10641/Trouble in the Underground Arena

Trouble in the Underground Arena
Date of Scene:	03 April 2022
Location:	Warehouse in Manhattan
Synopsis:	After the winners of the underground fighting ring are almost kidnapped, Irie West calls in the Titans to help save her friend Crush from ending up sold into slavery, or whatever it was the thugs had planned.
Cast of Characters:	Irie West, Madison Evans, Xiomara Rojas, Victor Stone, Kaida Connolly, Terry O'Neil, Kian, Colette O'Connail, America Chavez

---

Irie West has posed:
    It's pretty late in the evening, late enough that Irie and Madison should be in bed. However an urgent call comes from the T-Com alerting anybody who's still awake that Irie is in trouble. She gets a message out to, speaking in a hurried whisper. "Guys, my friend is in trouble. She snuck out of the Happy Harbor dorms tonight and we followed her to Manhattan to an underground fighting ring! I mean, she's pretty tough and can handle herself, but we were worried for her. You should have seen her fight! But they've got her drugged up in a cage with all the other fighters and there's, like, at /least/ thirty people down there guarding them with powered people! I can't take them all on my own and there's no way I'm going to let Maddie fight any of them. Come as quick as you can before they load them up on this tractor trailer and haul them away."

    The message ends there, and the locater is turned on on her T-Com to make it easy for the Titans to find her. "If they take off, I can trail them," she whispers to her friend, who are both hiding behind some crates. "But I don't wanna leave you behind." She peers out from behind the crate and shakes her head. "That's a lotta people."

Madison Evans has posed:
    On the heels of Irie's statement, a second voice can be heard faintly in the background urgently whispering, "What do you MEAN you won't let me fight any of them? I'm a Jedi! And a NINJA! And they have Crush! Oh! Tell them to bring me a boken or something."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
The warehouse is much like any other in the city of Manhattan, a very large one floor building with numerous support beams throughout to keep the roof up, and one secondary room at the back where the loading docks are located. At one time it was likely a massive building filled with crates preparing to be moved on via eighteen wheeler to locations throughout the country. Now however, it had been taken over by the world of the underground fight scene. One door marks the entrance to the building, the loading docks in the back being heavily guarded.

In the center of the main room is the ring, which really is nothing more then an area cordoned off with ropes between the pillars. Hanging above is a large metal cage that can be lowered down to fill the space, or held above as it is now. Despite the fights being officially over, a lot of people are still mingling around the room as they finish off the last of the food they took from the table, and the free drinks that had been offered.

The back room is through a set of double doors that are being guarded by members of the Feugo Subterraneo, the same metahuman gang that sponsored the fights tonight, and are milling around the crowd as well to keep order. Normally the back room is used for a preparation area, where the fighters can go to prepare, taunt one another, and get medical attention after they fight. At one point or another, every fighter goes to the backroom, but tonight there is a major difference... the backroom has been divided into two rooms. One side still serves the original purpose, the other side has the loading docks and the Feugo Subterraneo are making sure no one gets in through the loading bay doors, or into the area from the back room door.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Victor's been staying in the Tower, the better to keep an eye on the weirdness that's been going on since Donna Troy was replaced with Troia and the main room sometimes becomes a room on a distant planet instead. And he was planning to stay there, but... there aren't many others around to get Irie's call, and he can't just leave them in the lurch. So he heads out to follow Irie, tracking her T-Com to New York--and giving Kaida a ride, as well.

    It's nearly impossible for Vic to be stealthy, but he at least /tries/ to be quiet while he walks up to where Irie and Madison are spying on the warehouse. "What's going on?" he whispers as he approaches.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Leaping off of Vic's shoulder, Kaida casually walks up to the other two to peer at the warehouse before shrugging, pulling out her sword and then pointing, "So, what? There's a bunch of punks in there keeping your friend?" She looks over at Madison and Irie, "I got that right? Cause I can go just beat up like 26 of them, leave you a few to play with."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal can't bring Donna along, because Donna is busy being someone else right now and confined to a temporo-spatial clusterfuck of probability jingle-jangle razzle dazzle extravaganza bonanza congestion. But he /can/, however, bring Colette along. The Cheshire had just been talking to her to get her advice on something when the call had come in.

And they had to make a brief detour to the Titans' armory to get a boken, because not everybody can conjure up their own weapon and it's just the /nice/ thing to do.

Also, Terry fetched Kian, because a nuclear birdman is simply indispensable when staging a daring rescue. It was one of those "No time to explain, someone's in danger, follow us!" things, because he enjoys drama.

When the Rabbit Hole opens up and deposits the Trynamic Trio (look, I gotta make this work somehow) by the coordinates provided by Irie, Vorpal is ready to hand the boken and ask: "Sitrep? Sorry we're late. Had to get a boken," he grins.

Kian has posed:
    Kian does follow, because after two years of finding himself being a Titan in spite of all expectations of himself, that's just what he does now.  "Yes, Terry, you are kind of broken, but we're used to that... oh, boken.  I don't know what that is."
    Rather than stand there, Kian more sort of hovers, a bundle of nervous energy.  There is a non-zero chance that he's gotten a little bit used to life in the Tower and having to *do* things periodically.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette doesn't do the whole hero thing. What kind of crazy person would wear spandex and a cape and go stick their noses into other people's problems? Not Colette, nosiree. These Titans are crazy doing the stuff they do, /especially/ the ones that Colette has perhaps encouraged to do what they do.

