5044/Winter Wonderland: A Way In

Winter Wonderland: A Way In
Date of Scene:	06 February 2021
Location:	Suicide Slum - New Troy
Synopsis:	Winslow Schott's Dome finally comes down, but Schott escapes
Cast of Characters:	Winslow Schott, Oswald Loomis, Conner Kent, Clark Kent, Donna Troy, Karen Starr, Nadia Pym-van Dyne, Terry O'Neil

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Winslow Schott has posed:
For weeks, Winslow Percival Schott's lime green dome hovered over the Suicide Slums, and bathed the surrounding area with it almost supernatural green light. Since the night the dome appeared, no one had heard from the eccentric toymaker, or from any members of his gang. However, However, he seemed to keep his promise of children coming and going as they pleased. Ever since the first night, 10 more children have left the dome, all of them escorted out gently by either one of Schott's Unicorns, a huge stag covered in war paint, or a red dragon, all characters from Schott's former toyline, My Precious Unicorn. Each child would come out carrying what they called "A Christmas Present" from Uncle Schott. These presents always turned out to be harmless, but very complex toys. However, none of these children were willing to talk about what they saw inside, stating that "Uncle Schott" would take away their presents if they spoil the surprise before New Year's Day. This lowered the concerns of the authorities a bit, but they were still worried about what was happening inside the dome, and where Mr. Schott himself was. All attempts to enter the dome seemed fruitless, whatever this dome was made out of, it was very strong. But, all of this changed due to one lucky break.

Yesterday night, December 28th 2020, a teenaged jogger named Ezekiel Benningford accidently strayed too close to the dome and, in a clumsy move, tripped and fell towards it. However, instead of faceplanting on the surface, he phased right through it and into the neighborhood, though was knocked unconscious in the process after hitting the asphalt and had to be dragged out by the ankles by one of his friends. This proved one thing, there was finally a way in the neighborhood. Teens were able to cross the dome without any problems, it seemed that Schott's technology only kept out adults. This was the break the SCU and the rest of the MPD were waiting for and word quickly spread through the city that a way into the dome was finally found.

It was currently December 29th, and MPD and SCU units were surrounding the dome, as if preparing for a siege. They were awaiting for Metropolis' heroes to arrive and finally put an end to this weeks long hostage situation. But, what they didn't count for was Mr. Schott, who at this point was still MIA, knowing about these turn of events and getting a little "assistance" to keep his project up until New Year's Day. Somewhere near the police perimeter, a text would go off in the phone of one Oswald Loomis, a text that read,

"DO WHATEVER IT TAKES! KEEP THEM AWAY FROM MY DOME!"

WS

Oswald Loomis has posed:
     It's a lovely day for a little bit of chaos. The snow on the ground police in all directions. No wonder so many people had gathered here. Officer Cartright stands with the rest of his fellow SWAT ready to burst in. He's standing with his rifle at the ready behind the wheel of a van loaded to the brim with SWAT officers ready to jump into action.

     His eyes look up towards the dome as he looks down towards his wristwatch counting the seconds when suddenly his phone goes off. The gruff looking career officer looks down with a bit of a grumble as he looks over the text, the officer next to him asking. "Who's WS?"

     "Oh it's the Ex, she won't stop texting." Officer Cartright offers with a bit of a low sigh shaking his head. "Get a look at some of the other texts she sent me." He reaches over to pass the phone. A look of confusion crosses his face as he looks over a picture of.. Former president Richard Nixon? but when the officer beside him goes to take it he begins to convulse and spark before falling unconscious on the spot.

     Officer Cartright lets out a low sigh, before pressing his hand on his wrist. "Well, Guess he didn't have the heart for my dick pics." As a small explosion echoes out near by at the base of several buildings watter towers causing them to collapse from the top of most every nearby structure. Yet instead of water waiting inside is fresh maple syrup, hundreds of gallons of the stuff fresh and hot ready to be cooled down by the harsh winters air.

Conner Kent has posed:
To be honest, Conner is not sure if he is a teenager. He looks like one, his ID card says 19 (he also has a fake one that says 22) but his true age is something only his mysterious and probably evil-ish creators know.

Nevertheless, he got a call from Superman a few minutes ago. After all, he promised the older man he would 'help kick Toyman's ass before leaving for Krypton'. He never imagined Superman would actually need him. Or that the dome would allow him in. Which is not sure it would. But it is a good idea to attempt it.

He actually came as quickly as he could. Since it is a Sunday, he was in Gotham at the Outsiders hangout. A short trip for the young hybrid. "Hello!" He greets, heading to meet the Kryptonians.

Clark Kent has posed:
Superman's here!

He's got that look on his face, if you know what to look for. A certain set in his jaw as he stands arms akimbo, looking at the big dumb dome Schott's managed to hold the city hostage with for the holiday season. Clark's frustrated. He's used to being able to clean up this sort of thing in an afternoon or two, at most. Weeks is just unacceptable. "Superboy, thanks for making it..."

