An Easy Job (Serenity, Chae, Open)

[Cyril Kirabo]

CHIAROSCURO

Sure, it was a little cliche, but there was a reason that robbing a bank was the classic bad-guy move - it was big, it got attention, and in Jump, there was always someone nearby to come to the rescue. Or - so Cyril was hoping - to come and get beat down by his sheer awesome. Or his powers - either way, whatever Jump City was offering up that day, the greedy, glory-hound villain was certain he could handle it. Thanks to his particular power set, the overcast fall day was a boon; no matter what he used, it would work. The sun was trying to shine through just enough so he could work his wonders on light bits, and there was enough dour, grey shadow to flatten a horse.

Well - specifically, in his case, to flatten the door to the vault that held all of the many, many pieces of jewelry and cash that the citizens of the coastal city had entrusted to their bank. Skipping the ones toward the front - they were cheaper, and therefore probably both held less and belonged to poorer people - Chiaroscuro went straight for the filthy-rich cubby holes in the back. Although he couldn't pick the locks in the traditional way - he had no picks, and hadn't the first clue how to pick a lock with picks if he had had them on hand - his powers once again helped out in the division. Tapping on the nearest lock, the thing imploded with a burst of sharp darkness; the only kind that he could get to explode. 'Soft' darkness - the kind Cyril would cloak himself with at night, or use for a sleigh-of-hand - simply refused to explode. But that was alright; sharp shadows were easy to make, and exploding the locks was much easier than demanding the bank manager fumbled through their key-ring for each one.

Sticking a neatly-contained sheaf of loose jewels into his pocket, Cyril zipped said pocket closed and moved onto the next box, glancing over his shoulder towards the front of the bank. His shadow guards swayed, appropriately menacing, over the very few people who were at the bank at eleven-ish in the morning -- mostly tellers and a few customers, mostly looking stunned. The shadow guardians were composed of their shadows - why waste power making entirely new ones from scratch when he had all of their shadows to work with? - and were hulking, smooth-edged humanoid figures, their 'bodies' streaking faintly across the floor from the group they guarded, heads almost brushing about eight feet tall. They weren't very clever, as many people as they had come from, all of them scared and muddling the shadow-guards' brains, but they would do.

TEMPLATE BY ELIZA @ Delusional & SP
WORDS: 446 -- TAGGED: @reni, @kittyempress, open -- OUTFIT: Ta-da!

[Deleted]

Chae  wasn't in Jump to be doing heroing. She didn't have a single bit of interest in being a hero that day. She was hanging around downtown watching people, and being watched by them. It was a pretty busy day despite being so early and so overcast - she loved Jump for it. No matter what it was like outside or how early or late it was, there were always people out and about. Steel City was a good place to make a name for stopping bad guys, but people weren't as active there. Plus it was just a short flight back and forth.

But when you turn away from getting your iced coffee from a vendor only to look at the bank and see it full of dark goons, and everyone looking panic, there's only so much a girl can do. For Chae, that only thing was to dart away, her heels ran in perfectly fine, as she darted into the nearest alley. "Gotta remember the secret identity!" She reminded herself, checking to make sure no one followed her before putting her hands in a circle at the middle of her chest, prismatic light glowing there, expanding outward as she pulled her hands further apart, until her whole body was covered in the 'costume', a small face mask covering her eyes and her hair tinted in prismatic arrangements, though the shape was kept the same as normal hair. Green, blue, with a hint of red at the edges just a little more common than the other colors - not a bad assortment, the hint of red wasn't enough to displease Chae.

And then she was off the ground, shooting straight up in the air before shooting down at a ninety degree angle to the door of the bank. What happened next was probably predictable for anyone who knew Chae, and should have been predictable for her. Intending to stop just before the door and push it open, she shot down through the doorway, blowing the doors off the hinges as she crashed landed with a loud BANG!! The woman was getting better at these crash landings after making multiple per trip, she had realized what was going on and had her hands out infront of her, grasping at and then pushing off the ground as soon as she'd touched it, countering her speed as she shot into a gymnastic flip, landing on her feet at least. Even her crashes were spectacular it seemed.


