9176/Back on the Wagon

Back on the Wagon
Date of Scene:	19 December 2021
Location:	The Danger Room - Titan's Tower
Synopsis:	= The Titans do teamwork training! Hawk, Dove, Thunderbolt and Kian face an impossible scenario in the Danger Room while Donna, Kate and Vic take turns to make it even MORE impossible.
Cast of Characters:	Donna Troy, Mary Bromfield, Victor Stone, Dawn Granger, Kate Bishop, Kian, Hank Hall

---

Donna Troy has posed:
    There are those for whom this room is familiar, and those for whom it is less so. . Hank is familiar with it, but not for years. Dawn and Thunderbolt have been here a few times before, but not often. Kian has an uneasy relationship with it.

    Kate, Donna and Vic are here all the time. These three are the ones who are most responsible for the terrors that take place here. Vic is often fiddling and tweaking, Kate loves creating scenarios to torment her fellow Titans, and Donna obsessively trains herself and anyone who doesn't see her coming. This is a little more of a planned training session though.

    Vic, Kate and Donna sit in the control area; the other four Titans await together, in the middle of the empty chamber. The hexagonal wall panels hum faintly with power, ready to project 'hard holograms' to simulate a training scenario, but at the moment nothing is being projected. "The amount that's going on these days we don't have enough time for this kind of thing as I'd like," Donna begins. "But Hawk and Dove need opportunities to get used to each other. Hawk, it has been a while since you've worked with the team, and a few things have changed. I've asked Thunderbolt and Kian along to join in because they represent a few of the things you'll need to get used to."

    "Thunderbolt is very flexible. She flies. She's really strong. She can call down lightning. She's powerful, but also she's flexible in a way you might not be used to -- she's more of a generalist than anyone on the team really was back in the day. Kian is... something like a physics elemental. In some ways he's even more powerful, but also he's a pacifist. He won't cause significant harm to sentient beings -- and we /will/ respect that Hank." Her drill sergeant act is slightly undermined by the wink she flashes to Hank when she says this. "He has proven himself to be immensely useful to the team, but it sometimes takes some extra thinking how to use him."

    "Last thing before we begin, a reminder that this place is called the Danger Room because it's dangerous, but also you're dangerous to the room and repairing it is expensive. We have safeties on so nobody is going to get any worse than a bruise, but please be careful of damaging the walls. The force fields can be punched through by the strongest of you, and the power grounding has its limits too, so keep the electrical discharges on the low side. The software will scale up the effects to your known capabilities for the sake of the simulation, so there's no need to cut loose. Everyone ready?"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary tries to show up already "dressed for the occasion." The first time she was here, she shorted out one of the unshielded systems. What fun THAT had been.
So, when she hears there is a Danger Room session, she picks a nice uncluttered spot in the Tower, far away from exposed electronics, to get ready.
"Shazam!"
The lightning bolt still appears out of nowhere, but when Mary Marvel steps out of the alcove, she is not leaving any fried electronics in her wake.
A few minutes later, she steps out of the elevator and smiles warmly, taking her place in an open area of the room.
"I'll try not to wreck the curve too much..." she says pleasantly.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Technology has its limits," Vic comments wryly at the end of Donna's speech. "Been working on reinforcing the walls and improving the power grounding but... unless we start getting into magical stuff that I do /not/ understand there's really not much more we can do in the way of shielding." Unless someone's working on some kind of /really/ advanced materials or something.

    He looks to Hank and Dawn. "You ready to get this show on the road? I'm looking forward to seeing what you can do."

Dawn Granger has posed:
Get used to the legendary Hawk. That's the game plan is it. She peers over at him and smiles just a little more. Questions though, she raises her hand, "What if bruising isn't dangerous enough to bring out Hawk and Dove?" Because that's a real concern.

Then again, training to deal with the situations where she can't bring out Dove might be a good idea too. Right now, she's a squishy civilian and a big reminder of that is just how impressive Mary's list of abilities are. She gives her a nod and a tiny little hand wave. Because who is more impressive .. Thunderbolt or Thor? ... right now, she's standing right next to Thunderbolt, so definitely Thunderbolt.

A small shoulder chuckle to Vic as she says, "Oh that reminds me I have the phone of a drug dealer I need you to hack please pretty please. He made a call to his boss right before I tackled him."

Regardless she offers Hank a fist bump and then waves to Donna, "Thanks for running this though. I'm sure you would have run it even if no one was around to train somehow." She nods to Kian and it becomes apparent that she's moving around the room slowly to stretch herself out and get her brain working in the 'do fighty stuff' mode. It's never that easy to switch out of her natural passive state of 'ahh peace, isn't it lovely?'. "I for one think your vow of non-violence is admirable Kian."

