The Wrong Mark

Participants:

niles_icon.gif satoru_icon.gif

Scene Title The Wrong Mark
Synopsis A pair of baby thugs cross paths.
Date June 14, 2009

Greenwich Village


While it isn't yet dark, it's nonetheless approaching evening in New York City. And this almost-evening finds Toru exiting Old Lucy's, visibly irritated, after having gone inside barely a minute or two before — shoving his hands into his pockets and spitting on the sidewalk. Someone didn't get let inside, it looks like. And thus he instead turns to stalk up the street, which at this hour isn't terribly crowded, hands in pockets, thuggish gait.

Niles is legal by a year, but when they busted him out of The Company, his saviors didn't exactly break into the locker and get his ID back. So he can't drink either. Or get a job. Or…leave the safehouse for very long without a chaperone.

Yet, here he is, out on his own. He's been good long enough that they weren't keeping as close tabs on him as they should. He's sick to death of being locked up and feeling considerably more…stable since Deckard's accidental brain-healing.

But he has no cash. The little bit that Edward gave him has long since dried up, and he's in need of smokes. Lucky Satoru, he looks like a ripe target. So the dark-haired Brit makes his way towards the Japanese kid and pretends to trip off the sidewalk as he passes, enough to jostle shoulders. And enough to search the back pocket for signs of a wallet. It's not the smoothest of moves, and would work a hell of a lot better in a crowd. But no one ever said he was particularly smart.

And Toru, being a fledgling baddy himself, isn't quite so dense as to not notice the signs of impending robbery. He hadn't really expected to get pickpocketed out here with nobody around, and thus he isn't entirely paying attention - but once the proximity gets more obvious and shoulders are bumped, he rolls his eyes and lashes out with one hand to grab Niles' wrist. No boning, yet. "Hey, bro, I don't like it when dudes play grabass, you dig?" There's some amusement in his tone, but he's also clearly pretty ticked.

Niles' face, when he looks right at Toru, might look vaguely familiar. Though his older self does look fairly different and that was awhile ago now. The looks plus the accent might jog things a little more. "Pardon me," he says. And then, "I'm drunk." There's no slur, no attempt to seem like he really is. In short, it's a blatant lie, followed by a flash of teeth.

Toru squeezes the wrist tighter, turning to glare into Niles' face. He does look a little familiar, but at the moment, the younger punk isn't so concerned with recognition as he is with teaching people not to mess with his shit. "Are you fucking kidding me? You're a worse liar than I am, you douche. You done fucked up." Wrist is yanked, and he pulls Niles in closer - and it'd be creepily intimate (gay) if not for the anger bit. "Do you know who I am?"

Niles doesn't stop grinning. That's what happens when you've got a power as big as he does. Arrogance. Overconfidence. The grin remains perched on his lips, even as Toru tugs him closer. "I'm sure I have no idea. Except a fellow who keeps his wallet tucked a bit too deep in his pocket for my liking."

And amusingly enough, it's for that same reason that Toru grins himself. Assuming, naturally, that Niles is just an unpowered idiot. Toru's grin is somewhat more predatory; time for a snack. And he hasn't had a chance to do so for a while. "Too deep for your liking, right." Yank, though this time more with the intent to hurt than anything else. "I bet you don't like going around playing grabass. Who the hell do you think I am, shithead?" And this is where there comes the flash of burning, itching pain, as Toru proceeds to bone Niles' wrist; just a handprint, he doesn't bother with making it spread any further. "I'm the goddamn Batman."

It's like two positive charges meeting. Each puts off a kick, but when they meet…well. A meeting of a pair of arrogant youths have caused many a violent reaction. Niles pulls back violently at the strange sensation. He stares at the handprint and then glares daggers at Toru. "You fucker." And then there's crackling blue energy. A split second is all the other young man has to spot a blue silhouette surging towards him before there's a painful jolt of electricity entering his body, overloading his nervous system like a taser, and likely, causing unconsciousness.

