2012-08-20 A Shocker of a Day

New York City doesn't get very quiet. Tonight it was as quiet as the city could get. Well, until some screaming and a few gunshots ring out. This is followed quickly by a loud VTHHOOOOOM and the glass facade of a local bank shattering."You missed!""Shup and get the cash already! I wasn't aiming for him!""Who put you in charge? Don't tell us what to do!""If I didn't come up with this, you'd all still be sitting on your asses!"Inside the bank? Several oddly clothed people are arguing. Supervillains known simply as The Shocker, The Ringer, The Spot, The Kagaroo...and Boomerang. Shocker, Boomerang, and Kangaroo are the ones doing most of the arguing. People outside the bank watch for a moment, shocked by the sudden hole in the bank. And then they start running, some calling for police and others crying out for the Justice League. One person? They're just sitting on a bus stop bench, listening to music on their StarkPod. Dazzler's greatest hits have drowned out the danger. Either way...there's danger and hopefully heroes to stop it."Hey! Hurry up before the cops or our get away train gets here!" Ringer yells at his 'teammates' glancing at the elevated train tracks outside and then down the street to keep watch for any approaching police.
Most people when new to a city walk around, take busses, and ride the subways to get a feel for the place. Bunker's doing the same thing except he's added something most people can't manage: he's riding one of his brick platforms. About five stories up, he's getting a bird's eye view of Manhattan and learning where everything is while still keeping an eye out for possibilities to be heroic. Screams and gunshots? Totally fit the bill and putting on the speed, he zooms toward the front of the bank a block away.
Another bank robbery. The Phantom had been down the street on another matter, a much smaller one than another bank robbery, but those gunshots drew his attention--and that explosion not a moment later wasn't exactly subtle. The smoke and screaming and all the rest--this evening may not end well. A sharp whistle, and Hero appears from a nearby alley to gallop toward him, and he hoists himself into the saddle without having her slow down. Hunched over, he heads up the street, as fast as her hooves can take him.
Avada kedavraaaaa- wait, no. She's not really sure what that means or why she would even be doing it. Rain is wandering along down the street, looking thoughtful. She really is an odd case of roving about. But then she hears the noise. Why does she keep finding bank robberies? Why not find drunken leprechauns in a good mood or even a friendly wizard? Nope, always robberies. Either way, she kind of hoofs it over (with shoes, not hooves, mind you). She looks almost a bit strange showing up shortly after the others, but really - riding a broomstick in public is still something of a neurosis for her.
It's dinner time - but Dazzler is out on the town because it's NYC instead of Gotham (Hallelujah) and while living it up at Stark Mansion is Real... /real/, Ali finds herself craving street food like nobody's business. Kebab! Awesome! And then there is an explosion somewhere nearby. Craaap.As Dazzler turns around to look that way... there goes a guy in purple on a horse. And he definitely isn't a hansom driver or one of the Park carriage guys."Oh, now I /have/ to go," she says to absolutely no one - while she clips her skates onto her shoes and starts heading off towards Danger. Finishing her food en-route, of course.
As for Beast... he had been trying to have a pleasant evening alone, when the sound of the alarms from the bank drew his attention. Thankful to have his attache case with him, Hank found somewhere private to change from mild-mannered glasses wearing Hank Mccoy into... Super, wait... Beast. His classic X-Men costume hiding his identity with a mask and gloves. Of course, his large prehensile tootsies were exposed, since that was kinda his thing. And whoever heard of matching someone's footprints before. A few moments later and Hank is on the rooftop across from the bank, crouched and peering towards the chaos beginning to erupt. "A team of supervillains? Do we even really need to stop them, they'll end up getting greedy and trying to rip each other off." Hank comments to himself.