    Sudden Titan emergency call? Nothing to do with Colette. Except that the name 'Irie' has been mentioned, and that particular trouble maker apparently has Maddie with her too.

    Colette definitely does not do the whole hero thing, but on the other hand, she definitely does not take kindly to people messing with her students either.

    "It's a kind of stick I think," she says to Kian as they step through the Rabbit Hole. "For hitting people with. Terry's obviously in a violent mood. He did say something about feeling stressed out about the situation with the Titans. He probably wants to take it out of the heads of some kidnappers."

Irie West has posed:
    Irie looks grateful once a handful of Titans show up to help out. "We've got around 30 people guarding the fighters," she says, her tone becoming serious. "Many of them are powered, though I don't really know what they do. They've got the fighters sedated, but it seems that Crush has a higher resistance to it since she's just kind of out of it." She leans around the corner and points to the cage where her friend is sitting. "That's her."

    "I'm not a leader type person," she says. "I don't really have a plan other than just kinda rush in and take them all down." She just shrugs, "That's kinda what I do." She peers out around the corner again. "I can get in there and disarm the ones who have guns pretty quickly," she says. "That should make things easier."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "And then I follow up and smack 'em with the boken!" Madison supplies - the voice coming from a patch of... seemingly empty air. Though anyone with a good enough sense of smell can tell she's there - she didn't wish her scent away. "Thanks, by the-! Oh." she adds brightly - but quietly, reaching out to pluck the boken out of Terry's hand.
    Now there's a wooden sword just floating in space by itself. ...so weird. And while no one can see it - Madison is staring at Colette with a quiet 'oh' of surprise on her features. Buuuuusteeeeeed.
    "Don't tell my mom," she squeaks out. "Please?"

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Getting rid of the gun's a good first step," Vic notes as quietly as he can manage while still being heard. "I can disable some of them with my sonic cannon." He looks around at the others for a moment. Ideas?

    He peers at the spot where Maddie's voice is coming from, and where the wooden sword is now floating. "Huh." Briefly, he shifts his visual into infrared range, then back again. Well, there's a Maddie-sized heat signature there. "I didn't know Jedi could go invisible."

Kaida Connolly has posed:
Sniffing the air, Kaida looks directly at Madison before shrugging and looking back at the warehouse. She stares at it for a long moment before simply racing off. Kaida isn't like other speedsters. She's slower but way smaller. She simply starts inside and heads for where Crush is, sniffing about and listening.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
It's not every time that someone snaps a rod out of Terry O'Neil's hands. He is impressed. "Maddie... you seem to have gone invisible. Is that voluntary or did you piss of a witch?" Yes. That's Maddie's scent alright.

"Jedi /can/ go invisible. Wasn't that a power in one of the Dark Forces game? Force Cloak, wasn't it? It was in one of those really old games that are so polygonal the characters look like D-12 dices with stickman bodies. But I digress..."

He glances at the warehouse and purses his lips. "I could create an illusion of Diana coming. The most powerful woman in the world approaching is likely to draw a gathering of forces to the angle of approach, and if we are judicious that should leave the area we want to rescue Crush from with fewer people, so we can come in from that entrance and catch them from behind..."

And then he raises his eyebrows, "Whichever plan we go for, we had better do it quick because Kaida is on the move."

America Chavez has posed:
CHUNCH!

    The sound comes from -inside- the warehouse.

CRUNCH! CRUNCH! CRUNCH!

    Followed by three more in quick succession. A look inside will show bright white lines forming in midair of their own accord in the general viscinity of the sound.

CRUNCH!

    Another one forms the shape of a large five point star in the air near the middle of the makeshift ring and the space inside the shape outlined just sort of shatters. A young woman with dark skin and curly hair wearing a denim jacket with stars and stripes on it, a shirt with a single golden star in the middle, a pair of black hotpants and bright red hightops steps through the portal.

    She rolls her neck a bit and looks around. "Oh! They fixed it. 'Bout time" she says with a grin. "Now... where in New York am I?" she says peering around to get a general read of her surroundings.

Kian has posed:
    "I like the idea of getting rid of guns."  No surprise there: Kian /would/, wouldn't he?  "I can ignore any energy weapons they have.  I'm pretty sure, anyway.  They haven't been a problem before, anyway...."
    Isn't optimism cute to watch?

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette stares at the floating sword, and narrows her eyes. The floating sword has Madison's voice. The power to go invisible is not in Madison's school records. Colette raises an eyebrow.

    "It's out of school hours," Colette replies. "So it's not really my business. However if you get yourself killed, I /will/ find an excuse to double your homework every day until you graduate. That goes for you too, Irie."

    Colette stares a while into the warehouse interior. "Frontal assaults are never particularly smart," she says. "I'd suggest Rabbit Holing Cyborg up into the rafters where he can lay down fire. Kian and Irie disarm as many people as possible before you start any other kind of assault thing. And you two should co-ordinate between you who's going for which weapon before you start, to avoid getting in each other's way. Also there are a lot of people in there who you'll probably feel guilty about injuring. Rather than Wonder Woman, maybe an illusion of a police raid would be a good way to clear the site of the randoms."

