COME AT ME BR-waaaaaaiiiitt..... (Cody/Disque)

[samus]

It was ironic, really. The fact was one that seemed to keep surfacing to the forefront of Samus's mind even now as she walked among the crowd, inconspicuously dressed in simple yet functional green pants and black shirt and boots, with a matching green jacket to help ward off the evening chill as best she could - it wasn't really all that cold, truth be told, but that was one of the drawbacks of the X cure she had received only less than a month ago. Still, Samus couldn't help but find it somewhat amusing that despite probably having half of the Federation affiliated hunters back in her home galaxy looking for her, she was more or less doing the exact same thing herself, only farther away than most of them could possibly imagine. No one here knew her either by face or by name - a chance to start anew, in a place that would hopefully benefit as much as the Federation had from her unique skill set. No reason to run or hide - she could live in relative peace for the time being, a concept almost foreign to her after the fall of K2L and Zebes alike, but a welcome respite. That being said, though, she still had to work - hopeful optimism and thought alone would not feed her, and while she could use her ship for shelter it would still be preferable to actually find a place to hide it rather than city outskirts or rough terrain that only she could cross unaided.

It was with that realization that Samus had gone right back to using her honed skills for tracking down those considered to be outlaws by this world's governments. Most of them were little more than people who had run on bail or who had otherwise proved too difficult for the local police forces to catch, those who would have not really been worth Samus's time back on her home turf - unfortunately, though, the fact that no one here knew of her name or reputation served as something of a double edged sword since her most profitable jobs were technically more mercenary work done for legitimate governments rather than actual bounty hunting, and since none of the governments here knew who she was Samus doubted that they'd be willing to hire her without something to go on. She was working her way up, though - while most of the good jobs had tended to be taken or claimed by the time she learned of them, Samus was getting quicker and quicker with the new system and had managed to grab a relatively promising job this time around. That, or no one simply wanted to take a chance - the target, Cody Travers, was apparently something of an escape artist if the number of times he'd broken out of supposedly secure institutions was anything to go by. After checking with a few sources of public information it wasn't difficult to find out how he'd escaped this time - if breaking out of a secure prison facility was possible for him, escaping from a prison transport wouldn't be at all difficult, and to top it off it had happened only a few miles outside of Trenton, New Jersey, a place that was apparently his home turf if his arrest record was anything to go by.

With any luck Samus would be right on his tail, and so far the job had already proven to be plenty profitable - given his history with many of the local gangs Samus had decided to take on the most direct approach, and had been more or less wiping them out one by one, turning in those who were wanted by the local police force and relying on the ones that went free to spread word of her, turning herself into something of a target for the other gang members still loose and thus feeding the cycle. Hopefully it'd draw Travers's attention as well - she'd already been at it for almost a week now, and if there was anything she'd learned from what little history she had on him, the man wouldn't be able to resist a good fight. Not that Samus intended to give him one - she had her stun pistol concealed but charged under the relatively loose jacket, and under all of her clothing she was still wearing her Zero Suit, only the hands of which were visable and easily mistaken for gloves. Hopefully she wouldn't need to use her Fusion Suit, something she'd try to avoid if possible, but she wasn't taking any chances with someone as violent and underhanded as Travers.

[cody]

Cody smirked cockily at the thug at his feet. He'd since escaped Riker's Island while on transport to a medium security jail at the request of President Mike Haggar. However, he proved untrustworthy to even his past ally. With a final kick he knocked the kneeling thug back dazed and barely conscious. "Ha, I'm just too good... Tell your little friends that Cody's back in town and he ain't taking shit." Cody was clad in his usual attire of white hand wraps, a pair of baggy blue jeans and a white tank top to show off his muscular and tattooed body. The blonde brawler was something of a legend to in North America due to his televised street brawls and link to the president of the United States. One might argue that this man is a hero due to his actions during the great riot that swept many years ago when Haggar was elected mayor of New York. The thugs took Jessica Haggar, daughter of Mike and past girlfriend of Cody. However, she soon left him high and dry after his incident resulting in jail time. Cody strolled past a billboard, a withered sign showing a "Vote for Mike Haggar for your US President" poster. "What happened, Mike? You traded your tights in for a suit? You used to be someone, now your just some asshole sitting in the white house while I rotted away in that fucking cell. Bullshit." Cody said to himself gruffly as he stared at the sign. It'd been 10 years since the riot. Jessica had moved on, married another. Cody often thought that she made the wrong choice. He was just sticking to his morals, after all. He couldn't have let crime go unpunished in his home patch.

