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Waiting for the ball to drop; Ruby, Marvel
Topic Started: Dec 6 2009, 06:24 AM (149 Views)
Jean
Member Avatar
Telepathy, Telekinesis
Date/ Time: New Year's Eve, New York City, After Ruby's escape




Times Square with hundreds, if not thousands, of joyous revelers; all with their eyes looking up, waiting for the ball to drop on New Year’s Eve. Looking down at them were dozens of cameras, scanning the crowd and comparing every face to wanted criminals. On ‘party night’ in the city that never sleeps, even the criminals came out of the woodwork, and SHIELD was waiting for them.

Agent Marvel watched the blur of images flicker as the computer compared facial features to mugshots faster than any human, or mutant, eye ever could.

“There’s another,” a SHIELD tech said, expanding the image to fill the screen. “This one goes by the name – Firebug.”

Their commander narrowed his eyes as Firebug’s bio flashed onto the screen. “Jenkins, Roach, Kowalski, gave some flame retardant spray and swat this bug,” barker the commander.

“Sir, quadrant 16 J, Ruby Summers,” another tech called out, sending the feed of Ruby and trademark ruby lenses to the main monitor. “Identified his younger brother also,” reported the tech as boxes outlines Ruby’s face and a teenage boy nearby.

The commander breathed in to bark out another command but Marvel’s skipped in ahead by a hair’s breath but he could get the command out. “Sir. I have previous experience with this criminal, I’ve apprehended him before,” she volunteered on the spur of the moment, at a loss as to why she did. Oh, yes… that was why, she thought darkly. A certain matter of payback.

She felt the commander waffling and subtly, sent him a little push in the right direction.

He gave her a curt nod.

Flying from roof to roof had been an easy way to zero in on Ruby had been easy but finding a covert landing spot amid the hustle and bustle was a challenge. Thank God for convenient deserted alleys. Using the crowd as cover, Marvel closed in on Ruby Summers.
“Hey, Ruby,” she called, aiming her punch to where his jaw would be when he turned around.

Alex Summers, sixteen years old, home for the holidays, from the special school he was sent off to. His class mates were the children of diplomats, actors, politicians and yeah, criminals. No one asked there. The tuition was high enough to dissuade prying, and Ruby's threats were paired with several others in a completely different level. Alex was safe there. But he demanded to come home for Christmas and New Years, guilting his big brother with all the missed holidays past. To be honest, it wasn't very hard. Ruby, for everything he was, did love his kid brother.

So, when Alex wanted to see the ball drop in Times Square, Ruby rented a room overlooking it, and did everything he had wanted Jack to do that first year here. New Years had been his intro to New York City, and the start of his downfall. Alex had money here, Alex had food, Alex had hope. There were no drugs for the boy, no booze, no rented babes in his bed.

The boy didn't miss those things. He had a chance.

Ruby, chasing several pills down with too much scotch, was on the balcony, near his brother, overlooking the crowd, a smile on his face. Beta and Lorelei were off, because they knew this was his time with Alex, and perhaps that was the reason that he didn't see his pretty young enemy land near by until he heard his name and met her punch with his jaw.

Alex's hands were suddenly filled with glowing heat as he whirled to see his brother attacked by some lady with bright red hair and a cold look on her face. "Hey, what the hell?"

Ruby flung out his hand, stopping Alex, "Inferno, cool it. Agent Marvel's an old friend. This is just how she tells me she missed me."

She didn’t actively have her eyes on the kid but he was a minor compared to Ruby. “Getting him into your family business early, eh Ruby?” She slid her gaze over to Alex, “You’re in enough trouble, kid. Don’t make things worse for yourself.” Her hand went to the SHIELD restraints, null cuffs, on her belt. “Sure I did, Ruby. The warden at Raft misses you too.” Reaching out with her mind, she flipped him onto his stomach.

"Scott..." Alex said, plaintively, confused and scared. He didn't drop his powers, though, special as this woman moved his brother with her mind, "You're one of us!" he gasped.

