2019-06-16 - Nothing Is Coming

Summary:

While at a music festival, the Young Avengers rally to protect civilians against a new threat, and meet two new allies.

Log Info:

Storyteller: None
Date: Sun Jun 16 03:31:22 2019
Location: RP Room 3

Related Logs

None

Theme Song

None

sarah-rainmakeralison-blairchristopher-powellkoriandrriri-williamsrose-wilsonnoh-varr

A Charity Event for Youth Orginizations to keep kids of all ages off the streets, and in various programs like sports, turning empty lots into viable gardens, education, and others that benefit community and build character has been going on all day.

And, thanks to a large turnout of popular food vendors, and live musical acts with the headliner of Vampire Weekend, there's been quite the massive turnout of people in various clothes and gear, and it seems many of them even brought backpacks with them to endure the event with changes of clothes, supplies, or whatever they needed - it is all of these that fill the park for the full weekend event.

Everything present is based out of New York City, from the artists who helped build the decor, the two musical stages, the sound system, the acts, and food - all local.

Presently, Alison Blair, stage name of Dazzler, is performing on the first stage and she's been performing for a little while, nearing the end of her performance and there's quite a lot of people around platform because Vampire Weekend is performing after her. This lucky placement of her performance card, determined entirely by chance, is sure to give her great exposure like she's never had before.

The other notable thing happening at the event was from Oscorp - a debut of a new technology still in development that claimed it would allow to push the envelope of the theatrical and musical experience', without going into further detail. Of course, the Oscorp logo was on quite a bit of the signage, flyers, and even the plastic cups as sponsoring the event.

Rose Wilson is among those present, with others from her newly formed 'hero' group. After all, she'd met Alison previously and didn't think the girl was a loser. So, there's that. Chewing on a massive turkey drumstick in one hand and holding a beer in the other she'd procured with a fake ID, she seems to be enjoying herself.


Christopher Powell decided to come along, because why not? He likes music, and festivals, and food, and there is plenty of all of that. He polishes off the remainder of his hot dog and has a 20oz Coke that he's been working on as he listens to Dazzler's set, leaning up casually somewhere nearby and enjoying the performance, the day, and people watching, seeming pretty relaxed.


Sarah is finding it nice just to get out in nature (as best you can in NYC), and enjoy some outdoors. She's been absently acting as a guardian angel of sorts for the event, gently coaxing away rain clouds and encouraging a light breeze that helps keep people a bit cooler. It's good practice if nothing else. The Apache woman is currently balancing an oversized sopapilla on a plate, with a diet cola keeping her company, as well as a side of veggies….carrots and celery mostly. "Wow…they weren't kidding that she's better live where you can see the lightshow…" she says to Rose thoughfully.


This was Alison's lucky day - second billing at such a big event! She is going to put her all into this performance and she has been for almost thirty minutes now. There are some covers in her set, you have to do that to get the crowd on side when no one knows who you are, but she's also thrown in a few originals; high energy alternative if that can be believed.

Clad in boots, fishnets, short shorts, t-shirt, she is belting out the closing note of her second last song. A long, long note. For someone who has been working it non-stop, she doesn't seem tired or even sweaty. Behind her is a touring band of bass, guitar, keyboards, and drum. Up on stage with her is a pair of backing dancers for the more choreographed moments. One of them a very tall redhead known to her friends as Koriandr.

The note stops with a flurry of popping colorful lights around the singer - she has quite the light show for a nobody. A bow before grinning to the crowd. "One more song before we get to the awesome headliners, The Vampire Weekend!! Thanks for coming out and supporting this great cause. I introduced the band before but I'd also like to thank my amazing dancers - Shakin' Sara and Kickin' Kori. Big hand for them. This has been a blast!" A bright pulse of light before the instruments kick in for the last song.


Unlike the happy partiers in the press of the crowd, Riri… doesn't really do well with large groups of people. As such, after acquiring a personal pizza, she'd landed her armor on a nearby rooftop overlooking the park, and was currently sitting on the low wall with her legs dangling off. Nodding her head to the beat the teen takes another large bite of Supreme, before switching her pizza hand for a cup of orange soda. This… is pretty awesome. And it wasn't like she was wasting time, because she'd had to fly here, right? Yeah. Totally legit. And this music was /awesome/.


Concert. Outdoor concert. (Almost) summer outdoor concert. With food and drink. How could Noh-Varr NOT be there? In sneakers, shorts and a t-shirt tucked through a belt loop, the Nega-Bands and battle gauntlet look kind of out of place. Okay, lots out of place. He doesn't care. He's by Rose and has been enthusiastically dancing regardless of who's been playing while trying not to spill his beer. "Chris!" he calls. "Chris! Over here!" Raising an arm above his head, he waves it to attract attention.


Koriand'r is learning to love to dance.

It's taken some time, particularly for someone from a culture where dancing is reserved only for the most formal of occasions. Marriages, declarations of war, that sort of thing.

