and it's harder than you think [OPEN]

[assembles]

Who: Steve Rogers and YOU
Where: All around the island of Genosha
When: Throughout the event (08/05 - 08/09)
Rating: Mainly PG-13, possible R for violence
Summary: Steve is a Human outraged by the way that his kind are treated, and he isn't going to stay quiet about it... even if he is under 100 pounds and asthmatic. Responses will come from preserum.
The Story:
Tensions are rising and Steve is as ready as he can be.

He's already come to terms with the fact that he's hardly a key player in the Human Resistance Movement, but that won't stop him from contributing however he can. Some of his fellow resistance members don't hesitate to take him along when they plan an attack, while others are more insistent on him remaining back at their hideout to serve as support. Steve does what he can to make it into the action whenever possible — and well, if a mutant happens to get in his face while he's going about his life on Genosha, he isn't about to let them get away with it. He won't take their abuse, or curl into himself like a scared animal and whimper until he's left alone. He's going to give them a piece of mind, consequences be damned.

It's not like he hasn't paid for his boldness a number of times already. He's got some nasty scarring on his abdomen from burn wounds from a pyrokinetic — that would be the worst example, but he has plenty of other scrapes, bruises, and scars littered across his body like a map of all his bad decisions.

Whether Steve's back at the hideout checking in with other members of the resistance (which is also where he usually sleeps these days), or out on an assignment with them, or simply wandering around the island minding his own business, he won't make a secret of the issues he has with the way Humans are treated. With the Queen's remarks about them, he's more fired up than ever, and someone should either take advantage of his unruly temper or try to talk some sense into him.

He's got plenty of friends — supporters in his fight, people who are just as ready to fight for their rights. But he's also made plenty of enemies, and all it takes is one careless statement about Humans to get him seeing red.


[ OOC: I will respond to prose or brackets! Feel free to find Steve at the resistance hideout or wandering around the island making trouble. ]

Comments

[normandysbest]

[Oh hot Christ. She knew, somewhere in the back of her mind, she wasn't gonna get this, because this is probably part of what makes Steve who he is- small, scrappy, and absolutely won't take no for an answer. It's admirable, and would be more admirable if he could put his muscle where his mouth is. So she rolls her eyes, albeit comically, and squares her shoulders to go in behind him. Not gonna let him do it alone, after all.]

Alright, alright. I can see I'm not convincing you. I'll give you first shot at the talking and everything, but if this goes south, I'm pulling you out.

[She should not be indulging him like this, but it's only gonna be worse if she hoists him over her shoulder and carries him off kicking and screaming. Besides, she also sort of wants to throw down against assholes, even if they haven't done anything necessarily awful. It's... kind of fun. Not that she'll admit it, because it'll give him grounds to do it more. But hey, small victories.]

[preserum]

[ It's not as if Steve intends to drag other humans into his scuffles with him. He's never asked any of them to participate, but that doesn't stop some of them from doing so anyway. Bucky's the most frequent offender, but Shepard ranks pretty high up there too.

Steve doesn't need anyone telling him what to do or when to simply let something go, but he does have enough respect for Shepard that he doesn't protest anything she says. He doesn't want to be pulled out, but he also doesn't always want to come home with another injury for Bucky to frown at.

They'll just have to see how it goes. It's not like every altercation ends in physical violence. (Just most of them.) ]

Hey. [ Steve calls out as he and Shepard approach the group. ] Don't you think we hear enough crap on the news without you coming to where we live and saying it here too? We don't go around saying that kind of stuff in your neighborhoods.

lmk if this is ok/I need to change smth

[normandysbest]

[Shepard tries to look big and intimidating behind Steve- not that it always succeeds, considering she's tall (but not that tall) and a girl, but she finds squaring her shoulders, crossing her arms, and giving her best glare is usually successful. So she plants her feet apart and tries to look objectively scary.]

Yeah, c'mon guys, push off. No need to be running around here causing trouble. If you're only here to antagonize people, just go. Like he said, we don't do this shit to you.

[Okay so maybe a little more hostile than she should be being. What can she say, the kid's enthusiasm is contagious, even though she's supposed to be the 'responsible' one in this situation. But she steels herself when they turn around and she actually gets the chance to square them up. There's three- great, three, they're outnumbered- and look the type to come around and fight someone for fun. Well-built and mostly humanoid (sans one who seems like he could resemble a minotaur- she's gonna have to sneak a bull-headed joke in here somewhere), they look pretty mad about being disturbed, and one shoots back a What are you gonna do about it? We can say whatever we want, sneering towards the two of them.]

it's perfect!

