14739/Foiled Foliage Shopping

Foiled Foliage Shopping
Date of Scene:	22 April 2023
Location:	Happy Plant House, Metropolis
Synopsis:	A trip to the plant nursery turned in to a crime stopping adventure with not nearly enough punching for Xio.
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Xiomara Rojas, Kian, Terry O'Neil

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Jinx has posed:
    The quiet background music is classical in nature but is mostly drowned out be the quiet talking of customers, the sound of little sprinklers, and the ushering of automatic doors opening and closing.  Happy Plant House is a large one of a kind one stop plant shop on the outskirts of Metropolis.
    Jinx looks very pleased with herself, arms folded, a nod to the two Titans with her.  "This is what I'm talking about…" she says brusquely and then snaps her fingers, "Let's move out!"  She strides toward the potted plant section because she's not going to put trees on the roof of the Titan's Tower.
    Once Jinx had healed from the near fatal battle in the prison she had found herself in a strange new chapter of her life—legally bonded to not only be in the Titan's custody, but to actively aid them in do-goodering… well, she's trying to figure out just how to be that person.  And if she's going to live there, then there's going to be more plants.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Technically speaking Crush isn't a Titan, she's sort of a Titan in waiting… training, whatever term they wanted to use.  What this meant was any time they needed someone to help out, they were guaranteed that Crush would offer herself up for assisting.  Not having a place to belong often did that, made you search high and low for some place, any place to just be yourself.
    No one told her they've be plant shopping however, not that she cared, she rather liked plants because they didn't hate her instantly for existing.  "Why's she sounding all official?" she asked as Jinx made the whole 'let's move out' comment, but she followed all the same.  If anything, it was Kian she would be listening to because he was a real Titan.
    "You plannin' to spruce the place up?" she then asked, sounding casual and comfortable, even though she was nervous as hell and hated being stared at… which she was.

Kian has posed:
    Kían takes a deep breath on entering the shop… and smiles.  "Smells a little bit like my home," he comments absently, looking around.  "Or at least it smells like greenery.  I've missed that.  I would like to improve my room at the Tower."
    He doesn't spot what he's looking for in his first complete glance around the place.  What he's looking for becomes obvious, though: "Nnh.  Nothing big enough to perch in.  Well, I probably couldn't fit that in my room anyway."
    As far as being stared at goes… well, the little birdman is both used to it and for the most part indifferent to it, unless someone makes an ill-judged grab for a feather.  Then he might have something to say.
    "They deliver, yes?  I don't want to have to carry things back."

Jinx has posed:
    Jinx's lips twitch in to a small hidden smirk at Xio's question of her being all bossy.  She has habits that are going to be hard to kick.  Being the leader of the Five and a feared Supervillain gives you a certain amount of ego and entitlement.
    None of that can stand up to the gentle misting one gets walking through the mist arch though.  It is heavenly and she bumps in to one of the workers.  "Oh.  Hey, sorry."
    The man rises back up with gloves on his hand and a small trowel.  He looks her up and down and she notes some of his golden teeth.  He has a rough and tumble look to him and sturdy boots.  "No worries ma'am you have a good day."  …and then he walks off.
    "Huh," Jinx notes, "I was going to ask him where the bulbs are."  She wiggles her fingers.  "No matter."  She snap points back to Xiomara and says, "Yes.  My room.  Kian's room apparently, more for the roof top too.  The more access to fresh soil I have inside the building the safer I'll feel.  They better deliver…."
    She pauses at a cross roads.  "Heads left, tails right."  She flips the coin and it lands heads.  She heads right assuming her luck will be back.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Sure, plants made a great way to spruce up a room, and apparently the roof… at one point Crush had been thinking about something for the roof, when she met Kaida and Kori for the first up there, but she was distracted by school.
    Right now, nothing was distracting her, something about that guy… the attitude of this body, his teeth, maybe it was just the fact that she'd grown up around street thugs and gang bangers… but all the alarm bells were ringing.
    Because of this man, Crush let Jinx wander off to the right and assumed Kian would be going with her, because her gut was telling her to keep and eye on this gold toothed fool, even if that meant following him… and no, 6'4" of Czarnian aren't the best at sneaking, but she can most certainly make it look like she's shopping her way in the same direction.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    And he's late, he's late—for a very important date.  But Vorpal could easily explain that by the fact that he had to deal with Stilt Man, an injured Ghost Spider, and an unusually jerk-ish Spider-Man.  He had taken Ghost Spider for a check-up at the Tower and, after taking care of her arm, he'd been told where Kian, Crush and Jinx had gone.
    Which explains the Rabbit Hole that opens outside the shop, and why a Cheshire Cat walks in, looking a little more frazzled than usual.
    Now, of course, came the hard part, finding th—
    Okay, no, that wasn't the hard part.  There was either a tall Czarnian or a pair of wings walking around.  He just had to keep his eyes peeled.
    It's not like he could do the childhood shortcut of bawling his eyes out, claiming he was lost, and having his people paged over the loudspeaker.
    He hadn't done that since switching to decaf.

