10918/Fantastic Four: Probably More Too

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Fantastic Four: Probably More Too
Date of Scene: 29 January 2020
Location: Clinton (Hell's Kitchen), Manhattan
Synopsis: A motley crew of super powered people come together to tangle with the rat splashing powers of an angry under priviledged youth, who has his own set of specific skills to create creeps and chills... with lots of rats and nasty spills. Or something.
Cast of Characters: Invisible Woman, Carrie Kelley, Zero-G, Human Torch, Doctor Strange, Vi




Invisible Woman has posed:
Early evening on a Sunday. Manhattan. Well... the Hudson River. Well, beneath the Hudson River.

The traffic in and through the three tunnels of the Lincoln Tunnel is heavy, there's a lot of cars that go through those three portals and all of them are in for a real... treat tonight.

At first it just comes across as some kind of mass migration, or a moment that travelers might think they need to capture on their Cell Phones. But then it starts to get worse. Because... it starts to get messier and messier.

You see, New York is dealing with a problem that isn't easily handled, and its not necessarily one related to space aliens or giant mutant hunting robots. Nope, its related to a rodent infestation, and these rodents? They seem to be rebelling!

The tunnels begin to fill with scurry furry little, big, huge, rats. They come out of the exhaust and air filtration systems lining the interior of the 100 year old tunnel system!

They start to clog the streets, and cars are forced to try to swerve out of the way rather than turn them into... disgusting messes. But its getting to be too impossible to even avoid them at all. Horns start honking, emergency lights start coming on and the people inside the tunnel start calling out for help as traffic slows to a HALT!

All three tunnels are deadlocked in traffic jams now, and the air waves are filling up with reports of commuters in need of HELP!

Carrie Kelley has posed:
The tunnels weren't necessarily Gotham's purvue for the vigilantes that often patroled. However, given the circumstances... Rodents were overflowing even onto the Gotham side stirring up trouble. It was one of those situations that was best dealt with before it became a far larger problem for the city as a whole whether rodent related, or locked up traffic related. This was one of the largest hubs of transport in and out of the city--No way was that getting gridlocked.

Kestrel is the unfortunate one that comes to the tunnels to figure out what exactly the issue is and answer the calls for help near her end of the tunnels only to find herself uncertain as to what to do with all the rats. Running from one rooftop of a car to another, mentally cringing at the influx of pests, she searches for an answer as to WHY they're suddenly coming so quick.

Zero-G has posed:
While Carrie is working the tunnels, Alex is on the surface. Having been on his way home, the former Power Pack member was having some brisk exercise when the calls for help came over the radio. Stepping into a nearby alleyway, he announces, "Costume on!" and much like a sailor senshi, the Kymellian made costume of unstable molecules cover his street clothes, leaving him in the black and whites of his hero costume, with silver astronaut boots.

Taking to the sky, he heads over the distressed commuters, calling out. "Get into the nearest building, try to get higher!" And in order to help, he starts to lift people with his anti-gravity powers, making them light as air as he moves them to the rooftops as he speaks into his communicator. "This is Zero Gee. Any heroes on scene?" Because he considers himself retired most of the time, at the ripe old age of 16.

Human Torch has posed:
Johnny Storm happens to be hanging out near the tunnel doing a photoshoot.

"Looking good..J Storm..looking good. Let's see if we can get the Statue in the back of one of these shots J."

"Sure man..sure. How's my hair," Johnny pulls out a comb, lights it and pulls it through his hair a few times. "I'll float up this way..OK?"

"Looking good...gooodd..just like that..love the camera J Storm. Love it."

Johnny and the Photographer go back and forth at length until the honking starts to build up. Of course the response is...

"Hey Mack, get on the megaphone and go over there and tell them to pipe down will ya. I can't concentrate with all that noise homie."

The assistant reluctantly grabs the megaphone and heads in the general direction.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "THE ONE TIME I DRIVE!" Yells the doctor into the car phone system of his now classic early 2000's porsche. The now wizard sits at the wheel of his car and lowers his hand to the shift lever in the console and looks down at his phone. "I'll have to call you back. This is a mess in the tunnels." Stephen then presses a button on the phone and slides it into the interior breast pocket of his suit. "You get all dressed up to go on a date, and get all fancy and then..." Stephen silences himself and blinks wide a few times as he chooses to save one of his old joys.

    The car is suddenly gone without fanfare or fuss, but the wizard stands on the small patch of empty street and motions towards the driver behind to not move forward into him, despite the bespoke suit, he hopes she'll at least respect there's a person standing here.

