8420/Your crime is anachronism...

Your crime is anachronism...
Date of Scene:	25 October 2021
Location:	Third Gotham Bank and Trust
Synopsis:	Three heroes dump one villain. Gold for everyone!
Cast of Characters:	Dinah Lance, Naria Shepard, John Stewart

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Dinah Lance has posed:
The USA has not been on the gold standard since 1933. This is part of why gold shipments are an increasingly rare thing, and why gold shipment HIJACKINGS are even rarer.

Still, Gotham always seems perpetually stuck in the past, and even outside Gotham gold shipments occasionally have to be done.

Third Gotham Bank and Trust is about to send out a shipment of gold accumulated in its vault, triggered by its operating procedures to keep it less interesting as a robbery target. Security is tight and tense as the first truck leaves the garage. The first of five. Any one of which might contain the gold. The rest have been filled with weights to ensure that the behaviour under load doesn't give away which has the gold.

Yet all these precautions come to nought, for as the third truck exits the bank's underground garage, it is flipped over on its side instantly, sending it skidding straight at a row of guards and gawking onlookers, while a golden figure stands, hands on his hips, laughing.

The alarm spreads out on the various channels: police, Justice League, press.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Why was Rave in Gotham? Well, aside from the fact her speed meant she could get to most places globally with only a few passport law violations, the 'Bluenette' girl had a show she'd been booked for. One fun night in a club in a admittedly suspicious part of a suspicious town and she had desided to hang out and drink in some of the retro-nostalgia that was the city's styling, at least to snap a few cool new shots from some awesome looking buildings.

Then there'd been the impact, the alarm and the broadcast! Most would probably be worried, but Rave? She was excited as she streaked across town in a comet of blue neon.

Stopping a bank heist? This was classic stuff right here!

Dinah Lance has posed:
Running a business meant dealing with banks. No matter how much she hated them--all sane businesspeople did, after all--Dinah did occasionally find herself having to deal with them beyond simply having an account and never talking to them again.

No, she was here to negotiate a short-term loan to get some new equipment at Sherwood Florist to deal with that alien plant that J'onn had given her. Her cobbled-together cabinet and sprayer worked, but it was noisy and took up too much space. She had her eye set on something better.

Standing in line and playing the game in her head "Let's Make Up a Life" using her fellow customers waiting in various degrees of patience, she was torn from her reverie by the sounds of impact, of alarms, and of people screaming in fear.

Dammit. Can't she have a "civvy day" just once?

With alacrity (that makes her look like she's standing still to Rave), Dinah heads for an office where she can slip out of the jeans and slip on the mask to become Black Canary.

Outside, the gold man, contemptuously shrugging off the bullets of guards, those worthies spanging off of him such that they're a threat to bystanders, walks almost casually, certainly arrogantly, to the fallen vehicle, reaching it only to tear out the transmission on the underside to get at the soft underbelly.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Bulletproof guy. Okay...that's enough to have Rave pausing in her approach. Last time she'd tried rushing in and punching someone like that at speed? She'd broken her arm. That had sucked more than a little bit.

Plus the ricochets were...kinda a big deal.

Herself not having a real 'costume', the girl who was dressed in jeans and a simple off-shoulder shirt of dark blue takes of in another glowing streak at speeds enough to cause a loud crack of the air.

Catching that many bullets at that distance? Yeah, she was breaking the sound barrier and then some!

John Stewart has posed:
<<Real time robbery in progress, updating neural waypoint now>> Comes the mental voice of John's Power Ring as he flies through space towards Earth from another solar system in the sector. The dot appears in his vision on the eastern seaboard, and John silently Wills his ring to accelerate to maximum speed, beelining right for the bank.

Above Gotham, a 'meteor' crashes through the atmosphere on the way to the robbery, the re-entry heat concealing visual of the object as John re-enters atmosphere to respond to the call.

Dinah Lance has posed:
Jumping one-legged out of the empty office she'd changed in, trying to tug her boot back in place, Dinah is spotted by one of the bank managers. Finally getting the boot all the way up, she waves, smiling wanly, saying, "Time to earn a few bruises and abrasions."

Thankfully the manager hadn't seen her enter, so couldn't connect her to her non-costumed form.

With that, practically parkouring her way out through the crowd and the bank furnishings, Black Canary bursts out into the scene, taking it in and preparing for ac... WHOAH! WAS THAT A REAR AXLE ASSEMBLY SHE JUST HAD TO HIT THE DIRT TO EVADE!?

It was, in fact, an axle assembly. One that smashes into the front of the bank, hitting a massive column and sending shards of sharp stone flying.