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
In the backroom there are seven large cages, in one is Crush. The half-Czarnian looks as if she's taken /a lot/ of drugs and is just coherent enough to have her eyes open and be laughing. In the other six cages the occupants are unconscious. Three of the seven cages have already been loaded onto the trailer of an eighteen-wheeler, two are being put onto the forklift and Crushes cage... well, that's another matter entirely.

On the ground near that seventh cage, larger than the rest due to Crushes size, are several Feugo Subterraneo members that look as if they've been beaten within an inch of their life... because they have. Any one who tries to get near the cage finds themselves assaulted by a long, thick black chain with a hook at one end. Crush isn't the one controlling it, that much is obvious, the thing seems to be moving and attacking all on its own.

All throughout the main room, people are starting to depart, but those with any sort of combat training or tactical knowledge would see that the gangers from Feugo Subterraneo are positioning themselves in specific areas... Irie and Madison might recognize that the people these gang bangers are staying close to also wear a colored ribbon on their wrists. Only a few of them have guns visible, most appear to be wandering aimlessly, but there is purpose to the movements to put them into key positions if things were to go south. Clearly they believe in their own abilities and powers.

How it is that no one has noticed the group is unknown, perhaps it is that the room is mostly dark save the area where the ring is, lights by the food and drink table, and lights at the double doors leading to the back.

Irie West has posed:
    "I know, right?" Irie says to Vic. "When she snuck up on me like that it took me a bit to figure out she was invisible. Now I can pretend that I have an imaginary friend!"

    She catches Kaida zooming out into the area where the fighters are being held and nods to herself. "Right. Time to get serious." She holds out her ring in front of her and activates it, and in a blur she's in her Kid Flash costume. "Neat!" she says. "It worked!" She nods to Colette and turns to Kian, "I can get this half," she says pointing to the right, "If you get the other?"

    Then she's suddenly gone, a yellow and red blur with speed force lightning weaving its way through the baddies, seemingly making their guns disappear. She reappears back behind cover with an armful of weapons. "Okay. That's half of them. I wish I could carry more."

    America's entrance startles the girl. "Who is /that/?" she asks. "She looks badass. Is she one of ours because I don't wanna fight her."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Umm. No witches - I just... I mean, you know how Jedi can mess with people's mind to distract them, and sneak around?" she asks. "I was just like... thinking really loud 'you can't see me, you can't see me' to try to... do that. And it worked! And then when I went to tell Irie- umm. Well. She reeeeeally couldn't see me! ...oops?" She sounds as confused about this as anybody else. "But if you got it... flaunt it!" she remarks, striking a dramatic pose.
    The only way anyone could tell is that the sword moves.
    As Colette speaks, Madison answers in a solemn voice, "Yes, ma'am. No dying. Got it."
    She blinks at America's unexpected entrance - but makes no comment, instead turning her attention to the de-gunning of the guards. Her attention shifts to a guard not too far away, and she concentrates on the gun, holding her hand out... - and it pulls out of a holster and flies straight to her! Sweet! "I've got a gun! ... I don't want a gun."

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Oh man it's been /ages/ since I played those games," Vic comments. He glances to Colette and nods agreement with that plan. "Put me up in the rafters, and I can get started once..."

    There's an America, who he's met a couple of times. Oh boy. "Yeah, let's get moving," he says with a grin. "And get Crush out of there."

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"We got a bunch of jerks...." Irie zips through, "...with fewer guns and an America in the ring and an angry chain." Kaida states before she suddenly rushes up to the shoulder of one of the beat up guys and shakes her head.

"Tough job." Kaida states, "Have you tried reasoning with it?" And then she leaps off of him, whips out her blade, cuts any belts he might have on the way down and then stabs a foot before racing off and out of sight.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
~There she is
Miss America
There she is, She's for real
The dream of a million girls who just really want to kick some butt come true
She's from Starling City
And she may punt you into the moon's own vicinity!~

Vorpal finishes gesturing. Yes, he just did an extemporaneous filking of 'There She Is, Miss America.' "Looks like our favorite punchy-punchy dimensional traveler is back. Vic, Rafter-hole incoming!"

The Rabbit Hole opens, "As soon as you're in place and you are playing pew pew from the roofs, I'll come in. But before that-"

Sirens. Blue and red flashing lights. The illusion does a great job of conveying that THE FUZZ are coming. They're not here yet, but they're certainly coming. To give the randos, as Colette called them, a chance to vacate so that the only people left are the ones /asking/ for it.

America Chavez has posed:
    Ms. America eyes the cages and the bound and drugged people. "That... doesn't look good" she says with a scowl. The zip of Irie catches her attention and Vorpal is giving her a serenade with his own take on the song of her namesake. She smiles. "How many of Wally's family and friends are going to be falling into this little pocket and, it's nice to see you too Vorpal."

    She hops the ropes of the ring and starts for the closest threat, ingorning the ground in favor of flying at low altitudes. "You know, I have a big -big- problem with kidnapping" she says pulling back a little on the punch she delivers (she doesn't want to kill anyone after all). "And an even -bigger- problem with caging people. So how about you let them go and see what happens when you try to cage me instead." Is she trying to draw the ire of the entire room, yes. Yes she is.

