Gaunt scowled at the security cameras. Couldn't he go one night without some kid wandering into his tunnels? She didn't look like much, some girl in a bandana. He kept an eye on the monitors, just in case. For now, he could devote most of his attention to more important things. Like this Buffy marathon, that was important. He had some ideological differences with the show, but he still enjoyed it.
The intruder regained his attention when she started using some sort of power. He paused his show, turning to give his full focus to the monitor. She appeared to have some sort of telekinetic abilities. It was too soon to tell how limited it was, but there was no way paper did that on its own. What he had here was a genuine rookie super. He threw on his coat, heading in her direction.
He approached quietly, going invisible crawling along pipes as he got close. She seemed pretty wrapped up in playing with her paper. He got right above her before making his move. He appeared in a puff of smoke, dropping from the ceiling and landing next to her. He drove his fist downward, making sure to miss and slam it into the floor next to the girl. The tile shattered, leaving a basketball-sized hole. He straightened up, glaring at the super. "You came to the wrong neighborhood, [REDACTED]" said the vampire, using language that is frowned upon in polite society.
This was less than ideal. The whole point of this had been to test her powers in a combat situation, and here she was ignoring them for a knife. Gaunt stood, letting the switchblade embed itself in his leg. It hurt, but it wouldn't cause too much real damage. He didn't bleed, and he could walk something like that off. Gaunt picked up his leg, grabbing the knife and tossing it aside. "Not enough." He pulled out a hip flask and took a swig. Almost instantly, the wound started to close.
Gaunt pocketed the flask again before taking another swing. This girl was reasonably quick. Not the fastest in the world, but still she could hold her own. He was still holding back, going slow enough to let her dodge safely while putting enough force in to let her feel the wind whenever a punch whiffed. He had to keep up as much pressure as he could without causing a real injury. He couldn't very well recruit a super in a full body cast.
Just to mix things up a bit, Gaunt aimed a hit to connect. This one was fast enough that it would be harder to dodge, but didn't have enough force behind it to hurt. It was more of a shove than a hit, really. If it connected, it would just toss her back a bit, send her skidding. No more than a few minor bruises. He didn't want to hurt the kid, just remind her that she was up against a fellow super and that she should [REDACTED] act like it.
This was good, the girl was starting to use her power. She was using it more than when she'd been practicing, too. Either she was just doing a little warmup then, or the pressure was increasing her abilities. He supposed he could ask her when their spar was over. That was assuming she even knew, new supers like her often had a lot to learn about their powers. It might be cool, shaping a superpowered kid like that, helping give her her first formal training.
Gaunt put up his hands to shield his eyes, letting the paper scratch his arms and the sides of his face. He muttered out a few choice bits of profanity. Even in death, papercuts still hurt like hell. Still, it was just superficial damage. He could tell that this wasn't really a magic ability, it was one of the more sciencey superpowers. He had no idea how it worked, but this worked in his favor. He could afford to take some hits from this. Gaunt glared her down, touching one of the cuts. He'd been slashed in a few places, but none of them were bleeding. "No, I wouldn't say it is."
The Nosferatu charged again. That was a good show she had put on, but it wasn't all that much. He had to see if she had any more to offer. She was still worth hiring, he wasn't going to turn down a super with his organization as small as it was, but it would affect what sort of jobs she could take. He couldn't give her the same kinds of missions as Virgil unless she turned out to be a powerhouse like him. Gaunt let loose with another punch combo, keeping to the slower speed. She'd gotten the message that he could hit hard, he just needed to make it seem like that was an imminent possibility again.
It was a bit of a surprise when she managed to hold his fists back. He wasn't going all-out, he was just at dumpster tossing strength, but it was still pretty impressive. He couldn't really push his hands forward. Gaunt tugged, trying to pull free of the paper. It was no good. The pages had closed around his wrists, not leaving enough room to pull his hands out. They wouldn't budge an inch, either. She was holding them well in place, and Gaunt was trapped unless he wanted to use dangerous amounts of force. That wasn't something he wanted to do, pushing things to car-tossing strength with a potential recruit right there. Turning a kid to paste wasn't something he wanted on his conscience.
This power was promising, though. It wasn't as great offensively, but it held a lot of promise for defense and capture. He stood, seemingly helpless as she moved in to attack. The girl kneed him in the gut, and he couldn't help feeling bad for her. His loose T-shirt hid a layer of Kevlar, that couldn't be pleasant to slam her knee into. The attack seemed to break her concentration, and he pulled free of the paper. He was free again, and could consider his options.
The kid was rough around the edges, but she had a useful power. With practice, she could become quite a formidable force. On top of that, she was an unknown. A super that the Rat's Nest hadn't even heard rumors about. Having a complete unknown was rare, and he couldn't discount the element of surprise. She was definitely worth recruiting. Gaunt put up his hands, signaling for a time-out. "You're pretty impressive, kid. Believe it or not, I didn't come here to kill you." He smiled, showing fang. "This was a job interview, and I think you've got what it takes. I work for a group called Rat's Nest, supers for hire. We've just set up a franchise in Jump and we're looking for new members. You want in?"
Gaunt sat down across from her. She seemed to have messed up her leg kneeing him, but it didn't look broken. Just bruised, probably. She would recover well enough, although she was still having trouble trusting him. That was understandable, considering he had just attacked her. This method of auditioning was good for determining their abilities, but it wasn't so great for building trust.