Vi has posed:
With evening coming and the sky growing dark, Vi can finally go out and practice without being quite so noticeable. She has a black hoodie on, the hood pulled all the way up. Her outfit she'd ordered for going around town like this is still being created.

Going around town like this refers to flying through the air. Anyone who happens to look up, it isn't flying like Superman so much as seeming to swing about like Spider-Man. Anyone who did spot her at a distance might even assume she was one of the spiders, but just wearing black jeans and hoodie. Maybe an amateur spider then.

The traffic snarled isn't all that unusual, but then Vi realizes it is worse than usual. A lot of honking from those who don't know what the problem is. She heads over that way to check it out, pulling on metal ahead of her to swing her back up each time she starts to descend.

Invisible Woman has posed:
The situation inside the tunnels only seems to be getting worse. But one indication that things are most rotten in the central tunnel is that the majority of the rats are pouring (scurrying) out of it than the side two tunnels... though its so many that all three are definitely a problem.

One nasty situation arises when a Semi Truck doesn't seem to have any interest in stopping and it weaves its way through the traffic and just rolls on out of the tunnel's central shaft and right on down the street until it hits unpassable traffic... which leaves a horrid mess behind its tires!

Whats worse, is there are screams inside the tunnel now as people seem to be actually abandoning their vehicles! And this is when Alex Power arrives! His arrival is fairly timely as the rats aren't thick enough near the tunnel he's at to keep the fleeing civilians from listening to his words, or being helped by his gravity power... But what Alex will see inside the tunnel, is a wave of bio-mass that looks like... a tsunami of moving, wriggling, walls of rats!

Near Johnny, things go from cool and calm and awesome, to some of the people starting to see whats going on and starting to curse or cry out in disgusting.

The initial flowing wave of rats running across the ground near Doctor Strange... well, they avoid him, they fan out and don't even go near his feet, parting around him like he were the actual 'gross creature' in all of this!

Vi will be close enough to get the same look inside the tunnels as Alex, gets, its a horrific sight really, a furry flesh wall rolling from the inside of one of the three tunnels... possibly all three of them! There are people still inside too, running away from it to try to stay ahead of it!

Carrie Kelley has posed:
It made sense to get the people out of here, especially when the not-far-off screech and crash of vehicles sounds out. As Kestrel makes her way through she urges the same of the individuals in the cars she's using to bypass the sudden flood of rats on the floor. Eugh. "Get out and keep moving!" she urges gesturing the way she came. It was a long tunnel, but she was making enough progress that she soon spies someone familiar.

Reluctantly vacating the roof of the current car she was on, Kestrel lands beside Dr. Strange. There's no happy familiar greeting offered to him though. Just a crips, "The hell is happening, doc?" While her fingers itch by her sides still uncertan if she ought to try a knockout gas in here or not on the swarms of rodents.

Zero-G has posed:
With people being sky lifted or anti-graved out of the way, Alex gets his first look at the squirming, heaving biomass that's lurching from the tunnel, engulfing everything in it's path. He pales, his eyes going wide. "I don't know what riled them. Usually rats only do this when something is driving them. A treat of flood in the tunnel?" he muses, before snapping his thoughts back to the issue at hand.

Holding out both of his hands, Alex starts to glow white, with black trim around him as he extends his powers and tries to press down on the mischief of rats. "I'm going to increase their gravity to try to force them back, but I haven't tried this with so many targets before!" he calls out, worry lacing into his voice.

Human Torch has posed:
The assistance begins sprinting away from the tunnel without having given his warning. Instead he uses it to yell at Johnny....while.

"Yeah Johnny...that's sexy...other side. J Storm...which side is your good ...," be fore he is interupted.

"Storm! Stoooorm!!! Rats...RAAATTSSS."

This of course catches Johnny Storm in mid pose and glancing back towards the tunnels he pouts, "NOT TODAY MOLE MAN! I mean..of all days...!" J Storm grabs his cellphone and frantically looks through it for Moleman's phone number. "I am SO not in the mood," he searches a bit more then says. "I swear that I had his number! GAH!."

With a huge regretful sigh he floats down to the ground and turns to the photorapher and assistant, "Umm...guys. I am going to have to ...deal with this. Call me to reschedule?" he smiles and passes a long a card. Turning away sadly he floats, slowly, in the direction of the tunnels.

"Ewww...rats. So help me Mole Man."

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen, in a twin tailed black tuxedo looks over his shoulder as Kestrel lands in the space provided to him by the rodents and he lifts an eyebrow towards her and then looks back towards the swarming wall of brown and black, and the rare albino ratsunami.

