Chapter Text

Gravity Queen

Part 1 - Déjà Vu

G City - 4 weeks after the Boros Incident

It was a pretty standard Saturday afternoon in the western market district, full of hustle and bustle from the street side stores to the plaza filled with small stalls trading everything from food, fashion, and the traditional past time of many that was gossiping over the newspapers.

"You hear what The Hero Association's plans are for that giant fortress they built on A City? Apparently it's so they can guarantee something like that can't happen again," a man asked his friend, skimming over the headlines as the two wandered back home carrying their haul of groceries.
"They couldn't stop it happening the first time so I'm not exactly getting my hopes up," the second scoffed as he idly rummaged through his shopping bag. "Between the disasters, more and more monsters showing up and then that, I swear heroes are seeming more useless by the day. Why people still donate to that crap I don't understand."
"Jeez, little harsh there. They are trying to save people, you know?"
"It's their jobs, they should try harder and then maybe I'd respect them," was the snide counter, followed by a hmph as he pulled a red apple out of the bag, "and speaking of people not doing their jobs, the hell did this come from?"

With a few grumblings about useless tellers and untrained idiots, the man turned and hurled the apple as hard as he could in a random direction, sending it soaring up and over the rooftops. His buddy stopped and stared.
"Dude, seriously, who pissed in your breakfast this morning?"

The apple's journey was short, cresting over the rooftop before hurtling down into the space where two alleyways crossed around a lone oak tree and straight into the lap of a girl unconscious at its base. Jolted awake by the impact, she looked down at what woke her with befuddlement.

"An apple? Why am I getting a sense of déjà vu right now?" She mused, pulling herself up and dusting off her black clothes, careful not to dislodge the ornate golden metal bands she wore over the top. A couple twigs needed removing from her blonde hair and a minor adjustment to the black scarf that trailed behind her left her feeling much more presentable. At least enough to deal with a much more pressing concern.

"Where am I?" Nothing looked familiar. And it wasn't just because it was a random alleyway. The walls of the surrounding buildings, the pavement beneath her heels, even the smell of the air felt... alien.

But that realisation brought with it a second question, if this wasn't where she was supposed to be, then where was? She didn't have an answer to that either. Every memory prior to waking up felt like it was hidden inside a thick fog, simultaneously just out of reach and impossible to find.
And yet the girl didn't feel panicked, or even worried about her situation. If anything, the sense of déjà vu was giving her something to anchor herself to, something vaguely familiar.

"Getting the feeling this isn't the first time I've woken up in a strange place with no memories. Really hoping that isn't a habit of mine."
Although the fact she didn't know if it was a habit was a bit concerning, especially when that led to the realisation that she couldn't remember much about herself either. Not knowing where she was from was already bad enough, not knowing who she was at all was way worse.

She spent a few minutes wandering around in the memory fog, trying to find some clue. Eventually from deep within there was a half-whispered word, one that felt as familiar as the clothes she was wearing, that forced back the low panic that had been building.
"Kat, huh?" She brushed some of her hair out of her eyes and idly picked up the apple she'd let fall on the ground, wiping it on her sleeves. "Guess that's me. Well, I got a name, that's a start."

As she took bites out of the apple, Kat ran over a mental checklist. First port of call was figuring out where exactly she was. Then she'd have to find shelter and a steady source of food, random falling sky apples probably weren't something to rely on. Once those were taken care of, then she'd allow herself to start worrying about her missing memories.

"Well, not going to get anywhere sticking around here," she decided, picking a random direction. Just before she started walking she found herself stopping as if by habit, looking around as if to check that someone or something was coming too but she was definitely alone... and couldn't remember who was supposed to be following.

The sudden spike of loneliness and isolation hit out of no where, quickly followed by a lance of pain as she rooted around in the memory fog for answers a little too hard. Still Kat managed to shake it off, she didn't have much of a choice. The sky above was starting to darken, night wasn't too far away and she had to find out where she was while people would still be around.

Thankfully it seemed that, where ever she was, it was still well populated. Didn't take long for the sounds of people to make an appearance. Kat eventually found her way out of the alleyways, onto the streets. Still plenty of people wandering around and, although none of them were wearing clothes that looked even close to hers, none of them even glanced her way as they went on their business.

She tried to wave a few down but was almost immediately brushed off even before she could say hello, let alone start asking questions. The sense of irritation that gave felt familiar, although she was fairly certain that wasn't supposed to be a good thing.

But before Kat could dwell on it too much, she was immediately shaken out of her thoughts by a new noise, one she knew she had never heard before, a mechanical roaring as a strange metal box vehicle came hurtling down the grey strip that seemed to separate the streets here in two.

While the sight of her clothing hadn't caught anyone's attention, her jumping backwards away from the strange thing as it passed by certainly did. She barely noticed, eye's focused solely on the black painted vehicle as it skidded around a corner and vanished down another street.