"C'mon, Beasty. Of course we have to stop them! It's part of the superhero thing," comes from behind Beast. Sliding onto the rooftop behind Beast is non-other than the Iceman. He'd just been in town on a not-date when the commotion drew him. And now he's in his costume right next to his buddy Beast. "Now let's show 'em how we mutants do thing," Iceman gives Beast a friendly pat on the back before hopping off the roof and sliding down towards the bank."Uhh...guys. We've got a problem," The Spot, having spotted the approaching Iceman points outside. This draws the attention of the others and prompts all four men to curse at once. "It's a cape! Waste 'em!" Shocker orders, firing off blasts from his gauntlets with another VTHOOM! Iceman, not expecting it, gets it and goes crashing...into the elevated train tracks. This breaks a few of them since Bobby is covered in tough ice armor. And there's a train coming. Iceman spots this and the flying Bunker. "Hey! Purple dude! You and Beast handle the baddies! I'll fix these," he calls, pushing track debris off himself.Down on the street, all five villains are moving out onto the street now and they're making Kangaroo carry all the money. "Now what? You wreck our get away plan!" Ringer demands of Shocker, taking some of his rings out and glaring around for a target."Shut up and fight!" Shocker snaps.
Purple dude? That would be Bunker? Just wait, this time next year his name will be on everyone's lips. Bringing his brick platform to a halt about ten feet off the ground and in the middle of the street, he calls "Stop, bad guys, and surrender now! There's no need for you to get hurt!"
Interestingly-dressed people spilling out of a bank that's just been robbed. The Phantom has to give them credit for the attempt, if nothing else. And they've been nice enough to make one of the guys carry all of their ill-gotten gains. That makes him grin, and he taps Hero's sides to get her to keep galloping. He'll aim straight for the loot-laden one, moving to crouch on the saddle so that when he gets close enough he can leap off the horse and try taking the goon down with a flying tackle. Focusing on him should hopefully mess with everyone else's attention--which should only help keep innocent people from getting hurt.
This is the most purple group Rain's ever been in. The amethyst-eyed B-list witch (not to be confused with a witch that starts with b) can dig it, really. Oh gods, oh gods. She's just now getting in range of the fight. Huff. "Y-yeah, surrender... or I'll turn you into a newt or something." Wheeze. Someone should've not skipped out on PE, apparently. Phew. Regardless, Rain adjusts her hat and carefully moves into range for zap- hey, Phantom is here, too. Awesome! Okay, screw it. She's conjuring the broomstick and going to hover ominously. It's easier to shoot from above. At least she's merciful enough not to wear a skirt.
Dazzler pulls up on her skates not too far behind Rain, and she doesn't even have the decency to look winded or even sweaty. "OhmyGOD," she says loudly at the collected villains she can actually see. Then she looks up at the rooftops nearby, an eyebrow raised, and just sighs. "Never a Spidey when you need one, is there?"So instead, Dazzler points her finger like a gun (Charlie's Angel-style) at Boomerang. "Freeze, suckers!"
"When in Rome..." Hank leaps onto Iceman's ice slide, not showing the slightest bit of discomfort with his bare feet on the ice. He's been doing this for years with the Popsicle, so is more than happy to follow him into battle. "You keep taking the leadership role like this and we'll have to get you some of those big boy pants you've had your eye on." Henry jokes as he leaps off the ice slide as Bobby... sorta goes off in another direction. Hank winces just a bit as he leaps down at Shocker. "Pineapple Man!? My friend you officially pulled the worst supervillain theme out of the old hat." Cause... you know, his costume looks like he's a giant pineapple.
There's a pause as Bunker makes his demand before the villains laugh. "Spot, take care of the kid," Shocker grunts. Spot offers a salute before stepping into and vanishing through a sudden hole in the floor. Next to Bunker in the air, another hole opens and Spot pops his head out. "Hey. Listen, I don't really want to fight some kid so how about you just go home?" he suggests.Kangaroo gets a mildly confused look on his face when he hears the sounds of a horse. He looks over in time to see a man in purple come flying at him. Cursing, the Kangaroo goes down. Money bags scatter and one of the two Australian villains present swings a fist at the Phantom. "Get off!"Ringer just blinks at Rain and shakes his head. "Out of shape superheroes. Pathetic," he comments, tossing three rings through the air at Rain. They promptly burst into flames, now fiery hazards headed for Rain and her broomstick.Boomerang stares at Dazzler for a moment. "Hey, I know you. Your music sucks!" he barks before flinging a boomerang at the singer. A cryo-rang that will explode into freezing gas if it hits something.The Beast's quip gets an annoyed growl out of Shocker. "The name's Shocker and here's why!" he yells, firing twin vibro-blasts at the Beast.Where's Iceman? He's up on the train tracks, quickly making replacements for the broken ones out of ice before the train gets there. He'll be busy.
