4315/It's Elemental My Dear Watson

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It's Elemental My Dear Watson
Date of Scene: 06 December 2020
Location: Bayside Industrial Center
Synopsis: Ant-Man, Human Torch, and Vivian Vision do battle with a bunch of teens in color coordinated T-shirts. Things do not end well.
Cast of Characters: Scott Lang, Vivian Vision, Johnny Storm




Scott Lang has posed:
It had taken a couple days before Scott realized he really did have one of those crazy conspiracy pegboards going in his room at Pym labs. Looked so nice and simple when it was just two articles and a picture printed out and next thing you know the wall is covered and the ceiling has a few more. But he was ON to something, he knew it! Well the weird conspiracy website he'd gotten roped into knew it, but Scott had enough access to actual intel to start putting something else together.

"Eco terrorists...like LITERAL eco terrorists. Who use the ecosystem! No not Poison Ivy, there are no plants. Did you even read the notes I sent? Hello? Hello? Dammit!" Scott hangs up as another media outlet hangs up on him, he was down to calling county papers by now. Scott Lang was a hero, but he was seen by most as a benchwarmer on the Avengers, his reputation not at all based around deduction. Just the big/lil guy who punches things.

He groans and wonders if he is going crazy. It was time for TV. It was time...for well-timed breaking news reports. "Flooding at the Bayside Industrial Center, an unexpected wave formation has struck several coastal facilities triggering fires. Evacuations are underway and..."

In moments Scott is in his suit and out the door. "Hank? Nadia? VIVIAN! VV get in the car, we're taking a trip to the beach!" Scott doing his damndest to rope the synethic girl into tagging along with him into his Accord waiting outside and speeding for the spot.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Up until now Vivian has politely declined requests to investigate the myriad web of fringe news sites that Mister Lang had been excitedly discussing around the Pym Industries building. But news of an actual natural disaster she might be able to assist with... well it's hard to argue with a request to go help.

So the teenage synthezoid clears her schedule for the evening with a sigh. "Yes Mister Lang." His car gets a look of suspicion. "Although... Would it not be quicker for me to fly there?"

She's not bothering to maintain a disguise right now, having finished with school for the day. With clearly artificial red skin tone, green hair and glowing golden eyes. And her trademark cargo pants & t-shirt outfit.

"Or do you need me to accompany you to provide directions? I am capable of Sat-nav functionality.." Either way, and despite her opinions on the research, she finds herself tagging along on a trip to Bayside.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Science horror?

Involving water?

Johnny Storm's immediate thought is 'Namor' and really, it's been too long since he'd burned ol'flat top's tilapia. It's a quick fly to the beach, though Johnny's brought a portable (and flameproof_ H.E.R.B.I.E unit to take some...well lets call them scans and send the data back to Reed's lab for later analysis. The industrial fires are a problem, but not as much as you'd think for the Human Torch; he just needs to take a minute to make sure they're the right kind of fire. But really, it's all the right kind of fire.

So it is that Scott and Viv will see a genuiely strange sight; Johnny Storm, the ever loving Human Torch, staring at a chemcial fire through a H.E.R.B.I.E. visor-scope, and taking notes. Like a chump! It is entierly possible the Puppet Master has taken over his brain.

Scott Lang has posed:
"No! I mean, yes it would be faster but then you'd be there before me and it would be dangerous! ...more dangerous than a normally flooded and on fire industrial plant I mean. VV this is it, it's the terrorists! I've been mapping their progress and they were due to hit the US East Coast, I mean, a week ago according to what I had but that's pretty close still! It's got to be them!" Scott sounding oddly excited about global terrorist strikes. The affordable but functional sedan flies through, and at times under traffic as Scott uses one after-market upgrade Pym-Tech had installed, letting the car shrink down small enough to drive under other vehicles when they block his way, helping to maintain a rather steady pace and ignoring every one of Vivian's reminders about traffic law. Poor Vivian is thus subjected to quite the info dump the whole while as Scott informs her about every message board, blog post, and competing theories involving the industrial accidents over the last 6 months. Or she turns off her own ears 5 minutes into his prattling.

