12924/The Trouble with Gotham...

The Trouble with Gotham...
Date of Scene:	30 September 2022
Location:	Coventry - Miagani Island
Synopsis:	Killer Moth attempts to kidnap Phoebe Wayne. It doesn't go well when Red Sonja (Mary Jane Watson), Richard Stadler and Sunny Harlow decide to intercede, with Alfred coming to the rescue!
Cast of Characters:	Phoebe Beacon, Mary Jane Watson, Sunny Harlow, Richard Stadler, Alfred Pennyworth

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Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Burnley Harbor was one of Phoebe's favorite places in Gotham to just... walk. In and out of the little shops, sampling treats from boutique bakeries, and on occasion, even grabbing a coffee from a small coffee place. The most recently acquired Wayne heir didn't exactly flaunt the cash; she usually motorcycled in, she took public transportation, and she kept herself low-key.

    Though, sometimes it wasn't enough.

    She was traveling on the metroway, sitting down, earbuds in but not on as she kept an eye on her surroundings.

    And that's when the explosion occured. A charge under the track that separated sections, causing the track and train car to lurch.

    There was a crash, people falling all over themselves as the car hits the ground. Glass breaking and people crying out in panic as the red emergency lights come up.

    This was not a good way to end a Thursday.

    Four armed thugs come out of the alleyway, guns up and threatening onlookers to keep walking as a gnelt in a violet-and-blue bat-esque armor steps out, sharp points forming an X over his back.

    "Well, well, well. Looks like the train jumped the tracks."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
She was in Gotham doing a delivery. she didn't know what it was. Just given an instruction to take an item, drop off an item, and then mvoe some rocks around as a signal. She had felt rather silly doing so and hse'd probably been a little too blatant with it and been noticed. So now Mary Jane is on her way to take the tram to get a bus to take her back home.
    She's on the stop when the train goes to -jump- off the tracks as she goes to let out a yelp, "Everyone, remain calm!" Then there's those men coming over and off the train.
    Mary Jane hasn't been bothered since she came to Gotham. The girl knows how to take care of herself, maybe? Does she radiate an aura? No, it's probably moreso to do with the two meter or so long basterd sword slung over her back. So, one hand going over to the blade as she would smoothly draw it out. "I'm going to have to ask you to make your way to the next stop." Twirling the weapon in one hand.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
The train wasn't exactly the normal way to travel for Sunny, after all flight kinda made public transport seem...dull. But she'd been visiting a friend from Highschool who'd decided to go to Gotham U and so she'd had to be 'normal' for the day. But apparently normal and 'Indestructibelle' didn't really seem to be close friends, given there was now an armed siege and a girl waving a massive sword around.

Well, she -was- a teenage alien, why would normal come anywhere near her?

It was small blessing that Mary Jane made a decent distraction, giving her a chance to bolt for one of the alleyways herself from the stopped transport. Maybe she'd be seen by one of the thugs, maybe she wouldn't, but well...she couldn't exactly get changed in the middle of a crowded metrorail.

Richard Stadler has posed:
The conversation a few seats down and across from Phoebe was low key enough that only a busybody who had nothing better to do might be listening to it. At least it... had been quiet, as it was a bit rude to have a loud conversation on a phone in public transport.

"Just an empty building. Yes, I double checked the address. ... Well you were at it, what, 2 months ago? It's hard to run a book store these days."

Stadler leans back in the seat, fingers lifting his glasses for a moment to rub the bridge of his nose. "Top, don't apologize. I was visiting friends, and I got exercise. That's the important part. I'll be back on the Loop-"

There was a loud bang, and Rick knew the sound of explosives. Granted, head never been a train when they exploded underneath him, but all crashes seemed to happen in slow motion where you knew what was happening and could do precious little to prevent it.

Arms came up in time to brace, himself against the seat as the train fell over, and it's what probably kept his glasses intact. His phone clattered across the screeching car, wired earphones wrenching out at the socket, as Richards slammed against the side of the car. Not hard enough, and blessedly enough time to bounce to the empty space next to him before the glass smached on the window there, and then finally there was something of calm admidsts panic'd passengers groans and screams.

All right, assessement time. Shoulder hurts, but it still moved. Bruised. Glasses bent a bit, but easily to bring back in. Also intact. Nothing seemed to be broken or bleeding majorly. Calling for help would have to wait until he could dig his phone from wherever-

The voices of the thug and of Mary Jane Watson were rather clear from the outside, and Richard, for all he put down Gotham as someone who'd lived in Metropolis for some time, he hadn't expected a textbook ambush. Mugging, maybe, but not charges on a track and a fire team taking advantage of it.

