11984/Terror of the Technovore!

Terror of the Technovore!
Date of Scene:	12 August 2020
Location:	Stark Tower, Greenwich Village
Synopsis:	The Technovore gets loose in Stark Tower! Heroes arrive to contain the threat, and fight Naked LMDs! Also, Tony and J.A.R.V.I.S. look like goners at the end.
Cast of Characters:	Iron Man, Lex Luthor, Snake Eyes, Wild Rose, Berri Sundae

---

Iron Man has posed:
"Hey uh... it's Tony. Tony Stark. If you're receiving this message it means that the automatic Stark Tower emergency protocols have been implemented. Probably not a big deal, just messing with the wiring or whatever. But... it also MIGHT be a Chitauri invasion, so... let's not treat it like a joke, huh?"

"This message should be going out to all the Avengers, SHIELD's geek squad, and any other heroes who have somehow gotten themselves on the Stark-Fujikawa contact list. We promise, we'll only use your personal data for things that you would approve of..."

The message goes out as intended, ending up as voicemails, text messages, and probably getting stuck in a few spam folders. A mass contact list isn't perfect, after all. It's a bit light on specifics, being a general emergency protocol and all, but the gist is that the Manhattan corporate headquarters of Stark-Fujikawa is under some sort of lockdown. Somewhere in the middle part it mentions something about automatic defenses, there's a whole thing about protecting Tony's Scotch Cabinet, and under no circumstances is anyone to check his browser history in the event of his death.

***

As promised, Stark Tower appears to be powered down. A few emergency responders are gathered outside, including a few police officers who are trying to get the intercom to recognize them. Inside the building, some of Stark's employees are visible, either waiting calmly or... waiting less calmly. It appears that all the exits have been sealed somehow, and nobody has yet managed to find a way into the building.

Sirens announce the incoming firetrucks, and helicopters circle above the building's penthouse. Apparently waiting on permission to land.

Finally, some crackling noises come through the building's exterior intercom, startling the officer who was trying to make it work by whacking it with his palm.

"Krrrzzzt! Krr-rrr----kzzkkk! Krrr---- query...."

The police officer straightens his hat, and speaks into the intercom. "Hullo? NYPD, who's on the other end of the line?"

"Kkkkrr--ZZZZKK! File not found..."

Lex Luthor has posed:
Lex had, ironically, been in New York on other business for his Empire when Harmony had given him the alert about the mass mail out of Stark Tower. With Mercy and Hope left behind at the warsuit assembly truck to work on finding information on what's going on, Lex had taken off in the warsuit, using the buildings as cover as he made his way to the tower. It wasn't easy, of course, but given that everyones attention was on Stark Tower itself, Lex managed to get to a nearby rooftop to get within range for a scan.

Moving behind a vent system, Lex kept out of visual range as he tuned his sensor suite and did a full sweep of the tower, bottom to top, trying to get an idea of the situation... especially the power grid.

The green and purple powered armor would eventually be spotted by hovering helicopters of course... but Lex hoped to get inside before that was an issue.

Snake Eyes has posed:
One of those emergency messages broadcast to SHIELD ended up getting caught by Action Force's communication specialist, Dial-Tone. She's usually partnered up with Snake Eyes so he's the guy who gets to respond to the Stark Tower situation, at least until they can ascertain if more backup is required.

Their van will pull up outside of Stark Tower after Dial-Tone flashes some identification to the cops at the barricades to it. Once she drives them to the front door she tells Snake, "Alright. Do some of your ninja tricks and get inside. Make sure everyone's safe and there's no aliens eating Stark's brain. Stalker's got a team on standby if you need help, just send a signal if you need him."

The door to the van opens and the ninja-commando emerges. He's got his guns, sword, knives and grenades, but he dresses like that every day, so who knows if he's taking this more seriously than usual? He looks up at the windows to see the Stark Towers employees and visitors looking down at the assembled crowd, looking them over momentarily before he starts searching for a couple of things. One would be a spot that looks like he could easily climb up. Easy for him being relative. Two would be some sort of ground floor access that he could get in through with the help of the explosives charges he brought to make entry with.