Kian has posed:
    Kian does what he usually does -- reaches out trying to sense any energy weapons, and shut them down as best he can.  Maybe it's a testament to not only how long he's been here, but who he spends his time with, that Vorp's impromptu song styling doesn't even get a weary headshake and an "Earth is so weird" out of him any more.
    Either he's been here too long... or he's been here long enough.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette, as has previously been established, is not the hero type, and doesn't get involved in this kind of shenanigans. Which is why, when the action starts kicking off, she steps back out of the way to let the heroes get on with doing the hero thing, walking back into the shadows...

    ...And out of the shadows high in the darkest part of the rafters, well away from Vic. She perches there, looking down curiously at America below, uncertain who's side this one is on. America has not been around the Tower any time Colette has, but there seem to be about a hundred and forty seven Titans these days, so that proves little. She lets her eyes roam the room, seeing who's where, studying body language and looking to see how people react to the illusionary sounds of incoming police raid, marking the people who look for a quick exit, and those who are looking instead to take up defensive positions, or are themselves scanning the crowds. She's particularly looking out for anyone who might be a ringer in the crowd, people who might be trying to look like they are one of the 'randos' while actually being gang members, and anyone who might be trying to take up a sniping position, or hiding themselves away for sneak attacks.

    At the same time, she starts to summon a sphere of dark energy in the palm of her hands, but she does not yet unleash it. She feels a little more darkness is definitely required here, and blowing out all of the lights except in one corner of the room is the plan, starting with the lights by the door -- but she's holding until Cyborg starts unleashing sonic attacks. Wait until the chaos really starts, and then add to it by making it hard for people to see where they are going and what they are doing -- unless they can see in the dark.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
There was no way a gang of inhuman, mutants and metahumans, who normally stick to underground fighting rings and dealing with other gangs like their own could have planned for an inter-dimension being to punch a hole in reality, in the shape of a star, and just waltz right in. They could plan for an assault from another gang... they were prepared for retaliation from the fighters posse's... they even had plans for if the police got called but a star shaped portals ringed in light? Nope, no way.

Chaos.

The Feugo Subterraneo start shouting out orders in a language that almost, sort of, really close to, sounds Spanish, but it's not. It's their language, and they all seem to know it and respond in kind. As guns go missing, the added confusion makes them almost more militant in their actions and start using their powers instead.

The first thing that happens, the friends of the fighters, a.k.a their posse's are attacked where they stand. This is not a 'to kill' sort of fight, at least not yet. Right now they seem content to just knock them out and leave them laying there. At the same moment, the forklifts with the two cages head toward the trailer, intent on getting at least two more of the fighters into the back, even as the driver is starting the engine. Doesn't take long to close the trailer up and pull out, even if they didn't get Crush and one other into it.

There are more Feugo Subterraneo running around both the main room and the back rooms, energy bolts flying as warnings to anyone who would try and stand and fight. Many guests who remain drop to the ground and start heading for the exit, unaware of what triggered the chaos but unwilling to risk their own lives.

And now the police, but the chaos is already in full swing. No escaping for those in the main room so they stick to the plan to ensure those in the back rooms get the fighters onto the truck. They had plans for those fighters, so if that meant a few of them got arrested or beat up, so be it.

Even without guns, they were all once fighters in the ring and had their special moves. For reasons that weren't obvious, they appeared ready to fight anyone and everyone who tried to stop their plans, but no single one of them spoke up as a leader, in fact other than the shouted commands that they all shouted back and forth, they said nothing. The leader? He or she might not even be here.

Irie West has posed:
    Irie isn't much of a fighter, to be honest. She's been in a few fistfights, sure, but she was never really formally trained in the combat arts. Which is fine. It just means that she has to be more clever than just punching and kicking.

    At first, she's just going around tying shoelaces together. It's hard to fight when you're tripping over your own shoes, after all. When the sound of the truck fires up and pulls out she stops long enough to shout, "Somebody stop that truck!"

    One of the meathead gangers takes this opportunity to swing at the girl, who easily dodges, and in a blur of red and yellow pulls down his pants with an audible, "Yoink!"

Madison Evans has posed:
    As hell breaks loose, Madison bolts for the room with the cages - only visible because of the wooden sword bouncing about in the air. She's running fast - taking the occasional crack at thugs as she passes them, hoping to disable, without causing serious harm. You can, after all, kill with a hard enough smack with a boken.
    As she sees the truck preparing to pull out she lets out a heartfelt, "Fudgesicles!" Yes. Fudgesicles. "If- if I had a lightsaber I could stop that thing!" she complains. Instead of running for the truck, though, she runs towards the massive sliding door it'll need to exit through - trying to make sure the door is well and properly closed.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Cyborg pops through the Rabbit Hole easily enough and settles himself in the rafters, fiddling with the controls on his cannon. He decides to lean into the "Fuzz" illusion by making the sonic cannon not just a blare, but a wailing siren that gives some OOMPH to Terry's auditory illusion. Anyone who's not running is liable to find themselves overwhelmed by sound. Or both. Both would be good.

    Shame none of them wind up running, but them's the breaks. He keeps an eye out, from up there, on his teammates and friends, looking for anyone who might need backup.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"On it!" Kaida responds to Irie and takes off like a shot for the underside of the truck.  She still hasn't drawn her shield, just her sword and she taps her foot as she looks up.

