9376/@Heartbreaker2022 Strikes!

@Heartbreaker2022 Strikes!
Date of Scene:	30 December 2021
Location:	Times Square
Synopsis:	Booster Gold records a bunch of heroes and edits them together to perform "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley, dedicated to Blue Beetle.
Cast of Characters:	Booster Gold, Cassie Sandsmark, Lucas Trent, Big Barda, Koriand'r, Keith Brooks, Dmitri Pushkin, Ben Reilly, Sarah Rainmaker

---

Booster Gold has posed:
All across Times Square, and the world, even, alerts ping.

             A tweet goes out from the account of @heartbreaker2022 - "If the JLA does not convene in Times Square in exactly 30 minutes, I will claim one of your own! #broken" It includes a link to a video of what is clearly the profile of a costumed hero in the shadows struggling against glowing bindings.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
A blonde-headed figure walks out onto the 'tip' of the triangle at the center of the square, unassuming as heroics go with her hoodie up and big clunky headphones on. She's staring down at her phone, just like any person her age, seemingly oblivious. She reaches the center of the area, and looks up and around.

"Sooooooo, just so any evil-doers know, the Justice League is mostly a bunch of olds, and they don't exactly check twitter for crime updates. But lucky for you, I was at H&M." If a random zoomer yelling at theoretical criminals seems odd, she makes the situation clear when the hoodie is opened to reveal the 'WW'-branded shirt worn underneath, and the lasso hanging on her belt.

"Also, you're totally infringing on my boss' copyrights, or some shit."

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent doesn't announce himself. He isn't that sort. He does arrive, though, perched atop one of the neon signs overlooking the square, a massive billboard for a new movie featuring trenchcoated people making out and shooting guns in equal amount. His cowl is pulled forward and his own trenchcoat catches the cold wind as he flexes his gloved hands.

His digital feed caught the tweet and weeded it out of the spam. The image looked genuine enough to take the threat seriously. Plenty enough reason to wreck somebody. And he can tell some heroes are already coming in response. So he'll wait and strike when the time is right.

Big Barda has posed:
Barda, for her part, has no clue. She's in Time's Square because her guidebook she picked up in a used book store, the guide book guaranteed to have the "latest and greatest" information (published in 1978) says it's the place to be.

Twitter? Nope. Instead she's looking in confusion at the guide book, then comparing the pictures it has to what's around her.

Sometimes holding the book up to check.

Koriand'r has posed:
Starfire herself wasn't particularly subtle in arrival. She was literally a glowing supermodel after all. She also wasn't technically part of the league either, but the Titan member had been close by and enjoying the wonders of waffles at a nearby cafe when the warning had been passed onto her. Could it be a hoax? A trap? Hard to know, but the Tamaran princess zooms her way towards the location, pausing to hover a few feet above as Cassie makes her arrival 'announcement'.

Booster Gold has posed:
A buzz falls over the crowd in Times Square as the tweet starts getting retweeted. Soon #broken is trending in the United States, and citizens begin pouring in. Not necessarily to see the murder of a super hero, although certainly some may want to see that. But the idea of the JLA showing up - it definitely gets the tourists going!

    The opposite effect for those folks dressed up for photos with the tourists, now swarmed by the influx of people who think that it might just be the real Superman standing on the ground roughly the height of their Paperboy. But if you take it from the waist up, you know, it will fool the co-workers back home in Maine.

Keith Brooks has posed:
Now it happens that Lesion is already near Times Square. They were already out on patrol, doing the thing that the Spider-Man told thme would be best to do with their abilities. So the symbiote had landed and folded his wings up and looked down. He was standing atop the giant ball for the New Years celebration. After all it offered a really good view point.

<Why would a criminal announce their crimes to the world? That is asking to be captured.> "Your guess is as good as mine, dude. Maybe it's some kind of performance art that's getting way out of hand." <I should be allowed to eat the artist.>

Dmitri Pushkin has posed:
     A lone red and white streak hurdles through the sky at hyper-sonic speeds growing closer and closer. It seems like it's going to crash right into times square before it stops in the middle of the air a soot covered Rocket Red holding both hands out in front of him for a brief moment having been using all of his force to stop SOMETHING from crashing into the earth. He is estatic as he starts saying "I did it, I stopped the..."

