A Day in the Park

Dressed in a revealing black sports top and matching black exercise shorts, reaching only down to slightly above the knees, Ndeye's muscular figure would draw the eye of anyone who saw her going for a run. If they made eye contact, likely, it would only be brief; the intensity of her glare, matched with the obvious threat that a person of her muscle training posed, would likely cause them to cast aside their eyes and walk the other way. At the moment, however, she found people's attention drawn elsewhere... it seemed that a girl in the park had everyone's attention. Her bone-and-string necklace clattered against her collarbone as she prepared to continue her sprint past.

If Ndeye was more of an empathetic person (or someone to whom altruism was not so utterly foreign), she would likely feel a bit of kinship, seeing the police called on Ace by a disparaging public just because of how she looked. As a huge, scarred black lady, who dressed like one might imagine a street tough, Ndeye drew a lot of scared eyes from civilians and critical eyes from cops. Even with that common link, however, Ndeye was not the type to risk her hide in a situation that wasn't likely to result in either a meaningful battle or monetary gain. She wasn't going to stick her nose out for someone just because they were in personal trouble she could relate to.

A closer look made her realize that the girl was submitting to the police officers, despite her gear, which seemed to indicate some kind of combat quirk (at least to Ndeye). The big girl felt a mixture of scoffing and pride enter her head. "The voles agitate a predator. A mistake, I am sure," she thought to herself, slowing to a stop and still breathing heavily from the exercise. A sense of indignation caused her to approach the scene, raising her hands, though forward, in a gesture of "explain this to me" rather than surrender.

"Little girl," she addressed Ace, cutting in over the officers as they began to speak. "You should know, Japan's officers are weak. Yes, they are very weak," she spoke in a thick accent, one that made it clear Japanese wasn't her native language. "They are not allowed to use their quirks. Weak, very weak. You know this, yes? I can hear it in your voice though, I do not see it in your gestures. You know that Japanese policemen are so weak because they deny themselves strength. Do you deny yourself strength?" she asked, still not quite raising her hands like the officers were barking for her to.

"Back away, ma'am!" one of them barked at her, now reaching for the gun on his hip. Quickly, they'd all taken their eyes off Ace to focus on the overt threat approaching them. "You're disrupting the duties of an officer!"

"The tools of the weak, too. So, so weak, you Japanese men," she laughed, putting on a broad smile and raising both hands for real now. A vein throbbed in her forehead, as different parts of her psyche battled back and forth, asking if she wanted to fight two policemen just to work out her aggression or if it wasn't worth the danger. Her eyes darted to the girl on the bench. It may be that girl's lucky day... with the police tied up, she was free to slide away on her own now. If she was more noble, she might try to talk the police down or even admonish Ndeye for antagonizing them. Of course, if there was a part of her that agreed with Ndeye, that the policemen were weak and she, in control of her quirk, was strong, she might choose to join Ndeye in terrorizing them. "I think people... should know their place," Ndeye spoke again, tilting her chin up in a way that looked threatening even with her hands raised.

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WC 656

The situation appeared to be escalating, which was good by Ndeye; she wasn't the type to issue empty threats or intimidate without the intention of following up. "Hurting badly" had been her plan for the policemen as well. Unfortunately, what she didn't have a great plan for was an indiscriminate gas attack, seeming the kind that got banned a world war ago. She brought her fang-printed face kerchief out from where it was tucked into her shorts and tied it around her lower face, for what protection that would give.

The cops were worried about Ndeye, but they were all the more worried about the aforementioned gas attack. Since the advent of quirkers, common police wisdom was to leave and get backup from heroes or, at the very least, better equipped officers; the patrol fled before Ndeye even had a chance to armor up. "Weaklings," she cursed again, through the muffled voice of her facemask.

Any rational person would make like those cops now and escape. Ndeye, fueled by self-destructive pride as she often was, instead was currently trying to calculate how much pain she was in for by standing in the gas. In some cases, her massive arms could be used as a shield that could later be shed. If the attack was some kind of liquid spray, that might work here, but no matter how thick her arms, they weren't going to guard her from a gas attack. Of course... if she swung her arm through the gas and clubbed the user, it could be a double knockout.