And then the explosion. Clark can hear it as it happens, and Conner can see visible frustration on Superman's face as he puts two and two together. The timing is just too perfect to be anyone else.

"I'll clean that up." Clark says, kicking into the air, "You focus on trying to get inside the dome. Once you can break Toyman's anti-adult...whatever, we can swarm the place and put this all to a stop. I'll be back in a flash. Up, and away!"

Superman flies towards the sound and can smell the maple syrup hardening. Hopefully it is just maple syrup, Superman thinks, as he rockets to help.

Donna Troy has posed:
    When it becomes apparent that this is a barrier that can be traversed by teens, it doesn't take long before the call goes out to the Titans. They are, after all, famously teen superheroes.

    Except when they are not. People do occasionally need to be reminded that those members of the Titans who started out as teens a decade ago are now in their mid twenties, and not eligible for crossing the adult-proof barrier.

    There are members of the team, newer members, who are still teens. With this discovery of the nature of the barrier, two of these newer members are planning an incursion, while one of the older, non-teen members oversees.

    "I suggest Waspette first, too small to be seen," Donna, who is the aforementioned non-teen Titan says to her two team mates. "Go through, come out again. Don't be more than a minute. Just make sure we've picked a spot on the dome that doesn't have anything problematic on the other side. When you're there, give a ping on the T-Com - we need to know if the barrier stops the signal or not. If not, we see if you can take the cabled relay through."

    "Vorpal, your first job is to see if you can rabbit hole out from the other side. If you can open a two-way gateway to the inside we can bypass the problem of the barrier entirely. Apart from that, we're playing by ear. At least until we have a better idea of what's on the other side, please play it cautiously. Remember I can't come in and back you guys up."

Karen Starr has posed:
    Flying above the- as it was called- big dumb dome, Power Girl floats in silence while clouds idly waft around her, parting around her form. She's looking down and into the dome as best she can, though most of her attention is on the area around it.

    She hadn't expected Schott to panic and drop the Phone A Friend lifeline, and if she had, she'd have expected someone a whole hell of a lot more punchy- That water towers blow apart and burst, showering people in rapidly chilling and hardening maple syrup... She wasn't expecting that.

    In fact, it delays her response a little. "Is that... Fucking maple syrup?" she questions, in a low tone that nonetheless, the other Kryptonians are still likely to hear. Sadly, this means she can't stop all of the syrup from breaking from their water-tower confines, but she is swift enough: With Kal working on the syrup already flooding, Karen makes her way around at speed, flying through the city as a barely seen pink blur that occasionally unleashes blasts of cold and lasers.

    The intent is to visit any towers that haven't spilled- freezing breath will cool down the stuff, stopping it from flowing and trapping the people below- and for the ones she can, heat vision will stop it from toppling in the first place. It's not a complete solution- because she was too far away, and too stunned, to get to work on the dilemma before it was already deployed.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Among those still unable to vote or enter the adult section of the comic book store is Nadia.

<<Okay, got it! On way way.>> The youthful tech genius of variable size calls through her T-Comm as she descends from the sky where she had been hovering while observing the situation.

It takes but an instant for the armor clad Waspette to vanish from sight, almost like she simply teleported for those who don't know better but the teeny tiny Waspette, too small to be seen darts through the barrier to begin her initial reconnaissance of the inside.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal is, indeed, a teenager, so there is no issue for him to cross that barrier. However, he does so invisibly in order to not attract too much attention. <<Entering the event horizon,>> he whispers into his comm, a bit of an in-joke regarding a common experience they had a few months ago.

Donna's instructions had been very clear, and so he makes a point of looking around before passing the barrier, to commit the scene to memory, so that when he emerged on the other side, he'd have a fresh image of what the street looked like.

Even as he walks through it, he closes his eyes out of habit, out of fear that he'll simply run smack through it- but he doesn't! That's a good thing, right? Still invisible, he opens his eyes to see what the Other Side has to store. Before he goes too far in, however, he says "I'm going to run the test now..." quietly enough for Nadia to hear.

And then he focuses on the street outside, and attempts to open a Rabbit Hole.

He holds his breath to see what happens. He becomes visible so that he can focus all of his attention into this.

Winslow Schott has posed:
As the Prankster's little prank causes chaos and the two Titans sneak into the dome another song began to play all over the area.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhTnDaEmA5k) It was another Bing Crosby song, Do You Hear What I Hear? As the classic song played over the air, a familiar screen appeared on the dome and turned on. Projected onto it was the now familiar face of Winslow Percival Schott, making his first public appearance in weeks. He was still clad in a Holiday Sweater and blue jeans like last time. But, instead of a mirthful, joyful expression, Schott's face was contorted into one of anger and rage. In his clinched hands he held a remote control, no doubt ready to summon another toy assault. Toyman looks at all of those gathered outside of the dome and snarls angrily before saying,

"NO! NO! NO! What part of Don't Open Until New Year's Day don't you people understand?! I should've figured you heroes would try to ruin years of planning. But, I won't let you! It is quite fortunate that the dome is also sound-proof, now the children won't have to hear the fight that is about to occur."

