Owner Pose
Simon Williams It never made the news and basically nobody but himself and Captain Marvel know about it, but Wonder Man saved the world! Again! After aiding in vanishing Annihilus back to...well where that weirdo's from, Simon was in high spirits, especially as it meant that he had a fresh door open with the Avengers and could begin in earnest his character study on Steve.

Riding that high, Simon Williams threw a party. A Super Party. By no means a goody goody, this party was near apocalyptic in and of itself with seemingly no end to the alcohol, drugs, and women involved. Still, there's always an end. Thankfully all of the furniture in Simon's sprawling penthouse is reinforced.

At about 8 in the morning, it's largely died down, and Simon Williams finds himself waking up on the floor of his large kitchen, draped in a makeshift toga fashioned from the sheer red curtains that normally festoon the floor to ceiling windows in the living room. He reaches a hand up to scratch at the top of his head and begins to inspect the damage.
Vanessa Carlysle If you asked Vanessa, she would have never guessed she'd be at Simon William's penthouse, partying it up; She tends to be a little more downtown than uptown and while she's been to quite a few fancy parties (the result of previously dating one Oliver Queen years ago) it isn't her usual vibe.

But here she is, having crashed on the Avenger's sofa along with several other party-hardy types. And in true mother hen fashion, she's in the kitchen preparing breakfast... From the smell, huevos rancheros or some bastardized version. "Coffee?" She asks Simon dryly from where he wakes on the floor. "I hope you don't mind, but I made a pot for the poor souls that are hung over." She grimaces, reaching up to lightly touch her forehead. "Me included."
Simon Williams Starting a bit as he's addressed, Simon looks over his shoulder at the woman and tries to place her. It's true that it's incredibly hard for Simon to feel the effects of alcohol, but last night he tried really /really/ hard.

He snap points at her and says, "Mechanical bull. Right?" Rolling his neck, he moves around her to look down at what Vanessa is cooking, sniffing softly. "Coffee. Absolutely," he says, stepping over to the pot and procuring one of several Wonder Man-themed mugs from the rack above.

"Sorry I...I've forgotten your name." If she ever even had a chance to tell him. The entirety of the penthouse was occupied at one point or another last night.
Vanessa Carlysle "Vanessa." Said personage pushes dark hair out of her face, and reaches for her own Wonder Man mug to take a deep drink. "As much alcohol as you drank, I'm half surprised you are even awake."

Her own alcohol tolerance is somewhat limited, not having quite figured out how to use her powers in that fashion. But thanks to close proximity, she's able to borrow a little of his to help with the hangover. "Breakfast should be done soon." She tells him, "There's a couple of other people that crashed on the floor, but there was enough everyone should get some." Pause, consideringly, "Marvelous hangover remedy for us mortals, huevos rancheros."
Simon Williams "I'm cursed to have to spend most of my time sober, it seems," Simon says with a slight grin, moving to have a seat on if of the barstools at the counter.

He takes a deep breath and looks out the window towards Central Park before rubbing his eyes a touch. It's an affectation, but he's found that people are nicer and more genuine if he pretends to suffer the same ailments as them.

He takes a look around at some of the still-incapacitated party goers. "I don't think I recognize any of them. She was at the book signing the other day," he says, pointing at a woman sleeping atop his grand piano.
Vanessa Carlysle "You were grabbing people off the street." Vanessa replies with amusement as she goes to check on her huevos rancheros sauce, "Probably not the safest thing to do, but I guess when you can bench press most highrise buildings you don't worry about that." She dips the spoon in the tomato sauce, and offers Simon a taste. "Think it's about done."
Simon Williams "Gotta share the wealth, right?" Simon asks with a chuckle, sitting up a little straighter and adjusting his toga. "I just hope I didn't fly through anything last night," he adds with a touch of concern. He didn't take out any buildings, but he did accidentally knock over a hot dog stand when he turned too fast. Drunk Simon felt so bad about it, that he gave the vendor his wallet. He'll need to cancel some cards today.