Bunker looks over at the voice and blinks once at Spot. "Wow, that's really cool. It's like that game I saw on the internet last year." He didn't play it. "But, I'm sorry but I can't do that. And since you're not going to surrender right?" He makes a pushing gesture and a girder of bricks starts shooting at Spot's head, lengthening as it goes.
Arms around the marsupial-themed villain, the Phantom has to take the punch. He does, though, bury his face in the man's head so that fist gets planted into his head over his ear--and it'll just be his luck someone will take a photo of him burying his face in this jerk's chest. At least the cowl takes some of the sting out of the hit, though the hearing in that ear is going to be a good bit muffled for a while. "My turn," he says as he rears up, and snaps his fist out to smack Kangaroo in turn. One good punch deserves another, after all, though he doesn't need to cock his arm back like a street-fighter to get the same job done.
Awwww. Did he just comment on the fact she ran over and was out of breath? That's - /personal/. Glare. Seriously. That's like people lamenting they didn't get saved by the cute, busty hero. "Yeah... well..." Uh. Hm. Wow. "..." It's probably a good thing Rain's a minion for now, until she passes Witty One Liners 101. "No, you." Then, holy crap, he's trying to get all Spanish Inquisition up in here and set Rain ablaze. While it is a handy pop music reference, Rain distinctly prefers -not- to be on fire. She barely manages to squeak out of the way, though the edges of her hair and coat might be singed. It's on now. Sorta. Rain huffs and slips one of her twin pistols out and starts to channel a spell. While she resists the urge to make a wet t-shirt joke, she is definitely going to send a modest blast of water towards Ringer. She -is- a B-list magician, after all.
"YOUR music SUCKS!" Dazzler shouts back, aghast. Not that Boomerang is a musician, but hell! Words hurt, mister! She's also really damned nimble on roller skates, and quick to boot - doing a quick dive-roll to one side and firing a LASER from her GUN-FINGER at the mid-air cryo-rang. ZARK!
Beast swiftly does the splits, showing just how agile he is... Shocker's blasts passing harmlessly over his head. "Now now now.... just because you're famous for housing Spongebob Squarepants doesn't mean you have to overact so poorly." Hank plants his hands and swings his entire body, attempting to leg sweep shocker off his feet. Hank takes a moment to glance to Iceman and the other assembled heroes. "I swear, I am gonna start heroing in someplace where there's not so many team-ups."
"It is?" Spot's not used to that. Of course when that girder starts coming his way, Spot lets out a little eep and retreats back into his portal. Another portal opens behind Bunker seconds later. If that girder goes into the first portal, it'll come right out the one behind Bunker to smack the young hero.Kangaroo makes a face as Phantom gets all warm and fuzzy on him. There's metal under that coat he's wearing. The punch makes the villain curse and ends up knocking out a filling. "Fine! Take this! Pouch cannon!" Is that a cannon poking Phantom in the stomach or is someone happy to see him? Thankfully, its a cannon that promptly fires a concussive energy blast at the purple-clad hero to knock him loose and hopefully knock the wind out of him."What're you? New at this?" Ringer complains at the lack-luster banter from Rain. The rings that go by Rain keep going though. Where will they end up? Find out later in this emit. For now, Ringer has a water blast to deal with. His eyes go wide and the man in bright green and orange gets knocked off his feet. "Who the hell throws water?" he demands, tossing another ring at Rain. This one's razor sharp.Those hurtful words from Dazzler don't so much hurt Boomerang as confuse him for a moment. The laser blasts open the 'rang and creates an icy mist in the air. "Dodge this, Roller Disco!" Boomerang snaps, tossign a bomb-a-rang at Dazzler now."What is it with New York capes and never shutting up?" Shocker groans, knocked off his feet and onto his insulated backside. He doesn't let it stop him though, firing a shock-blast at Beast from the ground.Remember the rings of fire that Rain avoided? Well they kept going and hit the train tracks. This wrecks another section of them, getting a groan out of Iceman. "Oh, c'mon!" he says, sliding over and quickly working on patching that hole as the screech of train-brakes starts to sound.
