Elodie Has Returned

[Deleted]

It was a peaceful night in Jump City, slightly cloudy though not promising any rain that would ruin this night. However, that peace was ruined by the sounds of alarms screaming through the night. Fire and security alarms went off within minutes of each other. Museums, banks, malls, and major buisness buildings and their alarms where all going off, demanding immediant attention. However, it was curious that one of the museums that wasn't blarring was hosting a new ancient eqypt exhibit with some rare jewels that had been discovered recently. To some, this would bring up suspicion that all the alarms and chaos was simply a distraction and that the place to be was at the new exhibit.

Which is what Elodie wanted, wanting the police and those blasted Titans to go to that museum instead of this small, rather pathetic museum. Of course, if anyone realized what this place had, things would be quite different. Security would be on the extreme, with the possibility of a different museum taking the spear due to how significant it is. Or the Vatican would take it and hide it away, which is something Elodie rather not think of. She wouldn't dare go toe to toe with them when it came to this spear.

Elodie stood infront of the spear in its casing, eyes scanning for any additional security for her to get rid of. It had been easy enough getting in, almost being able to simply walk in through the front door, but Elodie was careful. She was always careful.Which is why her hair, a rather pretty strawberry blonde, was hidden away under the hood of her hooded mask that also hid away her face. She couldn't risk getting caught, not after all shes done and what she has been through. She even wore black contacts that hid away the blue of her eyes.

All she needed to do was grab the spear and get it to its new owner so that she could get what she needed to continue her research.

[Kenni]

A red-hooded figure crouched low, the rain streaming off his red slicker and falling harmlessly away from his face. His arms were bare below the slicker's cape section, save their red arm-socks, hiding veins standing taut over his wrists at the strain that carried over to the taut bowstring those wrists supported.

The Titans had gotten their call, and it came in before their Communicators went off, requesting back-up from the police to the band of teenaged heroes.

They would have had to be deaf not to hear the first call, as the whole city seemed to be blaring with that of the alarm systems.

He'd been travelling roof-to-roof all night, checking the security feed for each museum in the vicinity of the alarms, while the standard authorities and already-present security guards confirmed they'd been doing their jobs. Until his teammates arrived, he had to consider all the angles.

The only quiet, new Egyptian exhibit was the obvious target...and it was much too obvious that it was the only museum NOT adding to the ruckus, so he made sure to pass by there early on. Now, however, he'd been to 7 different establishments including the new jewel exhibit, and not one of them had seen any more activity than the regular patrols.

'Hope this is the place. You alluss told me ta consider all the options, Detective Robbers, but I hadda make a choice with my gut in the end. Sorry, Teach'.' thought the masked archer with a smirk.

There were still 3 museums with priceless artifacts, or otherwise important exhibits that might spur a master thief to concoct such cacophony in order to lift them.

An antique vase made of sheer crystal from an oceanic exploration near the coast of Spain.
A flashy brooch said to have been pirated away from the English royal family centuries ago.
A spear with high Catholic significance.

Speedy had chosen the spear's home.

Which brings us to his steady watch, crouching low with his bowstring taut against his cheek, waiting for movement below him from any of the exits of this humble museum.

Sometimes, it wasn't the flashiest but the most unassuming target that held great worth to someone. Speedy didn't know what it was about his choice, but it felt on-point.

Whether it was or not, he only hoped he wasn't too late.

His teammates sure were, though.

[Bry]

A drive-by patrol turned into a curiosity-fueled investigation as soon as Ian caught the shadow moving into the museum. That's all he could catch of it really, the phantom figure, but he left his bike waiting for him around the corner and followed it in anyway. The alarms, noted his T-Comm, were being investigated by various other authorities, and this shadow could turn out to be something worth knowing about.

Of course, he could also be following a fluke, but apologies were easy enough to come up with.... (Sorta.)

Flicking his eyesight back and forth between normal and heat-sensory, Ian followed the vague trail of the figure, silently impressed by its stealth and apparent agility, until he caught sight of it up ahead. It approached a spear, of all things, and Ian cocked his head to the side while he watched.

