Scene #8314: Pettry Thievery

Owner	Pose
Phantom Thieves	This is the place. As far as Petra can determine, in any case. If you take all of the thieves' (known) capers and put them in a map as pushpins, then the first thing you'll notice is that Grande City here is the epicenter. The second thing you'll notice is that Remee is giving you side-eye for using pushpins on a bare wall instead of getting an actual corkboard, but anyway. Narrowing the search area down any further isn't going to be easy. Limelight and Stagehand have gone out of their way to make themselves hard to locate. The next clue, then, is that they tend to go after high value targets with some measure of prestige attached, or that they try to turn the tables on people they know are looking for them. Past that, the plan is up to Petra to come up with...
Petra Soroka	PHONE: Phoning Eggman, Petra Soroka says, "I'll--speaking of that. I'm going to try to get those thieves." PHONE: Phoning Eggman, Petra Soroka says, "Get a little pick-me-up from some, uh, enemies who are actually on my level. Before going back to Lilian." PHONE: Eggman says, "Don't flatter them. You're far beyond them." PHONE: Eggman says, "But absolutely bring them before me so I can reward you." The Kana is full again. Boxes are shoved in the corners of the cockpit, all of Petra's belongings thrown inside haphazardly, a poster displaying the cover of some trashy young adult movie leaning up against the wall. Petra twists a finger through her hair, idly watching the autopilot's route progress, practically glaring at it. Her posture is rigid, tension sticking to her body like cobwebs, and alone in her pilot's seat she comes across as ragged, disheveled, almost trembling. The mech lands in the middle of the parking lot for the Grande City police station, announcing its arrival with the usual fanfare of jets. Before disembarking, Petra runs a hand through her hair to smooth it out, takes a deep breath, then lights up into a practiced smile to stretch her muscles, relaxing into a polite neutral. Stop scowling, it makes you look like a hooligan. Petra enters the police station with has much confident intent as possible, trying to radiate the suggestion that she's 'supposed to be here'. She's not very good at it, but she's clearly trying. Walking up to the reception desk, Petra raps her knuckles against the counter to divert some attention. "Petra Soroka, elite. Who do I talk to about the newly Multiversally-infamous elite threat that lives in your city?" All the while, Petra is only half-paying attention her surroundings. Her main focus is on the surveillance data coming from the drones she planted around the Kana. A big shiny mech, sitting right outside the police station, while its pilot is inside trying to hunt for them? Any Phantom Thief would see the comedy in robbing it blind right now.
Phantom Thieves	The officer at the desk looks entirely unimpressed. "Which one?" Outside... Petra's mech gets approached. It's... an old woman, walking a dog. She looks nearsighted. The dog stops at the Kana, and lifts its leg to do its business. The old woman adjusts her glasses. "Was there a lamp post here before?" she says to herself, staring directly at the Kana. Back inside, the officer is going down a long list of various threats. "... And then there's the Cancer Mage that attacked last week - he does things with crabs, not actual cancer... and those two phantom thieves, and there's these four color-coded alligators living in the city sewers..."
Petra Soroka	Petra falters at the reaction, face flushing, then swallows and rolls her eyes. "The phantom thieves, yes. The others didn't get broadcast on every screen in the world a few days ago." Meanwhile, she keeps a close eye on the old woman. Do they have disguises? Do they do that? Damn it, I really should've asked anyone anything about them.
Phantom Thieves	"I don't watch TV, ma'am," says the officer, with a tone indicative of rolling her eyes. "Let's see. What did you need to know about them." It's a question, but it's said so disinterestedly that the punctuation mark fell off. Outside... ... there's the faintest of disturbances. A grappling hook line has been launched from the roof of the police station, and attached itself to the top of the Kana.
Petra Soroka	Starting to get annoyed, Petra retorts back at the officer, "A little sloppy of you to not even have a briefing on it, isn't it? Those two idiots attracted the attention of the greatest supervillain in the--" She cuts herself off when she notices the grappling hook, already reaching into the pocket of her bomber jacket. Wait, how was she supposed to cut off this interaction this quickly? She thought it would take at least thirty minutes or something for the thieves to find her. Awkwardly, she mumbles out, "Thanks for your time," then storms out of the building, pulling out her revolver the moment she feels like doing so won't come across as a threat to the cops. Petra's steps slowly devolve into stomps as she rushes towards the Kana, firing a shot into the asphalt to launch herself on top, stancing up at the base of the grapple line. Her arm with the upraised revolver is rigid, teeth gritted, any compunctions about using less-than-lethal methods apparently lost in the moment. Appropriate, given the location.
Phantom Thieves	"Okay, well, as far as briefings - okay, fine. Bye," says the officer, without inflection. On the roof... there's a Limelight, with her arms crossed. She hasn't started crossing the grappling hook wire yet. "Hey." "Sure are making a lot of noise, looking for us, aren't you?" she asks. "You don't seem to be in it for The Game..." She unfolds her arms, and winds up - and throws the object she's holding across the divide, towards Petra. It's a rock.