Wonder Man leans forward to take a taste of the proffered spoon and smiles, nodding to Vanessa. "Are you a cook? I didn't steal you from a restaurant, did I?"
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini, one of those people "grabbed off the street", wakes up and tries to figure out where she is. She seems to vaguely recall some flying guy who invited her to some kind of party? And now she's buried in a pile of cloth. She struggles free and looks around... Anywhere that smells of huevos rancheros can't be all bad, in any case.
Cheyenne Brawley      Also unaffected by the miseries of post-binge ailments, but for different reasons, Cheyenne Brawley opens the penthouse door and walks in backwards, leading a stainless steel cart laden with two enormous serving platters, one on each level of the cart. The first platter is crammed with classic carne asada tacos strewn with diced white onions and minced cilantro, some dressed in a red sauce, others in green. A huge bowl of quacamole takes the center. The second platter is arrayed with scores of highball glasses, each filled to the brim with horchata - a sweet drink made with rice and, in this case, coconut milk, spiced with vanilla and cinnamon. "Now THIS is hangover food, y'all," he says with a grin, in a heavy southern drawl. "Made it myself." Turns out they will let you do anything in a swanky hotel, if you slip the right person the right amount of cash. Buster produces a pair of aviator sunglasses from a jacket pocket, which are emblazoned with a small Wonder Man logo, pops his sleeves, and slips them over his eyes with an air of the coolest guy in the world.
     He happens to hear Vanessa's comment on the way in and adds: "Not to worry, gal. He had a designated bouncer all night." The Texan winks.
Simon Williams Lifting his coffee cup in a toast to Hannah and Cheyenne, he then gestures it towards the coffee maker. "Pour yourselves a cup, strangers," he offers, lifting his own mug for a long sip as he studies Cheyenne. He notes the sunglasses and says, "Oh hey, you were at the signing, too. Mister Brawley," he taps, his free hand tapping his temple as he displays this masterful ability to retain a piece of information. He meets a lot of people, okay.
Hannah Montalcini The sight of the Wonder Man blanket (limited edition! made in collaboration with Pottery Barn) that Hannah was sleeping under helps jog her memory. Apparently Wonder Man was having a party and inviting random people off the street? She had got swept up in the chaos (partly because she was so focused on trying to remember which one Wonder Man was that she didn't think to argue) and ended up here. Also, she appears to have lost her jacket somewhere.
She spots her recent benefactor not far away and offers a quiet but friendly "good morning". She's not entirely sure she wants to be noticed, but it's better than being spotted just creepily staring wordlessly.
Cheyenne Brawley      "That's right, boss," Buster replies with a broad grin, helping himself to a glass of horchata. He dumps a load of it into his mouth, ice and all, and chews happily. The young woman gets a small wave, "Name's Buster. Yours?"
     He turns to Wonder Man and adds: "I hope you don't mind my asking, Mr. Williams, but do you ever concern yourself with the day-to-day business of heroing, here in the Big Apple? Comes as no surprise, I'm sure, but there's definitely some shenanigans afoot."
Simon Williams Wonder Man lifts a lazy salute to Hannah and smiles. "Hey how are ya?" he asks, once again adjusting his toga. He turns his attention to Cheyenne and nods, "Oh yeah all the time. Me and...what was his name? Hyperion! Hyperion and I stopped a robbery at a grocery store just the other day," he says. "My publicist tries to book me as solid as she can every day, but I try to make sure I'm helpful when I can be. Always work to be done."
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini looks a little nervous, but this certainly seems to be going better than the last time she was abducted by people she doesn't know. Might as well be polite. "Nice to meet you. I am Hannah... and i had not slept that well since arriving in this country." Maybe there was no need to mention that, but she wasn't sure what else to say... oh, wait, they've moved onto an promising subject.
"Um... i am probably much less powerful than you are, but i can at least help stop robberies, so if... if that might be useful sometime and you find yourself too busy, perhaps i could assist?" She seems timid but eager.
Cheyenne Brawley      Buster grins, "That robber must have stopped in his tracks when he saw it was you." He dollops some guacamole on a taco, folds it and stuffs it into his mouth, whole. A moment later, he adds: "The other day I was down at the job site in Bushwick, and some ol' boy comes outa nowhere with a pack of gun-toting goons. I coulda handled it," he notes, matter-of-factly, "but this enormous feller - never learned his name, I called him Tiny; said he was with the Brotherhood, had to be twelve feet tall, had this magic crystal or somethin' - tossed the ringleader into the air, through a parked car, and into a brick wall with LITERALLY no more than the flick of a finger," Buster's excitement grows as he recounts the tale, and punctuates it firmly: "true story. Anyway, I found out after the fact the troublemaker's name was Bane. The way it looks, he wants to roll into Mutant Town and take over, like The Humungus, and I wanna stop him. I don't suppose you'd know something about him, Mr. Williams?" He turns to the young woman, "Or you, Miss Hannah?"
Simon Williams "You've got powers?" Simon asks of Hannah. "What kinds?" he asks, seemingly very interested.