"It" was a "she", that much was certain. By the way she moved, by the curves she that black bodysuits just didn't hide. He held back for a moment and observed (Not entirely for Titan-related purposes).... Then he stepped forward.

"You don't exactly ssstrike me asss a warrior princessss," he hissed coolly, a little lazily, eyes always on the phantom in case she made a move he wanted to catch. In case she went for that spear (Or for him). "Much too.... Ssssneaky, I'd say. Luckily though, sssneaky looksss good on you." He crossed his arms. "Wanna tell me why you're on sssuch a late night excursssion, Xena?"

[Deleted]

Before Elodie could grab the spear, a voice hissed at her and she quickly whipped her head towards the person. How did he get in here? How did he sneak in here without me hearing him! Elodie thought, eyes narrowing at him. He was somewhat tall, but had features that where snake like. Seems like Jump City recieved new freaks while I was gone. I wonder what side hes on. Elodie thought, wondering if he was a villain or some wannabe Titan. Or worse, an actual Titan.

"And you don't exactly seem like of the museum type, especially after hours." Elodie stated back, eyes quickly scanning over him as though searching for any visible weaknesses. However, when he said that sneaky looked good on her, Elodie couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at him. Not that he could see that, seeing as how she was masked and whatnot. "Of course, I could be wrong." She mused, considering the fact that he was there.

When he questioned why she was there, Elodie fought the urge to roll her eyes and glanced at the spear. "Easy. Someone has something I want and in exchange they want this." Elodie stated, quite clearly, explaining it so that she was telling the truth, but keeping out major details. "And unfortuantly for you, you've become a witness and I can't have you going off to the police or the titans until after i've finished my buisness transaction. Don't worry, this won't hurt that much," She stated, quickly shooting out an arc of electricity from her index and middle fingers right at him, eyes narrowed in concentration. It was enough to, at least, knock him out. However, she wasn't sure how his reptilian nature would handle it. After all, she's never electrocuted a snake before.

Time was running out and Elodie needed to get the spear and get out of there. Who knew when the blasted Titans would arrive.

[Kenni]

Ironically, the sneakiest one of the three at the moment, was the archer, who hadn't said a word outloud, even when he thought he was alone up above the rafters.

Those rafters had now switched places with him, keeping his head dry, but he kept the hood up, hiding the shock of orange that could still give him away up here if a trained eye chanced a look. Outside, the rain had humbled itself to a mere dribble; the cloudy, though non-rain-threatening weather conditions that Elodie had entered the museum with would persist for the rest of the night.

He kept the hood on more for stealth reasons, however; the archer would be able to take aim from this set of banisters boxing in the exhibits below, as he was now on the deserted 2nd floor landing.

The sound of Ian's motorcycle had spurred Speedy to action, and he'd stolen into the museum proper much like Elodie was about to steal that spear. He could hardly believe who was resurfacing after all this time; where the snakeboy had slid off to sadly after Ink's disappearance was a mystery, but maybe Speedy'd get some answers soon.

For now, there was a would-be culprit to stop.

Speedy almost broke his silence as Elodie broke out her electrical powers.

He wanted to yell a, LOOK OUT! and alert the fellow Titan, but his vantage point from on high would be put in jeopardy if he were spotted right away. The archer would roll back out of view once the shot had been sent to avoid detection for now, even though there were a million silly things he could've loudly added to their candid conversation.

A Stun Arrow aimed at the electricity-shooting arm's shoulder shot out, set to counteract her charge sent at Ian. It was hard to beat the speed of lightning though, even if you went by 'Speedy'.

Time would tell if it had any effect on the thief with the female voice.

He couldn't be sure. His eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the dark, and he wasn't certain the voice he'd heard was actually the young villainess' or not, having only run into her once before in the midst of her criminal activities. However, he had to do what he could to help his teammate.

[Bry]

Her voice left him smiling, and Ian shook his head a little to clear the emotion away.

(Nope nope nope. Not again. No.)

Instead, he raised an eyebrow as she kept talking, listening and watching her body language as best he could with the dark museum backdrop and her black bodysuit working against him. With his eyes in snake mode, he could make out the shape of her body against the cool marble walls of the room, make out how she was standing, how she was holding herself. If she was preparing for an attack.