"In the name of, uh, goodness and the Titans and..." She sorta stopped for a moment as she stared at the shadow constructs, only just realizing their lack of being real people. "Oh..." Her eyes drifted to the flattened vault door, and then back to the constructs, and the people at their feet, she didn't have much reason to shout with the bad guys not there to hear her amazing threats, so she simply gripped the nearby hand rail in both hands, pushing down on it as she kicked off the ground, holding herself straight up, both legs high in the air. And then green light energy shot out of each foot, and she spun herself on the railing. The light was around seven feet high, taller than most normal people but enough to hit the shadow brutes, though it also scraped on the walls it didn't seem intent to do much damage. Instead, any time a strand of light hit one of the shadow creatures, it wrapped around its body in a green-light clinch.


She didn't even try to catch the ones quick enough to realize that 'ducking' would protect them - because she didn't realize that they could just do so. Once she'd finished her spin she'd pop off the railing in another gymnastic manner, looking a bit dizzy as her feet hit the ground, dragging any of the trapped shadows down against the floor, hard. Her arms in the air she finally spoke again, "Okay, okay, Rainbow says everyone get out of here!" She spun her fingers a few times before pointing to the doors she'd blown open, as her feet held down the shadows.


Words: 689
Tags: Cyril Kirabo, @reni
Notes: Chae is only competent when no one important is around to see it.

[Deleted]

If it had been anyone else's bank vault she would have told the titans and that would have been the end of it. Well maybe she would have warned the titans. No she probably wouldn't have. But this was different, more personal. This new villain was stealing from the seer's deposit box. What was in there wouldn't seem valuable at first glance to most people. She had stored some artifacts she had picked up over the years some from her times over seas some were old artifacts from graveyards ghosts asked her to keep safe for them, her mother's old jewelry, and some of Sorina's diary's that she kept when she was alive. No most people wouldn't see some of the artifacts as precious but the jewelry and one pendent in particular that had been given to her by an alchemist she wanted to keep around. That was the reason the next box Cyril would open would be completely empty.

That was the reason she and Sorina were sitting in a bank looking bored while the other hostages were shivering in their boots. Yes she felt terrible for the little girl crying in her mother's arms but this was something she wanted to deal with herself. Sorina was getting impatient next to her, Cyril was cleaning out the vaults and the dove didn't know why they were waiting, these things didn't look to impressive. Why would they~

BANG!!

Oh.

In the craziness Serenity slipped back into the the Vault slipping her titan communicator onto her belt and grabbing a flash bang she had nabbed from Batgirl's room, the bats had so many of these things lying around it was a shock they didn't open a store for the rest of the hero community. Not that they needed the extra money, most of them were well taken care of for the next few generations as it was. They wouldn't miss a few little flash bombs and the distraction that Rainbow was presenting up front was very helpful.

She was aware of how unintimidating she usually looked. Her jeans, tank top and leather jacket were not all that scary but the pissed off look on her face was something that most people would stop and look at a second time. Most people didn't see the blonde and think intimidating with her pixie features and short stature.

Sorina was moving slowly away from the blonde and towards Cyril. She figured maybe she could at least scratch him and cause a distraction to let her blonde get away and seeing as Serenity wasn't giving her any other signals it seemed like the agreed it was a good idea.

Serenity finally stopped moving at the entrance to the vault, "It's empty I cleaned it out thirty minutes ago. Stealing from me was a bad call on your part."

Words: 474
Notes: I love pissed Serenity
Tagged: Cyril Kirabo, @kittyempress

[Cyril Kirabo]

CHIAROSCURO

When the stunningly loud noise came from the front of the bank, Cyril whirled around - only to land eyes on the short blonde in front of him. That noise couldn't have come from her - once he got her out of the way, and his teeth stopped reverberating from whatever had happened in the front, he would go check it out. Couldn't be good - his constructs would only guard dumbly, and fight back equally as dumbly if attacked; they would go doing something randomly destructive on their own. (Well - he hoped. They never had yet, although the longest he'd ever left one to its' own devices was ten minutes. He was running close to that point, too - and he really didn't want to find out what happened after that time limit in the middle of fighting someone.)

