Gaunt was on the hunt. Cat had given him a good lead, on another stealthy super. He'd heard the two of them hadn't gotten along too well, but that could be worked around. Rat's Nest was originally a vampire organization, after all, and vampires NEVER got along. Even his old True Companions(TM) team constantly bickered and took potshots at each other. Sometimes literal ones, if they were playing Gat Tag.
He'd done some asking around, and the kid was definitely in this area. He'd have to be careful, she seemed jittery and was definitely a teleporter. It would be a pain in the [REDACTED] to find her again if she poofed on him. That meant no appearing from shadows. She'd have to see him coming, and he'd have to try to appear non-threatening, no easy task for a monster like him. He just hoped she was in the "monsters are cool" camp.
Finally, he spotted the girl he was looking for. She matched the description Cat had given, right down to the last detail. He approached at an easy pace, clearing his throat to get her attention. "Oi, you Aura?" Gaunt stopped a few paces away, not wanting to make her feel threatened. He'd left Vera back at the Warren, just in case. The outline of a gigantic handgun under his jacket might have put her on edge. "Heard you got powers. There's work for people like you, if you're up for it."
Aura had been evading the main streets for some time now. Trying to stay out of sight and out of any cops line of fire wasn't too hard. She'd been around here enough that she'd started to memorize the patrol patterns they took. She had just been about to flit across the street when she heard something odd. The sound of the footsteps hit her long before the sound of someone clearing their throat did but Aura paid it no mind until whoever it was spoke to her. Her name was called out loud and clear by the stranger as was a most unusual proposal. Stifling a snicker Aura glanced at him, her usually pale silver-violet eyes appearing a tad reddish in the light of the moon.
"Maybe. Depends on who wants to know" Her reply was simplistic but it held a note of suspicion. She wasn't afraid even though he was a stranger. He was far enough away that if it came down to it, she could run. Giving him her trademark little half smile, she added to her answer hoping to get a bit more info from the man. "What kind of work exactly? And what's the catch?" So far, the man seemed a lot more pleasant than the last stranger she'd had the unpleasant surprise of chatting with. Last time, she'd been kidnapped. This time she wasn't taking chances. Not even from someone a foot taller than her.
She was trying the cloak and dagger thing. Okay, it was a little amateurish, but at least she was trying. She might make a good agent with some polish. "I'm with Rat's Nest. Think of us as brokers for freelance super work. Do a lot of under-the-table stuff." The girl was acting a bit oddly. She seemed amused by him, even as she was doing the whole cautious spy act. Gaunt was entirely unprepared for that reaction. He was one mean-looking son of a gun, people were normally frightened or repulsed by him.
Now Aura was smiling. Gaunt didn't like it when people smiled for no apparent reason, it usually meant there was a non-apparent reason and things were about to get dangerous. He just hoped she had no serious offensive powers she was readying. "Well, in a way, the catch is the kind of work. What we do isn't exactly legal. We pay well, have safehouses you can use, even got some dorm-style rooms in the base. In return, you put those powers to use where we need em. Raise some hell, lift a thing or two, maybe a little sabotage or spying, whatever you're suited for. Whaddya say?" He offered a long-fingered handshake. Most criminals kept things more vague in their job offers, but Gaunt really didn't worry much about the law. Rat's Nest had its ways of keeping out of court records, no matter what they got into.
She considered his offer carefully. A job would help, especially with the expense of travelling so it couldn't hurt but the fact it wasn't exactly legal made her hesitate. She didn't need her name on the cops list of wanted criminals, she was already classed as a missing person. Before she could give the stranger an answer, she looked up at him and asked a couple questions of her own. "I need to know something before I can answer you. How did you know my name? And can you help me get off the list of missing people? Having cops trying to find me isn't exactly helpful." Sure that last bit was unneeded, she could avoid the cops just fine but it did get annoying after awhile. Furthermore, it would probably deter him from recruiting a missing person especially since if she happened to get caught the cops would instantly come to conclusions and say she was kidnapped.
She didn't shake his hand, as his offer was not yet accepted. She wanted a couple answers first but at least he was giving her a choice. It was different than with most people. While she waited for him to reply, her gaze slid down the alleyway and locked onto the figure of a person at the very end slowly making his way towards them. It was strange, in the pitch black of the shadows a normal person could expect to see nothing but Aura could see the person as if it was daytime. Keeping her gaze locked onto the random person at the end of the alley, she figured she might as well let whoever this was offering her a job know about the oncoming stranger. "....Just an FYI, there's someone coming down the alley." Being nice was not the only reason she told him. She wanted to see what he'd do. After all, a shady businessman meeting a random teenager in an alley looked completely suspicious.
