The Snowdown Of The Season [Dart/Uni/Invite]

Pix was speaking absolute jibberish to her. While, by Earth standards much of the technology she was familiar with from Etheria was arguably more advanced in some aspects, it wasn't like she understood how it worked. Someone hit a button someplace and the holodeck training made things look like they were there. Was this different? She wasn't sure nor did she care. All she heard from him was a lack of trying.

"Just do it." She kept her voice low but there was a certain edge to it. She didn't really have an "or else" type scenario in mind, but her experience from the field was people tended to listen when she was more abrasive. Though without her reputation or station aa a leader to back it up it was debatable how her leadership would fair with a free agent like Pix.

Catra shuffled herself around, preparing to sprint the distance if needed to the not so distant duct. Claws eagerly tapping at the roof, her hind quarters raised a bit much like the feline she closely resembled, ready to pounce. Her tail swished behind her, keeping her sense of balance as she waited like an Olympic runner for the gun shot. She gave a small nod at his words when he decided to follow suit with her plan of escape. Ready and willing.

When the optical illusion fell away, she darted from the corner of the roof, tail dipping down behind her to keep low. She moved fast, reaching the duct almost immediately and set to work with looking it over. Screws. She could certainly work them out with her nails with a bit of effort but… instead she simply dug her nails under the lip of the grating, prying it free with a frightening ease, leaving a large enough opening for a person to climb into.

Metal grate in one hand, turkey home in the other, she peeked up over the lip of the air duct, ears pressed flat to take a quick look. With a mighty toss, she threw both items over her head to the street, sending them flying far enough to land somewhere on the other side of the street, far from their building. A distraction, possibly.

"Okay, let's g-" Catra jumped, startled by the loud clatter of Pix bumbling is way into the duct while she was preoccupied. She grit her teeth, reaching out to swap a few of his stray pixels into the vent after him, making sure off of his bits and bobs were swept into the duct before climbing in after. The primary shaft was long and flat along the length of the roof, but after that it dropped completely vertical into the depths of the building. That was where they wanted to be.

"You'll survive. Keep moving." The femme feline would push onward, trying to keep the pair of them moving, shoving her weight into Pix to force him alone if needed. Her tail would sweep the path behind her, batting any more little parts of Pix that may stray from his main body back towards him. While she had no real issues fitting in the cramped space, her progress in escaping was only as fast as the person blocking the way.

Regaining cohesion was an uphill struggle in contrast to the horizontal one that was ongoing in the meanwhile. Pix had to actively try to block out the sensory data he was receiving from just being nearby pixels. He didn't just sense the clumps on the roof, there were pixels throughout the whole apartment complex. Televisions, monitors, digital watches, phones, gas metres, the odd game boy.

All of this he pushed from his consciousness and focused on stilling the gyrating sensation in his head. It was well into the vent that he was coherent enough to thread himself back together and lend motion to his own limbs. There remained a splitting pain between the eyes. Which made no sense, biologically speaking, because his brain was pixels. His central nervous system should have been as suspended as his blood-flow. But never so.

He realised with some surprise that the stranger had pushed him this far. Taking help had never been an issue for him. Though generally he didn't expect it without first identifying what the helper got in return. Everyone had a motive. She probably could have left him without repercussion. But he was too headachey to feel confident in that. He must have missed something.

Pix managed to light the way forward, "It's, ahh, good thinking putting me ahead. I can see our exit. Nice work." That felt like enough of a reason. And enough gratitude. The sprite braced himself to slide down the verticle. At the bottom there was an exit ready to hand. He used his feet and managed to break out of their confinement. But not before the noise had rattled his migraine to unbearable heights.

He was stood in a walk-through living room in an apartment complex. The commotion had attracted the flat occupants who had been watching the Steves from their back room window. One woman, one man, both of about drinking age. The woman was scared, phone held backwards suggesting selfie mode, not clinging to the male. The man was tattooed, reactionary, possible gang experience.

"What the hell?! Metahumans?" The woman passed the man a clip-on towel rack, which he brandished like a club.

Pix held his head between two hands, tried to sound chirpy, "Vigilantes. Here to save you." (>_<)

"You can't just walk into my home. That's illegal."

"We thought so. But again. Vigilantes. What's a law?"

The pair was havering, lowering their weapon but looking unconvinced, "I'm calling DOMA."