He didn't have much time to think about it - through the wall and from such a relatively long way away from his shadow guards, he could still feel something happening with them. They felt...panicked? It was hard to tell - they had limited 'emotions' in the first place, and since they had come from scared, huddled people anyway, they hadn't exactly been the smartest mooks anyone ever made. But he had to get past the angry blonde at the front end of the vault -- the thought almost made Chiaroscuro snort un-suavely. Yeah, that wasn't going to be much of a challenge; she looked a foot and half smaller than him, and he didn't need what little muscle he had to get her out of the way, clearly.

Opening the deposit box he'd had his hand on, Cyril turned half-way to look inside, still keeping one eye on Serenity -- mostly feeling blindly in the half-a-foot wide space. His hand hit nothing but smooth metal wall; the woman had been right. Turning back to face Serenity, Cyril let the tiny door close naturally as he stepped away from it, gathering light around his hands and body, as the vault had more light in it than shadows - for once, the banks' greed and eagerness to make themselves and their security seem more important and trustworthy than they were was working in his favor. "Would you like to explain how you knew I was going to be here today, or should I skip right to guessing?" He quipped at Serenity, striding forward - inadvertently moving closer to Sorina as the light around his hands shined brighter, the use of his powers making the thieving villains' eyes looking as if white vapor were leaking from them.

"And if I were you, next time I would bring back-up if you want to take Chiaroscuro down - the cute psychic act isn't going to get you far with me, not even for you." He winked, smirking. "Just a tip."

---

Faced with the spritely, cheerily colored attack of light and shouting that was Rainbow, the shadow figures reacted dumbly; they weren't made to deal with someone shouting things at them and attacking. No, they had been created to intimidate normal civilians enough to keep them from calling the cops; so far, they had worked. When attacked with ribbons of green light, they struggled gamely against the tightening 'ropes', but their very make-up could not sustain itself under the brilliant green shine; they lashed out at the ribbons holding them, and the heroine controlling those.

Some of them escaped - the ones who managed to duck, although even they didn't last long. As the less-terrified - now relieved, but half-deaf - bank tellers and money-lenders fled through the conveniently bust-open door, the shadow constructs lost their tethers. Without the conscious direction and control of Chiaroscuro - distracted as he was in the bank vault by a certain seer and ghostly dove - the constructs withered and separated back into normal shadows as the 'Lantern' light gripped them and the people moved farther and farther out of the building.

With one last writhing lash at Rainbow, the last shadow being flattened and faded, streaming toward the last civilian leaving the building, connecting to their foot ala Peter Pan, becoming a normal shadow once more when the woman stepped into the watery sunlight outside the building.

TEMPLATE BY ELIZA @ Delusional SP WORDS: 695 TAGGED: @reni, @kittyempress

NOTES: I also totally love ticked-off Nity; Cyril thinks she's totally adorable, too.

[Deleted]

Chae didn't seem to notice Serenity slipping by in the chaos, too busy dealing with the shadows. As she held them down, the green scarves slowly wrapped around their bodies further, more shooting out of her fingers at the ones she hadn't caught. The wrapped and held on until the shadow's entire form was surrounded by the green light, "Alright, alright! Don't trample, don't rush! Remember to make sure everyone's with you before you flee!" Chae floats into the air to chide down at the fleeing people, a soft smile on her face as the shadows tried to attack the light.

The 'ropes' weren't 'hard' light, like the Lanterns were so fond of making. Instead the constructs bent and stretched, ebbing with the Shadow's flexings. However, this lack of hard resistance just made it harder for them to break out, as they failed to be able to put all their strength into one point. The cages weren't crushing or smashing or otherwise harming the shadows, besides the natural damage the light did to their shadowy form, but they were holding them down firmly. 