"Mechanics isn't my strong suit. However, that looks important." And with that she leaps up and begins slicing away at various parts, dodging bursts of water and oil as she does.  Lights likely start lighting up on the dashboard with the quickness as sparks and hisses come from under the hood.  Of course that isn't the scariest part. One of the vents for the AC inside the cabin suddenly bursts out and two ears followed by a pair of small eyes peek out.

From outside the truck screaming can be heard as the cabin of the truck starts to violently rock.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"On it!" Kaida responds to Irie and takes off like a shot for the underside of the truck.  She still hasn't drawn her shield, just her sword and she taps her foot as she looks up.

"Mechanics isn't my strong suit. However, that looks important." And with that she leaps up and begins slicing away at various parts, dodging bursts of water and oil as she does.  Lights likely start lighting up on the dashboard with the quickness as sparks and hisses come from under the hood.  Of course that isn't the scariest part. One of the vents for the AC inside the cabin suddenly bursts out and two ears followed by a pair of small eyes peek out.

From outside the truck screaming can be heard as the cabin of the truck starts to violently rock.

Kaida Connolly has posed:
"On it!" Kaida responds to Irie and takes off like a shot for the underside of the truck. She still hasn't drawn her shield, just her sword and she taps her foot as she looks up.

"Mechanics isn't my strong suit. However, that looks important." And with that she leaps up and begins slicing away at various parts, dodging bursts of water and oil as she does. Lights likely start lighting up on the dashboard with the quickness as sparks and hisses come from under the hood. Of course that isn't the scariest part. One of the vents for the AC inside the cabin suddenly bursts out and two ears followed by a pair of small eyes peek out.

From outside the truck screaming can be heard as the cabin of the truck starts to violently rock.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Always good to see your one-two combo, America," Terry laughs. "Kian, back Kaida up. Colette, make people miserable. I'm going to spread some terror around."

And he vanishes. Under the cloak of invisibility, he steps through a Rabbit Hole and makes his way towards the back rooms, where those energy blasts are coming from. They can't hit what they can't see, but they can get lucky with a wild shot.

This is why it's always important to have an illusionist in the party.

The blasts pass close by the invisible cat, and once he is in sight of a good number of Fuegos, he unleashes his illusion.

A bright flash of purple light temporarily obscures the sight of anyone within his range, and when it subsides the Fuegos will see-

Cops. Lots, and lots of cops holding what seem to be those fancy prototype energy weapons from STARR labs. Aiming at them.

It's a simple illusion, really- obscure their line of sight, and then cast an illusion on every single one o fthem to resemble one of those forementioned, heavily-armed, energy-weapon-wielding cops. Then sit back and watch them blast each other silly.

Why do the dirty job if you have the chance to use someone else as your cat's paw, right?

America Chavez has posed:
    America was practically invulnerable. But that 'practically' is really important when it comes to what -can- hurt her. After making sure her first target is still breathing she takes a blast from the energy weapon directly in the stomach. It slides her back along the concrete floor a good yard and smoke starts rising from the dark skin, now nearly black from the heat discharge of the blast. "That" she says, gritting her teeth and making fists so tight that her knuckles pop audibly, "Hurt."

    America isn't a berserker. She's not the Hulk. But she has anger issues. Lots of them. And her default reaction to flares of those anger issues... is to choose violence. Always. She grits her teeth as she punches the air and a small star-shaped portal appears just before the point where her punch would finish. Her arm goes through the portal and at that same instant multiple other portals open up near the faces of those firing the energy blasts. Out of each and every one comes a dark-skinned fist backed with near-Asgardian strength. Safe to assume, unless they're intensely more durable than your average kodiak bear, the energy blasts won't be an issue any longer.

Kian has posed:
    Kian can do forklifts.  Forklifts are objects, not persons, and don't have feelings to worry about and minds to have to possibly soothe later.  So a hefty surge of electricity through their alternators should frotz them pretty good and kill all power to the engines, leaving them coasting to an impotent and demoralizing stop.
    He drops down to a perch atop one.  "Please don't move," he says quite reasonably to the driver, clearly enough for the other forklift wrangler to hear.  "There's an awful lot of static charge built up and if you try to leave or try to attack me, it'll have nowhere to discharge but through you."  Both arms of the forklift he's perched upon shimmer with St. Elmo's fire, followed by a crackling discharge between the two, just to make the point.  "*Both* of you.  I mean, really, it would be a very bad idea."
    Kian t'Kaeh, master of the extremely polite threat.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    Colette has become moderately accomplished at not brutally murdering people over the last couple of years. There's a trick to it that generally involves teleporting behind them and popping a /very small/ ball of exploding shadow magic at the base of their skulls from short range, that will render the target unconscious without causing paralysis or severe traumatic brain injuries a good nine times out of ten. She's quite proud of this, as someone might be if they'd learned a neat trick shot at pool, though it's not something she boasts about to her friends. They probably wouldn't really understand.

    It's not really the ideal tactic for a melee like this, so Colette's not really planning to get involved in the violent part of the confrontation here. She's only there to keep an eye on her students and make sure nobody kills or kidnaps them. There's a whole bunch of actual regular superhero types here who can do the hard work. But that doesn't mean she can't make things a bit harder for the bad guys, and so when the fighting starts, the lights start to go out. No violence though!