But with Pris and Alison teaching her the ins and outs of artistic dance, she's getting to love it more and more. And with the routine carefully choreographed by Alison, all she has to do is stand there and do exactly what she's supposed to do for each dance number she's needed for. Kori's dressed a lot like Alison, though, smartly, the backup dancers are wearing a bit more clothing— leggings instead of fishnets and muted colors so they don't steal focus. The other dancer is competent enough, someone with some training and practice. Kori, on the other hand, moves with a grace and balance that's almost unearthly. It's hard to get a Tamaranean not to use her flight for a little effortless balance check here and there.

But, crucially— not stealing focus! The only ones in the crowd likely to notice are people with a keen appreciation for human kinesthetics.


Rose smirks a bit at Noh-Varr knowingly, and she, too, waves at Chris, and comments casually to him, "Kori is doing pretty decently. Looks like she belongs up there."

Her head twists to Sarah. "She's got a feel for what makes a media star," agreeably, She takes another bite of the turkey drum, her body moving slightly with the music as much as one can, when one has their hands full of food. She doesn't seem half-bad at dancing herself, as if she might've done that before.


It takes a moment to realize it's him that's being called for. Chris is a pretty common name and there are lots of people shouting to others. When he glances over and sees Noh-Varr, though, he lifts his bottle in greeting and pushes away from where he'd been leaning, heading over in that direction, grinning a bit. "Hey," he says to Noh and to Rose when he gets near enough to them to not have to shout. He's got a T-shirt on that has a bunch of crows standing on one side, and another crow on the opposite side pointing at them, above which a conversation bubble accuses "MURDER!" with a pair of jeans and sneakers on. "I didn't know Kori was dancing," he says, nodding toward the stage, having been surprised to see Koriand'r up there. "How's it goin', Rose?"


"She's pretty good." Noh-Varr agrees. "They both are. It would be awesome to be up there dancing with all these people watching." What he lacks in technique, he makes up for with enthusiasm. Though he has watched enough humans dancing to get the basics down. "I've been in some clubs that have amateur nights and I've danced a few times." he tells Rose, grinning over at Chris as well as he gets there. "Went home with lots of dollars."


Sarah nods, a bit distractedly. Sure, she's enjoying the song. Her eyes just get drawn to Kori's dancing as much as to Allison herself as she splits her focus. "Yes, she's really good….I wonder if Kori would like to dance professionally?" the native girl muses thoughfully.

She carefully takes a bite out of her burrito, chewing it down as she leans back. She glances over to Chris and Noh'varr as Rose greets them as if she knows them, mostly curiously. As she's got her mouth open and it would be a bit embarrassing to say much until that's dealt with.

There's more than a little wiggle in her going along with the music, swaying slightly, though she hasn't quite dared to get up and join the other dancers. Kori's the one getting the lessons…Sarah really doesn't have much practice at it.


Alison makes her way over to Koriandr as she sings, flinging an arm around the taller woman's shoulder as best she can. Chorus coming up - which means that Kori gets the microphone shoved under her mouth to join in the singing as well. Lights sparkle around the stage. Some even forming brief shapes like unicorns and rainbows - very brief. The singer is certainly having fun up there. At one with the crowd and feeding off their energy…and noise.


Fortunately, Kori and Alison had rehearsed this bit. The first time Alison told Kori to 'be loud', the Tamaranean had rattled a few windows in the practice building. Super strength equates to super volume, apparently.

But she leans into it, supporting Alison as the singer hooks an arm around her. She leans obligingly down to bring their heads on level and over the microphone. The whole point of backup dancing, of course, is to look like she's thrilled to be there. Dazzler's the star attraction, after all. At least she's mostly on key.


As Alison finishes her set, and the crowd cheers, the multi-colored lights stop flashing and dim into the evening skyline, leaving the stage dark, but all around it illuminated so the stage-hands can see as they switch out equipment for Vampire Weekend.

The screen flashes: Vampire Weekend in 10:00, 9:59, 9:58… sponsored by Oscorp in bold bright black and green lettering, and some of the crowd begins to mill, wait about, in anticipation of the next act. Unfortunately the tight change times don't give any rooms for encores.

"Pretty decent," Rose shrugs at Chris, turning her monocular eye to him. "Told all of you she's pretty good," Rose mentions to those around her, finishing off the turkey drum, and washing it down with a last swig of beer. She tosses each into the nearest trash can - about 30 or so feet away, both ping the opposite inner side of the can and go in, neatly. "Kori looked a natural up there, too. Who knows. Maybe she'll go on tour," she says, with measure of earnest humor (however slight). That humor continues in her voice, as she tells Noh-Varr, "I could give you some tips, maybe, and you could go home with more than lots."

Several stage hands work steadily to get the right gear on stage, and one of them wheels out a small little piece of electronics, hidden underneath a velvet cloth that on the outside also displays the Oscorp name in brilliant green lettering. Then, the stage hand blinks a few times, starts busily working under the cloth for a few moments and pulls out a plastic baggie from his jeans pocket, and then after a bit more tinkering, the clock for the Vampire Weekend now sporting a 6:34 timer on it, comes up with a small black box, no bigger than a wifi router, stuffs it into the oversized baggie and proceeds to walk off-stage, leaving several hanging wires out of that 'hidden' Oscorp technology box.