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate is sitting crosslegged in one of the control room chairs. She has a whole slew of small electronic parts on the console next too her and a strange looking arrow in her lap she is absolutely fiddling with carefully.

    She does speak up "It isn't a vow of non-violence it is a vow of not harming living beings. He wrecks the hell out of robots and other things." this is all said cheerfully. She doesn't look up from her work though yet.

Kian has posed:
    "I don't like calling it the Danger Room.  I like Practice Room better," Kian says, obviously sporting one of the translators.  "Donna, I told Kala if she tries to come in here, you would carry her back to my room."
    He adds after a moment, "I don't know if she considered that a threat or a promise."
    He takes to the air, trying to prepare himself for whatever Donna's going to throw at them this time.  "It's not a vow, it's just the way we are," he explains to Dawn.  "I think you would like my world."
    He doesn't add that his government has essentially told him that he might need to learn violence.  If he does, it'll be in his own time and on his own terms.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank looks around the room. "Upgrades..." he mutters to himself a little under his breath. At Dawn's question about the threat involved he nods. "That could be an issue..." he adds. He too gives a look to Thunderbolt. If he recognizes the outfit's motif, he does't comment on it; instead taking a moment to size her up and catalogue her abilites as Donna lists them.

    "I think, Hawk and Dove danger level or not, we're going to have some fun" he says, rolling his neck and shoulders before giving Dawn the fistbump and moving around just behind her like a shadow. He glances at the control room where Vic and Donna reside and asks. "I'd have thought you'd have this place eating out of the palm of your hand after a few tweaks, Big Guy?" he calls to Cyborg (not many on the team are taller than Hank, Cyborg is one of them.) "Sounds to me like you're not trying hard enough."

    As Dawn passes Kian he shrugs and says, "I think it's a little excessive myself. Defending oneself and others is part of the process of being what we are... but... you do you."

    He leans down slightly to whisper words of encouragement at Dawn. "Relax. Just think of it like the drug dealers we handled and you'll do fine. And this time we've got more backup." He tosses a thumb at Kian and Thunderbolt.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Sorry Vic," Donna asides, winking. "You work out a way to get the projectors to work through an inch of Themysciran steel and we'll talk. Orrrr... you know there's that Kryptonian crystal we have, that stuff is ridiculously strong. Work on persuading Kara to clear it as safe, and maybe we've got something to explore. Alternatively we can invite Rae down here to do the magic thing, but that makes her moody and she'll give you a /look/."

    Donna looks at Kian for a moment with a slight smirk, then flicks a switch on the control panel that activates the security lock on the door. "Dove, we worked out a solution to that in the old days. I can't say you'll find it fun, but it should work. If it doesn't, we'll work around it." She taps at a screen, then glances at Hank for a moment before looking back to Dawn. "Hawk, Dove, you have exactly a minute before you're going to be targeted by pellet guns. They are programmed to target your civilian forms only."

    She flicks another control, and the lights dim for a few moments. When they come back up again, the four find themselves in a recreation of a busy Metropolis street, a recreation of an area of St. Martin's island less than a mile from the Tower. For Kian and Kate it will have particular memories; it's where they participated in a fight against some spider-robots that marked the first action of the revived Titans. For now everything is frozen and unmoving.

    "Mary, can you do a low-powered blast at a car please. Not your lowest, but low enough you're confident it won't damage the room. We don't have the best calibrations for you yet, so that's going to be our calibration target. During the simulation, that will represent a very high powered blast, so you'll want to scale below that in the actual sim."

    "Kate, Vic, anything you guys want to tell everyone about rules of engagement or system tweaks you've put in before we get started?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "That isn't a bad idea.. we could get Kara to use that matter manipulating Kryptonian tech that she used to tweak the WonderBow for us when we made it... I bet that could really do a wonder to reinforce some of the walls and technology in the room." notably not change Vic's design though, just suggesting reinforcing it.

    She looks up from fiddling with the arrow in her hands finally and peers out into the room. "Honestly it would be good for all of them to use each of their powers a little bit so we can get better calibrations for them so the room reacts better in future scenarios like you said Troia." she pitches her voice a bit softer just for Vic and Donna. "Also when it kicks off... I may have replaced the robot spiders with giant demon spiders just to keep everyone on their toes...."

    "Sorry not sorry?"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary nods firmly. "Very well. I suppose 300,000 volts at .5 amps should be sufficient."
Oh, NOW she knows Ohm's Law. It'd be cheating to be Mary Marvel at her Physics final exam, though.
She holds up one slim arm, tilts her hand slightly, then watches as a blue/white arc of electrical energy jumps from her hand to the vehicle, the vehicle obediently bursting into flame.