"Well you can. But there are three very good reasons not to. My colleague will explain everything. I have to... have to see about... throwing up." Pix then promptly turned in the direction of the open bathroom and left the conversation. His headache had reached critical point. He realised his body was screaming for a deliverance that he was blocking.

Kicking the door closed behind him, Pix transformed back into his flesh and blood form and crouched by the toilet. He threw up and suddenly felt a lot better. He was going to write a thesis on how his own power worked one day. And he still wouldn't know.

It was reasonable to question Catra’s motives in all of this. She has presented herself as being capable of finding of the Steves tooth and claw with a degree of success, and her ability to traverse the rooftop, while limited in terms of Pix’s versatility didn't seem nearly as taxing. Even with everything she had been though, it showed no real signs of slowing her down. In the mind of the femme feline, she owed no one anything, especially a stranger… While it was always true she could have left him in the dust as a distraction, he was worth so much more to her as an ally rather than a sacrifice. Well, unless he did something to make her think otherwise.

“Yeah, I know.” She was fine with taking credit for the planning when it turned out well though the truth was as simple as it was easier to keep track of him while he was in front of her rather than behind. It happened to work out well though, playing pickup for his stray pixels. Her eyes narrowed, adjusting to the glow of his body as he illuminated the darkness. Waiting at the edge of the drop, she watched Pix lower himself down and make his escape… waiting to see if something attacked him outright before deciding to follow.

Ear ears shifted beneath her hood, catching the sound of a voice other than Pix below, female, panicked. Great. In the cramped confides she managed to flop herself over, slipping down the chute feet first. Her nails dug into the metal, slowing her descent until she reached the bottom, dropping out of the vent to land gracefully at Pix’s side. She did her best to present herself as officially as possible to adhere to their apparent cover as vigilantes, arms crossed, standing straight up… though dressed in piled on layers like a child playing dress up and being shorter than Pix didn't do a whole lot to cultivate the image they likely needed in this situation.

“Emergency services are stretched thin, we are lending a hand, combing the…” She paused, eyes scanning the room to assess where they were. It looked like a commons room for some sort of living quarters. “... The bunk houses.” She snorted softly, sounding very official. When Pix made the offhand comment joking about laws not applying to them, she threw a subtle elbow back at his side to try and shut him up without even thinking how his weird body would react to it.

The man and woman seemed a bit more at ease but the tension was still there. She had hoped Pix would do something more to diffuse the situation but when he left Catra with them and claimed she had answers, things would only start to go down hill. Her ears drew back against her head, turning to protest her new duty, but Pix was already gone leaving her to play host to questions and judgement.

“Sorry for my… partner. He’s a bit on edge ever since those little… perps beat him up in a back alley. He sorta cried like a little girl… wet himself. Real embarrassing stuff, so if you could, maybe cut him some slack.” Catra took a few wandering steps towards the pair, making a show of looking around. “We’re trying to sweep the buildings while DOMA clears the streets… Have you seen any of them in your building? The little creatures?”

The woman seemed to be coming around, nodding slowly along with what Catra was saying. It may have been out of confusion for the terribly bold declaration about Pix or it may have been she believed her. Regardless of the inner workings of her mind, she held the handheld communicator device in her hands and wasn’t making use of it, a good move.

“Babe, they’re looters.” The man spoke low, barely moving his lips. Had it not been for the femme feline’s ears twitching beneath the hood, she might not have even noticed it. She knew all about playing possum, and upon closer inspection, she could see the tension in the man’s posture and white knuckled grip on his makeshift weapon. The second she gave him an opportunity, she was almost certain he was going to attack her. A man after her own heart… but she wasn’t interested in playing nice right now.

The woman looked off to the side, chewing her lip. “I’m going to call them anyway, just in case.”

“Suit yourself. I’m Adora, my partner is Sparkles. Just give them our names and they should clear this all up.” She got an odd look from both of them for the name “Sparkles” but it was the first glowing person she knew that came to mind. The woman gave a small nod, looking down to her devices display screen to begin tapping it. That was a shame. She had hope going along with things would have made her think twice about actually calling DOMA. Oh well.

She slowly turned away, giving the man an easy opening to act, listening closely. She could hear his feet inching along the carpet as she started to shuffle towards her. He was taking his time, trying to be stealth about it… When she whirled back around, he was holding his club in both hands caught in the act. Having come this far, he charged the rest of the way. “You came to the wrong neighborhood, freak!”

