17646/There's Always Problems

There's Always Problems
Date of Scene:	14 April 2024
Location:	SoHo
Synopsis:	Doug Ramsey, Eve Wilkins, and Robbie Reyes manage to stop a rampaging mutant who was dosed with MGH. They make an agreement to keep in touch.
Cast of Characters:	Robbie Reyes, Douglas Ramsey, Eve Wilkins

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Robbie Reyes has posed:
Saturday.

About 8:00pm.

New York City night life is in full force. People are still moving in droves on the sidewalks, trying to get to the next party or the night shift or merely to just...enjoy the culture that comes alive at night. One such individual was Robbie Reyes. Now, good ol' Robbie was driving around in the currently untransformed Hellcharger. One could say he was patrolling, or waiting for something that crawled out of hell itself to show up....

But judging from the fact a cell phone was in his hand, pressed against his ear? He's probably just another one of these people out there: just living life.

"No, Hermano, I don't think I'll be out too late tonight. I-" there's some chatter on the other side. "Okay, okay. I promise I'll be home in time to help with homework. But you're the brainiac here, not me."

Some more chatter. "Si, Hermano, I'll bring you something to eat. Okay, I'll see you soon. Ah huh, don't forget to turn on the AC. Okay, adios." He hung up his phone, pulling up along the curb outside of a Hot Dumpling Restaurant, though rather than go in and get some food? He pulls out a carton of cigarettes, though narrows his eyes when he notices there's four left.

"Damn, getting low. Good going Robbie, next time -don't- use the cigarette to put out a demon's eye." he mutters to himself.

He's dressed in his classic black and white jacket with tight gray pants and simple running shoes. he's leaning against his car, sending a quick text before shoving his phone away.

Is he waiting for something? Or does he just find this side of town to be relaxing?

Butr you know what they say: there's always problems when things get a little quiet.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Hearing the call to adventure is one thing; surviving it's quite another. Mutant Growth Hormone is the unique pituitary hormone produced by Mutants; unfortunately the effects it has on Homo Sapiens makes it a highly desirable designer drug. That you have to harvest from Mutants. It's been around for decades. It's cheap. The only downside is that if you're buying it off the street you don't know what powers a hit of it will give you.

Which is why Doug, who was trying to talk to a young MGH addict, is now running for his life down a dark alley from a gigantic, bestial hybrid of man and hyena. He pants, his sneakers scuffing in the grime before he turns and kicks a round-bellied trash can over, spilling refuse onto the pavement, and then he takes off running again. The creature, bounding after him, hits the trash can, which rolls and sends it careening into a wall. This gives Doug enough time to make the opening of the alley and emerge out onto the sidewalk; in what's usually a monumentally bad decision, he bolts into traffic. But considering the sabre-clawed, howling monstrosity that bursts out of the alley after him, perhaps this was the best choice.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
New York City by Night.

Eve Wilkins was someone with a lot of potential, after all. And it was Saturday, and most of her friends were busy, and... you know... she had never *seen* this part of New York before. And New York was a flurry of activity. *Should* she be involved with her charity group? Probably could be.

But you couldn't be twenty four seven helping others. Even if she felt a little guilty that she wasn't.

That Dumpling resteraunt? One of the greatest in town, or so Eve heard - she had a bag of dumplings - having already eaten one or two already, she carries the rest out to the street. Although she hears... something.

The man running out into traffic, and the beast rampaging after him.

Eve hisses a small sound through her teeth. Dropping the dumplings on the floor, she snaps out her hands - although she was in plainclothes, she didn't really care about secret identities and all - her brow furrowing as pink energy manifests itself.

A small hill for cars to drive over, and leave a tunnel for the young man and beast to rampage through - preventing cars from hitting them - or otherwise.

But it was New York City - maybe people were already not going so fast, and already breaking?

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie barely had the cigarette in the corner of his mouth. He had noticed Eve - because how can one not - as she exited the dumpling restaurant with a bag of some of those city-famous-soon-to-be-world-famous dumplings in a bag. He smiles a little bit, considering going to talk to her. He reaches up to take the cigarette out of his mouth and he /just/ started leaning off of his car when Doug is running like a bat out of hell with the ACTUAL bat out of hell following close behind him!

"Fuck."