Wild Rose has posed:
     It started out as a quiet night at home for one Riana Mackenzie--or at least as quiet as it could be, as she fights to liberate one of her sneakers from the jaws of a scruffy-looking, one-eyed mutt. "Come on, Jack," she mutters. "Give it u...."

     BZZT! BZZT!

     "Damn it!" She was forced to relinquish the old shoe in favor of checking her phone. "Remy, you have got the worst tim...."

     Only the message that came through wasn't from Remy.

     "What the f... Stark? How did he get this... never mind. I don't wanna know." If an A-lister like that was resorting to calling a nobody like her, the proverbial fertilizer must -really- have hit the fan. She finds another pair of sneakers, puts them on, ties her hair back and grabs her staff, racing out the door and to her car, for the drive over to Stark Tower.

     The scene that greets her is pure chaos, with first responders on the scene--and now, it looks like her pupil as well. "Snake," she greets the ninja commando, with a nod. "You too?"

Berri Sundae has posed:
Berri was...a criminal. She'd worked as a 'righthand woman for hire' for gangs, companies and even a few notorious names such as Fisk, Tombstone and the Shredder...but that didn't mean that she only took the money of the wicked and the insane, they just tended to be the most interested in morally flexible telepaths trained by the League of Assassins! Today however, it had been far more boring than any grand heist or dangerous assassination or even trying to steal proprietary tech: a member of Stark's employees had been skipping out on paying some child support and his former partner had gotten frustrated enough to resort to more unorthodox means.

Sadly, the Tower's security had made it a little hard to start putting sharp things into uncomfortable places, so the 'Icecream' girl had resorted to something a little more subtle. One quick walk-by when the man had been ordering a snack and it had been all-too-easy to 'dig' out the details of his bank account. One lift of a card later and the eerie-looking girl with the parasol whom everyone seemed to just 'miss' when they looked over her way had been heading for the door with intent to make a withdrawal. Cameras would still see her, but she hadn't 'done' anything as far as anyone could tell.

Then the power went out, and the mercenary mute stuck inside with the employees.

So much for an easy night's work.

Iron Man has posed:
The cops near the intercom seem to be fairly disturbed by whatever is coming through the external intercom. It mostly consists of static, punctuated by the occasional short question delivered in a cold, robotic monotone. Already they've called for the city's SWAT teams, and even placed a call to Code Blue, the NYPD's superhuman response team.

Apparently they've already seen this movie, so they're taking no chances.

As barricades are set up outside, and tactical perimeters are established, people on the outside begin to hope desperately that this is all just some sort of power failure, and it will all be cleared up soon.

Inside the lobby, that seems to be the prevailing mood among the Stark employees. Spirits are still relatively high, because weird glitches happen fairly frequently each time that Tony has another of his Great Ideas. Usually, however, they get a message from the CEO telling them not to worry, he's just accidentally reversed the building's polarity while flushing the toilet.

This time... they don't get a message from him.

One of the security guards gets between Berri and the doors, but it's nothing personal: He's getting between EVERYONE and the doors.

"Until we get the all clear, everyone needs to stay away from the exits! Lockdown protocols are in effect which means that we're... uh... LOCKED DOWN! Whatever it is, it needs to stay in HERE, which means everyone should just get comfortable and pray that this goes smoother than last time."

Real motivational speaker, that security guard.

Aside from the lights being out inside the building (which has already been partially remedied with the lights from the security guards, and the illumination of smartphones), everything seems to still be relatively normal.

That is, until the elevators suddenly start back up.

In the dark.

Outside, the intercom crackles again...

"Krrck-ck-ckssck! File not found. Initiating full decompile. Krrxxxssskkkk!"

Lex Luthor has posed:
With his sensors only getting the outside, Lex could only speculate what's going on inside. Mentally, he accessed the network node for his system and remotely gained entry, creating a cyberpathic VPN tunnel into the security for the building. Firewalling his end of the connection, Lex silently navigated the lockdown protocols with his mind, directly interfacing with the hub as he poked and prodded at the code.