Schott then presses the remote controller and laughs sinisterly while clapping his hands. Suddenly, the pitter-patter of tiny feet is heard as thousands of tiny elf dolls wielding a variety of weaponry suddenly rush out, accompanied by more toy planes, tanks, and, bizarrely enough, teddy bears. While this is happening, a familiar roar is heard and the very same griffon from last time suddenly zooms out of the dome and straight towards Superman, trying to ram him down into the asphalt.

As Vorpal goes visible to open the portal, he would fine, no doubt much to his delight. That it is working. As the portal is opening, a voice suddenly calls out,

"What the hell?!"

If Terry were to turn around, he would a group of men clad in Holiday sweaters, members of Schott's gang. They all suddenly charge Terry, letting out battle cries as they do. As this is happening, Nadia would be unopposed as she continues her scouting mission through the neighborhood. The area she found herself in was quiet, eerily quiet. If there were children here, where were they? Suddenly, you could hear giggling coming from the center of the neighborhood, children's giggling. However, at the same time, the door to a nearby liquor store flies open and a group of Schott's goons, still clad in Holiday Sweaters come out carrying casks of looted liquor. Perhaps they know where Schott is and how to shut down the dome?

Oswald Loomis has posed:
     The quick thinking of supes and Kara is able to save the uniforms of many of the boys in blue. It's a wonderful thing quick thinking as more explosives rattle the rooftops in order all designed to keep them busy with sequential detonations of more syrup. How could one man find all this syrup and dare to waste it so close to the most festive time of the year?

     The Officer left inside the truck takes his time pulling out a pair of earplugs from his pocket while he hums the theme song for the Uncle Oswald show (Think Howdy Doody Time). He bounds back and forth in time with his humming as he shoves those bright rainbow colored smiley face plugs into his ears and tucks them away.

     All of the police cars at once begin to blare the Uncle Oswald Show theme at once. It blares loud out of the speakers on repeat, and down on the ground the officers begin to laugh. It's a slow laughter at first a few chuckles before they grow, and they grow, they find themselves unable to stop laughing as several drop their weapons holding at their faces as they just keep laughing.

     "You know they say laughter is the best medicine but you can't spell slaughter without laughter." The officer behind the wheel pulls at his face and rips it off to one side revealing the smiling mustachioed mug of Oswald Loomis kicking back with a smile as he grabs hold of the radio.

     "Well hello there boys and girls, It's your old pal Uncle Oswald here with a Christmas special, and I know you're all just dying to get started." The music gets louder over the sound of laughter filling the air as maple syrup descends from all directions already beginning to harden across the surface of buildings, and around some of the officers caught off guard and too busy laughing to drag it off of themselves. "Let's take a moment to remember the reason for the season while enjoying our sweets, and give the gift of giving."

     Vents on the side of nearby trucks begin pumping out counterfeit money into the streets flooding them with people into the mix who come running from their homes the second they see that there's cash to be made. Some get too close to the cop cars and find themselves chuckling before soon spiraling out into laughter. In the streets around the dome things are getting out of hand.

Conner Kent has posed:
Oh no. So much wasted maple syrup! Truly criminal.

"Getting inside the dome, okay but... oh, anti-adult machine, right." Conner hopes it has such a label, but he will probably settle with smashing any device that looks high-tech and weird. He heads for the dome, just in time to see the Titans enter the dome, "wait, I am invulnera..." oh well, he offers an apologetic smile to Donna and crosses over.

It would be very embarrassing if he faceplants against the dome. But no, he goes in without problems. Just in time to see a bunch of holiday goons charging one of the young Titans. So he counter-charges, although not too hard, as not to break anything important. He had no time to see where Nadia is going, but Conner is used to tank and let others do the sneaking and plotting.

Clark Kent has posed:
"Huh." Clark is about to tell Power Girl not to freeze the syrup; it could be laced with explosives designed to react to sudden temperature shifts, Superman hasn't gotten a chance to give it a good look, but...no, just syrup. Damn it. Superman's then vaguely surprised Power Girl doesn't know who this is. She must, he realizes, not have had a Loomis in her home dimension.