Kian has posed:
    Kían explains, "My home is run through the canopy of a copse of tall trees, so everything smells like plants there.  I don't think I realized how much I missed it until I got a good smell of this place."
    He does more or less drift in Jinx's direction, although it's clear he's not following her per se.  He stops at a potted tree half again his own height and pats its slender trunk.  A salesperson is quickly there; a few quiet words are exchanged, and Kían continues his botanical mission while the tree is marked with a 'SOLD' tag.
    Disposable income is a good thing.
    He glances in Jinx's direction.  "Is there anything particular you're looking for, or just green growing things?"
    Unlike Crush, the gold-toothed man more or less went under his radar.  All Earthers are still kind of weird, so nothing stood out to him.

Jinx has posed:
    A worker wanders past Terry carrying a big jack hammer on his shoulder.  The man is built like a lumberjack which is very fitting for a shop that sells trees.  Xio's gut feeling has her 'casually' following the gold tooth man in to a storage room and he comes out with a big box of very large nails.
    Jinx turns around and walks backwards as she notices Xio wandering off elsewhere.  Kian's description of his homeworld has her say, "So—like the lost boys on Pan?"  She grins a moment.  "Or the Swiss Family Robinson?"  Tree houses are fun.  Tree cities must therefore be a riot.
    She narrows her eyes as she watches the sales person talking with Kian.  There's blood on his cuff.  She turns and walks in to a shedded area and stops as the penny drops.  Before her a half dozen people tied up on the floor and looking panicked.
    Jinx quickly and quietly shuts the door and plants her back to it.  She looks like she's seen a ghost.  Why does she keep walking in on crimes happening?  Well technically the bank robbers turned up after she and Harley were in the bank.  But this time she's the one who is late to the party.
    The sound of cement being drilled can be heard from the far side of the store ruining the ambiance.  Construction work of some kind must be going on.  "Say Kian… you're a voice of reason yeah.  If there's, like, a crime in progress—is that something I should be mentioning or… do we just let things 'work themselves' out?"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Nails?  What in the hell does a man working at a plant store need with nails?  If Crush had Spidey senses, she knew they'd be tingling.  Letting her eyes follow the man, she takes a quick look around before looking back to the plant she's standing by.  It was times like this she wished she was a Titan, that she had a comm unit, that she could some how subtly hint that something was up.
    The sound of the jackhammer is all the more indication of the trouble that she needs.  It didn't matter what city you lived in, a place of business had to post warnings of construction or deconstruction, and since there were no such signs anywhere… was she really resorting to that in her head?  Yes, yes she was.
    Three long strides toward Kian and Terry, her eyes are looking in their direction before nodding toward the sound of construction.  "Good plants that way guys," she calls out over the jackhammer.  "Go that way and check it out guys."  She then adds, and makes a little jabbity jab jab motion with her hand, like low key mock punching.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    Terry raises an eyebrow as he sees Crush, signaling that he sees her.  And then there is the odd bit of her gesticulation.
    There's something rotten in Denmark, and it's definitely not just the cheese.
    "…all right, I shall go and check out these plants, about which you have espoused their coolness."  He narrows his eyes, his ears twitching like crazy over the noise.  "Jeez, who the hell is doing that much jack hammering?"
    The cat moves in the direction indicated, and spots Jinx and Kian.  Jinx looks a little… rattled.  By this point, Denmark is starting to stink up quite a bit.  He glances from Jinx to Kian and back to Jinx in the universal gesture of 'who gets to explain first?'

Kian has posed:
    The birdman blinks, and his eyes widen.  "Yes, that is something you should definitely mention," Kían says, a little blankly.  "I have the terrible feeling you're about to tell me one is happening here."
    The reappearance of Xio and her indication of where to go doesn't help much.
    It says a lot that the additional appearance of Terry is met with evident relief.  "I don't know yet, Jinx says there's a crime going on but I don't know what yet."  The jackhammering at least means he doesn't have to speak too softly to avoid being overheard.  "Details would help?" he asks her, looking around as unobtrusively as an obvious non-human in a human world can.