Toru looks rather pleased with himself as Niles backs off, and even folds his arms. "Fuck you, that's why you don't mess with— what the—" silhouette noted, and before he can even react, he screams a series of mangled syllables as every muscle in his body tenses up severely, before falling to the ground in a pile of fried Satoru.

"Does that make me the Joker?" asks Niles of Toru's fallen body, lips parting, teeth showing in a wide smile. He eyes the strange mark on his wrist, then reaches out to kick at his downed body with a toe. The jolt wasn't enough to do more than knock him unconscious, but he'll ache when he wakes up.

"Now. What to do with you, ay? I don't fancy being branded the rest of my life." He looks towards his duplicate that stands nearby, then with a vague motion, the blue form re-enters him.

He stands there for a moment in thought, then reaches down to heft up Satoru's unconscious body. It takes some effort to half-drag the other young man down the street. He doesn't have the prison-toned body of his older self. He's still a pasty kid in a lot of respects, especially given the size of the cell the Company had him stuffed into. It takes a little doing, but he finds an old, abandoned shop used by junkies to shoot up in. After kicking away needles, he flops Toru down into a chair and finds rope to secure his hands behind his back.

Then he tugs up another chair, spawns a duplicate to stand just to his left, and waits for his new friend to wake up.

And eventually, Toru does. He groans, lifting his head slowly, and shakes it. "Ngh." And he tries to lift a hand to his head, but, upon finding that his hands are tied, adds, "Buh." And proceeds to struggle in his chair. "Argh. Wuh.." Struggle, struggle, headshake, turn to glare at Niles. "What the fuck? This —- I ain't into this shit, dude, so if you don't wanna get any worse you let me the fuck outta here!"

Niles looks to one duplicate, back to Satoru, grins, and then creates a second, so there's a copy of him in a blue silhouette standing behind both shoulders. Like doppelganger bodyguard ghosts. "Oh relax would you? I just want you to remove this rather interesting… mark," he pulls up his sleeve and displays it. "…and I'll let you go. Or I can run a few thousand volts through you and leave you as a smoking carcass. It's your choice." He leans forward on his knees, fingers steepling together. "I have no desire to hurt you," a few days ago, that wouldn't have been true, but it is now. The creature that says 'KILL' in the back of his brain is silent for the moment.

"And don't try and say that you could turn me to stone faster than I could kill you. Because I only need a fraction of a second to stop your heart." He says this casually, dully.

There is a shrug, there, as Toru does indeed relax, though it's more that he's assessed the situation rather than responding to a command. "How long you figure it'd take me to do it to your neck, yo? You can choke to death while I'm fryin', how's that sound." He gives a glance over to the duplicate, raises an eyebrow, then shrugs again to himself. What-ever. "And it ain't stone, yo, it's bone. Get a clue. You went and got all gay up in my business and I showed you what-for, from where I'm sittin' I don't see as how I owe you nothin'. We even, brotha."

"I'd imagine longer than a microsecond." Niles lifts a shoulder and a third duplicate disengages and moves towards Satoru. The third shape blinks at him and circles him consideringly. "So we can either kill each other, or you can fix this lovely mark, and we can both go on with our lives, mm? I won't even rob you. No harm, no foul. But if you make me keep this mark, then…" He reaches into his jacket and pulls out Satoru's wallet. "…I'm going to have to take this. And also leave you tied up until whomever usually squats here comes back."

It is at this point that Toru wonders how much money he had in his wallet. … Probably more than he wants to give up. This is irritating. Ultimately, though, he sighs and shrugs. "Fine, whatever, this is bullshit. But whatever. Just gimme my shit back." He thrusts his chin towards the wallet. "And I'ma need my hands, unless you wanna stick yours down my pants, and that ain't a road I wanna go down even if you do."

