13144/The Power of TRANSISTORS

The Power of TRANSISTORS
Date of Scene:	22 October 2022
Location:	Metropolis University
Synopsis:	An Avenger and two killers engage an old school tech boy.
Cast of Characters:	Monet St. Croix, Frank Castle, Vivian Vision, Cecily Winters

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Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's a quiet fall day over in Metropolis. The University is having an exhibition of various alien artifacts from various adventures of Metropolis heroes throughout the years that had been given to the university. Only a few students and teachers are about. There's even no sign of the news media on this quiet day in one of the exhibition halls. It's a weekend, there's a football game, and none o fthis stuff is new or interesting to many.

Frank Castle has posed:
Punisher's War Journal: No softer target than a college campus. Security's a joke. Kids are unaware, more interested in each other than their surroundings. Lambs to slaughter for the right kind of scum. Now they've put alien tech in the middle of it, like a great big piece of cheese for the kind of rats that love an easy score. Rats like the kind I'm going to exterminate today. I called in Cecily for back-up, got her up high on the rooftops with the scope.

I'm in the Battle Van, waiting. We know the strike's coming. Just a matter of time. Kind of thing used to make my heart race. Now? I just want it over. I just want 'em dead. They way they deserve.

The way they all deserve.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian Vision isn't generally one for sporting events. But a good exhibition of artifacts scientific or historical in nature? That's entirely up her alley. And given she sometimes stops by Metropolis to visit Titans Tower anyway this was a must. She can enjoy the science and later stop by the see her friends at the Tower. Win/Win.

But to avoid everyone staring at her like she's on of the items on display she's using her holographic system to disguise herself as a totally regular teenage girl, for the time being at least, even if it's a teenage girl wearing canary yellow cargo pants and a green sweater. Not a combination anyone is likely to find in a fashion magazine any time soon...

So far she just patiently heads from exhibit to exhibit. Content to take it slow and see everything there is to see.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    There's something about the autumn air. Something crisp. Clean. Hints of decay but the promise of cold silence. Especially high on a rooftop overlooking the university. Something clean about Metropolis. Doesn't have the same smell that New York has. And especially not the grim dank of Gotham. Shinier, too. Cecily isn't exactly the most fond of it. She sighs, adjusting her scarf, settling near the edge of the roof. It's the only piece of cold weather gear she's got on. A fluffy scarf in deep purple around her neck. The rest, straight-lined and professional as always.

    She taps the mic in her ear, just a quick 'ping' and no words to let Frank know she's watching. The process of assembling her broken down .308 isn't difficult or lengthy, but there's a slow sensuality to it as the parts fit together just so, the light friction of metal on metal with a thin layer of oil and then it's done. Magazine. Bolt. Scope. Alien artifacts, interesting stuff. If things go down the way they're expecting, well, it's a good thing she visited the exhibit the day before.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's a quiet day in the neighborhood. Vivian is enjoying herself. Frank is waiting and ruminating. But like almost all his instincts and gut feeligns about th eworst in humanity.. He's going to be proved right here. But perhaps not in the way he expected.
    THe roof of the exhibit hall is then shorn ALL the way off by an individual wearing an almost familiar set of armor. But old looking. Decideldy so. Bulky, archaic. Yellow and red. With spinning spikes like gears over the shoulders.
    "Come to papa." HE would speak in a synthesized voice.

Frank Castle has posed:
Punisher's War Journal: I ping back Cecily and steps out of the van, moving around to the back and going through the loading doors in the back. Time go gear up: AR-15, a pair of Walthers, an old Mac-10 I just can't seem to quit. Some of the new guns are nice, but my old friends fit better in my hands. Can't afford to miss too much today. Not with this many civilians on hand.

My signal interceptor squawks. Funky signals. Somebody's talking. Somebody that doesn't belong. I tell Cecily to stay alert. This is gonna be messy.

"Tell me you've got eyes on somebody that needs to die."

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian Vision pouts. This sort of thing always happens when she has a nice day out planned. A synthezoid can't have a little fun without some sort of monster or villain attacking. Her mind immediately forks into a thousand subroutines. A portion of which devote themselves to contacting the emergency services, some to guiding the visitors to safety either by sending instructions to cellphones or just holoprojecting arrows for them to follow. Most importantly she hacks the university to identify the most potentially dangerous items and cross references the list against where the suddenly appearing Iron Man knock off is focusing his attention.