Using his brother as a distraction, Ruby snatched up his cane, and swung it, hard, into the woman's legs, rolling immediately up into a crouch. "Inferno, I said drop it, now!" he ordered, using his brother's self chosen nickname, not knowing how much Marvel knew about the kid, wanting to keep him safe. He brought his hand up to his glasses, "It's a party down there, Marvel, a great big party full of thousands of innocent people who aren't expecting a mutant battle to bring the ball crashing down on their heads. You aren't taking us without a lot of collateral damage. You know that. Is a petty criminal like me worth that to SHIELD?"

The stick struck. Without enough time to stop the blow, she took it on the thigh, a glancing hit but enough to put some distance between them. Her eyes narrowed as she nodded to herself. “A petty thief more than willing to sacrifice dozens of innocent men, women, and children to save his own hide,” she said, laying out the unvarnished bitter truth, her hand unconsciously clutching the spot that was undoubtedly turn black and yellow as they spoke. “You that much of a coward, Ruby? I’ll have to make a note of that in your file,” she said, giving him a hard cold stare but not advancing, just in case he made good on his threat.

"You don't know shit, you bitch!" Alex snapped, dropping his powers like he was ordered but keeping them right on the surface, his heat melting the light powder of snow that had dusted the balcony earlier. "My brother's not a coward!"

Ruby pulled himself to his feet and flicked his hidden gaze to Alex, while not giving a sign of it that Marvel could see. "Watch your mouth, Kid. Marvel's a lady, despite her apparent desire to deny it. We always want to show a lady respect."

"What?" Alex frowned, thoroughly confused, "Scott, I don't..."

"Marvel doesn't understand," Ruby said, "She thinks my warning was a threat. She's so used to seeing the world in SHIELD's terms, she doesn't understand that some of us aren't willing to merely survive. If I was going to sacrifice those people down there, why would I have given you a warning, Marvel? I would have done it, and we would have escaped by now."

She’d been called bitch, and worse, before; it didn’t faze her. This kid wasn’t first irate family member of a hardened criminal she’d had to deal with. “Save the I’m just misunderstood line for someone a lot more gullible,” she said, not bothering to look at the kid, the audience Ruby was playing for. “You wanna prove to me you’re not disaster waiting to happen – give yourself up.” She kept him talking as her eyes swept the lavish room, looking anything to tip the stalemate in her favor.

"Well, see, this is a stalemate then," Ruby said, "Because I'm not giving up, and you're not backing down. So, the question is, which of us is the 'bigger man' so to speak. You've already put me in the category of monster, and nothing I can do will change it. I could come quietly, be a model prisoner, and take responsibility for everything I have ever done, and still, I'm a monster. So, forgive me if I want to be a free one." His hand never left his glasses, "You're the hero, right? You write this scenario. Me? I'm just trying to celebrate the New Year with my kid brother before he goes back to school. That's all." He smiled.

Alex's eyes darted from Ruby to Marvel, back and forth, poised on the ball of his feet. Ruby had taught him, in their time before he went to school, to be prepared, to always be prepared. If he was going to have to bring the roof down and run, he was ready to... God, this was all his fault. He shouldn't have demanded to go someplace where so many could be hurt. "What if I go instead?" he suddenly said, "I mean, I... I broke him out of the Raft. I'll go in his place. He hasn't done anything bad since he was in jail except escape, right? Right, Ruby? I'm still a minor. I won't be sent to a place like that, right?"

"Doesn't work that way, kid," Ruby said, touched by the offer. "But I love you too."

Far from being touched and sweetened by the display of brotherly affection, her face became cold. This criminal in his hands something she hadn’t, not in a long time, and even those happy memories of home and family were seen as bitter charades now. Sure, he was a crook and escape convict, but with a sour thought, realized that he probably had a better, more connected life than she did.