Is Robbie's silent declaration as he stashes his cigarette back in the packet before he's opening up the door to the Hellcharger, just in time to see Eve's abilities in action, a pink energy solidifying like hard light - like magic or something - to allow cars to drive over the path that Doug and the creature were managing. "Well damn, that's a neat trick."

But Robbie? Well....Robbie's *practical*. He reaches into the Hellcharger and pulls out a sawed off shotgun.

He starts to walk out into the street, evidently not minding much about secret identities or at the very least, what people see him doing - he's either maskless or he's a flaming skeleton, so it's probably fine - and he waits for Doug to get a little bit closer...

"MOVE!" He calls out to him suddenly, waiting for him to perhaps move out of the way, so he can spray the hyper-enhanced mutant with a **BOOM!** of the shotgun.

....someone should've told him how tough that hide is.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Yeah, wishful thinking. There's a riot of honking horns, and then the sound of cars being rear-ended; CRUNCH. Well, hope they're all insured. Some of them hit Atom Eve's tunnel and save themselves a trip to the body shop, at least, though what's coming after just snarls traffic up even more. Doug bolts across the street to the other sidewalk when he hears MOVE and then sees that gun; it hits the bat-hyena creature in the side, and knocks it into the side of a city bus with a sound of crumpling metal.

Then it extricates itself, shakes its head, and turns to look at Robbie, and opens a mouth impossibly wide. It still has human teeth; great big human teeth. Guh. And its breath smells.

"He's an MGH Junkie!" Doug says, pushing himself up from behind a car. "It's some kind of tainted dose. He doesn't know what he's doing!"

Eve Wilkins has posed:
That hard-light structure holds as cars rattle over it, Eve's features twisting into concentration as she keeps her eyes on it. Her eyes flicker towards Robbie - briefly, very briefly - as he moves to get a gun.

"Be careful!" is all she snaps to Robbie. Would she rather warn him away? Yes. But people can make their own decisions.

Even if now she had other factors to keep atop of with what she felt was unpowered humans on the scene.

And a fight like this in the middle of New York City... "We got to get it away from people!" she says. But where was *that* in New York?

With the tunnel having served its purpose, she releases the mental energy on it, but slowly, letting the cars that might be trying to go over it down to Earth with flatter tunnels.

Sparks alight - pink, on her feet and hands, bringing her up off of the ground, the dumplings forgotten now. Did she forget entirely about the energy she used to make the tunnel yet? No.

It was forming a giant lever, with a hammerhead at the end of its fulcrum. She was hoping to smash that down against the raging beast.

Maybe the shotgun blast caused it to pause enough to let that hit? She didn't know.

"Run! Get away from it - I'll... we'll distract it!" she says.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Robbie's bullets - certainly enhanced with some kind of magic to give it some extra punch, manage to lodge the creature into a nearby city bus, denting it firmly with the heavy body and a sickening crunch...only for the mutant to be *completely* fine. Robbie takes that deep breath then when it turns to look at him. For others? That would be the face of a gigantic FUCK NO. But for Robbie Reyes? This is just another day in the office.

"Thanks for the concern!" He calls back to Eve when she tells him to be careful, but with that thing most definitely about to charge him? He looks towards Doug. "Any idea how to get him down from the high?!" Robbie's aware of the existence of MGH. Thankfully he doesn't /run into it/ too often, but knowledge of what it is doesn't mean he has knowledge of how to make it stop.

Though as he's lifting his gun again, Eve is doing her thing.

"Can you contain it?!" He calls to Eve, before looking quite impressed with what she's doing, all while he takes that time to move towards Doug, as though to try and pull him over to safety if he allows.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"It's an endocrine-based drug!" Doug says, as he slides across the hood of the car. "The more he uses his powers, the faster he'll metabolize it and burn it out of his system!" He sticks two fingers in his mouth and whistles. "Hey! HEY! Don't look at him-" he picks up a fallen car mirror and whips it at the creature's head, where it hits with a *TUNK* "Look at me!"

"You have to get him to start using his powers. I know he can fly, and I know he's got super-strength, and based on how fast he's recovering, I think he regenerates really fast. Can you keep hitting him without killing him?" Right now, the mutant has swung his head around to look at Doug, who stares into that giant mouth and then holds up a cell phone, and plays the sound of an air horn on full blast; which makes the creature squeal in agony and back away, covering his ears.