Her disguise drops for now and she moves to prevent any falling pieces of roof landing on the civilians. Either with directed energy blasts from her eyes or physically catching anything that might land on people which happens to be too large to blast.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Huh. Cecily blinks. She hadn't expected this. She should've. She doesn't hang out in Metropolis that often, though. Usually it's bigger stuff that hits here. She just sighs and finishes putting her earplugs in. She hears Frank's voice and replies, "Someone took the roof clean off. Looks like old Stark-Tech. Tony's going to be pissed. I'm sure the patent lawyers are going to have a great time with this one..." Her voice comes through with a hint of amusement, but otherwise there's a growl to go with it.

    "Someone in the hall is redirecting civilians, seeing energy blasts... my phone's lighting up with evac instructions..." she adds, both hands moving quickly. She drops the magazine and cycles the bolt, catching the ejected cartridge before pulling a different one from the case on the side. It's not a normal bullet, the tip of it being more akin to glass, or crystal, with a glowing blue-purple shine in it. "Going loud, firing a beacon, look to the sky and you'll see it," she thumbs the cartridge into the open breach and slams the bolt home. "Three. Two. One. Mark."

    The loud report of a rifle sounds out across the campus, echoing. What's more noticeable though is the streak of blue-purple energy that streaks from one rooftop to the power-armored villain. It has almost no impact whatsoever, but the tendril of bright flame lingers in the air for many long seconds like a scar. Or an arrow pointing from her rooftop to the target.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Speaking of old school.. The armor to Vivian's scanners if pointed at is reading in things that can't be right. No microchips, no cutting edge micro-processors in it. The copmonents in it were vacuum tubes, transistors, servo enhancers, booster rockets.. It was as if someone had gone back in time to the days of D0S and Dialup and taken whatever they could scavenge to make something that was somehow WORKING in defiance of whatever sort of laws of common sense there might be on something!
    The man instinctively flinches as the rifle goes off, the weapon's heavy bullet cracking into his armor, grunting. <<Nice. So now.." He would go to hold a hand up and over, the hand retracting over to some sort of bulky looking, heavy duty railgun and glowing blue with a charge and a buildup of energy.. <<Here's Mine>> There was no sort of ammo or rockets apparent or.. So what would he be fring if anything at the sound of the rifle, it was clearly charging to launch a projectile and..
    Wait. There was the hand in the launcher.
    Vivian's able to stop any debris and get the civilians out of there even as this might be the rare occasion for a robot to go 'dafuq'.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle hits the gas on the van and careens onto campus properly, bouncing over cobblestone paths and dragging ruts through green lawns right past 'Do not step on the grass' signs. Frank was never very good at following the law and he only ever did what he was told when he was in the military. Well, and when his mother told him what to do, God rest her soul. She'd cry to see what her son had become, the son who was supposed to be a priest. Frank hated to disappoint her, but she'd have to take it up with God. He was the one that made this world. He was the one who let Frank's family die.

He swerves the armored van to a stop and kicks out the driver's door, going into a roll and coming up to begin unleashing automatic fire on the armored individual, peppering him with rounds that would punch through kevlar.

Vivian Vision has posed:
With the electronic warfare tasked portions of her mind finding nothing she can compromise (except perhaps an encrypted comms channel being used by Frank and Cecily but that while interesting doesn't seem directly related to the attacker) Vivian resorts to other means of communication. Her holosystem has sound generation capabilities. "Armoured individual. Cease your attack immediately. The authorities have been alerted and I have alerted the rest of the Titans. If you surrender now I will ensure you reach police custody unharmed."

She fires an energy blast across his line of sight. Hopefully drawing his attention.

"Fail to comply and I will peel your rusty junk suit open like an old tin can."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily squints at the railgun on the armor's... arm. She's sliding the magazine back in, minus one, before cycling the rifle's bolt again. Another ping to Frank, "Careful, he's got something big. Can't tell what he's packing. Energy blast over there is on our side." She then curses under her breath, "...thought we'd have soft targets, wish I'd brought the Anzio..." Another sweep of the scope over their target, watching the 'warning shot' from Vivian even if she and Frank have already started unloading on the guy's boilerplate.

    A long, slow exhale and she looks for some kind of weak point. A power source. A joint. Anything /external/ she can put a bullet in. She settles, for the moment, on firing on the head. Even if she can't pierce the plating, maybe the sound will have the bastard's ears ringing!