He placed himself at the window, using his sleeve to clear shards of glass from the lip. His right hand went back, taking another bit of stock, and drawing the Smith and Wesson M&P from the holster at his back. Quick check of the magazine, then a quick rack of the slide to chamber around. At least expecting the mugging had it's advantages. He lifted his head over the window, yelling to the thugs approching. "Step back now or this isn't going to end well!"

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
Alfred is not on the train. Alfred does not ride trains. He is, in fact, at this very moment comfortably ensconced in an armchair, feet up on an ottoman, reading the Gotham Times. He exudes an aura of dignified comfort such as few can pull off.

Until his phone pings a notification. The Important Sort of notification. Of course it shows up on his phone as just a reminder to change the batteries in the smoke detectors, but that's just for anyone who might peek over his shoulder in public.

Newspaper cast smartly aside, the well-seasoned gent is on his feet in a blink and striding quickly Downstairs, even as pings out a quick coded text message to Phoebe to ask if she's all right.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe's phone gives a soft 'ding!'. Its buzz rattles a moment, but in the chaos of trying not to suddenly jump-start healing everyone, the girl was grabbed and dragged through a window by one of the thugs with a gun. TWAG1 brings the muzzle down to aim at her, and she brings her hands up, dark eyes wide, one earbud hanging down as she lays in the Gotham street.

    "This the girl?" TWAG1 asks. TWAG2 confirms; it's a Wayne kid. TWAG3 and 4 have taken aim at Mary Jane and her large blade, and are kind of questioning their life choices at facing a sword-weilding heroine. That's not something you see all the time in Gotham, and Gotham has Seen Some Shit.

    They had not caught Sunny's sudden disappearance from the metrorail car, but did catch Stadler raising his piece.

    "Keep outta it, Old Man." TWAG4 warned, "Get your head down and keep your ass quiet."

    "Well, well, well. What have we here? The latest of Gotham City's favorite son's adoption group!" the X-winged guy cheers, clapping his purple-clad hands as he leans down, thick goggles and a mask covering his face.

    "I'm sure that once we send the message we've grabbed you, they'll make with the money. I don't *want* to hurt one of Gotham's Upper Crusties..." he takes out a gun.

    "But I will."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
    She's not a heroine. She's not a spy. She's a barbarian. There's a shift in the posture of the girl wearing a spider-man t-shirt and a set of jeans and sneakers. She massive blade is held in front of her as she would advance. "You would attack children?" There was a ferocious sneer to her. Intimidating. Terrifying.
    She moves to advance on TWAG1 and TWAG2, massive sword in front of her. Then she's going to charge. For once, she and Mary Jane are -mostly- in agreement. Blade slashes up at once, aiming for the wrist. Presuming the tip of the blade would strike it, she would take out a decent chunk of the forearm with the blade, slashing cleanly through and removing a chunk of the limb. Meanwhile, she would lash out and over with a kick aimed at TWAG2 in the gut. Not as powerful as any of the locals, she could still break ribs if she was able to get a clean hit in. Her intent was to methodically brutalize and cripple both if at all possible. Or at least leave them in a state where tehy were mostly focused on their own survival.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Not being seen was definately for the best. After all, it saved Sunny from having to beat down a Thug while halfway through changing into her suit. It was a good thing she'd practiced, soon enough she was zipped up in the white and red outfit reminiscent of a certain Viltrumite hero who had since faded into obscurity. She was new enough on the scene, but the rescue in New York with the burning building and helping Superman and the Avengers rescue people from the Dam disaster may well have left her a little more recognizable of late.

Seems today might be the day she found out if she -was- actually bulletproof, because Sunny's form appears in a blur and a rush of wind, the cape at her shoulders still fluttering from the movement as she lands to prop herself between the apparent target that is Phoebe and the gunmen.

"I think you're going to be disappointed!" Indestructibelle begins, immediately annoyied at herself for not coming up with a 'Boarding pass' one-liner or something equally pithy. Still, the rookie heroine opens her mouth, beginning her warning. "Lay down your weapons or...-crap!"

Seems things are starting! MJ makes the rush with the weapon and bullets were likely about to start flying. She'd have to make the decision about where move next and fast...so she does, a rush of motion and she was suddenly at the modern barbarian's back shoving one thug back with inhuman strength and putting herself in the path of any bullets that might strike the sword-wielding citizen!

