through the tiny hole in the glass ceiling.

"Shall we?" Inari motioned at the space between them by moving her hand in a broad arch and a slight bow. She was nervous and terrified, yes, but also oddly... Exhilerated at the thought of being in battle.

[Angel]

Had she had an eyebrow, she would’ve lifted it, but as it was, Angel just narrowed her eyes slightly at the other girl. “Quit sounding like a cheap British knock-off,” she spoke, irritation bleeding into her voice. All pompous and high-horseish, and ugh so annoying. Seriously, even if the girl agreed to hightail it out of there, she might give her a good smacking, just because.

It seemed that Angel wouldn’t have to do such a thing, however, and so the villain shrugged. “You're a smart one, babycakes, totally sticking around. Not too smart if you're staying too, though,” the girl smirked, finding herself looking forward to this. For one, she had found that she quite liked calling the other girl names like that, and for the other, it would be a real treat to smash her into the ground. Seriously, who did she think she was?

But with that, giving a mocking curtsy of her own to the other’s bow with a "Of course, young lass, let us dance," she flapped her wings, hard sending a tunnel of air spiraling at the other, before flitting forward at superspeed, right behind her air, intending to smash her wings around the other if she managed to dodge the wind. Heck, even if she did get hit by the wind, she’d still smash her between her wings, just for the heck of it.

Because this girl was worse than Gizmo. No. Joke. But even despite that, a smirk remained on Angelique’s face. This was fun~.

[Inari Beck]

"Alas, no. I'm quite set in talking this way." Inari harrumphed slightly. Cheap knock-off? She had taken elocution lessons since she was a child, she'd have her know! Or... Not, since it might reveal too much. No way to prove it, then. Darn. She'd have to live with that remark unless she managed to set aside a few moments to squawk indignantly at the villain.

The winged girl gave very little time for her to prepare for the assault, and all Inari managed was to cross her arms in front of her and steady her stance. But the winds were just too strong, and having wings did not help one bit. Her balance shifted and the wings caught wind, propelling her backwards as she let out a cry of surprise and alarm, the wings already retreating in on a reflex.

She crashed into some tables a good deal away, the wind got knocked out of her lungs and she barely managed to somehow flip back onto her feet when she saw the girl close, far too close for comfort. She must've followed just behind the wind.

Still hurting and slightly disorientated from the fly through the air, her instincts took over. Before she even knew she had thought of it, Inari's body produced multiple long, thin, striped porcupine quills sticking out from her back and her arms, poking holes in her gloves and a few more on the leotard proper. Inari didn't know what the girl had planned but by god, her subconscious wanted to share some of the pain she'd no doubt recieve!

[Angel]

Perhaps if she paid a little more attention, Angel could’ve avoided what happened next. But she was a bit too giddy from how well that had gone, gleeful smirk stretched wide across her delighted face as she rocketed towards the other, pleased she had managed to knock the annoying hero that far back. So, ignorant of the impending consequences, the villain smashed her wings around the older girl, intending to squash her flat like a pancake. Or roadkill. The latter was probably a better fit for this situation.

That didn’t last long before she jerked them away, hissing in pain. Did that little bugger have a knife or something? It only took a moment to add it up, though, from the other’s lack of wings (she was a fake angel! A fake!) to the spike-things that now adorned the hero’s body to the spots on her wings that were now bleeding ever so slightly, coloring her white wings with a tint of red. Again. Seriously, what was up with that? The two most recent fights she had been in, her wings bore the brunt of it! Poor things!

Naturally, between the pain in her feathery appendages and the fact that those were her wings god damn it, Angel was good and pissed, eyes narrowing to golden slits. “You’re going to regret doing that, Miss fake-angel,” she told the other, and instead of her half-playful words from before, with her witty banter and the like, she meant it now. So, with that, she sent another barrage of wind at the hero, harder and more fierce than before, focusing all of her concentration on making it big. This time she was playing for keeps.

[Inari Beck]

When the wings retreated, Inari stumbled again but quickly regained her balance and began letting the spines retreat back, preparing for something else. Her eye twitched at the other girl, who seemed to be upset that Inari had defended herself.

"What did you expect in a fight?! My middle name isn't 'Welcome', you know!" She fairly snarled back before letting out an eep and dodging to the side, starting with a cartwheel and then launching into a series of backflips to avoid the mass of air hurtling towards her. She misjudged the size of it, though, and even if she managed to avoid the most of it, the wind still clipped her feet during a backflip and she was blown off her balance. She really should partner up or something.

Lucky she had tumbled before, otherwise she could've landed in a way that could've seriously injure her or make her sprain something. For now, she'd just bruise. Badly, but just bruise.

"And it's Menagerie, thank you very MUCH!" She replied rather tartly, trying to hide her wince of discomfort. Jeans and long-sleeved blouses tomorrow, then.

"Look, I don't want to hurt you but if you insist on this course of action I will!" She stood up, and as she prepared for the angry assault (though kind of rightfully so, she'd admit, it must've hurt to get porcupine spines into wings) she started to shift again, slightly.