Summary:Anonymous Armed Gunmen Borrow Diamonds Log Info:Storyteller: Fairchild |
Related LogsTheme Song{$themesong} |
    |
The Diamond Exchange - THIS Diamond Exchange - is in a relatively upscale neighborhood; right down the street you'll find a furrier and an oxygen bar, and the mall not too far away is one of the sort that offers a 150-percent markup as proof you're part of the bourgeoisie. It's a non-descript building, grey brick with no windows, and you'd never guess it was a diamond exchange if not for the helpful phrase 'DIAMOND EXCHANGE' on the side of the building in five-foot-high letters.
In New York City, you might also be able to discern the fact that it's a diamond exchange from the LITTLE things. The unmarked white vans parked several yards from the western wall in places that vans would not normally be parked. That the lights are on even now, long after a business of that nature would have closed for the evening. The way that the western wall explodes outwards in a cloud of dust; the firing of automatic weapons; the deafening roar of alarms set off by shaped charges exploding.
The LITTLE things.
In New York City, there are only two real routes to a successful robbery:
You go QUIET, or you go FAST.
And, if QUIET fails, you make damn sure that FAST is an option.
Men in masks and body armor, all heavily armed, begin to pour from the smoking hole in the side of the building and swiftly pile into the waiting vans.
So…
Tommy Wisdom was just eating a cheeseburger across the street, happy that his classes are still in working order and he's totally ready to go back to college. This was his celebratory meal. Then, of course, there's a BOOM and these chumps are heading into waiting vans. It really doesn't help that they are armed to the teeth.
Wisdom frowns.
He takes a deep breath. "Its okay, Wisdom. you deal with supernatural threats. There's more than enough heroes to-….oh FINE."
the resident sorcerer stands up from his table and performs a hand gesture, allowing himself to levitate as he floated towards the crooks! Though he's not really a superhero…
Sarah is…well, not far, as it happens, as she's actually been on patrol today. Complete with the outfit she took from the facilty she escaped at, though she's added Western fringed boots to the ensemble as she soars over the city, letting the winds carry her.
And when the explosions and the plume of smoke from them rise over the upscale neighborhood, she accelerates, shooting forward as she gets a birds-eye view of what's happening below.
Which is to not play fair, as she summons an extremely powerful gust of wind and slams it into the side of the fans as she soars overhead, trying to simply knock them over with a hurricane force blast. It's not like the windows on that side of the building aren't shattered anyway, right?
As regards Caitlin Fairchild, her reasons for being in the area are mundane, and understandable, and not of any real interest.
(If you *must* know, the nearby mall plays home to a shop stocking Women's Particulars geared towards the ever-growing mutate/mutant/gamma-irradiated populace. Sometimes, a sports bra isn't really a sports bra unless it's made with interwoven titanium fibers.)
There is, on the part of the statuesque redhead, a measured sigh. She takes the bag, and she zips it up inside of the hoodie that she wears. She does not, if we're being honest, expect either to last much beyond the next few minutes.
Far more interesting to everyone else, of course, is the fact that heavily armed gunmen continue to emerge from the (now beginning to smolder, scattered fires visible on the carpeting inside) demolished wall. They fire quite willingly at the guards remaining inside - those few who've managed to gather their courage and mount some last-ditch slowing maneuver in the hopes some of New York's innumerable super-people will arise - and, soon enough, at aforementioned super-people.
A fair number are slammed against one of the vans, several bowled over; they, for the moment, are pinned. The other two vans suffer no such complication, and began to flee the scene.
It has been an interesting few weeks for Joao. His enrollment at the university got derailed by Hank McCoy. As derailed as you could get, really, considering that he ended up registering for classes… somewhere else.
This is his first weekend back. He needs to do a few things- see how he can get out of the lease for the apartment he rented, get his things to the school, etcetera. As a welcome respite from all the packing, he decided to go out on the town a bit. Maybe get something to eat.
Those plans got derailed fast, though, as no sooner had he sat down that people in the food joint were going this way and that, their voices raised at an uncomfortable level.
You'd think they'd never heard an explosion before.
In the confusion, it's not too hard to run into the bathroom and change clothes, since he makes a habit of wearing his outfit under his clothes most of the time. He extracts the visor from his backpack and then stuffs the backpack with his old clothes under the sink.