Jinx has posed:
    Jinx ponders for a moment and then peeks back in through the door.  She shuts it and says, "Right…"  rumblerumblerumble goes the jack hammers  "There's a half dozen people tied up in here so I reckon there's something dodgy going down.  Of course I can't just simply go buy some plants from a plant shop—nope, I don't have the luck of boring."
    She sighs and rolls her eyes, then enters the room even as Xiorama makes her way toward the jack hammering.  The party is split.  Jinx kneels down and ungags the oldest looking guy in the room.
    "You've got to help us," he gasps and splutters, "It's Mick O'Darling's nephew come for the fake gold."  A brunette wriggles and makes loud noises in to her gag.  Jinx ungags her next.  "O'Darling supposedly buried gold here in the flower shop back in the '90s but we just made it up—a fake treasure map.  As a joke.  And he thinks it's real.  He wouldn't believe us it was all a joke… said his uncle told him the truth from the grave."
    Jinx smacks her lips and sighs, untying them one by one.  "Well it's your lucky day.  A bunch of heroic hero types are shopping here."
    Speaking of heroic hero types—the far corner of the shop has a green house with a sign on it that says 'Under Construction' and from inside there are two jackhammers hammering away.  There's a third guy in the greenhouse smoking a cigarette when the gold-toother walks in with the nails and dumps them on the ground.  He gives the smoker a shove and points to a third jackhammer.  The other worker with a jackhammer who passed Terry then walks in whistling between rattarattaratta and plugs it in to join in on the fun.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Working with a team, it was something Crush had managed to get a couple of lessons on, once in the Danger Room with the cat, and once out with Wonder Woman in the Savage Lands, but the truth was… she still sucked at it. She had no idea what to do in these situations aside from the standard protect the humans and don't kill the bad guys with the punches.
    Pausing just before she could be seen out by the green house, only then noting the sign that makes her roll her eyes, she looks toward Kian and Terry.  She could take them all, every one of those guys with jack hammers, but it would be a huge mess and a chance that some of the carnage bled over to where there were humans… so she waited, watching the cat and the bird with an obvious restlessness to her, for indication of what she was supposed to do next.  Should someone else come from the greenhouse toward the store however, they were getting punched… not full strength, enough to knock em down and out.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "Half a dozen people tied u— okay, yeah.  That's suspicious…."  Terry goes with Jinx to see this crime-in-progress first hand, and has to roll his eyes once the truth is uncovered.
    "Over a fake map… he's doing this.  We are dealing with a regular mastermind here.  We need to stop him before he decides to go after the Lucky Charms leprechaun's pot o'gold…."  He purses his lips and taps his comm, relaying the situation to the tower in case any reinforcements were near.  Then, he adds:
    "Kian, I'm going to evacuate the hostages.  Go and take a closer look at the construction with Crush… Jinx—" he glances at her, "good job.  How do you think you can work best to help Crush and Kian out there while I take these people out through the Rabbit Hole?"
    He approaches the first hostage and starts using his claws to cut through the ropes.  "The idea is not to spring anything on them until the hostages are out and any other bystander in the store has been escorted out of the premises—for safety."  He says all of this over the comm as well as to Jinx, for the sake of everyone who may be comm'ed.

Kian has posed:
    'Not springing anything' and 'maximizing confusion' are two different things.  Wonder who Kían might have learned that from.
    Fun thing about jackhammers.  They run on compressed air, which means a compressor, which means a motor of some sort with an electrical system that can be interfered with.  Kían's literally hawk-like vision makes it easy to pick out the hoses coming from the tools and trace them back to a compressor and a generator; even if they're out of sight, he can sense the electromagnetic field they generate.
    And those electromagnetic fields are easy to interfere with: under pressure of Kían's control, the generator's alternator fails and it sputters and coughs to a stop.  "Much quieter," he comments.
    Yes, and still not learning Earth styles of conflict, as ordered by his viceroy, but one wingbeat at a time!
    And it'll give the criminals something to engage their attention; they're more likely to assume a mechanical fault than a birdman with a rhy'thar.
    That done, Kían kicks into the air and onto the roof, where he can observe down into the greenhouse and hopefully gather some helpful data.