Suddenly, a thug ran towards the brawler. He threw up his hands as if to say there wouldn't be a fight. "I-I'm here with a message... I dunno who you pissed off man but she's pissed. I-I..." Cody smirked, he was used to random people wanting to challenge his reputation and every time he was happy to utterly humiliate them. "Well, you just lead her right to me, pal. I don't mind though, I'll humour her. So who is it this time? Chun Li, Cammy? Oh man, I hope she's wearing that green spand-" "No it's none'a them, Cody. This one, she means business..." Cody chuckled cockily at the prospect that anyone could ever 'mean business' to him. He was one of the top fighters in the United States and made it far in the last Street Fighter tournament. "Oh, I'm soooooo scared. Come on out, I'll go easy on ya' " Cody shouted rather loudly, holding his arms up to try and gain the attention of this mystery woman. "Don't do it man!" Cody grimaced and swung an elbow into the gangbanger's face, knocking him out. He hated when some asshole comes and cramps his style. "Ha, guess she's just chicken." the brawler said loudly, cracking his knuckles and unknowingly getting himself in deeper.

[samus]

After nearly three hours Samus was ready to simply call it a day and head back to the apartment she was renting in the city - normally it would've been back to ehr ship, cloaked and camouflaged on the outskirts of the city, but no use in leading anyone who didn't need to know about it to it. It was getting dark, though, and while the temperature had thankfully stopped dropping to hang around what was supposedly relatively cool for this time of year, staying out much longer would be dangerous - she had deliberately made enemies with the local gangs, and while her Fusion Suit would probably be more than enough to handle anything they threw at her she preferred to keep the body count to a minimum. The stun pistol was one thing, the arm cannon another. As easy as it would have been to simply wipe out all of the gangs in the city, it was never an option for Samus - ever since the incident on Jigrad she'd made a point of never using lethal force when she could avoid it, especially not against civilians. The only ones who deserved that treatment were the monsters that had torn both her homes apart for their own petty ambition, and that part of her life was more or less behind her at this point.

Turning the street corner and beginning to head home, Samus couldn't help but slow her pace somewhat in the interests of caution as the street lamps began to flicker on one by one - while she would have just preferred to be out of the area altogether, rushing wasn't necessarily a good idea when you still weren't completely familiar with an area. Getting lost would do her no good, and at the very least the few other people still left on the streets would provide some small amount of protection - anyone looking to get back at her would think twice before openly trying it in public, or so Samus hoped. Still, she kept her eyes and ears open for anything that might prove to be a threat, and it was in the process of doing so that certain sounds came to her attention, namely two voices - one panicked, and the other calm but somewhat crude, in both tone and speech. It wasn't until the second voice yelled out an open challenge that Samus began to head towards it, walking into the entrance of the alley just in time to see Cody Travers elbow a man in the face, apparently hard enough to put him out cold. In some ways Samus couldn't believe her luck - her good luck for a change - that she'd actually managed to find him within the day, and right when she was getting ready to head back "home". When completely honest with herself, Samus had been expecting to keep up the routine for the better part of another week or two, or worst come to worst that Cody might have already left the city. Still, her earlier concerns stayed with her - it would be best not to drag this out, and she had no intention of doing so.

"Step away from the walls, hand up and on your head." Samus said calmly, projecting her voice to make sure she was heard while simultaneously drawing her stun pistol in one smooth, fluid motion and aiming it right at Cody's sizable center of mass. A near impossible target to miss from only a handful of meters away - the nice thing that Samus liked about the stun shot was that it didn't matter where she shot him so long as the stun bolt made contact, and with his rather large frame and little room to move in the alley Cody had boxed himself in. Just the same, though, Samus remained on guard, both against Cody and any possible outside interference. More than anything Samus simply wanted to get this over with - Cody might've wanted a fight, but she simply wanted to turn him in for the bounty and be on her way, no questions asked.

[cody]

Cody grimaced, this voice from behind him was surely armed. Most law enforcers are, by the sounds of it she was far away enough that he wasn't able to do a quick disarm. "....Shit." he muttered to himself, quiet enough that the authority figure who likely had a ranged weapon didn't hear. Last thing Cody needed was to appear like he was in any way fearing this lady. "Alright, alright.." the brawler turned slowly, glaring at this woman as he strolled forward, staring right at her. "Listen to me, I don't know who sent you but I'm a hero. Mike Haggar couldn't have saved New York without my help. Besides, you lock me up it'll just give me better practice to escape again. Riker's almost held me pretty well, if I'd have escaped from there it'd be a hefty swim to shore. But yeah, they were dumb enough to try and transport me on a bus... But, I guess you know all this already." Cody spoke out in his usual manner. His crude, gruff voice was almost a certain indicator that he was ready for whatever this lady had to offer. Cody continued to walk forward towards the woman, the futuristic looking weapon in her hand being in his mind but for this moment he remained neutral as any kind of pistol is usually bad news.