"Bane? That's pretty funny, actually. I actually just got cast last night to play him...well a legally distinct version of him on that show Theme of the Crime. The one about Gotham. My agent said they were offering good money and it might be time for me to try my hand at playing a villain for once. Really looking forward to it," he explains. "But other than his name and the fact that he's pretty strong, no I don't know much."
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini shakes her head. "I have been in this country just a short while and know almost no one... but have been working in Mutant Town as of recently, so i might end up involved regardless?" She gives a weak smile and, in response to Simon's question, throws a couple of punches at the air.
"When i hit people, it does more damage than it should, but then heals after by more than it hurt them. Not very impressive compared to your powers, but at least it permits me not to worry so much about overdoing the violence. Also, this lets me heal people, but they may not enjoy it." She shrugs. "It is weak compared to many powers i have seen, but i can only work with what i have."
Cheyenne Brawley      Buster tsks with a shrug, "Yeah, the more I ask around, the more it seems like most people don't know nothin' about Bane. That's the problem," he mutters as he steps over to Hannah and stands a couple feet in front of her in a wide stance, one palm poised vertically, drink in his other hand. He waggles his brows at her. "Show me."
Simon Williams "Weak doesn't sound quite right, Miss Hannah. The fact that you get out there at all to fight the good fight means that you're stronger than most," he says, smiling and nodding to her. "And if you ever decide to hang it up, it sounds like you'd make a hell of a doctor."

He sets his mug down and stands, looking between the two of them. "I'll be right back. Don't steal anything."
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini is finding this conversation is mostly going over her head figuratively as well as literally, but Buster was nice enough to tell her to do something she does know. She shifts into a boxer's stance almost instinctively and lands a quick jab on his palm; she doesn't know how tough he is, so doesn't want to risk going all-out.
The physical force is roughly what might be expected of a skilled bantamweight boxer, but as the blow hits, some kind of chaotic life energy surges into Buster's hand, making the blow about five times as damaging.
Hannah looks nervously up at him, saying, "I hope that was not overly painful. It should heal in a few minutes anyway."
Cheyenne Brawley      Buster jerks his hand back in surprise after he's struck, "OoooOOoooWeeee, gal, that smarts!" He stands shaking out his hand, opening and closing his fist, but he's all grins. "Hannah, do you wanna work for me? I need some security around the job site in Mutant Town. Just the other day, some copper pipes grew legs and walked away. I wouldn't expect you to be there all the time o'course, just drop by for some extra cash when you have a chance." He leans in a bit and adds, "I'll pay you double for night work. What do ya say?"
Simon Williams Stepping back into the room, now fully dressed in his usual Wonder Man costume (always be on-brand), Simon adjusts his bracers and looks between Hannah and Cheyenne, brows lifted. "Hey, no fighting," he says with a grin, waving it off as he moves to plate out some of the huevos rancheros Vanessa made now that they're finally ready.