One of the other stage-hands sees this, and seems to become agitated, yelling to get the other's attention, drawing the attention of the other stage hands. But, the fellow with the package just keeps walking, heading off the stage, and into the crowd much to the bafflement, confusion, and irritation of the other stage hands.

While all of this is going on? There's a good dozen or so of the many individuals with backpacks through the crowd that suddenly open up their packs, and immediately put black, seemingly eyeless, hoods on their faces, along with a shoulder strap of weapons - each containing two pistols, several rounds for those automatic pistols, and 2 grenade looking devices - but not the traditional 'apples' the military uses. Silver, and more Christmas-Ornament shaped.


Christopher Powell grins as he listens to Noh-Varr and then when he mentions going home with lots of dollars, his eyes widen just as he was taking a sip and he struggles not to spit coke, coughing a couple of times. "Wow, uh.. that's.. great." Soda in the lungs. Soda.. in the lungs. He coughs again, glancing sidelong at Rose.

But then there's some kerfuffle on the stage that catches his attention and his brow furrows, "Did that guy just steal something out of the.. whatsit?" Fantastic technical term there, Chris. He glances over to the others to see if they saw what he saw. It's only then that he notices the people moving through the crowd. "This.. is not looking good." One hand slips under his shirt to grip the amulet that hangs there against his chest, almost by reflex.


"I did. They were very hot and appreciated my dancing. That is what you meant right?" Noh-Varr asks Rose. "'More than lots' meaning attractive men? The attention and the sex were more important than the money. I already make a decent amount from SWORD so it was mostly for the fun of it. You'd be very popular, Chris." he tells the cute guy. "Maybe you should ask Rose for those tips." Finishing his beer, he looks around, either for a place to toss his cup or to refill it. And he sees the masks and weapons and sighs. "Can't they rob another concert another night? I just want to have fun tonight." But no. He'll have to have fun another way.


Sarah is perhaps a bit more used to scanning the crowd for trouble, considering her life previous to arriving in NYC. Thus, when the masks come out, she perks up, then sets her food to the side, frowning. When the weapons come out, she swears under her breath. "Fuck." This is not an environment where her powers work at their best…too many innocent people nearby, so she has to be extra careful. She didn't see the guy grab the thingamabobber, so she's focused on the nearest thug…whom she tries to get to while he's still trying to arm up, launching into a straight kick at his chest.


"You did awesome!" Alison hugs Kori as they head off stage. "All of you did" she adds to the others - though they were only employed for the night while Kori is a friend. "Let's go out front and watch the rest of the show" she suggests to the tall redhead - with orange skin. Alison happy to be the subject of selfies if requested as she meanders into the crowd. The incident on stage has her curious but then there are guns in the crowd. Was she that bad? "Kori…"


Having finished her pizza, Riri's bagging her trash together when her smartwatch starts buzzing urgently against her wrist. She glances at the display, eyes widening, before dropping the bag and running back over to her armor. She can get the trash later.
As her HUD comes online, information overlays flood across Riri's vision, her armor control system helpfully providing audible commentary. <Alert: Multiple armed individuals detected: Handguns, unknown potential explosive devices.> "Yeah, Yeah, I see them. Designate all the guys with grenades as hostile." The armored teen launches upward, repulsors kicking in as she arcs over to land in the gap between the stage and the crowd. The closest security guard gets a brief "Get the civilians out of here, Armed people in the crowd! And call the cops!" Before she's wading in and heading for the closest mook.


Kori's pretty quick on the draw— but the masking up doesn't really draw her attention aside from a bemused curiousity. That puts her a bit behind the eightball as the other Young Avengers break into action. Alison's warning, though, spurs Kori to action and she surges forward with that effortless acceleration to grab a waving gun and *crunch* it into inoperation with a clenching of her fist.

"BABAGANOUSH!" Kori yells, loud enough for the other Young Avengers to hear even over the din of panic: a code word to trigger them into action, suppressing local cameras and taking measures to ensure their identities aren't subverted as they spring into action.

Don't judge Kori— Rose picked the phrase.


As the guns are pulled out, and the hoods come on, people start noticing here, and there, where the armed men and women are scattered about through the very large crowd. A few screams rise up, and panic starts to set into the masses. Word spreads quickly.

"Shit," Rose mutters, for once upset that violence is ensuing. She had actually been enjoying herself. "No, it's not good," she agrees with Chris. "I bet Kori's going to be able to handle things up there." She grunts, "We'll need to do what we can. This is going to get messy."

Around them, people buffet them as everyone tries to move, it's a sea of chaos already, everyone moving, mostly, in one direction - towards the exits but it makes getting to the trouble makers all that much more difficult.

The thug that had been near them that Sarah had interrupted grunts, but Sarah will feel the impact armor beneath the black hoodie the fellow was wearing. It drives him back a step, and while he's not able to get his gun ready, he's clearly a master at fighting and he aims a steel-toed kick to her kneecap, "Don't interfere," he warns. "Or we'll open fire on the crowd." The voice - oddly - lacks any passion, or emotion. It's flat. Matter-of-fact. Cold. Logical.

