2014.04.01 - Thank You For Your Assistance

There's such a thing as too strong a challenge, the Tin Can is learning first hand that this is one of those times. Up against a buff-looking mutant guy with strong telekinetic powers, her suit's lack of real flight capabilities and long-ranged attacks is biting her in the ass. "Turn on wide-frequency radio." She says with her modulated, inhuman sounding voice, floating in the air while the mutant flings more and more things at her armor. It hasn't been pierced /yet/ but it looks like that's a matter of time. "Tin Can in urgent need of assistance in Queens. Location foll-" A sound that is vaguely reminiscent of a pained yelp, "llows." And she provides her location through various means.
 
Superman isn't on patrol. This time of day, he's actually working, of all things, walking down the street with his hair carefully combed back and his blocky black glasses perched on his nose. Despite his frame, he walks with a slouched, shuffling gait, as if a man afraid of the world around him. He glances nervously out the corners of his eye with some frequency. How someone can live in Metropolis that long and still look the victim is mind-boggling to a passer-by. 
But when he hears Penny's cries for help some blocks away, Superman's head swivels up, his blue eyes suddenly alert and focused. With a quick turn, he sprints down an abandoned alleyway, moving with surprising speed. 
A few seconds later, a familiar blue and red streak goes skyward, his clothing carefully concealed behind a dumpster for the moment. Superman takes to the skies, heading towards Penny's location as fast as he can without breaking the speed of sound.
It isn't through the radio that Channel hears of Tin Can's plight. No, Channel happened to be finishing up a patrol a block or so away when her energy sight picks up on the telekinetic powers getting used by someone. As the woman got closer, she spotted Tin Can. Yeah, Channel can see how that might be a slight problem. The masked woman recalls a few things and reaches out with her energy absorption, trying to keep the mutant from flinging things and breaking through Tin Can's armor.
"You know, usually there's a tab to open up a can, smart guy," Channel quips as she flies towards Tin Can, attempting to grab her and land. Her intention, at this point, is to just keep absorbing the TK's powers to prevent them from making further attacks. Or escapes, if this was the TK type who liked to use their powers to fly.
Steve should probably still be on bedrest, but for the most part his body is in far better condition only just two days. God sends for the Super Soldier serum and all that jazz. He was actually about to make an official statement, headed towards the Metropolis GBS office when SHIELD observes picked up a distress call only a block and a half away. 'Unknown vocal patterns, but they're sending out a help request.' 
Honestly, he wasn't looking forward to that press conference anyways. Bad news is never a fun thing to give, so instead he's moving in the other direction. Running down the street with all the grace and speed of an Olympic track star. "I'm on it." Said into the comm, though they probably wouldn't want Cap out involved 'now', she's certainly not going to tell him he 'can't' go. 
Tin Can is rescued, fortunately, and the responses are pretty fast. The power armor wearer lands on the ground with Channel's aid, while the telekinetic mutant decides today might be a good time to run. He's probably not wrong, but the Tin Can doesn't engage in a chase, instead, her unrecognizably digitized voice states, "Thank you for your rapid response." Something suddenly makes a loud zappy noise, and sparks and smoke come from the armor's left arm, there's no verbal comment on that.
Superman blurs out of the sky and lands near Penny, following the noise and commotion. He slows and stops, hovering in mid-air with his cape pulled out to the side by a low wind. 
"Is everything all right?" he inquires in a gentle but deep voice, effortlessly sustaining his own flight. "I heard someone calling for help. What happened?" he asks, looking from Jocelyn to Penny, curiously.
"Response?" Channel asks. "Oh. You must have called for help. I'm not on the radios," the woman explains. "I just happened to see the problem. You're welcome". Then Superman is there and the woman points where the TK ran off to. "Telekinetic was giving Tin Can a hard time. He went that way". She pauses to look in that direction. "He hasn't gone far, actually". She could detect life signs, after all. "You okay?" she asks, looking at Tin Can and seeing if the hero was injured, at least as best she could with her ability to detect life signs. Maybe she'd at least be able to tell if something was going to blow up.