    "I do not know, but I am to find out."

    The wizard clenches his cuff framed fist and loosens it just as quickly, the nerve damage ever present and the reminder of failures past. Stephen looks up to the wall and challenges it with his very gaze and the fortitude to take the fear thawed first step into the danger. He must get deeper, closer.

Vi has posed:
Vi takes in the situation, her brows furrowing as she swings down through the sky then slows. She ends kind of hovering about twenty feet up, drifting back and forth a little unsteadily, but mostly in one place.

The sight of the wave of rats makes her eyes widen. She glances behind her at the stopped traffic briefly and then back ahead towards the tunnel again. Her senses sharpen to allow her to see in the dimmer light of the tunnels, spotting the fleeing people.

A woman has her daughter by the hand, practically towing the girl through the air in her haste to keep them ahead of the rats. She trips though and they both tumble to the ground.

Vi suddenly shoots forward, pushing off a car behind her and a light pole above to zoom into the tunnel. She lands hard near the woman and girl, though her legs seem able to absorb the impact. "Come one!" the small figure calls in a soft Eastern European accent.

She grabs the girl and mother both, an arm about each and then all three are suddenly lurch back towards the tunnel's entrance just as the wave of rats gets so close, that two of them end up on Vi's legs. She is supporting the weight of mother and daughter, carrying them as they fly out of the tunnel and then pop upwards, and over to some high ground where they seem to land gingerly before Vi lets them go.

Invisible Woman has posed:
A motorcycle whips past Doctor Strange and on it is a woman in a blue and black slim fit suit. She sweeps right through the wave of rats running along the ground and screeches the bike to a halt. At first she tries to avoid them... but ultimately it just becomes too challenging!

So the bike is stopped and she quickly dismounts then reaches up to throw her hands out. Sue Storm launches three kinetic discs, one toward each tonnel! As they fly through the air they grow larger and larger until they slap like nearly-invisible 'caps' over the tunnel entrances just as the waves of rats begin to smash into them!

Sue's wearing a black motorcycle helmet, but her bodysuit has the F4 Logo on the chest and shoulders. <"Johnny."> She says over an open Hero Comm channel. <"Johnny, I'm not sure I want to ask you to help with this situation. I don't think the city can handle smelling worse than it already does. But we gotta do something fast.">

The rats are slamming into the kinetic barriers that Sue holds up, some are pouring out beneath them as they're not a perfect fit to the tunnel's entrance shape.

To everyone else, Sue shouts. "There's no way in HELL there's this many rats under these tunnels. Something inside is SUMMONING them! Someone's gotta go in there and find out what it is!"

Zero-G has posed:
"<With the vehicles that may still be trapped in the tunnel, Ms Storm, igniting the rats may prove more detremental -- it could cause a massive explosion that may crack the tunnel walls and flood it.>" Alex says in response with a frown as he lets Sue take over with her disks. "I can try to push them back with my gravity, or float them out of the way. I'm open to suggestions." He's young, no older than sixteen, but he does have some experience on his side.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley sighs heavily to herself when Strange starts to force-walk his way into a swarm of them. They're just passing by a work truck when she reaches out to grab a rake off the side with a quick thumbs up to the guys inside the cab. "Gonna borrow this, okay? You guys might want to head out that way or else buckle in and keep the windows up." One quick swat to the ground cracks the end of the rake off leaving her with a suitable staff of sorts as she makes her way through on Strange's heels sweeping away rats that get too close with a quick swat of one end or the other.

While she settles in to potentially figure out what's going on, she taps the side of the comm in her ear with a quick subvocalized command to scan frequencies. Police, and other. It never hurt to make sure if there were other hero types nearby that you were on the same page. Which is just how she manages to catch the tail end of Sue Storm remarking about getting inside the tunnels.

<<Kestrel from Gotham. I'm in the tunnels with Dr. Strange at the moment. There's still plenty of people in here though a good few managed to get out near the end. At this point I'm advising people stay *in* their cars because it might be safer... so far.">>

Human Torch has posed:
Johnny Storm continues to float towards the tunnel but his mode quickly gets better as people leaving the tunnel start to NOTICE him

"EEIIIEIEIii It's Johnny Storm," one girl stops her escape to say and wave before beginning to run again. People watching from afar begin to notice and wave to. Johnny glady waves back.

"Fear not fair New Yorkers. J Storm is on the case!"

