1988/When Kidnapping Goes Wrong

When Kidnapping Goes Wrong
Date of Scene:	11 June 2020
Location:	Central Plaza - Happy Harbor High School
Synopsis:	The Order of St. Dumas tries to kidnap a new arrival to Happy Harbor. They didn't do their research. Wrong neighborhood guys.
Cast of Characters:	Morrigan MacIntyre, Samuel Morgan, M'gann M'orzz, Xiomara Rojas, Albert Rothstein, Daniel Hastings, Damian Wayne, Zachary Zatara, Alton Schmidt

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Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Happy Harbor accepts students most of the year, and over the Summer is when a few of the new arrivals do start to show up. There's three new faces to the school. Or well, two new faces and one that has been seen before. Tyler's been to Happy Harbor before and is the kid that had a dinosaur friend for a few moments. Some of the students might recall it trying to eat the school bully and him having a meltdown. It was a sweet taste of justice for once.

Thursday has been deemed Board Game and Take Out night at Happy Harbor. There's a few games going on currently with a myriad of different types of takeout that have been ordered. Morrigan's been overseeing the capture of delivery drivers and making sure to tip them well before sending them back out for the evening. The local eateries probably loved the school.

Two of the three new students wander into the Central Plaza from the dorms, looking eager to get into things and to meet people. They are a set of twins, boy and girl by the names of Declan and Delia. Red hair signals that they are most likely sweet and innocent looking, but demons once they get into trouble.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    There are things worth traveling some distances for. And after Sam's recent move out of New York, it was a fair assumption that he'd be showing himself even less rather than more around the school, but the reverse seemed to be true. Over the summer, the enigmatic student and his far less enigmatic dog had been a regular fixture at Happy Harbor, and for one reason or another the teenager had thrown himself into socialising with a vengeance. By now he was no longer a rare sight on the sports field, and actively making moves to try out for the football team as soon as one could be created.

    And now, it seems, he's even sticking around for board game night, even if he does need to take a break from time to time. So right now he's sitting outside, enjoying the fresh air, idly petting Bear who had draped himself over his lap as if he were still a puppy.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
    Meg had been on a food kick lately, trying various regional dishes. Tonight was fish and chips from a local joint, with lemon juice and home-made tartar sauce, along with a large chocolate milkshake. She's seated across a tabel from her girlfriend, and they're both doing their best to not get the deck of cards in their hands too greasy while Meg learns the fundamentals of Poker.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Fish and Chips, malt vinegar, and a malted soda- likely of Mexican origin- is what Xiomara has. She's still dressed punk- she never dresses any other way, sitting there as she goes about explaining poker to Meg. "So like, there are a lot of different kinds of poker- but the most popular one right now seems to be texas hold'em."

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein had heard about Game night and has only met a very few of the students, so as good a place as any to make his appearance to the kids. The huge man will walk into the area with a couple cases of different flavored sodas, carrying them with ease and heading to a table to set them down.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    Chaperone duty. You can never have too many. Certainly there's the bare minimum required. When you have free time, you get volunteered. Daniel was wearing something casual for a change given the summer weather. Khaki shorts, a green polo shirt, and loafers round out his attire for the night as he sits at the fringe of the student group with a pepsi in hand and the latest publication out of the Richards research group in the other. Just a little light reading about multidimensional mathematics.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     Damian didn't live at the school. But much like someone described him as: he was a wizard cat, prone to coming and going as he pleased.

  So, during the summer months, he spent more and more time around the school.

