"When They Hear Oom Pah Pah!" (IC)

[Dr Archeville]

I'll show you some pass-

Weren't you checking out the menu?

Archeville smiles at her, a smile that is both disarmingly inviting and serves to remind her all the more of just how agitated he was a moment ago, "Oh, I vould not dream of doing anyding to damage your relationship mit ASTRO Labs, but I vould be very pleased if you came over und did some vork on me. Ah, I mean, mit me, vork on projeckts mit me."

The Doktor's face turned a few shades redder.

Just then, a waitress -- one very much unlike any seen before -- arrived. "Ach, Viktor! Still so skinny! It's a good ding you come here to eat properly, ja? Und who is dis fraulein mit you, hrm?"

The Doktor's face was now several shades redder.

I can check out more than one things at a- whoa... you hear that?

Hear what? It's hard to hear anything over Helga's- oh.. oh no!

Yeah! I wondered if we'd see the rest of 'em!

An explosion suddenly rocked the front of the Biergarten, sending dozens of people flying. Out of the conflagration strode a quartet of humanoid figures, each clad head-to-toe in gleaming chrome armor, adorned with a large numerical character on the chest. 1, 3, 5, and 7.

#1 did the talking, while the others covered the area with gauntlet-mounted blasters. His voice had an eerily flanged, bass-augmented register as it rang out through the speakers in his armor.

"We have come for Doktor Archeville. We know he is here." One of the armored figures passed something to #1, and he tossed it to the ground several feet in front of him: it was the head of the animatronic David Hasselhoff Gosamer saw was driving Archeville's limo, badly damaged and with the left half of its face torn/burned off. "Surrender him now!"

No. 5 keeps a lookout behind them, while Nos. 3 and 7 cover the sides.

[Heritage]

"Surrender him now!"

Oh for the love of...

Lots of innocent people, violent armor-plated thugs and here Estelle neglected to bring her jumpsuit along on her date, not that she could have practically worn it under her little blue dress.

Hmm, I might need to speak with the FAR boys about that.

Her first thought is to get the baddies to focus on her and no one else; to do that, she will need to be highly visible and well-protected. She could try the weird idea she'd been toying with...well, desperate times and all that.

The beautiful blonde turns to her companion and grimaces ruefully.

"Excuse me one moment, won't you?"

She sets down her purse, rises to her feet and kicks off her shoes; she then begins purposefully striding towards the entrance, and as she does, something remarkable happens, even for this heroine. Her long shimmering hair, each strand stronger than tensile steel, begins to wraps itself around her body, weaving itself into a bizarre suit of golden armor that fits her like a glove. Even stretched out to its limit, it takes almost every fiber to sheathe her from head to toe, but enough is left for her to wield a golden braided whip some ten feet long that lashes about like an angry snake.

"I'm sorry, you gentlemen seemed to have dropped something."

[Dr Archeville]

Pft, those fools, our force field can hold up to anything they can dish out!

Yes, but the same cannot be said of anyone else here. And who knows how Gossamer would hold up against them.

I'd like to hold up agains-

Not now, you lech! We have to get these four out of here, away from everyone. We will not be able to coordinate things as well as we did last time, so we have got to be careful!

Will this mean I'll get to come out and save the day, like I did last time? It has been a while since I've been out, and you know what happened if I'm cooped up for too long.

... I suppose so.

Most of the Biergarten's patrons were still very confused and frazzled, but a few did look towards where Archeville and Gossamer had been sitting.

But Archeville was not there anymore.

Concealed by his cloaking field, he slowly flew out, past stunned waitstaff, and past Gossamer. He tried to whisper something to her, but then remembered his latest upgrades to the belt's cloaking field blocked sound as well as it did electromagnetic radiation. So he continued, up and around the scared patrons and the rubble, until he was in amongst the middle of the group. He planned to uncloak amongst them, say something witty, then use his Electromagnetic Screwdriver to disable them all, just like he had with their teammates he faced almost a year ago.

At least, that was the plan.

"Sod off, lady," No.1 sneers, "we don't want you, we want your boyfriend!" His last word was punctuated by a blast from his left gauntlet, though it missed and hit the ground a few inches or so to her left; she was unsure if he'd intended to do that, or with he'd truly meant to hit her but misjudged.