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic smirks at Donna at her comments about Themysciran steel and Kryptonian crystal, but looks briefly thoughtful. Might be ideas, for upgrades.

    "Think I might dial things down for Hawk a bit," he comments, "since he's so out of shape. Been hugging people instead of beating on 'em, lately." He smirks.

    "Nah, seriously--Kate's got it right. Try to mix it up, give us a good spread of what you can do so we can calibrate down the road. Also, if there's anything you're particularly squeamish about fighting, let us know and we can make a program to help you face that--better you face it here than out in the field."

Dawn Granger has posed:
Dawn thumbs back to Thunderbolt and says softly to Hank, "I think we might be the backup for that one. Look at her, she's a glorious goddess of thunder." She picks up her voice again though and says back to Kate, "Okay okay. Right. Violence toward robits makes perfect sense." She raises an eyebrow and peers at Vic and then grins.

"One day, that's be great," she says to Kian tapping the side of her nose. Visiting an alien world filled with peaceful bird people? how could she say no to that??

The click of the lock has her turning her head back toward the door. A small sigh of, welp, we're in it now.. she gives Donna very quizzical look. "That's one way to upset Hank and upsetting Hank might give me enough oomf to become Dove," she says and shakes her head not at all sure what she said was true. It sounds, more like, she's going to get shot with pellets and it'll hurt but not actually feel like a Dove-level event.

She motions to Kate, "Hawkeye's not going to participate?" Slightly accusatory as at least Kian can fly out of danger's path and isn't going to get shot with annoying pellets. Another little look given to Hank. She's complaining but it's clear she's not actually worried. She only really gets worried when her danger-sense tingles.

The bolt of electricity from Mary, though, makes her jump just a little bit. A hand presses over her chest. "Wow. Being that close to that happening is _quite_ a thing." That almost got a Dove response from her. Almost.

"Giant demon spiders?," she asks knowing she's going to regret having asked. The jab at Hank from Vic has her raising an eyebrow. But also a smile. The playful banter is great to see and it makes this group people feel more like friends - even if she is still barely knows them. "I think it's a tricky thing to deal with. Right now a small threat is enough, but once we're Hawk and Dove the threat can escalate significantly if you wanted to adjust it on the fly. Allons-y."

Kian has posed:
    Kian pulls into a hover to get his bearings.  "The robot spiders?" he asks, with some relief.  Those he can deal with.  Who'd've thought he'd consider giant robot spiders a relief?
    Yeah, he didn't hear Kate's last comment.
    "Calibration shot," he calls, causing a loud bang, the largest he already knows he can safely use in here.  "That should be normal, yes?"

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hank gives Thunderbolt another glance and then double-takes as she destroys a car. "I... I think you might be right..." he says to Dawn. He looks at the control booth. "The pellet guns... I remember them. Rubber bullets were enough in the old days. I don't know that the Lords update their protocols on that front."

    He gives Vic a flat look. "Har har... please go easy on my poor withered frail form..." he says to the man in the booth. He looks around, "Demon spiders... check. Pellet guns... check. Thunder getting thrown around... check." He looks at Dawn and winks at her. "Let's do it."

    He doesn't make a show of it. But it's a show anyway. "Hawk." The single word passes his lips and he changes. His form grows in stature slightly, but considerably in bulk, muscles growing as more and more strength is infused in his form by the Lord of Chaos who gave him his power. His clothes shift as well. Running shoes, athletic pants and a tanktop are suddenly a suit of white and red material that might be kevlar, or some similar material that shares its appearance. His hands and feet are covered in red fabric of the same make, the fingers on each hand ending in what look like talon like tips that gleam with hungry ferocity. His face and shoulders are obscured by a red hood and cowl that ends a ribbon-like cape that flares off his shoulders.

    This is the Hawk of the original Titans upgraded for modern sensibilities.

    "Yes!" he says exhuberantly. "Bring it on! Bullets. Demons. Anything. I'll tear it all down!" Indeed, it is the Hawk of old and it would do well for Dawn to shift to bring a sense of balance to the man's eagerness for destruction.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Who said Hawkeye's not going to participate?" Donna replies to Dawn with a smile. "That's down to you. And this is a lesson mainly for Hank, who may or may not be rusty, but back when he was stainless steel he worked with a much smaller team of Titans than we have now. One of the things that's changed is how much more available back-up is. If you feel the need to call for backup, you can."

    Donna studies the screens for a few moments, and gives a low whistle. "Nice one Thunderbolt. You can go about thirty percent stronger than that without any real worries, but try to keep it around there or less. We'll scale down from that, so keep in mind what that did to the car, and scale down appropriately if you're trying for a smaller effect. Same principle for the rest of of you of course.