Kori manages to destroy one of the guns another thug was holding, but it turns out to be a move that, while effective, has disasterous results. The black-masked woman holding that gun steps back from Kori and flicks the pin off one of the grenades immediately. There is a countdown of three, before there is a wailing shriek and shrill of audible hell that pierces the brain, and to most who hear it will set in a sort of unpleasent vertigo within the range of about 100 ft - to those outside that range it's just really unpleasent sound that lasts for about thirty seconds before abruptly ending. It makes the security, and most of the citizens around kneel down, or fall onto the floor.

The rogue stage-hand, however, hands the baggie filled with the tech to another of the black-hooded men who nods once, then turns and makes to leave. Those in the black hoods do not seem to be affected by the screaming grenades.


It's a good thing that Chris hadn't taken another sip because when Noh-Varr continues, a bright red flush creeps up his neck all the way to his ears, and he coughs again, though this time not quite choking-induced. "I .. uh.. doubt that" he stammers awkwardly, almost forgetting about the people with backpacks. It's only the sight of the weapons that keeps him from dying from embarassment on the spot before the fighting begins.

He quickly dives behind a food cart whose owner abandoned it. When he is certain no one is paying attention in the chaos, the Darkhawk comes out the other side, quite a bit larger and a good deal more game-face than Chris was, given the avian mask that covers its visage, whatever visage might lie within that armor. When the shrieking grenades go off, however, both hands go instinctively to the helmet of the suit, even though there are no ears there to cover. "Fuck.." comes that dual-voice as Darkhawk works to adjust his hearing, head ringing a bit before he can get his bearings again.


'Or we'll open fire on the crowd.' is probably the one thing that would get Noh-Varr to pause and he does so, not attacking yet in case the threat is a real one. And then he drops to a knee as that horribly shrill sound pierces not just his ears but his entire body since his skin is an auditory sense organ. It takes him a few seconds to reroute the pain signals so he just feels pleasantly warm instead and then rises back to his feet.


"Kori!" Alison squeals in alarm as the tall woman rushes towards danger. She is sure that the alien can handle herself but there could be a lot of collateral damage; she is being jostled by a lot of people already as they try to run. And then that loud noise so close by. Alison doesn't flinch. Absorbing it all, relishing the power it gives her. "Okay, you don't have problems with sound" she mutters to herself about the masked personages. "So I'll try something nice before getting violent." With most of the crowd hopefully head down in pain or disorientated, Alison unleashes a ridiculously bright blast of light all around her to blind anyone still standing. Hopefully those masks aren't light protected as well.


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The Apache really wasn't expecting something quite so blatant as 'we'll just murder everyone if you don't surrender'. On the other hand, she's not thinking people pull out guns like this because they're going to go for a happy walk in the park. Her eyes narrow, but before she answer the grenade goes off, causing her to stagger, covering her ears, off balance for a moment as she reflexively pushes off from the ground to float rather tahn fall, soaring up and back out of range of the grenade.


Riri staggers, before she manages to cut external audio with a quick series of eye movements. "Shit." «Unknown devices identified: Sonic Grenades.» "…I really need to work on your processing speed. Call Sarah Rainmaker." Closing on the masked gunman, she goes for a shoulder grab and lift with one hand, the other moving to crush the sonic grenades on his chest. "Try anything, and you'll get a repulsor beam in the gut." Fortunately, she's facing away from the stage, although her vision still dims somewhat as her helmet compensates for the massive flash from behind.


Tamaraneans are pretty hardy. Being able to fly through the corona of the sun and endure the impact of superhumans puts them at quite an advantage. Kori winces and floats into the air a few inches, her balance betraying her but her sense of gravitational orientation unaffected.

Partially deafened, though, she can't communicate verbally and she doesn't hear the gunman's threats. So she violently shoves at the first attacker to make space for Alison to do her thing. Kori's off the ground and streaks over the crowd in a green blur, red hair whipping in her wake, and aims a shoulder tackle right at another gunman to knock him down rather than screw around with trying to politely disarm them.


Tucking the baggie into a duffel bag that he'd been carrying, the man with the black mask starts to walk away from the concert stage, and away from the bustling, panicking crowd as the shrieking grenade's sound comes to a blessed conclusion for all hearing it. Quite a few people have gotten sick, though, and remain on the ground in misery and fear.

"This is a fucking mess," Rose snarls, before she, like Noh-Varr, is sent to her knees, hands pinned against her ears, her one eye slitted to near-closed, but not quite. When the sound stops, she looks at Noh-Varr and Chr— well, he's gone. She sees Darkhawk in the distance. She looks back at Noh-Varr, and signals she's going to take the thug near them down that's foused on Sarah floating away down without saying a word. She crawls towards him. He says aloud, "We've got hero action. Flyer. Send the package."

He doesn't get to say much more as Rose does a leg sweep, followed by a throat chop that he clearly wasn't expecting, then she bashes his head into the ground two, three, times until he goes limp. Unconscious, but not dead.