She does not have to wonder that for the blast from No.7, which hit her head on!

As Gossamer deals with that, she can see No.5 -- who had been facing outward, tot he street -- turn around and look between their group. No.3 joins in, and both raise their gauntlet-blasters at something in amongst them. They open fire; No.5's beam blasts a hole in the floor, but No.3's beam strikes something invisible in their midst. "Coward! Your cloaking field won't save you! Surrender to us now, or we start blasting people!"

[Heritage]

"Sod off, lady," No.1 sneers, "we don't want you, we want your boyfriend!"

Gossamer arches one elegant eyebrow and casually looks down at the point of impact; she is far too annoyed for this cretin to put the fear of God into her.

"You missed, you moron."

She does not have to wonder that for the blast from No.7, which hit her head on!

For a moment, the golden goddess is rocked backwards, but she never losses her balance or her disdainful expression, which was now gone ice cold.

"You're going to regret this intrusion."

She swings her arm, and her 'lash' darts out towards No.1, aiming for his weapon arm.

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer misjudges the amount of hair she has left to work with, and her lash falls short of its intended prey.

They can see us? THEY CAN SEE US?! How is this possible?!

Panicking is not going to help us divulge an answer. Now, what do we know?

We know we kicked their four teammates buts some time back... so they're probably here for revenge on us!

Maybe. I mean, they are mercenaries, i could be they were sen by someone to get us. But who? And why?

Well, I doubt they'll just tell us.

Not here, no. But perhaps back at their-

Wait... no! NO!

Doktor Archeville suddenly faded into view between the armored men. "Alright, alright, stop, stop! Vhat do you vant of me? Vhy are you doing dis?"

"Why?" No. 1 repeated, "Why, revenge, of course. Against you."

"Revenge? But you are mercenaries! Surely you know dat-"

No. 1 cut him off, "I know, dear Doktor, that you -- somehow -- bested four of my men. And I am going to make sure you pay for that, in a very public manner. The Power Corps is the best of the best, and we're going to prove it, in front of a big audience!"

Nos. 3, 5 and 7 had been moving closer to Archeville. He'd seen them moving in, but was not able to react in time. They were now in an optimal position, and when all three fired, the Doktor fell to the ground, alive but unconscious. Nos. 3 & 7 scooped him up and flew out the door; Nos. 1 and 5 kept an eye on everyone.

[Heritage]

The armor effect was nice in theory, but using so much of her hair for defense left Estelle very little for offense, and right now the good doctor's safety overshadowed her own. In a flash, the golden fibers furled, and a thick tentacle snaked across the biergarden, shooting past several increasingly frightened customers, and wrapped itself around the unconscious uber-genius, yanking him back to her side.

"The nerve of some people! We haven't even received our entrees yet, and you're running off with my date!" :evil:

[Dr Archeville]

Archeville was yanked from the clutches of #3 and #7.

"You do not wanna mess with us, missy," #1 roared as he and his three like-suited associates all turned and opened fire on Gossamer. "We came to make this egghead pay for what he did, and we're not about to let some blonde tart stop us!"

[Heritage]

"We came to make this egghead pay for what he did, and we're not about to let some blonde tart stop us!"

Before there was even time her eyes to widenn in shock and fear, Gossamer hair was in motion, slidding effortlessly off of the inert genius and coiling around her body and limbs in a protective cocoon, leaving one shorter tendril free for possible offense.

:shock:

[Dr Archeville]

The first blast hit mostly hair, though it did singe her scalp a bit.

The second and third blasts hit nothing but large masses of hair.

The fourth blast, though, did the trick, hitting her square in the chest and knocking the wind out of her. And in that brief moment when she was stunned, and her hair around Archeville fell slack, the others moved in and grabbed him, then zipped off via their boot-jets, carrying the Doktor towards the east.

When Gossamer could breathe again, and the stars were mostly out of her eyes, she estimated they were already nearly half a mile away.

This date was not turning out at all like she'd hoped.

"Are you alright, Miss?," a young waiter asked as he offered to help her up. Other voices were rising -- calls to 911, or to friends; complaints about a ruined meal, and how "those superheroes" should do more to prevent this sort of thing; the CLICKS of digital cameras taking pictures of the wreckage, or of the blonde heroine who'd bravely stood up to the armored criminals.