Gaunt had to think a moment about that. Rat's Nest wasn't nearly as influential here as it was in LA, but he could still throw his weight around a bit. Could get the local PD off her back. As for an Amber Alert, he'd have to talk to the bosses back in Los Angeles about that. They might be able to arrange something. "Can't give you a certain answer there. Pretty sure I can get the local pigs off your back, but national searches are harder. I'll have to talk to some people about that." He pulled out a cigarette, lighting it. The glow of the lighter illuminated his ghostly pale face for a split second. "As for your name, you met one of my coworkers recently. She was a bit rough around the edges, but we're not a bad lot."
Aura seemed distracted by something. Before he could start looking around, she tipped him off. She had pretty sharp senses. Gaunt was a little better than a normal human with that, but Nosferatu didn't have the insanely keen senses that some vampires had. This kid seemed to have an edge on him in that department. "Thanks for the tip, kid. Recognize em?" He really hoped it wasn't the cops. If this kid was a wanted runaway, that could lead to more of a ruckus than he wanted. He kept a casual pose, not wanting to tip off the intruder. If it came down to it, he could always handle one attacker.
Gaunt's answer made the little half smile of hers flicker. He'd given her an okay answer and he wasn't forcing her into doing anything but he mentioned a coworker. She thought quickly to the people she'd met recently, most were just ordinary folk but one stood out among them all. "Do you mean the teleporter? The one who called herself Catastor?" It was just an inquiry but she was curious. If that was the case then maybe she'd get a chance to pay the girl back. Her gaze remained locked on the stranger during the entire exchange but when Gaunt asked if the person was familiar, her reply was a simple shake of the head. Letting her gaze slip from the unknown person back to the one before her, Aura noticed the odd pale quality about him thanks to the illumination from the cigarette. "I guess I can accept your offer......" She was hesitant when she accepted his offer because she hardly trusted him. It was the second time within days she let her life be in the hands of a stranger.
Gaunt nodded. This kid seemed a lot less apprehensive about Catastor than he'd thought she would be. That could be good or bad. On the one hand, it might mean they had gotten along better than he'd thought. Conversely, she could be out for revenge. He'd have to keep a close eye on those two. Rats needed to stick together. "Yeah, she's the one. Told me you had some potential." He wondered what else her checks would turn up. He had the Renfields checking databases back in the Warren, ready to report when he got back. If all went well, he'd have a full dossier to go over.
A small frown crossed his face when she shook her head. He didn't like unknown elements popping up while he was trying to recruit, he'd have to hope this guy didn't want trouble. Gaunt shook her hand before briskly turning and signaling for her to follow. "Come along, Pond." Okay, maybe too British, but Gaunt was a vampire with a Netflix account. He collected pop culture references during the day so he could unleash them on the public at night. Gaunt started off, heading for the nearest entrance to the old subways.
Potential? The kidnapping teleporter thought she had potential? For some reason she felt good about that but at the same time slightly embarrassed. She hadn't done anything worth the complement but it still bothered her. No one had ever really paid attention to her enough to notice anything special so getting the complement just this once was a foreign thing to her. She looked away from Gaunt, trying to focus on something else other than the fact he'd just embarrassed her to no end but one question remained heavy in her mind.
"What if she's wrong?"
She barely noticed the words had escaped her when it was too late to take them back. Maybe saying it was best though. None of these people really knew her and whatever 'power' she had was essentially a waste. She watched him as he started walking, motioning her to follow and using some strange reference she had never heard of. Breathing a sigh, Aura followed him carefully, her eyes following his movements in case something went wrong. It wasn't until now that the fear she should have felt earlier started settling in. She continued to follow him regardless but stuck her hands in her pockets to hide the fact her hands were shaking from the nerves. "Where...are we headed?"
The kid seemed more nervous now for some reason. Maybe she really did recognize the interloper and just hadn't wanted to tell him. Gaunt readied himself for trouble, trying to remain casual as he did. If this was some sort of trap, he couldn't let on that he knew it was one. Well, not so much knew as suspected, but the point stands. "We've got desk jobs too. And if that don't work out, you'll just be back where you are now but with a bit more money." The local Rat's Nest was a lot more casual than most. Being vampire groups, they usually had a blood in, blood out policy. Here, he could fire someone without killing them. Hell, he'd done it with Psyman, and that kid was a true hopeless case.
She sounded terrified now. Maybe it was finally settling in that she'd met a monster in a dark alley and was now following it to who-knows-where. Gaunt wasn't too thrown by her response. He was used to being an object of fear, the only thing that surprised him was how long the fear took to set in this time. "We're going to The Warren, our HQ." They arrived at an abandoned subway station with a padlocked gate. The lock had been tampered with, it only took a light tug to open it. Gaunt replaced the padlock and reached into the ticket booth, pulling out an LED lantern and switching it on. "This way." he said, hopping onto the tracks and heading down a tunnel.
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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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