"Aie! Madre de Dios!" Bunker exclaims as he gets hit from behind and is knocked off his platform. As he falls, translucent bricks starts speeding to the ground to form a small airbag that he lands on with a soft *whump* as if he landed on a thick Nerf mattress. "Very cool!" he calls up to the portal. But he's not playing that game. "Musical villains!" As he rolls off and onto the ground, he makes another pushing gesture and a second girder shoots toward Ringer.
...pouch cannon. Of course. The Phantom starts to push back to try and get away, but even he can't move faster than a cannon can fire. He's shoved backward and ends up landing on his back, groaning through gritted teeth. Oh, there's always something with these guys. "You're going back to the zoo one way or another," he says as he rolls to his hands and knees, moving to a kneel while he whips out his gun with his left hand. "The only question is how bad a shape you want to be in when you get there." And just to prove his point he fires off a shot at the Kangaroo's knee. He's expecting it to be armored as the rest of him, and the bullet will ricochet into the ground if it is, but he's making a point. That could have been aimed higher.
"Actually, yeah," Rain admits. "Sorry," She shrugs. Wait, musical villains? Is there a rock battle going on? That would be totally epic. And kinda metal. Is she missing it? Then a pause at her choice of attack. She considers that a moment. "It made sense at the time." Really. Because she's not too sure. Fire? Water? ... bullets? It's a tough choice. There's always the comedy option, but Rain's -attempting- to take her foe seriously. She hisses in pain as the razor ring manages to get her upper arm and take out a considerable chunk of her jacket. She clings to the broomstick, looking irritable. Her eyes are even watering. That one was close. Hff. Okay, now, she's irritable. The other gun gets slipped out. Hello, ambidexterity! Regardless, she's less than happy. With a snarl, she hunches down to concentrate and this time? This time, she's gonna try to set his pants on fire. That'll teach him.
This time, Dazz is ready for him to throw another -- especially since Boomerang SAYS he's gonna. She's quicker on the zap this time too - a few fractions of a second, enough time for it to get a safe-ish distance away from his body, another ZARK! at the thrown weapon, following THAT up with a brilliant *PAFF!* of bright ass light centered right on him.
"We're always off training and brooding, so we don't have a lot of time for a social life. Look on the bright side, at least for the first time since you therapist or parole officer, someone actually wants to talk to you." Hank attempts to dodge, taking a bit of a blast from Shocker in the side before he can roll out of the way. "Musical villains? Awwww.. but I was having so much fun with my dance parter. I think it was going really well... I might even end up with his phone number." Hank leaps over Shocker's head and lands behind him, attempting to deliver a powerful sock to the back of his head.
"Thanks!" Spot calls, popping out of a new portal on the street. When Bunker switches targets, Spot actually pouts. "Hey..." he trails off. So rejected.Yes, pouch cannon. He is the Kangaroo. The villain gets up and laughs at the Phantom. "You think that pea shooter's gonna get through my armor?" he taunts, the bullet bouncing off his knee as predicted. "Let's toast up some eggplant," he says, firing another blast from the pouch cannon.Ringer just grins when his blade hits its mark, catching it as it comes back around. He's about to throw again when musical villains begin. His armored pants don't burst into flames because psionic bricks send him sprawling. "What the!?Boomerang isn't expecting Dazzler to be so quick. The laser light combo results in two things. Boomerang complaining that he's been blinded and then blasted across the sidewalk by his own bomb. He crashes into a mailbox and slumps down. Down and out!"Just shut up!" Shocker yells, firing another blast Beast's way but just obliterating a street sign. Shocker starts to turn as Beast goes over his head. This means that smack hits him in the side of the head and he goes down hard. One dazed villain is seeing little winged Beasties flying around his head.
A translucent brick wall appears in front of Bunker and then goes flying at Ringer. "Why don't you stop being a criminal?" he calls to Spot. "You could open portals for people in fires to escape and save them instead."