He now planned his course of attack. He couldn't do anything until he knew she was unarmed. "Whaddaya say we ditch the heat and go cuffs... If you really wanna take me in, wouldn't it be more satisfying doing it by your own fists." he spoke out loudly, his bandaged hands resting on the nape of his neck, his knuckles slightly bloody indicating he's been taking care of the games around the city. "Besides, you just know Haggar's gonna bail me out again and again. Poor guy just can't forget the past. I'm somewhat of a friend of his. Unless you can convince Mikey not to help me anymore than what you're doing is worthless." He said with a smirk over to the armed lady. He had no real idea she was only there to collect a bounty, but usually these law enforcement types are all high and mighty and the lot of them tend to freak out and leave themselves open to an attack.

(Sorry for the crappy post, muse was being terrible)

[samus]

As Cody Travers stopped in place, Samus distinctly noted that he did not raise his arms as she'd instructed as he turned towards her and began to slowly walk in her direction, no doubt in an attempt to get close enough to disarm her without spooking her in the process. All in all, not a bad tactic, and the words coming out of his mouth probably would have been more than enough to make most people think twice about messing with him - his size, well known fighting prowess and the threat of a presidential intervention would be enough to stop most people, or at least make them hesitate. Not Samus, though - she knew full well that the person he was talking about would not step in to save him considering how long Cody had been sitting in prison without any external intervention, and the move to the less secure facility was probably about as much leeway as Cody was likely to ever get, and not for a long, long time after this stunt. As it was Samus was unable to fathom why they'd risk such a maneuver without putting more safeguards in place to ensure his safe transit, but that wasn't her problem. If anything it was precisely because of such beureucratic incompetance that she had a job to begin with.

"That's fine by me - if you break out again, I get another bounty." Samus said, making sure that her stun pistol was trained on Cody's chest once again before pulling the trigger, firing the weapon right for his center of mass, the yellow orange bolt of energy racing towards him. She wasn't an amateur, and there was no way in hell she was letting Cody get any closer than he already was - considering that he was plenty quick and that he was barely six meters away, she was not going to give him the opportunity to disarm her. This way would be quick, efficient and above all, safe to both people - he would be unable to harm her, and the stun shot wouldn't do anything beyond make his nervous system go haywire, robbing him of his motor control for roughly twenty seconds or so. More than enough time to get a pair of stun cuffs onto him, and once those were on he'd be unable to make any move without getting hit by another jolt.

[Dominique McGregor]

All decked out in her `hero get-up` with a grin across her slivery black lips as she zip, zap, zoomed through the sky at about twenty miles per hour. Holding her hands out and feeling the breeze mess with her hair which was dyed at the tips to be like a darker version of the rainbow, it was a nice day to kinda relax a bit. Kinda was the emphasis, since the alien girl didn't have any gigs to attend for whatever crazy reason...she looked around for a nice, big, bank to take money from to make up for the slack being made. Plus, people were REALLY slacking on tossing money in her general direction with street side concerts. Cheap skates....they didn't know how important it was to her that they throw AT LEAST a dollar in her general direction! By a stroke of bad luck, all the banks she traveled by were pretty heavily guarded and that wouldn't end well for ANYONE...even if she chose to freeze them in time for a bit. So her gaze was mostly toward the ever shifting clouds for a good span of time while cruising the skies.

Looking at the vast sky through her mirrored visor to conceal her eyes, a message spanned across saying `Look down!` and she couldn't help but glance downward at the scenery below out of curiosity. ....what was going on and HOW did she end up in this part of town?! Stopping above with her palms facing the ground, she frowned a bit and narrowed her eyes a bit. After getting into reading news articles as a somewhat useful pass-time, she read up on various events the past held and the blonde man looked quite familiar. Though Disque couldn't quite hear them from her height, she looked at the armed woman then to the unarmed guy. The amount of unfair this was didn't settle well with her and she was going to intervene and help the under dog! Today, she had her bass guitar for her real instrument and all the others she'd use would have to be digitally summoned as quite temporary and unable to make physical damage like her bass guitar.