As they pull up his mouth still hasn't stopped going. "So you see there's a pattern to it all but it's not like, a numerical pattern but one that links back to...look it's the Fantastic...well one of them anyway. That proves I'm onto something!" Scott cheers as he gets out of the car, flashing his Avengers ID to get past the line of police and firemen blocking the way in. "Torch! My man! You figured it out too huh? You find them yet? If we moved fast enough I wager they're still here," Scott chatters as he walks up behind Johnny, clearly assuming he's having the same paranoid thoughts as Scott himself.

Vivian Vision has posed:
"You are aware that online conspiricies are often a gateway for gullible individuals to become wrapped up in hate groups?" Vivian points out earnestly. "Please do not tell me this data you have unconvered also shows that Batman is a Gotham playboy or that Elvis is actually Superman." She remains strangely calm despite the terrible driving.

But that's probably because in the event of a high speed collision she'd be perfectly unharmed. Or that Scotts car is unlikely to reach what anyone would consider a high speed.

"He teaches Autoshop at my school. It could just mean someone had a flat tyre..." Her eyes roll with dismay. "Or that this is a natural disaster and people need helping?" She phases through the car rather than bothering undoing her seatbelt or opening the car door. Time can be critical when doing search and rescue work!

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Oh, hey it's." Don't say 'less crazy Ant-Man', don't say 'less crazy Ant-man', do not say 'less crazy Ant-Man.'. "You! And Viv!" Johnny gives a cheerful wave, and hears Scott's slightly frenzied explanation. Scott's an Avenger, clearly he knows something right?

Just like Johnny thought, Namor. "Swell. I haven't seen anything, no, but I just got here." Johnny shifts to something frighteningly approaching responsible without another member of his family to foist the job off on. "Viv, you're on people duty, your powers pretty much make you ideal for that. I'll work on the fires before they hit something even more explosive; we don't have much time, honestly. Scott, I could use some 'Giant-Man dumps water on the industrial fires' help, but if you have a lead on whatever fish faced jackasses caused this, by all means."

"I'll just have to be amazing enough for two." Johnny slicks his hair back, and it catches fire so it can continue to be flipped into the horizon. "Namor hasn't done giant tidal waves in ages, but stay frosty, he has like six or so c-list bad guys who love pretending to be him." Johnny rockets off towards the largest of the fires, and holds his hands out. Amazingly, the fire starts to swirl and buckle at his command, sucking up into his body as though the Human Torch were some sort of vacuum!

Scott Lang has posed:
"VV, quit spouting nonsense. I am not on any forum where people think Elvis is Superman. Most of us think Batman and Superman ARE the same person. It's all in...I'll explain later," Scott calls over his shoulder as he focuses back on Torch and then a look around the industrial center. Three large buildings are set near the water, a fish canning factory, a yacht construction yard, and a bottled water plant. Atlantica's Salt-Free Saltwater, a company famous for desalinating ocean water and selling it in plastic bottles at ten times the price of normal bottled water. Each building showed both signs of being waterlogged and in flames. Certainly while it was possible for flooding to start an electrical fire, it was strange for it to happen in all three cases. It was all falling in line with what else he'd...

"Wait Namor? What do you mean Namor? Hey! HEY!" Scott calls out but Johnny is already away and fighting the first of the fires at the cannery as a fireman trundles up behind them in gear.

"Hey you, the Avengers guy right? Bug-Man? We just got the evacuee headcounts done. All the workers are out but we're missing most of the execs. It's weird, their offices shouldn't have even been near where the fires started, so if you could..."

"We're on it! VV come on! The bottled water plant, I'd bet you that has pissed THEM off most of all, they gotta be there! People need helping!" Scott encourages using Vivian's own words back at her like he's the one who first thought it as he starts sprinting towards that particular facility, expanding in size as he goes.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Strictly speaking it's not entirely legal when Vivian splits off portions of her mind to gain access to the various companies computer systems. Trying to gain access to various employment records, ID info and security systems that might help her locate the missing executives.