They never spark a clue. Grimacing, the Phantom rolls out of the way of the blast, now that he actually realized it was coming--and has an idea. "Is that all you've got? Please, I've seen pop cap guns that had more bang than you do." Trying to make him irritated, so he'll fire again--and if he does, the Phantom whips up his gun again, to aim down the barrel of that cannon, and fire hopefully at the same moment as the Kangaroo. Whatever makes that thing work, it should be most vulnerable when it's firing, so he's going to try and destroy the thing. The man's armor should protect him /enough/ from the result--even if nothing happens but the cannon becoming useless, it's one less toy the jerk has to use against him.
Wait. His pants were supposed to - bricks? Rain looks confused. Musical... OH! Okay! "Ah, um, don't be sad," A wave to Spot. "..." She goes cross-eyed briefly. "Er. Have at you? Rawr?" Hmmm. This is harder than she thought. There's an awkward silence. "... well, um. Don't be sad. We can fight. You look pretty scary to me, I mean... the portals are like, all over..." Right? Right. Just because they're oppositely aligned doesn't mean anyone has to be a total jerk. Pause. "Actually, I feel kinda -bad- trying to hit you. But yeah, you could totally go heroic with the portal thing," Better retirement options, at least. Ah geez. Moral dilemma. Sigh. Granted, the ache in her arm reminds her that these folks are serious business. The dampness on her sleeve... yeah, that was a sharp ring. But really. A ring? I guess he liked it if he threw a ring at it. Okay, well. Think. At least it's not heart. Rain's going to set herself up for something ugly later. For now... water time at poor Spot. She really feels bad for the guy. Maybe it'll make him feel better?
Dazzler stands up, grinning a bit. "Huh. Go me." That worked out much better than she thought! She goes on wheels again, taking a quick perusal of how the other fights in the vicinity are going. Hmmm... AHA! Ringer gets a *PAFF* of light in the face! and then she's moving on to the next without even slowing down -- Here, Kangaroo, you have a *PAFF!* too!
Everyone else seems to have things so far wrapped up, so Hank leaps and climbs the side of the bank. Flipping up onto the roof to get a better vantage point on Iceman. "Hey Iceman, need a hand or two? They seem to have everything wrapped up, and we should beat cheeks before the cavalry shows up."
"I could?" Spot frowns, crossing his arms. "But my research..." he trails off. He looks up at Rain when she starts speaking to him. "Maybe I could be a hero. I considered it when I got my powers but the Kingpin would have come after me..." he says. When he notices water coming his way, the villain jumps and the spots on his body quickly merge into a larger one. The water vanishes into the inky blackness. Frowning, Spot, points a hand at Rain and another portal appears on his hand. Seconds later, that water blast is sent right back at Rain. "I'm out of here," Spot declares, jumping into one of his spots and vanishing. Aww, they hurt his feelings."You insulting my cannon? Like you have any room to talk dressed like a fruity bar reject!" he snarls, cannon charging. He's about to fire when he gets PAFF'd. Yelling out, he doesn't even see it coming when Phantom shoots. There's a few clangs from the cannon and Kangaroo freezes. "Oh f-" KABOOM. When the smoke clears, Kangaroo is laying there on the sidewalk out cold and with the bottom half of his armor missing. Enjoy the underwear with little red hearts all over it, people.Ringer's standing back up and readying a bomb ring when he's Dazzled! Yelling in rage, he only has time for a few unkind words before Bunker drops a brick wall on him. He gets smacked into a car and slumps over in pain. "Stupid Shocker..."Iceman finishes his track work just in time. The train screeches to a halt just before hitting the mutant. He lets out a little sigh of relief before looking Beast's way. Jumping up and ice-sliding to his friend's side, he gives him a playful punch to the arm. "Dude, when did you get into kinky stuff like spanking?" he teases, gesturing for Hank to lead the way. Congrats, Hank. You have a Bobby for the rest of the night.
Bunker sends a dozen or so bricks at Ringer but they just start circling him. "Are you going to surrender now?" he asks. "I really don't want to have to hit you again." And again and again and...
...that certainly works. Instead of having to worry about a few more rounds with this putz, the Phantom can actually take a breather. That was scarily easy. Getting to his feet, he looks around--and sees everything else pretty much taken care of. The only one left is getting menaced by floating bricks. He shoves his gun back into its holster and closes it, and looks to the source of the PAFF. Dazzler gets a two-fingered salute and a smile for her help; it's always nice to get a helping hand.