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The rounds that pepper the armored man take chunks out of the chestpiece of it. Strong and reinforced, but not a top of the end alloy. Continued barrage or focused fire would definitely take it down. He grunts over at Vivian <<Kids these days. Oh well, at least I can do something about that>> The charging fist in turn is swung over at Vivian.. Right as he fires his retro rockets to try and dive out of the line of fire, going to try and launch the railgun enabled fist at her from a few dozen meters as it would blast at her with hypersonic speeds!

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle relentlessly assaults the armored criminal, emptying a clip and popping it out onto the grass, replacing it with a fresh one. INstea dof unleashing bullets, though, he aims upwards, arcing instinctively. It takes a while to get the hang of a grenade launcher, its indirect, lobbing arc sometimes difficult to predict. But Frank Castle's done it a thousand times and he's gotten very very good at it.

"Fire in the hole!" he warns, aiming his explosives along the path of those retro rockets, trying to anticipate his trajectory.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian Vision puts her hands on her hips as the power armoured individual turns to aim at her. "My name is Vivian Vision," she proclaims using her holographic system to make the sound carry over the weapons fire. "Aren't you going to introduce yourself?"

There's zero fear in her expression. Largely because she's A. Already phasing. & B. Holographically made herself invisible and is displaying a decoy image safely to one side.

"It's supposed to be villain 101 to announce your name and how your scheme will make us all tremble with fear..."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "Shit," Cecily curses over the comm, "I've lost sight. Joining you." She snatches up the empty casing and stuffs it in her bag. She sweeps it over her shoulder and grabs the rifle before vaulting over the roof's edge and... dropping. Down, down, tails and ends of her scarf fluttering upwards before she catches the bottom end of a fire escape and grits her teeth from the feel of her shoulder nearly getting dislocated.

    She really didn't want to get mixed up in the close-range nuts and bolts but between the likely smoke of grenade fire and the fact she just can't see Mister Armor, she's going to be more useful in the middle of it. This does afford her the opportunity to warn any civilians away from the scene as well as direct people *behind* her, though the sight of a woman with a sniper rifle and nine fox tails charging at top speed towards the exhibition hall might... not actually be that strange for Metropolis.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
It's Metropolis, people have likely seen weirder than a girl with nine tails, a sniper rifle, and an armored cyborg trading fire, ro whatever the man is. As the fist goes to fire -through- Vivian's body (where she's not) it goes to reverse course over on retro-thrusters, moving to snap through the air to latch back onto his wrist. "And why should I do that?" He goes to fire an arc of flame through the general direction of where the taunting is coming from..
    Then of course that leaves him quite vulnerable to Frank's grenade. "AUGH!" It goes to blast him out of the air, slamming him down hard to the ground. The front of the armor is scorched, almost caved in.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle is moving to try to close ground quickly, wanting to get to the armored figure before he can recover, looking momentarily over his shoulder as he sees Cecily coming down.

"Keep an ear to police frequencies, wanna know when they're close. Rather not shoot our way out," he says.

He raises his weapon and aims it, "Helmet off, maggot," he says.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"So the newspapers will know what name to put on page eight where they report your successful capture," Vivian says brightly. "After all your technology is so outdated I have seen high school science projects which could defeat it." Admittedly she's a member of GIRL. The science projects she sees can travel between planets at FTL or create portals to other dimensions..

Focusing on the sound of her voice is alas not going to help. She can project sound from anywhere within her holo-systems range. Besides fire will just pass through her body.

She does however move in when the Iron Man knock off falls to the ground. If she can land a few super strength punches or kicks to the suit while it's down she will. Targeting fifty ton strikes at joints to disable or damage them.

Frank and Cecily don't really draw her attention for now. They don't seem to be intent on carrying out any crimes.

Cecily Winters has posed:
    Cecily does just that, keeping an ear to police band and emergency chatter as she moves in. She'd already cleaned up her perch. Not that there was much to clean up. And by now, her tracer has dissipated in the sky. It looks like she doesn't have to take any more shots, at least, not that she quite can while hoofing it at top speed. "Not what I expected to find today," she says absently, her free hand going for her pistol as she gets closer to the scene--and the armored villain.