"That, and his hearing's super-sensitive."

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Eve's eyes track across from Doug to Robbie, the pink hammer smashing into the creature after the shotgun bullets stun it. The pink energy *shatters* like glass though, with the impact, and as Eve hovers over the street - dressed in jeans and sneakers, thankfully, she twists her other hand, lightly twisting in the air as her clothing melts away and leaves her in the pink outfit - complete with mask, of Atom Eve.

The shattering pink energy flies away from the creature.

"Maybe?" she asks. "What will... hurt him!"

The somewhat sharp tone might come from the fact that she was turning those shattering shards of energy into blocks - the edges softened with a curve like a boxing glove, and sending them flying towards the back and side of the creature with as much force as she could batter him with.

"Like if I drop a car on him? An engine block?" she calls out.

Robbie's plan gets her nodding her head as she swoops down a little lower towards the street. "I can slow it down!" she adds. Part of her constructs? One would be a shackle around its leg, connecting the creature to the street below. If it had super strength though - this would only slow it down a moment before it shattered.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
"Small words, esse."

Robbie tells Doug with a frown on his face, though once Doug puts that in english with information that Robbie feels he can actually act on? Robbie slowly starts to nod."Okay. We can work with that-" Can they? Superhuman strength, regenerative healing factor, hearing is super sensitive....even as Eve is putting on her superhero suit and pummeling the creature with her energy hammers, it buys Doug and Robbie time to craft something.

Robbie slowly cracks his neck, fire blazing in his eyes. "Okay...I can take the hits and the damage." With Eve calling that she can slow it down? That's highly helpful. He hands Doug his shotgun though. "I expect this back. Use this in case we fuck up." And now, Robbie is rolling his shoulders, sprinting towards the beast.

Soon, he seems to nearly completely immolate into brilliant flames! What once was a young man with a leather jacket and jeans? Now its a flaming skeleton, wearing a suit of black and white that looks eerily like a demonic racer's uniform. Fists clench as a monsterous *roar* lets out into the night sky as...

The Ghost Rider arrives.

Leaping into the air, the Rider uses his tremendous physical strength to try and add more damage to Eve's constructs, coming in hot behind them to try and punch the beast right in the jaw!

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
Wham - wham wham wham wham wham! Blocks of energy constructs hit the creature, causing it to wheel around and reel back a step again, before it reaches out with one too-long arm and tears out a lamp-post, swinging it blindly at Eve like a giant bat.

Doug grabs the shotgun from Robbie, and looks at it, before he murmurs, "Glad I took the firearms courses in the Danger Room," Before he racks it and slides back across the hood of the car he'd been previosuly hiding behind.

Just as the creature is looking back up and getting ready to attack Eve more directly, Robbie comes in from the side with a flying punch, and knocks it ass over teakettle! It goes down with a crash - and then shakes its head, before it tries to swipe him away with an enormous paw.

Eve Wilkins has posed:
If Eve had any doubt in her mind about Robbie being able to hold himself in a fight, that was quickly slipping away as he puts on his uniform. So to speak. Was she surprised? Yes. It shows in her eyes, and her face - but she'd enough messed up stuff in her life to not let it slow her cadence down.

Or let her get whacked by that lamppost.

She was agile enough in the air that she flows away from the flying lamppost, ducking under it as her energy pushes up through the air with that unique little sound.

Eyes were narrowed, determined. The shackle-like construct remains around the creatures feet, although the kicks and racks - and the force of the blows it was experiencing - were causing it to crack and come away from the pavement.

But Eve already had a backup plan in mind. In fact... the creature had given it to her. That flying streetlight? Before it could do anything like hit a building - she reaches out her hands towards it, whips of pink energy coming out from her hands to lash around the terminal ends - both of them - of the streetlamp, and she gestures upwards, putting a kink in the streetlamp.

"Hey! Skeletonman!" she calls down. "Wrap him in this, maybe?" she calls back.

What was she doing? Dropping the streetlamp somewhere in the creatures vicinity - then she'd tug on the constructs to try to wrap it tight.

She probably couldn't apply enough force to do that in time.