Jinx has posed:
    Jinx raises an eyebrow.  It just doesn't feel the same when Terry says 'good job' as when Donna says 'good job'.  That's something she should unpack with a psychiatrist some time.  You know—Harley.  But for now it'll just have to sit in the back of her head and torment her.  "Uh huh…"
    She considers for a moment and peers out the door at where Crush is which is far closer to the corner greenhouse than she is.  The jackhammers shut off suddenly and she hmms.  "I mean.  What if there is some truth to the whole gold thing.  Sure you made a fake map but that doesn't mean there isn't real gold hidden somewhere."
    "Well Micky was a bank robber and he would drop hints about it all the time but we've all looked at one time or another and no one has found anything," says the real sales clerk as opposed to the fake one.  Jinx sighs, "This just won't do.  Fine.  Let's get civilians out of here."
    She kicks off her shoes and walks outside in to a garden bed and lifts up her hand.  One fire detector detected.  Two fire detected… Three… ah ah ah.  She lifts up her hands and thrusts them out toward the devices and sets off the fire alarms.  The customers look around to see if it's real or not and then start to make their way out of the store.
    The gold hunters don't really care if they have customers here or not.  In fact, this is convenient for them.  They don't need to keep up the ruse.  "We're going to need some new fuses—" one of them says and the other shrugs, "Yeah.  Well.  I got the nails."  A bit of cement gives way under his foot and he falls on his butt.  The foundation cracks further and he falls in to darkness as a hole opens up from their efforts.  A secret room below the green house has been revealed.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Continuing to look from greenhouse to Terry, Crush offers a single nod as he mentioned Jinx helping her and Kian.  Helping?  Okay, she had no idea what Jinx could do, or what Kian could do, and suddenly every ounce of her thinking as solidly on not letting those a-holes come back into the store for any reason.
    With no idea how good anyone's hearing was she says very quietly, "I'm going to become a distraction now," then steps out into plain sight of gold toothed man outside the greenhouse.
    "Seriously, ya picked a really bad day to try this," she states clearly toward the man, starting to walk toward him.  "Cause I wanted some plants and now I'm gonna have to kick your asses."  And then she is jumping to him, similar to how the Hulk moves from place to place but with far better aim and less power cause really she just wants to be right there, punching him with pulled strength to see if she can, in fact, not kill him.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "Right, right, just because you haven't found it, doesn't mean it isn't there.  It's all about how you hide something… Kian?"  He speaks into his comm, "Sitrep?"
    He hears the fire alarms.  That means Jinx has found a way to be a distraction.  Good.  "Come on, people, step on through," he says to each one of the hostages as he frees them, "This'll take you to the Themysciran Art Center's coffee shop.  Have yourself some cakes and honey while we figure this out.  Just say Vorpal sent you, put it on my tab."
    What? He's nice like that, okay.

Kian has posed:
    "The treasure may or may not be real," Kían radios to the rest of the team, "but the hole in the ground is, there's some kind of …underground room."  Terry at least will understand the natural hesitation before those last two words.
    He drops lightly to the greenhouse roof, ready to bolt if anyone points anything in his direction, and tries to get a view on what's inside that hole.
    After all, there's no way in hell he's going into it.

Jinx has posed:
    Two more of the would be thieves drop down the hole even as gold-toother looks up and sees Xio making a stand.  He looks at her and sizes her up and down—then sees how she's bounding across.  He drops the jack hammer and lifts up his hands.  "Whoa!  Lady!  Chill—I'm a lover not a fighter."
    Jinx dusts her hands happily and then hears over the comms about the hole from Kian.  Her T-comms is part tracker part communicator after all.  "It's real…" she whispers to herself.  The thing about criminals is they have to be optimistic.  Because if you're at all pessimistic you'd stop and think about the consequences, police, detectives, super heroes, etc., all who might try and stop you.
    She casually walks over toward the green house following after Xio's bounding charge.  Tapping her ear she responds in the comms.  "So who wants to go down and treasure hunt with me?"

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Lover boy has exactly two options, dodge out of the way of Crush's incoming punch, or take it.  If he takes it, well he's stupid but if he does, then he's likely to go down from it.  Last three sessions in the danger room training were 100% no kills from her punches against humans.
    If he does dodge, then he's a smart man who god out of the way and she'll be able to continue her forward momentum right into the greenhouse, through the wall if she has to.
    "I got these fools!" she calls out, no longer having to attempt whispering.  Maybe Jinx's comms will pick it up, maybe the other's still just hear it, who knows… but she'd heading in side to deal with the rest of the gang, including the larger guys she saw going in.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    "…of course it's real," Vorpal sighs.  Ushering the last of the hostages out, he says, "…count this Goonie in."  Because they're good enough.
    The Cheshire cat comes out, to spot Crush on the fool-punching task force.  He knows his fiancé well enough to know Kian will not go down that hole, so he is given a task: "Kian, tie him up when Crush is done with him an call the authorities.  Looks like we'll need a paddy wagon and, potentially, the treasury if the gold is real."  It probably is.  "Damnit, I didn't bring my spelunking tights," he grumbles and heads towards the hole so that they can get this over with.  "I really was looking forward to buying some succulents, you know…."

