[Manehattan] A Week in Manehattan [Aposemati, Ignition] [Closed for now]

[Apolline Allura]

Aposemati detested much of anything that kept her in one spot. As a gryphon, or rather, as the kind of gryphon she was, Aposemati was very animated. Always on the move, always wanting to see something new. So when terrible weather conditions were forecast for an entire week before she had planned to leave Manehattan and onto her next adventure, she wasn't very happy.

Lightning and thunder consummated their love high above, the aftermath pounding the earth below with a significantly heavy rain. Water and wetness as far as the eye could see, and as a gryphon, she could see it pretty far away. The white-suited gryphon sullenly stalked the streets of Avenue D, coming from the deli, arms laden with bags of food and her head turned sideways to keep the umbrella upright in her beak. To be honest, she wouldn't even have chosen Manehattan as a place to go, despite it playing host to a number of different kinds of folk than just ponies. It was the pursuit of her heritage that had brought her here.

Dyne's leftover mementos from days past suggested she had lived in Manehattan at some point as an adolescent dragon. It was literally one of the few tangents Aposemati had to follow with no other information, and as always, she remained curious about her family. So it was no surprise to her mother then, that she had packed up and flew out a day after finding out from Dyne that maybe her birthplace had something to do with this concrete jungle.

It took her about twenty minutes to get into her apartment, set everything aside and take a small rest before deciding to do something for the rest of her evening that wasn't looking over old magazines or listening to the radio until she fell asleep.

[Halide]

Rain was a sort of funny thing. It could clean some things, while making other things dirty. It could uncover something lost, while washing away something else. It could wash away small things, or it could carry in newer ones.But, most importantly, it could muffle the sounds of a high-speed pegasus chase until it was right around the corner, which it did. A soaking-wet fireball of a pegasus was powering her way between buildings, throwing her head back now and again to see how much distance was between her and a pair of whistle-blowing patrol wings. Ignition had said made some rather cheeky comments, fabricated a few somewhat incriminating boasts, and generally pestered the irritated cops who were trying their best to keep hot on her tail, the spring shower only throwing water and shade in their eyes. Aposemati would have, perhaps, all of three seconds to notice that there was a bright red, soaking wet pegasus headed straight for her, and even if she were to move a bit out of the way, the feathered missile would simply re-adjust; there was no cry of 'gang way!' or 'watch out!', there was just a bit of adjustment from her hooves and wings, getting ready to stop, then go once again. The plan was to land on the gryphon briefly, spout a short but useful statement, then use her as a living springboard. It had worked before, a number of times, as it gave her both an obstacle for her pursuers to avoid and a sharper turn than wings could normally manage.And, three seconds later, Ignition's hooves would meet with the gryphon's side, not colliding in a sharp kick, but rather applying pressure as the entire pegasus went from 'quite fast' to 'stopped, but spring loaded', though her tail followed with a wet 'slap', spraying rainwater over the gryphon's back. [colour=#FF0000]"The guys behind me are changelings![/colour]" Ignition blurted out - an outright lie, of course, but it'd give the gryphon perhaps a bit of reason to slow up the approaching pega-popo. And, with that message delivered, Ignition kicked off of Aposemati, shooting down a narrower alleyway and quickly out of view, the winged cops just coming into view as she shot off. It would really be up to Aposemati as to how to respond - whether she'd sit there, dumbfounded and slack-jawed like some sort of simpleton, whether she'd run with the red pegasus' redder herring, or take the paragon route and point the irritated patrol down the alleyway. Or maybe she'd do something completely different, like burst into song, or perhaps suddenly open a boutique, but the obvious choices were there plainly enough.

[Apolline Allura]

"Aw come oooooooon!"

Aposemati's annoyed shout echoed throughout the small square as her groceries fell to the ground, the jar of barbecue sauce crashing first, and spilling over everything else she had bought. She prepared to raise a fist and shout angrily before her sharp hearing caught wind of the words uttered by the crimson blur who had knocked her things down.

"Changelings?" said Aposemati, befuddled, "What the-" She turned her head, and all she could register were badges, hats and billy clubs strapped to hooves.

Had she just been made a scapegoat, left to be captured by the police? Were there really changelings afoot? Both of these were irrelevant to her next action, because if she didn't move, she might have to deal with the authorities behind her. So with a hiss, she kicked off the ground herself, following the red pegasus into the air.

Aposemati wasn't the best flier, but she could do a number on a slowpoke, and could beat out most other intermediate-level fliers with a bit of hard work. She flapped her wings hard, and hovered close near her target.

"Yo! What's the big idea?" she yelled to Ignition. "You owe me fifty bits of groceries!"

[Halide]

"Yo! What's the big idea?" she yelled to Ignition. "You owe me fifty bits of groceries!"

Okay, hm. The bird was worried about groceries, while she was clearly trying to fly away from a couple cops? That threw the spitfire pegasus for a bit of a loop. A brief glimmer of disbeleif shot through her cranium - fifty bits? This chick was carrying around fifty bits worth of groceries? Man, somebody was eating expensive.