Might be useful if there were others on the ground that had things like strength, though. She'd help, believe you me!

Robbie Reyes has posed:
WHAM!

That punch sends the enhanced mutant ass over tea kettle, the being not even rolling it's wrist from the force of hte impact. Rushing forward even still, Ghost Rider's arms suddenly come up as those infernal eyes sees something coming towards him, CATCHING that enormous paw as best as he can. His feet dig into the street, his heels causing a trail of broken concrete in a trail as he's forced to back up and gain distance for a moment.

Just as the Rider looks as though he'll charge again, Eve is calling over to him and those flaming eyes look upwards, just in time for a street lamp to practically fall in his lap.

That'll work.

As Eve tightens on the constructs to wrap it tight around the beast? Ghost Rider does his own help. Trying to quickly wrap that street lamp around the beast and pull the metal tight enough to easily bend it around the beast. With some faith? Ghost Rider and Eve's combined abilities can help keep it contained.

Faith....that's something in low amounts these days.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
The Mutate makes a noise like a pair of bagpipes being strangled, and strains against the steel lamppost as it's bent around its arms, pinning them to its sides. Being down, it's easy for them to give its ankles the same treatment, and it lies there, stunned and defeated; it'll still be some time before the MGH burns its way out, but a Meta-Response team can administer an agent that will help the stuff metabolize and run its course faster. Police sirens sound in the distance.

Doug looks at the downed mutant, and then steps around the car, and hands Robbie back his gun. "I was trying to talk to him about who he's buying from; but he juiced up just before I found him... this's a real nasty batch. Looks like a cocktail made from a few different Mutants."

He rubs the back of his neck, and gives a wide grin. "Thank you both for the help!"

Eve Wilkins has posed:
A breath leaves Eve, and the scary furrow to her brow relents - but only just - as she starts to float towards the ground, ending up at a spot nearish where Robbie, Doug, and the mutant was. She had her grip on those ropes of pink still, but with another twist of her wrist, those constructs vanish entirely.

Metal was less transient though.

"Looks like it's slowing down," she says. A flick of her eyes towards Doug. "Or *he's* slowing down - what's going on? Is this a drug?" she asks of Doug, setting a hand on her hip. Her streetclothes were gone entirely, leaving her in the pink boots and pinker outfit of Atom Eve.

One of the advantages of her power - she didn't have to make a wardrobe!

A glance towards Robbie now. "... or is he a friend of yours?" she asks. He looked positively demonic, after all.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
Ghost Rider stares at the beast once that post is wrapped around it, once Eve's constructs have assisted in strangling it of bodily strength until it surrenders. A low growl leaves the teeth of the skull in question, the skull itself preventing any means of accurate silent emotion to be viewed outside of body language. There's a moment where the Ghost Rider genuinely considers finishing the job, as though this being could have done far more damage.

But....the creature is innocent.

Even as Dough walks up to him, offering his gun back? The flames slowly go out around Robbie as muscle, skin, and hair all regrow back onto his body, as though he was healing from being reduced toa skeleton. The process is near instantaneous. Cracking his neck, Robbie growls. "Hnnh...tough bastard." He slowly turns his head towards Doug, accepting his gun back and holding it by the barrel.

"No problem. Anytime people need help, I try to be there. I'm not Superman, but I try. You did good work too." He turns his attention to Eve then in that moment as she floats towards the ground.

"I sure damn hope so. MHG? MGH?" He looks at Doug for confirmation of the drug itself.

"Like you, just met him today."

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"Mutant Growth Hormone. Mutant pituitary hormones. If you prepare them right, you can give a Homo Sapiens temporary mutant powers derived from the mutant of choice." He clears his throat, and then looks over toward Eve, and then he shrugs. "I was hoping he'd give me some information I could trace back... but I don't think I'm going to be getting much out of him now. Poor guy."

"But that's the way it shakes out." Doug says, "I'll have to find another lead. The stuff is bad news; it can do serious harm to someone if they overdose on it. A lot of mutant powers have downsides that people don't think about."

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Folding her arms in front of herself, Eve's bright eyes do watch Robbie in his transformation - out of the sheer novelty of it, really, her eyes darting along the same as tension bleeds from her posture. Another push of her hair, over her shoulders. Does it seem like he's trying to finish the job?