     He trails off somewhat looking down to his hands as he flips around the 'massive meteor' that was going to hit times square. It's now about the size of a basket ball. He purses his lips together flipping it over in his hand for a brief moment. "Meteor...." He rolls it around before holding it up onto one gauntleted finger spinning it around the tip before catching it back in his grasp.

     Dmitri slowly lowers himself back down to ground level his armor appearing almost pitch black from the entrance into earths atmosphere. He speaks over the Justice League comms <I stopped the meteor, turns out it was uh... smaller than I was expecting.> He sighs before tossing the meteor up and down in his hands touching down into an open spot of sidewalk. <Wait what do you mean there's a hero who's been captured at times square?> He blinks a few times looking around in what appears to be pitch black armor. One hand reaches up to the side of his head and a laser begins to sweep across his armor cleaning it to a mirror shine.

Booster Gold has posed:
    "Worry not, citizens!" proclaims a loud voice from the sky, as a golden garbed man descends down towards the gathered crowd. "We shall be sure that no one dies here tonight!"

    A small robot floats up behind him. "Sir, there are a lot of people here." it observes.

    Arcing over towards the very obvious superhero - both the flying and on-fire give it away - Booster Gold comes to hover as well. "What do we know so far?" he asks of Koriand'r.

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent drops down from the top of the sign and lands on his feet with a slight THUMP, crouching only a little bit to account for his momentum. "What we know so far is that someone wants a bunch of superheroes to stand out in the open. Which means that the place is probably about to blow up. Or there's a sniper. Or an interdimensional portal is about to open up to take us to some dimension where we have to fight each other to the death. That sort of thing."

Midnighter cracks his knuckles and grins, "Whatever it is, I hope it's fun."

Ben Reilly has posed:
Okay, so he's not a member of the Justice League. He's not even Justice League-adjacent. But you can't just make threats over Twitter in his hometown - and it is his hometown, as much as he occasionally feels the whole gunslinger 'this town ain't big enough for the both of us' vibe. So once he spotted the tweet on the cheap three-generations-ago KordPhone he traded for a pair of sneakers he 'earned' from knocking around a couple of muggers, Scarlet Spider spins a web of moderate size to arrive just in time!

He crosses Broadway just in time to spot the shining, golden man and his little robot buddy. Perched on an unadorned flagpole in his very-much-homemade Spider-suit, he tilts his head to one side and watches the scene play out before him wide-eyed.

"Wait, is this a publicity stunt? I didn't wear my good tights ... "

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
Cassie stands tapping her foot, fingers still on her phone.

@wwfan01 tweets back heartbreaker2022: here now, where you at? afraid to get beat up by a girl? #ww #unbroken

After that, she texts Diana. But not with a request for back-up or anything. Most social media stuff like this is bullshit, pranks and publicity stunts. Looking back up from her phone again, she spots Starfire descending, and gives her an upnod. "Yo. So I don't know if this is legit or just some kind of stunt, but uh, keep a look out or-"

And then Booster makes his entrance, robot in tow. "We know that there are a lot of dumbshits on twitter, so who knows. This might all be a hoax or something. Also, who are you?"

Booster Gold has posed:
    Hanging suspended in the air near Koriand'r, Booster Gold seems shocked as he regards Cassie asking who he is. "She..she..." He points to Koriand'r. "She thinks that we are...who are those people who don't know each other yet?"

Koriand'r has posed:
Either that, or it was the superhero equivlent of 'SWAT'ing', but Koriand'r really only just had the concept of a 'hoax callout' explained to her after one particular person had kept calling tips just to try and catch photos of particular heroes and heroines. It was...a little infuriating, but still in this case they couldn't exactly take the chance this was entirely true.

"A full counting of heads among the League and allies takes time," Kori begins, decending to Cassie's side with a nod before Booster's arrival has her blinking. "We know-...what she said?"

Booster Gold has posed:
The crowd starts to get larger and larger. They oooo and aaah as they see the flying fiery woman, and a few other other heroes arrive. A couple point at the floating man in gold and his robot, and at least one in hush tones talks about how exciting it is to see Green Lantern.

    Looking to Cassie and Koriand'r, Booster Gold frowns. "What, you don't know me? I am a member of the Justice League of America! Booster Gold!" He glances at the floating robot. "They don't know me, Skeets!"

