Work Text:
“Starstrider!”
Moonwalker sprinted across the roof, crouched, and pushed up, flying over the side of the building. Her feet hit the ground, shooting pain through her ankles, but she didn’t care. Not now. Her eyes darted over to the scene, adrenaline pumping through her veins.
Starstrider backed up, bearing her teeth with ferocity. Behind her, a woman was pressed against a wall, a large cut sliced across her cheek, blood spilling out of the wound. Standing before them both was a man, dressed in a raggedy old military style jacket and ripped up jeans, a small pocket knife held in his hand.
The woman’s emerald eyes flew to Moonwalker and they widened. The movement of attention drew that of the man as well and he turned to face Moonwalker. The sickly cruel grin that had originally spread across his face slightly wavered at the sight of Moonwalker before he forced the facade back up.
“Back off, asshole.” Moonwalker threatened, taking a step toward the assailant.
“Oh, does the puppy belong to you, hm?” The man asked, twirling the pocketknife in his fingers. Oh, the annoying dipstick.
Moonwalker’s fingers danced down to her belt and in seconds, she whipped out her kamas, raising them offensively toward the man. Her grip tightened around both and she knitted her eyebrows together. If she could keep the guy distracted long enough, then Starstrider could slip out of the alley with the woman, then Moonwalker could use her net to incapacitate the guy. Easy-peasy. Lemon squeezy.
The man lunged first.
Moonwalker evaded the attack and whirled around, swinging one of the kamas the man’s way. She caught his cheek momentarily, drawing blood which splashed against the alleyway ground. The man yelped and Moonwalker planted her feet down, standing in her fighting position. To her left, Starstrider had pushed her head up under the woman’s hand and was slowly guiding her out of the alley, yet her eyes were very much still fixed on Moonwalker.
“You wanna try again?” Moonwalker asked.
The man snarled. And he still tried again. After, what, nearly two years of this work, Moonwalker could still not understand how utterly stupid criminals could be.
The man raised his knife and charged. Moonwalker threw up one of her kamas, prepared to knock the weapon out of the man’s hand, before the man sent the knife flying.
In a blur of panic, Moonwalker jerked around, watching as the pocketknife slammed against the wall, only a few inches away from the woman’s face, which had paled so much Moonwalker would have assumed she was a ghost, then clattered to the ground. A low, guttural growl resonated out of Starstrider, her eyes locked on the man.
“The hell was that?” Demanded Moonwalker, as she turned back to the man.
The man recoiled under Moonwalker’s gaze for a moment before forcing a look of some sort of dignity onto his face, raising his fists as though they could do anything against the literal weapons in Moonwalker’s hands.
“You're just a dumb girl with a dumb dog.”
Oh hell no.
Now, Moonwalker was the one to lunge, and she made it count. Her kamas flew and the man’s fists arced. Blood spilled and bruises bloomed under jackets and masks. Multiple times did Moonwalker’s kamas rip right through the man’s shirt or maybe his jeans and he would yelp in pain as she sliced her weapon across his skin. Nothing deadly, nothing too deep, but enough for blood to flow, and enough to make him regret. At some points his punches landed and they landed good, and Moonwalker’s chest hurt, but she had gone with an injured sternum before.
Slice, punch, kick, cut. A bleeding cut across the man’s chin, a solid fist to Moonwalker’s jaw. A kick right in Moonwalker’s gut followed but an unrelenting slamming of the kama’s handle against the side of his head.
It was only when Moonwalker had the blade of the kama pressed to the man’s throat that he gave in.
Satisfied, Moonwalker stood, and forced the man to do the same. She nodded at Starstrider, who departed from the woman and approached the man, growling. Moonwalker reached to her belt and pulled out her net launcher, pointing it at the man.
“Sorry friend, but precautions must be taken.”
She pulled the trigger and the net soared through the air, hitting the man and wrapping around him with ease. The man yelled, stumbled, and fell. A small chuckle escaped Moonwalker as she looked down at him, before she remembered why she was here in the first place.
The woman.
She turned and the woman was still there. Her eyes, which were locked on the man before, now slowly moved over to Moonwalker, wide and terrified.
Moonwalker walked right over, hand immediately reaching for the woman’s face. She was rather shocked (yet pleased) when the woman didn’t jerk or move away, “Your cheek. You need medical attention.”
“I’m fine. ” The woman argued, nearly immediately.
“No, you’re not. What’s your name?”
The woman blinked and she lifted her hand to slowly move Moonwalker’s fingers from her cheek. Ah, that was a bit embarrassing.
“Gemini.”
“Starstrider,” Moonwalker looked over to her canine companion, “Take Gemini to the nearest medical center immediately.” She turned to look at Gemini, “She does better with names.”
“I- I don’t need the hospital.” Gemini started, but before she could finish her retort, Starstrider had taken the sleeve of her green sweater into her teeth and was dragging her out of the alleyway.
Moonwalker turned to look down at the man, a sneer pulling on her lips. Disgusting. And stupid.
But she was pulled out of her thoughts by Gemini, who was now fighting against Starstrider’s tugging as she peered into the alleyway still.
“Wait! Just- what’s your name!?”
Moonwalker blinked, but she knew that Gemini couldn’t see that. That was such an odd question to ask, most people already knew who she was, but-
“Moonwalker.”
A smile broke across Gemini’s face, “Thank you Moonwalker!”
And then Starstrider won the strange game of tug-of-war with Gemini’s sweater, pulling her away from the scene. Moonwalker sighed, reached to her belt for (hopefully) the last time that day, and grabbed her communication device, placing it close to her mouth.
“Boss, Secret Keeper, quit your snoggin’ and help me. I got a guy. And while you’re at it, grab some bandages too.”