    Her fingers run over the controls again, and the street comes to life. Cars and people move, and the room is filled with noise. The four Titans are given a respectfully wide berth by the people moving around, but they're attracting attention. There are a lot of pointed fingers, and quite a few photos taken. Just one more thing to get used to. For the moment there doesn't appear to be any threat -- except for the sense of danger from incoming pellets that Hank and Dawn are already sensing.

    "Honesty Kate, a lot of the calibration is guesswork," she says, leaning back in her seat to watch what the four Titans in the scenario are going to do. "There's a whole bunch of learning algorithms in the system that try to work out how hard we're /intending/ on hitting. It'll get more accurate the more time people spend in the simulator. But we haven't exactly measured what each member of the team can do scientifically. "

    "Okay guys!" she calls out as she swipes a bottle of water from the console in front of her and takes a swig. "Keep on your toes. Something's gonna happen soon!"

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary Marvel blushes at the compliment. "Thank you, Dawn, but there are some situations when I'm a little OVER-powered to handle them. And everyone has different gifts. The true benefit is knowing how to use them effectively. Otherwise, it's like using a bazooka to kill roaches."

She looks to Donna, nodding at her assessment, then keeps a wary set of eyes open, watching for potential trouble.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate rolls her eyes at Donna but it is good natured. "I know, I just want to see them cut loose a bit and everything they can do so I can consider it in scenario design Troia..."

    Like when to add demon spiders to mess with Kian.

    She balances the arrow she is working on and then tap taps on the control panel and the scene gets a smidge darker.... is it becoming dusk... or an early sundown... or .. nope looks like a solar eclipse has begun.

    Also. The alleys off to the sides of the street the Titans are on being all sorts the center of attention have a plethora of spider webbing suddenly. There is the sound of skittering. The random metropolis folks stop fan servicing the Titans out there and start to look around nervously. "I was going to save this one to mess with Terry but you know...when in Rome." is said softly just for Vic and Troia.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "We /could/ measure what each team member can do scientifically," Vic notes. "...We /should/ measure what each team member can do scientifically! So we have a better idea of just how much power's being thrown around, what people can handle... how the heck stuff like Terry's magic works." This came up recently, after all.

    "I'll ask Nadia to work on some scanners, she's been working on how to measure magic I think"

    He snorts quietly to Kate, making some adjustments to the scenario's parameters to better fit with their readings.

Dawn Granger has posed:
That danger sense. It really is like someone is staring down the barrel of a rifle pointed at the back of your next. Pellet guns - she knows that's what it is but some part of her doesn't care that the threat isn't that big. Because Hawk is there and if Hawk is there things must be dangerous.

"Dove," she replies and she adjusts her posture a moment as her clothing changes about her. Icy blues and whites and her dove wings hanging from her shoulders like a cape that's alive. White boots and the ensemble finishes with a blue domino mask with white lenses. Externally she doesn't seem to have changed much but internally she is filled with the light of peace and order.

Serious level changes a touch too, because now with Hawk here she feels quite ready to punch things - may be not quite so excited as Hawk is, "Cool your jets Hawk, this is just a simulation remember... this gives us a perfect opportunity to practice restraint in our response now so that in the field we don't over do it."

All this 'we' is clearly directed at Hawk; not that he's earned it - their encounter with the drug dealers went really well and if anything she showed her ignorance of the ways of the street. She is far more entitled than Hank after all having more in common with Kate in terms of the social circles her civilian life moves her through.

And so after a moment she looks over to him, smiles, and says, "I'll follow your lead." Because she said she would after their last outing together and he is the one who has done all this before.

This isn't Dawn's first time in the danger room but it is the first time with the likes of Mary, and the first with Hawk. She shakes her head a moment as she looks at the simulated people. They're not real, she can't _read_ them like she can with real people. They aren't giving off the obvious signals that tell her what it is they intend to do. It's messing with her head a bit. "Uncanny valley hello."

The change in time of day and the sudden reveal of giant spider webs has her widen her eyes a little. She steps closer to Hawk and lifts up her hands. "I don't think we're talking our way out of this one Hawk."

Kian has posed:
    Kian goes high, almost to the ceiling.  Since he has no real experience with Hawk or Dove, he does what he knows how to do: watch his teammates' backs, and watch out for innocent bystanders about to get in trouble.
    He casts a glance at the taskmasters at the console.  "I hate not knowing what's coming... and you're just going to tell me that's part of the training.  I still have trouble with figuring what is and isn't normal for this planet, you know."
    The birdman swoops into a broad arc over the area, scanning the ground for... well, for whatever they have planned for them.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hawk moves to stand near to Dove, his hulking size a counterbalance to her gracefulness. "Unless you suddenly know how to speak arachnid? No. We're not talking our way out of this one." He flexes his hands, the talons on his fingers sliding together with a metallic hiss.