    It's done in a very controlled way. First the lights by the door into the back, so the people guarding it have a harder time seeing who's nearby. Then one-by-one lights go out to cover the movements of the heroes who are in the melee, so that the bad guys are lit up and the good guys are not. The blasts come from apparently everywhere, as Colette is stepping into and out of shadows between each shot, moving near instantaneously around the rafters above the whole warehouse space.

    ...Okay, maybe a /little/ bit of violence. Terry's illusion will be reinforced if the Fuegos get the sense something is actually being fired at them, so Colette provides. She doesn't actually need to target someone, just launch a blast of darkness at the ground /close/ to some of the gang members. Boom! That'll let them know they really are under attack, but nobody's really going to get hurt though. Maybe a slightly mangled limb or two, but nothing fatal.

    Oh and that guy who during the initial confusion snuck away behind an old crate who she spotted earlier when she was watching the movements of the crowd below. He's got a gun out and he's quietly and patiently lining up a shot from his hiding position. Fuck that guy. Nobody will mind if he... yeah, they probably will. Well there's no reason why the crate he's hiding behind can't get blown up. Totally a valid target, and if he happens to get mildly dead from being in the explosion rather than simply being knocked out as is Colette's intention, it's nobody's fault but his own.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
With the majority of people no longer attempting to get to Crushes cage, the chain slips back inside and rewraps itself around the large teen. Clarity for Crush was still not coming, she was still wobbly and laughing at something, what that something could be was anyone's guess. Its obvious she can see the fight occurring, the bars on the cage aren't that close together, but it's also just as obvious that she can't really do anything but lay there.

The forklift drivers are not willing to take the chance of finding out what it was the bird man's discharge is or will do, they stop and hold their hands up, glancing around for signs of any of the more combative gang members only then to notice that most seem busy already... all but the ones outside trying to figure out why the truck stopped, because it did just that.

The truck had been just about to the rolling door Madison went to close when the engine screamed and died, all kinds of fluids puddling beneath it and rolling out from below in little lines across the pavement, including diesel fuel. When the driver climbs out he shouts something in that almost Spanish language, then jumps down and bolts for the only other door into and out of the warehouse. Seems his contract with the gang didn't involve fighting, just driving and since he can't do that, he's leaving.

The shout does change the throng of the battle, those inside the warehouse's main room all scream out the same phrase and start attacking anything that moves, even if it is their own people through the illusions. Most of the 'guests' has already made it to the front door, but they quickly became targets now that the frenzy was engaged.

Irie West has posed:
    One of the problems with making all the lights go out in a building is that while, yes, it blinds the bad guys, it also blinds the good guys, too. Irie was in the middle of giving the big bad guy she was facing off with a super speed wedgie when it's suddenly dark.

    "Um." she says. "I can't see." About the only thing she /can/ see is Crush's cage so that's where she heads, only bumping into a couple of gang members, knocking them aside like bowling pins.

    "Crush!" she shouts at her friend when she gets to the cage. "Can you hear me? You gotta get it together and...." she suddenly slaps her forehead. "What am I doing. I can just /phase/ you out."

    With a crackle of speed force lightning, she vibrates her molecules so that she's slightly out of phase with physical objects and reaches /through/ the bars to get her hands around Crush. "Don't hurt me," she tells the chain. "Please. I'm just trying to help." She grunts and groans as she tries to manhandle her friend out of the cage. "Gosh, you're heavy."

Madison Evans has posed:
    Madison gets the door secured - only for the driver to head for a more person-sized door. "HEY!" she shouts in protest. "TRAFFICKING PEOPLE IS NOT COOL!" Jedi can throw their lightsabers, right? So she runs after the person - and hurls her boken, trying to get it to fly through the air, and crack the guy right one the skull. "Com'on, com'on, you can do i- GOT HIM!" She's quite pleased with herself, and she jumps into the air triumphantly - not that anyone can see it.
    But they can hear her - and a blast of energy sizzles into the concrete too near her for comfort. She leads out a squeak, dashing for the cover of the truck, and holding out her hand towards her boken - which flies back into her grasp.
    Aw yeah. Jedi Master.

Victor Stone has posed:
    The distractions and fighting are going on just fine, Colette backing up Terry now, America punching multiple people, Kian dealing with forklifts, Madison... throwing her boken at a guy. They're gonna have to work with her on that, Vic notes, given that all he can see is the wooden sword flying back and forth through the air.

    He makes his way fairly quietly along the rafters--he's alright at sneaking in the /dark/, it's when his shiny chrome is obvious that he's bad at sneaking--and drops down next to Irie. "I can carry her," he notes to the speedster, "just get the cage open."

Kaida Connolly has posed:
When the driver flees, Kaida comes out and stands atop the open door. She watches him run and then sighs.

"Sure, I get the wuss!" She shakes a tiny fist after hum before she leaps down and races into battle. She isn't as kind some and she angles right for ankles. She suddenly bursts into speed and slams right into those ankles.

"Time for this to end." She shakes her head, "Slave drivers don't deserve kindness."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Oh, it's on for /real/ now, these assholes are out to kill. And Vorpal isn't going to have /any/ of that going down on his watch. No, siree.

If this party can have a Jedi, then it surely can also have...