But that didn't really matter - after all, it wasn't Ignition who'd bought them, and it wasn't her who'd dropped 'em. [colour=#ff0000]"Hey, you dropped 'em, lady! Now keep up, those idiots'll probably think you're with me! Right, then drop, then left! There's a little tunnel they probably don't know about!"[/colour] They could squabble and squak at eachother later - why was everygryph she met liable to go off at her? Oh, yeah. She kept firing cannons at them or using them as springboards. Whoops.

Either way, the pursuing billyclubs hadn't quite missed the turnoff Ignition had used Miasma to make, though they had to lose rather significant amounts of speed to make the corner, putting them even further behind the irate gryphon and the silver-eyed troublemaker, the junior of them blowing his whistle incessantly as if it was somehow going to help. The pegasus managed half of a tight corkscrew, then dove down an alleyway on her right, her wingtip just barely dusting the side of the building before she took a nosedive. Of course, a little acrobatics would do the trick, but if Miasma didn't have that - well, she had talons, and those were much better at grabbing edges and corners than hooves would ever be. Not that Ignition was watching her back too carefully to see what she'd pull off. She was more concerned with getting into the barely-visible service crevice on ground-level.

[Apolline Allura]

The being-used-as-a-springboard was kind of a thing, yeah, but as to why Aposemati would join Ignition and turn a solo-wing into a two-bird flock, she could admit to a lapse in judgement there. She took one look behind her and was sure she'd be counted as an accomplice to the mare's evasion of the law. These fellas didn't look to happy with the situation, and she doubted those billy clubs were for hugs or writing citations.

Psh. The coppers would never take her alive!

She cut a hard right by folding her wings and turning her body to crash hard against the bricks, alighting them with her claws first, then her feet, in a sideways leap before twisting into a barrel roll to avoid the railings of the balcony rails surrounding the tight space before opening her wings and shooting up high in the air before diving back down to keep up with Ignition.

"Think fast, Red, I ain't gonna keep this up if you aren't at least smarter than you look!"

[Halide]

"Think fast, Red, I ain't gonna keep this up if you aren't at least smarter than you look!"

[colour=#ff0000]"Oh, get plucked! I'm not a total chowderhead!"[/colour]

But hey, points for keeping up, certainly. It was a narrow passageway, certainly not meant for two flying abreast at those speeds. It was the sort of thrill Ignition loved - one crossed tail, one wayward pinch of an updraft, one errant misflap... an' ka-whammie! Still, their target lay ahead, and the absolutely pointless whistling of the billycop was sort of trying to catch up to them. [colour=#ff0000]"Check it!" [/colour]Shouted Ignition, doing her best to point a hoof towards a somewhat smallish underpass between two large, interlocked complexes. She wasn't going to start shouting directions when there might be unwanted ears to listen in on them - the gryphon would just have to use her head. [colour=#ff0000]"And... Now!"[/colour]

With that, Ignition tucked in her wings and her legs, turning into a large red dart, dropping in an arc through the air. A risky move, given the contorted air currents that usually bewitched such narrow places, but she knew how to use her tail for stability. a few feet from the ground, she opened her wings and extended her legs, trying to frantically slow herself to a stop, her hooves skittering across the ground as she attempted to make a rather sharp 90-degree left turn while landing. She didn't quite make her mark, her side slamming into the archway and knocking the wind out of her. But, still, she scampered into the underpass, disappearing from view in the shadowy tunnel below. She went a ways in. wheezing quietly as she tried to regain her breath. She'd given her tag-along some room to follow behind her, craning her neck to see if she would. Now it was up to the gryphon to make the turn before any prying eyes could see where she went.

[Apolline Allura]

She twisted once more, dodging a skyscraper's needle and speeding up to Ignition's side. While she hadn't a proper look at her springboarder, Miasma noted with some interest that she was definitely an athletic sort. Did she want to be a wonderbolt maybe? That'd require more training in Cloudsdale and sure as heck as little attention from the police. Ducking the feds wasn't the kind of press those jumpsuit wearing daredevil pseudo-celebrities needed.

At the reply to her insult, Miasma retorted, "I wonder who the cops are chasing then."

The dive was quite sudden, and rough looking for Ignition. Miasma almost winced, midair when she collided with the archway. Maybe prospective wonderbolt was a bit much for her. Fugitive of the law would have to do.

Miasma, making good on her ability to show off, dived, but did a small flip to angle her body sideways, her catlike reflexes telling her to alight the wall with her feet (as much as she could at these insane speeds), and leapt off of the wall into a flip.

The gryphon landed with a fair bit of difficulty, but in her opinion, stuck the landing next to the pegasus.

Allowing the mare to catch her breath, Miasma batted her with her tail. "Maybe the cops want you 'cause you suck at flying." Meant in jest of course, but either Ignition would join in kind or Miasma could just skip straight to the panic of being associated with criminal activity.