    The robot floats up towards Koriand'r. "Can you please tell me are there any regulations governing the activities of super heroes here?"

Ben Reilly has posed:
The Scarlet Spider, or more accurately the guy who is dressed lik a discount Spider-Man, sits in an easy crouch with hands folded over his knees watching the scene unfold below.

"Wow, so many people just show up because of a tweet. I wish it were this easy to meet celebrities."

He reaches into the sleeveless blue hoodie he wears, pulling out his phone with the cracked screen and opening up Twitter.

'@WebSupport: Hey @DianaPrince, I'm going to blow up a box of kittens if you don't tell everyone I'm your favourite spider-based crimefighter.'

"Too much?" he wonders allowed, looking at his phone thoughtfully and then depositing it back into his pocket.

Raising both hands to his mouth, he calls out down to the golden man: "Do something cool!"

Big Barda has posed:
None of this is making any sense. None of it. But Koriand'r is here. That's a face she recognizes. And people in outlandish costumes are looking concerned.

Barda reaches for the rod tucked into her waistband. With a series of incoherent bleeps, the rod communicates to her, seemingly understood by her.

"Yes. Bring it."

And now, instead of an extremely tall, extremely muscled housewife is an extremely tall, extremely armoured woman with a fancy helmet and a body-fitting blue scale armour suit.

Standing on two disks that waft her up in the air to join Koriand'r ... and the strange blue one.

"Koriand'r of Tamaran, how are you?"

Beat.

"What transpires here that brings so many of these 'heroes' into this square? Is there an event?"

Sarah Rainmaker has posed:
Sarah Rainmaker hasn't been one of those flying in. Wearing a green sweater and jeans, she's scoping out the area. She's rather curious, looking about and checking for anyting that might stand out. With this many powered individuals about she's presuming there's something (still not on this whole 'Internet' thing).

Then she espies some of the Titans, and gets a look of relief on her face. Someone she can ask what might be going on with her friend. Koriand'r is the most obvious one, and the Gen-Active girl would make her way through the crowd. Not particularly far, trying to avoid pushing.

Dmitri Pushkin has posed:
     Rocket walks over towards Booster Gold and stops on the spot with a basketball sized lump of space metal under his arm. He looks up at the man for a long moment before saying "Comrade Lantern where were you getting new costume?" He speaks with an audible smile before looking around at the other superheroes that have gathered for this little event.

     Dmitri gives a light wave to the crowd most of which he towers over. He's giving that little polite and friendly wave that they taught him how to do when he was training to be a diplomat.

     When he hears a call to do something cool, even though it's directed towards someone else in the group Rocket Red starts spinning the meteorite on one finger before blasting it with lasers from his wrists to chip away at it into a smaller object with a mirror shine. "Tah-dah!"

Keith Brooks has posed:
Lesion jumps off the New Years ball, and falls downwards until about twenty feet above the street, deploying his wings and landing with a heavy thud on the ground, "This looks more like a party than a superhero fight." The symbiote mutters as he takes a look around at the gathered crowd, "Should we not be clearing the innocent bystandars away from the potential danger?"

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent cocks his head at Rocket Red and laughs, "Damn, I haven't seen one o' those suits in an age. Nice. Good to see old Soviet tech kickin' around. I used to tear this off and shove it up the asses of Russkies back in the old days. Well, a variant of it, anyway."

He lights a cigarette and takes a long drag, snorting at Leison," Your parties must suck if this is what you think one looks like," he says, wandering around a little and shouting out loud, "C'MON, TRY TO KILL US ALREADY, THIS IS GETTING BORING.'

Booster Gold has posed:
The crowd swells. There are now people with signs, somehow, written out to their favorite heroes. It appears that many women want to have super babies, fewer are interested in bat babies. A few of the civilians have donned their makeshift costumes, eager to be a part of something.

Koriand'r has posed:
Equally as tall (or close enough) but decidedly less armored, Kori turns from the musing of the gathered heroes and her own frown at the crowd to blink at the familier voice and give an excited wave at the arrival of the 'Biggest of Barda's'.

"Someone claims to have captured someone and is holding them prisoner," she speaks, those deep green eyes sweeping the crowd that had almost certainly grown -because- of the public tweet. "We do not know if the threat is real or not."