When Bronco arrives, things have picked up. He is a little disappointed that he is not the first on the scene- but of course he wouldn't be. Not in this city, anyways.
Watching the robbers pile into the vans, and seeing two of them trying to get away, he runs as fast as he can, channeling energy all the way, trying to intercept one of the vans. Hopefully, he can get in close enough to use his blast field and kick one of them off-course… hopefully.
He's young, reckless and inexperienced. What could go wrong, right?
This is where Tommy comes in!
As the vans that don't appear to be stuck start to flee, Wisdom makes a gesture with his hand, casting a spell that would cause the earth beneath one or both of the vans (depending on how fast he can get it done) to rise up and grip the vans in place, effectively trapping it.
Or at least that would be the hope.
Seems these crooks just…picked the wrong damn day.
Sarah mmphs. Not enough practice…she was hoping to push the vans over so they couldn't escape. But she can't go pursue the vans while the remaining gunmen are still firing on the police. She makes a tch noise, then brings her hands forward, her eyes glowing as the gusts of wind suddenly become gusts of sleet aimed at temporarily blinding the gunmen, trying to distract them from being able to take a clean shot. Also making their footing questionable as the ground starts to freeze where the ice cold muck hits.
Following a running start - one that involves precious little running - Caitlin launches herself into the air with enough power that a footprint is left embedded in the pavement.
Her trajectory is so skillful and so practiced, so expertise, that her lower back manages to absorb the entirety of Sarah's blast and to send her crashing down to the ground with enough force to leave a small crater in the path of one of the fleeing vans, which hooks a sharp turn exactly at the right moment to steer directly into the blast projected by Bronco, which in turn guides it into the field projected by Wisdom - where it begins to wildly spin around in mid-air.
Truly, it is an orchestra of heroism.
The gunmen in the other van slam on the brakes to avoid the Caitlin-crater, turning and beginning to flee in the other direction; several open the back doors, and begin firing wildly. Those left behind are only now collecting themselves (and their ill-gotten gains, much of which are scattered on the ground).
"Hey, it worked!" Joao is so overjoyed at his first intervention turning out so well that he wastes time contemplating his handywork. This is a terrible error because he can't charge up his field unless he is in motion and delivering kicks within a certain span of time. The result is that by the time he has started to run towards the van that, wisely, is trying to go the other way, he is starting out from zero again.
The back doors opening are not a good sign, and the only reason his maroon-and-gold bodysuit are not sporting some unplanned air-holes is because he does have enough common sense to Get A Bad Feeling About This and tries to take cover.
He does so by using his acrobatic ability to go into a flip after making a quick ninety-degree change in trajectory, towards cover.
It's a good flip, really- good form, graceful enough, and his bounce back from it and sprint are not too bad, either.
The problem, and the part where the judges hold up a row of zeroes, comes from him stepping onto a very slippery surface which he really *should* have kept in mind, after Sarah cooled the gunmen's enthusiasm earlier.
Rookie mistake, nobody's fault but his. However, this is no consolation for Bronco as he takes a spill and ends up flat on his back, the air knocked out of him. He blinks a couple of times, trying to make sense of the world that has suddenly decided to become a lot more vivid, and rather blurry, as Cait, Tommy and Sarah make their moves.
Success!
Wisdom descends from the sky quickly, creating a magic circle in his hands (like the ones seen and used at Kamar-Taj, for the knowledgeable) and from those circles, he fires eldritch bolts of pure magic energy at the crooks! Hoping to knock out some of them with the non-lethal series of blasts.
He notices some of the other heroes. A red-headed battle-tank, a weather-woman, and…a dude who probably just broke his back on the ground. Ouch. He looks at him. "Uh…you okay man?"
Awkward.
The sudden arrival of Caitlin definitely draws the attention….specifically of Rainmaker, who promptly does a doubletake as she sees her. "Fairchild?!?" she blurts out, her mind racing. She didn't /know/ Caitlin was still in New York! She thought she was long gone by this point!