  The teen approached Sam outside, his shoes clapping on the concrete of the building, at a slow pace. "Samuel." He said, dressed much as how he would outside of school hours, slacks, a dress shirt and a tie. He did not care to look like other teens, as much as he was forced to wear sneakers and tee shirts and shorts at times.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
    There's so many games you can play with a deck of cards, and Zachary Zatara had tried a couple of them before getting bored and holding a small magic show with an audience of a little less than a dozen students. It does mean the resources he has available are limited. "Okay, so place your card wherever in the deck - no, really, wherever you want. No, it's not a trick deck, we got it from the school."
    After a few more assurances, Zach shuffles the deck, then hands it to the kid next to him, and has them shuffle too since he's among skeptics. "Right, now tell me when to stop," He instructs, deft fingers flipping through the cards like an expert.
    "That one!" A female student interrupts, pointing at the elaborate design of the back of a random playing card. Zach flips it over and...
    "5 of clubs! How do you do it?
    "Well, Katie, you'll have to subscribe to find out." The magician says, basking a little and winking.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan comes back from the last trip to grab food and she manages to settle things down without dropping anything. Once that's done, the redhead straightens and looks over the central plaza. She watches how people are doing different things and there's a smile that crosses her features. Maybe they'd have a quiet night. No dinosaurs or anything else. She gives a nod of greeting to those that she passes, "Xio and Megan, good to see you." she states with a smile. There's a wave to a few that are sitting together playing a game.

She notices that Declan and Delia are down in the plaza, but not sign of Tyler. Hmmm. "Doctor Hastings, is that fun reading material?" she asks him as she approaches Daniel.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Damian -oof!" The otherwise customary cool and slightly taciturn greeting between the two teens is interrupted by Bear rearing up as he notices his other favorite human. From there there's nothing for it, but the shepherd has to give Damian a friendly lick in greeting, before being half-wrestled back into a more sensible posture on Sam's lap. More sensible, not entirely sensible, because now Bear seems to be demanding belly rubs. Who could deny such a thing?

    It's thus, with his hands firmly fussing Bear that Sam manages to finally smile over to Damian. "Didn't know you were staying around, I'd have ordered in some chinese food. How's life?"

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
    "So I get the Texas part. It's from there. But why the Hold'em?" Meg pops a fry into her mouth, head tilting a bit down to one side. "Oh! Hi Principal MacIntyre. Xio's teaching me to play poker." The redhead nods towards a large baggie of MnMs sitting of to one side- Obvious betting fodder.

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    "Hey, Doc." Xio offers over to Morrigan with a smile, before she looks back to her cards. "So, you get a few cards." she shows Meg, "And then the rest go face up on the table- they're shared." she goes on to say, still just doing her best to explain poker to Meg. Xiomara isn't really that great of a teacher, however, so it's likely something is being left out.

    "No clue, not sure why it's called 'Hold'em'. That's just what this version of poker is called."

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Looking up from the journal, Daniel glances down at the strings of math and diagrams to Morrigan and gives a shrug. "I suppose that depends on the person. If you were Doctor Foster? Absolutely. But since you aren't, I imagine you'd find it painful. You remind me though that I'm overdue to read my latest biomedical journal. A fellow cannot live on astrophysics alone, after all. Or so I've been told." He smiles and lifts his can of soda in toast. It wasn't his preferred drink but the vending machines weren't exactly generous with their options. Her faint narrowing of gaze gets him to look back over the meanderings of the kids and he starts mentally counting heads. Hmm. "Time to make the bathroom rounds." The fun part of chaperoning.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will finish setting up the drink area, and then walks over to Morrigan and those around here. He looks around the area and smirks a bit noticing the sheer amount of red heads. "And here I thought I might stand out." He will say as he gets in talking distance "Need me to grab anything else Dr MacIntyre?"

Alton Schmidt has posed:
Alton's...fashionably late to to the party, as it goes. Instead of hopping straight in to one of the games, he takes his time to see what's being played. Perhaps he'll find somewhere to jump in, based on who's doing what. For all that there's new students, there's also been plenty of departures...to his disappointment, that appears to include Christine. Well. Maybe it wouldn't have worked out in the end anyway.

So far, he sees a Poker game, and...chaperones, and people standing around talking.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     "It goes on." He says, squatting down next to Sam, and going in to pet Bear. The boy in the suit smiled just a little to the good boy of Happy Harbor. "And you?" He asks, the mere fact that he does ask speaks volumes on how he feels for the other boy.