He didn't need to lift the lockdown. He just needed to open a window into a side room so he could get inside. As he navigated, he also brought up a PIP in his vision of Tony's location, and pinned it so he could keep track of the scatterbrained CEO.

No need for Tony to see the warsuit after all... he was here for another purpose entirely.

Snake Eyes has posed:
When Snake hears Riana call out to him he turns and nods his head at her before walking over to a service door. He taps on the tablet mounted on his left forearm until its robotic voice speaks, "About to blow open this door. You want to come with?"

Those with radios turned on will soon hear from Dial-Tone over them, "This is Special Agent DT. My partner is about to breach service door two. Be warned that it may be loud. Please have police and EMS standing by to receive anyone leaving the building."

Snake Eyes quietly plants his explosives. It's not a big charge, but should be more than enough to get through the likely reinforced ground level door without injuring anyone on the other side. Then he types on his mobile device some more so that its monotone voice lets out a warning, "Stand back and cover your ears." The ninja follows his own advice, getting a bit of distance from the door before detonating his explosives. As soon as the *BOOM* goes off he's headed inside and scanning for threats.

Wild Rose has posed:
     That Snake Eyes gave Riana some warning was a good thing. She had a few seconds to cover her ears and brace her senses for the explosion, however small it might be, from a safe distance. At least her hearing would be intact. Good. It would be that much harder for something to sneak up on either of them. "Try keeping me away," she replies, as soon as the air is clear.

     With a good grip on her staff, she darts through the doorway right behind Snake Eyes. Her eyes flit from shadow to shadow, her ears trained on the slightest sound in the eerily darkened building. "What do we have so far?" she asks, her voice kept low as she looks about.

Berri Sundae has posed:
Without teammates, tech or any further motives beyond explaination, Berri had been left to make her way down the halls. Parasol snapped shut, the silent girl with the two-tone hair moved along the path, peeking into rooms and across paths with a few crossing her otherwise youthful and usually unconcerned face. A lockdown like this, the building surrounded by cops...it'd be a hell of a lot more concerning any other day of the week, but this clearly wasn't some sort of 'sting'.

Not with the amount of confusion radiating of every employee she passed.

Still, there had to be a way out somewhere right? Or someone who knew how to lift the lockdown? Closing her eyes she reached out, trying to find a mind, any mind, that didn't have the same confusion or panic as everyone else around the place.

Iron Man has posed:
Good thing that security guard kept everyone away from the exits, eh? As the door gets blown in, and the Future Ninja makes his way inside, something like panic begins to spread very quickly. But everyone who works here seems to be at least moderately trained for these types of emergencies, and most of them either hit the floor or find some cover. Rather than say, running immediately for the exits.

There's something strange going on inside. There seems to be no normal cell service inside the building, and all wi fi signals have been shut off. Those who still have mobile devices out start noticing strange errors and all-around unacceptable behavior. A few of them start to brick entirely.

The hole in the wall allows more natural light in, but the noise from the explosion distracts momentarily from the fact that the elevators are back in operation.

In a building where all the power is off.

And they all seem to simultaneously be coming to the lobby...

As the doors open, it's clear that the elevators are filled past capacity. In fact, the people inside the elevators have been packed in like sardines.

But what's more concerning is that there only seems to be like eight people, reproduced many times like perfect clones.

And nearly all of them are naked.

For a moment, the lifelike humanoids stare at the employees in the lobby. And then they begin to file out in perfect order, flooding the lobby.

They seem to be intent on searching the entire floor as thoroughly as possible.

"File not found! File not found! File not found!'"

"Executing full decompile."

Lex Luthor has posed:
As Lex flies inside, he keeps the connection into the security hub open, but switches priority to his sensors to keep a real time scan of the local floor.

Berri can easily see Lex's mind as she scans. It's an incredible experience doing so, too, with the way he's directly interfaced with the powered armor... and the way he's effortlessly executing mental code to keep it all functional. It's an incredible display of an incredible intellect... and it's one that's utterly calm and with a curious tone to it. The man just mentally lifted the lockdown on his own above, and seems to be scouting.