That just makes her want to finish this all the faster…therefore, she looks down at the now wet gunmen in the neat little circle where she dropped wet, wet slush on them and under the…then holds out a hand as lightning crawls across her arm and down her fingers before expelling from the tips with a sharp *CRACK* as the electricity plays over the wet surface…and the bad guys standing on it. Not enough to fry them, but definitely enough to drop them like a taser.
"Hi," comes the calmly measured response from Caitlin Fairchild, super-strong, super-smart, invulnerable brick.
"I fell."
Caitlin pulls herself out of the crater she managed to create in the middle of the street - her hoodie is in tatters, the bag she put beneath it now somewhere in the bottom of a rubble-filled pit - and brushes dust from out of her hair.
"Are they still getting away?"
The answer is a resounding No:
One van-full spins in place, its occupants effectively disarmed and severely nauseated.
One, the recipient of a slew of eldritch bolts, loses control - it smashes into a parked car, flips onto its side and skids several meters down the street.
The other - well, the other was a failure to launch entirely, and those gathered there now find themselves singed, wet, and temporarily paralyzed.
The collateral damage should tally up to less than the cost of the stolen merchandise, making this event - by the metrics of superheroics - a thoroughly resounding if less than photogenic success.
Bronco frons as a man floats down from the sky to greet him. He blinks a couple more times and says, somewhat absently, "Are you an angel? Did I die?"
He winces. No, he most definitely did not die. Fortunately his visor wraps around the back of his head and has the appropriate level of padding to keep his melon from splitting.
His mother would be proud. And then she'd be apopleptic after finding out what her son was up to.
"Unghh… I'm okay, I think." He sits up slowly, rubbing his back before he finally gets up on his haunches, and then stands up.
"Oh, wow, it's over already?" the young man asks, taking a good look at the scene. Things move quickly, in hero-land. "At least I was able to help some… is this your team?" he asks Tommy, nodding towards Fairchild and Sarah. He manages to hear Fairchild's question and says, "I think they're pretty bagged." He winces. Ouch, that's going to leave a bruise.
Wisdom gives Bronco a bit of a grin. "Good to hear." Then it looks like this weather chick and the red-head (who's name is apparently Fairchild) apparently know each other, which makes Wisdom raise a brow. Well, its not like Wisdom is inherently photogenic anyway, but he does float over to everybody present. Most people were out like a light as he lands down on the ground, looking at everybody.
"Nice job everybody." then to Bronco, and Tommy chuckles. "Yeah, its over. But don't worry, you tried, and thats what matters." Aw, friendly Wisdom is friendly.
But then to Fairchild and Rainmaker. "You two okay over there!?"
Leaving the cuffing of the downed thugs to the police (now that things appear to be safe), Caitlin will have a moment where a shadow falls over her before Sarah tackle hugs into her from above! "Fairchild!" she says happily, squeezing the larger woman as she sort of…well, hangs off her, because Caitlin is hella tall. "You're okay! You're here! When did you get here?!?" the Apache says excitedly. She peers at the others as Tommy speaks. "Yes, thanks for the help!"
"Oh, yes. Hello! I'm fine, I'm - well, 'impossible' to hurt might be hyperbolic but it conveys the essentially the truth of the matter. I'm /next/ to impossible to hurt."
Despite the crater, the dust, and the fact that her outfit has been so reliably converted to shop rags, Caitlin is entirely unharmed; no cuts, no scrapes, no bruises of any sort despite the severity of the impact and the intensity of the energy blast she unintentionally absorbed.
Sarah's hug is returned, though - for self-apparent reasons - with far more measured strength. "Hey! I haven't seen you since - well, the thing, at - the place."
Subtle.
"I've been here for a couple of months now. But with a population of more than eight million, I suppose it stands to reason there wasn't a huge chance of us just running into one another."
"So… this is my first time, so I'm not sure how this goes. Do we give our made-up names or…?" Bronco asks, being drawn into the exchange. He doesn't interrupt Caitlin as she answers Sarah. He looks around and looks a little antsy, before awkwardly waving once he finds a hole in the conversation. "I'm Bronco! Er. I'm new." He smiles at the assembled heroes, for a moment he looks uncertain of what to do with his hands. Does he offer them for a hand-shake? Do superheroes shake hands? Good questions for Professor McCoy, perhaps… he decides to play it safe and puts his hands on his hips. That was superhero-appropriate, right?
