There she is.
You spy the hero running across the opposite rooftop, her outfit vibrant even in the darkness as a hero's should be, and as she turns deeper into the city's downtown core you follow after her, staying well back to make sure she won't detect you. Having her catch you following her to lead to your introduction might be a good scenario for some rivals, but establishing your cunning and intelligence are the key here, and getting caught out like that really wouldn't work for that at all.
Even with all your caution though, you only narrowly avoid being detected a couple times as she stops suddenly, occasionally looking around, or back int he direction she came. You tried to maneuver so that the cameras would be able to get you following in frame while she was still unaware -a little foreshadowing goes a long way after all- but your focus was more on staying out of sight, so you couldn't be sure you got it.
Still, it doesn't matter. One way or another, this is the night, this is your debut.
Fortunately, the tension of the chase doesn't last too long before your Heroine finds an appropriate threat to deal with. It's just as she's leaping across the lower and lower roofs as the city descends towards its harbour district that a scream tears from a nearby warehouse. A door bangs open, a pale figure stumbling out of the darkness and into the moonlight, but they only make it a handful of steps before something wraps around their ankle, a clawed hand made of red-tinged shadows at the end of an impossibly long arm holding the hapless victim's leg in a deathgrip.
Then you are forced to mentally reassign the man from 'victim' to 'bystander' as your heroine descends from the darkness, light coalescing around her as she thrusts out one palm. You know she has a weapon of some kind, you've seen it before, it's a...
[] [Hero] Sword
[] [Hero] Spear
[] [Hero] Bow
[] [Hero] Blaster
[] [Hero] Staff
[] [Hero] Wand
[] [Hero] (Write in if you want?)
...But like a typical fourth or fifth episode hero she's gotten a little bit cocky, using nothing but her bare hands and her magic to unleash a shimmering wave of power that blasts the shadow-arm into so many black motes. "Go on! Get out of here!" The man scrambles to his feet again, gives her one nervous look, then thinks better of the alternatives and runs off, beelining towards the nearest well-lit street.
Makes you wonder what possessed him to go wandering around this part of the city at this hour anyways. With the poor lighting in this area, monsters are basically unopposed after dusk, making even walking down the street a dangerous proposition.
You watch for a moment to see if he makes it to the road, then turn and drop as your Heroine charges into the warehouse, fists blazing as she runs. Then the building is lit from within with brilliant blue as she throws up some sort of orb to shed light on the area and goes to town on the monsters inside.
Wasting no time, you drop down yourself and hurry towards the warehouse, pulling out your own weapon...
[] [Rival] Sword
[] [Rival] Spear
[] [Rival] Bow
[] [Rival] Blaster
[] [Rival] Staff
[] [Rival] Wand
[] [Rival] (Write in if you want?)
...As you quickly find a good spot to watch the chaos unfold before it's your turn to make a move.
You're actually somewhat impressed as you watch her fight as she continues to do so without pulling out her weapon. The light she cast seems to inhibit the shadow monsters, making their limbs crackle and wither if they stretch them too far, preventing them from making their reach. They manage to land a few hits, particularly once a larger creature -some sort of boss you suspect- with eerie bone white armor covering the black shadow stuff of its body shows up to really throw down, but she perseveres.
You haven't learned as much as you hoped about how she fights with a weapon, but just seeing her do battle with magic and her body is informative in its own way. While she is powerful, that power is still unfocused and unrefined. She throws waves of blue-tinged white at the monsters but they tend to be too diffuse to actually do more than stun them for a second or two. This does a good job of setting them up for her to close in and wail on them with magic-enhanced fists, telling you that her strength and speed are nothing to scoff at, but it also gives you an idea of her limitations. You're pretty sure she would do a good deal of damage if she hit you, but you're easily just as fast as she is, if not faster, and she gets rather excited easily as well.
Combine that with her lack of range options, and you think you can start to see how you want this fight to go...
[] [Fight] You are not ready.
You'll give her a good solid ass-kicking. Try your best to outmatch her and then taunt her as you leave. That way she can get a training and bettering herself arc out of it as she works to overcome the difference in your skillsets! It's a supporting role sure, but it's a solid introduction if you can make it work...
[] [Fight] The Dark Mirror.
Try to give her an even match. Take some hits, dish some out, let her and the audience get the full breadth of your basic repertoire, then pull a special move to escape at the end. That way the audience gets a good idea of who you are and your conflict might take a little longer to resolve. On the other hand, you won't technically win so much as draw, which can be good, or it can be bad.
[] [Fight] Ambitious Underdog.
You do have some advantages, but she's pretty strong. Take a beating, and go for the angle of wanting to become stronger, that way you can recur most easily in later episodes as the one always chasing at her heels, trying to surpass her for your own reasons. Play it wrong though and you could come off as kind of pathetic. A difficult path to be sure...
[] [Fight] Just wing it.
You want to really face her before you start figuring out where to go next. It won't fit with your character, but as long as you don't reveal your lack of a plan then what the audience doesn't know won't hurt them.
[] [Fight] Write in your own plan. (Give it a cool name!)
A sound like a gunshot echoes in the cramped quarters as one of the armor plates on the shadow behemoth cracks under the force of your heroine's fists, disturbing you from your thoughts. He stumbles backwards, a guttural hissing cry of pain leaving it as she presses the assault. The plate cracks again, then shatters under a third strike, making the creature howl in pain, staggering as she leaps into the air and then plunges downwards in a diving kick, a nimbus of magical power surrounding her as she shoots straight through the shattered remains of its armour, through the wispy shadow-stuff of its body, and out the other side, landing lightly on the warehouse' concrete floor as the creature behind her burns, slumps, and finally dissolves into the same shadowy motes as the rest.
It's time for your entrance...
[] [Entrance] Smug it up
Emerge from the shadows, applaud her fight, maybe monologue a bit, then challenge her if she hasn't already tried to come at you swinging. See if you can throw down a magical trap without her noticing while you're talking to give her a taste of your superior intellect. (Synergy: Analyst. Gain Character Trait: Refuge in Audacity)
[] [Entrance] Do the creep
Stay in the shadows while you congratulate her on the fight, you never specialized in stealth of course, but if you set up some time delayed attacks to go off from one direction after you've moved to another location you should be able to keep her looking the wrong way until you've finished talking. (Synergy: Specialist. Gain Character Trait: Guile Hero)
[] [Entrance] Shadow strike
Words? What good are words? You can get your talking out of the way once the actual fight starts. Right now you have the drop on her, so take the chance and strike without warning. (Synergy: Opportunist. Gain Character Trait: Honourless)
[] [Entrance] Write in your own entrance. (Give it a cool(?) name)