Richard Stadler has posed:
Okay, things were at least making sense from what he could overhear. Wayne kid? That looks like a woman... hell, a girl. They were going after goddamn kid (and despite what any one pushing 20 might say, they were /all/ kids from where he was standing). But it made sense; planned attack to kidnap some high value target to extracate concessions. He didn't even know Damien Wayne had a... sister? Cousin? Wasn't important right now.

"Can't do that." He said, simply, to TWAG4. "No one needs to die today. If you-"

Then, a lot of things happen at once. The woman with the sword shows that it isn't exactly a prop, as she moves to engage two of those thugs herself. More supirisng, however, was the arrivial of goddamn metahuman support. He didn't even think Gotham had metahumans (everything he heard about the Batman indicated ex-special forces, after all.) But an extra participant, esspecially with powers, changed the calculus drastically.

Stadler's weapon had been lowered, in a tactical position. He had thought to be a threat they'd have to deal with. Buying time long enough for /some/ police prescence to arrive. But as targets were engaged, the oppurtunity arose to take dominance of the situation. TWAG4 was too close to the person he was trying to abduct. But TWAG3 seemed to be out of the melee, and so Richard raised his pistol in a two handed grip. Three pulls of the trigger, adjusting from the targets center mass to go for his neck. Taking him out quickly was critical.

Richard ducked behind the smashed tram quickly to gain some cover, yelling out again. "Escape routes are closing! I'd leave the kid, if I were you!"

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
"If that girl is just ignoring me again," Alfred mutters under his breath, not bothering to finish the sentence as he slides into a seat at the big computer. It's not like anyone ever listens to him anyway. Only a thin-lipped sigh of annoyance escapes him as he pulls up a map overlay of the city on the touchscreen and narrows the focus down to the point covered by the pulsing red warning overlay. He dismisses the flashing with an impatient flick of his fingers. More adept than most people his age at tech he may be, but that doesn't mean he has to love it.

His eyes narrow as he reads the details currently being gleaned from police chatter and social media sources. Explosion, train derailed, as-yet unconfirmed reports of terrorists or some other flavor of criminal on scene. He doublechecks against another window with a GPS coordinate display. Directly on top of Phoebe's signal, confirmed.

His eyes flick back to the data scroll as "possible metahuman on scene" is added to the list of unconfirmed reports. Phoebe not being on duty tonight, he doubts she would have blown her cover, at least not in such short order. Meaning that there's possibly some OTHER metahuman, possibly metahuman terrorist, on site. And he knows for a fact that her armor is currently hanging in its closet. However, there is a chance she might still have her radio switched on. He fits his own earpiece in and sends a terse message. "This is-" and he shuts his eyes in quiet exasperation as he repeats the latest call sign the bloody children have given him- "Mother hen. Are you receiving? Cough once if unable to speak."

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe pauses, and she tilts her head back to look as Indestrucibelle makes her entrance, and has a particularly 'what the hell' expression on her face. She did, in fact, recognize the heroine from the Dam incident (in which Phoebe had a dam adventure, a dam fine save and got some dam pictures without her face showing), but it wasn't the rookie heroine that was catching their attention --

    IT WAS THE FREAKING REDHEAD WITH A SWORD. MJ And her barbarian hitchhiker have changed the game early in the moves. The sword comes up and removes TWAG1's arm above the elbow, he gives a cry out as his arm his the pavement, followed by himself as he tries to push back and away.

    TWAG2 unleashes a volly of automatic weapon fire at the girl in the Spider T-shirt, eyes going wide behind his goggles.

    TWAG3 and 4 look at each other, and then one attempts a short barrage of fire at Stadler

    The other fires on The Impossibelle Heroine to try and get her worked out of the equation like a bad repeating times one!

    Phoebe gives a cough. It's caught by her radio, because she's still unable to speak (stupid demons and their curses, faithful readers, don't try to phone a friend and get the wrong number when working with summoning circles!)

    Killer Moth, however, doesn't seem to have the patience for this.

    "Well. They're expendable at best." he states, grabs Phoebe by the jacket, and drawing his attention skyward he launches off, leaving a noxious violet smoke behind, the Wayne girl flailing her arms!

    Mother Hen gets his reply as her earbuds with the cell mic pick up Killer MOth's words and the sudden FLYING OF AIR.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Despite what Sonja might say about guns being merely overcomplicated crossbows, wild fire at close rang would be quite devastating to her, being resistant to damage or not. That has her scrambling out fo the way and hitting the ground and going into a roll, hand clutching her sword to make sure that she wouldn't drop it. She's rapidly getting back up and over to her feet, hissing.