    "Holograms or not, why don't you work on getting civvies out of here. I'll go poke the bear...once they're clear...we can tear these bugs limb from limb" he says moving toward one of the web-filled alleys with ponderous deliberance.

    He glances over his shoulder at Mary. "Thunderbolt. I don't have energy attacks like you, but I'm hella strong and tougher than nails. Don't hesitate to blast at me for fear of friendly fire. If it hurts my feelings, Dove will make sure I get over it real quick."

    A glace to the flying man above them. "Eyes in the sky... what do you see?" he asks, moving to the mouth of one of the alleys. A clawed hand reaches out and plucks at one of the web threads, testing it's strength. He could probably cut through it... but better to see first before getting stuck one handed in this mess.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "Nadia's going to be disappointed," Donna suggests to Vic, frowning slightly "You can measure the impact magic has, but magic itself... I don't think that even makes sense to attempt to measure it. There's no real way to define the power of magic other than the physical impact it has, and that would classify a simple spell that accelerates something as being more powerful than an incredibly complicated spell that alters reality without changing the energetic balance."

    She leans forwards again, fingers playing across the controls. "We calibrate based on what people do in the field rather than experimentally trying to determine what people /could/ do if they really tried," she says firmly. "Just take my word for it that it's better that way. "

    The four Titans don't take long to observe the growing shadows and the webs, and hear the sounds of skittering, but so far no demonic spiders have put in an appearance. From his vantage point close to the ceiling (though it /looks/ like there's a lot of sky still above him), Kian observes that some some of the civilians nearest those alleyways are starting to act oddly. A dozen or so seem to be just standing there, ignoring the rest of the crowds attempting to get clear. As he watches he notices their heads starting to twitch at an unnatural speed. The twitching continues for several seconds and then simultaneously their heads all stop twitching. Each one focuses on an individual in the crowd, and they start to lurch forwards.

    Hanks testing of the webbing proves that while it's sticky, it's not sticky enough that he can't easily get free of it. As his hand pulls loose, the strand of webbing rebounds, and a faint thrumming vibrates through the web. The vibrations come slowly to a halt, but then they start up again, the web line bouncing gently up and down with a regular rhythm as several octets of heavy feet move along the webbing. Somewhere in the gloom above he can hear the sounds of skittering again, as if there are more spiders on the walls. Slowly from the darkness, a large furred limb stretches out from the dense web, feeling the air in his direction.

    "FEAR NOT, CITIZENS!" The voice, heavily amplified, booms out across the heavily-processed soundscape of the room, appearing to echo off the tall buildings rather than the rather smaller space of the danger room they are actually in. A figure zooms through the air, coming to a halt to hover thirty feet or so away from Kian, armoured in obviously high-tech gear, a cape fluttering behind him. A swarm of drones sweeps around him in an intricate dance of algorithmic flocking. "FOR I, DOCTOR TEKNIK, AM HERE TO SAVE YOU!"

    Donna leans back and grins to Vic and Kate. This scenario is /insane/.

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Okay. Very good twist Troia." she grins and glances back down at her arrow, fitting the casing carefully around the micro explosive pellet payload. Yeah she is playing with explosive arrows in the control room. Sue her.

    "I mean both are good twists. I wonder what they will do with it." amusement.

    Will they side with Doctor Teknik, will they blow him up out of reflex since thye have had to fight him before and Terry nearly died that one time in real life. What will happen.

    

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary blinked, then decided to take to the air. It was better if she focused on ones out of range of Hawk and Dove (yes, she was envious of the costume change, but only because THEY could get away with it without causing collateral damage).

She rises until she hovers 50 feet away from "Doctor Teknik," giving him a speculative look. "What...exactly...are you saving us from?" she asked skeptically...

Victor Stone has posed:
    "According to Nadia, magic has different colors," Vic says with a shrug. "And I'm kinda curious myself. We can consider it, like, a general assessment. Not something for in here."

    With Dawn supposed to go after the civilians, Vic double-checks the AI algorithms to make sure there's a realistic combination of fleeing, screaming, trying to fight the monsters, winding up some kind of zombie. You know, normal civilian actions.

    He grins back at Donna. "Also, Kian, a lot of the time /we/ don't know what'll show up on Earth. Being prepared for the unexpected is a good thing."

Dawn Granger has posed:
Dove nods to Hawk. It's a good plan, a solid plan. She spies the way out for people who seem to be concerned for their safety, as they should be. She rushes over and starts to usher. "People, this way to safety. Let's go," she insists and places a hand on their backs to get them moving. She's a lot stronger than the average person right now and there's no denying her encouragement on which direction to flee.

