16925/The Terrible Tether Tyrant Tosses Trucks

The Terrible Tether Tyrant Tosses Trucks
Date of Scene:	15 January 2024
Location:	Financial District
Synopsis:	Indestructibelle and Blue Beetle take down Tether Tyrant and meet Prisma and Invincible. The Young Avengers are discussed.
Cast of Characters:	Mark Grayson, Jaime Reyes, Sunny Harlow, Bunny Macleod

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Mark Grayson has posed:
It's early evening in New York, a cold winter's night. From the back of the Federal Reserve, the large armored doors open up to allow trucks, full of stacks of uncirculated bills to depart and take to the streets of New York, heading in opposite directions across the city. As three of those trucks are heading towards Brooklyn to make their deliveries, there is a figure that is lying in wait for them.

He drops down as the first one passes by, a stocky figure that is wearing a knit cap, green sweater, gloves, jeans... and a large harness over his chest. In the middle of his chest is a large portal where these large, elastic bands extend from. Like broken rubber bands, each one comes out of his chest, there are at least a couple of dozen that are noticable. And they extend, two towards each of the trucks where they wrap around the vehicles and lift them out of the air as if they weigh nothing.

"Aha!" he calls out. "I'll be able to pay off all of my debts and have a tidy sum to myself!" TETHER TYRANT calls out as he starts to swing around the trucks, attempting to toss or flip them to stun the guards inside so that they'll be easier to remove and carry off the trucks without them.

Jaime Reyes has posed:
It's Jaime's first day at Frost International! He's getting a firsthand look at how big business is run! He's helping with projects! He's getting coffee--

And finally, he's going home, exiting the office building with his coat drawn snugly around him and a cap pulled down over his head - brrrrrr. They don't have winters like THIS in El Paso --

He watches what looks like an animate bungee cord lift two armored trucks, and then... keeps walking. A couple of blocks away, down an alley--

And Jaime Reyes becomes EL ESCARABAJO AZUL! ...The Blue Beetle. There's a flash of electric blue light, and then the click-whrrr-humm of gossamer energy wings as the carapace-armored hero takes to the air. "Hey!" He calls, "Rubber Band Man! Put those trucks down - steal the way everyone else in this city does, by running a big corporation!"

Sunny Harlow has posed:
The financial district wasn't exactly where one might expect to find Sunny Harlow, even at the best of days, and she was far from a banker who'd be at home in the federal reserve.

What was she doing then? Well, she'd been on her way home from meeting up with a friend, university homework waits for noone!

Now? She was left to blink as an angry noodle man comes to rob the vans. Great.

Ducking to the side, there's a quick snapshot from her phone and a message sent to Mark with the message 'going to be late, pizza afterwards,' and then she was stuffing her phone into the jacket she was shrugging out of her civies to the version of her costume she could wear beneath.

Mark Grayson has posed:
"It's not Rubber Band Man! I am Tether Tyrant!" And as for him putting down any kind of truck, there's a snort from the older man. "How about you go away, Bug Boy, before you get crushed!" And with that, he's snagging up one of the parked cars that are lining the street.

As the band wraps around it, he calls out, "You want a truck so badly...." he swings around the pickup truck a few times - and flings it hard, sending it tumbling end over end towards Jaime as he slams down the armored cars for the moment, holding them in place. "...here you go!"

One of those trucks that was slammed down, lands on the ground right near where Sunny is changing out of her civvies. The guards have been jostled around hard and the pair of them look like they are slumped over, unconscious.

Sunny's phone chimes with a message from Mark: 'I'll get BunBun to order it. Everything good?' That's when he gets the picture attachment and Mark starts typing again quickly, sending a second message. 'I'm across town, will be there as soon as possible. Those tendrils are stronger than they look!' he warns.

Jaime Reyes has posed:
That truck goes hurtling through the air at the Blue Beetle, who puts himself into a receiving mode; and then conjures a glowing electric-blue sword out of... seemingly nowhere.

As the truck's about to slam into him, he brings the sword down; and shears the truck in half. Of course, the two halves of the truck make a mess where they impact into the building behind him, but that's not his fault. "Dude." He says, "That was SO cool. I hope somebody got footage of me doing that on their phone -- maybe it'll be on TikTok."

He glowers at Tether Tyrant. "I asked you once, nicely, Bungee Bandit. I'm not asking again." His wings snap into place, and then he's darting forward, slicing at the tethers holding the truck. "Not! Yours!"

Sunny Harlow has posed:
It wasn't her full costume, the black and yellow suit more like a leotard similar to Power Girl's....without one famous asset anyway. Stashing her bag on the rooftop as she 'hopped' the building, touching down on the other side of the confrontation between Jaime and the...cord guy.