"We all must die sometime. And perhaps tonight it's your turn." She keeps on evasive until the man is at the point of his clip where he has to reload. He seemingly is trained, but in a panic situation suppressive fire is the automatic way to go. Hopefully soon he would have those two seconds where he would run out of bullets, and then have to reload a fresh magazine. Mary Jane goes to dive behind cover, moving to get out o fhte line of fire. And hopefully the man will hit that point and then she'll be able to strike.

Of course, it's more than likely that another hero present will take care of it first.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Oh yay, she -was- bulletproof! That was good, because she was current catching two people's worth of automatic gunfire. Fragmenting rounds shattering against her would require a shower later and her costume was going to need some patching, but otherwise? Sunny was unharmed while MJ had the chance to dive for cover.

For her part? The blonde in white surges forwards, grasping the gun and -crushing- the action between her fingers before she swept her leg out under the (now) TWOAG. It was depressingly basic a move compared to the Bat-school of martial arts...but it was also superhumanly strong!

Richard Stadler has posed:
It had been worth a shot, Stadler things, as he flattened himself on the ground around the train as the area around him fills withthe crack whip of rifle rounds going over his head and thudding into the train. It would be very nice if the tram floor could block some of the incoming fire, but Rich was well aware that with rifle rounds, concealment did not always mean cover. The sort of fire rate he was hearing sounded like someone with poor trigger discipline, And it was just a matter of counting rounds he was firing, and then really, /really/ hoping he didn't reload fast. And that his old bones didn't crack as he sprung up from the prone position.

His eyes were taking in a lot, but he had to process things quickly, and focus on the person shooting at him. The pistol comes up again, and this time Stadler pulls the trigger until the clips empty, keeping to center mass to try to drop him. The last few shots were one handed as he moved to grab the first of two magazines at his holster. The empty one dropped and clattered to the concrete as the spare was inserted, the slide released to chamber a round-

And then the evelopment of a noxious cloud of purple was threatening them... was well as the fact that the girl they had came for was getting kidnapped anyway, and, as Stadler quickly raise his sleeve to cover his mouth and nose, he was only hoping that the person he was shooting at still had a functioning mouth to ask questions.

Alfred Pennyworth has posed:
A few colorful phrases emerge from Alfred's lips, albeit under his breath and not over comms, as he is after all a professional. "Tracking you. Help is on the way," he says aloud, hoping that it's true as he checks to see who else is within range. He pulls up weathercam footage as the kidnapper fwooshes past one with a view, runs image recognition and moments later, he has an ID on the perp. Not... the MOST notorious criminal the gang has ever come up against, exactly. Even so, any idiot with a gun can be well dangerous enough. He transmits a brief summary and heading to those of the children (they are all children, even and possibly especially Bruce) who ARE on patrol tonight, swivels in his seat, and fires up one of the drones just in case help ISN'T on the way.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Alfred's voice was the most reassuring thing she had heard all night, because Phoebe currently has her arms wrapped around Killer MOth's, and her eyes are wide. She'd probably survive the fall without using any magic to slow, she thinks, but that would give her up. She tries hitting against Killer Moth's ribcage, but gets just thumps in the Kevlar. So there's one thing left to do.

    Phoebe swings her legs up. She grunts hard, and delivers a kick to one of Moth's stabilizers!

    Sonja is right in some ways, but no, she's not resistant to damage. And she keeps on the evasive before TWAG2 goes to reload -- and then he's shakingly trying to put in a new magazine when Sunny (being bulletproof), is able to surge forward and crush the gun, resulting in jamming and a littlier explosion, followed by TWAG becoming TWOG. Re-designation via Belle complete!

    He also goes down to the pavement hard!

    TWAG3 and TWAG4 have decided 'forget this mess' may be a good idea and have turned tail to run with the noxious purple cloud (which smells like the raunchiest post-Arby's farts mixed with my-dog-ate-sour-milk farts, not poison just EXTREMLY FOUL) fills the area, people gagging and retching on the train before TWAG3 goes down, shot by Stadler in the butt. Nice job, Stadler! That's not covered by Hench Insurance Inc!

    Alfred on the other hand launches the drone up, the Killer Moth trying to gain altitude fast enough to make the girl he's kidnapping nauseus and pliant as she punches at his armor?!

