Surely you Jest (IC)

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

There was a certain pattern to these sorts of things. Mad scientist makes a break through in their chosen field. Their peers don't recognize their brilliance and ostracize them for their "outlandish theories". Mad scientist swears revenge on those that wronged them. Mad scientist hires goons to "acquire" the necessary components for their nefarious schemes. Heroes move in and foil all the plans.

But just because its routine, doesn't mean its any less dangerous, especially when the Mad scientist has deep pockets and can hire some pretty capable goons. A group of mercenaries calling themselves the Power Pack have begun a raid on one of the warehouses in Hanover that hold quite an array of high tech goodies, all ripe for the taking. The Power Pack is a 4 man band composed of: Strong Man, Burn, Dash and Force, the last one being the only girl on the team. They are all clad in a red and black uniform of sorts, though tailored to their individual's taste.

When the heroes arrive on scene, Strong Man has breached the walls of the warehouse, and Dash runs inside, probably looking for something specific. Burn and Force are on crowd control, and have neutralized the last of the guards.

[quotemyname]

"All units report to Warehouse 138 in Hanover! Robbery in progress. Super Villain activity reported. Use extreme caution!"

Breakdown was perched atop one of the buildings in Pyramid Square when he felt the radio waves wash over him. He tuned into the frequency that emergency personnel use and picked up on the emergency broadcast. "If they're reporting Super Villains directly over the radio waves, that must mean there's some really big trouble. My guess is that the cops'll never be able to handle this by themselves." Breakdown offered to no one in particular.

"Guess I'd better go help out." He sighed in fake disappointment. "No rest for the weary." He lived for this stuff.

---

Amidst a splash of symbols, Breakdown appeared on the scene after a long range teleport. He did his level best to pick up all the details at once. He just managed to catch a glimpse of a color streak dashing into the building. Dash! He's one of the fastest getaway's in town! He also took note of the other assembled criminals. I see strong man's breakin' stuff to look tough, as usual. Burn and Force too, they're probably artillery support. I wonder who hired these guys.

His split second analysis concluded, he made his presence known. "Hey! Don't you touch another brick in that wall!" he yelled, pointing at Strong Man.

[Gizmo]

A figure appeared on the roof of the warehouse just above the gaping hole, greatcoat flapping behind him and crackling electrical rapier held loosely at his side. "You heard the hipster, kids. You're already outnumbered in collective IQ points; how about coming along quietly?" called Jack of all Blades from his perch above the scene. He'd been the closest Interceptor to the robbery when Vince had gotten word; a quick change and some rooftop acrobatics later and he was ready to show the superpowered thieves how they did things in the West End.

The swashbuckler quickly scanned the opposing forces. Vince's intel said they were called the Power Pack, but there hadn't been time for much beyond that. The big guy and the fast guy wouldn't be an issue; they'd have to close to fight him and he was confident he could easily deal with them in melee combat. The other two members of the Pack were harder to pin down; probably ranged fighters, he decided, which meant they were the higher priority. His eyes fixed on the comelier of the two with a twinkle. "Well, hey there," he grinned in Force's direction. "How you doin'?"

[patcore]

Just my luck! Thought Thad as he was stopped in his tracks a block away from where Strong Man decided to make a new door. I had to be in the mood to go out to eat today. And of course I wanted to actually walk around a bit. Thad heaved his shoulders and sighed as he looked down at his take out bag from his favorite Spanish restaurant. There was a blur of movement as something went inside and Thad now saw Burn and Force. Who the heck are these people and what are they doing so close to home? Soon, out of no where, some kid was telling them off. Thad looks a little puzzled as another youngster from up top the warehouse appears and begins to scold the three remaining outside.

Shaking his head to make sure he wasn't imagining what he was seeing Thad knew things could get ugly real quick. I want this to end soon so the damages don't spread any further. A lot of people could get hurt. The thought troubled Thad as he began to think up something to do. With those two kids grabbing their attention I just may be able to catch one of them by surprise. He began to move towards the fray when he realized he was still carrying his take out order. Thad's stomach rumbled slightly as he set his meal on the ground. Don't move! Thad said as he pointed an accusing finger at the stationary bag. He looked back at the scene and knew it was time he started really making a difference.

[Nyrath]

I should probably work on getting better at this. Alex thought as she shock of the disorientation following her long-distance teleport. Having overheard the distress call on the radio of the police officer doing an impromptu interrogation regarding the nature of her relations with his younger siblings (officer Halbourn was rather rather sharp she'd learned), moving at once on that had offered her a handy escape. To bad she hadn't spent enough time at the Hanover warehouses before to go straight to number 138, or one nearby for that matter, so she'd had needed to aim for a place she knew from where she might get there quickly. I.e the sky, which wasn't the best of places to be disoriented in when you need a mediocrum of concentration to remain airborne. Fortunately starting high up did allow her to stabilize, get an overview, find the incident and then go for a somewhat dramatic swooping dive onto the scene. Which is what she did.