Catra leaned back as the makeshift weapon passed right in front of her, mere millimeters away from striking her. She walked backwards slowly, reserving her small dart to one side for when he went for another overhead swing trying to bash her brains in. The woman was yelling now, trying to call off the man but he seemed committed to trying to clobber Catra while Pix was occupied.

Shiiink

The third swing he took had been the last one she humored, intercepting the weapon with a cleave of her claws, sending it flying in metallic ribbons leaving only the end he gripped in his hands in tact. He glared down at her with wide eyed surprise while she gave him a very unimpressed “really?” look. Tossing the weapon aside, he reached his meaty arms out, about to attempt to grapple with her.

The loud CRACK of electricity drown out the other woman's screaming, making the entire room lights up with a blinding strobe of green. She had twisted her stun baton off her hip and driven it right into his abdomen just before he had laid hands on her, not he was stuck upright, muscles locked as she pumped him full of voltage. She took a small step to the side once she was done, letting him collapse to the floor in a twitching pile, a small trail of smoke drifting up from beneath his body. She hadn’t killed him, but when she turned her attention to the other woman, the look on her face made Catra think she assumed she had. She was screaming bloody murder, huddling up against the wall as she dialed the device in a panic, leaving the femme feline to simply stare at her overacting. People here were strange. Still, she couldn’t have her calling anyone now. Raising the baton up in the direction of the woman, she leveled it out, letting the weapon charge before firing off an arcing streak of electricity to strike the woman from across the room, sending her to the floor as well with a crippling shock.

Catra shook her head with a soft snicker, stepping up onto a coffee table, then onto the back of a couch before dropping down beside the woman who lay on the floor groaning. She reached down, scooping up her phone, eyeing it curiously. Compact, lots of numbers. Certainly different from what she had. She pocketed the device, making her way back to the man on the floor.

“I convinced them not to make the contact DOMA!” She called to Pix, embracing the half truth as reality. She strolled across the room, looking for anything else that looked interesting enough to nab when she heard the man groaning on the floor. She blinked down at him, crawling away from her slowly, trying to escape or find a new weapon... She tilted her head, slowing her pace to a crawl to continue along the same path as him, waiting to see if he did anything bold. When ti became apparent he had nothing really left to give, she jabbed him roughly in the back with her baton again, giving him another jolt of electricity until he stopped struggling and just lay there, pacified. She blew off the smoking tip of the baton between slipping it back under her hoodie, tucking the weapon back out of sight.

When the screaming started Pix hit the flush. Then he strafed over to the sink and left both taps on full blast, simply to offer counter noise. It seemed his 'colleague' wasn't up to the task of smoothing over a misunderstanding. But after having seen her fight, he harboured no concerns that she was at least winning.

Hugh washed his face quickly, and opened a medicine cabinet to find a box of paracetamol to take. He then had to question whether the tablets were going to even work whist pixelated. No metabolism, so probably not. He'd just have to rely on the placebo. Though fuck knows how after telling himself that.

When she called he snapped back, "There's no need to say. That's what the entire building thought." He looked once more at himself in the mirror, tinged with a slight pain, and picked up a towel. He wrapped the towel around his face, leaving eyeholes. Give the tablets at least a little while to do their thing.

Pix exited the room, "Yeah. Weird. Not the time. Someone definitely heard something. Turn on a tv - loud. They might mistake it for that." If Catra hesitated or expressed confusion Pix would gesture to the set in the corner, "They hide them well."

Then he focused on the bodies. It confirmed that the passenger he'd picked up was not adverse to harming what were essentially innocents. And she was killing the Steves back there. Plenty to indicate her morality leading onwards. Seemed like someone Hugh wouldn't have to tiptoe around.

He knelt down and checked the unconscious woman's pulse. Still alive. Good. More options. He hated to increase his rap sheet, at least with no prior planning. It was very unlikely he would ever have to answer for what just occurred. But he liked to be certain. And the only thing preventing a narrative of 'the Steves did this' was the memory of the witnesses.

"Do you shed?" He was thinking DNA at a crime scene. He could pour bleach down the toilet for his forensics, and pixels wouldn't get left behind, but if she was dropping fur everywhere, they couldn't hope to guarantee her anonymity.

Which made murdering the occupants more risk than reward.