More bystander-endangering detritus.

Canary is on her feet again and running toward the place where all sane people are running away from.

Thus far uninterrupted, Goldface casually tears a hole in the bottom of the truck, ignoring the stunned guards inside, reaching instead for the gold bullion that he starts to stack near him.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Crap!

Being fast didn't actually make her super strong, plenty of stuff Rave could do, but catching a flung rear of a car? Not so much!

The debris raining down? Rave extends her hands and brings them together, a massive flash of light and heat at the deliberately collapsed energy creating a 'burst' of hardlight to deflect the more dangerous amounts away from the crowd.

"Seriously!" she calls out to those not already running, "You need to get out of here! I so cannot keep doing that over and over!"

She'd say more, but her turn away from 'rescue tunnel-vision' has her spotting Canary and only barely managing to not lift a hand and wave.

Then John arrives and even the neon comet of a girl blinks and lifts a hand at the lightshow.

"Whoa..."

John Stewart has posed:
Lightshow indeed, the heat disappates from around his shield as he stops just above the street.

Then, seeing all the destruction around him, John brings up his ring to his mouth, and a /booming voice/ can be heard around the street. "I am John Stewart, Green Lantern Corps. Civilians should evacuate the area immediately. I will work to ensure your safety as you go."

With that said, John aims his Power Ring down towards the truck, and a Green energy shield flows around the truck... and John Wills it into the air, trying to get it out of the man's reach a few 'floors' up.

He's quite the sight; Green Lantern uniform, green glowing eyes complimenting his black skin, and a nice musculature under all of that to boot, all wrapped up in a confident, commanding posture as he tries to take control of the situation.

Dinah Lance has posed:
John arrives and booms his announcement, which catches even the focused-on-violence Canary's attention and halts her in her tracks. Unlike Rave, she has no problems waving to the Lantern, her colleague, and her friend. And upon noticing the blue streak zipping around adds her in to the wave.

Comms crackles to life in John's ear. ~Hey, loverboy, nice intro. Very impressive. Welcome to the party!~ There's a teasing quality to her voice as his energy flows around the truck and starts lifting.

Goldface, for his part, looks annoyed at the shield forming around the truck and, a bare instant before it starts to move up, forces his hand into the hole he'd made, fingers going through the green force field without difficulty as his golden-yellow skin renders him immune to that ring's power.

"Do your worst, Lantern!" he sneers as he continues dragging gold bars out and dropping them to the ground below. "You can't stop me!"

The gold bars fall into a wider circle that now endangers civilians and property both as they plummet out of the sky.

~Got any suggestions?~ Dinah asks, more seriously now.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Emotional as she was, full of hope and joy, Rave was -not- a lantern, she had no idea how the green glowy lights worked or why the gold guy can just reach through the bubble in the first place.

Weird.

Of course, it also meant her 'blue' contribution was a bit more aggressive than a lanterns might have been.

"Hey you 24-carat jerk!" she calls, attempting to get the thief's attention...and then immediately loosing a laser blast from her hand towards him regardless of if he turned or not.

Sure, it might not be powered enough to burn through metal (she wasn't wanting to kill the guy), but it was probably going to hit with the energy of a solid sledgehammer swing.

John Stewart has posed:
Well. That was new.

As the robber simply... /ignores/ his shield, John stares at his Power Ring with a visible frown, then looks to the rooftop of the bank and starts moving the truck up that way...

Of course, that was before Rave shoots a laser blast right at Goldface. Who was inside the truck... so the blast hits the green shield with more than enough force to send the truck forward, right into the side of the bank instead... and john grits his teeth visibly as he visibly exerts himself to maintain that shield so he doesn't drop it on civilians.

As he tries to keep his balance emotionally, he forces it with a strained voice, "Clear me a damned landing pad. He's immune to my constructs, time for a new plan." Even with that strain, his voice is commanding.

Naria Shepard has posed:
Of course, Rave hadn't counted on the 'bad guy' jumping inside the shield for cover, proving that the shield worked perfectly fine for the most part.

"Crap," she breathes before the glowy guy in the green suit starts shouting orders.

A landing zone? Clearly the rookie heroine was wondering: "What the heck did he have planned?"

Dinah Lance has posed:
Canary stands frozen as she watches John try to construct the Hell out of Goldface.

~He's yellow, Lantern! You can't touch him!~

Thankfully the bashing around of the truck seems to have thrown Goldface off-balance since he's stopped throwing gold bars out the hole. That gives the trio some respite. And Canary finally reaches the always-changing field of the conflict, ordering (sometimes pushing) people out of an area that seems like a good place to put a truck.