"You afraid Bane's gonna come back, then?" Simon asks before licking some sauce off of his thumb.
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini grins and nods. "That would be great! I am cooking for Hope House these days, but should be able to work around it well enough." Her smile fades as a thought strikes her: "However... often, security is more about being intimidating than violent, and i fail at being intimidating." She is only 4'9", after all. "But if that is not a problem, i would appreciate the opportunity."
She takes a break from the job interview; food takes priority. She hungrily decends upon a plate of heuveros rancheros, pausing only to explain to Simon that she had been demonstrating her power.
Talia al Ghul It's always an alarming situation to wake up when you don't remember falling asleep. For Talia al Ghul, that's in one of the guest bedrooms somewhere in Simon Williams' bustling estate. There are several benefits of having one's genetics kissed up against by the Lazarus Pit, you know. Slowed aging is the big one. It has helped her continue to look as if she's somewhere in her late twenties when she's actually in her early forties and, today, has helped her not be completely hungover and ruined.

Still a little groggy though.

"Ah, well, at least I took off my high heels," she murmurs to her bare feet, peering over her side to check for a body or sign of warmth. Empty bed. Another thing to be thankful for.

When Talia emerges from the bedroom and down to where others have gathered, it's in some combination of Simon's clothes that she's ostensibly stolen from his room. Old band shirt, check. Basketball shorts that are way too big? Check. Top marks, Talia.

"It's too early to talk about that," she murmurs in passing to Simon, stopping briefly to peek at whatever it is he's eating.

"...huevos rancheros?"
Cheyenne Brawley      "Excellent, Miss Hannah," Buster beams at her, "just turn up and report to the foreman. Site's on the same street as The Centinel, can't miss it - sign says Mutant Works." He turns to Simon, still opening and closing his hand, though it's clearly starting to feel better, "I am afraid Bane is going to come back... and hurt a lot of innocent people. He and his goons just started popping off rounds and demanding everbody go inside, like he had the authority to impose a curfew. Lord knows 911 is a joke in Mutant Town, so I mean to do something about hin." When Talia makes her arrival, his words trail off; he goes a little wide-eyed and swallows hard. "Mornin' ma'am."
Simon Williams Simon looks up from his plate and spies Talia. "Courtesy of Miss Vanessa. Wherever she got off to. Cheyenne here brought some tacos up, too," Simon explains, getting back to his eggs. "Where'd I snatch you from?" he asks of Talia.

Looking to Cheyenne for a moment, he says, "I can't make any promises, but if I'm in the area the next time he makes a play, I'll make sure he changes his mind."
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini waves to Talia, her mouth too busy with food to offer verbal greetings. She's not going to judge the outfit; her own - consisting of velcro-fastened child's gym shoes, a "Small Horse Adventures" t-shirt with the sleeves ripped off and a skirt that is notable only in its extreme genericity - leaves her little room to judge.
In response to the Bane discussion, she reluctantly pauses in her eating to say, "If i can help with this somehow, please let me know? I heal faster than normal too, if that matters."
Talia al Ghul "Rest assured, Mr. Williams, you did not snatch me from anywhere," Talia says, aloof as ever. Mercurial, you know? Sort of like a kitty cat. Though she does toe-step her way over towards that plate to inspect what Simon's eating a little more closely and nips lightly at her bottom lip. A warm smile is given towards Buster and it's followed by a simple "good morning" in return. That same smile and greeting is extended to Hannah, and then Talia is slinking off towards the source of food. It isn't long before she emerges. This time, with a modest little bit of juevos rancheros on a plate and a fork tucked into her mouth.
Cheyenne Brawley      The Texan nods gratefully to Simon, "Much appreciated, sir. What I'd really like to do is find his home base and call down a hydrogan bomb - metaphorically speaking, that is." Buster returns to his cart of tacos, shovels some guacamole onto several of them, and eats them one at a time, whole. The others receive an all-encompassing glance, "What are the plans for today?"
Simon Williams Continuing to munch away at the huevos rancheros, Simon turns to look at Cheyenne before he spies the clock on the wall. "Well, in about 30 minutes, I need to be at a fundraiser in Midtown for at-risk youths, then at eleven I've got another signing. One o'clock I think is free, but probably not. I know that at three I'm going to a press conference about that new show. And the rest of the day is continuing the book tour," Simon explains, probably forgetting a ton of other stuff, but that's what the assistant is for.
Hannah Montalcini Looking up to Buster, Hannah suggests, "I have been captured by bad guys before. Perhaps i should let that happen again, for the purposes of locating their hideout? Is that something they might do? I know little about them, as i said."
She finishes her meal, her fork clattering against her plate as she captures the last few scraps and listens to the details of Simon's busy day. If that's what being a powerful hero is like, maybe she should be glad to be a small-timer.
Talia al Ghul What is on Talia al Ghul's agenda for the evening? She contemplates this while scooping up a bit of egg and mixing the yolk around atop her plate, a thoughtful sigh escaping her lips as she considers the many options. None of them seem particularly appealing to her, and she gazes longingly over her shoulder towards the large windows pointing out into the back yard. "Mmmmh, perhaps I'll go to the beach and continue pretending I don't have better ways I could be spending my time," she muses. Then pops a bit more egg and salsa into her mouth while glancing back between the three. She seems to be attempting to put together bits and pieces of the night before, little memories replaying in her head.

