Baltimore | Thursday Night

[defenderofdesmoines]

So far, Starlight's first patrol in Baltimore was a raging success compared to her first patrol in Fandom!

After a fair amount of waffling, she had ultimately decided to try her luck across the causeway rather than attempt another dimension. Not that she had any lack of faith in Portalocity or Summer's directions on how to use it - it just didn't seem like the kind of thing one tried for the first time without...you know, witnesses. Maybe a buddy. Like skydiving.

However, Starlight knew she was taking a risk by heading to a city that didn't normally have heroes. Discretion had been the name of the game, and she'd done pretty well so far. She'd managed to stop a guy who was tailing some other costumed girls coming home from a Halloween party by blending in with them for a couple blocks, and by the time the guy caught up, the pack of girls had drunkenly stumbled ahead, and all that had been waiting for him was a very unamused, very sober Starlight.

She'd left the creepy guy's creepy, unconscious body amidst some trash (where he belonged!) before calling in an anonymous tip to the BPD. With that accomplished, Starlight retreated into a dark alley and reached up to yank down the ladder of a fire escape. Creaky and rusty, yes, but if she could work her way up on top of a building, she'd be able to see for several blocks and would minimize the risk of someone spotting her before she was ready.

[expecting one!]

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[defenderofdesmoines]

Wait a second.

Starlight had been all set to go with a snappy one-liner, but now she hesitated. She frowned, staring up into the masked guy's face, and then her golden gaze landed on the scar at his temple.

The cute guy from the gym, yes. Fuuuuck.

"Oh, shit," she breathed, eyes fading though she didn't move away just yet. "Oh, shit, I am so sor - wait!" And with a light buzzing noise that almost seemed to come from her, her eyes illuminated again. "What're you doing out here?"

Because hello: still extremely suspicious, even if she did know him from Fandom.

(Several stories up in one of the buildings, a guy who had been peacefully watching infomercials was now banging on the side of his very staticky television.)

[knife_bender]

"Me? I was fighting crime," Diego said, pushing up his mask. "What are you doing here?"

The glowy eyes were fairly intimidating, but he was doing his best to look cool and collected.

He looked down. "Nice outfit."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Thanks," Starlight replied, actually letting her eyes fade back to brown now and taking a half-step back. "Kinda telegraphs the crime-fighting thing a little better than...."

She gestured to him. "You know, dressing like Zorro." She had a cape, so - no room to talk there, Starlight.

"Are you okay?" Because now she was really looking at him and fuck, she would have been a lot more gentle if she'd known who he was.

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, fine, won't be the first time someone slammed me in a wall," Diego said, rolling a shoulder. "Probably won't be the last."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Starlight winced, anyway, now beginning to look genuinely apologetic. "I'm so sorry," she offered, hesitantly reaching out to him, then clearly thinking better of it and retracting her hand. "And you can see okay? How many fingers?" She held up three fingers beside her face, wiggling them a little.

[knife_bender]

"Three," Diego laughed, reaching to gently pull down her hand. "Seriously, it's fine. Serves me right for throwing knives first, asking questions later."

Would he learn his lesson and stop being so impulsive? Probably not.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I could have blinded you." All right - he seemed fine, and he was also still cute even if he was dressed like a commando or whatever, so he was going to get a smile out of her now. "I deserved the knives. Speaking of which - you're, like, really good at that."

Seriously, she'd probably be dead if she weren't a Supe.

[knife_bender]

"It's a gift," Diego said. "You're really good at blinding people and slamming them into walls."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I do what I can," she replied, shrugging a shoulder in a show of mock-humility. "So...Diego, right? Or is it something different when you're all masked up?"

[knife_bender]

"No it's just Diego." He liked to think he left behind Kraken/Number Two long ago. "Are you not Annie right now?"

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Nope, it's Starlight," she corrected him with a smile, shaking her head. "Where I'm from, you keep this stuff separate from your civilian identity."

Or at least you tried to. Probably helped if you did more to conceal it than slap on a smoky eye and let your hair down.

[knife_bender]

"Appropriate name," he said with a nod. "I used to have one when I was a kid. I don't know if it was to protect me or to make action figures though."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Starlight lifted a brow at that. "You have an action figure? Lucky."

Someday she'd have two action figures and her own line of dolls, but for now she was just jealous.

[knife_bender]

"Used to. You wouldn't recognize me. I was very young," he said. "And in a schoolboy uniform."

So think on that for a second.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Oh, she was. Starlight tilted her head, giving him a pretty obvious once-over.

"This is probably a better look," she decided. "So why only 'used to'? You retired?"

It did not seem like he was retired.

[knife_bender]

"More like I went freelance," Diego said. "Just for future reference, don't be on a superhero team with your family."

[defenderofdesmoines]

Starlight let out a surprised little laugh. "Done. I'm an only child. Your whole family has powers, though? That is...pretty rare, where I'm from."

Like, completely unheard of except in a few specific cases.

[knife_bender]

"We're adopted." Collected, you could say. "So am I to expect to run into you often here? Seems to be enough crime for the both of us."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"I think so," Starlight decided slowly. "I was warned I might freak people out here, doing - you know, my thing - but so far it hasn't been too much of a problem. Have you seen a lot of action tonight? I left some asshole out cold like two blocks south of here, but that was it until I ran into you."

[knife_bender]

"Tonight? Nothing big, no," he said. "Was shot at earlier this week and made a getaway in an ice cream truck full of weed."

And then immediately after he was third wheel during a crab date. Which was weird.

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Oh, sure," Starlight giggled, though she was kind of staring at him a little. "Who hasn't done that?"

Now that her adrenaline was a little less high and she could think straighter, she could actually do something helpful. Starlight illuminated one hand, casting it at the ground like a flashlight until she found one of the knives he'd thrown. "You want these back, right?"

[knife_bender]

"Yeah, thanks. Wouldn't believe how many of these things I go through," Diego said, reaching for the knife. "Your powers are really cool."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Thank you. Yours don't seem like anything to sneeze at," Starlight noted, smiling over at him and pointing to the twin holes in her top's fabric. "Pretty great aim for a guy who should not have been able to see."

[knife_bender]

"I can generally make them go wherever I want them to," Diego said. "But it should have just done more than rip your clothes--sorry about that, by the way."

[defenderofdesmoines]

"Pfft." Starlight waved a hand at that. "I have a few of these, no worries."

She grabbed another of his knives off the ground, pushed up her sleeve, and stabbed the blade at her forearm in a fairly alarming way. It bounced off her skin harmlessly, albeit with much less force than when Diego had thrown it. "It's not you, it's me," she added, offering him the knife after her demonstration. "But that's really cool. Just knives, or anything you throw?"