Aw. Poor Spot. Rain looks guilty. "You could. And um... crap, sorry." She totally misread that and - now she's all wet. Poor guy. Sadface. "... I'll have to find him and send him some cupcakes." That's right. She's got Divination. "Yeah." For now, she leaves the villain being menaced by bricks alone. She can appreciate giving someone a chance to surrender, and furthermore, the whole 'too many chefs in the kitchen' thing applies to lasers, eyebeams, elemental blasts and what have you. Rain's holding off for now, though, she's looking to her arm. A soft hiss between her teeth. ... and now she's only got /six/ duster coats in her wardrobe.
Dazzler returns the salute with a peace sign - military's just not her style, but she's grinning because hell yeah that was fun. Skidding to a halt on her toe-brakes, she stops to think for a moment. "Anyone here good with cops? Mutant here, would prefer not to be taken in for vigilantism or anything -- but someone SHOULD make sure these bozos get locked back up."
Beast just facepalms at Iceman's reply to his banter.... pinching the bridge of his nose through his mask. "Ok, just when I thought you were showing some maturity." He shakes his head and flashes Bobby a warm grin. "Let's boogie." Hank drops off the side of the building into the alley, making his away from the area and snagging his attache case as he goes. "We should do the whole team-up thing more often. we don't get to hang out enough."
Ringer glances up at the bricks and sighs. Flipping over, he sits down and raises his hands. "This is why I don't team up..." he grumbles.Iceman laughs, patting Beast's shoulder. "Oh, c'mon, Beast. It's me," he says. He slides down to join Hank, nodding. "Great, let's grab my clothes and we can hang out for the rest of the night. Just you and me, man."That young man that's been sitting on that bus stop bench this whole time, oblivious to the battle? He finally looks up as he turns off his StarkPod. He blinks a few times as he sees all the trouble before spotting Dazzler. "Oh man, it's Dazzler! Can I get an autograph?!" the excited fan requests when he spots his favorite singer. This is followed by some cheers and applause not only from the people that didn't run all the way away from the fight but the former hostages in the bank and the people on the rescued train. Smile for the camera phones, heroes. Job well done.
Wow, that was fun! Though Bunker's going to have a bruise where his girder hit him in the back. The bricks circling Ringer float down, adhere to each other and then wrap themselves around the criminal's wrists, shackling them together. "Why do you all use your abilities to rob banks? Wouldn't it be so much better just to try to help people instead?" It's kind of rhetorical.
"I'll do it," the Phantom calls out in response to Dazzler, "and I'll put in a good word for everyone here." So far, he hasn't earned the enmity of the police force, and maybe he can use that to help the others out as well. He puts his hands on his hips and grins at the cheers of the people. Nice to be recognized, and he's got a feeling some of the others who helped could use that feeling, too. Especially the young woman on her broomstick he looks up to and gives another salute to.
"... I'm homeless, so um, not so much with the cops," Rain admits, holstering her guns and holding her hands up in surrender style. Wait. Camera phones? Oh god. That's like ... kryptonite for Rain. Noooooooooooo. "Um. I gotta go find that guy and get him cupcakes or something. Toodles!" A wave with her good hand. "... also this really freaking smarts." Darn Ringer and his sharp thingy. "Thanks, Phantom!" She salutes back with her unscathed arm. Rain'll likely meander along and away, after politely waving. "... also cameras and they're looking at me ..." RUN. RUN AWAY.
"Huh?" Dazzler turns to grin at the kid, and nods. "Sure!" She has NOOOOOO worry about the camera phones or any of that. Signing the kids StarkPod with her own permanent marker (it's blue, and sparkly), Dazzler watches Rain sort of... boogie on out on her broom. "Don't mind her," she tells the Fan. "Ravenclaws are shy." Then she ruffles his head, and then turns around to blow a kiss to the Phantom. "Appreciate it! Thanks again!" -- and she too is gone, roller-skating back towards uptown.
Miguel also decides to stick around and make sure none of the bad guys decide to try to escape with just one to guard them. "Bunker." he's telling one of the bystanders. "I am very happy to meet you too. No one was hurt, right? Yes, Bunker. I'm sorry, I don't know who Archie is."
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