2051/Smash & Grab!

From Heroes Assemble MUSH
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Smash & Grab!
Date of Scene: 10 June 2020
Location: Chinatown
Synopsis: Bad guys were protecting drugs, bad guys got rocked. Julie still needs a superhero name.
Cast of Characters: Julie Yan, Freddy Freeman, Samuel Morgan, Sally Pride, Landry Lugar, Ariah Olivie




Julie Yan has posed:
    Almost midnight, the perfect time for a little vigilantism. Julie parks her moped not far from a warehouse for ROXXON. Or at least it -used- to be before budget cutbacks forced them to cede assets. It's also a great place for stowing things that are super illegal.

    Scoping the place out, she makes her way through the first bunch of security, knocking a couple guards out and stowing their bodies someplace quiet. They'll have wicked headaches when they wake up. Of course, they're not corporate security types, these are mobsters. Mobsters toting what look like swords and axes, kinda low-tech for a bunch of urban scum right?

    Examining a sword, Julie scowls before she begins to make her way in, knocking on a door, and kicking it in when someone unlocks it.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    Almost invisible if not for the crackling bolt of lightning of his chest, Pantheon (it's a new name, but it'll stick) soars among the lowest clouds, taking in the cool night air. It isn't an effective sort of vigilantism, not really, but he's a hero for his pleasure as much as the safety of others, and flying is still just about the most exciting experience of his life. As the Wizard and his council of sorcerer gods did not feel it necessary to grant their champions enhanced senses, the blue-clad superhero drifts near the area without awareness, but boy is he grinning.
    The Wisdom of Solomon is something of a guide, though, and it's no coincidence that his mind takes him over a warehouse in Chinatown at the exact moment of a break-in.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    You can take the boy out of Manhattan, but the reverse is, proverbially, much harder to do. Until recently, Sam would have laughed at that notion, but after having lived in the City of Cities for nearly six months and moving to St. Martin's Island of Metropolis, he seems to be oddly drawn back. Luckily it's not too far, not even at this time of night, which in the teenager's opinion is the perfect time of day to walk his German Shepherd, Bear. Or for the dog to walk him, it's hard to say exactly what kind of dynamic is going on, with the canine carrying his own leash and clearly deciding where the pair is going.

    Almost midnight. The perfect time of night for clandestine actions. And that's something he's acutely aware of, watching out for signs of anything amiss. He blames his new team for stirring up these heroic instincts... he'd have been just as happy with his previous instinct of just looking for danger to himself, rather than danger full stop.

    It's near the old ROXXON warehouse that he spots the signs. A chance meander from Bear, the Shepherd picking up the scent of something interesting and finding an unconscious thug with a very soft 'whurf'. Kneeling down, Sam pats Bear between the ears, even as he starts to don his fighting gloves. "Good boy, good spot. Now stay behind me, okay?"

    If he was unsure of where to go, the sound of a door being kicked down seals it. From one of the capacious thigh pockets of his combats comes a serviceable combat knife, and he starts to make his way inside, like back in the bad old days...

Sally Pride has posed:
Warehouses being used for storage and trade in illegal activities? In New York? Never.

Sarcasm aside, it is far from a surprise. Though the style of the weapons the guards are armed with when watched through a pair of binoculars is a little underwhelming. With her other hand Sally holds up a walkie-talkie to speak into. "Looks pretty low tech, Ray. I don't think they're working for or with Null. Or Stockman."
There's a pause and then it statics back "Hobb says to still take a closer look. There might still be something valuable if the place is being guarded at all."
"Fine with me. Survellience is boring as well. Pride, out." The walkie-talkie is tucked back on her waistband, and Sally takes another look through the binocs.

... And now the guards she had been watching were laid out on the ground...

"Huh. Well maybe this will be interesting after all." The mutant lioness dropped down from the building she'd been watching from and made her own way to the warehouse. Those guards were out cold, but it didn't look like the sort of takedowns she's seen a certain fox use.