As Lex steps inside, he's checking for active computers and server farms, as well as mentally scanning for any cameras he can use to check out the area. Something Berri can also see him doing, with the cyberpathic interface.

Snake Eyes has posed:
The civilians' reaction was pretty much expected. What wasn't was the arrival of the elevators and the disembarking naked people. The masked man studies them for a moment before he reaches for his tablet to type on it. Damn thing seems to be acting funny, however, leaving Snake limited in his ability to communicate. So he starts gesturing at the non-clone folks, directing them towards the door he so thoughtfully opened just moments before. Best to keep them safe from whatever may be about to happen. A glance is given to Riana to make sure she's okay, but the commando doesn't spend much time doing that as the naked people may be a threat.

Wild Rose has posed:
     "Snake, something's still running in th..." is about all the warning Riana's able to give her partner-in-crime. As the elevator doors creak, groan, and then finally whoosh open, her eyebrows travel about halfway up her forehead. Freckles seem to disappear in the rush of rose that floods her cheeks, her face soon matching her hair.

     "Mo Dhia!"

     Lovely. These... clones? Androids? Something-or-others would be on them in seconds. One elevator full would be one thing, but there were more coming than she cared to deal with at one time. And they seemed to be following some sort of internal programming. What -were- they, anyways?

     Keeping her ears trained on every little sound around her, for any sort of warning of more incoming of these... things... Riana starts assisting Snake in directing personnel out the wide open service door, while at the same time trying to keep that entrance covered, and prevent those robot-like things from making it outside.

     "Might wanna move it, Snake... if you've got anything that can distract these things, now would be a good time!"

Berri Sundae has posed:
Now that...that was weird. Berri's path comes to a stop as she comes into contact with that mind, one linked to a machine and directing it intuitively. The girl hadn't exactly been plugged into alien warsuits before so...it was horrendously odd, enough to make her falter a step and brace herself against the nearby wall, blinking and shaking her head as if to clear it.

Then there was explosions, breaching ninjas and...fear?

The silent girl exhales a breath, focusing in one of the lobby-dwellers minds and the sight they're seeing. These naked clone...things? They were enough to make her shiver.

Robots? Robots were bad. Telepathy was useless and the array of weapons the girl -could- have utilized had been decidedly left behind when she'd been venturing into a place as secure as Stark tower. They didn't seem particularly friendly so now? She needed to find either a weapon, a way out...or someone with either of those to make use of.

Iron Man has posed:
Just when all seemed in danger of descending into chaos, the voice of Tony Stark crackles over the building's soundsystems. Or at least we think it's Tony Stark, but who even knows anymore? There's naked clones running around.

"Attention all Stark-Fujikawa employees! This is Tony Stark! As you may have noticed, we are experiencing a few very slight technical difficulties. Our systems have been infected with an AI Virus. Well... an AI Virus/Nanite Swarm. Well... an AI Virus/Nanite Swarm/... actually, you know what? I'm getting off topic."

"Simply put, we've got a very smart computer virus that likes to steal our data and then assimilate any physical tech it encounters. I've locked the building's systems down, so we should be able to contain it. But it's a slippery bastard, and it keeps trying to turn things back on. Which means I need ALL OF YOU to exit the building in an orderly fashion, but you must, and I can't stress this enough, you MUST leave ALL TECHNOLOGICAL DEVICES INSIDE THE BUILDING WHEN YOU LEAVE!"

"That means phones, watches, Tamagotchis, hell if you have a pacemaker, better leave that too. Well, actually, if you have a pacemaker, you can keep that, but YOU CAN'T LEAVE THE BUILDING WITH IT!"

Things start to turn back on in the building, partially due to the AI Virus' doing, and... actually most of it is probably Lex's fault. Either way, the development seems to send Tony into a tizzy, wherever he is.

"Oh god! The building's coming back online! And it looks like it's taken over my Mobile LMD Printer! Everyone stay away from the naked people! Get out of the building, but LEAVE YOUR PHONES!"

