Re: Capital: Holly + Gwen
Full disclosure? Holly wasn't big on caped crusaders. They were focused on the top, the guys who ran the show. The little people on bottom? They were collateral damage for the way Jersey ran, and if you took out some middle-guy's business it was the girls on bottom who were screwed. They were screwed either way, but caped crusaders were focused on the big picture. It was the shades of gray that painted in the little guys. Capes? Not so gray.
But the crummy part of town back in Jersey (which was mostly all crummy, but hey, it was home) understood how this whole caped-crusader thing worked. If somebody in a skin-tight suit tricked out like they were really committed to this gig came towards you, and you were middle-management or not, you ran. The violence part was always in question, in Holly's memory, which was okay a little fuzzy five years away from Jersey but the violence part was sorta mission-critical to the crummy part of town understanding how to operate.
No matter what? Middle-management wasn't the boy in the alley with a crowbar. He was a bottom feeder, the same way Holly was collateral damage and it worked the same way. He ran, which was totally normal if you were a bottom feeder in a crummy part of town who was pretty sure you weren't top of the rescue list.
The part that she was so not sold on? The bottom feeder sailed towards her and she was so focused on the whole transaction thing, Holly got blindsided and the both of them knocked into the sprawl of trash on the lip of the alley. Which, just for the record? Sucked. The guy who was clearly running away from something barrelled into her and her breath was empty and her ribs ached and the clang of the guy off the side of the trash can was loud.
She caught a flash of pink and white and black, and okay, "Hey, caped-crusader, can we not take out the peons too?" windless and a wave of hand but the tidal wave of bad in the wake of the little guy who was crashing out of the alley? So the point right now, and not the superhero checking into town.