"His name's Oswald Loomis." Superman expalins as his x-ray vision scans the area, trying to find traces of the man or the intricate, layered traps disguised as cheap childish pranks he loves to use. "A former children's entertainer turned super-criminal for hire. His specialty is creating controlled chaos; situations that people like us can't ignore, allowing other organizations time to work. Still does some Gotham-style art crimes when he's in the mood, but Loomis only pretends to be like them. It's a brand." Superman says, visibly disguisted at the thought. "Our first fight was him trying to make it rich off of a book deal; I only put him away using a law against profiting off of your own crimes."

"They call him the Prankster, now. Keep sharp-damn it, that money's laced with something." Superman says, and flies into the crowd, analyzing the minute particules in the air and trying to get a sense of what drug Prankster is using on these people and where it's coming from. Some of the fake money goes up in flames from Heat Vision, though Clark's careful not to hurt anyone. "Everyone, please remain calm! You are in the middle of a super-crime attack! Keep your wits about you and cooperate with the authorities and we're all going to get out of this okay!"

Clark keeps looking for some sign of Loomis while he plays big blue target, hoping to lure the Prankster out in the open with an irresistible opportunity to make Superman look ridiculous.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Alone, outnumbered, surrounded by a horde of the Toyman's goons? Vorpal has had some experience with fighting a number of opponents, and he has his powers, but this is not his particular forte. He's been warned he can't count on back-up -- but with the Rabbit Hole opening between inside and outside of the dome, that warning is suddenly moot.

    Bare moments after the Toyman's goons explode onto the street and charge the young Titan when he's joined by the older Titan waiting outside. Sheild on one arm and lasso whirling in the other, Donna Troy leaps through the Rabbit Hole from the other side, somersaulting over Vorpal's head to land on the ground between him and the onrushing horde. She answers their battle-cries with one of her own, the traditional ancient Greek ullulation, a loud and piercing "ALALE", said by tradition to be an imitation of the cry of Athena's owl. Also occasional cause of Xena, Warrior Princess jokes amongst the Titans, for which Donna will kill people later. Or at least glare at them.

    The lasso lashes out to hook one goon around the ankle, and with a sharp tug, Donna hauls him down to the ground at the feet of his companions, to break up their charge. Then, shield-first, she barges straight into the densest mass of goons with enough force to send anyone foolish enough to be in her way flying.

     Attack HER team-mates, will they? This calls for an Amazon Rampage!

Karen Starr has posed:
    Let's be clear: There was an Oswald Loomis in her home dimension, she was just lucky enough not to deal with him /or/ Schott. She arrived too late in the timeline, as her Clark and Lois were in their sixties at least when she arrived, Kal having landed in 1938. These rogues are entirely new to her. It's... Not really a blessing. It was, and now it isn't.

    "Kal, deal with the money," she remarks, "And the things spitting it onto the streets." Karen, now utterly and wholly nonplussed, with a... Freakishly and unwantedly catchy tune playing in her head, swoops down into the streets. Since the syrup is what it is, more freezing breath is applied to keep it from catching anyone in its sticky grip.

    "And find him before /I/ do."

    Yeah, that song's getting to her. It's her next target, and she swings in around the cars blaring it from atop themselves. It only takes her hearing the space of a moment to pick up the underlying tune amongst Oswald's broadcast, and she takes to the air again, not at all laughing. She's definitely the unfun one.

    Taking in a breath, her mouth opens wide, and she lets out a tune that can't be... Explicitly heard by the human ears, in the typical sense. What it does, however, is counteract the vibrations in the air caused by the Prankster's laughing song, freeing up the victims so that they don't suffocate...

    And giving her time to properly inspect the cars with X-Ray vision. It's slow going, but one by one she's taking down the emitting speakers with specifically placed heat-vision.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
At first Nadia is about to turn back and teach the thugs charging at Vorpal just what a potent combination Red Room training and Shrink-Fu is. But then Conner Kent comes charging in and a ferocious Troia comes charging out of Vorpal's rabbit hole. That situation is well in hand without any need for her intervention, so she sticks to the plan. The first order of business is to set up communications that can reach the outside. Reaching into her pocket she pulls out the receiver, sizing it up in an instant, she makes sure it is placed somewhere out of the way where it won't be seen before quickly unspooling the cable and running it back out of the dome as fast as her wings can carry her. Once there, another transmitter relay is sized up and connected to the cable hopefully enabling 2-way communication with those outside the field.

<<Testing, testing, does everyone here me? Sound off.>> She calls through her T-comm on an open frequency hopefully broadcasting both to those inside and outside of the dome.



Once that first priority is taken care of, she zips back into the dome again. There is still the matter of those goons hauling the liquer and sounds of children. Lucky for her, flying she is far faster than those on foot. Particularly those burdened by heavy casks as she zips through the streets again in hot pursuit of them.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Do not expect back-up, Donna had said. So, of course, how like Donna is it to contradict herself? "Sorry boys, I brought friends to the party!" the Cheshire cat says, standing back. Troia /and/ Superboy are flying in to kick ass, so he is pretty much redundant against this lot. If anything, he felt a little sorry for them. They were probably going to feel very sore in the morning.