Petra Soroka	Petra, operating on pure instinct, shoots the rock out of the air, and it shatters. She blinks in surprise at that actually working, then falls back into her hostile stance, glaring up at Limelight with jarringly inappropriate determination. "Hey." Petra tenses her legs, lowers herself down, and with her gun acting as both propulsion and a starter pistol, she launches into a sprint up the length of the wire. "Honestly, I'm kind of done with games, and I don't really care what yours is." Reaching the rooftop, Petra skids past Limelight with slippery inertia, vanishing behind her. Before Limelight can turn around to track her movement, two more shots have already gone off, and Petra is momentarily nowhere to be seen. "I need two things from you, and neither of them require conversation, so how about we just get this over with fast?" Petra crashes down from above the thief, driving her foot down into her shoulder. When that puts Limelight off-balance, she follows it up with a shot in the arm, knocking herself back out of range of retaliation. "The podcast thing is cute, though! I should give it a listen sometime." She's desperate for conversation, actually.
Phantom Thieves	The shots go off - near misses. One grazes a tear in Limelight's costume. "Right - you're here to get two things, and neither of them are conversation..." With her foe behind her, Limelight opts to run forward - across the grappling line as well, till she ends up perched on top of the Kana, the two combatants having effectively traded places. "Why are you here, if you're not here for The Game?" She whisks a remote control out of her pocket, and slams her thumb down on a button - and the grappling hook retracts back to the roof. If Limelight is lucky, Petra will be trying to cross it at the time. (Even if she's not, the grappling hook might end up hitting Petra in the face, in the manner of a wildly flailing retracting tape measure.)
Petra Soroka	Petra has a remote control too, in the form of the key fob for the Kana. Pausing for just a moment, she slams the Kana's engines on to send the mech rocketing upwards and unbalance Limelight. That diversion holds her back just long enough that she doesn't start running across the wire when it retracts, and seeing it whipping at her, chooses to dodge in the always-favorable-outside-of-fighting-games direction of up. Shooting her last round into the rooftop, Petra barely clears the flailing grapple with her boots. At the apex of her jump, she grabs onto the dangling leg of the Kana, opening the cylinder of her revolver to slap six more cartridges in while she clambers on top of the hull. "Does it matter what I'm here for? We've never met. You don't care. You're just some idiot kid who jumped into being a elite with both feet and got in over your head." The projection is tangible even as the words leave Petra's mouth, and she winces, her tone softening a bit. "You pissed off someone you couldn't handle, and now you're a target for anyone in the Multiverse. Be glad it's me and not someone worse." Abruptly, the Kana stops ascending and drops like a rock, arresting its fall midair with the same suddenness. Petra, being the one that caused this, anticipates the movement and fires a few shots to position herself over Limelight. When the mech stops, Petra slams Limelight with a kick enhanced by gravity and recoil from both sides.
Phantom Thieves	Phantom Thieves says, "Whoa!" The Kana starts ascending. Reflexively, magnetic boots click on - which helps anchor Limelight in place for the fall, but also makes her a bit slower for dealing with the incoming kick. It hits solidly- but then Limelight's backflipping out of the way, landing on solid ground on another part of the Kana. "What, the eggy guy? You think we're that worried about him?" Limelight pauses. "What, is that why you're here?" She snorts. She brings one hand up to cover her mouth. Then the snort turns into a full-on not-muffled-well-at-all-on-purpose snicker. "You're..." "... one of his minions}?" "Holy frickin' heck, is that why you're here? You're one of his minions, here to rack up good boy points? What's wrong, didn't get enough breakfast tendies to go along with your eggs?" "Here I thought you were interesting!" She drops down, doing what appear to be some quick leg stretches, before springing back up and leaping at Petra with a deadly kick of her own. "That means I don't have to drag this out, then!" Around them, the city seems entirely unphased by the fight. In fact, there's multiple cars still pulling into the parking lot."
Petra Soroka	Petra lands on top of the Kana with a heavy clang, spinning around to face Limelight. Her face screws up in frustration and she stomps hard with her heavy combat boot, clanging a second time. "I'm not his minion! I've got my own shit going on! I just, I need his, his resources, because I," Limelight lashes out with her kick while Petra is stammering, and she dodges to the side, preemptively wrapping her arms around her chest to shield it. It's the same motion she does when upset, and the growing intensity in her voice suggests that she probably is. "You don't fucking know me, so fucking shut up! I'm not even a," She stumbles over her words, automatically denying her association with villainy, "...Look. It's a long story and it is interesting, and if you want to hear it you'll do it tied up on the floor of my mech. So yeah, let's hurry this up." Grinding her feet into the surface of the hull, Petra unloads the rest of her revolver's chambers at Limelight, skidding around without leaving the ground like a hockey puck, pausing to finally reload the cylinder.