While this had traspired, and prior to which it transpired, The Officer Steves would reconvene by the walker along with the Stevetroopers and odd assortment of Steves. Chief Officer Steve would be asking if anyone had seen anything, to which most of them would reply with what amounted to mad gibberish about literally everything they had seen before a random Steve was blasted by a snow cannonball- that was the signal to can it for a moment. Chief Officer Steve would be more specific, to which more precise mad gibberish would ensue before a faint scream was heard. All of the Steves paused and looked toward the direction it had come from. They were sure Halloween had already come and passed uneventfully- spoopy movie maybe? Did someone see a bug or a rat? Actually were they even sure it had been a terrified scream? Perhaps they should investigate...


Meanwhile, right after Pix had emerged from the bathroom and started to survey Catra's hands on approach, there would be a series of metal clangs and honks getting closer until a Steve just fell out of the vent in the ceiling. It had fortunately landed on it's butt with a toy squeak, where it raised it's little nubs up triumphantly before a thermos came bouncing off it's head with another squeak and pained squeak. Then another Steve came tumbling out of the vent, landing on the first one. It was very possible that these were a couple of the card playing Steves from a moment ago, as the Teen Titans Card Game was technically only two players and they had gotten bored of waiting to play. So they decided to follow after the two funny looking people! The gravity of the situation was either completely lost on them, or they simply didn't care that Catra was knocking people out.

And then there was a knock on the door, followed by more honks and assorted Steve sounds which loosely bore the resemblance to music- to which the top most Steve in the dog pile scurried over to the door and... realized too late that it was too short to reach the locks, much less the door knob. But boy was he trying, with frustrated little Steve sounds and much stretching- he hoped he could grow taller to reach the thing. The other one after recovering from it's head injury, started to enjoy some more hot coco.

She wasn’t enthused by Pix’s less than complimentary response to her handiwork. Sure, there had been some screaming involved, but she neutralized a thread and completed the primary objective of stopping that call from being made. As far as she was concerned, this had been a resounding success. She didn't even get so much as a “Thank you Catra.” for handling things quickly. No respect.

Pix had her grumbling to his initial reaction the baffled by his question. She wasn’t exactly hip on all this fancy Earth slang, so after a brief glance over the room, nothing screamed “TV” to her, so she found herself looking to him for a bit of further guidance. All she needed was for him to point it out, which was enough to have her quietly padding over.

“Doesn’t seem hidden to me.” Catra found herself muttering quietly, staring at the sleek black screen. “On…” She paused, waiting. “Screen on.” Another awkward moment. She tapped it a few times, seeing it the screen responded. Not only was that a function she was familiar with but she had witnessed it first hand earlier as the woman had used the phone. Nothing seemed to work. Maybe it was broken?

Catra gripped the sides of the screen, shifting it away from the wall to peer curiously over the top and around the sides, tail flicking from side to side as she explored the puzzle box known as the “TV”. Wires, those needed to stay. Tearing those out normally made things not work anymore. Ah ha! Buttons. They were hidden, along the back side. Clearly that was what Pix had been talking about. After a bit of toying around, she managed to turn the TV on and pump the volume to a suitable degree that it’s ambiance would drown out most noise within the apartment.

Turning back to Pix, she found him checking on the people she had knocked out. Her mouth drew into a tight line, defensive over what he may be thinking, especially after expressing displeasure in how she had handled things. “He attacked me. I stopped him. You’re welcome.” She made her way over, arms folded with a peeved look on her face. #Catradidnothingwrong.

“What? No…” She was quick to answer, but her eyes softened as she glanced around, clearly looking to see if she had. The femme feline’s ears drew back beneath her hood as her lie began to come apart, on the defensive. “Okay. Maybe a little… but not now… listen, its personal.” She snorted, not really wanting to go into the particulars of her grooming routine. They had just met after all, yeesh.

She straightened up to a new sound, turning immediately to look towards the vent they had entered through just before the first Steve fell into view. Then another. Her eyes shifted between them and Pix, standing deadly still as if doing so would keep her hidden. The knock at the door however visibly startled her, her tail straightening out as if struck by lightning. Where they found out?! The first Steve waddled by to the door, but didn’t seem able to really work it… the gears in her mind turning.

Taking charge, Catra trudged over to the docile coco drinking Steve, grabbing him by the head to hoist him up to eye level as he took mid sip, looking between the two creatures. “Alright… listen up. You two are going to play things cool, or else…” With that she flexed her fingers, putting her claws on full display as she moved them threatening just beneath the held Steve’s mask. A hostage situation!

