No Smoke Without Fire

[Rig]

Characters: Cherufe (Rig) and Starfire (Elenaphant)
Setting: Street Festival; midday right before noon
Previous Threads: N/A
Plot Summary: A conglomeration of restaurants and vendors were able to get a block closed off. A festival for many to enjoy. Though, things go totally wrong.

[Rig]

Upon walking a few miles from a familiar bus stop, he came across a peculiar sight. It was a large festival of some sort. He could care more or less what kind of festival it was for. If it took his mind of his boredom, it was probably worth his time. He walked passed a few vendors before finally stopping. The chunky man that stood behind the vendor smiled. The chunky man offered him a taste of his signature wings and wing sauce. Cherufe enjoyed the spicy kick to the wings to the point where it almost reminded him of his mom’s cooking. The redhead reached into his pocket and threw down a $20 dollar bill. He left the vendor with takeout box of thirty wings drenched with them man’s signature sauce.

With a slight smile while stuffing his face, he walked around to see a few things that caught his attention. One of them was an antiques dealer. The dealer was showing off a dagger which had a seal that Cherufe was too familiar with. He knew that the dagger probably had magical properties. Though, it wasn’t the sole reason he drew near to the vendor. Before he could get close enough to examine the dagger any further, someone bumped into him and made him drop his box of wings on the ground. While staring at the wings, a kid who seemed to be homeless picked them up and began to run with them.

“Hey kid, you should hold on to your food,” a voice spoke out to him.

With an enraged look on his face Cherufe quickly turned to where the voice was coming from. It was a hefty man wearing a biker vest. Cherufe knew that the man thought he was in a rival motorcycle club due to his appearance, but that was no excuse. Cherufe currently was a lone wolf. No club or gang affiliation whatsoever. The fiery teen yelled out with glowing red eyes. His body became engulfed in black flames like a burning forest. The asphalt beneath his feet began to melt back into tar due to the heat.

Cocking his arm back, a black fireball formed in his hand as everyone began to abandon the scene. The biker finally began to run after he realized that he was outmatched. The fireball ended up being launched into one of the now vacant booths. Part of the fireball caught the man across his back as flames began to engulf the biker’s clothes.

“I’m going to burn this place to a crisp!” exclaimed Cherufe as he noticed an unexpected individual.

Tag: Elenaphant

[Elenaphant]

Starfire always enjoyed the events that took place in Jump City. She had seen the crowd and the stands from the sky on the way to the Tower, and decided that after a mission well done she could afford a delay in getting home. The people watching was her favourite part, and it amused her to see kids enthusiastically dragging their parents toward one stand or another. Then there was the chance to try something new to eat. She was familiar with fair-food from the board-walk carnival, so was festival food any different?

She ordered a lobster-tail corn dog to try, and it was delicious even if a little disappointing they didn't include mustard. The condiment it was served with was very good regardless. Alas, she didn't get through half of it as the joyous atmosphere shifted to terror. There were screams, and people scrambling to get away. Starfire swallowed hard and darted her concerned eyes about. There was smoke rising from a stand, and a terrible smell of burning asphalt. The expensive corn dog had to be abandoned as something far more precious, and priceless, was threatened to be lost if someone didn't get things under control.

"Desist your burning!" Starfire ;east, in the least catchy introduction. She wasn't the Titan that handled the one-liners. It was even less impressive as she had a piece of batter stuck between in her front teeth. That was all the warning Cherufe would get as the heroic alien flew fearlessly toward him, ready to grab him and force him from the festival. The fire-department would have to deal with the flames; Starfire would deal with the cause.

[Rig]

Cherufe turned his head to where the voice had come from. His eyes squinted at the Titan’s arrival. This was a bit unexpected for him. He didn’t think he would draw the attention of one of the core Titans. He took a deep breath as his black flames changed to a deep shade of red. Stretching his arms out, two red fireballs formed within the palms of his hands.