Now, he had the hardest part ahead of him. He wasn't sure why she should trust him, really. He was a monster that had ambushed her in a sketchy looking subway tunnel. That wasn't a good base to start from. He leaned back against a pillar, considering his options. "Well, I suppose I can't give you a whole lot of reasons. Secret organization, hidden base and all that. I can show you the local HQ, but that takes some trust to follow me there. And you gotta be up for walking a ways, too." He tapped his stomach, making a knocking sound as he tapped the vest. "Sorry about that, by the way. Kevlar vest. I usually get the brute jobs, even with my powers I can't afford to get careless."
He sat back, waiting for her to decide. She seemed to have gotten the worst of the fight, despite getting more hits in. There wasn't even a sign of the cuts she had inflicted earlier, and any scraped knuckles from him smashing concrete had healed completely. She, on the other hand, had potential huge bruises on her stomach, knee, and ego. All things considered, she probably wasn't up for solo assault missions.
"Wouldn't dream of it." He stood up with her and started to head for the tracks, but had to pause when she picked up her notebook. It would be useful, having someone like her on the team. She could be heavily armed while carrying school supplies. It was both stealthy and cheap, things that Rat's Nest valued highly. He wondered just how extensive her powers could be.
Gaunt sputtered a bit when she mentioned what she'd been calling him. Had she really been referring to him as Snow White? Technically true, but the opposite of the image he was trying to cultivate. It was hard to seem intimidating and streetwise in a princess dress "The name's Nos, kid. And yours?" He still knew next to nothing about her. She would be kept at an arm's length until she was properly screened and vetted, only seeing the upper layer of the base. The secret part of his secret lair would be revealed once they were sure she wasn't up to something.
Gaunt hopped down onto the disused tracks, leading her down the tunnel. From here, it was about a ten-minute walk to his office. "I'll be showing you the conference room today. That's it for the preview. I can give you a couple days to think it over, and if you want in, then you can see the real HQ."
"Nice to meet ya." He gave a wave. He would have offered a handshake there, but he couldn't be bothered. They were already traveling, there was no point in stopping just for some formalities. Besides, this Paige girl didn't seem too formal. She'd matched him obscenity for obscenity when they were fighting, even managed to outdo him once or twice. Based on that alone, Gaunt was ready to consider her a good kid.
Soon enough the questions started pouring out, and Gaunt slowed his pace a bit to answer them. This inquisitive side could either be helpful or dangerous, they would have to see. "We're mercenaries. Some muscle jobs, some covert. Varies quite a bit. Internationally we're pretty big, but in Jump we're just starting out. Here we have me, Businessman, another new recruit we haven't codenamed yet, and Mr. Gaunt calling the shots. You probably won't see Gaunt, and you definitely won't see Businessman. Might talk to him, though." He chuckled at her Mafia-esque questions. "No, don't worry. Some parts of HQ are open to the public, and most of the secret stuff won't be your concern anyway. Of course if something is secret, there's gonna be consequences for leaking it, but you won't wake up in a coffin. They're expensive." He let her guess how serious he was about that.
Within minutes, they arrived at a rusted old service door. Gaunt popped open a maintenance panel next to the door, revealing an intercom and a number pad. He cupped a hand around the keypad, hiding what he was doing as he punched in a passcode. The door swung open, and Gaunt stepped into a fully finished conference room. If it weren't for the lack of windows, it would look like a normal corporate boardroom. "Welcome to our public meeting place. The ops center and living spaces are reserved for after people join. Not as swanky as this, but comfortable and safe."
"Well, you know how it is. Names have been changed to protect the innocent. And the guilty." He glanced over, noticing that Paige wasn't as amused as he was. These darn kids and their eye-rolling. All right, he was willing to admit those jokes weren't so fresh, and some of them might be in bad taste. He could give her a pass on that.
"Jobs vary, depending on abilities. We'd have to train and test you further, but you seem versatile. Could do some covert stuff, and that paper could come in handy for a fight. Hell, you could acquire documents for us without even moving, just float em into a bag." This was one of the things Gaunt liked about this assignment. In L.A., Rat's Nest had been almost entirely composed of his people, or of normals working for them. The concentration of supers in Jump gave him a lot more to work with. He missed the solidarity, but the tricks he could pull off with his recruits here more than made up for it.
He took a seat at the head of the table, putting his feet up. Part of his persona as Nos was being more casual like this. He was comfortable this way, it was more like his real self than Businessman was. "If you got any more questions, now's the time. Not too hard to get out from here, just go either way then exit at the first station. Padlocks are mostly for show, you might have noticed."
Gaunt pulled out a slip of paper, writing a number down on it. "This is my burner right now. It's good until the end of the week. If you don't call for the next number by then, you can just come back down here. We try to have someone in the office at all times." He handed her the phone number. His writing was messy, but legible. He had been deliberately sloppy with it, part of his Nos persona.
He led her out the door and pointed down the tunnel. "Nearest station is that way. Give us a call if you're interested, we should have everything in order in a few days." Gaunt stepped back inside, closing the door after himself. That had gone rather well. Paige made the second super he'd recruited in Jump City, the beginnings of a well-rounded team. They would need proper training, codenames, and identity-concealing uniforms, but they would make good Rats.
[End of thread]
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Alviss: Darn doesn't show the pic
Apr 18, 2019 7:10:17 GMT -6
force: miss this place. if anyone comes back and sees this, i'm force, i was kid flash here once. you can find me on discord at rook#9485
Jan 12, 2023 13:11:35 GMT -6
The roleplay takes place after the series end of the original Teen Titans animated show, but does not include the movie Trouble in Tokyo. Since then Robin has been on something of a recruiting spree, and many new young heroes have found themselves a home in Jump City as well as Titan Tower.
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