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

"Dash! Stick to the plan! Strong Man, play goalie!" shouts Burn to the two members on the ground. The two fall quickly into position in what was probably a very rehearsed set of maneuvers. Dash streaks into the building and Strong Man sets himself in the opening in the wall he had made, so that he can impede progress into the building.

Burn and Force flew closer together, they were close enough to watch each other's backs without impeding each others moves and also picked out a position where they had a great view of the surrounding area, and ensured that anyone entering the roof from above would probably have to go through them as well.

Strong Man replied to Breakdown's demand simply by crushing a piece of the rubble in his hand, and beckoning him closer.

Force looked at Jack for a moment as if he were some sort of aberration, before cracking a smile. "Pretty good, I am about to be paid handsomely for crushing a pretty boy into the concrete after all."

[quotemyname]

"Oh, that's how it's gonna be, huh?" Breakdown scowled at Strong Man. If his Visor had been anything less than opaque, you might have seen his eyes narrow. He raised his left arm in front of him and tapped one of the buttons on the sleeve of his motorcycle jacket with his right hand.

"Said when they come for me I'll be sitting at my desk

With a gun in my hand wearing a bullet proof vest

Saying, 'My, my, my! How the time must fly!

When you know you're going to die by the end of the night!'"

The various horn and guitar sounds of Keasby Nights flowed outward to cover the street around him for all to hear. Suddenly, Breakdown spread his feet wide, his red Converse All-Star high top sneakers gritting against the pavement.

Staring Strong Man down, he threw his palm forward in time with one particularly loud trumpet blast towards both the Villain and the Warehouse. "Take this!" His attack sang across the street and a wave of compressed sound crashed into the villain's chest!

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

Strong Man threw out his chest and absorbed the impact without any visible trouble. He glanced down and saw a I-beam amidst the rubble. He hefted it up quite easily and threw it like a javelin straight at Breakdown. "You're in my house now punk!" taunted Strong Man as the steel connected straight in Breakdown's chest.

[Nyrath]

That's Jack of Blades down there bantering with the girl already. Though Alex as she took a second to assess the situation and seeing who she recognized. And that's got to be Breakdown down there. Getting an I-beam in the chest... Now Maenheld was a little pissed. She flared her wings up and out, slowing down from an almost leisurely glide to a hover for increased stability for her shot. Angry red, black-tinted flames collected in and around her hands before being thrown at the big one who'd just struck at the musical teen hero.

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

The flames envelop Strong Man, and he is suddenly doubled over clutching his head. "Not real! Not real! Not real!" he shouts over and over again, and with a Herculean effort, he manages to throw off the effects of the flames, but the experience seems to leave him panting for air. "BURN! She doesn't do that again!" shouts Strong Man to the pyro above him.

[Gizmo]

Jack winced inwardly as the metal beam collided with the teenager down below. Teens with powers; never a good idea. Miraculously, the boy seemed to be alright, if inconvenienced. With a full set of opponents of the field, however, the swordsman was just going to have to trust him to take care of himself. Fortunately it looked like Mongrel Angel had arrived and was watching the hipster's back, though Jack noted with some confusion that the winged heroine looked about a decade or so older than when he'd last seen her. Nice. Babygirl filled out. Clearing his head, he turned his attention to his current dance partner.

"See, I know you were trying to be all bad ass there," he called over to Force, "but all I heard was 'blah blah blah pretty boy blah blah we should totally make out'." The swashbuckler grinned, his posture deceptively relaxed and unconcerned. "Or maybe I was just picking on the subtext there."

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

"Tell me, do those lines ever actually work, or do you just like hearing yourself talk?" calls Force to Jack, clearly not too amused.

Burn on the other hand has his eyes still on the mission itself, and that means clipping the angel's wings. He concentrates a ball of fire in his hands and lets it loose at the flying target. It looks like he misses, but then the ball of fire suddenly denotes, enveloping Mongrel Angel and the surrounding night sky in a fire ball.

[quotemyname]

The makeshift steel javelin had twisted in mid-air. By the time Breakdown realized what had happened, the broad side of the steel hit him directly in the chest with a bone-jarring KRANNG!