That is, until their forms started to dissipate as the fleeing victims hit the sun's rays outside. One by one the shadows snaked away from their light cage, back to normal, no longer given form or substance. She didn't presume to understand what the creatures were, but at least they were gone. now the bigger problem was whatever was in the vault, that led them - or made them even. There were a lot of ways to go about this, Chae knew in her head, as she floated around the ceiling of the bank, making sure no one was left behind.

No one was, of course, or a shadow would be around to indicate it, surely. So she landed, gracefully for once, in front of the open vault door. Sure, there was going in there and firing off light at whoever was there, or flying in at as fast as she could manage and tackling them down with her enhanced strength - she could probably hold down an elephant with the current amount of power, so that'd be okay. But no, instead she set up a cage in the open door way, green bars of light crisscrossing each other as they walled the vault in. Then she called out in a happy tone, not at all threatening, "So, the cops have like, been called, and I have you trapped back there whoever you are! I suggest a quick surrender, and maybe, I dunno, we could not have to hurt each other?" It's a bit hopeful, and very honest.

It was around then that she noticed Serenity in the back, in a stand off with the culprit. She didn't quite realize Serenity's lack of planning due to anger, though, and didn't remove her cage. Clearly if Serenity had walked in there, she had seen herself walking out just fine... right? So caging her in with a dangerous unknown villain was perfectly safe.

Words: 502
Tags: @reni Cyril Kirabo
Notes: IT'S A CAGE FIGHT WOOO

[Deleted]

Serenity raised an eyebrow at Cyril's floundering, no matter who it was no one ever believed her at first. It must have been the young looks and the blonde hair. Everyone saw that and must assume she didn't know what she was doing. Yes she didn't look like a usual Titan, heck she wasn't even an official Titan. She was simply as mouthy as all of them combined. It was one of her greatest skills: lying. "A little birdie told me. Where you were going to be today." She said with a grin.

Sorina took that as her cue to claw the overconfident villain in the face. There was a reason most people didn't want to tick of the Blonde and the reason for that was no one in the tower could see exactly what her companion was capable of. Sorina may not be a vengeful spirit but dove's still had hard beaks and sharp talons. The dove was one of Serenity's only advantages in a fight, that and she could see what everyone would be doing. This particular dove was almost as ticked off as the blonde herself. The journals that could have been stolen were one of the only remaining artifacts from when she was alive and she and Serenity protected those with their lives.

"I also never said I was alone." She glanced over her shoulder at Rainbow, "Rainbow thanks for the distraction earlier."[/font] She was counting on the fact that Chiarosuro would be distracted by the spirit he had pissed off. Most people found it distracting to fight off a bird they couldn't see. She would have appreciated having a little more help then being stuck in a cage with a villain and an angry dove but it would do until Chae came in to help out. No Serenity wouldn't fight if she could help it she could hardly knock someone her own size out if she didn't have the element of surprise her greatest weapon was a dove and snark. Well and seeing the future to know if she needs to call backup. Today she was mostly hoping that her flamboyant friend would come in and help go hand to hand with this guy.

Words: 370
Notes: Nope
Tagged: Cyril Kirabo, @kittyempress

[Cyril Kirabo]

CHIAROSCURO

And now there was another hero trying to keep him from making money the good old-fashioned way - and, judging by the green bars criss-crossing the mouth of the vault, they were a Green Lantern. That would explain what had happened to his shadows... Cyril raised his eyebrows in surprise; he'd never even seen a Lantern before, and he hadn't heard even whispers of any of them being around Jump City...then again, they had the unfortunate habit of turning up just when you didn't want them. Much like most other heroes, Cyril sighed to himself. Oh, well. If he could bring both of them down, more the better - not many villains could bring down a Lantern that weren't Lanterns of the opposite color; he'd definitely get recognition then. But the odds weren't likely; he was no power-house.
Of course, Chiaroscuro thought, he had something most of them didn't. "Alone or not, I don't think you and your Lantern friend out there will be able to keep me tied up here for much longer!" He boasted, inwardly doubting his own statement. "If you'd just let me out of here, you know, nobody would have to get hurt at all!"