And out of the corner of his eye, somewhere up high, another heat signature ninja'd about. He didn't dare look up at it, however. If this girl had back-up, he'd deal with it second. Slowly, his hand began working its way to the T-Comm on the back of his belt (Now that he thought about it, back-up sounded nice).

The girl was speaking again though, and his hand halted.

"A witnessss? And what exactly have I ssseen? Iss window-sshopping a crime now?"

No. Maybe not. But assault was, and she committed it before he could fully react.

Stepping back out of defensive reflex, Ian placed his foot precisely on top of the puddle he'd left, thanks to the rain he'd met outside. His foot went sideways and so did he, hitting the ground with a yelp, and clutching his upright shoulder. Hit from both sides, by both the floor and a streak of the ninja girl's attack, Ian writhed a moment on the ground, gritting his teeth against the sudden pain the electricity left him with (Rain water dripping from his clothes was not helping his situation)....

Eventually though, the electricity lost some of it's intensity, and he raised his head, looking around for his attacker.

"That was an unprovoked ssshot!" he complained, his voice still a little pinched. "I call foul!"

[Deleted]

Elodie had taken a step back after she shot at Ian, a smirk on her lips as she watched him twitch on the ground. However, that smirk quickly dissappeared when an arrow flew through the air, missing her by mere inches. The shock and surprise that filtered over her face, even masked, was actually pretty funny if the situation wasn't...Well, this. What the... Elodie thought, knowing that if she hadn't taken that step back she would of gotten hit. She quickly glanced up, to see who shot it, but seeing as it was an arrow, she could easily formulate a small list of who was there with her and snake boy.

And she rather not deal with any of the people on that list.

She quickly broke the glass case around the spear and grabbed it, tempted on breaking it in half. After all, she just needed to spear head and that would be easier to carry and transport than an entire spear. The staff wasn't even part of the original spear, having been broken off years ago.

"Really? Your calling a foul? Are you new to this or what?" Elodie questioned the snake boy, whos voice sounded a little pinched from her attack. Was he honestly being serious right now, or a bit loopy due to getting shocked.

"Let me give you a little bit of advise: Unless your forced to work with others, its every man or woman for themselves. Especially when a titan arrives." Elodie stated, before looking upwards, eyes scanning for the archer. "ISN'T THAT RIGHT, SKIPPY?!" She suddenly yelled, small arcs of electricity shooting off of her as she did so.

She needed to get out of there ASAP.

Elodie gave Ian once last look-over and then quickly started to move towards the exit, getting the heck out of there. 

[Kenni]

"Titans never have to work alone; you're welcome to bring your crew next time, SPARKY." Speedy yelled back in a huff, sliding down a length of cable from his grappling gear to the floor, as Elodie made her quick escape. He had had another shaft notched as soon as he hit the ground, but she was beating a hasty retreat and when Ian fell, it was all he could do to keep from busting a gut; it wouldn't have done to miss AGAIN, how embarrassing and then bust poor Ian's with a faultily-shot electrical arrow.

He'd already fired off the perfect shot anyway, even though it had missed.

"Skippy? Cheh. What am I, peanut butter?" he muttered, although his grin was good-natured. He bent to help his fallen comrade up. After the initial writihing, it didn't look like he was hurt anywhere past that gripped shoulder; he went for the hand gripping the shoulder rather than the one attached to the pained spot.

"Fell riiight on yer pride, eh?"

Nowhere serious at least.
He held out a hand. Whether Ian took it or not was up to him, because soon he was picking up the Stun Arrow he’d barely missed the electric villainess with and tinkering with the tip.

"It never had to hit her, but this time it oughta. Rigged it with a magnet, see? It should’ve picked up her charge. We just attach a fresh one to the other side, create a south pole, and the NEW one should lead us straaaight to ‘er."

Elodie wasn’t out of the woods building lot, yet. As the doors swung open for her first escape attempt, Speedy had his newly magnet-outfitted Stun Arrow at the ready. As she exited into the street, he fired, then motioned to Ian to get a move on, running before his Arrow had gotten feet from them both.