"Alright rope robbery guy, you've literally got someone who looks like a cross between a Power Ranger and a robot death machine already telling you to surrender and I'm late for a dinner date so...how about you put your hands up and surrender before you find out the guy with the swords is the 'nice' one?"

Hey, even Indestructibelle could try and be intimidating now and then!

Mark Grayson has posed:
The gal with the phone may have already put it away. Though Jaime's sword is able to cleave through the truck, the metal glowing on either side as the vehicle's halves fall to the ground, crushing against the ground in a caphony of metal and glass.

Then Jaime is coming in to slice at the tendril. He will not find that so easy to cut. He is able to hack into it, but there's no cutting it away immediately, it may take a couple of tries! In the meantime, as close as he is, while the Blue Beetle is focusing in on one of the tendrils, two more are racing towards him, the pair of thick pieces of material made of something as flexible as rubber and stronger than steel aiming to try to crush the young hero between them!

"AUGH! I told you fools, I am Tether Tyrant! You Gen Zers, never paying attention!" And with Indestructibelle coming in for the fight, he laughs. "I've taken on Omni-Man before, I can handle you!" He lost badly, but he lasted a few minutes. A tendril lashes out towards the young Viltrumite, attempting to wrap around her, and if successful, attempts to follow suit to slam her into the ground like he did with the trucks earlier.

Which are being released now that there are two heroes here and Tether Tyrant is having to concentrate on the fight at hand!

Jaime Reyes has posed:
Just as Jaime's about redouble his effort and hack through that tendril, another sneaks up on him and grabs his wrist. The sword evaporates into the air, as he says, "What the--" And then gets yanked away and flung into the side of a building. C-R-A-S-H!

Jaime finds himself having gone arse over teakettle and through the wall and into a bathroom. He shakes his head, and wipes the water off his armored face from where it's spraying from a busted sink.

//Jaime//, Khaji Da says, //Those tethers are alive. They are a symbiotic alien organism.// Jaime gets to his feet. "Like you, but gross?"

//Like me,// Khaji Da agrees, //But gross. I suggest switching to a thermal-based weapon.// "You mean... flamethrowers?" //Yes. I can create a weapon which will rapidly compress the oxygen out of the air, project it out in a stream, and then ignite it.// Jaime grins. "...Sounds like a plan to me. But first--"

A moment later, Jaime bursts out of the building, dragging the shattered remains of a toilet with him in one hand. Which he throws at Tether Tyrant without a word of warning. "You got two choices, Elasti-Goon. You either take your eye off the girl, or you take your eye off me. Both of them are bad. Third choice - you give up now. I'm a nice guy, so I'ma let you choose option three while you still got your teeth."

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Omni-man was a powerhouse, a truely near indestructible force of nature who could power through most things as Sunny had discovered first-hand. Despite her name, 'Indestructibelle' was very much aware how much more breakable she was...but she was also likely a lot more gymnastic than he'd probably expect from a Viltrumite. Twisting as the tendril came her way, she extended a hand to push herself out and then ensure she wasn't quite wrapped up.

It certainly helped that Beetle was a heck of a destraction. "Hands to yourself creeper!" she calls, attempting a 'reverse' by grabbing at the teather trying to grab her and turning her flight -upwards-. Hopefully she could pull him off balance before he could redirect to actually wrap her.

Mark Grayson has posed:
The toilet seat hits Tether Tyrant in the head and he turns to glower at Jaime. "Really? Really?! You're really /bugging/ me, boy!" he calls out as he realizes that he is staying out of the range of reach for his tethers. The middle-aged villain glares at Blue Beetle. "You forgot option four, where I take care of you both and walk away with the cash!" he calls up to the alien hero.

And that's when Indestructibelle is grabbing his tendril to try to yank him off the ground. "You act like I haven't done this before!" he calls out at the young woman, one of his tendrils trying to find an anchor as more tendrils race up to try to wrap around her while she tries to get leverage. If she's not careful, she may find herself wrapped up by multiple tendrils!

But, could Indestructibelle actually be stronger than the tendrils... we're about to find out!

Jaime Reyes has posed:
"...Pretty sure that one's not an option." Blue Beetle says, "Is that the best burn you can think of, bubbleicious?" Blue Beetle shoots back, before one of those tendrils gets too close, and he blasts it with a gout of blue-hot flame. He moves in, warding off those tendrils with blasts of fire, as he tries to reach the truck. "So I got a question." He says. "They got your face on camera. So... how do you assume you're going to get away with two armored trucks full of money. Where will you go? Have you thought *any* of this through, because I don't think this is as simple as you... walking out of New York and into a bright future with that cash."