Into his team radio he says, <<If you think you are keeping me away from this NOW then you have another thing coming. Let's DO this!>>

His legs catch fire just enough for the vermin to notice and to avoid him as he shimmies into the tunnel and flies over. But he is flying over he pauses then exits the tunnel to fly up just high enough for everyone to see him.

            "FLAME ON!"

The crowd goes wild.

Then reducing his temperature he shimmies back into the tunnel and once he meets the group he says, "What's up?"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    Stephen doesn't hesitate while Kestrel seems to stay near by, though as she arms herself Stephen makes note of it, just in case. The tuxedoed sorcerer continues to step towards the mass of writhing rats and he takes in a deep breath (Through the mouth) and closes his eyes for a moment. "There's... something in the middle of the middle tunnel." Stephen explains as he turns slowly to move in that direction and then, Stephen has to lift his hand to cover his nose and looks back over his shoulder, expecting Kestrel to have done something incomprehensible and then, "Oh, it's you." He says towards Johnny briefly before he turns and continues to walk like some sort of rat repellent.

Vi has posed:
Once Vi has let her go, the woman that was saved grabs her daughter, hugging her tightly. "Oh thank you! Thank you so much!" she tells Vi, reaching over to shake Vi's shoulder while crushing her daughter to herself tightly enough the girl squeaks in complaint.

"You're welcome," Vi says awkwardly, looking like she'd like to just slink back into a dark corner out of sight again. She makes ready to fly off but the woman keeps hold of her shoulder, shaking Vi slightly as she keeps thanking her again and again. "Jenny is just going to have the worst nightmares-"

"I should really go help-" Vi says.

"... and doesn't even get along with dogs or cats, but rats-"

Vi motions towards the tunnel.

"And what is wrong with the city letting such huge numbers of vermin breed in the city-"

Vi reaches over, gently pulling the woman's hand away though with an amount of strength which definitely frees herself. "I'll go look into that," she says. "Good luck Jenny," Vi adds and then the petite teen pulls hard on a distant light pole to launch herself back out over the road above the tunnels. Seeing someone suddenly catch fire, Vi veers sharply away from him, ending up over by Alex Powers. "Is he ok?" she asks of the man on fire who seems to be flying around rather yelling in pain as she'd have expected.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Alex and Sue are standing fairly close to one another, but there's enough space and chaos between them that the chaos around them makes Team Comms required. Sue, with her helmet still on, looks over to Alex. She recognizes him. <"I'm gonna open the middle portal and I need you to grab as many as you can and flush them up ward. Try to throw them out toward the Hudson. Its our only option. We can't let them flood the tunnels. I'll open the middle, then the left, and then the right! Start launching them if you can!" She doesn't quite know the ins and outs of his power-set but she thinks she knows the gist of it.

What Carrie will see inside of the vehicles in the tunnel is a lot of freaked out people looking back at her, the waves seem to be more heavily centered toward the New York side rather than the Gotham / Jersey side, but they're definitely still headed out toward Gotham too... just not as many as what Manhattan is trying to be flooded with.

<"Copy that, Gotham. Happy to have your help."> Sue's voice says to the Bat-family member. <"These things look like they're running away from something. I'm afraid to even think of what that could be!">

<"Johnny?"> Sue calls out over the Comms. <"Try to keep the others in there clear, but don't... please don't blow any cars up!">

<"Okay, I'm lifting the middle gate!"> Sue shouts to Alex, intending to lessen the build up of... rats... inside of the central tunnel. As she lifts it, a vehicle come roaring through the mass of rodents and spins out of control, it rolls end over end toward Sue Storm, causing the not-Invisible Woman to shimmy-step back several paces, though she has to keep her hands up and focus on the kinetic plates over the tunnels!

Thankfully the car rolls to a halt on its side, filled with a bunch of teenagers, with their LOUD MUSIC blaring! They're in bad shape right now though...

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"Magical or otherwise?" Given it was Strange who said the center tunnel had something though she could already guess. Kestrel spins the makeshift staff to send a few rats flying against the walls away from what few civilians were braving outside their cars to run down the Gotham end of the tunnel. It was getting significantly thicker as they went further in.

Then before she knows it, she has to turn her head to the side against the sudden bright light of Johnny's arrival with a wince. A deep breath is drawn as she smells ozone, rats, and just a bunch of stuff she'd rather not. Freeing one hand from the staff she tugs up the balklava she wears around her mouth and nose.

<<I'm assuming the hot head is from your end. Seems to be getting worse further in we go and Doc seems to have homed in on something. We'll keep you updated.>>

Kestrel nods in greeting to the infamous FlameBoy (that was his name, right?) as she gestures toward Dr. Strange. "Age before beauty?"