The orange-skinned woman, apparently unaware of Ben's baiting or Dmitri's lightshow antics looks between those gathered, both faces familier and...less so before lifting her voice. "We should not stand around simply waiting, we should spread out, search the area...but keep an eye on each other in case this person really has captured someone."

She might not be the leader of the Titans, but Koriand'r was certainly able to take things seriously when someone innocent or worse still a 'friend' might be in danger.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"OK, well, I am -actually- a member of the Justicue League," as of maybe a month previous, but Cassie doesn't add that part, "name's Wonder Girl. You know, like Wonder Woman. And I know I've never seen a, uh, Booster Gold you said? On the roster," she tells Booster. Her phone is absolutely blowing up at this point, but somewhat to her credit, she pays more attention to the real-world happenings around her. "Regulations? I dunno, probably. They've got SHIELD, the DEO, some laws about vigilante identities in court and stuff. I know the FAA sends us angry emails if I break the sound barrier over occupied airspace. Why?"

At this point, it's not surprising than an actual metric you-know-what-ton of heroes have showed up, and to say that her demeanor looks less than totally terrified by the situation would be an understatement. Clearly, 'hoax' is winning out in her mind. "I have a feeling all these tourists waiting for an epic throwdown are gonna be disappointed."

Booster Gold has posed:
A quick nod from Booster Gold as he floats there near Koriand'r. "That sounds like a good idea. I wonder where the rest of the JLA is..." He looks about nervously, and offers wave to Rocket Red. "I am glad I am not the only JLAer who came out!"

Booster Gold has posed:
The small golden robot that follows Booster Gold around flies up towards Cassie. "Sir, this one claims to be a member of the JLA, but she is unfamiliar to my records!" If a robot could sound alarmed, this robot would be.

Sarah Rainmaker has posed:
Going to float her own way up in the air, the Apache Gen-Active would assess the situation. Picking up bits of 'hoax'. There was too much power here for anyone to want to cause an issue. So reassured, she would fly up a little higher, adjusting the air currents to take herself up. This was relaxing. Current circumstances aside, she hadn't gotten to do anything like this in awhile.

Reasons for being present in the city would reassert themselves and she would fly over towards Koriand'r. At a moderate pace and glancing about the area, making it clear she was approaching. If anyone might know what had happened with her friend, one of the Titans would.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Hey, you," Ben shouts down in the direction of Rocket Red, who looks shiny an authoritative enough to be considered in charge in some way or another. He then slips from the flagpole, clasping it with both hands and spinning several times around before letting go. He falls through the air, launching a webline at the last second to slow his descent and landing in a crouch atop a streetlamp closer to the gathering of the superheroes.

"If it helps, I'm not pickin' up squat on the ol' spidey sense," he taps the side of his head, as though that were a thing everyone knows about, "I think you all got pranked."

Dmitri Pushkin has posed:
     Dmitri snap-points towards booster, still not knowing who the man is in the slightest. However he stands with a confidence as he tosses that now mirror polished chunk of metal under his arm for safe keeping. "Ay no troubles Comrade, someone needs help I get helping." He's in a good mood all things considered. Still as Starfire points out it's a good idea to get people out of the way.

     So Dmitri gets to work guiding people to back up somewhat just in case, and showing several people that shiny ball of metal he's made. Look at the pretty ball of space metal and not the fact you might die.

     "Even if we did get played the fool." Dmitri starts as he looks up towards the spider. "It is better to be on the safe side, besides if I was at home I would be vacuuming the carpet for Belina and that is my least favorite of jobs."

Big Barda has posed:
"I agree Koriand'r of Tamaran. We must search now for..."

And then Ben's shout catches her ear and she looks his way. That expression on her face. It's not a good one. Unless 'rage' is the latest new craze.

"WHO DARES 'PRANK' BIG BARDA OF APOKOLIPS!?" she shouts, looking around, and now hefting that rod in her hand as if it were some kind of weapon.

As if.

"COME OUT AND FACE YOUR PUNISHMENT!"

Booster Gold has posed:
Another tweet comes out from @heartbreaker2022 - This is not a prank! This is real! If you do not do exactly as I say, then the hero will die! #broken #timesquare #love #strangers #rules

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Is your name really Big?" Ben asks Barda, incredulous, "It's not. Nobody has an adjective for a name."

When Ben's phone chirps, he fishes it out of his pocket and looks at it for a moment. After reading, he glances up at the others and shakes his head sadly. Expressive white eyes the only thing belying his mood.