“We're going to open that door, and you are going to get them to go away. Nothing is wrong here… got it? Things go smooth, we all walk away… you can have anything in this place.” She canted her head to the side, motioning to the apartment proper. It wasn’t as if it was her stuff. If the Steve seemed willing to comply, she would glance to Pix to handle opening the door as she slowly moved out of line of sight with her prisoner, standing near the wall.

At the television debacle, Hugh had turned his head a little, trying not to be too obvious. But it was difficult to keep something in his peripheral with a towel round his head. So he just noted the absurdity in the back of his mind for later.

He crossed the unconscious woman's arms over her chest as he listened to Catra's answer. It was the answer he'd been hoping to hear. It might be possible to eliminate their forensics from the apartment then. A mild acidic solution and hand cloths for prints. Less than five minutes. H.I.V.E. had taught that class. He understood the theory.

Pix deliberated over how to bring his idea up delicately. As she said, she was acting in self defence the first time (and that might even be true). Quite another thing to kill in cold blood. Even he hadn't done it himself. Always used to allow classmates to swing the axe. If he brought up the idea, and misjudged her ethics, she could react strongly, he needed a way to backpedal.

But the need was rendered moot. The re-emergence of the Steves complicated matters. He knew he could never risk trying murder with such wild cards on the table. Pix released a breathe he scarcely realised he was holding. Then he transformed back into a sprite. Headache or no headache, if he was about to get into a scrap, he wanted to be invulnerable.

Catra was already in motion before he'd risen. When he'd grasped her plan he quickly lugged the female occupant into a bedroom by her feet, and then returned to roll the male until he was hidden by the couch. It felt like it was a good plan. But one never speculated on the success of plans if one didn't have to. You seemed wiser by espousing an opinion in retrospect.

Pix disconnected his hand from his wrist once more, at the same time casting aside the towel. Ducking into the bathroom, he coloured the hand the same brown as the portal, and used it to open the front door. Then he let the appendage fade back against the wood. It was all on the docile Steve now. Were they completely irrational, or could they be negotiated with like everyone else?

The coco drinking Steve's face would be the best darn poker face ever- mainly due to the simple fact that it's face was an emotionless mask. Then it blnked once, followed by another sip of coco as it seemed unperturbed by what may have been a veiled threat. It's friend would now be jumping and hopping in it's attempts at trying to reach the door knob, when the door suddenly (in it's mind) suddenly opened. It had a brief moment of feeling like a jedi master or something until it was greeted by the sight of... even more Steves! Steves with obvious music sheets, some of which were upside down or turned sideways for some strange reason as the Steve choir was Steving carols. The Steve drinking coco would've waved if not for the fact it's little stubby arms were holding onto it's thermos- filled with precious coco.

The other Steve would meanwhile go wander off while The Steve carolers did a Steve rendition of... some kind of holiday classic, the Steve wandering over to where the man had been hidden where it fished around in his pockets until finding his wallet. It waddled back over to the door, and beaned one of the Steves square in the face with it- stopping the caroling as the others looked at his victim for a moment. Then the Steve closed the door behind it, waddling over to the TV to watch it as if nothing had happened. Nothing else seemed to occur from this as the Steve with coco... offered Catra some coco. It was rude to have all the coco to itself.

Catra remained pressed flat against the wall, eyes sharply following the Steve at the door as Pix helped the door slide open. Her body tensed, gleaming claw tips poised to strike as they stood at the ready like daggers at the throat of her captive. No sudden moves, no unnecessary sounds. She hadn't even taken a breath, holding it all in to be ready should something go wrong. There was a air of desperation lingering thickly in the air, her and Pix had done a good deal of running and if it all went to crap now, she wasn't sure what the next move would be. When it was all said and done, the door closed without any repercussion leaving them in the loud ambiance of the television.

Her grip eased up on the scruff of her captive Steve's neck, turning him to meet her eye. The two stared at one another, her with those bright mismatched eyes of hers and the Steve with his shallow empty voids within its mask... as it took a slow slurping sip from its thermos. When her eyes narrowed in judgement, it thrust the thermos towards her, offering it out. She recoiled back on instinct, blinking as she looked at the small cylinder.

"What? Ew. No. Gross." The Steve had its... well, no, it didn't have lips. Her brow furrowed as the long awkward stare continued, the aroma of the warm coco filling her nostrils. Her nose twitched... then wiggled... then she took a small subtle sniff. She kept her eyes locked on the Steve as she leaned in, taking a small sample sip from the thermos, making it clear she was looking for any funny business. Huh. It turned out to be pretty good.

