Outside St. Martha's
Maria traced the directions Soul gave her on the palm of one hand with the finger of her other. "Emerald...Street....Alright! I think I got it!"
After a moment, Soul said something kinda weird.
"Tattoos...? What are you...?" She looked down at herself. "Oh! Heh heh heh...Yeah, I'm a total rebel! Tattoooos, at such a young age! But I guess my body's not ready for them, they reeeeally hurt. Y'see?"
She held up her hands to show Soul...and the hands popped right off. They flopped to the ground and wriggled about on the concrete. Maria, oddly enough, chuckled about it as she watched Soul's reaction.
----
The Streets
The man in black stepped up to Mimi, and leaned over to put his face right in front of hers. Uncomfortably so. He was pouting at her with his hands on his hips, umbrella now slung over one arm.
"Your charisma could use an upgrade, though," he said. He sounded almost disappointed. "And what in the lord's name is this outfit? Grab a couple shirts from the discount store and sew them together, cut a mask out of foam, draw some logo in sharpie and call it a day? Weak, weeeeeak, weak!" The man straightened up and threw his arms out in irritation. "And there's no boom to your voice! No heroic machismo, no grand echo of success! Do you even have a gimmick?"
He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. A shame, really. Some people really just don't get it! You've got those big names, like Volt Maxim! And Double Vision! Now that's what I call a dynamic duo, don't you say? Real go-getters, real PASSION towards their whole shtick! And you have that scoundrel, the Captain Bonnie Harpoon! Does she need to act like a pirate? Of course not! But that's the level of dedication you get out of the real big ones. And you know, I don't know if you've ever seen her, but I hear this Glacherie woman going around nowadays? She has it nailed perfectly. Puns and everything. That's some real superheroics right there, the image is important!"
The man turned away from Mimi in his monologue, removing his top hat (revealing his hair, slicked back into disheveled curls) and placing it over his chest as he rose his head towards the sky. "Nowadays, any old Super-schmuck off the street thinks they can be a hero or a villain...like it's easy as flipping burgers. What a sad generation...brings a tear to my eye, really..."
In an instant, he spun back towards Mimi, hat back on head, and grin back on face. "So let's try this again, shall we?! Start from the top, and really try to impress me this time!"
He cleared his throat.
"That was rather impressive, you knoooow!" the man repeated, in a rather exaggerated voice. "Newbies like YOOOOUUUU don't do so well on their first hunt, you knoooooooow! And against SO elusive an OPPONENT, even! I don't know about yoooou, but I am most! Certainly! Impressed!"
He then gestured his hands towards Mimi, with a look of anticipation on his face.