Robbie might feel that tension amp up a moment from Eve, until that moment passes, and she breathes out another sigh as she truely relaxes. Sorta. She had her eyes on the creature. "If we were all Superman, helping people like this wouldn't mean as much," she says, admist the cacophony of honking horns from the now very backed up traffic.

"So. It made him a mutant for a moment. /That/ sounds like a drug that's going to end up causing trouble," she says. "Two-bit bad guys dosing all kinds of innocents, and releasing them to cause havoc, like this," she says.

"I haven't been to New York very often, are the police alright with superheroes?" she asks, vague worry now settling into her tone as she pushes a lock of her red hair behind her ear.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
"Right, right, mutant growth hormone or whatever." Robbie remarks to Doug in that moment. "Give regular people powers? Must be one helluva drug." He says with no small amount of disapproval. "If this stuff gets widespread, we're looking at a city in chaos. So...if you turn up anything else? Let me know. I can give you my number, if you want it." He tells Doug. "Does it suck more if a mutant overdoses on it or is it pretty similar between humans and mutants?" He asks, as though it were important.

He does sense the tension ramp up in Eve, as though sensing perhaps a moment of hesitation or inaction. He turns to look at her, meeting the green of her eyes. "Sure." He remarks, completely unbothered by the honking horns from stopped New York traffic. As for the heroics? He shrugs. "New York has plenty of heroes. Home of the Avengers, you know. I think you'll be alright."

He pulls out his phone then. "Want my number too or you think this is gonna be a one-off and hope not to run into the same drugged up super-wolf?" It's not a wolf, but they get the idea.

Douglas Ramsey has posed:
"It's been around for a long time," Doug says, "It's always been cheap; but it's getting more and more potent and more and more unpredictable." He looks back and forth between the two, and then he says, "We just have to make due with what we've got, I suppose." What powers does HE have?

"If a Mutant takes it, it can have seriously unpredictable reactions with their own powers, which can be fatal. It's a really bad idea. Basically." He shrugs his shoulders, and then he takes Robbie's phone and punches his number into it, and then punches Robbie's number into his own. "That's what I'm trying to find out. When a chimera like this appears it's rarely just a one-off."

Eve Wilkins has posed:
Now that the immeadiate threat was over, New York itself wanted to move forward. People were stopping to stare, now the cell phones were out. So she was grateful for the mask, at least - not that her super identity was super protected by now.

"Sure," she says. "Atom Eve," she says. "What do I call you?" she asks, taking his phone in the midst of it and punching in her number, rather than say it out loud in the midst of everything. Even if she could get a new sim card, that'd be a hassle.

And she *was* really trying to calm things down.

She does calm down some with the reassurance.

"I think I'm going to need to head out," she says. And since she was already in superheroine mode, she hops up a bit, pink energy, and that high pitched, trilling noise it makes when she pushes it beneath her feet and hands - comes to life, letting her hover. "Text me if you need anything!" she asks of either man. She'd linger a minute, and then fly off.

Robbie Reyes has posed:
"Well, hopefully not much longer. Don't like seeing this stuff on the streets, not with my little brother in the same city." Robbie growls the words out, like the very thought of Gabe being in danger infuriated him to no end. Though, he quickly calms, turning his attention to Doug. "We'll figure it out." Guess theyr'e a team! Kinda. Though as he's hearing about the overdosing effects on a mutant? Sounds even more dangerous than a regular person taking too much. But, Doug's number is in Robbie's phone and Robbie enters his name into Doug's phone as follows:

'Robbie'

He turns his attention to Eve then as she accepts his phone, punching in her number. "Robbie. When I'm on fire like that, call me Ghost Rider." If either of them ever heard of La Leyenda de Hillrock Heights? This is the man of that particular hour. Though as he seems to smile at both of them, he slides the phone back into his pocket.

"Nice to meet you, Atom Eve. I think we should all hit the road. We can reconvene or figure this shit out another time. Right now, lotta cameras. I'll see you all on the flipside." Robbie gives a two-finger salute to both of them as he turns on his heel, shouldering his shotgun as he walked back to the Hellcharger. He'll wait a moment for any lingering remarks....

Before he'll drive off, one of the last outlaws riding off into the proverbial sunset.