Landry Lugar has posed:
Landry Lugar was cutting through Chinatown on his way home from a late gig. Lights out at the bar, and he was now trudging it block after block back to his university. Carrying his black backpack on his shoulder, black jeans, a black hoodie with 'Staff' written across the back, with a Treble Clef for the S, and a heavy black shemagh around his neck.

He would have been along his 'merry' way home, except for the sound of the door kicked open, and he saw several people sneaking into a building off to the side. He frowned a moment, but, this was what he'd been training for for the last few months. Time to shine!

He pulled the shemagh up to cover his face, all but his eyes hidden, and pulled the hood up as well. As discrete as he could make himself anyway! He rolled up his right sleeve, and started to track the others inside.

Seeing the guards knocked out already, "Looks like they are after something inside..." He said to himself quietly, giving the medevial weapons an odd look as he passed them by.

Ariah Olivie has posed:
    A different sort of huntress is on the prowl in Chinatown while this is going on. A short young woman in a dress more suited for a night at a club than roaming the streets at midnight pauses after taking a wrong turn. Ariah glances up at the sky, squinting at the stars, then back down to the street as she slips her phone out of an internal pocket in her skirt. She isn't too far from the warehouse, by accident mainly, as she tries to bring up the map on her device.

    She fumbles with it, not the most adept at using it, and before she can get her bearings in the GPS, the phone screen darkens and the image of an empty battery begins to flash white. Then red. Then the entire thing shuts off without so much as a dying bleep. White brows furrow in frustration as she looks up, to her sides, even behind her, and starts to inadvertently walk towards the warehouse that so many people seem to be converging on.

Julie Yan has posed:
    Suddenly, a goon is flung out of the window. He falls into a convenient trash bin screaming the entire way down. Sounds of fighting can be heard from inside the warehouse.

    Did I say medieval weapons? Try ancient Chinese. They seem to thrum and buzz with energy when they're in the hands of their wielders, another being slammed at a window.

    Julie might be needing some help inside.

    <SOMEBODY FUCKING KILL HER ALREADY!> a thug shouts in terrified Mandarin, as Julie is swarmed by these men, all wearing masks and wielding the weird magitec weapons. They all seem to have some basic level of martial arts training, but they're outclassed thoroughly in a one-on-one fight, only giving Julie a sweat by sheer numbers. She fights gracefully, using her scarf as a whip to disarm and ensnare her enemies, her fists blazing hot with her magic flame.

Sally Pride has posed:
A goon is yeeted out a window, making Sally pause a moment as the shattered bits hit the pavement and the man tumbles away with the rest of the trash. Sounds like the fun already started.

Pseudo-military training kicks in like a reflex, giving the trash bin an extra push with her boot out of the way so she can back against the wall. Then edge closer to the side of the window, pulling her blaster from its holster as she does, holding it up and keeping a claw ready on the safety. After making sure it's set properly to stun.

The lioness edges until close enough to peek around through the window. Spies the very one-sided fight going on.. and flames? Is that a mutant, or something else?

Questions later, action now. Sally quick turns to face the window, clicking off the safety as she lowers her gun to snipe one of the thugs trying to rush the fiery woman from behind with the stun blast. Then jumps up to climbe through the window herself. "I had a line all ready about crashing the party, but this one is already a flaming wreck it seems!"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    What was a cautious approach turns into a more dynamic entry, as Sam comes through the door with what can only be described as 'intent'. Bear, for his part, doesn't join this party and remains outside, knowing full well that his human doesn't need the distraction at the moment.

    One of the thugs comes at the teenager, who has wisely chosen to put up the hood of his hoodie, with a glowing sword. Shouting anger and murderous intent, the thug slices down with the sharp blade, not even hesitating when the knife-wielding figure sways aside to let the blade pass, bringing the blade back with a reverse horizontal cut that deflects off the much shorter combat knife, and then down again. Once again Sam sways aside, letting the sword pass on his right side, reaches over the thug's sword arm, entangles it, stabs his knife into the man's armpit, lifts his shoulder to break the thug's elbow and then punches him viciously in the face with the hand that was, until a moment ago, holding the knife by the simple expedient of extending his arm.