"Its fine... I guess." She femme feline mumbled, not giving the tiny hostage the satisfaction of having sated her curiosity. She made her way over to the couch, plopping herself down beside the first Steve then set her hostage free on the cushions beside her as well, sandwiched between them. Today was strange.

The three of them sat quietly facing the television, watching the images of what seemed to be a fast paced vehicle chase. Oh... right, Pix was still hiding. She craned her head, glancing where she had seen him slip off to, calling over the sound of explosions. “They’re gone again. You can stop hiding.” Her tone suggested she was making fun of Pix for spiriting himself out of eyes view, as if she hadn’t done the same moments prior. Her duty done, she threw her arms up over the back of the couch, reclining back into the cushions in the questionable company of Steves.

“So… I think we have a moment to talk. I have some questions.” Catra kicked her boots up onto the coffee table, reaching up to yank back her hood to finally let her ears wiggle free from their confines. Despite her new companions worry about forensic evidence, she seemed less worried bout all of that, or just ignorant to the fact it was a thing. "What can you tell me about Jumpville. I'm pretty new to these parts. We have Titans and DOMA... anything else I should know about... well, besides them?" Her tail flicked out behind them, making a small sweeping gesture to both Steves.

Pix emerged from the bathroom with his arms folded - minus one hand - staring ahead at the front door (ò_o). Only switching his expression to irritation for a brief moment as he glanced Catra's way (¬_¬). The Steves had just revealed a lot about themselves from that short interaction. Not merely that they could understand English.

"That was an actual carol. Beneath the garbling. Did you recognise it?" A carol was a pretty obscure piece of Earth cultural knowledge. It suggested the Steves weren't ignorant of humanity. Which threw out Hugh's original hypothesis that they'd blundered through some portal by mistake or design, and attacked what was different.

These pliant Steves also proved that the race weren't hive-minded or indoctrinated. Sure the rest of them were working together like a well-oiled jibbering machine, but they could evidently choose not to. So if they weren't united in purpose, then that neutered any sinister invasion narrative.

Or the Steves they had were just defective. And this was the start of a New World Order.

His thoughts were broken into, and he chose not to divide his attention on the matter; his mind still weary. He got his first proper look at his tagalong and decided her eye colour was artificial. Coloured contacts, people could be so vain. Her fursona didn't confound him. He'd spent some time in the same room as Seymore and I.N.S.T.I.G.A.T.O.R. And he had to remind himself he would probably fall into that 'freak of nature' category himself.

Y'know; if he couldn't change back.

"Jump City." The correction came unbidden and unthinking. She might even have been meaning to say exactly what she said, but he reflexed. Her status as an out-of-towner didn't surprise him. She'd already alluded to it. He nudged the leg of the unconscious man a little, and leaned on the back of the couch over the left-hand Steve.

"I could point you to the nearest tourist kiosk. If you're here for the beaches, you're sore out of luck." Pix loved to summarise and hypothesise in great detail over the machinations unfolding within their fair metropolis. But he was equally curious right now as to what this girl was doing in his city. He recognised she was capable, and it was rare to find unaffiliated metas. Qualities that could preceed something very beneficial or something detrimental, "There are many things you might need to know about. Depends on what your intentions are. Business or pleasure?"

His returning hand grabbed the remote on the way round. Pix turned down the volume so he wouldn't have to raise his voice again to be heard. Then he dropped it into the lap of the Steve.

Meanwhile, in The Legion of Steve...

The Officer Steves and Co. had... mostly become disinterested in this game of manhunt- which was normally quite fun any other time when it wasn't snowing. Granted the snow itself did not make the game any less fun. It was more a matter of priorities. They could play manhunt any time they wanted. They could not however play around in the snow whenever due to various constraints involving weather that may or may not be affected by higher powers beyond their comprehension. In any case most of them had decided to go back to playing around in the snow. Which just left Chief Officer Steve, The Stevetroopers and the walker to continue trouncing around. It was then however that a Steve wearing a deerstalker hat arrived on the scene to lend their Stevestance to the cause. After much Steveing, Sherlock Steve pondered. Normally there would probably be a pipe to blow bubbles out of to help with this pondering but due to the weather and the laws of physics, that was not an option- so it would take much more pondering than normal. Then finally, Sherlock Steve had a breakthrough and suggested that they should ACTUALLY check some of the buildings. BRILLIANT!