  "Something social is going on in there as well." He says, motioning to inside.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
    "It's not just card tricks either," Zachary continues the hustle, flicking the back of the selected card. The crimson back turns blue. "I'm a multifaceted magician." He pushes dark hair back and flashes a smile. The students, especially the younger ones, are pretty impressed, and the young sorcerer leaves them to try to sort through that trick, turning to look around the plaza. "Hey, doc!" The woman gets a playful salute.
    He's wearing tastefully distressed jeans, a black t-shirt with the caption 'Don't Insult The Witch' over his chest in white text. Bunny's nowhere to be seen, but she could be hopping around.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
The sun has been set for about thirty minutes now, that means no students outside without chaperones. It's just a precaution really since the majority of kids that stay over at Happy Harbor are powered (not everyone knows this). Duncan is off manning Monopoly for some kids and thoroughly amusing some with his accent and trying to get the rules read. It seemed peaceful in a way.

But peaceful sadly only lasts for so long when there is a shriek that cuts through the halls and into the Central Plaza. It might make the hair on the back of peoples necks stand up given it sounds like something straight out of a horror film.

Morrigan gives an amused look to Daniel, "I think it would be good reading." she tells him. "Oh, you can catch my next paper in there more than likely." she adds. Then her violet gaze looks to Albert, "Yeah, we've got a few redheads, probably something that brings trouble." she admits. Zachary's greeting is met with a smile and she gives a wave to him, "I like the shirt." she states.

Then that shriek rips through the space and Morrigan's eyes start glowing that bright violet that they do when she's about to attack something, "Albert and Daniel, can you look after the kids down here for a moment, I need to go get Tyler if he's not already down here." she states. "I need everyone to stay calm and stay here until we figure out what that was." she states.

There is the sound of breaking wood as Morrigan heads for the door. So this doesn't sound like some run of the mill weird school case. It sounds like something trying to break /in/.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Going pretty well. Still... still trying to wrap my head around being free. Never been free before, it's... " Whatever it might be, Sam never gets to elucidate. The shriek gets his attention. And Bear's. That's the kind of sound that usually indicates a person in distress, and the Shepherd looks around to see what's going on.

    Quietly, Sam reaches into his pocket and brings up his phone, running a program he wrote specifically for the device a while ago. It helped that he had physical access to the space for a while, and could inspect the cameras around the school at his leisure. "Sounds a bit too excited for board games, even Monopoly near the end when everyone understands the game is rigged and everyone either blames the bank or the winner."

    Holding the phone sideways to increase the surface area for meaningful display, the app connects to the school's security network and brings up the camera selection menu, leaving the student/hacker to start bringing up feeds from the area where he estimates the shriek is coming from. "If it's another dinosaur..." Pause. "Shit."

    He shows Damian the screen, and shares a meaningful glance with the other teen. "Time for some professionals to do their bit."

    A complicated whistle summons Bear off his lap, and Sam starts to slink off to the edge of the plaza.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
     "Okay, so what do you do with the cards when-" Meg is cut off by the scream, jumping rather significantly in her chair both from surprise and from the spike of fear that punctures the haze of happiness and fun that had covered the plaza. <<Xio, Cover for me?>> She tags along just enough to get out of sight of the other students and faculty, before shimmering out of view and pressing a forearm over her eyes to hide the telltale green glow of heavier power use. Okay, if she remembers correctly the dorm fire doors are /there/, held open by electromagnets. So if she gives a yank... The sturdier metal doors lurch, before swinging closed with a solid thud. The martian teen pours telekinetic energy into them, doing her best to render them unopenable and immovable. Oh, and she should probably link the relevant adults... Probably ask the principal. <<Dr MacIntyre? it's Miss Martian. I can psychically link you and the other adults so you can communicate easily, if you want. Just tell me who. And if things start to get bad, I can transform and come in.>>

Xiomara Rojas has posed:
    Xio looks up, her own eyes narrowing. She's heard screams before. Screams just like that. Her nose twitches. Unfamiliar people. "Time to go, Meg." she says over to her girlfriend, as she stands up- letting everything fall away as she follows quickly behind Morrigan- a kid that runs towards the danger. She isn't phased at all. <Don't Worry, once a kid screams they're not looking at you.> she assures Meg through their shared connection.

    Xiomara smells something that doesn't belong in the school- gunpowder. A number of men. Gun oil.