"Suddenly I understand why Doctor Pym has been more stressed than usual," she muses, mostly to herself. She gives Johnny a nod of agreement and adds "I will begin a thorough search of the interiors. However given these are electrical fires I can't safely phase people out of the buildings." She can however punch clean through an exterior wall.

Despite some clear reservations about the situation, never mind the Batman = Superman idea, there really do seem to be people in need of help. And the desalination plant as is good a place as any to start searching.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Frankly, this IS suspicious. But Johnny Storm lives in a world of sinister super-geniuses with intricate, delicate plans designed specifically to kill his family, or trap them somewhere, or convince the world they're evil, or every other dumb thing a super-villain's done in his mixed up life.

Really, a coincidence is the weird thing, here, in Johnny's mind.

But frankly, there are priorities. Johnny fights the first of the great fires, dipping into the heart of the blaze and sucking up as much fire as he can, dousing or absorbing the heat and spitting it out of the shrinking blaze in a controlled straight line. It looks a bit like fireworks, but the strange strategy seems to be working!

Scott Lang has posed:
"I'm not sure they all are electrical fires. I think we're just meant to THINK they're electrical fires...alley oop!" Scott's voice a bit more booming but no less jovial despite the situation as he starts splashing the building with water from the coastline like a particularly bratty child in a bathtub. Except flinging hundreds of gallons of water instead of a mere floor-soaking spray. It's quite possible Vivian is in the line of fire for at least some of it too. This WAS an emergency after all, no time to worry about soaking your coworkers. It's not like Scott to hold a grudge about her not believing him. Right? Would be almost as crazy as the conspiracy talk.

"Hey Johnny! You see anything over there besides sparks now that the fires are out? Cause I don't think this is Namor I...anyone else feel that?" Scott breaks off quizzically. There was a vibrating sensation, and if it was vibrating to him at his size that meant it had to be quite the shaking and quaking for any normal-sized people on the ground. Suddenly cracks and crevices split open the earth all around and under the cannery that Johnny had just saved, the building crumbling into a hole while water from the ocean began to pour in.

Which would be bad on its own. However the tornado forming out of thin air on the clear sunny day inside the burning/flooded yacht yard adds a whole element of chaos, the winds flinging bits of debris out at high speeds. "VV!? You inside yet?! We may need to hurry here!" Scott hollers as he starts shrinking back down after getting smacked in the ribs by a half built yacht that leaves him wheezing.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Thankfully all that stray water just passes right through Vivian. The same ability which lets her drift through walls also makes her rather tricky to soak with water. Intentional or otherwise. Using plans from the computer systems, cross referencing against places that the first responders have checked and making some well educated guesses she identifies which rooms need checking first and accelerates to a hundred mile an hour phase flight.

She drifts through a wall to find a dozen miserable executives from the three companies packed into a janitorial closet. None of whom seem especially keen to leave with her.

"I have located what I hope are all the remaining employees but they do not seem willing to leave," She informs over the Avengers communications channel Scott is on. "Did your research include any reports about mind control effects?"

Still even if they don't wish to leave she can always relocate them in small groups with sheer physical strength. And despite what damage it'll cause the building she enhances her density and punches her way through a non-load bearing wall to make an escape route.

If the executives still won't follow when the Earth starts to shake she'll just have to carry them. Two to four at a time. It's not very dignified but they'll survive!

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Seeing a lot of fire, Ant-Man!" Johnny uses code-names over coms like a grownup, or maybe he's just that stressed. Normally this is when people make their move; the henchmen show up, the holographic image of the villain, or at least a giant time bomb right?

The fire dies, finally. Johnny breathes, exhausted, and having two more to go...

...and then he's looking up at the screaming vortex of a tornado. "I'm gonna have to call you back." Johnny says into the com, and there's a horrible SwwwiiiFFwwiiiP! As the Human Torch is sucked into the tornado!