At the same time, there's a motherfucking lightshow from both Heaven and Hell as Alison literally turns on all the lights - blinding several hooded men and causing them to put their arms up to cover their eyes. HEr gamble paid off, for the moment and Ironheart is able to take advantage of that space and as she crushes the sonic grenades, the man doesn't seem afraid of a sonic ruplusor beam to the gut, instead he states, "Send the package," over whatever comm system they're using
Another gunmen goes down at Kori's hand, but this one doesn't get the chance to pop a grenade. That one, too, is knocked unconscious.

And then the 'packages' come. Hurtling through the air, as if launched from some distance by a trebuchet - massive metric tons slabs of concrete that look iike they were ripped out of the street, hurtling towards the crowd. And the men in the black hoods. Who do not seem very concerned that they could be as flattened as the heroes - or the crowd.


Christopher Powell launches into the air as soon as he sees those "packages" come flying out of the sky toward him. Without even thinking about it, he takes aim for one that looks like it might land in a big clump of people, and attempts to redirect its flight mid-air, trying to slow its descent and guide it to somewhere that it will not smash a whole lot of people. Fortunately, Darkhawk is a hell of a lot stronger than Chris is, or he'd be the Flat Avenger.


Packages? It doesn't take long for Noh-Varr's silent question to be answered as he sees the slabs coming toward them and the crowd. The Nega-Bands glow and he shoots up into the sky, his battle gauntlet becoming his usual blaster in his hand. He doesn't bother taking any time to aim; they'd be hard to miss. At full power, he fires at as many of the slabs as he can, trying to break them up into pieces small enough to be no worse than hail.


"That's not good" Alison pouts up at the sky as concrete blocks fall towards the crowd…which, unfortunately for her, she is part of. Not putting too much thought into it since there isn't time, she raises her hands to shoot lasers from her fingertips. Like Noh-Varr, all she can hope is that they explode into less harmful pieces. Alison is in no way trained for this kind of thing, working off the cuff to do the best she can thing of at the time. At least she isn't panicking. Yet.


As the two men take to the air (well, that explains how Rose knows them), Sarah is finally out of the grenade's effects after it's destroyed. And her phone is ringing. She'll get to that momentarily…first there are bits of rock raining down on the crowd after the blocks are smashed.

She couldn't anything about the chunks of rock that BIG…but small ones…

There's a crackle of energy across Sarah's eyes as she lifts her hands slightly. A howling wind suddenly roars over the crowd out of nowhere, the wind parting around the other fliers in the area to slam like a wall into the pieces of debris, catching hold of them and sending them pattering away from the crowd itself.

Then she'll at least look at her phone. Could be Rose! Or someone! Wait, no, she's got her earbud…in her pocket. Somewhere…She pulls the phone out, flicking it on. "Kinda busy, can I call you back!?"


Quickly crushing the barrels of the thug's guns, Riri tosses him back over her shoulder as her armor's radar starts screaming about several LARGE things incoming. "Air Defense Mode. Full power, wide dispersion. Turn these things into gravel." She /really/ wishes she'd finished that prototype repulsor micro-missile right now… The armor takes over aiming, Riri's arms shifting as the armor finalizes its target lock… And all the rocks shatter into gravel. Huh. "Tell me if more rocks come in. Disengage Air Defense until then." She turns towards a few of the blinded thugs, moving to engage them as well, when the call finally connects, and she cuts the external speakers. "Sarah. I'm here too, Can you hook me into your team's comms? I've got my external mic offline due to the sonics, I can't hear any of you otherwise."


Kori flickers into the air but she's checked by the flash of light and lasers from below as people blast the slabs into dust, and Sarah whips up a wind to deflect or slow the rest. The damage below is significant, but the fatalities definitely are lower than they would have been.

She whips through the air in a blur of green and red, fast as a hawk and more agile than a housefly. Hands whip through the air to try and disable and knock down as may of the gunmen as possible, though she's ever-careful about not killing anyone.

A little polite maiming, of course, is fine.


Darkhawk manages to 'catch' one of the massive slabs of concrete, but the velocity and weight of it will carry him within a few hundred feet of the ground before he's able to control it, and then redirect it. There's a small cheer from those that otherwise would've been flattened, but - one of the men in the black masks below him, that would've most likely been flattened also? Opens fire on Darkhawk with one of the pistols, as if he were determined, even upon his own death, to make sure that 'package' got delivered.

Noh-Varr proves effective against the 'packages' too, though it may take him two or three shots on each larger slab before it's small enough to be no more than a nuisance or only cause minor flesh wounds rather than death or serious injury - but Rainmaker's sudden windstorm even that won't bother the crowd as the heroes seem to fall into a synch of their fighting, teaming up and utilizing their abilities to true potency. The blasting of asphalt and concrete and the windstorm that follows illict another cheer from the crowd, and a, "I really gotta get me some of those," from Rose (in reference to Noh-Varr's Nega-Bands) who only now stands up, holding her arm over her head against the rain of tiny pebbles of the stuff that falls down.