Then again, he also had a claw gash on his face, apropos of nothing - nothing he could see, that was. So perhaps the blonde was more than just the big-talking civilian he'd pegged her as. So he felt what little guilt that may have been wriggling into his heart dissipate as Cyril lifted one light-glowing hand and lashed out - his other hand holding his bleeding face, profile cold and furious. Trapped and injured - there were only a few ways his situation could go, and they'd proved he needn't handle it with kiddie gloves... All the better. He would never kill someone; there was never a reason to kill, he thought, when you could just as easily knock someone out and keep those extra years off your jail sentence if you ever got caught. And the idea of killing was re-pungent to him; he shuddered at blood and mess.

His hand lashed out at the blonde - obviously the source of whatever had hurt his perfect, handsome face. It wasn't a sharp bolt of light - he wouldn't want to fatally would her on accident - but more of a flat section of white, pressing her hard, back toward the wall of green light that separated him from freedom. His other hand Chiaroscuro flung towards that wall as he stepped closer, ignoring for the moment the blood slowly dripping down his face. He could bandage himself when he got back to his own little hole-in-the-wall apartment; right now, his freedom was at stake. Forgetting Serenity, Chiaroscuro tanked at the green light, gasping as he felt it attach to him, to his own powers.

Swaying on his feet, the masked man stumbled past the seer and the Titan out into the bank proper, barely seeing either of them, taunts now forgotten - for the moment. "What...?" He muttered, staring at his hands - his light, white as snow before now a leafy light green color. He held one hand up to the light to admire it, turning his hand - then creating a fist with it, wide grin stretching across his face as he turned around to eye the two heroines speculatively.

TEMPLATE BY ELIZA @ Delusional & SP WORDS: 552 TAGGED: @reni, @kittyempress

[Deleted]

Cyril was bleeding, somehow, and that meant Lexi was correct that Serenity had something more than her future sight, to let her fight. She didn't know what it is, the light made it pretty hard to tell the exact details, she hadn't seen anything hit Cyril, but clearly something had, and that was a mental victory, despite her wish to settle this peacefully. And then Cyril shouted something, obviously not intimidated by the scratch on his face, "You know we can't let you run off!" She retorted, just before her own bravery was crushed.

Chae never claimed to be in the best control of her powers, and when she watched the white light not only gather along Cyril's hands but then shoot out. Not only did he shoot out the light though, but it was aimed at her friend, something that she was not enthused by at all. The sudden worry shooting through her mind causing her will to waver as her friend was shoved against the hard light, it suddenly becoming soft, like a wall of rope, trying to hold Serenity without letting it hurt her, "Nity!"

And then the light seemed to drain out of the wall around where Chiaroscuro's hand met it, the energy leaking slowly at first and then more quickly as Chae watched and stared at her powers betraying her. The one problem with the Green Light's power was that it depended upon her willpower, and she wasn't quite the most steeled of wills. She would, in fact, never have been chosen by a lantern ring, not in a million years, not as she was. Maybe part of it had to do with her lack of focus, but still.

The human sized hole was made, energy wrapping along Chiaroscuro's arm, light energy humming with her will - he could feel the echoes of her mind, her will to protect, her desire to stop him thrummed noisily, emotion trapped as light, twisted into its new form around his arm. He could feel how strong the energy was, more than simple light, drawn from some other source.

And then there was a clap, like that of thunder, right infront of where the short stacked asian woman in her prismatic outfit stood. The colors shifted quickly a light sky blue tinted with deep red, clashing horribly. And then after a second, energy shot from her hands, light blue matching her outfit, pouring over Serenity - the woman's light of Hope traveled as quickly as light itself, holding Serenity steady, and even mending her wounds. 

Hope was not a power of violence, and even Chae knew this. The constructs mended what they touched, they soothed, they removed that which pained people. They didn't cause pain. But they still enhanced her strength, and so she stood in Cyril's way, looking rather unimposing at her four and a half feet. But she still stood there, "I don't know who you are, but you hurt my friend!" Her innate want to show off was stymied by her concern over Serenity's safety, as the hands quickly mended her wounds, mere seconds to where anything bothering her would be gone.