    "Aren't you Waynes supposed to be *smart*?" he asks, and then his stabilizer gets hit.

    "Wh-HEY! STOP THAT! You'll kill us both!"

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Killer Moth flying erratically through the air has Red SOnja's attention. The second disarmed man (this one not as literally alas) indicates he's also neutralized. She goes to ready her sword over in one hand once more, then goes to calmy instruct Indesctrucibelle in a voice that would brook no disagreement and bark out in as rough an order as a girl that had gone through two years of SHIELD training and a lifetime of suffering htat was among the worst eras of human history, the Hyborean Age.

"Wench, launch me, then ready to catch the girl." The 'launch' part seemingly obvious as Sonja would go to brace herself, long blade drawn and ready.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
"Wench?!" Sunny repeats, even as the gas seems to be...harmless to her. That's neat! Still, kidnapping is going on. She would move to give chase herself but well...okay, two-part plan is good right. The redhead with the sword is snagged as Belle takes to the air and whirls, a little circular motion to add to acceleration without, y'know, breaking Mary Jane by going full speed and then there was a very angry sword-wielding torpedo headed for Killer Moth while Sunny's caped form swept up from below, ready to perform the classic catch -before- acceleration downwards would mean that Phoebe broke in her arms.

Physics was a cruel mistress if you weren't ready for her!

Richard Stadler has posed:
Stadler did... not envy the idea of that thug beeing immoblized as he was in the middle of the large cloud of gas. Toxic or not, the scent was simply over the top, and it took a decent amount of willpower and the fact that he had yet to stop for dinner to keep Stadler from becoming a casualty himself and retching stomach acid across the floor, and not for the first time in his life, he really thought people should normalize carrying an M50 with him. It worked for London during the blitz, didn't it? He sucked air through clothing to deaden it as he quickly moved away from the cloud, looking up to see that kid giving her flying captor hell. She obviously wasn't going to go quietly, and he admittedly had to hope she was over water if she was dropped, because there wasn't anything they could do, unless that metahuman knew how to fly-

A quick look over to the two heroines got a wide eyed look as the one with the sword /demanded/ she be launched into the air. He was hoping his expression gave them the right 'are you crazy' look, in lieu of speaking and breathing in fumes, but honestly what other options did they have?

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Plus side, Mary Jane and Sonja may recognize the young woman from those Unicorn incidents. She does NOT look happy as she's being shaken like a bad kitten (or a polaroid picture) as she dangles above Gotham being lectured about sensitive and expensive things.

    Not plus side, Phoebe's kicked out a stabilizer, and as Sonja is coming up, Moth is coming down, and Phoebe is trying to swing herself to the back of him to steer which makes her rescue all the more daring when Sonja's going to swing with the blade!

    Killer Moth gives a curse and just drops the girl, trying to steer himself away fromt he crazy redhead of rage

    And Phoebe drops, trying to splay her body out as much as she can, willing herself to not use any magic to slow her descent as she falls!

    And poor Stadler, Stadler gets to watch this all go on as he manhandles one of Killer MOth's goons, shot in the butt.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
There are likely bits of Moth being cut off by the crazed lunatic wielding the blade forged with secondary adamantine. Perhpas of his body, perhaps of his suit.. Perhaps both! Mary Jane has enough control to -not- quite bisect him down the middle but that's about it. She has no qualms over on removing whatever chunks of him are in skewering reach on the way down. Even as she does so she goes to move into a sommersault, blade in front of her as she moves to angle herself twoards a nearby building. Blade is swung out, even as she braces over and uses it to drag along the side. The blade cleanly cuts through the concrete of it, as Mary Jane is sliding dwon two or three stories.. But the blade slows her fall enough to let her burn off the heaviest of it and leaves her just in ruined clothes, bruises all over her and cuts.. And a sword that she's immedaitely going to take out and start rubbing down over with some remnants of something even as it's still sharp to a fine, monofilament edge.

"Good launch wench!" Is sent towards Belle.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Well, Phoebe got to have the Lois Lane experience...except with some curvy blonde girl rather than tall dark and all-american man from Kansas! Her form inverted into a princess carry, they actually decend for several more meters to arrest the moment almost like a bungie jump before Sunny turns her gaze to the kidnappee. "Are you alright?" she asks, beaming in her best 'Everything is okay because I am here!' smile before her eyes turn towards Mary's improvised Self-catch.

Oh good, she -did- have a plan beyond 'throw me!'