[preserum]

[ It's never good to be outnumbered, Steve learned that a long time ago. They're already at a disadvantage since they don't have any powers, so having to deal with three of these jerks at once could be a real problem if it turns into a physical altercation.

There's still a chance it won't go there, but Steve isn't hopeful. Doesn't it almost always end in a fight? These mutants sure can be defensive... ]

Just because you can doesn't mean that you should. [ Steve's eyes narrow and his jaw sets. He knows that he's not intimidating in the slightest, but he tries anyway. (Oh, how he tries.) ] So either quit saying stuff like that or beat it, okay?

[ The three mutants exchange glances, looking more amused than anything else. Like they're sharing in some personal joke, which quickly serves to push Steve's buttons. One of them looks back to Steve and Shepard. And if we don't do either of those things? ]

COOL /o/

[normandysbest]

[Shepard makes a show of rolling her eyes at their response, because typical, so typical. She knows she's letting Steve bring out the worst, gut-punchy parts of her, and that they're prooobably going to get in trouble when she gets back, but she'll gladly take the heat on this one. She also knows she really shouldn't be letting Steve get into fistfights, and yet. Here they are. She cracks her knuckles, stretching her arms out in front of her so they're not sure if she really means business or not.]

Well, jeez. Not leavin' us with many options then, are you? We said stop or beat it. So if you're not gonna stop... guess it falls to the beat. What do ya say, Steve?

[One of the mutants steps in front of the others, attempting to get in their faces, with a Is that a threat?]

[preserum]

[ While some might judge Shepard for encouraging Steve's reckless behavior in this instance, Steve would never be one of them. He doesn't know if there's any better word for Shepard than "cool," and it's moments like this that he's proud that they're on the same side.

At the mutant's question, Steve shrugs. ] I mean, you're usually the ones threatening us, so maybe it should be the other way around for once.

[ For all the fights that Steve gets into, he's usually not the one to throw the first punch. He just happens to be very good at provoking people into attacking him. Case in point: he looks up to Shepard and smiles. ] I say, let's see whether or not they chicken out first.

[ An uproar comes from the whole trio as the first one runs straight at Steve. He plants his feet and braces himself for the pain he knows comes next, fists balled and ready to fight back. ]

[normandysbest]

[She's calculating movement plans and working on ways to divert them as soon as the scream hits the air, and she steps quickly, braces herself for the impact and swings her shoulder in front of Steve, pushing her own momentum forward to toss him off-course. It hurts, but not enough to throw her, but she's more concerned with stopping his trajectory before the both of them now plow directly into Steve.

When he's tossed back, she straightens, cracks her knuckles, and looks over her shoulder to Steve proper.]

I got your back. Let's get 'em.

[She grins back to the crowd of them and does a mock salute, reaching subtly on her waist for a button.]

Catch me if you can.

[And activates her tac cloak, and winks directly out of everyone's sightline.]

[preserum]

[ While Steve's completely prepared to take all of the mutants' weight colliding into him, it never comes thanks to Shepard intercepting it. She doesn't need to protect him, but trying to get that message across to any of his human friends is like talking to a brick wall.

Still, it's three on two, he'll have the chance to throw plenty of punches. Especially when Shepard does her disappearing trick, leaving all three mutants baffled. Is she a mutant too? one of them asks the other.

It's enough of a distraction that Steve can dart out of the way, putting some distance between him and the mutants before he waves them over. ]

So? Are you chicken or not?

[ It's best to try and scatter and separate them so Shepard can take them out one-by-one. As planned, one of them takes the bait, although Steve isn't entirely ready for him to use his powers. Teleportation means that one second he's ten feet away and the next he's right next to Steve. The mutant punches him square in the jaw, sending Steve flying back to land hard on the pavement.

Owwww. That's gonna leave a mark... ]

[normandysbest]

[She hates that Steve takes any hits at all, and she's certain she'll hear someone in her ear later of 'why did you engage them', 'why did you let him fistfight someone', 'why do you enable him into trouble', and she'll answer like she always does: why are you so eager to give up on him? because she knows he can handle it.

She just has to deal with this. Fast.

So she slips around to the back, where one of the mutants stands away from the pack, and reappears just close enough to whisper in his ear.]