Knocked nearly senseless he quickly departed the battlefield aided by none other than his new steel best friend. Slamming into the broad side of a nearby warehouse, he felt the steel wrap itself around him.

Trapped. Not good. He needed to get back in the fight.

[Nyrath]

Missed! Or was it *FOOM* ...deliberate. The fireball's detonation was to quick for the dark angel to shield herself in time so as to mitigate the effects of the fiery blast. Fortunately it exploded behind her so her wings shielded the rest of her quite by happy accident. Yes, they were singed, and her clothes were now somewhat scorched. But no real damage had been done, nothing that would impede her as the fight continued.

Mmmm, toasty.

[patcore]

Thad gave up on the idea of making a surprise attack when he saw the kid in the leather get pinned by the metal beam. That's not good, we'll need all the support we can get to win this. He looked on as Strong man's head became engulfed with flames and began to shout for back up. Burn decided the best way for this was to create a deadly fireworks display in the sky trying to catch, what appeared to be an angel, in it's blast.

Where are all these people coming from. To think I could live here and not have been bothered by this sort of thing was a mistake. Thad thought to himself. Oh, well. There were bound to be drawbacks sooner or later.

Thad looked over to the beam that was pinning Breakdown and it soon began to shimmer as it became wrapped with a translucent blue substance. He easily plucked it out of the side of the building and said "Hey kid, time to get back into the game." Thad then looked at Burn and decided it would be best not to have any more explosions going on over head and sent the I-beam straight for the fire bug.

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

Burn is able to whether the hit as the I begins to melt as it approaches him, softening the impact tremendously. "They're coming out of the wood work!" roars Burn in frustration. "Don't worry, I'll thin their numbers." answers Force. She sits cross legged in the air, hands on her knees, eyes closed in meditation. A ghostly image of herself exits her body and streaks straight at Jack, and passes right into his body. Immediately, Jack feels as though someone is trying to burrow through his chest. "Do you know the fastest way to a man's heart?" taunts Force as she floats in mid air.

Dash then proceeds to come running out of the warehouse and streaks down one of the street, stopping briefly to hand something to Strong Man. He returns carrying what looks like a bag of base balls and a bat. He throws the bucket into the air, and slugs everyone of the balls at Mongrel Angel before they get anywhere close to the ground before he goes streaking off in the opposite direction.

[Geez3r]

Then, a series of very strange things happen. The ground begins to rubble and crack in line like in all those old bugs bunny cartoons. It twists and turns and even loops back on itself. It head straight for the warehouse Strong Man is guarding. It connects with a solid thud and stops. Then a man wearing a straight jack pops out of the ground nursing his head. "Now who put that there?" He pulls a rather large map out of his pockets. "Knew I should have taken that left turn at Albright. Hey Mack," says the strange man as he approaches Strong Man "You know how I can get to the Liberty Dome from here?" as he holds the map out to him.

"Uhh... looks like you just follow up 4th street till you get off on 17, right over that way." "Well thank you kindly. Never would have found it on my own. Here, you're a stand up guy, take a cigar." Jester takes a cigar out of his pockets, jabs it in Strong Man's mouth and lights it, at which point it starts to hiss and sizzle. "Enjoy Mack, you earned it." calls Jester as he dives back into the rabbit hole, leaving Strong Man with a nice big grin on his face.

A few seconds later, there's a deafening explosion, and Strong Man's face is covered in soot and a few of his teeth fall out of his head and most of his hair has been comically burnt off. From the rabbit hole, a great deal of manic cackling can be heard.

[quotemyname]

Breakdown fell to his knees at the edge of the building as the I-beam was ripped away suddenly. Another one? I don't know him... And I know practically everybody. He must be new.

As he rose to his feet he was equally stunned by the apparent arrival of a real loony...toon... Breakdown shook his head, trying to clear away the cobwebs. Nope, he's still here. This town gets weirder everyday. Well, at least he seems to be ... Jester?! No way he's fighting the good fight, but maybe I can get him to help out just this once.

"Hey kid, time to get back into the game."

"Back in the fight! Right!" Breakdown slapped his arm again and switched to a different song. A long screechy guitar cord echoed across the street. The drums started playing, and and the rhythm guitar got revved up.

"All you women who want a man of the street

But you don't know which way you wanna turn

Just keep a coming and put your hand out to me

'Cause I'm the one who's gonna make you burn

I'm gonna take you down - down, down, down

So don't you fool around

I'm gonna pull it, pull it, pull the trigger!"

Suddenly, Breakdown was charging across the gap between himself and Strong Man. Though, instead of barreling straight into the big man, he ended in a long power-slide right at the man's feet, hopefully proving as an effective distraction. "He's all yours, Bugs!"