Meanwhile back inside, both Steves continued to watch TV until Pix plopped the remote into one of their laps. The Steve would "mutter" something in Steveish as it tried to navigate the buttons with it's little nub of an appendage. He succeeded in changing the channel, much to his delight as he was either looking for something to watch or just flipping through the channels- the world may never know.

"Yeah of course... it's a classic." She responded coolly without hesitation. Lying came easy to her and she was impressively convincing with her quick answer. She had no real idea, but why admit it when Pix couldn't prove otherwise. He was clearly giving this more thought than she had. She just assumed the Steves could understand her and thus far, nothing had really gone against that theory. She didn't have a wealth of insider information, its just how these things tended to work from her personal experience.

"Whatever." Catra huffed with a dismissive wave of her hand. The name of the city wasn't really top priority for her, especially given she wasn't sure if this was where she would want to stay. This was a new dimension or planet after all, plenty to see and do. The important thing was figuring out if there was something here that could help her get back home. Finding that out would take a bit of finesse. It wasn't like she wanted to go to each person and explain her situation. If she showed her hand, she'd always be working at a disadvantage.

"Yeah, not really interested in that sorta stuff..." She gave an involuntary shudder at the mention of beaches, ears folding back slightly. The vast expanse of ocean making her already starting to feel sick. She could do without all of that in her life right now. Firm, dry land, well... relatively dry if not for the snow, that as her preferred place to be.

"Mmm. Pleasure." She said softly through a fanged smirk, her eyes flicking off the television screen to finally give Pix the focus of her attention again. Giving him the other answer opened up doors for questions she was wholly uninterested in answering. For now, she could just play things close to the chest and worm information out of him. One of her ears twitched at the decreasing volume. "A brief rundown on interesting things of note would be appreciated."

Her gaze flicked from Pix to the TV, one of the flipping channels caught her eye. Animal planet, go figure. Her tail uncoiled from around her, reaching out to bap the controller lightly to change the channel back to what she wanted to keep on.

Oh good. He was worried she'd just tell him her purpose. What a terrible let down that would have been. Then he couldn't do all this wild and fruitless speculation. He shouldn't have made his question multiple choice. Allowed a cop out response. His bad.

"Interesting things. Got it. Well the snow has turned everything upside-down. We don't get it this bad on the coast. I imagine our salt reserves aren't going to cover much passed the main throughways. Before I ran into these critters I was planning to look into it myself. A community service. But I'd rather go home and sleep now." Pix did realise someone would come to the same conclusions as him. Just clearly not as fast. If he went back to bed, he might wake up to clear skies. That was the advantage of having heroes, and authorities motivated by heroic upstaging.

"If you're here to fan girl over Titans, you've got a narrow window. I anticipate they're not going to accept DOMA's sensible offer. Which means their days are numbered. If you've been watching the Masters Report you'll know enough about that." At this he put his hand back on the controller, flicking the channel briefly back to a news broadcast hosted by some barking braggadocio wearing a suit and a tub of hair gel. There were two obnoxious captions on the screen confirming the name of the show. And by confirming - one read 'Masters' and another read 'Master'.

"Got money? Wanna not have money? Casino. Run by the- no that's probably boring. There's this whole inner city war between unaffiliated vigilantes and government agents. Which makes it pretty easy to get at- Oh wait. That's more business. Sorry. The agents let you take selfies with them if you ask politely." The vigilantes would too. If they didn't get shot for standing still too long.

"They were holding a mayoral rally at Parks Font tomorrow. Wonder if it's off. There's a real firebrand of a candidate who's more vocally anti-vigilante than the incumbent. They'll be handing out balloons. Balloons are fun. But you might not be welcome there. Y'know with the whole cuddily motif you have going. Desiree isn't powerist, but she attracts plenty of people who are. People who can't separate 'having powers' from 'using them to break the law'." Politics were interesting, at least in Pix's world, "And then there's the giant skeleton. Do you need to know about that? I don't think you need to know about that. Probably won't come up. They opened a new nightclub on second."

One of the Steves would vocalize his complaints of the channel being changed by Catra. What was this, school? They didn't need to know about animals they'd never see in their potentially immortal lifetime. Actually, Boss had talked about trying to get lions and such like an actual circus so maybe they should pay attention. No wait, there weren't any lions on TV. THIS WAS A GIANT WASTE OF TIME! Then Pix started changing it again, prompting further contention from both Steves now. What was it about old people and watching the news? Didn't they know the internet existed? One of the Steves would mysteriously pull out little... nub puppets and make what could only be described as mocking Steve sounds. The puppets were Masters, and the other was Pix- unless you were fluent in Steveish you wouldn't understand the level of satire happening. The Sipping Steve would chortle in response.