For the moment she is unaware of the glitchy citizens acting strangely.. but that'll change no doubt. She peers at the robomancer and asks, "Doctor Teknik? who? who is this guy?," she says and looks over to her counterpart - taking a cue from him usually gives her a good idea of this is a good guy or a bad guy.

Kian has posed:
    "Some of the civilians are acting strange, even by Earth standards," Kian reports, giving directions to where they are, "and... what the--?"
    He doesn't approach the stranger.  "Thank you, I think we have things under control for now."
    Politeness first, after all.
    But he doesn't for a second think it's going to be as easy as that.  This *is* the Da... uh, Practice Room.
    "I've never heard of a Doctor Teknik -- anyone?"

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hawk backs away as the massive tarantula limb feeling out for him. "Come on big guy... gimme a hug" he says defiantly at the spider limb, coaxing the beast to him with aggressive gestures. "I think small cousins of my namesake eat you guys for breakfast in South America."

    He is momentarily distracted by the emergence and annoucnement of Dr. Teknik. "Who the hell is... ugh... a wannabe vigilante involved is *just* what we need. To make this a party." While his words may convey annoyance, his grin is anything but. The chaos of the situation is a thriving place for the energies coursing through him.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Under closer inspection, there's a limit to how much can be gleaned about Doctor Teknik. His armor keeps him well covered, but it's clear that he's flying due to some kind of repulsor technology rather than using some kind of superpower... and he's notably short. Definitely well under five feet tall. "TITANS!" he says dismissively, staring at Mary. "ISN'T IT OBVIOUS WHO I'M SAVING EVERYONE FROM?" he booms.

    Donna leans in towards Kate, grinning. "Shh! No clues. Hank and Kian have fought him before, but they might not figure out who it is beneath the armor."

    Dawn finds she has little difficulty persuading people to follow her lead towards the safer areas of the city, and finds she doesn't really need her strength to help pushing. Though she is going in a little blind when it comes to her normal sensitivity to people's emotional states, the system appears compensating at least a little by making the civilians particularly easy for her to persuade.

    "THEM!" Doctor Teknik points down at the strangely-behaved civilians Kian has been observing, who have stopped glitching to lurch forwards and attack the other civilians as they attempt to flee. "FLY, MY PRETTIES!" the doctor calls out. His drone swarm swoops around him and floods down towards the ground, the barrels of rotary machine guns whirring as the get up to speed.

    Hank's probably trying to pay back Vic for that earlier comment about hugging, but the giant demon-spider seems to accept the offer of a hug. It launches itself from the web with a powerful bound, limbs flailing towards him. Fangs dripping with green venom glisten in the weird half-light of the eclipse. With a burst of motion, another half-dozen spiders come scuttling out of the darkness with startling speed. Suddenly this is no place for an arachnophobe.

    Donna's obviously enjoying all this way too much. "Vic? You got any tricks you'd like to throw into the scenario to make things even more crazy?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
    Kate gets the arrow's casing fully sealed and tucks it into the high tek rotating quiver assembly by her foot before picking up the parts to make the next one.

    "You know.. if I had drone arrows. I would also say fly my pretties." she pauses "Okay I have totally said fly my pretty about an arrow I've fired before. How could you not..."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary looks down. This Teknik guy is weird, but those civlians being attacked by the Jumpscare Children is real enough. And far enough out of range for the Other Dynamic Duo.

So, it was times to get to work.
Mary flew down low to hover roughly twenty feet off the ground, then fires a lightning bolt (30 percent above the last one) to zap the jittering one about to waylay a civilian...

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic grins. "I do, actually." He presses a button and adds one more twist to the scenario: further in the alleys, it transpires, there are flies caught in the spider webs. Robot flies, struggling to be free. And all of the messing with webs has freed them.

    Robot flies, however, are not any friendlier than giant demon spiders. So the flies gather in a buzzing swarm to attack!

Dawn Granger has posed:
Dove feels a sense of accomplishment that she's successfully herding these people away. It's the Doctor that has her worried though... that and the spider that Hawk just poked at. But, those civilians who are acting strange. They're still civilians, right? or are they robot plants?

She can't take the chance. She moves like the wind, her feet leaving the ground as she flies toward one about to be blasted by machine gun fire and tackles them out of the way. "Stay down," she warns the oddly acting person and then tries to check them over to, to see if they're actually real people or not.

The sudden sound of buzzing has her lift her head up and glance down the alley way. She opens her mouth a touch and calls out, "Thunderbolt... zappy!," she says and points to the swarm approaching.