Kian has posed:
    Kían calls the authorities first, since that's the easier task to handle, advising on location, situation, and that "there are four dik-heds to be collected".
    Vic has much to answer for.
    Tying someone up is the hard part—restraint is anathema to him, to his kind generally, although not quite with the same revulsion as being enclosed.
    A solution presents itself—some empty burlap sacks that can be pulled over the dik-hed's upper half.  Hopefully they hadn't been used to hold fertilizer… or maybe hopefully they were, to serve as a reminder that being a criminal is Not Good.

Jinx has posed:
    The first one fell down in to the darkness with a yelp.  He wasn't expecting the floor to give way.  Whoever cemented that slab did it thin and dodgy.  Then two more of his fellow thieves are down there, including Petey O'Connell the masterminds behind this whole operation.
    "Well don't just lay there get up."  The room seems to be an old forgotten cellar but the shelves are bare.  There's only one thing of note in the room and that's a legit treasure chest.  The trio have it open before Jinx, Terry, and Xio get down there.
    "Illuminate," Jinx says playfully and twinkles her fingers.  Sparkles fly out and light up the room like little non-falling fireworks.  And in doing so the treasure is revealed.
    "No way—" says Petey as he lifts up a framed photo of his uncle, his auntie, and a whole host of kids.  It's a family photo.  A true treasure for Mike O'Darling.  If there was ever gold down here it's not there now.  Then again—how else might he have paid for all those upgrades to the flower shop back in the 90s.
    "You must be joking," says another of the thieves and sighs, putting up his hands too.  He nudges the guy next to him who also gives up.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Thankfully for everyone involved Crush did not crash into the hole, because if she went down she was landing on someone that no one wants three hundred pounds of Czarnian landing on them, especially given the spikes all over her clothing.
    Landing solid on her feet beside Jinx, she's ready to punch, she's always ready to punch, but there doesn't seem to be anyone who really needs punching… they're even putting their hands up.
    "That was too easy," she comments with a sadness to her tone.  "I mean, come on…."  She looks at the guys again giving up and sighs.  "Fine.  I'll start 'detainin' em with some of the cords from up above."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
    The Cheshire cat gives Jinx and Xio a wry smirk before turning to the thieves and their treasure.  He can't help but let out a cackle, summing up the entirety of the situation as he sweeps his arms to encompass the underground room and the portrait.
    "Congratulations, gentlemen.  You have not only committed several felonies, but you did so solely for the purpose of being an Aesop.  So fittingly I must say—"
    A lute, of all things, appears in his hands, and he strums it while he sings:

      ~Lest not this tale be soon forgot
      Of how the greedy met their end
      Regale at length how it was got
      that gold they sought, but found a friend!
      And thus behind their padlocked cell
      their plaintive chants can now attest
      the Titans came, for them to tell:
      Surrender, you're under arrest!~

Kian has posed:
    "I like easy," Kían says to Xio, with a smirk.  "Easy means no one got hurt."  He glances at the victim of her non-lethal punch.  "Much," the birdman amends.
    He perches on the edge of the hole and peers down into the subsurface room—with, it must be admitted, a bit of a shiver and a ruffling of feathers.  "Does this mean I didn't actually buy that tree because it wasn't a real salesman?"

Jinx has posed:
    "I'm afraid so Kian… I'm afraid so.  Though those people we rescued might give us a discount now… maybe."  A little smile creeps over Jinx's face as she folds her arms staring at the three who are now under their arrest.  Not the least of which that smile is there because of Terry's impromptu song.
    Xio can jump out of the hole and Terry can portal.  Jinx?  She winks at the three guys and says, "Better luck next time."  She positions herself above the hole and still connect to the Earth, has the wind pick her up and pull her out as if she were flying.
    It's not long before the police Kian called have arrived and the real employees have their plant shop back.  And as predicted, there are discounts and many lovely plants purchased.  The trip to the flower shop was not a complete bust after all.
    It turned out, the root of all evil was actually familial love.  And this makes Jinx think again about her parents whom she never knew—and that casual idea drop from Harley about time travel.  She knows a certain Time Nymph who owes her a favour after all….