    With a professional and almost contemptuous motion, the thug is flipped over and onto the ground while his shoulder goes nowhere, fully disarticulating the unfortunate sword wielder's arm. For good measure, the hooded teenager kicks the thug in the head, bouncing his skull off the floor, before letting to and retrieving his knife.

    <<Next?>> it comes out in fluent Russian, as Sam starts to round on his next target. Your move, scumbag.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    There's this uncanny sense that Pantheon is being judged and should slow down. It isn't quite like a 'spidey sense' or a premonition, but the feeling causes him to divert his flight path just slightly towards the scene of the crime. This far up, he does hear the scream, and the next sound from above is a sonic boom as the hero goes supersonic, securing the falling goon in his arms. "Wooah, you okay there?" His words come out as the preferred language of the speaker he's addressing, and the reverse is true, meaning he did hear the threat from above. His eyes narrow, scrutinizing the man. "Waaaait, are you a bad guy?"
    He takes to the air again to the height where the goon fell and crashes through the window, breaking through the glass and steel with ease.

Landry Lugar has posed:
Landry Lugar was in a nice and convenient hiding spot when all hell broke loose. Fighting erupted all around him, and it was now easy to tell who the 'good guys' were. He needed to help the one getting out numbered! He moved from his spot, just as others jumped in as well. He ran over to help and one of the goons with swords turned and started to run at him, glowing sword raised and ready to strike.

Landry stopped moving foward, and started backing away, "Oh wait, yeah, not ready for this... Can we talk about it?" He put his hands up in a defensive 'I give up' pose. The swordsman saw his chance to strike, and moved in for the killing blow, until, at the last moment, Landry's hands erupted with light, as bright as a full sized spot light, and blinded the goon. The sword clattered to the ground, and Landry picked it up, using the wrong end to club the guy and knock him out. "HEY! I GOT ONE!" He cheered in victory, drawing the attention of at least 3 others.

Ariah Olivie has posed:
    So much noise! The lost lamb that is Ariah pauses mid-step, hearing the shattering of glass, the boom of something above, and the... screaming in a language she might vaguely know as an Asian dialect. A warehouse? A scuffle? And possibly the faintest tinge of magic that tickles her senses. Still, the noises nearby seem to indicate quite a party, and the white-haired woman is in no rush to join it immediately. But join it, she is interested in doing, so she moves.

    Moves at a steady, if not rushed pace, arriving at the fallen door guards to hear the Landry's announcement inside. The stony features on the girl's face give no indication of her thoughts regarding the peculiar fortune of her misplaced footsteps and unfortunate sense of direction that led her here of all places!

Julie Yan has posed:
    Landry might get the attention of three goons, but he also has Julie's attention too. "The thugs square up as she rushes them, disarming one with her scarf as she deals with another in a wince-inducing snap of their sword-arm, eliciting screams of agony as the man clutches his broken arm.

    <You came to the wrong neighborhood, pretty boy.> The third thug says, lunging at Landry with his spear as Julie is distracted by one of the others.

    Thugs rush at Sam, brandishing swords, axes, and even a spear. Of course, they're distracted as suddenly some super-type crashes the party, literally! <It's Superman!> One calls out. <Wait, no, that's...uhhh, Wonder Man?> <Who cares who it is, we can take him!> Another shouts out, before rushing Pantheon with his axes. This might be a bad idea.

    Sally gets Julie's attention directly, as she fights her way toward the lioness. "You picked a hell of a time to join the fun, there's plenty of dance partners!" She says, flinging a thug toward one of much bigger guys, who backhands the thug away with contemptuous ease.

    "ALRIGHT, TIME YOU DIE." The titanic thug says, his suit practically straining to contain his bulk before his size doubles in seconds, bestial features forming on his face as he rips his mask off. The Yaoguai rushes after Pantheon, bowling over his compatriots.