"Look at that, someone scared of a van!" Someone exclaimed from somewhere, drawing laughs and snapping Kat out of her stupor.
"Okay, don't like this place already," she thought, finally noticing the passerby's stares and snickers. She glared at the closest, a young girl probably in her early teens, who broke eye contact and looked embarrassed, more so when Kat approached.
The idea was to use this situation to at least be pointed in the right direction of someone who could help her, but that went out of the window at the sudden sound of shattering glass coming from the street the strange van thing had gone. Everyone stopped and stared for a few moments, no one moved. And then the screams started.

Before Kat had even really registered what she was doing, she was already pushing the girl aside and sprinting down the road, grabbing a streetlamp as she passed to slingshot herself around the corner.

She spotted the black van that had startled her earlier, the doors on it's back flung open as it parked outside what looked to be a store of some kind. Broken glass littered the pavement, what was left of the window as a group of four men walked back out. All four were musclebound, short hair, wearing thick brown leather jackets with an alien symbol on their backs. One was carrying a large dufflebag while the other three had steel pipes and bats.

The one with the bat turned back to the store that they'd clearly just robbed, about to threaten or insult the terrified shopkeeper inside when an apple core came whizzing by his face. It took him a second to process what had just happened and as he turned to see where it had came from, he had only a moment before a flying kick connected straight between his eyes.
The other robbers seemed stunned as his bat hit the floor only a second before he followed, the black and gold girl bouncing off of him and rolling back onto her feet into a fighting stance. The one with the bag dropped it to pick up the metal bat that had rolled near his feet, the three remaining toughs spreading out and eyeing up the newcomer that none of them had heard coming.

"Don't know who you are, hero," one growled, "but you ain't getting away with that."
"Don't really know who I am either, but that was going to be my line." Kat countered, taking a step further away from the fallen thug so he couldn't trip her if he woke up.
"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into."
"Nope. But here I am anyway, so bring it."

The three remaining robbers glance at each other, nodding at some unspoken plan before they brandished their weapons. The one to Kat's left was the first to charge, bringing the pipe down with all the force he could muster. He hit nothing but air, Kat handspring back-flipping out of reach, flipping back onto her feet and launching forwards with a boot to the man's stomach while he was still recovering from the swing.

The was a clang as his pipe hit the ground while he barely remained standing. A swing from the bat forced Kat to duck. She dropped to the floor underneath the swing, sweeping the stunned man's legs out from under him, rolling with the motion and catching him with a kick to the side of the skull as he fell. He didn't get back up.

"Two down," she thought, rolling back to her feet and narrowly evading a second swing from the bat. But it took enough of her concentration that she didn't catch the last thug closing in, and she was not so fast dodging the pipe.

The blow caught her on the left shoulder, the sudden lance of pain and the impact throwing her off balance for a moment, letting him follow up with a straight punch to the jaw with his free hand. The punch was enough to stagger her backwards, her heel catching on a piece of loose pavement and tripping her onto her backside.

"Well, well, not so tough now, are we hero?" Pipe mocked, looking Kat square in the face, matching glare for glare.
"We'll show you what happens to hero types that get involved in the Ironarms Gang's business," Bat growled as he stepped forward, only to back off again as Kat's legs twitched. Evidently he didn't fancy a taste of the kicks that leveled his friends even if she was grounded.
"You got me, I'll give you that," Kat admitted, rubbing at her jaw with her unhurt arm, "but if you think I'll let you do it twice, you're mistaken."
"We'll see." Pipe laughed, as Bat moved around behind Kat so she couldn't keep an eye on both of them.

Kat growled under her breath, focusing on Pipe's movements while trying to keep her ears peeled for any sound of Bat trying to rush her. Even from behind and on the ground, she could still deal with them if she played her cards right.
Luckily for her, she didn't have to. Instead of the sound of Bat, she heard the sound of squeaking wheels before a loud cry caught the thugs attention.
"Halt villains! The Rider of Justice has arrived!"

Kat immediately took advantage of the momentary distraction, rolling back onto her feet and launching herself out from in between the thugs, onto the road surface itself. Only once she was out of the ambush zone did she spare a second to look at the new arrival.
She wasn't sure what she had expected but the man climbing off of his bicycle, wearing padded armor, helmet and goggles probably wasn't it. The two thugs didn't seem sure of what to make of it either, even as the newcomer finished carefully standing his bike up and stepped forwards, raising his fists.

"Hero Class-C, Rank 1: Mumen Rider has arrived to help!" he declared, looking over to Kat, "you okay, ma'am?"
"Just fine now." She smiled, checking that her shoulder wasn't too badly battered, "feel like giving me a hand with these idiots?"
"You didn't have to ask."

Yeah she was feeling much better now it was two on two. Pipe wasn't looking so cocky anymore either, nervously glancing at his companion as the two pulled back their weapons, ready to swing and daring the heroes to make the first move.
Kat's immediate plan was to bait out the swing and counterattack afterwards. Her companion didn't seem to come to the same conclusion.

"Justice Tackle!" He yelled, charging straight at Bat who took a half-step back and pulled back even further for the swing. Rider's momentum was way too much to stop outside of the swing, so he turned into it and took the blow straight across the chest. And the padded vest.