"I wouldn't advise getting kidnapped as a means of getting... well. Anything you want, really. Too many uncontrolled variables," she offers, but then taps the bowed end of the fork against her lips thoughtfully.
Cheyenne Brawley      Cheyenne purses his lips and points at Talia in a 'she knows what she's talking about' sort of way, though his gaze is focused on Hannah, "But I think you're on the right track, gal. Maybe you could pretend you're interested in joining his organization? You know, become a mole, all sneaky-like. I don't know the details, but there seems to be something of a cult about the whole thing." Then to Simon: "Hey boss, I don't mean to impose or anything, but if you have time, and you're not on set somewhere, and you think it's a worthy cause and whatnot, do you suppose there's any chance you might make an appearance on opening day, when Mutant Works is ready for action?" He lifts his hands in a hesitant gesture, "I mean, that won't be for several months yet, anyway, but since I'm right here and all, I thought I might as well ask." Without meaning to, Buster gives Simon the biggest puppydog eyes known to mankind.
Simon Williams Simon stands up and reaches for a paper towel to wipe his mouth with before cleaning off his hands. He sniffs sharply and looks to Cheyenne, nodding. "Absolutely. Take a card from the rack when you head out and we'll see if we can make it work," he says, flashing that flashy smile. Bending the heavy metal bracer around his forearm tighter with his hand, he looks to the three conscious partygoers and says, "I need to go, but you all can feel free to hang around. Just don't steal anything. Unless it's a Daytime Emmy. I need to make room on the shelf," he says with a grin.

He salutes the three of them and opens the door out onto the terrace. Stepping out, an aura of lightning-esque crackling purple energy swells up around him and he's jetting off into the sky on a course towards Midtown.
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini nods. "Go undercover? That is likely a better idea. Would i have a tracking device, so i could signal for rescue when needed? Even if they figure out i am a spy... well, they would undoubtedly take time to interrogate me, giving you time to attack. I can cope; anyway, they would ultimately do worse things to many people if unopposed... However, if they are actually hiding rather than not merely not yet found, they might not take new recruits directly to their base."
She waves to Simon as he leaves, then stares - he knows how to make an exit! She then shrugs and looks between her two remaining companions. "Do you know how i might convince them i am their type? I would rather not be required to eat live kittens to appear sufficiently evil."
Cheyenne Brawley      "Let's meet up sometime and talk it all through," Buster says to Hannah. "I don't have a phone, or anything, but you can find me most anytime at the Centinel Hotel, or the job site I told you about before." He makes to leave in the normal manner, through the front door. "Nice meetin' ya, gal. I look forward to seeing more of you." With that, he's on his way out.
Hannah Montalcini Hannah Montalcini glances around nervously, then hurries out after Buster. She doesn't know where this place is... and, as a homeless person, she's at enough risk from the police without being left in a wealthy person's home; it'd be easy to blame her if something's been stolen.
"I am usually at Hope House in Mutant Town, but i will make sure to look for you in those places. Thank you! And it was nice to meet you too!"