Fall In, Troops!

[small_compromise]

WHO: Omega and open~
WHERE: Outside of the library
WHAT: Patrolling like a good soldier!
WHEN: Nnnow?
WARNINGS: N/A


"All right squad, let's go over our mission again."

The young clone squats before several mothkittens, the latter in various states of attentiveness. One's sprawled out on its back, watching Omega as she gestures, another sits watching her hand the way a cat would a laser pointer, and the last two are a pile gnawing on each other, paused for the moment as they watch her anew while still holding onto an ear or a tail in their mouths. Up in a tree behind them is a larger mothcat, appearing content enough to lounge as she watches the children at play.

"We'll be patrolling the southern perimeter of the city square," Omega details, using the twig she has in hand to start tracing a rough map in the dirt. "Launch and I will take point, then Trapper and Tumble, and Dart, you're our rear guard. We'll start out facing the lakeside and keep to this side of the road. -yes, that's it right there, Dart. Can I have my stick back?"

She sighs as the little mothcat tugs at the twig she holds, grinning as she shakes her head and tugs it back a little before letting the winged furball roll about with it. Turning her attention to the one she's called Launch, she holds her arms out to catch the mothkitten as he predictably leaps up. "Okay, I think we're all set. Trapper, Tumble, Dart, let's go." Nodding to herself, Omega stands, letting Launch hop back out of her arms before she turns towards the tree and salutes the larger mothcat.

"We'll be back soon, Tony. Sure you won't come with us today?" She'll take that yawn as a no. "All right then. We'll see you later," she giggles, turning to head along. Naturally the mothkittens are quick to drift off in different ways than she'd outlined, but she doesn't seem to mind terribly as she sticks to her 'patrol' assignment.

Comments

[in_extremis]

There was a fresh pot of coffee on the counter downstairs that shouldn't go to waste. The cup that Tony carried still steamed, though not enough to stop Tony from gulping a mouthful as he stopped short in the doorway where he had followed the sound of Omega's voice echoing through the empty library. The only other sound in the whole city seemed to be the low buzzing of the bugs that would dart at Tony from the tall grass that billowed at the front of the library, and the sparse chattering of birds startled out of their midday doze until the heat subsided.

Tony leaned his shoulder to the door, listening to Omega's marching orders with a smile at her back while she struggled to get the mothcats quite in line. As she went bouncing away, Tony glanced up to the animal in the tree, who watched him narrowly with a flicking tail. He nodded with understanding, of course, it wasn't like they had coffee to waste, and there was too much to do for Tony to go following after Omega on her regimented frolic. The mothcat let out a sigh as Tony glanced her way again, eyebrow raised, then turned back into the library, like she had more than enough experience to know what that look actually meant.

Those dozing birds scattered in a frenzy as the very air rumbled, and the gauzy shimmer of heat was pierced by a dance of light bouncing off of polished metal. With a roar, the Iron Man came arcing over Omega's patrol route, close enough to send the dust swirling around her in the wake. He flipped around, toes touching to the ground and leaving rivulets in the dirt as he slid to a stop, only one hand behind him to push against the momentum, the other curled up against his chest. One of the mothkittens that Omega had been directing was held securely there, chewing enthusiastically on his shiny fingers, and really not looking distressed enough to be a proper hostage. Tony lost his own momentum then, awkwardly quiet in the seconds that the dust took to settle as he wiggled his fingers to try to get his damsel in distress to focus up. "You're killing me here," he complained.

[small_compromise]

The strange sound was something of a warning, the flight of birds alarming, and yet it was still difficult for Omega to anticipate anything of what it might mean. To her credit she still grabbed for her bow, holding it at the ready. "Head's up, troops," she warned.

She jerked her head up at the new sound as the gleaming form came swooping overhead, and she did her best to shield her face from the dust kicked up in its wake while still maintaining a grip on her bow. The metal figure did make a striking first impression and looked much more uniform than the battle droids she'd seen. Her eyebrows lifted high once she realized what was being held in that other hand.

"-Dart?!" she gasped, turning to quickly count off her troops, all who were for once held in rapt attention, if only because of the big shining being ahead of them. Omega looked back, worry touching her face, although it was difficult to keep it there when the mothkitten 'hostage' gnawed away happily without any clue as to the danger she might have been in. And then the metal man spoke, and Omega lowered her bow, blinking in surprise.

"...Tony??"

[in_extremis]

The setup had worked so well, she had her bow out and everything, so it was all the more disappointing that it was falling apart so quickly and Tony had to work fast to salvage it. With his free hand, he wagged a finger then pointed with determination to correct, "The Iron Menace." That was okay. He should have been more prepared and thought of the name ten minutes ago, maybe while he was busy catching this animal that didn't seem to understand its role.

"And I'll be taking your little friends there, to...turn them all into gold," was also not the best motive for his menacing, though he had certainly heard worse from bigger weirdos. All that mattered was that Omega bought in enough to play the hero, anyway.

[small_compromise]

"...the Iron Menace..." Omega repeated, not seeming quite convinced. Her expression certainly underlined that thought, one brow ticking up higher than the other.