Richard Stadler has posed:
And with that, Stadler lets out a breath. The fumes were dissipating, at least, which meant he could actually breath and move into the area again. Walking over to the dropped empty clip first, of course (those were expensive) and policing a few speant brass cartirdges that he could see, before walking to the goon he shot in the but, grabbing him and pulling him up. "Are you dead? No? Why don't you keep it that way and keep yourself on the ground." He breathess out, weapon still in his hand for the moment. Scene wasn't exactly secure, but the kid was safe, the heroines seemed to be alive, and that just left the reality of a mass casualty even and some very wounded goons.

He's silent for a little longer. "You have a first aid kit- fuck. Do you have a cellphone?" He says, holding his hand out and expecting the henchman to give him something.

Call him crazy, but he didn't think like any of the others were going to wait for the cops to show up.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe gets the Lois Lane experience. And considering how many times she's been caught by fliers, it never gets old. She flails a moment, the mute girl signing frantically 'please put me on the ground' as Sunny makes an excellent catch -- the Gotham softball team is going to be calling her up!

    Killer Moth has his wings cut off, and he lands in a handy truck of pool water on its way out to Bristol. SPLOOSH. Arrrbleble! Luckily, he's not terribly 'armed.

    The goon on the other hand looks up at Stadler, and he just sort of looks incredulous.

    "Dude, my ass, you shot my ass!"

    And the Gotham Boys in Blue show up just then, along with a very fancy car with a VERY ANGRY looking gentleman wearing a jacket, looking about and probably calling out for the girl in Belle's arms.

    Monarch is accosted by the GOtham PD. Ambulences gather to start treating the injured.

    One cop, chewing gum, looks at the poor TWAG3 and his ass.

    "Bruh. You shot his ass."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Blood, fuel, ichor, and other ooze of whatever make and manufacture on her blade is quickly cleaned off by Red Sonja. The sword is then after cleaning wrapped in the scabbard on her back. And then she's moving to dart away under the cloud of cops showing up and everyone complaining about butt-shot.
    How exactly does a redhead with a near two meter sword vanish into the night? Is she that stealthy?

    No, more like 'if a girl with a two meter sword tells her you don't see her, YOU DON'T SEE HER.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Well, bright red cape and dirtied uniform, Sunny does indeed settle down and lower Phoebe to the ground before she looks towards the cops, lifting her hands lightly. More of a 'I didn't really hurt anyone' than a 'Don't shoot' before she looks back at the butt-shot man and then folds her arms over her chest. "I mean...most of them shot me," she offers lightly in justification. "They didn't know I was bulletproof!"

Helpful Indestructibelle was helpful, right?

Richard Stadler has posed:
Richard looks down to the goon, before prodding his buttocks with a show slightly. "If you didn't want to get shot, don't shoot at people. I haven't shot at people for a couple of months before today and I didn't have to worry about catching a round in the shoulder. So quit whining or find another goddamn profession." He says. Pausing. "Cigerettes. What about those? I don't wnat to dig around in your pockets."

Oh, thank god, cops. Just had to make sure his gun was holstered before they got here because, probably like the goon, he didn't want to get shot today either. And when the cop walks up, Stadler looks over to the man. "Oh, I'm fine, Top, just fine, thanks for all the attention."

The cop waves a dismissive hand. "I'd see more blood if you weren't. At least he isn't dead. Look, evidence in this city isn't going to go anywhere, so I doubt they're going to need you. Go home, boss."

Stadler sighs, and stands up. "If you find my phone, mail it to me. Otherwise, see you in a month. With less excitement. And go for that refitting, Estano. DeClere's been really bugging me on the text chain."

A dismissive hand wave later and Rick headed back to the loop. Which is a few miles away. On foot.

He really needed to stop coming down here.

Phoebe Beacon has posed:
    Phoebe signs 'Thank you' to Indestructibelle, and with a look around, she spots the man with the very nice car, makes sure she isn't needed, and she hurriedly waves off others trying to get a soundbyte from her as she's ushered into the car, the gentleman (who those in the know would have recognized Alfred Pennyworth) stating that there would be no comment, and tucks her away into the back seat before returning and driving off.

    Luckily, other than dismemberment, a couple deep slices, retching and being shot in the buttocks, everyone else seems to be as hale and harty as anything.

    Good job, heroes! The day was saved by INVINCIBELLE! RICHARD STALDER! ALFRED PENNYWORTH! AND A MADWOMAN IN A SPIDERMAN TEE WITH A BIGASS SWORD!