    Anyone who knows this school knows that Xiomara Rojas is the Bully Hunting Ass-Kicking Punk Queen of these halls and it seems her protectiveness has been riled up again. Someone in there is in trouble, and Xiomara does not give a single damn about school rules or hiding who or what she is at a time like this. This school - for the time being- is her home. She means to protect it and everyone in it.    

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein looks as if he is about to head towards the scream through the wall or something along those lines, but the good Dr. Asks him to help watch after those here. "Ok, young ladies and gentleman, lets all gather close, while we see whats going on here." He looks around seeing the entry and exit points of the room there in moving towards one of them in a bit of a guarding position.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
Daniel gives a vacant sort of nod to Morrigan as she gives directions to keep an eye on things with Al. His journal and drink are put down next to him as he rises to stand and.. turn slowly like he's sweeping his gaze towards the sound without actually looking at anything. Quietly, he says to Al, "I count.. seven.. in covert ops gear.. trying to break into Tyler's room. Some sort of symbol on their arms I don't recognize. It's no government or terrorist group I know of." His forehead knits as he frowns.

Alton Schmidt has posed:
Alton, for one, is in no mood to be 'watched.' And just as he's about to run outside to enter the battle against whoever is out there...he finds the doors shutting before he can run out. Nuts. Sure, the doors are electromagnetic, which means he could deal with that if he really wanted to...but...perhaps patience is best here. He'll wait it out.

"...Something should be done about that." He leans against the wall, and stretches out his magnetic senses. If the guns are in his range, (and made of steel), he just might be able to do something about that. Even from the wrong side of the doors.

Damian Wayne has posed:
     The shriek was enough to get the attention of the young Wayne boy. Immediately he looks to the phone when presented. "Very well." Perhaps this was going to help his investigation.

  "Give me a blind spot." He says, taking out his cell phone, and in a couple of gestures, a motorcycle was on it's way from nearby. He couldn't afford his cover being blown in school, regardless of the rules. No one could associate the Wayne name with the Bats.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
    Zachary pales at the scream, smile fading from his lips. "Oh, wow, well, um, that wasn't part of the trick," An awkward chuckle to the scared students around him.
    "Stay put, I'm sure it's just a bad senior prank or something." Is all that Zat says before he pushes himself to feet and moves to follow Morrigan despite the orders from a couple of the chaperones.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
<<That would be lovely, Miss Martian. It'll give us a chance to talk strategy while trying not to get shot.>> Morrigan states telepathically back to Megan. Then Morrigan's gaze goes to Xiomara when she is trailing her and there's a bit of a nod, "I know you're fine, but if you get hurt I'm going to be upset." she shakes her head. The doors to the dorms are opened and there is a very scared Tyler that comes rushing down towards those who are heading up, "Behind us Tyler!" she shouts. That brings the attention of the military looking guys unto Morrigan, Xiomara, Zachary and anyone else who is heading up with her. One of the guys charges down towards Morrigan, "Give the child to us!" he states with a thrust of the gun towards her. The trigger is squeezed, but nothing happens. No bullet comes out.

Morrigan gives a look to the man, "A very bad moment to be having performance issues." she grins at him, fangs gleaming as she bites lunges to bite the man.

Xiomara charges up the stairs after the second man, delivering a heavy right to the jaw of the intruder and there's the distinct sound of some bone cracking. "BOSS! THEY AREN'T SURRENDERING!" one man shouts back as the girls are mauling two of their comrades.

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
     <<Linking everyone up now.>> The other members of the group would suddenly find themselves with mental walkie talkies, and M'gann grits her teeth and slowly phases through the wall into an empty hallway. A quick shapeshift, and Miss Martian shimmers into view, making a wide loop around to hopefully come at the thugs from behind. Fortunately, given she has vision on the assailants through Xio and Morrigan, she can still help on the way...
    Two of the gunmen yelp as guns tear themslves free of slings, flipping around to slam into their groinds buttstock first. Another two are lifted into the air by their helmets and smacked together Three-Stooges style. Clearly, there's a high level telekinetic in play.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    A nod, and Sam taps the screen as he double-times it across the plaza, disabling the cameras around the dorm area and giving a discreet gesture in its direction. "It's gone dark, free to get on the fancy gear. Catch you on the flipside."