“It’s an honor, Titan. It isn’t everyday that I get to be in the presence of a pretty lady. How about I hand you bouquets of flames?!” he stated as he launched the fireballs, one after the other, at Starfire. “Well, good day to you lovely."

The flames from his body dissipated as he turned away from the Titan in an all out sprint. He figured that he would try and draw a chase just to see how far he could get. The running would give him some light conditioning and a little more time to cause havoc. He wasn’t sure how he would manage up against the alien, but he would test his luck.

As he continued to run, he bolted over a metal railing that blocked off part of the festival. He outstretched his arm as a stream of flames poured out from his hand. Booths and vendors he passed started to go up in a blaze behind him. He turned a sharp corner and propelled himself over a trash can. Cherufe glanced back every once in awhile to see if Starfire pursued him. Chuckling, he used a counter of a booth to throw himself through a banner.

At the opposite end of banner, was the entrance to an alleyway. Cherufe could feel the adrenaline begin to pulse through him as he landed on his feet in a squatting position. He stopped briefly and turned around with a twisted laugh. “This better be good,” he stated anxiously to see what would happen next.

Tag:Elenaphant

[Elenaphant]

Starfire's arm raised as her 'bouquet' came at her, and while it wasn't pleasant the licking flames didn't have the same consequence to her as they did everything else. In some horror she watched as they spread, and she lost some time in the pursuit getting a few people out from beneath their burning stands, practically ripping off their flaming outerwear. She didn't usually wish to have Aqualad's aquatic powers, but she sure wished he were here with her to calm the situation. Someone was getting an emergency fire extinguisher to put out burning victims.

She couldn't linger to personally oversee it as much as she wanted to. Her eyes glowed and she was up in the air fast, without a destructive trail of fire behind her. Even without her superior eyesight, the trail of fire was easy to spot and she followed it at exponentially increasing speed. When it stopped she hovered for a moment, only to see that the man had stopped and laughed like a maniac. Once he was in her line of sight, Starfire began barraging down her starbolts. They weren't fire. They weren't even that hot. They were cuncussive, and packed a punch if they met their target. She did not bother concentrating her energy into making it burn. She anticipated he would also be heat resistant, like herself.

[Rig]

"Whoa!" he yelped as the starbolts came toward his direction.

Cherufe didn't have enough time to truly run away. The one thing he learned to do while training was to react when you have no time to think. It was like his body kicked in a self-defense sequence. The starbolts had speedily made its way toward him. The fiery teen's body focused concentrated flames under his feet and forced himself into a quick hover backwards. The majority of the bolts had missed, but he wasn't quick enough for the last one. The starbolt's force had knocked him from his hover as he was knocked backwards into a flip. Fury had raged inside him as he landed on his stomach on the hard asphalt. It had been a long time since he felt pain like this. Pain itself wasn't too bad and it did have a strange feel of ecstasy.

The boy slowly stood up on his feet and faced the Tamaranean. Again, he concentrated flames under his feet. This time he shot himself into the air hovering about thirty feet in the air. He winced once he leveled out, while gently holding his rib with his left hand. "That was some punch, love. I like that. Though, it's going to take more than that to take out the Mighty Cherufe. Are you going to chase me all day and/or will you totally unleash your wrath?!" he yelled angrily. He then lifted both of his hands to his sides. The angry teen formed two concussive fireballs and launched them quickly at Starfire hoping that the force would knock her back.

Seeing starbolts for the first time gave him sort of an inspiration to throw more fireballs consecutively than just two of three behind each other. His biggest thing was trying to conserve energy. He realized that he did have enough power to do it and it wouldn't truly take up much more energy than normal. Cherufe didn't have much time to contemplate on the subject he would need to get out while he still could. Pushing the fire under his feet, he started to fly toward the sky. He eventually reached about 70 mph and now was above the buildings. Though, that wasn't enough. He started flying in an erratic flight pattern to try and break way from his possible pursuer. Cherufe then flew a bit lower and hovered near the corner of a building. The redhead peaked around a couple of times to see if he broke Starfire's line of sight.