Zero-G has posed:
"Throw them into the Hudson?" Rats can swim. At least that's Alex's hopes as he gets the orders from the eldest Storm sibling. However when Sue opens the middle gate and the car comes racing out, he's distracted, instead using his powers to lift the car in mid-twist and moves to the side to set down. "Kick the door open!" he calls out, before his attention returns to what Sue ordered.

Whole groups of rats find their gravity reversed as he starts to catapult them towards the river. Once they are out of his frame of influence, they may miss the mark and hit the ground instead, but the young man's giving his best efforts. Hands pointed in two different directions, he's shuttling them as fast as he can, but he takes a step back as they start to become more than he can move at once.

Human Torch has posed:
Johnny Storm snorts, "Or Grumpy Smurf before..EVERY. OTHER. SMURF," he protests before going into the tunnel behind Strange.

He drops all of his flames and begins walking, grumbling to himself.

<<Copy that sis. Copy that. Have Herbie get a nice blazing shower ready for me. After I punch Mole Man I am gonna need one.>>

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Yes, magic." Strange says as he continues to walk in torwads what he feels could be significant. Looking away from Johnny and Kestrel the wizard's fancy shoes clack on the asphalt in the tunnel and he comes across a formerly painted car that has now had it's paint job nearly scratched away entirely and he frowns at the people inside though he places a hand onto the windshield and tries to calm those on the inside.

    "This apocolypse is nearly over, though we may need to summon a horde of cats to clean up." Stephen says, choosing now to crack a joke.

    He sighs to himself and looks away from the Fantastic Fire and the Smol Bat. As he steps deeper and deeper into the wall of rats that still somehow avoid the wizard, a purple shimmer hints at the nature of the disaster. A young man wearing a red white and blue Rangers swearter turns his hands with a purple glowing portal at the end of his fingertips and a near gyser of rats errupts from the end of the portal.

    "That's not good." Stephen says.

Vi has posed:
Vi sees the car that comes roaring out of the tunnel leaving a red squishy mess behind it. She drops down quickly beside Sue, but before she can react further, Alex Powers has the car lifted and out of the way safely. Vi watches it drift over, eyes a little wide. "That's... so neat," she says.

And the sound of a gunning motor and a loud wailing of a car horn gives only a moments warning as a second car tries to take advantage of the path of crushed rats left by the teenagers in the previous car.

It is about to meet with the same results, careening out of control towards the blond hero and the shorter girl. Vi reacts immediately, but her lack of training shows. She pushes on something metal she feels behind her to brace herself, and then on the car in front of her. But the object behind is a metal barrier alongside the road. It feels the full impetus of the coming car as Vi pushes in both directions, crumpling and giving way. Worse, Vi didn't manage to strengthen her body fully as those forces impact her as well. She gives a gut wrenching cry and is thrown back towards the barrier.

But there was a positive effect. The second car is slowed enough they steer it around Sue, and around Vi where she's down on hands and knees, blood running out of her mouth. Rats are rushing past her, some jumping up on her as they run into the city.

Invisible Woman has posed:
An animal control truck pulls up quite along side the Police and Fire vehicles that have lined up behind the motorcycle that Sue Storm brought in. The two Animal Control officers get out of their truck and... they just stare at whats going on. One of the cops says something to them and then just shake their heads.

People are starting to gather in bulk around the perimeter of the Lincoln Tunnel entrances and they're whipping out their cell phones (as they do) to record the sight of Alex Power launching rats into the sky!

Its quite a sight, really, a sheet of tumbling furry, pink tailed, huge eyed, four pawed living footballs just flowing up into the sky out over the concrete jungle and toward the waters of the Hudson River! They start to splash down wildly, white water plumes launching up into the air. A rich man on his yacht starts to get pelted by the flying rat-balls and it causes him to flail and spill his froo-froo drink before tumbling over the side into the water with them!

Inside the tunnel, the young kid in the Rangers hockey jersey is indeed holding his hands up with a large oval-shaped purple and red portal opened in front of him that is LAUNCHING the rats out of it toward the east and toward Manhattan. He has a sneering expression on his face, like he's grimly enjoying his heinous work here in disrupting the lives of all those involved, with danger and nastiness!

But when he sees Doctor Strange, Kestrel and Johnny all now behind him quickly adjusts and spins the portal around to aim it at them! "No, stay back!" The boy shouts as a wave of relentless onslaught of spewing rats is now fired right at the trio of would-be-heroes near all of the parked vehicles filled with wide-eyed and terrified civilians!