"Totally a prank. I'm sorry, Justice Leaguers. You left the Justice Dome for nothing."

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent expands his enhanced senses, his nostrils flaring, his ears starting to run through different frequencies and filters, looking for hidden noises, muffled heartbeats, anything tha tmight lead to a hidden person or hostage.

He'd tell everyone to shut up, but he knows how futile that sort of thing is. Heroes love to talk more than they love to fight. That's why they dress like clowns.

Midnighter wasn't a hero. He was a solution.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Hey, better watch /my/ airspace," Cassie tells the robot as its hovering becomes slightly more aggressive (if hovering can be aggressive, anyway), giving it a look. "And not that I gotta prove myself to a random toaster, but I've got ID and everything." Indeed, she raises her phone again, only to press back the sliding case to reveal the card holder in the back, which contains her VERY OFFICIAL Justice League ID card.

"What have YOU got, huh?" she retorts, grumpily. "Also, it's just Justice Leage. No 'a.' What's that for, anyway?"

@wwfan01 @heartbreaker2022: sure dude I'll play, what are your 'demands?' #ww #unbroken #justice4all #jlNOa

Koriand'r has posed:
If only it was that easy to simply look who was on their phone and likely sending out the tweets. The problem was, with so many around them? Most of them were probably on their own phones either following the action, recording them or trying to snap photos while the opportunity was there.

Questions of 'Rules' from the robot earn a shrug, probably not the most reassuring answer, but then Kori wasn't really from Earth anyway. Instead the heroine with the flaming locks turns her gaze over the crowd once more.

Following her own advise it seems, even as Barda bellows her challenge.

Booster Gold has posed:
    "Sorry, they didn't have ID cards in my day," offers Booster Gold, as he floats over towards Cassie. Skeets floats around behind her. "But rest assured, I am indeed THE Booster Gold, member in good standing - " He pauses. "Well, I don't know what the rules are now. Maybe I'm not in good standing?" He casts a glance over towards Rocket Red. "Why does she think we're strangers? Does the Justice League not remember me anymore?"

Skeets goes floating off to pester someone else - namely, the ad hoc Spider-man. "You do not look like Spider-man. But you sound like Spider-man. What is your relationship to New York City?"

Sarah Rainmaker has posed:
Sarah Rainmaker would float upwards, going to try and parallel Koriand'r. Now was not the time for her questions. Instead she would just keep scanning the area. Not having her own smartphone active, she would get a general idea of what was going on from chatter. If anyone decided they really wanted to set off a bomb in the area it would be the perfect time..

And Sarah Rainmaker would go up several meters. Trying to get to a high enough vista she could get a broad look at everything.

Booster Gold has posed:
a response tweet @wwfan01 from @heartbreaker2022 - The JLA must demonstrate that they care. Otherwise, #heartbreak #broken #sadness

Dmitri Pushkin has posed:
     "Do not go beating up members of the Rocket Red Brigade, we only have so many suits." Because that's the problem with that. "Besides do you know how many minutes it takes to repair one of these suits after it's broken? We are talking at least tens of minutes of man hours." He shakes his head from one side to the other.

     "You know I missed the A the first time myself." He turns to one side to look at Cassie. "What does the A stand for? Justice League... uh..." He trails off wracking his brain and rattling off a number of words that start with A in Russian before switching to English. Eventually he reaches with. "America? I bet it stands for America."

     Dmitri lifts up off the ground to get above crowd level those rocket boosters of his kicking into action and allowing him to hover in mid air looking about for signs of trouble.

     Behind his mask he is using his advanced scanners to look over the various people in attendance for something anything that might lead a clue.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"New York and I are just friends," the Spider shoots back at Booster, "And you don't look like the Green Lantern but you sure sound like a space cop to me. So I guess we're even Steven."

Either he's showing off or just waylaying boredom, Ben plants one hand down on the street lamp between him and begins to balance on his palm. Then his fingertips. The one solitary finger. Never wavering or seeming unsteady.

He looks at his phone again from this position, whistling through his mask.

"Are you all going to get in a circle and sing We Are The World? Let me get my camera."

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent snorts, "'Demonstrate they care'. Jesus Christ. I hope this guy shows up soon, because if he keeps tweeting, I am absolutely going to puke."