Landry Lugar has posed:
Landry Lugar had an 'oh shit' look on his face when the thugs turned towards him, but blinked as two of them were taking out in the snap of Julie's scarf. "Woah... That's awe...shiiit!" The third one lunged at him with the spear. He dodge, the blade grazing his ribs, cutting into his hoodie, and drawing blood. He let out a gasp of pain, and pushed the man back as his hands flashed with light again, this time an angry red light. The thugs shirt lit on fire, as Landry moved in with the sword-turned-club, and smashed him in the face with it. One the guy was unconcious, he was nice enough to roll him over, into an empty box, putting the flames out as he did. "Thanks for the assist!" He called out to Julie, and then watched the others work, noticing they were much more skilled than he was. "I think I've got a lot more training to do..." He mumbled to himself.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Chaos. Confusion. Combat. On the battlefield, even if that is only a single room with a dozen or so opponents in it, Sam's instincts come alive. Time seems to slow down, the movements of his opponents appearing comically telegraphed as if this is some kind of Kung-Fu movie. In return, the teen seems to be almost able to predict the future, reacting so fast that it might appear that he's reacting before an action has even begun. Those who have seen super powered individuals fight, however, might notice that he's not one of those. For that, he's too slow. But it's the speed of someone who has trained, and trained his entire life, in the art of Not Dying In A Fight.

    It's a style looking eerily familiar to anyone who might have ever seen Black Widow fight. Similar, but distinct.

    A sword is dodged and the knife flashes out as Sam steps in, slicing the blade across the thug's chest as he turns to present a smaller target to the one with the spear, letting the point of the weapon slide behind him. His left arm locks over the haft of the spear and he turns again, using it as a fulcrum to swing himself up and over, kicking a third thug in the face on the way over, turning to stab the first thug through the clavicle and giving a mule kick backwards to break the knee of the spear wielder.

    Who's been watching his left hand? Because that's no longer holding onto the spear, instead removing a small paper sphere from his pocket and throwing it in the face of the second thug, who is by now starting to regain balance. The home-made flashbang is loud and bright, and lays the thug out flat. It's unlikely he'll ever smell anything ever again.

Sally Pride has posed:
"That's okay, I have a big dance card." Sally retorts over her shoulder. "Will try to not step on your feet miss."

She zaps another thug, but his partner charges with his axe before she can take a follow-up shot, bringing his weapon down for an headsplitting chop.

Except the axe stops abruptly short of the mutant lion's shoulder as she grabs the haft just below the blade, her strength holding the weapon at bay with relative easy. "Don't you know it's rude to cut in?" She twirls the blaster in her other hand so she can grab it around the body and pistol-whip the axe-man across the cheek with the butt. Followed by a booted heel to the gut to push him back and wench the ax from his grip.

The weapon is flipped to grab the proper end of the handle, and wobbled as if testing the weight. "Eh. Not my style." It's promptly thrown, wedging into another wall deep enough no one will be able to pull it back out to use. Never hurts to deny the foe some of their toys.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    Crashing into a crime full-force can sometimes de-escalate a situation, especially when one demonstrates their superhumanness by shattering through steel without a hair out of place. Most of the time, in Pantheon's case, it just means people want a shot at him. So he isn't all that surprised that after their initial shock, he gets a magic ax to the face.
    "Yeah, no," He tongues the inside of his unbroken and unaffected cheek, grabbing the ax and pushing his assailant back...with his strength, the thug goes crashing into the opposite wall. "It's Pantheon. Respect the name. I worked really hard on it!"
    Freddy might've pissed his pants in the face of the devil monster now charging him, but Courage keeps Pantheon resolute. He stands his ground, holding against the charge and driving his fist into the creature's nose/snout/thing with plenty of force.

Ariah Olivie has posed:
    It's quite a mess that Ariah arrives to, coming in the door that Julie had entered through. And then after that, the one she'd kicked down. The wild skirmish going on is regarded impassively, half-lidded grey eyes observing the fight for several seconds before she bends down to pick up a couple of the dropped weapons. She gives the spear she'd recovered an experimental lift, and then the sword in her other hand an experimental twirl. It looks like she might be about to charge into the fray but instead she doesn't.

    The inner glow of the weapons shines brighter and brighter, the growing intensity almost blinding before they shatter and disintegrate, crumbling to dust. Runic symbols under her skin instead shine as light races up her arms from the energy she'd consumed. Even her eyes flare briefly as they scan the skirmish with renewed interest. Everyone seems to be holding their own. But her nose wrinkles at the scent.