Scott Lang has posed:
Back on the ground in normal form Scott wonders if he made the right call, the destruction looking a lot more thorough, and dangerous, at this size. He jumps as a wall crashes open and raises a gauntlet, only to find it's Vivian dragging out some of the execs. "Hand em off, I'll move them! Torch? Torch are you OK?!" Scott looking back at the tornado which now has an orange glow coming from it. He shakes his head, over the communicator telling Vivian, "There was one case of mass suicides and walkoffs but, dammit this doesn't make sense anymore! It was usually just a single effect at each site, not all at once! It's like they're stepping up their gameplan here or..."

"Earth!" comes an African accented voice nearby, the ground under Scott's feet suddenly liquefying like quicksand as he falls in up to his waist. More distantly there's another cry of "Water!" and a portion of the ocean seems to spring to life, arching up like a tentacle before spewing itself into the tornado which has neither moved nor shown any signs of dissipating.

"VV, GET OUT OF THERE!" cries out Scott, struggling to move his arm in the soil which has already begun to solidify again, trying to nudge his fingers enough to hit the growth button and break free.

Before he can though there's a dual cry of "Fire!" with a Brooklyn accent and "Wind!" with a heavy Eastern European. A funnel of concentrated wind spirals into the opening Vivian had just created followed by a gout of flame, the winds whipping the fire into an even greater frenzy that bursts through the building like a veritable explosion.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian vanishes in a cloud of flame.

Or at least that's what seems to happen. In reality she phases to avoid damage and wraps herself in a holographic disguise to make it seem like she's no longer there. Making her way back to the last of the executives in the hope she might get them out before the building collapses.

"I'm fine." She notes over comms after just enough time has passed to possibly worry people. "But there are people inside that are still in danger. Once they're safe I'll provide back up."

Of course she can't get them out through the same route as the others. That's a little too on fire for now. So she'll have to risk carefully phasing them out another part of the building.

Johnny Storm has posed:
Hey, Johnny thinks for a minute as he runs a finger along the screaming winds, I might die here. Cool. He closes his eyes and just sort of takes in the mind numbing peril. A hunk of boat comes screaming for Johnny's head.

It explodes into a thousand, flaming pieces, as the Human Torch furiously tries to remember high school science. Tornadoes are formed by some kind if air pressure and temperature, right? Johnny closes his eyes and thinks.

There's a...downdraft, he thinks, that's cold. You have to heat the downdraft, the voice that sounds like Reed says in his head, and the tornado will fall apart. But you need a lot of heat.

"Got that." Johnny says, crackling to a blazing shade of blue as he goes plasmic, focusing beams of heat on the trail of cold air he can feel, heating the tornado up from the inside! It's dangerous, not the least of which because Johnny feels like he might get snuffed out in plasma form, plus there's lightning because of course there is, but the tornado starts to...

...Johnny lands on his feet. "Okay. Okay. That's two." The Human Torch says, swinging at the air like a prize fighter. "Now when I find whatever's doing this." He looks over at a group of international teens with what look, to Johnny, dangerously like magic rings. "Okay. I guess that's how today's going. Look, can we just talk this ou-"

He is then hit in the chest with a lightning bolt. Johnny's hair crackles as he flies across the courtyard, giving these strange teens more time to do whatever it is they're up to! "Okay." Johnny wheezes, "No more Mister Nice Torch..."

Scott Lang has posed:
The people Scott had taken from Vivian's first trip out are curled up on the ground nearby crying where he'd dropped them, middle-aged businessmen bawling like small children. Scott meanwhile finally yanks his hand free of the dirt and prepares to hit the 'growth' control again when a voice says from behind, "Hold up pops or I'll fry the two looters into ash," comes the Brooklyn accent again. Scott pauses, wincing as he hears the crackle of lightning and turns his head in time to catch Torch get tossed back into the yacht yard. Well, at least the wind had died down with the tornado gone.

Which just left the important question. "Pops? Really? First off I'm 30 and second nobody has used the words 'pops' since like the sixties so..."