Speaking of the naked people, they seem to have decided what they want isn't on this floor, and some of them begin filing back to the elevators. However, a contingent of them remain behind, rapidly securing the floor. They seem uninterested when people leave the building (which some of the smarter employees have already started doing). However, they seem very interested in the tech that is left behind.

One of the LMDs picks up a phone that was dropped, and looks at it for a moment.

Then he opens his mouth, and shoves it in, chewing it slowly.

"BrrrrAAAAAP! File not found."

Lex Luthor has posed:
Another, synthetic, voice comes over the intercom. There's no way to identify it, but Tony will no doubt know it isn't him. "Stark, you fool. Why wouldn't you keep a potential rogue AI swarm in a vault off grid? Someone needs to teach you proper containment protocol."

With that, Lex mentally begins to actively start shutting down anything he finds online. Unlike Tony, Lex can just reach out with his mind and touch it remotely.

Berri can actively feel Lex thinking at ridiculously fast speeds as he methodically assists Tony with shutting off everything in the building.

Scouting will have to come later, Lex has no interest in the LexKnight system being invaded, even as he stands there in a side room halfway up the tower, the armor itself motionless, even as the 'processor' for the armor goes into overdrive.

Snake Eyes has posed:
As the LMDs start wandering around and eating phones, Snake Eyes lets out an almost audible sigh. Then he'll remove the tablet from his arm, toss it up in the air and draw his sword, slicing it neatly in half.

A glance is given to Riana, and he shrugs his shoulders before tapping one of his fragmentation grenades. The ninja moves towards the exit to make sure it's blocked off, standing with his blade at the ready to make sure that none of the naked folks can get past him. His free hand takes hold of his automatic weapon, ready to engage anything that starts looking like it wants to get froggy.

Wild Rose has posed:
     As fast as Snake Eyes slices his tablet, Riana is there to catch the pieces. An idea was forming in her head. It was just the beginnings of one, but right now, it was perhaps better than nothing. One half of the tablet is skipped across the floor of the room as far away from the door as she can get, like skipping a stone on the surface of a river, while she dives for the nearest intercom terminal.

     "Look, Stark, and... whoever you are... can we throw about recriminations later? Right now we've got to contain these clones. They are literally -eating- tech, looking for something. So if you've got anything that could be used to lay a breadcrumb trail to wherever these clones can do the least harm while we try to figure things out, that might be a start."

     Fingers crossed... could it work? Would it work? Would they even listen to a nobody once from Boston, now of Bushwick?

Berri Sundae has posed:
Helpful intercom message is helpful, the brighter-colored of the two 'Ninja' currently occupying the building frowning as Tony's explaination has her shifting and reaching into her back pocket for her phone.

There wasn't exactly an abundance of electronic data or equipment on her, but...well, a contact list and messages with some offers that almost certainly could be incriminating.

At the very least, it wouldn't do wonders for her reputation if a few of these contact points were outed thanks to some rogue AI.

Her journey down the hallway picked up pace as her thumb idly tapped through the commands to find a 'Factory reset'. Now she just needs to find herself a washroom to flush the thing, just to be sure.

Of course, given the 'suit' she could feel, there was the concern things were about to get a little more dangerous...and that explosion lower below. But hey, one problem at a time, right?

Iron Man has posed:
"Hostile activity detected. Updating operational parameters."

The LMDs have a creepy tendency to speak in unison, though there's often a slight delay from one individual unit to the other. It's as if they're all running on the same operating system, but with their network decentralized.

Unfortunately they've all come to the conclusion that the organic humanoids in the lobby are to be recategorized as 'hostiles.' Almost immediately, they begin to get into a combat formation, and begin charging toward the exit (and Snake Eyes) in an eerily orderly fashion.

"Geez, is that you dad, or did my internal monologue buy its voicebox from Stephen Hawking's Shop of Horrors?" Tony sounds a bit flustered, as if he's currently trying to multitask as well, albeit with some sort of external stressor involved.