The arrow darted through the night-air cleanly after Elodie, like a puppet on a scientific string.

[Bry]

"It wass a joke," Ian growled from where he remained on the floor, cold eyes switching back to human mode from the fall and glaring after Elodie's retreat. Speedy, of all Titans, approached then and Ian looked up at him. He tried to maintain a straight face, to keep hold of the pained grimace and glare and be serious, but a smirking grin betrayed him and he took Speedy's offered hand.

"Shut up," he said, in a tone that begged the archer not to rub it in, without actually saying such. He watched Speedy tinker with the arrowhead, blinked at the science lecture, and then shrugged. "Whatever you say, dude. I think I just became your backup."

A quick crack of his knuckles, a roll of his shoulders to get them both back into working order, and he looked at Speedy expectantly. "Lead the way, Archer. You can take on the next puddle."

OoC:
Guys, so sorry. I didn't even see that it was my turn, and muse has been eluding me. >.> Post lengths should get better as we go. C:

[Deleted]

  "And get slowed down? Yeah right! I work better alone," Elodie yelled over her shoulder as she made her way out of that building, holding the spear carefully as to not ruin it in any way. I'm going to get so much money for this, Elodie thought as she opened up her escape door and took a step outside when she stopped. Everything was wet and damp, as though it had been raining. Shit ! Elodie thought, hesitating. She hadn't readied herself for this, hadn't know that it was going to rain on her. If she had, she would of done this a later night. She wasn't wanting to leave the safety of the building when there was a possibility of getting rained on. 

Her hesitation proved dangerous for her, for before she could go back inside and think of another way to get out of there something hit her square in the back and she dropped like a rag doll, stunned. Her mind was screaming curses as her eyes scanned her surroundings, spotting the spear near her but focusing on a giant puddle that was right next to her head. Uh oh, uh oh, oh no. Elodie thought, trying to move away but being unable to.

She was going to murder them with her words when they get there.

Unfortunately she could not speak, and that terrified her. I don't like this at all, Elodie thought as she just laid there, stunned.  All she knew was that she couldn't move, couldn't speak, and that puddle was making her paranoid. Is it moving closer to me? Elodie thought, trying to keep herself from freaking out though her eyes, even behind a mask, clearly portrayed her terror. She rather no electrocute herself, at least not at the moment. With her abilities, water was downright deadly to her. 

Don't ask how she took showers. 

[Kenni]

"Let's see heeere, pull up the ol' resume...ah, there it is! 'Excellent Marksman'. Too true, too true~." purred the ginger, as he almost skipped up behind the downed villainess, pretending to read his own character-sheet as if he were just some pawn pulling strings at the behest of an equally-excellent author's fingers which pulled HIS strings.

"I work better alone!" he mimicked in a sing-songy, not quite girly, but borderline grating voice, waiting for Ian to catch up so that he could hand the serpenTitan the museum's spear. After he had retrieved his handcuffs from his utility belt, Speedy used the blunt-side of the spear to tap Elodie's boot, listening for a verbal response before coming around to face her.

"So, still self-convinced? I both slowed'jya down and provedjya wrong."

Underneath all that cover, he wasn't expecting to read her expression or anything. He was at least expecting an audible answer to all the taunting.

Had she hurt herself? Had she slipped and fallen, and was now nursing an aching limb she was to proud to tell them about?

"Ian, you think she knocked herself out cold? Or...iunno, fell in a puddle on her way down? This one looks a bit close for comfort, if you're a walking lightning-rod."

There was absolutely no way for either Titan guy to know she WAS in fact freaking out over a puddle of all things.

To Speedy, the silently-terrified thief seemed unconscious; there was no way she would stay quiet with his impertinent self in her general vicinity unless somat was wrong. Deciding she got to keep her identity since he'd be scandalized were his mask to be shed involuntarily, he wasn't about to check her pupils for dilation or anything close. He did kneel and check her pulse.

It was erratic. Going haywire!

"--Elodie? Elodie! Speak to us! What happened?!"