Booster Gold has posed:
    "Why does /everyone/ think I am Green Lantern? Green is /literally/ in his name, and I am the opposite of green!" Booster Gold floats towards Ben Reilly, and Skeets follows. "Besides, I thought when it came to New York, you were all like, I /loooooove/ New York?"

    Skeets floats off, slipping above the crowd.


Some chanting starts from the gathered civilians. They cannot quite get it together what they want. Competing cries of "We want Batman!" and "SU-PER-MAN" and "WON-DER! WON-DER!" go up from all over.

Booster Gold has posed:
There are also chants for the home town heroes. Many people are chanting for "SPIDER! MAN! SPIDER! MAN!" A few cries for Daredevil. And at least a few shouts for "FF FOREVER!"

Ben Reilly has posed:
"I love New York just fine, but only tourists say that," Ben answers flippantly, tumbling back onto his feet before falling forward to dangle upside-down by a strand of web from the streetlamp he's occupying. Clinging onto the web by his feet, he cups his hands around his mouth and calls to the chanting crowd:

"SCAR-LET SPI-DER! SCAR-LET SPI-DER!"

When the Spider-Man chant starts up he rolls his eyes beneath his mask and shrugs his shoulders.

"Close enough."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"America. Yeah, that makes sense." Cassie snappoints in real life, up at the flying Rocket Red. "But that's... uh, pretty imperialistic, you know? So, ugh, colonial." Her zoomer disgust is palpable! "We've got members from all over the damn planet. Diana sure as hell wasn't born here." She is definitely not down with the 'A.'

The robot ceases harassing HER, at least, leaving Booster to speak for himself. She considers him and looks, uh, well, like maybe she is buying it. "OK so, just to get this straight... You think you're a member of the League but we've never heard of you. You're getting details wrong, but not, like, extremely wrong. Plausibly wrong. Me?" And she looks around as if she's asking the opinion of the people near her, Starfire maybe, she knows space stuff, "I'm gonna put my money on dimensional travel nonsense."

And if that seems like a premature guess, then you've probably never had your own interdimensional doppleganger beat you up, lock you in the trunk of your own car in your underwear, and then put your mentor in a coma.

"Booster dude, where were you before you showed up here? Retrace your steps, you know? Like you forgot where you put your phone and don't have anyone around to call it."

Finally she looks at her phone. "What the f-" She looks up and around. "If a musical number will do it, sure, whatever. I am just over this nonsense at this point." HOWEVER, as someone in the crowd calls for Wonder Woman, she starts over toward them. "Hey. She's busy, but wanna see if I can get her on the phone to say hi to all her fans?"

Booster Gold has posed:
    There is a frown on Booster Gold's face as Cassie reads him the riot act. "Maybe the Justice League has changed since my day." He sighs. "Well, depending upon what day you consider to be mine, now or then. Or, soon?" He shakes his head. "No matter - perhaps we can speak later, and I can regale you of the time that as a member of the Justice League, I nearly took on Doomsday!" Then he floats up a bit higher and sighs.

    "Well, I have a feeling that @heartbreaker2022 is doomed now." He nods, approvingly. "Alright Skeets, hit it!"

    There is a crackle on the large video display in the center of Time Square, as well as televisions and phones all around the nearby area. Skeets buzzes about busily, overriding the programming signal. "This is dedicated," comes Booster's voice suddenly, speaking softly as some synth music begins to play in the background, his head looming large on the display. "To my good friend, Blue Beetle. Where are ya, man?"

    Suddenly the clip cuts to an image of Keith Brooks also in Times Square, looking exactly the same as right now. "We" . A smash cut, to the image of Koriand'r, also from Times Square - "know". Another cut, this time back to Booster Gold. "strangers". Another cut and it is Rocket Red! "To". And then back to the Scarlet Spider. "love".

Koriand'r has posed:
Sarah's arrival beside her does have the orange-skinned woman looking over, a friendly smile before the usually light-hearted heroine returns to her looking around. As the 'demands' are passed on the Tamaran princess frowns, a slight look of puzzlement crossing her features. "Does rendering aid to one who was in danger not fall into caring?" she questions from her elevated position.

Herself not suffering issues of mistaken identity and apparently having slightly tuned out the calls for other heroes and heroines to appear she shrugs her bare shoulders. "The League isn't going to divert more members to this tilt the threat is known. We can't leave everyone else unprotected."