He knows enough to stay out of the way of the two formidable super-strong folks, so instead he keeps his distance and uses his illusions to trip, distract and obstruct the men from Winslow's gang, just to make life even more miserable for them as they are about to get served a whole bunch of knuckle sandwiches. "I'll open the Rabbit Hole again when you're done with these mooks," Vorpal informs, not wanting to spread himself too thin by hving to maintain illusions /and/ a Rabbit Hole open.

Winslow Schott has posed:
As Prankster's prank continues to cause chaos on the streets of Metropolis, Toyman's face appears on the dome again, laughing with joy and mirth, as if he were enjoying this fiasco below him. He then says to both Superman and Power Girl,

"Me and Mr. Loomis go back. He's helped me get my cartoon up in popularity, and I Helped his how. When I heard you had found out a way to get into my dome, I knew he would flip at the opportunity to mess with you again. But, if you don't appreciate Mr. Loomis' lovely company, I have another Friend just dying to reunite with you!

As Schott says this, a sound of flapping wings is heard behind Superman, and a rough, hoarse cackle quickly follows it. If Superman were to turn around, he would the Griffin who threatened to rip his throat out last time, expect bigger, meaner, and covered in war tattoos. Suddenly, it says,

"Remember me gov'ner?" The it suddenly flies towards Superman and attempts to slam him into a car.

Meanwhile, Schott's goons are getting the worse beatings of their lives. Bodies fly everywhere as grunts and cries of pain fill the air. Donna and Conner were doing a great job at crowd control while Terry worked on the rabbit hole. As this beat down was happening one of the thugs, a short, scrawny, dorky looking man with glasses and a mop of brown hair somehow crawls away unscaved and begins to run, no doubt trying to alert Schott to your presence. Meanwhile, Nadia tracks the men to what appears to be a auto shop. The sounds of laughing and music fill the air, it's quite obvious what the men were up to. But, at the same time, the children's laughter heard earlier echoed again, and seemed to grow louder.

Oswald Loomis has posed:
     And Superman is right on the money as it were. Looking at the particles one can clearly see the hallucinogens lacing each and every bill baked into the very ink and soaking the counterfeit money. As civilians start grabbing it they go on one hell of a trip. Their minds are filled with wonderful hallucinations and visions as they dance about. Several drop to the frozen syrup covered ground and begin making snow angels others look off into the distance fascinated by ghosts only they can see. It's a chaos that spreads out as their faces fill with ecstasy at things only their minds can see.

     Karen is able to counteract the sonic effects of the laughing gun with her song long enough for cops to catch their breath. Some breathe heavy gasps of air looking up to the sky from where they had fallen others more resilient catch themselves and attempt to steady back up into place.

     One poor officer attempts to walk forward only for an explosive THWOOM to rock the ground a small fountain of custard cream filling exploding all over him and sending him flying up into the air and flat onto his back as he manages to step onto a small landmine hidden cleverly in plain sight.

     "I hope you're all enjoying my PI-E-D's." Prankster offers with a smile over the radio as he digs into the back of the SWAT van for something special to deal with SUPERMAN.

     Another PI-E-D goes off with another THWOOM coating a group of advancing officers in bright red raspberry jam laced with indelible dye that makes it almost impossible for them to see. For as much as the police had been planning this raid it seems Prankster and Toyman had been planning just as hard.

     Out from the SWAT van steps Prankster dressed in full SWAT body armor and holding what appears to be a rocket launcher. As the gryffin swoops down to attack superman Loomis is lining up the shot.

     The rocket goes off and fires with a concussive BOOM as it throttles off at hypersonic speeds but instead of a payload of explosives it contains.. Clothes. Yes it's a hypersonic Clothes Canon designed to fire a candy striped dress towards the man of steel. Harmless on the surface but when dealing with the Prankster there was always a twist.

Conner Kent has posed:
Fortunately for the goons, Conner is pretty good controlling his strength and limits the damage of his punches and kicks to some broken jaws and ribs. He figures they deserve it for kidnapping children. Mostly he wants them unconscious or in too much pain to resist the cops later.

When he sees one of the minions trying to escape, he breaks off, leaving the few standing goons to the Amazon, and flies up to follow the dorky looking man from some distance, hoping he is trying to reach Toyman's hideout.

Clark Kent has posed:
"Power Girl!"