Outside, Sue calls out to Alex. <"Lowering the main gate. Switching to the--"> She's cut off by all the vehicular chaos though and the sight of the young girl who gets knocked down. <"Alex! Save that girl!">" Sue shouts, because she'd already raised the south gate up enough to let an veritable army of rodents come pouting out a-new, and they're threatening to run RIGHT OVER poor Vi!

Zero-G has posed:
Working in concert with Sue Storm. Alex feels like he's on cloud nine as he gets to work with someone in the big leagues. And it's not mutants getting massacred in the tunnels, like last time. It's why the team doesn't do as much anymore. As he continues to make rats defy gravity, effectively turning them into wingless pigeons, it's Sue's call out to him, before he turns his attention to the pretty teenage girl. Why hadn't he noticed her before?

"On it, Miss Storm!" Alex calls out, "Sorry!" It's all he offers to Vi before he flicks his own gravity, moving as almost a super speed to catch Vi and move her away from the combat zone and set her down. "You okay?"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
As the swarm of rats clear way, partially by running over her feet as they spill out of that portal, Kestrel's first thoughts are 'A budding mutant without control of their ability.' It's quickly replaced by 'Little f*cker is enjoying this' and then the kid is swiveling the portal in their direction.

It's probably not her best thought process, nor the best reaction, but when that swarm of portaled rats is aimed her way she moves forward just past Dr. Strange who had been leading the way. Why? Because she had the big, long stick, and she takes a swing at the kids' head.

It's a controled movement meant to knock him out, not kill him or maim him, but right now that flow of rats needed to *stop* and since he was the source... Well. Batter up!

Human Torch has posed:
Johnny Storm has a completely different approach. He raises his hand from behind Strange and says, "Umm..excuse me..have you seen Mole M.." but before he can finish the dude turns the rats towards them.

His second response is, "EEEEwwww, rats...eeewww," Johnny begins to try to dodge the Rats AND now Kestrel.

"OK. OK! I'm sorry, do you atleast have his PHONE number!"

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "I'm Doctor Stra-"

    THONK!

    Stephen watches the kid hit the ground, and starts to turn his head towards Kestrel when Johnny chooses this very instant to speak up and Strange slowly turns his 'really' face towards the mainstream super hero.

    "You're both incorrigible." Stephen starts to say and then...

    The unconscious boy is lifted by the 'mole'hill until he rolls over by the stream of rats still coming out of the portal and the spray of live rodents is sent upwards to hit the concrete roof of the tunnel and fall away and continue to fill the area.

    Strange sighs, raises his arm to cover his head from any falling rats and he reaches into the building pile of gross to try and grasp the portal with his practiced hand.

Vi has posed:
Vi's hood is deep enough it's done a decent job of hiding her face, but Alex Powers will get a good look at her as he helps her up. She's bleeding from the mouth, but wipes at it with her sleeve and says in a pained tone, "I'm ok... help the people."

She has a leather pouch about her waist, and pulls something small from it, hidden in her hand. She brings it to her lips and tilts her head a bit and swallows whatever it was. "I'm ok," she says again, standing a little straighter, though still a small wince on her face. "Can't do much to rats I'm afraid," she says. She motions for Alex to help Sue and then lifts off into the air a little shakily, removing herself from harm's way.

Invisible Woman has posed:
The cops are continuing to argue with the Animal Control officers who just pull up two small nets and start to chase around some of the rats that are around their vehicle... its really going to go perfectly. They're helping!

With the rat flood being directed back toward Gotham now, it starts to thin out on the Manhattan side and after Alex saves Vi, Sue looks at the portals while the waves of rats start to lower down. <"Dropping the gates. Whatever they're doing in there, seems to be working."> She's misguided in that hope, but hope springs eternal, or something.

<"Johnny, don't sound so terrified, you've got about a million cameras waiting to watch you heroically fly out of there! Maybe they'll dub you the new Rat King!"> She encourages her brother, or tries too.

Sue starts to run toward the central tunnel herself since that seems to be where the largest concentration of the flowing vermin was coming from. Police are advancing forward as well to help people, EMT are moving in as well and some of both are headed toward Alex and Vi's location.

At Carrie, Strange and Johnny's location the portal is indeed aimed up and right into the cement arching ceiling of the tunnel! The rats are plowed right into the roof of the Lincoln tunnel and rain down now in various states of alive, dead, or REALLY DEAD!

The boy, the seeming origin of this strange projectile hole of rodents, lays sprawled out on his back after being thoroughly thwapped by the combative Bat-fam member.