Another one of those slabs is nuked by the continual lightshow that Alison is putting on - laser's from her fingertips? That's definitely a new one for Rose who narrows her eyes in thought at the singer, now-turned tatical fighter. "Huh," she says to herself. "Never would've guessed. Bitch was hiding it from me," she says to herself, and more are caught up into the winds, hurtled away from the crowd.

Rose calls through the team-channel, "Encountered these jackholes last week. They've got a cement-kinetic on their side, and a pure kinetic. And some really jacked up tech. The henchmen aren't your normal thugs. Skilled combatants. Ravager over." Then, she's moving through the crowd to try to get towards the escaping fellow.

Said fellow is nowhere to be seen, at least amongst the many faces and crowd, though. Instead, distantly, some may hear the sound of a motor kicking on. as he mounts a motorcycle he'd somehow stashed on the scene and away some from the stage. The bike is gunned, and takes off at a high speed. "Continue defending," he calls into the comms.

Kori manages to take out another four of the gunmen with her rocket-speed and seemingly chaotic, but well-calculated methodology of fighting.

It leaves four more of the black hoods remaining standing, and each of them moves to pull a grenade pin to double down on ensuring the getaway is gotten away before they try to make their escape, and even then none of them are moving towards their fallen comrades.

Those up high? Might be high enough to evade the effects of the sound. But they'll also get a hail of gunfire after those grenades are pulled.


'Lucky that wind came up to take care of the debris', Alison thinks to herself, but no time for thinking too hard on it. There are still baddies and they have grenades. Grenades that will replenish Alison's power nicely but she doesn't want anyone here to suffer for her benefit - that's the job of music critics. Her fingerlasers turning on the remaining hoods in masks. The lasers now cauterizing narrow beams that burn through clothing, armor, and whatever their bodies are made of, to destroy wrists and grips on weapons. Rendering, hopefully, bad guy hands useless though she is no doctor and may be doing more damage than she hopes. She also won't get them all herself before pins are pulled.


Gunfire opens up below Chris, and the suit takes several shots, one or two tearing through. There's a hiss and then he spreads his wings, bringing them in front of him like a shield before turning toward the sound of that motor, and he's off like a shot in the direction of the one who is getting away, attempting to catch up to him while the remaining thugs face the rest of the team. This time, the sound doesn't affect him at all, given that he's adjusted what he hears through the armor, and can focus better. The Darkhawk weaves through the air, doing his best to avoid the gunfire from below. He takes another shot, but it doesn't seem to slow him down.


Noh-Varr didn't actually see the guy on stage so known nothing about what was stolen. The sound of a bike is as significant as the sound of a car door slamming shut or the distant sirens. With the concrete taken care of, he looks down at the remaining gunmen. There's no obvious settings on the blaster since it responds to his thoughts and he dials it back from 'shatter concrete' to 'almost shatter bone'. It's not an exact science of course so hopefully it's 'almost'. Any return fire he just shrugs off. It doesn't even tickle.


Sarah blinks a bit at the phone as she quickly flies up a bit higher as she sees the grenades going off…there's not been a lot of coordination as of yet, so she doesn't see the motorcycle getting away, or she'd give chase! Or, you know, downdraft to knock him over. "Uh, well, I'm not sure how to do that…" the Apache starts to say, before she sees loooooots of people pointing guns at her. "…oh shit!" And she drops, rapidly, to try to avoid the incoming fire. Because she is very much not bulletproof!


Dialing her repulsors back down to 'punt someone twenty feet with minor burns', Riri engages the remaining mooks as they try to pop grenades and shoot up at Darkhawk. "Sarah! Get clear!" Darkhawk is probably a bit more bulletproof than Sarah, so she shifts her fire towards the thugs aiming at the only one of the YA she's spoken to for more than three sentences, charging the gunmen and firing until they /stay down/.


The team's learning fast. Kori startles when Riri flies overhead, and the Ironheart almost gets a starbolt to the visor for her trouble. But her body language screams 'helping', and she's casting blaster bolts down at the thugs below.

Something to sort out later. Kori slows her chaotic evasions and flares a little brighter. She's an appealing target, and is laying down a hail of starbolts at anyone still looking combative. They're turned down low, but the effect's still like a microwave emitter to the face, instantly causing intense sunburns in the criminals shooting upwards. Bullets bounce off her skin, but force nothing more than a grimace and a hand moving slightly to help shield her eyes.


The sonic grenades may not slow Darkhawk down, but something else does. The motorcycle rider turns to look behind himself, a black helmet hiding his features. Darkhawk will have the time to register a palm-held tech device in his hand right before it fires a beam of light towards the very fast persuing figure. Unfortunately for Darkhawk, it does not matter how fast he dodges the trajectory, it blossoms into a huge explosion of light - and then something terrifying happens as Darkhawk is suddenly is frozen in place in the air - the suit itself may still fly, his mind still works as far as processes of thought - but it's like one of those dreams where you are frozen in place, and no matter how much you struggle you can't move, no matter how much you want to. And the effect will keep him in this state for the next thirty seconds which is more than enough time for the escapee to get out of sight

The motorcyclist turns back around, and disappears down the road, melding with traffic and becoming just another driver on the road. To turn into a enclosed parking lot, or even into a building. He's disappeared, somewhere. Whatever they stole, was stolen successfully.