Kian has posed:
    What Kian says, the translator does not handle.  "I don't think he's here to help!" he reports, and goes after the drones with a chain of electricity.  "Or his definition of help isn't helpful!"
    He gets around above and behind, focusing on the drones so they can't harm the civilians.  Pacifism apparently doesn't cover robots.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hawk would've been find against a single larger than life tarantuala. Really. Maybe he would've gotten beat up. Bitten. But Hawk could handle that. As it was he met the monster she with claws open and wrapped it in a crushing bearhug. He could feel the fangs jbbing at his suit seeking purchase but none managed to get at him until one scratched across his cheek.

    Uh-oh. Not good.

    Still the battle lust raged in him and he pressed his advantage, hoping to squeeze the life out of it. That's when the hoard came for him. More dog sized spiders poured out in a flood. Still, this was what he was made for, wasn't it? Battles never ended neatly with him. What's a horad of dog-spiders and one more like the size of a lion. He kicks and thrashes as they jump on him. More fangs poke and prod, seeking to pierce the magically conjured material of his armor, and another few poke at his face, again one of the only unarmored spots on his body.

    This could also be held off, until the swarm comes for him and it's just too much. Mechanical bodies pound and zap at him and soon enough he succumbs to the onslaught of attacks, dropping to the ground and overpowered by his attackers. Quickly he ends up buried in a mass of furry multi-limbed bodies, mechanical pests, and fangs. So, so, so many fangs.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Thunderbolt's blast is highly effective, blasting the glitch-zombie into a smouldering heap. The civilian it was about to attack looks up at her with an expression of thankful relief, and sprints away to the exit Dove has been guiding people towards.

    Donna winces briefly, then nods her head to Kate. "You've totally said that when firing an arrow. I've heard you do it. Probably it's you who gave me the idea, but now I'm kind of regretting I didn't make the drones look more like flying monkeys. Honestly I was originally putting this scenario together to test out on Terry, give him a lot of thinking to do, and I worried that he'd be too distracted by flying monkeys to pay attention to what else was going on."

    Throughout the simulated environment of the scenario, things just get more and more chaotic. Robot flies engage in the skies with the drones that 'Doctor Teknik' had brought, a useful distraction that Kian is able to use to blast both types of robot out of the sky with chain lightning. Dawn has taken down one of the glitch-zombies and Mary another, but the others grab victims from the crowd and start mauling them. Fortunately Dawn's efforts have reduced the number of victims for them to attack, but this is not looking like a battle that will end with no civilian casualties. Hank is getting buried under a mound of furry, eight-legged bodies, but an increasing mess of spider-entrails surrounds him as he fights feircely, and he's probably enjoying himself, at least right up until the point where he's swarmed. At least there is no such thing as holographic venom.

    "Dawn's got good instincts," Donna says to Vic. "Good she noticed that the zombies might be real people, kind of thing I'd expect from her I guess. But she and Hank are going to need to spend more time working things out, they're letting themselves get too isolated. They need to be closer. And Hank is being... Hank. Thunderbolt is still being too individualistic, letting herself get out of the loop. I'll grab her for some one-on-one sessions I think. Kian's still too hesitant, but he's getting a little more confident that he knows what he's doing, that's good. But none of them thought to do a voice analysis to figure out that was really Gizmo. Might be good to run a group tech training session, remind people of what their T-Coms can do."

    The pressure on Hank starts to ease as Kian's chain lightning thins out the herd of robotic flies. Whether or not he notices this in his battle fury, he should find his ability to move his limbs and keep fighting picks up, but there's still a goodly-sized swarm of demon spiders surrounding him.

    Donna blows out her cheeks and looks to Vic and then to Kate, shaking her head. "Oof. I say we call it and debrief. This is a mess. But it's giving us good pointers at least. What do you guys say, stop the sim? Or are you enjoying the show too much?"

Kate Bishop has posed:
    "Solid fear. I'm pretty sure if it was Wicked themed he would be very distracted.... not sure we should be mixing Oz with Wonderland honestly." she fiddles with her arrow some more. Little pellets sliding into the caseing near the head.

    "Do you think Oz is real if Wonderland is real. I wonder how many fictional books are really just messed up dimensions bleeding into our own world like some cancer..."

    She loks up from the arrow. "I mean... it probably was too many crazy curves and vriables at once."

Mary Bromfield has posed:
Mary looks over to Dawn, then to the swarm coming through the alley. She smiles a little.
No civilians, just the jumpscare zombies.
Mary zips to her left, then fires a lightning bolt that zaps the zombie, then jumps from the zombie to the ones near it, and from those to the ones near them, branching out like a tree of lightning to zap all the zombies in the alley.

Victor Stone has posed:
    "Did we create Wonderland, or did Lewis Carroll just tap into it..." Vic muses.