Boo.

[With a heaving grunt, she grabs his arm, twisting it behind to grab hold before somersaulting over his back, pulling him down into a suplex. Let the opponents weight do the work for you, naturally. She rolls from the ground after the hit, grabbing again onto the mutant's arm as she goes, and spins with it, tossing him directly into the one who just punched Steve as she tries to regain her footing.]

You alright over there Rogers?? Don't tell me you're down after one punch!

[preserum]

[ Even as blood rushes through Steve's ears after that fall, he remains at least somewhat aware of what's going on around him. Which, of course, consists of Shepard cleaning up, or at least doing a whole lot more damage than anyone would expect, given that she's a human fighting mutants.

There's a reason that Steve respects her and admires her so much. She's everything he wishes he could be.

That doesn't mean that he's going to slack on his end, though. He's already pushing back up to his feet when she calls out to him. ] You know I don't go down that easy! [ This is the guy who gets up every single time, even when he's struggling to breathe.

With two of the mutants out of commission, Steve focuses on the third, who's starting to look a little spooked. It's hard not to feel triumphant about that, even though Steve knows it's Shepard they're scared of, not him. He marches toward him, staring him down as if he's a foot taller than he actually is. ]

You gonna listen to what we said and scram now?

[normandysbest]

[Though she's sure no one would believe it, she holds a lot of admiration for Steve, too- there's always something to be said about standing your ground when it matters, for something you believe in. Never giving up even at the expense of personal safety. It's noble. Idealistic. Which isn't healthy for Steve's, you know, face, but that's why he's got people to do the heavy lifting for him.

Besides, there's nothing more satisfying than watching a big, tough mutant actually flinch as Steve approaches them because she just ruined two of his guys. Classic. So she squares her shoulders, watches the mutant scramble towards his friends while yelling something about how 'violence doesn't prove anything!', and, 'you caught us on a bad day!' but they're leaving, and Shepard laughs, walking over to Steve and clapping him on the back.]

Nice stare down. I love it when they run.

[preserum]

[ Steve doesn't take his eyes off of the mutants until they round the corner and he's certain that they won't be circling back to try and get another hit in. For that reason, he's startled when he feels Shepard's hand on his back. Steve has a tendency to get hyper-focused on things, but he only jerks in place for a moment before glancing up to Shepard. ]

It does feel a little better than it probably should. [ He smiles crookedly and nods. ] Thanks for helping me out, Shep.

[ With that taken care of, they can get back to what they were doing, which was heading back to the resistance hideout. Steve's a little sore after being knocked down like that, but he doesn't make anything of it, just starts off down the road. ]

[normandysbest]

[She's still kind of beaming at him. She's proud, despite everything. As long as he's okay.]

Thanks for helping me out. I couldn't have taken all three of 'em on my own. And neither of us have broken bones. I'd count that as a win.

[She walks with him, watching him for a limp or other injury.]

You don't have any broken bones, do you? You seem fine, but, you know.

[preserum]

[ Steve questions Shepard's claim that she couldn't have handled them alone. She's probably just being humble, especially since he didn't do much other than serve as a distraction. Although maybe that had been enough to turn the tides, who knows.

He's doing his utmost best not to limp, but when Shepard asks after him Steve places a hand against his side and then winces. ]

I'll be fine. Just a little bruising. I'll be back to normal in no time.

[ In reality, his body tends to take a while to heal up, but that's never stopped him. ]

[normandysbest]

[She doesn't want to call him out on being hurt, especially because he literally asks for it, but she holds out an arm for him to steady himself on.]

C'mon, lemme help you back. No shame, really.

[She really wouldn't want Steve to get even more hurt, anyway.]

We'll get back to the base and get patched up.

[preserum]

[ Steve looks at Shepard's arm like it's a snake that's about ready to bite him. Even if she's telling him that it's all right, she's already helped him enough by jumping into his fight. Like she's done so many times in the past.

So he shakes his head, waving her off. ] I'm good. Really. [ He can walk on his own and everything. He might need some ice when they get back, and to lay down for a while and take it easy, but at least he could do that in the privacy of his own room. ]

wrapped probs?

[normandysbest]

[She can't force it. Can't force it. But god, she wants to.]

Alright. I'll take your word for it.

[Really, she wants to sling him over her shoulder and carry him back, but, what're you gonna do.]

Let's get back.