This one had angelic features and a wings jutting out of its sides with a pleasant face painted upon it. Light blues with white as the color scheme. Quickly strumming some notes, the stereos in her back not only blared out her bass based music, but selecting something from the 8bit randomizer as a background to not only be complimented by her bass playing. The whole floor lit up plastered in musical notes following the melody playing for a few seconds before shifting everything into what one could easily call `something out of an old school game` accompanying the song. That wasn't all though, she made damn quick work to prevent a shock to mister blondie's system to the best of her ability and some sound waves formed into two foot bubble right in the middle of them which would more than likely capture the blast for about ten seconds before getting shot out at some random building with a slight shift of her guitar triggering the reflection within. Ah...she wanted to launch it at the lady for a taste of her own medicine, but luck wasn't in her favor in that aspect. Might work better, even since someone twitching like crazy wouldn't quite work out for the best if she wanted to TRY and be the mediator.

The music wasn't really coming from a specific location, that was probably one of the strangest things since it sounded more like a dome around them. Of course, it became obvious when she flipped into view, six feet away from them making it look like a triangle. Continuously strumming her bass guitar, she was more than ready to send out another sound wave bubble to mess up this blonde female's plans. "Tsk tsk...you're firing on an unarmed man, woman! Shouldn't you feel a little ashamed for not playing fair?"

Thanks to now being in 8bit graphic style, her smirk looked more like a blocky grin. YET...their voices seemed relatively normal...save for hers since it was slightly autotuned at the moment to obscure her real tone. Keeping the woman locked in her vision, she didn't take her chances and kept the man in her peripherals because if he tried anything. Balancing on one foot, she hovered a few inches off of the air and continued a little bit with her banter deciding to make a suggestion, "Besiiides....do we really have to solve everything with violence? Hm? I think we got more than enough of that going around if you ask me. Which you didn't, but still." Beneath her visor, she couldn't help but quirk a brow even though it was going to be left unseen by her peers. THEN...she sounded a little puzzled while directing her voice toward the guy, "...and what did you do to piss this woman off?"

RIGHT....that was a pretty important question to ask, now wasn't it? OH WELL! Disque was on full alert right now and ready to do some defensive maneuvers if either of them wanted to try any funny business.

[cody]

The brawler strolled forward with an ever cocky grin on his face. Suddenly, his snarky expression turned to one of slight concern. "Ah, shit." Cody said loudly as the electric blast shot towards him at record speed. Cody braced his body for impact much like he did when he was ready to be hit with any other similar projectile. He'd been hit with them all due to his partaking in the Street Fighter circuit. Hadoukens, Sonic Booms, Yoga Flames, Poison Kisses... but the one that always got him the worst were electrical attacks. Cody remembered with anger how that bastard, Blanka electrocuted him and knocked him out of the semi-finals back in '98.

Suddenly, a strange bubble came down between the two accompanied by strange music and absorbed the blast before shooting it away from them. Cody also noted about everything having an odd blocky aesthetic, but given the fact this is the same guy that has a friend who defeated an earth devouring space tyrant he wasn't gonna question it. "Heh, looks like lady luck is on my side tonight." he muttered to himself as he rubbed his stubble covered chin as the mystery woman came down to join them. She certainly had a strange look about her... then again, Cody had seen some weird fighters during the times he fought in the Street Fighter tournament so it's not like he was in any way shocked by someone looking odder than most.

The strange woman even seemed to chastise the bounty hunter for firing on an unarmed man. Cody smirked and crossed his arms. He loved when things went his way, and for now this looks like it'd worked just as he planned.... Sure everything looked completely screwed up but at least he's not on the floor spazzing out from an electric shock. She did however play that whole "violence is bad" bullshit the brawler heard his entire life. Cody always got lectures from Haggar that "violence was always the last option" Heh, pretty hypocritical from a guy that made a living from piledriving people but Cody wasn't one to really argue with the guy that could bend steel girders with his bare hands. Soon the topic shifted on what Cody exactly did to piss this lady off. "Well, y'see. I was in transit from Rikers... I got a little anxious on the bus ride and felt queasy and these police were cramping my style, man. I got places to be... So I kindly asked them if I could get off, they said no. I may have disarmed the guy of his shotgun, knocked his ass out and pointed it at the driver to make him stop so I could get out and enjoy myself." Cody said almost nonchalantly in his usual gruff accent, quickly putting his hands up in a manner as to attempt to justify it. "But I wasn't gonna shoot him or anything! I just wanted to prove a point." He added, it was pretty obvious the blonde woman knew just how he escaped and likely heard it from the point of view from the law. Cody felt that if he told it his way it might not freak out the newcomer so much.