"Why gold?"

Turning mothcats into gold seemed a little hard to believe, even if this wasn't actually Tony and some form of unspecified magic was at play. Even harder to swallow when Dart was still nomming away at the Iron Menace's fingers, and now Launch and Trapper moved in for the kill...!

-or not, but they certainly made to flutter-leap at the shiny armor. "Launch! Trapper- stand down!" she called, to little effect, even as she swallowed down a smile.

[in_extremis]

It turned out that was a very fair question that Tony didn't have an immediate answer for, because he thought it was obvious. There were an abundance of mothcats, and not enough gold, and he spread his free hand open to illustrate that. "What would you turn them into?" he asked, sounding confident that she wouldn't have a much better use for a mothcat in the barrel.

It seemed they didn't appreciate the discussion. The Iron Menace went, "Agh!" as they leapt at his knees, twisting away with one foot in the air to defend himself as they kept bouncing around him in the dirt, nipping at his ankles. They scattered when he suddenly pushed upward in a burst of his jets, still holding his hostage, who started to squirm impatiently now. "You'll have to try harder than that if you want him back," he teased in a lazy lilt.

[small_compromise]

"Iron..?" That was a type of metal too, wasn't it? And in his chosen title. It made more sense to her, anyway, in about as much a way as anything really did.

But now she had her squad to look out for, and even if the 'Iron Menace' didn't actually mean to, he could accidentally hurt them simply for the mothkittens not knowing any better. "Hey!" She dropped her bow for the moment, just so she could scoop up the two- no, three, as she intercepted Tumble from making a belated attempt to join his siblings, keeping them from getting potentially toasted.

This had not been part of the planned patrol, but she still had a duty to look out for her squad, loosening her arms around the three now that the armored man was out of reach. At least for her, anyway. The fuzzy trio leaped into the air, flitting their wings to try and go after the shiny target. Their formation could use work, Omega couldn't help but note, picking up her bow and tucking it behind her. That was the least of her problems as she tried to think of how she'd keep up with the rest of them.

[in_extremis]

This patrol really fell apart once they met some opposition. It was possible they were more prepared for, say, a larger than normal bug, and not an armoured supervillain, and Tony was going to have to scale his approach slightly to make this a fun and/or valuable experience. Besides, the mothcats didn't seem to quite understand that they shouldn't keep trying to attack his feet.

With a quick flip to try to gain some distance from them, Iron Man dropped to the ground again a few feet further down the road, where the animals only flitted after him with determination. At least they couldn't hurt themselves on his skates, so he started a slow roll backwards, watching Omega curiously for her plan of action. Letting the animals pester him into surrender might be effective, as long as they didn't get bored, though that did leave them very vulnerable to Tony catching another one out of the air.

[small_compromise]

Omega would call it more of a distraction given how predictable it was for mothcats to go after shiny things. She looked a little anxious as she couldn't really stop them from being lured after the armored man, but she was thankful that the Iron Menace was trying to avoid any accidents.

Tumble was quickly snagged, which seemed an ideal outcome for the mothkitten as he immediately began batting and grabbing at the hand that now held him. Clearly he'd won here. The Iron Menace now had to deal with the other two who were not at all being very helpful in avoiding capture so much as trying to find a suitable perch on this new toy that their siblings were enjoying.

"I was not prepared for this," Omega huffed under her breath as she looked on. There wasn't even a suitable place she could climb to try jumping from, and she didn't want to hurt anyone with her bow. She hadn't even yet tried to train her squad for a fight, much less how to track...

Wait.

She fumbled around in her bag and brought out a little mirror, angling it to catch the sunlight. The glowing disc slid along the armor's finish, this new movement of light catching the circling mothkittens' attention. Omega tipped it up and up, back and forth to make sure it held their interest, eventually bringing it up towards the Iron Menace's face.

[in_extremis]

Oh, that was clever. Tony was already trying to stop the mothcats from flipping their tails in his face as one settled on his shoulder and the other scrambled for purchase on his helmet. The point of light had them bursting into action, flailing at his face with enough determination that he had to release one of the creatures in his hands before it hurt itself in its desperation to smack him in the face. The other seemed fairly irritated by this flurry of movement, and tucked its head into his armpit.

Iron Man had to duck and weave to try to roll out of Omega's target, complaining, "Who taught you to play dirty? Unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it." He came skating directly at her then, the bundle of feathers and claws flapping eagerly after him and easily redirected to the mirror itself as Iron Man went whizzing by the source.

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis was out trying to make sure he had his notes on agriculture together and he wasn't sure he had them in the order he wanted them to be. He was trying to be more organized (because he had someone to impress) and the way he had it in his head versus what he was seeing in front of him wasn't matching up as of yet so he decided to try and work on them a little more.

Getting outside in the sunshine wasn't his personal idea of a good time but at the same time it worked. However, one of the papers decided to use its little resources and dance along with the little breeze that had sneaked in.