    Blood. Fresh blood. Her eyes focus on Landry and she stares breifly at him. Her arm sweeps low, like an under-handed ball toss. A streak of white-blue energy races across the concrete floor, leaving a sizzling line that explodes like a landmine of blue force beneath a goon that had been ready to take advantage of the man's pause. Danger close enough to feel the heat, some of the concussion, and particles of concrete. The sorceress' palm lightly smokes, and the blue-white runes in her arms pulse with energy.

Julie Yan has posed:
    The Yaoguai snarls as he's punched right on the snout. He's not amused in the slightest, his muscular arms wrapping around Pantheon like steel. He headbutts the Shazam Squaddie, trying to gain control, but it's hard to contend with a guy empowered with speed of Mercury and strength of Hercules. The yaoguai attempts to drive Freddy into the floor, pounding away with blows akin to pile drivers that would turn normal men to salsa.

    Landry might have someone coming for him, just sneaky enough to menace him with a battle cry as he brandishes his jian. <DIE!> He howls, swiping at Landry with his sword.

    Julie nods to Sally, but right now's too chaotic for her to really banter. "Just keep an eye out for the others." She says, subduing a thug with a jumping spin-kick as she lashes out with her scarf.

    Sam seems to be handling himself just fine, that flashbang leaving several goons blind and deaf for a moment as he knocks them out.

    Ariah's magical landmine blows the goon behind Landry away, easily taking him out of the fight. Landry should count himself lucky for that one.

Landry Lugar has posed:
Landry Lugar was blown forward from the blast. "Oh God!" He landed facedown on the concrete floor, covering his head. He peeked up after a moment, "I'm still alive? Woo hoo!" He pushed back to his feet, brushing the particulate off his hoodie, and putting his scarf mask back into place. "I hope that wasn't like, one of my 9 lives or something." He took a breath. It was dark in here. Time to fix that.

Seeing the broken glass around, the metal from the weapons and equipment all around, he lined everything up just right in his head, and let out a steady stream of light, his spotlight bouncing around the room time and time again, seeming to illuminate the wreakage and downed baddies for everyone to see, while still leaving a number of places to hide in the shadows if need be. The light was soft and blue, like a pale sky in the midwest during summer.

It was at that point he heard the battle cry. He didn't speak Mandarin, but, it wasn't hard to tell what he was saying. He brought up his scavengered club-sword, blocking the hit. He stepped in close, and brought his light shrouded hand up in a gesture immortalized by 3 wise men, Larry, Curly, and Moe. Two fingers out, he poked the goon in the eyes with fingers shining with 1000 lumens. There were several reasons Landry would likely be the last thing this man ever saw. The light started to fade, Landry swung and took out his third baddie, and then started to slump onto one knee on the ground. "Aww hell... Over did it..." He was breathing hard, and sweat was streaming down from below the hood.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    Knees, elbows, wrists, heads, shoulders, fingers... they all fare very badly around Sam, as the hoodied figure grabs, dislocates, punches, kicks and slashes in a whirlwind of activity and lightning reflexes. After not too long a time, he finds himself in the center of a slowly widening circle of mobsters, most of them either on the floor, in the process of toppling to the floor, wishing they were on the floor already, or deciding that while there is strength in numbers, perhaps it would be wiser for some more numbers to go in before their number is up. Not that Sam doesn't get to them eventually, it just starts taking longer.

    By the time he has cleared out the nest around him, the teenager is just getting into the swing of things, whipping his head around to do a quick check of the tactical situation before deciding what next demands his attention.

    The huge goon? Yeah, no, not his fight. The other mobsters that are being professionally disassembled by the others? Also, not his fight. The other hoodied figure that's sinking to its knees? Probably worth standing overwatch for. "Bad time to start running out of batteries." he calls over to Landry, approaching at a light trot. He looks over to Ariah as well, and decided pretty much then and there that his best course of action is to protect these two.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride's ears pin back at the loud noises coming from the other side of the warehouse with the flashbangs, but since she didn't see any of the flashes behind her training has kept her focused on the matter at hand.

