6358/Caustic Personality.

Caustic Personality.
Date of Scene:	28 May 2021
Location:	Bronson Chemical
Synopsis:	No description
Cast of Characters:	Wally West, Sif, Johnny Storm

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Wally West has posed:
Alert! Level: Uhh I'm not sure, it might be nothing, but he seems desperate enough to do something stupid. Details: I am not sure about his name, seems to be middle aged, about 6 feet. Yelling at a building, and has a controlled substance that can grant meta powers. There are people inside the building.

The included audio recording: "You can't just take my employees and expect nothing to happen. Come down here and face me like a man before I come up there."

Wally shakes his head. He remembers when Batman yelled (Well the bat-equivalent) at him for making his alerts too conversational. He does understand the alert, and he is hesitant to be too picky when people are trying to relay important information, but this is a bit much for him.

Ah well he has a few moments to spare. He zips over to a roof top down the street from the site. This is part of the industrial district. It is a jungle of brick and concrete, with plenty of those classic turn-of-the-century brick chimneys that often have plumes of brown smoke coming out of them. The sort of place where the rats mutate and organize commando squads with berrets to sieze control of the hotdog stands. The buildings have large banks of moderate sized windows with which to see the river, which all to often is on fire. Wally figures he might need to get hospitalized if he touches the water in the open storm drains that lead out into the river.

"Hopefully its nothing. I feel like I'm growing a second head just standing here."

Sif has posed:
Sif is bored. And a bored Asgardian is a dangerous one. This particular dangerous one is doing this thing she heard of from one of the vigilante crowd called "patrolling". Which in her case means jumping from rooftop to rooftop, playing acrobatic games with various chimneys and flanges and metal things sticking out of the sides of buildings and fire escapes and so on. Because nobody's out there to give her a decent fight.

She did stop a mugging. But that was boring. She just jumped from the roof, landed in front of the guy, and one look at her axes had him down on his knees giving up. Tedious. No fight in him whatsoever.

Then, in the evening, she lucks out! A man shouting at a building! Maybe he'll give a fight!

Sif slides down the building side (dislodging more than a few loose bricks in the process) and lands in the street in full view of him.

"I am the Lady Sif of Asgard!" she calls out conversationally, adding in as reasonable a tone as she can, "How may I be of assistance?"

Please let him fight!

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny Storm's there! Why? Never you mind. He wasn't sitting at home in his underwear staring at his JLA communicator hoping something would happen, that'd be pathetic!

Long Island is a quick fly, and Johnny skids to a stop just outside of what he's trying not to think of as a blast radius. "Hey, Junior Flash! Nice to see you man." Johnny says conversationally, "So you called it, what's the play here? Maybe I can smoke the dude out, burn up some of those chemicals so he'll come out into the open..."

And then Sif does what Asgardaisn do best.

"I tell you what." Johnny says, just sort of watching the fallout with a mix of admiration and bemusement, "I'd marry a girl that happy jumping off of a building."

Wally West has posed:
The man looks at lady sif and downs the vial in his hand. He winces. "Hey, you folks in asgard... You don't let people ruin your life and get away with doin it? 'way I figure, you should be on my side. I was there mindin my own business when my employees start givin me guff. See, they don't understand that I run a business, and we gotta turn a profit. So's I make sure they get the pitchur, and next thing I know," He turns to back to the upper story window he was yelling at "This jerkoff steals my people!" He appears to be pouring sweat right now. He groans and grabs his stomach. A smell of rotten eggs begins to fill the air, and his clothes begin to hiss and fume. "So I am gonna make sure this toolbag learns his leason." His toes are peeking out of his shoes as they burn away. He begins to walk towards the door in front of him.

Wally rolls his eyes. "Look, just 'The Flash' will do, and I get that I don't give the most formal reports, but come on. This wasn't my writing. Also I figure the owner of the business might complain if we set fire to his place." Wally gets ready to make use of his conflict resolution training.

Then Sif happens.

"Well, she is right there, so ask her." Wally readies to jump into action. "What is that smell? Is that sulfur?"

Sif has posed:
"Just to ensure I understand," Sif says, stepping forward more into the light in her ... oddly-designed leather catsuit. The one with the axes at one hip balanced partially by the dagger at the other. As yet undrawn. "The person in this facility has stolen your thralls from you?" She frowns a moment, scratching her head. "I was under the impression that thralldom--slavery--was outlawed in these territories of Midgard. Was I mistaken?"

Her hand drifts to rest on the heads of the axes in a clear message.

"Or are you holding thralls against the laws of this kingdom?" she asks, her voice deadly.

Yeah. The message is clear. Ima axe you a question here and you better think carefully before answering...

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny laughs because making people uncomfortable is how he shows affection, and because this entire situation is kind of hilarious when viewed from a certain angle.

Except that, well.