"Shut your mouth you consumerist pig," comes the command as the five teens with attitude walk around in front of Scott. Each with their own color coordinated shirt, they were otherwise dressed fairly identical with a yellow globe on those shirts showing longitude and latitude lines. The one speaking was the shortest and youngest in appearance, an Indian-looking boy. "This is your one warning. You heros want to fight for the side of good? Then stay out of our way. We're going to tear down every poisonous factory we can find, every fracking mine, every oil rig. Gaia needs us."

The other four bow their heads and solemnly recite, "Gaia needs us," in a chant-like fashion.

The Indian boy pauses a moment as well before adding, "You can keep your Looters alive this time as a show of good faith. But try and stop us again, and we won't hesitate to call HIM forth," he warns drawing murmurs of religious fervor from the others that sounded both enthused and fearful in equal measure. "Come on team. I think we've shown them well enough, the power is ours, but just in case, Kwame?"

Scott meanwhile has been listening intently to both the monologue and for signs of Vivian getting the rest of the execs out the back of the plant. "Yeah look this is real enviro-friendly and all but..."

"Earth!" chants Kwame again, Scott managing an 'Oh shit! Guys! Help!" as he sinks fully into the dirt this time as the five teens walk towards the water. As they get close a yellow ship rises out of the surf and floats towards them, the teen eco-terrorists climbing aboard before it flashes off at high speeds across the ocean.

Vivian Vision has posed:
It's complicated work moving a group of mostly older executives, many of which are in poor physical shape thanks to a lifetime of long lunches and mid-meeting cookies, who are all having a psionic power induced breakdown. But thankfully by this point Vivian has access to the full schematics for the facility. And by punching a few strategic holes in walls and floors she's managed to carefully get the group to safety.

"This is Vivian," she calls out over comms. "I am leading the remaining executives to the emergency services. Do you require assistance or have the villains already been apprehended?"

Alas many of the security cameras she was using to view the fight have been destroyed by the blasts of wind and fire.

Johnny Storm has posed:
"Copy." Okay, the people are okay. By the Reed Richards metric, that's a job sort of well done. Only a bit of a disaster. Johnny grinds his teeth, abruptly, violently furious. If this had been the old days he'd already be after the sub, hurling fire like something out of a nightmare.

But these aren't the old days, and he's the man on point here. Johnny takes a long, slow breath like Sue taught him, and centers himself. They can deal with those...cultists later.

"Okay." Johnny says, shaking the dizziness off as he walks over to help Scott out of the...quicksand? Mud? Whatever it is, it's ruining his suit. "They're getting away. But there's a silver lining!"

Johnny jerks a thumb up at HERBIE, who's been quietly hiding behind a rock since the powers started slinging. "We got samples."

Scott Lang has posed:
     Scott grabs hold of Johnny's hand and with a fair bit of undignified wiggling and squirming manages to pull himself free of the solidifying ground before collapsing, releasing his helmet with a gasp. "Yeah, Okay is right. Bunch of little weirdos," Scott huffs at open sky before he sits up with a groan and takes notice of Johnny's device. "You got recordings?! Hell yeah! Hold on I got to tell...Vivian you there? You got everyone out?! That's good but I've got even better news!" Villains captured? A way to track them? Scientific analysis allowing them to search for weaknesses?

"Johnny got proof I was right on recording! VV. Say it. I need to hear you say it VV. Who was right. Vivian. I know your comms are working. SAAAAAAY IIIIIIIT" Scott needles over the radio, his enthusiasm back 1000% percent. Getting his ass kicked in a fight was hardly unusual for him. But being right over the hyper-intelligent and some might say at times annoyingly precise synth girl?? This was a moment he needed to relish.

Vivian Vision has posed:
Vivian does not roll her eyes while leading people to safety. That would be rude. But she can spin up an instance of her mind to roll her virtual-eyes. "Yes Mister Lang," she replies flatly. "I will concede you were not entirely wrong. It is just a shame the recording which vindicates you /also/ details your defeat by a group of teenagers whose choice of getaway vehicle seems to have been inspired by the Beetles..."

She sighs a little inside.

"But still twelve people who would have died today are still alive. And /that/ is the important thing."