One brute finally gets the smart idea to use the flat of his sword to knock the hi-tech gun out of the lioness' hands.

Then learns the idea wasn't so smart as he doesn't get a chance to come back for a proper slash before a fist smashes into his gut. He howls in pain as he doubles over, keels backward and expunges whatever lunch he had on the floor. Then has insult added to injury as his face gets shoved into it by Sally jumping on his back to use as a vaulting point, lunging to grab another brute around the neck that was snatching her dropped gun, and throw him backwards into a chokeslam on the floor.

"That's mine, asshole." She hisses as she yoinks it free of his struggling grasp.

Finally takes another moment to look around. "Has anyone been counting? I lost track like five or ten thugs ago."

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    Blow by blow finds their mark, pushing Pantheon into the ground like intended until the monster is effectively towering over his admittedly smaller body. While the harm done to the champion is superficial, it's also uncomfortable and annoying as hell, and the smell's not so great either. On the sixth or tenth strike, Freddy catches the offending arm and the other and leverages a golden boot against the creature's underbelly and pushes upward.
    "Please don't die," Is all that's said before what comes next. Despite being in the position to use his momentum to throw the creature, he instead calls out, "SHAZAM!"
    From the night's sky, a peal of thunder erupts, and a second later, a single stroke of interdimensional lightning flashes down into the warehouse, destroying the earthly barriers in its path and slamming onto the back of the Yaoguai.

Ariah Olivie has posed:
    A twinge of hunger flashes in Ariah's eyes. She'd been out this late to see about a snack as it is, and now there's not just fresh blood present... but from such an illuminant individual. Still, she forces her eyes from Landry, there's already too much going on and she's filled up on magic power from these fools and their tools. The short woman seems to have a similar idea to Sam, and starts to rally on Landry as well.

    Her slow, measured pace is interrupted by two more combatants in the seemingly endless parade of thugs with a deathwish. A lunge of a spear gives Ariah the opportunity to grab the weapon and yank the man towards her, connecting her forehead with his when he's pulled down to her level. The sickening sound of two heads crunching together echoes on that side of the warehouse, but it's the goon that stumbles back, clutching his head. The spear now in her hands is turned on the second man swinging down a sword, the blunt end of the haft swatting his arm away. There's a brutal slam to his chest with her forearm, his face with her other fist. Her style is nowhere near any kind of elegant martial art, just a heavy takedown maneuver one might expect of a soldier.

    "You are not worthy of these artifacts," she mutters coldly, her accent thickly French, the man's broken nose spraying out a gout of crimson that gets on her still-glowing arm. She regards it with a frown and brings her fingers to swipe some of it, drawing it to her lips, tongue flicking out to idly taste it.

    "...sour..." is all she says.

Julie Yan has posed:
    That lightning bolt from the Heavens is more than enough to kill a building, if not the entire block it was built on. As it hits the Yaoguai like a schoolbus hurled by a hurricane, he's down for the count. There's a massive smoking hole where there bolt penetrated the warehouse, as well as a crater where the yaoguai is left unconscious.

    The goons are more or less down for the count, all maimed and mangled as Julie brushes her shoulder. "That was pretty cathartic, not gonna lie. Yaoguai tend to be a bitch to take down." She grins to Pantheon, giving him a thumbs up. "I think we're done here, now let's see what the Black Lotus was up to."

    Approaching a crate, she kicks it open and finds a _LOT_ of little baggies full of seeds. "And I knew it; Lotus Blossom. Pretty popular drug in the right circles, started being produced in my hometown." She explains, pocketing a baggie for herself. Might be good to hold onto for later investigation. "Good work, friendos."

Landry Lugar has posed:
Landry Lugar quickly pulled off his backpack, and started scrounging around in it. Was he actually looking for batteries? A mystical power source? A wall socket plug? He pulled out something wrapped in wax paper, and unwound it. To Samuel, he gave a nod, "No joke... I've not had to go that bright for that long before." Inside the wrapper was 12 inches of delicious 90's nostalia. He downed the rainbow colored fruit by the foot, chewing and swallowing as fast as he could.