[Gizmo]

Jack doubled over for a moment, taken off guard by Force's mental assault, then willed himself back upright, squaring his shoulders and shaking off the effect. The swashbuckler cracked his neck loudly and smirked. "Well, I hear it's through his stomach, but you don't really strike me as the home ec type. Not much use in a fight either; good thing you're pretty, huh?"

A commotion on the ground caught his attention for a moment, and he looked down to see what appeared to be a man clad in a straight jacket which, Jack's metahuman senses assured him, was constructed entirely of the trilling sound made by strumming a finger back and forth over pursed lips. The strange man was evidently channeling the Warner Brothers and their sister Dot with explosive results. The swordsman blinked, then took a step back from the edge of the rooftop, very consciously refocusing on Force and refusing to comment of the scene even to himself.

[Nyrath]

The sudden hail of super-sonic baseballs proves a somewhat greater worry than the fireball to the winged hero, she can see them coming after all, kinda. And a few of them nearly strike some sensitive areas, which would certainly have caused pain of note, but they don't and while she realizes she just might be a little sore in some places afterwards right now there's other stuff to worry about.

"Well matchstick," Mongrel began, clearly addressing the fire-user. "I can't say you seem that much of a threat with your flour-bombs. Now where'd the caffeinated, wingless mayfly on a sugar rush go?" The dark-skinned heroine makes a good show of switching her attention to try and find where the speedster went off, collecting power in her hands to fire a blast again. This time though it's brilliant light with hints of flame rather than the angry, dark flames that seared at Strong Man's mind.

Suddenly Alex whirls around and blasts at Burn with the holy energy collected in her left hand. She follows up this with her right hands collected charge, using her previous shot as a guideline and making any necessary corrections to hit the flying matchstick.

[Gizmo]

Taking a few steps back from the edge of the warehouse, Jack let his electrical sword dissipate as he gave Force a smile that was all teeth. "You want to get in my head, pretty lady? Well then, let's connect as people!" Springing forward, he sprinted to the end of the roof and launched himself off, soaring through the air directly at the surprised flying criminal. With unerring accuracy, the swashbuckler collided with his target, sending them both plummeting to the ground. As they fell, the acrobat twisted, getting Force under him so that she took the brunt of the damage when they finally landed. Keeping his wits about him despite the violent shudder, he quickly pinned the woman to the pavement, the dangerous grin never leaving his face.

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

Force was caught completely off guard by Jacks rather odd tactics, and the pair of them went tumbling to the ground. Force's energy aura flared for a moment as she landed on the ground cushioning her impact. "So you like it rough huh?" says Force as she looks up at Jack. "I can work with that."

Burn weathers Mongrel Angel's assault, though only just. "Okay, enough of this!" roars burn as he gathers a large swirling ball of fire high above his head. However, he doesn't use it on the heroes, and instead blasts the warehouses on the east side of the complex, which are suddenly engulfed in a raging inferno. "Your choice heroes, the buildings or us."

[patcore]

Between the exploding cigars, baseballs being used as anti-air rounds, loud music, mid-air flirting, and angels battling fire controllers Thad was beginning to think this couldn't be real. Until he saw the warehouses engulfed in flames. That's when the not so realistic suddenly could become an all-out city inferno if nothing was done to stop it.

Seeing that his new allies could take care of themselves in the battle Thad's body began to glow as he prepares to fly to the nearest fire. Once Thad's body is fully wrapped he is there almost instantaneously, landing on top of a warehouse next to the one on fire. "I can't let these flames get out of control. Buildings of these sizes have to have water towers." Thad tells himself as he scans the rooftops. Thad spots one and prepares himself for what he'll need to do if there is any hope of quenching the blaze that threatened his neighborhood.

[Geez3r]

GM ONLY POST

"You know Jack... I think we got off on the wrong foot. Why don't you let me up so we can take it from the top hrmm?" asks Force as her eyes glow with power, and Jack feels a force in his mind compelling him to let her up.

A veritable sonic boom is felt throughout the area as Dash runs back into the area and cracks the power sliding Breakdown upside the head with a bat at full speed. He skids to a halt turning to face Breakdown "Look at this. Just caved in your head, my bat's still dry. No clumps a' hair. Nothing. I mean look at you! Looks like you ran through traffic." after his taunts, he speeds off into the distance again.

[quotemyname]

"OW!" Breakdown's head snapped back as the bat connected with his forehead. Somehow, he managed not to get whiplashed. As Dash tore off down the street after his taunts, Breakdown called after him, "Hey! Nobody's even paying attention to you! Jerk!"