Words: 524
Tags: Cyril Kirabo @reni
Notes: Chae is actually way stronger as a healer than a fighter, something she doesn't realize.

[Deleted]

Serenity was moving before Cyril raised his hand. No longer was she leisurely leaning against the wall but things were starting now and she was not equipped to survive a fight between two bruisers. She wasn't fast enough to truly escape the attack but she was only flung half the distance instead of all the way across the bank vault. The cushion of green light that she was launched into in was a rather nice landing to say the least. Her aching muscles felt better already and the bruising from the wall of light started to disappear as she pushed her way across the barrier of light. Her skin was still slightly blue from the healing light but it didn't bother Serenity all to much

She turned to yell at the spirit that was flying to keep up with the others, just making her way across the wall of light as the seer pushed her way through the green light. "The eyes Sorina." They usually had ground rules about harming living beings but this was getting bad very quickly. It would be helpful if he couldn't see to use his powers, even if it was just a cut on his eyebrow falling into his eyes. She saw Sorina rush at the bank robber and rolled her eyes at Chae's words.

Getting thrown across across a bank vault was not the most challenging thing she had dealt with this week. Most spirits were bound to try something like that every once in a while, especially the poltergeist she had dealt with earlier. Serenity may have looked blonde and whimpy but all in all she was much stronger then she looked, no she wouldn't put up with being attacked by the wonder twins but being tossed around was nothing new to her.

She pulled one of Batgirls little light shows out of her pocket and tossed it at Cyril before he was able to use the light he was getting from Rainbow. Before the light had hit the ground she was already rushing for her ally, she wouldn't know to keep her eyes shut during the flash because if she warned one she would be warning both. New kids who didn't know everyone's tricks were always hard to deal with.

Words: 378
Notes: Serenity is mostly buying time for the cops
Music: I will always return
Tagged: Cyril Kirabo, @kittyempress

[Cyril Kirabo]

CHIAROSCURO

He only had seconds to marvel at the bright green that colored his hands and eyes; soon enough a horrible clap, not unlike thunder, filled the bank. The bright yellows and greens that had layered themselves over the small-ish heroine turned dark, fading to other colors; they didn’t quite dim his own green-white light, but they certainly looked menacing. Almost alive, even, deep blue and dark red clashing - and healing, to Chiaroscuro's surprise, wherever the blue light touched the blonde girl that had stood in his way. The red energy arched angrily from Rainbow’s costume - or maybe that was just his imagination, fueled along by the suddenly frayed temper of the previously barely-threatening East Titan.

Fortunately for him, Chiaroscuro didn't have to deal with a miffed Chae - not right away, at least. No; before she could punch him - or throw him through the roof - Serenity flung something at him. Before Cyril had a chance to shield himself or even figure out what she’d flung his way, the flash-bomb went off.

In her defense, it probably would have temporarily blinded a normal person. But Cyril shouted at the bright light - throwing one arm up to shield himself from a hit instinctively, letting go of the strange green light as he moved, the young man looked up when he realized nothing else had happened; not to him. He couldn't see what was happening outside of...his shield? When had he made a shield? Squinting against the bright light - brighter than he normally made his - Cyril mentally dimmed it, and looked around for the two women he’d been fighting. He’d lost the strange, powerful feeling that green light had given him - but now whenever he moved, faint light bled off of his body, white light trailing his fingers and eyes as extraneous light swirled up his forearms.

“Nice aim, Blondie. Sorry to leave behind such a couple of pretty ladies who so badly want my attention, but I hear stardom calling my name! Tell the press Chiaroscuro was here.” Chiaroscuro called with a laugh and a lazy salute as he winked in the heroine’s direction -- carefully keeping his semi-opaque shield between the two of them and him as he backed toward the door. Cops - and camera’s - awaited him outside. Cops were easily temporarily blinded, especially with all of this sudden extra power.

He’d have to find out who that blonde was and send her flowers.

TEMPLATE BY ELIZA @ Delusional & SP Tagged: @reni, @kittyempress