And inside all the madness the cars are starting to try to move again now that the direction of the rat-flow has changed again, so more vehicles are starting to speed by or try to angle into a new lane, creating even more chaos as horns start to pick up in frequency of being slammed on!

Zero-G has posed:
"Okay, but you should get to safe..." Then Vi shows that she's powered. "Well why didn't you do that in the first place?!" he calls after her, turning his attention back to the charging rats that Sue's about to release into the surface, he's preparing to start to lift... then he gets an idea. "Miss Storm, can you open a small hole?" he calls over to her. Gesturing to a nearby construction site, he lifts a closed culvert and moves it into position, making a portal for the rats.

"We can build a maze for them to run down into the sewers, if you know where the nearest manhole is!"

Carrie Kelley has posed:
"I don't think he was interested in exchanging pleasantries, Doc!" Kestrel calls out when he chides her for such an act. Unfortunately that doesn't stop the portal as she'd hoped. Really it was a fifty/fifty chance that it would. With the boy felled she reaches into the pile of rats to grab him by his jersey and yank him out. The dead weight of the unconcious kid is hefted up with one arm seeking to try and pull him away from the further danger while Dr. Strange goes for the portal itself.

But then the rats begin to ricochet off the roof. Dead, bloodied, smashed rats piling up making her heave a moment behind her mask as all her training gives way to the animal mentality of 'ohgross dead animals', and she shivers violently.

<<This, ah, this might get worse before it gets better,>> she sends over the radios in warning. It certainly was getting worse here. Enough so that she's having to backpedal through piles of dead and scurrying surviving rats just to keep her footing as it starts to literally pile up.

Human Torch has posed:
Cmeras?$r$rDid Someone mention cameras?

<<Cameras are out there already??>> he responds before brushing himself off and standing up. He begins to dodge rats and slow down his breath, "OK. You. Are. OK." he looks around for what to do.

"Soo..that purple glowing thing is the problem?" he asks using his detective skills.

"Perhaps we should close them?" he sidesteps a few more times but it is mostly useless.

Doctor Strange has posed:
    "Don't wait up." Stephen says before he reaches his other hand into the mass of rats, takes a deep breath and seems to struggle and pull himself down into the growing pile of vermin. The wizard disappearing slowly, the poor poor tuxedo he's wearing to go on a date is going to be completely ruined and yet, the Sorcerer Supreme has word to do. He actually reaches into the portal, grasps onto the inside of the other side and pulls himself through, disappearing from the tunnel completely.

    With a thud, Stephen falls through the air for a moment before landing on his side and his side, and his side, and his side.... and his side?

    Stephen stands up and points at himself, several fold times. "This isn't good." He echoes and then with a simple motion, the portal is closed from the inside.

Vi has posed:
Once she's airborne, and with a full load of the metals that fuel her powers, particularly the pewter that strengthens her body and speeds healing, Vi takes stock of the situation. More blood is trickling from the corner of her mouth, the iron taste of it something the girl pushes out of her head.

She can sense all the metal in the area, though that is a lot so it takes her awhile to pinpoint a manhole cover. She finally does find one nearby. "Over... there," she calls to Alex as she points. The manhole cover wobbles on the ground and then slides across the pavement in the direction of VI, moving just a few feet before it stops, but leaving the hole open for Alex.

Another of the culverts starts to move of its own accord seemingly. It's not the graceful, controlled motion that Alex is capable of. It lurches at first, and then again as if it is being tugged on harder. Finally it's dragged over nearer to the hole. It falls to the ground then. Alex or another will have to handle the fine adjustments of placing it, it seems.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Alex's suggestion causes Sue to stop at the mouth of the main entrance, she can see the mess being made down in the middle of the tunnel from where she stands and her eyes look down to the flowing rats that are still running all around her. "Right." Sue turns around in time to see Vi lifting and manipulating the metal coverings to expose the sewer entrances and starts to fling her hands down on either side, creating a funnel of barriers for the rats to all go toward the open manholes down into the under city again, leaving them very few alternative pathways. Her hands then thrust out in front of her to create a wall / barrier behind them as well. <"Start flinging them into that!"> Sue tells Alex. <"Rodent basketball. Uh... don't let PETA see you doing it."> Thats probably too late by now though.

Sue is forced to step up onto a lamp post's cement base to avoid being run-up by some of the scurrying little plague-bearers herself at this point, using her right hand to hold the lamp post.