"I 'DID' have it contained! This is not my fault, and I'm not liable! But the virus has gotten too entrenched now. I'm going to have to do a full Clean Sweep. Whoever's able should attempt to get to the sub-basement and activate the Emergency EMP Device. It's got a big red button. Push the OTHER button. That 'should' deactivate the nanite swarm and wipe all of Stark Tower's data simultaneously. It'll mean carving your way through a few hundred LMDs, but... shouldn't be a problem as long as the virus doesn't spread to... uh oh."

"Krrrrkkzzz... Intruder Located. Converge on Upper Floors. Delete! Delete! Delete!"

The elevators are working again, and about half of the fleshopoids are now heading up multiple stories toward the last known location of one Lex Luthor.

But he's got bigger problems than that at the moment. One of the doors on the floor opens up, extremely reluctantly. So reluctantly, in fact, that it has to be forced by the Being attempting to break out. And break out it inevitably does.

There, at the end of the hallway, one of the most recent Iron Man armors is shuffling forward, awkwardly at first, but gaining confidence with every step.

The armor has only one thing to say: "Delete! Delete! Delete!"

Lex Luthor has posed:
"If you think this is contained, you're living on-" There's a half second pause, "-Stark, you may want to get your suits back."

Berri can 'see' Lex suddenly power up a number of systems, including weapons. His left hand reaches out and the gauntlet projector fires off beans of energy at the Iron Man suit, aiming for the legs. The beans are capable of pushing back and damaging tanks at full charge, and Lex has no interest in trying to keep the suit intact.

Lex can just fly out if he needs too... or if the suit actually survives the blasts, but Lex prioritizes being the distraction. He's the only one in the building capable of going toe to toe with Iron Man suits, and knows it.

Down below, people will no doubt see the light from the energy discharges.

Snake Eyes has posed:
Apparently Snake shouldn't have tried to destroy his tablet. That seemed to piss off the LMDs in the room with him. At least he knows they're robot things now so there'll be no need to feel bad about what he does next.

The GI Joe operator levels his submachine gun in one hand and starts firing two round bursts towards the heads and upper torsos of the naked attackers. His other hand readies his katana for whenever they get close, prepared to slice them apart. He has no interest in letting these things make it outside.

As they get close the commando starts fighting in earnest, lashing out with his sword in one hand and firing away with the gun in the other. His three concerns at the moment are making sure he doesn't die, making sure Riana doesn't die and making sure the nudists don't escape. Hitting the big off switch in the basement will come next.

Berri Sundae has posed:
The sound of the elevators opening was...downright sinister. Berri actually skids to a stop with a sharp exhalation of exclaimation as the 'fleshopoids' march out of the box and turn her way. There was no way to be certain that her telepathic 'camo' was going to work on these things, but their angling towards another priority and that 'feeling' of the half-computer mind powering up for a fight made their destination pretty clear.

Berri just happened to find herself right in the path.

Hoping her phone's deletion was entirely done, the woman turns on her heel and simply -runs- for it. Her path was going to take her towards Lex, but subtlty was out the window at this point...and the telepath was fairly sure she was sensing weapons. Weapons were good.

Wild Rose has posed:
     "No problem, Stark. Sub-basement. Avoid the big red switch. You got it." With that, Riana turns off the comm unit, and looks back at Snake. "Keep these things off my back, I'll see if I can get to that switch Stark was talking about!"

     Turning away, she makes a dash for the nearest door that looks like a promising exit, with one of those universal-looking signs showing a stick figure heading down some jagged lines that /could/ be stairs. It was her best chance at the moment of getting to the sub-basement... provided, of course, that the security to the door leading into said room had also been deactivated in the fray.

     She heads down the steps as quickly as she can, almost taking them two at a time with the urgency of reaching the EMP button, keeping an ear out for pursuers from behind--or attackers from ahead.

Iron Man has posed:
The armor's initial response is clunky and brutish, simply clambering forward and flailing its arms. It is notably missing any sort of visible power source, making it an open mystery how it's functioning in the first place. Reserve power?