In a flash of anger, her emotions boiled over in a blinding attack – subtly was gone as she sent a massive bed hurtling toward Ruby. Using the distraction, she dove for his legs.

"No!" Alex cried and his powers burst from him, blasting into the bed. His powers were not concussive, but if you hit something with enough heat quick enough, it caused them to explode. And explode the bed did, sending flaming bits around the room, instantly activating the sprinkler system. The heat from the teenager caused the water to evaporate into steam, which fogged Ruby's glasses enough that Marvel's attack caught him as she intended. Ruby went down, his damaged knee crumpling beneath the assault.

Holding his cane up, as the woman pounced on him, Ruby flipped his damn glasses, and his optic beams struck the ruby sphere on his walking stick, funneled and directed perfectly into the woman's midsection. "Damn it, Alex!" he snapped, "What the hell did you do?!"

The room filled with smoke and water, blinding her eyes. She grabbed a handful of Ruby’s expensive and cocked her fist back to punch blindly at his face, but the crimson blast came first. The concussive beam caught her in the gut, worse than any other punch or kick. Marvel grunted in pain as all the breath left her body and she was sent crashing through the balcony railing, down to the revelers below.

The people below screamed in surprise as she fell. Gritting her teeth against the pain that could’ve been internal bleeding and cracked ribs, but possibly not broken, she righted herself and swooped around the side of the building and out of sight from Ruby’s balcony.

Ruby scrambled to his feet as he snapped his glasses back into place. "Damn it," he said, hurrying to the broken balcony. "Damn it!" Marvel had vanished.

"Is she..." Alex ran up the edge as well, his face red and terrified, "Ruby?"

Whirling on his brother, Ruby cuffed him on the side of his head, "I told you not to use your powers. Come on, we have to move quickly."

"She threw a bed at you!" Alex cried, "I had to! She's crazy!"

Ruby looked up from where he was pushing the patio's furniture up to the wall of the balcony, "She's not crazy, she's doing her job. Mindlessly, slavishly, she's doing her job," He climbed up on the furniture and stood on the edge of the balcony, "Follow me."

"What?!" Alex gasped, "Scotty, I can't! This is suicide!"

"Surrender is suicide," Ruby snapped, "And staying here is surrender. You think she's done with us? We have to get down, we have to get into the middle of the crowd, and we have to get lost. She's a telepath. But there's several thousand minds down there. We get in the middle and we get lost. Now, get up here, now!"

The younger mutant scrambled up beside his brother, "Scotty, don't let me fall," he whispered.

Ruby nodded, "Of course not. I'm never going to let you fall." He pointed his hand out over the crowd to the fireworks bunker set up to go off in time with the dropping of the ball. "Aim where my beams hit. On three, one two... THREE!"

Over the city twin beams of red shot into the bunker, followed by a continuous stream of white hot rings. The fireworks shot into the sky, prematurely, and all at once, but their aim had been preset, and they blasted over the crowd, not into it, not endangering the lives of all those below. The crowd turned their eyes to the sky, some panicking, but more believing this is was part of ceremony and celebration.

And, in the middle of it, Ruby lept the small distance to the next balcony over, smashing the window in with his cane and opening the door. After a breath, Alex landed beside him, and looked as if he was going to puke. "How the hell do you live like this?" he moaned.

"You see why I don't want you here?" Ruby asked, and the two brothers slipped into the hotel room, and into the hallway beyond.

Ruby was tougher and a lot more wily than he’d been during their first encounter. He’d obviously learned a lot from his time in prison. And her? She’d been a sap to think she could get him that easily again. He’d evolved, gotten tougher, and she was a twenty year old kid. That’s what strung… along with her gut.

The fireworks went off, filling the sky with noise and light. She fought through the blinding sights, sounds, and flood of emotions coming up from the crowd. She soared up the side the building and in through Ruby’s balcony window. Gritting her teeth, she glared around the empty room. “Ruby! You bastard!” She sent opened her mind to the flood of thoughts – joyous, frightened, curious, but mostly, overwhelming thoughts.