[Heritage]

"Damn it! Damn it!"

Rising unsteadily to her feet, Giselle cursed her own lack of preparedness; from now on, she would need to bring some form of protective device whenever she went out, be it a social call or a rescue mission, because the vents of this evening could not be repeated.

"Are you alright, Miss?,"

She waved off the waiter, shaking her head. "No thank you, I'm fine; is everyone alright?" Locating her cellphone amidst the wreckage (while simultanouesly righting tables and helping patrons to their feet via hair tentacles), she hits ASTRO Labs on speed-dial.

"Hello, this is Dr. de Havilland calling; Dr. Archeville has been kidnapped and I need to know if we have a way to track him." As she speaks, Gossamer tears off the bottom of her dress and kicks her five hundred dollar Bruno Maglis into a corner, preparing for the chase to come.

[Dr Archeville]

"Track him?," Barry Irving repeated; part of her was not surprised he was the one to answer. "Yeah, assuming he doesn't have his cloaking field on, we can- wait..." he paused as his brain caught up with everything, "did you say he was kidnapped? By who? Where? Were you there? Where are you? Are you hurt?"

She heard him turn from the phone slightly and call to his two cohorts, then a familiar series CLICK told her she was now on a speaker phone. "Just what exactly happened?!"

[Heritage]

For perhaps the first time, Estelle was happy to have the boys from the Force Applications and Robotics lab on the phone; they might be eccentric and painfully nerdy, but the man-children of FAR were exactly the kind of help she needed right now.

"Just what exactly happened?!"

Scampering nimbly towards the exit in her bare feet, the beautiful chemist rapidly brought the lads up to speed, her hair coiled into a tense braid. "Well, I was on a date with Archeville here in Hanover, and a pack of thugs in powered armor crashed the place. I don't have your wonderful suit with me, and despite my best efforts they knocked me down and made off with him. He's out cold, so I doubt his cloaking field is active, which may prove to be a blessing in disguise."

Once out in the street, she quickly ducked past the paparazzi and a few police and EMTs; when she found herself clear of the crowd, her hair snapped out, found a nearby streetlight, and yanked her off the sidewalk and on to the roof, where she quickly scanned the area for any clues as to the gang's chosen escape route.

"If there's any way you can meet you somewhere, I need another suit; for the love of God, tell me you have a backup."

[Dr Archeville]

"A date?" she heard one say, "Like, a date-date? How'd it go?"

"What's he like? What was he wearing?"

"What are you wearing?"

"Guys!" Barry interrupted, "priorities! We... well, we don't have a backup per se, but we do have the earlier prototypes; the comm system's not as robust-"

"And it, uh, overheats a bit."

"But it should do the trick. You're at Der Augenblick, right? We can meet you at the Promenade in... three minutes?"

[Heritage]

"But it should do the trick. You're at Der Augenblick, right? We can meet you at the Promenade in... three minutes?"

Estelle nodded as she looked in the general direction of the park. "I can do that; this is very much appreciated, gentlemen." Then she smiled wryly. "And as to what I'm wearing...well, you can see what's left of it at the Promenade, so you'd better hurry."

The blonde chemist tucked the phone back into her purse, then leaped off the roof, a tentacle shooting out to grab first one streetlight, then another, and soon she was swinging at great speed down the street, making excellent time and creating a bit of a stir among the pedestrians below.

---

In short order, she arrived at the Promenade, eyes scanning the area as she hung from a streetlight, her right hand shading her eyes from the glare above, while her left hand and feet provided additional balance as she leaned out over the sidewalk.

"They'd better get here soon..."

[Dr Archeville]

She heard the trio arriving before seeing them, the tires of their own "customized" ASTRO Labs van squealing in protest as they rounded a corner several mph too fast. They pulled to an abrupt stop in the parking lot, one leaping out before it had come to a complete halt.

"Wow-ee!" he said as he looked over her evening's outfit, or what was left of it, anyway. "Bet you tuned a lot of heads in that!"

"She'd turn heads no matter what she-" another thought out loud as he climbed out of the back with what looked like a large garment bag. When he saw she was right there, he made an audible GULP.