The question is quickly answered as the armor gets close enough to Lex to begin attacking physically: It's straight up lousy with nanites, which are currently filling in the missing armor components. Whether they've formed a physical 'pilot' inside remains to be seen, but they certainly seem to carry enough collective charge to get the Iron Man up and clambering.

The eyes of the suit begin to glow, and though it's being pelted with blasts, and occasionally falling over, the suit appears to be tough enough to hold up to pretty intense punishment, at least for a while.

"File not found!"

PUNCH!

"File not found!"

PUNCH!

"File not found!"

Repulsors are coming online.

***

Down in the basement, it looks as if Tony wasn't kidding about having left a giant EMP laying around with a big red button on it. But as he's already mentioned, that's the decoy. Don't touch that.

Only a handful of LMDs are hanging out in the basement, but that's not exactly good news, because this seems to also be where the Life Model Decoy Mobile Printer is set up. With a 'ZZZZZZZaaaaaatttt!', yet another LMD is finished, and it clambers out of the the mini LMD factory. Clearly, this prototype is working better than Tony hoped...

"Intruder! Updating operational parameters: Prevent Electromagnetic Pulse Discharge!"

Oh great, now there are a coupld of LMDs converging on Riana, trying to get her before she gets all of them.

***

Meanwhile, back in the lobby...

The LMDs go down pretty easily, especially with well-aimed shots. So far, none have been able to get outside of the building and upload their Evil AI Consciousness into the internet and destroy all life on Earth as we know it, so that's a huge plus.

Somebody give Snake Eyes a medal after all this exercise.

***

And Back Upstairs...

The Iron Man dukes it out with Lex. It's clearly mismatched, but like the LMDs downstairs, the armor is considered disposable by the Technovore.

Lex Luthor has posed:
This was not how Lex thought his first duel with an Iron Man suit would be going. At all.

Growling under his breath, Lex activates the strength amplifier in the suit, as well as the plasma blade and the gauntlet shield in both gauntleted hands, and moves into a defensive stance. The virus suit gets some solid hits against the LexKnight armor, but that was when he was diverting power for the ranged projectors. Now, he's diverting most of his power generation towards his melee systems, and using the shield to take the punches as he tries to cut the suit apart with the plasma blade at his right gauntlet.

Right now, fighting in the sky would draw too much attention anyway.

Snake Eyes has posed:
Where are all the naked people coming from, Snake Eyes ponders as his gun runs dry and he lets it hang on its sling so that he can take a two handed grip on his sword. Hoping Riana is doing okay, the master swordsman continues doing battle with the LMDs. Each slash is practiced. Each kick, punch, elbow and knee are impeccably aimed. The ninja may be in his element as he lays waste to the robotic threats, years of training and combat experience showing as he works. When one LMD nearly makes it past him he draws his pistol and fires a controlled pair at its head, refusing to fail in his objective.

Wild Rose has posed:
     "Why am I /so/ reminded of The Terminator right now," Riana mutters. "It's what they do. It's /all/ they do. And they will... not... stop!" At least she had made it through the door into the basement. But as she spied her target, other targets also spied her. Thankfully, it was only two of them so far, and two was no problem. Sprinting across the room, she meets one of the technological terrors with a swift kick to the side of the knee, and the other a sharp strike to the right temple with her staff. If they were humanoid, hopefully they had some of the same weaknesses that flesh-bound beings did, and might be disoriented long enough for her to reach the EMP button.

     Good thing Tony had warned her about the decoy, too. Rule #1--never, /ever/ press the big red button. Especially when Stark warns you. That could turn into a Very Bad Thing.

     Lunging towards the EMP device, she brings her hand down on the /other/ button, hoping and praying that the effect will be instantaneous. Because if it's not, at the rate that printer is working, she could have a lot of unfriendly company /very/ quickly....

Berri Sundae has posed:
Gunfire downstairs, naked robot things behind her and...huh.