The archer had her handcuffed, and dislodged the Stun Arrow from the small of her back, refitting it in its quiver-holding. Speedy then gently, concernedly lifted Elodie by both the wrists clasped behind her back, trusting her not to use her powers and risk it being amplified in these soggy conditions, not to mention, by the metallic wrist-locks he had her by. Mostly, he wasn't sure if she was even in any condition to attack them, whatever her elevated heart-rate was signalling.

[Bry]

Ian made it outside just after the archer did, and he stood by waiting with a distinct frown on his face. She wasn't dead. The arrow had been blunt, only meant to seek and destroy stun. There was no way it had killed her.

But she wasn't answering Speedy's taunts.... She wasn't answering anything.

Ian blinked and his heart rate sped up. She wasn't dead! This couldn't happen twice in one month. There was no way. No freaking way!

Standing by like a useless civilian, Ian completely forgot about his heat-sensing eyes for a solid minute while Speedy investigated the girl. When he finally remembered his own powers, stupidity replaced the fear whatever emotion had sped up his heart. He blinked and then peered down at the thief, searching for heat signatures and finding them in abundance. His sigh of relief was all too audible.

She was alive.

Accepting the spear from Speedy, Ian sank to sit on the step beside the other two, watching intently and trying not to shake. Adrenaline was a fiend sometimes.

His only question of 'Is she okay?' was being answered without his asking, in the way Speedy was reacting, checking her pulse, demanding in a tone of worry what had happened to her.

"Dude," he said, leaning over and snatching the stun arrow from where it had landed a few feet away. "How ssstunning are your arrowss sssuppossed to be? You may wanna cut 'em down a level...."

[Deleted]

  Oh God, please make him stop talking, Elodie thought with a roll of her eyes as Speedy spoke, bragging about how awesome his abilities were and what not. He even had the guts to mimic her and take her spear. Give me back my spear you idiot! Elodie thought with a snarl as he actually had the nerve to handcuff her, but she only found herself silent. Elodie was trying to figure out why she wasn't able to talk.

If its anything like a stun gun, the arrow would of contained generally a low-amperage electrical charge. The charge would of gone to my nervous and muscular system and cause me to loose control if I was a normal human. However... Elodie's thought were racing as she thought of what her electrical abilities combined to the stun arrow had done to her.

Oh I am so going to kill him.

She kept eyeing that nearby puddle as the two geniuses finally figured out that something was wrong with her. Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner! Elodie thought sarcastically, wanting to shock the snot out of Speedy when he checked her pulse. However, his worried voice kept her from doing so as he realized that she was freaking the freak out.

Once he removed the stun arrow from her back and had her stand up, Elodie felt her body responding to her again. She also discovered that Speedy had been dumb enough to use metallic wrist-locks. Metal, the perfect electrical conductor. Elodie focused on those, sending electricity from one to the other to make sure her abilities were still in check.

And that's when Elodie went to headbutt Speedy. "You freaking idiots!" Elodie yelled, a bit happy with her renewed ability to speak though her words were full of venom. "I knew the Titans had some dumb ones in their ranks but you take the cake! Oh yes, shoot the girl who can control electricity with a stun arrow. Even if it was at a low-amperage electrical charge, my abilities would of amplified it to the point that I couldn't talk! The charge would of taken out my nervous and muscular system and who else knows what other systems it would of taken out!" Elodie down right yelled at him.

Hell hath no fury like a pissed off teenage girl.

"And whats worse is that you also had it hit me right when I was going outside! Do you know what would of happened if I had fallen into a puddle? I would of kept on electrocuting myself until I was completely fried." Elodie hissed, the anger in her voice hiding how utterly terrified she had been. She had been inches away from that puddle, and if she had been stunned and had fallen into it....

That wouldn't of been a pretty sight.

"Oh, and one more thing you two messed up on." Elodie said, her voice somewhat calmer, which was a bad signal for them. "You used metallic wrist locks on me." Elodie said, shooting electricity into them in an attempt to blow the locks off of her and then make a run for it.  She also released some arcs of electricity, in hopes that one would hit one of the two guys. 