Cap is the last to the party, jogging into the alleyway just as the mutant disappears around another corner. With his shield on his back he glances from Superman around to the other two heroes with a raised brow behind his helmet. "Are you folks alright?" He asks generally, but he's looking at the sparks coming out of Tin's arm. 
Looks can be deceiving of course, but things look well in hand. Then, it's unlikely the caller expected the kind of response they got. He looks to Channel and nods, "You say they didn't get far? Which direction did the go?" 
 
Superman nods once at Jocelyn, then looks at Captain Rogers. "Captain, I could use a hand," he asks in polite tones. He offers a comradely grip to the other icon of American idealism, and with a blur heads down the street, neck craning as he searches for the TK mutant. 
It doesn't take him long to find the man- on foot, fleeing, heart pounding in Superman's ears. He flies ahead, dropping Cap behind the mutant, and flies to land directly in the man's path, effectively flanking him. 
"You're out of places to run, friend," Superman says in that polite, if grim tone. "I say you take your lumps and come peacefully with me down to the police station."
Cap takes hold of Superman's hand and actually enjoys the short flight in search of the TK. It's not everyday he gets to travel this way, after all. Once they spot the fleeing fiend and he's released, Steve flips into a rolling landing and comes up with his arms crossing over his chest. 
Once the Kryptonian lands in front and speaks, the First Avenger follows. "You really ought to listen to him, friend." Like his comrade, his tone is quietly polite, but commanding. "You look reasonable and there's no reason that we need to be cross." 
Tin Can's left arm looks rather stiff, but any life-sign checks will not show significant injury. It seems that the armor has done its job at protecting the wearer, at least. "The Tin Can Armor's left arm is in need of repairs, but otherwise there was no significant damage." The same cannot be said for the fleeing mutant, who is judging his chances against Superman and Captain America together, and coming to the conclusion they are not in his favor. He raises his arms in the air, "I give up, alright."
"I'm not seeing any injury to you. If there was, I could heal it," Channel remarks. "Looks like some of your power circuits got fried, at a minimum," the energy manipulator says. The woman then turns to face the direction of the mutant who is getting caught. "I hope that guy has half a brain in his head, for his sake. Unless he wants to try to fight Superman and Captain America, in which I'd say he's not the brightest TK in the world". She shakes her head. "Glad you're alright, Tin Can".
 
Superman finds a piece of steel bar laying nearby and with about as much effort as someone would use a twist-tie, pins the man's hands behind his back and twists the steel down into a pair of improvised cuffs. "There. These will come off nice and easy at the police station," Superman assures the fellow. He gives Captain Rogers a friendly smile. "I appreciate you stepping in, Captain," Superman says, one steel-strong hand clasping the TK's upper arm. "I'm going to take this one downtown and turn him in. Would you mind letting the ladies know he's been detained?" he asks, nodding back up the block from the direction they'd come from.
Steve watches the ease with which the bar is twisted around the TKs wrists and then returns Superman's smile with a dip of his head, "I'll let them know." Then to the mutant, "You made a good decision, mister." He takes a step back then jogs in the direction of the alleyway not terrible far from where he left the Man of Steel and his captive. Rolling his shoulder as he enters the alley at one end and tilting his head to see around debris where they left the two. "Is everything alright down here? Superman caught the TK, he's on his way to a comfortable cell downtown." Thumbing back over his shoulder in the direction of Metro PD. 
Tin Can sighs a bit at the concern, the sound is audible, though weird. "The only injury I suffered was to my pride, the armor is damaged, but I've cut power to that arm." Her voice is still not recognizably human, much less recognizably /gendered./ "Which is inconvenient, but I'll fix it later." She pauses, and then adds. "Thank you for responding, whether you heard my distress call or not."