    Bear doesn't traipse after Sam, ambling over to scared students and sitting with them. Don't worry humans. Bear will protec!

    The Titan-prospect, meanwhile, takes the other way into the dorms, climbing the outside of the structure and letting himself in via a window. Once inside, his hood comes up and Sam stalks the halls, led by camera footage that he can still see without even glancing at his phone. And so he comes up behind them, kicking one looking the other way in the back of the knee, grabbing the man's neck as he comes down and helping to accelerate the impact with a twist. "Shhhh."

    For a brief moment, Sam considers taking the man's weapons... but instead he simply removes the magazines and ejects any rounds in the chamber before stalking away. Not today. He's not that person anymore.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein frowns a bit and looks over to Daniel "Ok, I'm as new as some of the kids, which room nearby is the best to get the kids into and make sure they are secure?" He will ask. He is taking up the guard duty seriously "They all together or spread out?" He asks when he is told there are seven of them.

Alton Schmidt has posed:
Alton starts sensing all the metal out there...in their uniforms, in the guns...and he rather simply, while leaning on the wall with a wry grin, simply will everything made of iron or steel into the ground. Hard. Alton's got quite a bit of force behind this, and it's entirely possible the bad guys could be slammed unceremoniously into the ground, one way or the other. The weapons made of steel will definitely hit the deck. And nothing made of iron will be coming back up off the ground for a while.

Since M'gann got 2, Alton targets the other 5.

Daniel Hastings has posed:
    Little Tyler is running for his life. Scared out of his wits. Chased by armed gunmen wanting him for.. what? Who knows. Who cares. Battle is happening. Fighting. Maybe gunfire. Meanwhile, Daniel is looking at the battlefield and decides to remove the key element from the field. He focuses on the space in front of Tyler, his hand outstretched as he does some mental math.. focuses his efforts.. and.. does nothing. Except that Tyler suddenly disappears. Foop. Gone. Then.. so is Daniel. Where'd he go?
    Tyler, of course, knows where he is. He's in the Principal's office. So is Dr. Hastings. "Shh. Under the desk. I'll be out front. Stay quiet. Stay hidden." He winks at the boy then steps out to sit at the secretary's desk and go back to reading his journal. ~I have Tyler.~ He thinks out loud. ~Let me know when it's safe to come out again.~

Damian Wayne has posed:
     The Redbird wheels in from outside school grounds, along with some things that are imperative. A quick change later, and Robin was in his suit. Raising a gauntlet computer, he sends the Redbird away again. The full suit and mask hiding his face, and a set of gadgets to go along with it.

  He tossed an earpiece to Sam, whilst his was attached to the mask, bone conduction. <<Comms check.>>

  A short grapple line later, and he hops on the roof of the building, peering off the top of it for anyone still outside of the building. One with his gun raised, pointing it out to the ether outside the building.

  This was a perfect time for one of the classic moves. a grapple is released and attached to the rooftop, before Damian attaches the grapple to his belt, inverting himself over the edge, and releasing line until he is right behind the fellow.

  Robin reaches out with his arms, a batarang slicing the strap on the gun and falling to the ground. Meanwhile, the grapple line is wrapped around the guy's chest, under the armpits, and a swift elbow to the jaw knocks him out without so much as a peep. It was a Batman classic, executed perfectly.

  Admittedly, he was hoping a camera caught it, because he wanted to show Batman.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
    Zach isn't eager to get shot at again so soon and uses Xio's charge as cover to cast his spells. There's a beat as he clears his mind and deconstructs the correct words in his head, before an incantation falls, echoing, from his lips. "Duorhs fo ssenkard!" A thin barrier of blackness spreads from both of Zachary's hand, a dome of darkness covering the school and protecting those on the inside (like flesh biting principals and child assassins) from noisy students on the outside.
    And for the intruders? "Nugs ot epor!" Their weapons, pinned down by Alton's magnetic force, become wildly animated coils of rope and attempt to secure the men around them.