"That should get me through the fight at least..." He stayed on his knee, eyes flashing to the thunder and lighting crash of the Shazam. "Woah..." He looked around, noticing Ariah, and giving a nod of thanks, realizing she must have been the one to save his bacon earlier. He pointed a finger at her feet, a small stream of light coming from his hand. Any that looked could see a circle with a facebook Thumbs Up there, in white and blue, just like the app. "Where do you think they got this many magic weapons?... Is there like, a magic weapon supermarket or something I don't know about?!" He asked curiously, finally pushing to his feet to see what all the commotion had been about originally. "Seeds?..." He gave an 'ah' as she explained what it was. "Ha... Good work you guys maybe. I'm lucky to not have a half dozen new and exciting holes in my body right about now." He joked, starting to pull down his mask out of habbit, and stopping just short. "Right, yeah. I'm SpotOp. Thanks for the help." He gave a nod to Samuel and Ariah again. "That could have gone a lot worse!"

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Black Lotus, huh?" Now that the fight is very clearly over, Sam's stance seems to fractionally relax. Certainly he's putting the knife away, after first wiping it on the shirt of one of the downed mobsters. "Never heard of them before. He holds out a hand to Landry to help him up, passing no judgment and making no comment for running out of steam in a fight. Seems he accepts it happens to the best of us. Despite just wearing his hood up, it's devilishly hard to see his face, instinctively seeming to shield it from the light as he moves around the room. Really, all that's clearly obvious are his bright blue eyes... that seem to softly glow in the shadows.

    "Glad you stopped what you came to stop, glad violent thugs are down, glad we all had a chance to have a bit of exercise and blow of some steam, but whatever they were selling is officially none of my business. Not any more. So good luck with it." Sally gets a look that lingers for a few seconds longer than it should, as does Pantheon, although it doesn't linger nearly as long. "I hope nobody minds if I don't stick around for the law to arrive and ask difficult questions?"

Sally Pride has posed:
The flashbangs were one thing. Heavenly thunderbolts is another entirely.

Sally glanced at the beast of a man now laying smoking on the floor. "I'm sure he found that experience... electrifying."

Black Lotus? Okay so it's not the Foot either, Sally can scratch that off her list. But beating up a bunch of crooks is still beating up a bunch of crooks, so she's not really complaining.

She holsters her blaster and strides up to glance over Julie's shoulder. She was expecting weapons, or maybe dirty money... but what is actually in the crate makes her hiss softly all the same. "Let me guess, some manner of drug?" That's arguably worse in the wrong hands.

She looks up again, and actually waves after Samuel sort of. "Not really, that's a pretty sensible course of action." She's likely to not linger too long herself.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "No problem..." Pantheon's nose sort of wrinkles, tossing the limp body of Yaoguai over to the side. Hazel eyes stay on the spot where the lightning burst connected to flesh, and he inhales sharply. "Whew, good thing that worked."
    He hops to his feet and instinctively begins hovering a few inches off the floor, fixing his crimson cape and running a hand through his hair. "I don't mind sticking around," says Freddy, eyes flicking between Julie and Samuel. "I have no clue what anything you just said means, but I have a way with the boys in blue." Board smile. "Name's Fre...aaarrgh, Pantheon. By the way."

Ariah Olivie has posed:
    Ariah takes the downtime after the fight to wipe her arm off on one of the jackets of a downed goon. She cleans off the blood to the best of her ability, and blinks at the little thumbs-up projection that's on the ground. Her eyes drift back up to take in 'SpotOps' and she blinks owlishly before returning a little thumbs-up of her own. "Take care with your surroundings..." she says quietly before pulling her phone back out of her pocket.

    She cradles it in her palm and closes her eyes for a moment, the glow on her arms pulsing and dimming. While wisps of blue-white start to dissipate from her skin, so, too, does the device glow. There's a tiny little chime as it powers on, and she opens her eyes again. The screen flashes '45%' and she goes back to looking at the GPS map, ignoring the rest of the conversations going on. "...there's the wrong turn.." she says absently.