"Well, this escalated quickly," he said while angrily gripping at his side.

[Elenaphant]

They hovered together thirty feet into the air. It would have been a chance to try and grab at him again, but the wince had Starfire pausing. Had she gone too hard? She took for granted that not all metahumans she faced had an invulnerability factor. Her green eyes darted to his rib and she wondered if she'd done any severe damage. They darted back up to his face as he spoke to her. At least, he could still talk. "If you just--" her protest was cut off as two large fireballs pushed her back through the air. She spun once from the impact, and then quickly righted herself.

By then, he was sending more which she was ready for. Starfire had been flying all her life, and now that she was expecting it she managed to dodge the barrage. He merely adopted the technique, but Starfire was born with it--actually, she wasn't, but it sure would sound cool to say. In any case, the fireballs may not have landed but they did force her to slow and frequently change her trajectory to avoid them. It kept her from closing the distance and catching him, because yes, she did intend to chase him all day if that's what it took to catch him.

However, even with her great eyesight, the many building made it difficult to keep track of him. The stream of fire behind him would occasionally block her view, and his flight pattern was erratic and therefore unpredictable. Up in the air it was fine to compete in speed, and Starfire was certainly going to gain on him as she accelerated to exceed his 70 mph, but once he lowered back down to the height of the buildings that wasn't an option anymore. Starfire quickly slowed, and in coming to a stop he was able to get out of her sight.

The Titan frowned when she realized she lost sight of him. She also hovered in place, but was in full view between large business HQs. The glassy surfaces reflected her as she looked around and slowly moved through the air. It took her some time to even notice, and her eyes widened slightly as she caught sight of herself. Not because she was elated at an opportunity to look at herself, but because she realized that she could use it as an additional resource for trying to find him. Her eyes scanned the nearby buildings, looking for anything that could seem out of place.

She saw red in one of the windows, and knew he was hiding behind the opposite building. There! She could see that he was trying to peak around the corner, so she sped up higher in an attempt to break his line of sight too. She flew over the building, to come down slowly, quietly, in the opposite direction that he was facing. Her eyes were glowing green, and her starbolts ready. "It is you who escalated things quickly at the festival," she said as she hovered slightly above him. "If you stop running and answer for what you have done, I promise I will not hurt you any further."

[Rig]

Cherufe raised an eyebrow under his shades as he turned to face the voice. Starfire had been more persistent than he would give credit for. Straightening himself up to his full height, he smiled intensely. There was no way he was going down so easy. He knew it would be better to gather more information before he would let himself be captured. Though, getting captured would allow him to get other kinds of information especially concerning dark magic There were different reasons in his head to allow himself to get captured, but equal reason not to. "It looks like you caught me. Though, I promise that you will have to try a lot harder to take me out. I guess we can land and you can do as you will," he said somewhat sarcastically.

Cherufe began his decent slowly and then just released his flight into a free fall. His back was toward the ground as he started to fall to a normal human's would be certain death. The redhead burst into black flames as he positioned himself to redirect his free fall. Before he reached the hard asphalt, he used his flames to change his trajectory. A semi truck swerved to avoid a collision with the black fireball even though Cherufe adjusted himself to avoid getting hit.The truck flipped taking its trailer with it and it slid across into an intersection. Other cars tried to avoid it, but ended up colliding with it causing a pile up.

"That' wasn't planned, but whatever. Beautiful, beautiful chaos. How was that Star-momma? So, what would I be answering for exactly?!" he spoke with an eerie smile. The black mass of flames that was Cherufe stood there and awaited any kind of reaction from Starfire. He prepared himself to get tackled or captured. Cherufe had been detained before and he knew that the cops wouldn't just let himself off the hook this time. Though, he was curious to see what would happen next. There was always an alternate to what would happen. He knew that his identity would be revealed if he was booked, but it didn't bother him that much. He was a little anxious to see what the alien would do next. Continuing to run would burn him out sooner or later. He had already grown bored of just running away. It was only delaying the inevitable even though he did have a bit of fun while using his powers. He hadn't gone all out and it would have been a waste of energy. The Titan proved that she could withstand his flames. It would be pointless to try and fight her with his fist and he wasn't going to take another hit by a starbolt.