"Yes, yes," Barry intervened, snatching the garment bag as he spoke, "but I'm sure she'd prefer to slip out of those clothes and into something more... defensive."

---

The suit was definitely an earlier model, not nearly as well-cut, and the thighs, back, and upper arms had some noticeable heat, like ane electric blanket set on low. But it'd do the job, and that's all that really mattered.

"We were able to rig an energy detector," Barry began as he held up what looked like an iPod Touch, "set to-"

"to track Daka crystal radiation, and-"

"gravimetric fluxes, since Daka crystals are in a lot of 'super-tech' so just going by that may not be precise enough. But the gravimetric flux detector can pick up any fluctuations-"

"Which there wouldn't be unless he's able to do anything with his Gravimetric Belt, but that's require him to be conscious and able to access it. Which he's probably not able to do, so-"

"I'm sure he has some failsafe to send out a signal in case he's ever knocked out, like that time on Babylon 5 when-"

"Guys! Please!"

[Heritage]

The older suit felt a bit odd, not nearly as comfortable as her regular suit, and the heat buildup was rather disconcerting, but there weren't a lot of other options. When Barry the senior tech started to describe the sensor device, a predictable tangential discussion began.

"Gentlemen! How exactly does it work, briefly. Is it proximity based, like a Geiger counter, ranged like radar, or something else entirely? Also, how does the interface work?"

As she spoke, Gossamer did a few tentative stretches to check the fit and flexibility of the suit, sadly very much aware of who she was dealing with at the moment; she usually did her best to tune out the extreme nerdiness of the FAR boys, but some of it always slipped through, much to her discomfort and mild amusement :roll:

[Dr Archeville]

The three stood before Gossamer, clustered around the device which Barry handed over.

"More like a Geiger counter," Barry began, "though the display-"

"which I made to overlay on a Google street map... view... of..." Rudy interrupted, then trailed off when he saw Gossamer take a particularly long stretch.

"will point you towards any spot that have both Daka crystal radiation and gravimetric fluxes. There's not may devices in the city which'd have both-"

"And Archeville's would be by far the most potent," Norm chimed in.

"so it should lead you straight to him... unless you happen to get close to one of those few other such devices, in which case you might get sidetracked."

[Heritage]

"so it should lead you straight to him... unless you happen to get close to one of those few other such devices, in which case you might get sidetracked."

Holding the device in her hand, Estelle nodded as they went over its method of operation; when they finished, she gave all three techs a quick peck on the cheek, then lifted herself up to the streetlights once more, calling down, "Thank you, gentlemen! I can only hope I find the good doctor in time!"

Soon Gossamer was making her way towards the Lindroos Bridge, making fairly good time due to her amazing locks; from time to time, her eyes flicked down to the scanner she held in her hand, looking for any more hints as to the German scientist's current location.

[Dr Archeville]

The scanner leads her towards the southwest, to Midtown. At first Gossamer wondered if the device was working properly, since she'd seen the Power Corps take Doc to the east, but then she thought it was entirely possible they doubled back, to lead her astray. Little did they know how FAR she'd go to get him back!

With Liberty Park to her right, she passed over familiar sites such as the Eastern Seaboard Bank Building, Franklin D. Roosevelt High School, Liberty Perk, and the Millennium Mall before arriving at the apparent source of the readings: the Supers Museum.

By this time of night, the museum should be all dark and quiet, and most of it was. There were some lights at the back, at one of the loading docks... and the men loading several crates onto the back of a moving van were not in UPS outfits. They looked more... thuggish minion-y.

The place was being robbed!

[Heritage]

Oh for goodness sake! Well, I don't want to jusy leave them to their work; I'll have to make this quick.

Dropping lightly to the pavement nearby, Gossamer stood with her hands on her hips, cleared her throat softly, and arrayed her hair in what she hoped was a threatening manner, spread like a giant pair of wings.

"Good evening! I couldn''t help but noticing you're commiting a crime, and I was hoping to make you stop."

Clearly her snappy superhero patter needed some work :roll:

[Dr Archeville]

The three men stopped what they were doing and looked up, and looked -- to Gossamer's surprise -- sincerely spooked!

"Dammit, he said this'd be easy," she heard one curse.

"Still can be," she heard another say, then heard him loudly call into the loading dock, "hey, we got a Cape out here!"