"You seem fairly focused on where I may or may not want to touch you," says Niles with an arrogant lift of his chin and a wry sort of grin. He pushes himself up out of the chair and circles around to the back. The three duplicates watch on like identical, energy wolves, ready to pounce. He cuts through the rope around one of Toru's wrists with a small knife. The other hand stays secured to the chair. He thought of that.

"This is an interesting ability you have. Has a lot of…potential lewd puns, but interesting. Can you give yourself armour with it?" He sounds quite genuinely interested. He recognizes a fellow thug when he sees one.

But somehow, after getting shocked and tied up in a chair, Toru isn't in the mood for chatter. He does seem a bit irritated at only having the one hand released, but it really does just make him less likely to do something stupid. Which he probably would have otherwise. Instead, he holds his hand out, gesturing for Niles to give him his wrist. "Man, how should I know, what's it to you anyway?" He glares a bit, shaking his head. "Can we get this over with? I got bitches to hang with."

"Bitches," says Niles. It sounds so high class coming out of his mouth somehow. "Right." Disbelieving, the note on that word. "And I suppose that's what you need your cash back for?" Probably not smart to poke the cage of a guy he wants to help him. But he really can't help himself.

Two of the three duplicates move closer, one hovering just behind Satoru's shoulder. It's ready to bzzt at the first sign of trouble. He offers his wrist.

"Pretty much, yeah!" That implication, for whatever reason, doesn't bother the boner. He does, however, snatch Niles' hand perhaps a bit overly violently, moving it around so that he can run his own hand over the bone patches; the transition process is just as itchy and painful as it was in the first place, but in the end it results in the bone being gone again. "There. Happy?" Toru glares, pulling his hand back. "Lemme go."

Niles rocks back a step once the reversal has happened. He examines his wrist and makes sure it's all right. Toru's lucky. Had this happened before Deckard fixed his brain, he probably would have tortured the other young man, or at least been more dishonest.

As it is, he moves around to the back of the chair, cuts the other hand free, then drops Satoru's wallet into his lap. All the contents are there, even. Stalemate. "Go see your 'bitches' then."

Toru grabs the wallet, slipping it back into his pocket, and rubs his own wrists. All better! "Damn right, I'ma go see the shit out of some bitches. 'Least I got bitches," he adds, in an irritated tone. He pushes himself up out of the chair and starts to go, but stops abruptly. "Bet you ain't so tough without your buddies, there." A challenge?

"No, I'm not. But I'm also a one-man gang with them, so. All is relative, I suppose." Niles leans on the back of the chair, brows lifted. The duplicates watch Satoru for a moment, and then with a cant of his head, they one by one re-enter his body. "Do you really want to start something with me again, bone-boy?" There's a wryness to that, a taunt of his own. But he sounds more amused than anything. He hasn't got his back up.

Toru shrugs dramatically, holding his hands up. "Well, I guess if you can't take it I won't make ya." Slips his hands into his back pockets and starts to head out again. "I mean, a dude falls back on his voodoo powers too much at the 'spense of other shit, I guess I can see how they'd get all pussy about having a real fight. Catchya later, yo."

"I just spent six weeks locked up in a cage. I'm not exactly back to fighting form," says Niles. For a moment, he sounds older than his years, echoing the man he will become. Or did become, in another arm of time and space. He doesn't make any move to follow after Toru to pick a fight.

This is genuinely perplexing to Toru. "Oh. Er." He didn't really expect that dig to go unchallenged, but ultimately he deflates a bit. "—-Fine, okay, whatever. Maybe try getting over it. Seeya later, homes." His departure is a bit less cocky than it was a moment ago, when he was sure it would lead to battle, and so instead he just walks out rather awkwardly.

In the future, years of incarceration will breed anger. But right now, all his lockup did was make a kid feel a bit broken. It doesn't help that he's gotten human reactions back thanks to the brain healing. It's made him less willing to fight. Strange not to react the way you imagined that you would.

He watches Satoru's back and gives the other young man time to get off down the street before he exits and slinks back towards the safehouse.


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