"Everyone is fine here," Channel says to Captain America. She'd worked with him on occasion. She does raise an eyebrow as she looks over at him. "I'm guessing those injuries aren't recent. Can I offer my services as a healer, Captain? I can have you healed in less than a minute if you like". She wouldn't force it on him, but the man was obviously hurt, in her eyes. His life energy was just...less. It was hard to describe. Though the Captain may recall some of those times she healed civilians after a fight.
A smile is given. "Hey, telekinetics are a pain to fight. Don't sweat it," Channel tells Tin Can. She doesn't bother to try and prop up Tin Can's pride any further though. To do so would be unprofessional, she suspects.
Superman blows into the air, disappearing in a crimson streak in the sky with the bound TK in his custody. He stops long enough to wave at the trio, then soars off, headed in the direction of the Metropolitan PD, to turn in the would-be offender and make sure justice has her day.
"Don't be too hard on yourself... uh.. friend." Cap says, not really sure 'what' to call Tin Can as he walks casually up the alley to rejoin with Channel and Tin. "Even Tony has wardrobe malfunctions from time to time." Smiling in a friendly way after waving up to Superman hovering above them in the sky. The questions draws his attention, "Oh, no ma'am, I'm okay. Just had a little run in two nights ago. Nothing that wont be better by tomorrow morning." 
He doesn't go into how that hurt 'his' pride, favoring instead to dip his head between the pair. "Anyways, I was just on my way to a press conference. You're going to be okay?" Asked of Tin, standing with his arms loosely laying across his chest. 
"I'm the Tin Can." Tin Can introduces herself to Captain America, and she smiles at Channel, "I'll be fine, it's just... I should have thought of that and included countermeasures, I didn't." Which might be a part of why her pride was hurt, "I can't be prepared for everything, but it's a rather big flaw in the Armor's design."
"As you wish," Channel says to Captain America. She smiles. "I am so glad I don't have to do press conferences. Benefit of being an unregistered mutant. Your public speaking skills don't have to get tested regularly," Channel comments with a smile. But, most mutants did not really seek out the spotlight. Magneto was the exception to that rule. A wave is given to Superman as he takes the prisoner with him. She makes a note to follow up and find out if it was actually a criminal-type, or someone who was just learning their powers. If it was the latter, she knew who to get in touch with about that.
A nod is given. "Telekinetics are a hole in most heroes' defenses, so to speak," Channel points out. "I'm not enough of a scientist to know how to deal with it on a technological scale myself though". She shrugs at that. "Though telekinetics are mostly just raw force, when you boil it down, so if you have a way to generating enough force to counter it, you could prevent being lifted up or pushed, I would imagine".
"I'm not much of a gearhead either or I'd give you some pointers." Steve says to Tin, "It is a pleasure to meet you though. Captain America." Not that he likely 'needs' introducing, but it would be rude to assume. He extends his hand and smiles over to Channel, "Oh, it's not so bad. Usually." The smile, while laced with genuine, is still largely forced. The subject that he's having to conference about is not a pleasant one at all. 
"But if you'll both excuse me. It was a pleasure to meet you and to see you again." He takes a few steps backwards and then turns on his heels. He doesn't run out of the alleyway, but his pace is a little quickened. Would be just as rude to miss an appointment, even if he'd really rather not go. 
Tin Can salutes Captain America with her working arm before he really does leave. Then she addresses Channel, "I should try to build in flight capabilities. It probably won't be enough to counter the more powerful telekinetics, but it should at least make it more difficult for them. Weaker ones probably won't be able to prevent me from moving at all if I have powerful enough flight built in."
"Good to see you Captain," Channel replies. She then turns to Tin Can and nods. "Not a bad idea. I should get moving as well". Channel doesn't ask Tin Can if she'll be alright getting back. If she wouldn't be, she'd say something, Channel suspected. "Good to meet you". And the mutant will make her way off, taking flight and disappearing into the clouds.
Category:Log