Superman's hovering by her in an eyeblink, holding Karen's wrist. Unusually stern looking, Clark hauntingly resembles his older self in this life, in this mood. "You have to keep your wits about you. The Prankster is an expert at manipulating people stronger than him." Clark aims a blast of heat vision at a pie, and it explodes, leaving a nasty hunk of the road burning and napalm-laced 'cream filling' sizzling in the air. Clark evaporates it before it can hurt anyone. "Just because he's an idiot in a bad suit doesn't mean he's not playing for keeps. This is a man who melted a cop's face off with an acid laced pie just to make it on to television. I need your brain for this; those people are laced with LSD, and who knows what's in that syrup-"

Clark's lecture is cut off because he's just been tackled by a giant robotic griffon. "Come on." Superman manages, his throat held by the monster's improved claws. Loomis shows up, with a rocket launcher. A little Joker of him, Clark thinks, a bit worried by his willingness to be unarmored in person. Hopefully Karen doesn't break his neck.

Superman reaches out as he flies towards the car, and grabs the griffin's haunches, twisting their mid-air flight and aiming a kick at the machine's gut. What this does, if Clark's aimed it right, is put the griffin in the path of Prankster's clothes rocket instead of Superman, even as the two smash into a semi-truck.

Stumbling onto the ground, Superman grins a bit. "Good look for you, buddy." Let Schott's robot handle whatever awful stuff Prankster's hidden in the dress, Superman figures, even as he puls a manhole cover out of the ground to hurl at the griffin like a shotput.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna flashes Conner a grin as the pair make short work of the gang of goons, but after the initial shield battle-cry, she fights in silent concentration. She is more restrained than he is, concentrating on lasso work to take goons out of the battle with as few actual injuries as possible. The odd kick, forearm block or punch thrown into the mix are carefully measured. The Titans have a training routine programmed into the Danger Room that gives a statistical likelihood of serious injury the particularly strong members of the team are encouraged to train with the learn how to punch just hard enough.

    When the goons are dealt with, but for the one Conner pursues, she turns and nods to Terry. "Okay Vorpal, I think we can do with that Rabbit Hole again. Let's shove these through into the waiting arms of the police outside -- I'm sure they will be happy to make their aquaintance. But first..."

    She walks over towards the goon she decides looks most like the senior member of this particular cadre, tapping out a quick message to Nadia on her T-Com as she goes: "RHs work, am inside with Vorp. Report?" Then she puts the T-Com away and lifts the goon of the ground, shaking him awake.

    "Hey, goon? Or mook, if you prefer. Whichever. It's your lucky day! While we're delivering all your fellows into the loving arms of the Metropolis PD, you get the opportunity to elect not to join them. All you have to do is show us where the dome generator is. Isn't that nice? You lucky man."

Karen Starr has posed:
    When the tone stops the laughing, Superman is already there to deliver a lecture. It does a whole lot- but... Mostly it makes Karen just a little bit angry. This Kal is so close to hers, but younger- when he delivers a lecture, right or wrong, it makes her feel like she's sixteen again, freshly emerged from her capsule and able to fit in most shirts.

    "I -am- thinking, Kal. I neutralized the tone before it could kill anyone. I needed you to handle the others so-" The Robo-Gryphon tackles Clark, and she lets out a sigh- not at Superman, but at the situation. She'd really, really prefer enemies that you can just, you know, hit. "Right. Pies." she mutters to herself, letting Kal deal with his distraction.

    Her attention shifts to the explosive mines he's set, and now that she's free, she zooms off, turning on her x-ray vision again to maneuver through the streets at speed. While she's doing so, she starts hearing a couple of things that make her wonder. An arm scoops down into the road at various points, scooping up the explosive mines while she's flitting around in a blur of pink. They're not exactly disabled- but the contents of them aren't at all harmful to a Kryptonian.

    Once she's finished with the mines, she doesn't reduce speed- instead, she focuses her gaze on Oswald, and in a flash, she's not only -to- him, she's /through/ him, reducing him to a metallic mist of component robotic parts. She knew what he was- ever since she overheard the transmissions being used to control the automaton and watch from its eyes- but there's no way for anyone but Clark to know she knew. To Oswald, it looks like she's playing for keeps, too.

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Meanwhile inside of the dome a teeny tiny Waspette zips after Schott's men. It is a winding chase through the streets as the laughter of the children also grows louder. The children will need to be rescued, of that there is no question in her mind, but if they've been alright for a few weeks, they can probably hold on a little while longer. Conversely this drunken henchmen party in the auto-body shop may just give her some of the answers and valuable intel that she needs.

One moment within the auto-shop there is a rollicking party, the next the Waspette appears as if from nowhere, returning to her full size. "Excuse me evil Christmas men, I don't suppose you could just surrender and tell me what I want to know?" She does ask first, it's always nice to ask first. When the first punch is thrown in her direction though, that approach goes out the window ...followed shortly by one of the henchmen. Nadia begins appearing and vanishing throughout the room taking full advantage of her size shifting, three dimensional, movement and years of brutal martial arts training to lay out the thugs one by one. "Really, this would be way easier if you'd just cooperate!" She is careful not to kill them or leave them all unable to communicate however, she does still need to know about Schott's location and his plans afterall.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"One Rabbit Hole coming up," Vorpal says, opening up a connection to the outside in order to provide quick delivery to the police. "Go on without me and join Waspette and Superboy- I'll come join you once the police has these jerks. I imagine we can probably also bring a few of the boys in blue through to help." Not that Troia, Superboy and Waspette would need a lot of police backup. But it was the thought that counted, right?