"Treguna Mekoides Tracorum Satis Dee!"

Vorpal flashes into existence, arms already outstretched and fingers spread. A crackling magenta wave of chaos magic spreads from the epicenter that is the chaos cat, imbuing chaotic life into everyday objects, furniture--

"Get them, kids!"

Substitutiary Locomotion.
Tables, chairs, stools fly with a life of their own to pummel, squish, subdue and slam against the Fuegos.
Mystic power that's far beyond the wildest notion
Doors swing with incredible violence to slam people coming or going.
It's so weird, so feared, yet wonderful to see
Mops propel themselves through the air out of cleaning closets, zooming through the air  at people.
Substitutiary locomotion come to me!

America Chavez has posed:
    With the energy blasters out of the way, most of the rest is pretty inconsequential to America. She's just as content to let them erradicate themselves... and then there's Vorpal ready to Fantasia the shit out of them. She hovers up a bit higher, dodging a metal money box that goes sailing past at major league speeds and makes her way to the back room.

    She lands next to Irie and Cyborg and looks at the situation. "I get the bars you get the girl?" she asks the big guy before moving forward and ripping the door of the cage from its hinges with relative ease. She sets it aside and moves to the others. "How do we intend to get them out of here? She can walk... probably...but they're unconcious and, sure I can carry them, but it won't be comfortable for anybody, especially the one on the bottom." She thinks for a moent. "If you have a place to put them for safety, I can send them there too. Probably with less of a high than Vorpal would do. If that's any consolation."

Kian has posed:
    "Remember what I told you," Kian warns the forklifters, and takes to the air.
    Mostly at this stage, he contents himself with preventing any of the dik-heds (thank you, Vic) who are trying to leave from doing so.
    Mostly with mild lightning bolts.
    Strong lightning bolts, if the mild ones don't get their attention.  Because stick with what you know and because Earth dik-heds are... uh... dik-heds.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "You know, there's a lot of them and they're probably going to kill people," Colette says, stepping out from behind the truck. "Or each other, whatever. They've kind of gone into frenzy mode." She's holding a gas can she's pulled from the back and sloshing it around to mix in with the stuff that has already leaked out over the ground. Which incidentally seems to be leaking out faster now, and from multiple vehicles, possibly something to do with some extra holes that appeared in a fuel tank or two somehow.

    "Nothing focuses people's minds faster than if the building they are in accidentally catches on fire. It would be a good way to persuade people to stop trying to kill each other and start running. However fast Vorpal's nonsense works, people are gonna die before they're finished. So how about you guys grab Crush there, Terry supplies a Rabbit Hole, we torch the place and split while they're too busy fighting animated mops to notice. Kian, want to provide the spark?"

    She empties the last of the gas from the can and looks up. "What? It's merciful. It'll save lives. That makes it the heroic thing to do, right?" Her eyes fall on the other other prisoners. "Oh, them too I guess. Just toss 'em through the rabbit hole and sort 'em out later. Terry! Rabbit hole please!"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
The chain around crushes body vibrates as Irie gets close, as if it will once again move to strike out, yet something, perhaps the girl's words, causes it to just settle in around Crush and remain there. Even as Victor comes up to the cage, there is no change in the way the chain appears, just staying wrapped around the large teen. Irie and Victor can almost feel the chain 'looking' at them, even though it has no eyes at all to actually be looking.

"Irie!" Crush suddenly booms, sounding as drunk as she appeared to be, as she finally realizes that there's something happening around her, but still unable to actually get her body to listen. It wasn't clear that she was in fact attempting to make her legs work correctly, to those watching it was some serious twitching, but not helpful at all for movement. "What are you doing here?" and then Victor is there which gets an added, "Whoa that's large an metally." as she stares at him.

When the cage door is ripped off, Crush mutters, "Hubba, hubba, my heroine!" and she does in fact try to move out of the cage on her own. That fails, because instead of her body moving she manages to bonk her head on the side of the cage and fall over laughing out, "Get... the fucker... outta my head!"

===============================================================================

The chaos continues, though the number of Fuego's left standing is getting less and less as the minutes tick by. Finally the remaining few standing seem to snap out of the red haze they'd been in. Whether those on the ground are dead not doesn't seem to matter to those who didn't go down. Without looking around, without pausing, without really thinking, they all bolt for the doors.

Irie West has posed:
    Irie just /stares/ at Colette. Having one of the faculty members of the school you go to advocate for /burning the place down and letting God sort them out/ isn't exactly the impression she was expecting to get. "Um..." she says uncertainly. "Maybe we can try /not/ murdering people?"

    "Right," she says, bringing herself back to the more immediate situation. "Crush. You brought us in, remember? This is Cyborg. He's a Titan, too. We're here to get you out and back to your dorm room." She bites her lower lip, "I know I didn't want to get you in trouble but I /had/ to call in help. I hope you'll forgive me.... when you're sober."

    She looks at America's handywork of the door of the cages and smacks her forehead. "Of course! I can just phase the doors off their hinges!" Leaving Crush in Vic and America's care she speeds over to the other cages and manages to get them off. "Oof. Heavy."