"Okay, okay. Flame on." Johnny ignites, floating over to the fight and frowning a bit at the man's smoking clothes. "Hey!" He shouts to Sif, "You're one of Thor's friends, right? Hi, Johnny Storm, Human Torch, kind of a big deal." The man on fire winks at Sif.

"I think what this guy means is that his employees are being headhunted by the other busniessman." Johnny says in a way that sounds like he is trying to help but, really, actually isn't. "Also man you need a doctor or something? You're literally smoking."

Wally West has posed:
"Slaves? You sound like my whiny empoyees. Nah, I pay them. I pay them, in a job market where there aren't many opportunities. This absolute numbskull wouldn'ta even known who they were if they didn't work for me. I made them, and at the first time when hard decisions gotta be made, they leave me." he begins to get ahold of himself.

He pushes on the door and melts right through. A puddle of black liquid appears at the base of the door. The man looks confused for a second, and then smiles. "Yeah, I think ya betta call a doctor, but not for me."

For some one called The Flash, he sure winds up taking the less visible jobs a lot. He zips into the upper story to start evacuating. The man who appears to be in charge inside is losing his mind. Wally tries to talk to him , but --

"I can't leave. This place is my life. You have to do something. I don't think I can rebuild." the boss appears to be on the verge of tears.

Wally isn't sure what to say to him. He just starts directing people to the roof so he can start ferrying them out of harm's way. Unfourtunately heroism is apparently contagious, because no one else wants to leave without their boss. He isn't sure when naval practice came to the industrial sector, but he knows HE wouldn't go down with the ship-- err the factory-- whatever.

Sif has posed:
And that's that. One Asgardian leaps (literally) in to grab the door-melting weirdo, trying to just throw him a block or two away. There's no call for the axes yet, after all. This is just a foolish pride issue with employers and employees.

"That is enough of that!" she says as she grabs him, readying for the throw. "If they found another, they went there for greater benefit!"

Johnny Storm has posed:
Johnny frowns a bit from his place in the sky. Yeah, the man is totally transforming.

"Flash, he's getting worse. Literally melting." Johnny says into the communicator, "How's that evac going? I'll try to draw him and the Asgardian lady away from here."

Torch does just that, throwing a fire wall up in front of the door (careful not to let it spread or get any fuel, we don't want to roast the factory people) in an effort to push the fight away from the factor and the civilians inside.

Wally West has posed:
The melting man, is not expecting to get jumped, so he is unable to react in time, but perhaps it is Sif who should have reacted. Her hand sinks into his flesh, and he doesn't go very far as a consequence. Initially it feels hot, but not that bad, but then the oily fluid on his surface breaks through the outer layer of skin. Acid guy also is experiencing something horifying as he notices that his body is getting goopy. He is still able to stand up, but all his facial features are either mushed or melted and he stares at his blobby hands in horror. Black smoke wreathes him as the asphault begins to disolve. He fumes and rages again before charging at her in a half hazard part stumbling part sliding manor "Why'd ya do that? This din't have nuthin ta do witchu."

The boss upstairs offers the use of the toxic incident managment sink inside to Sif. Wally groans. If the man would just leave, then they could get this over with. "Unfourtunately the people inside have decided they are willing to die here. I may have to start using force to get them out." The employees around him look hurt that he wants to make them leave. Unglamourous jobs indeed.

Sif has posed:
OK, that man is squishy. And at an elevated temperature. The combination throws Sif's aim off and he winds up just skidding down the road a ways.

Then her hands keep burning.

Then burning more.

And more.

"BEWARE!" she calls out, staring at her blistering hands as the skin starts to get eaten away, blackening from the acid. "THIS ONE HAS FOUL SORCERIES THAT SET FIRE!"

Sorry, literal flame guy. You're not foul sorcery. Just sorcery.

Uncertain of what the sink is, but knowing (from bitter experience) what a water hydrant is (don't ask her if you don't want the rant), Sif kicks the hydrant off and sticks her acid-bathed hands in the water gushing geyser-like from it.

"I'M ATTEMPTING TO DOUSE THE FLAMES!"

Johnny Storm has posed:
"They want to die inside of a factory that insurance is going to cover." Johnny says, frowning. That's just crazy enough to be one of the worst things in his screwed up life, mental domination. "Flash, we're having good luck playing keepaway with the creep, maybe it'd be better if you got out here. My powers are just going to make him worse and..."

"Ok she just ripped the hydrant out of the ground, whew." Johnny says, just sort of looking at this beautiful miracle. "Maybe you can grab something to hold him in, Flash, this guy's literally melting."

"Hey." Johnny lands in front of acid guy, unworried about his threat or Sif dousing any flames. "I'm Johnny Storm, Human Torch. You've probably heard of me. I think you're, uh, mutating. Or having your secret origin. Look, see, your body's changing! But we can help you. Just take a breath, okay buddy, and calm down, and I can get you to a guy who specializes in fixing this sort of thing."

Temporarily, he thinks, but acid wash doesn't need to know that.