Sunny Harlow has posed:
"Y'know, the guy with the flamethrower does have a point!" Sunny calls out, even if internally there was a little part of her slightly concerned that the Blue-armored figure wasn't going to be taking the heister alive. Flamethrowers weren't exactly 'less than lethal' in most cases.

More tendrils coming her way, the tethered terror was trying to out-muscle her with that anchoring before she actually grins.

Sunny Harlow was a superpowered varsity cheerleader. This was hardly the first time she'd had to deal with someone being overly grabby, but it might be one where she can get a little satisfaction.

He'd put so much effort into anchoring himself, the sudden -crack- of her rebounding towards him was probably going to throw the villain off-balance.

Maybe even off-balance enough not to see the boot headed towards his chin from the 'bungied' bombshell viltrumite.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Stretched to near his limits, Tether Tyrant was trying and straining to hold Indestructibelle in place... and he may have succeeded had it not been for the sudden rush of Blue Beetle as he comes in with the flames! As some of the tendrils react to the flames and start to retreat, the villain growls. He really had not thought that far ahead. He just needed the money!

And with the heat, he's having to release some of the tendrils in order to defend himself from the fire - which only allows Indestructibelle to stretch him out even further. "What... what are you doing?!" he yells in frustration at the bombshell Viltrumite.

And that's when she reverses direction and /snaps/ back towards him - and that boot is extended as she rockets down into the face of the villain and *KRAK!*.

One could feel that collision, as the boot slams into the center of Tether Tyrant's face, smashing it in and all of tendrils go limp, as he flies back and slams into a wall. Knocked unconscious, the villain slumps to the ground, completely grounded and out of the fight, his grip on the armored trucks released.

Jaime Reyes has posed:
Blue Beetle ducks under one of the armored trucks and catches it, groaning under the weight before he slowly settles to the ground, and drops the truck. "...Good move." He says to InvinciBelle, before he rubs the back of his neck. "...We should take that symbiote off him," He says, seemingly to himself.

"Or... maybe I'll let that be the police's problem," Jaime says, as he watches those symbiotic alien tendrils thrash directionlessly. He sticks out his tongue. "Yuck."

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Indestructibelle comes to settle down from the air, touching down in her more minor costume and giving a little exhaled breath of relief. "Alright, hopefully grabby-hands doesn't get up anytime soon..." she speaks aloud before moving towards the truck Jaime couldn't really reach and catch, making to try and righten it back onto its wheels once more.

His suggestion? She gives a little nod. "Yeah uh...I'm not super eager to go trying to touch that, or it might get handsy again."

The tongue poked out through the nano-suit brings a blink, but only a quick one before she gestures to herself. "Indestructibelle. Thanks for the assist uh..." she begins, trailing off to let Jaime fill in his name.

Mark Grayson has posed:
Above, there's a streak of blue and pink descends upon the scene. Invincible has finally arrived, and in his arms, he's carrying extra backup. Slowing as he approaches the scene, the blue and yellow hero comes in close enough to release the young woman in his arms.

"Tether Tyrant doesn't usually do this solo..." he starts to say, looking around and seeing noone else, his lips pull into a thin line for a moment before he relaxes. His attention swivels towards the pair already on the scene. "Hey, Indestructibelle." he offers, moving to end up next to her. "You good?"

And a wave is offered to Blue Bettle. "Hey! Thanks for the assist. We were across town, glad you were here to help!"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    Prisma is set down, wearing her dark pink outfit and flight goggles, bright pink hair up in space buns as she hops out of Invincible's arms and settles on her skates as she takes stock in what went on. Her nose wrinkles at the alien tendrils that appear to still be twitching, and she echoes Blue Beetle's 'yuck', tongue sticking out as well.

    She hops in place a moment, and then zips around to take full stock of what went on and some damages, mostly for notation sake.

    "Yeah, this probably would have been *way* messier if Indestructibelle didn't have a hand." she agrees, forming a prismatic plane of her shield and hops up, skating backwards over some of the mess, and returning back to the little group.

    "Hi! I'm Prisma." she states with a bright grin and a view of her slight buck teeth.

Jaime Reyes has posed:
"Oh!" Jaime straightens up.

"...The Blue Beetle." He says, before he looks back and forth between the two.

//Be very careful, Jaime. These two both have Viltrumite DNA. They're a notoriously belligerent species.// Jaime mentally hushes Khaji Da, before he affects a wide smile. "Well he shoulda thought it through... now he and his bubblegum monster symbiote are going to the cooler!"

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Backup has arrived! Sunny couldn't help but let her smile be shown readily. Lifting a hand in a wave, the blonde in her leotard alternative to her normal costume, Sunny looks back towards Mark and shrugging her shoulders. "Maybe he'll rethink doing it solo again after finding himself out-numbered and..." she trails off with a gesture to the crumpled Teather Tyrant.