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Whoa! Whoa! We knocked some of those guys out! If we burn down the building that- that's murder!" Madison asserts, her eyes going wide - not that anyone can tell. "And if- what if the fire spreads? There's other buildings out there! We can't just... //torch// the place!" she protests, agreeing with Irie whole-heartedly.
    "Hi Crush!" she adds brightly - waggling her sword in greeting.
    "Okay. You get the doors open - and I'll help pull some of them out. I'm stronger than I look!" Madison remarks - moving towards the cages, and helping lift one of the occupant's free as soon as she can gain access to the cage.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal gets that facial expression. The 'Oh Right My Friend Is A Psycho' one. The one he gets every time Colette makes a suggestion. But there really isn't much time to argue. It's time for some serious GTFO Rabbit Hole action. "Alright, Destination: Tower. We'll sort who goes to jail when we get there. SHOVE THEM ALL IN PRONTO!"

The Rabbit Hole opens, and begins to sweep around to scoop people up, conscious and unconscious alike, to dump them right outside the tower. Because, let's face it, they're not going to get too far if they try to run. "And then get in yourselves before we start smoking."

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic laughs at Crush's statement. "Large and metally, that's me." He eyes Colette. "Yeah, let's /not/ kill people if we can help it? We can get people out and into custody or whatever we need."

    He has no trouble helping get people out of the place, Crush first and then others. And admittedly, he goes for the prisoners first, because if anyone's /going/ to die better it's the bad guys. But he's going to /try/ to make sure the bad guys don't die, either. Heroism!

Kian has posed:
    Now that matters have settled down a little, Kian can focus on the protection of the innocent, picking up at least two that haven't been attacking them and carrying them through Vorpal's portal.
    Just inside the opening of the Rabit Hole, the birdman calls out, "Quick, pass me people who need to get away from the craziness!"
    For very relative settings for 'craziness', no doubt.

America Chavez has posed:
    While Vic, Irie, and Vorpal are busy getting the innocents (or at least the non-gang members) out of the building America punches her own portal to the outside of the building and starts chucking unconscious members of the gang out onto the streets. "I'll get the cops here to round up who we can. Let's leave property damage and murder out of the equation for today."

    Another is tossed through her star portal. "As much as theese guys are the scum of the earth to me... I'd rather not have their blood on my hands. Or their ashes... in this case." If any offer resistance, they get a nice stiff jab (two if necessary to knock them out) before being flung into the pile outside the building.

Colette O'Connail has posed:
    "The point is to stop them murdering each other," Colette tells Irie and Madison patiently, after returning Vic's eyeballing. "People run away from fires. It's a thing that very few people will refrain from doing. Also notice how the gas is on the ground, in a puddle. It'll make a nice flame, but is unlikely to cause any rapid conflagration. If you want to torch a building, you put gas on the walls, not on the concrete floor of the loading docks. That's arson 101, you know."

    "People see pretty flames, people run. Fire department will get here /long/ before there is any danger of it spreading to other buildings. It's about saving lives, which standing around talking while people shoot each other doesn't do "

    She doesn't seem like she's going to press the point, though. That's the problem with these superhero types as far as she's concerned -- they always seem to have strange codes of conduct that follow some very abstract sense of morals rather than doing what's expedient to actually achieve the aims they set out to achieve. Humans! this planet is crazy.

    "Rather than her dorm room, I think Crush could use some medical attention. She seems to have been drugged." Colette raises an eyebrow at Crush. "Really Crush, you shouldn't get kidnapped and drugged in an illegal fighting pit on a /school night/. Same goes for you two, Maddie and Irie. Weekends only. "

    "If you guys want to take her to the Tower for observation, I'll straighten things out at the school tomorrow morning."

    Colette does actually help a little with the dragging people through the Rabbit hole thing, but only a little. She doesn't have super strength, so it's hard work. As she hands over a sleeping prisoner to Kian, she asks "You got any more of that Akiar brandy? I could do with a drink after this."

Irie West has posed:
    Irie just /stares/ at Colette as she gets lectured how to do arson. This.... this isn't exactly what she expected. "I... okay. I'll remember that if I have to set something on fire." It's true. She probably will never forget this advice. She'll never /use/ it, mind you, but she'll never /forget/ it.

    And then Colette admonishes them for being out late on a school night. "Hey!" she says in protest. "We were just keeping an eye on Crush to make sure she didn't get into trouble!" She waves a hand at the events inside the warehouse, "And there was trouble! We were right to follow!"

    She just sighs and goes over to where she thinks Maddie is. "Um, Mads? Do you know how to uninvisible yourself? Once we get to my room in the Tower we can work on that. C'mon." She, then, walks through one of Terry's Rabbit Holes that lands her in the Tower, and then heads up to her room. She's worried about Crush, but she's not a doctor, and figures that those who are medically inclined will tell her when Crush is sober enough to see visitors.

Madison Evans has posed:
    "Yeah but- we don't know that things won't go wrong! The building won't go up! Or people won't die of smoke inhilation or something. It's just a bad idea. It's murder." She helps with getting people out and into the tower - then lets out a giggle. "Good thing my mom already thinks - well KNOWS I'm staying the night at the tower! It wasn't even a lie! ...exactly. And yeah! What Irie said. We're good friends!"
    Boken still in hand - the cheerful Jedi retreats into the safety of the Tower, idly starting worry about... "You know. I'm not sure if I know how - but I better figure it out before my mom //freaks out//..."