Then the montage comes up, thanks to Booster, and Starfire simply looks to Barda and then Cassie in turn with a questioning raise of her brow.

Sarah Rainmaker has posed:
Are they.. Really doing this? As the one not being put up on the video display, Sarah Rainmaker can only grin broadly. A very dumb look goes onto her face as she would break into laughter. She's gone up and is standing on the top of a rooftop to watch the proceedings and laughing. She hasn't laughed in a long time.

But she does go to keep on looking down. And though she has nothing to speak of for enhanced awareness or senses, she does try and look through the observers on the ground for anything that stands out. While working to remember the video for.. Personal appreciation later.

Ben Reilly has posed:
"Dude, I think Yellow and Blue Green Lantern is rickrolling the whole city," Spidey stage-whispers, still dangling upside down and even giving a peace-sign to the camera when he shows up on the big screen.

"Can't you get tried in the Hague for this stuff?"

Dmitri Pushkin has posed:
     Dmitri begins to clap his hands as the jumbotron type screen comes to life not with cocacola adverts but with singing. He does the unthinkable, the Russian superhero starts to sing loudly and proudly along with the song. For some reason he's an excellent singer keeping the tone, and tune together as he floats through the air.

     Even if he looks like an absolute fool Rocket Red doesn't seem to notice instead just floating through the air and singing his russian heart out as he holds the ball of metal above his head and uses his lasers to put on a harmless lightshow.

Keith Brooks has posed:
The name Spider does get Lesion's attention, as the symbiote makes his way towards the Scarlet Spider, "You, Spider-Man that is not the Spider-Man we know." He doesn't appear to be trying to be threatening, despite you know, being a large scary bird-like symbiote monster, "Do you have any idea what is going on? This entire event has been extremely confusing for us."

Ben Reilly has posed:
His spidey-sense does not tell him danger is coming, but it does parse 'symbiote' and prompt him to rotate slowly on his web-line to face Lesion as he approaches. He tilts his head to one side to watch him, the white eyes of his mask narrowing thoughtfully.

"Rick Astley, my dude."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Yeeeah, you definitely weren't here for Doomsday. Sorry my dude. Wrong universe." Cassie knows the history of that battle by heart, after all: it was Diana's first public appearance in the current era, and the beginning of her own superfan/hero journey. "I can pull up some info on it, if you want-"

Or not. Booster zooms off, and... she looks up to the screen. Her face is pure W T F.

"I shoulda kept shopping." In the meantime, she's at least found a couple of fellow superfans in the crowd, including a mother hauling around a daughter draped in Disney merch (the store is right behind them). "You wanna say hi? Hold on. Di?"

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent doesn't have fans. Most people don't even know who he is. That's the way he likes it. If someone made a t-shirt of him, he'd rip it off their back and choke them out with it. Unless it was a kid. Then he'd just throw it away.

"I don't know if this is a prank or what, but I definitely feel like hurting somebody over it," he mutters to himself.

Booster Gold has posed:
    The words come spilling out now on the large display and the phones and tvs nearby, rapid cuts of various heroes each offering a word or two, all seemingly from Times Square. Big Barda appears saying "you" followed by a sudden cut and then the word "Know" by Cassie Sandsmark. "the" courtesy of Keith Brooks, "rules" is voiced by none other than Booster Gold , an "and" from Koriand'r. "So" intones Lucas Trent, and then a rapid cut of Scarlet Spider saying first "do" and then "I" but from two different angles.

Ben Reilly has posed:
From where he is hanging, Scarlet Spider holds out a hand and presses two fingers to the middle of his palm. A line of webbing flies free with a 'thwip' and strikes the phone in Cassie's hand. There's a sharp tug and he draws it back towards him, plucking it out of the air and clutching it in both hands to look at the screen.

"Oh wow! The real Wonder Woman! Hi! I'm Scarlet Spider. I shoot webs. I can flip. Want to see me flip? There's some clips of it on YouTube. I'll send them to you. Can I have your e-mail address? Do you use e-mail? This is a nice phone. What is this? A Stark? I'm - "

Sarah Rainmaker has posed:
If only Grunge were here. Then.. Sarah Rainmaker would cut off that particular line of thought. Back to the here and now. She's not seeing anything of alert beyond the extreme choppiness of the editing of the images being broadcast, which would make the Apache woman wince inwardly. Trying to not let herself get too mellow, she would force her eyes away from the screen and try to avoid the impulse to just sit down on the rooftop to enjoy the show.