Phantom Thieves	BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM Limelight's put entirely on the defensive as she attempts to dodge bullets! "Actually that really sounds like you're his minion!" says Limelight, brightly. "If it was anywhere near equal footing, you'd call it a team up. Or - even if not, you could call him your patron, or mentor, or something! But it sounds kinda like you don't even have all of his attention, do you?" "I don't know you, sure! Whatever!" says Limelight, breezily. "But I do know us! Which is, I personally don't have a minion, I have a teammate. If you went looking for me, you at least know that, right?" "And since he's a teammate, on my level, he doesn't need to go do stupid things to catch my attention, and furthermore, I can trust him to come up with some plan while I'm busy distracting you." CLUNK WHIRR WHIRR WHIRR Among the cars that have come into the parking lot... is a tow truck. One that, while Petra was focused on Limelight, went to back up against the Kana and hook its tow cable into one leg, and start pulling it out of the parking lot!
Petra Soroka	"Well, I guess I sort of am, his apprentice?" Petra seems a little confused about admitting that fact, her girlish uncertainty contrasted by the continuing spray of bullets. "It's a mutual thing! He helps me, and gives me advice, and in return, I... make him proud? And that's a good thing, it's equal! It's opt-in for both of us, and literally no one else fucking gives me that dignity." Oh, she's actually really eager to talk at someone. Petra flinches when Limelight says the word 'plan', expecting a narratively-timed deathblow to come out of nowhere, and looks briefly baffled when nothing seems to happen. There is one thing the Kana is unequivocally great at, and that is resisting being moved, so it takes Petra a moment to realize what's happening. The tow truck arduously drags the Ekanamsha through the air like a bulky parade float, and Petra scurries over to the side and stomps, angrily shouting down at the truck. "Dumbass! Get your filthy hands off my mech! You don't even know how to use it!" Petra sends a few remote commands to the autopilot system, and the chained mech flares its jets again, jumping up into the air and pulling taut on the towing cable as if it's a leash. When it comes crashing down again, it's positioned directly over the truck, sending its multiple tons of weight down as a bludgeon.
Phantom Thieves	WHAM The truck gets crushed like a pancake. If this is intended to demoralize Limelight, it's having the opposite effect. She's grinning. "Hey, minion girl. You ever stomp on an anthill?" she asks. "See, you kill some of the ants, but the thing is..." The Kana is now crawling with... things. Tiny computer chips with spider legs, basically. They're swarming all over it, trying to find every possible crack and seam to get inside...!
Petra Soroka	There is a second thing the Kana is best at. Designed by environmental isolationists in an airtight walking city, the mech is meant to be completely impenetrable to outside particles, orders of magnitude smaller than the tiny spider bots. Interlocking armor plates sheathed with tight metal fibers deny Stagehand's swarm any entry. Petra watches with fascination for a moment, then remembers she has another opponent. Whirling around, she smugly retorts, "I wear boots, idiot. I can stomp on ants like you all I want." Petra's continual barrages have left her flagging, though, and whenever she's not in motion from recoil, she's trying to catch her breath, pinging shots around to keep Limelight at a distance.
Phantom Thieves	Limelight drops down to the floor (well, the top of the Kana) to avoid the bullet. "Uh huh. Say." "You know, you have something on those boots." If/when Petra goes to look, Limelight springs up, and tries to snatch the remote control away from her hands!
Petra Soroka	Petra is deeply protective of her boots, and, moreso, expects Limelight to be snarkily broadcasting a surprise attack from one of those spiders crawling on her boots, as a good TV villain does. A good portion of her boot goes up her ankle and calf though, and as she pulls the leg of her overalls up to quickly look down the whole length, Limelight darts in and grabs the remote. Petra's face blanches with terror, her voice suddenly hoarse and rasping as she demands, "Give that back! It's mine! No one else is allowed to touch my fucking mech!" She lunges at Limelight, and in her singleminded approach of stopping her from fiddling with the controls, fires directly at Limelight's wrist and elbow, unloading as much as possible.
Phantom Thieves	Limelight has the remote. "Hah! It's mine now, I- AH!" One of the shots grazes her arm. Limelight drops the remote. The Kana drops Limelight. Or - she falls from the Kana, smacking into the ground below...
Petra Soroka	Oh, shit, is she dead? Eggman specifically didn't want her to be dead. The moral anxiety over potentially killing someone comes a long heartbeat later. Petra hops down over the side of the Kana, stomping and/or shooting any spider bugs that harass her. She prods at Limelight with a boot, and when she doesn't get up, Petra begins the process of relocating Limelight's unconscious body inside the Kana. She gets halfway there, drops her at the base of the ladder, and quickly runs over to the crumpled tow truck to check if Stagehand is 1) inside or not and 2) dead or not. Returning to Limelight, Petra binds her up with some zipties, looks around for a bag to put over her head, and only finds a video game merch tote bag that she ordered a long time ago. What else are you supposed to do when kidnapping someone? Humming to herself, her mood dramatically improved since earlier, Petra tucks Limelight in between two boxes of clothes, on top of a pallet of ramen. ...This feels a little fucked up, Petra thinks, glancing over to the doors of the police station to check if anyone's getting worried about this. She shrugs to herself. The green girl's alive, and whatever happens next isn't her fault. She's got other things on her mind.