Between Dazzler's continued lightshow, Kori's starbolts, Ironheart's and Noh-Varr's actions, the remaining hooded thugs are neatly taken care of, and yes, there is blood, and pain - laser scalpals will do that to a person, afterall. And with all the danger gone, the crowd still confused, in chaos, but slowly the collective is starting to become aware that none of them are dead yet and the threat seems to be gone.

After the sonic grenade serenade has ended, Rose gets off of her feet, and mutters, "I /really/ wanna murder those assholes," to herself, off the comms. Then, on the comms she grunts, "I think we're clear, gang. Everyone okay?" It's hard to tell, they're so scattered.


Christopher Powell is frozen in the air and there's a snarl that comes from both he and the suit as that flash of light captures him and doesn't let him go. It's clear that he is struggling against it, attempting to move, but the blinding light seems to have done something to him, to the suit, that keeps him from reacting for some time. When he finally breaks free, he flies back to that piece of concrete he managed to lower to the ground and slams his fist into it, hard, sending a large hunk flying off and crashing to the ground. Someone might have a few anger management issues.


She may have got away with it on Memorial Day but Alison has a feeling her powers have been seen by quite a few people today. The woman looking a little embarrassed as the crowd start to slowly calm down. Is Kori okay? Is Kori ever not okay? That flying is so cool. Though there is a silver lining in all this - she might be able to see a few more t-shirts.


Kori's swooping around to bind the wrists of the criminal confederates and fly them onto the stage in a growing pile. No one seems like they're bleeding out, but they'll all need medical care. She sports some black streaks that mar her flawless skin (and her outfit's ruined), but she seems unharmed.

"I— Rose! I hear you now," Kori informs the mercenary woman. She flies over to her friend, hovering three feet off the ground. "I am relieved everyone is 'the okay'," she says, looking around for Alison to make sure she's unharmed as well. "I do not think we have long before we must quit this place. Rally at the rooftop over there?" she says, pointing at a distant building.

She glances at the armored Ironheart. "You fought valiantly," she inforsm the girl. "You are welcome to join us as well, but we must leave, immediately!" She offers a sturdy shoulder to anyone who needs a lift, and then sets a course to fly off in a trail of red and green.


Rainmaker pokes her head back up as the last of the baddies are handly taken down, flying over to hear Kori's suggestion. "Probably best…" she says, waving to Ironheart now that she's close enough to clearly see her. "Let's get up there and figure out this mess…the police can handle this." She frowns. "Anyone know what they took?"


With all the attackers downed, Riri finally lowers her arms, repulsors powering down with a soft whine. She just remembers to turn her mic on before heading towards the others, careful not to step on anybody. Even the bad guys probably don't need a nasty compound fracture. "Sorry if there were any coordination issues. I had to turn off my external mic because of the sonics, so I couldn't hear anyone, and I'm not on your comms… I'm Ironheart, by the way. I don't think I saw at the time, but I might be able to play back the footage from my helmet cam and see it?" She nods as Kori points towards the meeting point, straightening up into her 'flight posture' before lifting off as well.


Rose nods to Kori, "Good job," she says, "Lightshow really did a number on the assholes," she informs the alien dancer, and fellow team-member. Of course, she means Alison.

A frown over to Darkhawk, "Let me guess. You got - timelocked? Asshole did it to me, few days ago." She can understand that anger. Very, very well. "They're damn well organized. Come on. Let's go meet the others. Then I'll buy you a beer. Give Lightshow a ride, if you can?"

Then, she will accept that 'lift' from Kori to the rooftop yonder, even as the authorities arrive, along with several ambulances, and fire trucks to make proper arrests, health care, and direct the crowd out, and to safety and lock the scene down.


Christopher Powell mutters something under his breath and then gives the concrete another slug before he finally pulls away from it and nods to Rose, apparently having heard her despite his preoccupation with his own frustration. "Going to need to find something to counter that." But he nods then when she asks him to give Lightshow a ride, looking around until he finds her. "You alright with me picking you up?" he asks, beacuse he's not going to hoist someone into the air without their permission.


It looks like they're leaving anyway. Alison is a little surprised by Christopher's question but she ends up nodding. "Just let me grab something." She disappears for a moment before returning with a box of t-shirts. Alison looks at the box, thinks for a moment, and then yells to the crowd. "Free t-shirts for everyone!" Dropping the box she nods to her lift. "Ready."


Sarah is waiting when everyone catches up. "So what the hell was that?" she says, frowning. "You said you ran into these guys before?" she asks of Rose. The Apache girl is suprisingly not looking very shaken up at least by being shot at. It's not like it hasn't happened before.

As Ironheart arrives, she says. "Uh, so, armor girl here is cool? She works with Stark. Captain Marvel can vouch for her too."


Once they're all landed, Kori rests her hands on her hips and looks at the others. "It seems no one is badly hurt," she says, once they've looked each other all over for injuries. Well done, friends!" she cheers. "I am very proud of you."