"Put it down upside-down!" she calls out. "Make him work to get out."

John Stewart has posed:
"That was the intention." John confirms for Black Canary, and indeed, he drops the truck in a way that makes it so Gold face will have to climb out the front of the truck.

Two constructed jackhammers to the front doors fry the locks to help prevent that, before he starts floating down so he's just above the action.

"I can't directly effect him. I could probably toss things at him, but that'll be slow going. He's here for the gold, use it as a distraction and keep him busy while I grind him down." John actually looks towards that axle assembly, and a half field of Oan energy flows over it as John grabs it like a club, "Overwhelm his senses and it should be easy to get him to back off."

Naria Shepard has posed:
How to help clear people? Sometimes it was as simple as making sure people stayed, that much the bluenette speedster was sure she could do, a zip here, a dash there and people were far enough away...

Overwhelm senses? Now -that- Rave could do. The girl with the glowing hair and eyes actually beams at that and nods. "I'll put on one heck of a lightshow!" she calls back before she streaks out of apparent physical form, a rushing strobe and streak of neon filling the air as she rushes around the Gold villain, shocks of smaller laser blasts bursting against his form from apparently random dazzling directions.

Dinah Lance has posed:
The ghost of an idea forms in Canary's head. "Hey, Neon!" she calls out Rave's way, wherever she's zipping about. "I've got a plan. When he comes out, you blind the son of a..."

And then he steps out. And then she hits him with everything she's got.

~Batter up, loverboy!~ she adds over comms before adding to the sensory deprivation through threshold of pain.

She takes a breath.

She Cries.

Focused on Goldface the impact is devastating. Rave's laser lancings already had him staggering around, swatting, trying to get her ... and failing comically. The addition of the sonic attack ("In case of sonic attack on your district follow these rules...") leaves him paralyzed as he desperately tries to block out the overwhelming sound, leaving him a laser pincushion for Rave's now unimpeded-even-slightly attacks.

John Stewart has posed:
As they start pummeling Goldface, John brings up the assembly... and with a heave pulls it above him, then starts slamming it wheel first time onto the top of Goldface's head. Hard.

His intention is not to kill, and the Power Ring can pick up on that... so it's passive sensors will keep him from doing lethal damage.

Still, even this sort of metal can be crunched into uselessness if this takes a while.

Luckily, there's easily accessible replacement assemblies all over the street.

Naria Shepard has posed:
It was like a bunch of bright, blinding super-powered punches raining down one after another, then the painful directed wave of Dinah's cry... finally a good old fashion impact of heavy metal. Ouch.

In a world moving ay a crawl to her senses, Rave giggles to herself amdist the chaos. Sure it was serious stuff...but this was pretty cool!

Dinah Lance has posed:
Blinding, stinging lasers hit Goldface from all sides, disorienting and bewildering him. A scream so loud it feels like it could jelly all of his internal organs freezes him in place with raw pain. In the end the clubbing seems to outsiders to be a mere formality. The maraschino atop the sundae.

In reality, of course, all three are needed because Goldface is one of the larger threats out there. Even with that clubbing, which takes him down in a single hit, he tries to struggle, blinded, deafened, back to his feet to continue the fight. But repeated application of impact and sound eventually causes the concussion that having an invulnerable skin just can't really protect you from, all without putting anybody at risk since he can't even see who he's trying to get at.

One wouldn't have been enough here. Not when you're playing in the big leagues.

Goldface goes down. Almost starts to get up again. Then falls back down. And stays there. Eyes closed. Mouth open in a soundless scream projected to the sky. Canary's wail ends, leaving her panting for breath, crouched down, arms resting on knees for support as she tries to reintroduce her body to oxygen.

"Good job, Blue. And good to see you again. You been practising your falls?"

Once a teacher, always a teacher it seems.

John Stewart has posed:
With Goldface dealt with, John drops the assembly to the ground gently. He looks to Rave, then Black Canary, before he nods. "Good work, both of you." It has all the feeling of a commander praising his troops with that tone.... which, depending on your view of the situation, isn't an unfair assessment.

His green eyes glance to Rave. "We should talk sometime. It isn't often I find new Speedsters." John notes, before he looks to Black Canary, and a mental link sounds in her head, <<I was just passing by Earth on my way to handle business in another system, but I should be back home at the usual time. I have tomorrow off, if you wanted to go out next time.>>

As he speaks, John aims his Power Ring to start working on sweeping up debris with cleaning constructs.