Tommy looks at Bronco with a raised brow. "Whichever one are you more comfortable with? Name's Tommy Wisdom." He gives a two-fingered salute to Bronco, before he looks over at Sarah and Fairchild. "….maybe I should go, let them have their reunion." he says with a wave to the ladies as he opens a fiery portal to what looks like…a beach?
He waits for Bronco to introduce himself, before he'll just grin and walk through the portal, the gateway closing behind him.
Sarah mmmphs. "Well yes, but I wish I'd known…" she grumbles, releasing Caitling to drop back to her feet as she steps back a bit, then turns to face the other two gentlemen. "Mmm, well, I'm not big on super names….you can call me Sarah, or Rainmaker, or both, since they're my names." she says amusedly, then turns her attention to Tommy, blinking at the portal. "Ah…nice to meet you Mr. Wisdom…you don't need to dart off on our account it's just…." She looks at Caitlin. "I was worried, and I hadn't seen her in a while." She pats Catilin's stomach. "Hey…so, the Young Avengers rescued me. REcruited me either. We're totally staying in the Baxter Building."
She seems prepared to introduce herself to Tommy, quite likely only to find him already departed.
"Hi, Bronco. My name is Caitlin, Caitlin Fairchild. I never really did the nom du cape thing - codenames, masks, all of that. When you're a six-and-a-half-foot tall redhead you can't really pretend to be anything but another six-and-a-half-foot tall redhead."
It's a statement in absolute defiance of the established wisdom of superheroics. She then compounds it further by listing off her major social media accounts - Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. She even offers her Facebook name - "But," she explains, "I never really use that one."
"I don't do a little really - 'active' vigilante stuff, lately? But I'm always happy to lend a hand when I come across something like this or when anyone needs help, you know?"
To Sarah, she offers, "Oh, wow, the Baxter Building? I'd love a tour sometime. I'm staying with - well, you know. We have a penthouse overlooking Central Park, it's nice."
"It's nice to-" Bronco begins, but Tommy departs in style. He stares briefly after that hint of beach, before he is brought back to reality by Caitlin and Sarah. "Nice. Caitlin. Sarah." He repeats the names. Bronco has not set up a social media account- he hadn't even really thought about giving his alter-ego one. For a moment he muses about how he'd go about doing that while avoiding accidentally revealing his identity, and he comes back to reality at the mention of lodgings.
"I go to school…" he pauses, and cringes. Even if it is a super-cool school with a kick-ass mansion, it had been made pretty clear that one didn't simply talk about the school- "… around here." Yes. Good save. He had to admit that, without the added information about the Holod—-Danger Room, the facilities, the teachers, etcetera, 'school' sounded much less impressive than the Baxter Building, or a penthouse overlooking Central Park.
Woops! Seems as though introductions are now underway more fully. So the portal doesn't exactly close completely, opening back up to show Wisdom peeking his head through before coming out proper. "Oh, I'm not interrupting? Neat." he pauses. "Young Avengers?"
Interesting! Sounds like a youth team of the main Avengers! They're in the baxter building? "I don't suppose the team has an arcanist?" he smirks then a bit. He looks at Caitlin for a moment, raising a brow at the 'well, you know'. Thats so VAGUE. He does smile at Sarah then for a moment. Then Caitlin. "So uh…you ladies got names? Or do I have to call you Supermodels 1 and 2?" He crosses his arms a second.
Might as well stick around for the fallout. He then smiles. "Caitlin and Sarah, huh? Nice to meet you both." Then to Bronco, smirking.
Sarah gives Tommy a /look/ at the supermodel comment, folding her arms over her chest. "That's what Young Avengers means, yes." she says dryly. "And Sarah. Not 'supermodel'." she adds after a moment. She frowns thoughfully. "…no, we don't have a magic person yet. But I wouldn't be the person to talk to, that'd be Starfire. Though you'd all be welcome to visit…new abilities can't help but make the team stronger, as long as you can work in a team." Shet ilts her head, peering up at Caitlin as she raises a brow. "…seriously? You have a social media empire? What happened to keeping the bad guys from tracking us down again?" she notes.