    He watches for a little while longer and then grins. "I think we're good. Got some good readings, and I'm sure we'll have some discussions to do. Hank needs to let loose more, I think, so he can get some of the desire for it out of his system."

Dawn Granger has posed:
When Mary goes on a zombie killing spree Dawn realises the one she tackled was meant to be a person. She knocks it out, unclear how it is they're being controlled. "Mary stop!," she says and waves her arms, then flies up in front of the lightning slinging super-everything.

Her lips press together tightly and she can't even see Hank underneath all those fury limbs. "We're failing right now. We should be calling for backup..." she looks over at the peanut gallery and sighs, "Darn. We've failed miserably." Her shoulders slump a little.

"Hawk stop playing with the spiders..., Hawk?" She flies down and starts to yank at fury limbs tossing them aside, trying to dig through the pile of yuck.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Under a mass of holographic ichor and scuttling bodies is a raging fury that is Hawk. He somehow managed to get on top of the largest of the spiders and was doing his best to beat it into submission. The connection between him and Dove is a thready thing at the moment and it's only when he sees the light (albeit dim) that he realizes she's there and her own aura washes over him.

    The monster beneath him is surely dead, and has been for some time. He stops and looks around. "Oh... balls" he mutters as he slowly gets to his feet, kicking at a still scuttling monstrosity nearby. "Yeah. This is a wash... isn't it?" he says, wiping a glob of ichor from his chin. "Donna! Vic! I think we have a problem here!" he calls to the control room. "Mind cutting it?" he says, kicking at a twitching spider body.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna already has her finger on the button, and as soon as Hank calls out, the simulation flickers out, and the room is bare and empty once more. Hank can still feel the bruises, but at least the ichor has vanished.

    "Yeah, good time to call it. Guys, don't feel bad about this. It's a learning experience, and this one was specifically set up to highlight the weaknesses in your teamwork. It's so we can assess how you're working together and tailor some training for you all to get you working together. Each of you were very effective individually, but there was simply too much going on for the four of you to be successful working that way. Like Kate just said, too many curves, too many variables."

    "Thunderbolt, you've got the ability to deal a lot of damage to the bad guys and make a bad situation a whole lot better, but you need spotters to point you in the right way. Hawk, rusty or not I'm glad you're on the same side as me, but you shouldn't be going into that mass of enemies alone. Kian, you need to be communicating with everyone more, you're the one providing the overview. You don't have to make sure of the situation first, keep up that communication to keep everyone alerted to your concerns. Dove, good work but you hit the nail on the head when you said you should have called for backup. There were civilians, zombies, drones, spiders, flies and the mystery super. There were only four of you. That's just too much for four people to keep an eye on. You should have all worked at clearing the civilians and containing the situation safely until help could arrive."

    She beams a smile at the four, before turning back to Vic and Kate. "We've got plenty to work with here, anything you two would like to add to the debrief though? And no Vic, Carrol tapped into something that was created by a sorcerer's subconscious." Wait, what? Does Donna know something?

    "Good session, everyone!"

Victor Stone has posed:
    Vic raises his brows at Donna. /That/ makes him curious, but he'll ask later.

    "Just that I think any one, or even two, of thost threats I think you guys could've overcome... so yeah, don't feel bad. Part of the idea is like I said earlier--to get you used to dealing with the unexpected and the overwhelming. But otherwise, good sesh, guys."

Dawn Granger has posed:
Dove looks displeased. Not at Hawk exactly. To him she offers her hand to help him up out of the mess.. which promptly disappears. At herself perhaps. At the realisation that if this has been a real scenario, out in the real world, a whole bunch of puppeteered people would have been struck by lightning and Hank would have been eaten by spiders.

She simply says "Hmmmm," in response to the evaluation they receive. What she wants to say is how badly they performed but she also doesn't want to upset anyone. "I'm sure we can do better," is what finally comes out of her mouth. But her body posture says otherwise.

Hank Hall has posed:
    Hawk isn't as much of a people person as Dove. "We fucked up... big time" he says. "Even with the variables and overwhelming force, we should've paid more attention and not spread ourselves so thin." He rubs at the back of his neck and places a hand on Dove's shoulder, unconciously giving it a reassuring squeeze (being careful not to claw her in the process, of course.)

    "That's what training is for though... so that we can learn and adapt so that the same errors don't happen out in the field." He looks at Dove. "The first Dove learned to actually fight here. He was more of a pacifist than Kian is. Refused to even throw a punch, regardless of the situation. Here... he learned the value of combat. Took a lot of time and a lot of work, but eventually..." He smiles. "Eventually, he got around to it. So will we. We'll get around to working together as a well oiled machine. It just takes practice."