Berri's errupting through the doorway into the corridor found her down the length from the brawl between the Iron man suit she could recognize well enough...and the apparent source of the telepathic weirdness. Huh. Still, immediately encountering the rock'em sock'em reenactment wasn't really going to help her in her quest to find a means of escape or defencing herself, so the young woman with the two-tone hair simply reaches out, dropping her phone to the floor and then driving her parasol down like a stake. The hardened tip shatters the device, hopefully that plus the wipe would do...now she just needed to slip away.

Iron Man has posed:
"File not found!"

BLAST!

"File not..."

Whooooosh!

The door to Tony Stark's office opens, revealing the trim, tired-looking figure of the guy whose fault pretty much all of this is. He looks a bit banged up, but not too terrible, though the scrap pile in his office suggests that he's been kept as busy as the other heroes.

Also, he's not wearing a shirt for some reason. Maybe he's really an LMD?

***

In the basement, the LMDs let out a collective 'SQWUAAAAAARK!' which probably means something very complicated in binary. They begin rushing the device, doubtless knowing that they're too late to do anything about it.

However, they apparently have a few seconds, as the voice of J.A.R.V.I.S. suddenly pipes up as his holographic form appears before Riana, and in select locations throughout the building.

"Activating Clean Sweep Protocol. Goodbye, Tony. It's been a pleasure."

"5..."

"4..."

***

Up in the Lobby, the LMDs are making the same ungodly 'SQWUAAAAAARK!', but that's perhaps to be expected since they're all running the same operating system. They're even more frantic than before as they try to claw their way outside the building, but they can't possibly be under any delusions that they'll make it.

***

Upstairs...

"Hey, asshole! Looking for this?" Tony doesn't really have anything in his hands, nor is he pointing to anything, so it's perhaps difficult to tell what exactly he means.

However, the Technovore seems to know exactly what it is, and the Nanite Swarm practically leaps from the armor, letting it thud uselessly to the ground.

The Technovore Swarm surrounds Tony, centering on his bare chest.

Or, more specifically, on the Arc Reactor on his chest.

Oh, so that's why he wasn't wearing a shirt. It's cool, he's not an LMD.

As the Technovore begins trying to assimilate the Arc Reactor, it draws out the swarm from all over the building.

Apparently what they needed was MOAR POWER.

***

"3..."

"2..."

"1..."

Blinding Flash of Light!

Lex Luthor has posed:
Doesn't take a genius to realize what that countdown is.

Berri can see herself being scanned in Lex's mind by those sensors. It's probably an odd feeling, seeing yourself scanned in another mind. It does, however, suddenly make it clear to the man in the armor that something is up... and Berri has half a second to realize the man is about to 'kidnap' her. He clearly thinks of her as a potential issue, with the way she tracked him down.

With a kick to the armor to get it away from him, Lex depowers the blade and shield of his gauntlets, activates the thrusters, and accelerates massively as he grabs Berri by the shoulders to fly him and her out of the building.

Those below will be able to easily see the suit as it goes from 0 to 500, trying to get away from the EMP radius as fast as possible.

Iron Man has posed:
The screams of Tony Stark follow Lex and Berri out of the building, but they probably don't carry much further. The Technovore tries to assimilate the entire reactor node, but doesn't get very far before the EMP blast completely knocks out all of the tech in the building.

Fortunately, the blast was specifically calibrated to take Stark Tower offline, but it doesn't extend much more than a meter outside the building. Damage to the rest of New York city is pretty nonexistent, apart from any network connections that were routed through Stark Tower, or the cell towers that were located up on the roof.

Overall, a huge success. No loss of life. No major infrastructure damage. No major losses of any kind, really, except to Tony's databanks and various Iron Man suits.

Shame about all of those phones, too. But wasn't everyone due for an upgrade anyway?

***

Tony comes to after the blast, waking with a start as if from a nightmare.

Immediately he clutches at his chest, and finds that the nightmare was real.

The place where the Arc Reactor used to be is now just an empty hole.

"J.A.R.V.I.S.! I need help, buddy!"

But there's no answer.

***

Downstairs, first responders and SHIELD agents flood the building, picking their way through deactivated LMDs and frightened civilians. Somebody's going to have to do a lot of paperwork.

But judging by the looks of things, it won't be Stark.