Winslow Schott has posed:
The griffin in the middle of the tackle is kicked in the mid-section and, much to it's confusion, is hit with the dress. As Superman hits the Semi the griffin looks like it's about to fly into a wall, but suddenly lands on it's feet. It then manages to dodge the manhole cover and lets out another angered snarl before lunging at Superman once again, unaware of what consequences the dress it's now wearing may have. Meanwhile, the Toyman is completely silent and is absent from his screen, as if he were busy with something else.

The goon Donna revives is a large, burly man with a beard and goatee. The Greek letter tattoo on his palm indicated that he worked for Maxie Zeus' network in Gotham at one point. He takes one look at Donna and nods in fear, obviously not wanting another beat-down from the Amazon. Once set down he begins to lead Donna towards the sound of children's laughter, the very same direction the dorky man was going and leading Superboy to. Once they arrive at the source, what they see is very surprising.

It's a full-scale Christmas Village, complete with a giant Christmas Tree in the center of it. All around the area you see the children that had the whole town worried, playing with Schott's toys and robots. One of Schott's unicorns, the pitch black from last week trots by, carrying three children on it's back. Nearby you see the tribal looking stag from recent sightings sitting on it's haunches telling the children a story. While this is happening, Christmas Music filled the air and the looks of the children said one thing, they were having the time of their lives. Sitting at the center of this was Winslow Percival Schott himself, sitting on a Santa seat underneath the Christmas tree. He looks up at you suddenly and sighs heavily. He then stands up, revealing his short, chubby frame. He looks despondent as he suddenly says,

"Don't bother trying to punch me, I'm not going to fight.

He then grimaces, as if holding back anger before saying with a sadness in his voice,

"These children live through hell every day of their lives. This neighborhood, it, it kills innocence quicker than Luthor and his ilk ever did. I just to give them the Christmas they deserve."

Meanwhile, the partying goons laid scattered all over the store, groaning in various states of unconsciousness. Suddenly, heavy footsteps are heard and another thug, a tall, muscular African-American man walks down a flight of stairs, carrying a bottle of egg nog. He takes one good look at Nadia and tries to bolt for the front door.

Oswald Loomis has posed:
     In a not too distant building Loomis throws down his headset onto the ground with a light thud against the shag carpeting of his apartment. He begins taking off his gloves one at a time as he looks over towards the window at the chaos on full display.

     It's a sad, and dumpy little studio apartment with peeling wallpaper and furniture grabbed from local salvation army and goodwill. He walks his way over to a table by the window filled with little gadgets and surprises in various states of repair and pulls the blinds to one side watching the dome far below

     "Well old friend, Just hope I bought you enough time to get out of there." He lets out a low sigh looking more depressed than angry this time around, as he watches the last of the cops saved from one of his PI-E-D's by Power Girl's quick acting tenacity.

     By now the itching powder in the mapel syrup would start taking effect, but that would hardly be a deterrent for most supers. This after all was meant to be a special day.

Clark Kent has posed:
Any comeback Clark had for Karen is consumed by the battle at hand. Superman vanishes for a few seconds, having aided any citizens currently struggling with a nasty contact high or itching formula into a nearby hospital (Metropolis has a lot of those.) in the seconds it takes the griffin to recover. He sees Karen smash the robo-Prankster...

No, Clark thinks, too Luthor. Superman gets a robotic claw in the fact for his distraction, and stumbles backwards from the impact the enhanced robotic general's attacks manage. "Put a lot of resources into you..." Superman trails off.

And then his eyes widen. A bomb!

"Seconds to act!" Superman says, "Power Girl, I'll be right back! This thing's going to blow!"

Superman then moves in a flash, grabbing the griffin by the wings and rocketing out of the city, absorbing any attacks the machine can manage as he flies them out of the calculated blast radius. He might miss Toyman's escape, but it beats a bomb going off in the middle of the city.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna doesn't look like she's planning to punch Winslow, at least if she can avoid it. She takes in the winter village around them, then turns to Vorpal and Conner to give them an exhausted shake of the head.

    "Winslow, Winslow, Winslow," she says with a sigh, walking towards him. "Your heart is in the right place, but your head is not. You're right about the kids, but you're going about this all wrong. Look at this... look at all the effort you have put in here. All for these kids... I know you mean well, and you've brought a little magic into these kids' lives. But you have taken them away from their parents at Christmas. You have split up families and friends. There's a better way."