    She trusts that Frank and the unknown holographic energy-blasting woman can keep the perp down while she sweeps the area for anyone that might need help or is injured.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
Forcing himself upright, the man in the armor that still hasn't given his name goes to try and reach over to point his fist over at Frank, "Like -hell- I will." his chest plating is nearly caved, and most of his weapons are offline. He's clearly not capable of further combat or flight, beyond swinging his fists wildly. His armor is trashed, and isn't going to be a threat to anyone wtihout significant repairs. He moves to try and force himself up and over to his feet..
    Right in time for Vivian to slam over into him and take out his armor for good. He falls to the ground hard, armor torn off and vulnerable now, his systems disabled thanks to the pinpoint attacks of the synthezoid.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle hefts up his weapon, pointing it up in the air so as not to seem to be threatening Vivian. He comms to Cecily, "Prepare for a quick evac in case the cape get bitchy," he says.

He doesn't know this one, but he doesn't keep much track of them. Pests, as far as he's concerned, and mostly amateurs with the training and instincts of a middle schooler. Except Daredevil. He was damn good, for a moralist prick.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian cancels her holographic disguises for now. Moving in to restrain the villain and remaining super dense. For optimal armour removal and bullet proofing. "You would be advised to flee the scene now while I am distracted capturing this criminal," she says casually. "Because once I am done I am obliged to arrest any known criminals in the area. Even if they were attempting to prevent a crime being carried out."

She doesn't directly look at The Punisher. But it's pretty clear that's who her remarks are intended for.

"And I can assure you that while your weapons proved effective against this outdated technology they would not so much as tickle me."

It's only now the immediate threat is dealt with that her mental efforts move away from directing the crowd and onto breaking the encrypted communications link. Unless he's chatting to Cecily with super-tech comms gear she'll probably be able to crack it eventually and if he is? Well, she can probably jam it if need be... "That being said I haven't witnessed any attempts to harm civilians and have no pressing desire to engage in further hostility."

Cecily Winters has posed:
    "You'd best get moving, actually," Cecily remarks over the radio. She holsters her pistol and starts to take her rifle apart. It's not that much work, really, and she does it on the move as she gets closer to Frank and Vivian. It's packed up in her duffel before she's even done walking. Scarf and tails flutter to a stop as she does and she sighs, looking around at the damage. Instead, she's pulling out a business card to give Vivian. It's matte black with metallic silver etching of a fox and a phone number. It says 'Kitsune Arms' on it.

    "I'll be staying to help clean up," she states, an air of professional legitimacy about her. "Half of this wing belongs to STAR Labs and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the artifacts here are theirs, too." She flexes her fingers, the ones that had grabbed the fire escape, "I've got permits and credentials, call me 'Asset Protection' for STAR." She leaves out the part where she's a STAR Labs asset herself and probably has a serial number stamped somewhere under her hair line.

    "I'll see you back in the city," she gives a half-smile and a loose two-fingered salute to Frank.

Monet St. Croix has posed:
The man is barely conscious now, in pain, and fully immobilized. The sirens announce the near immedaite arrival of the police, of course the very second that things are over and the fighting is done. They have that almost magical ability after all. How convenient! The threat is neutralized and for now the ability to get away right before teh cops arrive and anyone else that's in tow with them to handle the disabled Iron Man Knockoff is arriving there.

Frank Castle has posed:
Frank Castle snarls, disappointed. "Almost a waste of ammo," he mutters under his breath, frustrated by the interference of the superhero. Getting into a fight with a meta he doesn't know and hasn't scouted isn't worth the effort, though. This guy's a small fry, based on the tech level of that armor.

"Mission abort." he says to Cecily and turns and heads back towards the van. One of the campus security guys does meekly attempt to stop him only to literally pee himself when Frank gives him a hard look.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian Vision tilts her head. A slight nod of acknowledgement. Accepting the business card with one hand while the other carefully removes pieces of armour like it's made of paper. She also looks up Cecily's credentials. Because while it's okay to trust people who seem to have noble intents it never hurts to run a thorough background check.

She'd probably be flattered to be considered a meta. Given she's visually quite clearly not organic! Perhaps her simulation of life is getting so good it's fooling people.

The authorities will of course get a report the Punisher was in the area. But, given he's innocent until proven guilty, she does given him plenty of time to be elsewhere. It's the least she can do for someone who presumably was 'good' enough to be trying to stop a robbery!