by Ophion » Fri Oct 12, 2012 9:49 pm
Machine Girl
Lee listened while Ran spoke (and completely disregarded both her 'stormy' look and her sheepish one) with a look of incredulousness on her face. "Ran, kiddo", she said in a tone of voice that fell somewhere between scolding and understanding, "if you really want to save its life, then you'd better get fast about it! Because if you 'know something' - and you aren't sharing it - then if that thing is alive and if we do end having to kill it, it won't be anybody's fault but your own..."
Machine Girl chose not to address the Scandinavian beauty's implications that the team was rushing to kill a 'sentient lifeform' because it was a 'monster like all of us' or because they couldn't understand it. Lee had spent her entire life - a far longer span of time than just about anyone else's she might add - as a metahuman and it was simply a part of who she was. When she did think of herself in defining terms (which, admittedly, wasn't all that often) she mostly just thought of herself as a failure, but in those moments when she managed to get over her self-loathing and survivor's guilt long enough to have a realistic opinion about things she thought of herself as a woman first and as someone with a responsibility to help those around her second. That she was also a metahuman only really factored into her equations as a distant third when she was considering career opportunities.
So Lee was not slow to pick up on the fact that Ran had all but declared herself, along with the other members of the Vanguard, to be monsters. Oh sure, Machine Girl recognized that wasn't actually what Ran had been trying to say, but it was certainly what had come out, and it had to have come from somewhere. It also went a long way towards explaining the young woman's assertion - which had sounded like the height of naivety in Lee's ears - that killing a monster should always be a 'last resort': it had simply been her survival instinct kicking in. But, Lee knew, she'd have to learn sooner or later that 'slaying monsters' was her job now, and was what heroes did - what they'd always done since the dawn of time itself.
But she'd have to figure it out some other time, because right now Lee had other things on her mind. Like tweeny-bopper brats with strange names and Armani suits who liked to barge uninvited into the middle of what was either a fresh crime scene or the site of an ongoing emergency (Lee still hadn't made up her mind on that point).
She was about to back up Lady Freedom - with whom she agreed entirely for once - and tell the Sterling kid to either start coughing up any goods he had or get the hell out of their business, when Ran suddenly spoke up again. "There is a bag in my closet in the bungalo...", she said mysteriously, and then turned to give the Sterling kid a look of... well, of something.
For her part, Machine Girl also turned to regard Sterling, then turned to regard Ran again, then back to Sterling, and finally back to Ran yet again. "Holy Christ, I need a drink", she muttered under her breath while massaging the bridge of her pretty nose between the rusted-metal tips of her cybernetic thumb and index finger. She used the same index finger to point at Sterling a moment later as she returned her gaze - now more of a glare, really - his way and said, "You - Sterling - I don't know who the hell you are and I don't care. If you've got something like what Lady Freedom just asked you for then, please, go get it. Otherwise, get lost."
That done, Lee turned her glare on Ran (along with the index finger), and blurted, "As for you: what the #@&$ are you going on about?! 'There's a bag in your bungalow'?! You've got a bag?! Is it a Fendi? Or could it be Dolce and Gabbana?! I simply must know!" Lee's expression most certainly qualified as a 'glare' now, with a fair amount of dumbfounded exasperation mixed in, and she while she wasn't exactly shouting at Ran she was definitely chewing her out.
"I asked you directly if you had something that would help us deal with Sparky the Living Campfire over there half-a-sodding hour ago! If you've got something you think will help then #@&$ing-well get it here, Ran!" Lee continued to glare up at the taller blonde woman for another moment, and then planted one metal hand on her hip and ran the fingers of the other through her hair as she looked away from Ran in frustration. Her gaze shifted in irritated jerks first one way and then the other as she glanced at everyone and no one in particular. "Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the bleeding donkey", she growled under her breath, "you'd think we were on a school field trip or something..."