    She stands in front of him, and gestures wide, at the dome, the village, the robots and all the festive cheer. "Look at all this, all you've made here. All the ingenuity that has gone into this, all the money that has been spent. All for a few moments of happiness, that will be tainted by the separation from their families. You could have made a real difference. If you'd invested all of this into making these slums a better place, you could have given all these kids a better /life/, not just a better Christmas. "

    She holds out a hand to The Toyman. "Come on, Winslow. Neither of us want to have to have a fight in front of the kids, do we? Come with me, and end this. Stop the attacks outside before some of these kids lose a parent and have every Christmas for the rest of their lives ruined by the memory of it. Switch off this dome and let the kids see their parents again. And I promise I will do my best to ensure that the authorities don't just let you rot in a cell, but give you the chance to use your genius to do some lasting good for the kids of this neighborhood. What do you say? Let's give these kids a /real/ Christmas treat."

Nadia Pym-van Dyne has posed:
Nadia squares off against the tall muscular man coming down the stairs. "Please do this the easy way?" She asks him, though she doesn't really wait for an answer as she levels a flying kicks straight his back, not really being bothered by attacking from behind thanks to her time in the Red Room. Following it up with aiming one of her arm gauntlets at him, "Please surrender and tell me what I want to know, or I'll teach what it's really like to be a toy."

Winslow Schott has posed:
Toyman looks around for the longest time, as if considering all of his actions, before suddenly sighing and gripping Donna's hand and starting to walk towards a small building in the center of the village while saying,

"I'll drop the dome right now. You're right, no child deserves to be separated from their family, especially on Christmas."

The little shack, which was shaped like a gingerbread house, and walks in with Donna. Inside is a very complicated control panel, which appears almost ahead of it's time. Schott does one more sad sigh before pressing down on three buttons at one on the control panel. Suddenly, a large humming noise is heard all over the Suicide Slums as the Dome suddenly disappears in a bright flash of light. However, at the same time this is happening, Winslow suddenly collapses on the ground and, starts to leak motor oil?" Schott was a robot!

Suddenly, a holographic image of Schott appears in front of Donna. This hologram of Schott was holding what appeared to be a pogo-stick, which Schott was climbing onto as he said inbetween sobs,

"I just wanted to give the Children a Christmas they would never forget! I never meant for it to go this far, but you heroes would've never given me the chance. You speak of making sure I don't rot away, but how can I be sure that you keep that promise, when I have had so many people break their promises in the past!?"

He then climbs onto the pogo-stick and begins to hop on it three times, still sobbing as he did. As he bounced up the fourth time, he looked towards you one more time before saying,

" Happy Holidays."

Suddenly, the bouncing part of the stick opens up, revealing a rocket thruster that lifts Schott and the stick up in the air, while at the same time Schott's creations begin to fly up in the air with similar thrusters, acting as a sort of cover. The last image anyone would see of Schott that night would be his familiar figure suddenly shooting out of the roof of the Civic Center on his pogo stick and flying out into the night sky, blending in with his creations. As this was happening, the man in the bar with Nadia breathed a sigh of relief as he heard the Dome go down.

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"Well... this is not good at all," the Cheshire cat says, glancing around at the scene of devastation that awaits him on the other side of the Rabbit Hole. Police? out of cmmission. This leaves Vorpal to apprehend the crooks himself by way of handfuccs animated by his magic, and then radioing for backup for... well, the backup. It is at that point where he notices the figure rocketing off into the night sky.

"Well. /That/ is not good at all," the Cheshire repeats, as Toymaster flies off into the distance.

Donna Troy has posed:
    As the robots - and Winslow - take to the air, they are quickly gain a pursuit. There are, after all, a number of flying superheroes on the scene, and being airborne is no barrier to the fight continuing. The problem Donna and the other flying heroes involved in the aerial fracas face is that they are over a city and falling robots cause damage.

    Although the heroes can make a serious dent in the evacuating robot army, the care that is required to make sure pieces of robotic debris do not cause any more damage than has been caused already makes for a slower battle than the heroes would like. However fast you are, and however strong you are, there is only so much mechanical junk you can safely return to the ground in one go, and it makes thinning the ranks a relatively slow process. By the time the battle in the air has ended, all too many of Winslow's forces, and Winslow himself, have escaped.

    When the battle has ended, Donna drops back to the ground to rejoin her team-mates. "You should have tried me, Winslow," she says quietly to herself with a sigh. Donna shrugs her shoulders and turns to Vorpal and Waspette. "Let's look on the bright side, the scrap value of all these robots alone is probably enough that that city will be able to afford to build a new hospital for Suicide Slums. Still, it's hardly an efficient way to make the world better, is it? He means well, strange as it seems to say it. He could be a real force for good if he wasn't even crazier than that space raccoon. C'mon guys, let's go home."