    A glance to Sam and Landry, looking up at them again, and she wiggles her fingers of her free hand through the dissipating haze. "...excess energy..." she explains, before heading towards the door.

Julie Yan has posed:
    "Yeah, basically. It's valuable enough for people to kill over it." Julie answers. She frowns as Pantheon brings up supernames. "I'm uh...still working on my nickname. Crap. Fenghuang doesn't really sound great to westerners." She shrugs a shoulder. "Firebird? Might make Pontiac pissy. Whatever, I'm work in progress." The martial artist sighs, before watching Ariah with a cocked eyebrow. "Uhh, oooookay. Guess someone has to sit around and wait for questioning. I'm already doing this on a school night, so not it! Thanks for volunteering, boys!"

    She throws Samuel and Pantheon a salute, before promptly bailing. She knows the way out, and she'll be speeding off into the night.

Landry Lugar has posed:
Landry Lugar gave a nod to Sam, "Yeah, I think you've got the right idea. I'll leave it to the established people." He gave a wave, "Ah... Good night and good luck?" He cocked a curious brow as he watched Ariah with the phone, "HA! Nice... I should get a solar charger for mine..." He mused as he fixed his backpack on his back again, "I'm out like a light! Later all!" With a wave, and a harmless, but bright flash of light, he was gone.

Well, almost.

He hadn't quite made it to the door before the flash was over, and struggled with push/pull for a moment, before giving a huff, and disappearing finally.

Samuel Morgan has posed:
    "Firebird is a good name." Sam agrees, making room for the martial artist to get past him. He does give a sharp glance at Ariah, exactly at the moment her phone came back to life, and the hoodied head tilts to the side for a moment, but no further comment is given.

    "Pantheon is also a good name, Freaaaargh." Yeah, he couldn't let that get past him, and then he's starting to make his own way out. "If anyone asks, my name is Scorpio." He pauses after saying that, wondering if he should correct himself, and then wondering why he gave his old name rather than his new. A moment later, he decides it doesn't really matter. "And I wasn't here. Pro tip for the new vigilantes among us..." is that a look to SpotOps? It is, very much so, but also loud enough for 'Firebird' to hear. "... always wear gloves. These guys have long memories and short fuses."

    Once in the hall, a German Shepherd joins him and trots along, after giving a friendly doggy grin to the other heroes. A figure of contradictions, for sure.

Ariah Olivie has posed:
    Ariah is the only one who hadn't given a name. She seems content to leave it that way as she glances up through some of the broken windows. A small frown crosses her otherwise neutral features before her head swivels back down towards the doorways. Carefully stepping over bodies, discarded weapons, and other broken things, she breathes out a small, soft sigh.

    "...hungry..." And then the weird little witch is gone.

Sally Pride has posed:
Sally Pride frowns. The confirmation of the contents isn't all that reassuring. Another thing to watch out for.

Then all the humans and sort-of humans start talking about 'superhero identities'. She crinkles the bridge of her nose a bit. The notion.. is kind of pointless, considering she can't really conceal her appearance. So she just shrugs. "Pride; Sally Pride." Having that as a surname is close enough, being a word play. Though it's hard to tell if she's aping the James Bond shtick, or trying to sound like the song lyrics. Possibly both.

She hops up in one of the broken windows, gripping with one hand and turning to give a quick salute to Pantheon with the other. "Appreciate it. Better some of us aren't here when they show up." Then jumps outside.

Freddy Freeman has posed:
    "Firebird's a good name!" Pantheon chimes, with Samuel apparently. He would know. He's responsible for a literal family of superhero names! "Catch ya later!" He excitedly waves to the departing heroes, cheeks reddening slightly when Sam calls him out on his blunder. He's still new at this, and his mannerism is so distinctly...childlike despite his body being that of at least a twenty-year-old. To Sally, he smiles ruefully. "I know people can suck about mutants and stuff. Don't worry, get home safe."
    Once everyone's escaped into the night, there isn't much to do while he waits for officers to show up. Unfortunately, he's never quite figured out where his phone goes whenever he transforms. When his boredom gets the better of him, there's another shout and flash of lightning, and Freddy Freeman texts his foster mom that he'll be home late.