“Agent Marvel,” her communicator screamed in her ear, “What the Hell is going on in there? What’s your status?!”

The truth would’ve been, ‘totally screwed, sir’ but instead settled for, “In pursuit, sir.”

Ruby and Alex moved quickly, to the elevators. "Hit every button, quick." Ruby ordered, "The sprinklers in the room are still on. The elevators are going to be recalled. When the doors open, hit every button for every floor. It'll confuse anyone coming up after us."

"How do you know all this?" Alex gasped, "Ruby, how do you know?"

"Because I studied," Ruby said, "Everything in my life that can go wrong, does go wrong, so I've been making plans like this in my sleep since I first ki... since Jack died. I told you, Baby Brother. Control. Take control of your life and you're free." The work on the elevators went quickly, and then, they were on the move again. "Service elevator is the only one not on passenger recall," Ruby said, leading his brother on, "It's so hotel employees can move to handle emergencies." The pair slipped into it, and they headed down to the lobby level.

The doors slid open and Ruby peered out, "It's clear. The fireworks are probably still distracting everyone. Follow me, and if we get separated grab a cab, head to the Park Street West condo. I'll be there as quick as I can."

"Did you kill that lady," Alex asked, catching her brother's arm, "Have you ever killed anyone?"

"I didn't kill her," Ruby promised, "And I try not to kill anyone. I'm a bank robber, not murderer. Now, stop asking stupid questions and let’s get out of here."

They slipped out into the crowd.

Dripping wet, Marvel looked down the people flooding out the hotel’s doors, into the crowd below. Ruby was down there, somewhere. She launched herself over the balcony and the crowd. It was impossible to hide as floated over the crowd like a woman-sized parade float. It wasn’t supposed to be like this; she was supposed to be discreet, undercover, and most of all, look human, act human. She was sideshow spectacle… again… because of Ruby. She was really beginning to hate that guy. Ignoring the gawking stares, she used her eyes on the crowd, looking for a limp.

It was hard to miss Marvel, floating over the crowd the way she was, framed by the fireworks. Alex looked up at her from the street and said, "She flies."

Ruby smirked, "Yeah, she sure does, doesn't she? Come on, follow the flow of traffic. Don't rush. Just move at the same speed as everyone else." He slung his arm around his brother's neck. "Take me to that cop. I've had too much to drink and you need him to get us a cab."

"What? You're not..." Alex began and then he smiled, "Ohhh, I get it. Damn you're smart, Ruby."

"Just a survivor, Baby Brother, just a survivor," Ruby said, as they made their way to the line of cops standing watch along the traffic lane. A temporary sign next to them said: Start the Year Alive, If You Drink Don't Drive.

"Officer?" Alex said, "My brother... he's had too much to drink. That guy," he waved vaguely at the crowd, "He said that there was like an amnesty or something that if you took a cab home you wouldn't be arrested for drinking. If he's not right, I'm about to get my brother in a shit load of trouble, but I don't drive and I can't haul him around."

The cop looked at Ruby, who remained in his semi-slumped, supported position. "Hey, buddy, whatcha been drinking tonight?"

"Scotch," Alex said, "I didn't drink, but he had scotch. He was celebrating. It's our first New Years together since our parents died, and we haven't seen each other since we were little little kids, and..." Ruby swung his cane, slightly, and popped his brother in the side. Alex stammered to a halt and said, "Sorry, Officer, I'm just super excited to be here, but I just want to get him home safe. He's all the family I got."

The cop nodded, "Ok, kid, ok. Big Bro's lucky to have a smart kid like you to watch out for him. I'll hail you a cab, but Mister," he tapped on Ruby's chest, "Go easy on the booze. You wanna make memories with Baby Bro, it's best not to do it blacked out." He raised his hand and gestured for one of the taxis lined up along the street to pull over.
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