Back on the outside, after Sherlock Steve proclaimed what they should to, The Walker would start to move again. It turned itself toward one of the buildings across from it, which happened to be about where the scream was heard. That did little to actually determine their first target, as The Walker plowed face through one of the windows. This would be felt through the adjacent apartments, and the glass shattering scream would be a dead giveaway of what was probably going on as Chief Officer Steve scampered onto The Walker's head to look through the hole, getting pelted by various bottles of shampoo or body wash. Chief Officer Steve honked their sincerest apologies as he honked for The Walker to pull it's nose out and try another one. Which it did, moving slowly and methodically as it would line itself up with another window, and crash it's face into it- that one was dangerously close to Catra and Pix's hiding place.

She wasn't especially sure what salt had to do with a weather crisis. Perhaps earth people found it hard to function without cured foods? The poultry she had eaten earlier hadn't been over seasoned so wherever that had come from must have still had a decent stockpile. While she didn't care much about the weather, it was nice to know it wasn't always this inhospitable. She wasn't fond of the added layers, not when it came to ordinary traversal. As far as she was concerned, all the extra fluff should be used in bedtime situations only, otherwise it just slowed her down.

Her eyes adjusted to the varying intensity of the screens back lighting as the television was moved to the stark bright backdrop with talking human. Masters report? She found herself sitting up slightly with vested interest. Was this the leader of the city? The country? The Planet? They looked weak, easily bested. Perhaps she could challenge this "Master" and take control for herself. Wouldn't that be interesting if she returned to Etheria with an empire all her own... It had her displaying a small fang from the corner of her smirk. She'd have to find out more later, asking too many questions about this "Master" might draw unwanted attention to her plans.

As Pix continued to rattle off varied and random things, she felt her patience slowly beginning to wane. She had been purposefully vague in hopes he could tell her something useful but as it stood most of this was meaningless drivel. Was it Pix's fault? Not really, but the flat look she was shooting his way was the first cure he was grating on her. The mayoral rally was useful information though. Perhaps that "Master" would be there. Either way, viewing it from afar might be something worth doing to see if any other mischief makers were going to be about... but after the havoc Steves were wrecking throughout the city she had doubts such a open forum meeting would take place.

"How about tech? I have something I need looked at, professionally." While she didn't have any money or items to barter with for services, she found well placed threats of violence and general bullying tended to be enough payment in most regards. She didn't really concern herself with the long term problems roughing up someone possibly connected might have, after all, she wasn't looking to stay on Earth forever. Once she was able to contact the Horde, this planet was going to be overrun anyway so burning bridges wasn't exactly a problem when the landscape was going to be scorched.

The sudden violent shaking of the apartment as the Steve walker rammed its face through the nearby section of building had been enough to startle her. Catra launched herself up, landing on the back of the couch, wild eyed, fur puffed up, and flaws flexed at the ready. Her gaze was locked to the nearby wall in the direction of the sound, ears twitching as they picked apart the screams and mechanical grinding, even the hiss of leaking pipes and crumbling bricks turning to dust. She blinked her eyes out the instinctual reaction, letting out a shuddered breath to compose herself. Standing up along the back of the cushions, she gracefully made her way along its length to hop down near Pix, combing her fingers back through her hair and ears to smooth her fur back out.

"We need to go." She tugged her hood up and over, wincing at another sound of smashing wall this one far closer. Turning on her heel, she moved towards the front door, throwing out all of their earlier subterfuge in favor of the quicker route out of the apartment. "Though..." She snickered softly, flicking her tail in his direction in a slightly dismissive gesture. "You can try hiding in the back if you want... but I'm not sticking around to save you." Another flash of her fangs with a grin before turning away.

"If they ask about us, tell them we went the other way."Catra paid the two couch Steves a steely look, speaking in a lower more commanding tone than before. She had a certain air of authority about her, even despite holding no real sway over the duo or anyone else on this planet. It was an almost strange juxtaposition to much of how she behaved up until now. With a small adjustment to her jacket, she tucked her tail up beneath the clothing and slipped out into the hall intent on finding her way out of the apartments before having to deal with the walker.