Before Noct went after it, he grabbed the other notes that were in order and secured them with a damn rock before he went after the errant paper. The king managed to chase it until he overheard Omega speaking to someone. He didn't want to be rude, so he grabbed his paper and then happened to look over at her audience and couldn't help but smile.

Making enough noise as to not startle her, Noctis had to shake his head with the smile still on his face. "I'm not sure they're going to follow orders very well."

[small_compromise]

"Tony wasn't that much better," Omega admitted with a sigh as she watched Trapper pounce at Tumble again. That hadn't lasted very long, but then she wasn't surprised. She watched as Launch jumped at the toes of her boots, sprawling over and beside them to paw at ineffectually.

[fatedsacrifice]

He smiled when her back was turned. Really he wasn't sure how she expected to get these creatures to cooperate with her on this patrolling mission but it was adorable to watch them play.

"So if they're not gonna help you, do you need some help?"

And the smile disappared.

[small_compromise]

It wasn't like she'd expected this to actually work. She knew better than that. Omega stooped down to pick Launch up, giving a scratch under his chin.

"It wasn't really that important," she said, letting the mothkitten hop down to join in the game of tag the rest of his siblings started. "I just wanted to see if they'd come with me like Tony used to." She looked over at the bigger mothcat in the tree, giving her a wave before glancing over at Noctis again. At his change in expression she tilted her head, brow arching. "Something wrong?"

[fatedsacrifice]

He watched Omega fuss over the moth kitten and then he watched as it went to join its companions. They were strange creatures and Noctis wasn't really sure how they or any of the animals or creatures worked here except for the few that he was familiar with.

The king wasn't familiar with any of these.

But at her question, he shook his head. "No. I was just wondering if you were doing patrols, if you needed help doing them."

[small_compromise]

"Oh. Well, if you say so," Omega said, shrugging. "It wasn't going to be a particularly extensive patrol anyway. I didn't want to go too far with them." She smiled fondly at the four mothkittens as they played. "Already had to chase one on the train," she laughed, giving Tony a knowing look. The mother mothcat yawned.

[fatedsacrifice]

Noctis nodded. "And here I thought that you were doing a bigger patrol than that." There was a smile again on his face as he looked at the moth cats when they were referred to and with the story of having to chase one on the train.

"But how far can they go?"

[small_compromise]

The girl shook her head. "Well, not with these little ones, at least," she said. "Maybe when they're older. I'd rather not let them go too far, especially if they like wandering." For now they seemed to know better than to go too far from mom.

[only_an_echo]

Omega was young, but she was old enough to have some independence. Although Echo wanted to keep an eye on her, he trusted she could take care of herself while staying in the safer, slightly more populated areas within the city. Having her patrol the innermost sections as he circled the outermost perimeter; this development was new, but it was also ideal for covering more ground while having another set of eyes open for any changes Temba and its current residents might go through.

He eventually makes his return down another path, leaping over crumbling walls to save some time. "Omega, report," he comms the girl casually, voice gruff as his steps slow in their pacing en-route to their appointed rendezvous. He almost stops, however, listening to be sure he isn't being followed by anything.

He's sure he heard the fluttering of wings...

[small_compromise]

"Nothing unusual on this side so far, sir," the girl dutifully reports. "Just having a little trouble keeping my squad at attention."

Even as she speaks, she offers a fond look over at the mothkittens. Trapper and Tumble have already gotten into another scuffle, and Dart had taken sudden interest in some kind of insect in the tall grasses, positioned to pounce.

"Anything on your end, Echo?"

[only_an_echo]

"Everything's been quiet. Minor natural disturbances at most." There's a pause, switching between from protocol to something slightly more casual. "Squad's acting up?" Had Echo been the type, he would have sounded more offended at the thought of being replaced so quickly. Instead, it's more wary. Maybe curious.

[small_compromise]

Nothing could ever replace her brothers. If she were going to try that she would've named them appropriately!

"Lack of focus. They're easily distracted. Maybe I should try a different approach for trainees instead of right into a patrol," Omega considered.

[only_an_echo]

He wouldn't have seen any resemblance between the Bad Batch and the mothcats. The mothcats had a cuteness advantage, at least.

"Trainees often are," Echo agrees. "Energy is good. Rowdiness, not so much. They need to burn off the excess."

[small_compromise]

Omega looked at the playing mothkittens again. "They do that enough on their own, but a little too much," she noted. "I'd have to end up carrying them all if we'd gotten out any farther." She smiled then. "That's why I only planned a brief patrol of this perimeter," she said, pointing out towards the edge of the space that stretched out from the side of the library and towards the main road.

[only_an_echo]

"Well. That's no good." A hint of a chuckle slipped into his words as he approached Omega, letting his gaze follow where she planned her original patrol route before the mothkittens did their own thing. "It couldn't have been easy getting them out this far. Just look at them."

[small_compromise]

The girl sighed. "We haven't really gotten far at all. We started over by Tony and the tree there." The whole thing had fallen apart rather rapidly, but she couldn't really be mad for it. It wasn't like she'd actually expected the mothkittens to follow through, although it would have been a nice surprise. Multiples were definitely trickier to work with than one overly adventurous mothcat.