At Sarah's introduction, Kori waves once at Ironheart. "Hello, Armor Girl. If Rainmaker vouches for you, then you are a friend of mine as well. My codename is Starfire, and Rose tells me I'm not allwoed to tell people our 'real names'," she says, pointing vaguely at Ravager.

She looks back to Sarah. "I do not know what was taken, but I was not looking for thieves," she admits to Sarah. "They were well armed and well equipped."


"Hey." Riri waves, somehow still managing to be a bit shy despite wearing a walking tank. "Um… It's Ironheart, actually. And yeah, I met Rainmaker on my first test flight. I think I also ran into Ravager a bit ago when that big metal guy attacked. It's good to meet the rest of you, though. Hang on a sec, just have to extract the clip…" She stares off into the distance for a moment, before Sarah's phone would buzz again. "Okay. Sent you the file."


Once Alison seems ready, Chris steps up to her and wraps his arms around her and lifts her up into the air, flying her over to the roof and setting her down gently with the others. For all his cement-punching frustration, he seems to have settled, and is gentle in his transport of Alison, stepping away once she has her feet. Then he looks over toward the others and says, "Darkhawk," by way of introduction, to those who don't know him.


"The call themselves 'The Nothing' apparently," Rose says once to Kori, muttering, "Thanks. For not using our real names. Starfire."

She shakes her head, rolls her one eye, and remarks, "Nice movies, Lightshow." Then, she smirks some. "Great. A Stark wanna-be. Well, Armor-Girl, let's hope you're a party animal like Stark. It's his one halfway decent quality, if what I hear is true." She shrugs, indifferently.

"Anyways," she goes on, ignoring the fact Riri wants to be called Ironheart, "Yeah. I've run into them, once before, along with Blackbird, and another friend." Said friend is not named.

"They're well-armed. And, the ones in masks don't seem to care if they die or not." Which is fairly unsettling. "They pull out all the damn tricks. And they got some shit-nasty tech. Stole something from an armored car, but left all the money when Blackbird and I stopped them."

She exhales. "My guess is this isn't their last stop, either. They seem to be taking new tech, though not sure what they took this time, or last. But if it takes an armored car to escort it, it's likely either really valuable, or a prototype. Probably both."


"Nice to meet you, Darkhawk." Riri bites her lip inside her helmet, sighing a bit. Great. Looks like Captain Cyclops isn't going to like her. Hopefully the others do, at least. "We could exchange contact information if you want to talk more about working together? I'm kind of on my own right now."


Christopher Powell nods to Riri, but it's impossible to tell what he's feeling. The mask of the suit of armor has no expression whatsoever. His attention seems to focus entirely on Rose after a bit, and what she has to tell them about The Nothing. "Going to need to try and track them down, figure out what they got from Oscorp if we can. Maybe that'll give us an idea of what was in the truck. Should also try to track what was in the armored car back to the source." He considers for a moment and then says, "And figure out a way to counter some of that tech." He looks around at those gathered and says, "I'm going to make a couple of calls. I'll catch you guys in a bit." And with that, he takes off into the air, and circles away from the group.


Lightshow? It may be accurate but she already has a 'stage name'. "Just call me 'Dazzler'" Alison suggests since they're using their made-up names. Darkhawk? Starfire? Ironheart? She's not in Kansas anymore…not that she's ever been there. "Nice to meet you all…those I haven't met before. And nice to see the rest of you again. 'The Nothing'?" That makes Alison giggle a little. "Sorry. Not really a good name for promoting yourselves. 'Who was responsible?''Nothing.' See? Sorry, not a laughing matter." A wave goodbye to Darkhawk as he zooms off.


Rainmaker quirks a brow at Kori, her lips twitching. "…Rainmaker. Which is my actual name, so it doesn't matter. Sarah Rainmaker. Hey." She nods to everyone, then hehs at Dazzler. "It's very mythic to declare yourself nobody to convine them to run around saying 'nobody robbed me!' and 'nothing stole something'!" She frowns. "…though that was…weird. I mean, sure, they had firepower, but they already grabbed the thing. And they were threatening to just open fire on the crowd randomly. Thieves don't do that…it means the police are looking for them a lot harder than if they just stole something, right?"


"Dazzler. Got it." Riri's HUD helpfully tags the singer with her now updated codename. "I'm going to be working on some more less lethal stuff in my next suit upgrade that should let me deal with things like this a big better next time. Nice job with the wind to slow down the rocks, Rainmaker. …And yeah. It means they're really serious about this. I'll look at the video I got back at my lab too, forward any relevant stuff to the police."


Kori is looking off the edge of the building as a police response screeches up to the music festival. "It seems the local constabulary has arrived," she tells the others, cutting over the conversation. "I think it'd be prudent for us to move once again. Let us take our friends to the Secret Hangout, and we shall continue to de their briefs once we are in a more secure location. Friend Ironheart Actually, you will need to fly close to me so as to not be targeted by the sensors. Chris, will you take Alison?" she asks Darkhawk. Ooops. Secret names again. "I will carry Rose. Let us convene there and decide our next course of action," she says, and ushers the others to fly towards the security of a secure safehouse on the edge of the Harbor district.


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