Tag: Elenaphant

[Elenaphant]

The way he smiled at her unnerved her deep down. It was an expression she had grown familiar with over the years, of people who had sinister intentions coupled with an unforgivable lack of compassion for others. She had to tell herself not to get carried away no matter that there was a little voice telling her that surely someone like him deserved it. That same part of her also told her not to let her guard down when he seemed to surrender. She was proven right when his descent was no more peaceful than his presence at the festival had been. Her eyes widened as too late she saw the incoming truck, and though she flew to intercept there was no stopping the pile-up. 

Starfire gasped as she tore her eyes off of him, looking to see what damage had been done. In one of the cars there had been a child-seat. Tears stung her eyes for a second at a feeling of terrible guilt that she had not prevented the accident, but they quickly burned away as her eyes glowed bright. How was that? She thought that if she wasn't very careful it would be a morgue he ended up in, not a prison. Her angry expression his way reflected that sentiment as she looked down at him. Her fingers flexed.

"You are going to answer for every person you hurt," she said, lowering down and stepping forward, closing the gap between them. "Resist, and you will feel their pain." It was his warning, because the alien was prepared to fight.

[Rig]

The young villain knew this face and the feelings emanating from Starfire. He had dealt with these emotions all of his life.The rage she had intrigued him. So, some of the Titans do have a streak of anger hmm..., he thought to himself. He was more pleased that he was able to tick off the Titan. His previous encounter with Robin didn't go the way he planned. This was going his way so far. If he truly was going to jail or even prison, it would be now. He didn't really want to be locked up and if it had been another Titan, he may have fought it out. There was no interest in dying. He would live to see another day.

"Fine then, lovely lady, you win this time. I willingly submit," he said with a psychotic smile while dismissing his flames from his body.

A brief sigh slipped across his lips. There was plenty of built up anger and he knew the cops would feel his wrath if he made it to the station. That was a big "if". Though, Jump's police force did have a way of keeping a close knit on criminals with powers. Good thing for him that they couldn't link him to any of the crimes he committed. Having things catch ablaze when you touched things had it's advantages. No fingerprints were always a good thing. Cherufe figured that the worse he would probably get would be destruction of city property and disturbing the peace. He was ready for anything at this point. Well, mostly anything. He was unsure of what Starfire would do with him surrendering.

Firefighters and law enforcement rushed to the scene to take on the new task that they had. Cherufe got on his knees and placed his hands behind his head. He continued to stare at Starfire with a smile. "Love you, mean it." he laughed jokingly. He knew this was just the beginning of something new. Cherufe came to Jump City to burn it to the ground and he still planned to do just that. So far, there was nothing that was going to change his mind. He wasn't going to let anyone and everyone know his plans. Though, his plans now needed a bit of fine tuning.

[Elenaphant]

Starfire could only let out a measured exhale through the nose, the sort that one made when trying to keep their anger from boiling over, when he surrendered. There was no relief when there was the distant sound of ambulance sirens to remind her of what the battle cost--what she had failed to prevent. She stayed with him, a glowing fist pointed his way like a police officer would with a gun, until the law enforcement unit equipped to handle a metahuman like him came to take over.

That didn't mean they'd be departing just yet. Starfire had to give her statement, and she was keen to personally help escort the transport van to Belle Reve just in case their pyromaniac of a villain decided to try and escape. She threw him a look when he said he loved her, understanding by the tone it was a joke, but understanding why declaring his love after everything was meant to be funny. It was mocking. "I hope you love prison just as much," she said, and closed the door on him when he was loaded in the back off van with armed guards standing by.

ooc: I think we can call it a wrap! See you in jail ;D