Bat had just enough time to realise his mistake before Rider grabbed the wrist holding the bat, trapping it between the two of them, before smashing his helmet straight into the thug's jaw. The bat dropped to the floor and he tried to stagger backwards, but Rider kept a hold of the arm and used it to pull him back into a forearm shot between the eyes.

This time Rider let go and Bat hit the ground. He heard the cry of "duck" and caught a blur of movement out of the corner of his eye, immediately dropping into a crouch as the metal pipe passed through where the back of his, very unprotected, neck had been a half-second earlier.

Pipe swore, starting to back up. He wasn't fast enough. Kat had gotten up to a sprint by that point and used Mumen Rider's back as a vault to launch herself at full force. There wasn't enough distance for her to throw another flying kick, so she made do with a knee instead, catching Pipe on his left shoulder.

The landing wasn't the smoothest, her breath caught a little as her weight rolled across her own battered shoulder, but she managed to regain her footing around the same time Pipe did, the thug now nursing a mirror injury to his arm.

"What was it you were saying about us hero types?" Kat smirked, nodded to Rider as he stepped up beside her with fists ready. Pipe looked between the two of them, clearly looking worried now. He grit his teeth, weighed the hefty pipe in his good arm, then hurled it as hard as he could straight at the two heroes.

They both had to dart to the side to avoid it, the momentary distraction giving him enough time to turn and take off running, scooping up the dufflebag by its handles as he passed.

"Oh no you don't!" Kat went to bolt after him, but the sudden blast of a roaring engine startled her for a second time that day. A second van fired out of a side street, almost tipping off of its wheels as it skidded to a halt in front of the running Pipe.
It had the same black paint as the first van, only this one had the symbol on the back of the thugs jackets painted on its side in red too.

"More of them? We were nearly done!"
"Don't get frustrated," Rider added.
"You didn't get punched in the face." Kat grumbled under her breath, but held her position.

Pipe had came to a halt beside the van, trying to catch his breath. Even from a distance Kat could see he'd gone pale all of a sudden and seemed to be stammering something to someone inside the front. Then the door to the van opened and a mountain of a man stepped out.

The thugs from earlier had been fairly stocky but Kat had still come up to at least eye level with them. This one towered over Pipe, who didn't even reach his shoulders. His leather jacket was closed, but was bulky enough that she could guess that it wasn't just height where he was bigger.

"Boss!" Pipe started to speak, before shutting up the moment the man's eyes turned to him, going white as a ghost. He even flinched as the man uncrossed his arms. The boss gestured over his shoulder with his thumb, into the drivers seat of the van, before walking passed Pipe towards Kat and Rider.

Kat grumbled and she noticed even Rider seemed not pleased when Pipe threw the dufflebag into the van, climbed in after and roared away. But they were in no position to stop him, not with the man-mountain approaching.

"Looks like you've given my men quite a beating," the man growled, coming to a halt in the center of the three unconscious thugs. "I don't take too kindly to that."
"They were robbing a place, I wasn't just going to stand and watch!" Kat fired back, eying up her new opponent. He seemed calm and relaxed, too calm and relaxed for someone staring down two heroes ready for a fight.
"Well that was a mistake," he chuckled, turning to look at Rider, "she might not have heard of us but I reckon you have. The Ironarms Gang sound familiar to you?"
"The gang robbing machinery parts and electronics for the last few weeks. Am I right?" Rider answered, keeping his voice steady but Kat could see his arms shaking slightly. Fear?
"That's us. Now second question, wanna know what we were doing with all those parts? 'Cause I feel like now's a perfect time to take this for a test run!"

He threw his arms out to his sides and his jacket exploded into scraps, revealing just why it had seemed so bulky. Covering his torso was an elaborate metal harness, from which unfurled four steel, skeletal looking arms. Two came from around his back, up and over his shoulders, while the second set were at stomach level.

Both Kat and Mumen Rider took several steps back. Neither of them really sure just what they were seeing as the skeletal fists clenched and unclenched.
"Now it's time Ironarms, B-class criminal, finally got put on the map," the man laughed, stalking forwards and pushing the two even further back. One of the metal limbs swung out at a streetlamp with enough force to buckle and dent it almost 45 degrees. "Think killing some heroes oughta do the trick."

It was at this point Kat finally noticed the crowd of people watching from the end of the street, back where she'd come from originally. They were slowly getting pushed back closer and closer. She stopped retreating. If those arms could do that much damage to a streetlamp, there was no telling what he could do to a civilian.

Rider had evidently came to the same conclusion, digging his heels in beside her. Even the shaking had stopped, instead replaced with a look of fiery determination from behind those goggles.
"You got a plan?" Kat asked, already sure of the answer but trying anyway.
"Afraid not."
"Well we'll just have to improvise then!"

With the cheering crowd picking up in volume, the two heroes nodded to each other, steeled their nerves and charged straight at their opponent.