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
When Alton and M'gann start in with the Magnets and Telekinesis there is a bit of a moment where it becomes easy to see that NO ONE DID THEIR RESEARCH INTO THIS SCHOOL! And what the heck were they after Tyler for? When Alton's power whacks someone down to the floor, this causes Morrigan's teeth to rip more flesh on the way down to the floor. Oops. Well, he'll get medical attention. "Tyler?" Morrigan croaks out as she tries not to throw up from the blood in her mouth. She turns, not seeing the boy and there's a moment she looks up to the ceiling and tries to focus on something.

Daniel's words help, <<Thank you, Daniel. Keep him there for the moment. The kids and I have downed the intruders. I need to find things to tie them up with and to call SHIELD." states as she doesn't bother cleaning the blood off of her face. "Xio and Megan, keep an eye on them while I get some things. Zachary..." she trails off as she watches the kid work, <<Well, that is much better than zipties and chairs.>> she chuckles. <<The intruders are down. Kids are safe for the moment. We'll be calling SHIELD and sweeping the grounds for more intruders. I don't sense any more, but, better safe than sorry.>> she states.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    <<Five by.>> Comes the expected answer through the comms, as Sam crouches in the hallway, stalking prey like a predator. It's roughly around that time that things just get plain /weird/. Metal hits the ground and stays there, which is odd enough. Then weapons turn into coils of rope and Sam's surveillance of the outside goes dark. For a moment he suspects another hacker in the system trying to fight his control, but no... a system check reveals that everything is still working, he's just seeing darkness. Given everything else that's going on, that's probably the least of his concerns.

    Internal cameras show everyone is down, and so he stands, makes his way to the landing, and shouts down "Clear!". It's the shout of someone experienced in building clearance, short and to the point. With nothing else to do, he crouches by the man he downed, and starts to look through his pockets for intelligence, giving a brief glance at the sigils, subvocalising to himself just loud enough to be picked up on the team comms. <<Who are these clowns? Didn't do their homework, that's for sure...>>

M'gann M'orzz has posed:
     ...Huh. Well that was entirely unexpected. With everything resolved before she even gets there, Miss Martian floats into the relevant corridor, using her TK to apply pressure to the wound so the mook doesn't bleed out. "Don't worry Dr. MacIntyre, I'll hold onto them." With a wave of her hand and a flash of glowing green eyes, they're pulled against one wall in a line by their belts. "I have no idea who this Megan person is, but i bet she's pretty cool though." A grin and a wink. ...Hopefully nobody else overheard that.

Albert Rothstein has posed:
Albert Rothstein will feel the tingle of the telepathy and not quite used to it, he will think back to them "The kids here are safe, not seeming to have any issues here, Anything need us to cover back here?

Damian Wayne has posed:
Robin had detached from the line, and his cape billowed out to soften his landing. The automatic weapon on the ground had been grabbed, the magazine, and the slide were freed, rendering the gun mostly inert, keeping the priming handle with him.

  <<No clue. Will have to investigate after the fact.>> Robin mentions, starting to enter in the building from there. <<What's your twenty? Remember, no familiarity.>> On the subvocal, meanwhile, he was loading another grapple cart into the grapple gun.

Zachary Zatara has posed:
    <<Just doing my part, doctor,>> Zachary smiles wryly and wipes some sweat off his brow, indicating some effort on his part. Matter transmutation is no small matter for a novice. <<I have the view of this hall obscured from the plaza since...>> He gestures to the scene. <<Why do you think they were after Tyler?>>

Morrigan MacIntyre has posed:
Morrigan reaches up to wipe some of the blood from her chin as she digs out her phone, "We're going to get a button installed...or a Bat signal or something." she tells Miss Martian and Zachary. Xio is over menacing the downed guards, because we love her for doing it.

"I don't know why they are after Tyler. Makes me highly curious though." she adds. There's a few soft minutes of talking to whoever is on the other end of the phone before she's off of it. "The Calvary is coming. Let me stop this guy from bleeding out and then we'll get everyone to bed and things...if any of us can sleep." she frowns.

It was going to be a loooong night.