Prisma's praise and comment earns a little playful poking out of 'Belle's tongue at the other woman, but she was hardly disagreeing.

"They're right though, I'm glad you were on the scene Beetle. Plus the whole 'swiss army sword-to-flamethrower' arm is kinda neat."

Mark Grayson has posed:
Bunny and Sunny break the ice. They're really good at it. Mark? He's handingling cleanup. He's clearly dealt with Tether Tyrant before as he steps around a few tendrils and then grabs them all from the base and gathers them in his hand. "Nope!" he announces, "You're done for the night." And with that, he moves to deposit him in a dumpster, bending the frame to lock him into it.

Dusting off his hands, he floats over to rejoin the others. "I'm Invincible." he offers in way of greetings, the young man offering a smile as he glances back. "It seems like they're all coming out of the woodwork now that Omni-Man is confirmed gone." he mutters, before he glances between the two women and back to Jamie and extends his hand. "Anyway. Thanks, man. Always glad to get some extra assistance." Though Indestrictibelle's comment draws his attention. "You can change into multiple weapons?"

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "'Swiss army sword-to-flamethrower' is not only an awesome band name, that sounds /badass/." Prisma adds on as she bounces again on her skates, seemingly having a difficult time keeping still.

    "Invincible was giving me a bit of the background on the guy as we were on our way --" she trails of in explaination, and rubs the back of her head. "Also... legit beetle? Like, cross-DNA mutate or is it just a really cool suit?"

Jaime Reyes has posed:
    hat question brings Jaime up short. "Um." He says, "No, not a mutate. But uh. That's classified." He says, before he puffs out his chest. "But anyway, I'm here to help! I'm New York's new insect-themed superhero!"

He looks between the three superheroes. "I can, yes. It's sort of power-armor, with adaptive weapons capabilities." Omni-Man would've been instantly able to identify the suit as Reach Tech, and highly dangerous. But Omni-Man's not here. Jaime just grins, which is perhaps a little odd given the flat-faced mask on the Beetle armor.

Sunny Harlow has posed:
"Can we like...tie them up in a knot or something?" Sunny questions of Invincible, grinning in agreement at Prisma's words before crossing her arms at her bust. "Classified?" Sunny repeats, giving a little huff of amusement for reasons Jaime probably wasn't going to understand. "Neat."

Herself unaware of most space cultures, the Reach were completely alien to her in every sense and their teach unknown. "Makes you one heck of a can-opener, huh?"

Mark Grayson has posed:
Classified. It's a word that Invincible has become very not fond of. The young Viltrumite considers the options, and then taps on his phone, pinging the other two.

>> I don't know. Should we tell him about the YA?

Once that's sent to Sunny and Bunny, he shakes his head at Indestructibelle. "That should hold him well enough until the police can get him in a specialized cell. His chest is empty, that harness is an opening to some type of dimension with those... things." He makes a face.

Bunny Macleod has posed:
    "Understood! I know all about having classified stuff about you, like what happened that one time iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinn---" she trails off, her eyes going wide as she almost talks about it "... that thing that I'm not supposed to talk about." she finishes off, and she rubs the back of her neck, and hops up and down again a couple of times to expel excess energy.

    "We're also part of a young hero group called the Young Avengers -- we have some of the big guys who come by and help us out with training or bigger foes but a lot of the times we're jus' chillin' and helping each other out with patrols or missions or stuff. I even got to be at the Avengers Day... that got attacked by robots from the future -- but Hawkeye said I had a good arm! The Big Hawkeye not the girl Hawkeye."

Jaime Reyes has posed:
"Oh I um--" Jaime quirks his mouth. That could be a good opportunity. But Jaime's also got work. "Well I'd like to know more about that."

Jaime clears his throat. "The press is here. So who wants to give them a sound byte?" He looks a little bit awkward. "I know I make this look smooth, but I'm actually really new to the whole thing."

Sunny Harlow has posed:
Unfortunately Sunny's phone was going to ping somewhere on the rooftop above, because there was clearly no pockets on Sunny's current outfit. Unaware of the costume there's a giggle despite herself at Bunny's near slip and then gushing towards the mention of the Young Avengers. She'd add more, but the sudden switch to the arrival of the press has her looking between the two and clearing her throat. "I should make sure there's no accomplices watching out above..." she offers before glancing knowingly at her partners. "And I have dinner plans so...Not it!"

Mark Grayson has posed:
"We really don't do sound bites." Invincible comments as he looks towards the incoming press and police. "Pizza does sound good, though." he admits quietly as he starts to lift off the ground. "I'll have it delivered to the base, if you want to talk more there?" he offers to the three. "I'm sure your dates won't mind." That to Sunny.