Inside the tunnel, Carrie has the boy and he's starting to come-to. He sees Johnny and he starts to freak out. "Get away from me, you freak!" He shouts in a very rude manner (as teenagers do), he starts to flail then as he sees Doctor Strange crawling INSIDE of his rat portal. "Let me go! Let me go!"

Johnny better keep his head up too because there's a mini-van coming right at him from behind at full speed and a wild eyed soccer mom behind it with a car load of kids all jacked up on Capri-Sun packets! She's not looking too eager to hanga round in the Rat Tunnels anymore! Hoooooonk! Headed right for J-Storm!

Doctor Strange? He's gone now. Gone to the other side... to wherever and whatever lies beyond. All... 20 of him that are now in said dark dark and nasty place. He's multiplied you see, now there are lots more of his pretty goatee stubbled face.

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Carrie Kelley struggles to keep her arm around the kid. This wasn't the best situation, and she ends up getting kicked in the shin a time or two by the flailing teen. She wasn't that large of a woman to begin with so this was taking a toll on her ability to hang on to him. "I'm trying to get you to safety, kid!" She yells in his ear with annoyance. "And he's sealing that up so you can't do this again. The hell were you thinking!?"

Except... The tunnels aren't all that wide. If there's a soccer mom car coming for Johnny, that's also in her general area as well. With a curse she shoves the kid forcefully away from her to the opposite side of the tunnel, away from Johnny, the Portal and the runaway minivan. Fighting with him wouldn't help at all, after all.

The makeshift staff she hand is slammed into the ground as she pivots her weight up toward the ceiling to vault herself over the oncoming vehicle... Or at least generally out of the way. Johnny was on his own for this. Either way she comes down hard behind it crumpling to her knees with a groan of discomfort as she hadn't quite stuck the landing due to RATS EVERYWHERE.

Human Torch has posed:
"Freak!!"

"Freakk!?!?" well...J Storm is now preoccupied. He points his finger at the kid and says, "I was having a nice photoshoot until you..." and then Kestrel shoves the kid to the side of the tunnel he looks at her then the kid then back at her then noticing her eyes, he turns around.

"EEEEEEEEIIIIIII," he screams leaping out of the way just in time himself 'cept for his foot. It gets wacked. It's turns him slightly and he lands in his own pile of rats.

"Gross..just...gross," he says staring up at the ceiling.

Vi has posed:
After she's dragged over the big metal pipe, Vi drifts over to a light post up above the entrance to the tunnels. She lands a little wobbly and then sits down, grimacing inside of her hood, and a hand goes to hold to her side where a few ribs are probably fractured from her body taking on so much of the weight of the car she stopped.

She watches quietly as Sue is able to align things and use forcefields to seal the gaps in the pipework that Vi and Alex set up. Vi raises her hand tiredly. "Go... team," she says. Having heard someone say that in the Danger Room. She still hasn't really caught on to sports and cheering yet.

Invisible Woman has posed:
Strange? Well there's no sign of him once he goes through the portal, he's just gone.

The mini-van speeds on by and the struggle that Carrie has to get out of the way of it gives the boy in the hockey jersey enough room to shake himself free. "Let me go!" He shouts again before he reaches his hands up and just sweeps them across one another.

The portal?

It shuts off now. The last few rat bodies slap wetly into the pavement and across the cars that are parked still along the sid lanes.

"You did this!" The kid shouts, pointing at Carrie. "You did this!" He shouts again and points at Johnny. "You, and you, and you!" He points at all the cars and the people inside of them. "You people don't give a SHIT about the real problems in this city! You only care about your images! The real problems aren't 'cool enough' for you assholes to deal with!"

As the boy rants, he's starting to take a step back into the lane of traffic that is still bustling with speeding cars and if someone doesn't act quick, he's going to get CLIPPED by a truck!

Carrie Kelley has posed:
Kestrel would have been plenty happy to just lay there and think about her life choices for awhile, really. Laying on a pile of dead rats wasn't really something she ever anticipated when she got into this line of work... Nor was having a kid yell at her about how she was out for the fame. "Kid, do you even recognize me? I don't do the media," she mutters as she starts to sit up--And catches sight of the truck heading his way.

With another curse beneath her breath she goes from the slow, stiff motions of someone who is sore to the quick actions of someone who had been training for just such moments as these. Reaching out one gloved hand she catches the front of his jersey and swings him around using her own momentum to swap their spots, though she at least knows to step forward out of the path of the truck.

"Fuck this. I don't even have powers." With that she shoves the kid toward Johnny with a mutter of, "Your side of the tunnel can handle it. I'm getting a shower."