There was no need for that, though. This girl's thinking was not too far removed from her own, it seemed; they could perhaps form a fruitful partnership. At some time when she wasn't at risk of having her skin burnt off, anyway. As she prepared to pull a business card from the sports bag at her shoulder, the girl began to make a run for it. Thankfully, the gas remained mostly localized; Ndeye felt reassured as she chased Ace down.

She ran at a scary sprint, less frightening for the speed and more for the thudding of her bare feet as she moved. If she managed to close in, she'd raise her hands again, displaying the business card prominently in one hand and pointing to it with two fingers of her other hand. "Young girl. Young girl!" she called out again in an increasingly impatient bark. "Let us duck into the alleyways! I can already hear the sirens approaching!"

As she approached, festering wounds ere visible, especially on her arms, but also on the rest of the exposed parts of her body, from the harmful gas earlier. After handing her untarnished card over, she quickly grew the rock-like scales of her quirk onto her arms, then shed off that armor, to remove the painful, bubbling sores that had begun to form. "That is an impressive quirk you displayed. Your lack of hesitation? Equally impressive. There is a profit to be made, working together, if you have an interest," she explained in her thick accent.

The business card, with "CALABAR" written across and a phone number beneath, made no mention of her specific services. "I am muscle," Ndeye explained; her words were humorous, as she'd clearly lost some of her intended meaning, yet it still seemed to fit. She pat one hand onto her arms and repeated. "Hired muscle. I am good for hired muscle, whatever you may need, so long as there is money or a good fight in it. I feel a time will come where our interests run hip to hip. How do you say it? They intersect," she explained, crossing two fingers to explain her meaning. "You can call me Calabar. And if you have need of hired muscle... you can call me," the huge lady explained.

She thumbed at an angry rash on her abdomen and smirked. "That quirk of yours is powerful and you do not fear to use it. Good, very good. If you buffed up... muscle and striking along with poison gas? Ha ha ha... Sounds appealing, doesn't it?" The big woman was grinning, showing the crescent of her teeth against her dark skin and the shaded alley. There was a pretty good chance Ace wasn't so hot on the idea of becoming a muscle lady like Ndeye, though.

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WC 727

"Ha. The Japanese police have no handcuffs that will work on me," Ndeye boasted. As much as she'd love to say she was fine taking on any number of policemen that came after her, there were more fruitful fights out there that were less likely to end in her death or arrest. Ndeye followed after Ace... neither one of them blended into the crowd easily, given Ace's odd gear and Ndeye's massive size, but luckily, the streets of Japan these days were a little odder than they used to be. They probably weren't even the strangest looking two on the streets today. However, presuming the police were still living after the burning gas episode, they were the only two who were going to match the description that would be provided to whoever responded.

Ndeye, seemingly incapable of reducing her profile, made no attempt to shrink, but did look so standoffish that no one risked standing in her way, at least. Ordinarily, she might shove people to the side a bit, but she didn't want to give anyone a reason to call more cops, anyways. For now, she just wanted to secure a potential business partner; that was more useful a task than taking on random law enforcement officials, for the moment.

Finally, they'd reached enough turns that Ndeye found herself growing impatient. She used an alleyway to maneuver in front of Ace, then managed to appear in front of her, holding out one arm to be noticed. "Come here. You want to chat? We will chat," she requested/demanded, stepping back slightly to allow Ace in. "Do you have a job in mind already? If not, you can always call the number if you want my service. Unless there is something else particular that you wanted to ask of me?" she questioned, leaning against one wall. "Is this your first time attacking the police? Is that what you want from me? Advice?"

Ace might have imagined the chat would more involve introductions and learning what had caused Ndeye to act like such a nut in front of the police in the first place, but Ndeye's mind was on business for now.

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WC 361