Gossamer could just make out two other thugs inside the building, several dozen feet past the loading dock doors; they were hauling a large crate.

[Heritage]

"Hmm. I get the feeling that doesn't belong to you, so if you don't mind, I'll be taking that crate now."

A thick golden braid formed, shot across the intervening space and wrapped itself around the thug's burden and made ready to bring it back by Gossamer's side.

[Dr Archeville]

The two men put up some opposition to Gossamer's nabbing of their nabbed items, but they are no match for her Herculean hair.

A lance of crimson energy just manages to hit Gossamer in the shoulder, but mercifully her suit absorbs the impact. Though Dr. de Havilland's specialty is chemistry, she recognizes the energy all too clearly: it's the same as what was used by the Omegadrone Energy Pikes from the Terminuns Invasion! But what would they be doing he-

The man stepping from the shadows was not an Omegadrone, but he was not much better. It was Scrounge, a technological pack-rat who had a nasty habit of stealing whatever ultra-tech gear he could get his hands on. He'd gotten his start by stealing items from the Supers Museum where he'd worked as a janitor), and now it seemed he'd returned for more.

And right now, he seemed quite surprised and concerned that his blast had done nothing to the superheroine on the scene.

"Masks, boys!" he cried out, then took to the air and fired a smoke canister from a large pistol. The smoke wasn't very thick, but it had a vaguely familiar odor, like chloroform....

The five minions put on gas masks as, then the two inside opened fire with automatic assault rifles they'd had slung over their backs. One got in a solid hit on her midsection, but her suit once again protected her.

Butt hen there was the other three, the ones who had already loaded some crates onto the truck. They threw open the already-loosened lids, and pulled out what they were sure would be some horrible weapon from the Super Museum's vaults.

The first brought forth a blue gem, and held it to his forehead. One moment of intense concentration later and... nothing at all happened.

The second pulled out a long, brown staff... no, wait, that's no staff, it's a man-sized spider's leg! It would be hard to say which was more prevalent in his mind at that moment: disappointment or grossed-out.

The third got lucky. He pulled out what looked like a prop from the latest Sci-Fi Channel made-for-tv movie, but when he pulled the trigger, a bolt of blue-white energy slammed into Gossamer's chest!

[Heritage]

Thankfully the backup suit worked almost as well as her normal one (though she could feel it getting a bit warm), and the energy of the two blasts was safely dissipated. However the gas was still a problem; Gossamer had quickly covered her face as soon as she smelled the gas, but it was still hanging about the area in a thick cloud.

I need to clear the air; sooner or later I'll have to take a breath.

Carefully placing the rescued crate on the pavement next to her, she started to whip her hair around faster and faster, until a strong wind was howling behind the museum towards the truck, driven by her whirling golden locks.

This might actually work!

[Dr Archeville]

Gossamer's amazing hair-fan not only blows the stun-gas away from her, but it blows the gas over the three minions in the truck, with enough force to knock them all off their feet! And two of them are blown back a few feet, banging up against the sides of the truck!

"Think you're clever, eh," Gossamer heard Scrounge say. "Well try and deal with... this!"

Scrounge pointed his energy lance at a car across the street, and a bolt of crimson energy sped out. Everyone turned to look, and it appeared to hit the car dead-on, and for a moment Gossamer feared the car would explode into a cinematic fireball and possibly set others near it aflame.

But that did not happen. In fact, the car was just barely dented. (A later investigation would reveal that the owner, who'd lost two previous vehicles in superpowered crossfires, had paid to get the gas tank of his latest car armored to prevent such catastrophes.)

"Sonuva..." was all she heard him mutter.

The trio of men rising from their blown-down position, and rummaging through the crates they'd already taken, drew Gossamer's attention back. She also saw the two still in the museum loading bay going through another set of crates.

One let out a cry of triumph as he pulled out an ancient tome. The cry turned to a brief whimper as he opened it and found nothing of use inside, no spells leaping off to do his bidding.

The other was more lucky: in his crate was one of Luna Moth's gauntlets, in a not-quite-decommissioned state. Eager to use it, he didn't even take the time to put it on, instead pointing it at Gossamer and pushing buttons. A stream of sticky gray polymers shot out at Gossamer's head, threatening to gum up her hair!