Willpower Check; Failed!

She is sitting down.

Booster Gold has posed:
    A broad smile upon his face, Booster Gold hangs suspended over the somewhat confused, somewhat entertained crowd in Times Square as the entirety of "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley is performed by various heroes and members of the crowd. His arms are held out as if to drink of the applause of his devoted fans, rather oblivious to the fact to the angry stares he may currently be receiving from the assembled heroes.

        His tiny robot friend is nowhere to be found.

Koriand'r has posed:
She left her waffles for this? Kori slowly begins to descend back to the ground as things continue, a soft clearing of her throat. "I am going to...scout the area."

The Tamaran woman makes to turn, a glance towards the other Titans and Barda herself before she nods her head. Apparently even she had her limits, now that it seems things truely were a prank or publicity stunt.

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"Oh. My. Various. Goddesses."

When it sinks in precisely WHAT that full thing has spelled out, it... it breaks Cassie. He got them. He totally got them. Bent over with the phone held out, and looking back over her shoulder at the jumbotron, she is just totally speechless, dumbfounded. This may be her greatest heroic defeat. And, well, remember that bit about getting locked in a trunk!

This moment of utter mental defeat is compounded as there is a sudden THWIPPING and her phone goes flying. There is an immediate gasp of surprise from the mother and daughter, and a delayed one from Cassie as she covers from the mental chaos wrought by an interdimensional Rickroll.

"He- I- what- HEY!"

Naturally, when she realizes what has happened, she is a little upset. She lives on that phone! Also, you know, stealing it from some genuine Wonder-fans. A little girl even. "You so did not just-" They may not be getting an epic villain battle, but they are apparently getting a humorous heroic one, as Cassie reaches for her belt, and promptly slings her lasso toward the hanging Spider as he, evidently, chats up her boss!

Sarah Rainmaker has posed:
With the events finished, Sarah Rainmaker gets up from her sitting position and would go to fly down towards Koriand'r, giving a wave in her flight and going to intercept, making sure to announce her approach and hopefully flag the Tamaranean Princess down. Presuming she could she would go to hover some distance away.

"I'm a.. Friend of Caitlin's and I've heard some disturbing things. I was.. Hoping if anyone was in touch with her it would be the Titans."

Lucas Trent has posed:
Lucas Trent just stalks off angrily, pausing just long enough to punch through a publicity display showing Booster's smiling face and shattering the screen around his arm. He shakes off the LED screen, leaving it laying on the ground behind him.

He's going to find a den of very nasty customers in an hour or two and he is going to absolutely annihilate them in those most vicious ways he can imagine. It's that or he go and murder Booster Gold and that probably would get him on the wrong kind of lists.

Well, he's on a lot of those lists already, but no need to get to the top of them.

Ben Reilly has posed:
Ben's eyes lift as a tingling in the base of his skull draws his attention to the lasso, perceiving it moving through the air as if in slow motion. It prompts him to dodge, but his better nature gets the better of him. He's caught by the enchanted rope, dropping down from the streetlamp and being duly dragged in the direction of Cassie and the little Wonder-Fan.

He rises to his feet, handing the phone back to the little girl: "Here you go, little Spider-Fan."

Cassie Sandsmark has posed:
"So not cool," chides Cassie, looking down with more than a bit of a grumpy frown after she's hauled in her (suspiciously willing) Spider-catch.

But! All is well that ends well. The lasso is loosened and released without any subsequent electrocution (hers is much less peace & love than Diana's! Equal amount of bondage imagery, though). The little girl gets her moment with Diana. Perhaps they talk about the Bobsponge. And finally, Cassie gets her phone back. She has about a million unchecked notifications.

"Ugh."

Booster Gold has posed:
His song concluded, Booster Gold lowers himself down towards Cassie. As if out of nowhere, Skeets floats back over too. "Hi. So. I heard what you said." He scratches his temple for a moment. "I know a thing or two about how this stuff works. So, yeah, I'm guessing here the Justice League didn't go International, with a European embassy and all kinds of other stuff?" He suddenly gasps. "Did no one introduce J'Onn to Oreos???"