[Kenni]

“Wull it sure is fortunate water only conducts and doesn’t attract electricity. That’s one death-magnet I wouldn’t wish on anyone, regardless of their affiliation, Toni Spark.” He wasn't certain on his science, but oh well. He hadn't meant murderously.

As his nicknaming grew more varied, his punishments began.

“It was a fight fire-with-fire situational decision. I don't set out to cause cruel and unusual punishment..actually, have you seen my Punching Glove Arrows? They're made of good family-fun~. I made sure to use the lowest-possible setting I could, alrigh--!!!”
Even in the archer’s conceitedly self-praising state, he had better reflexes than he gave himself credit for; the sudden blow to his gut was met with a tensed abdomen and knees bent, his only faltering done in quicksteps taken in swift succession to keep himself from lamely falling over. She'd been weakened from the stunning; according to plan.

How much weakened?
Apparently, enough to make her more than a little peeved, to put things lightly.

After recovering from The Backwards Ballet, the archer scratched the side of his head with the bottom of his stunner, before re-quivering the piece of equipment.

"Now then, while you spit more venom than Deimos over there on a bad day, let’s make our merry way down to The Big House, shall we? I know they’ve been renovating the rubber-room just for you." They’d had yet to ever actually capture Elodie..
..a fact the glowing ginger would, a few seconds later, dwell on, while his general area was lit up in electrical fireworks, courtesy of the very high-tempered young lady he thought they had in custody.

There was no Backwards Ballet for natural-attack oversight.

Speedy twitched a bit, doing his best to come back-to as he found himself back on his knees, then, ironically, face first in the very puddle Elodie had been agonizing over earlier, which didn’t do much for grounding him. The East Titan would have to trust Ian would have more success here, whether the snakeboy chose to follow-up for Speedy and contain the villainess, or make a run for it with the saved artifact in his possession, and call for backup to collect Speedy later.

For Ian's well-being, Speedy hoped he ran for it.
For Speedy's pride'sake, he hoped Ian thought up a way to contain her, though.

[Bry]

"Hey!" Ian stood from his place on the stairs, taking a step towards Elodie with one finger raised indignantly. (How dare she call them BOTH idiots? Clearly, he had no handcuffs....) But he didn't get very far.

In the span of a few seconds, Elodie had managed to knock Speedy's balanced off with a few electrical arcs, and then he heard faintly the metallic cling as Elodie's freedom was gained.

Well crud.

He ducked instinctively away from the random electricity dancing through the air and opened his eyes from his cringing state to look after the girl as she ran. He watched her for only a moment before kneeling beside Speedy.

"You're alive, right?" he asked his comrade, somehow a lot less unnerved over this possible-but-not-probable death than he'd been over Elodie's. Maybe it was something to do with her being. Ya know. Female.

Or a red head.

Or gorgeous.

She was just too much like Ink. But that was irrelevant.

Right now, after making sure Speedy was still counted among the land of the living, Ian's main concern was Elodie and making sure she did not get away to rob another day.... He floundered for an idea short of chasing after her or throwing the spear through her back--

Wait. He was still holding the spear.

"HEY!" he shouted again, this time hoping to convince the fleeing girl to look back at him. If he could just get her to turn around, to come back.... Subtly, he nudged Speedy out of the puddle with the toe of his boot, hoping the archer would recover enough to back him up again. Otherwise, this would be a fun game of improv. "Aren't you forgetting sssomething?" Ian twirled the spear like a haphazard baton, and then made an attempt at reading her as a person (Which aside from flowers and chocolates = good things, Ian failed at with women). He decided to try an extra tactic; hit her in the pride. "What the heck kinda thief are you? You completely forgot the loot? That'ss.... Underwhelming." He cringed dramatically, then made a grand sweeping gesture, as if he was addressing a crowd gathered just at the base of the stairs, still twirling the spear disrespectfully. "And then sshe runss away from the downed archer and a half-ssnake with a sshaking problem. Ladiess and gentlemen, can we get a round of applausse?! Thiss iss truly magnificent."

One last look at Elodie was armed with a smirk and a hope that he wouldn't have to give chase after her....